I got promoted from SD-2 to SD-3 yesterday, to go along with my transition to a new development-heavy project in the next couple weeks. I spent the morning today down in the labs at Bailey's Crossroads doing some deployment work and acting shifty around the military as a psychology experiment.

Tonight is poker night.

Yesterday's notable search terms:

owls "can see blue", sousa marches dogfight, "yellow rooms" behaviour, ben seggerson, "i'm still alive" "famous last words"

At Applebee's tonight, there was an old lady who complained that the light over her table was too bright. She forced one of the busboys to unscrew one of the bulbs and replace it with a lower wattage.

I've put up some pictures from Poker Night in the Uri! Photos and some backlogged cat pictures in the Cat Photos sections.

Yesterday's notable search terms:

kristi kirby, vintage chamber pot cornell, choice of cola cans with figures and tables, nate shafroth, jaood

Today is movie day!

Yesterday's notable search terms:

how to make a minor scale, christy kull, concentrating while listening to music

Another weekend is down for the count, filled with fun activities like hanging blinds, running cable, and installing mirrored closet doors. I came in 9th of 9 on Poker Night, which is a compelling reason for our low $3 buy-in.

I haven't had much reading time recently. I hate when I read a book continuously and then return to it after a long hiatus. I'd gotten through about five hundred pages of the latest Wurts book before the move, but the last week of house stuff has completely broken the flow. I'll have to go back and reread some sections to get back into the groove of the story.

Yesterday's notable search terms:

oak tree worms, irving stone and fragment of lust for life, green sonata form book, trupimp, uri college pictures, the complete manual of suicide "suicide manual", fattening michelle

I almost forgot to update today. I was back out at Bailey's Crossroad this morning, and then took the afternoon off to sort through a million books to stick on the fifty shelves throughout the house. I had to divide them into such categories as genre, author, size, topic, and books to put in the front room to increase the respect that visitors have for you.

The moon in Herndon on the way to work is much bigger than it ever was in Centreville. I think it has something to do with property taxes.

Yesterday's notable search terms:

party at the urizone!, tonsatz tone, ten most common pizza toppings, broodwar ghosts carriers

I'm itching to get a new game. Recently, I haven't had any time to devote to gaming, and it's been a while since I played a good, engaging game. The last game I bought was actually Prince of Persia back in December. I hear there's a new FPS out for the PC, Far Cry, and a couple interesting titles for the GameCube as well. Any recommendations?

Yesterday's notable search terms:

minnesota grape hyacinth wilting leaves, "insect collector" wealthy, jaood, fb key signature

Last night's movie was The House of Sand and Fog with Jennifer Connelly and Ben Kingsley -- highly recommended. The movie does a good job of showing all its characters as multidimensional and walks the fine line of melodrama without getting sappy. The James Horner score is actually understated and works pretty well in context too.

We also saw Gothika on Sunday. It was a little creepy but mostly stupid, and way too easy to figure out. Still better than Cold Creek Manor though.

Yesterday's notable search terms:

smelly pants story, marsalis haydn cadenza, klangfarbenmelodie berg webern schoenberg play theatre, lettermaze

We have a new game with the cats where we drop something into the stairwell and they catch it. Here is a movie showing these complex rules in action:

This weekend, I'll be doing more house stuff as is par for the course. I've unpacked everything to the right room, so now it's a matter of organizing the rooms themselves. I'll do another video walkthrough when everything is pristine, probably in a few weeks.

Yesterday's notable search terms:

appreciating the symphonic structure, pimp force, facts about how many countries could fit inside walt disney

Happy Birthday Mom! Thanks for giving me an easy update.

Yesterday's notable search terms:

origami zerg, misanthrope zabaglione, robin caruso, goebbels not gerbils, how does music affect teenagers' statistic

The previous owners forgot to pack their flowers and shrubs, so they're now blooming around the property. For today's Easter update, I've added some more cat pictures on Photos page.

Yesterday's notable search terms:

marching band leadership questionnaire, john brown and tita's love in like water for chocolate, green oak worms

I ordered up a new computer for Anna this weekend with a complement of additional memory, graphics stuff, and other necessities. Dell is currently selling an entry-level (read: not particularly upgradeable) 2.66ghz machine for $400 after mail-in rebate, while my current 2.0ghz machine cost me $2000 two years ago. The only downside to the entry-level machine is its lack of AGP slot for 3D graphics cards. If you don't play many of those, it's definitely a good deal.

The additional memory got shipped from Crucial. I ordered it Friday and it arrived in Herndon on Saturday. Since then, it's been showing the dreaded "Pacakage not due for delivery" on the FedEx site. What this means, for people lucky enough to have never shipped through them, is that the package is already in a truck tooling around town. However, the due date from the sender is still a couple days away, so FedEx will intentionally sit on the package (probably literally) until its due date because there's no pressing need to deliver it.

What this means for me is that the package I could have easily gotten during the day on Saturday will not be delivered until tomorrow afternoon.

