Living in fear is no good to anyone.

The movie was good, but not excellent. All of the actors were good, though there's one scene where Brad Pitt breaks his accent while crazy-laughing. The cinematography was all interesting, but I think they overused overexposed shots; it made things feel a little fake/ethereal where I don't think it belonged.

If I had waited for dvd, I think I'd want to have seen it in the theater, but having seen it in the theater, I think I should have waited for dvd. The biggest reason I'm disappointed is due to my expectations being too high.

My birthday is next week, so Movie Night this week will double as a birthday party for me. I've only been a perfect cube twice before and won't be again for 37 years.

You scored as Tweedle Dee & Dum. Yes, you're both - because they're exactly the same. You're quite dumb, and blatantly oblivious to most things going on around you. You love to tell stories and screw around. You're loveable, but sometimes extremely annoying. </td> Tweedle Dee & Dum 69% Caterpillar 25% Cheshire Cat 25% Alice 19% The Mad Hatter 13% Queen of Hearts 13% White Rabbit 0% Which Alice in Wonderland Character are YOU? created with QuizFarm.com

GTA4 will be awesome. (HD wmv video)

Being a Yes and Michael Jackson fan, I think this violin performance is pretty awesome.

Puppies are dangerous.

This joke is terrible/great/the-right-word-doesn't-exist:
http://xkcd.com/c241.html

The new Catbank shirt is awesome.

I used the word awesome a bunch up there. I guess it's just awesome.

This paper on the law of confidentiality looks interesting.

This quiz is kinda lame but kinda ok:
( Polyamory Quiz )

Ours has become a country operated by whichever group of thirty-percenters can bring the heaviest plate of blind, willful ignorance to the table, while shouting and chanting louder than anyone else.

The quote is from the comments, but the article has value. Things won't get better until they get worse because the honorable politicians are very few and far between.


What Does Marsellus Wallace Look Like? (NSFW video of animated text with voice-over.)

I wanted to post this yesterday, but the internet at work broke.

This month of Indian Cooking class is canceled. :( Maybe next month's class will make, assuming we have enough people.

I randomly found the icon I am using. It's silly.

This is cute little flash game: Sprout

DNA wrapping and copying video.

Giant Cadbury Creme Egg

( Everything Meme )

( You are a criminal. :P )

lalabob11, two_pi_r and I won't be in Socorro on Friday night, so there won't be a movie night.

This is weird. On September 11th, 2001, the BBC reported live that the WTC7 had collapsed ~20 minutes before it actually did. The not-yet collapsed building was on screen during the live broadcast. WTC7 is the brown one, right behind her head. If you watch the video, you can see it, or you can scroll down in the article to see stills of it.

How could our government not be interested in an unknown, highly technological object hovering over a major airport, as reported by competent airline personnel? What about passenger safety? Or national security? Or just plain scientific curiosity?

This copyright navigator is really cool.
http://navigator.carolon.net/

For MySpace users:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v209/ichagirl/myspaceass.jpg

A 48 minute video put together by BBC4 about journalists in Iraq:
Iraq:The hidden story

Beatboxing Flute:
"Inspector Gadget Theme/Axel F" Video

A Chewbacca blog:
http://rrrrrrrrrrrrrnnnnnnnnnnhhhh.blogspot.com/

I submitted something to Contrast Podcast again:
Contrast Podcast 047 Alternate Versions

I don't know who miss_tenacity is, but I'll generally friend people I don't know that compliment me* and don't have offensive or boring LJs.

*She may have only been complimenting Elyse and not me**. Also, complimenting me is not a prerequisite for me to friend someone.

**I'm an idiot. The date of her post makes it clear that she was only talking about Elyse since she only just friended me today.

The most important lesson about the Iraq War for reporters was perhaps the simplest one: Don't assume the White House is telling the truth. It's a lesson that many reporters seem to be forgetting now that U.S. officials are escalating their claims about Iran's role in Iraq.

