Slightly Whiny Currentlies

Current clothes: A towel. I got out some clothes -- denim shorts and a t-shirt with instructions for things you can invent if you happen to travel back in time while wearing it -- but I have not yet bothered putting them on.

Current mood: Eh. Kind of tired and unambitious. A Certain Cat is getting far too good at waking me up in the morning, and this does not contribute to my happiness and well-being.

Current music: More random shuffle stuff. The iPod seems to have been offering up a fairly high percentage of goofy comedy songs lately, which is fine by me. I can use the laughs.

Current annoyance: Graah, where do I start? Well, my swamp cooler definitely seems to be having problems. I suspect that running it is actually making the air in the house hotter now. For reasons I am unclear on, I put off doing anything about it for ages, and when I finally got around to calling someone to come and take a look at it, I discovered that they were closed until sometime next week. Also, my allergies are acting up again. And my internal clock is even more fubared than usual; I spent much of Monday irrationally convinced that it was the middle of the night when it was actually late afternoon. And I'm bummed about not getting the vacation time I wanted next month. Also, I am currently in one of those periods where humanity in general irritates me.

Current thing: Sneezing.

Current desktop picture: A partial lunar eclipse.

Current book: The Age of American Unreason by Susan Jacoby.

Current song in head: As predicted, it's the theme song to The Greatest American Hero.

Current DVD in player: Disc 10 of The Avengers Complete Emma Peel Megaset. I got this on sale for something like $35, and for sheer entertainment-per-dollar value, I think it may be one of the best bargains I've even gotten. There's enough Avengers here for me to happily dip in and out for years.

Current refreshment: Nothing. My mouth still tastes like toothpaste.

Current worry: Eh. Too apathetic to worry.

Current thought: Right. Out from in front of the computer and on with the day. Annnnny minute now. Really.

I Can't Believe It Myself

Apparently "SyFy" is having a Greatest American Hero marathon today. Oh, Siffy. Why do you keep trying to get back on my good side? It always ends in heartbreak eventually.

July The Fourth Be With You

Happy Independence Day to my fellow Americans! I am going out later to get together with friends for gaming, barbecuing, and fireworks. And probably also some Doctor Who, because there's no better way to get back at the British than to steal their cultural products.

If you're celebrating, drive safe, try not to blow yourself up, and take a moment to actually listen to the lyrics of "Born in the USA" before you assume it's an appropriately patriotic tune for a 4th of July soundtrack. (Yes, Local Radio Station, I am looking at you!)

Have a good one!

Even Geekier Than Usual Random Links

Doctor Who: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Daleks (The Peter Jones-y Edit): It is frighteningly easy to imagine that this is a cut scene from the Hitchhiker's TV show.

Four labels from the Bruce Campbell's Soup Company: Mmmm-mmmm, cream of darkness!

How LOST Should Have Ended: LAPIDUS! (Note: contains spoilers for how Lost actually did end. Sort of.)

Futurama's New York City Takes Lego Form: New New York, recreated in loving detail with Lego.

'I Have Never Watched an Episode Of Doctor Who In My Life': The Rap Song: I was going to say that I'm sure there are people around me who feel like this, except that I can't actually think of any. I believe we may have converted them all.

Can Even Coffee Save Me Now?

Aaargh, why am I not still asleep?! This is three days in a row now of ever-growing sleep deficit. At this rate, the person relieving me tomorrow morning is going to find me slumped face-down on my keyboard snoring, no doubt while something horrible is happening that I was supposed to be paying attention to.

I may have to resort to the radical strategy of attempting a nap.

My Ears Are Still Ringing, But It's Totally Worth The Hearing Loss.

Just got back from the Rush concert. Which was great. As advertised, they did the entirety of Moving Pictures. Also lots of other old stuff, some newer stuff, and even some brand new stuff, in keeping with their "Time Machine Tour" theme.

And, man, possibly the only thing more awesome than Neil Peart on drums is Neil Peart on shiny steampunk drums.

Happy Fan

And, winning the Grand Prize in the current "TV-related things that make me happy" contest: this entire season of Doctor Who.

Best. Show. Ever. That is all.

We Meet At Last Again

In other TV-related "things that make me happy" news: new Futurama!

I thought the direct-to-DVD movies, Bender's Big Score excepted, were a bit disappointing, but I did enjoy last night's new episodes. I admit, I'll take my Futurama in any form I can get it, but I do think it works best in a half-hour format. Hooray for the return of Fry and friends!

Various Things

Thing that is good, but also makes me feel kind of stupid: The tax refund check turns out to be legit. Apparently I neglected to claim a big old tax credit on my form. I guess I'm so used to not qualifying for anything that I just skipped right over it. But that totally explains why I appeared to suddenly owe so damned much in taxes. I was convinced there was something wrong with my W4 and I just hadn't yet figured out what.

"Thing that befuddles me" question of the day: Why do they put "about the author" blurbs in the back of autobiographies?

Things I want: All eleven Doctors! Also, a TARDIS.

Thing that is making me happy: Netflix sent me season three of Burn Notice. I can still eat up episodes of Burn Notice like M&Ms. (Although hopefully not like Jordan almonds.)

Hopeful thing: I smell rain! Sweet, cooling rain! *gazes hopefully up at the skies*

The Noblest Romana Of Them All

Romana
Take Which Doctor Who companion are you? (girls) today!
Created with Rum and Monkey's Personality Test Generator.

You're Romana!

Silly Doctor. It's adorable, really, how hard he tries. And he is pretty brilliant, you'll give him that. But he always seems to overlook the obvious--including the fact that he's not the only Gallifreyan onboard, thank you very much. You are always calm and collected, and more often than not wonderfully witty, in the face of adversity. The Doctor knows he can count on you, even when you infuriate him!

OK, I honestly have no idea how I got that result. But it's cheering me up some.

I Still Want To Do This Week Over.

The dentist visit was moderately horrible in a variety of ways that I have neither the energy nor the desire to reiterate in detail. But the tooth now has a sort of temporary crown. All hail King Tooth!

Open Up And Say "Aaaargh!"

So, last night I was eating some Jordan almonds. You know, the kind with the candy coating. They were exceedingly nummy, and I was crunching happily away on them, when something vaguely funny-feeling happened in my mouth, and suddenly the crunchy texture changed slightly. Upon further investigation, and much to my dismay, this turned out to be because I was now eating part of a tooth. Seriously, the corner of one of my molars is just gone. I appear to have swallowed it. Stupid goddamned almonds.

The good news is, the tooth doesn't actually hurt. So yay for a lack of exposed nerves. But, man, is it making me nervous. There's a filling in there, which I believe I can now see from the side. (It's the same color as the tooth, though, so it's hard to be sure.) It's a little disconcerting.

So, being the rational, responsible adult I am, I called my dentist first thing this morning to make a semi-emergency appointment. Unfortunately, the soonest they could get me in was 9:45 tomorrow morning. I told them to go ahead and book me, because although I am scheduled to work tomorrow morning, there are a couple of people who ought to be able to cover for me. (In fact, it's one guy's specific job this week to cover other people's shifts if necessary.)

Then, of course, I found that that both of said people have their own important commitments tomorrow morning. And, naturally, the third person who also ought to be able to take over in a pinch just left on vacation. So now everybody's trying to juggle things so I can go and get my damned tooth crowned, or whatever it's going to need to turn it into a whole tooth again. And I'm wondering whether I should try to reschedule the appointment, but, man, I just have these visions of leaving it too long and suddenly biting down on it wrong, losing another bit of tooth or even the filling, and having a genuine rush-to-the-dentist-right-now emergency. Which would do nobody any good. (And, geez, this is what it's like now when we're supposed to have enough people to cover any such emergencies. What's going to happen come July when we're going to be down a person after one of my co-workers transfers to a different position, I shudder to think.)

Man, the whole thing is a massive pain in the neck. And on top of it all, I also have a literal pain in the neck, probably from the giant-ass cat trying to sleep on top of my head this morning.

Can I just start this week over? Pretty please?

[ETA: Whoo-hoo! Dentist just called! They can get me in this afternoon, after all! I like it when my life turns out to be slightly less annoying than anticipated.]

Open Wide, Gift Horse!

Today I got a tax refund check in the mail. Which would be a pleasant and wholly unremarkable thing, except that I owed taxes this year. And paid them already. *scratches head*

A bit of googling seems to indicate that such mystery checks are usually followed up with a letter of explanation. I hope mine arrives soon. And, y'know, makes sense. For the moment, I'm sort of afraid to cash the darned thing.

Things That Befuddle Me, #1,475,926

How is it that no matter how carefully I check all the pockets, there always seem to be bits of shredded kleenex in my laundry at the end of the wash cycle? Are the tissues coming from the same place that socks disappear to?

