Woo Who!

We won the Doctor Who trivia quiz!!!! Rather to our surprise, really. I mean, I was optimistic going in, and we started out reasonably strong, but there were a disturbing number of questions we missed due to misinterpreting the question, or picking the wrong person's guess, or, most annoyingly, writing down the correct answer and then erasing it and putting down something else instead. (Hey, Telos is almost Mondas, right?) And then there was that one question that was just plain wrong. Seriously, Prisoner Zero is an individual (well, sort of), not a species. Doggone it.

So, we were falling behind quite a lot in the middle, but managed to pull a turn-around in the end. I think it helped, oddly, that the last round turned out to be all about behind-the-scenes and non-canon stuff. We weren't expecting that, but probably neither was anybody else, and some of us happened to have the right kind of random knowledge there. So we ended up tied for first! Which led to a five-question sudden death round... Which we tied again! Apparently both teams got the same question wrong. (Stupid Torchwood.) The tie-breaking tie-breaker was then a ridiculous arithmetic question. Something like: take the total screen time of the 9th, 10th and 11th doctors according to io9, multiply by the number of years Rose traveled into the future in "The End of the World," and divide by the number of letters in "Raxacoricofallapatorius." Though I think there were more terms than that; it's all become something of a blur now. Interestingly enough, both team's answers were pretty close to each other but we were closest to the actual answer. Thus, VICTORY! (Not of the Daleks).

Ha! Take that everybody who ever shook their head over me remembering "useless" things. MY KNOWLEDGE OF DOCTOR WHO IS WORTH ACTUAL MONEY! I feel as if my whole life has been vindicated. Heh.

September Currentlies

Here it is, September, and suddenly it's obvious that we're on the descending arc of the year. It's still summer here, no question, but there's something in the air that makes you think the world is finally remembering the idea of winter.

But enough waxing poetic about the weather. Here's the usual meme thingy.

Current clothes: Red sweatpants. Black t-shirt from LibraryThing ("LibraryThing.com: What's on your bookshelf?"), because LibraryThing is freaking awesome. Black socks. Brown boots.

Current mood: OK. A teensy bit tired or groggy, as I've just switched off night shifts, and my circadian rhythms are currently less traditionally rhythmic and more like one of those weird avant-garde modern compositions.

Current music: In addition to the usual whatever-random-stuff-my-iPod-decides-to-give-me, I've also been listening to a lot of actual albums lately, while doing various things around the house. Most recently Warren Zevon's My Ride's Here and Chameleon Circuit by Chameleon Circuit. That second one being a manifestation of my excited anticipation for the new season of Doctor Who.

Current annoyance: Mosquitos. I have a mosquito bite on my hand. On the palm. How the hell does that even happen?

Current thing: Yeah, I have definitely been in a state of Who-fannish excitement lately. Not only am I very much looking forward to the season premiere, but I'm also going to be participating in this nationwide Doctor Who trivia quiz. We did really well on the Star Trek one, so, hey, maybe we can take home the prize this time!

Current desktop picture: Still this. I have been vaguely thinking about changing it again, but we'll see whether I ever actually do it.

Current book: Area X: The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff Vandermeer, which is an omnibus compilation of Annihilation, Authority, and Acceptance. Very weird and interesting, but it's kind of slow-going. I'm thinking I really shouldn't have started it while I was on nights; it's not a good book for tired brains.

Current song in head: All kinds of odd stuff has been drifting in and out, but it's pretty quiet now. I think most recently was "Radioactive" by Imagine Dragons, which I am now going to try not to think about too much, lest it come back, ridiculously sticky tune that it is.

Current refreshment: Nothing, but I'm thinking of going out for a bacon cheeseburger soon.

Current DVD in player: Disk one of season 3 of The Legend of Korra. It's not as good as Avatar: The Last Airbender -- which sets an extremely high bar -- but I am enjoying it. And season 3, so far, actually does feel like it has more of the sensibility of the original show, in ways that I can't quite pin down yet.

Current worry: I've got the crack where water was coming into my house all sealed up, in such a way that I really can't see how there could be more problems with it, but I nevertheless can't shake the worry that my bedroom will somehow get wet again the next time we have a good-sized rainstorm. And then I won't know what to do.

Current thought: I could have gone with a different "current thing," which is that I am slowly but surely making improvements to my material environment by replacing old, worn-out, or non-existent furniture and appliances. I just bought a new headboard for my bed, because the old one finally fell apart completely. I'm much happier with this one, in part because it actually bolts to my bedframe -- the old one was the wrong size -- and thus does not immediately fall over whenever you move the mattress away. (This was, needless to say, one of the reasons why the old one was in bad shape.)

I Think I'd Look Good With A Giant Sci-Fi Brain.

Gaah, being a responsible adult is annoying as hell. I'm actually doing quite well at it at the moment. But I'm never, ever gonna love it. When are we gonna get that sci-fi future where robots take care of all the annoying crap involved in living and leave us alone to develop our giant brains?

(This post is brought to you by me dealing with the fact that my house is still not quite as water-tight as it ought to be.)

Book People Problems

A video I thought I'd share, because I know at least one person out there will understand:

New Who Trailer

I WANT THIS. I WANT TO WATCH THIS RIGHT NOW.

August Currentlies

Yep, here it is. The August "Currently" meme.

Current clothes: Gray cotton shorts. Venture Bros. Guild of Calamitous Intent t-shirt. Black socks.

Current mood: OK. Kinda tired. I spent the morning doing yardwork, plus my circadian rhythms seem to be fighting me harder than usual lately, for some reason. (Probably because I spent two straight weeks on night shifts, and my body actually started getting used to it.)

Current music: Nothing memorable.

Current annoyance: The city garbage dept. says it'll pickup old items of furniture and such for a small fee, if you make arrangements for it. I called them Monday of last week, and the thing is still sitting out there on the curb. I'm going to have to call them again.

Current thing: I don't seem to have a current thing. Maybe I should find one, rather than just sitting around spinning my wheels, which is what I think I've been doing lately.

Current desktop picture: Still this.

Current book: String Theory for Dummies by Andrew Zimmerman Jones. Because how can you not want to read String Theory for Dummmies? I'm also making my way through British English A to Zed by Norman W. Shur. I was originally just going to browse through it a bit and stick it on the reference shelf, but it's proving to be strangely fascinating, so instead I'm reading it straight through, a few minutes at a time. Mostly it's making me wonder how Americans and Brits actually mange to communicate at all.

Current song in head: It's been varying back and forth between "The Rainbow Connection" and "Wild, Wild Life" by the Talking Heads.

Current refreshment: Orange spice tea.

Current DVD in player: Most recently, Kingsman: The Secret Service. Which was completely ridiculous, but, hey, that's what it was going for. Mostly it was the entertaining kind of ridiculous.

Current worry: All the terrible diseases I've been diagnosing myself with on WebMD. Thanks, internet!

Current thought: Some significant part of my brain refuses to believe that August is even a real month. In my mind, it exists merely as a sort of placeholder between July and September -- that is, months in which things actually happen. Even the weather right now feels like a hot, still, timeless expanse of nothing.

I Swear, I Feel Like I Deserve A Prize For Sticking It Out To The End. Maybe A Free Set Of Knives.

So, I just finished watching Dexter. And since I've mentioned it here before, I thought I'd come back and share my thoughts... OK, no, that's not true. Mostly, I'm writing this here because after investing eight season's worth of time in that show, I am damned well at least going to get a blog post out of it.

Although, honestly, I think past a certain point I was mostly only continuing with it out of a sense of completeness and a strong, morbid curiosity as to whether the final episode was really as bad as everyone said it was. Which... Yes. Yes, it was. And all the more so because elements of it actually would have made a great ending to the show if only they, and everything leading up to them, hadn't been done so, well, awfully.

Seriously, someone could get a Masters' thesis out of all the ways in which Dexter grasps vaguely in the direction of some really interesting, brave, thought-provoking storytelling and then drops the ball on it, over and over. It is, ultimately, a fascinating failure. Sometimes it's an entertaining, even compulsively watchable one, sometimes one that threatens serious injury from all the banging your forehead against things it makes you want to do. Which is frustrating. Maybe it shouldn't be. Maybe it was too much to ever expect anything else. After all, one of my earliest reactions to this show was, "I don't see how this premise is remotely sustainable, long-term." I was right about that, and it's entirely possible nothing was ever going to make it sustainable long-term. But I can't help but wonder, a little wistfully, what it might have been like if it were written with real vision, by someone willing to fully embrace the fundamental fucked-upped-ness of it all and able to consistently resist the temptation to buy into the character's own self-deluded ideas about being a hero.

I will give 'em this, thought: they had some fantastic casting.

Lots Of Places To Sit

Finally, the loveseat that goes with my new (or, by now, new-ish) sofa arrived!



I'm delighted to at last be able to send the old the old, saggy, cat-shredded one off to the dump with its sofa companion. They did well by me, back in the day, but they had well outlived their time.

