nerdmatic tendencies

i think i really need to change the title of this blog. all i do is post my inner nerd of late. here's another. i could play with this for hours. smashing liquids of different densities into each other. play with multiple fluid simulation (add a "t" in a strategic spot and that could sound QUITE perverse). i suggest left-clicking in the middle bottom of the red for a few seconds, then right clicking in the same spot making all sorts of nerd hell break loose in fluid dynamics. i love the waves.

today was a good day

i mentioned in a post in december that i play a quick online game every morning gauging my "on"-ness. yesterday and today, i was BANG ON! i've been pretty nerdy lately, but i was, to steal from the cool snow-boarder guys, STOKED! i made it into the top 10, that is tough, and if it weren't for a few hasty decisions, i might've made the top 5. i had some good runs, starting both with 0.0 (perfect), a few 1.0s, it was good. i have a hard time with the circle in a triangle. so, that's my excitement for the day (and it's raining, so SWEET!). today (and yesterday) was a good day according to my gauge game. and, again, if you're interested, you can play the game here.

yesterday's score (click for full size)

today's score (click for full size)

my boring life

i'm currently working on the final picture post from the visit from TheMom, TheJay, and TheRachel. i might be able to get it posted in about 8 hours or so. btw, TheMom made it home safe, if not sore. i was glad to hear that since she didn't call to let me know (hah, j/k).

until then, this will have to do. jules is working at another site in egypt. this one is closer to our apartment, but with traffic, the commute can be hellacious, so sadly, i don't get to see her every night. the past two nights she's been staying at the marriott downtown to avoid the long drive to and fro, so i've been left to fend for myself. it's amazing how quickly i can fall back into my bachelor pad routine without some external female guidance. the night before last, i boiled some chicken cubes and cooked 'em in frank's red hot buffalo sauce. this is a personal favorite as it is good, and it is quick, and fairly healthy (a bit high on the salt content). i also cooked up some mushrooms with it , and delighted over my dinner while watching some TV. last night, i cooked up corn, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, and peppers. that's all for dinner. jules hates it when i eat corn, all sugar and such or whatever, but i didn't eat much. i was bored so i tried to make ketchup. for some reason, i'm in the mood to make homemade ketchup and mustard. i'm inspired by a distant thought of some homemade condiments i had at jamboree in the hills a few years ago. someone brought homemade spicy ketchup and mustard. as for my ketchup, i think i need to look up a general recipe. last night, i blended up some stewed tomatoes with some vinegar, and added onions and hot peppers and a bit of garlic. it wasn't just right, so i added some homemade dill relish that i'd made a few weeks back from dill pickles, garlic, and onions. that didn't push the taste in the direction i'd expected, and by this time, it was a bit liquefied, so i added flour. i know i'm retarded, and there is no flour in ketchup, but i needed a thickener and i'm a culinary explorer. sometimes culinary explorers take wrong turns and perish in dietary crevasses. luckily, i had my cramp-ons tied tightly and my rope held fast. enough of the stupid ice-flow climbing references. i'll have to look up a recipe and try again.

back to the story, jules probably won't be back to the apartment until thursday or thereabouts, so i have plenty of time to experiment some more. in other news, jules is PISSED!!! she DESPISES needles. from a few posts back you'll know thati had to get a 2nd blood test because mine had expired, so i went down with jules. several days after that, she was sent to tunisia with the explicit clarification that her blood test would be valid when she returned. we found out yesterday that was an explicit lie, so she has to go get her 2nd test today. i can't be with her today for a distraction, so i'm wishing her the best. i know she gets so anxious. she is going to call me when it happens if she can, so she has something to take her mind off. it's just so stupid, how 3 of the 6 TAs onsite have had to have their blood tests retaken because no one here knows the exact procedure for doing this visa thing. it's deplorable.

so that's me. oh, i got my XBOX 360 hooked up last night. i had some networking issues at first, but i finally even got on XBOX LIVE, which we (BTBz) thought might be impossible due to no middle east servers being available. that'll give me something to do until jules gets back. then i'll teach her to race NASCAR, frag in halo3, and snipe in GRAW2. i can't wait.

a blah week

whew! that last post really took it out of me, sorry i've been away for a while, but someone commented that they were going to quit reading my site if i didn't update, and i'm a comment/visitor/webpage hit whore, so here it is.

