( Day 78 - Seriously freaky squash. )

It's good to remember.

And it's good to take a moment to thank those who did what they had to do.

Even if they're no longer with us.

So, again... thank you.

( Chapter Twelve: Balancing )

On Saturday the 14th at 4AM UTC/GMT we will be upgrading the operating system of our network load balancers to a newer version, one that will allow us to use both CPUs! Nifty, because multiprocessing is nice.

Since we have 2 load balancers, the plan is to upgrade 1 at a time, and there really should be very little impact to our website. Hopefully you won't notice a thing and I'll get to go back to the hotel and watch some wonderful late night infomercials.

We've got a lot of exciting projects coming up for 2010 and we're hoping that we'll be able to deliver them all to you, that you will find it useful/cool/lovely and then you will use the site even more. Behind-the-scenes work like this will give us the capacity to handle the anticipated traffic, so expect a few more maintenance windows especially in the beginning of next year as we've got some neat ideas to improve performance around here! We had the recent 30-45 minute outage yesterday due to one of our logging databases filling up disk space -- not so great design coupled with my human error in handling the initial problem -- and it looks like we're going to finally have some resources to eliminate stuff like that. I can't wait!

As usual, I will be updating status.livejournal.org before and after, just in case you are not able to reach our main website during the work.

Hello! In honor of the 535 festival at bad_friends, I'm trying to get some more of my 53 doujinshi scanned.

( Angel Night doujinshi under the cut )

At one point in my life, I hated yogurt. For some reason, though, I kept thinking it was something I *should* like and so every once in a while, I'd give it a try... and then, one day not long after I turned 19, I got a sudden craving for yogurt. I picked some up at a store and it tasted wonderful! I've loved the stuff ever since.

There have been a few other things over the years, but the latest "change in taste" (and the thing that got me thinking about this) is sweet pickles. I've never liked them. Ever. And then about a month or so ago we were at a family gathering and there were some sweet pickles sitting out on a relish tray and for the first time in my life, they smelled really good. So I tried one... and I liked it. Not only that, but I've found myself craving them from time to time.

Seriously, what causes this? Because each time it's happened to me, it's been a fairly drastic change... something I pretty much hated turning into something I not only like, but crave. I'm also wondering if this happens to other people or if it's just my brain/taste buds that are weird.

I feel a self-re-evaluation coming on.

This is not a good time, right before grant proposal season.

Let's see what happens.

In my last entry I'd mentioned reading The Actor and the Housewife by Shannon Hale. This week I finished the book. ( Read on if you are interested. )

Sometimes it's just really clear that my nieces cannot possibly share any DNA with me.

Katie made the 7th grade girl's bball team. And was elected captain. And has been the high scorer in the first two games. Oh, and this weekend she also made the high school feeder team (again).

Jennifer just won a trophy at her last meet for the best swimmer in her age group.

And during Claire's visit she scrambled ( cut for pics )

We are back to NORMAL on SYTYCD! Praise be! In the past I've mumbled a bit about how maybe they shouldn't do audience vote in the early rounds, so the popular-but-not-great people (or people paired with a popular dancer, Kherington) don't stick around till Top 10 and thus take tour spots away from people I'd rather see. I TAKE IT BACK. I TAKE IT ALL BACK. GIVE ME MY BIANCA BACK, YOU BASTARD BASEBALL TEAMS.

Er. Anyway.

( Onto this week! If this show were on ABC, I would swear Cat's outfit was a subtle promo for V )

And I'm going to the STYCYD tour!!! I bought a ticket! I AM FREAKING EXCITED ABOUT IT!!!

Just got back from the show... awesome! We got there early, and were right up front for the opening act, Captain Clegg and the Night Creatures were outstanding... really great stuff! The Nekromantix were... loud. And fast. But they overplayed their gear, so it was more wall-of-sound than anything coherent. Which is a shame, 'cause they were fun, but... should have gone to 10, not 12.

And Rob Zombie was just awesome, as always. Incredibly tight band, and effects. Having seen him in small halls like this, and in stadiums... it's always a great show. Cracked me up how many people were texting during it. Zombie even griped a bit, suggesting people put down their iPhones and rock... they can tweet about how great the show was, afterwards. Fortunately many people heeded this advice, and the crowd became a lot more fun and energetic. Go figure.

