Your Rant For The Day

I somehow doubt that I'm going to get all the stuff I intended to get done today finished, but I did at least manage to get to the store to buy a card for my Dad's upcoming birthday, and Mother's Day cards for the various motherly types in my life.

And, man... You know, I love all these people and don't in the slightest begrudge them a lousy greeting card (or even a present if I'm feeling inspired, although this year I simply haven't had the time). But I nevertheless always find perusing the greeting card aisle or shopping for Mother's/Father's Day a distasteful process, just because the whole thing is basically one big exercise in gender stereotyping.

No, really, think about it. What kinds of themes do you see on cards aimed at men and boys? Sports, cars, hunting and fishing, tools... Father's Day cards that don't use one of those themes inevitably portray Dad as the protector, teacher, and gentle disciplinarian, or poke fun at his lack of domestic skills, or offer to let him have the TV remote for the day. Girls and women, of course, get flowers and cuddly animals, or jokes about shopping, dating, or losing one's looks, and Mother's Day cards inevitably portray Mom as a self-sacrificing nurturer and domestic goddess. What I want to know is, where are the cards for women who play golf or men who like gardening? My Mom's a NASCAR fan, but I'm sure as hell never going to find a card with the word "Mom" and a picture of a race car on it. Where are the cards praising Dad for kissing boo-boos and being a good cook, or Mom for putting her foot down in ways that come to be appreciated later in life and teaching her kids home repair skills? Why are these people -- and they do exist -- invisible on Mother's Day and Father's Day? Why do all little kids, from the time they're old enough to watch ads on TV, "know" perfectly well that a kitchen appliance is a good gift for Mom and a power tool is a great gift for Dad, whether that's true of their own particular Mom and Dad or not?

Aargh. And people wonder why I usually just opt for cards with stupid puns.

Here Come The Drums

There's probably a fair amount of competition of the title of "most amazing thing I've seen in my life," but for the moment (at least until I get to see a space shuttle launch), I think I'm going to declare it a tie between the interior of Carlsbad Caverns and a Neil Peart percussion solo.

The Rush concert I just got back from rocked.

Oh, And Speaking Of TV Shows I'm Never Going To Catch Up On...

Here's your Doctor Who discussion post for the season 4 opener, "Partners in Crime," since it aired on Sci Fi last night. Once again, say anything you like, only no spoilers for subsequent episodes, please!

Information Overload Has Now Been Achieved.

Hang on, there was a new episode of Lost while I was gone, too? Aargh! I'm never going to catch up.

Acts Of Feline Expression

I've just discovered that sometime during my two-week absence, one of my kitties apparently somehow got at my copy of Cats for Dummies where it sits on the shelf and took his or her claws to the back cover. I am laughing so very, very hard at this that I find I can't even be properly pissed off about it.

I Come From The Land Down Under

I am back safe and sound from Australia! And apparently the kitties did miss me. Awww.

The trip was an absolute blast. More about it later, possibly in too much detail. Certainly, there will be pictures, once I've sorted through them. Which may take a while, as I have tons and tons and tons of stuff that's piled up while I was gone, and I have been travelling since yesterday, or tomorrow, or something. I'm not actually sure, what with crossing enough timezones to technically arrive before I left, but it was a long, long, long time, and I am beyond fried.

Man, if only I could go places without all the tedious travelling. Because after the first six or seven hours on an airplane, I'm pretty much ready to confess to serial murder and high treason if it would just get them to make it stop. I have an entirely new perspective on Lost now, too... I am never going to be able to watch the first episode again without imagining that at least some of those people are standing in the burning wreckage thinking, "Hey, at least I'm not on that freaking plane any more!" I don't know why old Twilight Zone episodes and things always portray the transport to Hell as a train. If there is a transport to Hell, it's an airplane on which all the seats are coach, and every one is a middle seat. (Yeah, OK, it's a round airplane.)

But enough bitching about flying. Again: trip was awesome, more details when brain is rested. Eventually.

I've got about 166 unread e-mails in my box, by the way, so if you're expecting a reply to something, keep expecting...

Another Brief Check-In

Hiked six miles around Uluru today, after waking up 5 minutes before the bus was supposed to leave at thirty minutes to sunrise. Am tired, blistered, and in desperate need of a shower. Am sitting at internet kiosk in hotel lobby instead, because they were making up our room when we got back.

Thus, another very, very brief hello!

Also, kangaroo is delicious.

Very, Very Brief Post From Australia

OK, look, I found a brief few minutes to access the internet! Another 1 minute and 47 seconds, in fact, according to this machine, so I'd better type very, very fast. So, greetings from Alice Springs! I'm off to eat some kangaroo in a minute. I'll let you know how it tastes.

Eep, 0:43. Better hit save. See ya!

The "Talk Amongst Yourselves" Doctor Who Discussion Post

OK, as threatened promised in the post below, here's a discussion thread for the Doctor Who Christmas special. It airs on April 18th, so if you want to share your thoughts on it while I'm gone, go for it! Give me some lively discussion to come back to! Just remember, no spoilers for any later episodes, please. (And definitely no spoilers for anything past the fourth-season opener, as I won't have the chance to watch any more episodes until I get back.)

Fetch My Ruby Slippers, Guys; I'm Off To The Land Of Oz!

Well, this is it! In about an hour, I'm off on the first leg of my journey to the far side of the Earth! It's within the realm of conceivability that you might hear from me before then, but as I'm going to be computerless and probably insanely busy trying to pack an entire continent's worth of experience into two weeks, I really wouldn't count on it. I'm sure there will be pictures when I get back, though, assuming the plane flight doesn't kill me.

Oh, and a reminder for the American Doctor Who fans: The Sarah Jane Adventures starts tonight, and new episodes of Doctor Who will be airing on Sci Fi starting with the most recent Christmas special on the 18th. I think I'll put up a discussion post in case anybody wants to talk about that while I'm gone. I mean, you guys don't need me to have interesting TV-related conversations, right?

Anyway, that's about it... I've got to go and put the trash out and stuff before I go. Catch you all on the flip side! Whatever that actually means...

I Believe I Shall Dump My Current Accumulation Of Random Links On You All Before I Go.

PodCastle: A new fantasy fiction podcast, from the creators of the excellent science fiction 'cast, Escape Pod, and its horror sibling Pseudopod. They've only released a couple of episodes so far, but I'm looking forward to seeing more.

Is Science Fiction Antithetical to Religion?: A number of science fiction writers are asked the question "Is science fiction antithetical to religion?" They all give more or less the same (and, in my opinion, obviously correct answer): "no," or at least "not intrinsically." But there are some interesting discussions and insights along the way, from various people with a wide variety of religious views.

Babelcolour Classic Tribute: Every Story: A glimpse at every single classic Doctor Who story, in just under five and a half minutes. Gives you a great sense of what the show is, how it's changed over the years... and how it hasn't.

"What the Frak?" Battlesatar Galactica recap: Interesting and amusing video that does a surprisingly good job at catching you up to date on the story thus far (well, the story up to just before last week's season premiere, anyway). Full of spoilers for past episodes, needless to say.

Farscape 1812 DRD Plush: For the Farscape fans: 1812 is now a plushie!! On a completely unrelated note, I would like to point out that my birthday is in July. Heh.

Drifting With The Currents

Current clothes: Black t-shirt with a picture of a Dalek on it, gray shorts, black sport socks.

Current mood: Swinging wildly back and forth between "happy" and "frazzled." So... "hazzled!" Or possibly "frappy."

Current music: Tom Petty's Full Moon Fever.

Current annoyance: I spent a week playing phone tag with a painter, and then when I finally got hold of him, he said he could come out and look at what I needed done sometime on Monday... then never called or showed. And I'm getting his answering machine again. Sigh. This is how things go in this town.

Current thing: Trying to do every expensive thing I need done in my life all at once. Travel to Australia! Household repairs! Computer stuff! Sigh. My sense of timing sucks.

Current desktop picture: M78 and reflecting dust clouds in Orion.

Current book: Americans' Survival Guide to Australia and Australian-American Dictionary by Rusty Geller. I am attempting to be well-informed and prepared before I travel! This is a pretty good book for it, too. Much of it is aimed at people who are planning on living in Australia, but there's also a lot of information that's useful for tourists. It is, however, mostly succeeding in making me suspect that I'm not going to be able to understand a damned word anybody is saying, and that I will probably starve to death because I am too incapable of internalizing the local customs to ever be able to figure out how to procure food. (They want you to have reservations at a lunch counter and the supermarkets all close at 6 PM? Really?)

