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Below are the most recent 14 friends' journal entries.
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| Monday, November 16th, 2009 |
kilo_foxtrot
|
10:44p |
November Notes
If you were under the mistaken impression that I had inadvertently fallen down a well, disappearing from the world above, I would forgive you. After all, it would be understandable. I haven't written in something like two weeks, busy hopping about and trying to make progress on this and that and such like. I have composed a rough outline of my recent activities to share... EARLY OCTOBER: I started investing in stocks and bonds. A little bit here, a little bit there... add some time, dividends, and luck, and we'll see where I end up. HALLOWEEN: Went to a party... Courtney & I dressed in Star Trek uniforms (new movie style). We met some very, very cool geeks, and Courtney was a bit flattered by one of the attendees. :-) I think we'll be hanging out again soon, if we can find an open weekend not beset upon by too many holidays, visitors, or papers. EARLY NOVEMBER: Fumbled around with trying to get ahold of an HSI instrument to make measurements for one of my term papers; my professor wasn't a whole lot of help for a good long while. (I eventually picked it up two Fridays ago.) I passed the non-work time with occasional sessions of 8-bit Final Fantasy on the Wii. Additionally, engagement pictures were posted online. LAST WEEK: Wednesday: Worked for 8 hours; went home, wrote a 500-word summary of my other term paper; went to GMU for the kickoff meeting of the new student chapter of ASPRS, where I became their founding secretary. (I'm not quite sure how I feel about this.) I then attended my Remote Sensing class and came home around 10:30pm or so. Thursday: Worked for 12.5 hours, the final four of which were spent with a very slow computer tech. However, upon my return home, I was promptly urged by Courtney to try on my brand new wedding band, which had arrived in the mail that very day... titanium and muonionalusta meteorite, fitted perfectly. AWESOME. Friday the 13th: Worked for 4.5 hours. Doodled around during the afternoon, went to GMU for my HSI class... where naturally, we talked some more about LIDAR (briefly). Go figure. Saturday: Went to the first meeting with Courtney & the priest for pre-marriage prep. That went well; the guy's a fellow geek, and we had some interesting conversations. I took the HSI instrument to GMU and met with a professor and his research coworkers to make some measurements... but we were eventually stymied by the drizzly weather. After returning home for a breather, Courtney & I headed over to Mike & Julie's new house, where we helped paint, sand, drink beer, and eat way too much Pizza Hut stuffed crust pizza. Sunday: Beautiful day. Slept in late, upgraded the RAM on the old Windows laptop (for data processing improvement purposes), then took the HSI instrument out to Bluemont Vineyards. After a false start or two with our setup, we asked the proprietors for the loan of a power outlet; they said sure, so I got some very sweet imagery of the horizon that will likely be the core of my term paper. It helps to know the management. :-) A glass of Traminette later, we headed home for our Sunday night routine of online dice-rolling with friends. That brings us up to today... not much of note today, unless you count as significant my borrowing from the library a children's book called "How to Scratch a Wombat." (I liked the title.) Oh, I also watched the Atlantis shuttle launch while at work, too. I've really got to get cracking on geting my data in order for study and dissemination... but it's late, and at this point I'd be better served by going to bed. The evenings will be when I'll need to do my work; we're going to Albany this weekend to visit Stacy, and the following weekend we'll be host to Courtney's family for Thanksgiving. No class next week, though... that will be nice. Happy birthday, Grandma H! Epic Leonid meteor shower starts tonight! Goodnight, world! Current Mood:  sillyCurrent Music: tick tock tick tock tick tock it's a clock |
cordilleran2
|
6:39p |
Bwhuh?
