Ah, this is better

Beats "angels".

And something that's just weird

So I have some kind of knot/pinched nerve/sore bit/whatever in my shoulders/neck/back area.

I have a sneaking suspicion my attempt to practice tumbling last night led to said pain.

Last night I had my first martial arts class in about a week. I was expecting to re-enter a world of pain.

Instead, I had full-mobility of my neck and shoulders at the end of the class. I felt great. Tired as hell, but great.

This morning... stiff neck/shoulder again. Not as bad as before, but worthy of a snivel or six.

This makes no sense to me.

Time for more Advil.

Hypothetically...

So... have you ever gone driving somewhere, like say a store, and realized you've left your driver's license at home along with other important things?

No?

Me neither.

What? Stop looking at me like that.

Bright Spot

Yesterday's mail.

Yay!

Words of (something resembling) Wisdom

Don't Sweat the Petty Things.

Don't Pet the Sweaty Things.

The second of those two bits of wisdom is easy to follow. I mean... ew.

The first one... not so much. I find little things like papercuts tend to get my attention much more than large bruises or whatever (I have yet to break anything and see how my point of view changes).

When the tiny, little, petty things come at one, it's like being nibbled to death by cats. (Shout out to Londo Mollari and Vir Cotto)

Mochi

Mochi is my current new obsession. It's a tasty rice-cake treat with varying fillings.

I've found it in the following flavors as the filling:

- red bean (my favorite)
- brown sugar (a little too much for me)
- green tea (also tasty)
- seasame seed (okay)
- peanut (haven't tried yet)
- taro (haven't tried yet)

Alas, the store I bought the mochi at was out of red bean. I may dispose of the brown sugar mochi at the office.

The Survival Kit

Time to go shopping. I need to stock up. (I often find myself having trouble with shelves).

From one of the RPG.net threads

Le Sigh

At heart, I'm a crass materialist. I like things. I like things a lot. I never throw things out, which makes me a horrific packrat and a bit of a clutter monster.

One of my life resolutions has been to re-think this and start simplifying the load by getting rid of stuff I don't use.

It's a noble goal.

Unfortunately, to accomplish that, I must address the fact that I really hate housekeeping.

That or start living on layers of stuff.

Hmm...

It stirs...

Okay, not really.

I have a pinched nerve somewhere in my back. It's making the sleepies a bit elusive. I'm starting to feel a bit of the sleep deprivation.

Just a bit.

Advil is helping and I think I found the sore point and managed to massage the worst of it out. I think...

Winding Down

My Sunday draws to a close.

It's been an eventful weekend. I enjoyed a party last night with excellent live music.

I've been pretty much sleep-deprived thanks to a tweak in my neck.

I just finished the last episode of "Reaper". Quite entertaining. I loved the ending.

I got a new chair from the unnamed and managed to reassemble it.

I finished Emergency. An entertaining read.

I'm freakin' tired.

Creaking Along

I didn't sleep terribly well last night. My neck and shoulder are still giving me trouble.

I thought that would hose my day, but once I got going about my day, I did fine.

I have a party to attend tonight. I'm hoping my energy level stays constant.

In the meantime, I'm overjoyed at my "mini-Xmas" today. I found a source of Mochi (Japanese/Taiwanese rice treats) and got some trinkets in the mail.

Unrelated: one of my friends finally saw the BSG finale. Her exact words were something akin to "what the frak?"

I wanted to warn her, but I didn't want to spoil.

I'm going to claim it was the angels.

Somewhat related: I watched last night's "Dollhouse". I have to say I actually enjoyed it. It's probably too late for the show to have too much promise, but I could be wrong.

So... sleepy

Earlier today I'd been raring to hit any kind of watering hole for a drink.

Then I went for a run. Then I made dinner. Then I settled down and started updating my iPod's music.

Now I'm wiped and ready to sleep.

So much for drinks.

Friday blooms

I slept funny (not in a "ha-ha" kind of way) Wednesday night. My neck and shoulder are rather stiff and pain-wracked yesterday and this morning. Advil is my friend and I've got one of those self-massage things with me to help deal.

Ow.

Yesterday was a lovely day (save for the stiff neck/shoulder issue) but it ended on an disturbing note. My 1.5 TB Seagate external hard drive and my PC stopped playing nice last night. For some unknown reason, my PC refused to recognize the USB device. Changing the ports did nothing.

Since that hard drive holds pretty much all my music, I was a bit alarmed.

After powering said drive off and on (and rebooting my PC) everything played nice again. I've now backed up the relevant files to my 100 GB external drive, which has proven to be a far more reliable and less fussy device.

That, unfortunately, distracted me from catching up on "Reaper" and "Dollhouse", but I have tonight for that.

Looks like it's going to be a gorgeous day. I'd probably be happy with it if it weren't for all the allergy-inducing blooming stuff and the stiff shoulder.

Whine whine whine... I need cheese.

A Good Day (so far)

It's a bit after noon and I've had a damn good morning.

* Got my greedy hands on a game supplement I've been waiting for with increasing interest over the last few months.

* Registered my car through a local AAA office (they have DMV desks) and there was no line!

* Got a massage for my sore neck/shoulders.

* Managed more uninterrupted reading.

* Got a delightful lunch of hong-kong style noodles with chicken. Greasy goodness!

I hope the luck stays with me through the balance of the day.

Gwa

I was trolling through the ridiculous number of prior posts I have.

I found this.

And so I overrode my Firefox settings, enabled the YouTube/javascript, and watched it.

Good lord this is a weird video. The singers are cute (which is clearly why I opted to link to this) but... what the HELL kinds of drugs were the producers/directors taking?

Synchronicity

Right around my last birthday I got in one of those maudlin moods folks get in when they reach a certain age (varies depending on the person) and look at their lives and often feel a bit unsatisfied.

