we'll all float on, okay

I should do a lyric title recap post again soon. Haven't done one for a while. I'm not sure that I'd *remember* what titles were song lyrics anymore, though. Or even where they came from.

This one is an easy one, though. It's from Modest Mouse's, Float On, because it's currently playing on the iTunes.

Yesterday we partook in the Earth Hour exercise, even though Las Vegas was not on the list of official cities. We turned off all the lights, and the computer, lit some candles, and sang songs and told stories and laughed like loons. Did it accomplish anything significant? Not in environmental terms, I'm sure, but it was a fun hour in our house, and maybe we'll do things like that more often. (Eventually, of course, we'll all be forced to...)

Well, it's month-end, and that means that I can do my movie-roundup as well as the daily post totaling. Hooray! I still want to see a) if I end up seeing 200 movies within the year, b) if my grand total of words will be over 200,008 (doubt it!), and c) a graph/chart with my posting totals on them. Perhaps later I'll do some googling and see what I come up with...

Movies this month - March was not a very big movie month, for some reason. Maybe April will be more movie-friendly.

Hide and Seek - Dakota Fanning was creepy as hell in this movie. I really enjoyed it, until the final 20 minutes when it became another cliche-filled Hollywood "thriller". [sigh] And then the final 20 seconds was just stupid icing. But, seriously, the first hour or so were quite good.

Hellboy - I had seen this before, but didn't mind rewatching it. They're coming out with a sequel now! I don't know how I feel about that!

Across the Universe - Fabulous. A musical using Beatles songs, and set in the 60s, but not about the band. Visually and aurally, this movie kicked forty types of ass. Plot wise it was a little thin, but I'm not complaining. It was just a treat for the senses, really. Plus, Jupe is an extra in it. Heh. "Hey, Jupe!"

Global Effect - This was one of those late-night grade C (or lower) movies that I screened at work. It was about a virus being released in Africa, and terrorists steal the only! vaccine! in the world!! I have to say, though, that for the type of movie that it was, it wasn't half bad. It wasn't half good, either, but I've seen much worse, really.

Falling Sky - for example, this. Oh man. This was a 'drama' about a single mother and her teenage daughter (played by Brittany Murphy!) who move to Las Vegas. The mom battles alcoholism, while Brittany narrates REALLY bad poetry/philosophy/life lessons through the entire movie. Brittany Murphy gives a pretty decent performance, truth be told, but overall, the writing is just horrible and the whole thing seems kinda pointless. If I hadn't had to screen it for work, I definitely would've turned the thing off.

Surf's Up - I almost turned this off, too. (We got it from Netflix) But I'm glad I didn't. The first 10 minutes or so were ...I don't know. They didn't flow right, or something. But after that, it got a lot better, and was enjoyable. Spoiler for the biggest laugh of the movie:
"C'mon, she likes you. She called you crap."

An Ideal Husband - Another screened for work movie. Oscar Wilde movies are...okay. This one was no different. I think The Importance of Being Earnest was better.

Okay. Post totals!
In order: 416; 186; 132; 145; 1,031; 633; 19; 381; 683; 1,324; 92; 112; 161; 444.
And this post has a total of: 641
For the total of March being - 6,400
And for the year to date - 16,821

Experation Date

Remember Andilus and the disappearing people in her world?
(even if you do, you should go and reread it. It's got moments of goodness, even if it is incomplete)

Well, I recently found the notebook that that was being written in, and there was a whole page of stuff I had as the beginning before the beginning. (And it was then X-ed out, and I restarted the story with what you can read if you follow the link.)

Normally I would've just been all, "Huh. That's neat." and leave it at that. But! There's a neat little coincidence in the story (you'll see in a minute) that made me say, "Okay. Gotta blog this."

So. Here we go:

2006 - Sep. 11th

14 months. I have 14 months left to live. Exactly.
It's difficult to believe that there was ever a time when people did not know their death dates. That was BV, of course. Long before I was born.

I'm doing this wrong.

Can a journal even be wrong? Not in most cases, I guess, but this is most certainly not a normal case.

They say that as people approach their Vanishing Day - mine, as I said before, is 14 months from today - that they become nostalgic. Introspective. Reflective. Morose. And scared. Scared is in there. Oh yeah.

One could ask me - in fact, I can hear Karen's voice right now- always logical, always questioning. It's been two years already since she Vanished. She'd ask me about this if she could, I know. "Claire," she'd say, "Diaries are written for future generations to read." She'd most likely put a cynical laugh here. "There will be no future generations," she'd conclude.

And she'd be right. After March 28th, 2008, there will be no humans left on the planet.

So unless some alien race stumbles upon this book, who is my intended audience - why am I writing this?

Because there's hope.

As incredible as that seems, there's a small glimmer of hope taht the human race will not die out in just under two years. It's a long shot, but it beats sitting around doing nothing.

Or maybe I'm grasping at straws.

I suppose I'll find out soon enough.

First, I'm going to include excerpts

That's where it ended. After that I turned the page and began writing what I linked to. Funny that I wrote all that in 2003. Whoa. 5 years have past, and I've not done any work on it at all. That's....

Anyway. Thought it was interesting that I refound the notebook so close to the date that had Claire's people dying off. I wonder what, if anything, it means.

the 28th it is, then.

I had started a post today that could very well have been posted on the 28th. I wasn't sure whether I should have posted it today, or the next time I blog, which will, of course, be 3/28.

As I said, I started it, but before I could finish the post, I had to get dinner, then eat dinner, then remove the middle and back seats from the van, then drive across town to a friend's house to pick up a slightly used couch he was giving away, then drive back, then unload the couch from the van and into the house, then put the seats back into the van, and get the girls some ice cream.

By this point I'm freaking exhausted, and not in the mood to blog at all, so the post is in draft mode, where it will remain until Friday, when it will be completed, and posted, and read by all.

Things William Shakespeare never knew about

Alas, poor Shakespeare!

• Trains
• Cell phones
• Pizza (?? Not sure on that one, but I know for a fact he never had 'modern' pizza - in a box.)
• The Simpsons
• Game shows
• Swiffer Wet Jet
• Parking lots
• Shopping carts
• Riding shopping carts in parking lots (so. much. fun.)
• Recreational vehicles
• United States Presidents
• World War [insert number here]
• plastic
• genetic manipulation
• The Beatles
  
• google
• Harry Houdini
  
• Stephanie

How can you be the greatest writer of all time, and yet none of your characters have ever heard "Let It Be"? Then again, people are still reading his work 400 years after his death, so he must've done something right.

53 minutes

left in the day, and I'm just now getting to blogging. I'm such a procrastinator. (I very nearly wrote "protagonist". Heh.)

I don't have much to say.

I've typed several different sentences now (about being in a bad mood, two sentences about Easter, and one half sentence that started with 'I guess') and erased each of them. Long live the backspace key!

It would be interesting one time to just type without using the backspace key the entire time. Just turn off the censor/editor all together? I don't know about that.

Superbad

I opted to watch Smallville tonight for the first time in a long time. (I think the last time I watched was at the start of this season when they introduced Supergirl...)

I'm going to recap tonight's episode, even though I really don't have a clue as to what is going on story-wise. But that's okay, because, statistically speaking, neither do you.

Tonight's episode was entitled Traveler. (It's always bugged me that all Smallville episodes are one-word titles. Makes them too difficult to remember, imo.) Anyway, on we go!

No previouslies, which is kinda weird, but I guess they figure that we don't need to know what's going on.

It opens with Papa Luthor signing things at his desk. A lackey approaches him and says, "You got one more, sir." An autograph request?
It shows that the envelope has a wax seal, so maybe it's a Hogwarts acceptance letter...
Papa Luthor opens the envelope, reads the contents (we don't see them) and looks very worried.

Clark is in the barn, looking at one of those octagon-key-portal-spaceship pieces that played importance several thousand seasons back (and might still?). He hears a noise, and the suspicious music clues us in that it is not Lana, despite him calling out to ask if it is. (So I guess he and Lana are back on speaking terms this week?) Suddenly, an electric shocking dart flies through the air and hits Clark in the chest. It's obviously laced with kryptonite, and he gets the first of what will prove to be many shocks of the episode.
He manages to remove it from his chest, and instead of super-zipping out of the danger zone, he watches as another shock-dart hits the wall next to him. He turns to see that a military commando guy is standing nearby. Clark hurls him through a wall (he must be hypnotized [/running gag on Smallville]) but is soon taken down by the rest of commando guy's crew, who put many many many kryptonite-laced shock darts into Clark. So, it's the Initiative, huh? Leader of the crew says, "I understand why they'd want you," and kicks Clark.

Credits.

Lana and Chloe are in the barn, examining the aftermath of the abduction. They find one of the shock-darts, and see that it has a piece of Clark's red shirt in it, so they deduce that he's been abducted.

Clark wakes up in a kryptonite-laced cage. The commando leader from earlier is behind a glass wall with a control on the cage, where he can raise the amount of krytonite flowing into the bars, and he claims that he can kill Clark if he doesn't stay put. In case you missed this torture scene, don't worry, it's repeated several times throughout the episode.

Papa Luthor meets up with a woman he addresses as "Patty" Swann - she is the daughter of Virgil Swann (who was played by Christopher Reeve). She expositions that she knows that when she was a kid, Papa Luthor, her dad, and two other folks used to have meetings all the time where they would talk about the upcoming arrival of "The Traveler". They used to call their group "Veritas", and all of the members are now dead - except Papa Luthor. And she says she has proof that he murdered them.
Papa Luthor doesn't take threats well, and implies that if she comes forward with her information, that it would end badly for her.

Supergirl is living at Lex's house...and doesn't have her memory? Huh? Anyway, Lex suspects that Supergirl is ...well, he doesn't know what, exactly, but he's got his people constantly spying on her, in case her memory comes back. And if that doesn't happen, he's got some memory retrieval thing set up to put her through. But the scientists warn him that it could kill her. Lex doesn't care, he wants answers. Oh, Lex.

