"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"

Well, me.

After work tonight, that is.

Today's been a good day for serum glucose levels. I'm kind of hungry at the moment, but I'll fix that in about an hour or so.

At least the all-you-can-drink-as-long-as you're-not-a-dipshit Starbucks is good.

Notes, errata, tidbits, etc

Interesting week . . .

1. Apple announces layoffs: a few friends are affected by this, but nobody in my department. Ironic date choice for the layoffs (May 1 is International Labor Day). The layoffs are jobs here moving to Austin, Texas, folks can take the job there, or another job here, or the severance.

2. My favorite coffee shop just became my former favorite coffee shop. The vibes I got there now are totally unwelcoming, and they refused to power cycle their wireless router when I told them the network is down (other people were having the same issue).

3. I attended the Company picnic to celebrate 7 years of #1 tech support in Consumer Reports last week. I wish I hadn't. The less I say here, the better.

4. My current main WoW character, Dakatirr, has a new epic mount (pictured left).

Epic mounts are cool; they're faster than the standard level-40 mount (which is a whole lot faster than running!) and they look nice. This is my second character with an epic mount . . . and I've decided one of this character's motivations involves collecting all of the epic mounts I can earn on my own in WoW.

The Purple Great Elekk I'm riding now is a racial epic mount, the easiest one to get from a vendor in the Draenei home city. If I were to go to Ironforge, Stormwind or Darnassus (the Dwarven, Human and Night Elf capital cities) and try to buy an epic mount for those races, I'd have to have an "Exalted" reputation with those cities / races. I'm not exalted with them quite yet.

There are other ways to add to my collection. There are three or four mounts you can earn through Player-vs-Player combat in Battlegrounds (not my favorite way to play WoW . . .) as well, plus the one I'm working on right now: a white sabertooth tiger, which is earned through earning Exalted reputation with a minor faction. The three quests are very very very repetitive but they result in getting a butt load of gold from selling leather, ore and uncommon drops from the elite giants you grind on in southern Winterspring.

<=== The kitteh I'm after. Purty.







WoW funny of the day: "If you give a dwarf a fish, he eats for a day. If you teach a dwarf to fish, he'll hang out in Ironforge all day leveling his Fishing skill, not camping your resource nodes."

Berzerkeley was fun...

I went to visit my daughter and son in law in Berkeley today. Had a blast despite a sore throat that almost kept me home.
Highlights included a fine lunch at a very nice Chinese place (huzzah for Moo Shoo beef), a visit to Sam's school (Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary), some geeking about on Sam's PC, MacBook and network and good coffee as Sophia showed me how to home roast with an air popper. I even saw a home movie showing Sam giving his first sermon. W00t! Then there was that tactical nuclear oatmeal cookie Sophia made . . .

They got a new car, a Volvo, to replace Soph's Kia. The Kia was named "Inga" and she wanted a name for the new car. Given that Volvo is Swedish, I suggested a male name: Gustav Aldolph. Yes, I was thinking of everyone's favorite 17th-century Swedish King, that most Lutheran champion, general, the Lion of the North. I also suggested his formidable daughter Christina as well.

I counted Presidential campaign signs and stickers while in Berkeley, starting with an Obama postcard Sophia had. The final count was 10 for BO, 3 for HRC, and ZERO for ANY Republican.


I'm starting my Earth Day / Beltane iTunes playlist; the song in the FoxyTunes sig is headlining that playlist. Not only is the song a good green / eco tune, it's easy on the ears as I grind in WoW.
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Listening to: R.E.M. - Cuyahoga (Live)
via FoxyTunes

Starbucks dumps T-Mobile to offer free* Wi-Fi

Yes, free wi-fi at *$. Starting this spring.

Then I read the fine print.

Guys: putting wi-fi on a meter is as stupid a move as General George Pickett leading the infamous Confederate charge on Gettysburg's third day mounted. The Green Goddess of Seattle can learn a thing or two from this place. Or this one.


I can hear the ghost of Robert Heinlein laughing even now.

There and Back Again . . .

There's a good reason for the gap in my posting: I was in the hosptial for swelling and infected wounds in my legs. While I had my MB with me, I had no way to connect it to the Internet --I guess we're still a few years from what EarthLink founder Sky Dayton called "packetspace."

Ten days of almost no Internet (I had the browser on my cellphone, and that's it), coffee or TeeVee did not quite leave me a gibbering idiot. I was a near-run thing, though.

The most noteworthy aspect of this stay was that they (Kaiser) transferred me to a Kaiser-run skilled nursing facility (KPPACC) in San Leandro, about 100 miles from my current digs in South Sacramento.

I was not amused.

Highlight of my hospital visit: I successfully suppressed the urge to throttle by roommate at KPPACC. Idjit would have the remote for the one TV set the room had and play the most mind-destroying teevee other than political campaign ads or Fox News Channel: soap opeas and sports. Not only that, he'd read the damned paper with the fscking teevee on!

Whotta asshat. I wanted to stuff that remote down his throat, I was so pissed. I chose instead to employ my iPod -- stuffed with tunage from Leslie Fish, The Elders, Seanan McGuire and Flogging Molly -- and headphones to block out the sound; fortunately I had Civilization 3 loaded on the MB, a perfect non-Internet game for whiling away large blocks of time.

