My Mom’s side of the family, the Beans, have a bit of a rocky history lately with Xmas celebrations. A lot of us were able to get together this year at the Bay Valley Inn, which I hadn’t been to since I was Hunter’s age. Check out some photos that my brother took here.
One more video is up, entitled Aidan’s 3rd Birthday Party.
Pretty sure that I’ve got my gift card (from Mom & Dad) spent in my head.
Feeling very twitchy and anxious. Dunno if it’s the antibiotics that I’m on, a symptom of the upper respiratory infection, or something else entirely. Yay doxycycline!
Stargate Universe is pulling zero punches when it comes to flaws in the characters. Wow. Also, old-school version of “the chair” looks creepy and intimidating. The reference to a dentist’s chair was spot on in so many ways.
Twitchiness and anxiousness have faded. Think it might be related to the brain fogs that were coming with that whole being sick thing. GO TEAM DOXYCYCLINE!
Enjoying the hell out of the newest Ubuntu version on my work laptop. It’s actually using the proprietary ATI driver, and using it well. Methinks it’s a good thing that ATI is now part of AMD.
scp is my friend.
As Aidan prepares to transition from Terrible Twos into Tantrum Threes, he’s ramping up his attempts to verbally control his universe. Now, many religious traditions ranging from Shamanism to modern day monotheisms(msmsmsmsms) have attempted to change and/or improve the world around them by putting voice and will into speech and thereby giving definition to the change that they want.
It’s not working so well for Aidan. He’s got the focus and the determination, that’s for sure. “I not in time-out, Daddy!” while sitting in the time-out chair may be a difficult approach to take, is all I’m sayin’. :)
Caffeine cat is caffeinated. Unreasonable deadlines are unreasonable. “It is what it is.”
Yesterday at work… let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.
I downloaded, installed, and used the Gimp in the space of about seven minutes to fix one of those “You’re joking, right?” problems. The problem was a big deal, and I’m just thankful that the fix was quick, easy, and done.
This set the tone for the day. Except for the quick and easy fix part.
I really want to build Hunter’s computer. He’s probably too old for the Sugar interface, but I have to wonder if something like edubuntu would be too complex. Probably not. And then, of course, there’s the issue of connecting to the internet.
The preview for the new Avatar (not Airbender, which is also awesome) movie is amazing. Watch it. Now.
Got some words down on paper again at lunch. I don’t like my low output, but with a max of a half an hour spent actually writing, I can’t get too mad at myself.
Hunter’s birthday party went off really well. All of the kids really seemed to enjoy it. So, having kids birthday parties at movie theater = win. The actual movie (Where the Wild Things Are), not so much. Apparently, it’s nothing like the book (I’ve never read it), and it’s certainly not as visceral and violent as the movie is. There were some pretty disturbing images, and I’m hoping that none of the kids ended up with nightmares. It’s pretty much a dark movie centered around the Jungian archetypes of an angry boy with fear of abandonment.
Ha! I can say that without any spoilers!
My wedding ring needs to be resized. Downward. It started slipping over the knuckle today. Holy wow.
I think I need to start going to bed earlier. It’s a constant battle between getting things done and satisfying my need for rest. The chin strap for my CPAP machine has been shipped. I’m crossing my fingers that this is the last piece to the CPAP puzzle, and that I’ll be able to use it nightly now. Nothing left to procrastinate on. I’m knocking on wood with my crossed fingers, for added levels of goodness.
I -really- need to pick up that Flobots CD.
Also need to gather links to the Todd posts from the Carnival and the Susan posts from Nocturnal Ambitions. WordPress will either present interesting challenges for linking to fiction, or will make it strangely easy. I won’t be able to decide until further play has been had. Thinking about making Steven’s universe the same universe as Two Vampires. Lots of things bouncing around in my brain, pounding the walls into new shapes.
How real is this?
Updates:
– Hunter is having his last dose of Tamiflu today. Symptoms seem to be gone, he’s just got his usual fall sniffles.
– Cian has his first ear infection. When it rains…
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– I didn’t vote yesterday. Instead, I took
Horoscope:
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): In the coming week, you will have the potential to articulate what has never been spoken before and to name truths that everyone has been avoiding. Uncoincidentally, you may also be able to hear what you’ve never been able to hear up until now and tune in to truths you’ve been oblivious to. As you might imagine, Taurus, you must fully activate both of these capacities in order for either to function at its best.
