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I had a beautiful day off. Sunshine, and lots of it. Bein's that I'm as fair as the day is long, I didn't stay out in it for too long. What bits I got were great.I had spinach gnocci for lunch with homemade sauce. I was hungry for olive oil and tomatoes, and the gnocci seemed like the perfect way to carry said olive oil and tomato to my mouth.
Come late afternoon, Ken and I decided we needed to spend some time outdoors. We went over to the East Castro to Flora and sat on the patio for awhile.
Besides cooking lunch, I'm hard pressed to think of one useful thing I did all day.
Bad work day. Up at 4:45 to get ready and be in Salinas by 8am to meet the Sprint tech that installed the equipment for the frame drop. Engineer made the link at 9am. We have T1.While i was setting up PCs, I sarted getting calls from San Jose again. �Am I the only fucking person in the organization that can handle a problem? I so glad we spent $2000 a pop sending my co-workers to Novell classes.
After trying to solve thier problems via phone and asking them to check the workstations to make sure they were OK, I headed North to see what was going on. After a half hour and no calls with reports of how the users were doing, I called them. They hadn't bothered to check out anything. I didn't bother to stop by. Drove home and turned of my mobile.
I'm sick and tired, and intend to call in sick and tired tommorow and catch up on sleep.
When I got home, I found a wonderful little green toolbox with candy tools, contractor bear stickers and candy "LEGOish" bricks in the mail. Thanks Rob & Eric. I love it.
San Jose came up well this morning, so a stayed a few hours before heading home. I popped by the Oreck store and too a look at the air cleaner I was considering. Great hardware, form factor and construction, but no smarts to back it up. I opted for a cheaper smarter Hamilton Beach 04163. Now I just have to wait for it.San Francisco work was slow and difficult. I crossed paths with Kyle on MUNI and chatted on the way home. Gen X 80's talk. Loved it.
I made myself some Ginger crispy noodle soup tonight. `bout made my eyes water. Very spicy, but not the burn your mouth off hot kind of spicy. More a make you sweat and breathe deeply kind of spicy. I think I went a little overboard on the fresh ginger this go `round and will try to thin out the broth of the leftovers.
Early morning tomorrow. Must Sleep.
Grrrr...Challenging day today. My first, and I thought only chore for today, was to go down to Salinas and babysit a contractor for a couple hours. Wrong. The guy took well over five hours to extend a frame drop from the building's main block to our mech room. �Do'h! During this hellishly long wait, I started getting frantic calls from my tech in San Jose, who was having problems with the server we worked on Saturday, and thought was fine. It seems it wasn't. After and evening of re-doing and un-doing, the server seems fine again. I sent the the tech home, and am waiting around to make sure the server is OK.
This is one of those situations it would be great to have one of those small USB SmartMedia readers, so I can take a picture of my dismal little server and post it for all to see.
Plan was to stop by Oreck, check out air cleaners, and figure out what is so special about the $150 "Silence Technology." Ummm....maybe tomorrow. Last night when I woke up hacking and coughing from this bug I've got, the air cleaner seemed more important. Less for my lungs to catch and cough up I guess.
I got a good many chores done today. Laundry first thing in the morning. Brunch with Desmond. A trip to Cliff's for screws they didn't have. A trip to StarBears for hot chocolate they did have. A motorcycle trip down to HomeDepot for said screws and a plane. StarBears again for an iced tea and company. Home to hang the spice rack, and to fix the jamming door. Vacuum up the wood shavings, and hit the rest of the house while I had the vacuum out. Cliffs again to get a metric machine screw to hold the Ikea spice rack together got an appliance lightbulb for the range too. Home to finish up the spice rack, stock it and install the light bulb in the range.Still no air cleaner.
Pic is of the sun behind the overcast sky behind Sutro Tower behind the marine layer fog behind various Castro buildings behind my window pane. They think I'm sane.
