Further Assimilations

Since today is of course, the Ides of March, I had to find a proper Vehicle for my thoughts on the day...



I once saw a version of this set entirely to classic NASA footage. Quite cool, but I can't locate a copy of that on the Web.

About to head out into the rain to procure dinner fixins and blades for my razor. I can get quite furry on weekends where no social events are involved.

• 08:26 @tangowildheart Vilya was the elven Ring of Air, on the hand of Elrond in LotR. #
• 11:20 I can't remember the zip code of the last place I worked, but I can give you the names of the three elven rings in no time. *eyeroll* #
• 12:40 @meiran Be strong. We may knock one down, but the Internet has a nigh-infinite-supply of idiots. #
• 18:13 Rumor going around that Daft Punk will score the "Tron 2" movie. tinyurl.com/b7ru6h Probably BS, but my nerd heart is soaring. #

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Now that I'm digging the Daft Punk, everyone's been saying over and over that I needed to get the Alive 2007 album. Picked it up this weekend, finally listened to it with the speakers turned up on my morning commute. That's some fine commuting music, that is.

It looks like Starr won't be making it to Technicon Last; she can't get out of working that weekend. Her shifts are crazy - it's a regular thing for her to have five days off in a row, but somehow her scheduled weekend shifts always fall on convention dates. It annoys us both. She has more than enough PTO to cover it if she took off, but that requires a great deal of shift-trading, and for some reason few of her co-workers want to work extra weekend shifts. Can't imagine why.

I may have a very memorable con costume this year.

I like Twitter because it provides useful writing exercise in expressing onself succinctly. I shouldn't fret, though, if I miss a few dozen because I'm away from a 'Net connection. Most of the stuff I'll want to know shows up in LiveJournal, and LJ's much easier to keep up with. (Blogging of any kind forces me to keep in mind two good practices: try to avoid that cursed passive voice, and don't write a novel where a couple of paragraphs will get my point across better.)

• 21:04 Starr's parents, sisters, and I just broke into "Paradise By the Dashboard Light" and sang the whole thing together. Kinda awesome. :) #

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• 09:13 Listening to TSO for, somehow, the first time this Christmas. I will *not* choke up during "Old City Bar". #
• 11:00 @tangowildheart Yep, it's great when the total commute = 25% of the actual work hours, isn't it? #
• 14:00 @tangowildheart That's right, I am unable to do math today. Possibly because I'm in the same boat of 1hr - 4hrs - 1hr. :( #

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• 11:13 Experiencing a blast from the past: I have Eve Tokimatsuri songs running through my head now. #
• 11:45 @snidegrrl "The spiders launched to the space station a supply of tasty fruit flies for food" - spiders with orbital capability? Uh-oh. #
• 12:07 Noting that the "post Twitter entries to LJ" script is doing so at wildly varying times of day for some reason. #

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Someday I will learn to keep a stash of ibuprofen at my desk.

Saturday I wanted to do anything but sit on the couch and stare at the DVR. Handily, there was plenty going on in the area, and we ended up catching a free blues festival at the 17th Street oceanfront. Less handily, we ended up parking at the 23rd Street oceanfront and I got my exercise for the weekend in 95-degree weather. I can't believe I'm not sunburned. But, the music was excellent.

Add in that walking to yesterday's five-hour cleaning spree in the apartment (2.5 rooms done, yay!) and I am an achy Borg today. Still, I'm pleased with the reasons I got that way, so I'm calling it a win.

Saturday night we ended up as guests of Starr's parents at a mildly pricey Italian restaurant. The kitchen messed up my order once, and delayed the second attempt; the manager finally comped me the dinner and I think overdid my dessert as apology. With two large cannoli on a plate before me that evening, I'm pretty thankful for all the unplanned exercise.

Today is my mom's birthday, At first, I was fretting over whether she'd even want to talk to me, but that's not the right attitude. I want to talk to her, and I'm still commmitted to getting this whole situation worked out in a way that gets her as much of what she wants as is sane.

Good news for today? I just found a bottle of ibuprofen in my glove compartment; and these 90-minute OS X Leopard installs give me lots of time to tap away at the Newton.

• 17:28 @snidegrrl If only I had a turntable I could hook to the Mac, I would be happy to rip a copy of my Chess album for you. #
• 17:54 @snidegrrl It's the original, 2-disc, "concept" vinyl album in a black sleeve. Sounded pretty good when I listened to it last (~20 yrs ago). #

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Glad I caught the first 40% of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra show two years ago, and the last 80% one year ago, as they've decided not to come through Hampton Roads this year. Closest venue will be in Richmond :(

The British Broadcasting Corporation puts on yearly classical music concerts known as The Proms. This year, they've added a Doctor Who Prom to the lineup, and you can hear it online at the BBC iPlayer site until August 3rd.

The concerts are audio broadcasts presented by Freema Agyeman (Martha Jones), and include performances of soundtrack music from the new series as well as classical music that "you might find on the Doctor's MP3 player". There will also be a special short TV episode on the BBC website called "Music of the Spheres" which, if it's like the other online trailers and specials, can technically only be watched from computers in Great Britain. (I'm quite sure that my fellow Whovian geeks are working on that as I type this.)

There's a program online listing the included compositions. If you're interested in orchestral music, enjoy!

EDIT: Aaaaand the online player just locked up on me. I am having a day of Internet servers crashing repeatedly. With luck, they'll get it fixed.

EDIT 2: 'Tis back. Clearly, the server couldn't handle the Doctor spamming Moonfire.