Indiana Jones : This just might have improved the Crystal Skull movie...

Beautiful Bookstore

*Sigh* Lovely...

http://www.merkx-girod.nl/

Oh, an administrative note:

Probably due to the fact that I mentioned Harry Potter yesterday, I have received a few trolly comments that don't really need to be posted for my family to read. So, for the time being, I've disabled comments.

Sorry!

PS -- For the one gentleman who felt compelled to call me an "idiot" for using the state abbreviation for Alaska (AK) instead of the one for Arkansas (AR), I sincerely apologize. I should have assumed that you would have intimate insight into a private joke.

Amarillo, TX

Another easy, pleasant, day. Piper and I have developed a pretty good rhythm for gassing, eating, and rest-stopping... I think we're almost ready for our trucker hats.

Made it to Russellville, ArKansas...

...pretty casual day. Tomorrow, it'll either be Amarillo or all the way to ABQ.

Piper is a little nervous, but taking the travel fairly well. I've been stopping about every hour-and-a-half for a potty break, so I suspect that she might actually be getting more attention than she'd accustomed to. Combined with the stress and lack of sleep in the car, she's probably pretty exhausted. Still, she is eating, pooping, and doing OK.

As for me, I've really been enjoying the driving. I'm pretty sure that I could step it up several notches, in terms of putting the miles behind us, but I'm liking the time to be somewhat casual. I've been listening to The Deathly Hallows to pass the time (and having a hard time swallowing some of the stupidity of the characters this time around (Why the inane secret clues, Dumbledore? Harry, why don't you just "Accio Handgun!" and take care of "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Asked-Why-He-Didn't-Put-His-Soul-Into-
More-Secure-Objects" the old-fashioned way?*)), as well as dictating some journal stuff by means of Dragon Naturally Speaking (the actual copy of which looks hilarious, by the way. I think I'll leave it unedited for posterity).

Anyhoo, I'm tired, so it's lights out.

*I know, I know...

Greatest thing of the week (2000 NES games for firefox, no MAME)

FireNES

http://firenes.en.softonic.com/

A vote for change

Yes, I was right and they are remaking Highlander

If only they can get Jesse Rae involved...

So go the days...

On the life front, we've bought our new place in ABQ (Yea!) but have yet to sell our home in Chapel Hill (Boo!), we've got moving and travel arrangements set, and things are rolling along. As it stands now, Andi and Colin and Humphrey (with the able assistance of Rachel) will be flying out on the 16th, at which point I will hit the road with the dog. A variety of family and friends will be gathering at the other end to help make life manageable for the first week we're in Nuevo Mexico, so I feel pretty good about the plan.

In a general sense, I'm really anxious to get this show on the road. I have truly come to love Carolina, but I am very ready to turn the page. New lives, jobs, and adventures are right around the corner.

In terms of Shane's world, I've been sneaking in some quality workout time, tying up my social and mental health sphere, and spending a lot of QT with Colin. In between things, I've been trying to not be grumpy, daydreaming about more sleep, obsessing about Indiana Jones a little bit, and generally trying to keep things moving along smoothly.

Duncan

Sadly, our family lost Duncan today. He had been behaving strangely and, in a rapid succession of events, we took him in to the vet, discovered that he was suffering from Feline Leukemia Virus, and -- ultimately -- made the tough decision to help ease him off of his very difficult path. I don't really have any poetry in me at the moment; suffice it to say that we're sad and tired and it is so surreal to lose a part of the family who was with us for over eight years. I believe that he had a good life.

Graduated yesterday -- Woo-hoo!

An Engineer's Guide to Cats

For those keeping score...

...still no house sale, so still no house purchase in ABQ. It'd be fun to blame the economy, the Executive Branch, OPEC, or possibly Professor Moriarty, but I guess it just amounts to bad luck/good luck and/or a lesson in patience.

The family just returned from a scouting trip to the desert, which was very useful in terms of learning a bit about the lay of the land. In this case, the dry, barren, land. The high brown desert will, indeed, take some serious adjustment for this monkey, but I can't deny that the sunset against the mountains as we drove into town from the Sandia reservation was acutely gorgeous.

Passed my Comprehensive Exam

Another thing to check off the list!

Master's Paper is done.

Ug. Finally.

This is critical reading...

I read a bunch of security-related blogs for some reason, of which the Danger Room on Wired is... Well, one. In any event, these two threads are awesome:

How To: Terminate a Terminator

How to: Stop a 500-Foot Monster

Sans the Fat Cat

Variations on this exist, but I do love me the existential genius of "garfield minus garfield."

Lavish Dog Spas (from Mental Floss)

http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/12542

Old news, but still a thoughtful, powerful, piece:

We Must All Do Our Part To Preserve This Climate Of Fear

World-o-meters

This site is a nice collection o' realtime statistics... It's pretty mesmerizing, actually, to watch the numbers tick by and visualize what they actually mean. Absolutely worth a visit.




http://www.worldometers.info/

I am the victim of stereotyping!

...about the Nintendo DS, that is.







http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2007/20070803.jpg

NEW ARRIVAL : SPECIAL DELIVERY!!!

My new phone came on Thursday! Woo-hoo!

...What? Did you think I meant something else? Weird.

