Finding Nemo

Finding Nemo was the most amazing animation I've ever seen, and the story was decent. Going to see it in a theater full of kids while PMSing might not have been the best idea, but it wasn't too bad. I'm just really wanting kids these days.

Anyway. I'm not sure why they had to make Nemo "handicapped" - it didn't add anything to the story.

They previewed The Invincibles - the next Pixar movie, but it doesn't come out for a year and a half. It looked pretty funny though! I just wish Pixar would drop Disney. There was a preview for the next Disney movie, Brother Bear, I wanted to puke! This man turns into a bear thru some mystical experience and then spend the rest of the movie learning how eeevvvviiillllll MAN is while trying to find how to be one again. You'd think PETA wrote the script.

They're remaking Freaky Friday with Jamie Lee Curtis as the mom and it actually looked pretty funny!

When movies are remakes of old films or foreign films, I wish theaters would take at least one weekend and run the original and the remake back to back. I'm sure Hollywood would hate that - since the remake is rarely as good or better than the original, not to mention, they'd also probably rather we didn't know when films are remakes, especially of foreign films. In fact, name me any remakes you think are better!

The man who plays Mr. Bean is going to be in a take off of the Bond movies. I tend to like British humor better than American, so it might be worth a couple of hours to go see!

And the 3rd Spy Kids is going to be in 3D and that just looks way cool!

Rally Pics

American Bike

Biker Chick

9/11 Patch

Pretty Bikes

Snake Bike

Biker "Doll"

Cool

The biker rally last night was amazing! There were at least 40 city blocks of motorcycles parked at least two deep! And there were some stunningly beautiful bikes. I'm working on getting a few photos uploaded but since I'm still on dialup it takes a while. I'm not feeling that patient this morning. I was hoping to sleep late this morning, but Ramen woke me up with his scratching, then my neighbors dogs were outside barking. Oh well. I need to shower and go grab something to eat. I think my goal for today is going to see Finding Nemo. Yes, I know the theater will be full of kids, but that might make it more fun.

I had strange fun dreams last night. Other than going to the biker rally, I watched a few episodes of the third season of Buffy. So my dreams were all about bikes and Buffy. I even kissed Buffy. Needless to say, I wasn't too happy about waking up!

Meltdown

Ok ok. I made fun of the Spurs the other night for choking. But OMG the Mavs lost it last night. It was horrible to watch. I have to give the Spurs credit, what they'd been doing for three quarters wasn't working. So, in the fourth quarter they bring in Steve Kerr and change it all up. The Mavs lost it. They couldn't react. That just sucked!!

As for Amazing Race. All I can say is "I will not make fun of the fat people." I could NOT have done all that walking and climbing in the snow and altitude!! I was so hoping that the couple that was eliminated would have been beaten by the fat couple - that would have been sweet. And as for that silly, silly girl who thinks this adventure is going to lead to the guy asking her to marry him - well, she just needs a good shaking to put her brains back in place!! I'm not usually a big fan of gay boys, but these two Ken dolls might be ok. I'm not crazy about the NFL wives, but oh well.

Tonight I'm hoping to meet up with the biker chicks and go check out all the bikes that are in town for the ROT rally. With any luck I'll take some digital pics AND get MT to upload them :-)

Fun with Math

Simpson's Math. (via The Corner)

Amazing Race 4

Woohoo... Amazing Race 4 starts tonight. I like this show even better than Survivor. Nerdstar and I have done some traveling. About six months after we met, we did a month long road trip thru the east coast - from Austin to Toronto and back. It was a fantastic trip, but it was hard. I'm good with planning and maps and budgeting, but it's just hard mentally and emotionally being on the road. So there is not a chance in hell we'd ever do such an endeavor on national tv!! It wouldn't be pretty!

Go Mavs!!

Obviously I was thrilled with Tuesday night's game. Once again the Spurs choked!! I knew it didn't matter how badly the Mavs sucked in the first half, that if they were within 10 in the beginning of the 4th quarter they'd win the game. Sure enough! (Where's an on spot sports bookie when you need them?) The Mavs came out in the second half having decided to kick some ass, and that's just what they did. Watching them play defense was like watching eight year olds play soccer - but it worked for them!!

Tonight I think Dallas is gonna win because they want it more, they have more to prove.

As for sports bets. I generally find they're not worth it for the small amounts I'd like to bet. Like tonight, if I bet $100 on the Mavs to win, I'd only win $165. Now, a $65 profit isn't a bad thing, I'm just not sure it's worth the risk. Sports are just too unpredictable to put money on. (Oh hush, craps and blackjack are different!) Besides, I'd feel like I was jinxing them or something by betting on them, like it would tie my bad luck to theirs!