Although with both pieces in place, my living room now feels a little too small. Not only are both the sofa and the loveseat bigger than the old ones, but the loveseat, unlike the old one, doesn't fit underneath the protruding windowsill, so it sticks out into the room more. And I had to move the end tables around into slightly less convenient positions. On the upside, though, people sitting in it will no longer bang their heads on the sill if they lean back. So that's good.

In other household news, I did get an electrician to come and check out the power supply to the dryer, and he said it was fine and the no-heat problem is definitely internal to the machine. Which is actually good news, since it's under warranty. But I think it's going to have to wait until I'm off night shifts for me to worry about that.

How Not-Dry I Am

For more than a decade, I've used a clothesline to dry all my laundry, or, occasionally, when I really needed to, I've gone across the street to the laundromat to use their dryers. I tell myself that it's cheaper and more environmentally friendly, which is true. But finally -- finally -- I decided I'd had enough. I'm tired of planning my laundry schedule around the (often highly unpredictable) weather, and then having to wait hours for it to dry. I'm especially tired of it this month, when we've had rain, or the threat of rain, pretty much every single afternoon. And, for various reasons, I had a goodly amount of extra cash in the ol' checking account this week. So I finally said "screw it," and went out and bought me a dryer. Yaaay!

Except... Except, while the thing comes on just fine, and air flows through it just fine, there's no heat whatsoever. Sigh. It's possible the machine is defective, but I strongly suspect it's an issue with the electricity supply, especially as I've never had a reason to use the 240-volt outlet before. So now I'm going to need to call an electrician. Which is going to be fun, because I'm just about to start on two weeks of night shifts. Why is it every time I try to make an improvement to my house and/or life, it just ends up causing me extra headaches? I think the world is extremely unfair this way, and someone really ought to have a word with it,.

Some Of Us Go Around The Sun, Some Go Outward Away From It.

I am 44 years old today, which, as far as I can tell, may actually be about the age where you stop caring much about how old you are.

I would, however, like to thank NASA for the awesome Pluto mission they got me, even if it's not going to be fully unwrapped until tomorrow.

The Sky Is Angry

Where the hell is all this hail coming from? This is the third time this week!

Ooh!

Ooh! New Doctor Who trailer! Complete with a date for the start of he new season. (Sept. 19. Mark your calendar!) I'm getting all flaily-hands excited, now.

July Currentlies

July has been slipping away from me fast. Here it is, time for this already!

Current clothes: Blue shorts and a white t-shirt that says, "The angels have the phonebox." Because I am just that much of a Whovian dork. Also white socks and brown boots, although I should take those off, because my feet are kind of hot.

Current mood: OK, although mostly right now I'm wondering where the hell this day went. I intended to get a bunch of stuff done, and then suddenly I looked at the clock and it was 4 PM and I'd barely even done anything. I'm trying to make up for that now, though. (Yes, "update blog" was actually an item on my to-do list.)

Current music: Nothing much at the moment. I'm once again trying hard to get caught up on some of my podcast listening.

Current annoyance: Oh, mostly just the usual "Why do I have to be a responsible adult?" crap.

Current thing: I cannot stop myself from obsessively watching random episodes of Shark Tank. This is all my sister's fault.

Current desktop picture: Still this bookish image. Maybe one day I'll change it again.

Current book: Shovel Ready by Adam Sternbergh. I'm not very far into it, but I'm already enjoying it a lot.

Current song in head: Nothing at all at the moment. Huh. That's a little odd.

Current refreshment: Orange spice tea.

Current DVD in player: Most recently, the original Mad Max. After seeing and loving Fury Road, I figured it'd be interesting to revisit the original movies. Or, in this case, to visit for the first time. I never saw any of them in the theater, but I had remembered catching random pieces of them on TV, back in the day. But, while I'm pretty sure I caught at least some of The Road Warrior and maybe a decent-sized chunk of Thunderdome, it turns out I hadn't seen any of the first film at all. Or at least, it seemed entirely unfamiliar to me, watching it now. And... Well, unlike Fury Road, I don't think it can be described as a good movie by any reasonable set of criteria, even if it does maybe have a few moments of some sort of cheesy, violent charm. But I do feel more pop culturally literate, I guess, having finally watched it.

Current worry: Everything will go wrong with everything!

Current thought: I am starving. It may be time for a slightly early dinner, very soon.

Short Post. No Brain Left.

Home. Very tired. Cats are mad at me. Trip went well, though.

Hitting The Oregon Trail! (Well, OK, Flying Into The Portland Airport.)

On Wednesday, I'm leaving for Oregon to attend my sister's wedding. (Congratulations, sis!!!!!) It seems like I have about five day's worth of stuff to get done in the two days until I leave, but I think I somehow used up all my stressiness last week. Right now, I'm feeling kind of mellow, and mostly just looking forward to it.

I May Have Already Added At Least One Thing To My Wishlist Because Of This.

Today's book-related link: Whichbook, a site that invites you to move some controls around to tell it what kind of book you're looking for -- happy vs. sad, for instance, or easy vs. demanding -- and recommends things to you based on your input. I haven't played around with it too much yet, in part because more book recommendations is probably the last thing I need. But based on some of the results it gave me, I'd say it seems to know what it's doing. It's also coming up with lots of stuff I've never even heard of, too, which is nice.

The "How Is It This Far Into June Already?" Currentlies

Current clothes: Blue jeans. T-shirt from White Sands National Momument. White socks.

Current mood: Grrrrr. Computers are frustrating.

Current music: Nothing at the moment. Maybe I need some soothing music.

Current annoyance: I've been trying out various options for backing up my new PC. None of them seems to be quite what I want, and all of them have done at least one WTFish thing when I've tried them.

Current thing: Messing around with the new computer all day. And then playing Papers, Please on it all night. (Glory to Arstotzka!)

Current desktop picture: It's still this, although keeping it that way has been kind of an issue, because now that I have two Windows 8 machines (this and the laptop), Microsoft decided that clearly I want them both to have the same wallpaper. I got it to stop doing that, but I'm a little nervous to see if changing that setting changes anything else the next time I reboot.

Current book: Saving the Original Sinner: How Christians Have Used the Bible's First Man to Oppress, Inspire, and Make Sense of the World by Karl W. Giberson. Which I'm finding interesting from a historical perspective, and which maybe explains a few things about today's breed of evangelical Christianity.

Current song in head: Warren Zevon's "Networking". Dated, but thematically appropriate.

Current refreshment: Some kind of cheap zero-calorie black cherry soda water stuff. It's better than it sounds.

Current DVD in player: Disc 1 of season 6 of Dexter. Based on the fist two episodes, I'd say the storyline for this season could either be really cool and interesting, or it could get really stupid. Given that I know at least two people who bailed on the show at more or less this point, I'm not putting any money on Option A. As of now, though, I am still enjoying the show (for definitions of "enjoying" that include things that are dark and fucked-up). If nothing else, Michael C. Hall's performance alone would make it worth watching. The guest casting has been pretty great, too. But I think you could get an entire dissertation out of all the ways in which it consistently fails to evolve into the brilliant show it could be. (This spoilery AV Club discussion of the season 5 finale covers a lot of the reasons pretty well.)

Current worry: I think most of my worries at the moment, like most of my worries most of the time, boil down to a fear of not meeting my personal responsibilities. God, I hate being an adult.

Current thought: Everything actually is perfectly OK. Even if it does involve me having to act like an adult far too much of the time.

Hardware Upgrade!

I am writing this from a brand new computer! Yay! The PC I was using was seven years old, which, in computer terms, qualifies as advanced dotage. And it was getting increasingly annoying in various ways. Plus, it was running XP, whose lack-of-suportedness was starting to reach the point of actually being dangerous. Like, I couldn't install the latest version of Java. Or not without it giving me dire warnings about how it probably wouldn't work, anyway. Since I'm not yet ready to switch to doing absolutely everything via laptop -- I know, I know, I haven't given up my landline, either -- I figured it was finally time to replace the thing. Basically, I got a newer model of the same machine -- the Dell Inspiron -- because the old one worked fine for years and I'm far too lazy to research my zillion possible options and pick the very best one. (Hey, psychologists will tell you that doesn't make you any more satisfied with your choices, anyway.)

But, oy, why is something like getting a new computer up and running always so ridiculously complicated? Even just getting my hands on the machine was a frustrating process. First, the FedEx person left a "you weren't home" tag on my door, even though I was home. (I think I was on the treadmill, which is kind of noisy, and they didn't knock loud enough. Or, y'know, ring the doorbell.) After that, they'd only try to deliver it after 3:30, when I needed to leave for work. I ended up having to be an hour late for work just so I could wait for the thing on Final Delivery Day, because otherwise I would have had to drive all the way to Albuquerque to pick it up. I'm just glad someone was able to cover for me. I've had to make entirely too many trips up to ABQ lately.

And, then, of course, there's all the setting things up, and updating and registering and downloading and installing and file transferring, and beating Windows 8 with a stick until it behaves. Which you expect to take quite a while, but which somehow always manages to take longer than you allow for, ever after you try to allow for that. ("Oops, I didn't copy those game save files off the old machine! Guess I need to hook it back up and turn it back on... Wait, why is the mouse suddenly not working on it?!")

