Friday, June 29, 2012

Wheeeeeeee.... kend!

See what I did there?

Yay for creepy ghost music in the wee hours o' th' mornin'!

Yay for payday just before the weekend!

Hell, yay for the weekend!

It's long overdue.

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Didn't see that coming

The Supreme Court upheld the healthcare insurance mandate by a 6-3 vote.

Looks like Robert Reich was right. Again.

EDIT: my bad. Was a 5-4 vote. This is what happens when I read the first article and don't wait for the facts to congeal.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

For today's neurotic ranting...

Yesterday I went to IKEA.

To be clear: it wasn't my idea. I've only entered IKEA willingly one time, and that was to get a cover for my monitor at my desk.

Every other time I've been, it's been a female acquaintance who has instigated my having to brave the labyrinth of Swedish crap.

Yesterday was no different as I ran an errand for a family member.

I lamented the task. Not because I resented running an errand for a family member. No, I hate going into that goddamn place because it's a freakin' maze of crazy and difficult to get out of quickly.

I lamented such to a friend at work yesterday and she gave me concise instructions how to get in, find what I needed, and get out quickly. She even told me where the cafe is so I could get some lunch.

Tasty chicken wrap.

The mission was a success but I still hate that place.



The weather's nice. Perfect bike riding weather. I've been taking advantage to bike for my commute this week.

My route is mostly safe...ish. I go through a neighborhood that can be dicey at times, but I stick to a well-traveled road, so it's safe enough.

Still, I find myself often on-edge when I reach a certain area. The city I cross through to get to work is the only place I've ever been attacked in my life.

The first time I was... much younger. I'd left a party and had my last interaction with an ex-girlfriend. As I went to my car, a clearly-crazed fellow started hurling bottles in my general direction.

Dissatisfied with his aim, he broke a bottle to make a serviceable stabbing implement and came at me.

I didn't stick around to see how that was going to go. I ran like the damn wind, got into my car, and engaged warp drive to leave the city.

I think I calmed down and got my breath back about five miles out of town.

The second time I was riding my bike to work (along the route I took today). A shambling figure in layers of clothing (looking very much like a denizen of the street) did his(?) level best to pull me off my bike.

He caught part of my jacket sleeve but couldn't maintain a grip. I kept momentum forward and (miracle of miracles) control of my bike.

Again with the warp drive. Go adrenaline!

Why bring that up? Oh yeah. These encounters made me a tad paranoid. I'm often a little... ah... "hyper-aware" of people when I commute in.

Anyone acts oddly, and I beat a hasty retreat from them. Even if it's two guys just walking on an intercept path (which has happened). I just shift routes. Better to be paranoid than get my face kicked in and my bike stolen.

This morning my little mental alarm went off. It was probably nothing. Just some guy walking across the street.

I'm not sure exactly what set my alarms off. Maybe it was how he didn't just glance at me on my bike but tracked me. Maybe it was how he was looking around, as if to see who else was around. Maybe it was something else or nothing at all.

Didn't matter. Engage warp drive.

Beat my usual commute time by five minutes today. I'll probably feel this later.

Monday, June 25, 2012

Write like the Wind!

This just about covers it perfectly:


WRITE LIKE THE WIND, GEORGE!

Yes, we know you're not our bitch. Still... dude.... please???

Unsolicited Reviews

Saturday was quite the day for my entertainment needs. First, Nickelodian aired the one-hour finale to "The Legend of Korra" then I saw Brave.




Spoilers. Just FYI.




































So, "The Legend of Korra". This sequel to "Avatar: The Last Airbender" was a twelve-part mini-series set about seventy years later. Korra, the protagonist, is the successor to the now-deceased Avatar Aang.

In a world where certain people are born with the ability to "bend" (manipulate the classic "elements" of Air, Earth, Fire, or Water), one person is born as the "Avatar". The Avatar is a bridge between the spirit world and the material. Sort of a Dali Lama and super-powered sheriff. The Avatar is also the only person in all the world capable of "bending" all four of the classic elements (and presumably mastering the various specializations.

