Motorcycle: Purchased.




Tried it out going down the street over to a parking lot. The idle is set up to about 4000 rpm up from 1500 so I can only really control the speed with the clutch. I put in some Sea Foam into the gas tank and turned the idle down a bit just because I can't handle that shit. Also, I'll have to wait until we get out of the triple digits because riding for any amount of time leaves me soaking wet in sweat.


Finally got a chance to sit down with Ghostbusters the game. It completely sucked. Lots of ghosts getting trapped in the walls or outside a window, leaving you flinging it around trying to get it back through the invisible crack in the walls it left through. Had to restart at one point as I both trapped a ghost in the wall and my trap was thrown into a part of the flat ground I arbitrarily couldn't walk on. The AI for your partners was similarly aggravating. The Zero Punctuation review over at Escapist describes the frustration of reviving your comrades every few seconds well.

The story was boring. Jokes lame. Dan Akroyd did the best vocal work by far, but the lines just weren't funny. Venkman turned from slightly cynical but wise-cracking to an completely ambivalent asshole. Fitting his new persona, he sat most of the missions out. The ending was also completely anticlimatic, ending with Venkman kissing the token love interest, neither of which had much screen time the whole game. The worst part of all is that when the Ghostbusters theme kicked in at the end, it only played to the first "Who you gonna call?" before immediately cutting out again. Both movies end with the Ghostbusters meeting the cheering crowds of NYC with the theme playing over, then a montage of the characters and their actors. The game however... straight to rolling credits, generic music.

I should get back to work. Ugh.

Trickier than I thought, hopefully not discouraged

I finally took the basic motorcycle training course this weekend. It consisted of three 5-hour meetings. The first was classroom, ending in a written test. The next two days were out in the parking lot on 125 cc bikes.

It was definitely harder to ride than I thought it would be. It was like learning to drive a car for the first time, except more difficult and with a sense that you're going to kill yourself. Since I've never driven a manual transmission car, the entire experience was completely new and every skill had to be learned. Trying to stack all those skills in a matter of hours was really challenging.

Early on, I had some difficultly shifting, popping the clutch or absentmindedly letting it out while stopped. After I while, I was all right, though I wouldn't say that the majority of my shifts were smooth. I got more and more confident with my abilities and learning the steps necessary to turn or stop.

That is, of course, until I fell.

I was coming in to get back in line with the others, who were waiting to do an exercise one at a time, and I was going too fast. I was turning to line up and just hit my brakes, not hard, but just a bit too much. With my handlebars turned, a bit too much front brake sent the bike to the ground in a flash. I got a little raspberry, but was mostly just embarrassed. After that, though, I doubted everything I thought I had learned. We had just gone over how to stop out of a turn and I completely blew it in real life.

Anyway, despite my worry, I've gone and bought a kickass helmet and some gloves, so now I'm financially obligated to keep going. More more more more more more more more more more more more more more more practice please.

Great album has put me in the mood to write

I just downloaded the Dark Was The Night compilation album after hearing about it on NPR and its just fantastic.

The past few days have been quite good. A great turnout last Thursday at lab including an unexpected Chase. We talked a little while we could, then met up again Saturday night at El Arroyo's. Good talk, will see again most likely.

Played several great hours of Rock Band with Layne. She is getting really good now, attempting any Hard level song and completing most. My drum skills have advanced too.

A considerable amount of time was spent at the mall for various reasons, though I don't think we ended up buying anything there any of the times we went. We did find what we were looking for in Tesoro's on South Congress.

Good food at Elsi's, life jacket shopping at the B n' P, playing in the water with the goos, Ghostbusters and Valkyrie, mojitos, beer, sex. Motorcycle class reserved in a couple of weeks, planning out potential vacations to California.

This album is really coming together on the second disc.

Commission is now a punishment

On the last day of every month, I'm required to stay here at work until midnight in a painful last ditch attempt to meet sales goals. In this case, it's completely bullshit and everyone knows it. Well no one is showing it, if they do know.

I'm sick of being here, enrolling 4, 5, 10 apps as they lazily drip into the inboxes. We are way way behind and its completely worthless since we aren't getting our bonuses and its pointless being here this long or at all. Anyway, I think I just heard Martin say "we're done." I hope he means that.

to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations

At work now; there's a nice lull in the workload. Nothing to do and 50 minutes until I'm out of here.

