So be it.... Jedi!

Just purchased my tickets for ROTS. I'm going to the midnight show in Randolph on the 18th by myself. KG's not that hardcore. Got tickets for both of us Friday morning. I have Thursday, "Empire Day" off, and will probably go with the divas.
Really... I don't have a problem. Bought TK Jr a Vader pillow and beach towel, along with another T shirt. Oh, and some Lays chips (Anakin sticker) and more Keeblers. But we did need munchies for this evening. I resisted the delux Grevious figure with "Secret Lightsaber Action". Not that he didn't look cool.
A man's gotta know his limitations.
It's late, I'm still up, and it's my day to get up with Junior. So I should be smart and toddle off shortly. Probably won't, though. I still have 3/4 of a beer to go.

Sitting on 93 South

That's where I found myself late this afternoon. Here's a few things that crossed my mind.
-Toilet paper. Cat food. Soy milk. Bananas. Soda and cigs.
-Ahhh, it's Friday. I hope Junior sleeps late tomorrow.
-I hope he sleeps through the night.
-Stupid ashes blow back in the window everytime I flick. Why do I even bother?
-Star Wars. Star Wars. Star Wars, Star Wars, Star Wars. Star Wars!!
-Maybe I should start a blog for one of the cats. Secret thoughts of Stewie?
-Support the troops? Support this, you stupid bumper sticker buying idiot!
-It's a lane drop, you friggin idiot. A lane drop!!
-Need to order my ROTS tickets this weekend. Don't forget.
-You know, the forearm pieces of my TK armor would really come in handy in a zombie attack. Bite proof!
-Damn, I hope I have time to shit before KG and the baby come home.
-It'd be nice to only want to collect one thing. Stupid pop culture, now I have to watch Reservoir Dogs this weekend!
-I would feel more comfortable if planes flew on the ground.
-Sometimes, people who feel OK don't deserve it.
-Why do they play REM on a classic rock station? Not that I mind, I like the song and all, but do they classify as classic rock? What is the definition now? And why will they give away tickets to Def Leppard yet not play their songs?
-I sing good when I'm alone in the car.
-I like a manual transmission and all, but it really sucks when you're sitting in traffic. It'd be nice if it shifted for you. Oh, yeah... they have that. It's called an automatic.
-901VFB. Very flatulant Bostonian.
-A lot of these cars seem to be from Toyota of Weymouth. Odd.
-I really, really want to Force choke the living shit out of Bob. Seriously.

Yup. Like Homer, I get bored and make up my own movie in my mind. Happy weekend, all. You deserve it.

One of those moments

The other day while picking up some scripts at CVS, I picked up a Death Star PEZ dispenser. When I got home from work today, my sister and her room mate were here waiting for me. We hung out for a while, and then they left. I was playing with my PEZ dispenser when they left, and offered up the last pieces of candy in it. Nick saw me playing with it, and wanted to hold it. So, I let him. He held the dispenser in his hand, looked at the Death Star and said "Moon." To which I replied:
"That's no moon. It's a space station!"
Thank you, Nick. You rock.

TK Junior 

Costume junkies are people too

I was checking the 501st boards tonight, and found a link to a great doc in the works.Heart of an Empire is about the people behind the masks. The human side of the 501st. I haven't made a trip to a children's hospital yet, but I've heard many times that a lot of the guys are pretty torn up after leaving. I look at TK Junior, and I refuse to even contemplate anything bad happening to him. Albin Johnson, the founder of the 501st, has a little daughter. She's got a brain tumor.
Sometimes God kills little children.
Being in love, loving, being loved... they are wonderful things. They open you up to a world of hurt, of course. But it's good to know you can feel something strong enough to be hurt by it's loss. That's what life is all about, I suppose.
Tomorrow, life will be full of meetings and reports. I get to learn about all the wonders of Horizons 9.0. I get to summarize and share our error report. I get to listen to the nurses' union reps bitch about all the clerical work they have to do, and how the laptops are destroying their lives. I wish, I wish so much, that for one moment I could be like Darth Vader. I would stand behind the conference table and clench my fist. FK, the labor leader, would choke, and I would say simply "I find your lack of faith disturbing." I shit you not, the lure of the Dark Side is strong.
Alas, I will have to be content to share my wry observations and go about my business.
I'm going to have to miss my 3PM cookie break. But at least I get my cube to myself for the day. So I got that going for me!

