Jupe will like this post.

We ordered pizza from Pizza Hut today, and it was the "4 For All" meal.

What's that? You ask. (I, too, have not seen the ads for it, but I'm sure they'll be coming. This thing is too good for them to not advertise it)

It's a medium square pizza, cut into four mini-personal pizzas. Each of the mini-pizzas is cut into four smaller pieces. AND! each mini-pizza can have it's own individual toppings, up to 3.
Stephanie had green peppers and onions.
Pat had pepperoni and green peppers.
Saren had cheese.
Haprer had pepperoni.

Yummy!!

Speaking of "4"... go and find some of your writing, or, just grab a pen and write the number four. Chances are that the four you draw does not look like this: --> 4
The four you drew most likely has an "open" top. But the fours that computers use (look at your keyboard, or at any of the 4s in my blog...or anywhere else online) have the "triangle" top.

I've looked around, and practically everyone draws their fours with the open top.
And practically every four drawn by computers has the closed, triangle top.

I'm convinced that in the future the way we'll be able to tell computers and humans apart is by the 4 test.

In other news, the Steph made a mondo-huge blog entry, and then the computer shut down. [cryingmonkey] Why must technology mock us? WHY!!!?????

I'm gonna getchya-getchya-getchya-getchya.

One way or another.

So I didn't brush my hair today. Or yesterday, either. I'm going the au natural route. I look like Jesus. Or Darth Vader....with hair. And a beard. Because I've not shaved in the past four days or so, and I think I'm going to grow my facial hair back out.

Saren and I have spent far too long at addictinggames.com the past two days. I suppose they gave themselves that name for a reason, huh? Saren loves SWRON, which is basically that motorcycle game from the movie Tron. ("Has anyone seen the movie Tron?" "No." "No." "No." "No." "No." "Yes....I mean no.")

I prefer the Blockout/Araknoid type games, for mindless fun, and for the ones that require thought, we spent god-only-knows how long playing Chasm (Joe is cute!!) and MOTAS (Mystery of Time and Space). I must go back to the MOTAS game, because it's highly intriguing. And I believe there are others similar to it at that site...

Yesterday I also introduced Saren to the fun that is RPG. I drew a rather small dungeon, then had her roll her dice to determine her Hit Points, Skill, Intelligence, Speed, Magic, Luck, and Silver and Gold levels. Being the DM was fun, but it reminded me of how much my imagination has atrophied. Sheesh, I used to be creative.

Anywhat, Saren loved it, and when we have some cash we'll venture on down to some of the game shops and see if we can find a true D&D (or something like it) manual/starter kit.

Hard to believe that January is almost over. I still haven't finished February's questions, although I've got the first 6...ish done already. Something tells me I'll be creating a lot of non-month-related queries come January 31st...

One way conversations with dead fictional people.

I finished reading Douglas Coupland's Hey Nostradamus! today.

I liked it quite a bit, as I like most of his books. I'd recommend it to anyone that is a fan of his, and to anyone who might not be, it's a pretty quick read.

The book is divided into four segments, each with a character doing first person narratives. The final segment was written by the least sympathetic (or perhaps the most sympathetic, if you want to look at it that way) of anyone in the book, but the ending gave me goosebumps. I'm such a sap. And by "sap", I mean "freak".

The first segment is written by a dead teenage girl, Cheryl, who is a victim of a school shooting in 1988. Coupland's treatment of grisly events - or rather, Cheryl's detatchment to them - was sort of like Slaughterhouse Five, and sort of like one of the stories from Coupland's short story collection, Life After God.

The rest of the book deals with the way the survivors of the High School Massacre that killed Cheryl are dealing with their grief. As in previous works by Coupland, ponderings on religion and belief and the future are sprinkled throughout, and while I may not agree with everything that the characters do, I felt like I could understand where most of them were coming from. And I liked them all. (Except for Reg. But I get the feeling you weren't supposed to)

Heather's section of the book was probably the most depressing. But the weird thing about the book is that even while he's bringing you down (and Coupland can be a downer), he's able to mix in a smattering of hope. It's hard to explain (or at least, it is for me. Lousy inarticulateness.) but I like it.

Douglas Coupland's books make me think, which is a good thing, even if I can't express it clearly.

