the proverbial bag of oranges
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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
Dan's LiveJournal:
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| Wednesday, April 18th, 2012 | | 4:30 pm |
hm, more space here than I remember
Dodging the year-absent mark, a brain-dump: - I was helping out at a local record store, counter work and ordering, making use of many years of music arcana and seeing how it applied to actually levering dollars out of wallets, but after a few years of the good financial fight we finally pulled the plug. It's absurd how impossible the music-retail business is right now, especially as a small independent store, especially with Amazon chopping the legs out from under all price points. Pricing at MSRP, we were making about $3 on the average CD, sometimes less. Super-deluxe vinyl editions could be more profitable, but that required people actually wanting to drop $30+ on an album. Nutty. So every order became an agony of new releases versus money tied up in product that wasn't selling fast enough. We circled the drain for a while, then shut it down on Halloween. I don't know that the record store will become extinct, but they're getting awfully rare. - Bought art last weekend, a combination of serigraph and watercolors that I can stare at for time-erasing stretches. I think it might be the first piece I've ever purchased from someone I didn't know ahead of time; she said it was the first piece she'd ever sold to someone who wasn't family or a friend. Now for the framing; oh, and maybe I should fix a wall so I can hang it somewhere inside the house. - Jumped back into the RPG world via a Sunday group playing in the Labyrinth Lord framework, mostly, with some detours into other games depending on who shows up. Still working on the actual role playing, and I should never take my unlucky dice hands into a casino, but whee it's fun. (Also expensive when I discover that things like 7-sided dice and Battle Wizards exist.) I see a gaming convention in my future. Derp, brain empty. | | Thursday, April 28th, 2011 | | 11:44 am |
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
The phone message waiting for me last night from my friends in Alabama: "We're okay, the house is totaled, the cats are missing. How are you?" Add another thing to my list of things I am not sure how to deal with. I think I'm going to sprain the reflexive problem-solving part of my brain. Current Mood:  anxious | | Monday, August 16th, 2010 | | 9:45 pm |
| | Thursday, March 25th, 2010 | | 10:23 am |
not presently on a boat
We're wrapping up a conference in Savannah; I've been here since mid-last-week. Haven't really clicked with the city, which is actually not a bad thing because it's meant evenings in the fitness center instead of some bar. (Running on a treadmill with a built-in television is weird but effective. Not as nice as running outside, but Savannah has little city blocks and lots of traffic squares, and one abortive attempt mostly spent dodging cars and tourists was enough. Running along the river one morning was nice, but cut short by rain.) As usual, my impression of the city is mostly airport (small; weird, school-like architecture), hotel (trying to be fancy but falling down on lots of little details), and convention center (lovely open architecture, but a bit small; also on an island, which has proved picturesque but inconvenient when the ferry isn't running due to diesel spills or bomb threats or whatever the fuck shuts it down today), and whatever small bit of the city I see when I'm trying to find dinner, which expands or contracts based on necessity and just how adventurous I happen to be feeling. Nothing has changed my general opinion that the south doesn't really get vegetarian, at least not widely enough that dining options appear without some serious research, but the food in general has been surprisingly good (even at the hotel and convention center, places not always known for edibility). Favorite discovery so far has been B. Matthews ( link), although it's too spendy for every day (plus, again, the veg options are limited). (Fave discovery at B. Matthews was the New Belgium 1554 Enlightened Black Ale ( link; must find this closer to home!) Now we're in that limbo state where we're waiting for things to end so we can tear down. Waiting, waiting. I must be tired because this is polluted with parentheses and "nice". So yeah, not presently on a boat, but soon! ( link) | | Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 | | 2:37 pm |
snowbound
