Tuesday
Helluva fast work day. I spent about 7½ hours in flats processing. That helped. That and Chamber of Secrets.

Came home and went for a 4½-mile ride as the sun dipped behind the mountains and below the horizon. It felt good.

And, a note from last night: I beat Jess, once again, at Tetris! Tonight, however, I am 99.44% sure that she has already kicked my ass: She got 153 lines. I have my work cut out for me.

NPR/PRI Programming
Talk of the Nation

• They talked about Bureaucracy today. No, not the text adventure from Infocom. The red tape, stand-in-line, drive-you bonkers kind. They mentioned the new Office of Homeland Security… and joked that it may wind up becoming another shining example of bureaucracy at its finest. Neal issued an email challenge for listeners: Come up with possible mottos for the new agency. Some (all but one of them, in fact) of the responses were very tongue-in-cheek:
  • “If we’re still here, you’re still here.”
  • “September 11, 2001” (the only serious response)
  • “If it doesn’t look like we’re doing anything, it means we are.”
  • “Most accidents happen at home.”
  • “If you can’t be free, you should at least be safe.”
  • “We’re watching YOU.”
  • “Eternal vigilance, interminable rhetoric.”
• Wednesday’s Show: “Bad Bosses”
  

  Have you ever taken direction from someone you felt to be incompetent, unreliable, or just plain difficult to be around? If you answered yes, then you understand how hard it is to work for someone who is a rotten manager. But, there are strategies for dealing with and even remaking your boss. Join Neal Conan on the next Talk of the Nation for a look at surviving the bad boss.¹

  The show airs from 2 PM – 4 PM EDT (12 PM – 2 PM MDT) and they will be taking calls and emails during the show. If you want to participate, send email to totn@npr.org or you can call their toll-free number 1-800-989-TALK (8255). If you email the show, be sure to put “Bad Bosses” in the subject line; if you can’t call or write during the show, send in an email before the show airs.

The World had a segment about a successful case of tel… um… well, see for yourself:

Our next story might sound like it was dreamt up by a Star Trek writer but sometimes fact does follow fiction. Scientists in Australia say they have successfully teleported a laser beam encoded with data from one spot to another. They only managed to teleport it the distance of about a yard but when you consider that what they actually did was to make a laser beam disappear, and then reappear in another part of the lab, well … “Beam me up Scotty.” The World’s Technology correspondent Rebecca Roberts joins us to sort out scientific fact from fiction.²

The segment can be heard here, in RealAudio format.

That’s enough for now.

Peace.

¹: from the Talk of the Nation website
²: from The World website

Monday
Work! Again, the day flew by. I had an overwhelming urge to do an inner eyelid study during the first hour, but I suppressed it. Barely. But it was suppressed.

Started listening to Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets today. After this, and Goblet of Fire, I think that I will listen to a book that Jess is currently listening to: The Wizard’s First Rule, by Terry Goodkind. I need to find out if any of the Dragonlancebooks have been done as books on tape… or more importantly, books on mp3.

NPR/PRI
Talk of the Nation spent an hour discussing Civil Liberties and how the government’s newest security measures have affected our rights as a nation and as individuals. A few interesting questions were raised:

1. “Do you view civil liberties as a work in progress? Is that balance between civil liberties and national security a dynamic process or are there hard and firm lines?”
2. From an email question: “Do countries with fewer civil liberties have a reduced threat from terrorism?”

Listening to this reminded me of the Civil Liberties class that I took during my senior year in high school; I just wish that I remembered more from that class.

Amusing Site of the Day: Dictionaraoke

Silently, he stood. A roguish grin flicked across his lips as he picked up his hat and placed it on his head. He looked at the others sitting at the table and nodded. “It’s been a pleasure,” he said and touched the brim of his cap. The others nodded and grunted in response. He turned and walked casually across the room. He chuckled as he turned the knob and opened the door. And then, he was gone.

Peace.