Current song in head: It's mostly random cacophony in here right now, but a minute ago my brain appeared to be playing the theme song to Bonanza. It does that occasionally. I have no idea why. I've never even seen a full episode of Bonanza.

Current DVD in player: Nothing at the moment. Most recently, I think, last week's Torchwood. Have I mentioned how much better this season was than last season? Because that level of improvement is really very impressive.

Current refreshment: Oh, hang on! I heated some water for tea and then forgot about it! Back in a sec... OK, cool. Now I have tea brewing.

Current worry: Oh, there are so many of them, but the most immediate one is... Well, let me put it this way. I sat down and accounted for all the time zone changes and eventually discovered that, counting the drive to the airport, time spent at the airport, the flight to Los Angeles, the layover in LAX, and the flight to Melbourne, I am going to be travelling for approximately 27 hours. I'm honestly not sure about my ability to survive that. I start hyperventilating a little just thinking about it. I mean, four hours spent in a car, an airplane seat, or even in an airport is about the point where I start to get a little bit crazy.

Current thought: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh! *deep breath* OK, there, that's better. I just needed to release some of this tension. Honestly, once I'm there, I'm sure I'll have lots of fun. All I need to do is to survive the trip... Do you guys think thirteen books ought to be enough?


(Hey, speak of the devil! I was just about to post this when the painter called. He said yesterday was "a very, very, very, very bad day." I decided I probably didn't want to know the details. Anyway, he's supposed to show up on Wednesday now. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed.)

House, Books, Television, Travel Plans, You Name It, I'm Babbling About It In This Post.

I'm now well into my pre-vacation vacation. Which isn't as relaxing as it sounds -- quite the opposite, really, as I'm spending much of the time trying to take care of all the million and one things I ought to get done before heading off for Australia. Mostly, this involves dealing with the various and sundry ways in which my stupid house is trying to fall apart on me. Or, rather, finding competent (I hope) professional people to come and deal with them for me. Which isn't as simple as you might think in a small town like this. But I'm working on it.

Fortunately, there are many bright spots of stress relief. Like the fact that, after a a bit of a drought, there is finally some decent television on again, even if I am, er, importing some of it from the UK. And even if Battlestar Galactica has upset me mildly with a big old "to be continued" when I'm not going to be able to watch again for three weeks, and Torchwood's finale was, um, upsetting in entirely different ways which I won't spoil here. Still, there is new Doctor Who, which I am planning on getting together with friends to watch. No day with a new episode of Doctor Who can possibly be a bad day.

Also contributing to today's extreme not-badness: library sale! The haul this time out, if anybody besides me is interested, was:

• The Five Red Herrings by Dorothy L. Sayers


• The Case of the Stepdaughter's Secret/The Case of the Amorous Aunt by Erle Stanley Gardner


• Kahless by Michael Jan Friedman


• A Free Man of Color by Barbara Hambly


• The Design of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman


• Eye of Cat by Roger Zelazny


• Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm


• Count Zero by William Gibson


• The Periodic Table by Primo Levi


• The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

...which completely wipes out all the progress I'd made on the To-Read stacks this year. Sigh. Oh, well. I'm figuring on doing a lot of reading on planes in the near future.

Wait, Am I Bogart Here?

What Romance Movie Best Represents Your Love Life?

"You must remember this, a kiss is still a kiss". Your romance is Casablanca. A classic story of love in trying times, chock full of both cynicism and hope. You obviously believe in true love, but you're also constantly aware of practicality and societal expectations. That's not always fun, but at least it's realistic. Try not to let the Nazis get you down too much.
Take this quiz!




Quizilla |
Join
| Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

Honestly, I Have Enough Real Things To Stress About.

Here is something I should keep in mind for future reference: when you drive a car home from getting the oil changed and notice after you get out that ohmigod, there's liquid dripping from somewhere!, it's good to think back and remember that giant puddle you just drove through before you start panicking.

(This is important for future reference because, sadly, driving to my house often involves going through a giant puddle. Good old Bullock Road floods every time it rains, and surprisingly often when it doesn't.)

Sometimes Even I Have To Stop Walking And Use The Ol' Feet To Work Some Pedals Instead.

Given that I'm going to have to use it to drive myself to the airport in about a week and a half, I figured it was time I actually paid some attention to that thing that sits out in my driveway. I'm not sure which says more about how little driving I do these days: the fact that I was astonished by how freakin' expensive it was to fill up the tank or the fact that there were actually cobwebs on the car. Yeah, OK, probably the latter. I should have taken a picture; maybe if I sent it to my insurance company they'd give me a lower rate.

I also suddenly realized that the oil hadn't been changed since... er, well, let's just say I think I'm going to have it done tomorrow.

God Damn It, I Should Cuss More.

Created by OnePlusYou - Free Online Dating

Give Me COFFEE.

Created by OnePlusYou - Free Online Dating

The amusing thing is, I did this on five hours of sleep, at a disgustingly early hour of the morning, while desperately craving my still-brewing coffee. So I'm just like that naturally, I guess.

Does That Mean I'm Going To Get Abandoned In Aberdeen?

Which member of UNIT are you? (classic Doctor Who)

You are Sarah Jane Smith. You are a feminist journalist who originally came to UNIT looking for a story. Instead, you found the adventure of a lifetime travelling with the Doctor.
Take this quiz!



Quizilla | Join | Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

Some Days, I Think It Might Just Be Easier To Go Naked.

I just got back from doing a bit of clothes shopping. Always a fun experience, that, if by "fun" you mean "really, really annoying." What I want to know is, why is it nearly impossible any more to find a pair of jeans with a waistline that falls at your actual waist? Aargh, I hate 2000s fashions. They're all designed for women who are built like preying mantises and wear thong underwear. Listen up, guys: the world neither needs nor wants to see my midriff, and anything that's going to go between my butt cheeks had damned well better at least buy me dinner first.

It's gotten to the point where when I see skinny chicks wearing this stuff, I can't help wanting to slap them. Hey, follow your stupid fashion sense if it makes you happy, but when it starts bleeding over into my own classic jeans-and-t-shirt style, I get resentful.

I'm thinking about maybe shopping for men's pants next time, if the having-of-actual-hips thing doesn't prove too problematic. Anybody know what a women's 16 translates to?

An Unusually Verbose Random Links Post

The "Blog" of "Unneccessary" Quotation Marks: There was a billboard I used to drive past all the time that advertised "'Free' Breakfast" at a local motel. And every single time I did pass it, I could not stop myself from wondering what the catch was. I can't help but imagine it as the premise of some kind of horror movie: The breakfast may look free, but, oh, the terrible, terrible hidden price. Bwhahahahaha! Ahem. Anyway, here's a whole blog devoted to that kind of thing. It makes the grammar centers in my brain go all twitchy.

What Real-Life Dungeon Exploration Might Look Like, Graduate Students in Tow: There's been a lot of Dungeons & Dragons-themed stuff on the web lately, in a fitting tribute to mark the passing of Gary Gygax. This one probably made me laugh the most.

Astronomy and Space Exploration in America's National Parks: An astronomer and physicist visits 12 national parks, takes some gorgeous photos, and talks about their views of the night sky and how their geology relates to that of other places in the solar system.

Futurama Timeline: From the birth of Nibblonian civilization 17 years before the big bang on into... THE FUTURE!

Ten Things You Don't Know About the Milky Way Galaxy: I knew some of these things, but not, I admit, all of them. It's amazing how long you can live somewhere and still not see all there is to see.

J. Wood on Lost, at Powells Books Blog: I happened to have a copy of Philip K. Dick's Valis sitting around on the old book pile, waiting for me to get around to reading it Real Soon Now, so when the novel made an appearance being read by a character on Lost, I thought it might be fun to join in with him. (Never mind getting kicked out of the book club, Ben! We'll start our own!) The experience was... interesting. Valis is a freaky-ass book, even by Dick's standards. It left me thinking, "Wow, somebody somewhere has got to have posted a more thoughtful analysis than I can come up with of how the themes in the book and in the show reflect each other." Sure enough, someone had. In fact, Wood posts a thoughtful analysis of every episode, with particular reference to literary themes and references. Definitely recommended for literate Lost fans! Warning: all discussions are heavy with spoilers for the episodes in question.

