Wednesday, December 31, 2003

Just Another Day

Hee! Cuz you know sometimes words have two meanings.

Yep. One more day to get through. Congratulations to everyone who participated!!

And Happy New Year to everyone of you!! Yay for arbitrary dates!!

And don't worry, Annika, I plan on making another entry later at night.

Tuesday, December 30, 2003

All your questions shall be answered

The best thing about doing the bloq, is I get two days for the price of one.

Or something.

Is your head screwed on right?
I wasn't sure how to answer that, so I asked the 8-ball. It said:
REPLY HAZY TRY AGAIN
so I guess it wasn't sure, either. Huh.

What question(s) make you scratch your head in puzzlement?
Most of them. Or, the question(s) of the day our news does. It's not the questions are puzzling. It's more the why of them at all. (That, and the results more often than not either depress or frighten me.)

How do you get ahead in life?
*Giggles maniacially*

"Here comes Gwenyth's head...in a box."
That's not a question. Also. Eww.
Also, also. Heeee! Dismembered heads are comic gold!

What is your impression of talking heads?
Oddly enough, "And She Was" played on the radio on the way home tonight.
As for my impression of the other type of talking heads - [blahblahfuckingblah]

Do you prefer giving or receiving head?
Yes. (Duh.)

"But now we're standing face to face
Isn't this world a crazy place?"

Yeah. Crazysexycool. Or something. (Does it show that I'm rushing through these?)

Who said, "That was the worst head I ever got!"?
That would be ..uh. Geez. What was her name again? I know Juliette Lewis played her. And it was in the movie Natural Born Killers. But her character's name is slipping past me. Damn it.

What is your head full of?
Ideas? Cheese? Cotton? Brains and stuff? Nothing?
Probably some sort of combination of that.

and finally...

Off with your head!
That's not a *head lops off*

AND....
Stealing this from Lisa, who stole it from Tina, who stole it from someone, who no doubt stole it from someone else. It's like some sort of disease. Yuck.

1.What did you do in 2003 that you'd never done before?
Um. Hmm. Everything? I mean, really, everything you ever do is something you've never done before.
Like my typing the letter "g" right there? I've done it before (and will no doubt do it many times again), but it wasn't the same because time had changed.
I'm not sure I'm making sense.

2. Did you keep your New Years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don't remember what my New Year's resolutions for '03 were. Maybe to write every day? Like I had done for the past 5-ish years. And, no, I didn't keep it.
Oddly, I don't have any for this year. But I think that '04 is gonna still be a remarkable year.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Nope. Unless they did and I didn't notice.
I'm often quite oblivious to things.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No. So it goes.
Er. Unless you want to get all metaphysical. In which case the person you were died a few minutes ago, replaced by the person you are now. If that's how we're talking, then, yes. Millions of deaths occurred all year long.
So it goes.

5. What countries did you visit?
Only parts of the United States. Las Vegas, mostly.

6. What date from 2003 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Er.October 13th was the launch date of the Fucking News.
June 10th was the date that I finished reading Ishmael.

7. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Starting that novel in November that I didn't finish?

8. What was your biggest failure?
See above.

9. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Yes. Hee.

10. What was the best thing you bought?
Extra time? I don't know. Material items are a) few and far between in our household and 2) not all that important. I guess the Nintendo 64. Which may have been bought last year. In which case, I guess I'll say Majorca's Mask.
OH! Wait! I mean the alternator belt in California! Otherwise, we'd still be stuck in Rancho Cucumber.

11. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
I don't know. What an odd question.

12. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
Hrm. That's an easier question to answer. But only because I watch the Fucking News. There's a lesson to be learned there...

13. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Well, if you took out two of the 'reallys', I'd say Angel. Or Buffy ending.
Take out one of the 'reallys' and I guess I'd say the trip to Disneyland and seeing the WDers in California.

14. What song will always remind you of 2003?
I don't think there is one.

15. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder?

Yes. Heee!

b) thinner or fatter?
Yes! (I love this!)

c) richer or poorer?
YES!! HA!

16. How will you be spending Christmas?
See? Again with the commercialism. "Spending" and "Christmas". [sigh]

17. Did you fall in love in 2003?
Of course. I fall in love with Steph on a semi-regular basis.

18. How many one-night stands?
I'm going with Lisa's answer. [eyebrow]

19. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
THere are some truly strange questions in this. But the answer is no.

20. What was the best book you read?
Tie between the works of Daniel Quinn (Ishmael, The Story of B, My Ishmael, and Beyond Civilization) and Derrik Jensen's A Language Older Than Words

21. What was your greatest musical discovery?
The Decemberists. I guess.

22. What did you want and get?
Um.

23. What did you want and not get?
Um...

24. What was your favorite film(s) of this year?
Er. I guess Finding Nemo and Brother Bear. The trailers for Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King were pretty good, too.

25. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2003?
[laughing head]

26. What kept you sane?
Willpower.

27. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2003:
People are more important than rules.