And If You're Waiting On An E-Mail From Me, This Is Also Your Explanation.

I wish it to be known that despite yesterday's statement of low enthusiasm, I got a crapload of stuff done today. I now have clean sheets, clean underwear, lots of groceries, and a giant bag of Vir's extra-special prescription-only super diet cat food. The weeds in my yard have been hacked down. The busted ventilation motor in my bathroom has been replaced. The carpets have been vacuumed. I even cooked. (Well, all right, it was just spaghetti. With canned sauce. But I made salad!)

Go, me.

Of course, somehow it seems as if I still have exactly as much to do tomorrow. But I refuse to worry about that until tomorrow. And I hereby declare the rest of today to be Lie on the Sofa and Read Time. Finally.

Curse My Perverse Nature!

So, you may remember that earlier in the month I was complaining because I had lots of things that I wanted to do, but the extreme heat was sapping my energy to the point where I mostly ended up just lying on the couch and reading.

Well, the weather has now gone from apocalyptically hot back down to toasty-but-tolerable. And thanks in large part to my previous heat-induced lethargy, I have lots of stuff to do: errands to run, housework, yardwork, personal projects...

Only now? Now, all I want to do is to lie on the couch and read.

Sigh.

Don't Tell The Skeptics Society

Dear Scary-ass freaking movie,

It is very, very unkind of you to attempt to make me afraid of noises in the house at night. I have three cats. And I need to sleep tonight, dammit.

Not usually this easily creeped out,
Me

Current Whateverness

Current clothes: Denim shorts. T-shirt from White Sands, which I somehow seem to be wearing surprisingly often when I do this meme. Black ankle-length socks.

Current mood: Man, I don't even know. I was feeling pretty relaxed and good earlier today, then I got kind of mood-swingy... I may be coming out of it again now, though.

Current music: Rush's Moving Pictures. Concert warm-up, baby! We're actually the first stop on their tour this year, for some unfathomable reason.

Current annoyance: Did I mention it was too hot? It is too frelling hot. I have many other annoyances, as well, but I think most of them stem from that same source. It's too hot to bloody do anything.

Current thing: Nothing. Nothing is getting done. See above.

Current desktop picture: It's a fairly nice picture of some woods. I don't remember where I got it, except that it was some random blog that originally got it from deviantART, so I can't link to it.

Current book: Serendipities: Language and Lunacy by Umberto Eco. Which I got for Christmas and am only just now getting to. Stupid book backlog...

Current song in head: Well, since I've already started thinking about the next question, it appears to be the theme song to Bullshit! Brain Radio is unbelievably suggestible of late.

Current DVD in player: I just finished season 1 of The Invisible Man, and, as alluded to above, I am also watching season 7 of Penn & Teller's Bullshit!.

Current refreshment: Water. I also just had some pizza, because it is too hot to cook, and it's too hot to go out. Much better to make some other poor schmoe bring me food. Hey, I tipped him well.

Current worry: I got an e-mail a little while ago from an old friend of mine who's having some personal problems. I hope things turn out OK for her.

Current thought: Hmm, so, what can I do this evening that doesn't involve moving or thinking?

Enough About Me. Have Some Random Links.

evolutionaryLadybug: Drag the ladybug around the screen to eat as many aphids as you can, and watch the survivors as they breed and mutate. It's not much of a game, really, but it is a nice little simplified demonstration of natural selection, and I find it strangely compelling.

A Newcomer's Experience With The 'Lost' Finale: A guy who's never seen an episode of Lost watches the finale and reports on his reactions. The article itself is just okay, but I am always unreasonably entertained by this sort of thing. I'm not sure whether I'm more amused by the innocent understatements made out of ignorance -- "Ben apologizes for something," indeed! -- or by the fact that, in the end, most of his confused questions are exactly the same confused questions that people who've been watching the show for six years are likely to have. Oh, Lost. I miss you and your mind-messing already! (Oh, and spoiler warning! Just in case that wasn't obvious.)

LOST re-enacted by cats in 1 minute: Speaking of Lost-related stuff that amuses me more than it probably should... This is inexplicably hilarious. And also fairly spoilery.

Doctor Who: The Series at a Glance: The BBC's official guide to the current season of Doctor Who, featuring an index of all their online extras. The video clips generally won't play outside the UK, which is annoying, but there's plenty of other stuff there, too.

Yeah, But It's Dry Heat. The Kind Of Dry Heat That Mummifies You.

You know what today is? Today is too fucking hot, that's what today is.

My swamp cooler, which seems to be growing less efficient with each passing year, is able to bring the temperature inside my house down about 12 degrees. It is currently 104 outside.

Tomorrow, it's supposed to be 105. I have to go in to work for a few hours in the afternoon. I'm thinking I might just freaking stay there. At least the office is air conditioned.

Fucking New Mexico. Gaaah.

Um...

Remember when I said I'd try to be more interesting here? I appear to have failed completely.

So, uh, anything you guys want me to talk about?

Goodbye Garbage

Hey, they did finally pick up my garbage! Yay! Exactly one week later, even, so it looks like they did just skip us -- me and my neighbors across the street, at the very least -- last week. Nice to know that my life can go back to its reassuring weekly rhythm now.

(Yeah, yeah, I know. This is what you get these days. Posts about my gray hairs and my garbage. I'll, uh, try to be more interesting later. Really.)

Damned Entropy

So, I just got my hair cut, which is a very good and much-needed thing. But it has caused me to take a look in the mirror and realize that, wow, I have a lot of gray hair.

I KILL YOU LIKE KEAMY!

Dear local ABC affiliate,

I am trying to watch the beginning of the final episode of Lost. You know, the big, important, landmark-event show that you have been hyping like crazy? It appears to start out with a rather lovely series of images. I say "appears to," because it is difficult to make them out. You see, I do not have an extremely large television, and you have seen fit to shrink the show into a tiny little box so that you can show me pictures of a fire. Now, a fire is certainly important news, and I do not begrudge the text you have scrolling at the bottom of the screen, distracting as it is, because it contains an important public service announcement. BUT I DO NOT NEED TO SEE THE PICTURES! I KNOW WHAT SMOKE LOOKS LIKE, AND THE ONLY SMOKE I WANT TO SEE RIGHT NOW IS THE SMOKE MONSTER!

AAARGH! I BURN YOU IN A FIRE NOW! BURN! BURN! BURN YOU ALL!

Ahem.

Much lack of love,
Me

[ETA: OK, they eventually stopped doing it. Mostly. And the finale was... interesting. I'm not at all sure how I feel about some of it, but I did enjoy watching it, despite the station's best efforts.]

Funny Lost Videos

So tonight, at last, is the final episode of Lost. Who will live? Who will die? What questions will be answered, and which threads will be left to dangle forever? Will anything in the last six years turn out to make any actual sense? Damned if I know! I'm very excited to find out, though. And if you are, too, well, here's some videos to pass the time while you wait.

Needless to say: SPOILERS!

First, this hilarious (and, I guess, NSFW, in a strange, strange way) thing from Jimmy Kimmel:



Then, an example of what not to do when you're in TV withdrawal:



And finally this (also from Jimmy Kimmel), which amused the heck out of me, although you might have to be a member of a certain demographic to fully appreciate it:

Adrift, Timeless, In A Sea Of My Own Garbage

Trash day is on Wednesday. It has been since I moved in here. So why is my trash still here? Was there a strike? Did the garbage truck break down? Did they accidentally skip my street? (The neighbors' is still here, too.) Did they change the day without telling me? Man, with the weird hours I work, trash day was the one thing keeping me anchored in the week and vigilant about remembering what day it is. What will I do without it? More importantly, when are they gonna pick up my damn trash?

So, How's Your Day Going?

Ugh. I woke up this morning with what I would swear was two simultaneous headaches. There was an obvious sinus pressure-related thing, which has been regularly bothering me on waking up lately (although it usually goes away after I've been up and around for a bit). It was worse than usual today, though. And then, there's this dull headache that's been bothering me off and on for the last few days, which I am attributing to my current pattern of alternately over- and under-sleeping. So, one centered on the face and one on the top of the head, and just so no parts of my anatomy felt left out, my stomach joined in, too. After vomiting my morning coffee all over the bathroom, the queasiness is all better, at least. But, seriously, body, was that necessary? Stupid over-zealous non-overrideable safely protocols.

Both headache components seem to be fading now, so I think I'm okay, which is good, because I have to work tonight. But geez. I do not need this kind of crap from my own flesh and blood.

Linkages Of Randomness

So long, nerds! Syfy doesn’t need you: Yes, it's yet another rant about the Channel Formerly Known As Something I Might Actually Want To Watch. I appear not to have gotten tired of them yet. Also, I gotta say, this person has come up with the only idea that would get me to willingly watch wrestling.

