But there are dreams that cannot be...

Not an auspicious omen

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 22:01:32 GMT

So Maddie has said her first word. My sister wasn't exactly thrilled about her vocab selection. It just sounds a little strange when you tell people that your kid's first word is the Chinese equivalent of 'boobie' or nipple. I'm sure she would have preferred if it were mama or something of the like. It was probably inevitable really. Kids repeat the words they hear and Maddie's had a lot of exposure to my mom and grandma and they both refer to her bottle as 'boobie'.

I'm actually sort of curious how people even determine what a kid's first word is nowadays. Are you supposed to wait for a real multi-syllabic word or do things like ma-ma or da-da (or whatever basic sound) really count? I'm sure if it's the latter then there are probably very few different first words(within a language anyway).

In addition to her verbal acrobatics, she's also started to almost walk. She can't quite stand on her own without support but it can't be long now. One of her favorite toys right now is a little toy shopping cart and she happily pushes it around the house. She can't quite manage turns yet and so she marches along in a straight line until she bangs into some immovable object. Then it's the job of whoever is nearby to turn her around and off she waddles again.

She's become a really fun and entertaining kid now that she's no longer screaming her head off at the smallest provocation. I almost never hear her really crying nowadays. She fakes it occasionally when she's unhappy about something but that's it.

Just a chip off the ol' block

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 13:27:59 GMT

I've been feeling sort of blah the past couple of days. Part of it is due to the unexpected tooth explosion, and the followup. I managed to get an appointment with the dentist yesterday and managed to bork it up. I've been to this dentist at least 5-6 times in the past, though I don't think I've ever made the trek by myself. I somehow managed to get lost on the way and ended up circling around aimlessly for a hour.

I'm still not exactly sure how I managed to fubar the whole thing. It's like all of a sudden, none of the scenery looked like it was supposed to look and I began driving using my non-existent psychic abilities. I felt like I was a deaf person playing Marco Polo in the pool. Suffice to say, I didn't make the appointment. That meant that in addition to feeling like a complete ass, it had to be rescheduled and there was no open slot until the 24th. I guess it's not a huge big deal since there's no pain involved, but I live in minor terror of getting a piece of food lodged in there. I can't even figure out how deep the gap is with my tongue and since the chip is on the inner-back side of the tooth, it's impossible to get a look at it. I'd feel much better about the whole thing if there were simply some way to plug up the hole so nothing weird can go wrong with it.

I also had some pain issues last night which have stretched on to this morning, which led to the current all-nighter. Things had been going okay with the boost on the fentanyl, and this is the first significant long duration breakthrough pain I've had. It was inevitable really. It's not like I really expected that extra 24 micrograms to make a huge difference in the end.

Since I can't sleep, I've been watching episodes of Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, the US version. I had caught a few episodes of the UK version of the show watching BBC America. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but even the most inane shows are sort of entertaining when you're watching limeys doing it. In addition to Kitchen Nightmares, I've been watching Cash in the Attic, Bargain Hunt, and Dragons' Den. There's nothing exactly stellar about the shows, though the concepts are often interesting. Maybe I just find it remarkable that there are actually people who talk like Mary Poppins.

Holy shit

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 20:21:35 GMT

I was just sitting here watching King of the hill and eating Caramel Popcorn when I noticed that a part of my tooth just chipped off. Feeling it with my tongue, it's like a quarter of it just broke away leaving a jagged edge and a gap. Fuck! Fuck fuck! There's no pain, thank God, or maybe there is pain but all the damn pain meds I'm on is just kicking the crap out of it. So far, I don't feel anything which is a good thing. WTF happened anyway? I'm pretty sure your teeth aren't just supposed to break apart for no good reason. I was eating caramel popcorn, not chewing nuts and bolts. THis is not good.

Crazy or not?

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 19:45:31 GMT

I decided a while back to let a couple of my toenails grow without ever cutting them. I've been curious how long they'll actually grow if simply left alone. I blame this partly on some Ripley's tv show I saw where they had this freakish woman with huge nails that she had to oil daily so they wouldn't snap and break off. So far, mine are still pretty puny by those standards, but semi-freakish by normal toenail standards. I think it's mostly the fact that all the others nearby are trimmed so they look big by comparison. My family thinks I'm insane but it seems like a nice, low impact hobby to me. I mean, it's not like I've named the toenails or anything. That might be a bit too far. Hmmmm. Maybe I'll have a contest to name them one of these days. If they survive.

Not even for a million bucks

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 20:03:37 GMT

I'm watching Can't Buy Me Love on tv right now and I'm feeling all nostalgic. I absolutely love this movie. It reminds me of those happier and naive days of yore back when I hadn't yet realized that women are evil and love is for chumps. Of course, if you want to view this movie cynically, the main message is probably still true and that it all comes down to money and shallow fluff. Still, it just seems like it was a better time. I must admit that I don't miss the big hair part of it though.

