Taste, dreams, and days

While eating lunch at Chick-Fil-A today I decided to experiment to see if any other parts of the mouth can sense taste. I gobbed ketchup onto the end of a piece of waffle fry and stuck it into my mouth, careful not to touch anything inside except the rear left side next to my teeth.

I didn't taste anything, but I did drool all over myself.

Last night I had the kind of dream that morphs into a different dream while you're still dreaming it. It started out as a Superman dream--because coworkers were discussing the movie yesterday, no doubt. In the dream I was watching the movie, but since I haven't seen the movie, the story was based on my impression of the characters and not a little bit on Smallville.

Dream-Superman was a very bland, laid-back, unexciteable character, possibly based on Kuchiki Byakuya (I've been rewatching Bleach). In one scene, he was an old woman. Don't ask me why. And he was telling Lois he could no longer be with her. She, of course, was seeing an old woman, so it took awhile for her to realize that it was actually Superman in there. The audience realized it right alongside her, as the director took a close shot of the old lady's eyes, steeped in shadow but with a ray of light glowing just across them, and then dissolved it to the exact same shot of Superman's eyes.

"They reproduced the scene!" I cried to whoever I was seeing the movie with, because in dream-reality this tearful moment was a throwback to another scene, in which Superman was still Superman, and in which he said the exact same things. I found this to be a brilliant allusion.

Lois from Smallville was also in the movie, but she wasn't Lois. Eventually the movie turned into a cartoon version of Smallville, which was actually kind of cool.

And then, suddenly, Sean and I were at a home building site looking at floorplans, and I found a house I thought was awesome, so I said to the builder, "Yeah, let's do it!" And so they started building a house for us.

Then I started wondering if I should have, you know, included Sean in that decision, and what we were going to do in two years (for various reasons, I'm expecting something interesting to happen in two years). But Sean didn't seem to care; he was more concerned with something that was going on in Lineage II.

I think this is the first time Sean's gaming has influenced my dreams. Also, for those of you who don't know him, there is no way I could buy a house without him getting freaked out ;> You may think he doesn't freak out at all, but he does. He just does it very quietly.

My dreams must have finished themselves up, because I actually awoke naturally this morning. I was feeling pretty good, too; I watched Ichigo disintegrate Byakuya's senbonzakura in Bleach, and I ate some waffles. But I had a problem with the videos for the website at work, and that somehow completely destroyed my day. I was on the verge of tears for rather a long time.

That's why I ended up at Chick-Fil-A. I hadn't brought a lunch regardless, and I'd planned on walking somewhere and getting takeout, but I just wanted to escape, so I chose Chick-Fil-A (it's right around the corner, essentially) and just ate in. (Their new "hand-spun" milkshakes are fantabulous.)

I think I'm feeling better now, but I wish I felt as good as I did this morning. I realize that one carries a certain measure of control over one's state of mind, but I'm doing my best and this is as far as I've gotten.

And yes, I'll admit it: I do have something else on my mind, and it does have something to do with that stupid post I made before. What can I say...I'm a moron.

Maybe someday I'll own a takoyaki restaurant franchise

Looks like a company is trying to bring Japanese "fast food" to America.

With already over 350 takeout stores in Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan, Sase's Gindaco chain is one of a barrage of fast-food companies bringing lowbrow Japanese chow to overseas markets. Its first U.S. store is scheduled to open in Los Angeles in 2007, and it hopes to open 20 stores in California by 2010.

I sincerely hope they don't do this:

To woo octopus skeptics, U.S. stores may feature additional entertainment, says Yohei Miki, who heads the company's overseas operations.

"We're thinking of getting our cooks to chop the spring onions using Japanese swords," Miki chuckled. "You know the Americans, they love attractions."

Sure, those hibachi steakhouses are interesting the first few times, but I think just watching people make takoyaki the real way would be cool enough. I'd rather have a more authentic experience, myself.

Poor Saddam

Reuters: Saddam ends hunger strike after missing one meal

Saddam Hussein ended a brief hunger strike after missing just one meal in his U.S.-run prison, a U.S. military spokesman said on Friday.

Awww. I guess it's hard for spoiled tyrants to get a taste of their own medicine.

Check out this awesome lizard

Yesterday Brooke and I went for a nice long walk at the Greeneway. While I was waiting for her to arrive, I got some pictures, including some fairly close shots of a little lizard. At first it was hanging around on a fence post:

But then, as I continued to take its picture, it got skittish and jumped into the green plants beyond the fence:

He totally changed color! That is rad.

Freenode haxx0rz3d

Just found out via Slashdot that the admin password on Freenode was compromised. As you may know, the AMRN uses Freenode for its chatroom. (They should probably go somewhere else, eh?)

This comment on Slashdot's article was kind of scary:

In #bantown we have two EFnet server operators. As we sat there ruining freenet they were amazed how we had managed to get that far. On EFnet, oper blocks are for one specific host and all oper hosts are spoofed so you have to figure out the box that a given oper is on and root it before getting any further. lilo's host was bound to *@*, leaving his network ripe for our taking. EFnet, despite being what lilo calls a "normal IRC experience" is thousands of times safer and more stable than Freenode. The man should learn to run an IRC network before he asks people to pay him for it.

PS, lilo: I still have root on a server that's on the same switch as one of your precious Freenode servers. Next we'll be arpmitm'ing and spoofing the C/N lines to link in a hacked server. I'll let you have fun running around trying to guess which one that server is.

You have three days to post "I have been trolled by Bantown" on global notice.

Reminds me of the days of channel wars. (Do people still have those?)

But this comment was hilarious:

o noes, If someone got a hold of lilo's password, they could start spamming the users with useless server-wide notices nobody cares about!!1!

XD

In any case, if you were using your Freenode password for other things online, go change those account passwords now.

Anyone missing a fork?

So I was emptying the dishwasher yesterday (as I'm wont to do) and I found a fork that doesn't match my flatware.

And I have no idea where it came from.

There are forks at work, but the only time I've used them is when I've forgotten my lunchbox...and if I didn't have my lunchbox, I wouldn't carry a fork home.

Sean says they don't have forks at his work.

