Maximum Verbosity

Apocawhat When?

2009-12-20T21:01:00.002-07:00

What Classic Movie Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

I'm not at all sure how I feel about that. In part because I still haven't ever gotten around to watching that movie.

Pet Peeve #6,057

2009-12-17T17:24:00.001-07:00

Pet Peeve #6,057: Charity-solicitation junk mail that comes with a coin in the envelope. Ostensibly, this is some kind of promotional gimmick, but I think the real intent is to punish anybody who tries to feed the envelope through a shredder without opening it. Thank you so fucking much, unnamed charity I was never going to donate to anyway because you're partly about promoting a religion I don't believe in.

More Muppets

2009-12-12T13:21:00.001-07:00

Some seasonal Muppet joy:

Murphy's Law Application #4,972

2009-12-10T14:33:00.000-07:00

When you've just hit "post" on something only to realize that you've made an embarrassing mistake that you want to correct quickly before anyone sees it, that is the exact moment your internet will suddenly go down. The length of the outage, of course, will be directly proportional to the magnitude of the mistake. Apparently realizing that you've used the same adverb three times in three sentences gets you about 10-15 minutes.

We're Not Getting Any Further Into December Without Doing This Meme.

2009-12-10T13:40:00.004-07:00

Current clothes: Olive-colored sweatshirt with the sleeves bunched up at the elbows. Blue jeans. White socks. Gray sneakers.

Current mood: A little rushed right now, but generally very good. I don't know what it is, but lately even when I'm not really doing much of anything, I feel like I'm having a lot of fun doing it. It's weird, but I'm not going to complain about it.

Current music: Of late I've mostly been trying to catch up on the zillion podcasts I've downloaded, with a rather surprising degree of success. But I was just listening to some random-shuffle stuff while I was hanging up laundry. Most recently played: "Learn to Fly" by Carbon Leaf.

Current annoyance: The discovery that I accidentally left a tampon in the back pocket of a pair of jeans when I put them in the laundry. The results are sort of like when you leave a kleenex in the pocket, only even more annoying.

Current thing: OK, yes, I have been continuing to play The Sims 2 -- see "current song in head" -- but I've been rationing my time on it. Honestly.

Current desktop picture: This image from the Doctor Who Christmas station break thingy I linked to in the last post.

Current book: Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner. This was written in 1968 and set in 2010, which makes reading it for the first time in almost-2010 a slightly odd experience. As is almost inevitable -- and, in this case, was undoubtedly a deliberate choice -- it's really not about 2010 at all, but about the issues and concerns of 1968, projected and magnified onto the screen of an imagined future. Needless to say, the issues and concerns of 1968 are largely not the issues of today, so that the only way I can properly appreciate this book is to try to rewind my brain back to 1968 and then spin it forward again. Which is something of a challenge, considering that I was born in 1971. But that mental exercise really is necessary, because that projection is mostly all there is; the characters and plot seem to exist mainly as scaffolding for Brunner's social commentary. It's a very carefully constructed and highly provocative projection, mind you, and I imagine it must have made quite an impact on contemporary readers, but at this point it's mainly only of historical interest. It seems to me that that alone ought to be enough to make it worthwhile reading, but I have to confess that I'm kind of struggling with it.

Current song in head: Various bits of music from The Sims 2, notably that salsa tune they seem to really enjoy dancing to.

Current DVD in player: Disc 2 of season 5 of Numb3rs. I really like this show. Objectively, it's not a work of artistic brilliance or anything, being just another crime-of-the-week show, albeit one with an excellent cast. But the fact that a show about solving crime with math not only made it onto the air, but is actually very successful... I swear, it gives me renewed hope for humanity. And it's immense fun to watch. I don't even care how accurate it all is.

Current refreshment: Nothing, but I'm getting very hungry.

Current worry: That if I spend too much more time on the internet right now, I'm not going to have time to cook and eat lunch before I have to leave for work.

Current thought: Where are my mornings going lately? Or even my "mornings," which partially take place in the early afternoon this week. How is it 1:30 already?

Random Pop Cultural Links

2009-12-08T13:54:00.000-07:00

Summarize your sex life with a Star Wars quote: Way funnier than it probably ought to be. And I say that as someone who's not even that much of a Star Wars fan.

5 Star Wars Status Updates: Star Wars characters' Facebook updates. Y'know, I think that, as with Lovecraft, I may like Star Wars humor more than I actually like Star Wars.

