Lincoln!

Well... My once sparsely filled Flickr account is seeing massive updates as I have a camera now. Woohoo.

So far I've been touring downtown while off work.
Yesterday it was the Capital.


Today I took in some more of downtown. Took in some of the Haymarket district, where I am staying. I really enjoy the old city feel. Not quite as old as the European cities, but it has the old city feel unique to the American cities. I enjoy looking at the buildings and original metal work, fixtures, etc.

Finally made it to Maggie's Vegetarian Wraps this time. She has changed her hours (now open later), but I actually got to eat there for lunch [ after waking up from working until 6AM ]. Lots of local ingredients, friendly service, personal atmosphere (she's not only the owner, she makes the food too!).

Got out early enough to visit the visitor center (last day they were open late for the summer). The lady there helped answer some of my history questions and suggested a shop... Ten Thousand Villages. It's a place that gets goods from all over the globe (mainly thrid world countries) and gives them a fair price for their products. Non-profit store. The owners of the shop have been doing this thing for a while, about 25 years. They started at churches and out of the way stores, but I think they really found the right place for this. sure beats their previous location in the basement.

Some pretty fun stuff. Really liked the drums, but of course those were more expensive. Had some knit finger puppets that looked awfully familiar.

This hammock would be nice if only I could find a place to hang it. I need to build my own house and have a hammock alcove.

Until next time. We'll see how many more photos I can take!

Late SPS

I'm off to Lincoln, NE this week. Got tired of the limits of my cameraphone and decided to get a new camera! Broke down and got a Sony Cybershot W80.

Took it for a test run in downtown Lincoln.

Here's before I started testing



Expect more pics here .. and in Flickr!

SPS The Boys

Cian and I went to the same concert as Rose and Jamie. I'll mention who was there when she does. It was an outdoor concert at a library in OKC and it Wrocked.



We all had a great time.

It's all about the details

A co-worker of mine was reviewing a website of a product we have been using to capture networking packets. The program has recently changed it's name and features since we started using it.

In the depths of their new site there is a 'How-to' for migrating to the new product. I wish more walkthroughs were like this : http://wireshark.org/migration.html

Maybe I need to go back and reinstall after I get all the supplies necessary!


This reminded me of another find in a safety section of a Surge Protector Test Kit. It has more to do with the writer's knowledge of the english language than just being odd, but it certainly brightened our day. The first two sentences were: "This tester produces a high voltage. While not life threatening, its maximum stored energy of 5 x 10^(-4) joules at 1000 V can seriously disrupt the technician's somber reverie."

Quick Update

4 stars on Freebird in Expert Mode! ! ! Woo HOO! Now I can use the Battle Axe Guitar :D

The Villager Uprising

Rose showed me a site the other day that we both latched onto. It is an absolutely great GEEK idea! Chore Wars.

You create a party and build your Character. Then you and your party take place in adventures (chores) and earn experience points and treasure as you go. Your character class is determined by your attributes (strength, dexterity, etc.), and these are earned depending on the chores you do. Example: taking out the trash may not require intelligence, but it uses strength.

Looking on the News/updates page I noticed the site was featured in a Penny Arcade Comic. A comment from metafilter.com: "That Penny Arcade strip is TOTALLY what happened in my house yesterday, I'm told. My little brother washed all the dishes because he didn't want my mom to get the XP points!
posted by rosethorn at 12:16 AM on July 23 "
(both links found from Catronia of the folks in the Credits)

Rose started as a Sorcerer and I started as Peasant, so now we get to see what type of character class we get for doing the chores we do!

And something I noticed after the fact... none of our chores improves charisma (this is suggested for jobs that require one to use social interaction: talking on phone, etc... Paying bills over the phone I suppose). True to a real RPG we have managed to ignore the trait that no one seems to want to distribute their skill points into. LOL