not much excited has happened of late. last weekend, jules, TheMech and i went golfing at the JW marriott. jules took up golfing in doha, and when i found out, i said we had to play, and i put $100 on the line that i could beat her. we played their 9-hole course which you need an escort to take you too, because the first hole is across a couple roads and through a housing community. after golf, we grabbed a late lunch poolside near the awesome water park the hotel has. btw, i lost.

this weekend (thursday/friday is the weekend in egypt) was a holiday. thursday was the mohamed, the muslim prophet's, birthday, and friday was mother's day. thursday, the three of us were able to get a 1:40pm tee time on the 18-hole course. it was a pretty nice day, sunny, no TOO warm, i was feeling inspired, so i upped the ante... double-or-nuthin'. the 18-hole course is really nice, and we're more hackers than golfers, so we had to let some of the better golfers play through on occasion. i had some nice shots, i had some awful shots, particularly since the front 9 has water EVERYWHERE. jules wanted to just buy one box of balls (Qty. 15), i suggested 2 boxes. after the front 9 we stopped at the pro shop to get a THIRD box. it was a bad front 9. eh, the back 9 was a bit better, but i have to admit, i lost again. i'm down $200 to jules, but she WAS shooting from the ladies' tee. after golf, we dined at the italian restaurant in the hotel. the restaurant had a dumb-waiter to bring food from the kitchen upstairs where we were seated. just before our dinner came, there was a large crash, and we looked over the railing to see that somehow the dumb-waiter had fallen to the ground floor with a full load of meals.

friday, we lounged at TheMech's rooftop pool, playing cribbage and tawla (an egyptian version of backgammon). i decided i needed something to motivate me to do better at games, so we are keeping track of our records while in egypt. until yesterday, she was up 7-1, with a 5-game win streak, but i broke it yesterday with an impressive comeback win.

that's about all for now. sorry it's not up to my usual witty par. i'll be inspired later.

do you remember... AMERICAN GLADIATORS

i think i'm going to try to start a new segment that will be updated sporadically as something crazy hops into my head. and now, to start...

...AMERICAN GLADIATORS

ah the good ol' days with mike adamle and larry csonka in their elbow-patch overcoats or jumpsuits. 'twas a great show with the likes of nitro, gemini, malibu, zap, turbo, and storm.

do you remember getting your domino's pizza dinner and pepsi, gathering around the TV and watching average joes and janes competing against super-steroided muscle-beasts? no, just me? it had such classics as the gauntlet, powerball, joust, assault (with all the air-powered, no-aim-at-all guns), the human cannonball, and of course, the eliminator. i think my favorite was atlasphere. you have these competitors in hamster balls trying to get these potholes to score, and when you score, you get a cold CO2 blast right up your arse. good times. man, that was a great show. ah, and then there was the bungee cord game. the competitors had to jump from a pedestal with a bungee cord on them, bounce of the ground and spring up to get colored balls worth various points from a suspended pole, all the while gladiators are bouncing along trying to stop them.

anyways, this popped into my head a couple months ago when i saw a late-night re-run on ESPN classic. i was amped, stoked, revved... all of the above. just a few days ago, i saw a NEW commercial for american gladiators. THEY ARE BRINGING IT BACK!!! hell yeah. NBC is reviving the franchise, and it'll be hosted by hulk hogan and laila ali. i can't wait to see it. too bad i'll be in egypt, maybe i'll be able to catch it a time or two. somebody DVR the season for me.

for more info on the legend that was the original american gladiators, there's more on wikipedia... where else?

you know me and my admiration of quotes

• Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.
  --- Dwight D. Eisenhower


• We, on our side, are praying to Him to give us victory, because we believe we are right; but those on the other side pray to Him, too, for victory, believing they are right. What must He think of us?
  --- Abraham Lincoln


• A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism.
  --- Carl Sagan


• Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite.
  --- John Kenneth Galbraith


• It is hard to free fools from chains they revere.
  --- Voltaire


• Man is the religious animal. He is the only religious animal. He is the only animal that has the True Religion, several of them. He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself and cuts his throat, if his theology isn’t straight. He has made a graveyard of the globe in trying his honest best to smooth his brother’s path to happiness and heaven.
  --- Mark Twain

and someone, please, buy armadillo run. i'm stuck on level 20 without a clue of how to build my next structure. it really is fun, and cheap.