Germany, Italy and Canada are our allies, nations with a profound respect for the rule of law. Whatever the benefits of such circuslike kidnappings — the one in Italy was said to feature an impressive length of stays in luxury hotels — they are not worth the damage they do to our relations with our friends and to our reputation.

An ultra-conservative Washington think tank with direct ties to the Bush Administration is offering a $10,000 bribe to any scientist or economist who will dispute a global warming report released today by the United Nation's top scientific panel.

"I think you have to assume a 27% Crazification Factor in any population."

How increasing ethanol production from corn could cause lots of environmental and economic problems.

Romania "built our country on pirated Windows"

I've known the song for a long time, but I never saw the very weird video until today:
Aphex Twin - Windowlicker

( Mooninite Images )
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignignokt#Ignignokt

A veteran Congress watcher observed recently that the salaries attracted two kinds of individuals to the job, the already quite rich and the crazies with causes. That may be a bit extreme, but there certainly is evidence that many desirable candidates forgo the experience because of both the high cost of campaigning and the relatively low pay, particularly those who are earning far more outside of public office. The hardship is probably more prevalent in the House where two-year terms mean almost perpetual campaigning.

This Daily Show clip isn't exactly new, but I hadn't seen it before:
Bush v. Bush

I want something like this:
http://www.tuffyproducts.com/trunk/071.html (~$400)
or maybe this:
BesTop InstaTrunk (~$140)
There are advantages and disadvantages to both.

These are also cool:
http://www.tuffyproducts.com/door/043.html (~$50 per pair)
http://www.tuffyproducts.com/door/104.html (~$40 each)
http://www.acmejeepparts.com/products/13103_01.htm (~$20)

This looks interesting and is not Jeep related:
http://www.redsavina.com/

Fun music:
http://weebls-stuff.com/toons/hos/
http://weebls-stuff.com/toons/chase+me/

From: noreply@fullturnmedia.com
Subject: Important Update From the Willam Shatner DVD Club
Date: Tue, 2 Jan 2007 16:16:12 -0600

Dear Shatner DVD Club Member,

I am writing to inform you that as of January 1, 2007, William Shatner will no longer be offering his Sci-Fi DVD Club service. Bill has had a great time curating the Shatner Sci-Fi DVD Club, but his partners cannot continue to provide these movies at the current low prices.

It is important to us that we live up to the promise we made to our customers. We are sending you all of your remaining Sci-Fi movies in a single package and we hope that you enjoy them. Thank you for trying out the Shatner DVD Club.

Sincerely,
Karina Margit
Director of Marketing

I'm sad that it won't continue, but at least they'll ship me the rest of the DVDs in my subscription term.

A man in a COONSKIN CAP wants eleven (20) DOLLAR BILLS and you only got TEN.

I've wanted it for a while, but only just got it about a week ago. It's good.

Because the movie is ~3 hours long, the movie will start promptly at 8 p.m. tonight.

This is awesome:
( The wind )

This is even more awesome, but in a very different way:
President Bush -- quite frankly to general surprise -- has ordered that at that moment all classified records more than 25 years old and of historical value "shall be automatically declassified whether or not the records have been reviewed."
I'd be even happier if the cutoff number of years was lower, like 15 or even 5 years, but 25 ain't bad.

There will be a movie night tomorrow (Dec 22), but not one next Friday (Dec 29th). We will be watching Terry Pratchett's Hogfather tomorrow, assuming I can get it to play on my DVD player.

"Christmas makes things sadder and strengthens the cheap plastic crap industry. It's supposed to be about Jesus, and if it truly was, I'm sure I'd have a problem with that too."

Of all the tragic aspects of this national disaster, this is worst: The people who have been catastrophically wrong about everything are still in charge. And a year from now, when things are even worse in Iraq, we can be sure the neoconservatives will still be demanding that yet more American soldiers die so that Kagan and his ilk can continue to live out their increasingly destructive geopolitical fantasies.