My big mistake, of course, was trying to set up a new printer/scanner at the same time. It's a wireless printer, which I figured would be nice. Fewer cables in the tangle behind the desk, and I'd also be able to print to it from my laptop or even my phone. Gaah, what an undertaking setting that up was. It went something like: "Wow, these installation instructions are confusing... Why is it not seeing the printer on the network? Oh, wait, there it is. Wait, why is none of my other stuff able to connect to the network now? How did this change my WiFi password?! Crap, what's the admin password for the router? Aaargh! OK, changed it back. Now I need to figure out how to give the printer the WiFi password. Clearly I'll need to plug it in for that. OK, now how do I... Man, this is the least useful help function ever. I'll just keep trying things that look vaguely like they might do setup stuff until I find it. Ah, there we go! Wait, the printer needs an admin password in order for me to give it the WiFi password? Were the hell do I find that?! This manual ought to win some kind of Most Craptastic Manual award. Half the entries say 'see instructions!' I thought this was the instructions! What is a manual if not instructions?! Oh, there we go. OK, and... It works! Wait, no it doesn't work. Oh. It's working now. I don't know why it's working now and it wasn't before. Or why the printer is listed twice on my devices list. But maybe I don't care anymore."

Inevitably, of course, you reach a moment where things finally seem to be more or less working, and then you suddenly realize that it's 1:30 in the afternoon, you've been at it since 9:00, and you haven't had lunch or, for that matter, breakfast.

But! Everything does seem to be working now! Yaaaaay!

And my brand new keyboard already has cat hair in it. So clearly everything is back to normal.

Also, I Swear I Was A More Confident And Assertive Driver On The Trip Home.

I did, in fact, get out to see the new Mad Max movie! And, OK. It is, first and foremost, a ridiculous, violent action movie. If you're not OK with ridiculous, violent action movies, you're not going to enjoy it. But it is a really well-done example of the kind of thing it is, in some genuinely surprising ways. Ones that were still genuinely surprising to me even after having heard people talking about them all over the internet.

Yes, it is basically a two-hour car chase. I would really, really expect that to get dull pretty quickly, but instead it just gets more and more exciting as it goes along. And the character stuff... Well, in most action movies, let's face it, what you get for characterization is mostly cliche, or lip service being paid to the idea that stories are supposed to have character development. But this one creates surprisingly well-realized characters with an absolute bare minimum of dialog, and the emotional moments are genuinely affecting. I'm honestly not sure how they did that, but it's impressive. And, yes, the reviews are all right: this is a movie that does well by its women. In fact... It feels, in a very subtle and hard-to-pin down way, as if it's a movie made for me, just as much as it is for the men in the audience. I think that may be the first time that has ever happened with this kind of gonzo blood-and-explosions action movie. And it could be that's just an illusion, based on preconceptions I had about it going in. But I think not entirely? And that's... a bit mind-blowing. But nice.

So, that's now three movies in three days that I've actually really enjoyed, and that have fully kept my attention the whole way through. (The first, of course, was Interstellar. The second was Big Hero 6, which I watched on DVD yesterday, and thought was pleasant and fun.) If this continues, I may have to take back all that stuff I said a while back about how movies in general no longer seem to entertain me the way that TV shows do. Although, sadly, I suspect this may just be something of a lucky streak.

Home And (Far, Far) Away

I've been working ridiculous hours the last couple of weeks, and now finally have a nice chunk of time off. And, hoo, boy, did I need it. Partly because I was getting super-stressed, and partly because I desperately needed some time to just get things done. In the last two days, I think I've finished about two weeks' worth of housecleaning, yard work, errand running, and various other annoying responsible-adult crap.

Then, having accomplished enough that I felt like I could finally relax again, I treated myself to a movie. I watched Insterstellar. Which was fantastic. Even though there were certain things about it that really shouldn't have worked for me, it was fantastic, which maybe just makes it all the more impressive. I put it on late in the afternoon, figuring I would stop it in the middle to heat myself up some dinner, and then pretty much just didn't re-emerge for three hours. I'd say that I slightly regret not seeing it in the theater now, but there were a few places in there where I found myself weeping like an idiot, and it may be just as well that didn't happen in public. I am, at least, glad that I somehow managed to remain completely unspoiled for it. Seriously, the only things I knew going in were that it got good buzz, there was supposed to be some actual science in it, and (I was pretty sure) there was a wormhole in it somewhere. Which you would think might actually be enough to get me to the theater, but I honestly expected it to be kind of disappointing. So many SF movies are.

Now I just have to get out to see the new Mad Max film, since everyone is insisting I absolutely must...

An Anniversary

As of yesterday, it has been one year since I had my surgery. Which is kind of an odd thought for me. On one hand, that period of recovery time seems to have receded into the distant past and taken on a strangely unreal quality. I actually have to actively remind myself that, oh, yeah, that really happened, that time when I couldn't even bend over. On the other hand, surely I have not aged a full year since then. Wait, you mean even my cats have aged a full year since then? That's a significant chunk of lifespan for them! It cannot be possible! Seriously, time is just... weird. You'd think the older I get, and the more of it I experience, the more used I would be to the way it passes, but instead it keeps taking me more and more by surprise.

Anyway. They -- by which, of course I mean the internet -- say that it takes a year to fully recover from a hysterectomy, so I guess I should celebrate now or something. I remember, just after the surgery, reading a site that had a timeline of what to expect as you heal, and somewhere a few months in was the milestone of finding you could go an entire day at a time without thinking about having had the surgery. A few weeks in, I was having serious trouble believing that would ever be possible, but, of course, it was. By now, even the numbness around my scar that lingered for most of the year has faded. And the scar itself has faded into an unobtrusive line that I mostly can't see over my fat belly, anyway.

The one thing that hasn't faded -- as I feared it was going to -- is my joy at the results. I have not yet come to take the fact that I am not bleeding massively from my genitals once a month for granted. Indeed, the realization that that is not happening and -- unless something goes very badly wrong -- never will again still hits me on a fairly regular basis, and it's hard to keep a grin off my face when it does.

Oh, That's How You Do It!

Yay, I remembered how to sleep! I remembered how to sleep a lot! Mind you, sleeping for ten or eleven hours and waking up very late in the morning is far from ideal when you have to get up early for work the next day. But at this point, I'll take it. I feel better today than I have in at least the last week.

A Difficulty

Help, I think I have forgotten how to sleep.

Whining And Linkage

Ugh. I'm finally approaching the end of a long, looong week of night shifts, the last couple of which have involved dealing with some annoying middle-of-the-night problems. I've been getting even less sleep than is usual for me when I'm on nights. And this chest cold, while not as bad as it might be, is showing no signs of departing. Basically, it's been a bit of a rough week.

So, clearly, it's time to share a silly link that made me smile: 14 Classic Novels Rewritten With Clickbait Titles. Although, honestly, #9 just tells the simple, unvarnished truth.

Please Send Cough Drops.

Gaaah, never mind blaming my allergies, I think I'm actually kind of sick. Which is just... not acceptable. Seriously, it isn't. I have another 40 hours' worth of night shifts still ahead of me, and there isn't anybody who can easily fill in for me if I'm sick.

Sigh. This is what comes of going out and doing things and being social. You just expose yourself to other people's germs. Hermit mode is much better. How else am I going to avoid that end-of-the-world plague when it comes?

No, I Did Not Forget The May Currentlies.

This is way later in the month than I usually do this, but I've been various kinds of busy lately.

Current clothes: Blue pajama pants, a gray pocket t-shirt, and my space shuttle slippers. It's still morning for me, and I have not showered yet.

Current mood: Tired. I didn't get nearly enough sleep today. I overslept a bit yesterday, so I'm trying to tell myself that it all evens out, but sadly I don't think it quite works that way.

Current music: Nothing particularly memorable.

Current annoyance: I seem to be developing a bit of a cough. I think it's just due to some lung/throat irritation from my allergies, but it's not pleasant.

Current thing: I've been doing a lot more getting out of the house and doing social things lately. Well, by my standards, anyway. But I think I've kind of topped out my capacity for that and maybe want to go back into introvert hermit mode again now. I've also been buying way too many books, but I guess that's less of a current thing and more of a perpetual thing.

Current desktop picture: I've gone back to my favorite bookish wallpaper again.

Current book: Inheritor by C.J. Cherryh.

Current song in head: "Winds of Change" by the Scorpions, just because it was on the radio the other day. So, OK, I guess at least some of the music I've been listening to was memorable.

Current refreshment: A cough drop. Mmmmm!

Current DVD in player: Disk 2 of season 5 of Dexter. Which is a flawed show, and one that constantly feels as if it might go right off the rails at any moment -- and people who've seen more of it than I have all assure me that eventually it does. For now, though, I'm still... Well, "enjoying" it might not be quite the right word, but it's definitely holding my attention.

Current worry: Nova might be a little constipated. To risk venturing into feline TMI territory, I've been noticing the last few weeks that his, uh, litterbox leavings are pretty small, hard, and dry. He is obviously still going at least once a day, though, so I'm not super worried. But I'm wondering if I should take him to the vet.