Match It for Pratchett: Author Terry Pratchett, who was recently diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's, has donated half a million pounds to Alzheimer's research. Fans of Pratchett's have taken up a collection hoping to match his amount. Donations as small as $2 are happily accepted, so if you've got a couple of bucks, why not pitch in?

Robot Battle: Who's the Coolest?: Cast your vote to determine the coolest robot of all time! Although at least one of those is technically a cyborg.

UNIT Recruitment Video: A video that will be amusing for old school Doctor Who fans who know the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce well, and informative for new viewers who've only been very briefly introduced. And who knows? Maybe after seeing this, you'll want to go and sign up! The world can always use more people willing to fight against the rubber-suit-and-tentacle brigade.

Worst of the Time Lords: The new version of Doctor Who has occasionally been criticized for giving us a Doctor who is "too emo." Whether you agree or not, this comic, which takes that idea to parodic extreme, is highly chuckle-worthy, and it gets funnier the longer it goes on. Note: posts with spoilers for the 2007 Christmas special or season 2 of Torchwood are marked with a banner at the top (look for the cartoon of the Doctor with a Titanic life preserver to indicate the former), but there's anything before that that you haven't seen, it's read at your own risk.

Who News Update

Looks like the UK start date for the new season (excuse me, series) of Doctor Who will be April 5.

Woo-hoo! (Or, perhaps, Woo-Who!)

RIP, Arthur C.

It seems like all the great talents I grew up reading are about gone now. I guess this is how you tell you're starting to get older, but I sure don't have to like it.

Farewell, Arthur C. Clarke. No matter what I might think of those Rama sequels, you were a great author and a hell of a visionary, and I'm sorry the planet's lost you.

Who News

Several people have asked me if I know when Doctor Who is going to be back on in the US, and I now finally have an answer for them. Looks like the show will be returning to Sci Fi on April 18th, starting with 2007's Christmas special. Exactly when it'll be starting up again in the UK, I'm not sure, except that it's supposed to be Real Soon Now. (The BBC really just doesn't believe in advance planning when it comes to TV scheduling, as far as I can tell.)

Even better, Sci Fi is also picking up the spinoff show The Sarah Jane Adventures, which is supposed to be starting April 11th at 7:30 Eastern Time. SJA is a kids' show, but it's a smart, well-written, well-acted one that captures the sensibility of classic Who at its best. Plus Elisabeth Sladen has only gotten better with age. I definitely recommend checking it out, with or without kids. (I'd say that it was much better than Torchwood, except for the fact that Torchwood, the most recent UK episode aside, has taken a massive leap in quality this year. I will say that if I were being menaced by aliens, I'd rather have Sarah Jane's kids coming to rescue me than the Torchwood gang.)

I'm going to be travelling over those premiere dates, and probably mostly or wholly off-line, but maybe I'll put up a discussion post for the Americans before I go, since they were so successful last season.

Links That Are Random

7 Seven Minute Sopranos - a 'whacked out' refresher: A recap of The Sopranos up through the midpoint of season 6. Not actually very useful as an aid to catching up on the show, but kind of entertaining if you're already familiar with it. (Needless to say, spoilers abound.)

Martian avalanche caught in the act: It's an avalanche. In the process of happening. On Mars. I think this may just be the single coolest picture of anything ever.

Sluggy Freelance presents a Doctor Who crossover: Some anonymous person left a printout of this on my desk at work. Ah, they know me too well.

Simon's Cat presents "Cat Man Do" and "Let Me In": You might have seen the first one before, as it's been linked to all over the net. (And, if you have cats, you've probably lived through it, as well.) The second one is new, though.

& Teller: Magician Teller (as in "Penn &") fights zombies in Las Vegas. See, The Office depresses me, but this made me laugh. Loudly. Go figure.

Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan in 5 seconds and 2001 in 5 seconds: Exactly what they sound like. Hey, who has time to watch a whole movie these days?

Death Before Drone-dom!

My current DVD-watching is series 2 of the UK version of The Office. And, man, it really bemuses me... Lots of my all-time favorite TV shows (or, for that matter, books, movies, and other forms of storytelling) are chock-full of death, destruction, abject failure, moral compromise, and grand-scale tragedy. If a television show can actually make me cry, it's hooked me in for life. The angstier, the better! I'll happily tune in to watch main characters get killed every week while the survivors wallow in misery. I really, really will.

But the UK's Office I find so incredibly depressing, even while it makes me laugh, that I almost can't bear to keep watching. There are reasons why it's been well over two years since I rented season 1.

What I can't quite figure out is whether this says something profound about the differing emotional resonances of various kinds of fiction, or just something strange about me.

*sighs heavily and goes off to reset all the clocks yet again*

Dear Daylight Savings Time,

Damn it, I was using that hour! Give it back!

No love,
Me

Exciting Adventures Exploring The New Computer

Oh my god, Microsoft Word has apparently mutated in the last five years into some completely alien program that looks absolutely nothing like anything I have ever seen before. Who are you and what have you done with my word processor? Aargh! I mean, Word has always sucked, but at least it sucked in ways I understood. Mostly. I started using it when I was ten. I knew its tricks, its little ways... Well, I knew the ones I cared about, anyway, and I knew what I could ignore. Now... I don't even know what I'm looking at. And why does every computer application these days have to look like it was designed to appeal to toddlers? I do not need bright colors and cheerful little pictures! I am a serious adult! Why would I even be using a word processor if I didn't know how to read?

Oh, ye gods. It's finally happened, hasn't it? I've finally reached that age where I can't learn new computer stuff and don't like or understand How Things Are Done These Days. Book me in at the old folks home and throw away the key.

Then again, maybe it's just Microsoft.

Right Here, Right Now

Current clothes: Gray sweatshirt that says, "books. cats. life is sweet.", with a cartoon picture of a cat lying on a stack of books. Blue jeans. White socks. Black sneakers.

Current mood: OK. I've been ridiculously stressed lately, but I'm in a rather better mood tonight. Having a shiny, shiny new computer probably helps.

Current music: Random-shuffle stuff again. Most recently: "A Floydian Slip" from The String Quartet Tribute to Pink Floyd.

Current annoyance: Entropy. Also, the fact that I am not independently wealthy.

Current thing: Worrying. See below.

Current desktop picture: Still Mars and Orion over Monument Valley.

Current book: A Touch of Strange by Theodore Sturgeon.

Current song in head: It's actually quiet in here right now, surprisingly enough.

Current DVD in player: Most recently, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Current refreshment: Cold water.

Current worry: Everything. I'm serious. Name some aspect of my life, and I've been worrying about it. Worrying is, like, my new hobby. My insanely annoying new hobby. Hell, I'm starting to worry about my mental state from worrying so much.

Current thought: Mellow, mellow... Tonight I am being mellow. It's a nice, mellow night...

Shiny New Machine!

My new computer came! I haven't had much of a chance to play around with it yet[*], but I have at least managed to determine that:

1) It boots!

and

2) Its video card does, indeed, work just fine with my spiffy new widescreen monitor, which had heretofore been sitting in the closet forlornly collecting dust.

As a test, I also installed Boggle on it and tried that out. And, wow, the game starts up instantly and runs smoothly with no glitches. What a concept! Such luxury!

I don't have it hooked up to the net yet, though. The idea right now is to set myself up a wireless home network, which should let the PC and my TiVo do nifty fun things together, and make it easy for me to use a laptop, if I ever actually have money again at some point in my life so I can buy one. I haven't got the hardware for that yet, though -- it should be showing up sometime early next week -- and I think I'm gonna need to get the guys from my ISP to come out and help me set it up once I do. Wish me luck! I'm kind of excited.

[*] Mainly because the delivery person came while I was asleep, and I had trouble dropping off again, then, as frequently happens in such situations, massively overslept. Which might actually be for the best, in terms of how I need to start shifting my sleep schedule around, but it did leave me with a headache on waking and not much time to spare tonight.

Stupid Quizzes About Baby Animals Are Just About My Speed Right Now.

Hmm. That text is surprisingly accurate.

Again I Say: Bah.

It has come to my attention that I desperately need a vacation. Unfortunately, the vacation I seem to need is the kind where I go somewhere completely serene all by myself and do nothing but take long walks, eat good food, contemplate the scenery, and read. Whereas what I have coming up is the kind where I travel around a lot, engage in various bustling activities, and live in close quarters with other people while pretending to be social.