Bush's actions don't border on criminal. They are criminal. He's a lunatic with keys to the greatest nuclear arsenal in the world, a madman with heavy artillery, a nutcase with military might.

The study, examining how sexual behavior before marriage has changed over time, was based on interviews conducted with more than 38,000 people — about 33,000 of them women — in 1982, 1988, 1995 and 2002 for the federal National Survey of Family Growth. According to Finer's analysis, 99 percent of the respondents had had sex by age 44, and 95 percent had done so before marriage.

"What If All the Ice Melts?" Myths and Realities

Fork Art

Furries, cute-junkies and potheads will like this safe-for-work animation:
http://www.machwolf.net/flash/puppies.swf

Ages 5+

lamasong bought one of these for milkmandan_rss for his birthday. It looks pretty cool.
http://bigcrazystore.com/pro806390.html

Need to spice up your sex life? Roleplay as George W. Bush fucking America

Notes On A Fridge [On a Spaceship] (Serenity to be specific)

This essay is excellent. Go read it:

All global ambitions are based on a definition of productivity and the good life so alienated from common human reality I am convinced it is wrong and that most people would agree with me if they could perceive an alternative. We might be able to see that if we regained a hold on a philosophy that locates meaning where meaning is genuinely to be found -- in families, in friends, in the passage of seasons, in nature, in simple ceremonies and rituals, in curiosity, generosity, compassion, and service to others, in a decent independence and privacy, in all the free and inexpensive things out of which real families, real friends and real communities are built -- then we would be so self-sufficient we would not even need the material "sufficiency" which our global "experts" are so insistent we be concerned about.

(Thanks for linking to it pflarr)

If you don't know how to play the drums or piano, but do know how to edit film and want to make music:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzqumbhfxRo

houdini_cs told me about Bill Monk at lunch today. I signed up and sent invites to all of the people I owe money to and all of the people that own money to me. It hopefully will replace my widget banking entirely. The EFF likes them quite a bit: Bill Monk Privacy

Nationally syndicated talk show host with 8 million listeners reveals evil Jewish plot.

Non-Newtonian Fluids FTW!!

Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra is fun:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSj6qna3aJc

I went to Smith's at opening today so I could get the biggest turkeys they have on the new sale. Regular price for the 45lbs of turkey (2 birds) would have been about $57. The sale price rang to a total of $15.02 including tax. Whee.

I haven't seen the Borat movie. From the previews it just looks dumb and offensive, so I wasn't interested in seeing it. Most of the people on my friends list that have seen it have been saying it was very funny, but going into no details. silkcorset gave a detailed, negative review. I'm no more interested or disinterested in seeing it after hearing what people have had to say, but the discussion is interesting.

I watched Chinatown today. It was pretty good. While watching it, I noticed something I had never noticed before. Faye Dunaway's face (in 1974 at least) looks incrediby similar to Julia Siles'. Sexy blondes for the win.

This is awesome:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSPvvVfcoAw

( Read more... )

I meant to post this last Wednesday. Then on Thursday I realised I hadn't posted it yet, so I added to it and promptly forgot to post it again. The same happened Friday. Today, I haven't added anything to it other than this intro, but I'm actually remembering to post it now.

Rather than going to Congress and trying to negotiate changes to the law that regulates such activities, the administration simply grabbed that authority for itself, saying, in effect, "Trust us: if you knew what we know about the threat, you'd be perfectly happy to have us do what we're doing." In other areas, like the holding of prisoners in Guantanamo and interrogation methods used there and in the Middle East, one can only quote Moynihan on an earlier era: "As fears of Communist conspiracies and German subversion mounted, it was the U.S. government's conduct that approached the illegal.

Both political parties consider truth an expendable commodity in the pursuit of power. Neither party gives a damn about what's best for the country because the overriding consideration is always what's best for the party.