With due respect to everyone who's had to live through days without power, or who need to get places Right Now (godspeed to my friends who are presently trying to get from Pgh to Erie before someone dies), and now I feel like I need to say this very quietly, but the snow's been pretty great for me. Work's been closed all week so far (and it's presently snowing as I type this Wednesday afternoon, so who knows for tomorrow), and the impromptu vacation has basically meant elaborate breakfasts (as I work my way through A Real American Breakfast; yesterday was buttermilk pancakes, today was jonnycakes), extended videogame sessions (I've pretty much decided that the control scheme in Phantom Hourglass is clever but ultimately a pain in the ass), lots of snow shoveling, and one abortive attempt to chuck a bike down the Frick Park trails (just too much snow for any forward progress, but riding down sort-of but not-really-cleared streets that make it pretty obvious why work is closed; way to go, Pgh DPW!). Today: more shoveling, a walk down to the radio station for this evening's show, and maybe a trip over to REI to look at snowshoes. Wow, that's almost too cheery. I promise to play lots of ultra-kvlt metal tonight to make up for it. | | Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 | | 9:09 am |
beside the hype
While I have a passing nerd interest in the maybe-upcoming Apple tablet, what I really want to hear this afternoon is that Apple is chopping the price of their Mac Pro desktops. Because that's what I need right now, not a new toy. (Yes, the new quad-core iMac is very pretty (and friggin' huge! it's maybe the first time I've ever thought a monitor was too big), but I think the lack of easy expandability takes it out of the running for me.) | | Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009 | | 7:50 pm |
a letter in my handwriting
Seriously, they can come play at my house. A big screaming half naked gay lead singer? Sign me the fuck up! | | Tuesday, July 14th, 2009 | | 11:32 am |
| | Monday, May 25th, 2009 | | 9:29 pm |
and, done
I've put a recap of the Ride over on the mom-safe journal. The short version: did it, liked it, would do it again, conflicted as usual. Still processing the last part. | | Thursday, May 14th, 2009 | | 10:57 am |
not here, there
Been pretty much focused on the upcoming ride. What little posting I've been doing has been in a more mom-safe journal, but I'll still happily take your moneys. Skirt looks likely; singlespeed doesn't unless the magical maintenance fairy shows up in the next hour to fix the brakes. | | Monday, April 13th, 2009 | | 1:07 pm |
the hard part about going nowhere
Since I'm still training for the Ride For The Feast (to which you can still donate, if so inclined) I had semi-grandiose plans for a bike ride Sunday; "semi" because I put off any sort of route planning until the last possible minute since my standard "pick something and ride there" plan was hampered by the Great Easter Shutdown (also by the Great Passover Shutdown, but that's mostly my neighborhood and therefore not much of a bike ride). But I got something sorted (thanks, Bikely!), put on all the stupid bike gear, walked outside, and walked right back in again because it was 40 degrees outside. (What the hell, April? Carnival weekend is next weekend; too early on the crap weather!) So instead I ended up on the windtrainer again, with the laptop perched nearby showing Futurama episodes. After 60 miles my ass let me know that it wanted to stop. We'll see what the second-day ass report has to say about the whole affair, and (eventually) how all this windtrainer mileage translates to actual roadworthiness. | | Tuesday, March 24th, 2009 | | 10:39 am |
| | Friday, March 20th, 2009 | | 5:02 pm |
shoes!
 Apparently the average cyclist either has skinny little feet or is okay with constant pain, because most cycling shoes are stupidly narrow. Fortunately the Italians still give us fat-footed folk the opportunity to spend absurd amounts of cash on very single-minded footware. The ones in the picture are Genius 5 Megas from Sidi, and they fit mighty nicely. They're not the most expensive shoes I've ever bought, but that's only because the most expensive ones are designed to let me wreck a motorcycle at high speeds and still walk to the ambulance on my own. I had forgotten the particular joy of trying to walk in road biking shoes (which by design have a stiff, unbendable sole). For simulation purposes, you could strap a couple saucers to the bottoms of your feet and then try to walk around your kitchen. Now imagine a whole crowd of you skating through a convenience store and you'll have a good idea of what it's like when a ride stops for a break. Hilarity ensues. I picked these up for the Ride For the Feast, where I'll be spending a couple days on a bike. If you'd like to donate some money to sponsor me, I'd surely appreciate it. | | Wednesday, March 11th, 2009 | | 1:09 pm |
comment whoring for charity
Last year, when I was bugging friends about riding the Allegheny Passage, a couple friends reverse-bugged me about doing the Ride For the Feast, a two day, 140 mile charity ride in May that raises money for Moveable Feast. Moveable Feast gives food to people living with HIV/AIDS or breast cancer. I am in favor of food. Sign me the fuck up.
