Double your pleasure

dbrainbow1
Originally uploaded by hbot3000.

A nice Double Rainbow, sadly, I couldn't get the whole thing in my viewfinder. You'll just have to trust me when I say it was a full, double rainbow. My mom noticed that the outer rainbow had inverted colors and relayed the fact that a couple decades ago, artists for publications (religious or otherwise) would correctly paint a double rainbow (with colors inverted) and it was taken by some in the church community to be a secret satanic symbol. My mother said in retrospect it was pretty stupid of people to make such an assumption. I tend to agree.

Devious little Monkey

catcupboard
Originally uploaded by hbot3000.

I turn my back for one second, ONE SECOND, and Bouncer's on the second shelf. Ooh, you little rascal (shakes fist).

Life on Mars

marssunset
Originally uploaded by hbot3000.

Blogging is still sporadic. Been busy and tumultuous here at casa Robotica. I think I do have things to say, but at the moment gaming seems to be what I really want to do. Will post when I'm ready. Until then enjoy a few pictures (click through to check flickr for more).

Bonus Cat Picture

catzilla
Originally uploaded by hbot3000.

Be sure to go to flickr if you want more comicon pictures. I should have taken more, but I was too busy absorbed in the wonderment of it all. In the meantime, here's the empire versus it's greatest threat: catzilla. What you can't see is that he's gnawing on a small troop walker (At-st).

Fun with legos

cruiser6
Originally uploaded by hbot3000.

The engine section of one of the cooler things at the con. Really big, really cool lego cruiser. I'm such a geek. Click the image to browse all of my comicon images.

Regurgitation Station

"This isn't the future. This is some fake plastic future. This is a soy-based future substitute." -- Fafnir (Fafblog)

Help us bankokslut, you're our only hope.

Wonder why Anakin fell so hard and so fast for the old queen, er I mean Emperor? In space no one can hear you bite your pillow. No wonder he and the luscious Portman had no chemistry.

Speaking of chemistry y'all remember what happened to that mythological miscreant who stole the sodium and stuck it in his back pocket. Hopping hooligans! He got a hot seat. That tale is Aubrey-licious.

Now that you have a new gal-pal you’ve got to wrangle up them there unruly pubes. Wouldn’t want any to pop up in an unsightly place such as the sleeve of a bathrobe for instance.

So bankokslut (or anyone else who knows), I need an honest opinion. How good is Corgan’s latest TheFutureEmbrace. My frame of reference, I’m a radio friendly Smashing Pumpkins fan, but I’m no fanboy.

Work Schmerk

I finished the Salmon of Doubt by and about Douglas Adams over the family reunion. If you are a fan of his, and have not read it, you have done yourself a disservice. His interview on why he's such a strong atheist is very interesting. Well, he's just very interesting. The whole book is filled with non-fiction he wrote about Apple products and science and such and notes from his friends on what a cool person he was. Did you know that he was born in Cambridge the same year that Watson and Crick made a monumental genetic discovery? And that interestingly enough, his initials are DNA? I have more tidbits and revelations for you, but you will have to expand the post.

For those of you interested in climate change, or interesting/scary events that may be indicative of climate change, I present to you this article from the San Francisco Chronicle. It's about how the cold water that usually moves next to the coasts of Northern California and Oregon hasn't done that this year, thus the plankton that comes with it hasn't come to the coast, and various species are having issues with that. The article explains it better. Also, here's an oldie but a goodie about rapid glacier melting.