Need an election rigged?
http://www.fixavote.com/





Paint-spolsion commercial
Behind the Scenes commercial

Can't sleep? (totally safe for everywhere)
http://allenec.livejournal.com/93780.html

I got support points. Wheee!
http://www.livejournal.com/support/see_request.bml?id=650251
I'm not really into doing the support thing, but I do use some the more complex mobile features, so I answer questions when I can. This is the first support request where my answer was unscreened and the user closed the request, awarding me the points. The only other unscreened answer I have is awaiting close. The user may ask another question instead of closing the request though.

( Sci-Fi Movie Meme )

I went over to schlake's house to watch a movie and eat dinner. The movie turned out to be Star Wars. The scenes where Murat tears the arms off of red fur-monsters and beats the monsters to death with the arms are pretty awesome. The trampoline-fighting scenes are fun too.

October 13th:
JPL has traveled too much of late, and we're all in need of some rest. Also, I have stuff I need to do in Socorro early Saturday morning. So, we won't be going up to pwned_kisa's party (sorry), but we won't be hosting a movie night either. I'll be here, and people can come over, but I won't be making food or generally making a big deal of anything.

October 20th:
It's 49ers weekend. There will be a movie night. I am making a South Carolina pulled pork barbecue and slaw. I'll probably also make corn and have a bunch of cheap beer to go along with it. Everyone should come.

October 27th:
There will be a movie night. Since I think this weekend is Rocky Horror weekend, I assume extra Albuquerque people we know will be around. They are welcome to stay here Friday and/or Saturday as needed.

November looks good for movie nights except for Thanksgiving weekend. I don't know of anything going on in November other than Thanksgiving, so I plan on movie nights on November Fridays. There will probably not be a movie night Thanksgiving weekend, but there will be the big Thanksgiving dinner at king_luddite's house. I'll post and email more details soon.

I've made two new icons recently:

   

This comic is silly:

Watch the two videos linked below:
http://flemco.livejournal.com/1478424.html?thread=18309912#t18309912

There is no Movie Night tomorrow as JPL will be at baronj's party.

There may not be a movie night next week as I will be in Denver and lalabob11 and two_pi_r may not want to host one.

Weird Al - White And Nerdy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZhuz9Gbgk8&eurl=
It's pretty good.

The Muppet Swedish chef video page:
http://www.alluvium.com/~wes/chef/

When you sweep away the hype, the lies and the politics of George W. Bush's so-called "war on terror," you are left with one inescapable conclusion: The President of the United States is at war with freedom.

In Bush's myopic view of the world, freedom is expendable. Freedom has no place in a Presidency where power is everything and the only opinion can be his.

Many commentators have noted the apparent irony: The pope suggests Islam encourages violence--and Muslims riot in protest.

Many commentators have pointed out the apparent hypocrisy: Muslims are outraged by cartoons satirizing Islamic extremism while in Muslim countries Christianity and Judaism are attacked viciously and routinely.

Many commentators are missing the point: These protesters and those who incite them are not asking for mutual respect and equality. They are not saying: "It's wrong to speak ill of a religion." They are saying: "It's wrong to speak ill of our religion." They are not standing up for a principle. They are laying down the law. They are making it as clear as they can that they will not tolerate "infidels" criticizing Muslims. They also are making it clear that infidels should expect criticism and much worse from Muslims.

In a speech on the five-year anniversary of 9/11, the president described our enemies as "extremists" who have perverted religion into "a totalitarian ideology that hates freedom [and] rejects tolerance." It is long past time that our activists explain to the country what we, as gay Americans, know to be true: on the issue of homosexuality at least, Bush and his conservative allies are practicing what they preach against.

The Absurdity of Fear

The story of Oedipus, in 8 minutes, performed by vegetables:
http://www.oedipusthemovie.com/

When failed, flawed candidates are the only choices, all you get is a failed, flawed President.

