October 2004 Surly Bastard Journal

20041106 [2350 PST, Laughlin, NV] Please read this journal on Livejournal while I'm traveling. I will backfill it here on buvic/xs4all once I get back.

20041005 [1621] Wow, it's been a month since I updated this. Time flies when you're having fun. Short recap: first a lot of work clearing out the barn where I have my workshop, due to it getting a new roof (and roof structure). Including getting a trailer full of shelving that I bought secondhand and putting that up that took the better part of two weeks of Saturdays and evenings. The next two weeks I had training for a new system I might have to co-admin. More shiny! new! toys!, and not only was it good to be out of the office for a couple of weeks and learn new stuff, it was also good to meet some people from other departments we don't usually see. The food at that site was also a lot better (and cheaper) than it is here.

Which brings me to realize that my weight is highly dependent on my level of physical activity. Doing the shelving and moving stuff around and out of the barn I easily dropped about 2 kg, especially in the last week. 2 weeks of sitting on my *** (hey, no barn to work in...), doing about zero physical activity and eating well at the training site saw most of that back on again. I see the same effect during vacation trips, which also mean a much higher level of activity that sitting behind a desk 8 hours/day. On the plus side, being away from the office saw the perpetual mild sniffling nearly gone as well, although the training site isn't itself a particularly healthy environment. More opps for fresh air though. Office work is just not healthy, is it? Perhaps I should finally try to figure out how and where to sign up for the company gym. Shame going to the gym regularly is another f*ing waste of time (or perhaps I should say, drain of time. Technically if it serves a purpose it isn't strictly wasted). Finding a job that's more physically intensive is nearly impossible, at least at the pay scale I'm used to.

Speaking of cold, when the bears are starting to think about hibernating the recruiters seem to wake up and become more active.

MCSE-proofing your installation instructions:

Thoughtfully including a pre-bent paper clip with a cheap CDR drive:

Snails are a bit of a problem where we live. There are quite a few of them in fall, and they tend to crawl up the wall and eat (or dissolve?) the mortar from between the bricks. This one decided to try its luck indoors. It was shown the door shortly after taking this picture.

I want a shirt fully printed in this pattern:
or maybe a combination of patterns, like the previous one plus this, in vertical bands...

pictures courtesy of http://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/~akitaoka/index-e.html