i’m still here. no, really.

i’ve gotten really bad lately about posting. i hate to say that i’ve got better things to do, but….
i did my taxes at some point last week. since i can claim almost nothing without some work, it’s basically me inputting my single w-2, my few small 1099-int values, taking the standard deduction, and seeing where things stand. this year i got back $734. which is nice. i’m thinking i may add it to the economic stimulus refund (or whatever it’s being called) and get a flat panel lcd or plasma screen to replace my 10 year old 36 inch rca tube tv. i may drop some more cash in so i can get a good screen. and a good size…but my tv stand isn’t designed for larger than 50 inches. we’ll see.
last week i went and picked up a new camera i ordered online. they required a signature for delivery and i was never at home when they came by, so on tuesday i took a long lunch and went by a fedex home delivery location down by hobby airport and picked it up. i ended up getting a canon sd870. it’s an 8 megapixel compact camera with a wide angle lens. it has a 3 inch lcd screen and no viewfinder. i haven’t used it much at all yet, but it’ll replace my canon s410 (4 megapixel), which was starting to get flaky at times.
a while back i ordered a bunch of usb to serial converters off of ebay. locally the things are outlandishly priced. i think the cheapest ones i saw were $35 or something. so i got about 6 dongle versions and 2 cabled versions through ebay from a shop in hong kong. the total price per unit was around $8. i still have yet to test them out though. being that i work with servers, i have a need from time to time to hook into a serial port for console access, and serial is becoming more and more scarce on laptops. carrying one of the dongle versions in my laptop bag will be insignificant as far as space and weight.
i also ordered a couple of very small 4-port usb 2 hubs. one looks sort of like a white ipod shuffle (the old design) or the apple remote. sort of. the other is a black metal tube with chrome end caps. i figure i’ll keep one in my laptop bag in case i need more than one usb port on my macbook air. i doubt i’ll ever need it, but it adds pretty much no weight and takes up almost no space. the other i got since i don’t have a usb 2 hub at home. i only have an old belkin usb 1 hub. not sure if i’ll need it. but since they were about $10 each total cost i figured “why not?”.
friday evening i went to walter’s on washington and enjoyed a free show. scott hatch (burnt toast vinyl) had jack plus guest put on the guest list for the unwed sailor show. the turnout was pretty low. four bands played. one of the guys was in ester drang, so after the show jack went up and talked to him and mentioned i was the guy they’d stayed with a few years ago in houston, who had pigs. he said he would never forget that…they woke up and there was a pig staring in at them through the window. ha. another odd thing was that at some point this kind of awkward looking fellow walked in, and i suddenly realized who i was pretty sure it was. i leaned over to jack and said “man, i’m pretty sure that guy is…there was this kid who used to be at all the xian shows, and he was kind of awkward, but he talked a lot…” and jack said “talkie?” i laughed and said “yes!” i didn’t think jack would remember. there are only about 4 people in the world who would even know that. after the show, jack and i went to the house of pies.
saturday i spent a few hours helping sue pick up a dresser or some piece of bedroom furniture, which she’d found on craigslist. we ate at a panda express, which i’d never eaten at but didn’t find all that exciting. i got back to their place and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening there. both jack and sue fell asleep during snl, so i quietly made my exit and headed home.
sunday i ate at texadelphia, then went to ikea and bought one of the effektiv storage units. i got (from bottom up, all in black-brown): base with the front legs that stick out (i didn’t realize they were plastic, which is disappointing), double height unit with solid doors, double height unit with frosted glass doors, and single height unit with solid doors. i put the body together sunday and did all of the doors and handles on monday. it’s pretty tall. but i think it’ll provide some good storage space in my office, which i need. i probably need a second one though. while there i also picked up an ice cube tray and a frosted glass hurricane lamp (sort of…a candle lamp).
jack came over late last night and picked me up and we went to the house of pies. he brought me some snickerdoodles that sue had made and said “these are some incredible snickerdoodles…probably the best sue’s made.” i had one this evening when i got home. jack was right. the one i had was pretty much a perfect snickerdoodle. sigh.
in the last week or two, i’ve starting going through all of the stuff i had packed up for tamara that she left behind. i need to get it done well before i move again, and i’m feeling like i’ve gotten to the point where almost any lingering emotional attachment is gone. i’m going through it and seeing if there is anything i put in i’d like to keep, then i’m handing it all off to jack and sue. if tamara wants to get it from them or look through it she can; otherwise, i suppose most of it will be donated to the salvation army or something. i just don’t want to be the one responsible for getting rid of it, since it isn’t mine to dispose of.