Major dust storm on Mars!

Cool!

Madame President

I saw part of an interview with Geena Davis today, and it was all very fascinating, as it melded with the last 2 eps of "Commander in Chief" that I had watched before and Gene's scathing review of the show. Geena Davis sounds so like me, she was insecure about her looks, her talent, and no professional or friend could tell her otherwise. She found some reason to discount the praise of even objective outsiders.

How do we get like this?

Strange Memories

I knew I had a plastic cap that was supposed to go on a beverage can and (supposedly) delay the inevitable flattening of the carbonated contents. I finally found the lid in the assorted junk drawer in the kitchen (we all have them don't we) but I paused before I popped it on the 365 Whole Foods tonic can. It was green and had this strange logo of a bird with a long beak over a strange flower with a stamen that looked like the beak and type around the graphic saying "Cranberry World West."

I went to "Cranberry World West" several years ago. It is in Nevada, some kind of marketing tool of Ocean Spray (Nevada hardly seems the place to grow cranberries) that Supon (my boyfriend of the time) and his parents and I attended as part of some Hoover Dam bus trip from Las Vegas. I had mentioned that i wanted to see the dam, and next thing I knew we were on this trip. This was all part of a strange voyage, dating Supon and dealing with his parents who spoke very little English and supposedly did not know he was gay (though I think they knew and it was one of those 'don't ask, don't tell, he's just a 'friend' family things). Personally I hated Vegas (this was before Star Trek or Cirque), because I don't get the whole gambling thing.

But anyway, there is something about this cap, and the graphic, that stirs weird, sad feelings in me. What kind of bird is that? Will it be extinct soon because of us? What was the purpose of putting it on that cap anyway? I look at that picture, feel the unnaturally smooth plastic under my fingers, and some small dark part of me wishes that the avian bird flu would kill off all of humankind (along with the deluded christ cults and other naive religions), like the asteroid supposedly did 65 million years ago to the dinosaurs, and hopefully something smarter will evolve next. Bush, Libby, Rove, their ilk and the fools who voted for them show that we are not ready to be caretakers of this planet. Yoiks; ok that is pretty severe.

Happy halloween! And on a lighter note (since I can't release the Drax [Moonraker, silly] plague on my own) here's a recipe for cranberry sauce

NPR - Morning Edition - Susan Stamberg Cranberry Relish Recipe

I love that goofy chef spot they played for a long time every year on NPR, though now Julia is gone, what will they do? Actually, what have they been doing since Bob Edwards has been gone, since he narrated? Oh right, they no longer air it, but I think you can listen on the web site.

Daylight Saving?

Ah I remember back when I was a real nerd in college and the coolest Daylight Saving was when we were playing an FRP (Fantasy Role-Playing game, in this case Rolemaster, a spin-off of Dungeons & Dragons that I helped design) and in the game we screwed up and there was a huge disaster. But wait! One character had a 'limited wish' that he could use to turn back time for one hour. So we turned the clock back! Yes, we were dorks.

And tonight, as I see my cute 20-something neighbor Matt head out in a skimpy caveman outfit for a halloween party, I am pondering my own Halloween weekend options for thi evening, and they do not include going out.

Star Trek II (just because... "KHAAAAAN!"), III (to see the newly 'out' Sulu/George Takei take out the Star Fleet Security guy: "Don't call me 'Tiny'" -- note that Nimoy gave Takei some great scenes in III and IV, breaking him out of his fixed role a bit; Nimoy should be given credit for allowing a lot of the secondary crew to breathe a little life into their characters in both the movies he directed) or VIII (because it is the best of the lot as far as action and sheer coolness).

Varsity Photos

What's a bigger gay fantasy than the high school wrestling team? The high school wrestling team camping it up in shirtless pirate costumes. Oh dear!

I Want It That Way

This is hilarious. (The one on the right is kinda cute).

Phasers on Stun, Mr Sulu!

Well, as I said to Steven, (who brought the Advocate article to my attention) Gerorge Takei finally officially came out. Of course it was his business whether or not he would, and it's something that I think most gay Trek fans already knew or strongly suspected, but I'm glad he (finally) did.

It makes his turn as the "Mirror" Sulu even more entertaining, when he was lecherously all over poor Uhura.

