This comet particle collection is all very cool... but it reminds me a little too much of The Andromeda Strain

The American Rovers are closing in towards Mars, while the European orbiter Express is maneuvering into position to try to contact the Beagle. They say it has a much better chance than through previous methods.

The first American ship is supposed to land just before midnight Saturday night. Cross your fingers!

Hmm, blogger is acting strange again...

Jeeze, this never ceases to amaze me. And I thought only men were a**holes enough to pull this kind of crap. I'd love to see the video. CNN.com - Authorities: Intoxicated woman attacked air marshal - Dec. 31, 2003

Polls like this just boggle my mind.CNN.com - Poll: Bush, Hillary Clinton most admired by Americans - Dec. 30, 2003

Most Admired man? Hmm. Ian McKellan, Steve Jobs, Jonathan Ive (designer of the iMac [both versions] and iPod).

Most admired woman? I don't know if I really admire Hillary, but I would vote for her (and Bill comes with the pckage, natch) for president before any of the current candidates... Gen Clark second (Dean is beginning to creep me out). Cokie Roberts, Cate Blanchett...

You know what's uber-creepy about this whole Mad Cow Disease thing is how they get it. They say 'contaminated feed' but what that means is contaminated cow meat and bone meal. They feed the cows ground up parts of other cows! Supposedly this was banned in the US 5 years ago, but still. Ew!

Makes me think of Soylent Green "...It's people!"
That or a Gary Larson cartoon.

Last night I watched the second half of the extended DVD Fellowship of the Ring with the Director/screenwriter audio commentary: Peter Jackson, Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh (one of the women is married to Jackson; not sure which). Anyway, though I find it kind of detracts from a movie to watch with those voiceovers, and also in this case it kind of takes away when they reveal how some things are done (e.g., Jackson recounting the filming of Gandalf confronting the Balrog and saying how Ian McKellan had to act to a floating ping-pong ball) it was quite fascinating. The women seemed to have a tighter grasp of the books than Peter--correcting him on details on several occasions--and were quite clearly a powerful force when it came to the more emotional and sensitive scenes. Jackson may have been the director but they clearly were crucial in bringing us the fully fleshed out characters.

Which reminds me of a peeve with the third movie. There were several things Jackson did that took me by surprise but still they somehow worked, like Gandalf and Saruman's first confrontation being this kind of Wizard Wrestling Federation smackdown, or there being actually a huge flaming eye on the top of the Dark Tower. However, in ROTK when the eye started looking around like some kind of cartoony thing... that didn't work.

A positive turn, but a very creepy trend is described in the bottom part of the article. Creationism! Next they'll want us to say the Earth is the center of the universe again. Yahoo! News - Gay footage will stay in Lincoln Memorial video

Stay up to date on the progress of the British Mars Lander Beagle 2

WTF!? What is this all about? Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

Jude Law, Gwyneth and Angelina... funky campy retro sci-fi!

Though it's a bit distracting that they are using the Stargate theme song for the clip...

As I've mentioned many times here, I love my iPod, even though the battery has never given me ten hours of music like the ads claim (more like four or five, but then I'm hard on mine, jumping around songs, etc.). In the back of my mind, I knew the battery wouldn't last forever, and anyone who's seen an iPod knows that there isn't any easy way to replace a battery.

Then this article came out in the Washington Post. (a friend had already emailed me the link to the Quicktime movie mentioned in the article.)

And now a class action suit? I don't know about that, though I think it's cool that these guys and their little movie probably spurred Apple to offer a $99 battery replacement.

My iPod is an old scrollwheel model which I like better than the newer ones with the buttons in a row. No one loves Apple more than me, but I do think it is a little creepy of them to just expect you to go out and plunk down $300 plus for a new one every 18 months.

The Mars Explorers are getting close! Spirit is scheduled to arrive in just 11 days, Opportunity in 32 days. (I have to say I'm not thrilled with the names; I think they were from a contest of school kids).

Remember how exciting it was when the little Sojourner Rover scooted around on Mars back in 1997? These rovers are much larger, go faster and have a lot of cool abilities. I just hope these missions don't suffer the same fate as the last few Mars projects.

I love Tchaikovy's Nutcracker Suite just about as much as anyone... but I swear my local Classical station must play it 3 or four times a day now. That's a bit much. (Oops, just checked the online playlist... 2x a day!)

I'm still loving the christmas carols though... Even got some on the iPod. It's relaxing as I'm walking towards ground zero during our latest terror alert bump.

Nice little interview with Ian McKellan from CNN.comMcKellen: One of the iconic figures of my lifetime - Dec. 22, 2003

Ahhh... Monday

Happy Winter Solstice everyone! A bit of history regarding this day and 'christmas:'

"The celebration as we have it today is a combination of Christian worship and the pagan celebration of the winter solstice. The 21st of December is the shortest day of the year. From that time the sun recommences its upward course, announcing that midwinter is passed and spring and summer are approaching.

