- December 31, 2006 -

It doesn't seem like an entire year has gone by but it's New Year's Eve and that means it's party time! This year we all converged on Mary Lou's house to feast and discuss the events of the year and of course to game... This year's competitors in pictionary were Teresa, Kirsten, Lin, Mary Lou and Christie on the girls team, and Bob, Brian, Mickey, myself and Kristen Runyon on the boys + Kristen team which won by five points after the second round. After pictionary a few competitors went home or on to other parties leaving six of us to play poker... We're not the most cut-throat or knowledgeable poker players but with some guidance from Mickey I think we followed the rules and such and boy did I make a killing! By the end I had all sorts of chips with which to stack.

- December 29, 2006 -

Today was a day of problems. It started with the e-mail going on the fritz and Jesse was out with the flu, but I managed to restart the appropriate server. Later one of the label printers stopped printing for a bit at a time when there were lots of label printing to be done.

The afternoon was fairly quiet, but then after work Teresa reported she had a horrible accident; She had opened a pixie stick and sat it down... so then a bit later she picked it up... and began talking to Bob who was eating something... Bob pointed and pointed and Teresa didn't quite understand, but when Teresa finally noticed she had an empty pixie stick because she had picked up the wrong end and had poured it onto the floor.

My way home was fairly uneventful until the very end; I had a green light and I was making a right turn... and right after I turned the car died but I was able to make it to the side of the road. I tried a couple times to start the car, but it didn't sound right, so I called home- I'm very lucky Dad is still on strike I guess, so then a guy in a big pickup stopped and helped me push the car into the DQ parking lot and he asked if I needed to call someone, and I told him I already had so I thanked him and he left- very kind of him though, I tend not to stop for people.... Dad arrived a few minutes later in the truck and he towed the Buick to the shop. I guess the timing chain went out... and I guess that must be a significant part to change given Dad pondered he'd just replace the entire engine.

It was also Sandy's next to last day at work, but the last day most of us would see her at work so we took a group picture of the pages and scanners plus Teresa, and me but it hasn't been that long since I was a scanner... and minus Meaghan... OK, so for those that might not know who we are from left to right: Teresa, Sandy, Kristen, Robert, Bob, Angie and Me.

- December 27, 2006 -

Why must things break? It seems I'm in the middle of fixing a dozen broken technological items at the moment, and some are being most difficult to repair.

I blogged about algae biodiesel before, but I found this article with statistics for just how much more productive using algae is over traditional crops. The difference is staggering; an acre of soybeans can produce 50 gallons of biodiesel a year, and that same acre of algae can produce 10,000, and possibly double that under the right conditions. That was my focus last time; the right conditions would be water with a high carbon dioxide content, which if a coal burning power plants used algae ponds to clean their emissions they would be creating a huge resource and pollute a lot less. I feel Congress should force the ball rolling by mandating that energy producers use algae filtration to clean their emissions, and the rest will fall into line.

- December 25, 2006 -

Christmas Day... I managed to procure a few nifty things; a bag of choco to use to replenish my candy jar at work for a while, a Star Trek day calendar, PetsMart card, a couple shirts, and money earmarked for clothing.

My great website migration is over. I moved my domain to a new server... I think everything is happy in the new home, but if anything appears broken please e-mail me.

The island of Lohachara, population 10,000, has vanished. It has been foreseen for some time now as the rising ocean levels have submerged other uninhabited islands, but this was the first inhabited island to go under (at least in modern times) due to rising ocean levels.

I find isolinear, optronic and photonic technologies fascinating as they are all used in Star Trek, but IBM continues to make strides toward creating a processor that uses particles of light rather than electrons. In the past few years they have learned to slow light down, and to speed it up beyond what was the theoretical limit.

- December 23, 2006 -

Today we had an early Christmas at Grandma's house... but I still don't feel like it really is Christmas. I filled the dinning room with plants to winter over, so we never got a Christmas tree... there are already a couple trees there, and everyone has been so busy we never put up any other decorations.

