Sunday, October 30, 2005

Saturday, October 29, 2005

Remains Found Near WTC Site Are Human

Oct 29, 2005 11:42 am US/Eastern

(NEW YORK) Ten bone fragments discovered more than four years after the World Trade Center attacks on the rooftop of a nearby skyscraper are human, officials said Friday... Full article.

Makes me as angry as it does sad.

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Things Big and Small.

Well I gave up on that browser. Maybe when the first final release comes I'll look at it again. I wish someone could tell me why Alicia Keys' "Falling" was such a big deal. It just came on the radio and it's like wailing cats. Anyone remember that model guy from season 2 or 3 of American Idol who frolicked in the pool instead of practicing during the Hollywood round? Well he was back on TV in Smallville as "Aquaman" last week. Here's a picture. Yes, it's a shameless attempt to get someone to comment.

Alan Ritchson on Smallville 5.04

Congrats to Iraq for 78% approval of your constitution which will be overshadowed in U.S. media by the 2000th American soldier's death in your liberation.

Prison Break is back! I haven't caught up with the episode though. I just had to mention it was back from the baseball-caused break. I didn't feel very good today so I napped on the sofa. I am not sure I've been getting enough calories this week. No much going on for me. Mostly the usual feeling out a direction and wrestling with depressive feelings. Duckie has a birthday in a week! (See, I didn't forget this year. :P)

More detail about what's been on my mind to come in a future post. I just wanted to get something up. 'Been 34 months since father passed. It's ridiculous that I'm not "over it" yet. There are still thoughts that dwell on my mind about what it was like to be a care-giver, what it meant, father-son relationship and such. Maybe I shouldn't fight the thoughts and just accept that it's part of life. I think I fight a lot with life, rather than embrace it. At times I seem almost hostile to living, almost obsessed with streamlining other people's lives and refusal to delibrately act in my own. Wasn't always the case. Something changed. A number of personal failures and I became jaded.

Ugh!! I've got a sudden knot in my back. Where's the cat when I need her to walk all over me? She's watching TV with mother. I need to stretch.

R.I.P. "Porkins"

Texas-born actor William Hootkins has died of pancreatic cancer. He was 57 and best know as "Jek Porkins" from 1977's "Star Wars" (Episode 4, to younglings).

Friday, October 21, 2005

This is a Flock test...

I'm testing the new "flock" Firefox-based browser. I'm not ready to switch to it, but I'm mildly entertained.

I'm bored. It's Friday. I was expecting a DVD delivery but check the tracking site and to my annoyance today's delivery is backed up to Monday now. Needless to say I'm bummed. Why do people eat spicy food? Do they like burning their colon?

I have no sympathy for the schizophrenic who dropped three of her kids, ages 6, 2 and 16 months, into the S.F. bay at pier 7. Pier 7 is a big tourist spot so it's pretty obvious she wanted to be seen. Also, she actually told people earlier she was going to feed her kids to the sharks. No one took the statement seriously. Who would, right? Unfortunately, people are already playing up the race card and mental illness defense. Myself? Let's see how she likes being eaten by sharks. So far only one body has been found.

I wonder if the cat would let me take a quick nap. I'm not feeling very energetic today. Wonder if it's the cloudy / foggy weather. That's my excuse. Will possibly blog later. Time to see if this posts.

Monday, October 17, 2005

Oh look! Another one!

Meet "Wilma":


Saturday, October 15, 2005

Men walk on water!?

After the flap over a "staged" "conversation with the troops" on Friday, I just had to post this from NBC Today's Show of their reporter in a boat showing the flooding in New Jersey. Oops, two guys get in the shot on live TV. Walking or water? Nope. Barely ankle deep.

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They tried to play it off but they were had: "Have you run aground yet?" Katie Couric asked. "Why walk when you can ride?" Kosinski replied.

Friday, October 14, 2005

I am a FOOL!

Bah. Brother just emailed. Nephew doesn't want to go to the air show and he's decided to go into work instead.

