To... Boldly-go...

Wild stuff from Stephen Hawking about warp drive!

Ho hum

CNN.com has a story about the Antikythera mechanism. NPR had one last night. They were interesting, and the device itself is quite fascinating, but the History Channel did a show on it like a year ago with some nice 3D exploded views of what they thought it probably looked like, and what it did.

That bad feeling...

Actually nothing to do with work for a change... well no I lie. First, a digression about my commute:

This morning as my poor car bumped on the horrible Foxhall Road (I blame DC) and I continued to tear up my clutch in stop and go and slam-on-the-brakes traffic, I thought about all the reasons I will love returning to my Metro commute:

1. No more wear and tear on my car. My mileage went from 9000 miles (yes, 9000 miles on a four year old car) to 10500 miles in 5 months.

2. No more stress over asshole drivers who cut in front of you.

3. No more leaving for work 30 minutes early just to avoid bad traffic, and to sit in the office for an extra half hour.

4. No more going to the gas station more than once a week (back to once every couple months).

5. No more terror over having a car accident.

6. No more feeling guilty about contributing to global warming.

(2:00 pm, I forgot a couple of things)

7. I will be back to walking a total of 2 miles a day as part of my commute.

8. At the new job, my commute will basically be free because of a travel allowance, as opposed to my 20-mile a day round trip driving, which I'm sure used more than a gallon of gas because it was largely a stop-start crawl with heavy traffic and literally two dozen traffic lights I can think of offhand... there are probably more like 30.

Now on to the bad feeling. Last night I was going to do some laundry. I threw the clothes in, cranked the dial around (I have a pretty old stacking washer/dryer) and pulled it out to start the cycle.

Nothing.

I got a little nervous, tried it again.

Nothing.

Then I remembered that there had been a strange power outage on Sunday. It's happened before: half of my condo is apparently on one big power circuit and one half on the other. My computer and some of my kitchen and my bedroom still had power. The range, microwave, and heat pump did not. But I didn't rememebr that Sunday morning and, when the microwave stopped working, I started throwing breakers. I tried a bunch of things before remembering about the previous outage, and checked the stairwell. The lights were out, hence it was not an internal breaker problem.

Fast-forward to last night: I figured maybe I had left a breaker off. I looked in the box. They appeared to be on. Then I tried the dryer. It would spin, but not heat. Hmmm. I did not like the idea of spending $1200 plus for a new washer/dryer (those stacking ones are never on sale and they are expensive!)

I went back to the breakers. The washer/dryer one was actually two breakers fixed together with a little pin. I shut them off, then very carefully pushed them on. ONe was a little more sticky and needed an extra push to click in.

Power restored! Whew!

Star Trek New Voyages

The newest episode of Star Trek New Voyages is done, featuring Walter Koenig! The character they get to play young Chekov is pretty cute too. Apparently George Takei is going to be in another one.

Sure the acting is a pretty iffy, but man, the special effects are amazing (and frankly the sets are as good as those on the original show) for a little garage project like this

Oops, I did it again.

Well I did it. I quit another job. I hope I made the right decision. I do feel relieved.

The driving (sometimes over 2-3 hours a day including commute) will be over. The going to all the different clients and feeling under the gun to fix their Macs on command will be over.

I'll just be back to printing deadlines; however I won't be the scapegoat this time... I hope.

There were the cutest Asian guys on the Metro this morning (yes I left my car at work to avoid the commute and rode the Metro. I thoroughly enjoyed it).

Go Senator!

Check out this recent conversation between the newly elected Senator from Virginia and Bush (from the Washington Post):

At a recent White House reception for freshman members of Congress, Virginia's newest senator tried to avoid President Bush. Democrat James Webb declined to stand in a presidential receiving line or to have his picture taken with the man he had often criticized on the stump this fall. But it wasn't long before Bush found him.

"How's your boy?" Bush asked, referring to Webb's son, a Marine serving in Iraq.

"I'd like to get them out of Iraq, Mr. President," Webb responded, echoing a campaign theme.

"That's not what I asked you," Bush said. "How's your boy?"

"That's between me and my boy, Mr. President," Webb said coldly, ending the conversation on the State Floor of the East Wing of the White House.