I'm a bit annoyed to see that there was actually a remake of this movie made according to the Wiki site. I just don't get the whole fascination with remaking films. Aren't there enough good ideas out there that you don't have to keep stealing from the past? I'm trying to decide whether I should snag a copy of the remake. On one hand, I'm sorta curious. On the other, I just know it's going to piss me off so maybe I should spare myself the aggravation.

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 08:44:05 GMT

Last week at the Panera, I walked through the door and one of the first things that happened was I was passed a newspaper and told to read one of the articles. Afterwards, I made a note to run a google search so I could find an online version to share here. Thinking about the events of this past weekend reminded me and so, here it is.

Judge rejects plea deal in NJ child luring case

TOMS RIVER, N.J.: A New Jersey judge on Friday rejected a plea bargain that prosecutors reached with a man accused of trying to lure three young children into a specially rigged van filled with candy.

Under the deal, Brian Warner pleaded guilty in June to possessing a stun gun. In return, charges of child-luring and possession of bomb-making materials were to have been dismissed, and he would have been sentenced only to the time he already served.

Superior Court Judge Wendel E. Daniels did not publicly disclose his reasons for rejecting the deal. He set another hearing for Nov. 3.

It was not clear whether Warner, 49, would seek to rescind the guilty plea in the wake of Friday's ruling.

Warner stood trial on the charges in 2005, but the jury was deadlocked and a mistrial was declared. He has been free in bail since April 2005, having spent nearly a year in jail while awaiting trial.

Defense attorney Paul Casteleiro called Daniels' ruling "the wrong decision. They (prosecutors) came to us and wanted to do a plea, and we entered into because it made sense to put this behind him."

Michael Mohel, a spokesman for the Ocean County prosecutor's office, did not return a call.

Prosecutors said that in 2004, Warner tried to lure two sisters ages 9 and 10 and their 7-year-old brother into a van equipped with a candy-filled cooler — and also a police scanner, a cage, black louvers on the windows, sound-muffling padding and sensors to alert occupants if someone was approaching.

Prosecutors claimed Warner had rigged the van to snatch children for sexual assault. But his lawyer argued that Warner had the candy because he has low blood sugar and that he was only trying to be friendly to the children.

Now, maybe it's just me, but a candy filled cooler sounds like a spiffy idea. Hell, I don't even have low blood sugar and I think that might make for a nice car accessory. I'm not sure about the cage but you never know when you might run across a mountain lion or something. I'll admit, it might be harder to explain why the guy left a trail of candy that led to the van with signs saying 'Free Balloon Animals Inside', but I'm sure his lawyer can come up with something.

On a sidenote, is that an absolutely perfect userpic for this article or what?

Things that go bump in the night

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 08:24:06 GMT

I haven't been very active on here lately in either writing or reading. It's not exactly that things are going badly, but there's a lot of transition. When it's good, it's quite good and when it's bad, it's pretty damn bad. The problem is that the situation changes at a drop of a hat. That means that I don't tend to plan as much and end up doing more spur of the moment things. Certainly I've put off the gencon recap for weeks now for the very reason that I'm not sure I could finish them if I started it and then the whole thing would hang over my head like a sword.

I should also mention that this past Sunday was Bernie and Karen's birthday party and it was pretty spiffy. We ran through yet another game of Agricola, which I won this time though I'm still not sure exactly how. I just don't know what to think about the game. It leaves me in a state of bewilderment each time I play it. There's just never enough time to do everything you want and you feel like you're constantly trying to keep ahead of the mudslide that's about to consume you. Maybe that's really part of the appeal for me. I can't pin down one single strategy or figure out how everything is supposed to work. That's why I keep wanting to play it again and again as if it were some sort of complex machine I could break down and understand if I just see it running enough times.

Anyway, back to the party. A lot of people ended up showing and we all got to meet Karen's sister who was a barrel of monkeys. She's preggers so everyone made sure to share with her all the intestines popping out and anus explosion stories they had about births. I couldn't figure out what all the shrieking was about at first. I had been in the kitchen at the time leaning on a kitchen stool waiting for my second round of meds to kick in.

When things had mostly died down that night and many people had left, I got to play a final game with Lori, Randy, and Karen which was nice. I don't get the chance to see Randy all that often since he's usually MIA at the panera events and some of the Bills' parties as well. The same usually goes for Lori and I haven't attended one of the meetups since around half a year ago. It's just too much of a price to pay in pain and discomfort for an experience I might not even enjoy. Plenty of people at the meetup are great, but it doesn't take too many shortbus-riding spazzcases to ruin the event.

Sprinkles can change the world (Or at least make it more bearable)

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 15:03:12 GMT

I <3 cupcakes more than life itself. This reflects not only my love for cupcakes, but also my general dissatisfaction with life in general. Still, on a morning where I'm getting to scarf cupcakes, things don't seem all that bad. Surely it could be worse.

