Guilty Pleasures

It's really quiet here in the office today. My boss is in his office with his door shut, one other employee is quietly working in his office down the hall, and the last employee isn't here the rest of this week because of a death in his family (Yes, I work with only 3 other guys in my office).

With the office being this quiet I'm getting loads of Unit Test written for a new application I designed and implemented earlier this week, but it's also given me the chance to listen to some complete albums over my headphones without the tracks being interrupted by anything.

Today this is what I've been listening to all morning:





So what are some of your guilty pleasures. Those tunes you love to listen to but only when no ones around, and only through your headphones if you're sure no one will ask you what you're listening to.

I'm man enough to say I think strong, powerful women are hot

Check this woman out. Big guns, black leather, oh yeah. She can kick my ass any day (wait, does that even make sense).

The Coolest Librarian Ever

Last Thursday was a pretty shit day, having gone to my Grandma's wake, but I did get a little good news - I was accepted into the grad school program at URI to get my Masters in Library Studies and Information Services. I know it's no big deal getting into URI, but for the time being, I'm going to pretend that it is just to boast my ego a bit.

After finding out I was accepted I scheduled my first few classes for this summer, one of which starts at the end of this week - no real time to get my head around the fact that I'm now a grad student but what can you do. My first class is Introduction to Information Science and Technology, which sounds a lot worst than I'm hoping it probably will be. The first class, this Friday will be 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM, but then after that the rest of the summer session will be online classes so I'll be able to do them from anywhere at anytime.

I told my boss that I'll have to work remotely on Friday because of my class (I also told him I was accepted to the grad school at the same time :-) ) and he doesn't see any problem with that, just as long as I keep up 40+ hours a week working. It'll be challenging, believe me I know from watching Amanda do it now for the past three years, but I really need a change. Software has it's good points, but the bad moments greatly outnumber the good, at least for me they do. So I'm going back to school to try and do something about my career path. But even if I do have to give up my software job, I'd rather be poor than miserable any day.

And it's not like I'm going to be a poor grad student. I'm going to try and keep my crummy software job for as long as possible while taking classes so as to still be able to contribute to my household without putting any unnecessary burdens on ourselves. And in a few years I'll be that wicked cool guy that works at the library that disproves all the librarian stereotypes.

Because real men have feminine sides

So yeah, I cross stitch. Wanna fight about it?

My latest project has been this Nintendo Sampler that I created half of. The top and the right, middle sides were designed by someone else (stitchin' chicken) but the left, middle and the bottom are all me. I took screen shots and then drew the images in Microsoft's paint program, zooming in as close as possible to be able to see each pixel.


I still have to stitch all of the empty spaces with black thread and I'm almost done with the left, middle side, which is a pattern of Rygar, a character from an original Nintendo game, fighting the first boss. When I'm finished with that section, I'll post more pics.

After this I'm working on a title screen of the original Legend Of Zelda that I didn't design, but oh well. Even if I did design the pattern myself since it's based off of the same image it would look the same so no big difference there.

Not only to I have a completely gay hobby, but I'm also a nerd about it. Isn't everyone jealous of my wife?

In which I eat a booze soaked butterfly larva

The whole "worm in a bottle of tequila" isn't really new to anyone. Anyone who's ever really drank tequila in their lifetimes knows about this but what you might not know is the story behind it.

The worm in the bottle isn't actually a worm at all but a Agave butterfly larva which crawls inside the Agave plant, which is used to make tequila in the first place. Anyway, when brewing his "sore throat in a bottle" drink,a Senior Jacobo Lozano Paez from Mexico City decided to include an Agave larva in his mescal, a sort of tequila, as a marketing ploy.


For one thing, when mescal is created some times those little buggers get into it anyway. Since the drink already has the Agave larva in it, why not go the extra step and actually include a whole one in each bottle? For another thing, since the Agave larva feeds off the Agave plant, Paez believed that putting the bug into the drink actually enhanced it's favor (if I eat a lot of BBQ sauce does that mean I'll have a smoky favor?). I'm not sure how to enhance the favor of tequila anymore than it already is, seeing as how it pretty much tastes like burning to me.


