I got a compliment on my hair from a complete stranger at work today. Hers wasn't even a face I'd seen in passing before. She came in to use the bathroom, ironically just after I'd been thinking my hair was rather too fuzzy and curl-undefined with the product I'd chosen this morning, and said that I have "such pretty hair." I must say that I like random compliments like that, and most definitely thanked her.

I'm finishing up 9.5 hours of OT, waiting for Eclipse to run our Ant build script before synching with CVS. (Our CVS repos is linked up to by a product called Cruise Control which will run anything you tell it on the files checked in, and let everyone who's checked in recently if the build failed. Hooked up to Cruise Control is a lava lamp that turns on when a build fails. The rule, therefore, is to make sure your shit all builds properly before checking it in.) I'm still a few hours behind where I'd like to be, given other non-coding things I've had to do throughout the week, but that still means I'll catch up at least 4 days' worth on the project if I can't catch it up tomorrow.

I haven't done any cardio all week, shame on me. Went to both my classes as usual, but between needing to work the OT and little things like dinner, there just hasn't been much time for it, though I should've been able to find a little to at least spend 15 minutes on the treadmill. Based on a guy at work's doctor saying one key to good overall health, especially into one's retirement years, is walking 2 miles a day, and calculating how long it should take me to do 2 miles based on the 3 miles I spent on it, I've arrived at a goal of 260 minutes of cardio (treadmill, r-bike, elliptical machine) a week.

I'm highly amused and get an insta-good mood whenever Tori Amos' Hoochie Woman comes on my iRiver. I've been using my Tori playlist this week while working, as it seems to keep me more focused on work (no clue why, really) and thus I've gotten to hear it at least twice this week.

Build's done now, best get to checking in the code and updating JIRA (thingy we're using to keep track of tasks & their timelines and work logs for the project). Then bed. The 2+ hour nap I had this afternoon really did the trick in making it so I'm not drooling-exhausted right this moment.

Oh yeah, and it's ridiculously windy outside, blowing like air's going outta style, but because it's still pretty warm out there anyway and a little warmish in the house, I have the bedroom window open on the right side (wide, short window that opens horizontally) a couple inches. It's been very interesting to listen to.

So, I've relied on the fact that my web host's PHP settings always have register globals on. I don't write many forms, and the main forms I have available are through MovableType, which is in Perl (and, if it were in PHP would probably not rely on that setting being on). However, I have $DOCUMENT_ROOT everywhere for my includes, apparently. There was a phishing attack some days back that looked for that exploit, which prompted them to turn it off. Didn't get turned off right, but what did get turned off got fixed while globals still remained available. I knew I'd need to change my shit over soon, but... yeah, came to work this morning and one of the tabs that goes to a spot on my site loaded fresh and not cached, and it was pretty obvious what happened. No stylesheets loaded, lots of shit missing, lots of warnings because my includes failed.

I'd already switched over my header and footer files themselves a while back, after some discussion on how it's not something to rely on, but that was about it. I didn't switch over any of my MT templates that generate the bulk of my site's pages and include those headers & footers, nor did I go through any of my other static "helper" files to see where I'd done includes and need to change them.

So I'm doing that now. My site's probably 85-95% blog, and the main blog where I write my day to day shit (what you're reading now) is comprised, just looking this morning, of 992 posts. That means 992 individual files to build just for the template that shows comments. Plus, it covers a span of 4 years and 9 months. That's 57 monthly archive files to build. Then there are 16 category archive files to build, with many of them quick but at least one (the "Life" a.k.a main dumpage category) that's loooooong. Plus various and sundry index templates, such as the main page, the page that shows all the months in calendar format, and several one-off "helper" pages.

So far, and I probably started the rebuild after fixing all my templates, about 10-15 minutes ago, I'm just now reaching the category pages as I type this. It had a temporary hiccup "network error" while building, somewhere either at the end of the individual template files or beginning of the monthly files. Once it got into the monthly archives it flew; it's alread done. But those individual files take forever.

I still have some work to do, outside the templates. I've already fixed my theme code, but I still have other warnings showing up.

What I don't get, assuming things like $DOCUMENT_ROOT and $HTTP_USER_AGENT are read-only, and thus in theory not something that'd be overridden simply by someone typing it on the URL, is why those things are lumped into the same category as the globals that get set from form submittals (on the URL or not) when register globals is on. I don't understand why the PHP folks didn't just make them super globals and have done with it. Sure, I'd still have to change the one or two bits of form code I have to grab stuff from $_POST, but I really don't get why the other crap can't still be available. Not much point. Since they're supposed to be read-only anyway, I'd think making them super globals would seal the deal and make it easier for developers to boot.

I'm so fucking tired right now. Didn't even get to start on the last bit of OT I wanted to do tonight, then of course everything had to be 2-4 times as slow as when I'm directly on the network, tunnel + DSL instead of no tunnel + direct ethernet = slower crap. Anyway, so the hours' worth of work I had (after I brought in a shitton of unexpected changes I actually opened my email in order to find out what the hell was going on), took me more like 2.