I'm in the last chapter of the Long Emergency, where he gives his idea of what the next 20 years will bring. It's not very sunshiny. Essentially he thinks most of us will have to rediscover farming and that the consumer life as we know it will collapse. I'm not sure how much I buy it, he pretty clearly sums up why he thinks alternative energy won't save us, or won't save us in time. You have to buy into a few key assumptions of his theory, but none of them are that much of a stretch. I would certainly miss my electronic amusements should we start having problems like that. But whether you buy his societal collapse theory or not, it is at the very least an interesting thought experiment. It's pretty interesting to learn just how much of our society is built on the idea of cheap oil forever, and just how poorly we've planned for a lack of oil. Part of the appeal I guess, comes from memories of all the end of the world stories I read as an Adventist youth. I suppose if you were apocalypse-minded, you might postulate that peak oil could easily play a key part in the adventist version of the end of the world. I'm not inclined to be that negative these days I guess. I worry about our lack of planning, and to some extent how much I believe in the end of the world, but choose to believe that life is what we make it. Anyway, I digress. As a further digression though, my dad flipped through it and put it down again, stating that he thought Christ would return before we ran out of oil so why worry about it? What kind of attitude is that? What a silly reason not to care about the consequences of our actions. I thought conservatives were all about consequences and such? Okay, I'll stop, but just so you know, I could go on all day. And will go on to add that there is considerable speculation that this year is the year we hit hubbert's peak (the halfway point in world oil supplies, and the point after which oil production will drop dramatically in just a few years) and that we could hit $80 dollars/barrel by Christmas. But, like my dad said after making his end times prediction, "I ain't no prophet."

Also, I found another good reason to keep this blog anonymous. Apparently, sometimes search committees read your blog when you apply for a job and decide not to hire you based on what you wrote. So, uh, good to know.

Bueller . . . Bueller . . .

mattHauss
Originally uploaded by memory-hole.

This is a test of the group photo archive that I set up for kvc, eric, hazMatt and I. If anyone wants to contribute a picture to this let me know, we'll work something out. Anyway, just a picture of Matt and I on a recent trip to Walla^2. Yay for technology!

I am . . . the One

So I believe I have successfully added a folding option to the blog. This means long posts can now be squished, so they don't take up the whole damn page. In other words, I control the matrix, it does not control me. So now, we will test this marvelous new feature, in order that we may enter the Utopia I promised earlier. If you click the bit of text that says "read more" or whatever I have it say eventually (in the spirit of slacktopia, I haven't decided yet) you will expand this post and see my usually rambling. Not thrilling, until you realize that I will be revealing my true weight as well. Go ahead and guess what it is before you click. If you guess right, you'll get a slap from me followed by "Oh you bastard, you bastard, how could you guess that high?"

My full weight will be revealed shortly. But first, additional comments on family reunion. The director of the camp we stayed at (the one with the wife who was content with her role) was always ramping up the religious talk to an amazingly annoying level. Every time he talked to us as a group he would say something like "Gosh, God just loves family. We're so glad you're here because God loves families. And he wants to increase his family right?" or some such. When you talked to him one on one, you could have a normal conversation (or so I overheard) but as a group, we always had to enter group think mode and repeat that we believed in Jesus lest He strike us dead. Douglas always used to talk like that too, to groups who came in? It's like you need at least 5 Jesus references per conversation to prove that you're not devil worshippers in disguise. What's up with that?

So, at surgical consultation yesterday (nothing big, don't worry), they weighed me. Funny story, my general practitioner didn't weigh me, but these guys did for no apparent reason. The result. Wait for it. 234 fucking pounds of me exists at the moment. I'll repeat that. TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FOUR FUCKING POUNDS. I'm five foot nine inches tall. So, uh, time to get back on the horse I guess. And by "the horse" I mean I should probably start exercising again. Or take up an eating disorder. Hmmm, that sounds promising, I'll start looking into that. In the meantime, I'll just pretend that the weight is entirely due to muscle. I cherish my delusions.

Catch Wonder Showzen on MTV2 if you haven't already. It's the most offensive thing I've seen in a while. And I laugh and laugh and laugh. Nothing like a kids show that shows puppets vomiting blood. The show that's playing as I type this is all about patience. As such, it tries to annoy you as much as possible in a funny kind of irony. Good times, good times.

I'm giving the London bombings a day before I comment. Consider it a moment of silence for the dead.

In the meantime, remember, Minmei loves each and every one of you.

Notes from the field

7:15 pm 7-1-05. We have arrived at Living Waters Ranch. Dinner was delicious. Have seen many family members already. The introduction by the owners of this place was full of religious language that makes me uncomfortable. And I haven't even hit the sing-a-long hymn section of the evening yet. I may fall asleep on my bed shortly in the hopes of avoiding it. Because if I go, I ain't singing. I'm precious that way. Ah, it kind of astonishes me how ready I am to leave these religious practices behind. You may find it sad, but it occurred to me recently that I don't care if I ever step foot in a church again. Well, more on that later. The oddest portion of the evening came when I noticed that the kitchen apron that the director's wife was wearing had written on it: "I am content with my role." Considering how devout they seem to be, it didn't seem like it was intended to be ironic. Who knows, they might think I have no sense of humor. On the plus side at this place though, the rooms are nice. Far fewer activities, than say the old camp, but the buildings are about 3 times nicer. And the view is pretty decent as well. Maybe I'll post some to flicker once I get back.

