Fun and Games Dept

So I’m sitting in the Jeep in the parking lot closest to the Dunkin’ Donuts near work. I was not able to grab the coveted shady spot, but there’s enough of a breeze to make sitting in the Jeep bearable. I am gazing at the golden rod and purple tinged weeds that line the parking lot; this is a form of meditation that helps me clear my mind.

It has been a week that has needed a lot of clearing of the mind.

Things are a little strange at work. I guess it’s strange when you no longer have a clear sense of direction or being grounded. I’m just doing what I’m suppose to do to the best of my ability and with the hopes that what I think is right is right. The air in the office is somewhat thick with tension. It kind of reminds me of when I worked for DEC and folks started walking around with layoff notices and buy out offers, but I don’t believe that we are in the position in any way. Things are just in flux and it’s going to be a little while before they’re unfluxed.

I don’t think that’s a word.

Yesterday my chiropractor noticed that I had shaved off my mustache and was very complimentary on my “younger look”. Actually quite a few people have commented that I look younger. I feel younger. Exercising in the morning is certainly helping that situation.

Yesterday morning someone inadvertently tried to run me off the road as I was walking on the dirt shoulder (about four feet to the left of the pavement). As I jumped out of the way to what I thought was lawn, I quickly realized that it wasn’t lawn, it was a four foot ditch. I went down in the ditch and scraped up my hand, wrist, elbow, leg and knee. You’d think that the driver would notice that the guy that was walking with a strobe light and reflective clothing had suddenly disappeared, but the driver was probably too engrossed in his or her text message.

LOL.

So Earl and I headed to the Carrier Dome in Syracuse for the first SU Orange Football game of the season. We’ve been looking forward to football season and it was a gorgeous day to make the trip.

I love the Dome. It’s hard to believe that it’s 33 years old. They have made a bunch of renovations to the displays around the place; there are two HD-quality monitors at each of the field now and an LED ribbon that circles the entire Dome. With the addition of the ribbon, the smaller scoreboards are gone; the displays are now incorporated into the ribbon, but in only two spots. And they disappear frequently to make room for advertising. I found that odd. The old big screen display has been repurposed into a permanent scoreboard that sits in the northwest corner.

Then I noticed that they had replaced the time and temperature display that used to sit in the northeast corner. Installed with the building of the Dome in 1980, this display was the lightbulb type that you would find on the front of the bank at the time, and it proudly displayed the time and temperature in a “lazy” alternating display. And it displayed the temperature in both Fahrenheit and Celsius! That’s right, it was installed when the U.S. was going to convert to metric. I noticed that the new, high tech display the replaced this retro-tech goodness only uses Fahrenheit.

Nevertheless, I still love the Dome.

But, one step forward, two steps back.

Actually, the game was all about one step forward, two steps back and we ended up losing to Northwestern by one point. Ugh. There were plenty of visiting fans sitting around us. They make me hostile but I’m not mean to them or anything. I mean, if I drop popcorn on them, it’s not on purpose or anything like that.

The Orange had way too many penalties and mistakes and at one point they were down 13-35, but then closed the gap during the third quarter. I really thought we’d done it but with less than two minutes left in the game, we lost it.

On the way home from the game I told Earl that we should consider going to an away game this season so I can know what it’s like to be a visiting fan. Perhaps I wouldn’t feel quite as hostile towards the visiting fans that are just cheering for their team. Except Rutgers fan. As I always say about Rutgers fans, at least we don’t have to live in Jersey.

Go Orange!

Here’s Earl on the bus from Skytop to the Carrier Dome. Because of the Carrier Dome’s downtown location, parking near the Dome can be a bit of challenge. This year we’ve decided to stick to Skytop, one of the remote parking areas where plenty of buses shuttle fans back and forth. Plus there’s a lot of tailgating!

Another shot of the Dome.

Some people don’t get how much I love Syracuse. It’s my native stomping grounds, after all and that comfort just rings true to me after all these years. It’s the one city in the Northeast that I could live the rest of my life in.

It is Friday and I am working from home today. To keep everything in the spirit of my typical lunch time activities, I went down to the local Dunkin’ Donuts and treated myself to a sandwich on a french roll and a large, unsweetened iced-tea with lemon. Oh, I added a side of hash browns. They’re not quite tots but they’ll suffice.

In order to enjoy some lunch time sunshine with this little lunch, I decided to take my impromptu picnic to the local park, which is officially called The Lock 20 Canal State Park. Lock 20 is situated along the Barge Canal, which stretches right across the waist line of New York State, from the Capital District to the Buffalo-Niagara Falls area. The Barge Canal is the big brother of the older Erie Canal. Lock 20 is seeing some traffic as I enjoy my lunch hour; there is a boat being raised up in the lock as we speak. They must be heading west because the water level is higher in that direction. There’s a dog barking on the boat, he or she must be sensing that something is going on and they want to talk about it.