Despite my love of cupcakes, I don't actually get the opportunity to eat them very often. The only reason I have some now is due to a mini quirk of fate that started yesterday. It was another generic gameday at the Panera and I made the trek over hoping to give Agricola another whirl. It turns out that the Bills were hosting a birthday party for Andrea at their place that night but had forgotten to send out the evite invitations. That meant that everyone would\e cutting out of the gameday around 5:30 or so and there wouldn't be enough time to run through the game. Brian had also invited me over to his place that night but the lure of getting another Agricola runthrough at the Bills won out. When I went to call him to let him know, I discovered that I not only had forgotten my cell phone as well but my bottle of pills as well. The latter didn't turn out to be as much as a problem as I feared as the patches were working okay supplemented with some borrowed advil.

The party went over pretty well. I spent a good chunk of the evening getting that second play of Agricola and got my ass handed to me. We had a small rules snafu in the beginning that just ended up domino'ing into a disaster for me. Andrea had made a big mess of cupcakes as well and normally I would have been all over them but my stomach felt a bit off. I ended up snagging some and bringing them home with me and it ended up being a good decision. I'm not sure exactly what was the cause, be it medication or lack of sleep or something else but I was feeling nauseous and ill on the drive home. I didn't eat much at the party, only trying Bill's somosas as I was heading out the door and I ended up distributing it all over the street outside when I got home. I ended up with a stabbing headache interspersed with more nausea until I finally dozed off.

Still, all's well that ends well. I woke up feeling better and I have a plateful of cupcakes to eat. I just have to remember to give Brian a ring sometime today and apologize for last night's snafu. Karen and Bernie are holding a joint birthday party at their place today and if I'm lucky, there might be more cupcakes.

I want a pie in the sky

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 21:55:11 GMT

There was a research study I remember reading about years ago. It took a bunch of kids from different socioeconomic levels and asked them to estimate the physical dimensions of various denominations of currency. What they found was that the poor kids tended to overestimate the size of money and the bigger the bill or coin, the larger they thought it was. The take away message is pretty much that old adage where the only people who say money doesn't matter are those with a lot of it. I experienced a little of that today as I took a look at my online bank account and watched the deposits of interest. Sure, it's only 3% and certainly it's not a huge amount of money, but I got this sort of warm glow just knowing it's sitting there and accumulating.

It's sad really when I think about it. Here I am getting all excited over tens of dollars where if my life hadn't gotten so flocked up, I'd probably be raking in the cash somewhere. I mean, there's no guarantees or anything but if education is any prediction, I probably would have done very well. My sisters all have high paying jobs and are doing well in lives of their own. There's no reason to believe that I wouldn't have thrived as well in one way or another. Oh well.

Some say the glass is half empty. Some say the glass if half full. Some of us dropped our glasses and it's just shards on the floor.

My spidey senses feel a train wreck coming

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 15:10:23 GMT

If these things are supposed to come in three's, then someone else should be revealing a homosexual relationship any day now.

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Lindsay Lohan has confirmed what the world has guessed: She's been dating Samantha Ronson "a very long time."
Actress Lindsay Lohan confirmed Monday that she's been dating Samantha Ronson for "a very long time."

Actress Lindsay Lohan confirmed Monday that she's been dating Samantha Ronson for "a very long time."

The 22-year-old actress casually told the co-host of the syndicated radio program "Loveline" on Monday that she's been dating the 31-year-old DJ. The pair have appeared in public and been photographed together, but have never publicly commented about the extent of their relationship.

"You guys, you and Samantha, have been going out for how long now?" DJ Ted Stryker asked. "Like two years, one year, five months, two months?"

"For a very long time," Lohan said after laughing.

I think this one is a mistake for the gay community. Clay Aiken was a pretty good pickup for their team. Nice, cleancut, intelligent and perhaps even talented (I personally wouldn't know since I never watched American Idol or listened to his music). I'm sure he'll end up doing great things for the team. Today's trade though seems like a major mistake. I think that they need to go back to the straights and tell them no deal and they can keep Lohan. She's a ticking time bomb. I'm sure that no one out there wants to go through another Anne Heche incident.

It's like sucking on an Eskimo boobie

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 06:04:36 GMT

The latest from the lunatic fringe.

PETA Urges Ben & Jerry's To Use Human Milk

WATERBURY, Vt. -- People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent a letter to Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, cofounders of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc., urging them to replace cow's milk they use in their ice cream products with human breast milk, according to a statement recently released by a PETA spokeswoman.

"PETA's request comes in the wake of news reports that a Swiss restaurant owner will begin purchasing breast milk from nursing mothers and substituting breast milk for 75 percent of the cow's milk in the food he serves," the statement says.

PETA officials say a move to human breast milk would lessen the suffering of dairy cows and their babies on factory farms and benefit human health.

"The fact that human adults consume huge quantities of dairy products made from milk that was meant for a baby cow just doesn't make sense," says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. "Everyone knows that 'the breast is best,' so Ben & Jerry's could do consumers and cows a big favor by making the switch to breast milk."

The ironic part is the Ben and Jerry are both hippie nutjobs in their own right. It's always amusing when you see those liberal wankers try to cannibalize one of their own. I guess that it's unlikely ol' B&J's will be changing their recipe anytime soon. Still, I must admit I do find the imagine of large breasted women hooked up to milking machines sort of interesting. It reminds me of a sci-fi short story I once read. Mmmmm Boobies.

