rants – J's blog

Once again, we start with things overheard:

And continue with geeky things:

General interest:

Nov262007

Catching up more often, lately

Nov112007

Blog catchup, yet again

And a special collection of pumpkin seed roasting recipes

Oct42007

2blog folder catchup, yet again

Sep112007

Finally got an eye exam.

I am aging, but still under 40.Â That’s when I fully expect to go from “nearsighted” to “unable to read a menu in the same time zone”.

I’ve gone from -1.25/-1.5 to -1.5/-1.75, though for contacts, she prescribed both to be -1.5 — in anticipation of my turning 40.Â No signs of gloucoma, no astigmatism.Â They took baseline photos of my retina.

Everything was fine until she manually checked my peripheral vision with my pupils dilated.Â Then, we stopped being friends.Â For a few moments.Â I’ve got a followup visit on the 6th to see how the contacts she gave me are working out.

Feb172007

Lists of movies can be fun…

Continue reading “Lists of movies can be fun…”

Feb112007

Strength and lonliness

Normally, weekend nights when we are home, we watch PBS Britcoms.

Tonight, PBS Mystery — a Brittish adaptation of Dracula — ran long. Instead of britcoms, we were presented with a half-hour animated musing on lonliness called “A Room Nearby“.

Instead of feeling for these people, I felt smug. They are talking about how lonliness is isolating, and dwelling on the negative aspects thereof, whereas by the time I was 14, I relished my lonliness, and used every moment of it that I could grab to forge my own identity.

C’mon, folks. Lonliness is not an affliction. It is not a curse. It is not neccisarily rejection by society. Even if it were, so what if it is? Take this time to forge yourself stronger. I cannot deny the ability of wallowing insofar as it can be a tool to eventually strenghten oneself, as much of the time that I now realize has made me stronger involved nothing more involved than myself and a Rubik’s Cube — or less (but we won’t go there today, WILL WE!?!), and faced with the almost archival fact that nearly 1/3 of gay teens attempt suicide (isn’t that number lower yet?), I can understand the need for such — well, what is it? A Short Film? A TV show? A mini-series? I must not be the target demgraphic. I’ve always had soneone to talk to, no matter how young or old.

I keep saying that “I am nobody’s demographic.” Whenever I say that, I feel that I’m being disingenuious. Then I think about it — Aside from “Dexter”, what have I found in popular culture to attract me? Certainly not the Police performing tonight. I have a Simpson-esque attitude toward almost all awards shows — or is that Allen-esque? No matter, because both those terms imply a marketability, in the sense that “Pythonesque” is now in the OED, which has allegedly disappointed John Clesse as much as I presume I must also be disappointed.

I’m still not going to hold back about my concerns about weakness, which I think if one of my greatest strenghts. Combine the best of New York City — that is, the directness; the best of San Francisco (ummmm, no comment), and the laid-backness of Austin, and you’ve pretty much got me.

And that all said, I still get both 80’s film references, and Pynchon references.

Oh, and I’m one of the best unix geeks you’ll ever meet. I’ve learned from the best of the best of the cream of the crop. I can make perl and sh sing.

And PBS is still playing “Keeping up Appearnaces”. Sigh.

Mar272006

Stanislaw Lem has died

Stanislaw Lem has died.

Another sad day has ended.

My personal favorite? Memiors found in a bathtub

Mar152006

Extra innings? No, just an extra outing.

We decided to stay an extra day, to take the kids to White Sands.

It also allowed us to split the trip back into two days — a vast improvement over the trip out.

And Grace got to do sledding, without that awful cold that was always involved when I was a child. Lucky girl!

She especially liked the sand rocks!

I thought it was interesting how abruptly the mountains stopped.

Oh, and a few bad things about the resort:

It was a pepsi place
Being a casino on a reservation in a state that hasn’t legalized gambling means that they cannot allow alcohol in the casino. How lame is that?
They ran out of hot water the last day we were there
It was cold most of the time

Still, it was quite pretty, except for the lack of ocean.

Mar132006

Panic, then an interesting round…and as good a happy ending as one could expect!

Why did we go to the mountains for spring break? To let Grace play in the snow!

So, this morning, we joined up with Cy’s sister’s family, and caravanned mostly up the mountain.

Several miles into the 12-mile trip up, Cy started feeling odd. He had just taken his blood pressure medication, so I told him to pull over and let me do the driving. So, off we start again, with me at the wheel. It’s a new car — this is perhaps the fifth time I’ve ever driven it. Well, let’s make sure it’s known that it is a truck. The two-lane road — actually, more like one and a half lanes — has no guardrail. It’s a mountain, so of course the road twists and turns, often sharply. I’m trying to stay as far from the edge as I can, but there is traffic going down.

That’s when I announce, as casually as I can:

I’m having a panic attack.

Cy’s response?

No, you’re not.

Oh, yeah. Let’s have an argument now! Have you ever tried to shut a stupid fscker up? And no matter how many times I told him to shut up, he just had to have the last word.

Finally, we got to another stopping point. Out we go, and Grace throws some snowballs at Cy while I calm down. We give Cy’s sister, who had stopped to let us catch up, the sleds (prompting the heartbreaking question “Why are you giving aunt Judy my sleds?”) and they continue on their way.

We, meanwhile, let G play for a few moments before we turn around. Let’s face it — we couldn’t go on.

Later that afternoon, Cy went to play golf. I thought it was too cold — and it was, when he started. He played the back nine, but I joined him for the front nine.I started out with 3 balls, marked “Top-Flite 3”. I ended with 3 balls, marked “Top-Flite 3”. I played nine holes without losing a single ball.