Star Trek star George Takei comes out

Actor George Takei, best known as Mr. Sulu on the classic TV series Star Trek , comes out of the closet in the new issue of Frontiers . Or rather, as he tells editor Alexander Cho, "It's not really coming out, which suggests opening a door and stepping through. It's more like a long, long walk through what began as a narrow corridor that starts to widen." In the interview, the 68-year-old actor also discusses his childhood in a Japanese-American internment camp, his 18-year relationship, his siblings' inability to accept his homosexuality, and the upcoming Los Angeles production of Equus in which he stars.

Terry Needs.

Thanks to Larry and Steven for this amusing little game (Google your name and 'needs' together in quotes):

1. Terry needs at least 25 years of creditable service to be eligible
2. Terry needs a substitute for next Monday and Jessie does not want to work the shift.
3. Terry needs to change his script.
4. Terry needs to read up on this a bit more.
5. Terry needs help right now.
6. Terry needs to know that he is accepted no matter what he does.
7. Terry needs to seriously consider who she really is. (oops)
8. Terry needs to have an All-Star season and a mind-set transplant
9. Terry needs to hold you
10. Terry needs a break; he needs some fun.

They had nicknames

I had to stop reading this, or else I was going to start crying at work.

Not my imagination!

This from AOL news:

Prescription medications for conditions such as depression or high blood pressure are lifesavers for many people. While these treatments do much good, they've also been shown to cause unwanted weight gain -- up to 10 pounds per month.

The Main Offenders
More than 50 common medicines carry the possible side effect of weight gain. Steroids and some older anti-depressant medications are at the top of the list. But recognizable names such as Paxil and Zoloft are part of the group, too, as are the heartburn drugs Nexium and Prevacid.

Just my opinion

But Daniel Dae Kim was, and continues to be, smokin' hot.

I loved him as the Telepath lieutenant on Crusade, and he is still sexy as hell on LOST. Beautiful eyes, and cheekbones forever.

Jean Luc!

Thanks to Wil Wheaton, I took the Which Fantasy/SciFi Character Are You? quiz. I was... Picard!

Though, I was pleased to see that in his profile, they use a quote I love, from the excellent episode "The Drumhead" which has particular significance in our current political situation.

Mrs Trendi, Card Reading

One amusing thing about watching my grainy old VCR recordings of SeaQuest on Sci-fi channel are the hilarious psychic ads. Who do they think watches this show when they have an ad with mostly young african american women talking about their experiences with their jamaican psychic? Maybe the young, nerdy white boys are fantasizing a hookup?

Yeah, right. Sci-fi channel, for better or worse, has become more legit. I think I liked it better with the low-budget ads and before they pretended that they could produce their own shows, most of which aren't even really sci-fi.

Forget the reality crap and the ghost stuff and the Shannon Dougherty junk and replay great sci-fi shows. I'd even prefer that Cnet stuff on Sunday.

Oh and what happened to those call--in psychics? Did people stop believing? Not according to the places around here.

I have several decks of Tarot cards; I think they are cool, and interesting to play with. But I don't believe in spiritual intervention. I lay them out and interpret them and it gives me a little insight into my feelings and relationships. They are a kind of self therapy. And that is all that a relatively sane but objective Madame Whatsit might do for you. :-|

Beneath the Surface

Oh and it looks like they are finally going to release Seaquest DSV on DVD. What held them up? Were they going to fix the somewhat lame CGI (rumor had it that they could not create a sequence longer than 15 seconds) or maybe legal issues with Roy Scheider or the estate of the (tragically) deceased Jonathan Brandis?

Who knows, but I'm buying season one, and probably season two (though it got cornier, it was still full of Ted Raimi and hottie Marco Sanchez), and season 2 boasted two Delouise brothers, one of whom would become a Stargate SG-1 director/producer...

Another Fall Sign

The temperature in my condo has dropped below 70 degrees for the first time in several months!

In the summer I keep it at an embarassingly low 71 (sorry but my metabolism is crazy and I can't sleep with it warmer, and I still had a fan pointed on me!), but in winter last year I had it at 65, which I found quite comfortable most of the time. Do I hear 64 this year? I got a new blanky for my bed!

