Advice

A word to the wise: if you're going to be biking more than a few blocks to the grocery store, then eat breakfast first!

Seriously. I was out of milk, so I couldn't eat cereal on Saturday morning, and I didn't want any fruit--I still have half of a grapefruit and a whole bunch of honeydew in the refridgerator. So, I grabbed my waterbottle, and started on my way to Wal*Mart (to get some sunblock and a couple other things) before heading to Church Street so that I could find out how long the trip would take me.

Cumulatively (I made a couple of stops along the way) it took me about 40-45 minutes to get to the building where I work from my house. And by that time, I was--literally--about to pass out. I'm going to have to get into a little better shape before I even think about biking to work on a regular basis. That's kind of a bummer, because that was my main plan for getting into shape in the first place. Ah well. I guess I'll just have to try and go swimming (and bike to the pool) more often than I usually do.

When I got there, I called my parents' house, and asked Mom if her truck was working. It wasn't. So, I asked if Dad or Uncle Andy were there, but it was only Mom and Jason at home. I decided, belatedly, to get something to eat, so I told her that I was going to get some lunch at one of the restaurants nearby. She said she'd have Dad or Uncle Andy call me when they got home.

I walked the bike to Beans, Bagels and More, this little coffee/sandwich shop about a block from my work, and got a bowl of fruit and another bottle of water. Of course, I didn't actually manage to order right away, because there were people in line ahead of me and I had to sit down because I was starting to pass out again. I felt better after I ate though.

I sat outside at one of their little bistro-type tables to eat my fruit (a combination of cateloupe, strawberries and grapes), and sat there for a few minutes after I was done.

After that, I really was feeling a lot better, but I knew I wouldn't be able to make the ride back--it's mostly up-hill, and just that little bit of fruit didn't give me that much energy. Not to mention, my bike only shifts up, it's stuck in 6th gear (there are 7), and I can't figure out how to get it to down-shift--believe me, I've tried. So, I decided to walk the bike back home.

Around 6th street or so, I called Mom again to let her know not to worry about having Dad or Uncle Andy call. I made it to the pool house in my neighborhood (had to find out what to do about my pool pass--they said go to dearbought.com and e-mail the pool committee) an hour and twenty minutes after I left the restaurant.

When I got home, I was so beat that all I did was lay down and read for the rest of the day. I took a nap around 5pm, and then woke up at 9pm. Then I continued reading for another few hours before going back to sleep. I needed to buy a few groceries, but I just didn't have the energy to go to the store.

Sunday was Mom's birthday dinner (her actual birthday was on Saturday). We had Hawaiian Haystacks--yum! That was the first time, in the whole decade that any of us had lived there, that we'd had that particular meal at my parents' house. We'd had it before at Grandma's, but never at Mom & Dad's.

I took three containers' worth of leftovers, and then Kimba (who had come over to my place earlier that afternoon and was dismayed when I told her how far in the hole I am and that I still needed groceries) told me to talk to her before I left.

Anna, Jason and I watched Stranger than Fiction on Anna's computer/TV through a site that Patrick J. showed me a week or two ago. It was actually a lot better than I anticipated, and I was anticipating that it would at least be really good.

So anyway, I talked to Kimba as I was going to leave, and she, Dad and Anna gave me a whole bunch of food that was just sitting in the pantry, not getting eaten. They even gave me a gallon of milk. I probably won't have to go shopping for anything except butter and ground beef (they gave me Manwich and boxed mac 'n' cheese, but I forgot that you need butter for the mac 'n' cheese--the last three sticks I had from the banana bread got all moldy a couple weeks ago, so I had to get rid of them--and meat for the Manwich) for at least three weeks to a month or more.

When I got home from work/allergy shots yesterday, there was a whole bunch of stuff on the kitchen table. Jen C. was getting rid of some candles and a whole bunch of great movies. I took quite a few of the movies that were on the table, including VHS copies of The Day After Tomorrow and The Best Two Years. Now, I don't have to worry about recording the first one, and I have a copies of two of my favorite movies!

Slow Burn, Revisited

Slow Burn

After years
seeking new sanctuary
from the frost,
in a familiar refuge unfurls
an ever-brightening flame.

The fire,
in a slow burn through havens
for which no forecast is read,
seeks life-giving air.

Shall evolved shelter
shun cold in earnest defense,
or in a final blaze
consume all who enter in?

Movies and Stuff

I managed to get all of my movies transfered (or transfered back) to DVD. However, it turns out that I'd set the timer on the DVD-Recorder for too short a time when I recorded The Day After Tomorrow, because it cut off right as Dennis Quaid was dragging the other guy into the fast food restaurant. Bummer. That's one of my favorite movies too. I guess I'll just have to wait until it's on again though.

