clarity, having some

So I have realized, anew, how great it feels to just get things done. Lately I've been spending a lot of time whining about how much stuff I have to do (which is a considerable amount) but not really try so much to do anything about it.

The largest bane of my existence is the conference I'm working on planning. Last night I grabbed it by the horns and spent 2 hours just sending e-mails. Today I got to work and had over 50 related responses. I've since spent 3 hours replying and organizing and planning. I've gotten more done for this conference in the past 2 days than in the past 2 months. It feels really good.

Through this process over yesterday and today, a lot of things just clicked into place, mentally. I guess we sometimes need to remind ourselves to shut up and just get some shit done. Like eating our vegetables, we usually feel better about it once it's done. :-)

days, really long

I've had many very long days over the last few weeks. Preparation for my NY trip made things crazy for a few days before my departure, the trip in NY made for long days since I needed to utilize all available time. Now that I'm back it's pretty nuts. I did 5 hours of grading yesterday (technically, my last day of vacation) and about 8 hours of grading today, plus taught 2 classes, created curriculum for the classes from scratch, and prepared a comprehensive cheat-sheet-handout for each of those classes. Right now I'm at work hour 12 for today and I have 2 more to go. Yippie!

In a few days when I have more time, I'll post a real NYC posting with some pictures and a link to an online gallery (which I have to upload still..). I have class this weekend, and next weekend too, so free time will be at a bit of a premium. Maybe while I'm at the hotel after class on Friday...which depends on if I go out with Thomas. Or, during class, if it turns out to be really boring. ;-)

dell, getting tired of

So you all may have heard that I had to replace my hard drive that went wonky. Apparently it suddenly developed some bad things on it (or so the diagnostics told me) so I ended up having to replace it which turned out to be alright. This made me slightly bitter because the HD manufacturer has a standard 3-year warranty, but since it's OEM in a dell product, the manufacturer wouldn't touch it. At the time, the system was *just* over the 2 year dell warranty cut-off, and they won't honor the standard 3-year manufacturer warranty. Thanks, dell.

So I thought my problems were over, right? Nope! I now have the infamous "flashing amber light of death." My system will NOT even attempt to boot up, the power button just flashes this lovely amber light. After a bit of online research, it seems that a simple replacement of the power supply isn't always the solution to this issue. I really can't afford to replace the power supply in hopes that it fixes everything. What gives, dell??? This computer is 2.5 years old and now has had a second *major* problem. Aside from this, I've been marvelously happy with the system, it has never done anything weird or buggy.

This amber light thing sounds more like a defect in their systems...the dozens of forum posts I've been finding are indicative of a larger issue than a few power users simply overtaxing their systems. I used mine on a pretty average basis for the first year, but in the second year, I had my laptop and hardly ever used the desktop system but a few times per week.

The computers I had while growing up all made it to a good 4-5 years old before we tired of their incompatibility and slowness, however, they continued to keep trucking on even at point of disposal.

So, dell, what gives? I'm not likely to be a customer of yours again.

pierced, things you should get

Below you'll find a handy picture of my new lip piercing. I'm pretty damn stoked about it. I don't have much else to write about, other than that I love it. This picture is from my camera phone, so isn't the greatest, but you get the idea.

It was a pretty fun process. My friend Kim wanted to get a few tattoos before she leaves on her international journey and I have been wanting to do my lip for awhile....so I recommended that we go to the place where I had my ears done, they also do tattoos. It turns out that the piercing folks split to a new location and still do tattoos too, but the old location has the original tattoo folks. Confusing, I know. So she went ahead and got her tattoos there and then we went to the new place and I got my lip done. [High Priestess Piercing and Tatoos] We were both immensely satisfied with our body modifications of the afternoon. I wasn't sure how the lip was going to hurt, the ears were virtually painless. The best way I can describe it is having someone else pop a really gnarly zit on your face. There really is almost a "pop" sensation when it pokes through. Exhilerating!!!

Hurray for us! :-)

Purpose?

One thing I've noticed lately, especially at the university library where I work, is that people walk slowly and aimlessly. Almost exclusively. Do they understand just how much time they're wasting by lolly-gagging. Come on people, walk with purpose! Yes, with purpose! Act like you have somewhere to go because, guess what, you inevitably do! Each step is a new destination. Own it. So get out of my way because I am walking with purpose.

birthdays?

