They say it's your birthday.

It's my birthday too, yeah! And thus, another year passes into history and pushes another year further back into the memory banks.

But I love birthdays and this one was no exception. I had a great dinner out with family and friends, followed by a killer all-chocolate cake and a bunch of fantastic presents. There's nothing better than presents, especially ones you aren't expecting. Usually I drive my family nuts by guessing what things are before I open them, but this year they were ready for me and it was a lot more fun all around. And how many of you have one of these, huh?

In other news, because we got back so late from San Francisco last night, there was no time to watch Amazing Race until tonight. It was another great episode and the numbers are in for this week's Official One Ping Only AR6 "Baby" Count™. (Brace yourselves.)

One Ping Only AR6 "Baby" Count: Episode 2 = 21

The contestants must have been a bit tired after the first leg when they babied themselves out, because the tally was quite a bit lower than last episode. On an up note, however, "honey" was a strong mover this time out and I think it may make a good showing next episode.

Other lessons learned this week: 1. "Senior discount" is a universal concept; 2. People who can't drive a standard car are pussies (and losers); and 3. Mirna and Charla were nothing -- this is the season where poor Phil is going to be assaulted regularly at the pit stops.

All I Want for Christmas...

...is a 2005 Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren. This particular beauty is on display right now at the San Francisco International Auto Show. A good part of today was spent there with a couple of friends, and this was the car that captured my imagination -- my "If I ever win the lottery, I'm so going car shopping" imagination -- the most.

Oh, sure, the purple Mini Cooper was the one I got to play in and could actually see myself driving in this lifetime, but the McLaren Mercedes has Formula One in its bloodlines and that fired me up. Who needs a (compratively) cheap-ass Maybach that, in my opinion, is more foofy than fine? I mean, a refrigerator compartment? Please.

Want all the car-geek details? Go here, 'cause all I know is that it's a $450,000 ride straight from heaven.

"National Treasure"

None of the reviews I've seen for "National Treasure" have seemed very positive, but I really enjoyed it. The local paper's headline for their review was "Maybe this 'Treasure' should have stayed hidden," but I have to disagree. I didn't read the whole review because I didn't want to be influenced ahead of time, and I didn't care afterward.

This is just my kind of movie. I like it when there are clues to be figured out and followed, even when doing so requires an enormous brain with all sorts of knowledge your average person wouldn't possess. But that's the point, isn't it really? They're not supposed to be "average" people.

I'm not a huge Nicholas Cage fan or anything, but I think he usually does a good job in the movies of his that I've seen, and he was just right for this part. He brought a quirkiness to it that, if it were lacking here, might have made this a long, dull movie.

Two other good points were his cohorts, played by Diane Kruger and Justin Bartha. I don't recall seeing either of them before, but they all played off of each other quite well. Will it win awards? No. But I found it to be a good, entertaining flick that kept me interested to the end.

But, oh, tomorrow! Tomorrow is the day of days for me. Barring unforeseen circumstance, tomorrow I'll be going, at last, to see The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie! It's going to be the best day ever, I just know it.

Friday's Child drops the ball...again.

Another lame Friday for you, the reader. Sorry. It was another movie night and now it's quite late and I've got nothing. But if you drop by sometime tomorrow night, I'll have a few things to say about the movie, "National Treasure."

Otherwise, have a nice weekend and I'll catch you next week.

Oh, and since Norman won't be around for a while, I think we'll have some gratuitous cat blogging really soon. But in the meantime, here are what Christina at Inner Bitch called "many, many pictures of lethally cute kittens." Truer words were never spoken.

I'm ready, I'm ready!

I don't usually talk about highly personal things here. Oh, sure, I'll mention my family and some of the things I do, apart from work. But, you know, there are areas of my life I'm just not willing to put out there for the whole world to read about. (As if the whole world were actually visiting, but you get the point.)

I happen to think that getting glimpses of a blogger, their life and their personality, through their writing is more interesting than having a whole life story laid out for me or encapsulated in a little bio. Feeling that way, it's the approach I find myself taking.

But today, there is something on the horizon in my life that I am so excited about, something so anticipated, that I feel like I just have to let loose and share, share, share, even though it's a fairly revealing view of the person I am.

No, it's not that my birthday is a week away, even though birthdays are a big deal in my family. No, it's not that I've got six consecutive days off from work next week, though that is pretty thrilling to me. It's not even that I am so close to a huge milestone in my career with my current employer that I can almost taste it (more about that at another time).

Okay, so here it is. Tomorrow is a seminal moment in the lives of fans like me everywhere -- Friday is the opening day of The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie! I am, unabashedly, a huge SpongeBob fan and I can't wait to get out there and see a full-length movie starring my favorite characters. I'm a little less sure of how David Hasselhoff fits into it, but I'm willing to trust that it will work.

If you don't know who or what I'm talking about, either click here and learn, or leave and never return. We don't want your kind here. And if you know exactly what I'm talking about and are scoffing, I don't care; you just don't know. Open up your heart and let that little bit of child back out past your cynical soul.

Well, I don't know about you, but I feel better after letting go of holding all that in. Excitement like this is always better when you share it. I hope those of you who are closet fans will step out into the light and join me in celebrating this day...and in line waiting for tickets.

The Great Smokeout '04

Normally, this article might not have caught my eye, but two things set it apart. Earlier today I read a post by Angie and an article she linked to that involved smoking, and, being strongly anti-smoking, I responded to it.

Then tonight I came across that first article and I had to link to it out of nostalgia. The dear, dear Poughkeepsie Journal. Or, as we used to call it, the Poughkeepsie Urinal.

Yes, I used to live in the Hudson Valley and The Journal was the only local paper of any size in the Poughkeepsie area. (For those of you who are wondering, it's "Puh-kip-see," not "Pogue-keep-see," and it is an Algonquin word meaning approximately "a little reed lodge by a water place." It's on the Hudson River.)

I grew up outside Po-town proper (thankfully); I lived in a charming little nearby burg called Hopewell Junction. (Raise your hand if an immediate vision of "Petticoat Junction" sprang to mind. Trust me, it wasn't like that.) It is also known as East Fishkill and is very much an IBM town. As a matter of fact, I'm the only one in my immediate family, and the older generation of my extended family, who didn't work for IBM.

One of those people was my dad, who was a technical writer for them. He was also a heavy smoker who, while now deceased, amazingly did not die of lung cancer. I think if a heart attack hadn't killed him at age 52, lung cancer probably would have been his fate. The thing is, we grew up with him smoking and, while it wasn't something that we were exactly crazy about, in those days it wasn't "a big deal." There just wasn't the level of awareness that there is now.

I was amazed to discover, after his death, how much my sense of smell had been diminished by growing up around a smoker. I had absolutely no idea how much the smoke had permeated our lives until the source of it was gone. I'm sure I walked around for two decades smelling like a used ashtray and never realized it. Maybe that's why I'm so intolerant of smoke and smoking now.

But I feel an unwavering certainty that, if my dad had been aware of the effect at the time, he would have tried to quit. For us. Because I think that the vast majority of parents would rather suffer themselves than hurt their child in any way.

So, if you're a smoker and you've read this far, I would encourage you to try (again, most likely) to quit. Do it for the people you love and the people who love you. We'll all thank you for it.

Baby, you can drive my (diesel) car

Oh, the game most definitely is afoot. I'm not even going to attempt an AR6 recap -- go to TVgasm for that because they do the best ones around and you'll laugh your ass off. But there are a few things I'd like to add to the fray.

Introducing the Official One Ping Only AR6 "Baby" Count™. Yes, folks, we're your best and first source for keeping track of how many times the contestants utter, scream, cry out, cajole, cheer, whine, or simply say "baby" (or "babe") during the course of each episode. I thought the show might have reached its height of "babydom" last season, between Colin and Christie and Brandon and Nicole. But they're getting a run for their money this time around, and it was a challenge to keep an accurate count during the ice climb. So, without further ado, here we have it.

