Happy Friends Joy Contentment Journal (or, y'know, not)

Eulogy for Past Lives **

justytylor — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 17:52:33 GMT

** (or, how I learned to stop worrying and love free time)

Okay, the footnote for the title is inaccurate. I just couldn't think of anything else to make it more Strangelove-worthy.

I now include the requisite note of how I haven't posted very often, boy howdy how things have changed since my last post, etc etc. Which, by the way, could not possibly be more true.

So. The last post, to recap, was just after ECCC2010; for the sake of reference (which will be relevant in a few minutes), it was indicating that it was an overall very positive, fun experience. Since that post, though, many changes.

Work at Brookstone was definitely not going well at that point. To summarize most briefly, a few weeks after ECCC, I was "let go" from my job. I've written a lot on the topic elsewhere, so will not redundantify here (though if you missed the memo, and care, I'm happy to dig it up and forward it along). Anyway, while that was a most unpleasant experience, it's funny how much I wasn't distressed, but rather relieved to not have to go back there. Don't think I realized how miserable I was until I no longer had to go back.

Then, the car. Oh, Dodge SRT-4, how I miss thee.

Specifically, four days after getting the proverbial heave-ho from work (four days!), Eliece and I were in a pretty significant car accident on I-5. We were very lucky in that, after a few hours at Harborview, we were able to walk home (well, limp to my sister's car, which took us home). My car, however, was not quite as fortunate.

The silver lining (which, while relevant, is still pretty bittersweet) is that, finding myself with no income, I now found myself with no car payment or insurance costs.

Turns out, though, that it's really a bad time to be unemployed. You know, if you actually would like to be making money, as opposed to playing lots of video games. Fortunately, the lease on the apartment was also up at the end of May, so the list of mandatory bills was rapidly resolving itself. We ended up staying in the apartment an extra month (man, do they gouge you if you go month-to-month without signing a new lease) for Eliece to finish up her Census job, and moved down to the south end, renting my sister's basement. There's a certain amount of, "man, I wish that hadn't become necessary," because there's a greater-than-zero contribution to the feeling of being a failure when you realize you can't reasonably exist independently. On the flip side, the much more significant element of that situation is how fantastic it has been that this was even an option. And I can even feel reasonably confident that our presence here, for my sister, has even had a much more significant impact on the "PRO" column than in the "CON" column (not the least of which being lots of cooking, house-sitting while she was in Europe for three weeks, puppy playing with, etc. So while it could have been a desperate move, made out of desperation (which it kind of was, in fairness), I don't think any parties have experienced any regret for the current situation.

However, in this particular case, there has been a distinct gray lining to the silver cloud. Being somewhat distant from a lot of my friends in the north end, with no transportation or money to pay for gas, I was really worried that I'd drift away from the group. Turns out, it was kind of justified.

Now, let me say that I could certainly have done more to avoid that taking place. There's a definite "hindsight is 50/50" thing that is applicable. But how lame is it to suggest that other people spend the money on gas and the time on driving to come and do... well, nothing that costs any money, 'cause we're kind of broke. So, while I was worried things might go awry, I figured that if it did, it would manifest as friends going their own separate ways for a while, which frankly is easily rectified. In addition, certainly there is ample precedent in my life of not chatting with a friend for a protracted period of time and then, at the next point of hanging out (be it months later), our previous conversation continuing as though it had only been interrupted by a bathroom break. Unfortunately, this has proven to not be the case this time.

This all brings me to what has really inspired me to write (and, apparently, write enough to make up for the last six months of radio silence).

So, the other day I got fired from volunteering at the Emerald City Comicon. Despite having multiple, lengthy conversations with a variety of people, even typing that feels like a random non-sequitur that doesn't actually make sense. Apparently, there are an indeterminate number of unnamed people that felt that, in summary, I was a miserable presence to be around for the last several years. And I don't understand. The people that I have actually been around consistently at the conventions, I have spoken to. They're people I trust to be honest with me, whether that's because they're good friends, or really would have no personal stake in "telling me like it is." And those people have been fairly universally shocked that this has occurred. And if the "unnamed people" are who I suspect they are (being cc:'ed on the "separation" e-mail is a telling give-away), I don't get that either -- as I haven't really had much interaction with them, as dictated by the emerging chain-of-command. Last year, I have/had a direct supervisor (which was a little weird, being used to self-governing in Panels), so I tried to restrict a lot of my communication (outside of casual chatting) with him. And he sure seemed surprised, too.

