Incomplete

Some things never seem to be done.

We're still working on our office at home. We did pick up a piece of furniture at IKEA on Sunday (Expedit sofa table) which we'll be using as our table for our printers and scanner. We also got some good ideas for the craft table. It has a light table option. And then there's some cabinets and shelves. It really congealed as we looked.

And then if Jennifer has as busy a week as it looks, then we'll finally be able to get me my new laptop. And then we'll just need our Network Attached Storage (NAS), and we'll be all set at home. The prices aren't too terrible really, so I have to decide between 2, 4, or 6 TB. Probably the 4TB would be best for storage and back-ups. Buffalo (which is the brand of our current external storage) has nice ones with two USB ports. That way we could tie in the 500GB to the NAS, and the printers as well. I'm getting kind of Igor (Dork Tower, not Frankenstein) over it all.

And then as far as incomplete, I keep finding something about my MP3 files I want to update. First it was getting artwork for all of the files. Then it was assigning grouped tracks (like "of 12" if there were 12 tracks on an album). Now I feel I need to assign the Album Artist. Don't ask me why. I think it's the blank spaces. They must be filled up.

And finally there's my adventure that I have just under two weeks to complete. Forget for now that we still need to get chairs for the game. I have a skeleton of a game structure, I just need to add traps... I mean, flesh it out.

Okay, not finally, but I also am having a dilemma over what to read next. I have First Man, the biography of Neil Armstrong, but I'm really tempted to re-read the Discworld series. Again.

Time Travel and Ghosts

There are three parts of Audrey Niffennegger's The Time Traveler's Wife that are the most painful to read. Okay, most of the end is pretty upsetting, but these three are the hardest.

1. When Henry travels to the future and meets his daughter for the first time at the museum. When he is trying to remain long enough to see Clare and you can practically see their fingers almost touch before he fades out.

2. The time with Clare at the party when Henry knows he's going to be going away for the last time, and that when he returns he will be dying.

3. The final visit introduced from first Henry's and then Clare's perspective.

The entire book is powerful and engaging. I had an entire night to myself, and I took that time to read most of the book. And I finished it for the fourth time this morning.

***

And looking at her site, she has a new book coming out next month called Her Fearful Symmetry.

Ahhhhhhhhhh.

Difficulties

Family is difficult. Period.

They know you as a child, and growing up, but rarely doi they truly know the you that you are.

But they always know how to twist the little knives.

Marysville - Day Three

Done in nearly record time.

Seven wells averaging 37 feet deep = 259 feet.

We got offsite about 3:30, and made it to the office in Pleasant Hill before 5:00. (Honest Officer, I was just going with the flow of traffic.)

It makes three days in a row of 11.5 hour days.

And as I had promised myself, I had sushi tonight with Jennifer. Mega-Yummy!

Marysville - Day Two

And today we got three wells done. We started really early (6:30), and first did one int eh Jiffy Lube parking lot, and then moved on to do two more off site.

Now we are definitely going to get all of the work done tomorrow, and I'll get to be back home Thursday night.

I just hope I can sleep tonight. it is hard to regulate the temperature of the hotel room.

Marysville - Day One

Today I drove to scenic Marysville, CA.

Okay, my coworker Yuko drove, but I did manage to stay awake for the entire trip.

I did get to wish my magenta-haired bride a happy ninth anniversary, and then I was off to the office.

We had a very hot day in Marysville, but we managed to get two wells completed. Tomorrow we are shooting for three. The total scope is for seven.

I'm hopeful that we manage to pull this off in three days instead of four. I hate being in hotels without my wife.

Theft and Shopping

So Jennifer got somethings stolen from her car on Saturday while she was at the 49ers-Raiders game. She lost her iPod, Magellan GPS, Olympus camera, bluetooth headset, and her purse.

They did leave her her wallet with ID and credit cards, and her pouch of membership cards.

So Sunday we spent replacing everything. It was a liberating experience to have the fund to do that. We were very happy despite everything.

Mostly because it ocud have been so much worse.

Now tomorrow is our 9th anniversary. And I'll be on the road to the office by 5:30 to be on the road to Marysville to install some extraction wells. Seven to be precise. I am hoping we can get two done each day so that we can only have one to go on Friday.

