I finally feel like a human being again, having slept nearly until noon yesterday, gone to bed before midnight and sleeping again until about 10:30 this morning. On the bright side, I can put 28.5 hours towards comp time so I can take that trip in April.

After I got up yesterday, I picked up some supplies for my computer project: some cutting discs for my Dremel tool, safety goggles, since I couldn't find mine (which, naturally, I found as soon as I got home from buying the new pair), a cheap mouse, and some spraypaint. I couldn't find anything that exactly matched the ammo box, but it's a greenish gray that doesn't look entirely inappropriate to a military theme.

I visited the local army surplus store first, in hopes that they had military paints (they didn't). However, I picked up a half-width ammo box to hold the computer's smaller accessories (mouse, power adapter, etc.) for transportation. I also saw a large ammo box, and I got thinking — I've been wanting to do a casemod for my desktop machine for a while, and the big box is about the size of a desktop case... but I was good and didn't buy it; only one hardware project at a time!

I pulled apart the mouse and an extra keyboard I had lying around (it was Karen's before she bought one of those funky split Microsoft keyboards that I hate with a passion because I hit the 'b' key with my right index finger, and they've put it on the left side of the split), cleaned everything thoroughly with isopropyl alcohol, and spray-painted all the parts. (Fortunately, I thought ahead and marked the inside of each keycap so I knew where it was supposed to go when I reassembled the keyboard.) Now I just need to find some yellow model paint, so I can put "stenciled" letters onto the keycaps. But which one to label "ANY"? I'm seriously considering using the Dvorak layout, as I've been wanting to learn it for years.

There's a warning label on the mouse cord: WARNING: handling the cord on this product will expose you to lead, a chemical known to the State of California to cause [cancer, and] birth defects or other reproductive harm. Wash hands after handling. WTF?

Speaking of being good (that segue made a bit more sense before I reordered the paragraphs), someone on my ljflist posted a link to Second Life, an MMORPG which I need to avoid like the plague. Back in college, I was seriously addicted to MUDs; this would be like supercrack for me, since users can actually extend the game. That was the big lure of MUDs for me; I could build rooms and create objects, and write the code that would let the users do interesting things with them. But that was in a text-only world; add in the thrill of designing them graphically as well, and I'd have that monkey right on my back again. And the first hit is free; they've got a seven-day free trial. Bastards.

By the way, check out the nifty Spike Jones icon Karen made for me. I need to find my photo album so I can post a picture showing how eerie the resemblance is between my father and Spike Jones. Well, the physical resemblance, at any rate; somehow I can't imagine my father ever having the chutzpah to play the xylophone with his private parts. Oh, great, now I've got that image stuck in my head.