Wii for All

Okay I (like a lot of other people) thought that 'Wii' was a stupid name for a game console when I first heard it. But I just love the commercial with the two Asian guys and the tiny car.

And even the logo with the two little i's bowing is darling. And the whole game idea with the wand thing is really cool.

Though on Attack of the Show last night, they had all these stories about people accidentally throwing the controller and breaking things.

Oh, and I still like this Helio commercial.. but more because of Jin Wu than anything...

I'm Back

Kind of a bumpy Sunday, and I took off Monday to take care of personal business. And yes I'm going to be making a change. Again. The sooner, the better. I'll be having a talk today.

At a client so can't take too much time (though I'm watching a diagnostic test run, so it's not like I can do much anyway).

Wish me luck!

Lazy Saturday

I was just watching Engineering an Empire the Maya episode. Not too bad; not an overabundance of repeating scenes as filler like they do on the Discovery Channel (and the guy they got to play the young king Pacal was cute). Not a whole lot I didn't already know, but it still gives a thrill to see those sites. I feel very fortunate to have been able to see Tikal and Chichen Itza myself. One day I'd love to see my favorite site though: Palenque. In the closing they talked about the fact that there are probably hundreds of cities still buried in the jungle, and even at known sites like Palenque, there are temples larger than the impressive Temple of the Inscriptions still buried/

Time's a-flyin

It's Saturday already, how did that happen? I've been pretty lazy teh last couple of days except for trips to the gym. I am glad I don't have class tomorrow though. I need to make a phone call today... I'm not sure why I'm so reluctant to do it.

Creepy?

I will date myself.

As a little boy, I remember seeing the Carpenters on TV. In fact, I remember this video:



I always remember karen wearing that same sort of lambchop dress with the sleeves. I have no idea why.

But now seeing something like this:



Kinda creeps me out, not just for the obvious bad lipsynching but Karen's already beginning anorexia. Sad.

Another Transition?

It's cold and dark and windy and rainy out. I cracked a window by the bed so I could hear the rain; I love this weather. When I was a kid I used to fantasize about being in a warm bed with lots of blankets but outside in the cold with the wind blowing... dunno what that's about.

Anyway. I have a new option, the question is what to do. Negotiate for more? They seem awfully eager for me. Meanwhile I am just excited for a return to some normalcy: back to metro Downtown. I do feel a little guilty about the current thing, but I bet there will be some relief there too: I don't think I was cut out for that. So tonight it has been a cabernet and watching a guilty pleasure: gay asian romantic comedy. I've mentioned it before: uneven acting, cheesy plot, yet it will still get me teary. Jay Wong is so darn cute.

Four days of freedom ahead! And some decisions. But tonight, another glass of cabernet...

What a day

So I had a 'meeting' today, and 'met' my former boss from three jobs ago. He was a great boss, and I'd be happy to work for him again. But I'd be walking into the same kind of production hell as before. The question is, how much of the unpleasantness at the last job was the work, and how much of it was the co-workers? But at least it's Metro! And, they are interested in me doing the shift I did way back then: Noon to 8. I liked that shift: mornings free, and not working all that late.

And, on my tour of the IT dept some asian guy who looked way-y-y like Kevin the Korean from my past walked by. I did a double-take, and he kind of nodded and smiled at me, but I couldn't tell if it was friendly (gay) or if it could actually have been him. I think he's actually in CA.

Oh and in the interview the guy was going on about all their branches around the country, and said "And we're opening one in San Francisco" and kind of looked at me like "you'd like to go there wouldn't you?" Not in a bad way; it was just funny.

It was a crazy day, very stressful.

Oh and I am beginning to think I have some kind of face-recognition problem. All the made-up blonde women at the client sites tend to look the same to me, to the point where I have made some embarassing gaffes by not recognizing people. Meanwhile I immediately recognized the very nice (gay?) kind-of nerdy but cute and sweet Asian designer guy with a slight limp at today's client I have been to a couple of times. (Of course, he was also nice to me and actually made small talk a few times). He and the new Middle-eastern guy were spending the afternoon figuring out where to get a new PS3.

At a client...

