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Destroying thought in order to save it
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| | Subject: | The Onion AV Club reminds me I have never done this | | Time: | 02:28 pm |
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| | I think it's finally time for me to get around to watching Road House. | comments: 7 comments or Leave a comment   |
| | Subject: | Attn Spammers! I hate you | | Time: | 01:39 pm |
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| I just zapped my AIM address in my profile because it's been generating spam IMs. Anyone else who lists an IM address in their profile notice this? A few minutes after I make a post I get a bizarre IM. This happened today, and maybe half a dozen times in the past. But I finally connected it with LJ today.
Send FIRE. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | And be (and be) the best (the best) in the nation | | Time: | 10:28 am |
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| Things about each rank, as professed by Chaz Jankel in his song "Number One"*:
Number One:
*is a hard time in the making
*is the one way to salvation
Number Two:
*is the one plane I'm not taking
Number Three:
*goes on one knee for a token
Number Four:
*is the short straw, but it's broken
Number Five:
*is a bad drive 'round the circuit
Number Six:
*is a sad trick when you're working
*As heard in Real Genius, starring Gabe Jarret. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | Various Indiana Jones themes in my head | | Subject: | OMG nerd | | Time: | 01:21 pm |
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| | I'm going to be playing an unhealthy amount of Lego Indiana Jones this weekend. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | I don't even know why the scientists make them | | Time: | 09:20 am |
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| I'm going to Seattle next week for library conferencing. I just heard a cheesy Seattle joke about being sure not to miss the Seattle rain festival, which only lasts from January 1-December 31.
Zing!
Also going to watch the Mariners lose in person, and hit the Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame, which has the following two exhibitions:
1. Jimi Hendrix
2. Robots
!!!!1!!one | | comments: 5 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | First class FOREVER | | Time: | 01:10 pm |
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| I just learned that the stamps I bought a month or so ago are special FIRST CLASS FOREVER stamps. Which means they are impervious to future postal rate increases. I figured I would have to buy a bunch of 1-cent stamps to make these work again, but I DO NOT! I can only assume I was the sole recipient of these special stamps, as reward for my years of dutiful post office usage.
Behold my future mailing prowess! | | comments: 9 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | How to rid yourself of your "economic stimulus" check in one easy step | | Time: | 11:21 am |
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| | 1. Buy a new suit. | | comments: 7 comments or Leave a comment |
| KNOW YOUR 1980s DENVER BRONCOS now WITH NEW ICON
This week, a special 10th edition of Know Your 1980s Denver Broncos, with NEW ICON and my favorite 1980s Denver Bronco, #81, Steve Watson.
 Steve joined the team in 1979 as an undrafted free agent, yet went on to become of the best receivers in Broncos history. He remains entrenched in the team's all-time receiving record book, standing at fifth in total yards, seventh in receptions, and eighth in touchdowns. His best year came in 1981, when he posted his career bests in yards and touchdowns and was named to the Pro Bowl.
Steve played in Super Bowl XXI, in which the Broncos were pummeled by the Giants 39-20, and in Super Bowl XXII, in which the Broncos were pummeled by the Washington Native Americans 42-10, although he didn't start the latter game. I'm not sure exactly how much he played in that game, if he was injured or simply demoted, but I believe his presence could have pulled the score to a more respectable 42-17.
So what makes Steve Watson so awesome? Steve is my favorite 1980s Denver Bronco, and second all-time favorite player, behind only Terrell Davis. He was a prominent player on my favorite team, and played wide receiver, a position I wanted to play. (This was before I learned that wide receivers are expected to be able to run fast, eliminating any chance I could play it, and also before I realized that youth football does not have a passing game per se, but rather eleven kids running roughly in the same direction on cue. Both of these factors would cause me to abandon my aspirations to play professional football around the age of 10.) Also of note: my parents turned me on to eating salad by convincing me that Steve Watson ate salad*.
Today Steve continues his work with the team as Associate Head Coach. I have no idea what this title entails, but it might mean that he will ascend to the head coaching position one day when Mike Shanahan disappears under mysterious circumstances. He had spent the previous four years as wide receivers coach.
It was difficult to do lazy internet research on Steve Watson because he has a son also named Steve Watson who plays tight end for Michigan. Also, there is a Steve Watson "footballer" who plays for Sheffield Wednesday, and I officially do not understand soccer team names. This is, in fact, Wikipedia's primary Steve Watson. Whereas my hero Steve Watson was relegated to the Steve Watson (American Football) disambiguation. So it was hard to isolate any of the three football playing Steve Watsons in my ten minutes of fastidious research. But enjoy this video of the 1984 Broncos in pictures, with cheesy 1980s music accompaniment.
*Nowadays I eat salad because I believe George Clooney eats salad. | | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Tags: | polls | | Subject: | Grammarmisms | | Time: | 11:04 am |
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| Also I noticed yesterday that the new version of Word recognizes and automatically capitalizes "Wikipedia."
Poll #1181387 Grammarmisms
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: AllCapitalized? One word or two? Oxford comma? | | comments: 6 comments or Leave a comment |
| My book-reading fiscal year ends April 30. Here is my report, submitted for your approval.
This year I completed 40 books. It would've been more, but the fiscal year ended when I was in the middle of three, and I had to put them all aside to get a fourth read by an interlibrary loan due date. So those will all end up on next year's accounts.
