We had our work Xmas party today and it had the usual fare: awkward conversation, bad food, endless discussions of how/why/what-sort-of/no-really-why-am-I vegetarian (on behalf of all vegetarians: sigh).
My casual Friday shirt du jour was a Neon Genesis Evangelion shirt, black and red with the NERV logo and the phrase "God's in His heaven and all's right with the world." This is my sly/cynical version of an Xmas shirt. 8)
Anyway, after a brief discussion with one of the waitresses about the NGE mangas (tee hee), I was sitting innocently at a table, when I noticed one of the (cute, young) chef type people grinning at me.
Then he pointed both fingers at me, pointed his thumbs at his chest, and gave me two big thumbs up while mugging and grinning. Reading through this, you probably know exactly what he meant, but at the time I had no idea. I actually had to stop myself from turning to see if there was anyone behind me.
Apparently, he liked my shirt.
December 16, 2005
December 14, 2005
mult-eye-task-ing
On a whim (and I have lots of those) I bought a bunch of cross-stitching projects to make for my friend Anne for this Xmas. Sadly, just because they're less than $10 to buy, does not make them quick to do. I quite like cross-stitch though, it's a lot like pixel art and making things with my hands is always rewarding.
But the problem was how to find time to devote to actually making them, because I practically live on my computer when I'm not at work, and cross-stitch takes both hands and pretty much all of my attention. The solution is to get my computer to read to me.
Macs have been able to speak arbitrary text for a very long time (since at least the late eighties when the Talking Moose was pretty damn funny), and the speech system has been getting progressively more sophisticated. I get my computer to read stories to me, which have the advantage of being real sentences and it's quite good at the subtleties of English. Emma-sensei and I were testing it the other night, and it clearly uses context to decide how to pronounce words. For instance, in sentences it was (mostly) correct when it used reject as a verb (short re) or a noun (long ree).
I have a list of words that it consistently gets wrong though, and probably banal (to rhyme with anal) is my favourite. Banal conversation was never so amusing. (Or is this just an Americanism? It certainly says "erb garden".)
I've finished a book mark (Tigger with butterflies!) and almost finished one of the pictures (Tigger again, this time with flowers and trees (*@#ing trees)).
I might try to resurrect a miracle and start beading again. Most of you probably remember the beer coolers I made years ago with beaded thingies on the front. I've been trying to remember what the penguins on "Lager Drink" looked like. I don't suppose anyone has any pictures?
But the problem was how to find time to devote to actually making them, because I practically live on my computer when I'm not at work, and cross-stitch takes both hands and pretty much all of my attention. The solution is to get my computer to read to me.
Macs have been able to speak arbitrary text for a very long time (since at least the late eighties when the Talking Moose was pretty damn funny), and the speech system has been getting progressively more sophisticated. I get my computer to read stories to me, which have the advantage of being real sentences and it's quite good at the subtleties of English. Emma-sensei and I were testing it the other night, and it clearly uses context to decide how to pronounce words. For instance, in sentences it was (mostly) correct when it used reject as a verb (short re) or a noun (long ree).
I have a list of words that it consistently gets wrong though, and probably banal (to rhyme with anal) is my favourite. Banal conversation was never so amusing. (Or is this just an Americanism? It certainly says "erb garden".)
I've finished a book mark (Tigger with butterflies!) and almost finished one of the pictures (Tigger again, this time with flowers and trees (*@#ing trees)).
I might try to resurrect a miracle and start beading again. Most of you probably remember the beer coolers I made years ago with beaded thingies on the front. I've been trying to remember what the penguins on "Lager Drink" looked like. I don't suppose anyone has any pictures?
December 02, 2005
Casual Friday
In the past few months the IT people where I work have started wearing jeans and tshirts on Fridays. It's kind of cute, because someone thought of it, and now everyone does it, but as far as I know, nobody talks about it. (The first rule of casual Friday is...)
So, anyway, I wore my Gatchaman shirt today. Some of you might remember it as G-Force, but basically the shirt has the logo, a red G on a yellow background.
One of the few women I work with wandered past and interrupted me to say, "Super girl, super girl."
Me: It's not Super Girl, it's Gatchaman, G-Force. You know, that old animated tv show...
She: [laughing meanly and shaking her head] That's just sad. Sad!
Me: [flatly] I'm sure you think so.
She: [nothing to say at all, wandered away]
Victory! She was wearing an old, tatty, give-away Microsoft shirt. As she does almost every day. My shirt is nerdy, but hers is an ad for an out-of-date version of a Microsoft server product. Hah!
This woman is known crap-head anyway; she once asked me "Why is your life so empty that you watch *Batman*?" That day I couldn't think of a good answer ("Fuck off!" would have been perfect, but is a little outside my comfort zone.) so I owe her many snide comments.
By way of contrast, one of the guys who I work with occasionally is a much nicer person. We chat about animated shows and House and all sorts of things.
He: [walking past] Hi.
Me: Hi.
He: [notices shirt, looks jealous] Where do you keep finding these shirts!? I want a Green Lantern one...
And then five minutes of chat about finding cool shirts and variations on the Green Lantern logo ensued. Rock.
In other news, I'm another year older, and much less in debt. I love my friends. My mother visited for a week, but has now gone back to the less-than-tender mercies of my sisters. Finally, I loved HP4, and though there's no sneaky thing at the end of the credits, the Jarvis Cocker power ballad is worth waiting for.
So, anyway, I wore my Gatchaman shirt today. Some of you might remember it as G-Force, but basically the shirt has the logo, a red G on a yellow background.
One of the few women I work with wandered past and interrupted me to say, "Super girl, super girl."
Me: It's not Super Girl, it's Gatchaman, G-Force. You know, that old animated tv show...
She: [laughing meanly and shaking her head] That's just sad. Sad!
Me: [flatly] I'm sure you think so.
She: [nothing to say at all, wandered away]
Victory! She was wearing an old, tatty, give-away Microsoft shirt. As she does almost every day. My shirt is nerdy, but hers is an ad for an out-of-date version of a Microsoft server product. Hah!
This woman is known crap-head anyway; she once asked me "Why is your life so empty that you watch *Batman*?" That day I couldn't think of a good answer ("Fuck off!" would have been perfect, but is a little outside my comfort zone.) so I owe her many snide comments.
By way of contrast, one of the guys who I work with occasionally is a much nicer person. We chat about animated shows and House and all sorts of things.
He: [walking past] Hi.
Me: Hi.
He: [notices shirt, looks jealous] Where do you keep finding these shirts!? I want a Green Lantern one...
And then five minutes of chat about finding cool shirts and variations on the Green Lantern logo ensued. Rock.
In other news, I'm another year older, and much less in debt. I love my friends. My mother visited for a week, but has now gone back to the less-than-tender mercies of my sisters. Finally, I loved HP4, and though there's no sneaky thing at the end of the credits, the Jarvis Cocker power ballad is worth waiting for.
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