Aquaman

This cracks me up. Either Aquaman is now the most powerful of the Justice League / Super Friends, or he's tired of taking shit from the rest of the super hero community.

Or he's been talking to Namor, and has decided to be more proactive against the surface world.

Now with Three Quarters Capacity!

Today Jennifer picked me up for lunch and we went to Costco where we finally got her a large capacity iPod. She's been running around with a 2GB antique. Plus she was upset with my comparing our players and telling her she had 1.25% of the capacity of mine.

So we bought her the biggest that is available: 120GB.

Now she's only 75% of mine.

My assignment tonight is to load hers up. This'll be fun.

Simple Pleasures

Orange things...

Pixy Stix and Kool-Aid

Chocolate things...

sweetriot and See's Candy

Quiet things...

Reading the evening away

Happy Thoughts

I haz dem.

Blogging Blank

Yeah, I had this great idea about 2 hours ago, and now I've forgotten it.

We'll see if it comes back.

Celebration

Well, after two and a half months, Jennifer had her celebration of her new work space.

It was a great party with good close friends of hers, excellent music, and great food.

And tomorrow (okay later today, but I haven't slept yet) we go back to clean up.

Surprise

After a slightly busy day, I headed over to help Jennifer with her setup for her party.

We got the last mirror on the wall, and got a cable for curtains attached. The cable bit is awesome, and we're both thrilled with the way everything turned out.

And then, just now, I received an e-mail. A surprise has been delivered, and has lifted the spirits of a good friend.

All around, a good day.

Many Muchness

Lots of things going on today.

Worked on getting one report out the door (barely).

Preparations for being in the field for the next two weeks.

Dealing with other mundane portions of the job.

Playing with and planning my psionics character again as new rule adaptations came out.

And just the normal evening activities as well as a little laundry.

Abominable

A strange find today.

Through the links section in a webcomic, I found a new one (new to me at least) called The Abominable Charles Christopher.

The art is amazing, and story is intriguing with enough comic relief to break the tension of the tale.

Unfortunately it's only weekly (on Wednesday), so even though it's about a year and half old, it's just now getting momentum in it's story. And is at a point you want to scream for it to be done every day.

Still a fine read though.

Fatigue

My hands are doing better. Now it just hurts my left hand if I make a ring with my thumb and any finer. A remnant, no doubt, of using the slide hammer. It works like a fence post driver, and you slide it up and down to drive the sampler into the soil. Then you do the precess in reverse to get it out. The tighter the clay (like yesterday's work), the harder it is to remove. And there's the shock to the system with each impact going down or up.

You can see a video of it here. Skip to 3:25 for the relevant part of driving the sample.

Then, I'm just tired. Apparently, I'm not sleeping well. It's the only thing I can come up with.

Hopefully, tonight will be better.

Field - Oakland

Too much hand sampling today.

I've got a very sore wrist.

It hurts where the index finger and thumb tendons meet my wrist.

Ow.

The Peace of Nothing

Today little steps progressed towards completion.

Simple urges were indulged.

Drawing was attempted.

Poetry was accomplished. Perhaps.

Trek was watched.

And tomorrow, I return to the mundane world and sing Peter Gabriel all day.

300 - And a trip to Sac

Today Jennifer, Holy, and I went to Sac to see "Avenue Q". The production was really well done, and there are things in the show that are not found in the soundtrack.

The puppet work was pretty good, but I found myself looking at it with a critical eye from doing puppets in junior high and high school. The hardest part is remembering to move your thumb in the jaw and not your fingers which makes the head go up and down. The rod work for the arms was really amazing, but I have to say my favorite parts were the two person puppets.

These are puppets that have two "real" hands, not stuffed hands on rods. These two hands mean that a third operator's hand has to be used in for the mouth. ow when we did it, we tended to do one person for the hands and one for the mouth, but the way they did it in the production was one person for one hand and the mouth, and a second person for the other hand. I wish we had thought of that back then.

But I think it could have been odd seeing the hands fight each other for the wheel when we did "Moving Right Along".

(Oh, and by the way... "THIS! IS! BLOGGER!" Thank you.)

Chocolate Quest

Searching for proper cacao content.

Found for me many content percentages, and Sweet Riot.

Found for Jennifer fruity dark.

Found for another bits of paradise.

Then I had bits of each of mine with port.

Bliss.

One Word: Phreatic

Okay, the Big Picture has some great shots of the underwater eruption off of Tonga.

There's also some video out of it too. Some of it's pretty impressive.

Roger Zelazny

What is it that repeatedly bring me to the end of the alphabet in science fiction section in my library?