Not that I'm not expecting it to be fun... I just wish I could have another vacation first.

Bah, I Say.

I woke up today in the middle of a really bad dream, everything on the internet is irritating me, and there's stuff I have to do before work that I really don't feel like doing.

Bah. Send chocolate.

[A bit later: OK, the internet has led me to pictures of John Barrowman with a puppy, so I can't stay too annoyed with it. Also, reminding myself that I don't want to be this person helps.]

I Done Doed It!

Well, I've just ordered me a new computer. Hello again, credit card debt.

It's Random Linky Time, It's Random Linky Time...

The Cynical Bastard Takes on Doctor Who: A lightning-fast, entertainingly acerbic look at Doctor Who. Normally, I'd complain about the stereotypical depiction of fans, but frankly I think Who fandom, generally speaking, deserves it.

Garfield Minus Garfield: Ten times trippier, funnier, and sadder than Garfield with Garfield.

Virtual Barber Shop: Put on a pair of headphones, close your eyes, and enjoy the uncanny auditory illusion of being in a three-dimensional space with invisible barbers. This is really, really cool, and a fascinating example of the neat tricks your brain can play on you. It also, interestingly, freaked me out more than anything else in recent memory.

NSS Space Settlement Art Contest: Gallery of entries for the National Space Society's recent calendar art contest on the theme of space settlement. Features some pretty nice pictures.

Sawyer's Nickname Generator: Find out what nickname Lost's resident smartass would give you on the island. Apparently I'm "Frosty." I'm... not sure how I feel about that.

Yes, Sometimes I Am Slow To Realize Incredibly Obvious Things.

Oh, hey! There's more February this year than I was thinking there was!

Today Is Ranty Letter-Writing Day!

Dear writers of all shapes, sizes, and descriptions,

I'm happy to indulge you in your stylistic quirks when they actually, y'know, make sense and work, rather than coming across as amateurish unfamiliarity with the English language. But for the love of grammar, pick a fucking tense and stay there. Any tense. Honestly, I don't care. Write the whole thing in future progressive, if you think that's somehow appropriate. But don't randomly change tenses for no reason for two or three sentences every page and a half. No, not even when your character is being introspective, unless you're actually reporting the exact thoughts she's thinking in the words she's thinking them.

I mean it. Failing to obey this simple, easy to follow rule will result in my enjoyment of your novel falling by at least 25%, and, if it goes on long enough, will instill in me a desire to hunt you down and pelt you with copies of your own books until you cry uncle.

Aaargh,
Me

(This particular version of this rant is brought to you by a certain fantasy tetralogy which, while not without its good points, is making me absolutely crazy by forcing me to endure 1,600+ pages of randomly shifting tenses.)

Man, I Hope Work Tonight Doesn't Require Actual, You Know, Alertness.

Dear sinuses,

I hate you.

That is all,

Me

Dead PC Booting

Thing that sucks: Waking up to discover that your computer has apparently died quietly while you were asleep.

Thing that rocks: Knowing people who happen to have spare computer power supplies lying around and who will happily accept a pizza and a couple of episodes of Torchwood as payback for the use of their geeky skills.

Thing that is becoming increasingly impossible to deny: I need a new computer. Like, now.

You Know You're A Bookoholic When...

...on giving people tours of your house, you find yourself saying, "This is the hardback fiction, here, and the non-fiction is in this room..."

Mooning About

Whoops, I completely forgot to put up a post mentioning the total lunar eclipse which is happening right now, at least for folks in North America. Hey, I was busy caulking! It's pretty cloudy here, alas, but my sister just called and said that, miraculously enough, it's clear where she is in Oregon, so she actually gets to see it for once.

Down and Grout

Ye fucking gods, re-caulking the bathtub is a serious contender for Most Annoying Household Task Ever. Why do the stupid home repair books always make everything look so simple and easy? Sigh.

Anyway, 'tis done now. Hopefully 'tis done to some semblance of waterproofness, but, really, who knows?

I took the opportunity, while I was at it, to remove from the rim of the bathtub a metal track that once, at some time in the distant past, presumably held a sliding door. That thing has annoyed me since the day I moved in, because it means I can't sit on the edge of the tub while I'm shaving my legs. Of course, it left behind a gooey, dirty mess that I've so far only been partially successful at cleaning up, but I'm sure I can deal with that eventually.

Am very tired now, though. Man, you know what I could really use, after covering myself in drippy caulk and having my back tighten up on me again from all that scraping? A nice, hot shower. Which I can't have for... *checks instructions on caulk* 36 hours. Sigh.

Oh, and, by the way, a tip for anyone else who might be thinking of tackling this job for the first time: the masking tape is not optional. Trust me.

The Battle May Be Over, But The War Goes On.

I am declaring victory over the ants. I haven't seen one in the bathroom for a couple of days, and before that the ones I did see mostly appeared to be in their death throes. *observes a moment of silence for the ants*

Next order of business on the homeowner's agenda is to re-caulk the bathtub. It's needed to be done for a while now, and I think that's part of the reason why the ants decided to set up shop in the first place; apparently they like the damp, and water getting into the walls from a poorly-caulked bathtub creates something along the lines of a Carpenter Ant Paradise Resort.

I went out today and bought -- I hope -- everything I should need to tackle the job. Wish me luck. I suspect I'm going to need it, given the fact that I've never even used a caulking gun before.

Random Moments Of Geekly Happiness

It's mostly been kind of an annoying day, what with the the power being out at work when I got there, but at least now I can say that I've actually used a sonic screwdriver to open a door.

Well, OK, I used the flashlight on it so I could see the buttons on the phone to call a person on the inside to come and open the door. But it totally counts!

Scientist Humor Makes Me Feel Less Humbuggy.

OK, honestly, I don't like Valentine's Day. Those of you who do enjoy it, good for you, and I hope you have a great day, but personally I prefer to sit out the sappy hearts'n'flowers fest and just enjoy being happily single in quiet.

However, I must confess, this has actually made me appreciate the holiday for once. I almost wish I did want to give someone a card, because how could anyone possibly resist romantic sentiments presented by Charles Darwin or Carl Sagan? Well, OK, I'm sure lots of people could, but I don't think they'd be people I'd want to give a Valentine's Day card to in the first place.

Gratuitous Cat Pic

I believe I've been falling behind on posting the requisite number of cat pictures as called for by standard internet protocol, so here's one I just took of Nova and a tiny corner of my To-Be-Read Pile:



What can I say? I own a digital camera, and there's just something about the combination of books and cats that I find irresistible, so things like this are inevitable once in a while.

The Flickering Television Light At The End Of The Tunnel

Now that it looks like the writers' strike may be over, the TV Guide website is compiling a tentative list of when viewers might be able to expect their favorite shows to return. (Or not, if you happen to be a fan of, say, The Bionic Woman.) It says it's being updated hourly, so I'll be sure to check back for news about House and Heroes. *keeps fingers crossed*

I'd Say "Whoo-Hoo!", But I've Seen The Last Few Episodes.

What is Your Fate on Lost?

Created by BuddyTV

Random Links: The All-TV Edition

Lost - The Synchronizing: Nicely put together video showing the plane crash from Lost from multiple POVs. Contains spoilers through season three.

Wil Wheaton vs. the Bad Astronomer: Ubergeek and TNG alumnus Wil Wheaton utterly pwns Phil Plait, aka the Bad Astronomer, in a battle of Treknobabble. It amused me.

Torchwool and Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre vs Darleks: Scottish sock puppets spoof Torchwood and Doctor Who. The former, in particular, is hysterical.

Which Torchwood Character Are You?: Speaking of funny takes on Torchwood, this also amused the heck out of me. Question 4 really just says it all. Oh, and apparently I'm Tosh.

Did I Say I Should Avoid Discussing Politics? Oh, Well. Stupid Internet Quizzes Are Pretty Harmless...

What's Your Political Philosophy? created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Old School Democrat Old school Democrats emphasize economic justice and opportunity. The Democratic ideal is best summarized by the Four Freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. Old School Democrat 65% Libertarian 65% New Democrat 65% Green 50% Foreign Policy Hawk 45% Pro Business Republican 35% Socially Conservative Republican 5%

The fact that I score equally on those first three choices probably says something about how idiosyncratic (or, if you prefer, how muddled) my political views actually are... But, y'know, that does sound like a nice summarized ideal to me.