I went down to my San Jose site today and installed a SCSI raid controller and a new DLT7000 tape drive. The hardware and backup software seem to be working well, but Novell doesn't care to let them authenticate and have access to the files. They kinda need that to back the files up. (Duh)On my way home I went shopping for air cleaners now that I have an idea of what I want from shopping online. Neither Target, Walmart nor JC Penny's sell them. Sears sells maybe seven models--none of which had the features I wanted. An "auto" setting that controls the fan speed based on how dirty the air is, and better yet, an intelligent auto that will not kick up during the night while I'm usually sleeping. It also must measure less that 45" long x 15" deep x 30" high. Bonus if is gray or black.
I've pissed most of the rest of my day away--mostly tweaking my LiveJournal view. Ken & Kelly made toasted meatball subs for dinner (with homemade meatballs Ken made the other day). They were pretty kick ass.
Hmmm...Stuff I neglected last night when I was banging my head for content.
I had dinner with Leigh, who mentioned that he hadn't been mentioned in my blog all month. It seems Leigh pops by my site not to read about my activites or well being, but only to see if the word "Leigh" appears.
Ken's friend Kelly was visiting when I got home last night. She bitch smacked me and told me to make cookies. I whipped up a double batch of ButterScotch Pecan, and all was well. She graciously accepted a glass of milk with her plate of cookies, but didn't drink it. She blushes when Ken asks her if she looked at the naked pictures of me on my site. It's so cute.
From Friday Five (and on time even)
1. �What is your most prized material possession?
Tough call with the wording "prized." My Leatherman Wave pocket knife is the single most useful thing I own, and knowing nothing else, would be the first possession I would choose to have with me. I don't cherish it or think of it as a prize, nor do I show it off--`cause anyone with $60 could go out and buy one. I just don't have anything unique or cherished enough for me to consider it "prized."
2. �What item, that you currently own, have you had the longest?
I have a stuffed animal monkey by the name of Alfred in an unfinished pine cage with a carry rope. I have a memory of seeing stacks of the caged monkeys at a mall during christmas time. I was there with my Mom and I think her friend Elaine. I was about five years old and waist high to them both. I fell in love with the things in the irrational ballistic way only a five year old can. Of course I asked for one and was told "no." I shed a good many quiet, heartbroken, sad little pouty tears all the way home. It was really bustin' my Mom up. When we got home, she took me by the hand, let me back to her bedroom, and dug Alfred out from a grocery bag hidden in the dirty clothes hamper and gave him to me. Seems she had already bought me him on an earlier trip, and he was intended to be a Christmas morning present. It was all so sweet.
3. �Are you a packrat?
In some ways yes, but I do a culling every year or so and get rid of stuff. As I get older, I'm more honest with myself about what I really want, and many things that used to pile up go right to the trash. I also have maybe 200 gallons of LEGO bricks tucked cleverly away in roughneck bins, which is packrat enough.
4. �Do you prefer a spic-and-span clean house? Or is some clutter necessary to avoid the appearance of a museum?
Somewhere in between. I like everything to be in it's place (except the que of "to do" things on my desk), but I'm not always good about dusting or mopping. I've been seriously shopping for an air filter for the last week that will cut down on the dust in our flat. If you have and suggestions, please let me know.
5. �Do the rooms in your house have a theme? Or is it a mixture of knick-knacks here and there?
Up until the recent move, kitchen was hunter, cobalt, steel, pine, and the rest of the house was blue, black, white, silver pine. Kitchen is pretty much the same, but the bedroom has gone deep rich autumn colors with light pine/beech furniture. Non-LEGO knick-knacks are wooden cigar boxes; four blackend steel zunish fetishes; some plushies: Alfred, Mohair "classic" Pooh, bipedal polar bear "Papa", Yukon Cornelous, saytr Phil, and Snorlax/Kabigon; and some framed photos.