Why am I not wealthy? Why don't I speak five languages? Why haven't I mastered kung fu? Why haven't I hiked the Great Wall of China? (I actually sort of have done that last bit)

You get the idea.

I've had a life-long "to do" list for some time. Among my intentions:

- get back into martial arts
- learn a foreign language (or two)
- re-do my Red Cross CPR/First Aid certification
- educate myself on financial information
- learn how to DIY (do it yourself) for general stuff (plumbing, bike repair, etc.)

These aren't rocket scientist goals. Most of that stuff interests me (okay, learning financials bores the holy crap out of me, but I do like not being penniless).

I got started back on martial arts in January and I've been enjoying it. I picked up some language CDs for a couple of languages that interest me and I've sort of halfassed followed them, but I've really been a slacker on that stuff.

The rest has kind of fallen by the wayside.

I'm about 3/4 through Neil Strauss' book Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life and I have to say this has lit a fire under me.

I have to tap my vacation at work next month since I'm maxing-out on earned hours so I think I'll take one day and re-up that Red Cross bit. With the warmer weather coming up, REI will offer workshops on bike maintenance so I think I'll look into signing up for one of those seminars.

Heh.

Thoughts

I should perhaps not attempt tumbling in the limited confines of my cave-like apartment. I appear to have hurt my neck.

Might be unrelated. I might have just slept wrong. Regardless... owie.

---

Why is my iPod not loaded with the new music I tried to put on it last night? Hmmm.

---

Just saw this on a blog.

Odd how squeamish I feel just looking at this.

---

My gaming group is filling time with PBEM ("play by email") and hitting snags due to some folks being out-of-town and some folks having other life priorities.

It's kind of funny, really.

---

Usually when I forget what day of the week today is, I am off by one day in the future.

So if it's Wednesday, I usually think it's Thursday, etc.

Imagine my joy and surprise when I came in this morning - thinking today is Wednesday - and realized it's Thursday!

And, even better, my mental calendar was right last night so I managed to record "Better off Ted" and "Lost". Woo-hoo!

I didn't manage to record "Reaper" on Tuesday, but I'm hoping I'll have time to find it online tonight.

If I'm feeling particularly masoc... um... brave, I might look for last Friday's "Dollhouse" on Hulu.

The French Meme

The French get a pretty raw deal here in the States. There's a lot of snarky commentary equating "French" and "surrender" in jokes. I have to admit I'm as guilty of that as anyone, but having actually paid a little attention in my history classes, I realize that stems from WWII and that's incredibly unfair.

The other meme about the French is a claim of rudeness.

I've been to France once. The people there were pretty nice as a whole. My only encounter with anyone rude was in Paris and that was really only in our hotel.

Thanks to the pure awesome that is Banlieue 13, I'm inclined to back off of the jokes a bit.

... or I'll try, anyway...

Today in Webcomics

(Disclaimer: any links listed below are humorous based on my sense of what is "funny". You have been warned.)

QC takes it that much further

Schlock

Lio for the win

LICD ('cause BSG jokes will never get old)

Kind of perfect

This would go well with my Darwin Fish. They're available here.

Alas, I also want:


Available here.

I could get all three, but that kind of puts my car over-the-top and I don't care to fit in with Berkeley all that much on the rare occasion I drive there.

Decisions, decisions.

My Darwin Fish has actually earned "hate mail" from someone once. I exited my karate class once to find a letter hastily-written on an envelope explaining how I was "moronic" and going to hell.

The author of said note spelled it "morunic" I think.

Kind of said it all right there.

Ah Springtime

The sun is shining.

The birds are singing.

*** SNEEZES LOUDLY ***

The flowers are blooming.

*** SNEEZES AGAIN ***

The... goddamn.. pollen...

The only problem with burning it all is that the ash would make me sneeze and cough as well.

Answers

I'm in love.

Get Fuzzy

Apologies to the French for continuing the meme.

Random

That's what I've set my iPod on.

The assortment of MP3 tracks I have pretty much fit the bill.

In the last fifteen minutes I have heard:

- some Evanescence
- some Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog
- some score music to the "Blood+" anime
- some Loreena McKennitt
- some of the Princess Mononoke score

Okay... fifteen minutes, give or take.

And now I'm listening to part of the complete score to Gladiator.

I'm talking a good three CDs worth of Gladiator.

And it just now dawns on me that I have not yet ripped my Lord of the Rings scores.

Stimulating the Economy

I opted to spend some of my tax refund on more junk I probably don't need (above and beyond my iPod Nano that I love so...):

* One was a terrifying-looking, cheap(ish) knock-off of a Surefire light.

* I got some books (including the Emergency book I previously noted).

* I spent money at REI (mostly my REI dividend but then I went kind of crazy after that...)

And I have some more stuff coming today (specifically some jeans).

Yeah. Need to stop now.

Emergency

So at the random prompting of a friend and after seeing a write up on Uncrate, I took a break from my fiction reading to get this book.

I'm about a quarter in.

It's an interesting read so far and the writer hasn't even started his journey to the crazy-survivalist side.

I'm looking forward to that part, since it pretty well appeals to my own crazy inner-survivalist.

I require the brain bleach

You can't un-see this.

That is why I share.

Questionable Content

And more awesome

I'm productive this morning.

These are not... oh wait

Science Fiction and "the gods"

One thing I've noticed with American science fiction is how the "science" part tends to get subverted by some kind of faux-spiritual crap.

I'm not asking for a dry lecture on physics or technobabble, mind you. I'm just looking for stories that address mysteries and provide actual answers or at least semi-scientific rationale for events.

I tend to find that I take umbrage with how science fiction has been lumped in with fantasy.

I'm fine with fantasy and horror. I quite love it. I just like to recognize that it's a distinct category from science fiction.