It's a mystery!

I joked to Robert today that it was left by a burglar as a warning. "Next time...I'll leave a cup!"

Consider this fair warning

"I'm going to Kentucky next weekend," I told Sean last night, figuring he should probably know.

"Next weekend...is that the Fourth of July weekend?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"Well, good," he said, "because...I won't be here!"

"Oh really?"

"Yep. I'm going to Aaron Heffner's."

"I'm glad we tell each other these things!"

Mark Taylor vs. Cathy Cox

Two Democratic candidates for Georgia governor, Lt. Governor Mark Taylor and Secretary of State Cathy Cox, have been slinging mud full force lately as we approach the Georgia primary on July 18. Ah, how I long for the days when their campaign ads simply tooted their own horns, and didn't have anything to do with tearing each other down. Alas.

Working in TV news, not only do I have to see these ads multiple times a day, but I also receive numerous emails from both campaigns with shocking revelations about Taylor's "looking out for the other Big Guys" and Cox's "lies".

Fortunately, I have a solution! It's called, "You're Both So Annoying, I Won't Vote for Either One of You."

Megatokyo question

What does the image on Stupid Goth Girl's video game screen portend?

Is the whole story a game?

Is SGG playing a dating sim? Is she controlling Piro?

Is her existence in the story simply her own attempt to make the game more difficult, a greater challenge for herself?

Okay, that doesn't even make sense.

So why is Nanasawa in her video game?

3,145 mpg

UBC Engineers Create Vehicle that Travels from Vancouver to Halifax on a Gallon of Gas (via Slashdot)

"We achieved this level of efficiency by optimizing many aspects of the vehicle design, including: aerodynamics, light-weight construction, a small displacement engine (54 cc), and conservative driving habits," says Team Captain Kevin Li.

The UBC design, which required the driver to lie down while navigating it, achieved 3,145 miles per US gallon (0.074 litres/100 km) -- equivalent of Vancouver to Halifax on a gallon (3.79 litres) of gas -- costing less than $5 at the pump.

I don't see anywhere in the article, or on the Supermileage website, how fast the car goes, though. I'm guessing 5 mph...

This ridiculous number reminds me of another ridiculous number I heard the other day--Mom sent me this article:

Researchers Say New Chip Breaks Speed Record

The researchers, using a cryogenic test station, achieved the speed milestone by "freezing" the chip to 451 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, using liquid helium. That temperature, normally found only in outer space, is just nine degrees above absolute zero, or the temperature at which all movement is thought to cease.

At 500 gigahertz, the technology is 250 times faster than chips in today's cellphones, which operate at 2 gigahertz. At room temperature, the chips operate at 350 gigahertz, far faster than other chips in commercial use today.

Iraq

Apparently another member of the Hussein defense team has been killed. It makes me wonder if we will ever be "successful" there.

To have peace, enough people in Iraq need to want it. I know there are people who do. But are they enough? If the people on the "good" side assassinate people on the "bad" side, are they really good?

The situation is feeling more and more like Israel vs. Palestine, a conflict I feel the U.S. would do well to just avoid.

But I feel for the Iraqis who were so happy when Saddam was toppled, who are hurting now with power outages and explosions and shootings all around. They, to me, are the "real" Iraqis, the victims, the ones who are just trying to live their lives. Is there anything they can do for themselves? Is there anything we can really do to help them?

Edit: There's also the allegation that Iraqi troops murdered American soldiers, and the news that over 80 Iraqis have apparently been abducted, to further brighten the general Iraq outlook.

Edit Again: According to papers released by the military, the Iraq branch of Al-Qaeda is worried.

In one of the newly released documents, an unidentified member of the group wrote that the cells in Baghdad are capable of only "hit and run" operations, leading the public to conclude that "the Shiites are stronger in Baghdad and nearer to controlling it," while the mujahedeen "are not considered more than a daily annoyance to the Shiite government."

[...]

The writer says that the American and Iraqi government forces "were able to absorb our painful blows," enlist new recruits and "take control of Baghdad as well as other areas, one after the other."

Rush Limbaugh further quotes the document as saying:

"There's a clear absence of organization among the groups of brothers in Baghdad, the terrorists, insurgents, whether at the leadership level in Baghdad, the brigade leaders, or their groups therein. The policy followed by the brothers in Baghdad is a media oriented policy without a clear comprehensive plan to capture an area or an enemy center."

Limbaugh's take is, "Al-Qaeda Says They're Losing, Media Ignores". This information has been available since May 8; Limbaugh posted his piece on May 10.

Last night's dream

I dreamed about meeting someone. I was searching an online listing--for blogs, MySpace accounts, something--and I found one that I could tell had had its listing changed several times to avoid being "TOSed" (as they say on AOL), but to still appeal to people who are attracted to women. It was a young woman's personal site, and it featured a diary and pictures of her. The listing was supposed to entice people to contact her, and it did; I called her up, excited to see what the conversation would be like.

At first she made small talk about what a beautiful day it was where she was, and then, unexpectedly, she said, "You know what would be sexy? If you traced your foot with your pinky finger onto a piece of paper, and measured it. I really like stuff like that."

That seemed weird to me. I looked around frantically and said, "That would be great, but I don't have a ruler."

"Oh. Never mind then. It was nice talking to you..." she said.

I was disappointed and was about to hang up, when suddenly I decided that I hadn't gotten the proper experience, and I wanted to. "So wait, that's it?" I asked.

She changed her tune then, and though we didn't talk about "sexy" things anymore, we did talk a lot about her current project--normally she was her own photographer, but at the moment she was working with a gentleman she'd just met, whose work she was very interested in. For some reason in the dream I was embarrassed that I was having the conversation, so I tried to avoid letting Sean hear who I was on the phone with.

Later, I ended up visiting her at the home of the photographer with a group of her fans. I was the first to introduce myself to her, and this was thrilling beyond belief. After that Mari (who was there for some reason) and I hung out with the photographer, admiring his house. He had all hardwood floors, and the style was something like a lake house. I have the impression that it was on the water, but I don't recall actually seeing that in the dream. The photographer told us that he was "practically on a mortgage" even though the people he was renting the place from kept refusing to sell it to him. He'd just moved in, so the place was pretty sparse; I remember a tall green piece of furniture that could have either been a mod chair or a lamp.

