More TiVo

I went ahead and ordered the replacement drive kit last night. More online research today continues to point to a bad hard drive. A helpful commenter on an earlier post here says that the software is on the drive, so I'm wondering if the software is all going to be re-downloaded when I boot the thing up for the first time!? I guess we'll see. I just got a confirmation that the kit was shipped; hopefully it will come later this week when I'm at home and I can perform the operation before the weekend. I'll take pictures! I'm sure you will all be on pins and needles about that!

I suppose I should turn on the dumbass DVR hooked up to the big TV and set it to record the Stargates just in case...

It's hot

One forecast is for it to be 101° tomorrow and Wedesday; another says 100° tomorrow and 105° on Wednesday. Of course here in lovely DC, it's the humidity that gets you as much as the heat.

I just looked up the San Francisco weather. Today: 68. Tuesday: 70° Wednesday: 68° Sigh.

Ok, like I ever doubted about my boy Lance.

I present my evidence gathered over the years.

Exhibit One

Exhibit Two, from the Rosie show. The answer was a song from Grease, and he sang and danced it. What can I say.

Exhibit Three, from the Rosie show. I mean really. I don't remember what the question was, but he knew the answer: Celin Dion. Guilty!

Finally, Exhibit Four from that Ski special. Now Really. Gay, and a bottom. Surprised, anyone?

Don't call it...

I love this Helio Ad. Guess why!

Okay, I'm off to copy more of my stored episodes of Xiaolin Showdown off the TiVo to *cough* vcr in preparation of the arrival of the new drive...

Conversations with R.

Gah. (as VUBOQ would say)

Weeks pass... I email. Days later he calls my cell and leaves a message. Today I see him online and send a hello, he instantly IM's back AND calls.

So, we have a chat about TVs and mortgages and cars and TiVo and other stuff, talk for a good 15 minutes or so. I feel myself getting a little squishy inside, but of course I am cool over the phone. Yeah it's that 'hearing his voice gets me going' bad, still.

Oh and then he was saying that he was probably going to be biking less and swimming more for his excercise. "I can just pull on a Speedo and my goggles..." Urk. Then he says he had guests at the door (I did hear noises, and he tends to have dinner guests on Sunday nights... Elders, usually. So we said goodbye.

Just kill me.

TiVo update

For those of you know have been reading this blog for awhile, you know how important my TiVo is to me. I'd say it comes in second after my computer/internet connection. TV without TiVo sucks majorly; and the DVR on my comcast box is barely better than nothing. And you can imagine how frustrating (and a little scary) it is that the hard drive seems to be dying, evidenced by ever more frequent pixellation and sound dropouts--even at the higher quality settings. It breaks my heart to see Omi go all pixellated and silent! (Okay, that sounded really lame.)

I emailed PTV Upgrade this morning and actually got a reply today! They assured me that even replacing the drive would not affect my lifetime subscription. Apparently the whole drive thing is a little more complex than I'd heard: the original machine apparently has one drive, most likely partitioned. If you order a 'replacement kit' (as opposed to an 'add-on kit') you get two drives, and it doesn't cost any more. They recommended the replacement since they seemed to agree that it sounded like the drive was about to die. The downside is that I will have to reload all my Wishlists and Season Passes. I guess the software must be stored in ROM somewhere, but what about the software upgrades? I wonder if they'll have to be reloaded. So many questions. I guess I'll find out. Anybody out there an expert?

Ohh, I just went to a competitor site and they recommended replacement as well if your unit is over 18 months old! Mine is like six years old! And as I read on a forum yesterday, six years is pretty damn good for a drive that is constantly being written and re-written. (TiVo is on all the time. While you are on a channel it is recording that live television by default. You switch a channel and it starts recording that one.)

Dante Basco

Remember the not-so-good movie Hook with Robin Williams as Peter Pan and big-mouth girl as Tinkerbell? Well, I always thought it was sad that Rufio had to die in the end, cause, of course, I thought Rufio was a hottie. I was reminded of this because the movie is on right now.

Well guess what. The guy who played Rufio now does the voice for Prince Zuko, a major character in Avatar, the Last Airbender. Weird, huh? I was just watching an ep of that this morning...

So much to do.

