gigamatic

it's been a long time since i had to worry about money at the beginning of the month, but putting myself on an aggressive saving plan has really really killed my fun. every month, my goal is to put 20% of my paycheck away. I'm actually doing pretty well, but it's scary to see all the money go immediately out of my bank account.

rent. done.
life insurance. done.
phone bills. done.
gasoline: $40 to fill up, i kid you not.
credit card payment: done.
electric and cable bills: autopay.

later today i have to a) get a haircut ($10), b) get an oil change ($20), c) pay my car payment ($235), and d) get groceries (as few as possible).

---

the oil change didn't happen. i couldnt find the coupon for $9.99, and it was going to be $25 and a 3 hour wait. (i have a feeling it was the last day for the coupon, but i will look again when i get home.)

i got the haircut, and i've decided a $5 haircut is as good as a $12 haircut if you go to the right person. Mary at Great Clips at the University Plaza was fantastic, and I highly recommend her. Seriously. Any time you can zip in and out in 10 minutes or less, look good, and make your stylist happy by tipping her as much as the damn haircut? Hell yeah. I still paid less than usual, even with the tip. AND they enter the details of your cut (clipper length, length on top, blended, texturized, etc) into their computer so when you come back, if you HAVE to go to someone different (or you've forgotten what you usually get), they can look it up.

I got the car payment made, but part of their computer system was down and i didnt have my payment coupon the first time, so they couldnt look things up. I had to go home and get the coupon and come back... wasting time I couldve spent at a jiffylube getting my oil changed because Monro takes hours.

and now, i have 3 websites to finish by 4pm.

Posted by gigamatt at 1:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Thanks to sparky, we caught his friend's documentary about a child molesting case involving toledo priests. I literally shuddered several times.

The kids who were molested were now in their mid 30s. The ones whom the film was focused on were Nala's age. Taken advantage of by an unremorseful (now ex-)priest. Putting his penis in a drunken teen boy's mouth couldn't do any lasting damage.

Fucker. Admit you did wrong. Face the consequences.

What the fuck was he doing giving alcohol to kids anyway? Making them rum & cokes? Taking them to his cabin? "Letting" them sleep in his room?

Sucking their dicks. Putting his dick in their mouths to be sucked. Sometimes dry humping them, sometimes full-on anal sex. And all under the guise of good, Catholic fellowship in a "safe" environment.

All these guys wanted was an apology. What they got from the diocese was a $55k settlement (no admission of wrongdoing), and nights fillid with nightmares, and sex lives haunted by the memories of what happened.

Posted by gigamatt at 5:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Blogging has become difficult. I can either blog from my sidekick, or in between projects from my office, so don't expect many long posts.

I uploaded a ton of photos yesterday featuring antiques from my grandmother's house, and photos from my first trip to SF with Nala in march 1999. There's at least one I didn't post, but I'm hoping to find it today.

Between billing, recreating a complex data transformation package and redeveloping at least one website, I also hope to get at least one more set of photos up. Backing those old computers up to cd (finally) and getting a flickr account was key to finding them all again.

This afternoon I finally get to hang out with my friend kristy again. We both get paid today, and have errands to run, so we decided to do it together.

Posted by gigamatt at 5:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

many many MANY thanks to Casey for answering my plea for a Flickr Pro account. Now I can keep uploading the "more mundane than UltraMundane" photos.

Seriously. I have an entire series of photos of antiques and collectibles which my dad sold from my grandmother's house when she went in the nursing home 6 years ago. Mainly they're kept as a reminder of what she had, or just to trigger memories. They were taken with the old crappy camera...

in other news, life without consistent email is kinda weird. but i'm doing ok. because my old sidekick only allows 3 pop accounts, and keeps dropping signal, i'm not getting ALL my emails, and nothing in a timely matter. i spent a half hour yesterday logged in via webmail cleaning out 300+ spam in just my roadrunner account.

Posted by gigamatt at 7:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

so, i left 5 minutes after Nala, in the rain, and suffered thru hail and torrential downpours off and on with < 100 yd. visibility. the streets were filled with water with nowhere to go, but by the time i pulled into work, it had stopped.

and of course, i need gasoline. when are they dropping it again, Max? (it's still $2.15 at the Citgo on Olentangy, i think.)

Posted by gigamatt at 1:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

won't someone give me a pro account?

btw, seems i've managed to pull all the pertinent data off my laptop. need to make sure i got all my email and my bookmarks and my itunes. all the rest is pretty much fluff. it's still unnerving to think about possibly losing some data out of just plain forgetting where to look. but in general, i think i got it all.

today, i've been uploading family photos to my flickr account. i was trying to max out this month's limit so i'll have another full 20M starting Friday.

