Persistence of Memory

Rick came home today with a Wii. He's been playing "sports" games ever since, and he's even breaking a sweat (playing boxing for the moment). Ah, no, he's moved on to baseball and has been complaining about the lack of legs to run on for the little Wiible people. (And he absolutely sucks at the table tennis game.) I made sure when he made his Mii that the little dude had that cocky smirk on his face. Just had to have it.

On the plus side, he found out that the Wii will play Gamecube titles, so long as you get a controller (and card), so I now own a copy of Chibi-Robo. :) He's so freakin' adorable it hurts. No, I haven't played it yet.... Hopefully a little later this evening, when I may be feeling human (I hope). Rick told me he felt like he was buying gay porn bringing Chibi-Robo up for purchase, which I thought was hilarious. Even the dude at the store said it was a fun game.

I am still in pain, pain bad enough to bring me to tears, and it takes a lot to do that—I've cried more in the past week and a half due to pain than I have in the last ten years. I cried so hard earlier I ended up tossing my cookies (could have been coincidence, though, I guess). I am so sick and tired of being in pain.

I have an appointment tomorrow to have a mole removed, and I'm gonna ask Dr Person if there's some kind of muscle relaxant or something he can prescribe, because a lot of the time Doan's just doesn't cut it. I've been experimenting with gentle stretches, very recently, in the hopes that maybe the reason the muscles are going into spasms left, right, and sideways is just from lack of real movement. I dunno. The Mineral Ice is an interesting distraction, but I can't say that it's really helping in any meaningful way, which sucks. At least it's waaaaay easier to apply than Icy Hot.

Still, I'm taking the generic Claritin... still seeing a decided lack of "normal" headaches, which is still incredibly and exceptionally welcome in my life. I am cautiously optimistic that this will continue. I continue to feel stuffy, but you know...? Stuffy + lack of headache = win.

I figure, I've been in a shitty way for the past 1.5-2 weeks, so what better choice than to pour woe and angst all over my journal.

( Woe and Angst )

On the way back from Orlando I happened to notice a couple of signs which made me laugh.

Catholic Church
All you can eat seafood

I don't know why that struck me as funny, it just did.

→ Landfill
→ Senior Center

All I could think here was something like "Aw shit, Ethel kicked it. Joe! Pop her on a handcart and hit the landfill across the street. We get a discount."

( Sea World (one image included) )

It's that time of year. The time when I have multiple heart attack scares because all god's little chilluns is outside setting off fireworks in a grand tradition of making things 'go boom'.

Aside from that, this time of year reminds me of that day we spent it at my parents' house, and one of the dogs managed to steal some meat, and then barfed up all over the place from having taken too much in his fervor for thievery and gluttony. Or something like that.

Yay, 4th!

Meanwhile, while watching a video LP of Chibi-Robo (gosh darn it but that little bugger is sooooooo cute!!! I wants one!!!), my machine keeps flipping out and BSODing. Fine, we'll just download the videos with our handy extension and watch them non-streamed, which may or may not help the least bit.

I found out earlier that Mr Shadow likes cobwebs. What I can't decide is if he just likes the way they feel against his whiskers, or if he likes eating them. Such a strange cat.

And, I've come to the conclusion that VMS must be a complete flop, since I've yet to hear anything from anyone about it. Oh well. I still had loads of fun working on it.

( Returned from our Disney/Universal trip Thursday evening. )

---

( WIP Rec )

I received my Dreamwidth invite code, so I tossed up a very quick, very empty journal for the moment here. (After all, I have my AP to get through in Legends of Zork, and that waits for no man.)

So... the "boys" have decided to be boys. They came home two days ago with a set of remote control helicopters. Not shockingly, Storm flees the moment one of them gets that gleam in their eyes, but Shadow, oddly enough, is cautiously curious. Sadly, the little suckers are light enough that the ceiling fans tend to send them spinning off course. They're kind of like drunken dragonflies, really, and they almost sound like them, too.

Played more Liberal Crime Squad. Finally managed to get some electronic hijinks going, and sent off a team of brainwashed people to raid some places. Getting a better feel for "combat", you see, plus looting and destroying equipment. Still have yet to steal a damn car.

Considering getting Evil Genius.

Making more progress on the Project Nimby.

( Twilight, Mummy 3 )

FLORIDA—Today, in an astonishing revelation, it was revealed that Shadow and Storm run like bitches in the face of a bubble-blowing can opener (human, for those who do not speak cat). Readers will no doubt remember an earlier article (which may or may not have actually been written) that these cats also run from wind-up mice.

