Still here. Still reading the flist, even.

I'm busy with RL. I'm all right. Hope you are, too.

There's a blood-pressure machine in a corner of the cafeteria at work. I discovered it on my way out this evening, and had to stop to get a reading. I hate the automated cuff: cuts off my circulation and makes my arm and hand one mass of painful tingles. Sphygmos are much better!

Results: blood pressure 93/58, pulse 67. So, yes, I remain on the cusp of zombiehood.

Running around, getting ready for the workshop and for Movie Night. Yay, weekend!

Audiobook: "Gaius, known as Caligula—"
Me: "Woo-hoo!" (My favorite Caesar/emperor, you know.)

I'm upbeat for some reason. Might be the lack of sleep, might be the caffeine (black tea, mmmm), might be the Friday, but it's all bright-eyed cheer for me right now. The office is quiet, keyboards clicking and clacking industriously away; I feel part of an efficiently working machine. Go, us!

Up late last night packing away my DVDs into the travel cases I bought at Target. I have pictures!

( One small step towards moving . . . )

Disc 2 of the Gladiator extended edition, which I just bought from Barnes & Noble with a coupon, was my background noise: making-of documentaries, yum. I can't wait to go home tonight and watch the actual movie, with its 17 additional minutes of footage and commentary by Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe, with a big bowl of popcorn and the last of the Zinfadel. Then right to bed!

Busy this weekend with dojo stuff, but I'd like to start packing (and inventorying in the process) the book collection. I have a drawing idea that's eating my brain, so I'll see if I can find time to sit down and sketch at some point, too.

So, yeah. The trailer for the Watchmen movie is filling up the 'tubes right now (for example), and . . . mm. Want. Piles and piles of glossy, crunchy, apocalyptic want.

I can only hope I like it better than 300. (Shut up, Frank Miller.)

ETA: On the third viewing, I think my favorite part might be President Nixon on the TV monitors at 0:45. I always did groove best to the political stuff in the source material (which had better not be fucked around with too much). Dr. Manhattan's rematerialization in the cafeteria (at 1:17) runs a close second. I loved his story.

ETA2: That the way the clips are edited together tells much of the plot (the connections, the secrets, etc.) is promising. Maybe they won't mess it up.

A snapshot of my inbox:


Damn straight, "typos corrected." It's what we do!

I'm kinda in love with Sean Tevis right now. Even the bullet points at the end are funny!

With all the Dark Knight anticipation running around in excited circles on my flist, I might as well say it:

I didn't like Batman Begins.

Rented it, watched it on the Fourth of July, couldn't understand what the fuss was about. Two stars out of five (to use Netflix's rating system), and I gave it that much only for the pretty CGI and the creepy-crazy and pretty Cillian Murphy (and for Liam Neeson, always and forever). Blah movie. I'll wait to rent the sequel.

While I'm at it: Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle? Sucks. I had to force myself to finish it at the end of last month, chanting through gritted teeth, "Maybe the funny part is coming, maybe the funny part is coming, maybe . . ."

All right, pillory me in comments if you must.

I bought two sets of dice last week: white numbers on smoke-grey. Goes perfectly with the grey bag I'd kept around the house for them.

I have three 4E characters already rolled: a warlock, a paladin, and a ranger. I really want to play one of the first two, but the ranger would be okay, too. I wrote up history, personality, and appearance for each one, and I'll be making sketches of the warlock and paladin because it'd be fun to stretch the artistic muscles a little (I hope the paladin's sketch, especially, comes out well; it looks awesome in my mind's eye).

Now I just need to find a game. The first arrangement is on hold for lack of players, but I just heard back from another organizer, who's getting together a small group for a one-shot adventure to see how well we might mesh together for a longer campaign.

So this weekend hasn't been all errands and drudgery. Yay.

Busy two days. Nearly completely tired out. Why:

( Technically, I should have used an ordered list, not bullet points, but what-the-fuck-ever )

Happily, a nap is in my future — as soon as I balance my checkbook and pay bills, that is. (Laundry and vacuuming will have to wait until I'm awake again.) I need to eat lunch, too, as late as it is. Tonight, I'll do those remaining chores, work with the new apartment's floor plan (furniture planning, etc.), and maybe have some ice cream after dinner because I've earned it.

Skipping qigong tonight, at least, in favor of tai chi instead on Tuesday, to get ready for the visit of one of the Chen family masters this week. He's coming to the Wednesday-night class and doing a workshop next weekend, and I'd like to get in the extra practice. The workshop is why I did so much this weekend, since the next one is going to be nearly 100% dojo. The subsequent three weekends should be better: just the usual errands and classes. Plenty of time for getting more boxes, which is the biggest requirement. Packing, I can do throughout the week, but I need supplies first.

