Wednesday, November 25, 2009

can you retroactively fix a one-time bug that's already occurred?

windows updates has me scratching my head...
Install this update to resolve issues caused by revised daylight saving time and time zone laws in several countries. This update enables your computer to automatically adjust the computer clock on the correct date in 2009. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer.
isn't it too late for this?

***
okay, okay, i know... other countries. it's just such odd timing for most windows users... our new zone law went into effect in 2007!

that, and, well... just 2009? not starting 2009?

Monday, November 23, 2009

common sense for the national anthem? yes please...

i'm not the only one...

check that...

as long as gilbert arenas is playing for the wizards, i will have a problem cheering for them.

from the washington times' mike jones
"Hidden agendas. You can't win like that," Arenas said. "I've never been on a team where you have eight free agents next year. ... I've never seen it turn out well. Sometimes it works out for the best because everybody's hungry and everybody's fighting. Sometimes it works out for the worst when everybody's out for their own.

"I guess when you start losing, everyone wants to start pointing fingers everywhere else," Arenas added. "I converted my game to try to get people involved. ... I think the only person who actually had to sacrifice was me. Everybody else can just play their game."
so... "i have no ability to make a coherent argument" and "i've got a gigantic ego," all in one go!
"I'm sitting here thinking, 'Damn, do I have to go into attack mode like I was two years ago to get us over the hump?' I hope not," Arenas said. "But like I told [Jamison], couple more games before I just say, 'Hey, I'm going to have to carry you guys on my back.'

"The NBA's a ship. It's going to keep moving. Teams are not waiting for us," Arenas continued. "As the captain, I've got to steer my ship. If I've got to steer it to land until everybody wants to jump on, then I'm going to do it. [Dwyane] Wade had to do it last year [in Miami] until everybody was ready to play; I'm going to have to do it this year. We'll see who comes and follows. [If] nobody wants to follow, then the thing's just going to keep moving."
um... same thing, but in a different order?
As Arenas said that, Haywood walked by and, calculated or not, began singing a line from the latest Beyonce song. "I got a big ego," crooned the center, who kept on moving.
yeah, haywood!

oh, and in case anybody thinks that arenas is actually a dwyane wade-esque player who has to suffer a horrible team (making his statements somewhat excusable):
Arenas has, however, remained the team leader in shots taken, averaging more than 19 a game, but his .390 shooting percentage is the worst of all the starters.
this man is going to carry a team on his back? he'd sooner run his ship aground.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

(what?) say does that...

baltimore is like a virus. the part of my life spent singing the national anthem at sports events was perfectly fine until terps fans visited lane stadium, and showed hokie fans how to yell "O!" during the national anthem. that reminds me: dear terapins, you are not the orioles.

of course, this caught on at lane stadium, and i'm pretty sure half the people don't even understand what it means (which is not to say that nobody knows what it means--i'm sure there are hokie fans who also happen to be orioles fans). overly-excited college students? check.

but even if you understand why you're doing it, it just seems disrespectful. the patriotism aspect aside (and i'd really only bring that up in terms of hypocrisy--some people who yell might also get angry at, say, flag issues), i don't go to redskins games and cheer for the hokies (okay, i don't go to redskins games period, but if i were to go to a redskins game, i would not cheer for the hokies. or the caps. or the lakers. or the pistons. point clear?), so why is it okay for you to show your oriole-ism (or baltimore-ism) at a non-oriole, non-baltimore game?

i'm okay with the yelling of the "oh" at camden yards. it's what they do there. i'm not going to say that i like it, but i'm okay with it. similarly, i'm against yelling "oh" at the verizon center, but yelling "red" at a caps game might be acceptable. i won't do it, but i'm not going to call you a dumbass if you do.

***

speaking of which, why is the word "red" in our national anthem, anyway? shouldn't mccarthy have done something about that?

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

the wave...

some people miss the wave. i've had a problem with the wave for a long, long time. in all sports.

if you try to do it during intermission or halftime, there aren't enough butts in the seats. that means that you need to do it during the game.

if you try to start the wave during a tv timeout, i *may* join you. it will depend on my mood.

however, if you try to start the wave during play, i *may* eat you. it will depend on my mood.

a post not about hockey...

after watching last night's game, matt and i left the post-game report on while we cleaned up the dining room and the kitchen. at some point, matt yelled "bradley!"

i ran into the dining room just in time to miss a short replay of what was the best fight i've seen all season.

to make it up to myself (or perhaps because i had a hard time not walking away), i stayed to watch the rest of the highlights. once again, i saw bradley's game-winning-goal, and once again the celebration that followed showed a beat-up and bloodied face.

i began babbling about how bradley was one of my favorite players, how i couldn't explain it, how...

