Hey, Look, I Have An Actual Thing To Post About.

So, I went to see Iron Man 3 today. (I confess, this had less to do with an eager inability to wait for this particular movie to come out on DVD and more to do with wanting an excuse to drive the car. I haven't had much reason to leave town lately, and if I don't take the car out on the highway once in a while, the battery will go flat. Right? Plus, it's still an exciting novelty to me to drive a car that doesn't vibrate or fill up with so much wind noise that I can barely hear the radio. Such luxury!) Anyway, the movie was fun, in that improbable stunts, sarcastic quips, and lots of stuff blowing up sort of way. So pretty much what I expected and was hoping for. Also, I think more superheroes ought to suffer anxiety attacks. It makes them much more relatable.

You know, I've talked here before about my ambiguous feelings towards superhero movies in general (especially ones featuring Batman). But apparently any movie with Iron Man in it is pretty much automatically an enjoyable one for me. Which is funny, considering that before the first movie came out, I had only the vaguest idea who Iron Man even was, other than the subject of a song that gets stuck in my head every time I hear it.

But while I, like Tony Stark, enjoy shiny technology, I would like to offer up this tip for movie patrons: please do not let your kids wear those stupid sneakers with the flashing LEDs on them to the movie theater. I mean, come on, people. Seriously.

I Am Still Living Long And Prospering. More Or Less.

It has come to my attention that my posting here has been, well, nearly nonexistent, and that people do notice this fact and seem to miss me. Awww! Unless, of course, they're secretly wondering if I'm dead and they can loot my DVD collection.

Anyway, nope, still not dead. Just... quiet. Or at least I am here. You know how it is. You don't seem to have anything much interesting to say, and the longer you go without saying anything, the more interesting it feels like you need to be to be worth breaking the silence, and... yeah. Well, never mind that. I'm going to try to post here a bit more regularly, and then all of you who encouraged me can ask yourselves, "My god, what have I done?" when I start going on about the boring details of my boring life.

But let's start with a video, instead. You know, I hate commercials. I honestly loathe them. And when somebody tells me there's this really cute, clever, well-made commercial I must see, that only makes me inclined to be even more hostile to it. Because commercials are an attempt to manipulate my brain for profit, and the only thing worse than doing that badly is doing it well. But, well, I had to make an exception for this one. Had to. So:





ETA: And literally as I was posting this, somebody sent me an e-mail with a link to this video, in case I hadn't seen it yet. Oh, my interests, they are so very, very predictable.

I Sometimes Like To Pretend The Only Bad News In The World Is About TV Shows.

Apparently Futurama has been canceled. Again.

I'll be in the angry dome.

Another Brief Glimpse Inside My Brain

I was cooking yesterday -- yes, this is a thing I do occasionally -- and I discovered I was out of thyme. This disturbed me ways it really should not have. Stupid homophones.

Dodging The Presbyopian Bullet

Just got back from the annual eye exam I'd been so diligently putting off. Which featured the following conversational snippet, after the doctor got the funky lens-switching machine to a setting where things looked pretty good:

Doctor: Try this. *makes one final adjustment*

Me, pleased: Hey, that's even better! That looks pretty great!

Doctor: That's the bifocal strength.

Me: Shit.

Fortunately, however, possibly partly in response to my pitiful puppy-dog look, he allowed as how I could reasonably put off switching to bifocals for another year. Well, it's not like I've actually been having any trouble reading or anything, and with as much reading as I do, you would think I'd notice. Reprieve!

But, man, there are just not words for how much I do not want bifocals. It's not really the fact that it's an annoying acknowledgment of advancing age, although that certainly doesn't help. It's that already any time my prescription changes significantly, I feel queasy for a week, and my confidence in my ability to adapt to bifocals, of any kind, is thus extremely low. I also really didn't want to have to spend the money right now, to be honest. Next year, I will hopefully have to buy fewer plane tickets to oblige relatives who for some reason insist on me visiting them.