Korra is in many ways Aang's polar opposite. Aang was a spiritual person who avoided conflict and mastered Airbending quickly, but had to go through a steady education to pick up the other four elements. Korra, on the other hand, mastered Waterbending (the power native to her culture), Earthbending, and Firebending quickly but had terrible trouble with Airbending. She is also aggressive and not interested in the spiritual.

By the age of 16, the headstrong Korra finishes the final touches of mastering Earth, Fire, and Waterbending. She then flees the "compound" she's been raised and educated in to go to "Republic City", a massive New York-meets-Shanghai steampunkish city where she can find Tenzin, the son of Aang, and last Airbending master in the world.

There, Korra encounters allies in the form of the brooding Firebender Mako and his goofy Earthbending brother Bolin as well as the smart and capable Asami, daughter of industrialist Hiroshi Sato (whose company builds all the technology, such as cars, electrical equipment, etc.). She also encounters the "Equalist" movement, a group of people determined to do away with the "tyranny" of Benders and the de facto caste-state that exists with Benders having power over non-Benders.

The Equalists are led by the mysterious Amon, a masked man who possesses the ability to take away a Bender's powers.

The series was twelve episodes leading up to the final conflict between Korra and Amon and Korra's learning how to come into her own.

It was an entertaining romp, though the stories felt rushed and a bit compacted. There were a lot of shout-outs to the previous series and a really great back-story. I kind of wish they'd spread the story out, for all that. There was a LOT of "deus ex machina" and contrived plot elements. I had a hard time tracking some of the plot progressions (Korra learning to Airbend, the love triangle between Korra, Mako, and Asami, etc.). The final revelation with Amon was clever, but could have stood a little more exposition.

Still, a good offering. I'll be interested to see if they go ahead with a season two.

That brings me to Brave.

Pixar's latest offering is a gorgeous fairy tale. At the core of it is a story about the cliche complications that ensue between a teenage Merida and her mother.

Merida, the protagonist and heroine, is a strong-willed teenage girl who - if she ran a personal ad - would say something like:

Likes outdoors, horse rides, rock-climbing, letting hair blow free, and archery. Really likes archery.
Dislikes formality, nagging, tight dresses, and being objectified.

I'm not going to get too into the plot. Suffice it to say there's magic and a curse. There's a demonic bear, a witch, and unsurprising problems.

Most of that is irrelevant, really. As with most Pixar offerings, the core of the story is the "human" element of the relationship between Merida and her mother Elinor.

It's cute. A little trite, but cute. I recommended it as viewing to members of my own family, though I probably should have not presented it as a "must-see". I might have delivered the wrong message there. Oh well.

For all that, I loved the movie. I'd see it again in a heartbeat.

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Brave

Saw Brave.

Awesome. Just awesome.

This is how it goes

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Buckets of Weird

It's late June and it feels kind of like autumn this fine morning.

And the weird, discordant, "ghost music" is playing outside my office.

In the words of Elijah Snow: "It's a strange world. Let's keep it that way."

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Ghosts of 9/11

It really shouldn't come to a surprise to anyone other than a dittohead that the Bush Administration didn't do its job, which was a major factor in the 9/11 attacks.

Don't believe that statement? Well, apparently there's declassified documents to back it up.

I do remember Bush as having taken the most vacation time of any president save Nixon before September of 2011.

And he got re-elected. Boggles the mind.

It burnssss usssss....

I hate fluorescent lights. They give me a splitting headache after a certain period of time ranging from a few hours to a few minutes, depending on the light intensity and type.

Makes working in an office loads of fun.

Normally I can just tough it out. However, my office currently has "natural" lights that are anything but and give me horrific headaches within a half-hour on their lowest setting.

I've taken to wearing polarized sunglasses indoors to stave off the worst effect. Works okay as a solution and I only stand out a lot among my co-workers. To be fair, I'm not the only one who suffers this malady and not the only one who wears shades indoors, so there's that at least.