So, take "Star Wars", for example. That's fantasy. You have magic powers, swords (lightsabers), and superpowers. Spaceships literally "roar" through the vacuum of space and fire off "pew pew" laser beams and all that. There's a zen religion of "the Force" as well.

"Babylon-5" is more science fiction. Oh, it had fuzzy applications of actual science in it (including the aformentioned sound-effects in space and all that) but it made more than a passing attempt at using more "realistic" physics in its stuff. It kept a fairly clear divide between things that could be scientifically explained and things that were "mystical", with the mystical being more of a psychological issue. Indeed, one of the major religious figures turns out to be a time-traveller. Kind of neat, really.

No story is perfect, but it really galls me when I'm watching a show that's got a strong "science fiction" feel and suddenly the writers get lazy and start attributing things to some fluffy ineffable "higher power".

"Star Trek" was especially obnoxious in how they fell back on the incredibly irritating "god-like alien" cliche (Q was the absolute worst of those).

And "Battlestar Galactica" had their "gods" and "angels".

Bugs the crap out of me.

Science fiction, at its best, is a story of a human (or alien) journey of discovery. The characters usually learn the mysteries of how the universe works and what their own potential is.

Thus, when science fiction stories fall back on "deus ex machina", I feel cheated. Instead of the characters realizing any kind of potential, they just appear to be pieces on a game board that are moved around at the whim of some inexplicable force.

The crux of this, I guess, is how one views the world. It's probably over-generalizing, but I tend to see religious views as leaning more towards the "game pieces" view while secular views tend to be more self-determination.

It's not that simple, of course. There's a lot of grey there. Still, I find it lazy and a little immature to fall back on the "it's the will of the gods" cliche in any kind of story (or in real life). It cheapens the story and, when cited by people, makes the speaker sound childish and unwilling to own up to any personal responsibility.

What's my point? No real point, I guess. Obviously the BSG finale is what got me started on this, but it's more than just that. I guess the SciFi channel's decision to change their name and get even further from science fiction broadcasting (though, honestly... they barely show any science fiction these days) is just getting to me.

I wish I had decent stories of my own to counter this trend, but I lack that sort of writing talent and most certainly don't have the kinds of ideas that would satisfy what I want to see out there.

Bummer.

Hmmm

One of my friends sent me this.

I do believe she had a bit of subtext implied when she sent me this. She admits nothing.

Source is Get Fuzzy

Brrrisk

I like the return of cool weather yesterday and today. I've always liked crisp, chilly days.

The wind, however... oh, my allergies are not liking that at all.

Not in the least.

Gives me something else to focus on than BSG sucking.

Battle Suck Asstica

I've slept on it for two nights now.

I still hate the finale.

The FX intensive battle seemed idiotic in context with the story of the finale. And the ending's neo-Luddite faux-spiritual Creationist-bend crap just pisses me off the more I think about it.

And, of course, I've been thinking about it a fair amount.

Time to bust out an old videogame, like Quake or Doom and work the rage out of my system...

Battlestar Galactica

And here is the end.

Nice battles.

I'm not really satisfied with some of the explanations for stuff. The "vision people", the Cylon plan, all that... just unsatisfying.

And then about an hour and a half in... after all the shooting stops... what the frak?

I mean, I had a sinking suspicion I knew how they'd end it. But... gah! Very self-indulgent and plainly irritating.

I hope I never meet Ron Moore or David Eick in person. I will quite probably punch them both. Hard.

Yes, that means I did not like the ending.

I knew I wouldn't.

At least two of my favorites survived.

And at least it's over.

Oh wow

I love Nerf weapons.

This has me drooling.

Yes, I know it's for wii. I can still drool.

The End Draws Nigh

Tonight is the series finale of "Battlestar Galactica".

It's about time.

I watched the re-imagining of BSG from the beginning. I found the mini-series slow, but visually stunning. I was surprised it made it into a regular series.

Season one was slowish, but good and only seemed to get better as they introduced a complex and interesting mythology. Seeming throwaway characters (like Helo) survived and thrived. Indeed, I found myself far more interested in the side characters of Doc Cottle, Helo, Cally, Gaeta, Dee, and Anders than I did with the main characters.

The show hit its peak with me during the "New Caprica" story arc that explored the concept of occupation, terrorism, and one of the most kick-ass space battles I've ever seen at the end.

And then the writers returned to the "Final Five" of the human-appearing Cylons, decided to incorporate a Bob Dylan song while seemingly-randomly grabbing character and saying "hey! Now you're a Cylon!"

And they started to lose me.

The last season has largely been a snorefest to me to the point that I haven't been inclined to buy the DVD set for season "4.0" (and I'm fairly obsessive about making sure my media sets are complete).

The "rebellion" storyline in the last of the "4.5" episodes was good, but otherwise, this season has pretty much been a steady serving of self-indulgent, melodramatic crap.

I have hopes that the finale will serve up some answers, but I've been bitterly disappointed by this show too many times before to have any real expectations that they'll address my hopes.

And still I'll watch the finale.

Bah.

Upon Reflection

I'm keeping the iPod Nano. I just spent two hours organizing my frakking music and I'm not even half-done. I'm now invested in adapting to this thing.

While doing all that, I also got caught up on my recordings from last night. There was the premiere of "Better Off Ted", which I found amusing enough.

It was a good lead-in to "Lost".

"Lost" just made me happy. Jack was pretty much made into a chump (I really dislike the character) while many of the others got some good airtime.

Oh, and I was especially happy to see Sun (mm... sorry) give Ben a little taste of pain. That was good clean fun.

I really want to know what happened to Faraday.

The "soap" elements of the ridiculous Sawyer-Juliette-Kate-Jack quadrangle makes me ill, but I can get past that. Apparently network TV is incapable of writing a show without some sort of ridiculously-contrived inane romantic subplot.

