stevengharms.com

Yesterday afternoon things looked a bit warmer so I went outside to find my car encased, like so many bachelor freezers, in thick ice. I fired up the de-froster and picked at the outermost layer on my back glass. It wasn’t long before I managed to have the sheet off. One thing led to another and I slowly began removing sheets of ice that had encased my car.

Before long, the car was de-iced and, given recent dryness, I was able to take it out for a spin. Lauren hopped in and we drove very carefully about our immediate environs. It was so nice to see some of the world again.

Later that evening we drove across the MoPac bridge very, very carefully w/ 4x4 on and met up with my mom and sister at my sister’s apartment. We went thence to Hyde Park Café after my sister’s fiancé joined us. I got the winter-eschewing Chicken Fried Steak and bolted down the Woop Woop Shiraz (tasty!) and we all had a great time. The restaurant was crowded, but everyone was obviously glad to get out of their ice enclaves.

Tonight starts my first night of night classes. 16 weeks of education…

I wonder how much easier or harder this is going to be. I took a Java class in college and over 1 semester i learned a lot less than I learned in the Java class I took last week. I’m wondering if I’ll find these classes to be the same: that without requirement I’ll actually be much more interested in the material and in doing well.

Good..

God…

I’ve not left the house in so long i’m going nuts.

Chasing kids around a hedge-maze with an axe now seems like a good idea….

steven

“You know better than I do that many Americans feel that your administration has not been straight with the country, has not been honest. To those people you say what?” Pelley asks. “On what issue?” the president replies. “Like the weapons of mass destruction?” “No weapons of mass destruction,” Pelley says. “Yeah,” Bush says. “No credible connection between 9/11 and Iraq,” Pelley says. “Yeah,” the president replies. “The Office of Management and Budget said this war would cost somewhere between $50 billion and $60 billion and now we’re over 400,” Pelley says. “I gotcha. I gotcha. I gotcha,” Bush replies. “The perception, Sir, more than any one of those points, is that the administration has not been straight with…,” Pelley says. “Well, I strongly disagree with that, of course,” Bush says. “So I strongly reject that this administration hasn’t been straight with the American people. The minute we found out they didn’t have weapons of mass destruction, I was the first to say so.”

From AmericaFIRST

At Geekfoolery.com the authors have noted that “LOL” as an acronym has undermined effective IM communication of amusement.

Some things are truly LOL moments: Most things that The Social Bobcat writes fall into this category ( e.g. this very old post of mine ).

Most things are not of this calibre, but a great many people use the LOL acronym to assert that what was said was of this uproarious nature. The Geekfoolery krewe sugest using BNS. Sure it’s a bit, uh, graphic, but after a few months of use, the acronym will take over the component and all we will have two meaningful acronyms for conveying mirth: mere amusement and uproarious hilarity.

I was talking to my girlfriend about this topic and she said this was one of the things she liked best about me: that when we IM’d I only used LOL in truly funny moments.

Oh, I forgot to mention that Saturday we signed a lease on a very nice 2/2 in North Austin. We’ll be moving up there at the end of February.

In the following post I discuss potty topics. Consider yourself warned.

(more…)

Hello there readers, this is just to let you know that my baby and I are making it through these wintry days in central Texas just fine. Saturday night we were over chez League having a charming evening and there was some discussion about sleet, ice, and snow.

With the 4x4 in place, we made it back home, feeling rather ho-hum about the affair.

We re-rendezvous’d with The League and Mrs. League at Alamo Drafthouse South to catch the fantastic Pan’s Labyrinth. As we exited from the 4:30 showing close to 7:00 the winds were strong, the rains icy, and it was generally not fun to be outside.

We headed to the local grocery store and, I kid you not, everything was picked over. I hadn’t seen the shelves so bare since the Safeway strike in California. It looked like the final days before a hurricane’s landfall. We ultimately decided to brave the rain and get a few days’ of provisions from another grocer. Thus we retired on Sunday evening.

Today we’ve not been outside. Well, actually, this evening we did briefly try it but after Lauren slipped on the steps we decided to head back into our 3rd story lair. Our stairs are now a treacherous, icy death-slide to oblivion ( can you sue a property management company for not sanding your stairs? ).

