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...