George Carlin - Owners of This Country

I haven't filled out many other people's memes yet because I've been busy at work. I should get to it Monday though.

The movie was gorgeous and carefully paced if predictable. It was the second best new film I've seen in a long while, with "Lucky Number Slevin" being the best in over a year. If you like romances or mysteries, go see it.

Yesterday I ate some good seafood, but little of it was exceptional. The one that was exceptional was the dungeoness crab cocktail at Anthony's in Kirkland. I spent over two hours in Uncle's Games in the Redmond Town Center talking with the manager and playing some games. I ended up buying 5 new games: Niagra, Giza, Tsuro, Alahambra, and Across The Desert. They all look to be varying levels of awesome.

This morning I woke up at 0430 so I could be on the road by 0500 so I could get to the Anacortes Ferry in time to make the 0740 ferry out to the San Juans. The day is up in the air; I have no particular plans other than to try and see pretty things.

Tomorrow evening I'll be going to see The Illusionist and get dinner with some PAX friends and later go to see Blank and Jones (crazy German DJs) in Seattle.

I'll be back in NM Saturday night.

I think I didn't post about it before, but there is a movie night tonight. lalabob11 and I are making a vegetable stew. We're using vegetables from radiatorcliffs' mom's garden along with some of my tomatoes and some stuff from the store. I'm going to make corn bread and maybe rice to go along with it.

Does anyone recognise this zombie-killing board game?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lobstar/63396648/

And if you want to know what you can do to help? Don't be terrorized. They terrorize more of us if they kill some of us, but the dead are beside the point. If we give in to fear, the terrorists achieve their goal even if they were arrested. If we refuse to be terrorized, then they lose -- even if their attacks succeed.

"When it comes to terrorism, much of our political leadership appears to have lost both its nerve and its mind."

Regulating Research
http://www.badscience.net/?p=278

GTA: Lego City
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9ShVV8L_o0&NR

Jonas Geirnaert graduation project "FLATLIFE" (2004), selected for Short Films in competition at the Cannes Film Festival 2004.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5377830501271604815

U.S. history as I was taught it:
The U.S. history classes I had up through 8th grade were wholly cheerleading: "America is awesome! Yay!"
The classes I had in high school were better; things were taught more objectively. The classes focused on "rule of law" and how the laws changed over time.
In college, the U.S. history classes (I took both that were offered, pre 1865 and post 1865) were focused on once core topic, and were cheerleadery about it. The topic was "slavery is bad." ALL of the material covered was brought back to that point.
I would estimate that I know more about U.S. history than the average American, but my knowledge is clearly biased and has gaps due to the courses I've taken.

Bush declares himself absolute ruler: It's 'my government'

Retroactive War Crime Protection Proposed

The Bush administration drafted amendments to the War Crimes Act that would retroactively protect policymakers from possible criminal charges for authorizing any humiliating and degrading treatment of detainees, according to lawyers who have seen the proposal.

James McMurtry's "You Can't Make It Here Any More":
http://scoffeepie.livejournal.com/224510.html

Information and authentic videos of metals reacting violently with water:
Sodium Party
Alkali Metal Bangs

A parody of "The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny":
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/330027
It is very vulgar, with penises flapping around everywhere, but it pretty accurately spoofs every scene in the original.

There will be a movie night at JPL tomorrow. Dinner will be something involving chicken, probably roasted. The movie will be The Aristocrats.


Ernie and Bert Explore a Pyramid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nSmWHHZpVE

An icon I think many of you will like:



A Nation of Wimps from Psychology Today by way of ravendisplayed.
One quote I found very appropriate from my experience with many of my peers and younger people:

The perpetual access to parents infantilizes the young, keeping them in a permanent state of dependency. Whenever the slightest difficulty arises, "they're constantly referring to their parents for guidance," reports Kramer. They're not learning how to manage for themselves.

So many of the people I see in college have no idea how to deal with simple situations necessary for living an independent life. It's a sad position for our society to be in.