Now, I get that there are situations in which perception is, in fact, reality. I don't doubt for a second that I probably did give some people an impression of being miserable. I wish those people had read this post; while not nearly as verbose as this one, I think it perfectly summarizes my feelings about working the show. Were there problems? Absolutely. Frankly, there are every year. But the greatest thing I can say about my experiences with ECCC is that those problems were different every year. We saw a problem, we found a way to address it, it was better the next year.

I can definitely be guilty of giving the perception of focusing only on the problems, because why waste a lot of time talking about all the things that went really well? A brief kudo, a high five, a "yes we need to do that again next year, it worked well," and then move on to the things that need more focused attention on improving. The only time I can remember anyone actually asking me about my experiences this last year (in a personal, applicable-to-assessing-my-attitude sort of way) was when Jim asked me if I enjoyed working in guest services. To that, I remember responding that it was a lot of fun to be able to do something different, and suggesting then to him that I would be happy taking on a bigger role leading up to the convention. In retrospect, his response to that was incredibly non-committal (not that that would have been a good time to start exploring the idea), and he never followed up with me again. In retrospect, that's probably because there were people that aggressively didn't want more contribution from me (though, ironically, if I'd had more opportunity to interact with them, they may have found out how much I loved being part of the convention).

But here's the part that really hurts. While apparently these opinions have been forming over the last several years, at no point did a single one of my in-the-know friends (?) come to me and say, simply, "Hey dude, so there's a storm brewing. People think you're in a solid bad mood for the convention and are having difficulty working around you. Do you still enjoy this and want to continue? And if you do want to continue your involvement, how can we (you) address this perception?"

That conversation, occurring at any point in the last two years, could easily have solved everything. Like I said, I get how perception can be reality. Thing is, it's so easy to fix. Instead, a decision was made without me, and perhaps most insultingly, couched in terms of "you're going to be so much happier this way." I have such a hard time grappling with the fact that my friends would neither go to bat for me, nor even discuss it with me.

The other part that I took away from all this, that is equally hurtful, is the distinct impression that I was being fired not only from working at Emerald City, but also being fired from those relevant friendships. I'm not really sure if that's the case or not; would be nice to know, but I don't know that the ball is really in my court there ("so, when you said 'It's not us, it's you,' did you mean it on a professional level, or personal too?"). And to be honest, I'm still a little in shock at this abrupt (for me; I'm sure it's not abrupt for them at all) turn of events.

Part of the benefit I get from blogging, when I do, is it helps me work through issues that are too complicated or stressful to process normally. Kind of cathartic. And while I'm still definitely not okay with this turn of events, writing about it makes it a little easier to assimilate.

Speaking of assimilation, and in as abrupt a change of topic as I can manage, Microsoft!

My slightly-extended-past-where-I-would-like summer vacation is finally coming to a close. Few weeks ago I got a job offer from the monolithic company. Woo! Over the last year (ish), Microsoft has started opening some retail locations throughout the country. So far, there are only four, but three more are opening this fall -- one of which will be in Bellevue Square. So, I'm going to be working there.

You know what's weird? Actually being kind of excited about working. And not just in the "thank goodness I'm going to have some stable fricking income" kind of way, but I'm actually excited about working there, for them. Despite the fact that my employer will be, well, a much larger business than any I've ever worked for, the atmosphere thus far has seemed very small and personal -- perhaps because it is a portion of business that is only now emerging for them (it feels very reminiscent of early Suncoast days, truth be told). So I'm very interested in seeing how things will play out.

And for those keeping track, that means both Eliece and I will have full-time jobs simultaneously! I anticipate much happiness of the pocketbook (though it will be more challenging to plan time to spend together).

Anyway, that's what's going on with me. What's up with you?

ECCC 2010

justytylor — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 23:18:29 GMT

I'm making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS (I wonder if that's still so recent as to be a tired geek cliche, or if there's enough time gone by for it to be clever again... oh well, with the announcement of Portal 2 later this year, we'll go for timely and relevant).

For an interesting change of pace, didn't run panels this year, in favor of migrating to 'guest services,' or more accurately, keep Geoff Johns happy. It was definitely cool to be able to interact with people in a different fashion, and I feel confident that the people for which I was responsible came away from the show thinking that we're awesome (despite what one might call, on Saturday, a massive organizational clusterfuck -- which the guests were shielded from, due to crazy running around akin to chickens with heads cut off).

