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Latest Neflix: Dr. Strangelove (or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb) Kubrick’s satiric masterpiece, aided by Peter Sellers (a.k.a. Inspector Clouseau), George C Scott, and the unforgettable Slim Pickins, the movie delights and terrifies. Though we face a world fraught with terrorism and uncertainty, this movie is a window into the time of Mutually Assured Destruction, when the only certainty was the concept of global annihilation in 30 minutes or less. ...

The process chronicles, day 27: Perhaps the most preposterous thing in our overworked, self-involved world is going to work and being told not to work, but that’s where we are. After three meetings today, each resembling a ’talking to’ from a teacher to a relucant, whiny pupil, my manager rolled-over and said, “My people won’t do the work you promised them they could do? SATISFIED?!” I feel let-down. It’s not that I don’t have other stuff to do; rather, it’s that for once it seemed we had opportunity and approval to do things “The Right Way”. Seemed a *little* too good to be true, and it is. ...

A story for all you frappuchino lovers

You know what jealousy is? It’s walking up to your truck and two spots down from you, you see one of these puppies: I love working here, but I hate working here, because someone has this sexy beast and I don’t. It’s a Caddy CTS-V. Basically, it’s a somewhat sporty rear-wheel-drive Cadillac sedan, with the engine, transmission, and brakes from a Corvette Z06. 348 cubic inches, producing 400 horespower. ...

Best euphemism I’ve ever heard for being blessed with many children: “overrun with nose-miners”. * * * I’ve felt awful all morning, but after the torrential rain passed-through and I took 2 Advil, I’m feeling better. I have a brand new picture pasted to my office wall to the right of my cubicle: *** I feel a wave of relaxation and good feeling coming over me today; three of us on the team are doing neat things with our code, and we’re doing them “The right way”. No shortcuts, no hacks, just right. Let’s see how long that lasts. ...

MINI Cabrio ad: “Immer offen” is German for “Always Open”. Driving home the other day, I really could see owning one of these little girly beasts. I’ve never thought of the MINI as girly (though I’ve often thought of the similar New Beetle that way). It’s not bulbous or effeminate; rather, it’s curvy in front but squared-off, well proportioned, and hunkered-down. Whereas a New Beetle looks ready to roll over, pod-like, when it’s turning, a MINI just looks hunkered-down. One of these would be even moreso. ...

LOL…Aeron, the Cadillac of chairs:

Sleepy, tired, sleepy, and HUNGRY…gaa… Got up this morning at 6, promptly reset my alarm for 7, snoozed ’til 7:09, and was utterly famished from then until I’d consumed 16oz of Sumatran, 2 Blueberry non-frosted PopTarts, and a sausage/egg/cheese biscuit from Burger King. No idea why I was so ravenouse; maybe because I only ate leftovers and granola last night for dinner.

Can’t (or won’t) sleep….

According to the SelectSmart.com Belief System Selector, my #1 belief match is CONSERVATIVE CHRISTIAN/PROTESTANT. What do you believe? Visit SelectSmart.com/RELIGION LOL…some probably won’t believe the above, as I’m an old-earth creationist, which is sufficient heresy, I suppose. my (modified) Creed: I believe the Earth is millions, or possibly billions, of years old. Do I find that this challenges my Christianity or my faith in God? Not a bit. Even in the fossil record, humans have only come about in the last 10,000 years, which jives with Genesis nicely. Even the most jaded scientist will admit that. ...

Getting more than a little pic-heavy here, but pics of formula1 Schumacher won, of course, but the drive from Takuma Sato was truly inspiring. In his Honda-powered machine, he passed more cars than the rest of the field combined (or so it seemed).

“Put your hand on my boob and shut up” Quote for the day :-D * * * Heading for Indianapolis for the Formula 1 race tomorrow @ 6.

Tampa Bay, day 2. After deciding that we had to have a rental car, I rented a Mitsubishi Lanzer OZ Rally Edition from Thrifty: It’s red w/a spoiler, and looks for all the world like an Evolution 8, but with none of the engine, suspension, chassis, and 4wd tweaks. Still, it’s been an unexpected pleasure, with a smooth ride, good steering, and great brakes. However, it’s an automatic, and the engine + tranny combo is just not up to moving the car; I find myself in 3rd gear under all circumstances except freeway, and 2nd in many situations on the street. ...

It’s said the bloggers are so compulsive that they’ll blog in the middle of the night, at people’s houses during dinner parties, and on their vacation. Well, count me in. This is Day 1 in Tampa, and here’s my report. We awoke yesterday at 6 to make it to SDF by our 9:45 flight. We found ourselves on a “Delta Connection” flight on a Canadair regional jet from Louisville to Cincy. Total flight time: 22 minutes. Seems kinda wasteful, really, when there’s a Southwest Airlines flight from Louisville direct to Tampa twice a day. But oh well. :-) ...

Exercise reports: Jogged most of the way around the site today, finally slowing to a cooldown walk when I was 100 yards from my building. Felt just awesome! I didn’t go fast at all, but the equilibrium I felt moving, sweating, pumping, breathing was nice. Didn’t overdo, and treated myself to some nummy protein–Double w/cheese from Wendy’s–afterwards. I’ll probably be sore, but I’m trying to develop a good habit of jogging M-W-F. Definitely wanting to lose some weight and get back into the shape I was in 1999-2000, when I was cycling 10 miles a day and running for 50 minutes at a time. Hard to believe, looking at me now :-)

Key learning from my 45-minute ordeal putting my contacts in this morning: It helps a great deal to aim for the spot just below your iris and then blink the contact into place once it’s actually on your eyeball. I must’ve dropped/wrinkled/turned inside-out both my contacts at least a dozen times before this (rather obvious) technique came to me. I remember Whitney doing it with her gas-perms, so that reminded me. ...

Said goodbye to an old, dear friend just now. He’s not dead, just excommunicated. Kinda sad that we humans must be that way sometimes, but as adults we must know our boundries, our circles of influence, of friends, and of love. And certain people must be excluded from them for us to survive. Know that I miss this guy, world; I have since the day of our falling-out. (Well, really the year of our falling out, as it ’twas a long spiral of mutual loathing…). But I had a friend once, a person who knew all my secrets, possibly too many for one not bound to me by blood or covenant. And such was my personal downfall, the end of our friendship. ...

Okay, addendum to the below: could my ears be ANY bigger? Big nose, big ears, head like a watermelon….dude! Yeah, not big on self-portraits….

“Stay tuned for a message from the big, giant head…” (apologies for a not-so-bright look on my face and severe 5 o’clock shadow) Today was the first time since I was in 3rd grade that I’ve been able to see my own face in a mirror without eyeglasses. It was a really, really altering experience. I went to the optometrist at 3, and he put two of the daily-wear soft contacts in my eye and then told me to go sit in the waiting room for 15 minutes. They didn’t hurt, but I got a weird headache immediately. I figured-out what it was: Unused to having peripheral vision, my mind was trying to process much more information than I was used to. ...

The blogging is going to be pretty random today…my brain is mush and even coffee isn’t helping. First of all, thank you all for your well-wishes and prayers; Norie is set to go home from the hospital today. She had a successful operation to clear her lungs of blood late Friday night, and spent Saturday and Sunday in the CCTVU, whatever that is, is St. Joseph’s hospital. Mom’s H-P Laptop (yeah, i know…how could she get an H-P!) has had a hard drive meltdown, so I shipped her home my old (but still rather speedy) 866Mhz Pentium 3 Dell tower w/its 19" monitor. :-) ...