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Wednesday, February 28, 2001
dwinn vs The Underworld
Sunday I'd bought a supplement for All Flesh Must Be Eaten at the Underworld. After getting it home and reading a few pages, I realized that what I thought was just a module/adventure was actually just the insert for the Game Master's Screen. I'd paid full price for half of a product. Monday I went there after I got out of work at 7, but the kid behind the counter wouldn't let me exchange what I had for the full product because he was "afraid his boss would yell at him." So I had to talk to the manager directly -- who was only in when I was at work, until today. I went down there before work, talked to the manager, who just happened to have the screen on a desk in the back room. He couldn't explain why only the module was on the shelves, but he apologized for the inconvenience, and I was on my way in five minutes. Geez, counting this, the skunks, and Amazon.com, I'm 3-0 in the dwinn vs battles. Monday, February 26, 2001
Things I've Done Lately
Boo-yaka. Thursday, February 22, 2001
90% Below the Surface
I was at work Wednesday when one of my coworkers walked by and said "In this new office, you're too far away -- I can barely talk to you." My thinking, however, was You know, that's not so much a bad thing. Sometimes it is a good thing to have a higher level of detachment. For most of my college career, I was alone -- well, alone as you can be on campus of a major university -- but I would spend most of my evenings reading, doing homework, etc. by myself. Was it lonely? Sure, at times, but I'd been a loner for so long -- since most of high school -- that I didn't really need or crave ongoing communication with others on a regular basis. Now, years later, things are different. My job requires talking to people in dire straits (well, in their minds) and it's up to me to pull off a miracle. My job also requires a lot of communication with my coworkers, who are great people in their own right. There are times, though, when I want to sit at my desk, answer the phone when I have to, and web surf/play a game/write/veg/whatever without it being a requirement that I listen to someone extol the virtues of the Democrats/AOL/conspiracy theories/celebrities and their rock bands/handheld devices/etc. I'm finding it increasingly harder to know if I'm straddling the line between caring/being involved too much and giving space/being too detatched. With work, it's less of an issue, because it's easier to turn the situation on or off, but I worry about the effect it may have on my friends, or even Jules. I know that Julie has several interests and projects, things she works very diligently on, and I think that that is wonderful. I don't try to stick my nose into it too much because I think it's good that she has something that she sees as hers, and I would not want to become an influence that would eventually take her away from those pursuits. I know she reads these things, and I just want to assure her that when I say that something she's done is "very nice" -- that's not a blowoff or the kiss of death. In fact, nothing would please me more if Julie found all sorts of fame and fortune, and I by default became Mr. Julie Raybon. So get cracking on the rest of the book, sweetpants! I'm only mostly kidding. What's the point of all this jibber-jabber? I think people are a lot like water, in a sense. Most of the time, the core of who we are, is ice, but we melt from time to time, and flow, and when we freeze again, we're still ice, but in a slightly different shape. Sometimes, though, depending on what life deals us, we boil over and become something totally different, or never find anything of ourselves again. Science majors, don't start going into the laws of conservation of matter. This is philosophical shit I be speakin'. I guess I see Jules, myself, our friends and associates as a fleet of icebergs floating in the sea. Some of the icebergs break away from the pack and are never seen again. Each of us are in constant states of change, yet the core of our selves stays true. So here's to icebergs. Wednesday, February 21, 2001
dwinn vs The Skunks and Mill Creek
I noticed last weekend that not only did our house smell like skunks, but occasionally I'd see them wandering around outside. Inspecting the back porch area, I found that they had burrowed under our back porch -- not a good sign. I called Mill Creek and told them this needed to be taken care of. They said they'd put some mothballs in the hole -- skunks hate that smell -- and then seal the hole up. Yesterday, after calling back to ask if this was done, I looked at the hole and could see no signs that anything was done, so I took the law into my own hands. I threw some rocks into the hole with a shovel -- there was no response -- and thus I filled it with rocks and dirt, and then put landscaping bricks over the edge of the ground abutting the porch. Problem solved! That night, we saw a skunk wandering around outside, but I saw no evidence that they were digging at the porch. Score one for us, right? Well, this morning, as I emerged to go to work, I looked at my handwork, and then remembered that there was another side to the porch, against the neighbor's house -- and on that side was another burrow hole... Tuesday, February 20, 2001
Most of the dust has settled from moving, so I actually have a few spare moments to do something other than answer stupid user questions.
I was able to rename a couple of my machines with this move. My X-term had to be given the (dumb) name of LocalPrint, but for the PC I got ZombieLover (the least obnoxious Xanth title from the pool of names we had) and my new iMac will be Rush, of course. Plus, I was also able to get Will Rhee to agree to name his mac WesleyWillis. One bonus of working out at Arbor Lakes is that I save a lot of cash on lunch or dinner options, purely because there are few if none out here. I've been bringing apples, granola, or graham crackers with me -- all things that are a normal part of our monthly food budget, and most definitely better for me overall. Today is t-minus 3 months until the wedding. Julie's still at DEFCON-4, and I have to admit that I feel time bearing down on us. I still haven't got a response back about the rings we want to buy, so I need to get on that. Later, I'll post links to the Arnold Prank Calls. Thursday, February 15, 2001
This is our last day of work in 4-HELP on Central Campus.