Sunday

• I called my dad at 05:15 MDT. That’s not quite as bad as it sounds: It was 07:15 EDT and I knew that he’d be awake and getting ready for church. Perfect timing. He didn’t answer. What?! No answer? What’s up with that?! So… I left a ‘Happy Father’s Day’ voicemail and went to bed. Twenty minutes later, just as the sweet oblivion of sleep overtook me, my phone rang. It was my dad. He had set his phone to ‘vibrate’ and was in a different room when I called. We talked for a few and then I resumed my journey into The Dreaming.
• Slept in. ::: bliss :::
• Jess, Angie and I went out for lunch and then on to see The Bourne Identity. It was a good movie. I knew that it was based on a book and I knew that an earlier movie had been made from it. What I didn’t know until tonight was that it was a made-for-TV movie. I think that I would like to read the book and see the original movie and juxtapose them against this version.
• Came home and didn’t do much until 12:30 when I…
• Watched the USA – Mexico 2002 World Cup match. The US team looks solid tonight; they brought their ‘A’ game. And…. The US team beat Mexico 2 – 0 and advances to the World Cup quarterfinals for the first time since 1930!!! Mexico played well: They had possession for 2/3 of the game, but they were held at bay by the US’ defense.
  Congratulations to the US World Cup Soccer Team!

And now that the soccer match is over, it’s time to get some sleep before starting another glorious work week.

Peace.

Happy Father’s Day to all of the dads out there in LiveJournal-land.

Saturday (Episode II: Attack of the Bowlers)

• We went to the new Best Buy. It smelled pretty much, although not exactly, like the other BB stores. Jess said that it had a ‘new store’ smell, much like a new car has that ‘new car smell.’ That’s a good enough description for me… except that even the older stores in the chain smell that way. Go figure. Anyway, this is probably the smallest BB that I have been in. And the layout of the store is…. different. Not bad, just different. But, as Jess reminded me: It is a Best Buy. And it is in Utah. Amen.
• After that, we had dinner with Peggy (the coolest ex-gf in the world) and her daughter Sadie (“Sadiedaisies”). We went to Guru’s. Sadie (1, 2) is one of the cutest young women that I know. And she’s one of the funniest.
• Bowling. I don’t know what happened but my game was ON tonight. Only Jess and I bowled, but it was probably the best, and most consistent, night that I’ve had in a long time. This was also vindication for the drubbing at Tetris that I have endured from Jess. The younglings on the lane next to us were a bit annoying, at first. They must have had an epiphany of some sort because they soon started acting like they had a modicum of common sense and home-training. Angie came and hung out with us; she even joined us for…
• Late night eats at V.I. Once again, we were treated to an assortment of interesting characters as the local bars closed. Jaysin, our favorite ex-V.I. waiter put in a cameo appearance. He came over and chatted with us for a while before he moved on to talk with other people that he knew.
• Home.

That’s pretty much the day in a nutshell.

Peace.

It took 6 days nights to do it, but I beat Jess at Tetris last night!!! I don’t know how long it will be before I am able to do that again, but I intend to bask in the glory of this accomplishment!

And in other news…

• I went for a ride today. 5.5 miles (8.85 km). It was 85° with a light wind. Light wind is a good thing when riding… unless you turn into it and it becomes a head wind and picks up force. Fortunately, it didn’t pick up. Pleasant ride. And there’s nothing like a refreshing, cool shower after a hot ride to make you feel just right.
• Going to check out the new Best Buy in a bit. There’s something… curious… that I’ve noticed about the Best Buy stores that I’ve visited in different states: They all smell the same. It’s not a smell that I can ‘define,’ but it is definitely the same in every BB store that I’ve been in. I want to see if this one has it… or if they’ve managed to muck it up.
• After that, Jess and I are having dinner with Angie, Peggy, and maybe (just maybe) Sadie and Andy. And then bowling and late night eats.

No rest for the wicked!

Peace.

Friday
End of the workweek and… miracle of miracles: Jess has the weekend off!

More site-to-site bouncing today – mail volumes were lighter than projected. Did some flats processing also; that was a little sparse at times, too.

Finished Harry Potter today. They reworked a lot of things from the book to make the movie adaptation. I think that the things they retooled worked well in the movie, but it was nice to be able to fill in the background and some of the ‘missing’ things. One thing that I did notice: While Hermione (pronounced “har-mah-nee” Don’t look at me; it wasn’t my idea! Brits pronounce ‘herb’ with an “h,” too!) Granger was something of an annoying git in the movie, I did not care for her character in the book. But… I think that the character in the was more… hmm …more of what I would expect a highly precocious (and know-it-all) eleven-year-old girl to be like.

NPR/PRI Programming
Talk of the Nation – Science Friday had a segment on ‘Radiation Preparedness,’ in light of the threat posed by a potential ‘dirty bomb’ attack or the fallout from nuclear strikes in India and Pakistan. One of the guests was Steven Austakalnis, from Wilmington, NC; he is the Managing Director of Two Tigers Radiological, a company that sells bomb shelters. Bomb. Shelters. Just like in the 50s. Only newer.

