So, back in January the unfortunate combination of an ice-slick road and a Jersey Wall caused very bad things to happen to my car. I spent a month in a rental car awaiting the promised repair of the vehicle before I was told that they had re-evaluated the insurance claim and were now going to total the car. Joy!

So, the Saturn is No More. Its brand-new replacement now sits in the parking lot:





It's an '07 Mazda3i Touring, in Ice Blue. I like it rather a lot. It's certainly a much nicer car than my last one. The grey Mazda3s Hatchback next to it belongs to misscheetah.

I like these. (youtube music links)

Calexico - Cruel
Iron and Wine - Naked as we Came


Yeah, I know I should post more often.

For those of you who I've gotten addicted to The Gufs, they're finally putting out a new CD!

Link to some streaming versions of tracks:

http://www.purevolume.com/thegufs

I've been playing a lot of the Alterac Valley Battleground lately in WoW. It's addictive. Today's session was pretty much the most fun I've ever had in the game. The Alliance fought amazingly well, from having the entire map except for our own base captured against us around 2 hours in, to killing the enemy General and winning the match. Only took 6 hours! At the end we had so many Operation CWAL guildies in the BG that we formed our own group - always nice to fight among friends.

Oh, and here's the other reason I enjoyed it: check out the final leaderboard. Hint: I'm Nierika. >:)

I'd probably have fewer deaths if I hadn't spent around 30 minutes deep on Horde territory gathering frostwolf skins (collecting 25 skins triggers a small elite NPC army of Dwarven Ram Riders to fight on your side), once they figure out what you're doing it's very hard to live long down there.

So, tonight MC and I went to our company's (somewhat belated due to scheduling issues) holiday party. The venue: Murder Mystery Dinner Theater! The plot centered around a few actors doing some actually quite funny (if unbelievably ham-fisted) portrayals of celebrities and/or the undead such as Dolly Parton, Britney Spears, Robert E. Lee, Jim Baker, A Medieval Monk, and (of course) a version of Count Dracula who uncannily resembled George Hamilton. Eventually there was murder, as the undead Monk ("Raspukin") stabbed himself mysteriously before even more mysteriously vanishing, and the bimbo country star ("Polly Darton") was cruelly slashed by a booby-trapped (pun intended, I'm sure) medieval plastic chalice. At the end of the night, they asked us to write down who we thought had, as they say, dunnit. Prizes were to be had!

This is what I wrote:

Murderer: A pack of ravening ninjas.

Motive: Ten thousand years ago, in Feudal Japan or something, the most feared and deadly school of ninjitsu was headed by the secretly not very Buddhist monk.. Raspukin! But then, upon realizing that all they had to eat in Japan was seaweed, he left the school to pursue a career in cannibalism. However, all was not wine, roses, and charred human flesh.. the ninjas were hungry for revenge! They hypnotized Raspukin into killing himself, and the chick with the big rack. Then, they devoured the bodies, thus removing the evidence!


I'd have polished it a bit more if I'd had more than five minutes to come up with something, but I think it turned out pretty well. They read a few of the responses, handing out prizes to those they deemed either most correct or the funniest. Mine was read last among the funny ones, and I was awarded a lovely rock because apparently mine was the answer most likely written by someone who was stoned. I really need more chances to unleash madness upon a room full of unsuspecting people - they were very obviously not expecting that. Additionally, my company won 4 of the 5 prizes they handed out, not too shabby considering we only had 3 or 4 tables out of maybe twelve.

In sum, fun was had by all!

Bunny.

Completely accurate.

Also, I'm being sent to Texas for work for the next 3 weeks, starting monday. Not that I'm around much these days, but now I'll be around even less!

For all my thoughts of "I should update this thing more!", I don't seem to have much in the way of follow-through. Better late than never, I suppose!

First off, current events: My grandparents and aunt who live in Louisiana managed to evacuate safely. This was the town they lived in. I use the past tense here because while they did all manage to get out, none of us really expect there to be much of a town for them to go back to. It's very likely that they lost everything they couldn't bring with them, but at least they have their lives; that's what really matters. Possessions pale in comparison, of course, but family heirlooms and photographs have quite a bit of sentimental value - their loss would truly be upsetting. I will keep up hope that they haven't lost everything, but at the moment it doesn't seem likely.

Politics aside, reading the news over the past week has been a strange experience - stories this big don't usually hit quite so close to home.

Secondly, life has been quite busy lately, between travel and weekends and deadlines at work. Last weekend Tiff (misscheetah) and I took a roadtrip to the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire, which was quite fun. I've never been to a "faire" before, and it was quite an interesting experience. Mostly I just alternately marveled and cringed at the quality of the garb there. This weekend we went to Annapolis and visited Maryland's Renaissance Faire, which was quite an eye-opener compared to PA - the quality of outfits and general feel of the place was much better than PA, and the music was better, to boot. I had much fun at both faires, though, and fully intend to see more of them in the future. We also went with Tiff's sister Heidi and Heidi's husband Brian to the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. yesterday, which was also quite a lot of fun. It was pretty crowded, though, and difficult to elbow one's way to decent photo spots. I've got a few pictures that did turn out OK here. That page is based on a PHP script I just threw together, so if there are bugs, let me know.

Sample:


Thirdly, I'm being sent to Texas for a business trip from the 11th to the 16th. The software project that has been my main task at work since February is finally being shown to the end users, and I'm a bit apprehensive about it. I will live, though. Hopefully!

Anyway... that's about all I can think of, for now.

[EDIT: That first hurricane link I posted seems a bit flaky about registration. If you can't read it, I've mirrored the text-only version here.]

