Beware…

Beware the Ides of March

Beware the Ideas of March

Beware the Tides of March

The Dude Abides in March

Beware Tour Guides in March

Play Hide and Seek in March

Beware the Pies of March

Don’t Take Sides in March

Game Called

So for the past three weeks, I’ve been in scenic Watsonville working on a remedial excavation.

And no, that doesn’t men an excavation that’s in need of special construction in school. (And yes, I was actually asked that once).

We’re cleaning up another company’s mess.

Now, our first week, we had some rain.  It was frustrating, but it didn’t affect the dig.  But the rain on Tuesday and Wednesday (and today and tomorrow…) makes it too sloppy to dig because then you expose soil that will have to dry out before you can put anything on top of it.

So we’re shut down.  I’ll go back Monday and see how things are, and how much we can get done before the next bit of rain comes in.

Until then, Jennifer is very happy to have me home.

Treasure of Watsonville

Wrenches?

We ain't got no wrenches.

We don't need no wrenches.

We don't have to show you any stinking wrenches!

Mogo Doesn’t Socialize

Yeah, it’s the little thing s that get me.

So I’ve been working out of town this week, and will be until about the end of April. Friday I came home and was sitting around looking to just relax, but then I read this.  Now I’d been suffering through near freezing mornings, and two days of cold rain with just a picnic type canopy to shelter under.  I decided I needed to get outside.

Friday afternoon, I did 14.7 miles on my bike, making it to the radio towers out near Costco-Richmond.  Today I made it all the way to Craneway for 24.1 miles.  and while I’m tired, I feel really good.

you see the hotel I’m staying at has minimal exercise facilities.  There’s a recumbent bike, a treadmill, and a machine that allows very specific workout positions.  Plus I’ve got a big exercise ball to do crunches on as well as some other things.  But nothing beats being out for an hour or two on a bike.

Now, because I’m gone for so long, Jennifer needs some other forms of entertainment, so I shifted all of our Netflix DVDs to her queue.  But one had gotten through before I did that, so I had a movie to watch this weekend: the DC animated feature Green Lantern – Emerald Knights.

Now this is reminiscent of the old Tales Green Lantern Corps quarterlies that used to tell stories from the Book of Oa.  This DVD tells tales related by Hal Jordan, once again voiced by Nathan Fillion, to the rookie Lantern Arisia.  they are well told, and for those in the know of Corps mythology, most have an underlying story that makes them that much deeper.  Not that a lack of knowledge takes anything away from the telling.

Add to this that I’ve had a lull in books, so I’ve been catching up on my physical comics reading, and I was pretty psyched by this DVD.

As for the title… it’s from the DVD, and had me howling with laughter just like the Lanterns that said it as a joke.

HA!

If you’re cold, why should you stand in the corner?

…

…

…

…

…

Because it’s 90 degrees.

Model Behavior

Yesterday was my Grandmother and Papaw’s 50th wedding anniversary.  My mom and her brother (with my dad and aunt) took them out for dinner, and my mom performed a renewal of vows ceremony.  Details are sketchy from 2,700 miles away, but keep an eye on mom’s blog, and I’m sure she’ll have a full accounting and pictures.

Coming up in April, my parents will celebrate their 45th wedding anniversary.  And no, they didn’t get married when mom was 5, and I wasn’t born when she was 8.  My Grandfather passed away from cancer when my mom was a child, and Grandmother married Papaw when mom was in college (if I’m getting my math right).

But what better living examples of marriage could I have than these two?

Congratulations to Grandmother and Papaw for 50 years!

A Post and Music

It’s been a while since I did this to music, so I thought I try it again.

{Queensrÿche “Hard Times”}

So yeah, no matter what, comic book plots tend to slip into my mind at the strangest times.

This evening I was in my office/craft room looking for something and my tabby Oscar came in to see what I was doing.  I played with him a little, and was pleased when he started purring.  even as he rolled onto his back, and I scratched his belly while he gnawed on the cuff of my shirt, he kept purring.  I figured he must be really happy.

And then an old plot from the Flash came into my head. and so we descend into geekdom.

{Evanescence “The Other Side”}

One of the villains of the Flash is Gorilla Grodd.  Grodd has been around for a long time.  He is a super-intelligent gorilla from Gorilla City, a city of super-intelligent gorillas hidden somewhere in Africa. According to Wikipedia, he first appeared in 1959.  Most of the gorillas are peaceful if reclusive, but Grodd is evil with the powers of telepathy.  He constantly chafes at the presence of humans whom he views as inferior.  And if you compare intelligence and strength, he’s got a point.