So, yeah. Hey Nostradamus! gets my vote. But don't take my word for it. *ba-dum-dun!*

Ape10 episode 2 Big Time

Ape10, Zombielyn, and Spark are getting ready to have lunch.
Ape10 has decided to have one of his favorite meals - an apple.
Zombielyn, too, has been looking at her favorite recipes.
Spark, being a robot, doesn't technically require nourishment, but he does enjoy the company. And he secretly likes the taste of Hot Pockets.

Just as our heroes are about to eat, though, the newly installed "Time Disruption" Alarm goes off. "Aw, man." Spark said sourly. "I guess my Hot Pocket will have to wait."

Ape10 looked at the controls and agreed with his robotic pal. "It appears that one of Bluebush's dinowarriors has been spotted in Tokyo. The year 1985."

"To the Time Blender!"

******

As they stepped out of the time-travelling appliance, they wondered where the dinosaur was. "Guhhhuhnih?" Zombielyn asked.

Ape10 looked toward the sky. "I'd say a very large one!"

The extra large creature screeched upon seeing Ape10, and then, to the astonishment of them all, it exhaled a burst of fire directly at them!!
Ape10 and Zombielyn screamed, expecting to be roasted instantly. The flames did not come, though. Spark had stepped in front of the fiery path, taking the brunt of the damage, and saving his friends' lives.

A Japanese scientist who had been hiding in an alley watching this all, called to them. "Robot! Primate! Starlet! Come this way!" Not wanting to die, they followed the person. The man led them to a high-tech underground laboratory and said, "We will be safe here. My name is Dr. Setsumei."

Ape10 shook hands with the Dr. and introduced himself and his companions. "We knew that you had trouble, but we had no idea it was this bad." he concluded.

Zombielyn asked, "Grrrun?"

"Two good questions, Miss Monroe." Dr. Setsumei answered. "I think I know part of the answer. We found a toenail from the animal and I counted the rings. It is apparently 40 years old. Which means that it was here in 1945. The radiation from Hiroshima must have caused the dinosaur to mutate. But my question is - what was a dinosaur doing here in the forties?"

Ape10 explained about Bluebush and his Master Plan.

Dr. Setsumei nodded, then explained, "So the pirate must have placed the dinosaur egg here in 1945. The bomb goes off, and the creature grows as a result. But that doesn't explain why it waited forty years to start attacking."

Zombielyn pointed out the obvious. "Grruhuhuhhhhhh."

"Well," Ape10 asked, "how do we defeat this thing? It's gigantic. I doubt even the three of us could take it in a fight."
"True, Monkeyman. Even the Army has been unable to defeat the fire breathing creature."

While this was going on, Spark had asked Dr. Setsumei if he could heat up his hot pocket in the microwave. Setsumei had said, "Okay" and Spark had walked over to a lot of expensive looking machinery. He placed his Hot Pocket inside a contraption and pushed "Go". There was a whirring noise, followed by a Ding! Spark took his Hot Pocket out of the machine and popped it in his mouth.

Without warning, Spark began to grow larger. In just a few seconds, Spark's head had hit the ceiling. "What's going on??" he asked.

Dr. Setsumei realized instantly what had happened. He yelled to Spark, "You must have eaten my advanced nanotechnology robots! Somehow they combined with your advanced technology insides and instead of producing something very small, they are making you very big!"

By that point, Spark had grown larger than the building they were inside. He now towered at least 500 feet, or some unknown number of meters, tall.

Seizing the opportunity, Spark saw the giant mutated dinosaur. Laughing, he ran toward it. Unfortunately, he destroyed anything in his path.
But, once Spark reached the giant green monster, he simply picked it up, as though it were a toy, and threw it into space.The prehistoric animal disappeared into the vastness of the Milky Way galaxy, never to be seen or heard from again.

The people of Tokyo were relieved (well, except for the guy who lost his car and home) and they considered Spark a hero. "Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto!" they shouted.

Dr. Setusemi while glad that the T-rex threat had been removed, was still worried about Spark's growth. He explained to Ape10 and Zombielyn, "Your robotic friend is still in danger. As it is, he is already the largest thing on the planet.If Spark continues to grow, he will become the center of the universe! We must find a way to reverse the effects of the nanotechnology/Hot Pocket combination!"

Ape10 said, "I know! We will simply put him on television! Everyone knows that TV is reality. If we show a small Spark on TV, he will become small again."