Posted by gigamatt at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Posted by gigamatt at 9:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

ok... now it is a completely black screen no matter what.
i'm fucked.
tempted to dismantle, swap the hard disk, and see what happens then. of course that wont help if it's a motherboard issue. but now, i'm not even hearing the familiar hard drive spinning.

fucked fucked fucked.
i am so fucking fucked.

i hear it booting, from cd now. however, i cant figure out how i'm going to get my files off it. grr.

Posted by gigamatt at 1:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

wont boot to OS9 partition.
wont boot to OSX partition.
will sort of let me boot from CD, although every window appears... shall we say... messy.

if i can get to Disk Utility, I'll use it to let me check things out.
if that doesnt work in the next 2 attempts or so, I'll try just making the thing a telnet/ftp server and pulling the stuff off from there.

Posted by gigamatt at 1:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

well... i'm now at least getting past the grey screen of death, seeing the apple logo, and actually now getting a blue desktop, but there it sits. who knows if i'll be able to duplicate this again, or get it booted well enough to suck down the files to back them up.

i think the disk might be fried. in which case, i have a spare i could replace it with, IF i can get the files backed up.

god this is making me crazy.

Posted by gigamatt at 11:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

when you have no money, that's when shit breaks.

i've been holding off on buying shit, and i'm on a $3/day budget, just so i could save money to pay closing costs and incidental expenses associated with selling/buying the houses.

about half of my savings is already spent paying for a painter.

so, basically, i'm fucked.

and now, my fucking lifeline to work, friends, family and entertainment has been cut off. $1032+tax to replace it, or probably several hundred to fix it.

i'm just a little pissed off. and pissed off at myself, because without backing up my $140 in recently downloaded itunes music, it's all lost.

hopefully i can bring this thing back up long enough to get my files burned off it. but if i'm angry and short-tempered and incommunicato for a few days months, you'll know why.

now i'm going to run home to try and find the monitor adapter. hopefully it wont blow another circuit just plugging that fucker in.

Posted by gigamatt at 8:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

this was somehow very comforting to me, to know that once upon a time, back in the day, another meow wasnt well liked, either:

I awake. And there is no one here. Meow next to me doing his little "I am a meow and my job is to sit here and pad the blankets for 20 minutes before I sleep so I don't care if I wake you or the fact that I am almost standing on your head".

but it does make me miss the days when Zig was on the bed at all. now, generally, neither meow is on the bed, and Zig won't play with Chester, and Chester has to wake everyone up because he's bored. Or whatever.

Last night, I played with Chester for an hour or so, and never heard a peep from him all night long. Maybe the solution was to keep him occupied beforehand so he would sleep all night long. Or maybe it was a fluke.

Posted by gigamatt at 3:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

i am such an addict. i LOVE hell's kitchen on fox. LOVE IT.

i wish they'd show more of the prep, or expand the show like american idol, to 2 shows per week... one is the way it is now, and one for behind the scenes and commentary from diners.

i cant believe they're down to 7 wannabe chefs now! scary stuff. red team is still winning, but next week has to serve the meals.

Posted by gigamatt at 9:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

i was just reading the hairmonster times to nala a couple nights ago, in which one of my favorite stories about little kids appears. I won't repeat them, but simply tell you to go check them out.

today, i got a quick email from the sis, thanking me for my niece's belated birthday gifts (hey, i was only 4 months late.) apparently there are photos to be sent of katie playing with her new toys.

but the one thing she said made me cringe: "kate took 2 HOURS to get down last night. She would not go to sleep on her own. She'd fall asleep on me; I'd put her down, then 2 minutes later she'd be crying again. It wouldn't be so bad, and I'd let her cry herself to sleep, but unfortunately for me whenever she cries too hard, she vomits. lovely. So, to avoid the half an hour clean-up session, I just pick her up to calm her down. Not the greatest parenting technique, but I'm really not too fond of vomit."

Me either. And poopies runs a close second, but is usually easier to clean up.

Posted by gigamatt at 2:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

here's a form letter suggested by moveon.org to get you all to sign the petition to save PBS. I've told the story over and over again how we had 3 channels on the tv... and one of em was PBS. That market still has only 3 channels... and the other two are corporate whores. So, PLEASE consider signing the petition at moveon, and/or sending your congresspeople an email or two.

----

You know that email petition that keeps circulating about how Congress is slashing funding for NPR and PBS? Well, now it's actually true. (Really. Check the footnotes.)

Sign the petition telling Congress to save NPR and PBS:

http://www.moveon.org/publicbroadcasting/?t=1

The House of Representatives is about to vote on whether to slash funding for NPR and PBS, starting with "Sesame Street," "Reading Rainbow" and other commercial-free children's shows. If approved, this would be the most severe cut in the history of public broadcasting, threatening to pull the plug on Big Bird, Cookie Monster and Oscar the Grouch.

