September 2005 Archives

Shawn posted about this on the family blog, but I thought I'd share my experience.

So I have a new dog, he's a Miniature Schnauzer named Gimli. He's adorable. I'm actually pretty impressed with this game-- the only thing I don't have to do for this dog is potty train him. So far he doesn't go potty in the house, heh. And the game knows how long you've been away from your dog-- I played with him for a couple hours for the first time on Tuesday between classes, and then didn't open my Nintendo DS back up until late Wednesday night. Poor Gimli was famished and parched (not just hungry and thirsty). So I guess this little guy takes some looking after.

It's surprising how entertaining it is, playing with a little digital dog. I had 5 minutes before class started yesterday so I busted out Nintendogs and took Gimli for a walk, and then played fetch with him w/ a tennis ball for a few minutes, then fed him and gave him water.

The dogs actually learn and form personalities based on how you treat them. I must have a way with dogs because every real dog I've ever been around for a prolonged period of time has become accustomed to me scratching their rear end-- when they see me they just turn around and assume the position. Gimli has learned this in the short space of 2 days! Steve and I linked up yesterday so our dogs could play together (he's got a little pug) and the first thing my dog is go up to him and stick his but in Steve's face so that Steve will scratch it, hehe.

Boy. As if I needed another distraction ;) Now I opt to play with the dog between classes rather than do homework.

So are the images on this site unecessarily huge? I was thinking I could probably make the blog more readable if I scaled them down a bit. I'm sure that's a design question I'll be answering myself when I get around to overhauling this site's design. (You might have noticed I took a hack-saw to my header since it was enormous and not so conducive to reading). Granted I kinda like these huge, in your face pictures of atomic fireballs and stuff, I mean really-- there's nowhere to hide when you open my web site, is there? I take for granted that each computer I work on is typically a 20" widescreen.

How can people do this? I was on a message board yesterday and someone said they couldn't wait until October 1 to listen to Christmas music (they had made an agreement with someone that they wouldn't listen until then).

What? October 1? Even November 1 is pushing it. I used to think November 1 was fine (and at that point I suppose I'm not as opposed since Halloween has passed), but even then it's too much time to listen to it, and I start to tire of Christmas music quite some time before Christmas actually hits... and that is sad.

I've heard my dad listening to some this month (very unusual as he's typically the bah-humbug type-- maybe he's enjoying a little before the season hits and bah-humbug sets in) and Jesse (my brother-in-law) has been listening already too. In September. What.the.crap.

It's too bad there isn't a bigger market for Halloween music, too bad much of it is hokey. But as for me-- I have my halloween music I will enjoy very much during the month of October. This includes a number of Danny Elfman scores, as well as some other dark / horror film scores. Some of that music can get under your skin as well as the movies can, and I love the atmosphere in October for Halloween.

I listened to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory today on the way to work, which is perhaps why I wrote this post. I LOVED listening to it, and it's zany enough and dark enough to kinda be appropriate for Halloween. Besides, it's a show about candy/chocolate. What could be more halloween-ish than that?

So today I filled the candy dish at work with Atomic Fireballs. So far not a big hit (I'm not complaining-- that's just longer until I have to refill the thing ;) )

What is it about enjoying food that hurts to eat? Yesterday I was in rough shape most the day from not sleeping well the night before. But once I had some Korean food in me at the end of the day, I was chipper as can be. At lunch today I was having some 김치 찌개 (Kimchi stew) (ok so I don't remember how to spell that in Korean, I'm amazed I still know where the Korean keys are on the keyboard) and not only was the nose running but I had tears in the eyes. I could say tears of joy but they were tears of pain, yet it didn't lessen my enjoyment of the food at all.

Then I come back to my desk and proceed to put an atomic fireball in my mouth. Once upon a time I couldn't keep one of these things in my mouth-- I had to take it out once in a while because it's too hot. Either I've become more lazy/stubborn or my tolerance for pain has increased (as I watch Kathy remove her atomic fireball from her mouth). Instead I notice my mouth begins to feel like someone sprayed chloriseptic in it-- it doesn't TASTE like chloriseptic, but it feels numb. Wowee.

It's been a while since I did a food post. I've missed it.

I do a lot of thinking. I know, you're probably thinking "wow, he actually uses his brain?" or “thinking, wow, what a unique concept!”

All the same, it is a shame that many of the thought provoking subjects I consider blogging never make it onto the blog. Not because you would enjoy reading it but because there's something about hammering out your thoughts on paper (be it the digital kind or not) to help you think through things. There's something about writing it down that makes an experience or thought have a more lasting effect on you. There's something meaningful, even if just to yourself, about expressing what's in your mind and heart. I think it's good for you. That is why I lament the thoughts that I get lost in that don't ever make it into writing. What makes life real to me is thinking and feeling and understanding.

I just got a text message on my phone that is apparently a text message "forward". It's not bad enough that e-mail forwards polute our inboxes, is it?

"Today is national I LOVE U DAY. If u get this ur loved. Send this to 10 people in the next 143 min. Then check ur INBOX."

Anyone else find out that "ur loved" today? Hehe. I guess I don't love anyone 'cause I'm not forwarding this text message. ;-)

The thought did cross my mind to post the phone number from which the text message came in this post... I have no idea whose phone number it is.

Upon further investigation, it's listed as a messenger hoax. Hoaxes via text now eh? Ugh.

As if you didn't have enough blogs to read to waste time, I've gone and started another one. We'll see how many Sloans actually jump on this bandwagon, but it could be fun.

It's titled I feel like I'm taking crazy pills! and it's pretty much a place for anyone in the family to post funny quotes, experiences, pics, whatever. This is part of my own effort to become more of a community blogger-- it's more fun that way I think.

Hopefully we'll also get Mar's blog up and running soon (she has a new domain which, sadly, is blocked at work again for shady content, even though there IS no content on her site, hehe). Anyways, have a look, and Sloane family members... contribute, dangit!

Ok so this is a crappy post to put up for the first post in a month in a half-- heaven knows I've had post ideas floating through my head for a month or so that I never typed out because comments were disabled... but who cares, here it goes anyways, a jab at my Mac-loving cronies, by the writer of an article in USA Today:

The creed of Mac lovers: If you don't A) praise anything by Apple unconditionally, B) praise it at length, and C) put down anything by a competitor, you're an idiot.

Here's the article.

Apparently the writer got blasted by Apple "lemmings" after writing an article that was very complimentary of the new iPod Nano-- just because he suggested some competitors were starting to come out with some decent competing products.

I love it. I love sitting on the fence enjoying both the Mac world and the PC world and watching those who are terribly biased go at it. Do they have any clue how ridiculous they sound? I refuse to believe any product is as universally great as anyone claims it is.

(p.s. I've upgraded Movable Type and it includes some form of commen filtering... let's see how it goes. No more excuses not to update, huh?)