Liloia.com Archives: April 2003
April 23, 2003
Undead Dog Crossing
All the stories I read about Dosha call her a miracle dog.
But me? I'm scared.
I think we should all be a little more careful around Dosha the Zombie Dog.
Veggieburg?
While the basis for their request is ridiculous, you have to appreciate their guts to even ask.
Boston.com / Latest News / Northeast / PETA asks town to change its name
April 22, 2003
Stop the Spamees
I have discovered the solution to Internet spamming. Instead of prosecuting the companies who send out billions of unwanted messages, let's start prosecuting the 1 in 100,000 people who actually buy the crap that spammers are selling. They are the ones who make spamming a viable business model; without them the whole system would collapse.
I'm speaking to you now. Those of you who prefer to shop via spam:
Your reproductive organs are large enough.
Your local bank has competitive mortgage rates.
eBay has Iraq's Most Wanted playing cards.
She's not really sweet sixteen and waiting for you.
Your Uncle Vern can get you a cable descrambler.
Bald men are sexy.
April 21, 2003
Mr. Personality #2
The second thing that Mr. Personality teaches us is that the cumbersome costumes of an NFL team mascot have a high probability of engendering enormous hostility in the wearer.
Mr. Personality #1
The first thing that Mr. Personality teaches us is that, when left to their own devices, men are truly crappy gift givers.
Find your Spot
This is a great site for checking out where in the US you might like to live. Their questionaire is long, but well worth it for the results. You have to give a little bit of personal info to receive the results too, but no one ever said that you have to give them your real information.
Go fly a kite
No really, go. We gave Trevor a kite for Easter yesterday, and he and I spent part of the afternoon attempting to get it up in the sky. Since there was very little wind, we only succeeded in getting it up twice. The two times that we did get it up and off the ground it did go pretty high, I would say 75-100 feet. Trevor really got a kick out of it and even held the spool one of the times.
As with any four year old, he lost interest as soon as the kite hit the ground so I worked like crazy trying to keep it in the air, and without much wind this was nearly impossible. We'll have to try it out again when there is a stronger breeze. Having my weekends off is turning out to be great. They feel like they are 5 days long and I am really able to chill out. Hopefully it will help me in being less stressed all the time.
April 17, 2003
Dr. Atkins Dies at 72
You can cut the fat and you can cut the carbs, but in the end a plain old snowstorm can take you down.
Heroin in my coffee
This morning I left the house a little bit earlier than normal and had a chance to grab some coffee from the train station coffee shop. I usually don't get the chance to do this since I am cutting it so close to the wire in catching my train. Tom served me up a large coffee and I drank it as I rode into Boston this morning on the train and read my copy of The Ultimate Frankenstein.
When I arrived at work, I knew I was in trouble when people started saying to me "What are you on?". I am trying to keep a low profile while this super-buzz that I have going wears off. I wonder if my boss will notice that I am sitting under my desk chewing on post-it notes.
April 16, 2003
Relaxing..
The last week or so I have been spoiled. The weather is starting to turn nicer, the snow is finally gone, and the trees are starting to show signs that they are ready to get a move on. I have had very few shifts at the bookstore of late, coincedence not on purpose, and I only have 1 week from today until I am done working there for a while.
I have been spending lots of time at home playing with Tara and Trevor, and it has been AWESOME. Sunday Trevor and I released his butterflies Jake and Melanie out into the yard. He took it better than I thought. I assumed that he would have been upset that he had to let them go, and instead was excited that they were free. Kids can really surprise you.
Monday night we grilled and played on the driveway while our Feta Cheese and Sun Dried Tomato burgers sizzled on the grill. Trevor drew a hopscotch board, but never used it, and we pulled out his bike so he could ride it around the driveway. We cracked walnuts and Trev realized that he really really like walnuts, but is not strong enough to open them yet. We also toasted marshmallows over the grill and laughed a lot.
Last night we tried (note that I used the word tried) to make kites and fly them in the driveway. We have since decided that it would be a better idea to spend the $1.99 and buy one.
I also lucked out and have this coming weekend off again. Nothing better than sleeping in on a Saturday morning and then making a big breakfast. And by "sleep in" I mean "as late as Trevor will let you depending on who he picks to jump on a 7 AM".
I have been training the next batch of people from CT this week. They are good so far, a nice bunch of people. I have one more week of this and then I head off to CT myself for what looks to be 3-5 weeks of supporting the new group. I am hoping to find out the details of the sales position before then. If I do find out that I have gotten the position, then I will be heading back down to Shelton for another 2-3 weeks to train for the new job. I guess that is an acceptable hit to take in exchange for having a job and not being unemployed!
