I’ve decided that I’m partially hypoglycemic.

Now, I had a physical a bit ago and the blood work on it came back fine (yay, me!), and it didn’t say anything about that, yadda, yadda, yadda. But it boils down like this:

If I eat low-sugar foods, I can survive, but you bet your ass I’m gonna be grouchy. If I eat a reasonable amount of sugar periodically (like one of those bite-sized candy bars every four hours or so, something small but with a jolt in it), I’ll be much happier about things.

It could also mean that I need to figure out how to eat right, but… nah. Hypoglycemia is the answer. Besides, my mom said that my dad is legitimately a little hypoglycemic, and that’s hereditary, isn’t it?

At the hockey game yesterday, I had a particularly lucid moment where I thought of various rules that either don’t exist or should be changed to make hockey more exciting. This moment was brought about by the fact that we got our asses handed to us and I was more than irritated at that, but the ideas exist nonetheless.

First, nowhere in the rulebook, at least, nowhere I can find, does it say you can’t play with two sticks. I think each player should be entitled to two sticks: one to carry the puck with and one to beat off the opposing team.

Second, there are rules against kicking other players. Those need to go.

Third, the goalies should have electronic collars (like the dogs they are) that give them a little zap if they wander too far away from the crease. At least, our goalie should. That guy needs to stay in the fucking net.

Fourth, if a goalie is a dumbass and lets a goal go that was so stupid that a spectator could have climbed the glass, ran out onto the ice, and stopped in plenty of time, then every member of the audience who was outraged by that goal should be entitled to punch that goalie once after the game.

Spearing should be legal.

It’s not a rule (that I can find), but it pretty much seems that the officials won’t get in the middle of a fight until one player hits the ice. They need to stick to that; don’t break it up before it even starts, I mean, that’s why I’m there.

I think those changes should be made immediately. They would greatly enhance the game… at least for me, having season tickets to a losing streak.

…Or maybe “doing nothing.”

It’s a slow day at the office today. I’m not complaining about that, because normally there’s so much going on that I can’t focus (which isn’t good - I can be doing something then just freeze and forget what I was in the middle of). Today, though, there’s not a lot, and that’s just fine. I’m sure it’s because folks are going places for the Thanksgiving holiday and aren’t in the office.

Next week’s going to be worse, since I only took Thanksgiving Thursday off and am in the office the rest of the week; the other guys in my department are out all next week for the most part. On Friday, I’m the only person scheduled to be in. That sort of means I’m going to have to answer the help desk phone… but it doesn’t mean that I actually have to help. Hey, man, I’m not desktop support - I just answer the phone, and only when I have to.

A while back I bought a soft dance pad for Dance Dance Revolution. I started playing, and I have to say, I have a lot of fun with it. I did find a few drawbacks to the soft pad, though - it scoots around on the carpet while you’re dancing; it’s not terribly sensitive (or it’s sensitive at the wrong time); and you can’t really feel the buttons, so your feet sort of “migrate” around on the pad and eventually you’re pressing the wrong buttons.

Well, I found a new pad that I need: The Dance Revolution Metal Evolution Pad. It’s a metal pad with the arcade dimensions (so it’s bigger than the pad I currently have, I think), weighs 35 pounds (so it won’t slide around) and is made of metal so it’s durable. It also costs $150, so I don’t think I’ll be ordering one instantly, but it’s something I’ll be thinking about. DDR’s a great workout and it’s a lot of fun. I’d like to think that the only reason I don’t play much lately is that I get frustrated with the pad.

On occasion I go look at YouBored.com, a local site that sometimes has contests where you can win passes to advance screenings of movies. A while back, I applied (in vain) to be their new movie reviewer. Since I didn’t get picked, I occasionally read the reviews published by the guy they did pick.

The guy they picked, I have decided, is a complete moron. He writes reviews like every other stupid critic out there - with no sensitivity to the entertainment that a movie provides. All that matters is the art, right?

