Pantsless Ramblings

Things to post about that I’m not going to today

2009-12-21T04:11:15Z

Originally published at Bogroll Babble. You can comment here or there.

I made an updated version of my mess ‘o crap dinner that I want to post. It’s yummy, and better balanced than the original.

And hey I got my nipples pierced. I could talk about that, because we really need another nipple piercing experience post on the Internet, right?

brains

2009-11-21T18:41:18Z

Originally published at Bogroll Babble. You can comment here or there.

I had something I wanted to post about… but that was then and now my brain won’t tell me what it was. Huh.

Life of Riley

2009-11-16T01:03:52Z

Originally published at Bogroll Babble. You can comment here or there.

I dunno how Riley’s life is, but mine is pretty good right now.

I just got back from OmegaCon, where I had a lovely relaxing weekend. I recombined my bottle and my flask. And I had almost 3/4 of a bottle of scotch left. Imagine that. Of course, the “Apple Pie” on Friday night, and the honey wine on Saturday night, served to make sure my blood wouldn’t freeze at normal temperatures.

I was lucky to get a room – sadly, it was a smoking room. (Next year is smoke-free – yay!) I was prepared, and brought a spray bottle of Nature’s Miracle odor eliminator to spray all over the carpet, and some odor crystals. They worked well enough that the room wasn’t bad. But as I unpacked here at home I did notice a little bit of a tobacco smell on my jacket that sat in the room all weekend.

I got there too early, and my room wasn’t ready yet. With a little encouragement, I threw on my swim suit and went and hung out in the pool for a while. Good thing I did, since I never got back into the pool all weekend. There just never seemed to be time.

I did stuff. I wore pajamas all weekend. It’s all kind of a pleasant blur. Some highlights included the fire pit, quiet time with friends, hanging out in my room and navel-gazing, and not using a computer *at all* all weekend. (Okay, I cheated and used my phone. But that hardly counts.)

I got a new kilt! Techdragon got my kilt done in time to get it to me and it’s awesome.

And I remember at least some names of people. Now to see if I can keep those in my brain long enough to use them again.

Knitting Projects

2009-11-03T20:39:27Z

Originally published at Bogroll Babble. You can comment here or there.

After spending many months with some kind of unconscious aversion to knitting, I am suddenly overwhelmed with projects.

I picked up the needles and finished off a hat for my wife. Despite the horrendously awful boucle’ yarn involved, I kept knitting.

A friend has a mitten pattern that needed a test knitter. I’ve finished one mitten, I’m looking at my notes to see what might need to be changed, and will start the next mitten soon.

I really want to knit a felted messenger-style bag to carry my netbook in. I have looked around for patterns, and had just about settled on one when I stumbled across a technique for casting on yarn to a d-ring. (d-ring cast-on) Sweet! And that would let me make the strap removable and/or adjustable. So now I need to design my own pattern. That’s going to take a little contemplation, so that project probably won’t start for a while.

While killing time stumbling around on the Internet one evening I happened across an article about making bottle cozies: cozies. What’s wrong with that pattern, you ask? Why, nothing at all. However, I think I need to design my own. I’ve started and frogged three times so far.

Kilt hose! These have been on my list for a while now. And now that I’ve ordered another kilt, I think I need to be starting them.

I’m heading off to Omegacon soon, and as I started thinking about my packing list it occured to me that I don’t have any slippers. Oh noes! Whatever shall I do? Well, what I shall do is go without for now. But I do have it in mind to remedy my lack of slipper-ness. Perhaps with these.

And of course I’d like to make some things as Christmas gifts. But whenever will I have time? I’m afraid that my knitting is going to be done completely selfishly for quite a while.

Netflix reminder

2009-10-28T18:30:41Z

Originally published at Bogroll Babble. You can comment here or there.

Ahh yes. Peter O’Toole. What a fine fine actor. Can you believe he’s still working? Amazing. Isn’t he like 800 years old?

So now I must remember to get some of the classics into my Netflix queue. The Lion in Winter to start with, maybe. He and Katherine Hepburn are fantastic in that one.