I have a long list of things to do. Some would only take a few minutes, some are pretty hefty projects. I seem to spend an inordinate amount of time agonizing about my 'things to do' and beating myself up about them, and not nearly enough time actually doing them. At least I cleaned up the kitchen and folded the laundry; I am very bad about not folding the laundry as soon as it's done, and then it gets all rumpled... Argh.

And now after looking up Kevan Ohtsji, I have this burning desire to watch the episodes that he appeared in. Unfortunately I only have one, and not the best one. But I think I'm going to go watch it now anyway...

Random Hot Asian Guys 2

Filipino Chad Hugo, half of The Neptunes with Pharrell, and 1/3 of N.E.R.D. He is apparently kind of a nerd, being a Star Trek fan (though he apparently objected at being referred to as Mr. Spock to Pharrell's Kirk), but he's definitely cool (if I am at all qualified to even make such a judgement). I first saw him in the N.E.R.D. video for She Wants to Move. You can see a preview at the iTunes store.

Random hot Asian guys 1

(Sorry if you all are getting tired of all the Asian guys, but I just can't seem to help it!) I first thought Kevan Ohtsji was really hot when I saw him of Stargate as First Prime of Lord Yu. He looked really short but powerfully built, and he always looked kind of tortured; I guest anyone would if you were the general of a lord who's mind was failing and kept giving you contradictory orders. I love how he spells "Kevan" too.

Ah, memories...

"All the Hoos in Hooville" : Athletics

My TiVo is dying

It's finally happening. My wonderful Sony TiVo, which I have had for six years, is dying. I'm starting to get annoying skips in the programs, especially when I record at lower quality.

I need to decide what to do: buy a new one, or replace the hard drive. Every TiVo actually has 2 drives: one that holds the software and program schedule, and one that writes the programs. I could buy a new one--the actual box is pretty darn cheap, but they get you with the membership. They don't even seem to offer a 'lifetime' memebrship anymore; the most you can get is 3 years, and it's almost $400. I bought a lifetime membership when I got mine for like $250 I think, so I've definitely gotten the good out of it. You can get a handy kit online to replace the drive (and it would have a lot more capacity) for just $100, and I could still use the old membership. And it's not like the operation should be hard for someone like me who swaps drives in computers as part of my job.

What to do...

Lance Bass: I'm gay

Well, it's nice to know that gaydar once again triumphs. We gays have known for years. Took him long enough though, he could have come out a couple years ago. And we knew he was switching clothes with Moocher-stud Reichen (on the right). Now, inquiring minds want to know... who's on top? Not that there's much doubt...

Update: so apparently he's known for awhile and hid it. Who did he tell besides Joey and when? And what was that crap about dating Dannielle Fischel? Am I going to have to go out and buy a People magazine??

Hm

"If you thank me, I'm quitting."

Shen, to Blade, after almost getting himself killed rescuing the Daywalker. Earlier in the ep they were talking about how every vampire has a familiar, and Shen had joked "and I thought we were dating." He was embarassed when he had to play a recording of it back for the chick, saying 'that was out of context.' Hey, he's Asian, he's all butchy and rides a motorcycle and uses multiple Macs, including a big laptop tonight. How can I not love him?

Disgraced scientist says he tried to clone mammoth

Somebody watched Jurassic Park one time too many.

Kids' show host fired over 'Virgin' video

Oh, come on, this seems a little extreme. It's not as if she even starred in porn or something. It looks to me like PBS is way over-reacting, maybe because the woman was spoofing PSA'a about keeping your virginity/saving yourself for marriage--a Bush-Administration backed program that has been shown to be a dismal failure.

I absolutely love her chair; maybe I should apply for the job. Though, I have to admit, I've co-starred in some personal porn with a certain other children's show host...

The Apple Board of Directors

Hm, for some reason I thought all big corporations had huge BODs, but not Apple. Just seven guys, including Al Gore!

Apple Reports Third Quarter Results

Once again, Apple kicks ass, and I kick myself for not having the balls (or the money) to buy Apple stock back when Stevarino came back to the company and I told everyone "He is going to turn Apple around." And he (with a little help from Jonathan Ive) did.