One Ping Only AR6 "Baby" Count: Episode 1 = 44

Whew. I don't know about you, but it took my breath away.

A few other things: 1. My two favorite lines from this episode were "I'd rather put that ice in a martini," (Don) and "I'm so cold my implants are frozen!" (Lori); 2. I was sorry to see Avi and Joe go so soon because I was intrigued by Joe's vow to stay kosher on the Race, which could have made for some interesting food challenges; and 3. I cannot believe that yet again there was a diesel disaster. They really should make sure they put the word "DIESEL" in a far more conspicuous place than right inside the gas tank cover, shouldn't they?

It's Amazing! (The Race, not the post.)

Look how early it is (Rita)! I want to have time to get in a few (dozen) rounds of whatever game sounds good tonight on AOL, then get to bed early so I can be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for work tomorrow. (Yeah, right.)

So let's keep it sweet and simple, shall we? ('Cause we're fresh out of pathetic today.)

Tuesday night is the two-hour premiere of The Amazing Race 6, which, as I've already mentioned, I'm looking forward to very much. If you're one of those people who "doesn't watch reality TV" or have just never seen it because it was on opposite something else you watched in past seasons, this is your chance to give it a whirl. It's not like any of the typical reality shows out there. For crying out loud, the show has won two Emmy Awards! (Okay, so has Everybody Loves Raymond, but still.)

Making it sweeter still, for me, is the chance to take part in TVgasm's Amazing Race Challenge. It prompted me to check out all the teams ahead of time, something I don't normally do. (I like to be surprised.) So here's my take on some of the teams.

The team I think I am going to like least: Jonathan and Victoria, married "entrepreneurs" who plan to tell the other teams they're not married. (Their best quote: "In our minds, we're super heroes!")

The team I think I am going to like best: Gus and Hera, who are a father/daughter team. (I think they're feisty but kind.)

The team I think will shake things up the most: Lori and Bolo, who are professional wrestlers calling themselves "Team Intimidation." (Their best quote: "We enjoy pissing people off.")

The team I think has the best chance to come in first: I'm not saying. (Because I want to win the Challenge myself!)

The team I will be rooting for even though I don't think they have a chance: Mary and Don. (They live less than 30 minutes away from me, but they're in their late 60s and call themselves "Team Medicare.")

The player I think TVgasm will have the biggest field day with: Adam of Adam and Rebecca. (Check out the hair!)

The players battling for the "Hottest Babe" award: Victoria (see above), a Playboy Playmate who claims to speak six languages, though I count only five in the bio; and Kendra (of Freddy and Kendra), a model with a "good sixth sense" and a killer smile.

So tune in and find out what your co-workers are talking about...and who the heck this "Phil" guy is.

Saturday Funny

A little treat for the weekend because I was lame last night and didn't post. I went to a late movie and was so sleepy by the time I got home that I just couldn't muster the energy. "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" was worth no more than the $3.50 my brother paid for me at the cheap theater. (What can I say, he's a nice guy.) These reviews at Rotten Tomatoes sum it up pretty well, though are perhaps more generally positive than my take: Pretty and evocative, but hollow and lacking emotion.

Anyway, on to why I'm actually posting. This video clip made me laugh so hard that I snorted and was practically crying by the end. I'm still trying to recover. (Via flea.)

What a player

Games. We all play them, or at least most of us who are honest about it do. What about when it gets out of hand, though? What about when the game becomes more real than the real?

Okay, I spun that out about as long as I could, which wasn't very long at all. I don't mean mind games or romantic games -- though goodness knows people play lots of those, too -- I'm talking about the proliferation of video and computer games. It never ceases to amaze me how so many people are so into them.

Not surprisingly, it has come to my attention again recently with the release of Halo 2. It seems like every few blogs I visit (or 8 out of 10 if they're written by guys) have had a mention of it in the last few days. Some people haven't been able to put it down. And I think some other people would be playing it non-stop if they could. Then there are the articles: Does it live up to the hype? It does. It doesn't. It kind of does. It really does.

Shooter games have never really interested me, especially since they have gotten more and more violent and more and more graphic. The commercials for the ones coming out now leave me cold, but then I'm not exactly the target audience. Ones like the latest Grand Theft Auto (the game and the commercial) I find absolutely appalling, though I suppose that matters to no one but me.

Not being into that kind of game, the array of platforms or systems or formats or whatever is always something I'm a step behind. I'm aware of the different ones, but I never know which game goes with which system, or what ones you can't play on a PC, etc. The reason I mention this is that part of me kind of has to cheer certain of these games, because the well-being of the company I work for depends on those games coming out, being "good," being popular and selling well, and driving the development of still more graphics-intensive games in order to spur sales of high-peformance processors. So I'm a little conflicted about them, which wouldn't so much be the case if they weren't almost all about killing and destroying. Trying to turn that tide would be like spitting into the wind, so I'll just be happy that I don't have kids and don't have to fight that battle, so to speak, in my own home. Oh, there's a Playstation 2 somewhere around here, and plenty of games, but it's not mine and my brother is free to play whatever he wants and kill all the CG bad guys he wants, so long as I don't have to be in the vicinity!

Before Halo 2, the newest version of The Sims was the thing everyone was talking about. I'm not into that one, either, but I also haven't tried it in ages.

No, I'm much more into puzzle games, word games and arcade games. Thanks to AOL (malign it if you must, but it does have some things to like) I can pretty much play a different one every night for free, and you have the chance, albeit a small one, to win cash from some of them if you hit a jackpot.

The thing is -- and I know this isn't a news flash -- they're like a drug. You get started and it's hard to stop. A real opiate of the masses, but on a one-on-one basis (I'm not sure if that's a contradiction in terms, but you get the point) and in every flavor. For instance, as I believe I've mentioned before, I tend to hop around while I'm writing a post -- it's rare that I just sit here and write, post and move on. Oh, no. It's write, surf, check e-mail, watch whatever I've recorded on TiVo in the last day or so, check another e-mail to see if anyone sent a pet picture (yeah, like that ever happens), write some more, watch more on TiVo, read a news article, surf for a particular link, write for a minute, watch TiVo, check e-mail again, and so on.

Well, add to that mix "compulsively play the game of the evening" and getting though the actual writing of a post is extended by about three times. Once I get into the groove of a game, the next level, that next jackpot spin, is too hard to resist. Case in point: That time down there? 11:23? That's the time I started, and that was about an hour after I began a new kind of game on AOL. It's now...well, I'm not going to say because a certain friend at work will give me a hard time about it...but it's a lot later than that and I'm still playing that game and I'm still not done here. Oh, wait, now I am.

Tempus Fugit Maximus

Apparently, letting loose with a week's worth of thoughts all at once has a curious effect on me. There's just not much more I have to say at the moment. It's kind of weird. Being at a loss for words is not something that happens very often to me! (Those of you who know me personally, feel free not to comment to vouch for that.)

There are only a few things on my mind, and they seem so benign compared to all those tumultuous thoughts:

1. Christmas is just over six weeks away.
2. My birthday is just over two weeks away.
3. The Amazing Race (yay!) will be back on in just under a week.

The thing is, the time between now and each one of those events will go by in a virtual blink of an eye. Age, getting older, that I really don't mind. The acceleration of time the older I get, however, bugs the hell out of me.

No catchy title

It wasn't quite this bad in my case, but I really did need some time to regroup and stop to smell a few roses amid the bitter stench of disappointment. And if, in your opinion, I took too long to "get over it" then that is too bad. I didn't spend the last week moaning or whining about it here. I run my life and my convictions on my timetable, not yours, and I'm entitled to as much time as I needed to reflect and gather my thoughts and my energies.