Fluff

Ok, so what commercial currently annoys the hell out of you?? I hit the remote every time that stupid Road Runner fast snapping crap comes on. I mean, where the hell did they get this guy and WHY?? There have to be much much cooler ways of showing FAST. I mean, come on, make it funny and do some speal about fast women if you want to see high speed internet!

More on blogging

Sometimes the most disheartening thing about having this blog is reading all the other blogs and how well some of those people write, and can say what I'm thinking so much better than I do. I'm working on that.

In the meantime, Michele posted her thoughts on Kate's post and I agree wholeheartedly with Michele.

Even if the only comment I get from someone is "hi, I read you on a regular basis" I always think it's cool! And for those of you who do that - it always makes my day!

But I also realized this morning there are probably a couple of dozen sites I read regularly that I've never left a comment on. That'll give me something to do this weekend other than watch Buffy dvds and basketball!!

Blogging

I've said that writting this blog sometimes feels like giving a public speech to a bunch of deaf mutes while blindfolded - a complete shot in the dark. If I get 30 hits a day, I figure I know who about five of the readers are (including Nerdstar!) and maybe another ten are regulars and the rest are pretty random. I couldn't tell you anything about the demographics of my readers. The few emails I've gotten from people saying they really like the site are from men. I don't know if my readers are straight, gay, men, women, aliens, and so on. I love checking Site Meter and seeing what domains people are on - lots of .edu and the other day I had someone from Kodak.com and treasury.gov. Pretty cool! The referral log seems pretty spread out as well.

If it were up to me, there'd be ten comments on every entry. Which would lead to discussions and more entries! I'm pretty damn good at talking a lot, but I don't like not getting any feedback. Even with Nerdstar that's one of my biggest struggles - getting her to hold up her end of the convo! I thought this site would be a good way to get to know what others thought of all the stupid stuff in my head, to see if my ideas really are crazy and irrelevant, or if they strike a cord in someone else.

Kate has a decent post about blogging, readers, comments, making friends and trolls. I'm still not sure I agree with all of it. Maybe that's because I've yet to have any trolls - thank God, and I've only got 30 readers a day, who don't tend to email me much of anything. But if I didn't want emails or IM's from complete strangers, I wouldn't have put the info to make that an option on my site!

Site Down

Wow, Hosting Matters had a fire - from what I can understand, the servers haven't been harmed and they're getting things back up and running.

When I went to lunch today I realized I hadn't had time to read any of the
dozens of sites I read everyday. Damn work got in the way of my blog life.
Then late this afternoon, I discovered my site and several others on HM were
down. Not good. When I got home and tried it all again and couldn't access
half the blogs on my blogroll, it was like I'd had half my brain taken out.

I haven't had much to say lately, but that doesn't mean I'm not totally addicted
to writing this site and reading all the others.

Guess I'll save this draft and post it when it's all working again.

Obviously I got into MT and was able to post this. If HM manages to get everything up and running within 24 hours, I'll think that's pretty damn impressive!

Channel Surfing

Every once in a while channel surfing pays off. I ran across On Any Sunday on Turner Classic Movies. It's a 1971 documentary about all different kinds of motorcycle races - from ice races in Canada to desert races in southern Cali to the hill climb of the Widow Maker. It was so fun to watch. No environmental issues, not any significant safety concerns, just a lot of crazy men and women on two wheels trying to go fast and have fun.

You can order it on video here, you know, if you hate summer reruns as much as I do!

Cool Dictionary

This fashionable dictionary seems pretty accurate to me.

Bleh

My brain isn't adjusting to the fact that today is Tuesday and not Monday. But already the weekend is fading into oblivion, which is nice, because it was a pretty unremarkable weekend.

The highlight, though, was meeting up with one of my readers for lunch yesterday. Especially after spending all day Saturday and Sunday not talking to anyone other than the pets, it was nice to have a decent conversation!

My poor Mom called Sunday - I wasn't really in the mood to talk with her. I tried faking it. She said, "I wish you were happier." Me too, me too!

Saturday

I really hate having to give entries titles, I'm just not very good at it.

Thanks for the suggestion Andrew. What I did was to uninstall it all, and then went to Kodak.com and downloaded the software from there. Not only did it work, it seems I've got even more options now.

Well, the Mavs sucked last night. Thankfully, they don't score so few points very often.

It was weird waking up today and knowing that unless I stike up a conversation with a stranger (provided I leave the house to make that possible), I just might not talk to anyone until I meet up for lunch on Monday.