The cuts would eliminate more than $200 million for NPR, PBS and local stations immediately, with more cuts likely in the future. The loss could kill beloved children's shows like "Clifford the Big Red Dog," "Arthur," and "Postcards from Buster." Rural stations and those serving low-income communities might not survive. Other stations would have to increase corporate sponsorships.

The House will vote on the cuts this week. Can you help us reach 1 million signatures calling on Congress to save NPR and PBS today?

http://www.moveon.org/publicbroadcasting/?t=2

Thanks!

P.S. Read the New York Times story on the threat to NPR and PBS at:

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=753

Then read the New York Times story on this campaign to save NPR and PBS at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/19/weekinreview/19spam.html

Posted by gigamatt at 2:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

so, today, at work, we all got blackberries.

let me say that this is the clunkiest piece of crap i have ever seen. had i not been exposed to the sidekick already, i could've maybe been wowed, but the interface is CRAP. It feels like a cheap piece of plastic, too. Like it could break from being picked up.

crap i tell ya.

none of them seem to be receiving emails.

Posted by gigamatt at 10:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

i have another collection which really didnt start out being a goal of mine -- cookbooks.

it's odd. i have some from the 90s and more recent. i have some from the 60s. 70s. 80s. some have themes, some are general.

my favorites are: my 1920s party game and refreshment book. my 2004 Polish cookbook from my in-laws. my great-aunt ginny's cookbook. and the 1930s ones which demean women. Those kick ass, in a historical way.

my latest acquisitions include a german cookbook (in English, as opposed to "So bäckt die junge Hausfrau" which I gave to my friend Kristy, who is working on her PhD in German), a 1930s "Women's" cookbook, and a cajun cookbook.

my recent rediscovery is a vintage one (1960s or 70s) "cooking for two" -- makes you realize when reading the recipes that our culture really has gone mad when it comes to eating, as compared to the 30+ years ago.

Posted by gigamatt at 10:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

this morning (afternoon? sometime today... i'm confused) when i was making coffee and putting a few groceries away, i realized a few years ago, back when cafepress was big for bloggers, i started a collection.

i started collecting coffee mugs of bloggers whom i read. i never got the little yellow different one, but i did get the bradlands "lesser kudu" and the ultrasparky ones. and i got the google one, too. you can see, i didnt get very far on my collection, mainly because i ran outta cash at the time, and then everyone stopped selling crap at cafepress. not that many people wanted $16 coffee mugs anyway.

but every time i see my "lesser kudu" and ultrasparky mugs, i think of the two bloggers who inspired me to keep this little place on the web, and it makes me smile.

Posted by gigamatt at 10:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

orange giraffes and pink elephants have all but disappeared from jay's room! and now it's a whole lotta yellow. ick.

much more sorting and packing to do, and once that's done, i have to move the two bookcases to remove the last 6 feet of border.

it's really amazing how a little strip of pastel animals broke up what now seems like acres and acres of obnoxious eye-poking yellow.

the hall color is growing on me. not so much i'd want to put it in any large space, but for the hallway, it's ok.

i weeded flowerbeds for what must've been at least an hour. and i'm not done. then, i watered the deckboxes and cut off the dead flowers on the dianthus and the coreopsis. i still need to transplant quite a few things, but until i get some more cheap deckboxes (so we can take perennials with us), it's kind of pointless.

if it doesnt rain, tomorrow night i'll put the "preen" on the beds, and weed-n-feed the yard, and then use the hose and fertilize some of the various beds.

and then it'll be back to sorting and packing.

meanwhile, all you columbusites, be on the lookout for a twin headboard (and/or complete twin bed frame with both head and foot) that could be spraypainted. with lots of folks moving at the end of june, there's sure to be one turn up somewhere.

Posted by gigamatt at 9:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

today i started again sorting the back, "baby" room. primarily used as storage, with a secondary use as a guest bedroom (aka "Jay's room"). Until I ran out of quart ziplock baggies in which to put figures. Then, I sorted some paperwork and started a big bag o trash. Until I couldn't stand or walk because my legs were asleep. Then, I decided to hit the basement and get out the Dif wallpaper remover and start on the pink elephant and orange giraffe border.

Let me just say that I am a dumbass for not starting that shit sooner. Even in a half-cleared room, I was able to get 2/3 of the border down, and it was easy. No damage to the walls at all. Seriously, a coat of paint and that room will be sweet. I had thought I was going to maintain the sunny yellow, but now I'm having second thoughts. I still might, really. I'm just thinking "man, if we end up staying, I think I might like it a slightly different color, because that's WAY too much yellow.

And Nala has been sanding and painting the hallway ceiling. I must say it looks fantastic and I am very proud.

And with that, I think I'll go back to sorting paperwork in the other bedroom. If I'm lucky, I'll clear enough space to get to the corner and take down another section of border.

