No, seriously! Stop laughing! Some people actually think this! I admit, even for those people not claiming that the landings were faked, or that NASA is trying to cover up life on Mars, the weird colors can be a little confusing. I hope that I can provide you with a satisfactory answer.

First of all, we’ve never been to Mars. We don’t know what it looks like on the surface to human eyes. All we can make are best approximations with helping clues from past Mars missions, telescopic evidence, and common sense.

Some people would claim that using the American flag/NASA logo/etc painted on the rover as a color reference will help. They are not remembering the nature of color. Colors happen because objects absorb some wavelengths of light while reflecting others. The colors that are reflected off determine what “color” the object appears to be. You can’t reflect what’s not there. This is why your shirt may look a different color in natural sunlight than it does in fluorescent light. The Martian sky is not the Earth sky. First of all, it is only 1% as dense, and is generally filled with red dust. The Martian sky isn’t blue – it’s butterscotch. On very very clear days, the sky can have a slight blue tint to it.

So of course if you whip out Photoshop and adjust the colors of the Flag so it looks like it does in Earth sunlight the sky is going to turn blue – like Earth’s sky. But that’s not what you would see if you were on the surface of Mars.

What if you just combine the RGB channels? That should work, right? If you do that then than you get this image of This calibration target and not this image that NASA released.

The answer lies in two things. Because of the way the MERs cameras work (CCD red, green, and blue channels) you can’t just combine the three. Also, the nature of the color chips (the blue chip specifically glows brightly in IR) means that they are not used as a straight color-to-color reference, in fact they are much more complicated.

I’d type the whole argument out here, but just look at this page if you are actually really interested. It’s an interesting read.

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The latest round? CBS has refused to air some advertisements for the Superbowl. Yes. CBS, a private organization. This is apparently a mockery of free speech.

One of the advertisements is from an organization called MoveOn, brought to us by the makers of the Flying Toaster screen saver and You Don’t Know Jack. You can see their ad here. In fact, please do, they’ll be happy about it. They’ve managed to get a lot of people up in arms about their ad being rejected, and you’ll up their hit count. It turns out that they got all the press they needed – all for free. They, being an anti-media mesage-board based company also hurt the reputation of CBS. I wonder if that was an accident?

CBS has a policy of not airing controversial advocacy ads. They claim that this charged political advertisement, and one about vegetarianism fit the bill. MoveOn counters by saying that they are airing an ad sponsored by the White House, that they have aired controversial ads in the past, and that it makes them hypocrites. They say that CBS is trying to manipulate you.

The White House ad, by the way, is actually an advertisement sponsored by the office for national drug control. It encourages kids and parents to get help for children addicted to drugs. Really controversial there, CBS. What about the “controversial” ads in the past? According to MoveOn, all of the sex, beer, and R-rated movie ads are….. but I fail to see how they are in any way related to advocacy. CBS also aired an ad linking buying drugs to terrorism. Despite my personal feelings towards this particular ad (and however poorly it was executed), the call of “don’t put money into criminals hands” and “Bush will harm your children” are far differing in terms of controversy.

MoveOn was fully aware of CBS’s policy. They submitted the ad, anyway. I guess in hopes that it would be aired! You would think they would know it would be rejected.

Well, good thing that they’re getting some press, anyway.

I wonder who’s manipulating who here?

Get out. Get registered. Read the issues. I’ll not be voting for Bush, but not because I saw, or didn’t see, an add during the Superbowl.

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Included is an animatronic show about carbon monoxide. It’s a pretty huge thing. Here’s the set, and for scale… it’s approximately life-sized. It makes me think about Steve, for some reason. Actually, I know the reason. The show is in the style of a 50s private dick movie, complete with the word “moxy.” It is also positively stuffed with Steve-type humor.

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There’s all sorts of interesting things happening in space right now. Opportunity seems to be okay, and has sent back the first pictures of a rock outcropping on another planet – which is pretty cool in my book. Opportunity also landed inside a crater. Roxor.

There is some fear that the problem that Sprit is currently having will manifest itself in opportunity too. For those not familiar, here’s a synopsis. After taking a bunch of pictures of a rock named Adirondack, Sprit all of a sudden stopped sending data. It was still sending its “everything is fine, I hear you” signal – but nothing else. Scientists tried to reboot her several times – the interstellar equivalent of ctrl-alt-delete. That didn’t work. Then, all of a sudden, Sprit started sending a lot of data – at a rate of 128 kB/s! In all that data were some clues that led scientists to consider that Sprit was having a problem with its flash memory – later this idea was thrown out. They now believe that the problem lies in the file management software – which may have been overloaded by harsh demands.