12:04 pm July 4. I have engaged my powers of sleep to avoid those things that I find tedious. So far, I have used sleep to avoid Friday vespers, Church, and the Challis 4th of July parade this morning. Although I learn after the fact that my dad was apparently on one of the floats doing yo-yo tricks. One parade watcher was heard to remark, "that's incredible!" So, yeah, I'm a precious, family-avoiding flower. Yesterday, I climbed to the top of the nearby hill and learned two things that I already knew. I am grossly out of shape. Granted, we're at 6k feet here, but still. The amount of huffing and puffing I did on the way up was an embarrassment. The allergy attack didn't help either. The second thing I learned and I already knew was that I am horribly afraid of heights. I got dizzy in certain steep spots. Yup, machismo is my real middle name. Of course my real first and last names are "no" and "whatsoever", so I'm not sure how far that gets me.

7:36am 7-6-05: Sitting in the Boise airport taking advantage of free wireless. All airports need to incorporate this feature. So let it be written, so let it be done. Will post again later as time allows.

To all my adoring fans

The blogging has been light and it about to get lighter. I am off tomorrow for the Iverson-Zachary family reunion. I get to see my wandering brother (he's a minstrel!) and I have seen the parents in a bit so it will be good to see them. But other than that, I'm not remotely looking forward to it. For one, I have a new girlfriend I won't be seeing for a week. And second, I'm bored to death by these things. I'm horrible to have as a relative. I never call, I never write, and I act bored when I visit. These may not be the best qualities to have. On the plus side, I'd still give a family member a kidney. Well, if they needed one. Not if they needed it for a macabre game of badminton though. Okay, I digress. Anyway, going to somewhere called "Living Waters Ranch" and we're apparently going to do a lot of praise singing. Most of the activities seem to be spiritual in nature. I wish I had a PSP, because I'm going to go crazy. I wanted to write about this more in depth last night but got distracted. I'll jot something down about it when I get back I suppose. Anyway, the ranch is waaaay out by Challis (mid-eastern Idaho. North of Sun Valley, South of Salmon). I suspect there will not be wireless networking available to me at Living Waters Ranch (which I expect to be haunted by water elementals or filled with green bacteria). So I'm bringing the new CGI Appleseed and season 3 of Buffy with me. And the ipod. I have a 3 or more hour drive with the parents ahead of me. The iPod will be crucial to surviving this trip. Anyway, listen to me bitch about family. I am an ungrateful heir. Perhaps I will someday be a better person, and be worthy of the ring of power we pass down through the generations. Oh, wait, that's a secret. Keep that one between us okay?

Before I go, a few tidbits.

There is a way to fold posts, so a simple click expands and folds the post so that no one post takes up the whole screen. At some point, I will make this option available on this blog and we will enter a new Utopia.

Saw War of the Worlds tonight. One, I liked it, even though it freaked me out a little (I've been freaked out by that story since childhood). Two, Hollywood needs to figure out how to write endings. Seroiusly, most of the time these days I groan aloud in the theater and go "oh please! that doesn't even make sense!" Or some such. This one was no exception. I just laughed. And they didn't want me to be laughing.

The Pod-casting feature Apple just added to iTunes is frabulous. And they have the entire Air America line-up. My first born child will be given to work in Apple's innovative and mysterious corporate machine as a token of my undying love.

I thought I had another thing to say but I do not. Oh, it may have been I'm a bit nervous of flying. What if the martians attack in mid-flight? It wouldn't go well for me then.

Also, no "standing in for Joe" while I'm gone. You XTC freaks know what I mean. I'm watching you.

The Oath 2: The Re-Oathening

Lest this blog become abandoned, left by the side of the internet super-highway, sure to be picked up by an unsavory character and never seen again, I have decided to actually post. It has been unthematically busy in Slacktopia, which has left its king little time for such luxuries as blogging. But for those of you who wait on pins an needles for my every pronouncement, I apologize. But seriously, stay off the pins and needles kids. That's just . . . ew. Ugh, and what about that baited breath? A little hygiene, please. That's all we ask here. Oh, and also that you send me money.

