Update, update, update. Let's see, it has been 13 days since my last update. It doesn't seem like all that long, but so much has happened. Since then I have achieved a year of age. We went to the six flags water park, which was lots of fun. It'll be sad when I'm so old that people think it odd for me to be water sliding. The six flags park is decent, but I wish there was a really good one nearby. Maybe someday I'll move to a city with a water park. There were some issues with the weather forecast causing me to change the day, which made it so a bunch of people couldn't make it, and then the weather was nice on the original day after all. It was a huge mess. If only the dc storms weren't so severe.

Umm, last weekend was Joe, Whitney's fiance's going away party. Because of threatening rain, we went to redrock pizza instead of having an outdoor bbq. I think I've grown disillusioned with redrock, they make a decent calzone, but the pizza isn't really to my taste. It was fairly fun though. Afterwards we had some drinks out infront of Joe's front stoop, which was much more fun.

Kate took me out to Good Stuff for my birthday. My burger was very good, and we saw the guy who was on tv. Though we didn't pull him aside and talk to him like Rachel did on her visit. Then we walked around the capitol on one of the nicest dc nights of the summer (weather-wise). Some symphony was even playing. It was all very romantic, just like I had planned.

Also last weekend, Kate and I went with Rachel and Peter out to Great Falls. I had never heard of it before, but apparently there are some pretty big waterfalls just outside of dc. It was a nice warm day, and we bought sandwich makings and picnicked out in the park before hiking around the falls. Then we briefly went swimming in courthouse, and then went out to see the new harry potter movie. Yes, it was a very busy day. I felt kinda bad for Peter. He didn't seem to feel like swimming (the pool water was very cold, I wouldn't have either), and then re-watching a movie he'd already seen probably wasn't his ideal evening. Anyway. The new harry potter movie is super good. So much better than the previous two movies. Rachel called it a "cute" movie, and I'd agree. But that's what makes the harry potter movies good! They spent more time in classes, Malfoy is back to his sneaking, and there's more young love. On the other hand I didn't like how they glossed over the "half-blood prince" aspect, and most of all, there was no Weasley face mauling at the end! The end battle was instead more of a assassination followed by the baddies sneaking out. Oh well.

Tomorrow I fly to san francisco. I'm going to see Eric, see san francisco, then go home and see a high school friend, and then see lots of family. I'm not bringing any work with me, and I'm looking forward to this whole thing.

I've been watching the next generation from the beginning of the series. So far I've made it to the third episode. The first episode has Miles O'Brien as the transporter engineer, but everyone calls him "Connor". Also in the first episode, which I had seen but it never occurred to me before, Q shows up and pretty much lectures "I've seen the original series, and I don't want this to be more of the same!" Then the next few episodes try to highlight Picard's preference for prudence and thoughtfulness over rash action. Some other things I've noticed: there is no galaxy where Tasha Yar would be considered attractive, and the first few episodes put too much emphasis on Weasly being so brilliant and earnest. Also they talk about the ferengi as though they're a super dangerous race, when really the Ferengi are a bunch of traders who only want money.

(Walking down the street with Giorgia and Kate late at night)
street man: Whatever you did to be accompanied by two such oscar-worthy ladies.. you keep that secret to yourself!
me: Umm. Okay.
Kate: You hear that Giorgia? Oscar-worthy.
Giorgia: Oh, I heard it. I don't know what that means, but I'll take it.

I scored a 13 on this Asperger Test. I think I once wondered because I am not a very emotional guy, but apparently there's no AS here. Finally my inattention to detail is paying off! I can't imagine having a telephone conversation and wondering when it was "my turn" to speak. Sounds so awkward. I used to be so non-talkative that my mom had to explain to me that a conversation is like a game of catch: you have to throw the ball back. But I can't help but feel that if you're having a real conversation it is more than just a series of "turns to speak". Information is exchanged. For example, when I'm on the phone: if I have something to say then I'll say it, if I wonder what you have to say then I listen, and when I don't feel like doing either, I hang up. Just ask Kate what a smooth talker I am on the phone. So, so smooth.

(commentary about a editorial where a games reviewer complained about how 40 hour games are too long for adults with other commitments, as opposed to the teenagers with time to kill)
mondblut: Waah waah kids and wife don't give me enough time to play so games should bend to *my* restrictions. If he'll breed a couple more times and won't even have one hour to play, would he demand that games shouldn't be produced at all, since he can't play them anyway?

Up early because I got a text message at 5am this morning saying "Your data charges are very high. To minimize a costly bill & service interruption, please call AT&T 800-331-0500 or 611 from your wireless. AT&T Free Msg"

Thanks for the free message, AT&T. So I called customer support when they opened at 7am this morning, and I think I got someone who was either being interviewed or instructing the other support personnel on how to handle a caller or something because she started the call with a chipper "Thank you for calling AT&T this is Kelly and I will try to do my very best this morning to help you with anything I can!" And she was surprisingly helpful, though I don't think she was expecting my kind of problems this early in the morning.

Turns out AT&T wants to charge me $800 for two youtube videos I streamed yesterday, when I thought it was going through my wireless LAN. (It was reviews of StreetFighter 4 and Marvel Ultimate Alliance, btw.) Or they want to strong arm me into signing up for a data plan.

She had a hard time following how the fact that I had remote desktop connected to my desktop through its local IP address earlier (and that the apparently worthless settings on windows mobile say that my data connection is disabled) made me think that this youtube application was streaming through my LAN. I told her I didn't want the data plan, so she backdated a cancel order on my data connection, and she thinks that will automatically cancel the charge. She said that if not, "they" are going to make me sign up for a dataplan which they can then definitely backdate. We'll see. I'm supposed to check back in a month.