"stop it. you're going to cry."

"but his face is all fucked up!" i may or may not have started crying at that point.

i've seen brads with his face fucked up before. hell, earlier that game, i saw his face covered in blood. there was just something odd about his face all stitched up and red. swollen and bruised, i could handle. covered in blood? apparently yes. celebrating with a previously bloodied face? gut-wrenching.

***

in case anybody is wondering... yes, i still hold a grudge against david stern and joe dumars (for separate reasons, in case that's not clear). i do miss basketball, though. the main thing standing between me and watching basketball is that i mostly want to watch western conference games, and i'm now old.

now, for those of you who are used to hockey, where, for some reason, detroit, and columbus are in the western conference, i'm talking about a sport where the western conference has no teams in the eastern time zone. (in case you didn't get that, it means that detroit and columbus are western conference teams living on eastern standard time. wrap your head around *that*)

games on the west coast tend to start at 7pm plus or minus half an hour. for me, that means 9:30 to 10:30. hell, i was in bed before 10 last night. (no, that's not normal... but it's true, so i'm using it to help my case. i'm allowed to do that. i think.)

while i'm still mad a joe dumars, i may start following the pistons again. big ben wallace is back. rip and tayshaun are still there. rodney stuckey looks like 50 cent (say it with me: "fiddy). maybe.

speaking of the old pistons team, flip saunders is here now, coaching the wizards. i feel bad for him... on some level, i think i'd be happy if he managed to coach the wizards WAY past the pistons, so people like me can watch karma mangle joe dumars. i'd even be a bandwagon fan of the wizards, kinda.

what i'm concerned about is that the only wizards jersey i own has a big fat 0 on it. the only reason i own this jersey is because it's a $5 kids' jersey (you think i'm kidding...), and apparently kohl's only carries kids' jerseys in agent fucking zero. i really hate that guy. give me a 3 or a 4. oh, or a 12, because, really, how hilarious would it be if i wore the shortest guy's jersey?

***

brads, caps my ride: "i've got this car sitting on fifteens. stock." deadpan.

oh, yeah... that made fun of the rangers...

***

oh, and the wizards suck.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

a few thoughts...

if you're using your toilet time to "rest your eyes," you should probably be sleeping more.

it's finally happened. someone added water to the softsoap "ultra rich shea butter" handsoap. it makes me sad, because that means it's almost gone. i love this soap, even though it smells like "mature woman" perfume, and makes me smell like i'm wearing said perfume. it's non-antibacterial, and the shea butter appreciably works. i'll miss it.

i miss the nba. i miss being able to get into a game and not hate david stern. i miss liking the pistons, and not having to hate the pistons organization. i miss the old pistons team, actually. wallace and wallace (and associates) are no more.

i shouldn't read my own blog. it makes me so, so happy to remember some of these things, but it also makes me wistfully nostalgic sometimes.

i'm now painfully aware that i traded a league for a team, which makes me somewhat lost all the time. how are you supposed to know what's going on if you don't know your opponent? HOW DID MY BRAIN FIT ALL THAT INFORMATION BEFORE?

it's all very perplexing.

to be understood...

... and to share everything.
me: me: not your fault
wait, what am i saying? TOTALLY YOUR FAULT.
may you burn in hell, amen
Joseph: ...
you're the biggest bitch in the whole wide world
me: =D
Joseph: there's a song about you
from southpark
Matthew: wow
me: wow to what?
Matthew: people burning in hell
me: imagine it said serenely
like any other prayer
but said quickly
to cover the moral depravity
Matthew: ah
me: better?
Matthew: yes

i don't even know what to say here that won't make people want to punch me in the face.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

it's always something...

the first time i upgraded my phone (motorola t730 to motorola v325), i gave up ring profiles and the ability to change ring profiles with the phone closed. i gained sturdier construction, ring lights, a camera, and a better screen.

