Ye Olde Emoticocks

Lately I’ve been having recurring dreams again, and this time they are not negative in any way. Thinking back about past recurring dreams, I see that they came along with some major life changes or decisions that were being pondered.

The first series I can immediately recall came about during my last year of high school. The dream was always the same. I was sitting atop a hill next to a dead tree in the middle of high grass that was greyish green and flowing gently in the breeze. A grey sandy beach cut the relatively calm ocean in front of me and soft moonlight spilled across it highlighting the various rocks from a huge and low-hung moon. The tall grass would glint in the moonlight and catch my eye. The roots of the tree were exposed from the earth, and the entire tree stood as a skeleton near the shore keeping a constant watch over the ocean shore. I would just sit there and watch the ocean for what seemed like hours, relatively numb but with an inner calm. This dream would occur every two or three nights, sometimes nightly, and brought me a good deal of peace.

The next major set of recurring dreams came about a few years or so into my relationship with Dan, and I now know looking back that I was struggling with the relationship and where it was going. The dream was always the same. I was floating in space and was near a moon-shaped rock or asteroid - say about 10 meters from it. I could plainly see it there in front of me. Without any action on my part in the dream, I would begin moving backward away from it at a steadily increasing pace. The further I got from it, the larger the rock would become in my field of vision, though I knew in my head that it wasn’t physically getting larger or moving toward me in any way. Eventually it filled my entire field of vision and the dream would end. Early on, the dream would end with me panicking about what was occurring as it was physically impossible, but later in the cycle I began to become increasing curious in the dream as to why it was happening and how to stop it. This dream would occur with frequency ranging from weekly to monthly for the better part of three years.

My current dream is an odd one. I find myself standing in a hallway with doors on both sides of me looking down the hallway. I begin to walk down the hall and feel myself elongating. I raise my arms to see if the sensation is there and can see my arms stretching before me toward the distant end of the hall. As this is happening, I continue walking with increasingly lighter footsteps until I feel as though my legs are going to lift off the ground and I will begin flying down the hallway while continuing to elongate. I’ve been having this dream for about two weeks now, and it’s occurring pretty much nightly. There’s no negative aspect of the current dream at all. In fact, when awake and walking down the hallway at work, I often find myself thinking about the dream and wishing I could stretch like that, or just fly to the end of it.

Interpret these as you will.

My e-mail address is being used by a spammer as the sender address. This, at least, is what I’m gathering based on the fact that I’ve had over 1300 spam messages in my inbox TODAY ALONE that are all either non-delivery replies from a generic post master account or out-of-office auto-replies from people I’ve never heard of regarding messages I never sent.

This recently happened at the ALA with one of our lists, and the only real solution with that was to change the name of the list mailing address. I don’t intend to change my e-mail address, and Google is doing a damn fine job of filtering them from my inbox. Only 10 or so have made it through to my box, so that’s not a terrible ratio by any means. 1300 is a large volume of e-mail for a single 24 hour period. I’m hopeful that in the coming days it will subside and I’ll go back to my usual 40-80 per day. Typing both of those numbers out makes it seem even more utterly ridiculous.

I wonder how many were actually sent from my name and made it through. Was my award winning e-mail address convincing enough to lure random internet strangers into divulging personal information and/or credit card numbers? I will have to settle for the fact that I may never know.

So I’ve been in my place for a full week now. The front room, while torn up when I first moved in, has been further torn up this week as they’ve been installing the new doors to the deck. Most of you know there was a bit of a complication with the lender regarding the doors, and so the developer had to shim in some temp ones. I can say, without a doubt, that the new ones are much nicer than those temps ever could hope to be.

Currently they’re putting the finishing touches on the surround, including a custom step made of the same hardwood they used on my floor. It will be stained to match the walnut color, which is awesome. The doors are recessed a bit from the room, and it actually opens up the space a bit more than what I was expecting.

With this project nearing completion, the punch list is dwindling to a few small, but significant things which I won’t go into ’cause it will bore you to tears. Long story short, the place is almost fully mine without the need for anyone coming in to do work!

Two days ago the wordpress iPhone app was released. Basically, I’m testing it out with this post.

I don’t know exactly how often I’ll make use of such services from my phone, but at least I have a quick option to post without loading the full site in Safari.

In other news, I was lucky enough to nab a Time Capsule from Amazon today during a very brief sale period. I’m guessing it was a mistake, so here’s hoping they honor the sale price. $239 for a 500GB model. Not bad. Now to get schmancy airport extreme for my kitchen so I can listen to music from my computer…

Hello booger butts. Just a quick update to let you all know I received approval from the bank’s appraiser to close. He’s got a final walkthrough a week from today to make sure they finished all the things they said they’d finish, but essentially I’m golden. As such, a closing place and time has been confirmed. I’m giving Kristy G some business as we’re closing with Chicago Title. Unfortunately its not her office where the closing is occuring. And its happening in the morning, so I should have all my little stuffs moved by the time everyone gets off work and maybe even have a new bed frame procured and ready to receive the ole mattress once the boy gets off work. Color me excited! I think its time to stop worrying and start loving the bomb. Err…

Things are moving along swimingly with the condo. I was able to get a sneak peek this past Friday evening and boy-oh-boy does it look like its gonna be nice when its finished. The timing of a few items still concerns me, but they claim to be on schedule for a July 25th completion - just in time for the appraiser and the inspector to do their final walk-throughs before closing!

