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It's like the reverse Midas touch! (NBPM pt.16)
Posted 15 years agoI've been in a cranky mood all day. Probably still recovering from last night's "exercise", though. Then a lot of frustrating stuff went on as the day went on. Ranting ahead.
First, I got to work and realized I had left my delicious delicious lunch at home. I have some leftover curry from a few nights ago that I was really looking forward to eating. I really wanted it for lunch! Since I live 30+ minutes away, there was no way to go back and get it. Then my water jug at work ran out, so I went to the breakroom to get some water from the fridges. All of the sudden, the water doesn't work anymore. What gives? So I came up with a solution: use the existing ice, and mix it with the hot water from the coffee machine. It worked, except there were chunks of godknowswhat at the bottom of my cup, and it tasted really bad, even by Phoenix standards.
Next, the roof repairs on my work's building happened to be directly above my desk today. It basically sounded like somebody farting nonstop all day. Thankfully it wasn't, and my headphones drowned out most of the sound.
My main goal for the day was to "tie up any loose ends" at work before leaving on my awesome vacation. To give you a perspective, I'm a software engineer for a moderate-ish sized aerospace/defense company. As much of the work comes from various hardcore government agencies, information security is a huge priority. Unfortunately, my company uses Symantec. Its real-time scanner is absolutely horrid, and consumes at least 25% of my CPU throughout the day. The IT guru has confirmed that files being downloaded to a machine get scanned for viruses seven times before getting saved. Good lord. I have a lot of stuff going in and out of RAM constantly, so that's probably not helping, either. The next big screw-over is that for a code repository, my group uses Visual SourceSafe. Due to the godawful internal network, it takes forever to do anything: 7 seconds to change directories, another 7 to right-click, another 7 to check out a file, another 7 to confirm that you really really want to, another 15 to wait for the interface to refresh... And the interface is that ancient Windows 2K style, with tree structures and filenames that get cut off after a dozen or so letters.
I had about 20 code files I needed to check-in to the system, so I did a recursive search for all files that were checked out to me. Big mistake! About two hours later, it was done, and I got a chance to check them all in and wait even longer. To confirm all my stuff works, I use remote desktop to retrieve those files and compile them. Here's slap-in-the-face number three: the language I program in is extremely memory-hogging. I frequently run up against the 32-bit memory limit while running simple code. It's also inefficient at releasing memory, so I end up using Task Manager to kill the program rather than wait for it to terminate gracefully. I missed some check-ins, so I have to go switch back to my machine, slowly check them all in to the repository, recompile on the other machine... each operation I do takes a minute if I'm lucky, and the virus-scanner is still sapping my CPU dry.
I stayed an hour later than I wanted to because of how unbelievably slow my software runs. I'm sure it does wonders for my productivity. Seriously, when my coworker wrote a program to automate the repository checkout bullshit, it easily doubled my productivity. Not only did it cut down the amount of time it took to get stuff done, but I was no longer forgetting stuff during that mind-numbing process. It's too late to switch to SVN, so I'm stuck with this crap for the forseeable future. But to be honest, it would probably take LESS time to completely switch over to some other version-control solution than it would be to continue using that program. Lessons to be learned: find and eliminate bottlenecks in your life.
Then I come home and I'm all like "ohhhh I'm gonna play me some VIDJAGAMES! Unhh yeah boyee" and then my PS2 just stops reading discs. You see, I have this problem where I play games I like so much that they get scratched like crazy, then the PS2 can't read them. They're also all pirated, so it's on shitty media, and every game I play has to get run through a special boot disc from China that bypasses copy protection and region locks. The PS2 also has a hard time reading data near the outer edge of the disc for some reason. Guess where all the data is I want it to read? I pop the lid on my PS2 and SURPRISE the stupid laser is tarding out near the back again. Can we please please please please cut the gimmicky disc nonsense? I don't give a flying fuck about Blu-ray or HD-DVD (Yeah, you remember that one? Didn't think so.) and just go to streaming or downloadable content. Corporate jackasses can still have their stupid little proprietary pissing matches. Again, bottlenecks, people. Lasers were cool in the god damn EIGHTIES. Get over it. After about 10 minutes of trying to get ANYTHING to load, I just gave up. Maybe I'll turn it upside down, because that works for the PS1.
I'm mostly pissed because I didn't get to enjoy my leftovers for lunch. I ended up eating Doritos and a cookie. END RANTING!!1!
In good news today, Ronny went on adventures with Sema and me to many places and was so well behaved I forgot he was there. He made Walmart a somewhat pleasant experience for both of us.
Tomorrow: prep for VACATION ADVENTURE!
What the fuck is all that beepi.... oh, it's Biggest Loser on downstairs. I'm hungry for pie now. Dammit. #lolfatty
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP GASP CUT TO COMMERCIAL
First, I got to work and realized I had left my delicious delicious lunch at home. I have some leftover curry from a few nights ago that I was really looking forward to eating. I really wanted it for lunch! Since I live 30+ minutes away, there was no way to go back and get it. Then my water jug at work ran out, so I went to the breakroom to get some water from the fridges. All of the sudden, the water doesn't work anymore. What gives? So I came up with a solution: use the existing ice, and mix it with the hot water from the coffee machine. It worked, except there were chunks of godknowswhat at the bottom of my cup, and it tasted really bad, even by Phoenix standards.
Next, the roof repairs on my work's building happened to be directly above my desk today. It basically sounded like somebody farting nonstop all day. Thankfully it wasn't, and my headphones drowned out most of the sound.
My main goal for the day was to "tie up any loose ends" at work before leaving on my awesome vacation. To give you a perspective, I'm a software engineer for a moderate-ish sized aerospace/defense company. As much of the work comes from various hardcore government agencies, information security is a huge priority. Unfortunately, my company uses Symantec. Its real-time scanner is absolutely horrid, and consumes at least 25% of my CPU throughout the day. The IT guru has confirmed that files being downloaded to a machine get scanned for viruses seven times before getting saved. Good lord. I have a lot of stuff going in and out of RAM constantly, so that's probably not helping, either. The next big screw-over is that for a code repository, my group uses Visual SourceSafe. Due to the godawful internal network, it takes forever to do anything: 7 seconds to change directories, another 7 to right-click, another 7 to check out a file, another 7 to confirm that you really really want to, another 15 to wait for the interface to refresh... And the interface is that ancient Windows 2K style, with tree structures and filenames that get cut off after a dozen or so letters.
I had about 20 code files I needed to check-in to the system, so I did a recursive search for all files that were checked out to me. Big mistake! About two hours later, it was done, and I got a chance to check them all in and wait even longer. To confirm all my stuff works, I use remote desktop to retrieve those files and compile them. Here's slap-in-the-face number three: the language I program in is extremely memory-hogging. I frequently run up against the 32-bit memory limit while running simple code. It's also inefficient at releasing memory, so I end up using Task Manager to kill the program rather than wait for it to terminate gracefully. I missed some check-ins, so I have to go switch back to my machine, slowly check them all in to the repository, recompile on the other machine... each operation I do takes a minute if I'm lucky, and the virus-scanner is still sapping my CPU dry.
I stayed an hour later than I wanted to because of how unbelievably slow my software runs. I'm sure it does wonders for my productivity. Seriously, when my coworker wrote a program to automate the repository checkout bullshit, it easily doubled my productivity. Not only did it cut down the amount of time it took to get stuff done, but I was no longer forgetting stuff during that mind-numbing process. It's too late to switch to SVN, so I'm stuck with this crap for the forseeable future. But to be honest, it would probably take LESS time to completely switch over to some other version-control solution than it would be to continue using that program. Lessons to be learned: find and eliminate bottlenecks in your life.
Then I come home and I'm all like "ohhhh I'm gonna play me some VIDJAGAMES! Unhh yeah boyee" and then my PS2 just stops reading discs. You see, I have this problem where I play games I like so much that they get scratched like crazy, then the PS2 can't read them. They're also all pirated, so it's on shitty media, and every game I play has to get run through a special boot disc from China that bypasses copy protection and region locks. The PS2 also has a hard time reading data near the outer edge of the disc for some reason. Guess where all the data is I want it to read? I pop the lid on my PS2 and SURPRISE the stupid laser is tarding out near the back again. Can we please please please please cut the gimmicky disc nonsense? I don't give a flying fuck about Blu-ray or HD-DVD (Yeah, you remember that one? Didn't think so.) and just go to streaming or downloadable content. Corporate jackasses can still have their stupid little proprietary pissing matches. Again, bottlenecks, people. Lasers were cool in the god damn EIGHTIES. Get over it. After about 10 minutes of trying to get ANYTHING to load, I just gave up. Maybe I'll turn it upside down, because that works for the PS1.
I'm mostly pissed because I didn't get to enjoy my leftovers for lunch. I ended up eating Doritos and a cookie. END RANTING!!1!
In good news today, Ronny went on adventures with Sema and me to many places and was so well behaved I forgot he was there. He made Walmart a somewhat pleasant experience for both of us.
Tomorrow: prep for VACATION ADVENTURE!
What the fuck is all that beepi.... oh, it's Biggest Loser on downstairs. I'm hungry for pie now. Dammit. #lolfatty
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP GASP CUT TO COMMERCIAL
T therapy, one week later (NBPM pt.15)
Posted 15 years agoHalfway there!
In documenting my results after an injection of testosterone, one week later:
For probably most of 2010, I had been feeling pretty shitty all the time. I was regularly getting 5-6 hours of sleep a night, and by 2pm I just wanted to curl up under my desk and cry, either from exhaustion or stress. When I would get home, I'd have a migraine and wouldn't want to do anything. In the mornings, I used to feel like complete ass. You know that groggy feeling you get when you get almost no sleep? I was like that until noon pretty much every day. Half the reason I went to work so early was so I could snooze at my desk without being seen. I got real good at micronapping. :( Then at the end of the day I felt like I got nothing done, and I'd be anxious as fuck about EVERYTHING. Sunday nights were the worst, because I'd be freaking out about the upcoming week, and how it felt like climbing out from the bottom of a pit.
Almost immediately after
semjay poked me with the stuff, I began to feel a lot better. I have been able to concentrate better, and I'm not constantly feeling like death by 4pm. I have yet to make it through a Monday-8am meeting (protip: it's impossible), but the rest of the day I feel fantastic. At the end of the day, I don't feel anxious at all. If I'm ever in a bad mood, it's usually because of something that ticked me off, rather than fear or apprehension or arbitrary thoughts.
One thing I'm noticing is that in the last few weeks I've gained a bit of weight. I weigh myself nightly before my shower, and it had always been hanging around the 160-163 range, and last night it was 166. (Note: I'm 6' 1.5") It was after a huge, delicious dinner, though. I'm beginning to wonder if my constant lack of energy was causing me to eat lots of crap? Gonna try to watch what I eat for a while.
So I tried exercising tonight, because I can! I've always had the option, but before this week I could barely muster the energy to play Beatmania- how lazy! And that brings me to my second note: I think the T has raised my heart rate in general slightly. Sometimes after a good yawn in the morning, I can feel my HR drop to 50 or lower. I've noticed that it seems to be beating a little faster in general. Probably has something to do with the fact that I'm no longer in a perpetual semi-conscious state, though.
As far as exercising goes, I feel kinda out of shape. My 'poison' is silly dancing games. Ever since I found the leaked beta build of the In The Groove 2 for PS2, I've been meaning to play it more. I hooked up my heart monitor and proceeded to kill myself :D. My heart rate seemed reasonable for the easier songs, but peaked at 200 during Know Your Enemy EX- it's really not THAT tough, c'mon. Then just for lulz I tried Vertex^2 EX again. I got through the bass-rush before the big big speed-up, and noticed I was already at 203. Sheeeeesh. Further proof that Max-HR algorithms are baloney! I quit after that because I don't want to feel hung over tomorrow. My doctor says to aim for a target around 150bpm, but it takes surprisingly little to exceed that. It's really weird.
