Month: August 2005

I've bitched before about how G4 ruined The Screen Savers. It's an old topic by now. I hadn't mentioned it again, because I don't know many people who care about it, but what's going on now is really annoying me.

A few months ago, they morphed TSS into a game-oriented, poorly hosted shell of its former self (shell of a shell?) called Attack of the Show. Just one minor cast member remains and very little of interest otherwise. They're adding bizarro (usually crappy) bands as well and doing a gimmicky margarita Friday. The whole show has lost what it once was … a cool insiders guide to the world of online and computer tech. Now it's over-hyped, promoting everything and trying so hard to pass itself off as cool that it's obvious and pathetic. Continue reading “Attack of the Show”

While away this weekend, Matt and I missed most of the hubbub and preparations for Katrina. We're not much for watching the news anyhow, but Katrina interests us greatly since our good buddy Dan just finished up Law School at Tulane and sat for the Louisiana State Bar. We're anxious to hear that he's safe and not stuck in the Superdome or drinking himself silly at another hurricane party like the last go-around.

On-the-street coverage of Katrina from Flickr. Continue reading “Hurricane Katrina!!!”

This weekend we're going up to Red Feather Lake to a Campout with a bunch of people I work with. Richard owns a cabin up there and invites everyone up. We went last year and had a great time, so I'm definitely looking forward to this year. Matt and I are going to bring a futon mattress and sleep in the back of the car and we're going to take Loki and his box so we can actually get some sleep. I can't wait to see him in nature. I'm pretty certain we're going to have one happy pup on our hands.

I don't know if anyone noticed, but I added a new skin to Jesser yesterday. The new skin is called “fresh” and I drew the inspiration for it from the wrapping paper on one of my b'day gifts (rather like the background). I sort of made it though as an homage to the hubby who had nothing but girly skins to choose from on the page that is (theoretically) half his, although he (ahem) hardly ever writes on it. Well he is quite busy keeping me in line. Check out the new “fresh” skin if you're so inclined and enjoy our last few days of summer. *aaah*

My friend, Holly, who I've mentioned before, I'm sure, asked me to go to kick-boxing with her. We usually go to pottery classes on Tuesdays and kick-boxing is right before that, so after work, I met Holly at the Golden Rec Center (also where we do our pottery). The class was a lot like any other aerobics class — mostly the same moves, but the arms were vastly different … jabbing and hooking and upper-cutting and all. I'd had a frustrating day at work, so I took out some of that punching the air. Very theraputic. But at the time I really didn't think I was working out my arms that much.

Yea. I was wrong.

This morning, I ache. My arms ache, but even worse than my arms is that space between my shoulder blades. Yikes. I've taken my ibuprofen and I project that I will be feeling better in a couple of hours and even possibly lifting my arms above my head successfully.

I give kickboxing 4.5 stars on the workout scale. Fun and challenging without that monotonous thing. I think I will be back.

Last night we went to Frasca for dinner to celebrate. It was the first time we'd ever dined there and we really enjoyed the food.

We were celebrating lots. Yesterday was Kelly's first day of law school, My dad's birthday was on the 14th, mine was on the 4th and our anniversary was the 17th. Kell, Matt and I gave my dad a couple of history books, an Alton Brown book and some cooking gear. My mom got him a digital camera, a duffel bag and some other goodies.

For our anniversary, my family got us plus “Thing 1 and Thing 2” figures. They're so cute! I put them in the shelves in our retreat. We are Thing 1 and Thing 2.

My sis got me silver earrings with spirals on them, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory on DVD and yummy peach lip balm she got from Urban Outfitters. My parents got me a Le Sport Sac weekender tote, a corduroy jacket and a fleece vest from Eddie Bauer. I also got as a souvenir/b'day present a Blossom alarm clock that came all the way from San Francisco. I'm worried I'm forgetting something, but I can't think of what!! I had a very very nice elongated b'day with many many nice surprises.

I'm so lucky.

I've been using Stumble Upon for a while now. Stumble Upon is a browser add in that lets a user randomly find web pages that match certain interests. I normally use this when I'm pretty bored and can't think of anything else to do. Normally, I find a few humorous quotes or a Flash presentation, but nothing that takes a lot of time.

Tonight however, about the time I needed to go bed, I ran across a Flash game called Grow RPG by eyemaze.com. This is actually a puzzle where you have to place 8 pieces in a particular order. After each piece is laid, some of the previous pieces “GROW” based on the order in which you placed them. Once all the pieces are laid, your character attempts to fight a few creatures. You know how well you did based on far he gets before he dies.

It sounds simple, but if my math is correct, there are 40320 ways the eight pieces can be placed. It took me over an hour to solve it. I fumbled around for a bit, got frustrated, looked online for the solution, couldn't find that fast enough to suit me but did find some kid who solved in in 10 minutes. After my pride recovered, I sat down with a pen a paper and spent the next hour working it out (it would be much faster if you didn't have to watch the animations each time). It was fun but it should have started earlier than 10:30 PM.