Inspiration comes from strange places; cause and effect sometimes reversing themselves.

I'm a batchelor. I have no roommates (the cats don't count). And as such, I have a tendency to allow certain chores to go undone. Dishes are primary among them. The stack of dishes in the kitchen reached a state that would make Lovecraft cringe in fear. I'm quite sure that That Which Cannot Be Named was living in some tupperware on my kitchen table.

Today I gathered my courage, draped the Hand-Towel of Holy Protection over my shoulder, and plunged my hands into the Soapy Waters of Doom. Yep... I did the dishes. After washing every last dish (including those that attempted to run away or bite back in defence) I scrubbed the counters and the tabled, scoured the stove top and the drip pans, and even drove a couple nails to hang those ceramic things that keep the pots from burning the table (why can't I remember what they're called??).

Looking at the clean kitchen and empty countertops and sinks, what happens? I get the irresistable urge to cook.

And so... 3 frying pans, 1 pot, 5 rice bowls (for holding the diced onion, mushroom, spices, etc) 2 serving bowls, a strainer, and 2 spoons later.... I have dinner. And lunch for tomorrow.

• Wild rice
• Sliced mushroom, onion, and fresh garlic sauteed in olive oil.
• -+ pound of shrimp (tails pulled) sauteed in olive oil with finely-chopped dried chili pepper, basil, corriander, garlic powder, dill weed (all finely ground in a mortar & pestal), and coarse-ground black pepper
• And a stein of Guiness to wash it down.

(I've realized that if I'm going to keep taking pictures of my food, I'm going to have to invest in some garnish. The color-pallet is somewhat limited right now.)

Lately I haven't been posting much of substance. No philosophy, no politics, no rants. There's a couple reasons for this.

1. I'm tired. I'm in the initial stages of launching a new company with two friends. Geek Niche should be up and running by the end of the week. This isn't the geek niche that's been over on my links section, this is a whole new beast. Geekniche.ORG was (and still is) a fun little site for geeky things, free applications, and..... stuff. Geekniche.COM is a webhosting company which will make its mark by serving all those people who don't fit well into the boxes the other companies have built for them. Jason and Paul are dealing with all the technical details, while I'm building the webpages and plotting our demise (it's the only way to plan ahead and prevent it from happening )
2. I've been drinking less. Mostly because I'm tired and busy (see item 1) . I have a glass of wine or two, and I'm ready for bed. I tend to do more of my "deep" writing after I've had a little "neural lubrication" (thank you James Bolivar DeGriz) {1} But lately, instead of getting deep, I get sleep.
3. I've been going to bed early (because I'm tired--see item 1). Normally, I do my best "deep" writing later at night
4. I haven't been paying attention (because I'm busy and tired--see points 1 & 2). It's gotten to the point that I just can't allow myself to care about politics because then I'd get all mad and my head would explode, and I don't have the energy to pick up the pieces. So... I'm ignoring all the stupidity of the Bush administration right now. Unfortunately, I'm sure it'll still be around when I have the energy to start caring again. {sigh}
5. All my spare time has been taken up by having wild orgiastic sex with hawt lolitazz..... oh.... wait.... that's not right. Never mind.

Anyway. I apologize for being superficial and boring right now. I'll try to get back to my old self soon. In the mean time, go check out geekniche.com.

{1} 3 bonus points for anyone who gets that reference.

Happy Birthday Miss Carol-Jo.

....and just climbing out of bed.

Yay, Saturday!!!

I've been sleeping amazingly well the past few days. I think it has to do with the weather: it's been nice during the day, and cold at night. I can open the window and let the bedroom get nice and cold. Along with the good sleep has come dreams. I always dream, but there have been some in the last few days which have been disturbing--not because they were weird, but becuase they were so...... natural. So realistic.

A few nights ago I had a series of dreams which had 2 point which stuck with me.

I was in an approximation of the office in which I work. One of the other workers was a woman I dated shortly after college: Lori Lynn. In the dream, she stepped out the side door into an area of lawn and trees (where an oil distribution company should have been). Shortly after, a police officer came in saying "she has a gun". I don't know why, but I went outside after her. Lori Lynn was a tiny, gentle woman. When I moved away, she hid a note in one of my sketchbooks saying she'd always care for me, and would always welcome as a friend. And in the dream, she was holding a chrome-plated automatic. She turned towards me..... and she shot me. Twice. Once each through side of the abdomen. It.... hurt. And yet, I waited behind some trees while she shot again, 4 or 5 times. Then, when she walked by me, I grabbed the gun and pulled it from her. She collapsed as though she'd not been in control of herself.