28. Quote a song that sums up your year:
David Bowie: "Time may change me, but I can't change time."
or, more broadly: "I'm afraid of Americans"


Whew! Just made it!

Monday, December 29, 2003

Bloqhead.

Now I think of this idea. [doh]

Here' a bloq. If you'd like to save the Haloscan servers some overload, just cut and paste and answer it in your own blog. That way, you've also got an entry for yourself. It's a win-win!


<b>Is your head screwed on right?</b>

<b>What question(s) make you scratch your head in puzzlement?</b>

<b>How do you get ahead in life?</b>

<b>"Here comes Gwenyth's head...in a box."</b>

<b>What is your impression of talking heads?</b>

<b>Do you prefer giving or receiving head?</b>

<b>"But now we're standing face to face
Isn't this world a crazy place?"</b>

<b>Who said, "That was the worst head I ever got!"?</b>

<b>What is your head full of?</b>

and finally...

<b>Off with your head!</b>


YES!!

Hurray!! This makes me happy.
Or, as Mr. Burns would say,
"Excellent."

A real entry will be forthcoming.

Does HTML work in titles?

Testing.
This totally counts as yesterday's entry. Midnight and the rules of be damned!

I didn't skip a day. I missed one. And I have a darn good excuse. It's because I'm a fine upstanding young man (I think that'll do...)

On the way home from work tonight, I witnessed a car accident. I had to give my statement to the police. Thus the lateness of the posting.

That's the short story. Detail time!

We dont' have to go back this far, but I want to blog about this because it's interesting, and if the accident hadn't taken place, it would have been my sole focus of today's writing.

At 11pm, my relief came into the station and asked if I knew Jason Simpson, or why his stuff was sitting in the parking lot. I did not know Jason Simpson, or why his stuff was in our parking lot. I also did not know what he was talking about. So he explained that apparently Jason Simpson (who, it turns out, does work with us. He's a salespig. Which explains why I have never met him.) Apparently Jason Simpson pissed someone off. And this person decided to get revenge by leaving Jason's stuff in the parking lot of work.

Sure enough, in the parking lot was a desk, a dog house, a box of clothes, and quite a few other things. On the desk, in large block letters in white paint was stencilled the words:
PROPERTY OF JASON (ten pin) SIMPSON

Atop the desk was a large cardboard placard that read:

"Rent owed by ex-roommate: $450"
"Carpet cleaning due to ex-roommate's failure to house-train puppy: $750"
"Delivery of ex-roommate's belongings: $45"
"Pulling the knife out of my back: Priceless"

Apparently revenge is a dish best served cold. And in a parking lot.

So, yeah. That was what I left work with. It was amusing, but only because it wasn't happening to me.

After that, I proceed to drive home like normal. Except that a teenager who was originally behind me (he whipped around me because I was driving too slow) swerved, jumped a median into oncoming traffic, and smacked head-on into another vehicle. I slowed, said, "Holy shit." and then stopped at the upcoming light. I debated whether to keep driving home, or to turn back.

I turned around, pulled into a nearby parking lot, and jogged over to the scene of the accident. I asked if everyone was okay. (They were)
Once the police showed up, I told them what I had witnessed. They took my name and phone number, and thanked me for sticking around. See? I'm a model citizen. Pfft.

It was rather cold outside. I should have waited in my car. I'm leaving out a lot of details, (like the thought I had when I saw the accident: "Was that deliberate??" - probably due to the fact of revenge I had witnessed at work moments before) but it's late, and all of us have headaches.

At least I have tomorrow off work. Thank something for small miracles.

Saturday, December 27, 2003

One downish, one to go...ish.

Projects are time consuming!

I've been doing research, and discovered that it's going to be a lot more work than I had originally intended it to be for the thing I'm really excited about. But I'm still comitted to it! And in more happier news, I'm pretty much done with the other project. If some people would just get back to me. [looks in oslowe's direction]

Sorry for the vagueness, btw, but I want these things to be surprises. And to most of you, they will be. Stephanie, of course, knows both. And soon, everyone else will know, and I can stop being vague (at least in regard to these. [grin]). Project 1 is due to be "released" on the first.

The other one (the one that I'm actually looking forward to; also the one that is more work) has a debut date of Jan. 10th.

Coming Soon! Hee.

In other news, I have the house all to myself right now. I'd sing Bob Seger tunes in my underwear, but I've already done that to death. So instead I'm washing dishes, downloading music, and missing Steph and the girls.

Friday, December 26, 2003

XmasX

It's difficult to think clearly when you're hungry.

The year is almost over. Usually around this time, the media goes hog wild with "Year in Review" things. I'd attempt to do the same, but for the most part 2003 was just not worth revisiting. Not that it was bad, but sometimes once is enough. '03 was one of those years.

But '04 is gonna kick ass. Or arse. Take your pick.

Man, I am lazy.

