Sunday Afternoon Thoughts

This is weird and rambly. I apologize in advance.

The gig today with Chasing Grace went well. It was in a very reverberated space, and very loud (not that I am one to complain about that). Good times were had.

What I’m listening to:

I’m planning a replacement/additional desktop computer to allow further self education on important IT principles.

This mattress is very comfortable. Thanks to the family who gave it to us! (I wasn’t sure if you wanted to be named or not, so erred on the side of privacy)

I am rather sweaty, and probably stinky.

I visited the train show in Harrisonburg today, and picked up a number of items. It’s still quite a culture shock compared to the model shows in New Zealand which were more about layout owners showing off their models and less about vendors. Here it’s all about Vendors selling their wares with only a couple of small layouts.

As a side note to the above, I also want to check out the local model railroad club, as I’m working during the day and might be available to attend – I just need to ensure it won’t conflict with other commitments.

Crash is doing really well at obeying commands, though he isn’t perfect. With one attempt at running away out the front door, he seemed to follow the instructions to wait, and go back inside.

I should look up Hulu and CBS and see if I’m caught up on Fringe and NCIS.

Top Gear is a fun show. Which reminds me, there is an episode we were watching the other day that needs to be finished.

Earlier this week we went out to see the circus train come through town. It was a guess as to when it would show up, but it worked out in the end. And much earlier than initially predicted. We’d been estimating as late as midnight (with unhappy looks from Kelly, with us having to be up early the next day and a 30-45 minute drive home). It showed up around 10pm where we were, and I got some bad video and unusable photos of it by the crossing we were sitting at (Look for Lynnwood on my Flickr for daylight photos from the place) then chased it North to Island Ford, filming it again poorly, and then we were alongside it (he was doing about 50-55mph, and we were creeping alongside at 55-60mph). His head end got to Elkton first, but with a more direct route and slightly higher speed limit we got to Shenandoah first (and even then, only just). Lots of waves exchanged with circus cast and crew, and generally a good time had by all.

People are coming over to watch Sherlock tonight. I’m not sure how social I feel like being, but Sherlock should balance that out.

My allergies have been bad lately. It’s annoying.

I enjoyed driving the truck today, it’s been a while. Even though I did accidentally try changing from 4th gear into (non-existent) 5th. Pretty sure it was a safety thing, but I ground a little putting it back into 4th, realized I was a little too far over still, and slotting into “R” instead. It does the same when trying to slot either into first or reverse when moving. Quickly corrected without any damage, and continued on our merry way.

Running out of things to say, probably a good thing.

Changing Timezones

Changing timezone without moving anywhere. It’s a tough assignment, but I’ve been able to do it.

Since September 2010 I’ve been working for Rosetta Stone’s test lab on the second shift, generally working somewhere in the vicinity of 5pm-midnight. In the last few days I was asked if I would be interested in swapping positions with a member of the day shift team who needed to move for personal/family reasons.

I elected to think about it, and later accepted. As of yesterday (and everyone I work with is now aware of this, so I can tell the world in full), I am a member of day shift working “normal people” hours! I’m still officially part time, so there is no change in my 35 hour limit. The only change in pay has been a result of my regular company raise (also received that notice today!) so really all that changes for me is starting in the morning and finishing in the evening, and not the other way around..

New Home

Since the inception of this blog, it’s been hosted at WordPress.com. It was a logical choice for several reasons, predominantly because at the time I didn’t have a reliable web host and also because I wasn’t sure I would be able to commit to making regular updates.

As it turns out I’ve made a number of posts over the last four years and things I wanted to be able to do were being restricted by using a hosting service.

And so we have this new home: http://blog.i-al.net/. Much like the old one, but hosted by me. If it’s broken, blame me.

Where I’ve Been


visited 18 states (36%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or another interesting project

I thought this was kind of cool, I stumbled on it on a blog and thought I’d make my own. California hardly counts because it was only LAX, but it’s been three times so I put it in. Some of the others are just passing-through, but why not?

Galatians 5:19-25 GNT

What human nature does is quite plain. It shows itself in immoral, filthy, and indecent actions; in worship of idols and witchcraft. People become enemies and they fight; they become jealous, angry, and ambitious. They separate into parties and groups; they are envious, get drunk, have orgies, and do other things like these. I warn you now as I have before: those who do these things will not possess the Kingdom of God.
But the Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, and self-control. There is no law against such things as these. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have put to death their human nature with all its passions and desires. The Spirit has given us life; he must also control our lives.

Worst Troll Ever

Just had a troll join IRC, and it was a pretty lame attempt. Enjoy.

* tasha (~ron@uccn-35F4B3FE.pools.spcsdns.net) has joined #FaithFellowshipNFun
<tasha> hello the fellowship
<Aspros_Tigris> howdy tasha
<tasha> i want my own biblebot
<tasha> the spirit of the lord flows all through my body like psychokinetic impulses
* WoIfStar yawns
<tasha> right
<tasha> jenjen are you the same jenjen i just saw over on sexnet?
<tasha> same ip and everything
<zEkE|work> heh.
<zEkE|work> are you here to troll, or are you going to play nice?
<tasha> no not here to troll
<tasha> well yeah i am, but it’s not very fun here i guess, nobody plays along
* tasha (~ron@uccn-35F4B3FE.pools.spcsdns.net) has left #FaithFellowshipNFun

http://bananabiter.wordpress.com/2012/01/12/worst-troll-ever/

Photo Friday: Lonely

 

This was one of the last things I photographed in New Zealand, taken just a couple of weeks before I moved. I don’t know if it’s supposed to be a duck or a chicken, but it was sitting out in the rain close to the Wellington Airport.

I had decided to take a couple of days and just drive around, driving in no particular planned direction, just to see where I ended up and discover new things, as well as remembering old things.

The Drive Around the Bays is one I have done many times with my friends Sue and Amber, usually after church on a Sunday evening. We’d drive into Wellington and then do the loop around the bays (if you find a map of Wellington, it was basically a road that went all the way around the knob bit to the east of the airport). We’d stop somewhere and eat dinner – usually McDonalds or KFC, and then drive home. It was also a great time to talk about all kinds of things.

It’s certainly a downside here, not having the people to go with (it’d be fun to just drive somewhere with Kelly, but that was part of the fun of Sunday nights, being with friends I didn’t live with), and not really having the same kind of places to go.