I suck at reviews, but yes, it was damn good. This is the first flick since, I think Batman Begins, although possibly further back, that actually consistently held my attention all the way through. Downey Jr. is a wonderfully assholish Stark, and they made the perfect choice in selecting Ellis and Granov's version of Iron Man for the film. Actually, I would have liked to see an Extremis movie, but it would probably get shot down as too anti-American.

And the bit with Nick Fury after the credits I think explains why they're remaking The Hulk already: I suspect they're going for the Ultimate Avengers lineup with that movie: Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk, Giant Man, Wasp, Thor, and Hawkeye. The Hulk ain't gonna be much of a draw to that with the last movie they made of him.

I went down to Oly to visit with skellington1, whom I had not seen in far too long. There were good times and good food, and I got to meet her boyfriend, who is a totally awesome guy, and it was generally cool :)

Then I got lucky and was able to catch Lolly B, which meant that I then got to spend a couple of hours hanging out with the hottest girl I've ever met, while she steam ironed children's clothes :D I ended up catching the 4:30 bus back up north ;)

Oh My Girl is one of the best albums ever for listening to on the bus back from a good weekend visiting with friends. It's just got a great "laid-back and relaxing after fun but exhausting stuff" vibe.

And I'm not sure if this was the anti-depressants or just a side effect of talking with Lolly, but I was actually flirting with someone while waiting for the ferry. That's not happened in quite some time :)

And now I'm going to go crash and sleep for 14 hours or so, since I've had more caffeine in the last two days than in the month before that.

ETA: Also, cancel what I said about Komarr. A Civil Campaign is even better. I've not seen anyone do Romantic Comedy (a genre I generally quite strongly dislike) anywhere near as well as Bujold.

I think Komarr might be my favorite Vorkosigan book so far. It does bring up something that's been bugging me about a few of Pratchett's recent novels as well, though: Many of these books, I think would be improved by removing what was intended as the "main" plot. In Komarr, I kept feeling like I was slogging through the bits with the mystery that was the theoretical focus of the book, and just kept wanting to get back to the bits with Miles and Ekaterin.

Similarly, in each of "The Truth", "Going Postal", and "Making Money", I felt as though the antagonist was more or less extraneous and distracting. There was more than enough book in each of those without an actual villain or conspiracy. Simply recounting the struggle of attempting to start up the Discworld's first Newspaper, or the revival of the Anhk-Morpork Post Office or Royal Mint would have made a great read, without any need for a villain thrown in more or less at random.

I just got back from my post-work constitutional. It really feels, and more noticeably, smells like summer. The plants all have that sun-baked smell, people have been barbequeing, women are wearing summer perfumes.

It was really bad at work. It gets hot enough in there anyhow with all the ovens and stuff, and on a day like this, it's just terrible. I would be getting more freaked out, but I remember that last year there was a big peak in April as well, and the final peaks in the summer weren't hotter than that by a huge margin.

And now, just as I post this, the pot smoke from downstairs is starting to waft its way in through the open windows.

Yep, I'm actually on the drug, 99% sure. My appetite and energy levels are way up, and I've been getting a couple of the side effects, most noticeably some mild vertigo.

Also, I got the stuff that I bought from solarbird's CafePress Store!

The mug is, well, it's a mug. One with a really cool design on it, but there's not much to say that you couldn't figure out looking at the picture. The Stein, on the other hand, CafePress's pictures really do not do justice. It's very nice and solid, with some great detailing sculpted on, and rather larger than I was expecting. I'm using it right now, actually.

For now, they're limited by a power cable, but batteries are getting smaller, and soon these creepy bastards will be able to get anywhere. There's video in the grinding.be post where I found this, here.

In completely unrelated news, my Stepdad came by and fixed the light in my kitchen, so it's no longer dangling from the ceiling by its wires. Hooray! But seriously, go check out the creepy creepy snake-bots.

Even if I'm not actually on the Anti-depressants, this study is still doing me some good. If only because it's making me climb First Hill every week. I'm actually feeling in better shape than I have for a while :)

Also, I finally got around to cleaning up my apartment a little. I really need to do a full spring clean, and find out where the last of that mold is, but even just getting the clutter in the living room/kitchen sorted out has helped immensely.

