Otterly Ridiculous

So, stuff's going alright. Want to get to FCN already and have it last for a week or two, dammit.
Also, new icon. It's ballin', isn't it?

Today's my birthday. I'm 21. AND I have allergies to alcohol. Go me. :D
So, if you are of drinking age, have some booze today and think of me. I demand it.

Well, it's been a while.
MFF was a lot of fun, but I know that it could have been so much more. It never really went into "this is a con" mode. Still can't wait to do it again, though!
School sucks. Thinking about changing majors, again. Dunno what I'll do, but the natural sciences (geology, astronomy) have always been in my life, even from my young days with the Magic School Bus and Bill Nye. Engineering is just too mathful.

So, I spent the past weekend down in East Stroudsburg, PA. Looking at a map would tell you that yeah, I was pretty much in Jersey, or an hour outside of New York. That's a strange thing to this midwestern otter.

Anyway, much fun was had. I got to wear Nightclaw's extra German Shepherd partial around on Halloween, then we went and saw an interactive Rocky Horror at midnight. I'm still finding rice everywhere. :P

I dunno. School sucks. People are still jerks. The world spins onward!

In a world where movies are all announced in the same way, by the same voice...
In a world where dramatic effect requires a deep, melodious voice...
In a world where few people know the name of that voice, Don LaFontaine...
In a world, now without that man with that voice, so much darker and less dramatic...

In a world of poorly-made, poorly-thought-out words of rememberance posted on the Internet...

There is one man, one otter, if you will, who will miss the man behind that voice dearly.

On a quest to get through college, he will always remember that epic voice, even into the Great AfterCollege...

Rest in Peace, Don Lafontaine. Rest in dramatic, melodious peace.

I'm sitting in Calc class right now, and I want feesh.

Been a while. In that while, I still have yet to register for classes, but that's pretty much the norm for procrastinators like me.
In slightly more pressing news, my dad got hit while driving kargowolf's old car, and we've just heard that it is totaled. RIP Orange One. D:

So, a short while ago we (my family) bought kargowolf's Competition Orange SVT Focus for my mom. My dad spun it into a ditch today, in the rain. It has good tires, ABS, and traction control, and he still managed to spin it into a ditch. I'm pretty pissed. The way he drives, he shouldn't be driving such a tightly sprung vehicle. 

Gripe, gripe, moan, complain.

It's frickin' hot outside. It got to the point that the paint was congealing it was so hot and sticky, so I gave up painting the fuel lines, found nothing else to do, and went home two hours early.

Damn it's hot out.

Ever have one of those moments where you're loading a giant dumpster with steel ductwork, and suddenly puke into one of the ducts, then finish loading them, then go home from work? I'm having one of those moments right now.

Ever have one of those moments when you're doing something innocent, like getting milk out of the fridge to go with your Oreos, and you just get this feeling of...something is missing, and I have to find it. Even though you know you're not going to find it, you get this almost irresistible urge to go looking?
Well, I had one tonight, about an hour ago. I'm just now getting to the Oreos and milk. I put on my shoes, snuck quietly out of the garage, and rode my bike wherever the hell I felt like I should be going, and ended up sitting by the new fountain the city built near home. I stared at the non-working fountain, and then stared at the handful of stars bright enough to break through the light-polluted sky, then came home, feeling somehow like I found what I was looking for.
Anyone want to tell me what I found? I sure as hell don't know.

Anthrocon 2008 was amazing. Running around nonstop for four days straight is strangely rewarding when you're wearing a tail and a Red Wings jersey in Pittsburgh.
I got to meet a lot of awesome people, and saw a few faces to go with the names I've seen in the fandom for many, many years.
I also ate far too much feesh, but hey, that's what happens with tornadoes every day forcing us to not be able to leave until very late, and a fish restaurant right in the hotel.
So did you go to the dances at all? See those pretty fricking sweet lasers? A fellow otter by the name of Fizz (Skandranon the gryphon, formerly) brought those, and was cool enough to let me run them some of the time! It was quite fun, really, but having to set up the lasers and help out with other con things left little time for the TSA dinner and some panels. It was totally worth it, though, to be up on stage next to the DJs flinging photons out over the dancers. If you come to Furry Connection North next year, you'll probably see Fizz and I running lasers for the dances again, but because FCN is the first con with the lasers...it will be the first con with MORE LASERS. So be there.
I'll post links to some art I got after I scan it. Only one commission, but three or four badges, can't really remember.
Can't wait for MFF and next year!