Current thought: Can someone help me get the Scorpions out of my head?

My Big, Nerdy Day Out

Yes, this has been quite the day of nerdy indulgence for me! First, I went up to the big semi-annual book clearance sale at the Albuquerque public library. And, man... Every time I do that, I remember how much I love the thrill of the hunt and that squeeful feeling of having big piles of newly acquired books. But I tend to forget the stressful, claustrophobic feeling of being in that room full of people, all of whom appear to be trying their best to stand directly between me and whatever books I might be trying to look at at any given moment. Still... Boooooks! I ended up with a total of, uh, 22. Which is actually a small haul for me for one of these things. And you can't beat the price: it comes about to about 23 cents per book.

Traffic downtown was kind of a pain, though, because there was a chunk of street closed off for some unadvertised reason. I'm not 100% certain, but it looked like they were filming something. I was wondering if it might be Better Call Saul, since I know they use a lot of downtown locations, but I don't think they've started filming season 2 yet. Which is good, because otherwise I would have confusingly mixed emotions, since I really hate backed up traffic, but I really like Better Call Saul. If it was just some random movie, though, I can just feel annoyed. Still... I guess it's a sign that New Mexico's film industry really is taking off, as that's not something I've ever encountered before.

Anyway. After the book sale and navigating the downtown streets, I went to see The Avengers: The Age of Ultron. Which I enjoyed. Maybe not quite as fun as the first movie, but entertaining. Especially as I've always had a soft spot for anything involving AIs. Someone told me yesterday, though, that the director's cut is supposed to be three and a half hours, and I can totally believe it, because a lot of the plot, while it worked OK, did feel like it could have been fleshed out more.

And now, I am about to watch the season finale of Once Upon a Time. I've had somewhat mixed feelings about this season, to be honest, but I'm still ludicrously into this show, so I'm looking forward to it.

Oh, and, yes, somewhere in there, I did find time to call my mom. (I also tried to call my dad, since it's his birthday, but I didn't get an answer. So, if you're reading this, Dad, happy birthday!)

Dear Immune System: Stop Hitting Yourself!

Here I was, going around telling people how great the Flonase I'm using has been working, because my allergies hadn't been bothering me at all this year. Then we got a few days of rain. Yesterday, it stopped. And, suddenly: PLANT ORGY! HUGE PLANT ORGY! And the inside of my nose has become an ugly, ugly place. The Flonase, it does nothing! Or at least not enough. Fortunately, I have some of the good decongestants hoarded from last year. Unfortunately, they're not doing a whole lot either. Clearly the only remaining solution is to move to Antarctica.

I Have A T-Shirt That Says "Will Work For Books." I Guess It Tells The Truth.

Last night was the Service Awards dinner, in which I was recognized for having worked for NRAO for 20 years. Which is a number I'm still having immense trouble wrapping my head around. Anyway, among other things, they gave me a very nice gift certificate. It's one of those ones that's not a gift card for a specific place, but can be redeemed online for gift cards of your choice. They had a lot of options, but most of them were not places I was especially interested in shopping. So, clearly, there was really only one solution: Shopping spree at Barnes & Noble! Whoo-hoo!!

Bloggish Musings

Well, here we are in May, and thus I am officially done with the second annual celebration -- or whatever it is -- of Blogs-A-Lot April. Once again, I got a small but surprising amount of satisfaction out of it, possibly just because taking the time to post something every day, even if it was only a sentence or two, gave some vague sense of structure to my life of crazy, ever-shifting schedules.

I was going to say, though, that this particular exercise got me to thinking, not so much about whether I should do the same thing next year, but about whether this blog should even still really be an active thing next year. Because whether people comment here or not -- and a big "hello!" both to those who do, and to those who read but comment to me offline or elsewhere instead -- it can feel embarrassingly like talking to myself in public. And, as a format for personal updates, stray thoughts, random links, and occasional cat pictures, the blog feels increasingly obsolete. Normal people these days do that stuff on Facebook, or Twitter. (Or Tumblr, maybe, especially for the younger set. But I have to admit, I don't really get Tumblr.) I've resisted joining Facebook and Twitter for various reasons, for years, but maybe, I was thinking, it might be time to do that, after all, and make people stop coming to me here. Probably only one or two people would miss it anyway, right?

And then, in the last few days, several people have left really entertaining comments, or told me in person that they enjoy my posts here and like to stop by occasionally to catch up, with the implication that Facebook wouldn't be remotely the same. Which made me feel good, and has prompted a surge of real affection for the ol' blog. So, who knows? Maybe I'll keep going. I've been here 13 years, a number that truly startles me. But maybe I'll hang out for another 13, until we're all just communicating telepathically with each other's brain implants.

A New Thing!

I bought a new sofa! It is an awesomely comfy sofa of awesomeness. Look!



As you can see, it has already been claimed for the feline species.

I'm Surely Not The Only One Who Gets A Little Freaked Out By This Sort Of Thing. Am I?

The latest interesting trick from my new phone: it told me what my travel time would be between my home and work, and offered me a traffic report for my commute. Which is a bit silly, as I walk to work, and my travel time is always exactly the same. But that is not the important point. The important point is that it figured out by itself where I work. My phone is stalking me. I'm guessing the app tracked the phone's location and decided, correctly, that that place I've gone at the same time every day for the last six days must be my place of employment. Truly, this is an awesome and terrifying science fiction future I am now living in.

I Haven't Had Time To Do Or Think About Anything Interesting Lately, So I'm Just Gonna Ramble About My Boring Life.

I am finally at the end of another very long work week, this time of day shifts. I'm going to be so glad when we finally get a new person hired, trained, and ready to take their place in the rotation, so we don't have to do these anymore. Or at least not as often. Although, I gotta say, I am not looking forward to training them. At all. Right now, my job feels like it involves such a disorganized mishmash of knowledge and procedures that some days I'm not sure I know how to do it.

Anyway. It'll be good to get off the day shifts for a while, at least. Lately I've been so exhausted I've been falling asleep at 9:00, which just seems all kinds of wrong to me. I don't know if my brain's going to try to pull that on me again tonight or not, but I think I'm going to go out to the weekly pub quiz tonight, anyway. As far as I can tell, my trivia-recalling abilities don't actually seem to depend much on how tired I am.

I Talk About The Weather

It's cool and damp here this morning. I kind of love weather like this. It's so unusual here, that it feels like I'm, well, anywhere but New Mexico. It makes me feel like I've traveled without ever leaving home.

The Person With The Camel Is My New Hero.

Today's just-because-I-liked-it random link: The World's Weirdest Libraries.

Here's An Idea

I still have nothing interesting to talk about today, so instead I'll let someone else do it for me, by linking to my New Favorite Thing: the PBS Idea Channel, where there is no such thing as overthinking. I've been slowly making my way through all the videos in order. I think I'm now up to number 106. No comment on whether or not I might be developing an eensy little crush on the host.

More Cat (Much More Cat)

By request: a picture of Vir. Although he wasn't being anywhere near as photogenic as Nova, I'm afraid.

Today

I'd like to wish a happy birthday to William Shakespeare. Also to my friend Jeannine. And since I missed acknowledging the fact that it was Earth Day yesterday, I'd like to reassure the Earth that it's still my favorite place in the solar system, no matter what Mars or Europa might say.

It's What The Internet Is Made Of.

I got nothing today, so have a cat picture I took while trying out the camera on the new phone:

A Shot In The Foot

Today's fun activity: another visit to my podiatrist, since the orthotics, while they've helped, haven't done away with the foot pain nearly as much as I was hoping. So this time, I got a shot of cortisone in the foot. My toes still feel kind of numb. Hopefully that's normal.

Then, of course, to reward myself for having braved the giant scary needle, I went to Page One and bought entirely too many books. As one does.

Interesting side note: my new phone took it upon itself to remind me not just of my appointment, but of exactly when I'd have to leave to make the appointment. Which is especially interesting, as I didn't tell it I had an appointment. It must have read my e-mail. Once again, I cannot decide whether this technology is awesome or creepy. But either way, I have clearly become a science fiction character.

The Bad Kind Of Time Travel

Finally, I am nearing the end of this 7-day, 64-hour block of night shifts! Of course, then I have to spend tomorrow shifting myself back around to being a day person. Yay.

Not Such Bad Habits

Today's random link, because I'm a sucker for this kind of thing: 9 Of The Worst Habits Of Book-Lovers That Leave Us Broke, In Pain, And Lonely (But It's All Totally Worth It).

Some thoughts:

This is maybe the third time in the past few months that I've seen a reference to an awesome-sounding super-bookish character on Gilmore Girls. I am now wondering whether I need to watch this show.

And I can confirm that I have, in fact, brought a book to a party. In fact, I do bring a book everywhere, and it befuddles me that the author of this piece seems to think that there's something wrong or embarrassing about that.

I Will Attempt To Resist The Urge To Hide In The Introvert Cave.

People seem to keep asking me to do social things lately. It's... strange.

Telescopes Vs. Robots

Your random link for today: "The Roomba for Lawns Is Really Pissing Off Astronomers".

