I'm ready for a beer. Then I'll have a good reason for having a headache tomorrow.

My Jeep is fixed, I had to rebuild the drum-brakes with a new wheel cylinder after shearing off an over-torqued bleeder valved. I replaced all the brake-lines from the master cylinder on back, except for one three foot long segment to the passenger-side wheel. I'll replace that one later this summer just for good measure.

My dad is in the hospital again. His blood pressure skyrocketed yesterday, but they said he didn't have another heart attack. His job is literally going to kill him unless he quits and finds something that isn't as demanding. He delivers construction supplies, and daily has to handle thousands of pounds of shingles, concrete blocks, etc. I'm going to call to get the lowdown when I get home.

Piper turned 6 today.

I'm ready for a beer.

This movie looks really good: Moon.

The 4th of July was rain-filled and anti-climactic, but Bran and I had a chance to spend some time with WhoreLearn and Julia at Victory Field while we absorbed the scenery until the game was called. We exchanged our tickets for the August 5th game, the Indianapolis Indians (Pittsburgh Pirates) against the Charlotte Knights (Chicago White Sox). ...So we'll reconvene our brat-eating and b.s.'ing at that time with perhaps some baseball to spectate.

I picked up a '95 Jeep YJ a week ago on Sunday, and managed to blow the brake-line on Wednesday after a couple hundred miles of driving at extremely boring intensity. I pulled/cut the corroded brake-line out on Thursday evening and installed the new one on Friday morning. With a cookout to attend Friday evening, the trip to Indianapolis on Saturday, and a ride planned with my friend Tom on Sunday, I put off bleeding the air out of the brake system until Sunday evening. This seemingly simple task spiraled into the throes of adversity when I attempted to loosen up the bleeder-valve and it sheared right off in my socket. My neighbor happened to walk over to ask me to look at his pc as I was lying on the garage floor staring at it stupidly, so he went home and got his set of EZ-Outs. That's when I sheared his EZ-Out off in the sheared-off bleeder valve. If there was anyway possible, then I would have broken something else trying to remove the sheared-off EZ-Out...I called it a night instead. Now I have to pick up a wheel-cylinder for the brake-drum and swap that out so the system has a good bleeder-valve. I'm picking one up after work and deciding if I want to tear anything else up or pay someone else to make my problems go away.

I should mention that the previous owner mentioned as a selling point that his son-in-law had recently rebuilt the rear brake system. He must not have felt the need to replace the corroded lines, and his son-in-law must have thought that bleeder-valve needed torqued down like a motherfucker.

( Have some photos. )

Books read thus far this year...
Snuff - Chuck Palahniuk
Coraline - Neil Gaiman
Wolves of Odin - Grant Gould (graphic novel)
Dark Tower: The Long Road Home - Stephen King, Peter David, Robin Furth, and Richard Isanove (graphic novel)
The Time Machine - H.G. Wells
The Island of Dr. Moreau - H.G. Wells
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Blade Runner) - Phillip K. Dick
The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin
Coyote: A Novel of Interstellar Exploration - Allen Steele
Year's Best SF 10, 2005 - David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer.
Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume 1 - Robert Silverburg
Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes
Got Fight? - Forrest Griffin

I'm a UFC junkie. Clay Guida and Forrest Griffin are my two favorite fighters, so when I saw Forrest wrote a book I had to nab it.

*Ouch* Well that was really stupid and random. I opened my Chinese take-out box and was folding the flaps down out of the way when one of them slipped and catapulted a copious amount of spicy-gravy-stuff condensation all over my face and into one of my eyes.

Anyhow, the book was dumb, mildly entertaining, and a fast read. My perpetual headache has pulled me away from Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil...and music as well. But my blood pressure has dropped to a relatively normal level and the MRI came back clear.

I had a dream last night that Gene Hoglan was tattooing crossed pistons on my inner bicep.

Fawk. From dull to light-headed all day. Doctor appointment on Thursday...I hope this is just a phase, because I'm ready to flip it.

My head has felt so dull over the past few days that it has been a challenge to even think straight. I went to a steak-house yesterday and couldn't come up with the words "prime rib" for several minutes, even though that's almost always what I order at such a restaurant. I just feel so goddamn dense in a literal sense of the word...like my forehead is full of mud. And I can't get anything done.

