Coffee blogging.

This blog offering is brought to you by the Beaner's wifi network, and the letter B.

I cannot tell any difference between the inside of this coffee shop and the inside of a Starbuck's. Wait; I've got it: all of the travel mugs here are stamped with the letter B. And all of the bottled water. And the employees.

Good chai, though, and a nice, fast network connection. Which is very nice, since I have just been popped up onto a website called "Geni". It's a genealogy website, and damn but I have got a big family. 98 people are up there so far, and we've only looked at the better part of three generations. Crazy.

I shaved my beard. It was hot. It isn't so hot anymore, and my face is cold and itchy all the time, so I'm letting it grow back. I'm the sort of person who has a beard.

Both of my older brothers have new jobs. One at Stanford, the other at Quicken. I am learning Java. Slowly. I understand there are jobs in Helsinki for Java programmers; I am hoping that is a universal phenomenon.

Well, happy Memorial Day every one! (Is that a contradiction in terms?)

On my way in today...

I saw a couple of interesting things. A car labeled "Caution: Student Driver" whose driver was on a cell phone. She was alone in the car, so either this is the most lassez-faire driving school in the world, or the people teaching our teens how to be responsible operators of motor vehicles voluntarily quadruple their chances of collision. Which explanation makes you feel better?

Also, a sign on some churchy building near campus: "Looks like you missed our car wash today. Bummer." This was at 10:00 am. If ever I needed evidence that God is mocking me...

Anyway, I am reasonably satisfied with my Netflix service. It started yesterday, and I will be having an Indiana Jones marathon to celebrate. Lots of TV series are in my queue, as well. I anticipate much time spent in front of my TV once again. That feels right, somehow. Especially since I can do other things while movies play, such as learning Java. I am told that it is a useful skill; I will therefore have it. It probably won't be as helpful to me as juggling, knitting, solving a Rubik's cube, learning Mac OSX, playing the cello, speaking German, or having a degree in philosophy, but hey. I'm willing to take a risk every now and again.

Milestone!

Ahh, my 200th post on Blogger. And I still haven't really said anything.

I found a video today. I have the CD on which that song can be found. But it's a really nice video for it.

Anyway, I'm hanging out with some people from work today. Hooray for the Olive Garden. One of our techs is leaving for Missouri, so we're having a farewell dinner. It must be a major thing; even I got invited.

But enough with the self-pity. Time to pity other people! Okay, not so much pity as laugh at. And I don't have any specific people in mind. But I'm sure the day will bring inspiration.

Damn. I was hoping for more to say on this auspicious occasion, but there's just nothing. Oh well.

I don't care if I'm evil; I still laughed.

Jerry Falwell is dead, and when I first heard, I admit it; I giggled. You're supposed to respect the dead, but what if dying is about the most respectable thing a person has ever done? He's no Fred Phelps, but still.

Anyway, I can't blog long; I have a project. A musical project. I am transcribing. It is moving forward, but not quite as fast as I'd like. Though I don't have an actual deadline, time is a factor. We'll see where I am by tomorrow morning.

Live post... dammit.

I'm not at a coffee shop this time around; I'm on campus. It's too damn late for coffee. Hell, it's almost 11:00 am; I should have been in bed three hours ago, but I cannot sleep. But other than that, life is good.

I picked up a couple of video games the other day. Metroid Prime 2 is more entertaining than the more accurately named Metroid Prime, but I still miss the Screw Attack. There's just not a good way to implement it in an FPS. As for Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, I enjoy it more and more each time I pick it up. I think I have killed off all of my spare time with these games. R.I.P., spare time.

I also have a new power cord for my Mac. It does not make me think it will catch fire by using it, so this is a nice upgrade. As for my PC, I started to change out its hard drive last night, but I couldn't do it. No, literally; I flipped it over, started unscrewing things, realized I was about one step away from total confusion, and put it back together without making a single change. Now I have an 80 GB hard drive on my hands. But I was smart! I bought a case to house whichever hard drive I ended up not using, so I could have an external hard drive. But when it came to putting it together, I couldn't get that to work, either. The drive just wouldn't stay put with the housing. So that sucks.

As do gas prices. I just filled up my car. I think I felt the sting less than others, though; I wound up getting 330 miles out of 9 gallons. 37 MPG? Not bad, little Kia.

Finally, I went and saw Hot Fuzz the other night. I cannot remember the last time I went out to a movie theater, but I think Wendy can. It was totally worth it. Those guys are awesome.

More coffee blogging

This time around, I am at Panera Bread. It's more of a restaurant than a coffee shop, but as coffee and bagels are available, I only feel a little weird hauling out the laptop. I ordered an iced green tea, an Asian salad, and a side of (what else?) bread. Actual bread. French. It was pretty good.

