MadMup.com

This week’s been a busy one at work for me. I had to upgrade the servers, which is always tricky business. People were warned that they needed to back up their stuff just in case, as it’s never a sure bet, even with a good backup. Three of my four servers are done now and it looks like nothing was lost. I had to copy a few things over manually after the fact, but it all seemed to work out fine. It’s funny, though, how a little thing like taking the servers offline for a week can make a person a lot less invisible. I instantly become the biggest jerk in the world because I have to do my job. Never mind that I warned people ahead of time, I must be mean and spiteful because I have to upgrade the servers. Argh.

I have a touchlamp by the side of my bed that has three levels of brightness. Nutmeg has learned she can turn it on by touching it with her nose. Now, if I don’t get out of bed soon enough for her liking, she’ll nose the touchlamp through a few cycles. It’s funny and annoying and cute all at the same time.

I’m doing a lot of traveling this summer! Illinois last weekend, Kentucky this weekend, Wisconsin soon… it’s crazy! But it’s with enjoyable people, so it’s all good. This weekend Jason, Jeannie, Melissa, and I are going to visit Josh and Gretchen. Should be a fun time!

The latest game I reviewed was Forza Motorsport 2 (EDIT: link to review), which allows people to decorate/paint their in-game cars however they want to. I am amazed by some of the designs people have come up with, as it took me twenty minutes to put my name and a penguin on a car. I can’t imagine how many hours it took them to create a likeness of Harlequin from Batman: The Animated Series. Crazy!

If you’re not looking at my Flickr and YouTube accounts regularly, then I’m afraid you’re missing out on at least half of the total MadMup experience. Add in my Twitter page and that’s fully three-fourths. Flickr’s great as a photo organizer, but I tend to use it as a random picture collector. I can send pictures to it from my cell phone, and I often do. YouTube gets my random videos, and Twitter is all the little mundane “what I’m doing” updates a person can handle.

Speaking of cell phones, I got a new one recently, a Samsung Blackjack. I’ve been a Nokia Guy for years now, and I’m fiercely brand-loyal, as many of you know. They didn’t have the Nokia I wanted, so I thought I’d try the Blackjack. It’s a SmartPhone, so it’s all Windows-y, and it’s got a full-QWERTY keypad on it, which helps with the grillion text messages I send a month. (Seriously, it’s like I’m a 14-year-old Japanese girl, with all the texting I do.) I’m really impressed with the phone and I’m happy I got it. It’s slim and light, and it does pretty much what I want it to do. Now if only I knew XML and could design my own start page for it…

Anyone need a futon? I’m thinking it’s time I sold mine. I’d let it go for a pretty good price.

I’m sure there are other significant bits of info people are dying to hear about, but none are springing to mind currently… You know how it is – you get old, you start forgetting things…

Enjoy the rest of your week, eh?

Labels: apropos of nothing, meta

9 comments

Years ago and over a long stretch of time, a couple of my friends and I mulled the vagaries of the English language. From those ponderings sprang a list of nearly 200 "choose the right word" sentences suitable for any aspiring teachers to use. I share twenty of them with you now.

Directions: choose the correct word to complete the meaning of each sentence. (It sometimes helps to say them out loud.)

1. The attitude of the class was (discussed, disgust).
2. The pastry manufacturer finally got its business off the ground after several (false starts, false tarts).
3. While at the restaurant, Superman had trouble getting his (capon, cape on).
4. It is very easy to view the fish in this (manner, manor).
5. The (stares, stairs) we received from the carpenters were not pleasing.
6. The new thumb (tacks, tax) will hurt the average American.
7. The wayward minstrel absconded with the (loot, lute).
8. In the school play about the four food groups, my brother played a silent (roll, role).
9. His favorite class was (band, banned).
10. This is our (nuclear; new, clear) bomb.
11. Though the contract negotiations were going well, his personal life was in shambles, and he couldn't wait to reach a (happy medium, happy medium).
12. While on his virtual reality vacation, the poll-taker took leave of his (census, senses).
13. I should call the Guinness people and tell them about my brother's incredible (feat, feet).
14. There in (abasement, a basement) the mighty "king of the hill" mourned his downfall.
15. On this airline, each vulture is allowed one (carry-on, carrion) bag.
16. Madeline was hungry and disillusioned, and what she really needed at that moment was a (hero, hero).
17. She soon came to regret her (birth, berth) on the train.
18. While traveling abroad, the shoe salesman discovered that his (Polish, polish) wasn't quite up to par.
19. "I will now go (fast, fast)," stated the speedy ascetic.
20. I would like to make the salad dressing, but I don't have the (time, thyme).

How'd you do?

Labels: language

15 comments

Last week a group of us traveled to a nearby town to hear a music group from my alma mater. While there, I ran into a fellow I'd met once before a few years back, Mr. Wright. While I was talking to him, I remembered that when I'd met him before, he had carried a business card-sized handout that he would bestow on particular occasions - if, for instance, you were complaining or griping or otherwise talking about the "horrible day you had." He would reach into his wallet, pull one of these out, and hand it to you:


I wonder, how old do I have to be before I can get away with doing stuff like this?

Labels: funny

5 comments

I had occasion to have a meal with friends over the weekend when I heard a phrase I'd never heard before. Its utterer was a farmer, a salt of the earth, say-it-like-it-is kind of guy, which is the best kind of guy to hear phrases from, I think. Here's what he said:

"I knew she was nine miles of bad road when I met her."

Understand, I love a good colloquialism. I use them all the time, even if I don't know their origin. "The bee's knees," for instance. I don't understand why that equates to a good thing, but I like it. I sort of understand "like a mule looking at a new gate," but it took some time pondering it for me to get it, as I've never been around mules. Eventually I understood that a mule wouldn't necessarily like a new gate being installed and would probably be somewhat dumbfounded by one.

But I got "nine miles of bad road" instantly. It's such a great word picture! You ever driven on a bad road? You feel every pothole and bump. You wince as you feel the damage your car is taking. You have to drive much slower than usual and you don't feel like you've got the control of your vehicle that you normally would. Every bounce, drop, and noise add up to frustration and irritation that lasts long after you're off that road. "This should be fixed!" you think. If there's something worse than driving on a bad road, it's driving on nine miles of it.

None of the rest of us had heard the phrase before, but we all agreed it was a good one. Just not one you'd want applied to you.

Labels: language

4 comments

Hey, it's been a while since I wrote a game review and even longer since I pointed it out to y'all.

So why not go ahead and remedy that?

Labels: game review

0 comments