Quack
There were ducks napping right outside my front door last night when I got home. This makes me happy. I like ducks.
The Leiji Matsumoto fans on my flist (I know there are a couple) really need to check out this iTunes link… Look! More cool-looking TV I don’t have time to watch!
Wish I could make the Yeager Anniversary picnic this weekend. There are real disadvantages to living 5 hours’ drive away from the fandoms I grew up in. I do feel like I made a modest contribution to the history of the chapter, and I’d love to see everyone again, but it’s not to be this time. Hope everyone has a great time!
Monday morning musing
This morning, I stared into the shaving mirror while performing my daily skin irritation ritual, and remembered someone at Technicon referring to me as one of the con’s “elder statesmen”. I enjoyed the compliment… but it’s still a little weird trying to think of myself that way.
Didn’t get to stay in bed any later than 9:30 or so this weekend – too much to do! Happy weekend, though. We were celebrating Starr’s graduation from nursing school at the top of her class! I think that excellent things are ahead for her.
My Dad drove up to see me yesterday, and I’m planning to go see my Mom and my sister before long this summer. There’s been a bit of distance, because of how wrapped-up I’ve been in myself lately, and I’m really looking forward to re-connecting with them all this year.
The living-room TV’s flipped its power supply, and we’re down to watching Good Eats on a 12″ portable we had in the bedroom. I was looking at getting an AppleTV in a few weeks, but I suspect I’ll be putting that off a bit. One of the reasons I’m so far behind on my TV watching is that a lot of it’s on the computer, and I just don’t think of my desktop Mac as a media center – more of a creativity, communications, and gaming support device. TV programs are for relaxing in the living room – so, really, that makes me a perfect AppleTV customer. (Another reason I’m behind is that I usually have much better things to do than television. Even really good television. I’m almost to the point of cutting things I like from the DVR schedule that I know I just won’t get around to watching. People keep saying things like “you should start watching Heroes!” and I look at my backlog and think “yeah… next year maybe!”)
Dave S. will be running his Marvel Super Heroes game tonight. I haven’t been able to attend since March, and I can’t wait to catch up with everyone. For the last sessions, I’d had to finish at work and fly right over to arrive fashionably late; with my new schedule I can take it a little easier.
My outlook’s not too bad for a Monday morning.
Safety first, Robin
The lever-operated aluminum can crusher over the recycling bin in our break room is solemnly marked:
“Do not place small woodland creatures in can crusher.”
Good advice, I’m sure.
For a Foggy Morning
This morning, I discovered that the video drivers for my eyeballs must have gone bad. My view distance was cut to around 30 yards, with everything farther cloaked in thick white fog. Perhaps I needed a patch – Sunlight 3.4?
Seriously, the fog this morning gave my commute a truly surreal ambience. Once I’d travelled a third of the way onto the Monitor-Merrimac Bridge-Tunnel, all I could see was a short stretch of driving surface before and aft, with nothing but unfinished whiteness all around. I was driving from nothing into nothing – it might have been a visual metaphor to describe some kind of magical or high-tech transit. Perhaps this morning I was dropped into a parallel universe with all my memories instantly edited to make me believe that I’d always lived in a world where the Allies won World War II, and Earth had a single moon.
Perhaps it takes me a really long time to wake up in the morning.
Podcast review: Astronomy Cast
Today, as I drove to work, I plugged the iPod into the car stereo and listened to an episode of Astronomy Cast. (iTunes link)
Astronomy Cast bills itself as “your facts-based journey through the cosmos”. There are few surprises in the podcast for a hard-core space geek, but the presentation is good and the content accessible to almost anyone listening. The science expert for the show, Dr. Pamela Gay, becomes excited and passionate when talking about her fields of expertise, but seems ever so slightly impatient any other time. Overall, it’s entertaining and informative, and it’s usually one of my first listening picks.
Today I heard pretty useful advice about purchasing binoculars and telescopes for casual amateur astronomy – useful because I think there’s a telescope in my near future. (Suffolk is a short drive away and has nicely dark skies.) The previous episode, however, made *me* impatient; 30 minutes pointing out that higher dimensions, alternate universes, black holes, and FTL travel really do none of the fun things that science-fiction writers come up with. Hey, kids, human exploration will be over as soon as we land on the remaining solar planets – after that, it’s all data analysis! Check out this set of spectra!
I admit, based on what we know right now, all that’s probably true. But scientists have thought before that little remained to know, then been forced to change their minds when something new poked though the statistics. I’ll acknowledge the validity of thier statements for now, but I’m not yet ready to give up the dream of yearly trips to Alpha Centauri! In the meantime, the “serious scientists” need to stop being such bummers. Carl knew better.
Cheep cheep cheep
So, does anyone I know actually use this “Twitter” website? I thought I saw some folks mentioning it, but I don’t remember.
Little Creek Station – deactivating
The house on Flowerfield looked distractingly weird last night. My steps echoed through the empty bedrooms. There was once again room to park a car in the garage. The chipped marble tile in the dining room was no longer covered with brightly-colored foam flooring.
I headed over there at 10am Sunday, to let a friend in who wanted the old futon. 14 hours of numbing, back-breaking work later, it’s all empty. The last piece of Lego, the last click-base figure, the last six-sided die all found temporary homes in corrugated cardboard.
Last night I was too desperately tired to feel anything. This morning, I’m not sure what I feel.
At least I’m done battling the oil heater.
Ancient weapons and hokey religions
Many moons ago, the noble rattrap gave me a gift of an upgraded Macintosh SE. 20MB hard drive. 1.44 MB floppy drive. 9″ black & white monitor. New, the thing sold for $3500 or so. I got some good creativity going on that puppy, and I’ve never forgotten Jerry’s generosity.
Soon, the SE was replaced, as all computers are fated to be. The LC III, then the Performa 6214, then the G4 “Sawtooth” (with later processor and video upgrades). But I never got rid of the SE – I hate to throw away functioning (if obsolete) hardware. It seems wasteful. So, the SE sat quietly on a shelf, not even plugged in once for almost 10 years.
For no particularly good reason, I plugged it in tonight. It booted up just fine, and loaded A Mess o’ Trouble. (Great game. Worth installing a System 6 emulator to play, if you’re inclined.) The monitor’s starting to flicker badly while the hard drive’s running, but other than that, it’s not doing poorly at all for a piece of hardware released 17 years ago.
I guess a sane person would give it away or just discard it. OTOH, I’ve rarely laid claim to any sanity.