Are You a Lovcraftian Horror?: Speaking of Lovecraft humor...

The 10 Most Clichéd Character Types in Sci-Fi: Despite the fact that I believe I actually quite enjoyed every single example they give here, I have to agree. These are very cliché.

The Muppets: Bohemian Rhapsody: It makes me happy that I live in a world in which this exists.

BBC one Doctor Who Christmas Ident 1: Adorable little Doctor Who Christmas-themed station identification thingy.

Truly, They Would Rule The World If Only They Had Opposable Thumbs.

2009-12-08T00:08:00.000-07:00

The intelligence level of my cats is really starting to worry me. Twice now -- twice -- Vir has expressed with meows and the placement of paws on my legs that he wishes me to pay attention to him instead of to The Sims 2[*], and, when this wish failed to be fulfilled, he's gone over and stepped on the off button on my UPS, thus instantly shutting down the computer[**][***]. And, yes, OK, once could easily be coincidence, and even twice could be attributable to the fact that, well, he's flailing around at my feet and could possibly hit it by accident. But I can't deny a strong suspicion that he actually knows perfectly damned well what he's doing. Gaaah! Cats!

[*] Sadly, I have fallen off the Sims 2 wagon. I was doing so well with going cold turkey for many months, but, well, there was this one week where I really needed to try to keep myself awake late in order to switch onto the night shift, and it's so useful for that...

[**] And, of course, he had to do it when things were going well. No, we can't lose an unsaved game when somebody's just set their kitchen on fire. It has to be right after they've unexpectedly won $7,000 or successfully potty-trained their toddler or something. (For I am a benevolent god this go-round, and am striving for happiness and fulfillment for my simulated playthings. Mostly.)

[***] And my router, which then got confused and started handing out duplicate IP addresses, thus denying my PC access to the internet when I turned it back on. Fortunately, rebooting the TiVo took care of that problem. Go, me, fixing minor computer issues!

Snow!

2009-12-03T12:36:00.001-07:00

There is snow!

Hey! You Can Buy Books Offline, Too!

2009-12-02T17:15:00.000-07:00

Just got back from running some errands in Albuquerque. And since, this being only the second day of the month, I hadn't quite hit my book-buying quota yet, I stopped at Page One while I was there and did some book shopping. I hardly ever set foot in brick-and-mortar bookstores anymore, since I now do most of my book buying, like most of my everything-else-buying, online. I swear, I was sort of walking around in a daze wondering where the search box was. And, oh what a strange thing it seems, now, to pick up a book I've never even heard of, flip through it, and decide to take a chance on it without even looking up reviews or how people rated it on Amazon, or anything. It's fun! I really must do this sort of thing more often. If nothing else, it's good to throw your local independent booksellers some business now and again.

And now my To-Read Pile sits at 426 books. Which is, um, better than it was at the beginning of the year, at least. Go, me?

It's What Time Of Year, Now?

2009-11-30T15:55:00.000-07:00

Given that the stores have had Christmas crap on display since before Halloween, I'd pretty much taken to tuning out anything relating to the holiday as an annoying irrelevance, for the sake of my sanity. So now that Thanksgiving is behind us and it's very nearly December, it's coming as a bit of a shock to suddenly realize that, oh, yeah, I really do need to think about doing my Christmas shopping.

What's really funny is that years ago I used to start buying gifts in October. I think the whole Christmas Creep thing is seriously backfiring.

Mmmm, Pie.

2009-11-26T13:11:00.000-07:00

Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Americans! I am eating pumpkin pie for breakfast.

Random Link Dump

2009-11-19T23:03:00.001-07:00

10 Geeky Laws That Should Exist, But Don’t: Very geeky, very true laws.

Short Film: Built a Time Machine to Kill Hitler: "You know that roommate who gets an iPhone, and brags about this 'great peice of technology' but he only ever uses it for stupid crap like cats playing piano? It’s that with a time machine."

Cell Size and Scale: A nifty interactive look at the scale of very small things.

The Average Color of the Universe : If you've ever wondered what color the universe is, it's, well, this.

Hey There Cthulhu: The Photomontage Video: Because, y'know, I think I actually like Lovecraft parodies better than I like Lovecraft.

15 Things Worth Knowing About Coffee: Mmmm, coffee.

The Skeptics Guide to the Universe Special Report: H1N1 Pandemic Update: I know I've had conversations with a couple of people lately about the flu and flu vaccines, so I thought this might be of interest. It's about a 45 minute podcast in which several doctors discuss in some depth this year's flu issues and the scientific facts on the safety and efficacy of vaccines. (Note: mp3 file. Right-click to download.)