So what's with the history/biology lesson? Last weekend I had the opportunity to eat the worm for a second time in my life. I forget the details of the first time, but since I was probably drinking a large quantity of tequila at the time, it's understandable. Anyway, I asked Amanda to make me a Tequila Sunrise and being the perfect wife that she is, off she went to make my drink. While in the kitchen she called to me saying that we're at the bottom of the bottle and there's the question about what to do with the worm seeing as how there only a single shot left. I abandoned my Tequila Sunrise in favor of just having a shot of the tequila with the little guy in it. You are correct. Amanda thought it was gross.


"Ahh, smooth."

In which I go to a concert

My good friend, Melissa, performed last night in a concert held at Orche Court, a mansion down in Newport, and it was amazing. Not only did she perform in it but she was a solo in the Concertino for Clarinet, E flat Major, Op 26. It was truly breathtaking. Too bad we were all sitting stage right and had the bass players standing in front of us the whole time so we could only see their backs during the performance.

It was definitely a different listening experience sitting that close to the basses. It completely changed the overall sound of the concert with the parts that should have been more subdued, exchanged for the parts that should have been louder and more prominent.

There were a number of instances that we could definitely hear a few mistakes but nothing that ruined the concert. A small boy, probably no more than 10 years old, was playing a violoncello, a smaller version of the cello, whose instrument became a little out of tune by the end of the concert but just the fact that he was holding his own amongst adult musicians says a lot.

But the star of the show, sorry Melissa, was an 11 year-old solo violinist playing the Concerto for Violin #4, D Major, K 218 who was spectacular. It was really something to witness so small a person produce something that strong that could elicit such powerful emotions. I think I saw her parents in the audience video recording it and I couldn't help but wonder just how proud they must feel every time they hear her play.

GTA4 - I want it and should get it

It being Tuesday the 29th of April, everyone who is anyone is at home right now either playing Grand Theft Auto IV or are sleeping because they picked up their copy last night at midnight when it went on sale and they just got to bed a couple of hours ago. I am not one of these people because obviously I must not be anyone if the above statement holds any sway.

I am one of those people who thought the PS3 was way to expensive for a console and believed that the XBox 360 was just not for me - XBox 360 being mainly for frat guys or very underage boys who do nothing but scream obscenities into their microphones while they pwn in Halo 3, but really that's just my own stereotype and doesn't accurately reflect the 360's player base (but then again it just might).

I asked for and received the Wii (because my mom loves me so) because I was looking at all the new games coming out for the "next" generation consoles and was really bored with them. Yeah, they have beautiful graphics and all that, but the gameplay was something we have all seen before. Now the Wii, that was something new, something special, and every time I turned around there was another game being released that I really wanted to play. I've had loads of fun playing with my Wii (giggle giggle) and nothing can compare to hearing my wife swear like a sailor at the TV, asking why her cow isn't running faster (thank you very much Wii Play).

But now GTA IV is out and I NEED it. And now that me and the missus have a high definition television, on top of the fact that the HD war is now over with Blue-Ray the obvious victor, it's time to start seriously considering getting the PS3.

I will admit that I am a man-child and want nothing more when I get off work then to rush home and play video games until my thumbs ache (but I guess with the Wii's controller, my thumbs don't ache as much anymore). But I will admit to myself that I probably shouldn't get one. I already have the Nintendo Wii and the Nintendo DS, which I love more than anything (if it only had a smooth, warm hol... no, I'm not going to even go there), as well as my PS2 still plugged into my TV, getting the PS3 seems a bit of an overkill. Oh well, what can you do? You only live once and blowing 400 bucks on a stupid man toy (giggle giggle) isn't that big of a deal, I guess. Screw home renovations. Who needs groceries really when there's plenty of condiments available?