One For You, Nineteen For Me

So, that's another tax day over and done with. I hope everybody got theirs done with a minimum of bother. (Well, I hope that for the US folks, anyway. I have no idea when the rest of the world does such things.)

Even though mine are usually minimally complicated, I find doing my taxes ridiculously frustrating. Often at some point in the process I will find myself gritting my teeth and going, "Aaargh! I have an astrophysics degree! Why am I incapable of understanding a stupid tax form!?"

Ah, well, at least I'm getting a decent refund this year. It's not a lot, but it's more than I usually get. Even though it's really just my own money coming back to me, I'm choosing to look at it as a reward for putting up with the annoyance.

I'm Not Sure My Brain Was Quite Ready For That.

I'll tell ya, there is some interesting stuff in my Netflix queue. Having given up on Mockingjay, I have now moved on to the next item on the list, a six-part anime series called FLCL[*]. Two episodes in, and so far my entire reaction can pretty much be summed up as, "Now Japan's just fucking with us." I am reserving judgment as of yet as to whether that's a good thing or a bad thing.

[*] Apparently that's pronounced "fooly cooly." Which appears to be some sort of sexual euphemism. I... don't even know.

In Which I Cleverly Identify A Trend Everybody Already Knew About Anyway

Judging by my own completely anecdotal personal experience, I believe I can confidently state that, as of right now, we have reached the point where e-books have not only Arrived, they are tipping over into becoming the norm. I base this on the fact that, four or five times just in the past month or so, random people have seen me reading in a public place and come up to me and said, "Oh, it's so nice to still see someone reading a real book!" By which they clearly mean a print book. About half the time, this is followed up by some vaguely embarrassed admission of having broken down and bought a Kindle. Although why they should feel like that's somehow shameful, I honestly don't know. I have lots of reasons for not going that route, myself, but it's not like there's anything immoral about them.

Why Movies Are My Least Favorite Entertainment Delivery System: A Random Ramble Of Rambliness

I watched about half of Mockingjay, Part 1 last night before I got too sleepy to continue, and I'm now debating whether I should even bother finishing it. It's not that it's bad, exactly, but so far it consists mostly of people sitting or standing around in various places with offputting lighting, looking grim and intoning stilted Dialog of Earnest Seriousness at each other. And do I really need more of that in my life? Especially as I did read the books, so it's not like I don't know how it all comes out.

All of which is making me think of this blog post that I read a few days ago. (If you're too lazy to click, the title is, "Too Busy To Watch a Movie? Read A Book.") Reading that gave me one of those "OMG, I am not alone!" reactions, as I have been trying to explain to people for ages how it is that I can binge-watch entire seasons of TV shows or cheerfully dive into a 500-page novel that will take me days to finish, but sitting down to watch a 2-hour movie somehow feels like way too much effort. Generally, people look at me in blank incomprehension when I say that, but, wheee! Turns out it's not just me!

Mind you, I'm not sure the author has the full explanation here. Yes, I think probably a large part of it is that we all feel really busy these days, with a zillion other things we could be doing instead of watching that 2-hour movie, while TV episodes are more bite-sized and thus feel like less of a commitment, and books can be whipped out anywhere and read a few pages at a time. But for me, at least, it's more than that. It's not just that I am (or feel) busy and don't want to commit the time. It's more about committing my attention, and the issue of how much reward I get in return for what that attention costs me. Books, for me, require almost no effort. Reading is almost like breathing for me, and it's pretty much an unthinking default activity for filling any random downtime. Utterly effortless, and often done during times when I wouldn't be doing much of anything else, anyway, so it scarcely feels like an investment. Even if it turns out to be a bad book, I don't really feel frustrated or cheated out of the time it took me to read it. Much.

A TV episode requires maybe 40 minutes of sitting down and actively committing your attention to the screen (or at least, it does the way I watch it). A movie might require a couple of hours. But how does the reward compare? I think this is what makes the difference. I find I have very little patience with movies that don't completely and immediately deliver me a great viewing experience; whereas I can actually have a lot of patience with a subpar episode of TV show I'm following. Why? I think it's this: with a decent TV show, there's at least the prospect of a long-term reward for the time I'm investing. Maybe the pilot episode is rough, maybe this particular mid-season episode is mostly just annoying filler, whatever. But sitting through that episode, even if it's not great in itself, gets me somewhere. At least, it does with most modern TV shows. It's a step along the path in a much larger story, a story that I get to watch play out over time, with characters whose lives I can be a part of for a good long while and a world that my TV and I can explore together at our leisure. It's a part of a larger whole, one that can potentially provide me with days or years of entertainment, which makes it worth sitting through the boring parts and the missteps, as long as that whole seems at all worthwhile. And if the episode I'm currently watching isn't great, the next episode might be a lot better. But I have to get through the current one first, or the story won't work as well. And, hey, I can do that! It's totally worth it to me. And so I'm able to relax and enjoy myself, rather than feeling impatient and frustrated and distracted by thoughts of all the other things I could be doing with my time instead.

With a movie... Well, you watch the movie, and that's it. That's the full experience. The point of watching a movie is to enjoy the movie, and so, if my enjoyment is anything less than complete, it feels like kind of a waste of time. That's even true for movies like The Hunger Games series, where there actually is one story continued over several movies, because these things come out spaced a year or more apart, and generally by the time the next one is available, I've forgotten most of the last one and lost all sense of momentum and most of my interest. Sure, there are exceptions, exciting movies that provide extended enjoyment because afterward I spend a long time thinking about them and discussing them, and can watch them over and over and find new things in them each time. (Hello, Cabin in the Woods!) But those are very, very rare. Most of Hollywood's output is, at best... kind of OK. And two hours of my concentrated attention for the sole reward of having watched something kind of OK is mostly just not good enough.

No One Understands Me But My Google

My new phone came with this app from the All-Knowing Google, which, when opened, automatically provides information it believes you will want. Last night, it reminded me that today is Yuri Gagarin day, and that there's a new episode of Once Upon a Time. That's a level of relevance-to-my-interests that's almost disturbing. Truly, 21st century technology is a wonderful and terrifying thing.

Also, happy Yuri Gagarin Day!

But At Least I Have Shoes.

Today's excitement: I drove up to Albuquerque to buy myself a new pair of shoes. Afterward, I was supposed to meet a friend for lunch, but I ended up meeting him at the hospital instead, as he arrived home only to discover his elderly mother had been carted off in an ambulance. Eeeep! Fortunately, she seems to be just fine. But I would appreciate it if that's the last phone call I get telling me someone's in the hospital for a good long while.

In Which I Accomplish Things, And Other People Flake Out Completely

It's been a fairly satisfying few days, just in terms of how much I've managed to knock off my ridiculously long to-do list. Yay!

I really wish that one of those things had been getting the ball rolling on the concrete work I need done, though. I'm still utterly befuddled by my dealings with the company here in Socorro. I called them over a week ago and got someone who seemed very clueless about what they would or wouldn't do, but said that the boss would call me back and let me know. He did a few hours later and told me that, yep, they'd do the kind of work I need -- removing the old damaged concrete of my driveway and from around my house and replacing it with new stuff -- and that he'd come out and give me an estimate the next day, and would call before he showed up. Never saw him, never heard from him. I called back the next day, during normal business hours, got no answer, and left a message. Nothing. I called again a couple of days ago, after the Easter holidays, to ask what the hell happened, kinda hoping there'd be some legitimate excuse about a family emergency or something, and got someone who sounded a lot like the same person I originally talked to. She claimed to have no idea who I was or that I'd ever called or arranged anything, and suggested that maybe the reason I got blown off was because "we've been kinda busy." Then she assured me that the boss would call me back "the minute he steps in the door." Guess what? Yep. Never heard back. So, clearly these are not people I actually want to do business with. (That's A-1 Concrete, for the local Socorro folks. I recommend avoiding.) Anyway, I guess once again I'm going to have to find someone in Albuquerque who's willing to come down here.

Sigh. Sometimes I really hate this town.

Technological Progress!

So, I did, in fact, get quite a few major things done yesterday, even if my to-do list is still somehow growing instead of shrinking. The biggest thing is that I finally did something I'd been intending to do for at least the last year: I got myself into the Verizon store and bought myself a new phone.

I now have a shiny new LG G3, a good phone with a ridiculously bland and unmemorable name. So far, I am deliriously happy with it. Mind you, at this point anything would be a vast improvement over my old phone, which is nearly five years old and was low-end even when I bought it. Among other things rendering it very close to useless for most of what you'd actually want to use a smartphone for, it had so little memory that not only could I not add any more apps to it, I couldn't even let the ones that were already there update themselves.

I've also long since come to realize that I find very small screens entirely too annoying to deal with The new one has a 5.5" display, and, oh, man, that's approximately a 6,000-fold increase in usability for me. The keyboard display is actually large enough for me to type on it comfortably! It takes me more than three seconds to read all the text that fits on the screen! I can actually see what's going on in a video! Hallelujah!

Or Maybe I'll Just Sit Around Dithering About What To Do Until It's Time To Go Back To Work.