Zombielyn pointed out, "Gnuh!!."

"True." Ape10 said. "Wait a minute! Adds 10 pounds! Zombielyn, that's it!"

******

"Rrruhr," Zombielyn grunted.

"It will." Ape10 said. "I hope." And with that, he took a bite of the Hot Pocket.

Soon enough, he began to grow.
Upon seeing that Ape10 had grown, Zombielyn consumed her tasty microwave treat, adding, "Gnerrr."

The threesome then proceeded to feed the entire world Nanotechnology-flavored Hot Pockets so that everyone was the same size.

Shortly, Spark was his original size again. He thanked his primate friend. "At least everything is back to normal. We solved our problem in 22 minutes, and even learned a valuable lesson."

"Which is?" Ape10 asked.

"The moral of the story is, 'History shows again and again how nature points out the folly of man'."

Alternate ending 1:

"Adds ten pounds! Zombielyn, that's it!" Ape10 dashed off. He made a few phone calls, and arranged to have Giant Spark broadcast worldwide.

"Geeerrrrrrruhhhuh." Zombielyn said.

"It would," Ape10 agreed, "but we're not showing him through a normal tv lens. Instead, we'll be looking at him through a giant telescope....backwards. That way, he'll appear really tiny. Wham! Spark will be back to normal again!"

And it worked.
Millions of people watched their televisions that night, and saw tiny Spark. When critical mass had been reached, the robot shrank back to his original size.

Shortly, Spark was his original size again. He thanked his primate friend. "At least everything is back to normal. We solved our problem in 22 minutes, and even learned a valuable lesson."

"Which is?" Ape10 asked.

"The moral of the story is, 'The size of your body doesn't matter, the size of your microwave does'."


Alternate Ending 2:

"Adds 10 pounds! Zombielyn, that's it!" Ape10 turned to the scientist and asked for the toenail. Dr. Sutesami gave it to the primate, who then ran up to his robot friend, and using the claw, poked a hole in him. Within minutes,
the mechanical man began to deflate.

Shortly, Spark was his original size again. He thanked his primate friend. "At least everything is back to normal. We solved our problem in 22 minutes, and even learned a valuable lesson."

"Which is?" Ape10 asked.

"The moral of the story is, 'Be careful with Hot Pockets'."

[Being spoiler for -How the West Was 011101110110111101101110 highlight to view]Azwood is attacked by a gang of Minotaurs. Ape10 and Zombielyn must ward them off. Meanwhile, Spark visits the Old West [end spoiler]

M is for monkey. That's good enough for me.

Happy Year of the Monkey!

The sad thing is, I'm sure I'll keep signing my checks with roosters for another week or two. [tongue]

Angel was Yayish. Smallville made my inner geek dance with joy.

Um. What else?

Oh. The two things from Alias - Jack Bristow yells whenever he is online. What CIA agent uses all caps all the time? (In real life, I mean)
#2) Steph pointed out that SpyDaddy was reading one of the books from the Series of Unfortunate Events books. Heh.

My hands are cold. I must work on Ape10 tonight. And go to the WD and see what people are saying about last night's Angel. So much for sleep, huh?

OUTLOOK GOOD

If it says so.

I'm kinda hungry. Not hongry, but...

Bah. I don't want to blog. I don't want to not blog. I stayed up far too late last night working on Ape10. And becuase we had a gallon of Pepsi. A GALLON!!!

I only had two things to say about Yaylias, but I'll wait and see if Steph wants to blog about them first.

In the meantime, I'll say that One Tree Hill could very well be the most boring drama the WB has ever aired. EVER. I dread Tuesdays because of it. It is the current bane of my TV existence.

Today's word of the day (not from dictionary.com, but from one that Steph gets mailed to her) is Crapulent. Heee! That's like excellent and crap put together!

Bah. Need to go take care of things. Why does life have to interfere with me being lazy all the time? Lousy ...life.

In good news, though, new Ape10 should be up ...oh, let's give me a week, just to be safe. [up]

That which you fear the most could meet you half way.

It's time for another Hyperthought? entry! Again, I'm exhausted, but my brain is running like Carl Lewis. Or someone fast. Speedy Gonzalez, perhaps. Undale! (heh. I'm sure that's totally misspelled)

So yesterday didn't get better, but my outlook did. Weird, huh?