Goodbye, Mr. Chips. Yes. They don’t make movies like that any more.

My Favorite Year. Definitely. “He’s plastered!”

Okay, so who wants to host a Peter O’Toole film festival? I’d do it, but I don’t even own a TV. I’ll bring the movies, beer, and chips.

What are your goals?

2009-10-23T00:37:54Z

Originally published at Bogroll Babble. You can comment here or there.

I was talking to someone today who is very smart. And they said something along the lines of this:

“If you aren’t reaching your goals, you need to either change what you are doing, or change your goals.” The third option, of course, is to continue doing exactly what you’ve been doing, continuing to get the same result and, essentially, failing.

I thought about what they had said for a moment, and realized that I don’t really have goals. I just kind of bumble along, waiting to see what happens next. Or, as Piglet would say: “I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today.”

Which is fine, if what comes your way is enough. But it certainly limits your options, as opposed to going out and seeking things.

Testing x-post

2009-10-19T18:19:13Z

Originally published at Bogroll Babble. You can comment here or there.

Let’s test this out and see if it will crosspost to Livejournal for me…

A Music Meme

2009-08-31T19:25:39Z

Because I haven't posted anything for a while, and because my ipod was kind to me and actually didn't bring up anything overly embarassing.

A music meme: Hit shuffle on your ipod or mp3 player and write down the first 25 songs. No cheating or skipping songs that are shameful. That is the fun!

Jack Earls - Sign on the Dotted Line
Bach - Concerto in A Minor
Pink Floyd - Bring the Boys Back Home
Boomtown Rats - She's So Modern
Jerry Reed - Bessie Baby
The Replacements - Alex Chilton
Three Dog Night - One Man Band
Hank III - 5 Shots of Whiskey
Johnny Nash - Guava Jelly
Trick Pony - Pour Me Another Shot of Whiskey
Johnny Cash - Oney
The Temptations - I Wish It Would Rain
Dickie Damron - Rockin' Baby
Clay Crosse - Sinner's Prayer
Oingo Boingo - New Generation
Clint Black - What I feel Inside
Petula Clark - Mad About You
Eagles - Out of Control
Gary Allan - Bourbon Borderline
Deniece Williams - Let's Hear It For the Boy
Elvis Presley - I Really Don't Want To Know
Doobie Brothers - Jesus is Just Alright
Faith Hill - Life's Too Short to Love Like That
Moby - Bad Days
David Allan Coe - If That Ain't Country

What if?

2009-07-23T14:23:39Z

Do you ever wonder "what if"? And when you do, do you actually think about it realistically?

For some reason, this morning I was thinking back to my college days and I recalled the glassblowing class that I dropped. I was overloaded with some crap like calculus and physics, or calculus and philosophy. Or calculus and calculus. Some horrible classes at any rate, almost certainly including calc. (Did I mention that I managed to fail calculus a record number of times?)

I went to the first couple of classes. I even got to handle glass once. It was way cool. I burned the hairs off my forearms getting the glass onto the punty (that's the metal stick that you use to handle the glass). I pulled it out and set it down across the table/chair/thing and started rolling it back and forth. I got to play with the molten glass with the giant metal tweezers. The professor commented on how well I was doing and that I was a natural.

And then I dropped the class. Stupid calculus.

So - what if instead of doing the supposedly responsible thing, I had dropped calc and physics and switched my major to art and started doing glassblowing instead? Boy, think of the possibilities! World famous artist. Studio in New York, showings in Paris, blah blah blah. Or, more realistically, I'd end up making and selling little glass unicorns at RenFests all over the country. Pulling down just enough money to survive, living in a tent, and bathing out of a bucket. Driving a beat up 1977 Winnebago. Hating, with a passion, little glass unicorns.

ipod "random" play

2009-07-09T14:29:41Z

I am beginning to suspect that Apple has something hidden up their sleeve.

I was in a particular mood last night on the drive home, and my ipod's random play tormented me all the way home. It knew just what to play to twist the knife in and make my mood worse.