So: I called the Flagstaff Justice Court today about the citation I got Saturday night. For not showing current proof of insurance. Because I couldn't find the current one. Because my parents stuck it in a part of the car where this stuff doesn't normally go. Which means it was there THE WHOLE DAMN TIME. I give them my complaint number, and after a moment, they're "Huh?" Turns out they didn't have it yet. And so when I told them my court date was, essentially, tomorrow, they were all "But...that's....what? Makes NO SENSE." So: they don't have it yet. I asked them what this means, they said that since the date is so soon and they still won't have it by the date, that the judge will either send me a summons or dismiss it entirely. Hoping for the latter, because I really don't want to deal with these folks any more than I have to...but it does continue to show just how screwed up the system is up there at the Flagstaff court system place thingy. *headdesk* I DID get to nerd out about the Byzantine Empire today, at work; I had told this one cute girl that I was going to study Byzantine History and Orthodox Theology to become a priest (mostly to scare her off, and it worked*), when this couple were all "!BYZANTIUM!" As it turns out, they were learning about it as part of homeschooling their kids, and had a bunch of questions about it, and I was happy to answer them, as well as suggest to them a bunch of books on the topic. This kind of irked Richard a bit, because this was RIGHT at closing time. Whoopsies. (*I've kind of adopted a policy of up-front mentioning my desires towards any woman who seems to find me remotely attractive, or that I find remotely attractive. If they run away, then I know that they're not worth my time, generally speaking. It's great at weeding out the crop, or as a device to let bycatch escape harmlessly, if we're going to go with the "fish in the sea" metaphor here) A picture post will be coming before the week is out, I think. There is also a trip to the monastery on Thursday/Friday, and I am going to really try to carpool out there with somebody. I mean, it's not like they'd have to go out of my way to pick me up. Someone can drop me off at the starbucks in Camp Verde, after all, and I can REALLY use some one-on-one JesusTime, so to speak. But, stolen from ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) sarahs_history I present to you this meme. it made me feel happier, so maybe when you do it, it will too! Or something: Comment here and I will tell you why I think you're awesome.
Even if we don't talk much, heck even if we have NEVER spoken, I want EVERYONE to participate. If you want to share the love and do the same at your journal, go ahead. You're under no obligation to carry it on if you comment here.
Current Mood:  thankfulCurrent Music: Nikos mumbling to himself about something or other |
| Sunday, November 15th, 2009 |
cordilleran2
|
8:15a |
Topping things off
Dad now says he won't let me go to flagstaff on the weekends anymore. So: an announcement: the Arthurian D&D campaign is now canceled. I don't know when I'll see you guys anymore. If you cared, anyway. If one more thing goes wrong, I WILL snap. I shit you not. |
beatonna
|
9:07a |
|
26_28_taunton
|
10:47a |
This time I truly have no excuse for not posting. I figure it's time to share some significant and interesting events going on. I did sit down and write half of a very long post a few weeks ago, but then got lazy and still haven't finished it. So the biggest thing is that I'm finally out of the army! Almost two weeks ago I turned in all of my equipment and my military ID, and am now a free man. Except that right after I was released from active service, they told me to call some phone number because there was already a problem with my file for the reserves. There are worse problems to have - it seems that two very good units were fighting over me. I think I'm straightened out now - I talked to the Company Commander of the place I want to be in and he said he'd fix everything. And apparently this is an important enough unit that they don't need to ask permission to take soldiers from other places. The other major event is that right now I'm at the airport. There's a tradition that after someone finishes their army service in Israel, they go on a big trip abroad (usually India, Thailand, or South America). For mine I'm spending a week and a half going all over Germany, then three weeks in Ireland, and finally back to America, where I need to find a job and start making money. For some reason it doesn't feel that strange to be leaving - I got to the airport and it felt like yesterday rather than six months ago that I had come through in the other direction. This will be my longest trip since moving to Israel, and I have no idea how that will work out. It finally hit me when I realized that it'll be many months before I can have falafel, shwarma, matbucha, techina, jachnun, proper Mizrachi spicy fish, real dates... In my previous trips as well, the food was the first thing I missed. But it'll be good. It's been almost three years since I was really in Europe and while many of my Irish friends are in Britain and around the world, it'll be good to be back and see who I can. And for all of you, I'll be landing in America on December 16. Current Music: Dar Williams - Southern California Wants To Be Western New York |
| Saturday, November 14th, 2009 |
cordilleran2
|
11:03p |
Finis
Where once was light
Now darkness falls
Where once was love
Love is no more
Don't say goodbye
Don't say I didn't try.