The ticker for the news stated that an earthquake in Bam, Iran had killed a bunch of people. I like that city's name. Bam! Also, the ticker stated that the earthquake had a mangitude of 6.5.
Mangitude!!

I would have corrected the typo at work (I've done it before) but sadly, the misspelling was sent to us from the national source and therefore I couldn't change it. But that's okay because "mangitude" is funny.

I'm hungry. Guess I better go buy some food so we can survive to the end of the year, huh?

Thursday, December 25, 2003

Holy Shit, It's Christmas!

For what it's worth, I'm extremely glad that I failed.

Joining the present (heh!), if Vegas were a colder place, today would have been a white Xmas. It rained quite a bit today. In fact, both stations wound up going off the air (not sure whether the rain had anything to do with it or not, but regardless, we were knocked off the air for a bit today. Happy Holidays, indeed!).

When I got home tonight, Stephanie had a plate with turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, and salad waiting for me. That was really really great. It tasted wonderful, and I'm so glad that I've got her in my life.

Now, I'm going to have pie. Apple pie!! My favorite kind! This day is just full of miracles!

Wednesday, December 24, 2003

Naughty

Heh. I'm posting from work.

It's Xmas Eve. I deserve a break, no?

Blogger looks all strange, though. Either they've changed the format, or this computer is set up differently. Or both.

I'll more than likely blog again when I get home, but if I don't, I simply wanted to say:

Merry Humbug

and

God Damn Us, Everyone!

Tuesday, December 23, 2003

"Ah, the life of a frog. That's the life for me."

Bonus points to anyone who IDs the quote.

It's amazing how quickly one's mood can change. [sigh]

Feck.

When the hell does the new Harry Potter movie open, anyway? I want some escapist fun, damnit.

Also I want a cheeseburger. Or something to eat. Blah.

Monday, December 22, 2003

What would we do, baby, without us?

Sha-na-na-naaa!

Jupe is, without a doubt, the coolest person online.

Everyone else reading this has to settle for second. Sorry.

In other news, we finished Xmas shopping today! Just like bettie did! We are now officially broke. Like pennies to our name broke. But, hey, Xmas is saved! Just like it always is on the TV. See? TV never lies to you. It just sometimes stretches the truth.

I'm getting all excited about my project. I hope that this doesn't mean that I'll end up not doing it, and simply have it in my head for the next 300 years, like all my other projects. *cough*Perthstory*cough.

I don't think I will this time around, but my brain is a mysterious, strange, and hostile land. Like Finland.

Speaking of Finland, there were so many things that I wanted to purchase for you Internet Weirdos. Damn my lack of money. Damn it to hell!! Oh well. It's the thought that counts, right? And if that's true, then you guys are very fortunate indeed.

Also today - we got lotsa cards in the mail. That was totally fucking cool. See? Again, Xmas is saved at the last possible minute. TV proves itself over and over again.

Sunday, December 21, 2003

I don't know where the sunbeams end and the starlight begins.

It's all a mystery.

It took a while, but I finally (finally!) got into the Xmas spirit ...more or less.

We went driving around to look at Xmas lights. Harper fell asleep.

Also today, Steph wrapped the presents for the girls and placed them under the tree, while I took them to the park. It looks "paltry", but at least there's something under there now. Saren and Harper have spent a lot of today ...investigating the gifts. Heh. Some things, I think, are just ingrained into human brains. Trying to figure out Xmas packages is one of them.

Another thing that helped me get out of my Grinchy attitude is the Little Steven Underground Garage, which is running it's Xmas episode this week. My favorite song so far has to be the one that was by the Butties. It was Joy to the World, but it was sung (more or less) to the tune of a Beatles song. You'd have to hear it to appreciate it, but it was quite neat. There've been other great songs on the show tonight to, but that one resonated strongest for whatever reason.

Tonight we were going to pick up a pizza from Papa John's, but they closed their lobby at 8pm. (It was 8:30 when I drove down there) Eight PM?? What the hell? What are they, like 70 years old?

I think Harper may be drunk right now.

A very important question that I must determine the answer for - do zombies sleep?
One would think that they wouldn't really need to. You know, being dead and all. Hey. Maybe that's why they're so sluggish. They're really just dead tired. Any thoughts on the matter will be greatly appreciated.

Um. What else?

Couplet was on TV tonight. I watched part of it, despite Steph's complaints. ("We don't watch Angel over again!!") It didn't make any more sense this time around, either. And it made me miss both Connor and Groo. (Man, they dropped him like a cold potato. Or like they dropped Lilah's mother's storyline. [sigh])

It's nearing the end of the day, and my wife needs to blog, so that'll do it.

Saturday, December 20, 2003

mayhem scares me.

No real entry today. Luckily, I have my PMQ to fall back on. Thank god for that P@ guy and his inane questions!



See my profile? There are numbers up there. They're the number of PMs I've had in my inbox at the end of each month this year. They add up to 811. December's results, are, of course, missing right now.
So. The question is - how many PMs do you think I'll have in my inbox at the end of the year?