Me: 2, Ants: 0? Or Am I Counting My Chickens, Er, Ants?

Hmm. Yesterday, there were ants crawling about quite actively on the bathroom floor, and there seemed to be a fair number of them going into the little plastic Ant Take-Out Restaurants of Death I put out the other day, although I couldn't really tell if they were taking any of the poisoned bait out with them or not. Since sometime last night, though, I have seen a grand total of one ant, and there has been no more dirt-piling activity around their little hole in the baseboard. I think... maybe I got them? Huh. It seems almost anti-climactic.

(Yes, yes, I know. ANTi-climactic. I'm sorry. It wasn't even really intentional. Mostly.)

[Update: No, I've seen a couple more tonight. Still no more building activity, though. Either they're dying off, or they're done renovating.]

Currently: The Neurosis and Rock'n'Roll Edition

Current clothes: Black sweat pants. A white t-shirt from a Rush concert (the 2002 Vapor Trails tour), which admittedly has seen better days. White socks. Black sneakers.

Current mood: It wasn't too bad, except then I started thinking about all my current annoyances and worries in preparation for doing this meme, and I started feeling stressed again. Thanks, meme.

Current music: Most recently, Warren Zevon's Transverse City, which I've had in fairly heavy rotation lately. I bought this album a little while ago after seeing it mentioned in I'll Sleep When I'm Dead, the Warren Zevon biography I got for Christmas, which I know I've mentioned here before. It was one of the Zevon albums I didn't have, and the description in the book made it sound really cool. Which it is. In fact, it's more than cool; I'd go so far as to call it wonderful. Apparently it sold like crap when it came out, though. The general consensus seems to be that it was "ahead of its time." And I can see that. The title track is possibly the only product of late 80's cyberpunk influence that feels more relevant in 2008, rather than being dated. (Note to my sis: If you're still interested in checking out some of this guy's stuff, this seems to me like a really good album to start with. I suspect it's more to your taste, musically, than some of his other work.)

Current annoyance: Higher-than-expected veterinary bills. Ants. The fact that my sleep schedule is still messed up. The fact that my back still hurts, and every time I think maybe it's getting a bit better, I have to bend down and pick something up and it starts complaining at me again. It's getting to the point where it's starting to curtail my activities, especially walking, which starts to hurt after about ten minutes. Gaah. Oh, and US politics. US politics annoys the crap out of me. I should try to keep to my general policy of not discussing politics. It usually just gets me all wound up to no good purpose.

Current thing: Randomly stressing about stupid stuff. See "current annoyance" above and "current worry" below.

Current desktop picture: This picture of Mars and the constellation Orion, as seen from Monument Valley.

Current book: Possessing Genius: The Bizarre Odyssey of Einstein's Brain by Carolyn Abraham. So far, it's not remotely as interesting as it sounds like it ought to be.

Current song in head: It's something from one of the Sopranos soundtracks, but I'm not sure exactly what it is, because it's in Italian, and I'm far too lazy to look it up.

Current DVD in player: Most recently, this week's episode of Torchwood, which was OK. Before that, I was watching Jekyll, which I figured I'd mention, because, well, it's worth mentioning. Steven Moffat's writing talents plus some really excellent acting equals six episodes of damned good television.

Current refreshment: Nothing. But there must be food soon. I'm hungry.

Current worry: Lately? Everything and anything. I started out this week in a really annoying state of just being randomly stressy about all kinds of stupid things. I'm talking things that I know aren't worth worrying about: random work crap, social interactions, when I was going to have time to do the grocery shopping, you name it. I was hoping to take my days off to relax and get over that, and it has sort of helped, but now I've got more stuff that I don't know whether I actually need to worry about or not. Are ants eating my house? Might my cat have a thyroid problem after all? I don't know! I hate not even knowing whether something is worth stressing over. I start stressing over whether I should stress. Man, I need a vacation. A non-stressful vacation, where I lie on the beach for a week and don't talk to anybody.

Current thought: OK. Deep, cleansing breath. Ah, that's better. Really, my problems are not dire. My problems are so far from dire that it's an insult to people with actual dire problems to take them too seriously. And, y'know, it's a nice day, I don't have to go in to work, I've got lots of interesting stuff to watch on DVD, the cats are all dozing adorably in the sun, and I think there might be some rocky road ice cream in the freezer. There. Life is pretty good. I'm smiling now. Huzzah!

Since There's A Bit Of A Veterinary Diagnostic Issue Going On, I'm Tempted To Call This Post "Animal House."

Why is everything always so complicated with these cats? I took Happiness in today for a dental cleaning, and when they checked out her heart to make sure she was healthy enough for the anesthetic, there was apparently an anomaly on her ECG indicating that the left side of her heart was enlarged. Which can be a sign of hyperthyroidism, which would fit in with her weight loss. So they did x-rays, which showed a very slight enlargement, and a thyroid test, which came back fine. The vet thinks it's probably nothing serious, but apparently the thyroid test doesn't necessarily always show problems, because levels of thyroid hormone can vary with the time of day and god knows what else. So he figures it's worth keeping an eye on. Meanwhile, it turned out she had an abscess, which could also explain why she's lost weight, if it's been hurting her to eat. Poor kitty. They ended up having to take out two teeth. I feel bad, because I really should have made her the dental appointment at least six months ago, but who knew? She wasn't acting like she was in pain.

And now the poor thing is supposed to stay in her carrier with no food or water overnight while the anesthetic works its way out of her system. She's really just not a happy kitty today.

Me, I'm wondering what constitutes "overnight," since I'm starting night shifts the day after tomorrow and desperately need to try to stay up as late as possible and sleep as late as possible. Although that may be difficult, since I woke up at 7 AM today.

Aargh. Why is it a struggle trying to keep the cats healthy, but the ants continue to thrive despite the fact that I'm actively trying to kill them? Stupid animal kingdom.

Rats!

Having finally finished my latest marathon of Stargate SG-1 viewing -- six seasons down, four to go! -- I've turned my DVD player's attention briefly back to movies, with last night's main feature being Ratatouille. And, y'know, I usually really enjoy stuff from Pixar, but this one just didn't do much for me. Possibly this was partly due to bad timing; I'm not feeling remotely well-disposed towards wall-infesting vermin of any sort right now.

But, I don't know... Bits of it were cute, but most of what were obviously intended to be the cutest or funniest parts just failed to raise much of a smile. And, bizarrely, given the fact that I was willing to accept the intelligent rats from the outset, I kept running into plausibility issues that bugged the crap out of me. (That didn't happen to me with Cars! And Cars made no logical sense whatsoever. Hmm. Maybe that's why. This one was set more or less in the "real world" not some crazy Land of Talking Automobiles where you're invited to really not think too hard about, say, where the gasoline comes from, given that it's kind of hard to imagine a bunch of cars toiling away on an off-shore oil rig.) Oh, and also I couldn't stop myself from constantly thinking that the whole thing would be infinitely more entertaining with the addition of Gordon Ramsey. I blame my foodie friends for that one. If they hadn't made me watch the cooking channel, I wouldn't even know who Gordon Ramsey is.

It's The Kingdom Of The Spiders, It's The Empire Of The Ants

So, maybe a week ago, I happened to notice an ant or two crawling around in my bathtub. I didn't think too much of it at the time, as goddamned bugs of one sort or another are always finding their way into the house from somewhere. A few days later, I saw at least a dozen of 'em at once, crawling around on the bathroom floor. That was a little odd; I've seen them come in in good-sized numbers under the kitchen door, but the bathroom is in the middle of the house, about as far away from an outside door as it's possible to get. I still didn't concern myself with it too much, figuring that they must've gotten in through a crack in the floor, and that there'd probably been something spilled on the floor that had attracted them. I didn't find anything like that, but I assumed they'd probably already carted whatever it was off, and when I went back in later they were gone.

Yesterday, I happened to notice that this tiny gap where the baseboard (or whatever that wall-trim stuff is called) on one wall of my bathroom doesn't quite meet up with the trim around my tub seemed to be oozing some sort of crumbly dirt. I cleaned it off. A few hours later, it came back. I cleaned it off again. It came back again. And I noticed more recurring crumbly stuff on the little tile-covered ledge halfway up the wall from my bathtub, where apparently some of the grout had worn away a little and left another gap.

I suspect I know what is happening here. These ants didn't just randomly wander into the house. These ants have moved in. Aargh! Stupid ants! I do not want housemates, and most especially not ones with six legs!