Both rabbits died over the weekend and I buried them yesterday. The heat was likely the culprit even though they had plenty of water and shade.

I hate my privet hedges. I spent two hours today trimming them and the job isn't half-finished. They're approaching 10-12 feet tall in places and they're as insidious as the goddamn triffids.

this is a triffid.


I'm about to call in a broken arrow on the bastards.

Working evenings this week. I just got Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil from ze postman. I got an electric smoker as an early father's day present, but I haven't had time to take it out of the box. I've been holding my mother-in-law's smoker hostage and smoking anything I can get my hands on. Smoked turkey...so delicious.

I think Oreo-rabbit is going to die. I'm trying to decide what to do with them since they don't get much attention other than their daily feedings.

or...excuse me, portable pc stations (since they won't buy me a defibrillator). I just talked my boss into buying me us two of these to console to our blade-servers.



I'm going to find a couple of Hawaiian shirts and hats to put on these and then hang our camera below the display.

Snuff - Chuck Palahniuk
Coraline - Neil Gaiman
Wolves of Odin - Grant Gould (graphic novel)
Dark Tower: The Long Road Home - Stephen King, Peter David, Robin Furth, and Richard Isanove (graphic novel)
The Time Machine - H.G. Wells
The Island of Dr. Moreau - H.G. Wells
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Blade Runner) - Phillip K. Dick
The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin
Coyote: A Novel of Interstellar Exploration - Allen Steele
Year's Best SF 10, 2005 - David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer.
Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume 1 - Robert Silverburg
Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes

I removed all the short-stories and put the collective works in instead...they were a bit convoluting.

I'm waiting for the Fed-Ex guy to bring me a camera.

On the new Dream Theater album, is it just me or do Mike Portnoy's vocals sound like a professional wrestler?

I traded in my PowerShot A80 to Canon for a SX100IS through their customer loyalty program and it should be here on Tuesday. The only thing odd about that model is there is no optical viewfinder...not that I use mine even a third of the time, but it has great features, rave reviews, and at $125.00 I couldn't pass it up.

I saw UP yesterday and thought it was great.

Return of the Ewok.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/71469/late-night-with-jimmy-fallon-mon-may-4-2009?c=1999:2230

Chocolate Bear loves some stop-motion and Star Wars.

I took the boys fishing Saturday evening...they caught half a dozen bluegill each and had fun. It was a test of patience on my part...going between the two of them to deal with tangles, snags, silly questions, baiting, re-baiting, taking fish off, etc. I forgot my camera.

Watched another hour and a half of Return of the King (extended) with Mason...we have about another hour to go and we've finished our Lord of the Rings run. He's been really into it, but we tend to continue where we left of late on Saturday nights and he starts fading away after an hour and a half. When he finishes the Harry Potter series I'll let him borrow The Hobbit. He has read five of the seven books, and at the rate he is going he'll be finished by the time school is out.

I kicked ass on the elliptical runner yesterday morning...I'm hoping to see < 200 on the scales soon. I watched the next 40 minutes of Quantum of Solace and I should easily finish it up on my next run.

We saw Wolverine too...I liked it overall, despite the typical book to screen flaws.

I'm typically unproductive today...grrrdamn self-performance evaluation...a final exam tomorrow...and a paper to finish. I have to install a blade-server chassis in the U's library this afternoon too. That's actually what I consider to be a good time.

And now...noodles. And maybe something work-like. If I don't destroy this bluetooth mouse first.

So I've lopped off my hair and am now able to pass as a normal member of society. The rats...four days and about 400 miles on my motorcycle literally had me pulling large amounts of hair out by the roots. It became worse with the growth of every additional inch of hair...even with a full-faced helmet on my commute to and from work. RATS...and the rising outside temperature. To put it simply, I was ready for a change. Change is good.



I have one more paper to finish. I'm a bit agitated because my morning has been filled with programmer overflow...precisely the same shit I'd be doing if they had hired me for the programmer job. Why should they pay me more if they can push the work onto me nonetheless? On the bright side, we're going to a 4-day work week again for the summer, and that means the celebrated 3-day weekends will once again be upon me.