This morning, as I headed out of the driveway I asked it to please give me a reprieve, and hit 'next' off of the last evil song it had been playing me yesterday. I was thinking "light and fluffy. Please give me light and fluffy." It played The Village People, followed by Alice Cooper, Queen Ida, and the Weather Girls. Wow. Is there some kind of secret RFID chip in my head that Apple is using?

Convergence thoughts - short version

2009-07-06T16:24:48Z

Other than a 24 hour period spent running to the hospital to see mom-in-law and being at home, Convergence was pretty great.

The main thing I was thinking this morning, on my way into work and back to the real world, was regret that I didn't get to spend more time with you. You, you and you. All of you. There wasn't a single person there that I got enough time with. (Except the freaky drunk who apparently couldn't get a roommate to answer the phone and let him into his room. Him I wouldn't have minded missing at all.) Some of them, like Shaun and Greg, I barely saw at all. Sad me. Some I got to actually hang out with. That was cool, but I wish there had been more of it.

I usually like smaller gatherings because of this. In a smaller gathering, you don't generally miss as much. At Convergence, you miss almost everything. Sad! It's kind of like going to the biggest buffet in the world, and only being able to eat one plate of food. It might be truly awesome food, but you kind of wonder what other things you missed. That's okay though. I'll go back again next year and get my fill once again.

I hope your plate was as full of awesome as mine was.

mmpantsless @ 2009-06-22T19:42:00

2009-06-23T00:45:13Z

So my iPod did a pretty amazing job of picking the right music for my ride home after Rob's service.
But this is the one that really hit home.

Meat Puppets - Roof With a Hole
Apparently it's even on YouTube. Isn't everything?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m642MXtT3zo

My head's got a hole in it
And everything's been ruined by the rain.

Digital TV kerfluffl

2009-06-08T15:31:42Z

"More than three million homes that do not subscribe to cable or satellite services are totally unprepared for the transition and will lose their reception, according to Nielsen."

So what?
Jesus H. Tapdancing Christ on a fucking pogo stick. Since when did TV become an essential service?

Yes, I know there are some people that will be hurt by this. There is some poor little old lady who spends her life watching the TV set that someone gave to her, who can't afford the converter box. Or maybe doesn't even know this is coming. And it's going to suck for her.

But should the entire world stop in its tracks and refuse to go forward at all unless we can make sure she keeps up?
Then shouldn't we all turn off our DSL routers and refuse to use the Internet until homeless people under bridges have access as well?
Nobody should be allowed to use cars with airbags and anti-lock brakes until *every* car on the road has them.
Nobody should get laser vision correction surgery until we can afford to give it to everyone that needs it.

I think we've put more than enough effort into this transition, and it's time to pull the damned plug and get over it. You can buy a converter box for under $50, even without a government coupon. There are 300 million people in the US. 300 million times 50 is $15 billion dollars. That's what, about a month worth of war costs? Let's turn off the war a month early and buy everyone a damned converter box. Hell, let's cut it off two months early and buy everyone dinner, too.

No!

2009-05-23T16:12:41Z

I'm not gonna fall for the yes/no meme. I refuse to be pigeon-holed, without even a third "maybe" option. Let alone a blank to let me fill in my own options. So nyah - I am not a sheep.

Titanic day

2009-04-14T14:13:43Z

On this date in 1912 the Titanic found the needle in the haystack. Or, more accurately, the iceberg in the ocean.

Let's be careful out there.

low-carb mess

2009-03-12T23:09:30Z

Documenting my cooking, since I've been doing it sort of like this before and apparently never wrote it down.

Fry up 1 1/2 lb. of hamburger
Fry up 2 large onions and a large green pepper and some garlic

When the hamburger is getting close to being done, add in a can of Rotel (don't drain) and some hot chili sauce.

When the veggies are getting close to done, throw in 8 oz. of sliced mushrooms.

~~Augh! Forgot to have any kind of jalapeno - my dried ones ran out.~~
Edit: No problem on the jalapeno. This came out perfectly, with a nice mild but tasty spiciness.