Oh and coming up on 2 months since I filled my car's gas tank; take that you Hummer and Escalade fools. Of course that money just goes to oil companies, and that goes to...

Whew

Today was the first day in literally months that I have put on a pair of long pants. It is a day that I face with trepidation annually since five years ago when I had the dreaded (insert melodramatic musical chord progression) fat crisis. This was the second fat crisis in my life, and by far the more sudden and horrific.

First, ride along with the Synaptic Discharge and revisit fat crisis number one. After four years of college and basically eating anything and everything I wanted (this included a frightening period during which I ate a Big Mac®, large fries and large Coke® every day for an entire summer) and retained a waist size of 30, the next year or so I mysteriously put on weight, and my waist grew to an alarming (at the time) 32 inches! I started running (to the ruination of my knees) and cut back on all but the worst stuff, and settled back to a 30w. In fact, I remember at age 26 I had some 29 waist jeans and even a pair of Calvin Klein shorts that I bought in San Francisco that were 28! Ah, youth. They were cute shorts too.

Anyway, for the next decade or so, well into my 30's, I managed to only slowly expand up to a waist of 32 again, which I think is pretty good. Then came fat crisis number two.

This one snuck up on me partly because -- despite an unnatural fear of shorts in high school -- I wear shorts all summer. Loose shorts with those little elastic bands, big baggy hippy cargo shorts from Abercrombie & Fitch, etc. Though my company does not condone shorts, I have a waiver (maybe it's because I have such fabulous calves, I don't know) and I even wear them to work. And because I wore those loose shorts, I was unaware of the evil being wrought by the drug prescribed to me by my shrink at the time, beginning early that year. That evil was... Zoloft.

In desperation over my apparent depression, my regular therapist sent me to a psychiatrist, who immediately ramped me to the max on Zoloft. The sexual side effect was annoying, and later I noticed a weird blood-thinning effect that at the time was undocumented but was later substantiated. But the worst was... I gained almost twenty pounds. At the end of the summer, none of my pants fit. I had to wear my dorky bib overalls until I went out and bought 34w fat jeans. And THEY felt tight. I was furious that they had not warned me about the weight gain and I quit the drug, I dropped about 10 pounds quickly but it took years to lose almost all the rest (and regular SD readers know how much exercise I get).

So ever since that summer, the first day I put on jeans is a scary one. Did I get fat again over the summer? Will my pants no longer fit? You don't know how scared I was this morning.

Fortunately after a summer of loose shorts I survived fall anxiety: I still fit in my jeans. My 32w low-rise Levi's I bought last fall still fit just fine.

Whew!

Birthday Fun

I was a slug for my birthday. Unfortunately, Justin Timberlake did not show up, pouty and shirtless and waxed (as in the picture below) for a wild day/night of sex. Perhaps Cammy wouldn't let him out of the house.

Almost as good though, my sis got me the X-Files DVDs ('Black Oil' featuring Krychek... yummm) and an anime DVD I wanted. And a certain Love Lemming got me a gift certificate to Amazon! Thank you Larry! Now, should I buy the Sims 2, or something else... hmmm.

For My Birthday...

I'd like to wake up and find...

1. Hillary Clinton is in the White House with Ben Affleck as VP and Frist, Delay, Cheney and Rove are headed for the guillotine;
2. I won the $340 million powerball (tough since I don't play);
3. This in bed next to me, asking me what I want for breakfast -- or if I just want to snuggle a while longer:

Yikes

Ex-'SNL' player Charles Rocket commits suicide

I remember him mainly from the classic TV series Max Headroom (I'd buy those DVDs!) where he played the villain TV producer. Maybe this is morbid of me to ask, but how do you cut your own throat? Ick.

And this after just yesterday watching a bit of "100 greatest one-hit wonders" on VH-1 with Shatner, and seeing Big Country, who's cute lead singer also offed himself.

It's not "Butterstick"

CNN.com - D.C. panda gets a name

And they have to send him back to China when he turns two!? Unfair!

UVa Flashback

One of my old professors was quoted in TIME magazine last week in an article about the Getty Museum.Case of the Looted Relics (Subscription may be required so here is the relevant section.)