Mars Express, the orbital counter-part to the defunct Beagle 2 lander has confirmed the presence of water ice on Mars’ southern polar ice cap.

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Oh, I know I complain… but it was actually okay. I like busy days – there’s a lot to do and it goes really fast. Unfortunately, I’m also usually exhausted afterwards.

This year I was exhausted, bruised, and had a skinned elbow. Why? Weeeeellll….

So I forgot to bring my keys and scan card to work. Now, usually this wouldn’t be too big of a deal, but with the busy, busy day I really needed them. Luckily I live about a 10 minute drive from the Science Center. I decided to take 30 minutes of my lunch break to hop in my car and run home. The act of retrieval didn’t take that long, but parking again at the Science Center did, as the lot was stuffed full of cars.

Being a little late, I jogged from my car through the parking garage, up the stairs, and outside. I slowed down a bit as I hit the sidewalk, as it was slightly snow-covered. Little did I know there was ice under there too!

I felt my self slipping, and my muscles did that wobbly correcting thing. I thought I had made it, when at the very last second I fell. Having believed that I had corrected the slip, my body totally did not expect this sudden fall foreword. I barely had enough time to get my hands up, and that wasn’t enough to keep me from burying myself chest-first on the cement. I sprawled there for a few moments, both elbows scraped, lab coat full of water and salt, until I was able to gain enough breath to stand up and limp into the building. I told the first security guard I saw that we needed more salt on the walk.

Right now, I’m mostly just a little sore and banged up, and I have a lovely scrape on my right elbow. I’m actually a little proud of it, as it is a mark of a lifestyle I thought I had long left behind – being clumsy.

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I’m going through the list fairly well, I think. I called Shanda and everything!

Last night was trivia. It was a welcome vacation from the spray paint fumes! I did alright, but not great. There were some questions about Spirit and Cassini, so that made me happy. It also made me shout "HUYGENS!" In the middle of the bar, but that's just because I'm a weirdo.

The last of the straggling christmas gifts came in the mail last night. Actually, it was a return on some pants that my grandma had gotten me that I already owned. I got a really super dress, a shirt that Eric would love, some pinstriped jeans, and a very Erica skirt.

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Working on Crow has been going fairly well. I have his main body finished, and I’ve started to spray paint him. Spray painting is a long and tedious process, but hopefully it will pay off with a beautifully smooth and luisturous paint job.

I’ve had to make a lot of his parts, as I don’t have what I need for most of him. Because he is mostly bolted and not glued together, he’s going to be what I can describe as fixer-upper. As I get new parts, I can replace the old crappy ones. First on the cutting block- his head. It looks strange without the vaccuformed soapdish part, but I think that I improvised rather well considering. I think.

Another part I’m having problems with are his shoulders. The arms are easy enough to fake with plastic square tubing and sheet plastic, but the shoulders are an odd shape. Fortunatly, I think I know how I’m going to make them – although I’ve completely failed to start. This is my current stuck point – as I can’t fit the rest of his body together until I do those. I want to do them well, though, as his whole lower body is attached to his upper through those shoulders. Erg.

Ah, well. At any rate I should have no problem getting him done by this weekend – delicious Sci-Fi marathon. Which reminds me, I need to call Shanda and figure out when she’s coming up for that. Whoo!

Things to do before this weekend (in rough order)

In nerdlier news (God, it gets nerdier? Help me!), Sprit is doing well and set to roll off the platform this week. Go, Spirit go! There are some really very nifty IR images, if you want to check them out.

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Day of rants!

For my Mars news rants, keep checking my E2 w/u.

Rant # 1 – Nukes in space

I was listening to NPR on my way into work this morning. When they started talking about Mars I turned up the volume. I smiled and listened for several seconds until they started letting people call in. (paraphrased)

“… and I heard something that sounded like it was straight out of Dr. Strangelove. Nuclear reactors in space? That sounds like it has the potential to be the Columbia Disaster and Chernobyl all wrapped into one. It’s just a bad idea, and just because you’re a scientist or engineer doesn’t make it a good idea”

Here’s where the ranting begins.