Oh, Wait, It's Past Time For This Thing.

2009-11-11T08:53:00.001-07:00

Current clothes: A towel. I just got out of the shower. Any minute now, though, I'm going to get dressed and start doing something useful. Aaaaany minute...

Current mood: Still a bit meh and a bit out of it, but better than yesterday, anyway. Last night wasn't exactly a good night, but at least I got more sleep.

Current music: Random shuffle stuff again. I don't even remember what it served me up last, other than some novelty songs and still more Rush.

Current annoyance: Sleeping problems. Allergies. Aches and pains, especially in my feet. Being back up at a weight where I start to feel unhealthy. Yes, I'm still waiting on that robot body...

Current thing: I don't know. Trying to be a bit more social, maybe.

Current desktop picture: Stars over Easter Island. I might have to change it soon, though. That giant face is oddly creepy.

Current book: St Anthony's Fire by Mark Gatiss, another of the no-longer-very-new Doctor Who New Adventures. It's readable, but kind of boring.

Current song in head: Nothing at the moment, but for some obscure reason, I've had "She Moves On" by Paul Simon in my head off and on for over a week.

Current DVD in player: Nothing at the moment. The last DVD I watched was Monsters vs. Aliens. Which was kind of cute, and I heartily approve of the way the romance part of the plot was handled, but mostly it was pretty forgettable.

Current refreshment: Nothing. I'm kind of hungry, though. Possibly I should have had something more than one banana and half a pot of coffee for breakfast.

Current worry: I really need to get the brakes checked on my car. They've been making worrying noises from time to time.

Current thought: If I can't have my robot body, I really, really want that robot servant. It's the 21st century, damn it, and there are far fewer robots than I was promised.

It Could Bring Me Some Fries, As Well. And Fluff Up My Pillow.

2009-11-10T16:30:00.000-07:00

I ended up not going in to work today. (I suppose I could have forced myself to be semi-functional if I had to, but they didn't really need me for anything, anyway.) I did fall asleep on the couch for a couple of hours this morning -- not very deeply asleep, mind you, and for a while afterward I felt even groggier than I did before, but I think it did me some good in the long term, because now I only feel slightly crappy. I also managed to get caught up on most of the stuff that had accumulated on my TiVo, so, hey, sick day accomplishment!

And now apparently my body has decided that what it really needs is protein, because I have a massive craving for a hamburger. Which, needless to say, I cannot obtain without leaving the house. Damn it, where is my robot servant, and why is it not fetching hamburgers for me?

Sigh. Well, I suppose some fresh air might actually do me good...

Suck.

2009-11-10T03:16:00.000-07:00

Gaah. I am completely unable to decide whether I woke up at 2 AM and couldn't get back to sleep because I feel unwell, or whether I feel unwell because I woke up at 2 AM and couldn't get back to sleep.

Either way, I am not happy, and if large quantities of coffee do not magically make everything better, I am calling today off.

Musical Interludes

2009-11-09T17:11:00.000-07:00

Thoughts I had while listening to randomly shuffled songs on my iPod this morning:

I have more songs about Elvis than I have songs by Elvis. I am not entirely sure what this means.
There are apparently a lot of songs on my iPod that I have absolutely no recollection of putting on there, and more than a few I would have been prepared to swear I'd never even heard of. This is one of the many things that makes random shuffle an entertaining experience.
My personal religious/philosophical viewpoint can be expressed with considerable precison via the medium of Rush lyrics. I feel as if I should embarrassed about this, but I'm not.

It's Random Linky Time!

2009-11-08T07:53:00.001-07:00

The World of Tomorrow (If The Internet Disappeared Today): Amusing Photoshopped pictures of "what life would be like in an Internet-addicted society learning to cope without it." What a terrifying thought.

Comic Strip Mashups: Cartoon comic strips mashed up with movies or comic books. I didn't get all the references, but the ones I did know are very funny.

I Want to Have Twins Just to Get Them These Awesome T-Shirts: Speaking of funny...

My Life Is Average: Average people with short comments about quirky little things that have happened during their day. Many or most of the "average people" seem to be teenage Harry Potter fans, and for all I know half of them are making stuff up, but it's entertaining.