I was originally introduced to Roger Zelazny through two friends from high school. I had been in Europe as part of a youth symphony and returned, due to a torn ligament in my left foot, heavily medicated on painkillers. I returned on my 18th birthday, which turned out to be, I believe, 30 hours long.

At the surprise party thrown by my high school girl friend and my parents, my two friends gave me the first seven books of the Amber decology. I was immediately hoked, and since it would turn out that I had four years to wait for the next three books, I needed something else to read. By the time the series was completed, I owned everything Zelazny had written up to that time.

When he passed away, I was pretty upset. This was another author whom I wanted to keep reading (Frank Herbert being the first) who wold write no more. I would feel the same way when Douglas Adams died.

But there is something about Roger Zelazny's turn of phrase. The way he experiments with writing techniques, be it in the styles of different authors, or the simple technique of starting almost every chapter in Doorways in the Sand with a flashback.

The books take me to their world, and let my mind sit in the character's head, and watch what happens.

And no one does it as consistently as Zelazny. Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman are great. Kage Baker is wonderful. But if I could only choose one author's work, it would be Roger Zelazny.

Faith and bejabber

So today was St. Patrick's Day.

And what do you do on St. Patrick's Day?

Anyone? Anyone?

That's right.

You go to a middle eastern restaurant called Silk Road fora romantic dinner with your wife.

Very good.

Sauce and Such

Ahhh, such a wonderful sauce it turned out to be. And I've got leftovers from tonight for lunch tomorrow.

Not much else today. I painted a little and that's it.

Except for dealing with the heater repairman. We've got a strange electric start heater that's been freaking out lately. I had hoped to see if it would freak out again tonight to get things settled, but it was so warm today that after heating the house up to try to get it to act strangely for him, it hasn't cooled off enough to test it since.

Sauce

Today Jennifer and I went to Costco for one thing: contact solution. We ended up forgetting that, but among the materials we bought, I came home and made sauce. Pasta sauce.

I used:

half a Costco package of ground beef
12 mild Italian sausage links
6 cans of diced tomatoes
1-2 cups of dried shitake mushrooms
various seasonings

I browned the meat separately, rinsed it, then mixed it in a pot. Then I blended the tomatoes into a puree, and did the same after reconstituting the mushrooms. After mixing in the seasonings, it's all cooking in two pots on the stove.

I doubt if I'll have any tonight after having a Costco hot dog, but I'm looking forward to the first time I get to use some of this sauce.

Ultima II

I don't know why this all came to me, but I started thinking about the old game "Ultima II" (also here) by Lord British and Sierra Online this morning. And what came to me were all of the things that non-important NPCs would say when you talked to them.

Fighter: Ugh, me tough!

Cleric: Believe!

Thief: Psst, wanna buy a watch?

Wizard: Hex-a-poo, a hex on you!

Merchant: Will you buy my apples?

The guards said something too, and I can't quite remember what it was. It may have been "Move along" or something like that.

A fun game. I miss the chain of Ultima games, and the sense of wonder and Discovery as I played through them.

Good Morning

Good morning, good morning, good morning, good morning.

And good morining.

Planet of the Mammals

I originally saw this on Yes but No but Yes, and had to read the whole article on the Daily Telegraph.

Proof that that animals can plan ahead? It's amazing the things we're learning about animals recently.

Orca that spit out their partially chewed fish food as bait for seagulls.

Dolphins that create and play with bubble rings. (Which hilariously is just now making it to the "mainstream" sews services.)

And now the monkeys and apes? And you know dogs and cats can plan. Lying in wait is totally planning ahead.

Waves of Creation

Lately, I've noticed an ebb in the size of my posts. Maybe it's from posting everyday, and maybe it's just cyclical (now that's an incredible word).

Sometimes I find myself thinking, "Ooh, that'd be great to post about, and then it fades away as I approach the computer and wait for Blogger to load. Some things seem profound when they're in my head, but in the cooling off period, I just think that there's no point in mentioning them.

I've tried describing dreams, and can rarely remember enough to make a coherent post.

They same waves of creativity control my miniature painting. Some days I could paint all night, and all week. Other days, I just look at them and think what a chore it's going to be to paint them.

I try my hand at drawing occasionally, and that rarely goes well enough for me to keep going. I can do shapes as long as they're not too round, and people are right out.

Jennifer thought that me posting every day would get me back into creative writing, and sometimes I look at my stuff. But I either don't see where to go, or simply mourn the loss of my notes from a car break in over 7 years ago.

There's just so much to do. And so much to listen to. And so much to read and reread. And so much to watch (and I don't watch that much TV). And so much to see.