Turns out that yes, they did leave off the day of overtime (it was the 28th of December) but that it was intentional. Sort of.

Our pay system is completely whacked. We get paid for the days that we worked, except that overtime and holiday pay are held back a period. So this check I just got on the 15th had the extra money for working Xmas day on it. And it should have (imo) had the 28th as well. I went to HR and discovered, though, that the cut-off date was the 27th. So anyone who had overtime for the 28th, 29th, 30th, or 31st of December will get it on the next check.

Also included in our next check will be the raise (although nobody seems to know how much...[eyebrow]) that we are due. I guess this makes sense, seeing how they're not really paying us for the beginning of the new year yet. ...Except that they are...because the new rates for insurance have kicked in. 45 bucks every paycheck. And that's the cheapest family rate. [sigh] But, what are you gonna do? Starve?

So, anyway, besides figuring all that stuff out, yesterday was action packed.
I mean to say, "Yesterday was...ACTION PACKED!!!"

We went grocery shopping, and I made a rather odd observation. Packages of cat food usually have pictures of the cat - and the human owner. Dog food, on the other hand, generally only show the dog. Occasionaly (especially dog biscuits) there will be a human hand on the package, but no face. I haven't done enough investigating to determine if this observation is 100% accurate, but it sems to skew that way. I have no idea what this means (if anything) but there ya have it.

After stocking up on food (so I guess the answer to my favorite question is "No." ...at least for now), it was time for me to go to work. We hadnt' eaten lunch yet, so we left early in order to make a stop at Taco Bell on the way. The universe had other things in mind, though, because there was an accident on the freeway that slowed us down enough that we had to bypass the meal and take me straight to work.

Steph took Harper back to pick up lunch while Saren came inside the station. She was extremely popular. It's so much fun bringing her there. I wish I could keep her there.

After Stephanie arrived with the food and we ate, the girls left and I got to work. It was a super busy day, which was good in that it kept me occupied and made the time pass quicker ("That's good!") but bad in that I am lazy and dislike working. ("That's bad!")

Anywhat, at work Lorne asked me to do him a favor. Being a nice person, I agreed. Being a generous person, he offered me compensation. I tried to refuse it at first, but he insisted. And that is how we wound up with our very first DVD. It's The Order with Heath Ledger. I guess we'll see how it is once we get around to owning a DVD player.
I had some mega lame joke about how most people get the DVD player first, then DVDs, but we didn't do it in "that Order", but, as you can tell by reading it, it's too lame. So...um...just pretend you didn't read that last sentence.

As Stephanie explained, when she was at her dad's house, the seal for the radiator fell off. What she did not explain (because it hadn't happened yet) was that because of the missing seal, when she came to pick me up from work, the car overheated.

She managed to get it to a nearby 7-11 and cool it down enough that she could drive to my work. Once there, we sat in the parking lot for at least half an hour, letting it cool down so we could put more water in. The girls were not happy.

Long story short (too late) we filled the radiator with more H2O, then drove home. It made it, but for the unforeseeable future, I'll be taking the bus to work. And back home again. Fun.

Erm. Wow. I guess I have disengaged Hyperthought?, because as soon as I typed the 'n' in 'Fun', my brain just blanked. I'm pretty sure that I've said everything I wanted to. If not, I know where to find me.

Who invented mornings?

I hate that person. I bet it was...oh, I don't even know who it was. But they're bastards, whoever they are. And I hope they have their testicles (or the testicles of a loved one, maybe) bitten off by a rhino.

I was [i]this[/i] close to quitting today. And I haven't even gone to work yet! (Well, I did to pick up my paycheck, but I didn't have to do any actual work - not that I do actual work when I'm [i]there[/i]...)

But, yeah. Still no raise. Which we're supposed to get every year. And this year we (apparently) did not. Fuck that. Also, I think (but am not sure, because I am stupid and did not keep track) but I [i]think[/i] that they screwed me out of at least a day of overtime.

Plus, Angel was crappy last night. Crappy!!

And my hands are freezing.

In addition, ...damnit. I've forgotten. But I know something else was pissing me off. I'm the grumpy old troll today. I think it's because I had to wake up early. Bgargh! OH! I remember! I still haven't worked on February's questions for that 'boq a month' thing I was gonna do. And January is half over. AND I still haven't done any work on episode 2 of Ape10.

And I used markup instead of HTML at the beginning of this rant.