First off, Spirit and Opportunity do NOT contain “nuclear reactors.“ Each rover contains enough plutonium dioxide (about 2.7 ounces) to warm its internal components during the cold Martian nights. They are heated by the decay of the plutonium, and no fission or fusion takes place.

Cassini, who uses nuclear power (it is too far away from the sun to rely on solar power), uses about 72 pounds of plutonium, causing much shaking of fists during an Earth flyby. Its radioisotope thermoelectric generators generate electrical power and also heaters similar to the Mars Exploration Rovers. I could go on about the extensive safety precautions taken by NASA regarding Cassini, but the report, does it much better.

The point is, our best bet for immediate human space travel is nuclear power. Now, I’ve hugged a few trees in my day, but I have to say the risk is far out shadowed by the benefits. Anyway, I’d much rather put the nuclear material into good use instead of building bombs out of it.

Please Support Nuclear power in space!

Rant #2, Atkins.

I HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE the Atkins diet. I hate how everyone is advertising low-carb solutions as if bread and rice were the reason our country is fat. Do you know why you’re fat, people? Because you eat too damn much! It’s not what you eat, it’s the fact that you won’t stop shoveling whatever the easy-food of your choice is into your mouth! Fuck! Here’s an equation:

Metablolic rate + Calories burned ? Calories eaten

If that ? is a > you will lose weight. If the ? is a < you will gain weight. That’s all there is to it.

Granted, people do lose weight faster on the Atkins’s diet. There are a couple reasons why. First of all, you feel fuller, so you eat less. Carbohydrates do, in fact, break down faster then proteins. Fine. Secondly, Proteins do have a SLIGHT short-term metabolic advantage: equaling out to about 42 calories on a 1500 calorie diet. So good. You lost weight. Time to go blind and have a heart attack because you shoved cheese and beef into yourself for 6 months. Ooh! And your skin looks horrible because you’re vitamin deprived! But damn, you sure can give blood because your iron count is high, high, high.

Now, I’m not saying that all carbohydrates are good. Go ahead and cut down on the sugar, and the white bread and rice, and all the fucking soda. But for goodness sake eat your vegetables! Eat your whole grains! That’s what the fucking food pyramid is for!

Eat less, exercise, and lose no more then about 2 pounds a week after the first week.

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Although I think that I shouldn't have attempted the level of revelry I did, as I was barely upright as it was. Ah, well. A lesson for next year.

It's been unseasonably warm here. I actually think that we switched weather with Seattle for a week, as it's in the middling 40s here and snowing like hell there. Huh!

In space news, Beagle 2 has not yet been heard from. *sigh* There is still a chance, albeit a small one, that everything is fine and dandy. Hey, a girl can dream! Also, Spirit is set to touch down Saturday night. I can guarantee you I'll talk more about that later. The link goes to my E2 w/u on the MER mission. If you want to read any of my boring blathering.

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PA was calming. I entered Toby’s house at 9:00 or so Monday night, and didn’t leave until 10:00 Friday morning. The interim time was spent looking at screens… TV, Movies, PS2, and email checking were all had.

Okay, so not all the time was spent in front of screens. There was also the eating, the talking to the family, and the cats. Always the cats. There are 4 of them, and all are cute.

I got more geeky movies! Horray! Now I can have a Goonies, Labyrinth, Dark Crystal marathon like I’ve always wanted. Ooooh… and Gigantic too…. With 4.5 hours of extra John. My thing tingles in happiness. Which thing? I have no idea!

I’m back at work, and it is nuts! NUTS! On top of it, I’m in charge of the insanity.

Which reminds me, I must go once more into the fray. I’ll let you know how unraveled I get.

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Here I am in the big state of PA. I decided this year that Toby should like to be home for Christmas - and that wasn't going to happen unless I drove him. So here I am.

It turns out that I have a bad case of eyestrain. Who knew? I guess that was many hours too many in front of my failing and old monitor.

There's TV and ps2 to be had! see you, suckers!

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Thanks to Justin (I think!) for so much mst3k! Thank you to mom and dad for the huge pile of fun stuff, including clothes, makeup, games, and a monitor! Thank you to grandma for the clothes: ESPECIALLY the sweater I thought I could never have.

The party last night went great. I was festive. Then again, I'm always festive! tomorrow we leave for PA, so I'll be on only periodically. I'll be best reachable by email, if you care.

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As I went to pay my tab, the bartender looked down at my chest and said " mmmmm... that's making me hungry"

Now, for a second I was mighty concerned. I forgot I was wearing this:

how did I take that picture you ask?