Also, when I told the optometrist that I really didn't know whether progressive lenses or regular bifocals would work better for me, he immediately replied with, "And you won't until you try them." Great. Just great. I mean, that's kind of a lot of money to spend only to find out you've made the wrong choice. (And I don't have insurance that covers my eyeballs. My work does offer an optional vision plan, but since I've generally only needed new eyeglasses every few years, it hasn't really seemed worth it.)

Oh, well. I'll worry about it all next year.

How Is It That We're This Far Into April Already?

Well, since it's past the usual time for this:

Current clothes: Dark gray sweatpants. A blue t-shirt with a picture of a caffeine molecule on it. (Mmm, coffee!) White socks. Brown leather boots.

Current mood: Not too bad. This is a weekend for me, so I'm in a very weekend-y sort of mood. Kind of relaxed, that is, but with a little voice in the back of my head telling me I should really get some more stuff done before I have to go back to work tomorrow.

Current music: Imagine Dragons' Night Visions.

Current annoyance: Lately we've been having extremely high winds or rain on all those days, and only on those days when I am a) off work and ready to do household chores, and b) desperately low on clean laundry. The vast majority of the time, one can do perfectly well without a clothes dryer in New Mexico, as a clothesline in the backyard handily provides a cheaper, more efficient, and more environmentally friendly alternative. But then there are days like today...

Current thing: I've been playing a lot of Kingdom Rush. I even paid for the premium levels; it's a pretty good entertainment value for six bucks. Then again, I think I often get more hours-of-entertainment-per-dollar out of video games, just because I'm so bad at them that it takes me ages to finish.

Current desktop picture: Oh, gawd, it's still Rumplestiltskin. This is getting downright embarrassing.

Current book: I've just finished Uranium: War, Energy, and the Rock that Shaped the World by Tom Zoellner. It's, um, about uranium.

Current song in head: "Radioactive" by Imagine Dragons. Given the combination of current music and current book, this was pretty much inevitable.

Current refreshment: Green tea chai.

Current DVD in player: Most recently, Robot & Frank. Which was cute, although I kind of get the impression they didn't quite know how to end it.

Current worry: Well, there's always the worry that my house is going to fall down.

Current thought: I really do have some more crap I ought to get done today. But maybe I should have some lunch first.

The Continuing Memoirs Of A Biblioholic, Continued

Just got back from the local Friends of the Library Sale (which is where I was this morning when I really should have been sleeping, but oh, well). I bought seventeen books. I regret nothing! Although I probably will in a minute when I have to find somewhere to put them all.

You know, between the "I'd Rather Be Reading" bumper sticker, and the fact that I tend to think of it first and foremost as a means by which to transport myself to book sales, I have begun mentally referring to my car as "The Bookmobile." Possibly by analogy with the Batmobile, because, in my head, I would kind of like to think of myself as some kind of book-themed superhero. Too Many Books Woman! Okay, the name clearly needs some work.

Also, something I was thinking about the other day: every time I get into the elevator at work (which I do pretty much only when I have to haul a new jug of water for the water cooler), I experience this tiny moment of fear, because there is an infinitesimal possibility that the elevator will get stuck, and I do not have a book with me. Yeah, I'm not the slightest bit afraid of being stuck in an elevator. But I am afraid of being stuck in an elevator with nothing to read. That... may tell you a lot of what you need to know about me, actually.

The Continuing Memoirs Of a Biblioholic

By the way, do you know how many books I've bought this month? One. That's right. One. And I've read eleven[*] (including that biography of Albert Einstein I've been intending to get around to since approximately 1905), which means my total To-Read Pile has gone down by a nice, round ten. Which is still a drop in the bucket, but, you know, it's a biggish drop. I might just kick this addiction yet!

To celebrate, I'm going to take myself to the Friends of the Library sale on Saturday.

[*] Twelve, if I finish the one I'm currently on today, but that seems unlikely, as I'm not very far into it, and I do need to do things other than read today. Sadly.

Insert Blasphemous Joke Of A Subject Line Here.

