Yet another day where I don’t want to post. Stupid IMBC.

Very little going on. I need new reading material. Forgot my DS in Pasco, so that’s out (till I go back on the 26th anyway). I saw the new Daniel Tosh special on Comedy Central today. Very, very funny. The facial expressions and hope-you-can-keep-up pacing kill me. I especially love the wide-eyed grin he does during his breast augmentation bit. One thing I found odd was the low production quality for this show. Usually these specials are done very well that way — the recent Dimitri Martin and Amazing Jonathan shows are evidence of this. But Tosh’s program had bad audio (very echoey) and a few shots that were really out of focus. Maybe the venue just wasn’t set up for what they needed.

Has anyone noticed that Google won’t index certain pages? A couple times now I’ve searched for a blog entry I know I made (using the “site:upsidaisium.com” parameter) and I can’t turn anything up. Even when I use a word I know was in the original entry. Maybe it’s a transitory glitch — I just did a search for “carcass crab” and it turned up the two entries I expected. But that same test case wasn’t working a few days ago. And it’s not like it’s new/changed content either; they’re old entries I’ve never edited. Very weird.

I’ve been kinda working on this mini-zeppelin cutaway view thing in SketchUp. I might half-ass the gasbag component though; I can’t seem to find a way to model the skeleton that doesn’t take three and a half weeks of clicking. Anyway, the whole thing’s loosely inspired by these 1939 Graf Zeppelin plans (5.8 MB JPEG, dialuppers beware) I found on some imageboard.

Re: TotD (fave political candidates): Right now, I like Mike Gravel and Ron Paul (the latter a little more than the former). Of course, neither has a snowball’s chance. Amongst the first-tier folks, I guess I like Giuliani best. I was pretty pro-McCain about a year ago, but I’ve been liking him less and less since then.

Update: (Note that this bit was added after midnight. You can always check the page source for update/edit timestamps.) Just came across this Ron Paul quote on racism that I thought was really brilliant:

Racism is simply an ugly form of collectivism, the mindset that views humans strictly as members of groups rather than individuals. Racists believe that all individuals who share superficial physical characteristics are alike: as collectivists, racists think only in terms of groups. By encouraging Americans to adopt a group mentality, the advocates of so-called ‘diversity’ actually perpetuate racism. Their obsession with racial group identity is inherently racist.

I heard the most amazing Finnish folk song on the radio today. It was played on NPR as part of an excerpt from a book by a blind guy who spent some time in Helsinki as a kid. But even armed with these relatively substantial details, I can’t turn up any leads on this music. Normally, NPR’s site is very easy to find stuff on, but the program I listened to doesn’t seem to have been indexed. The song was really something… extremely clear, sharp voices — all acapella — singing a weird, twisty tune that managed to be catchy and unpredictable at the same time. And no, it wasn’t Ievan Polkka (AKA Levas Polka). Supposedly it was something old women sang while beating rugs down by the docks of an icy bay.

My cousin Shem has a tablet PC. I’m jealous. But it’s a Gateway, so I’m not too jealous. :P

Brett got these barcode-keychain things from his work that we can use to get 20% off at Rite Aid. Apparently the rule for discounts used to be that they could only be applied to purchases made by the employee’s spouse or children, but the company (or maybe just this branch) expanded it to “anyone they live with.”

Me, my sister, Shem, and my dad had lunch at El Chapala in Kennewick today. I had a “burrito blanco” — extremely tasty. Usually when I go to Mexican restaurants I’m not very adventurous and just order enchiladas. But this slight nudge outside my comfort zone really paid off; I think it’s the best thing I’ve had at one of those places yet (with the possible exception of fajitas or sopapillas). I want to try making it on my own sometime. I think it’s just a huge burrito that’s lightly deep fried, then covered in a sauce made with cream cheese and sour cream.

I find that the hungrier I am, the less open-minded I am about trying new foods.

There’re a couple movies out (or coming out soon) that I want to see in the next few weeks if possible: Ratatouille and 1408 for sure. I’m also interested in Ocean’s Thirteen and Fido, but they’re much further down the totem pole.