| RoadiePig asked about Wednesday's photo. None of my photos are "altered" beyond rotation to be right side up, sometimes cropping, and resampling the image to a 192 pixel wide format to fit my diary style. I'm not a photography buff, I just like to take pictures. Really, there is a difference. I think the pictures I take and choose each day convey a good deal about me and my mindset for the day. I'm almost embarrased to admit that on days that I don't want to write alot, I take fat portrait pics so I have to write less text to cover them. Today's picture is a little "tall" so I'll have to ramble on a bit. (grin) I also think I may expand on my hobbie page to include a bit about the pictures I take. I'm playing with the idea of dual posting on Live Journal. It'll take some work to backfill and populate the Live Journal, but it will let me hook in with all the bears...must be with the bears. Then I can just cut and paste every day and keep up with both worlds. I got a shipment of LEGO in today. Star Wars minis rock. Fun to build, and fun to play with. They also all fit into my coat pocket. Nothing like kicking empire ass on MUNI. |  |
After two months of living on endorphins--not having time to be sick or weak, now the stress is gone and my body is taking it's revenge. I planned on a day and a half of recovery time, and slept most of Monday and Tuesday. Seems that isn't enough. I've had a whupped/toxic/hung over feel since the run ended, no matter the sleep or water I've been giving my body every bit of I can. Now I'm coughing, sneezing, and feel like sombody has been punching me in the head and gut. Grrrr... I would just call in sick, but I don't want my co-workers to think I just partied too hard and am banging in. Grrrrr...again. �It was for charity, and I was working! Maybe a half day. Go in and do what I can, then arc out if I continue to be miserable. Another late Friday Five.
1. Explain why you started to journal/blog.
I was mindwashed by Sister Betty. I got hooked on his diary, it inspired me to write, and when he took a break from writing it was a kick in the ass for me to fill the void by starting my own.
2. Do people you interact with day to day or family members know about your journal/blog? Why or why not?
Yes. My friends, family and co-horts know about my blog, and from the feedback I get, seem to read me. I'm continously flattered that folks read my blog and look in my bedroom windows. So far as I know the folks at work don't read me, nor do I advertize to them. If anyone of them took a moment to look for me, they wouldn't have a hard time finding me or my blog. It's not a big issue for me if they do as I do my level best to be an open book, honest and shameless in my dealings with folks.
3. Do you have a theme for your journal/blog?
No theme or purpose. I just write to write. (And maybe to enhance my outrageous popularity)
4. What direction would you like to have your journal/blog go in over the next year?
One of the things my blog has forced me to do is be more up front with folks as I try not to write about things without confronting the source first. I find myself wanting to write about things, and am forced to deal with issues that I would have usually left alone.
5. Pimp five of your favorite journals/blogs.
SquirrelX is my favorite diary. It is true to life blue ridge white cracker soap opera told through a whitty, wonderful and insightful storyteller. A beautifully crafted combination of outrageous content and gifted wordsmithing. Every bit as twisty and enspelling as "Tales of the City," and would probably make a kick ass HBO series.
RoadiePig is always a good read. If I read him right, he'd be a sure pick for my "folks stranded on a desert island with" list. Hard working, resourceful, understanding, and best of all he seems to have a built-in intuitive nature about the things that are important in life. While most blogs I read are folks that are transforming or trying to work through something, RoadiePig has a calm comfortable settled feel. It's someplace I'd like to grow into.
Sister Betty was my first blog, and hits pretty close to home both geographically and psychologically. Wolf's writings about love/kindness/compassion strike a harmony with the kind of soul searching/value distilling processes I'm going through. While I'm pretty sure we'll end up finding different core values that will lead us down different paths, it's nice to know someone else is on the same journey.
Gus Mac Roich is another favorite, especially his friends page. It's like a synopsis of all the cool bears in San Franciso. If bear sub-sub cultures were likened to high school clicks, I would be the loveable geek on student council and the pep club, while these bears would be the cool kids that smoked behind the bus barn and had garage bands. I can't figure out why they all seem to like cats.