April 14, 2003
Ronin
I have been chewing through the Hagakure recently, which is an ancient book, relating the "Code of the Samurai". It is a little dry being an old piece of literature, but the tenents that they stand by are still very applicable today. One word founf in there 'Ronin', I had heard before but never knew what it meant. Well, here it is.
Ronin - In Japan, under the feudal system, a samurai who had renounced his clan or who had been discharged or ostracized and had become a wanderer without a lord; an outcast; an outlaw.
April 10, 2003
Go Menopause, Go!
I'm here catching up with you all and Pokemon is on Cartoon Network behind me. One of the characters is named Menopod or something simliar, but I keep hearing "Go Menopause, Go!" from behind me. It's surreal, but oddly empowering.
Nothing to see here. It's just anarchy, folks.
Let's all take a break from our day and have a little chat about looting.
Since when did looting become the joyful celebration of liberation from an oppressive regime? 'Cause... last time I checked it just meant that people were pretty much going berserk in the absence of law. Call me kooky crazy, but that's what I thought.
And you know, if I were walking down the dirt road, dragging a 500,000 BTU commercial air conditioner tethered to my family donkey toward my powerless mud hut, I might get all caught up in the moment and shout "Long Live Bush!" toward the tv cameras too. Just for fun. It wouldn't mean anything. Honest.
more on Grandma
So she is being moved back to my Uncle Paul's house today so she won't have to be kept in the hospital any longer. I am sure that she will be much more comfortable there, where all of her belongings are and it is a familiar environment. Hopefully she will begin to improve and be able to move around again soon.
Butterflies
Trevor's two butterflies Melanie and Jake both hatched successfully a day or so ago, and are doing great. They are quite pretty, but a little sluggish as we can't reasonably keep the temperature as warm as they would like it. Hopefully the temperature this weekend gets closer to 60 degrees and we can set them loose. I'll try to get a decent picture of them before we send them off.
April 7, 2003
WMD
I don't like the fact that we are at war, but at least some of the claims that the US has been making about the Weapons of Mass Destruction were not unfounded. I assume that we will find out more details as they come out.
U.S. Say It May Have Found Iraqi WMD Storage Site
April 6, 2003
Dave tricked me.
I didn't intend to sit in front of the computer today and play with CSS. Not on the first sunny day in a week. But Dave tricked me.
DAVE: (with new design test page up on the monitor) Honey, I like the new design. But if you could just stick this element over here it would look even better.
ME: Move out of the chair. I'll fix it.
DAVE: Oh well, I wasn't going to ask you, but if you're going to put it up anyway, you could make this darker too.
ME: I wasn't going to put it up yet.
DAVE: But if you wanted to put it up you could also change the font on this title.
The point here is that I tossed up the new templates without finishing testing. If you find any weirdnesses (like areas of the site that are brown and hideous) let me know. Thanks.
Grandma Kate
I just got off the phone with my mother. My Grandma Kate, who is my Dad's mom had a heart attack yesterday morning. She is apparently doing better now, and may be moved out of intensive care in another day or so. More later.
Weekend
Had a pretty low key weekend so far. We spent some time out at the Natick Mall yesterday where I saw Food Networks own Ming Tsai. He owns a restaurant in Wellesley, MA which is just down the road from the mall so it wasn't that big of a surprise to see him there. I initially had the idea that I would go up to him and say hello, but I really didn't have anything to say to him.
On top of that, he was there spending time with his son. I know with my schedule how little time I have with Trevor and how precious it is. I can't imagine what it must be like for a restaurant owner who also hosts 2 shows that take him all over the world! It was fun to see a celeb though, although being alone with Trevor, he didn't understand that is was cool.
April 4, 2003
Down to the wire
It just hit me this week. I only have three weeks left of doing my job, before it is all done. Gone. As of April 25th my department will officially be closed and no longer taking calls for our products and the functions that we handle go to Shelton, CT.
I will be going to CT to help with the transition, but with getting to live in a hotel and all, and eating out for every meal I can't really consider that work. It's more like a vacation to someplace lame. I am looking forward to the time off from the bookstore though. Less than three weeks until that is done. Man am I going to enjoy not having to go back to work after coming home from work.
Canada joins US
It was announced today that Canada is now prepared to help the US in its war against terrorism. They have promised to commit 2 of their largest battleships, 6000 armed troops and 60 fighter jets. However, after the exchange rate, that comes down to a canoe, 2 Mounties and a flying squirrel.
I was wondering where it had gotten to...
So I open my inbox this morning and sift through the spam, only to find one of the single most important discoveries of the 21st century being announced in this flippant little memo from CNN:
"U.S. officer says American troops find thousands of boxes of unknown white power, nerve gas antidote, and chemical warfare documents at complex south of Baghdad, according to The Associated Press. CNN is working to confirm."
Saddam had our white power. And now that we have it back, we will surely be victorious.
Here's a screenshot of the original email:
