My blog posts that go over 140 characters seem wasteful and bulky, so now they’re rare(r) (but not extinct).  Twitter feed is here.

Every once in a while, Canthros pocket-dials me.  I always wonder why he’s calling, until he doesn’t answer my “Hello,” and I hear his footsteps.  Then I know that he didn’t actually mean to call.

Yesterday, my phone rang as I pulled into the parking lot at work.  It turned out to be another pocket-dial from Canthros, but I thought I heard a rhythmic honking sound.  I chalked this up to an audio artifact, but I guess I should have paid it more heed.

(Maybe I could cull out some of the weaker feeds… but even if I did that right now, I’m still going to see my friends’ 130 shared items in the morning about the Congress, guns, Libertarianism, and novelty cupcakes.)

Is it (really) okay to declare Reader Jubilee from time to time and hit the “Mark All As Read” button?  After all, sharing with friends is a communications protocol, and so that might be construed as analogous to not reading my mail!  Sure, I’ve played the “I saw that you shared it, but didn’t click through” card, but will “Reader Jubilee” really play?

Also, is it just me, or are you also falling victim to Really Substantial Syndication?

1. Not quitting NetFlix, though.  I have little use for the DVD rental service, but it’s worth a handful of bills each month to be able to stream Duck Soup to the Xbox on demand.

Attention, family members who have been asking me about my wish lists:

I have now vetted my Amazon.com and Thinkgeek.com wish lists.  They now contain nothing that I already own.

Yay!

Despite what you may think, I’m pretty pleased with this outcome.  I always budget about a grand for preventative maintenance at the first cold weather.  Also, this car is at 120,000 miles, and the longer I can keep it going, the longer I don’t have to buy a new one.  :)

Q:  My car’s ABS and TRAC OFF lights are coming on from time to time.  They will go back off sometimes, as well.  Even though the car is safe to drive without anti-lock brakes and traction control, I’d like to have them back before it snows.
A:  Your rear-right ABS sensor is out of spec.  However, we can’t just replace the sensor.  The part comes as a sensor and hub.  And we’ll have to clear away some rust as well.  ~$390.

Q:  My fuel gauge fluctuates a lot all of the sudden.  For instance, I’ll start driving when it indicates 1/2 tank, and arrive at my destination with 5/8 tank.  This is more than it used to fluctuate.  (I refuel by mileage instead of waiting for an idiot light, so this is only inconvenient.)
A:  Dunno, but your fuel filter is getting kinda old, and is past its predicted operational lifetime.  We can replace that for you and see if it helps?  ~$80.

Q:  How do my tires look?
A:  They’re fine right now, but you’ll be sad as soon as it snows.  Four new tires for you.  ~360.

Q:  Balancing and alignment service?
A:  Lifetime rotation/balancing/alignment are still available.  ~30.

(Oh hey, he just called me.  They have to break the center caps out of my wheels… wonder how much those cost to replace?  I’ll have to get those elsewhere, of course, but I had already planned to replace them.  Also, I guess the ABS sensor was a pain, so they’ll be late.  “No worries, Mechanic, this is why I brought it to you on a Saturday.”)

Q:  Go ahead and do the winter check-up and give me my synthetic oil change.
A:  No prob.  ~$(do not recall)

Okay!  I’m off to find new hubcaps.

1. Hilariously, after he called me and gave me all the quotes and got my approval and decisions, he called me back with an amended total because I had left a $25 coupon as well.  I wonder if he’s like me, in that he worries about how people feel when he gives them big bills…

Okay.  How big a computer nerd do you have to be before you are walking 0.8 miles, and you think, “Man, walking still works pretty reliably to get me around.  The old Biped Two-Step is still pretty easy.”

