Pookzilla: Bees Are On The What Now?: February 2005

Monday, February 28, 2005

EclipseCon, Day 1

I spent the day assisting in the delivery of two tutorials being presented by my teammates. My role was to generally float around when people were having issues but I did end up answering a few questions when the topic strayed into my areas of ownership. In the larger of the two groups there were probably 30 people present. I found myself quite comfortable with being in front of them and speaking when required. This proved to be an excellent warm-up for my presentation on Wednesday. My nerves have been considerably settled.

Tonight there was a committer reception. There was free food and drink for all and general merriment to be had. I had various salads and pastas and a glass of red wine to wash it down. If I were to be honest I'm half in the bag right now. I am such a cheap drunk.

Updating: Rehearsing while intoxicated is not good for the morale. I just did a dry run for my talk and I almost through food at myself.

posted by pookzilla at 10:43 PM - 3 comments

Sunday, February 27, 2005

I've landed safely. It was a pretty good trip overall. I had a decent little breakfast and then slept for the majority of the flight. In fact, I slept through the take-off leaving Toronto to San Fran. Waking up mid-air is very disconcerting when you're sure you're still on the ground.

And now I rest.

posted by pookzilla at 5:03 PM - 2 comments

Saturday, February 26, 2005

Last post before I fly out. If a jet engine crashes into your bedroom whilst you are out sleepwalking, you know what to do.

posted by pookzilla at 7:13 PM - 2 comments

Memo to Aaron:

Mario Power Tennis has been purchased but I cannot assure you that it will remain in its packaging until you arrive. It looks like so much fun.

I think I am ready for my trip. Virtually everything is packed and I am freshly showered. Now if only my nerves would calm down.

posted by pookzilla at 2:58 PM - 1 comment

Before going to bed I took some nasty-ass cough medicine that is supposed to make you cough up all the bad things that ail you. Apparently my lungs ail me because I swear I just spit the jellied remains of one into my sink. Guh. I'm now wide awake watching Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight. It's going to be a very long evening.

posted by pookzilla at 12:08 AM - 0 comments

Friday, February 25, 2005

It looks like it'll be raining from Sunday to Friday in San Francisco but that's OK - it'll be snowing here.

<nelson>Haw haw!</nelson>

I'm trying to decide what DVD to bring with me. I'm torn between Invader Zim and Samurai Jack... Zim is always good for a laugh but I've never given Jack a proper watching from beginning to end. Decisions decisions.

posted by pookzilla at 5:39 PM - 2 comments

Thursday, February 24, 2005

Woe are my lungs. Woe indeed. I feel much more alert and much less feverish but I worry about my breathing. Blah.

I checked in a wad of code today and then set about doing icons for my app. I got them all done. I enjoy making icons. It's so very brainless.

I am now mostly packed. I think I'm going to be able to get away with just my laptop bookbag and a gym bag which makes me happy. I'm debating as to whether I should wear down my Doc Martens or pack them. I suspect that if the airport gimps catch sight of them they'll want me to take them off so that they can check them and that is no easy task. Sixty-four bootholes take time to tear down and lace up.

posted by pookzilla at 6:49 PM - 5 comments

I think I may see the light at the end of the plague tunnel. I feel about as bad as I did last night. This is a good sign because I ALWAYS feel worse in the morning. My head is a bit clearer in exchange for coughing up large Lovecraftian blobs but somehow... It is an improvement.

posted by pookzilla at 6:31 AM - 0 comments

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Sometimes when you're all stuffed up it's easier just to put a cork in it than to keep blowing.

posted by pookzilla at 9:59 AM - 19 comments

Tuesday, February 22, 2005

Ugh. Feeling much worse today. My head is so full that I can't think straight and now I find my stomach quite upset. Knowing my luck this will end up being the flu. Everything always needs to be so complicated where I'm concerned.

posted by pookzilla at 4:22 PM - 0 comments

When I grow up I want to marry Jon Stewart. *swoon*

posted by pookzilla at 7:31 AM - 5 comments

Monday, February 21, 2005

My EclipseCon example app is all but done. I just need to add some fake-o controls to some example views and whip up some icons and perhaps a splash screen. Blah.

