Adam Duritz Says

(Such a life, such a life, such a life, uncommon
Honestly, I don't know why)

All my friends got flowers in their eyes
But I got none this season
All of last year's blooms have gone and died
Time doesn't give a reason
Hey baby, do you ask yourself sometimes
What you need to be forgiven?
Everything that you've ever done wrong
Is the reason that I'm driven
Straight to tears

Waiting here for you, wanting to tell you
How I get my ends and my beginnings mixed up, too
Just the way you do, I thought if I told you
You might want to stay for just another day...or two

(It's just like answers that come in small packages that go in the mail)

Waiting for the trains that just never come
Beginning to believe in
The disappearing nature of the people we have been
We have begun to change into the worst kind of people, so unkind
Oh apologies, no apologies, this apology
Doesn't describe the way it feels to feel for you

Waiting here for you, wanting to tell you
How I find myself slowly disappearing, too
Just the way you do, I thought if I told you
You might want to help me to remain...with you

I just wanna stay for a little while
I wanna stay a little while

Cause there's a night life just falling down on me
I just feel like a change
Beneath the sun in the summer
A sea of flowers won't bloom without the rain
But oh, this desert life, this high life
Here at the dying of the day
I wasn't made for the scene, baby
But I was made in this scene
Baby, it's just my way
I don't wanna go home alone
I wanna come on home to you

Waiting here for you, wanting to tell you
How I line my sky with all the silver I can use
Just the way you do, I thought if I told you
You might want to stay for just another day..or two

(Isn't that just like disappearing into the sum of yourself
And the person you are disappearing into
It's like one plus one equals nothing at all
One plus two equals nothing at all
One plus me equals nothing at all
One plus you equals one plus you equals you
And you and you and you and nothing at all)

-Counting Crows, "High Life"

Intelligence Test

Final count on part 2 = 21 (no 18, 19 or 24). I just looked at the answers today. I don't think I ever would have gotten 18 or 19, but I'm a little annoyed about 24.

My own (puny) attempt at making these things:
40 W is a FTP
12 T of I
9 C in a G of F
8 P in a G
11 to 13 S in the C

Answers are in the comments, so don't peek if you don't want to see them.

Weekend Update

Friday: Sucked terribly. Finally got to sleep for 11 hours.
Saturday: Lounged around the house, played DDR, dinner with Eric, Carly and Steve, concert at Eric and Carly's church and then back to their house to hang out for a while.
Sunday: Church, grocery shopping, lounging.
Monday: Dentist, EB Games for Matt, lounging, nap, TV.

Going to be having a long talk after lab meeting today. Sigh.

Overall compensation (wages + benefits) dropped by 0.3% after adjusted for inflation last year. This is the first decline in 9 years (5th paragraph for that stat).

Mr. T: "Call yo momma!"
I need to do that tonight. Stupid State of the Union Address is pre-empting House.

I know how you feel, Jon.

I gots new teefers today. It hurts.

18 days until I'll be on the slopes in WV. I need that.

Theory confirmed

So I went to David's Bridal today to pick out my bridesmaid's dress for Kim's wedding. I ended up choosing this one. You can't see it in that picture, but it's got a row of buttons and some really pretty embroidery on the back. As for my theory, it states that the more you pay for an article of (womens) clothing, the smaller size you need. Case in point - if I buy stuff from Target, I typically need an 8. From JC Penney or Sears, it's usually a 6. Today, I needed a 4.

I conquer the world for a moment, then the moment is gone

Twenty four oceans, twenty four skies
Twenty four failures, twenty four tries
Twenty four finds me in twenty-fourth place
Twenty four drop outs at the end of the day
Life is not what I thought it was twenty four hours ago
-Switchfoot, 24

Cartoonify Your IM Chats!

You know, if you're bored or something... ChatFu. Works with any text, cartoon panels are random. This one is from a bit of a convo with Jim. You'll have to click the image to actually read anything, it didn't resize well to fit in my blog panel.

Today's linkage

Guy outwits scammer trying to fake a purchase confirmation for his used camera by shipping him a box full of dog crap on the scammer's FedEx account here.

Question and answer session with our omnipotent president here.

The Sweet Briar dinner/auction last night raised $7000 for scholarship funds. I still managed to get lost on the way home. Stupid DC and their lack of signs.

Better living through games

Have you ever been to the website WheresGeorge.com? I havent, but I've heard of it. You track serial numbers of dollar bills to find out where your money travels. It's just a fun little thing, but some physicists used the information from the website to make statistical models of human travel that could be applied to epidemiology and disease spread. Now that's really cool.

More Awesomeness

Another excellent Honda commercial (link takes you to a mirror site, don't be scared off by all the numbers!)

Got #22 on the I.T.