So anyway, back to what this post was promised to be about. The Oathening. It turned out pretty much like I thought it would. The president of the institute sent out an email stating that we could sign the oath and write under protest on it with no negative consequences, but if we don't sign it we are fired. Everyone seems to accept that, even if it still rankles a little. Of course, some still worry that signing under protest will cause negative repercussions in the future, but that's to be expected as well. I will likely sign under protest, rebel that I am. But I suspect it will be quickly forgotten and nothing will ever come it. Shame really. Here I wanted to be part of a landmark court case.

Forbidden Affairs

I am in love with 3 am. It completes me. Although I've been having a torrid affair with 4 am for a number of months now. But shhh, 3 am mustn't know. Of course , what neither of them know is that I have the occasional kinky rendezvous with 5 am. Oh the sweet torture. I don't tend to see 6 am though, as she's kind of a bitch. Ugh, and don't get me started on 7 am. I don't like her coming OR going. I feel bad though. Because of all the cheating. 2 am wishes I'd call more, but she's not as exciting as she'd like to think she is. I like 1 am, but the passion just isn't there. And 12 am has been waiting patiently for me all these years. It is her my cheating wounds the most. But that's dangerous, as she's a witch.

But oh god, how I lust after 3 am. Ah, quiet, here she is. My angel.

Oath-tastic

So, after a "concerned citizen" asked whether we here at the institute had taken the State loyalty oath, we have been informed by "the lawyers" that we are all now required to speak and sign the state loyalty oath (since we exist as part of the state college system). It reads:

I, ........................................................................................, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support, protect and defend the Constitution and Government of the United States, and the constitution and government of the State of Nevada, against all enemies, whether domestic or foreign, and that I will bear true faith, allegiance and loyalty to the same, any ordinance, resolution or law of any state notwithstanding, and that I will well and faithfully perform all the duties of the office of ......................................................................................................................., on which I am about to enter; (if an oath) so help me God; (if an affirmation) under the pains and penalties of perjury.

There has subsequently been a institute-wide email discussion on what this means. Pertinent questions such as who are our enemies (is there a list we can look at?) and who will judge when we have broken the oath? My question was whether I get to carry weaponry now that I'm defending the state against all enemies. My boss asked if maybe we should all start wearing armbands so we know who signed the oath and who didn't (which was a sardonic response, of course). Probably the most pertinent point brought up was that this oath is a remnant of the McCarthy era, which certainly doesn't sit well with our largely Democratic faculty. I know Washington and California have both had state supreme court cases where the requirement for a loyalty oath was struck down, and that it was the academic faculty at institutions of higher learning that generated the original lawsuit. I certainly think it's an unnecessary and vaguely paranoid thing (only a commie wouldn't sign it!), but I don't know whether we're going to roll over and sign it so we can get paychecks (we all sign new contracts in a few weeks and we may have to speak the oath and sign the paper then) or whether we're going to make a stink over it. Should be interesting regardless. I'm also very curious as to what type of "concerned citizen" would bring it up in the first place. Anyway, submitted for intellectual interest.

Popesicle sticks

A couple of interesting articles I was forwarded by my grandparents. The first deals with the pope's desire for a reunion of Christianity. The second is his call for more religious Sundays.

I was a little sceptical until I went straight to the source (The Guardian) for the links. I know we're all aware how these statements are going to be interpreted. Anyone care to comment?

Regurgitation Station

"What annoys me is that Spielberg is such an egomaniac these days that it has to be 'Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds. No, you puss-bag. It's H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds, and it wouldn't kill you to put his fucking name on it." -- Harlan Ellison in a Recent Interview with SCI-FI Wire.

I love Harlan Ellison and his cantankerousness. His books have moved higher up on my "to buy" list (I forget about him from time to time, then run across a quote like this and love him all over again). Well, I'll buy more Ellison once I get through Michael Crichton's wrong, wrong, wrong novelization of why he thinks global warming is a hoax. That one makes my head hurt (in essence he cites papers which are mostly true that are evidence against Global warming, but ignores the mountain of papers next to them that provide evidence for Global Warming). More on this topic later.