And that was really about it. I never had the experience advertised in the online listing, but I was excited because I felt like I was going to eventually be the girl's friend, and that seemed even better.

Part of this dream, I think, was inspired by the latest Megatokyo storyline, which has been very intriguing. I was wondering how Gallagher was going to deal with the "fanboy" issue--if he was going to deal with it at all. And he certainly is dealing with it! So I think the online listing comes from that, and I was the fangirl.

I had an idea earlier about where the photographer and his lake house came from, but now I've forgotten :>

This post is stupid and embarrassing

So stupid and embarrassing, in fact, that I'm not including the images in the post.

The test instructions clearly said that it didn't matter if one of the lines crossing the other line was lighter than the other, and it included a picture of a very faint line. So, I looked at this and saw a line.

You don't, though, right? So I took a photo and edited it. Here it is all contrasty, and here it is with the line circled. You can kind of see something there.

Maybe.

If you're insane.

I don't think I was hallucinating, but I doubt the line was the kind of line I was looking for. If anything it was probably just the area where there would have been a line. A ready track, if you will, waiting for the proper hormone to change its color.

Which did not happen.

Not not not.

I am eating an absolutely delicious peach right now

I'm trying to get more fruits in my diet (though I don't seem to be reducing the chocolate just yet). Yesterday I walked both during lunch (with Wes at the Greeneway, Martintown Road entrance) and after work (with Brooke at the Greeneway, The River Golf Club entrance). And today I went over to the Y during lunch and did some kung fu aerobics (I made that up) and walked on the treadmill some.

When I look in the mirror at my profile, my stomach looks huge. It'd be nice if there was a baby in there, but since that's impossible, it just means that I have become very, very fat. It's irritating that it looks so much like a pregnant belly, though. My body has a sick sense of humor.

In any case, this peach is divine.

I've had lots of fun lately :)

It seems like I've been going out to eat a lot the past few weeks. I really need to cut down on that so we can actually save some money. But it sure has been nice.

On Friday I went to lunch with Wes at Boll Weevil. I had forgotten how totally awesome Boll Weevil is. Wow. Of course, not only did I have a delicious sandwich (thick honey bread with turkey and lettuce and jalapenos) and seafood bisque, but I also indulged in sweet tea and chocolate chip banana cake. And I wonder why I've gained weight lately...:P

I think if I'm ever asked to make a restaurant recommendation to someone coming from out of town, I will say Boll Weevil.

On Friday night, Sean and I met up with Mari and Brooke and David at TakoSushi in Surrey Center. (They don't appear to have a website, but read a review from December here.) They serve Southwestern and Asian cuisine.

I tried their guacamole (quite good) and a shrimp/cheese quesadilla that Brooke ordered, and then David shared a little dumpling and Mari shared an egg roll and edamame...my meal was just sushi, though, some unagi and sake nigiri and something called a "Crazy Roll". The nigiri wasn't that great, to be perfectly honest. The rice looked kind of clumpy, and the fish lacked flavor and texture. Sean said he thought he saw the sushi chef who worked at Kurama before it burned down working at TakoSushi. If that's the case, either he must not have made my nigiri, or he didn't have much to work with.

The Crazy Roll, on the other hand, was awesome. It didn't taste like sushi at all. It was rice rolled around a piece of fried shrimp, then rolled up with crab meat and avocado, and then drizzled with a special sauce. It really reminded me of something, but I couldn't think of what it was. Mari tried it and she can't think of it either. Whatever it is, it's good.

The quesadilla was great too, so I think if I go back to TakoSushi I'll stick to the Southwestern menu and the Crazy Rolls.

On Saturday, Brooke asked me to ride along as she drove David to the airport for his trip back to England. This involved a lot of sitting in the car and standing in lines, but it was still fun ;) We tried out the Edy's in the big circular food court at Hartsfield-Jackson.

After the lovebirds parted (they'll see each other again in August), Brooke and I made a brief stop in a $10 luxury/fashion store ("Everything's $10!") where I almost bought an earring/necklace set, but restrained myself. Then we headed back to the car and out of town.

As we pulled onto I-20 from 75 I had a perfect shot of the golden dome of the capitol building, but I didn't have my camera out. Alas.

Someday I will get a picture of that thing.

We were fairly full from Edy's (I'd had a raspberry smoothie made with Sprite, and it was yummy!), so we were quite a ways out of Atlanta before we decided to start looking for a place to have dinner. "Quick, pick something on that sign," Brooke said. We both looked it over. "Country Pride!" Brooke read.

"That sounds better than all that fast food," I said.

So we pulled off and discovered that Country Pride was a Denny's-esque restaurant at a truck stop.

The food was marginal. I had steak and scampi, which is not something I'll ever order again at a truck stop. The shrimp was fine, but the steak was crappy. Fortunately the green beans and baked potato were good. After the meal I indulged in a root beer float, because my subconscious apparently thinks I'm not fat enough. It was good ;P

The first half hour or so of our meal, our conversation was limited to things involving the phrase "Country Pride!" and giggling. We got very, very slap-happy :> As time went on, though, we found ourselves more and more interested in the NASCAR race that happened to be playing (they were at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, Kentucky. I didn't know we had a Sparta in Kentucky!). There were two pretty serious accidents while we watched, and they did a replay on one of them about five gazillion times. Hopefully Jeff Fuller is okay. Apparently he's in fair condition at UK Hospital. He's in good hands there :)

I let Brooke finish up the ice cream in my float and then we were off. (I tipped less than 10%, and Brooke gave about a 50% tip. I guess that evens out. I thought our waitress was batty, but whatever. Here's hoping none of that money makes it into the hands of whoever microwaved that steak.)

We gassed up and then I had Brooke spin around so I could get the above shot of Country Pride. And then it was just driving the rest of the way back to Augusta.

