Stupid heat wave. Stupid air conditioner that doesn’t work. Stupid RAID card. Stupid backup problems.
Not gonna be a fun day.
Month: September 2005
Irvine 101
According to AccuWeather.com, it’s 101 degrees right now.
And the crazy thing? I believe it. I don’t know how hot it was when I went out for lunch, but I was guessing 90-something. I can’t even remember the last time it broke 100.
This has been another Useless Fact(tm).
Poem Meme
I can’t really think of a favorite poem (following andrea_wot and others), but I thought about the poems I went to the effort of posting on my website back when it was just “cool stuff on my university account,” and came up with…
The Cremation of Sam McGee
by Robert William Service
The curse be broken!
Fer th’ last three trips t’ Starbuccaneers, I ordered me the same brew, blended with ice. The scurvy dogs arsked me an I wanted whipped cream atop me drink, and every time, I replied, “No, thanks.”
Yet every time, me drink, it had whipped cream atop it!
This were three different houses of coffee, scuppering the same drink i’ th’ same manner!
It’s enough to make a pirate want to walk th’ plank hisself!
But today, aye, at yet a fourth tavern, were the barkeeps listenin’! Today, I had me a drink without whipped cream!
Methinks I oughter have tipped ’em an extra piece of eight!
What Goes Around
I went to Sav-on on Saturday to pick up more NyQuil and DayQuil equivalents. The shelf was practically empty. All sizes of the name-brand boxes (I get the capsules, since I can’t stand taking cough syrup) were completely out.
Yes, they were out of NyQuil and DayQuil.
As for the store brand, which I know from experience works well, they were down to their last few boxes unless you picked up the 40-packs. I think there were two 20-packs of the daytime version, and only the giant boxes for the nighttime.
If anything says “cold season has hit,” it’s a shortage of over-the-counter cold medication!
Sweet poison
Woke up with a sore throat this morning, almost certainly the same thing Katie’s been fighting all week, so I’ve been drinking tea today. Our lunch room at work has a basket of sugar, Sweet-n-low, and Equal packets which someone has thoughtfully arranged in three wide stripes, making it look oddly like the French tricolor.
When the receptionist cleans the coffee maker, she puts a post-it note on the urn labeled “Poison,” often with a skull and crossbones, to make sure that no one absent-mindedly pours himself a cup of cleaning fluid. (And face it, if you really need the coffee, you won’t notice!)
Disturbingly, someone had set that post-it note on top of the sugar packets.
Now, I’m sure you can find nutritionists, dietitians, and the occasional conspiracy theorist who will agree with that assessment—and throw in aspartame and saccharin as well—but it’s not a label you want to see on something you’re about to put in your own drink. Even when you know it’s safe!
Whoa! That’s real far!
I walked to lunch at the Irvine Spectrum today. On my way back, while waiting at a red light, a 20-ish guy with headphones and a student-sized backpack asked me for directions to UCI — on foot. As it happened, the directions were simple: Take Barranca to Jeffrey, turn left, and keep going.
But 7 miles is a long way to walk!
He did ask if there were any buses that went there. I said there were, but I didn’t know where the stops were for that route.
If he kept walking, he might be just arriving around now.
MirrorMask
The bad news: MirrorMask is only opening in selected theaters on September 30.
The good news: Those theaters include Edwards University. (I’m not sure where the Landmark Nuart Theater is, but it’s the only one in LA.)
According to Neil Gaiman, the amount of business it does during the first week will determine whether it gets a wider release.
So, who wants to go see MirrorMask?