Mind over disturbing matter

Kill you with my Brain t-shirt design @ © SplitReason.com

A better look at the shirt I am considering.

Reaping the Reaper

Tuesday had another fine episode of this season's "Reaper".

I found myself pretty drawn in to this episode more than I have been with others.

I like "Reaper", but I consider it mostly brain-candy. I don't expect much but lots of Ray Wise being awesome as the Devil and the gang being dumb.

This ep was bang-on awesome.

- the "soul of the week" was a nice twist this time around
- the Devil's side activities just get more and more darkly comical
- Andi's new role is interesting
- Andi v. Sock was just pure awesome. I loved Sam's advice for dealing with Sock.
- Ben's relationship with Nina is just surreal

Overall for the season:
- I like the occasional zings Sam is getting in on the Devil.
- The storyline with Sock and his "sister" is both hysterical and deeply disturbing
- Adding Eriko Tamura and Jenny Wade to the cast along with Missy Peregrym makes me happy for reasons I shouldn't have to explain

I can't help but wonder if Sock is the real son of the Devil... or perhaps just another of the Devil's offspring.

Let's face it, he's more-suited to general evil and bringing about the downfall of humanity than Sam is.

iCan't Stop

So since iM obsessed with the iPod Nano right now...

What iLike:
- appearance (so... very... pretty...)
- variety of abilities (play music by track, playlist, album, play movies)
- other functions (clock, stopwatch, whatever)
- can just add it to the docking system on my stereo

What iDon't Like:
- iTunes as an interface for loading music
- the volume controls on the iPod

As iGrow more adept at using iTunes as an interface, iSuppose my dislike will fade into grim acceptance. That's how iWork with most computer applications, after all.

iSuppose iWould have the same irritation if iWent back to Creative Labs. iLike my Creative MuVo, but they tend to emphasize the Zen more and iThink it's more of an iPod knockoff, based on what i'Ve read of it.

As an aside: do you have any idea how hard it is to keep up with the annoying i[Word] pattern? It's harder than it looks. Too much work for a lame joke.

Just sayin'

Want!

I am trying to control a bout of impulse spending.

I really am.

Then I see stuff like this and I find I start having trouble.

"It's only nineteen bucks," the seductive voice whispers from the back of my mind. "What's that with shipping? Not quite $25?"

"I don't want to blow $25," the rational part of my brain replies (it's a soft, quiet voice that befits its tiny stature). "Plus I don't want to have to create another account on another site!"

"You know you want it," the seductive voice purrs. "You know you do. You got money back from taxes."

"It's a freakin' recession!" the tiny rational voice exclaims.

"Yes," the seductive voice replies. "And you are doing your part to help stimulate the economy."

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" the tiny voice cries out desperately.

This entire dialog would go differently if I had not blown a couple hundred on the iPod Nano (which I am still wavering on keeping or returning).

zzzzzz

I went running yesterday for the first time in an eon or sixty.

I slept well last night.

This morning was not the easiest morning I've had for the act of getting out of bed.

Not at all.

Quickly Disenchanted

My iPod Nano is quite pretty, but for all it's lovely appearance, I'm finding myself unimpressed by it.

My main complaint isn't the Nano itself. I really just dislike iTunes and I pretty much have to use that interface to load my music.

It's a fussy interface and it doesn't seem to play well with my attempts to organize my music.

Perhaps I'll just return to trusty Creative Labs and see what they can offer me. I've had better luck with their stuff and it's certainly less-expensive.

St. Patrick's Day

How I spent my St. Patrick's Day:

I had one Guinness left in my 'fridge.

I now have no Guinness in my 'fridge.

That pretty much covers it.

Kind of sad, really.

Reactions

I am totally still having this dream. The class one, not the swimming pool one.

I want this very badly. I do not, however, want to shell out a few hundred for something like this. If I did, I'd totally want the titanium one. Yeah... $555... not happening.

I'll regret this when the Zombie Apocalypse happens.

So... iPod. Yeah. I charged it. I converted my straggling wmv files to mp3. My nano pretty much has everything that was on my PC.

Not terribly well organized, though.

With my old mp3 player, I pretty much had everything organized in a specific way. The iPod reorganized things in some way I haven't figured out yet plus it dumped in tons of other stuff I had... much of which is redundant.

Add to that mix that I can't coordinate my work iTunes with my home iTunes for some reason and that I'm still trying to puzzle out how the iPod's controls work...

... yeah. I'm a little frustrated with the new toy. It's just learning curve. I'll get past it.

It's awfully purdy and light. And it has all my tunes that I've bothered ripping to my PC.

I just need to spend quality time fine-tuning it.

Flashbacks

Vicky sent me to Celtic Music Podcast for a free 17-track podcast download.

I'm listening to it now.

I love Irish/Celtic themed music. Makes me fondly remember a favorite watering hole in my college days (Ah... drunken revelry and singing along to "What do you do with a drunken sailor"...).

Makes me fondly recall my trip to beautiful Ireland.

It also makes me flash back to the year and change I spent with the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) shortly after college.

I'm not sure how I feel about those memories being dredged up.

Still... Ireland... Temple Bar district. Kilarny. Dingle. Ah, sweet Dingle.

I miss Ireland.

iPod People

A couple of hundred bucks later and I've joined the Collective.

That's right! 16 GB iPod Nano, baby!

Plus an AC outlet adapter.

beside myself with glee

I take back my previous whiny post.

My Federal refund just came through.

Um... YAY!!!!!!

What am I going to do with it?

I'm thinking... iPod.

Yes, I don't own one.

Yet.

I... it... aaaaAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

DigitalPimp/Joe Loves Crappy Movies

MakeitstopmakeitstopmakeitstopmakeitSTOP!!!!!!!!!!