I like the money, and this week is 6 extra hours of it, but damn if I'm not worn out to hell. 5 hours of sleep or less a night is generally not good. Only other upside is being able to stick my laptop and mouse in their bag, then directly turn out the light and go to sleep. Laptop + wireless in bed FTW, I suppose.

Kitten who may become Guinness' new smallest kitty.

So, it's crunch time at work getting the rewrite ready for beta release in a few weeks. Gotta crank some charts for it. Got a week per chart, according to the schedule. Not much time. Figuring out the charting software (these aren't HTML charts, so we gotta use the software that makes images of 'em) took rather longer than I would've liked, so my first chart of that type took longer than that.

Current chart actually has a second chart (completely separate software with a lotta copy/paste in the current system) that differs very little.

My goal? Do 'em more or less in tandem, with one set of code instead of two completely separate sets, and get them both done in one week. Only working maybe 4-6 hours of OT (worked 2 and a half last night, propped up comfy in bed). Think I can make it?

Edit: I should mention this isn't some kinda "draw a static chart in Powerpoint" thing, or "create a template in Excel that makes charts". Oh no, this is hauling data outta Oracle, manipulating some of it, then sticking it in a format the charting software can understand. And making it still look like the current production charts. So this isn't a 2 hour dealie.

I forgot to post this earlier. Current weight as of March 27 @ 6am: 146.2 pounds.

I only did the one set of cardio last week, on Monday after my class. This week I vow to be better; J does as well, so hopefully we can cajole encourage each other well enough to get in some decent exercise.

Well, form fields get populated correctly now. However, phpinfo still reports register globals being turned on, and things I've written that still use (far as I know) auto globals from form fields also works again. I'm not sure if they decided to keep it on, or if things are still in flux, but absolutely everything should work for the moment. I'm still going to find all the code I've written that uses forms (precious little, to be honest) and switch it over to use the $_POST array, as I should've in the first place, since I don't know how much longer they'll work at this point, but at least I know I can change it over and have it keep working.

I need to go take the notice off the bruno board since it's probably working fine now once again.

Our webhost was attacked with a phishing routine that takes advantage of autoglobals being on in PHP. After some version (4.2 I want to say, could be wrong) it's off by default, but because there are so many scripts (including, it turns out, phpBB) that use it, they'd kept it turned on. Due to this attack, it's now off.

The main bits of my site, which don't use any forms save the commenting form, are just fine. Since I'm writing this post, that makes it obvious that MovableType still works (it's not written in PHP), so commenting still works. However, any parts that rely on autoglobals being available, won't work. For my family members who have logins on my wishlist, to see ideas I've added for others (such as J) for gifts, that doesn't work. (Tried fixing that one, with no dice so far. $_POST isn't getting populated either, for some odd reason, and even $_REQUEST doesn't have the form info that gets submitted.) Also, I strongly suspect I'm going to have to modify my themes script, for when people want to change themes. Whatever you have selected will stay that way, I think, but changing to a different one won't work.

There's probably other things I've yet to consider; if you notice anything I haven't already mentioned that isn't working, feel free to comment here with it. It's gonna take a while to get it all sorted out.

I had to delete the database user that all my main site connections use, then re-add again. The user was there, but evidently the password got corrupted or changed in some way, because that fixed it. I really wish cPanel gave a way to (re)set/change the password for each database user. It's really stupid, in my opinion, to have to delete a user and then add the user again, just to change the password.

Not only did I go to my workout class and work up a sweat there, the R-bike was free, so I spent 18 minutes burning calories there! Booyah!

There will be two entries below this one that I didn't get to add earlier. I'm going to try to get them up before databases become available again.

If commenting gives you a database looking error that mentions MySQL, it's 'cause databases are yoyoing until the move is 100% complete (DBs all got moved to a separate dedicated server -- huge pain in the ass type stuff). Try again later, is all I can say.

In a really quick nutshell, Saturday was almost all awesome, and Sunday was almost all "meh."

I caught up on much needed sleep and spouse time Saturday, which was great. Then fun St. Louisy (including honorary St. Louisy person queenfrizzle, natch!) people came out for good fun to be had. We all rocked out on guitar hero, made many WoW jokes, and Battlestar Galactica was watched. J put ZG on the big screen a few times while he was in it. Only bad was that there is something downstairs that really triggers my allergies if I spend too much time down there. I'd say it must be copious amounts of cat dander, but well... they shed all over upstairs as well as downstairs, so that kinda indicates that can't be the problem. First time, I was good with going upstairs for a while with a hit on the inhaler, and napping for a bit. Second time, I finally had to head upstairs for good, got hit with the works 'cause I was due for my meds anyway. Sorry I disappeared guys, nothing personal, just my stupid allergies chasing me into bed.