My new-found energy has some down-sides, though. Sometimes it's hard to get to sleep. I've always had problems settling down to sleep at night, which is why I always have music playing. Before my injection, I would be konked out within minutes. Oh well. I also tend to wake up suddenly sometimes. Last night I woke up at 3:30 because I thought it was time to get up. I woke myself at 4:30 and 5:45 as well. When my alarm went off at 6:15 I didn't feel like getting up! I also had weeeeeird dreams. You know you're in a strange dream when you are aware of waking up immediately after resuming sleep. I dreamed I was at work early because I had actually gotten out of bed that first time.
I just feel so good! I luffs my semjay for figuring out my brokenness.
Good news! Tomorrow is my Friday. I'm taking off Wednesday to pack, and then I'll be arriving at ORD around 14:00 on Thursday. Come buy shit from my on Friday! I HAVE HAAAAAATS
In documenting my results after an injection of testosterone, one week later:
For probably most of 2010, I had been feeling pretty shitty all the time. I was regularly getting 5-6 hours of sleep a night, and by 2pm I just wanted to curl up under my desk and cry, either from exhaustion or stress. When I would get home, I'd have a migraine and wouldn't want to do anything. In the mornings, I used to feel like complete ass. You know that groggy feeling you get when you get almost no sleep? I was like that until noon pretty much every day. Half the reason I went to work so early was so I could snooze at my desk without being seen. I got real good at micronapping. :( Then at the end of the day I felt like I got nothing done, and I'd be anxious as fuck about EVERYTHING. Sunday nights were the worst, because I'd be freaking out about the upcoming week, and how it felt like climbing out from the bottom of a pit.
Almost immediately after
semjay poked me with the stuff, I began to feel a lot better. I have been able to concentrate better, and I'm not constantly feeling like death by 4pm. I have yet to make it through a Monday-8am meeting (protip: it's impossible), but the rest of the day I feel fantastic. At the end of the day, I don't feel anxious at all. If I'm ever in a bad mood, it's usually because of something that ticked me off, rather than fear or apprehension or arbitrary thoughts.One thing I'm noticing is that in the last few weeks I've gained a bit of weight. I weigh myself nightly before my shower, and it had always been hanging around the 160-163 range, and last night it was 166. (Note: I'm 6' 1.5") It was after a huge, delicious dinner, though. I'm beginning to wonder if my constant lack of energy was causing me to eat lots of crap? Gonna try to watch what I eat for a while.
So I tried exercising tonight, because I can! I've always had the option, but before this week I could barely muster the energy to play Beatmania- how lazy! And that brings me to my second note: I think the T has raised my heart rate in general slightly. Sometimes after a good yawn in the morning, I can feel my HR drop to 50 or lower. I've noticed that it seems to be beating a little faster in general. Probably has something to do with the fact that I'm no longer in a perpetual semi-conscious state, though.
As far as exercising goes, I feel kinda out of shape. My 'poison' is silly dancing games. Ever since I found the leaked beta build of the In The Groove 2 for PS2, I've been meaning to play it more. I hooked up my heart monitor and proceeded to kill myself :D. My heart rate seemed reasonable for the easier songs, but peaked at 200 during Know Your Enemy EX- it's really not THAT tough, c'mon. Then just for lulz I tried Vertex^2 EX again. I got through the bass-rush before the big big speed-up, and noticed I was already at 203. Sheeeeesh. Further proof that Max-HR algorithms are baloney! I quit after that because I don't want to feel hung over tomorrow. My doctor says to aim for a target around 150bpm, but it takes surprisingly little to exceed that. It's really weird.
My new-found energy has some down-sides, though. Sometimes it's hard to get to sleep. I've always had problems settling down to sleep at night, which is why I always have music playing. Before my injection, I would be konked out within minutes. Oh well. I also tend to wake up suddenly sometimes. Last night I woke up at 3:30 because I thought it was time to get up. I woke myself at 4:30 and 5:45 as well. When my alarm went off at 6:15 I didn't feel like getting up! I also had weeeeeird dreams. You know you're in a strange dream when you are aware of waking up immediately after resuming sleep. I dreamed I was at work early because I had actually gotten out of bed that first time.
I just feel so good! I luffs my
semjay for figuring out my brokenness.Good news! Tomorrow is my Friday. I'm taking off Wednesday to pack, and then I'll be arriving at ORD around 14:00 on Thursday. Come buy shit from my on Friday! I HAVE HAAAAAATS
You aren't ready to read this (re: religion) (NBPM pt.14)
Posted 15 years agohttp://www.furaffinity.net/view/4796239/
By far the most obnoxious customer I've had to deal with is this douchebag
mr-taren. Man what an ass, always complaining that this hat isn't right, and not good enough. I think it looks okay... but there's just something missing. Any ideas?
Church was interesting today. All right, yeah, I said it- I go. But before you unwatch me, at least hear me out. I was raised Lutheran, but didn't really go regularly. As a kid my parents took me pretty often, but as I got older, not so much. Mostly because I'd throw fits about dressing up nice to go. Then came confirmation, where I had to go quite a bit. It was during a weird time in my life, and I was treated as an outcast there.
I lived in Rockford, but the church was in Loves Park, which is kinda like a podunk town that grew into an awkward suburb. (When all of Loves-tucky you see is North Second, you tend to get a little biased. That street is seriously nothing but used car lots. But now so is Alpine, so... yeah.) There was even a cute little section of highway on the way (Spring Creek and N. 2nd St), so to me it was "out there". All of the kids there went to Harlem Middle School, and I went to Eisenhower, so that didn't help.
The church was phasing out its pastor, and the confirmation staff was awkward at best. The last straw for me was when one of the counselors said to a group I was in, "God doesn't like it when you don't sing." Long story short, I decided that particular church wasn't right for me. I never went full-blown Atheist but I really wasn't interested in religion at all; I was focused more inward.
Fast-forward to a couple of months ago- a contemporary church around here opened up a new 'campus' in a local school's theater hall. Sema convinced me to go. I didn't have to sing if I didn't want to, the atmosphere was much more laid back, and I didn't have to dress up nearly as nice. I still wear a 'nicer' shirt, but the jeans stay. Whatever. I enjoyed the message more than anything else. I'll be honest with ya, the singing and praising thing really isn't my thing. But listening to it at the beginning of each service really does get me in the mood.
Some of the messages can get pretty deep, and sometimes I don't think people quite get it. It kinda upsets me when I see people whispering to each other, or texting during prayer, but it really doesn't matter.
I think too much of the emphasis on Christianity in general is on praise, worship, and following the letter of the Bible. And to non-Christians, that's how followers are perceived. Since I started attending services again, I've figured out that it's not about judging people and pointing out that eating shrimp, wearing polyester blends, and shaving your face are sins- it's just meant to be a blueprint for being a good person.
I assume most people here have been burned by religion at some point or another. I was, I guess. I encourage all of you to go out and look for something. If you hated your church, go find another. It's a free market! If they judge you for anything, they're doing it wrong, because everyone's broken in some way. I do shit I shouldn't, and I don't care if you are the same way. Most of my friends are gay, but honestly, who cares?
Once you look past the bullshit and metaphors (if applicable), it's pretty much all the same message- be a good person to others, and they'll return the favor. I'm not a "Bible-thumping redneck fundamentalist" like most would have you believe, and I don't expect anyone else to become that. That's not what it's all about! Just take a look and I guarantee you'll find something that speaks to you.
By far the most obnoxious customer I've had to deal with is this douchebag
mr-taren. Man what an ass, always complaining that this hat isn't right, and not good enough. I think it looks okay... but there's just something missing. Any ideas?Church was interesting today. All right, yeah, I said it- I go. But before you unwatch me, at least hear me out. I was raised Lutheran, but didn't really go regularly. As a kid my parents took me pretty often, but as I got older, not so much. Mostly because I'd throw fits about dressing up nice to go. Then came confirmation, where I had to go quite a bit. It was during a weird time in my life, and I was treated as an outcast there.
I lived in Rockford, but the church was in Loves Park, which is kinda like a podunk town that grew into an awkward suburb. (When all of Loves-tucky you see is North Second, you tend to get a little biased. That street is seriously nothing but used car lots. But now so is Alpine, so... yeah.) There was even a cute little section of highway on the way (Spring Creek and N. 2nd St), so to me it was "out there". All of the kids there went to Harlem Middle School, and I went to Eisenhower, so that didn't help.
The church was phasing out its pastor, and the confirmation staff was awkward at best. The last straw for me was when one of the counselors said to a group I was in, "God doesn't like it when you don't sing." Long story short, I decided that particular church wasn't right for me. I never went full-blown Atheist but I really wasn't interested in religion at all; I was focused more inward.
Fast-forward to a couple of months ago- a contemporary church around here opened up a new 'campus' in a local school's theater hall. Sema convinced me to go. I didn't have to sing if I didn't want to, the atmosphere was much more laid back, and I didn't have to dress up nearly as nice. I still wear a 'nicer' shirt, but the jeans stay. Whatever. I enjoyed the message more than anything else. I'll be honest with ya, the singing and praising thing really isn't my thing. But listening to it at the beginning of each service really does get me in the mood.
Some of the messages can get pretty deep, and sometimes I don't think people quite get it. It kinda upsets me when I see people whispering to each other, or texting during prayer, but it really doesn't matter.
I think too much of the emphasis on Christianity in general is on praise, worship, and following the letter of the Bible. And to non-Christians, that's how followers are perceived. Since I started attending services again, I've figured out that it's not about judging people and pointing out that eating shrimp, wearing polyester blends, and shaving your face are sins- it's just meant to be a blueprint for being a good person.
I assume most people here have been burned by religion at some point or another. I was, I guess. I encourage all of you to go out and look for something. If you hated your church, go find another. It's a free market! If they judge you for anything, they're doing it wrong, because everyone's broken in some way. I do shit I shouldn't, and I don't care if you are the same way. Most of my friends are gay, but honestly, who cares?
Once you look past the bullshit and metaphors (if applicable), it's pretty much all the same message- be a good person to others, and they'll return the favor. I'm not a "Bible-thumping redneck fundamentalist" like most would have you believe, and I don't expect anyone else to become that. That's not what it's all about! Just take a look and I guarantee you'll find something that speaks to you.
Endtable, pictures, nails, and my NY-Resolution(NBPM pt.13)
Posted 15 years agoI FINALLY got the last piece of my living room set that I ordered nearly EIGHT MONTHS AGO. It was going to take nearly 3 months to begin with, since it all had to be made in China or whatever, but they kept having shit on backorder. After about a dozen complaints and at least three partial refunds, the last of the 7-piece set came in. They were supposed to deliver between 10 and 2, and the truck showed up at 2:03. Well, what do you expect for a $3600 order? You stay classy, Ashley Furniture. I HIGHLY recommend avoiding this company.
After pissing away the ENTIRE morning waiting for those schmucks to deliver the table, we took all the dogs to Petco to get Christmas card photos taken. It wasn't pretty! Qoppa tore down the backdrop a COUPLE of times. Annee was pretty well behaved. Ferris (lovingly referred to as F-Bomb) wouldn't fucking listen at all. But somehow, we got some AMAZING pictures out of the whole ordeal. You guys are gonna have to wait a couple of weeks to see them, though.
Sema has taken me to get pedicures a couple of times, and I've always joked about getting nail polish on my toes. (p.s.: I have always been serious :| ) Sema thought it'd be fun to get our nails done to match our fursonas, so she finally let me get black nail polish dun.
http://plixi.com/p/56812392
Then I found out Sema commissioned us new icons for FA!
HEADBUTT! We really do this in real life. It's like our version of a nuzzle or kiss. Just say "headbutt!" and love ensues.
semjay mr-taren
Back in January, one of my goals for 2010 was to put together and release some kind of music album. Being a musician/producer of some sort is kind of a wild dream fantasy of mine. It seems like it'd be really cool and fun, but it would probably suck after a while. As the months went by, I knew it was never going to happen, until tonight.