I heart Georgetown Law Students

If I was ever going to go to law school (which I'm not) I would go to Georgetown Law because of these people.

Another Week

Not a lot of stuff going on this week other than work. At work, it's very very busy. I'm still trying to grind out this thesis proposal, and other than writing/citing the background material, I have to repeat three experiments so I have nice pretty pictures for the proposal. I'm trying to get those all done this week, but it's looking like I may have hit a small snag in my plan for Thursday.

We bought a PlayStation2 on Sunday after church.
Ryan: Did you get DDR and mats?
Me: Oh I think you know

(Only a few people will get that joke, but it doesn't make it any less funny to me!)

Yes, we got Dance Dance Revolution EXTREME. It's only extreme if you say it in caps. And a decent mat (we shelled out the $50 to get the thicker one).

"Intelligence test" - Matt and I both managed to get 33/33 with a little assistance.
"Intelligence test part 2" - I currently have 6/24* after about 15 minutes of staring at the screen.

*18/24 at 10pm (missing 15, 17, 18, 19, 22, 24)

Dr. Oh No No No

Matt was half-watching a James Bond movie tonight, with Dr. No in it. It reminded me of Sheep In The Big City, a show on Cartoon Network. We saw a couple of episodes a few years ago (it was mostly on late at night) and it was hysterical. It was about a sheep named Sheep, who ran away from the farm to the big city, where he fell in love with Swanky (a dog) and tried to avoid the evil plots of General Specific and his sidekick Private Public, who wanted to kidnap Sheep and use him in their sheep-powered ray gun. Excellent stuff. One of the episodes we saw was a James Bond spoof starring Dr. Oh No No No. To this day it still makes us laugh. Apparantly there were two whole seasons of it. If anyone can find me movie files I'd be greatly appreciative (Phil...? :-D)

Someone drove past me on the sidewalk yesterday, made a right turn at the end of the block (still on the sidewalk) and drove another block (is it clear that they're *on the sidewalk*) to a parking lot. It was Baltimore, so of course they didn't use their turn signal.

I wish it was summer

I caught the sound of a distant word
On the pale white wings of a frigate bird
Had to listen, couldn't save it all for later
It was the salt in the ocean and the stars on the equator
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah

If it's the salt in the ocean, it's the sugar cane
It's all of that, I knew I loved you before I knew your name
I get the notion it's a summer rain
It seems like everything's burning in that sugar cane

So this is me, I'll be no one else
Think that I believe that I was wrong, it's all gone
Well that's you, you got yourself
Believe me when I tell you
There's nothing wrong
There's nothing wrong with the sound you been needing all along

Stomped our feet and knocked the paint off the wall
Righteous gospel choir in a meeting hall
You had to listen so you know they let us in
Hurricane island through all that hurricane wind
Yeah, yeah, yeah

They were sayin' "Why don't you stay with the natives?
Sunburned and restless they'll take you in
They're as warm as a sunlight that's rolling in
On hurricane island through all that hurricane wind."

So this is me, I'll be no one else
Think that I believe that I was wrong, it's all gone
Well that's you, you got yourself
Believe me when I tell you
There's nothing wrong
There's nothing wrong with the sound you been needing all along

Stowed away on a ship in the spring, slept all night on a rope thing
They cut a pathway through the Saragasso Sea
It was everything and nothing
It was everything to me
Here we go...

-Virginia Coalition, "This Is Him (Hurricane Song)"

Traffic

Does anyone know how to drive here??
Monday morning - I-95 northbound closed for 7 hours. Turns out there was a body (or what was left of a body) strewn about the highway. Travel time for a 1:30 trip = 2:00.
Tuesday morning - Left late (was waiting for the novicaine to wear off). Took the beltway, because it was 11:30. Had to turn back because I forgot my ID badge. There was an accident right at the split of 495 and 270 on the way back. Just my luck.
Wednesday evening - I guess this was the weather or something, because the beltway stunk. Took 1:30 to drive the 55 minute trip to church. No obvious reason.
Thursday morning - Accident on 28. Road completely closed. Parked the car for several minutes at a time, finally got routed off at the intersection right before the crash over to Georgia Ave. Grand total = 2:25 (a new record, I think!)
Friday evening - Accident on 28 AGAIN. Road completely closed AGAIN. Detoured on New Hampshire over to Layhill Road, then back to 28. This was actually the least problematic day of the week.

Seriously, I just can't win. It doesn't matter when I leave, or what route I take. Only 960* more trips to go.

*Completely arbitrary estimate - 2 years x 48 weeks x 5 days x 2 trips

Good Stuff

Let's Dish is coming to Gaithersburg some time in the near future! That is totally awesome. I'd been going to the one in Timonium, and then switched to Columbia when it opened (this month). But the one in Gaithersburg will be 5 minutes away! They also redid their website, and it's pretty sweet...a bunch of neat new features and stuff.