I've lived alone before, and been lonely before. But this time seems to be very different. In the past I had friends but no lover - and that brings a certain type of loneliness. Now I've got a lover who's out of town, and not really any friends. It's a different kind of loneliness. Hard to explain. I mean, how many people honestly don't have any friends they can call up and hang out with?

I'm working on making new friends. It always just seems harder than it should. It was nice last night hanging out with the biker chicks. We had a nice little ride and went to a place called The Pier that's on the river that runs thru Austin that we call Town Lake. The town part is true, but not the lake. I must say, Austin is a beautiful city to ride a motorcyle thru.

Nerdstar went to Vancouver for the weekend with a couple of other women in her unit up there. They're kind of annoying, but it's better than spending the weekend in the barracks alone. One funny thing is that they keep talking about men and sex and trying to get Ching in on it all. She doesn't want to outright tell them she's gay - it being the Army and all. I just can't imagine that they're so dense they don't figure it out.

Well, I'm off to the store for some dog food to make the dog happy.

Sucky day at work

For a Friday, it's been a pretty icky day at work. "Bite my ass you stupid fuck" is pretty much all I've wanted to say to anyone I've had to talk to today. And with the phones ringing off the hook, that's a lot of people.

Damn shame I'm not really a drinker.

Oh well, in five minutes I'm outta here. I have plans to meet up with the biker chicks this evening. Then there's game 3 of Mavs v Spurs. I can stay up as late as I want tonight.

The rest of the weekend is just putzing about. Nice.

PC Help

I hate our computer so very much! I'll never buy another pc, my next computer will definitely be a Mac.

In the meantime, I have a Kodak Easyshare digital camera. A couple of days ago I started getting this error upon startup:

EASYSHARE caused an invalid page fault in
module MEDIAENGINE.DLL at 0177:00528912.
Registers:
EAX=00000000 CS=0177 EIP=00528912 EFLGS=00010246
EBX=00ab4550 SS=017f ESP=02e2f8cc EBP=02e2fc04
ECX=00a10610 DS=017f ESI=00ab4680 FS=3ff7
EDX=00000000 ES=017f EDI=009b1804 GS=0000
Bytes at CS:EIP:
8b 02 85 c0 74 21 50 56 e8 21 00 00 00 83 c4 08
Stack dump:
00ab4680 00528b7a 00ab4680 009b1efc 00532236 00ab4680 02e2f988 00aa8b50 02e2fcc8 009b10d4 00000000 000000a8 00ab46f0 0000032b 00ab4680 00528640

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the software - didn't help.

Any suggestions??

Big D basketball

The Mavs/Spurs game last night was completely rediculous! That's two games in a row in the conference finals that were too weird. The good thing is, I think that favors Dallas and the game tomorrow night in Dallas will be a complete blowout for the Big D.

The best thing about the game last night was that Dallas never gave up. They didn't let their coach being tossed, several assinine technicals, an almost 30 point deficit, another coach being tossed affect them mentally. They came back to within six in the fourth quarter. I don't know of another team who could or would do the same.

Wednesday Fun

If your Wednesday was as boring as mine, Michele has a few jokes that will cheer you up!

Now I'm outta here to go watch Mavs v Spurs game 2!!

Cool Finds

I found this weirdly sick comic strip Rehabilitating Mr. Wiggles site over at this equally sick (in a good way) site, which I found thru my site meter logs. God I love this web!

More Buffy

Eric was kind enough to send me this link to some Alyson Hannigan photos. Very yummy... now I just need some like this of Faith.

This article from the same website tells "Where Do We Go From Here" for the Buffy cast.

Bye Buffy

Buffy - wow. Brilliant. I was afraid Joss would actually let everyone die. You never know with him. Brilliant.

Magical Thinking

This is the summary of a fantastic essay:

We find ourselves living in a time when people grow increasingly unwilling or unable to determine fact from assertion. In a society ruled by the people, this is a fatal condition. Where magical claims go unchallenged, where feeling good about something is the measure of its truth, public policy plummets into the same disconnect from reality that has doomed entire civilizations.

If someone chooses to run their lives through the horoscope printed next to the comics, that is their business. They certainly have the freedom to do so. But when magical ideologies are put forward as political positions of equal weight and value, as a chart to sail the ship of state, when assertion carries the same weight as proof, we will surely lose our way. And then we will have nothing left to save us but all the luck we can wring from whatever leprechauns we can get our hands on.

It's a little long, but a must read!