Um... yeah. Bad idea

The SciFi Channel wants to change their name to the Syfy Channel.

Says so here and on AICN.

On the one hand, this is the most idiotic thing I've heard in quite some time.

On the other hand, the SciFi channel airs one science fiction program in a hundred, so maybe this is truth in advertising?

They should just change their name to the "Waste of Time Channel" and move on.

Luck of the Irish

Today's St. Patrick's Day.

I'm wondering if I should have had my Lucky Charms this morning.

Yesterday I left early from work with severe foot pain. I wound up skipping martial arts 'cause I couldn't fully support my own weight.

Today is much better, but now I'm experiencing terrible network issues with my computer, thanks to new software.

And my Wednesday afternoons are once again socked in with late meetings which will keep me from my classes.

To say I'm a bit irritable today somewhat understates my frame of mind.

PAIN!!!!

That is all.

xkcd for the win

I'm speechless in awe.

grumble...

Ever had one of those nights where you just can't get a proper amount of sleep?

Say, maybe a muscle cramp wakes you up or a headache or your room is just too damn hot or whatever?

I don't think I got much sleep last night. Ugh.

I should've stayed home. Oh well.

Sunday Survival

I somehow made it through Saturday without losing my mind. I'm not sure if I lost players or not. Overall they seemed happy enough, but it was a big group and there was no way to give everyone enough "airtime".

I guess I'll find out soon enough if everyone enjoyed it.

I know at least one of the new ones was pretty stoked.

Today was pretty much downtime for me. Cleaning up after the chaos of yesterday, followed by a trek in to get my comics, see the 'rents, and get fed (mmm... good food...).

Bonus: leftovers

I am happy happy happy.

I'm mostly over the DST "jetlag" feeling.

I still hate DST, but I've pretty much adjusted.

Mostly.

Kinda.

Bleah.

Zero Hour

I've been prepping today's game for the better part of four months.

I spent all last night finalizing little touches, trying to figure out where I'm going to seat seven people in my tiny apartment, cleaning (such as I ever clean), prepping music, scrambling to remember what I may have forgotten, slamming Advil for pain from a bad fall last night, etc.

I took a break to watch "Dollhouse" (mediocre and still a bit boring) and "Battlestar Galactica" (nothing but buildup to the finale... nothing more to say on that topic).

I've got my shirt on. I've got my hoodie for the morning chill.

I found my electrical tape for my glasses.

If it didn't break genre, I could put out my toy Dalek and sonic screwdriver.

[nerd snort]

Yeah. It's on.

Adolescence Loop

It's still early. I walked with a co-worker to one of the local coffee providers, since there's often sketchy sorts walking about in the wee-hours o' th' mornin', so I was really a "bodyguard".

I'm going for my second cup of coffee in an hour or two when my regular "coffee buddy" comes in to the office.

So my co-worker and I enter the local coffee provider and she orders her pastry and coffee. I linger back and suddenly revert to 15.

Really pretty young woman working behind the counter. I've seen her before working there (I pay attention to these details).

And suddenly I find myself having trouble maintaining my conversation with my co-worker.

It's like I've suddenly reverted to being a teenager again and I can't think around pretty girls. Good lord.

I mentioned this to one of my friends on IM and his useless advice was funny: "Hey, just go back there and ask her (the young woman at the coffee shop) out."

Yeah... I'm just going to walk back in there like a stalker and ask out a total stranger when she's already short-circuited my brain earlier.

Clearly I'm not socially-functional enough to do stuff like that.

I am socially-functional enough to find this totally funny.

Stewart v. Cramer

I caught the Jon Stewart interview with Jim Cramer.

Reactions:

* Wow. Jon Stewart is a god.

* Jim Cramer maintained his composure remarkably well, all things considered.

* CNBC needs to invest in a tissue company for these nosebleeds that Stewart is giving them.

* What the HELL happened to this country that our best broadcast news reporting is coming from a frakking comedy show?

Seriously. What the hell?

[Rant follows. Tune out. You know you don't want to read this.]

I studied Journalism in school (you'd hardly be able to tell by how incoherent my blog and thought processes are). I've always been irritated when I have friends, relatives, or random strangers blather on to me about the "liberal media".

Drives me nuts.

There's no "liberal" media. There's no "conservative" media. There's a sensationalist media and each individual talking head show/offering tries a different angle to stir people up. Fox "news" does it for one angle. The Daily Show does it for another angle.

Of course, the Daily Show is a comedy offering. They really don't claim to be serious "news". And yet their offerings usually have a more in-depth analysis of events than actual news offerings on other networks and they question the status-quo regardless of the party in office. They stay pretty consistent on the message of the truth.

It's the job of journalists to question the status-quo, regardless of who is in office and whether or not the journalist agrees with what's going on. Why is Stewart doing a better job of that than mainstream shows?

Oh, some mainstream news does okay, but if a comedy show is consistently doing it better, there's something seriously wrong.

[Okay, I'm done on the soapbox of incoherent rambling on this topic. I should be a good little writer, wait, re-read this, and edit it so I sound less like an idiot, but I'm not gonna.]

Um...?

Wha..?

I like Japan. It's a fun country and the people I met there are incredibly nice.

This doesn't really surprise me, but it does make me scratch my head a bit.

Link to YesButNoButYes from Neatorama.

Excuse me, I must clean my brain matter off of my cubicle walls and get back to work.

Duh-Duh-DUUUUUUN!!!!

Yes, it's Friday the 13th!

And again I forgot my hockey mask. It's probably for the best, since I suspect HR would take a dim view to my interpretation of our office dress code.

It's also payday, so I can make it through the day without impersonating a serial killer.

I was hungry this morning, so I did do a stint as a cereal killer.

...

...

...

Oh, c'mon! It's funny!

[grumble]

Fine. Stand-up comedy isn't in my future.