Now the Getty is getting attention for the kinds of spending that museums don't brag about. Next month, the trial of former antiquities curator, Marion True, resumes in Italy on charges that she helped the museum buy 42 illegally looted Roman and Etruscan artifacts. True has denied the allegations, but last week she resigned after the revelation that a dealer involved in some of the purchases helped her get a loan for a vacation home in Greece. Critics of the museum say her case is a symptom of a culture of mismanagement and excess, in which the head of the museum's trust allegedly used the institution as a piggy bank to, among other things, buy himself a $72,000 car. The Getty, it seems, may be melting down faster than it was built up.

The tainted-goods charges are not unique to the Getty. For decades, ancient artifacts have been illicitly dug up and sold to see-no-evil museums. But the Getty was a notoriously aggressive collector, and some in the art world believe that its hunger and spending habits encouraged looting and theft. Ironically, True was responsible in 1995 for the Getty's adopting a strict policy of buying only well-documented pieces. "She extricated the museum from an ethical morass," says University of Virginia professor of art history Malcolm Bell. "It's extremely sad that the one person who understood that the intellectual integrity of her institution depended on respecting knowledge is now going on trial."

My professor, Malcolm Bell, taught Art History, and the class I was in was something like "Architecture of the Greek City" so it was a kind of Art/Architecture crossover. It was a small discussion-group class with maybe five of us in it, and I remember him as a little guy with red hair and beard and a wry sense of humor. The class was fun and interesting as much because of his enthusiasm as the material (which was fascinating to me). We focused on one small ancient Greek city for most of the semester. Our final exam? Write a story where the characters visit all the major important areas of the city, describing these areas and their relationships. I think I got an A.

Question to my NoVa Neighbors

What is that big tent I saw this morning in Arlington near Pentagon City? It looked like a Cirque tent except it was white instead of the usual yellow and blue. Just curious -- I was barreling back across the bridge on 395 towards home after my spin class and couldn't get a good look at the little pennants.

UPDATE: I saw an ad for it in the paper. It's called Cavalia, looking sort of like Cirque (icomplete with dual French/Englsh text) with horses. Though the web site is pretty lame; it doesn't make me want to see the show.

Sooo Tired

I'm just beat. I need to drop one of my classes, but I can't really until I am sure that none are going to be cancelled anytime soon, because I have to maintain 3 a week to keep my free gym membership. Argh.

And work has just been hellish lately. Not as bad as those couple of weeks, but it's really taking a toll on me. Bleah!

Brrr

Feds see higher heating costs, colder temperatures.

Should I gloat because I have a heat pump, I keep the temp at 65 in the winter, and my power company's electricity comes from nuclear reactors? Maybe not, since I keep the AC cranked in the summer...

Apple Store - South Hills Village

OMG! Apple has opened a store in the old mall I knew as a kid. I used to walk to South Hills Village from home (between a mile and 2 miles), and one of my first summer jobs was there. I'm sure it's changed quite a lot since when I worked at the Stouffer's restaurant as a teenager. They have an Abercrombie and Fitch!

BTW, I added a link to Angry Asian Man at right. I wonder if he would think that A&F is as racist as they are homophobic/homerotic?

UPDATE:
Here's a link to an article in the Washington Post about Angry Asian man! Here's the beginning of the article:

Incensed And Empowered
Angry Asian Man, Only Half Joking
By Jose Antonio Vargas
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 9, 2005

What are you so angry about, Mr. Angry Asian Man?

Phil Yu laughs heartily.

"We as Asians are not usually seen as an angry, militant, conscious group," says Phil Yu, whose Web site mixes humor and criticism. "People ask me that question all the time," says Yu, a 27-year-old Korean American who has graced us with AngryAsianMan.com, a personal clearinghouse of everything Asian American. Its mock catchphrase of empowerment: "Keep it real with the rice fields." ("Can't you visualize the Chinamen?" Yu explains on the site. "Wearing those funny hats. Holding a stick or something. Squatting.")

The refrain "That's racist!" also appears regularly -- sometimes half-jokingly, oftentimes not, when Yu stumbles upon what he views as stereotypical depictions of Asian Americans. But no, he's not actually that angry. He's just like a lot of other bloggers in the URL-littered landscape, a man who has something to say that he thinks other people aren't saying. Latinos have a right to be angry, blacks have a right to be angry -- why can't Asians be angry, too?