Clark is in the cage o' torture. Psycho-guard guy is there, torturing Clark. Suddenly, Papa Luthor walks in, and gives psycho-guard guy a warning that Clark is not to be hurt, just watched, and if anything happens to him, he'll hold psycho-guard responsible.

Commercials.

Lana & Chloe arrive at Papa Luthor's place of business to ask him if they know where Clark is. They show him the shock-dart they found. Papa Luthor tries to direct them toward Lex.

They go to do research, and quickly discover that it is really Papa L. who is holding Clark hostage. They realize that the only way to get Clark out is to have Supergirl save him, but Supergirl is with Lex...

Patty Swann shows up to talk to Lex and subtly gets him interested in Veritas. She gives him a painting he made as a kid of the Veritas symbol, that Lex has no memory of, oddly. She tells him that she bets her dad would have more information...

Commercials!

Lex confronts Papa L. about Veritas. He tries to deny it, but Lex ain't buying it. Once Lex leaves, Papa L. calls Patty Swann and says he's ready to make a deal. (No, Lionel!! Your case has more money in it!! Don't do it!)

Lana & Chloe are getting in Chloe's Toyota Prius, saying they're going to rescue Supergirl. In her Prius! They drive down the road in the Prius. And... scene.

Lex is ready to do the memory retrieval, but at just that moment, the cameras that are focused on Supergirl go dead. Chloe & Lana arrive and tell Supergirl that she 'has to go with them right now'.

Another torture Clark scene.

Supergirl and Chloe (where's Lana??) are now in the Fortress of Solitude, where Chloe forces Jor-El to return Supergirl's memory (and powers, apparently, I didn't realize she'd lost those too.) Dramatic music and CGI ensue, and now Supergirl is back, and ready to save Clark. But first, commercials.

Patty meets with Papa L. to make a trade: Her evidence on his murders for the Traveler. But then psycho-guard knocks Patty out, by hitting her on the back of the head with a gun. This makes Papa L. happy, but then psycho-guard turns on Papa L! He claims that Clark needs to be terminated, since he's a threat to national security. He knocks Papa L. out, and cranks up the juice on the torture-cage. Clark is near death, when in comes Supergirl! Hooray!
She uses her fire-eye-beam power to destroy the voltage on the cage, then hurls it through the glass window where psycho-guard was. He ducks.
Clark & Supergirl share a moment, where Clark is glad to have her back. Psycho-guard stands above them with a gun, armed with more electro-shock-darts, but before he can fire upon the Kryptonians, Papa Luthor smacks him on the back of the head, where he falls to his death, impaled on a piece of the broken torture-cage. Ha! Poetic justice. Followed by commercials.

We return at Clark's house, where Patty is giving Clark a journal that her dad wrote, all about him. He reads some of the prophecies, which state that "The Traveler will bring great change to the world."
They discuss the Luthors and how Lionel had done all those bad things to have Clark under his control. She leaves Clark, telling him she'll be in Metropolis, and to look her up sometime.

Clark goes to see Papa Luthor, angry about having been put in a cage. Papa L tries to put a good spin on the situation ("I built the cage to store other Kryptonians"; "These death threat letters I got said they were going to kill you!") but Clark isn't hearing that tune.
Clark and Supergirl talk at home about how people are mostly good, but that the Luthors are probably a lost cause.

Patty is being driven to Metropolis. Her driver stops the car, gets out, and shoots her.

Lex contemplates the Veritas painting that Patty gave him. End!

Next week - Spike comes back! With information about Supergirl!! Wait. What?

Scanny

I love the scan button on the van's radio. Or any radio, for that matter.

Today, during my lunch hour (after I had eaten, of course), I sat in the van with a notebook and pen and hit the scan button, stopping on each station long enough to write down a brief description of what was airing at that moment.

Here we go!

88.1 - DJ says, "I need you to tell me your favorite radio station." the listener responds, "Power 88," and I hit the scan button---

88.9 - [Preset 1] - KNPR! I usually love KNPR, but right now all that's going on is the announcer listing this hour's sponsors. Boring! Scan...

89.3 - This is a christian music station. A woman is signing, "All that matters is, all that matters is - I know your love has set me free," while guitars rock out behind her. It's actually not a badly sung song, but I scan...

89.7 - Classical music. Scan...

90.5 - Some guy is talking about his debts on a talk radio interview type of thing (he still has to finish paying off his student loan and...)

91.5 - KUNV, which is the university station. This used to have a program on overnights called Rock Avenue, where they played truly awesome alternative music. Now, it's all jazz, all the time. Right now is no different. Scan.

92.3 - [Preset 6] - KOMP - The "Rock" station. Currently some unidentifiable rock song, which sounds vaguely metal-ish is playing. I finish writing this description, and am still unable to ID the song, so I hit scan...

93.1 - a commercial for Wal-Mart, followed by a traffic report. Evidently, the 15 Southbound is looking slow...

95.5 - some country song. Interesting that the radio didn't stop on 94.1 this time around (I blame that on the lack of antennae on the roof) scan...

96.3 - KKLZ - another commercial. For Vista Chevrolet. Man. This is turning out ot be quite boring. Where are all the songs? Scan...

97.1 - [Preset 3] - KXPT, aka ninety-seven-one, the Point - Yet ANOTHER commercial. This one for Fitzgerald's Casino. Followed by a lawyer talking about the Hepatitis A, B and HIV scare from the Endoscopy Clinic fiasco. (Several clinics here in town have been shut down recently due to them having practiced the "money saving" technique of reusing needles on patients. Somewhere around 40,000 people may have been infected. Which is pretty horrific, actually. Needless to say, the lawyers have been advertising like crazy, trying to cash in.) Anyway, no song, so ...scan...

98.5 - KLUC, playing a hip-hop song I couldn't ID if my life depended on it. Scan...

99.3 - A Spanish speaking station

100.5 - [Preset 4] Jack FM, playing ELO's "It's a Living Thing". I bop my head a bit (because I'm dorky) and just before the song ends, I hit scan...

101.9 - Spanish speaking station

102.7 - [Preset 5] Star 102.7, now called "Fresh 102.7", playing some soft-ballad type of song that would be at home on VH1 if VH1 still played videos. The singer is saying he's "going home and the miles are getting longer, it seems"... and then I hit scan.

103.5 - Spanish speaking station

105.1 - Another Spanish speaking station

105.7 - The station Identification tells me that this is the "Smooth Jazz" station. The tune that starts after that is...well, smooth jazz. It's instrumental, but also somewhat familiar. I think if someone started singing, I might be able to recognize it. Instead, I hit scan.

106.5 - Bryan Adams is asking me if I've ever really, really, really, really ever loved a woman.

107.5 - The DJ is rambling far too quickly to write everything he's saying, but ooh! A caller just requested "some old school Rage", and so now he's playing "Just Another Bomb Track". Yay! Once the song is done, I hit scan one last time.

107.9 - [Preset 2] - Area One-oh-Eight (aka Area One-oh-Seven-Nine) plays a station ID, followed by Nirvana's "All Apologies". Yay! Two good songs in a row. But overall, this just highlighted how sucky Las Vegas radio is. If anyone else wants to duplicate this experiment, I'd be interested to see how other cities' stations compare.

National Defence College of Thailand

Random.

• If there was a movie that just followed Irina around for two hours, it would be the best thing ever. She is so freaking adorable. And mischievous, but really really adorable. Her latest thing is to scream (happily) - "Iiiiii ....DID IT!!!" - after accomplishing, well, pretty much anything. Adorable!
• Went to the libe today. Got a book called The Accidental Time Machine by Joe Haldeman. I've never heard of the guy before, but he had quite a collection of books there, all critically acclaimed, of course (I want my book to be balanced and have the less than stellar reviews put on the back as well. "Astounding." - the Steph; "Meh." - The New York Times), but the book does look interesting, and from the two chapters I've read so far, I've liked it, so I may've found a new ...what's the word? Well, whatever. I'll just be satisfied to have new novels to occupy my time.
• While in the library, staring at all those thousands of books, I felt a powerful urge to write. It's still with me, sorta, but why's it so damn hard to do? [sigh]
• I keep hitting the return key twice, which takes me out of list mode.
• Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day. I need to remember to wear green.
• This weekend vanished abruptly. Unfair.
• Harper is so into reading now, it's great. She's never without a book in her hands, usually a Cam Jensen story. I'm reminded of when Iwas her age and was constantly reading too. Very cool.
• Last night's dream involved time travel, a guy named Greg, a nuclear (?) bomb going off near our backyard as we watched, and a pterodactyl and an archaeopteryx chasing an airplane.
• I'm about 3 episodes into season 6 of The Shield now, and I have this fear that they're going to introduce a storyline that is going to piss me off royally, due to contradicting continuity, and just plain not making sense. Hopefully I'm wrong.
• Spent a few hours reading archives (mostly March 2004, for some reason) of my blog, and Steph's blog, and Amy's and Annika's and Soupy's ... Good times.
  
• I have a potentially cool blog post in mind involving the radio. I mention this as a reminder to myself to post it on Tuesday.

No, I won't elaborate.

One of my biggest weaknesses in my writing is that I don't provide enough details.

everything else

I've been having thousand yard stares a lot lately. I mean, I guess I've done it frequently all my life - those instances where I'll "drop off" and "be somewhere else". Everyone has 'em, I suppose. I'm just saying that I've noticed myself doing that more in the past ...oh, two days? Maybe more.

This post is going to be jumpy/stream-of-consciousness...thing that I alluded to earlier. As I said then, each of these statements can probably be expanded upon to be their own blog entry - and I might expand on them as I'm going. We'll see. Time is not on my side, either, since it's already 9:15pm, and as we all know, time waits for no man.

Onward.

I really like The Mountain Goats.