The combination of allergies and DST is working over my battered psyche. I'm having really strange dreams.

At one point last night I was a SWAT team member trying to rescue hostages from... I dunno who. Then I was drinking "grape" Gatorade (if you've ever had the "grape" flavor of Gatorade, you know it's in no way grape-flavored, but I digress) while watching TV on a flying carpet.

I can't remember what I was watching. I think it was BSG.

And I was getting a sunburn on the flying carpet.

Oh, and I had magical/super powers. Not la-la-la Sailor Moon powers. I'm talking Gandalf on steroids powers. I moved a building because it was in the way.

Then I set up my apartment in a TARDIS.

I think I knew kung-fu in the dream too. It was like a non-stop geeky wish-fufillment dream, really. Good lord... my psyche is 13 years old.

Huh. I've matured, apparently. Earlier in the week my psyche was easily 10 years old.

I miss my Saturday morning cartoons.

More Glee!!

So apparently this is post 701. It's official: I have too much free time on my hands.

Nevermind that, though.

My hoodie arrived! I got it just as I was going out the door.

I am tremendously happy and suddenly wishing for cooler weather.

And now I'm wondering if I should get that other hoodie.

Hmm. I think I'm already doing my part to help stimulate the economy.

GLEE!!!!

I love being able to track packages via the Internet.

My hoodie should arrive today or tomorrow! Woo-hoo!

It's supposed to be cool-ish on Saturday, so that works for me.

I've got a nerd event then and this will help me dress the part.

Quote of the Day

"How do you throw a bottle ironically? Does it have to be a Pabst Blue Ribbon?"

From Questionable Content.

Wow. All my morning website reads are full of pleasing material today.

Nerd taken to its logical extreme

I love Sheldon

Reaping the...um...

Thanks to the wonders of YouTube (tip from Blue-Sunflowers), I was able to watch the opening episode of Season Two of "Reaper".

Funny thing: some of the reviews I'd read on episode 2.1 were unflattering, but I quite enjoyed it. Good clean fun there.

I like what they're doing with Sock and Ben's stories.

I think I missed that last night's "Lost" was supposed to be a rerun. Le sigh.

A battered wreck

I've gotten home later than expected, sore, cranky, still pissy over DST, and beset by allergies (thus the cranky).

While I ate dinner, I watched my tape of "Reaper". Ah, the magic is back.

Would've helped if I'd watched episode one first, but eating in front of my PC is a disaster in the making and I got home hungry and in need of some entertainment.

Without televised entertainment, I expect I'd have to make a more concerted effort in driving the people around me crazy.

Thank goodness for TV.

Still basking

I listened to all the sample music on the Two Steps from Hell website.

I'm still puzzling out their name. With a name like that, I'd expect death metal, but this is very movie-score stuff.

Whatever.

I'm mildly-surprised I didn't get scolded by my office's IT people for streaming that music as I puzzled out the finer points of the stuff I'm working on.

I want-want-want the commercial albums these guys will release (Nemesis II, I think they're calling it).

[Edit]Apparently I have found another level of ignorance I possess. "Two steps from Hell" would apparently be "Heaven". My Sunday School teachers would doubtless weep for the state of my soul if they knew.[/Edit]

A smattering of random

Woot! Someone commented where I can find and watch the season premiere of "Reaper"!

I know what I'll be doing tonight. Thank you Blue-sunflowers!

---

It's ecologically great to put one's clothing outside to dry. It's not so smart if the weather is such that it gets close to freezing overnight. I wonder if my stuff even dried or if it just frosted?

---

I don't remember dressing myself, eating breakfast, or really anything of the first hour of my morning. Either I have my routine down to the point where my brain is no longer required or I have a serious memory retention problem.

Or both.

---



Hee hee. Found on rpg.net.

---

How can it only be Wednesday?

I blame Daylight Saving Time. Curse you, annual demon!

This is freaking awesome!

What a neat idea!

Obligatory Television Commentary

I forgot to give my unsolicited reactions to the "Burn Notice" finale on Thursday.

Oh, the humanity!

I loved it. This season has been pretty lackluster, but the finale made up for it in spades. Finally wrapped up the "mystery agency" thing. It wasn't entirely satisfactory, but I was okay with the direction the writers chose to go in. They set themselves up nicely for the next season in June. If the show is going to stick to its formula (and it clearly is), it makes sense to do the stuff they did in the finale.

Like how I tried to avoid spoiling it?

Tonight is the second episode of "Reaper" for this season. I still have to catch the first episode. I tried to watch it on the CW site, but had trouble with the player and Hulu didn't have it.

Sad.

Wait! That's glass?

I have no idea why it doesn't dawn on me that people I don't personally know might read this.

Logically there are people out there with just as much time to troll the Internet as I have. Some may have more (sorry... I'm truly sorry...).

Why would anyone read this blog? Maybe the catchy name? After I came up with the name, I Googled it, just to see if it was original. Apparently it's a TV show at some point (wish I'd seen it). I think it's also the name of a band.

I have no connection to either. Just FYI. The name was:

A) Purely random
B) In honor of the elite force I will deploy when I'm prepared to conquer the Earth
C) All of the above

So it throws me for a bit of a loop when I see comments from people whom I don't recognize or I have long-lost friends say "Hey, I read your blog. What are you smoking these days?"

If you're some random Internet stranger reading this blog... I'm really sorry you have to see all this. Not that sorry. Hopefully nobody's holding a gun to your head and making you read it. I think there's international conventions against that.

Maybe I should just write a personal journal? Or take up juggling?

Snort

I'm afraid of the same things.



Hee!

Oh yeah... good start

There's just something about Tuesdays.

When it takes me four tries to fire up a browser (Firefox, IE, Chrome... doesn't matter) and then the browser hangs after launching...