Visited Mr Dentist for two root canals. The idea doesn't bother me at all, really, despite what people say about it being such a horrifying experience. I learned differently due to the original one.

( The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly )

I am rather pissy at the moment. Two temporary caps, one of which is fine. The other, however, has twice now popped off and had to be snapped back into place. Putting it back isn't difficult, and it doesn't even hurt to do so. However, when I went to do it this time I realized that there is, in fact, a hole in the back of it, which allows food to get wedged in there. Might explain why it won't stay put.

Maybe I should have Rick get some Fixodent? Of course, this time, the sucker didn't snap into place quite the same way and my bite is affected. I have no particular desire to try to force it off so I can reposition it, so I'm not sure of the point of having him pick any up. I feel like I should resign myself to yogurt and soup for the next ten days. Yay.

It's just really irritating and I feel like bitching.

It got down to 55F last night... about that right now. However, my darling Rick has come to the rescue with an additional long-sleeved almost sweatshirt article of clothing, and a set of thermal longjohns. So I'm now at five upper layers and two lower. Hopefully I will not be shivering today (well, my day, seeing as how I woke up at midnight).

I do, however, almost feel like all I need is a parka and I'll be set for an arctic expedition. Well, maybe not. I don't think I own appropriate socks or boots. And I'm not sure if I own any gloves or a scarf or a hat. Details! Mere details!

I can haz booze!

I feel a certain sense of satisfaction right now. :)

In other news *snort* I watched Resident Evil: Degeneration, as it finally arrived in Mr Mailbox from Netflix. I wasn't expecting Square quality, and I didn't get it. S'ok, though I think Hunnigan, Clair, and... Angela? all had the same facial geometry. Leon was smokin' hot! I hate that hairstyle, but he worked it, baby. It was an interesting enough movie, and I admit I squeed when Clair whacked the senator.

Made a theme layer today. Interesting is all I can say.

Was pleasantly surprised to realize that one of the changes at the Pit of Despair included additional info on one's alerts list, which means now I can sort the sucker by fandom, which is pretty cool.

So okay, we're experimenting again.

Added a "plug-in" to foobar2000 to help make it mimic Winamp to certain other apps. The upshot here is that FoxyTunes now displays properly, the buttons all seem to work.... It also displays properly now in Digsby, which I'm also giving a go.

Haven't decided if I'll keep the auto-hide whatsihoozit option enabled, but for now it's nice to be able to hit the right edge and have it pop up, rather than having to "Show buddy list" from the tray icon (which is too much damn work in my opinion). Well, that and apparently now people can nudge me via Jabber. The goat was deleted straight away, of course.

My machine BSOD'd again, which is why I gave foobar2k another go. Huh, maybe I should turn off auto-restart so I can actually see what the effin' message says? Dunno, but the crashes are always preceded by snap-crackles of sound, which is why I've been eyeing Winamp suspiciously.

I like my stripes. Just thought I'd mention that.

Maybe tomorrow I can play with absolute positioning and overflow!

I need booze. I demanded booze. Rrrrr.

I'm sitting there, minding my own damn business, and I hear... a noise. Frankly, my first thought was, "Who infected me with a random noise that sounds suspiciously like a servo speaking?" Every running process was checked, researched on Mr Internet.

My second thought was, "God damn AIM advertisements, making whacked-out sounds again!" It got closed. And then I ran another virus scan.

Then I thought, "Er, maybe it's a Flash ad that somehow got past my battery of defenses?" I scrolled open tabs like mad, looking for a culprit. Half my tabs got bookmarked and closed, just in case. (It's kind of weird having only five tabs open right now. Looks funny.)

Eventually, I stopped hearing it.

Turns out, it was Rick's phone bleating. "Halp! Mah charge is dying! Plug meeeee in!" The phone sits in a spot which makes it sound also like it's coming from my speakers, I guess.

Mystery solved. *rolls eyes*

It's been a long time since I visited the concept of personality, but people at a certain site have a tendency to put their MBTI under their names/avatars. So I checked and decided to go look at this.

Reading through it I find myself nodding a lot, snorting, and even giggling. I think it handily explains a lot of my neurosis, actually.

