Me: Oh, by the way... just so you're not alarmed at a $40 charge that may appear on the AMEX...
Her: [a pained look of resignation]
Me: I bought a hoodie today.
Her: [relief] Oh, a Temple Hoodie?
Me: [taken aback] No... [brightens] It's a black zip up hoodie that says "1337" across the front!
Her: How is is spelled...? L E E T?
Me: [a bit shocked] No, it's spelled in numbers. Like 1 3 3 7.
Her: What does it mean?
Me: LEET. Like e-leet. Like elite hackers. You know, that's what hackers say, like how they talk. When they spell it.
Her: [rolling eyes] I guess I wouldn't know, since I don't hang out with any "1337" hackers.
Me: Oh yes you do.
Her: Who?
Me: Me, baby!
Her: [incredulous exasperation] What was the last thing you hacked, you retard?!?!?!?
For the record: the last thing I hacked was a PERL script that makes web pages from the files on a streaming server. I wrote it myself with only minimal code stealing quoting from other scripts. The second version let you pick the background color!
Kat (to an insipid melody): Cock. Suck-er shut-up. De de de de de de de de de. Cock. Suck-er shut-up. De de de de de de de de de.
Me: Nice.
Kat: That's my new song.
Me: Mmm.
Kat: Guess what it's called.
Me: Um.
Me (brief pause): Critique of everyday life?
Kat: No.
Kat: It's called Cocksucker shut up.
Kat: I could have called it De de de de de de de de de but that didn't seem as catchy.
I fell sort of like a teenaged girl writing this, but I really really like Glasgow. It's a really beautiful city and it reminds me a lot of Philadelphia--except, you know the really cool buildings that are here and there in Philly?
Yeah, those cool ones that look all sandstone and old and beautiful. Those are everywhere in Glasgow and the shitty modern crap is only once and a while.
It's really friendly here, really crowded and really busy. But Glasgow also sort of has a Philly attitude that makes you almost homesick but not quite.
I dunno if I could live here, but I'd sure like to try. Only if I could bring my dogs though. Kat and I really miss them, which sort of proves that we're mad.
...it's crap--or it's electronic, apparently.
A word of caution to the American technophile traveling to Glasga (maybe to anywhere): bring not only a voltage/recepticle converter, but also an extension cord. I'll post a photo later, but the bizarre spatiality created by the combination of my radio shack AC Converter and the position of the outlets in our hotel room makes it impossible to plug any non-standard 2 prong plug in to the outlet. In other words, any creatively designed plug (cough*apple*cough*2inch*cough*plug) will be hardpressed to recharge your precious device.
Additional travel tips:
- Just because every other internet cafe in every other city you've been to had a compact flash reader so you could empty your CF card, don't assume that it will always be true. For example, easy internet cafe doesn't even allow saving files to a disk, so forget a disk reader.
- Don't eat in the hotel. Especially Campanile Hotel Glasgow. If the food is Scottish, it's in a very un-scottish way--that is, it's crap. £28 for cold hush puppies and pickled vegetable salad, my arse.
- It actually is more civilized to have beer with every meal. Also, it makes sleeping easier.
- When taking one of those "go all around the city" buses, don't get on the less crowded company's bus. It may be less crowded for a reason. For example, they may actually be loathe to stop at their own stops.
According to the Belief-O-Matic, these are my top 10 matching religions (that would be most suited for me):
- Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (100 % )
- Unitarian Universalism (98%)
- Liberal Quakers (96%)
- Neo-Pagan (95%)
- Secular Humanism (77%)
- Mahayana Buddhism (76%)
- Bahá'í Faith (76%)
- New Age (74%)
- Reform Judaism (71%)
- Theravada Buddhism (69%)
I guess the Quakers are more open minded than I thought.
Ok, I mentioned my really weird dream the other day that was strange enough. I was dreaming about being at the squat, for me the squat as in the one where I, as they say, squatted for a few months in my late teens.
The squat, for the record, was in Southwest Phila, and I mention it becasue in today's Philadelphia Daily News:
A man missing since the summer was found dead by investigators last night, cut into pieces and stashed underneath the stairwell of his own home.I am so glad I don't believe in psychic powers, because if I did, I'd be really fucking freaked the fuck out, y'know?The body of the West Philadelphia resident, believed to be James Jones, but known to neighbors as Malick, was found shot, dismembered, placed in garbage bags and then covered with concrete in his basement, police said.