Sunday... well, I slept in again, then we grabbed some food, and... I didn't want to do anything. As in, all these things that I could be doing, should be doing, but all I wanted to do was lie in bed. I didn't even care whether I slept. Total malaise. At first I attributed it to the previous night's allergy snafu, but it went beyond that. I finally said something to J, and he said that's how he'd felt most of last week. I told him I thought he'd been "sick" sick, as in feeling under the weather with cold symptoms and such. He said other than a bit of a runny nose, mostly he just felt tired all the time, and had to force himself to do anything at all, including getting out of bed, eating, etc. So evidently there's some wussy ass virus that doesn't bring out the big guns from one's immune system, but does just enough to feel totally and utterly unmotivated to do one single damn thing.

The main awesomeness besides continued time spent with J, was that I walked three miles. Three friggin' miles! More than I have in, I dunno, ever. And all in just a bit under 52 minutes, too. At about the 45 minute mark I almost felt like I could go forever, even with the sweat pouring off my face. It was awesome. Only drawback, is that apparently my hiking boots are only 99% awesome, due to a bit of a lack of impact cushioning under the toes. So I'm gonna find some gel inserts just for toes/balls of feet to put in 'em, 'cause the middle of the ball-of-foot area (not the actual balls, but next to 'em) is sore today. Heels are fine though, which is the hard part. Balls of my feet generally recover quickly. It feels pretty good to know I can rock out a 3 mile walk in under an hour. I spent a brief time at warmup and cooldown (like, 30 seconds) at 3mph, but most was between 3.4 and 3.5 with a little at 3.6 even, two different spurts of a couple minutes each. Totally awesome burn in the calves, lemme tell ya.

I have a depo appointment Tuesday, and I look forward to the compliments when I step on the scale and weigh ~10 pounds less than what they weighed me at 3 months ago. Slow but steady wins the race!

Current weight as of March 20 @ 6:20am: 147 pounds.

Also, being out of clean blue jeans among the pairs that I usually wear, including the two new ones I bought, I went drawer-digging. I found a pair of size 10 Levis that claim low waist but are about 1/4" shorter rise than their waist-high jeans (which puts them actually still a bit higher than my waist). They'd stayed buried in my drawer for probably over a year, because the waistband dug into my belly to where I had deep red gouges by the end of the day. However, today, they fit! I didn't have to "suck it in" to close them at all. Woot!

I didn't have my MovableType entry title tag, which I use in a PHP string variable, using the encode_php attribute which escapes double or single quotes (depending on the value you give it) for use in string literals. Now I do, and the page works as it should.

[this wasn't up earlier, hadda wait for database to come back up]

Maybe I'm being unreasonable, but when doing 50+ mph (on a street w/ a 40 mph speed limit, by the way), I like to be able to see at least a little pavement between me and the middle of the bumper of the car behind me. Seeing as I don't live in anywhere that likes to drive 90 mph bumper to bumper, I think that's very reasonable. I'd prefer more than a sliver, actually, but a sliver will do.

So when you're driving, and the person in front of you seemingly taps their brakes for no reason, it means you need to make a conscious effort to note whether you'd be able to avoid the car in front of you if they had to stop suddenly for whatever reason.

If you then get closer after an increase of 5 mph, when the person actually hits their brakes enough to slow down a good 5 or 10, it means... (mucho nasty swearing inside)

BACK THE FUCK OFF YOU STUPID ASSHOLE CUNTRAG SHEEPFUCKING DOGRAPING BITCH!!!

Stupid bitch got on my ass on northbound Lindbergh as we were going by the entrance ramp from 270 westbound (i.e. the one that isn't part of the cloverleaf). Fine, whatever. There were a lot of cars in that lane 'cause most of them want to ride the clover to get to 270 west, and then there were a couple people getting on. I was already going 50, keeping a decent but maybe still too a mite too close distance from the van in front of me. The person who got in behind me, with no blinker I should note, initially started close enough I could hardly see the top of the bumper. Then they backed off, but only to where I could see the bumper, no pavement. Grr. So I touched my brakes a little, not enough to actually slow down and not taking my foot off the gas. Which is, I thought, the universal sign for "please back off a little, you're too close". Riiiight. Then traffic in front of me speeds up more, so I go up to 55 which is fine by me. Stupid in the black Grand Am decides to get closer, where once again I can only see headlights. WTF?

So I actually take my foot off the gas and hit my brakes. Not enough to stop or be going like 10 mph or anything. But enough to make the seatbelt lock just in case and be able to feel that I hit 'em. So what does Stupid Asshole do?