Some choice excerpts:

• If an INTP is pushed into doing something he will automatically resist.
• The INTP risks being seen as over-critical, aloof and arrogant.
• The preference for intuitive perception means that INTPs dislike having their lives planned. They feel a distinct unease before most fixed appointments and cannot fully relax until the scheduled event is over, or at least in progress.
• INTPs dislike making the first move and tend to mirror the emotional content of the other person.
• INTPs tend to be rather mistrusting of people and are rather skeptical.
• INTPs tend to trust machines more than they trust people and may feel particularly at home in the realm of cybernetics.

Meeheehee.

So, we went out to eat this evening. Texas Roadhouse.

The Roadhouse Grill in our immediate area went out of business, you see. And for all I know, there's no longer one in West Palm or Titusville, etc., either, and besides, it'd take too damn long to get to one of them. I mean, if I happen to be around Jupiter again I'd hit Thai Lotus, but I'd never drive there specifically just to eat.

I was kind of shocked we didn't have to wait for a table, even though the place was hopping. I know if we'd gone to Thai Thai or Olive Garden it would have been a half hour wait or more. Really... Friday night?

Sadly, unlike RG, TR does not have something on the menu called Monterey Chicken—chicken breast, BBQ sauce (slightly sweet), Jack cheese (maybe cheddar, too, or some other kind), diced tomatoes, bacon, and chives.

So yeah, I went with steak. It wasn't bad. The Caesar salad sucked, but the croutons were wonderful (I am very picky about croutons). The rib-eye was nice and was cooked properly, and the steak fries were feckin' fantastic. The yeast rolls do not compare to what I used to get at Roadhouse Grill, though.

One thing I did think was really nice was if it's your first time there (assuming you aren't fibbing), they deliver a paper bag with peanuts to take home, with a menu stapled to it, a card, and you can bring the bag back for your next visit and get a free appetizer.

The height of the evening was while discussing food, family, and how a number of people related to at least one of us think spices are evil. Chili came up, and I nailed Rick with a comment about how not everybody's tastebuds wear Hazmat suits. He was struck silent for a good twenty seconds! Haha!

Tried to install Trillian as an alternative to AIM as my client. Heh, between that and my firewall, half the applications running froze solid and I was forced to power off my machine manually. Dunno what the hell happened there.

Of course, what I'm really after is a client that will magically make it so that all I need is my AIM login, yet I could still IM people using Yahoo or MSN, without needing an account for those. Then again, who do I know on other systems? Is it even worth it?

Tried foobar2000 as an alternative to Winamp. (I suspect that Winamp is responsible for some of the unexplained BSODs I get, so I wanted to try something else, and Winamp is kind of bloated.) It's all right, but I couldn't get it to interface properly with FoxyTunes. The only control that'd work there was volume, and that's just not good enough. I'm also not sure it was properly handling replay gain, and I've spent a decent amount of time setting those values so that my tunes aren't jumping all over the damn spectrum from too soft to way too loud. Can't be bothered to investigate more deeply yet.

Yeah, so, I made a pact with Lucifer and downloaded—and installed!—IE7. I've steadfastly stuck with IE6 all this time because I'd heard such awful things about 7, and besides, I use Firefox. Well, I did it. I usually am a year or so behind changes like that, being a very untrusting soul when it comes to Microsqueeze products.

Sadly, my machine still suffers mysteriously from not loading the explorer shell on startup. I have to manually initiate the task, and it does actually look right in the registry, so I have no idea what's wrong. Well, aside from having installed RCT3 and infected myself with SecuROM. Rrrr. Stupid instructions I have for removal don't cover this incarnation, so I'm not sure how to get rid of it. Yet.

Did a nice thing the other day. I know, shocking, seeing as how I'm an anti-social, sadistic bitch. Have some tea or a drink—you'll recover soon enough.

Started editing Forsaken. Again. But this time I'm replacing the chapter copies at the Pit of Despair.

Glanced at my ideas file, added another bunch of notes for various stories which might see the light of day sometime this century. Had an argument with myself over Breakpoint. Par, basically.

Got through all the exercises in Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis, but not all the missions. Dunno why Site B is such a big deal, but whatever. I'll get to it eventually. Was rather peeved when I got fined for a velociraptor eating a tourist and never even got to see it happen! Rrrr. Think it's pretty stupid you have to be cheaty to get a safari tour to go through multiple enclosures. I mean really, couldn't they have added in a gate of some kind? I also think it sucks you can't import a greyscale image for island construction rather than dealing with those lousy terrain editing tools.