There are still some blogs I normally visit daily that I haven't been up to reading since last Tuesday, but I'm planning to ease into that this week. Hopefully, any lingering gloating or residual blue-state-bashing, if it was ever there, will have disappeared into the archives by that point because I really don't need that right now and I won't read it. I need more positive and less negative. Life is too short to get worked up over people whose point of view is so entirely different than mine.

On the flip side, some blogs have been really helpful to regaining my footing, notably Snarkcake for posts like this and this, and Inner Bitch for posts such as this that lead me to a site like this. So I thank you three for that.

I have been told by someone whose opinion I respect that I need to listen more to what those on the other side of the POV wall have to say now, instead of tuning them out in order to hear less. There is truth to that and I understand the reasoning -- "know thy enemy" and all -- but that is one hell of a difficult task as far as I'm concerned, and there are a few stumbling blocks down that path for me. Flat out: I do not suffer fools (and, by extension, stupidity) gladly...or well. It's a major character flaw, I'm sure, but that's the way it is. And listening to people spew one-sided rhetoric that is based on political, cultural, or religious dogma that I cannot relate to and cannot agree with is anathema to me.

As I stated a while back, I don't believe that there is real political debate any longer in this country, and I can't abide what passes for it on TV "news" these days. It's not that I am unwilling to consider other ideas, truly. I am willing, and I strive to be as open-minded to discussion as I can because persuing knowledge and understanding is admirable and worthwhile. It's that I find it nearly impossible to listen to the way the positions of the Right are presented and by those who present them at this point in time via the mainstream media. What I see there is not discussion or sharing or educating, it's more often sanctimonious ranting, character assasination, and intolerant diatribe.

The best I can do at this point is to read more about differing political views and positions -- because finding myself separated ideologically from half the country by such a wide gulf is very troubling -- and set aside my disappointment in favor of moving forward in whatever direction the country is headed. We may be doomed to repeat history if we do not learn from it, but learning from it means stepping away from it and not clinging to resentment over the parts that let you down.

So I will open myself up to learning more about the 51% of the country that sees our world so differently, where you're coming from and what you're hoping for as a result of this election. I don't see any other way for my 49% to work toward overcoming this enormous divide. But don't ask me to watch speeches, press conferences or other news programs that feature members of the current and/or forthcoming administration, or their sycophants, because I won't. I can't. Not yet.

Peri's Pet Parlor - Day Three

Mo had better get her act together because I'm running out of stuff to say.

My days are pretty much the same. My mom likes to nap almost as much as I do, so we do that a lot. I spend a bunch of time on patrol in my window, keeping our condo safe. I spar daily with a series of balls to keep my reflexes, and my nails, sharp. I eat and beg Mom for treats every once in a while -- I've gotten pretty good at catching them in my paws. Maura comes over a couple of times a week to go digging for gold in my Littermaid, then we play until I get tired of it and take refuge under the bed.

But that's about it. Not exactly an endless source of cat chat. So I'm hoping to lay low for a while, as much fun as the comments about mice have been.

Let's wrap this up then. Since there are only two people in the whole world we can count on to send us photos, I'm doing what Maura called "going back to the well." This is, of course, my good friend, Squeaky. It looks to me like she's laying on the most uncomfortable bed ever. I'm not sure what it is, but it sure is shiny.

Later, people.

Peri's Pet Parlor - Day Two

Here's a picture of my long-distance friend, Kitty-san. I think she's contemplating lunch at the moment. That or she just caught one of them tasty little moths that I love to hunt and my mom hates to see.

Maura's playing some game involving colored balls, which are great, but she's shooting them out of the sky instead of chasing them around the floor. That I don't really get. And I can't get her to stop, even to pet me and how can she pass that up?

Earlier I meowed her to death and was able to get her to check to see if anyone else coughed up a photo and she said I got something called "bupkis." I guess that's a no. They're pictures, people, not hairballs. It won't kill you. I'll even take ones of dogs.

Peri's Pet Parlor

Maura is ticked off about something. She started to explain it to me, but I didn't know what she was going on about and I yawned about five seconds in. That made her even more annoyed and she stalked off, tossing over her shoulder something about not coming back until she had calmed down. That could take a while from what I saw.

She gave me a break the last few weeks, so I guess I owe her a couple.

At least she put up the perfect picture before she left. (I just wish she would find a way to stop making my eyes blue. You ever seen a blue peridot? Me neither.) Yeah, that's me playing with my favorite new toy. I captured that stupid ball and I wasn't letting it get away anytime soon.

So, look, if I'm going to be doing this, I could use some pictures from you people. Maura's always dragging out that evil flashy thing so there's a bunch of them of me, and I guess I could just keep putting those up. I mean look at me, I'm gorgeous, so it's not like you can really complain or anything. But that guy who talks kinda funny that my mom is always watching on the TV said variety is the mice of life and that's gotta be a good thing.

Send me some mice, people.

Completely frayed

To say that I am not happy today would be a vast understatement. I spent the whole morning in a fog, trying to wrap my mind around things.

But I'm still processing my feelings and, for once, I don't feel like writing about them. Gary Bibb did an excellent job of capturing them (and he only misspelled one word in the process, so you know he really means it), only without all the swearing that my post would have had, so please go visit him.

Normal blogging will be suspended for the time being while I deal with this the best way I know how. Come back tomorrow to see what I mean.

Update: Sam nailed the more angry part of my reaction, so go visit him, too.

Tied up in electoral knots

I can't take it any longer tonight. It's almost 3:30 in the morning on the East coast and all they're doing is finding fifty different ways to say "We just don't know yet and we're not willing to guess because we're not getting it wrong this time around" on CNN.

And I sure as hell don't feel like giving up any sleep in order to wait and listen to that smirky bastard come out and start throwing around words like "mandate" or "moral victory" -- I'd use other words, but I think they might have too many syllables for him -- so I'm going to bed.

If I were a less optimistic person, I'd go cry myself to sleep.

If I were a more spiritual person, I'd go pray myself to sleep.

But I'm a person who's a dreamer, so I'll simply go off to dream about someday living in a country where I once again feel that I belong, and hope that morning helps me shake off these twin feelings of helplessness and hopelessness.

A window on the spiritual world

We celebrated Halloween this year by taking a nighttime flashlight tour of the Winchester Mystery House, in San Jose. I feel a bit like a tour guide whenever I say this, but if you're in the area I do recommend checking it out. It's not a cheap ticket, but you'll never see anything else quite like it and there are some fascinating stories behind the various rooms. If you have no plans to ever visit The Golden State, however, and have no idea what the deal is with the house, read a bit here or here to get a flavor.

The flashlight tours are something they do only a couple times a year, every Friday the 13th and on Halloween, and the only illumination really is by the flashlights they hand out. The tour guide wouldn't let me pick my color, though, so that was kind of disappointing. I mean, why would I want a red flashlight when the blue one was so much cooler?

Anyway, we traipsed by and through 110 of the 160 rooms in the house, and I took a few pictures. Some didn't come out that great, but this one of the window was interesting. (I'm sure the people who go in for these kinds of pictures would find my pictures disappointing, because if there are going to be ghosts or "energy designs" to be captured, you'd think that Halloween would be the night to get them. Ooh, ooh, are those blurry, whitish images in the window ghosts? No, they're finger smudges from "gotta touch it" visitors.)

If you read the articles above, or any of the many, many stories and mentions you can find on the Web, you'll hear about Sarah Winchester's superstitious nature, her twice-daily seances to consult with the spirits, a fondness for building features in her house to confuse ghosts, and use of the number 13 in a myriad of ways. But there are some other themes and motifs found throughout the house, including daisies, which were reportedly her favorite flower, spider webs such as in the window that is found in one of the bathrooms, and one that I noticed but that never got mentioned, Celtic knots.

We completed our hour-long tour without incident or eerie encounter, damn it, and (after a trip through the gift shop, of course) headed back out into the chill of All Hallows' Eve with worn-out feet and nothing but respect for any lingering, restless spirits.

