Mt. Fuji comes to Mohammed
Just found out that Anime Mid-Atlantic is being held right in my backyard next month.
Anyone on my Friends List planning to go? Not much fun going to a con unless I can hang with some cool people. Besides, I haven’t been to an anime con in years and years – may need someone to show me the ropes!
Reinvention
From Wil Wheaton’s blog:
“I’m going to commit heresy right now and say what few people are willing to say out loud: most of the Star Trek movies are absolute garbage. There have been ten Trek movies, and I’d say that two of them are accessible to mainstream audiences, another two are great, and the remaining six are nearly unwatchable. If JJ Abrams wants to make his new Trek movie unlike the 80% of Trek movies that aren’t that good, that’s just fine with me. Not that my opinion means anything, you understand, but rambling on and on about things like this is the price of being a geek, and I regret nothing. NOTHING!”
I say without much fear of contradiction that the “accessible” movies were “The Voyage Home” and “First Contact”. (Man, I remember movie critics squirming as they reluctantly admitted that FC was pretty darn good.) “Wrath of Khan” has to be in the “great” category – there is no point in arguing with me there, so don’t bother.
So, I wonder which movie is Wil’s other “great”? Notice that he cannily forgot to mention the names involved…
I’m still looking forward to #11, whatever fandom decides to call it. You have to give people the chance to try something a little different, otherwise we all end up bored to tears.
One foot in front of the other
New favorite bookmark – Gmaps Pedometer. Turns out that the round trip here at work that I’ve been estimating at 1.25 miles is actually 1.11, and I burned ~190 calories making the trip (or most of one 20oz Coke).
I’m really tired of my spare tire. Not only is it forcing me to get rid of perfectly decent clothes, but a couple weeks ago I was winded just coming up a flight of stairs. This is unacceptable! I am now trying to get at least a mile of walking in every day. I think it’s time to try Diet Coke again, as well.
This old convention photo shows how I was built back in the late 80s. Many people these days don’t believe this is a picture of me! I think the hair will stay a memory, and my shoulders are permanently broadened by the crutches, but I’d like my chin back, and the ability to see my belt buckle. I really feel that I can do this.
Hmmm, the pedometer says that walking from my apartment to the nearby dog groomer and back is a mile. Think I’ll be doing that one on weekends.
But can she run Linux?
After starting the series 6 years ago, I finally picked up the last two volumes and have finished reading the Chobits comic. I liked it a lot, and I’m glad I gritted my teeth to read eight graphic novels backwards. (I usually take in an entire comic page in a glance or two, and reading unflipped manga for me is a bit like taking your car up to 55 mph in second gear. You can do it, but it’s not comfortable.)
Y’know, only the Japanese could combine 1) a serious examination of computer emotion and sentience, and 2) innocent, adorable robot girls running around unself-consciously in mildly fetishy outfits. It kept confusing me, because between the clothing choices and the male lead’s humorous over-reactions to every situation, I wasn’t sure I was meant to be taking this seriously, but then the authors would drop back into the real distress experienced by several characters because of the difficult emotional situations they faced.
The ending doesn’t contain any real surprises, but the purpose of this tale is the journey, not the destination, and the last book makes sense of several points that I’d expected to be conveniently forgotten. I no longer trust 21st century creators to do this, so it’s a welcome change to be able to believe “we were planning this all along” for once.
In completely unrelated news, Midori has found the basket of laundry that I’ve just pulled from the dryer, and is at this moment the happiest sleeping cat in Portsmouth.
Sontar-HA!
The Sontaran two-parter from this Doctor Who series really pleased me. Lots of fun things happened, the production design of the alien battlesuits and technology looked great, and we got a somewhat more mature Martha Jones back for a couple of episodes. There were a few rough pacing moments – as if the script worked out about 10 minutes short overall – but nothing fatal.
Donna remains an excellent foil for the Doctor, freaking out in fear one moment and standing up to him the next. It’s a lot of fun having grownups aboard the TARDIS, and even when Donna must leave, I hope they consider continuing the trend. At no point did the episode get stupid (well, there’s an atmosphere bit near the end which is a little brow-raising, but not too bad), and UNIT gets to show that, in the 21st century, they’re actually good for something.