Posted by gigamatt at 3:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

at gloria ferrer

this is what i looked like last fall (2004) and i actually look like i've eaten more than once in the last year. good god.

Posted by gigamatt at 5:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

emaciated gigamatt

for telling me i look good in this photo, you all SUCK. honestly, I would like to think if you saw me looking like this now, you'd try to get me to the hospital. quickly.

jerks.

and never ever ever let me have multicolored hair again. ev. er. and grey doesn't count. (note: this photo taken in either late 1998 or early 1999)

Posted by gigamatt at 4:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

ok. so i broke down today and started uploading to flikr. and courtney added me as a contact.

i've mostly been uploading old pictures from the crappy old digital camera, but i found some gems.

jay and di's old house, complete with an off-kilter photo of the two of them.
the fabulous andi at the old basso bean coffee shop.
photos from a crappy christmas in daytona beach.

i've found even more, but i really cant upload them till i go pro, because i cant sort them into sets. and i cant afford flikr pro until next month, at the earliest.

HELP ME! If anybody has a free Flikr Pro account to give away, please help an addict out?! My Flikr id is the same as my nickname: Gigamatt. Thanks in advance.

Posted by gigamatt at 2:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

as i'm typing up my last entry, i saw two commericials that made me want to comment.

The second one, kind of nostalgic, was a new "Reach" commercial featuring the return of the "flip-top head". It would've made me laugh, had I not still been reeling from the commercial prior to it...

A couple is talking to each other on their way home from dinner in their car. Out of nowhere, a truck crosses their path and sends them careening, and both airbags blow. Shaken, they console each other and speak to the cop. I'm sorry, but every second of OUR last accident came flooding back, as I'm sure did anyone else's who had ever been in a serious accident. Effective. It certainly got my attention, albeit not what they would want. I dont think I could buy from a company who would send memory-based shocks thru my body just to sell a product.

Posted by gigamatt at 1:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

well, i just spent 20 minutes trying to fix our shicketty (that's right... ricketty and shitty all in one) fence by the oak tree. all boards hit on 2/3 supports now, but the problem is that the tree has broken the supports, and so i had to choose to hit the bottom two, to fence the hoont back in.

i tried someone's suggestion of bending the boards to make them fit, but there's only so much bending that old wood will do. actually, i did get a couple to work, but then managed to get a 1/2" splinter right in the meaty part of my palm.

so, now that that is done, i think it's time to start laundry, and try to get back to sorting and packing.

Posted by gigamatt at 1:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

jay and di
Originally uploaded by gigamatt.

Found a whole series of photos I took for Jay way back when. Made me remember days of summer when stress levels weren't so high.

Jay, of course, blogs here and Di here. We've all settled down considerably more than we had back then: I bought a house with Nala, after he changed jobs. Di met a man, got married, and had twins. Jay moved to Florida, worked for the Rat, moved back to Ohio, and has since bought a house and started a great new career.

Posted by gigamatt at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So, you all know, I left work at 5pm yesterday. Ok... 4:58. And I was watching as I drove out of our lot, slowly, looking in all directions for the yellow van.

It was not here.

So, I checked the tracking site this morning, and you know what? Funny thing. It was signed for by our "receptionist" at 4:52. Funny thing, because I WAS STANDING TALKING TO OUR "RECEPTIONIST" and WALKED OUT WITH HER.

The signature looks like it says (and I'm not shitting you) "Julie Andrews". My only hope is that the yellow-shipper delivery person lied about the time (I was still on the phone with them at 4:50) and it was delivered to somebody I don't know back in the back part of our building after hours.

Of course, fat lot of good that does me this morning.

Update: It was signed for by one of our second shift. I looked it up. Hopefully, that means I'll get it this morning, whenever someone back there gets in.

Update: It's 7:30am and the phone is missing. It's not in that person's area. It's not in any of the management offices. It's not in receiving. Who knows what happened to my $300 phone.

Update: They've tried to call this person at home, but her number's been disconnected. They're out scouring the building now, looking for the phone.

Update: The sidekick is now charging on my desk. Apparently it arrived at 5:10 last night, and was brought up front by someone who was not the person who signed for it, and was given to one of my coworkers (who wasnt here at 5:00 when I left?) and put in his office. Jesus, can anybody say clusterf*ck?

I barely had enough room on the insurance company comment card to squeeze in my anger and frustration, telling the story about the non-English-speaking woman who entered my address completely wrong despite my spelling it to her, failed to give me a claim number, and failed to get my email address to which the claim info was to be sent, along with the second customer service tech who said she'd change the shipping info and didnt.

But, I have a new refurbished sidekick. And a car charger. Woo.