Scarecrows for Kerry!

Happy Halloween!

(Photo courtesy of Rita...whose porch is occupied by this particular scarecrow!)

The flutter-flit of little wings

This past weekend I attended a "butterfly release," which is something I'd never actually heard of, let alone participated in, before. A couple of hundred Monarch butterflies -- raised from eggs at a local butterfly farm (again, something I'd never heard of), numbered, tagged and gently folded into origami envelopes -- were sent on their merry way to the Santa Cruz coast. Once we each made a wish and they could be coaxed to leave their paper launching pads, that is.

This little guy decided to soak up some California sun first, however. It wasn't the warmest day, so we didn't have a huge liftoff in concert once the envelopes were opened, as might have been hoped. But eventually they all took wing, fluttering around us for a while before beginning their migration for the winter.

The tags are purportedly to track them (mine was #386, in case you were wondering), but I really have no idea how they're going to do that. Are there designated rest stops along the way? A check-in tree once they reach Natural Bridges? A guy whose job it is to walk around the grove with binoculars and a notebook? We may never know, since the Web site we were given to get "updates" on their progress has, thus far, been useless.

But I know my young lepidopteran friend has made it to the shore and is huddling in the eucalyptus trees with a couple thousand of his best friends. If you travel out this way between now and February, I highly recommend a stop at their winter resting ground. It's a beautiful and unique site. Tell my butterfly I said hi.

Feeling it...and not feeling it

What I'm feeling: Pain in my wrist.

What I'm not feeling: Like pushing said wrist to write very much tonight.

Since I've very happily spent the time before this answering the comments some of you were kind enough to leave (yay commenting people!), I will just leave you with a link a friend sent me.

Let's face it: Everyone, even the people who actually support Bush, know that he's a few arrows short of a quiver in the smarts department. And this little exercise tries to help rectify that situation. So go against the grain and help give Bush a Brain!

Not a Ghost of a Chance

At long last, we come to the end of this little trip, which brings us to these pictures from Bodie, CA. It's a ghost town I had heard of but never been to before, and, after bumping and jostling our way down three miles of dusty, unpaved, and rutted road, we paid our fee to the very nice park rangers, bought our handy one-dollar self-guided tour book and ventured into the past. I really enjoyed rambling around, camera in hand, exploring its state of "arrested decay" for a few hours.

The wind had finally shifted by the day we got there so it wasn't smoky, and the first picture shows how beautiful the sky was. The hill in the background leads up to the Standard Mine, where upwards of $15 million in gold and silver were mined during the town's heydey. Of course, that heydey was wicked, violent and filled with lawlessness so it wasn't exactly a paradise.

The second picture was taken from inside one of the abandoned houses that are open to the public -- many aren't because they're unsafe or unstable -- and to the left you can see the Standard Mill. I couldn't figure out what they milled in the mill since, as you can see, trees are not exactly what you could consider abundant in the area, but I guess there are all different kinds of mills and this one processed the ore from the mine. I suppose I should have gone on the mill tour after all.

Lastly we have a remnant of life in Bodie still hanging at the back of the McInnis House, which lies furthest east of all the structures you can poke around in. (Cynically, I figure most of the Irish were kept as far out of town as possible!) It demonstrates how well they've managed to keep the remaining artifacts out of the hands of souvenir hunters. No doubt, that task has been helped along over the years by The Curse of Bodie. The letters mentioned in the link? They actually have a whole book of them in the museum available to look at, and they provide quite the cautionary tale. That being the case, I left with nothing but photos and a day's worth of interesting memories.

Mother May I?

This beautiful bit o' nature is Lake May, in Yosemite. The day we went was absolutely gorgeous, just the right temperature (for me - I like it cool), and at a high enough elevation that the smoke didn't affect it. And because it was a weekday, there were very few people there, which is always great.

Though it's only 1.2 miles from the parking lot, it wasn't the easiest hike ever up there for me, although this overview makes it sound as though it should have been. Remember the aforementioned allergies? Well, they can result in allergy-induced asthma and this was one of those days. The fact that we were already at 8,800+ feet and climbing to 9,300+ feet just might have had something to do with it, but I had a helluva time catching my breath. I'm no athlete, but in the past that trail would have been a piece of cake. This time it was walk, walk, stop to catch breath, walk, walk, walk, stop to catch breath, repeat for another mile.

Leaving my inhaler in the car might not have been the brightest move, but I didn't push hard enough to get in distress and the inhaler can make me jittery (which isn't conducive to relaxing in nature, you know?), so in the end it wasn't a problem. I did feel a little silly when a group of septuagenarian ladies passed by me in one of my "catching my breath" moments and looked at me like they were afraid I was going to beat them to the great trail in the sky. (Actually, I think they were more afraid that if I did keel over, they might have to be the ones to cart me back down.)

But I made it up there, snail's pace and all, and it was so lovely that it was worth it. Surprisingly, very little was visible in terms of wildlife. The dense pines made it difficult to see the songbirds I could hear, and the one duck (I think) that I spotted on the water was on the other side of the lake from me. I could hear fish plopping back into the water after coming up to catch bugs, but I never got a good look at one -- they pretty much stick to the deeper waters, and by the time you turn your head in response to the "plop," they're gone. Apart from a chipmunk or two, that was it.

Tomorrow's episode, wrapping up this less-than-whirlwind tour: Not a Ghost of a Chance.

Stop Already!

This is the stop sign outside the rangers' booth at the Big Oak Flat entrance gate of Yosemite, which has been inexplicably mangled. The way it has been bent tells me that it has been hit more than once and I find that odd. It's not like you can't tell that the booth is coming up, you have to go slowly, and it's not that narrow a lane. Are people that excited to get in as soon as they fork over their fee?

Maybe I found this really amusing because I had just woken up from a nap. I really like to drive and I used to be the one you could depend on to take on the lion's share of the driving on a road trip. But in the last few years, a little hiccup has developed in that plan. Now I pretty much last an hour to an hour and a half behind the wheel and I start to fall asleep. Put me in the passenger seat and I can hang in there for about a half hour, forty-five minutes tops, and I begin to doze off. This can be highly aggravating, but I do the best I can, then pull over and someone else has to take over.

I have developed a theory that this has to do with allergies, and I'm working on dealing with those now, so there's hope for future trips. For the time being, though, it's drive, STOP, doze for me.

Next episode: Mother May I?

When smoke gets in your sun

The place we usually stay when we're in Gold Country has absolutely nothing to do with gold. Copperopolis found its fame and fortune in, you guessed it, copper. It's a small town of a couple thousand people that has become a popular location for second homes of Bay Area residents. They're drawn by the relatively short drive to get there, the reasonable housing costs, and the golf courses.

I don't golf and I don't own one house, let alone two, but I like it there, too. I like it because of its proximity to Yosemite and the other Gold Country towns like Jackson, Columbia and Angels Camp, its lovely landscapes, and a few favorite shops and restaurants. Oh, and the olive oil. The Calaveras Olive Oil Co. is in an old brick building near the highway and it has some killer oils. The people who own it are so nice and they bend over backwards to accomodate you and let you try just about everything in the place. It's not at all like some other gourmet olive oil shops I've been in (in Sonoma, for instance) that don't seem to be interested in you apart from what you're going to spend there.

But I digress. As you may or may not know, this is fire season here in California, and in the last month there have been a lot of fire warnings because of a weather pattern with very low humidity and high winds. Then you add in the whack jobs who start fires and this can be a destructive time of year.

While we were on our trip, there were a number of fires burning in the general vicinity of the Sierras, and the smoke from them was definitely a factor. It scuttled a hike out of Tuolumne Meadow and caused us to close the car windows more than once. The upside of forest fires, apart from naturally occuring fires or prescribed burns that have their own benefit to the balance of Nature, is that the smoke from them can make for very dramatic sunsets.

