Oct 29 2002 0 comments

There must be a loose connection in my comptuer somewhere, or a messed up driver, because my CDROM started opening spontaneously yesterday. It went away, so I ignored it, but this morning the quirkiness came back.

I call our company's internal tech support to report my self-directing CDROM.

"Help Desk, this is Kristie!"

"Hi, Kristie. This Derek over at Lincoln. I'd like to report a possessed CD-ROM."

"Well, it IS almost Halloween!"

Kristie is the greatest help-desk operator EVER.

Oct 29 2002 0 comments

10/29/2002 Pop Music

Clear Channel moved in a year or so ago and shook up the radio market. In the snowglobe of our North Dakota broadcasting area, an 80s/90s station appeared in the blizzard.

I forget to listen to it, because it's on a frequency that used to belong to a country station. Today, a coworker stopped at my desk and we mused on the local stations. She mentioned it so I reached over to my radio and flipped over on the dial.

Mostly innocuous, stuff that's been on the radio in the Top 40 rotations as the "old song people still like," but then a song came on I hadn't heard in a while: Tesla's Love Song. Continue reading…

Oct 21 2002 1 comment

You know those round trays which rest underneath your electric ranges' coils to collect the drippings and droppings?

There's one stuck in the junction between two branches of a tree at the corner of 15th Avenue and South University Drive.

Oct 18 2002 3 comments

New strategy for life:

I'm not sure why, but at some point I started going to the grocery store once or twice a month, loading up with $80 in stuff to last a couple weeks. I think it coincided with Food-Stamp-Arrival, something I dealt with long ago in poorer times.

Three weeks ago I decided on a return to another style, one more akin to European living.

Every day, after I pick up Des from daycare, we go to the grocery store and buy dinner.

I'm not talking about picking up a frozen pizza or microwave hamburgers -- we buy raw meat, fresh veggies, potatoes still coated in dirt, and whatever else we feel like. Somedays it's just Macaroni & Cheese, others it's bratwurst and new potatoes, but it's all bought within an hour or two of being eaten.

The first thing I noticed is that we actually eat earlier now, despite getting home later. When confronted with the "what's in the freezer?" challenge, we'd postpone eating until the last minute. Now, we start cooking as soon as we can unpack the grocery bags.

Second, the more obvious one, is that we eat much healthier. With the entire resources of the grocery store at our hands, without worries of "will this last in the fridge until I can use it?", we can pick a more rounded meal.

Third, I haven't had the opportunity to add things up, but it's cheaper and there's less waste. A bag of carrots is a couple bucks, and most will go bad before used up. One carrot at $1.99 a pound is only a couple cents. The most we've spent on a meal is maybe $3 or $4, and while it's hard to estimate the per-meal cost of a box of instant potatoes, we're much more satisfied by a couple cents' worth of fresh spuds. It helps in budgeting, too:
food stops being a major monthly expense, akin to the electric bill, and becomes a couple bucks here and there.

Finally, Destiny is really getting into it. I've impressed the importance of vegetables and regular meals since she was tiny, but now she's really starting to understand the origins of food. There's also more she can help in preparation; she's quite talented with the peeler. Destiny looks forward to dinner, rather than seeing the call to the table as an interruption.

Oct 15 2002 0 comments

I've been helping a friend add a DVD-RW to her computer, giving directions over the phone. Even though the drive works now, she ended up with one objection:

"All these terms, plugging male into the female, and with the jumpers for slave and master -- you techy people are SICK!"

Oct 14 2002 0 comments

Daily Condition:

in cd player: jesus jones, doubt

my condition: stayed up way too late last night learning how to make Flash animations.

Oct 11 2002 1 comment

This morning I attended a continuing education course for my insurance license. The North Dakota Insurance Commissioner, Jim Poolman, opened the seminar with a long speech.

Seriously, this is how he adlibbed the end of his presentation, before introducing the next speaker:

"Good questions, thanks. Are there any other questions?"

"Any questions?"

"Anyone?"

"...Bueller?"

Oct 8 2002 4 comments

There are people out on the internet searching for my name. It's pretty common, especially when a receipt turns up with my name on it. People get curious, digging to find more about me.

So, of course, I'm curious to see what people are finding. I don't have the time to dig through every search engine, but when I get a hit from my name it's reasonable to trace it backwards once in a while.

I discover things sometimes, people talking about me without linking to my website. Through a search that brought someone to my webring, today I found a blog which linked to the Mirror Project pic of my reflection inside a hard drive.

I really appreciate these whispers, just as much as full-page articles in foreign newspapers. It is always satisfying when someone responds, either verbally or symbolically, with "I like what you've done."

Oct 5 2002 0 comments

A note is pinned above our apartment mailboxes. In Sharpie black on spiral-bound notebook paper, it reads:

"RETURN THE PROPERTY YOU STOLE OR THE NEXT PERSON AT YOUR DOOR WILL BE THE COPS"

Below it, in blue ballpoint and a different hand, reads:

"WHOEVER PUT THIS ON #205 DOOR PLEASE LET ME KNOW SO WE CAN BOTH TALK TO THE POLICE"

My only mail today is a promotional offer for a server. As I turn down the hall, returning to my apartment, I notice how lemony fresh the corridor smells.

Oct 4 2002 1 comment

carp.nl has this to say about I Am...:

Zomaar een gevoelsuitdrukking: 'I am bored'. Vanuit de kennelijke overtuiging dat mensen dergelijke uitingen digitaal kwijt willen, heeft een zekere Derek de site I am... opgezet. En wonderbaarlijk genoeg reageren bezoekers ook nog. De een mijmert over zijn seksuele welbevinden, de ander filosofeert over hoe het zou zijn als vlinder in een menselijk lichaam. Verveling voedt, zo blijkt, de creativiteit.

A basic translation from Intertran reports this:

Zomaar one gevoelsuitdrukking : 'I am bored.' From the recognizable conviction who persons the like utterance digital lost wish , has one sure Derek the site I am. swollen And wonderful sufficiently respond visitors too yet. The one muser via one's sexual well-being , the other philosophize via the the would be one's when butterfly within one humane body. Tedium nourish , thus appears to , the creativity.

If anyone can come up with a better translation, please do, but I think the last sentence sums up an interesting point about my online works: tedium appears to nourish the creativity.

Oct 3 2002 0 comments

Officially the funniest joke in the world:

Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn't seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed. The other guy whips out his cellphone and calls the emergency services. He gasps: "My friend is dead! What can I do?" The operator says: "Calm down, I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead."

There is a silence, then a shot is heard. Back on the phone, the guy says: "OK, now what?"

HAAAAAHAHAHHAAAAAAA! Hilarious! The study, however, does say that this had the best general response. There are lots of jokes that you, specifically, might find more funny than this. So, from an analytical standpoint, the joke above is the best mediocre joke ever.

Oct 1 2002 0 comments

Daily Condition:

in cd player: Fight Club soundtrack by the Dust Brothers

my condition: Cool enough to be very, very profitable lately. Stupid enough to overdraft my business checking account by $3.