I have a 50% chance of being on Vilazodone right now. Double Blind studies, eh?

While I was coming back from the Psychiatrist, I stumbled on some bad pavement, rolled my ankle, and skinned my knee. In retrospect, what really bothers me is that no one who was walking by stopped to ask if I was alright, or even broke stride or looked my way when I fell. I really don't like what that says about folks around here.

In practice, the worst bit of it is that getting out of bed normally involves putting my weight on my left knee and right foot, and those were the bits I screwed up :(

Today marks the first time since I went off to college that I've been stable enough to stay in one place for a whole year. Which reminds me, I need to write a Rent Check.

I think my already noisy downstairs neighbor just got an electric guitar or bass. Joy.

To all the people who have collectively checked out all KRL's copies of Miles, Mystery, and Mayhem: Read Faster!

...Trying to load up a 40 Gig iPod with a bad battery over a USB 1.1 connection.

USB 1.1 can't transfer over enough power to charge iPod while it's copying. The thing will hold a charge for about 20 minutes if I leave it in the charger for 4-6 hours, giving me time to copy perhaps half a gig, maybe a little less before the battery dies and it's back on the charger. It's gonna take me a week to fill the bastard up at this rate.

This thing is so cool! It drives around, finds stuff to drum on, plays a little beat, then samples it, plays it back and improvises another beat over the top. Check it out!

Found by solarbird

There are different kinds of ideas. Some are brilliant ideas. Some are crazy ideas. Some are delicious ideas.

Using a Hot Cross Bun as a Hamburger Bun was all three :D

The high school girl who was in decorating cookies at work last night had never actually had a Hot Cross Bun before. She had something like 4 of them by the time she left. She'd never heard A Capella music before, either, and thought the M&Cs were the coolest thing ever when I put them on.

ONE DAY CONTENT STRIKE

(If you've not heard what this is about, beckyzoole has more information, particularly here.)


For one day, make no posts. Make no comments. Let there be NO new content added to LJ.

SUP obviously does not realize that Basic users have given something of value to them, that it is content that drives the site.

So, for one 24-hour period, from midnight GMT to midnight GMT, let's see how many people we can get to pledge to contribute NO CONTENT.

This will create a permanent downward spike in the daily-posts statistics, a permanent reminder of the power of the userbase.

Who's with me, and what date shall it be?

This Friday, March 21, from midnight to midnight GMT.

The one-day content strike is on for this Friday, March 21, from midnight GMT to midnight GMT.

For 24 hours, we will not post or comment to LJ. Not in our own journals, not in communities. Not publicly, privately, or under friends-lock.

This is a protest that will have long-lasting effects, showing up forever in the daily posting statistics.

This is a protest that will not harm LJ in the long run, as leaving LJ might do.

This is a protest that will demonstrate the power of community, as all users unite to support Basic users and the concept of adfree space.

This is a protest that will educate the new owners that LJ is driven by user-created content.

How Can I Help?

DO post about this in your own LJ.
DO post and comment about it in appropriate communities.
DO remember that it's based on Greenwich Mean Time, which may not be your local time.
DO turn off LoudTwitter and your RSS feeds for 24 hours.
DO feel free to friend me for updates, and defriend when the strike is over.

DON'T forget to get permission from community mods before making an off-topic post or comment about the strike.
DON'T be spammy with your posts or comments about the strike.
DON'T forget to turn your LoudTwitter and RSS feeds back on when the strike is over.

The 24-hour strike will begin at the following times for the following locations:

Thursday, March 20, 2:00 PM -- Honolulu
Thursday, March 20, 4:00 PM -- Anchorage
Thursday, March 20, 5:00 PM -- San Francisco; Los Angeles
Thursday, March 20, 6:00 PM -- Mexico City; Denver
Thursday, March 20, 7:00 PM -- Chicago
Thursday, March 20, 8:00 PM -- Montreal; New York
Thursday, March 20, 9:00 PM -- Buenos Aires
Midnight -- London
Friday, March 21, 1:00 AM -- Paris
Friday, March 21, 2:00 AM -- Istanbul
Friday, March 21, 3:00 AM -- Moscow
Friday, March 21, 4:00 AM -- Dubai
Friday, March 21, 5:00 AM -- Islamabad
Friday, March 21, 6:00 AM -- Bangladesh
Friday, March 21, 7:00 AM -- Bangkok
Friday, March 21, 8:00 AM -- Singapore
Friday, March 21, 9:00 AM -- Tokyo
Friday, March 21, 10:00 AM -- Brisbane
Friday, March 21, 11:00 AM -- Sydney
Friday, March 21, 12 Noon -- Suva

A more complete list of local times can be found HERE.