Kate: I KNEW you were going to put that quote in your blog!

My supervisor is on vacation for the next week or two, so until then I have my old officemate as the person signing my work. I'm feeling pretty good about it because he's easy going and he and I get along well. Today I sent an interview summary to him, and clicked back probably 10 seconds later to find that he had already approved and submitted it. Interview summaries aren't a big deal at all, but I still found it kinda funny how quickly it was approved. I should get him one of those t-shirts: "The buck doesn't even slow down here."

I had a fun 4th of July weekend. I think it was the mildest 4th of July weather that I can remember since being in dc.

This week I'm gonna be a little busy catching up with work. But next weekend: Six Flags Water Park! Woohoo!

kate: so what you are saying is
kate: usually you are a jerk
kate: and today you decided not to be
kate: and surprise suprise
kate: they reacted well in return?

First of all, if you borrowed an Office Space dvd from me, please return it.

I just finished my end of the quarter, and it was a rough one. New vows about not procrastinating have been taken and are being taken more seriously.

My phone has been sketchy lately. It's been turning off in my pocket, and twice I've been clicking through the menu and it has shut down in my hands. So I'm getting a new one. Not the iphone because I don't like it. And not the Palm Pre because they're not planning on releasing the SDK any time soon. Instead I ordered a slightly older HTC Fuze. (I always thought it was pronouced "fuzz" but I just watched a video and they pronounced it "fuse".) It's gotten some mediocre reviews because of the AT&T bloatware, but I plan on removing all of that and installing a custom ROM as soon as I get it. It runs on windows mobile so there's a pretty wide selection of Apps available.

I can also get the phone without having to get a data connection, so that will save me $30 a month. I figure I'm online all day anyway, there's no reason to double my phone bill just to get the internet in my pocket. Pretty much everything I can put on there from my computer or write myself a note to do later at the computer, and there are GPS apps that don't require data connection. Maybe I'll have it push emails when I'm at a wifi but I doubt it.

Yesterday two trains collided on the dc metro up past fort totten. The national transport safety board is now "revealing" that one of the trains was old and should have been replaced. News flash: All the trains on the red line are old and should be replaced. For some reason the red line is where all the old decrepit trains go. Riding in it you can tell it's dingy and old, and you feel like you're in a third world country. I bet 75% of the train malfunctions happen on the red line.

That's all for now. Oh and I fixed my KVM switch. And by fix, I mean that I re-plugged and restarted everything and now it's working again. A little frontier medicine. It's a relief, it was quite the pain swapping USB cables manually.

Gene: My family tells stories from the great depression that you had to keep your dog close. If your dog left your yard and went wandering he'd likely end up shot and never return. People were literally hungry all over the world. This does not touch that. We are all still fat.

My KVM switch stopped working today. I'm not sure what the issue is. For now, I've disconnected my regular computer. It's nothing but work from now on, which might help keep me from wasting time by fidgiting with music, etc. (Note to self: it might have just been the work laptop's software just being finicky. You didn't try restarting the OS. Try plugging it all back together and rebooting next time.)

My landlords have built a new back deck. Kate was pretty amused to discover that it goes right above my kitchen window. Actually, it wouldn't be very noticable from inside except that they put a wooden fencing around the base of the deck to keep animals from living down there. And that goes right across the front of my window. No more morning sunlight. I guess I never really lingered in my kitchen to enjoy it anyway.

Today, on a whim, I used water from my britta to make coffee. There is no discernable difference in taste.

midnight edit: I'm eating some Ben & Jerrys cinnamon bun ice cream that Kate suggested I buy. Super sweet, but delicious.

(from a citibank stock forum. There's a lot of passion on these boards.)
arat: I just wanna sell this garbage called stock.

I was trying to make two turkey sandwiches for lunch today, but I discovered that I had only enough turkey for a single sandwich! I didn't want to go to the store, and besides I had already put mayo or mustard on all 4 slices of bread. Instead I split two hot dogs down the middle and fried them on the griddle to throw into my second sandwich. It's ingenuity like this that caused the industrial revolution.

Somehow I kicked my ottoman and bent my toenail in half. It doesn't hurt too much, it's just pretty uncomfortable. I guess there won't be any running today. I put a bandaid on the thing but I'm guessing chances are good that half of it will blacken and fall off. Gross. I've seen other people loose nails that way, but it's never happened to me before.

Some recent family drama. My mom's cousin John is planning a family reunion in July, and requested RSVPs from all the households as to who is coming. I told my mom I was going long ago, but apparently (as she told me on the phone last night,) she didn't RSVP for me. Because I don't qualify as a dependent for her taxes, she figured I was my own household and should rsvp for myself. WTF. Anyway, now I've emailed John, but it's after the RSVP date, and he sent out about a dozen RSVP reminders. (Though no listing of expected attendees or anything to indicate who has responded.) I'd be surprised if he replied with "too late" or "Damnit I asked for RSVPs a dozen times!" but if he does, f*** it, I'll stay here. You kinda feel obligated to go to a family reunion when there hasn't been on in 10 years, but it's probably not going to be fun. Sacramento in July is burning hot. And since when is one person a household? I still don't think I am at fault here. The more I think about this, the more annoyed I get. Time to do some work.

(Walking back to the metro after the Rent show. Joe almost bumps into a girl standing on the sidewalk)
Joe M: Oh, excuse me.
Joe M: (loudly to us) I just almost ran into a prostitute!
(Joe waited about 2 seconds, the girl was maybe 5 feet behind us, and she probably wasn't a prostitute. It's almost like Joe was drunk, but we hadn't been drinking.)