I've had so much energy and the desire to exercise this week while I'm at work, but by the time I get home I've lost sight of it. I guess I should be channeling it into the last week of schoolwork, and it's apparent that in no amount of time will that paper write itself while minimized to the taskbar. I should try getting on the elliptical runner for a while this evening though.

If you like Jane's Addiction, Fugazi, Bauhaus, etc...this is a band that was tragically overlooked in the early 90's...
http://www.myspace.com/thegodmachine

(2:14:11 PM) charasan: You like? Ja?
(2:14:21 PM) Matt: like what?
(2:14:30 PM) charasan: That paper?
(2:14:40 PM) Matt: i'll read it when i've got some free time
(2:15:24 PM) charasan : Meh
(2:16:08 PM) Matt: don't meh me.
(2:16:15 PM) Matt: i thought meh was dead
(2:16:21 PM) charasan : Meh.
(2:16:41 PM) charasan : I usekes itsk as Isk seesk fits.
(2:16:56 PM) charasan : Woah...channelin' Popeye there...
(2:17:33 PM) Matt: i thought it fell out of fashion as the post-Matrix apathy found in year 2000 high-school grads hit the net and went to the west.
(2:17:36 PM) Matt: the world has moved on.
(2:18:28 PM) Matt: YOU KNOW THIS TO BE TRUE.
(2:18:52 PM) charasan : I like living in the past. Everybody there knows me.

(2:30:17 PM) charasan : http://www.anthony-robbins.org.uk/pics/Anthony_robbins_testimonials.jpg
(2:30:26 PM) Matt: ?
(2:30:30 PM) Matt: who the fuck is that?
(2:30:41 PM) charasan : Tony Robbins? Self-help guru?
(2:30:45 PM) Matt: O.
(2:30:49 PM) charasan : Family Guy spoofed him once.
(2:31:13 PM) Matt: what happens when all the pop-culture has been spoofed?
(2:31:16 PM) charasan : Plus these are people who aren't used to me with teeth
(2:31:20 PM) Matt: will the pop-culture spoofing trend be over?
(2:31:28 PM) charasan : NEVER
(2:31:42 PM) Matt: it's shameless
(2:31:45 PM) Matt: a copout
(2:31:55 PM) Matt: it's like hollywood remaking every decent movie ever made
(2:32:00 PM) Matt: because they can't think ahead
(2:33:06 PM) Matt: maybe that's why I think family guy sucks
(2:33:07 PM) Matt: :D
(2:33:10 PM) Matt: I said it
(2:33:14 PM) Matt: Family Guy sucks.
(2:33:16 PM) charasan : ...
(2:33:33 PM) charasan : Krom...
(2:33:43 PM) Matt: it's like the Simpsons, only without imagination.
(2:33:54 PM) charasan : Manatee jokes? :P
(2:35:00 PM) charasan : But you'll watch South Park?
(2:35:15 PM) Matt: I haven't watched south park in 10 years
(2:35:34 PM) charasan : ...do we have anything in common? :D
(2:35:44 PM) Matt: yer ma.
(2:36:45 PM) charasan : My mother is a saint!!!
(2:36:55 PM) charasan : Oh wait...she SLEPT with a saint...my bad :D
(2:37:37 PM) Matt: mall Santas don't count
(2:37:42 PM) Matt: you KNOW they're not the real St. NIck
(2:37:45 PM) Matt: they're his HELPERS.

(2:41:07 PM) charasan : I had like 2 hours of sleep...I'm barely cognizant right now.
(2:41:59 PM) charasan : I'll be soooo glad when this semester is over...
(2:42:43 PM) Matt: how long before you take classes again and bitch daily about them?
(2:42:44 PM) Matt: summer?
(2:42:45 PM) Matt: fall?
(2:42:46 PM) Matt: :D
(2:43:07 PM) charasan : Fall! Hey! I knew going in this semester was going to be *the* tough one.
(2:43:18 PM) Matt: so what was last semester?
(2:43:28 PM) charasan : Assuming I don't have to retake anything, it's all smooth sailing after this
(2:43:52 PM) Matt: that is going on record.

Books, Graphic Novels, and Short Stories Read Thus Far this Year...