Spin Instructors

I've been feeling fat the last few weeks, and after four days of eating out and missing 3 spin classes, I've been feeling positively tubby. So this morning I hauled my ass out of bed and went to a Tuesday morning spin class at Clarendon. The regular instructor (who is also my boss, the Group Exercise Manager) was out and there was some guy in her place I didn't know. What I did know was: 1) he was late; 2) he looked just like Ben Stiller (and all I could think about was Zoolander); 3) he wore one of those visors--in a darkened spin room; 4) he kept fidgeting around with his bike, with the stereo, with his clothes... anything but actually staying on the bike. He also would chat with the female members of the class in what I considered a flirty way, a la Doug-Doug (yes, I'm pretty sure he's straight); 5) he was disorganized. He couldn't find the key to the stereo, then when we finally got started he clearly didn't even have the inklings of a program. Granted, I improvise somewhat, but he just had a CD with a bunch of music on it and he kept switching around, ending songs early, and just was all over the place. At least he had mostly decent music. I stayed for part of his abs class, then headed to the shower. When I came back out, he was at the front desk and he looked at me and said "Man you're fast! You were in and out of there in like five minutes!" For some reason I felt a little uncomfortable that he was taking an interest in my showering time.

Slow Day at the New Job

So I'm surfing and reading. Tomorrow I'll have to bring in some files so I can get some writing work done. One good thing about this job is the coffee: it's free and very tasty. The female graphic designer and I seem to be the caffeine junkies here; she makes another pot in the afternoon and we both have some.

They had free coffee at the old job but it was horrible. I don't think I'm that big of a coffee snob, but I wouldn't drink that bilge.

On the Xiaolin SHowdown front, someone obvioously has too much time on their hands: Shen Gong Wu

Sand

"I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere. Not like here. Here everything is soft and smooth."

--Anakin Skywalker

I got back from Rehoboth Beach yesterday afternoon. It was okay, all things considered. The hotel was convenient (just a block from the Blue Moon, and a few blocks from the beach/boardwalk (though it's about another mile walk down the boardwalk to Poodle Beach). We were even able to get wireless internet (I could pick up three sources on my iBook, Chris could get one with his Sony, hah hah!) Unfortunately, the air conditioning in the room didn't seem to be working too well. So the next morning, I nicely said something to the front desk girl and she immediately called it in to maintenance and we were off to the beach. When we got back it was even hotter in the room, so they put us in another room, which had nice cold AC, but at the other end of the hotel so we had no internet.

Friday was hot and sunny and lots of scenery at the beach. I noticed in particular one cute little Asian guy in a red speedo who was by himself but was soon making lots of friends. Saturday it was cloudy all day, but that was fine with me since I got a little burned on Friday. I sat in my beach chair and read Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix all day. Chris went in the water a few times, but the waves were pretty rough. Saturday there weren't as many people, but Asian boy was back, this time in a white speedo, and he had a friend with him. A very good friend, by the way they were rolling around on the towel together. Also right in front of us was a funny group of three Asians and two chunky white guys. One of he Asians looked exactly like Mischievious Tommy in the face, but unfortunately not so great in the body.

We went to the Blue Moon (the venerable gay bar) every night and had a couple drinks but didn't overdo it. I have to say that for some reason I found it rather depressing, and I'm not sure why. I just felt old and very lonely even--or maybe especially--in the middle of that crowd. I don't feel lonely when I am home alone, just when I am around other people. There were a fair number of people there alone, which was uncomfortable to see as well.

Anyway, I won't dwell on that any more, I did enough of that yesterday, when I should have been productive. Hopefully I will be tonight. I have to say that I am glad that I'm still only working three days a week for the next few weeks...

Anyway, as Shigeki would say, you have a fantabulous week!

Guess who got Married!

Darren Hayes! It's not like we didn't know he was family, but isn't this sweet?

I am so lame

I think I've been watching too much Shaolin Showdown. My inner voice is starting to sound like Omi: a childlike, exaggerated Chinese accent. Next I'll be mangling slang sayings like Omi does and my eyes are going to do all those weird Anime effect things that their eyes do.

Day 3

Welcome to Day 3 (I have no idea why I said that; I just wanted to).

It's early afternoon, and I've spent the morning reading Mac websites, reading MacAddict, and researching why the modem on my iBook at home seems to have stopped working. Might be the power manager; I'm going to tinker with it a bit tonight. Why? Because I am going to the beach tomorrow! Just three days, and just Reboboth (which to me is a little bit like slumming compared to Ft Lauderdale, but what can you do?