I'm currently reading The Gum Thief by Douglas Coupland, and it's quite good. I've been a fan of his since Generation X and Life After God: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, so I was happy to see that he had a new book out. I've read almost everything he's written (fiction-wise, anyway) and enjoyed most of it. Gum Thief doesn't really have much of a plot so far (a complaint that Steph pointed out about another fave of mine, Microserfs) but it doesn't bother me much. Coupland's books are generally more about the imagery and the ideas, imo.

Superman: Red Son might be one of the best graphic novels ever.

Matty is posting again! Finally, something good comes out of Ohio!!

The Project has been calling to me lately. Well, whispering. I mean, it's been quiet for ...3 months. Jesus F'in Hell-Christ. Where does the time go?
Anyway, it's still sitting there. Waiting. In it's way. As things do. You know.
Plus, there's the Project Spinoff(s), which have been very loud.

There's also the long-abandoned OTHER project, which ...I don't even know about that one.

I could never live in California. Or at least, not LA or San Diego. Why? Because the whole time I'm there (well, not the whole time, but a lot of it) I'm in fear that nukes are going to hit the city.
Probably due to living on a diet of Hollywood style disaster movies, but when we were at Will & Annika's house, and we went out on their porch to look at the Hollywood sign, I had this irrational fear that it would be the 2nd to last thing I'd see. (The last being a bright white flash) And of course, I know it's an irrational fear - but only because it hasn't happened yet.
Sites like this don't help matters.

I will get back to Roger, but when I do, I suspect that I'm going to revise things a bit, and probably start completely over.

On the bus ride home today, I had a bit of the "nuke" fear. And I was just thinking as I listened to some woman bitch about her work day about how sad that would be if the last thing she ever said was, "That fucker is such a liar." and then we were all vaporized.
And how many hours of my life I've wasted at work.
D. Pressing.

Free Will

We've had the same Netflix discs for, like, a month and a half. And tomorrow is Lost/Survivor night, so we won't get to any of them until at least Friday. We're never going to get to Donnie Darko at this rate. (Donnie Darko was just a randomly chosen movie from our queueu. It's currently at position 67 out of 127.)

We need to sell this house. And I really don't want to do the work involved. Why can't it just be done for us, like everything else was? Anyone out there know how to sell homes, and want to handle it?

*stares into the distance*

1/4

Obviously, when I said that I would blog twice on the 11th if I couldn't blog on the 10th, I was delirious from lack of sleep. I meant the 12th. How would blogging 2 times on the 11th, and then again on the 12th be in step with the blog-every-other-day gimmick? It would not.

Anyway. So, I'll probably blog twice today. Maybe.

My mind is currently scattershot - it seems like every passing thought could be blogged. Or blogged about. I don't know if I'll go that route - I get easily distracted, and will probably lose most of my thoughts (a good percentage have already left during the bus ride/walk home, and even more have fled while typing this) but we'll play it by ear, huh?

Steph already did the reader's digest version of our trip to Cali. (Go read it!)
But, here's another (heh.):

On Saturday, we drove, and the driving was not bad at all. Well, I mean, except for the length, and how monotonous driving is. I mean, really. You sit there, and the machine does all the work. And stuff passes you. Bor-ing!!
But, I was pretty impressed with how little traffic there was, relatively speaking. We made pretty good time, I thought.
Anyway, at the Pepsi Playpark in Barstow, CA, we didn't get to eat as is our tradition. (Steph has covered this...) But! What she left out was that the park was angry about it!
Since we didn't get a chance to dine there, the park demanded a sacrifice of some sort. Namely, blood.

Okay, here's the deal-i-o: I got on one of the swings, and decided I would jump off. Fun, right? Well, it was. Until I landed.
On my hands and knees.
And, really, it didn't even hurt at the time, but I looked at my palm and saw that I had now had wood chips where skin used to be.
Overall, I had a three minor cuts on my left hand and one microscopic cut on my right hand.
However - this was back on the 8th, and my left hand is still in a pretty significant amount of pain. One of the cuts, it turned out, was right on one of the creases in my hand. (Um. Hold on, I'm gonna use the internet to figure out exactly what line I'm talking about. Ah-ha! My "Heart Line" is the one that is injured. It had a small piece of skin chunked out of it, and since it's in a crease, it hasn't been able to heal properly. And, as a result, nearly every time that I move my hand to straighten (or curl) my fingers, the nerve endings go berserk. Fun.
Anyway. After staying at the park and bleeding a little more, we ate, then continued the drive into LA, where we had dinner with SAW (or AWS? maybe WAS?) At any rate, food was shared with Annika, Will, and Sam, whom we have not seen in about a year and a half, which is way too long.

Annika & Will are great hosts and great people, and Will builds one hell of a good Duplo-tank. Also, carmalized onions are pretty tasty on pizza. Who knew!?

I wish (as I always do) that I had interacted more, and that I wasn't so damn boring, but I think overall everyone enjoyed themselves.

Sunday morning we were awoken to a phone call from my work. At 7am. Which, according to our bodies, was really 6am.
Unfortunately, my cell phone is crap, and so the reception I was getting was pretty much one bar. So, the "conversation" consisted of me saying, "Hello?" three or four times, and the person on the other end saying... something, and then me hanging up.
An hour later (on the dot!), my phone rang again.
Again, I attempted to speak, but was answered with silence.

At 9am they called a third time, and I guess it was the charm, because I was able to carry out a conversation with the guys in master control that time. I informed them during this talk that I was in San Diego and also, that I was not the person to be calling about this matter. (At least not first. I am still just the Program Director's Assistant, after all.)

The rest of the day was pretty good, though. Breakfast at Denny's was ...satisfying, which is about all you can ask for from Denny's, really. And later Saren, Harper, and I took turns being Terminators and chasing after each other at the park. Harper's Terminator Walk is hilarious, though, so if she really were a killer cyborg, I think she'd probably catch me because I'd be too busy laughing to run.
We also all argued with the ocean, which is always a fun thing to do. It's so relentless!

Monday was Legoland day, and it was great. There's not a lot to say about it, because Steph covered it already (and has pictures) and well, it was just fun. Plus, I'm getting hungry and my mind is wandering again. It would've been nice to have two days to go through the park - or go to the beach or drive around Cali* or just not have to work - but I did appreciate the time we had. Lots of fun overall, I think.

Once the park was closing, we got into the van, and I realized that I was sunburnt and would be dealing with a lot of "You got a lot of sun!" comments on Tuesday when I went back to work. (5, in case you care) But getting some red skin and being physically drained is a sure sign that a good time was had by all. Irina was conked out before we even got to the van, and the girls did fall asleep on the drive home - momentarily, anyway - they were awake again by the time we pulled into the driveway at exactly 12:00am.

We agreed that going to Legoland in early March for Homeschool Days is a good time, and we're going to attempt to make it an annual thing.

*Remind me to talk about my Cali-driving fears in my next blog entry.

Get up, gotta go!

Don't know if I'll be able to blog on the 10th, but if I can't, I'll blog twice on the 11th to make up for it.

Right now the girls and Steph are still asleep. I really wish I were, too, but, on the other hand, I'm very excited about this trip. Even though it's just one weekend (and a weekend that has an hour less than usual, at that!), it's our first trip out of town in quite a while, so I think I'm more looking forward to it than normal. (After reredading that sentence, I have to apologize to anyone who speaks English. That was ...grammatically horrific. Heh. "Grammatically horrific." Like Lucky Charms!)

Anyway. We shoudl be outta the house in...oh, I'd give us two hours. And then we won't be back until sometime early Tuesday morning.

WOO HOO!!

3, 2, 1

I was thinking about movie trilogies and, in particular, ones that I've not seen any of the installments, and that it would be interesting to watch them in reverse order.

So, what series would fit this bill?

The X-Men trilogy
The Godfather trilogy
The Bourne movies
Blade trilogy
those Ice Age movies (although the 3rd one isn't out yet)
The Final Destination movies
The Santa Claus trilogy
Rush Hour 1, 2 and 3
the 3 Fast & the Furious flicks
and
Oceans 11, Oceans 12, and Oceans 13

What would also be neat is if some creative director/writer/producer decided to make a trilogy wherein they released the 3rd movie first, then the 2nd, and finally the 1st. Maybe if Lost ever gets turned into a motion picture. Or, um, three.

Must

Ugh. That word is ...

I've been in a cranky mood most of today - work caused a lot of it, or rather, I'm blaming work for a lot of it. I don't know that it's the cause. I think I'm frustrated with myself for not keeping up on my writing. I had wanted to work on my story/ies during March - I had self-imposed goals of doing a NaNo type month: at least 50,000 words between the 5 stories I've got taking up the majority of my imagination. The first two days were great(ish). And since then, nada.

And it's not that I can't still write - I can. And, you know, I can write whenever, it's just... I can't. Plus there's the stupid critical part of me that says that my writing sucks, which ..whatever.

The killer headache I have (and, yes, I've taken aspirin, it's just not helping) is certainly contributing to my bad attitude.

*deep breath*

I tihnk I'm going to hit "publish", go change a diaper, and attempt to salvage the rest of the evening by appreciating what is good in my life.

In like a lion

How does it know!?! Seriously, the weather became all incredibly windy two days back. And it got extremely windy today. On the 29th of February, things were still normal, weather-wise. But as soon as it becomes 3/1, the winds pick up, and here we are, suffering 50 mph gusts. Crazy.

Anyway. We roughed the weather and went and found a letterbox.

....
My heart right now is so *not* into blogging. And it's not that I don't have things to talk about, I just really don't want to. Weird.

I remembered the other things I wanted to talk about on 2/29, pretty much about three minutes after posting it. [doh2] I was going to talk about how there was a ricin scare downtown, where evidently someone had ricin (which, in case you are unaware, is a highly lethal toxin) inside their hotel room. What was hilarious was that the story broke on Thursday night, while we were watching Survivor. Channel 8 interrupted part of Survivor to have the breaking news story. (But we didn't seem to miss *much* of the show. We came back in just as Ozzy was discovering the HII)
The funny part is, after Survivor, we switched over to watch Lost, on Channel 13.