I have no idea. Current inbox count is 43.

Seen any good movies lately?
Er. The last movie I saw in the theater was Brother Bear. Decent enough.

"Can I get some time alone?"
And I feel fine! This was from REM's It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine).

Blugh. I hate this question, but... Do you have any New Year's Resolutions? Any plans or goals for 2004?
I plan to commit an unplanned murder.

Possibly I'll change my blog layout, too.

And, yeah, I've got some other internety things up my sleeve for '04.

"And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make."
That's not a question.
It's also not being questioned. Or something. I don't know.

and finally...

In a word, 2003 was...
three-hundred-sixty-five-ish.

Friday, December 19, 2003

This is my United States of Whatever

This entry should be longer than it will be, but to quote a song, "Whatevah!"

There is a person I work with who asks me on a semi-regular basis (more or less as a joke) "So, P@, what have you done for your country today?"

I should point out that this guy is an ex-Marine, and was more than likely asked this himself while he was doing service.

I used to come up with witty (and truthful!) responses. "Ate my Cheerios." or "Well, I didn't blow anything up!" Things like that. The last couple of times he's asked, though, I've responded with the truth. "Nothing. Proud of it, too."

JFK said, "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."

And I say, countries don't deserve people to do things for them. A country is not a real thing. It exists in our imaginations only.
A neat little couple of sentences to prove my point.

P@ types.
America types.

Stephanie wants a Pepsi.
The United States wants a Pepsi.

Saddam Hussein is a killer.
Iraq is a killer.

The countries are compossed of people who commit the verbs. The nations themselves can not. You can not do anything for your country. Your country can not do anything for you. You can do things for the people who live around you, and the people who live around you can do things for you. But the USA is not a person, despite our efforts to anthropomorphisize (that looks wrong) countries.

And here's the other thing. If we're going to treat arbitrary areas of geography as individuals, then we need to go all the way. America the country will have the respect that it thinks it deserves when it treats it's people with respect. It's a two way street.

Bah. I wish I could express myself better. Whatever.

Thursday, December 18, 2003

Follow the leader

This won't turn out the way I wanted it to. They never do.

Oh well. May as well jump right in. If I keep criticizing myself before I get it done, I'll never get it done.

I wonder how George W. Bush will be depicted in history books. Pre-September 11th, Bush was thought of as a buffoon. Someone who mangled the English language often, and looked more or less like one of Santa's elves...that had been kicked in the head. He was viewed as a puppet, and Dick (Cheney) was often seen as the brains behind the operation.

Of course, now, he's viewed as someone that has helped run the country (into the ground!) more or less successfully. He still mangles his speeches, and he still (to me, at least) looks like he's taken a few too many boots to the head, but the majority of the focus on him is no longer on his goofiness. Immeadiately after the eleventh of September, 2001, Bush somehow 'proved' himself. He demonstrated that he had 'leadership abilities'. Since then, though, he's managed to destroy what credibility he had by defining the new century with his oh-so-popular War on Terror.

Gah. I'm doing this wrong!

I need Bethy. She's the history woman. She'd be able to answer things for me clearly.

Okay. I'll simply do stream-of-conciousness, and if it turns out well, then yay. If not, well...

What makes a leader "good"? Looking back at US Presidents, there doesn't seem to be a "good" leader after JFK. And I don't even know that Kennedy was a good leader. He was popular. Is that the same thing? Is that all it boils down to? At least in regard to the public? Because (I'm guessing) that Hitler was not very popular, but people followed him. As vile and misguided as his views were, you can't deny the fact that he had charisma. Or something that made folks say, "Hey, that Hitler dude is pretty all right."

It seems, too, that so many of our presidents in history are just ...there. Nobody remembers Polk. Or Taft. Or Garfield. Or that one guy. You know, that one guy. Is this because they were bad leaders? Or is it because there was nothing going on in history that allowed them to demonstrate their "leadership abilities"? If 9/11 had never happened, would George W. Bush have wound up being another one of "those guys", destined for oblivion? Or, put another way, is Lincoln only considered a great president because he had the Civil War going on in the background?
Digression
In High School a friend of mine and I were joking around one day. He was saying how he knew everything, and to quiz him. "Okay," I said, "Who was the 16th president?"
"Abraham Lincoln." he replied.
"Who was the 17th?" I asked.
"The guy after him."

Good times. [/Digression]

Here's the thing. I don't think we need leaders.

I believe every single person reading this would go about their lives just fine, if aliens were to come and wisk away Bush, and all of the White House. And Congress. And other countries appointed leaders as well. In fact, your lives might be better as a result.

Imagine. No arbitrary "leaders" writing laws telling you what is right and what is wrong. You'd be able to live the way that you wanted to.

"But there would be societal chaos! There would be anarchy! People would riot in the streets!"

Pshaw.