Oh, and in today's HomoNews, it's a shocker. Clay Aiken _IS_ teh Ghey.

Here is info on that short story I was talking about. It's titled 'In the Barn' and is by Piers Anthony.

Memory's sweet and reality bitter

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 11:53:06 GMT

I used to watch a fair bit of chinese tv shows when I was a kid. My parents were basically all for assimilation, but they never took it to extremes like some immigrant families I've heard of. Supposedly, some chinese parents are so anxious for their kids to fit in and learn english that they actually raise them in an english-only environment at home. The fear was that to expose them to chinese would retard english acquisition. Still, it's not like I had an equal education in both. I went to chinese school on saturdays for around 3-4 years when I was a kid where I managed to exceptionally underperform. I had a GPA below c-level for most of the time there and never really did learn anything.

The two pieces of chinese tv I remember watching were a cartoon about a squirrel named Ban-Ban and some chinese kung-fu soap operas. They're both golden in my memories. The former was about a squirrel raised in the city by a cat who later has to go out into the forest to live with the other squirrels. I still remember this one happy episode where they all eat these red mushrooms with white dots and experience weird drug hallucinations and go insane. As for the soap operas, I also have very fond memories of them. They were great stories of people shooting beams of death out of their hands and finding secret kung-fu manuals left in dark caves that would turn ordinary people into super heroes.

I've now spent around 30 hours rewatching one of these old soap operas and it's pretty horrible. It's almost unbearably bad in parts. The protagonist learns kung-fu from a guy dressed up in a giant chicken outfit. Okay, I'm sure he's supposed to be a hawk or eagle or something, but who the fuck learns Kung-fu from a god damn 6' tall bird? You must be shitting me. The plot is unbelievably painful at times, though I imagine that's a trait it has in common with most soap operas. The lovely dovey stuff makes me want to puke and there hasn't been a single beam of death coming out of anyone's hand yet. I can only assume I must've mixed up multiple of these soap operas in my head since I recognize some of the characters but not the plot. Chances are, I just mashed the whole thing together into one in my recollection. Part of the problem is also that my chinese isn't all that great. I can understand the general conversation between characters as long as they're discussing everyday things. I can't understand the fucking voice-over narration at all because it's too flowery, nor when they start calling each other by obscure titles or referencing unusual items/things. It's like this....imagine you were watching a movie based on medieval europe. You can understand the characters when they talk to one another and generally relate but when they mention flails or maces or templars or the pope or when they start thee and thou'ing, you have no clue what they're talking about.

All in all, I'm rather sad about the whole thing. Everything was so much better as I used to remember it. I guess this means that I shouldn't go looking for copies of that squirrel cartoon either.

A Q-tip poked my brain. It didn't help.

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 16:05:14 GMT

I went to the pain specialist yesterday and overall, I was pretty happy with the experience. I hate seeing new doctors. In the past, they've never been all that helpful and I end up feeling like the freakshow on display. The latter part didn't much change, though I guess I should just be happy they weren't marching fucking residents in and out to gawk.

For the first time, I ran into a doctor who I didn't get the impression was holding back or riding the brake when it came to pain meds. I came out of the whole situation with a script for upping the pain patch and another for a hundred perc'ies. It's clear that the effect of the patch at the current dose is majorly backsliding. The breakout pain is almost guarenteed to occur multiple times a day now and the intensity is increase. The worst episode to date was this morning/right now. The pain is pretty unbelievable and is very reminiscent of how it was before the patches. It's just a stabbing pain. The best way I can describe it, is it's like standing in the surf of a beach and being hit by waves. Just as I manage to brace myself and get past one hit, I can already see the next one rolling up just a few seconds behind.

The reason that this is all the more disappointing is because I had two huge q-tips stuffed up my nose yesterday. This might not sound like much of a treatment plan but apparently has a long history as far as pain management goes. The idea is that since a cluster of nerves that carry pain impulses goes past the septum, you can apply an anesthetic to it and bring pain relief. The doctor I went to see runs a clinic using the procedure and offered to try it out for me. I spent around 10 minutes on my back with 4 inches of q-tip stuffed up my nose. It felt ridiculous but I had nothing else to lose and the potential effect sounded near miraculous. It was supposed to offer pain relief for up to 6 weeks after a single procedure. Considering how I'm feeling this morning, I think I can safely say that it was a flop.

Figures.

Things I have learned from Kung Fu films

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 13:38:19 GMT

Flipping through the air always gets you further and faster than running

The guy with the most pathetic weapon always kicks the most ass. Guns < Swords < Poles < Everyday furniture < fans < chopsticks < long sleeves.

Sound effects make all the difference.

Always read any raggedy-ass pamphlets with stick figures doing kung-fu on them. Especially if said pamphlet is found at the bottom of wells or in deep dark caves.

Never kick the funny-looking drunk guy. Trust me, you'll regret it.