I guess the only major disappointment for me was that, it had been strongly suggested that one of the big perks for helping high level talent is that one tends to walk away from the show with a few cool sketches courtesy people that you spent your weekend taking care of. And since I was taking care of the high level Green Lantern people, well, while anticipation was held in check, it was definitely there. And after introducing myself to my people Saturday morning, it was fuelled a bit by a few even suggesting that they would kick a little something my way. But alas, while I received much thanks and praise for my work, no sweet (or even mediocre) sketches found their way into my hands. Kind of a bummer, and not to sound all emo about it, but I'm starting to get used to disappointment in that arena.

Nevertheless, it was a good time -- thanks to Eliece, I even got to briefly meet Stan Lee. Even more briefly glimpsed Leonard Nimoy from across a massive throng of attendees in line; wish I'd have had time to at least shake his hand or something, but there was no way I had the time to stand in that line.

Looking forward to the debriefs, so we can make next year even better (three days, though -- that'll be interesting).

A matter of perspective...

justytylor — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 01:28:10 GMT

Is it totally messed up that when I saw this headline: "Agent Orange linked to serious heart disease," my immediate thought was, "Damn you, Larfleeze!"

justytylor — Tue, 12 May 2009 00:27:18 GMT

"dum dum dum, another one bites the dust..."

Time to start charging the controllers…

justytylor — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 07:25:08 GMT

Ohhhh man. I need to start an official list of games and things coming out in the future, so I can properly budget my time. To that end:

Batman: Arkham Asylum ships on June 9. The collector’s edition will have a life-size Batarang. HELLO. I DO NOT HAVE A BATARANG… yet. Plus Mark Hamill as the Joker? What’s not to love?
Ghostbusters: The Video Game comes a week later, June 16. Time for my Ernie Hudson fix!
Completing the June trifecta is Overlord II on June 23. Man, there is definitely something to be said for embracing one’s inner evil… ness.
inFamous (Q2). I think I’m going to pretend that the main character is really The Fusionator (either original or 2.0, I’m easy). Oh yeah, plus it’ll be so quaint to use my PS3 as a video game console.
Alpha Protocol, sometime late summer or fall (hopefully). Mass Effect meets The Bourne Identity. Really, that’s all I need to know.
Bioshock 2 (Q3). Can I haz plasmids?

Nerd!

justytylor — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:28:31 GMT

Green Lantern: First Flight. So good, had to watch it twice. It’s nice to know I’ll have something to tide me over until 12/2010, though I’m a little curious how it’s going to take liberties with overall canon. I really like Chris Maloni, too (sadly, my one main complaint about Justice League: New Frontier was David Boreanaz as Hal Jordan; I think he’s a great actor, but his voice acting seemed almost apathetic, not ‘fearless’ – more an issue with direction, maybe?).

justytylor — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 07:56:40 GMT

I need to request Dec 17, 2010 off work. And probably Dec 16, so I can wait in line. And probably Dec 18, so I can go back for the 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th viewings.

Hey everybody, is it cool if we push Christmas back to February, so it doesn't get in the way?

justytylor — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 04:02:35 GMT

I'd like to say I have a big, wordy post discussing all things that have been going on over the last several months, and have some reason why I haven't been writing. I'd like to say that. But mostly I just haven't really felt like it.

What could drag me out of radio (internet or otherwise) silence:

Prince of Persia Legos!

I can live with them being based on the movie, as opposed to Sands of Time. At least, assuming that the movie isn't horrible. Optimism!

Things for me to have.

justytylor — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 10:00:40 GMT

Once again, as the holidays approach(eth), shopping for gifts can be a pain in the ass. Thusly, for interested parties, I recap that my Amazon Wish List can be found here.

The only thing I've specifically left off is the upcoming Prince of Persia game, for which it would be totally unreasonable to expect me to wait 23 days after release date to play. Unreasonable.

justytylor — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 06:16:56 GMT

Gravy Day was a fucking brilliant idea.

Stuff... 'n stuff.

justytylor — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 06:33:24 GMT

I'm off work this week. This, after a veritably torturous two month period chock-full of teased corporate visits, massive floorsets (completely reset the store over a two-night period), opening-of-seasonal-stores, and other miscellaneous time-sinks and morale-drainers.

