Just in case anyone asks. I truly detest moving.
Found the above picture of the flight simulator Mark Snow and I built. Everything you see there – the LED instruments, the control yoke, even the computer hiding behind the simulator on the right – was built by Mark. All the blinking of the lights and the display on the computer was done by me. Behind the simulator sits the cassette tape player that loads the program I wrote into the computer.
Bought a Brita water filter for the new apartment. Might as well… It’s really good water!
I was without Internet the whole weekend, so I spent quality time with the PS2 and Neverwinter Nights… and then this morning, the Internet was back up, like magic!
I also got cable. But after watching Battlestar Galactica Friday, I was too busy to settle down and watch television. I caught some of Stargate the TV series before it started. People watch this crap? Nice to know the Sci Fi commandos of the 25th century or whatever are up on the latest hair and makeup styles. Good to see those male models getting work, too. In the episode I saw, apparently they had made a monster into a buff, tan, toned, exquisitely coiffed man, without telling him. And then he became a monster again. I guess he didn’t feel he really stood out among the other models. Maybe he couldn’t stand the dialog. I sure couldn’t. SF channel is running this drek all night tonight. Guess I’ll give it a miss.
Oh yeah, next time you are trying to keep a secret from someone, re-think falling asleep with a binder full of clearly labeled disks that obviously hold the secret, next to the person from whom you’re holding it. Also, leaving the laptop computer next to it, programmed to immediately play the disks when one is inserted, was just asking for it.
Sunday night I watched Armageddon on TBS. I think this has to be the most science-hating movie I have ever seen. Shuttles that take off next to each other and fly like jets. Whizzing through crowded debris like anything. A huge, HUGE asteroid that was detected just 18 days out. And you know, while they are using the Lunar gravity to slingshot around the moon to the asteroid that is passing very close to the moon, why didn’t they, I dunno… give it a little nudge with a nuke while its course was being bent by the moon to put it on a new course?
And it’s always nice to see people all over the world celebrating America, once again, for saving them. We saved them from aliens in Independence Day and now Earth-killer asteroids. Aren’t we wonderful people!
I caught the very last of a movie that came on before Armaggedon. I recognized Brion James right off, one of my favorite character actors since I saw him in Blade Runner. The movie may have been “The Fifth Element”… I was sad to find he had died. First, Wendi Joe Sperber, now Brion James… all my fave character actors from the 80s passing away.
Also found this poem to my love which may have had something to do with our eventual divorce:
If a picture paints a thousand words, then why can’t I paint you?
Two dabs of paint will be your eyes, your skin I’ll color blue
I’ll stay between the lines, my love, I always will be true;
In this paint-by-numbers world, you’re minus 1 (plus 2)
In other news, Gordon Lightfoot just killed himself so he could spin in his grave.
I went to Fry’s to buy some coax cables to connect my TV up to the cable. I walked out with two coax cables and Guitar Hero for the PS2. I was gong to get this for my daughter and her husband, but they don’t have a PS/2.
It doesn’t play much like a real guitar, but plays a lot like a real AIR guitar, so I suppose that’s something. I do okay; I soon ran into the problem moving my hand with confidence over the neck of the guitar that plagued me both with bass guitar and violin. So maybe that will help somewhat if I decide ever to play those again.
I don’t know if I should avoid playing “Texas Flood” because how I mangle it tarnishes the memory of Stevie Ray Vaughn, or just work at it really hard and honor him by playing its video game adaptation well?
My favorite band of all time, Blue Oyster Cult, was in there with “Godzilla” (GOOD CHOICE! They might have put “in Burnin’ For You” or something…) As well as a lot of bands I didn’t know; but can now pretend to play. Allyson: they have Megadeth’s “Symphony of Destruction” 🙂
Currently stalled on Edgar Winter’s “Frankenstein”. There just isn’t any way to dumb that song down. Guitar Hero suggests practicing my hammer-ons and pull-offs for more speed. Turns out I suck at them. I usually have rock-solid timing (yay DDR, Space Channel 5 and Umjammer Lammy), but pulling off a note and remembering NOT to strum is making me pause just enough to lose the rhythm.
At some point, I’m gonna be asking myself… why put all this effort into learning fake guitar, when I could be learning REAL guitar?
Probably because I won’t be playing “More Than A Feeling” before a capacity stadium crowd in real life anytime soon… but I could do it with Guitar Hero at lunchtime 😛
