| Oh, hai :) |
[12 Jun 2009|10:06pm] |
Huh, I haven't posted in a while. Like, half a year it looks like. Sooooo.... what's up? :)
I guess I'll start at now, and work back. That way if you get bored and stop reading, you're at least current with a bit of backstory missing.
Ok, I'll actually start at Sunday coming up, then work to now. I'm riding in the Tour de Cure on Sunday, doing the 33 mile ride to raise money for the American Diabetes Association. I'll be riding as part of my work's team that they put together every year, along with several people helping as volunteers and someone riding as a street marshal. If anyone could spare a couple bucks towards a donation, my page is at http://main.diabetes.org/goto/Brian.Truitt . If you can't make a donation, passing on the word would help a lot as well! I currently have 4 donations (not counting the company minimum-fundraise sponsorship donation), which I really appreciate but it'd be nice to have more :D I did a test ride last Saturday and covered ~37 miles, so I'm feeling confident for Sunday.
Ok, so backing up a little bit, I bought a bike. Big surprise for those following along so far :) I crashed the last one back in August or so and it wasn't really trustworthy after that. I DO enjoy riding, so when the local bike shop had a sale, and I had money from my yearly bonus, and the weather wasn't suck-ass freezing I went over and got one. It's been good exercise when the weather's good and I can get a good ride in before the sun goes down. The weather's been pretty crappy overall, so it's good I also joined a gym around the same time. Decent place with everything I like to do, been more or less going twice a week before work. So in the last two months (I think?) I've lost 9 pounds and been feeling much better than before I started.
Around February/Marchish we went on a trip to Vegas for a week. Met up with a bunch of our friends from online, drank and ate and gambled and in general had a good time :) Took in a Cirque show and a knights/jousting dinner. I have pictures, will put them up at some point. We stayed in New York New York, there's a roller coaster that goes around the hotel and we had a good view of it from the room. Was fun to watch the look on peoples faces as they got near the top of the lift :D
Was a good hockey year, the Caps got a bit further into the playoffs than they did last season. We like where our seats are, so we're sticking with the same spot for next season. The people around us are scrappy and crazy, which is a lot of fun so looking forward to next season :)
Other than that things have been pretty uneventful, which these days can be a good thing. I've been hanging out on facebook, if anyone's over there and wants to add me I can be found at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=525053931 . I'm gonna try to post around here a bit more again, we'll see how that goes :)
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| For Everyone |
[25 Dec 2008|07:46am] |
I'd like to wish you all great times and good company during the holiday season, whichever you celebrate! I think I have them all represented on my F-List, so it should be a partying two or three weeks for ya's :)
I appreciate having you all as friends, and hope the new year coming up brings better times and good opportunities for us all :)
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| Weather wtf. |
[15 Dec 2008|04:15pm] |
Currently 65 degrees and beautiful outside tempwise.
Tomorrow is a winter storm warning with chance of snow and freezing rain.
Needs to make up it's mind, is it winter yet or not?
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| for beth: gift ideas |
[09 Dec 2008|10:14pm] |
Beth has pointed out if I do not give her gift ideas I will have a very easy, gift free christmas morning. So, random bits of ideas for her or relatives or whatever that are stuck looking for gift ideas for me. I've been told I'm hard to find stuff for, which is odd cause I'm happy with a bit of string or silly toys or anything :)
This would have been easier if I hadn't lost a lot of bookmarks somewhere between getting malware pwned and reinstalling, so a lot of "oo shiny" links went somewhere not here.
game: Sac Noir
food: Treats :)
shirt: U R screwed (large)
tech: cold drinks
tech: lefty version, but currently sold out
toys: big or small flying thing :)
toys: little art set
shirt: makes me laugh (large)
toys: not 3x3x3, 4x4x4, or 5x5x5 cubes, anything wierd shaped
shoes: my current pair are pretty dead
dream: In case someone wins the lottery :D
dream: bone conduction headphones
other: Amazon list, pre-loved books are just as nice :)
other: Amazon gift card
other: iTunes gift card
other: Microsoft points for xbox live :)
other: games, random, any flavor
other: BPAL, manly, no flowers
other: icons, pictures, art cards, letters, crafty bits, etc :)
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| [LJ IDOL] Week 10: YOU'RE SO VAIN - YOU PROBABLY THINK THIS TOPIC IS ABOUT YOU |
[05 Dec 2008|06:29pm] |
But it's not, it's all about me. Me me me me me me ME!
Cause that's what LJ is all about. This is my LJ, my space, where I can be the king, the pretty princess, the lord of all I survey. This is where I climb up upon my pedestal for all the world (that I care about) to look at and admire! I pick and choose and collect my "friends", culling them into different groups based upon when I want to talk to them. They all love and adore and support me, it's SUCH an uplifting experience. Every opinion I have is right, every joke is funny. Every time some idiot at work tells me to do my job or my parents or date gets in a fight with me, I can count on them to back me up and show me exactly how right I was!