...watching a progress bar. Somebody got a spankin new 30" cinema display. I'm a little jealous.

Last night I met up with M. He's from Rhode Island, he's sightseeing with his parents. He's actually from Australia but has lived here for several years. He's 1/2 Chinese/Japanese, and very cute (and cute Aussie accent). We had dinner, I think we were both feeling kind of shy and awkward. He was staying in a hotel with his parents... after dinner (which was nice, we talked about a bunch of things; he seemed curious about R.). I was driving him back (I asked if he wanted to stop somewhere for coffee; he doesn't drink coffee; he doesn't drink alchohol either!) he said sure, he'd have water or something. I was kind of torn; part of me really wanted to go home and get some rest, and he was really tough to read. Then he said he wanted to watch Heroes at 9. It was after 8 so I said I'd just drop him off then. We shook hands and he went inside.

I got a text message from him saying it was great to meet me, and I sent one back, saying the same. It was nice to meet him, though I think was was too young and cute for me. He sent one back basically saying I was just trying to be nice. He has inexplicable self-image issues. Anyway, we're still texting back and forth. They are already headed on down to Savannah now though...

Meeting today at lunch! (crossing fingers)

Non Sequitur

Gotta love this cartoon.

Better

My afternoon appointment was cancelled; I lucked out (though we shall see what the evening commute brings). My out of town friend called and we might go out for dinner. I have not actually met this guy in person, and I'm not exactly sure what else might be on the agenda. I wish I wasn't so tired.

Oh and I have a 'meeting' at lunch downtown tomorrow. Can't really say more because I don't know who's reading. Wish me luck!

Now I just have to slog through the rest of the afternoon.

Crap

Why is it the short weeks are always the worst?

I was hoping for a quiet day in the office today, since I'm not feeling too good. But no, I look at the schedule and I have two appointments today. One is all the way back in Mclean VA, then an afternoon one way the f**k out beyond the beltway to the NE in Maryland. I really don't want to go, and I feel like crap. I may just bag it after the morning appointment. I really don't feel well.

And tonight I am supposed to meet a guy from out of town for a drink. I'd really like to just crawl in bed.

At least I have an all-day tomorrow downtown so I can take the Metro.

I have got to do something about this driving. Hate it, hate it, HATE IT.

Guest Voices on Avatar

This show just keeps getting cooler! This last episode alone had a huge battle on the steps of the Earth King's palace with Katara, Toph and Aang totally kicking ass, Prince Zuko in a fever dream (is it wrong to think a shirtless cartoon character is hot?) and the evil chick triad in showing up disguise, and our heroes splitting up... Which brings me to the fun List of celebrity guest voices on Avatar: The Last Airbender.

In addition to Mako as the uncle (a regular, though I just read that, sadly, Mako died last May) we have George Takei, Daniel Dae Kim, Mark Hamill, James Hong, Malachi Throne, and Clancy Brown.

And on Friday...

No work news to report yet; maybe something this afternoon. Last night's commute home was ugly, and I was a nervous wreck worrying about getting to my spin class (the commute ended up taking 15 minutes longer than normal so I still had 15 to spare). The bad part of the trip was, as usual, the last bit heading into Georgetown and the Key Bridge. Foxhall had the big backup and the cheaters who cut in. Arizona/MacArthur and the reservior seemed to be working great, but the last few times suddenly it was all backed up too! Grrr. It's like I find a new way and then within a few weeks everyone else discovers it. I'm looking into a way to cut between them and get the best of both.

But the bottom line is, as I've said, all this traffic-jam driving sucks!

I have a client appt downtown today, so hopefully I can just head home from there and have a slightly early day. Hopefully.

Man Arrested In Burglary at Site of Slaying

Another bizarre twist in the Robert Wone murder mystery

More Apple Rumors

My afternoon is suddenly less gloomy as I continue to read through the Crazy Apple Rumors Site

Microsoft Discontinues the Zune...

...one day after its release.

Tom and Harry

Just because.

Work News

I may have a new work opportunity/dilemma. Things could get sticky. Details as they unfold.