Yesterday's notable search terms:

secretary's heel stories, teaching major and minor triads, joe ehrenberger, dave day trombone, reasons for failure of reliance infocom

I finally finished To Ride Hell's Chasm after several extended interruptions towards the end. It's a very good book, though not my favourite Wurts book. I'll definitely read it again in the future. For an accessible entry point into Wurts' writing, try Master of Whitestorm.

I'm trying out Filezilla for an FTP client, after having used WS_FTP 95 since 1996. I'll let you know what I think about it.

Yesterday's notable search terms:

There were no interesting search terms yesterday, so here are some representative terms I encounter on a daily basis: Storm Warnings, One Art, Oedipus Complex, How do I germinate beans? How do I germinate beans underwater? How do I germinate beans in a boat in a moat? How do I Germanate beans that are French? Does listening to music affect anything? Odd Titles, Famous Tightwads, Looney Laws

Yesterday, I found a hair salon/barber shop that does decent cuts for $10 after coupon ($13 for women). It's in the Clock Tower shopping center of Sterling, a ghetto version of the more high class Clock Towers in other cities, so it doesn't get much foot traffic.

I got all the USPS and FedEx components of the new computer yesterday, and I have to go home early again to watch for the UPS guy with the actual computer. It's so hard to drive seven miles home, but I'll grin and bear it.

Yesterday's notable search terms:

naked medic in starcraft, diablo 2 skill chooser, drum majors learning how to conduct, covert pine worm

Besides installing extras in my roommate's new computer, like a TV card, 512MB more memory, and a CD writer, I spent yesterday finishing off my filing. All my paperwork is consolidated from the numerous travel bins to a single metal file cabinet. I also found all my wall calendars from the past eleven years, except for 1998 which is missing in action. Maybe I can post witty anecdotes about what I was doing ten years ago, much like the flashback series going on over in Mike's Journal at the moment.

Yesterday's notable search terms:

leonardo imprisoned, in the play antigone what do haimon believes that authority rests with, nefarium, inside of a dog it's too hard to read, cattlebruiser micro

Kill Bill, Vol. 1 was the movie of choice last night. It was occasionally entertaining but mostly stupid, and reeked of overwrought Tarantino. It's apparent that he was given free reign on editing with the movie split into two parts, since he obviously didn't cut a single drawn out scene from the mix. I bet he could have easily cut this into a better, well-paced movie the length of a Lord of the Rings segment. The movie had some good tunes, as is typical of Tarantino, but for every good one there was one with annoyingly inane lyrics or obnoxious whistling and grating sound effects.

For the record, I liked Reservoir Dogs but didn't much care for Pulp Fiction. I'm also glad Tarantino didn't decide to star in this one, because it's one less round of him chewing on scenery to deal with.

Yesterday's notable search terms:

jennie geisner, robin caruso, cattlebruiser reports, camelback spider

We put in a new patio door today. Now it's time for poker.

Yesterday I won $30 at poker. Today is another day of new cat media, include Photos and movies. Tonight is a brand new Alias.

Yesterday's notable search terms:

playing the augmented fourth trumpet, my booty at the urizone, nohunters.urizone.net, yummy yummy yummy i've got in my tummy commercial, scruff mackenzie, music versus noise- difference science project, ben seggerson, baby llama pictures, how to count 5/4 time signature

Sometimes there isn't any difference between noise and music. You count 5/4 by counting to 5.

Yesterday, I went out to one of Anna's sister's house in Winchester to help move an upright piano into the house. The size to cost ratio of the houses out there is ridiculous, and all of them are built with the new age high ceilings that have their own atmospheric conditions near the top. I think I would feel smaller than I already am in a house with rooms that vertically spacious.

After using Filezilla for a week instead of my usual FTP client, I've decided that it has enough pros to outweigh the cons. The interface is very customizable and supports multiple uploads and downloads with a variety of file sorting criteria. It can also keep idle connections alive and browse remote file systems with Windows style layouts. It's a little clunky when remembering your preferences but there aren't any major drawbacks to using it.

Yesterday's notable search terms:

oak kitty booty, quotes by benito mussolini, urizone garbage, washington monument sinks six inches, "kelley corbett" carnival, footmen frenzy

I was reading an article about how much people tip these days, and some of them seem pretty ridiculous. When I'm at a restaurant, I always tip 15% (and rarely drop to 10% for horrible service). I tip my barber one or two dollars depending on the cut, and tip the pizza man one dollar plus remainder change on the order. Some people tip their pizza people generously, but it doesn't make sense to me, since their sole job is to deliver the pizza, and the pizza place is never more than half a mile from our house.

When I see a bathroom attendant, I shrug apologetically and opt out of their towel-handing services. Seriously, why bother paying someone to watch you pee?

Yesterday's notable search terms:

growing radishes tall in two weeks, urizone on the horizon, bad thing that benito mussolini did, flashing at the urizone

The news has been pretty dull recently.

