BunkBlog

Happy Birthday, Liz!
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Pretty darned good day today. Only 90 minutes of work, a nice lunch with at an Italian restaurant I’d never have found on my own, a shopping trip through a bookstore that had a bigger magazine section than some bookstores have books, and some good tunes. I thought it entertaining that the first song I heard after lunch with Kit (yes those eyes do have their own gravitational pull) has the phrase, “I love the way you smack my ass.” 🙂

Now, to deal with the joy of flying back home tomorow. Woohoo.
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current_mood: happy

I’m going to be in Fairfax next week, for four days. The big problem with my business trips is the lack of daytime free time. Last week, I intended to go up to the city and hit the Smithsonian or one of the monuments. Didn’t happen. Closest I got to playing tourist was going to the Springfield Mall.

Any DC-area folks have ideas of what I can do in the evenings next week? It seems such a waste to spend four days in DC and not actually go to DC except to catch a plane.
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current_mood: curious

Well, the orange shoes were just fun to play with, and the blue was added for an ugly contrast. This pair, though, I set out from the beginning to make UGLY. If you like this design, you have serious problems.

A geek with time on his hands is a dangerous thing. What do you think of my latest shoe design?

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current_mood: bored

The stupid evaporative cooler has two clogged pipes on the “spider” assembly, from scale buildup. When did the scale build up? When I was in DC of course. Argh! I hate this state some times…
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Flying sucks more with each passing year…

Not only does Reagan National have extra-special security measures that prohibit you from going to the lavatory the final 30 minutes of the flight, but they had an hour-long delay on my flight today. Where did we wait? On the tarmac, loaded into the plane like sardines…

Damn, I hate flying.
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current_mood: tired

OK, anyone familiar with downtown San Diego, you have to help me.

For some reason, I have got the name “Henry’s” stuck in my head. About 15 years ago, I went to a sandwich shop in downtown SD, I think named Henry’s. It had a smokehouse in the back, where they smoked their own hams. They had a menu with only 3 items on it – BBQ ham, BBQ beef, and combination. They sold sandwiches that kicked serious ass, and had about 3 tables in their narrow storefront. Sodas were in a cooler, and chips on a rack.

Does this place still exist? Do I have the name right? And, what’s the address? Hey, I could make it to SD again sometime soon. Depends on the Navy test schedule…
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current_mood: hungry

After a month of it sitting in my cupboard, I finally used some of the “Killer Bee” honey mustard I bought in Bisbee.

Slathered it on a cheap steak, and marinated it with a little soy sauce for a couple hours. Yeah, that was a good idea. Turned out awesome. Big ol’ loaded baked potato with it, and a nice Gamay Beaujolais…

Next up, raspberry honey mustard on salmon. Mmmm….
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current_mood: hungry

And mazaltov, congratulations, etc. to Catherine and Alan, on their new bundle of joy. Many sleepless nights await you, but it’s all worth it in the end.
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current_mood: happy

I’ve gotten calls from the Tucson Symphony the past two nights, but they don’t leave a message. Caller ID says they called, but why would you not at least say something to the machine? They probably just want me to join so I can get into their exclusive club room or something. 🙂

What sucks is they don’t have any performances scheduled until autumn, since they figure nobody wants to leave their homes in the summer time. Reasonable assumption, I suppose…
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When one must turn on the cooling system at 7 am, one lives in a region with a climate that is just fucked up.

At least it rained a bit last night, supposed to rain the rest of the week, and I won’t have to worry about my apples and peaches looking sad.
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current_mood: hot

Continuing the riff I refer to in one of my old “thoughts” on my site, Janis Ian (an artist I’d never heard of but may seek out now) has written an article about the hypocrisy of the RIAA and their rapacious attitude toward consumers and artists.
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current_mood: amused

Here is what I want for my birthday. It is only two weeks away, so get hopping!

Or, if you want to “surprise” me, check out Amazon for my wishlist.

Hey, it’s worth a shot!
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current_mood: depressed

Who sang that song, “I Spy” from like 1986 or so? The cover of the album had a guy in a fedora or something. “I spy for the FBI, I spy for the CIA, I spy for MI5…”

Once again, I feel the need to make it perfectly clear that not all of the intelligence community is James Bond. I just got an absolutely hilarious phone call today, telling me that I was in the CIA and knew hitmen. Sorry, I don’t know any hitmen. I wasn’t in the CIA. In fact, I don’t know anyone in the CIA even today. I know folks in the NSA, in NIMA, and some other acronym agencies no doubt, but nobody in the CIA.

I was in military intelligence for 12 years. You know how much excitement I saw? None. I read some cool stuff, heard a few interesting things on the radio, but never saw or did anything cool. Sure, going into a blast-proof bunker 3 stories underground may sound neat, but it was just another dark air-conditioned room full of computers and geeks.

Today, I work for a defense contractor and still talk to intelligence geeks. Yesterday and today I had to assist in briefing some high muckety-mucks from D.C. My job was clicking the button to make the powerpoint slides advance on cue. I’m an overpaid audio-visual lab geek now. At least they pay me more than the army did.

But, I still don’t know who to call to have someone killed. Hell, I only got to fire my rifle in the army annually.

Last month, I hung around with Special Forces Command geeks (not green berets, the support team), next month I get to hang around with imagery geeks, in August or September I get to go on a ship and hang around with signal geeks. Lots of geeks, still no James Bond. We’re mainly really mild-mannered, bespectacled dweebs. You know the guys that read Slashdot at work? That’s us.

Sorry to burst anyone’s bubble. Real life is actually a lot duller than fiction in this case.
current_music: Joe Walsh – I Like Big Tits
current_mood: amused

It just struck me yesterday, I’m going on the world’s longest “weekend” starting tomorrow. Mom comes to town on Friday, I am taking off work through the 3rd. The 4th and 5th are mandatory days off from work, followed by a normal weekend of the 6th and 7th. So, I’ve got a 9 day weekend. Pretty cool.

Overcome By Events…It’s a phrase one of my 8 bosses uses on occasion. I’ve realized, as I’ve slowly resumed writing a story I began in 1987, that every idea I had that was new and original when I put it on paper (ok, in bits) has been done by someone else.

Among those ideas:

• Traffic Automation (done by DKM in The Long Run
• Gyro-stabilized hovercars (done by DKM in Emerald Eyes)
• Remote-control VR warfare (Haldeman in Forever Peace)
• Major consensual fully immersive VR system (done by Stephenson in Snow Crash)
• Artificial island used for nanotech research banned elsewhere (done by Egan in Distress)
• Reverse auctions for durable goods (Priceline anyone?)
• Paper-based books become rare (Stephenson – Diamond Age)
• Commercial-skipping technology ubiquitous (Tivo and Replay)

It’s obvious – I have to write faster. Or maybe I can just sell my ideas to other people to use for their stories…
current_mood: mellow

Here is what I want for my birthday. It is exactly one month away, so get hopping!

Or, if you want to “surprise” me, check out Amazon for my wishlist.

Hey, it’s worth a shot!
current_mood: greedy

While giving the boy a bath, I ask him to stand up and he says, “aye aye captain.” He watches entirely too much Spongebob Squarepants.