The Gashlycrumb Losties: Terrific Edward Gorey-style riff on dead Lost characters. Of which there are, y'know, a lot. Needless to say: SPOILERS!

Fake Science: Fun made-up science "facts"! My favorite: "Why is coffee addictive? The coffee bean has a distinctive smell that makes you forget how painful it is to be awake." I think that might have to be my new .sig quote.

PHD Tales from the Road: New Mexico Tech and the VLA, Part 2 of 2: Part two of the PHD comic I linked to last week. For the record, a) the first panel is misleadingly phrased, as our dishes don't observe x-rays, and b) the answer to the ramen question is: "convection oven."

I Have Been Known To Practice Bibliomancy, Too.

I am, in general, kind of a haphazard gift-giver. Everybody in my immediate family, plus spouses and kids, gets a Christmas present, and my nephew always gets one for his birthday. But on other gift-appropriate occasions, I'll buy one if I encounter something I know you'll really like or can use, or if I'm in an especially generous mood, but otherwise you're getting a card and, if you're lucky, a phone call. Which is what I'd planned on getting my mother for Mother's Day, but, well, Powell's bookstore was having this Mother's Day deal where if you sent someone an e-gift card, you'd get 10% of the value for yourself in store credit. I know Mom's been shopping at Powell's a lot lately, plus, hey, kickback! So after a bit of dithering, I said what the hell and sent her one, figuring it would be a nice surprise.

"Nice" wasn't the word she used when she called me yesterday, although I'm sure it was nice. The word she used was "spooky." It seems she found the gift certificate in her e-mail when she sat down at the computer with the precise intention of going to Powell's and spending the exact amount I sent her, as a Mother's Day present to herself. (Of course, as we all do, she then ended up spending twice that amount, anyway.)

This tickles me immensely, not just because I apparently did real good with the Considerate Daughter thing, or because of the kickback, but also because, should I ever lose my scruples on the subject, I think I could trade on this to build up my reputation as a Book Psychic, and how entertaining a career choice would that be? Also, it's an interesting and somewhat reassuring demonstration of the power of genetics and/or environmental influence; it's good to know I come by the crazy book obsession thing honestly. Apples and tree, folks. Apples and trees.

And speaking of (metaphorical) trees and possible gift-giving occasions, today happens to be my dad's birthday. Hope you're having a good one, Dad! I'll try calling you later.

Cap'n, She Cannae Take Any More! She's Gunna Blow!

Household discovery of the day: toaster + microwave + electric kettle = intervention by circuit breaker. Good to know.

Keeping Currently

Current clothes: Khaki-colored shorts; black Star Trek t-shirt with a picture of Kirk, Spock & McCoy on the transporter pad and the caption, "Beam me the hell outta here!"; black sport socks.

Current mood: Pretty good. Relaxed, even. This is the weekend for me -- it's Wed/Thurs/Fri this week -- and I am enjoying it.

Current music: Just more random-shuffle stuff, most recently. Before that, I listened to part of Weird Al's Alapalooza.

Current annoyance: I just went to order some tea from Stash and discovered that they have changed their website to be much prettier and much more frustrating to use. Aargh.

Current thing: After working 65-hours plus in the space of seven days at one point last month, my current thing is enjoying every minute not spent at work. Alas, I'll be running short on those again soon, as I've got another couple of 12-hour shifts coming up this weekend.

Current desktop picture: This picture of one of Doctor Who's Weeping Angels. I can't look away from it!

Current book: Just finished Harlan Ellison's Deathbird Stories, then paused to read the current issue of Science News. Next up: The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón.

Current song in head: "The First of May," by Jonathan Coulton. For some reason, that tends to get stuck in my head every year around this time.

Current DVD in player: Disc 1 of season 1 of The Invisible Man. I remember seeing ads for this series back when it was on and thinking it looked uninteresting and kind of cheesy. But after being assured from a couple of different sources that, no, really, it was entertaining, I decided to give it a shot. Having now watched the pilot, my reaction is, dude, if I'd known it was funny, I might have tuned in back when.

Current refreshment: Nothing. But I just recently had me one of those "complete breakfasts" you hear about on TV.

Current worry: Most of my worries seem far too trivial to dwell on at the moment. Well, except for those encompassed by the creeping existential angst of imminent middle age, but I try not to think too hard about those.

Current thought: My mind just went blank.

Welcome to Socorro!

So, of course I had to link to this PhD comic after finding a copy of it in my inbox. (Thanks, Captain C!)

I do wish to point out that 1) The VLA is actually about an hour west of Socorro, not in the town itself, 2) the movie theater (with its one whole screen) did eventually re-open, but the rest of the description of Socorro is pretty accurate, and 3) that last panel is so true it hurts.

Everybody Complains About The Weather, But Nobody Does Anything About It.

Wow, it's gettin' hot. Which happens every year at about this time, and yet somehow it always sort of takes me by surprise.

Cat Food Diet

So, I went to the vet today to pick up some more of Vir's expensive super-low-cal prescription-only diet cat food, and remarked to the receptionist that I thought maybe he was losing some weight, but I hadn't checked in a while, for fear of disappointment. I figured I really ought to, though, so I just hauled out the pet scale. The result, if the read-out can be believed: 22 pounds and change! That's down from a ridiculous high of 28 pounds plus. Man, that almost makes it worth listening to him complain that I'm not feeding him enough all the damned time! I'm thinking maybe I should get me some of that cat food...

Thumbs UPS

I try to maintain a tradition of balancing my occasional rants about bad customer service experiences with a recognition of the good ones, so I just want to say that APC's customer service, based on my experience, is pretty freaking amazing. I've been having some problems with my UPS, so I sent an e-mail to their customer service/technical department asking for advice on what the problem might be, and, in particular, if there were any troubleshooting steps I ought to take to figure it out. The website said to expect a reply by the next business day, but they got back to me inside an hour with a long e-mail offering specific, non-boilerplate troubleshooting advice and asking several relevant questions. And then the same person proceeded to reply to each of my follow-up e-mails almost instantly.

It looks like the problem most likely is simply that I've got too much crap plugged into the thing for it to handle properly, which perhaps does not surprise me all that much. But it's very good to have that verified before I tried something expensive, like replacing the battery. I may decide to upgrade to a more powerful model, which is something I'm willing to consider only because nobody put any pressure on me to do so.

April Showers Bring... Weeds

I was outside yesterday whacking down weeds, a job that desperately needed to be done. Now my yard looks at least slightly less post-apocalyptic, but my wrists and biceps are all achy from swinging that damned heavy weed whacker around. Also, my allergies are much worse today, possibly due to some sort of retaliatory move from the plant kingdom.

Sigh. You know, I'd really like spring if it weren't for everything growing.

Deserted. No Island.

Wait a minute, there's no new Lost on tonight?! What the heck? Great, now what I am going to do with my evening?

Another Installment of Random Links: Doctor Who Edition

Doctor Who regeneration was 'modelled on LSD trips': And here I thought the Doctor was just high on life. I also kind of love this article's discussion of how people have reacted badly to various regenerations. Ah, the more things change...

Ages of Doctor Who actors on their debuts: Are the Doctor's actors getting younger? The answer is "yes," but some of the old ones were younger than you might think.

Everything You Need To Know About Doctor Who: A newbie's guide to what the show is about, including who the heck this Doctor guy is and where he came from. I might have a tiny nitpick or two, and I think anybody who's been watching the new series has probably already picked most of this stuff up by now even if they've never seen the original, but it's not a bad introduction, anyway. Warning: this contains spoilers through the end of Tennant's run, including the specials, which I know several people reading this still haven't seen. Specifically, you should probably skip the last couple of paragraphs in part 3 if you haven't yet seen "The End of Time." Otherwise, you should be okay.

Doctor Who slays Saint George: The Doctor for Patron Saint of England! You know it makes sense.

Pass The Popcorn!

I've also been watching a bunch of movies on DVD lately, so here's a few mini-reviews:

Zombieland: Not exactly a groundbreakingly original contribution to the zombie apocalypse subgenre, and not a patch on Shaun of the Dead for humor, but entertaining enough in a quirky, low-key kind of way. Woody Harrelson is particularly fun.

9: A very odd little movie about a group of rag doll robots in a post-apocalyptic world. It's incredibly visually interesting in pretty much the ways you'd expect from something co-produced by Tim Burton -- enough so that I really feel I missed much of the effect by watching it on a small screen. (Alas, I don't even have HD.) The little robots have a certain bizarre charm, and the atmosphere is great, but the actual story is sadly just not very satisfying.