It's my sister's birthday in a few days. I am at a bit of a loss of what to get her. I believe I posted a similar sentiment last month when I was trying to figure out her christmas presents. Unfortuantely, her birthday is just 3 weeks after Christmas and my creative juices are all sucked out by then. She doesn't need any more clutter, or really even clothes for that matter. What she could probably use most is an economy-sized bottle of Pine Sol with an accompanying stock of cleaning cloths and disinfectant wipes. By comparison, I would probably be considered both a clean and neat freak.

Given the snow and ice that will appear tomorrow, I'm a bit hesistant about trudging through it to find that "perfect gift." Maybe she'd be happy with a gift certificate? Say... for food? Then she can't keep it and contribute to clutter? My god, I'm a genius!

snow...snow...snow...snow...snow!

"They say it won't be long before we'll all be there with snow..." -- A short quote from my most favorite winter / christmas song ever "Snow" from White Christmas.

One marvelous advantage to working swing shift, I'm able to be at home all day and watch the snow come down. I think we are approaching 2" for the day which is fairly significant for the Corvallis area. There were winters in Oregon when it wouldn't even snow at all (at the lower elevations).

This time we got an official-looking announcement from the university asking to take all sorts of precautions, like unplugging major electronics before leaving work for the day, etc. Apparently it's supposed to dip below freezing for a few days (15-20 F) which means our town will be covered in sheets of ice. Wheee!

I also received the monthly "newsletter" from my apartment complex. One blurb in this "newsletter" cautioned against walking under trees during inclement weather. To give a little perspective, my complex has the words "hill" and "oak" in its name. Yes, it is COVERED in oak trees and various evergreens, literally! You cannot leave your apartment in some cases without going under a tree. It's impossible to leave the complex without walking and driving under them. In the last wind storm and snow storm we had a LOT of fallen limbs and branches, some on power lines. Did they come through and trim anything afterward? Nope. These kids are smart.

My dirty dishes are CLEAN, hurray! I had a few pots that have been sitting (conveniently hidden in the oven) since new year's eve celebratory food preparation. Yep. Cheese fondue. Amazingly, it didn't look ANY different than when I prepared it...

My goodness the snow is pretty. Time for some hot chocolate and a little reading before I have to get ready for work...

coffee grossness

So I'm currently at work (on break, of course) and just got back from getting a hot beverage from Monroe st. This week, all food-related places are closed on campus. This is considerable since we have a full-service coffee shop right in my library building. I eventually found my way to a Dutch Bros. where there was a line of 9 people and 1 barista. This wasn't too bad, since the barista was pretty fast. However, the barista did sneeze violently (not directly on his hand, but I'm sure some contact was made..) once, and then touched his face or nose 5 more times before preparing my beverage. Perhaps it's just me, but the last time I took the food handler's test it was recommended that you wash your hands after any touching-of-self or bodily expulsion. Carefully watching him prepare my beverage, I observed that he did not come into direct contact with any surfaces that liquid or my lips would touch. I can't say the same for others, but I lucked out. Would it have been rude for me to ask him to wash his hands? The line was long when I got there, and people kept coming in so it stayed at around 9 people in queue the entire time I was there so he was very busy and people were in a hurry...but still?

mood: lethargic and slightly grossed out

christmas: joy and lies?

It's the night before christmas and I can't help feeling a little jaded by the way our society has turned this holy holiday into a commercial enterprise. I am staying at my parents' house along with my sister and 11 year old niece. My niece still believes in santa claus. Yes, she's convinced that all of the children at school are liars and the christmas shows on TV are irrefutible proof of his existence. Tonight the traditional cookies, milk, letter, and vegetable tray (for the reindeer) were left out when she went to bed. Before bed, my father and I took turns munching on the cookies, veggies, and milk. After that, I wrote a carefully composed response to her letter, especially from santa himself.

As our children are growing up, they're supposed to trust us, right? So why do we spend years reinforcing this outright lie and then pull it out from under them? I caught on to the gig when I was 7 and my parents were relieved to finally give up the hoax.

