Full Belly, Empty Mind

Good day at work. Belly full of tiramisu. Got new windshield. Heavy cream interfering with cognitive abilities...

So, I guess I'll talk about the big idea I had last week. I haven't really gotten it refined, but I figure I'd better post before the milk fat erases it from my mind altogether. The thought is a group vacation out of state with a bunch of friends to hang out and play games, sort of a family reunion, but without the family.

There are two main variations on this idea. One is that we all go camping together at a campground. We all have our tents and we get spots near a shelter where we can play lots of board games and hang out. We can also get out for hikes and whatnot. This would probably mean waiting until next summer, which would give us plenty of time to coordinate.

The second variation on this idea is that we all get together and either rent a condo/house/lodge somewhere or go to someone's relatives' big house, and everyone stays together in the house and plays games and cooks and eats and et ceteras. My idea would be to get a beach house in the Pacific Northwest in the late Fall/early Winter so while it storms outside we can play board games, hang out and eat until our stomachs burst.

Does this appeal to any of ya'll? Lemme know what you think. If enough people show interest, I can start making inquiries about places to have this. It might even be fun to leave the country to really make it a Trip, even if it is just to Canada or Mexico. Weigh in!

Work, Windshields, Peaches, Firemen, and Small Motels

Work was much better today. Thanks to all who have been praying. I wasn't zipping along, but I was moving faster and pretty much everything made sense. I didn't get done in time to go down to Aspen Grove's office for a website meeting, but I did make it out in time to drive over to Plastic Chapel and score a couple more MARS-1 Invisible Plan figures, getting a pineapple head thing and a tentacled-cubish thing. Not the ones I truly want from the series, but all of them are interesting and well-detailed.

The reason I was able to drive straight to Plastic Chapel was that I had brought my car in to get the windshield fixed. I had scheduled an appointment for today, so I drove to work so they could monkey around with it in the parking lot. Also, it allowed me to bring in peach pie for the working masses, which was quite good. Unfortunately, they at first thought I was in Boulder, rather than at the corner of 16th and Boulder. Then, once they got that sorted out, they thought they were fixing a chip rather than replacing a windshield. But they're giving me a discount and doing it tomorrow.

Since I will have to drive in tomorrow as well, I figured I might as well make my peach brandy tiramisu. Unfortunately, as I was cooking dinner the power went out, but only in the kitchen half of my apartment. I peeked out into the hall and the lights were mostly on there, but in the stairwell the emergency lights were on. I am forced to admit that one advantage of cooking with gas is that it stays on in a blackout. I found that there were pockets of darkness here and there throughout the building and an alarming burning smell in the stairwell. Someone said that the firemen had been there earlier, but had left. Presumably they had come to get someone out of the elevator. Then my power came back on and the burning smell cleared, but the firemen then reappeared in full gear and pulling hoses. There were two ladder trucks and two engines all out in the street lights flashing.

I decided to take a break from the excitement and go pick up some peach brandy for the tiramisu. Unfortunately the liquor store around the corner didn't have it, so I walked up a few blocks to another on Broadway. I haven't done much walking around here after dark, but it is interesting what businesses jump out at night that were nigh-invisible during the day. On Broadway between 11th and 12th there are two motels that I had never noticed before.

I don't know how peculiar this is to Colorado, but I am struck by how many small motels there are in Denver. In Orlando, I can't recall seeing anything that wasn't a national chain or charging $150+ a night. In Portland I can remember only one prominently sleazy hotel in the Capitol Hill area, but here in Denver, small motels of questionable repute are everywhere. Where I used to live further south on Broadway, there was the Red Pine Motel, there's another few I see down in Littleton, and there are these here on upper Broadway. I know I've seen more around. Why are there so many small motels here? You would think that they'd largely be pushed out by national chains. Is there more of a poorer clientele here that stays in them? Is it the ski season that keeps them in business? Anyone got an answer or a guess?

Speaking of answers and guesses, I'll remind ya'll that the code challenge is still out there and up for grabs. No correct answers yet, so sharpen your minds and your pencils and take a whack at it.

And now I must wait until I can eat my tiramisu.

And That Was Tuesday

Well, I just finished making a peach pie from peaches David brought back from the Grand Junction area. This holds a bit of significance for me, because my great grandfather grew peaches in Grand Junction. I was told I could take peaches, as long as I made them into a pie. I did this, and will probably grab some more to make peach brandy tiramisu. If it is half as good as the tragically discontinued peach tiramisu at Assagio's, I will be happy.