Add a bit of cumin, some cilantro and some crushed red pepper to the veggie mixture while the mushrooms are cooking in.

Now notice that the 12" skillet that you're cooking the veggies in is probably not going to be big enough for all this...

The hamburger has fried long enough to get rid of all the water from the Rotel. So now pour it over into the (overfull) skillet with the veggies.
Mix it all together really well and let it simmer while you cut up the cheese. It's not really looking red enough, so throw in 3 Tsp of salsa.

Throw in cheese and cook it all down.
Tonight I'm using Monterey Jack and Medium Cheddar. Estimated amounts: 2/3lb of each.
Really, let it cook down for a while. It takes some time for the cheese to cook in completely.
And yes, things will be kind of greasy when you're done.

Serve in a bowl, or on open-face sandwich style on bread.

Edit: I think I have created the perfect food. Sure, it doesn't look like much. But it's all four food-group-ey goodness, and tasty as hell.

Why?

2009-01-30T01:00:04Z

Why does a conversation that starts with "Why did you do that when I told you not to do that?" turn into a fifteen minute physics lecture on why you shouldn't do that?

I'll tell you why.

Because it's illegal to strangle your children and throw them in a weighted sack in the swamp.

Yes, this is with the 18 year old. All you parents with younger children who think that they will grow out of it? Good luck!

Also?

2009-01-16T19:07:04Z

The world is *full* of stupid people. And the Internet only makes it easier for them to find each other.

We must end the Internet now, or the human race is doomed.

My new white elephant

2009-01-16T17:23:06Z

I recently received a great big white elephant gift - 8 longboxes full of comics.
At first blush, this is an awesome windfall. Dude! Even if 90% of it is stuff I'm not interested, it's gonna be awesome!

Then, I trucked it all home, and piled it all up against the wall in my office. And left it for a day.

How do you approach such a stash? I mean really. Think about it. You have something approaching 1,500 comics sitting there. You know a lot of it will not interest you at all. A lot of it you'll want to look at, but probably not ultimately keep. And there will be some nuggets in there that are gold. How do you go about the separation process?

Well, I took a few random stabs into the boxes, to try to get a feel for what's there. And got overwhelmed and just left it alone again. And went off to think. Ultimately, those three categories still stand: keep, read and then get rid of, and just plain get rid of.

Short sidebar: How do you get rid of them?
I mean seriously, who's going to take them? At various times in the last week or so, it has occurred to me that the theoretical value of all these comics as a whole is rather large. But. But who's going to buy them? I could spend the next year or so dumping them off on ebay a little bit at a time. But my time's worth more to me than that. I could set up a table at a comic convention. But if I'm going to go to a convention, I'd rather do the walking around and looking at other stuff. Not sitting on my butt wrangling with people over the price they're willing to pay for some issue of some comic I know nothing about. You could take them all as a lot to the comics store. If they're buying, which they almost certainly are not. They'd probably offer you some egregiously low sum for them, if they were feeling generous.

So what's my point? My point is that, ultimately, I want to have at least a roughly compiled list of what I have, so that I can then try to match that list up with people that are willing to take parts of the collection off my hands. Somebody must want old Aquaman comics, right? Maybe? And they might even take the JLAs, too.

Last night, I actually made a small dent in those comics. The giver and I have similar enough tastes that there's going to be a lot that I want to at least read, if not keep. So I took 20 minutes and made a first quick pass through to pull out some keepers. Every time I ran across certain names, I just pulled them into the "keep" pile. Templesmith, Ellis, Wood... they're all no-brainers.

So that's how I'm going to go about bringing this white elephant down to size. I'll just pick away at it from the edges, a little bit at a time, until I have something manageable.

And a lifetime worth of good stuff to read!

Why Verizon sucks

2008-12-22T21:31:43Z

Today, that is. There will probably be different reasons on other days. But today, Verizon sucks because of this:

Verizon: Buy this cool phone. It's got a camera!
Wife: Okay, that sounds cool.
later:
Wife: Hey, I want to move these pictures to my computer.
Me: Hmm. Nothing in the manual about how to do it. Call Verizon.
Verizon: Hahaha! Now we have you, sucker!
Verizon: Sure, you can do that. You just have to download and install this software.
Verizon: *and* have the service activated on your phone.
Verizon: Oh, by the way; that'll be $15 per month.
Me: Suck my balls, corporate scum.