Laundry list of items that were incomplete as of last Friday evening:

1. Kitchen cabinets, countertops, appliances - all doable in a single day.
2. Shower doors, and vanity in the bathroom need to be installed - half day at most.
3. French door installation - depending on any complications from framing the door, this shouldn’t take more than a day or two. Even with complications, there shouldn’t be problems getting this wrapped by close.
4. Pocket door installation on front bedroom - again, this is a half day at most.
5. Trim needs to be finished. Most rooms are done. Half day at most with only one guy working on it.
6. Entire place needs to be painted - a pro crew can do this in a couple hours.
7. Floor needs to be stained and sealed. Three days at most with a dedicated crew.

This of course does not include the clean-up they’ll have to do. There’s a shit ton of that as well, but its all coming along great. Pics pics pics!

I’ve got most of my stuff packed away now, which is good. Last night I started tackling the kitchen items I won’t need for the next two weeks. Here’s hoping everything continues to go so smoothly!

Lately things have been going rather smoothly with my life, and I’m avoiding the temptation to feel as though the other shoe is going to drop. There were a few tense moments with the condo where I thought there was a chance I wouldn’t be able to land it. However, I have received good news from my mortgage broker.

Apparently I’ll be able to work the loan(s) so that I don’t get hit with PMI. That’s pretty hot, as even though its tax-deductible now, its a waste of cash. The second, and this is fucking HUGE, is that because I’m buying in a “target area” (i.e., the ever-gentrifying barrio which is the western side of the Ukrainian Village) I’m eligible for Chicago’s TaxSmart program. Essentially I’ll be able to claim an additional tax deduction of 20% of the interest I’ve paid on my mortgage come next spring. So, not only am I getting a kick ass place in a kick ass neighborhood, I’ll also be applying an additional 20% of my payments to my principal. At least that’s what I’m telling myself now. Depending on how the finances are looking after closing, I may be forced to wait on new furniture until I get that deal squared away.

Not only this, but I’ve been informed that the former tenant has vacated the premises and construction has begun ahead of schedule. This is good since I had my kick-ass lawyer put a contingency in the contract that I could freely backout without penalty if the closing did not happen before September 1st. Basically, I don’t have to worry about the unit not being done in the time frame specified. The cabinets were already ordered like a month ago and the flooring is on hand and ready to be installed.

My downstairs neighbors have also informed me that one of them will be subletting my current apartment from me as well as the half garage space. They’re geared up and ready for a 9/1 move date, so I’ll have to eat at most a single month’s rent. Maybe less, depending when the closing actually occurs. I can move everything I own in less than 4 hours total, so it shouldn’t be a huge deal at all. In fact, I may pack up the truck on my way to the closing.

Now if I could just sell that damn dining room table before I move…

A.K.A. the introduction of the terms “frak” and “frakking” into the common vernacular.

Most people peg me, rather correctly, as a nerd within a short amount of time knowing me. I won’t deny it. I watch Sci Fi television shows, geek out on computers and video games, and have done my fair share of nerdy things in my lifetime. That said, I don’t know how to feel about a term from a science fiction show entering into everyday language.

Lately I’ve noticed more and more individuals using the word “frak” in lieu of fuck. The term originates, as far as I’m aware, from the new incarnation of Battlestar Galactica - which is in its fourth and final season. Don’t get me wrong. I love the show (even if the pace is a tad bit slow this season), but I’m not entirely sure how to feel about this growing switch in verbiage. On one hand, using “frak” instead of fuck is more polite in everyday conversation. Its great for an office situation when something goes horribly awry and you need a good four letter word substitute so the boss does chew you a new one for swearing on the job.

On the other hand, it makes me think “if you are using this instead of the actual word ‘fuck’ and everyone knows what you mean by it when you say it, then doesn’t the word carry the same weight and hence can be considered inpolite?” I can say scheiße instead of shit, but anyone who knows what it means knows that I’m just saying shit in German. The word carries the same weight in my mind and is no more polite or acceptable in polite conversation than saying shit.

Am I wrong?

Not five minutes after my last post I received a phone call from La Fruiteria informing me that my iMac was ready for pick up. My only explanation beyond this being purely coincidence is that Steve-a-reno subscribes to the all important emoticocks RSS feed to check on my levels of satisfaction with his computers. He used his newly acquired knowledge of my upset with the lag in return of my precious fruit along with the red phone in his office (complimented with brushed aluminum, of course) which is hard-wired to the Fruiteria on North Michigan to inform them to step up the pace, which resulted in the return of my newly repaired (hopefully for the last time) fruit computer. Bravo, Steve! Good show, mate!

For those not in the loop, I had to take my iMac into the Fruiteria to get serviced due to random shutdowns at varying intervals. I could be checking my e-mail or doing something equally non-intensive as hitting www.google.com and BLAMMO it just shuts down. It could happen anywhere from 5 minutes to 5 hours of use, so it was a bit pesky of an issue and definitely not software related.

So it was in the shop for 4 days the week before last to get the issue resolved. Bring it home, have it on for 5 minutes and KABLOOIE! Shuts down out of nowhere. Back to the Fruiteria with you, dear iMac. Its been almost a week now and I’ve not heard a single word. I’m guessing they are taking their time to properly repair the machine. Or perhaps archiving my porn collection for future review by Apple Geniuses.

At any rate, I would like my machine back soonish. Hopefully they cannot resolve the issue and I’ll be forced to take a brand new iMac with marginally better specs. At any rate, I want my computer back (which is really to say that I want my porn back)!