Oh and I had pretty good-sized groups (for Thursday morning) for spin and abs classes. I always feel like I'm doing my job in abs class when at the end of an exercise, I some of them kind let out a big breath and flop limply onto the floor. ;-)

I started working on a new mix for this weekend (stillhaven't done the J-pop one!) with some Jame Bond music (I already have a-ha's Living Daylights and Duran Duran's A View to a Kill; all I needed was Madonna's Die Another Day. The question is, what else to mix in? should I put in the actual james Bond theme or is that too hokey?

A slow day

Aside from a brief errand downtown, it's been a slow day here. I've spent the afternoon reading Apple Training Series: Mac OS X Support Essentials. And while there is some fascinating stuff in there, after a couple of hours of reading about 'Permissions' and 'UNIX commands in the Terminal' my eyes are starting to roll up in my head.

Just another half-hour...

The Stress

At 8:00 last night, I was sitting in front of the computer, and was suddenly overwhelmed by sleepiness. I crawled into bed and fell asleep almost immediately. I didn't wake up till 4 (8 hours) and went right back to sleep for another hour.

I'm not sure why I was so exhausted, but I didn't sleep well the night before: I was completely stressed out, worrying about how I was going to fix a client's printing issues. That is just not normal. (As it turned out, I was able to solve the problem in a couple of minutes with some remote support, and within half an hour I'd fixed another client's misbehaving Photoshop.)

My point being, I get way, way too stressed about stuff on this job. Every time somebody's Mac seems to take too long to boot up after I've messed with it, my heart starts beating faster and I can feel that adrenaline start to kick in, and oh god oh god oh god, what have I done? is all their data lost? I panic. This is not normal.

Maybe I should try taking Lexapro again, since it's supposedly for anxiety as well as depression (perfect! Though I don't even think I have a prescription drug plan right now). As I've mentioned, R. takes it, not that he ever seems like he's anxious about anything. He's also got some Ambien in his bathroom.

Speaking of R. He IM'ed me again yesterday. We started talking about science, and how we both liked science, especially astronomy. Then he abruptly asked why I am not looking for a job in a field that I am interested in. Then he went off on another tangent. Bizarre. He's just an odd boy.

I'm looking forward to the four-day holiday. Alone.

National Gallery Concerts

One of my fondest memories of my not-really-dating relationship with K. the Korean several years ago was when we went to a concert at the National Gallery of Art . It was a chilly Sunday evening; we had our long overcoats (we dressed up in jacket and tie; I remember how handsome he looked) and scarves.

They have the concerts in one of the atriums, a pretty small venue, but very neat with all the marble and the big plants. I don't even remember what was on the program, but I think there was a Haydn string quartet... it was warm in the room, and the air seemed to fill with the music.

Walking back to the Metro, we held hands.

Last night's Voyager:

Timeless. This is the one where Harry and Chakotay try to change the past, where Voyager is wrecked and everyone is killed because Harry (he thinks) made a mistake that sent the ship hurtling out of a warp slipstream. Some of Garrett Wang's best acting in my opinion, especially as older, bitter Harry. And younger Harry looks so cute when he's upset.

And that opening shot of Voyager buried in the ice was so cool...

NASA Loses Contact With Mars Global Surveyor

Several days ago, NASA lost contact with the Mars Global Surveyor. They are still trying to re-establish contact, but this happened several days ago, and I'm alittle surprised that I couldn't find a whisper about it on the actual NASA site (the official NASA is can be sickeningly, unrelentingly upbeat and rah-rah however).

Note that this is not the new orbital probe, the
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter; the MGS is ten years old, long outlasting it's original mission. However, it is an important link with the rovers.

So Shoot Me

Okay, I watched the Voyager episode 'Bride of Chaotica' (see picture below) in which Harry was looking particularly cute for some reason, and afterwards I emailed R. just to say that I had watched it. Within minutes my phone rang. It was him, saying he was watching Voyager too. He said he wasn't feeling well and was just resting all day because he was flying out in the morning.

And yes I had the little fantasy of well if 'we' were more than whatever we are, I would be happy to be there taking care of him... Argh. Whatever!