I was rearranging my music collection and deciding on what stuff to take with me to MFF to listen to while I slave away on hat commissions, and found a bunch of old shitty Bemani remixes from ages ago. Back around 2003 (give or take a year or two) I was really getting the hang of Sony Acid (then Sonic Foundry Acid), and started "remixing" the tracks from DDR and Beatmania for kicks. Unless you're super hardcore into that sort of stuff, these songs are probably not for you. However, there are a couple of original pieces in there.
DJ Naux - "2003"
http://superwailingbonus.com/stuff/DJNaux-2003/
Bonus:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZtL4SI21M0 (Neoparanoia on Stepmania)
I love finding videos of people playing my songs/charts on Stepmania. Especially this guy- he's SO ENTHUSIASTIC that my remix is the bomb. (Don't tell him that most of the track is sampled from TaQ's "bounce - connected". Sorry to ruin it for you...)
After pissing away the ENTIRE morning waiting for those schmucks to deliver the table, we took all the dogs to Petco to get Christmas card photos taken. It wasn't pretty! Qoppa tore down the backdrop a COUPLE of times. Annee was pretty well behaved. Ferris (lovingly referred to as F-Bomb) wouldn't fucking listen at all. But somehow, we got some AMAZING pictures out of the whole ordeal. You guys are gonna have to wait a couple of weeks to see them, though.
Sema has taken me to get pedicures a couple of times, and I've always joked about getting nail polish on my toes. (p.s.: I have always been serious :| ) Sema thought it'd be fun to get our nails done to match our fursonas, so she finally let me get black nail polish dun.
http://plixi.com/p/56812392
Then I found out Sema commissioned us new icons for FA!
HEADBUTT! We really do this in real life. It's like our version of a nuzzle or kiss. Just say "headbutt!" and love ensues.
semjay mr-tarenBack in January, one of my goals for 2010 was to put together and release some kind of music album. Being a musician/producer of some sort is kind of a wild dream fantasy of mine. It seems like it'd be really cool and fun, but it would probably suck after a while. As the months went by, I knew it was never going to happen, until tonight.
I was rearranging my music collection and deciding on what stuff to take with me to MFF to listen to while I slave away on hat commissions, and found a bunch of old shitty Bemani remixes from ages ago. Back around 2003 (give or take a year or two) I was really getting the hang of Sony Acid (then Sonic Foundry Acid), and started "remixing" the tracks from DDR and Beatmania for kicks. Unless you're super hardcore into that sort of stuff, these songs are probably not for you. However, there are a couple of original pieces in there.
DJ Naux - "2003"
http://superwailingbonus.com/stuff/DJNaux-2003/
Bonus:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZtL4SI21M0 (Neoparanoia on Stepmania)
I love finding videos of people playing my songs/charts on Stepmania. Especially this guy- he's SO ENTHUSIASTIC that my remix is the bomb. (Don't tell him that most of the track is sampled from TaQ's "bounce - connected". Sorry to ruin it for you...)
i has a complish (NBPM pt.12)
Posted 15 years agoI had a pretty successful day I think. Didn't get a lot of sleep last night, and combined with last night's shenanigans, I was pretty tired this morning. After lunch I got the ball rolling.
Got some neat features working on my software for work. It's such a great feeling to actually have something function right!
Currently hanging out with
narse and company. Good times. Kinectimals is pretty freaking adorable. Did you know that the MS Kinect uses point of light to track motion? Check out my twitter for some pictures. tarennauxen
How much longer until I can upgrade from this Blackberry Storm to a Droid X ugh
Got some neat features working on my software for work. It's such a great feeling to actually have something function right!
Currently hanging out with
narse and company. Good times. Kinectimals is pretty freaking adorable. Did you know that the MS Kinect uses point of light to track motion? Check out my twitter for some pictures. tarennauxenHow much longer until I can upgrade from this Blackberry Storm to a Droid X ugh
We meet our neighbors through stray dogs (NBPM pt.11)
Posted 15 years agoAfter Sema went to puppy training class with Ferris-oso, she came home and another one of the neighborhood dogs got loose. The gates on these houses are crap, but he probably jumped the nearly 6-foot cinder block party wall. Long story short, she got pretty roughed up by this 100+ pound beast. One neighbor came out to chat, who introduced us to another neighbor, who lived next to the owner. So we spent a good half hour outside shootin' the shit. Found out that a group of five consecutive houses all have pit mixes, including us! So that makes three or four neighbors we've returned loose dogs to and had a pleasant conversation with the owners. They couldn't believe the four idjits here have an entire room dedicated to them!
Then it was off to urgent care to get antibiotics to prevent any sort of infection. Hey, that stuff'll probably work to prevent con crud, too. Thanks to my amazing insurance that I pay out the nose for, the visit and meds totalled $30, and it only took 3 hours from the time we walked into the clinic to the time we picked up the pills from Walgreens. Good times! Even got some McD's shakes and fries in there somewhere, which is OBVIOUSLY more important than antibiotics.
The rest of the day was rather uneventful. Had an impromptu meeting with a coworker, scheduled for 11. When asked if 11 would work for me, I considered writing "hey why not make it 11:11 lol" but didn't. But then... guess what time it was when he sat down to start the meeting? *twilightzone*
Funny thought of the day #1: Listened to some old old Hearts of Space recordings. During Stephen Hill's breakdown of the playlist, he mentioned that several of the tracks were on an album "to be released in 1985". And it kinda blew my mind. I was born in 1985, yet he's using future tense? Whoa, dude. That's like, deep. I dunno. There's just something about that show. It's probably his voice...
Funny thought of the day #2: At the clinic, for some reason the lobby TV was on the cartoons channel. After Invader Zim finished, they played some Dragonball whatever. Seriously, that show is terrible. I went back to wasting time on my phone while semi-paying attention to the dialogue. I attempted to reconstruct the scene from just the dialogue, but it was honest-to-god impossible. I couldn't even come up with a dirty scene that would fit the lame conversation I was hearing between the roided-out white supremacist and the questionable pokemon knockoff. That show is nothing more than mindless banter and constipated grunts, haha. And then they put the basketball game on and the day was saved! Hooray.
UNRELATED TANGENT:
On Veteran's Day, I always think of my Grampa Max. He was in the Korean War. After getting wounded, he was sent to a Japanese hospital, and eventually came home. I don't know much about what happened, but I have seen the Japanese newspaper he was featured in. Pretty cool stuff! The weird thing is that he refuses to accept his Purple Heart award. There's some documentation that has to be filled out to receive the medal, and he won't do it, despite my mom's persistence. Oh well. Either way, he's a total badass and the world needs more people like him.
Then it was off to urgent care to get antibiotics to prevent any sort of infection. Hey, that stuff'll probably work to prevent con crud, too. Thanks to my amazing insurance that I pay out the nose for, the visit and meds totalled $30, and it only took 3 hours from the time we walked into the clinic to the time we picked up the pills from Walgreens. Good times! Even got some McD's shakes and fries in there somewhere, which is OBVIOUSLY more important than antibiotics.
The rest of the day was rather uneventful. Had an impromptu meeting with a coworker, scheduled for 11. When asked if 11 would work for me, I considered writing "hey why not make it 11:11 lol" but didn't. But then... guess what time it was when he sat down to start the meeting? *twilightzone*
Funny thought of the day #1: Listened to some old old Hearts of Space recordings. During Stephen Hill's breakdown of the playlist, he mentioned that several of the tracks were on an album "to be released in 1985". And it kinda blew my mind. I was born in 1985, yet he's using future tense? Whoa, dude. That's like, deep. I dunno. There's just something about that show. It's probably his voice...
Funny thought of the day #2: At the clinic, for some reason the lobby TV was on the cartoons channel. After Invader Zim finished, they played some Dragonball whatever. Seriously, that show is terrible. I went back to wasting time on my phone while semi-paying attention to the dialogue. I attempted to reconstruct the scene from just the dialogue, but it was honest-to-god impossible. I couldn't even come up with a dirty scene that would fit the lame conversation I was hearing between the roided-out white supremacist and the questionable pokemon knockoff. That show is nothing more than mindless banter and constipated grunts, haha. And then they put the basketball game on and the day was saved! Hooray.
UNRELATED TANGENT:
On Veteran's Day, I always think of my Grampa Max. He was in the Korean War. After getting wounded, he was sent to a Japanese hospital, and eventually came home. I don't know much about what happened, but I have seen the Japanese newspaper he was featured in. Pretty cool stuff! The weird thing is that he refuses to accept his Purple Heart award. There's some documentation that has to be filled out to receive the medal, and he won't do it, despite my mom's persistence. Oh well. Either way, he's a total badass and the world needs more people like him.
Thoughts about "gender" (NBPM pt.10)
Posted 15 years agoSlow days at work give me too much time alone to think. After finding out about my low-T, it really got me thinking about the nature of sex, gender, and orientation. I consider it from time to time, but I usually don't give it much thought, other than it's all blown completely out of proportion by society. If it were up to me, none of those concepts would exist. There would still be reproduction and mating and all that jazz, but only one sex. Kind of like if everyone were herm. It would eliminate the need for gender and orientation, and prevent all sorts of discrimination, harassment, inequality, and dysphoria. I'm sure there are good reasons for the way it is, so whatever.
When I told my parents about my condition, my mom commented about how I never seemed interested in "chasing girls" as a kid. Seemed to imply I've probably been "like this" my whole life. It gives me an interesting perspective. As much as I think my contrarian nature is the cause of my "awesomeness", maybe "nature" gave me a little push towards being the way I am.
I find I don't seem to fit into any sort of gender stereotype. In middle school, I had a home-ec class, and I absolutely loved it. It's where I learned to cook and sew! I'm not much into sports, but I do enjoy my single-player sports such as bowling and (to a much lesser extent) golf. Social situations like brunches and team sports aren't really for me. It never bothers me that I fall into the "shameful" sissy category as far as masculinity goes.
It does irritate me when I'm held to a standard just because of my danglybits, such as when I'm hanging out with guys that give me a hard time because I'm not obsessed with beer, sex, and football. For example, just today at work I was getting flak because I wasn't interested in going to hang out at a pub and socialize after work. Then they really went off when they figured out I had never had a "traditional" bachelor party, and began scheming to take me on one. They really won't, and I know they just like to tease, but it's still kind of frustrating. Just like the time my dad gave me flak when he found out I had been playing with a dollhouse at my friend's place. It wasn't malicious or anything, but I could tell it made him uncomfortable. Personally, I hadn't even thought about it; I was too fascinated by the detail and architecture of the dollhouse. I always seemed to fit in with girls more, despite my lack of emotion or empathy.
As much as the S.F.-ban on Happy Meal toys in McDonald's is a step in the wrong direction as a society (if you can't raise your own damn kids you shouldn't have any) I'm kinda glad to see that the gender-specific toys will be gone there. Decisions like Strawberry Shortcake versus Hot Wheels is only making people more self-conscious about things they had no control over. Think about race. Despite the furry population's overabundance of middle-class, pasty-white basement dwellers (myself formerly included), I find that the color of one's skin really isn't as big of a deal as it normally seems. Probably because people only "see" avatars. That sets the stage for nonsense like "species-ism", but I digress. Just work your way back. Gender is just the next "feature" to become unimportant.
I imagine anyone that's really sat down and thought about it would find that they aren't clear-cut one or the other. Further investigation would reveal that the gender boundaries set forth by society are in fact extremely arbitrary albeit rigid. Some of it may be based on genetic predisposition, like motherly instincts, but things like fashion and interests have no place being prescribed.
I've known quite a few people that are transgendered or transsexual. When first introduced to the concept, my reaction was "Huh, well how about that." I was never really repulsed by any of it. It was something new, like a cowboy being introduced to rock 'n roll. I'm cool with people getting operations- it is your own body after all; who am I to say what you can and can't do? But it's a shame it has to come to that, and there's no "Configure Settings" or "Recompile" button for bodies.
