What Monkey? Where?

So, I discovered today just how easy it is to get back onto caffeine.

Last weekend, Jennifer and I were at Safeway, and they had Sobe on sale.  Now, I'm still upset that the Dragon flavor is gone, but I salve the wound with Citrus when I think about it.  So I got four bottles, and went on my way.

Unfortunately, we forgot to go to Trader Joe's, so I only had the half bottle of lemonade for my lunches. 

So, Monday morning I had one on my way to Lodi.  Then i had one for lunch on Wednesday after my lemonade had run out.  Then Thursday there was a pizza party lunch, and I was too weak to say no to a Coke (or two).  Then there was Friday's lunch, and I had one Sobe left.  So of course I needed something to drink on the drive home...

Then today about 2:00, I started getting a headache.  By 4:00, it was pretty bad, and my temperature was fluctuating.  I had a craving for chocolate, that ended up being like how Robin Williams describes taking a quaalude after having cocaine (like throwing bricks in the Grand Canyon).  Then I had a sudden thought about how good a cup of tea would be.

As I was choosing my tea, it hit me that it'd been over 24 hours since my last hit of caffeine.

About halfway through my first cup of tea (I'm on my third cup of Peet's Gunpowder now), my headache faded away.

So yeah, it's just that easy.  I'm going to stick with tea this weekend, and just go lighter through Monday.  Probably David's jasmine and Ten Ren's Dragonwell.

Then this week, I'll wean myself off of it over the coming week.

Hair Has Ears

So, it's been a while since I got my hair cut.  How long?  Before I was in Lodi, so sometime late last year.

Thursday morning, I decided to schedule a haircut, and found an opening for this Friday.  I didn't say anything out loud until last night talking to Jennifer when I told her when my appointment was.

Now for many months my hair has been manageable; it's styled fine.  I'm getting it cut just because it's past my eyebrows and the styling options are dwindling.  Now while in Lodi, I've been showering at night, putting in mousse and lightly styling in the morning.  I wear a bike helmet when I ride, and a hard hat most fo the day, but the hair still needs to be managed.

This morning?

Worst.  Bed-head.  Ever.

And so, today between wearing a hard hat, for the first time in Lodi, I'm wearing a baseball cap.

How does the hair know?

The Biggest Difference

So on the tail end of the California heat wave, what's the biggest difference I've found between Emeryville and Lodi?

Today both are starting at 55 degrees Fahrenheit.

Emeryville's predicted high: 75

Lodi's predicted high: 95

Enough said.

Chapter One, The Bride

I've said before that while I do get up early, I do not quite rise at the same hour as Ninja Space Monkey.  This morning as I was getting in the elevator at the hotel (yes, still in Lodi), I received a YIM beep.  NSM has sent me a link to a webcomic that we regularly read: Alina Pete's Weregeek.  Specifically, today's strip:

Now anyone who knows me and/or has read this blog, has surely discovered my deep and abiding interest in "The Princess Bride", and I have read the book as well.  I even wrote in for the bit that William Goldman teases about.  I think I have the letter folded up inside the book.

But this was my movie in college.  As I've said, I wore out two VHS tapes watching it before I got the DVD.  Becasue of this, NSM told of a coworker of his (and future coworker of mine) as a teller at Wells Fargo who tried to stump him with a quote.  I'm not sure of the quote itself, but it wasn't an altogether obscure one.  NSM threw out the countersign with a bit of derision, and asked the guy if he didn't realize how many times I had watched it.  NSM would watch it with me, but while he was working on our next game.  He picked up a lot on a subconscious level.

Magnets, the Inverse Cube Law

Last week I received another purchase from Kickstarter in the mail: my Polar Pen.

If I remember correctly, I read about the Polar Pen Kickstarter on iO9 or Gizmodo.  They linked to the sales pitch video, and I was hooked.

I had missed out on Buckyballs, since they were alarmistly forced from the market in the US, and out of business.  I had put off buying them, thinking they would be available for a long time because they were so popular.  I was even leaning towards the Buckycubes, but alas, it was not to be.

I once again agree with George Carlin.

So, I wasn't going to miss out on another cool magnet toy.

I remember when neodymium magnet started coming out.  I bought a tiny one in a plastic disc from my mineralogy class in college.  The disc was about the size of three dimes stacked together, and open up to give a small disc to hold onto while the other half holding a half centimeter diameter cylinder magnet dangled from a thread.  It was perfect for detecting iron in the samples were had to identify in class.  We found that the magnet was a little stronger than the typical bar magnets, and tended to show minerals were magnet when they had not been described that way in our texts.  Our teacher was a bit surprised, but said to make note of it, and add it to our practice flashcards.

Now I have to get home this weekend, and find where I have that stashed...

Tentacles... -NT-

This weekend I finished Kraken by China Miéville.

I had said that the style of language used took some getting used to.  I found that I needed more focused time to get into it.  In a way it was like when I have read books from the 1800s (Wells, Verne, Dumas, etc.); language has changed, and it takes work to get into the rhythm of the words.

That being said, the story was incredibly original and intricately woven together.  I really liked that no one seemed to know how the world was going to end, even when so many were working to read the future.

Also the trope of the extremely evil pair, while much like Mr. Tulip and Mr. Pin from Pratchett's The Truth and Croup and Vandemar from Gaiman's Neverwhere, is creepily explored in the book.

Now, I must move on and see what is next in my library.