Further Assimilations

While driving to work this morning, watching the sunrise and listening to the Trance Euphoria podcast, I flashed on a fantasy that's been with me since I could drive, if not before.

In that fantasy, I'm cruising down the Interstate at standard driving speeds, waiting for a nice gap in the cars before and behind me. At the right moment, I reach down to the center console and hit the switch that activates the repulsor pads in the undercarriage.

As the aft thrusters warm up, I feel the small jerk that tells me that the wheels have lost contact with the ground. I hit the button that folds them away into the fenders, bring the thrusters up to 200 MPH, and climb into the sky, arriving at work in 15 minutes instead of 50.

That little vignette hits me on almost any drive longer than 20 minutes. I love visiting all sorts of places... it's the actual getting there that I often find so tedious. Needless to say, mine would be the only car that could do this, otherwise there'd be flaming wrecks scattered across the landscape. (And not always other people's fault, either: last night I almost broadsided someone because I was thinking about my grocery list rather than the road. Bad Borg.)

• 09:09 Getting two more high-velocity pebbles in the windshield in the last 24 hours. One left a nice star in the glass. #
• 09:40 Re-registering to vote because I didn't last year and my address changed last April. #

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I have driven to Orlando. I have driven to upstate New York. In neither of those cases was I responsible for the steering wheel the whole time, if at all; so, yes, a five-hour drive can absolutely wear me out!

Since NASA Langley is practically sitting on I-64, I packed the car on Wednesday night and headed right to Blacksburg from work Thursday. 64 and I-81 aren't too unpleasant on a Thursday evening; my CD player may be broken, but the iPod plays through it nicely except for the pauses when it tries to eject nonexistent CDs.

Unfortunately, my transmission started throwing fits around Afton Mountain (who could blame it?) slipping and locking into third gear three times on the trip down. Pulling over for 10 minutes each time seemed to reset things, but that's no way to run a railroad.

I made it safely to the Microtel, where I was informed that the wireless access was a bit spotty on my floor :( Nevertheless, in an effort to adjust my sleep rhythms for the weekend, I stayed up for a couple hours unsuccessfully farming Primals in Zangarmarsh, only getting kicked off the server three times.

Friday I headed down to see my Mom (one of the main reasons for my Thursday travel), which was lovely. We traded Xmas presents and had good conversation over a mildly disappointing lunch. Interestingly, I'm still on a hot-rodded Mac G4 tower, and she's got the latest and greatest iMac Intel Core 2 Duo, which she took great glee in showing me.

Went to the lube place, got the transmission flushed, and had them look at my rear tires, which were making unhappy growly noises. Yep, they needed replacing. Technicon was getting expensive already...

A year after having it loaned to me, I have finally picked up and read "Eldest" by Christopher Paolini. This book is the sequel to "Eragon", which I found to be enjoyable, if lacking in originality. "Eldest" is more of the same; I'd suggest it to any reader I know, with the caveat that they shouldn't expect anything mind-blowing. The writing is good, and the characters are interesting, which is more than many fantasy books can claim.

Still, one day I want to read a high fantasy novel where the elves are short-lived and highly industrial, if not technological. Perhaps the ancient lost civilization that left behind all the ruins and dungeons could be one of humans, or lizard men, or Things We Barely Understand instead of the freakin' elves again. And hey, how about hippie, type B dwarves that live simple lives of farming and woodcarving? You get my drift, here?

We lived through Ernesto - our house was never in danger, though I did lose power halfway through my morning webcomic troll. Driving to work was a dumb idea - two different blocks were flooded, and when the tires stop making the "zzziiiisssshhh" noise and begin making the "blubble-blurble-splep-blobble" noise, the water's too deep - but dumb luck saved me, and the drive home was a little better. The yard looks a bit battered, though.

The International Astronomers Union voted last week that Pluto isn't a full planet, but a "dwarf planet". They did this in part because Pluto's moon, Charon, is almost the same size as Pluto and might have deserved planet status; and a more distant body in our solar system, "2003 UB313", is even larger and might have been awarded the same privileges. "2003 UB313" has been nicknamed "Xena" by its discoverer, and no stuffy astronomers' group is going to sit still for "Planet Xena". (The nickname is unofficial, but may well stick.) (And yes, Xena has a satellite... Gabrielle.)

Pluto, Charon, Xena, and the asteroid Ceres all qualify for "dwarf planet" status under the IAU's new rules. I say Pluto still deserves the love, and we all know what's a planet and what's an asteroid, whatever they say. Manned mission to Planet Xena!

Podcast recommendations of the day: Taverncast, for WoW players; not only is the material useful and interesting, but it's presented in a very light-hearted, entertaining manner by the hosts. Also, Geek Counterpoint, for those with a science bent; much drier in tone, but still well-presented and interesting - my interest was caught by the episode on inflatable spacecraft. Seriously.

The Hyundai is very mad at me right now. The dash clock and stereo are cutting out intermittently (and separately), the a/c has stopped working (and with it, my defogger, which has made driving in the rain interesting), and my temperature gauge is running high. Given how much of the car is factory-sealed, that may mean a trip to the dealership. :(

I may finally attend a NekoCon this year, given that it's right on my doorstep and all. Thinking about it.

A weekend of fighting entropy - we washed the car, replaced the battery in the car, washed clothes, unpacked more stuff, mowed the lawn, built more RTA furniture in which to store stuff. It was a productive couple of days.

This is an odd morning. Despite the fact that I slept poorly and the volume on the clock radio alarm had gotten turned down, I woke up on time and as clear-headed as I ever do. Got out of the house on time without forgetting anything (thanks to some timely help, traffic was even light, and the MP3 CD chose a nice Jean-Michel Jarre / Apollo 440 tune for my drive to work. I'm feeling good this morning. That worries me :)

You have to try out this link. It's work safe, you don't need to turn up the volume and wait for anything to scream at you, none of the weird Internet jokes here. This is just a funky / cool effect.

Actually, it's my headlight. I meant to get that taken care of last night, but I ran out of energy. I just don't get much done in the evenings now - they're so short. If I go out with friends, that takes care of the evening in one swoop, I go home and go to bed. And I really am having knee problems, I have been all week. Every time I go up a set of stairs is a bit painful, I don't know what I did to myself but I'm ready for it to go away.

I miss getting home at 2 and 3 o'clock in the afternoon. Of course, I don't miss staying at work until midnight, which is what gave me the early days the rest of the week, so I guess it all evens out.

It's raining this morning, as it is over most of the mid-Atlantic states. I like it when it rains. Either a clear, sunny, warm, not too humid day, or a nice steady rain that means business but isn't sheeting down in an effort to get people to build arks. None of this half-way gloom stuff.

Heading back to Salem tonight for the weekend. Thank goodness for audiobooks.

it's about a 10-minute walk from work to the parking spot. Good exercise, unless it's raining. But when I walked back to the parking garage today, my car was completely gone. I looked for it for 30 minutes of ever-increasing panic.

Turns out that this place has two completely identical parking garages. I was in the wrong one. Grrrr.

Anyway, the people at Decipher are very nice, and I'm thinking I'll do fine there. Though I don't have my own office, my desk is in an isolated corner, which felt a little weird - I've never worked that far away from co-workers before.

I'm pooped. Probably go to bed before too long.