The more ridiculous the name for a certain move, the more likely it is to cave in someone's skull. (ie, Drunk monkey bakes lucky bread = tear someone's head off the spit down his neck)

White people are never to be trusted

If you ever gain the power to shoot beams of death from your eyes/hands/fingers, for some reason it will never actually hit the big boss and you'll have to beat him to death with your fists anyway.

If you have any suggestions, feel free to comment and I'll add them to the list.

When I was a kid, my mom used to record kung-fu soap operas onto long-play VHS cassettes. I'm not exactly sure what the heck she recorded them from, but I can only assume we must've picked up at least one chinese channel on tv at the time. I still remember watching one of those soap operas and I've decided to try to track it down. I know my mom likely still has the original tapes somewhere, but I'm sort of curious if any of it has made the formate jump to dvd.

It was a great show from what I recall. You just have to fast forward past all of the sappy love story bits and then there were people running around shooting death beams from their hands and crap. I still remember spending a not insignificant chunk of time trying to get a single death beam to come out of my fingers. No luck yet, but I'm confident I'll work out the means one day.

I think I've found the most deadly kung-fu attack.

Everybody was Kungfu fighting

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 05:54:52 GMT

I never really realized it before now, but the Chinese have a real inferiority complex going. I remember reading an article a few weeks ago about the Olympics which made a big deal out of the fact that it would be the way that they could finally one up the world. I didn't give the theory much credence at the time, since it seems like a pretty ridiculous idea. After all, China's got a huge ass army, nukes, a hugely growing economy, and more combined political/economic/military clout than any country short of the US. You'd think that they'd already be a bit smug about the whole thing. I figured the Olympics would be more of a time to show off than to make good.

Needless to say, my perspective has changed a bit and it's due to Kung Fu movies. My movie-watching jamboree has continued unabated. Even though I quickly ran out of recent blockbusters I was interested in seeing, I decided to look up some lists of martial arts flicks and I've been snagging those. It's amazing how many of them have the same plot. It's always evil foreigners, either the white devils or the Japanese, oppressing the Chinese people by taking over land or stealing antiquities or otherwise lording their might over China. You'd think this might be a common theme in old movies, but even recent ones made in the past couple of decades often feature the same idea. The people are being oppressed and nothing can be done until one man can't take it any more and gives those foreign dogs whatfor.

I can only assume that the whole rape of Nanking and the gunboat diplomacy of the Opium Wars really left their mark on the people. Of course, it's funny coming from my point of view. I always found the loathing of the Japanese sort of humorously antiquated, but then again, I didn't exactly live through the time when they were running around like crazed assholes slaughtering everything in sight. The Japanese I know make wonky cartoons and disturbing fetish films. I imagine it's kinda like how Germans must still make some Jews nervous.

1 patch = good. 2 patches = puke.

Sun, 14 Sep 2008 12:30:27 GMT

I ended up experiencing my first side-effect/overdose senario yesterday with the fentanyl patches. It wasn't intentional definitely caught me off guard. The fact of the matter is that the patches are supposed to last 3 days. The problem, from my perspective, is that it takes between 12-24 hours for a new patch to hit peak efficiency. That means that I often leave the old one on for at least an extra 12 hours or so after I apply the new. This hasn't been a problem so far, and I'd like to believe that overlapping in this fashion has saved me some unnecessary agony from breakout pain. I also don't like the idea of 'wasting' any of the meds that might be left in the patch so I figure there's no reason not to leave it on until every last drop is gone. The problem is that the time of day I apply the patches varies. It just so happened that I had applied the previous one very late in the day and the new one yesterday early. I figure I must've spent at least a handful of hours getting much more of the fentanyl on board than I should have.

Yesterday was a game day at the Panera and I really wanted to make it there because a new game order had come in a few days ago and contained Agricola. It's the new 'hottest game' with the most buzz and excitement. People have actually been quite rabid in defending its merits. You'd think that the cure for cancer was included free in every box.

Anyway, I wanted a chance to run through it and I was actually very happy with the results. Hell, I can't remember the last time I was this favorably inclined toward a board game. It took us around 4 hours to run through it from start to finish, not bad considering that I was trying to read the rules as we went along. The problem was that halfway through I started to get nauseous. I wasn't especially sleep deprived, so I knew it was likely due to the medication. I tried to just ignore and ride through it, but that was a no go. I ended up nearly puking all over the place a couple times and that convinced me to yank the new patch off. That seemed to sort things out eventually and the rest of the day ran much more smoothly.

All in all, it was an interesting experience. I had always wondered how much patch would be too much for me. I had no negative reactions at all when I first started taking it and with the more than occasional presence of pain, I figured I was actually taking less than I really should. Now I know that double the dose is way too much. That might come in handy when I finally get to see the pain specialist on the 19th. I'm just hoping that the guy doesn't end up being a wankjob.

Gloomy gloaming

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 04:40:16 GMT

The past week or so has not been all that much fun. I've been having pain management issues again and I've spent a lot of time in a perpetual twilight of sorts. The pain makes it difficult to concentrate for long periods of time and so I've been spending my time mostly doing passive things. I've watched more movies in the past three days than I've seen in the past half year before that.