The Romans celebrated this change, under the title of "Saturnalia," by universal license and merrymaking. This Roman "festival of Saturn" is really the celebration which was adopted by the early Christians and is now known as Christmas. With it have been accepted also ancient customs and superstitions from other nations."

(From, of all things, some Mormon web page. They neglect to explain that Saturnalia was basically a huge drunken party. Think Mardi Gras.)

For those of you who (*gasp*) missed it, Bravo is repeating Boy Meets Boy in a double marathon starting December 29th at (I think) 5:00 PM. My TiVo found it!

Cheesy, yet riveting 'reality' tv!!!

This week's Friday Five:

1. List your five favorite beverages.

Coffee
Wine (red or white)
Cranberry Juice
Orange Juice
Coca Cola Classic (out of the can)

2. List your five favorite websites.

The DataLounge (gossip section), a gay site.

Fark.com, hilarious news site.

Gateworld, all about Stargate.

Ryan.com, about this kid who does amazing star wars effects. If you have a broadband connection, check out Ryan vs. Dorkman!

I would say Jonno.com, but he's put it on hold. :-(

3. List your five favorite snack foods.

Fritos Scoops with Onion Dip
Buttery Popcorn
Sharp cheddar cheese and crackers
Chilled shrimp and cocktail sauce
Chips and clam dip.

4. List your five favorite board and/or card games.

Rolemaster (not really a board game but close; not a big card player)
Call of Cthulhu (see above)
AD&D (yech. but if you can't beat 'em...)
Masterpiece (a strange game my sister and mom and I would play when we were kids, where you would bid on works of art to make money.)
Poker (only nickle/dime/quarter, with buddies and while drinking)

5. List your five favorite computer and/or game system games.

The Sims!
The Sims!
Neverwinter Nights looks fun...
SimCity
That's about it, not a big computer game fan.

Hmm. Sounds just like my mother! TELL ME ABOUT IT

I am feeling this overwhelming urge to do my own LotR Marathon, watching the two previous extended editions tonight and watching the RotK again tomorrow... hmmmm...

Damn.

I am already pining for the extended edition DVD of Return of the King. The extended editions are soooo much better than the theatrical versions.

*sigh*

After watching the final chapter of Peter Jackson's masterpiece, I thought, as someone with some experience in the genre (as the author of Lorien, and Rivendell (and for the following one I got a glowing review from an Oxford Tolkien scholar they hired), A Spy in Isengard I could make some comments.

The casting of the major characters was perfect. All the Hobbits (Elijah Wood got the role of a lifetime as Frodo and he was admirable to the end; Sean Astin was also wonderfully sweet as Sam; Dom and Billy as Merry and Pippin especially shone in the final movie), Gandalf (who else but wonderful Ian McKellan?), Legolas (The hottiest of Elves!), Galadriel (Cate Blanchett was so dreamy beautiful and yet perilous), Saruman, Aragorn: all wonderful. Sean Bean as Boromir also proved his quality.

Andy Serkis and the digital wizards at WETA did a fabulous job as Gollum, but I thought the Deagol/Smeagol thing at the beginning of RotK was unnecessary and could have been replaced with the confrontation with Saruman at Orthanc (which I sure hope will be on the extended DVD!).

Jackson packed in an amazing amount in the movie, and the Minas Tirith design (very true to the book!) and battle was stupendous.

But I think my favorite parts in the last movie centered around the four Hobbits! Who would have thought?

Another Friday Five:

1. Do you enjoy the cold weather and snow for the holidays?

Yep!

2. What is your ideal holiday celebration? How, where, with whom would you celebrate to make things perfect?

I really don't know...

3. Do you do have any holiday traditions?

Not anymore.

4. Do you do anything to help the needy?

Nope, only needy animals.

5. What one gift would you like for yourself?

Hmmm... a meeeeelion dollars!

Wow. Military ex-officers come out, blast gay ban

It's been a week and a half since the awful food poisoning experience, and I am still feeling 'not quite right.' I have a suspicion that it isn't entirely physical... I haven't been a big fan of 'The Holidays' since the first Christmas after my parents divorced. I was 10 and my mother said "You don't believe in Santa Claus anymore, so help me set up your sister's presents!" She didn't wait long to hit me with the 'grown-up' stick. Her Christmas was ruined so she'd be damned is she wasn't going to drag me into her divorcee hell and make me play the little adult.

Actually Christmas took a hit a few years earlier when my sister and I (maybe age 4 and 8?) woke up very early and--little demon-spawn that we were--went down and (god forbid) opened our presents. Our visiting grandmother woke and came down to watch. When our parents woke up and found us my mother was livid. The main reason for her anger? We hadn't kept the wrappings with the gifts so we wouldn't know who gave us what for thank-you note writing. Considering that it wouldn't have been THAT hard to match wrapping with boxes, one suspects that there was some other reason for the simmering rage she managed to maintain the entire day.

Things pretty much went downhill from there. Every year increasingly became an event where we were just going through the motions. So I haven't been back to Bethel Park in at least a dozen years.

