A Geek in Beantown

This and that

Fri, 09 May 2008 12:32:44 -0500

First, from Janet, the Friday Fill-Ins:

1. The _kiss_ had an extra secret ingredient; it was _filled with emotion and melted my knees_!
2. _I see pollen dancing_ through my window.
3. Right now, I need _coffee, which would be why I just got back from DD_.
4. _Home_ is where I went Thursday night; it was _quiet and filled with some TV watching_.
5. Why does _spring_ hurt so much?
6. All I can think of is the _how annoying breathing is right now_.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to _hanging out with friends_, tomorrow my plans include _helping a different friend pack her house up_ and Sunday, I want to _see people I've missed_!

Second, from an LJ friend, a very spiffy link of science tattoos (6 pages of 'em).

Third, a wonderful quote found by KathyHowe:
"To wish you were someone else is to waste the person you are."
-Unknown

Happy weekend (I took today off)!

Dead sexy

Thu, 08 May 2008 14:11:35 -0500

We got new monitors at work today. 24" ones!

Holy crazy resolution. Now I have to figure out how best to use the new monitor... do I close the laptop and only use the new monitor? Do I try to figure out how to position the laptop and monitor so I can use both of them?

Decisions decisions!

Musings about music

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:08:44 -0500

I recently had to recreate my iTunes playlists and made a new one for my iPod first. I decided to pick people who I hadn't listened to in a while and it's worked out really well. I had kind of forgotten how much I liked Paul Simon's work.

Yay for deciding to poke around in my collection more (I have over 60G of music and only a 4G iPod).

Ghost town

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 10:23:08 -0500

Today is a weird day. It's a civic holiday in MA (and Maine). It's also the day they run the Boston Marathon. My commute was really light and even though I'd left late, I got to Alewife a little earlier than I usually do. I parked, took the T (forgot my iPod!), walked to the office and was at my desk before 8:30.

The office is pretty empty. Not as bad as the days when it's a company holiday for the rest of the company, but a floating holiday for my team, but still pretty quiet and subdued around here.

I had a great weekend and wish they weren't so short! =^,^=

Quick state of affairs

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 10:20:45 -0500

- Ran out of Advair around the first of the month (this is my maintenance asthma meds) (boo)
- Should have more soon though (Rx by mail) (yay)
- Got new neighbors on the first - one smokes (boo)
- New air purifiers should be here tomorrow though! (yay!)
- Post-ablation periods have been odd; very mild cramping and just light spotting but not on the week that I'd expect this all to happen (weird)
- Gaming tonight (yay!)
- Weekend gaming campaign (yay!)
- Weekend not sleeping in smoky apartment (also yay!)
- Taxes paid (boo)
- Had a great review (yay)
- Blog sidebar is at the bottom (boo!)
- Things are blooming (yay and boo)
- One more month and then Dad and Cathy visit again (yay!)
- Got my hair cut (about 3" off) and it's curlier now (yay!)
- I smell smoky (or at least I think I do) (boo)
- NSPy is still healthy and happy (yay!)
- Australian is very slow to process visa applications (my roommate's, not mine!) (boo)

Ok, back to the grindstone, but I figured I should post here 'cause it'd been a while.

Truth in advertising

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 09:21:22 -0500

So about a month ago I was contacted by a gentleman who wanted to add links to ~7 of my older entries on my blog (they won't show up on the LJ versions of these posts because I didn't bother resending them to LJ). I wasn't sure if he was the real deal or spam, so I wrote back. He was for real. I put ads on the bottom of those entries now and some money in my PayPal account.

No, I won't tell you which entries.

And yes, I really need to fix the layout on my site because the sidebar being at the bottom is pissing me off. Maybe I'll upgrade again while I'm at it.

Anyway, I wanted to let you know about the ads - just in case you stumbled across one of them.

Friday Fill-ins and an update

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 22:01:57 -0500

First, Janet's Friday Fill-ins! (Just pretend it's tomorrow, k?)