Cthulhu's vet appointment has been rescheduled for when I return from San Fran. This bugs me a bit because he's seemed to be a wee bit under the weather as of late and I really want him to be checked out. In the meantime I will pamper him like crazy.

posted by pookzilla at 6:54 PM - 4 comments

Sunday, February 20, 2005

My throat is nice and swollen and my ears are achy. Goddamnit! An hour ago I felt fine. I am not impressed. I need to start ODing on the vitamin C. Fook!

posted by pookzilla at 6:28 PM - 2 comments

I just finished watching the directors cut of Donnie Darko. I quite liked it but I can't for the life of me say what kind of movie it was. It defies description. Twelve Monkeys meets Pump up the Volume perhaps? Idunno. Thumbs up at any rate.

posted by pookzilla at 2:26 PM - 2 comments

Saturday, February 19, 2005

My breakfast with Sarah has been rescheduled to next Saturday because something popped up that she had to deal with. I'm not terribly upset. I like the idea of staying in bed tomorrow and resting up. I really hope nothing happens to mess up next weekend, though. I'd really like to see her before I fly off to California. She always cheers me up and I'm gonna need it. I'm starting to freak out over this trip just a little bit. I imagine myself fainting in front of several hundred people.

fCredibility = 0;

posted by pookzilla at 10:24 PM - 5 comments

Thanks go out to Kayetie for the iTrip that came in the mail for my birthday! It rocks!

Some of the MeFi meetup photos have been posted. There's no way I'm linking to them. I look ghastly. :P

posted by pookzilla at 1:39 PM - 4 comments

M5 == shipped. Thank god for that. I didn't think this milestone would ever pass. We managed to pack an awful lot in this time...

The MeFi meetup last night was fun but we had a shaky start. Pub Italia was packed to the gills with Winterlude revelers and other assorted drunkards so it took us about 45 minutes to get a table. Discussions were had regarding the value of Wikipedia, the convergence of feed aggrigators/del.icio.us, MeFi policy, and beer. There were plenty of picture taken of course - every good geek carries a camera. As soon as they come available I'll post a link... provided that I don't look particularly hideous of course.

And now... I'm wrecked. Time to rest some more before treking to the post office. Stupid Canada Post. Why do they refuse to deliver parcels within apartment buildings? We're treated like second class citizens. *grumble*

posted by pookzilla at 7:35 AM - 0 comments

Thursday, February 17, 2005

Huh. These tests are so lame.

Your Seduction Style: The Dandy

You're a non-traditionalist, not limited by gender roles or expectations.
Your sexuality is more fluid than that - and you defy labels or categories.
It's hard to pin you down, and that's what's fascinating about you.
You have the psychology of both a male and a female, and you can relate to anyone.

What Is Your Seduction Style?

posted by pookzilla at 6:26 PM - 3 comments

This week can't end soon enough. It's milestone time again and it's been very tiring. Testing is so tedious.

Tomorrow is MetaFilter meetup night. I'm anxious. I hope we can ship the milestone on early tomorrow so I can make it there on time. Our stuff is looking to be in good shape so I don't see any reason why we won't be finished.

posted by pookzilla at 5:49 PM - 0 comments

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Me want! Hee.

posted by pookzilla at 7:09 AM - 5 comments

Tuesday, February 15, 2005

The Westminster Kennel Club 2005 dog show has crept up on me! I LOVE watching dog shows. It started yesterday so I can only hope that they show it again once it's over - they've already shown the working breeds and they're my favourite. Puppies!!

posted by pookzilla at 8:29 PM - 7 comments

I started RE4 again at what I assume to be a higher difficulty level. I say assume, because I got to keep all of the money/weapons I had at the end of the first game, all of which were 100% tooled up. Villagers seem to do more damage but they're taken down in very short order with my uber-pistol and assault shotgun. I played for exactly one hour and got as far as the end of Chapter 1-2. It took me about 5 hours to get that far last time I played and I havn't died yet. I wouldn't have even gotten hurt if I hadn't tried to get into hand-to-hand combat in an effort to go light on ammunition. If I keep up this pace I should be through the game in about 10 hours this go-around. And then I will probably play again after that.

posted by pookzilla at 6:04 PM - 0 comments

Monday, February 14, 2005

Resident Evil 4? PWN3D. Lord Saddler? Cryin' like a little girl.