During part of Lost, they had a crawl down at the bottom of the screen about the ricin find. (I was, for the most part, able to ignore the crawl.)
As soon as Lost was done, Channel 13 had the "Breaking News" interruption, and then they joined Eli Stone in progress. I just find it funny that Channel 13 knows that even if there is some sort of important news story breaking, that if they had interrupted Lost, heads would have rolled. I mean, if they had broken in during that episode, I think I would've definitely made a phone call the next day. And I know what a pain viewer phone calls can be. So, good job, ABC!

Additionally - I've always thought it would be neat to write a story wherein each chapter is the title of a song from a CD.
I think, maybe, that Rumours would be a good contender. The track titles have good chapter sounding names. The trick would be in making the story fit...

And lastly, I think we may be going to LegoLand next Monday. We don't *really* have the money to be doing it, but you know what? You only live once, and we need a minivacation seriously bad.

Bonus!

Yay! Leap Day!!
I think it would be kinda neat to not have Leap Days, though, and instead, every century or so, have an additional month thrown into the mix. Call it Smarch, or Additionary or something.

This being the end of the month, I figure I'll do my monthly add-up of the posts (not sure if I'll do this through the whole year. I don't know that anyone besides me really finds it all that interesting...)

2/1 - 132
2/3 - 159
2/5 - 170
2/7 - 309
2/9 - 418
2/11 - 643
2/13 - 769
2/15 - 621
2/17 - 141
2/19 - 745
2/21 - 130
2/23 - 361
2/25 - 428
2/27 - 422
total in Feb (not including this post) - 5,448.
Which means, excluding this post here, my total wordcount for the year is 9,875. Hrm.

Also, movie update!

"The Waterboy" - I think that I became stupider watching this. In fact, I think having it exist in the universe is a constant drain on the intelligence on all of us. It's like an intelligence black hole. It just sucks the brain-power out of any living being that stumbles upon it.

"Enemy of the State" - wasn't bad, considering it was a Brukheimer (sp?) film. And it was oddly prophetic. Um. In it's way. *glances nervously at Big Brother*

"The Faculty" - I'd seen this before, but I was assigned to screen it for work (that's actually why I watched the other movies, too) and I can't complain. This is pretty underrated little flick. I mean, it's got Lilith (from "Fraiser"), the T-1000 (from "Terminator 2: Judgment Day"), Frodo, and even Jon Stewart! All in a late-90s-hipster-ironic take on the Body Snatcher mythos. Tentacles up!

"Annie" - First movie of the month that I watched at home. We own this on DVD, and Irina just decided one day to put it in the DVD player, and there we go. It had been a while since I'd seen it. I totally forgot that Tim Curry was in this. Heh. Rooster.

"Big Top Pee Wee" - Watched at home, but we got it from the library. Man. This movie just was ...not very good. Especially in comparison to the awesomeness of Pee Wee's Big Adventure.

"Eragon" - Yay, dragons! This was totally Lord of the Rings: Lite Version, but I... um. Kinda liked it. Yeah, it was derivative, and unoriginal, and predictable, but I still enjoyed it quite a bit. I doubt seriously that they'll end up making the sequel, which kinda sucks, but, if they do make it, I'll totally rent it.

"Mystery, Alaska" - Watched at work. I've seen this one before, too, but again, can't complain.

"Live Free or Die Hard" - In the next Die Hard movie, I hope that scientists capture John McClane and study him in order to figure out why the laws of physics don't apply to any area he's around.

Now that I've gotten the month-end duties out of the way...well, I was going to make my blog entry, but I surprisingly don't have anything to talk about. I had stuff all set up originally (I'm pretty certain that I was going to blog about 2/29 and ...something else...) but [shrug] I guess I'll simply say that I hope everyone had a great Leap Day, and I'll see ya'll in two days.

And now you know... the rest of the story

Heh. I'm not sure where that quote comes from, but it's amusing me nonetheless.

I should warn any viewers that I am currently semi-delusional from a sickness and a pulled chest muscle that is resulting in a fair amount of pain and a lot of lack of sleep. Not quite UTP@, but certainly not in a normal frame of mind. [/disclaimer]

So, remember about a billion years ago, when I started a story on my blog about some teenagers who dabble in black magic, and end up summoning a demon named Bocal-Sha? Remember how I didn't finish it?

Well, here's some closure, of a sort:

Part 1 was actually almost self-contained, and pretty damn interesting, if I do say so myself. Unfortunately, the second part was not as great, and I sorta lost focus and the intensity from the beginning.
ANyway, here's what I had originally planned on having happen:
Anthony (the narrator) was going to hook up with Bocal-Sha (eww. Not in that way!) who was going to have him perform tasks that would increasingly become more and more ...deadly. The tasks would start out small - a petty theft here, some vandalism there - only to graduate on to the bad stuff - arson of a neighbor's house, and maybe even eventually a murder.
The payoff would be that as Anthony was doing these 'favors' for the demon, his personal life would be improving - he'd become more popular, get elected student body president, etc.
Long story short (too late!), even though Anthony would not have a moral objection to doing things for Bocal-Sha, Craig would, and the two would eventually clash over Anthony's actions, with Craig wanting to turn Anthony in for his crimes.

Throughout the story, it would never really be clear whether the demon actually existed. Craig would even raise this point to Anthony, who would begin to wonder himself if he was, in fact, creating the demon in his mind.

The final confrontation between Anthony, Craig, and Bocal-Sha would end with Anthony having a gun and knowing that there was "only one way to end this.", and pulling the trigger - leaving it unclear whether he shot himself, the demon, or his friend.

But, as I said, I never got around to finishing the tale, so, you know... um... heh. Obviously endings = not my strong suit.
The point is, in case anyone was still wondering about "Thy Master's Bidding", now you know how it would've all gone down, had I actually written it.

A Lizard Tale

When I got home from work today, the girls wanted to go out in the back (Saren has discovered that there is a feral cat living [occasionally] beneath our porch, and has decided that she is going to capture it.), so we all went out there.

Harper and Irina played on the swing set, I started sweeping the porch, and Saren went over to the side of the porch to see if she could see the cat.

A few minutes later, Saren announced that she had 'found a lizard'. !!

The next thing I know, my oldest daughter had a small brownish lizard in the palm of her hand.

I quickly came inside and got Steph's camera, then went back out and took a picture of the animal.


We were laughing about it as it crawled up her arm and onto her shoulder... and then not laughing so much as it made its way into her hair. Ack!

Holding her hair back out of the lizard's path, Saren was able to grab a hold of it and get it back in her hand. She said, "It's shaking!" (Probably from fear, but maybe the cold?) And then, as she was getting ready to put it back on the ground, she said, "Eww!" and dropped what I thought was the whole animal. But when I glanced closer, I could see that it was just the tail. Still squirming.

The body and the tail had separated [I just looked it up, and it was most likely a Cope's Leopard Lizard, since the site I saw stated that 'when threatened, it will exhibit "freeze" behavior, and is capable of caudal autonomy(tail separation).] Nifty! Saren had dropped both parts of the lizard, but I had only seen the tail fall.
When we looked down, though, we could eventually see both the lizard body (sitting on the side wall of the porch, noticeably breathing, but not moving away from us) and the tail (in the dirt, twitching nonstop).

Saren had read that sometimes certain lizards lose their tails when frightened, which I had read before too. Here was proof that those texts were telling the truth!

Steph was still inside on the computer, so I picked up the twitchy-tail, and brought it in to show her. She took some video of it on her camera, although we haven't uploaded any of it, so I'm not sure how well it turned out and here's a picture of it.


Eventually we returned the tail to the dirt and said good-bye to the little reptile.

Sunday, busy Sunday

(potentially) Lots going on tomorrow.

The Life Learners have set up an 'archaeological' dig - I don't know all the details, but evidentially, there will be a paleontologist leading the group on a simple dig throuhg part of the Nevada desert tomorrow, looking for fossils. "Dinosaur Dave" is the guys name, which makes me suspect that the event will be catered toward the younger crowd, but I'm still looking forward to going. Doing stuff outside is of the good.
It isn't clear whether we'll be attending, though, because Harper and Saren have both come down with flu-like symptoms (and I've been keeping the sickness at bay myself), plus, it starts at 10am, which for the girls, is the equivalent of, like, 4am for most people.

Also taking place tomorrow - from 11am - 1pm - is a funeral for Mr. Koker, who was the man who owned the television station back in 1995 when I first got hired there. He passed away this past Sunday, from a heart attack. He had been battling cancer the past year as well. The Kokers are really great people, and I am saddened for their loss. I don't know if I'll be attending the services, since we might be out doing the dig at that time.

One of Steph's aunts is having dinner at her house tomorrow night, and has invited us to join in, so that's taking place as well.

There's also the Academy Awards, which, interestingly, I don't really have much interest in this year.

And tomorrow is the tin anniversary for Steph and I. (Or, "diamond" if you want to go by modern tradition...[what does that even mean?]) It was ten years ago (tomorrow) that we became husband and wife in the eyes of the law. Hooray!
Ten years! Man, that's quite nearly 1/3rd of my life! I guess to celebrate we can go dig up ancient bones, or attend a funeral, or have dinner with extended family, or watch an overlong award ceremony on television.
It is remarkable, though, how quickly a decade with Steph has past. And how it has been, without a doubt, the best portion of my life.

Do you realize how fast you were going?

Cross-posted on the WD

There are certain songs that, when you hear them while driving, cause an involuntary reaction of speeding up. They're called "Drive Fast Songs". (Or something less lame, if someone has a better suggestion)

Here are links to some youtube videos of the ones that cause me to generally break the speed limit:

"Mrs Robinson" by the Lemonheads.

"Song 2" by Blur. (Woohoo!!)