Blogrolling

I finally upgraded to Blogrolling the other day. I like that it shows when things are new on sites, although I'm still not sure the best length of time for that to be. I have it set at six hours now - which works for some sites but not others. Then again, we all know the posting schedule of folks like Instapundit, Lileks and Sullivan.

And while Acidman is cleaning out his blogroll, I'm still finding new sites for mine.

I'm happy to say my two new entries are both feisty women! Check out Susanna on Cut on the Bias and Kate on Electric Venom.

Go Mavs!

Oh my - what a game!! I can't believe there were over 70 fouls called. That's almost two for every minute of game time. Rediculous!! But - since the Mavs only missed ONE free throw the entire game - that was their saving factor. Amazing free throw shooting! The Spurs have to be completely embarrassed today - blowing a 18 point lead and missing their free throws.

About the refs. I was watching the Eastern Conference game over the weekend (damn was it boring). The ref was B. Sanatore, the same as last night. And he fucked up the other game as well. I understand being in control and "calling a tight game" to keep things in hand. But he's gone overboard, especially since it's the conference finals.

Two stats I like alot from last night: The Mavs only had the lead for 67 seconds of the game, but got the win. The other is that for the past 18 conference finals, the team who wins game 1 wins the series!! Woohoo!!

Poll

Michele over at A Small Victory is doing an informal poll about male vs female blogs about news/plolitics and such. Go give her your two cents worth!

Here are my answers:

Do men make better political/war bloggers than women? Not at all.

Do you prefer blogs by males, females or you don't care? Nobody writes better than Lileks. And Mr. Sullivan is a great thinker. So while I prefer women's blogs, there aren't too many out there that are high caliber.

Do you find that males and females write differently about the same subjects? Fortunately yes. Not better or worse, but different.

Do you have double standards? That is, do you think it's okay when a man makes sexual innuendos and curses in his posts but you are turned off by a female blogger who does the same? I'm hard to offend. If a woman wrote with the same style as Acidman, I'd laugh just as hard as when I read him.

Do you find that males or females tend to be more opinionated in their writing? All bloggers are opinionated, that's why they have a blog.

Do you find there is a lack of quality female bloggers who write about politics, current news and world events? Yes - but I'm finding more all the time.

Do you find you enjoy male or female blogs in general (on any subject) more than the other? Female

Who is your favorite read for political/war/news commentary for male and female bloggers? Andrew Sullivan and you.

Wrong Impression

In six and a half weeks I get to go see my girl. I'm going to fly up for the July 4th weekend. She hasn't even been gone two of the at least twelve weeks and I'm very ready for her to be home. I had a terrible time sleeping again last night. Tonight it's Tylenol PM all the way.

One funny thing from hanging out with the motorcycle ladies yesterday. We rode about 45 minutes out to this little town for a late breakfast. Then we came back to Austin and hit a couple of biker bars (tame ones I think). The second one was right by the lake, very nice. While sitting there I noticed I was the only one not drinking beer. The only reason I don't drink is because I don't like the taste. But none of them knew that, so I figured they were thinking I'm a recovering alcoholic or something. That's usually the only reason a lesbian isn't drinking. It struck me as funny.

Weekend

Whew. I hadn't realized how hazy and overcast it had been until we had two days of pure, unrelenting sunshine! Instead of being one of those people who head south for the winter, I want to be one who heads north for the summer!!

It was a good weekend. Yesterday I got up and took Ramen to the park before it got too hot. I don't even have to put him on his leash to get him to and from the car, that's cool. He just runs around with the other dogs and plays in the creek. Even just being out there about an hour I got a sunburn, though. I've got a nice farmers tan from motorcycle riding, so I decided to wear a tank top and try to even it out some. Solarcane's aloe vera gel is very, very nice. I picked up some Rudy's bbq on the way home - yummy! Then it was a quiet afternoon of tv and Buffy dvds. Then, as the previous posts says, the Mavs beat the Kings! It'll be interesting watching them play San Antonio - they both have completely different styles of play.

Today was fun. Last week I did a google search for women motorcycle riders in Austin and found a group. A few of them did a ride today, so I tagged along. It was so nice to ride with other women. I felt safer. It was also nice to not have to think about where I was going, but to just relax and follow along. They were all lesbians, too, so that made it even better.

Remember how I've written that I don't feel my outside matches my inside? Well, one of the women riding today was also named Beth - and she looks like I think I look :-) She's about 5'9", long red curly hair, and the bluest eyes. Maybe if I get to know her I'll tell her. I didn't want to sound too weird meeting these ladies for the first time.