I'm currently looking at other options. Using the microSD slot on the phone seems like a good possibility. And there's open-source software called BitPim that might be able to do it.

Guess who's not getting our business when the contract on this phone is up?

EDIT:
Thanks to BitPim, we are saved. I was going to go buy a microSD card, but instead I used this:
http://www.bitpim.org/
Which rocks.

bourbon review

2008-11-27T00:03:13Z

Okay, not really a review - more of a quick impression.

I picked up some Eagle Rare 10 year old bourbon at the store tonight. They have smartly offered it in a 375ml bottle for those of us to cheap to buy the full bottle on a whim.

It's not Booker's, that's for sure. But at the price it's an excellent value. It's very smooth, with plenty of bite. I recommend it.

Comfort books

2008-11-16T20:37:11Z

You know you have them - that book or books that you'll go back and re-read when you're not in the mood for anything else. When you just want something familiar.

I'll cop to going back to Dragonsong and Dragonsinger by Anne McCaffrey. I've read them so many times it's a wonder I don't have them memorized. They're perfect teenage angst fodder. I love them.

Veteran's Day

2008-11-11T21:54:39Z

I disagree with Mainsail.

I don't have the time right now, nor the ability in general, to properly express my feelings on this.
But what he said was "I’ve visited him, and remember his name today, along with all my own mates, who decades later, did nothing quite so great in scope, but did their bit. I’m a Vet as well, but William and the others gave far, far more than I did. And more are giving their all in far-away places."

And he seems to be saying the some peoples' contributions were greater than others. And in a way, that may be true. But at the same time, I have to respectfully disagree.

For anyone who at any time has made the conscious decision to put on the uniform and take up arms (or spatula) in the name of our country, I have the utmost respect. And they have earned our respect by putting their life on the line for us. Even if they only end up spending the next four years in a kitchen in Kansas, and the closest they come to danger is when someone from the motor pool almost runs them down with a Humvee, they have made the sacrifice. They deserve the same props as the paratrooper who jumps into the unknown in the dark night.

So Mainsail, I see your point of view. But really, you all gave the same amount. Or at least offered it. And that counts.

Thoughts on trap shooting

2008-11-04T02:58:06Z

Thoughts on my shooting tonight. Deep and meaningful and of huge interest to you all. I don't know why I bother to hide it with cut tags. I'm sure you all with be eager to read it.

Thanks to the daylight savings time-shift, we were shooting in the dark. This is actually a good thing. With the floodlights on, you get a bright orange clay to aim at, and a dark blank background. It's pretty nice.

Tonight I concentrated almost entirely on my stance and balance. I tried to bend at the knees more, and not shift my weight quite as far forward as I normally would. It seemed to work pretty well.

We had a tailwind, which made the clays run away from you fast and low. With the very occasional exception that caught a cross-wind and floated up high. I already have a tendency to shoot over the clay. Somehow I managed to keep from going completely over, and shot 47 out of 50.

When you're at the 4th station (5 stations of 5 shots each) and you haven't missed yet, you kind of start to notice it. After 22 straight, with three shots left, I really started to notice. I could feel my heart start to race and I started both celebrating my victorious 25 straight, and lamenting my stupid miss that cost me the 25 straight; both at the same time. Somehow though I managed to stay focused on my stance and my balance, and keep it to shooting just one bird at a time. That got me through, and got me my 25 straight. Don't celebrate until it's over! But... it's over. Woo-hoo!

One thing that helped a lot, I think, was having one thing to think about throughout the whole round. I'd get distracted and think about other things. But I always managed to pull it back to focus on my stance. And so I was always ready when I called 'pull' and a clay came out.

Podcasts

2008-11-01T20:57:42Z

What are your favorite podcasts? I'm looking for stuff to listen to/watch. Tell me your favorites!