On Sunday, Ocean's Eleven was showing again, between two showings of Mission: Impossible II. I got both movies, so now the only empty DVD cover on my floor with a title on it already is for The Day After Tomorrow.

I have found cover images for all the movies I didn't have images for now, but I haven't printed them out, because my laptop is still up in my bedroom. I can't print unless it's in the dock on my desk, so I'm finishing up a few more projects upstairs before I finish with the movies.

I had finished recording all ten Dutch units last week, so I tried to disconnect the harddrive and take it (with an empty CD) to my parents' house on Sunday so that Dad could burn it for me. For some reason, the computer couldn't stop the USB drive, so I just got fed up and un-plugged it.

Imagine my surprise when Dad couldn't find ANY of the MP3 files I'd saved onto that harddrive from the Dutch tapes! I had saved them in a specific folder, and they were all named things like Unit One - Reading Exercises, or Unit One - Greetings (there were two files for each unit).

They were there before I disconnected the hard drive--I know, because I'd tried to record them on the DVD-R, but couldn't, since apparently my DVD-R can only play CDs, not record them. Go figure.

But anyway, now I have to record the tapes to the harddrive again. I just hope I can get them to stay on there this time, especially since I have no idea why they wouldn't have stayed the first time!

I'm hoping it won't rain on Saturday, so that I can try to time the bicycle ride to work in the morning, and then maybe go to the pool (even just to get my pool pass) after I go grocery shopping. I'm pretty sure there's no movie that I want to see this week, but I'll have to look at my calendar at home.

I'm planning on making another post either tonight or later this week, if I've had a chance to talk to Heather on AIM again.

Making Progress

"That's a rather grim beginning for a Disney movie."

That's what Jason O. said when we went to see Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End last Saturday, and I totally agree.

That doesn't mean the beginning wasn't as awesome as the rest of the movie--far from it! The whole movie was an action-packed three hours full of total, mind-boggling thrills. I'd've just never expected that particular type of beginning to come out of that particular producer.

And now, in order to avoid the temptation to spoil you all any further, I shall continue recounting my week so far.

Sunday was dinner at Mom & Dad's again--of course. Dad gave me his old Palm Tungsten T3, because he'd gotten a BlackJack.

Then, on Monday was Memorial Day. I had to do my grocery shopping then too, because I'd skipped it on Saturday and I was running out of food. I thought about going swimming at my neighborhood pool, but there wasn't enough time afterward, and I didn't feel like trying to get my hot and sweaty body into a clean and getting-too-small bathing suit.

Not to mention, the people running the pool were supposed to have put my pool pass into my mailbox (they'd run out of ribbon for their card printer when I got my picture taken for it), but it still hasn't shown up. I'm hoping that, when I do actually end up going, they'll have it there for me.

So, instead of going to the pool, after I went shopping, I went back to Mom & Dad's so that Dad could help me configure the Wi-Fi card that he'd given me with the PDA. That didn't take very long, but I stayed anyway because they were all going to another movie. We went to see Meet the Robinsons in the $2.99 theater. That was a cute movie. But I want to know what his mother looked like too!

Tuesday meant back to work for Darcy. The same old boring thing, day in and day out. After work, I managed to finish recording the Dutch tapes to my computer, but when I tried to use the DVD-Recorder to copy the files to CD, it didn't work. Apparently, the DVD-R only works for playing audio CDs, not recording them. Darn. I'll just have to get Dad to burn the CD for me next time I go over there or something.

I also managed to get Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone over to the VHS, and I got Spiderman onto the DVD. Now, I just have to get Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone back to DVD, then I can get The Day After Tomorrow to go both ways and I'll be finished with those.

Tonight I'm going to be recording Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl though, so the re-recording will have to wait until that's done, at least. On Sunday (I think, but it might be Saturday) I'll have another chance to record Ocean's Eleven, which is good, because I've had the cover sitting on my bedroom floor for at least two months now. I'm debating on whether or not I want to record Mission: Impossible 2. It'll be on both before and after Ocean's Eleven. I'll have to wait and see.

The Art of the Marathon Nap

Other than having Dad's pizza on Sunday for Anna's birthday dinner, the last week has been pretty boring. I haven't done anymore recording or re-recording of anything, audio or video.

I managed to get up the motivation to make scrambled eggs with toast (with grape jelly) last night for dinner though--that was yummy, and a far cry more interesting to eat than cereal for the second time that day. I'm out of ketchup though, so I had to eat the eggs plain.

I was online talking to Heather on AIM 6.0 for about an hour, then she signed off--I think her computer died again, or she got kicked off or something, 'cause she didn't say 'bye or anything.

Anyway, around 6:30, I was really tired. I seriously could not keep my eyes open. So, I closed the laptop (didn't close any programs or turn it off though), put my glasses away, and turned over in the bed with the bedroom light still on.