But that's in the past (at least, presently)! I was concerned I would not have much to do this week, but things are shaping up to be super-hugely video game oriented, which is definitely not a bad thing. On the agenda:

Spider-Man: Friend or Foe. I am told it is, while not groundbreaking, a fun co-op game. Looking forward to playing with Eliece. Checked out from GamePaul.

Lego Batman. It's a Lego game. Again no groundbreakingness, but should be fun (and an easy 1k achievement points). Also checked out from GamePaul.

Infinite Undiscovery. Don't know anything about it, except it just came out and it's an RPG from Square Enix. Given that I ended up spending ~$30 on it, a safe gamble for a game that allegedly has 80+ hours' worth of gameplay. Oh, I also know it has the vaguest possible name, like, ever.

Army of Two. Another acquisition with Toys R Us' Buy-2-Get-1-Free sale this week. Should be a good game to play on Live with Deuce.

Grand Theft Auto IV. Got it a month or two ago with Soulcalibur IV, still haven't gotten around to starting it up. I expect when I do, it'll be a bit of a time-sink.

A brand new PSP (3000!). Birthday present! Excellent. Though in fairness I may not receive the PSP until after vacation. But that's okay, it just means I'll have something to do when I go back to work.

...and for the PSP, Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters, echochrome (the brief description for this game sounds awesome), Crisis Core: FFVII, and God of War: Chains of Olympus.

I'll have to finish all these quickly, too, because I also got a reserved copy of Guitar Hero: World Tour for aforementioned birthday, and that's coming out like two weeks from now.

I love loot. Luffff.

Oh yes, and while playing all these games, I can enjoy my brand new bottle of Lagavulin 16. :)

justytylor — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 22:41:19 GMT

In other frustrating I-kind-of-want-to-joke-about-slitting-my-wrists-but-know-better-than-to-do-so news, got a call from the store after getting home this afternoon. Seems my assistant manager didn't realize she was scheduled to open by herself this morning, due to allocating staff to the seasonal store (non-) setup. Turns out, that was quite distressing. Because she, like, never has to. This ultimately devolved into an "I don't think you care about us" (I am not kidding) whine-fest.

For the record: I don't.

Nevertheless, that is irrelevant. I find it amazingly frustrating when I have a manager who isn't able to, well, suck it up and just get shit done. I keep planting the "well, you always have the option of putting in your two weeks' notice" seed, but it keeps not taking.

In related news, I sort of forgot to eat for the first half of the day, now I've hit that annoying hungry-but-nothing-sounds-appealing stage. I don't doubt that this is partially due to stress today. Hmm, though I do have parmesan basil Wheat Thins, which past experience has taught me are yummy. Perhaps that will keep me going for a while. Also, napping.

justytylor — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 18:06:47 GMT

Situation: I am shadow-running a seasonal store during the 4th quarter this year. Because apparently, I really don't find the holidays stressful enough. We're opening this week. Lots o' work for me. According to schedule, I should be there today, checking in our 16 pallets of product/supplies/fixtures.

I am not currently doing this.

This is due to the fact that my company apparently finds it fine to ship this stuff, oh, two fucking days before it's supposed to be there. Also, it's fine to not tell me that it's going to be delayed. Fortunately, I've been obsessively hassling the crap out of everyone I can find to make sure I constantly have the most updated information regarding, well, pretty much everything (knowing is half the battle, dontchaknow). But because I couldn't get absolute confirmation we weren't getting our 16 pallets this morning, I still had to be on-site at 7am. Where I sat. And waited. And did not get 16 pallets of stuff.

I am very glad I have been making with the obsessive hassling, because at least I didn't have five other people on-hand sitting and waiting with me (although any opportunity to crush someone's soul via Puzzle Quest = a good thing). On the positive side, I did get our phone lines installed, so at least that's one thing off the checklist.

justytylor — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 03:44:12 GMT

Yay for blogging from work.

So, it turns out that my work ethic took a major hit while I was on quasi-vacation last week. So much so that I've accomplished roughly jack-shit since Tuesday. I am SO over the concept of corporate visits that I really don't give a shit what my store looks like. Don't like it? Fine. Find someone else to manage a) the highest volume store in the area and 2) the seasonal store that will likely be the only one to give my BASE store a run for its proverbial (and literal?) money.

Someday I hope to have a job I like (pity me!).

justytylor — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 18:18:27 GMT

Silver PSP 3000. Wants it, I do. Need? Mmm, perhaps not so much. But wants.

It would be nice if it was a blood-red God of War edition, but brighter screen trumps blood-red.