I played some sand volleyball at Renovation tonight and redeemed myself from my miserable showing last time we did volleyball. That felt good, and my team won both games. Work was tough today, but frustration was kept in check. Thank you again, all who are praying for me. It's still taking me longer than I or my bosses would like, but I am getting it eventually.

Phrasebook

Overheard phrase that makes me giggle, even though I am almost 30: "penalogical interest."
Overheard phrase that makes my fists clench and summons the desire to beat someone senseless (especially because it was repeated twice in a row while climbing into an Escalade): "I need bling bling for my Hummer."
Phrase useful for dealing with code libraries, exclusion files, and broken class inheritance: "Yeeearrrrgggh!"

180

What a momentous day.

Last night I had a good time at Jill and Dean's house. They threw a little BBQ to celebrate Jill, Tirzah, Isaac, and me all having birthdays at generally the same time. We had all sorts of good food (oh, corn on the cob, I have missed you!) and played Apples to Apples. Good times.

But that's not the momentous day. That's today. I slept in until 9, then I decided sort of spur of the moment to go for a bike ride. I ride north on the Platte River trail every day I commute. However, I had never been north of my turn off, so I decided to do a little exploring and see where the northern part of the trail ends up. It was a pretty good ride up, quickly falling into a heavy industrial landscape. I rode past garbage facilities, scrap metal processors, sewage treatment plants, power plants, a dog food factory (or so it smelled), stockyards, and the former home of a business called Pieces of Eight. Once I passed under I-76 I stopped to see where the heck I was. I had only planned on doing a little exploring, but now I saw I was about a half hour or so from the end of the trail at a park on the other side of 104th. Since I thought I was just doing a little exploring, I hadn't brought any water with me, but I figured I could fill up at the park. It seemed a shame to come so close to the end and turn back, so I kept on pedaling along. I was rewarded with much more rural scenery and the river by my side. Of course, I now knew what was in that river, but it was nice nonetheless.

I made the park and looked around for a drinking fountain or spigot. Nada. There is no water on the trail north of Confluence Park. So it was a rather dry, desperate ride back until I finally passed a gas station and chugged a bottle of water. I also realized I had forgotten to put on any sunscreen, so I was booking it home. It was a fun ride, and I didn't even get tired until the home stretch up Cherry Creek. I figure it was around 30 miles round trip. Not bad for a morning's exploration.

Later on, I made my way to the Plastic Chapel and finally scored a couple of MARS-1 Invisible Plan figures. I had originally planned on getting more, but the money on my gift card had gone elsewhere in the intervening days. I now have a tree-like thing and pair of little Martian gremlin tentacle things. Keen! I will have to get some more.

Then Gavin called and asked if I could come pick him up, as his car was losing an alarming amount of coolant and tending to overheat. I said sure, and made my way over to pick him up so he could get their other car. Did I mention he was in Copper up in the mountains? I had actually been toying with the idea of a mountain drive today, so I was glad to make the trip and help him out. Hee. It's fun to have a car that can go fast in the mountains.

I got home and went to Kokorro to try their teriyaki in my endless quest to find teriyaki as good as that back in Tigard at my beloved House of Teriyaki (a.k.a. Jesus Loves Teriyaki). This was probably the best teriyaki I've had in Denver, but not quite up to the House of Teriyaki's standard.

I came home and went to the basement to get my mail and something sweet from the laundry room's vending machine. Now I know why you should never get chocolate from that machine. It's rather warm in there. I regularly break a sweat doing laundry. Most of the chocolate from my Oh Henry was on the wrapper. But what was this in the mail? Goodness gracious! It's a package from Cake! It finally came!

Now for our Moment of Irony. Yesterday was 12 weeks to the day after Cake reported getting the CDs in their distribution center. Thursday was the day I sent a cranky email to the distributor. Today was the day I got a response email. But now I am listening to my CD with the scratch-n-sniff cover. Glee!

See? Momentous!

29

What a miserable day.

Well, the burger at Mead St. Station was excellent, but aside from that? Awful.

What's the Big Idea?

Bonus Post! Bonus Post! Yay!

I'm working on a Big Idea. Well, it's not that big really (no saving African orphans, reversing polar ice melt, making millions of dollars, or changing the way the world works) but in my own personal scope, it's big. Anyway, I guess this is just a teaser post. I'm going to develop the idea some more before I put it out there, but if you like games, you should be excited. If you don't, you should be ashamed. Really! What were you thinking!