I went to the gym this morning, and I was disappointed that Mysterious Asian Man was not there. I know it's been a few months, and peoples' schedules change, but I was really hoping to see him.

Day 2 Drive Home Update

Another aspect of the drives I have not mentioned.

Driving in I go through downtown, in fact I drive within half a block of my old apartment on Riggs Place in NW DC, near the gay ghetto of Dupont Circle.

Driving home last night down 13th St NW, I went through block after block of row houses, not great neighborhoods. Yes I actually checked to see that my doors were locked more than once. There were 14 homicides in DC in the last month.

Today I drove past beautiful houses that I could never afford: tudoresque mini-mansions with manicured lawns. I guess I am somewhere in the middle; I couldn't relate to either of these two worlds: black and white (and I mean extreme, not just color).

I drove back out to my little condo in Virginia, just a couple of miles over the river and in another world, of grey.

Day Two

What a difference a day (and a different route home, and some wine and brie) makes. I guess I haven't talked much about what I actually do at this job (not that I talked that much about what I did at the previous one).

That job was more about digitally printing (or getting things to print) for increasingly demanding (both in time and quality) clients (many not competent with their own software, and yet demanding that we 'fix it'). This one is more of an IT job, where we service and maintain Macintosh computers for clients--usually designers. Yesterday I installed new DVD drives and RAM and hard drives on some G4's for a client, tested their system and did some software updates. Today I finished that up and configured my laptop, and set it up on the backup system (to prove to them that I do indeed understand Retrospect software that one of them described as 'complicated' or something like that). Actually everyone is still very nice, but I am sure they are all observing me (and IMing each other behind my back) to see if I really have any idea what the hell I'm doing.

The best difference between today and yesterday was the drive home, which, instead of a horrible clutch-ruining crawl through downtown, was a mostly tree-lined pleasant drive through Rock Creek Park and past 2 universities (one where R. went for grad school... yes I thought about that); 2 miles longer but 20 minutes shorter.

And now as it gets dark the trees are flailing in the wind as I play Vivaldi's Four seasons: Summer and I'm on glass 3. I already watched an episode of Shaolin Showdown (Omi is so cute! What is wrong with me?)

Better moderate, since I'm planning on hitting the gym before work tomorrow.

First Day of Work

Well, it was my first day back at a real job. I dressed nicer than I have for work in over ten years (and it wasn't even a suit and tie, just nice shirt and pants). I'm not too thrilled about the commute: I drive, and its 40-45 minutes instead of my 30 minute walk and metro. I'm not liking the driving, because it's either 20 miles by highway (which can be congested) or 8 miles crawling through downtown DC. Not my (or my clutch's) idea of fun.

Blade the Series

As I watch more of Blade, Sticky Fingaz (aka Kirk 'Sticky' Jones), the 'actor' who plays Blade looks more and more to me like he is part Asian. Comments? Maybe I should consult Angry Asian Man.

No Privacy for Lance Bass at Gay Bar

Oh, Lance.

I'm not proud of my days as a frothing, rabid, shameless boyband fan, but I won't deny it either. I even met Lance once, several years ago. He was very nice. But really, he's been seen with openly-gay Aryan-leech Reichen for months now; there are even pictures on the internet showing that they wear each other's clothes. It's not like Lance has a high-profile career to protect (unlike that other *N Sync alumni who still sends my gaydar well into the pink zone). C'm on Lance! Go on Ellen and come out already. No one will be horrified. I'm sure your mother knows.

Scary Middle-east

I don't normally blog about political stuff, but the Middle-east really has me scared right now.

Yeah this could get really really ugly. Hezbollah is already getting their weapons from Iran, with Syria as a conduit. That's why Israel is blowing up roads and airports: to cut Lebanon off. But what if Iran and Syria become more directly involved? And the Israelis have nukes.

I was watching a discussion on CNN about Bush's whole rather naive assumption that democracy leads to peaceful nations. The whacko president of Iran was elected, Palestine elected the terrorists Hamas, and Hezbollah has seats on the Lebanon congress. Granted some of these elections are questionable, and as one pundit said, the Palestinians threw out one bunch of crooks for another, and democracies need to mature, but Bush's whole Iraq policy looks simplistic and naive at best.

