Author Archives: ZealotOnAStick

Stuff of the Day

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Update:  So, what do I post for an update.  Weekend.  Weekend was the least active one I’ve had in a couple of months.  I stayed at home.  Pretty much all weekend, except for a short trip to Wal-mart Friday evening with Ivy, so I could grab a couple of things (primarily, more cereal.  Apparently, I’ve -really- missed raisin bran more than I knew).  Otherwise, I stayed in all weekend, slept a lot to catch up on not having enough for a while (I slept in WAY late on Saturday), watched a lot of Top Gear (all of Season 1 and a couple of episodes of Season 2), and drank some wine.  I’m pretty much out of Bota Shiraz now.  I -might- be able to get another half-glass or so out of it.  I didn’t really clean much – I did some dishes, tidied up the kitchen a little, but didn’t do much beyond that.  I really need to vacuum, still haven’t done that.

Was I moping?  Maybe I was just being practical, given that my car is sitting in the shop, with still no prognosis (I’m giving Littlefield until 3ish, and if they haven’t called me by then – which they won’t, of course – I’ll call them for a status update), and I needed some sleep and me time.  I had offers for companionship, which I rejected.  Some of it, genuinely because I didn’t really want anyone to intrude (oh, and Saturday, my left shoulder was sore and aching horribly) on my solo veg time.  Some of it, maybe . . . because I just didn’t really think that being with someone else I didn’t really want to be with when the person I wanted to be with was off with someone else for the weekend would make me feel any better.

Some friends had a poker game Saturday night that I’d have really liked to be able to go to, but I lacked transportation, and they couldn’t find anyone willing to give me a ride to and from their place.  Understandable, I guess, but I really would have liked to have been there.  I could have used the companionship and fun.  Does that seem to be a contradiction of the other offers of companionship I mentioned above?  All I can say is, they’re different sorts of things, really.

I’ve already had a couple of texts from one woman hinting that she wants to do something with me tonight.  I haven’t figured out yet how I’m going to decline.

Link of the Day: Jeremy Clarkson Sound Box video

Spam of the Day: “LUKY JUNE ONLINE CASINO PROMO”

Funny of the Day: “How’s the Magma?”

Pic of the Day: Kermit the Frog + Internet Horror

Quote of the Day: “(757): Shark Week may as well be Shark Weed.” – another gem from TFLN

Stuff of the Day: Lake Drive Edition

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Update: This update is late.  A week and a day late, in fact.  I originally intended to post it last Thursday afternoon, after I had started having a fucking terrible day about 2 minutes after I stepped out of the door of my apartment in the morning to head to work.  Last week, things were really busy at work, quite hectic, as we were preparing for the software launch of our new version at work to our sister company (the Home Health Therapy company).  This week has been really busy too, and today is the first time I’ve had spare time enough at work this week to actually write something.  I have this spare time, because this morning, James “pulled the plug” and pushed the release back another 2 weeks.  This probably makes for a better product on launch, and a more prepared, relaxed launch . . . but it kind of bites, because I thought my weekend was mostly figured out: I was working.  For however long it took to get everything done.  Yay Overtime pay.  Now, I’ve got an entirely open weekend, with no money (not -technically- true, I’ve got like $8 left in checking after rent), and no transportation.

No transpo?  Yeah, getting back to the terrible fucking Thursday last week . . . It rained Wednesday night/Thursday morning.  Lots and lots of rain.  Here’s an example of what I’m talking about:

[singlepic id=37 w=320 h=240 float=center]

That’s the sort of open field that dips down a little across from my apartment complex, and behind a host of businesses right along on the Loop 250 service road.  It stretches from this paved alley behind them that runs from Midkiff to my apartment complex, up to Caldera.  It was basically a humongous pond, or a shallow lake.  Unfortunately, so was a good stretch of Caldera.  I stepped out of my apartment that morning, greeted by this continuing rain, water all over the parking lot, in a rush to try to make it to work and Not end up a couple of minutes late.  I hopped into my trusty (so I thought) car, and drove across the parking lot, and saw Caldera underwater.  Hmm.