So now I'm a 26 year old man that lies to and manipulates children. I'm not sure I really feel very good about that. There are some very grown-up things that children don't really need to know the whole story about and I am comfortable throwing around a white-lie or vague response now and again, but an out-and-out useless and manipulating lie kind of bothers me. So when they're 15 and we tell them that smoking is bad for them, why should they believe us? Perhaps once they hit 30 we unveil the truth about that too; it actually tastes great and makes you live longer, gotcha! We're so clever.

Would christmas be such a large holiday in the US if we discontinued the lies to children? I believe that parents would still get presents for the children, that stockings would still be filled, and candy canes and carols would overwhelm and sicken everyone for the entire month of December.

On the more joyous side of things, today I spent time with an old friend that had drifted considerably, a mutual drifting really. We were both friends during an awkward and often confusing and unhappy time in our lives. Now he is incredibly happy and fortunate in his life and I am very glad for him. I hadn't realized how much I missed him and his friendship, it meant more than I had remembered, as relatively brief as it was.

Tomorrow after opening gifts and being lazy and eating an early dinner I have to drive back to Corvallis. I'm not especially fond of the traffic I'm likely to encounter. My typical 1.5 hour drive is probably going to turn into at least 3. I'm definitely going to have to stop so Gus can sretch his legs and take a potty break.

Everyone else has finally gone to bed and here I am, the last up, which has been typical for about 15 years. I am still excited and have trouble getting to sleep, even though I'm fully aware that santa will not be visiting our house tonight. That damned childhood programming, I've been brainwashed.

The semester is over

So I finally wrapped up my semester...a few days after everyone else did. I had completely forgotten to turn in one assignment for the last class, it never made it onto my calendar. Not the best of plans really. My professor was nice enough to send an e-mail, prodding me to get it done and turned in so I could potentially get an A- instead of a C+. It's done and now I have an A-. What a nice lady.

Gus is doing very well, we went for a walk last night at around 8 pm and ended up having to cut it a bit short from the ice. The path we normally go walking on has a lot of water runoff on it which in turn has frozen over. Too bad I didn't have ice skates, then I could just hold onto Gus's leash and zoom down the 2-mile path! Actually, he wasn't doing so hot on the ice either, he didn't seem to "get" that any vigorous activity resulted in him slipping and nearly falling. Sometimes I wonder about his intelligence... [photo of said path shown below...]

From Snow Day 2

Christmas is going to be here in a week. Can anyone believe it? I can't. I still have three gifts to buy before then and I'm still completely confused what to get. Any ideas? I need something for the mother, the father, and the sister. I think I'm going to get the sister a dvd box set, but as for the other two I'm clueless.

On Saturday night Kim and I went to Gresham for the "annual caroling party" which was pretty fun. We actually got some decent caroling in this year, though I have had *enough* of "Angels We Have Heard on High," the chorus is mildly mellismatic and timing is very very important. Apparently no one else realized these two things while singing it. It was fun though, this year there were boys other than myself which was a welcome change, and one of them could even part sing! Hurray!

In closing, there will be a few moments of silence for the hard drive of my desktop computer... it died this last Friday. [ ] <--- Silence. It just turned 2 years old last month, which means it is now beyond the Dell warranty. The other crappy part is the manufacturer (Maxtell) typically carries a 3-year warranty, but on OEM products, the warranty is only honored by the system manufacturer (Dell) who does not honor the standard warranty of 3 years, only their own 2 year warranty. Shitty? Yes. Oh well, it did give me a good excuse to order a new Western Digital 300 GB hard drive that is significantly faster. I got a super rebate on it, plus used Google Checkout for another $20 off and came in under $100, yay for me! Now we'll see if I can manage to get any old stuff off the dead hard drive...

Life updates

Gus
So I believe that Gus is fully recovered from his various "accidents" earlier this month. November was one hell of a ride for him and me both! I think he's gained back most of the weight he had lost when on his restricted diet. Just a few days ago we had a great time playing around in the snow.

Me
I am procrastinating way too much with my school work. I have a paper due on Monday and I haven't even brainstormed for it yet. Slacking slacking slacking. I've been doing a little better in keeping up with the reading, but I still don't have everything read (and probably won't) that I needed to for this semester. Oh well... maybe I'll catch up on it over the winter break.