Stupid Asshole apparently gets angry that I dare almost "make him" hit me, or something, and stays on my ass. I start slowing down since we're approaching a red light anyway, and hell if Shit-For-Brains is going to drive that close I'd better match my speed to his stopping distance, right? I eventually need 3 lanes over to get into my work's parking lot and see an opening next to me, and take it, with signal thankyouverymuch. Shithole pushes in behind me, still way too close though now we're talking 25-30 mph speeds, not 50+. Then an opening happens in the next lane, and I take it. Just as the only other vehicle in the far right lane goes by me so I can get in behind him (light has turned green, btw, so we never stopped moving), fuckwad double lane changes, again with no signal, to stay right on my fucking ass. The van turns right immediately at the signal (with no blinker *sigh*) and there's a large gap in front of me, too bad the next light was red. I gunned it so I'd actually have some room (haha, funny 'cause I drive a 4-banger base model Corolla and shitheel drives a Grand Am). Yea, I had some real fucking distance between us. But alas it didn't last, because we got the green, I sped up normally, since after all I did have a car in front of me. Whore-and-beans fucking stays on my ass this time, then whips into the next lane over at the first opportunity and turns and yells at me, pointing at me and trying to tell me off (like I can hear the bitch, no windows down, can't read lips when I'm driving).

It doesn't surprise me, it doesn't shock me. But it worries me to no end that we have people so slack-jawed stupid who somehow managed to get licenses and are driving on our roads, more or less putting our lives in danger every day just from their sheer stupidity and the high potential for them to do something asinine. How can you even think to blame the driver in front of you for "making you almost hit them"?? If you're so close that you barely handled the relative love-tap they gave their brakes to warn you off, you're sure as hell too goddamn close for all the myriad reasons they might actually have to stop suddenly and completely. How can someone be so bloody dense not to understand that?

Reminds me of a phrase a friend occasionally uses that, while not medically accurate, probably describes this asshole and everyone like him quite well: "No brain, no headaches, no need for aspirin."

I bought these last June to take to Colorado (yeah, us hike lots, hehehe, right...). They had great tread, had room for my rather large orthotics, and felt comfy enough. I wasn't really used to wearing shoes that came up my ankle to just above the joint, so I had to get used to the back being in that one particular spot on my achilles tendons, so there was a couple days' "break in" period. They did fine on the little hiking we did. When we got home, I didn't want to have spent... I dunno, $40-60 I think (can't remember now) on shoes I only wore for a brief time then never again. So I started wearing them sometimes as everyday shoes instead of always wearing my regular shoes. My regular shoes were athletic shoes specifically sold as walking shoes. They felt awesome in the store, with the orthotics in, so I bought 'em. Well, I've since figured out they haven't been great for my heels... I was still having enough issues with my spurs at the time that I wasn't sure it was the shoes, but switching more and more to the boots bore that out: my heels almost don't hurt at all anymore, but when I spent all day in my walking shoes they start... I dunno, slightly twinging again. Just ever so slightly more sore than usual.

I found out last night just how awesome my boots are. I was going to do a full workout on the treadmill last night, but by the time I was getting to it, it was after 9pm and I was starting to get sleepy, so I figured I'd do a quick 15 minute walk, just to get some exercise in. I went downstairs in my street clothes from the day: sweatshirt, jeans, and boots. My feet didn't hurt once. Not a bit. So well, that I actually walkdd 5 extra minutes, and spent all of it at or above 3mph with most of it at 3.4 and even 5 minutes or so at 3.5 which is usually uncomfortable for me (remember, 27" inseam). I think at least a little of it is the ankle support, which in turn keeps me from overstretching my tendons and thus pulling too hard on my heels (a heel spur is more or less inflammation where that tendon attaches to your heel bone). The rest is just... they seem to be fit just right for my feet, or at least they are with my orthotics. Apparently, there's something different about the cushioning or something in these boots from the walking shoes that provides better shock absorption. I'd expect hiking boots to be good for that, definitely, but I'd have figured walking athletic shoes would as well.

All I need now, is to find athletic shoes that have the exact same awesome cushioning in all the exact same places as my hiking boots. Not that I know how to go about doing that, especially since stores don't like to accept returns on shoes that you very obviously tested out for a couple weeks in the meantime to find out how well they actually hold up using them for your intended use. I also don't think they'd let you spend an hour or two walking around the mall "trying them on" before deciding whether to buy them.

Looks like I'm gonna be scoring some OT pay. We're getting to where mandatory OT is being mentioned, but not yet being set up. Since we have to do all the work no matter what, so it'll cost just as much to get it done late as it would to work the OT and get things done, that means it's better to do the OT. Of course, mandatory OT is generally a morale killer and universally hated, so we're encouraged to figure out what we think makes sense for us, so that it can be more flexible than the mandatory stuff, not burn anyone out, and everything will get done on time.

I worked 2 hours Thursday, and plan on working 2 more tomorrow. Tomorrow's especially good since we're all spending 2 hours (well, more than that since there's travel time and wait-to-start time) at the Family Arena for this big ethics thing, so that'll mostly mean still getting in 8 hours of coding/testing time.