The Dreaming

Last night, I had some difficulty sleeping; Jennifer did too. I ended up reading while rubbing her head. Finally, she drifted off, and eventually I did too.

And the dream I had was strange, but inspiring.

In the dream I had a nickel-sized blemish on my left wrist. It was golden maroon and had a strange texture and pattern to it. Whoever I was with pointed me towards a television that spoke of a strange techno-fungus that was starting to crop up. I don't know offhand if it was nanites gone wrong, or a blend of fungus and nanites (like lichen is mold and fungus).

So I went to some place that had some broad spectrum cleansing soap, and I began washing my hands. The blemish spread and covered my left hand in very sharp lines until the entire hand was covered. It continued to change color going from yellow to violet over a more circuit board kind of pattern, and sometimes charging color depending on the position or angle of the hand. As I continued to scrub the color faded, and most of the skin returned to normal.

Finally, I stepped away from the sink, and dried off. A couple of the fingers on my left hand still had a black to gray discoloration and texture, and so I thought that tape might be a good may to get rid of that. So I smoothed scotch tape over the pad of my thumb and then pulled it off.

Not only did some of the blemish come off with the tape, it came off in narrow two-dimensional strips that stuck up perpendicular to the tape. And they had patterns on them that looked like the patterns you get from DNA tests. The strips were maybe a quarter of a centimeter wide, and probably three to four centimeters long.

I did the tape trick a few more times, and seemed to get all of the discoloration off of my fingers, and the DNA strips got shorter and shorter.

...And then I woke up.

If I could come up with more of a plot to this (meaning real consequences other than a typical zombie effect) then I might turn this into an RPG session. Well, I've got three nights in Marysville that just may come in useful.

One of My Favorites

The other day a friend posted on Facebook that she had seen a "humming boid".

And I responded that every time I hear "boid", I think of the old Warner Brothers cartoon characters Bertie and Hubie.

The push-button house is my favorite. And lo and behold I found it on YouTube. The quality is poor, but it's old. But still very funny.

Glee.

Take Some Pepto-Bismol...

So Jennifer has a friend (M) who is going through some difficult stuff with her significant other (O). Now despite the vagaries of the previous they are a heterosexual pair. And he's being an ass.

The details are unimportant, but the basics are the same: He's not acting like a Man should.

Events unfolded in the past that O was responsible for and he took no action and accepted no responsibility, leaving it all of the burden for M to shoulder.

And now O is trying to use M in a very bad way.

And now M has been with O for around 5 years and is conditioned to follow what he says. Jennifer is having to work with her to set things straight in her mind. Essentially, Jennifer is having to convince her that M is not in the wrong.

So I've got some rules I'll be putting out there. It should be obvious that these are a work in progress.

- A Man always takes full responsibility for his actions and any consequences those action may bring about.

- A Man does everything in his power to make things comfortable for the people he cares about.

Now I'm having lots of trouble getting this right, but when O does not make M comfortable, then he must not care for her anymore.

I'm going to have to dig through some old papers from college. I may still have a long list of what a Man should do. If I do I'll probably start a real numbered list.

Disclaimer: A Man is hereby defined as a male in any sort of relationship who does what is proper in the care of his significant other and in his general comportment.

The Time Traveler's Wife

Jennifer surprised and corrupted me this evening. We were supposed to go to the gym when I got home. And then come home for a Mythbusters marathon to finish the shows we have recorded. Possibly with brownies and ice cream.

Instead she says, "'The Time Traveler's Wife' opened last week. Do you wanna go see it?"

Now just this morning (or perhaps yesterday morning), I read the review linked from YesButNoButYes, and they didn't like it.

I asked Jennifer if she wanted to read the review first. She said no, and I told her I would go with her.

We got there, and I was probably 1/3 of the male population in the theater. And about 3-5% of the total theater population.

The movie is not the book. We missed many things from the book, but the movie is still good.

It has a lot of the good points and very few changes.

Eric Bana is great as Henry. Rachel MacAdams does a good Claire. Alba is wonderful.

Again, it's not the book, but it would be great for anyone who has not read the book. And hopefully some of those people will buy the book and read it.

Yes, it is sappy, but it's also sweet.

I'd do another matinee priced viewing, and I'm sure we'll get the DVD.

Further Excitement

Tonight about 9:45 there was a lot of noise in the bushes outside of our home office.

I heard running feet, and looked outside. A saw a cat streak by (short haired tail), and then her boys laughter and saw a dog.

I rushed out to ask what they were doing. They said they were running the dog. I asked if they were chasing cats too. They said yes. At that point Jennifer came out and yelled a bit.

Pom was nowhere to be seen. The cat I had seen was an unknown tabby that had been treed nearby.

About half an hour later Pom came home... smelling of smoke and potpourri.

Pom and Painting and iPods

So Pom has been fine. No more insane perfume and potpourri smell. Jennifer wants to keep her inside all the time, but that'll just driver her crazy.

I did a little more painting on miniatures. I'm, working on Jennifer's mini and one called Spirit of the Forest. He'll make a great wood elemental. And my mushrooms are not going to be all sweet and spotted either.

And then Sunday, I killed most of my evening having to rebuild my main playlist. I was meaning to delete a song from the list, but I hadn't selected a song yet, so it deleted the whole playlist. I had to reconstruct the list of over 6,000 songs.

My knees and ass were sore from sitting so long.

Amusement and Worry

Today we spent the day at The Amusement Park Formerly Known as Marine World Africa USA. And it has become as bad as we have feared. There is hardly any education associated with the animal shows. And it is just insanely loud. It can't be good for the animals.

Then when we got home Jennifer and I went our separate ways, but now we are worried because Pom went out three hours ago, and hasn't returned yet.

I'm going to wait another hour before I start to really worry. We keep her inside at night because of raccoons, and general care. I'm hopeful that she is all right, but for now, I'm saddened.

***

And as I wrote the above she came and scratched at the window of the media room. Jennifer got up and let her in, and we knew exactly where she had been...

In our neighbor's house.

She smelled like bad potpourri and cigarette smoke.

We're going to have to confront our neighbor.

Repurposed Song

I have the Smashing Pumpkins' song "The Beginning is the End is the Beginning" from the soundtrack to Batman & Robin.

However, whenever it comes on what do I think of?

The trailer for The Watchmen.

The song was cool before, but that trailer made it awesome.

Getting Back to Abnormal

So we're experimenting now with what we're going to use for a craft table in the office.

Until we find the perfect thing, we're keeping my old desk and using it.

I set it up Tuesday night, and cleaned it up.

Last night I finished the Superman and Batman book.

And tonight, while listening to soundtracks, I got to paint again.

I did the first bits on Jennifer's mini for our beginner's game. And I did a little color testing on my wood elemental. He's bloody huge.

Oh, and I finished Holly's centaur. Now all it needs is sealant. I've got a few arms and shields to glue on to some others and then they'll be done, and then I'll do a mass sealant spraying.

Yay!

Diversions

So I've updated my webcomics and other sites of distraction...

It's a good thing the comics aren't updated every day. I don't I'd ever get anything done otherwise. I've already got a bunch of reading I do every day.

Site of Wonders

I love artists' renderings of space. And when they do possible real scenes, they're even more interesting.

This site looks like it will be hosting lots of those coming up. Most of the planets right now have only one rendering, but a couple have tow. I'll be watching this site for more wallpapers.

Red Moon Rising

I wish I could have taken a picture, but there were too many street lights...

The moon rose this evening being just a bit gibbous of the last quarter, and it was blood red. Red like being in the penumbra during an eclipse.

I don't know if anyone else saw it, but it was pretty intense.

Appropriate Response?

So I cut out of work a little early today to run a banking errand. On my way past DVC, a police car in front of me took off. As I continued past the school another cruiser poked his nose out, and I stopped to let him out. Then I spotted a third cruiser coming the other way. All three ended up pulling into the parking lot of the Chevron station there hitting their lights (but no sirens) once they entered the parking lot.

I went on across to the bank, and looked across Contra Costa Boulevard, and saw two more cruisers and a motorcycle cop all around one side of the station.

By the time I was leaving the bank they had all finished their business doing whatever they were doing, and the last cruiser was pulling off site.

But I just kept thinking: 5 cruisers and a motorcycle? Were they all really necessary?

After the weekend

Saturday was a fun game, and the rest of the weekend was a nice time with Jennifer.

Sunday we ran errands and then watched Fanboys when we got home.

It was a fun movie. I think I'm glad I didn't watch it in theaters, but it was a good geek-fest watched at home.

The cameos are fun, and the overall story was better than expected.

Right now, I am hotter than I would expect to be while inside. Apparently it is 95^oF with the goal of reaching 101^oF.

Bleah.

Un-Funny People

Tonight, Jennifer and I made a mistake.

We went to see Funny People in the theater.

It's like one bad movie leeched on to an almost funny movie.

There were little bits that could have been good, but it was definitely not the movie it was billed as.

Avoid it at all costs.

Nostalgia

Why do bad movies do well? Pre-teen boys.

Be they action, sci-fi, or fantasy.

And so in an attempt to relive those days, I watched a bad movie from my past last night.

No, not Robotjox, but the 1980 classic Hawk, The Slayer.

This movie was so cool when I saw it on the then independent TV station as a kid. Looking at it today, the thing to remember if you want to make a quality movie is to no write, produce, and compose the score for your movie.

(Pondering how bad Star Wars could have been if George Lucas thought he could write music too...)

There are a few quality actors in it, but oh, the rest...

The Elf is played like a monotonic Vulcan. The giant is probably all of 6'4" while the dwarf is about 5' even. The guy that plays Hawk is about good at standing and looking pretty (and he's actually a recurring actor on "Lost"). The one actor I like is the village man with the repeating crossbow (with a handy pistol grip) who went on to be the first Soul Hunter on "Babylon 5". And then there's Jack Palance.

But all that could be overlooked if the soundtrack weren't so bad. Oh, so incredibly awful. All full of laser-like sounds... in a Fantasy movie. The effects for the "magic distraction" by the witch are just about as bad.

And then at the end, there's the blatant lines that say, "If you love this movie, don't worry, we've got another one planned." Fortunately it was never made... yet.

I will hold on to my fond memories, and how this movie made me feel in the past. The lightning fast Elf. The mindstone fitted sword. The gathering of the heroes. What I saw last night must have been someone's horrible fan film remake.

Super-Excavator

I've worked with various types of construction equipment for over 11 years. Not operated, just worked with and around.

Often the most impressive are the excavators. A really good operator can use the arm and scoop like an extension of their body. I've seen some extremely dexterous moves in my time. But I've never seen anything quite on this scale.

This thing is huge. According to this article, the machine is 800 tons and has a bucket capacity of 11,000 gallons. With an approximate weight of 8 pounds per gallon, that means that car got hit with close to 44 tons of water in about a second.

Steve "The Rooster" Sorrell - Brown Chicken Brown Cow

This post is for a good friend of mine. Steve plays guitar. He plays guitar about as well as Jennifer sings. I dream of the day he opens for Steve Vai and Joe Satriani.

And right now, he's finally trying to get himself out there alone. He's been in a couple bands; most recently Esucarys and A Prelude to Tragedy. A few months ago he played solo instrumental covers to a bunch of rock songs for Jennifer's loft party. And he needs our help.

He's got a new song that's a little bit country. Okay, it's very country, but still it's awesome and funny. So please give it a watch, and pass it on to your friends who might like it. We'd all love for Steve to sell this song, and some of the others he's written.



And his MySpace page (which he tells me is the best way to get his info out there) is here.

Drained

Saturday was a full day of attempting some construction for Jennifer. Things didn't quite work out, but we've got ideas to make it better.

Then we had the concert in Marysville. It was a really enjoyable experience. A long ass drive though which left me wiped for Sunday morning.

Sunday Jennifer did work around the house and told me not to. So I kind of bummed around and read and such.

But I had trouble getting to sleep, so since I had to get up an hour early, getting to sleep an hour later than normal gave me 5 hours of sleep.

I feel ready to sleep right now.

Concert

Tesla.

Whitesnake.

Judas Priest.

Sorrellians.

Marysville.

Sleep.