Month: November 2004

Well, between programming projects for work, programming projects for a few contracts, and the 1×10^32 other things I’ve got on the burner right now I managed to code my own LJ editor. So, this is the first test to see if it’s doing everything it should. 🙂

Thanksgiving…

My day off yesterday was spent ferrying Jae back over to Aurora to have dinner with Jon and Jen from work. I was invited to attend, but it’s a family get-together and I’m not family. Meanwhile Scales was off at his family function and should be back some time Monday.

I went over to Aryntha and Rai’s place where we had “Wopsgiving”… See, Aryntha is of Italian decent and therefore is genetically predisposed to cooking on holidays, and he makes a mean spaghetti sauce. So we had spaghetti and garlic bread, and Rai made her world-famous toasted-pesto-fetta-french bread things which are really, really marvy. Oh, and there was much plum wine to be had by all.

We then sat around and talked about everything from Rai’s new car and early 80’s CD players to plans for the rest of the weekend.

So there you have it, my holiday so far. Chances are I’ll be out and about somewhere in Colorado for the rest of the weekend so if anyone needs me, call me, and leave a message as I’ll be out of range cell-wise. But I always check my messages when I get back in range.

Update from Norrath…

EQII is *beautiful* to look at… Simply amazing. It’s really like playing a movie.

I guess it’s pretty neat what you can do with unlimited money and manpower.

Jae and I ran around n00b-island for a few hours last night, but didn’t get much accomplished because we kept stopping to look at the scenery, or the texture on something, or the model of something else.

We did make level 6 on the two characters we intend to play with the folks at work, and level 5 on two others (good guys) who are purely for seeing what the other side of the continent looks like.

The new quest system is really nice, and really frustrating at the same time. The nice part is that I have yet to have to mindlessly beat up bugs, snakes, or some other low level critter just for the sake of leveling… The bad part is that the quests are very in depth and really take a concerted effort to complete. When you have another person with you playing as well, this can get a little crazy.

So far the game runs great on my super computer, but not so well on Jae’s… He was perpetually having problems seeing something or maneuvering, or some other game function. I think he’s figured out how to get around that though.

The game does require pretty much pinnacle computing power. The x600 video card I have in this machine is “ok”, while the 59XX card in Jae’s box is “sub par”… Eesh.

Anyways, all in all, I was up till 1am playing EQII. This is amazing because I’m usually in bed by 10 a the latest. It’s that good.

Sofar.

And thus begins a new work week. Only five more days of PBJs and Mac&Cheese (chuckle).

The jury is still out on this Scales vs. School thing. I don’t think he’s put any thought into this beyond reading one of my past journal entries and saying, “Oh, yeah! I can go to school and not have to work”…

He does have his G.I. bill which should cover about a year of class, but the current plan as I understand it is to get a different loan for more and use the G.I. bill money to pay it off for a while. Wait till he has to pay out $500 for books which isn’t covered by student loans or the G.I. bill. And has to account for every dollar he spends…

Of course I have no actual idea of what he’s planning as he was missing all weekend again.

I have talked with Jae and we’ve figured we’ll give him to the end of the month to do :something: other than leave the house unlocked when he leaves, the lights on, run the heat all day, make a mess of the kitchen, roll in at o-dark 30 and wake everyone up, ignore his alarm clock for several hours each morning, and generally be a check valve around here. That will have given him 2.5 months to do something to contribute to the house… When someone I know has a 15 year old who can get a job after school and on weekends to help her family out, Scales can damn well too.

Ahh, the weekend. Seeing as I’m broke from car repairs and the feeding of the crew here, I’ll be spending the next two days sitting in front of my computer… Maybe I’ll do some writing.

Let’s see, to recap the week:

Scales was missing till Tuesday due to being involved in a car accident Sunday night. He’s fine; the car he was in is totaled though.

Things are moving forward rather quickly at work for these new contracts. Good news for everyone there as the place is usually closed down from November to January.