Work is going decently. Most of my projects are finished, so I'm wasting away with very little to work on, so keep trying to find things to while away my time on. I know that I should be very thankful for this downtime, because when I am a real, live functioning academic librarian I will never be able to claim a lack of things to do. :-)

Random
Has anyone noticed the recent trend of females wearing boots with either shorts or skirts in our wintry months? I think I've seen more boots in the last 3 weeks than at any other point in my life. I have come up with some basic categories:

Boot
-Furry boot
-Fitted boot
-Slouch boot
-Tasseled boot
-Uggs

Lower body covering worn with boot
-Short shorts
-Short skirt
-Denim?
-Skort (those still exist?)
-Capri

Upper body covering worn with said boots
-University logo sweatshirt
-Other stupid sweatshirt
-Tanktop
-Camsiole
-Arctic-grade parka with rabbit trim
-Skater/snowboarder hoodie sweatshirt
-Thermal long-sleeve shirt

Optional accessories suitable for any above combination
-Schoolgirl socks
-Leg warmers
-Tights
-Opaque pantyhose (seriously..)
-Sweatpants (extra points for a "YUM!" emblazoned on the butt)

What are these young women thinking? They will take any one item from each category and mix at will. Where does it say this is alright? Can you imagine sweatpants tucked into black suede boots with stiletto heel and very furry upper trim, with a scandilously short denim skirt on top and a sparkly sequined camisole? Yes, I actually saw this! Why...why...why??

Oh yeah, the old pictures...

It completely didn't cross my mind to post the URL for my web albums that I was referring to in my prior e-mail:

http://picasaweb.google.com/michaeljbaird

Enjoy!!!

old pictures found

So today I finally started playing with the newer features that Google has packed into its Picasa software--one of which is uploading to a web album that can be shared publicly or just with friends. While doing this I ran across some pictures that I had taken when Kim and I took a spontaneous trip to the beach at Lincoln City to watch the sun set. I particularly liked this one:

Web 2.0? It's like pushing digital paper...

So I've been thinking a lot about technology and the cool things it does for us. All of the web 2.0 technologies allow us to track and interact with things in totally new ways, allowing for much easier and natural interactions via technology. However, I wonder at what price is this coming? These are things that most of us simply did not do previously, so we are giving up even more of our limited time to do more new things.

So if you keep a blog or two, contribute to a few wiki's, bookmark your favorite and even not-so-favorite sites using a service like del.icio.us, how is this adding up in hours per day? Per week? Per year? I know that I used to bookmark a LOT in my regular browser window, but did I ever use those bookmarks? Nope! There are only a few that were ever useful. Along this same vein, did I ever keep a diary or journal before? Nope. I've figured out that I now spend about 2-4 hours per week just maintaining my blogs, wikis, and social bookmarks. This doesn't even include the blogs and wikis of others that I read on a regular basis. Maybe another 2-4 hours per week?

So, 4-8 hours per week that wasn't there before. Is it worth it? Is my life more enriched? What am I not doing in order to do these things?

The answer? Homework!

saga: prematurely concluded

So on Monday I was playing with Gus and he had a bit of an accident. I threw his toy up into the air and he jumped to catch it, but came down on his right rear leg in an odd position and then crumpled on the floor, yelping and whining. I immediately freaked out, but after a few minutes he got up on his feet, while favoring the hurt leg and was walking around okay. About 10 minutes later he was putting weight on it, so I thought I'd go to work and then see how he was doing when i came home on my break. I came home and all appeared fine.

Tuesday morning, I get up and Gus is limping around, holding his rear right leg up while standing. Great, right? Soooo, I call the vet's office and see if they can get him in for a last minute appointment. We do a full exam with all sorts of pulling and prodding at his legs and hips. At first thought, the vet considered that the injury was the doggy equivalent of an ACL tear. Luckily, it wasn't. This would've been very very expensive to fix. They want to put him under anesthesia and take a bunch of x-rays to pinpoint the exact problem. Ok, fine.

Before they can put him under I have to sign a form that basically says if he dies, it's not their fault. And, if he goes into cardiac arrest, do I want them to attempt resuscitation by extreme measures? I don't want to be a jerk, but I simply could not afford that type of medical care... $15,000 later....