Haydn-a-palooza

I'm downloading Haydn's six Paris symphonies right now from iTunes... a 2 CD set, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields & Sir Neville Marriner... $11.99.

I have the vinyl albums of these 6 symphonies and I played them to death back in college. I remember enjoying having the 1st year dorm room to myself most weekends because my roomate lived in nearby Crozet and would go home almost every weekend.

I didn't realize that I have like 10 CDs of Haydn symphonies that I've never ripped onto the computer. I'm doing it now, because, contrary to popular belief, some of these CDs do not last forever.

The King of Procrastination

I blame the internet. Instead of doing something productive like work on my writing project, I scanned in some old comics that I had tacked on my bulletin board at work. Guess why I saved them! (click to enlarge)

Garrett's Alive!

I've been digging around for news about my favorite Trek star lately, and just happened to stumble on THIS.

Wonder what this is all about? Directed by Tim Russ, at least Garrett's going to be in it. We'll see what's going on I hope.

G4 - X-Play - Videos

This is why I love X-Play! Go to this page: G4 - X-Play - Videos. Then down where it says Search By Keyword type in "Yu-gi-oh" Then play the Yu-gi-oh! GX Duel Academy review and enjoy the antics of the Yu-gi-oh Gang!

Ryan Vs Dorkman 2!

If you like lightsaber fights -- and even if you don't -- you need to watch this clever, beautifully done and funny lightsaber duel. And Ryan wants to do a sequel! Ryan Vs Dorkman

Do these pants make me look fat?

What a relief. Was really scared that I had put on a few pounds over 'vacation.' I pulled out the few pairs of decent pants I own, and the one new pair of flat-front khakis I bought a little over a month ago, and tried them all on. In case you are curious, all of them are 32w and 30-32 inseam. The linen pants were real tight, but I think they always were; I haven't tried them on in over 10 years. The recently bought ones were a little snug but wearable (and my ass looked great in them, if I do say so myself) when I tried them on, but me being the optimist, I had hoped to drop a little weight while on vacation. Hell I was down to under 160 there for awhile early this year, I can go there again. I was real scared to try them on because they would be the test. Well, they fit just the same. Whew!

I am still going to stick to my diet for the next couple weeks before going to the beach July 20. Bathing suits! Augh! I want abs like Justy!

At Ease, Mr. Kim

Went to R's last night. He's as cute as ever (I haven't seen him in over a month) and seeing him triggered a little twinge. He made us dinner, we watched the Voyager pilot (again). We didn't discuss politics. It was nice, though completely platonic, which is probably just as well.

I got home, watched a little TV, went to bed, hoping to make it to Yoga this morning. But I woke up at 3:30 and couldn't get back to sleep. Fortunately, X-play was on G4, and For some reason I continue to be fascinated by Adam Sessler and Morgan Webb and their dorky interns ("It is by will alone that they set their minds in motion..."). I managed to get back to sleep around 4:30.

Control Freak

Since I've been working at home the last few weeks, I've been playing music a lot at the computer. What is kind of weird to me is that, despite a pretty hefty library on iTunes (classical and pop, etc) I prefer to listen to the local classical station, even with the commercials. I use the Radioshark to time-shift and zip past them TiVo-style when I can, but for some reason I'd rather deal with it and have the benefit of hearing the voice of the announcer every once in awhile introducing different music, a little weather report, and a few other things I like (like the glowing review of last Friday's NSO concert--though why do a review after the show is done? The Washington Post did the same thing).

On the other hand, I never have my ipod shuffle on 'shuffle.'

Life Goals

Here's my response to VUBOQ's challenge.

"I had never planned to become a _____________ when I grew up; instead, I had always assumed I would become a _______________."

I had never planned to be a computer geek/IT nerd/whatever the hell I am today. Of course when I was a kid, personal computers hadn't been invented were really new and crude. When I was a kid I wanted to be an architect. I'm not even sure why, except that I was really good at building things, and I got 99's (for some reason you couldn't get a 100) on all those tests they gave you in high school that assessed your ability to understand things in 3D space, and such. I managed to get into a really good architecture school (early admission even) and really enjoyed my time there. But by graduation time I was pretty disenchanted with what the profession would be like. And I had gotten into gaming. Right after graduation I kind of fell into a job at the university Architecture library (I'd worked there part time as a student) and did that for about a year 'till I helped found the game company. When we started using Macs in production, I seemed to be the guy with the aptitude and the desire to become the IT guy (before there really were IT guys) who handled the networking and troubleshooting and software updates and all. And so, here I am.