I can't wait to play it again.

posted by pookzilla at 8:15 PM - 0 comments

From the various blogs I read I found out that this person died recently. I didn't know her. I don't even really know the people who did know her. I took some time to spider around, finding various outpourings of grief from close friends and acquaintances alike. It's incredibly morbid of me but I find how webs of people are brought together over such an event fascinating. What I find even more fascinating is that her journal is going to stay there, waiting for her next posting. Casual visitors may never know that the person whose thoughts and feelings they're reading about is gone. I've never really thought about what the average person leaves behind when they die but this has really got me pondering it. What artifacts of my life are going to be kicking around the net when I go? How many little memes will be popping up in the blogsphere dedicated to my demise? How about yours?

posted by pookzilla at 5:16 PM - 8 comments

Ugh. I was up most of last night hovering around the porcelain throne. Happy birfday to me!

posted by pookzilla at 6:21 AM - 3 comments

Sunday, February 13, 2005

I feel incredibly gross. I've been feeling the urge to vomit all day long. I hope I'm not getting sick.

posted by pookzilla at 5:03 PM - 0 comments

Saturday, February 12, 2005

I wrote some Script-Fu for The Gimp tonight. It was nothing special, just a simple script that scaled and unsharpened a batch of images, wrote the results to new files prefixed by "T_", and created some HTML describing the mapping. It's been so long since I've written any Scheme/Lisp. There is so much that I've forgotten and yet I still found it relatively painless. I think I'm going to modify my script to adjust brightness and contrast and perhaps prompt for left/right rotation. I'm sure there was already a script out there I could've used but when I get a bug in my ass to do something for myself I can't help doing it.

*ass bug*

Oh yah. Why did I do this again? I took some more photos of Abaddon the Despoiler and I didn't feel like hand-scaling them. I've been thinking about selling him again so that I can buy a new crazy-ass ForgeWorld model.

Update: For reference, the script is here.

posted by pookzilla at 10:20 PM - 6 comments

Memo to whoever has been calling me all afternoon long: FUCK OFF! People have answering machines for a reason - USE THEM. I am trying to nap!

posted by pookzilla at 1:54 PM - 0 comments

Part of my Apple order has shipped. Unfortunately it's not the interesting bit - it's just the iMic and iWork. The computer is still on track for March. Sigh.

I went to the mall to fetch groceries this morning. While I was there I picked up two new t-shirts. An Elmo "Tickle Me" shirt and an Oscar the Grouch "Don't Bother Me" shirt. Very cute. And now to begin my birthday hibernation.

posted by pookzilla at 11:48 AM - 0 comments

Friday, February 11, 2005

"King Canute taught us that no man, no matter how powerful, can control nature. Now learn that no man, no matter how much he lubs you, can up your ranking on Google."

Sir Aaron Tunney

posted by pookzilla at 6:18 PM - 0 comments

I innocently left my laptop on the floor with my browser pointed to the Apple store on the checkout page. A Mac Mini was in my basket. I took a picture.

Before I could do anything my cat walked over and stepped on my mouse button. All I could do was take this picture.

So yah. My cat bought a Mac before I had time to stop him. That's my story and I am sticking to it.

posted by pookzilla at 5:37 PM - 4 comments

Thursday, February 10, 2005

I had a very nice dream last night. I fell in love with a blind girl who was very keen on me. She was so kind and funny and sweet and pretty. I hope I dream about her tonight... maybe she's out there dreaming about me.

posted by pookzilla at 8:21 PM - 2 comments

A Valentines card arrived today from Aaron. Thanks Muppet, it was very sweet.

A birthday card arrived from my parents. It's essentially the same card and gag as they sent last year - a card about "I was going to send you money..." with $.27 taped inside and a comment about how mom was arrested before she could get anything more from the mall fountain. Some traditions aren't so bad really, and the money does get me 1/5 of the way to a Coffee Crisp bar. Actually, if I dig out last years card I would be closer to 3/5 of the way to it - I got closer to $.50 last year. They also included a political cartoon depicting George Bush strangling Paul Martin. Anytime I get mail from them there's always a political cartoon included. My dad is weird that way.