I am enjoying this relaxing time during the last lunch hour of the work week and I am eagerly anticipating the weekend. We have plans to go to the New York State Fair after work tonight. We always enjoy the fair, though it’s a reminder that summer is winding down.

As I sit here enjoying my lunch hour I’m watching an elderly couple have a picnic. The older man and woman got themselves situated at a picnic table in a shady spot and then the woman came back and decided to sit in their SUV, leaving the man at the picnic table. I’m a little bit curious about that.

I’m not the only one sitting here working on an iPad or laptop. There’s a couple of other folks doing the same at other picnic tables in shady spots. This seems to be a common practice on beautiful days like today.

Perhaps I should do this more often. We forget that this park is down here, sometimes.

Update: I’m trying to include a little map of our adventures in case you ever want to seek the same spot out on your own someday.

The original wallpaper that came with Windows XP was inspired by Bill Gates’ childhood. He wanted something that reminded folks of laying back in a field and watching the clouds go by.

I totally get that. I’m kind of enjoying sitting in the Jeep and watching the clouds go by today during my lunch hour. I’m accompanying it all with one song on repeat. Naturally, it’s “Follow Your Bliss” by The B-52s. I’d share a video of the track with you, but the Verizon Wireless connection near work today is just awful.

But I’m not going to let that ruin my bliss.

Tonight is my third attempt at trying out Windows 8 on my laptop. Since the developer preview version is out and I have a spare laptop for this sort of thing, I decided to give Windows 8 a whirl again. After all, the third time is a charm, right?

I think I’m too smart for my own good.

One of the things that I need to remember is that even though this is Windows, it doesn’t behave like Windows, it behaves like a mobile phone I’ve never used before. From my earlier attempts at using Windows 8, I am lucky to remember that you fling your mouse off the right hand side of the screen (either corner, actually) to get something called ‘Charms’ to appear. The charm in the middle is the start menu. When you click that, or press the Windows flag button on your keyboard, you’ll get big lego blocks that have information rotating about in them. These big things replace icons. You click them and magic happens. The magic involves your screen waving around as anything you were working on disappears and then the new application presents itself full screen. It’s a lot like the iPad when it comes to multitasking; you’re not going to do it.

If you want to search for something, there’s no search button or key, you just start typing while the lego blocks are displayed. If you want to go to the desktop, you click “Desktop” and that brings up something that looks like a cheaper version of the Windows 7 Desktop, but it’s so cheap that you don’t get a Start Menu ball down in the corner. You’ll need to keep flinging that mouse to the right to bring up the charms, which will then bring up the lego blocks. So if you want to open, say Skype for example, you fling the mouse to the right and click start, which will cause the desktop to go away, and then just randomly start typing “Skype”, which will then bring a lego block with the Skype logo on it and then you click on the block. The blocks then go away and you’re back to the Desktop and Skype will open and complain about “fonts” being called “font”.

I’m not making this up.

Soon you’ll discover that flinging your mouse to the upper left hand corner will give you a picture of the last application you had opened but flinging your mouse off the left side of the screen will bring up pictures of all the applications you have open so you can move to another one, HOWEVER, if the application is open on the desktop you just go to the “desktop” window which makes the blocks disappear and the start menu taskbar without the start menu appear. Then you can pick the small icon of the program you want to go to.

NOW. If you want to shut down your computer, you go to settings by just randomly typing “Settings” at a lego block. OH! I did figure out that when you have pictures of all the applications you have running along the left side of your screen you can right click on them and it will ask you if you want to snap left, snap right or close. I did three snaps in Z-formation GURL! That wasn’t an option but I threw it in there for kicks.

I think it’ll be easier once everyone has their grubby little hands all over their screen and you can actually touch the blocks and move them around.

Honestly, I can see the direction that Microsoft is going with this “shift in paradigm” (I love big words) with Windows 8. They’re heading towards my always coveted dream of being able to take a presentation on your laptop and swiping it up to the presentational board in a conference room. It’s not quite like a Bewitched-like magic move but it would still be uber awesome. (I don’t know how to put the umlaut over the ‘u’ in uber).  I LOVE the vision of the future that Microsoft is working towards, I just hope it’s not as rocky of a road as it seems it’s going to be getting there.

Because this Windows 8 experience, though it has not ended with the completion of this blog entry, is making me reach for my iPad. Very quickly.

For a palette cleanser, here’s what Microsoft sees us doing with technology in 2019.