Weeeeeellll...

My first Christmas present arrived yesterday! It's a quickcam! Do you know how big a quickcam is? Well, here's my old one:

it came in this box:

Oops. I should have put something by it for scale. Anyway, it's huge: about three feet by 1.5 feet by 1.5 feet.

Amazon: What the?

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Saddam captured? It’s true! Everyone has an opinion. The Anti-Bush coalition is wringing their hands now that his popularity will go up, as if a popular president being reelected is now a travesty of Republic ideals. Don’t get me wrong – Bush has his own reasons for pissing me off, but I try to keep my personal feelings about him separate from my feelings abut the events he helps bring to pass. Not that it’s “his war” or even “his father’s war”, anyway. It’s time for the “I told you so’s.” The French and the Germans have “yeah, that’s great” smiles frozen on their faces. Tony Blair is tooting his horn, doing the Cha-Cha and wagging his finger at Bush all at the same time.

Saddam turned out to be just a guy after all. He didn’t spout fire at the troops who came knocking at his door, he didn’t call down lightning or even launch a vile of anthrax at them. He had no phones, no radios, no nothing… just a taxi, a small house and a hole in the ground. He wasn’t commanding troops – he was running. Saddam was just some guy who didn’t want to have a grenade lobed at him, so he surrendered. Ladies and gentleman, meet the enemy. Now what? It’s a bit of information extraction and then back to meet the fate that your people place on you. Sounds reasonable.

Still, nobody really believes that Saddam remains the driving force behind the tide of Anti-Americanism in Iraq. The fuel of religious xenophobia and a long history of propaganda is plenty to keep the hate brewing. The attacks will continue along unabated. People, both Iraqi and Coalition, will continue to die because the US is in Iraq. But people in Iraq died before, and for much less reason then the nobler (though perhaps misguided) ideals of a country trying to rid a people of an oppressive leader or a country trying to rid themselves of an aggressive invader. They died by the tens of thousands at the hand of Saddam’s regime.

The best judge of the situation, though, isn’t what the Canadians think of it, what the British think, what the French think, what the Germans think, or even what the Americans think. What really matters is how the people of Baghdad and the rest of Iraq feel. Quite frankly, they feel quite differently from each other. But even most of those who are upset at the loss of their leader – see some good in the promises set up by the US. Will we deliver? Does it matter to the Iraqis who gets the contracts? What does the future of Iraq hold? This remains to be seen.

We’ve done our part – a bloody war ? Not exactly. A war without causality? It wasn’t that either. A war simply about freeing the people of Iraq and ridding the world of a threat? No, it wasn’t even that. But despite the motivations of the United States, good has been done.

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There. Now that that’s out of the way…

I ended my rousing night with DaBoys earlier then usual last night. I was due at work early this morning, and there was bed to be had. I had the hell out of that bed, sleeping pretty darn well. Perhaps more surprisingly, I woke up with little grumpiness or effort. Yay!

I awoke to a winter wonderland! It was great – I went to bed with no snow and awoke with 4 inches of the fluffy whites! I’m stuck here at work, but I keep looking out the window hoping I can get someone to come play with me later tonight. I had a quick romp during lunch, but that was largely unsatisfactory, as I had no one to enjoy it with. Now that I think about it, by the time I get out of here it will be dark. Man, winter is so lame. The night part of it, anyway.

My climate wants are very simple, weather! Geez.

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Last night was spent in alone-atude . DaBoys, even Toby, all went to see a movie, Bubba Ho-Tep. I hear it was pretty good. Toby says I wouldn’t have liked it, because no girls have liked it so far. I have to point out that I have some distinctly non-girl traits. At any rate, I wanted to go, but I wanted more to sit around and relax. That worked out pretty well – I listened to loud music (mmm… Hornery), and splayed myself out on the couch, occasionally leaning over the back to type at someone. It was a darn restful evening, and I’m glad I got it. I feel a lot better today then I have.

Yesterday was also a day of good food – I made pasta and meatballs. The meatballs were particularly yummy this time – they contained cheese and a wonderful center of a half clove of garlic! I highly recommend it! Here’s a recipe.