1. Tonight I saw _my roommate and the cat_.
2. _Almost anything by Mighty Mighty Bosstones_ makes me wanna dance!
3. Splitting a few appetizers between friends _is a great way to spend an evening_
4. _Janet and Michelle_ ~~is someone~~are people I'd like to get to know better.
5. The smell of _pollen (ok, fresh cut grass)_ reminds me so much of springtime!
6. _The sun came out_ and that made it all better.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to _a quiet evening_, tomorrow my plans include _cleaning!_ and Sunday, I want to _not have it be Monday when I wake up_!

And the update:
Life's been really busy. It's not likely to slow down for a while. Money's tight so I won't be going to Colorado this year to visit my friends there. I miss them (and Colorado) a lot so I'm bummed. My desk (at home) is a mess. I need to spend some time on that tomorrow night and get it back under control. I've been flitting around too much to keep things organized.

Anyway, hope you're all well! Happy beginning of Spring allergen season!

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 10:13:43 -0500

What a wonderful show. Seriously. I had no idea what Avatar was when my sweetie first mentioned it to me, but I was willing to watch an episode and see.

Well, we finished Book 2 last night and wanted more... So we went to Blockbuster and rented the first volume of Book 3 and watched all of it. We'll have to rent volume 2 from Blockbuster soon and watch that and then wait for the rest of Book 3 to air. And buy the whole Book.

Amazing stuff. Really amazing stuff.

Kitty needs a new home

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 10:17:11 -0500

Grishka needs a new home. He's the sweetest cat evah, but he also has litter box issues. Probably the ideal situation for him would be living with someone who works from home or is around a lot. Brad's tried a number of things to deal with the peeing problem, but none have worked to date.

More info:
Grishka is a pure breed Siberian. Born: 1/12/01. He's a brown mackerel tabby/white. He's really the sweetest cat. A total people kitty. He loves it best when he can sit next to you and participate in what you're doing. He'll greet people at the door and makes friends with everyone. He also gets along with other cats.

Anyway, if you think you might be interested in him, please let me know. He's currently living in Redmond, WA with Brad, but we'd be happy to figure out how to get him to you if you need a lovebug in your life.

More wintry mix?!

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 08:25:20 -0500

More wintry mix?!,
originally uploaded by jasra.

Taken on my drive in this morning.

Friends doing cool things

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 15:37:19 -0500

Danielle, of Habeas Brulee, and her sweetie Dave have announced their occasional restaurant: Jack.

I'm thrilled for them and can't wait to figure out when I can visit NYC again and book a seating at their place.

Too young, damnit!

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 09:24:54 -0500

On Monday, March 3rd (his wife's birthday), Scott Chalfin unexpectedly passed away. He was only 39. He was way too young. Too full of life.

The services are being held tomorrow.

I'll miss you, Scott. You were always so full of life and energy that it's odd to think that you're gone.

Tentatively excited

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 21:24:04 -0500

Just spotted on the Official Google Blog:

Google Calendar Sync

As in syncs Google and Outlook. OMG! This could be the answer to all of my syncing wishes. Except I'm nervous about trying it out and botching my calendars. Guess I'll be backing up Outlook this weekend and giving it a shot.

If you've tried this out, please let me know how it went!

Signal boosting - new web comic/story/thingie

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 10:25:10 -0500

I'm pleased to announce that Shira/Shadesong has launched her Web-based illuminated manuscript: Shayara.

I'm part of her web team (the mechanics, not the graphics). She and I worked to bring you something you could navigate and would want to come back to.

Happy adventuring!

And so it begins...

Sun, 02 Mar 2008 08:54:23 -0500

The first allergy alert from pollen.com of the year.

from   The Pollen People at Pollen.com
date   Sun, Mar 2, 2008 at 7:23 AM
subject   Your Personal Allergy Alert Two-Day Forecast

Your Allergy Alert(TM) For Mar 02, 2008:

---------------------------------

Be prepared for allergies today! This is your Allergy Alert letting youknow that allergy conditions in your area have reached a medium to high range.

---------------------------------

Forecast for WOBURN, MA (on a scale of 1-12):

Today's allergy levels:
Sunday - 4.2/Low-Medium

Today's predominant pollen:
Cedar/Juniper.

Tomorrow's allergy levels:
Monday - 3.5/Low-Medium

How will you feel over the next few days? Click below for your

FOUR-DAY Allergy Alert forecast to find out.

http://www.pollen.com/Pollen.com.asp?view=forecast&zip=01801&affid=1