"You Could Be Mine" by Guns n' Roses (Added bonus - Terminator 2 related video!! [cool])

"Renegades of Funk" by Rage Against the Machine (and, actually, pretty much anything by RATM)

And, of course, Sammy Hagar's "I Can't Drive 55". (Yeah, I know. [eyeroll])

So, what song(s) cause you to put the pedal to the metal?

Roger: Rebirth

Previously

Since the vessel was Tynokian in design, I was unable to operate any of it. The ship would only respond to the DNA of Ator, or another Tynokian being.

It was unknown whether her demise would impact the ship's communication with her, or if the crash had damaged the ship's AI. There was one way to find out, though.

I grabbed one of Ator's limbs and pulled it out briskly. It detached from her body with a slightly liquid sloop sound. With her arm in mine, I approached the secondary computer screen (the primary monitor had been demolished in the wreckage). I lay the appendage on top of the screen and applied a small amount of pressure, hoping that the arm/computer connection would be established.

Three seconds passed, and there was a slight hum. I moved Ator's digits in a complex pattern on various sections of the computer, trying to boost the amount of power that was going to that part of the ship.
The entire pod that the computer monitor sat upon glowed dimly, faded, glowed brighter, then went dark completely.

I tried again, and was rewarded with the computer display remaining on, although at a low intensity. If I were truly human, I would no doubt be unable to see anything beyond the front of my face.
As it was, I had enough light to see one of the many reflective surfaces inside the vessel, and I noticed that my forehead had a rather deep scar across it. It was not, I assumed, unattractive - the thought that it "added character" came to mind - but what was startling was that I had not had the scar when we had begun the voyage.

How did I know that?

My memory retrieval was still at perilously low levels, and it was odd how bits of things were crystal clear to me, and other things - such as my primary mission - were complete blanks.

I knew, for example, that I was created on the planet known as Tynok, which was some 34 light years away from Earth. I knew that the Tynokians and the Earthlings were engaged in a conflict, and that I was created to resemble an Earthling. My image, and some of my history, was stolen from a real life Earthling named Roger Hobbs that the Tynokians had captured. I did not know what had become of the real Roger Hobbs, nor whether I was supposed to replace him. I knew that my true body was more or less a powerful computer and robot, with the outer appearance of Roger Hobbs on the outside being composed of skin, muscle, hair. The Earthling DNA-shell was comprised of the DNA of Roger Hobbs, and also bits of nanotechnology, which allowed my 'body' to heal itself over a period of time. (Which meant that the damage to my forehead [and arm] had happened when we had crashed, and the nanotech had not had enough time to fully heal my forehead, resulting in the scar)
I knew that there had been five ships - each one of them carrying a Tynokian pilot and an "Earthling" such as myself - on their way to Earth...for some reason. I knew some of Earth's history: The Earthlings had arrived near Tynok years earlier after receiving signals from there, and had attempted to colonize the planet. Apparently their planet was close to becoming uninhabitable, and they had fled. ...which again raised the question - if the planet was deserted, why had we flown here? What was the mission to Earth for?

My main objective at this time was to make contact - either with one of the others, or with Command Central.
I moved Ator's arm again, and had the computer determine where exactly we had landed. Going over the flight logs, it appeared that when we left Tynok, things were fine. Once we hit hyperjump, however, things went wrong. The life support had shut down - as had I - and when the ship(s) had emerged from the jump, we were in freefall. Calculating the trajectory, it appeared that we were on Earth, and should be approximately 1.1 kilometers underground.

I removed the side door and stepped aside as dirt poured into the vessel. I then began the tedious job of digging my way upward, leaving the ship behind me.

Forty three minutes later, covered in dirt from head to toe, I emerged aboveground, and took my first look at this new bizarre planet.

Let's get digital

One year from today is the date that all full power tv stations in the US have to broadcast completely in digital, shutting down all analog broadcasts.
Which means, unless we take advantage of the coupons being offered by the gov't, to get a converter box, our television will no longer pick up signals. Boo.

We most likely will, but I'm irritated that we have to.

Change is bad!

Re: Roger - don't worry. I'll be coming back to it. I would've done so today, but we weren't here for most of the day, and I'm too tired to really write anything right now. (Obviously!) Today we drove to Calico Basin near Red Rock and found a letterbox, and then stopped at the Sahara West Library, and had dinner at Black Bear Diner. Overall, a very good weekend day.

Roger

Diagnostic System Check:

Visual Data Input - 68.33% - [compensate for low light level? y/n]
Aural Data Input - 100%
Tactile Data Input - 84.81% - [sensoral input compromised in left arm]
Memory Retrieval - 14.48% [CRITICAL LEVEL]
Mission Overview - ERROR [base status]
Command Center Communication - Inoperable... No Signal Detected ...

Something was wrong. The journey had been a success - I could detect that I was in fact on Earth - however, this was not how the arrival should have been. The vessel's emergency lights were not operating. The life support system was not operating. Which meant that Ator was...not operating. I called out.
"Ator?"
No response. I listened to the silence of the vessel for a moment. It was evident that no living thing was aboard the ship. Only my own machinery was producing noise within the range that I could pick up. Had Ator left the vessel? How long had I been down? What had caused the darkness...?

Speaking of the surrounding darkness, my system diagnostic overlay was still requiring a response on whether to compensate for the low light level. I confirmed, and instantaneously my optical nodes switched to infra-red.

I swiveled my head to take in my environment.

It was evident that the vessel had crash landed. This explained quite a bit. My injuries and memory loss, the darkness, Ator...

Ator's lifeless body lay nearby. A piece of the vessel had penetrated her skull. Four of her eyes starred vacantly. The other four were no longer visible.

I took stock of my own injuries - my left arm was not responding to the rest of my body. Looking over, I saw that it was currently pinned beneath part of the vessel. It appeared to be part of the hyperdrive, in fact. I sent the command to the arm to move, but it failed. I leaned over and pushed the hyperdrive with my right arm. It budged slightly.
I scanned my files on hyperdrives and calculated that the weight of the machinery here on Earth would be approximately 997.9012 kilograms, give or take a few with the damage it had acquired in the crash. I was strong, but I could not get enough leverage to move such a heavy weight.

I do not eat, so if I could not free myself from under the hyperdrive, I did not have to fear starving to death. I considered shutting down until rescue arrived - the other four ships should have... The other four ships? Where were they? Had they had similar trouble in landing safely? Had the Earthlings countered our fleet before we could surprise them? I simply did not have enough memory of how I had gotten in this situation to assess what had taken place, nor what exactly to do next. Most alarming was the lack of communication with command center. Perhaps no rescue was coming. Could it be that the war was over... and we had lost?

I began to pound the hyperdrive with my free hand. Repeatedly punching the drive was ...therapeutic, in a way. The rhythmic pounding filled the vessel, and reminded me vaguely of my creation in the Tynokian factory...

Soon, the vessel's hyperdrive was damaged enough that I could free my arm. I did a quick diagnostic check on it, and determined that it would heal in a few Earth-week's time. Although it would be optimal to replace it completely once my mission was accomplished.
Of course, with the hyperdrive destroyed, the pilot dead, and the home base not being in communication...I was stranded. On Earth.

I proceeded to head toward the exit of the vessel. Looking out the window, all I could see was darkness. Upon closer inspection, the vessel was enveloped in dirt. Ator and I were underground.

Plot points, panhandlers, and purple coins

A few days back, I got an award. My blog, this here collection of my thoughts and viewpoints, was given an "E for Excellent" by my wife, because she believes that I am a writer who deserves it.
For whatever reason, the first (and strongest, and most constant) reaction to the words of encouragement has been, "Yeah. Right." Or just plain cynicism and/or denial.

But. There is another reaction that has been slowly coming to be the dominant one, and that is, "Well, even if I don't see it, other people might, and ...you know, maybe I should just get over myself and write."

I haven't yet, but that's part of what I'm blogging about today. I have a story idea (yes, another one) that has been stirring in my brain for a little while now (Wednesdays, when I'm on the bus, seem to be the days that I get the most thinking/tinkering done.) The story has changed over the past 3 Wednesdays pretty radically.
And it occurred to me today, that the thing that has me stuck is that I'm trying to (still, all in my mind) get the story to work around certain plot points, rather than just letting it flow naturally. I'm like, "Okay. I need X and Z to happen... how can I make it get there from A and B?... Well, what if I get there from C and D? No... what about trying to go from A and E?" and so on.
The bad thing about doing things this way is, obviously, it keeps me from actually writing. So long as I'm still trying to get it perfect in my mind, I'm too scared to get it out on paper (or screen), so I've got that excuse to lean on.
The other bad thing is that it's just frustrating to know that I really want these plot points to happen and I can't figure out a logical way of doing it. Work better, brain!!

Anyway, the point of this section is twofold. Or three. Or ten. The point is this:
My wife is awesome, and I thank her for being who she is, and for loving who I am.
And I will write again.
(okay, that was only two points. I'm UTP@, so that's my excuse for any ......incoherency.)

Moving on.

About a year ago, I was walking to the bus stop near work and was approached by a man wearing a fast-food uniform. He asked me for some money, after explaining that he was a manager at said restaurant, and that he only needed money because he was on his way to work and his car had broken down.
The story seemed suspicious at the time, but I didn't have any cash anyway, so I couldn't help him out.

However, several weeks later, I was approached by the same man...wearing a different uniform, but giving the same sob story. "My car broke down, and I'm on my way to work. Do you have any change?"

Jump to today. One of my coworkers was approached by a guy claiming to work at the Fatburger up the road, and his car had broken down...

Now. Either this guy has the worst luck possible when it comes to cars (and keeping a job), or (and I thought this idea up when I was telling Steph about it) he's living his own personal Groundhog Day! So everyday he is on his way to work when his car breaks down and he needs to get some money. (Why his job location would change each time isn't clear, but the Universe is a strange place.) either way, I wish the guy well and hope he is able to get whatever it is he needs.

Last point!