Garlic-centered meatballs

1 lb lean (but not super-lean) meat
1 Large egg
1 C Breadcrumbs (seasoned or no)
½ C Parmesan Cheese
¼ C Shredded Mozzarella
Spaghetti Sauce
Various Spices and Herbs, like salt, pepper, basil, etc. to taste. (well, don’t taste the raw meat.. you know what I mean)
6 medium cloves garlic
Olive oil

Peel garlic cloves and cut each in half. On a plate to the side, mix about ¼ C breadcrumbs with ¼ C parmesan. Crack egg into a large bowl and whisk with various herbs. Place a pan on the stove to med-high. Add enough olive oil to just coat bottom of pan. In bowl, add meat to egg. Blend with hands. Add in ½ C of the Spaghetti Sauce, ¼ C mozzarella, and ½ C of the breadcrumbs. Blend with hands. If mixture seems a bit dry, add more sauce. If it seems wet, add more breadcrumbs from reserve. Mix well, but don’t overwork.

Make a ~1.5” diameter meatball. Poke a hole in it with your finger and insert a half clove of garlic. Re-roll meatball to cover seam. Roll around in the breadcrumb/parmesan mixture to form a coating. Drop meatball in pan. Repeat 11 more times, so you have a total of 12 meatballs. Toss the meatballs in the pan (learn how to do the one-handed pan toss – it’s awesome) so they are browned all the way around. Turn the heat down to med-low and pour spaghetti sauce over the meatballs so they are about half covered. Cover the pan, and cook for about 20 minutes. Incidentally, this is about the amount of time it takes to set a pot of water boiling + pasta cooking time. Pull off stove, and serve over pasta. Yummy!

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EA Sports games have never really appealed to me, even the ones that are BIG!. Maybe it’s because I’m not a sports fan. Actually, I’m pretty sure that’s why. In fact, the last sports game I really enjoyed was Baseball Stars and THAT was because the game was rife with the touch of role-playing. And pink baseball uniforms.

The point is I don’t like sports games because I don’t really watch or play sports - not that I’ve been known to grab a snowboard and rodeo my way down a mountain… but I’ve wanted to. Oh, how I’ve wanted. And that’s the good thing about the SSX line – a blend of realism and over-the-top insanity that make it just darn fun to play.

At first glance, the game seems pretty similar to SSX Tricky. The same characters show up with a few new ones added in, the control style remains largely unchanged (with a few positive tweaks) and the same adrenaline meter looms at the side telling you if you are “tricky” or not. However, as the game unfolds it opens up a cornucopia of changes and new features. It is a game that has far improved on its predecessor, and its predecessor was pretty darn good. SSX3 managed to improve leaps and bounds on previous games while maintaining the basic feel, and I think that’s what impresses me the most.

SSX3 takes place on a single mountain with three peaks of increasing difficulty. The “goal” of the game (if a sports game can really be said to have a goal) is to earn your way up the mountain. As you unlock each peak you earn the fun of riding the entire length (the various courses all run together) – if you unlock all three peaks you get to take a half hour ride down the whole mountain – through all three peaks. EA pulls from the reserve of “streaming technology” for this one – the loads are very well concealed and there is an almost unnoticeable transition between the courses. Even the games normal loads are hidden with a cut scene of your rider in transport to his or her next area.

One of my favorite changes is the addition of “Big Challenges.” For all the various courses, both for racing and tricking, there is a “freeride” option available – where you try your hand at the course with no competition. Not only does this allow you to practice a run, but there are challenges you can choose to complete – from collecting a skier’s lost equipment to jumping through a series of hoops.

Like any good professional snowboarder – as you trick, race, and challenge your way down the peaks you earn money. This money can be used to buy attributes and to customize the look of your character. The looks are far more customizable then in past installations. Instead of outfits you earn pieces of a mix and match wardrobe that provide large numbers of unique combinations. You can even put a paper bag over your head, if you have $50,000 and are so inclined.

The game looks scrumptious – especially the snow effects. It blows, it falls, it parts in the wake of your snowboard, it even sparkles in the sun! There is snow of different depths – and you can tell by looking at it. Character animation is pretty much flawless – I swear I’ve seen a few facial expressions as Psymon flips around after a wicked full on 900 stalefish. There are occasional clipping problems – but these are rare and in obscure parts of the course.

Did I mention the game is THX certified? I have to say the soundtrack kicks ass. Instead of “It’s tricky! Tricky, tricky!” getting stuck in my head I get tunskies from greats like the Chemical Brothers and Jane’s Addiction. The very cool thing about it is that the tracks seem to be recorded separately, so the music can change with what you’re doing – sometimes the vocals will cut out and the drums will kick up. It adds to the atmosphere. The only bad thing is that the soundtrack is somewhat limited – only 20 songs or so, and some of the songs are repetitive. If you’re trying to complete a challenge and keep having to start it over again – you can be stuck listening to the same song over and over again.

