It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Whirl
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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in the "Maelstrom" journal:[<< Previous 20 entries]
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10:39 pm
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Pod People
I am the guest on the latest podcast of "Fill Me In: Ryan and Brian do Crosswords." My interview starts right at the 20 minute mark. Go check it out!
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04:44 pm
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2008 quiz results
The original quiz.
( The answers. )
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11:07 pm
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2008 quiz
The 12 figures below (listed alphabetically) were all in the news during 2008, and each was notable during a different month of the year, representing all 12 months. Can you sort the newsmakers in order from January to December?
a) Muntadhar al Zaidi
b) Taro Aso
c) Ingrid Betancourt
d) Da' Tara
e) Ann E. Dunwoody
f) Ashley Alexandra Dupre
g) John Hagee
h) Lin Miaoke
i) Mark Penn
j) Uno
k) Corey Worthington
l) Joe Wurzelbacher
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10:48 pm
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Sno daze
This is the most snow I've seen in this area ever--about a foot and a half still lingers. We've had layers of snow and ice since last Thursday, and this was the first "White Christmas" we've had for a long time. We're getting a little stir crazy at home, since I haven't driven for a week, and Jenn hasn't left the house. I took MAX (the light rail) and the streetcar to work for the last few days. MAX was packed to the point I couldn't move on some days.
Hope you all had excellent and happy holidays!
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01:59 am
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Sno' nuff
It's been snowing off and on since Thursday. By Saturday, the snow finally stuck and piled up to about 4-5 inches. More snow dropped this morning, with warnings of half-inch thick ice sheets freezing on top. Also, there were multiple warnings that power may go out in certain areas. Luckily, our power has stayed on. However, there's ice frosting up all our windows, so we can't see out very well, unless I look out the back door to the back yard.
I'm taking the last 3 Mondays of December off from work, so I missed last Monday. At work, they let us out early Tue/Wed, then had us in a full day on Thu, then a delayed opening on Fri. I've taken a couple of trips on MAX (the light rail system) when the roads were not icy, and found that there's a switchover a block away to the streetcar line, which runs a block from my workplace. I'm wondering about Tuesday, if the ice will still stick around, otherwise I may have some problems walking to work, even if it's a block or two from the streetcar.
It's been pretty nice at home, although it reminds me of the big 2004 ice storm. Lots of local news watching, so it's not that bad this time of year when reruns would have aired in place of 24-hour local news alerts. The big difference between now and 2004? There used to be a restaurant 2 blocks away from our house, and it served as a nice change of pace for food. It was within a safe walking distance, even in icy conditions. This year, the restaurant closed about a month ago. The next nearest restaurant is a Taco Bell, much further away.
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12:57 am
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The Amazing Race--Home Edition
( Spoilers of the final episode of The Amazing Race last weekend, in case you haven't watched yet. )
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02:55 pm
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R.I.P. Little B (1997-2008)
Yesterday, our oldest cat Little B passed away. It's been a difficult last few days for the whole family. I'll write more later (what happened on Friday and Saturday, good memories, etc.) since I'm not done collecting my thoughts. I can definitely say I'll miss him.
Current Mood:  melancholy
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10:09 pm
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Today
Aw hell yeah.
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11:40 pm
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Two fast food items I am now a fan of
1. Wendy's BBQ Flavor-Dipped chicken sandwich, w/o onions.
2. Burgerville's new seasonal Caramel Apple milkshake.
Good thing there's a Wendy's and a Burgerville next to each other, about a quarter of a mile away. :) I may have to get some sweet potato fries at Burgerville someday.
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11:19 pm
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OMSI--seems like deja vu
The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry will soon be hosting "Mindbender Mansion," a puzzle exhibit. What looks familiar is that many of the group challenges remind me of exhibits at Entros, the now-defunct puzzle-themed restaurant in Seattle (whose parent company went on to sponsor corporate events). Especially "Spelling Fever," which looks like a rehash of the awesome game Typo, played on a giant plexiglass board where you physically hop from letter to letter to spell your word. "Move and Match" also sounds very similar to the four-person bumper cars game.
It looks like there will be some Scrabble featured on November 1. On November 8, a guy who runs a cable access crossword puzzle game show will be filming his show on location at OMSI.