I am addicted to Starbucks lattes. They make my commute happy. I'm only going like, twice a week though...not enough monies!

I also got my slide back from the lab today. Hopefully it will be scanned and available online soon! Rhoda wants to go ahead and publish our observation, because she's worried we'll get scooped otherwise.

Church tonight, ice cream tomorrow, Steve's party Saturday. I did some shopping for it last night at Trader Joe's. I got some spanikopita and bruchetta hot appetizers, vanilla meringues, chocolate-covered mini cheesecakes, cream-filled wafer cookie assortment, cheese straws and dips for tortilla chips (salsa, black bean, and cheese). I'll get some sodas, chips, and cookie dough/brownie mix from Giant on Thursday, and then we should be all set!

Read it, or risk a roundhouse kick to the face (even if you read the original, this is New and Improved!).

Surprise!

So I went to the dentist this morning, for my crown work on my #6 tooth on the upper left. When I got there, I told the dentist that one of my teeth on the right had been bothering me (I mentioned it in Sunday's post along with my headache...that was a fun day). But I wasn't sure which tooth it was. So they poked at the ones on that side. Nothing amiss. They asked me to bite down on a wooden stick in different positions. Nothing. So by now I'm starting to feel a little stupid. But then they put some very cold stuff on a q-tip and touch it to the flat surface of my teeth. Nothing with the first tooth, but the second - owowow.

It turns out that I had already had a filling on that tooth (I still remember it...it was one of the main causes of my dental phobia). So they tell me "Well, while you're here, we'll do a root canal on that tooth."

..........surprise!

So I had the crown work done on the tooth that I had made an appointment for. And I had a root canal on my #6 tooth on, you guessed it, the upper right. Now I'm symmetrical and all. And apparantly I have very white teeth. I never thought they were particularly white or anything, but when they were "color-matching" the crown to my teeth, they said they would have to use the lightest color they offered. Then the dentist asked me if I bleach my teeth (I don't). I guess that's a compliment.

So I can only eat soft foods right now...I had tomato soup for dinner, and a big fat cinnamon roll for dessert. I can only chew on the left side of my mouth (the less-worked on side). And my mouth is all sore from the novocaine shots, and from holding my mouth open for an hour and a half. Awesome.

Owie

My head is killing me, and my tooth hurts.

And over 2 months after the fact, Best Buy still has Sony root-kit infected CDs on their shelves. Matt ended up with one today, despite the fact that all retail outlets were supposed to pull them weeks ago. He's at Best Buy now trying to sort it out. Luckily he didn't put it into his computer.

UPDATE: My brain is trying to tell me that because I just woke up, it's 6:09 AM instead of 6:09 PM. Other than grogginess, I think my headache may be gone. And Matt exchanged the CD at Best Buy for a clean one...that cost $1 more. He just paid it. If I had been there, I would have thrown a fit. SONY SUCKS.

I want my missing three hours back

How is it already after 10pm? It feels like 7. This is too weird. It must be the cough syrup. Although, man did that stuff work. I took it at 5 and I haven't had a cough or sniffle since - a big change from earlier today when I coughed so hard that my lungs burned. Nice.

I just saw a commercial for a show on The Travel Channel called "Flight Attendant School." It looked pretty hard-core. I never knew you had to go to school for that. I thought you just had to smile, hold up the mock-seatbelt, and pour drinks.

The Show!

So Phil and I went to the Virginia Coalition show last night. We got into DC around 9, and proceeded to the chinese place I had gotten directions to. When we got there, it turned out to be carry-out only, with no place to sit. So we were on a quest! We passed like, 7 or 8 ethiopian restaurants, a closed Quiznos, and a "soul food" place before we settled on a little teriyaki joint. I figured chicken teriyaki was safe, and it wasn't bad at all.

We made it to the 9:30 club a little after 10. For some reason, it didn't dawn on me until we got there that this was a CLUB (yes, I know the name gives it away). I must have known subconsciously, but it didn't really click until we got carded and handstamped and they patted Phil down.

We ended up on the left balcony, right at the railing for the show. The opening band was Jack's House, which was an interesting trio of a rap/r&b black guy as lead singer, with two white guys on guitar and...wait for it...bass. Not bass guitar, but like the giant cello thing. It wasn't bad at all.