{Breaking Benjamin “Skin”}

One of the Flash comics in the 90s had Grodd build a device that increased the brain power of animals all across Central City (the Flash’s base of operations).  And because humans are such jerks (or insert other synonym here) the animals attacked.  Birds swooped and pecked.  Rats rose up.  Zoos became pandemonium.  But some pets, those that were well treated, defended their owners.

{Chris Cornell “Other Side of Town”}

The main one shown was the new kitten of a little girl who at first seemed to have fallen under Grodd’s spell, but was actually upset about the squirrel that about to launch itself through the picture window to attack the little girl.  The kitten ends up killing the squirrel, and then goes back to wanting to play with the little girl.

Yes, of course, the Flash stops Grodd.  I think this was even one of those times when the invention backfires, and makes Grodd (temporarily) a vegetable.  He is returned to the custody of Gorilla City where he would later escape and wreak havoc once again.

And yes, the point of this is that as I sat on the floor rubbing my kitten’s tummy, I felt confident that if he were to suddenly gain sentience, he wouldn't attack me.

{Garbage “Stupid Girl”}

Invasion of the Syrup

So I regularly listen to Kevin Smith's podcast "Smodcast".  (I may have said before, but the M in Smodcast is for Scott Mosier.)  And when I say I regularly listen, I mean that I'm many episodes behind.

So I was listening to one yesterday, and Kevin and Scott were talking about this article by Mark Hyman about the dangers of High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS).

Now, I've worked very hard in the past few years to get off of HFCS.  And of course it coincided with my cutting down on caffeine as well.  I had heard about the HFCS tricks you into remaining hungry after you've consumed it, but I didn't know about the other affects it has on a body.

I'm thinking that at this point, I'm going to be getting rid of anything with HFCS in it, and won't be getting any soda out of a fountain again.

Bungee Blog

So here I am bouncing in again with a long delayed post.

Hey, I’m working again, what do you expect?  Oh, so because I used to post all of the time when I was at ETIC, I’m supposed to post be back in that mode again?  But my workload there was not what it is here.  Time and Materials billing doesn’t allow for the slack that Unit Pricing does.  If you’ve got an established pattern for billing to a Unit then you need to keep that up.  So now, I’m moving from task to task here, not just doing a task, and figuring out how to bill it.

And besides if it were all about free time wouldn't I have posted all the time last year when I was mostly unemployed?  But then nothing was happening.  Sure I was reading and biking, but I posted a bit about that, but there wasn’t much excitement going on.  And yes, I realize I’ve been mentioning the unemployment thing a lot.  I try not to, but it’s just hard not to compare “then” and “now” without doing so.  It’s like “pre-break-in”, “post-break-in”, and "Emeryville Epilogue”; things are just so different.