So now the idea of riding from Rehoboth Beach to Baltimore is starting to sink in, plus the idea of parking my tender ass on a saddle for 24-odd hours. Sounds like fun! But first I need to do some stuff, like finding some bike shoes that don't mush my ducklike feet (which hasn't been a problem for trail riding so much since I'm rarely on the bike non-stop due to hills, trees, rocks, gravity, etc.), finding some new bike shorts (since I've killed most of my roadie spandex by stuffing it under motorcycle leathers and frying it across South Dakota), and either sorting out the chain path on the seven-speed so it doesn't barf at random intervals or finally putting the Cannondale road bike back together (and pre-dosing on painkillers because the super-rigid aluminum frame will beat me to death over 140 miles; maybe I'll just stick with the steel frames). Oh right, and raising some money. I'm riding with Team Atomic (sponsored by Atomic Books), and here's where you can go to give me some moneys. Er, give the Ride some money. You get it.
I'm totally open to pimping myself out for this, so lemme know what I can trade sponsorship dollars for. As an opening gesture, here's a picture of me looking all sweaty and bulbous after a hour on the wind trainer a couple weekends ago. (I suspect that any sort of delta of before and after photographic documentation will fall victim to beer and ice cream, but hey, that camera's not doing anything else right now.)
I also apparently need a team name, a la roller derby nom de, um, skate? (Example from the team: Britney Gears) Ideas gladly accepted, as I truly suck at this sort of thing. (-5 on my Helm of Drag Queen Summoning, I guess.)
Thanky thank thanks!
| | Tuesday, January 27th, 2009 | | 8:56 am |
| | Thursday, January 22nd, 2009 | | 1:35 pm |
passing along the make stuff meme
[claimed and copied from ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1) fidgetcub] The first Seven (7) people to respond to this post will get something made by me. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations: - I make no guarantees that you will like what I make. - What I create will be just for you. - It'll be done this year (2009). - You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a mix CD. It may be a poem. I may draw or paint something. I might bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure! - I reserve the right to do something extremely strange. The catch? Oh, the catch is that you have to put this in your journal as well, if you expect me to do something for you! (I will be checking too...) C'mon... sounds like fun, doesn't it? | | Monday, January 12th, 2009 | | 1:14 pm |
w00t! again
On the advice of friends, I checked hotel prices in DC for this weekend, and now I'm staying the same place I was last year for $70 less per night. (Still no rooms available for Sunday night, though.) My anti-change brain is pleased. | | Wednesday, January 7th, 2009 | | 4:55 pm |
w00t!
Thanks to the open couches of DC friends, it looks like I might be heading to MAL after all. | | Monday, December 29th, 2008 | | 11:29 am |
checking in
Sitting upstairs with our deaf cat on my lap, partially so that he'll shut up and not wake up Brian (deaf cat = no volume control on the meows = my ears! my ears!) who's trying to sleep off the chest cold that we both got for xmas, and partially because he's purring up a storm and is doing that therapeutic cat lap thing. Things have been better, but things have been worse too, so I'm trying to focus on the cat in my lap and the hubby downstairs. Wish it was that easy. However, the present immediate dilemma is whether to work on the house this week or flee to Columbus for New Year's Eve. Oooh, crisis! | | Monday, August 11th, 2008 | | 1:43 pm |
Watching the Olympics makes me want to get back to the gym to figure out how to snatch properly. I can already do the clean and jerk, albeit at pretty low weights, and it's the most fun I've ever had in a weightlifting room. And I want to play badminton. |
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