So we're watching TV last night, and all of a sudden Kat starts yelling "There's a snake in the house! There's a snake in the house! Oh my god! There's a snake in the house!"
Neat.
So I freak out a little bit, because Yoshi is playing with it, and when I say playing I mean biting, or course. And I've always been afraid that I'm going to run into a Copperhead some day, even though they aren't real common in the Philadelphia part of Pennsylvania.
So we pull out the cheese to coax him away from it, which works like a charm (ah, the power of cheese) so of course Willie has to get in the act.
He's easier to get the snake away from, and Kathy uses one of Yoshi's bones to scoop the snake into a plastic sandwich bag. This was a very small snake, think baby size.
Then the dialogue starts (not verbatim):
Me: I think it's, like, a baby python.Kat: Python? It looks more like a boa constrictor.
Me: Er, of course when I said python I was using that as a placeholder for "constrictor-type snake."
Kat: (rolls eyes)
Me: What do we do with it? (looks around for a spare aquarium which is regrettably not at hand)
Kat: I could take it to work with me tomorrow, but I'm really busy... we could keep it in a jar or something...
Me: But it needs to breathe!
Kat: (looks increasingly pained) No shit, I don't know what you want me to tell you. Look, why not put it back outside?
Me: But it's a baby!
Kat: It came from outside, look I don't have time to take care of it tomorrow, so if you keep it, you figure out what to do with it.
Me: (Quickly evaluating how much kinship I feel with things herpetological) Hmmm... I guess we really can't take on a pet boa constrictor now...
Kat: Don't let it go near the house, I don't want it coming back.
Me: I guess I just feel bad, cause I had a pet snake once and it died.
Kat: You're so funny--"but it's a baby!" (starts laughing at me)
Me: (opens the front door) Okay, let's go buddy.
Kat: Don't let it go near the house, I don't want it coming back.
I took him across the "moat" (aka the canal that inconveniently runs through out backyard) and let him go on the stone wall near the water, figuring the little tropical boa had a slim chance of survival. Better than vs. Yoshi and Willie, but still pretty grim.
During some down time at work I decided to do a little googling, and I've now decided that it was not a baby boa at all, but rather a baby Nerodia sipedon, aka the Northern Water Snake.
Apparently, they're pretty common to our neck of the woods, and they do just fine in the Pennsylvania winter, so I don't have to worry that our buddy won't be able to survive...unless he comes back in the house, in which case it's all up to the benevolence of Yoshi, which is not the best deal you can find, believe me.
Especially when you seem like some sort of neat, interactive dog-toy. That tastes like chicken.
No it's true, my dog is truly an evil genius, a fact which can apparently only be discovered through state-of-the-art photographic techniques, recently discovered at the secret suburban compound.
I just wrote a page about San Francisco and then closed the window without saving. I blame the browsers. They really should see a filled in form as a document that needs to be "saved" (submitted) before the window closes. How many times have I reflexively hit cmd-w to get to a backgrounded app and lost what I was working on in a browser window? I have no idea, but it's enough that I hate myself a little now everytime I do it and call myself mean names like idiot.
Anyway, at least you can still see the touristy pictures from our trip if you care.
I really like San Francisco. I also really liked my entry that has been blown into the ether.
If you haven't heard, it snowed last night. Everything in Philadelphia is closed today. Even classes at Temple are cancelled. However, all Temple Empoyees are "expected" to come to work. If we don't go to work, we lose a vacation day.
I'm not going; it's totally absurd. I don't know who makes these decisions, but they clearly either live on campus or next door to it.
My only consolation is that they had to go to work today in the snow.
All I wanted to say is said best by saying nothing at all:
Dehydrated
All we could do (if we had a weimeraner)
I can't stop (because I'm making too much money)
My tape deck is broken
do we recycle?
please, please, please (rinse your cup out)
Well, I'm ringing in the New Year with acute gastroenteritus. I don't recommend it. I spent Sunday at the hospital getting an freezing IV of liquid and nausea medication normally reserved for chemotherapy patients. Lucky!
The IV was because I was like, really dehydrated. Kathy still thinks it's funny that my main motivation in going to the hospital was getting an IV. But let me tell you, when you haven't had water in over 20 hours (or at least, you've lost all the water from up to 20 hours ago), and your mouth and throat are totally dry, and your lips are cracking--trust me: an IV is the way to go. They put like a litre of water right back into me, and there was no danger of it making me nauseous like if I drank it.
Win-win, in my opinion.
That's enough about me, back to my toast. Mmmm! Toast!