The picture above was taken in Copperopolis on one of our first nights there. I was surprised because the fires weren't really all that close by, but I was very glad I took my camera along on a trip to town. The photo doesn't begin to capture the radiant and glowing ball of red that was the sun that evening.

Tomorrow's episode: Stop already!

Hauling my ax around town

This is Firewood in Murphys, which is where we enjoyed the beer and pizza I mentioned yesterday and is a must-stop for lunch whenever I'm in the area. This time was a little different, however, because the upstairs hadn't been opened before and it was neat to get to see the unique loft railing from that perspective.

There is a great little bookstore right next to the restaurant -- just beyond the actual stacks of firewood that line the outside wall -- that is watched over by a likeable but rather uninterested-in-people dog. I'm not certain whether he will sound an alarm (or tear a hand off) if someone walks out with something they haven't paid for, but I wasn't about to test the theory.

The one less-than-bright spot on my visit was learning that my absolute favorite store in town, a lovely little floral shop, is no longer there. I have killed every single plant that I bought there, but I enjoyed the hell out of them while they were alive, and I really liked the lady who owned it. I came home and killed a plant in memorium. Which wasn't easy, by the way, since it has hardly stopped raining here since I returned.

Tomorrow's episode: When smoke gets in your sun.

P.S. I would be including links to the places I'm writing about, but none of them have one. California or not, this place is small-town America.

A Toast to Time Off

Alas, I am back from the mountains. But I did have a terrific, relaxing time and I used my digital camera constantly. So I thought that I would post some pictures from the trip and tell you about it, instead of bugging Peri to blog for now.

However, because I am deficient in many areas of Web-related knowledge, I cannot put more than one picture up at a time here. (I think I know why I can't do it, I just don't have enough interest in trying to resolve it at this time.)

So I've picked my favorite ones and I'll put 'em up each day until I run out, I get tired of it, or you get tired of it.

Because after the first post-vacation day back at work (ick) I could really use one right about now, this shot is of the best, most refreshing beer I had the whole time:



It's a Snowshoe Weizen that I had in Murphys, CA. Murphys is a wonderful little town near Angels Camp, which you may recognize as the home of Twain's famous jumping frog of Calaveras County. I highly recommend the area for vacationing, should you be visiting Gold Country anytime soon.

I usually go for darker beers, but this went perfectly with the oh-so-California pizza we were having on a warm day. It was a good start to a great long weekend. Sláinte!

Pingless Pro Tem

After what feels like about a year of working with no time off (but which, in reality, has only been three months), I will be hitting the road after work today and I won't be back until Monday. I've decided to leave the laptop behind and really take a break, for me and my overworked wrist.

Because it warms the cockles of my heart to imagine that someone would actually miss my posts while I'm gone, I present to you a Top Ten list so you can imagine it as though you were right there.

Top Ten Things I Will Be Doing On My Days Off

10. Not thinking about work -- at all.
9. Breathing in deeply of the fresh, pine-laden air of the Sierra Nevada.
8. Stopping at every other historical or point of interest marker on the drive.
7. Listening to copious amounts of surf music, my traveling companion's road music of choice.
6. Wondering from time to time what kinds of havoc the Incomparable Male Trio might be wreaking while I'm gone.
6a. Briefly debate at one point whether I should have asked one of them to guest blog for me, lest the blog world abandon me and this site in the space of six days.
6b. Fall down laughing maniacally over that thought and how that could potentially redefine the phrase "wreaking havoc," pick self up off of trail, and hike on while catching breath. (See #9)
5. Continue not thinking about work, periodically relishing the sense of freedom that accords me.
4. Hiking parts of Yosemite hitherto unexplored...by me.
3. Impetuously eating all sorts of delectable and carbolicious foods with microbrew chasers.
2. Taking many, many pictures of the aforementioned Sierra.
1. Chilling the fuck out, in all its myriad forms.

A far more relaxed me will be back next week.

Peri's Pet Parlor

Maura and I made a deal -- I'll do this today and she'll let me go another week before she clips my nails. Works for me. I only got ticked last week because she woke me up from a nap.

So this is Kitty-san, doing my favorite thing in the whole world, keeping watch out the window for the invaders. They are sure to come, so we've got to be ready. Aside from chasing bugs inside the house, it's my only job, so I like to give it my all.

Kitty-san has that "I've got you in my sights" look that I know so well. My guess is that it's a fluffy-tail and not a flappy thing, but since she lives really far away from here, it could be some sort of thing I've never seen.

Catch ya next week...unless I'm needed at the window.

This fills me with dread

I can't tell you what a revelation this explanation was to me. I had a real "WTF? moment" -- as I saw it described elsewhere -- when I heard Bush mention the Dred Scott case during the last debate in his non-answer to who he'd appoint to the U.S. Supreme Court if the chance arose. (I know I pleaded for no more debates, but I'm surrounded by people who insist on watching them, so sometimes there's no escape.)

I am committedly pro-choice, but I will admit that I do not follow any current discussions about the abortion debate because the rhetoric, shouting, obloquy, religious diatribes and general passionate discourse about it leave me unmoved in any direction other than frustration. So, clearly, the meaning behind Bush's scripted example of jurisprudence not to be emulated by his would-be nominees flew right over my head.

If you are a staunch supporter of Bush and you subscribe to his position that a woman does not have the right to choose whether or not to carry a pregnancy to term, no matter the circumstances, well, then you probably stopped reading about a paragraph earlier and I'm okay with that.

But if you support Bush because of other issues, like letting a "War President" follow through on his military campaign, or his tax cuts that are intended to create jobs, or being against "Big Government," but you do support a woman's right to choose, or can at least acknowledge that there are instances in which it is acceptable, then I beg you to look at the bigger picture.

I believe that the appointment of U.S. Supreme Court justices is the single biggest power accorded to a U.S. president. The ramifications are far-reaching and long-lasting, more than any fiscal matters, foreign policies, military actions, or government programs I can think of. I don't think it can be overemphasized how important the next appointment to the Court is, and there is almost no doubt that the next president will have the opportunity to make that appointment. Think about how that appointment could affect the decisions the Court makes over the next few generations. Then think about whether tax cuts are really worth it in the grand scheme of things.

(I was pointed to the Paperwight post by gbibb. He goes into more detail about the meaning behind the reference, so I suggest going there, too.)

200 Things...

This isn't the kind of thing I normally do here, but I was intrigued enough to give it a try. And it fit the recent theme.

All the bolded items are things I have done. Some of the non-bolded items are on the “Things Yet to Do in Life” list. Most are not. (Comments appear where I deem them necessary!)

