Tee hee. Now here's something I haven't seen since '94: the Geek Code. I'm much geekier than I was back then, but then, so's the whole world. Anywho, here's me:
-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.1
GIT/TW d- s+:+ a- C++>+++ ULC P+ L+>+++ E+ W+++$(-) N o? K? w(---)$ M V PS++(+++) PE++() Y+ PGP>++ t+@ 5 X+(-) R+ tv b+>++ DI++ D(---) G e++ h- r++>+++ x+
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------
But now, this froody geek created a decoder, so here's me, packaged for the masses.
Woah! Readership bloom. I got more votes on this poll than any other. And since its topic was what the next poll should be about, I have listened to your outcry. Overwhelmingly, my readers are fans of fluff and lint, with that item getting 12 out of 14 votes (no, I did not recou--I can't bring myself to make that joke. *sob*). But within that topic, it was not difficult to accomodate my other two readers who wanted to talk about Harry Potter, and copyrights and piracy (who would have expected marshmallowfluff.com to exist?). Nobody, but nobody, wanted to talk about current events, sending a resounding zero chads--hanging, pregnant, or otherwise--to the items "Floridians," "The lesser of two evils," or "That college we can't get into."
So, gentle readers. You asked, I respond. Vote away!
(Brought to you by The Lunchtime Poll, recount-free for nine months.)
So much to tell, so much to tell. And I've got a new reader! (Hi, Faith.)
Apartment: Supposedly the carpet pad is being replaced and the concrete sealed as we speak. Cleaning should happen before the end of the week. Sheetrock replacing will be a little longer. Movement! (like through sludge, but movement nonetheless)
Work: App has successfully passed user acceptance testing and the more challenging process of getting approved by Change Management. We are go for launch! Friday, at 5 pm. Woo hoo!
Win2K migration of my workstation was painless. And I have finally found the secret coffee stash of our IT department. It was recently hidden because non-IT people were helping themselves. Our group, which sits on a different floor from the rest of IT, reacted to the news of the coffee hiding with, "We had free coffee?"
Turkey: Jon and I spent Thanksgiving with our friends Ben and Natosha on Ben's parents' 800-acre ranch. Much eating, much loafing, much strolling on beautiful open spaces, much petting of horse noses, much pouncing by dogs. A good time was had by all.
Steak: Ray's Steakhouse, on Guadelupe, although being the most I have ever spent on dinner for two, was outstanding, quite worthy of being our romantic, two-year-anniversary restaurant. The Austin American-Statesman captured it well: hunting lodge meets white linen. How Texan. There were lots of mounted heads on the walls, but the food was quite excellent, and our waiter Manny was so cool. They served me the only cheesecake that Texas has done right. Dense. Thick. Not-sweet. Cream-cheesey. Ahhhhhhhhh...
Domination: I found a service, buydomains.com, that lets you register a domain for $16/year and then provides free forwarding, so you can host anywhere. Which is exactly what I was looking for for this site and the new blog that Faith and I are cooking up. I've registered spyderella.net, but they need a few days to switch it over from domainmonger.com. Once I know, I'll let you know what I think. Then you all can quit bugging me that you can never remember my url.
In related news, ICANN approved the creation of seven new domain suffixes.
Heh heh heh. We saw Charlie's Angels last week. It was very neat.
Don't you think I look a little like Drew Barrymore? Consider your answer very carefully.
I got my app done in time for Monday's user acceptance testing. Yaaaaaay. My system should have been migrated last night to Windows 2000 (yikes). I'll find out later today if I've survived; I'm in ASP class right now.
In other news... Two Years. Can you believe it's been two years? But here it is, the Leonids meteor shower again, so it must have been two years since we started dating. We're going out for a fancy dinner tonight.
Man, when did it get to Thursday? Yeesh. On Friday, we had a blast at Margaret Cho's show. It was less like stand-up comedy, and more like a frank discussion from a funny person. I like her a lot. Her parting thought is that gay people should be allowed to get married like straight people, and straight people should have sex like gay people. Right on.
Also sometime last week, we watched Hitchcock's Rear Window. I like Jimmy Stewart. ^_^ Hitchcock is weak on endings, though. He doesn't fool around with any messy denouement stuff; just wraps it up 30 seconds after the dramatic climax. But we'll forgive him, won't we?
Saturday saw an enjoyable evening spent chatting with friends. We were supposed to be getting together to watch The Sixth Sense, but we found each other more entertaining. Chris is planning a haunted bed-and-breakfast and was pumping us for ideas. Boy, it would be neat.