People ultimately do what they think is right, regardless of what any laws tell them. Rioting in the streets may happen ...gah. I'm not in the mood to argue this. Let's just say that those that believe that it's our 'leaders' that are keeping the majority of people "in line" have a vastly different viewpoint than I do, and leave it at that.

Also interesting to note - anyone that wants to lead (usually said "rule") the world is considered evil. It's all right to be the leader of a city, or a state, or even a country, but not a planet? Huh.

Well, rereading this, I was right about one thing. It didn't turn out as planned. Hopefully, though, it'll spark some interesting conversation..

Wednesday, December 17, 2003

What's a meta for?

I amuse myself to no end. Good thing, too, because the world really does lack funny.

So this was going to be a metapost. You know, all about itself. Or the act of blogging. And comment leaving and whatnot. I guess it still is, sorta. [shrug] Metaness is mysterious.

I've been thinking of changing my template. I like the test P@tern, but I think I may want something different. Ya know? I'm unsure of what, though. I have some ideas, but we'll see if any of them scream out "Change me to this!" Stay tuned.

Before blogging, I visited a complete stranger's blog (it was hooray.blogspot.com) and scrolled through the guy's posts from the past week or so, and was kinda sad that he had no comments. Comments are always a good thing. Except when they're not. But usually they're very good. Reaffirming. Or somesuch.

The bad thing (on my part) is that I don't leave enough comments on other people's blogs. Half the time I dont' because I simply don't have anything to say. The other half is because I feel like whatever I would say would be trite and stupid. I should just get over that irrationality and leave the comments. People like comments, even if they are mindless. Right?

I was going to issue a challenge here - find a stranger's blog (the main blogger page has the most recently updated ones, for example) and leave a comment on their latest entry. But, then, I haven't even partaken (partook?) in said challenge, so how can I issue it?

I'm hungry.

Tuesday, December 16, 2003

Half.

There are 15 days left in the year! Holy shit!

Holy. Fucking. Shit.

Today, among many many other things:

My sister's birthday.
Mozart's birthday.
9 years ago, I shaved my head.

I'm toying with the idea of making an audio entry. Apparently audblog is having a free trial (one post). It can be up to four minutes long. The problem? I haven't a clue what to say to all you people. (Other than the obvious - "Can you hear me now?")

My feet are freezing. I think I will go consume some Lucky Charms. They're magically delicious.

Hmm. I feel almost like I want to blog some more. Maybe - maybe - I'll blog again later today. Three times in one day!! That would be like Xmas in December!

The one that doesn't count.

Or, "Putting the 'grr' in blogger."

I'm posting a more or less "non"post in order to see if it will convince Blogger to actually display the post I made for yesterday. Lousy blogger.

Edit: No, it apparently didn't work. Guess I'll have to wait til morning to figure this out.

Monday, December 15, 2003

Two. Two serious posts. Mwahaha!!

[/Count]
Both will have to wait, though. One being the Leadership post that I've (unfortunately) hyped up, and is bound to disappoint. The other is one that more or less just sprang to mind earlier yesterday night, and was going to be written today, but my wife was in a silly whack-a-mole type mood and it was a bit contagious...ish. (Heh. I feel stupid. And contagious....here we are now, entertain us.)

My blog window didn't load completely, so my preview-screen is one line. It's odd to not be able to reread what I've written as I go along. But I'm still plodding along. Because like I always say, "Life is like a box of chocolates."
No, wait. I always say "Screw you, Mothra!"

Er. Well, no, that's not what I always say either. I guess I don't have a catchphrase.
Must work on that.

Speaking of accomplishments - today we went to Applebee's for Harper's celebratory dinner, re: pottyness. Yay! Plus, they weren't on fire! Double yay!

Ooh! Also! We bought Xmas presents for my sister's little ones. Who, you know, aren't really little anymore, but are still smaller than I am. In age, at least.

Still need to buy gifts for our girls, along with some generic ten dollar (or less) present for a coworker...

In addition, we bought stamps and will be mailing the holiday cards out to folks tomorrow, most likely.

On top of all that, we even managed to restock the fridge. Hot dog! I mean, what are you gonna do - starve? [/catchphrase]

Sunday, December 14, 2003

Tiresome thoughts. Or, "You have what you want! Give de peeple ahir!"

So, driving around, I see hundreds or thousands of vehicles, each one with tires (of course).

That in and of itself is pretty darn amazing. Tires, I mean. The fact that a two ton piece of metal is able to move, being carried by nothing other than four pieces of rubber filled with air...sounds almost science fictiony.

But tires wear down. The treads on your car's wheels eventually thins, and they need to be replaced.

Which begs the question...where are the tire treads going? Are we breathing in used tire particles? Yuck.

Speaking of tires - what about all that air that is trapped inside them? The amount of breathable oxygen on the planet must be finite. I wonder what percentage of it is being held hostage within tires. I think I'll go through the neighborhood and begin freeing the air. (ie, deflating people's tires) Sure, people may be pissed off when they can't drive places, but I think they'll thank me when I point out to them that they'll be able to actually breathe as a result.