There was also a segment on ‘Lying.’ Dr. Robert Feldman, a Psychology professor at UMass – Amherst, conducted a study on the way that people interact with one another, especially when they first meet. One of the things that was noted was that, on an average, people tell three lies in a ten minute conversation. These lies vary from “little white lies” to exaggerations about what people do for a living or things they own or people that they know.

Miscellany
It seems that the US Soccer Team lost their match to Poland this morning. I thought that I was getting up in time to catch part of the game – it was listed somewhere as starting at 07:15. However, I neglected to account for the fact that the listing was in Eastern Daylight Time, not Mountain. *BAH* However, South Korea beat Portugal, so the US still advances to the “Round of 16.” At this stage, any team that loses is eliminated from the competition.

And….

::: drumroll :::

They have FINALLY opened a Best Buy here!!! Hallelujah! That also means that now I don’t have to erase Utah from the face of the earth. And, it’s even the location closest to where we live! That makes two of my three favorite stores here; Toys ‘R’ Us is the other. The only thing missing now is an IKEA. (Thank God.)

Peace.

Thursday
Another workday gone by. Quickly.

I listened to more Harry Potter today. Something about that has been lurking in the back of my mind for the past few weeks… today, it finally coalesced into a coherent thought: Harry Potter reminds me of two things: the Dragonlance setting (AD&D) and parts of the Superman mythos. How so?

• Dragonlance
  • In Harry Potter, young wizards attending Hogwarts are sorted into one of three Houses (Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin). On Krynn (the world of the Dragonlance setting), wizards above the initiate level must declared their allegiance to one of three orders (White Robes, Red Robes, or Black Robes); these orders are also dictated by the wizard’s alignment (good, neutral, evil), but since this is not a game discussion, I won’t go into that here.
• Superman mythos
  • Both are sent away to be raised by foster families after the death of their parents.
  • Both are outsiders to some degree – one by choice, the other by circumstance.
  • Both grow up to discover that they have “…powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men.” (Sorry, couldn’t pass that one up.)

I’m sure that there are other similarities, but these are the first ones that came to mind.

NPR/PRI Programming
Talk of the Nation talked about the Catholic Church and the desire of some members of the laity to have more say in affairs of the Church. There seems to be a LOT of opinion on this issue – some feel that the Church should remain more or less “as is,” while others think that a return to the openness that was supposed to follow “Vatican II” is in order.

The World had a few interesting stories:

• The grand assembly (also known as the Loya Jirga) has chosen Hamid Karzai, current head of the interim administration, to be the new head of state.
• The U.S. military is considering using dirigibles (blimps) to monitor our borders. You read that correctly: Dirigibles. Flying at 70,000 feet (21,336 m), they would be easier and less expensive to reposition than satellites.
• A British man, positioning his dish in an attempt to find new channels on satellite television, picked up images being transmitted from NATO spy planes over the country formerly known as Yugoslavia. These pictures were unscrambled and had a real-time clock on them. When the man contacted the Pentagon to inform them of what he had found, they told him that they knew about it. *shrug*

I’m going to watch the end of the Belgium-Russia match (currently 2-1 with 10:30 to play) and then hit the rack.

Peace.

There is a truck outside with a beeper that sounds when it’s backing up.

On it’s own, that’s rather dull. The fact that the beeper sounds like something in Sick Bay (or a tricorder) from the original Star Trek series? That’s amusing.

Wednesday
Not too bad for midweek. Another fast day.

Finished the last two Philip K. Dick short stories today. I moved on to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. I saw the movie last year, but didn’t read any of the books. I’m rather enjoying it.

m3lody came to the REC to have dinner with Darren ( – his posts are transcripts of what Goosie, a fellow IRCer, says. We refer to them as “The Gospel according to the Prophet Goosie”); she was talking to Jess when I came outside. She invited us to go to the Dead Goat Saloon with her and a few friends (Beth, Sarah, Jeremy and Robert) to hear local musicians, the Zach Phillips Parrish Band. So we went. It was pretty good. For the longest time, I couldn’t determine of whom it was that Zach Phillips reminded me. Then it came to me: He favored baseball player Rollie Fingers, due to his moustache. But another thought came to mind… The way that he contorted his face when he played and sang, an amendment to the original reference came to mind: He was like the mutant amalgamation of Rollie Fingers and Jim Carrey.