Towards the end we started listening to a really cool CD by a group called the Scissor Sisters. I had never heard their stuff or heard of them at all, but they're really good! Also on the trip I heard some good Depeche Mode and Orbital and the Lost in Translation soundtrack.

So it's been something of a full, crazy weekend. Today Brooke and I are going to look at fabric for drapes for my bedroom, because it gets too bright in there in the mornings, and Brooke the master seamstress offered to sew something up. I have a pretty good idea of how I want them to look, so it'll just be a matter of finding the right fabric. After that, hopefully we'll get to see The Lakehouse--I saw a trailer for it Friday night and wanted to see it immediately. It looks neat :)

I know this topic is tiresome, so I'll try not to linger

Tonight I told Sean I had something to talk to him about. He was in the middle of something in his game, and he took off his headphones and said, "What's up?" But I told him I didn't want to talk to him about it while he was playing, and not long thereafter I left the room.

Awhile later he got to a stopping point and came into the office. I sat him down on the spare bed and told him my news: I'd received a very generous and interesting offer earlier that day, and was interested in his opinion. I think I knew my decision before I even told him about it, but I wanted to talk to him anyway.

He initially simply said "It's up to you," but I pressed him for what he thought he might do in my position, and he told me what I thought he'd tell me, which just so happened to be the conclusion I'd come to. I told him I was pretty sure I agreed. Then I held him for awhile.

Finally he got up to head back to his game. But before leaving the room, he kissed me and said, "Honestly, I thought you were going to tell me you were pregnant or something."

I laughed dismissively. "That'd be nice, but no." And he went back out to the kotatsu.

I sat back down in my chair, shaken. It took a moment for me to realize why I was bothered...but as I realized it, I felt tears forming.

He doesn't think it's impossible.

I always thought he did. The strength of his supposed conviction helped me to accept the impossibility.

I should have known. My husband is not a man of absolutes. His opinion is not that it's impossible, but that it's not likely at all.

It would be more comforting to know it's impossible. It would make it easier to move on, in any case.

And I'm pretty sure it is.

He just surprised me.

That's all.

FBI, leery of throwing stones in glass houses, does not prosecute 9/11 relief thieves

This is just horrifying.

Dan L'Allier said he witnessed 45 tons of the New York loot being unloaded in Minnesota at his company's headquarters. He and Christopherson complained to a company executive, but were ordered to keep quiet. They persisted, going instead to the FBI.

The two whistleblowers eventually lost their jobs, received death threats and were blackballed in the disaster relief industry. But they remained convinced their sacrifice was worth seeing justice done.

They were wrong.

Once-secret documents obtained by The Associated Press detail how the company, Kieger Enterprises of Lino Lakes, Minn., went unpunished for the Sept. 11 thefts after the government discovered FBI agents and other government officials had stolen artifacts from New York's ground zero.

As a result, most Americans were kept in the dark about a major fraud involving their donated goods even as new requests for charity emerged with disasters like Hurricane Katrina. And Christopherson and L'Allier were left disillusioned.

"I wouldn't open my mouth again for all the tea in China," L'Allier said. Added Christopherson, a 34-year-old father of two: "I paid a big price."

[...]

The lead investigators for the FBI and the Federal Emergency Management Agency told AP that the plan to prosecute KEI for those thefts stopped as soon as it became clear in late summer 2002 that an FBI agent in Minnesota had stolen a crystal globe from ground zero.

That prompted a broader review that ultimately found 16 government employees, including a top FBI executive and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, had such artifacts from New York or the Pentagon.

"How could you secure an indictment?" FEMA investigator Kirk Beauchamp asked. "It would be a conflict."

[...]

Prosecutors "and the FBI were very conscious of the fact that if they proceeded in one direction, they would have to proceed in the other, which meant prosecuting FBI agents," said Jane Turner, the lead FBI agent. She too became a whistleblower alleging the bureau tried to fire her for bringing the stolen artifacts to light. Turner retired in 2003.

I don't think the following is a very good argument, though:

Nick Gess, another former federal prosecutor, said the agents' actions shouldn't have precluded prosecuting the company.

"DEA agents have been found to smoke pot occasionally," Gess said. "That doesn't mean they (the Drug Enforcement Administration) can't still work on drug cases."

Yeeeeeaaaaah.

Drag queen photography display in Lexington

Lately it seems like I've seen a lot of people on blogs complaining that Kentucky is backwards and Southern. I'd like to ask them what they think about this:

Ashley, who died in April, began taking pictures in the early 1970s. He collaborated with Morgan on a project about drag queens, called Pagan Babes, that included The Water Nymphs.

Ashley took iconic shots of James Herndon, the drag queen known as Sweet Evening Breeze, and Lexington artist Henry Faulkner. At Red River Gorge and on North Elkhorn Creek, he posed nudes, men and women, among the rocks and trees. The scenes he created have an eerie, almost mythic quality.

[...]

A NOTED LEXINGTON PHOTOGRAPHER'S UNUSUAL ART GOES ON DISPLAY FOR THE FIRST TIME

When: Opens tonight [June 15]. 11 a.m.-10 p.m. daily except Sunday until July 3.

Where: Natasha's Cafe, 112 Esplanade

Cost: Free

Call: (859) 621-7569

I am so tired

Tuesday's late night has finally caught up with me :> I'm very bleary right now.

Tonight we're going out to dinner with Mari, Brooke, and David, but right after that I think I'll go to bed.

That's right, no staying up later than I should to watch movies or anime. I don't think anything particularly exciting is coming out today anyway.

Unrelated note: I now have the following photographs in nice frames on my desk at work: Sean leaning against a fence at Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia; Mari, Brooke, and me at Putt-Putt for my birthday party; Connor and Logan from last Christmas eating sausage balls; and Sean and me flanked by our parents under the zen O at our wedding. Really I just need pictures of AJ and Faye and Ben and Manda and my family menagerie will be complete.

A show just for me

From John Hewitt's writing blog:

It occurred to me today that having a person use writing techniques to solve crimes would be a fun show. Of course, many shows have had "mystery writers" who also solve crimes, such as Murder She Wrote, but none of them actually use literary techniques to solve the crimes. The writer would identify moments of foreshadowing and plot points. They would also be sure to remind people when it is too soon to solve the crime. That can only be done in the last ten minutes.