King Kong: I was vaguely interested in seeing the Peter Jackson remake when it came out on DVD, but thought I probably ought to watch the original first, so I stuck it on the Netflix queue and then, typically, took forever to actually get to it. But I'm really glad I did. I can see why this is considered a classic. Yes, the unabashedly sexist damsel-in-distress story invites a certain amount of eye-rolling from modern viewers (and the less said about the embarrassing fake "Chinaman" the better). And I'm always amused by the acting in these very old movies. It's terribly stilted, with people projecting all over the place at random volumes, as if they're still not quite sure how to go about performing for this new medium. But never mind that. The story's actually pretty good. And the cinematography is astonishing. Yes, it's all extremely primitive, but, honestly, I've seen movies made decades later that don't look as good. Kong may not exactly be visually realistic, but he's never laughable, and watching him in action is genuinely, unironically thrilling. Which is more than I can say for most of the modern Hollywood blockbusters I've seen. I can only imagine how fantastically exciting this must have been at the time. I think if I ever get myself a working time machine, I'm going to go back for a first-run screening, just to watch the audience reaction. And I'm not sure I'll bother with the remake, after all. It seems pretty pointless now.

Also, My Inner Eleven-Year-Old Wants To Kick People's Asses

Went out with some friends last night to see Kick-Ass, which may be morally reprehensible, but which I found quite entertaining, nonetheless. Or perhaps "nonetheless" isn't quite the right word there. Humans being the perversely wired creatures that we are, sometimes -- perhaps even often -- things are funny precisely because they're also appalling, or would be if they were real, and I think that's true, at least in part, for this particular movie. (Your moral/sense-of-humor mileage, of course, may vary.)

Flashforward Burnout

I'm in the middle of watching Thursday's episode of Flashforward, and it suddenly hit me that I just don't really care about any of it any more. It's a pity... The show has a nifty premise and a decent cast, and if none of the characters ever grabbed me, I was at least interested enough in how the plot was going to play out to keep watching until now, but at this point it's just losing me. Maybe it's that it seems to keep spinning its wheels faster and faster but never really getting much of anywhere. Maybe it's that last week's episode far exceeded my tolerance for improbable plot twists. Maybe it's because the current Major Plot Point seems to me to involve some unforgivably sloppy writing. Whatever. I hate to leave a story without finding out the ending -- it's one reason I never abandon books in the middle, even when they suck. But I'm thinking maybe it's time to reclaim that hour from my week.

And Random Links

Choice of the Dragon: A fairly nifty little multiple-choice text adventure game, in which you get to be a dragon.

Geek Art Gallery: Nerdy Easter Eggs: OK, so it's a little late for Easter, but these are still cool, in a nerdalicious way.

Doctor Who: The Adventure Games: An announcement about downloadable Doctor Who games which will be available for free from the BBC. Which is awesome, except that I won't be at all surprised if they're only available in the UK.

Bad Translator: Run some text through repeated machine translation and watch the surreal wackiness ensue! I can't remember whether I linked to this one before, or just to something similar, but what the heck. It's fun.

More Completely Random Thoughts

Yet another reason to pay for things with plastic: paper cuts on your tongue from licking envelopes to mail off checks.

Trying to whittle my giant pile of unread books down is almost as difficult as trying to lose weight, and for pretty much exactly the same reasons. Willpower? What is this thing of which you speak? But at least reading books is more fun than working out.

The new Doctor continues to make me grin like a little kid. I am liking him a lot. Also the new companion. And Stephen Moffat. A+++, would fangirl again.

Life In The Here And Now

Current clothes: Blue jeans. White socks. Black sneakers. A brown t-shirt with a pattern of ancient petroglyph doodles of the kind that are common here in the Southwest. (I got it at Bandelier National Monument, ages ago.) Blue long-sleeved denim shirt over that. I don't really need the long sleeves right now, but I probably will when I go into work later; that building's been kind of chilly lately. Plus, it'll be much colder by the time I'm walking home.

Current mood: I've been in a fairly relaxed state this morning, somewhere between "mellow" and "apathetic." Though I think I'm starting to come out of it now, which is good, because I have things to do.

Current music: Nothing for a while. I think most recently was Gutter Anthems by Enter the Haggis. I went to see these guys when they played here in town a few weeks ago. I'd never even heard of them before, but they sounded like something I'd enjoy, plus, hey, something to do on a Friday night in Socorro. Turned out they were pretty good, so I bought a couple of their albums on iTunes.

Current annoyance: A Certain Cat seems to have taken it into his mind this week that I ought to be up by 7:30, at the latest. Today, he broke out the baseball bat. Damned cat.

Current thing: Well, lately I seem to have become a teeny bit obsessive about the idea of getting my massive To Be Read Pile under control. My stated goal for the year is to get it down to 400 books. At the beginning of the year, it was at 428. Now it's 424. This is not very exciting progress, even before you figure in the fact that I've already got a bunch more books coming in the mail. Sigh. No Friends of the Library Sale for me this month.

Current desktop picture: Still the same space shuttle picture from last month. I've been too lazy to change it.

Current book: The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins.

Current song in head: "She Moves On" by Paul Simon, which seems to have become one of those songs that repeatedly pops into my head for no good reason and hangs around for days. Which is really weird. I mean, I haven't even listened to that song in forever.

Current DVD in player: Still season one of Deep Space 9. It's taking me a while to finish watching this, because I keep getting distracted by shiny televisual objects. I've only got one more episode to go, though. Well, and six seasons after that, but I don't think I'm going to get to those for a while. Also sitting in a player, disc 2 of South Park season 12, which is my current watching-on-the-treadmill show.

Current refreshment: Nothing, but I'm hungry. I should have had breakfast.

Current worry: I'm not in the mood to worry about stuff.

Current thought: Why is blogger telling me I have an unclosed tag? I thought I closed all my tags! Oh. There it is. Yay! Now I can post.

Various Things

• So, remember when I broke the carafe to my coffee machine and was ranting and raving about it being impossible just to buy a goddamned replacement for it, and I finally went out and bought a model it was easy to find parts for? (Yeah, it's OK if you don't.) Well, the carafe on the new one lasted less than seven months. And, gosh and golly, that model seems to have been discontinued in the meantime, and the carafe that fits it is no longer available in stores or on the internet anywhere. Gaaah! This sort of thing makes me lose a little hope for humanity. I only wish I were joking about that. Anyway, I now have yet another coffee machine, this one with a metal carafe. If I somehow manage to break this one, I give up.


• I thought the new Doctor Who was utterly delightful. I have decided that I like the new guy and he is allowed to stay.


• Happy Easter to those for whom it is relevant! I have no chocolate, sadly, but I heard a rumor there might be ham at some point later on.

A Rare, Brief, Work-Related Comment

Aha! This is why we've been so darned busy lately!

Still More Doctor Who Stuff

Since I don't seem to have anything else to post about these days, have some more Doctor Who links:

Dressing Doctor Who: An interview with Matt Smith, costume designer Ray Holman and producer Piers Wenger, with more than you probably ever wanted to know about the 11th Doctor's costume.

Doctor Who - Inside the New TARDIS: Pictures of the new TARDIS interior. (Don't look if you want to be surprised!) It's going to take some getting used to, but it's certainly interesting.

Doctor Who Series 5 Clip: A minute and a half clip from an upcoming episode titled, I believe, "Vampires of Venice." Looks promising!

Yeah, We're Back

And speaking of trailers that have me all excited and anticipatory:

Futurama	Weeknights, 9p/8c
New Episodes on Comedy Central
www.comedycentral.com
Joke of the Day Stand-Up Comedy Free Online Games

(Video may not play outside the US, though -- sorry!)

Trailers Galore!

Here's yet another Doctor Who season 5 trailer, this one from BBC America.

Now I'm really starting to get psyched.

Once More Round The Sun

A very happy B-Day to my sister, Kathy! Who gets a shout-out on the blog instead of a phone call because, alas, I am working all day.

It Begins

New Doctor Who series 5 trailer! I like this one better than the last one.

Hmm.

Now that I've got this blog all spiffed up to the point where I'm happy with it, I find that I don't seem to have anything to say.

One More Change...

I've just changed the comment settings to take you to the comments section of the post page, instead of opening a popup. I think I like this a lot better. Objections?

Future Companions?

I almost forgot... I didn't take many pictures at the Doctor Who convention, but here's a mildly embarrassing one of my sister and me with the TARDIS. I'm on the left, looking, I dunno, kind of happily stoned or something. Very possibly that's the expression I'd have on my face if I ever did actually encounter the TARDIS.

But We Hate And Fear Change!

As you have very possibly noticed by now, this blog looks kind of... different. I've been playing around with the layout. I don't know that I'm entirely happy with it... Blogger kind of lies about how easy it is to customize things with their layout editor; the options are really quite limited unless you're somewhat more adept with HTML than I can claim to be. Still, I think there are some improvements, and it's definitely easier to tweak now than it used to be, at least in certain respects.

Let me know what you think.

Speaking of Geeky...