Milk and Cookies

So, sometimes being vocal with your geekiness pays off. I've been lamenting the increase of shitty food in my life lately. I gots to get me all this SW merch and tie-ins, and it requires eating a lot of junk food. So, I was a bit dismayed when I saw pictures of the 20+ kid's meal premiums at Burger King. They're really cool, but that's a lot of flamed broiled crap to consume. Well, my griping paid off. Seems DP's sig other manages a BK, and she's going to hook me up. Sweet! I was starting to suspect I'd be starring in the sequel to "Supersize Me". Dodged a bullet there.
Seems Trainwreck has created some hard feelings with my counterpart Mcmee. MT has a tendency to talk directly with me about what people in Operations "should" be doing rather than going through my boss. Fine with me, I have no bones about making policy decisions. However, Mcmee is supposed to be my equal, so she got a little bent when MT asked me about having her help out with training. MT did not ask Mcmee or my boss. Oh well. I took it upon myself to share the info. All I know for sure is that MT decided I was the go to guy before she ever met me. I think I've done a pretty fair job of living up to that expectation. It's not my fault the powers to be thought we should have two people in my position. And it's not my fault that not everyone is like me. It's probably a good thing. I try to do the best I can in my role, and I mostly succeed. The nurses trust me, and they like to deal with me. I enjoy helping them. I've been roped into a number of committees as well. Not my favorite thing, but I think I have a pretty good perspective. I can see things from both the clinical and the clerical side. I fix all the mistakes that both sides make. So I think my opinions are fairly balanced. I get the feeling sometimes that my boss and Mcmee think I've gotten a little big for my britches. Maybe I have. I dunno.
Anyhow... that's all shit I get paid to think about. I stumbled upon Darth Vader's blog tonight. Pretty funny stuff. I'm hoping the author keeps it up. With ROTS around the corner, it could only get funnier.
Ahhh, which reminds me. I need to head over to the Target website and buy a Darth Vader sprinkler and slip and slide for TK Junior. I swear, it's for him. Really.

All that and a Daddy too

So, I've been a bit neglectful as of late on my family site. After getting in the habit of blogging, it's felt too cumbersome to go onto the family site and muck around with HTML and uploading jpgs. As a result, my few faithful readers have been deprived of all things Nicknick.
I feel bad. I like the thought that family cares enough to check in for updates and pictures of my beautiful, happy boy. And I enjoy sharing them.
Being a father is an amazing fucking thing. Seriously. Every day of my life I get to be filled with wonder and fierce, animal love. When I see that half lidded, lopsided grin pointing my way, and catch those little twinkling eyes with mine, I touch the face of god. Of love. I dig it. It's hard to capture those thoughts and emotions in words. They transcend description. They defy language.
Anyhoo... I've decided to make some good of my newest addiction and start a TK Junior blog. I'm not promising anything yet, but I figure I'm more apt to update if I'm on here anyway.
Well, it's Friday night. Great Gig in the Sky is playing. Joe's Apartment is on. TKjr is sleeping soundly, and I'm feeling good about life.
Thank you RB for the Keeblers. Now I can get me some cookie jars!

Happy Birthday KG!!

Yes, my beloved turns 33 today. In honor of this event, I stopped into Newbury Comics on the way home to pick up a present or two.
First up was Cannibal The Musical. I picked out an Elmo video from Junior ( he takes for granted that we're all huge fans. Which, of course, we are). Then I grabbed a copy of Pulse. We are grooving to that as I type.
I have to admit, I am really, really fond of Roger Waters. I believe him to be the single most self absorbed person I have ever come across. But there's no irony in it. He's genuine. Authentic. And I like that in a person. Doesn't really matter what the quality is, as long as it's the real thing. I am fortunate to know many authentic people.
Anyhow... Floyd. I misplaced my copy of Dark Side a while back. Molius was cool enough to rip my a live copy from '74. It's good stuff. There's a chemistry between Waters and Gilmore that works perfectly. Pulse is from '94. No Roger. That's the problem with the post Waters era. Pink Floyd without Roger Waters sounds like Pink Floyd without Roger Waters. Roger Waters solo sounds like Waters without Floyd. They are incomplete.
But it's all still good.
Poor guys. They're getting sued left and right by their former back up singers. But that's beside the point.
I resisted all SW temptation while shopping for KG. Well... almost. We needed soda, and through no fault of my own, all Pepsi bottles are currently adorned with SW guys. Sweet!That got me thinking, and I found an old journal entry. I wrote it the day after I saw Episode 1. So I thought I'd share.
Oh.... the wife I mention... she's not mine anymore. I've got a much better one now. I love you, Kage. You truely rock my world.