Vignettes

justytylor — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 22:45:49 GMT

Penny Arcade has been of questionable comedic value for a while now, but today's strip is excellent.

Borrowed Ninja Gaiden 2 from 1.0 on Sunday. It's interesting. Pretty. Also, pretty repetitive. Also also, not unlike every other Ninja Gaiden game, it triggers within me the primal desire to hurl my controller across the room. I'd probably be farther along, if it weren't for some people and their fascination with shinies.

Work's okay; seems like everyone around me is going crazy except me. But isn't that what a crazy person thinks? Visited the site we're going to have the seasonal store at. On the way back, I decided I'd take a shortcut. That went about as well as can be expected, when one makes that statement. I think it'll do well for the holidays; hopefully, well enough for me to make the proverbial Phat Bonus [tm]. Otherwise it will have been a colossal waste of my time.

Corporate visits are going well (for me, anyway). Got a 90 (out of 100) on our LP audit last week, apparently the highest she'd done so far (I'm assuming she meant within the district, not within the region [otherwise that's very sad for the region]). CEO was in town Saturday; went well there. True to expectation, he was in the store no longer than 25 minutes and never came more than 30 feet into the store. Regional visual manager was in yesterday for notes on the upcoming big big (their emphasis) corporate visit that is due up in the next 2 weeks or so (date still TBD). Only had a page and a half of nit-picky notes, vs. the other store they visited, which had a solid 8 pages. Plus, my sales associate and I finished roughly half the notes last night. Which is nice.

If I'm lucky (want to know whether I think that'll be the case?), they'll come early next week and it won't totally hose the vacation I'd planned on taking (and have, in fact, already written off -- though I certainly wouldn't complain about putting it back on the table). I suspect the threat of next week is more a tool to motivate us to get our list-o-stuff done much sooner. Either way, we'll be good to go by Friday (barring catastrophe, knock on wood). In an ideal world, I'd like to not have to worry about maintaining this level of OCD cleanliness for too long; we plain don't get the payroll to spend so much time on it. Ah well.

justytylor — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 03:32:48 GMT

"It's this year's Napoleon Dynamite."

There is no statement that could be more effective in discouraging me from seeing Hamlet 2.

...well, with the possible exception of "Go see Hamlet 2! The perfect film for people who like to be anally raped and have giant penises tattooed on their foreheads!"

Fortunately, it looks like it might be good, making it very much not this year's Napoleon Dynamite.

justytylor — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 01:22:31 GMT

I have occasion to wonder, periodically, what people think when they pass me (or, more accurately, I pass them) in the car and I am singing (emphatically, I might add) "Why Does the Sun Shine?" by They Might Be Giants. My suspicion: they are likely thinking, "I wish I was listening to that song right now."

So, it's weird. Once upon a time (read: last year), two weeks between posts would have been downright frequent. Now, I feel like I've been horrifically neglectful in my blog-ly duties.

A few updates, then. First of all, new (shiny) computer. Despite DHL's best attempts to not give it to me. I can only speculate that they felt that Bothell was a much better place for it to live. Also, I don't really know why I was surprised the laptop would be as big as it is. It's not like you have a lot of wiggle room with a 17" widescreen monitor. But ultimately, despite the fact that my sweet sweet BPRD messenger bag would totally have matched the red computer, the bag is just not big enough to fit the machine. Alas.

In related news, I realized a few days ago that I now have a computer with enough firepower to play (and, one hopes, enjoy) Red Alert 3 when that's released later this year. It's going to be released on the 360 as well, but despite their marketing of a "new, enhanced version of the revolutionary CommandStick interface," I can't imagine it'll be anywhere near as effective as the good ol' mouse-keyboard combo. RTSes (and turn-based, I s'pose) just don't compare from PC to console, due to the command interface. But who knows. I'd certainly not want to turn my nose up at another potential 1k achievement points.

Work's a tad on the stressful side, and will continue over at least the next 4-5 weeks; we have no less than four corporate visits taking place, including the company's CEO, the Chairman of the Board (whom, I will presuppose, will not remind me at all of Carrot Top -- disappointing), and the dude who owns my company's parent company. In fairness, I'm not particularly stressed about it, but my boss sure as hell is. And there's a bit of a trickle-down, there, because he has a tendency to freak-the-hell-out about this sort of thing.