A 'Lost' Q&A: Damon Lindelof answers (most of) your questions!: OK, he doesn't actually answer that many questions. But it's an interesting interview for Lost fans, anyway. Even if I must strongly disagree with Lindelof on one point: it's totally fair to bag on that awful "how Jack got his tattoo" episode, man.

The Adventures of Lil Cthulhu: Pure evil has never been so cute.

The Sims Horror Movie: This made me laugh out loud. It'll probably only be funny, though, if you've actually played The Sims.

Space Cadets: An SF-themed British comedy quiz show from the 1990s, featuring Greg Proops hosting from a giant Davros chair. Why did I never know this existed before now?!?! If you're familiar with Never Mind the Buzzcocks, it's basically the same thing, only with science fiction TV and movies, rather than music. It's not, I admit, as hilarious as Buzzcocks, but I know a lot more of the answers. Or such is my impression so far, anyway. I've only watched two episodes. Not that it ran a whole lot longer than that...

Post Of Sleep-Deprived Bitching #443

2009-11-04T13:05:00.001-07:00

Waking up with sunshine in your face, cuddled up comfortably to a purring cat = good.

Waking up with sunshine in your face, cuddled up comfortably to a purring cat and realizing that you've only been asleep for a little over four hours = less good.

Waking up with sunshine in your face, cuddled up comfortably to a purring cat and realizing that you've only been asleep for a little over four hours and that those loud power-tool noises coming from next door are not going to stop any time soon = really not good.

Waking up with sunshine in your face, cuddled up comfortably to a purring cat and realizing that you've only been asleep for a little over four hours and that those loud power-tool noises coming from next door are not going to stop any time soon, and that it is thus going to be a long, long night shift tonight = Aaaaargh!

Where's the coffee? Where the hell is the coffee?!

It's Not Me, It's You.

2009-10-30T13:28:00.000-06:00

Dear Dollhouse,

I'm afraid the time has come. To be honest, I knew it was coming for quite a while. The fact that your last episode sat on my TiVo for a week, unwatched and barely remembered, was a pretty clear sign. But I figured I'd give you one last chance. Alas, fifteen minutes in, and I find myself having to face the truth: you are boring and unpleasant, and your very rare moments of coolness simply aren't enough to satisfy me. And the fact that the only thing that seems to please me about you any more is the occasional opportunity to watch the main characters suffer, not because their sufferings are interesting, but because I hate them and wish them ill... Well, it's just not healthy for either of us, really.

So, goodbye, Dollhouse. I wish you the best of luck, I really do. Who knows, maybe you'll change, and one day we can get together again and make it work. But I'm not holding my breath.

Don't try to come around any more. I've told the TiVo to stop letting you in. Trust me. It's better this way. If only because it improves the quality of my Friday nights.

Sincerely,
Me

Time Files When You're... Doing Whatever The Heck I've Been Doing.

2009-10-30T12:14:00.002-06:00

I have no idea how it got to be Friday already. Not that I'm complaining. Especially since this week Friday actually is my Friday.

My Geeky Life

2009-10-29T11:58:00.000-06:00

Since my sister's poking me to see if I'm alive again, I suppose it's time for an update. Although I think she's getting more and more impatient these days. Sheesh. ;)

Anyway, so what have I been doing lately? Not a whole heck of a lot, but let's see...

1. Saturday I went to a Halloween party. The costume theme was superheroes. The party's host, a major costuming geek, is a big fan of Captain America and was doubtless going to have a Captain America costume, so some friends of mine cooked up a secret plan: get a big group of people together and all go dressed as Captain America. Or different versions thereof, anyway, both original designs and ones from the comics. Me, I just got a costume t-shirt and went as "Slacker America" (which may or may not have been amusing to anybody but me), since a) I came into this plan kind of late, and b) I have absolutely no skills or ambition when it comes to costuming. Some of the other folks did an amazing job, though. I was particularly impressed with Revolutionary War Captain America, even if everybody did seem to think he was a pirate version. (Probably because of the hat.) Anyway, it got the expected giant laugh, and we won the "best group" prize. And now I have a Captain America t-shirt that I will never, ever wear again, mostly because I know pretty much diddly-squat about Captain America.

2. I hardly ever go out to the movies anymore, preferring to stay in and Netflix instead. It's cheaper, easier, and you don't have to deal with obnoxious jerks who won't turn off their cell phones. But I did get out to see District 9 when it was here in town. It's not very subtle, and it's full of story implausibilities, but despite that -- or maybe because of it, I don't even know -- it's a decidedly good movie.

