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November 29th, 2009
11:21 pm - So sore
I am going to be SO sore tomorrow, I can tell already.
But the move was a good time, and as far as I can tell, I didn't sustain any personal injury.
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November 27th, 2009
03:22 pm - Whoops, I nearly forgot PTIGRIS!
Leave me a comment saying "Resistance is Futile."
- I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can satisfy my curiosity
- Update your journal with the answers to the questions
- Include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions, if you want.
Now, to satisfy ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) ptigris's curiosity: ( questions and answers )
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/neko/kaokitty/happy.gif) happy
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November 24th, 2009
03:49 pm - Up!
Down! Charm and Strange! Truth and Beauty!
(I haven't heard much news yet, but no news really is good news I suppose)
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November 20th, 2009
09:37 am - Concert sunday nov 29
I wonder who would be game to join me at a Barrie concert that evening. $15 a ticket, benefitting a charity to support kids on a bad path. Mary-Florence and my H.
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November 17th, 2009
01:00 pm - Wow
Neat concept!
http://www.heavy.com/video/most-awesome-seal-ever-76368
I'm desperately amused by anthropomorphized animals, in general. But this was just icing on cake. :)
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November 16th, 2009
01:16 pm - Wanted - Recommendations: Custom furniture/woodworking
I'm trying to build a custom cabinet to hold a TV and my media equipment. It needs to fit into a narrow space, with walls that are difficult to sink anchors into so none of the options I've seen in furniture stores have worked for me. After many weeks of shopping, I have concluded I need to talk to someone who can do some custom work for me.
I have a mocked-up design (thank you Google Sketchup) and dimensions, although I'm prepared for my design to be re-evaluated based on reality and cost and probably even the basic principles of cabinetry. I know it's not going to be IKEA-cheap, because I want it to be better than IKEA-sturdy, but budget is obviously an important consideration.
Is there anyone in Toronto my fellow community-members would recommend who could handle this sort of project? (Have you had something built by them yourself? Review?) Bonus points if they have a website or a storefront with open-hours that extend outside of the standard 9-5 weekday.
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11:49 am - Gadgets!
I dreamed up the basics of the graphic version of this device while I was in Japan some half-dozen years ago. :) Good to see folks have been busy. ;)
http://videos.howstuffworks.com/discovery/32388-one-step-beyond-digital-pocket-translator-video.htm
Also, here are some frankly awe-inspiring videos of Wii-Mote-based technology goodness
http://johnnylee.net/projects/wii/
As I went down the page, they went from cool to cooler to coolest... well, ok, the middle one gave me some actual PRACTICAL ideas.
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November 13th, 2009
11:01 pm - Mare Imbrium
Who knew? ;)
Awesome. Thank you NASA for some very cool news on the Adam of my birthday. :D
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03:42 pm - Requesting people to respond to a survey
Some friends are passing me an informal research survey and requesting help soliciting responses.
(NOTE: People who are generally healthy and don't take any (or very few) prescription drugs and who don't have any other onerous health care obligations, will probably not find this survey very productive).
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=ohkDZTTlCZaYi5vHb3ozoQ_3d_3d
The survey does ask some intimate questions (about medications, conditions etc) but does not solicit any personally-identifying information. I know the survey creators, and will vouch that they aren't attempting to exploit this information in any nefarious criminal way.
Please feel free to pass this on, especially to people you know who have complicated health conditions and would be willing to help.
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November 6th, 2009
09:11 am - What makes me Happy?
A friend of mine asked me that a little while back. What makes me Happy?
The first two answers were fairly simple and platonic and after that I got kinda distracted. (Probably on account of thinking about thing number two).
The first was solving puzzles and problems. That makes me happy. Abstract is good, concrete is better, but THOSE often don't have clear-cut solutions, so I've had to learn how to break down concrete problems and back them up against their driving requirements, and find a way to solve THOSE. So Abstract puzzles and problems are both less work and usually more logical (and less about balancing various compromised needs). I think it's a huge part of why I'm drawn to video games, puzzle books, mathematics, computer program development, and the like. Puzzle solving makes me happy, gives me a rush of success and supports my confidence.
The second thing that sprang to mind was sushi. Sushi specifically has this tendency to make my really fundamentally Happy. This, you might think, has to do with having a Japanese mother. Not quite so, I'd wager... I clearly remember my first encounter with sushi. It was Harrowing. Maybe I'll tell you sometime. But in any case, today, sushi makes me Happy. Well, good sushi does.
Now I started this post because I feel the urge to continue. So...
Pleasing people makes me Happy. This is a large part of my struggles with confidence, I think. I understand that it's risky and fairly volatile to put a large stake of your happiness on the reactions of other people. It gives them all these levers that manipulate your emotions, that they can throw accidentally or with intent. I've been getting better at putting up boundaries so that the inevitable instances where there's nothing I can do to please someone, or to make things okay for them, don't send me into a spiral, and don't send me into irritating fits of trying to fix things.
Connecting with people makes me Happy. Connection is probably a fundamental driver for most people I know, in fact. Heck, I wouldn't feel like I was going out on a limb to know that connecting to people is a nearly universal human driver. So perhaps this isn't saying very much. But it's nonetheless true and good to acknowledge. Travelling from someone's outer circles of acquaintanceship down into their smaller and more intimate orbits is really delightful and rewarding. It works platonically and it works romantically, which I would guess is why affairs happen and appear to even sometimes take the participants by surprise. But if you can keep those feelings somewhat distinct, I think it poses much less of a risk.