At home for lunch. Good thing, too, 'cause the smell of high-octane testing-quality gasoline gets old fast. So does the sensation of the fumes condensing in your lungs. Long story short, an old rusty pipe fitting broke on one of the building's fuel lines. The line was only pressurized to 10 psi. Something went *fail* and sprayed pretty close to 30 gallons of 107 octane fuel on hot, sun-baked blacktop. We just finished cleaning it up in time for lunch. My hands still smell like it. So does my shirt. And shoes. And probably my hat and pants. 
So that was my excitement for the day! I've got an Ottabattery (Red Bull) in the car waiting with my sammich, so I'm gonna head back to work and spend some quality time hiding in the attic and eating. Then I might take a nap.

So, AC for me is now two days and some away. I don't know if I'm excited, frightened, feeling intense trepidation, giddy, or still under the influence of all the chemicals at work.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080614.html

That's 31 million light-years away. That means, at 186,000 miles per second, it would take you 31 million years to get there. By then, that whole galaxy could be completely gone, or in the process of being torn apart by another galaxy, or being slowly gobbled up by a supermassive black hole.

It also makes a damn fine background image for my laptop.

Got the time off approved!

But let me back up here a second. "Time off from what?" you're probably asking yourself! I got a job, and time off from that, that's what.
I'm employed, part-time, at Roush Laboratories. I'm in the engine dynamometer building, where they bolt engines to huge motors and use the motors to apply load to the engine, testing the engine's performance and reliability. There's a big V8 there with 450 out of 600 hours (which mimics about 100,000 miles) of constant, full-throttle acceleration and simulated load being applied.
So there I work, mopping floors, changing trash bags, emptying the oil pig, cleaning, painting, tearing apart, building, breaking, maintaining, and being a technical consultant for the "experienced" guys, all while being serenaded by the sounds of every engine you can imagine short of a Pratt and Whitney Big Ol' Jet 9000.

I kinda like it there.

First off: go Wings!

Second: Stanley Cup Finals; good-on-ya, Penguins and Wings.

Third: Crosby for Conn Smythe? Please.

Fourth: The NHL has chosen Crosby as the new Face of the NHL, so he automatically has to have his name said time and time again all night long, even when he isn't on the ice. Grow up, NHL. He's 20, has a long career ahead of him. Just because he's a white Canadian 20 year-old shouldn't make him some kind of god. NBC's announcers never even mention the rest of the Penguins or how good they are doing. It's all Crosby Crosby Crosby.

Fifth: On people trying to say one Red Wing is better than the rest: shut the hell up. They're in the playoffs because they are a team, many putting forth strengths to benefit all. That's why they are #1, and the Penguins are #2.

Today marks the first day of my first "real" job, working at Roush Laboratories. I haven't been up this early since high school, and so far, I'm not too pleased.
I hope it works out alright. It's supposed to be a part-time job where I'll be hauling in $10 an hour refitting the dynomometers in the engine dyno lab. I'll be serenaded by a multitude of different engines running different tests all day long.
I had to buy jeans for this job. I haven't worn jeans since elementary school, and let's just say I'm really glad they have "carpenter cut" jeans. I tried on a pair of regular fits, and I felt very...oppressed.
Wish me luck. I gotta go get some donuts right now to make myself feel better and add a little bit of sugar to myself.
 

So, turns out I got the job! I go in tomorrow to pee in a cup and fill out paperwork. I start next week, so they say. This rocks. I'm gonna have $$ for AC now. Sweeeeet.

In related news, while on the way to celebrate with a Big Bell Death Box from Taco Bell, I witness something I've always wanted to see. Instead of a car going the opposite way in traffic, a lone wheel was there instead, merrily bouncing along while the van it should have been attached to ground to a stop on the grass. I laughed for at least a mile before I saw a police officer pulling into Meijer and managed to flag him down and let him know there was a rogue wheel on the loose. I still can't stop laughing.

All in all, today is a fine day for science!

I was supposed to be starting at a well-paying, flexible, possibly-fun job this week. Namely, tomorrow. But instead, I'm still jobless, and will probably be going to some delivery place just so I have an excuse to drive around a lot.

My lack of doing anything productive lately has me feeling all "blah," but I've noticed that I'm not the only one feeling "blah." Seems to be a "blah" part of the "blah" cycle. I'm sure it'll pass soon.

In slightly related news, my bike's been stayed in surprisingly good shape over winter, so I'll be riding that more. Probably gonna go to this awesome little spot in the local park later to take some pictures with my "real" camera. I'll post them later.

Also, AC is coming up. Woooo.