Monday
I’m feeling human again today. Lots of sleep (especially after a good bit of alcohol) will do that for you. I think. *shrug*

Today was errand day. Got a few things taken care of before poker. Mary brought her grill over yesterday, so we grilled out before the gaming started. Nothing like flame-kissed bratwurst and burgers. Poker turnout was good, too.

I left out a few things from the weekend, so here’s the Cliff’s Notes recap:

  • Watched The Batman, the new animated series. It’s basically, “Batman: Year Three.” The artistic style is different, but not in a bad way. I would call it something of a cross between the styles of JLU and Teen Titans. The casting of the voice actors was good, too. This show has good potential.
  • Jess and I saw Resident Evil: Apocalypse. I went in knowing what to expect (a live-action videogame) and I wasn’t disappointed. Jess, not being familiar with the game, made a lot of comparisons to 28 Days Later. Simple, mindless (or brainless, as the case may be) fun.
  • Bowling. I not only bowled ironman, I did it on three lanes. At the same time. O_o Sanity apparently took a backseat to masochism. Scores: 136 – 220 – 155 – 130 – 145 – 109/130 – 187/147/121 – 110
  • Pat and Staci, fresh from their honeymoon, dropped in at breakfast Saturday night. Sounds like they had a good time. Staci even came back with a Lego watch, a CLIKITS Heart Watch… but a Lego® watch, nonetheless. 🙂

NPR and Other News
Morning Edition: Losing Julie: Teen’s Suicide Blamed on Zoloft
Morning Edition: Can You Marry Me Now?
Morning Edition: Benny Golson: Elder Statesman of the Jazz Sax
Day to Day: White Supremacist’s Legacy in Northern Idaho
Day to Day: ‘Between a Rock and a Hard Place’

Climber Aron Ralston was pinned beneath a rock for six days while climbing in Utah last year. NPR’s Alex Chadwick talks with Ralston about how he cut off his own arm to survive. Ralston documented the ordeal and his recovery in his book Between a Rock and a Hard Place.

All Things Considered: Modern-Day Milkman Thrives on Housecalls
All Things Considered: Musician Resurrects Sandburg’s ‘American Songbag’
Fresh Air: Interview with Singer Donovan Leitch (Sunshine Superman, et al.)

BBC News: Palace Balcony Protester Removed (dressed as Batman)

Stray Toasters

  • As most people around me know, this (Lego® Creator Watch) is my favorite watch:

    I’ve had it for… about a year and a half. And, yes, it did come with the little monkey. Why? I don’t know, but I don’t question. It’s also a great conversation starter. I’ll be sitting somewhere (often at a bookstore or a restaurant) and the following usually happens:

    Person: *stare*
    Me: *going about my business*
    Person: Hey! Your watch looks like Lego or something…
    Me: *removes watch to show the Lego® logo on the face*
    Person: Well, look at that! It is Lego! Hey, (calls a person over), come look at this…

    It’s rather amusing. Not too long ago, I went to the Lego® site to see if I could order another one. They showed the Bionicle Watch (which I also have), the Bionicle Toa Nuva Watch and the CLIKITS Heart Watch. But there was no sign of the Creator Watch. So, being the diligent Interweb geek that I am, I searched the site for it. Lo and behold, I found it. There was also a note on the page: Sorry, item is not available in this country. I don’t know when they stopped selling it in the States, but I’m not complaining. I have a relatively rare item in the U.S. And that’s not a bad thing.

  • Over the past few days, I’ve gotten a couple of comments on a post that I made back in January, about Maddox. I neither know nor care what kinds of sticks these people have up their asses, but I have to admit that I find their comments amusing.
  • G4TechTV’s Icons aired an episode called “Gaming in the Military” on this afternoon. It showed how the military has adapted a number of consumer, off-the-shelf products for use as supplemental training tools and how some software companies have modified some of their products for use as supplemental training tools. Very interesting.
  • By way of : News of the Weird
  • By way of Slashdot: The Beatles vs. Apple Could it be that the band’s company, Apple Corps., is about to take a big byte (sorry) out of the computer giant?
  • “Are we talking big toes or little toes?”

  • Words Without Borders – The Online Magazine for International Literature
  • Also from Backwash: The Seven Vices of Highly Creative People
  • Toilegami
  • Stone Trek – To boldly go where no caveman has gone before.
  • I don’t really know what to make of this. The link on Backwash called it “Microsoft Windows Anime.” The best way to describe it would be to anthropomorphize the Windows OSes into Sailor Moon-like characters. Yeah. I know. *brainlock* Throw in a J-Pop theme, too. I’m sure that the experience might be a little “better,” relatively speaking, if I read Hirigana. (NOTE: You’ll want to have broadband. Otherwise, it’s a painfully slow load.)

No wombats were harmed in the making of this post.

Namaste.