Friday : 30 December 05
The work day isn’t so bad when you know that you have a short day ahead of you. I even saw the monkey whose neck I wanted to wring yesterday. I was even civil when I said “Good morning” to him. Other than that, the day proceeded at a fairly good clip and in good spirits.

At some point, while I had my nose to the grindstone, it started to snow. Driving home wasn’t bad, though. I made a few stops, including a stop at Valley Fair Mall to get a box of Bacon Cheese Popcorn. It might sound nasty as sin, but it’s good. Oh so good…

Tonight’s Clitorati was good. and were there when and I arrived; Ms. Lightning was a good way towards completing the City Weekly‘s crossword when I sat down. (For the uninitiated, she and I have a friendly competition as to who can complete the crossword first.) I picked up a copy, broke out my favorite Sharpie and I went to work like Kool Moe Dee. Twenty or so minutes later, I was done. Before her. I believe that her statement was: “Dammit! And I even had an hour’s headstart!” showed up, as did Mr. and Mrs. and . A little while later, Land showed up and regaled us with a new “Black Sunday” story; we also had him fill the group in on the first story, too.

Post-Clitorati, I ventured to ‘s to take another stab at watching Crash. Wow. It was a very intense movie. It followed seven stories of racial tension and then rather adroitly intertwined them. I remember thinking, at a couple of points: “Parallel lives meet at infinity.” It also showed that we aren’t nearly as disconnected as we might think: The vanishing point at infinity isn’t really so far away as it seems. I also thought that it would make a very bookend with movies like Do the Right Thing. I give it high marks for approaching delicate subject matter without trying to candy-coat it or pretty-it-up. I would definitely recommend it. (I do not give high marks to Comcast for interrupting the movie every 30 minutes or so for Amber Alert updates… especially when scrolling/flashing a message onscreen would have sufficed.)

The High-Flying Adventures of Indigo Bolt
I decided to cruise around Paragon City for a while before bed – partly because it had been a while since my last patrol, partly because I wasn’t tired. I took on some members of the Tsoo and a few thugs. It was enough to wet my whistle, but not really enough to put a sizable dent into the 10,000 XP that I need for my next level. A few missions would have handled that, but I wasn’t in the mood. Maybe I’ll do missions later in the day.

Stray Toasters

  • I must assemble the grill tomorrow.
  • We discovered something about ‘s motherboard: It doesn’t have USB 2.0 ports. Which means that she cannot recharge her iPod. Which is not good. Fortunately, my ‘board does have USB 2.0 ports and we are able to recharge it here.
  • ..and in light of the above ‘Toaster, this looks rather interesting.
  • How to break Silly Putty
  • Hunt’s Ketchup
  • I’m semi-tempted to see if I can create a character in CoH/CoV that looks nominally like me.
  • He’s a rebel and a runner
    He’s a signal turning green

  • As if I didn’t already score enough “Blasphemy Points” this year, I caught myself rewriting The Lord’s Prayer in C++ this afternoon.

    The Lord == my shepherd
    I shall !want.

  • From The New York Times: Through His Webcam, a Boy Joins a Sordid Online World
  • I like this comic mainly for its commentary –
  • Trivial Pursuit: Top Trivial Moments of 2005

I still don’t feel tired, but I should probably try that whole “sleep” thing anyway.

Namaste.