I had originally planned on taking a week off around Labor Day; that is looking unlikely (at best). In an ideal world, I'll still at least be able to scam Sat-Mon off, but so not holding my breath.

On top of that, I agreed (because I'm a sucker, apparently) to be the "Managing Partner" for a seasonal location in Bellevue. Once again, in an ideal world, once things are up and running, I'll probably spend about a half a day per week there -- which would be coming out of the time I'd spend at my primary store. Also in an ideal world, I'll make a fat bonus from this store hitting its sales projections. Also also in an ideal world, someone will give me a functional Green Lantern ring. In a less than ideal world (place your bets now), I'll be spending every waking moment in one or the other of these stores, from 15 Nov through 26 Dec. Thank goodness I'm not cynical, though.

Or sarcastic.

Or... I dunno, masochistic?

Been dating this pretty awesome girl named Eliece. I don't know how to say this without it sounding super-egocentric in a passive aggressive kind of way, so I'm just going to throw it out there; it's really cool to be dating someone smarter than I am. Also, someone who seems to really enjoy being beaten soundly (and regularly) at Tetris. Which works out pretty nice for me. :)

Amusing footnote: LJ's spellchecker would rather I use either "Bot-hell" or "brothel" instead of Bothell.

justytylor — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 04:51:19 GMT

As a wise man once said, "No woman, no cry." Though that can be rendered far more accurate by replacing 'woman' with 'computer,' and entirely removing the second 'no.'

Currently, my shiny (ooh shiny) new (well, technically refurb'ed) computer is sitting in DHL's warehouse, within roughly five miles of my current position, where it has BEEN since 5:18am. I am not amused. The thing that sucks (aside from not having it, generally speaking) is that even if they deliver it tomorrow, I won't see it until at least Wednesday due to work schedule0 Sad panda.

troubleshooting sounds like too much work, i'd rather just shoot the trouble.

justytylor — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 01:42:34 GMT

First: fridge should be fixed tomorrow. In an ideal world, they'll just give me a new one (pref. with built in water filtration and icemaker, but I'll settle for one that makes things cold).

Second: so, I left the computer off all night last night. In the past, when acting out, a "time out" of sorts convinced the infernal contraption that perhaps it should shape up. This time, not so much. In fact, this morning it decided it didn't want to power up at all.

So, thanks to some sagely advice from Beau, George's (functional, I bet that's nice) computer at the stop, and wise words of financial temperance from E and Sherm, I now await a reasonably priced refurb laptop from Dell.

Also, fuck is it a pain in the ass to enter html links and tags from my phone's keyboard. So if I screwed up at all, I will not be fixing it in post.

justytylor — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 06:51:26 GMT

I could really use someone, right about now, who is unafraid to point out to me how fiscally irresponsible it would be for me to go drop two grand on a laptop tomorrow after work.

justytylor — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 06:21:47 GMT

The good news: my phone rocks, what with the Opera Mobile and all.

The bad news: that's where this entry is coming from, because once again my computer is acting up.

Ugh. This time, it seems to be fine, except it won't communicate with the modem. I know it's neither the modem nor the router, 'cause the 360 hits LIVE just fine. It COULD be the ethernet card, I s'pose, though that's never had a problem before -- or even longer shot, the cat5 cable (don't really feel like running thorough testing after working all day).

Oh, and my fridge apparently thinks I like my Ben & Jerry's in soup form, which -- while thoughtful -- is inaccurate. At least THAT one won't cost ME money. Sigh.

justytylor — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 00:45:38 GMT

Who wants to know exactly how big a nerd I am?

You do? Sweet.

By the way, the below link is definitely NSFW.

So, somebody pointed out this image to me today, and the very first thing that came to mind was this: Wow, she's completely using the wrong console for those controllers.

Seriously, there's no quality control these days.

justytylor — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 06:22:49 GMT

Had a date today. Went well. Feel reasonably confident that am not the only person who came to that conclusion. :)

Am apparently unable to presently use pronouns.

justytylor — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 06:41:41 GMT

I <3 Opera Mobile.

In other (somewhat related) news, I'm kind of wanting a Slingbox. To be sure, I don't need one -- arguably, I'm not sure I'd even use it. But the allure of being able to, say, watch The Daily Show on my break (or, you know, not on my break) at work, well, let's just say it's palpable.

To underscore how bored I (still) am, I offer you this: have you ever wondered if "palpable" is in any way related to "Palpatine", etymologically speaking? Palpatine was, after all, quite palpable.