It also possibly means, with a 9pm raid time for J, that we may have to exercise separately, with him doing it while I'm still at work and me doing it after we eat while he's raiding. He thinks that me getting home at 6:15 or 6:30 or so will leave us plenty of time to both go together and eat and stuff; if the raid really isn't until 9 then he's probably right. If they start at 8 then not too likely. Then again, I can always pick us up something or make something simple that he can eat while raiding, so maybe even then. So I guess we need to prepare to actually be good and eat at home tomorrow. Maybe tonight some time we can go grab some groceries and we can get together fixings for a nice yummy salad. I'm thinking a little romaine, a little baby spinach, some chopped up red onion, shredded cheese, and maybe do up some chicken breasts on the Foreman grill then cut 'em up into the salad. Mmm...

I was lazy and didn't do amy weight work Friday. I... don't think we did anything productive.

Saturday was good... had the windows open all day, even in the evening while it rained since it wasn't terribly windy. J and I decided to pick up Guitar Hero and an extra controller. They had a used copy and used controller, but only the one used controller and no new ones by themselves. However, they also had a new copy that comes with a controller. So we bought that plus the used controller. J's friends came over, and they ended up doing nothing until food time but play Guitar Hero. They played head to head, then realized there weren't many songs so they started taking turns making money so they could "buy" more.

Since I'd still not done any exercising, and they were really having lots of fun with the game, after we got back from eating I did weight stuff and they played more instead of the usual immediate launching of a movie that usually happens. I started with the weight that still had 10 pounds on it, and just stick with that. First came biceps, just regular curls one arm at a time. I tried 2 sets of 10 regular ones, but only managed 8 with my left arm on the second set. Then I did one set of 8 (or 10? can't remember now) hammer curls. I followed that up with triceps, just where you stand and hold the weight up straight in one hand and bend only at the elbow to lower your hand so your forearm's horizontal then back up again. I did a set of 10, then 8, then 6, one arm at a time. I did those very slooooowly, since any faster and I wouldn't have been able to avoid enough momentum to knock me over. Finished that part with shoulder work. Ook, that was rough. I only did two sets of eight, holding the weight in both hands at one hip, raising up, then going down diagonally to the other hip, then up again and diagonally down again. Even with my shoulders (which I've been told are smaller muscles than biceps or triceps -- tops of shoulders, not the huger traps on the shoulder blades) only doing 5 pounds since the 10 pounds was shared between the two, it was a big struggle for the last couple of both sets.

I'm still a little shocked I did all those with a 10 pound weight. Ten friggen pounds!

Then, after a bit to rest and stop sweating (it was a little humid), I did pushups and crunches. 10 pushups, then 12 regular crunches. 10 pushups, then 10 oblique crunches (knees up and bent, ankles crossed, rotating side to side). 10 pushups, then 12 regular crunches and 14 obliques (was gonna do 12 and 12 but messed up and did 10 the first time around). I did 30 flippin' pushups. Quite awesome. Only thing is, my wrists were rather unhappy with me by the time I finished the third set, which is why I didn't put a fourth set in between the regular and oblique crunches like before.

I forgot to do 'em, but I plan on starting forearm curls. This will work to build enough strength in my forearms, that I have the wrist strength to do fist pushups. Once I can do fist pushups, my wrists won't be a false limitation on how many I can do. I figure I'll add those curls in either before we start class if I'm there early enough, or after we finish the first half of the class but before we've started the stretches for the second half. I'll work that for all my classes, and then add them into my weight work on Friday/Saturday.

So we were up ungodly late Saturday. Watched the latest Harry Potter movie (damn, they're getting darker, aren't they?) which was pretty long. We didn't start that till, I dunno, midnight or later. After that J's friends left but we were both up till after 4am. Then we lounged in bed until 1pm or so. Then we played some GH and I helped J get enough cash to get the other character and some more songs (he unlocked "Death" Saturday night). After J came upstairs to start the Sunday night MC raid, I followed shortly after.

I finally installed Myst V and started a game. Longest. Install. Evar. That took seriously way too long. But it's pretty interesting so far, though I'm not very far in yet. It reminds me I really need to install Riven, and Myst 3 and 4, and try playing them through again. The journal pieces of Atrus' daughter are sort of serving as a recap of a lot of stuff in the other games, but it makes me think of the details I'm missing. My problem with these games is that I'll play for a little while and then leave off for so long I'd really need to start over again because there's no way I'd remember enough to pick up where I left off.

Current weight as of March 13 @ 6:30am: 148.2 pounds.

Current waist measurement: 34"
Current hip measurement: 38"

Waist has shrunk by a half inch. Hips none. Down about a half a pound from two weeks ago, which isn't much. Arms and shoulders are definitely slimmer; my arms look less sloppy and there was that blouse that didn't fit that fits great now. I think I may have lost a little bit more off the area about an inch or two below my waist than my waist itself; the pants I've bought in the last couple years fit there rather than waist high and they're very noticably looser. I'm not sure if a half inch would be enough to feel that way or not.