Uber-Bah!! Meh! Feh! Lucy yanks the football again. :(

Miserable Thing That I Am

I don't remember where the title comes from but it's appropriate. I feel lousy. Didn't sleep at all well. Snoozed right through CSI last night which I've heard was a good episode. My brother decided to leave the niece out of the air show trip when she freaked out during a practice run over their neighborhood. Well that's what I was thinking when he first proposed her going. So since I'm feeling miserable, I've begged off too. I've tried to get people to boost my enthusiasm but I'm just not into it. I looked over the slate and the B2 fly over is scheduled for Sunday only. It probably won't happen. I don't think they have yet. I've seen the rest of the things displayed. More than once. Of course it probably has a deep background of things on my mind. I'm probably heading into a period of cyclical depression and withdrawal. It's been awhile. I'm feeling isolated. Duckie seems to be in hiding or has me on block. Sigh.

Will write more on other subjects.


Ok so I'm feeling better after Nature Called and getting a bit of food in me. I've decided to do the air show. There was something the guy on the radio said that inspired me.

Thursday, October 13, 2005

The Steve and Vile Salad

Ok, I watch the stream of the "One more thing" event that Apple had on Wednesday. Steve's RDF (Reality Distortion Field) has gotten to me. The concept is solid, I've gotten the new iTunes 6 and looked at the video previews. They scale smoothly although I'm only a tiny (by modern standards) 1024x768 (SVGA) resolution. They may look awful on the new iMac or whatever most screens are today (1600x1400?)... But you have to start somewhere, right? I don't think I'll be running off to buy anything soon of course. They do have a large collection of Madonna videos but some they used to have freely available (i.e. California - Phantom Planet) cost to view now and others (i.e. Beautiful Soul - Jesse McCartney) aren't even for purchase now. They need more content.

I just had a salad that makes me want to vomit. There was some super spicy chicken in it that I took out before eating but my tummy is rocking. *sigh*

Baseball is evil. What isn't evil, anyway?

So I just found out that "Prison Break", like "the OC" and "House", is pre-empted for weeks during the baseball playoffs. Sigh. How annoying! Anyway "Prison Break" was up to #40 last week in the ratings. Upward trends are good. I watched "CSI NY" last night because "Law & Order" was doing a Terri Schiavo-inspired story and I'd had enough of that. "CSI NY" was lame. Now I know why I don't watch it regularly. A women kills a friend's adopted (not biological) daughter over a 20 year old grudge of losing a guy? Ridiculous. Worst was the mobbed up meat packing cliche. Ugh. And how many times did they have to tell us the new girl is from Montana? Bad TV.

"Criminal Minds" supposedly took place here but I didn't recognize the neighborhood. It might've been a neighboring city in the county but it was probably Canada or something. The birthday subplot of precocious geek who can't get a date was lame. Mandy was ok but he needs something to really sink his teeth into. The CG birds annoyed me. I guess trained birds cost too much. Who is developing these plots, the UCLA film school? Bah. TV this season is horrible.

Hmm to Apple's new video ipod and the new iMac. It's nice to see TV shows can be downloaded but other than Housewives I don't watch those ABC-Disney network shows. $2 per show when you can't burn them is silly. You end up paying as much for these downloads as for a DVD set. Resolution is not anywhere close to DVD. Both avoid commercials though. Oh, and these downloads cannot be burned! It's not exactly a fabulous deal. Maybe if you had broadcast quality available or could burn them you'd have something.

Ordered "Batman Begins" and "Adventures of Superman" DVD set (Muz did captions for it!) which should arrive next week. George Reeves is my all time favorite Superman. Yes, these are the black-and-white episodes but they were good enough for me as a kid, I'm sure I'll enjoy them. I don't know how many (if any) later sets I'll get but I wanted to pick up this first one. It's way overdue. I'm not sure about the 1943 Batman serials coming on DVD.

I loved the 1949 serials but these from '43 have Batman & Robin as FBI agents due to regulations of the day, is often slammed for "racist" war-time elements (the villian is an asian scientist, I think) and have a different cast from the '49 serials. If I see it cheap, maybe I'll get it. Also there is more than one version. One has sanitized dialog! That purification's almost a reason worth getting the unmolested "insensitive" version.