I'm going to be doing this, and figured I might as well spread it around for what it's worth. Once again, beckyzoole has more information, particularly here.

Yesterday afternoon, I ran into my bosses at the store, and one of them said "We need to talk tomorrow." This of course caused me to spend the rest of yesterday and much of this morning going "Oh gods, what did I fuck up last week!?"

I turns out that it was just because today was the first day we're doing Hot Cross Buns for the run-up to Easter, and they wanted to walk me through the recipe. Good thing, too, because there are a bunch of various notes scrawled on the recipe sheet and on bits of paper that are clipped to it, many of which contradict each other. They looked pretty good when I put 'em in the fridge for their overnight rise, though. I'll see how they came out tomorrow.

I got myself some Health Insurance finally. By poking around on line, I was able to find a relatively cheap plan. It's what a guy I knew calls an "Appointments and Oh My God" policy. It covers basic checkups and prescriptions pretty well, but there's a $5,000 deductible, so I'm on my own for any middling stuff, but it won't get too bad if the shit really hits the fan.

I'm also going to be participating in a clinical trial for a new anti-depressant. It should be interesting, at the least, and hopefully it'll help quite a bit. They pay me for it, too.

I don't watch videos that people post or send me. Video doesn't work for me for some reason. I just don't like the medium. Anyhow, for some reason, I decided to actually watch this one when my mom sent it to me. It's the last lecture given by a college professor who's dying of cancer, talking about how and why he's lived and still lives his life the way he does. It's really quite amazing and inspiring, and those are not words I use often, especially for stuff like this.

One of the Morning Bakers at work came up with a new recipe for Carmel Almond Brownies. They are Sooooooo Good. They may soon upstage the SuperChunk cookies as my favorite thing here. I also just realized something else about him this week. He's got this low key, but really infectious cheerfulness. I've almost never even heard him talk or anything, but when he's around it seems like it's easier for everyone to be happy and everything's more groovy. Unfortunately, our shifts don't really overlap much, but it's still cool.

Some total hippy dude came in and asked if it was still vegan to eat yeasted breads, because the yeast is alive, up until it dies of burnination in the oven. As far as I'm concerned, it's pretty much on a par with saying that eating Mucsrooms isn't Vegan or accusing yourself of Genocide after your immune system manages to fight off a cold or something. He was pretty worried about it, though.

Also, my hair is now long enough to Headbang properly again \m/

Apparently the new hot thing in Emo circles is to look like you've got Carpal Tunnel from spending all your time on MySpace and IM. I saw a couple of Emo kids while I was on my walk after work, and one of them was wearing these things that were obviously patterned after Carpal Tunnel braces, but in black, with extra straps and grommets and buckles. It looked highly ridiculous.

I managed to finish my shift in personal record time tonight. While this is bad in the short term sense of I'm tight on money and could use more hours, it's good in the longer view of showing my bosses that I'm competent to take on a bunch more stuff and build back up to the hours I need.

Out front in the Coffee House part of work, they show art. Every time the change it, they do an Opening, one of which was tonight. So after close, there were a bunch of rich intellectual types out front drinking wine, eating little bite sized pastries and listening to smooth jazz. Meanwhile in the back, those of us still finishing up were dealing with the dirtiest parts of our jobs and rocking out to Shakin' the Shack. It's kind of a weird disconnect.

EDIT: Oh, yeah, since I just realized that I probably won't get up early enough to post this at a meaningful time tomorrow: Happy Birthday to The Keffy!

I think I've said the word "Motherfucker" more times today than in the past two weeks put together. It wasn't really a bad day, but there were lots of little things that caught me by surprise. Ended up taking me way longer than it should have to get done with work, even though the local Synagogue kicked their Challah order down from 16 to 6 Loaves.

I had the energy to go for a walk after work anyhow, and it's actually a pretty warm night. I had to take my jacket off, and I was still sweating a bit.