Granted, I’m not in my usual state of mind.  Why?  Try this:

1. Stay out late for beers and all-you-can-eat fish+chips at a local brewery, then stay up some more to play with the new PSP firmware
2. Wake up throughout the night due to restless stomach (oh, fish+chips, why must you be so SALTY and OILY)
3. Get out of bed unnaturally early (for a Saturday, 6:20 AM will do) to take your car into the mechanic before the 8:00 AM rush^[1]
4. ??? (I’m close to a breakthrough here.  I think “???” might actually be “nap”.)
5. Profit! (HAR HAR AS IF. I took my car to a mechanic.  I’m in for $188.83 before they even finish the diagnostics on my anti-lock braking system.)

P.S. - Re: “unnaturally early” – For those of you who get up every morning at 5:00 AM and go punch wallabees or whatever it is you do at 5:00 AM, you probably weren’t drowning fried cods in beers at 10:00 PM, so I think we work from different givens.  You can have your dark wake-up calls; I’ll take my dark at night when it seems more natural.  Besides, by working in shifts, we can oppress the wallabees at all hours.

P.P.S. – Also, if my wife – who is always awake before I am – is so sleepy that I’d rather leave her in bed than have her come pick me up in the 45 degree weather, it must be unnaturally early.

P.P.P.S. – Also, I have made claims that I like this weather, but those claims were necessarily based on memories that were at least a year old.  I can now substantiate those claims, though:  I enjoyed taking a chilly walk through dry leaves with my knit cap, fleece, jacket and gloves on.  My face was pleasantly cold, and the rest of me was not too hot. ^[2]

P.P.P.P.S. – Given that I program the thermostat at my house, you may now pity my wife.

P.P.P.P.P.S. – Small miracle: I dislike Halloween more every year, but my walk turned up just about zero crazy-zealous Halloween decorations.  Unless you count the costumed mannequins in the front window of the… um… “Adult Sleepwear” store down the street.  But they’re crazy-zealous year round.

1. The rush is not so brutal on a Saturday, but it’s nearly a guarantee that if you bring your car in that early, you will get it looked at before 10:00 AM instead of after lunch.
2. Note to future self: Hi!  I left some candy in the back of the cupboard, which you have probably totally forgotten about by now.  Check it for ants and staleness.  If it’s still okay, Enjoy!  Um… unless you already ate it, in which case, it wasn’t me!  Well, it wasn’t me me!  It was the me between me me and you me, so blame him (us).
   Oh.  Also, you can use this paragraph as substantiation for your weather claims in (me me) my future!  Yeah, totally awesome.

Instead of watching tonight’s debate, I shaved off my beard.

Most of you who have been putting up with me for a long time know about these “Face Vacations”, but everyone else probably thinks I do it to avoid frightening small children.

It is not so!  If it were, October would be a terrible time for me to shave!  But to understand the origins of the Face Vacaction, we must travel back in time, to… the boring part of my Origin Story!

~~~^[1]

As a young man, I was cursed with (dun dun dunnnnnnnn) DANDRUFF.  In retrospect, I think I got off lucky, since other young men had to contend with volcanic acne, wildly cracking voices, mangy facial hair, or occasionally a third leg growing out the back of their necks.  However, shampoo commercials of the time made it clear that it was morally wrong, and possibly a felony, to have dandruff.  (Some of the more extreme Western philosophies actually contend that dandruff is grounds for mercy killing.)

I learned of ways to cope with this problem, of course: wearing bright colors and loud patterned clothing, cutting my hair short, disavowing family and friends and living in a cave.  Fortunately, time, frequent washing, and the liberal application of medicated shampoos cleared up the problem, before the Federal Bureau of Dandruff Investigation was able to find me and bring charges.  Sure, some of the stronger brews may have contributed in my current ailments of frequent headaches and a painfully sensitive scalp, but at least those aren’t morally wrong.

~~~^[2]

Fast forward to the present day, when I can excercise the most awesome of (predominantly) male superpowers: growing a beard!  Also, my beard comes in very red, which is awesome.^[3]

I love my beard.  It serves several important purposes:

1. It gives the illusion that I have a jawline.
2. It masks the more ridiculous features of my face.
3. It counterbalances my high-pitched voice when others guess my age.
4. It makes me look like the dude on my driver’s license.
5. It scares small children.