All right. I've been asked -- more than once, now that I think about it -- to talk about my experiences at the Doctor Who convention last month. Well, your wish, dear readers, is my command! Actually, I did talk about it a fair bit to various people, just not on this blog. So much of this is lazily cut and pasted from e-mail or elsewhere:

First of all, yes, I enjoyed myself immensely and so did not want to return to the real world at the end of it all. I have to say, going with my sister turned out to be an excellent way to do it. The few previous cons I've been to, I went sort of on my own, and no matter how friendly and lovely everyone was, or how many good conversations I had, or how many folks I knew from online, I could never quite help feeling like a teeny bit of an outsider among people who all clearly knew each other very well and were busy being delighted to see each other in the flesh again. So it was great to have someone I knew very well and was delighted to see to hang out and experience the con with. (I also got along well with her friends, who we got together with off and on, mostly for meals.)

And the con itself was awesome. It's always great to be around fans, of course, and this con in particular seemed to have a great energy, a strong sense that everybody was having fun and was just incredibly happy to be there. That includes the con organizers and everybody involved in an official capacity, too. Those guys really know how to energize a crowd, and despite a few setbacks, they also seemed to be very organized and to really know what they're doing. (I guess after 21 years, you pretty much get this stuff down.)

The programming was great, too: the only problem was that there was too much of it, and there was no way to see everything I wanted to see! Since I hadn't been to a Who con before, though, and thus hadn't had the chance to see them in person before, I made a particular point of seeing as many of the guests as possible. (By the way, I like the format they used for the guest appearances, featuring an interviewer who would let them ramble as much as they liked and ask intelligent questions when they stopped.)

Unfortunately, they were missing a couple of guests, as Peter Davison (Doctor #5) had to bow out due to work commitments after they were forced to move the date of the con, and Sarah Sutton (Nyssa) had to cancel at the last minute due to a family medical emergency. (I haven't heard how that turned out, but my good thoughts remain with her and her family.) The remaining guests were terrific, though. Frazer Hines (Jamie) and Deborah Watling (Victoria) told funny stories about practical jokes they played on the set, and you could tell that that particular Team TARDIS really was as close-knit as they've been reported to be. They were very warm and funny and entertaining, and I'm glad they were willing to go into stories that they figured we'd probably heard a million times already, because I hadn't heard them. Georgia Moffett (Jenny) was absolutely delightful, and she and director Alice Troughton (also delightful) did a wonderful and hilariously funny live commentary on "The Doctor's Daughter" as a last minute replacement for Sarah's scheduled interview. I don't think I'm ever going to be able to watch that episode again without thinking about Moffett's fish-phobia and chuckling. Tommy Knight (Luke Smith) is absolutely and utterly adorable in person, and I just want to cuddle him and floofle his hair. John Levene (Sgt. Benton) is wonderfully charming and has an amazing ability to make the oldest, corniest jokes somehow incredibly funny. Katy Manning (Jo) is a cute little bundle of insane energy. And director Graeme Harper rambles entertainingly. (Unfortunately, I missed Nicholas Briggs (who does Dalek voices, plus Big Finish audio stuff), and only caught about half of Anneke Wills (Polly)'s interview. I also missed most of Andrew Hayden-Smith (Jake from "Rise of the Cybermen"/"The Age of Steel")'s talk, but did get to see a short interview with him at a podcast show taping later. He comes across as very cute and personable.)

I also did a bunch of other stuff, including attending a demo of the new Who RPG (which I then plopped down far too much money for, even though I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it, still), and catching a few random episodes of the new K-9 series (which I sort of wanted to dislike, because I look at the robot dog and can't help exclaiming, "That's not K9!", but which was actually pretty cute), and doubtless much more that I'm forgetting now.

Anyway, the upshot is that it was awesome, and I'm seriously tempted to show up again next year.


Also, I have been asked to answer the following questions:

1) Which actor(s) did you have yourself photographed with or get the autograph of?

I didn't get my picture taken with anybody, although I suppose it would probably have been easy enough to do so. Especially if I'd stuck closer to my sister's friend's wife, who had their six-month-old baby in tow. That kid was like some kind of magic all-access pass. You'd have thought the guests had come there to see her!

I did go to one of the autograph sessions, and got my program guide signed by Frazer Hines, Tommy Knight, Nicholas Briggs, and a number of other folks.

2) Were the talks as interesting as their descriptions?

I didn't get to hardly any of the panel talks. As I mentioned above, I mostly wanted to see the guest interviews, and there were always too many interesting things scheduled at once. I did catch the last half of one about adapting stories from one medium to another, as my sister was interested in it, but it was mostly comics-oriented, and not as interesting to me as it might have been.

3) How many fanboys/girls were walking around with big-ass scarves wrapped around their necks? (Bonus points if they were long enough to drag on the floor and everyone kept stepping on them.)

Answer: many. But these folks know how to wear a scarf, so I never saw any tripping.

There were also lots of people in costumes, some of which were extremely impressive. (Including, of course, the inevitable Dalek, who at one point was posing for pictures with the tipsy sorority chicks who were holding some kind of get-together down the hall.) There was also a big masquerade event, which was highly entertaining.

Mmm, Pi(e)

At our regular Star Wars RPG session today, since it's March 14th, three separate people showed up with pie.

Also, one of the players couldn't make it, so they rigged things up so she could participate via webcam. She appeared life-sized on the TV.

I love my geeky friends.

Currently, On Maximum Verbosity...

Current clothes: Black t-shirt from Mount St. Helens National Monument. Gray plaid flannel shirt over that. Blue jeans. White socks. Black sneakers.

Current mood: OK. A bit subdued and lazy in that "just want to lie on the sofa and read all day" kind of way. I've been sort of fighting against that this week, but today it might be winning.

Current music: Most recently, Transverse City by Warren Zevon, which has been holding its own as my Number One Heavy Rotation Album for a while now.

Current annoyance: I still have big old holes in my mouth. Although they are starting to fill in. At least, the lower left one clearly is. The lower right is less obviously healing, possibly because it's larger and deeper, possibly in part because it's easier to get food stuck in that one and harder to keep from poking it with my tongue. And it's difficult to tell how the top ones are doing, because even with a mirror and a flashlight they're hard to see. I do think they're all coming along, though for the moment I'm still experiencing every meal twice. Once when I eat it, and then again when I wash it out of the holes in my gums. Fun!

Current thing: I have perhaps been on a bigger-than-usual Doctor Who kick lately, what with the convention and all.

Current desktop picture: I finally got tired of looking at the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors, and have replaced them with the space shuttle Endeavour.

Current book: Different Seasons by Stephen King. This was a Christmas present from last year. I got a lot of books last Christmas, especially if you count the ones I bought for myself. I'm hoping to read them all sometime before next Christmas.

Current song in head: "K9's Lament" by Chameleon Circuit. It's about the robot dog from Doctor Who, and has pretty much the exact same effect on me as this xkcd cartoon. Stupid robot angst! It isn't like that at all! Stop making me sad!

Current DVD in player: Disc 1 of season 3 of Third Rock from the Sun. Yay, I can watch DVDs on the treadmill again! And John Lithgow is still hilarious. Also, most recently in the other player was a Farscape season 3 disc; I was re-watching "Green-Eyed Monster." I love S3 of Farscape. It never gets old. Oh, and I've also finally started rewatching season 1 of Deep Space 9. I mean, I went out and bought the whole series, so I really ought to.

Current refreshment: Mango-passion fruit tea. Mmm!

Current worry: I am much less worried about things than I was this time last month.

Current thought: All right, who else besides Dad still needs to see the Doctor Who specials and has a birthday coming up that I might conceivably shop for? Captain C?

How Is It Already 6:30? For That Matter, How Is It Already March?

You know what's really, really sad? Putting an item on your to-do list just because you're intending to do it anyway and want to be able to check something off... and then not even doing it.

Sprung

I have now seen two cockroaches in the house, and I woke up this morning sneezing. Whoo-hoo. Spring is arriving.

Note to self: buy more kleenex and bug spray.

March Of The Random Links

Reading cuts stress levels by 68%: See? I knew it was good for me! If only because I quickly discovered back in college that no matter how strapped for time I was, I needed at least half an hour of pleasure reading a day in order to remain anything remotely resembling sane.

Akinator, the Web Genius: Pick a real or fictional person, and Akinator will guess who you're thinking of with uncanny accuracy. These kinds of guess-the-whatever algorithms have been around for years, but they never cease to amaze and delight me, and this one, I think, is particularly good. Try giving it something really obscure!

New Doctor Who Trailer featuring the Doctor and Amy!: A sneak peak at the upcoming season of Doctor Who. In my opinion, the trailer's a little bit... I dunno, silly? Overdone? Something like that, anyway. But I'm really looking forward to seeing Number Eleven in action.

