But I don’t want to learn how to swim Dept.: I was worried that I would not be able to clear my mask this week, so I approached the pool with a pit of dread in my stomach. I followed my instructor’s advice and practiced with the snorkel, inhaling through the mouth and exhaling through the nose. When we first reviewed skills in the shallow end, I didn’t get it, and I almost panicked, because last night we were going to equalize and do all the skills in the deep end. I suddenly saw myself at the quarry, unable to clear my mask, and failing certification. So while the others were going over their stuff, I practiced it until I had the breakthrough- plugging up the regulator with my tongue and blowing through my nose was what helped me do it right.
So we all begin equalizing and drop to the bottom of the pool; I had to go back up because my left ear wouldn’t clear and it hurt. One of the instructors followed me back up and helped me slowly descend until I could clear both ears, and then he and I did the skills while the others did theirs in their groups. I did it! I was able to clear the mask like a pro the first time- even after removing it completely and putting it back on. *whew*!
Jen wrote me this about my comments on Manhunter/Red Dragon yesterday:
Have you seen the movie yet? Because perhaps that might be the best
viewpoint to be looking at the whole of casting from…
Although my heart belongs to William Peterson foreva!
I also found out that the Caesar quote Nate sent along was an Internet hoax, first debunked, apparently, by the ever-alert Matt Drudge. Yes, this will be the only time I ever mention Barbra Striesand in this log.
I liked this article, and the issues it brings up. How dare our legislators, ostensibly the people we have voted to represent us, journey to a foreign land to attempt to negotiate a peaceful resolution and avoid a war? Damn traitorous Democrats.
Timely horoscope, courtesy of Free Will Astrology:
If you were Bob Dylan, would you have licensed your poetic anthem, “The Times They Are A-Changin'” to be used in a commercial by a Canadian bank? Or are you more like Beck, who turned down Miller Beer’s plea to buy one of his songs for $300,000? You will soon face a quandary, Pisces, that will ask you to meditate on questions like these. To couch your looming decisions in even more universal terms: Do you have anything in common with the young woman in the fairy tale who gave up the work she adored in order to win the love of a prince? Or do you have a clear idea of how to stay true to what’s most valuable, even if an interesting temptation is calling you away?
So we got the credenza into the house (no small feat) and I put it where the IKEA TV cart was. Once the TV goes downstairs and the stereo comes down from the office, (and the green wall is painted red) it’ll look real nice in the living room.
I also got my film for the 620 cameras yesterday, so I’m loading two of them up tonight for Jen and I to use. We’re going to test each out to see how well they work and we’ll use the two best for taking B/W pictures. I’m excited to use the Duaflex and the Ansco, and I think the Brownie will take real clean shots too.
OK, so I believe that Ray Fiennes is a casting coup for the role of Francis Dolarhyde in Red Dragon. However, Harvey Keitel as Jack Crawford is about as good as Marilyn Monroe as Lady MacBeth. And no matter what you say, William Peterson is still the best Will Graham, CSI or not. It will be interesting to see how well Ed Norton does in that role, and which movie is better. What’s your favorite?
I added my home workspace to the workspace exhibit at somebodydial911. Penn is happy that he’s a star on the web, too.
Zeldman comments on experiences loading, fighting with, and de-installing OSX on his machine, and offers a ton of helpful links to different sites claiming to know how to intall it the correct way. For the record, I was able to get it running just fine. The only problem I had with software were the fatal exception and core dump errors in my brain.
Interesting; I was bitching about Palm Desktop yesterday and found out this morning that Palm released 4.0 of their Mac software. Guess I’m going to try to download it today. We’ll see what happens.
I scanned a copy of my backyard diagram in yesterday and sketched out a first draft of what I’d like to do with it during a staff meeting; I think I have the method by which I’m going to install the poles for the fencing, and how I’m going to do the gate (I’ll probably have to build my own, but that’s no big deal.) I want to run two sets of lights around the perimeter; there will be three or four lights higher than eye level on the sides of the neighbor’s houses around the deck area and one by the rear gate. There will be another set in each flowerbed on another circuit and switch so that they can go on independently of the top lights. The fence will be 6′ or 7′ tall, probably squared across the top, and secured into the wall with lag bolts and masonry anchors. I still need to buy brick for the planters and figure out how to set the flooring—whether or not I need to set them in mortar, brick, or sand is still up in the air.
Then there is the problem of the pergola above the deck and how I’m going to do that; that is another day’s thinking.