Keep in mind, this was right at pretty much 8:00 a.m., I hadn’t had been awake very long yet, and what little caffeine I had in me thus far had not kicked in yet.  I’m not fond of mornings at the best of times, unless I approach them from the “still awake from being up all night” angle.  This is the only defense I can make for the terrible decisions I made.

I decided I’d try to make it across a bit of Caldera to Crista Lane on my way to work.  This was a bad decision.  The water was really quite a bit deeper than I thought it was initially.  This is something I discovered as I was trying to begin my turn towards Crista Lane on Caldera, as my car’s engine sputtered and died.  Then, being sleepy and stupid and panicked, I tried to restart it.  Only afterwards, reading on the web, did I realize just how terrible of a thing that potentially is.

A City of Midland Transportation Services truck happened to come driving by (though the water – that truck has ground clearance of about up to my windows) right as I was getting stuck.  They radioed for for someone to come get me out.  A couple of police cars, an ambulance, and a fire truck all showed up, with a wrecker supposedly on the way.  Two firemen got out of their truck, put on waders, and pushed my car out of the water up onto Crista Lane – so the tow truck ended up being unnecessary.  Later that morning, Corey pointed out a bit on the CBS7 web site about a water rescue being reported in Midland “near Loop 250 and Midkiff.”  That was probably the host of vehicles with various sorts of flashing lights that showed up for me.

While I was waiting, in the water, I took a couple of pictures.  This one, when, hrm, I felt something wet on my ankle:

[singlepic id=38 w=320 h=240 float=center]

Water was coming up from under the car, through whatever various holes or crevices or whatnot, and filling my floorboards.  It got to being a couple of inches in each of them.  Not fun at all.

Here’s a view from my car while I was stuck in the effing water:

[singlepic id=39 w=320 h=240 float=center]

Tried to do what things I could Thursday afternoon after work, Friday after work, and then Saturday, to get my car driving.  No luck.  Sunday, Kara and Matt came over, and we pushed my car back to my apartment complex, parked right downstairs.  It doesn’t start, and the electrical system is haywire.  I reached out to my dad for help, having no other real alternatives.  Finally got my car towed on a car carrier to Littlefield Automotive Wednesday during lunch.  Haven’t heard anything from them yet, going to call in a bit and see what, if any news, they’ve got for me yet.

I’ve been really severely stressed most of this week and last weekend.  Stressed about my car, about everything going on at work right now in crunch time (well, until this morning anyway), stressed about money being entirely too tight until my next payday.  Having a non-functional vehicle, and that adding unknown added costs to repair it (or possibly end up getting a cheap used vehicle if repair on it is too costly to be considered feasible) and having to work something out with my dad, probably on a payment plan basis, just added heaps of stress for me.  Some of that is why I haven’t posted a damn thing on this site until today.  It was just something that so seriously wasn’t anything of a priority for me.

So, yeah, that’s a bit to catch things up.  All I really feel like writing about it for now anyway.  Linkage commences:

Link of the Day: SDCC 2009 Hot Cosplay Chicks

Spam of the Day: “Time For a New Copier?” – from, of course, Copier King

Funny of the Day: “Try and spell shield that“

Pic of the Day: Interesting Top

Quote of the Day: “(760): I wish they had nachos that got you drunk” – another gem from TFLN

Stuff of the Day

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Update: Work was ok yesterday.  Never did get a call back from Bounce Energy.  Haven’t checked my account today.

Air Conditioner at my apartment was messed with again (by request) Wednesday.  Whatever they did, it’s worse now.  Going to call them again, explain that I don’t consider my AC running for 4 hours solid and the temperature moving down 1 degree, or UP 2 degrees, to be acceptable.

Had lunch at the CAF yesterday with Kara, finishing off our leftovers from Carino’s.  Was yummy.  Also had a couple of Oatmeal Raisin cookies, that despite being a little hard from being a week or so old, were quite good.

After work, which I stayed a bit more than an hour late for, after killing some time at home, took Kara up on a much needed invite to go over to her and Matt’s apartment and watched the new movie version of Hairspray.  Fun movie, nice company, and working AC.

Link of the Day: Bluntcard.com

Spam of the Day: “Order the murder”

Funny of the Day: Could be worse.

Pic of the Day: Levar Burton’s license plate

Quote of the Day: “When you get spiders on your weiner, you’re fucked.” – Name withheld by request.