the second time i upgraded my phone (motorola v325 to motorola w385), i gave up the ring lights and the ability to read the clock on the front screen like a normal person (hinge up). i gained even sturdier construction and a sleeker design. this was probably my best upgrade (because i didn't lose anything i ultimately cared about, though i didn't know that at the time), but i was still unsure of it for a while. that's how i am. i second-guess myself.

this would be the third time i've upgraded my phone (motorola w385 to motorola entice). i gave up aesthetics (it's newly-released, but it looks like it came out as a cheap phone 5 years ago) and some solid-ness (the phone feels a bit hollow, and has a bit too much weight in the top half). most importantly, i gave up my coveted monochrome screen. this hurts, almost physically. i do not like not being able to glance at my phone, without touching it, and read the time. i feel like i should not have to *turn on* the screen to see what's going on.

what i gain is possibly the best so far: threaded sms (the ability to sort your messages by contact, instead of by incoming/outgoing). because of the nature of my communications and the people with whom i communicate, i txt more often than i call, so this is a more important update than visual voice mail (which i do not have). i do not like having to wade through my outbox to figure out what someone's reply means because the reply didn't come right after i sent the question. this is significant.

i also get the ability to switch from ring to vibe with the phone closed, but i don't really like this ability because it has an annoying habit of putting my ringer to medium high when i tell it to switch off vibe, even though it was on medium low when i switched it *to* vibe. by the time i realize this, it's because the phone has made a noise, and i have to figure out how to shove my stomach back into my torso through my mouth. not happy. medium high seems to be the default, and i can't find a place to let me change this.

with all this said, i do believe i'm going to hold onto this phone. i will mourn the loss of my friendly monochrome front screen, but hopefully not for too long. i'm probably being overly dramatic about this, but i really do hope that handset manufacturers move back towards using monochrome front screens (even though they're pretty much moving away from dual screens in general).

i read a review on the samsung knack (verizon's answer to the jitterbug, it seems -- definitely marketed as the simple phone for old people. yes, i considered this phone.) that complained the monochrome couldn't *possibly* be easier to read than a *color* screen--isn't color easier to read? i have no idea where people get these things, but i think it hurts my ability to get what *works* in the open marketplace. newer is not always better... but if someone could produce a backlight-able color epaper front screen, i'd be all over it. i'll be waiting.

Monday, November 09, 2009

venus and mars?

today, i found out that both matt and i are somewhat upset that we are genetically unable to produce blue-eyed babies (well... he and i together. he's perfectly capable. i am not). i've been upset since sometime in my childhood while watching pbs and learning about blue and brown eyes and dominant and recessive genes. perhaps it was punnett squares in biology class freshman year of high school, but, honestly, i'm pretty sure i knew it sometime during elementary school.

anyway, the interesting part about this whole thing is that i'm upset because blue-eyed babies are just so darn cute (though i suppose with a blue-eyed caucasian father, our children could possibly be blue-eyed infants... doubtful, considering my own nearly-black irises, but one can hope), and they photograph so well. the blue eyes, that is.

matt, on the other hand... matt's upset because "only blue-eyed people are capable of being good at hockey." i showed him a picture of a blue-eyed from a blog i read, and his immediate reaction was "foppa!"

it's okay... if our children marry blue-eyed spouses, we have a 50-50 chance of blue-eyed grandchildren. or if they marry other carriers, 25%. of course, it's not actually that simple... i'd just like to think that one day, i will hold blue-eyed babies. matt would like to create an nhl player.

and on the topic of me stealing one... "i don't want you to go to jail. then i'd be lonely. i don't want to be lonely." i guess i'm *not* gonna grab and run with the next adorable baby i see...

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

upset...

... that the public restroom no longer has almond-scented soap in the dispensers.

now it's got soap that smells like soap and a paper towel dispenser that's perpetually improperly loaded (note: that is *not* a tensioning arm for the main roll; it's the switching mechanism that feeds the main roll once the remnants of the previous roll is used up. the instructions are in pictures. pictures.), though it doesn't always smell like hairspray when i wander my way back there anymore. oh, and i feel like i could get kidnapped into one of our neighboring offices, and nobody would know (except for being able to hear me scream through the drop ceiling).

but really, that almond-scented soap was the highlight of many restroom experiences for me.