I love reading Drowning13. He's both close and far away in some dark bleary world that somehow co-exists with mine. We see the same world through very very different eyes, or maybe live in different worlds that connect in ways I don't begin to understand.
IBR 2003 is over. After making an appearance at the farewell party yesterday, I came home and crashed. I woke up at 3am and cried for awhile. Not for any of the things that went roughly this weekend, but for the shit I didn't have the time or energy to deal with at the time. I also get all teary every time I see today's picture. It seems to sum up everything that went right. I intend to get a print of it made today to sit on my desk. I would go on about specifics, but I try to uphold a "don't talk around `til you've talked with the source" policy. I prefer folks to hear things I say about `em, good or bad, from me first. With any luck I'll have everything settled in my head and heart before the de-briefing meeting so I'll be able to be logical and constructive.All that said, the event went very well. Though I've not read the oft times bitchy and gossipy backlogs of the Bear Mailing List stacked in my mailbox, I've not heard complaints yet. I also really enjoyed the show/contest/pageant this year. Probably because I booked the entertainment. (grin)
I'd like to give a big public thanks to Desmond NemoCub for all his hard work under fire in addition to the fact that since his arrival, I am no longer the "baby bear." I love you Desmond. Thank you Desmond. I'd like to thank Alan & Harry (CastroBear Presents) for ALWAYS ALWAYS doing so much behind the scenes to make things sparkly and fab. Their generosity, hard work, quick wits and patience ALWAYS blow me away. Thank you Alan & Harry. Also a thanks to Lynn Ludwig (who I'm not linking as he usually exceeds bandwidth about now) who kindly took (and will likely share) a good many red bear pics. His is a labor of love, but a labor none the less. Thank you Lynn.
IBR has started. I met Clair after work and we headed home for a nap before a night out. I popped by the Civic Center Ramada for the BOSF members meeting to pick up my registration stuff. It seems like old home week at the hotel. I got to see a good many out of town folks and do some catchin' up. Afterwards I headed into South of Market. The Lone Star was so packed I only stayed for one cigar. Lots of new and old faces. Cigar party tonight at blow buddies, but I'm going to save my energy for later n the weekend. Clair is still out and about. �Woof! I hope he paces himself. He's got a long weekend ahead of him.I'm hungry for oatmeal, and have it halfway cooked, but am wiped out enough not to finish it. Steel cut oats take a mighty long time to cook and are always best when they've sit ovenight anyway. Mmmm...oatmeal gruel for breakfast.
On the way to work this morning I saw a buxom person wearing stylish knee high two tone go-go like boots and a velvety hunter-green skirt riding her motorcycle down Castro Street in the light rain. Sometimes I think I need a quick draw camera, but mostly I just love living in San Francisco.
Busy day at work today. Darrell trimmed my whiskers right after work. The barber shop was great today. I was in the first chair, Al was in the middle and Jeff in the third. Very fun.Afterwards I went to the Edge to meet up with Jeff and John for drinks and dinner. I ran into InvisaBear Mike on the way and he wandered with. At the Edge, I finally got to meet Portland Red Mike. �Woof! I want some of that.
Speaking of RedBears, I'm having a RedBear Rendezvous at 5pm on Sunday February 16 at the Lombard Room at the Ramada Plaza Civic Center, 1231 Market St. I hope to get a repeat of the great pics Lynn Ludwig took in 2000. Well, except for the nasty picture of Pat's ass.
�D'oh! The first Google hit I've ever seen in my logs, and the search was for "ugly cupid." (Course I was second on the list �Woo Hoo!)
Still can't find me by enterin' by name, but "ugly cupid" is a start.