So they put him under and do the x-rays and I pick him up and he's REALLY happy to see me. On the plus side, he got mad at one of the vet techs and expelled his anal glands all over her. Luckily, that was one service I didn't have to pay for. :-) They sent the radiographs off to a canine radiologist to be tested and everything looked peachy except for some fluid where his right leg is socketed to his hip and maybe a touch of osteoarthritis.

So, it looks like Gus is going to live. Hurray! In the meantime, he's on anti-inflammatory medication for a week and restricted to only leash-walking for at least 2 weeks.

How much was this lesson worth? $367 to the vet clinic. Seriously Gus, you're starting to dip into my NYC trip / Christmas slush fund. I may resent this.

saga: concluding?

[Apparently I left this in my draft folder, it should be dated 11/12/2006]

The drama appears to be settling down. For a few days anyway.

I took Gus to the vet on Friday morning and there was not a conclusive diagnosis, just that he had ingested something toxic and had severe reactions to it. Nothing showed in the blood panel, urinalysis, or stool sample. The vet said that if he had ingested a very small amount of mushroom (most types are all toxic for dogs) that it would be plenty to make him very sick, but still not show up. He's now on some good meds and is receiving special moist food for a week to get his digestive system back on track.

What was this worth? $167.50 to the vet clinic. Gus, you're glad I like you.

saga: continued

So I go home each day on my dinner break so I can hang out at my apartment and take Gus out to go potty. My main reason is to take Gus out to go potty. I usually take this break somewhere between 8-11 pm, it just depends on how busy we are and when I can break away from the desk.

Tonight I get home.. open the door .. and ... COW PATTIES ALL OVER MY LIVING ROOM!!! You might ask yourself, "how could cows get into Michael's apartment?" "Not very easily" should be the appropriate response, but I have a 140 lb. great dane named Gus that kind of looks like a cow and apparently his explosive diahhrea resembles cow droppings. There were SIX cow patties in my living room. Big. Really. Big. Ranging from six inches across to about twelve inches across. I almost cried.

Oh, and did I mention that it STUNK? Yep. It did. Poor Gus looked like he thought I was going to beat him with a sledgehammer. Poor guy, it's not his fault at all, he's just not feeling well. I can't figure out what the hell caused this mess, I didn't leave *anything* food-related out where he could get it, and I don't notice anything else missing...so I'm positive it wasn't something he had eaten.

And one more gem of information. One of the small patties landed where? INSIDE one of my new running shoes. I feel disgusting. My apartment is disgusting.

This made my dinner break of a normal one hour turn into two and a half hours. I went back to work, got home, let Gus outside and he darted toward a grassy area and kept squatting and walking for about 10 minutes. Then he comes inside and starts throwing up on everything and then dry heaving. GOOD LORD WHEN WILL IT END?!

In the meantime, my ear hurts and and my jaw hurts and I'm tired and I just want to go to bed.

This could qualify as one of the worst days ever.

the ear: revealed

So, have you ever wondered what happens when an earlobe gets infected? I'm so disgusting....

Sick sick sick

Apparently my dutiful storage of karma has backfired on me. Let's review:

Cons:
Last week I had one tooth extracted
Last Thursday my last wisdom tooth decided to make its debut
I've been on vicodin since Thursday because of that wisdom tooth
Yesterday I started getting a really bad sore throat
Today I called in sick to work because I'm completely miserable
There is practically a torrential storm raging outside my apartment

The pros?

I did get to stay home from work, Gus is much happier with me home, I am catching up on sleep, as well as STNG. Now I'm hungry and nothing in my apartment looks good.....

So the trip to the dentist was fairly successful. The procedure went super quick and the dentist was very happy with it. The Bio-Oss stuff is basically a bunch of little bitty bone shards from Swiss cows that apparently have some very special legal rights. Who knew?

Yesterday I had a bit of a scare because the super glue stuff that they put on top of the sutures was lifting up, and taking the sutures with them. I had a bit of a panic moment and scheduled an impromptu appointment today and as it turns out everything is just fine. As usual, I overreacted, but with this sort of thing I felt it was better to be safe about it.

Now I have a 6-9 month wait before the bio-oss treatment has completely done its job and my jaw is normal, then I'll visit the oral surgeon to get a little titanium bracket installed and then wait another 3-6 months for that to settle in before my new implant tooth is ready to be installed. Quite a process, huh? :-)

Until next time...