Sometimes I worry that if I go out and meet new people while Nerdstar is gone, I'll meet someone who just blows me away. But what I found today is that meeting new people just makes me miss her more. She's my one and only Nerdstar, and she's pretty damn irreplaceable.

Hope your weekend was just as fun!

Woohoo

MAVS WIN!!! I'm so excited it comes down to Dallas and San Antonio! No more of those arrogant fuck Cali teams!!

Detached

In 41 minutes my weekend starts! This week has felt unbelievably long, but thankfully not stressful. I don't have any great plans for the weekend. I've got a few errands to run, take Ramen to the park, do some motorcycle riding, read a book or two. I picked up Cerulean Sins by Laurell K. Hamilton and Good Omens by Neil Gaiman the other day. Good Omens is in the tradition of Hitchhiker's Guide. It looked like a fun read. And L.K. Hamilton's work is a nice cross between Buffy and Anne Rice's vampire series. Except probably a little kinkier than both.

When I lived alone, I would sometimes find it exhilerating to be out and around town and know that nobody knew where I was. When I lived in Waco a friend and I would often spend the day wandering along a creek, seeing where it went. Every once in a while I'd take an afternoon and do this on my own. Naturally this was the time I was down in a deep creek bed and a piece of glass went thru my shoe into my foot. I knew to get out of the water so the bleeding had a better chance of stopping. And I didn't panic until I was trying to get back up the side of the creek and pulled a rock bigger than my head down on my head and then arm. I still have a two inch scar on my forearm. At that point I practically ran up the side of the creek bank. I walked about a mile to a little gas station and asked for a phone. Even though I was muddy and bloody they weren't exactly helpful.

Anyway. I found myself with that same feeling of being unfindable and detached last weekend. I'm not quite as naive and fearless as I used to be. But it's still a cool feeling. I guess it's also that idea that technically I don't have to be anywhere until 7:30 Monday morning, and I am free as a bird to do whatever I want until then. Not that that isn't true when Nerdstar is in town. It's just different being alone.

New Twist on Old Game

For those who can't leave well enough alone. Rock Paper Scissors has been updated. Found over on BoingBoing - which if you're not reading on a regular basis, you're missing out on the coolest stuff on the web.

TV

Naps are wonderful things! I came home from work today, did not pass go, did not collect $200, but went straight to bed and went to sleep. You'd think with Nerdstar being gone and all I'd get a lot more sleep due to a lack of better things to do. Instead, I'm not sleeping well at night and have been exhausted the past couple of days.

Ok, did the West Wing episode last night strike anyone else as stupid? I pretty much stopped watching it after 9/11 because it just couldn't keep up with reality. Then this season I started watching Angel instead. But, the network kept hyping these last couple of episodes, Angel is over, so I tuned in. Now, I kinda understand the whole father vs president thing. But I think that was a pussy response to step down. I kept trying to imagine if the Bush twins were kidnapped or something - somehow I don't see him handing control of the county to the Dems because he doesn't have the balls to make hard decisions. Anyway. Did it really have to be John Goodman?? Did the republican really have to be a big fit guy?? (Not that wimpass Matthew Perry as a republican was any better.) It's hard to say if next season will be better or worse without Sorkin. Too bad they won't bring in some fantastic republican writers and go that direction. With the surge of Fox news and all, you'd think they'd try it just for ratings sake.

Well, I'm off to watch more basketball - go Mavs! go Spurs! And the season finally of ER. I've watched ER from day one, it's just not the show it used to be.

Lunar Eclipse

How cool. There's a lunar ecplipse tonight. If I go home and take a nap right after work today, I can stay up and see the lunar eclipse AND the Mavs beat the Kings!

That's me

I just couldn't resist this quiz, seeing how the final episode is coming up and all.

You are

Hehehehe

Some exerpts from a new comic I ran across today at Garrulous.org:

One
Two
Three
Four
Five

You get the picture!

Matrix, Movies and Religion

There are several posts on different websites today about The Matrix and The Matrix Reloaded. I don't think reading these will affect your enjoyment of watching Reloaded, but if you don't want to take any chances, bookmark them for later. I like this first one for it's depth. It's long so go read the whole thing.

THE UNREAL THING
by ADAM GOPNIK
What’s wrong with the Matrix?

And there, in retrospect, might lie the secret of the first “Matrix”: beyond the balletic violence, beyond the cool stunts, the idea that the world we live in isn’t real is one that speaks right now to a general condition. For the curious thing about the movie was that everybody could grasp the basic setup instantly. Whether it occurs in cult science fiction or academic philosophy, we seem to be fascinated by the possibility that our world might not exist. We’re not strangers to the feeling that, for much of our lives, we might just as well be brains-in-vats, floating in an amniotic fluid of simulations. It doesn’t just strike us as plausibly weird. It strikes us as weirdly plausible.

