MeanMrMustard's Musings

Being Sick Sucks

Kristi isn't feeling well. I went home from work early yesterday, and I'm leaving even earlier today. Fever, headache, body aches. Bleah. Limited blogging ahead.

posted by MeanMrMustard @ 6:38 AM |

Sure enough ...

... the next "Ben is Glory?" meeting just occurred, spontaneously, in my cube.

I have a headache, and it's not 10:00 yet. Maybe it's because I banged my head repeatedly against my file cabinet during the meeting.

posted by MeanMrMustard @ 9:51 AM |

Life Imitates Art

There's a scene near the end of the fifth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer that plays out thusly:

SPIKE: Uh, Will? Now, uh, don't turn me into a horned toad for asking, but what if we come across Ben?

WILLOW: I don't think a doctor's what Buffy needs right now.

SPIKE: Well, yeah. Especially not one who also happens to be Glory.

GILES: What do you mean?

SPIKE: You know. Ben is Glory.

WILLOW: You mean Ben's with Glory?

XANDER: "With" in what sense?

ANYA: They're working together?

SPIKE: No no. Ben is Glory. Glory's Ben. They're one and the same.

ANYA: When did all this happen?

SPIKE: Not one hour ago! Right here, before your very eyes! Ben came, turned into Glory, snatched the kid, and - phhht! - vanished. Remember? You do remember? Is everyone here very stoned? Ben. Glory. He's a doctor. She's the Beast. Two entirely separate entities, sharing one body. It's like a bloody sitcom! Surely, you remember!

XANDER: So you're saying, Ben and Glory ...

ANYA: ... have a connection.

GILES: Yes, obviously. But what kind?

SPIKE: Oh, I get it. Very crafty. Glory's worked the kind of mojo where anyone who sees her little presto-chango instantly forgets. And yours truly, being somewhat other than human, stands immune.

WILLOW: So, Ben and Glory are ... the same person?

XANDER: Glory can turn into Ben, and Ben turns back into Glory.

ANYA: And anyone who sees it instantly forgets.

SPIKE: And a kewpie doll for the lady.

GILES: Excellent. Now, do we suspect that there may be some kind of connection between Ben and Glory?

I have now watched this very scene play out at work, twice, in regard to my current project. And there's another meeting to discuss the very same topic again today. No doubt there will be more such meetings, continuing into the future ad nauseum.

EDITED because of homonym abuse (thanks, Maggie).

posted by MeanMrMustard @ 8:59 AM |

The Pope Blogging Continues

My friend Kevin passes on the word that the new Pope prayed not to be elected Pope. Which leads to the troubling question: what kind of Pope are you if you ask God for things and he gives you the exact opposite?

posted by MeanMrMustard @ 1:00 PM |

And Speaking of the Hitler Youth ...

... this educational post from Billmon.

I have, as one expect, reservations regarding this pope. As linked in my previous post, there are some serious issues regarding his complicity in attempting to cover up molestations by priests. (I note with regret that John Paul II essentially rewarded Cardinal Law for similar behavior. These Pope guys may be infallible, but they're not perfect.)

It's been widely reported that Pope Palpatine I merely used the Hitler Youth as a ploy to get a discounted tuition to seminary. The money quote, in his own words (my emphasis):

At first we weren't [in the Hitler Youth], but when the compulsory Hitler Youth was introduced in 1941, my brother was obliged to join. I was still too young, but later, as a seminarian, I was registered in the HY. As soon as I was out of the seminary, I never went back. And that was difficult, because the tuition reduction, which I really needed, was tied to proof of attendance at the HY. Thank goodness, there was a very understanding mathematics teacher. He himself was a Nazi but an honest man, who said to me, "Just go once and get the document so that we have it…" When he saw that I simply didn't want to, he said, "I understand, I’ll take care of it", and so I was able to stay free of it.

I take this to mean that his friendly math teacher, a Party member, got His Holiness enrolled in the Hitler Youth so that the future Pope could save a few Reichsmarks on tuition without having to dirty his hands. Which is fine -- I can't seriously fault either party in that transaction. But in all honesty, of the two of them, the Nazi teacher sounds like the better man. Why couldn't they have made him Pope?

posted by MeanMrMustard @ 7:45 AM |

Papa Don't Preach

Over in Worth's forums, Norrit posted this juxtaposition:



Which I thought was, you know, pretty funny, given the whole Hitler Youth thing -- until I read this. And this. Now I don't know.

posted by MeanMrMustard @ 6:51 AM |

Weather Report

Scooter rides tomorrow in the Lakeville Ironman bike ride. The ride starts at 6:30 am; the current forecast at Weather.com has the temperature at 28 degrees Fahrenheit.

Have fun, Scooter.

posted by MeanMrMustard @ 5:39 PM |

MeanMrMustard's Past Catches Up With Him

My brother visited my blog yesterday.

(Hi, Dave!)

I hadn't told my family about the blog. While Kristi knows it exists, she doesn't read it, as far as I know -- hasn't even asked me for a link. And I've never quite gotten around to telling the rest of the family, because ... well, I don't know why. I didn't get around to telling my friends at Superman-Tim for over six months, even though I used to blog there.

I guess it's because this started out as a place for me to connect with Worthers away from Worth. And then I shared it with some work friends, and eventually with the Superman-Tim folk. I suppose I would have mentioned it to the family eventually. Maybe. Probably.