I was down in Salinas again today waiting on more phone people to do more prep work for the frame drop. On my 2� hour drive down, I had many profound thoughts about what I was going to spend my time writing about, then went blank when I got there. �D'oh! Luckily I popped into Walmart and bought my first new LEGO sets since my "fast" started in November, and built `em while waiting.I did my first California laundrymat tonight. Before the new/current place, I've had a washer since I moved here from West Virginia. It wasn't cheap at the coin-op, but damn, it's nice to get all my laundry done in the time it takes for one cycle + folding. Now that I see my clothes in nice bright light, I see that I need to invest in some new socks and underwear. :)
I'm getting nervous about IBR. Grrr....
drowning13 left another clue on Friday. He has blue eyes. He's become part of my mythos that something secret is hidden nearby--some thinly veiled other world. We share the same space--work in the same neighborhood and use the same trains. He lives in one of those other worlds that touches mine.I saw a thin young man with blue eyes buried in a newspaper and wondered if he was drowning. Later he started talking to himself, and that didn't seem like something drowning would do. I see drowning as being quiet and unseen. Blank ink blood, paper skin, and shadowsilk hair. Blue eyes packed away like some antique collectable toy that seems shiny and new only because it's never been out of the box.
From Friday Five.
1. What did you have for breakfast this morning? If you didn't have breakfast, why not?
No breakfast this morning-I rarely eat breakfast on weekdays.
2. What's your favorite cereal?
Steel cut oats with brown sugar and maple. My favorite store bought cereal is Lucky Charms. (oats) If I could buy `em without the marshmellow charms I would.
3. How often do you eat out? Do you want that to change?
I eat out quite a bit--mostly because many times it's cheaper (and much easier) to eat out when I'm eating by myself. I'm hoping to get some semblance of an eating surface in the new kitchen so I can cook breakfast for dates.
4. What do you plan on having for dinner tonight? Got a recipe for that?
While thinkin' last night before bed, I thought I should eat lighter and more veggies in preperation for IBR. Clean out my blood a bit, a stock up on vitamins. So probably lean meat and salady things.
5. What's your favorite restaurant? Why?
Sapporo Japanese Steakhouse. Beachside in Daytona. Japanese (not pacific islander like bene hana) hibachi dinner prepared tableside--several plates of fresh, well prepared, just off the grill food. When I was in college they had great lunch specials for less than $5USD including drink. Really good fresh food for cheap. Thats what I go for.
Hmmm...it occurs to me that this is not Friday...
Good day today. It was/is beautiful here in San Francisco. I had brunch with Doug at the Cove on last time this trip. He flew back to Indiana this afternoon, i was supposed to haul stuff from the BOSF storage locker, but wires got crossed, and I ended up sitting outside the storage facility for forty minutes waiting. Thats when I took the picture of the grain elevator.After touching base with the folks I was waiting to and finding out they were already done, I made a quick trip to IKEA. Yes, a quick trip. I am amazed at how quickly I got through there toady AND they finally had the stuff in stock I've been waiting for. Great run overall.
Thanks a great deal to the run and work today, my room is almost done--or at least as done as its going to get until I break down and replace the milk carton dresser.
I've got half a mind to go out dancing tonight, but want to keep rested up as IBR is next weekend, and being co-chair of events, I'll need every scrap of reserves I can muster.
I went down to Salinas yesterday for work, and wrote a big entry while waiting on a Sprint Tech to arrive and do a site survey to install a frame relay drop. When I was proofreading, the existing ISDN crapped out, I lost my Citrix connection, and lost the whole entry. The finickey line is the big reason we pushed for the upgrade. I was a bit miffed, but walked away happy. I wrote yesterdays entry as much for me as anybody, and I enjoyed writing it. (I even said that I enjoyed writing it in the entry.)
Hmmm...chatty tonight...Feels good to write when I'm not whupped.
I saw Duff at my third IBR meeting in as many nights tonight. He teased me that he was concerned that I always write that I'm tired. I am again tonight, and probably will be `til after IBR.I feel bad that I've been ignoring Doug all week. He extended his stay and I've not been able to spend any time with him. Meetings.