NPR/PRI Programming
The topic of the first hour of Talk of the Nation was Father Loss. The guest for the hour was Neil Chethik, author of FatherLoss: How Sons of All Ages Come to Terms with the Deaths of Their Dads (Hyperion Press, 2001). It mainly dealt with the way that men deal with grief, especially concerning the loss of their father or primary father figure. They also discussed the some of the ways that men and women express their grief differently. One of the things that prompted Mr. Chethik to write the book was the occasion of his grandfather’s funeral. He and his father had gone to his grandfather’s house to clean/clear it out. While they were working, the senior Chethik told his son that his father had never told him that he was proud of him or what he had accomplished; he said that he never wanted his son to have to feel the sense of loss that accompanies that. At that moment, he told his son that he was proud of him.

This segment reminded me of two things and made me aware of something else:

1. Reminder: Even though my parents divorced when I was young, I have never been at a loss for contact with my father nor for positive father figures. Of course, that’s not something that a child’s mind usually considers. These are the thoughts that come, most often, to a person with the perspective (and, hopefully, the maturity) of adulthood.
2. Reminder: I miss my grandfather. My father’s father, that is; unfortunately, I never got to meet my mother’s parents. I remember spending some vacations and a few weeks in the summers at my grandparents’ house in West Virginia. I remember watching my grandfather get ready for work (he was a coal miner) in the afternoons and then hearing him come home after midnight. (Yes, I was still awake after midnight. What can I say? I have an indulgent grandmother!) I remember ‘hanging out’ with my grandfather:
   • Trips to the Dairy Queen.
   • The day he bought me a BB gun… much to Grandma’s chagrin.
   • Just sitting around watching TV.
   • Whatever….

   He was a good man. I am glad that I got to know him.

3. New, or at least ‘more conscious,’ awareness: I am afraid of my parents’ mortality. That’s not an easy thing to admit. Almost no one likes to think of their parents as being less than immortal. Emotionally, we expect them to always be there to help, to guide, to just… be there. Logically, we know that can’t happen, but we put it out of our minds. Such is the paradigm and paradox with which we live.

That’s all for now.

Peace.

Tuesday
Work. Wasn’t bad. Didn’t have to move too much today; that’s always a bonus. I listened to “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale”, by Phillip K. Dick. This is the short story that was the basis for the movie Total Recall and its derivative Showtime series Total Recall 2070. He also wrote the short story “The Minority Report,” basis for the upcoming Tom Cruise movie of the same name.

Jess and I started “End-of-the-night Tetris® Challenge” on Saturday night. We each play one game on the Gameboy, greatest number of lines wins. So far, I’m 0-for-3. I came close to winning Sunday night (I only needed 3 lines), but I put a couple of pieces in the wrong place and….. lost the game. *shrug* I’ll win some day night! She got home after I went to bed last night, so I left the Gameboy and a note with my score (105 lines) on it. I woke up this morning to the following note:

133 lines (smiley face)

“I win! I always win! Is there no one on this planet to even challenge me?!?”¹ You may as well admit defeat now – it will be less painful in the long run!

She’s the coolest girlfriend in the world… even if she does kick my ass at Tetris.

Off to read or draw or something…

Peace.

¹ General Zod, in Superman II

Monday
Work. Fast day, again.
As I mentioned earlier, today was Kris’ birthday.
Did a little drawing. (Note to: I may post a few things this weekend… if anything looks worthwhile.)

NPR/PRI Programming

• On Fresh Air, Terry Gross interviewed John Ridley, the creator of Undercover Brother and the author of the new novel A Conversation with the Mann, about an African-American stand-up comic the early 1960s. The interview was 40 – 45 minutes long; in it, Mr. Ridley discussed the things that motivated him as a writer and, formerly, as a stand-up comic.
• Talk of the Nation discussed Why We Worry and How to Deal With It. Among the things they mentioned, the guests noted how there are two types of worrying:
  • “good” – which prompts you to take action to resolve a problem
  • “bad” – which builds if you have chosen not to take pro-active measures to resolve a problem
• All Things Considered
  • Supreme Court: Sex Predators’ Rights – NPR’s Nina Totenberg reports on today’s Supreme Court ruling on the rights of sex offenders in state prisons. The divided court ruled that states can limit the privileges of convicted sex offenders who refuse to admit to past crimes in therapy.¹
  • Melanoma Gene? – Scientists have identified a major genetic change that appears to lead to malignant melanoma, according to a study published in the online version on Nature. John Ydstie talks with Andy Futreal, co-leader of the Cancer Genome Project at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge, England. The study shows that the gene BRAF was mutated in 70 percent of malignant melanomas. Malignant melanoma accounts for only 11 percent of skin cancers but almost all of the deaths; nearly 40,000 people worldwide die of melanoma each year.²

Quote of the Day: David Letterman was talking about the Lewis-Tyson fight this weekend. Dave, like the rest of America, seemed surprised by Tyson’s demeanor. His comments about Mike’s post-fight reaction/comments:

He’s like.. the baddest ass ever! And now, he’s like a young Republican. ‘Thank you, Mr. Lewis. Thank you. It was a nice fight.’ What was THAT all about!?