Occasionally someone forgets their place and tells me I'm wrong, or that I shouls stop what I'm doing and try to look at the other persons opinion. That's ok, cause I just delete their post and drop them from my list, and my REAL friends and I can talk about how stupid they were. How dare they come to MY LJ and try to tell me how to think! I guess they can come by my LJ and look at the one unlock post I have that says "FRIENDS ONLY" really big across a picture I downloaded off google somewhere, letting them know how exclusive my section of LJ is and they're NOT HERE ANYMORE!
For my real friends, I make sure to go read (briefly) all their posts and say something witty on occasion so they can know I'm here and I'm paying attention to them! I mean, they might get upset if I'M not reading their posts! I have to drop some of them occasion too, I mean if I'm gonna come by and tell them "LOL nice post!" they better acknowledge I saw them or they don't really care about me. And if they don't care about ME, why should their posts clutter up MY friends page?
When I make posts, I expect immediate responses, and they better not be crap "LOL nice post" answers, those don't mean anything. I don't even acknowledge them, it's a waste of my time. My REAL friends make meaningful posts pointing out how mean that person in the grocery store was getting in front of me in line, and how I deserve time off from work since I go and do my job, and how funny the cat picture *I* found was. And don't think I don't notice if you don't comment, I keep track. I keep it all written down so I know who to get rid of when I don't want to read so much anymore. I also have little graphics so I can see when you read my posts and don't comment, and if you keep me in friends lists with names like "other friends". I'm not an "other friend" you jackass, I should be in with the important people you read all the time!
And today I made a group for me and all my friends who think like me and we all support each other! You just look down on us throwing up after we eat or write stories about people having sex with animals because you want to put us down! Everyone else in the group doesn't have a problem with it, and they tell me it's perfectly fine so take your hate somewhere else! We've all agreed that all that stuff you're linking to about how it's bad or wrong is just more hate talk and people trying to force us into their beliefs, so don't bother!
I love Livejournal, it's my own little world where I make the rules, and don't have to worry about any peer pressure that makes me behave the way I'm "supposed to", or worry about what they think is rude or disgusting. If you don't like it don't read, and here I'll drop you so you don't even have to worry about it anymore! This is MY POST, you vain person, and it wasn't about you AT ALL! Or was it?
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| [LJ Idol] The Giving of Thanks |
[28 Nov 2008|11:57am] |
It's the time of year when we all take a day off to eat lots of yummy food and watch football! Err, I mean, reflect on our lives and give thanks for what we have. Yeah, that's what I meant. So I'd like to give thanks for turkey, and green bean casserole, and pumpkin pie, and peach pie, and homemade chocolates, and HD tv, and whoever concocted the funny shape for the ball that makes it fly so well, and...
*koff* Sorry. Thanksgiving r srs bizness. So, down to the real thanks giving.
I should give thanks for having a good job with decent benefits and good pay. I've been at it for 11 years, and in that time I've seen many, many, MANY rounds of layoffs and survived. We've been through bankruptcy, I'm under my third CEO, and through it all I've been able to stay put with a good group of people (those that are left) and do a job that I enjoy. Even if I like to grouse about it on occasions :)
I give thanks for my friends. We have a lot of events scheduled with them this weekend, and it reminds me of how much I enjoy having them around. Thanksgiving every year consists of a bunch of us getting together to share food and have lots of confusing, amusing, and sometimes ridiculous conversations. I wouldn't give it up for anything.
I'd also like to give thanks to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) copyright1983 for saving my butt in LJ Idol this week, which gives me a chance to continue playing the game, including this entry :) Sometimes we all need a bit of a boost, and it's greatly appreciated.
And I still give thanks for homemade chocolates, yummmm. Gotta keep things in perspective eh? :)
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| [LJ Idol] Unprepared |
[21 Nov 2008|01:58pm] |
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mood |
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 relieved |
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So due to several projects that landed on me this morning, my feeling a bit bleh and out of sorts, and being instilled of foul tempers, I just now noticed that today is Friday and it's well past noon. Add to that the fact that I hadn't even started my LJ Idol entry this week or given it any thought, I logged in to read my name on the "You're booted" list and say my goodbyes.
It seems this weeks due date was moved back to 6pm instead of the usual noon, so I'm ok. I was completely unprepared for that, and I think that makes a much more appropriate entry than whatever trite drivel I'd conjure up in the next few hours, so there it is :)
Have a good weekend!