A day spent googling in random moments of downtime at work leads me to conclude that these are probably either annoying but relatively harmless pavement ants, or potentially destructive and difficult-to-eradicate carpenter ants. I know which one I'm voting for.

The challenge now, I believe, is to figure out how to poison ants inside the house without also poisoning my cats. But if that fails... Does anybody happen to know a decent exterminator in the Socorro area?

Yet Another Reason Why I Hate Sports And Everything Associated With Them.

I do not have an episode of House on my TiVo. I have half an episode of House preceded by thirty minutes of idiots yakking on about the Super Bowl.

Damn it. I want my TV to show me smart guys who can't run!

Tag! I'm It!

I know I've done this meme before, possibly more than once, but I've been tagged to do it again. So:

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

And the results are:

Somebody who has to remember all the time what feelings are isn't going to be any good at hiding them. Tamsin looked at me for a long time without saying anything, while I was apologizing and apologizing for mentioning the Other One at all. Finally she smiled, and it was all right, like that, the same way it had been absolutely, horribly wrong a minute before.

That's from Tamsin by Peter S. Beagle. I don't know what it's actually talking about, though, as I'm only on page 24.

And I tag no one. Exercise your free will (or your convenient illusion thereof, depending on your philosophical viewpoint).

Yeah, That's An OK Hour To Be Waking Up.

You are late-sleepy relaxation, the half-awake moment when you realize it's morning, but you don't have to get up, because there's no place you have to be. You are that cozy spot under the covers where everything feels temporarily perfect, even if you know you'll eventually have to wiggle out and start the day. Maybe you're the artistic type, who doesn't function well on a normal schedule. Sleep's important to you, and you like the freedom of sleeping as late as you want (especially since that is closely related to the freedom to stay up as late as you want). You like to roll out of bed, put on some comfy clothes, and get a laid back start to the day. If not everything on your list gets accomplished, no worries. Your only priority is having no priorities – you just want to take things at a slow, mellow pace.

OK, I don't know how accurate all of that is, but "you like to roll out of bed, put on some comfy clothes, and get a laid back start to the day" is very possibly the single truest thing any one of these stupid internet quizzes has ever said to me. If I don't get to sit around in my comfy jammies for at least an hour and a half, sipping coffee and surfing the net and waking up slowly, my whole day suffers. (Yes, it's Reason Why I Hate Morning Shifts #3!)

Very Funny, Universe.

Yes, yes, I'm sure the fact that my back is currently killing me is some sort of cosmic justice for my having badmouthed chiropractors earlier.

*sighs heavily*

*winces in pain*

(Don't worry, it's not actually that bad. It's just a pulled muscle. But it is annoying the hell out of me.)

Perverse Animals

Just got back from the vet, where all three cats had their annual checkup and shots. Vir, who's been on diet cat food for a couple of months now, has lost less than an ounce. Happiness, who was skinny to begin with, has lost an entire pound.

Right. Starting tomorrow, Vir gets strictly-measured rations, Happiness gets canned food every day (since I know she'll eat that), Nova gets to eat only when I'm watching him to make sure Vir isn't sneaking snacks, and my life gets just that much more complicated.

More Pointless Internet Quizzes. Woo.

Which Battlestar Galactica Character Are You?

Created by BuddyTV

Yay, Adama! Adama rocks.

Which Heroes Character Are You?

Created by BuddyTV

I think that's what the last Heroes quiz I took said, too. Hey, could be worse. Could be a lot worse.

Although, wait... I'm I'm Adama, and I'm also Micah, does that mean Adama is Micah? Because that's just weird.

I Wish To File A Complaint.

Dear Nature,

The mornings that come in the middle of my day are supposed to be pleasant and dewy, caressed by gentle morning breezes and warmed by golden morning sunlight, so that I may fully appreciate this whole "daybreak" phenomenon while I am properly awake for it. They are not supposed to be blustery, cold, ice-laden, and generally unpleasant. Please see to this immediately, before my sleep schedule changes again.

Thank you,

Me

From the Uncharted Territories To Your Computer

A cool bit of news:

The Jim Henson Company Launches on iTunes

Sci-Fi Cult Hit FARSCAPE and Classic Puppet Series FRAGGLE ROCK Go Digital

NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES -January 28, 2008- The Jim Henson Company today announced that favorites from the Company’s TV programming and feature film library will be available for purchase and download on the iTunes® Store (www.itunes.com) beginning today, January 28th, 2008. The launch will begin with episodes from the first seasons of the critically acclaimed award-winning sci-fi series FARSCAPE and the endearing favorite FRAGGLE ROCK.

The Jim Henson Company has partnered with New Video, a leading digital aggregator of independent video content, to bring these highly sought after programs to the iTunes Store, the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store. Television shows are $1.99 (US) per episode, and music videos and short films are $1.99 (US) each. Through this new partnership between New Video and the Jim Henson Company, both the FRAGGLE ROCK and the FARSCAPE series will be available in their entirety in the coming months.

"We continue to be honored and thrilled by our fans’ ongoing desire to support their favorite shows and view them using all formats of media," said Nicole Goldman, Vice President of Marketing and Publicity of The Jim Henson Company. "We know our fans have been asking for these titles on iTunes and through our partnership with New Video, we hope to serve our loyal supporters and also introduce these beloved shows to new audiences."

I know a number of people who've been interested in seeing Farscape again, or for the first time, or more completely, and who have been having difficulty finding it on disc, so hopefully this will be useful to some of those folks. Needless to say, I recommend the heck out of that show, if you haven't seen it yet. And Fraggle Rock is fun, too, from what I remember.

My Spine's Aligned, But My Nose Is Out Of Joint.

I've ended up getting into a discussion about chiropractors on someone else's blog. I really don't want to continue the discussion there, and I don't particularly want to get drawn into any long debates about the subject here, either, but in the interest of wider public service, I thought I'd also post here with a link to the article I cited there: "Chiropractic: Flagship of the Alternative Medicine Fleet," part 1, part 2. It's a good examination of the reasons why you shouldn't automatically assume (as most people understandably do) that whatever a chiropractor is going to do for you is medically legitimate.

The Plus Side To Keeping Really Freaky Hours

Wow, mornings are so much nicer when they come in the middle of my day.

OK, I Haven't Seen This. Should I Be Pleased Or Worried?

Who is Your Ideal TV Boyfriend?

Created by BuddyTV

I'm Making A Mental Note Not To Go On Any Expeditions With Anyone Who Scores Higher.

28%

It's Blogging For Lazy People!: More Random Links

Teeny Little Bigfoot on Mars: Aww, teeny Martian Bigfoot is kind of cute.

Tiptoeing Through the Minefield of Movie Spoilers: Your guide to calculating how long you have to wait until whatever you want to say about that movie you're talking about no longer counts as a spoiler.

The Jim Henson Company's official Farscape page: Newly revamped and very nice looking. Contains character bios, an episode guide, images, and other cool stuff.

Hot Library Smut: Porn for bibliophiles! Completely work-safe, though, honest.

Dolphin Play Bubble Rings: Video of dolphins blowing bubble rings. Beautiful.

Doctor Who: Revolutionary Or Tool Of The Man?: The Doctor's government-toppling proclivities, charted over time and compared to the real-world political landscape. It probably means something profound.

Test Your Tiredness: A reaction time test that's supposed to gauge how tired you are. It told me I "seem pretty awake," even though I really didn't feel like it at the time.

Who has the time?: A replica of the fob watch from Doctor Who's "Human Nature"/"The Family of Blood," now for sale. Want, want, want!

Corporations Say The Darndest Things

So, I got this letter from my mortgage company trying to sell me insurance that'll cover my mortgage payments if I get hit by a bus. Which I'm not accepting, because, screw it, let my next of kin sell the damned house. But there's this one sentence, in bold, that I can't stop staring at:

Don't wish for accidental death protection when it's too late -- Send in your enrollment form today!

OK, never mind the dubious grammar with the dash and all. Does anybody but me see a really weird logical error there?

I Aten't Dead

Yes, yes, I do remember that I have a blog... What can I say? It's been a very uninteresting week, or something.

I did figure I would at least pop in to say to my loyal readers that if you're at all interested in space science, you should go here to see cool pictures of Mercury from the MESSENGER mission.