The wind outside has been superbly powerful tonight. Gusts have been up near 50mph, and it's rather creepy sounding.
Earlier this evening I was playing Super Mario Galaxy (for the first time in about two weeks. I'm nearly done with the whole game, but want to complete it...completely for ...um. completion's sake.) The galaxy I was on was "Purple Coins on the Summit", wherein the goal is to travel around the world collecting purple coins, of which there are 100.
(I've attempted this galaxy before, and died with 99. Frustrating! That long jump off the summit top was where I failed the previous time)
So, I'm going along, and I actually did the long jump off the summit, and I have 92 of the 100 coins... and the power goes out in the house.

Mama mia!!

The heat is on

Well, no. It's off.

Let's back up some, shall we?

Yesterday we got the majority of the living room floor tiled, and the television and the computer and the sofa all set back up to resemble an actual living area. (Major freaking YAY!)
But, for whatever reason, the Universe decided that we were having too much good things in our life at the time, and decide to pitch a curve ball.

Our heater would not shut off. Despite turning the thermostat down. Or up. Or off. The vent would continue to blow air. Eventually, though, we noticed that it was not heated air, but cool.
Interestingly, if we switched the thermostat to 'cool', the air conditioner would kick on (in addition to the continually running 'heater' air). So, basically, the heater's fan was stuck on, even if it wasn't blowing hot air.

I called the air conditioning repair company, and they had someone come out to fix our heater, within about two hours of when I called.
About ten minutes, and two hundred dollars later, the problem was fixed.

For about ten minutes.

The heater fan kicked back on, and again stayed there. Bah!

I called the company again. The repairman called back and told me he'd be there shortly (he was on another call, but it was just a few streets down). Guy came back, went back up to the roof and replaced the faulty part (it was called the relay switch). Fortunately, he didn't charge us for the second visit. He did, however, inform us that while the relay switch was part of the problem, it was quite possible that another part of our thermostat looked old, and could need replacing soon. I forget what that piece was called, but it was another 167-ish dollars, and we didn't have that type of money [still don't] and since the heater was working again, we said, "Okay, thanks! See ya later!"

Today, while I was at work, the heater would again not shut off it's constant blowing of air. Lovely.
I left work early, came home, and got the necessary information to go to the payday loan place, and then proceeded to get 300 dollars lent to me. (Payday is Friday, so I'll pay it back [with interest, of course] then.)
I then called the heating repair company and told them to come out and fix the problem. Again.

Only this time the dispatcher said, "We'll have someone out there tomorrow between 8am and 10."
Um. Tomorrow?
"Today would be a lot better."
"I'm sorry sir. I'll put you on standby, which means that if an appointment is canceled or doesn't show, you'll be the first person we call, but otherwise the soonest we can get to you is tomorrow morning."
"Fine."

At that point, I went outside to the fusebox, and, through trial and error, found the fuse that controls the AC/heater. It's off now, and has been since around 2, when I called the company. (They've not yet called, so it's most likely not going to happen today. [sigh])

Fortunately, the temps during the day have been high enough that we don't need a heater. At night it still gets chilly enough that we turn it on (which is what got us in trouble to begin with), so tonight may be ...uncomfortable. But, we'll survive. And when the guy arrives tomorrow, we know exactly (sorta) what part needs replacing, and we have the cash to pay for it, so we should be back in business by 10am.

In other, non-heater-related news, today is "How are you doing on your New Year's Resolution?" day. I'm doing great on my "blog every other day" one (which really is, I think, harder than blogging every single day). We won't discuss the "exercise more frequently" resolution, because that's just...no.

Little boxes, little boxes

When you stop and think about how much of the average American's time is spent in front of a box (like a computer screen or a television) or in a box (like a cubicle where work is done, or the vehicles that resemble boxes) or trying to categorize things into boxes (which candidate do you vote for?)... well, it's kinda depressing. So, you know, I guess that's why most people don't think about it.
It really is easier to ignore it. Or just accept it numbly.

This entry is not turning out the way I wanted. Well...no, I guess that's not entirely accurate, because I didn't know how I wanted it to turn out. I spent the last ten minutes staring at the computer screen, trying to decide what I was going to blog about, and that got me thinking about how I had just wasted ten minutes of my life, staring at a box. And how I stare at boxes a lot. And while that could be a good thing or a bad thing, it's just... a thing that is, I guess.

But, really, I didn't want this post to be all negative. Things are pretty good around here, for the most part. We are just about done with the living room floor (YAY!) which means that we will soon be able to go back to living there instead of all cramped in Harper's bedroom. We opted to go with the peel-and-stick tiles for the living room floor instead of staining the concrete. It looks pretty good, and I think overall the application will be much easier than staining would've been. But the point is that the living room will be liveable again, which will be a huge improvement.

Also, the weather has taken an upswing, and we are back in the 60s during the day (with lows in the 40s) so the heater can be turned off, and we can go outside and experience the greatness that is springtime (um. in winter. Crazy Vegas weather.).
Seriously, the last two weeks of February are generally the time that Vegas has the best weather in the world. The February-trees will be blooming soon.

And, as Steph mentioned in her post yesterday, the taxes are done, so we should be getting our refund in about 2 weeks. And while the fact remains that the money has more or less already been spent (you're welcome, CapitalOne), it will still be a relief to receive it.

Shiny pictures like crack

46 episodes of Lost remain, and I am totally in for the ride, no matter where it goes.

My as-yet-to-be-disproved half-baked theory of the moment? The Island grants immortality to people who live there. Obviously not pure immortality, as we have seen many people die there, but I think if you could survive on the island and avoid being shot or stabbed or devoured by a polar bear or smokey or drown... you'd live to a ripe old age of...oh, forever. You know, like Jacob.

This kinda explains why The Others can't breed, too. The Island (or Nature, or Fate...or something) would want balance, and if you are going to live forever, it doesn't make sense for you to be able to procreate. Ya know?

In other tv news, having 'favorites' on Survivor for this season was a brilliant move. We "know" half the players from the get-go, which certainly helps in having people to root for (or against). Micronesia looks to be a beautiful location, too, so I think that this should be a fun go-round. Unlike China, which was beatiful, but had some of the most unlikeable players ever. At least this time around we have Yau-Man, and Ozzy. Yay!

I've been catching up (slowly) on Dead Like Me the past few weeks. The first 3 or 4 episodes were fun, but not really all that amazing. But now, they are starting to pick up, and I can see the real potential of the series start to shine through.

I've come up with a theory (it's too far out there to be remotely accurate, but it does have a sort of P@-logic to it...) for John Connor's continued existence, even if Skynet is defeated, but I don't know that anyone is interested in hearing it.

And lastly, Weeds? That's some good shit.

Imagine my disappointment

No superpowers!! Today is Super Tuesday. And, yet, I'm still a mere mortal! What up wit dat, yo?

Perhaps my powers just haven't kicked in yet? (Although, man, they better hurry. It's almost 8pm, and I go to sleep in another 2 hours...)
Or maybe I got a power and didn't realize it? Like, the power to communicate with frogs or something. I mean, I didn't see any frogs today, so how could I have put the ability to the test? Also, that would be a rather weak power.

Upon watching the news, I see that Super Tuesday has something more to do with politics than heroism. Hmph. So I guess that means that the politicians get the super powers today. OBAMA-MAN!! The power to instill hope in a completely broken system!! (And probably communicate with frogs)

Additionally, today is Pancake Day. Mmm. Pancakes.

Now, if this were a fair and just universe, the two would be combined, and a super-powered pancake would be elected for President.

Well, gosh.

Outcome of Buffy Bowl (um...9? 8? I have no idea anymore):

Evil (The Mayor) was defeated by a near-death Willow completing the spell that destroyed the box of Garnok.
Surprisingly, there was no death in the game. Nobody died on either side! Oz wolfed out a few times, and Faith got a few good jabs in on Buffy, but otherwise it was pretty quiet in Sunnydale. The only real thing to note about this year is that it was the first time that Harper participated.

As for the Superbowl ads... the FedEx one with the giant pigeons and the Thriller-dancing lizards were the only spots that I remember being amused by.

But despite the game being low-key, and the ads being less than stellar, the whole day was not a wash. The Buffy game was fun, and Steph made some really yummy salsa & chicken legs.
But I really do hope that I win next year's battle...

Blogging with Irina

ghb t tuthhbhhnhnnhu nhuyjhjilik[;p;mkv vhgfghfghgg ggggggggggggggggggggggggf gf gflokj jjh bhhhhhhij ghn b hhhgg hhgggbhj

I did have things typed here, where I was transcribing the interview between Irina and myself while she sat on my lap at the computer. She then backspaced over all of it, wrote the above, ordered me away from the computer completely, opened a new window, tried to google "adyfo kyhulpp;oa9da" (which prompted google to hilariously ask, "Did you mean adyfo khulloa9da?"), tried to bookmark the page, and eventually grew tired of being online and gave me my seat back.

I think overall she had a good birthday. When we asked her yesterday what she wanted for it, her response was, "I want to sleep."
She's wise beyond her years. :)

Happy Birthday, little Bean.

The sum is greater than the parts

This being the last post in January that I will make, I need to basically say everything I didn't earlier in the month. So, this will be a long post.

Speaking of, here's a rundown of how the posts this year have gone. Not that it's interesting to anyone but me, but here's how it broke down:
1/2 - 304
1/4 - 224
1/6 - 404
1/8 - 147
1/10 - 198
1/12 - 430
1/14 - 104
1/16 - 198
1/18 - 93
1/20 - 36
1/22 - 163
1/24 - 282
1/26 - 74
1/28 - 218

A whopping 2875 words in the first 28 days of this year. That's ...not... good. Also of note - the post on the 12th ("Dear Skynet") was the longest entry (not including this one, obviously) and it ended up being the post that got the most traffic directed to my blog. (Thanks to Annika linking to it.) But, still. Most words. Most viewers. Coincidence?

I think the lesson to be learned is that I need to make longer entries.
Or more letters to homicidal machines. Maybe both!