Language is always a huge stumbling block when it comes to gender. I'd say the only thing that irks me about any of this is some of the neologisms people come up with to describe their situation. I've seen some logical portmanteaus of pronouns from time to time, and I've seen some really bizarre shit. Again, if that's your thing, go nuts. Just don't get upset when people don't "get" it. I think it's just my displeasure that some/most languages force you to disclose gender as often as they do. Especially languages that alter nouns and verbs based on it. As a result, I still have trouble using "correct" pronouns for transgendered people. For example, I tend to default to physical appearance over self-identity. Sorry, nothing personal.
So if you couldn't figure it out, I consider myself transgendered as well. To what exactly, I'm not sure. Gender fluid seems the reasonable choice. Instead of hamburger or chicken sandwich, I'd be like the huge salad bar that has bits and pieces of everything imaginable. I've been struggling with this concept for years, honestly. If it were up to me, on a numerical scale, I'd be the square root of -1 (that darn imaginary number that you can't plot) because I just feel like no label really fits. Androgyne, tomgirl, bigender, trigender, two-spirit? Eh. The body's fine, I suppose. It's just a vehicle for the mind and soul anyway. I'll play along as needed to survive.
The more I think about it, the less sense everything makes. It's all just labels and categories anyway. Screw it, I got better things to do.
When I told my parents about my condition, my mom commented about how I never seemed interested in "chasing girls" as a kid. Seemed to imply I've probably been "like this" my whole life. It gives me an interesting perspective. As much as I think my contrarian nature is the cause of my "awesomeness", maybe "nature" gave me a little push towards being the way I am.
I find I don't seem to fit into any sort of gender stereotype. In middle school, I had a home-ec class, and I absolutely loved it. It's where I learned to cook and sew! I'm not much into sports, but I do enjoy my single-player sports such as bowling and (to a much lesser extent) golf. Social situations like brunches and team sports aren't really for me. It never bothers me that I fall into the "shameful" sissy category as far as masculinity goes.
It does irritate me when I'm held to a standard just because of my danglybits, such as when I'm hanging out with guys that give me a hard time because I'm not obsessed with beer, sex, and football. For example, just today at work I was getting flak because I wasn't interested in going to hang out at a pub and socialize after work. Then they really went off when they figured out I had never had a "traditional" bachelor party, and began scheming to take me on one. They really won't, and I know they just like to tease, but it's still kind of frustrating. Just like the time my dad gave me flak when he found out I had been playing with a dollhouse at my friend's place. It wasn't malicious or anything, but I could tell it made him uncomfortable. Personally, I hadn't even thought about it; I was too fascinated by the detail and architecture of the dollhouse. I always seemed to fit in with girls more, despite my lack of emotion or empathy.
As much as the S.F.-ban on Happy Meal toys in McDonald's is a step in the wrong direction as a society (if you can't raise your own damn kids you shouldn't have any) I'm kinda glad to see that the gender-specific toys will be gone there. Decisions like Strawberry Shortcake versus Hot Wheels is only making people more self-conscious about things they had no control over. Think about race. Despite the furry population's overabundance of middle-class, pasty-white basement dwellers (myself formerly included), I find that the color of one's skin really isn't as big of a deal as it normally seems. Probably because people only "see" avatars. That sets the stage for nonsense like "species-ism", but I digress. Just work your way back. Gender is just the next "feature" to become unimportant.
I imagine anyone that's really sat down and thought about it would find that they aren't clear-cut one or the other. Further investigation would reveal that the gender boundaries set forth by society are in fact extremely arbitrary albeit rigid. Some of it may be based on genetic predisposition, like motherly instincts, but things like fashion and interests have no place being prescribed.
I've known quite a few people that are transgendered or transsexual. When first introduced to the concept, my reaction was "Huh, well how about that." I was never really repulsed by any of it. It was something new, like a cowboy being introduced to rock 'n roll. I'm cool with people getting operations- it is your own body after all; who am I to say what you can and can't do? But it's a shame it has to come to that, and there's no "Configure Settings" or "Recompile" button for bodies.
Language is always a huge stumbling block when it comes to gender. I'd say the only thing that irks me about any of this is some of the neologisms people come up with to describe their situation. I've seen some logical portmanteaus of pronouns from time to time, and I've seen some really bizarre shit. Again, if that's your thing, go nuts. Just don't get upset when people don't "get" it. I think it's just my displeasure that some/most languages force you to disclose gender as often as they do. Especially languages that alter nouns and verbs based on it. As a result, I still have trouble using "correct" pronouns for transgendered people. For example, I tend to default to physical appearance over self-identity. Sorry, nothing personal.
So if you couldn't figure it out, I consider myself transgendered as well. To what exactly, I'm not sure. Gender fluid seems the reasonable choice. Instead of hamburger or chicken sandwich, I'd be like the huge salad bar that has bits and pieces of everything imaginable. I've been struggling with this concept for years, honestly. If it were up to me, on a numerical scale, I'd be the square root of -1 (that darn imaginary number that you can't plot) because I just feel like no label really fits. Androgyne, tomgirl, bigender, trigender, two-spirit? Eh. The body's fine, I suppose. It's just a vehicle for the mind and soul anyway. I'll play along as needed to survive.
The more I think about it, the less sense everything makes. It's all just labels and categories anyway. Screw it, I got better things to do.
I had a day. (NBPM pt.9)
Posted 15 years agoPart 9!
Had another crazy ass bowling dream this morning. Probably because I was so confused by the first one. Felt a lot better than yesterday. Didn't start feeling tired until 11:30 or so, but that was just because of hunger. It may be placebo effect, but I certain felt more on top of things today. Not quite 100%, but on the way.
Today was very lazy. Spent work today running processes that take a long time and rarely function correctly. So get this: I have two monitors for my machine, and one of them is regularly connected via remote desktop to a machine in another building. My machine is running at 100% CPU due to shitty antivirus software, and the other machine is running at 5%, and slowly eating up all of the RAM. When the other machine thinks too hard, the connection drops and I lose control of the remote machine. No joke! About 15 minutes later I finally regain control only to find the work I was doing over there crashed. Happens every single time. I have a third remote machine (brand new!) I can use, but freaking info-security couldn't give me the right access permissions, so it's basically useless. Great job! My coworkers complain about them much more than I do. I'm sure they work just as hard as anyone else, but... imagine jousting with toothpicks. Yeah. Ugh, my boss's boss is coming tomorrow, so I'm certain absolutely nothing is going to get done. Great.
More incoherent thoughts later.
Had another crazy ass bowling dream this morning. Probably because I was so confused by the first one. Felt a lot better than yesterday. Didn't start feeling tired until 11:30 or so, but that was just because of hunger. It may be placebo effect, but I certain felt more on top of things today. Not quite 100%, but on the way.
Today was very lazy. Spent work today running processes that take a long time and rarely function correctly. So get this: I have two monitors for my machine, and one of them is regularly connected via remote desktop to a machine in another building. My machine is running at 100% CPU due to shitty antivirus software, and the other machine is running at 5%, and slowly eating up all of the RAM. When the other machine thinks too hard, the connection drops and I lose control of the remote machine. No joke! About 15 minutes later I finally regain control only to find the work I was doing over there crashed. Happens every single time. I have a third remote machine (brand new!) I can use, but freaking info-security couldn't give me the right access permissions, so it's basically useless. Great job! My coworkers complain about them much more than I do. I'm sure they work just as hard as anyone else, but... imagine jousting with toothpicks. Yeah. Ugh, my boss's boss is coming tomorrow, so I'm certain absolutely nothing is going to get done. Great.
More incoherent thoughts later.
Monday blues (NBPM pt.8)
Posted 15 years agoThis morning I had such a hard time getting out the door to work. It's always like that for me on Mondays. I visualize Mondays as being at the bottom of a pit. Climbing up represents progressing through the week, and climbing out is the weekend. Then somehow I sucked back to the bottom and have to climb back up. But at least it pays well, I guess. I just couldn't find the energy to get up and fight, you know?
Not only do I have a mentally exhausting job, but the commute really stresses me out. Arizona drivers are fucking retards, and it's a 27-mile journey each way, almost all on highways. There are only two traffic conditions in the morning, ever: "critical mass" and "holy fuck". Critical mass occurs when the car density is so high that if one person taps their brakes, the entire highway gridlocks. Holy fuck occurs after somebody taps their brakes. The following is a list of things that causes people to flip out and slam on their brakes: traffic stops (rubbernecking geezers), pollution advisories on the message boards, merging traffic, and hills. Yes, hills. There's an overpass at US60 and Lindsay that always seems to cause a backup, but then over the top of the hill it smooths out. Every single day Boo has to remind me to be safe, because every day I have to deal with this shit, both ways. Trips home are generally smoother, since traffic peters out as I approach BFE.
I have been having lots and lots of fucked up dreams in the morning after my first alarm goes off. I generally don't remember this. But this time I did! I recalled a lot of goofy details from my conversation with my mom the other day, about how one of the local bowling centers revamped their interior. I dreamed I was bowling, and people kept steppping up and taking my turn for me. I recall it was the 9th frame, and I had quite a good run going on. And I couldn't go back and erase the scores, because (reality tidbit) the center had swapped out their scorekeepers since I had been there last. Dreams like this plagued me frequently during high school when I was on the HS team and a separate league. I'm obsessive, what can I say? I haven't had one in a long time, though. Especially one that vivid.
I had to take my zippleback plushie (from HTTYD) with me to work. Hugging it makes me feel a little better. I left it in the car during the day, though.
My phone fell in squeeze butter on my bagel on the car ride to work. I'm pretty sure I cleaned it all up...
This afternoon I got my first testosterone injection! I'll be getting one every two weeks so I won't turn into a woman I guess, haha. I'll just stay put as a Taren.
Sema (a.k.a. Boo) was very brave and poked me with the needle. Good job! It didn't hurt at all. Just a little pinch.
Random throwback song of the evening: Rapper's Relight / DJ Spooky
http://ilike.myspacecdn.com/play#DJ.....96da86f28ad1b7
Not only do I have a mentally exhausting job, but the commute really stresses me out. Arizona drivers are fucking retards, and it's a 27-mile journey each way, almost all on highways. There are only two traffic conditions in the morning, ever: "critical mass" and "holy fuck". Critical mass occurs when the car density is so high that if one person taps their brakes, the entire highway gridlocks. Holy fuck occurs after somebody taps their brakes. The following is a list of things that causes people to flip out and slam on their brakes: traffic stops (rubbernecking geezers), pollution advisories on the message boards, merging traffic, and hills. Yes, hills. There's an overpass at US60 and Lindsay that always seems to cause a backup, but then over the top of the hill it smooths out. Every single day Boo has to remind me to be safe, because every day I have to deal with this shit, both ways. Trips home are generally smoother, since traffic peters out as I approach BFE.
I have been having lots and lots of fucked up dreams in the morning after my first alarm goes off. I generally don't remember this. But this time I did! I recalled a lot of goofy details from my conversation with my mom the other day, about how one of the local bowling centers revamped their interior. I dreamed I was bowling, and people kept steppping up and taking my turn for me. I recall it was the 9th frame, and I had quite a good run going on. And I couldn't go back and erase the scores, because (reality tidbit) the center had swapped out their scorekeepers since I had been there last. Dreams like this plagued me frequently during high school when I was on the HS team and a separate league. I'm obsessive, what can I say? I haven't had one in a long time, though. Especially one that vivid.
I had to take my zippleback plushie (from HTTYD) with me to work. Hugging it makes me feel a little better. I left it in the car during the day, though.
My phone fell in squeeze butter on my bagel on the car ride to work. I'm pretty sure I cleaned it all up...
This afternoon I got my first testosterone injection! I'll be getting one every two weeks so I won't turn into a woman I guess, haha. I'll just stay put as a Taren.
