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May 6th, 2008
10:35 am - Bachelorhood Revisited!
Today, I drive ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) swan_tower to the airport. She's off to London for a week, after which she'll be meeting up with me in Rome, where we'll be doing the tourist thing for four days before going on a cruise to Athens, Delos, and Istanbul for another ten days. ...but while she's off in London, I'll be around and about, doing the bachelor thing again before I take off for Europe.
Drop me a line if you're free, in Indiana, and bored as well. :)
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May 5th, 2008
12:39 pm - Three Things
- Voted early! Woo! Yay, civic duty.
- Happy Cinco de Mayo, folks! Drink at least vaguely responsibly.
- Also, new (free!) Nine Inch Nails release. Go get it!
That's all for now.
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May 1st, 2008
11:24 pm - He was turned to steel / In the great magnetic field
I'm just coming up for air to say that Iron Man may very well be the best superhero movie ever made. It's up there with Batman Begins in my book, though that may be the sleep deprivation talking.
( Slight spoilery bit... )
I really don't know what else to say. I'm in awe. Robert Downey Jr. is Tony Stark.
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April 25th, 2008
12:32 pm - Employed Again! ...Or Rather, Soon...
Today, I officially accepted an offer to start working for Akamai Technologies again, this time in San Mateo, California, starting June 16th. I'll be a Senior Network Operations Engineer, which is a step up from my previous Akamai position. This means that, while I'm still looking for work in the (very) short-term, I've got a new job on the horizon. ...on the west coast.
Phew. That's more or less over with. Now just the worrying about moving to California. :)
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April 3rd, 2008
07:47 am - Unemployed Again
As of this morning, my erstwhile employer filed Chapter 11. I am thus out of work. No, I don't really have more information than that quite yet. Likely, I'll be diving into a rather frenetic job search process now.
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February 19th, 2008
11:00 am - HD-DVD Is Dead
Toshiba pulls out of HD-DVD, which means that Blu-Ray is the winner, and HD-DVD is going to continue to wither and die.
At least we've settled on a format, even if both of the formats were kind of evil. Then again, I'm not a fan of DRM in general. (Suprise!)
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07:57 am - Castro, Musharraf, and Historical Fiction
So, Castro is stepping down as Cuba's president. Musharraf's party suffers a massive defeat at the polls, implying that he might go soon, as well. At roughly the same time, at the demand request of my lovely wife, I've been told to decided to blog my progress through Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles, which various people I trust claim to be the best historical fiction out there.
Consequently, if anyone wants to read my reactions to the series, they should reply here, and I'll add them to the filter.
...and this has nothing to do with Fidel or Pervez, really. I just wanted to note that in my blog somehow.
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07:55 am - [Indiana] One Small Step for Sanity...
Gay-marriage ban fails in Indiana, but only because it's already against the law. This was an attempt to put it in the state constitution, as well.
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February 16th, 2008
07:57 pm - Ludicrously Cute Game
Die Anstalt is a German Flash game that will eat a good hour or two of your time. The English translation is a little bad, but it is quite addictive and fun. ...and surprisingly good for getting me into "psychoanalysis head."
The premise: Stuffed animals are tortured by their owners as part of their day-to-day existence. The normal stuffed animal shrink has been called away for some reason to Japan. You are the guy filling in. Fix some stuffed animals.
Oh yeah. You can also buy these animals. I've been tempted.
Thanks to hakamadare for the link via del.icio.us.
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February 5th, 2008
09:42 pm - [Indiana] TMBG at the Bluebird
For those who are interested, They Might Be Giants are playing the Bluebird in Bloomington, Indiana, at 9pm on Thursday, February 28th.
swan_tower and I have tickets. Hopefully, we'll see you there.
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January 11th, 2008
12:04 am - Eulogy for Valeska Niedzwiecki
My journal has been a bit morbid of late, but I am having a hard time avoiding that at the moment. I'll try to make my next one a bit cheerier. That said, I found out yesterday that I was the only member of my family who felt quite able to say anything at her funeral service, so I sat down and wrote something. The first draft (with a few copyedits) was precisely what I ended up saying this morning at the funeral.
( For those interested, this is what I said.... )
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January 7th, 2008
12:59 pm - Family Stories
My grandmother's passing (and notices of such going up on sites like this) got me to thinking a great deal about stories that she told ... and those that have been told about her.
( Somewhat rambling thoughts behind the cut... )
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January 5th, 2008
11:14 am - R. I. P. Valeska Niedzwiecki
Last night, at about 3am, my grandmother passed away. She would have been one hundred years old in April.
When I hear the word "matriarch," I invariably think of her. With her no-nonsense attitude and perpetual sense of humor, she kept her corner of the Niedzwiecki clan together, not with a stern word and an iron fist, but with a chuckle and a well-aimed witticism. She was sharp up until the very end, doing what she wanted how she wanted to do it. We should all be so lucky to live a life as full as hers on our own terms.
Rest in peace, Machute. You will be missed terribly.
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December 25th, 2007
11:13 am - Happy Yulchrisuhakwanzolstice!
...or in my case, just the Christmas bit. Either way, it's an excuse to use my new Max icon and spread a little cheer, Chuck-Jones-style.