So last Saturday night Earl and I went on a spontaneous road trip to the former Carousel Center in Syracuse, which earlier this month officially became Destiny USA. With the new branding of the mega mall was the official opening of the massive expansion to the place. Banners and colorful signs proclaim all the new attractions that are now part of Destiny USA: PF Chang’s, an IMAX 3D theatre, a bowling alley, a bunch of other restaurants, all wonderful things. Except most of them haven’t opened yet. Right now, the new part of Destiny USA is a whole bunch of empty storefronts. They are making progress, though, and progress is good.

One restaurant that was open was a Mexican restaurant, Cantina Laredo. This restaurant is known for their guacamole that is made table side. You must simply have that guacamole. After a 90 minute wait, we were seated and answered in the affirmative when asked if we wanted fresh guacamole. Earl actually had to answer the question because the exceedingly perky blonde server spoke in a frequency that was shrill enough to open garage doors on command or make the ears of any dog within a two county radius perk up. I couldn’t hear a damn thing she said so I resorted to reading her lips. She asked what we wanted to drink and whisked away the ingredients for the table side guacamole assembly.

Perky came back with Earl’s unsweetened iced tea and assured me that my Corona would be brought by momentarily. She then took our food order. Earl casually mentioned the table side guacamole as our appetizer and when he stopped talking, I barked out my entree choice.

A few minutes later a person dropped a bowl of tortilla chips on our table with two dishes of salsa. No words were spoken. I had a chip and salsa, Earl did the same. Earl then commented that the salsa was very spicy. I was surprised at this, because I found it bland. Come to find out, the silent one hadn’t mentioned that there were two different kinds of salsa on the table. I always love a good mystery.

The beer still hadn’t arrived when a few moments later our entree came out. Earl informed the runner that we hadn’t gotten our guacamole yet when she decided that she must be at the wrong table. Turns out she wasn’t at the wrong table, she just had our food out of order. Earl sent her back with the food.

The shrill one came by with a Corona Light, and expected me to laugh along with her when I read her lips as she told me that she had given my beer to someone else. She wanted a response, apparently. I just looked at her. Her lips made a laughing motion as she sped off.

The manager then came by and said, and I quote, “Fellas, why don’t we skip the appetizer tonight and we’ll buy you dessert instead.” The runner that wasn’t at the wrong table was still carrying around our food, begging someone to take it. Earl said, “How about we have the guacamole we keep hearing about first?” This was a verbal shooing if I ever heard one. The manager, the runner and our food went to parts unknown.

The shrill one came by and wanted us to laugh about the mix up.

As Earl and I compared the nameless salsas that were still on the table, another person came by with another round of chips just as the guacamole table side service cart came up.

They were out of avocados. She’d be back.

She did hurry back but not before the shrill one asked if we wanted our meals yet. We answered in the negative.

The guacamole was made (and I was doused in the squirtings of a lime in the process, that might be part of the gag) and we both agreed that it was quite good. The shrill one had been in orbit around the table and as soon as the first chip with guacamole was consumed, she asked if we were ready for our dinner. We asked for a few moments to enjoy our guacamole first.

After we were done, the shrill one descended out of orbit and asked if we were ready for our meals. We answered in the affirmative and that’s when the runner, undoubtedly using Asbestos gloves, brought our plates of food. These plates had been sitting under a warming lamp for a really long time.

Earl couldn’t cut his steak. I never question anything that is put in front of me when it comes to food for I learned as a child to eat what I have been given, so I sawed my way through the chicken and had a decent meal. Understandably, Earl sent his back, asking if the plates had been under a warmer. That’s when the shrill one went from shrill to a Bea Arthur like sound and stammered her way through a lie, saying “I’m not sure I don’t work in the kitchen.” On her way back to the kitchen, the manager who likes dessert asked what was wrong. No longer shrill said, “it’s like rubber.”

I took the opportunity to order another Corona because quite frankly Corona Light tastes like piss. I asked for “hi-test not unleaded”. I’m funny like that. She didn’t get it. Neither did I, really, because I wasn’t buzzed from that piss.

Not too long later, the shrill one went back to being perky as she brought Earl a new plate. Five minutes later, as she descended from orbit again, she asked about dessert but we passed. The manager stopped by and gave Earl his meal for free, apologizing along the way, and with that, we had our first meal in one of the new restaurants at Destiny USA.

Next time we’re going to try the fondue place. It should be a hoot.

Traffic has been backed up in front of the office all day due to construction at the intersection down the street. My office building is just off a road ambitiously called “The Arterial”, but “The Arterial” means that it’s a two-lane road with traffic lights and no businesses directly connected to it. It’s the cheap version of a freeway. It behaves cheaply.