Haven't posted one of these in a while! Or anything else, for that matter. I'm a bad person. :( But I'm too tired at the moment to type much more, so here it is:



"Convallis" - 1280x1024.

World Machine SE 1.0 - terrain map
Terragen 0.9.19 - everything else

Haven't written much lately. Or even before lately, really. Life is busy!

I'm really just posting to say I've got a new car, a brand new 2005 Saturn Ion-2 sedan. Storm Grey outside, grey inside, very nice. I am quite pleased with it so far, even if I've only driven one in a test drive last week and mine home from the dealer this evening.

Piccies (not mine but the same model and color)

The gauges in the middle of the dash made me skeptical at first, but I found that it's actually quite intuitive - they're at mirror level so I don't have to look down off of the road to see them. I also like the built-in MP3/CD player - being a geek means I have lots of mp3-filled CDs around to spin.

I will likely post more impressions soon, as I get used to the car and drive it more.

I have been very, very bad with updating this thing. Sorry! I have just been busy... a lot of busy. Work has been going well, although the 6-6:15am mornings are rough. But it is interesting and I am learning a lot, so I am happy with it. Life has been good in general, really. I am adjusting the the area just fine, although it seems that the road system here in NJ has been purposely designed to keep you from getting anywhere at all, ever. Most road systems are designed to facilitate the opposite of this, but then again most road systems allow you to make left turns. Not so much of that here. This is strange, but I will learn to cope, I am sure. Having a housemate is very refreshing after living alone for so long - someone around to talk to is a definite plus. Also, it is fun to have someone to cook with. We had Tiff™ brand buffalo burgers tonight, and I made smarshed taters and peas to go along with it. Last night I made pasta, the night before she made pineapple jerk-sauce chicken, and last weekend I made Chicken Vindaloo with fresh hand-ground spices and Basmati rice. I think this living arrangement will work well :)

I hope everyone out there in internet-land is well. I will try to be more social... heh.

I'm still alive! I am here in NJ after a wild adventure involving airplanes and getting on the wrong train! But, all is well now - I am settling in here fairly well. It is a comfortable place so I should not take very long to adjust. The new computer helps, hehe. Had a little hassle with the PSU not playing well with the power connection on the video card, but all is well now, and the computer is now complete and sitting beside me, glowing and humming away.

Anyway, I need to get to sleep, I start my new job tomorrow. :)

Since begnning to plan my move, the one issue that has given me the most headaches is how to move my computer out to NJ without somehow destroying it en route. I have gone through several iterations of plans to this end, but have never been satisfied with a safe and/or reliable (but not wallet-mauling!) way to transport it. The solution came two days ago while talking to my parents - they offered to buy my computer from me, since my sister will need a computer for college in autumn, anyway. So, all I need to do is set it up for them and take my 120 gig HD with me, leaving them with the original 40 gig drive intact. What a relief! I will be using that money and some of my signing bonus to build a new system for myself, which thanks to the überness of misscheetah has already been ordered and is likely as we speak speeding its way to NJ.

Now, I am not made of money, so it is not exactly top-of-the-line, but it is still a vast, vast improvement over my current system.

NewEgg Wishlist <--- CLICK ME!

It shows just how addicted I am that the first thing I want to do on this rig once it is built is to take WoW for a spin on it.

Notes: yes, I could have gone for a socket 939 athlon64 and gotten a Nforce4 MB and a PCIE vid card, or gotten a SATA HD, but I am on a budget and I wanted to keep the cost as low as I can.

"But now we must pick up every piece
Of the life we used to love
Just to keep ourselves
At least enough to carry on"- NMH

Thanks to the lovely snowstorm that attacked me so viciously yesterday, my flight out to NJ was delayed by a few hours. This meant that I was unable to have my interview yesterday - it was rescheduled for this morning. This turned out to be a good thing, as I was able to pick up some new clothes that fit me better than the ones I have had for a while which.. well, just didn't very well anymore. Anyway, the interview went very well, despite my being a touch nervous.

The end result of this is that they are offering me the job. YAY! *dancey*

I am very pleased, as I have been looking for regular work for a very long time now - the periodic contract work was just not enough.

The logistics of actually moving out here have yet to be determined, and I am somewhat apprehensive about this, as well, but I'm sure I will cope.

So, in sum: *dancedance*

I'm hopping a plane to New Jersey tomorrow morning for a job interview. I am pretty nervous about it (moreso the whole logistics of getting there than the interview itself) but I suppose I will live. It's a really good position and I'm really hoping that I get it. At the moment, though, there's a snowstorm barreling down on us, and we're expecting 7-10" of snow overnight, which may complicate things. Joy! The plus side is that where I will be staying will be very close to where misscheetah lives so there will be visiting goodness. *dancedance*

I've felt a bit more creative lately.. always comes in waves. *shrugs*

Anyway, I've made another image along the theme of "The Outer Wastes" that I've used for a series of pictures, when the mood strikes me.

(Yes, it is very orange. Sorry, MC.)



"Lost in the Wastes"

(Terragen 0.9.19)

"Nightshade"

(UltraFractal 3.04)

(click for larger)

"Delicate" - UltraFractal 3.04

Here is the gallery of pics from my recent florida trip. Better late than never I suppose :)

Sample:


I hope you enjoy them! :)

I have gotten bad at updating this thing. :/ I will have to rectify this - not right now, though. Now I am going to go pass out due to the fact that I am feeling rather ill.

I will have Florida pics eventually, I just need to motivate myself to hook up the laptop to the network so I can get them.