Posted by gigamatt at 6:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

well, they attempted re-delivery this afternoon (1:20ish pm is when the truck left the depot with the new one.) At 4:30 I called the yellow company to see what was up. And got put on hold, while they tried to contact the driver for 20 minutes. She wasnt answering her radio. They asked me how late someone would be at our offices.... to which I replied "I dont know... no other company sends deliveries here after 5pm, so I've never known what to tell someone."

they didnt get it there by 5. i know. i stayed. and after 5, the place goes into full lockdown.

i'm sure they'll find new ways to screw it up tomorrow.

meanwhile... despite what TMobile told me, (and my now being minus 35 smackers), i turned off the device, took out the sim card, replaced the sim card, and turned on the device. it works again. and now, i'll be getting a new (refurbished) one, that's only warranteed for 6 months. and my deductible goes up to $110, and my monthly insurance payment goes up to $6.99 or $7.99, i cant remember which.

if the next one breaks, I'm buying a new model after the first of the year. jerks.

Posted by gigamatt at 9:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

ok. established facts as i can reckon:
1) time lords destroyed in a great war
2) "bad wolf" plays a key in every episode
3) series leading up to a "big bad" at the end
4) trailers indicate daleks
5) daleks rumored to have killed time lords.

my speculation follows in the extended entry

ok. here's what i think...
i know everyone's clamoring to come up with the one theory that works, and they want the Master involved somehow as the "bad wolf". Here's what I think.

The Doctor may inadvertently be attached to the "Bad Wolf".
The Daleks, having access to time technology, have fucked with the timestream enough to have played some part in Gallifreyan history.
The Tardis IS a Dalek. (note the odd interior these days).

Posted by gigamatt at 3:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

sadly, my Color Sidekick has been rebooting itself over and over and over for the last couple days and won't recognize my sim card. I called the carrier, explained the error messages, and (of course) they said it's a bad unit that I'll need to replace (without even suggesting I test the sim card in a different phone, incidentally).

so, i said i'd like to take advantage of the insurance program for which i pay a large fee every month, and for $35 get a new phone with a new 6 month warranty. my new phone is going to be delivered today, no thanks to the incompetent and non-english-speaking woman who took my claim. she not only forgot to get my contact phone number and email address, but also entered the wrong address. She probably also charged the wrong credit card. Lord knows she couldn't write things down even when I spelled them out. K E N N Y became KENY. 2-5-0-0 became 25000. And she left out a few words, too. Good thing I checked with another agent before I ended the call.

today, of course, it's being shipped thru the yellow-colored service, which frequently sends our boxes over to other parts of campus in other departments. and, even if it does make it to our building, our normal guy in receiving is out on vacation and his backup is, to put it nicely, rather dimwitted and slow, and sometimes turns away our packages.

i think my poor sidekick is doomed. and if, by some miracle, it arrives in one piece and it works ok, i promise i will cherish it as much as the last one.

Update: That yellow shipping company screwed it up. They changed the address all right, but now it wasnt even close. When I called their 800 number to find out what the delivery problem was, the guy laughed when he pulled it up in their database: NO STREET ADDRESS. Simply "University". Brilliance abounds.

How do these people have JOBS (presuming they're here in the U.S.)? Jesus.

Oh, and I just spent 15 minutes on the phone (mostly on hold) trying to get a service credit for the time while I cannot use my Sidekick, and arguing that I only have the data plan, so free minutes doesnt do me any good. ("But you could keep them till you used them" -- BUT I WONT USE THEM! I CANNOT GET A SIGNAL WHERE I SPEND MOST OF MY TIME, which is WHY I DONT HAVE PHONE SERVICE ON THIS DEVICE! So, I got a $2 credit.

The guys I work with are scared. Our new Blackberries are arriving today, and the service is thru the same carrier. HA.

Posted by gigamatt at 11:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I called my dad last week to tell him about a tire sale, and ended up talking about tv. He was watching "hit me baby one more time" or whatever the hell it's called. he said it was horrible. I didn't need him to tell me what I had already surmised from the title and premise. Washed up one-hit-wonder singers on tv? Yeah, that makes me want to watch. Actually, I think he was just bored, and doesnt have many choices. I'm actually surprised he wasn't watching CSI, but maybe that was a repeat? Who knows? Not I. His only other choice was PBS, but it looks like they show old 60s movies on Thursdays.

I have to say, I wish he got a Fox affiliate, just so that he could see Hell's Kitchen, which seems to be a reality show I can tolerate. Yeah, it's on at 9pm on Mondays, and that means I don't like to watch it upstairs because I'll keep Nala awake, but damn, I love that show.

Posted by gigamatt at 11:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

the good news is, apparently budgeting is almost final. according to the big boss lady, NONE of our tech budget got cut. NONE. NONE! WTF?! When does THAT ever happen?!

i asked my boss which one of us would be cleaning out his desk to pay for that. he said (jokingly) that's why he was looking for the new guy, whose office is next to mine.