Yes.

It'd be damn hard to write for that show, but the end result would be awesome.

Bomber!

OMG, hearing Haruhi say "Atashi no uta wo kike!"

I about died!

XD

And that was a cute episode preview anyway, because both of them said the next episode was number 12 :D

Wow, first a Touch reference (that music was perfect) and now Macross 7...this show is so fantabulous.

Awesome

Mom gets prison for making child steal

A judge sentenced a woman to prison for making her 6-year-old daughter steal a volunteer fire company's fundraising jar, a crime that netted the family $1.85.

That is one of the best introductory sentences I have ever read.

Just got home from work

Had to cover the South Carolina Primary Election.

It was actually kind of fun. I'm waiting for the endorphins to wear off, at which point I will crawl into bed and die.

Sean got pizza, so I'll eat some of that first, and start my download of Haruhi 11 (13) ;> (Looks like somebody plays go in this one?)

I'm sure I won't be in this good of a mood tomorrow, when I have to get up and go to work at my usual time. Ah well.

I didn't go

"Well, in case you don't go to the beach tomorrow--" Brooke said, but

"I'm going," I interrupted her. "I'll hate myself if I don't!"

But I sabotaged myself and stayed up past one in the morning doing nothing in particular. I was chatting with Roderick and Shafa, which was cool, but otherwise all I was doing was reading Attack of the Bacon Robots and being annoyed by the printing errors. I could do that any old time.

Part of it was that I was starting to get nervous about going to the beach by myself. I asked Sean if he wanted to go, twice, and he said no. None of my friends ended up being available. As I lay in bed this morning trying to wake up (I had one of those mornings where I think I'm going to get up and then for some reason fall back asleep), I thought, "Who'll watch my stuff while I'm swimming?" The answer, of course, was no one.

Later I was finally able to get up, and after a fit of coughing (stupid air conditioner always makes me congested) and my morning pills, I decided to check Google Maps to see how long it would take to get to a beach. I was assuming three hours to Tybee Island and two and a half to Myrtle Beach.

Google says it'll take four hours to get to either.

That didn't really mesh with my experience, so I checked Mapquest, which said four hours to Myrtle and three hours to Tybee. I thought it was faster to get to Myrtle Beach!

But either way, it was going to be more than six hours in the car, round trip, for not much sunlight at the beach.

So I'm sitting here at the computer instead of going.

If I'd gotten up early like I originally said I would, I might have gone. But I stayed up late. I don't really know why.

You watch, I won't have another chance to go to the beach for a long time, and I'll feel like a moron for missing this opportunity.

Oh well.

Has no one else noticed all the errors (printing or, perhaps, otherwise) in Attack of the Bacon Robots?

Should I go through and enumerate them?

I hate Photoshop

Well, I don't really hate it. I just wish it could do all the things I want to do.

I hate designing print advertisements in Photoshop. It's retarded.

I need to buy Creative Suite so I can have InDesign ;_;

Jesus buried in Japan

Because all the world originated in Japan, and everything great in the world returns to Japan eventually.

;>

Times Online: Japan is proud home of Christ's tomb

For two millennia the farming village of Shingo claims to have protected a tradition that Jesus spent most of his life in Japan. The village is the home of Sajiro Sawaguchi, a man in his eighties who claims to be a direct descendant of Jesus and whose family has always owned the land in which it is said that Christ is buried.

Mr Sawaguchi emerged as Jesus's heir only in 1935, when a priest in Ibaraki discovered a document in ancient Japanese purporting to be Christ's will. This document supposedly identifies Shingo as the location of the tombs of Jesus and Isukiri. The claim is widely believed. About 40,000 Japanese visit the site every year. Two years ago it was presented with a plaque by Jerusalem, and next Sunday [June 4] it will host the annual Christ festival of traditional Japanese dance.

According to the account in the Christ Museum next to the tombs, Christ arrived in Japan at the age of 21 and learnt Japanese before returning to Judaea 12 years later to engage in his mission and preach about the "holy land of Japan". The official Shingo history is that Jesus’s place on the Cross was "casually" taken by his brother, leaving Christ free to return to Japan. On his return he fell in love with Miyuko, a local girl, and lived happily with his family among the rice fields until dying aged 106.

Here is some more information from Japan Today.

According to the local legend, Christ first came to Japan, aged 21, during the reign of the 11th emperor, Suinin, and landed at the port of Hashidate on the Japan Sea coast. Apparently, he settled in Etchu province where, under the tutelage of a great master, he studied Japanese language, literature and various other subjects. The Legend of Daitenku Taro Jurai (Daitenku Taro Jurai was the name Christ is said to have later taken) claims that at the end of his 11-year stay, Christ returned to Judea, aged 33, where he taught about the "sacred land" of Japan. But, unfortunately, "Christ's teachings about Japan were considered too radical," and he was condemned to death.

The New Testament teaches Jesus was crucified at Golgotha, rose from the dead after three days and later ascended into Heaven. However, according to the legend of Herai, Jesus escaped this fate, and instead his brother Isukiri was nailed to the cross and died. Christ, meanwhile, fled with his disciples and went into hiding, carrying locks of the Virgin Mary's hair and his brother's ear. After an arduous journey across Siberia, Christ finally returned to Japan and settled in Herai where he changed his name, married a Japanese woman called Miyuko, fathered three daughters and lived to the age of 106.

[...]

For the people of Herai too, the revelation that Christ is buried in their village came as a shock when documents claiming Jesus had resided in Japan were discovered in Ibaraki Prefecture in 1935. Said to be Christ's will and testament and the proof that he had lived and died in Japan, the "Takenouchi documents" later proved to be fake. For years, many villagers felt that the shroud of mystery surrounding the large ancient tombs in a bamboo thicket had finally been lifted. The documents explained some of the village's customs, such as marking a cross on the forehead of a child when it first leaves the home and why Sanjiro Sawaguchi, a village elder, had "blue eyes like a foreigner."

This story seems to be rather old.