One of my co-workers is transferring to another position, and we haven't hired someone to replace him yet, never mind getting them trained. So for the near future, my work schedule is even weirder than usual. Among other things, that means I'm working one of those 7-day, 64-hour weeks of night shifts next week. Yay. But it also means that, starting today, I have five days in a row off. Which is awesome, and more or less makes up for it.

Except for the fact that I've got this small but forceful voice in the back of my brain insisting that I need to use this time off to do ALL THE THINGS, as quickly as possible, especially the things that require doing stuff during normal day person hours, but also that I absolutely must use it to relax and de-stress, do a lot of reading and catch up on all the TV shows I've recorded but not yet watched.

Thanks, brain. Thanks a lot.

Well, so far I've hacked down weeds in the yard (ah, the joys of spring!) and called the city (again) about the fire hydrant in my front yard that's leaking (still), and put some laundry in the washer. Not bad, considering that it's not even 11 AM yet. Maybe now I can get to work on that relaxing part...

(70 Miles South Of) Albuquerque

I'm already doing very poorly with this posting-every-day thing. The only thing I can think of to blog about today is how I went into the Subway wearing my Weird Al Yankovic t-shirt, and when I said, "Can I get chips and a drink with that?" the guy responded, "Naaaah, we're out of bear claws," and I felt that bizarre warm glow that only comes from sharing a pop cultural affinity with a completely random person in a completely random situation.

And for anyone who might need an explanation and have eleven minutes to kill:

I Got Nothing Else Today, So Let's Do This Now.

Current clothes: Blue jeans. A Doctor Who t-shirt. Brown leather boots that have definitely seen better days and are reminding me that I need to go and buy some new shoes soon.

Current mood: Mostly OK, I guess, although if I'm honest, I have been kinda grumpy and insecure lately, overall.

Current music: Nothing at the moment, really. But I'm thinking of buying a pair of portable speakers for my iPod, so I can have it wake me up in the morning with random music.

Current annoyance: Having to schedule things that involve other people. Because then not only do I have to work around my own (frequently insane) schedule, I also have to work around theirs. Even more annoying: when they then don't show up.

Current thing: I, um, may have been accidentally buying entirely too many books again. But... But books are my refuge when I am feeling grumpy and insecure! And buying them and surrounding myself with them may actually be even more soothing than reading them. (Is this working as an excuse, or just making me sound really, really pathetic?)

Current desktop picture: It's still Uncle Iroh, although, much as I love him, I think it really is time to replace him now.

Current book: The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss. It's a giant brick of a fantasy novel -- part two in a series of giant fantasy bricks -- but it's a surprisingly quick and pleasant read.

Current song in head: Something the dancing demon sang in the musical Buffy episode, because it randomly came up on my iPod a couple of days ago.

Current refreshment: Nothing. I must have refreshment! Actually, I must figure out what I want to do for dinner...

Current DVD in player: Disc 3 of season 3 of Dexter. Which is a weirdly additive show, and which makes me think all kinds of pretentious, half-formed thoughts about narrative and POV and the seductive but problematic concept of vigilante justice, and stuff. Although I'm also wondering whether it's a premise that's actually capable of supporting a full eight seasons, and whether it might actually have peaked in season two. But I intend to keep watching it to find out.

Current worry: Nothing specific, honestly. Which I guess is actually kind of nice, only having vague, general things to worry about.

Current thought:

It Must Be Bunnies!

Happy Easter, to those for whom the occasion is significant. (And, for that matter, happy Passover, ditto.)

In honor of the day, may I direct you to possibly the most adorable piece of Doctor Who fan art ever?

Although They Do Say If You Eat A Live Frog Before Breakfast, Nothing Worse Will Happen To You (Or The Frog) For The Rest Of The Day.

Hoo, boy, has today been One of Those Days. I think there should be a rule that says, if breakfast involves discovering your bagel is moldy after you've eaten almost half of it, you should just be allowed to go back to bed and blow off whatever you were supposed to do for the rest of the day. Because, somehow, it just never gets much better from there.

How Is It That I'm Old Enough To Be Doing Anything For 20 Years?

Just got an e-mail at work yesterday acknowledging the fact that, as of last year, I have been with the Observatory for 20 years. In recognition of this fact, I get a pin, a plaque, a free dinner, a substantial gift certificate, and the disconcerting feeling of wondering where the hell all that time has gone and what exactly I've been doing with my life.

April Fools, First World Problems, Whatever

It's been many years since someone played a deliberate prank on me on April Fool's Day (at least, if you don't count all those fake news articles and things), and this year was no different. But I swear, the entire world seems to have lined up to mess with me, anyway. I spent all day waiting for a guy to come and give me an estimate on re-doing my driveway, but he never called and never came. Finally, hungry and tired from all that waiting, I ordered myself a pizza, only to have the wrong one show up. Which I didn't realize until the delivery guy had left, of course, although the smell of green peppers wafting from the box ought to have been a clue. I hate green peppers.

Seriously, world, come on. That's a really lame sense of humor. I mean, if you're gonna play pranks on me, you could at least make them creative.

Um... wait. Pretend I never said that. I don't want to tempt fate quite that much.

The Triumpant Return Of Blogs-A-Lot April (No April Foolin'!)

So, last year I did this thing where for (most of) the month of April, I made a point of posting something here every day, even if it was just a stray thought or a random link. And I think it was a worthwhile exercise -- for me, if for no one else. And appropriate for April, too, since this is the blog's anniversary month. (It's 13! Which is a fact that's kind of hard to process, on several levels.) Anyway, I'm going to try it again this month. I have no idea what I'm going to have to say for the next 29 days, but, hey, I'm sure it'll be fun finding out.

Everyone Should Have A 5-Year Supply of Books Stockpiled In Case Of Emergency.

Today's fun link: a helpful/terrifying tool to calculate how long it will take you to finish all your unread books.

My results look like this:

Reading all 783 books will take:
5 years and 8 months

You will finish your TBR pile on:
November 23, 2020

And you will be:
49 years old

That's not too bad, right? Let's just ignore that small matter of me buying them faster than I read them.

I'm also very amused that apparently I will finish reading my stash on Doctor Who Anniversary Day. Clearly, I'll need to finish up with a Who-related book. Guess I've got five years and eight months to decide which one.

Qapla'! Well, Almost.

Just got back from the Geeks Who Drink Star Trek trivia quiz in Albuquerque, which I attended with a team of co-workers. And, my, we are a gloriously nerdy lot. We tied for second! Which, alas, nets us no prize -- oh, if only we had been able to remember what ore the Cardassians were processing on DS9! -- but nevertheless allowed us to emerge with a nice, warm feeling of Trekkie pride.

Also, I drank something alcoholic and green. Just call me Scotty!

More Dental Adventures

Ever since I had that big ol' chip in my tooth fixed it's been bugging me anytime I drink or eat something cold, or even drink room-temperature water, if it makes too much contact. So I finally went back to the dentist. He probed around with his little air-blower thingy to see where it was bothering me and exclaimed, "Oh, that makes our lives easier!" Man, that is definitely the sort of thing you want to hear at the dentist. Anyway, he thinks probably all it needed was some varnish to fill in a little "insufficiency." As opposed to, y'know, a root canal. The whole thing took 15 minutes. Right now, I've got a giant wad of gauze in my face that I'm not allowed to remove for half an hour, and I may have to go back for a couple more applications. But I will definitely take that over a root canal. Whew!

Three Completely Unrelated Things

Because three things make a post, right?

1. Happy Pi Day! This is an extra-special one: since it's 3/14/15, we've got a couple of extra digits! Too bad I was asleep at 9:26, or I could have really celebrated! Alas, I have no pie, although I do have to go to the grocery store soon, so I think I'm going to rectify that. In the meantime, I will observe the occasion by linking to Phil Plait's 8 Things About Pi for Pi Day post.

2. I am watching Game of Thrones again, now that season 4 is out on DVD. (I've got two episodes left. Do not spoil me!) My reaction to this show at the moment is an interestingly paradoxical blend of, "Man, this crapsack world is too crappy even for me!"[*] and "Ooh, I have got to get around to reading these books!"

3. While we're in mourning for Leonard Nimoy and Terry Pratchett, let's also take a moment to remember Nimoy's fellow Star Trek contributor Harve Bennett, who, as a friend reminded me recently, was responsible for much of the success of the Trek films, and was the person who convinced Nimoy to return for The Wrath of Khan. He died on February 25.


[*] I have something of a taste for dark stories where really bad things happen to everybody. It makes me feel way better about my own life, by contrast.

This Is Getting Depressing

And then today, I got to wake up to the news that Terry Pratchett had died. I confess, I found myself shedding a few tears at that, which I didn't when I read about Nimoy. I think maybe it's because my brain is simply incapable of processing the idea of a world without Spock, whereas the thought of no more Discworld novels hits home all too easily. (Then again, maybe it's just lack of sufficient sleep making me feel more vulnerable to such things. Unlike Nimoy's greatest creation, I do not have control over my emotions.)