Sgt. Stryker has this take on the whole thing. He says the machines are actually kinder to humans than Neo and gang. Can't say I disagree with his logic.

Glenn Reynolds has his take on the effect of pop culture on religion.

Does science fiction compete with religion as a source of moral guidance in the public sphere? The answer, I think, would have to be "yes." There may be numerous reasons for that. One is, as Isaac Asimov once put it, that "it is the chief characteristic of the religion of science, that it works." Both religion and science have been promising a better future for centuries now. Science, however, has delivered on its promises in a way that's hard to miss, while religion promises its benefits in a hereafter from which no one returns. That is bound to make science fiction - which promises a better, or at least more glamorous, science-based future - a plausible competitor for religion.

Flashback

I'm listening to the Scorpions Lovedrive this morning. It's amazing to me that although I've listened to this album (it was an album way before I ever got it on cd) maybe once in the almost twenty years since high school, every note, guitar riff, vocal, is still fresh in my memory. AC/DC Back in Black in next. Now that one will take me all the way back to middle school and these two drug dealing brothers I hung out with for about three summers. My daytime friends and nighttime friends were two very different sets of people in middle and high school.

Iran and Iraq Blogs

This post is a great starter place for info on blogs written by Iraqis and Iranians.

Today, with contributions of computers and connectivity and some how-tos, Internet cafes can spring up in every major city and at every university. With the cafes will come weblogging. And with the weblogging will come freedom of expression.

They will demonstrate the power of freedom and democracy.

There are several links to Iraqi and Iranian blogs - great stuff!!

Irony

Remember all that duct tape people bought back in the days of terror scares. Seems at least someone is getting some use out of it.

Police said it seems like there's been an increase in the use of duct tape in violent crimes recently.

"Duct tape in the wrong hands is a dangerous weapon," he said, "but so is a hand egg-beater."

Ruler of Heck

Hey! This could be me! Dilbert from 5/13.

Family - things left unsaid

Both Party Girl and CubicleGirl wrote about their families and Mother's day.

CubicleGirl's led me to leaving these comments on her site:

In every family I'm sure there are a million things that go unsaid. Every once in a while, usually after going to see my parents, I imagine what it will be like after they die - all the things I'll wish I'd said or done. And I try to imagine a way to do them before that time comes. But I find that we're all just too damn locked into the "way things are". I guess fortunately, there were times in college that I wrote my parents some letters of thanks and regrests, so it's not all unsaid. But as the saying goes, some things really are better left unsaid.

When it comes to family in particular, is that true? Are some things better left unsaid?

On the way to work this morning I was thinking about this blog and my parents. I can't imagine a time they'll start using the internet and then actually find this site. But what if they did? Would my mother understand when I complain that she talks incessantly? Things like that. I guess I'd just have to tell her she's lucky blogs weren't around when I was in high school or she'd be reading a hell of a lot worse than that!!

Part of it all just may be that family is permanent (at least more so than any of our other relationships usually are).

What do you think?

Salam Pax

I am well aware that I am late to Salam Pax's blog from Iraq. What can I say? I can be slow sometimes. I don't like doing anything just because there is a hype about it - whether is seeing a movie, reading a book, or reading a blog. Sometimes I cave in later and realize I should have listened the first hundred times I heard such and such was good. But, better late than never I guess.

So, if you're slow like me, go read it, it really is fascinating.

Bored and Boring Again

Feeling fairly detached from the world I guess. While I'm aware there are plenty of events out there I could comment on, The NYTimes, Saudi Arabia, and so forth, I'm just not interested in them. The news bores me to tears these days. It's all either shout fests or fake debate or sound bites that never give any real information, or political ads disguised as news. Even with blogs I don't find the in-depth stuff I want. Maybe I'm not looking hard enough.

Last night was kitchen cleaning, making pancakes, walking the dog, and in bed by 10.

Tonight is Buffy, Mavs vs Kings and Spurs vs Lakers. Might have to take a nap when I get home so I can stay up for the Spurs game.

That's it folks. Nothing really to read here. Try the links over there, they're way more interesting than I am these days!

Life With Pets Again

How pathetic am I that I'm kinda glad to be at work today because it gives me something to do and helps me not to think so much. My brain is always trying to kill me.

Our pets are crazy. Little Man (cat) has been bringing in six inch worms and playing with them until they die. Then he sometimes put them, along with other dead bugs and cotton balls and such, in his food bowl. No wonder Silly (cat) is so skinny, she doesn't want to be eating food out of a bowl with all that crap in it!