Concerted Effort

Poor Fountains of Wayne. They looked so tired. I wanted to get up there on stage and pop a Vivarin between their pale thin lips, or maybe pour them some milk and send them to bed. Perhaps it was the fact that they looked older than I had imagined, but they look ragged and worn out. The guy on the second guitar was way out of it on something too, but still they sounded pretty good and they played "Radiation Vibe" and "Hey Julie", which made me happy, but no "Red Dragon Tatoo" or "Denise." Ah well. It was fun to see them. I haven't been to a concert in ages.

Crowded House was looking much more energetic and dapper. Nick Seymour was in a white suit and yellow tie, which is good, because if he wore a black suit and red tie he'd look like the guy from the Hitman game. They put on a good show, but I didn't recognize many of the songs and my legs and back were killing me, so I ducked out early. As I was leaving I walked past the front man from Fountains of Wayne. All I could come up with in that split second of recognition was "I love the band!" and he said "Thanks" and that was it. I should have lines prepared for occasions like this. Heck, I've been in the bathroom with Zachary Quinto and Jamie Bamber, though not at the same time. And I didn't talk to them either, because, well, we were in the bathroom, and that'd just be weird.

I should also mention that Liam Finn, son of one of the guys in Crowded House opened. He was pretty good, doing everything in loops so he could play whole songs by himself. The guy's got energy. At one point, he was playing the drums and lost a drumstrick and he kept on playing for a while trying to use his hand. That didn't work so well, so he finally retrieved the errant stick. Some good tunes, and he used a theremin, to boot.

Anyway, it was fun to go to this concert, and I can't wait for the Monolith Festival and Cake, The Decemberists, and Clap Your Hands, Say Yeah. Because there, I get to sit.

How'd You Like to do These Windows?

Okay, someone needs to sit these folks down and read them the story of the Tower of Babylon or have them watch Metropolis. They even have an anime version, which seeing as this is a Japanese proposal would be perfect. There are reasons not to build smart buildings larger than mountains. This story came to me courtesy of the amazing Geekologie.

Tonight I was at the Adobe Users' Group Meeting about the ColdFusion 8 release, so I had occasion to ride home in the dark, and it was hotter and drier than I would have thought. I did get to pay my respects to the night heron again, though.

Satisfaction

Oh yeah. Oh. That, that right there is what I am talkin' about. That feels good. I haven't felt this good in quite a while. What I am talking about is the satisfaction of a job well done, of pulling off something difficult, of doing a good job at work. It's nice to feel smart again. Thank you Jesus, and thank you to all of you who have been praying for me. Tonight I built a little Flash application I'm calling Spelunker that can navigate around inside larger applications and give you a look at how they work. Frankly, it's a hacking tool, but a good and benevolent one. It allowed me to solve a problem at work that we'd been looking at for a while. This may in turn grease the way for a rather big deal for us, and on top of that will allow us to build some pretty cool apps that interact with the larger app in nifty ways. Man, it feels good to have something like that work, and without hours of frustration.

This comes on the heels of finally figuring out a bug in one of my personal projects that had been stymieing me for a while and scaring me off from working on it. That's one headache down. And I need to be on my A game, because tomorrow I'm going to be starting work on the first major project I'm leading. Keep those prayers coming!

The bad news is that I have fallen into NetHack again. For those of you unfamiliar with NetHack, it's one of the best little roleplaying games ever, despite the fact it has no graphics. It's one of those games where they thought of everything, and I mean everything. It's also one of the hardest RPGs you'll ever play. If you die, that's it. You're done. Your saved game for that character gets erased (unless you cheat). But it's a very rewarding game when you uncover all the nuances they worked into it, and it's an accomplishment to beat it without cheating. It's an addictive game, too, but I figure this is staving off me sinking $350 and more time and money into a console. For now, at least.

Pie. Pie? Pie pie pie pie Pie pie. Pie? PIE!

