Year: 2005

Yes, like a total loser, I’m playing around with all of the features everybody else has been praising for months. Just call me a tool.

The other night I uploaded some pictures from the Ben Carroll/Amy Correia show the night I proposed to Lisa. Since I promised Ben I’d get these to him, I figured this would be a good test.

Sunday morning I went to a camera show with an enthusiastic plan to purchase cheap, used lenses, some filters, and maybe even a new bag. Boy was that a disappointment. It turned out to be a small, dingy flea market for semi-collectors and yard sale types. I wandered around for a while, but the only Canon lenses I saw weren’t even the right mounts. It’s not like I was looking for highly advanced digital products here – the EF mount is almost 20 years old, you’d think one or two might be lying around.

Worst of all was the limited selections of porn not-so-subtley situated on tables. There’s something about collecting – especially when it comes to old and rare equipment – that appeals primarily to males, and particularly those with limited social lives. Collectors can always put porn to good use during the rare occasion their not pawing over their goods. It’s somewhat sad, and always adds a certain amount of awkwardness when I work my way through the aisles of a computer or sci-fi show.

Undaunted, I picked up a couple old Argus cameras and a genuine Brownie unit for my gal who has a far less obsessive collecting side than us nerd. At some point I’ll post pics of her current selection.

Hmm, the flash badge didn’t work, let’s try the html version:

www.flickr.com indieb0i’s Ben Carroll/Amy Correia photoset

Just because I don’t want to be the last person to join in, I’m finally playing around with my flickr account. I signed up during its early stages to view other people’s photos, but never actually uploaded any of my own. Now that I’m playing around with it, I understand the buzz and figure it might be worth it to more quickly share photos with friends. Ah, the joys of Interwebbing!

Still in the final throes of my Internet identity crisis (and we all know the last throes can last up to 12 years) I haven’t been able to decide what my web address over there should be. Since I’m trying to stop using indieb0i, that would seem silly. But thomslattery comes off as too long (and specific). Suddenly it dawned on me: THOM! By gum, I could just use my first name. Then I could also start switching my Linux accounts over to using thom rather than indieb0i and make my whole digital life simpler! The possibilities are endless!!

Oh wait, slight problem – some doppleganger has already claimed that address. So I started to investigate – he lives in the NYC area, in his 20s and taken. He’s into Neil Gaiman and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. and lists New Order among his favorite bands.

Wait, is this a doppleganger, or actually me?!?! Well, he also lists Tom Cruise as one of his favorite actors, so at worst (or best) maybe just an evil twin. So I jump over to this newer Thom’s site and he has the gall to be dissing my home state… okay, in reality he’s just dissing Rick Santorum (who we all know is a nutcase anyway) but still, I’m trying to make him evil. Work with me. I guess in reality the worst I can say is that he’s obviously a much better photographer! And that makes me feel bad about myself – how much more evil can you get?

At least Google ranks me as the 31st most important Thom, while he’s not even in the top 100. Of course that doesn’t help me figure out what my flickr web space should be called… So, what do you guys think: thomslattery, indieb0i, or something completely different?

!@(newroomies.jpg popimg: “Shadow sleeps safely next to Jessie”) Over the weekend Jessie and Shadow finally began sharing a home. For the past week we had been taking them out and letting them mingle on our bed. So when I had to clean out their cages on Sunday, we took the opportunity to let the two of them run around the kitchen together. By the time I was finished, they seemed quite comfortable with each other, and Lisa suggested that we put them back in Jessie’s cage at the same time.

Lo and behold, Jessie chilled out with the molesting, and they were able to settle down with minimal bucking for prime real estate. Even when we ran out for further errands, they maintained a friendly (albeit slightly guarded) disposition. Jessie will still assert himself from time to time, but its not nearly as aggressive as before. The will eat side by side, and Shadow has slowly started to sleep closer and closer to Jess.

I know that more problems may lie ahead, but for now we’ve got them back down to one cage, and they are both eating and drinking regularly. I hope to eventually see them flop on each other, but that will come in due time. For now, the piggies can keep each other company, and Lisa and I can marvel at their cuteness whenever they simply yawn or flop down.

I finally got around to upgrading WordPress to 1.5.1.3 (way overdue considering it was a rather nasty bug they found). Oh well, apparently my site just wasn’t cool enough to even bother hacking. I also added a few backdated entries to the recently created Wedding category that were originally LiveJournal-only. The main problem with Lisa reading my blog (aside from not being able to drool over our nightly viewings of a certain young actress) is that I couldn’t spill the beans about the engagement until it happened. At least now I can preserve those entries.