Re: TotD (favorite toy): LEGOs without a doubt. I think they really steered me towards games and interests that have “sandbox” qualities to them. Infinitely expandable roleplaying games, 3D modeling; anything that you can work at in a non-linear kind of way, and without a definite goal in mind.

Holy cow, dinner last night was awesome; steaks bigger than your plate (and tender — even the gristle melted in my mouth), cauliflower swimming in sharp cheddar, green stuff (a special dish of my mom’s; it’s made with marshmallows, pineapple, and pistachio pudding), and ice cream cake for dessert. Check out this chunk of meat:

I gotta wrap this post up quickly; Jones and I are in the middle of a 700-point Heroscape battle next door. It’s going pretty well for me, despite the loss of my Deathwalker 9000 (who made up 20% of my army, pointswise). So far I’ve taken out his snakes, ghosts, Krav Maga agents, and two of his three Omicron snipers. Major Q9 is sick lethal when he’s within six hexes of the Krav Maga. Of course, Jones still has twelve zombies that I have to deal with… the DW9000 could’ve made easy work of them with its explosion special attack, but now I’m kind of screwed. Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention: I did some computer work over in Kennewick early in the afternoon. Used the cash from that to buy another Master Set and two expansions (another zombie pack and the heroes collection). Then when Jones got off work he really wanted to get some units so we went to two Walmarts and the Toys’R'Us and I got the pack of all-large-figures.

We also got some boss snacks at the last Walmart. All Natural White Cheddar Cheetos and a dark chocolate orange… mmm.

Re: TotD (favorite actor): Hard decision. For sure, my top three are probably Paul Rudd, Nick Frost, and B.D. Wong. Matt Frewer and Christopher Lloyd are also awesome, but they’re not in much lately. Oh, and Will Arnett and David Cross are good too (I saw a little Arrested Development on G4 this morning)… And Robert Picardo… Still, I stand by my top three.

Okay, gotta get back to blasting zombies.

After jerking us around a lot (i.e. repeatedly promising to send someone over, then not following through), Heritage Realty finally put us in contact with a washer repair place in Moscow. The guy came over at 3:30, fiddled with the washer for about thirty seconds, ripped out a little plastic doohickey and said, “Yup, there’s yer problem — broken switch.” Very quick fix. Those guys at Chris’ Appliance & Refrigeration are really good at what they do. No idea how they got involved with a train wreck like Heritage.

I’m in the Tri-Cities right now. Met my cousin, Shem. Last time I had seen him was in 1989, according to my mom. He’s staying with my parents till the end of July. Really cool guy; has that New Mexico drawl that you don’t hear much around here.

I’m so tired right now… Not sure why since I only woke up at 7:00 AM. But man… Must have been that Pullman-Pasco drive. Just drains you. So boring, so much squinting (even with sunglasses). And this time I didn’t have any decent CDs or anything, so I mostly listened to NPR, then skipped around to various AM stations when I got out of range. Bad idea; 90% of the AM radio between Washtucna and Eltopia is commercials and evangelists.

I’m just staying awake long enough to eat the steak my mom’s making for dinner. Tomorrow night I’m gonna try to recruit Jones and Robert for some Heroscape wargaming. I got a couple new expansion packs in the mail: Robot snipers, snake monsters, and a zombie horde. Might get some more terrain tiles while I’m here.

Got my hair cut today. Went to the Fantastic Sams over on Bishop. It wasn’t very tidy (had lots of hair clippings on my face and neck), but it was fast, cheap, and basically what I wanted. $13.95 sure beats Elaine’s $25. Plus I didn’t have to make an appointment. I actually wanted to go to the barber shop on Main St., but they weren’t answering their phones. And Brett kinda knows one of the guys at Fantastic Sams cuz he shops at the Rite Aid a lot, so it was an easy pick over Supercuts.

Made a strange meal this morning (my breakfast, Brett’s dinner): Pork ribs. I’d meant to cook them while Jones was here, but somehow I didn’t get the opportunity (partly because Little Caesars messed up my order and we ended up with four large pizzas which lasted us quite a while). Some pics:

Some people might say you can’t make ribs a whole meal, but they’re obviously hippy, vegan communists. I added some Frank’s Red Hot to the sauce this time and it seemed to help cut the sweetness quite a bit.