Posted by gigamatt at 1:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My last 10 songs in iTunes:

Elliott Smith: Memory Lane
Sleater-Kinney: All Hands on the Bad One
Sublime: Santeria
My Chemical Romance: Helena
Garbage: Bleed Like Me
Jack Johnson: Sitting Waiting Wishing
Killers: On Top
Polyphonic Spree: Hanging Around the Day
Filter: Hey Man Nice Shot
Fatboy Slim: Wonderful Night

Posted by gigamatt at 12:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

i really need to start getting up earlier.

i got up this morning, thinking i was going to get out of there earlier, but instead stayed in bed longer than i needed to, because nala hadnt left for the gym. well, then i got sidetracked reading top 10. and then, when i thought i'd finally make it out on time, i had to feed and let the hoont out. and then i discovered all manner of wilting plants that had to be watered, and due to our varying water pressure in our kitchen, it took me forEVER to fill 3 watering cans full.

and that just did the back deck flowers.

i still managed to eat my cereal. i still managed to get to work a little earlier than usual. i just wish i could've gotten here at 6:30 instead.

note to self: STOP READING TOP 10 in the morning! That's 20 minutes wasted!

Posted by gigamatt at 9:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

ok, sure, my hometown isnt the most progressive metropolis, but i just hopped on the county auditor's website to see how much the building on the main square was worth... the one I talked about a few weeks ago.

turns out, although there's a large general store on the first floor, it's the folks who run the restaurant in the basement that own the building!

Mkt Land Value $30,370
Mkt Improvement Value $135,250
Total Value $165,620

The auditor's website also claims only 7,228 sq. ft, which is false. That may be all that is used NOW, but that would only be the restaurant and the first floor. The upper two floors are vacant, but if you remember my writing about it before, when I was a kid, at least the second floor was part of the store.

If I ever (EVER!) win a big enough lottery, I will buy that building, restore it, and live in the top story, I think. Or maybe let my parents live there. It's right downtown, and it has its own garage. No lawn to mow. It's high enough to look over part of the city... and would have an elevator to move stuff in and out. Hell, I could design it so that my mom could garden on the roof.

Ah, dreams. It's funny, this is one that I've had since I was a kid.

The much narrower building next to it just sold for $48k in 2003. It used to be a hardware store, but apparently now is a "Curves". Built in 1873, according to the auditor site.

The one two doors down from that sold in 2000 for $25k. 3 floors, basement redone, wiring redone, roof redone, termite damage repaired. Drop ceilings everywhere... it's a bank now.

Posted by gigamatt at 9:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

happy second anniversary to The Pickett and Kelmeister! Woo!

Posted by gigamatt at 8:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

so, the "Clash" episode of Justice League Unlimited aired last night, to mostly good reviews by our local group of geeks. As usual, lots of shouts to comic-fans.

As always, I see several things that COULD happen in future episodes, and to me, that's great. If I can't tell exactly where the plot is going, then it means the writers are keeping other fans guessing as well.

"I'm a Fawcett boy at heart." (Cap. Marvel to Lois Lane)

Having so many characters available, and so many storylines to pick from, and being able to draw from them as well as tailor the series to become its own continuity, the number of directions ANY minor on-screen occurrence could head in is mind-boggling.

For instance... let's speculate, shall we? Speculation is fun.

We know Lex is involved with Cadmus. We know Cadmus employs the Suicide Squad. We know the technology exists to bridge dimensions and time. We know superheroes can be cloned.

I read a future episode description that said "to avenge a fallen comrade, Superman declares war on Cadmus." I also read that Cadmus's files show a reference to the "multiverse." And, Gala(Tea), is making another appearance.

This could (and probably is) a sort of "red herring" to throw us off the real plotline, but it certainly makes things events sound BIG.

But, would you really want a Crisis to be a season finale and not a series finale? don't think so.

Instead, let me say this: I think Galatea could come out of this as a hero. I think the character has the potential to be from an alternate universe, NOT a clone. I think she could've been brainwashed (ala Doomsday) to have been a fighter. I think if she found out about this, she could become Power Girl. She'd definitely have something to prove, AND have a chip on her shoulder.

See? See how easy it is to follow events to different conclusions?

I'm not gonna speculate as to the season finale. I don't like the tidbits I've read because I can't see a conclusion using the characters that are listed in the episode guide.

Posted by gigamatt at 11:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

sorted figures into genres
sorted figures into sale and keep piles
gave info to nala, who photographed and wrote descriptions
and posted on ebay.

did laundry
wished for more hours in the day.

now off to watch JLU.

Posted by gigamatt at 8:57 PM | Permalink

I'll miss these. And the rest of her, too.

Verena leaves this coming week to go back to germany, and this makes me very sad. But, it also gives me reason to get the passport and make a trip to Berlin.