Creating makes me Happy. Why am I not engaging in it right now? Well, I've asked myself that a lot in the last few years (my SCA scribal hiatus). And now I see that it's been crowded out by other things that make me Happy. My life is blessed with a huge cup-running-over crowd of Things That Make Me Happy. I am, inevitably, dropping some to keep room for others. So now I'm a lot less worried about the source of my writer's block. But I'd still like to make some balance there. So I'm going to keep trying to install it. Besides, this reign in the SCA, the Royals are using ribbons and wax seals. I just GOTTA get some of my work done up like that. Yay!
Thinking further, learning makes me Happy. I have a curious (if sometimes quite lazy) mind, but it does enjoy acquiring knowledge, skills, new perspectives, techniques, approaches. I went through a few years when a friend was becoming a contractor, that I really wanted to set aside time and learn from him a lot more about the skills he was picking up. I've never felt terribly handy, and I don't even really know what sorts of tools exist to get various jobs done. But it wasn't so much the need to know it, as the opportunity to expand my knowledge that drew me, I think. And here I might be stagnating a little too much also... time to study something perhaps. Or tackle a different challenge in one of my existing hobbies.
There are surely others I could list, but This seems a good start.
Current Mood: happy
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09:06 am - PAX East
Yeah, I think I'm going to make the time to go. I'm not as ENTRENCHED in the gaming community as I once was, and still not as entrenched as many of my close friends are, but I think it'd be a good time.
I'm even turning over the idea of offering to work it. I haven't really done anything like it, but I'm fairly sure it would fit my demeanor and "alignment" if you will. Diplomatic, Rational, Extroverted... Considering it.
Wonder if any of my friends are considering going.
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01:36 am - Doin' the Pigeon
Doin' the (coo coo) Pigeon!
People may smile, but I don't mind
They'll never understand the kind of fun I find...
Wow... it's Sesame Street's Birthday, so claims Google's picture just now. Wow.
One two three FOUR five six seven eight NINE ten eLEven twelve - doo dootdoo doo dootdoo doo doot doo doot doo doot doo doo ... doo doot doo doo! FORTY! :)
Heh.
So... been having a GREAT week. I'm a happy camper today. Tomorrow is bound to be a very good day too. I got a major puzzle solved at work (downside: that leaves only three more to bring me up to just "behind"), and next week H gets home! Wheeee!
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November 2nd, 2009
10:11 pm - DING.
That is all.
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October 30th, 2009
06:46 pm - I still am where the wild things are
Saw it last night and still thinking about it. How can a movie that borrows really only sets and costume and name from a source and still feel like such a success to me?
amazing and I'm still considering it.
Now out for a walk, trying to ignore the occasional smell of smoke (it's not a tumah), and formulating plans for tomorrow.
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October 29th, 2009
06:54 pm - Words, Words. Words.
http://www.kongregate.com/games/gabob/clockwords-prelude
This threatens to derail my evening cleaning binge.
Play it for me so I don't have to!!!
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October 28th, 2009
01:08 pm - Twitter
Oh dear God.
I finally think I might have a reason to set up a Twitter account. Evidently there are a few Toronto-area services that use Twitter, like the Fire department and TTC. If there are enough that might be useful, I can just barely see myself subscribing to it.
Wow. I thought I was immune.
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12:56 pm - Sorting things through
I'm sorting through some things and thinking about myself (and how well or poorly I know that man).
I had a friend with whom I lost touch for a long time talk to me about Johari Windows, and since then I've seen another friend post a link to a site that presents them.
Would you please take a few minutes and consider visiting one or both of these links and contributing to one view of my Johari (or my Nohari) windows? I'm not looking for bolstering or reassurance, I'm looking to better understand the difference between my self-image and my image, sorting out fabrication from fact.
I'm just fine with "anonymous" contributions as long as they're thoughtful and honest. I'm also OK with the critical flipside which they're calling the 'Nohari' window. I promise I'm not trying to use it to beat myself up with. Just looking for frank feedback to help me sort out the things I *TELL* myself I am, from the things I unconsciously appear to be, and thus better understand what I *AM*.
http://kevan.org/johari?name=Courtly
http://kevan.org/nohari?name=Courtly
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/neko/kaokitty/contemplative.gif) contemplative
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11:09 am - I can't help but feel that someone is missing the point
Saw this image ( http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/10/afghanistan_october_2009.html#photo35 ) on Big Picture.
What exactly does democracy mean to these people?
It just struck me as a whole heap of "we don't want democracy, we want a system where we can decide to be Islamic!"
Errr?
I do hate the way so much of global friction boils down to uncurious people getting their motivation from bad spin.
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09:01 am - Wednesday morning funny
Ok, the SITE is generally NSFW.
But the image? Hee. :) http://www.evilmilk.com/pictures/Funny_Stamp.htm
(I'll post a copy of the actual image ( behind a cut )
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October 27th, 2009
03:41 pm - Finally!
http://www.paxsite.com/
An excuse to fly Porter. ;)
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