And I'm hungry.
[/rant]

Here's hopin' the day gets better.

Or, more accurately, here's hopin' that my outlook on the day gets better. Yeah.

Reminderoma

Reminder: Stephanie, record the new episode of Angel tonight.

Reminder: P@, bring a notebook to work, that way when ideas for Ape10 come to you, you cna jot them down.

Reminder: P@, go back and edit the word 'cna' to the word 'can', since 'cna' is not truly a word.

Reminder: Joss, if you're going to bring any old Buffy cast members onto Angel this season, I vote for Xander. Or Dawn. I've always wanted to see Dawn/Angel interaction. (Not in that way, you pervs!)

Reminder: Let Lisa know you got her email, and you're glad she's okay.

Reminder: Steph, don't forget about Angel!!

From the future!!

Mostly I'm testing to see if you set the time and/or date differently, if it will instantly blog when the time arrives.

But while I'm here, may as well state a few thoughts I had last night before going to sleep.

1) I don't know if Valerie watches Alias or not, but if she does, last night's episode must have given her about a kajillion orgasms. That thing was packed with continuity.

b) Thank you everyone for your kind words about the first episode of Ape10. Other episodes will be forthcoming. I realize that MvD wasn't perfect, but overall I'm pretty happy with it. Big Time should be just as good.

Thirdly) Um. What was the third thing? Oh. I was going to issue a challenge to everyone to try to make an entry on their blog that:
[-] was about whatever they wanted
[-] was at least 8 words long
and
[-] contained an 'e' in every word. (Or, put another way - Every single utterance does have 'e'.) I was even thinking that I'd give points, and whoever created the sentences with the most 'e' words would win.

IV) Well, the fourth thing is something I'll post at another time. Just a thought I've been having about stuff.

Now, if this works, it should show up in about five minutes. Let's find out.

Ape10 episode 1: Monkey vs. Dinosaur

Azwood. 65 million years ago.

An ankylosaurus walks by the lush landscape, bored. A loud grating noise, similar to when you attempt to start a car engine that is already running, emits from the air.

An eletric crackle, followed by lightning and smoke and then an ear-splitting "BOOM!" When the dust and smoke cleared, a silver box was left standing. The box opened, and a strange, implike, presidental creature with blue skin stepped out. (It's not him)

The ankylosaurus, upon seeing this, shook it's head slowly and said, in a meloncholy voice, Ruur!!.

Azwood. Present day.

Ape10 was relaxing, chatting with his friends Spark the robot, and Zombielyn Monroe.

"...and that's why they call it the blues." Spark concluded.

Just then, a small figure wearing a hood and cloak entered Ape10's park. Ape10 noticed, sat up and examined what was obviously a child. However, it was unclear whether it was a boy or a girl. Spark and Zombielyn turned to see what had gotten Ape10's attention. They all stared as the child walked toward the primate. It was rare for them to receive visitors at all, let alone someone so small in stature, and donning such unusual clothing.

Ape10 was the first to speak. "May I help you?" he asked. (Many people reacted badly to hearing a nonhuman speak, but it had been Ape10's experience that children were rather accepting of his unique abilities.)

The child stopped, and presented Ape10 with a sheet of paper. Ape10 took the paper, and tried to gaze at the young person's face, but could not get a clear look. The eyes were visible under the hood, but not much else. Ape10's gut told him that there was something off about this child.

He looked down at the paper that had been handed to him, and read what it said. Instantly alarmed, he looked up to ask the child where this information had come from. But the stranger had disappeared.

Ape10 showed the paper to Spark and Zombielyn. "I don't know who that was, but if this information is accurate, we need to go to the Time Blender right away."

Zombielyn growled, ""Grrahuh!"

Spark nodded. "Neither do I. There was something not quite right about that human. Besides, this could very well be a trap."

Ape10 agreed. "True. I, too, felt that the child was not to be trusted. However, this" (he shook the paper) "is too dangerous to ignore. I say we go to the Time Blender and take care of it. And if it is a trap..." Ape10 morphed into a gorilla, then finished, "...we'll be ready for it."

The trio climbed into the Time Blender, and Spark adjusted the controls. Once everything was set, there was a twip!, and the giant machine with a monkey, a robot, and a zombie disappeared into the distant past.