Virginia Coalition came on around 11:15, and it was a good show. I think it needed two more songs to be a great show. They didn't play "A Song" (my favorite, of course) and I think it would have been fun to hear "Spare Change" live. They played "Green and Grey," "Nicole's Song," "Lonely Cowboy," "Likeness," "Motown," "Wisdom" and "Mista Banks" as well as covers of Toto's "Africa" and Bill Withers's "Lean On Me." They played a bunch of their newer stuff as well (I don't have their newest CD yet). From the lyrics site, I recognized "Walk to Work," "This Is Him (Hurricane Song)," "Bumpin' Fresh," "Jerry Jermaine" and "Mason Dixon" but there were many others. All in all it was a lot of fun, and I'm definitely going to get the live CD when it comes out. They had a guest book at the club, and they're listing everyone who signed the book in the liner notes. So I will be immortialized in like, 3-point font. Awesome.

We didn't get back until after 3am...the show went until just after 2, and it should have only taken us 40 minutes to get back, but we had to wait for almost 20 minutes for the Red Line transfer at the Chinatown stop.

Thank you Phil for escorting me through Northeast DC on a Friday night!

I need to eat and take a shower now. I've been on my laptop for an hour, and I still have 79% of my battery left. That is so awesome. Even when my old laptop was brand new, it would be dying right about now. I also love the media control buttons that let me run iTunes remotely. And the speakers on this computer are pretty decent too. That is all.

Foot in Mouth, Again

Robertson: God punished Sharon

The age-old case of "the squeaky wheel gets the TV camera." The problem is that this is all mainstream America sees of Christianity today - the idiots and radicals.

Finally Friday

I have an internet connection at work now, yay!
VaCo show is tonight, yay!

I don't understand why no one in Maryland knows how to merge. They see the "Lane Ends, Merge Left" sign on the ramp from 395 to 95, and just go "Huuuh?" And it never fails, that suddenly there's only room in the lane for one car and they don't know why, so they're driving on the shoulder or whatever.

Speaking of traffic-related incidents, the past 2 days I've missed the light at 28 and, well, 28 because of some stupid person in a "Luxury Utility Vehicle" who tries to change lanes right before the intersection, almost hits someone, and then crawls through the light as it turns yellow, leaving me stuck behind them. 28 is the weirdest road in Montgomery County. I start out on 28 east in the morning, which is Key West. Then I make a left onto 28 east, which is E. Gude. Then I make a left onto 28 east, which is Norbeck. Then you cross New Hampshire and it magically turns into 198. Craziness.

There was a discussion about vanity license plates on another webpage. I propose two rules: 1 - No plates with anything referring to the make or model of your vehicle (I saw one this morning that said ITZBENZ. Like I couldn't figure that out from the giant Mercedes Benz hood ornament). and 2 - No more plates with a couple's initials. It was cute the first 2 million times (actually it wasn't really) but now it's just trite and unimaginative. For the record, I would like AGTHORN and Matt would like 10 IS 2.

Computer is here!

Somehow between yesterday afternoon and this morning, it managed to get from Anchorage to Baltimore. Amazing, for a computer that wasn't even supposed to be built until January 10th (but shipped on December 30th) and then not delivered until January 6th (but came today, the 4th).

It's much lighter and sleeker than this beast.

Yes, I'm still using my old laptop for the time being. The new one isn't much use to me without Office or an internet connection (it will take a day or so to get my internet access changed over at work).

I'll be fixing it up and transferring files tonight! Wheee!

Currently Listening

It's twice as hard to realize
That I'm still trying twice as hard
To satisfy myself on my own
And I'm still waiting for things to change
-Relient K, Those Words Are Not Enough

New Haircut

So I did the whole "picture in the mirror" thing:




I like it. Matt doesn't mind it :-)

Oh, and the tracking on my computer package says it's going to be delivered on January 6th. Rock on!

two-oh-oh-six

January 1, 2006 felt much better than January 1, 2005.

Over the past few days we've eaten at Olive Garden, seen The Chronicles of Narnia, grilled steaks, gave and got presents (an air mattress and a christmas ornament), rang in the new year, bowled (I got a 117) and got chinese food. Played many games of Sequence, Cranium, Greed and Mad Gab. Watched some football and basketball. And ate a bunch of junk food. Amazingly the scale still says 130. I must be doing something right.

Left to do tomorrow - grocery shopping, haircut (Matt is nervous), new brakes, reading.

I bought a new book when we were at B&N the other day - Speaking My Mind by Tony Campolo. I've wanted to read this for some time now, ever since I read his online interview, "Evangelical Christianity Has Been Hijacked." I'm impressed so far (about 40 pages or so in).

JC Penney hasn't called about my order pickup yet. I hope they call tomorrow. The health center never called with my test results. I guess that means my thyroid and iron are normal. I'm still tired. Back to the drawing board?

Let's Dish and VaCo show this Friday. Dentist appointment next Tuesday. Steve's party next Saturday. I think I agreed to be Kim's slave after that?