However, I have sensitive skin, and I can never get my beard completely dry after washing my face.^[4]  After some months of awesome beardedness, my chin will get itchy and red, and I will get a rash.  And, then… BEARDRUFF.  Which is like dandruff.  But from a beard, and therefore even more reprehensible.

Once a year or so, then, I give my face a vacation, so that it can heal, and I can rejoin society.  Only, this time, it’s been much longer than a year.  You know how aftershave can sting sometimes, if you shave after a long hiatus?  Two years is a long hiatus.  And my gigantic nose almost wasn’t a problem, since I almost cut it off while shaving for the first time in memory. (I use a razor with six blades and a battery-powered motor.  SURELY they could afford to put training wheels or something on it.)

Pain aside, it made me sad to shave off my beard.  I really like that beard, and I think I look like me when I have it cut just so.  It’s my favorite fashion, and I hate to be without it.  I’m trying not to get too attached to it.  I’ll think of it as a mighty Phoenix, perched proudly (on my face) until it falls in a cloud of flame (I shave it off)… and later it is reborn (grows back) magnificently from its ashes (my… stubble?) and delivers a magical weapon (surely not a razor…) in the nick of time to a boy wizard (what) who is fighting a monstrous lizard (I’m seriously lost here).

No, while I stay clean-shaven for a week or two, I’m trying to look on the bright side.  Obviously, there are some advantages to not having a beard.  For instance, I can eat barbecue ribs without using a hotel bottle of shampoo in the restaurant’s bathroom afterwards.  Also, I hear that gigantic, hilarious eyebrows are “in” this year.

Perhaps most importantly, I’ll have some time away from my beard.  After I scare myself half to death in the mirror every morning, I can reflect on how my beard is my biggest temptation to vanity.  Of all of my fashion and grooming choices, it really is the most important to me.  I can really like the way I look in a beard, and I can really enjoy the style of my beard.  But, I shouldn’t be sad when I cut it off.

After all, for now I’ll be able to say for sure that a man is not defined by his beard.

He is totally defined by his hat.

1. This is an emoticon for “hazy flashback fade”, which I bought from a guy who was hanging out in the dried fish aisle at the Korean grocery store across the street.  He told me that it might not be recognizable to Western audiences yet, because they hadn’t released it over here.  I was skeptical at first, but then he showed it to me on his cell phone, which was pretty advanced.  (He claimed it was a new model of Android phone, and by way of evidence, folded it in such a way that it became a small robot, which spoke without using contractions.)  He said it was a steal at 30 “Zenny” (which is apparently a minority Japanese currency?), but because of the weak dollar, the exchange rate put it at about $237.00.  He drove a hard bargain, but I think I got the upper hand, because I talked him down all the way to $150.00!

   Anyway, I figured you guys may not have seen it yet, so I thought I’d better explain!  Oh, and if you want to use it, too, the guy said he could probably arrange bulk rates.

   Also, that store has Pocky.  Rad.

2. I guess I’m going to have to pay again.  Sure, $300.00 may seem like a lot.  But we have just traveled in time.  Twice.  Think about it.
3. Captain James Tiberius Kirk, when he grows a beard, has one that grows in brick red.  He confided this to me in a Choose Your Own Adventure book, in which he also congratulated me for using “three dimensional thinking” during a military manouever in a sensor-inhibiting environment.

   I have not read this book since I was 8 or 10 years old, probably.  Maybe 12?  I don’t think I was even clear on what a Klingon was at that time, but mark my words, I already knew with certainty that space and the inhabitants thereof were the pinnacle of cool.

   I remember all of this stuff with crystal clarity.