I also had The Sims 2 on my phone, another very good game. I'd never had the chance to play the game much until this trip to the hospital, and I got my money's worth from it during the ambulance ride to San Leandro.

M&D also brought me some spare underwear and Guinness pajama bottoms before I was shipped off to KPPACC. I wore the PJs for most of my stay at KPPACC. The tangerines helped stave off the hungries from the notoriously small (and utterly flavor-free) portions of Hospital Food® and the sugarless Jelly Bellies and Gummi Bears were treats I savored.

I managed to read William Gibson's Idoru as well -- I wouldn't say it was better than Neuromancer but it was better than Count Zero or Virtual Light.

At Kaiser South I encountered some utterly awesome nurses and a wonderful doc.

My daughter, bless her, came to pick me up and bring me home. Our first stop on the way home: Starbucks.


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Listening to: Sun Green & The Imitators with Neil Young & Crazy Horse & The Greendale Chamber of Commerce - Be the Rain
via FoxyTunes

What Am I Thankful For?

A very partial list . . .

Physical: A great job, a roof over my head, enough cash to pay the bills, bandwidth and the means to use it.
Social: Mom, Dad, Ron, Sophia and Sam. Friends like Michelle, David, Kayla, Matt, Richard, Sammy, Duncan, Isabel, Tim, Kate, Sue, Rachael, Don, Rob, Kajir, Heather, Dave, Diane, Gene, Aries, Nika, Mystique, Harley, Rita, Bug, Shalyn and Hillary.
Other: An awesome health care team led by Dr. Nelson . . . the fact that the evil that is Shrub will be out of office in about a year . . . RT and e-Tran . . . PCJ and Panera . . .the music that helped save my life this year: Seanan McGuire, The Elders, Emerald Rose, Leslie Fish, James Blunt, Tempest, Escape Key, Flogging Molly, Roy Zimmerman, Loreena Mckinnett, Niel Young and Weird Al Yankovic.
Media: Serenity / Firefly, D&D, World of Warcraft.

SotR 2007-11-20

My cough is easing a bit but it is still not quite right. My doc says it cannot be allergens from the wolves here or I'd have reacted right away. She had the nurse take a culture of my throat. My right leg has three or four very small, shallow wounds left. The drainage is minimal.

On the lighter side, at least I've found a bus within walking distance of the house that runs on Sundays. Not only that, it also connects to the bus I need for work on Saturday! This is a big help, but the last bus from work still runs too early for me to use to get home. I am beginning to feel a bit housebound on Sundays when I don't game. Not to mention that I'd really like to see Beowulf.

/checks eTran schedule . . .

Nope, no way to get to either PCJ, but it looks like I may be able to make it it to Panera Bread on Howe on Sundays. Bus 56 to Meadowview Light Rail to Marconi Arcade and Bus 87 up Howe Ave. Just like my basic wound care run every Monday.

Slight change of direction here: you remember my rant about transit the other day? I received more unwanted insight into human sexuality today from one side of a too-loud cell phone call. What is it with you people? What transpires in bed between you and your partner(s) should be between you, them and the Gods. Why in the name of Freya do you have to talk about it so loudly that no passenger lacking headphones could avoid hearing about your happy times in the sack?

Don't get me wrong: I have NOTHING against sex. Consensual sex is nothing less than sacred. Nor is the annoyance from what I overheard the result of frustration in a guy who is currently not in a relationship. I'm annoyed at the sheer inappropriateness of having this conversation in a public place.

This week's going to be a fun one . . . hell-i-day off Thursday for Turkey Day, and Wednesday I get off at 4 or so, Finally, a day where I can catch the bus home without the quarter-mile "I hope I get there in time" walk! The geekend will be bizarre with Friday and Saturday being either very busy or kind of slow.

Why I love Sundays and other stuffs . . . .

1: Coffee at PCJ, a good Internet connection and some time to play WoW, and blog.

2: M's Mantra: "Serenity NOW...please? I'll make dinner." Hot Indian cuisine, double-plus-über good. Does my palette good to crawl out of its comfort zone. She needs it, especially this week. Candles are at the ready . . .

3: Earworm de Jour: Fire in the Hole, The Elders.

Random Bursts of Bandwidth

1. The most sinister day of the year: International Left Handers' Day

2. Speaking of sinister, Karl Rove resigns as Shrub's political director effective at the end of August. Fortunately, Sen. Leahy (Senate Judiciary Committee) isn't buying.
The movie line that came to mind is " . . . always two, there are."

3. Today's selection from the Voices In My Head Chorus (Earworm) comes from Stevie Nicks

4. Strangeness: The World's Cutest Two Year Old™ and Her Mom™ met me for coffee at Starbucks this morning. *$s is within bike riding distance for the aforementioned Mom and Kid and walking distance from my place. While *$s is the Walmart of coffee shops, you can always count on eclectic music you've never heard before playing while sipping your choice of coffees (black, heavy French roast, the Guinness of Coffees. I was NOT in a mocha / latte / steam shot mood this morning). My preferred coffee shop is a bit further away for both Mom and Kid, has great Fair Trade / Organic coffee, very good food and local artwork for sale but the music they play is overproduced 70s-80s soft rock oldies from an XM Radio robo-station.
Go figure.