I decided, since I’ve thought about this every time I’ve been to Blockbuster, that there are some movies I will pay $15 to own and a bunch that I won’t. So here is a beginning list of future DVD wants/purchases:
- Apocalypse Now Redux
- Toy Story 2
- Alien/Aliens (Director’s Cuts)
- Forest Gump
- Mad Max (with the Australian voice track)
- Apollo 13
- Akira (in English this time)
Hmm. Let’s start with Boring News About The Basement. I was able to construct the bookcase last night and install it in the wall; it looks real good and fits perfectly. I’m now reconsidering the decision to have it stick out from the plane of the wall by 1.5″ or so, but I’d really like to have it as deep as possible, and I think that I can frame it in in a satisfactory manner. I also mudded most of the little problem spots around the room that had only become apparent after painting, and put another square in place at the base of the staircase ceiling- the original had been off-square and looked crooked. I hand-painted the drywall in there and it looks GREAT. I’m really excited to finish-paint that whole stairway and install the lights- it’s going to look great. Tonight I’m going to pick up the louvered door for the closet and put in the framing around the doorway. I also have to reconfigure the back of the basement to move the stupid file cabinet out of the closet.
I’m nearing the end of Cryptonomicon, and it’s got me hooked again; there are passages and chapters that are really funny and incisive; the problem is that these chapters are outnumbered 10 to 1 by whole chapters that are plodding and irrelevant. I like Stephenson’s ability to spin a yarn, and I’m enjoying how all the characters are coming together over the generations, but Jeez, man. I’m going to check out Snow Crash after this and see if it’s a better read. Oh, and as a friend pointed out about this book: Alan Turing was gay. (this is ironic, sarcastic humor: this fact is mentioned about 400 billion times.)
Jen and I had a fantastic weekend together- after some serious issues were discussed, and we actually got to the point where we looked at splitting up. We went north to the Chadd’s Ford Winery and did some antiquing on Sunday, and then went to the festival on Sunday. I bought one of those handy picnic-wine carrier deals where it holds a cold bottle of wine and two glasses. Very nice- i always wanted one of those. Jen packed a picnic basket and we tasted wine, then bought a bottle and sat on the grass in the shade with each other. We didn’t want to leave.
Renie has all kinds of good news about Charles, her new flame; apparently they are officially an item. I am very happy for her- she sounds ecstatic about it, and with good reason. This is the best news I’ve heard for her in a long time, excepting the house, which goes to settlement on Thursday.
I read today that HP and Compaq are going to “merge” to form an “87 billion-dollar company”. OK. I owned a Compaq workstation- hell, I don’t even remember what it was now, about 3 years ago. I bought it from my employer at that time for $250, which was pretty steep but still a decent deal for what i got. Not six months later, in attempting to do something as simple as drop a larger hard drive in the thing, I fried the BIOS on the board because, and the exact details are now hazy, the BIOS could only be accessed by a special program inserted on a floppy disk. So I gutted it, bought a case and new motherboard, and salvaged the remaining parts. What a piece of junk. HP makes great printers in my opinion, but their computers suck just as bad. Good luck, guys.
Mr. Rogers is packing up the farm. I wasn’t even aware he was still around and doing new shows. All the cracks about a 50 year old guy playing with puppets and talking about the “Land of Make-Believe” aside, the guy had an impact on my life, in a positive way. Take care, Fred, and thanks for the memories. You, Sesame Street and the Electric Company were my daily education outside of the New Jersey Public School System. Which, I’m proud to say, taught me the difference between Your and You’re; (i.e. one is overused by stupid idiots) and their, they’re and there.
I was up last night writing, so I’m kind of tired today. Jen says she’s exhausted from her job as well, and it sounds like she’s having fun, too. Let’s see- I loaded up the MacPPP software on the SE/30 at home; I think the only thing I need to pick up now is a network card from someplace like MacResQ or Shreve.
Here it is, straight from Appalachia to us: The Dancing Outlaw. Lorie and Ty showed Jen and I this video when we were in Houston, and it’s sort of stuck with us since then. Here is Jesco in all his dancin’ glory. I think the blowup of this picture is poetic in an unintended, purely coincidental way, which transcends the filth of the surroundings; it has a certain beauty in its bleakness.
“If you wanna get to Heaven, you gotta raise a little Hell.”
Curiously, the Blockbuster page linked above lists these two titles as “related movies”: Cane Toads: An Unnatural History, and Kudzu [no description available].
Last night Jen and I saw the Old 97’s up in Towson at a great little club called the Recher Theatre. The show was really great- a lot of rockabilly through a punk/country filter. Jen and I decided the guitarist was an engineer in disguise, the lead singer was channeling Paul Westerberg and the bassist was taking cues from Paul Weller and Ringo all at the same time. A rollicking good show.
I was telling her last night how long it’s been since I’ve seen live music. It’s been, honestly, about a year or so since I paid to see music; Rich B. and I saw a great 40’s swing/lounge band up in Philly last year, and before that it was probably about a year- most likely the Scofflaws the night before Matt and Sophie left for San Francisco.
Today is blustery and cold, and last night leaving the theater it was actually sleeting. What the hell? It’s frickin’ April here, man!
No progress on the house in about 4 weeks. I’m getting very very antsy. I want this stuff done. Jen and I usually sleep in till about 11 or so on the weekends, but I think I need to do a few early mornings and get this thing rolling again. I can’t be worrying about it in the middle of June- I want it done now.
Today’s sign that it could have been much worse.