Well. No one died of clogged arteries or heart attacks. Yet. So I guess the Apiecalypse was a success. There were many, many pies. Isaac alone brought five. Good night, man! Well, I guess Elsa made one of them and sent it along because Bekah was sick, but still! We had 13 pies total, more than one per person. Here's the roster:

• Avocado Pie
• Black Bean Pecan Pie
• Fiesta Pie
• Mint Pie
• Modified Hamburg Pie
• Night Vision Pie
• Pear Ginger Pie
• Shepherd Pie Remixes (2)
• Sweet Potato Pies (2)
• Upside Down Apple Caramel Pie
• Vinegar Pie

We played Cranium Pop 5 (which arrived an hour and a half before the party) and Taboo, and had a fantastic time. There are plenty of pictures from the Apiecalypse, so you poor folks who couldn't make it can take time out from weeping and gnashing your teeth to check out the pictures so you can know precisely what you are mourning not taking part in. It's all in the gallery. You know the drill.

Cypher

Hey look, bonus post and a contest!

So, further showing what an utter nerd I am, I've come up with a little cypher. It was an idea for a code that popped into my head the other day. I tell you what. I'll give $15 to the first code breaker who e-mails me the message hidden in the cypher text below. Please don't post it in the comments. I'll announce when there is a winner. The only hint I'll give is that this will be easier for people who live where I do. So without further ado, here is the cypher text:

"His teeth shine as if he had applied bleach and Crest on every pearly white tooth. She looks at him, her candidate, working the crowd, and she longs to see him and other liberals storm the Senate and decorate it like a medieval castle with the heads of their foes on metaphorical pikes. That'd send the message that the Democrats are in charge and changing everything. Let Republicans like Chuck Hagel and Olympia Snow mass their funds and rally their support, because they'll need it against a charismatic juggernaut like her candidate. She looks at him awash in golden sunshine on the high platform in front of the capitol building. He radiates charm and confidence. The incumbent will fall like chaff before her challenger. She smiles."

Rassafrassa

So I sped off from work a bit earlier than normal. I had seen that my order from Amazon was out for delivery today, so I figured if I could get home early enough, I could catch one of the office staff before they left for the day. In addition, if I was leaving early, I could make it over to the Plastic Chapel before they closed and pick up some of the MARS-1 Invisible Plan line. Bonus.

So I hustled it home, had my chain come off, fixed it, and then hustled to the office. A person was there, but so was a swarm of missed delivery notices stuck to the door. I found out that the office folks had not taken delivery of the packages because they were on a conference call. I gritted my teeth, but told myself that there was tomorrow. I am planning on coming home very early tomorrow to get my next two pies done before the Apiecalypse, so I could pick it up then and have Cranium Pop 5 for everyone. No worries.

So, then I hustled it over to the Plastic Chapel. I had called ahead of time to see if they indeed had the figures, since last time I tried the guy said they had some on order. There was no answer and it went straight to voicemail, so I figured they were on the phone. I headed on over and got there 10 minutes before closing. I ran across Colfax (scary) to the store, only to be told they didn't have it, and didn't have any on order. I left pretty quickly, a bit steamed. Then I made the mistake of trying to cut south to avoid traffic on 13th. Don't do this if you're on east Colfax. Just don't. Most of the streets dead end below 11th and York was closed for construction, which funneled me back up to 12th, which ended up with me in Cheesman Park, and I had to wend my way through that to 8th. All this on top of each other, disappointment and traffic frustration, had me pretty peeved. So I forgot that I was supposed to go pick up party supplies. :P. I let myself cool off before I went out on that excursion.

But pies were made, placards printed and cut out, furniture rearranged, and dishes cleaned. This party is earning me plenty of XP on ChoreWars. Whoo yeah. I'm a nerd.

The Apiecalypse is Nigh

I made some of the placards for the Apiecalypse tonight. I cleaned quite a bit, too. Tomorrow I will make pies 1 and 2, and on Friday I'll try to get home early so I can make pies 3 and 4 before everyone shows up. Right now, I believe we will have one pie per person. I hope everyone is hungry!

I have ordered Cranium Pop 5 from Amazon, and it may arrive tomorrow or Friday, or not until the 20th. I would be incredibly grumpy if that was the case, as the main reason I was buying the game was for the Apiecalypse. According to the UPS package tracking, it is somewhere between here and Illinois, which is the same as it said last night. And while we're on the subject, STILL no Cake CD, even after 2 months. I believe the shipping for their store says 6-9 weeks for delivery, so they get one more week before I start busting heads.

Slurry

So, let's recap, shall we?