Codeorgan: Now you can hear what this blog sounds like if you translate it into music! Because I'm sure that's something you were wondering about.

Journey's End

Am back. Had a great time. Do not want to return to the real world.

Adventures In Time And Space

In a couple of hours, I am heading off to Gallifrey! Well, the Gallifrey One Doctor Who convention, that is, not actual Gallifrey. That's kind of inaccessible these days.

I am taking with me a large dental syringe and a small jar of salt, for my salt-water dental rinses of food-dislodgement. Any bets on whether I get stopped by airport security and accused of having drug paraphernalia?

I'm Sick Of Playing Hide And Seek With Pieces Of Food.

OK, this thing of having giant gaping holes in my gums is getting really old really fast. Can't we just stick some spackle in there or something?

The Treadmill Saga: The Final Chapter?

So, the repair guy showed up today, fiddled with the treadmill, said it looked to him like a whole bunch of different things were broken, none of which we had the parts for, and put a call into Horizon, whom he couldn't get to answer their phones either, even though he had an actual direct extension.

Then, while he was waiting to see if they'd call him back -- which they didn't -- he decided that, well, he'd try replacing this one thing they had sent him the part for, even though he didn't think that was it... And lo and behold, it worked! I now have a functional treadmill! And it only took six full weeks!

He did point out that the plastic tray thingy that sits underneath the motor is cracked, apparently due to the incompetent shipping company dropping it at some point. But that isn't affecting its functioning at all. (They might replace it at some point anyway. I think they should. The damned thing is still under warranty and ought to be in perfect shape. But for the moment, I'm not too concerned about it.)

Whew! Now I just need to get up the energy and the motivation to actually use the thing.

Toothless

I seem to be healing up very nicely! Enough so that my mother, having ascertained that I was unlikely to have any major medical emergencies at this point and was now largely capable of fending for myself, packed up and went back home this morning. I'm really glad to have had her here, though, and not just because she cooked me lots of Malt-o-Meal. Thanks, Mom!

I'm still taking large quantities of ibuprofen, but I don't think I'll be needing the Vicodan any more. Strictly speaking, I'm not sure if I needed it after the first day, but I'm a giant baby when it comes to pain. Also, it was very relaxing. I don't know how Dr. House manages to stay snarky when he's on that stuff.

I can also now eat pretty much anything that's not sharp'n'pokey and that doesn't require too much chewing, although it can still be a mildly awkward and uncomfortable process. The really annoying thing, though, is that I have to rinse my mouth out thoroughly with saltwater multiple times per day, and I have to do it every time I eat something. That's getting old fast.

Still, this whole experience could have been a thousand times worse, which I was sort of expecting it to be, so it's all quite a relief. Psychologically, though... Well, I still miss my useless extra teeth. My mouth feels empty without them. *observes a moment of silence for fallen teeth*

The Moment of Tooth

Well, I now have fewer teeth than I did yesterday. Or rather, I guess I have the same number, except four of them are now located in a Dixie cup.

The procedure went astonishingly well. In fact, despite all my worry, from my perspective there was nothing to it at all. The needle prick of the IV was not pleasant, but not watching helped, and it only hurt for a moment. Then the sedation drugs started making me feel very nicely calm... and then the only thing I seem to remember, until they told me I was all done, was a brief flash of people moving around me, talking among themselves in some cheerful, highly reassuring fashion about how good everything was going. Possibly that was right before I started to come out of it.

Now my jaw is starting to ache, which is not much fun, but I have Vicodin, so I can pretend that I'm Dr. House. I also had a very, very large milkshake, which was nice. I'm far less woozy than I expected to be, too, and I suspect to the extent that I am, a fair proprotion of it is due to the fact that I have had no coffee today.

I Still Didn't Get Enough Sleep, Though.

Huh. Apparently, contrary to what I said in a previous post, you can turn off the ringer on my phone. I discovered this yesterday when, during an attempt to see if hiding the handset under the sofa cushions would muffle the ring sufficiently, I accidentally mashed down a button that had an undocumented-in-the-manual "adjust headset ringer volume" feature.

I guess sometimes randomly pressing buttons does work.

The Only Post I Will Make About The Olympics

My mother asked me to record stuff from the Winter Olympics this weekend so she can watch it while she's here. Which I am quite happy to do, but, doggone it, now my TiVo is going to think I give a shit about ice skating. It still thinks I have an obsession with The Weather Channel from the time my dad came to visit.

I'm Tired And I Wanna Go To Bed...

Yesterday I was reading a discussion about shift work that said that being awake for 20 hours is equivalent to a blood alcohol level of at least .10, in terms of impairment. All I can say is, I'm glad I'm not going to be driving home in the morning.

Also, I really need to get a "do not disturb" sign for my front door.

Two Minute Movie Review

Today's DVD-watching: Moon, which I just got from Netflix. It's well-written, well-acted, nicely put together, and serves as a lovely illustration of the fact that science fiction movies do not have to have explosions in them to be worth watching, which is something I wish were more generally recognized. Alas, it also left me wishing, rather wistfully, that I were less intimately familiar with science fiction, so that anything that happens in it might have had a chance at taking me by surprise. It's to the film's credit, though, that it left me feeling pretty positive about the whole experience, regardless.

Productive And Toothful

I have now crossed off everything on my "things to do before my mother gets here" list. Everything! This is very reasuring, since I am working all weekend, and she's coming in sometime on Sunday.

And then Tuesday, I will become wisdom toothless. I am still not happy about this, you know. They're my teeth! I grew them myself! They belong where they are, doggone it, even if their very existence is a stupid evolutionary anachronism.

Sigh. Maybe they'll give them to me to keep in a jar, and I can take them out from time to time and fondly reminisce about the days when they were still in my mouth.

Treadmill Saga Update

So, the repair guy called me up last Saturday saying that he'd be through town later this week, if I wanted to schedule a time for him to stop by and fix my treadmill. Which would have been great, except for one thing: I still hadn't gotten the parts. Which they told me should arrive in 7-10 days. On Jan. 22nd.

I wasn't too worried at the time, since mail to Socorro can be a bit slow, but when the package still wasn't here today, I called Horizon. Again. Amazingly, this time they didn't make me play phone tag, but instead just put me on hold for half an hour. (It figures. I was planning on only spending a couple of minutes leaving a message, or I wouldn't have called right then.) Anyway, it turns out that the reason I didn't get the parts is because they never sent them. Which, the guy I talked to said, was "kind of a good thing," as one of the parts he thought I might need wasn't included in the order, anyway. Seriously. WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE EVER. Let this be a warning to the universe at large: do not buy anything from these people. Unless everything goes perfectly, you will regret it.

He did at least say he'd fast-track my replacement order, and that I should have it in four days, but that kind of doesn't help all that much, since this week would have been ideal for both the repair guy (who is 80 miles away in Albuquerque) and for me.

SO. MUCH. FAIL. It's almost hard to believe.

What's Current

Current clothes: Pajamas and a bathrobe. I kind of splashed cold water on my clothes earlier when I was rinsing out the garbage can, and since I have no intention of going anywhere tonight I figured that just slipping into some nice, comfy jammies was the thing to do.

Current mood: Sleeeeepy. And here it is only just past 8:00. I've been waking up ridiculously early of late.

Current music: Nothing at the moment. I'm working on getting caught up on podcasts again.

Current annoyance: Oh, man. Do not ask. Seriously. There are way too goddamned many of them. Suffice it to say that 2010 can bite me.

Current thing: I don't think I have a thing at the moment. Waiting for this year to suck less. That's my thing.

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

Current book: In This Way I Was Saved by Brian DeLeeuw. I'm about 100 pages in, and I'm still not entirely sure what I think about it.

Current song in head: "Africa" by Toto. This has been in my head for days, and I have no idea why. What's even more annoying is that I don't remember most of the lyrics, so I mostly just have snatches of the chorus stuck in my head.

Current DVD in player: Disc 9 of The Prisoner. I've only got a couple of episodes left now. And, man, this show gets weird towards the end. Well, OK, it starts out weird, but it gets new and different kinds of weird by the end.

Current refreshment: I must have some tea soon.

Current worry: Everything about having my stupid teeth out. Everything.

Current thought: You know what really does tickle me, and continues to tickle me even though it's been true for a long time now? My cats recognize the sound my TiVo makes when I delete a show I've just finished watching, and when they hear it, they immediately get ready to jump down off my lap. I love my cats.

Some Thoughts

1. For the first time, the number of volumes on my book wishlist is consistently higher than that on my unread books list. I can't quite decide whether that's a good sign or a bad sign, as far as the book-buying addiction goes.

2. The oral surgeon gave me an itemized cost list for my wisdom tooth extraction. My lower teeth, which are partially below the gum, each cost $11 more to remove than my upper teeth do. I don't know why, but for some reason that figure amuses me ridiculously.

