Saturday, September 30, 2006, 10:41 PM - Cool Stuff
I've been working out several days each week for the past eight months. I've lost 31 pounds and I can now jog for an hour straight! My new distance record is 6.4 miles over an hour run. My fastest 5km has been 28m 15s.[ 3 comments ] ( 16 views ) | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink |
( 3 / 1380 )Sunday, September 24, 2006, 03:47 PM
Doug and I did our annual visit to the giant Corn Maze farm near Stewartstown, PA. We've gone there for seven years straight and it just gets better each year. And, for $9 American Dollars, it's cheap thrills!
The main maze, carved out of a corn field, is just downright huge. It usually takes 2-3 hours to walk through the whole thing. This year, the maze was in the shape of a Viking dragon. You enter the maze at a toe and leave through the dragon's mouth. This maze was really difficult this year. We came pretty close to waving the distress flag (for rescue by maze employees), but we eventually got out. It was a blast.
About four years ago, they planted a bamboo maze. The shoots are really tall now, and the interior of the maze is dark and surprizingly pretty and fragrant. In this maze, you have to find five differently colored checkpoints before leaving. We spent about 45 minutes in that one too.
The other mazes are smaller, but still pretty fun. There is a fence maze that is made out of movable wooden baricades. The pattern changes every year. It also has movable bridges and ramps.
The new mazes are the tile maze (a puzzle in which you have to get to the maze center using only right turns), and a boulder maze (we didn't do that one, but it looked like one had to push giant inflatable boulders through a set of baricades.
They started building next year's maze, but it wasn't open yet. It's called an Invisible Fence maze, and it looks like one has to wear a sensor tag and navigate through an open air maze without being able to see the walls. Very cool!
So... That was our Saturday fun. Next week? More haunted houses! Yay!
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( 3 / 1263 )Sunday, September 10, 2006, 08:07 PM
I haven't had a chance to write in a while. It's been mostly DisasterVision for the past week. Here's the scoop:
-- The roof started leaking. I tried to fix it, but it's beyond fixing. When I climbed up on the roof, the insulation is squishy and the membrane is totally shot. It's been sjot for years in all likelihood, but it's only been last week that water got through the insulation and decking. It's probably going to cost $2,000 at the minumum.
-- Then the kitchen ceiling collapsed. When the water leaking through the ceiling contaminated the plaster and made it fall apart.
-- Then the cat got sick. That cost $400.
-- Then Doug's car needed some emergency repairs. The heat shield on the catalytic converter had rusted through and the car battery was on its last legs. That cost almost $400.
-- Doug's got an old crown that is almost worn through. This is a high priority medical procedure. My guess is that it will be almost $1,000.
Of course, this means that I can't afford to enroll in the ministry class I wanted to join.
Thanks to Bush's "Compassionate Conservatism", the rich have got richer and the middle class has been trampled. I make about half the income I had when Bill Clinton was in office. Gasoline prices are 225% higher now than in 2000. Good ol' Bob Erhlich just boosted the electricity rates by 76%. Property taxes are sky high because of the phony "housing boom" and that has inflated our mortgage from $605 to $730.
It's just been a disaster and I am so damned poor.
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( 3.1 / 1275 )Thursday, August 31, 2006, 09:57 PM - nightmares
I had this unpleasant dream in which a coven of satanists wanted to take a hot poker and burn my eyes out. They also wanted to pour sand into the sockets once they did this to me. I somehow ran away from them but ended up in a room with no escape and they were in the process of battering the door down.
The room was some sort of storage room with shelves of various supplies and was lit by a single bare bulb. There was a utility table in the middle of the room, which I pushed against the door to brace it.I knew the reinforcement wouldn't last forever. I really didn't want my eyes burned out by a hot poker.
Somehow, my awareness heightened and I was able to move along a dimensional line that brought me through different versions of the current reality. I didn't actually appear to physically move, and yet I had the sensation of a fundamental alteration in my position in absolute space (the 9-dimensional superspace, not the 3-dimenisnional normal space).
After 15 seconds of concentration, I stopped the dimensional travel and opened the door to see what resided on the other side. It was a business that involved itself in drafting.
I tried to apply for a job, but the business owner wouldn't hire me because I didn't have any references handy. In this new version of reality, references were of paramount importance. I later found out that the local version of myself used to be a solder and recently died in some foreign war (hence why I had no references -- the government thought I was dead.)
Money was apparently took the form of blue discs called "chips". I woke up before I got into a jam that would have required money.