Stuff of the Day

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Update: Went home after work yesterday, and took an evening of very easy rest, aided by 2 beers.  Tried Shiner Light . . . it was OK.  Stronger taste than most light beers, and a little, to me, unusually yeasty.  Not BAD, but I’d still prefer Shiner’s Bock or Black Lager to it by quite a bit going by sheer taste.  Also tried the Shiner Hefeweizen.  Interesting beer, probably the best Hefeweizen I can remember trying, also very yeasty.  Still not overly a fan of Hefeweizens overall as one of a preferred styles of beer, but I’ve certainly tasted far worse.

Got a text message this morning from Bounce Energy, informing me I had a pending disconnect on my account.  39 minutes on the phone with them again, probably all but about 5 of that on hold, talked to two different people, one of which talked to his boss and the business office.  He read some of my notes back, and said, “Unbelievable.”  I said, “Yeah, unbelieve is a word I’d use for pretty much all of my dealings with anyone there for the last 3 months.”  James piped in with, “I’ll second that.”  After a while, he informed me that he’d make sure it’d get taken care of TODAY, and that someone would call me back to let me know when it had, indeed, been taken care of.  Yeah, we’ll see.

Link of the Day: Artifice Clothing

Spam of the Day: “Scheme of J Lo’s silicon”

Funny of the Day: A Horgy.

Pic of the Day: Underwater Dreams

Quote of the Day: “The phone is vexing me today.  If it continues to vex, i’ll be tempted to hex.” – Kara

If You’re Going To Criticize Someone On Their Own Site . . .

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Hi there.  I don’t know who you are . . . because I’m not going to bother to spend the time to figure it out.  I could go check site logs, trace back IPs, do reverse lookups, etc., and get a very good idea of who it is, if I cared to.  I don’t care enough to.

If you’re going to criticize someone with snarky, sarcastic rhetorical questions, on their own web site, on a domain they’ve owned for 11 years . . . man the fuck up and register as yourself.  Don’t do it anonymously.  Anonymous sniping like that just shows you to be a small-minded chickenshit.  Congratulations, you should feel awesome about yourself, as you annoyed me (as this post proves) with your little petty commentary.  You should be enshrined in the Internet Fuckwad Hall of Fame.

Maybe if you showed some fortitude and didn’t hide behind anonymity, I’d feel the slightest bit compelled to discuss with you details that really aren’t any of your business, but which you seem to be interested in.  Since you haven’t, I have absolutely no need, or desire, to justify or explain anything at all to you.  Here’s an idea, how about you go troll celebrity self-wanking sites like Perez Hilton or something where other twits of a like mind with yourself can participate too.

Stuff of the Day

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Update: Not as zombie-like today as I’d feared.  Maybe the 5 Hour Energy shot I drank around 8:30 this morning is to credit for that.  Last night didn’t quite go to plan on several fronts.  It was enjoyable overall, though.  Spent time with Kara.  Watched Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.  It was “OK.”

So going to crash -hard- tonight.

Oh.  Ate at Carino’s last night.  I highly recommend their Chicken Parmigiana with their Romano sauce.  Also, Bellini drink = YUM.

Link of the Day: Southern China – Women are in Charge, Men have it Good.

Spam of the Day: “it’s BOGO, but Better”

Funny of the Day: Role Model.

Pic of the Day: I like.

Quote of the Day: “I’m thinking of starting a band called “Opening Band.” The confusion when we are introduced at shows will be worth it.” – Chris Gore

Stuff of the Day

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Update: Busyish day right now.  Dunno if I’ll have time really to come back and edit this later and add more details or not.  Last night, hung out with Kara and Matt, watched Order of the Phoenix and Crybaby.  Crybaby was awesome.  Midnight Half-Blood Prince showing tonight.  I expect to be a zombie tomorrow.

Link of the Day: Cats DO Control Us

Spam of the Day: “Save your marriage or relationship from ending” – The amusing part, is it’s from “Evidence Removal Services”

Funny of the Day: Probably worth a try.

Pic Video of the Day: Billy Mays’ Final TV Spot

Quote of the Day: “On the floor. Doing . . . ant things.” – Me.