Happy religious holiday/fertility festival/excuse for eating a lot of chocolate/whatever! Me, if I'm celebrating anything, I think it's Walking Dead Season Finale Day. (Which seems kind of appropriate now that I think about it. Heh. Sorry.) And yesterday was Doctor Who Return from Hiatus Day, which was certainly cause for celebration for me. (Gosh, that show is fun. Sometimes I forget, and then it comes back and reminds me again, and my life feels much the better for it.)

I went to AMC's website, by the way, and took their Walking Dead "Which Character Are You?" test. It told me I was Rick. I don't really want to be Rick. Although I'm not sure if most of the alternatives are much better. After all, no matter who you are, you're still stuck in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, and that is pretty much guaranteed to suck.

My First World Problems

And now my iPod's frozen on me. And I spent all my money on a new coat because my old one needed replacing, and plumbers because my toilet was leaking and my kitchen faucet was coming apart, and an attempt to pay down my credit card bill a little after charging my entire January vacation, leaving myself about $100 for the week for groceries and sundry expenses, only to discover today that this stupid book club I belong to sent me a $70 textbook I didn't want because apparently I never got their "respond to decline your featured selection" e-mail and have charged my debit card for it, so now I have essentially no money at all until I either get paid or get the book returned, unless I want to dip into my savings, which I don't. And my iPod has frozen up on me and will not reset, and and my three most comfortable pairs of jeans all got holes in them at once, and my new favorite TV show just went on hiatus, and I still need to go to the eye doctor so he can tell me I need bifocals after all, which I'll also have to charge on the credit card.

Please send chocolate. Also large piles of cash, an iPod expert, someone to fix the scratch on my car, and a new piar of eyeballs. Thank you.

[ETA: Hey, I got my iPod working again! My life is suddenly looking up! Slightly. Hooray!]

I Guess Nothing Stays New Forever

Gaah, we had ridiculous high winds yesterday, and my trash bin, even though it's sheltered from the wind on three sides, still managed to tip over into my driveway and hit the side of my car, and now the rear driver's side door of my lovely, shiny new vehicle has a small, scuffy little scratch on it. I find that I am disproportionately distressed about this.

It's Been A Long Time Since I Did A Random Links Post. So, Here!

Free Advice for the People in These Stock Photos Who Are Grappling with Technology: Hilarious and clearly badly needed advice.

25 Perfectly Timed Cat Photos: Because however many great cat photos you've seen on the internet, there are always more.

6 Fun Bookish Cartoons: I particularly liked the science fiction one. And the one after that hits a little close to home.

Doctor Who: New Series Trailer: Who returns on March 30, both in the UK and on BBC America. I am excited!

DIY Tardis looks bigger on inside with augmented reality: This is very, very, very cool.

Geeky As It Is, I'm Probably Not The First Person To Make This Joke. But..

I sometimes feel like my life is one long demonstration of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle: when I have the time, I don't have the energy, and when I have the energy, I don't have the time.

(And, yes, that is also going to be my excuse for not blogging more lately.)

Albuturkey!

Apropos my current TV watching, since I'm now making my way through season 5:



Unlike the Doctor Who guys, the Breaking Bad cast can actually bowl. And are also hilarious.

And, man, now I really want to go bowling...

Still Not Dead. Have Some Currentlies.

Current clothes: Weird Al Yankovic "White & Nerdy" t-shirt. Because I am. Gray sweats. Black socks. Giant bearclaw slippers.

Current mood: Reasonably good. I've finally had a few days off after working stupid, stupid hours for the last couple of weeks, and I've gotten at least a little caught up on housework and stuff after neglecting it all horribly, and I am thus starting to feel considerably more relaxed.

Current music: More random shuffle tunes on the iPod. I'm not even sure what it played last. I remember a lot of Rush, though, and some embarrassing nerd rap.

Current annoyance: Credit card bills.

Current thing: Obviously not blogging, that's for sure. Seriously, I don't know how it is that it's been almost two weeks since I checked in here. It feels like I have done absolutely nothing in that time. I know it's not quite true, but it sure feels like it.