Polarized shades and my computer monitor are a match made in the deepest bowels of hell, however. They just don't work together. At the best of times, the combo creates horrible eye strain. At the worst... well, it's just not do-able.

Like many of my co-workers, I use a solution to shield my workstation somewhat from the lights: a canopy of sorts that reminds me a bit of Ferngully.

It works okay, but it's a bit small.

Then another co-worker pointed me towards CubeShield.

I ordered one last week. It came on Monday and it's been a joy. It's bigger than the leaf-canopy thing and provides better shielding.

Aaaah... working in relative bliss. That's got to be forbidden somehow.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Frazzle

Busy week. Have out-of-town co-workers about. There is much in the way of "team building exercises" going on after work.

We're writers, so "team building" sometimes takes place at bars. What of it?

Blazed out of my martial arts class last night to meet up with my co-workers. I'd forgotten just about everything I've ever learned about throws and was doing them horribly wrong in class.

I think I remember the right movements now, but alas I have no partner to practice with at 6-something in the morning. Funny how the brain processes info. I never make the connections when I need them.

Oh well. Was totally worth it to hit our "team building". Got caught up on stuff going on with my teammates... or at least one round of catch-up. The week has only begun...

Wish the damn allergies would take a break for a while. Like sixty years or so...

Monday, June 18, 2012

Eon Extreme Disappointment

Jeez. It was a little over a year ago that I got my Eon Extreme light from Ian Sinclair Ltd.

I add a hyperlink to their site with reservations.

See, the Eon Extreme, as I've previously noted, is a clever idea. It's a flashlight the size of a credit card (albeit a bit thicker). And it's damn bright.

I got version 1 of their offering back in May of 2011. I liked it, though I had a few problems with the activator.

I tried to get a second one on the theory that I just got a lemon in the batch. I've mentioned previously in the archives of this blog my experiences with them and feel no burning need to rehash the difficulties. Suffice it to say that as of today, they're still claiming delay in shipping, though they haven't updated that FAQ in almost a month so the FSM only knows what's going on with them.

Doesn't really matter and isn't especially germane to the reason for my post.

My Eon Extreme finally died yesterday. I can't really determine why. I'd been turning it on between the low and high settings, mainly just to see the comparison. The light has been buggy for over six months where the high setting is on for about two seconds then downshifts to the low setting by itself.

Yesterday, I turned it on and it wouldn't turn off. I fiddled with the switch endlessly to get it to power off. It gets hot if it's on for too long and I was afraid of a fire hazard.

I don't know why I worried. After about three minutes, it just died and won't turn on again.

What a disappointment.

The Eon Extreme is (was?) a clever concept, but I've had lots of better-crafted products cost a lot less for better value.

I've poked around a few flashlight forums to find reviews and discovered a lot more dissatisfied Iain Sinclair customers out there than I expected.

I'm done with these guys. A shame, but until I see they've gotten their act together, I'm not wasting my cash on their junk. Just not worth it.

Monday's ominous feel

I was quite excited to feel the fog roll in last night. I'm not a fan of hot weather and it's easier to sleep when the Bay Area air conditioning kicks in, so I was almost giddy when I went to bed.

Then the wind blew all night, making my blinds clack about, waking me on-and-off all night long. Bleah.

And my office appears to be having hiccups in the power supply. The power keeps flickering here. I find that odd, given that we have a backup generator.

Good times.

Friday, June 15, 2012

How to End a Week Right

Not in order of preference. In rough order of events:
  1. Wake up with fewer allergies than the night before. Ideally no allergies, but life ain't perfect.
  2. Get paid.
  3. Have a project go smoothly. Proof of concept looks solid. The next phase may actually go better than expected.
  4. Remember to do that grocery shopping over lunch.
  5. Have a light lunch in anticipation of later exercise.
  6. Get a Black Blood of the Earth refill.
  7. Catch up with a few people.
  8. Have traffic cooperate.
What am I forgetting?