I went home to seed and fertilize the yard yesterday but today's expected showers have given way to partly cloudy conditions with a high of 80. I also removed the cherub birdbath from the front yard becaues it kept tipping over in the wind. If I decide to put it back up, I'll place it in a nonmowable garden area with a less ridiculous centerpiece inside the fountain.

I finally got the home network working last night after a couple weeks of wrestling. The intermittent connection drops were the result of a USB Ethernet adapter that wasn't transmitting correctly. Replacing it with a traditional PCI card fixed the problem instantly. Now, up to four computers can be networked inside the house for gaming, and all of them can access the Internet through my computer without requiring any routers. I didn't even have to buy any new equipment to make it all work out.

This afternoon, I'll be going out to look at grills and lawn mowers.

Yesterday's notable search terms:

program of the robot composer recital, thoreau quotes "i was determined to know beans", why pine trees stay green all year, flying hippopotamus, graduated from maryville high school tennessee, doritos plastic cans

Yesterday, I puttered around town comparing features and prices on various grills and lawn mowers. I also started looking into pool tables for the downstairs rec room. I tend to be an impulsive buyer, but not in the classical sense: I rarely ever buy things on a whim while window shopping, but once I've decided that I definitely want something, I'll move very quickly from research to purchasing.

I also took a trip to Petsmart, which has its own rotunda and cherry-blossom-lined walkway. You know you're in Loudoun County when the number of aisles for "Horse" matches the number of aisles for "Cat".

Yesterday's notable search terms:

rock poont, pet duck housebreak -dog, ucalegon neighbor

This coming weekend is the first one in over two and a half months with no major construction-y projects planned, so I'll probably take it easy and putter around the house. There'll be a small Poker Night tonight, and a new Alias on Sunday (only 3 episodes left in the season!). In my spare time, I've started studying for the Sun Java Certification Exam in earnest, and also resurrected my Caravan Assault map in anticipation of the next Warcraft patch.

Yesterday's notable search terms:

garbage that brian uri leaves, teenage prostitution problem is mounting, recital program of a brass composer, da vinci stealing body parts, augmented fourth game hints

The pool tables I looked at were ridiculously expensive, and the snooty salesmen knew I wasn't going to pay three to twenty-four thousand dollars for a table. I've since found a reasonable deal including delivery and installation through Cornerstone Billiards. Anyone ever ordered a table through them? Only three complaints through the BBB, and all were satisfactorily resolved. I'm waiting until tonight to make the order so I can get someone like Anna to double check my colour choices.

Happy Birthday Philip!

Yesterday's notable search terms:

lake barcroft alexandria water company, we're going to stamp out detroit, redskins pep band, earn eighty thousand dollars, at a glance brian uri is a robot

This is the pool table that I've ordered for the house, except with oak laminate rather than black laminate. It has a tripartite 1" slate and ball return, and comes with a standard accessory kit, free delivery from Georgia, and free installation from the company. All of that for a price that's still six to seven hundred dollars cheaper than the nearest walk-in store model in the area.

It's the end of the semester at FSU, so it's been almost a year since I was a Tallahassite.

Yesterday's notable search terms:

miles killed peter quint, t.c. williams high school band, brian uri is odd

Yesterday's notable search terms:

nate shafroth, is there erosion at the urizone, the speaker finds that prediction and change are two different entities

That last search entry is a direct quotation from one of my twelfth-grade essays on Storm Warnings. Looks like some high school plagiarist just got caught by his/her teacher! Then again, the IP address of the visitor is from NYU. Pretty sad if you have to plagiarize a high school essay for a college assignment.

The new proposed Iraqi flag could easily be the corporate logo of a failed dot com in the nineties. It just doesn't have an authoritative enough design to represent a country. Even the flag from the Republic of Booty has more oomph than it does.

The president of the Japanese end of McDonald's died yesterday of heart failure, just days after the American president went down from a heart attack. I smell a Burger King conspiracy with fries.

Yesterday's notable search terms:

i was at the urizone and threw up, cattlebruiser

I'm trying to decide what sort of update schedule I should go on this summer. I won't do anything as drastic as stopping now and restarting in August, but I may cut out a few days a week, or just the weekends. It's hard work posting pictures of Booty's ass, and if I don't take some sabbatical time every now and again, I'll burn out like Bill Watterson.

What are your thoughts?

Yesterday's notable search terms:

There were NO searches yesterday!

The majority of my site seems to have disappeared from Google. It must be some conspiracy by educators of America, in an attempt to combat essay plagiarism.

Today is movie day!

Yesterday's notable search terms:

uri apartment, -get -some urizone booty

The College of William and Mary is hiring. Check it out if you're unhappy in your current position (and you can hold another position for thirty minutes or more).

My dad came out yesterday to transport my new grill and lawn mower, so I'll be fueling them up tonight for a lawn-mowing grill party. Tomorrow I'm heading out to Winchester for some Apple Blossom parade or something, and Sunday I'll probably be doing some house-related shopping of some kind.