I was out like a light for about five hours.

At about 11:30, I woke up, got my pajamas on (yes, I'd been sleeping in my jeans and t-shirt), used the facilities, put my dirty dishes in the sink, turned out the bedroom light, and went back to sleep.

I woke up again at 7:30 this morning, when my alarm went off.

It looks like the only thing I really needed was one of my Marathon Naps, but it couldn't be forced--I had to take it at a time when my body would let, or rather force, me to take it.

I feel so much better than I have the last few weeks! I mean, sure, I'd been sleeping in on Saturdays and Sundays, and I'd even gone to bed an hour or two earlier than usual more than a few nights a week, but it just wasn't working. I think it was a combination of sleeping too much when I didn't need it and my allergies starting to get worse (but not nearly as bad as they were around the same time last year, thank goodness) as the grass pollen season wore on.

GAH!

Thursday night, there was a movie on that I wanted to record. It was actually on twice that night, but I didn't catch the first showing because I was watching the Smallville season finale (which was awesome, by the way--even though I hate it when Patrick J. is right about spoiler-y things).

The movie was Bulletproof Monk, and I'd seen it before, so I knew it was awesome. So, at 10:30, I started to record the second showing of the movie, all the while pausing the recording during commercials.

While I watched/recorded the movie, I got through Unit 8 of my Dutch tapes (recording them to my computer, that is, not really listening to them and learning anything). Actually, I managed to get that far before then--while I was watching Smallville.

After Smallville was over, I had decided to play the Smallville Legends: Justice & Doom game online. So, I got into that, and eventually the movie started, so I started recording that.

Shortly after the movie started, I noticed that it was taking a loooooong time to load one of the parts of the game, so I thought I might try defragmenting my hard drive. I knew defragging would take a while, so I just let it go while I watched the movie.

About 20 minutes before the movie ended (around 12:40 Friday morning), the defrag was complete. So, I went back to the game.

Problem is, I still had the movie paused, because the defrag ended during a commercial break. I completely forgot to press record again until I realized that the movie had been on again for at least two minutes, and I'd missed my cue!

And it wasn't just a couple seconds' worth of movie, so it wasn't worth pressing record again and just filling in what they would have said in my head--no. So, I pressed stop, and since I didn't know when the movie would be on TV again, I just deleted the whole thing off of the disc.

I had been recording on Long Play, so I have almost half of a disc to record another movie on. And depending on which speed I record it on, that could be almost four hours of movie there.

I figure, I'll just buy the movie when I can afford to splurge on a DVD again--it's just not worth sitting through another two-and-a-half hours to record something I should've already had.

Friday was boring, but okay.

Saturday, I went to see Shrek the Third with Anna, Kayla and the crowd. Anna and Kayla had to sit in a different row, because Anna's had surgery on her ankle and that was the only place her wheelchair would fit. The rest of us were stuck sitting in the very front row of the theater.

The movie was pretty cool though.

I went to Mom & Dad's house for Anna's birthday dinner yesterday. It was Dad's home-made pizza. Yum!

Fifteen minutes' more sleep = good!

Yesterday evening, before I left work, I got an e-mail saying that I could have one of the grass parking spots if I wanted it. There are only about 20 spots in the company lot, and they're given out by seniority.

There were two spaces available in the grass, and all the people ahead of me (except for Jade, who is currently on maternity leave) wanted to wait for concret spots. Me, I don't care what the spot is made of, as long as I can get my car in and out of it. So, I took the spot.

This morning, I woke up at 7:30 (as opposed to 7:15), and didn't have to leave the house until 8:10. I got into the door at work at 8:28. I love not being uber-early!

Last night, I did a bit of movie copying. I had recorded The Bourne Identity and Spiderman 2 on VHS during the last couple weeks, so the only thing that I needed to do was dub it over to DVD, minus the commercials. I did that last night. I've also got the first Spiderman movie on DVD, so I've got to dub it over to VHS and then back. But I'm putting both of those movies onto the same disc.

Tonight, I'm probably going to do Shrek from disc to tape and back. I don't have anymore that only need to go the one way, but I do have the two I've mentioned, plus three more (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and The Day After Tomorrow) that still have to go both ways.

Adventures in Sandwich Eating

I meant to get a lot more done on Saturday than I actually did get done.

Friday night, I checked Weather Bug, and it said there was a 40% chance of rain the next day, so I didn't set my alarm clock at all for Saturday morning. I wasn't about to try riding my bike downtown, only to get stuck in the rain. Thing is, it didn't rain until Saturday evening. Argh.