1. Flex still sucks, but I must admit it is not all Flex's fault. I had been spending a good while over the course of several days working on a custom video playhead slider thingy, because Flex doesn't have any real video control components. You can see my post on my other blog (yes! another one!) if you want more of the technical details. Anyway, today as I was getting help from John with some trickiness with the different mouse events Flex offers (or rather, doesn't offer) than Flash, he pointed me to the already existing HSlider component. HSlider. Hrm. Hadn't thought to look for that name. So, pretty much, that was a lot of work down the crapper, though I guess I have a better understanding of some of how Flex's twisted, dark heart works.
2. There are lots of thorns out there. I pulled two out of my front tire today. Thankfully, both tires have slime tubes in them, so the damage was mitigated to just lower air pressure. But where the heck do these thorns come from? And why are they falling on the ground and getting embedded in my tires. Does anyone know? Is it the acacias? Is it them? I'll kick their rear ends!
3. I got caught in a rainstorm halfway home today. This is my first drenching of the year. I paused under an overpass and put on my jacket, but as I rode home water gushing from storm drains sluiced over my feet. It was warm and a bit slimy. Eww. Ick.
4. The Apiecalypse is nigh!
5. I went to the post office today and shipped off a package to Corrie and my old Florida plates to Earl K. Wood. Maybe they'll stop pestering me about registration and insurance now. I guess telling one department doesn't get the word passed around to the others.
6. Those of you suffering from Harry Potter withdrawal or just looking for a good webcomic to read should check out Gunnerkrigg Court.

Oh Yeah

Oh yeah, that's what I was going to post about! I have pictures from the hike up Mount Elbert up in my gallery. I didn't take quite as many, cuz I was hurting, and those I did take weren't so hot due to the flat light of a nigh-cloudless day, but man, what a view!

Wait. Uh. ... Huh.

Hmm, I thought I had something to write about, but I guess not. I saw the Simpsons movie today, which was pretty good; just a long episode with better animation. I could have done without being kicked in the head several times by the kid behind me or his mother talking on the cell phone during the movie, though. The rest of the day, including church, was spent being irritated by the sunburn I found on Mount Elbert. I should have left it there. I mean, I'm burned in places I've never been burned before. Ugh. Thank goodness for Solarcaine.

The Apex! The Top! The Summit! The Pain!

I climbed the highest mountain in Colorado today. What did you do? Yeah? Uh huh. Uh huh. Interesting. Okay, so Mount Elbert is the highest mountain in Colorado at 14,433 feet and our trailhead was at 10,040, making for about 4,400 feet in elevation gain (there was a little up and down). At 4.5 miles long one way, that makes for approximately 1,000 feet of elevation change for every mile hiked. So that's 9 miles hiked and 8,800 feet of elevation changes. This is what for Coloradans do for fun. What's worse, we were passed by two people running it. Let's say that again. They were running up and down the mountain. For 9 miles. And 8,800 feet of elevation changes. With no oxygen. Man, there are some psychos here. Of course, I wish I could do that, but even if I could, I wouldn't. I mean, man, that's crazy.

It was a bit of a grind for me today. I was feeling more underpowered than I did on Bierstadt, and it took me quite a while to crawl to the summit. Thankfully the 4 ibuprofen I took today seemed to mitigate the worse effects of the altitude. I currently am not nursing a pounding headache, and only my feet are screaming for mercy. I think this will do it for me for the summer.

Now some cheeky people out there may note that Mt. Elbert is a Class 1 hike, and that Mt. Bierstadt was a Class 2. Lemme tell you, that doesn't make a difference. Elbert was much more difficult than Bierstadt, both do to the length and a stretch of trail that I like to refer to as the Butt Kicker. It's a stretch of less that a mile, but really, really steep and treacherous and disappointingly lacking in oxygen. It was a pain both going up and down, but for once, the downhill was actually better than the uphill.

So let's see, we met at Centennial at 5:30 AM. Yeah, really. We started hiking around 9, summited around 1, and made it back down to the car by, oh look, 5:30 PM. I just got home around 8:30. I should mention that of our group, Jason and Dash made it back 2 hours before the last group, Ryan and Mark made it back an hour later, and Gavin, Sarah, and myself brought up the rear. Jason was the powerhouse, summiting first and getting back first, which is an honest-to-goodness miracle of God if you know his history.

I'd be interested in the story that must still be unfolding on the mountain. As we were coming down, we met a guy and then 20 minutes later his girlfriend hiking for the summit. It was about 4 o'clock and they were less than halfway there. By my calculations, if they go at a mile an hour (our pace, roughly) they'll get halfway down the mountain by the time it gets dark, assuming they spend no time on the summit. I asked the girl if she had a flashlight. Nope. It's a new moon, and they'll be hiking at least two hours under the trees. Yeah, that's going to be a loooooong evening for them.