Got clung to early in the show by a VERY drunk dancer, who fortunately was also nice, and all three of us had a moderately coherent conversation. She eventually hooked back up with her date... and was last seen being escorted out under medical care. Which is good, 'cause she was really, really woozy. Alchohol makes you smarter. ;p

Tired now. Sleep soon. But ... yay, fun concert! :>

Last entry for the night! I promise! (Well, barring something major happening, like a UFO hovering right outside my bedroom window.)

( Day 77 - Why I love being a Cub Scout leader. )

First off, I want to thank elsaf for her suggestion to use the leftover liquid from making corned beef as the "broth" for making split pea soup. We did that for dinner tonight and Oh. My. Gosh. That made the most *incredible* split pea soup EVER. I can't believe we've been just tossing that liquid all these years. I think we may be having corned beef more often, just so we can make more split pea soup!!

And I also wanted to share my recipe for cole slaw, since I just posted a photo of it. I think this is just about the best slaw in the world (probably due largely to the presence of cilantro and sherry vinegar, two ingredients that make everything better). And it even fits right in with my Weight Watchers plan...

( Creamy Cole Slaw recipe )

And finally, a really yummy soup we made last week with the butternut squash we'd gotten recently in one of our weekly produce deliveries. Very tasty and very easy. I originally got the recipe off the Australian Weight Watchers website.

( Curried Lentil and Pumpkin Soup )

I realized after I got into bed last night that I'd completely forgotten to post a photo yesterday! At that point, I pretty much decided it wasn't worth heading back down to the basement for something I could just do today.

( Day 76 - Using those corned beef leftovers )

Title: Lonesome Dove
Author: osprey_archer
Beta: visualthinker11
Fandoms: Wonderfalls and Pushing Daisies
Pairings: Jaye/Eric, with a splash of Olive/Randy and a touch of Ned/Chuck
Rating: PG, for cussing
Summary: Jaye, in an uncharacteristic burst of fellow-feeling, agreed to go on a road trip with Eric. Partway through, her habitual misanthropy firmly back in place, they end up at the Pie Hole - where Olive is trying to figure out is Randy has a hidden criminal life. What could possibly go wrong?

Lonesome Dove

Movie night, tonight, 7:30 pm, directions here, Philadelphia.

You know what's awesome? THIS!

What's even more awesome? We've got tickets, hangin' on the fridge.

Awesome.

Watched a clip of Ewan McGregor on the Late Late Show (via ClubJade.net). He was, naturally, looking gorgeous and being charming and humorous. Of course, the real treat for me was when he playfully donned, albeit only for a second, a pair of sunglasses. (It's about 2 minutes in, if you're curious.) Totally cracked me up when at the - completely understandable - "wooooos" that sounded out from the audience, he got one of those cheeky expressions and quipped, "Oh, come on, it's just a pair of glasses." Yeah. Right. If only he knew the power of a nice pair of specs. ; )

In other fandom related stuff, I have decided to no longer watch SGU. I don't want to make a big deal of it - suffice to say, everyone has different tastes, perspectives, and sensibilities. For me, SGU isn't entertaining. And after the latest episode, I don't think it ever will be. I would like to go out saying that I have found the acting to be top-notch. Especially David Blue. And the creative folks behind the show did produce the quality I came to expect from the SG world in terms of set design and special effects. So as long as there are folks who are interested in watching the kind of stories they now want to tell, I have no doubt the show will do well. I'll miss the fun of having a new show, and being able to chat about it with my friends who are watching it too. But otherwise... I almost feel a sense of relief now that I've made the choice. It's as if we've both been let off the hook or something. They can keep making the show how they want (which is what they were gonna do anyway), and I don't have to keep feeling bad in some way because it doesn't appeal to me.