Anyway, it's not the latest or greatest, but the Blackberry Pearl is a definite step up from my old phone. And the $99 price point hit the mark just right. And, more importantly, we finally bit the bullet on an unlimited data plan, so I can email and whatnot without guilt. Unfortunately, the Pearl doesn't have a wifi card, so it's a bit limited, but it's still better than smoke signals.

Book Repair Workshop

I spent today in Greenville, NC (about 2 hours NE of home) at a Book Repair Workshop. Pretty fun stuff. Not exactly "real" conservator work, but still very useful knowledge for weirdos of my ilk.

To give you an idea of what I was doing, this was one of my play books. I removed the spine, tore several pages, removed a chunk of the text block, simulated a stain, ripped the end papers, and hurled a few curses at it that I learned from the gap-toothed carnie who runs the Zipper ride at the Midco Traveling Fun Show.

Then, I put it all back together and did my best to make the book suitable for lending and reading. Like I said: Fun stuff.

FFFFOUND!

http://ffffound.com/ is a very nice little image sourcepile:

"FFFFOUND! is a web service that not only allows the users to post and share their favorite images found on the web, but also dynamically recommends each user's tastes and interests for an inspirational image-bookmarking experience!!"

Really good stuff. My friend "I the Rockfall Hobbit" would love it. He'd even learn about it if he were to ever check my blog. *sniff*

A couple more Daisys, too

The Artist's Pain

Not that any of you normal people would understand, but the weight of artistic virtuosity can be a tough burden to bear... Woe is me! Still, for the sake of the masses, I soldier on. Here, then, are Xander and Cordeila, as requested by Lady D.

Groverfield

Saw the big monster movie last night: It was pretty good, I thought. Not very scary or thrilling, but I still enjoyed it. I apologize in advance, but I just can't resist spoiling the monster for you (scroll down a bit for the image):

















Oh, wait. What do you mean, "The new movie is called Cloverfield?" What the heck did I watch last night?










(BTW: I lifted this image directly from http://groversthoughts.blogspot.com/2005/12/things-i-am-getting-bunny-for-her.html)

LoC / Flickr Tagging Project

You've probably already seen this, but I still wanted to mention it, as I think it's kind of interesting. The Library of Congress has put thousands of their images on Flickr, asking for help in meta-tagging them with labels. Sort of a cool little project to help build the public information trust.

They explain the process on their blog: http://www.loc.gov/blog/?p=233

The Flickr page is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/

Breaking News (thanks to KJS from SILS)!

Area Eccentric Reads Entire Book

I'd better not quit my day job...

If only there was an artist in the family, who could offer technique advice (*cough* SQ *cough*)...

In any event, Mom asked for some Daisy drawings. These are the results, which sort of lack the mind-blowing artistic mastery that was on display in my last post of this kind.

I imagine that the other prodigies who work in the Sharpie-and-copier paper medium also have off days. I will say, though, that there's something Warholian about the juxtaposition of the inverted images (a technique I'm developing that I like to call: "Neoreversemonochromoreimaginationalization," or "How to get that 'Black Dog' effect without huffing marker fumes").

Required Reading for the Wallace Household

Mommy, Why is There a Server in the House?

Dwight (still our placeholder name) will be asking this question long before he wonders about anything silly like, "Why is the sky blue?" or "Why are my pants stinky?"

Spider-Newman

By the way, my friend and Local Comic Book shop guy, Jon, was quoted in USA Today this week , weighing in on the wacky new Spider-man storyline that's going on right now (in a nutshell, editorial has decided to change a significant part of the Spider-man backstory, resulting in huge changes to the character and his place in the Marvel Universe. The decision also erased the last few years of writer J. Michael "Babylon 5" Straczynski's work as the primary author of the Spider-man books):

USAToday.com

Redacted*

The ____ at _____ went well. I think that I gave a reasonable account of my abilities and it's entirely out of my hands. All in all, it was a good experience -- nice people, a great environment -- and my fingers are crossed.

I still have a hard time believing that the local mountains are on the east side of Albuquerque, though. They really ought to move them to a more Boulder-analogous location, just for my peace of mind. I wonder if I should write a letter to the Mayor or something?

*So, we all know that the interweb provides all sorts of interesting access to information, including blogs like this one which have no membership, restricted access, or editorial purpose. One of the implications of this fact is that potential employers, current employers, bitter Halo opponents, Duke fans, and other people could easily track down -- or just stumble upon -- anything that I write here. On the one hand, I don't really care too much, but I also recognize that I should tread with at least a modicum of self-awareness. You'll notice that I try to avoid using the full names of Friends and Family (with my immediate circle being the exception), and I also want to be a little careful with things like reports about interviews that still have pending results. Both of you might be able to penetrate some of my occasional codes, as well (for example, you might know that, say, "The Newmiversity of Mex Unico" might stand for... Well, I won't ruin the fun for you if you want to puzzle that one out.)

Take THAT, Alternating Current!

I have always been fascinated by Tesla and, by associative extension, the ol' Wizard of Menlo Park (I saw a nice exhibit of Edison stuff at a museum in Albany a few years back that really stuck in my mind -- I couldn't get past the feeling that Thomas Edison's legendary productivity persisted in spite of, not because of, his famous claims about not needing sleep). Which reminds me, tangentially, it is fricking ridiculous that I have neither read The Prestige, nor seen the movie which it inspired.

Anyway, here's an amazing little piece (with a movie and links) from Wired yesterday:

Jan. 4, 1903: Edison Fries an Elephant to Prove His Point