Be sure to catch Discovery Channel :: Xtreme Martial Arts Thursday nite before it vanishes! Kind of Discovery Channel meets Mortal Kombat meets Matrix (one of the Matrix effects guys did the effects for this show.) And Mike and Matt are both pretty hunky. ;-)

One week till RotK!

Finally! One of my favorite movies of all time, Maurice, is coming out on DVD. I was beginning to think Hugh Grant was trying to block it or something, since his character in the movie is gay... Rupert Graves is dreamy.

This is another excellent E.M. Forster adaptaion, also featuring Rupert Graves...

Now if they would only do a DVD of Another Country...

Hmmm. Orlando Bloom as a greek warrior? I'll pay to see that. Troy

Set your TiVo! ABCNEWS.com : Behind 'The Lord of the Rings'

Much like my sis, Sunday evening found me driving the porcelain bus and thinking oh god did I get the flu? especially since my friend Mitch in cycling class had told me just that morning how he had spent Thanksgiving in bed with the virus. As I prayed to the porcelain god every half hour like clockwork from about 9 pm until 3 am, I realized that this was much more akin to good old food poisoning, something that I seem to get every few years. Though the aches and fever suggested something else.

Monday found me weak and sore from the heaves, (and unable to even find coffee appetizing) but otherwise not so bad. I stayed home from work and rested, grateful that I didn't seem to suffer the other main symptom of food poisoning. But that was to come Tuesday.

Feeling much better today, thanks!

What a bad atheist I am. I really enjoy when my local classical station -- Classical 103.5 -- starts playing Christmas music.

Another (if late) Friday Five:

1. Do you like to shop? Why or why not?

It depends on so many factors. I like browsing in bookstores, and now and again I enjoy clothes shopping. But I don't like crowds.

2. What was the last thing you purchased?

A CD of the Nutcracker. I couldn't believe I didn't already have it.

3. Do you prefer shopping online or at an actual store? Why?

See #1. I usually shop online, especially Amazon.com

4. Did you get an allowance as a child? How much was it?

Yes, for doing chores. I have no idea how much it was.

5. What was the last thing you regret purchasing?

That's easy. I am wracked by guilt for spending $2700 on a 50" flat panel tv. I feel like I should be watching it all the time (or at least spend the extra $25 a month for HD cable tv).

Time again to write to Santa! Dear Santa Letter Generator @ CHICKENHEAD.COM

Well it really is good for you: green tea and health

Time for the annual viewing of two of my favorite movies: Lady Jane and A Man for all Seasons. The former stars Helena Bonham Carter (as the girl who ruled as queen for 9 days after Edward died; she was a smart girl and a protestant, unfortunately a political victim) and Cary Elwes; the latter an oscar-winner about the man who would not bless Henry VIII's divorce because it was against all he believed (he comes of as heroic and thoughtful, even if he was a Catholic).

It's a slow day at work so I thought I'd play with tables and upload some favorite cartoons.

This one is a bit geeky...

Non Sequitor is ALWAYS good.

And this one is often on the mark

Today at the gym I caught part of The Ellen DeGeneres Show. First let me say that I never really liked her sitcom, even though I wanted to. She was just kind of annoying. I liked her standup better, and in Finding Nemo she was wonderful as Dory.

But anyway, this is the first time I have seen her show since way back when she had Justin Timberlake on "So, Justin, what did you think of that (Britney and Madonna) Kiss? Were you as appalled as me?"

So now she has this segment called Have Houston Do It, where this cute, kinda clueless guy goes to people's houses to do some minor fixit chore, that always (apparently) turns into a major project. It was quite amusing.

An amusing little article: Liberals Fight Back; Pundits Are Shocked

Another Friday Five:

1. List five things you'd like to accomplish by the end of the year.

a. Get my debt situation under control.
b. Buy a new tv (done!)
c. Lose another 5 lbs.
d. Finish painting my condo.
e. Finish my latest game book.

2. List five people you've lost contact with that you'd like to hear from again.

a. Dave D. (best friend from around college time)
b. Paul W. (good friend and former roomate)
c. Janet L. (friend from UVa Library)
d. Eric (my younger half-brother)
e. John R.

3. List five things you'd like to learn how to do.

a. Play the piano
b. Improve my web skills
c. Fly a plane
d. Paint/draw
e. Do video editing.

4. List five things you'd do if you won the lottery (no limit).

No limit!? That's pretty crazy.
a. Spend enough to have Gen. Clark (or even Howard Dean) defeat Bush in the next election.
b. Buy up huge amounts of land to be wildlife preseves.
c. Buy/build my dream house(s) in Virgina (Charlottesville) and northern California (A penthouse in SanFran and a vineyard like Falcon Crest!) and England (castle) and Italy (villa).
d. Donate huge amounts of money to my favorite environmental and gay charities, and UVa (maybe endow a chair at the Architecture School).
e. Start my own publishing company.