My Kid could paint that

Live Free or Die Hard

Drunken Master

Finding Nemo

Iron Man

Batman, the Dark Knight

Be Kind Rewind

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Normally, i watch so few films that I end up blogging about each one and writing a review. That's simly not possible in this case. I'm not even going to bother creating tags for the lot of it since it'd just be a mess. There are a couple of points I think I should make. For one, I do think I owe Heath Ledger's rotting corpse a small mea culpa. His performance in Batman was actually pretty solid. I never would have expected it from someone whose previous role was that of a gay cowboy eating pudding, or the equivalent. I'm don't think it deserves an Oscar nod or anything, but it was certainly competent and the best performance turned in for the film.

All in all, I was pretty happy with all of the movies. The only one I didn't like all that much was Be Kind Rewind and that's probably just because Jack Black is a douche. I was really pleasantly surprised at how much I liked the 4th iteration of both Indiana Jones and Die Hard. They showed that the old dinosaurs can still show the youngsters how it's done. Harrison Ford looked especially creaky during some of the action scenes but that's not unexpected. I mean, he's got to be like 85. As an octogenarian, he still gets more poon in a year than most of us see in a lifetime.

Daily Ponder

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 05:26:02 GMT

Is it wrong that one of the main reasons I don't want there to be intelligent extra-terrestrial life is because I don't have to have to learn a third language? I figure if we were ever contacted by aliens and got along, learning their language would probably be a pretty popular and necessary thing. I hate learning new languages. Maybe I'll get lucky and aliens will speak and use English.

Enjoy it while it lasts

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 13:43:04 GMT

The new USA Today / Gallup poll shows John McCain with a 10 point lead over Barack Obama among likely voters.

In the new poll, taken Friday through Sunday, McCain leads Obama by 54%-44% among those seen as most likely to vote. The survey of 1,022 adults, including 959 registered voters, has a margin of error of +/— 3 points for both samples.

This is a pretty unbelievable turn of events. Not that the polls haven't started reversing in McCain's favor ever since the republican convention ended but the magnitude is astounding. Both the Rasmussen and Gallup tracking polls show that not only did McCain completely erase Obama's bounce from the DNC convention, but he gained a 2-3 points on top of that.

Upon seeing the USA Today / Gallup poll, I immediately went over to Daily Kos to watch the hippies freak out. Man, their bitter, bitter tears taste like candy. For a while I really was sort of ambivalent about this election. There were benefits to an Obama win after all. For one, it might get Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton to shut the fuck up. I figured that might be a pretty big incentive right there. There was also the outside possibility that it might just throw some water on the left's favorite political bludgeon and better race relations. In the end, I just can't help myself. The thought of getting to see all those hippies cry their eyes out on election night is too much for me. It's like the sweetest drug imaginable, the crack cocaine of my existence, and I could really use another hit. The more they whine in stupefied incomprehension about how it's surely not possible they could have lost, the more I want to see it happen. Hell, maybe a few of them will actually make good on those threats to leave the country stretching back from 2000.

Still, I know that the 10 point lead is likely to be an outlier. I have no doubt that McCain has caught up and maybe is even slightly in the lead, but it's nowhere near 10 points. I figure he has a good shot to win as long as he's no more than 1.5-2.0 points down on election day. We all know how the exit polls and crap skew democratic and I have no doubt that that spread can be overcome. Not to mention the possibility of a Bradley effect might widen that margin to 2.5. Seriously, is it any wonder that some people might be afraid to tell pollsters they're not going to vote for the Black guy when so many pundits and nutjobs have put forth the asinine theory that the only reason to not vote for Obama is because you're a howling racist? The more that the hippies keep pushing that ridiculous argument, the more skewed the polls are going to be in Obama's favor. It'll all reverse in the voting booth though and kick him in the ass.

According to the Gallup poll, republicans have also closed the enthusiasm gap which had gaped as wide as 20 points. I doubt it's for the same reason as other McCain supporters, but I'm definitely enthused now.

Edited to add:

Every single one of the _7_ national polls released today on RCP now shows either a tied race or a McCain lead. It looks like there's clear consensus that Obama has taken a significant dip.

You're all clear, kid. Now lets blow this thing and go home.

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 11:29:28 GMT

I was able to download the pictures from the digital camera by hooking it up to another desktop, snagging the pictures, copying them over to a portable harddrive, and then transferring the files back over to the laptop. I then spent a good chunk of time resizing all of them and then uploading the lot up to the scrapbook. It wasn't much fun, but at least it's all done and I don't have to keep worrying about it. That means I'll be able to start and finish the Gencon recap over the next few days. I know some people have been anxious for me to get to the point already.

Oh, and I just found out yesterday that Connie seems to have started a miniblog where she displays pictures of Maddie. I mentioned a while back that she had gotten a bunch of these little baby shirts, each with a different numbered month on them. I guess the point is to remind you to take pictures at each time point so you have a retrospective one day. Well, Connie's certainly done so and popped up a few representative images. If you want to check it out, just pop on over to Maddie's Pad.