Grrr...My Palm just got finished syncing and it decided to delete over half the catagories in my address book and the folks in them too. fuck. I still have a good (though slightly incomplete) copy at work. I give up for tonight and am going to bed.
The flat panel came in unexpectedly early. Seems the 1" wasn't the only difference between the 18" and 19" models. Some differences in form factor, and no trendy anodized aluminum shell, but still much, much smaller than the old monitor. Sweet.The only thing I've got left to replace is the milk carton dresser. I'll be pricy, but I've got a good replacement in mind built out of Ikea Bonde stuff.
I've got an(other) IBR Planning meeting to go to tomorrow night, but if you can, go to Sister Betty's Ba-Da-Bingo. Even though the cunt hardly ever sends me e-mail anyore and is now Eing my roommate Ken, I still love her.
I'll get to see plenty of her at IBR Bingo next Saturday.
While I am usually a WalMart type guy, I wanted a nice quilt/bedspread to go in my new room. (The blue/black/white check of the old quilt just doesn't look right.) So on the recomendation of Marilyn, I went to Macy's where such things are on sale. I picked up a quite nice oliveish duvet cover, though no duvet yet. On the way back to the office, I noticed FAO Schwarz was closing out, and remembered Albert Eing about some good deals there. Being the LEGO addict I am, I popped in to see if there was anything good left. Get this, even though everything in the store is 30% off, the LEGOs are marked up so much to begin with that they are still more than MSRP with the 30% discount. Very sad. Cute bears in the tile. Also got some not so good pics of the LEGO cable car from the moving escalator.It suddenly occurs to me that the duvet cover at Macy's was probably equally overpriced and discounted. �D'oh!
Recently, TeknoBear was telling me about a Staph infection spreading around LA and now SF. Sister Betty also mentioned it on her site. I went to the linked SFGate article and now wonder if this was the very bug that kept me out of comission for most of December. The symptoms sound suspitiously familiar, and would explain why they had such a difficult time treating me.As sexually generous as I tend to be, I think I'll keep my dick in my pants for awhile `til this blows over, or at the very least `til the CDC/Clinics get a better handle on how it spreads and nail down an effective treatment. Scary.
Got phone hooked up today. Light shade on the ceiling light, and Doug hooked up the under the shelf lights. Many things are coming together at home. I still need to get that window covering thing licked before friends start to notice me wandering around in states of (un)dress.I broke weak and bought a 18" flat panel monitor that takes up about a quarter of the space my current 16" monitor does AND is a snappier color. Can't beat that. I didn't used to care for flat panels, but love the Dell Ultrasharps we got in at work recently, and that they were on sale for web purchasers up through today was just the kick I needed to get one.
Pic is of me tacking down carpet Thursday night.
| Bye the way, this is roommate Ken aka Monkey in the Bush. (Neither George nor W) He didn't want me to post the pictures I took of him where he looks much more monkeyish. |  |
| My roommate Ken asked my if I'd post this after seeing the cutesy picture of our roomate Erin. She's got some sorta freaky masking tape fetish. I hope she can be taught. We just have to remember she's only a young straight girl, and style takes time to learn. |  |
Moved. Sorting and nesting. Just finished building a home 100mbps ethernet network, and installed the DSL router so we're all sharin'. �Woo Hoo! Back on line.The move went well, and thanks to the help and efforts of my brother Doug, the room is painted and re-carpeted. I wouldn't have had time to do it without him.
Still have a little installin' to do in my bedroom and the kitchen. Also have to get rid of the nasty old carpet that was in my room, and some cushions and crap that the old tenants left behind. Phone tech is suppoesd to come tomorrow to install my phone.
The best thing that's happened to me in the last three days is that people kept stoppin' me on my many trips to Home Depot `cause they thought I worked there. I love that I look like a Home Depot employee in my normal clothes. I bet I could pass for a lumberjack too. ;)
GRrrr...Whupped. Must Sleep.
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