You know that song, The Internet is for Porn? Turns out it’s from a Broadway musical called Avenue Q. I never would have imagined they’d make a live show like this… Trying to get my hands on the soundtrack right now. I hope they make a DVD for it; it sounds really funny. (I saw a .WMV video on a couple torrent directories, but I assume it’s a bootleg camcorder-in-the-audience thing — not something I want to waste 300 megs on.)

The herbs we planted some weeks ago are coming along pretty well except for the spearmint. From left to right: Chives, basil, dill.

We only had three pots, so the chives were planted in a plastic easter bowl with holes punched in the bottom.

I’m starting to get into Star Trek: Enterprise. I watched the first two episodes back when it premiered in 2001 but decided I didn’t like it and never watched again. Recently I recorded a couple episodes on the TiVo just because there’s been so little new stuff on lately (I think it’s down to Kathy Griffin, Top Chef, and a few pop-culture-comedy news things, like The Showbiz Show). They were actually really good, so I set up a season pass. The ones I saw were about the Klingons getting infected with some disease because they’d tried to create enhanced warriors from DNA they got from human “augments” (genetically engineered superhumans). It explained, in a fairly realistic (relative to Star Trek) way, why Enterprise and Next Generation’s Klingons have forehead ridges but TOS’s don’t, even though it takes place between those two series chronologically.

I wonder if Enterprise started the “grittier/more realism” trend in sci fi TV shows. In terms of uniforms, set design, and technology it has a lot in common with Firefly and Battlestar Galactica. Or maybe this was something that just happened naturally in response to the 12-year hegemony of 24th century-era Star Trek with all its effortless superscience, luxury, and tidy, sleek environments.

Re: TotD (what you love/hate about Star Wars): Love: Ubiquitous robots, anachronisms (swordplay, royalty, knights, mobsters), amazing scenery (in the prequels), good music, cool looking aliens. Hate: Ewoks, The Star Wars Holiday Special, the animated series, lame looking aliens.

Someone started fraudulently charging stuff to my check card on the 7th. I just noticed last night while checking my account summary. Looks like they bought subscriptions to a few porn sites, something from Video Professor (pathetic), and access to some kind of Joost ripoff. 11 transactions totaling $164.25. Of course I immediately canceled the card. Then this morning I drove over to my bank in Moscow and filled out some kind of affidavit form. I also called all the companies that charged my card and notified them of the theft. I got some info about the thief — IP address 209.200.238.92, email address wicks23468@yahoo.com, etc. I’m sure it’s all bogus though. I should be getting my refunds on all but one transaction within five business days. The bank said they couldn’t start the process on the last charge (for $59.80) because it was outstanding. Which means I’ll probably have to go to the Pasco Sterling branch when I’m there Friday and do the affidavit thing again.

There has been much Mario Partying the past couple days. It’s neat to see how everyone excels at different minigames; Brett shoots stuff from vehicles really well, Jones shakes soda like a pro, and I’m a master tightrope-walker. I’ve had pretty rotten luck actually getting stars though. Is there a technique to punching the dice block I don’t know about? Still, it’s a lot of fun. And it really embodies the “feel” of the Wii console better than anything else currently available. (Other games might show a greater range of its capabilities, but the interface just seems more natural with MP.)

I made lasagna last night. Didn’t really try anything new with this one; just did the standard three-layer, onions, garlic, Cojack, etc. treatment. Came out good, though I probably should have let it cool for more than ten minutes (the first pieces were a little sloppy).

Jones and I swapped DS games. I hope he finishes Puzzle Quest soon so I can get a crack at it. The little bit I played was pretty cool. Who would’ve thought something as simple as “Bejeweled plus Dragon Warrior” could be so fun? I also lent him Rant. It’ll be nice to be able to discuss the book with him without worrying about spoilers. (Though if he read Beefy’s blog from a month ago or whatever the best surprises are already kind of ruined.)

Been listening to a lot of Amateur Transplants lately. I especially like the songs Careless Surgeon and Your Baby. Even the poem, A Letter To The Patient’s GP Please, Angela, is great to play while editing photos. They’re all good, really. The only one I’m not wild about is Dorsal Horn Concerto.