Suffice to say that my upgrade of my iPhone to 2.0 has been less than smooth. What you are seeing here is my sim card extracted from my now uselsss iPhone and inserted into the nokia I was using more than a year ago. The Apple servers that activate phones are overwhelmed, and my phone, now that the software has been updated can't be acitvated. Sigh. Eventually my their servers will catch up, and I'll be able to have my phone back.
When I see something really really cool, I start to laugh. It's a strange response that is some sort of OMG that is SOOO cool. Perhaps it's a laugh instead of a gush. Whatever the reasoning, I'm laughing. I'm gushing. I would buy one of these in a hot second if they were on the market today. I read the reservation page, and was wondering if I should just go ahead and spend the $500 to get myself on the list for buying one. This is the electric car I've been looking for: http://www.aptera.com/
If you're feeling compelled to just click any old link I send you, don't do it this time.
Stop a second and think about how you feel about a bear rug. You know, the ones on the floor of the lodge that have a head at one end and look like they have done a swan dive from a 20 story building.
And of course you know that taxidermists stuff animals after they have been hunted or passed away with the idea of keeping either a trophy or the memory of that animal around.
Apparently some taxidermist has done the rug thing for family dogs and cats. The link below shows some of the finished work.
I found the images interesting and disturbing. What I found interesting was that I wouldn't have had the same reaction to the pictures if they were bears or tigers. Perhaps because dogs and cats are animals we love and grow attached to where bears and tigers are animals we fear.
Anyway, now that you have been fully warned, here's the link.
So tonight I was determined to make my own dinner (and lunch for tomorrow) and the goal was pesto chicken. I had a picture of the recipe from the super blender in my phone, and I was ready to go. I picked up the ingredients got home, and started the preparation. As I'm stripping the basil leaves off of the stalks I'm thinking to myself: this doesn't seem right. I know mint was on the shelf next to the basil, and I seem to remember the dried basil leaves that annoy me so much in chili being really smooth, and these aren't very smooth. Come to think of it, they do smell rather minty. After stripping two cups of leaves, I go to put the rubber band on the remainder, and there it is. MINT. Shite! I'm looking at the mint in the blender and thinking "Maybe it will taste ok with mint. I wonder what it will taste like. What on earth am I going to do with the REST of this mint? OH no, the mint has got to go. Ok, back to the store, buy basil this time. The rookie, now knows what mint looks like, AS WELL as basil. At the very least, he can now tell the difference.
So I'm IM'ing with a friend of mine, who is absolutely one of the best people in the world, but technology isn't her thing. She's had a cellphone on death's door for months now, and hasn't gotten around to replacing it, partially because when she went into the store the last time, the salesgeeks were more intimidating than helpful. I was busting a gut by the end of our conversation, and I had to make sure I got permission before I posted this:
7:52:53 PM ME: how is that new phone coming along? 7:53:17 PM KK: crap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I knew I was forgetting to do something. 7:53:26 PM KK: I had better go check out the at&t website 7:59:18 PM ME: LOL 7:59:50 PM ME: seriously, it's a few clicks, and a new phone comes in a box. 8:00:17 PM KK: whatever mister smarty pants. 8:00:32 PM ME: you want I should click for you? 8:00:53 PM KK: no way!! I don't want an iPhone. What the hell would I do with it? 8:01:05 PM KK: besides I'll probably get some ugly ass pink piece of crap. 8:01:11 PM KK: and I'd have to be seen with it. 8:01:24 PM ME: hee hee hee. I wasn't even being evil. :) 8:01:31 PM KK: oh. 8:01:37 PM KK: that makes it even worse now. 8:01:44 PM KK: Now I've put ideas in your head 8:02:15 PM ME: nah, you're my luddite. I can't be mean. 8:02:24 PM KK: luddite? 8:02:53 PM ME: OMG 8:03:34 PM ME: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite 8:04:07 PM ME: In recent years, the terms Luddism and Luddite or Neo-Luddism and Neo-Luddite have become synonymous with anyone who opposes the advance of technology due to the cultural and socioeconomic changes that are associated with it. 8:04:33 PM KK: well that might be me, but I won't necessarily admit it. 8:04:40 PM ME: hehehe 8:04:56 PM ME: I think it's great that you didn't recognize the word 8:05:26 PM KK: and by the way. I happen to have been able to look it up in my actual Webster dictionary and found the definition before you posted it to me. 8:05:28 PM KK: fyi 8:05:33 PM KK: :-) 8:05:42 PM ME: HA Ha HA HA HA perfect 8:06:02 PM KK: Gotta love the Web. Webster dictionary that is 8:06:23 PM ME: a luddite wouldn't use an online dictionary or wikipedia, they'd use a book. thank you for proving my point ;) 8:06:56 PM KK: crap. 8:07:02 PM ME: LOL 8:07:05 PM KK: I wasn't supposed to prove your point 8:07:40 PM ME: siiiigh. 8:07:43 PM ME: brilliant 8:07:59 PM ME: I've got a big 'ol grin on my face. thanks! :) 8:08:12 PM KK: that almost makes it worse 8:08:35 PM ME: if we were in the same room. you'd probably be hitting me by now. 8:08:38 PM KK: but glad I could put a smile on your face 8:08:45 PM KK: you have no idea.... 8:08:47 PM KK: :-)
Today my new wheels and tires came. Of course the UPS guy came in the 4 minutes that I was running the blender, and because it was delivery attempt 2 of 3 and I'll have to be at work tomorrow, I had to go pick up said wheels and tires at the UPS depot after delivery hours. So at 8:00 or so, I'm trundling my way to the UPS place out by the airport. On the way I wonder to myself: When is the last time I put gas in ol' Bessie? I'll do it on the way back. I get there on time, pick up the wheels and tires, and head back home. As I'm cruising up Hegenburger, the truck stalls, catches, stalls again. I manage to make a left turn across 3 lanes of traffic with no incident, and a right turn into a well lit shell station with no incident, and I'm able to kick the door open and push the truck to the pumps. Very Very fortunate. It turns out the guy that came along to help push needed gas to get to San Jose. It seemed right and appropriate to give him $10 for his assistance. I filled the tank and fired her up and was on my way, almost like nothing had happened. I count myself blessed that I ran out of gas within rolling distance of a gas station, and that where I ran out of gas wasn't in any of the shady neighborhoods that I had to drive through to get from the UPS depot to my house. All in all quite fortunate. And, of course, baby has new shoes! I'll try to remember to post pictures.
Cheers, Duane
PS. The side tank of the truck holds EXACTLY 15.47 gallons. Good to know. Now if the other two tanks didn't leak....
In addition to spending a fair chunk of time this weekend working, late last night there were network issues with the data center. Unfortunately a script that was supposed to be running for a very import potential customer was supposed to be running during the outage. Last night I slept between 11:30 and 1:00, 2:30 to 5:00, and from 6:30 to 9:00. There are several other reasons that today should suck too, that I won't go into. Why, because I don't want to let today suck. Here are (as dad would put it) today's roses: 8 words. tee-shirt, shorts, mini cooper, windows down, sunroof open. Also over lunch, I watched the first episode of the second season of scrubs, where Colin Hay (of Men at Work) plays Overkill acoustic. It brought quite a smile to my face.