To the crows with this Popsicle stand called life. I am so tired of this blasted world and everything in it. Every time I get remotely happy, something happens and I am miserable again. Obviously that is my sole purpose in this world--and God--if there is one--means for me to be so. I was hoping that I was back to my normal cheerful self again...but apparently that is not to be. I'm so tired. So very, very, weary and tired. Ten steps forward, ten steps back. I might as well stay where I am, since that is where I am destined to be. And this time, it's not even my fault. But I'll still get the blame. So, why even bother? Mostly because I don't know what else to do. Current Mood:  sad |
forthright
|
11:04a |
Book-hawking
Several of you have asked when and how my book, Numerical Notation: A Comparative History, will be available for purchase. I've been told that the official date of January 31, 2010 is more or less accurate, but it could be as late as February/early March, depending on how the final stages of production proceed. Sorry to those of you who were hoping to get it as a Christmas present. The list price has changed several times - I've seen it listed for pre-order at $111.95 but also as low as $76 (at Barnesandnoble.com right now). I consider $76 to be a very reasonable price for a 500-page hardcover academic volume. The irony is that while sales only really take off once a (much cheaper) paperback edition comes out, the press will only put out a paperback edition if sales of the hardcover are good. I do have some hopes though - stay tuned! I realize that even $75-100 is a lot to pay for a specialized volume. |
| Friday, November 13th, 2009 |
beatonna
|
1:55a |
fairy tales
 Remember, Montreal! I'm going to be at Expozine this weekend! You should come. I realized today that the comic I was working on was going to take longer than I thought, so I made these up real quick before I take off for Montreal! You go to one of these things, and it's four days gone like a flash. Not that anyone checks the internet on the weekend, but still. In any case, I like the Kiss elves. Store! |
| Thursday, November 12th, 2009 |
forthright
|
9:07p |
Badicklebop
Well, Arthur may hate French, but he sure does love Japanese. Of course, our little Japanophile doesn't know any Japanese except for Totoro and Pitagora Suichi, so he's taken to inventing his own Japanese words. The first and more important of these is badicklebop, which means 'backpack', or so I'v been told. I can see it becoming a regular part of the lexicon ... but maybe we should try to find him some lessons locally before he invents Japanese from scratch. |
| Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 |
beatonna
|
4:55p |
Dry Matches
 I got a comment about my last comic saying that it condoned smoking, but I don't, that is nonsense! You should also not lasso cats out of trees, if that doesn't go without saying. Historical smoking is another matter, go ahead and have a smoke in the trench, but I advise against lighting three cigarettes at night. Remembrance Day always makes me ruminative about the place of history in our current consciences, because it is one of the few holidays where we are explicitly told listen you have to remember this thing that happened ok and, one, people pay attention, two, there is nothing jamming the line like bbq's or parties or football games or chocolate eggs or presents. History: You should give a shit, who knew. Just so we are clear though, I don't really care about Queen Victoria's birthday either so go ahead and slam it back on May 24 weekend, fireworks and the whole bit. Honestly we should all get free corgis on Victoria Day. |
curtana
|
3:39p |
|
forthright
|
10:57a |
The enemy
When I was a kid, one of my friends had a father who had fought in World War II (a second-family situation) ... in the German army. This was quite a shock to my nine-year-old self, who had even by that young age absorbed the idea that we remember our own soldiers and vilify the bad guys. The idea that my friend's dad was a Nazi (which of course he wasn't, but I was in no position to make that distinction) was aberrant. It couldn't be right. My friend was quick to note (as I'm sure he'd been taught from a very young age), that his dad had fought the Soviets on the Eastern Front, which I suppose made it better somehow, because obviously the Soviets were bad guys too. So as we bow our heads today to rightly remember those Canadian soldiers who served and continue to serve in wartime and peacetime, I will take a moment also to remember the soldiers of 'the enemy' (whatever that means), past, present and future. Lest we forget. |
| Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 |
kyriearashi
|
4:57p |
Hujoo
This weekend I discovered that I freaking love Hujoos and wish there was a more active online community for them. |
forthright
|
10:14a |
Urgent request for computer help
My computer had serious virus fail yesterday (Security Tool malware) and now won't boot at all, not in regular mode, not in safe mode, nothing. It starts to load, then I get the BSOD and error messages, then it's hung up. Julia has a file on there that she needs urgently (like, today, ASAP). She doesn't need to fix the underlying problem, just get the one file onto a flash drive so she can work with it on another computer. I don't know anything about boot disks or any of this, really, except that it should be possible to find a way to make this work. Please comment on this post with any suggestions, or if you have Julia on Facebook or have her email, please contact her directly. Thanks. ETA: Julia has managed to retrieve the file from an Ubuntu live CD (which I am also going to use to retrieve data onto an external HD tonight). Julia scanned the file she needed on her computer and it appears to be clean. Thanks so much to all for the advice! |
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