So I’m up here in lovely Morristown, NJ for SQl training this week. As I write this, I’m just finishing up my lab for the day. Yesterday, I realized that I was relatively close to my college friend Erich. He works in NY and lives on the Jersey side, but I didn’t know exactly where he was in relation to my training. So I gave him a call, and luckily, he wasn’t away on business.

He went home last night, carved pumpkins with his kids and then met me for drinks around 8:30p. He is only about 25 minutes away. Tonight, rather than eat locally, I’m going to drive to his house to have dinner with his family. It’ll take closer to 45 minutes because I’ll be driving in traffic right now. I haven’t seen Erich since he came for the twins 1st birthday party, so it’s been 18 months. It’s been like that, on and off for 12 years since we graduated. Real life keeps us from seeing each other, and then time passes, and then we get together. I’m looking forward to seeing his kids tonight and how big they’ve gotten.

So while I was on the thought process of dinner with friends, I decided to give my buddy Murray a call. Now, Murray is a friend from college as well, but since he happens to be in the SCA *and* a fencer *and* in NJ, I see him regularly. I would say easily once every two months, sometimes several weeks in a row. However, our time is always spent being @ an SCA event, or going out to dinner with everyone else *after* an SCA event. I figured this would give us a chance to bullshit about life without the crowd. He’s working late tonight but thats ok as I have other plans (see one paragraph above, in case you forgot already). So he’s thinking we’ll get together on Thursday night.. but guess what? It’s fencing practice!!!

So i’m actually going to leave class, go meet him for dinner and then join him at practice. That way i get the best of both worlds. He only works about 10 mins from here, lives 25 mins, and practice is about 35 minutes… that rox…

I made sure my fencing gear was in the car before I left, just in case the fencing in Settmour Swamp practice idea panned out — I’d been batting that around for a week. it’s just nice that I can combo it with dinner with a friend as well.

Current Mood:  amused

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So here’s a geek morality question for you. This past weekend I helped Lissa and Berrick move. Lissa was pining over the fact that they wouldn’t have Internet access for another day. Since they were living in an apartment complex, I fired up the wireless network browser on their laptop and went looking for unsecured wireless networks.

Sure enough, i found 6 networks within range, 3 of which were unsecured. I started with the best connection on the list, and bammo. straight in.. nothing needed at all.

So here’s your choices:

a) Do nothing at all

b) Use their network overnight, and then start using yours tomorrow

c) Use their network until it stops working, and cancel your own service. Assume that if they are stupid enough to leave it unsecured, you have a right to use it.

d) Use their network until it stops working, and cancel your own service. Assume that if they are kind enough to leave it unsecured, they have done it on purpose and are a good samaritan

e) Change the name of their network to "ASKAPARTMENT100FORHELP", add a password, wait for them to come knocking and teach them about wireless security

f) Change the name of their network to "UGOTHAXORED4BEINGSTUPID", add a password that only you know, and force them to go pay tech support somewhere to reset their router to factory defaults so you can do it again in 3 weeks.

Current Mood:  accomplished

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Once More, With Feeling has to be one of my favorite Buffy episodes of all time. When it first aired, it was well received by fans, even if it didn’t win an Emmy (helped in part by a ballot printing error).

We own the CD soundtrack and both Jean and I sing along. It’s a great album for staying awake when you are driving by yourself too. Last week, when we went to Kingdom Crusades, I listened to the album twice; once on the way down, and once on the way back up. I’m also 99% sure that we own the script as well, and that it was a Christmas gift for Jean one year.

Now, one of things we’ve never done is go to a Buffy Sing-A-Long. This is done in the tradition of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, with actors, props, a preshow, the whole kit and kaboodle.

It looks like we’ll never be able to either. Apparently:

Lawyers for Twentieth Century Fox Television, a division of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., told a licensing company that had given the green light for the sing-along events that it had gone beyond limits of the show’s licensing agreements.

It’s best summed up by the opening line of the article which reads: Lawyers have driven a stake into the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" sing-along.

I’m sure that while the lawyers got to be the mouthpiece of the decision, many entertainment execs were also involved in the process. They weren’t making enough money to replace the white rhinoceros leather seat covers in their car more than once a year, so they decided if they couldn’t make money from the sing alongs, that the fans shouldn’t be able to do it either.

Fuck them. How many times can fans of shows be crapped on. This is a show which has been off the air for 4 years, but still manages to have a lively fan base. Many shows come and go on TV, but it’s only the truly great ones that survive the years. If you don’t think that Buffy was a great show, then you’re just looking at the surface appearances that turned many of the critics sour. Yet, even with its poor (comparative) ratings, it managed to have quite on impact on our culture and media. I don’t know if realizing that it made Time Magazine’s Best TV Shows of All-TIME would change your opinion… but it just might.

Current Mood:  disappointed

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they are the testicles of my mind. -Eric Hoffer

So I’m driving back to work yesterday and I notice what appears to be a pair of testicles hanging from the trailer hitch on the truck in front of me.

I wasn’t able to get a picture from my cell phone, because everytime I managed to get behind him at the light, it would turn green before I could snap the shot.

Luckily for me, I was able to enter the phrase "metal testicles hanging from truck hitch" into Google and find an image for you. Not to mention stores selling them. Be aware if you choose to buy one from BullsBalls.com however, that the hanging assembly is not included.

Any explanation? My guess is that it’s supposed to say "This truck is my dick, and look how big it is". "See how nicely my balls swing in the wind?"

If the truck is the dick, and the hitch is the testicles — where’s the asshole? I think proportionally that the driver’s seat is in the wrong location.

Current Mood:  listless

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This is an update post. I just updated my blog to v2.3. I’m also simultaneously testing the new capabilities for tagging (inherent, rather than a plugin). While the tagging probably works if I post through the WP interface, I’m attempting to set the tags through Windows Live Writer and a registry hack making it think the blog supports keywords.

Current Mood:  accomplished

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