What's Behind Apple's Curtain?

Businessweek has some theories about what's Behind Apple's Curtain at the mysterious announcement for this Wednesday.

I'm back.

Did you miss me?

I took Friday off from work, and basically spent my 3-day weekend bumming around the house (except for teaching Sat and Sunday morning, and volunteering at the library). It poured buckets of rain Friday and Saturday, which was a real deterrant to going out to the coffee place, and when I'm at home I just can't muster the concentration to write.

I did catch up on a lot of TV on the TiVo, including Commander in Chief, Boston Legal, the season finale of Charmed, the rest of Stargate Atlantis,2 eps of Will and Grace, and 2 eps of Nip/Tuck (I am so far behind on that show!) and some cleaning.

Two notes regarding when I did go out:

You know you are gay when... When you teach group exercise classes you always remember what guys have been in your class, and recongnize them when they come back, but all the women (with a few exceptions) kind of blend together in your mind. I really need to work on this, as connecting with your students is the way to get them to keep coming back. Too bad I am so bad at connecting with people!

At the library Sunday, the very sweet little guy who is the Sunday manager randomly came up and handed me a copy of the newest Harry Potter book and asked me if I wanted it. I was a little confused, since it was brand new, and obviously had not been labelled to be a library book. If someone had returned it by mistake, maybe it should be in Lost & Found, and if it had been donated, it should go to the big book sale next week. But he said it was 'extra' and I could have it if I wanted it. I was like, sure!

Wonkette - george w. bush

Wonkette summarizes the speech. All the laughter, all the tears.

Apple - Trailers - Brokeback Mountain

I'm getting all teary-eyed just watching this.

Pins and Needles!

Apple to hold special event next week

Apple Computer will hold a special event in San Jose next week, thesecond such event in just over four weeks. The invitation sent out onTuesday by Apple shows closed theater curtains with the words "One more thing" written on top. Those familiar with Apple CEO Steve Jobs' keynote speeches will instantly recognize the use of Jobs' "One more thing" catchphrase, which is often used to indicate a blockbuster announcement. There was no indication on what would be announced at the event.

What will it be? Not a new iMac already! Video iPod? New PowerMac?

I'm stopping by the Apple Store tonight after class to look at the 20" iMac one more time. I'd really like to by the last model before it goes to the Intel chip.

I'm excited

I am taking Friday off!

I have big plans, including getting the car washed (it's been, like, a year), cleaning up around the house, and heading to the coffee place with the laptop to do some serious writing.

9/11! 9/11! 9/11!

How predictable. Polls are sinking, especially regarding the war.
So Bush will have a 'major speech' on Iraq & terrorism

Funny how this speech will be about two things that have nothing in common with each other. At least the didn't; now analysts are saying that the war has destabilized the country, leaving opportunities for terrorists to come in and start training camps. So Bush has made things worse, not better.

From CNN:

Bush has tried repeatedly to link Iraq to the anti-terror campaign launched after al Qaeda's September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.

Though the 9/11 commission found no operational relationship between al Qaeda and Iraq before the 2003 invasion that toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, critics say the insurgency against U.S. troops that followed Saddam's overthrow has drawn terrorists into Iraq to fight Americans.

Author expelled after calling Harry Potter gay

Oops

This and That

My birthday is coming up. I'm going to be... well, let's not get into that.

My 'strength' class went pretty well today, after 4 classes I think I'm starting to get the feel of it, and I had seven students (up from ZERO the first class, but that's understandable since it was new). The big question is, will I see at least 7 people again next week, or will they all go "He's a crappy teacher, I'm not getting up at 5:30 in the morning to go to his class again!"

Five classes a week is a lot though; I'm really thinking of dropping either Sunday morning or Thursday nite spin. Ironic that I would kill either of those since they are at the closest club, but my Saturday class is the best (almost full last week) and I like my little group on Thursday mornings. And I even enjoy that predawn walk across the Key Bridge (that image is looking back towards Rosslyn where I live).

Death and Funerals

Envirboi's entry today about attending his uncle's funeral made me think about my attitude towards funerals... and that I'm not sure what that is.

