Merry Holidays!!!





It is actually the day after Christmas. I had a good one. My mom, sis, bro in law, fath in law, mom in law, sis in law and two nieces came by for brunch and presents. After that we went to Niki's cousin for tamales. Then we came home and Dan and Heather came by for some puppy playtime, grapa and holiday light decoration viewing.

Today I'm just lazin' around watching bad sci-fi movies on the sci-fi channel staring Luke Perry and eating chocolate.

"I Love Commas"



This is one of my posts where a lash out with a personal attack at someone (and hope it all makes sense). It has "junior highness" immaturity written all over it, and to think, I'm almost a 30 year old accomplished gentleman of my own accord. Feel free to cringe at me possibly making an ass of myself, and please take a hint if it is about you.

Just to let everybody out there know, I'm horrible with names (as well as remembering a lot of other things). If I've met you once or twice (or even thrice) in my lifetime and you've never really made that much of an impression on me, and I run into you out in public somewhere at a later date, please do not take offence if I might not remember your name right away. Keep in mind, I will take offence, however, if you do not offer me a needed refresher course, cuz if you don't, I WILL eventually remember your name at a later date and associate it with that jerk who made me feel like a moron because she/he wouldn't tell me and made me feel bad about it.

But at least next time I see you, I'll remember, and I can call you by your name... which will be "that jerk so-and-so".


-Whatshisname Levy

National "hardly Work at All" Month



After tying to jump back into the swing of things at work after getting back from my trip, my body was thrown a bit out of whack. I managed to miss work half of last week due to a cold (that I'm still fighting off). Next week is "Forced Time Off" for the holidays. I managed to give only about 50% this weekend as well (only made it to "Katy's graduation party" part 1 and skipped part 2, played a Munia show at toneVendor with Knock Knock, but skipped out on the after party at smillers pad.

Tonight is the annual 4-eyes (iiii) Festivis concert at the Loft. For some reason those dudes are the only ones allowed to play shows there. Should be good!

Too bad I can't bring heylove with me (She needs to get all her shots before she can go out in public).

Oh yeah...the dog.
Cute as a sanrio character, sweet as pie, stinky like a dog fart. I was paranoid all weekend that she was going to take a dump in the middle of the night, so every time I heard her scuffle, I'd get up and take her out of her crate to go "potty". Today is her first day at home alone for the long term.

She's so small that she makes my midget cat "Mouse" look like a Bengal tiger.

heylove




So I did miss being home while abroad, but this great county of ours is getting more and more absurd by the moment, and everyone else in the world seems to know it except us.

Yesterday I read a story about a 10 year old getting arrested (and handcuffed) for bringing scissors to school due to a "zero tolerance" policy. See, scissors could be a potential weapon, as are pens and pencils. I'm sure you could knock someone out cold with those heavy text books.

And then this morning NPR ran a story where the narrator was trying to figure out why American school kids are dumber than the rest of the world. Following that, another story about a group trying to push creationism in public schools rather than evolution.

Hmmm...

back after a much needed get-away



Help, I'm being chased by a goose in east London~!

Had fun of course (how could I not?). This time London was like taking a trip to the city. Ran into old friends, went to familiar places.

Instead of English style breakfasts and brown sauce, I was all about pastys and real-ale (hand-pulled casque ale).

Still...it's good to be home where things only cost less than half as much as they do over there, it's warm enough to go outside with only a t-shirt (it is...trust me!), and people say my last name "leh vee" or "lee vee" and not "llllayeee vayeeee".

don't quit your day job to become a motivational speaker



dude with german accent and being completely serious while sitting at desk, assembling hard drives and network cards:

"instead of sitting around waiting, you could do this for me"

me:

"naw... you look like you got it under control [dickhead]"

10 + years later and still not cured of "senioritis"



it's just one of those days where i'm bored as hell here in the cubicle farm. nothing i'm doing here can't be done from home. maybe i can sneak out of here early.

i swear winter fever is just as bad as spring fever.

1 more day and i'm leaving the country!

oh well. they were both good!



