January 2004 Archives

Some sage words from Frank Zappa.

Here's a fun game from my friend Carrie, click the above image (my personal record) to load it. Click once to drop the penguin, click again to swing. Rinse, repeat, wipe hands on pants. This is what the Psychology Department at Rutgers does to occupy their time.

K: Fixed the link to another mirror. Also try here.

Last night a Mr. Michael Greening posted a comment about the feta burger recipe I made a few weeks back. Specifically, his post was about my use of Ring Of Fire hot sauce. He and his wife are the owners (see here)! Pretty cool huh?

I came across Ring Of Fire at a store called Silly Chile up in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Since finding it, I've tried a few other hot sauces (this store has hundreds), namely Sphincter Shrinker and Yucatan Sunrise, but RoF is still my fave.

In other news Alice B. Kitty still appears to be fine despite the guilt trip the veterinary surgeon is trying to land on me. Hopefully she'll hold out until I can get my C3 bonus from work.

After spending $200 at the vet yesterday, I found out my cat Alice has a bunch of stones in her bladder. She needs them removed surgically, and the vet quoted me $800 to do it. Like I have that kind of money lying around. Hell, the $200 vet visit has almost bankrupted me until I get paid again. Since I'm losing my job anyway, I called my 401K people (Putnam) to see if I could get my money out. Turns out they won't give it to me until Textron has notified them of my termination. Great... It's also reassuring since Putnam is getting investigated by the SEC and the state of Massachusetts. So it may end up I have to put Alice down. This would be a major bummer because she's not that old, and surgery would fix the problem, not just prolong the inevitable. As you can see, this year is off to a wonderfull start.

In other news, I quit smoking yesterday. I'm on the smallest patch and Zyban, and the cravings aren't too bad. So far, so good. Night time is rough, but as long as I stay busy, it's manageable. Hopefully I'll be tolerable to be around, for my roommate's sake.

In yet still other news, I kegged up the latest brew, a Cream Stout. It's carbonating as I write, so hopefully I can have a pint tonight. Of course, without a cig, it may not be the same. It's a wonderfully dark color, with a sweet aroma. More later on the taste once I have some.

I upgraded everything to MT v2.65. This upgrade is kinda minor, mostly just security fixes and a few new features. I also added the little counters at the top that show how many entries, comments, and the current MT version. Neat, huh?

English not your primary language? Google has a multitude of different portals customized to different languages. My faves are Latin, Pig Latin, and Klingon. I find it surprising they don't have a version in Tengwar for the Tolkien fans. All of the regionalized search engines (including Hacker and Bork! Bork! Bork!) can be found here.

I'm a year older today. Tonight my friends and I will go out to Gauchos for some meat-on-a-stick. I'm also still looking for a job to transition to after April 30th. At least I should be able to put down on a house with my severance. The local job market for my field is pretty soft right now, so I may end up moving if the economy doesn't pick up soon. Such a joy...

Make sure you have Javascript enabled to see the floating cakes!

Wow. This past week has been FULL of changes.

I've been sick since New Year's Eve, so I went to the doctor on Monday. Got some anitbiotics and cough stuff. Plus I decided to try the Zyban program. Yep, I'm shooting to be nicotine free within a week of my birthday. Wish me luck.

In other news, we got some difficult news at work today. They are selling out the portfolio and I will be losing my job. Still, maybe it is time to move on. The official press release is here. Once again, Odd Todd is right on the money.