1. Bought everyone in the pub a drink
2. Swam with wild dolphins
3. Climbed a mountain
4. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive (This is on the “Yeah, you wish” list.)
5. Been inside the Great Pyramid
6. Held a tarantula
7. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
8. Said "I love you" and meant it
9. Hugged a tree
10. Done a striptease
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea (Why just at sea?)
14. Stayed up all night long, and watched the sun rise
15. Seen the Northern Lights (This is a must, for me.)
16. Gone to a huge sports game
17. Walked the stairs to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa
18. Grown and eaten my own vegetables
19. Touched an iceberg (I cavorted on a glacier. Close enough?)
20. Slept under the stars
21. Changed a baby's diaper
22. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon (Another must.)
23. Watched a meteor shower
24. Gotten drunk on champagne
25. Given more than you can afford to charity
26. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
27. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
28. Had a food fight
29. Bet on a winning horse (Another “Yeah, you wish” lister.)
30. Taken a sick day when you're not ill
31. Asked out a stranger
32. Had a snowball fight
33. Photocopied your bottom on the office photocopier
34. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can (About a week ago. In the car. At lunchtime.)
35. Held a lamb
36. Enacted a favorite fantasy (They’d arrest me at the See’s factory if I did.)
37. Taken a midnight skinny dip
38. Taken an ice cold bath
39. Had a meaningful conversation with a beggar
40. Seen a total eclipse
41. Rode on a roller coaster
42. Hit a home run
43. Fit three weeks miraculously into three days
44. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
45. Adopted an accent for an entire day
46. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors (Another must.)
47. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment (See #3 above.)
48. Had two hard drives for your computer
49. Visited all 50 states
50. Loved your job for all accounts
51. Taken care of someone who was shit faced
52. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
53. Had amazing friends (Still do.)
54. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
55. Watched wild whales
56. Stolen a sign
57. Backpacked in Europe
58. Taken a road-trip
59. Rock climbing (I’m more a rock scrambler.)
60. Lied to foreign government's official in that country to avoid notice
61. Midnight walk on the beach (Close, but not quite midnight.)
62. Sky diving (On the to-do list, for sure.)
63. Visited Ireland (See #46 above.)
64. Been heartbroken longer then you were actually in love
65. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger's table and had a meal with them
66. Visited Japan
67. Benchpressed your own weight
68. Milked a cow
69. Alphabetized your records
70. Pretended to be a superhero
71. Sung karaoke (I figure I owe it to the world not to.)
72. Lounged around in bed all day (It was college. That’s required, isn’t it?)
73. Posed nude in front of strangers
74. Scuba diving (On the must list.)
75. Got it on to “Let's Get It On" by Marvin Gaye
76. Kissed in the rain
77. Played in the mud
78. Played in the rain
79. Gone to a drive-in theater
80. Done something you should regret, but don't regret it
81. Visited the Great Wall of China
82. Discovered that someone who's not supposed to have known about your blog has discovered your blog
83. Dropped Windows in favor of something better
84. Started a business
85. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
86. Toured ancient sites
87. Taken a martial arts class
88. Swordfought for the honor of a woman (This is about as highly unlikely as almost anything on this list.)
89. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
90. Gotten married
91. Been in a movie
92. Crashed a party
93. Loved someone you shouldn't have
94. Kissed someone so passionately it made them dizzy (Not that they’ve ever said!)
95. Gotten divorced
96. Had sex at the office
97. Gone without food for 5 days
98. Made cookies from scratch
99. Won first prize in a costume contest
100. Rode a gondola in Venice
101. Gotten a tattoo
102. Found that the texture of some materials can turn you on
103. Rafted the Snake River
104. Been on television news programs as an "expert"
105. Got flowers for no reason
106. Masturbated in a public place
107. Got so drunk you don't remember anything
108. Been addicted to some form of illegal drug
109. Performed on stage
110. Been to Las Vegas
111. Recorded music
112. Eaten shark
113. Had a one-night stand
114. Gone to Thailand
115. Seen Siouxsie live
116. Bought a house
117. Been in a combat zone (Does high school count?)
118. Buried one/both of your parents
119. Shaved or waxed your pubic hair off
120. Been on a cruise ship
121. Spoken more than one language fluently
122. Gotten into a fight while attempting to defend someone
123. Bounced a check (See #72 above.)
124. Performed in Rocky Horror
125. Read - and understood - your credit report
126. Raised children
127. Recently bought and played with a favorite childhood toy
128. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
129. Created and named your own constellation of stars
130. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
131. Found out something significant that your ancestors did
132. Called or written your Congress person
133. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
134. ...more than once? - More than thrice?
135. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge (On the to-do list, for sure.)
136. Sang loudly in the car, and didn't stop when you knew someone was looking
137. Had an abortion or your female partner did
138. Had plastic surgery
139. Survived an accident that you shouldn't have survived
140. Wrote articles for a large publication
141. Lost over 100 pounds
142. Held someone while they were having a flashback
143. Piloted an airplane
144. Petted a stingray (Bat ray, yes. Stingray, no.)
145. Broken someone's heart
146. Helped an animal give birth
147. Been fired or laid off from a job
148. Won money on a T.V. game show
149. Broken a bone
150. Killed a human being
151. Gone on an African photo safari
152. Rode on a motorcycle
153. Driven any land vehicle at a speed of greater than 100 mph
154. Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced
155. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol (Actually on the to-do list.)
156. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
157. Rode a horse
158. Had major surgery
159. Had sex on a moving train (On the...uh..."intriguing idea" list.)
160. Had a snake as a pet (Over my mom's dead body!)
161. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon (On the must-do list.)
162. Slept through an entire flight: takeoff, flight, and landing
163. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
164. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
165. Visited all 7 continents
166. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
167. Eaten kangaroo meat
168. Fallen in love at an ancient Mayan burial ground
169. Been a sperm or egg donor
170. Eaten sushi (Weekly, at a minimum!)
171. Had your picture in the newspaper
172. Had 2 (or more) healthy romantic relationships for over a year in your lifetime
173. Changed someone's mind about something you care deeply about
174. Gotten someone fired for their actions
175. Gone back to school
176. Parasailed
177. Changed your name
178. Petted a cockroach
179. Eaten fried green tomatoes
180. Read The Iliad
181. Selected one "important" author who you missed in school, and read
182. Dined in a restaurant and stolen silverware, plates, cups because your apartment needed them
183. ...and gotten 86'ed from the restaurant because you did it so many times, they figured out it was you
184. Taught yourself an art from scratch
185. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
186. Apologized to someone years after inflicting the hurt
187. Skipped all your school reunions (And will continue to do so.)
188. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
189. Been elected to public office
190. Written your own computer language
191. Thought to yourself that you're living your dream
192. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
193. Built your own PC from parts
194. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn't know you
195. Had a booth at a street fair
196. Dyed your hair
197. Been a DJ
198. Found out someone was going to dump you via Blogger
199. Written your own role playing game
200. Been arrested

(Via (Via (Via))) Can you tell I finally had some free time to surf? I'd be interested to know if any of you put your list on your site.

Things I learned today

Tiger Woods is much smarter than I would have given him credit for being before reading about his wedding: "Woods' precautions appeared to include hiring the only helicopter charter company on the island, which said it was booked solid Tuesday — a move that prevented journalists and photographers from flying over the event."

Howard Stern is, shockingly, smarter than I will ever give him credit for being.

Never -- never, never, never, never -- ever click on "Print all linked documents" when printing stuff out from a Web site using IE 5.5 when you have no idea what that will cause to happen.

Now that I have a car with a sunroof, I am far more tempted to stick my hand out through it and flip the bird at people on the road who do stupid things. (I resisted the impulse.)

Lost is, without question, my favorite new show of the fall season.

Apparently, October is a month in which I am willing to buy the first Christmas present of the season.

Things on my mind today

Goodbye, Rodney. However, St. Peter probably won't give you no respect, either.

SMiLE is here at last. I almost bought it tonight, but decided to check out a few reviews first. The ones I've seen have been pretty damned positive.

Please, please don't make me watch anymore debates. Life is too short.

Speaking of the election, the endless polls surrounding it make me miss Calvin and Hobbes very, very much. Dad performance poll, anyone?

This article (Reg.), which I actually read in the actual newspaper...the one made out of paper, startled the crap out of me because I spent hours walking a small coyote-bait-sized dog in this very neighborhood over the last few years. Thank you to the Russells for no longer living there, though I do miss Roxie.

This is bad news. The flu season could really suck this year if it hits hard.

"Magma" is such a great word to say. But apparently the idea of it makes people goofy.

Catbloggus interuptus

Peri wasn't in an what you could call an amiable mood tonight. She threw a kitty fit and refused to post. Norman, I am going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you are not behind her little protest.

Hopefully she'll be more herself next week, because if she isn't I will either cut her off from her treats for a day, or sit on her and cut her nails (that sounds worse than it really is, honest), which she hates. The cutting the nails part, not the sitting on her part. Oh, nevermind, you'd have to see how that works to understand and trying to explain will only dig me deeper into this pointless hole!

