Thus revealed, the creature buried its nose in the tire-tilled soil...
September 8, 2006
Stuff from today
Category: Miscellany

A few random bits from my travels and whatnot today:

1. While in the supermarket, I looked down and could've sworn I saw "DECAPITATE!" scrawled on a cereal box. What the box actually said was "CRUNCH-A-TIZE ME, CAP'N!" Which is to say that it was a box of Cap'n Crunch. Still, I think I've uncovered the Cap'n's evil plan.

2. In Dollar General, I happened upon a 7' giant of a man with an intellectual disability who went out of his way to point out to me that the calendars were 2006 calendars but that 2006 is almost over. I shrugged and said, "I guess that's why they're a dollar!" (He was not amused.) The gentleman then insisted that another store had 2007 calendars for roughly the same price before going on to point that these calendars were largely outdated to a member of the store's staff. When the employee said that the 2007 calendars weren't out yet, the man again pointed out that he had seen 2007 calendars in another store. "Well," clarified the obviously irritated employee, "we haven't gotten them yet."

But lo! Shortly thereafter, I found 2007 calendars bearing images of flowers and puppies elsewhere in the store. (One of the reasons I dislike Dollar General is that it's so fucking disorganized and nobody cares; they just put shit wherever they please and call it a shift. Every Dollar General I have ever visited is like this, so I'm guessing the company encourages disorganization. They occasionally have good prices on certain items -- though much less often than the name of the store would have one believe -- but damned if they don't make you work to find what you're looking for.) I considered hunting the giant down to show him, but thought better of it.

3. In Electronics Boutique, a man approached the front counter and asked about when a game would be released, whereupon the sales associate gave him the date and then suggested that he reserve a copy for only five dollars. "You know," he said, "I've never understood that. Why would I reserve a game when I could just come to the store and get it on the day it comes out?" Now, he didn't say this in a joking way as if he actually did understand the rationale behind reserving pre-release titles, nor did he say this as someone who had never heard of the practice until that very moment. No, he sounded as if he had actually given some thought to the subject and yet remained unable to come up with a single good reason to explain the concept of reserving games!

The employee seemed flabbergasted by the question, but after a moment she went on to explain that reserving a title guarantees one a copy of the game, whereas unreserved titles are sold on a first come, first serve basis and could possibly sell out before the customer arrived on the release date. As I left, he continued: "That's ridiculous! How could you sell out?" How indeed, when the glass case behind the counter magically restocks itself!

4. In a news segment today, I witnessed further proof that politicians are terrible. Consider the controversies surrounding William Donald Schaefer. They played the bit with him commenting on her "outdated hairdo" -- as if one's hair has anything to do with one's effectiveness as a Comptroller! To be fair, she called him "Grandpa" first, but still. Childish, childish, childish.

Turd Sandwich or Giant Douche: WHICH WILL YOU CHOOSE?

Seems like there's something else I wanted to mention, but I can't recall exactly what it is! Owell. Later, gators. 😛

-posted by Wes | 7:26 pm | Comments (5)
September 6, 2006
This picture post is kind of depressing.
Category: Miscellany

Ph33r the watchful dragons

These are my dragons! I made the red one first (ah like red, so ah colored it meself ;)) and hypothesized that the attractive glossy photo paper was contributing to the ruin of the illusion (shadows and lighting have a much more pronounced effect on it, making it a lot easier to perceive the depth in the facial cavity), so I went ahead and made another dragon on regular paper to see if that worked better. It didn't, and I've since found that the illusion is facilitated by closing one eye (thereby removing the problem of depth perception), so I'll probably end up making one more glossy dragon (in addition to maybe another creature of my own) to add to the mix. I think I will color it green, yes. (more...)

-posted by Wes | 1:11 pm | Comments (4)
August 27, 2006
ex-ter-min-ate
Category: Miscellany

Daleks among us

-posted by Wes | 4:51 am | Comments (9)
August 13, 2006
Stuff that happened yesterday
Category: Miscellany

Using this touchpad on the laptop has been hurting my wrist something awful, so yesterday I went to get an optical mouse for the thing. Now that I've got it, however, I still find my wrist hurting -- and I look down to find myself using the damned touchpad. Old habits (well, not that old) die hard.

Something odd happened while I was out. I frequently pass by groups of teenagers while I'm out walking, and it's not uncommon for them to make some audible and unfavorable comment about me afterwards. If our exchange is of a more pleasant nature, words are rarely spoken at length: silent nods punctuated by the occasional "hey" or "how's it going?" sans an answer. But yesterday I passed by a small group of them -- one of whom appeared to be speaking on a cell phone. So despite her turning and making direct eye contact, I didn't realize at first that she was speaking to me when she chirped, "Hello!"

I was taken aback, but after a moment I responded, "Hi." Now, that is generally the end of sidewalk exchanges, but she went further and said, "How are you?" Her pace slowed; she clearly expected a response.

"Fine," I said. "And you?"

"Oh, I'm good," she said. And we continued along our respective paths.

Evidently one of her friends thought the exchange was as strange as I did; in the distance, he exclaimed, "Yo, what was that?" She told him to shut up.

In these kinds of situations, I'm never sure whether these kids are being genuinely friendly or subtly insulting.

Picked up some screws and tiny LED lights (seriously; guess why) and a couple more DVDs while I was out, too. It never ends.

By the way, has anyone ever tried to listen to an audiobook while typing or reading anything else? I'm finding it incredibly difficult to do! Image editing, however, is much easier.

All for now, then.

-posted by Wes | 5:41 pm | Comments (4)
Ugh.
Category: Miscellany

Have you ever written a really lengthy, thorough, and somewhat personal message, only to mistype the e-mail address and send it to some random person? I mean, the recipient probably doesn't know anything about the situation or what's going on -- and it's really nothing that I wouldn't and haven't already detailed at length here, where anyone can read the page and search the archives -- but still. It's rather embarrassing.

Fingers crossed for a mailer daemon response.

-posted by Wes | 12:54 am | Comments (0)