Such and Such

It was Sam's birthday yesterday. We went to New Zealand's largest theme park which doubles as New Zealand's only theme park. 'Rinky-dink' is the adjective that first comes to mind.

Following a recipie from Robert Love's excellent food blog, I made dinner tonight. I only remembered to grab the camera after most of it was eaten. I'll photograph some post-digestion shots, if you'd like.

Dear 2012

On the first week of middle school I was instructed to write a letter describing myself, my goals, and anything else I thought pertinant or interesting. This letters was taken, held for three years, and returned to me on the last week of middle school. 

I've been meaning to write another such Dear The Future letter for some time (especially given my fixation with future me). The wonders of Google Docs and Google Calendar alerts make this sort of thing pretty easy. I've addressed myself a personal note to be read again on 16 September, 2012. Four years seems to be the unit of major life development these days. Now I just need a way to write back.

How many stereotypes am I holding up?

Camel. In a good way.

Many of my friends have different people-mapping schemes. They map a human person to some other noun in a given category. Several of my friends, for example, are "really good" at picking people's Disney character. I myself make a habit of pairing people and literary figures. I find these mapping schemes very interesting. I think it would be fun to group people in a workplace or prison or something by, like, what Beatles album they are. As according to Mr. "Really Good" At Picking People's Beatles Album. Or something. Anyway, today I was picked for a camel by someone with a gift for picking people's animal. It's in the eyes, I'm told. Large, with long lashes. Also of interest to me is the relationship between a person's scheme and the frequency with which it accompanies the phrase, "In a good way."

Wikipedia observation of the day: US currency features dead white men. The Euro features architecture.

Like a fox!

I eat copious amounts of eggs. They are easy to prepare and they come in $7 packs of 36. Over easy, scrambled, hard boiled, and as part of my famous 3-egg ham & cheese omelet. Eggs for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They are delicious, nutritious, and an indication that I need to broaden my culinary skills.

"Well you know what they say. If you want to make a hobo omelet, you've got to kill some hobos." - Donald Rumsfield on his new pastime of killing hobos.

Muse Ick

• We're doing a lot of work with sound these days. It offers the opportunity to enjoy some very high-end audio equipment.
  
• I usually listen to music whenever I'm at my computer. I'm at my computer a lot.
• Sam has a Rhapsody account which I'm using more often than he. Despite having a world of music at my fingertips, I fall into my old habit of listening to the same few songs on repeat.
• My song de jour is "Return" by OK Go, followed by "Hello My Treacherous Friends" from the same album. I'm also enjoying some Wynton Marsalis. At the moment, I'm listening to Natalie Cole.
• We're thinking of creating a home music server product. I'm working on some code now.
• I think sound is often more emotionally powerful than imagery because vision is elective and hearing is not. We are constantly choosing where to look (consciously or otherwise). Vision is strongly tied to attention, which is strongly tied to the intellect. We do not have the same granular control over hearing: we hear things whether we want to or not. Emotions work much the same way: we feel them whether we want to or not. That's why I think music is so emotionally effective.

When I'm not looking at you, I'm looking at you.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Me

I just ate two large pizzas at a cost of $27, if that gives you some idea of my day.

I will love you forever. Or until you cease to be thin, young and pretty. Whichever comes first.

Not What You Were Expecting

Three months and no blog. I'm not apologizing. That's vulgar.

Yes I am alive. Yes I am in New Zealand. Yes I was offered the position of John McCain's running mate. Yes, that last thing was a lie. At least I came clean. No apologies.

If you were expecting my first blog post in almost three months from two hemispheres away to detail the annals of my escapades abroad or expound upon my post-collegial gettings on, you are sorely mistaken. No, this most historic of entries concerns a matter of paramount importance: Star Trek.

The Next Generation, to be more specific. I have been operating for the past 10+ years under the assumption that I had seen every single episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. All 7 seasons, each of the 179 weekly adventures. This has been one a core component of my biography.

Before I recount yesterday's rude awakening, let me outline the workings of syndicated television in the late 1990's for the benefit of future readerships. In the nineties, television was available only on an actual TV set and only at set times of day. There was no streaming or on-demand content, nor were there DVD box sets. Believe it or not, people would actually schedule their time to catch a given program on TV. How humanity survived this phase of its evolution is truly mystifying; it was an undignified and ugly way to live and those days are well put behind us.

From 1996 through 2000, the local Minnesota FOX affiliate broadcast syndicated re-run episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation every weeknight. By this time I was already a confirmed Trekkie (remind me to tell you the story) and respectably well acquainted with the adventures of Picard and Co., but I wanted full bragging rights. I undertook to tune in each night and catch the latest installment. If I missed a night, it would be another 9 months before that episode aired again (5 episodes a week, 179 episodes). To aid in my trek, I turned to the Internet. No, not to download a 70 gig torrent of the whole show, but to print off an episode list. I took my pen to that list each night, crossing off another of the Enterprise's missions.

I specifically remember the last episode to get the red line. Pen Pals. Episode 215 (season 2, episode 15). Data befriends a little alien girl. I missed this sucker on two consecutive cycles of the re-broadcast. In the end, I made a special trip to Hollywood Video which carried some TNG cassettes (another unmentionably arcane technology). I took the tape down to the basement with my blanket and juice and emerged 40 minutes later a mature Trekkie butterfly.

OR SO I THOUGH!

Flash forward to a few months ago. Senior year of college is ending, my life is about to undergo a major transformation, and I get an acute bought of nostalgia. You know how these things happen. You're on University fiber, you come across a 70 gig torrent of the entire 7 seasons of The Next Generation, one thing leads to another and the next thing you know you're getting low disk space warnings.

My sister and I tucked into the show while I was still States-side, but we didn't get past the second episode before she had to ship off, so they've been sitting on my HDD for about three months. Until now.

Things were going well. An episode a night. Sometimes two. Weekend marathons. Then season 1, episode 10. Hide And Q. Commander Riker is given omnipotence by Q. The plot progresses and no bells ring. No quotes come to mind. Nothing is familiar. THIS IS AN EPISODE I HAVE NOT SEEN. My list was in error. My life was a lie. My whole world has fallen apart. And it was a really good episode.

So the moral of the story is, broadcast television was an evil, imperfect thing of which we are well rid.

I will have a proper update soon. I promise.

End transmission.