It's funny, but she still looks like a boy in many of her pictures. Not to mention that she seems to drastically change in appearance from picture to picture sometimes. If I didn't know better, I certainly wouldn't have thought it was the same kid all the way through. Connie and Jeff are up vacationing in Maine this week and there's a beach shot. I'm told that Maddie greatly dislikes sand and freaks out when she's forced to touch it. I feel more or less the same way about sand. Maybe it's something genetic.

Souvenirs

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 01:36:04 GMT

I've been watching every single Stargate Atlantis episode in order over the past week and I got to thinking, I'm a big fan of the franchise but I don't really do much more than watch the show. I might make a blog post about it here and there, but that's about it. In fact, I've never been much of a joiner when it comes to the various fandoms. I've never been to a star trek, star wars, stargate, or any sci-fi convention. In fact, that only cons I go to are gaming cons which you can argue are more about being able to do things than simply revel in fandom. It's like the difference between going to an amusement park and going to a museum. In one, there are events and rides and you get to participate. In the other, you more or less passively absorb information.

That being the case, I got to thinking about souvenirs and collectibles. I don't usually bother with such things because they just end up being dust collectors, not to mention usually costing an arm and a leg in the process. I'd probably end up spending a good chunk of time worrying that it'd accidentally get damaged, screwing the resale value. I was watching Trekkies a while back and marveling at how much some people were willing to pay for things like a Klingon's headbumps. Hell, one crazy nutjob bid something like $100 just to get a half-empty glass of water that John D'lancy had drunk from.

Still, I can't help but watch some of these tv shows and wish I could have some of the items shown. Think about it. Wouldn't it be cool as hell to have one of those light-up ZPMs for your very own? Or maybe one of the custom paintings that were made for the show like the one in the episode Harmony. There are just all sorts of cool little items that it would just be amazing to own just for the novelty value. Frankly, I'd love to turn that fucking ZPM into like the coolest desk lamp ever. I still remember when jirel re-posted someone's report that while digging in a scrap/junk yard, he managed to find a replica of the stargate that the production company had obviously tossed out. Lucky son of a bitch.

Oh well. If one of you ever runs across a ZPM prop and doesn't want it. Feel free to give me a ring. Anyone else have any tv/movie props that you'd just love to get your hands on?

Crazy Hippies

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 04:12:19 GMT

Here's a video courtesy of lucystrawberry, selling out some of her leftist peeps for my enjoyment.

Now, I know what you're thinking. Well, if you're a sane person you're first thinking that these people are crazy whackjobs who could use a psychological exam. The second thing you're thinking is, 'Is this video a fake?'. I mean, people like this couldn't actually exist, right? It must be some sort of mockumentary.

Well, if you search on google for the woman named in the video, Syndee L'ome Grace, you do get a bunch of hits associated with hippie causes and leftist bullshit. Of course, anyone making such a parody could have just borrowed her name. I searched a bit further and found that the woman usually uses an alias for most of her activist work. She usually goes under Syndee L'ome Eartheart. Google that and you can get an image of her to come up.

It looks like an exact match to the woman in the clip. That means that at the very least the interview is real and it makes it far more likely that these crazy nutjobs do exist. Truth is stranger than fiction.

F'ing amazing

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 04:08:36 GMT

The Neilson report is out about the number of people who watched the political conventions. Would you believe that McCain kicked Obama's ass? I'm still pretty astounded but the numbers don't lie and it looks like more people were watching McCain give his speech than Obama give his. Hell, I wonder if he regrets spending all that time and money setting up his little greek temple now. Even that spectacle wasn't enough to win him the ratings war.

The really amusing bit is how many hippie wankjobs were crowing about Obama's numbers last week after the speech. Almost every political article mentioned how it was the highest ratings ever for a political event and how astounding it was, demonstrating the enthusiasm dems had for their candidate. They surely never thought that the fuddyduddy would spank their asses a week later. Funny, but I've yet to see any articles talking about how remarkable it was that McCain beat Obama in this. I can only guess it doesn't go much with the narrative the media is trying to sell.

Oh, and it looks like Sarah Palin is now more popular nationally than either Obama or McCain. Go figure, eh? The pick doesn't seem so much like a Hail Mary now, does it?

Chicago/Gencon Recap: Day 4-5

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 18:36:01 GMT

Writing these recaps is like working on the railroad. No matter how many planks and rivets you hammer into place, the horizon stretches on infinitely. I still have to figure out a way to somehow get my gencon pictures off of the damn camera and onto the laptop. Most of them are still stuck there because of the compatibility issues with Vista. It's going to be a pain in the ass no matter how I resolve it.

The pictures I take on these trips are often a huge mnemonic tool since it's usually weeks if not months before I try to actually jot down any notes about them. Without the pictures, I'd have only sketchy memories at best about what happened. This is the dilemma facing me as I see that I only snapped one picture on Sunday in chicago. It's not a very enlightening picture either.

Remember when I mentioned buying those multicolor gummy butterflies while at the Kosher butcher's? I finally found a use for them besides simply eating them.