3. It still feels like these thoughts ought to come in threes.

[ETA: Apparently I read or remembered it wrong. The amount is actually $21, not $11. Which is a pity. Somehow, $11 is a much funnier number.]

Semi-Random Links, With Bonus Stupid Internet Quiz!

Star Wars vs. Star Trek 720p: Cute little nerdy video. Go, Enterprise!

EXCLUSIVE Neil Gaiman Confirms Doctor Who Episode: As the fangirls on the internets say: SQUUUUUUUUUUUUUEEEEEEE!

Previously On Lost 2: Lost In Five Minutes: Kind of hilarious. Ah, there's nothing like an attempt to explain this show to bring home how absolutely freaking insane it all is. I love it. (Oh, and spoiler warning! Obviously.)

And speaking of Lost:


Find out Which Lost Character Are You at LiquidGeneration.com!

God damn it!

(But, huh. The image URL was messed up. It tried to link me to the result for Sawyer, which is not what I got. I figured out what the actual code was and fixed it, although I probably should have left it, because that would be much less embarrassing. Come to think of it, as a reward for my technical competence, I think I should just declare myself to be Sayid.)

Light At The End Of The Tunnel

Despite the fact that I'm still occasionally producing big globs of snot, and my sleeping patterns are kind of messed up, and my throat still sometimes hurts a bit -- seriously, I didn't have a sore throat this long when I had tonsillitis! -- I'm actually feeling a heck of a lot better today, in that surprising, "Hey, I woke up and somehow wasn't particularly sick!" kind of a way.

So hopefully now you should no longer have to listen to me whining and complaining about feeling ooky, and we can move on to other matters. Like the season premiere of Lost, which I've just now finished watching because I was up at stupid o'clock this morning. How cool is it to finally have that show back, huh?

Medical Updates

My throat still hurts. In fact, it hurts worse today, because I've been talking to people. The sinuses still do, too, a little. And I'll spare you the description of the stuff that's coming out of my nose, but at least it's not coming out too often. (Thank you, decongestants!) But I am more-or-less functional today, and was able to make my appointment with the oral surgeon. I now have an appointment to get my wisdom teeth out. Yay.

Yes, I'm Still Sick. And Still Bitching About It.

Rather than getting better, I appear to have entered Phase II, which involves a complete inability to breathe, and what is quite possibly the greatest sinus pain I have ever experienced.

So far, I kind of hate 2010.

My Exciting Sick Day

Bah. I'm feeling just better enough that I no longer desire nothing other than to lie on the sofa in a stupor and/or sleep all day, which is pretty much what I did yesterday, but not well enough that I can be up and around for more than ten minutes or so without feeling like I need to lie back down again. Also, I am now out of Netflix discs to watch. (Note: It is entirely possible that watching The Prisoner while feverish enhances the experience, but for a combination of sickness and surrealism, I don't think anything is ever going to match reading Michael Marshall Smith's Only Forward while mildly delirious from the flu.)

On the upside, in my one burst of activity today, I did get out to the grocery store, so that I now have fresh fruit, orange juice, throat lozenges, extra tea, chicken soup, and chocolate Malt-o-Meal. (I figure I'd better get used to that last, as I suspect I'm going to be eating a lot of it for a while after the teeth come out.) I'm in a state right now where I can tell that my stomach wants food, but my brain, still firmly in sick-mode, is telling it that no, it doesn't. I'm hoping to keep them both happy with, "no, really, this doesn't count as food" compromises.

Also, I just found out the stuff that was supposed to happen at work tonight got canceled, which at least means that some poor sucker won't get stuck covering a night shift for me. Again. After already putting in his full complement of hours this week. This makes me feel slightly less guilty for not dragging my ass in, anyway.

Talking To My Immune System Sternly Didn't Work.

Crap. I am sick. This is Not Good. Man, it had better not be the start of one of those seven-day flus or something. I have a consultation appointment with the oral surgeon on Monday, and I am not missing it. If I don't get those wisdom teeth out in the next few weeks, I have no idea when I'm going to be able to schedule it.

I was thinking about going to the doctor, on the chance that it might be something treatable with antibiotics... I think if it were strep or tonsillitis or something, though, I'd be a lot sicker. And even though I think most of it's melted from the roads now, I don't really want to go out in the snow. I already had to walk home in it this morning.

So I think I'm just going to stay here and sip tea and whine. And hopefully get more sleep.

Hmm, Scratchy Throat, Achiness, Face Feeling Hot While My Body Feels Cold... It's Sleep Deprivation. Got To Be.

Oh, no, I am not getting sick. I am not getting sick. *glares hard at immune system*

This Is What I'm Reduced To: A Steady Stream Of Complaints About Machines That Don't Work The Way They Should.

One thing that's always annoying: discovering that selecting "ringer off" on your phone doesn't actually turn the ringer off by having it wake you from a sound sleep. Which has, in fact, happened to me more than once now. Clearly the people who come up phone features for a living do not have to work night shifts.

I'm wondering if sticking the handset under the couch cushions will muffle it sufficiently.

Random Links: Mostly Funny, With A Dash Of Cute And A Smidge of Thoughtful

LOST characters explain how to make a sandwich: Very funny if you're familiar with Lost. (And very spoilery if you're not!)

Awesomely Bad Lyrics: Meat Loaf -- I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That): The Awesomely Bad Lyrics blog, which mocks the lyrics of rock songs, is a bit hit-and-miss on the humor, but this entry had me laughing my ass off. Possibly because there's just something intrinsically funny about Meat Loaf.

The Top 5 Underrated Sci-Fi Movies: I find these picks impossible to disagree with, except for the fact that I'm sure I need to watch their #1 choice a few more times before I can fully appreciate (or even understand) it.

Shiba Inu Puppy Cam: Now with all-new puppies!

SF reading protocols: An interesting article by SF writer Jo Walton about the way readers approach speculative fiction, as opposed to other genres.

The 100 Cheesiest Movie Quotes of All Time: I defy you not to laugh at this compilation of cheesetasticness! Warning: NSFW language.

The Treadmill Saga Continues

I finally got to talk to a human being with actual knowledge about the product! Ten days after my first phone call! She had me check the drive belt and the connections, which as far as I can see were all OK, then decided that, yep, there probably was something wrong with it. Maybe there's a short somewhere. So, they're going to send me some replacement parts -- which will take 7-10 days -- and have a technician call me to set up an appointment to install them. (I'd say that the in-home service was nice, but it's sheer necessity. You cannot transport something this heavy.)

Anybody want to take any bets on how long it will be before I actually have this thing running?

Thoughts For The Day 2

1. I am very far from being a neat freak, but it's amazing how much better just getting the vacuuming done makes me feel when I'm stressed. Whatever else is going on in my life, by gum, I have clean carpets! Well, clean-ish, anyway.

2. I have got to stop leaving myself cryptic notes. I stared at the one sitting on my desk that says "edit dictionary" for ages wondering what the hell it could possibly mean before I realized that I wrote it after accidentally adding a misspelled word to my Firefox dictionary. (If you're wondering how to fix that, behold!)

3. Maybe thoughts for the day do come in twos.

Thoughts For The Day

1. The problem with 1960s special effects is that when the monster is actually supposed to be a guy in a rubber suit, you have to go to rather a lot of trouble to make this clear.

2. Arguing with people on the internet, no matter how full you are of righteous indignation, never, ever, ever leads to anything satisfying. This is worth remembering, and yet depressingly easy to forget.

3. Thoughts for the day somehow feel as if they ought to come in threes.

Urge To Kill... Rising...

Sure enough, I sat by the phone all morning and waited for the Horizon Fitness folks to call back and talk me through troubleshooting this damned machine, and as soon as I left for lunch, they called back and left the same damned callback number, which sent me to the same damned recording.

Dear Horizon: "We'll call you back in the next 24 hours" is not fucking specific enough! Yes, yes, I know I didn't give you my cell phone number, but this is something I have to be at home for! I am a human being with a life, goddamn it! I have other things to do besides sitting around waiting for you to deign to talk to me, especially since the one and only time I got to talk to a human being, he couldn't fucking help me because helping me wasn't his job. I know it's January and people are buying a lot of fitness equipment and stuff, but this is beyond ridiculous. Dudes! Put me on hold for an hour! I don't care! Just stop doing this to me.

Also, I have been reading up on wisdom tooth extraction a little bit, and I do not like anything I have read.

Well, at least I just had a very nice lunch. *waves gratefully at Captain C*

Books Are Comforting.

There is still much stress happening. Did I mention that on my dental visit yesterday, my dentist told me that I really needed to get my wisdom teeth out with no more procrastinating? I don't want my wisdom teeth taken! They're mine! Waaaah!

