smacky and bucky

If ever there was a day you shouldn't have to sit at a desk all day, it's freaking Leap Day.


*I did a Google image search for "leap day" and picked the lamest pic on page 1. Thus the freaky cat and man examining calendars.

Check this out: Someone removed Garfield from the Garfield comic strip. It actually makes the strip better, in a really demented way... Garfield Minus Garfield.

One other thing: The Comics Curmudgeon site has Google ads, the kind whose subject is tailored to match the text on the page (talk about cars turns the ads to car ads, for example). One day last week an ad for a "Single Christian Girls" dating site appeared, and the model for the site, well, just look:She makes people think unchristian thoughts. See the small box in the upper right? The ad girl quickly become popular enough to be parodied! Since she first appeared, people have made certain to mention "Christian single girl" every day in the comments to keep her ad on the page.

We have a functioning kitchen light now. An electrician stopped by yesterday afternoon and fixed it. I can take comfort in the fact that never, in a million years, would I have figured out how to do it. He checked things out, then added a NINTH wire into the mass of stuff. WTF? That's why you sometimes have to pay a professional.

I hope the Sarah Connor Chronicles gets renewed for a second season. There's still a lot they can explore. It sucks that the strike cut the number of episodes for this season. But maybe it's a good thing, and when it returns in the fall they'll have lots of stories to tell.

About to start reading:

Hugo Danner is the strongest man on earth, the result of a monstrous experiment by his scientist father. Nearly invulnerable, he can run faster than a train, leap higher than trees, lift a wrecked vehicle to rescue its pinned driver, and hurl boulders like baseballs. His remarkable abilities, however, cannot gain him what he desires most—acceptance—for Hugo Danner is desperately lonely, shunned and feared for his enormous strength.

Sound like another familiar character? This book was originally published in 1930. Superman's first appearance was in Action Comics #1, published in June 1938. I can't recall how I heard about this book, but I was intrigued when I read the above blurb. I'm interested to see how the 68-year-old story holds up.

Son of a bitch. Yesterday Laura was commenting on the ugly florescent light in the kitchen. "I can install a new one," I offered. I've changed lights in multiple houses, and successfully installed a ceiling fan with a remote. How tough could it be? White wire to white wire, black to black... right?

I got the light down and stared at EIGHT wires in the ceiling: four sets of black and white. Let's just cut the story short and say that after five hours and every conceivable configuration, I could not get the light to work. The closest I got was both the light and the range hood working when the light switch was off, but then the fuse tripped when I turned the light on. So that was definitely wrong.

As of now, I have the hood working, but the light will not work.

Utterly defeated, I told my wife to cal an electrician tomorrow and pay him the $50 for what he'll probably figureout in two minutes.

Aaaaaaaaaaugh!!!

Turning out to be a steadily busy week at work, so not a lot of my regular pop culture crap running through my head lately. Had to turn it off to concentrate. So just a few items of note:

Jericho is getting good. The country is split in half, with the swing vote going to Texas (damn, we're all doomed...). Conspiracies are flying, a thinly veiled Haliburton group has arrived to pass out water and sneaky contracts, and the Karl Rove looking bad guy just sent some black ops guy in to take over and basically install martial law. How the heck will they wrap up this story in five more episodes? I have no idea if this show has ANY chance of being renewed, so i hope they have a wrap-up planned. A never-to-be-resolved cliffhanger would kind of suck. Suck like the ending of Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes remake. Yes, i went there. Yuck.

What else? Oh yeah... Ancient "devil frog" may have eaten baby dinosaurs. Crazy. Here's an artist rendering (AP Photo/Illustration by Luci Betti-Nash, Dan Klores Communications). Does it remind you of anything? Perhaps something animated and all-powerful?


Do people who don't believe in dinosaurs, who think all dinosaur stories are planted in the media by the fiendish Evolutionists, see stories like this and think "Bullshit" and cross themselves? What about those who believe dinosaurs and humans roamed the planet together a few hundred years ago? Do they see this story and think, "Phew! Dodged a bullet there!" Just curious. Not picking a fight.