Stuff of the Day

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Update: Rushing to get SoTD out.  Not much time to write stuff here right now, as I’m still working on work stuff too.  Details about this weekend maybe tomorrow.  Maybe not.

Link of the Day: Swearing Does Help.

Spam of the Day: “Mutant fish sold at Connecticut market”

Funny of the Day: WWYDF100K

Pic of the Day: Just cool pic of something damn hot.

Quote of the Day: “(706): so i decided not to tell her that her fiance is cheating since i already bought the bridesmaid dess” – Another from TFLN

Stuff of the Day

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Update: Blah.  Not lots to say here.  Work was work.  I chatted for a decent amount of time and talked on the phone for a while with womenfolks (well, just one on the phone).  Watched the 2nd and 3rd episodes of the Torchwood: Children of Earth miniseries.  Had dinner.  That’s about it.  So happy that this week is coming to an end, looking forward to my date tomorrow night.

Got paid today.  Money from that paycheck has vaporized alarmingly quickly.  Cable, Verizon, Airfare to Indy for GenCon.  Yeah, that hurt.  $346 was the best I could score, even with The Priceline Negotiator working his dubious magic (not as magical as I had been led to believe).  Having to borrow some money from my Dad for 4 weeks so I can be sure I don’t starve and so forth.  Bounce Energy STILL has my account screwed up.  Called, left two different voicemails to people there (Though I don’t know if one of the extensions actually is anyone or not), filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, and even griped on Twitter.  Someone at Bounce responded on Twitter and I emailed them about it, going with cut ‘n paste from my BBB complaint.  😉  I’ve got to budget for paying Bounce still this month, once I can find out what I actually owe them, and probably replace another wheel on my car (please god/universe/karma/luck/whatever, just be the wheel and not require the tire to be replaced now as well).

Link of the Day: Key/Keyring Combo

Spam of the Day: ” Are you looking for the Fountain of Youth?”

Funny of the Day: Lit-er-al?

Pic of the Day: Super Trooper

Quote of the Day: “Life is like a road trip. Sometimes, the road is smooth, the scenery is beautiful, and the weather crisp; other times, you break down with a flat across the road from a hillbilly with 3 teeth, playing a banjo and looking at you like a dented can of Spam out of the dollar bin at the local Piggly Wiggly.” – Kara

Stuff of the Day

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Update: After my day at work yesterday, where I sort of screwed up because I was so tired, after I left, I had two things in mind: Quick trip to HEB, and sleeps.  I went to HEB – the plan was to pick up Atkins bars, a 12 pack of soda, and the smallest, cheapest bottle of nail polish remover I could find.  I left HEB with Atkins bars, a 12 pack of Diet Cherry Dr Pepper, and a container of Breyer’s Carb Smart ice cream Vanilla Frozen Dairy Product.  No nail polish remover.  When did I realize I forgot the nail polish remover?  When I was outside, in the parking lot, in the pounding heat, leaving.  I looked back at the store, briefly considered going back in . . . and decided, “screw that.”

I went home, ate a pork loin chop and an Atkins bar, watched Attack of the Show, and crashed.  Zonked out hard.  I slept most of the evening, and most of the night, waking up a couple of times briefly.  Had some very, very weird dreams.  All I remember from any of them is being at a job interview or something, and the last thing I was asked being, “What’s the recipe for the perfect tomato soup?”  Well, not entirely true.  I remember vaguely about who my waking dream this morning when I finally got up was about – and that it must have been a nicely naughty dream.

I badly needed the sleep.  I’d been running on a sleep deficit all week, since the July 4th holiday weekend.  It was a very good weekend that I enjoyed tremendously.  I just didn’t get anywhere near adequate sleep during it.  Today is the first day of all week where I haven’t been tired all day at work.

Link of the Day: Potential for Life may be hardwired into the universe.

Spam of the Day: “Point me mistakes, please”

Funny of the Day: Me, I’m wondering what Christ Cakes would look like.

Pic of the Day: Neil Gaiman Apocalypse Balloon Mosaic (zoom in, and keep zooming)

Quote of the Day: “(630): According to my dad, my tongue ring makes people assume I give a lot of blow jobs because, as stated by him “that’s what it’s for” – another from TFLN