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| Neverending waterslide! |
[12 Nov 2008|10:02pm] |
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Prototype This on Discovery channel (on RIGHT NOW east coast feed) is building a computer controlled waterslide simulator. Check it out if you have a bit of time to watch an interesting and fun new(ish) show!
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| Virginia numbers killing me |
[04 Nov 2008|09:57pm] |
Watching the vote counts come in for our state is excruciating. First reports with like 10% of precints reporting was McCain ahead by 12%. Then with 50% reporting it was 8% ahead. 55% report, 5%. 70% reporting, 50/50 with McCain ahead by like 1000 votes. Currently 80% reporting, Obama ahead 4K votes. Oops, now 82% reporting, Obama 12K ahead. That still really close out of 2.7M votes tallied so far.
18% to go.
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| Caps game tonight, tickets |
[28 Oct 2008|11:16am] |
Heyas,
Caps play tonight against the Predators, still have both our extra seats available so if anyone wants to join us let us know. Game starts at 7, doors open at 6.
(Crossposted from facebook, so some of ya's have seen it twice. Sorry :) )
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| Well, fuckity |
[28 Oct 2008|09:29am] |
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mood |
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 irritated |
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Setback on halloween costume stuffs. Test resin pour came out beautifully clear and transparent, no bubbles, coloring, etc. Which means the LEDs shine straight thru it with almost no glowing effect whatsoever. Bother. Spray-on frostcoat didn't help at all cause the resin doesn't diffuse the light before it reaches the coating. None of the local hobby stores carry the resin pigments I would need to fix this for a second resin pour, and the "adding random stuff from around the house to see what might work" would both take too long, and could end up with a bunch of smelly unsetting resin goop I have to deal with.
So, plan B. Can't do anything tonight on it, home hockey game. tomorrow after work, back to AC Moore to grab a block of really hard candlemaking wax they have and white dye to give it slightly more fog than the default waxy color and give that a go.
If it all works out, should be pretty cool. If not, I throw the whole thing in a deep pit somewhere and deny anything ever existed. You didn't see anything.
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| [LJ Idol] Week 5: Open Topic |
[24 Oct 2008|10:39am] |
In preparation for this weeks entry, I went back through my journal and looked over some of my old posts hoping for inspiration. I noticed in a lot of my LJI entries I focus heavily on the senses, and what a character is perceiving at a point in time. Week threes "Moment of Bliss" entry was almost entirely about color and touch, and it got me thinking.
Isn't it funny that I focus on the senses so much in what I write, when from day to day I barely make use of them at all? By "make use of", I mean really use them instead of a simple stimulus/response system.
Honestly, most of the time vision is not much more then a way to avoid objects, or get input faster from the computer to the lazy grey squishy in my skull. In a regular day hearing acts as a trigger to alert you when someone calls your name, or when the phone rings. Smell, taste, touch at best annoy me if something stinky or sticky happens across my path, and are otherwise ignored.
Isn't this a shame? And I know I'm not the only one that takes all this wonderful input for granted and ignore it. When is the last time anyone paid attention to a doorway more than "rectangle, open, going through now." What part of the trip to work do you remember? "Road, turn, turn, traffic, stoplight, park." Have you smelled anything today?
Our senses are picking things up constantly even if we're not making use of them. Every once in a while, we should just stop and see what's coming in, it's part of the life you're living in. Maybe the cube you're sitting in is more than just a grey box. It may be covered in thousands of little strands of fiber twisted around each other, each with a slightly different color. Along the edges the trim has tiny details, and usally fingerprints and nicks and the like. Look across the surface of the desk up close, and suddenly notice you have depth perception! When is the last time you really sat and paid attention to that! Up close the desktop looks like a vast wasteland, little dust hills dotting the landscape between huge looming objects like paperclips or laptops. Even if there's nobody talking or doing anything, there's sounds to be heard in the air moving, the echo of your breath, fans running, maybe the creak of the settling walls. The smell of running electronics, the cloth your shirt is made of, the drifting hint of ozone from a copy machine, it's all going on all the time and we pay scant attention to it.
Don't taste your cube, that's just disgusting. Save that sense for later.
And all of that is just from the boring drab box some of us sit in at work. The rest of the work has so much more! Colors, vast distances, the mingling scents and tastes of the very air around us, what your shoes feel like as you step on things, the pressures and temperatures changing and dancing on your skin as you step into a breeze. There's wonder to be found in the mundane every day, so go out an...
Stop that, I told you to save taste for later. What if someone comes by and sees you licking your desk, they'll think you're desperate for lunch or something, and it's not even noon.
But anyway, go enjoy what's around you while you can with what senses you have, you only get so long before you can't anymore.
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| LOL |
[20 Oct 2008|11:39pm] |
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Office Space reference on Family Guy tonight, they're on a roll :) That is, if you can ignore the neverending running gag in this one.
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sad