Six Days

Next Monday I go back to work. I am completely stressed out about it, though I am having a little trouble pinpointing exactly why. I am not looking forward to the drive, though hopefully my stress about that will be allieviated after I do it a few times and get used to the trip and how long it will take. I would so prefer to take the Metro (it's just 15 mins longer than my old commute) but I need to have the car to go on client visits. The other thing is this silly dress code. As I think I've said before, his requirements are far from unreasonable, but his 'guidelines' about cleaning and pressing and how polished your shoes should be are so are so crazy specific (and he's not even gay) that they are making me nervous. That and the fact that I'm paranoid about fitting into my old dress pants.

I'm only working Mon-Wed for the first few weeks, and next Thurs-Sunday I'm going to the beach for a few days with a friend (my only real 'vacation' trip for the summer), so how much easier could this be? Still, I have this urge to start looking into alternatives in case I hate it... I'd love to work at National Geographic, it's just a block from my old job, hah!

Oh and in case you are curious, I went to bed early and blew off R. I think my cell rang a few times but I ignored it. It's not like he hasn't said he'd call in the past and blown me off. And it's not like it's all happy when we get together. He doesn't like to kiss, for god's sake. Issues, issues, issues. Oh and regarding our Bush fight: sometimes I think he likes to pick debates like that with me just to do it.

Frodo-Harry-R.

Wow. The last hour has been the emotional roller-coaster.

After a day of mostly dragging around after class and not gettinng anything done, I decided to make popcorn and watch the rest of The Return of the King. I always cry at the coronation when Aragorn tells the Hobbits "You bow to no one." And the huge mob all bows down to the four little stunned Hobbits.

Then I decided to watch some Voyager--the pilot episode. It struck me how they worked extra hard to make Harry look naive and innocent: getting conned by Quark, Janeway telling him to relax, and mentioning his clarinet. Then he gets captured by the Array and Tom wants to go along to help find him. He tells Janeway "I'd hate to see anything happen to Harry."

Then midway through Voyager, who should call me out of the blue but R. I told him I was watching Voyager and he kind of mocked me, him the huge Voyager fan. I told him about the concert (and Emil de Cou's funny liberal comments about spying), and he started defending Bush. I think I got a little loud as we proceeded to have a huge argument about politics. Then R. asked if he could come over Monday night and Watch Voyager. WTF?

It feels like Sunday

I have no idea why, after a month of not being on a regular work schedule, that for some reason I have to keep telling myself that today is Saturday and not Sunday. Not that it matters all that much, for the next week or so.

I did get some major kitchen cleaning done today. Tomorrow or Monday I have to tackle the bedroom closet, if only to assess my wardrobe and see what I can salvage for the new job (and have it cleaned). The new boss doesn't ask much in terms of actual formality (nice shirt and pants, no tie or jacket necessary) but he has weird obsessions about cleaning parameters... as in a three-page small type memo detailing how many times you can wear your pants before they really should be drycleaned, and what types of fabrics are acceptable (no poly blends; and that's fine with me anyway).

Unfortunately I think I've put on a couple of pounds over this break, despite all the spin classes, and I'm worried about whether I have many pants that fit. I am definitely going to need to go shopping next week.

Boldly Go Update...

I guess my gaydar is still working pretty well. I had a 'feeling' about Emil de Cou (even before his comments about 'domestic partner of Frankenstein'), and sure enough, Jeff pointed me to this interesting article in the DC gay magazine Metro Weekly.

I was that kid hiding out in the band room in high school too.

To Boldly Go...

Went to the concert last night, and it was pretty fun! T. and C. went with me, I think they both enjoyed it too. Emil de Cou the director was quite charming and funny, and of course Leonard Nimoy was great. He's really embraced the whole 'Spock' thing now. When he first appeared in the second portion of the program to narrate The Planets, he came out to the podium, smiled and waved, and as the applause and cheering went on, he raised his hand and did the 'live long and prosper' sign. The place went crazy. It was like a Star Trek convention! (not that I would know about that... uh huh.)

