Curious About The History of an Area

The part of town I work in has some old buildings, and I get curious about them—but haven't really been able to dig up any information. (Some of the Large Pictures will take a while to load—I was using a work camera to take some of them and did not realize it was 8.0 Megapixel)

This building for some reason makes me think of a Speakeasy or Mad Scientist's Lair every time I walk past it.

I wish I had taken a picture before they dug it all up and redid the sidewalk—but there were some sections of old Brick Sidewalks that I used to walk on, on a daily basis.

Behind the building I work in, there is an old brick building that is an old warehouse.

The warehouse section of the building was added on to a much smaller building. In the North most room (Garage?), you can see what used to be the Face of the building.

They let us take a look around inside the other day, as a sort of Haunted Tour.

Apparently there is a room that some of the facilities people refuse to go into—they say the temperature drops dramatically when you walk in there. It was so cold yesterday when we took the tour, that if the temperature did drop, I don't think anyone would have noticed.

Juvenile, I Know

Every time I come around the corner and see this it makes me laugh—if it's too small to read click for High Rez.

Uhhh...Does My Ring Tone Really Warrant That Sort of Reaction?

So, Mondays I spend the morning at a different office. Since I'm only there once a week, I don't have a proper cubicle/office. When I first stated going to the location—I would just grab an empty cubicle. Then one day I showed up and all the cubicles were full.

So I went to the office coordinator and was giving her a hard time about not saving me a seat, and she gave me a proper office. It was technically assigned to someone else—someone that had literally used it once. Then they needed that office for another person that was to be on site regularly. I was moved to a corner office to share with someone else.

So I'm sitting here in the office and my Cell Phone Rings—and he Busts up Laughing. I answered the phone and did a little trouble shooting. When I hung up he apologized for laughing, he thought that my phone was some Illicit Website that I had unintentionally opened and was striving to desperately close.

I thought my ring tone was decidedly Jazzy—not Strip Teasey.

Rubik's Ice Cube

As Requested.

Not a Complete Bust

Tonight's Zombie Run Game Didn't Happen. All signs were pointing to the biggest session thus far.

I had five people RSVP (Usually I only have Two RSVP and I generally have 3-5 show). Of those five I had two show up (counting my wife). One of them has been out of a job for a while and has an interview coming up, but his art portfolio is not properly geared for the work they want him to do. So, I can understand that—he's cramming. One was sick—so, to that person thank you for not coming. One person was driving home from a trip to their Grandparents. I understand wanting to just go home and relax after a long trip.

So there we were. Me, my wife and one other player. The table leaves were in, the Game Master screen was up—dice a plenty itching to be rolled, Donuts, Brownies, and Ice Cream at the ready. Had there been at least one more player I would have gone ahead and played.

So, my wife stayed home, and I and the one player that did show went to a movie—a movie she didn't want to see—so, as the title says, the night was not a complete bust.

The next session falls on Halloween—so I know it's going to be nigh impossible to get the group together...Maybe. I still intend to run a session—I hope I can get enough people together. I really really want to play on Halloween.

The Stuff I See Walking to and From Work

I've taken some pictures (over the past year or so) of things I find interesting on my walk to and from the bus stop. The time has come to share. Behold: The Walk to/from Work Photo Dump.

There is this Greek or Roman style head.

Well—part of a head—over the entrance of an otherwise unassuming building.

I saw this guy pasted onto a wall one morning.

And I spotted this guy from the bus the next morning, so I had to walk over and get a picture.

I've seen several of these painted onto the sidewalk. Someone must have a Vendetta.

There was this little tower of stones on the sidewalk one day.

This appeared overnight.

This appeared overnight some time later in the same spot.

I've seen a so many abandoned Shoes, I started taking pics just so I could post about it.

That Grass is taller than me.

There's this plaque on a bench.

However the bench is missing an important element—this amuses me.

There's this area with Thistles that grow taller than me.