Also, if you're at all debating whether you want to bother watching Torchwood this season, I definitely recommend checking out the first episode, because it's surprisingly good. I'm really hoping it's a sign of where the show is going from here rather than a fluke, but I'm feeling pretty optimistic. I've always said I thought there was a good show in there struggling to get out! (I believe the episode is on BBC America next weekend, by the way, for the law-abiding Americans in the audience.)

Have Some Random Links.

Cursor 10: A really nifty little puzzle game. You get ten cursor guys who start out on the bottom floor of a building, and your goal is to get one of them all the way to the top. The twist is that each of your game lives takes place simultaneously, so every time you start a new one, all the previous yous are still running around doing stuff. Trust me, it's easier to play than it is to explain, and a lot more entertaining. It took me three tries to figure it out, but the learning process was a lot of fun.

The GOP Primary Field in Buffy Villains: It's kind of frightening how well some of these match up. Some of the comments are pretty funny, too.

The Purple Nurple Optical Illusion: I had loads of fun flicking my eyes back and forth over this. I played around with it for ages. It was immensely cool. Then I stopped looking at it and immediately felt sick. You have been warned.

Lost recap in 8 minutes, 15 seconds: It leaves out everybody's Daddy Issues and reflects the show's unfortunate obsession with who's kissing whom a little too well, but it's actually not bad as a capsule summary of the incredibly convoluted story thus far. Also, it really brings home just how incredibly bizarre that show actually is. (Needless to say, it's massively spoilery.)

It's Currently Time For...

Current clothes: White t-shirt with a picture of Brak from Space Ghost. (All hail Brak!) Blue long-sleeve shirt over that, unbuttoned. Blue jeans. White socks. White belt. Black sneakers.

Current mood: OK. A little rushed. I have to go to work soon.

Current music: It was more random-shuffle stuff last night. I remember some more REO Speedwagon. Also some Tenacious D.

Current annoyance: I had yet another dentist appointment last week to get yet another filling replaced, and once the hours-long numbness wore off, I started noticing a little sensitivity in the tooth they'd just worked on. Nothing too horrible, but if I drank a cold beverage and held it around the tooth, or sucked cold air past it, I could feel some very mild discomfort. For days, I tried hoping that if I ignored it, it would go away, but it didn't. So, of course, this afternoon when I'd pretty much made up my mind to call the dentist and get an appointment to have it looked at, it suddenly seems to have stopped. Now I don't know what to do. Stupid teeth. I swear, they're my least favorite body part.

Current thing: Lately, I've been feeling a strong desire just to hole up somewhere with a supply of hot cocoa and a stack of books as long as my arm and not come out for a week, minimum. That's really all I want to do right now: sip hot beverages and read and let the world go by without me.

Current desktop picture: A picture of a snow-dusted TARDIS with a wreath on the door that I got from the BBC's Doctor Who site a couple of Christmases ago. It's doubtless time to change it, though. After all, I've taken down the other Christmas decorations. All two of them.

Current book: Mainspring by Jay Lake. I've only just started it, but it's pretty cool so far.

Current song in head: It seems to be Warren Zevon's "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead," because I was just thinking that I want to read the Zevon biography of the same title that my sister got me for Christmas sometime soon.

Current DVD in player: Most recently, Man of the Year. Which was watchable, but not great. It didn't seem at all sure whether it wanted to be a comedy or a drama or a romance, or what, and it was trying more than a little too hard to go for the feel-good vibes by the end. So, basically, a Robin Williams movie. Oh, and in the other player: the second disc of Lost in Time: The Troughton Years, a collection that features the surviving episodes of Doctor Who stories that were partially burned by the BBC. Man, when I get my time machine, my second stop after the Library of Alexandria is going to be the BBC video vaults.

Current refreshment: Lemon-ginger green tea.

Current worry: Will I finish this and get it posted before I have to go dashing off to work?

Current thought: I kind of have to pee.

Although This Clearly Should Be "Which Pertwee-Era Doctor Who Character Are You?"

Which Doctor Who Character are you? created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Sgt. Benton You are Sgt. Benton! Calm, fixed, resolute: for being such a nice person you have a bit of cynicism that you keep hidden. It helps you sort out the good from the bad when you deal with people. Not easily fooled by mere charm or facade, you are, all the same, a simple soul. You long for love but don't quite comprehend romance. you recognize that a stable home, longterm friendships, and trust and respect are the foundations of a happy life. Sgt. Benton 50% Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart 43% Jo Grant 43% The Master 32% Captain Mike Yates 29% Doctor Who (Third Doctor) 11%

Hey, I'm happy with that result! I adore Sgt. Benton, honestly. In my eyes, he is the great unsung hero of Doctor Who.

Pointless Memeage From The Old Year

Having earlier done that meme where you post the first line of the first post of each month of the year, it's time (for lack of anything more interesting to do) to do the reverse version and post the last line of the last post of each month. Which gives us:

I feel like Grampa Simpson. Just don't go screwing it up, now, 'kay? Which is itself mildly annoying, but at least it covers up the sound that's deliberately calculated to be annoying and impossible to ignore. Wow, but I think it's been a while since a TV show seriously did that to me. Damn it. And this despite the fact that I've actually remembered to wear sunblock a few days this week. I'm not entirely sure what that means. Or go and comment on "Human Nature" some more. Following Lynyrd's example, I will post this and quickly depart. Thank you. I've only got a few episodes left, but now I'm sort of afraid of them. My fingers want to type sentences.

Well, now I know what to do if I ever want to simulate the ramblings of a schizophrenic.

Happy New Year! Also: Books.

Happy New Year to all! 2008 seems pretty good so far. It's nice and sunny here (if still uncomfortably cold), and I'm enjoying a relaxing day of doing essentially nothing at all. Last night, I went and hung out with friends and played card games, although, sadly, I had to make kind of an early night of it. Even if I don't have to work today, I've still gotta be a morning person for the rest of the week. Bah!

It's traditional at this point for me to post a list of all the books I read in the preceding year, but this time I have a much easier way of doing that than typing out the entire list. So, here: Books I Read in 2007. They're even pre-sorted by the order I read them in! (Well, mostly. When I finished two books on the same day, they don't necessarily show up in order, but even I don't really care about that very much.) Man, I love LibraryThing.

Grand total is 138 books, which isn't bad at all. (You'll note, if you follow the link, that there are only 137 books listed. There is one missing, because the only books that show up there are ones that I own, and I had to borrow Out of the Darkness (the final book in the Babylon 5 trilogy I read in January) from a friend.)

And I'm looking forward to lots more great reading this year, especially considering all the books I got for Christmas!

Tappa-Tappa-Tappa

75 words

Touch Typing for free

I actually found it surprisingly hard to type that string of disconnected words, though. My fingers want to type sentences.

Prezzies!

Have opened prezzies! And a most excellent good year for them it was, too! I'd like to call people up and let them listen to me jumping up and down with happiness, but it is kind of the middle of the night, so I'll just express my pleasure here and call them in the morning.

Things I got for Christmas this year:

• Not one, but two sonic screwdrivers! My friends, who are the best friends ever, got me the full-sized one, with the pen (featuring regular and invisible ink cartridges) and a UV light (for reading the invisible ink). It is an utterly awesome toy; it's very detailed and makes an authentic-sounding "bzzzz!" noise. I've been carrying it around in my pocket for the last two days, randomly pointing it at things. It has made me deeply, geektastically happy. And then my mother got me the little one with the LED flashlight! Which is less cool as a toy, being smaller and lacking the "bzzzz!", but is cooler as an actual tool, which I will carry around in my bag and use at every possible light-requiring opportunity. Dude! Two sonic screwdrivers! Best. Christmas. Ever!


• A wire cat pin, or clip-on thing, which is really cute.


• A small toy space shuttle, which makes me way happier than it has any right to. Here I am, 36 years old, and getting all excited about playing with my Christmas toys. Heh. I think I freaked the cats out with this one, because it was tied up with ribbon, which they all wanted to gather around and play with, but they ran off in a panic when I whipped it out and started making blast-off noises.


• Little snowman ornament with my name on it.


• Battlestar Galactica: Razor on DVD.


• Two books: Ursula Le Guin's Tales from Earthsea and I'll Sleep When I'm Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon.


• $25 in Australian money, to take on my trip in April.


• A belt-mounted carrying case for my digital camera, which will also be handy for the trip.


• A $25 gift certificate to Amazon, and another to Borders.


• A whole host of edible goodies, including cookies, chocolate, candy, tea, and some Russian cookie/pretzely things that I have no idea what they are, but they're good.

