My Chumby One arrived today - for those of you who haven't heard of the gadget, it's an all-in-one alarm clock / radio / digital photo frame / mp3 player / yadda yadda yadda and it's got wifi so it can do internet radio.

It's also an open platform and people have written hundreds of "widgets" for it to do anything from play tic-tac-toe to show stock reports and weather forecasts.

Despite the name, this is the Chumby company's second iteration of the hardware - the first was covered in squishy upholstery, making it look a bit like a football that had swallowed an iPhone. I've got the second revision, which is more like a tiny white toaster. It's way smaller than expected - I had envisioned something the size of a stack of CD cases, but it's closer to a stack of playing cards (maybe 1/2" larger in each direction).

My current clock is also a combo alarm clock / radio / photo frame / mp3 player, but it's not hackable in the least and the interface sucks and the internal speaker blew up so I had to rewire it to drive an external speaker.

I'm looking forward to setting up the Chumby and maybe writing a widget for it (I really want a "solve these math equations to turn off the alarm clock" setting), and I'll probably see how much of the old clock I can salvage / reverse engineer.

(and other communal house type groups)

This might be interesting for y'all - http://lifehacker.com/5425966/billsarein-makes-short-work-of-shared-living-expenses

I'm cleaning out a good chunk of cushions and polyfill stuffing.
Anyone got a project coming up that could use it? Lemme know & I'll set you up. :)

there were snowflakes falling from the sky this afternoon!

run!

my apartment has exceptionally good insulation, but it's still only barely enough to keep the cold away. brrr.

there's a "what would be on my warning label?" meme going around


the best one i've come up with for myself -

"caution - contents could be elsewhere."

Today at the gym I stretched then did 10 minutes each of the following:
biked(the pedals below me), ran/walked(about half each),
biked recumbently, elliptical'd and swam.
Just before I swam I did 65 pushups, 65 crunches,
30 leg lifts and some more deep stretching.

I don't eat like an asshole and I work out a few times a week at least.
*shakes tiny fist* mrf.

The fog is amazing.
We went out on the back porch and it was foggy.
On the porch.
It was quite thick on our way home too. Very exciting.
I love weather.
But not cold, I really need some long sleeved t-shirts.
(Savers here I come! Man, I love thrift stores.)

no strep, no mumps, just flu.

swelling's died down, tired but feeling OK.

now my neck is all swollen.

stupid monkey.

going to urgent care shortly.

fever broke, and now i have the very strange sensation of feeling totally congested while still being able to breathe normally.

i think i have a sinus monkey.

current fever - 101.5

silly me thought i was getting better n' stuff.

fuckit.

i was feeling slightly less crappy.

but now i get a migraine.

worst weekend ever.

“Class never runs scared. It is sure-footed and confident, and it can handle whatever comes along. Class has a sense of humor. It knows that a good laugh is the best lubricant for oiling the machinery of human relations. Class never makes excuses. It takes its lumps and learns from mistakes...Class is comfortable in its own skin. It never puts on airs. Class never tries to build itself up by tearing others down. If you have class, you've got it made. ”

—Taken From "Dear Abby" Many Years Ago

both tonsils are now very unhappy.

warm salt water gargle works well.

can't actually sleep.

i feel hoooooorrid. just spent a solid 24 hours in bed.

now awake, but pretty heavily nyquil'd. someone please tell me why pot is illegal but nyquil we feed to children? it is strong stuff.

had weird dreams about being trapped in an electronics schematic and my grandfather being amazed by electric razors.

hey at least i don't hurt so much.

more ice cream then back to bed.

i've got tonsillitis.

In my recurring dreams where I can't get back home after a trip,
maybe it's not that I'm afraid to go back or that I want to escape.

Maybe it's that things have changed, and I have changed. I can't go back, because there is no going back.

Maybe my unsuccessful attempts to return "home" are my own resistance to accepting this truth.

Next time if I can realize I'm dreaming, I'll try flowing with it, accepting that I'm not going "home," and seeing where I am then and what it has to teach me.

the tiny 2 gig flash drive i keep on my keychain broke (the chain loop broke off), so i ordered an even smaller 32 gig drive.

i realized on my way to work today that it will easily hold the entire Win7 virtual machine I use to connect to work from home, with plenty of space to spare for development tools.

in the future, will we even own computers?