Fortunately, talking about books is always soothing, so here's a book meme stolen from somewhere or other:

1. Which book has been on your shelves the longest?

I still have the copy of A Wrinkle in Time that I got when I was eight. It's kind of falling apart now, though, and I think I have another copy of that book in an omnibus volume that's sitting on my To-Read Pile, so I think that at some point I might retire it from the shelves and let it rest in the closet as a childhood keepsake.

2. What is your current read, your last read and the book you'll read next?

Current read is Falls the Shadow by Daniel O'Mahony, a Doctor Who novel from the 90s. It's... okay. It's trying to be sort of dark and surreal, and I keep vacillating back and forth between finding that intriguingly creepy, and just finding it dull. Last read was Experimental Man, which I've already mentioned here. And next up, I think, is Circumference by Nicholas Nicastro. I was thinking about The Help by Kathryn Stockett, but I think something short and non-fiction-y is called for first.

3. What book did everyone like and you hated?

Oh, let us not discuss my permanent and deep-seated antipathy towards Jane Austen after being forced to read Emma in high school. Yes, everybody tells me that I shouldn't judge based on that, and that I'd find Austen brilliant if I only gave her another chance. No, I don't care. I came away from that book thinking that I'd rather have bamboo under my fingernails than to spend one more moment in the shallow, horribly constrained little woman's world that Austen's characters live in, and that feeling hasn't entirely faded since.

4. Which book do you keep telling yourself you'll read, but you probably won't?

I fully intend to read every book ever published eventually, with a few exceptions, even though I am aware that this is physically impossible.

5. Which book are you saving for "retirement?"

Nothing specific, although I'm sure there are some books currently on the To-Read Pile that will still be there when I reach retirement age. Sigh.

6. Last page: read it first or wait till the end?

Reading the last page first is an abomination. Abomination!

7. Acknowledgments: waste of ink and paper or interesting aside?

A long time ago, I used to read the things faithfully, having some vague sense that if I didn't, I hadn't really read the whole book. These days, I skim them, at best. But I don't begrudge a writer the indulgence.

8. Which book character would you switch places with?

Probably none of them. They tend to have much more interesting lives than I'd be comfortable with.

9. Do you have a book that reminds you of something specific in your life (a person, a place, a time)?

Oh yes, quite a few. In fact, sometimes the only way I can remember the date when something happened in my life is to remember what I was reading at the time, and then look up when that was. (Yes, I keep records. What?)

10. Name a book you acquired in some interesting way.

Um... You know, for all my book-buying obsession, I'm not sure I really have any interesting stories about acquiring books. Certainly not ones that would be interesting to anybody but me. ("Dude! I was at this huge library sale, and one of the sales attendants set this copy of Good Omens down right in front of me!" Um... yeah.)

11. Have you ever given away a book for a special reason to a special person?

I've given books as gifts, but I can't recall any that were dripping with sentiment or anything. When my nephew was smaller, I did sent him a couple of kids' books that I loved when I was young.

12. Which book has been with you to the most places?

Star Trek Creator: The Authorized Biography of Gene Roddenberry. For years, every time I traveled, I'd throw it in my bag, figuring I'd read it on the trip, and kept not getting around to it. That book has literally been around the world with me. I finally read it last year in Colorado.

13. Any "required reading" you hated in high school that wasn’t so bad ten years later?

The stuff I really hated in high school I haven't gone back to. The things I actually liked, though -- Huckleberry Finn, Cyrano de Bergerac, Hamlet -- I made a point of re-reading later under happier circumstances.

14. What is the strangest item you’ve ever found in a book?

I got a free copy of a book through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program a while back that the author sent with a bright yellow fake feather stuck in it. Also, it was gift-wrapped and perfumed, and came with a teabag, a biscotto, a tiny rubber duck, and a four-page letter raving about the book and explaining its themes and references, and ranting about people who are incredibly rude enough to mention in public how their books come packaged, because that's private, doggone it! I was not impressed.

15. Used or brand new?

Yes, please!

16. Stephen King: Literary genius or opiate of the masses?

A bit of both. Unlike some wildly popular writers, the guy actually does have some pretty amazing talent. Unfortunately, he also has some flaws, which editors have long since stopped calling him on.

17. Have you ever seen a movie you liked better than the book?

The Hunt for Red October. Great story, which, in the book, was buried under layers and layers of technical detail and pointlessly digressive backstories for characters with two-page cameos.

18. Conversely, which book should NEVER have been introduced to celluloid?

Most of them, probably.

19. Have you ever read a book that's made you hungry, cookbooks being excluded from this question?

Yes, although I can't think of any specifics. Probably because it's completely unremarkable for me. It's pathetically easy to make me crave food. Which is doubtless part of the reason why I weigh mumblety-mumble pounds.

20. Who is the person whose book advice you'll always take?

I'll take damned nearly anybody's advice. I'm a complete slut for books. Some random stranger mentions in passing that something's good, and suddenly I want it. There are reasons why my To-Read Pile and my wishlist are both over 400 volumes.

Relaxing With A Stupid Internet Quiz After A Stressful Day

Your result for The Improved Book Character-Savvy Test...

More than good :)

You scored 71% Best Seller, 67% Classic and 88% Fantasy/Sci-Fi!

Well, well, well... We're pretty good at this, huh? Maybe we can work on our Classics... And if you prefer you can rent the Best-Sellers, yes. But it's quite good. Congrats.

Your rank: Lieutenant Kif Kroker (Just because I can. And he's a nice guy, isn't he?)

Take The Improved Book Character-Savvy Test at OkCupid

Yes, Kif is a nice guy. Just looking at him makes me feel better.

Excerise Is Good For My Health. Stress Is Bad For It.

So, as indicated in the previous post, there are many things that are annoying the crap out of me this week. But first and foremost among them is what may be the single stupidest customer service experience ever.

I just bought a new treadmill, because walking, indoors or out, is the only form of exercise I can actually bring myself to do. Those of you following this blog religiously may know that I originally had a very cheap motorized treadmill, which I managed to short out the console on as I was putting it together. They sent me a replacement console, but none of the displays ever worked. After a couple of years of use, the motor started making noises, and I finally gave up on the damned thing. I then bought an extremely cheap manual treadmill, which I used for a while, but, frankly, that thing sucks. It's annoying, I don't get much of a workout on it, and I think the manual foot action, if I may call it that, was aggravating my plantar fascitiis. So I ordered a newer, much nicer motorized one. (OK, it's still kind of a low-end treadmill, by professional standards, but it's pretty darned expensive by my standards.)

Now, how does Horizon Fitness customer service suck? Let me count the ways...

1. They sent this 200+-pound item, clearly marked with "use mechanical lift" instructions via a shipping company who apparently believed that one old dude with not so much as a dolly was perfectly adequate.

2. The manual said to lubricate it before use, but the instructions for lubrication were vague to the point of uselessness.

3. Plastered all over the manual, however, were remarks to the effect that Horizon's friendly customer service reps are willing and eager to help out with any little questions one might have, and repeated instructions to call if unsure about something. So I called them. And got a recording saying to leave a message, and they'd get back to me within 24 hours.

4. Fortunately, it turned out that they had a nice instructional video online showing you how to lubricate the belt. Would've been nice if they'd mentioned that in the manual. So I followed the instructions, lubed up the belt, and turned the thing on for the first time. It failed to work. Every time I started it, the belt stuttered a fraction of an inch, and stopped. So I called and left another message.

5. Today, two days later -- yes, you counted right, that's more than 24 hours -- at 8:00 in the morning, I get a call from a guy who had apparently only heard my first message. He took down all my info -- name, rank, serial number, etc -- then informed me that he'd pass it on to the technical service department. Apparently his only job was to get my info. The guys who could actually help me get the thing working, he said, would call me back tomorrow. Gaaah. Well, at least he was polite.

6. Several hours later, I go out for a dentist appointment -- also annoying. When I get home, there's a message on my answering machine from the fitness people. It leaves a number where the call can be returned.

7. I return the call. I get the "leave a message, and we'll call you back in 24 hours" message. Aaaaargh.

8. I am leaving for work now, and hoping they do not call again while I am gone. Of course, I will have to stay home tomorrow and wait for their damned call. It's no good them calling me at work or on my cell, after all, since I have to have physical access to the machine while they're helping me troubleshoot it. This, fortunately, is not a problem, but it means I will have to take some vacation time. Some more vacation time, since I've been working short hours this week thanks to doing other annoying things. (E.g. the dentist appointment.) I am, however, going out for an hour or so to have lunch with a friend who's passing through town. Anybody want to place any bets on whether they'll call during the precise time that I'm gone?

This damned thing better work when all this crap is done, and it had better be damned well worth it.

And It's Only Wednesday?

I think this may be shaping up to be a really annoying week.