Status Report
Aug. 11th, 2004 01:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
robotech_masterWell, it's been a while since I've written an entry. I'd like to say that's because I've been really busy, but that wouldn't entirely be true. It's more that I've been really lazy. I haven't written anything for my essay journal in a while, either, and I really ought to.
I've taken to bicycling to and from work; I've found a route that's nice and quiet, with either sidewalks or quiet residential streets for about 90% of the distance, and I can usually cover it in ten to fifteen minutes of biking. There's even an apple tree by the side of the road in front of one house where I sometimes stop and pluck an apple. So far, the weather has been favorable...any raining that's been done happened either during the night or during the day between rides to and fro. The only problems have been a day or so when it was really hot, and then I'd just ride slowly to stay cool.
There are several nice places to eat lunch within suitable biking distance. A Schlotzky's Deli which makes good sandwiches; Panera Bread nee St. Louis Bread Co. for if I ever feel like a bread-bowl of soup; a Wendy's if I feel like a fast food burger (there's also a BK, but I'm reluctant to touch their stuff); Waffle House for decent short-order fare; my brother told me today about another decent greasy spoon nearby that I hadn't thought to try but will soon; and there's my favorite place, Da Vinci's Pizzeria. Any of my readers who are in the Springfield, Missouri area should eat there at least once; they make great 'za (in both standard and specialty/gourmet flavors) and sell it by the slice as well as making whole pies and take-and-bake raw pizzas. It's run (owned?) by an older gentleman who is a really nice and decent guy—once he gave me a free beverage and a discount on my pizza slice when he didn't have the kind I wanted available. Plus, it always reminds me of my Dad whenever I go there, because one of Dad's pet peeves is people who refer to Leonardo as "da Vinci" (given that "da Vinci" isn't actually a name but an indicator that he's from a place called Vinci—it would be like referring to Lawrence of Arabia as "of Arabia"). There's also an Andy's Frozen Custard across the street, if I should get a hankering for pricy yet delicious frozen dairy product.
So what have I been doing with my time? Well, partly I've been writing some reviews of some Japanese Transformers episodes that have only recently been getting fansubbed. I've kept meaning to mark them up in HTML at some point but will probably never get around to it, so here's the reviews of Masterforce episodes one, two, three, and four in text form. I've also finished a bit of Transformers fan-fiction that I started writing six years ago, and I'm quite proud of. Oh, and I've been working, too.
To my annoyance, the monitor on my computer at home has been slowly losing functionality. The right side of the screen has lost focus, and so the entire screen is a bit blurry now as I adjust the focus to try to make it average out. Some friends thought it might be magnetic leakage from my nearby TV set, but I talked to a repair technician and describe the symptoms and he disagreed...he said that magnetic leakage might cause the colors to go bad, but shouldn't do anything to the focus, and it was probably just that the monitor was shot. Which is just what I need about now; a similar 19" monitor of the same make and model would be $200 at Best Buy or Circuit City. Not what I want to spend at this point, given that I'm still not sure what my overall financial situation is going to be with this new job. Fortunately, the repair technician I talked to works at a used-parts shop that has some good 19" monitors in the $60 price range, which is more reasonable. As a bonus, it's even almost on my way home, so I'll be looking at the screens they have after work today.
And that's more or less how things have been going in my life lately. Except, of course, for the stuff I'm leaving out...but isn't that always the way?
I've taken to bicycling to and from work; I've found a route that's nice and quiet, with either sidewalks or quiet residential streets for about 90% of the distance, and I can usually cover it in ten to fifteen minutes of biking. There's even an apple tree by the side of the road in front of one house where I sometimes stop and pluck an apple. So far, the weather has been favorable...any raining that's been done happened either during the night or during the day between rides to and fro. The only problems have been a day or so when it was really hot, and then I'd just ride slowly to stay cool.
There are several nice places to eat lunch within suitable biking distance. A Schlotzky's Deli which makes good sandwiches; Panera Bread nee St. Louis Bread Co. for if I ever feel like a bread-bowl of soup; a Wendy's if I feel like a fast food burger (there's also a BK, but I'm reluctant to touch their stuff); Waffle House for decent short-order fare; my brother told me today about another decent greasy spoon nearby that I hadn't thought to try but will soon; and there's my favorite place, Da Vinci's Pizzeria. Any of my readers who are in the Springfield, Missouri area should eat there at least once; they make great 'za (in both standard and specialty/gourmet flavors) and sell it by the slice as well as making whole pies and take-and-bake raw pizzas. It's run (owned?) by an older gentleman who is a really nice and decent guy—once he gave me a free beverage and a discount on my pizza slice when he didn't have the kind I wanted available. Plus, it always reminds me of my Dad whenever I go there, because one of Dad's pet peeves is people who refer to Leonardo as "da Vinci" (given that "da Vinci" isn't actually a name but an indicator that he's from a place called Vinci—it would be like referring to Lawrence of Arabia as "of Arabia"). There's also an Andy's Frozen Custard across the street, if I should get a hankering for pricy yet delicious frozen dairy product.
So what have I been doing with my time? Well, partly I've been writing some reviews of some Japanese Transformers episodes that have only recently been getting fansubbed. I've kept meaning to mark them up in HTML at some point but will probably never get around to it, so here's the reviews of Masterforce episodes one, two, three, and four in text form. I've also finished a bit of Transformers fan-fiction that I started writing six years ago, and I'm quite proud of. Oh, and I've been working, too.
To my annoyance, the monitor on my computer at home has been slowly losing functionality. The right side of the screen has lost focus, and so the entire screen is a bit blurry now as I adjust the focus to try to make it average out. Some friends thought it might be magnetic leakage from my nearby TV set, but I talked to a repair technician and describe the symptoms and he disagreed...he said that magnetic leakage might cause the colors to go bad, but shouldn't do anything to the focus, and it was probably just that the monitor was shot. Which is just what I need about now; a similar 19" monitor of the same make and model would be $200 at Best Buy or Circuit City. Not what I want to spend at this point, given that I'm still not sure what my overall financial situation is going to be with this new job. Fortunately, the repair technician I talked to works at a used-parts shop that has some good 19" monitors in the $60 price range, which is more reasonable. As a bonus, it's even almost on my way home, so I'll be looking at the screens they have after work today.
And that's more or less how things have been going in my life lately. Except, of course, for the stuff I'm leaving out...but isn't that always the way?
