Teen Werewolves

They seem destined to become furries. While looking at a post by Wali on Facebook, I noticed that someone was referring him to Lamebook.com (as an alternative to AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com). There was a facebook post referencing teen werewolves, immediately followed by this wonderful news clip:

Personomous

I believe this word, personomous, is my creation. I consider it to be like occuponomous, but wider in scope. Whereas occuponomous refers to someone whose name sounds like their occupation - e.g. an OB/GYN named Dr. Hymen, personomous refers to a name that potentially describes the person in more general terms. That is, it refers to any portion of the persona. So, if your last name is Wow or Super, you might well be a great person. Ming says he's personomous because of his middle name for reasons having to do with being put in all sorts of uncomfortable positions for lots of different people. We debated whether Mean Mr. Mustard's last name was personomous, as it's composed of three words that could be construed as the immediate need to self-pleasure or to be a frotteurist. We might have to ask some of those people with whom he drinks morning coffee to determine which aspect fits best.

Procrastination

Yes...that's right. I got an overdue notice from the library for the book on CD about procrastination that I never listened to:

FIRST NOTICE
The following Learning Center materials are overdue. Please return the following Learning Center items or renew.

For assistance with renewing, please contact us at the email address, below.

Title: The procrastinator's handbook mastering the art of doing it now /
Author: Emmett, Rita
Classification: BF 637 .P76 E48CD 2001
Date due: 05/21/2010

Learning Center librarians

Hashtastic

I know it's a stupid little trick to run in my .bat, but I felt very developer-ish when people walked past and saw my screen constantly ticking these off as an ftp progress status:

For Ame and Conner

I saw this on Boing Boing and immediately thought of Ame and Conner. What Disney Princesses Teach Girls.

Town Hall

I've been at Town Hall twice in the last two weeks. That's as many times as the last two months. Actually, probably more than the last six months. I went with the Tech Ops guys right after WRAP (our release process), and with our training guy and a few people from my group (extended) last week (when Greg-not-in-the-picture-below got a $42 parking ticket at what was probably 5:59 p.m. when the metering for the block ceased at 6:00). I snapped this picture of Greg.

It was an interesting visit in that after we'd arrived, three ladder trucks and about six other fire trucks appeared and tried to wedge themselves into the seven corners area, which is designed to accommodate two ladder trucks at most, if they don't have a posse. After much tado, it appeared that they were there to rescue the jumper on the top of the Holiday overlooking the patio where we were drinking. Many people stopped to stare up, concerned about his well being. When he was done doing the phone work on the upper level, he unstrapped his safety gear and went inside. Oops.

There were some real jumpers in the vicinity. A colony of tent caterpillars was involved in a diaspora immediately over our table. We spent quite a bit of time shooing them away. Knocking them out of the air as they rappelled down, and covering our beer when they cut loose to drop the last few feet. When the opportunity presented itself, we piled them neatly for the birds.

Art a Whirl Kiltastic

At the Art a Whirl in North Minneapolis the weekend before this one. This guy and the woman who asked me if the microbrew coop served free beer were my favorite characters. Unbeknownst to her, it was serving free beer, but only because I had a growler of Town Hall IPA I was pouring out to anyone who asked for a glass.

A closer picture. I can do this look. I'm not saying I can pull it off. but I can do it. I have my sport kilt for getting into bicycling shorts in public. It's red you know. If we were to stand side by side we'd look like a bad Scottish Christmas card.

Not as funny, but I think it's amusing that it ended up being a picture of Chef Hack.

Spring Recital

Eryn had her spring recital for ballet today. They try to give the parents a break for spring and reuse old outfits, or use more at-hand clothes for the modern dance type numbers, so this is the same outfit from her previous recital. Eryn's class did Chimchimcheree - not sure if that's how you spell it - from Mary Poppins. Apparently she had a bit of a balance issue in the earlier performance, but was fine for the 4:00 when I was there.

These aren't great because they came off my blackberry. This one is cute, but the next one is my favorite.


Her fighting ballerina pose. Taken shortly after we had a (faux) karate match from the kitchen to the porch. I felt like I was in some sort of weird anime.

Self Esteem

I was in the bathroom stall at work today when someone ambled into the otherwise empty bathroom. I couldn't see anything, but heard the familiar noise of a belt and zipper, followed by a brief pause. Then, "Nice move!" After which peeing commenced.

Lose Lose

Heard a woman on the elevator at work talking to her friend: "He had that pony tail and he looked so stupid. So he finally cut it off. Now he looks old."