Pictures will be coming soon (of our hike, not the unprepared evening hikers).

Out of Time

Huh. In the mail today, I received a confirmation of my change of address. The Postal Service was helpfully letting me know that more than a third of a year after I changed my address that I am officially getting my mail in Denver. Odd.

Just as odd, and much more troubling was the work order form I found on my kitchen counter when I came home the other day. It was from the building's maintenance crew saying that they had come to fix my sink, but the sink was clear. Uh. So. Uhm. If they didn't do it before, then what was that corrosive brown junk eating holes in my drain? I'm just, uh, really hoping that the folks who had fixed it before had just forgot to tell their coworkers, because otherwise that'd mean that the toxic waste pitting metal in my kitchen washed back up the drain into my sink. I'd rather not think about that.

Oh, and just in case you were wondering, I still hate Flex, but I did finally get my video associated with the control bar today. I found out what the problem was. Flex is dumb.

AS3 is a Communist Bureaucracy!

Have I mentioned lately how much I hate Flex? I really am hating Flex right now, like overturn-a -table-and-throw-it-through-a-window hating. Not only is it just my adjusting to a different way of doing things, such as not being able to create your assets and nicely store them in the application, but it is just the sheer number of steps you have to go through to do the simplest thing. Add to that opaque error messages and crapulent documentation and it's down right apoplexy inducing.

For instance, and bear with me here, cuz this is gonna be some code, in ActionScript 2 in Flash, if you wanted to pass a reference to a video player named video_mp to a controller movie clip named control_mc, you could say something like this:

control_mc.video = video_mp;

Then you could just reference control_mc's video property whenever you wanted to. Easy. However, to pass the reference in Flex, you have to have your controller have the variable registered before you can set it, then you need to make the video player bindable, and to do that you need to make your own custom class that extends the video component, then you can theoretically bind that controller to the video component. At least, that's how it should work, but I still haven't got it to work. I tried other methods, but I can't get Flex to respond to events I dispatch or anything along those lines. Thus, I am ready to overturn my desk and do some structural damage.

So if the code description above leaves you glazed over, let's set up a little metaphoreical comparison. ActionScript 2 in Flash is like America. There are rules you need to follow, but you're free to do things as you want. ActionScript 3 in Flex is like a Communist bureaucracy. Let's say there is a man named App, and App wants to cross the street. Here's how it would play out in ActionScript 2 ruled Flash land:
App: "I'd like to cross the street."
Compiler Cop: "Let's see if it's clear. Okay, it is. Go ahead, and have a nice day over there."
App: "Thanks! You, too."
App crosses the street.

