Now

xkcd genius. Again.

Yeah that's how the free market works

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huh

Thoughts:

• Fills me with dread on a Lovecraftian level.
• Fills me with potential joy. Cautious, potential joy.

Weeping for a weekend past

Another week looms ahead.

• Got new shoes over the weekend. Needed 'em bad. I actually listened to the sales guy when he pimped some orthopedic inserts and my feet are rather happy. I tell ya, comfy shoes are good for the sole.
• I've been waiting to use the above pun for a while.
• Reading "The Emperor's Blades" by Brian Staveley. So far it's a pretty solid read. Staveley likes to abuse his protagonists a lot, but he's all kittens and butterflies next to George R.R. Martin or Joe Abercrombie. Still, he's created a fascinating world and I like his characters. I have a sinking suspicion my favorite (a side character) is not long for this world.
• Rain is on the way! Happiness and joy!
• Watched the classic "Doctor Who" episode known as "The Three Doctors". Well, re-watched it. Well, re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-watched it, if I want to approach a bit closer to honestly. Damn but Troughton and Pertwee were awesome together. Could tell that Hartnell was disintegrating, but he held up admirably. The guy they got to play Hartnell in "The Five Doctors" was solid, though. Kind of wish they'd considered stand-in actors or something a bit more complex for the 50th special, but they did well enough, I suppose.
• Followed up "The Three Doctors" with "Destiny of the Daleks" or, as I like to call it, attack of the Egyptian-hairstyle-mod-robots from Planet Spandex. In the classic series they usually had some walk-on schmuck who would be caught up in events and survive. The guy they got in this ep, a wild-haired sort of fellow, really drives home how the old-school BBC didn't go for the sort of "pretty-glam" Hollywood crap that they do now.

Rebels without a...

Right, so io9 has been giving out some bits on the new rebel characters that will star in Disney's "Star Wars: Rebels" TV show.

Digest that statement for a moment. Go on. I'll wait.



Yes. Disney. Rebels. Star Wars. The wrong in that is pretty epic.

Conceptually, I'm behind the idea of something exploring between the travesty that was Ep III and the awesome that was Ep IV. Doing something on the Rebel Alliance view of things is interesting. And then Disney had to go raid some MMO character and just get stupid. I mean, a Han Solo-esque Jedi? Seriously? A Boba Fett-esque rebel? I can't decide which character sounds more ludicrous and childish. Wait, I don't have to choose!

I really just need to stop reading anything that will further abuse my childhood memories. Sigh.

yeah

Yeah. I'll watch this.

Sniveling Events

“He had noticed that events were cowards: they didn't occur singly, but instead they would run in packs and leap out at him all at once.” - Richard Mayhew, "Neverwhere" (by Neil Gaiman).

Yup.

Eventful week. Now I really have to get my sh*t together.

Life amuses me.

Lessons Learned over President's Day Weekend

• I should pay more attention to certain aspects of the news. So apparently the Olympics are going on.
• I'm in better shape than I thought: I helped get the heaviest freakin' sofa on Earth up four flights of stairs. And I am not in pain from that.
• My bike repairs are holding. Happiness abounds.
• I can re-watch "Person of Interest" hundreds of times and get something new out of it each time.
• Being able to sleep in three mornings really makes a difference.

a bit of nonsense that you don't need to read

As Saturdays go, this one has been productive. Repaired my bike and actually got it running, though I have worries about the rear (and more important) brakes. Still, it's up-and-running, should there be a need. I hit REI and got myself a new bike pump. Seems to work okay. Hopefully it will work when I need it.

I'm now enjoying a large bottle of Icelandic smoked stout beer (called "Lava") and watching The Avengers. 'Cause that's my idea of entertainment.

At present, life does not suck.

Beer cures all

As Fridays go, this one has sucked remarkably, given that it's a payday and a Friday before a three-day-weekend.

The previous issues with my garage door forced me to do an impromptu bike ride to work today. My bike has been sessile for a few months and is in dire need of attention. That became painfully evident as I tried to leave work and realized my rear tire was low. Attempts to inflate it revealed that my bike pump was broken beyond repair and there is something wrong with the valve-stem on the affected tire preventing it from taking in air when I got it to a maintenance station near by work.

Cue to a long walk to BART. My grumbling and scowling no doubt is a large part of why people gave me a wide berth. I'm sure my sweaty self was just another reason.

I do not need the added expense of bike issues at this point. Got home too late to reasonably hit martial arts. I really can't afford the dinner I had at a brewery, but goddamnit, I felt the universe owed me this one. It's remarkable how a good meal and three pints of high-alcohol beer adjusts one's attitude for the better. I'm still pissed-off, but I'm also easily distra... SQUIRREL!

what we call a good start

Full night's rest, assisted with chemicals to stave off what I thought might be the beginnings of a bug.

Woke feeling refreshed and pretty solid. It's a Friday. it's a payday. No pain in any muscles and parts, so martial arts class remains a strong possibility.