Not exactly a work of art, but I thought it was kinda cool at the time.

As I recall, John also fixed breakfast for the lot of us that morning and it was incredibly nice. There's nothing like a big glass of super pulpy orange juice. I've never really understood why someone would want their juice pulp free. It just ends up tasting like you added water to one of those concentrate cans in the freezer. The pulp lets you know it's fresh and the texture is great to boot.

Frankly, that's really all I can recall about Sunday at the moment. I have no clue what happened next. I don't recall what we might have done, if anything, or what I had for dinner, or anything. I figure if John remembers, he'll comment at some point and maybe I can come back and edit. Until then, on to Monday.

The main event for the day was lunch at Fogo de Chao, a Brazilian steakhouse right in downtown Chicago. I had been there years ago with the family right before I moved from the area. There had been some discussion about going there as a group for dinner on one of the last weekends, but it was almost impossible to get a reservation even weeks in advance. Instead, I had been able to snag a table for lunch and it was a great experience. Just like the butcher's, it was a display of many of God's creatures, this time excellently prepared for consumption. I figured John would like the place as a self-avowed carnivore and I wanted to take him somewhere nice to thank him for his hospitality.

Holy shit. As I'm looking at their website, i see that they've opened a new restaurant right in downtown Indianapolis. It's only two freaking blocks from the Embassy Suites. That's definitely something to keep in mind for subsequent gencon's. It would make for a very nice celebratory meal while at the con. A bit pricey perhaps, but worth it for a special occasion.

Anyway, the place hadn't changed at all from what I remembered of it from a few years back. It still had an absolutely magnificent salad bar. I probably would have been happy just eating my meal there, and that's high praise from me for a salad bar.

I can't help but feel that a lot of this sort of food is wasted on me though. I've never really differentiated between cuts of meat. The really expensive stuff doesn't usually taste all that different from the cheap stuff. A lot more of the difference is based on how it's prepared than what's actually used. So while it's nice to chow down on Filet Mignon and the like, there's a little voice in the back of my head that's always saying that I'd be just as happy with hamburger or a skirt steak and it'd cost so much less.

Here's a picture of John, obviously enjoying his meal.

And Melissa showing her atavistic side. She's nice enough, but don't get between her and a rack of lamb. You could lose a hand and part of an arm.

At one point, John decided to do his dancing lamb chop routine. He and Melissa both felt that the lamb chops were the single best thing they had there. Personally, I was more of a fan of the Filet Mignon wrapped in bacon. I mean, it's wrapped in bacon. Case closed.

Everything about the meal went pretty well and then we moved on to dessert. We each got something different to sample the offerings and I think I definitely won out. The waiter suggested the Tres Leche cake as that was his personal favorite and I went with his recommendation.

Here's a shot of me with the Tres Leche.

Melissa with a Molten Chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream.

And John with a multi-layered chocolate cake.

They were all pretty excellent compared to the desserts you find at most restaurants. I'd happily order any of the three again, but that Tres Leche was really unbeleivable.

And that was more or less it. We spent a chunk of the day trying to track down supplies for our Killer Breakfast Schtick without much luck. Most of the places we searched were either derelict or closed. It seems that google doesn't exactly update their list of businesses very often. In the end, it was just a lot of pointless driving around. We decided to just put the search off until tomorrow, hopefully finding what we needed before my flight out to indy at noon.

Now is the summer of our discontent

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 17:20:51 GMT

Pain has definitely re-entered my life full throttle. This is not to say that it was completely absent before, but it was definitely more muted. I've had to start taking the codeine boosters pretty regularly over the past few days. I wake up to it and it spikes throughout the day. I had always figured that the 50 microgram does of fentanyl might be too small to do the job fully when I had some breakthrough pain right near the beginning. What I hadn't really counted on was how frequent that breakthrough pain would become in only a month's time. It used to be a rare occurrence that is now happening multiple times a day.

I'm supposed to see a pain specialist in a couple of weeks but I figure it's going to take some time before we work out a relationship where he'll actually provide the drugs I need. Almost all the other doctors I've ever been to have been hesitant to prescribe opiates. I can hope that as someone who deals with pain management, this guy might be different. The one problem I've run into is that I've discovered there are no doctors out there who solely focus on pain management. It seems that almost all of them are into the whole physical therapy gig which is completely useless for me. There is absolutely nothing that physical therapy could do for it. The impression that I'm getting is that this is sort of a way to CYA. It makes it less likely they'll receive scrutiny from the DEA if they're providing this service as well as prescribing potentially addictive drugs. It also likely keeps away some of the dopers. When I told the receptionists that I didn't need physical therapy, there was a definite pause and then some muted conversation in the background.

It's just not right. To this day, I've never gotten any sort of positive feelings out of taking any of these damn drugs. No euphoria ever. Yet, I end up getting crucified for the high it brings to others. More hurdles to jump through and more pain suffered. All because some people get a buzz off of these drugs that I've never so much as experienced once. It's like God's playing a twisted little joke.