I think if I can break myself of some of these compulsions, I have, then I might have more time.

Evil Pleasures

Today is Wednesday, and the Baptist church at the entrance to our complex has evening services on this day every week.

On my way in from the gym today, I had some Aerosmith playing, and the windows partly down to enjoy the differences in air temperature. And it just pleased me in such a wrong way to have this music playing loud while I drove past people going in for church service.

Fat Wreck Chords

Okay, so at least at work, I'm able to get to the band pages so:

Me First and the Gimme Gimmes - Band page and MP3 sample page.

Music

There is a band that I like that I have not yet talked about here, and they are Me First and the Gimme Gimmes (MFatGG).

I first came across them when I was looking for "Sloop John B" by the Beach Boys. It turns out that MFatGG did a cover of the song, and I found that. It was very funny and it's still in the rotation.

The band is kind of a punk ska, and only does covers. One of the covers they do is "Eastbound and Down" from Smokey and the Bandit, which was one of my favorite songs as a kid.

All of their other stuff is good, and I highly recommend them if your in the mood for some new takes on familiar music.

I woudl link to their sales site, but the band page is not loading. So go to Fatwreck.com, and look for them yourself.

News and Timing

First off, I forgot to brag yesterday.

At my physical I had a blood pressure of 100 over 62, and a resting heart rate of 60 beats per minute. That's a good lift for the week. Now I just need to get a blood test and check things in there.

Oh, and apparently I don't do drugs, so that's a relief.

As for today, I have to wonder what a day will have in store when I use of the last of the peanut butter and the last of the jam when making a sandwich.

Perhaps the true alignment would have been if I'd used the last two slices of bread...

Thickening

I create, I draw, I write.

We converse via the page both through the aether and on mundane matter.

The quest is the joy, and the joy is the wonder.

We make peace.

We make laughter.

And all is mended.

Let's get (a) Physical

Friday, I got refreshed on my HAZWOPER certification. And now tomorrow I've got my physical to go along with it. This is just coincidence though, since it usually coincides more with my service anniversary of March 29.

And that's the other thing. I'm approaching 3 years with ETIC. It's exciting. And comforting.

Now I need to start burning off that vacation time again.

Saturday Morning Watchmen

No, I didn't go see it again. Not yet.

We did go see Push, and that was fun. I enjoyed it more than Jennifer did, but she still had a good time. She's decided that she can't handle the violence in The Watchmen.

And yet she went to watch a UFC even tonight...

Anyway, check this video out. The Watchmen as a Saturday Morning cartoon.

And that makes 50

Jennifer surprised me today with the Hawaii state quarter. Now our map is complete.




But they've messed with us and extended the quarters to have territories and protectorates and commonwealths. So there's going to be DC, Guam, Puerto Rico, and others. And our map doesn't have them.


We may get another map if we find one we like. But I bought this one for Jennifer for Christmas when the new quarters started, and both sides of our family laughed at us. Then a few years later, they all decided they were going to start collecting.


And now we're done. Kind of.

Watching the Watchmen

Just got back from the midnight showing.

Bloody.

Fucking.

Awesome.

All three separately and together.

Drilling Photos

Want to see the Carnival of Drilling?

Check it out.

Home

Tired.

2-hour drive to Marysville.

Cleared two locations to five feet.

Installed 30-foot well.

Installed 40-foot well.

All while amongst the setup for a carnival. Yes, a carnival.

Then a two-hour drive home, and an hour of catch up at the office.

Sleep now, and pictures tomorrow.

The Night Before...

Tomorrow I'm off to Marysville (Ahhhh, scenic Marysville), to install two monitoring wells.

If you're up that way come see us. We'll be in the old parking lot. Although apparently they've even taken down the Mervyns sign. I almost hope that one of the reasons they went out of business was from their contempt for the common apostrophe.

Now we're starting at 8:00, so that means leaving about 5:30, and getting up around... yeah, I should be getting packed right now.

Yes, packed. With 4.5 to 5 hour round trip time, we're planning on staying up there. That is unless the driller can actually get two 30- to 35-foot wells in before dark.

I know I've got my fingers crossed.

Ah, the fun we can have

And so it begins.

A meet, and a favor.

A little back and forth.

Some teasing and tempting writing.

Art and nature.

I am excited.

A Day for Shopping

Today Jennifer and I spent money. Not on anything big, just lots of little things.

Comic books

Shampoo and conditioner, multiple nail polishes, and a cleaning mask

Hamburgers and beer

A sweatshirt hoodie, and a ruffled top

Two shirts, a blouse, and a sweater

Cards and note cards

Various and sundry sundries

It was a fun day.