That isn't the tallest one but it's close. I was waiting and waiting to take a picture of the taller one because the flowers hadn't bloomed purple yet, and finally I decided I'd better take a picture before they chop the things down. Then I proceeded with video mode instead of camera. I didn't stop to change the camera mode and take the shot because I didn't want to miss the bus—next morning they had been chopped.

This one grew later, it wasn't tall. It's hard to tell from the picture, but that big leaf in the front is a good 3–4 feet wide. (Incidentally it was chopped the day after I took the picture)

When they finally bloomed I took a picture as well.

This was nowhere near Halloween. It was July.

A "Crop Circle"

And we'll end with a Rainbow.

My Rubik's Cubes

It all started at a previous job.

We were going through a slump (one that occurred every year). In fact, there were so few calls coming into the call center that they had started sending people home early—I would hold out as long as I could (they would send home volunteers first, and when they ran out of volunteers, they were forced to send people home based on schedule).

So I had this co-worker that decided to learn how to solve a Rubik's Cube. Shortly after he had it down, I decided that if he could do it, I could. No, I didn't figure it out myself, the internet is a wonderful thing.

I can solve a 3x3x3 cube in about two minutes, a 4x4x4 in about ten if I don't forget one of the moves, fifteen to twenty if I have to jog my memory. I'm pretty sure I could solve the 5x5x5 if I ever got my hands on one. The same goes for the puzzle cube based on the Rubik's Cube engineered in recent years by a Greek Engineer that allows for cubes from 5x5x5 to 11x11x11.

When I got tired of borrowing my coworkers cube, I bought my own. Then I got a 4x4x4. The 3x3x3 got lost, and I played with the 4x4x4 so much it was falling apart. Then Walmart started selling cubes in cheaper packaging and at a much better price and I ended up with a new 3x3x3 and 4x4x4. At one point I went to buy a cube at Walgreens since they had an advertised price of $5 combined with buy one get one free—I went to three stores and then asked for a rain-check.

I found that rain-check two years later and they still honored it.

I found an old cube from when I was a kid (you know, the first time these things were popular) and decided to combine my unhealthy obsession with Dice and my enjoyment of Rubik's Original Puzzle. I took all the stickers off and used white electricians tape to make it look like a pipped six sided die. An acquaintance at work borrowed it and he brought it back in pieces—the old plastic had disintegrated around one of the screws and the thing had just fallen apart in his hands. I was upset, but I also had a cube with stickers that were wearing out.

So I rubbed all the color off the stickers, and had myself an all white cube. Then I colored loose leaf paper reinforcements black with a Sharpie and applied 14 of them to the cube. It was much easier than the electrical tape version and looks a lot better as well. At first it seems that it's harder to solve, but once I wrapped my head around it; I realized that unlike a standard cube you only have to solve ten of the twenty pieces—the rest of the pieces are all Identical. All you have to solve is the eight corners and two edges.

My Wife and Kids got me a Disneyland Rubik's Cube when they went to Disneyland. My sister got me an All Spark Cube (i.e. Transformers) for my birthday. I bought a Rubik's Ice Cube recently—it's a 2x2x2 cube made of transparent plastic and has a cool stand that looks like it's made of polar ice.

I have one more—which is what prompted me to write this post. A co-worker came to me yesterday morning and gave me a cube that I think was swag at a recent company event. You must understand that although my job is in computers, I work for the division of my company that is essentially a construction company. One of the companies that we contract with had a "Safety" BBQ and Equipment Rodeo. I didn't attend, because it was held at another location in the middle of the day. This Cube is a promotional tchotchke for Komatsu. It has Bulldozers, Excavators, and Dump Trucks on it.

Is "Rocket Science" What It Used to Be?

I overheard a conversation in the break room today. Someone used that old adage, about what we do not being "rocket science."

I was thinking about that. It's my understanding that Rocket Science isn't really "Rocket Science" anymore—because we have it down to a ... well, Science.

Which begs the question. What is today's "Rocket Science?"