March 2007

the attack was swift -- Posted by BalconyDive on Tuesday, March 27 2007

Query: Pulaski, Respond: Poland -- Posted by BalconyDive on Monday, March 5 2007

You're probably not from here, which means you don't know what the first Monday in March is. The first Monday of March is General Casimir Pulaski day. General Casimir Pulaski was a Polish...uh...General...in the American revolutionary war. He created Pulaski's Legion and was the "Founder of the American Cavalry". I'm re-learning all this as I type it. I used to have the majority of his life committed to memory, the only thing I really ever remember is his failed attempt to kidnap the King of Russia, which is awesome, but caused him to bolt the country and get sentenced to death in absentia. Anyway, since he's Polish and kicked much ass for America, and Chicago is very Polish (though not as Polish as it once was -- sausages notwithstanding) we used to get the day off when I was a kid and the next day we'd have Paczki (Polish doughnuts). Nowadays the kids seem to have to go to school and they receive no Paczki, which is sad because Paczki are fucking AWESOME. To celebrate I'm taking the day off (from nothing) and...wishing I had some Paczki. I'm sure everyone else has their local heroes or whatever, but do they come with doughnuts?

Would you like a dance? -- Posted by BalconyDive on Saturday, March 3 2007

Shutdown Day Can you do it?

Who dat ninja?! -- Posted by BalconyDive on Friday, March 2 2007

I ordered this laptop on Monday. Kinda spur of the moment, I'd been looking for one for my mother and the deal was good enough that I decided to put one on my credit card for me. It got here today, and after fighting with the animals (including the curtains being pulled down) I actually signed for it and got it in the house. Did I mention I was already morhined out of my damn skull by this time? Anyway, since it came with Vista on it I'm going to go ahead and strip it and dual boot it with XP and a (as yet undecided) Linux flavour. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I had a weird experience with someone I sent a resume too. It's for a standard help desk job, and after I sent them an email they sent me one with five questions in it. All five of them...for some reason...were about printers. And two of them incredibly and strangely specific. I figured, fuck it, I'll answer what I know, look up the rest, but when I was answering them I decided to do something I never do. I was...honest. On one question I just flat out said "No clue". Well...more professionally worded, but still. On another I answered it after some googling...but then admitted to the looking it up! For some reason they're crazy enough to set up a phone interview...I expect nothing good to come of it. Anyway, about an hour ago I'm playing with the nephew on the floor. The dogs, per usual, get jealous and also want to play. Trying to mess with the animals and the baby I get kicked right in the mouth by the Lab-Mutt. This wouldn't be unusual but for the fact that somehow this evil creature actually broke one of my teeth in half. If my mouth wasn't already a train wreck I'd probably run straight to the dentist, but me being me I threw the half tooth away. Now I can't stop licking the broken tooth remnant.