Snuff - Chuck Palahniuk
Coraline - Neil Gaiman
Wolves of Odin - Grant Gould (graphic novel)
Dark Tower: The Long Road Home - Stephen King, Peter David, Robin Furth, and Richard Isanove (graphic novel)
The Time Machine - H.G. Wells
Twilight - John Campbell (short story)
The Little Black Bag - C.M. Cornbluth (short story)
A Martian Odyssey - Stanley Weinbaum (short story)
Arena - Frederic Brown (short story)</small>
First Contact - Murray Leinster (short story)
The Island of Dr. Moreau - H.G. Wells
Microcosmic God - Theodore Sturgeon (short story)
Act of God - Jack McDevitt (short story)
The Sandkings - George R.R. Martin (short story)
The Nine Billion Names of God - Arthur C. Clarke (short story)
First Commandment - Gregory Benford (short story)
The Quest for St. Aquin - Anthony Boucher (short story)
Nightfall - Isaac Asimov (short story)
Surface Tension - James Blish (short story)
Mimsy Were the Borogoves - Lewis Padgett (short story)
The Roads Must Roll - Robert Heinlein (short story)
Helen O'Loy - Lester Del Rey (short story)
The Algorithms for Love - Ken Liu (short story)
Second Variety - Philip K. Dick (short story)
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Blade Runner) - Phillip K. Dick
Burning Day - Glenn Grant (short story)
The Dark Side of Town - James Patrick Kelley (short story)
The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin
Coyote: A Novel of Interstellar Exploration - Allen Steele

Schoolwork is keeping me busy as hell. I have two papers finished and one and a half to go. I should be studying for an exam. But I'm not.

I went for a nice ride with some friends over the weekend. My front tire picked up a nail and I had to stop at the Honda dealer to have them replace the tube. They were having an open house and I was lucky that the mechanic was friends with a friend I was riding with or I would have been out of luck. But they got me on my way (super cheap too) and I spun a wheel and won a full-faced helmet.

This weekend is supposed to be nice and I'm really looking forward to it...beer, bikes, God of War(?), grilling. (Bikes before beer of course...I never drink and ride.) The construction guys should be finished putting the new siding on my house too.

Our new pets...Oreo and Aida.

Books, Graphic Novels, and Short Stories Read Thus Far this Year...
Snuff - Chuck Palahniuk
Coraline - Neil Gaiman
Wolves of Odin - Grant Gould (graphic novel)
Dark Tower: The Long Road Home - Stephen King, Peter David, Robin Furth, and Richard Isanove (graphic novel)
The Time Machine - H.G. Wells
Twilight - John Campbell (short story)
The Little Black Bag - C.M. Cornbluth (short story)
A Martian Odyssey - Stanley Weinbaum (short story)
Arena - Frederic Brown (short story)
First Contact - Murray Leinster (short story)
The Island of Dr. Moreau - H.G. Wells
Microcosmic God - Theodore Sturgeon (short story)
Act of God - Jack McDevitt (short story)
The Sandkings - George R.R. Martin (short story)
The Nine Billion Names of God - Arthur C. Clarke (short story)
First Commandment - Gregory Benford (short story)
The Quest for St. Aquin - Anthony Boucher (short story)
Nightfall - Isaac Asimov (short story)
Surface Tension - James Blish (short story)
Mimsy Were the Borogoves - Lewis Padgett (short story)
The Roads Must Roll - Robert Heinlein (short story)
Helen O'Loy - Lester Del Rey (short story)
The Algorithms for Love - Ken Liu (short story)
Second Variety - Philip K. Dick (short story)
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Blade Runner) - Phillip K. Dick
Burning Day - Glenn Grant (short story)
The Dark Side of Town - James Patrick Kelley (short story)
The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin (Currently reading)

Sci-Fi-nom-nom-nom.

So far, so good...A's in both of the classes I'm taking and I aced the last GEO exam.

Picked up Mastodon - Crack the Skye and it's quite a progression from their last album of what I can barely hear while I have it churning at a very low simmer. I miss when I worked alone for a lot of reasons, but I'd like to drown everything out with a wall of brutality several times a day every day. I've got work to do. A book to read. A paper to write. An MP3 player full of stale songs. And nothing will get done until I put an end to my ocd-compelled tabbed browsing. Must...close...Firefox.