*****

"Are we there?" Ape10 asked once they had arrived.
Spark inspected the controls, then said, "Yes. We are 65 million years ago. 65,341,401 years, to be exact."

Zombielyn smiled and said, "Gnnnnnuuh!!"

The trio emerged from the Time Blender into the strange surroundings of the Paleoithic. The trees were huge. The insects were huge. As they looked around, Zombielyn asked, "Rnuh?"

Spark said, "Yes. My sensors indicate that we are surrounded by prehistoric creatures. And..."
At that moment, several dozen velociraptors emerged from the bushes, followed by the person controlling them, Bluebush the Pirate.

"Bluebush." Ape10 said with a sneer, showing his teeth.

"Yarh." Bluebush said. "Tis 'bout time ye showed up."

Ape10 glared at his enemy, then said, "Well, are you going to explain your Master Plan? That's what you villians do at this stage, isn't it?"

The pirate looked contemplative, then said, "All right, ye stinkin' monkey. My plan is this - I will steal these terrible lizards from the past, train them to be obidient to me, and together we will defeat the Axis of Evil. Arrgh. Imagine it. T-rex versus terrorism. There's no way they stand a chance. Ha ha ha! And nobody can stop me. Not even ye!"

Ape10 shook his head. "You're wrong, Bluebush. We are gonna kick Jurassic."

Bluebush frowned, then said, "You'll have to get through my army first. And even if ye do, I've already sent three of my greatest dinowarriors through to various points on the timeline. You'll never find them all! Arrr!"

The blue man then ordered the dinosaurs to attack. Ape10 grabbed a stick and began to beat the reptiles. Zombielyn kicked, scratched, and punched. Then did what zombies love to do - she ate their brains. Spark was able to defeat the remainder of the dinosaurs using his incredible robot strength!!

Once the threat was nullified, our heroes looked around and discovered that Bluebush had disappeared. The wily politician had managed once again to allude capture.

Sighing, Ape10 and his friends went back to the Time Blender and returned to the present. They needed to plan what to do about Bluebush's plan, and the misplaced dinosaurs.

Back at Ape10's headquarters, Ape10 went over the questions that were bothering him. "Where could Bluebush have put the three dinosaurs? What effect on the timeline will they have? How did Bluebush aqcuire time travel capabilities?"

Zombielyn added, "Gnuh."

Spark nodded at that, and added, "And why was this episode called Monkey vs. Dinosaur when in fact, you are not a monkey, but an ape?"

[Being spoiler for -Big Time highlight to view]An accident involving nanotechnology causes Spark to grow to ginarmous size. [end spoiler]

Nervous.

One day! Less, really. Sometime tomorrow, Ape10 debuts. Eeee!
I'm worried that I've hyped it up too much (me? hype? never.) and that it'll bomb. But as Stephanie told me earlier, "I'll like it, and that's all that matters." Too true. And besides, when it comes down to it, I'm really doing it for myself.

Well, and a little bit for Saren. [grin]

In other news, I'm reading Stargirl right now, and it's quite good. Oddly, I can't seem to get into any books that aren't written for young adults. Huh.

The P@rix Reloaded

Heh. You have no idea how long I've wanted to use that title.

So, yeah. New layout. It's so awesome. Hee. My wife is the best.

And in less than two days, the first episode will premiere. Less than two days!!

Speaking of two days, for the past, I've had a killer headache. I need to drink more water. And perhaps get some aspirin (or whatever it is that doesn't kill me) into my system.

We're waking up early tomorrow. Fun!

Engage Hyperthought™!!

My body is exhausted, but my brain is racing a gabillion miles per second. There are half a dozen things I want to blog about, and the ol' gray matter is trying to make them all come out at once. I even jotted down notes so I wouldn't forget any of them. (YAY DORK!!)

Two days back we embarked on a secret adventure. Stephanie discovered this ...thing...called Letterboxing. Apparently it's a lot like Geocaching, only a little different. People go and hide a box with a stamp and a book in it, and then provide clues. You then follow the clues until you find the box, and then place an image of your own stamp in the book, and stamp their stamp into your own keepsake. (I'm explaining it poorly, but it's fun.)

We had to buy our family stamp (we picked a frog) and a book to start collecting the other stamps in, and then we proceeded to follow the clues to our first letterbox. (The site for the North American Letterboxing people is here. A few other people had already left behind their stamps, which was kinda neat. In fact, two of them were from San Diego! Plus the idea that hundreds (thousands??) of people pass this box daily with no clue that it is there just adds to the intrigue and the specialness of the whole ordeal.