Out of the blue Scales tells me last night that he’s going to go to school now… That’s good for him I suppose as, unlike myself, he didn’t get much real-world skill during his time in the Navy. What this means as far as supporting him further has yet to be figured out, but I foresee more of the same. It’s not easy to get the loans to do the school thing and I just can’t see Scales having the attention span or drive to do well in classes. I hope he can pull it off though, it’ll go a long ways towards getting him out of the “burger flipper” phase of his life.

And with that I think I’ll rustle up a PBJ for breakfast and get to work on some writing.

Take it easy out there folks.

It is officially winter time here in Colorado. Sunday’s snow was the starting pistol and Monday’s roads and traffic were the obstacle course… The roads weren’t all that bad, but just in case I took Evans across to Iliff and into Aurora to avoid places where people would be tempted to drive entirely too fast.

I was almost erased by an RTD (Reason To Drive) bus as it slid from it’s lane into mine, which was the only real mishap on the way to work. As I always say, never skimp on your tires. Those new All Seasons I had put on the Toyota at over $100 a piece did their job and I was able to scoot out of the way with relative ease.

The roads were icy and snow packed, but very passable until I got out to Aurora where Jae is house sitting… The house he’s watching is out in the plains, out past Aurora, and therefore doesn’t warrant street plowing. The little Toyota was fording streams door deep and snow drifts higher than the fenders, but we got there, got him, and got out with little trouble.

Once back in civilization, Jae bought me breakfast at “Rosie’s” diner not half a block from work. While we packed away a huge breakfast we watched folks out on the streets sliding around, running into things, and doing 360’s in the middle of intersections… It was some bizarre ice ballet with cars. One fellow slid around and smacked a light pole or something and dented the passenger’s side rear quarter panel right into the back tire. I felt sorry for him as he stood out in the snow and bent the fender back out with a pair of pliers… What made it worse was when we noticed he still temporary plates on the car.

Other than that it was a pretty routine day and while I was happy to get back home (Scales was still MIA), once I was sitting here in the peace and quiet, with a fire going in the fireplace, I started to nod off. So I went to bed at about 8…

And that was my day. 🙂

And now I have to get rolling so I can go pick up Jae again and have another fun day at work.

Later…

Today’s weather report… Snow!

For the first time in a long time we got snow here in Denver on Halloween. When I was a kid growing up here in Colorado I remember every Halloween as an exercise in putting a costume over a snow suit. We had just as much fun as kids in other states and got just as much candy… But we also got to have snowball fights in costume.

It’s a lot of fun to sack the neighbor’s snow fort when they’re dressed up as ghosts and you’re a ghostbuster. 😉

I hope we continue this upward trend and it snows a LOT this winter. Screw the California imports and their “I don’t like snow, it’s too cold. It should be 80+ and sunny all year round…” Go back to the land of fruits, flakes, and nuts if you don’t like it. 😉

I got the Toyota tuned up just in time… I left the house Saturday at around 9, got the oil changed at 10, got to the brakes place at about 11 and didn’t get out of there till 6:30… $400 later and I have all kinds of stopping power now.

Yesterday I went and bought some basic tools (mine from my storage unit have gone missing, along with everything else) and replaced the plugs, wires, and distributor cap. I got new wipers too… I was thinking I’d need them today, and I was right.

I also got a price quote on fixing the exhaust system: $800. And the valve job the car needs is a mere $1200… It’s time for Scales to get a job and support himself so I can afford this.

I think I can do the new catalytic and couplings myself as I have a garage now, which drops the price to about $300. But I have to get Jae’s car running first just in case mine is OOC for a day or two and who knows what’s wrong with his car. I’m leaning towards fuel filter, which is an easy fix and which is why it won’t be that.

Meanwhile…

Saturday night Aryntha, Rai and I went over to a local dinning establishment, had an excellent meal, and right as we were getting ready to pay, the manager walked up to the table and said there was an ‘incident’ at the other end of the building and we had to leave… We’re still not sure what happened, but we did as instructed and left, without paying. I went back Sunday afternoon and covered the bill, but they still wouldn’t tell me what happened.

Well, I’d better sign off here and get an early start. Who knows what sorts of cool accidents I’ll get to see today as this summer’s crop of Colorado Imports get to experience snow for the first time… Oh the joy.

Have a great day out there, and stay warm. Oh, and push the orange juice…