In Which Perfectly Predictable Variations In The Earth's Orientation Relative To The Sun Confuse Me Immensely

How is it nearly October already? Why is it getting dark so early? What the hell happened to the summer?!

21st Century, Here I Am!

Boo-ya! Operation Giant-Ass TV has now reached stage six! Meaning my big-picture goodness is now operational. Of course, the signal coming in from my cable is still crap. And my house currently looks like DVDs, bits of shelving, and random packing materials have exploded all over it. But these things can be dealt with. After I eat some well-deserved lunch.

Time Was, We'd Just Buy One, Plug It In, Slap On Some Bunny Ears, And Call It Done.

For ages now, I've been moaning that I need a new TV. I don't even care that much about having HD, or whatever, but the clunky old CRT model I currently have in my living room is starting to drive me crazy. It's just way too small by today's standards. I watch movies on DVD, and I feel like I'm having trouble making out half of what's going on when things get all special effect-y. Worse, it's not a widescreen TV, and it's starting to drive me crazy trying to watch The Daily Show when a good chunk of the picture is cut off on either side.

So, I have embarked on steps towards replacing my old, 20th century TV with a new 21st century one. There are, as it turns out, many, many, many steps. To wit:

1. Buy new TV stand, so I have something to put it on, since the old entertainment center does not have enough space for a larger TV. Also buy DVD shelves to replace the ones attached to the old entertainment center.

2. Buy TV!!! And somehow get large TV home in not-large car.

3. Dismantle old entertainment center, which is kind of in bad shape, anyway, and scrap it.

4. Shampoo living room carpet while we're clearing furniture out of there, because dear lord, does it need it.

5. Assemble new TV stand.

6. Set up TV.

7. Assemble DVD shelves and re-shelve all the DVDs.

8. Arrange for digital cable service, because the ancient basic cable I have already looks crappy on my current TV.

So far, I have completed step 2. I think the rest of it is going to have to wait until the weeked. Sigh. I think there should be a rule that things that cost you a crapload of money should not also have to cost you a crapload of hassle and time.

TMI

I am generally feeling somewhat better today, except that my post-nasal drip has become a giant post-nasal river of slime. I know you didn't want to know that, but, frankly, neither did I. You know what they say about misery and company.

Oops

Also, I accidentally just bought a whole bunch of books on the internet. It's not my fault! I'm sick! My resistance is low!

Unhealthy

Waaaah, I am sick. Monday, I had a sore throat all day, which I tried hard to be in denial about. But by the evening, it was joined by stuffiness over and above what my allergies have been hitting me with lately, and yesterday I woke up with a truly impressive amount of sinus pain and that general feeling-like-crap sensation. You know the one. I ended up going home from work after a couple of hours, where I spent the rest of the day on the couch finishing a somewhat disappointing book, watching eight episodes of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (because there's nothing like fictional characters with really big problems to take your mind off your own more trivial ones), and trying semi-successfully to nap. I think I'm feeling a little bit better today, but that may be due to a) not having woken up at three AM after a nightmare and not being able to get back to sleep, which just made yesterday all the more fun, and b) large doses of Sudafed (the good stuff, not that PE crap). Still, when I get up for ten minutes to do laundry or something, my starts body yelling at me to lie back down. I've already cancelled plans I had to do stuff in Albuquerque tomorrow, to give me another day to rest up and recover. Stupid goddamned germs. Why do they always hit me when I have things to do? I just really hope this is only a cold and not another major sinus infection, because the last time I had one of those, it lingered on for nearly a month, and by the time it was over I had mucus coming out of my eyes.

Ms. Productivity!

Boys and girls, today I cleaned the oven. This is something that, up until now, I regarded as a vague, theoretical possibility, something I'd occasionally heard rumors of other people doing, but never thought to attempt myself. That is, not until I accidentally left it on after removing food from it and realized that it was gently emitting charcoal-flavored smoke. Then I figured it was something I'd probably better attempt.

And now I am once again completely drenched in sweat. Why do I never get the impulse to do crap like this in the winter?

And The September Currentlies

Current clothes: Gray sweatpants. Blue t-shirt from Powell's books. White socks.

Current mood: Hot and tired, maybe with the faint beginnings of a headache coming on. I've been doing a lot of vigorous housecleaning today, and have finally reached the point where I've switched out of "clean ALL THE THINGS!" mode and am instead thinking that it would be nice to change out of my sweaty clothes and into my comfy jammies and spend the rest of the day lying on the sofa watching DVDs.

Current music: Not much at the moment. I've been working on getting caught up on podcasts again.

Current annoyance: Aargh, I don't know. Adult responsibilities, I guess. Although I did get to ditch work today (thus making up for my extreme lack of a holiday weekend), so maybe I shouldn't complain too much.

Current thing: I seem to be in this weird state that usually only happens when I move. I just... I don't know. I want everything to be new. I want to get rid of things I no longer want or need, to replace everything that's worn out or no longer suits my needs, to clean and organize all the things that never get cleaned or organized... Which is great, really, as it seems likely to help me get around to all kinds of things I've been putting off. But it's potentially very expensive, especially if it leads me to finally get off my butt and go car shopping, as well as replacing my old CRT TV.

Current desktop picture: Still the same picture as last month.

Current book: The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker. I'm also dipping in and out of the Lost Encyclopedia, not that I expect it to make any more sense of the show.

Current song in head: Nothing at the moment. I think my brain's too tired.

Current DVD in player: Disc one of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. Because apparently I need as many different versions of that crazy-awesome story as possible.

Current refreshment: Mint tea. Mmm, hydration! I think I need that.

Current worry: A line from a Warren Zevon song comes to mind: "I thought of my friends and the troubles they had, to keep me from thinking of mine." That pretty much sums it up for me at the moment.

Current thought: I could accomplish more today. Possibly I should accomplish more today. But comfy jammies and anime it is!

Random Links For September

What If?: xkcd answers your weird hypothetical science questions with physics and humor. This week's question: "What would the world be like if the land masses were spread out the same way as now - only rotated by an angle of 90 degrees?"

Also from xkcd, When Will We Forget?. This just makes me feel horribly, depressingly old. That last item is oddly comforting, though.

Gallery – Curiosity’s triumphant first week on Mars: I meant to link to this sooner. After all Curiosity's been there nearly a month now. But what the heck. It's still cool. In fact, some of these pictures are pretty damned amazing.

What Kind of Book Reader Are You? A Diagnostics Guide and Many More Types of Book Readers: A Diagnostics Addendum: I am the All-the-Timer/Compulsive/Voracious/Anything Goes Reader. Hoo boy, am I.

Science confirms ‘Doctor Who-type world, Gallifrey’: That's right! Scientists have found Gallifrey! Or possibly Magrathea. (Or maybe they just like catching people's attention by drawing science-fictional parallels to things. Have you heard about Naked Darth Vader?)

Let's Play Some Bowling!

In honor of the fact that the new season is about to start, here is some Doctor Who celebrity bowling! And they may be good at traveling through time and space, but, boy, are they terrible at this. Except for Karen Gillan, who clearly has some sort of bizarre telekinetic power, because she should not be doing that well with technique that bad.