So why am I posting in the middle of the day today?  Because I needed a break.  So there.

~~~

Now, the reading part of the blog.  For Christmas, Jennifer and I got Nooks from my in-laws.  The Simple Touch ones. We don’t know how because we’re pretty sure they were and are over the family cost limit, but we were very surprised to received them.  I acted happy, but was resistant to using them at first.  I love the feel of a book, and the whole “I can read this without charging it” thing made me feel superior.

So I downloaded some free books, and tried things out.  It was okay, but got better as I personalized the method of turning pages.  Then I thought about using it to read PDFs.  It does an okay job, but then I found an online converter that can change formats, and learned that EPUB is the way to go for the nook.

So I’ve been slowly acquiring copies of books that I like.  Right now I’m working my way through Larry Niven's Ringworld series again.

And the really cool thing is that the Nook fits perfectly in the back pocket of my Tumi bag.  I could probably even fit it inside if I really wanted to be secure, but it fits low enough that you can’t see it.  But I can have my library with me at all times.

The Nook is so what Mom and I needed when I was a kid.  Especially for all of my doctor visits.

“Yea, though I wait at the pharmacy of Kaiser, I shall fear no boredom, for my Nook is with me.”

Books! (and Candy)

I finally finished the H.P. Lovecraft compendium.While I’m glad to be done, I have to say that it was really amazing to read his works in chronological order.
Now, I’m on to the Ringworld cycle by Larry Niven.  It’s been a while since I’ve read the whole series, and I think I’ve only read the last book in the series once.  I don’t think I even own it, so I’m going to have to go on the hunt for it.
I’m also placing several books on hold at the library, so I’ll get to intersperse re-reading with new reading.
And speaking of old books, I’ve got Jennifer reading Roger Zelazny’s Lord of Light.
Tonight also marks the end of my Christmas candy.  I splurged and at the last two of my See’s dark chocolate butter chews.  Wow, those are good.  But I made the box last for over a month.  In other news I also found Kraft Caramel squares on clearance at Target this weekend.  No promises on making them last.

… and a Half

Happy… to…

Happy… to…

Happy… dear…

Happy… to…

The day just doesn’t have the impact that it used to have.

A Return to Arkham

So yeah, it turns out, I wasn't really in the mood for James Watson recounting how he met Francis Crick, and how they came up with the double helix structure theory for DNA.

So I'm back to reading H.P. Lovecraft until I get a chance to run by the library and get a recent Charles Stross release.

Then once I"m done with those, we'll just see what books come next.

I'm Not Dead, I'm Working

It's just been a couple of those weeks.

Last week, I started my new job.  I'm doing geology work again, and spent most of the first week reading up on the three sites I'll most likely be working at in 2012.  Then this week, I was in San Rafael at one of those sites.  We were scheduled to be there for five days, but we were so awesome that we finished in only three days.

Now I'm reading up on a site in Watsonville.  The kind of cool thing is that our subcontractor for the excavation there is going to be the company that I worked for before coming here.  It will be good to see the guys I got to know again, and I'll know they do a quality job even before going into it.

Now, I'm already on my third book of 2012.  I had to set aside my Lovecraft book because I had all of these books come in at the libraries.  Yes libraries, because from my office I'm only two (very long) blocks from the Walnut Creek branch of the Contra Costa Library.  And I had also put in some requests at the Oakland Library as well.

First I got to devour the latest book of the Discworld, Snuff by Terry Pratchett.  This one is more of a social commentary than any he's done before.  But it was lots of fun to see His Grace, the Duke of Ankh, Commander Sir Samuel Vimes, the Blackboard Monitor in action again.  And very much in action.  It only took me a couple days over the weekend to finish it.

Then I read After the Golden Age by Carrie Vaughn.  It's the tale of a woman who is the unpowered daughter of two of the greatest heroes of her earth.  Her father is a Superman-esque hero, and her mother is a fire manipulator.  And the poor woman keeps getting kidnapped in an attempt to control her parents and their super team.  It was a fun read, and Jennifer is going to see if she'll like it.  Apparently Vaughn also writes an urban fantasy series.  Jennifer has requested the first two books of the series, so we'll see how things go with that.

And now, I'm almost done with the  latest Kate Daniels book by Ilona Andrews.  Jennifer burned through it while I was reading the other two, and I can see why.  The MacGuffin in this one is powerful and dangerous, and has toally given me a great idea for a GURPS adventure.  SUre it will take a little tweaking to make it work jsut right, but it'll be great to throw it out there.

And then after this, I've got some books by one of the co-discoverers of the DNA double helix, James Watson.

Books I Read in 2011

Yeah, I should have done this yesterday, but I didn’t think about it until I was falling asleep.