So, we’ve become shut-ins. I spent this fine holiday doing a bit of Guitar Hero II and catching up on some reading. Lauren, because she so loves her electric blanket doesn’t move more than a few feed away from the outlet at all times.

This evening we were to meet up with my mom and sister for dinner but my car’s glass was iced over and the stairs were all slippery; it just didn’t seem like a good idea to be out and about. Every time I check out the Austin Statesman I see another picture of someone spun-out and wrecked.

The last time I saw conditions in Austin like this was in 1998 when I returned from Christmas break in Houston to Austin in an ice storm. It was crazy. I was going up a ramp into a garage, lost traction, and started to go backwards out into the street. It was a scary experience ( everything was fine ) and I don’t care to repeat it. It’s odd that these things seem to be on a decade-long repeat rate.

Let me re-visit one point above, I really enjoyed Pan’s Labyrith, or si usted habla Español: El Laberinto del Fauno. Imagine the stark, violent, menacing world of Amon Goeth from Schindler’s List on a small mill in the Spanish countryside. This blood-thirsty maniac has acquired a new wife who, by a previous marriage, has an adorable daughter who loves fairy tales. This girl, Ofelia by name, envisions a rich fantasy world where she can while away the hellish hours as Stepdad from hell tortures, maims, shoots, and searches for anti-Francoist elements. And what of this fantasy world? It’s impeccably created, beautiful animatronics, characters, tasks and quests, all which help our heroine discover her true identity: a princess that wandered away from the immortal kingdom buried beneath the earth.

It’s a rich tapestry and is altogether a fine film. If it’s showing in your locality I recommend it to you.

It was actually reading back-story on the Spanish Civil war that whiled away many hours today, it’s a large and ill-understood episode.

This evening, after dinner, Lauren and I gave a watch to our friend Jim Dedman’s movie: Pleadings. I must say that my friend, and former editorial reviewer, has written a compelling independent film that had us really not liking some characters, feeling a lot of pathos for others, and interested through to the end.

Tomorrow is my first day back to work since the holiday and my Java class ( which I rather enjoyed, and am excited to put into practice ). I’ll be working from home because there was, just today, a 5-car pile-up right at my exit. I’ll hold out on the VPN until things get a bit warmer.

Tomorrow was also supposed to be my first day of classes at ACC, but due to inclement weather they’ve opted for a no-class day.

Hey all, after a day of running about and signing a lease for a new apartment and finding out that “Pan’s Labyrinth” was sold out we headed home ( after a quick pop in at Border’s to get the Exam cram guide for the Java Programmer Exam ) and Lauren took another spin at GHII.

As a laughing point for those of us familiar with Spinal Tap, they’re one of the “Encore” songs. The round ends, appropriately, with the drummer spontaneously exploding in true Spinal Tap fashion.

Shortly we’re going to the Hall of Justice to meet up with The League. He had planned a fire-pit evening, but with a winter storm warning afoot, we may have to take a uh, rain cheque on that one.

Classes finished up in the early afternoon so Lauren and I headed back to Austin. It was a pretty exciting drive up Highway 71 including a stop at Tony’s Restaurant ( voted best restaurant in Austin county, so claimeth the billboard ).

Noting that the weather forecast promises cold and wet I stopped by Best Buy and picked up a wireless guitar controller and the Guitar Hero II video game. I had played at the demo at Fry’s in Sunnyvale when I was in the valley last week and I had had such a good time I wanted to have the fun at home ( until such time as I can get my grubby mitts on a Wii ).

Lauren’s currently attacking The Police’s “Message in a Bottle” and doing rather well. She has a kinda Chuck Berry chicken-head rock when she’s doing it. It’s pretty cute.

The Java class went really well and I’m very impressed with how far the language has come since I took Java classes at the university. I think that it will be a useful skill to have under my toolbelt. I was really glad to get a handle on inner classes and File and Network I/O.

All I can say is I know how this country would respond.

When attacked by a clear and present danger from outer space, we must invade Iran to neutralize the threat.