Strange Day

But pretty productive, and it's not even 5 yet. I had a big spin class for Sunday (as opposed to an unusually small class on Saturday at Capitol Hill; the club memberships are very different), and a woman came up afterwards to compliment me on a great class and that she appreciated my 'low-key' style. Of course I was happy for the compliment, but it made me think. I guess I am pretty 'low-key' compared to most of the instructors. I don't yell at them to work harder; I'm not very rah-rah, but I do try to convey some enthusiasm (which is something in itself after teaching for over 2 years now; M. was amazed that I was still teaching.)

It's getting dark out, and the wind is whipping the trees outside my window; what leaves that were left are being stripped off the branches. I went out to run a couple errands in the afternoon and it really was pretty gusty. That reminds me, I was meaning to comment about some of the in-home design studios I have been visiting for work. Some have beautiful views, but some are in these basements with no window; that would drive me crazy, I like to be able to see outside.

I've been listening to Sunday Baroque most of the day, but just switched to Lord of the Rings. I may have to go to some other baroque though from my catalog; LotR is a bit too intense to have in the background while trying to write. It is great music though; it's hard to imagine anything else now, to go with those movies. I'm glad they picked Howard Shore, and of course Enya to do a couple of the songs.

I was doing a search for a template file and Spotlight turned up an old slash story I'd downloaded years ago called A Pair of Jacks about Harry Kim and Tom Paris. I got kind of distracted for awhile re-reading that... and if you don't know what slash is, I'm not going to tell you... but a quick Google search revealed this site.

No calls from R. all weekend; maybe he does read my blog. Though a little part of me is disappointed; isn't that sad? That wasn't going anywhere so it's better that I not punish myself any more with it. I do kind of miss him though.

Better stop that line of thinking. Well, back to writing. I can't believe I have to go back to work tomorrow. Bleah!

Rain/Wind

It's grey and rainy and windy out, and it's supposed to stay that way all day. I love it. I went to bed really early last night, and slept almost 12 hours. Ouch. Woke up early this morning and watched some Anime. Got spin class, then I need to do some cleaning, and writing this afternoon.

Where the Hell Is Cheney?

It's Friday, which means I'm perusing Wonkette. Gotta love their wondering about Cheney.

It's Friday

And even though it's sort of a holiday, I'm at work. On the bright side, this was the easiest commute ever: under half an hour. Hopefull the ride home will be as breezy. I don't have any appointments today, and I hope nothing comes up. I want to just hang out in the office and do some administrative stuff.

I'm determined not to fritter away my weekend this time. I have lots to do. Maybe I should make myself a schedule? I'm not a terribly organized person by nature (I couldn't even find the receipt for my iMac the other day when I signed up for Applecare; I had to have them print me a new copy) and I tend to file things in stacks. Same with my time: I just kind of wander from activity to activity without structure. Eh.

R. IM'ed me the other day, asking where I've been. I guess he's kind of clueless. I just discovered that Google has saved every Gmail/Jabber chat I've eveer done. That's a little... creepy. Good thing I haven't had any lewd conversations with underage Congressional pages!

Drive. Flash drive.

Here's something that I know a certain Lemming and possibly a certain Non-IDentity would like in their 'holiday' stocking.

Oh and the word is that George 'Macaca' Allen has scheduled a press conference for 3:00 pm at which he willconcede his Senate seat to Webb... and the Senate to the Democrats.

Dwelling Where Lawyer Was Killed Is Robbed

The house where Robert Wone was killed (murderer still on the loose) has been robbed?!?

That's a little too weird.

NASA Approves Hubble Mission

In case any of you were on the edge of your seats, the new NASA administrator has approved a Hubble repair mission! Yay!

WETA's Nutcracker contest

Okay all you artistic types in the DC area, here's WETA's Nutcracker contest for you!

Your punishment, however, is that if you win, you have to invite me since I turned you on to the contest. :-)

Oh, and the AP has declared, that based on Virginia's recount history, Jim Webb is our new junior Senator. The Dems now rule congress! Though you just know that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are sitting in an office somewhere going "Okay, we won; now what the hell do we do!?!?"