How does the risk of terrorism measure up against everyday dangers?
A False Sense of Insecurity?
BY JOHN MUELLER
Ohio State University
BoingBoing's description of the paper:

Only traitors try to make us afraid of terrorists.
In this mind-blowing, exhaustively researched Cato institute paper by Ohio State University's John Mueller, the case against being afraid of terrorism is laid out in irrefutable logic, backed with credible, documented statistics about terrorism's risks.

Lincoln:

You might reply that our liberties define our nation: If we abandon them, we give up on America itself. But Abraham Lincoln said otherwise, and lucky for us. By sacrificing a bit of freedom for suspected Confederate sympathizers, he helped win freedom for nearly 4 million enslaved African-Americans.

I think it was worth it. And I bet you do, too.

Until we Democrats can specify when and how we'd take the same harsh measures that Lincoln did, we don't deserve to sit under his mantle. Or to run the country.

The author takes a naive view of the Civil War as being primarily about freeing slaves, but I had never known that Lincoln had many people imprisoned without charges. I think slavery ending was a good thing, and the war did cause that, but other things could/would have done it too, given time (possibly a civil war or slave revolt internal to the Confederacy; possibly economic pressure from other countries; possibly something else). Regardless of the state of the slaves, I feel the Union should have let the Confederates secede and let the issues between the nations work themselves out over time instead of flatly rejecting the Confederacy's negotiation attempts, forcing the Battle of Fort Sumter (the first battle in the war).

This is awesome silly:
http://snakesonaplane.varitalk.com/

I got a weird spam that says I'm not allowed to tell people about it. That's crap; I'm not a customer of theirs. The email was unsolicited, so I'll do whatever I want with it.
( Here it is )

Friday night we can't go up to Albuquerque for the Imbri movie night because lalabob11 has to work Saturday morning. For people who can't/won't go up to the Imbri movie night, there will be a movie night at JPL, but I'm not cooking dinner because I'm not in the mood to deal with it.

Saturday night, lalabob11 should be off work by 8 p. m. Once she's off, we'll leave for Albuquerque to attend admiral_jc and faeflitt's going away party. We would like to stay with someone in Albuquerque that night.

Assuming we can stay somewhere in Albuquerque Saturday night, on Sunday, on the way home we'll stop in Belen at Auge's (a car dealership). Today I went for a test-drive in a Jeep Wrangler Sport. I'm going to go on another test-drive on Sunday to get a better feel for it. I liked it, but I'm not sure if I want to buy one yet.

A big hurdle was my uncomfortableness with manual transmissions, but my insistence that the next vehicle I get has one. The Wrangler I'm looking at is a 6 speed and is geared low for off-road use (all the Wranglers are). It being geared low is nice for me because starting from a stop (the situation when I and most people out of practice with manuals stall most often) is easy and I plan on using it primarily for off-road/camping trips. My test drive was only about 10 miles long, but I did have 5 starts from a stop and was also able to spend a bit of time in each of the 6 gears. I didn't stall at any time, and my only significantly rough shift was from 2nd to 3rd while making a left turn while being tailgated by an aggressive pickup.

Telephone Discovery:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnVMe-kXE_0

Yip-Yip Martians:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yip-Yips

There is a movie night at SJLP tonight. Next week there is a movie night at Casa Imbri (I believe one of them posted about it).

If any of the Imbri people come down tonight, please bring my pie plate. If not, I'll get it next week, assuming we go up (which is likely).

Personal stuff:

Does anyone know/know of any NM attorneys experienced with poly and/or gay partnership legal issues?

There is a movie night tomorrow. lalabobo11 already picked the movie we'll watch, but I forget what it is called; it's something with Angelina Jolie that was made after Hackers but before she was really famous. We'll be making empanadas for dinner. Some will be spicy beef, some will be mild beef, a few will be mild apricot and a very small number will be spicy apricot. People bringing food to share is always welcome too.