5.50 for a glass of beer?!?!? 7 dollars for a potato pancake?

btw. bon lair replaced hoegaarden with chimmay for some reason. i like chimmay and all, but besides both originating from Belgium, they are two completely separate entities. chimmay is a darker beer, with more of a hoppy taste and will get you pretty buzzed on one glass (i had 3 last night). hoegaarden is light and lemony, and requires two glasses to get an equivalent chimmay buzz.

i found out from heckabecky that the czech place next door to bon lair makes potato pancakes and will deliver your order to the bar. pretty damn cool. i'm always looking for good, local jew food. i thought the pancakes i ate were probably the best i've had, but still, i wound up paying around 7 dollars and the place only gives you two (about the diameter of a coffee mug...like the one on my desk that i'm looking at right now).

np: MF Doom - "Mm...Food?"

smashing time



it was a nice 4 days off.

we had the whole family over for the holiday, and everyone seemed to have a good time. the food was great.

the next day, my friends had a "day after thanks giving" potluck, which featured all vegetarian items. good stuff!

saturday i made my second batch of beer. the first one came out superb, and we drank it during the making of batch number 2. i felt like i was conducting a class, since there were 4 extra people who came over to help out. the more, the merrier, i say.

sunday was "do nothing day". i didn't even leave the house until 5:30. and that was to get pizza at zeldas.

the weekend after next i am treating myself to a trip back to the UK to see the t.v. personalities and my friends, pipas, along with some other good bands. this time i'm stocking up on brown sauce and bacon flavoured crisps (for niki) to take back. it will be neat going back so soon and not having to "work" (not that i mind playing shows every night, it's just the time limits on "sight seeing" got to me after a while). i'm trying to be as nonchalant as possible about it, so i can feel like a jet-setter, just doing my thang.

oh yeah, niki and i are getting one of these pups for christmas...er...i mean hanukkah...

so, what have you been up to lately?



nothing much. working. coming home. playing some GTA:SA. eat dinner. work from home a little. go to sleep. repeat!

NY Post: That sounds like a pretty mundane lifestyle. I bet you are one of the people who live by the motto TGIF!

i really look forward to the weekends. last weekend was ruined due to a reoccurring pain in my right foot in the big toe area. it hurt so bad i didn’t even want to leave the house. i had it looked at by a doctor last friday, and they tested me for gout, which does run in my family, and one of my good friends who has it swore that's what i had after describing the symptoms to him.

NY Post: That sounds pretty major. My Russian Grandfather had that. He can't eat peas anymore. Did you ever find out exactly what the problem was?

it turns out that i just have a "flat arch" in that foot. hopefully insoles will work. thank goodness it's not "the gout"!

NY Post: Yes. Good thing! Did your close call with "The Gout" and your second chance at living a normal life affect your habits at all?"

with the fear of my body falling apart and having severe cases of the "blahs" lately, i kicked my butt into gear and made my way back to the gym after not going for about half a year. typical back-to-gym scenario: work out for a good hour before work, feel great all day long, and wake up the next day in pain, preventing anymore trips to the gym that week. hopefully i'll recover by monday and i can make exercise my routine again. i'm sure it won’t hurt a bit!

NY Post: One thing our readers have noticed lately is your great hair!

last friday, i decided to hobble my way to my old barbershop for a haircut. it used to be called "judy's on j street" owned and operated by judy, the nicest barber i ever had. she never once asked how i wanted my hair cut, she just knew, and did what she did best. she would always finish the haircut by shaving the back of your neck old school style with a straight edge razor. niki even used to have her hair cut there!

NY Post: Sounds like a great place. Do you Still go there or have you gone the SuperCuts route?

judy sold the business, i think due to health reasons, and moved away. i hadn't been there since, until friday. it's now called "buzz" something-or-other. it looks pretty much the same on the outside, except for the harley parked out front (i later found out that it's the owner's bike). inside was another story. it looks like the new owner (buzz?) did everything possible to add a sense of masculinity to the place. there is a fridge with a glass door filled with Budweiser on one side of the room. he has his power tools on display (drill, hammer, etc..) on another side of the room. on the counter was a bottle of some hard core japanese liquor, that had an actual snake inside the bottle (which buzz would periodically take a swig from while chopping hair!). he kept complaining to the other barber, the old dude that cuts hair once or twice a week, about being hung-over, while drinking a beer and the "snake juice".

NY Post: Wow! Once you saw all that was going on, was your first inclination to make a bee-line to the exit door?

not really. anyway, my turn finally came up and i swear there were people ahead of me for a hair cut, but they all wanted the old dude instead, so i took a deep breath and stepped up to bat. "talk to me about your hair buddy!" was the first thing buzz said to me. i gave him the specs, and without any further questions, buzz did his thang. there was a time during the haircut where buzz was actually talking on the phone and cutting my hair simultaneously.

NY Post: It's a surprise your hair looks so good.

anyhow. as you can see, my hair came out great. it only cost 10 bucks. so i'll be back for sure!

