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| Monday, July 6th, 2009 | | 2:39 pm |
Ouch
I'm back home from vacation and convention, and I'm finding a depressing resurgence of the pain in my right hand once again. I forget whether I posted about this previously, but on the second night of Further Confusion this past January I discovered that my right thumb had started going numb. It was still usable and I was able to finish all my work for the remainder of the convention, but I think I must have ended up causing some sort of damage to my right hand / wrist over that weekend with my thumb feeling numb and my grip becoming painful. It took about two to three weeks after FC before my thumb started feeling normal again and a bit less for the pain in my grip to recede, and I talked with my doctor about it and ended up collecting a wrist brace for carpal tunnel prevention as a result. I hadn't thought about this much in the past months but during AC my wrist and hand started giving me grief once again. I found the wrist brace this morning and put it on and now a few hours later I'm feeling a lot better, (and I happily didn't have the thumb problem this time) but I'm still rather burned that this has cropped up at all. I quipped to Roz during the convention that I was reminded of the celebrities who take out insurance policies on their body and had begun wondering how much value I would place on my right hand, -without which I have no career at all. Current Mood: pained | | Friday, June 26th, 2009 | | 6:42 am |
Going on vacation
Leaving today for Michigan and visiting family at the lake up north. We'll be seeing folks in Pittsburgh on the way back, -have fun! Current Mood:  pleased | | Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 | | 2:44 pm |
Cheering into oblivion
I noticed just now some reviews of the Transformers sequel (which I thought wasn't due for release until around the 4th of July, but whatever) and I came across this quote:
But combing through this audiovisual blitzkrieg for logic, substance and character is like looking for the poetic subtext of a monster-truck rally. The film exists as a pure sensory event, a pummeling, thrilling, bewildering, demented exercise in computer-generated shock and awe. This prompts me to ask the question "There's a problem with this?" My father has a line I like to remember which he uttered in response to his enjoyment of the first Die Hard movie: "I like a little plot with my gratuitous violence" and that's all well and good too and is in fact why Terminator 2 and Aliens are some of my favorite action movies ever, but I'll gladly enjoy watching mindless carnage like Transformers for EXACTLY the same reason I would go to a monster truck rally. In fact trying to pin that noise to a plotline isn't even really necessary because my suspension of disbelief can only go so far so. Hell, just stage a transformers movie AS a giant monster truck rally in a stadium mudpit and that's a good start for me. Oh, but don't remind me of the dumb that was Armageddon, okay? Current Mood: hedonisticCurrent Music: Bobby Fuller Four - Misirlou | | Saturday, June 20th, 2009 | | 9:26 pm |
L. O. N. G. I. N. S. T. A. L. L.
I am in the process of installing Adobe CS4 and in so doing have uninstalled CS3, mainly because upgrading to CS3 without uninstalling left me with both CS2 AND CS3 installed for a big WTF. UGH. And I thought it took forever to install CS3... now I find that uninstalling CS3 ALSO takes forever. I'm no programmer so I don't know what the uninstaller is actually doing but most other programs uninstall pretty quick as though the computer just hits a big 'ol "dump" button to wipe that program out. CS3 took somewhere between ten and twenty minutes, and all the while I would get little pop up messages from my security software asking for confirmation about allowing some setting to progress which means that I can't just let the thing do its business, -I have to watch over it manually. Now I'm about to run the CS4 installation and like all Adobe updates I can't run any web browser or Adobe products while installing which essentially means my computer can't be used for anything but answering "are you sure" questions from the installer and swapping out DVD's for the next thirty to fourty-five minutes. Blah. Current Mood:  apathetic | | Friday, June 19th, 2009 | | 10:37 pm |
| | Thursday, June 18th, 2009 | | 2:52 pm |
| | Tuesday, June 16th, 2009 | | 3:11 pm |
Gonna try again tomorrow morning...
 Another launch attempt for STS-127 will begin tomorrow at 5:40am EDT. Supposedly the hydrogen leak is fixed and I would anticipate that things should go well now. We'll see! I don't know if I'll be able to get up that early to see the launch live but there's always NASA TV to catch the replays. The launch is about fourty minutes before sunrise and that's close enough that there ought to be some interesting light in the sky, to say nothing for the pyrotechnics of the actual launch. In other news, there's something weird up with my right leg. The tendons and upper calf region in back of the kneecap are very sore, particularly when I stretch or put my weight on the leg. I don't know what could have brought this on but I've taken some Ibuprofin which hopefully will alleviate some of the discomfort. Current Mood:  soreCurrent Music: Command & Conquer 3 - Research Initiative | | Friday, June 12th, 2009 | | 5:06 pm |
T-minus 13 hours 26 minutes
 STS-127 is on the pad for liftoff tomorrow morning at 7:17am. The mission will be bringing up more components to the Japanese Kibo laboratory and doing a personnel transfer with the now 6 man crew of the International Space Station. Only seven more missions until the station is complete and the space shuttle retires. I've got mixed feelings about that but am definitely looking forward to seeing the continued development of the Orion spacecraft. I've made mention here before about my thwarted attempts to see a launch in the past but it occurred to me the other day that I might have better luck seeing the unmanned test launches of the new launch vehicles as I believe their launch window will be larger and more likely to happen on schedule than the current limitations imposed on shuttles attempting to catch up to the ISS. Current Mood: spaceyCurrent Music: NPR | | Monday, June 8th, 2009 | | 9:35 pm |
On vacation