I bought plane tickets and reserved a rental car for my trip to WA next month. I'll be flying in on August 24th and leaving on September 2nd. I've got a hotel reserved for Aug 24th through Aug 29th checkout. I'll figure out the other nights as the time gets closer (I have a bunch of friends in the area that I can probably stay with and some of them have already been contacted). The days I have the hotel for are the days I'll be busy with Penny Arcade Expo. The rest of my time up there is there for me to visit with people and do some touristy things.

Other stuff:

According to the IRS, in 2001 (the most recent year examined) the government lost more than $340 billion in uncollected taxes. This is money that is actually owed to the federal government — not money that taxpayers have been able to legally avoid paying through creative accounting or the clever use of loopholes. This is a substantial sum. It is approximately 20 times what the federal government spends on Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) each year, the main welfare program for poor families. It is 55 times what the federal government spends on Head Start and almost 100 times annual foreign aid spending for Sub-Saharan Africa. Alternatively, the taxes that go unpaid each year are 30 percent of what the federal government actually collects in income taxes (personal and corporate). This means that if the federal government could find a way to get tax evaders to pay their bills, then tax rates could be reduced for everyone by 25 percent, and the federal government would have the same amount of money.

Download Muppet Music! They've got lots of stuff, including almost all of the music from Fraggle Rock.

Also somewhat related to Muppets, a company is selling plush sex dolls that look kinda like Muppets with large breasts:
http://www.teddy-babes.com/ (NSFW)

Drawings of stereotypical fan convention attendees (specifically ComicCon):
http://storyboredom.blogspot.com/
Some of the drawings and descriptions are really accurate to the sorts of people I often have to deal with at cons.

I haven't tried it yet, but this thing is supposed to be able to figure out what song you're thinking of from you tapping the vocal melody with your space bar:
http://www.songtapper.com/s/tappingmain.bin
If it works, it would be useful if you need to find a song but can't remember anything about it but a few lyrics.

Yesterday my back was in horrible pain nearly all day. Last night I decided that if it still hurt in the morning, I would go to the doctor instead of work. I went. I'm to stay on the anti-inflammatory I'm already taking (I got a script of Oxaprozin for my back pain about a year ago and still have a bunch left because I don't take them often) and to do some specific stretches the doctor showed me. I'll go in to work after lunch; I'm feeling lazy for now.

( Movie Meme )

The movie wasn't very good. The beginning was so bad I was about to stop watching and then the very silly character, Rodger, appeared and made the movie watchable long enough for me to be willing to watch the rest. The original was a much better movie, and far more serious, but still somewhat cheesy. The new one had one line that made me laugh out loud though: "Where would people never notice a town full of robots? Connecticut!"

Unrelated to the plot, I noticed that as Matthew Broderick gets older and heavier, he looks more and more like John Ritter.

I'm taking a sick day today. My back has been acting up and this morning it transferred some of its pain to my stomach, making it cramp lots. I've spend less than 30 minutes out of bed so far today; I hope to continue that trend.

There will be a Movie Night tomorrow. I'm not sure what movie we'll watch, but we'll think of something. I made a beef brisket and bowl of potato salad for my house and Anthony's visiting siblings on the 4th. I made a vegetarian stew last Sunday. There are lots of leftovers, so they will become dinner tomorrow. I'm also going to make a big batch of garlic cornbread to go along with the leftovers.

UPDATE: It looks like there are less of the leftovers than I thought, so in addition to the above lalabob11 is going to make 2 loaves of bread (one cheesey and one saugage and cheesey).

I'm not sure about my housemates, but at the very least, I won't be going up to admiral_jc's movie night tomorrow. I need a restful weekend and weekends where I travel aren't restful enough. For those not attending the other movie night, you are welcome to come over tomorrow (Friday) evening and hang out/watch a movie. I'm feeling lazy and won't be making dinner.

Fabulous He Man sings!
It's a very silly video from here.