Since traffic is backed up, the driveway coming out of work was blocked. When a space opened up for looking to get out for lunch time opened up, a woman zoomed her ugly red Taurus ahead and then glared at the woman waiting in the car in front of me. It’s apparently all about her in the red Taurus. The woman waiting in the car in front of me drove up the shoulder and found a gap to scoot out into the free lane that headed in the direction away from construction. I did the same with the Jeep, though I did stop, point and glare at the red Taurus woman. She glared back. I shook my head disapprovingly but I didn’t call her any names. She knows what she is.

Since “The Arterial” is all over the place and under construction, I drove into the countryside, found a brand new Dunkin’ Donuts where they didn’t have my iced tea ready and then drove just inside the Adirondack Park, stopping at the parking area I found a couple of weeks ago on an exceptionally hot day. The cell service is spotty for my iPad, but I’m able to crank this blog entry out under the shade of big pine trees that are making the whisper noises I love so much and the wonderful scent of the forest. I think this weekend might involve walking in a forest somewhere where there’s pine trees. I haven’t done that in a while. I miss it.

Unfortunately there’s a lot of trash along the parking area here just inside the Adirondacks. This would be a good spot for NYSDOT’s “Adopt-A-Highway”. I’d adopt it if it wasn’t almost 70 miles from home. Maybe someone will find a kind spot in their heart and adopt this lovely spot.

I wouldn’t bet on the woman in the red Taurus doing that though.

If someone doesn’t do it by a year from now I guess we’ll just have to do it and make a trip a couple of times a summer to clean this spot up. I’m enjoying it a lot. The bright side is that whoever is dumping trash is doing it on the side OPPOSITE of the “NO DUMPING” signs. At least the litterer can read.

So last week I started a campaign to raise money for the Ali Forney Center. I am doing this by letting you decide the fate of my mustache with the ‘Stache On-‘Stache Off Campaign. Through the 24th of August, you can make a donation to the Ali Forney Center by voting on whether my ‘stache stays or goes. If it is determined that my mustache stays, I’ll let it just keep growing through the end of the year (though I might clear some brush from my lips once in a while so I don’t miss important kisses.) If it is decided that it’s time to go, I shave it off completely and then probably grow a little mustache because I can’t being completely clean shaven.

As of this writing, ‘Stache On is winning.

If you would like to contribute, and again, it’s for the worthy cause of helping homeless LGBT youth (click here for more information), here’s what you do:

Follow this link to vote ‘Stache ON.
Follow this link to vote ‘Stache OFF.

And thanks in advance for helping the Ali Forney Center.

So today is the 11th anniversary of my blog here at Life Is Such A Sweet Insanity. It seems like only yesterday that I decided to start an “online journal” which I would later find out was properly called a blog. It would be a few years before I share pictures taken with my flip phone. My original blog entries were written in HTML code and manually uploaded to the server.

If you want to read my very first blog entry, you can do so here.

‘Stache On-‘Stache Off Update: ‘Stache On is ahead right now with some nice contributions to the Ali Forney Center. If you wish to contribute, please see this blog post and/or click ‘Stache On to vote for me to keep my mustache or ‘Stache Off for me to shave it off.
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So when I arrived at work this morning I immediately started sneezing. I wasn’t completely surprised by this because the building I work at a few days a week always makes me sneeze; it has that “70’s Sealed In Charm” that is so prevalent in office buildings these days. The problem is, the sneezing wasn’t the only event, my nose started running and I became rather sweaty.

I tried really hard to tough it out through the day, but shortly after 3:00 p.m. I asked my boss if I could leave at 4:00 p.m. so I could go home and try to sleep it through so I’d be ready for a fresh start on Friday. He approved my departure and I headed home.

When I got home I downed two cold medicine tablets. I hate taking medicine and I don’t really believe in it, but since my symptoms had gotten to the point where they were making me beyond miserable, I decided I had had enough and that I would just sleep through the weird side effects that these types of pills give me.

I get really weird on these things. Sometimes I get mean, sometimes I get loopy and at other times I just hallucinate my way through a drug-induced haze and then in 24 hours all is well and I am back on track. When I got home I immediately crashed and slept a few hours before Earl woke me up to let me know that supper was ready. Just after his waking me up, I started thinking about work as I got my wits together. This is where the loopy comes in.

I decided that it would be perfectly acceptable if the software I’m writing used graphics to denote approved or rejected requests that it processes. In my head I figured out what I would need to do to implement this:

1. To approve the request, drag the row to the image of Glinda the Good Witch.
2. To deny the request, drag it to the Wicked Witch.
3. To edit the request, drag it to Toto, who will then open up a paper icon with his paws.

Yep, these are the thoughts that were going through my head upon waking and a problem that I was trying to solve logistically.

Can you imagine the looks on the users’ face if I had gone through with it? Maybe it would have spiced up their day with a little bit of an over the rainbow experience. Perhaps everyone needs that sort of inspiration.