Oddball Update

Just finished working for the day. I revised the new homepage design I’ve been putting together all week for the company I work for. It’s going to be very attractive, I can tell you that much — a definite improvement over what we’ve got. This is the kind of stuff I enjoy doing most, so I’m happy about it.

Today Apple and I went out for lunch at a local Thai cafe. It was excellent — two lunch specials with soup included, plus a Thai iced tea, for under $18. Afterwards Apple went grocery shopping while I gave my boss’ F-250 pickup some exercise. (He’s in China and asked me to drive the truck occasionally.) We made it back in the afternoon and I worked into the evening. It occurred to me that it’s worth more than I realize to have flexibility like this. I don’t mind working all day if I can take one- to two-hour breaks every so often. Having command of one’s own timetable is priceless.

I learned the other day that I have an evil twin running around the city. While the goat and I were out for a drive on a particularly cool, beautiful evening, I ran across another black GTO with 18-inch wheels that was also equipped with the rarely-seen Sport Appearance Package. The only thing the owner had not opted for was the SAP uplevel spoiler. I tried to get the guy’s attention, but he was too busy “looking for cookies,” which my friends will understand immediately. I wonder if this guy is a permanent or a seasonal resident? He doesn’t frequent the GTO board, because I polled for him there. I didn’t notice whether it was an ‘05 or an ‘06, or what color interior he had. But so far it’s the closest thing to my car that I’ve seen with my own two eyes. Even at that, I’ll take it — uniqueness rocks. I have to thank my dad for another one of his timeless quotes which I shall call upon now, in regards to the penchant both of us have for liking cars with some exclusivity attached: “I don’t want to see my ass coming and going every time I turn the corner.”

Got a new printer for my home office this week. It’s a Brother MFC-7420, a multifunction printer / scanner / copier / fax machine that’s laser-based instead of inkjet-based. I’m loving it so far. Everything it does, it does quickly, quietly and without a lot of hassle. It prints hella fast, and the quality — even in toner saving mode — is worlds better than the decade-old DeskJet I had previously. (It doesn’t do raster graphics well, but that’s not a concern.) The auto document feeder is great for scanning a stack of forms or the like and saving them to monochrome 600dpi TIFF files or PDFs — all with the press of two buttons; I don’t even need to touch the computer keyboard. Overall I’m very pleased with it. I don’t know that much about Brother printers, but I do know that A) I hate Lexmark, so they were out of the picture and B) the only other feature-comparable machine within my budget, an HP LaserJet all-in-one, was a sheetfed-only form factor and did not have a flat scanner glass, which I did not like.

Got the weekend all planned out already. Tomorrow I’m going to try to permanently fix KITT’s shifter linkage, but of course, since the front passenger tire (which is damaged) is most likely completely flat, I’ll have to pump some air into it with a compact compressor first. Then screw the linkage back on, then take it to the town center to fill the tire the rest of the way. I’m taking my ramps up to the garage instead of jacking it, should be much kinder to the old girl.

Afterwards I need to do some work on a local fitness club’s website, and then on Sunday the entire day will be given over to Gulfstream. I now have the site running on the Wordpress CMS, including all of the content my friends developed and mocked up so far. I have news articles posting on the homepage, now have to do is clean up the homepage design and mock up the events page. Then I have to brainstorm up some content where the client did not supply us with much (or any).

I’m keeping Saturday evening free for Apple and I. It’s our sixth anniversary.

Categorized as Life