When I did wake up, Jason called and reminded me that we still had to go to the library before next Saturday, so that he could return his books in time. Problem is, he forgot one of them, so he couldn't check any out. I wanted to get one of the nifty new library cards, that have a copy you can put on your key ring, but I didn't have any cash with me and replacement cards cost $1.

So, Jason pretty much just dropped of his books, and then I took him with me on my errands.

We went to Lowes first. I had to get a new cover for the light in the upstairs hallway. The old one had fallen and shattered a couple nights after I moved in, and Jen C. kept bugging everyone about it. Kayla and I were perfectly content to leave the light as it was, since replacing the shade part was not an absolute necessity, and we have more important things to worry about/spend our money on. But no, Jen C. just would not leave it alone.

Anyway, after Lowes, we went to Costco. I got gas, then we actually went inside the store, where I got a large bag of Doritos (for lunches), a honeydew melon (my fruit for this paycheck), and some Apple & Eve juices (also for lunches). Once that was done, we went to Wal*Mart for the rest of my groceries before I took Jason home.

I put the groceries and stuff away, then did a little bit of reading until aroun 6:30, when Anna came to get Kayla and me. Anna's birthday is this Wednesday, but she's getting surgery on her ankle today and won't be able to go anywhere without a wheelchair for at least three weeks after that. So, as an "it's the last free night you'll have before your birthday" thing, we went with her and Cashaw to Pittsburgh to get sandwiches from Primanti Bros.

Primanti Bros. sandwiches are pretty interesting. You choose what meat you want, and whether or not you want cheese (it's always provolone). The bread is always the same, and it's about an inch thick. Then, they put slaw and french fries right on the sandwich. I had a roast beef sandwich with cheese. It was good, but I think next time I'll have it without the slaw.

The drive there and back was fun. Cashaw is really interesting, and we had conversations about everything from banking to religion. He even said he might teach me to do photo editing once he gets his photography business up and running the way he wants it to be. We didn't get back to mine and Kayla's house until around 5:45 in the morning on Sunday. (We didn't get to the restaurant until around 11:30 or midnight.)

I didn't wake up until 3pm on Sunday, then I looked through this week's TVGuide before I left for Mom & Dad's house. Anna and I watched Smallville and it was over just as dinner--Indonesian Chicken, at Mom's request for Mother's Day--was ready.

After dinner, we all did various other things for a while, then Dad and I ended up watching Testaments in the living room while Jason played on his computer. Jason had to go to bed before the movie was over, and I left after the movie.

I am such a geek.

So, I have these tapes, right? They're foreign language tapes. Pimsleur Language Programs' Speak and Read Essential Dutch. I've had them for at least a year and a half, and got them before I even thought of registering for that class down at the Belgian Embassy.

But my tape player is old, and sometimes doesn't work right. So I don't like to use it.

The other day, I was thinking, "If only I could get that onto CD--or my ipod--then that would be awesome, 'cause then I'd feel like listening to it more often." (You're supposed to listen to no more than one new unit per day, but if you didn't feel comfortable with the previous unit, you just repeat it the next day.)

And then I realized: I can do BOTH!

I got a cord a couple weeks back that connects headphone-jack-to-headphone-jack. Well, in this case, it's really headphone-jack-to-microphone-jack. And I've got a hard drive that will hold 160 GIGABYTES, so I have plenty of space for that kind of thing.

Today, I plugged the cord into the headphone jack of my tape player, with the other end plugged into the microphone jack of my laptop. Then, I plugged in my headphones to the laptop (so I wouldn't bug my roommates), and opened my Audacity program.

Holy Toledo, IT WORKS! It came through loud and clear, and I was able to record it and then export the recording to MP3! I also managed to get rid of the static (there was a lot of it) using Audacity's "Noise Removal" effect.

I've decided I'm going to record each of the ten units, plus each of the ten reading exercises, into twenty different "tracks."

And--this is the REALLY GEEKY part--I'm going to get some blank CDs, hook up my laptop to my VCR/DVD-R, and make my own CDs! I'd forgotten until this evening that my VCR/DVD-R could do that.

Once I've finished the Dutch course, I've got quite a few other cassettes (French, Finnish, and actual music tapes) which I can transfer to CD!

So, totally a geek.

How could I forget . . . ?

I forgot to mention that on Saturday I went to see Spiderman 3 with Anna, Kayla, and Jason O. It was awesome, and I can't wait for it to come out on DVD.

After that, Anna had to go to work, and Kayla, Jason and I went to my place to hang out. We did some stuff upstairs, and then went downstairs to watch last week's episode of Smallville. It cut off just as Jimmy was plugging in the ipod though--apparently, the clock on my DVD-Recorder is a couple minutes fast, even though I set it to record for an hour and two minutes. I'll have to fix that, once I figure out just HOW fast it is compared to the TV stations.