Last night I was on the computer and I hear Silly meowing. I asked her, "what?" and she just kept on so I went to check it out. There was a live worm moving along the living room floor and apparently she didn't like it there. So I threw it outside and reminded her that she's the cat and should handle these things herself. I'm sure her reply was - "that's why I've got you!"

It's raining this morning, which means poor Ramen (dog) is probably curled up in the corner somewhere. Little Man likes to play in the rain. I leave the bedroom window open for the cats to come in and out. Which means he gets all wet and then comes in and lays his wet little fur on my furniture!

For about a week now Little Man has taken to opening the cabinet door under the bathroom sink and sleeping under there all day. From the day we moved in he liked to open all the cabinet doors and check things out, guess he finally figured out which space was most cozy.

At least with Nerdstar gone things aren't totally boring at home!

1 a.m.

What a game! Double overtime and the Mavs pulled it off. There is no way they should have won that game. Way cool!

It's closing in on 1 a.m. and there's a program about six women motorcycle riders and this long ass road trip they did. Makes me want to fire up my motorcylce in the middle of the night and go riding. Riding at night is so different than riding during the day. It's just been too windy and humid to ride this week, and there's always been the chance of rain. Hopefully the weather will be nice enough pretty soon that I can take it out for a weekend.

Nerdstar has only been gone a few days, but it feels like so much longer. The mental state I had during my seven or eight years of living alone and not really dating is creeping back into my head. I'm not sure that's a good thing really. I get morose and depressed and entirely too introspective.

Yawn. Guess I should shower, brush my teeth and give sleeping a try.

Saturday

I got a lot done today. I'm trying to space things out so that I don't suddenly find myself bored, lonely, and with nothing to do. I got my camaro towed to the duplex with only a minor dent. (Don't ask, I was a dumbass!) It's weird to have it out where I can see it again. I went to Pep Boys and got a cover for it and saw several hot rod magazines. There's a chance I'd sell it if I could find another woman who would love it like I do and restore it, or baring that, even a cool guy. I really wish I knew how to do more of the work myself. I can take things apart just fine, I just wouldn't be able to get them back together right.

Oh well.

I thought our vacuum cleaner was broken again only to take it to the repair shop and find it was just completely clogged up with pet fur. Embarrassing. When I got it home and used it just on the living room and dining area and I had stop twice and empty it out again. I swear, I emptied out enough pet fur to create another cat or small dog. Not pretty.

I also managed to do laundry today.

Nerdstar is getting settled in up at Ft. Lewis. She's in a barracks room with two other women for this week, then they relocate next week, not sure what her situation will be then. Unfortunately, she still doesn't have internet access. She also had to get a different cell phone because AT&T had lousy coverage up there.

One cool thing is that a friend of hers from college lives in Seattle and they got to hang out today.

Tonight it's Ranger's baseball and Mavericks basketball for me. Raphael Palmero is going for homerun 500 tonight. His wife predicted back in spring training he'd get it today - for her sake I hope he does. I hope the Mavs come out and beat the hell out of Sacramento again tonight, although I'm not sure that's likely. How happy I'll be when the Mavs and Spurs take out the Kings and Lakers!!

p.s. Howdy to whoever is reading this from UT.

Post Exchange

I'm glad to see that Michele and the folks over at Command Post are going to try to get some dialogue going.
Post Exchange will serve to facilitate commentary and discussion from both sides of a current issue. The participants, as well as the issue, will change from week to week. Each writer will have two shots at the topic, in a point-counterpoint fashion. After the four posts are made to the Exchange, we will open up the comment section to the public for further discussion on the issue.

Back on April 16, I wrote:
Which brings me to the whole concept of blogging and communication and idea exchanges. There rarely seems to be any true discourse. People either stick with sites they agree with all the content on. Or, they go visit sites they completely disagree with, but instead of tyring to make valid arguments and bring up alternate views, it usually decays into name calling and such.
What ever happened to the true art of debate? Every once in a while I'll leave the channel on Crossfire or some such shoutfest and wonder why they can't make the program longer and more orderly and actually have a civilized debate. I know, no one would watch such a thing. So isn't that where blogs can take up the slack? There's been talk of group blogs, wouldn't it be fantastic if there really could be an ongoing debate of ideas between different ideologies - gay/straight, liberal/conservative and such on given blogs? I have seen a few efforts by the writers at National Review and the New Republic do something like this, but not very frequently or anything.

I think the more of this kind of thing that goes on in the blogging community, the better!

