Phil's Synaptic Misfires

Stormy night

 

Holy tree down Batman.  This was bordering my lot and my neighbor's.  (This is the neighbor infamous for yelling at my wife, so, you can well imagine how I feel) 

Nonetheless, facts are facts, and it's hard to determine where the lot line is, so maybe I'll split the cost of the tree removal with them... just because they're assholes doesn't mean I have to be one too.  As we say, an opportunity will present itself for me to return their "past kindness", this just doesn't feel like the one yet.  Too bad it didn't hit their car.

Weird Al Meet-n-Greet

The concert was amazing, many times better than the one I saw in 2003.  Unfortunately, the meet-and-greet wasn't at all anything like the one in 2003.  It was... disappointing.  We lined up along the wire fencing and single-filed into a makeshift tent/pavilion, where Al sat at a table.  We talked for a couple minutes, took a couple pictures, and left. 

This experience was again a gift from my folks, like last time, but they truly got ripped off.  I feel bad because we really did have a great time, the ending just wasn't what we had hoped.

Experiences like this are pretty much what I dread -- it gets built up and when it occurs, it ends up being a letdown.  The meet/greet was the letdown.

But again, the concert was great!  The band was tight, the videos were freakin' hilarious, and all-in-all, just a damn good show.  Just not worth what my folks paid, that's all.

Oh, god forbid you piss off my mother.  Suffice to say, you will not be the same when she's done.  Sadly, the charity we got these passes to will not be the same either.

Woohoo! Off to my meet-n-greet with Weird Al

Just about ready to go to my second meet-n-greet with Weird Al Yankovic!  Me and three other buddies got to meet him almost exactly four years ago in his trailer, and we're going again.  This will be fun, provided it doesn't rain too badly tonight.  The picture here is from 2003.

My First "Public" Portrait

So here is my first drawing of a person: my friend's wife and newborn baby.  I took some liberties with the clothing (the shirt originally worn was not interesting for reproduction in a drawing), but that's about it.  I've coated it with fixative and will be framing it for their family, if they wanna keep it.  All in all, this drawing took me about 30 hours, probably mostly because I'm a n00b.  (Ignore the lighting of the picture: this is a picture of a piece of paper, not a scan)

This is the culmination of only three weeks or so of practice.  My skill at the onset was pretty lame, so even if you think this drawing blows, I dig it -- it just took freakin' forEVER.  I'm working on another one, hopefully it will be much faster.

EDIT: You know what was one of the hardest parts?  Making the baby NOT look like a Mogwai.  Not cuz the baby's ugly, just the shading made her look like something straight out of Area 51 for a while.

 

Oh, and I'd rather eat roofing material than draw hair and fabric.

MDC 2007

I attended the Minnesota Developer's Conference yesterday, and it was pretty slick.  The affair started with a keynote by an employee from 3M, where they discussed the latest and greatest efforts they had made with RFID, integrating it into a Microsoft architecture with Biztalk, SQL Server, etc.  They even made mention of using the cheap RFID tag, now < $.05 to buy, on miners' helmets, masks, and even buried gas and power lines!  Imagine how cool that would be to read an RF tag from above ground, and get info like what type of line is buried and its maintenance history.  Rad.

There were four tracks: desktop, web, Sharepoint, and TFS.  I stuck with the app track the whole time, hearing talks on LINQ (cool), WCF+WF in .Net 3.5, and CardSpace.  Pretty cool technology, I wonder what the other groups did!

Long weekend

More security, this time 6 hrs+ in the rain.  Got some nice pics though, I'll post them soon enough.

Bumper sticker

Honestly, the first one to make me laugh out loud in years.

Another drawing

So here is a rather uninteresting drawing of my van door handle. While boring, I do like the shading.

Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering?

I think so, but riboflavin just isn't the power vitamin it used to be!

Back in the saddle

Well, back to the daily grind today.  Considering everything that happened over the weekend, I'm a little glad about going back to work -- life's a bit simpler on the job.  I have to do more security work this coming weekend, but at least I don't have to organize it.

My main focus now will sit on: getting my list of students accurate, paying bills, finishing the seminar DVD, and yard work, if I can squeeze it in.  :P