Dammit. Talented, likeable people who bring us, or help to bring us, wonderful, meaningful, entertaining stories should not be allowed to leave us, slow or fast.

Currently, In March

Current clothes: The same brown t-shirt from Uluru I was wearing last month. Blue long-sleeve denim shirt over it. Nearly new blue jeans. Not at all new brown leather boots.

Current mood: Kinda tired. I was up earlier than I should have been this morning. Although the nice brisk walk I just took helped a little.

Current music: Nothing at the moment. Instead, I've just been listening to someone read me a Lovecraft story. Y'know, so much of Lovecraft's stuff was over-written to the point of reading like self-parody, but "The Colour Out of Space" is genuinely good. It's a little slow to get going, admittedly, and takes entirely too long to wrap up. But it's marvelously, effectively creepy.

Current annoyance: Having to interact with other human beings, when my impulse is to hide from them all instead. But I think I have been doing a remarkably good job of pretending to be socially functional lately. Also, having to work for a living. I had five days in a row off last week, which is a rare occurrence. It's great when it happens, but when it's over, it inevitably just leaves me longing to return to that brief taste of what life would be like if my time were entirely my own. Sigh.

Current thing: Attempting to be a responsible adult and do responsible adult things. I have been doing OK at this. Not great, but OK.

Current desktop picture: Still Uncle Iroh from Avatar. Iroh is my new role model.

Current book: Deadly Choices: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All by Paul A. Offit, an extremely good, extremely informative book about a subject that should not be nearly as controversial as it is.

Current song in head: "The Witch's Promise" by Jethro Tull. Which has now been stuck in my head long enough that I'm starting to feel desperate to get rid of it.

Current refreshment: Nothing, but I need some lunch now.

Current DVD in player: I've got the first disk of Futurama Vol. 8 in the player in front of the treadmill, because I really need to get back into watching-and-walking. In the one in the living room is the first disk of season 3 of Key & Peele. It was supposed to be season 2, but Netflix doesn't have that for some reason. Well, whatever. It's not like it's a show you need to watch in order, anyway. To be honest, Key & Peele frustrates me a little, because I find their humor varies wildly, from hilarious to annoyingly unfunny and back, sometimes in the space of a single sketch. And I actually find their on-stage bits funnier, overall, than this skits, and wish they were longer. I would happily watch a full half-hour of those guys doing standup.

Current worry: I'm trying not to.

Current thought: Indeed, rather than worrying I am going to take some advice from my new role model and, when in doubt, have a nice cup of tea.

Sort of a Random Links Post

This Twitter feed is my new favorite thing. Unless maybe it's this Tumblr.

He Lived Long And Prospered

There are some people whose work is so much a part of our lives that it seems inconceivable that they might ever one day not be around. Leonard Nimoy is -- was -- is one of these people. Dammit.

Now I'm Cookin' With Gas! Well, I Was Before. But Now I'm Doing It Better.

So, I still haven't replaced my living room furniture, which has literally had the stuffing clawed out of it by cats, or even started looking into having my deteriorating concrete replaced. But I have a new stove! I finally got fed up with the old one when the second burner on it stopped working. But, really, it should have been replaced years ago. Y'know, when the metal on the stovetop starts to chip and crumble away, that's a sign your stove is getting a little too old. Plus, it's an annoying stove. The temperature dial only has a few random values marked on it, leaving you to guess at the rest, and the burners have big ol' holes through which debris can fall into an area that's damn near impossible to clean. But! But my new one has a digital display that tells you the temperature! And a timer! And an automatic preheat! And should be really easy to clean!

Tonight, I shall make celebratory tostadas. I shall crisp the tortillas in my new oven (which is easier and probably healthier than frying them) and brown the ground beef on my new burners, and, lo, it shall be a glorious Mexican feast!

Time Machines And Teeth

My latest annoyance: last night I was happily munching on a piece of bread -- bread, mind you, and not even stale bread -- when I suddenly found myself thinking, "Huh, that bit of bread was unusually crunchy." Followed by, "Huh, I suddenly seem to have less chewing surface left to eat this bread with." Or something to that effect, but less coherent.

Yep, that's right. I broke a chunk off my tooth. Aaargh. Fortunately, they were able to fit me in at the dentist today, and I was able to get someone to cover for me at work. (Because, of course, this sort of thing never happens on my days off.) Even more fortunately, it turns out I didn't need a crown this time; they were able to rebuild the missing tooth chunk with a bit of metal and some filling. Still, that was not so much fun. They gave me so much novocaine my eye went numb, and now that it's finally wearing off, my mouth is starting to protest the manhandling. Stupid teeth.

Well, to cheer myself up, I'm going to watch my new favorite video a bunch of times.



Is that not amazing? Seriously, new favorite video ever.

February Currentlies

Current clothes: Blue jeans. A brown t-shirt from Uluru, Australia. White socks.

Current mood: Not too bad. A little tired, maybe, which isn't great, since I have to switch over onto night shifts soon. But, overall, fairly relaxed and upbeat.

Current music: Victims of the Modern Age by Star One. This is a Dutch metal band that writes songs about science fiction movies (and the occasional TV show). It is, of course, impossible for this not to be awesome. (I do think this one isn't quite as awesome as their first one, but then, how could it be? There is no Blake's 7.)

Current annoyance: Ants. My evil six-legged nemeses!

Current thing: I have been getting a fair amount of stuff done lately, since I've had a bit more time and some actual money. (Example: my front doorbell now works for the first time in months! Many, many months.) And when I'm not attempting to be productive, I'm playing The Sims 4. Which is pretty much the exact opposite of productive. Thus do I achieve balance in my life.

Current desktop picture: This picture of Uncle Iroh from Avatar: The Last Airbender. Because Iroh is the best.

Current book: You Can Date Boys When You're Forty by Dave Barry, who never fails to be funny.

Current song in head: It's been something of a random mishmash lately, but for the last few days, nothing seems particularly inclined to stick.

Current refreshment: Peach tea.

Current DVD in player: Nothing at the moment, but most recently the second disc of season 5 of Archer.

Current worry: That I will lose my war against the ants. Which, even apart from the possibility of them eating my house, will mean that I cannot get my drippy bathtub faucet fixed, because I cannot ask the plumbers to work inside a wall that is crawling with ants. I think that would be entirely too much to expect.

Current thought: My mind just went completely blank.

Sigh.

After all that money to fix my roof, it is leaking. Again. Around the skylight. Again. Also, either the ants came back or never entirely went away, because there is a giant, crawly mass of them living in the wall behind my bathtub.

These things can be dealt with. I hope. But, man, I am tired of dealing with things. I am tired of adult responsibilities and long lists of things to do, and my inner child just wants to throw a whiny-brat tantrum about it. "I don't wanna! I don't wanna! My life is so haaaaaaaaard!" Shut up, inner child.

Well, at least I have this woman telling me I shouldn't feel guilty about having so many unread books:



Although I can't help thinking that maybe she really doesn't mean this many.

Glasses Update

...Except now I have a crick in my neck from trying to watch TV while lying down, because I practically have to point my chin at the floor to properly make out words on the bottom of the screen. Apparently the solution to this is, "Yeah, don't watch TV lying down, 'cause your glasses aren't made for that." DO NOT WANT.

Eye Eye Eye!

I finally have my new glasses, with the new progressive lenses. And they're not quite as freaky and disturbing as I kept worrying they would be, so that's good. Although it might be more accurate to say that they're freaky and disturbing in ways that are less constant and a bit more subtle than I was expecting. Looking at a computer screen is mostly OK. Staring straight ahead into the far or middle distance is great. Turning my head or moving my eyes too quickly can be quite unpleasant, though. And looking at my feet or the ground in front of me tends to yield unsatisfactory results.

Still. Tilting my head up and down to change things back and forth from blurry to focused is almost kind of entertaining to do, and I can see how it could become second nature rather than an interesting novelty, given a little time. And while I was coming back from the eye doctor's I even pulled out a book and tried reading while walking down the street. Turned out to be totally doable, despite some slight weirdness if the book jiggles around too much. Which is a relief; that was something I was expecting to have problems with.

Reading while lying on the sofa, which I only had the chance to try very briefly, did seem kinda tricky, just as the internet had warned me it would be. Which is not a great, as lying on the sofa and reading is basically my best thing. But it doesn't seem impossible to do in a comfortable way, just like it needs a little adaptation.

In the meantime, though... Well, my eyes feel kind of weird. And I wish they didn't. Stupid eyes.

My Exciting TV Adventures

So, I watched last week's pilot to the "SyFy" Channel's new Twelve Monkeys series. Or, rather, I watched maybe a bit less than half of it before reminding myself that I am not, in fact, contractually obligated to finish watching things that are boring me silly, and turned it off. Part of the problem is that, of course, it's impossible not to compare it to the movie, and it suffers a lot from the comparison. I know it's really not at all fair, but I kept finding myself thinking things like, "Boy, is this guy no Bruce Willis." And "Well, there goes the logically consistent time travel that set the movie apart from most of the genre. I knew it was inevitable, since it probably wouldn't be much of a TV show if there was no prospect of changing anything, but it still makes me a little sad." And, "Wow, does this thing need a Terry Gilliam. Or anybody with any sense of style and originality, really."