If you are an LJer, you might have noticed the change in my avatar. I will be working on some design changes and that includes downplaying Teddy’s picture sadly displayed all over this site. Instead you’ll get a taste of what you really want: me in all my hunky glory! Well, maybe not…

I’m sure I had other things to add here… At lunch time I noticed that my shirt goes horribly with these pants – way too similar in color. But that’s not really blog-worthy… so I won’t waste your time…

Oh yeah, I’ll be playing around with flickr and some other gallery options to finally get some pictures up here. Plus I need to fix some older entries after a directory move that screwed up their images. Alrighty, it’s time to really get cracking on this site maintenance.

My relationship with Lisa has survived one of the most challenging incidents to ever rear it’s ugly head: THE REGISTRY!

Everybody assured us that this would be the fun stuff. It’s like creating a giant wishlist of everything you want for your house. How could this go wrong?!?!

Well, after an hour of debating over flatware (and we’re not even getting the fancy china sets) I was about ready to call it a night. Just give us the dumbass Gone Fishin’ set and be done with it! Send us dishes designed for five year olds while you’re at it. I just couldn’t care anymore. And then I’m supposed to pick out a toaster?!?! (Ok, that part’s actually easy)

And the really cool hand scanner they gave us to keep the stupid guys amused (I’ll happily play that part) instead confused me to the point that I was certain we (and by “we” I mean “I”) had ordered 80 sets of forks and crap to go with 15 glasses and 12 plates. Way to take the fun out of a cool gadget – scare me with images of the most ridiculously stocked kitchen dancing through my head.

Even the cookware section couldn’t save my sanity as I am now left reading debates between Calphalon and All-Clad rival gangs. Oh yeah, did I mention that there’s someone else’s taste to take into account, too?

Well, we made it through day one still loving each other and with a minor sense of accomplishment – even though there’s no way we would allow people to use the current registry. The next few days will probably be filled with us throwing Williams-Sonoma and Crate & Barrel catalogs at each other.

That’s right, as of today I am officially insured by the Government Employees Insurance Company (yeah, I didn’t know it was an acronym either). I’m not interested in having a friendly face behind my insurance company. I want it to be online and easy to make changes with as little human contact as possible. After my only accident I didn’t bother going to see my agent just up the street, but instead called the parent company’s 1-800 number. They were far easier to deal with.

And since I’ve moved and am dropping some of my excessive coverage I’ll also be saving close to $600 a year!

Continue reading “My insurance does the robot”

“Ah, the script has finally arrived.” – Tom Servo

!@(mst3k.jpg popimg: “A selection of the many DVD+Rs used”) Thanks largely to the guys over at the Digital Archive Project, I have finally finished burning 28 DVDs of MST3K goodness. That’s 167 episodes from the show’s 11 year run – or every episode that isn’t commerically available (well, a couple that are, because I got them before the fact).

For those unfamiliar with the DAP, it’s a very cool project that began with the premise of sharing MST3K episodes captured from old tape libraries and expanded to include other lost cult faves like Max Headroom and Freakazoid. They’ve done a very good job of keeping the site legit by isolating their own eDonkey network and only allowing shows not available in stores to be available. So if you are interested in checking out their offerings, be prepared to thoroughly read the FAQ and follow the instructions to a “T.” If not, don’t be surprised if you get banned.

I was going to conclude with another great quote, but there were just too many good ones to choose from. Instead, here’s an odd site with a whole crapload for your enjoyment.

…than following the masses.

I really hate when I barely post for a week except for some silly links. At least this one is for a survey – although I don’t know that I was thrilled with the questions. Give it a try if you’ve got the time. Then you too can proclaim:

Thanks to Dougal

I’ve never read Gizmodo with any regularity in the past, but that’s all beginning to change. Not only is it a cool way to keep up with the latest gadgets, but it’s just so darn funny. And you really need a sense of humor when discussing the latest products from XenoFreaks.

I’ve been missing a couple CDs for a few days. It’s not like I really searched that hard for them, just poked around my desk and at various pileas around the apartment. Certainly different from my copy of World Clique that’s been missing for two years (time to cave and buy it again). These ones I was just sure were around by couldn’t be bothered the few minutes of time to find. Until yesterday.

Yesterday, I looked under my car seat and immediately saw my still shiny Guero case. Yay, one down! And a very important one, as I just haven’t had the chance to listen to it enough. Next I opened the garage door and went into Lisa’s minivan. EJECT – wow, here comes Paper Tigers. Two for two!

Not much of a point to this entry other than to highlight my own laziness/procrastinability… or to show that sometimes things are actually in the first place you look… maybe the second place in this case… which was still the last place I looked…