- December 22, 2006 -

Tonight we had a game night at Lou's house. Teresa, Bob, Mickey and I joined Mary Lou and her sister Sue in a cut-throat night of Balderdash and Pictionary. Price Chopper was had a special on pomegranates so I got a couple in addition to the normal game night necessities. I've never eaten a pomegranate before... I've had the juice, but it was very interesting to have the real thing... I think the juice is better though- a lot less work, and not so seedy. In the gaming Teresa had tremendous success in Balderdash, but her luck was reversed in Pictionary as the boys team defeated the the girls. For New Year's we'll be having another game night and I can't wait!

- December 21, 2006 -

Aside from a couple remaining computers I've updated the spybot & McAfee on all the systems in Library/Archives and I've also tinkered with the network settings... I'm reminded of the Voyager episode Unimatrix Zero where errant drones are reintegrated back into the collective.

- December 20, 2006 -

There's nothing like Christmas to bring out everyone's competitive fighting spirit! Monday saw a white elephant gift exchanged that had Pat & Matt in a tug-o-war over a nifty set of hangy glass thingies. Then came the chair races in which Jesse and Doug brought honor to Administration with their victory.... Library Archives lost in the first round with Teresa & Matt Veatch in a pile at the finish line. Dan pushed Blair nearly though the glass wall the separates the museum from the lobby.

Tuesday I started my update frenzy to all the anti-virus/spyware software on every computer in the building... That should keep me busy into early next year.

Today there was more updating, and then bingo in the mission at the Admin party- it was super fun, and I got some nifty things.

- December 16, 2006 -

My website has been down a couple days... I ponder I'll try and move it this weekend to more stable ground.

I've been watching Sara's TNG DVD's, and I've made my way half-way through the second season. It is a bit more primitive in production and storylines starting out, but it's been a while since I've watched it. I did learn a new fun fact about Data; He has a storage capacity of 800 Quadrillion bits, which is equivalent to 100 Petabytes. There are a thousand Gigabytes in a Terabyte, and then there are a thousand Terabytes in a Petabyte.

- December 14, 2006 -

One of these days I know it.... I'm going to get pooped on. In the evergreen tree above the driveway each morning when I go out to my car a bird suddenly flies out over my head and I ponder one of these days my luck is going to end.

- December 12, 2006 -

It's Tuesday and I'm off, and so far it's been a super week. I got my teeth cleaned today. I like having the clean teeth, but who doesn't? It went well... still no cavities, but it is amazing that even when you think your teeth are super-clean, they still do a lot of scratching on them! And then you really feel super-clean! Today I ran a couple miles on the treadmill... it's been quite some time since I did that, well, just a week ago, but before that it has been probably six months, so that's something I shall try to do regularly now. Tonight I did some online Christmas shopping, and I'm now 1/4th complete!

Bah, Brent is going on my naughty list this year... he sent me more photos for his website again... which wouldn't be a problem, but he didn't resize any of them before he stuffed them in my e-mail. And I told him beforehand the exact specifications. BAH! You shall be getting coal!

Monday I fixed some random things, we had the annual big staff luncheon where Bob Keckeisen provided the entertainment.. I knew Bob was funny, but that man is really funny! And Sara is so funny too... I bet they just lie in bed at night and giggle as funny things come into their heads.

- December 10, 2006 -

It's been a super-busy week! Monday we had a party for Donna at Lin & Brian's with some good eats and pictionary was played. Tuesday a group of us went to see Little Miss Sunshine- it was good movie, I got a little bored of it towards the middle, but it ended well and earned a must see rating (and it's at the dollar theater). Wednesday night I went over to Brent's to teach him some Photoshop stuff, and then he took me out for the Tuptim Thai. Thursday I went to the volunteer dinner with Mickey, very good eats were had by all. Friday I came home and watched the BSG on Scifi, a nice quiet night. Saturday I went with Bob to KC to see Eunjoo and the baby. We ate at the Korean restaurant. I had the Tohsol PiBibap, yum yum. Today I went to work and tinkered on the server with Jesse & Art.

- December 3, 2006 -

What did I do this weekend??? Well... nothing at all really. *ponders how to blog about not doing anything* I cleaned some Friday night and watched the Battlestar Galactica... got a pizza for Carrie and me... she was happy... *ponders* and that was about it... I slept, watched TV... and I played the Homeworld 2 some... I'd not played it on my new system yet- In the picture my squadrons of fighters and corvettes overwhelm the enemy mothership.