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( 3 / 1964 )Saturday, August 26, 2006, 12:08 PM - Dumb Happenings
There are few things that bother me more than being in a restaraunt and hearing some ill-mannered brats screech at the top of their lungs the entire time I'm sharing a meal with my partner. For the most part, I loathe children. They are generally greedy, selfish little monsters that have a high probability of becoming criminals when they mature.
I had the idea that the parents of the screaming rug rats need to be penalized for the behavior of their offspring. In a restaraunt situation, I think the following fees should be imposed:
-- $1 per shrill, goblet-shattering scream.
-- $5 per incident of a toddler running loose in a restaraunt.
-- $10 per incident of a toddler or other child running loose and coming to another patron's table.
-- $20 per incident of a child throwing something from a table and having said object land on another patron's table.
Fees like that would discourage these SUV-driving, white-trash breeder families from hauling their ill-behaved monsters out into public.
Me being a rogue, made the comment while paying for the meal, "The food was great, the screaming was not." The mother of these ceratures said, "Why don't you get a life and shut your mouth!" I replied, "Why don't you control your kids!"
Well, I can see where the kids get their manners from. There's nothing like cheap, white, breeder trash.
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( 2.9 / 1442 )Sunday, August 20, 2006, 03:55 PM
I had an odd dream last night. I found myself in a higher plane of existence where different rules applied. The environment appeared to be a calm sea that stretched to the horizon in all directions. The horizon line was incredibly flat, so I think this world was very large. The sky was bright and blue-white. There was no sun in the sky, and yet the sky was lit in a strange directionless light.
Things protruded from the sea. I think what I was looking at were parts of other people's dreams and thoughts. I saw incomplete chunks of houses rising out of the water. I saw girders and sidewalks. I saw staircases that didn't neccessarily go anywhere. I found it all fascenating. Nothing looked like "ruins", but everything was half-finished. I guess that's how most people's actual thoughts and dreams are.
I was able to float above the surface of the calm sea and move from place to place just be willing it to be. I guess each little island of *stuff* represented one person in real life. I could not be sure. But it was neat seeing clusters of various objects float on the surface of the ocean for no apparent reason.
I became aware that there were other explorers in this higher realm. I knew that I could eventually find them, but I woke up before I made contact.
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( 3.1 / 1345 )Saturday, August 19, 2006, 10:57 PM
So... I've had an obsession with the Honda Fit. I also had the idea that I could lower my car payment if I traded my Civic for the Fit (about $116/month). I got my credit checked and it came out in the second best tier (cool!) The dealer said he had two Fits in stock, one black and one silver. I asked the dealer to hold one for me.
Well... I called last night to confirm that I was going to pick the silver Fit. The dealer sold them BOTH. That pissed me off. I asked to order one (blue). The dealer said that was OK.
A few hours later, I got a call back that the manager told the dealer that there was now a $500 ordering fee. Yeah, right. I didn't go for THAT!
Oh well... This incident temporarily quashed my desire for a new car. It's a shame when salesmen get greedy.
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( 3 / 1239 )Sunday, August 13, 2006, 12:33 PM - Random Thoughts
It looks like I got tagged with another LIST! This one is a book list from Doug's site. So, without further ado....
1. One book you have read more than once: There are plenty of books I've read more than once. One in particular is "Doctor's Orders", a Star Trek novel.
2. One book you would want on a desert island: I'd probably want a book on survival skills.
3. One book that made you laugh: My friend Dana's story, called "School for the Gifted and Telented". It featured a sadistic, telekinetic killer named Larauna. Favorite line (after the mnain character sees Laurana use her powers to mow down 20 or 30 people in a dark alley: "He had never seen such a gruesome, wanton slaughter of human life. But he new something else now about Laurana: He loved her."
4. One book that made you cry: The Sleep of Stone. It featured a shape changer who was the last of her kind. She fell in love with a nobleman. But he loved another. So she turned the guy's fiancee to stone and took her place. When she was found out, it was discovered that the only way to undo the spell was for her to turn to stone instead. It was pretty sad.
5. One book you wish you had written: I wish I had written "The Missionary": better than I had. Yeah, it got published, but it's got more rough edges than I would have liked. It is a flawed product.
6. One book you wish had never been written: any book by the crazed, lying hate-monger Anne Coulter. Conservatives lap up her swill, even though it's absolute trash.
7. One book you are currently reading: Surak's Soul (yes, another Star Trek novel)
8. One book you have been meaning to read: More Agatha Christie.
9. One Book That Changed Your Life: The Gunslinger saga by Stephen King. Roland, as the Gunslinger, is a magnificent character that progresses from being a cold emblem of Law into a fully functioning and fully realized human being.