Having never studied Latin and always having had a very tough time learning languages, my results are better than I expected:
( Latin Test )

Iraq's National Security Adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie wrote an op-ed in yesterday's Washington Post describing Iraq's wishes for the removal of nearly all U.S. troops by the end of 2007:
The Way Out of Iraq: A Road Map
(Logins you can use for washingtonpost.com)

Homeland Security, the $40-billion-a-year agency set up to combat terrorism after 9/11, has been given universal jurisdiction and can hold anyone on Earth for crimes unrelated to national security — even me for a court date I missed while I was in Iraq helping America deter terror — without asking what I had been doing in Pakistan among Islamic extremists the agency is designated to stop. Instead, some of its actions are erasing the lines of jurisdiction between local police and the federal state, scarily bringing the words "police" and "state" closer together. As long as we allow Homeland Security to act like a Keystone Stasi, terrorism will continue to win in destroying our freedom.

Bruce Schneier has chosen a winner for his Movie Plot Threat Contest.
His Wired article about the contest and choosing a winner.

Why Israel's Airport Security Methods Will Not Work In The U.S.

sacra_imbri is hosting Movie Night at Apartment Imbri in Albuquerque, so there will be no Movie Night at SJLP this Friday. I need my tomatoes watered sometime before 1000 on Saturday, but since SJLP will still be in Albuquerque, I can't water them myself. Can one of you help me out?

After I posted last night, I ended up screaming myself hoarse at the unruly line for Rocky Horror. Once we got them in the room, I went to bed. I got about 4 hours of sleep.

Morning was calm. I bought a nice Totoro plushie, finding him for sale at only two dealers (specific size and color) and offered the dealer with the higher price the chance to undercut the other. He didn't take it, so I went to the one with the already lower price. I also decided that I'm not going to buy any of the cels I looked at yesterday. Things looked like they'd be nice and easy til the evening (i.e. no fires for me to put out) and I was tired, so I went and took a nap. I was able to get another ~2.5 hours of sleep. I saw angryvirginrec when I was on my way to my nap, but was too tired to do much. I didn't see him for the rest of the day; I hope he had fun.

The afternoon was ok until 1600 when we had to start dealing with the lines for cosplay. The lines were hellish and we had to turn at least 700 people away once the room was full.

Then we were organizing the forming lines for the concert (this was at 1900; the concert wasn't supposed to start until 2200). Cosplay ran about 40 minutes long, it having started about 30 minutes late. Then there were some sort of setup issues in the theater which delayed us more. We ended up opening the doors at 2350, about 2 hours late. The crowd (over 2000 people) was in the room by 0015. I ran away to bed, assuming the show would run without me.

I got up to my room, and started writing this post. Just now (actually, between paragraphs 3 and 4), lying in bed, I got a phone call about shutting down a room party a few floors up. Security is being called to take care of it. This day doesn't want to end. I'm hoping I can get to sleep.

The pre-reg lines were heavy/crazy from before 0700 to about 1600. It should be similar tomorrow. We had a few small issues throughout the day but generally everything was chill. I bought a few gifts for some people and have an idea for another gift for someone (assuming I get her shirt size). I will probably buy a Kiki's Delivery Service cel tomorrow. The cel dealer has a bunch of new stuff since Nan Desu Kon last fall, but none of it really interests me. I chatted with superhappy for a while and also picked up my copies of his book.

Therel (my boss at the con) took Dustin (one of the other Troubleshooters) and I out to dinner at a really good, hole-in-the-wall chinese place. We had duck soup and a duck with mixed meats (pork, squid, beef) and vegetables entree, beef with garlic sauce and mu shu shrimp.

Tomorrow I'll be up at 0600 again so I can be down at the lines by 0700. Hopefully there are fewer people so things are slightly less crazy. Sometime during the day I plan on having my photo taken with Peter Mayhew. I should also see angryvirginrec tomorrow.