The Robot's Thoughts

I have my blog on facebook via an RSS subscription. I'm just testing to see if this double posts on facebook.

Also, I'm driving up to Pittsburgh with a group of friends to see the Penguins play. I can't wait.

This is not what guys mean when they say, "I like it when she's bald."
This is not what guys mean when they say, "Curtains match the carpet."

But as long as it gets the rancid, rotting corpse of Anna Nicole Smith off the front page, I'm all for it.

Labels: ramblings, today's generation

http://www.randomkittengenerator.com/

All kinds of cute kitten pics -- randomly selected.

Labels: kitten war, kittens, links, Reddit

I realize this isn't the best place for flowers, but cats tend to eat flowers, and roses can poison them, so I'm keeping them away from the cats.


Pink iPod shuffle. You know who I got this for.


The engraving on the back: Love, always and forever.

Labels: love, personal

First up, I'm sure we've all seen it, but why not one more time:
http://cache.consumerist.com/assets/resources/2007/02/compstupid.jpg
(http://tinyurl.com/2nx735)
CompUSA really knows how to sell Zunes...with FREE iTunes GIFT CARDS!
Brillant!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/07/AR2007020702136.html
(http://tinyurl.com/36dgoa)
An option for a new Iranian policy that doesn't involve invasion.

http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=800
The PEPCON disaster. This is one the largest non-nuclear explosions to go
off in the US. Essentially, the company made ammonium perchorlate, which
is an ingredient to the rocket fuel used by the space shuttle. After the
Challenger disaster, they will still under contact to produce X many
barrels per day, even if the government wasn't buying it. So it just kept
piling up until one fateful day....

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17026169/
Another frightening one. 50% of doctors surveyed felt that if a patients
treatment options (e.g. birth control for a teen, abortion for a non-rape
victim) conflicted with their religious beliefs they're under no
obligation to even MENTION them as an option, or refer them to a doctor
who can perform such treatment with no objections. This includes ER
doctors who do not provide the morning after pill to rape victims.
What the fuck happened to "Do no harm".

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17033892/site/newsweek/page/1
Hard Times for the Porn Industry? Get it? Hard. And Porn. Hahahaha.

http://defamer.com/hollywood/short-ends/short-ends-fcc-mulls-appropriate-fine-for-unleashing-twentyfoot-demon-schlong-on-unsuspecting-american-viewers-234186.php
(http://tinyurl.com/ys3gg8)
The picture here is frickin' HILARIOUS. Prince apparently pulled the Demon
Cock stunt at the superbowl half time show. I'm still wondering WHY the
NFL would select PRINCE to play for their halftime? Was it their way of
announcing that Bears v. Colts was THE GAYEST SUPERBOWL EVER?

http://www.va-va-voom.net/blog/archives/8-How-to-become-a-Stripper.html
Best. Article. Ever.

Okay, that should be enough until I hit Reddit.com for today.
Enjoy

My friend JS has come back from New York to spend a week in Fairmont, gathering her things, seeing a few friends, and selling some of her artists' work. She's going to be crashing on my futon for the week, while my SO and I go out this weekend to celebrate our one year together.

Our weekend will include drinking, dancing, and a hot tub. It looks to be a good time.

I've been quite the facebook whore lately, contacting old friends, and 3 engineering students I know will all be looking for jobs in the very near future. They're unhappy, and they've asked, "Got any openings?".

I once again feel like the old guy in the group. That's first to do everything and just passes on advice. Which is funny, because I think you need only spend 5 minutes in a room with me to know that I'm playing it all by ear.

I even got called old today. A friend of mine was talking about how much he hated his job, and how the days were getting longer and longer, and how he wanted to change jobs, but just didn't want to mess up his plans for buying a house and settling down. I said something to the end of 'all that typically comes later' and he responded with, 'but I wanted to have kids. You should re-think you're life, dude. You're getting up there.'

I reject that statement -- wholeheartedly reject it -- because 25 is basically 'out of college'. With the 'rest of my life' just starting, and its too early to say, "No, I need to compromise myself because I'm getting old and I don't want to be alone."

I've been alone. I can handle it. As much validation we get for our own daily stupidity from reality tv shows, life does not need an audience's approval to exciting and full of meaning. You have to give your own life meaning. You go to grad school for yourself, and for your future. Not because if you don't someone won't love you.

And on the note of living it up, when JS arrived, I treated her and my SO to dinner at a place we've never been before -- the Aquarius Lounge. Its almost midnight and I'm still loving that meal.

Good times.

Oh, and Pitt won the first round of the backyard brawl, so to all my WVU friends, suck it.

(I decided to publish this after all....)

Pop open the bubbly. I just realized this is my 400th post.

But I don't hear any applause because I haven't been putting anything engaging on this blog for a while, and its been ages that its been interesting. I realize this, bit a lot of the things on my mind are things I can't write about. Or to be more precise, I won't write about it. I save all the good stuff for my soapbox mailing list.

So let me fill you in the what I'll call "the tiny", which is the little bits of my life that I feel most comfortable about talking about.

A friend of mine leaves for Colorado this Monday. This will be the start of her 'real world' experience. Paying bills, paying rent, car payments, car insurance, working 40 hrs/week for a salary and benefits. Having to deal with the subtle difference between having a career and working a job. I'm taking off work to see her off from Pittsburgh this Monday. I haven't seen her since she left for Australia, but I've been helping her over Skype with some car buying advice. I'm also interested in seeing how sweet the 07 civic is up close.

She said she was afraid of what's ahead but she knew that if she didn't get out when she did, she might never. I know the feeling entirely. I'm glad she has selected a path of professional and personal growth, but that was one thing about her I was always confident about -- that she'd grow.