3. I've finally had to turn on my heater and get out my warm comforter, because it's suddenly gotten really cold here. Well, cold for here, anyway. It's not like I live in Minnesota, but New Mexcio can get a lot chiller than most people who've never lived here assume. I may actually have to wear my coat to work today. Which is OK. I like my coat. It's an army surplus coat, so I can pretend I'm Captain Jack. Who is better than Captain America.

4. Speaking of Captain Jack, I now have reservations for the Gallifrey One Doctor Who convention in February, which I'm going to be attending with aforementioned sister and one of her friends. I'm a little bummed that Peter Davison ended up canceling, after they moved the date for him and everything, but I'm looking forward to it, anyway.

5. What else? Well, as I think I mentioned before, I've started playing in a Star Wars RPG. I'm playing Jedi Daniel Jackson. Pretty much literally. Hey, Star Wars, Stargate... Same thing, right? Actually, it's pretty funny that I'm playing someone who's supposed to have a good knowledge of history, because my own familiarity with the SW universe is almost nil. Sure, I watched the movies. They were fun. I even read Timothy Zahn's trilogy, which I think were the first Star Wars books published. I remember nothing about them, though, except that they were better than I expected. I certainly can't tell you the name of the third alien from the left in the Cantina scene, or whatever, which a surprisingly large number of the people I know can do with ease. Hey, what can I say? I was always a Star Trek gal. Oh, well. Some day, somebody's going to want to game in a universe I actually know well. *eyes copy of Farscape RPG book thoughtfully*

And, yeah, that's about it. Unless you really want to hear all about how I sit around watching DVDs and reading and stuff. My life, it is so thrilling!

Things That Make Me Go "Huh?"

2009-10-23T12:21:00.002-06:00

I just got season 2 of Burn Notice from Netfix. At the beginning of the first disk, there's an advertisement informing me that season 2 of Burn Notice is coming on DVD. Uh... thanks?

And I just noticed that one of the warnings printed on my new coffee maker's carafe is "Do not hold over people." I don't even want to know what prompted that warning, but I now have this bizarre, hard-to-control desire to wave it around over the top of my head.

Linkages

2009-10-21T18:36:00.001-06:00

30 Dumb Inventions: Some of these are very dumb.

5 Websites During The Zombie Apocalypse: Amusing glimpse at what the web will look like once the brain-eating starts.

5 Myths That People Don't Realize Are Admitted Hoaxes: Hey, just because the person pulling the hoax actually, you know, admits it, is that any reason to stop believing?

Deleted Flashback Scene House ep 6x06: Scene from the end of this week's episode of House with a few seconds of deleted footage. It kind of made me go "aww."

And by the way, apropos of my last post -- and not entirely off-topic, since, look, I'm including a link! -- Cartoon Network has made good on the west coast feed screwup with the Venture Bros. season premiere. They're re-airing it Mon-Fri nights this week at 12:30 Pacific, and they made the episode available online almost immediately. So, while it may be true that nobody retires from Phantom Limb's shit list, Cartoon Network has successfully retired from mine.

Nothing Ventured

2009-10-19T09:21:00.001-06:00

You know what's really fun? When you wait more than a year for the season premiere of a show you're really into, and then when it finally airs, the network screws up the fucking broadcast. Thank the gods of technology for YouTube, that's all I have to say.

happy sigh

2009-10-13T12:49:00.001-06:00

I got sleep last night! Hours and hours and hours of glorious sleep! Ah, life is beautiful!

It's lovely today, with a nice, cool breeze ruffling my curtains. I don't have to go to work. Indeed, I have nothing pressing to do at all. I thus feel very relaxed, and am fully intending to keep right on being relaxed. Thus, today will be for reading, watching DVDs and/or whatever's still pending on the TiVo, and doing a bit of light housework of the kind with a high satisfaction-at-getting-it-done/annoyance-at-doing-it ratio.

Now that I'm back on a normal-person sleep schedule, I've been vaguely thinking about going up to Albuquerque tomorrow to run some errands, but I'm almost certain I'll end up procrastinating on that. Man, this book-buying quota thing is impacting all areas of my life... A couple of years ago, I would have motivated myself to go by promising myself a trip to Barnes & Noble or Page One while I was up there, but, nope. There was a Friends of the Library sale this weekend, and of course I hit my book-acquisition limit hard. So, yeah, maybe I will just stay home and read, and tell myself that I'm accomplishing something important by chipping away at the To-Read Pile so I can buy more books later.