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( 3 / 1197 )Friday, August 11, 2006, 10:32 PM
Doug and I had a nice time out tonight with one of my coworkers and her husband. We went to an Irish bar & grill called "Tir Na Nog". We had some great mixed drinks (Cosmopolitans for me!) The food was great too. The only down side is that I couldn't get the car out of the garage. We got back too late. I sure hope I can get the car out tomorrow![ add comment ] | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink |
( 3 / 1223 )Tuesday, August 8, 2006, 09:29 PM - Random Thoughts
This latest "Big List" comes from Hanuman's Blog. Fun stuff!
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1. How tall are you barefoot? 5'10" (5’11” if I don’t slouch)
2. Have you ever been cheated on? Yes (by my first partner, but never by Doug)
3. Do you own a gun? Yes – a Browning Buckmark 0.22 semiauto pistol.
4. If you had a mental disorder, what would it be? Alas, I have two for real: depression and dissociative identity disorder.
5. How many letters are in your crushes name? The only one for me is Doug.
6. What do you think of hot dogs? It’s hard to get a really good one, but far too easy to get one that doesn’t taste good.
7. What's your favorite Christmas song? Carol of the Bells (since we ring that one in church every year).
8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Coffee.
9. Do you do push-ups? No, but I jog a lot.
10. Have you ever done ecstasy? Not just “no” but “hell no”.
11. Do you have a boyfriend? Doug! And we’ve been together 7 years!
12. Do you like the rain? Only if it’s a thunderstorm too.
13. Do you own a knife? A Swiss Army knife.
14. What do you smell like? Whatever cologne I spray on that day.
15. Do you have A.D.D.? I don’t think there’s such thing as ADD. It’s a drug company conspiracy.
16. Full initials? CPT.
17. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment: 1) I’d like to finish writing Chapter 40 in “I, Construct”. 2.) I want to upload the latest five monster drawings to my RPG web site (www.gaianar.com) 3.) I hope that I can slim down to 175 pounds by Christmas.
18. Name the last 3 things you have bought today. Sushi for lunch, a smoothie at the gym, and an iced latte for Doug.
19. Name five drinks you regularly drink. Coffee, water, iced tea, smothies, martinis.
20. What time did you wake up today? 6:00AM. Ugh!
21.Can you spell? Mostly, but I do rely on a spell checker for important things.
22. Current worry? I need to fix the roof above the mud room, but I can’t afford to.
23. Current hate? Ann Coulter., George Bush, Rush Limbaugh, the Religious “Right”, radical islam.
24. Favorite place to be? On a cruise ship with Doug.
25. Least favorite place to be? In an arts & crafts store (I don’t know how to make anything.)
26. Where would you want to go? Ireland and Wales.
27. Do you own slippers? No.
28. Where do you think you'll be in 10 years? Hopefully I will be promoted to Case Agent or Case Manager.
29. Do you burn or tan? Burn. Yeah, there’s nothing like the Irish complexion.
30. Yellow or Blue? Blue.
31. Would you give up your current life to be a pirate? I’d think about it.
32. Last time your cell rang? 30 minutes ago – it was my friend Ed calling.
33. What songs do you sing in the shower? I don’t sing in the shower.
34. What did you fear was going to get you at night as a child? The two biggest ones: being abandoned and being visited by evil spirits that wield Death Magic.
35. What do you have in your pocket right now? I emptied my pockets when I came in from the gym.
36. Last thing that made you laugh? Cutting in front of a Hummer H2 and making him miss the green light.
37. Favorite bedsheets as a child? I don’t remember
38. Worst injury you've ever had? The worst was a psychic injury when the original personality became fragmented into five main parts.
39. What is your GPA? 2.89
40. How many TVs do you have in your house? Two that we use. There’s a third little one that hasn’t been turned on in years.
41. Who is your loudest friend? Joel Tyler.
42. Who is your most silent friend? Matt Hannum (also known as Matthias, Lord of Handguns)
43. Does someone have a crush on you? Yeah, right. A low-level civil servant who’s broke and has a dissociative disorder. Sure.
44. Do you wish on stars? No.
45. Do you believe in magic? I think it exists in other realities, just not this one.
46. What song represents how you feel at the moment? Nothing is coming to mind (sorry!)
47.What song did you last hear? The Booby-Woogy Bugle Boy from Company B.
48. What song do you want played at your funeral? I’m not planning on having a funeral. I’ll be forgotten within a few days of my death anyway..
49. What were you doing 12AM last night? Sleeping.
50. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? “I hope I don’t get too many domestic violence cases today.”
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