Wikipedia: Shingo, Aomori

The City of Shingo's homepage (as of right now, you can see the Kirisuto Matsuri listed in the Event Calendar).

Sounds like this would be a fun vacation stop. Since it's in northern Honshu, maybe Sean and I can hit it when I force him to go to Hakodate (Hokkaido). (He hates the cold, but I demand that he eat the best sushi in the world.)

Anybody want to run off for a day trip to the beach this weekend?

With this fabulous weather we've been having, I'm dying to spend a few hours at the ocean :)

AHAHAHAHAHA XD

Have you seen Yakitate!! Japan 67?!

When I first saw that old man, I thought, "Hey, it's Gollum."

And he is.

XD XD XD XD

I laughed so hard, at this whole episode. I love how the fourth wall just goes completely out the window now.

Jumping on the bandwagon

So apparently I look like Shirley Temple.

(Or at least I did 6 years ago. This is the picture I used. Yes, I'm a big cheater.)

I also look(ed) like Cameron Diaz, Heather Graham, Renee Zellweger, Monica Bellucci, Helen Hunt, Kirstie Alley, and Sharon Tate.

Sean looks like Heath Ledger, Ashton Kutcher, Justin Timberlake, Ralph Nader, "Tarkan" (?!), and Hayden Christensen.

Isn't that nice?

(Via Shafa.)

(Oh, and if you're wondering why I'm posting on my blog during work hours, I'm on lunchbreak at home bringing the car to Sean so he can drive me back to work and go to work himself. It's so much fun having my car in the shop.)

THX 1138

Tonight I finally watched my THX 1138 DVD.

I actually had the DVD before the fire and never got around to watching it. I also owned the original version of the film on VHS. When I first heard of the film, I was a teenager and very much in my Star Wars/George Lucas phase. I believe I found out about it from a book called Skywalking, an unofficial George Lucas biography my friend and piano and kung fu teacher Daniel had given me for my birthday. It's possible I heard about it on the Internet, though, because I was constantly downloading George Lucas-related materials back then, including some original drafts of the Trilogy (like the Jedi script in which Lando and the Falcon are destroyed when Death Star 2 blows up).

In any case, after I heard about George Lucas' groundbreaking first film, I was dying to watch it, but was unsure of where to find it. While it was loved by cult science fiction fans, it apparently wasn't very popular otherwise. When I did find it, it was by sheer luck--I happened to be in a video store in Wilmore, Kentucky, and there it was, sitting innocently on a display. I'm not sure why I was even there; maybe I was in staying overnight at a friend's and we had walked over there, or maybe I was passing time before or after kung fu class. Regardless, I was ecstatic, and my excitement broke through my usual shyness enough that I told the clerk how much I'd been wanting to see the movie. (Back then, talking to strangers was extraordinarily awkward and scary for me.)

I watched the tape over and over. I'm not sure when I found it, but I do know that when my friend Jeremy from the Governor's Scholars Program came to visit me at some point after high school, I sat him down on the $20 loveseat from Goodwill I had in my bedroom at the time and forced him to watch it. I forced everyone to watch it (much as I used to make people watch ReBoot, and as I now strongly suggest that people watch Kyou Kara Maou).

At the time, I had two understandings of the plot that I was absolutely certain were correct, and which now, after seeing the film again, I am reconsidering.

Maybe I'm too accustomed to having meanings shoved down my throat. Let's be honest, anime--or at least the anime I watch--isn't particularly subtle. But it seems to me that things aren't as obvious as they were when I was younger.

The first is a detail that apparently I missed (or maybe was changed slightly for the rerelease). I believed that what THX saw on the screen when he was looking for LUH was evidence that she'd died in childbirth. Now, it appears that she was simply terminated (and probably the child too, as I'm not sure she had time to come to term), and her number reassigned to a new embryo. The only reason they didn't kill THX was because his kidney was suitable for later use, after all. LUH was the instigator; the judge was probably more receptive to the prosecutor's arguments in her case.

The second is something a little more subtle. I honestly believed that SEN was in homosexual love/lust with THX. Looking at it now, I think that's a possibility, but I don't think it's absolutely definite, like I did when I was younger. Back then I interpreted SEN's desire to have THX as a roommate as his desire to have with him what LUH did. But SEN wasn't a voluntary nonconformist. He was too smart for his own good. He saw the flaws in the system, and it was his trying to fix them that got him in trouble. It's possible that he wanted THX around simply because he knew THX was different, too. He wanted to fit somewhere.

Maybe by "helping" THX by removing his temptation, he was hoping to give himself a good example as well.

I don't have a good enough memory to compare this version of the film to the original. At certain points I thought I could tell that things had been added, but when I watched the original trailer and the "Bald" featurette later, I saw that they'd been there in the original film. It appears that most of the added effects were background things and enhancements, and not changes to the main action. (One exception is the construction zone crash scene--the worker flies into a tunnel instead of falling to the ground.)

Some of you may know that I started writing a "novel" towards the end of high school and during my first year of college. I didn't have a title for it when I started, so the file was called "Bald.doc"...and the first scene involved a main character, trapped in a featureless room, his head shaved bald. I'm not sure how I could have written this and not thought I was completely ripping off THX 1138, but apparently I did, because I don't remember comparing the two until now.

That's kind of sad.

After I finished the movie, I checked out the original student film, which I hadn't seen before. And I have to tell you: it is pretty damn boring. You can see glimpses of what Lucas was going for--and what he achieved in the theatrical release--but it's certainly not well-rounded or polished. It's not feature-length; it's more a vignette, and what's irritating is that nothing happens until probably the last five minutes, other than THX running around.

I can't help but compare this to Steven Spielberg's brilliant early TV movie Duel, which was gripping the whole way through. Ah well.

(I've got to watch that again someday. I originally saw it on TBS.)

The last part of Lucas' student film is pretty good, so I'm not sorry I watched it :) It's interesting in a process sense, too, to see how the story evolved.

I liked how it ended, with the powers-that-be in complete denial of THX's escape. It's not shown in the film what is done after they go 6% over budget and call off the hunt, but I imagine it could be something like how it played out in the student film. My gut, though, says that they probably just never spoke of the incident again. They'd killed LUH, so there was no need to make excuses/lies to anybody.