Posted by gigamatt at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So, my friend, Bionic, sent this tidbit out to the masses, as to why she's glad she no longer lives in Florida.

Read this first.

The Bionic one was dating this asshole.

Smart told a deputy that he and Carson began dating in March 2004 and lived together from October 2004 until mid-May

He was cheating on Bionic during that time.

Just remember kids, psychos are everywhere.

Posted by gigamatt at 8:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

ok, so my friend karl the ace told this story on the alumni boards today.

Jack wakes up at home with a huge hangover he can't believe. He forces himself to open his eyes, and the first thing he sees is a couple of aspirins next to a glass of water on the side table. And, next to them, a single red rose!

Jack sits down and sees his clothing in front of him, all clean and pressed. He looks around the room and sees that it is in perfect order, spotlessly clean. So is the rest of the house.

He takes the aspirins, cringes when he sees a huge black eye staring back at him in the bathroom mirror, and notices a note on the table: Honey, breakfast is on the stove, I left early to go shopping--Love you!

He stumbles to the kitchen and sure enough, there is hot breakfast and the morning newspaper. His son is also at the table, eating. Jack asks his son, "what happened last night?"

"Well, you came home after 3 A.M., drunk out of your mind. You broke some furniture, puked in the hallway, and got that black eye when you ran into the door."

"So, why is everything in such perfect order, so clean? I have a rose, and breakfast is on the table waiting for me?"

His son replies, "Oh THAT!... Mom dragged you to the bedroom, and when she tried to take your pants off, you screamed, 'Leave me alone, lady, I'm married!'"

Broken furniture - $85.26 Hot Breakfast - $4.20 Red Rose bud - $3.00 Two Aspirins - $.38

Saying the right thing, at the right time.........Priceless.

Of course, it was tempered with this one, from Diamond Dave:

Did you hear about the native american orgy? It was f*cking intense.

Badum-ching.

Posted by gigamatt at 12:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

this is pretty cool:

Thanks to

Posted by gigamatt at 12:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

upon seeing the BEGINNING of his new blog template, Ohio Jay (aka DJ Skullf*cker), had this to say:

I believe the correct response is:
HOLY FUCK I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
you rock like a single gay jewish doctor with investments who says "nobody tops me like you baby! want me to move in and pay your semi-annual real estate taxes and take you for a weekend in the Pocanoes?"

Nothing like a good (ego) stroking before bed?

Posted by gigamatt at 9:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Mom called while I was at lunch. They made it home around noon, and Gigadad is anxious to get back to work. He's not supposed to be active, so mowing the grass will have to wait (who wants to do it in this 90+ degree heat anyway?) and repairing the riding lawnmower will have to wait, too, because torquing on bolts will be too much stress.

Posted by gigamatt at 1:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

went to go see the gigadad at 2:00. he's feeling better. he's full of (good!) hospital food. he's not in any pain. he's up and moving around. he's kind of upset they gave him ANOTHER medication to take for at least a year (something about the new kind of stent they put in?) he gets to go home in the morning, and come back next week(?) to see his cardiologist. they're prescribing exercise again, too, but he's already doing more than they usually recommend.

if the new stent doesnt collapse in the next two weeks, chances are good it will last at least as well as the ones he had put in 9 years ago, which are still in great shape and remain unclogged.

then, (by the way), he's climbing and cutting down two 60' poplar trees next to their house. yes, you read that right. the man doesn't stop for anything.

Posted by gigamatt at 6:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I had just completed the last entry when my mom called.

GigaDad has been moved to a room, and will be staying there overnight. It seems when they got up around his heart, poking around, they found a blockage, cleared it, and threw a stent in.

This was *probably* what they were seeing on the stress test last week.

Mom's doing dinner alone at Bobby E's, but will probably see me at the hospital.

Posted by gigamatt at 12:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

sheesh. feels like monday again, but the a/c is working.

i seem to have lost a couple hours in the middle of the day, buried in work. i'm sorta/kinda worried for my dad, who's got another heart cath today. I would assume I would've heard something by now if he wasn't ok. Yeah, the risk of death is 2/1000... and this is my dad's third (at least). He's starting to not like the odds.

And, he still hadn't told me if they'd told him what they were looking for. He had a stress test last week, and the doc said there was something he wanted to take a look at.

This, after last year's catheter ablation to treat his atrial tachycardia, which didn't completely work, and the stents he has near his heart after balloon angioplasty...

Ok. Enough of this. Papa Power came thru his quintuple bypass ok, so I guess GigaDad can take a simple heart cath.

Posted by gigamatt at 12:38 PM | Permalink

The A/C in our offices apparently broke on Friday. It's now 90 degrees in every room but our server room. I wish they would find some company that could FIX this damn system once and for all, instead of coming out once a month.

Update: (8:50 am) Don't know if they got it fixed or it's because the few windows this building has are open, but it's now about 85.

