The Manic Mechanic

So there is a beard meme going around. Just to show what mine starts to look like by the end of winter, I grabbed a shot of it at it's worst. I am in dire need of a haircut and a beard trimming. That will happen before the end of the week. Consider this a 'before' shot:



Salt: 1, Pepper: 0. And the ghastly pale white of winter needs to go. The light from the monitor and the LED lighting on the studio desk does not help matters either.

Oh, the schadenfreude. Blogs everywhere are exploding with tasty news of "Reverend" (and I use that term with a heaping helping of derision) Ted Haggard, the leader of the influential National Association of Evangelicals, being caught up in a gay sex scandal. I'll pause for a bit to relish the moment just a bit more...

Aaaaahhh...

Yeah, must be something to it, after all he stepped down from his post almost immediately upon the breaking news. Here is a guy who is very vocal in his opposition to Teh Gays as evidenced in this YouTube clip below. You know what they say about those who are the loudest in their opposition to homosexuality...:

Watch on YouTube

Methinks the man doth protest too much. I'm going to be loving this moment for a while.

The little red iPod nanos that I got for Jeff and myself a while back have seen their fair share of usage. I find the tiny size much more conducive to toting the thing around. The earbuds that come with it are much improved from the original style, and fit my big ears a lot more comfortably than most. The gapless playback, clear display, and surprising fidelity (I notice quite a difference between it and my 3G 40gig) make the diminuitive size that much more amazing. Perhaps one of the biggest pluses is the switch to an anodized aluminum wrap-around shell a la iPod mini that does not show scratches and fingerprints like the classic polished back/plastic front designs. Now if there was only a way to cram at least ten gigs of storage in the thing. Maybe by this time next year.

The replacement wheels for the Mini are due earlier than originally expected, and that's a good thing. Next week I will swap them out and tend to any suspension damage I find. Poor car has been sitting for weeks, totally unloved. That needs to change.

I downloaded Microsoft iTunes Windows Media Player 11 and gave it a spin. For those who (for some reason) prefer to use WiMP as their main player, this is a nice upgrade. The ripping and burning put it in the same class as iTunes, and the option for ripping to mp3 format is standard. The interface is much cleaner, and a tabbed UI including a prominent link to the Urge music store is among them. I'd almost use it.

Work oddities: In the hallway was a rather slender Asian dude with uncharacteristically huge arms busting out of what amounted to a circuit party tee was talking to a colleague. As I passed them I heard him saying "...I tend to concentrate way too much on arm workouts". My thoughts exactly. Monday in the bathroom a handwritten sign on a paper towel on one of the stalls read "DO NOT USE - BLOOD ON WALLS". Sure enough, it was a mess in there. File that in the "WTF" files. It may be a multibillion dollar corporation (with a 100 rating from the HRC!), but the bathrooms are almost always a disgrace. Even in the Mahogany Rows. Trash on the floor, snot on the walls, piss on the seats. Gotta wonder what their home bathrooms look like.

The change to Standard Time is still messing with my internal clock. I hate the early darkness, coming home to a dark house, unable to do anything to speak of outside. This winter will be particularly hard on me for obvious reasons, but I will somehow manage. Thanksgiving and Xmas will probably tear me apart. Mom's birthday in February, well, that will be killer.

I have plenty of firewood for the winter, especially after taking down a big, dead white oak in a friend's yard. Glad to know I can still fell a tree within inches of where I want it. I have a habit of holding the saw outstretched in my hand the same way Babe Ruth used to point his bat into the outfield right before he hit the ball out of the park along the line he demonstrated. I guess I would make a good lumberjack, and that's okay.

The new PCs are behaving. Between house repairs this winter will be an upgrade to the LAN to gigabit ethernet, a new Opteron server, and a lappy. Maybe even a Mac.

I need to shave my beard back. It's never been this long, I see it in my peripheral vision, it gets pushed up in my face when I sleep and it's honestly looking quite ragged. I wish I knew someone adept at trimming long beards, when I try, it looks hacked up.

While not an idiot about it, I would make my fair share of noise when working out. I am glad I did not work out at this gym. The dude in the story/video is rather cute.

It's off to bed a bit earlier than usual for me tonight. I'm physically beat and mentally exhausted.