Oscar

 I tweeted and Google Reader shared this already, because it's fucking hysterical:  New Social Networking Site Changing the Way Oh, Christ, Forget It  

I started reading about DIY upside down planters, and realized I could repurpose some gallon milk jugs as tomato planters and hang them off my balcony - which is actually a fire escape. But there's a railing, which is all I need. Probably plant some lettuce and herbs in regular planters as well.

I bought a ridiculously cheap generic MIDI interface, which coupled with a ridiculously cheap MIDI keyboard means I can make music on my computer and sell the DX7 - which is a synthesizer past it's prime. But probably still worth a few hundred bucks.

DVD watching continued with Son of Rambow - a very charming and funny movie. It's the same guys who did Hitchhiker's Guide - which was underappreciated, in my opinion. They also did a bunch of great music videos, like the Blur milk carton one.

Oh, and the mind-blowing saga of Metafilter users banding together to stop two Russian girls from becoming victims of human trafficking? Incredible. Link here.

 Simba got dropped off on Friday for a weekend stay. I hope it works out, even though secretly I don't want him to go. That's just how it is with foster animals - you kind of fall in love with them even if you don't want to (I've been hoarding some seriously adorable kitten pictures). The potential new owner is very nice, and I have absolutely no misgivings about her. And I'm pretty sure she'll keep him. I hope her 3 cats can adjust, because he really likes chasing cats and I don't know that he'll outgrow it.

My mom left on Friday. She was here for a month and a half. We didn't "entertain" her in many typical ways, but she was content to lounge around reading books and such. And she didn't seem to mind the dogs too much.

Did I mention the dogs? We took in 2 of our neighbor's dogs. They lost their house (and I guess a marriage as well), and Lee offered to take in the nicest of the 5 dogs if necessary. Amazingly, they found homes for the 3 annoying ones. Well, the two worst ones stayed with "mom". The house is for sale and will be in foreclosure soon I suspect.

We listed Simba through Bullseye Rescue. He's a mix of pitbull and what's known as American Bulldog. I'm a little worried about him in a house with 3 cats, and hope he can lose his desire to chase them. Kate did, so one can hope. The new potential owner seemed really nice and despite it being her first dog I think she'd be great. He's a total sweetheart, and I will miss him if he goes.

I signed up for the RPM challenge (like NanoWrimo, but for music), with the intention of really doing it this time. Earlier today I realized that the DX7 has a dead battery on the motherboard and that I need to fix it now because the only other keyboard I have is not velocity sensitive - meaning that every note has the same volume. I don't exactly know what "sound" I'm going to produce with my oddball assortment of electronic doodads, but the constraints of the project mean I won't have any time to overthink it.

We went to the Lucy exhibit at the Pacific Science Center. Pretty amazing to be looking at such an incredibly ancient fossil. Not a reproduction (they had one of those two), but the real deal. The majority of the exhibit was about Ethiopia itself, and was also quite interesting. After that we had to go to Capitol Hill to eat some Ethiopian food. It was outstanding as always.

I just read about how someone from Wal-Mart was addressing a crowd and he said that not only were people making do with less in this economy, but they feel good about spending less. And that's alarming - to Wal-Mart, anyway. Most of the rest of us would say that's great.

So I heard some doom-and-gloom about livejournal. While I wouldn't die if all my ramblings vanished, I still thought I should download them just in case. I haven't updated much lately since things mostly suck and I don't feel like endlessly posting about how they suck (although that would put me alongside the typical half-my-age LJ user, ha ha). Anyhow, here's my first entry, from 2002:


Subject:  el wombato representin'
Date:  8/26/02 10:03:00 AM

So I'm lazy. So I might eventually register a domain name and get start a "real" blog. Until then, here I am. Yay!

Made it into the office at a reasonable hour. I managed to catch a 66 after a relatively short wait downtown. There's a lot more people in the office today. I suspect they were getting stir-crazy based on things I'm overhearing.

My legs are sore.

So the 590 bus stopped at the end of bus way, going no further. Since they take I-5 they didn't have snow chains. Seeing what happened to even buses that have them, that was probably a smart call. So I figured I'd walk from Royal Brougham to 3rd and Prefontaine. Not a big deal. I discovered that weightlifting did in fact pay off as I effortlessly left my fellow walkers far behind. I didn't even think I was walking that fast.

I saw a 7 at the 70 stop, so I decided to head to the next stop to catch either a 66 or a 70. That's where the (articulated) 7 got stuck and couldn't pull out. After waiting a while, I said screw it and made my way to 3rd and Pine. Still no sign of a bus. I thought maybe the SLUT was running and I'd catch that. No dice. But I did stop for breakfast at Starbucks. I went to the 70 stop by McDonald's. After again waiting 10-15 minutes I decided I preferred to be moving while freezing my ass off. So I made my way all the way to Fairview and Denny. I met a group of people that had been waiting for 45 minutes.

After standing there for about 5 minutes, yet again I said screw it and walked. So yes, I walked all the way to Eastlake. (about 3 miles, according to google maps). It was surprisingly not tiring.

So now I want more weights because I've 'used up' the 40 lbs I started with.

After working my way through several sorts of exercise routines over the last 6 months, I've finally settled on one that works. And today I was finally able to do several chinups, which even for a lightweight like me are brutally hard. Felt pretty good to finally get there, and I'm sure I'll feel it tomorrow. Now I just need to work up to pullups (palms away, and harder), which have been the holy grail all along. While admittedly my main motivation was (and still is) vanity, it's nice to be getting strong and fit as well.

I'm hoping I can transfer the discipline from here to other parts of my life. Maybe I should sketch while I'm resting between excercises, ha ha.

Pretty funny. Google is giving away gmail stickers — one informative (keyboard shortcuts), the rest silly (unicorns!). Details here.

And yes, the envelope you send is addressed to "Send me some Gmail stickers already"