Sleep has improved since I voted early this week. It's probably coincidence. I also reopened the bedroom window for some fresh air while sleeping.

I think Duckie is feuding with me. I'm too emotionally tired to feud.

I'm still trying to figure out if I want to goto the air show this weekend. So many outings with my nephew have simply not happened that I think it's a defensive element now. I'm like Lucy's football and Charlie Brown. I'm not playing the Lucy part. I thought back and it's been almost a fully year since one of these planned events has actually gone off. That was Thanksgiving which only required showing up at their place and eating. Before that? I just can't remember. Hell, Mother and I even got cheated on the niece's birthday cake after we were rescheduled specifically so everyone could have it together. That was only last month. Out of defensiveness: I guess I just don't give a fig. So many times working my schedule around these events, changing my hours of sleep and so forth and nothing. Bah. "Bah!," I say!

More soon. Maybe. (Grumble... typos.)

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Update

Well I'm still sleeping horribly which is a bit distressing. I wake up with chest congestion and a bit sneezy. The sheets and blankets are clean so I'm not sure where the allergen is located.

I'll probably go vote early on the mayoral race and Arnold's reform agenda. Go Arnold! Yee-haw!

Here's a new word for you folks: myrmidon (said "mere-mid-on"). It means a hired thug or unscrupulous underling. It comes from the Thessalian people (the Myrmidons) who were led by Achilles at Troy.

I'm feeling generous so here's another one: inveigle (said "in-vay-gal"). It's temptation though flattery or deception. Comes from French envegler or Old French aveugler (to blind). "The drunken fan tried to inveigle its way into Nick Carter's pants."

Friday, October 07, 2005

More TV, Health

Well I've been weird this week health-wise but I think I'm doing better. I can't tell any more.

CSI was top again last week in ratings. Last night's show was just bland and it had an actor from the series "Homicide Life on the Street" that I was not a fan of. It's bound to improve, right? Housewives was #2. I already commented on that for this week. There's no new Ths OC *this week* due to baseball but last week's episode managed only #68. It returns sometime in early November.

ER was #14. House, which I'm still not watching this season, is #17. #33 was Criminal Minds. Watched that this week. As long as they remember to keep featuring Mandy, the show will be something to fill an hour. It's not particularly noteworthy. Prison Break was #45! That's still good for the Fox TV network. West Wing was #56. I didn't tune in this week. WB's Everwood was #99 for its season premier.

TV is particularly week this season.

I'm bored so I'll end this posting here. Maybe I'll go nap.


Well I finally crawled from bed. What a bizarre dream of being "trapped" in some kind of large pod underwater. The pod was mobile so it wasn't much in the way of "trapped" but it was just a silly dream. The groceries are getting spartan. If I thought I could get away with it I'd probably just go back to bed. I had tuna again. No tv tonight. I'm listening to the local "soft rock" station to unwind. I'm burnt out on politics, terror panic and yammering in general.

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Ears Suck.

Ok after sleeping miserably, I woke up with a small amount of vomit in my mouth. Highly unpleasant. My theory is that my left ear drained down my throat. The ear is pissed off. Perhaps infected. This ear hates me. It's always the left ear. I blame duckie because duckie is supposed to be sick. Anyway, I just don't fell good all around. Ugh.

I thought the spider outside had died because it looked like it was just hanging off its web but right side up! That was the first time I'd seen the top side of the spider. I'm pleased to say the industrious thing was seen just a few minutes ago going about its web business. Freak!

A young neighbor is back after a tour of duty. I was surprised to see him. I don't care for the odd style of short-cropped hair but it was good to see him.

Brother wants to get me to go with him and my niece and nephew to the air show in two week. Like a moron I've said OK. Now I didn't mind it two years ago when it was with my nephew who was fairly new in my life but the niece is just four, seems given to panic and one child is enough to supervise at a time. It's good exercise since it involves considerable walking. Should be plenty of extremely tanned Marines back from Iraq again.

Duckie is begging for attention so I'll stop the blog here and attend to his demands. ;)

Sunday, October 02, 2005

Sleep? Housewives.