I have started reading a book - The Actor and the Housewife - which I picked up because I so enjoyed Shannon Hale's Austenland. I'm not quite half-way in and I'm enjoying this one as well. It has made me laugh - not the fun little chuckles some stories produce, but full-blown, hearty, LOL til you cry guffaws - and I strongly suspect it's going to make me cry before it's all over. It's one of those reads that isn't some amazing, inspiring story, but simply sucks you in, makes you feel good and enjoy life merely because it's a fun read. Yeah. LOVE those kinds of books.

I love English. It's quirky, it's weird, it's mongrel, it's sweet, it's playful; it's a word-lush [1] consequently lush with vocabulary; it treats its grammar the way kittens would treat slinkies wrapped with balls of yarn and its word construction the way a showy chef treats the pizza dough [2]---I love English.

I might have been shown the limits to my love, though, through some links in a recent post in metaquotes.

Exhibit A.

Exhibit B.

As one commenter put it concisely, "...Ow, my brain."

Of course, both of those sentences are possible at all because of those lushness, slinky and pizza-dough properties that I just said I love so much. I am aware of this. This is true. Nevertheless, and I say this with feeling too, ow.

It can be argued successfully that it is still not the fault of the language per se, though. Languages don't hurt brains, people who do such things with languages hurt brains. That much flexibility gives English the equivalent power of a bazooka on a mediaeval battlefield, and as we all know, with great power comes great responsibility. Please do not use hurtful language. Yes, those examples are hurtful language.

[1] In the "drunkard" sense---did I mention I love English?
[2] Pummel pummel pummel turn pummel pummel pummel turn get rolling pin spread spread spread pick up disk spin-throw in the air wheeeee!

I've been very amused at all the other local people who commented on yesterday's photo... just as flabbergasted as I was by the lack of traffic! (For those who've never been here before, that particular intersection of Interstate freeways is *always* backed up.)

Today, we took our niece and sister-in-law (rackham's brother is out of town, or he would have gone with us) out Geocaching.

( Day 75 - Sharing the addiction )

So I thought I might write, and when sharpeslass settled down for a nap I took out my half-finished story and went outside for some quiet writing time...

... and the rock-band behind us started practice. Woe! I may kill them someday, for they often have bad timing, as in when I've just laid down for a nap, times like that. I've got some pointy and/or heavy objects with "noisy teenager" written all over them.

Sometimes the band does not bother me, and they don't usually play too late at night, it's just... why a rock-band whose drummer lives behind US?

In other news, the two of us have watched 1-40 of Axis Powers Hetalia. What's more? We LIKED it. It's totally dorky and non-PC and you name it. Should I be ashamed?

Since we're still busy tearing down the thing we built at so much physical and emotional cost to ourselves, here's a little compilation of media reports on our little haunted shindig for anyone who missed them:

SCARE on KEYE News

SCARE on Fox 7 News (Part 1)

SCARE on Fox 7 News (Part 2)

So I actually sort of did a half-assed post about this here ages ago, but I want to do an entry on CJ about grammatical and factual errors that the media/bloggers makes in stories about Star Wars. (It was about the common misspellings, mostly: Anikin, etc. Did we ever get personal journal search? I so need journal search to find that entry. I also posted it on starwars, where the comm mod deleted it the first time because she thought I was berating people or something, but I suspect the one here will be easier to find.)

I know Pablo did an entry on his StarWars.com blog about the names of various LFL divisions several years ago - that's one of the things I plan to dig up. And my personal favorite rage inducer: 'Jedis.'

I put this out on Twitter and the blog but I have no idea if I'll get anything. (Well, anything aside from 'everyone hates the PT/the PT was bad,' which is more in the opinion realm and beyond the scope of what I'm looking to do here, though I may address it. We'll see.)

Oh, yeah; this happened while I was deep in the midst of SCARE work so I totally forgot to mention it:

I had one last check-in with my electrophysiologist a couple of weeks ago. We reviewed everything one more time and he took me off the baby aspirin, the last med I was on for my heart. He looked over the various reports and diagnostics and informed me that my heart's in great shape, very healthy, and the last CT scan I had shows no plaque build-up in any arteries, so he's cutting me loose. I'll do another visit in a year or so just to touch base, but it looks like that chapter of my life is over now.

And I'm pretty darn happy about the whole thing.

( Day 74 - Slow day on the freeway )