Sema (a.k.a. Boo) was very brave and poked me with the needle. Good job! It didn't hurt at all. Just a little pinch.
Random throwback song of the evening: Rapper's Relight / DJ Spooky
http://ilike.myspacecdn.com/play#DJ.....96da86f28ad1b7
Five dollar grill! (NBPM pt.7)
Posted 15 years agoThis morning, swing by Walgreens for shits-n-grins-n-snacks. My favorite aisle is THE CLEARANCE SECTION. I found this little doodad:
http://appliances.pricegrabber.com/.....778552971.html
It retails for $20 but had a "WOW! $5" sticker on it. I'm so excited to try it out. </gay>
I'd love to go into detail about where Sema and I went after that, but it's a secret. SHAME! Divulging this six-letter, monosyllablic location would cause at least half of my friends list to unwatch me out of disgust. Let's just say there were lots of people there, and it involved hamburgers and hotdogs afterwards. And a dunk tank. And it wasn't the fair. Although there were tickets to be purchased.
I received a $20 bill with a Where's George stamp the other day from the bank. I entered it and found that it had come from Hawaii! I spent that bill there, buying lunch. I wonder where it will end up next. The only thing that's certain is that it won't stay dormant for very long!
Got my last hat commission done for now. I have a body suit to do for
warwulf coming up soon, probably after MFF.
Ferris-oso got his last vaccines done this afternoon. He's a dork.
We decided that our backyard needs to get done. It's gonna have some grass, and some trees, and a spiffy little pool. No more dust and rocks, ugh. Hopefully that'll cut down on the seemingly constant layer of grime on everything in the house.
Time to go pretend to work tomorrow.
10-10-80!
http://appliances.pricegrabber.com/.....778552971.html
It retails for $20 but had a "WOW! $5" sticker on it. I'm so excited to try it out. </gay>
I'd love to go into detail about where Sema and I went after that, but it's a secret. SHAME! Divulging this six-letter, monosyllablic location would cause at least half of my friends list to unwatch me out of disgust. Let's just say there were lots of people there, and it involved hamburgers and hotdogs afterwards. And a dunk tank. And it wasn't the fair. Although there were tickets to be purchased.
I received a $20 bill with a Where's George stamp the other day from the bank. I entered it and found that it had come from Hawaii! I spent that bill there, buying lunch. I wonder where it will end up next. The only thing that's certain is that it won't stay dormant for very long!
Got my last hat commission done for now. I have a body suit to do for
warwulf coming up soon, probably after MFF.Ferris-oso got his last vaccines done this afternoon. He's a dork.
We decided that our backyard needs to get done. It's gonna have some grass, and some trees, and a spiffy little pool. No more dust and rocks, ugh. Hopefully that'll cut down on the seemingly constant layer of grime on everything in the house.
Time to go pretend to work tomorrow.
10-10-80!
Lazy pirate day (NBPM pt.6)
Posted 15 years agoSet sail in the afternoon!
Got a flu shot yesterday with semjay. I get allergy shots all the time but this one hurt! It feels like when you get a bruise. Pretty sure it contributed to me feeling shitty this afternoon. I just felt exhausted, and slightly feverish, yet my temperature was normal. Felt better after dinner, though.
We went on an adventure to the other side of town to check out a training facility for Q-dawg. It seems very nice, and would probably be just the thing for the Qoppa-dope. It's just really expensive, of course.
I was feeling very anxious all day. Still am a little. I get so wound up about maximizing my productivity and setting unrealistic goals, that when I inevitably fail to meet them, I beat myself up over it. For example, I try to get as much stuff done during the weekend as possible, because it's the only time I have the energy and concentration to do anything for myself! I'm too burned out after work to do shit, so if anything ever gets done, it's on Saturday. Then if something comes up that diverts my attention, I freak out, because I know it'll never get done, and I have to wait another week for another chance.
It's really not a healthy way to think or live. I just feel paralyzed all the time. Then I blink and three days go by. I'm almost not even kidding. Hopefully when I start my injections I'll be able to do stuff in the afternoons. How did I do it when I lived at home? I worked during semester breaks in a shipping department, packing tools in boxes for 9 hours a day. It was tiring but I still managed to do all sorts of other stuff in my free time. I can never seem to relax, ever!
(Fun fact: I'm posting this stuff daily because I want to use this as a benchmark for how I feel later on. Science!)
Got a flu shot yesterday with
semjay. I get allergy shots all the time but this one hurt! It feels like when you get a bruise. Pretty sure it contributed to me feeling shitty this afternoon. I just felt exhausted, and slightly feverish, yet my temperature was normal. Felt better after dinner, though.We went on an adventure to the other side of town to check out a training facility for Q-dawg. It seems very nice, and would probably be just the thing for the Qoppa-dope. It's just really expensive, of course.
I was feeling very anxious all day. Still am a little. I get so wound up about maximizing my productivity and setting unrealistic goals, that when I inevitably fail to meet them, I beat myself up over it. For example, I try to get as much stuff done during the weekend as possible, because it's the only time I have the energy and concentration to do anything for myself! I'm too burned out after work to do shit, so if anything ever gets done, it's on Saturday. Then if something comes up that diverts my attention, I freak out, because I know it'll never get done, and I have to wait another week for another chance.
It's really not a healthy way to think or live. I just feel paralyzed all the time. Then I blink and three days go by. I'm almost not even kidding. Hopefully when I start my injections I'll be able to do stuff in the afternoons. How did I do it when I lived at home? I worked during semester breaks in a shipping department, packing tools in boxes for 9 hours a day. It was tiring but I still managed to do all sorts of other stuff in my free time. I can never seem to relax, ever!
(Fun fact: I'm posting this stuff daily because I want to use this as a benchmark for how I feel later on. Science!)
I'm going on hormone therapy (NBPM pt.5)
Posted 15 years agoRemember how I mentioned I was going to see the doctor today? Here's the scoop.
I don't know what the general consensus is about being "open" with certain medical issues. This is probably something that most (normal) people would keep to themselves. Honestly, I don't really give a hoot who knows. Who cares? So here it is, out in the open.
I am going on testosterone replacement therapy. Apparently my balls are broken, and not producing enough testosterone or something. It's called hypogonadism (primary, I think). A blood test showed my T levels were at 266 ng/dl. For a 25-year-old male those should be around double or triple that. A value of 266 would be ideal for a centenarian!
My symptoms were pretty consistent with the diagnosis. For the last year or so, I've been tired all the time. For example, I'm a software engineer, so I pretty much sit on my duff all day and stare at a screen. Sure, it's pretty mentally taxing, but when I come home, all I want to do is veg out. I want to play DDR more, but by the afternoon I'm bushed. Getting 5-6 hours of sleep a night isn't helping either. I've also noticed my hair falling out more. The hair thing was probably going to happen anyway, but not this soon. I also have virtually no sex drive. Never really have. The last straw was being in a constant mental haze. You know that feeling you get when you're up past your bedtime? I'm like that a majority of the time. I've noticed lately I'm having a lot of trouble recalling certain words and putting together coherent phrases when thinking on the fly.
My doctor (who is super-awesome by the way) suggested I go on hormone replacement to boost those values and get me to feeling better. I just want to feel healthy, be able to make it through a day, and think clearly. I'm getting 1 cc of 200mg/ml Dopa-T once every 14 days. I'll be following up in January to see where I'm at. My estradiol and LH levels were okay- just T and free-T% were extremely low.
It sounds like it's a hereditary thing. I called up my parents and asked them about any family history. Nobody on either side of my family has had low testosterone issues before, BUT my mom mentioned that she and her mom both had issues with very low progesterone. Maybe I got it from them? (This was after some in-jest remarks about how I "never chased after girls" and never seemed to follow typical male gender roles. Fun fact: my family thought I was gay until I introduced Sema!)
I'm a little nervous about this whole procedure. I've never really had any serious medical problems before, other than my horrendous allergies. That is, I've never been "on medication" before. I take antihistamines but whatever, I skip those constantly. At least I'm going to have help- Sema is looking forward to stabbing me with needles twice a month.
Has anyone else gone through this, or known someone that has? What's it like?
I don't know what the general consensus is about being "open" with certain medical issues. This is probably something that most (normal) people would keep to themselves. Honestly, I don't really give a hoot who knows. Who cares? So here it is, out in the open.
I am going on testosterone replacement therapy. Apparently my balls are broken, and not producing enough testosterone or something. It's called hypogonadism (primary, I think). A blood test showed my T levels were at 266 ng/dl. For a 25-year-old male those should be around double or triple that. A value of 266 would be ideal for a centenarian!
My symptoms were pretty consistent with the diagnosis. For the last year or so, I've been tired all the time. For example, I'm a software engineer, so I pretty much sit on my duff all day and stare at a screen. Sure, it's pretty mentally taxing, but when I come home, all I want to do is veg out. I want to play DDR more, but by the afternoon I'm bushed. Getting 5-6 hours of sleep a night isn't helping either. I've also noticed my hair falling out more. The hair thing was probably going to happen anyway, but not this soon. I also have virtually no sex drive. Never really have. The last straw was being in a constant mental haze. You know that feeling you get when you're up past your bedtime? I'm like that a majority of the time. I've noticed lately I'm having a lot of trouble recalling certain words and putting together coherent phrases when thinking on the fly.
My doctor (who is super-awesome by the way) suggested I go on hormone replacement to boost those values and get me to feeling better. I just want to feel healthy, be able to make it through a day, and think clearly. I'm getting 1 cc of 200mg/ml Dopa-T once every 14 days. I'll be following up in January to see where I'm at. My estradiol and LH levels were okay- just T and free-T% were extremely low.
It sounds like it's a hereditary thing. I called up my parents and asked them about any family history. Nobody on either side of my family has had low testosterone issues before, BUT my mom mentioned that she and her mom both had issues with very low progesterone. Maybe I got it from them? (This was after some in-jest remarks about how I "never chased after girls" and never seemed to follow typical male gender roles. Fun fact: my family thought I was gay until I introduced Sema!)
I'm a little nervous about this whole procedure. I've never really had any serious medical problems before, other than my horrendous allergies. That is, I've never been "on medication" before. I take antihistamines but whatever, I skip those constantly. At least I'm going to have help- Sema is looking forward to stabbing me with needles twice a month.
Has anyone else gone through this, or known someone that has? What's it like?
There's music in here! (Nablopomo 4)
Posted 15 years agoI might actually be able to keep this posting thing up for a while.
A few of my coworkers today mentioned getting phone calls from a number "3133" (that's it). One of them picked up, and said that the caller was "supposedly" from Chase Bank, informing her that her bank account had been frozen. Funny thing is, she doesn't bank with them. Then they asked for her 16-digit Visa card number. Haha! So yeah, just watch out for that. And what's scary is that it was completely automated, because it rejected her entry of all zeroes. Odds are it was a call to a landline, I'd say. I've never gotten any scammers or telemarketers on my cell. A couple of wrong numbers, but that's about it...
I've been feeling especially mentally scattered lately. Probably just anxious about my check-up with the doctor tomorrow. Nothing serious. Well, I did specifically make it earlier just so I'd avoid the nasty Scottsdale rush-hour traffic on the way home. See also: excuse to get off work early.
That reminds me! This is the last weekend for the AZ state fair! I'd still like to go maybe.
I finally found a torrent (gasp) of an album I've been looking for: Anjunabeats Vol.3. It's come up a lot on Pandora, and I really loved the two tracks it would play from the album:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Axl1XgYsP4c Eighties (Ozgur Can Remix)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCHUx-OyxHU Larry Mountains 54 (Original Mix)
And whaddya know, they're 1-2 on the album! Too bad the rest of the album was mostly kinda zzzzz. Well, that's faggytrance for ya.