Stargate Universe continues to intrigue me. In Episode 4, the ship is still pretty much doing all of the work. I like the Ancient-technology-before-they-were-transcendent-beings that’s involved in Destiny. It’s definitely a cross between the Earth tech they’ve used in ships like Prometheus, but with an Ancient design. I still can’t get over how the basic shape is the same as a Wraith hive ship. Also – heartbroken overweight nerd in his early twenties… ack, flashback! Heh.
Oh! I am very, very, very happy with the copious application of actual physics in this series. Gravity used to brake and to accelerate, as well as relative velocity causing smashy smashy. Not to mention the difficulty of finding habitable planets, and how low levels of carbon monoxide in an atmosphere means that it’ll be nearly too cold to live, and have almost no vegetation. SCIENCE! In my Science Fiction! I wonder how much of this is John Scalzi‘s doing. :)
WordPress is still sexy. I’m particularly pleased with its ability to import across blog platforms.
Looks like I will be up late tonight and/or early tomorrow working. It’ll be worth it to finally get this done.
Compiled on Friday
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The world is ending. Not only did I find a chin strap for use with my CPAP machine online, but I’ve added info to Cian’s baby book. Commence with the locusts and such.
Giving serious thought to changing my writery page to a wordpress one, with the blog on a side page, and importing my disparate blogs into one, and then crossposting to both it and LJ and possibly Blogger all at once. It seems cleaner, somehow.
So,
It is October, after all. Hunter has H1N1. He also has the antiviral, Tamiflu. So, we will see.
All of the pain killers and muscle relaxers won’t allow her to get up out of her chair on her own. They wouldn’t give us an MRI at Sparrow St. Lawrence, because she doesn’t have recommendation from her primary care physician. Her PCP through Medicaid took six months (not an exaggeration) to get an appointment. We’re not sure if he’d take her now anyway, because Medicaid dropped her. She can’t get back on Medicaid because our case worker won’t get back to us, even for us to let her know that I got a job. And my insurance doesn’t kick in until January.
Yeah, our health system rocks. *shakes head*
Hunter has the H1N1 flu. We actually had a really good experience at Lansing Urgent Care last night, after which I spent an hour and a half driving around like a madman, getting cut off by every other single driver on the road while I got his Tamiflu prescription filled within the time window for it to be effective.
I need to get to Linn & Owen Jewelers in downtown to get an estimate on fixing my pocket watch.
Earlier this week, I got two five-page sections of webcomic script written. I purchased the domain, set up the web space, installed WordPress, installed the ComicPress theme/template/wossname, and did some mild configuration of it. We’re shooting for going live with the intro page on 01.01.10, with weekly updates after that. Oh yesh.
I’ve gone through the work I’ve done on the Glass Crown, and I’ve updated the chapter outlines to match. Things feel more focused now, and I need to get the “finished” Chapter 6 out to my alpha readers.
MMO temptation continues. Playing with
Speaking of writing momentum, I will not be joining NaNoWriMo this year. I have too many projects started, but never finished. Neil Gaiman said that anyone can start a novel… it takes a writer to finish. I’m determined to finish again. Mantra, anyone? :)
From my paper journal…
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Written 11 Sep 2009
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I got the job. Linux System Administrator for Broadstripe. I start on Monday. Monday! I’ve already got meetings scheduled for my first day.
Wednesday was a big day, my friends. It was the first time that Cian slept through the night in his own crib in his own room. He’s done it twice more since then, and I can’t tell you what a relief it is. We’ve been co-sleeping up until this point, and CIan has been up all night nursing, kicking, squirming, punching, and generally keeping
Later on was our Meet-the-Teacher session with Hunter’s third grade teacher. I have a pretty good memory of what third grade was like, compared to previous years. We had just moved to the TWP, so the trials and tribulations of a new school must have cemented it in my brain. It’s so very odd to think that I’m in similar shoes to my parents back then. In any case, Hunter’s teacher seems very kind. I hope she’s not a pushover – I really want to see him progress this year.
In the middle of the session, I get a phone call. It’s a number I don’t recognize, so I get up and head out into the hallway. Honestly, the little kid’s chair had been killing me. Long story short, they want me. They want to give me a very reasonable number of green pieces of paper in return for my brainmeats working for them several hours per day, five days per week.
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13 Sep 2009
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I accepted, talked a little about kids and scouts and what my first day will be like. The rush was incredible – every hair standing on end, every nerve ending tingling with adrenaline, the word “finally!” coursing through me after nearly a year of unemployment… yeah, it was good. :-)
I came back into the room and gave
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18 Sep 2009
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I’ve felt more stable and more me than I have in a long time. At the same time, there’s a lot of fear from learning the ropes so quickly, and from the amount of responsibility that I’m taking on. It’s probably a bit anti-climactic to put this out there now, but it feels good to be employed again.