It's a beautiful sunny morning here in the DC metro area; the creep to work (when I go Thursday morning I am about 30 minutes later because of my morning spin class, and it makes all the difference in the world: a 30 minute commute starting at 7:15 becomes a clutch-ripping 45-50 minute crawl commute starting at 7:45) wasn't so bad. I had the sunroof open, and took some camera pics of the foliage while I was stopped. I'll post them tonight.

Is Anybody There?

(From 1776, John Adams' song)

They want to me to quit; they say
John, give up the fight
Still to England I say
Good night, forever, good night!
For I have crossed the Rubicon
Let the bridge be burned behind me
Come what may, come what may

Commitment!

The croakers all say we'll rue the day
There'll be hell to pay in fiery purgatory
Through all the gloom, through all the gloom
I see the rays of ravishing light and glory!

Is anybody there? Does anybody care?
Does anybody see what I see?

I see fireworks! I see the pagaent and
Pomp and parade
I hear the bells ringing out
I hear the cannons roar
I see Americans - all Americans
Free forever more

We won!

Scientists debate Cassini's fate

Another unmanned probe that is performing beyond expectations, Cassini will get at least one mission extention. Even more interesting here are the possibilities of what to do with the probe when the mission is over.

What do you know

The Dems took the House, and they might get the Senate too. We might very well have a Democratic Senator from Virginia (fingers crossed).

In other news, I dreamed last night that I ran into R. at a party and he announced proudly that he was 'partnered.' This of course contradicted what he had said to me about not being interested in being in a relationship.

I keep thinking about seeing M. yesterday. I can't believe he's married and basically a farmer (aside from his IT day job). He looked great, seemed happy. Though there's something just a little bit off... can't put my finger on it.

Was tough getting up and ready for work today, even though I went to bed pretty early. Just tired all the time. And I feel fat today; shouldn't have had that burrito for lunch yesterday.

Voter Performance Anxiety

I am a nervous voter. I miss the old days where you actually had a curtain around you and some real privacy when you voted. Now it's just some plastic flaps, affording no privacy while some proctor is breathing down your neck.

Voting is pretty darn simple: you touch areas on the screen, confirm and go. But every time I vote I get all nervous and sweaty-palmed. I always pick up one of those Democratic voter guide cheat sheets on the way in and review it, but these days I am usually too self-conscious to pull it out when I actually vote.

Today I whipped it out. I wanted to be absolutely certain that I voted against that damn marriage amendment, and against George 'macaca' Allen. Oh and I voted for Arlington spending tons of my tax dollars again too. Urg.

I bought some champagne... just in case. But I'm feeling kind of tired tonight, I might turn in early and hope to wake up to a couple of early X-mas presents.

A thrill

Today I was at a client I haven't been to in a couple of months; they just needed some checkups and a new printer set up on their network. This was a client recommended to us by my friend and fellow spin instructor (and total Chinese hottie) M.

No, not that hottie Chinese spin instructor, this one is straight... though I wondered at times. Anyway when I was there, guess who showed up for a meeting with the clients? M.! Originally this client was going to migrate from Macs to PCs, but now they are going to keep their Macs and just switch their email and get a PC server. So M. and I might be working together. It was great to see him.

In the news tomorrow, whether the Repubs win or not, Mercury will transit the sun. Cool!

I voted!

Did you?

Long line at our polling place this morning. And I don't trust those electronic machines; no sir I don't. I just picture Karl Rove in a basement somewhere giggling as he manipulates the results on his PC...

Playing tonight...

...on Turner Classic Movie channel: 1776 the musical about American independance. I'm just at a most excellent scene where one representative says the arrests without warrant and the other rights revoked are unfortunate, but 'these are dangersous times.' And Franklin says "Those who would give up some of their liberty in order to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

Hm. Coincidence? ;-)

testing

Inspired by Jake, I thought I'd try posting by email as well. Less
obvious for those important 'at-work' posts...

Not So Anonymous

I'm always surprised how un-anonymous this blog is, though I guess I shouldn't be. I was contacted last week by someone out of the past who I had mentioned here years ago; not the first time. I've learned the hard way to not use full names (or even names) in this thing because people apparently blog themselves... or other people blog people... anyway.