Oh, and to my everlasting shame, I inadvertently became "one of those people" this morning. I didn't see a pickup truck and pulled out in front of it. The driver pressed the horn for at least ten seconds, probably while cursing at me (couldn't see him; it was still dark). I floored it and got a block ahead, so no parking lot brawl ensued, but while I don't consider myself the best driver in the world (people are so damn aggressive on the roads in DC!) I do try to take care not challenge rednecks to fights with my VW Beetle. It was on a shitty stretch of road where they're building new condos, and tearing up the street, so it's all cones, barrels, metal plates, and dirt, so I can be forgiven for being a little distracted.

We took Friday off and made it a four-day weekend. Along with the other previously mentioned books, I found time to read this:Unlike some of the other "lost" books reprinted by the Hard Case Crime publishers, this is a brand new title, written by Christa Faust (her site is probably safe for work, but maybe you should wait until you get home). She's a real character, and the book is classic crime noir, with goons throwing punches, dangerous dames, and double crosses, all set in the timeless world of the porn industry. Recommended.

These books are both thick hardbacks, each several hundred pages. The Dailies 1943-1946 and The Sunday Classics 1943-1946 (all these in full color). I discovered these last week on the clearance table at Barnes and Noble. Price for these at checkout: 80 cents each.

Had to record Jericho to watch after work today. Between Obama handily winning all three primaries last night and a beagle winning the Westminster Dog Show for the first time in the history of the show, there was little chance to watch the other program. And L wanted me to stay in the room so we could comment on the dogs and such. I did manage to watch Monday's Terminator yesterday afternoon, and as long as each episode has one good fight scene with little Summer beating the crap out of a big terminator, I will continue to watch and cheer. This episode introduced a little twist to the original movie (Reece, the man John Connor sent into the past to protect his mother... [and who became his father] had a brother, who John sent into the more recent past (to a point 16 years later than his brother) on a mission. And I have no problem with it being David Silver from 90210. Good for him finding work!


Because I know you're curious, I'm currently reading Torchwood: Another Life. The author has done a good job capturing the personalities and mannerisms of all the characters, which is even more impressive since the book was written as the first season was being shown and the characters hadn't developed much. I'm guessing the Torchwood book authors have close contact with the show's creators and writers. I'm also reading Joe Strummer and the Legend of The Clash. The author was a music journalist when the group was forming and he witnessed everything. The book has lots of interesting anecdotes.

Jericho is back tonight. Remember that show? Nuclear bombs go off across America, and Skeet Ulrich is in the small town of Jericho, Kansas (Or is it Nebraska?) when it happens. The balder of the two Simon & Simon brothers is his dad and mayor of the town. Other stuff happens... Just watch the first 30 seconds of the show. Hopefully they'll do a "Previously on Jericho..." synopsis.

Anyway, fans sent nuts to CBS, and now the 7-episode season is beginning tonight at 10. Hey, at least it's a new episode of something vaguely scifi, and not another reality show.

My wife sent me on errands yesterday, so I wasn't able to read and review that thing I wanted to get done. Maybe tonight. But I have to watch last night's Terminator when I get home from work, since we watched the first night of the Westminster Dog Show from Madison Square Garden last night. Last year we were there in person.

Just read that Roy Scheider died last night at age 75. I was just discussing his movie Blue Thunder with De yesterday. I liked him, and imagined in real life he was like the Chief Brody character he played in the first two Jaws movies.

We had fun yesterday. De and I met up and went to a comic show. Smallish, but still easy to spend two hours there. We followed this up with Mexican food and a few tall beers, both of which contributed to taking a long nap about 15 minutes after I got home.

I promised a review of one of the goofier items I picked up, so that is on the way this week.

Go Obama!

This morning I got to work around 6:50 and five minutes after I sat down, the plastic cover fell out of one of the florescent lights and cracked in two on impact. It's bad enough sitting under florescent lights in a windowless office all day, but look at it... My office looks like a German disco, circa 1979. Iggy Pop's doing heroin with David Bowie and Lou Reed in the corner and a young David Hasselhoff is sitting at the bar with his shirt open to the navel, nursing a virgin daiquiri and dreaming of stardom. Sheesh, button it up pal.

I met with my immediate supervisor yesterday afternoon for a lengthy discussion about the new position. The good news is that I'm 100% convinced I am making the right choice to stay where I am, doing my thing.

Political follow-up: Hillary called Obama the "establishment candidate," I suppose because voting for a man would be an establishment move, regardless of race. They're both going to be in the area this weekend, since Virginia, Maryland, and DC are all having primaries on Tuesday. ("Chesapeake Tuesday," they're calling it.) It looks like I might be going to a Dunn Loring comic show on Sunday while the wife goes to an Obama rally.