Anyway, David joined Worth Friday night, so he's a Worther now. He found the blog through the link on my stats page. Let's all give my big brother a big Worth/West/Superman-Tim welcome! (He'd be the one in the funny pants.)

posted by MeanMrMustard @ 4:34 PM |

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

I picked this up both from Scarlette's blog and from Scooter's. Coming at me from completely different directions; how could I ignore it?

Your Linguistic Profile:

60% General American English

15% Dixie

15% Yankee

10% Upper Midwestern

0% Midwestern

posted by MeanMrMustard @ 3:32 PM |

So, What The Heck Is Larry Up To?

Yeah, not blogging, obviously.

We're still painting Emma's room. Painting is slow. If you only have an hour or so at a time, and you know you have to spend the last chunk of that time cleaning brushes and rollers, it doesn't seem worth the effort. So it's going slowly -- but we should be done in a day or two (just trim and a second coat on the closet remaining).

Emma's first-grade play is on Thursday -- some jungle thing. She's an elephant. Yes, I'll tease her about that for years to come, probably contributing to an eating disorder that will eventually destroy her life. But I'll have fun while it lasts.

Kristi's on her last week of training, which means she moves to her regular, afternoon/evening schedule next week. Our life will change a lot -- I'll have Emma solo a lot more than either of us is used to. I'm still not sure I'm mentally prepared for that.

In my abundant spare time, I'm doing something I never thought I'd do. I'm rewriting CDFFL from the ground up. At least, I think I am; I just started, and there's plenty of time until anybody asks "Are you ready for some football?" for me to change my mind.

And I'm rewriting it in PHP.

Gasp.

Why am I doing this? A few reasons. First, CDFFL is overdue for an overhaul. Kevin rewrote it nearly every year when he was its steward; I've made incremental changes, but much (probably most) of the current code remains Kevin's.

Second, I get an education. I thought about doing it in Perl, but PHP is (and I can't believe I'm saying this) better suited for website development. Plus, it's something new to learn. Learning is good -- or so I keep telling Emma. (She rolls her eyes.)

The more important reason: it's significantly cheaper to get webhosting for PHP/MySQL than it is for Java. And I'd like to get CDFFL off of my workstation and out onto the wild, wild internet. This will enable remote users to have the same functionality as those here at West -- and free those here at West from worrying about me rebooting in the middle of roster selection. Maybe I can interest a few Worthers or Superman-Tim members in participating, getting the team owner base up to 50 or more. I figure I can bump up the registration fee a buck or two (or leave it the same and skim some of the registration proceeds from additional users), and cover most of the webhosting costs -- and I'll get a domain and website to play with. Everybody wins.

Well, everybody but Brad. Brad never wins. Not if I can help it.

posted by MeanMrMustard @ 9:11 AM |

Yeah, Resolved, Whatever

Okay, so I haven't been blogging much. Sue me.

This last week, Emma was on vacation from school. Being loving parents, we promptly drove her to the airport and put her on a Delta flight to California, hoping that if she got lost between planes in Salt Lake City she'd soon find herself a position as junior wife to some local higher-up in the Mormon Church. It's probably a good thing that it didn't play out that way.

As soon as Emma was gone, we took everything out of her bedroom and plunked it down in the middle of the living room; Kristi had it in her head that Emma would return to a freshly-painted room. But that didn't play out as planned, either, for a variety of reasons. We both felt crappy (Kristi with a bug, me with my seasonal allergies), and the texture coat that Kristi applied to mask the ancient cracks and crappy paint requires a week to cure before painting. So Emma returned to an empty room. (We told her we didn't think she was coming home, so we were converting it to an exercise room with a big-screen TV. She wasn't amused.)

When it came to time to retrieve Emma from Delta Airlines yesterday, we both went to the airport. Even though Delta's rules expressly state that only one adult can meet the minor's plane, and Kristi was the only one listed on Emma's flight records, the ticket agent rather mechanically cut me a pass as well. So I suppose I'm now, technically, guilty of breaching airport security.

We were a little early, so we cruised the main shopping area at the Lindbergh Terminal. A plywood facade announced that in spring 2005, a Fox News Channel Newsstand would be moving in. I can hardly wait.

In other news, it seems that the Pope died. I thought I'd mention it, since minor stories like that sometimes slip right under the radar.

posted by MeanMrMustard @ 1:17 PM |

Resolved

... to blog more. Because Kevin doesn't think I blog enough. (Or, more accurately, he doesn't think I blog as much as Scooter, which is undeniably true.)

Emma is gone this week, off to California for her spring vacation, playing with her cousins, going to the beach with her grandparents, and generally having a wonderful time. Kristi and I, on the other hand, are stuck here working, redecorating, and not feeling well. Oh, to be young.

Because we were both feeling crappy yesterday, we decided to take the night off from working on our various projects and instead went to see "National Treasure" at the GTI Roseville theatre on Larpenteur -- $2 movies, $1 on Tuesdays. "National Treasure" was silly fluff, but easily worth the $2 total we spent on tickets.

At work, I've just been re-orged. Same director, new manager. We'll see how this all plays out; so far, so good.

At Worth, I've entered my first illustration contest. There's no risk of my winning -- it's been a long time since I've drawn anything, and I can't draw/paint on a computer at all -- but I think I should at least try each genre once.

posted by MeanMrMustard @ 10:20 AM |