Oh yeah. And have it be FRIDAY!!! Woo-hoo!

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Sacrifices and Offerings

I'm trying to figure out which of the many gods of Computer Mayhem I need to make offerings and obeisance to in order to get my goddamn system to work properly this morning.

"All of them" is apparently the wrong answer.

In other news, BART is down this morning, at least partially. Good times.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Rough Morning

  • Had trouble waking up.
  • Headwind. Argh. Though after yesterday's heat, I'm not going to complain about the breeze, I suppose.
  • Found out some sad news from a friend.
  • Lots of software updates. Lots and lots of software updates.
  • Pretty sure the office A/C isn't working.
  • Someone, somewhere outside is playing weird, haunting, discordant... music? Kind of spooky, really.
It's not even 5:30 am yet... Oy.

Edit: And... ye gods... I'm having serious problems typing/spelling of late. Either my brain is melting, I'm developing some kind of disability later in life, I'm having a stroke, all of the above, or something completely random is messing me up. Very disconcerting.

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Pleas in the electronic aether

My friend V forwarded a blog post from Saladin Ahmed earlier today. (Sorry I didn't reply, V! Busy day...)

Saladin Ahmed, if you didn't already know is the author of "Throne of the Crescent Moon". This book is possibly the best novel I've read in 2012 thus far.

Ahmed is very straightforward in his post. I'm not going to make any moral judgments or claims about who deserves what aid or why and I'm not going to try to persuade. Times are tight. I just wanted to pass this along.

Strange Coincidence

Well that was a little weird. No sooner did I put up my last post then I go trolling through my news feed on the side and see the latest from ApocalypseEquipped.

How on Earth did I miss this when I was getting the links for the previous post? I'm going to blame allergies.

So I'm blushing a little and apologies if you read my blog and think it's a bit scattered and filled mostly with my banal ramblings.

Though to be fair, my blog is mostly about my banal ramblings, but that's really not the point.

If you haven't read ApocalypseEquipped you're missing a treat. It's a fun read about all kinds of fascinating gear and thoughts on preparedness (plus the joys of how to handle collecting certain items in Australia).

The zombie apocalypse can hit anywhere, you know.

SAR Global Tool

I thought I'd posted about the awesome of SAR Global Tool before.

I looked back in my archives and realized I must've imagined posting something.

How embarrassing!

Time to correct that!

I saw mention of SAR Global Tool's offerings on Apocalypse Equipped and found myself fascinated (as I usually do) by the unique and cool stuff Josh found.

Then, one day, I saw this post on Apocalypse Equipped and couldn't resist.

A short time later, I had one.

I mainly bought it in anticipation of doing some hiking, but my busy schedule has conflicted with that clever plan so far. All the same, I picked up a necklace from CountyComm and put the SAR tool on it. I'm still working on a comfortable configuration, but it works nicely enough.

It's a very clever tool! It's got a nice, solid clip that makes for a functional money-clip and I've found myself using the mirror a couple of times (to see if I had something in my eye... not to signal for rescue yet). The knife is a sharp little thing too.

Oh, while I'm on the topic of CountyComm, they have the "revision 2" of their Maratac AA flashlight out. It's a bright little bugger and comes with a diffuser making it work as a sort of candle or lantern. Worth a look if you want a practical and portable light.

For the record, I get no kick-backs from any gushing reviews I post nor do I have any kind of non-customer relationship with any of these vendors. Just wanted to say nice things about good stuff.

Monday, June 11, 2012

Reason to Facepalm

Finding a site that does not offer an encrypted method of placing orders. Seriously. Who in the FSM's noodly name has clear pages for inputting your credit card number?

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Prometheus

On Friday night, I caught the opening of Prometheus.

Let's get the non-spoilery stuff out of the way first: this movie was solid entertainment and pretty damn awesome.

Sure, the science is shaky, but it was a gorgeous film and it had few slow points. It was pretty good in 3-D, too.