NY Post: Very interesting. We here at the Post are always curious about what is now playing on your Hi-Fi system. Could you please tell us?

np: "ruby, don't take your love to town" - kenny rogers

RIP ODB



as well as:

• Yasser Arafat, Palestinian leader, died November 11 at the age of 75.
  
• Howard Keel, actor/singer best known for his roles in musicals like Annie Get Your Gun, died November 7 at the age of 85.
  
• Ken Caminiti, all star baseball player, died October 10 at the age of 41.
  
• Christopher Reeve, actor best known for his role as Superman, died October 10 at the age of 52.
  
• Jacques Derrida, founder of deconstructionism, died October 9 at the age of 74.
  
• Rodney Dangerfield, comedian, died October 5 at the age of 82.
  
• Janet Leigh, actress best known for Psycho, died October 3 at the age of 77.
  
• Richard Avedon, photographer, died October 1 at the age of 81.
  
• Geoffrey Beene, fashion designer, died September 28 at the age of 77.
  
• Francoise Sagan, author best known for Bonjour Tristesse, died September 24 at the age of 69.
  
• Russ Meyer, film maker, died September 18 at the age of 82.
  
• Johnny Ramone, founder of the Ramones, died September 15 at the age of 55.
  
• Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, psychiatrist best known for her book on death and dying, died August 24 at the age of 78.
  
• Elmer Bernstein, composer, died August 18 at the age of 82.
  
• Julia Child, chef, died August 13 at the age of 91.
  
• Fay Wray, actress best known for King Kong, died August 8 at the age of 96.
  
• Paul 'Red' Adair, famed oil well fire fighter, died August 7 at the age of 89.
  
• Rick James, musician best known for Super Freak, died August 6 at the age of 56.
  
• Francis Crick, codiscover of the DNA double helix, died July 28 at the age of 88.
  
• Jerry Goldsmith, composer best known for scoring films such as The Omen, Alien, and Chinatown, died July 21 at the age of 75.
  
• Isabel Sanford, actress best known as Louise Jefferson on the tv series The Jeffersons, died July 9 at the age of 86.
  
• Marlon Brando, actor, died July 1 at the age of 80.
  
• Ray Charles, musician, died June 10 at the age of 73.
  
• Ronald Reagan, one time president of the United States, died June 5 at the age of 93.
  
• Brian Linehan, celebrity interviewer, died June 4 at the age of 58.
  
• Tony Randall, actor best known as Felix on the tv series The Odd Couple, died May 17 at the age of 84.
  
• June Taylor, dancer and choreographer best known for the Jackie Gleason show, died May 17 at the age of 86.
  
• Alan King, comedian, died May 9 at the age of 76.
  
• Estee Lauder, cosmetics queen, died April 24 at the age of 97.
  
• Carrie Snodgress, actress best known for Diary of a Mad Housewife, died April 1 at the age of 57.
  
• Alistair Cooke, broadcaster best known in North America as the host of Masterpiece Theater, died March 30 at the age of 95.
  
• Peter Ustinov, actor, died March 28 at the age of 82.
  
• Jan Berry, musician best known as half of Jan & Dean, died March 26 at the age of 62.
  
• Queen Juliana, former queen of the Netherlands, died March 20 at the age of 94.
  
• Robert Pastorelli, actor best known as house painter Eldin on Murphy Brown, died March 8 at the age of 49.
  
• Paul Winfield, actor best known as the father in Sounder, died March 7 at the age of 62.
  
• Spalding Gray, monologist, was found dead March 7 at the age of 62.
  
• Mercedes McCambridge, actress known for films such as Touch of Evil and The Exorcist, died March 2 at the age of 85.
  
• Marge Schott, one time owner of the Cincinnati Reds, died March 2 at the age of 75.
  
• John Randolph, actor known for his Tony award winning performance in Broadway Bound and as Rock Hudson's alter ego in Seconds, died February 24 at the age of 88.
  
• Claude Ryan, Quebec federalist intellectual, died February 9 at the age of 79.
  
• M.M. Kaye, author best known for The Far Pavilions, died January 29 at the age of 95.
  
• Jack Paar, talk show pioneer, died January 27 at the age of 85.
  
• Bob Keeshan, better known as Captain Kangaroo, died January 23 at the age of 76.
  

via - http://www3.sympatico.ca/jenoff/obit.htm

man, someone really put time in this to make it look authentic...