They're actually tearing down the place around us -- leaving just a couple of stations open so that we can work tonight -- and then we'll be off to our new digs at Arbor Lakes. It's actually really sad. I'd been in the phones room once with a friend back in 1995 and I'd marvelled at the massive amount of machines in the room. After graduating and bouncing around in a couple of part-time support jobs, another friend suggested I apply for a position in 4-HELP. Amazingly I got the job, and since summer of 1998 my group has happily lived in our basement office at the Michigan Union. Moving is a mixed bag. The basement office is often freezing in winter and broiling hot in summer. When one person gets sick, everyone does. Students often wander in and start pestering us. Our machines and supplies are extremely out of date for a computing help desk. However, being on campus, connected with the school, is great; the Michigan Union offers all of the amenities that we could want; and the Accounts Office folks are great to be next door to. Arbor Lakes is like a giant Fortress of Solitude, miles away from campus. We'll be near all the people we should be near to (except Accounts) for support reasons, but the sterile environment is something we'll have to overcome. We can't be a quiet phone helpdesk, and I think our neighbors won't like that. I'm pretty confident that our core group, with our new digs, offices, and equipment, can keep the spirit of our team intact. Since 1992 I've been involved with either school or work on the Central Campus of the University of Michigan. Now I'll have no demanding reason to be there -- which is all the more reason to visit. Monday, February 12, 2001
tvtattle.com : TV weblog that takes the best of tv writing/analysis from newspaper and periodical websites and puts them right at your fingertips.
Sunday, February 11, 2001
I bought Jules a pre-Valentine's Day present -- a MegaTokyo t-shirt -- so I'm riding high in the Groovy category.
I got a letter in the mail Friday from a company who advertises that they make a nutritional supplement that will make my penis "longer and thicker" -- and to illustrate they put two grey bar graphs along the bottom of the page, each penis-sized. Oh the mail you get when Playboy sells your mailing address to other companies. Wednesday, February 07, 2001
Do you believe in miracles? Yes! -- Al Michaels, 1980
I was in the kitchen peeling an orange when Julie looked up from her laptop and said, with startled face, "They found Nevik -- he's alive!" I had to admit, when they'd called off the search, I'd lost all hope of a happy ending -- these things only happen in the movies. Now, Nev's not in the best shape right now, but it's good to have one's faith in the rigthness of the universe reaffirmed. Recover well, my friend. I anticipate seeing you sometime in the near future. Monday, February 05, 2001
Warning: live without warning Warning: live without warning This was a public service announcement This was only a test Green Day Sunday, February 04, 2001
I've been sick all weekend.
It began Thursday night at work when I couldn't stop coughing. I hibernated Friday, only going out with Julie to the store because we had zero food. After that, I climbed into bed at about 10:30 and slept about 12 hours. Saturday, the cough wasn't so bad, but I was weak, dizzy, and my head and sinuses were beginning to clog. Two of my groomsmen for the wedding had agreed to head out to the formalwear shop in Livonia to be fitted, and I thought it only polite to go along with them, so I doped up on my medicine and went. I'd timed it just right, and the meds wore off about a half hour after we'd returned. Today I'm stuffed up and perpetually tired. I took a sick day from work for the first time in a long while. Maybe part of my fugue is the fallout from the death of a friend of ours. I didn't know Kevin Corr as well as Jules or most of the other Bursley people, but what I knew of him was that he was kind, quirky, and generous to a fault. The last time I'd seen him was at a Halloween party a couple of years ago -- he was wearing his sailor suit. He was very proud of what he'd accomplished in the Navy, and I think we were, and still are, proud of him. Rest in peace, Nev. When I was in high school, the summer I graduated, a friend of mine commited suicide. I remember thinking it was a tragic and senseless loss, but the ache or grief of loss never struck deep within me. I guess I feel the same way now, which is odd, because I've always thought that I was a very emotional and empathic person. Perhaps such a thing has to happen to someone with more consequence to me; and if that's the case, what does that truly say about me? I'm tired of talking about me. ***** Dann wrote up a big analysis of XFL football last night that I thought was pretty thorough, even if I did not agree with most of it. I thought most of the mike and camera options were hit or miss -- especially funny were the mikes on the quarterbacks calling plays, since there's no way of knowing what the play call codes actually stand for; sideline reporters trying to talk to coaches in the middle of plays and being ignored; and the many bleep-outs of profanities. Maybe the funniest thing was the way the Fox Sports Net anchors couldn't stop laughing through the recaps of the games. "Hi, I'm a bimbo!" What was not funny? Well, the skill level of the league is way down; play is sloppy and choked with penalties; Wrestlers keep showing up and telling me to watch or else; Jesse Ventura seems to have been hired just to make fun of people or plays; the second broadcast team of wrestling announcers is just ridiculous; Cherrleader interviews of players in the locker room looks like something out of the first 5 minutes of Red Shoe Diaries; preoccupation on scantily-clad cheerleaders; etc, etc. I think the main problem with this league is that it believes it has instant credibility when in fact it has precious little. The league does not seem to acknowledge that their talent level is probably less than that of most top-ten college programs; if the league does have a breakout star, that player will certainly get a tryout with an NFL squad and either be gone the next season or return after being cut. If the XFL wants to be a niche league -- like Arena Football -- than I'm all for it; but as for competetion with the NFL, well, if the league is still around in five or ten years, we'll take another look. |
