Austin is prepared for the PDRK

This modified symbol/flag from the Texas Independence War usually receives a reaction of rolled eyes in Austin Proper because the original was hijacked by Neo-Confederates, the NRA, Black-Helicopter Enthusiasts, Secessionists and Teabaggers. Since Austin is punster/humorist O. Henry’s hometown, it’s expected we’d use humor to ridicule our city being on North Korea’s short list for an attack. Most jokes have been SXSW related.

  • Kim Jong-un is upset that his platinum badge didn’t get him entry to the Justin Timberlake show.
  • Kim’s Americana-Emo-Hip Hop band received bad reviews at their SXSW showcase.
  • PDRK is trying to destroy the Samsung facility over the warranty on Kim’s flat-screen TV expiring.
  • The AppleCare call center refused to support his iMac due to him calling from a country that isn’t eligible for assistance.
  • Ground Zero is Harry Knowles’ house but it’s protected by an invisible shield of body funk, ego and self-sacrificing fanboys willing protect the compound.

More can be found in Austin’s excuse for a daily paper.

I find it funny a Communist nation would target us. The GOP, Paultards, Christo-Fascists and their allies (see the list above) often call my home the People’s Republic of Austin.

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These aren’t my Chucks

These belong to a fellow employee I bumped into at the cafe. My initial question was how did he manage to get them from Japan since all attempts with the assistance of my co-worker Ayako failed (the e-mail said the shoes were sold out). Plus I didn’t see that design on the Web site. He replied these Chucks were originally Sky Blue and a friend painted the Super Mario scene on. The friend did a bitchin’ job! Even went to the trouble of adding the logo to the tongue.

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Playmobil diorama #1 – Apple Cafe

Traditionally I like to give people pirates when they get hired by Apple (another story why). Finding a female pirate that wasn’t a part of an expensive set proved to be a futile quest so I decided to build the recipient the closest facsimile of the checkout area. I was a little worried about using a flight attendant to represent the cashier but those employees do wear uniforms. My concerns evaporated quickly when the reaction I got was very positive, especially with the soda-bottle dispenser.

I need to show this to Terra Toys when I drop by to find some customers to make it more accurate.

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Break room artwork

Not only is Apple building a whole new campus in Austin but the company has been remodeling the existing location section by section. When I went to go visit a co-worker, I spotted the newly designed break room and it had a wall that also acts as a chalkboard. Nice to spot a fellow Futurama fan!

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Returning to the land of the living

The year 2013 is merely three months old and so far I have to say it has been the best and worst year with my personal health. Emphasis on the worst (along with saying it in Comic Book Guy’s voice) after the last few days.

Again, it’s no secret about my ongoing cough which will probably turn one this Summer at the rate modern medicine and my procrastination are attacking this. I seriously doubt the ENT specialist from ARC can doing anything, besides, I’ve got work to do.

I think this latest bout was courtesy of Somara. It was probably (indirect) revenge for me getting her sick earlier this year. The symptoms seemed to match what Somara had too. They (the symptoms) decided to manifest on the worst day possible, the day my team was going to attend the Stars game. If there’s one hockey game I didn’t want to miss, it was the game which was three-plus years in the making. I had been bugging management to take us to a Stars game as a team-building event. How often I was envious to hear/see during the first intermission the Stars welcoming Dell, Blizzard, Google, Oracle and other Apple departments. I wanted to go come hell or high water. Besides, management had given me the task of figuring out the attendance.

So I squeezed in an appointment with the on-site doctor, a really cool addition at work this year. Her verdict? I had a virus I have to ride out and the only drugs she could prescribe might control the cough (or was it lessen it?). The doc wanted me to go home and rest for a couple days. I begged about the game. She discouraged going, saying I was contagious. We did reach a compromise. I could stay at work if I wore a mask, you know those “surgical” doodads shown on stock footage of Asian nations. I hated it for the attention it drew. The discomfort was easy. I just wanted to be ignored. The Stars game was another matter, the doc said “that’s on your conscience.” Compared to the people who bring children (germ factories at their age) and those who underdress for the game (shorts, sandals and sleeveless tops? really?), I had no trouble looking in the mirror. She didn’t say I had SARS, the Bubonic Plague or Whooping Cough (I can’t remember the scientific name for the latter).

I paid for attending the game. Six days of blech! Insomnia, coughing, chills, fever, sweating, nightmares (my favorite involved a composite girlfriend sharing Somara’s and Dana’s traits; not my cousin, a woman I knew over 20 years ago), headaches and what I hate the most…unproductivity. It’s really hard to concentrate so some things get put off and/or go to pot, namely chores around the house. I made a stronger effort to read to pass the time. Years ago I read Joe Bob Briggs’ second book Profoundly Erotic and never got around to reviewing it on my site. We recently saw him for a Don Knotts’ movie, thus I decided to re-read Erotic which he autographed to refresh my memory, then I can post a more accurate assessment.

The best year for my health would be my weight finally getting under 210 and my distance run being on the verge of a thousand miles! I have a physical on April Fool’s Day, no joke. I do hope it will go way better than last year, namely the big D not being discussed, aka diabetes.

Anyway…I have a ton of crap to do, thus my posts will probably be scheduled easy things as I did last week with some overdue stuff in between: Joe Bob, Geek Bowl, my cousin’s visit, etc. The crap I gotta get done is some paperwork: medical bills showing up (we’re financially fine!), 2012 taxes have barely been started (not worried there) and refurbishing a couple MacBook Pros for friends.