The original Friday Five ended nearly two years ago. However, there's now an LJ community of the same name. Now that I know this, I figured I could start doing them again.

1. 10 years ago what did you think you would be doing now?
   Well, 10 years ago I was still barely in the Freshman Engineering program at UMR, just before I dropped Engineering Physics 23 (the first of two physics semesters -- the physical stuff). It was dawning on me I didn't really want to be an engineer, even chemical engineering which is what my initial major was. So I didn't have a clear picture of where I'd be today.
2. Where do you think you will be in 5 years from now?
   I'll probably still be at my current company, preferably still writing Java code. I don't know whether I'll still be on the same project as I am now, though it's certainly possible given I'm on the same one I started on almost 6 years ago. I do know I like doing web development in the Java language, especially now that I've gotten a much better taste of all the neat technologies available.
3. Do you live life one day at a time or look to the future?
   Usually mostly the former, with a little of the latter sprinkled in. I plan for things in terms of money, as well as one ever can. But, I don't think about the longterm every single day, all the time.
4. Do you wish you could go back in time and undo something in your life?
   There are probably quite a few things I'd go back and change. I'd rather not go into all that here, though, to be honest. I'd much rather let those things stay in the back of my mind, from which they can spring to haunt me from time to time when I'm having trouble sleeping.
5. If you could send a message back in time and give a younger version of yourself some advice, what would it be?
   "Heh. Don't be a stupid bitch. Don't follow the crowd so much. Be more assertive." These are all things I'd like to tell younger selves starting with about 8th grade. I'd like to tell my little kid self, not that she'd listen, not to be such a fucking brat to my sister. Other than that, nothing from that age really stands out as having been wanting change.

I upped the amount of weight I'm using for biceps in my class to 7 pounds from 6, after just having upped it around... 3 weeks ago? Something like that. More impetus to do large-weight, small-rep sets on Fridays or Saturdays, to add more to my gains.

I finally had some time to do cardio last night. I spent 40 minutes on the recumbent bike at the gym. I was totally dripping sweat when I was done, yay. Of course, the last 15 or so minutes I spent with my right calf trying to cramp and the last 5 or so with both of 'em going trying it. Hehe, I lost all control of the pedals at one point when I had to jerk my left leg to prevent a full cramp, was pretty funny actually. I need to get more water in me, that's for sure.

Oh, and the reason I noticed the crack in my iRiver's screen yesterday was 'cause I was looking at it to check the title of a song that gives me no end of amusement. That would be Nasty Girl by Destiny's Child. So hilarious.

It makes a pretty good mess, too. I made some yesterday in a microwave at work, at 2 minutes (instructions say 1.5 to 2 on high) and it was fine. So I made some at home this morning. Yeeeah... I'd gone into the kitchen right after showering and putting the usual crap in my hair, figuring I'd microwave up some oatmeal I could eat while checking email, weather, etc., so I could save a little time. Well, I went and put on some pants at the 1 minute mark, coming back right as it finished at 2 minutes. I opened the door, and what looked like about a third of it was outside the bowl. >.< At least the microwave is usually clean, so long as I haven't done something like this, so I scooped most of it back into the bowl. I did my best to wipe up the rest, but the stuff is gluey and slimy and sticky and doesn't really all wipe up so well. I took the bowl into the computer room and did my morning internet thing with the bowl sitting in my lap on a paper towel so I wouldn't get oatmeal on my jeans, and I'll pull the rotating thingy out of the microwave and hit it with some Dow when I get home.

At least I know how to follow instructions making coffee though. Rather than one of those annoying pots that usually likes to drip when it pours, like this pot, we have really good ones similar to this pot. That helps with pouring, except when the pot is overful. Which it was. Now, the way things are set up, the rule is no new coffee after 3pm or so, and if one of the two pots gets low, you either turn off the burner under it, or if it's feasible and still early enough in the day you dump the near empty one into the other and start a new pot. Also, someone was nice enough to provide a pourable pitcher and mark a line on it that's the right amount of water. So either someone was really stupid and brewed a new pot into one that wasn't empty, they filled the pitcher way more than they should have, or they dumped the rest of a low pot into the other one when it was already completely full.

The result was me trying to pour coffee out of a pot that had coffee literally up to the very top it possibly could be without spilling out. So of course I was ridiculously careful in pouring it and still made a mess that needed wiping up with paper towels. It didn't help I couldn't tell it was that full at first, so initially lifting it made me spill a bunch on the burner that also needed wiping up. You would've figured common sense would prevent people from filling a coffee pot that full, but... yeah. Y'all saw my open letter to my non-tidy fellow female coworkers (fortunately there are a few others like me who not only are disgusted with it, but actually wipe up the lakes left by others).