Current desktop picture: It's still Rumplestiltskin. I really ought to change it soon, though. He's weirdly distracting.

Current book: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, which so far is very good.

Current song in head: For days, it was "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" by Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty. Then for about a day and a half it was Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance." Now I think Nicks & Petty are making a bit of a comeback, which, frankly, is something of a relief.

Current refreshment: You know, I was going to put the kettle on and make tea. But I have no tea, and can't remember whether I actually heated up the water or not. (It's an electric kettle, so it doesn't whistle, it just shuts itself off, and it's not unheard of for me to wander off and forget about it multiple times in a row.)

Current DVD in player: I'm still making my way through the hour-long Twilight Zone episodes, but it's taking me a while, because I don't always want to spend an hour at a time on the treadmill. Most recently watched on the other machine was Frankenweenie, which was very cute, in that dark, Tim Burton-y kind of way. I've also just recently finished season 4 of Breaking Bad. I know some people have already heard me say this, but it bears repeating: This is one of those rare cases where I've heard a show praised to the high heavens, and when I finally get around to watching it, it actually exceeds my expectations. Absolutely everything about it is top-notch. The cinematography is great (and shows off our starkly beautiful New Mexican scenery to good effect). The writing is amazing: all dark and twisty and subtle and complicated and shocking. But more than anything, I'm impressed by the acting, which is phenomenal. Every single major actor just seems to knock it out of the park every single episode. And it's only getting better and better the more of it I see. I am definitely going to have to catch up with what's been shown so far of season 5 so I can finish watching it as it airs.

Current worry: I'm trying not to, thanks.

Current thought: Hey, apparently I left off the current thought last month!

Also, Why Isn't It Spring Yet?

Dear Weather Channel Website,

Dammit, you said it would maybe rain around 1:00, not, "It'll start snowing like a son of a bitch at 10:30."

No love from me or my on-the-line laundry,
Me

Obligatory "I Aten't Dead" Post

It's been long enough since my last update that I probably ought to post something here, but, man, I feel like I have absolutely nothing to say. Seriously, the single most exciting thing in my life in the last couple of weeks has been getting to watch new episodes of The Walking Dead and Once Upon a Time. The Walking Dead is, I freely admit, a flawed show, but I'm enjoying it, anyway, not least because Daryl is enough to make the whole thing worth watching all on his own. And Once Upon a Time... Well, it has become impossible for me to deny that this thing is kind of a magical soap opera, but, after an uncertain start, I've fallen ridiculously in love with it, anyway. It certainly helps that it features one of the best examples I've ever seen of the character type TV Tropes refers to as the "jerkass woobie": the guy you want to punch in the face for being such an asshole at the exact same time that you also want to give them a great big hug and tell them how sorry you are that their life is so awful. Apparently I'm a total sucker for those.

In other news, Nova was supposed to go in for his dental cleaning tomorrow, but when the woman at the vet's office told me I'd need to come in and pick up the antibiotics he'd need to take on Friday or Saturday, she apparently forgot they were closed this Friday and Saturday. Oops. So now he's rescheduled for Thursday, which might actually work out better with my schedule, anyway. (See, I told you. Not very exciting. Hey, just be glad I'm not devoting multiple paragraphs to complaining about said work schedule. Because I could.)

Me vs. Batman

I... I totally fail at superhero movies. Possibly the time has come to admit that. I keep trying to like them, and a lot of the time, I succeed. I mean, I liked The Avengers a lot. For instance. But sometimes the genre just defeats me.