For the third year in a row, a pretty great set of books. I'm still catching up, really, from many years spent in college and grad school, when recreational reading was nigh impossible. So my "to-read" list is still miles long, and contains many books I am very eager to get through. Nor does the list really shrink, so it threatens to remain incomplete even as death grows ever closer.
My favorite new read of the year was probably Jimmy Corrigan: the Smartest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware. It's a graphic novel, but it counts. I'm happy to have done some RE-reading this year, which I hadn't done in a while. I re-read Ursula Le Guin's The Dispossessed and Asimov's Foundation trilogy, and I'm pleased to report they are both still awesome. Neil Stephenson's Cryptonomicon cemented him as one of my favorite writers, but the man has serious logorrhea. As much as I like him, it's hard to imagine actually undertaking his Baroque Cycle books, which clock in at about 2700 pages. I mean, when it's that or like nine other books, you know?
I ticked off six more Hugo winners from the list. (Le Guin and Asimov were winners but they were re-reads, so already tallied.) I've got aboout 30 to go, and seem to get through about 5-7 a year. So I think I'm going to have to postpone the Hugo Award Winner completion party until probably early 2013. I'll let you know.
( The list )
Oh yeah, if any of you are on GoodReads, hit me up on the friend-o-matic. | | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | Ouch | | Time: | 11:58 am |
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| This morning I went to the dentist and was punished for not being a good flosser.
Everyone remember to floss tonight. | | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | The upcoming helium crisis? | | Time: | 02:12 pm |
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| From Wired:
"1 Although helium is the second-most-plentiful element in the cosmos — it's synthesized in stars by nuclear fusion — Earth is running short of the noble gas. Extracted from natural gas, our supply accumulated in the planet's crust over billions of years — the result of radioactive decay. One-third of that stash lies in the Texas panhandle, and if it continues to be consumed at the current rate, it'll be gone in nine years."
Weird. I kinda think we can just make more (with SCIENCE), but the presumption is that it's more expensive to do so.
Also I thought this gallery of pictures of people recreating pictures of themselves as kids was interesting. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | Of marginal interest | | Time: | 04:51 pm |
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| Today, Thursday, for me, is Friday. Because I'm taking tomorrow, Friday, off, making it my Saturday. But it's not that great because I'm working Saturday and Sunday, so those will be like Monday and Tuesday. Anyway, I plan to spend my Saturday (your Friday) sleeping a lot and reading, and will probably watch a somewhat meaningless Pirates-Cubs game mid-day just because it's on TV and I can.
So on Monday, which I guess for me will be like Wednesday, I have jury duty. JURY DUTY. I have never actually had jury duty before. The one other time I was drawn I had just moved out of the county so I got out of it (very conveniently, wouldn't you agree?).
I recently gave up on Metroid Prime 2: Echoes because I couldn't beat one of the major bosses near the end. The internet tells me there is only a bit more gameplay after this creature before fighting the actual endgame boss, which is presumably even more difficult. Granted, I only gave this boss maybe five tries. The salient point here is that I exhibited the same behavior towards Metroid Prime (the first). I got to the end boss, couldn't beat him in a handful of tries, and never felt altogether compelled to work harder at it. I enjoy the exploring part of these games, but I guess I don't have the patience anymore to devote a lot of time to defeating frustrating bosses. Since I've arrived at the end (or virtually the end) of the game anyway, there's little incentive to struggling to defeat the boss when there's no reward of further exploration.
So instead I'm playing Adventures of Lolo 2 on wii virtual console. But I'm stuck on that too. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | I'm happy The Office is back, but I request more Creed and more Kevin | | Time: | 04:06 pm |
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| "The reason I wanted to write about yetis in the first place is that they fascinate me. They live exactly the life I want to lead. They rarely interact with humans, they live in the forest, and once in a while they pop up in pictures from your camping trip. The only difference is that I don’t want to have hair all over like that. My father was a hairy guy and it didn’t really do him any good. I prefer to be smooth. Other than that, sign me up for life as a yeti."
(From Creed Thoughts.) | | comments: 5 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | Some things that aren't so interesting I shouldn't be talking about them online | | Time: | 04:07 pm |
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| *I'm thinking of taking up either Strat-o-matic baseball or Baseball Mogul, baseball simulation games designed mostly for one player. But I'm concerned either one will cause permanent damage to my ability to socialize.
*I was leading the work March Madness pool from Days 2-18. Only the tournament lasts 19 days. I got the ultimate outcome wrong and was swallowed up by those who did not. I wouldn't complain except as a pool Commissioner leading the pool for almost the entire duration, I was subject to various accusations of having rigged the outcome. So, I came to feel it was my destiny to take everyone's money and destroy everyone's trust. Then this didn't happen, and I feel empty, somehow.
*Speaking of not winning, our pub trivia team has now gone through a pretty substantial stretch of not winning. We were consistently winning and placing in the beginning, but haven't done better than second or third for a few months, and often not that well. Our adversaries seem to be gaining strength and consistency. For my part, despite being degreed in the sciences, and an information professional in the sciences, I feel that I am not reliably able to answer science trivia questions. Clearly there is a significant difference between the type of science information I need to work with on a daily basis, and what tends to come up in pub trivia. Nevertheless, it wouldn't hurt for me to find a way to memorize the periodic table. | | comments: 7 comments or Leave a comment |
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Destroying thought in order to save it
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blue_straggler's journal
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