Peace.
¹,² – From the All Things Considered website

My sister Kristen (youngest sister) turned 20 today. After trying to call her all day, I finally managed to catch her around 20:30 EDT.

Sunday
Why in the Nine Hells was it only in the 40s (maybe, MAYBE, the 50s) today?! That is entirely too damn cold for an early-June day!!!

Enough of that…

• Went to see Undercover Brother, again; this time with Jess, Angie and Jenni. For those who don’t know: the movie is based on the Undercover Brother online comic.
  

  Ow… we want the funk!
  Give up the funk!
  Ow… we want the funk!
  We gotta have that funk!

  I have been walking (and driving and working and…. you get the idea) around for the past two weeks with that song in my head. I may have to get the soundtrack. We saw the video for “Undercover Funk,” Snoop’s cover of Parliament’s “Tear the Roof off the Sucker (Give Up the Funk)” at the bowling alley last night; It had Snoop, Bootsie Collins and members of the U.B. cast. It was hilarious… especially the Neil Patrick Harris parts. I came home, found it on a newsgroup and downloaded it.

• Spent some time at one of the local B&Ns and did some drawing.
• Went to consult m3lody for some drawing techniques help.
• Came home.

Cool Site of the Day
It’s no secret that I’m a comic book fan. I’m also a South Park fan… although I have seen far too few episodes over the past two seasons. What do you get when you put the two together? I’m not 100% sure, but it would probably look something like this, by Kwick22a, a regular on Comics2Film‘s Digital Concept Gallery. Here are the rest of his submissions (look at the other South Park-esque ones). “Accidents Happen” and “Run, Flash, Run” are my other two favorites.

If anyone would like to buy this for me, I’ll send you a ‘The weather’s here, wish you were beautiful” postcard.

Peace.

Written: Saturday night/Sunday morning
Posted: Whenever the servers get unfubar’ed.

Saturday
Good (and mostly lazy) day.

• Jess and I met Bessie, one of the supervisors at work, for lunch. Olive Garden. We had a nice lunch; the calamari wasn’t as good as it usually is, but… *shrug*
• A friend of mine is dealing with some drama. We went out for coffee and talked for a while.
• Bowling. I beat Angie in one game; Larry beat her twice! To say that this is a very rare occurrence would be quite an understatement.
• Late night foodage at the V.I. We were there with some of the post-bar/club crowd. That’s always a treat.
• I was reminded, not that I needed to be reminded, that I have the coolest girlfriend in the world. She got me tickets (yes, plural) for the Rush concert in August! Hoo-ah! She told me tonight because she wanted to surprise me… and, most importantly, she didn’t want me to buy tickets since she had gotten these for me. (A similar situation occurred at Christmas: I almost bought a Benjamin Sisko ornament a couple of days after she had gotten one for me. She told me about it just before I went to pay for it.)
  Coolest girlfriend in the world!
  ::: gesture :::

That is all for tonight.

Peace.

Friday
Short day. Only made it 6 hours. Well, I shouldn’t say ‘only.’ “I chose to leave after six hours” would be a more accurate way of saying it. With the exception of the hour from 16:30 – 17:30, the time passed quickly; that hour was the longest three weeks ever!

Went out for a late dinner with Angie and Jen.

NPR/PRI – Quote of the Day (two-for-one): Diane Ackerman, a guest on Talk of the Nation – Science Friday‘s segment on gardening, on the animals that attempt to get into her garden and the measures that she has gone to in order to insure the garden’s safety and prosperity: Deer are not Rhodes scholars.

And, in other NPR/PRI news, on All Things Considered, they talked about a story that was printed in The Onion:

Congress Threatens to Move
A story in The Onion newspaper last month reported that Congress was threatening to move out of Washington unless a new Capitol building was built. Of course, The Onion is a satirical paper, and the story wasn’t true. But that didn’t stop the Beijing Evening News, which reprinted the story for a huge audience in the Chinese capital. Robert Siegel talks with the editor in chief of The Onion newspaper, whose name is also Robert Siegel.

You can read the original article and listen to the ATC interview for yourself.

Peace.