Update 2: (10:43 am) It's fixed, and it's almost comfortable now. I will put money on it being broken again next Monday.

Posted by gigamatt at 8:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

damn. he got me.

so, here goes. i used to work in college radio (this guy was my boss, at one point), and most of my taste is bound to that period in my life, combined with early college (5 years prior to that), and the eclectic mix that was my parents' record collection.

i listen to about 10 minutes of radio in the morning, and then either streaming ACRN or WBNS, or my mp3s at work, when I can close my door.

Total volume of music files on my computer(s):
17.4gb. or so. that's what's on my laptop + what's archived to cd-r. I still have about 150 cds that need to be ripped.

The last CD I bought:
Hm. Garden State? or Red Violin? I got the new Weezer for free, and Mr. and Mrs. B got me the last Interpol album.

Song playing right now:
"Covered in Punk" by Portobella

Five songs I listen to a lot, or mean a lot to me:

This was hard. I dont have any songs that have any real "meaning" to me, and I'd be hard pressed to find songs that I listen to a lot. But, I have certain songs that make me think about turning points in my life. Nothing deep here; I just remember what I was doing when I was listening to these songs. They don't "mean" anything. And I don't listen to them a lot.

Beastie Boys: Brass Monkey (40 junior high band nerds, singing on the bus)
Def Leppard: Love Bites (high school breakups suck - to hairband ballads)
the Smiths: There is a Light (college breakups suck, and are moody)
the Cure: Friday I'm in Love (breakups because of distance suck more)
Pavement: Shady Lane (worlds collide, and all I want is a Shady Lane)
White Town: Your Woman (relationship cleanup)
I'm missing a couple, and I reserve the right to change this list.

Five people to whom I’m passing this baton:

J-go, he's got the pop.
Palochi, singer/songwriter.
Sparky, one of my blog-daddies. (meaning, he's one of the reasons i started...)
Opie, seems like he might have a good collection.
Annalisa, because she kicks ass. And she's my blog momma.

and an extra, just in case:
Robey, because not only does he still have a fucking TILDE in his URL, but he also has some of the best taste in music, AND mad skills in songwriting and performance. The world is a really cool place, when you've got NEW GREEN SHORTS! WOOO!

Posted by gigamatt at 9:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

i havent been able to watch any episodes of the new doctor who past episode 2. can anybody guide me to them? if so, email gigamatt at gmail. I'm going crazy. I've read lots of interesting things about where the story MIGHT be going, but it looks as if we're having a Buffy-style Big Bad (Wolf?) at the end... and it's either going to be wonderfully brilliant or super lame.

the speculation I've read has led me to believe that it could very well be an absolutely incredible ending to the season, and I wont spoil it here, but instead, if you want to read it, email me at the address I mentioned above.

And please help me get the rest of the episodes. I will pass the goods along to friends of mine as well.

Posted by gigamatt at 8:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

because today has been FILLED with bullshit.

bullshit to the left of me.
bullshit to the right of me.
bullshit in front of me.

bullshit coming from all directions.
and my bullshit tolerance factor is the lowest it's been in years.

i cant even coherently tell you about the bullshit.
i cant vent to Nala about the bullshit.

some days, i just want to hulk out on people.

Posted by gigamatt at 4:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

no, not really... it was just the first thing that came to mind, oddly enough.

lots of things i wanted to talk about.

First... it was good to see my friend Geoff on Friday, after 8 years, and meet his wife Lorie. We spent a good few hours together before they had to leave for his cousin's wedding in Athens. Lorie seems very nice, and they both got along well with Nala. We talked about everything from smoking, to food, to wine, to sci-fi and ate some great Greek food with flaming cheese appetizers and lovely light lemon meringue cake dessert. Geoff sent me a photo from the wedding which made me think "they look like kids going to prom!" -- so I must officially be old.

Sunday was spent in the sun at the lovely Monica and Patrick's house with Monica's fun-loving family, making me feel right at home with their stories from "back home" -- which was the next town over from mine. 7 hours and sunburn later, we were stuffed to the gills with everything from barbecue chicken to rhubarb pie. Mmm.

Monday, I got an email from my aunt, forwarding email from my youngest cousin, who is touring New Zealand on foot. Apparently, he's hiking from one end to the other. Like ya do. If you thought my post about the apostrophes was bad, you should've heard what I said to my mom about the cousin's writing abilities.

Tuesday was spent in Hell, and ended with a good meeting with our mortgage broker.

Today, I've set up a mini computer lab in my office at work, copying files from old computers so I can surplus them. or pitch them outright, as the case may be. Things I should've done years ago. Three less unused computers in the house. And, that'll let me prep the dual processor machine for Jalex, too.

Good news from the Evebird, too. And Mr. B found me a white Raven figure, too.

Posted by gigamatt at 12:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)