I moved my schedule up so I come into work at 10 instead of 9 by request of the goofriend. Now we can get up and have a little breakfast in the patio before I head off to work. Or sleep in. Which is what has been happening.

Layne and I saw Star Trek last week sometime and we both loved it. That was surprising because Layne had low expectations for the movie, so that's good. What's even more surprising is that she then said, "Hey, let's rent some of the movies!"

We started with Wrath of Khan (2), then Voyage Home (4), then The Search for Spock (3), then Insurrection (9, sucked). We both agree the TOS cast is way better than the TGS cast and it's hard to believe people actually like Picard more than Kirk. Really, its Riker that fucking ruins every scene he's in. Picard/Riker pales in comparison to Kirk/Spock.

We've been trying to get The Final Frontier (5), but it's been slim pickings at Vulcan, probably because others are having the same idea as us. I haven't seen The Undiscovered Country (6) at all anytime we've been there either. We'll have to keep plugging away at it, I guess.

I've got 5 minutes to write

So I'll make this quick.

Diamond fiasco solved. Got money back from Overstock, bought new, bigger diamonds for same price from Amazon. Delivered safely.

Graduation party went well. Everyone had fun. Except for the Repub group.

Birthday tomorrow, but really saturday. Tomorrow is Layne's graduation celebration.

Got a grill. Grilled. I need practice.

Conducting research session right now. 32 respondents, 11 showed up. Better than nothing.

Two minutes left. Long weekend ahead. Need to take a trip. Almost bought a motorcycle. Need to sign up for the class first, get new license.

All right, I'm calling it.

The Diamond Fiasco

As I mentioned previously, I ordered Layne a pair of diamond earrings from Overstock and had them delivered to my office. Well, I would have liked that they were delivered to my office.

The earrings were meant to arrive Wednesday, May 6th, but that day came and went with no sign of the precious parcel. Actually... I've been so stressed about this and told the story to so many people, I don't really feel like going through all the details.

They were lost in the mail. Exhaustive search. Bullshit post office workers. Last chance, spoke with Overstock. Hopefully will get my money back. Will know by Friday. The end.

p.s. I'm exhausted.

A quick thought on the soul and indoctrination

I recently read something on reddit concerning a christian Youtuber who offered up a penny for any atheist's soul, since we don't believe that it exists at all.

As an recent atheism convert, I hadn't really thought about the concept of the soul and I felt an immediate, emotional reaction to the thought of selling mine. The feeling was familiar; it was hesitant fear. It wanted to stop me before I did something dangerous. It would resonate well with the believer who sees their eternal soul at risk. Had I told this to my parents, for example, they might say that the feeling I felt is "evidence" that it exists, that my gut reaction is relaying to me an underlying truth on the existence of God, the soul, etc.

I tried to remember other times I felt that feeling and one rose to the surface: its the feeling you get when you go into a darkened bathroom with a flashlight and try to say "Bloody Mary" three times into the mirror. There is absolutely no danger there, no creature is going to pull you into the mirror or kill you, but I had been raised with that superstition floating around and it stuck. I know nothing will happen when I say "Bloody Mary," but I still feel the fear, just as I do when my nonexistent soul is threatened and for precisely the same reasons. Religion and the idea of a ghastly, immaterial object that is invaluable to you was also foisted upon me throughout my childhood and I still felt the attachment.

I came to atheism through my own general disbelief in Catholicism and through the rejection of the biases, voluntary ignorance, and inherant divisiveness religion breeds. It is a rejection fully rooted in my logical mind. My emotional mind, however, has yet to catch up.



I'll leave you with Keyboard Cat.

Nearing the perfect desktop

So I just got dual monitors at work. That along with my keyboard and I almost have a geek's trifecta. I don't know if I'll spring for it just yet, but a Logitech MX Revolution would round out this workstation pretty nicely.

Latest Obsession: Play Him Off, Keyboard Cat

SHIT JUST GOT REAL

I am typing this post on my brand new Das Keyboard Ultimate I received in the mail today as my early birthday present.

It's smooth, loud as hell, and gloriously black.

I freak out a little every time I look down at the keyboard, searching for a letter, but I'll learn to trust my fingers the more I go along.

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

Sitting in the NOA classroom, playing around on the internet, not running any fucking participants.

Not a single one of these motherfuckers showed up.

Ten scheduled. Got all the shit laid out here. Time piling up on my parking in the garage. NOBODY.

I'll give it 10 more minutes as is required of me, then I'm calling it.