R. did his round of calling yesterday. 2 pm, then again at 10 pm (I was half asleep). I didn't answer and he didn't leave a message. The afternoon one was his usual hookup call; I have no idea what the 10 pm one was. I thought he was supposed to be out of town. If I had guts I'd tell him to just stop calling me and get it over with.

I got an email from A., my friend from Europe, who I have gone on a few cruises with. Unfortunately he is not doing too well. Our lives seem to parallel each other sometimes.

Another week stretching ahead. I have appointments through Wednesday; hopefully the latter part of the week will be slower. I didn't get nearly as much as I wanted done over the weekend (what else is new?). Friday night I was exhausted and crashed early. I did some errands Saturday, and chatted with a friend in the evening. Sunday was class (and I wimped out of the j-pop mix again) then I just laid around the house. Watched a lot of Mythbusters (Grant's teeth just fascinate me; I should just ask him what he did) and Dr Who (Mickey! Don't go!!!) and the new Rome series on Discovery Channel.

I just feel blah, like I am dragging from one day to the next with nothing to really look forward to.

Chicken

I was going to premiere my fun new J-pop mix as spin class today, but it was packed (inlcuind no less than four hot guys) and I chickened out and went with a regular butchy mix. I'll do the J-pop mix tomorrow:

Big in Japan/Alphaville (covered by Countdown Singers)
Shonen Heart/Home Made Kazoku
Turning Japanese/The Vapors (covered by Blank Pages)
The Stress/Natsumi Abe
Stay With Me/CoCo Lee
Mr. Roboto/Styx
Days/Flow
China/Red Rockers
Wasurenai Hibi/Misis (?)
Rain/Madonna

In an unrelated front, have you ever felt like you had an attachment to a cartoon character? Some of the characters in Avatar: The Last Airbender (yeah I've mentioned it before) are complex, interesting individuals. In particular, I love Prince Zuko, the angry, exiled, scarred prince of the Fire Nation. Accompanied by his Uncle--also exiled, a dishonored general--(who is voiced by Mako), he has been on a quest to capture the Avatar to restore his honor. Zuko has had flashes of compassion, and we get glimpses into his inner turmoil. I'm sure it doesnn't hurt that Zuko is voiced by the hottie Dante Basco

Some other interesting characters are Toph the blind Earthbender, and the deadly trio of women led by Princess Azula, Zuko's younger sister, and including Mai, and Ty Lee. And there's plenty of politics, cool elemental power (Azula can weild hotter blue flame) and imaginitive settings.

It's an out-a-thon lately

Neil Patrick Harris finally came out! Good for him.

Driving Fool-Updated

Suddenly I find myself busy with clients. I suppose that's a good thing, but I don't think I will ever get used to DC traffic... and the asshole DC area drivers. At least the foliage on the George Washington Parkway was pretty today.

But it is Friday afternoon. I have just one more client, and she hopefully won't be too difficult. This morning's wasn't bad, until I got a call when in traffic ten munutes after leaving. She had called my boss saying she suddenly couldn't send email. I asked if he could talk her through some stuff. Turns out she just had to try again and it worked. Sheesh, so quick to blame the Doctor she was!

Anyway, so ready for the weekend. Once again I have ambitious plans. We'll see what I actually accomplish...

Have a most excellent weekend everyone.

PS: I drove 80 miles today! Yikes! Fortunately, while the afternoon client is 20 miles from home, it's mostly down I-395, and I am on it against the rush-hour traffic, so hurtling along at 65 mph.

The trouble....

...with going to bed at 7:00 pm, is my back hurts the next morning. Fortunately it's just a little twinge, and it goes away after a few stretches. I really want that Sleep-number® bed like R. has, but I don't feel like I should be spending $1000 plus right now. Of course I could put it on credit, but I do enough of that already. I am still counting my small blessings that I did not have to spend $2100 to get the car fixed (see a few weeks ago).

Otherwise I'm feeling somewhat better today; absolutely no idea why, unless it was just a good long sleep. Really need to get my work act together though... take some kind of action. And I need to try to devote time every day to my writing. The thing is that when I get home at night I am mentally dead. I really should try getting up early every day and writing then; I know I'm a morning person--unlike almost everyone else I know!

Allrighty, off to check email.