We're on vacation right now in the Outer Banks of North Carolina and enjoying our time hanging out at the beach. Tracy is all atwitter right now as she was confirmed today for her planned trip to go deep sea fishing for tuna, mahi-mahi, and other big fish. She's also deep into consternation mode trying hard not to think of things that could go wrong and in her tizzy she came up with this wonderful line: "I sure hope that there are no submarines out there doing operations and surfacing beneath us, -that'd be awful. I can just see the headline, 'Tracy Reynolds died as she lived. Weirdly.'" Current Mood: amused | | Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009 | | 9:14 am |
| | Monday, June 1st, 2009 | | 3:15 pm |
Flash action-scripter wanted
There's still several jobs available with VGT for folks with an IT background, but at the meeting just now HR mentioned that there's a new opening for people with Flash action-scripting skills here in Virginia. Of course there's also a referral bonus if anyone I bring in gets hired. :) More information at: https://careers.vgt.net/, although the action scripting position doesn't seem to be posted just yet. Current Mood: busy | | Friday, May 29th, 2009 | | 9:32 am |
| | Tuesday, May 26th, 2009 | | 11:36 pm |
Everybody There was Street Fightin'
Ooh! An actual update on my rather adventure-less life. Had a pretty fun extended weekend with some extra company in the form of Megan who came out from Texas to visit and Chris, Erika, and Josh, whom we met up with on Saturday in Richmond. Seeing Megan out here is a kick because she helps to remind us of how much interesting things there are to Virginia that we haven't appreciated properly before. We picked picked her up at Washington Dulles airport and took the opportunity to have dinner at Todais which is a special treat that we used to enjoy a lot on the west coast but is now too far at two hours drive one way to enjoy much anymore. Meg coerced me to pick up a crepe so she wouldn't have to eat the whole thing. See this? My arm is twisted! Oh the pain. Fortunately Texas is on an earlier time zone than Virginia so Megan didn't feel like she was waking up quite as early as Tracy and I did. We managed to get in the car at a decent time and made our way out to Richmond to meet up with Chris, Erika, and Josh at the big Maymont Park, which is huge and filled with all manner of interesting plants, trees, animals, and notable buildings. I'd been there once before to help Erika with a costume shoot but this time around I was better able to just meander along and see the sites. Samantha in particular was fascinated by the indoor water-based exhibits and was busy pointing at the fish which swam close to the glassed aquariums. Her current thing is to point out where everyone's eyes are and to announce that proudly. :) Towards the end of our stay at the park I got it in my head to take some photos of folks acting out various Street Fighter shenanigans, which served both as an interesting picture and also an opportunity to explore some different settings on my camera. You can see all the pictures I've uploaded here on my Flickr account. Dinner was a pleasant Italian offering (whoo!) at Vinnie's. It was nice to finally meet Josh whom I actually first communicated with 13 years ago while I was in college. Despite having lived here in Virginia now for over three years his work schedule has been too much to actually meet up with. He's quite the snappy dresser and I dig his hat! After all the activity of Saturday we just took Sunday easy and stayed local with no adventures save for a nice dinner cooked on the grill of steak and mushrooms. We left early Monday to drive Megan back up to Dulles and to my regret I wasn't able to go inside the airport to look around and take some more pictures. Most all of our flights originate through Richmond so I don't have much opportunity to explore Dulles despite my interest in the fascinating architecture of the primary airport roof. Happily we arrived early enough that we avoided the traffic we observed heading north to DC for Memorial Day. I would have liked to stay in DC for awhile and see some of the museums again (Udvar Hazy branch of the Air & Space museum!) but Tracy had work to do at home and we spent the rest of the day taking care of random errands. Thanks everyone for being part of a fun weekend! | | Sunday, May 24th, 2009 | | 10:52 pm |
Sunday art
  Megan is out here visiting for the weekend and so I didn't want to be too anti-social and disappear for the time it normally takes to color up an artjam submission. I did really like the opportunity to draw Shak, Temp, and Puddin' again though! Thanks you guys (and Rasvar too!) for showing up, -you've been missed! Additionally I drew something quick and fun for Megan to add to her sketchbook. Current Mood: pleasedCurrent Music: Half Life 2 (ep2) - Abandoned in Place | | Friday, May 22nd, 2009 | | 7:54 am |
It must be Spring again
...the birds are once again attacking the windows. Weirdly entertaining to watch. Current Mood: busy | | Sunday, May 17th, 2009 | | 8:56 pm |
Sunday art
 This wasn't supposed to suggest the "destruction" of the music, but of the random variety of genres being played and "blended". Oh well, I can't make 'em all funny. I was also very busy tonight trying to draw this and take care of Samantha by myself tonight. Short and sweet picture as a result. Current Mood: busy | | Wednesday, May 13th, 2009 | | 4:01 pm |
Re-entry footage or photos?
I was just watching this video of the Space Shuttle external fuel tank falling away after Monday's launch and I was fascinated by the ever-so-slowly rotating tank as it fell further away towards its eventual disintegration in the atmosphere. Considering how long the tank is visible from the orbiter I was left wondering whether the astronauts had ever actually seen the tank undergo the disintegration process and if so are there any photos or video or it taking place? For that matter, does imagery exist of any object whatsover entering earth's atmosphere but viewed from an orbital vantage point? Current Mood:  curious | | Monday, May 11th, 2009 | | 1:44 pm |
| | Sunday, May 10th, 2009 | | 8:49 pm |
Sunday art
 Hopefully this will be taken in the spirit intended. This is a picture of my reaction, btw, not one of the show's characters. Current Mood: busy | | Sunday, May 3rd, 2009 | | 9:40 pm |
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