For the first part de Cou had a very diverse selection of sci-fi themes peppered with some funny--and surprisingly political--comments. The program including selections from the original King King score "not the 5-hour one where you don't see Kong until halfway through it, but the first one;" and Bride of Frankenstein (with cool theramin sound effects) "You, know, even though it was called 'Bride of Frankenstein,' they never actually got married. It's more like Domestic Partner of Frankenstein--legal in Massachusetts, Vermont, and the District of Columbia!" and the themes from Twilight Zone and X-Files "It's interesting to compare the paranoia of these two periods, with the early 60's and that feeling like someone was watching you, and now, when you know that someone is watching you!" We also got the Star Wars Imperial March, a medley of all the Star Trek TV show themes (yay! Voyager! Beautiful!) and the ending music from Star Trek: Wrath of Khan.

Backfires

I've never been very good at giving gifts, or anything related to that. With gifts, I agonize way too much about whether the recipient will like this or that. I even spend forever picking out birthday cards.

Imagine my torture back in 1993 when I was working at my first job in DC at a (politically conservative) direct mail marketing firm. It wasn't a bad place really; most of my co-workers were perfectly nice. And for the company's 20th anniversary, the president/owner decided to celebrate by taking the entire company with families to Disney World for a weekend. Even single guys like me were allowed to bring someone, all expenses paid. Can you believe it? (Apparently, 10 years later he did it again with a Disney Cruise). Anyway, I had a dilemma: who to ask? I wasn't dating anyone. I had a few friends here in DC, mostly through Jeff, who I knew from U.Va. But for some reason I didn't want to ask him. Our relationship was... complicated. There were some other guys, but asking any one might mean weirdness for the others. Maybe I was overthinking it and assuming people would make more of it than they would.

Then one night when I was dancing at Badlands (ah so many fun memories of my youth, including a stretch of Saturday nights when I would run into the cutest little asian guy with an amazing body; we would jump up on the dancing blocks, pull off our shirts and dance together, getting all hot and sweaty... and we never even talked. But I digress) and I ran into David. David was a cute and very sweet guy, Jeff's ex-boyfriend. The three of us were... let's say 'friendly'... once. I just remember a night of um, fun after clubbing with them, and a morning with David while Jeff ran off to NPR to work. (I have no guilt since Jeff set up the whole initial Ménage a trios.)

ANY-way, I ran into David at Badlands, and we were kind of dancing together in the big mob, and out of the blue I just asked him if he wanted to go with me. He said sure! We set it all up, and I even slept over at his place the night before, since the chartered planes were leaving Dulles really early and he lived hear there. One of my conditions of the trip (I have no idea why, since he was really cute and apparently at least up for it) was that we wouldn't mess around, so it was all platonic. I'm really sorry about that now, but oh well. We had a really fun time anyway; I should post pictures here.

SO, the whole reason behind this confession is this silly concert tomorrow. As usual, I initially asked the wrong people to go. I asked people I thought might be interested and I assumed would be available, or people I wanted to impress/get closer to (R.). Well, now one and maybe 2 people are backing out. So I know it's last minute, but anyone in range of Wolf Trap want to see Leonard Nimoy and hear live Sci-fi themes annd Holst's The Planets? They are orchestra seats. 8:30 PM Tomorrrow. Email me at terbob@gmail.com.

Where I blog

In response to Larry, I'm posting pics of where I blog from these days. This is in the tiny 2nd bedroom of my little condo, the bedroom designated as my 'office.' The first pic is truer to the actual lighting. I hate overhead lighting, especially fluorescent (in fact at work I pulled out half the bulbs over the computers in Digital because the glare and poor color was making me crazy). Anyway, front and center is my 20" iMac G5. To the left are a couple of toys: The Lost in Space Robot, and the original Mars Rover. And yes that's a picture of Harry Kim. Underneath the Mac is my iPod, lying on its case cause I'm too cheap to buy a dock. ;-) To the right is my crappy HP printer I bought wihen the crappy Epson Printer/scanner died.

Next is a pic with flash, showing all the maps I have on the walls: maps of my fantasy game world I need to use for reference for my writing. To the left are spiral-bound books about Shadow World and Rolemaster. (All the way on the left you can see a tiny pic of R.). Above the Mac is my cubicle sign I swiped from work.