I tend to cycle through a lot of channels during any given week. Here are some of my favorites:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFSSd0H_RgE Station to Station
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnU51pb47yM Extra
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_Tx6ust2N8 Inner Worlds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUJa05rxGec Waltz in 7/8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66IdO4dgJtU Marakesh
Naturally, it's all just background music to keep me from going insane.
oh wait
A few of my coworkers today mentioned getting phone calls from a number "3133" (that's it). One of them picked up, and said that the caller was "supposedly" from Chase Bank, informing her that her bank account had been frozen. Funny thing is, she doesn't bank with them. Then they asked for her 16-digit Visa card number. Haha! So yeah, just watch out for that. And what's scary is that it was completely automated, because it rejected her entry of all zeroes. Odds are it was a call to a landline, I'd say. I've never gotten any scammers or telemarketers on my cell. A couple of wrong numbers, but that's about it...
I've been feeling especially mentally scattered lately. Probably just anxious about my check-up with the doctor tomorrow. Nothing serious. Well, I did specifically make it earlier just so I'd avoid the nasty Scottsdale rush-hour traffic on the way home. See also: excuse to get off work early.
That reminds me! This is the last weekend for the AZ state fair! I'd still like to go maybe.
I finally found a torrent (gasp) of an album I've been looking for: Anjunabeats Vol.3. It's come up a lot on Pandora, and I really loved the two tracks it would play from the album:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Axl1XgYsP4c Eighties (Ozgur Can Remix)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCHUx-OyxHU Larry Mountains 54 (Original Mix)
And whaddya know, they're 1-2 on the album! Too bad the rest of the album was mostly kinda zzzzz. Well, that's faggytrance for ya.
I tend to cycle through a lot of channels during any given week. Here are some of my favorites:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFSSd0H_RgE Station to Station
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnU51pb47yM Extra
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_Tx6ust2N8 Inner Worlds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUJa05rxGec Waltz in 7/8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66IdO4dgJtU Marakesh
Naturally, it's all just background music to keep me from going insane.
oh wait
Jarritos! (Nablpomo^3)
Posted 15 years agoI love my icon that 
greykitty did for me!
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/4736884
It just so happened that today was grocery day! It was quite stressful for some reason this time. First, they are now playing Christmas music, so I walked in to see a big-ass tree in the main walkway and some carol over the loudspeakers. Too soon! It's still 90 degrees here.
I hate when I notice small little details- for instance, the store rearranged their lunchmeat section. The Lunchables are now on the opposite side of the lunch meat! Blasphemy! It was also nearly impossible to find the 24-packs of pop, which just happened to be on sale today. Hmm....
Just before I left, I remembered I needed to pick up a jar of Mandarin flavored Jarritos! But I couldn't find any. >:( I think my part of town is too white for Fry's to carry it. Good thing I work near Mesa! :)
I also enjoyed South Park tonight. I thought Mysterion was Clyde. But if Kenny is Mysterion, then who is Mint Berry Crunch?! Oh, whoops. My bad. Spoiler alert.
As I came over to my laptop to post this, I noticed the screen wouldn't turn on. I popped the battery for a little bit, and when it started, it came up with blinking pinstripes on the screen! One more battery pull and it started working again fine. That was odd. Just thought I'd note that...
Other than that, it's the same old stuff.
go hug some soft drinks and nice drgns
greykitty did for me!http://www.furaffinity.net/view/4736884
It just so happened that today was grocery day! It was quite stressful for some reason this time. First, they are now playing Christmas music, so I walked in to see a big-ass tree in the main walkway and some carol over the loudspeakers. Too soon! It's still 90 degrees here.
I hate when I notice small little details- for instance, the store rearranged their lunchmeat section. The Lunchables are now on the opposite side of the lunch meat! Blasphemy! It was also nearly impossible to find the 24-packs of pop, which just happened to be on sale today. Hmm....
Just before I left, I remembered I needed to pick up a jar of Mandarin flavored Jarritos! But I couldn't find any. >:( I think my part of town is too white for Fry's to carry it. Good thing I work near Mesa! :)
I also enjoyed South Park tonight. I thought Mysterion was Clyde. But if Kenny is Mysterion, then who is Mint Berry Crunch?! Oh, whoops. My bad. Spoiler alert.
As I came over to my laptop to post this, I noticed the screen wouldn't turn on. I popped the battery for a little bit, and when it started, it came up with blinking pinstripes on the screen! One more battery pull and it started working again fine. That was odd. Just thought I'd note that...
Other than that, it's the same old stuff.
go hug some soft drinks and nice drgns
Voting! (Nablopomo #2)
Posted 15 years agoI'm gonna try and stick with the 30-day challenge! In b4 midnight, etc.
I'm pretty happy with how the AZ polls turned out. McCain is an old coot and whatever, but at least Brewer got elected FOR REALZ this time. Most important of all, Prop 106 passed, blocking Dear Leader's mandated health care purchasing nonsense in this state. I can't wait to see what His Excellency has to say about that! brb secession lol.
I'm a little disappointed the medical marijuana prop didn't pass. The paperwork was pretty darn thorough. But alas, this is still a Red state.
Did Prop 420 (the Cubs prop, not the pot prop, haha) pass? It looked pretty good. The Chicago Cubs' spring training facility could be moving really close to our house if everything works out right.
Everything else pretty much turned out how I had hoped. That's it for my reactions here. This isn't soccer! THIS IS AMERICA
I'm pretty happy with how the AZ polls turned out. McCain is an old coot and whatever, but at least Brewer got elected FOR REALZ this time. Most important of all, Prop 106 passed, blocking Dear Leader's mandated health care purchasing nonsense in this state. I can't wait to see what His Excellency has to say about that! brb secession lol.
I'm a little disappointed the medical marijuana prop didn't pass. The paperwork was pretty darn thorough. But alas, this is still a Red state.
Did Prop 420 (the Cubs prop, not the pot prop, haha) pass? It looked pretty good. The Chicago Cubs' spring training facility could be moving really close to our house if everything works out right.
Everything else pretty much turned out how I had hoped. That's it for my reactions here. This isn't soccer! THIS IS AMERICA
NaNoWriMo for slackers: Nablopomo! (1)
Posted 15 years agoNational Blog Post Month!
http://www.nablopomo.com/
Every time Nanowrimo comes around I think HEY COOL I'LL TRY THAT and then at approximately 00:01 on November 1st my attitude shift closer to "Auuuughhhh no way". So when I found out there was a blogging equivalent, I thought maybe I'd try that. I can probably ramble on and on for about a month. Might be difficult around MFF time though.
So here you go. A "blog" post. I hate that word, really. It's so pretentious. It makes me think of one of those cookie-cutter setups that nobody ever comments on. You know the kind, right?
I decided to post this here instead of LJ because I figured more people might see it here. Twitter must have sucked all the life out of LJ, and I kinda fell into that too. I started getting fewer and fewer comments, not as many interesting posts on my friends-list, I had fewer interesting things to write about, and then I started posting less. It was a big downward spiral!
Speaking of uninteresting things to talk about, I really don't do much nowadays. I used to post about school, and bitch about my teachers, and talk about all my projects and free time. That all kinda changed last summer when I started working full time. I try to keep that all on the down-low, but there really isn't that much to discuss anyway. Wake up, go to work, come home, do stuff, pass out, repeat. Not necessarily in that order!
Anyway, I'm going to try to update my FA journal daily for this month. What should I talk about next? Pick my mind!
http://www.nablopomo.com/
Every time Nanowrimo comes around I think HEY COOL I'LL TRY THAT and then at approximately 00:01 on November 1st my attitude shift closer to "Auuuughhhh no way". So when I found out there was a blogging equivalent, I thought maybe I'd try that. I can probably ramble on and on for about a month. Might be difficult around MFF time though.
So here you go. A "blog" post. I hate that word, really. It's so pretentious. It makes me think of one of those cookie-cutter setups that nobody ever comments on. You know the kind, right?
I decided to post this here instead of LJ because I figured more people might see it here. Twitter must have sucked all the life out of LJ, and I kinda fell into that too. I started getting fewer and fewer comments, not as many interesting posts on my friends-list, I had fewer interesting things to write about, and then I started posting less. It was a big downward spiral!
Speaking of uninteresting things to talk about, I really don't do much nowadays. I used to post about school, and bitch about my teachers, and talk about all my projects and free time. That all kinda changed last summer when I started working full time. I try to keep that all on the down-low, but there really isn't that much to discuss anyway. Wake up, go to work, come home, do stuff, pass out, repeat. Not necessarily in that order!
Anyway, I'm going to try to update my FA journal daily for this month. What should I talk about next? Pick my mind!
Any interest in custom body suits?
Posted 15 years agoI've done a number of custom fursuit body suits before on commission, and I hear the customers were very happy with them...
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/4382421/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1754005/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1686967/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1658998/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/3006070/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/2311019/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/2043446/
I stopped about a year ago due to working full-time and gearing up for a move. I was wondering, would anyone be interested if I opened up for body suit commissions for December/January? I'm talking JUST the torso- no hands, no feet, no head, maybe the tail, no digitigrade, and maybe wings.
Prices would start around $450 (USD). That includes all fabric (I prefer Distinctive Fabrics), labor, US shipping, fees, etc. I only require body measurements, and no duct tape dummy, so that should make life easier.
Yes/yes?
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/4382421/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1754005/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1686967/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1658998/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/3006070/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/2311019/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/2043446/
I stopped about a year ago due to working full-time and gearing up for a move. I was wondering, would anyone be interested if I opened up for body suit commissions for December/January? I'm talking JUST the torso- no hands, no feet, no head, maybe the tail, no digitigrade, and maybe wings.
Prices would start around $450 (USD). That includes all fabric (I prefer Distinctive Fabrics), labor, US shipping, fees, etc. I only require body measurements, and no duct tape dummy, so that should make life easier.
Yes/yes?
A rare peek into my semi-interesting situations
Posted 15 years agoHat Commissions
Status: YEP
Current queue:
-.
just-a-little-mixed-up hat 1: DONE
1. just-a-little-mixed-up hat 2: 90% done, need to add hair fluff
2. just-a-little-mixed-up hat 3: paid
3. Moo: paid
4.
ryunwoofie hat 1: paid
5. ryunwoofie hat 2: paid
If you're interested in one, you can find out more about them here:
http://furducers.com
I'm taking orders to be completed before MFF, and either mailed out before I leave, or delivered at the con. Custom-designed hats start at $25, and go up with complexity.
FA Rank
I updated the Java applet for the first time ever. Now it's version 1.1, I guess. Hah. Recently some "Allan" guy must have really pissed off FA admins or something, because if you try to go to his user page, all you get is a white screen. As you can imagine, this does WONDERS for page-scraping programs. Come on you guys, would it have killed you to scrub the database of the offending usernames rather than use die() under hard-coded circumstances? Talk about poor coding practices. All of the watcher links are still there HELLO. Well, I guess if Apples are still Mammals, anything's possible.
Progress came to a grinding halt as program instances exploded upon attempting to dissect the blank page. I've added in some checks to that 1) none of the "banned" usernames can get added back to the database, and 2) if your applet crashes with an array-bounds error, it restarts itself.
TL;DR: lol allan bannination, fixed some shit, and I added a picture of Professor Farnsworth to the Farankfurter page. http://popufur.com/future GOOD NEWS
Sup
What the hell happened to 2010? Ever since starting my full-time job last June, time has just gone by faster and faster. It really makes me upset sometimes. Work drags on and on. You'd think a satellite-related job would be more interesting, but I don't feel challenged enough. Not to mention 50% of the employees at my work act like Hermes from Futurama. Y'know, the bureaucrat? Verbose documentation, capital letters, formal processes, Microsoft Office, fluorescent lighting, an offensive yet curious odor emitting from the break room, that guy that thinks he's funny but is really really annoying...