Yeah. I can tell today's going to be one of those days.

Shallow Interests

I haven't been tempted to see Dragonball Evolution.

There's really only one reason I'd want to.

Now that I've seen the scene I'd care about, I'm pretty free-and-clear.

(Bet you can't guess which of the two scenes I'm talking about...)

BSG/Dollhouse Commentary

I caught Friday's "Dollhouse" on Hulu.

I'm not sure if I liked it or not. I'm leaning towards "not". There were some interesting things going on in it, but overall I couldn't bring myself to care too much about the story.

And then there's "Battlestar Galactica". I found this latest BSG to be kind of creepy. The child-abuse elements of it were sickening with Boomer threatening little Hera with a giant needle to get her to stop crying. Watching the Galatica have a complete meltdown is less-than-fun. Watching Starbuck have her existential ennui moments is a true yawner. And why does anyone trust Baltar? Seriously. Why?

This coming Friday starts the three-part finale. I'm only watching this to get closure now.

Daylight Saving Time

I hate Daylight Saving Time with a passion that I find difficult to express properly in words.

Still, I feel obligated to try on this first Monday of DST.

I hate "losing" that hour of sleep in the late winter/early spring, no matter how it plays out. As a further insult, DST was extended as part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and I've found my dislike just getting worse and worse.

I'm not one to advocate violence, but on morning like this, I'd be tempted to smack around all the authors a lot if they were right in front of me.

It seems to me that DST is an archaic and fairly ridiculous endeavor that isn't even observed consistently within our own country. That's sufficent grounds to me to get rid of it altogether.

I'm putting that in the basket with the Electoral College as "things I'd like to see go away and never, ever will".

So I comfort myself by whining about it and dreaming about kicking annoying policians.

Stupid Daylight Saving Time.

Ah...

Yeah, looks like those TSFH guys will release commercial albums: http://nemesis2.wordpress.com/

Two Step Program

It started with me trying to figure out who did the music to the Star Trek Third Trailer.

Thanks to extensive trolling of more newsgroups than I ought to have gone through, I discovered Two Steps from Hell

These guys do exactly the kind of music I really love: choral with instrumental scores.

And, as my luck would have it, they don't commercially sell their stuff. Getting a CD is a challenge.

I found an offering of their stuff on Amazon and made a purchase over the weekend. I also found a few MP3s through some investigation.

Honestly, I'd rather just cough up some bucks and get the entirety of their run of music rather than knock on the seemy back doors of the Internet. Alas...

It seems they have a rabid fanbase that's encouraged these guys to release a commercial album. It will be mine. Oh yes...

I'm comfortable with my problems.

Whahappen?

Well, this weekend was a blink.

I know I got lots of sleep. Reading a prior post, Nyquil was involved in part of it.

Huh.

I feel healthy this fine, full-moon and cold morning.

That's something, I guess.

Freakin' Monday.

Bleah.

Ah, wonder drugs

I've sung Nyquil's praises before. I'll likely do so again.

In keeping with that grand tradition, I shall do so now.

Last night I decided to see if I could nip this bug in the bud. I took a shot of Nyquil and passed out about 9:30 or so. With the time-change, I figure I got about 10.5 hours of pretty solid sleep.

And I feel pretty damn good this morning.

Here's hoping that did the trick.

Tipped over

And now I pay for last night's drinks.

Oh, I'm not even close to hung-over. Instead, my immune system has taken a break and the bug I've been fighting has claimed a bit more territory.

Yep. I'm sick.

Good times.

Unwatchedmen

Steve and I underestimated the nerd interest in the film. Sold out 'till 10pm showings, which would run much later than either of us were inclined to deal with.

So it was bar-hopping. A couple of bars and some Chinese food in-between. Good times.

Kind of a slow night, all said.

It was nice to catch up, though. We both needed the drinks, albeit for different reasons.

OH. MY. GOD.

The Star Trek trailer just gave me a nerdgasm.

I need a cigarette.

And I don't smoke.

Figures

I finally broke down and ordered a hoodie I've been craving for a while. I won't go into details save to say it really fits my interests.

Pause for the shudder.

The weather forecast claims sunny skies and warmer temps.

Damnit.

And, of course, the day after I order the hoodie, I see this on ThinkGeek.

Damn them.

I thought I was free and clear. They've pulled me back.

TV Moments

I watched my recording of Wednesday's "Lost" yesterday.

If they're not careful, the "Lost" writers will make me think that TV can actually write okay time-travel shows.

I quite enjoyed it.

"Burn Notice" aired its finale last night. Haven't watched it yet.

Tonight I'm recording BSG. I'll try to catch "Dollhouse" on Hulu when I finally have time to catch the "Reaper" season opener.

Maybe I should get TiVo.

Watchmen

It's wrong how funny this is. Mainly 'cause Hitler isn't funny under any other circumstances.

Painless

The numbness has worn off. I feel fine. No pain. No sensitivity. Nada.

Sah-wheet!

I even had time to make pasta sauce!

Despite a lack of real enthusiasm for the film, I'm going to go see Watchmen tomorrow with a buddy of mine. If the crowds are nuts, we'll blow it off and grab drinks.

Can't argue with that plan.

Of course, it means I must choose between recording "Dollhouse" or "Battlestar Galactica" tomorrow night, but I can do that.

Honestly, I don't expect "Dollhouse" to survive a full season and BSG ends in a week or two.

Why am I not excited about Watchmen? Hard to say. The graphic novel was good. It didn't knock my socks off or anything, but it was a great read. Alan Moore's stories are always engaging.

There's no way in hell Hollywood can transition Moore's prose to the big screen and not horribly screw it up.

It's simply not possible.

Oh, it will be a pretty movie. The trailers prove that. I've no doubt it will be delightful eye-candy, but I'd prefer more for ten bucks and change. It's sad that I don't expect I'll get it.