I got a lot of reading done in 2011 as I had so much free time, and I probably could have had a higher number of books read if I hadn’t been caught up in a 1,100 page tome of Lovecraft fiction.
Not that that’s a bad thing.
And I ‘m closing in on the end of that one as well.  But in the meantime, here’s my list of books I read in 2011.
The Complete Peanuts 1981-1982 - Charles Schulz - ****

The Complete Peanuts 1979-1980 - Charles Schulz - ****
The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb - R. Crumb - ****
Bloom County: The Complete Library, Volume 5: 1987-1989 - Berkeley Breathed - *****
The Omen Machine - Terry Goodkind - ***
The Pleasure of Finding Things Out - Richard P. Feynman - **
What Do You Care What Other People Think? - Richard P. Feynman & Ralph Leighton - ***
UFOs: Myths, Conspiracies, and Realities - John B. Alexander PhD - **
Tuva or Bust! Richard Feyman's Last Journey - Richard Leighton - ***
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character) - Richard P. Feynman, Ralph Leighton, Edward Hutchings & Albert R. Hibbs - ****
A Dance with Dragons - George R.R. Martin - ****
Ghost Story - Jim Butcher - *****
Room - Emma Donoghue - ****
Wesley the Owl - Stacey O'Brien - ****
A Feast for Crows - George R.R. Martin - ****
Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return - Marjane Satrapi - ***
A Storm of Swords - George R.R. Martin - ****
The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry - Jon Ronson - ****
A Clash of Kings - George R.R. Martin - ****
A Game of Thrones - George R.R. Martin - ****
Bigger Damner Book of Sheer Manliness - von Hoffman Brothers - ***
Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood - Marjane Satrapi - ***
Instructions for Living Someone Else's Life - Mil MIllington - ***
The Wise Man's Fear - Patrick Rothfuss - *****
River Marked - Patricia Briggs - ****
The Name of the Wind - Patrick Rothfuss - *****
The Bones: Us and Our Dice - Will Hindmarch and John Kovalic - ***
The Complete Peanuts 1978-1977 - Charles Schulz - ****
The Complete Peanuts 1975-1976 - Charles Schulz - ****
Bloom County: The Complete Library, Vol. 4: 1986-1987 - Berke Breathed - *****
Once More * With Footnotes - Terry Pratchett - ****
I Shall Wear Midnight - Terry Pratchett - *****
Wintersmith - Terry Pratchett - *****
A Hat Full of Sky - Terry Pratchett - *****
The Wee Free Men - Terry Pratchett - *****
The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents - Terry Pratchett - *****
The Last Hero - Terry Pratchett - *****
Pale Demon - Kim Harrison - ****
One of Our Thursdays is Missing - Jasper Fforde - ****
Unseen Academicals - Terry Pratchett - ****
Making Money - Terry Pratchett - *****
Dark and Stormy Knights - ed. P. N. Elrod - ****
Thud! - Terry Pratchett - *****
Going Postal - Terry Pratchett - *****
Monstrous Regiment - Terry Pratchett - *****
Towers of Midnight - Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson - ****
Night Watch - Terry Pratchett - *****
Thief of Time - Terry Pratchett - *****
The Truth - Terry Pratchett - *****
The Fifth Element - Terry Pratchett - *****
Carper Jugulum - Terry Pratchett - *****
The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements - Sam Kean - ****
The Last Continent - Terry Pratchett - ****
Jingo - Terry Pratchett - *****
Hogfather - Terry Pratchett - *****
Feet of Clay - Terry Pratchett - *****
Maskerade - Terry Pratchett - *****
Interesting Times - Terry Pratchett - *****
Soul Music - Terry Pratchett - ****
Men at Arms - Terry Pratchett - *****
Side Jobs - Jim Butcher - *****
Lords and Ladies - Terry Pratchett - *****
A Catch in Time - Dalia Roddy - *

New Year, New Job

So, I think we can all agree that 2011 has been a difficult year.  It’s certainly been a personal roller coaster.

I was let go from a job of almost 5 years when the company I was working for lost their contract with Exxon Mobil. {As a sidebar, I happened to see the EM project manager at a store in Emeryville yesterday.  I showed amazing restraint, and did not ask her how she was feeling about destroying the lives of so many people with her company’s policies.  But I digress…]

Jennifer and I moved to a wonderful place in Emeryville, and we did a lot of cycling around.  Sure I had free time, but there are so  many cool shops around that it was hard to not be able to go in and get what we wanted.

In August, I finally began work again for a contracting company.  And boy was I bored there.  I wasn’t doing anything close to geology, and it was really not a good fit.

In November, I started interviewing with an environmental company in Walnut Creek, and last week, I received an offer letter.  I’ll be starting the new year with a new job.  I’ll be a project geologist, and working with some really fascinating people.

Christmas Movies

There are certain traditions we observe for Christmas.  One of my favorites is watching “The Nightmare Before Christmas” while we decorate the house.

[To preface the rest of this, please note that the last time Jennifer asked to see a movie that would make her cry, I suggested “Serenity”, and she accepted.]

Then the other day, Jennifer said she wanted to watch another Christmas movie.  I suggested “Gremlins” since she had never seen it.  She thoroughly enjoyed it, and now I debate with myself on showing her the mixed goodness and badness of the sequel.

Then last night, she wanted another Christmas movie.  I suggested “Lethal Weapon”.  We ended up watching the first and second movie, and when we finished, she suggested watching the other two tonight after our Christmas light driving tour.