(You know, it's also possible that LUH escaped as well, and they reassigned her number immediately thereafter. I'm not sure if that occurred to me back in high school. The romantic in me would like to think that she and THX are together on the surface now. Hopefully they can survive above ground!)

I had to watch the film with subtitles on because my laptop speakers don't play DVDs with surround sound very loudly. Because of this, I noticed a few things I hadn't before. The trial brought out an interesting conflict between "the masses" and "religion". The term "race issue" was bandied about in this context, which was surprising to me. This shed new light on the hologram--the only black person in the film--and the reason why THX and SEN were staring at him when he first appeared. I'm still not entirely sure what the races are--I started to think maybe it had something to do with cloning, though I'm definitely sure it has to do with "genetic purity"--but regardless, they all seem to be white people.

All in all, it's definitely a film worth owning. I'm glad I have it again :)

Brakes are expensive

Here are my notes from the phone conversation I had with the guy at Tires Plus.

front brake calipers and pads (plus labor): $421.18 - pad completely missing on left side

rear brake shoes: $104.99

rear bearings and seals (no labor): $223.92 - scored up, really hard to take off. might freeze up on spindle and then have to replace whole spindle - expensive because it's an older car

front CV axles both sides: $409.98 - don't know how these are because couldn't drive car - might be able to hold off on this

front brake rotors: $49.99 each - rotors completely chewed up

Did I mention my brakes went out while I was on my way home last night? I was braking at a light, and the car was making horrible grinding noises as usual, when all of a sudden the brake pedal gave way and went straight to the floor.

"Please stop please stop please stop," I said, as I turned the wheel slightly to the right in a vain attempt to lose momentum and avoid rear-ending the SUV in front of me. Thankfully, the car stopped.

I drove about 20 miles an hour to a gas station, where I pulled over and pretty much coasted into a parking space. From there I called Sean, who got me the phone number for Meineke and started giving me directions on how to get there.

"I can't drive there!" I said, thinking he must not have been paying attention when I told him my brakes had failed. "I need to get it towed!"

He was really quiet after that, so when we hung up I decided to risk my life and drive the car instead of calling a tow truck. I drove at about 15 miles an hour back down Martintown Road, up and down the hills, cringing at every stoplight, until I got to where Meineke was supposed to be.

Only it wasn't there.

So I pulled into a deserted parking lot and called the phone number.

"Hello?" came a man's voice.

"Hi, is this Meineke?"

"Well...I'd like it to be! It will be in about three weeks, I hope. We're renovating."

That wasn't particularly news I wanted to hear. I explained my situation to him and asked him what I should do.

"I wish I could fix your brakes!" he said. "I really do. But let's see...Tires Plus is here in North Augusta, and they do brakes."

And I knew where that was.

"You definitely shouldn't drive it!" said the Meineke guy. "Get towed!"

But, thinking that Sean would complain about the cost of towing, I drove. After all, it was just down the street. 10 and 15 miles per hour wasn't so bad!

Until a huge truck almost rear-ended me trying to scare me into accelerating. But I digress.

I got lucky at the left turn and was able to pull into the Publix shopping center without having to brake. I trundled along as slowly as humanly possible to Tires Plus, where I noticed a distinct lack of lights. I pulled around to the side and parked in front of a garage door that had the word "BRAKES" painted over it.

A man was coming out a side door. I got out of my car and called out to him.

"Are you closing?"

"Yeah."

"My brakes are shot. Can I leave my car here for you? When do you open tomorrow?"

"Sure. 7 a.m."

He took my name, address, and number, and then I moved the car (why? Why?) into a handicapped space (?!) at his request. I thought about bringing some stuff out of the car, but as I was going to have to wait for a ride in Publix due to the lightning and intermittent rain, I decided to leave everything. I scoured my purse and couldn't find my spare key, so I just gave him the one off my ring. As he was pulling out of the lot, he asked if I needed a ride, but as I was going to the other side of Augusta, I said I'd call someone.

After he was gone I found the spare in an interior pocket of my purse.

I called Brooke, who immediately agreed to come get me and take me out to Reid and Cheryl's, who had plans to take me out for dinner. Then I went over to Publix to wait, and while I was there I called Sean and told him I was mad at him for expecting me to drive a car with failing brakes.

I was also mad at me, for giving into that pressure...because North Augusta is hilly, and I was endangering myself and other drivers by being stubborn.

Oh well. At least I didn't die, right?

So Brooke came and got me and dropped me off at Fatz, where I met up with Cheryl and Reid and ate the sampler platter (ribs, chicken fingers, fried shrimp, and baked apples, and damn it was good) and received a nice birthday gift card for Cato. I also ran into the gentleman who gave us our couch, chair, bedding, and spare computer, and I cheerfully thanked him again and exchanged pleasantries with his wife and mentioned that we had some things they probably wanted back in the bottom of the bedding bag and they said no, that was fine, we could keep it.

I regaled Cheryl and Reid with the story of my brake failure, and Reid said, "Why didn't you call me?!"

I was a little taken aback and managed, "Well, I'm never sure what your schedule is."

"Well, don't worry about that. If it's an emergency, I can leave work. You call me next time."

That's the sort of thing I would have liked to have heard from someone else.

After dinner I went back to Cheryl and Reid's with them and Cheryl served me dessert--homemade pound cake, chocolate sauce, fresh strawberries, and whipped cream. Reid showed me the pictures he'd taken this past weekend at NASCAR in Charlotte, and I played with the dogs. Finally at around 10:30 I called Sean and asked him to come pick me up. Even though Cheryl and Reid both said they would be happy to take me home, I know it's annoying to get home in the evening only to have to go right back out again, and I didn't want to do that to them.

Sean had to stay late at work and arrived at about 11:30. We went home and I almost immediately went to bed.

So yesterday was my day for taking unhappy situations and shoving them aside for the sake of things that needed to be done. I got through work after the poking and prodding and med student embarrassment and weird non-lump, and I got through dinner after driving terrified up and down the hills of North Augusta praying I wouldn't get in a wreck, and I managed to be fairly cheerful.