5. List five things you do that help you relax.

a. Work out at the gym
b. Meditate
c. Sleep
d. Write
e. Have a glass of wine.

Wow, so Jonathan Brandis killed himself. That's depressing.

Sort of a sad ending for a beautifulMac Cube housing, and yet kinda cool. I hope my cube lasts a little longer! Makes me want to get another aquarium...

I don't think I have a southern drawl (even though I have lived in the great state of Vuh-gin-ee-ah for over 20 years) I have the same problem as these people with those horrible voice recognition phone systems. I tried calling TiVo customer service a couple of months ago and they had switched to one of those systems. It almost NEVER understood me! I was furious by the time I finally got hold of a human.

Another weekend of four hours of hard cycling has sent me to bed, armed with a TiVo full of stuff to watch. Today's schedule:

Kiss Me, Guido: cute, and Nick Scotti was hot, though it still eludes me how this got to be a concept for a network sitcom.

An Ideal Husband: Only part way through this Oscar Wilde work starring Rupert Everett (Lord Goring gets all the best lines) and Cate ("Galadriel") Blanchett, and already I want the DVD. Sigh.

Whew, weird dream last night. It was a strange fusion of Stargate and Zoids.

My sister beat me to blog rejoicing about the ouster of That Alabama crackpot

Whee! A "Big Mac!" I guess Tech is good for something: School knits slew of Macs into supercomputer

Here's a handy little Elvish phrasebook courtesy of my friend Ruth.

Fun with TV. As I explore my various DVDs with my grand spankin new Sony KF-50WE610 50" Grand Wega� HDTV-ready rear-projection LCD TV, I have discovered some interesting things.

Movies look, frankly, freakin' awesome. Even older movies like the first Star Trek look beautiful, even if they were shot in an even wider perspective that my new widescreen (creating black bars at the top and bottom). [Of course the new Sony dream system� with the surround speakers and mega-bass are fabulous too, but perhaps more on that kind of scary auto-load sucking-in of my DVD's persnicketyness later.] Even old 60's movies like Fantastic Voyage and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea look great.

TV DVDs are another matter. I put in a DS9 DVD and it is total TV aspect (I guess no surprise) and it looks really soft and gauzy; way disappointing when compared to the Star Trek First Contact DVD. Was it filmed on videotape, perhaps? On the other hand, I just popped in a season 2 DVD of Stargate SG-1 (originally done for Showtime, and the box says optimized for DVD) and it fits my TV screen perfectly! Some darker scenes look a bit grainy and some super-action gets some weird localized horizontal bars-artifacts like you get when watching a DVD on your computer, but otherwise it is GREAT. Interestingly an old DVD of UFO, while TV (3-4?) aspect, was sharp and had no artifacts. Were the old TV shows all made on film? UFO was a Brit show made in the 60's I think; maybe there was no videotape).

I tink they should release the old Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Lost in Space shows on DVD! Cheese-o-rama!

Speaking of Rama... oh another post.

Excuse me for a moment while I gloat. Apple: iTunes outsells Napster five to one

A rather vexing Friday Five:

1. What food do you like that most people hate?

Hm. I like salads... cottage cheese...

2. What food do you hate that most people love?

Nothing comes to mind, though I'm not the fan of chocolate that many people are.

3. What famous person, whom many people may find attractive, is most unappealing to you?

Off the top of my head, Russell Crowe... Jennifer Lopez...

4. What famous person, whom many people may find unappealing, do you find attractive?

I can't think of anyone. I guess my tastes are pretty pedestrian.

5. What popular trend baffles you?

People yakking about nothing on their cell phones!

Oooh. These are good. CARTOONS! The "Paid In Blood" Edition

Ahh, An Ideal Husband. And Rupert Everett as Lord Goring!

LORD CAVERSHAM: Can't make out how you stand London Society. The thing has gone to the dogs, a lot of damned nobodies talking about nothing.

LORD GORING: I love talking about nothing, father. It is the only thing I know anything about.

So after more than ten years, I have broken down and bought a new TV for my living room. I feel a bit decadent since I had one in the living room already and one in the bedroom. The one in the bedroom is a 20" (tied into the TiVo) that I actually watch most of the time. That's my usual 'TV' TV. The one in the living room (A 27" Sony Trinitron, hooked into my surround system) was mostly for watching movies... increasingly DVDs.
For awhile I was looking at plasmas, but my friend Vince discovered the latest generation of Sony LCD flat-screen TVs are just about as nice, for less cost. So. My 50" Sony is coming Wednesday. My friend Ken was just over to help me move the old Sony Trinitron out of the way so I can set up for the new one.

Have you seen that IKEA ad from a while back? The one where the woman gets a new lamp and puts the old one out on the street, and then it rains and the old lamp looks forlorn, and this odd guy walks up in the rain and says with this exaggerated Swedish accent "You feel sorry for the old lamp. That iss because yoo are krayzee! It has no feelings, and the new one is much nicer."

