yduras

Our usual alternate wednesday game is off tonight, as a key person has to work late. There is a boardgaming night at the Menlo Park Panera, though I've never been to one of the weeknight meetups.

Some movies open this weekend. I'm rather interested in Astro Boy and somewhat less interested in The Vampire's Assistant. Astro Boy might be worth an outing, although grandbuddha is working until midnight on Friday, so he won't be available. Large movie expeditions have largely fizzled lately anyway.

There's a proposed sushi outing planned for Saturday up in Morris Plains.

Next weekend is over booked. Aside from Halloween, there's the New York Chocolate Show, the Sugarloaf Crafts Festival, and LugosiCon. I think I'll be skipping Lugosicon, because I don't really care to go all the way up to Whippany around all the other stuff I have to do. aiskon is, though, so there'll be some scheduling around her. So far it looks like I'll take a half day on Friday and hit the chocolate show, and aiskon will head up to Whippany that evening. On Saturday, I have an afternoon thing in Manhattan, (as does ishldgetoutmore). I might suggest that ishldgetoutmore and I might want to walk to the Chocolate Show after, since it's nearby and ask ellindsey if he wants to meet us, since I know he was disappointed he could not make it on Friday. On Sunday, aiskon will head back homeward and we'll probably meet at the crafts fair noonish.

At lunch today, I saw a bottle of VenoM!!! Black Mamba! Energy! Drink!!!! Ok, the excamation points are mine, because it's a really loud bottle. Seriously, I have never seen a beverage try so hard. Near as I can tell, the brand name is Venom and the flavor is "Black Mamba". This stuff isn't any wimpy lemon-lime, or fruit punch[1]... it's ENERGY flavored!!!

Seriously. Go check the website - there's a giant freaking snake eye on the label, and then they gave the logo fangs. Seriously -- fangs!

The back reads:

When you want to stay razor sharp, with the energy to strike first and leave your mark, you need the vicious Venom of a Black Mamba.

The Venom Potency Pack has a powerful dose of taurine, glucuonolactone, L-carnitine and guarana, giving it the piercing energy that strikes back.

Man, this is so $2 worth of entertainment right here.

If I keel over from a heart attack from this stuff, I'll come back from the grave to post about it. Because that's the kind of energy kick this label promises!

[1] Well, ok, apparently "Death Adder" is fruit punch flavor, and "Killer Taipan" is mango flavored. "Black Mamba" and "Mojave Rattler" are just flat-out ENERGY!!!! though.

I'd been a little underwhelmed by the so-called IMAX screen we saw Star Trek on. I mean, yeah, it was nice being able to see every one of Kirk's pores, but it wasn't the wrap-around gihugeic experience I've had in New York.

Turns out I'm not the only one who feels that way. Check the metafilter thread for more.

Did I tweet yesterday? I did!

• 09:44 Need technobabble in a hurry? hyotynen.kapsi.fi/trekfailure/ #
• 13:53 Woo - individual blood orange sorbet - bit.ly/VK53N #
• 15:57 Hurray for Maine - uk.reuters.com/article/usTopNews/idUKTRE5455B620090506 #
• 16:55 Heh - bit.ly/3pkqs #

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We use IM at work. Since the department is not all within shout-over-cubicle-wall range, this is useful. I've been leaving my IM status while on the clock as "I am a happy worker bee. Work is a fantastic place to be!", because it's sarcastic while being acceptable at face value. I just had this conversation with the boss:

boss: Are you sure?
yduras: Sure about what?
boss: work is a fantastic place to be?
yduras: Why shouldn't work be a fantastic place to be?
boss: i dont know, work is suppost to suck
yduras: (You think I should have something *really* sarcastic as my work IM status?)
boss: hahahahaa

Really, people should not goad me into greater heights of sarcasm!

...and here's a picture of it!

This was in honor of baseball opening day.

Also, for no good reason:

AIG Corporate Security's Tips for Surviving an Angry Mob - ahh, Schadenfreude. Realistically, though, this memo is aimed at cubicle monkeys who had next to nothing to do with the fiscal impropriety that the mob is angry about. The folks who are actually responsible never get close enough to the hoi polloi to see what damage they've caused, let alone to see the anger they've roused.

Apparently, DC Comics put out a cookbook in 1981. And, boy, howdy, it's full of the crazy!

Tweets, plus annotations

• 08:46 SNOW DAY!!!! #
  aiskon had to go in to work. Me, I got to stay home and sleep in. Of course, thanks to VPN I did work, too, but I didn't have to go out in the muck.
   
• 19:03 We are going to try Brooklyn Pizza - egsbrooklynpizza.com - (They're new-ish around here) #
  Road conditions were clear enough that I didn't feel guilty about making a pizza delivery drone drive out to us. Their crust is good - thin with a little crunch, but sturdy enough to hold everything. The cheese on the 'extra cheese" pie wasn't more than I'd expect on a regular. The chicken/garlic white pizza was very good. The website's cute, but could be a little easier to read. No online ordering, though - one must use the actual phone.
   
• 22:27 Moron of the day: Retired barber... says that when television chefs recommended kosher salt in recipes, he wondered, "What the heck's the matter with Christian salt?"
  *headdesk*
    #

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I got sent flowers at work!,
originally uploaded by Kit Kendrick.