Brain Waves

It's official now. Summer '05 is "The Summer of The Brain."

At least for my little group of friends, loved ones, and casual aquaintances. We all know bits and pieces of QVC's story. And let me say again that I'm glad that the situation appears to be stabilized. Please correct me if I'm wrong. I hope the headaches are gone by now.

But like the old saying goes, "One swallow doesn't make a summer." Nor does one brain case. So here's the rest of the story.

Elizabeth has had an interesting little congenital condition for her whole life. No one really knew she had it until she got an MRI at 17. Basically all they told her at that point was, "If you get pregnant, you shouldn't have an epidural or any other type of spinal tap. That could cause problems with your cerebrospinal fluid and kill you."

She's continued to have brief, severe headaches from time to time, and they are often accompanied by a loss of vision. (We're talking 10-15 seconds of astonishing pain and blindness.) What's happening is that a portion of her cerebellum is enlarged, and restricts the flow of CSF. That flow serves to even out pressure differentials between the brain and spinal cord, and so when that flow is restricted or stopped, the pressure in her skull spikes hard.

Anyway, that is what she wanted to talk about with her new physician, who sent her in to get an MRI. A neurosurgeon examined that MRI, talked to her about her symptoms and told her that it would be best to operate sooner rather than later. The operation will involve enlarging the foramen magnum to allow more room for fluid flow. They'll carve out some of the bone, and graft in a piece of artificial dura to allow the brain some extra room. Oddly enough, within a few weeks the enlarged portion of her cerebellum should shrink back to a nearer-normal size and her symptoms should disappear almost immediately.

The good news is that this is a fairly routine operation, as brain surgery goes, and they won't be touching any actual brain matter. It's just a skull surgery. So there's little chance of any major complications from that.

However. . . there was something else that they noticed on the MRI. There appears to be something on Elizabeth's pituitary gland. We don't know yet if it is a cyst (treatable with medication) or a benign growth, or a cancerous tumor. She's having blood work done, and is scheduled for a high-resolution MRI focusing on the pituitary on Friday. So we'll know more perhaps as early as next weekend.

Obviously, we're praying it's not cancer. But it could very well be miraculous that she got an MRI to follow up on a known condition that also happened to catch brain cancer at an early and treatable stage. We just don't know. We're having to talk about things like writing a will, cremation vs. burial (cremation all the way), and how long do we keep someone on life support should they fall into a coma. So that's a real challenge, emotionally speaking. We just don't anticipate this sort of thing when we're in our twenties and thirties.

I'm sharing this stuff with you guys because we've known each other a long time. I'm not sharing it with many outside my family, and Elizabeth is fairly private and would prefer not to broadcast her troubles. So please respect that. If you guys are praying much these days, I'd appreciate it if you'd remember Elizabeth and pray for healing.

On a completely unrelated note, Bush and Rumsfeld could be charged with war crimes.

Regurgitation Station

"The monkey is deployed. The monkey is useless!" -- Giblets (Fafblog)

Exciting bonus quote!

"Fiat Crustulum: Let there be pie." -- Fafnir (Fafblog)

I am once again linking you to Fafblog, because the most recent posts make me laugh every time I read them.

Thought for the day

Why do people say they "put their pants on one leg at a time" when they're trying to explain that they really are normal people like you or I? Do really famous/rich/uber individuals have a special technique we don't know about? Do they have servants do it for them, but by god both feet at the same time? Do they jump hong kong action flick style across the room into a pair hung in the doorway? Do they have futurama-style cans of paint that create pants as you spray? Can they generate pants with their sheer force of will? Do they breed super-intelligent pants that crawl up their legs while they stand reading the financial section? It does not compute.

Upon further reflection, I know this saying is just to say that, yes, yes, no matter how rich you get, simple tasks remain the same. Which is to say a rich man's bathroom smells just as bad as a poor man's on burrito tuesday. I just always seem to take that phrase to mean that there's some level of rich/famous/uber that they haven't quite achieved yet, and it is only for the moment that they share some things with the poor. "I put my pants on like you guys now, but just wait until I get another 100 million! You don't even WEAR pants at that level! Another 500 million and my shit will turn into rose petals!"

No, you will never recover the minute it took to read this post.