Well, I feel sorry for my reliable old Sony Trinitron which has survived two moves, and still has a nice picture. Though for some reason I have no attachment to the Panasonic currently in the bedroom.

But the new LCD one is awesome. We are going to christen it with Wrath of Khan: Director's Cut Wednesday. Then I'll watch the extended edition of The Two Towers when I get it in a couple weeks.

Poor old Trinitron. Maybe I can set it up in the bedroom.

Ah, Justin Timberlake news. Now, whether to smirk, gag, or just roll my eyes? (As I very quietly set my TiVo....) Justin: Lovin' Network TV

Interesting BBC article about the latest theories about how the Pterosaurs'flew like birds'

Bizarre and yet fascinating, a Flash simulator of the Curta Calculator

This is just laughably bizarre. CNN.com - Husband sues Liza Minnelli for $10M

He couldn't defend himself against poor little staggering drunk Liza? Or just simply LEAVE? The man is a creepy worm.

Heehee. Here's a great page of Stargate SG-1 Quotes & Trivia

A futile effort, but well intentioned. Cell Manners | CellManners.com

Random guy thoughts: I'm disappointed they booted Corin Nemec off Stargate. As much as I liked Michael Shanks, I thought Cory was great and added some freshness. (And, yes he looked great in that black t-shirt and those rather snug-fitting green military pants.) Guess I'm still holding a torch for Cory from Parker Lewis Can't Lose.

Justin Timberlake really showed some acting talent on last week's SNL. And it took some balls to do drag, as Jessica Simpson no less! Thank god he shaved off that nasty facial hair though.

I couldn't stop watching I Love the 80's on VH1 and now there is I Love the 80's Strikes Back! On the first go-round I have to say that Hal Sparks is pretty damn funny. I was kind of annoyed with him after his whole "I am straight" campaign because he was playing a gay guy on Queer as Folk, but his sense of humor gets him a pardon. Michael Ian Black on the other hand, is completely unfunny to me. I love seeing my long-time crush Dan Savage on there, and WHO is that young hottie Justin Long they have pulling up his shirt and doing some sort of dance from the Goonies? Wuf.

It's my birthday! Sing a song, hold a wake. History Channel - This Day in History

It's time again for the Friday Five:

1. Name five things in your refrigerator.

Cherry tomatoes, reduced-lactose milk, orange juice, onion dip, leaf lettuce.

2. Name five things in your freezer.

A bottle of Skyy vodka, some Healthy Choice� dinners, Gevalia� coffee, Tater Tots�, ice.

3. Name five things under your kitchen sink.

Dishwasher goop, a bucket, cleanser, floor cleaner, cans awaiting recycling.

4. Name five things around your computer.

Clustered around my fabulous Mac Cube are: a little Lost in Space robot, 6" action figures of Seaquest's Commander Ford and Lucas (currently in one of a series of unmentionable poses), a model of the Nautilus from the Disney movie 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, a coffee plant, and a stack of CDs of Baroque-era music.

5. Name five things in your medicine cabinet.

Now we're getting personal. Aspirin, spare contacts, band-aids, under-eye cream I should use much more than I do, some shampoos from hotels...

Now all you poor deprived Windows� people can experience the fun of iTunes Buy! Buy! Buy!

Wowee! Yahoo! News - Hobbit Trilogy 'Rings' Up Massive Sales for Marathon Too bad I can't even find a theater near me that is showing the extended versions. :-(

Set your TiVos! (or, for those still in the 20th century, program your VCR):

Oct 20th on Spike TV at 2 pm is one of my favorite Star trek:TNG episodes: The Drumhead. I find it particularly relevant in the face of John Ashcroft and the so-called Patriot Act.

And on a lighter note, the sweet comedy The Wedding Banquet Is playing on Bravo at 3 AM on Oct 20th (i.e., very late the night of the 19th). A great movie!

Ahh. Another happy Mac user in a PC world: A Mac In An Enterprise :: osViews :: Tech Opinions for the People, by the People

In commemoration of that hateful idiot Pat Roberston's latest ridiculous gaffe about planting a nuclear bomb in the State Department, I direct you to this person's rather fun assemblage of Robertsonisms Pat Robertson Quotes

The best one yet however, was what Jerry Falwell said on the 700 Club, that Patsy agreed with.

And these guys are in Virginia. I'm embarassed. Still waiting for that meteor to hit Disney World during Gay Days, though, Pat!

Woah. Monkeys use mind to move objects

I had the most bizarre dream last night. I think maybe I've been watching Resident Evil too many times. It's not even a genre of movie/game that I normally like, but there is something cool about the movie. Maybe it's just Eric Mabius and those other hot guys in the special forces team.

Anyway, the setting of my dream is sort of Charlottesville, but there are apartment high-rises like in Northern Virginia. And there is a huge orbiting city, like Babylon 5. Whew.