The last picture is panning to the right, where you can see the window out to the complex courtyard, and my pathetic plants on the sill. That fin-shaped thing on the left of the sill is my Radioshark antenna. There's my Aeron chair, and under the side desk is the Crappy Epson with the dead printer, but the scanner still works.

Maybe later I'll post the crappy cellphone pics I took of my desk at work.

Any questions? :-)

Rain and Geckos

It's been cloudy most of the day here, and raining on and off for the last hour or so. I love it. For some reason I like the sound of it, and I'd rather be in here at my computer typing away with rain falling outside than bright glaring sun. Call me weird.

On a completely unrelated front, who else is completely sick of the Geico Gecko? Actually I'm sick of all of their ads: the ones that pretend to be other ads (like the Old Navy one, which was too good; what's the point?) The gecko was charming years ago when he had Kelsey Grammar's voice, but now... what is that accent now? It's like cockney or something.He's just not cute any more.

Countdown

12 days till I start work. Actually, even when I start work, I'm not starting full-time right away: just 3 days a week till September. So this is being made just about as painless as possible.

Monday I went into D.C. and met a friend for lunch. It was ok, nice to see him. I think I bitched about my old job too much, but he kept asking about it. It was hot and nasty outside. I got home and was very productive, including finally cleaning out some storage so I can actually stow all my DVDs out of sight. Then I watched Return of the King (see below), though, like when I read the book, I skipped through some of the really depressing sections with Frodo and Sam. I'm much more about Legolas kicking ass.

Yesterday was Independence Day, never a big holiday for me. I stayed home, since the Mall was going to me a gigantic seething mass of annoying tourists (they were bad enough on Monday when I rode the Metro in to see my friend for lunch).

Lots of plans for today, including more writing (as soon as I finish this and read a couple other blogs) and cleaning. Today: the bedroom.

Blade the Series

Well, I broke down and watched the pilot of Blade the Series tonight and guess what! There are no less than two reasons to watch: His sidekick/tech guy/weaponsmaster is this hot little Asian guy Nelson Lee, and his nemesis Marcus is Neil Jackson, who recently guest starred on Stargate as an evil partially ascended (and shirtless) being.

Oh the pilot is FREE to download on itunes right now.

Why do you always have to look?

I'm watching The Return of the King tonight, extendo version of course. One of the most poignant scenes for me (thanks largely to the wonderful Dominic Monaghan) is when Pippin is riding off with Gandalf and Merry gives him the last of the leaf. "I know you've run out. You smoke too much, Pip."

And Pippin says "But we'll see each other soon!?"

And Merry backs away. "I don't know." He mumbles. He knows that they will be taking different paths.

It's a heartbreaking parting.

Weekend

Got the details of my return to work nailed down last week. I suppose I should have felt better, but I just feel kind of blah. My stomach started bothering me and I decided to stay home Friday evening rather than go to bug nite at Enviroboi's.

Saturday I was pretty productive, but I went to bed early (sleeping, more; a bad sign I suppose). I did get one of my cleaning projects (the storage in the living room; threw out lots of stupid old VCR tapes I'll never watch again to make room for the growing heaps of DVDs, some of which (Stargate, Voyager) I do actually watch over and over).

Sunday (yesterday) I did class and after that I pretty much just wasted time. I was watching this show (on Bravo, though it should have been on VH-1 along with those I Love the 80's shows) called Ultimate Super Heroes and Villains narrated by none other than Adam 'Batman' West. I have to say, for all his annoying crap about how straight he is, I think Hal Sparks is a cutie. Then, with little more than a few rumbles for warning, a huge storm swept in that knocked out cable tv (but not the power or my Verizon DSL) so I was forced to dig into my saved shows on TiVo for entertainment. I finally watched the last ep of Dr. Who from last season… Eh, it seemed weirdly edited, like something was missing in the beginning part. Capt. Jack looked awful, and the plot was sketchy, right down to the Rose/Tardis deus ex machina.

All the Daleks were fun though (I love how they can make “exterminate!” sound like a cry of hysteria), and I’m always glad to see Mickey (I think I have the hots for him). And the Bad Wolf thing was a letdown, and… I don’t like the new Dr. nearly as much as the old one Christopher Eccleston, who apparently didn't want to do it another year).

So it's Monday. I have two weeks of freedom left. At least I don't have to teach a spin class today; instead I'm going downtown to meet a friend for lunch.