And lastly...

A few things:

(1) Wanting to see a woman become president is not a good enough reason to vote for Hillary. Sorry. She tries to be all things to all people. This morning I heard her say she's the candidate that will be ready to lead "from day one." She's implying that if 9/11 part 2 happens on the day the new president is sworn in, she's the one who can... I don't know... stop it? Is that what she's trying to say? That she has the foresight and strength to stop it? Unless she has latent super powers we don't know about, that's an absurd claim. And one extra term in Congress isn't enough to claim to be the candidate "with experience." That's like the twin claiming the big bedroom because she's older by 30 seconds.

(2) I'm having a minor bout of anxiety with no clear cause. Part of it is work related. When things are going really smoothly, I start expecting the other shoe to drop (upside my head). I think some time on the treadmill will help me burn it off, if only I didn't come home and nap with the pets until dinner. I've done that four times after work recently. I used to never take naps.

(3) I just lied in #2. The anxiety is almost entirely work related. A position opened in the company and I've been evaluating my professional career as a result. I'm very, very happy in my current position. But shouldn't I want to move up? Take on more responsibility, attend more meetings, manage people, and pore over budgets? Isn't the American dream to get a new title every few years, with many more duties and not much more money? The new position is managerial and not editorial, so it would be an enormous change. Since I know I have a rather well hidden dislike of authority, do I really want to attend weekly meetings reporting on my department's every move? I have so much autonomy right now. We're left alone to do our jobs and the results appear as books every season. It doesn't help that my colleagues have said to me that I would be great at the job and they'd love me managing them. My ability to do the job isn't the issue. I know I could do the job very well (and from day one, right Hillary?) but I fear in a few months I'll be lying awake at night, worried about something on the job, and I'll realize I made a huge mistake. It's not like you can call a do-over and return to your old job. One of my first duties would be to train my replacement.

Is it wrong to just be happy where I am?

Fingers crossed the writers strike is coming to an end and they might be able to salvage this television season. I only miss The Office, but it would also be nice to get to have the full 16-episode run of Lost, and keep the Sarah Connor Chronicles going. That show is still good. (I find it so funny that there are always people on tvsquad.com, among other places, who feel the need to add comments to the show recap such as, "I turned it off before it was over. This show sucks and I will never watch it again." Then why make the effort to go to a website, log in, and leave a comment about it? That's so far beyond the effort I would put into something that bored me. You know what I do? I quit thinking about it after I turn off something I don't like. The end. Weird.)

Yesterday after work I went to the bank and closed two accounts. We opened new accounts at a bank that agreed it was crazy to charge $6 a month just to have a checking account, and hey, why don't we just give you free checking forever instead? Yes, please. Thanks. But the person was very nice at the other bank, and I walked out with a pocketful of bills to deposit at the new bank, feeling a small thrill at having actual money in my pocket, since I rarely have anything other than the debit card to pay for anything. Cash is a novelty. I had been a little worried it would be like an awkward break-up and I'd have to give the "It's not you, it's me" speech, but it didn't come to that. My old bank seems used to getting dumped.

Yeah! It took my brother-in-law and I three hours to cut the vent and install the range hood Saturday afternoon. Total cost for materials: $43.00. Even adding the cost of the lunch we took them to, it still falls FAR below the $1,200 estimate we received weeks ago. Here's the final result and the old nasty one by the trash can (forgot to take a "before" pic). What do you think?

Finally! Saturday we're going to install that range hood. Wife's sister is bringing her husband down, with the promise of lunch and sister bonding over shopping while the menfolk do the work. With the brother-in-law, we can probably get this done fairly quickly. I need to buy a drill bit after work today, then we'll be all set. I figured out which fuse in the fusebox runs the hood, so I can switch it off before dismantling and unwiring the old one (ALWAYS a good idea, kids. Make sure the power is off before touching wires. My trick: Turn the light and fan on on the hood, then when they shut off, you know you tripped the right fuse.)

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Quick non-spoiler thought on season 4 premier of Lost:

The episode had the deliberate pacing of part of a 16-episode story arc. Since we're only getting half that number now, I think this shortened season will ultimately be frustrating. We wouldn't expect too much from each episode if we knew we had 15 more to go. But with only 7 left...

Sigh.