Bicycling - MS60, jne.

I did the MS60 last Saturday. It was damn cold. We started out the day at about 36 degrees, and it warmed up, but not by much. Throughout the day it was cold enough to see your breath, and when I got home I sat in a hot bathtub because I couldn't warm up. Top it off with a strong headwind, 60 miles of riding, and a pile of hills, and I was worried I'd bonk the last 5 miles. One of the toughest rides I've done in quite a while.

Practice ride the Wednesday before the MS60 with Mike. Truly a practice ride as it was cold and miserable, just like the MS60. We made it as far as Richfield before hoofing it back to Eagan. This is Mike, pedaling.

Moh at the halfway point on the MS60. He didn't quite make it to the end. About mile 45 he was down to 6 or 7 mph going downhill. Not a big deal on the MS60 as there are SAG vehicles, so I chased one down for him. Definitely the right decision.

Me at the halfway mark. I didn't take the SAG. It just made for a fun picture.


Ali blew a tire not too far after the Gateway trail. It took three people to pump it up, including a discussion about whether to pump it up to 200 PSI.


Pumping up the flat tire, the view from the other side. I hope it's mesmerizing.


My road bike! Not the bike I took on the MS60, but it was waiting at Erik's when I got home. I had new, wider rims put on it so that I can ride it more often (I'd put a few thousand miles on it many years ago, and the rims got soft and required spoke adjustment after every ride). I took it out for a short ride with Eryn on Sunday. I'm not used to the shoes and clipless pedals after all this time, but it's a much smoother ride, and I'm down below some of the wind. I'm looking forward to getting out on it this week after the rain and the cold weather are finally over.

Does Anyone Need a Chair...or Four?

My friend Dan'l bought me this set of old chairs at an auction way back when we lived at the duplex. They moved with me and have been sitting in the rafters of the garage for the last 8 years. I took one down the other day to ponder whether it deserved a blessing with a sledge hammer and discovered it was in rather nicer shape than I remember. There are four of them, although one has duct tape around the leg, so I'm guessing it's trash. And I can't vouch for the condition of the other two until I take them down (I remember one having a ripped seat). But at the lowest denominator, there's one good chair. If you want it let me know and I'll make it happen (first come first serve).

And don't worry about the extension cord. I promise it doesn't come with a metal hat and wrist straps.

Two Inappropriate Interludes

Perhaps one of the worst names for a book I've ever seen. Unless the innuendo is purposeful. I don't think I'll be putting The Modern Girl's Guide to Sticky Situations on Eryn's bookshelf. But perhaps it's one of those gifts I should buy and put on the gift rack, awaiting the perfect situation. That just sounds dirty. I'd like to thank my father in law, Larry, for the computer virus he contracted which sends me a link to some strange product once or twice a day. I believe the actual link he sent me would have connected me with a malicious PHP page, but I looked up the book title independently via Amazon to protect myself.

And this is courtesy of my Facebook friend Amy who, if she could have picked, would likely have chosen a different advertisement adorning the Motherhood article she linked to off her account to celebrate Mother's Day 2010. This distracted me from the whole reading experience.

Pro-drug Reference from the St. Paul Saints

This explains why their games are so much fun and they act so silly.

Anglerfish

I generally hate the featured videos on YouTube, but Hailey Wojcik's Anglerfish was enjoyable for the most part. Bit of bad language if you're listening out loud at work. Theme is similar to The All American Rejects "Gives You Hell".

Ming - Fate Has Decreed What You Should Get for my Birthday

Call of Duty, Black Ops is being released only 4 days before my birthday (11/9/2010). And one of the scenarios takes place in the same year I was born! I can't tell if it's any good from the trailer, because I didn't wake up from my epileptic fit until a few minutes later, but maybe that's a positive sign.

Workplace Hijinks

I had three emails in my inbox when I got to work this morning. The first two were a variation on a theme from one of our high-performing developers who doesn't report to me, but does an exceptional amount of work with my group. He told me that he doesn't normally play video games during the workday (he's remote). It wasn't really work hours, because he makes up all the hours depending on his meeting schedule. He'd just done 8 hours of training (over the phone) and needed to unwind. All of his stuff was up to date. Really. All of it. This wasn't a normal occurrence, but a result of the training and knowing he'd settle down to do some work later in the evening, which he usually does anyway. You get the picture. A lot of explanation and a bit of what can almost be described as groveling.

