Follow the trail

Bloody Sunday

I am not a big fan of sending my $ to the United State of Exxon, Halliburton, et al. so paying taxes has been an extraordinarily annoying process over the past few years. While I’ve worked and re-worked various options, deductions are clearly not keeping up with inflation and paying off one’s mortgage principal due to economic concerns sure bites one in the ass. Why is it that irresponsible POS like Casey Serin or evil mofos like Dick Cheney get by just fine while responsible people in the middle are f-ed up the ass?
Overall, I’ve had a pretty shitty day, but I was hoping to get over it and blow off some steam by going on a long uphill walk with Akubi and Tanuki. We discovered some interesting things on the way up, questionable issues at the top and more annoying crap on the way down. Somewhere between nearing the top and the destination we felt OK.
This area attracts a ton of birds and there were more ravens than usual on the tree in the photo yet they flew elsewhere before we arrived and I could locate my crappy camera.

While the boys caught their breath and we watched the already setting sun, I realized my f-ing sunglasses were gone. I have been wearing those f-ing sunglasses for at least 5 years and spent more on them than any others and they survived longer than any others, but were now gone. Panic set in yet I hoped they may be found in some other pocket of my overstuffed backpack when we got home. On the way downhill there was this shaved-head guy walking uphill with 2 very large dogs in attack mode that he clearly could not manage. Despite the fact that they freaked out my exhausted little dogs, he didn’t bother to apologize for his dogs’ behavior. Having grown up with big dogs like German Shepherds, Alaskan Malamutes, etc I have found it is rather important to learn to control them if they are much bigger than you. I’ll probably never have a yard big enough for the sort of dog I grew up with, so I have Pomeranians and find them far more puzzling. Despite their size they seem to believe they are very big dogs.


And guess what? If my boys weren’t exhausted they could have kicked the shaved-head guy’s big hostile dogs’ ass! Nonetheless that guy was a jerk.

Too Much Stuff

Breaking News Flash (update)!
Funny finds in one of the boxes:
As I understand it my dad really fell for the Burgundy Meat Loaf featured in Saucepans and the Single Girl. Bacchus Behave! was one of my grandmother's books (background story unknown).

One can still easily find the page of the favorite recipe since it's the only one with sauce or something all over it...

So they don't harm the books, my boys have been spending their time on the bed with their favorite stuffed animals.

While the cooking/cocktail books with family ties make some sense to keep, WTF was I thinking when I decided to pack a box of old Wired magazines and shit....? To the dump it goes. Woohoo!

This is my dining room.

This is my "office".

Having been recently reacquainted with boxes of crap I don't know what to do with (see dining room photo above) and would rather not bother with, I thought I would document it here so as to be held virtually accountable for pile management. Yes, it is boring blogging, but very few blogs aren’t boring. As you can see from the “office” photo on the left, I already had some pile ignore mode issues when I was presented with the latest re-additions. Anyway, I know there are (or were) some old first editions in one of the boxes, but I’ll have to go through all the others to find them. Unfortunately, they are mislabeled. I shall document my progress on this exciting venture.

RIP Ingmar Bergman and IAFF

UPDATE: I do hope to get around to the 6 Degrees of Casey Serin voting process...


I woke up on the wrong side of the bed this AM and have felt grumpy and cranky ever since. Still sorting out why exactly... Probably just an annoying dream I forgot.
Also, I miss Stephanie J. (Where are you?).

BTW don't forget to play 6 Degrees of Casey Serin to The Cat in the Hat. It could be your last win-win opportunity.

Thermal Discomfort

UPDATE: Dysfunctional climate control systems really annoy me. For a couple of hours, I had a very pleasant respite swimming with my dogs at some friends’ house…Until I came home to the lame-ass PoS condo association who stole my parking space because I was too young and dumb and car-averse to think about it before closing the deal a couple years ago. Eventually I want to move to Wyoming or Iceland or Japan or Antarctica or something and this BS parking situation really ruins the resale value of my place --- and I’m ready to go for the jugular MoFo PoS douche bags. I’m real f-ing mad.

As previously mentioned in the comments, the air conditioner at the office is broken and it is currently over 85 degrees F with no ventilation whatsoever. Since I'm too grumpy and hot to accomplish any work, I thought I'd complain about the situation in my own official blogosphere.
When I Googled my office temperature concerns I came across this:
In general, what temperature is 'right' for various activities?

Table 3
Temperature
°F	°C
78	25	Optimal for bathing, showering. Sleep is disturbed
75	24	People feel warm, lethargic and sleepy. Optimal for unclothed people.
72	22	Most comfortable year-round indoor temperature for sedentary people.
70	21	Optimum for performance of mental work.
64	18	Physically inactive people begin to shiver. Active people are comfortable.

Given the fact that I am clothed and presumably perform "mental work", 85 degrees is simply unacceptable. Can someone please explain why office air conditioners never work when they are needed, but are always on when they’re not? If we can't even manage office climate control, how the hell are we going to deal with global warming?
Speaking of climate control, I would like to return to Paleo-Future's "home of the future" where "electrically operated climate-conditioned extensions will permit 'summer terraces' all at will by your electricity." I just love the image.

Vegan Porn, Books & Fava Beans

BTW, this isn't vegan, but I like this crab nebula image...

I am very grumpy today.

The morning got off to a bad start with the news about Kurt Vonnegut and the thought that he will never write another book, but Casey Serin will. What is the world coming to? Grumpy as can be, I was a bit distracted during an upgrade implementation meeting this morning until I registered my name in reference to the notion of being physically onsite at 5:00AM. I am constitutionally incapable of doing anything at that hour and no amount of Mountain Dew, Red Bull or PopTarts will make a damn bit of difference. Anyone in their right mind should know how unwise it is to unleash me on production data at that hour. Just thinking about the misery ahead makes me want to crawl under my desk and take a nap.