Go me.

Today Tires Plus called at around 9 a.m. and gave us the bad news. I got up immediately thereafter; I was totally awake. Sean said he was going to talk to his friend Stephen about the matter, but he stayed in bed for several hours first. I pretty much expected that, but the interim was a little stressful for me. I didn't know what was going to happen about my transportation. Toyota of Augusta was supposed to call me about their next shipment of Toyotas and let me know if they were getting a liftback Yaris, but they never did, and it would take 12 weeks to get one special-ordered. I was pretty sure Sean was going to be unhappy with the cost of fixing the brakes and force me to buy a used car.

But when he got up he said nothing about doing that, and instead conferred with Stephen and called Tires Plus and talked with them and conferred with Stephen again and finally decided to do everything but the CV axles, because, as he says, the car isn't shaking like crazy in the higher gears. Which is true, but I'm not sure why he was so confident about it, as I'm pretty sure he hasn't driven my car since we went to Texas six years ago.

(By the way, I've been looking at old pictures lately searching for good ones to have printed to stick on my desk at work, and Sean is much better looking now than he was when we first met. Too bad I can't say the same for myself ;P)

In any event, that's settled. The car will be fixed, and I'll continue to drive it, and hopefully the Yaris liftbacks will begin to roll out in force later this year so special ordering won't be necessary, and hopefully with new brakes the car will be worth a decent amount as a trade-in, and hopefully Sean will agree to adding the power package and remote keyless entry to the Yaris...because really I think that's a safety feature. I like knowing I can get into my car quickly and be sure all the doors are locked as soon as I sit down.

And hopefully nothing else will go wrong on the little Subaru before then.

Other than, you know, its tendency not to start when it gets too hot. Which is apparently just something I have to live with.

Snakes on a Plane: The True Hollywood (okay, Ohio) Story

Associated Press: Pilot finds snake stowaway inside cockpit

"Nothing in any of the manuals ever described anything like this," said the 62-year-old Cross Lanes resident.

But advice given 25 years earlier from his flight instructor sprung to mind: "No matter what happens, fly the plane."

Coles attempted to swat the snake but it fell to the pilot's feet, then darted to the other side of the cockpit.

While maintaining control of the single-engine plane with one hand, Coles grabbed the reptile behind its head with his other.

"There was no way I was letting that thing go," he said. "It coiled all around my arm, and its tail grabbed hold of a lever on the floor and started pulling."

Now we're talking

NASA: Droids on the ISS

[MIT engineering Professor David] Miller's challenge to his undergraduate engineering class back in 1999 was to design a small, roughly spherical robot that could float aboard the ISS and maneuver using compressed CO₂ thrusters. The project, called SPHERES (Synchronized Position Hold Engage Re-orient Experimental Satellite), would serve as a testbed for trying out experimental software to control clusters of satellites. The robotic spheres provide a generic platform consisting of sensors, thrusters, communications and a microprocessor; scientists working on new software ideas can load their software into that platform to see how well those ideas work. It's a quick and relatively cheap way to test new theories on software design.

Possible applications include NASA's return to the Moon (see the Vision for Space Exploration). One way to build a moonship is to assemble it piece by piece in Earth orbit. "Software designed to control small satellites could just as well be used to maneuver the pieces of a spaceship together," says Miller.

Orbiting ship-building docks!!!!!!

Thanks to Mom for the link :)

Notes to self

Go to bed on time if you have a doctor's appointment the next day.

Do not schedule doctor's appointments before work.

Do not have your annual checkup at the endocrinologist, because a med student will assist with the exam. This will not only be embarrassing, but it will take forever. Go to your regular GYN, a fine man who is friendly and professional and does not teach med students.

That wasn't a lump so much as a chunk. Calm down. At worst it is a cyst. You do not have breast cancer.

Chaucer's done it again

I'm a little late on this one, because I have to devote my full attention to the Chaucer posts in order to understand them :>, so I tend to put off reading them. But anyway!

Deedes of Majestee

Armor doth weare KYNG RICHARDE for proteccioun.

Oones as the cronique doth reherce, ther liued a kynge hight Darius who dide gather hys thre counsellors and aske what was the strengest thynge, wyn, womman, or a kyng? And the firste wyse man dide saye that the kynge was the moost of strengthe, for he hadde powir over lyf and deeth. And the seconde dide clayme that wyn was the strengest, for yt doth bynde everi man far moore than ony kynge. And the thridde sage dide saye that that wommen ben the myhtieste, for hir loue hath caused manye kingdomes to rise or to falle - and yet he dide adde that truthe was strenger than alle othir thynges, for in no wise may truthe be overcome. And then KYNG RICHARDE dide slaye alle of them.

KYNG RICHARDE doth nat sleepe; he exerteth his majestee while prone.

KYNG RICHARDE kan yive a summarie of Pieres Plowman yn undir a minute.

Whanne Parlemente dide aske for an accounte of the expenditure of KYNG RICHARDE his housholde, KYNG RICHARDE sente vnto them onlye a peynture of his visage ytwistede yn wrathe. Parlemente dissoluede ytselfe and the Knightes of the Shire dide flee to foreyn londes.

And these aren't necessarily the best ones. Go.

(I wonder if KYNG RICHARDE can do a roundhouse kick?)

Funny, but also kind of sad

Reuters: Would-be Japan robber asks bank how to do it

(Nice headline ;P)

A would-be Japanese bank robber asked staff how he should carry out the crime before meekly obeying a request to leave and then accidentally stabbing himself in the leg with a knife he was carrying.

The 58-year-old unemployed man went into a branch of the Saitama Resona Bank in the town of Kumagaya, north of Tokyo, on Wednesday, intending to rob it, a police spokesman said.

According to local media reports the man first asked a bank teller, "Any idea how you rob a bank?" The teller alerted another member of staff, who asked the man to leave.

"He left quietly when asked to," the police spokesman said.

It's funny to begin with, but then you start to wonder about the guy. He doesn't seem like the type to rob a bank. Is he desperate? What are his circumstances? Does he have a family to support? How long has he been unemployed?