Now let's take a look at what this is like in the ActionScript 3 ruled land of Flex:
App: "I'd like to cross the street."
Compiler Cop: "Am wery sorry, comrade. To cross street, you must be registered with Street Crossing Bureau."
App: "Ah. Ok. Now where is that?"
Compiler Cop: "Bureau is being at address where Street Crossing Bureau is located."
App: "Rrrright."
Several hours later at the Street Crossing Bureau:
App: "Whew! Who thought it'd be down here in this half-flooded basement marked 'Beware of the Leopard'? But I'm here. Hello, I'd like to register to cross the street."
Registration Drone: "Name?"
App: "Uh, er, my name? Or the street's name?"
Registration Drone: "I'm sorry, that's not a valid name. Name?"
App: "My name is App?"
Registration Drone: "Greetings, Comrade App. What family are you a member of?"
App: "Uh, dePlayer, but I'm not sure what my family has to do with this. I just want to cross the street."
Registration Drone: "Uh dePlayer is not a registered family name."
App: "I am a member of the dePlayer family." (clenching fists)
Registration Drone: "Comrade App dePlayer. Your family cannot register to cross the street."
App: "What? Why not?"
Registration Drone: "Your family cannot register to cross the street."
App: "Okay, so I have to join a family that can? Is that it?"
Registration Drone: "Your family cannot register to cross the street."
App: "Right."
App storms out.
Much later, at the Office of Family Reassignments and Extensions:
App: "Hmph. Imagine an office like this all hidden under a single innocent looking tool shed. Amazing. Hello, I'd like to join a family capable of being registered to cross streets."
Extension Officer: "Name?"
App: "App dePlayer."
Extension Officer: "Am quite sorry, comrade. There are being no other families you can join with your unique profile."
App: "Really."
Extension Officer: "Must be creating own family with different name. But must still be keeping your profile and everything else the same."
App: "Of course, and who do I have to kill to do that?"
Extension Officer: "No killing, comrade. Is simple."
App: "Well, that's nice for a change."
Extension Officer: "Just paperwork."
Extension Officer slides small mountain of paperwork to App.
Several days later, back at the Street Crossing Bureau:
App lurches in wildly waving a certificate.
App: "Here! Here it is you foul, abstemious, close-minded, mouth breathing satrap! After two days of forms and fainting from blood loss from papercuts, I have proof! I am now a member of the deSuperPlayer family. Read this certificate, you wretched sack of offal, and see that I can now be registered to cross the street. Ahahahahah!"
Registration Drone: "Name?"
App: "App deSuperPlayer!"
Registration Drone: "Very good, Comrade deSuperPlayer. Now please fill out this form, walk around the block, kiss a badger, then return here and wait by the yellow telephone for a phone call from a mysterious stranger in a white suit wearing a red carnation in his left lapel. When he calls, answer the phone by saying 'Bubba ate the monkfish, two fillings, and took a turn for the worse'."
App: "What?" (App's mouth hangs agape)
Registration Drone: "Next in line!"
Several months later back at the original street:
A tattered App totters into view and up to the curb. In his scarred and bloodied hand is a crumpled piece of paper.
App: "I'm here. I'm finally here. The badger mauled me. The man in the white suit took three days to call. He refused to talk to me when I answered 'Hello' by mistake. It was another week before he called again. Then we met and he sold me into white slavery under Tunisian goat herders. After countless attacks by jackals and assaults by amorous camels, I escaped barefoot across burning sands with the help of a renegade heating system repair man. But then I fell in with the drunken and narcotic-addled crew of a Portuguese herring trawler who smuggled me back here in a hold filled with decomposing fish. Then I had to return to the Street Crossing Bureau for the registration, and this time, there was a leopard. He mauled me, but succumbed to my stench. Finally, I received my registration, and now I am here."
App cries softly, like a little girl. Minutes pass.
Compiler Cop: Ahem.
App: Oh, excuse me. (App composes himself)
App: I'd like to cross the street. Please.
Compiler Cop: Wery good, comrade. You are having registration?
App: Yes! Yes, here it is!
Compiler Cop: Ah. Am wery, wery sorry, comrade. Is null reference.
App: What? What reference?
Compiler Cop: Yes. Registration is null reference. You cannot cross.
App: Null? Null?! I have it right here!
Compiler Cop: Sorry. Is null reference.
App: NULL?! You can see it right here! Right here in my hand! You can follow the trail of my blood and tears back to the office and see where I got it! I did everything I was asked to do to get this registration. It is right here, certified, in my hand!
Compiler Cop: Sorry. Is null reference.
App: Sic semper tyrannis!
App falls upon the Compiler Cop throttling him with his grimy hands. He is surrounded by other Compiler Cops who beat him into submission then cart him off to a gulag in Siberia ... which incidentally, is still on this side of the street.

Now, if you are thinking that if I spent as much time searching for solutions as I did writing this, I might have solved my problems, you may be right, but this is what is known as catharsis and is saving me from making lots of apologies and monetary reparations.

Incidentally, the good person who sold me the Dunnies sent along the right Dunny and said I could keep the one they sent by mistake. The right Dunny arrived today. That person is getting mad props from me on eBay. At least something in this world works right.

This Is It. What It Is I Do Not Know, But This Is It

So, today I taught my first class. It was just the Presenter module of the whole Connect course, and I'm teaching it tomorrow as well, but to a different group. It went pretty well, but my throat feels pretty raw now. I'm not used to talking so much.

I came home to find a package in the mail. Glee! It was the two Dunnies I had one on eBay. It was the cactus guy and ... wait a minute, that's not what I won! The person sent me the wrong Dunny. >:(. Instead of the Quetzlcoatl guy, he sent me the Aztec priest guy, which I already have. Hopefully this can be rectified quickly and to my satisfaction.

I went and watched The Bourne Ultimatum yesterday. It was fairly good. I don't think that I was really in the mood for an action movie, and all the shaky-cam footage got old pretty quickly. Then it was back home to study up for the class today. Yee. H. a.