Holes in the Head

... plugged.

Yep. Got my cavities taken care of this afternoon. Four of 'em, apparently.

I have to hand it to my dentist. She was a total pro. I was pretty freaked (I've never had this sort of work done before). She talked me through every step and I was pretty damn numb when the drill came out.

I'm still numb. I can't smile.

Weirdest damn feeling.

Sick of this

I can't decide if I'm getting sick or not. I hate that.

I feel off. A hint of a headache. A bit of the sinus action (likely causing said headache).

Might be allergies. I don't have that achy feeling that a cold gives me. Flu usually feels different.

Of course, my office is plagued with all of this and then some. Everyone around me is coughing up something and sick as a dog, so it stands to reason my immune system is taking hits.

But it could be allergies.

Bleah. Either way, I'm happy tomorrow is Friday.

Truth

FRAK!

I forgot to watch/record "Reaper" last night.

Damn it!

Thank goodness for Hulu.

Limping along

It's only Wednesday.

I think I'm fighting a cold.

Bleah.

Orwell Spinning

Stuff like this makes me wonder just what the hell is going on in this country today.

Seriously.

The whole disregarding the Constitution and the Bill of Rights has to stop. Now.

I get that some of the folks imprisoned at Guantanamo might be bad. I get that there's people out there who are not warm-fuzzy-friendly folks.

They still have rights. They still should have a chance to defend themselves.

No government should be able to blithely disregard basic rights of people, regardless as to who they are.

Naive? Maybe. Idealistic? Certainly. True? Hell yeah.

In 2000-2001, my father recommended a book to me: It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis.

Creepiest book I've ever read. It bothers me how much it reasonated with the last eight years.

Bothers me that it might still apply.

The Lesson

Back in the day, I was moderately-dedicated to karate. My instructors taught me a lot of neat stuff. I wasn't a particularly good student, but I wasn't particularly bad.

One thing that martial arts teaches really well is humility.

There's always someone better than you at something. It's a fact of life. When you start walking around thinking that 'cause you can throw a kick as high as your face that you're the next Bruce Lee or Chuck Norris, you meet someone who can put you on your ass (or your face) so fast that you never know what hit you.

(Re-reading that sentence, I am learning humility about my crappy-ass writing... heh.)

It's a never-ending lesson, really. It translates to most things in life. I've found that I'm not nearly as good as I think I am at the things I think are strengths.

All those karate skills I had certainly are on the list. Oh, I don't seriously think I was ever all that good, but I sure thought I was better. I learned last night that I'm much worse than I thought. Glad I learned this in a class and not in a real-life situation.

That could have hurt.

I also learned that my social skills and insights could use a little work as well. I'm going to need to spend a little time in the next couple of weeks correcting a few bad assumptions I made.

Should be a hoot.

It's all good. There's always room for improvement. I think that's one of the meanings to life, really. Improving one's self and one's surroundings is an integral part of life and all that.

Wish it was a bit easier. It would cater well to my laziness.

I'd like winning Lotto numbers, too.

iGod

I love Mythtickle.

Stormy Weather

The wind howled much of last night and sent rain against my bedroom window to simulate machine-gun sounds.

It's weird that I found that soothing.

A confluence of nerd

I'd intended to hit Wondercon, at least for part of the weekend.

I really had.

Then I did the math. I'd planned on my family visit and that took priority. After I was done with that, I still could have made Wondercon, but I'd have been shelling out... what? Forty bucks for a few hours on Saturday?

Pass.

Besides, I was really only interested in the dealer room, which meant more money out of my pocket.

I guess I could have gone Sunday, but I really wanted to attend class and that was good, clean fun.

I think.

Forgot everything I learned yesterday. Every damn thing.

Bwah.

Sandwiches

Aaah... CAD. You rock.

The BSG Report

I keep forgetting to rant about my TV shows. I wonder if it's because I find them so boring lately?

I'd comment on "Burn Notice", but this season's been too lackluster for me to really care about the individual episodes.

I screwed up in taping "Dollhouse" and only got the last half. Seemed kind of a yawner, so I'm not inclined to watch the balance on Hulu.

"Battlestar Galactica" was one I managed to watch and record.

In summary:

Blah-blah. Attempt at a touching moment between two characters I don't care about. Blah-blah. Lots of whining about existential ennui. Blah-blah. Dream sequences. Blah-blah. Predictable twist with a "bad" character and a "good" character who look exactly alike.

The return of a really stupid song.

A kidnapping that was no great shocker.

Inexplicable moment demonstrating that the nigh-invincible Battlestar Galactica is really vulnerable to love-taps for a really contrived reason.

Yawn.

BSG's ending episodes, save for Gaeta's rebellion, have been an unbelievable disappointment. I can't believe I'm watching the same show that had me hooked over a year ago.

I'm hard-pressed to care enough to bother recording the final episodes at this point.

Rain drops are fallin'...

It's sprinkly today. I hesitate to call it "rain", but the ground is wet. Good times.

Not that I've roused myself to go outside. Oh no. I have been the very picture of lazy and I'm enjoying every moment of it. Later I'll hit my class and get hit in return (and worked and abused and...).

Until then, I'm pretty much diving into the deep end of the geek pool and working on game stuff.

I have a game in a couple of weeks and I'm working on the plot prep in email with those of my players who have the bandwidth to respond.

It's a hoot.

I met with the two busier of my group on Friday over Irish pub food and delicious Guinness (pausing to bask in the memory of sweet Guinness... okay, I'm done). I ironed out character details... more-or-less. The guys will mail me what I need later this week and we're good to go.

What are you looking at?

This is no different than a poker night. Just takes more preparation and imagination.

Oh, and dice.

Hang on... the electrical tape is falling off of my glasses.