Anyway, the zombies start coming, and for a long time the dream is about me and a group of friends fighting them off every night (they go into hiding in sewers and tunnels during the day--sunlight turns them to dust) and trying to figure out a way to destroy them all. There is a side-thing about going up to the space city, where we had hoped the zombies hadn't reached but turns out they did.

Then I get separated from my friends and meet up with this trio we had run into once before. Two girls and a guy, they live in one of these highrises and somehow manage to keep the zombies at bay with minimal effort (there is a lot of the dream spent on building laughingly flimsy barricades and barriers to stop the zombies). There is something odd about them, especially the guy, and I suspect they have some power over these zombies that is a bit suspect. However they are very charming, especially the guy. He has a surreal beauty about him, and I remember one very vivid dream image of seeing him nude 3/4 from behind and thinking, wow, he's perfect. Exactly why he was walking around nude was kind of vague, though he said it was something about making it clear that he didn't have any of the skin bustules/erosion that was characteristic of the undead.

Nevertheless, I begin to suspect that they are somehow involved with the zombie disease getting loose in the first place, and I wonder when they will decide to turn me into one of them...

Then I woke up. Damn.

Another Friday Five:

1. Do you watch sports? If so, which ones?

Men's Tennis sometimes, that's it.

2. What/who are your favorite sports teams and/or favorite athletes?

None except maybe Andy Roddick, Paradorn Srichaphan, James Blake.

3. Are there any sports you hate?

Pro football tops the list, followed soon by baseball (partly because they want to put a stadium in my back yard)

4. Have you ever been to a sports event?

When I was in college and for a few years after, I was a rabid UVa basketball fan. I had season tickets.

5. Do/did you play any sports (in school or other)? How long did you play?

I play a little tennis; that's it.

Yesterday I got the copy of The Snowstorm I had ordered from a used book dealer. Wow, that brought back memories! The book is the same book club edition with the same cover art and everything. Very Cool!

Interesting article in TIME TIME.com: The New Face Of Gay Power -- Oct. 13, 2003

Another Friday Five:

1. What vehicle do you drive?

A Honda C-RV, a 'mini' SUV (I already wrote some about it in my Blog

2. How long have you had it?

Almost 2 years.

3. What is the coolest feature on your vehicle?

Hm. Either the sun roof, the CD player or the 4-wheel drive.

4. What is the most annoying thing about your vehicle?

Nothing really. Like all my previous Hondas, it has been a dream. The one thing that was a bit annoying: a few months ago the 'Check Engine' light came on. I took it in, and it turns out the car computer didn't like the fact that I drove it so little! The technician chuckled and reset the indicator.

5. If money were no object, what vehicle would you be driving right now?

If money and technology were no object, I'd have a DeLorean (I thought they were cool even before Back to the Future) Actually, I'd like a flying one like the Doc returned in at the end of the first movie, the one with the "Mr Fusion" engine. Either that or a fusion driven Hummer. That'll keep the cell-phone chatting bitches in their Escalades and Navigators out of my way. Can I have Phasers too?

You will be smothered under a rug. You're a little
anti-social, and may want to start gaining new
social skills by making prank phone calls.


What horrible Edward Gorey Death will you die?
brought to you by Quizilla

Hmm, and it doesn't compare favorably to January

Disorder	Rating
Paranoid:	Very High
Schizoid:	High
Schizotypal:	High
Antisocial:	Low
Borderline:	Moderate
Histrionic:	Moderate
Narcissistic:	Moderate
Avoidant:	Very High
Dependent:	Moderate
Obsessive-Compulsive:	Low
-- Personality Disorder Test - Take It! --

Howard Dean has begun waffling on issues that I agreed on (like raising the Social Security retirement age, for one thing) and he is very combative in interviews; so I am not as enamored of him as I was. My new darling is General Clark. Here is a good summary of his stand on many issues (and the stands of the other candidates as well). Most of those others need to get out now and quit clogging up the stage.

Ahh, I remember seeing the mermaids as a kid, and even then it seemed cheesy. But kinda fun. Childhood memories are so weird. My sister just reminded me of a book we knew as kids: "I Knew an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly." And it brought back a flood of memories! It was just a silly book, but you never know.

My co-worker Ken and I are off to the Maryland Renaissance Festival today! If I get good pictures I'll do a little website.

I had forgotten that in addition to the other things we have in common, Jonno and I are both Libras.

At last! The Boy Meets Boy Post-show interviews!

I edited last week's Friday Five. How could I have not thought of the Pet Shop Boys? Thank you, iPod.

I am sure this is just me and my weird hatred of cell phones, but...

...today I did my usual Sunday afternoon jaunt to the Java Shack, a cute little eclectic, gay-owned place where I take my laptop to get out of the house and write and have a skim latte. BUT it was closed because their power was still out in the Isabel aftermath. Two blocks over the Starbucks was going full steam (hmm) So I succumbed and went there. No sooner did I sit down than this 'princess' sat three feet from me and proceeded to have this loud (do people on cells talk louder than normal conversation? I think so!) conversation. I finally had to move because I did not want to hear her ask the guy on the phone any more about the person he was supposedly dating or 'whatever' (her word). ARGH!