NOT!!!!

and oh yeah, i did click on the link knowing it was a phony.

i know you just said "man, you crazy fool!, that could be some viral ass shit. your computer might catch herpes or sumfin'".

i know i know. well let me use this opportunity to promote a great open-source browser called firefox. this may be the first you've heard of it (but not the last), but lets just say that M$ Internet Exploder, (a virus writers dream come true btw) hasn't been updated in 4 years, with a new version not coming out until 2006 (if the new version of windows gets released in time)

...i'm just sayin'. you might want to think about switching to a browser that is developed by the community at large for the betterment of mankind.

since most people use it, virus writers use the unpatched vulnerabilities in IE. fixes for these software bugs are few and far in between. of course, exploits will be found in any piece of software, but since firefox is open source, bugs are fixed almost immediately after they are found.

the same folks who give us firefox also bring the world thunderbird, which is the email client i use at home. i likes it a lot as well.


thanks to maya for the 411 on the article about the battle between good and evil (and no, it's not about kerry vs. bush). and thanks to all of you who don't open email attachments from strangers.


FOLLOW UP:
looks likes this email was an attempt to infect my computer with a new email worm called w32-mydoom-ah

here is what you can do to make the world a better place


Delete suspicious messages with the following subject lines:

* Hi!
* Hey!
* Confirmation
* ...or a blank subject line.


This virus infects your machine when you click on the URL link contained in the message body.

Some forms of this virus are masquerading as official looking PayPal email notifications, stating that a charge has been made to your credit card. This is not the case, but clicking on the link will infect your machine.

oh yeah



VOTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FOR THIS GUY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

all this work, and all i got were around 5 trick or treaters

vote...or...

You preferred Kerry's statements 89% of the time You preferred Bush's statements 11% of the time Voting purely on the issues you should vote Kerry Who would you vote for if you voted on the issues? Find out now!

hey...look at me...i'm a computa



this past friday i finally got DSL. i've never had broadband, so i never really worried about someone hijacking my computer. i didn't realize the beast i would unleash after connecting to one of the internets. luckily my computer has a pretty conscientious owner, so i made sure all the security updates were installed, trashed IE and installed firefox, which does a pretty fantastic job of blocking malicious websites and pop-up windows automatically, plus viruses and worms that rely on IE exploits...hey bitches, you can't touch this.

one interesting thing i found out too is that SBC yahoo installs adware. found and zapped that bad boy as well. luckily, norton found that (for some reason adaware didn't).

i've taken other precautions as well that i won't go into detail about. there is that old saying "security by obscurity".

i loved blasting globalpopconspiracy all weekend (which was the soundtrack to my beer).

i'm hoping i'll be less inclined to screw around online while at work now that i have this luxury at home. let's see. i'm already breaking the law at this moment by writing this post.

heather s., niki and i made beer this friday. stay tuned for a beer making blog to read all about it!

can you hear me now???



actually EVERYBODY CAN HEAR YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

so here at work, we software developers work side-by-side with project managers. the software developers are a quiet bunch, keeping our heads down and writing code or messing around online, while project managers make a lot of phone calls to places all over the world in order to get stuff done (TCB, if you will). A lot of these managers talk in a way that everyone in a 3 cubicle radius can hear every word said. they are essentially the rumor mill source (i get to hear about who's quitting or getting canned before anyone else does).

this morning i could hear the boisterous, harley ridin' (except when it's raining outside) project manager who sits over the wall from me talking to the giggly, british project manager who sits across the aisle from me, but they weren't shouting over the cubicle walls (like most project managers do), they were talking on the phone to each other!

actual conversation:
harley dude - "are you going to have doughnuts at the meeting?!?!?! otherwise i'm not gonna show up!!!"
british lady - *giggle giggle giggle* "ha ha...no!"
harley dude - "are you going to have beer then!?!?"
british lady - *giggle giggle giggle* "ha ha...no!"
harley dude - "what time?"
british lady - "3 o'clock"
(...everything gets pretty boring after that)

me and alex (who sits in the cube next to me) had a blast talking mad trash about them (on AIM)

i'm gonna email by boss (who sits 3 cubes away from me) to see if i can get this friday off.

i used to laugh at people who wear face-masks while walking outdoors



the past two mornings my car has been covered with a lite film of ash:

Detailed Forecast
Sacramento Area


Friday: A mix of smoke and sun. High near 82.
Tonight: Clear with some smoke. Low near 54.
Saturday: Mostly sunny with increasing clouds late in the day. High near 76.
(via kcra ch3)

Which OS are You?

i only ride in limos



here is some video i took at a show this past friday:

link

sorry.. felt like being annoying today