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02:57 pm
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USPC not for me
Since I wasn't going to do the USPC puzzles on the day of the competition, I tried the USPC puzzles out over the week, timing myself in 30 minute increments. After the 2 1/2 hour time limit, if all answers would have been entered correctly, I would've earned 175 points. But I'm sure there's somewhere where I'd miss a digit or two when transcribing the "answer" in the answer sheet, probably with counting numbers inside the loop and outside the loop. That always seems to get me.
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02:03 am
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Somehow it happened
A few years back I got into a Swedish jazz/acoustic electronic trio called E.S.T., the Esbjorn Svensson Trio. I really, really liked their album "Strange Place For Snow."
I was shocked to find out Monday that Svensson, the guy who formed the group, passed away Saturday in a scuba diving accident. He was only 44. It's really too bad, since this guy had so many cool ideas.
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11:03 pm
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I has a flavor
Seen on an AM/PM print ad for burgers: "25% more meat, 100% more taste"
Good thing people aren't doing the math, or you could argue that the old burgers were completely lacking flavor, and the new ones improve on it by having flavor. But what can you expect from a gas station convenience store?
Oh, and this year, like last year, I won't be competing in real-time on the USPC, because there ain't no way I can get that long of a block of free time exactly during those hours. That and I didn't sign up in time. I might try to break it into chunks while solving at work, but I'm using my breaks at work to...work on other stuff. So much for finding free time during the evening. :)
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11:41 pm
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A few random things
A week ago, we were watching a repeat of Family Guy on TBS. About halfway through the show, a promo thingy shows up at the bottom of the screen for The Bill Engvall Show. Usually these promo bars at the bottom are silent, or, at worst, given some sort of hopefully unintrusive sound effect. But this one takes the cake: Bill uses a fake DVR remote to pause Family Guy (in the middle of a punchline), and then he proceeds to talk at the bottom of the screen about his own show for 15 seconds. This is the most intrusive thing I've seen. Very unfunny, TBS.
I liked watching the final round of the only perfect game ever on the UK game show Fifteen to One. Even if I didn't know the answers to the UK-centric questions, it's still cool to see this guy sweep the round.
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10:18 pm
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Integral
Weird factoid: re Wikipedia, two very common male Norwegian first names are Odd and Even.
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05:29 pm
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In case you missed it...
I've posted an announcement (friendslocked) today about our new babies, so go check it out! I'm catching up on sleep and working on taking care of the babies, but things are getting back to normal. It's difficult to find free time, but it is there, somewhere. :) The first day back home was crazy, with the sleep deprivation and all that fun stuff. But it's all worth it. :)
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12:21 am
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That is the question
Most of you probably haven't seen this clip, but I thought it was really inspired. It's a comedy skit based on the long-running UK game show "Mastermind". Each show features a section of questions based on a "specialist subject" that the contestant picks ahead of time. A catchphrase from the show is "I've started so I'll finish," said by the presenter after the final bell rings so that he can finish any questions interrupted mid-bell and give the contestant a chance to answer it.
This skit, from the sketch show "The Two Ronnies," makes great use of this special subject: "Answering the question before last." So you get a chain of questions and answers that seem funny and nonsensical on the surface, but it makes sense when you dissect the order of the questions. Awesome. And it's pretty true to the original show, from what I understand.
( Behind the cut. )
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10:14 pm
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Unusual weather
Two days ago, rainy and 55. Yesterday, sunny-ish and low 70s. Today, 80 degrees. Tomorrow, back down to high 50s for the rest of the week. So we get one summery day for the entire month, then business as usual.
Today's the first day we had to open the windows and break out the fan.
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10:05 pm
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Dear Carl's Jr.:
If you know for sure that there are shakes on your menu (including chocolate), and a miniature chocolate cake, _and_ you know that people have a hard time picking up details over a drive-thru speaker, why do you insist on calling your items "Chocolate Shake" and "Chocolate Cake?" One of the drive-thru workers admitted to me that this is the toughest item to determine. The price difference is about $2 between the items, so if someone wasn't paying attention, you might accidentally overcharge for the wrong item. Why can't you just call it something like "Fudgy Cake" and get it over with?
Sincerely,
mlstrm
P.S. I caught the mistake, but you never know who might not...
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11:05 pm
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Snow? For reals?
Today was freaky weather at work, at least for these parts, and for late March. Woke up to fat snowflakes (which did not stick), which kept going for another hour, then stopped. This afternoon was rain, then hail, then snow, then bright and sunny, all within about 10 minutes.
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