In the meantime, I'd like to point you to an article that makes me quite happy. Not only do I like the implication of what it could mean for the shape of the upcoming election, but how often do you find yourself reading an article from a newspaper in Alaska? Unless, of course, you...um...live in Alaska. But since, as far as I know, none of you do, I'm still going with the "hey, isn't this neat" aspect because it's time for bed and I'm too tired to come up with something better.

A cactus by any other name

I will admit to the rather silly habit of naming my plants. Not all of them, mind you, just the ones that I really like. This one was given the terrifically original name of "Spike" when it first came along. Hey, it's not like I planned on telling anyone the name when I started calling it that!

Spike had an absolutely beautiful flower on it when I brought it to work (should have gotten a picture of that) and once that was gone it grew up, up, up, but never any wider. I figured that eventually it would begin to fill out a little, but no. A few months ago I started thinking of it as "Pike" instead, especially when I envisioned using it in a way befitting the name on the posterior of someone who ticked me off. Anyway...

Today I took a look at it and couldn't believe how tall the pike had gotten when I wasn't paying attention. So, out of curiosity, I grabbed the ruler. Then, because I was bored, I broke out the digicam. Okay, not really bored, more like I was afraid that there was something wrong with Spike and that it might go south and die, and maybe someone could tell me what it needs. My best guess is that it might need a bigger pot. I hope not, though, because transplanting a cactus is not my idea of a fun project. Those needles near the bottom are big, sharp, and they hurt.

But the photo session ended on a positive note. When I pulled the pot closer to see if it needed any water, I also turned it around to see if the pike was crooked. And I discovered that, hiding in the back, was a little nubbin of new growth sprouting from the base of the pike. Or, as I like to think of it, we've got a baby!

I think I would have preferred another flower, but at least it will be growing in a new direction.

Beating a Dead Fish

It was another really long work day and I'm quite tired. I didn't want to watch the debate anyway so I'm not sorry that I worked through it, plus just about every other blog you go to today is going to have some comment or another on it, so if that's what you want, I'll see you tomorrow.

I'm just not up to thinking hard enough to write anything involved or thoughtful or...well, interesting...right now, actually.

Instead, I'm going to go back to the deep-sea well and let a local movie reviewer I usually don't agree with have the floor. Because, while he goes into more detail and is a lot more critical than was I, we're pretty much in synch on our views of Shark Tale.

So, Glenn Lovell, this is probably the only time you're going to be featured or otherwise even acknowledged on this here blog, so take it away and enjoy your 15 seconds of blog fame. (Reg. or BMN req'd)

Something Fishy

Tonight I had the chance to attend an advance private screening of Shark Tale. It is an entertaining animated movie featuring the voices of Will Smith, Renee Zellweger, Jack Black, Robert De Niro, Angelina Jolie, and Martin Scorsese. There are definitely some very humorous moments but it's not what I would call a great movie. It takes place under the sea with fish and sharks, of course, and the sharks act very "out of character," but it's not quite up to the level of Finding Nemo, in my opinion.

Part of the problem for me was that it was impossible to forget that it was Will Smith doing the voice of the main character. It wasn't him voicing the role of a character someone had created, the character was him speaking the lines as a fish. The characters done by Renee Zellweger and Jack Black were much easier to take for what they were. But they really did a fantastic job of creating an entire world, complete with its own "America's Sweetheart" anchorwoman, Katie Current...who was voiced by "America's Sweetheart" anchorwoman, Katie Couric.

I guess what it comes down to, for me, is that it isn't terribly original. The animation is good, but the characters seem like an odd cross between cartoon versions of "The Sopranos" and "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air." I think adults and kids will both enjoy it, and there are lots of pop culture references like in Shrek and Shrek 2, but it's not nearly as clever as either of those efforts from Dreamworks.

In my book, it's a "Matinee Movie" -- I'd pay to see it, but not full price. It gets two bags of popcorn, but only with butter-flavored topping, not real butter, on a scale of one to four.

Shake me, quake me

Oy. Remember how there was a situation at work that was stressing me? Well, it has gotten even worse, and will be staying that way for at least two more months. But so far, so good, overall -- as I like to say, I haven't killed myself or anyone else yet, so it's fine, just fine. There was one point where I was tempted to run out of the building screaming, but then I got busy and forgot.

Today was a 12-hour workday, so my level of concentration is not at its highest right now. I've got three possible topics to talk about, and I can't decide which one has the best potential. Okay, make that two things, because between the time I started writing and now, I've forgotten what the third one was.

Aw, hell, I'm going to go with the fastest one. Today there was a pretty decent-sized earthquake here in CA today. It was in the middle of the state on the San Andreas fault, and was felt for a couple hundred miles up and down the state. People in my building felt it, but I did not. I was probably yawning at the time. They're still having aftershocks right now, over 12 hours later. (If you're interested in seeing exactly where and how many, check out this site. I love it. Or, for the whole country, go here.)

At the same time, there are reports that Mount St. Helens is grumbling and making noise, sparking worries that it's going to erupt. Considering how devastating the last eruption in 1980 was, it's definitely a cause for concern.

So, temblors are on my mind and I'm wondering what your experience has been with earthquakes. Never felt one? A seasoned, shaken veteran? Terrified that your state (*ahem*) is going to slide into a nearby ocean? Spill it! I'm all aquiver to hear.

Peri's Pet Parlor

Bethany and Kumo

Has it been a week already? I didn't notice -- been too busy watching the furniture in this place moving around again. I hate when it does that; you just can't trust furniture that don't stay put.

This is a pretty strange picture as far as I'm concerned. The hip cat with the cool collar on the right is Kumo, but I'm not sure what the creature on the left is. Looks like a bubble-headed alien to me, and...

A what?

Are you sure? Okay...

Mom says it's "an adorable baby named Bethany" and not a bubble-headed alien. I bet she don't stay put, either, and it looks like she's about to rip the smilies right off that collar. Before she comes after my bell, I'm outta here. Mom should have my spot on the bed all warmed up by now.

(Note from Maura: I'm sure if she knew how to link, Peri would have thanked Howard for the picture of his beautiful niece.)

Cell Phone Madness

I think most of us know that cell phone use has gotten out of hand. I'm convinced that within a few generations, all children will be born with their hands curled up next to their ear. You can't go anywhere without someone blithely walking around with all their attention focused on their terribly important call -- you know, the one about what they're going to wear to the party this weekend...while they completely ignore the person they're supposedly with...who's on his phone, too. But, of course, the people who can't go a few minutes without taking or making a call don't see that this is a cause for concern.

If you're yapping, yapping, yapping on your phone constantly while you're driving and think that it doesn't affect the way that you drive, I am here with a news flash for you: You are not the exception and your driving sucks about 90% of the time you have that expensive piece of plastic shoved up against the side of your head. (Can you tell that I don't think there are many excuses for not having a hands-free device in use when making calls from the car?) You don't have the ability, apparently, to see the reactions of your fellow drivers when you're a 40mph zombie in a 55mph zone, or when you suddenly veer over to make the turn you didn't notice coming up. May I also point out that making a U-turn is not a cause for shame -- and, in most cases, is not illegal -- when you do suddenly snap-to and realize you're about to miss the road you needed to take? Many of us actually consider it preferable to the emergency maneuver you insist on making when it's not an emergency for anyone but you.

But that's not what this is about, or at least not entirely. These are just examples of the weird and pervasive presence that cell phones have become in our lives. This is about how it is only going to get much weirder and even more pervasive.

Gee, I can't wait.

A comment on comments

I don't know what's going on, but there seems to be an issue with the Haloscan comment function. Poor LibertyBob left a comment on my last post hours ago and I didn't find out about it until Howard kindly let me know that he was unable to leave a comment at all!

After a few reloads, I'm able to see them, but you may have difficulty. If so, I apologize and appreciate your effort.

Update: The problem seems to have been resolved. If anyone else is having the same problem, however, you can log in to Haloscan and force the comments links to update through the settings page. A lot of people were having trouble earlier.

