Sources of Anxiety in my life.

I have a headache, and a fever. It was really bad on monday. Not especially bad now. I think it’s a sinus infection (unless it’s the brain rot!). It was better before I went to work today. I didn’t notice the swollen lymph nodes under my jaw until this morning. But I really did need to go. I needed to construct and send out agendas for two meetings tomorrow morning. Which I also have to attend. Sleep soon. did I mention that I have high deductible health insurance?

My performance review group meets on thursday. I completed my self evaluation two weeks agoish. There are six competencies. You can rate yourself meets, exceeds, or does not meet expectations. When I first thought about it, I was thinking two exceeds, three meets, one does not meet. Then I heard the advice to toot my own horn and I talked myself up to 3 exceeds and 3 meets. In a fit of egomania I made it 4 exceeds and 2 meets. I’m not present for the thursday meeting. I get to hear the summary on friday. Fun times.

The Burning Crusade: Oh it burns alright…

So, I figured out my patching difficulties, or at least I have a theory. I think my bit torrent client never relinquished ports that WoW’s bit torrent client needed. (Why WoW can’t use your default bit torrent client, well, that’s another story). So, with that, everything installed successfully. I log in, and it’s a 35 minute wait to get onto my usual server. oy. 973 people in the que. Ugh.

So, I switch over to some random, not-fully-populated server. And I figure, what the hell, I’ll create one of them there new draenei characters. Well, first, I’m totally disappointed by the lack of texture and detail on the male draenei characters. They seem so featureless and bland, like, even worse than smurfs. Maybe it’s just that I’ve only been seeing them in the animated video things, but I think they’re disappointing compared to the other species, so maybe not. So, I make a throwaway chick draenei shaman, and I log in to the grand central station that is currently the draenei start town. Logically, this should be no surprise, but it was still a little overwhelming. =)

So, then I go back to my home server, things proceed pretty quickly, then it hangs looking for my characters. I shrug, go to another server, get my characters, but can’t actually log in with them. So … yeah. Great expansion guys. I’ll let you know how it is in a week or two, when I can actually log on to play.

silly WoW idea

One of the hair styles available in WoW inspired me to make a Marge-Simpson-looking undead character. I’m somewhat bemused by the idea of an entirely undead simpsons family. But you can’t make fat characters, and you can’t vary height.

Lisa – Mage, Homer – Priest or Warlock, Marge – Warrior or Priest, Bart – Rogue. Maggie would be the trickiest.

still not dead

So, my posting frequency has definitely declined. Anyway, a few highlights from the past couple weeks:

  • My intestines are now working normally
  • I have a level 50 WoW character and passed me in the leveling. Considering he started 3 months after me, this is no minor feat. =)
  • I am looking at apartments.
    • I’ve found one in an amazingly good location (just north of belmont on broadway). But the place is tiny, and the roommate doesn’t seem like a vast improvement on my already decent roomies. Rent is the same as here.
    • Another one is in wicker park. halfway between two blue line stops. The location itself is uninspiring, but it’s about a 20 minute walk from all sorts of cool stuff. Unfortunately, it’s not exactly easy to get from there to andersonville, the shore in lakeview, or anywhere else. Also, no really convenient gym (hello to working out downtown). The roommates seem great, though they labeled me more socially conservative than they (and I have to agree). Also, the straight one is H.O.T. (this is not good.) Rent would be $367/month.
    • Still checking out other places.
  • I finished Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and I’m about halfway through Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
  • I finished the first three books in Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series (Napoleonic wars with dragons. But not exactly what you might think. Not bad. Not sure if its approach to Chinese history/culture is any better than Memoirs of a Geisha was towards Japanese history/culture. It certainly has alot to say about such. Especially in book 2.)
  • I want a Nintendo DS, but they were big christmas sellers and are not easy to find.

That’s about it.

room seeking ad

I’m a 30 year old male. I work downtown for a government agency. I’m looking for compatible roommates, but I’m in no hurry. I want people I will get along with, people I could make friends with, and I realize that that takes time. Fortunately, my current housing situation isn’t terrible, and I have a month to month lease.

A brief overview, before I get into the details.

I prefer living with other people for social, not just financial reasons. I tend to get along reasonably well with others. I’m adaptable to various circumstances, though I tend towards the low key and prefer roommates who do likewise. I like quiet conversations in the living room, and a fair amount of time to myself in my room. Now, I’ll get into specifics.

Hours & Travel:

My job basically runs 8-5, downtown, and I’ll probably be getting up around 7 am with the attendant 11pm bedtime, depending upon whether I get my gym habit back in gear, I may get up earlier. I’ll have occasional travel, but will probably be home most evenings.

Cleanliness:

I like public spaces to be presentable and usable, not just a museum piece. So, an occasional sweatshirt, or empty glass in the living room isn’t a problem for me. Things that are smelly or mildewy, or a huge collection of clutter in the living room is problematic for me. I typically rinse off my dishes immediately, but sometimes take a day or two to clean them. I do better with dishwashers.

Noise/Roommate Disturbances:

The TV should only be on if someone is watching it right then. I don’t watch much TV, I prefer to use the internet for entertainment. As far as I’m concerned, having the TV on makes whatever room it’s in only suitable for watching TV. I will likely putter around in the kitchen for a bit and briefly (less than 5 seconds) use the blender in the morning for protein shakes. I do like to have people over occasionally, anywhere from once every two months to a couple of times a month. Typically for board game nights, or a potluck style dinner party.

Miscellaneous:

I’m geeky and gay, and neither of these are changing any time soon. I’ve lived with gay, straight, bi, male, and female roommates, and they’ve all made good roommates. I’ve lived with geeks and non-geeks, I’m okay with pretty much anything. I don’t smoke and have no desire to live in a place where people smoke. I’m vegetarian, but won’t protest you eating raw beef in front of me. I’ve voted Democratic in every major presidential election starting in 2000, but my political views are complex. I don’t own pets, and, because my mother is allergic, would prefer a place without. But mom won’t be visiting often (if ever), so that’s not a big deal.

vegan symmetry

It’s interesting that I first went vegan in chicago (I had been veganish up til then) while living in rogers park. And I was thinking it was soooo easy to be vegan in chicago. Having just come from pittsburgh.

And I reverted to veganish in chicago, after 5.5 years of veganism, while living in rogers park. Because it’s so hard being vegan in chicago. Having just come from minneapolis, and berkeley.

Mammal fear

So, I’ve been dog-sitting for and . I swear I’m not actively terrorizing Norton (unlike Ashley & Rex. I swear it was for their own good, chewing wires bad.) But the poor guy seems pretty terrorized. He keeps trying to run out of the apartment. He jumped back like 3 feet and yelped when I tried to pet him at one point. Maybe this is normal. Maybe he just misses Nathaniel and Krista. I dunno. But they’ll be back soon, little guy.

farewell now & zen, long live the unturkey

So, I noticed before christmas that the Now & Zen website (makers of the unturkey) had been taken over by a domain seller (hate those guys). It appears they sold their business to a company which then went under. Very, very sad. There are many vegans & vegetarians mourning their passing on the net (just google for [now and zen unturkey] and you’ll see what I mean).

So, someone posted the recipe on the web: http://www.unturkey.org/ Neat.