Heh. This guy says exactly what I was thinking about Queer Eye. He just says it a lot better.

Another Friday Five: (Delayed because of Hurricane Isabel!)
And revised as of 9/23

1. Who is your favorite singer/musician? Why?

Timberlake is hot, but I'm not all that keen on his music. Haven't even bought the CD. I have to say that my enduring favorite is the Pet Shop Boys.

2. What one singer/musician can you not stand? Why?

Most rappers. Bling Bling.

3. If your favorite singer wasn't in the music business, do you think you would still like him/her as a person?

I'd like to think so. Neal Tennent was also in Architecture school then decided on another career. And they are gay too... Hopefully we'd have something to talk about.

4. Have you been to any concerts? If yes, who put on the best show?

Quite a few over the years. Billy Idol, Joe Jackson, Duran Duran, Van Halen(!), INXS, The Police, Gloria Estefan... and (ahem) Backstreet Boys, SoulDecision, 'N Sync... I have to say, 'N Sync puts on a pretty good show.

5. What are your thoughts on downloading free music online vs. purchasing albums? Do you feel the RIAA is right in its pursuit to stop people from downloading free music?

I think downloading from Napster and Kazaa is stealing. Some of my books have shown up on Kazaa, and that is certainly stealing. On the other hand, the record industry should have dropped the price of CDs soon after they came out like they said they would do.

I think suing people is a bad idea too. A GOOD idea is what Apple arranged at the iTunes store. is the solution. 99� a song, reasonable copy and CD burning rights. It will be available to the PC hoi polloi by the end of the year.

Pictures from the Boy Meets Boy finale party! Even Franklin was there.

And some unpublished Herb Ritts pictures of Justin. Just because they are unbelievably hot hot hot. ;-)

Current iPod Listening (from my rather extensive '80's playlists)

Joe Jackson Real Men

Kajagoogoo Too Shy

The Police Synchronicity II

Tears for Fears Everybody Wants to Rule the World

Serendipidously, a search to discover whether Joe Jackson was indeed gay (apparently so; which for some reason makes me even more glad I saw him live long ago performing songs from Look Sharp) I found this interesting NPR review of gay albums. I couldn't agree more about the Pet Shop Boys one, and now I'm off to pop open the cover...

Time for another Friday Five (and a fun one, IMHO):

1. Is the name you have now the same name that's on your birth certificate? If not, what's changed?

Yes. I go through periods of trying to use my middle name (Kevin) but with limited success.

2. If you could change your name (first, middle and/or last), what would it be?

I would 'Terence' (or Terrence) instead of 'Terry.' For some reason my mother is unable to explain, she named me just 'Terry' while my sister is named 'Tamara' and goes by Tammy. Oddly though,'Terence' has developed into kind of a nickname for me.

3. Why were you named what you were? (Is there a story behind it? Who specifically was responsible for naming you?)

No idea. Except mother said she wanted to name me Carl after some cousin of hers but my father's brother (who she apparently disliked) was named Carl and she didn't want anyone to think she named me after him. Nice, huh?

4. Are there any names you really hate or love? What are they and why?

For some reason like "J" names: Justin, Jason, Jarod, Jake. Go figure.

5. Is the analysis of your name (at the following sites) accurate? How or how isn't it? [ kabalarians.com Yes, VERY! / triggur.org Um, no. / astroexpert Huh?]

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't even a teeny bit nervous about coming in to work today. My office is 5 blocks from the White House (and I could see the smoke rising from the Pentagon from my house).

But we won't talk about it any more. Instead, my review of the season premiere of Enterprise:

Eh, it was okay. The swimming and insect aliens were cool. Tucker Smallwood's voice is SO distinctive though that it ruined it for me having him as one of the Xindi (he was Commodore Ross inSAAB and CapCom in Contact). I like Tucker, but it was like when they cast Jeffrey Combs (who played the Vorta Weyoun on DS9) as an Andorian on Enterprise. His voice is SO distinctive it ruins the suspension of disbelief.

I'm glad Daniel Dae Kim is there, and one of the other marines is Marco Sanchez who was Ortiz on SeaQuest, but he is not looking so good these days. He used to be HOT.

And Archer is just an angry ass now. He's not tough like Janeway or Kirk or Picard, he's ANGRY. He and trip are MAD. Whatever. As much as I want to like Scott Bakula, I just don't like him as captain. The weapons guy annoys me, Trip annoys me now. So now the characters I like are the Doctor and cute but bland Mayweather... and T'Pol. Sometimes.

And the gratuitous nudity was just that, gratuitous.

Oh. My. 'god.'

Hmm, cute idea about calling us 'Brights' instead of Atheists, but I'm not holding my breath. I'm curious where he got this statistic: ...there are 29 million Americans who describe themselves as nonreligious, secular, atheist, or agnostic, outnumbering Jews tenfold and all other religions except Christianity by an even larger margin.

