Archive for December, 2007

a wish for jeans that fit

12/2/2007

Years ago it was really easy for my to buy jeans. My size has been 38×30 for a long time and hasn’t changed.

Or maybe it has.

Here’s the situation: I need 2 pairs of new jeans.

This should be as simple as..

1. Go to store
2. Buy two pair of 38×30 jeans
3. Go home

But it’s not that simple.

I bought two pair of supposed “premium” 5-star 38×30 Wranglers.

Neither pair fits. Both are too big and too long.

The too-big thing I can understand. I have been treadmill’ing regularly and it’s  possible I’ve been slimming down enough that my jeans are fitting looser.

The too-long thing I don’t understand at all. I have not shrunk.

I know what you’re thinking..

Why don’t you just try on clothes in the store before buying them?

I can’t stand doing that. Correction: I don’t mind trying on clothes. What I do mind is trying to find someone to unlock the fucking door to the changing room. And of course, no one is ever around.

Sucks.

So anyway I’ll be returning the jeans I bought tomorrow and see if I can find some schmuck to open the changing room door.. because I basically have no choice since I have to just to make sure jeans fucking fit right.

Bleah.

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a wish for jeans that fit part 2

12/2/2007

[part 1]

I went to return my jeans today and I was refunded without issue.

I then headed straight to the clothes department determined to find jeans that fit me correctly. Fortune was on my side and I easily found an employee who had the changing rooms unlocked.

I tried on at least 8 pairs of jeans.

Did I find any that fit?

Yes.

As stated in my previous post (see part 1 linked at top) I’ve been wearing 38×30 for years and now that size doesn’t fit anymore.

I will now reveal to you something that makes no sense at all.

Want to know what fits me now?

36×29 “relaxed fit”.

I’m not kidding.

Evidently I’m slimmer and I’ve shrunk an inch.

Or maybe they make jeans differently than they used to.

I bought two pair. I washed them and they fit perfect. :D

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What does "Frosted Side" mean, anyway?

12/4/2007

Recently I’ve been debating whether to put my blog back on menga.net (which at present is just a “pointer page”). After thinking about it I said “Nah”. Too much hassle. To date I’ve moved my blog 3 times. Each time it was a pain in the ass; that I don’t need. Instead I just modified that site to look more appealing even though it’s only one web page.

As I was pondering the whole move-the-blog-again thing, I realized that I never really explained what Frosted Side is all about.

This is not an exciting story, but I’m a-gonna tell it anyway. :)

In the late 1990’s I wanted to run a BBS, so I did. And if you ran one you had to have a title so people could remember it. I called it The Frosted Side and even though it had a very short run it did happen to make it into Jason Scott’s 860 BBS List.

The Frosted Side is actually a really bad joke on Star Wars. You know that part in Return of the Jedi where Darth says “Give yourself to the dark side”? Well, a popular breakfast cereal of the day was Frosted Mini-Wheats. The wheat side was for the “good” part of you and the frosted side (a-ha!) was for the “bad”, i.e. “kid” in you. One of my ANSI screens actually said “Give in to The Frosted Side”. Get it? See, I told you it was a really cheesy bad joke. (boo.. hiss..)

When the internet came ’round in full swing, the fourth domain I ever registered was frostedside.com circa 1999 and have had it ever since.

The Frosted Side eventually turned into Frosted Side Productions; a business I ran for a while that did video production and television commercial advertising/marketing. I could go back to that if I wanted to, but I have a super-cool-awesome job here in Florida and don’t want to give that up. :D

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but you were born to rub me first

12/5/2007

I have a land-line phone only because my DSL connection requires it. The only calls I ever receive on that line are telemarketers and bill collectors looking for people THAT ARE NOT ME.

I do have a phone attached to the line with a built-in answering machine. I have it set to play a message then hang up.

This is what it plays (wav file).

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cold is a soul sucker

12/5/2007

Originally I wanted to call this post “cold is a death dealer” but that sounded a bit too morbid (heh) so I decided to go with “soul sucker” instead.

As I write this it’s a lil’ after three in the afternoon and it is 73° in Tampa. Very nice.

Back at the stomping grounds it’s 28.8°. Very shitty.

I have two reactions to that. First I’m surprised because it’s 44 degrees colder up there; that’s a huge difference. Second, I feel slight nausea.

I am quite certain that I will be reminiscing of the bad old days up north every time the winter season comes ’round. After all, I did grow up there so it’s not like I can just forget about it.

Let me explain why I feel nausea at the mere thought of temps that cold:

There is absolutely nothing good about bitter cold days.