Finally, I'm pissed off. My iRiver's screen has a new crack in it, which I discovered late yesterday afternoon while still at work (overtime pay FTW!). I've not had it a year yet, just a little shy of 7 months in fact. I've been pretty careful with it even. I managed to pull it off the desk a couple times Monday or Tuesday, with the earbuds in and rolling too far from my desk, but I checked it both times and it was fine from that. Didn't even make the music skip. I've also put it back in the case that came with it, which I should note does not protect the screen whatsoever. There are a few holes in the plastic so the port, on/off switch, and volume buttons can be easily accessed, but there's also a big gaping hole in the screen so it can be read, which doesn't even have a flimsy piece of clear plastic across it. I keep it in my purse with the earbud cord wrapped around it at screen level (which provides a slight bit of protection, at least screening it). I don't leave it in my car exposed to heat, cold, or excessive humidity.

But now I have a big crack across half the screen. It doesn't affect the display thankfully, it's just in the clear part. But it pisses me the fuck off. I'm going to call iRiver to ask them if it even can be replaced in any way, and if so how much it'll cost. (And get a guarantee from them that they won't so much as think about touching the info on the HD. I like the firmware and music and playlists exactly the way I have them, kthxbye.) After that, if I can get it fixed in a reasonable amount of time for a reasonable amount of money, I'm going to go ahead and buy the leather case I found for it. I was going to get the one at MisticAudio but I think I like the other style better. Also, while the second one says it has builtin screen protection, the picture doesn't make that very clear, and it doesn't look like it's protected from impact damage, just scratch damage. When I bought my player, and even months later when I found the other case, the first one wasn't available yet. The only issue is that I can't see from the picture how the flipdown part stays flipped down.

I swear, Eclipse's auto code completion gets slower and slower every damn day, totally hanging for several seconds at a time. It's starting to make me cross. I love it sometimes, but it certainly seems as though times where I don't want or need it, are the same times that take the longest.

We finally were able to get everything together (vehicle, no one out of town, etc.) to get over to Ballwin. A coworker of my mom's and her husband were wanting to unload a home gym. They used it before they moved, but then they started renovating the basement, and they had neither the time nor the space so it was just collecting dust. So they set a cheap asking price and put word around. We tried to coordinate for last week, but that was just too harried and too schedule-conflicted. So we settled on Tuesday (yesterday). However, that looked like it wasn't going to work either. However, inspiration struck and we remembered our friend Will drives a van, and he graciously agreed to help us out in exchange for gas and dinner. Thank you, Will!

We got there around 8:20 after taking the seats out at our house, got it broken down enough to fit all the pieces up the stairs and into the van, then were home again about 9:40. It's currently sitting in the room we plan on using it in, in pieces. They said that if we have trouble getting it back together (some of the pullies had to be detached, and figuring out all that stuff might be difficult even with complete instructions), that we should call the place that sells them and they'll come out for a fee and put it back together. (They would've moved it too, but that was $150.) Got it all moved in by about 10pm, then we headed to Applebees for some much needed food. J's so sore and got so little sleep that when he showed up for work, one of the teachers told him to go home sick. They also threw in a weight bench since her friend never came for it and they wanted to be rid of it, the bar, and the old weights for it as well.

Heh, she asked me how long we guessed it'd be sitting in pieces in the basement, and I said no way it'll get put together before the weekend. I'd say we could get to it Thursday or Friday night, but... yeah that isn't happening.

In other news, the gate to our parking lot that I usually go in was closed, for no obvious reason. That was annoying. I turned in, then had to turn back out and go around the corner to the next one. Also, with the storms we had our power out at work for about... 10 minutes or so. Sure, I have a laptop, but I was doing dual monitors and all my main stuff was on the one that now was powerless. Also, that meant no network availability.

One interesting thing though, was that I looked into my mug to make sure I'd rinsed it out before grabbing some coffee (I had) and there was a rough yin-yang pattern to the residue. Neat.

Dear Office Women,

This is not your personal bathroom. As such, you certainly are not required to do things like washing the toilets, sinks, or floor, keeping the toilet paper stocked, keeping paper towels stocked, etc. That's fine and well understood.

However, this does not leave you free to be a disgusting slob. If you have whole minutes to devote to washing out your lunch dishes, then you can spare a few extra seconds to clean up the lake you created on the sink, so that the rest of us don't end up with water on the fronts of our shirts. Also, please try to make a second check of the toilet if you are often likely to forget flushing it. And for all you hold dear, if you somehow manage to miss the toilet with the TP you just wiped with when attempting to toss it in the bowl, do not leave said used TP on the floor!

Thanks,
Your Tidy Female Coworker

I went to the work cafeteria 'cause I was on my own for lunch (usually a small group of us goes out to wherever that's close). I had to hit the ATM there because I had pretty much no money. First, I put in my credit card instead of my bank card. I didn't realize it until it told me twice that it couldn't complete my transaction. Second, after putting in the right card, I put in the last 4 of my SSN instead of my correct PIN and didn't realize it until it told me I had the wrong PIN and I thought about the error for a minute or so. Third, I didn't walk down the hallway long enough to be in the right building, and didn't realize it until I'd already gone up the flight of stairs to my floor.