Or, you know, my next post may be done from jail.

On a semirelated note - the amount of people on the planet (6 billion and growing) is a hell of a lot higher than it was ...um, well, any time in the past, really. We all know that that's a bad thing, but something that is probably very commonly overlooked is the fact that all of these extra people, on top of taking up extra space, and eating extra food, are also taking up extra air.

I propose we go the Spaceballs route, and that air become a commodity. That'll solve lots of things. Plus, we'll have the chance to meet Yogurt. That guy was comedic gold.

Saturday, December 13, 2003

Decembervision

We watched Ghostbusters today. And now Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is currently on.

Oddly enough, I was thinking that in another 10 years or so, that Ghostbusters could possibly be remade (although I doubt it ever will be) and that WWatCF never should be, but there is a rumor floating around that Tim Burton will. While I like Burton, I simply don't think that Willy Wonka should be played by anyone other than Gene Wilder. His performance was simply unimprovable. (I don't think that's even a word, but, meh.)

Also on today were A Charlie Brown Christmas which Saren didn't want to watch (Steph told me) because she had seen it before.

December always has lots of Xmas specials, and they're always scheduled against each other. Tonight, at 8pm there was the aforementioned Charlie Brown special, It's A Wonderful Life, The Santa Clause, The Wizard of Oz (not quite a holiday movie, but [shrug]), and some Price Is Right special deal with Bob Barker (the Key!!) turning 80. How is one supposed to watch all those things at once?

Magic. That's how.

Tomorrow they're running some movie where Captain Picard is Scrooge. Man, everyone winds up Scrooge eventually. Someday I bet Johnny Depp will be good ol' Ebenezzer. And when that day comes, I will know that I am old.

In conclusion, I want an Oompa-Loompa now!!

Friday, December 12, 2003

Champagne supernova

God, I want to get drunk.

Thursday, December 11, 2003

pending

I've decided that I'm going to type up the entry, and then see what I should title it, based on the content. We'll see how that goes.

My feet are freezing. I've found that rubbing them on the carpet works.

I think that my email may be broken. I keep not getting things sent to me. Hmm.

Lunch tomorrow with my dad. It'll be weird to have him not be in the state anymore. I mean, he said that he'd be able to drive up for weekends and whatnot, but ...I don't know. Still strange.

I was thinking on the way home how incredible the internet is. I type a message, click a button, and instantly (instantly!!) someone on the other side of the world can read it. That's cool.

I read a book a while back that was by turns depressing and fascinating (I think it was my mind-set that added to the depressingness of the novel, though). It was called The Pixel Eye, and it was set about 10 years from now, in New York City. A private detective (er...D'Amato? I think that was his name) was investigating the disappearance of squirrels. (hee!) I won't go into all the details of it, but there were some pretty interesting ideas brought forth in there about brains. (Human and nonhumans)
Apparently, though, the D'Amato guy has been in several other books, so I may have to check those out.

I saw a trailer the other day for Big Fish, which looks pretty darn cool. Probably wait for rental, though.

I'm hungry.

It was all rainy today, so I was late to work. It's funny how Las Vegans really don't react well to changes in the weather.

Oh! As for the moving to Eugene - why we picked that particular city - well, there really isn't a reason. We chose Oregon because it's pretty, and there are lots of ...like-minded types up there, and it seems to be more or less affordable. And Eugene looked good from the Oregon cities we browsed through. Not too populous. Not too small. Relatively close to the ocean, and the mountains, and Portland.

Plus, we'd be able to call ourselves "Eugenics". [grin]

Wednesday, December 10, 2003

What should I blog about?

No, really.

I have my Leadership post to fall back on, but I think I'll save that for a day when I have more time to actually put thought into it. (I've got 15minutes left in the day...)

Jupe is supposed to send me an email about the Agricultural Revolution!, which may inspire a blog entry or two.

Otherwise, my life is boring and my brain is blank. So I'm calling on the P@riots to provide future blogging ideas.

This really should come as no surprise to anyone. I'm constantly having other people do my work and thinking for me. Yay for passing the buck!

Tuesday, December 09, 2003

"THANK YOU, RADIATOR!!"

While driving around the other day, our car's engine began to overheat. I believe we have a leak in the radiator (proof of this is found by looking at the puddle that is in our garage where the car sits for the majority of the time).

Anywhat, I filled it with water a few days back, but then today I was driving around and again, the engine's temperature began to rise dangerously into the red zone. I knew that to continue driving would be hazardous, so I found a gas station to pull into so that I could put more water into the radiator, and allow it to cool down.