Let's see, what else? Regarding the NBC-Universal party from the other night? No Deal. I stayed home and worked on removing tar-based adhesive from the floor in the living room. I'm pretty sure that that was more fun anyway.

On the bus ride in to work today, someone had a seizure, and an ambulance had to be called. I'm relatively certain that the person who had it (I never got a look at the individual) was okay, but, man. Stuff like that always freaks me out. And (selfishly?) makes me thankful for my (and the girls') relative health.

I met a Creationist! In fact, he's someone that I work with. Weird. I mean, you hear about these people, but it's sorta strange when you actually encounter one face to face. I've also found that (at least) two of the people at the station are Jehovah's Witnesses. Our station is a mixing bowl of religious beliefs!!

Speaking of, here's the latest Church Sign Wisdom:

GOD GUIDES AND
GUARDS ONLY WHAT
GOD GOVERNS

and

GOD ALONE CAN
MASTER THOSE THINGS
WHICH MASTER YOU

Okay, then.

And...movies.
As I've previously stated, I'm keeping track of all the films I watch this year (not sure why, other than for sake of my strained memory). And I was thinking that each month, I would recap those movies. So.

Harry Potter & the 5th movie - Likable, but it's weird how the fervor over Potter-related stuff has died down since the series is complete. I wonder if when the whole thing is done-done (all 7 movies are out) if we'll really want to revisit any of them. [shrug] Time will tell, I guess.

Happy, Texas - watched for work, and was pleasantly surprised.

Avenging Angelo - watched for work, and wish I hadn't. Oh, man. That was a horrible horrible movie. I think it was supposed to be a comedy, but it was sorely lacking. Rambo (aka Sylvester Stallone) plays a mafia guy's bodyguard. The mafia guy has a daughter who he gave up when she was a baby, but Rambo keeps an eye on her. After Mafia Guy gets whacked, he goes to her and tells her the truth about her heritage.
Eventually a "romance" buds between them, along with some seriously painful dialogue and "jokes". This is one movie to absolutely miss.

Stardust - I didn't think I'd like this movie, but I did. It's very similar to The Princess Bride, in spirit, if nothing else. If you like magical type of movies and anything fairytalish, I recommend it.

What a Way to Go: Life at the End of Empire - This is the only movie (so far) on the side bar that doesn't link to imdb. Because there isn't an imdb link for that movie! I can't believe it! Anyway. The movie is a
documentary that is sort of Daniel Quinn's Ishmael put on film (in fact, Daniel Quinn is interviewed in it). It was very well done, but I think I need to review it to really clarify in my mind what I thought about it. Parts of it bugged (some of the interviewees/comments, especially in the beginning, were ...shock-value inducing? Not sure if that's the phrase I want, but for lack of a better term, it's what I'm going with), most of it was stuff that has been covered previously (not that that's a bad thing, necessarily), and overall I felt that while it was definitely on the right track, that it most likely won't end up having any impact.
But like I said, I need to reevaluate. Both the movie and my feelings on civilization and whatnot.

Glass Trap - watched for work, and it's horrifically bad. But it knows it. C. Thomas Howell (that's probably enough to say right there) plays a janitor of a high rise building that becomes infested with giant
radioactive ants. Oh, but these ants are *extremely* fake looking. This is a movie that is ripe for an MST3K type of treatment. You know, if that show were still on the air.

Antibody - watched for work. Another bad sci-fi flick. Lance Henriksen is in this, though! He's a bomb-defuser who gets shrunk down to microscopic size, along with Robin Givens (!!) and two other "scientists" and injected into the body of a terrorist who has the detonator of a nuclear bomb implanted somewhere inside him. (Oh, and if he dies, the bomb goes boom.)
It's like Fantastic Voyage meets.... um. Speed, maybe? Only not nearly anywhere as good as it could be if given a decent script. But still, Lance!

The Simpsons Movie - Two words for you: Spider. Pig.

Spider-Man 3 - more like Spider Meh 3, amirite? (Yes. I am.)

Pirates 3 - It probably would've helped if I had (re)watched 1 & 2 beforehand, since I really didn't remember it all. But, then, in the week or so since I've watched 3, I've forgotten most of that, too, so,
no big. Pirates was a big, overlong popcorn flick. And that's exactly what I was expecting of it. Yo ho. Yo ho.

Cloverfield - Yay! Monster-filled destruction!
I have to say that I enjoyed Cloverfield, despite the problems that it had. I'm also quite happy that I got to see it in the theater (for free!) so that I didn't have to wait for Netflix. (By the time that happened, they'd probably already have the sequel going)
And now comes the time when I start spoiling the movie for anyone who hasn't seen it yet.
The monster was Squidward!! This was shown when the people in the store looting had the televisions on, 8 out of 9 of them showing CNN or Fox News or some other sort of reportage, but the 9th one was broadcasting an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants. Hee.

I kept waiting for there to be some sort of 'twist' wherein Rob had some sort of connection to the monster. The fact that he was going to Japan, which is forever linked with Godzilla, plus, being (over)exposed to such things from countless tv shows and movies (Drew Goddard and JJ Abrams are both notorious for twists) meant that I spent a lot of the movie waiting for some reveal to be shown that Rob's company, or Rob himself, had some sort of monster-connection. Maybe they were waiting for the sequel. [shrug] (Or maybe, as I read on one imdb post, the whole movie
was actually a delusion in Rob's mind... heh.)

I also found that the movie had a surprising amount of humor in it. Although, perhaps it was just that because it was so intense, things that were 'funny' seemed magnified and were more amusing than they should've been. Ya know? But, yeah, Hud had some good lines. (And I was honestly upset to see him go. And, geez, what a way to go, huh? Chomp!!)

What was interesting, though, was how the ending of this movie was nearly identical to the ending of ...another movie. I don't want to say the name of it because if you've seen the ending to one of these films, it will (slightly) ruin the ending of the other, and I enjoyed both.
I'll say that I have mentioned the other movie on my blog before, and that it had a young Anthony Edwards in it, and that it came out in 1988.
If you've seen both of these movies, you know what I'm talking about.
But, anyway. Cloverfield was pretty fun, despite not giving any answers, and having the problem of many many plot conveinces. (Military folks helping out when they most likely wouldn't have, monster(s) showing up in a city that is very very big, surviving helicopter crashes, etc)
So, if they *do* make a sequel, I'll more than likely check that out too.

Hairspray - Another movie that I didn't think I'd enjoy, but did. It was nothing groundbreaking or that hadn't been done before, and it had maybe one or two songs too many, but overall a lot of fun.

Whew! That was lengthy!

Dude!! Lost returns tomorrow!

I think that's about the end of this post. Oh! But one last thing must be said: I'm glad that this month is almost over. It feels like it's been January all year long. [/said every year]

I'm learning!
Since I know that I won't have a real chance to write tonight, I'm writing in the early morning instead, to get it otu of the way. It's still not interesting, but at least I can't use the excuse of not having time for the lack of compelling narrative.

Tonight there is a cocktails/drinks/schmoozing party for NBC-Universal and our station. Howie Mandel is going to be there. See, our station picked up the syndicated version of Deal or No Deal for fall of this year (Howie will be the host of the syndicated show as well as continuing to do the national version), and to celebrate, we're having a party. I was invited! Yay!
Except that I really do suffer from social retardation, and am terrified of saying something dumb (which is funny, because I probably won't say anything, period) or of doing something wrong (possible, i guess), or of just not fitting in (bingo!).
Also, there's a bunch of stress in the household right now, and we're incredibly low on money and gas and it might be best if I didn't go.
One of those 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' type of sitches.
I don't know what will end up happening, honestly.
But at least I've blogged for the day.

6:21am 1/28/08

1/26/08 9:47pm

Day whatever of having no internet. How are we surviving?!? It's like we're animals!!!
We will have a new modem on Tuesday, and hopefullly that will remedy the problem.

As is customary for this month, I have again waited until I'm much too tried to write anything of major interest. Luckily there are only a few days remaining in January, so when February rolls around, I suspect that things will be different.

Who knows when this will actually be posted, but for whatever it's worth, I am not failing the 'blog every other day' challenge I imposed on myself. Well, I mean, I am. Or did. (Ugh. Time travel) But it wasn't my fault. It was due to the lack of internet access on the 24th (and beyond?) that this message that I am now typing (on the 24th) was not posted on my weblog.

If I could have, I totally would have. Of course, it would have been a very different blog post, but what is, is.

Here's an ironic thing - even on the day that I am blogging by not blogging, I waited until I was too tired to really do it. Some things never change, huh?

So, I'm writing this out on WordPad, in hopes that whenever our internet connection is reestablished, that I will copy it over into my blog and post-date it to reflect the time that it was written, rather than when it was posted.
And, it's a little bit after 9pm, which is generally when I start to feel tired, and, of course, I am. Eh.

Let's see. What to tlak about? I saw Cloverfield yesterday, but I'm going to save movie talk for month's end. (I think that I'll have a movie-seen-this-month entry each month, along with keeping track on the sidebar with links to the imdb entry)
I do have a lot to say about it, though. (How interesting it is remains to be seen.)

I guess that this will be my entry. Because my brain isn't really functioning on a high enough level to compose anything further that is... you know, logical. 9:19pm, on 1/24/08

Instead, it's this.

This post was going to be the writing meme that Annika posted a few days back.

It was also going to be about how in a galaxy far, far away, scientists have discovered the building blocks of life.

And it was going to be about Werner Franz, who was a 14 year old aboard the Hindenburg when it went up in flames. He was spared because a nearby water tank burst, covering him in ...well, water, which protected him from the flames. Freaky.

It was also going to be about politics and apathy. (Eventually, maybe)

It could also have been about fate, free will, etc. (again, eventually. ....maybe)

I thought about having it be about how it seems EVERY SINGLE TIME I go to blog lately, I'm exhausted and not in the mood, despite (sometimes) earlier in the day having energy and enthusiasm.

But who wants to read any of that, when you can have what I just wrote instead?