The Good, The Bad, The Really Ugly, and The Really Sad

This has been sort of a weird day. My feelings about things are kind of all over the place.

The Good: My favorites won in both of the reality shows that wrapped up tonight. Chip and Kim vanquished the last two couples in The Amazing Race to take the million dollar prize. I've been rooting for them for a while, so it was nice to see them take it all, especially as it meant Colin and Christie didn't win. On Big Brother 5, cutie pie Drew won a half-million dollars. It wasn't as tense or exciting a final show, but it was a good ending. On a more personal note, I took a chance on doing something I normally wouldn't do and while doing it may not have been a huge success unto itself, I felt good about it. Sometimes it's the little steps we take that stand out.

The Bad: I'm still in "Hang In There" mode at work. I really, really don't like being in "Hang In There" mode, especially for as long as I've been in it.

Mixed Emotions #1: I'm lucky to have a job to be hanging in at, when so many people are still unemployed and underemployed, or have a lot worse working than I do. So I feel bad when I get annoyed about things, because I have it pretty damned good overall and my little problems are pretty damned petty in the large scheme of things. And, hey, I am hanging in there. I haven't given up yet.

The Really Ugly: The continuing beheadings in Iraq. The continuing car bombings in Iraq. The never-ending senseless violence right here at home. Words fail me.

The Really Sad: The huge number of casualties in Haiti due to Jeanne. That country has had such a terrible year, at a time when they should be celebrating a long, hard-won history of independence as the world's first black republic. The devastation that this one storm has brought, when we're already hung-over on hurricane and storm damage in our own country, leaves me feeling a little wrung-out. The numbers are just so enormous, and so many of them didn't have to die. Deforestation is to blame for the severity of the damage, which hasn't been addressed because it's such a poor country and has been in political and economic turmoil for so long. In the space of a few days, the death toll in Haiti has risen to almost 2,500 for the year due to natural disasters. Think about that number. Unbelievably sad. The conditions are horrific. And it's not going to get better for them any time soon.

Mixed emotions #2: Blogging takes center stage in the current issue of Time Magazine. What I'm conflicted about here is that I'm not certain whether this is a good thing or not. Does the blogging world really want it to become so mainstream? How do you ride the fine line between fad and marginalization? But again, it pales in comparison to the sad and ugly stuff above to such a degree that I can't even believe I'm spending time pondering it.

To top it all off: I've never even seen the movie The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

Peri's Pet Parlor

Elliott

Hey, people. This handsome devil is Elliott. Like me, as a kitten he was found wandering around where he shouldn't have been. And, like me, he was taken in by someone with a big, soft, squishy heart and given a great home. Gotta love that.

He's got two sisters, Sophie and Savannah, who Maura says you met already. You know they're keeping him in line and teaching him how to treat a girlcat. Maybe Elliott's mom will tell him about a certain someone who's single and interested in maybe sharing some catnip with him sometime. Yeah, he's a little younger than me, but I've still got fur in all the right places. So if he's cool with it, I could be the pussy for him.

Okay, time to scoot. I think Animal Planet is showing a special on my cousins, the big cats, and I want to pick up a few hunting tips.

Licking the blues

Ah yes, the sun did come out today and I turned that frown upside down!

See, I must be feeling better if I can actually write something that corny. And it didn't even take a bowl of ice cream to get me there. It's amazing what a good night's sleep, some therapeutic morning-time baking and a freaking hysterical site can do for one's attitude.

I had the chance to check out Eric Conveys an Emotion today (via Ernie) and it cracked me up so much that I had no choice but to cheer up. This guy has a wonderfully expressive face and a wicked sense of humor. When you need a laugh or twelve, go to his site and start clicking on the filled emotions on the left. I suggest scrolling to the middle and starting from there if you're in dire need, as he has honed his expressions as he's gone along and from "Mr. Burns' 'Excellent' Face" on, he really hits his stride. When you've gone through them all, take at peek at some of his adventures -- I recommend "The New Pad," which has a cameo by Ernie himself.

I plan to print out the Mask of Doom and stick it up in my cube when I'm having a day like yesterday. I think it will get the "go away and leave me alone" message across much more effectively than the terribly polite note I'm using now.

Have a wonderful, sunshiny weekend.

La femme malheureuse

Well, damn.

I had a miserable morning before I left for work, oversleeping and then fighting with Blogger and Word to get that post done.

I had a miserable morning at work, for reasons I will not go into here, because the very last thing I need is to even risk getting in hot water over having a blog and discussing things I shouldn't.

I had a miserable afternoon because I had developed a wicked headache dealing with the morning.

I ended up working late, had a quick dinner, then got stuck in a grocery store with too few cashiers, when all I wanted was to get home and watch Survivor. Survivor, a bright light in an otherwise crappy day. Scoff if you wish, I do not care.

I had a miserable day here because after spending such an inordinate amount of time and frustration on getting the last post up, it apparently went over like the proverbial lead balloon.

This is not a bid for sympathy. It's me venting so I can move past it. Venting is a kind of sharing, which always makes me feel more positive.

So, in the spirit of sharing, here's a little piece of my day. Now I'm going to go to sleep and hope that tomorrow is a far, far better thing. Good night.

Follow-through

At first, I didn’t have much to say this evening. I had been sitting here for quite a while, waiting for inspiration to either smack me in the head or put me out of my misery, with nothing to show for it. Although I had caught up on the programs I had recorded on TiVo. Not that you needed or wanted to know that.

Anyway, just as I was ready to pack it in and either come here and sheepishly say, "I've got nothing, please come back tomorrow," or make like there had been Internet problems that prevented me from posting altogether -- not that I would do that – I had an actual thought. Thoughts have been in short supply for me today, so this was a moment to savor.

[Ed. - The true irony here is that not three minutes after writing that, I really did inexplicably lose my network connection, which is why this isn’t getting posted until 9:00am the next day. Oh, and I will never, ever, ever again use Word to write a post when that happens, with the intent of "just copying it over." I'm ready to throw the laptop through a window right now.]

I recalled that I had planned to share some of the sites I have found by repeatedly clicking on the "Next Blog" button up there on the Blogger NavBar. I had forgotten about it because, well…the why doesn’t really matter, I suppose. Suffice it to say that some stuff at work has had my mental panties in a twist lately and it’s taking up way too much right-brain space. That makes my left-brain sulky and unwilling to cooperate. Even bribing it with chocolate pudding didn’t work tonight.

So, with no further ado, following are my top five Next Blog finds (in no particular order):

Casual Observations - A new blog with some good writing. It has taken on a fairly political bent -- not that that's a bad thing -- but I like many of the observations, and they're done with humor.

Captain Mac's Random Thoughts - My kind of blog. It’s mostly short posts about neat, sometimes geeky stuff.

Chronicles - A blog written by a Florida resident, who had to deal with the hurricane-a-thon but is now getting on with the minutiae of life.

Serial Blogonomy - An interesting blog by a fellow Sagittarian who works as a dogwalker. As I have been a petsitter for many years, that got my attention. The site also caught my eye because of this post, which reminded me of this post I wrote back in June. It’s a topical and humorous blog.

Nithins Amazing Blog - A blog with a lot of photos, some of which are really cute. The series of pets and kids cracked me up.

There were a few others, but they haven’t been updated very often so I can’t really recommend them yet. Please feel free to share in the comments any new blogs you've found this way.

Yes, we have no post today

I had planned to have one, but circumstance interceded. So, if Gary Bibb can go be a guest blogger just about everywhere else, he can be mine, too, whether he likes it or not. So go check out his new banner and read his stuff today instead. (He claims that's his picture, by the way, but I have my doubts. Seems to me like it might be a bit further down the page.)

And if you really like him (but not too much, because you have to come back!), go check out his wish list at Amazon and drop a couple hundred bucks on him. It's his birthday this weekend, after all. Or so he claims...