We finally put up our tree

Cleaning Woes

I've been putting off cleaning my room for a while now, but I finally got around to it. The hard part is not finding a place for everything, but not getting sidetracked reading every scrap of paper or magazine and not playing with all the toys I haven't seen in ages.

I found some old Koosh Balls. I've had them since high school, so that makes them at least 10 years old, and most of that time they were in my pockets. They also made good pool toys, as they sunk slowly, so they've had their share of chlorine. Mostly, I used them for juggling whenever I felt like it.

About a year ago, I stopped carrying them. Somehow, they'd lost their "bounce" and the ends starting breaking off as the rubber got more brittle and somehow adhesive. I found them today about 18" from the heater vent. They were stuck to the notebook they were on, and when I finally got one loose, it started shredding in my hands. The rubber pieces just started breaking off, like people who suddenly go bald in movies pulling out chunks of hair. It was a sad moment when I realized they had to be thrown away.

Okay, enough distraction for now. Time to get back to work.

DVD Advantages (for the bored)

I saw "The Incredible Hulk" the other day on DVD. I had plenty of time, so I satisfied my every slightest hint of curiosity-- rewatching scenes if I thought I didn't catch everything; turning on and off subtitles at will; and watching fast scenes again, but in slow motion. It was this last act that showed me the following.

Without giving too much away, during the computer scene there are many email messages that fly by very quickly. In slow motion I discovered that there were only about seven total messages that repeated themselves:

We should hit BLUE and GREEN very hard.
The car that I saw was Green!
The grass is always greener on the other side.
Have you been to Mr. Blue's Music store?
It is amazing how little the color blue is used throughout normal communication.
It should be clear that the blue computer is sorting through every instance of these common green words anywhere they are written.

There were maybe one or two more, but, like most, they are pretty dull. Who wrote this? I'm sure I could come up with interesting communication with the words green and blue in them. How about:

Come on! Everybody knows Vulcans bleed green!
You are invited to eat blueberry pie on Saturday.
I couldn't believe how blue the water was!
I prefer the blue-haired Japanese chick over the green-haired one. (You gotta have blue hair!)
Have you seen the new green uniforms?

And yes, even these are not the most interesting thing you've ever read, but I attribute that to being out of context. On a wild tangent, that reminds me that UserFriendly occasionally has people write the punchline of jokes that don't exist. No context at all, but they sure make you wonder.

Finally, the wrist watch heart rate monitor he wears does, in fact, exist. The CVS down the street sells a similar one for $59.99. I didn't buy one, but I'm pretty sure the rapid panic-inducing beeping was added for the movie.

Oh, I almost forgot. In the language settings, there's an option for DVS. I gave it a try and started the movie, and was surprised to hear every scene being described as it happened. Descriptive Video Service. Non-stop talking, basically, but in an interesting manner. It revealed some things that a normal viewer may not catch, like mentioning the name Tony Stark during the opening credits (his name rapidly flew by amongst a montage of newspaper articles), or "Stan Lee opens a fridge," even though in the movie he is given no name.

Well, that's about it for now. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Snow, sleeves, and sauce

Today was the first snow of the season, or at least, the first snow that was still around by the time I woke up. It looked bad, but mostly stopped the rest of the day.

Last night I bought some long sleeved shirts to wear under my short sleeved work shirt. Looks like I got them right on time. But my foresight didn't carry into work itself. Mere minutes after clocking in, I somehow blorped pizza sauce all over my new shirt sleeve, almost up to the elbow of my right arm. On my new shirt!

I stood stunned for several seconds, then sighed as I headed into the kitchen for an unenviable cleanup. It rinsed right out, fortunately, but then I had a wet sleeve for a while. A sleeve wet almost to my elbow on the coldest day of the season so far. Ah, I'm thankful for heat lamps.

Service Engine Here!

So, I'm at work, and as I'm driving I notice that my "Service Engine Soon" light has come on. I'm a little concerned, but it turns off after several seconds. Later, I'm driving down that same stretch of road, and it the light comes on again, and again turns off soon.

Twice must actually mean something, but I have no idea what. The next day I'm constantly checking my dash for the light, wondering if it will turn on again, and sure enough, it does. I try to "feel" through the car to find out what it wants, but it's not talking. Again, the light turns off by itself.

A short time later, I realize a connection. The "Service Engine Soon" light came on all three times as I was approaching Monteith Tire and Auto Service Center, and turned off after I passed it. Coincidence? Or sneaky futuristic advertising?

I'm new at this blogging thing, and I haven't poked around the settings enough to figure out how to get the page to not scroll horizontally on 800x600 resolution, or how to successfully put a picture at the top instead of the green bar. There must be a way. Maybe it's a different template.

No, it's not a roman candle firework. It's hot chocolate! I was recently introduced to this by my sister. It's called Abuelita, and it comes in little cakes that you have to mix with hot milk in a blender. It's not as sweet as other hot chocolate, and it's yummy.

Add a little whipped cream and cinnamon, and there you go!