I have a 30-minute commute (40 if snowbirds are rubbernecking at a stopped patrol car), and it's been hot. Well duh, it is the desert. Nice at night, but during the afternoon, my car still gets pretty nasty. Not comfortable. My AC takes a loooong time to kick in, and after about 4 months of the heat, it gets ooooold. No wonder I always get the sweet parking spots on the west side of the building!
There was a nice storm last week. 2010 has been a wild weather year. First there was the apocalypse known as January, where it rained SO MUCH that shit actually grew in the desert, and my backyard was unusable until February. Then last week the weather was all like 'hey have some fucken heat waves and then a cold front lol'. The area by my work is littered with evergreens, so the trees that DIDN'T get blown over onto people's cars got all the needles shaken out of them, clogging up the sewers! My work lost power for a few minutes, got a broken window, several roof leaks, and had two trees fall on a total of three cars. Most exciting thing that's happened there since the pipes randomly burst in February, flooding half the building, hah.
Thanks to the Münchausen Economy ™, semjay and I were able to score a sweet new-built house. Unfortunately, it's kinda far from everything. It's so new, you can't find it on Google Maps, and we still don't know what city we're in. But it's got all the main attractions around here- two Walgreenses, a CVS, Walmartistan, three pet stores, Kroger, two Dunkin Donuts, two Little Caesars, Dollar Tree, Bevmo, Chick-fil-A (great on Sundays), and most importantly, an Olive Garden coming soon (testify!). As for activities, there are at least a dozen LDS churches around here... and a motocross track. Scenery is pretty amazing. The upstairs loft gives a nice panorama of the Superstition Mountains. The neighborhood is great. Lots of families, which means fewer hoodlums, riff-raff, hoohah, shenanigans, and ne'er-do-wells. Hopefully this Halloween I won't have to call the cops on my neighbors! Now if only I didn't have this pesky source of income, I could enjoy it more! har har.
My last journal was kind of a lie, but it's not my fault! I'm actually not getting a new phone any time soon. I was planning to steal the upgrade/renewal from my parents, but my little brother's phone broke, and he ended up using the upgrade. Now I have to wait until December. Oh well. One Blackberry phone (Storm1) was enough for me. Get me the hell out, plz. The OS is terrible, and while it's been getting better over time, it's just so slow. Webpages take forever to render, the keyboard lags like geez if you have anything running in the background or are switching to numbers/symbols, and practically nothing is supported (JS, Frames, Flash, etc.). On the bright side, I did finally get a replacement digital camera. It's really exciting.
In my spare time, I play a handful of vidjagames. (nerd talk) IIDX Empress CS has been out for a year now, and the series has kinda lost my interest a little bit. All my burned discs are crap, and I've kinda plateaued at the hard 11/easy 12 range for a while. All the remaining charts are just plain ridiculous. Sirius looks like it'll never come out (PS2 great snedoff, etc.) and I think Konami is moving away from CS releases for a while to focus on dumb shit that'll never make it to America.
Arcade DDR died after SN2, and with ITG sued out of existence, and Pump WAY too Mexicorean for my taste, it's off to Stepmania. Too bad my old computer JUST blew its motherboard! Arghhhh.
I also took up Final Fantasy 12. Refreshing new battle/equip system. I hated battle screens. I thought I wasted enough time on side-quests to power through the final battle, but I got stuck on the last last one (The Undying), as usual. I've been screwing around with hunts, instead. Normally I hate trying to inflict status effects, but Nihopalaoa+Remedy is the best thing ever. Anyway, blah blah blah I don't play any interesting games
I hope Boo at the Zoo happens again this year, that would be awesome. I think I need more fursuiting in my life. There are no good local events ever, and I can't suit at cons because I whore myself out for money. Ahhhh I need duplicates of myself.
See you soon!
Status: YEP
Current queue:
-.
just-a-little-mixed-up hat 1: DONE1.
just-a-little-mixed-up hat 2: 90% done, need to add hair fluff2.
just-a-little-mixed-up hat 3: paid3. Moo: paid
4.
ryunwoofie hat 1: paid5.
ryunwoofie hat 2: paidIf you're interested in one, you can find out more about them here:
http://furducers.com
I'm taking orders to be completed before MFF, and either mailed out before I leave, or delivered at the con. Custom-designed hats start at $25, and go up with complexity.
FA Rank
I updated the Java applet for the first time ever. Now it's version 1.1, I guess. Hah. Recently some "Allan" guy must have really pissed off FA admins or something, because if you try to go to his user page, all you get is a white screen. As you can imagine, this does WONDERS for page-scraping programs. Come on you guys, would it have killed you to scrub the database of the offending usernames rather than use die() under hard-coded circumstances? Talk about poor coding practices. All of the watcher links are still there HELLO. Well, I guess if Apples are still Mammals, anything's possible.
Progress came to a grinding halt as program instances exploded upon attempting to dissect the blank page. I've added in some checks to that 1) none of the "banned" usernames can get added back to the database, and 2) if your applet crashes with an array-bounds error, it restarts itself.
TL;DR: lol allan bannination, fixed some shit, and I added a picture of Professor Farnsworth to the Farankfurter page. http://popufur.com/future GOOD NEWS
Sup
What the hell happened to 2010? Ever since starting my full-time job last June, time has just gone by faster and faster. It really makes me upset sometimes. Work drags on and on. You'd think a satellite-related job would be more interesting, but I don't feel challenged enough. Not to mention 50% of the employees at my work act like Hermes from Futurama. Y'know, the bureaucrat? Verbose documentation, capital letters, formal processes, Microsoft Office, fluorescent lighting, an offensive yet curious odor emitting from the break room, that guy that thinks he's funny but is really really annoying...
I have a 30-minute commute (40 if snowbirds are rubbernecking at a stopped patrol car), and it's been hot. Well duh, it is the desert. Nice at night, but during the afternoon, my car still gets pretty nasty. Not comfortable. My AC takes a loooong time to kick in, and after about 4 months of the heat, it gets ooooold. No wonder I always get the sweet parking spots on the west side of the building!
There was a nice storm last week. 2010 has been a wild weather year. First there was the apocalypse known as January, where it rained SO MUCH that shit actually grew in the desert, and my backyard was unusable until February. Then last week the weather was all like 'hey have some fucken heat waves and then a cold front lol'. The area by my work is littered with evergreens, so the trees that DIDN'T get blown over onto people's cars got all the needles shaken out of them, clogging up the sewers! My work lost power for a few minutes, got a broken window, several roof leaks, and had two trees fall on a total of three cars. Most exciting thing that's happened there since the pipes randomly burst in February, flooding half the building, hah.
Thanks to the Münchausen Economy ™,
semjay and I were able to score a sweet new-built house. Unfortunately, it's kinda far from everything. It's so new, you can't find it on Google Maps, and we still don't know what city we're in. But it's got all the main attractions around here- two Walgreenses, a CVS, Walmartistan, three pet stores, Kroger, two Dunkin Donuts, two Little Caesars, Dollar Tree, Bevmo, Chick-fil-A (great on Sundays), and most importantly, an Olive Garden coming soon (testify!). As for activities, there are at least a dozen LDS churches around here... and a motocross track. Scenery is pretty amazing. The upstairs loft gives a nice panorama of the Superstition Mountains. The neighborhood is great. Lots of families, which means fewer hoodlums, riff-raff, hoohah, shenanigans, and ne'er-do-wells. Hopefully this Halloween I won't have to call the cops on my neighbors! Now if only I didn't have this pesky source of income, I could enjoy it more! har har.My last journal was kind of a lie, but it's not my fault! I'm actually not getting a new phone any time soon. I was planning to steal the upgrade/renewal from my parents, but my little brother's phone broke, and he ended up using the upgrade. Now I have to wait until December. Oh well. One Blackberry phone (Storm1) was enough for me. Get me the hell out, plz. The OS is terrible, and while it's been getting better over time, it's just so slow. Webpages take forever to render, the keyboard lags like geez if you have anything running in the background or are switching to numbers/symbols, and practically nothing is supported (JS, Frames, Flash, etc.). On the bright side, I did finally get a replacement digital camera. It's really exciting.
In my spare time, I play a handful of vidjagames. (nerd talk) IIDX Empress CS has been out for a year now, and the series has kinda lost my interest a little bit. All my burned discs are crap, and I've kinda plateaued at the hard 11/easy 12 range for a while. All the remaining charts are just plain ridiculous. Sirius looks like it'll never come out (PS2 great snedoff, etc.) and I think Konami is moving away from CS releases for a while to focus on dumb shit that'll never make it to America.
Arcade DDR died after SN2, and with ITG sued out of existence, and Pump WAY too Mexicorean for my taste, it's off to Stepmania. Too bad my old computer JUST blew its motherboard! Arghhhh.
I also took up Final Fantasy 12. Refreshing new battle/equip system. I hated battle screens. I thought I wasted enough time on side-quests to power through the final battle, but I got stuck on the last last one (The Undying), as usual. I've been screwing around with hunts, instead. Normally I hate trying to inflict status effects, but Nihopalaoa+Remedy is the best thing ever. Anyway, blah blah blah I don't play any interesting games
I hope Boo at the Zoo happens again this year, that would be awesome. I think I need more fursuiting in my life. There are no good local events ever, and I can't suit at cons because I whore myself out for money. Ahhhh I need duplicates of myself.
See you soon!
Open for hat commissions! Help me buy my new phone!
Posted 15 years agoWhew, I'm finally recovered from AC. I got pretty burned out, but I'm all better now. I'm eligible for a phone upgrayedd in about 2 weeks, so instead of taking a massive hit to my budget, I'm gonna try to make a couple extra bucks on the side to pay for it. Basically this is the "Help me get rid of my godawful Blackberry Storm" fund.
Here's the deal: custom character hat commissions. If you need an example, check out my gallery, of course! This is on a first-come, first-served basis.
- You will need to provide your own concept art for the hat (not "here's my character make me a hat of it") but I'm not very picky. I've used MSPaint art for reference before. I'll use that to give you a price quote based on the features/complexity.
- I require payment up front. I prefer Paypal, but I can be flexible.
- Shipping is included for US customers. Int'l shipping is $5 extra.
- No copyrighted characters. This includes Pokeymans. As much as I'd love to cash in on that, it's not exactly legal and not exactly worth the risk of getting sued and such.
Pricing!
Hats range from $25-$70:
$25: ears only, and 2-3 colors.
$30-$35: one or two extra features like ear fins, horns, hair*, extra colors, markings, or a tail.
$40-$50: simple facial expression, or complex markings/features without a face.
$50-$70: whatever you can think of, within reason. Horns, ears, fins, ear fins, hair, stripes, spots, etc.
(*Hair: since I've gotten rid of most of my fake fur fabric, the color selection is extremely limited. If you really really need it, I will check what's in stock.)
The best way to get in touch with me is email: tarennauxen at gmail. I don't check FA as much, so I might not see notes as fast.
Thanks!
Taren
Here's the deal: custom character hat commissions. If you need an example, check out my gallery, of course! This is on a first-come, first-served basis.
- You will need to provide your own concept art for the hat (not "here's my character make me a hat of it") but I'm not very picky. I've used MSPaint art for reference before. I'll use that to give you a price quote based on the features/complexity.
- I require payment up front. I prefer Paypal, but I can be flexible.
- Shipping is included for US customers. Int'l shipping is $5 extra.
- No copyrighted characters. This includes Pokeymans. As much as I'd love to cash in on that, it's not exactly legal and not exactly worth the risk of getting sued and such.
Pricing!
Hats range from $25-$70:
$25: ears only, and 2-3 colors.
$30-$35: one or two extra features like ear fins, horns, hair*, extra colors, markings, or a tail.
$40-$50: simple facial expression, or complex markings/features without a face.
$50-$70: whatever you can think of, within reason. Horns, ears, fins, ear fins, hair, stripes, spots, etc.
(*Hair: since I've gotten rid of most of my fake fur fabric, the color selection is extremely limited. If you really really need it, I will check what's in stock.)