Its going to be tragic hearing her tell me how terrible a person I am for the last time (until the next time).

I haven't had any new optical migraine attacks which have caused temporary blindness in a while. Their disappearance seems to coincide with my quitting smoking for the umpteenth time. I have, however, just recently developed an intermittent ringing in my left ear at a very high frequency. I heard William Shatner developed something like this as a result of a 'special effect' gone wrong on the set of the original series of Star Trek. It apparently got bad enough that he considered suicide for a year before something came to the rescue. It sounds like that 'teen repellent'.

I've started bringing a brand of french vanilla coffee to work, and when nobody's looking, I use the spare coffee pot to brew up a batch. I brew it extra strong, like we did for our 'morning brew' at my last workplace. I've been secretly hoping someone who prefer the coffee and give me props. I did get props. One or two of the other engineers like my 'unleaded' french vanilla.

I know, talk about vanity. But coffee at my last workplace was a capital 'C' issue -- Coffee. Even though I wasn't a convert to the church of starbucks, it was something that I took interest in. The coffee here is nothing special. I am merely trying to improve upon it in my own humble way by enabling choice. Its the same reason I volunteer my time to collect recycling in our building space.

New music to the iPod: Handsome Boy Modeling School, Day In The Life, Dido, Thievery Corporation (The Cosmic Game and The Mirror Conspiracy), Panic At The Disco, The Used, and a lot more. I wish the iPods were compatible across chip platforms. If you have an iPod that works with a G4/G5, it shows up as broken when plugged into a x86 Mac Book Pro.

And now for the 400th post kicker. A 'big story'.

I've decided to tell a very odd story, where all the names but mine have been changed to protect the innocent.

Back when I lived in south side, there was a friend of mine in her senior year of school. Being a bit of party girl, she'd twist her girlfriend's arms and go out to the south side as much as possible. I'd often get drug out with the gang, the only guy at a girl's night out. She'd always flirt with some guy, and get him to buy her drinks. I'd laugh it off, because whatever we had, it wasn't a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship.

But she always asked me to rescue her. And I always did. I'd end up losing sleep, feeling exhausted, doing crappy work at my crappy job, but no matter how many times I said "I'm leaving at midnight, I don't care if she's flirting with someone or how many drinks she's had." I found myself there by her side at last call. I'd always make sure she got to sleep, safe and sound.

Three weeks before we stopped speaking to each other, I remember a small hypothetical conversation. What would I do if I was a girl and I found out I was pregnant? I thought long and hard, but I couldn't give a 'right' answer. I just didn't know. I've always found myself politically on the side of pro-choice, but it comes down to the belief that people can make up their mind on what's best for them. "You're the first guy I know who didn't just say 'get rid it' right away," she said. I didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing, but I thought nothing of it at the time.

A week ago, a mutual friend said something to me, and when replaying my day before sleep, this hypothetical conversation popped into my mind and I sat bolt upright, considering the very possible overtones that I definitely ignored after being told it was all just a 'close call'.

There is no way what I am thinking could be true. There is no way I would be kept in the dark. Not about something like that. Right?

"She is the queen of secrets," echoed in my head.

This thought experiment's conclusion shook me to my core.

In 2004, I was probably a little out there. I was more than irresponsible. Immature could've been a summation of most of my personality quirks. But if I were to bring a new life into this world, intentional or no, don't think for a second I'd run from that responsibility. You can grow up very fast when someone is counting on -- really counting on you. I'd "man up", and I'd be there. All growth is comes from a combination of passion, determination, and need.

The story ends with me sitting upright in bed in the dark at 2 in the morning, telling myself that it didn't happen, it can't be, and that I've really got some real sleep, and forget it all. I never rescued anyone from a situation they didn't create, and the same goes for those who've rescued me.

The other side of the coin is oft overlooked. As much as I've ended friendships by saying the wrong thing or not holding back, the soapbox list is coming up on its 8th birthday. It started as a way to have an easy and quick way to reach the friends you never want out of touch. The people who shape your life. And I wouldn't be videotaping their wedding vows if I wasn't there for them. I wouldn't make a point to see my friends off. I wouldn't have refused to throw away a 4 year friendship with chuck over department politics.

I hope this is real enough for some of you silent readers. Enjoy your weekend.

Labels: music, ramblings

Today I learned that my little town of Fairmont, WV, has been placed under an emergency water conservation order. Since its not summer and people aren't watering their lawns or washing their cars, there's little one can do, except run your dishwasher and washing machine as little as possible, and cut your showers as short as possible.

The town is also under an emergency water-boil order. The water has to be boiled for a full 60 seconds before it can be considered safe for human consumption.

The only reasonable thing explanation to this is some of the old mains in the town have frozen and ruptured. The water company has not been able to find the leaks. This leads people to believe one of two things:

The first is that its one of the old mains that runs east-west across the Tygart river, because if a main is leaking a million gallons of water per day, and nobody's noticing where, its probably leaking into the same river they're pulling from.

The second is that this whole region is a big mining region. One of the mains is probably leaking, and its filling up some old mineshaft, which can probably flood for a long, long time before anyone notices.

It is my guess that in order to resolve this, the water company is going to have to shut down its water mains one by one, to find the one that's leaking.

I'm also glad someone told me about this at work, because I don't really pay attention to local news on TV or the local paper.

Anyway, its kinda remarkable that even in 2007, as futuristic as we think of it, we're still pretty wasteful of water because we take it for granted, and that our 'modern' infrastructure for stuff like this is still potentially 50-90 years old.

Labels: Fairmont, ramblings, water