• Everything is literally freezing.
• The sky is either way too bright or dull gray. If it’s bright, your eyes hurt the moment you’re out the door from the blinding light of the sun combined with reflections of ice/snow/whatever. If dull gray, that’s not exactly a pick-me-up if you catch my meaning.
• More on the bright-sky scene: A gleaming bright sun with no warmth outside is just unnatural to me. That kind of stuff messes with your head. You expect warmth and there is none.
• There’s no snowfall because it’s too cold for it, so all you’ve got is whatever snow is there (if any) combined with salt, sand and dirt. In other words, there’s nothing good on the eyes out there.
• You actually debate with yourself whether you have to go outside or not. I know I have to go buy some milk, but.. I dunno.. maybe I can go without until tomorrow.. Yes, this really happens.

It’s thoughts like this that are tough to shake. Just seeing the numbers on a computer screen send a wave of memories thru my head.

So why do I do it? Do I like punishing myself or something?

No.

I do it to remind myself of what I left behind; it’s totally worth it to deal with a lil’ nausea when it’s immediately followed by the thought of Well, at least I don’t have to deal with that shit.

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i am twitter’ing

12/7/2007

I was able to get  Twitter working in my instant messenger so I decided to get an account.

You can see my “tweets” at twitter.com/frostedside.

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new windshield in ‘05 gmc canyon

12/7/2007

Above: Before (old glass out, note the dangling rear view mirror)

Above: After (it doesn’t reflect much better than this..)

I have to let my truck sit for a few hours before I drive her again, but it will be well worth it.

The previous windshield was pitted badly. I had thought it was just dirty, but no matter how many times I cleaned it (inside and out) the pits remained. However I still drove it around like this until this morning. The sun hit the glass and I couldn’t see a thing with all those pits. Very scary stuff. It was at that point I said “Yep. This has gotta be changed out.”

I called up my insurance company and found out the glass was covered, so good deal there. They scheduled a shop to stop over, which they did (see above) and changed out the glass. Even though I haven’t driven her with the new glass yet, the difference is like night and day. The most important part is that I will now see properly while driving again.

Safety first. :)

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For the fans: Back to the Future The Ride pics from March 25, 2007

12/7/2007

Due to the outpouring of emotion I’ve seen for the Back to the Future ride video I shot on March 25 2007 I decided to post some full resolution images shot that day.

I know a lot of you out there were really outright upset that you missed the chance to get on the ride one last time. I also know that photos can’t replicate what experiencing the ride was like, but at least you’ve got something. :)

Click any image below for super-huge version.

If you like this, please tell a friend.

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bot sentry is my motor (pidgin)

12/8/2007

The instant messenger I’m currently using as my primary is Pidgin. This is one of those all-in-one things that connects to just about any chat network on the planet (AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, MSN, etc.)

Two of the chat networks I connect to, ICQ and Yahoo, have a spam problem. As if e-mail spam wasn’t bad enough, now it was coming thru on my messenger. For ICQ I can understand the spam because that system is absolutely rampant with bots and spammers. But for Yahoo it’s surprising. If you happen to use the from-Yahoo client (which most people do) you’ve probably seen the “report spam” option in it. This confirms that yes, it’s a problem.

Pidgin is the only instant messenger client I know of in existence that has a bulletproof anti-spam plugin. It’s called Bot Sentry and wow does it work well. The process of how it works is stupidly easy. If a message comes in from someone not on your contact list, Bot Sentry will ask the user a question. If the user gets it right, the user is “whitelisted” and you receive the message. If not, the user is put on your local blacklist.

Here are the top 3 reasons I’m lovin’ Bot Sentry:

1. Blocks ALL spam.

Duh.

2. If the user can’t speak English, I never get the message.

Previous to using Bot Sentry I would get messages from people (meaning not bots or spammers) who could barely speak English on ICQ. It happened a lot and it was annoying.

3. Pick and choose which accounts have Bot Sentry enabled.

Whoever did this plugin really had the user in mind. For each account you have enabled in Pidgin you can enable or disable Bot Sentry, so it’s not a “one-for-all”. Very, very cool.

. . .

Instant messaging for me improved a lot by having this simple - and very effective - plugin installed. It’s awesome.

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frugal tip of the moment: the soap dispenser

12/9/2007

I think most people would concur that plain ol’ bar soap sucks. It’s been so long since I’ve used soap in that form that I can’t even remember the last time I used it.

The only drawback to liquid soap is that it’s more expensive. If you wash your hands and face a lot (such as I do) it adds up quick.

Today I decided to purchase a jug of SoftSoap liquid soap along with a soap dispenser. I thought the jug was going to be at least five bucks, but it was only $3.50. Consider how much soap you get, that’s cheap.

The dispenser was actually more expensive than the soap itself. I got one of those cool looking ones that has a fading blue. Hey, if you’re going to get a dispenser you might as well get one that looks nice. It’s also see-thru so I know when to fill it.

Considering a small soap+dispenser is close to two bucks, the cost of the jug and dispenser will pay for itself after two fills. And you get something like six fills out of a jug (possibly more).

I don’t know why I didn’t do this sooner.

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