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December 18th, 2007
09:44 am - A Spooky Yuletide
I've been sort of AWOL on this journal. Apologies. In partial reparation, I offer a choice few oddball tidbits. First off, those of you who still want to send out Christmas cards may want to take a look at some of the cards that Edward Gorey drew whilst he was still alive. A few years ago, I sent out one of his more understated cards, which was a sorrowful-looking man staring at "NOEL," which was written in the surf on the beach.
For those looking for even more speculative horror this holiday season, I recommend looking at the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society's A Very Scary Solstice, which are various carols sung with alternate lyrics (such as "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Fish-Men").
Somewhat less holiday-related, save that Dr. Who is still on my mind, I point you to a very real photo of Brits during WWII, which recalls a very particular ninth Doctor episode. Alternatively, those who don't want to click links to elsewhere can simply ( click behind the lj-cut )
That's it for me for now. Happy holidays!
EDIT: I forgot to also link to the significantly less-spooky but significantly more holiday-themed pictures for an ice hotel in Sweden that I found while browsing the web about a month ago. Kind of real-life meets Die Another Day sort of getaway.
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December 12th, 2007
12:56 am - Inexplicable Words
My newly purchased belt has the following stamped on its back:Full grain Italian Leather back to back hand made in Ancient China Ancient China, eh? Amazing, since I paid about $30 for this belt. I'd expect it to be at least in the quadruple digits, based on that.
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November 18th, 2007
12:28 pm - Mid-November in Texas
So ... the last month has been a rather jam-packed one. A brief update on what I'm doing and where I'm doing it seems in order.
This last week, I've been at the Large Installation System Administration Conference (LISA) in Dallas. I loaded up on tutorials, focusing on Solaris 10 administration and performance tuning, Cfengine, shell scripting practices, and OpenLDAP. By the end of the week, my brain was pouring out my ears, as these classes are very much akin to drinking from an informational firehose. While at the conference, I reintroduced myself to a few people, got to know a large number of very interesting folk, joined the League of Professional Systems Administrators (LOPSA), and got far too little sleep. The vendors also gave me nifty toys, including bar towels from Google, a half dozen T-shirts, a rubik's cube, two bags, and a handful of nick-knacks. All in all, a definite win.
In order to save on lodgings, I stayed with my in-laws, who live only about a half hour away on the DART, and my boss said that it would be acceptable to VPN in to work remotely the first few days of this coming week. Consequently, since my lovely wife and I were intending to spend Thanksgiving with her family, I arrived in Dallas on the 10th, to return to Indiana on the 25th. Apologies to those who weren't aware and had hoped to do something with me during that time.
After a lazy Saturday and a (perhaps excessively) brisk workout this morning, I'm feeling far more human. The conference had started to wear on me, and I hadn't even been drinking that much with the LOPSA folks. ...not that this was any fault of theirs; they made every effort to make it easy for me to do so.
I've also had some stressors of late; good friends of mine have had some really rough times, and there has been some drama surrounding my grandmother being put in a nursing home. ...but I've got my heath, a pretty good job, and a lovely and talented wife. Overall, I really can't complain.
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October 29th, 2007
12:46 am - Mandatory Post
I'm a Boston boy, born and bred, and I've had spells of cheering on the Bruins, the Celtics, and the Pats (remember "Squish the Fish?"), but my heart has always been and always will be with the Red Sox.
For the second time in four years, they have come from a significant deficit in the American League series and gotten to the World Series. For the second time in four years, they have swept the World Series.
Rock on.
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October 26th, 2007
02:09 pm - Upcoming Releases
First off, Saul Williams is releasing his next album electronically in non-encumbered mp3 and FLAC formats. You can sign up for the 192 kbps mp3 downloads for nothing. Alternatively, you can get 320 kbps or FLAC files after chipping in $5 for a really phenomenal artist. The album, by the by, is produced by Trent Reznor, and this stuff all goes live on November 1.
Secondly, Guitar Hero III comes out Sunday. Expect me to spend at least some of Sunday rocking out. Setlist can be found here, and it's really, really solid.
Capsule review of Radiohead's In Rainbows: Really solid album. Not their best, but on a level with Hail to the Thief. Then again, since their best was OK Computer, "not their best" is unsurprising and still really, really, really good.
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October 25th, 2007
12:55 pm - Free Tacos and Baseball
This will surprise no one, but I am keenly following the World Series, given that my beloved Red Sox are battling with the Rockies for the second world championship title in three years (or eighty-eight years, depending on your perspective). Last night's game was really encouraging, as I hadn't expected the Sox to have the difficulties that they did with the Indians. Apparently, they just don't like winning the World Series without coming from behind in the league championship series? ...or perhaps a week-long break doesn't do a team good when they've been on a winning tear the way that the Rockies have been.
Either way, the tension was sufficiently gone by the fifth inning that my friend Chase reported that the Fox announcers were debating if America will get a free taco. Paraphrasing him, if the announcers are talking about free tacos during a World Series game, it's gotten pretty brutal.
Also paraphrasing him, this now has me wanting a taco.
For those in the Bloomington area, I'm likely to be watching the rest of the games. Comment here if you'd be interested in doing so with me. I'm thinking Crazy Horse, but I might just break down and invite folks over to watch the game on our TV. Watch this space for more details.
In other news, I'm not dead, and I should be posting more soon. Hopefully.
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