I'm struggling with sleep. It's been humid and I don't sleep well under that condition. Very obnoxious. Skipped the nephew's game today. Did a bit of groceries instead. Desperate Housewives just wasn't funny tonight; it was simply trying too hard. Next week, that's ep 3, will have more of Jesse for any fans he has reading this.

More in awhile, Duckie's actually online. He's been faking illness for days now to avoid work. ;)

Edit: I forgot to add I've lost 20 lbs (9 kg) over the summer. Yay me.

Saturday, October 01, 2005

OMG! It's teh Lanth!

New pic from Katrina recovery concert annoucement:



Friday, September 30, 2005

TV Season...

CSI was top rated show last week. It wasn't good. The fun has been sucked out of the show and there just isn't enough Greg. Last night's episode was just awful. They tried to be cute with split screens and other visual tricks and it was came off as lame. I've heard Grissom and Sarah will be knocking boots this season and that rumor makes me want to vomit.

Desperate Housewives was the #2 show last week. See my earlier post on that season premier episode. Criminal Minds was #4 (CSI was the lead-in). I saw portions of the premier but even my fondness for Mandy as Jeffrey Geiger in Chicago Hope isn't enough. There are too many characters and too many cliches.

ER is tired as all hell and should be taken out to the nearest parched and left for dead. Still, somehow it came in 18th. Even mother didn't watch it last night. I skipped House (M.D.) so far this season but it was #20 in the ratings.

The West Wing came in #41. I see rumors Alan Alda's "California Republican" candidate will be elected. My favorite thriller came in #53. That's Prison Break. Not too bad for Fox and that makes it the network's 2nd highest rated drama (behind House) but the show deserves better. The O.C. is #70! Not good. The show really jumped the shark last season and it's struggling badly. This season is just an annoyance. It's on hiatus until November due to baseball playoffs.

Monday, September 26, 2005

Justice served?

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Update: She was sentenced to 3 years military prison.

Sunday, September 25, 2005

I Survived!

Survived the nephew's birthday. He loved the Batman gear. The niece is becoming a pest. She needs to find some discipline and develop an attention span. She's very demanding for attention which might not be too odd since she has to compete with one or both babies that the SIL takes care of. Cake was good. No vile strawberry/chocolate combo this week. I was a piggy and had two slices.

Today's ball game was ok but the nephew's team needs more batting practice. They just aren't hitting the machine pitches and the team has swelled in ranks since last week. Actually looking at some pictures I took, it seems like the machine is pitching too high for 7 year olds. I don't think I'll take in too many games. It didn't have the charm of T-Ball or the skill you can see in a Little League World Series. Next week they're playing nearer my neighborhood so I imagine I could go. Besides it can help ward off a post-game visit since I'm not ready to entertain them. I got the flooring down in the kitchen nearly complete and it should be done on Monday. I won't know what to do with myself with the kitchen wrapped up. It started back in '02.

Desperate Housewives had a decent start. Shawn Pyfrom was back as Andrew. His paternal grandmother handed him his dad's "girly magazine" (looked like an issue of Penthouse) which she'd saved. Andrew said it looked like his dad was into big breasts to which she replied he was which was why she was surprised he'd married Andrew's mother. Fans of Jesse Metcalfe will be happy with this season premier.

The West Wing, since I ignored it most of last season was ok. I'm not sure what I think of the CJ-as-leaker plot. It's hard to be interested in a show that brings in boring political news items into its plots. We're doing the Bob Novak-Karl Rove Valerie Plame schtick. I won't go out of my way to tune in. Mother had it on and I was feeling worn out.

Congrats to the LT from Law & Order for an Emmy win (for a different performance). Shame on the Emmy's for snubbing CCH Pounder of "The Shield."

That's enough for now. I need to see what I can do with my blog here. Perhaps I'll backdate some posts.

Saturday, September 24, 2005

Welcome!

Hello, folks. I'm still sucking out the cobwebs. This is our new home for the "Ruminations of a Biped" blog which used to be on another blog site which unceremoniously and without notice closed up shop. Took the blog content with it so over two years of blog is gone.

I'll post more when time allows. Tomorrow is the nephew's birthday so I'll be turning in early.