Storms

It's 10 pm, do you know where your children are? How many of you remember those public service announcements? Just one of those phrases that has permanently lodged itself in my brain.

It's been a long day, and I should be in bed at least trying to sleep. But it's hard to go to bed when my snuggle bunny isn't there - and won't be for quite some time.

Other than making it thru work today, my biggest achievement was going to the grocery store. It's been three or four weeks since we went to the grocery store I think. And, I walked the dog. Very exciting stuff. If I'm not careful this will be a bore blog without any effort at all.

Man, I can't believe all the tornadoes the past two weeks. What the hell? I was in two tornadoes when I was little. One when I was probably four or five hit pretty close to our house one night. My parents were kinda watching it all thru my bedroom window. I remember our neighbors across the street had a metal storage building that ended up in our back yard. Then, when I was in 5th grade there was one during the school day. All the kids were tucked under their desks and the teachers were watching out the few windows our school had. I think that because my family and I suffered no real damage during those two storms I'm not afraid of them.

The scariest storm I've ever been close to was the one F5 that hit Jarrell, Texas a few years back. That's about thirty miles from where I lived. It was about four pm and I was driving home, the sky turned green, then kinda black. I had my headlights on and couldn't see a damn thing in front of me in my little camaro. I white knuckled it home and it all finally passed.

I can't imagine having my house burned to the ground, but I think it would be even weirder to have it simply blown completely away by a storm.

Well, I'm off to watch a little more of the Mavs/Kings game - thank god the Mavs are kicking ass tonight! And for the record, I hate Bill Walton almost as much as I hate the Lakers.

Sad

Today feels a little like the quiet after the storm. After the insanity of the past three days, I'm back at work and trying to stay busy enough not to think too much!

Last night Nerdstar's grandparents and aunt came for dinner and to take her car back to Houston. It wasn't as hellish as I expected. I know they worry about her and it helped them to see her off. We had thought I would take her to the airport this morning for a 6 am flight, but instead she had to meet up with the other people being deployed at 3:30 this morning. UGH.

It felt so weird driving back from dropping her off this morning. Even though I know for the next three months she'll be stateside and safe and we'll be able to call and all, it felt weird. So I cannot even begin to imagine how hard it must be to say goodbye to loved ones who are being sent overseas where it's so much more dangerous. It really does take amazing people to be in our military and to be their family members. The whole part of not knowing exactly when you'll see them again is the hardest.

There's also a disconnect watching the news of all the soldiers coming home - which is great, and knowing my girl's turn is just starting.

Update

Less than 24 hours from now she'll be gone. I woke up this morning all sad and wished that time would just stop and she wouldn't have to go. I'll feel that even more strongly when the alarm goes off in the morning and I have to take her to the airport for a 6 am flight. Thankfully when I go in to work tomorrow there will be plenty to keep me busy so I don't sit and wallow in sadness all day.

Yesterday, she was up at the base from 8 am to 9 pm. Paperwork. But her life is pretty much in order now. That's a good thing. I've got access to all her money - that's all that really matters :-) Actually, the one bright spot in her being deployed is that we'll save a lot of money while she's gone. Probably close to $1500 a month will go into the savings. If she's gone long enough, that might just be a downpayment on a house. We'll see.

Part of her crazy family is coming up for dinner tonight and taking her car back to Houston. I'm holding out a little hope she can talk them out of it, but if not, oh well. It would just be nice to have a car with air condititioning this summer.

It's always been hard for me, dealing with her family. Her grandparents are 85 and 86 year old Chinese people who have lived a life I can't imagine. I don't really expect them to understand our relationship. Her sister, who I still haven't met, has not liked me from day one. I kinda pissed her off in an instant message four years ago, and she's still a bitch. Her aunts and uncles are just typical (as far as I can tell) Chinese people who are all about hard work and family and not trusting strangers. I asked Nerdstar if they would be treating her sister's fiance the same way, and yes, they would. So, it's not personal really. It's just hard on me because my family isn't like that at all. If I were the one leaving they'd do everything they could to take care of Nerdstar.

Oh well. Family. What can you do about them?

We finally finished cleaning everything out of our old apartment. Yes, paying rent on two places is done! UGH. Saturday I just have to get my 69 Camaro towed over here and turn in the keys and remotes at the old place.

My Camaro hasn't been running for almost two years now, but I can't seem to bring myself to sell it. That's one of those decisions I'll have to make in the next few months.

I think the pets know something's up and are sad. The dog has taken to sleeping under the desk where the cats usually hide out.

Adjusting

My brain is still trying to adjust to the idea of her being gone for three months