I drove to the water hose that the gas station had, and parked the car. I pulled the hood tab, so that the hood would be openable once I got out. I then walked over to the hood and lifted. The hood, though, rose out of my control and my thumb got smacked while it was flying up. It hurt, but I didn't think anything of it at the time. Instead, I focused on the radiator. I could hear the water (what little remained) inside was boiling. I should have waited, but instead, I twisted off the cap (you know, the one that says, "Never remove when engine is hot."). Big mistake.

Instantly, water (that should have been extremely hot, but oddly, was merely lukewarm) splashed all over my clothes and, much more alarming, my throat - right along my jugular. Shocked, but realizing that I hadn't been burned as badly as I had feared, I got the water hose, and sprayed the radiator, the engine, and all the components therein, letting them cool down. I then filled the radiator with more water, and prepared to continue driving.

When I got back in the car, I looked in the mirror and saw that the water had indeed given me a pretty gnarly looking burn scar down my throat. Not only that, but the hood had broken my thumb. The joint had broken cleanly off, so that my thumb was now in two pieces, but still whole (the skin was still surrounding the free-floating piece...which, even more strangely, I could still move). Yeah. You think you're freaked out reading about - it was even grosser actually seeing it.

Anywhat, there was some other part of my dream that involved a brat of a child that I was babysitting...and he could travel to other worlds...but that part is much more vague. The radiator/thumb/hot water scar dream was way more vivid.

Monday, December 08, 2003

In lieu of a real entry...

I've sat here for the past hour (at least) trying to come up with something to blog about. Not succeeding, I went off to Quizzilla, and surfed through their lame quizzes. Yay!


You're Mask Salesman!

You are very strange and sometimes your scary.
However, your a good person who is concerned
about the fate of the world.


Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask persona
brought to you by Quizilla


Great Fairy Mask
Which of Majora's Masks are you?

brought to you by Quizilla

So true!

Sunday, December 07, 2003

Salty goodness.

What I've eaten today:


  • A bowl of Crispix with sugar added
  • Three sausage links
  • Two eggs, over-medium
  • Potatoes with cheese
  • Glass of orange juice
  • Nachos Supreme without sour cream
  • Chicken Quesadilla
  • Soft taco
  • Pepsi
  • Popcorn


Quite a bit of salty food, eh? Well, you say sodium, I say sodiyum!

Although the lack of water might account for the headache I've had for the past two hours...

Saturday, December 06, 2003

Oh yeah.

I totally forgot that yesterday Senator Harry Reid came to my workplace!

He was being interviewed by our newspeople. They talked to him about Yucca Mountain, and the economy, and September 11th. Yawn.

He didn't speak to me at all, and was only next to me for maybe 45 seconds total. (He was being given the tour of the station.) He came into the control room with the guy giving him the tour, along with a security person (!!). All Mr. Reid said was, "Why do you have two TV stations?"

Heh. Yeah. I've wondered the same thing.

Before the interview, I listened in on the thing, and it was kinda funny. More interesting than the actual interview, at any rate. The newscaster doing the questioning (Christine) asked him if he'd been busy today.

He said "No. We like your station the best." He then turned to someone (his assistant?) and asked "Have we done anything today?"
The assistant responded about how they had had an interview with a different station earlier in the day.
Christine asked if the other station had "worked him over" (or something like that, I couldn't quite hear her), but Harry said that the guy was "really nice".

The chitchatted a little bit more, and then they began the interview. Only a fraction of which was played back on the newscast. [shrug] It was interesting, but pretty lame.

Like so much of everything.

And, hey! I posted before going to work! I might (maybe) post when I get home, too, but we'll have to see how the rest of the day goes.

Friday, December 05, 2003

Always look at the bright side of life.

My nails are clean.

I'm totally full.

My feet are nice and warm.

Our car is running at optimal performance levels.

My head is not throbbing.

This entry is entertaining and worthwhile.

Okay, I'm lying about all of the above. But I figured if I wrote the truth, I'd sound like I was grumpy and bitching. (Hmm. Because I would've been, perhaps?) So I thought I'd try the ol' opposite route. [shrug] Didn't help, really.

My dad's leaving next week. He's going to take us out to lunch before he moves, and it's not like I'll never see him again (or that I ever see him that much now anyway) but for some reason this feels...I don't know. Permenantish. (I guess that shouldn't be a real word, but, having said it, I like it.)

Steph's entry was so much better than mine.

I think tomorrow, just to shake things up a bit, I'll try to blog before I leave for work. (Also because tomorrow at work is going to be crap-a-licious, and I don't know if i"ll be in the mood to write when I get home)

I hate funks.

Thursday, December 04, 2003

Na na na na-na-na-naaa!

That's the refrain (or something) from the Beatles' Hey Jude, which, I, of course, always sing as "Hey Jupe". Because Amy is kick ass.

I spoke to her briefly today! She's got this Amy voice that is very ... I don't know. Amyish. (Heh. That almost looks like "Amish". Which, yeah, I guess Jupe's voice is kinda Amish. You know.)

