Friday
End of the week. Not that it was an overly stressful week, but I’m glad that Baby has been put to bed rather than thrown out with the bathwater.

Work wasn’t bad today. As noted in an earlier post, I even listened to NPR and PRI. We were lightly staffed today, and I were the only ones who were there all day. This isn’t a bad thing, as there wasn’t too much to be done.

After work, I headed for CompUSAirways. Walked around, did some comparative price shopping, considered a few things… but I ultimately walked out empty-handed. Not bad. Next stop: Best Buy. I was in there for probably 00:45, talking myself into and out of buying “something.” I called Bret for “help.” Big mistake. No, that’s not entirely true. We had one of our funniest conversations in many, many moons. (I would have said “many rains, but I do live in the desert… rains don’t typically appear too often.) When I walked out, I had a KVM switch for my PCs and a copy of The Animatrix. On to Borders! Jess met me there and I did a bit of drawrin’. Jonas, one of the Cafè clerks came over and chatted with us from time-to-time.

NPR/PRI Stories

  • I refer you, once again, to this, with a side order of this story.
  • ‘The Matrix’ and ‘Monsters Inc.’: Mirror Movies?

    The science-fiction action film The Matrix and the animated Monsters Inc. may belong to different genres, but they have a striking similarity: both tell the story of an alternate universe fueled by the efforts of humans who are unaware that they are doing the fueling. NPR’s Bob Mondello offers his thoughts on the subject.

  • A Concorde airliner flew into Dulles International Airport yesterday. The plane has been donated to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum. (listen)

Song of the Day
Rock the House by Gorillaz

Stray Toasters

  • I found this to be one of the coolest things that I have seen recently.
  • Bored with the standard flight simulators on the market? Take notes: Build your own Boeing 737 simulator… complete with parts from an actual 737.
  • “That’s not good.” ::: stare at DVD player :::
  • In the race away from fossil fuels, hydrogen has been touted as a highly-viable alternative. Until recently. It seems as though it poses a few risks that of which we were previously unaware. Read this for more details.
  • Lit up with anticipation, we arrive and the launching site… So begins the song Countdown, by Rush. It would appear that a launch date (18 Dec 2003) has been set.
  • Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix arrives in stores in less than a week. Are you going to be one of those standing in line at midnight, waiting for it to hit the shelves? Will you wait a few days/weeks? Or, do you just not give a damn about it? I’m looking forward to it, but I can hold out for a while. A long while.
  • I saw a Pontiac ad that made me smile: A man is driving his sons in the family car; two boys are in the back seat, playing handheld game devices (if I remember correctly, they were GameBoy Advance units). The scene cuts from the boys playing their games, to the father’s eyes in the rear-view mirror, to the steering wheel and driver’s controls, to the car as it turns and swerves… almost in time to the boys’ movements. At the end of the commercial, the car stops, the father looks back at the boys and says, triumphantly: “I win!” ::: fade to black :::
  • AOL bought Mirabilis (the company that created ICQ) a couple of years ago. There haven’t been any (major) problems, to my knowledge. AOL has released an alpha version of ICQ that will allow people to exchange IMs between AIM and ICQ. To me, this bodes ill…
  • The 25 Dumbest Moments in Gaming History
  • KVM switch GOOOD!!! ::: gesture :::
    Why is it “GOOOD?” Two computers, one mouse, one keyboard and one monitor.

  • Going to and returning from lunch at one of the establishments across the street from the office is oddly reminiscent of playing Frogger®.

The eyelids are getting heavy. I’ll take that as a sign that sleep is on the short-term agenda.

Namaste.