The best way to get in touch with me is email: tarennauxen at gmail. I don't check FA as much, so I might not see notes as fast.
Thanks!
Taren
FA Rank Update for 8/17 cancelled
Posted 15 years agoIt turns out during that whole period where the program wasn't working, the website crawler wasn't picking up users' pageview/favorites stats, soooo about 1/3 of the users in the latest 8/17 update don't have those numbers. And when those numbers are missing it fucks up my code.
I don't have time to go fix it, and I don't want to see holes in the data, so just keep collecting data for me and it'll be ready in another two weeks.
I gotta rewrite some MORE stuff now because there are SO MANY accounts now that my web host kills my SQL scripts, they're so long. Geez. Now I have to make it more fail-friendly.
Noooo, we can't have drama.
I don't have time to go fix it, and I don't want to see holes in the data, so just keep collecting data for me and it'll be ready in another two weeks.
I gotta rewrite some MORE stuff now because there are SO MANY accounts now that my web host kills my SQL scripts, they're so long. Geez. Now I have to make it more fail-friendly.
Noooo, we can't have drama.
Popufur updated!
Posted 15 years agoThanks to 
varka's suggestion, I was able to speed up the FA Rank algorithm from 9+ days (read: intractable) to ONE HOUR. Instead of binary searching, it now uses hash tables and linked lists and C++ instead of Java! AWESOME
That also means I'll need you guys to start using the Farankfurter Java app s'more.
Enjoy!
http://popufur.com
varka's suggestion, I was able to speed up the FA Rank algorithm from 9+ days (read: intractable) to ONE HOUR. Instead of binary searching, it now uses hash tables and linked lists and C++ instead of Java! AWESOMEThat also means I'll need you guys to start using the Farankfurter Java app s'more.
Enjoy!
http://popufur.com
AC commissions DONE!
Posted 15 years agoFINALLY FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY
Wow holy shit I am never doing that again. I took 15 hat commissions home with me from the con, and it took me a month to complete them all. I did 20 at the con, and it took the entire time to do them... including staying up all night in the Zoo on my birthday. That's honestly the only way I can enjoy cons. At MFF 09 I didn't get a table and man I had no idea what to do... but I'm rambling now.
It's been really stressful, because I tend to beat myself up over it. I want to get people their stuff as fast as I can, because I've "been there"- one time I paid for a commission that I picked up at the same con a year later.
No more commissions for now. I'm just a teeny tiny bit burned out. Time for something else, ya know?
Another reason I wanted to get this all done ASAP was because I have another "secret project" in the works that's totally going to blow the competition out of the water. I've told a lot of people, so it's really not that big of a deal. But I'm PRETTY sure nobody offers "this" at cons yet. Blah blah blah well the package that I needed to start this project was supposed to come Friday but got delayed until Monday. Kind of a blessing in disguise- totally wouldn't have gotten those hats done otherwise.
Somehow managed to see four movies this weekend: Toy Story 3, Sorcerer's Apprentice 1, Despicable Me 1, and Shrek 4. In that order. Yeah, I added 1's to the titles, because... well, look at those other two. semjay and I went to the Scottsdale Six drive-in theater on Friday and Saturday, and they showed double-features. Good times and LOTS OF DERGINS EEEeeeeee!
Baaaaaaaaack to work tomorrow, I guess. But if it's anything like the other 29 weeks so far this year, I'll blink and it'll be Friday again.
Wow holy shit I am never doing that again. I took 15 hat commissions home with me from the con, and it took me a month to complete them all. I did 20 at the con, and it took the entire time to do them... including staying up all night in the Zoo on my birthday. That's honestly the only way I can enjoy cons. At MFF 09 I didn't get a table and man I had no idea what to do... but I'm rambling now.
It's been really stressful, because I tend to beat myself up over it. I want to get people their stuff as fast as I can, because I've "been there"- one time I paid for a commission that I picked up at the same con a year later.
No more commissions for now. I'm just a teeny tiny bit burned out. Time for something else, ya know?
Another reason I wanted to get this all done ASAP was because I have another "secret project" in the works that's totally going to blow the competition out of the water. I've told a lot of people, so it's really not that big of a deal. But I'm PRETTY sure nobody offers "this" at cons yet. Blah blah blah well the package that I needed to start this project was supposed to come Friday but got delayed until Monday. Kind of a blessing in disguise- totally wouldn't have gotten those hats done otherwise.
Somehow managed to see four movies this weekend: Toy Story 3, Sorcerer's Apprentice 1, Despicable Me 1, and Shrek 4. In that order. Yeah, I added 1's to the titles, because... well, look at those other two.
semjay and I went to the Scottsdale Six drive-in theater on Friday and Saturday, and they showed double-features. Good times and LOTS OF DERGINS EEEeeeeee!Baaaaaaaaack to work tomorrow, I guess. But if it's anything like the other 29 weeks so far this year, I'll blink and it'll be Friday again.
Ughhhhhhhhhh Java failed! FA Rank update delayed...
Posted 15 years agohttp://tweetphoto.com/34377498
TOOTHLESS THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT
This program had been processing the latest FA Rank data for something like nine days, and JUST crapped out this morning. Something about the algorithm makes it go slower and slower and slower until it just runs out of memory. Java only reports that it was using 50MB or so, but I know the machine has 512MB RAM, I'm pretty sure.
It usually starts out processing 300+ users per hour, but last night it dropped to 8, and then died. Sheesh.
Anyway, I guess I have to look at the source code and hopefully optimize some stuff. A hashtable would be nice, per Varka's suggestion. Might improve speed. (The message you see on the screen is on line 54 of Rank2.java)
http://popufur.com/source/
tl;dr: SORRY GUYS. EVEN MORE DELAYS. OLD MACHINE CAN'T HANDLE ALL YOUR GOD DAMN FURRY SHIT.
*hides from ensuing deluge of angry shouts and notes*
TOOTHLESS THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT
This program had been processing the latest FA Rank data for something like nine days, and JUST crapped out this morning. Something about the algorithm makes it go slower and slower and slower until it just runs out of memory. Java only reports that it was using 50MB or so, but I know the machine has 512MB RAM, I'm pretty sure.
It usually starts out processing 300+ users per hour, but last night it dropped to 8, and then died. Sheesh.
Anyway, I guess I have to look at the source code and hopefully optimize some stuff. A hashtable would be nice, per Varka's suggestion. Might improve speed. (The message you see on the screen is on line 54 of Rank2.java)
http://popufur.com/source/
tl;dr: SORRY GUYS. EVEN MORE DELAYS. OLD MACHINE CAN'T HANDLE ALL YOUR GOD DAMN FURRY SHIT.
*hides from ensuing deluge of angry shouts and notes*
FA Rank update will be ready in a few days (read why...)
Posted 15 years agohttp://popufur.com/future
Thanks to everyone that has been running the program and/or still is. Since I don't feel like responding to everybody individually, let me explain how it works here.
Each "update" has two phases: the data collection and data processing. The collection completed Wednesday night (that's what you guys helped with). The processing is about 32% complete right now. It takes about 5 days to complete. Maybe some day I will go back and rewrite it...
http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/1084402/
Here's some source code, if you're so inclined to see what's going on. (The program spends most of its time in the for-loop starting on line 27.)
Check back on the site around Monday or Tuesday, and it may be updated then. In the mean time, keep running the program! Once the processing is complete, the percentage counter will drop to about 20% or so, depending on how many users have been processed since the program hit 100% two days ago. It'll make the next run finish faster.
Patience, I guess.
Maybe I'll put together an animated gif of how the algorithm works!
Thanks to everyone that has been running the program and/or still is. Since I don't feel like responding to everybody individually, let me explain how it works here.
Each "update" has two phases: the data collection and data processing. The collection completed Wednesday night (that's what you guys helped with). The processing is about 32% complete right now. It takes about 5 days to complete. Maybe some day I will go back and rewrite it...
http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/1084402/
Here's some source code, if you're so inclined to see what's going on. (The program spends most of its time in the for-loop starting on line 27.)
Check back on the site around Monday or Tuesday, and it may be updated then. In the mean time, keep running the program! Once the processing is complete, the percentage counter will drop to about 20% or so, depending on how many users have been processed since the program hit 100% two days ago. It'll make the next run finish faster.
Patience, I guess.
Maybe I'll put together an animated gif of how the algorithm works!
AC hat sales // FARankFuRTer v1.0 // Popufur.com Launched
Posted 15 years agoAC Hat Sales
For those of you who stopped by my table at Anthrocon 2010, thank you! I made record sales, and sold so many commissions on the first day that I was unable to complete them all by the end of the convention! I sold a total of 35 custom hat commissions and 10 pre-made hats. 19 of those 35 were done at the con, and I will be posting pictures of them shortly...
"Hat Of The Con" for AC2010 absolutely positively has to be "Sloth", which was ironically the first one I made there...
http://tweetphoto.com/29002404
http://tweetphoto.com/29132657
I had a "nice" golden birthday as well! I turned 25 on the 25th, at AC. For dinner narse bought me a Happy Meal at the scary McDonalds down the street from the hotel, and I proceeded to stay up from 10pm to 8am working on hats.
Around 4am, the Zoo was pretty much dead, save a few brave souls signing "Dragostea Din Tei"...
Around 6am a drunk dude passed out at my table while I was sewing. He's a heavy sleeper, I tell you hwhat.
http://tweetphoto.com/29231883
After completing 8 hats overnight I went to the Brown Bag shop for breakfast (?) and headed RIGHT BACK INTO THE DEALER'S DEN. Now that's dedication!!
For the remaining 15 customers, I have your contact info, and I will get your hats done ASAP. My shipment from the con should be arriving tomorrow.
FARankFuRTer v1.0
http://popufur.com/future
You all keep BOTHERING ME (gosh!) for updates, so now it's time to walk the walk! Click this to help me collect user information for future FA Rank releases. A Java Applet will start up and donate your spare CPU cycles to the cause! Read the site for more details.
Popufur.com Launched
The FARank has been relocated from my personal site (superwailingbonus.com) to http://www.popufur.com
What a fitting name! Thanks varka!!
That's it for now... time for me to get eccentric.
Catch you all again, sometime, somewhere...
For those of you who stopped by my table at Anthrocon 2010, thank you! I made record sales, and sold so many commissions on the first day that I was unable to complete them all by the end of the convention! I sold a total of 35 custom hat commissions and 10 pre-made hats. 19 of those 35 were done at the con, and I will be posting pictures of them shortly...
"Hat Of The Con" for AC2010 absolutely positively has to be "Sloth", which was ironically the first one I made there...
http://tweetphoto.com/29002404
http://tweetphoto.com/29132657
I had a "nice" golden birthday as well! I turned 25 on the 25th, at AC. For dinner
narse bought me a Happy Meal at the scary McDonalds down the street from the hotel, and I proceeded to stay up from 10pm to 8am working on hats.Around 4am, the Zoo was pretty much dead, save a few brave souls signing "Dragostea Din Tei"...
Around 6am a drunk dude passed out at my table while I was sewing. He's a heavy sleeper, I tell you hwhat.
http://tweetphoto.com/29231883
After completing 8 hats overnight I went to the Brown Bag shop for breakfast (?) and headed RIGHT BACK INTO THE DEALER'S DEN. Now that's dedication!!
For the remaining 15 customers, I have your contact info, and I will get your hats done ASAP. My shipment from the con should be arriving tomorrow.
FARankFuRTer v1.0
http://popufur.com/future
You all keep BOTHERING ME (gosh!) for updates, so now it's time to walk the walk! Click this to help me collect user information for future FA Rank releases. A Java Applet will start up and donate your spare CPU cycles to the cause! Read the site for more details.
Popufur.com Launched
The FARank has been relocated from my personal site (superwailingbonus.com) to http://www.popufur.com
What a fitting name! Thanks
varka!!That's it for now... time for me to get eccentric.
Catch you all again, sometime, somewhere...