That last point is the killer, honestly, because it meant there was just nothing about it that remotely stood out as interesting. Not the characters, not the visual style, not the writing. The only thing it might have had going for it is the premise, if it had been able to provoke some sort of "Whoa, what's going on here?" reaction. But not only does that not work for anybody who has seen the movie version, or even who's read anything about the basic concept of the show, but even if you do somehow go into it completely ignorant, I think it quickly exposits away anything that might have been interestingly mysterious.

Of course, I know pilot episodes can be rough, and seldom give you a good idea of what a series will be like one it hits its stride. But if, twenty or thirty minutes in, it hasn't even given you any sense of future potential, that's a bad sign. As is making you feel bored stiff, even if you did start watching it in a grumpy mood. And I have zero desire to repeat the complete waste of time that was Under the Dome. I mean, I really should have listened to my instincts when they told me I might as well stop after that pilot. So... If 12 Monkeys miraculously gets awesome somewhere down the road, somebody come and tell me about it then, and maybe I'll give it another shot. Until then, that's an hour of my life I'm keeping.


In other exciting TV-viewing news, for those who haven't heard me talking about it elsewhere, I've been watching Avatar: The Last Airbender on DVD. (I'm just about to start season 3.) And, you know, I'd always figured all those folks who seemed to think that this was, at the very least, the best kid-friendly animated series in the history of TV were exaggerating. My mistake! It really is just about that good. Two-thirds of the way through (and with a sequel still to watch), and I'm already feeling preemptively sad about running out of it.

Today's Annoyance

Yesterday, I got a message on my answering machine saying my new glasses were ready. It was too late to go and pick them up that day, but I called the office that evening to listen to the hours given in their answering machine message so I could be sure they were open this afternoon. (Since the 21st century has not yet reached much of New Mexico, they don't have a website. Or even a Facebook page.) Then, after working all night, I shorted myself on sleep today so I could be sure to have plenty of time to walk there -- I didn't want to drive home in unfamiliar eyewear -- and for them to make any necessary adjustments. I spent the walk trying to psych myself up for the change, and saying goodbye to my familiar one-focus-fits-all view on the world.

Then I get there, and there's a sign on the door saying that, since they're short-handed, they're closed Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons until further notice. Thanks so much for updating your stated hours, jerks. And, of course, they're closed tomorrow. Screw it. It's gonna have to be Monday. I'm not doing this again on Friday, especially since I'm not going to get much sleep on Saturday, when I'm switching back off nights.

SIGH. I really, really want those two hours of sleep back. One pot of coffee is not remotely enough.

Some Book Stuff

Because I need to link to random bookish stuff here every once in a while: 23 Words For Book Lovers That Really Should Exist. Which is an awkwardly phrased title, as what they really mean is "23 words that really should exist for book lovers." But they are right. I personally am in desperate need of words for most of these things.

Also, I must mention Thriftbooks.com, the new danger in my life. Because... Cheap used books! So many cheap used books! With free shipping!!!! I tried to resist clicking the link to it. But I failed. And now I am doomed. Doooooomed.

The Turing Test Gets A Little Easier To Pass

Hey, good news for anybody who might occasionally want to comment on this blog, but who has been entirely too frustrated by the sometimes impossible CAPTCHA tasks.

A couple of people in the last month or so have told me they were able to comment without having to deal with one, which confused me, because I hadn't changed any settings, and hadn't been getting any spam. (And, believe me, the last time I turned the CAPTCHA off, the spam was awful.) Well, here's the explanation!

So since all you have to do now is to click a box, there is no reason not to talk to me. Got anything interesting to say?

My Car Is Mine!

Received in the mail today: the title to my car, all official, along with a letter acknowledging that I had paid it off in full. Man, that feels good. It feels like relief. Relief, and an extra $257 dollars a month. Hooray!

The Eyes Do NOT Have It. The Eyes Are BAD.

After putting it off for far, far too long, I have now been to the eye doctor, and I have an order in for a pair of progressive bifocals.

To say that I am worried and distressed about that, would, I think, be an understatement. It's not "Oh, I need bifocals, I'm getting oooooold!" I did have that reaction when the eye doctor first mentioned the possibility, but I'm long since over that. It's more that... Well, I am in my forties now, and you know what they say about old dogs and new tricks. The idea of having to change my visual habits -- which I am told that, yes, I will inevitably have to do -- is... it's hard to even conceptualize. "Think of it this way," the doctor told me. "It's a tool. And like any tool, you have to learn to use it. Like any tool, it has its uses and its limitations, and those have to be accepted." Which sounds like a good, sensible way of thinking about it, except... Except, it's not a tool. It's a part of my body. By which I mean not just my eyes, but also the glasses themselves. I've worn glasses pretty much every waking moment since I was six, and in my mind, they are a part of me. To ask someone, after four decades, to change how they use a body part, and how they use a sense... That's not an easy thing.

Everyone I know who has progressive lenses has told me that, after an initial adjustment period, they were absolutely fine. I am trying to be reassured by that, but... But when it comes to reading, everybody else is not me. Everybody else does not walk down the street with a book held up in front of their face. For example.

So instead, I try to comfort myself this way: when it comes to reading, nothing has ever been able to stop me. (Well, music and voices can interfere with the process of putting words into my head, but hearing is not the relevant sense here.) I can read in dim light, in moving vehicles, while walking... When I was young, I even used to read upside-down. So, I can read with bifocals. A little thing like having to relearn a lifetime's habit of where I hold things and how I move my eyes, that's hardly going to stop me. Right?

Now, driving, on the other hand, that might be a different story...

Five Armies, Considerable Waiting

I finally got out to see the third Hobbit movie today. And, man... I think it's debatable exactly how much of a mistake it may or may not have been to split this up into three movies, but what I can say for sure is that, for me, this one defintely suffered from the year-long wait between installments, and particularly from the choice to end the second movie right in the middle of the action and then to pick it right back up again in part three. I walked out of The Desolation of Smaug feeling excited (albeit frustrated), but by the time the theater lights faded out onto The Battle of the Five Armies, all momentum was long since lost, and it took me forever to get back into the swing of things again. Cliffhangers, I think, work way better on TV.

First Currently Meme Of 2015

Current clothes: Dark gray sweats. A t-shirt from White Sands National Monument (mostly black, with a narrow horizontal picture of sunrise or sunset over the sands across the chest). White socks.

Current mood: Fairly well-rested, for once.

Current music: Nothing in particular.

Current annoyance: Winter. This planet is entirely too tilted for my liking.

Current thing: Trying to stick to my let's-not-call-it-a-New-Year's-resolution New Year's resolution about eating better: three decent meals a day, with minimal, healthy snacks. So far, I'm doing surprisingly well at it. The key seems to be keeping myself distracted enough that I'm not paying too much attention to the way my body keeps telling me that it really, really wants to eat an entire box of cookies right now.

Current desktop picture: The holidays being over, I have just gone back to my favorite book-themed wallpaper.

Current book: Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. Which is moderately interesting, but mostly what I'm taking away from it is that Steve Jobs was a giant ass.

Current song in head: The Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun." Wishful thinking, really. Well, OK, it's nice enough out today that we may finally be completely rid of last week's snow by nightfall. But then, I thought that yesterday, too.

Current refreshment: Nothing. I should drink some water.

Current DVD in player: The last disc of season 6 of Mad Men. For the longest time, I couldn't quite get what all the fuss was about with this show, but eventually it more or less converted me.

Current worry: My inheritance check finally came, which means that, for the foreseeable future, my financial worries have largely been alleviated. Which is an immense load off my mind. Now I can stop worrying about money and go back to worrying about my health.

Current thought: Thank you, Uncle Tom, for remembering me in your will. You may not have had any idea just how much of a difference it would make, but I am truly grateful.

2014: The Year in Books

It being traditional for me, at the start of a new year, to take a look back at the last year's reading:

I read a total of 137 books in 2014. That's actually a handful less than last year, which is a little bit surprising, since I figured that orgy of reading in the downtime after my surgery would make a big contribution to the total. But I think there was a bit of a bounce-back effect after that, where my reading was below average for a few months after I went back to work.

If you're curious to see what all I finished this year, you can find the list here (or here, if you prefer to see a pretty arrangement of covers).

Once again, my To-Read Pile was significantly bigger at the end of the year than at the beginning. I blame those darned library sales.

I did read a lot of good stuff this year, though. Here's my (somewhat arbitrary) best-of list:

Fiction:

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
The New Dead: A Zombie Anthology edited by Christopher Golden
Locke & Key Volume 6: Alpha & Omega by Joe Hill & Gabriel Rodriguez
Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
This Book Is Full of Spiders: Seriously, Dude, Don't Touch It by David Wong
Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Attwood
Ancillary Justice and Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie
The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin
Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

Non-Fiction:

At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson
Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error by Kathryn Shulz


Hmm. Bit light on the outstanding non-fiction there, maybe, but I think the fiction list is entertainingly diverse.

Now, my goal next year is to read everything. Wish me luck!