A little Black Blood of the Earth to counter the nefarious after-effects of Nyquil and I'm off to work.

And the goddamn garage door won't open. Won't just not-open, it unleashes a terrible, caterwauling wail.

I can't get my car out of the goddamn garage.

Much swearing later as I try to use my limited knowledge of my building's garage door diagnostics (FSM help me, I typed that and I meant that....). Nope. My car is not leaving this garage today.

More swearing. It's wet outside. I really don't want to ride my goddamn bike to work.

A half hour later, I'm at my office, quite damp from a heavy mist that flirts with sprinkling. My brakes are wet and make a ridiculous noise. I haven't ridden a bike in months and... yeah. I'm not moving fast, thanks to under-utilized muscles and the knowledge that my bike is not going to stop quickly thanks to the wet roads and my wet brakes.

The sun isn't even up yet. Chaos in my in-box. I have a sinking feeling my direct deposit might have gotten mangled, meaning there's a chance something might bounce. Thanks to the fact I'm bike riding today, I can't accomplish what I wanted to accomplish after work 'cause it will take me too long to get from work to where I need to be within a specific time-frame.

Yeah. Today's lookin' great so far.

What they said

Re: Capaldi being "too old" to be the Doctor.

Go away Tuesday. You're drunk.

• I'm back to martial arts. Sadly, this might be my last semester in this particular style, depending on how other plans go. Suffice it to say, I'm sore this morning. Not from getting the crap kicked out of me (for a change) but entirely due to under-used muscles being used a lot. Good times.
• The washing machine last night decided it did not care for the excessive number of jeans and my martial arts uniform all in the same load. Net result: water every goddamn place and an extra hour added to my laundry. I think some of the kids in my building learned some new words from me.
• No "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." this week. I keep planning to slam out a diatribe comparing "Arrow" to "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." and I keep deciding it's really not worth writing. Neither are particularly well-written shows. Sure, "Arrow" does a better job with the superhero angle, but it's really not fair to look at "Agents" as a superhero show. Alas, my OCD refuses to let this go.
• Apparently Hollywood still intends to do a live-action version of Akira. What would it take to stop them? Plus there's yet another Terminator movie on the wings. Ye gods.
• Apparently there's a new Sinbad movie out called Sinbad: the Fifth Voyage. It's apparently narrated by Patrick Stewart. Having watched the trailer (in which Stewart's voice does not play a part) I have to express disbelief that this is a real thing. This looks like a SyFy channel offering. A bad one. A bad one for SyFy.
• Three day weekend coming up. Need it so bad...

Soaktastic

Three days of rain. That was a nice little treasure this weekend. I always loved sleeping in to the sound of rain and was despairing that we'd get any this year.

Justified all my laziness this weekend, too. Delightful laziness... Now I have to get my lazy ass back in gear and get stuff done. Sigh.

Seriously, what the hell is up with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.?

How hard is it to produce a show about super-spies in a world with super powers?

I mean, "Heroes" did it better than "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.", for the whole two minutes that "Heroes" was watchable.

So last night's AoS was a bold attempt to try to be clever. I'd normally applaud that if the show lacked any foundation of good writing and character development to make me care about anything that was going on.

The crew was off to pull some kind of heist to capture one of the mediocre bad guys. There were three sequences of flashbacks to explain things that happened as the team split up, but the whole thing felt just... forced, contrived, and jarring.

• So the sudden and inevitable betrayal? So not surprising. Saw that a mile away. Seriously, is this going to be one of those shows where only the main cast are trustworthy good guys? Yawn.
• Coulson is losing the quiet, confident hyper-competence that made him so awesome in the movies. I find this displeasing.
• Jesus... really? The love triangle thing needs to go away a lot.
• The elusive villain who is always one step ahead is beyond boring.
• The focus on trying to hurt Coulson is so forced and contrived that I find myself craving the commercial breaks.
• I'm sorry, but the entire Skye storyline leaves me utterly cold. I like the actress fine, but the character draws nothing but yawns from me.

Sigh.

There were a few good points. Ming-Na Wen's Melinda May moments were non-stop awesome. I would watch a show of just her and Agent Coulson (made into a hyper-competent badass again) and enjoy that endlessly.

The Deathlok addition has... potential.

I really wish this show could get a new crew of writers and get their shit together. This program should be a slam-dunk into awesome but is just so mediocre it's depressing to watch.

Mondayness

• Dear FSM/Mother Nature/Whomever: Thanks for the rain. Can we have some more?
• I had no idea flowers were such a... lucrative... business. Ye gods.
• I was debating whether or not to return to martial arts. Then I received a hoodie on Saturday that was... oh, let's describe it as "snug-fitting". The endless shit from my friends (all quite justified) has convinced me that, yeah. It's time to do another round at martial arts. I need the exercise.
• Finished my taxes. Whoo-hoo?
• Still can't get rid of this goddamn cough.