From here on out, there be spoilers.
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You were warned.

It's the latter half of 21st century. Somehow we haven't managed to obliterate ourselves. A couple of archaeologists find clues that there's some aliens out there who want us to drop by for a chat... or so it seems to them.

Flash forward a few years. The spaceship Prometheus arrives at a wild, raw world determined by coordinates extrapolated from what the archaeologists (Shaw and her boyfriend whose name escapes me).

They land. Then things go terribly, terribly wrong.

It's a predictable movie. As I said above, it's gorgeous in practically every aspect. It's a satisfying quasi-prequel to Alien and its sequels. There are no Preadators [EDIT: Predators! GAH! What is up with my rotten spelling lately???] in this film and there don't need to be any.

In a nutshell, the plot is about our origins using... well... a bunch of wonky, new-age nonsense but once you accept that (and you kind of have to in order to follow this movie) it's moderately-solid (if you discount the factual errors Neil DeGrasse Tyson has found in it).

It's got an expansive cast of largely-cliche and forgettable characters with three exceptions: Noomi Rapace as Dr. Elizabeth Shaw, David Fassbender as the android David, and Charlize Theron as the expedition leader Meredith Vickers.

And, to be perfectly honest, even these three don't get a lot of character development.

The story is a good adventure ride. It gets choppy in parts and it's totally open for a sequel, but it's worth seeing in theaters.

Oh, the Wikipedia article on this film spoils the entire plot quite well. Just FYI.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

I kind of want this now...

The Nut Dice Ring. For when you need to roll the dice randomly, I guess.

Monday, June 4, 2012

Collecting

Spent the weekend pretty much trying to get my sh*t together and let sore muscles rest.

Cleaned my hovel of a man cave a bit (not so much that anyone would notice, but it's all about increments).

Read a little. Watched "Sherlock" and some classic "Dr. Who" (and by "classic" I mean 1970's schlock with hammy acting and special effects that make SyFy Channel offerings look state-of-the-art).

Caught up with the family. Explored more inroads in gluttony. Hit the farmer's market. Got lemons. Made lemonade ('cause one must honor cliches). Worked on some projects.

In a nutshell, I spent a weekend I'd thought I'd booked instead regaining my mental bearings a little. That's good, I guess. I won't have another free weekend for this sort of thing for the forseeable future.

Do not listen to the lady on the tv screen

It's supposed to rain in the Bay Area today. It's also supposed to be rather windy and unseasonably-cool.

Got my brolly. Got a jacket. Opted to wear jeans instead of shorts (my work dress code is very relaxed).

Left the house and it's warm and muggy.

I believe the forecasters when they say it may rain (well, sprinkle, most likely) but I think their take on "unseasonably cool" is very different from mine.

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Undoing the Good

Any health benefits I may have gained from the week's physical endeavors have been undone by my delightfully tasty lunch. Burger, fries, and a couple of pints of brown ale.

As with so many things in life, I regret nothing.

Now back to season two of "Sherlock" and more sloth.

Friday, June 1, 2012

The Good Kind of Pain

I am flabby, weak, and horribly out-of-shape.

This time last year, or even two or three years ago, it was a very different story. I could cite excuses. 2011 was not a good year for me for a variety of reasons.

But it's just excuses.

As I've previously intimated, I've gotten my bike up to snuff and have been forcing myself to ride it to work (a reasonable workout, round-trip).

Last week I started to up the game and returned to martial arts.

This week, I attended class for the longer offerings.

To say I hurt right now doesn't quite adequately express the messages my body is sending me.

I haven't injured myself (yet). Far from it. The last two martial arts classes have been a joy (with masochistic overtones I don't care to contemplate too closely). I suck horribly, but I'm learning stuff (and in several cases, re-learning stuff to break old, bad habits).

In combination with the bicycling... well, that's where the pain comes in.

Stairs are not a lot of fun, and there's a lot of stairs in my life.

And I regret nothing.