I have never been to a funeral, or a memorial service of any kind that I can remember. I think that's partly because I come from a small family with relatives fairly scattered, and that I never had a big circle of gay friends (maybe that's an unfair assumption, that gay men go to a lot of funerals).

Anyway, as an atheist I think it's kind of pointless, despite the whole explanation that funerals are for the living, to give people a sense of closure, etc., etc. I might find out that I'm horribly wrong some day, but I don't think it would mean anything to me. I do understand how some people might need it. If anything, watching a season of Six Feet Under helped me understand that.

I almost went to a funeral once. I must have been around nine to ten years old, and my sister just five or six. We were living in Pittsburgh, our parents still married (divorce came when I was 11). We found out that our grandfather had died. My mother's parents lived in a small town in Missouri, had a house on a pretty big piece of land with two ponds. Well, they liked to get in a little boat and row out into the middle of the bigger pond and fish. Apparently one evening (the details of this are sketchy and second-hand; I don't remember exactly how I found out, but I don't think we were told at the time what happened) my grandfather was out in the boat and he fell in the water. Neither of my grandparents knew how to swim, and he drowned while my grandmother watched helplessly from the shore.

So, we all packed up and flew to Missouri for the funeral. I remember being at our aunt and uncle's house and just kind of trying to lie low while a parade of relatives came in to console our grandmother. I just remember more tears and huggng over and over as they came in. Then, when it came time to go to the funeral, our grandmother did not want us to go. She told us to 'remember our grandfather as he was.' We were pretty young, so maybe it was for the best. Who knows. But I seem to remember there being a disagreement, and my father was annoyed that we had flown out there (and been pulled out of school I think) and now we weren't going to. But we stayed, with a sitter I think.

Then my mother either stayed, or she returned to help our granmother pack up to move to their other house, which was in town. She returned, and I think it was not more than a few weeks later that we got a call at night. Once again, we were nto really told anything at the time, but we heard our mother screaming at our father "She planned this all along!" She was angry more than upset, it seemed. Apparently our grandmother had committed suicide: she'd started the car and let it run in the attached garage with the door open. Again, I don't remember how I found this out, but it was not till much later.

We did not all fly back out to Missouri. I think my father went with my mother, but I'm not sure. His parents died when we were very young, and we were never close to his brother and sister. My mother had a younger sister who died as a child of Lieukemia I think. I have 3 half brothers, but have not spoken to any of them for 20-25 years.

My parents are both getting up there in years; it won't be long before I have to face this funeral thing. The scary thing is, I can't imagine going to my father's funeral... it would just be too weird to see those people. Who would expect me to attend, and why? The only people I would go for would be my sister, and my father's third wife Lyla, who we always liked.

Just thinking about it makes me... depressed.

Our Tenth Planet...

Named Xena, has a moon!

Guess what they named it?

The G5 part 2

My G5 Multitronic Unit is settling down, but I'm still getting some strange file corruptions, and none of the Macs like talking to the dumbass Dell server we use. The IT guy says the 'Mac Services' on it are having trouble. Yeah whatever.

Anyway, this G5 is a big Dual Processor beast with no less than four fans and a liquid cooling system. With all that in mind, when I start taxing the processors, the fans start to speed up, and it gets louder and louder... and louder. It's like a jet about to take off.

This is is marked contrast to my little G4 Cube at home that needs no fan to cool itself and is absolutely silent (unless you count the very quiet sound of the hard drive).

Darn it

I just now watched the first hour of the double episode finale of Stargate SG-1 and I am so bummed that they killed Anubis' son Khalek, played by the extremely hot Neil Jackson.

Naturally, when they find hm in suspended animation he is... shirtless. Yum.

2001

I know I am a nerd, but I think that this site is so cool...

Ok, I've had it

There have been a deluge of junk comment posts, and though most of them are to old posts of mine, it's annoying me to no end. So it's time for word verification.

Mama Cass

Is it any coincidence that Cass Elliot's Make Your Own Kind of Music is her #1 download on iTunes, LOST fans? Hmm? It's in my shopping cart!

Junk!

I seem to be getting more and more junk comments (I delete them pretty quickly, but they annoy me all the same), so I may have to activate the word verification feature, as much as I would prefer not to make it any more of a hassle for people to comment. :-(