The internet is a little sluggish here, but not as bad as at Water Street.

I think I might vote today. I don't really know who to vote for, but there's a millage proposal for the local developmentally disabled school that I want to pass. Other than that, no real plans for the day; I love my weekend. Even if it is all weird like.

Stupid font... Copy & paste have failed me!

I'm writing this on Monday, May 7, at about 7:30 am. It won't get posted until later, though; damn this internet deprivation! My neighbor really needs to get his/her act together, so I can mooch once more.

Anyway, this morning at work, I found myself in a supremely weird position, where two of my most deeply ingrained social tendencies clashed. It seems that one of the myriad devices we use at the lab was acting up, and made a beeping noise that served no real purpose, except to remind me of the old video game "Wolfenstein 3D". You may remember it; it consisted almost exclusively of killing Nazis. So I mentioned this fact to the girl working next to me, who responded in a way that nothing in my (or, I imagine, anyone else's) life could have prepared me for: "You know, I'm three quarters Nazi."

Do I apologize at this point? What's the protocol here?

I did manage to wiggle through the only loophole I could find, and it was a bit of a tight fit. I asked her, "So what's your fourth grandparent?"

"Polish", came her reply. I don't know why, exactly, but I felt a profound sense of relief at that point. I think because I had negotiated the only dodge available to me, and it was an amazing feat for me especially, since I am so horribly socially awkward. I think that worked in my favor; being so bad at nice, normal situations has made me good at the completely unprecedented.

Speaking of work, last night was by far the best night I've had in the lab since I signed on to third shift. I've been sleeping better during the day, there wasn't much work around the lab, and (here's the kicker) instead of two lab assistants during the night, we had three! This is a major coup. Normally, one lab assistant will do phlebotomy (da daaa, da dada), while the other fields phone calls, organizes specimens, and generally acts as a middleman/beaurocrat/buffer between nurses and the lab techs (who actually run the tests). Of course, when one person goes on break, the other has to pick up the slack, and delays set in, and all is shot to hell. With three people, last night ran smooth as silk. It was a trial run; the bosses wanted to see whether making this a permanent thing would be a good idea. I will report back to them that I don't want to live in a world where we only have two lab assistants overnight. I don't think I'll be overstating the benefit.

Coffee blogging.

Here I am at the Water Street Coffee Joint. I'm using their internet to check on some things, and of course bring my all-important thoughts to you. Here they are.

The coffee here is overpriced, even by coffee shop standards. The internet, on the other hand, is sufficiently slow that I am now getting bored with websites before they even load. This is not a desirable state of affairs. I think I will switch back to the Rocket Star Cafe, where there is less overpriced coffee, and a smoking room in the back. But I might take a little tour of wifi-enabled coffee shops in Kalamazoo; expect future updates.

I've been reading more in this damn Goedel, Escher, Bach book. I'm sucked in. I can't help it. It is mostly about "recursive loops", that is, definitions of things that include the things they are defining. A mathematical example: G(n) = n-G(n-1) for n>0. G(0) = 0. So the first few terms of this are: 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4... etc. Not very interesting, but you see how it includes itself.

A verbal example is Hofstadter's Law (the book was written by Hofstadter, so he gets to make up a law): "It always takes longer than you think, even when you take Hofstadter's Law into account." Obviously, this is a crap law; look at the rules surrounding pizza delivery. But it's another example, and that's all I wanted. So when I say that this book is, in some aspect, about itself, it's kind of funny but also profoundly true. Cuz I said, that's why.

I should write a book. I can't actually write a book, but I want to, because I want to make a Law. I think I'll call it, "Not The Law That It Is", but the title might need some work. Also I'd need a law. Yay! Most flawed plan ever!

Hanging out... with my parents.

Good and bad, I guess. On the one hand, I'm hanging out with my parents. On the other, my mom has the exact power cord that will end my Mac power woes.

It doesn't work, but at least I know what the part number is, and have ordered it from the online. It will arrive in the near future, is my hope.

A story came on the local news about porn, and it upset me because it was a story on the local news. Also, because they trotted out "porn addicts" and a church where they could "recover". Yes! Finally! Someone has come up with a cure for wanting to see people naked! Hooray! No sex for anyone ever again! Exclamation point!

Mom's take on the subject was, "As long as kids aren't looking at it". In my own political way, I failed to mention that she has a quilt proudly displayed in her living room which is covered in boobs. I don't even notice it anymore, really. There is also a book in this house entitled, simply, "Naked babies". I guess babies aren't people.

Well, I'm going to stay here a little longer, since you can't beat the price for food and rent, but I'm kinda glad I have to be back at work Thursday night. Nothing like a visit with the folks to make you appreciate not living with your folks.