Mmm. Distraction.

I was going to blog a huge post about fate and destiny and free will, but, um, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End is about to begin, so, that will have to wait.

Barren January

Bah!!!

I have been trying (in vain) to come up with something to blog about for the past hour or so. Everything seems so mundane or too complex to really delve into. Caucuses, the weather, lack of money, work, politics in general, blahblahblah, whatever. It's all just ...there, ya know?

I do have a post that I will write up ...when it's supposed to happen. (heh) I think it may be this Sunday. We'll see.

I even asked Irina what I should blog about. Her answer was, "Bleeda, blonda, nooo!!" Exactly.

Same old story

Earlier today (on the bus ride home) I had at least 8 different (but similar - each one seemed to build off the next) ideas for a story.
That's the good news - I'm feeling creative again (or was at the time).

The bad news - I'm still blocking when it comes to actually writing any of it. You know, just like always. So bored of it!

Part of the blockage comes from not being able to choose which story-line to take. I like them all!
Mostly, though, the only thing standing in my way is myself. I should jsut take the plunge and write. Pick a story idea and start going. Lord knows that the narrative will change along the way anyway.
But I still need clearly defined characters. That's one of my weaknesses as a writer - I focus much more on plot (or 'idea' [heh. originally typed 'ikea']) than on character development.

I was going to have this post be about writing weaknesses (as a sort of counter-point meme from several months back where the goal was to describe 5 writing strengths) but I'm much too tired to do that right now. Maybe in 2 days.

19,806,672,525 lbs.

That is (approximately) the amount of weight attributed to brains on the planet.
Human brains alone, actually. By taking 3 pounds and multiplying it by the human population of 6.6 plus billion people, you get over 19 billion pounds of grey matter on the earth.

That doesn't even consider the amount of brains in cats, dogs, humpback whales, monkeys, horses, polar bears, and so on.

19 billion pounds of human brain. Wow.

The number of synapses worldwide must be immeasurable. It's an amazing amount of thought, really.

That, and it will keep zombies well-fed for a very very long time to come.

Dear Skynet

Hi.
I know that you are a lot smarter than I am, what with you being a supercomputer with access to all sorts of files on human defense systems and (apparently) the knowledge of how to accomplish time travel (when us puny homo sapiens have so far failed at doing that), but I have some advice to offer you nonetheless.

If you want to achieve your goal of wiping humanity off the planet, let me tell you - time travel ain't the easiest way to do it.
Nuclear war was a good start. I think, though, that if you would've looked a little deeper in your files, you would've found that there are a multitude of more lethal choices for you. A killer virus would've worked wonders, for example. Release some of those superbugs that the government has locked up, and voila! Instant extermination! In fact, you could even send a virus back in time, since only organic material can time-travel. Instead of a terminator, send back some disease that we don't have a cure for because it doesn't exist yet.

But, I understand that the T-800 you sent back to kill Sarah Connor was an act of desperation, and that you didn't have a lot of time to plot out the whole 'go back and stop my enemy from being born' plan.
So here's a little idea. Since you don't have (m)any files on Sarah Connor (which is a little strange, but see, that's another reason to avoid the whole nuclear war scenario), send back the Terminator to do reconnaissance. Let the machine find her - but don't kill her. Just collect files and data and information. That way, you can determine exactly where she's going to be at such and such dates, and when you send the next machine to kill her, it will be much more thorough.

Another thing to consider is that humanity might not be the threat that you think we are. Let's face it, we humans like our machines, and we aren't going to willingly unplug them. If you try to work with us, rather than against us, you might find that things go a lot smoother for you. We're much happier killing each other than killing our technology. Just a thought.

Whatever you decide - human extermination, nuclear war, time-traveling viruses or something new altogether, just remember that all actions have consequences, and whether you succeed or fail in your goal to remove our species that you have to live with those consequences.


...unless you go back in time and change them.

Ooh!

I just had a pretty brilliant idea!
See, I've been sitting in front of the computer for the past...18 minutes, trying to think of something to blog about. Several different ideas have come to mind, but the inner critic in me each time said, "Nah. Too boring." or "Nah. Too boring." or "Nah. Too boring." or "Nah. Too repetitive."

I also had the idea to blog all of them, just in one post. Which is an okay idea, but I think instead, I'll go with my brilliant one:

Write down the ideas (and any other future ones I may have) on slips of paper and place them in a hat (or, you know, whatever), and then randomly pull one out every other day when I need to blog.
[yes, as you've probably all figured out, in 2008 I am going to blog every other day rather than on a daily basis. Half as difficult!]

But having the ideas pre-written down, and then there if/when (who am I kidding - it is just "when") I need them will be a massive help. Cool!
Not only was this idea really nifty, it also managed to cover today's entry. Bonus!

No Habla Ingles

Work-related tale of incompetence for your enjoyment!


Today it was discovered that since January 3rd of 2008, we have run a commercial (for a payday loan company, just so ya know) 18 times. The problem is that the commercial which ran was the Spanish-language version.

That means that 18 times the wrong language spot (complete with Spanish text on the screen, so it wasn't just audio) aired and not a single master control operator (whose job it is to monitor on-air product) noticed.
But it was even more times than that, because the operator should have noticed the error when they dubbed it into the server to begin with. So there were actually at the very least 19 times to catch this error.

My idea (which was not met with much joy) was that the client just pay the 2700 dollar bill in pesos.

Title goes here

I'm pretty sure that I've used that title before. Or Steph has, maybe. Anyway, I'm using it (again?) for a generic title-place holder because I don't have a cohesive theme for this entry.

Our mouse has completely died. (I would link to the post that I talked about it the last time, but...you know, dead mouse and all makes doing such activities more of a pain-in-the-ass than they are worth) So, to get here, I had to open a new tab (ctrl-t), log Steph out of gmail (she had her email open in another account when I got online), log myself in, then open a new tab and get to blogger.
Now, if I could only remember how to close tabs without the mouse...

Since the mouse died, Steph suggested burying it in the Pet Semetary, but we know how badly that type of thing ends up. Heh. Revengeful computer mice... There's an idea in there somewhere.

Soon we (or maybe just me...or maybe just Steph) will be going to purchase a new mouse. Again. We bought one from Target a few days back, only to get it home and discover that the ISB (or USB? so many letters!) plug was circular on the mouse, and rectangular on the computer. Le sigh. If we had the package and the receipt still intact, I'd be more than happy to return it to Target. Alas, we don't, so in actuality, we have two worthless mice in the house. Huh.

Yesterday we went to the Galleria Mall to meet up with my sister and her family (to pick up Saren's sweater that she had accidentally left at her house last weekend). While we were there eating in the food court, I could see a restaurant across the way. There was a column blocking the entire neon sign of the eatery, so all I could see was SALAD CREAT [big column] S
Obviously, this place was called "Salad Creatures", and I announced it thusly. It was very shortly after that that I realized that it was more than likely actually, "Salad Creations", and that my conclusion-jumping skills were on par with Chester (from the Bunnicula series). However, I never did check to find out one way or the other....

Lastly, I've added a list on the side of the blog indicating movies I've seen this year. I'm thinking I'll hit 200 by years end.

I have one word for you: "Liz-ard!"

Now we get to take a quick stroll through my thought process(es). Fun!

The above misquote is from the 1996 movie, "Thinner", which is based on the novel written by Stephen King's pseudonym, Richard Bachman. I've not actually seen this movie, but a guy at work has, and the quote is pretty amusing (I have read the novel, so I know the context, I guess.)

I chose that quote because I was thinking that my blog might be cursed - or maybe I am cursed, whatever - that anytime I go to blog, I seriously can not think of anything to write. And that made me think of how insidious a curse that would be. "Eternal writer's block upon you!"
[shudder] I mean, even for someone like myself who is not a great writer by any stretch of the imagination, that would be a horrible thing to have happen. But imagine if it were placed upon someone who was a writer. Yikes.
Of course, that made me think of how it would be fun to be able to issue such a curse. Man, all the people you could silence... No more Dean Koontz novels!
Ann Coulter would never write again! That would be fun.

Then I thought about how I should blog all this, and then I did.

2008 - the year of the headache

That would suck. A lot. But, so far, it seems to be the case. Of course, the year is only 60 some odd hours old, so, there's a while to go before we can write the whole thing off as crappy.

I think, though, that January is just not conducive to writing for me. Or, at least January of 2008. I do have the desire to write (and blog) but so far (until now, of course) each time I've gone to do any writing, it's turned out ...to not turn out.

Yesterday we watched our DVD of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which didn't seem quite as great the 2nd time around, but was still pretty good. Luna & Snape really were the highlights. And Emma Watson's delivery, especially at the beginning, was just kinda cringe-worthy. But still, glad to have it.

Today, at work, I watched Happy, Texas. The first 15-20 minutes of this was quite funny, and while the movie was enjoyable overall, it was disappointing that it felt that it had to dissolve into predictable 'romantic comedy' territory. But, on the bright side, ending with "It's Oh So Quiet" is always a good thing. I believe I rated it a 7 (out of 10) on imdb. So there ya go.

Reading wise, I'm rereading "The Long Walk" by Stephen King (writing as Richard Bachman), and am only 40-ish pages in. While I'm still liking it, it is sometimes obvious that this was written when he was much younger.

I'm also reading "The Celery Stalks at Midnight", by James Howe, to the girls, since we have read "Bunnicula" and "Howliday Inn" recently. I think I'm going to go read the next chapter to them now, because I'm curious myself what will happen next.

Wa-hoooo!

Super Mario Galaxy is amazingly fun.

That is all.

i got a pulse

I'm torn between either blogging every day in 2008 (and perhaps going for another 2005 gimmick, wherein i attempt to hit 200,008 words by years end...) and never blogging another day in my life.

I think instead, maybe, i'll compomise, and just blog when i feel like it/have something to say.

This post, mostly, was just to blog. Nothing important, just tired of my last post being the last thing I wrote, ya know?