Psi... what a day...

Yesterday, we gamed from Noon to 11:30 with only an hour break in the middle for dinner.

And at no time were all of the player characters in one location acting together. And at several times during the game the situation looked like we were boned.

But we came out sufficiently successful that we were all very happy when we left.

But oh so worn out from the roller coaster ride of the adventure.

37 Days and Year Four

I don't specifically remember anything from this year, but I'm pretty sure this was the year I spent a week at my Granny's while my parents spent that week in French Lick.

Yes, French Lick.

I had a t-shirt with the old logo on it for a couple years.

Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse

The numbers are staggering, but I find this story fascinating.

First there's star that has a radius 5.5 times bigger than the orbit of the earth's (and even bigger than the orbit of Jupiter which is 5 times that of the earth).

Then in the past 15 years it has shrunk by 15% (a distance equal to the orbit of Venus).

Now a great deal of what I know of the bad things that can happen in astronomy I know from science-fiction, but shrinking stars are never a good thing.

If I start hearing that they're seeing lots of iron in Betelgeuse's spectrum, I'll be watching for a pretty light show in the near future.

I'm hoping Phil Plait has something to say on this pretty soon.

38 Days and Year Three

Sometime during the age of two, we moved from Erlanger to a suburb of Louisville.

And this is my first memory:

I am sitting on the floor in the empty living room of our new house watching television and drinking Kool-aid. A photograph of this event shows me sitting in my typical fashion of legs in a W shape, knees forward feet back, legs flat on the floor. I used to sit that way because if I sat legs straight out I fell over backwards. I guess my head was too heavy. And "Indian Style" was boring.

Now some have said that I have shaped this memory from the photograph, but I know that the Kool-aid was grape and I can taste the plastic. The television was our black and white set, and I was watching a Road Runner cartoon.

We would be in this house for the next five years.

39 Days and Year Two

I have absolutely no recollection of my life between age 1 and 2.

Nothing.

Tomorrow will have something a little more interesting.

Promise.

More Shiny Stuff

As hinted at in John's post.

Mr. Ellis confirms.

GLEE!

Video Post

David Letterman is fun to watch.

But watching David Letterman deal with a statement from Sarah Palin?

That is (as he would say) comedy gold.

Elementally, My Dear

Okay, aside from being a science fiction geek, I'm also into science itself. In fact, my nieces think I'm extra cool for being a scientist. So much so that one of them wants to become a geologist too.

In a strange marriage of my fixations I have an RPG superhero character who has control over the chemical make up of things. Kind of like DC Comics' Firestorm.

I've always thought the differences in elements were cool. And now there's officially a new element. All it needs is a name.

New Book

I have just finished reading Enchantment by Orson Scott Card.

It was an amazingly fun book, and had so much in it.

Time Travel. Magic. Love. Comedy. Revenge. Sword-fighting.

Yeah, yeah, I should be doing this in a Peter Falk voice, but my fake tags keep getting hidden.

Anyway, it is highly entertaining, and I definitely want to read his other stuff. In talking with a coworker today at lunch, I'll have to read the Ender's Game series now.

Facts Straight

All right, I was born at 4:53 PM EDT, and the landing was at 4:17:40 PM EDT, followed by the First Step at 10:56:15 PM EDT.

Cool.

40 Days and Year One

I was born on July 20, 1969.

On this day Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed and walked on the moon.

Mom and Dad have always said I born between the landing and the walking. However looking at the facts and vaguely remembering my time of birth, it looks like I was born just before the landing. I'll have to check the exact time of birth when I get home.

I was born in Kentucky across the river from Cincinnati. The water in the area was of course affected by the Ohio River, and was highly chlorinated and fluoridated. This fluoridation is what gave me such hard teeth (no cavities until I was 30), but also stained them internally and exaggerated the ridges.

Somewhere in this year apparently I said my first word, one that is also my mother's favorite curse word. It's still the default I use when I'm frustrated: Shit.

Maxwell Smart

After three years, my company has installed convex mirrors at all of the intersections of the hallways in the office.

This was because we have had many collisions and near collisions of people coming into and out of the hallways.

Now however, when I'm walking down the hall and checking the reflections for oncoming traffic, I have the theme song to Get Smart going through my head.

I guess it's really not too far from the typical James Bond theme that plays.

(May I also just say that I hate Blogger's spell check suggestions?)

A Day Like Any Other

Yeah, there's not much going on right now beyond my desire for vacation.

Jennifer's working.

I'm working.

It will be time for laundry soon.

I'm reading another book, and the last few have not thrilled me.

We'll see how this one goes.

Birthday Closing Celebrations

Today we completed Jennifer's birthday celebration.

We started with brunch at the Rising Loafer in Lafayette.

Then we went to Golden Gate Park, and walked around Stow Lake. We didn't see any baby geese this year, and we didn't ride the boat, but it was a wonderful walk.

Then we went to Haight/Ashbury, and walked around there.

We're saving money to spend it in New York, but we'll definitely be going back for cool stuff there the next time we go.

The Party Continues

Today, Jennifer and I went to Forbidden Island in Alameda.

We shared a Scorpion Bowl. And Jennifer also had a Neptune's Garden.

And we had some appetizers.

They hit Jennifer very hard. I hardly felt a thing afterwards.

And now it's off to bed.

40 and a Day versus 45 Days to Go

In the aftermath of last night, today was a slow day. It was very hard to stay awake, but I managed to get work done, and only nodded occasionally.

I have decided that beginning on the 10th of June, I will begin to recount my biggest memories from each year of my life. We'll see how that goes.

Our next big event is our vacation to New York in a week, and it's all just going to start accelerating soon.

It's Her Birthday, It's Her Birthday

Tonight Jennifer and I and a friend couple went to the Supper Club in San Francisco for drinks and dinner.

It was an awesome experience.

Granted, my ears are ringing, but the experience was incredible.

The food was amazing, and the music was fun. The show was incredible, and the crowd was (mostly) excellent.

I would go again. Any time.

It'

Better

I finished the updates and installs today on my office computer. Then sat through a semi-interesting webinar (still not sure how I feel about that word) on vapor intrusion.

I did get to take a lunch break with Jennifer, so that was fun.

And tomorrow is Jennifer's birthday. She's a little wound up about it, but milestone dates are like that.

I'm sure she'll be fine, and we've got stuff going on through the weekend, so she'll be nice and occupied and entertained.

The Hot Zone

So I've been doing methane research for work. And somewhere in the sites that I visited, I picked up a malware virus. It posed as a anti-virus program and took over my computer at the office. It kept scanning for things, and prevented programs from running. Like the Symantec anti-virus we have at work. And Windows' Add/Remove Programs option. And the Windows Task Manager.

Our IT guy ended up having to reformat the hard drive.

So today at work was pretty much a waste other than getting some reports reviewed.

* * *

Tonight I finished Ilona Andrews' Magic Strikes. It was lots of fun and her best one yet. She revealed a little more of Kate Daniels' abilities and secret, and tied lots of relationships together in an exciting story.

It's really a fun series, and while I'd like to know more of the secrets right away, I'm enjoying the journey.