I should still have a Secret Santa book coming in the mail, too, but it hasn't got here yet. I am dying with curiosity to know what it might be, but am attempting to cultivate patience.

So, anyway, yes. Awesome Christmas haul. Made me feel like a little kid again. Also made me gain several pounds, but I'm not complaining! Hugs to all you lovely, generous people, most especially the ones who really, really did not have to get me anything, but did anyway. One day, I will think of a really cool way to repay you in kind.

I'd mention the stuff I bought for other people here, too, but most of them probably haven't opened it yet. So I'll just say that, even for me, it was a really geeky Christmas, on the giving as well as the receiving end. And that I hope the results are pleasing.

Happy Holidays!

Fa La La And All That

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate, in whatever capacity. And season's greetings and warm fuzzy feelings to all, without exception!

As I write this, it's about 15 minutes from actually being Christmas, and as soon as it is, I am going to open my prezzies. I can justify this with the fact that my sleeping patterns are so bizarre this week that it's hard for me to tell whether I should consider this day or night, today or tomorrow. (I'm trying to switch from a night shift schedule to a day shift one by rotating forward. With any luck, I'll make it to late Christmas afternoon before succumbing to sleep again.)

I am actually in a surprising amount of holiday spirit this year. I went to a solstice party on Friday, in which we celebrated the season New Mexico style, by eating green chile stew and setting fire to tumbleweeds. Saturday, I hung out with friends, and there were presents and goodies and camaraderie. Today I made myself a holiday meal of a Cornish game hen and indulged in my personal Christmas tradition of watching Blackadder's Christmas Carol (my favorite holiday movie ever). There may even be more socializing on Christmas Day, although the whole going to sleep in the afternoon thing makes that a bit problematical.

I'm even wearing a sweatshirt with reindeer and a Christmas tree on it. That's how non-humbuggy I'm being! Ho, ho, ho!

The Moon Is Kissing Mars.

Being willing to look upward once in a while really pays off. I still remember standing in the parking lot of a Las Vegas casino many years ago watching a lunar eclipse, while all around me streams of people passed by without a single one of them taking any notice, leaving me wondering whether I ought to feel more privileged or sad.

Tonight, I happened to look up at the full moon, noticed that there was a bright object very nearly touching it, where no star should possibly be visible, and realized with a sudden jolt that it was Mars. I'm not sure why, but there is something incredibly, unbelievably cool about being able to look in a straight line past the moon and see Mars right behind it, 55 million miles farther away. It gives me a strong sense, I guess, that these things in the sky are real objects, actual bodies in physical space, rather than simply abstract lights, and that the place where I'm standing is a body hanging in space, too.

Awesome. Absolutely awesome. And made all the more awesome by the fact that right now Mars is as close to us as it ever gets, and thus as bright as it ever gets in our sky.

If the moon is up where you are, go outside and look!

I Come Bearing The Gift Of Random Links!

Astronomy Pictures of the Year for 2007: More of this year's most gorgeous astronomical images, this time from the ever-enthralling Astronomy Picture of the Day site.

Geeks are Everywhere: I think I may be included in several places on this chart.

"The Hopes and Fears of All the Years": A Christmas-themed Doctor Who short story, written by Paul Cornell, who, among other things, penned last season's two-parter "Human Nature"/"The Family of Blood."

2007 Holiday Christmas Guide for Slackers Cultural Warriors: Haven't yet done your bit to keep the spirit of Christmas alive via rampant commercialism? Never fear! Matt Baldwin's last minute gift guide is here!

Snowball is a Rockin' to the Back Street Boys Cockatoo!: All right, I don't usually post links to YouTube videos of animals being amusing, especially not ones of animals being amusing to the tune of the Backstreet Boys. But this bird just completely cracks me up. Also, the person who posted it is trying to attract attention for a bird rescue operation, so it's, like, a socially responsible goofy animal video.

So Say We All: Battlestar Galactica Propaganda Posters: Nifty WWII-style propaganda posters for sale. Remember, anyone can be a Cylon!

The Civil War in Four Minutes: The course of the American Civil War, condensed into four minutes on an animated map. Weirdly compelling to watch.

Here Comes The Sun

Happy Solstice, all! Even if it technically isn't until tomorrow, my time. (Also, to my fellow Blake's 7 fans: Happy Gauda Prime Day! Even if it was technically yesterday where most B7 fans are.)

While I am traditionally something of a humbug, I am attempting to get into the holiday spirit. I baked cookies! I haven't baked cookies in years! I feel ridiculously proud of myself. Even if I did burn some of them a bit.

And never mind Christmas, I'm perfectly happy to celebrate the idea of the sun coming back. Night person I may be, but I'm getting tired of dark and cold already. Which is kind of sad, considering how short the winters are here.

Mmm! Sounds Like Sci-Fi!

	I received 71 credits on The Sci Fi Sounds Quiz How much of a Sci-Fi geek are you?
Guess the Sci-Fi Movie Sounds hereCanon powershot

It told me I was a major sci-fi geek and asked me if I speak Klingon. All I have to say to that is: tlhIngan Hol vljatlhIaHbe'.

No Place In Time For You.

The desertification of the vast wasteland that is American television continues... Now it looks like The 4400 isn't going to be back. I know I've been a bit guilty of damning that show with faint praise in the past, but I was still watching it, and by the end of last season, I was starting to get really interested again and curious about where the story arc was going. I guess now I'll never know.

With that off the schedule, the only show on USA I'm still watching is Psych. And that's my light-weight, watch-when-my-brain-is-tired-and-I-want-a-laugh show, which isn't exactly something that's all that hard to come by.

Also getting the axe from USA is The Dead Zone, which I haven't been watching, but which I know at least one of my six loyal readers liked. My sympathies.

I Am Such A Hack.

I stumbled on this even more entertaining variation of the Wikipedia music meme and could not possibly resist:

Instructions:
Go to Wikipedia and hit the Random Article link. This is the title of your book. Now, hit random again, until you get three names. The first is the pen name you published your book under; the second is the name of your protagonist, and the third is the name of the villain.

Hit Random again ten times to get chapter titles (you can go for more if you want, but ten is at least a good minimum). If you'd like, hit it once or twice more to get previous books your protagonist has appeared in. Or a newspaper to list your favorable reviews. :D

Then, write the synopsis/blurb of your book, using the character names and the chapter titles for inspiration.

Coming soon to a bookstore near you:

Jean-Andoche Junot by Madison Dearborn
an epic adventure featuring KK and Ivars

Chapter 1: A Blues for Shindig
Chapter 2: Savage Land Mutates
Chapter 3: Willoughby Spit
Chapter 4: Patriots' Day
Chapter 5: Unit Oketz
Chapter 6: Veterans of the First World War who died in 1999
Chapter 7: Leslie Glass
Chapter 8: Entering the Arena
Chapter 9: Continental Divide (film)
Chapter 10: Vraneštica
Chapter 11: Gladiator (Melvin Potter)
Chapter 12: Gendarmerie Nationale

Cover blurb:

For four years, the near-future super-soldier known only as KK has traveled the Earth, waging a never-ending battle to bring order to a world torn by the bloodiest and most savage wars that mankind has ever known. For four years, KK has followed hints and rumors of a shadowy figure manipulating history from behind the scenes, a man possessed of unimaginable, almost supernatural power. A man whose very name has haunted him: Ivars. Now, in this explosive new adventure, KK comes face-to-face with Ivars at last, but when the ultimate conquerer and the ultimate defender clash, the consequences aren't merely global... they're personal.

(Previous volumes in this series include: Laetiporus, Harur and Sikasso.)


Well, somehow I just couldn't look at those results and not see a testosterone-soaked military adventure story of the "visit exotic places, meet interesting people, and kill them" type. Except I am largely unfamiliar with that particular genre, so I had to make it at least sort of SF-ish. I'm pretty sure I'd need a complete brain transplant to actually write that thing, under any name, but doing the blurb was ridiculously fun.

The title, by the way, is the name of a French army officer who served under Napoleon. I figure super-solider KK has doubtless made a study of his career, some aspect of which serves as a running motif illustrating the novel's main theme. Er, such as it is. I'm figuring it probably has something to do with the head wound he suffered in Italy, which Wikipedia tells me may have "reduced the quality of his judgment and made him rash and temperamental." Possibly our hero can relate.