The radio was all Jupe-y today on the way into work, too. They played Revolution ("Don'tchya know it's gonna be ...all right?") and that Led Zep song ("I don't know what I've been told.") and the Rolling Stones' Shattered. And then another station played Hey Jupe. It was the best 'on-the-way-in-to-work' radio I've heard in ages. [up]

Despite all that, though, I was in a pretty crap mood today. I don't know why, exactly. Maybe because of the planets being all aligned freaky. (Um. No.)
Maybe because of my menstrual cramps. (Um...No.)
Maybe because we're out of money, and I have to work and never get to see my kids, and I hate the cold, but don't want to live in Las Vegas for the rest of my life, but don't want to move anywhere else either and the fact that you're pretty much forced to play the stupid game if you want to have anything resembling health in your life....and a lot of other monotonous crap I won't bother to go into right now either. (Partly due to time. Partly due to not wanting to type it up. Partly because I know nobody wants to read it.)

I heard Mother Culture alive and well tonight at work. Two coworkers were discussing the fact that President Shrub wants to repump up the Space Program, and go back to the moon. (I'm all for sending him to the moon... [grin])
Anywhat, they were talking about space exploration in general, and it was a little disheartening to hear stuff that I disagree with so much.
Of course, I just sat there and didn't say anything. (They weren't talking to me, and I didn't want to just butt into the conversation. Also, I doubt I would've brought up any of my opinions even if I had been included. Just the way I am.)

[sigh]

In other news, last night at about 1:45am we got a phone call. The answering machine answered (we were in bed, but I wasn't asleep) and the message left was simply a series of beeps. Odd.

This morning, around 9:30, I got another call from Sears about "my Sears account", despite the fact that I don't FUCKING OWN A SINGLE CREDIT CARD!! AND!!!! The fact that I've told them this before. They have the wrong person, and I believed that we'd settled this previously, but I guess I was wrong about that, too.

Maybe that is the real reason behind my irritability today. I don't know. All I do know is that its a fool who plays it cool by making his world a little colder.

Wednesday, December 03, 2003

Hobbit motherfuckers!

(heh. Only, like, 3 people will get that title.)

I was going to type out this huge post about Leadership, but I don't have the time. Plus, despite the fact that it's been brewing in my head for over a year now, it's still not totally formed. [doh2]

So instead:

Today I saw the first trailer for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Goooooseebumps!!!!

But, since I've not ever read the books, I have no idea what's going to happen in RotK. (Other than a really freakin huge spider) Stephanie, however, has read them. (Long ago)

Tonight (just a few minutes ago) I asked her, "Does Sam die?"

"Sam..? You mean Samwise Gamgee? Who have you been talking to or reading or seeing?"

"I saw a trailer for Return of the King tonight, and I just need to know."

"Truth?"

(a pause here while I debated whether I really wanted to be spoiled for the movie) then Steph continued:
"I don't remember."

My wife is awesome.

Also, if Samwich dies, I'll be totally upset. But I don't think he will. *glares at Chandler Tolkien*

Tuesday, December 02, 2003

New post, indeed.

With 20 minutes left in the day, I start my entry of the day.

19.

And I have nothing to say. Hey!

Hee. I'm rhyming. The other night I had several connected dreams about rhyming. I was going to make a post about them, but then I lost the desire. Suffice to say that there was a pretty darn cool story (all in rhyme) about Wolves from Mars in it.

What else?

I haven't eaten today, except for lunch. I mean meal. Yes. I had meal today.

Naturally, of course, I'm starving right now. So I have some Top Ramen soup sitting in the kitchen, cooling. A little girl named Godilocks is, I believe, currently eating my food, and sitting in my chair, and perhaps sleeping in my bed. Hmm.

Some people (those on television) are so nerdy. (I'm referring to the show that is on TLC that showed Princess Armadillo and Darth Vader getting married.)

Okay. There are 15 minutes left in the day, and I need to get some nourishment into my belly. Time to consume some noodles with chicken flavored broth. Yum!

Monday, December 01, 2003

"My life is only half a melon."

It's nearly one pm, we have so much to do. We haven't even eaten breakfast. Well, no, we ate. But it was donuts. (Two TV quotes: "Mmmm. Donuts." and "Whoa. Had too many jelly donuts.")

We still need to go back to Home Despot in order to return the tube we bought yesterday...because, see, the garbage disposal got all broke, so we attempted to fix it by removing the junk from it, which wound up breaking the plastic tube underneath. So we went to Home Despot and bought a replacement tube. Turns out that the tube we bought is like 3 millimeters too big. Doh.

We also need to purchase an Xmas tree, if we're gonna do that. (Otherwise we'll have to wait til the 15th, and who wants to have a tree up only 10 days? Nazis. That's who.)

In addition, Saren is going to a Harry Potter thing at the library today at 4pm. So much time, so little to do.

Scratch that, reverse it.

Also, I need to make and send out the final PMQ.

At least I've blogged today. Hey. I said that I'd blog daily. I never said they'd be worthwhile entries.