A few changes, a few upcoming events

My work schedule is now m-f as I am now in charge of Whitefence and got a small raise. I'm still getting used to the long drawn out work week as opposed to my old two-days-work-one-day-off situation.

The third attempt at Matt Brooks's smoking study is on for Thursday. By that I mean the first two had some sort of issue come up and I hope I can make this one happen smoothly. The first time, only two people showed up. The second session, more people, but I flubbed lines and someone got a parking ticket that they demanded we help with.

Layne and I are throwing a graduation party when her classes end. I haven't deejayed a party in a while, so let's hope I've still got it.

Layne's actual graduation falls squarely on my birthday, so we'll be exchanging gifts. As usual, we couldn't wait for the actual day to know what we were getting each other. I'm getting the Das Keyboard Ultimate, which I intend to use at work and fluster anyone attempting to use my computer. She's getting diamond earrings, which she's had her eyes on since forever. I found a good price on some round diamond studs that are higher quality than herzberg's, so I am confident she'll like them. I insisted that we wait until the 22nd to actually give each other our presents, but of course, right now, I wish I had my new keyboard to type this post with.

I am intensly procrastinating signing up for a motorcycle class. I don't know why.

Just got the newer FF Crystal Chronicles for DS. Resident Evil 5 is winding down, I suppose. Rayne-chan is on Gardening Mama, followed by Rhythm Heaven when she's done.

After a few months of lurking, I am getting more involved with Reddit. Been posting comments and replying in threads. No links posted yet though. I tried to post to ask.reddit, but I didn't know how to refer to my own comments. I saw the Google Streetview car on the 35 feeder and I pulled up beside it and held my face up to the windshield for several minutes at a stoplight. They'll probably blur my face, but I wanted to know when I could expect those new images to be uploaded to Google Maps or Earth.

I failed to keep up the line a day idea and I think I know why.

I planned to write that line at the end of each day to sum it all up. When I get home from working in front of a computer for 8 hours though, I don't really want to turn another one on again. At least I felt the guilt of not posting enough to write things now.

Lots of things coming up:

- Layne's birthday is Monday. We're going to this narrow little Italian restaurant and ordering wine among other things. I need to get a cake of some sort this weekend.
- Layne's parents are visiting next Friday to celebrate her birthday too, so we're probably go to Chez Zee.
- I need to head over to the mall to get Layne her gift. It's a little expensive, but she's needed since we started going out.
- Finally, Valentine's Day, next Saturday. I've requested off work and so has she. Another fancy resturant, though I don't remember what its called. Reservations for 8.

All in all, I'll be spending a shit ton of money this week. She gets on my case about how I haven't bought her any diamonds, but the grand total from this week approaches those kinds of costs, so I hope she appreciates that.

Also, we might be meeting up with Ben and Rebecca after VD dinner. Apparently I shoot down everything Ben says or at least he feels that way. I suppose that's true; if he starts even a semi-controversial topic, then I do hold his feet to the fire about it. I'm not challenging him so much as I want to have a honest discussion about it. I don't want to just say, "Oh! How interesting. Mm-hmm! Wow!" I want to discuss. Anyway, I'll take it easy on him when we see each other again.

OK, I'm not doing what I said I was going to do

I'm failing miserably at keeping this going, so I'm changing format to ease my way back into blogging. I'll do a line a day to keep things succinct.

The problem was that I would procrastinate, then forget what happened that I should be writing about, so this should make things easier.

Starting now!


At work. Easily distracted = slow worker. Digg dugg, reddit read... now I work? No. I blog.

Wednesday

Today is one of my two days off each week: today and Sunday. A split weekend isn't as bad as I thought it would be.

Went to some outlet stores with Layne after she got off school. She got a blouse which I think would be good for Valentine's Day. We have reservations to this nice restaurant she found online. Stone walls, dark wood, wine... that sort of thing. I'm looking forward to it. By then, she'll finally be 21 so she can drink publicly without shame.

Andrew Bird's new album came out yesterday, so I hopped on Amazon to download it and lo, Bon Iver released an EP too! Nice surprise. I wasn't sure if there was going to be more out of him since his album was a product of his circumstances. The first three songs of the EP are great, love 'em. The last song however has the dreaded auto-tune turned to 11 and I'm not sure I'll get over it. I like his voice as it is plainly. The auto-tune gimmick may be too much for me.

More posts to come. I haven't blogged in a while, so I hope I will keep this up.