The last email was one informing me that one of the developers in my group had sent him an email, but not me, that basically said:

"Developer X:

Scooter the Manager was in my cube, looking over my shoulder, and asked about my Halo stats. When he saw you were my friend, he asked me to go to your stats site so he could appreciate your kill ratio. Really, 4 hours of gaming during work hours yesterday???"

F-ing hilarious.

Mother's Day

I asked Eryn today if we should get Mom a massage for Mother's Day. She very seriously told me that wasn't necessary because she had made Pooteewheet a coupon book at school, and it included a free backrub. Looks like she'll be going to Ironman instead.

Ironman! (five days late)

I know...I took seven days off the blog. And then I posted five posts. And then I still didn't post this post and waited even longer. It's been nine days since Ironman, and I'm in danger of running into my next big ride in the form of the MS60 this weekend. Why didn't I just spread them out over five of those days? Because I needed a rest. Or because I had 12-16 hour work days. Take your pick. If you can't catch up, you belong on facebook ;)

But I have a good bicycling story unrelated to Ironman. On Sunday I was supposed to go bicycling with Ali from work (pictured at the bottom of this post). We were going to start at the park on Highway 13, just north of 494, and bike into Minneapolis and around the lakes and along the greenway. I got there before Ali and unloaded my bike and set it to the side against a trash can while I busied myself with my bag and pump. As a plane flew overhead, I looked up to see why it sounded so strange. And then it was gone, and I still heard the noise. It was my tube. The act of just sitting there had popped it. Fortunately, I was there early, so I popped it off, replaced it with the spare and started pumping. At about 20 psi, the new tube popped. I didn't even know that was possible. So when Ali pulled up I was contemplating whether to attempt a 20 minute patch job, or to just call it a day. I chose the second option, stating that something bad always seemed inevitable when I had multiple flats, despite not being a very superstitious person in general. Ali was worried because he hadn't been into Minneapolis from that direction before, so I told him to head down the trail to St. Paul along the river past the confluence, which was a straight shot.

The next day he caught up with me at work and told me that further down the hill he'd come to a do not enter sign and that another cyclist had told him not to worry about it and push on. He did, only to find that cyclist getting a ticket for a violation. He pleaded with the cop, telling him it was his first time on the trail and that his friend had sent him on alone, and that the other cyclist had told him it was ok. The cop let him go without a ticket, but when Ali turned around to head up the hill the cop told him no way and pointed at the huge, steep hill that circumnavigated the restricted area (there was a fear of falling debris during bridge construction). So Ali had to get directions from the cop and make a long, circuitous route back to the car.

I know if I had been along, I would have been the cyclist saying, "eh...that's probably nothing" and scored my first bicycling ticket. Fate was kind in the form of two flat tubes.

When I got home, I renewed my commitment not to have a non-functional bike again, and took my road bike into the shop for new, heavier rims (yes, a rim job), purchased two tubes for every bike, cleaned both bikes, and purchased a new spoke for the mountain bike I rode during Ironman. I hadn't even noticed it had popped one. Hopefully I'll be riding a road bike soon and enjoying some easier riding.

So the Sunday before last, Ming, Kyle and I went on Ironman in Lakeville. Ali went as well. But we didn't bike with him. We just saw him after the ride. It was very similar to last year, except it was just a bit warmer, so we weren't in danger of hypothermia. And it rained the first 10 miles, not the last 20. I still had water in my shoes, but I was much more cheerful, and fully willing to sit around Wu's for some Chinese food afterwards without worrying about changing my clothes.

Saddles covered with the latest in protective rain gear.

Ming. Doing his blow job exercises.

Kyle, running away from Ming.

Click on this one for the big panorama of Ming at the first rest stop.

Bikes at the first rest stop. My shoes hadn't soaked through by this point.

I've got layers upon layers. I was suprisingly dry, except for my feet, at the end of the ride.

Ali and Ming celebrating the end of the ride. Ali's quite the biker. He went from no mileage to over 100 a week. That's some serious pedaling. I'm a bit jealous, even though I get to hit the trails tomorrow.

End of the road at Lakeville High School. Only thirty miles, but the chill gets to your legs, so it's some work. Again, click for a bigger version of the panorama.

According to the Third Grade Mixed Media Art Project

at Glacier Hills, "A friend is, as it were, a second self." Congratulations Mean Mr. Mustard, Ming, Brad, Kyle, Mike, Klund, She Says and all the rest of you (Sahm, Alex, Ruis, Steve, The Ghost, Chris)...I'm sure you wanted to be exactly like me. I'm going to start my own Clone War.