A co-worker returned after an extended leave today so we went out for Thai to celebrate. It was lovely. Pa nang rocks my world so hard.

posted by pookzilla at 5:27 PM - 1 comment

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

Candybar Doll Maker via someone I don't know.

Me in doll form (minus the fat and ink)

posted by pookzilla at 9:37 PM - 0 comments

I started today with a fright. When I tried to boot my laptop at work I was greeted with a blank screen after I entered my BIOS password. I restarted, entered the password again and was shown Windows text telling me there was a hardware malfunction on last startup. From here things booted fine. I ran PC-Doctor diagnostics and came up with an error in my CMOS. There were issues reading/writing to a certain address. Everything has been fine since but I worry.

Otherwise today was very productive.

posted by pookzilla at 5:04 PM - 2 comments

Tuesday, February 08, 2005

The assimilation, it begins!

Thanks Aaron! :D

posted by pookzilla at 5:06 PM - 4 comments

I signed up for classmates.com some time ago in an attempt to track down someone I went to school with. I didn't have any luck but decided to leave my membership in place. They mail me on a fairly regular basis but it's OK - I signed up using my hotmail account and that's only used as a spam bucket anyway. Today I look in my mailbox and find a message from them saying someone has been looking for me. I take a look and allegedly Sidney Crosby wants me to fill out my profile. Sidney grew up in my area and went to the same schools I did but I think he has better things to do than troll profiles on classmates. It's pretty shameful of them to use his name to drum up hits and business. I'm toying with the idea of mailing "his people" to let them know that someone is using his name to try and drum up business.

posted by pookzilla at 7:10 AM - 0 comments

Monday, February 07, 2005

Birthday/Valentines blues are rapidly settling in. Must fight.

posted by pookzilla at 5:19 PM - 0 comments

Sunday, February 06, 2005

I've been loafing and sleeping all day long but I still feel like I need another day to recharge. God help anyone who gets in my way tomorrow if I'm still feeling like this.

posted by pookzilla at 6:22 PM - 2 comments

Have I ever mentioned how amazing parrots and crows are? (via MetaFilter)

posted by pookzilla at 3:03 PM - 0 comments

I wish there was a way to subscribe for notifications to MetaFilter comments. Keeping track of threads you've participated in is a real pain. I should install mod_pubsub today and see if I can't rig something up. It strikes me that something braindead could be rigged up by simply styling the comment page into RSS but that doesn't sound very fun at all and I've wanted to play with mod_pubsub for awhile now.

posted by pookzilla at 8:09 AM - 0 comments

Saturday, February 05, 2005

I'm going over to X's soon to play video games and pig out. Perhaps while I'm there I can convince her to start publishing an RSS feed of her site... *plots*

posted by pookzilla at 1:07 PM - 9 comments

Friday, February 04, 2005

I came home to find Cthulhu in my chair again. He looked so sweet and comfortable that I just had to take pictures of him. I've created a directory for photos of him here. I'll index it at some point but for now I'll leave it raw. In some photos he seems sad while in others he seems sneaky. It's rare for him to ham for the camera like this.

posted by pookzilla at 5:06 PM - 0 comments

I had another dreamfilled night... but with a twist! I had a very good dream. I feel all warm and happy right now.

posted by pookzilla at 6:43 AM - 1 comment

Thursday, February 03, 2005

I agreed to go to a MetaFilter Ottawa meetup in a few weeks time. Why do I keep doing things that require me to kick my own ass? This is the kind of thing I am so terrible at.

posted by pookzilla at 7:47 PM - 5 comments

I was fighting an intense headache all day long. That'll teach me to wait until 11:00am for my first coffee. Stupid addiction.

I might be crazy but I could swear that Cthulhu has seemed depressed these past few days. His eyes are droopy, he hasn't wanted to cuddle, and he just seems to radiate a bit of sadness. For my part I've been being extra sweet to him in an attempt to cheer him up. I joined him on the bedroom floor this morning for a little talk and cuddle and I'm letting him sit in my chair at the moment. This is usually a big no-no but it seems to make him happy - he likes showing me that he's in charge of things.

God knows he's right.

posted by pookzilla at 4:52 PM - 3 comments