A series of amazingly strange dreams followed, and ended up with another normal scene. It was a variation of my parents' house. I in the TV room with half a dozen athletes--I'm not sure what sport, but they were all on the same team--and two women. I was laying with my head in Kate's lap, my feet poking at the other woman, who I didn't know. We joked for a minute. The athletes left. The two women and I talked and joked for another minute. The unnamed woman left, leaving me with Kate. After another minute, we got up.... I followed her through the dining room into the kitchen where I got a glass of water while she started to leave by the back door--head off to somewhere; work, home.... somewhere. I leaned against the sink and commented on her clothes (a white, crocheted sweater and a new-looking pair of blue jeans)..."That's the outfit you were wearing when we first met" (in real life, it wasn't--in fact, I don't think it's something she ever would have worn). She smiled at the fact that I had remembered that. There was a feeling... we were a couple--a happy couple that had been together for years... She smiled a bright smile that warmed me, and headed out the back door with a pleasant "good bye."

There's just one problem......

Kate hates me.

Note to self: In a battle between a Jeep and an inboard-outboard boat engine, the Jeep will lose.

There is something satisfying about passing a fancy sports car when I'm driving my Jeep.

Even Mercedes get stuck in traffic.

EDIT: It wasn't my Jeep in the accident; I drove past it on the way home from work.

I got a little bored tonight and decided to ego-surf. I'm not sure why.

Anyway, I found something rather interesting: Someone is using a quote from me in their .sig file.

I happen to know this person, so it's not suprising that he has the quote, but it's still really weird to see my words used as someone's quote.

All the times you have called and I have listened....
If I called right now, would you even answer?

All the times I have tried to understand.....
Would you even listen?

All the times I have felt your pain....
Would you even care?

All the times I have tried to help....
Would you even notice?

All the times I was your friend....
Would you even remember?

All the times I gave you answers....
And right now....

I don't think I want to know what yours would be.

A little while ago I decided that I had outgrown my current gallery application. The application called Gallery (how creative of them, huh?) seemed to be a bit of an over-kill for my needs. However, there seemed to be little available between the low-end (but very usable) SPGM, and the high-end Gallery.

I broke down and installed the beast. Egad. This thing has more settings than a wedding reception for the Moonies. However, I got it set up to my apparent satisfaction. Then I went about installing a theme. And promptly ripped that theme apart and made it my own. It also involved some rewriting of the actual code. Little gixes {1} here and there. Lots of changes to the CSS. Several changes to the php code. {sigh} But it's done.

EXCEPT.... the tweaks only work fully with standards-compliant browsers. Let me repeat something for those who may have forgotten (or have yet to comprehend it on their own): "Internet Explorer sucks ass through a bendy-straw." It insists on formatting layout the way it wants to, not the way I tell it to. I spent most of the weekend getting things just the way I wanted, and find out that one part renders just enough off in IE to be really fucking annoying. Grrrr.

Anyway... Go check out my new gallery. I guess I'm going to start taking some more pictures. Maybe I'll get inspired and pull out my old photo albums and scan stuff in. And if any of y'all have pictures that you'd like to share with the world, I just might be convinced to add a "guests" album to put them in. (Considering the fact that so many of my friends are beautiful women, I'm sure that it won't take a whole lot of convincing for me to accept pictures from them.)

In other news, Mother Nature seems to have made a fast change-over this year. Sunshine and warm temperatures are here (though for how long is anybody's guess), and I'm feeling much better because of it. I might be getting back into the swing of things sooner than expected.

{1} gix: n. A minor tweak which fixes a problem. Less complex than a kludge.

Spring-time weather in Wisconsin really messes with my body. I may or may not have arthritis (I have some of the symptom, such as pain and stiffness, but not others). Rapid weather changes agravate this and I end up with some severe pain in my joints. This servers to enhance one of the other problems: mad moods.

So, I'm going to step away from the Buzz for a bit. I don't know how long; could be a couple days, could be a couple weeks. I just need some time to crawl into my hole and let Mother Nature settle down and decide what she wants to do.

So, if you don't see any posts for a while (not that there's been a whole lot of them recently) that's why. I'll also be stepping away from other forums I'm in. I will, however, still be updating Snow every weekend. And I've got some other nefarious plans in the works that are keeping me busy (and keeping a couple other guys significantly more busy).

I'm still on IM and e-mail, and I'll still be in #stephthegeek over on irc.stephthegeek.com--even if it's just lurking.