It's a wonder I didn't accidentally try to wear my underwear on my head or something. I strongly suspect any code I write today will need to be rewritten during the rest of the week.

I've got myself and our stuff pretty together for this trip, for me. I hosed down the toiletry bag which sorely needed it. Mannnn, was that gross. Soap-sudsy and gross at the same time. I got a little toner on my hair yesterday, color was a bit faded but not enough and not enough root growth to need a full color appointment. My stylist complimented me on my curls and said whatever product I was using I should keep it up. (Usually no matter how good they look earlier in the day, by the time I've gotten there I've had my hands in it so much, or it's windy or whatever, that I look kinda frazzled and such.) Totally agreed. I packed all my regular non-dressy clothes for the trip already. When I get home, all I need to do is pack the toiletry bag, get changed and get some make-up on, pack my make-up, and work my magic to get our everyday shoes, toiletry bag, and hair dryer (including the massive diffuser attachment) in our little carry-on bag. All the maps are printed, our boarding passes are printed, information on the hotel and rental car is printed. Printouts and reading material will go in the bigger "main" carry-on with our clothes and my shoes for the wedding. Oh yeah, and I need to remember to grab some pantyhose for that. Then my purse will be my "extra personal item", and my laptop will be J's. Free wireless, woo! (Probably will go wired though, more reliable.)

Only other odds and ends will be to make sure the kitties have extra food and water for the weekend, and give the plants a little extra water (watered 'em last night). Might let our neighbors across the street know that any strangers snooping around who aren't just knocking on the door don't belong there, 'cause of course we'll be gone. Cellphone is fully charged (for now) and the charger will be coming with me. Should probably call my parents' cell to find out where they're staying.

Pretty organized for me, all in all. I'm sure I'll forget something, though I've no idea what it'll be yet.

I got the pictures from this past weekend uploaded, and a page written that links to 'em all. None of them have been edited in any way; that's how they came off the camera. Feel free to check 'em out. Names for a few of the folks need updating, 'cause I never got full formal introductions and forgot half of what I was told. So don't string me up if I fucked it up, mmmkay?

It was a lot of fun. Watched Office Space, ate meat, made bad WoW puns and other references with no fear of a blank stare, played video games, etc. Our cats hid out in the bedroom, and one decided that rather than either run to the litterbox downstairs where we all were, or hold it, to use our bedroom floor. >.< Ah well, wasn't that hard to clean up. After that I brought a litterbox upstairs, and moved their food & water in there as well. Anyway, I had a lot of fun meeting everyone I hadn't met before and seeing again those who I had, and I think we should definitely try to do that again some time.

I'm starting not to need the scale to tell me I'm losing weight. In case I didn't mention it, we're heading to a wedding of a longtime friend of mine in Dallas this weekend. I was trying on clothes together, to try to figure out what I was going to wear to the get-together at my friend's parents' house the evening before, to see what was dressy enough but not wedding-dressy, etc. I have this gold shiny satiny blouse, and the last time I tried it on the last 10 pounds or so I'd put on made it too tight in the shoulders and across the chest. I hadn't dug it out yet because I figured it still didn't fit.

It fit. Well. Well enough that I'm wearing it Friday. Talk about a happy surprise. And the pants I'm wearing are nearly loose on me now, whereas they were just a big snug but still fit when I bought them, and I had difficulty closing them as little as 3 months ago. The only sad part is that I love these pants, and they're really my only pair of "dress-up" pants. I got 'em on sale when Express first came out with them (they're the "Editor" style). They were around $40-50 or so then. Pretty sure when they're not having a sale, they usually go for more like the $65-90 range. So now I'm wondering how long I should wait to buy another, smaller pair. I don't dress up that often, so I don't have any really nice pants that I'll be able to fit into in the interim. So the dilemma is whether I should snag a pair in a size 8 the next time a sale comes along, or if I should just wait until the next sale after I'm as trim as I'm shooting for. I don't want to waste a gob of money, but I don't want to spend a long time with no dressy pants and then have to run out and buy some last-minute for something that came up either. Heh, of all the dilemmas to have, this isn't necessarily a bad one, eh?

Anyway, I'm thinking maybe by the end of March I could be down to 142 or so. How awesome would that be? I think when I'm at my ob/gyn's office on the 21st they'll see enough to notice. The last time I weighed in there I was 162 fully clothed in the afternoon. If I'm at around 145 in the morning fresh out of the shower nude, even an 8 pound difference by adding clothing and the pounds everyone gains throughout the day (that's assuming I'm dressed as warmly as I was in January) that's a 9 pound difference on their scale. The look on the nurse's face who's weighing me, and on the doc's face afterwards when she reads my chart and talks to me about Depo as always, is definitely a motivator.

(Yes yes, real update to come. I don't actually plan on making my blog all about my losing weight. It's just been on the forefront of my mind lately.)