Like Batman. Apparently I just don't get Batman, or something? I found Batman Begins, which everyone else seems to think was brilliant, to be unbelievably boring. I did enjoy The Dark Knight a heck of a lot more than I expected to, though, I think largely because it made the Joker into a really scary and interesting villain. So I just sat down to watch The Dark Knight Rises on DVD with fairly high hopes, and... I made it a little over an hour in. Seriously, guys, what the heck am I missing? As far as I could tell, it was pretty much all blah, blah, blah, angst, blah, blah, I'm supposed to feel sorry for Bruce Wayne but he's just kind of annoying, blah, blah, more angst, blah, blah, really sloooooow plot stuff that I suppose might make more sense if I remembered anything at all from the last two movies, blah, blah, a few one-liners that would actually be funny if delivered with any charisma, blah, blah, Catwoman in lots of slinky outfits, blah, blah, awkward vaguely political commentary about rich people, blah, blah, gadgets that are supposed to be cool but aren't, blah, blah, villain who might or might not be cool if he ever eventually gets any decent amount of screentime.... And then it got to the point where we hear all about how Annoying Angsty Bruce shut down his awesome new energy-crisis-solving fusion reactor because he found out how someone had an idea about how you could use nuclear fusion to make bombs and... and... I'M SORRY, I TRIED, BUT I JUST CAN'T DO THIS ANY MORE. I know, I know that it's the stupidest thing in the world to expect or even want decent science in a superhero movie, but I AM CRYING INSIDE NOW, AND IT HURTS ME.

I feel as if I ought to apologize to Batman fans, and to the world. I feel as if somehow not liking Batman is... is un-American? More than that, possibly un-human. But I just can't.

If you'll excuse me, I think I'm going to go and watch some old British sitcoms now, instead. That will make me feel better. Yes. That will help.

Currently, It's Somehow Already Well Into February.

Current clothes: A bluish-purplish-gray t-shirt from Disneyland with a picture of Mickey on it. Even though I'm kind of pissed with Disney ever since I realized they still hadn't released the last two seasons of The Muppet Show on DVD. Oh, and also tan jeans. I initially forgot I was wearing pants, that's how upset I am about the Muppets.

Current mood: Very mildly cranky. I just got back from the dentist a little while ago, and that never puts anybody in a good mood.

Current music: Nothing, really.

Current annoyance: A big, giant, fat, numb lip. Also, the new filling on the inside of my incisors feels a little bit rough, and my tongue just keeps coming back to it, like I have to constantly keep checking whether it's still annoying. Which it is.

Current thing: Various kinds of medical appointments, it seems like. Last week, I had a cleaning at the dentist's, and on Monday I get to go back in for another filling. And I have to go and get my blood tested to check my thyroid function again next week sometime. Meanwhile, the cats had their checkups, and then I had to haul Vir back in for a glucose test -- he still doesn't have diabetes, which is good to know -- and Nova has a dental cleaning scheduled later in the month. And I'm still putting off going to the eye doctor. Stupid physical bodies. Who needs 'em?

Current desktop picture: It's still Once Upon a Time's Rumplestiltskin. Oh, I do love me some of those well-acted evil-yet-strangely-sympathetic characters (see also "current DVD").

Current book: Just finished The Curse of the Blue Figurine by John Bellairs, a fairly fun little kids' book. Next up, Stephen Colbert's America Again: Re-Becoming the Greatness We Never Weren't.

Current song in head: I think a few minutes ago it was Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah." Or maybe one of the many, many covers thereof. Or possibly it was just me singing it. In my brain.

Current DVD in player: I've just finished season three of Breaking Bad, which was excellent. Especially the end of the season, which had me going, "Holy shit, Walter!" kind of a lot. On the treadmill, I've just started season 4 of The Twilight Zone, which includes seldom-seen hour-long episodes. Which seems like it ought to be a bad idea, but the one I've watched so far was actually pretty good.

Current refreshment: Nothing. I would like some refreshment, but I am still waiting for the novocaine to wear off. WAAAAH!

Current worry: Entropy is going to eat everything.

YouTube, Some Days I Love You.

The one major downside to finally having a decent, stable internet connection is that I find myself wasting way, way more time on YouTube than I used to. On the upside, though, that means I sometimes stumble across things like this awesome fan-made Doctor Who "50th anniversary trailer." It's like the pure distilled essence of 50 years of Who, concentrated down to seven minutes: