Weekend Wonders

Saturday morning, I read Planetary. And it was great. I was almost disappointed at first, but after reading some interpretations, I realized that I needed to look at the series as a whole, and not look at this issue as a stand alone. I'm satisfied.

Saturday, was a really fun game session. A full crowd, and lots of banter. Good plots and battles.

And today was a big day of football. Jennifer's friend Carlos came over, and brought bacon. So I made pancakes, with scrambled eggs and bacon. They got spicy bloody marys and I had milk. The mix was leftover from a Christmas package we got at work. It came with real maple syrup, and the breakfast was wonderful.

And the topper for the day is that Jennifer is 5-0 for her fantasy football league. She's very excited.

To Read or Not to Read...

Truly that is the question.

Tonight after work, Jennifer and I braved Friday traffic to drive through the San Ramon Valley on Interstate 680 to go to Livermore where the comic book shop i frequent is located. We called, and Jennifer sweet talked him into staying open half an hour longer than he had intended to allow us to get there and buy: Planetary #27; Warren Ellis and John Cassaday's incredible book of the strange (Let's keep it that way.).

And now, I can hardly bring myself to open the cover.

If I read it, the series is over. Forever. If I hold off, everyone's final fate remains in the box with Schrodinger's cat.

I just can't bring myself to do it. I'll read it tomorrow after Jennifer has gone to work, and before I head off to john's RPG session.

Unless I wake up in the middle of the night and can't sleep.

Maybe.

Singing Canary

All right so seeing this may convince me to watch "The Brave and the Bold".

Although I must admit I saw a similar resolution once Black Canary began singing.

Warbreaker

I finished Brandon Sanderson's Warbreaker today over lunch. And it was really a fun book that kept me guessing all the way through.

At no point was anyone what they seemed. At least not to me.

I also really enjoyed the magic system that he created. It differs quite a bit from the metal-based magic of the Mistborn series.

Finally, I was worried for the last half of the book that it was goign to end up being a multi-parter, but Sanderson tied everything up nicely. There is the potential for a sequel, but no major points in Warbreaker are left hanging that would require one.

It gives me even further hope that Sanderson can tie up Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time story in an interesting way.

Links

First: Perhaps Johnny Carson wasn't too far off when he mocked Carl Sagan with "Bill-yuns and bill-yuns"...



... at least not after this news.

Second: Sci-fi powercells may not be too far off. This is awesome and exciting.

Momentum

I am trying to get back into the regular swing of blogging things, but we'll see.

I made two appointments today.

One for a haircut next week which will set me up before I go off to Oregon for the weekend to spend time with Jennifer's parents.

The second for the continuation of my backpiece tattoo. That will be in November.

I was very nervous setting up the tattoo appointment. I think because I was talking to the ship and not to the artist. I am excited about the growth of the piece though.

I Try, I Really Do

I don't know what it is lately. I plan to write a post. I have Blogger up and everything. Then something shiny appears, and I'm like the crow in the animated "Rats of NIMH".

I did update some comics links on the side, but then I totally forgot to write anything.

Lame.

***

So, last night I watched Monday Night Football with Jennifer.

This has become easier and more comfortable of late. And the game was pretty cool.

And Brett Favre becomes the first person to beat all 32 NFL franchises during his career. It's just cool sounding.

Row, Row, Row Your Mind, Gently Down the Stream of Consciousness.

Oh, what a fine weekend it has been.

Friday I spent with my wife and a good friend of hers at the beach., Jennifer and I started out early, and got to her favorite beach just south of Stinson around 10:45. We went on to Stinson and bought food, and then waited for her friend to arrive. When Sydney arrived (with tiny Sky the dog in tow), we headed down the trail, and on to the beach. i was thrilled to see that the trail had been recently cleared and you could have almost driven a truck down the trail.

No fear of poison oak that day.

We spent the day lounging around, enjoying the sun and the water. Sydney ended up leaving around 2:30, and Jennifer and I stayed for a couple more hours sleeping and reading. we had intended to wait until sunset, but were getting too hungry. So we headed out and got to our favorite Indian restaurant in Sausalito about 5:00.

Then we wandered around burning off the beer we had each drunk, and ended up buying a beautiful flower arrangement for her, and a Dischidia pectenoides for me. I had one a few years ago, but it died. this one is budded out to bloom, and I am very excited to see what the flowers look like. I'll be taking it to work where it can get better sunlight than what we get at home.

***

Saturday, we cleaned house. We'd been a bit lax on cleanliness lately, and we picked up, wiped up, straightened up, and folded up. The house looks great now, and we made some decisions about Jennifer's sitting room. In a few weeks, we'll probably be going to IKEA again. And then I'll have some major assembling to do.

***

And today has been my day. Jennifer stayed home and eatched footall, and I went on a multi-space shopping spree.

Kind of.

I bought my comics, and had a chicken Philly cheese steak. I got a shirt, and jacket for myself, earrings for Jennifer, and basic supplies for the house. I had a wonderful time out, and Jennifer had wonderful time in.

***

Now I'm sitting watching Inside the Actors' Studio featuring Danny Devito. He and Rhea Perlman have been together for over 35 years.

That's pretty awesome.

Volatility

Have you ever been sitting and suddenly gotten hot and perhaps broken into a light sweat?

Hot enough that your cologne suddenly vaporizes and you can smell it again?

It's disturbing enough to suddenly get that hot, but the sudden smell of cologne is... disconcerting.

New Reading

All right. I hereby give up on Viriconium. I just can't get motivated to keep reading it. I really liked the first story. And the second was kind of a Twenty Years Later take on the first. But the third tale is boring. I think I'll just save the book for the next time I'm down at home with nothing to do and nowhere to go.

So, I am moving on the Brandon Sanderson's new book Warbreaker.

I am a little more than 50 pages in, and it's seems pretty cool so far. Instead of being based on metals like the Mistborn series, this time color is the source of magic. I am looking forward to the rest of this book, and his conclusion to the Wheel of Time series.

Stare at the page this guy links to. I dare you. Then after about a minute, look away.

***

This article is about a year old, but it still makes a valid point. But what do I care, I'm killing the newspaper industry by reading webcomics anyway.

Mediocrity

It's pretty bad when you keep thinking you've posted and are three days out from your previous post...

Sunday was a lazy day of Jennifer watching football, and me playing on the computer.

Yesterday was a slow day, and the week looks to be about the same.

I did laundry last night...

I take solace in the knowledge that I'm taking Friday off.

Wondrous Well

First off you will excuse the typing. I will try to spell check, but I'm doing this post with just one eye open. Pom got mad at me and swatted me across the face. either it was from too much petting, or she was mad that we were gone all day. Either way, she just missed my eye. So the scratch starts halfway between my hairline and my eye and goes about a quarter inch onto my eye lid just above the eye.

Ow.

But the reason why we were gone all day was our visit to the renaissance Faire in Casa de Fruita.

it was hot thee today. Jennifer said that it reminded her of the times in the old Blackpoint Forest location in Novato. My shirt got soaked with sweat, and I've got some serious salt stains on it. I'll get some pictures when it is completely dry tomorrow.

But the day was fun, we bought things, drank a little, but not too much, and saw some shows. We met some nice people, and enjoyed each other's company.

We'll be going next weekend with some other people, and I'm sure we'll see more performances.

National Comic Book Day

So my friend the comic book was born 41 years ago today and I'd like to wish him a happy...

Oh, wait... that's John. John was born 41 years ago today. So Happy Birthday to him. We'll be going out drinking well with others tonight.

But yes, also, today has been designated as National Comic Book Day. Yeah, whatever.

In other fun news, check this feathered dinosaur. And the claws on that thing. That's just awesome.

Also, this is how you deal with anti-geek aunties. I love his guiding technique.

Seeing Red

I'm not sure why, but Pom sees red.

One day I came home, and she had gotten into Jennifer's crocheting thread (essentially cotton yarn). Now of course cats love yarn, but which one did she play with leaving a trail of unwound ball from the media room down the hall, through the library and dining room, and out into the garage? The red one.

I just rolled the ball back up and nothing happened for a while.

Then a couple years ago, Jennifer was making party items out of red leather string. Pom had made cat toys out of leather shoelaces (for topsiders), but these red lengths fascinated her. So the left over piece became her new toy. Then after the party, the leftover pieces got cannibalized into a kitty flogger (only 7 tails though).

Then last night Jennifer was laying on the floor, and I was rubbing her head. Pom became fascinated with Jennifer's red hair moving ever so slightly. She hunkered down and watched, tail twitching, and then she pounced on the hair. She clawed at it a bit, and then bit it with a bit of licking thrown in.

It was a lot like how she cleans her tail. It was like she was playing the Jennifer's tail... that's stuck on her head.

Weekend

Saturday night was really fun. A scorpion bowl for four was all I had. It lasted the few hours we were at Forbidden Island, and between that, fries, and their spicy chicken bites, I was happy.

Sunday was full of driving around looking for things. Light Bulbs. Power strips. Multi-plugs. The correct light bulbs. Hair products. Batteries.

I was excited when I saw that GE had begun making Reveal compact fluorescent bulbs. Jennifer doesn't like the yellow cast that regular fluorescent bulbs give off. And I've been saying, how hard would it be to just color the glass a bit. So when I saw them at Target I was excited. However, as it turns out, while they are more blue than regular fluorescent bulbs, they are not as blue as the incandescent.

So today I get to take them back. So much for that surprise.

Seven Hours - No More

It would seem that I have a very powerful internal timer/alarm clock.

Last night the last thing I saw before I closed my eyes was the LED project of my clock onto the ceiling showing 1:00 AM.

Aside from letting Pom out around 6:00, I slept through the night.

Finally, it seemed light enough that I woke up, and then I looked at the ceiling.

8:00 AM.

Seven hours.

Frak.

Tweet

Yeah, I know.

But I thought it'd give me somewhere to put what I'm listening to while I'm at the computer.

So that's all my tweets will be. Besides it'll be more visual for my own part to see just how eclectic my listening tastes are.

Meh.

Music and Memory

So today I've had three songs so far come on my iPod that make me think of people from my past.



"Michelle" by The Beatles - A girl I was fascinated with in college, and I believe was named for this song. One a related note, my first crush (in second grade) was on a girl named after The Beach Boys song "Barbara Ann".



"Don't Give Up" by Peter Gabriel - My senior year of high school, I got turned down from all of the universities I applied to. I listened to this with my then girl friend, Kim, and the two helped me through it.



The Extremist by Joe Satriani - I wasn't paying enough attention when this came on to track the song title, but the whole album has importance to me. My friend Steve (SecondLife not The Rooster) drove me to my first and only Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) event in Stockton. He said I could go through his music and choose what to listen to, and I found this album. We left it in and it was the soundtrack for the drive to and from the event. I think this was the point where Steve went from being just an RPG buddy to a full on friend.



There are a lot of other songs that I catch that bring back other memories. Any that were on the radio in early 1984 remind me of Ultima III (which I got for Christmas 1983). Sometimes I'll be in a store and some song will come on over the music system, and I'll turn to Jennifer, and say, "This is an All-Skate." And the music from 1995 to 1997 is embedded in my head from being in grad school.



That's why I love my iPod.

Remixed Trailers

Apparently there a many ways to redo a trailer, but recently, there have been trailers made for modern movies from splices of old classic movies.

The first one I saw was for Ghostbusters.

His first one turned out to be for Forrest Gump.

Now there's one for Raiders of the Lost Ark. Seeing these, it's obvious where Steven Spielberg and George Lucas got their ideas.

Things I Hate

Primarily, waking up at 3:00 and not being able to go back to sleep.

Secondly, managing my iTunes and stupidly having the CTRL key down when de-selecting one song... which then de-selects ALL of my songs. If it weren't for playlists, I'd be totally screwed.

Storytime

After reading this, I don't feel so bad about my thoughts of what I'd do if I heard someone breaking in.

Granted most of mine would be used for stabbing, except for my A. Britton forged sword.

First off a video using They Might Be Giants' newest song. I take issue with SiO2 making cement (acid will show it's mostly CaCO3), and CaSO4 as chalk (again CaCO3), but the rest of the video is fun.



Saturday was a fun day of gaming. It went well enough, but there are bits I could have done better. Sunday was a day of football, and fun.

Until I met the cat outside. I was seeing if Pom was outside,but instead I came across a yearling cat with a bell. We've encountered this cat before, but it meowed and seemed friendly enough. I made noises, and it came over to see me. I picked it up and it purred. And then it got spooked. It twisted and scratched and jumped down.

Did I mention I wasn't wearing a shirt at the time?

I got two short scratches on my right shoulder and two long parallel scratches across my left ribs to my navel. I quickly washed them with alcohol, and when they stopped being dirty (it had been raining, and the paws had been muddy), I followed up with Bactine.

It was painful this washing this morning in the shower.

John Pinette

A few weeks ago (while I was in Marysville), Jennifer called me to tell me she had gotten us free tickets at Cobb's Comedy Club in San Francisco through Goldstar.

And tonight was the night.

The beginning of the fun was helping Jennifer get ready around today's mutable schedule. She called me at 6:30 had me gather the clothes she was wanting to wear, and get on the road to pick her up at Rockridge BART. She got in the car, I looped around, and then as we're getting on the freeway, she's changing clothes: sundress to jeans and t-shirt.

Cobb's was a nice venue, nowhere near as crowded as Bimbo's. The warm-up was good, followed by Mike Black who was great, and then John Pinette was amazing.

I'd seen his stand-up on Comedy Central long ago, and seen a few of his acting bits (he was on Parker Lewis Can't Lose for a season), and recently Jennifer and I had watched his new DVD. But we were second row of tables tonight, and I laughed so much that I have a headache.

Full of (Inter)Webby Goodness

John's already posted on this, but it's still awesome.

This may end up being a new distraction.

Drilling, Food, and Football

no record setting action today on site. We had a slower rig, and a more laid back crew, but we still managed to get offsite not too much later than expected.

The downer was heading off afterwards, and planning on having Long John Silver's in Vacaville. But when we came off the ramp at Mason, not only was the restaurant closed up, but the Valero it was attached to was closed, and there were all kinds of white USA markings on the ground. I was bummed, and so was Yuko who likes fried food a little too much.

However, we drove on to Travis, and the formerly trashy LJS on North Texas is now a nicely remodelled joint KFC/LJS. The service was wonderful, and the food was just what we wanted.

Then we drove on back tot he office, unloaded, and I prepared for the big evening: The Return of Football Season.

Jennifer had said she wanted lots of food, so we ordered entirely too much food from our favorite Chinese restaurant (Ming's), and then ate nearly too much, and enjoyed and intense game of Steelers vs. Titans.

Video Fun

All right, videos from today that have impressed me.

So first there's one of Al Franken drawing the United States freehand. I find this pretty impressive. However, whenever I see Al Franken, I picture him dressed up as a Hare Krishna on Saturday Night Live.



Next a cat running it's head under a faucet. I put it in for the WTF factor. Although there are times when Pom does this in a smaller fashion. But usually it's because she's rubbing her head on the faucet while she's getting a drink.

Bleah

A very mediocre day. Not much happened beyond work and working out.

Although I did manage to get my new Renaissance Faire hat personalized.

Perhaps more will be accomplished tomorrow.

District 9

Okay, so I realize that District 9 was originally to be a Halo movie. And I did enjoy the movie as a whole, but the ending left me a little flat.

Did it have to end up as a big video game advertisement? I mean, the guns, the missions, even the token evil corporation with the dark, twisted laboratory?

I liked the film, and it had a lot to say. But the ending was very cliche.

And the last film I watched that had such an obvious "Watch for the Sequel in the Future!" was Hawk the Slayer.

And 3 years? Really? What is this Star Wars?

Scottish Fun

Today we returned to this year's Scottish games in Pleasanton. We saw the regular things: the sheep dogs trials, the birds of prey, and the whiskey tasting.

We laid low on the beers today, and focused on the fun of the whiskey tasting. One of the tables had tasting paired with chocolates. Not something I would normally consider, but it turned out exceptionally well. I had three of the four they were offering. And then I tried some others around the room. We all enjoyed what was out there, and then continued to wander.

We got to see the Wicked Tinkers again, and I got a new hat for the Renaissance Faire, and a new Utilikilt (workman's style).

Lots of pictures here, especially the Peach trying out a new outfit (she ended up getting the brown).

It's the Future!

Okay, this experiment may not have immediately obvious repercussions, but Larry Niven uses them a lot in his Known Space series.

I just try to picture the magnetic fields on the things.

Lazy Weekend

Yesterday, Jennifer and I wandered around the area considering some needs for the home.

Today, we're going to the Scottish Games in Pleasanton with the Sorrellians.

Tomorrow is, as yet, unplanned.

How to Misplace a 6'1" Pink-Haired Woman

Impossible, you might say?

Think again.

It happens all the time while we're shopping.

Not at Costco, of course, there Jennifer sticks close to me because she doesn't want to get separated.

But in other stores? It's practically guaranteed.

I'll get a couple steps ahead of her, then turn around, and suddenly, she is nowhere to be seen. Even in stores where the shelves are only 5 feet tall, it will be the one time she finds something she wants to look at on the bottom shelf.

It does make life an adventure.

Internet fun and City Travels

After reading about the Los Angeles area fires, I wondered what they looked like from space. Gizmodo had a link for me, but then the Boston Globe's Big Picture had a whole series. Beyond the satellite shot, I was amazed by the melted metal and plastic.

Back to Gizmodo, I'm not fully understanding the beginnings of this, but the future applications are squealing geekifying.

***

Monday afternoon, Jennifer shanghaied me from working out to go to San Francisco with her. She's working on an event at a beach, and she wanted me to join her for the exploration of the site. So we drove into the city and went to China Beach. Now of course most of the ride there, I'm thinking of the old Dana Delany-Robert Picardo TV show. But the beach was actually a neat place not far from the Palace of the Legion of Honor.

Then we decided we needed food so we parked at the end of the wharf, near Ghiradelli, and walked down to wharf for food. We got clam chowder in a bread bowl, a crab cocktail, and shrimp cocktail. We also got beer, and felt very ghetto/homeless drinking beer wrapped in paper bags while sitting on benches. But the weather and food was perfect, and we walked if off going on to Pier 39, and then walked back looking in shops and such.

***

Then last night after doing a little errand, Jennifer and I went to Luna Ristorante in Concord. It has got to be one of the best Italian restaurant experiences we have had in a long time. At least since our first night's meal in New York. Jennifer started with a spinach salad, while I had a Ceasar. Then we drank a Gabbiano Chianti (by far the best logo in the wine world), while she had mushroom bruschette and carpaccio, and I had an amazing cioppino in a lobster tomato broth. We'd go again even if we hadn't gotten too full to enjoy their desserts. Plus they've got four ports and a muscat that I'll have to work my way through.

500 Posts

Yeah, and I have a secret.

Life is not Fair

And this story is a perfect example of why.

Although with my luck, I would end up doing as mediocre in this class as I did in music appreciation.

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.

Links and Videos

First off, nearly thirty years later, someone has made an animal friendly Crunchy Frog. And here is the original skit courtesy of You Tube and Monty Python: Crunchy Frog.



This one is actually funny. Although I believe it is a violation of the stormtrooper regulations.

Books

I'm having trouble again with the book I'm reading. the first chapter stared out well, but I've been finding just about anything to do but try to finish the second chapter.

The first chapter set the book and got my attention. Then the second chapter suddenly goes into the background of what I take to be the main character. We've gone back to her childhood (briefly), gone over her relationship to and the funeral of her grandfather, and I find myself having a hard time caring.

It's like getting on an express train, but then after the fist mile, suddenly being switched to a slow, multi-stop track.

I've got another book in at the library that is more Disney secrets, but this time on Disney World. I'll probably read that and try to come back to this one.

Side steps

This afternoon, Jennifer and I went to Fairfield to give support to a friend. She was having some new body mods put in.

The got some interesting things like piercings. She got small plates like 1 centimeter by 1/3 of a centimeter , perhaps 1 millimeter tick, and with a threaded post like a T. The plate is inserted below the skin, and the threaded post sticks out. Then she has a gemstone or crystal threaded onto the post.

They are very pretty, but I stood out with her husband in the lobby, while Jennifer was with her and took pictures.

Then we went to the Blue Frog and had a beer.

Okay, a while ago I posted about this fan film: Saber.

Well it turns out that it won two awards in Atom Films' annual Star Wars fan film competition. One for Best Action and one for the Audience Choice.

Science Comedy

Through the fun of Bad Astronomy and Phil Plait, I have discoverd a new (to me) comedian: Brian Malow.

And my friends thought me laughing at Science LOLCats was bad.

His site has some funny audio and one video clips. His blog has a few other videos.

And I have two new jokes.

1) A virus walks into a bar, and the bartender says, "We don't serve viruses here." The virus replaces the bartender, and says, "Now you do."

2) A helium atom walks into a bar, and the bartender says, "We don't serve helium here." The helium doesn't react.

And now my geekness is obvious to all.

Mars and Moon

Today Jennifer and I went to go see "Moon".

It was an intriguing movie.

There is so much I could say about it, but the only thing I want to say is go see it.

The movie stands well as a whole, and tells a fun story.

***

This evening I finished reading Ben Bova's Mars Life. I really enjoyed it even though parts seemed predictable. It was written in a style similar to Michael Crichton, and so you knew there had to be a disaster somewhere. Granted, there ended up being three, but still until the first one hit, I was waiting for the shoe to drop.

It's a fun read, and I'm glad I read it. I was glad that everything got wrapped up, because for a while I was afraid it was going to be a multi-parter.

This is the first Ben Bova book that I've read, so now I've got a new science fiction author to check out.

Classifications

Today, I had a bit of a revelation. As there are levels of geekness (as best defined by Lore Sjöberg at the now defunct Brunching Shuttlecocks), there are also classifications of geeks.

It is possible for these classifications to vary from day to day, but the geek will tend to show their true classification over time.



So my classifications are as follows:



The Stealth Geek - These are geeks who through various methods try to hide their geekness. They will shun the Star Wars t-shirt, avoid the convention, and act perfectly normal in mixed company (mixed being geeks and non-geeks). And yet they will give themselves away to the alert. Stealth geeks may dress in the colors of their heroes. or perhaps they may remove all logos from their clothing and possessions. Watch for them.

The Covert Geek - These are geeks who want to show their chosen geekness, but are subtle about the way in which they do it. Again, they may dress in the color of the hero, but add a small token symbolic of the hero. Of perhaps wear small jewelry that is a die. On I saw on the road today was a biker dressed all in black. He was dressed all in black, and his helmet and visor were a nearly identical glossy black. However on the forehead of the helmet was a white imperial insignia. Basically he looked like this. I tend to be this level. especially when I'm wearing normal street clothes but wear my Superman belt buckle.

The Overt Geek - However, sometimes I fall into this category. The overt geek wears his Zombie shirts proudly. He is unafraid to walk the mall with a Justice League bowling shirt over a Superman t-shirt, with matching belt buckle, earring, necklace, and watch. And yet, there is a style to it. The swagger as he carries his katana umbrella. The smile as he meets people's eyes. This geek has come to accept his lot in life, and will no longer hide. Mostly because the jocks are wishing they had as good a job as the geek.

The Geek in Denial - This is the geek who refuses to hang out with other geeks. Often these are the rare female geek, but also can be the guy who claims he grew out of the geeky obsessions, and yet still buys the Orange Box and spends many late nights mastering Team Fortress 2.

The Geek of Stereotype - Let's just call these hideous creatures what they are: Harry Knowles clones and/or wanna-bes.

Holding Pattern

Right now I'm kind of waiting for things.

I doing some downloading, so I'm waiting for that.

I'm kind of in the mood to paint miniatures, but there's no table yet.

I'm waiting for tomorrow to get my comics.

Jennifer is on her way back from Great America.

And I still haven't figured what I want for dinner...

Differing Summers

Tomorrow Jennifer is going to Great America. She likes roller coasters. Me? Not so much.

I can remember (vaguely) riding the Scooby-Doo (as it was then called) at King's Island; I think it's called something like Son of the Beast (the big ride of the park is the Beast). I hated it. Never really liked the log flume either.

I've ridden the Matterhorn and it wasn't too bad. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was something dad got me on, and I disliked as well. Sometimes I can handle Star Tours... sometimes.

But the things they have now? Never.

In high school, they opened the King Cobra in King's Island; a stand-up roller coaster. Friends described it as being bound standing up, and being pushed off a cliff. And they would ride it again.

Jennifer also likes the Tower of Terror in Disneyland. Falling. Just falling.

Now a lot of my issue with roller coasters and the like is the aspect of uncontrolled falling. In recent years my acquaintances with numerous engineers has added to my distrust. I mean there's even a dedicated site to this kind of thing.

One of the few rides Jennifer won't ride are the ones where your feet dangle. She's afraid there won't be enough clearance for her long legs. I can remember hearing about an accident where the leg of someone on of those rides hit the head of a workman (who shouldn't have been in the area during operation anyway).

And then there's always the chance of this (a description).

Day Zero - The Celebration

And what a weekend's worth of celebration it has been.

Friday, I drove back down from Eureka, and made it home by 12:30. I took a nap with Jennifer, and then we got ready for the evening. By 6:00, there were six of us (KT, The Rooster, the Tattooed Lady, The Ninja-Space Monkey, Jennifer, and me) in a limo on our way to San Francisco. Our first stop was to pick up our seventh (Mr. Second Life), and then we were off to Magnolia Brewing. After a fun and silly dinner there, we made a stop off at The Rickhouse to check it out, and then were off to the culmination of the evening at Bourbon and Branch. At the end of our time at Bourbon and Branch, we dropped Mr. SL at his corner, drove back to home, and everyone dispersed.

Saturday Jennifer and ran some errands, had wonderful Indian at Monsoon Masala, and then stopped off in Livermore for my comics. Then the evening exploded with the Fire Arts Festival put on by Oakland's The Crucible. I'll get pictures up of that later. There are quite a few.

Then on Saturday, Jennifer and I went to Carmel to for a little business of hers. Then we had dinner at Fandango in Pacific Grove. After dinner (having continued the weekend's practice of drinking a bit much) we walked down to the water and found ourselves at Lover's Point. We took some pictures there, and saw some otters playing in the surf and then we drove home.

And finally, the birthday. Today we slept in, puttered around, and finally went to the gym about noon. We did our thing there, and then Jennifer took me for a massage. After the massage, we came home, got cleaned up, and did our typical Concord evening of La Piñata, Baskin-Robbins, and Half-Price Books.

Now I get to start my next year tomorrow by going back to work.

1 Day and Year Forty

And what can I say about this last year?

I've gone to New York.

I've lost 25 pounds, and become much healthier.

I'm up to 13 sites that I manage.

Things are going well. If you need more information, then read the archives.

And I am very tired after the weekend's long celebration.

Which I shall recount tomorrow.

Happy Birthday to Me!

2 Days and Year Thirty-Nine

Things continued on their way this year.

The game progressed, the world developed, and the plot grew and grew.

The tattoo grew.

And Jennifer's business grew.

Due to her success, we took our first big vacation in a long while, and went to Key West.

3 Days and Year Thirty-Eight

This year I gained a lot more responsibility at ETIC. I went from being the project manager of 2 sites, to 4 sites, and then by my birthday 9 sites.

It was around this time Jennifer began her own business, working with people along the lines of a personal coach. She helps guide them into doing things they should be doing, sometimes using her Isagenix as a dietary guide as well.

This was the winter that I also got my first tattoo.

4 Days and Year Thirty-Seven

So I worked at AHTNA for a little over a year, and I was bored off my ass.

I had became an accountant.

All I did was get permission from our Army Corps of Engineers contact to replace broken down equipment. As well as the occasional monthly report.

So I began looking for other work.

And so serendipity stepped in.

I had gone on a few interviews, and had no luck.

Then I was called in to the manager's office, and told that they had lost part of the Army Corps contract, and so they were going to have to let me go.

Right after the meeting, I returned to my office, and there was an e-mail from one of the principals at ETIC Engineering apologizing for the delay in getting back to me on my resume, but wondering if I was still available.

I called and set up an appointment, and ended up being out of work for only a week and a half.

ETIC is a great place only 10 minutes away from home with no freeway driving, and (if I choose) no stoplights. The group is great to work with, and gives me responsibility and autonomy.

I am very happy.

5 Days and Year Thirty-Six

Work was again a major factor in this year.

Jennifer began working at the chiropractic office, and that began to shuffle my schedule a bit. But attached to that was my growing distrust with Sullivan.

When I was hired on full time I was told about the potential for professional growth, and advancement. However, they hired a chemist straight out of school, and placed him above me. He had no idea about the protocols on how to set up a drilling job, and served to really piss me off.

Then they had begun downsizing. This was an expansion office, and they went through two sets of layoffs. At that point I became unsure, and began looking for other work. I got connected through a headhunter, and wound up working for AHTNA Government Services in West Sacramento.

It was the end of the year, and I asked my then manager how raises and such were looking. He said he still didn't know, so with that lack of information I began considering leaving. Then the news from the other remaining staff geologist convinced me: He was leaving Sullivan to focus on his music and his band. I would be the only Indian under about 6 or 7 chiefs.

So I quit in January.

Around this time also, we got Pom from a Berkeley animal shelter.

Falling Behind

Being in Eureka with a substandard computer, I wasn't able to get to doing the blog.

I will catch up tomorrow.

6 Days and Year Thirty-Five

This year things were up and down.

I was hired full time at Sullivan, and the office moved from Battery to California in San Francisco. We felt more pressure as salaried versus hourly, and they used that to their advantage.

Jennifer began work as the office manager for a chiropractic office, and through treatment and doctor supervised workouts, she showed marked and rapid improvement.

7 Days and Year Thirty-Four

This was a long year with work at the Webster-Posey tubes to Alameda. My company truck got broken into and they stole my briefcase and my drill kit. This is a kit I use at a drill site. There's no drill in it.

I lost lots of equipment, both my own and Kleinfelder's. It became a sticking point on my reimbursement.

I continued to be squeaky about the loss, and the poor feelings toward safety.

Exactly 5 years after I started, I was let go.

I was out of work for six weeks, and through a placement company was hired temporarily at Sullivan International.

We worked with TetraTech for the Navy and worked at such sites at Mare Island in Vallejo and Treasure and Yerba Buena Island of San Francisco.

It was while working on Yerba Buena Island subcontracted out to Shaw that I met Steve Sorrell. We quickly became friends talking about what he was listening to on his iPod and mocking Shaw's geologists who were doing more of the dirt work than I was.

8 Days and Year Thirty-Three

This year was not too different from our normal years.

Jennifer was recovering, and I was drilling holes around the bay area.

She had some bad days, but pushed through, but was not happy and stress made it worse.

We drove together when we could.

In GURPS, John and Aaron and I had rolled out our own private world earlier in 2001, and it made a nice regular activity about once a month.

9 days and Year Thirty-Two

My birthday was small this year, but August was the big celebration.

On August 25, Jennifer and I were married. We honeymooned on the Russian River estuary, and went to wineries, and saw scenery.

Then after a week, it was back to work. And things went downhill fast.

That November 1, Jennifer got hurt at work by a stack of boxes falling on her. There were stacked seven feet high with high gloss paper, each weighing about 100 pounds each.

She ended up on disability, and I was forced to drive to work alone. And so I began to hate my job. For the commute, and for what our company had done to her.

In April, we moved from Concord to Pacheco. We got away from a horrible landlady, and gained a pool and a hot tub with the condo complex.

Things became a little harder with the higher rent, but we managed to work through.

We always do.

That June, Jennifer went back to work, and that helped a lot.

For my 33rd birthday we had a Kevin Smith marathon, starting with the Clerks cartoon, and moving through all of the movies through Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back which came out that week on video. Only my best man and best friend, John stayed for the entire day and all of the movies.

10 Days and Year Thirty-One

Things got even better this year.

I began talking to my parents about possibly proposing to Jennifer. After talking, Mom gave me my great aunt's engagement ring which has a white sapphire in it.

On August 25, 1999, I took Jennifer top Il Fornaio's in Walnut Creek. I really don't remember much of the evening aside from it being very hot and being very nervous.

After dinner, we walked around Broadway Plaza and then came back to the fountain outside the restaurant. Once there, we sat down, I slipped off onto one knee, and asked her to marry me. A few years later when she was watching the DVDs of "Babylon 5", it turned out that I (unknowingly, I swear) quoted Sheridan's proposal to Delenn.

The first thing I said after her gasp of amazement, was that the stone wasn't a diamond, but was a family sapphire. Then she said yes, and got flustered and said, "Ask me again." After a second proposal and a second acceptance, we kissed and jugged, and got applause from the people eating outside at Il Fornaio.

The rest of the year was spent in saving and making deposits and going to parties.

We set the date for one year later: August 25, 2000.

And yes there's reason: No holidays in August.

To be Continued...

Late night yesterday with work and a movie, and a full day today of gaming.

The birthday countdown will continue tomorrow.

11 Days and Year Thirty

This year more things began to gel.

Jennifer and I moved in together in September, and while we struggled somewhat, we became settled and began seriously discussing the future.

That June we took a trip to Kentucky for my family reunion. My grandmother gave me her engagement ring from her first marriage. I showed it to Jennifer, and she said she would never wear any stone that big. The ring had two small diamonds on the side, and a diamond close to a carat and a half with what appeared to be a crack running through it (Grandmother talks with hands and tends to hit things with them).

For turning 30 the next month, I had a party where people came as their favorite fictional character. We had the Shogun, Roy Hobbs, Guinevere, Richard Cypher Rahl, and many others. It being summer, the party got moved inside due to the growing swarm of yellow jackets that were carrying off small bits of cold cuts.

Video Link Fest

So John got me started with this because his YIM tag link ed to a video of the "Super Chicken" intro.



The page then suggested one of my favorite, if strange, cartoons from the same era: "The Mighty Heroes".



Then, this page had a link to the old "Mighty Heroes" intro with words to the theme song.



This of course inspired me to go for three cartoon intros, so here's "Dangermouse".

UPDATE: Or at least it was. Someone apparently decided that hearing the music and seeing the animation was evil and wrong. So you can only hear the music. Lame.

12 Days and Year Twenty-Nine

This year things began to turn around.

I took some time out from Kentucky, and went to my 10 year high school reunion. I didn't see a lot of people that I had been friends with. Mostly this was because they were still local and saw who they wanted to see.

But the one I did see was a friend from the band I had not seen since her birthday party 10 years previously.

Jennifer and I spent a lot of time talking, and traded phone numbers. The next day I saw driving up to Sacramento to see the gang up there, and Jennifer and I met for lunch. We traded e-mails then, and said we'd keep in touch.

Over the next few months, I finished up at UK, and Jennifer and traded lots of e-mails with jokes and questions. We learned quite a bit about each other.

For Christmas, my parents brought me back to California, and Jennifer and I began dating.

The end of that April, I started at Kleinfelder as a field/lab tech, and really settled into the next stage of my life to come.

By my twenty-ninth birthday, I was very happy.

13 Days and Year Twenty-Eight

This was a very dark year.

I was lonely. I had only a small group of friends, and no romantic prospects. I was missing the touch of another person.

My aunt had gone to the hospital during the summer and was discovered to have stomach cancer. Mom came out to help take care of her.

Things were rough.

One of the few escapes I had (other than the internet) was movies. And that year I saw my first Kevin Smith movie: Chasing Amy.

It would prove to be a powerful influence on my future self. But for now, I absorbed the movie, and went on to rent his other two movies: Clerks and Mallrats.

That summer, I moved out of my aunt's house, and lived with the son of a family friend. We got along much better than we had as children. It had been one of those situations where our father's had been best friends and, despite what I have told for years, we were also expected to be good friends as well. This new friendship wold last for a while, but quickly faded over my last few months living in Kentucky.

What goes up...

I've been watching the shuttle launches since I was a little kid.

This video is incredible. Not only the launch perspective, but also the fall of the boosters back to earth.



From the boosters' perspective.

Pictures

Oh yeah...

So I took pictures while in New York.

Just a few.

Here's my gallery, and here's Jennifer's gallery.

14 Days and Year Twenty-Seven

And so at the end of July this summer, I went back to Kentucky for a pair of family gatherings.

Primarily to get together with my dad's side for a remembrance of his dad. And then since we were there we saw mom's side too. And while we visited, my aunt who worked for the University of Kentucky in their grant management group got me an interview with the dean of geological science. In the interview he asked about my GRE scores, and I thought I could remember the scores. He said if the numbers were what I remembered them being, then they were good enough for a full ride as a graduate student.

Dad and I worked to get in touch with the house sitter, and have her dig through my stack of papers on my desk. As it turned out, they were good, and I was set. And I had three weeks to get back to Kentucky for school to start.

I drove cross country with my youngest cousin. He's in the Air Force, and makes my dad look like a safe, slow driver. We got from my parents' house in Concord to his in Louisville in 35 hours. And that included an 8 hour stopover somewhere in Wyoming or Colorado. I was very tired and don't really remember.

My first year in grad school, was pretty cool, and I was most shocked by student teaching. We all got one section of the Intro Geology lab. You have no idea how the chalkboard resonates behind you until you do a full lecture.

Living with my aunt and cousin was good enough while I was there, and I made some good friends at the school.

But it sure is hard to be surrounded by all of that limestone with no igneous rocks in sight. And being landlocked sucks. Each time I went home, I wanted to see the sunset over the Pacific, and touch the rocks in the Marin Headlands.

The Weekend of Independence

This weekend had been such a nice weekend...

Friday, Jennifer and I went to Sartaj in Sausalito for lunch, and then wandered Haight-Ashbury again, and had dinner at Magnolia Pub and Brewery which, after this experience, will be where we have dinner in phase one of my birthday celebration.

Saturday, we walked from home all the way to the Dollar Tree in Pleasant Hill (with various other stops on the way), then home and then after a couple hours, walked to College Park High School,and watched the fireworks, and then we walked home.

Today, we had a day of cleaning and straightening. And then dinner at my parents' with mom, dad, and my aunt and uncle.

That did not go well.

Things were tense already from lingering issues, and things never really got better. Finally they erupted when mom, my aunt, and Jennifer got in a heated discussion no one would back down from.

Jennifer and I followed our rule: If one of us wants to go home, we leave; no questions asked. And Jennifer wanted to leave.

Everyone was/is upset, and it will not be easy to recover from on any front.

15 Days and Twenty-Six Years

A long year with little or no accomplishments.

I collected many rejection letters and postcards from companies for which I interviewed. I averaged at least one interview per week which I worked around my schedule while working at the bank. The most devastating news was when I failed to get hired for an entry level position that ended up going to a PhD.

Let me repeat that: an entry level geologist position that went to a PhD.

And so things looked bleak.

And then my paternal grandfather passed away.

In August there would be a family gathering that would truly change my life.

16 Days and Twenty-Five Years

This would be my last year in Sacramento and I would graduate in May.

I also had the pleasure of dating Dian for about four or five months. I'm still not sure when it started exactly, but I know it ended on March 16, 1994. I was thrilled those months, and very in love. It was extremely hard on me when she broke up with me, but it helped make leaving Sacramento easier.

Because after I graduated, my parents moved me back to the Bay Area. There I looked for work while working at the Wells Fargo main branch in Concord.

17 Days and Year Twenty-Four

A very rough year.

John graduated and could not remain in Sacramento financially, so he moved back tot eh bay area. I was forced to find a roommate, and that ended up being very bad.

I ended up with a guy who was a big talker, but never did anything. He was always going to go back to school. He was going to be a stand-up comedian. He was going to cash in some CDs. The money thing ended up being one of the biggest problems, so I had to look for a new place when the lease ran out.

I ended up moving in with my friend, the future Sutter Creek cop, into a house he was renting from a friend of his who was actually renting it from his father. It was a fun summer going to garage sales, and once or twice to the local flea market to sell stuff.

The best part was when Ray got the swimming pool working and it became blue instead of green.

Shallow Geek

I like fan films.

"Troops" is awesome.



And so is "Duality".



There are others that are either silly, or intense.

And then there's this one that mixes the Axe commercials with the Lite beer cat fight, with the over-arcing spice of Star Wars.

Funny Videos | Funny Cartoons | More Video Clips

I'll admit, I'm shallow. Plus I think with recruiters like her, I'd definitely go Dark Side.

Books

Today I got an e-mail survey from MacMillan Publishing. It was a survey geared towards e-books (Kindle and such), and one of the questions was "How many books do you read in a year?"

Then it gave check box choices:

0-5
5-10
10-15
15-20
20+

I think by scrolling down you can see that I'm easily in the 20+ category.

I didn't notice the stupidity of the survey until it asked my age in a way similar to the above.

...
20-30
30-40
40-50
...

In 18 days, I could conceivably check two boxes.

Stupid.

18 Days and Year Twenty-Three

This... was an interesting year.

I began my schooling working towards my geology degree.

I worked an insane amount at Sizzler this year as everyone else behind the counter on the cold side either quit or was fired. By default I became Coldside supervisor. I made some good money, but was the person behind the counter besides managers.

Later this year, John's car got destroyed by a crazy accident that made him glad to be alive. And made him shy of driving past Baca Brothers.

Things were stressed, and we realized we would have to move to save some cash. So by the end of the summer we prepared to move further down La Riviera to Glen Brook Apartments.

19 Days and Year Twenty-Two

What does one do for their 21st birthday when you live in Sacramento?

That's right, drive to Reno with your roommate to gamble.

But he doesn't get off work until around 11:00, so you drive through the night, and get there in mid-morning. Still, we had fun, and the only time we really were getting tired, we came across (literally drove over) the carcass of a deer that had been killed by a semi. We were wide awake for the rest of the trip. I gambled away a total of $20 on roulette, and almost got a big payoff on $5 but bet the day of my birthday (20), and not the birthday itself (21).

Then we drove home and got to Sacramento before rush hour, and sacked out to rest up for my birthday party later that day.

The first alcohol I bought was a 6-pack of Heineken, and I didn't even get carded.

That night people were unsure if I was drunk or not (I wasn't), but I did do something... silly.

A friend from the Sizzler in Concord had come up for the party, and being an artist, created a drawing of the Beatles for me. It was given to me in a Sgt. Pepper's bag, and I carefully extracted the frame from the glitter and the tissue. She got miffed at me, saying that I was supposed to get the glitter (tiny gold stars) everywhere. I said okay, and proceeded to pour the bag of glitter over my head.

For the remaining two years in that apartment, John and I were finding gold stars everywhere.

And sometimes in the apartment that followed.

***

Later that year of course, Desert Shield and Desert Storm occurred and my mother got terrified that there would be a draft, and I would be sent away to war. The offensive, that I have come to call the Hundred Days War (really, 100 days, look it up) was brief and I remained in school. In school, and doing poorly as an engineer.

I had taken Pascal in High School (DVC), and then FORTRAN as a college freshman. Then in my fourth year, I took Basic. This threw me, seemed stupid, and I failed the class. Thermodynamics was nearly as bad, and so I changed my major. The next year I would start Geology. And also retake Thermodynamics (getting an A), and Fluid Mechanics for an Engineering minor.