His latest folly is his review of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. I’m not even going to link it up for you because it’s not worth the time to read. Basically, he gave it a “B-“ because - and I quote - “the story gets lost in the effects, and the script aims too low to hit even its target age group.”

Huh? Did the guy forget that it’s a kid’s movie based on a kid’s book? Or that it’s about magic, so the effects sort of have to be big? What’s he looking for?

To put it in context, he gave 8 Mile a “B,” whereas anyone I talk to who’s seen it says it sucks ass.

Okay, I’m done ranting about that.

I should probably get back to work. I’m reading this book about ASP.NET that is, uh… exciting. I think.

Okay, I’m irritated with Amazon.

A while back I made a purchase using primarily gift certificates. It cost me near $150 for everything, but $110 of it was covered by gift certificates I’d saved up. When the package shipped, Amazon billed me $140 - only $10 of the gift certificates cleared, the other $100 didn’t.

I contacted Amazon and they said that the other $100 hadn’t cleared due to a “technical problem.” The issue was fixed and I would see a refund on my credit card shortly, accompanied by an email telling me that they’d processed the refund.

I waited for around 10 days and still hadn’t seen the refund, so I contacted them again. This time they said they were still working on it, that refunds take 7 - 10 business days, and that I would definitely get an email telling me when the refund occurred. That was Monday the 18th.

I went to look at my credit card statement today online and I saw that I had received a refund from Amazon, dated 11/19… for $89. Where’s the other $11? (Of course, I never did get an email from them, so maybe they’re somehow processing a $100 refund in two blocks - one for $89 and one for $11? Yeah, I didn’t think so, either.)

I’ve sent them another note. I want my $11!

For those who have a little extra time and bandwidth, check out Homestar Runner for some pretty funny cartoons. They’re in Flash, and they do use sound, so make sure you can hear what’s going on. I haven’t found anything “dirty” on there, so if you can only check it out at work, I think it’s okay.

Unless, of course, you’ll get fired anyway.

Maybe you should try it, regardless.

My favorite ones are “Strong Bad’s Email” where this character, Strong Bad, answers letters. Again, the audio is key here. I was rolling after watching the “Guitar” episode; almost as funny as Turd Ferguson.

Speaking of Turd Ferguson, I never was able to find an electronic version of that skit. If anyone’s got one, let me know. I still wanna make Turd Ferguson t-shirts.

Last night Jenn and I went to see American Idols - Live! at the Rose Garden. We both had a totally cool time and I came out very pleasantly surprised.

They did sing the songs that you saw them sing on the television, but there were some new ones thrown in the mix, too, that livened it up a bit. So you sort of knew what you were in for up front, yet it still held your attention.

Something I came out very pleased about was that a couple of the people who I thought weren’t all that good when I watched them on television were fantastic live. You’d be surprised the difference a live band makes in a performance.

I will continue to maintain that Kelly was a good choice for the winner. She was the best one out there from a vocal standpoint. On the other hand, Justin was by far the best performer. He had a great repoire with the audience and just seemed very natural up there.

For all the folks who wondered why Nikki came in third and wasn’t eliminated sooner, she proved herself worthy with a great rendition of Fleetwood Mac’s Rhiannon. Watching her there made me realize why she was my original favorite at the start of the show.

Anyway, it was a blast, and well worth the money. Also, the merchandise was affordable - $15 for a t-shirt rather than the typical $40 you see at concerts nowadays. I got a program and Jenn got a shirt.

Something else that was nice about the concert: When we went, we got all dressed up - not in formal clothes or anything, but decent “going-out” clothes - and made it an event. I wouldn’t call myself “old” necessarily, but I’ll admit that doing that made me feel, well, “young again.” I think I will have to do that more often.

In other news, my baby Xev cat has an infection where they took her little uterus out, so we have to try to get her to eat antibiotics twice a day. You’d be surprised how strong that little cat is when you try to force-feed her stuff. And fast, too! I think we should be done with that in a week or so, and hopefully she’ll be better then. She has returned to her usual routine of crying all night long, so I can’t say she isn’t mostly back to normal already.