Overall, I’d give the game 4.5/5 tail wags.

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We all arrived at Steve’s place at about the same time. Bully all around! A quick re-arrangement of stuff and we were off to Columbus! It was decided early on that we would have a horrible food day. Not that the food would taste horrible, but that it would be horrible for us. Obviously Burger King was the place to be to start this off! A little less then halfway to Columbus, we stopped off at the BK. Most of us stuffed our face full of delicious, delicious Croissantwiches. I had some coffee, buying it at Burger King before noticing there was a Starbucks right there. Crap.

Our stomachs filled with food, a quick drive and a short potty break (thanks, mom!) later, we arrived at the steps of COSI. There a brief discussion about how the museum industry is in the shithole right now (which they are). I also totally failed to remember to bring my camera in with me. I thought “okay, I’ll just get it when I get Toby’s pith helmet when Tom joins us.”

We were there pretty close to opening, so it wasn’t that busy. I boggled at the ticket price a little: 12 dollars! That’s how much the GLSC charges for a combo ticket of exhibits and Omnimax®! No one complained too much, though. I felt bad. I prolly could have gotten one of them in for free, but after the “museums are all struggling right now” conversation it just felt wrong. At any rate, wristbands were applied (mine a tad too tight) and we were off.

When you go to Adventure you start where everyone else does. Steve later pointed out that they really could have skipped the whole first part, but that would have been boring. We were ushered in by a nice guy, although I’m really not sure what his “character” was. He started in on his little talk, but he got me in on it a little too. Assuming I knew the names of the spirits, he had me introduce them to everyone. HA! Fun! One odd thing as a side note to those of 151, they’re not playing the video anymore, which I thought was weird. Maybe we just missed it, he DID say “a group is already in there” Pity! Maybe we’ll catch it next time, I think it would have amused everyone.

At any rate, the boys went through the maze quickly, through the temple quickly, and struggled only a bit at the cavern. They tried the Eyes of Skorn (where you have to cross a room without breaking the lasers) a few times before discovering the “trick.” I pride myself on being able to do it the hard way, lithe, athletic thing that I am.

They set to the second part with only a little bit of sarcasm. I think they were really getting into it, which pleased the hell out of me. They were so immersed; we didn’t even get lunch till 2. I think that was mostly to get into the light and look over notes. Excellent. It turns out the lunch break was a good idea, as almost as soon as they got back they made great leaps and bounds. One hurdle completed! Good job, Da Boys.

That’s when they hit the wall. The big, fucking wall. They started to get frustrated. It happens. The second language is a huge ass-pain to figure out unless your name is Ariann. I will once again point out that the solution to the second language was handed on a silver platter to Toby and me. I’m not ashamed – okay, maybe I am a little. The point is, they’re actually doing pretty well with it, I keep hearing some very good ideas. I also hear a lot of bad, bad ideas… but I can’t really tell them which is which.

So that’s where we are right now – Jeff, Justin, Steve, and Mike are trying to figure out language #2. They're on the verge of breakthrough! I’m probably going to try to go back somewhere near the end of January – you know, give them some time to mull. I’m pretty sure I can get Justin and Steve to go, maybe Jeffy. Mike, unfortunately, will be gone. Hopefully, though, Peter and Becky will be able to come.

Notice that at no time during our Adventure did Tom show up. This means two things. One: I have no pictures, like a dummy head. Two: About 10 minutes out of Columbus we get a call from Tom, who had just arrived (a little hung over) at COSI. We stopped at an A&W root beer place, and he met up with us.

Tom was fabulous, as always. He was wearing boots with these 3½ inch heels, so we made fun of that a bit. He got me a kick-ass birthday present: a black vinyl trench coat. I like vinyl. I like black. I like trench coat. Fucking beautiful! How can I not dress up like Trinity to the Sci-Fi Marathon (despite guh) this year? How?

I’ve been blathering for awhile now! I’ll simply say that we ended the evening by watching The Princess Bride. I decided to cap it all off by staying up till 3, further driving my A, sleep debt down, down, down into the depths of raccoon-eyed exhaustion. And, incidentally, the word “sleep” starts to look funny when you read it too many times.

And that brings me to work. Here. Right now. How fun.

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