   If you think this is way too nerdy, then I suggest you praise God every night in your bedtime prayers that science has not yet discovered the secret to reading minds, because I swear, this does not scratch the surface of what lies dormant in my pulsating cerebrum.  The deep backstory underpinning the “LEGO men from space” / “Hall of Heroes” / “Tribe of My Little Ponies and Miniature Barbie Doll” playtime that my little sister and I shared might break you.  (I think… the LEGO men were the uncles of one of the Ponies?  It’s complicated.)

4. I’m pretty sure blow-drying my face would introduce complications.

Me:  I guess those videos I uploaded for our site are pretty popular, because a lot of people are subscribing to our YouTube channel now.  We should upload more for them to see.

S (My company’s webmaster):  81 subscribers!  And we didn’t ask them to subscribe, or tell them how.

Me:  They must just be people who are into YouTube.  Tubivores?

S:  Did you just make that up?  I’m using that.

I did, and Google reveals that two other people have used the word.  One of them is the title of a deviantART image that features tubes, and the other is a username.  There is also, apparently, a robot named “The Tubavore”.

So, I hereby claim “Tubivore” meaning a person who is a power user on YouTube:  one who views videos, maybe uploads them, and knows how to search and subscribe to videos and channels of interest.

This one has got to have more legs than “Racoomba“.

Lastday: Leo 14s, Year of the City 1978.

What did I dream about?

Troubleshooting Windows NT networking issues. Every time I woke up and went back to sleep, it was back to network troubleshooting.

When I woke up at 4:30 AM, I just stayed up, because all that troubleshooting left me exhausted.

In this box:

Wow.

Currently, I have my Jabber account rigged up to keep my presence alive on the “legacy” chat networks^[1]. However, so many of my friends and family have moved over to XMPP networks (Jabber and Google Talk) that it barely makes sense to keep these accounts around.

Once you factor in the constant “Log into your Hotmail account!” spam^[2] and “5489751621897@icq wants authorization to view your status” spam from miscellaneous chatbots, it really doesn’t make any sense at all… unless you factor in those people who might still use only the legacy networks.

So, a few questions for regular readers and members of “legacy” contacts. Are you just using a legacy network and none of the XMPP networks? Do you have a good reason why we should keep using those old networks? Tell us your point of view in a comment.

If you’ve got me set up on one of your legacy accounts, but not on your shiny new Jabber/Google Talk account, let me know! Both of us could use one less reason to hold on to old and spammy networks.

1. In my case, ICQ, AIM, MSN and Yahoo! – networks that I’m no longer using actively, and wouldn’t add a contact to, but just lurk on
2. I haven’t logged into my Hotmail account in years

I feel like a doofus.  It turns out that, for the past week, I have known the solution to Pedant’s DSL problem.  I assumed that he had to wait for some fix deep within the ISP.

That may have been the case, but by today, his issue was just like one I had a few years ago.  More importantly, I remembered the solution that Technical Support led me through^[1].

Him:  (On the phone)  Can you believe that their call volume is so high that they can’t keep me on hold?  I have to call back later.

Me: Man, that’s pretty busy.  I wonder what they have to do to fix your service.  If only your modem’s DSL light was lit, I could help you.

Him:  Actually, my DSL light has been lit for days.

Me:  …OK, buckle up.  We’re doing this.

I’m glad I was able to help a friend get back online, especially since being offline vexed him so.  I’m even glad to be able to ease the load on our provider’s overloaded call centers.  I just feel kind of dumb that I didn’t help to diagnose the problem sooner.

1. And I remembered at enough to be able to find the particulars of the solution.

Atari user’s desk, circa 1983 – Boing Boing

I swear, we had pretty much this desk while we were growing up in Pennsylvania, during my COMPUTER NERD PUPA STAGE, but for a few details. Our media containers were different, we had it rigged for double-sided operation^[1] … and the glasses would have been Muppets instead of Star Wars.

Man, that brings back some good memories.

1. the Atari 800 with the disk drive, printer and speech synthesizer on one side, generally for homework, serious mucking about, and Dad; and the Atari 400 with the old minicassette drive on the opposite side for games and LOGO programming