There. Ha. All the books I own in the world now fit into four bookcases (two bags of castoffs to sell), and I know how many individual DVDs (the actual discs) I have: 451.

To do this weekend, probably in order: get address-change form at post office, get certified check at bank, sell books, buy groceries at Trader Joe's and Petco, buy boxes at U-Haul, see Eddie Izzard show, sign lease, buy DVD storage at Target or Best Buy, do laundry, go to qigong. Sleep would be good, too.

Icon purely because it makes me laugh and laughing is a good way to go to bed.

A slice of goat cheese from the Cheese Festival, a bowl of homemade Cajun beans and ham, and a piece of toasted garlic bread — yum, yum!

The tablespoon of red pepper powder, teaspoon of red chili pepper, and twelve garlic cloves I used for the beans was definitely the way to go. (The original recipe called for, mm, not quite that much. Of any of it.)

Possibly no gaming tonight; must bag up books and DVDs for taking to Half Price this weekend, and count the remaining DVDs so I know how much Case Logic storage to buy. If I have time, I'll finish weeding out the closets, too. Have to remember to call the new place tomorrow to set up an appointment for signing the lease (also this weekend) and stop by the bank for a certified check for the deposit balance to go with the signing. Moving: what an adventure!

The water lilies in Lake Washington are in bloom: pointy white flowers opening up to the sky. They make me happy (and make me think of harvesting Sacred Lotus Seeds, of course).

I wasn't up until 2:45 A.M. this morning, playing Civ Rev. Not me!

Or at least a copy of Civilization Revolution here on the desk in front of me. Gonna pop that baby into the Xbox tonight after tai chi and show the world how it's done.

I keep forgetting that I'm seeing Eddie Izzard in concert this Saturday, and then remembering and being happy about it all over again. Sometimes my memory is just the gift that keeps on giving!

Dammit. Only 28 Senators voted against the Warrantless Wiretaps and Telecom Immunity 4eva Bill:

Akaka, Biden, Bingaman, Boxer, Brown, Byrd, Cantwell, Cardin, Clinton, Dodd, Dorgan, Durbin, Feingold, Harkin, Kerry, Klobuchar, Lautenburg, Leahy, Levin, Menendez, Murray, Reed, Reid, Sanders, Schumer, Stabenow, Tester, Wyden.

That's a nice list. Pity it's so short. But who needs the Fourth Amendment, anyway?

(H/t: Hullabaloo and the indispensable Glenn Greenwald.)

There, done. Fantastic. Love the Admin Console.

Choosing "weird" for this post's mood because the image comes from one of my favorite PA comics, about the lesbian sex in Mass Effect. The podcast of its creation (MP3) is hilarious, too.

Back to work! Or else I'd be looking for a fifth . . .

Seven old icons rotated out; seven new icons added in their place. Raided iconomicon's latest for most of the replacements, including this one. I just really like preying mantises, even the GIANT RADIOACTIVE MUTANT OH MY GOD IT'S RIGHT BEHIND YOU kind.

Need a new mood theme, too. Tomorrow!

Today's goal: work 9.0 hours. I'll get home late, but I'll be able to leave early on other days this week!

Such freedom is important for getting to the dojo on time on Wednesday . . . and for picking up Civilization Revolution when it drops, also probably on Wednesday. (Seriously: I'm going to get that game and disappear from sight, y'all. Between that and the moving stuff . . .)

Via skywaterblue. Interesting to take, in that a lot of questions are about your partner and I've never had a partner. I've barely even been on dates in my life (once or twice, I think; it was vague). I stick to friendships and my own company, and the results show it:

( Sigh no more, ladies . . . )

I started a new game of Oblivion this weekend, sorta like comfort food, and because for all the hundreds of hours I've poured into the game, I've never played an Argonian. Now's my chance!

I was in the Skingrad Mages Guild last night, looting the second-floor bookshelves for stuff to sell to the nearest merchant, when I heard two of the NPC mages talking downstairs about a local named Gunthor (or something like that). One of them said that he wasn't her friend, "but I helped him drink his wine. And he always had some mighty fine wine."

Bwah! Thank you, you funny people at Bethesda. It's almost as good as the Limp Bizkit joke in the first Knights of the Old Republic game (and the BioWare folks know from entertaining Easter eggs).