There’s a voice in my head that drives my heel
I got Guitar Hero 80s last week. First-ever five-star ratings – on “Radar Love” and “Turning Japanese”, naturally. This has an excellent song list as far as I’m concerned!
The weather down here lately has been incredible. Clear blue skies, sharp edges on all the polygons – err, objects nearby, and temperatures in the high 60s to mid 70s. On the other hand, It’s really dark when I get out of bed now, and the sunset is happening sooner and sooner. I don’t like this at all, no sir.
Still trying to figure out if I’ve got the money to do all the traveling I’d like to do in October. The pirate wedding was a reminder of how much I miss old friends.
I wish I was doing more interesting stuff to talk about. If I can do the traveling, that’ll help a bit 🙂
Throw open the switches on the static oscillator
In the Roanoke Valley, the sound of thunder bounces sharply from mountain to mountain. Here in Hampton Roads, the sound rolls over the water, producing a deep, extended timbre.
The demonstration nature provided last night certainly made me happy to be indoors. Lightning was flashing at least once every two seconds. It was like sitting under a sputtering neon sign. Thunder echoed almost continuously as the rain torrented down. Zap-zap-zap-zap-zap. I’ve never seen a fiercer storm.
We lost power three times, but each time it returned withing five minutes, which was a relief. I didn’t want to try to sleep through a humid 85-degree evening with no AC.
Calm, cooler, but still humid morning greeted me. I hate having to get up before dawn.
The flooded dragon podcast planet of Freon
A year after having it loaned to me, I have finally picked up and read “Eldest” by Christopher Paolini. This book is the sequel to “Eragon”, which I found to be enjoyable, if lacking in originality. “Eldest” is more of the same; I’d suggest it to any reader I know, with the caveat that they shouldn’t expect anything mind-blowing. The writing is good, and the characters are interesting, which is more than many fantasy books can claim.
Still, one day I want to read a high fantasy novel where the elves are short-lived and highly industrial, if not technological. Perhaps the ancient lost civilization that left behind all the ruins and dungeons could be one of humans, or lizard men, or Things We Barely Understand instead of the freakin’ elves again. And hey, how about hippie, type B dwarves that live simple lives of farming and woodcarving? You get my drift, here?
We lived through Ernesto – our house was never in danger, though I did lose power halfway through my morning webcomic troll. Driving to work was a dumb idea – two different blocks were flooded, and when the tires stop making the “zzziiiisssshhh” noise and begin making the “blubble-blurble-splep-blobble” noise, the water’s too deep – but dumb luck saved me, and the drive home was a little better. The yard looks a bit battered, though.
The International Astronomers Union voted last week that Pluto isn’t a full planet, but a “dwarf planet”. They did this in part because Pluto’s moon, Charon, is almost the same size as Pluto and might have deserved planet status; and a more distant body in our solar system, “2003 UB313”, is even larger and might have been awarded the same privileges. “2003 UB313” has been nicknamed “Xena” by its discoverer, and no stuffy astronomers’ group is going to sit still for “Planet Xena”. (The nickname is unofficial, but may well stick.) (And yes, Xena has a satellite… Gabrielle.)
Pluto, Charon, Xena, and the asteroid Ceres all qualify for “dwarf planet” status under the IAU’s new rules. I say Pluto still deserves the love, and we all know what’s a planet and what’s an asteroid, whatever they say. Manned mission to Planet Xena!
Podcast recommendations of the day: Taverncast, for WoW players; not only is the material useful and interesting, but it’s presented in a very light-hearted, entertaining manner by the hosts. Also, Geek Counterpoint, for those with a science bent; much drier in tone, but still well-presented and interesting – my interest was caught by the episode on inflatable spacecraft. Seriously.
The Hyundai is very mad at me right now. The dash clock and stereo are cutting out intermittently (and separately), the a/c has stopped working (and with it, my defogger, which has made driving in the rain interesting), and my temperature gauge is running high. Given how much of the car is factory-sealed, that may mean a trip to the dealership. 🙁
I may finally attend a NekoCon this year, given that it’s right on my doorstep and all. Thinking about it.
M for Monday
raininva and I went to see V for Vendetta yesterday. Considering the amount of whining that I’d seen at various ‘Net sites, I was surprised to enjoy it a great deal. It never went all stupid on me, and it practically begged for thought and argument about its ‘message’, rather than blind acceptance.
I’m really looking forward to Technicon. It looks like I’ll be a very busy camper that weekend, but that’s okay – I won’t get bored 🙂
I’m working my way through my yearly LOTR re-read. I’ve got a lot of new books on the shelves waiting for me, but I needed the familiar lands of Middle-Earth for a while. I haven’t made it a page farther into “Wicked”, which tells you how gripping I’ve found it.
And I’m really done with 40-50 degree temperatures. It needs to get warm, and stay warm.
daaaaahh dah-dah peanut butter…
There is a pipe-and-drum corps outside my window playing “Scotland the Brave”. They’re pretty good, too! That’s a kind of music which is 100x better live. Some of the lady pipers are only slightly bigger than their instruments. Again today, it’s sunny and warm and a perfect day for this… makes it hard to go back inside and do work. (So I’m blogging about it instead.)
I’m unavoidably reminded of the Northwind Highlanders from the Battletech universe. They had a habit of advancing on an enemy while playing bagpipe music over the external audio of their tartan-enameled mechs, and marching the 20- to 100-ton machines in lockstep to the drumbeat. Many an opponent quailed and ran away when faced with this 🙂
3 copies of Maya 2.5…
Still working on the T-Con report. At least I have my e-mail back.
Felt very good this morning when I got on the road to work. Warm temperatures, a sunny morning, and some good news last night all cheered me up.
I can get a bit manic when I’m in a really good mood. I’ll feel like there’s no problem I can’t handle, and sometimes I get a little foolhardy. But I suppose it’s a better state of mind than the “I think you ought to know I’m feeling very depressed” mood I can fall into so easily.
Back to cataloging software. I hate paperwork.
Finally, spring
I have a long Technicon report I’m working on. For now, I’ll just say that the sun is shining, the air is warm, and we have ducks and bunnies in our front yard. Yay for spring!
OTOH, Elfie’s mailserver is rejecting my password. So I probably have a few days’ worth of mail on hold right now. 🙁
Spring Preview Day!
Beautiful day outside – 60 degrees already and supposed to top out at 70. While I wouldn’t diagnose myself with Seasonal Affective Disorder, I can’t deny that later sunsets and warmer temperatures help my mood a lot. With all the writing I’ve been doing lately about asteroid miners, I have to wonder what they’d do to deal with the problem of spending weeks, months, and years in an environment where it never ‘got light out’.
Finished re-reading Neuromancer and reading Soul Music this weekend. Soul Music was almost too light-hearted for a book dealing with the weariness of being Death, and the way that musicianship can change people. Also, if I understood the ending (and I don’t know that I did), there was a lot of ‘reset button’ hand-waving happening to avoid untidy loose ends. I suppose, on the Discworld, that’s not unreasonable.
One thing that’s never made completely clear in Neuromancer (partially because William Gibson didn’t actually know that much about computers (or so I’ve read)) is whether Case, the expert computer cracker at the center of the novel, is in fact a computer expert in any way. On re-readings of the book, he seems more like an experienced top-level “script kiddie” or video gamer than someone who can actually read or write any kind of code. Wintermute calls him “barely print-literate”.
Fun link today:
“Who’s On First” at the video store