Water Pie

So I went over to Isaac and Elsa's for a Harry Potter debriefing. Isaac made balsamic chicken, a risotto and carrots, and I made a water pie. It was ... weird. Good, too, I guess. In fact, I think the crust was my best ever. The filling was odd, though. I got the recipe from Pie of the Month. It's a Depression era recipe when people didn't have much to work with in the pie filling department, so it is a mixture of flour, sugar, water, butter, and a little seasoning, in this case nutmeg with a little ginger thrown in for variety.

When it came out of the oven, the filling had bubbled up like pizza dough on one side and was still water on the other. I kept it in the oven for a while to convince the water to evaporate, but the filling never totally gelled. It did get better after it had cooled for a while. What did gel, though, was a really odd texture, somewhat like eating playdough. It did taste pretty good, and that crust came out really well. I guess the lesson here is that if you're cooking a Depression era recipe, people back then would eat just about anything it seems.

Woot! Project Milestone!

Woot! I have now collected all the data for my parking map! The last stretch was a slice of Bannock running through the Denver Health Medical Center. This morning I made the push and finished off everything between 14th and 5th west of Acoma. It was an interesting task, especially working around Speer. One interesting stretch was up near the capital where there were a couple rows of houses, but all the houses had been converted into bail bonds stores, with one law firm in between. the really interesting thing was that some of the bail bondsmen had the Christian fish on their signs. I also passed a few abandoned buildings with homeless folks camping out inside.

So now I have to figure out how I'm going to put this all together.

Okay, Now I'm Just Terrified

I didn't think I'd miss doing dishes. I had even complained recently that I hated doing dishes, especially by hand. A few days with a stopped up drain changed my tune, or at least forced me to clarify. I hate having to do dishes. As the stacks of crusty plates and caked flatware grew, I very much wanted to do dishes. So since the Drano was doing crap for remedying my clog woes, I called the maintenance for my building and told them my plight.

"Drano? Oh, that's the worst," was the reply. They said they had some stuff that a tablespoon down the drain would take care of it. I told them they could come into my apartment and hoped for a clean drain when I got home. After my ride through the rain, I came back to a drain still full of Drano. I left for a church event, and when I came back less than 3 hours later, the drain was clean ... except for some clots of brown powdery substance clinging to the drain sides. Hmm. I wonder if that's the stuff they used?

I decided to take some caution as I washed the stuff down the drain, so I put on gloves and used a rag that I planned to throw away. Water took most of the stuff down, but there was a little that was persistent so I scrubbed away. Still there was something on the drain, so I scrubbed more, until I realized that the powder wasn't caked on the drain; it had pitted the metal. Holy Moses! What the heck is that stuff?!! In less than three hours it had eaten divots into metal. (0_O)

I've never been a fan of caustic chemicals. My chemistry lab final was hell, because I was warned that my mystery chemical I had to identify could eat away skin. (Zinc chloride, I think?). Oh sure, they serve their purpose as, uh, caustic stuff, but they need to do that stuff far away from me. How can something that can eat through metal be safe for residential use? Won't it be eating holes through the plumbing as it is flushed into the sewer? Great googly moogly! Now I'm a bit scared to use my sink for fear of residual traces of whatever demon powder they put down that drain. Heck, I'm terrified. But I did do my dishes.

Packages, Drains, and the Insensitivity of the World as a Whole

Well, I can't help but notice that I still don't have a new Cake CD in my possession. I think it is going on something like a whole month since they started sending out shipments. Lame, Cake. Very lame. So to make up for the failings of their logistical operations, I splurged in online shopping. I ordered the Decemberists' Picaresque album, an album by a Brazilian band called Forro in the Dark (whom I heard on NPR), and the game Cranium Pop 5. That's supposed to get to me in 5-9 business days. Any wagers on which shipment will get to me first? To further my chances of getting something delightful in the mail sometime soon, I won a couple of auctions on eBay for Dunny Azteca figures. I got the cactus guy and the Quetzlcoatl guy. I still have an outstanding auction on a third figure, the black and white Kraken.

Another thing I'm looking forward to is the unclogging of my kitchen sink's drain. I poured a whole bottle of Drano in there, and supposedly it was supposed to work in 15 minutes. Ha. It's not been more than 2 hours and I don't think anything is gonna happen. Now I have a sink full of toxic chemicals rather than gross water. I don't think that's a trade up. I even made a second trip to the store to get the stuff that's supposed to work on standing water clogs. No dice. Sigh. I hope I get a package in the mail soon.