The Enormous Crocodile
(5-14 June 2005)

14 June 2005
-Spent the whole day with a tremendous migraine.  At certain points, I definitely had the sense that I was experiencing the worst pain I'd ever felt.  It takes a lot to be involuntarily screaming when no one else is around.  The hardest thing to deal with was not being able to be unconscious during the worst of it... the pain was simply too stimulating to allow me to fall asleep.  That was the closest to feeling like I've been tortured I think I've ever been.  Not doing a whole lot better now either.

13 June 2005
Happy Birthday to John Schneider
-I meant to post this site a few days back.  It's an idea that my Dad was arguing someone would be capable of, & apparently he was quite right to think so.  They archive almost every page on the internet when it makes significant changes so that it can be viewed from the future for posterity!  A very nifty idea.  The sad thing is that I was looking for Schneider's old webpage the other day... to date the saddest loss of things being taken down from the 'net (in my opinion).  Not there.  I guess it was only up for a month or two, but still.  & yes, they have extensive archives of the BP.  Come to think of it, this was how I resurrected the plain text version of this page, if I'm not mistaken.
-Just a couple letters.  C'mon discipline, it's time to roll out again!

12 June 2005
-At this point, I should just know better than to release one of these quizzes in the summer.  The biggest target audience is likely college kids who can't afford to stay connected at home, but are wired 24/7 at their school.  Oh well.  The Animal Quiz Stats have been updated for another week... we're now only 9 or 10 days into the AQ, but the traffic was barely up this week at all.  The Human result continues to utterly crush all other possibilities, which seems oddly fitting.  In a trend that was definitely true in the Country & Book Quizzes (though not really the State), my result (Hyena in this case) seems to be very popular as well.  Meanwhile large land mammals have replaced large sea mammals as the big rarities this week.  Overall, however, the Blue Whale result is the hardest to come by.  Roughly 1 in 500 Animal Quizzes results in a Blue Whale.
-A fun, relaxing Sunday.  It's nice having such things because I really didn't used to.  The main drawback was the first migraine since I left Seneca.  Literally.  Almost a month... & if I hadn't commented on it, it probably would've been longer.

11 June 2005
-Of course GMesco invited me to GMail!  No e-mail accounts are changing though... it's just going to be a possible receiver for the storey@bluepyramid.org account.
-Speaking of contact info, does anyone have Gris' current actual phone number?  I had it, then lost it.  & Gris, if you're out there, please call me!
-Finally archived the whole Bob Dylan era, & am working on a theme for the current one.  In looking at the list of songs, I see so many good ones that I left out.  But I think I knew that would happen with Bobby D... he just has so many songs!  I know that the era after this one is going to be the Counting Crows era & I'm counting on them to give me some more songs this year so they're ready for archiving in 2006!  They've released a new studio album every 3 years & 2005 is due.  August in '93, Satellites in '96, TDL in '99, & Hard Candy in '02.  This is me waiting for the next one...
-I am officially an idiot.  I knew this already, but it's tough to see it in green & white.  Ah well, that's the point of this thing... to learn more from documenting my life than I could from just living it.  Examination.  Check the entry from 16 March of this year... exactly 2 months prior to the nightmare in the office that became my last day on the line at Seneca.  (You can currently just scroll down to it, until I think of a theme & archive it.)  Yes, those words I write to myself are "Consider myself warned".  This is me shaking my head at myself.
-While I'm dredging the past, you should go read the entries from 4 years ago.  The last one on 11 June 2001 documents perhaps the first time I'd really put the idea for this site into words.  I'm glad I dropped the "little" from the idea.

10 June 2005
-Alright.  I'm officially bored as of today, so I need either a job, a project, or probably both.  Maybe I should start scheduling a regular writing time each day again.  I feel like I've finally de-stressed enough from last month's ordeal to make that happen.  Meanwhile, I should also start getting myself some sort of job.  If only I really knew what I wanted to do.  But a month off is really plenty.
-Anyone have any GMail invites floating around?  I was looking at Fish's GMail the other day & while I don't think I like the no-folders & the thread-view, I wouldn't mind having an e-mail search function.  I don't think I'd ever use it as my primary e-mail, but it might make a better shell for my backup e-mail than I'm using now.

9 June 2005
-For the first time in my relatively young online poker career, I've won money in "big" tournaments (500+ people) twice in the same 24 hours.  Twice in the same 12 hours, as a matter of fact.  Neither of the payoffs was huge, but I was in the top 7% of each tournament, so that seems a good sign of how my play is of late.  Maybe I shouldn't be looking for a job just yet after all.  Heh.  I also want to congratulate Russ for winning a freeroll tourney at PokerStars as well... beating over 3500 foes on the way.  An amazing accomplishment... sadly with no direct cash reward.
-Exit Fish, stage Guatemala.  He was able to pack very light, which is good.  Should be a great time for he & the former USPIRG crew.

8 June 2005
-Yay!  I have a new floppy hat.  & it's green!  Let's hope this won't be #4 that I lose.  I don't lose much in this life, but I have a real talent for losing clothing...  I mean hats & sweatshirts & jackets, punk!

7 June 2005
-Well, my Dad was right to a certain extent.  The Animal Quiz's latest fan is this random radio morning show.  It's their website of the day for today!
-Apparently, as a follow up, the beat goes on.  & quite possibly on.
-Finally caught up with my updates.  I don't know what my problem has been lately, though I can say that it's been a really ugly & draining 3 weeks.  Read 17 May for more details on why everything's gone south, & 29 May for the full fall-out.  Now that I have some more free time, I hope to get back in a good groove... & archiving would probably be a good idea, too.
-Since I seem to be on a link craze, I just can't resist posting this.  Ah, sweet memories of childhood.  The thing is that it still works if you type it into Google right now!  Of course, by the time you got to Cairo, she'd have flown the coop to an icy land known for fjords, leaving behind a trail of henchmen!

6 June 2005
Happy Birthday to Paul Garin III
-Good news on the health insurance front!  Apparently one has 53 days to activate COBRA from cancellation, with no lapse in coverage... & Seneca still hasn't cancelled.  (I suppose they'd have to call me first or acknowledge my existence.)  So we're set for a bit.
-Was a bit mopey all day for the usual reasons, but I got a few things done.  Still trying to get the AQ out to people & ramp up its publicity.  I really think the success of the Book Quiz in February '04 misled me into believing that every quiz was going to explode in its second week.  Mayhap that one just got lucky.  Though with the college internet crowd, a February release is way better than a June.  At the same time, now is when I had the time to do it, so I can't regret that.  I certainly wasn't going to sit on it till September.
-It's good to see other people so happy.  No surprises that things are starting to turn the corner now.

5 June 2005
-Stats on the Animal Quiz are up, having just come in with the end of last week.  While 6,198 quizzes taken is technically a first-week record for any of the 4 BP offerings, most of those "weeks" were even shorter than the 3-day week just ended.  Also, it should be noted that the Book Quiz's second week notched over 155,000 quizzes taken, which is a pretty lofty standard to try to follow.
-Speaking of the old quizzes, this kind of thing is still going on & still cracks me up.  Though it's even funnier when followed up a couple hours later by this.
-"Crash" is a great movie with one very serious flaw.  Ultimately, the flaw doesn't outweigh the movie though it makes it harder to watch.  Still mulling it over, like any good movie should make one do.
-At least under the new schedule, we have one day together.  That's a 1-0 win.



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