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.
Brief updates
- 08:14 Parking a block farther from the office building to make myself get more walking in. #
- 08:44 We are role-playing a flame war on a discussion forum. “I cast Straw Man!” “I cast Ad Hominem!” #
- 09:15 Three-week-old kitten having breakfast: tinyurl.com/6grpcq #
- 12:34 “Keep Track Of Equipment” poster has picture of Space Shuttle Main Engines. Are we misplacing those often? #
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Getting the hang of Tuesday
Rough start to the day.
Didn’t sleep well – under-hydrated, I think. 200 spam messages from last night in my inbox: the Russian spammers are trying some new tricks. I can’t even read most of the e-mails. More idiots driving 45 in the passing lane, then shifting right and doing 70 in the slow lane; and to top it off, my morning podcast glitched out halfway into the drive.
On the other hand, I was greeted again this morning by friendly ducks on the way out to my car. Last night was great, with pizza and WoW provided by Starr and a remarkably clean apartment she’d spent her “lazy day” scrubbing. And this morning I heard that my longtime partner-in-crime Tom Monaghan, one of the few Starfleeters to hold officer posts on USS Heimdal, Pathfinder, McKay, Yeager, and Ma’at, signed his first fiction book contract! Awesome!
So karma balances, and if the rain lets up at all I’ll get some more walking in today. Into the fray!
‘Twas caviar
This weekend was good. I got to chill a little bit, which I’d long needed. Had caviar for the first time ever; it tasted mostly of salt, and slightly fishy. I’ve heard it’s served on buttered toast, and I think that would improve it quite a bit.
I also tried the Lord of the Rings online role-playing game. The first thing I noticed is that it’s certainly prettier than WoW (and therefore needs more video processing power than, say, my desktop can handle). I enjoyed the Minstrel class I tried – there’s something entertaining about whipping out a lute in the middle of a melee and dealing damage with a few bars of a song.
But, when all’s said and done, I enjoy the slightly surrealistic graphics of WoW – they seem to fit with a world which has so many fantastic shorthands for everyday actions – and the LotR game takes itself fairly seriously, which also isn’t really what I’m here for. I might play it if there were a Mac version and no other competitors, but my subscription will stay with Blizzard for now.
This week’s Doctor Who episode brings the Series 4 average down to .667. Even discounting the goofy, thoughtless science – which is hard, since one element is a major plot point – there wasn’t much special about it. Donna was great; her emotional arc about the future of humanity and our ethics, and the conditions of the Ood provided a welcome touch of development.
But overall, the episode was fairly formulaic, including at least one completely gratuitous CGI death, and someone trying viciously to kill the Doctor for no reason at all. One touch I did like: minor spoiler
Brief updates
- 12:56 Mirandala dinged 66. I know this is a matter of vital national importance. #
- 13:06 Looking at the first few scenes of the unearthed Infocom Hitchhiker’s Guide sequel game: tinyurl.com/5su79h #
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Brief updates
- 10:39 @gruber Perhaps, but I can’t forgive the first M:I movie for defamation of the good name of Jim Phelps. #
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