My apartment is finally on the mend. Friday, I am told, the ducts will be cleaned. Then at 8 am on Saturday, the floor will get sealed, the carpet pad replaced, and the carpets steam cleaned. After we know that the leak repairs are holding, they'll fix the sheet rock in the walls. Should be good...provided it happens. (The duct cleaning was supposed to occur last Monday. Hm.) I mentioned in one of my letters that I would write another letter to the corporate office, this time in thanks, if stuff got fixed. However, I can't think of any opening to the letter that doesn't sound like, "And when they finally got around to what they should have been doing all along..." I'll keep working on it.
Mom has arranged for all my local family to be at their place on Christmas eve, when I'll be there. Then, right when I get back, Faith will be arriving for us to spend a Wild Girls Week in Austin. This will be a great vacation.
Well, if popular opinion has any bearing on truth, eating raw cookie dough won't give you food poisoning. I'd always wondered, since it contains eggs (not that that stopped me), but my poll results show that no one else is concerned. Four people deemed it the best stuff ever, and three (possibly some overlap, there, since it's an ambiguous ballot) stated that it makes appropriate hors d'ouvres (I've had it served to me—more than once). One person flouts the strong warnings on the packaging and microwaves it. But nobody is concerned about salmonilla.
Regardless, it's clearly time for a new poll. But I just can't think of any pressing current events. Can you?
Austin, Texas, is an interesting town.
Here we are, capitol of Texas, downtown shut down to accomodate Bush's victory party, but Austin voters are not so staunchly Texan. According to the Travis County results at 9:45 this morning, almost 52% voted straight-ticket democrat. And the Green party got 3.78%. Across-the-board Republicans were only 43%.
And the Presidential race is even more interesting in Travis County. Bush took 46.5%, Gore ~42%... and Nader: 10.36%!
Now, the light rail referendum lost, but only just. Less than 2,000 votes separate for and against, out of 237,042 total votes. They both round to 50%. So close, so close...
Lot's of things...which makes sense, since I haven't posted in a while.
Apartment woes continue
Then there was the water. Leaching up through our carpet. Making our walls soggy. (Lots of people have asked what floor we live on. I tell them that the people downstairs are pissed. We live on the ground floor. Duh.) Jon wrote a letter about this soppiness. Five days later, I sent a letter, certified mail, return receipt requested, to both the apartment office and their corporate office in Colorado, stating the health risk (mold, which is leading to my vertigo--see below--and might give Jon asthma attacks), outlining our requested remedy, providing a deadline, and citing the section of the Texas Property Code that would allow us to terminate the lease if they don't meet that deadline. (I love being able to start a letter with, "By Subchapter B of Chapter 92...") They phoned yesterday (our postal service is that fast? Hot damn.) to say that all the contractors in Austin are booked because the rainy season makes everybody notice their leaks. We're apartment shopping tomorrow. I think our current place should give us another apartment. We'll see.
But if you live in Austin, Promontory Point gets a big thumbs-down. It's a drag, too, because their facade has this nice red brick.
Ears
Since July 99, I've had occasional bouts of dizziness, and I've gotten varying diagnoses. Today, I saw a new doctor and finally got an answer that makes sense. (She was so delightful. I'm sad I'll only get to see her when I'm sick.) My middle ears feel full, but nobody ever sees any fluid in there. Well, Dr. Ezekoye said the congestion is in my nasal passages, and that is pressing on my eustacian tubes, preventing them from functioning (so the pressure in my middle ears can't be equalized, hence the full feeling) and causing sympathetic discomfort over in my ears. Then the dizziness is probably tied into that. She gave me some samples of and prescribed a decongestant. Finally, an answer!
Halloween
Jon and I made masks. We went to one party on the 21st, found ourselves strangely free on the 28th, and helped our house-enabled friend hand out candy on the 31st. His party will then be on the 4th. At work, our group had a party, including a costume contest. I did not win the "scariest" prize, but my teammates decided that the judging (by applause) was lame and that I was robbed. So at our staff meeting, they presented me with a ...um, what is this thing? It's like a snow globe, only without the snow. The globe is squishy, not glass. And it's got a big *spider* inside it! What a great desk toy! ^_^
Holidays
Our friend Ben and his family are our adoptive Texas family, so we'll be there with the whole brood for Thanksgiving. Then, in order to have Thanksgiving and New Year's off, Jon has opted to work on Christmas, and I'll be visiting my parents in their snazzy new house. Local grandparents and cousins and such will probably be there, too. Then my friend Faith is spending a few days here right after Christmas. I'm trying to get her to see how hip Austin is and how often they don't shower you in pesticides here.
Daily Bliss
The lunch from the cafeteria was really good today! Pork loin and green beans and herb potatoes. Yum!