I got a call from the receptionist telling me I had something pretty waiting for me at the main desk. She told me he'd called the day before to get our address, and that he could only remember my first name. (I'm the only one here, though, so that was fine.)

Naturally, I took photographic evidence.

The attached note reads:

"Dear yduras, Thank you very much for your work on [project]. It was a long road, but I am so glad that you & I stuck to it. You did a GREAT job!! - Thank You - Customer"

This morning, on I-78, there was a horrible accident. It was so bad, that four hours later, the westbound lanes near work were pretty much impassable, and the congestion had backed up onto the Parkway. Guess what route many of my co-workers take to come into work in the morning?

I received an IM from a co-worker, K, who was stuck in the traffic. (Given the nature of the traffic, I am giving her the benefit of the doubt and assuming she was not texting while in motion.) She mentioned that she'd seen at least one other person from our office stuck in the same jam. After a while of negligible process, I asked her where she was. Having lived in the area, I was able to work out a back way to get to work from the next exit. I texted her the directions. A few minutes later I got a note that "about eight people" had followed her.

When K arrived, one of the other drivers handed her a box of Munchkins, to thank her for getting them out of the traffic jam and into work. She gave them to me, on the grounds that I was the one who sent the directions.

So, hey... donut holes.

The whole barefoot and covetous links in yesterday's twitters are related. Both shoes linked are supposed to feel like being barefoot, which is why I want to try them. Shoes amuse me as decorative items the way makeup amuses me - there's fun to be had for dressup, but without it generally more comfortable. I used to go barefoot in college pretty much all the time; I just carried a pair of slippers in my pocket for when I went places that required shoe-wearing (the physics building, the cafeteria, etc.)

I've been pulling the incredibly unfashionable black-sock-with-sandals for most of this winter (they're black sandals, though, so it's not really obvious) because it's more comfortable. (The sandals are getting a bit tatty though...) If I'm not very careful trimming toenails, most of my heeled boots will tear up my toes because the closed toebox and foot angle combine to squish my toes. Some of it, is that it's hard to find properly fitting shoes - I wear a 9.5W or 10W, and they can be hard to track down.

I've got a pair of the "Nike Free" sneakers for workouts, but they're slip-ons, and kind of a pain to get on. (slip on sneakers? why?) They're supposed to have flexible soles and be easier to walk on and all. I think the width problem may be an issue there, too, though. It's occurred to me, though, that I should just start buying men's sneakers again. They come in less preposterous color schemes, too...

• 15:34 In New Jersey, it is not illegal to operate a vehicle while barefoot. #
• 15:51 I really covet these - tinyurl.com/aflheb - I'm just not sure I can blow $150 on them. #
• 15:52 These, too - tinyurl.com/yq3z37 - $75 is more affordable, but they're a hair funny-looking. #
• 22:28 Become a "Witch" - tinyurl.com/dxg7vy - clearly my pagan friends have been making this far too difficult. #

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I have a site where I've compiled how various supernatural creatures are handled in fiction. Periodically I get emails with helpful corrections or suggestions of other source material I should catalog.

And then there's the losermail, in which I get asked things like how to go about meeting a "real vampire". Or, this...

Subject: Witch_Myths‏
From: [redacted]
Sent: Tue 1/06/09

witches,vampires,etc. are no myth. they hide cause some are afraid of exposer or afraid to live like the salem witchtrials. There are some who are very talented and who can see the future. Some conjure elements very good. Witches can be good or evil. Good likes to help others with there problem. They are kind and loveing people. There is magic all around us. we just don't notice it.

Ooooh-kay, then!

Created by The Car Connection

And these are from the Captain Hammer Comic

(I did a little clumsy photoshopping to take the glove out of the second one. A delicate and patient hand is not among my virtues.)

(Yoink!)

(from the bit where Captain Hammer warns us not to trust science geeks.)

This is the image used for the Dr Horrible T-Shirt

If I were more popular, I'd try to start this one as a meme!

I went to behindthename.com, and looked up my name.

It told me:

Gender: Feminine

Usage: English, Scandinavian, German

Pronounced: SIL-vee-ə (English)

(It also told me I was supposed to spell it with an i, although "This has been the most common English spelling since the 19th century." )

I also clicked on the "Ratings and Impressions" link. I found out I am:
Refined (85%), Formal (85%), Wholesome (81%), Classic (79%), Upperclass (76%), Serious (74%), Mature (74%), Strange (74%), Natural (71%), Nerdy (67%), Complex (61%), Strong (54%)

Interestingly, if I change to the 'i' spelling, it changes to:
Refined (81%), Serious (79%), Classic (76%), Formal (72%), Wholesome (71%), Upperclass (70%), Mature (69%), Natural (67%), Strange (56%), Simple (54%), Strong (54%), Nerdy (51%)

The big changes are that with the 'y' spelling, I see a big rise in Strange, Nerdy, Formal and Wholesome. The only axis change is that I become Complex instead of Simple.

I think if I were to go meme-spreading with this, I'd probably simplify it to:

Replace 'yourname' in the following URL with your name: http://www.behindthename.com/rating/view.php?name=yourname

Note the three highest rated impressions about your name (leave off the masculine/feminine and good/bad axes).