Hmmm... There is a 1.4 GHz processor update for my G4 Cube!

Current iPod Listening:

Berlin: Pleasure Victim

Billy Joel: We didn't start the fire

Ah, the hilarious summary of Episode SIX!

Hmmm!Andy Roddick wins the U.S. Open!

Oh! More Boy Meets Boy behind-the scenes gossip, culled from television without pity. It sounds very likely.

"Apparently, the original plan for the last episode of bmb was supposed to have included a "reunion" aspect and they had brought all the mates back together in the house. unfortunately, after they told the gay boys that they had been lied to, none of them had anything nice to say about the experience (surprise), so they couldn't use the footage (because we'd hate to see their "real" reactions). hence the reason it was mostly the straight guys talking in the end, spouting the party line about "breaking down barriers." i was also told that andra kept stirring the pot (the girl has some issues) and that just about the time some of the gay guys started to get calmed down about it, she'd harp at them about how they were all used and taken advantage of and get them all riled up again. it was all a mess and none of it could air. james was also really bitter and they couldn't have him on camera with dani, because he was still just seething and it made it all uncomfortable. in fact, the shots of him waking up in bed that morning were actually from another day, they just edited them in to make it look like he woke up with a smile on his face when he really was far from happy and wanted as little to do with them as possible."

"I had heard from someone at Bravo (production on another show) that Dani was there, she wasn't fired. And certainly she wasn't cut to save money. She had a contract too! I heard from my friend that after the 'reveal' James was just so angry and she was a focal point for a lot of it. LOTS of footage had to be thrown out and not used because it revealed just how upset James was. Much of that last day was just unusable. They elected not to have Dani on hand during the final ceremony because they were trying to keep James at ease so he could do his speeches. Andra was still there too but she was constantly pushing James to his 'angry place' so she was kept from the ceremony too. Just about everything from that last day with her was thrown out too. They also did post interviews with the gay mates after they were told the twist but they were so negative on it that they couldn't be used and plans for a reunion finale were tossed as well. Which is why you only hear from the straights about how wonderful the experience was, blah blah."

James Getzlaff talks to gay.com about his experience on Boy Meets Boy! The contracts... the anger. And Brian and Dan are friends? Hmmm.

Current iPod listening: Pet Shop Boys, my mega-80's playlist.

Being Boring, Pet Shop Boys
(excerpts)

...Now I sit with different faces
In rented rooms and foreign places
All the people I was kissing
Some are here and some are missing
In the nineteen-nineties
I never dreamt that I would get to be
The creature that I always meant to be
But I thought in spite of dreams
You'd be sitting somewhere here with me...

...And we were never being boring
We were never being bored
'Cause we were never being boring
We were never being bored...

Whee! It's Friday and that means another Friday Five:

1. What housekeeping chore(s) do you hate doing the most?

Cleaning the bathroom! Ugh! Dusting is a drag too.

2. Are there any that you like or don't mind doing?

I don't really mind laundry, though, it was a drag back in the college and few yaers after when I had to go to a laundromat. Vaccuuming is fun since I got a Roomba! It does a pretty good job though once in awhile I still have to haul out the beast.

3. Do you have a routine throughout the week or just clean as it's needed?

As needed... and sometimes kinda not till it's really needed...

4. Do you have any odd cleaning/housekeeping quirks or rules?

Umm, nope. Just not that anal.

5. What was the last thing you cleaned?

Laundry and dishes last night. Place will get a big cleaning this weekend.

Well Boy Meets Boy is over.

Franklin looked appropriately miserable at the end. The best part of the whole episode was Wes and Brian taking the camera off the tripod (talk about low-budget! Bravo won't even spring for camera people 24/7!!! "Here, point it at yourselves.") and running giggling down the hall, with Brian saying "Franklin, are we going to have sex now?"). And then in their little beds with poor Brian asking Wes in that whiny voice if he kissed James, and then pushing the bamboo plant over on him. And Franklin looking miserable.

It was interesting to see James and Andra trying to figure out the str8 guys after the fact; they didn't do so well. But gaydar is something you have to use on the spot; as James said to the host chick about it, "I didn't have it on!" In the end he got it right, though it was pretty obvious.

It was weird though how Andra talked like SHE made the decisions. I guess she talked up Franklin; she couldn't have made all the decisions since James had to on the spot with the pairings he was faced with. And Andra was conspicuously absent from the entire ending. Maybe they were afraid she was going to claw Franklin's eyes out. That would have been a waste.

I felt bad for Brian and don't understand James' thing about 'not wanting to hurt him by picking him'? Huh? Interesting that James picks the guy who lives in San Diego and he lives in L.A.; I think he was already emotionally distancing himself from the whole thing.

I'd like to believe Franklin, that he wasn't in it just for the money, and to an extent he'd been duped as well. I almost got the feeling they re-edited the episode after all the negative stuff about the trickery and Dani Behr and Andra.