January/2004

Decided to begin the process of weening myself from my coffee master again last week. I had done it before - when Deena was pregnant and was adhering to a strict ‘no alcohol no caffeine' lifestyle, I thought it would only be fair to do the same. Stopped beer and coffee cold turkey, thinking that I'd be wanting a beer in an hour or so afterwards. Surprisingly, beer was no problem to give up. (Though DAMN it was good after 9 months.) Coffee, however, was torture. The headache began almost the same day, which I expected, since I had a little bit of a habit. What I didn't expect was it lasting 4 days. I fell asleep with it. I woke up with it.

I wanted to die.

So after that went away, I thought staying off coffee would be a good idea. 9 months later, I had a small cup, and that was that. Back on the wagon. Coffee laughed from afar.

This time, I thought I'd try and trick coffee with a daily weening. I went from a cup in the morning, a refill at lunch, and an optional 3rd refill on my way home to a small cup of plain house coffee by last Friday. This weekend, I had half a cup in the middle of the day on Saturday, and I had none whatsoever on Sunday.

But coffee wouldn't be fooled. I woke up yesterday with a raging headache, knowing full well that the only cure was to succumb to my coffee master.

I need an intervention.

The nearest bathroom at the office here has two partially missing ceiling tiles right above the urinal.

Am I alone in immediately assuming that some perverted wackjob set a camera up there, and is looking at my pee pee?

Garbage crews of Portland, hear me.

You have ignored my apartment complex long enough. I understand an inability to gather garbage during the snowstorm and subsequent ice of the previous weeks, however the roads are now quite safe to drive your trucks on, without fear of bodily or vehicular harm.

Our complex has a very, very small trash area to begin with, and my fellow tenants can't get the hang of recycling, so we overflow the trashcans on a near weekly basis. It has now been three (yes, three) weeks since our trash has been picked up. Bags are spilling out onto the sidewalk. Raccoons are having a party. The area is quickly resembling a landfill. The only silver lining is that it is cold outside, and the temperature is suppressing the expected stench.

There is no way we will make it to the next Monday trash pickup.

Don't make me beg.

I finally got a car, after looking for the past few months. Yay! I just wanted something to commute with that was reliable. It's amazing how hard it is to find something decent with those specifications. Ended up getting a ‘92 Acura Integra Hatch. I'm way pleased. Now Deena doesn't have to make the daily decision of driving my ass to work or being carless.

Started using my ipod again. 4000 songs on random makes some pretty interesting songs come up - I forgot I even owned some of the stuff. Hearing it is kinda fun. Gwar's 'Ham on the Bone' is one of the best songs ever in entertainment value.

Upgrading my work machine to 5.2-RELEASE tonight, starting the make world before I leave. Maybe there is proper kernel support for this AC97 chip, finally. I didn't bother to check. (shrug) Hopefully there won't be a smoking crater where my machine was when I walk in tomorrow. (5.1 to 5.2 should be an extremely smooth upgrade, so that's pretty unlikely.)

I was unable to check any personal email today, as my home connection was dead dead dead. Comcast seems to have random days like this where someone pulls a plug or wipes a route. They really need to get their shit straightened out, as this is getting old, and their service is much too expensive to have to deal with 12+ hours of continuous outage. Laaaaame!

hahahaha

Haven't had an official one in upwards of 7 years now. As soon as the flowin' locks get too unruly, I just shave em all off.

I guess I'm getting tired of doing that... but hair care really sucks. I really dislike all the gelling and combing and primping, and it's really COLD right now to be walking around with a shaved head.

I am doomed, doomed, doomed to be in a perpetual state of growing it out. Arrrrgrggh.