Happy New Year!
Apparently I'm competing with dr on who can update their page more regularly and dr is winning.
dr is celebrating his one year aniversary, and his new filing technique is unstoppable.
Where's Pedro? I never ask that question, but I do wonder where my old friend Pete Fierlinger is. Unfortunately the supa stoopid Turntable Media is on some kind of hiatus, but the website is still up. If you come here fo my fonts, check put Phillip's Fat Tip font, available on the website. (Click on menu (upper left corner), play, fattip).
Peter was back in town and I got together with him, but then I realized this morning that he was gone again.
This kitten was pulled out of the sewer this morning (8/7/2002) by Art. He was drained by his ordeal (he fell into the sewer trying to avoid getting hit by a car).
Luckily, he was adopted within two hours. Lucky for him, anyway.
No, not really. But I did take a vacation with Kathy which was not really so much going anywhere, but we did go to the movies a lot...Lilo & Stitch, MiB II and Minority Report. All good--I probably liked Lilo & Stitch or MiB the best, not sure though.
Minority Report was good, except why would he have gone to that room unless he had seen the tape, but the tape wouldn't have existed if he hadn't gone to the room....standard paradox stuff I know, but ususally a paradox happens after you do something messed up during time travel, not with precognition.
Other than that--never mind, it was decent.
I played the Sims a bit too. I think I want to play Simsville the Sims Online when it comes out, but more on that later because I have a few concerns about it--real ones, not concerns about whether I will find it satisfying or not.
Kat: "You are not as funny as you pretend to be."
Peter: "What?"
Kat: "In your blog. You misrepresented events to take credit for my joke. So you seem more funny."
Peter: "What are you talking about?"
Kat: "In the insurance joke. I said that I needed more content. I made the joke."
Peter: "Okay, I'll post a correction."
Kat: "This is how you trick me."
Peter: "What?"
Kat: "This is how you trick me in to saying more funny things, so you can put them in your blog."
So, Kat comes home tonight and tells me she looked here today. "You didn't really add much," shes says. Next she'll be sayingmy website doesn't have enough content.
What can I say? It was a boring day. I just felt all droopy at work, and then I went and picked up the dry cleaning and came home and tried to finish up the work for my crit tomorrow. Boring.
Scott and Janna got back from Michigan, I think. At least Scott started sending me emails...he wants me to review the lyrics of einstuerzende neubauten for some reason...all of them, when I get a chance. /shrug
I wonder what that's all about.
So my jalopy stalled out last night at 6:00 pm on my way home from work. I didn't even mention it last night because I was too bust taking my aggressions out on Kat. Thank goodness for AAA...
That's all. I think it's the fuel pump or something.
Like I have any idea.
Kat: "Put this powerstrip somewhere that's not my desk"
Peter: [puts the powerstrip where Willie, the cat sleeps]
Kat: "That is Willie's desk"
Peter: [puts the powerstrip on the edge of Kat's desk]
Kat: "That is my desk."
Peter: [puts the powerstrip where Willie, the cat sleeps]
Kat: "Somewhere that is neither my desk nor Willie's desk."
Peter: [waves the power strip at Kathy pantomiming a baby complaining]
Kat: "Why don't you just put it where you intended to put it?"
Peter: "I don't remember what I wanted it for...."
Kat: "You've been wanting one for six months! How can you not remember where you wanted to put it?"
Peter "I'm getting sick of your attitude."
Kat: "I'll tell you about being sick of attitudes..."
Peter: "I'll show you...I'm going to write in my blog about how I'm sick of your attitude."
--with a nod to Ben and Mena
Ok, well. Today 5 of my cousins are graduating from high school, or there's a party or something. Tomorrow is Father's Day. Hoo! Luckily I don't feel too tense about my class, because if I did I would be FREAKING OUT. Hey, how is that class going, anyway? I have to remember to stop at Sears on my way to the party to see if they sell 1/16" aluminum wire.
Kathy can't go again, because of course she has two 50 page papers due on Monday, like she does every weekend.
Safety tip: Do not take 2 grad classes in the summer session in order to get through faster, It's just no fun if you also have to work full time. And she's taking a web design certificate program for the summer too, which is great because it makes sure she's got one more night where she is busy from 8 am til 10pm.
Why? Because I spent way too much time today working on this:
I'd let everyone who deosn't know me guess which one is me (which is no one reading this site, I'm sure), but I'll give you a hint:
Peter & Kathy
Stop Laughing!