I’d put in a request, if I could, for the Beeb to fund some more space episodes, as Earth is getting invaded now every month on the first Wednesday. It’s like paying bills – “Let’s see, cable, electric, water, and oh yes, alien invasion due tomorrow. Must call in sick to work.”
Everyone caught the face that shows for a split second on the TARDIS console screen, right?
We’re picking up spoilers on scan…
Fake European fun
Starr showed me YouTube footage last night of several Discovery Channel stars singing the Boom-de-ah-dah song live at some promotional event. I was tickled by the Alaskan ship captains jumping in, and am more convinced than ever that Mike Rowe is insane in a wonderful way.
We had multiple friends ask us out last weekend, and politely demurred every time; this was our first unscheduled time in months, and we were determined to enjoy it quietly at home, with no stressors, expenses, or travel. So, of course, we ended up at Busch Gardens.
Yeah, that plan worked out great, didn’t it?
But it was a gorgeous Saturday, and I’ve been trying to visit the park since moving to Hampton Roads. We’d purchased Virginia resident Fun Cards earlier, and the Old Country was calling our name, so out we went! The weather might have been a bit too gorgeous, actually, since we left the sunscreen in the car and Starr got a bit roasted. There were also a couple of lines where we were minutes away from abandoning our place and running for the nearest air-conditioning.
But we had a great time. The DarKastle ride may be our new favorite – the 3-D is quite effective, if artificial. I rode the Battering Ram for the first time, which was a mix of fun and “ohcrap ohcrap I am falllinnnngg!” Seriously… rides where I fall make my internal organs shift positions and are an exercise in endurance for me, not entertainment. I don’t know why.
The Big Bad Wolf, on the other hand, didn’t have too much falling for a roller coaster, and a lot of swooping. I love swooping 🙂 It was almost dark by the time we got to that one, which added a dimension. The turkey sandwich I ate at the Festhall was pretty yummy, if overpriced, and I made sure to eat it in small, well-chewed bites, in hopes of avoiding motion sickness later. The Corkscrew Hill 3-D simulator nearly defeated that strategy, however.
We also got to see live wolves and huge bald eagles in a predator show, and a pretty good Irish music and dance show. So, even with sunburn, exhaustion, and expense, I’m chalking it up as a success. On the other hand, Sunday was quiet, lazy, and cheap after all. It kind of needed to be.
The Ringtone Choir Invisible
Cell phone is absolutely D-E-D. Dammit.
I need to either go to the Sprint store tomorrow and get a new Motorola RAZR, or succumb to technolust, and go to the AT&T store and get an iPhone. Which would cost more. But I do want one.
Arrgh, the eternal balance of thrift and desire.
Berserker mode
We all know of 24-hour viruses. I wonder if it’s possible to have a 24-hour mental illness?
Yesterday, I was a festering ball of rage and frustration, unable to calm myself with any of my psyche tricks, and certainly unfit for company. Why Starr put up with me I don’t know, but she did a lovely job of soothing me over the course of the evening, and by 10 or 11 or so I was able to talk politely and slip off to sleep like a normal person.
I don’t want to do that one again anytime soon. Not just for anyone else’s benefit, but for my own as well. I did not enjoy that.
Margaret Hamilton nowhere to be seen
If you want to know what last night was like in these parts, Google “obici tornado”.
The storm wasn’t bad for me. We got the alert around 4 here at NASA, but all I had to deal with on the drive home was some rain and a bit of wind on the bridge. Starr, on the other hand, stood in her hospital as a funnel came right for the building, tossing around cars in the parking lot and cracking some hospital windows with flying debris.
She had to stay at work a little late, in part because the road home was damaged and closed, but she finally made it home safe and sound, if a little stressed.
We are both fine, though kitty panicked a bit when it took Starr so long to come home. None of our friends have reported any serious difficulties either, for which we are most thankful.
