Watch this soon

Posted by Kyle as Life, Love

Please, watch this:  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0416773/

I found myself thinking, “this writer must be a naive teenager, getting a first taste of love and exploding onto the pages of script in a hurried fashion, befitting a person with nothing else in life to focus on.”

Then, I realized that my personal story was deflecting the real message.  I started to actually remember what it felt like to be in these situations, and how they can feel.  Actual feeling, not just those canned sound effects and laughter you come to grow so comfortable with.

Watch this movie.  Remember why you decided to open your heart in the first place.

Standing Up

Posted by Kyle as Bike, Life, Standing

I found something this morning that I thought was lost forever.

Positive Thinking

I was riding into work this morning and had been going pretty steadily for about 10 miles.  It was drizzly, and I was thinking negative thoughts.  Things like “if I crashed, maybe my bike will break so I can replace it”.  I had a general sense of just not wanting to ride.

Suddenly I thought, “wait just one darn minute! There’s nothing actually wrong, I’m just *trying* to think bad things so it’s easier to quit!”  I realized I’ve been doing that for a very long time now.  I had this sudden flashback to a time when I almost always thought positively and loved the feeling of attempting a difficult challenge, and felt emboldened by others thinking that a task was impossibly hard.

It was like a switch.  Suddenly the ride was incredibly easy.  The weather disappeared.  I laughed out loud at how dumb I had been acting.  I smiled in a way that my face must have forgotten because my cheeks hurt.

I’ve been beaten down pretty hard the last couple years (both by myself and others and situations).  It has taken me a while to remember that I can actually stand up.

My Crazy Kitty

Posted by Kyle as Kitty

I got home today from visiting Eric & Karen and when I opened the door, I expected the usual barage of meows that tell me that I’m in trouble for being away so long.  But, I heard nothing.  I figured she was probably napping somewhere and wasn’t expecting me at such an atypical hour.  I searched the house, looking in her usual hiding places.  I couldn’t find her anywhere.

Then I had a flash back to a conversation I had with EJ just before I left.  He had opened wide a window in my living room that had a slightly ripped screen at the bottom.  I said, “no, I don’t open that all the way because I don’t want Skully to even think about trying to crawl out.  I ran straight to that window, and the rip went all the way across the bottom.  Clearly something had exited through that newly formed hole.  I slowly leaned forward and looked outside.  Skully was sitting, scrunched up on the narrow fence between the downstairs apartments.  As soon as she saw me she started meowing hysterically, wild eyed, like she had been sitting on that fence for days without sleep.

I immediately ran out and knocked on the doors of the apartments adjacent to that fence.  No answer.  I ran around to the next lot, mostly empty, and tried to coax her to come out to the end of the fence that connected to a much higher perpendicular fence, but she was too scared.  I ran back in and ripped the screen frame out of the window to see how far I could lean out, but it was a good 5 meters down.

Then I put on pants and real shoes because I was ready to do some climbing.  I had a small step stool that would allow me to get high enough to climb up to the top of the taller fence and walk tight-rope-style across the smaller fence to retrieve my kitty.  Before this daring effort, I gave one last try at running around knocking on doors, including my manager’s, but, still, nobody answered.

I headed back to my apartment to get the step stool, and when I swung the door open, there was Skully.

Some combination of removing the screen so that there was a much easier entrance and my being there, calling to her must have been enough to give her the courage to climb up the scraggly tree that lives on that wall.

She doesn’t seem hurt.  She’s extremely dusty.  We had a good sit and cuddle session.

Crazy kitty…

Frank The Aeonium!

Posted by Kyle as frank, plants

I think we have a winner.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/99061

Purple Crest Aeonium, Black Tree Aeonium ‘Schwarzkopf’
Aeonium arboreum var. atropurpureum f. nigrum

Frank’s Growing… Up

Posted by Kyle as frank, plants

Frank is getting really tall:

http://www.ky13.net/pics/misc/frank/

Can anyone help me identify him?

Even Newer <Body>

Posted by Kyle as Tech

Since my closet colo is going away, I decided to move back to a real colo.  Yes, ky13.net is coming out of the closet. =P

I’m now on a VM with some friends.  It’s a pretty cool setup.  I like that I have access to the console through VMware Server client so that if something goes horribly wrong I can rescue it without needing someone at the machine.

New <Body>

Posted by Kyle as Tech

The hardware swap over went fairly smoothly. ky13.net is now running on an Intel Mac Mini. The old hardware will be desecrated and pooped on. Pics to follow.

Second Impressions

Posted by Kyle as Drinks, Gaming

So, I tried another Mana Potion today. They don’t work. I don’t get the alert feeling I get with either espresso or Monster. Final opinion, not worth the price or nasty taste.

Potion FTW

Posted by Kyle as Drinks, Gaming

Well, I tried my first Mana Energy Potion. It is really strong. Tastes like green plastic. We’ll see how long it takes to get to my blood stream.

Yuck!

Posted by Kyle as Food

For the record: TJ’s Pad Thai with Tofu rice bowl… gross.