The only downside was when we were putting the box back, Saren hit her head on a stairwell. So now we're going to sue the people who put the box there. [tongue]

We do plan on doing other letterboxing adventures in upcoming days. And eventually, we'll of course hide our own box for other people to find. Yay for free and fun things to do!!

Speaking of Saren - the other day we were playing Risk, and at one point she totally proved she was my daughter. She was attacking me. Ontario into Alberta. When I told her the names of the countries, she giggled and said, "Alberta you can't win this fight!" Yay dork!! [grin]

So yesterday before work I was websurfing, and I stumbled across Bush in 30 seconds, a site that is having a contest wherein people are asked to create ads that sum up the Bush administrations policies in a 30 second commercial. I've only watched a few of them, but they're quite creative and a pretty funny.

Then, at work they did a freakin' story on the site! Like I've said before, never underestimate the power of coincidence.

Anywhat, the story was about how the site had originally had two ads that compared Bush to Hitler. (Something I think I've done (vaguely) here before...) The ads were pulled from the competition, never made it on air of television, and moveon.org (the site that is sponsoring the contest) issued statements saying that they felt that those ads were in poor taste and that the ads were not endorsed by any of them. (Which, duh!. They pulled the ads from the internet. And DUH! the things were created by individuals entering the contest, not the site itself.) But, despite saying all that, my FUCKING NEWS has to go and have a STUPID FUCKING QUESTION OF THE DAY about it. The question of the day was "Did Moveon.org go too far by having ads comparing George Bush to Hitler?"

They didn't!! Jesus Christ people are stupid. I went to the site at work and voted "NO" several times (I'm not sure if it took more than once, but the fact that I could vote multiple times meant I was going to.) I was going to blog about this at work yesterday, and ask everyone here to go to the site and vote 'no', just to try and teach the fuckers a lesson. However, work interferred, and I was unable to blog while there. I suppose there might still be time, if you're so inclined to spend a few seconds of your life. (The last time I checked the results of the poll - last night- "no" had only 35% of the vote. [sigh]) Anywhat the site is here, if you want.

Also work related, apparently THE CEO of Sinclair Broadcasting will be in town next week. Everyone at work seems to think this is some kind of Second Coming or something. I've never met the guy before, but I have a feeling that he's flesh and bone, just like the rest of us. [shrug]

Yesterday, a bunch of monkeys beat the tar out of a giant crocodile type thing. (I beat K.Rool, the final "boss" on Donkey Kong64)

Annika asked what I was trying to do (in response to the other entry, re:HTML) - Two things. One - make a new template. (Stephanie has done a pretty damn good job in that regard, and I'll probably have that implemented later tonight, or tomorrow)
Two - work on ...the project. And that ...well, I've found some stuff out, and while HTML is still sometimes a motherfuck, it's manageable. Speaking of the project - only 3 days until it debuts!
THREE DAYS!!

And of course, today is the birthday of Lisa (imissoz). "Lisa, it's your birthday! Happy Birthday, Lisa!" [/Bart Simpson and Michael Jackson]

I had an Alias dream that I originally wanted to blog about, but it's pretty much faded from memory.

And lastly, I must issue thanks to the Jupe for helping me find the Charcter Map. "Yarh!"[/Skully]

Palpable. The excitement in the air is just palpable. Can you feel it?

2004, or, as I started to write it, @))$, is gonna be a kick-ass year. I just know it.

I mean, year of the monkey? 2004? It's got awesome written all over it.

Also, a year that begins with:

• Buying 4 calendars
  
• Me blogging at work
  
• Papa John's Pizza for lunch
  
• Pepsi
  
• A new template
  
• Getting paid overtime
  
• Steph figuring out our finances and seeing we'll probably have extra money left over at the end of the month
  and
  
• Other stuff
  

Can't be bad at all. Yes, the arbitrary date of twothousandfour is gonna rule. Mark my words.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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?

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!

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!

"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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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..

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.

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.

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]

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.

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!!

Champagne supernova

God, I want to get drunk.

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]

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!

"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.

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



Which of Majora's Masks are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

So true!

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...

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.

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.

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.

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*

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!

"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.