Ron Moore's wife just posted this message from Ron:



I don't want this day to happen.

I want it to be rescheduled, rethought, removed and recalled.

Tomorrow the story will be over, my tale having been told, and never again will there be the sweet anticipation of waiting for the next episode to be shown to fans and friends. The thought of it makes my heart ache even as swells with pride.

All I know is that today there is a show called Battlestar Galactica and tomorrow there was.

There will be joy in that too, I'm sure, touching the thread of memory and feeling it resonate all the way back to soundstages, locations, cutting rooms, writers' rooms, and sound bays where I lived for all these years and being comforted by the knowledge that a part of me will never truly leave those places. There will be reunions and retrospectives, special editions and extended cuts, interviews and seminars. Solace can be found.

We'd called the last season Senior Year and here, today, as I prepare to present the final episode to an audience of friends, colleagues, and family, I find myself feeling the same way I did on Graduation day at Chowchilla Union High, all those years ago. The mosaic of faces I'd grown accustomed to seeing day after day would regroup for one last event, one last celebration of our lives together and what we'd done, and then it would be gone but for the transcendent threads of memory waiting to resonant down through the years. I didn't want that day to happen either and fervently wished for it to be rescheduled, rethought, removed and recalled.

Somehow I get the feeling that today's wish will not be granted either. So this day, like that one, will wax and wane and all I can do is ride the wave and let it carry me where it will.

Thank you, all of you for coming here through the years. The shippers and the haters, and everyone in between; you've watched and you've posted and you've been a touchstone for my experience with the audience ever since that night back in 2003 when we first declared that the Cylons were created by Man and things were going to be different. It's been a genuine pleasure to surf your thoughts, rants, questions, snarks, complaints, praise, and humor as you watched our story play out and rest assured I will be here again tomorrow poring through the posts, laughing, cursing, sometimes just shrugging at what you take away from this crazy show.

It's been an honor to be your storyteller.

~ Ronald D. Moore
About to be former Executive Producer of Battlestar Galactica

Just got back from class. We had it outside by the fountain and while it was uncomfortable on the terraced steps it was well worth it for the weather.

I picked up my gun (Ruger Mark III 22/45 Bull Barrel) yesterday and I can't wait to go shooting. I'm having my nephew over this weekend so depending on how Piperbacher is feeling I may take the kids out to talk about gun safety and let them shoot my bb rifle.

My throat has been itchy and croaky for a week, and while I haven't felt sick at all my energy has been totally wiped today. I have to pull the carburetor off of the 1200 custom to replace the enrichener cable that snapped. Last night I removed the intake and got the horn and everything out of the way where the choke-knob mounts on the left side, so likely tonight I'll start unhooking gas-lines and the real fun begins.

So tired.

What a beautiful day. I can honestly say that I have major symptoms of seasonal affective disorder by spring, and it seems that I've had renewed energy over the past week or so as the weather has risen and the dreariness has dissipated. (It helps that at midterm I'm pulling A's in both of my classes too.) I spent spring break (last week) playing through Resident Evil 4 on the Wii and taking care of Mr. Piperbacher as he recovered from his tonsillectomy. He's doing pretty good, other than having his ass kicked repeatedly by the codeine. RE4 is actually quite fun on the Wii, since the aiming system for this type of third-person shooter is simply superior to any that I've seen on any console ever. Aim with the Wiimote, move with the 'Chuck. Good stuff.

My pal Jason has been bringing his PS2 over on the weekends, and I've been hooking it up to my projector and playing God of War on a 100" screen. It's an experience any gamer could appreciate, and we have plans for another friend to bring his PS3 next time.

I bought a Ruger Mark III bull-barrel pistola on Saturday. Due to the three-day waiting period, while I would be able to pick it up today I likely won't have time before the shop closes. Charley asked me if I'd take photos of another Harley and sell it for him when I get home. That's how we have a good time.

Beyotch just called to tell me that the ye olden gun shoppe is open until 6pm, so I'll probably have time to do both!

Irritating = when it takes three months to finally be told, "I'm sorry that even though I'd like to, I can't offer you the job." = lousy way to end an otherwise good work-day.

Today's class confirmed a long-standing personal observation. Those with the least to say speak the loudest and most frequently.