Thanks for dropping by and posting! I’m curious as to what your upcoming RSS Feed solutions (other than Jeremy’s) will be. I for one don’t count on FaceBook or Twitcher for “news” from friends.

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Last minute birthday wish to Ethan!

He received a pretty cool birthday present this year, a third daughter! The one I mentioned recently on my site, Sarina, who completes the gEeKs acronym.

When I think back to my return to Austin in 1998, Ethan (aka E for short) was the first new friend I made. Sure Garrett was my roommate but E and I hung out more often. Plus the guy convinced me to try fried pickles sober.

The synchronicity recently continued with another quick housesitting round for his parents too. The doctors wanted to see the new baby and we got to spoil two of the three Lowry cats. Two because number three fears strangers…OK, loud cat lovers such as myself, Jack will eventually come out for Somara.

Bon anniversaire E. It may be late here but you live on the West coast so there’s another two hours working in my favor.

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Star Wars just walks into this

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One fan’s booster…

…is another one’s poison. I’m sure this is illegal in Chicago.

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My new iPhone camouflage

Oh, my beloved ice-cream sandwich! How I love to lick your creamy center! You’re not like the others. You like the same things I do: Wax paper. Boiled football leather. Dog breath. We’re not hitchhiking anymore. We’re riding!

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Cool SXSW Shirt 2013 #2

It’s certainly pretty funny (and more tasteful than T-Shirt Hell’s joke), even if you’re not a vegetarian.

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Cool SXSW Shirt 2013 #1

This was the band Henry Meowlins sang with before he became an actor/poet/activist.

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One, quick, cheap shot at St. Patrick’s Day

I’m only part Irish so I guess that’s why I find this funny unlike my maternal grandmother who had no sense of humor about her ethnicity. The best jokes I ever heard were told by people belonging to said group.

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Hockey jibber-jabber, namely re-alignment

With all the bracket-yap-ology going down over March Madness, it is hard to get any enthusiasm regarding the NHL’s shift of 16 teams in the East (Detroit and Columbus move) and 14 in the West (Winnipeg finally is relieved of being in the Southleast). I miss the old names: Wales, Patrick, Calder, so on. The current six divisions are lame sounding, inaccurate but they did divide into 30 easily.

I’m amazed Detroit got moved to the East too. Numerous Western teams looked forward to the Red Wings coming to town, this usually put butts in seats. Columbus going made more sense, they’ve been terrible since day one, putting them in the East could get them to improve. The better solution is to just fold the franchise. If Columbus is the largest city in Ohio now, then it’s a dead state. I also don’t care for national elections hinging on place which is mostly Northern Kentucky in its mindset.

Give it to Bettman not to go with an easier solution: Winnipeg joins the Northwest, Minnesota goes to the Central and Nashville to the Southeast. The Jets are closer to Alberta and Edmonton; Minneapolis-St. Paul is culturally a Central city, not Canadian; and despite Nashville being in the CST zone, the residents have more in common with Florida, North Carolina and norther Virigina/southern Maryland than urban Ohioans, namely being the descendants of slave owners and resisting the civil rights movement.

The second-guessing on a 16/14 split is the possibility of expansion. In this economy? After another PR bruising lockout? Lastly, the league still doesn’t have an owner for Phoenix and Columbus is in trouble. Dallas was kept a secret making more financially instability with a couple more teams likely; my personal guess would be Pittsburgh and Florida. Rumors abound with Seattle, Portland and Quebec. I recall talk about Las Vegas yet I’ll let it drop, few attend Wranglers games, I doubt the AHL will bother. Hamilton is another prospect. Toronto has always quashed this. With the Leafs’ new owners being Canada’s two biggest cable TV operators, they may open it up for coverage concessions.

I want to wrap up with how well my Stars are doing. The losing skid ended. They defeated the Heat 4-3 and they finished a weekend in Charlotte with three points! Ending the regular season in first for the South Division and Western Conference would be sweet.

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A fairly productive weekend

This would explain why the site is rather behind on the numerous cool things going down: Dana’s visit, SXSW, scoring tickets to shows and whatever.

Since our friends Kelly and Ethan just had their third child, our other friends Tom and Alaire (Ethan’s parents) headed to California to see the new baby. We have a brief house/catsitting stint. I’m so glad Apple’s current and future location is nearby. The weather is nice which doesn’t eat too much into our time, thus we knocked out some other matters we needed to achieve: laundry, cat stuff and getting Operation: Alexandria back on the agenda. We started renting a storage space again, this time it’s for getting crap out of the house while we remodel, clean, etc. Today I managed three trips because two involved things Somara evacuated from the garage.

There were other achievements, they’ll have to wait since I’m posting from Black Star Co-Op whose Wi-Fi is a borderline bust. It wouldn’t be bad if their air conditioning were more functional.

Next up for this week, scheduling some “filler” stories to keep the site busy and text Google Reader’s successor but I’m sure there will be “experts” claiming RSS is so last decade.

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Welcome Sarina

There won’t be any picture at the request of the parents and that’s all I’m going to say.

This makes daughter and child number three for our friends Kelly and Ethan. When the announcement was made of her arrival, I had to pause, contemplate, then go (like Charlton Heston), “They finally did it!”

They have two older daughters named Evelyn and Genevieve. So whenever they visit Austin to hang with everybody, Ethan’s parents sometimes say gEeK is coming to town. Now it probably be “the gEeKs” are coming.

Memorable and clever.

Since Sarina was born during SXSW, I got her a Waterloo Records onesie.

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