May 20th, 1999. Every Saga has a beginning. Why do I feel that mine has just done that?
It could be any number of things, actually, but we all know it’s not. Sixteen formative years following those precious influential ones. A journey begun, uninformed, unseen, for my head was bent low. So here I am, 26, and the signpost appears.
Ritual. I can see this thought is going nowhere because I am stoned and I was interrupted by my wife. It’s the intrusions into the private moments I mind, despite the fact that that is part of the package. The pull of the Dark Side is strong, for fear does lead to anger, which then blossoms into hatred. Hatred rains down upon the heads of all with suffering. In any form, in any guise, the fact is still the same.
Anger grows from fear of a path obscured. All things stopped to rescue this fair maiden. Concentration and focus, things hard enough to come by due to deficiencies of diligence, were on the moment. Hit pause, freeze frame. No script, no safety net. Action.
Inertia follows. Stress mounts. Karma knocking at the door? What is being said? A mistake? Not a mistake, lack of focus? Somewhere, the path is not being followed. And ripples engulf us. Frightened of swells, gulping nervously for breath, losing site that the edge is only inches away. Or is it? It’s all a matter of perspective, and that was something I knew I had lost. No compass, no clue.
Clouded is his future. Much fear in him.
Yes, but he is the chosen one.
We have to ask... how much is fate, how much is happenstance?
And what does it really cost us.

The large print giveth and the small print takest away.


The benefactor, the Father, had given us a gift. It was ours to do with as we pleased. To take it for what it’s worth.
It’s not about net asset values. It’s not about testosterone. It’s not about hype. It’s about hope. It’s about compassion. It’s a fable.

Imagine that Jesus was crucified as an infant. Never given the chance to disappoint us with his inescapable humanness. Imagine he died an innocent. Now imagine there was no guilt. Is any of it necessary? You should just do what ever it takes to prosper, to empathize, and to benefit whenever possible. Mutual harmony is not such a scary thing as it seems. A hug is a pretty groovy thing.
And connecting, love, they ain’t so bad either. Touching is ok without the greed. It’s fat free and good for blood pressure. Pregnant women or women planning to get pregnant can handle it without risk of specific types of birth defects. I really, really want to know what those defects may be. Are we talking Sudden Infant Lycanthropy? That kind of frightens me, I’ll admit it.
Anyway, see the movie. Enjoy the experience. Have fun, and for a little while, try imagining. See what you think of.

My frickin teeth!

OK, ROTS merchandise is everywhere. For me, it's like every Christmas ever. The supermarket, the department stores, even the Qwikimarts have Star Wars stuff everywhere! Just today I was going gaga over SW boxer shorts and bedding sets. Tons of new toys and games..... you can see how this could easily lead me to financial ruin.
So, being the responsible adult I am, I've decided to limit the bulk of my merch purchases to food tie ins. I figure I can eat the food, so it's not a total waste of money. True, it means eating a lot of things that aren't part of my daily diet: Sugar cereals, poptarts, Cheez its, fruit snacks, candy. I have a big box I've been putting the empty packages in. So far I've been doing pretty good. Or so I thought.
M&M now has a downloadable PDF checklist so you can keep track of ALL 72 FREAKING PACKAGES!!!! And Skittles... well they have 48. 48!! I can't eat that many fucking M&Ms, nor do I want to! Christ almighty, can't we draw a line somewhere? If all I want to do is collect stupid plastic wrappers adorned with my favorite SW guys, I have to eat at least... AT LEAST 120 bags of sugar!
Well, this kid ain't gonna do it. Nothing's stopping me from buying all the mini M&M tubes with character toppers, but I have to draw the line somewhere. This collecting thing is getting out of hand.
And that leads me to my point. Collecting Star Wars action figures when I was a kid meant buying toys to play with. Yes, I took good care of them, but I played with them. So did most normal kids. That's why the damn things are so collectable. No 30 year old psychos hoarding shopping carts of PVC figure, never to be released from their cardboard and mylar prisons. The originals are a hot item because 95% of them were opened and played with. THEY ARE FUCKING TOYS, GOD DAMMIT!
Now, every company that gets the SW license makes "limited edition collectors items." What the hell is that? You only make 500 of something so everyone wants one, no one plays with it, and some fat asshole buys them all up and sells that at a huge mark up. Screw that. It's all about fun for me. If I'm buying an action figure, I want to play with it. I want my kid to play it. You can have your exclusive "lava red Vader" and you can cram it up your ass. Me, I've got the Hasbro T-16 Skyhopper. And sometimes, when I'm alone, I fly it around the room and think about teleporting off this planet.
That said, if anyone has a lava red Vader, or some SW M&M wrappers they don't want, I'd love to have them :-)

Spring cleaning

We had a very lovely Sunday. The baby stayed over his grandmother's Saturday night, so KG and I started the day off sleeping very late. Haven't been able to do that in quite some time.
I got up, coffeed myself awake and did some yardwork. There's two or three fall's worth of leaves piled up under every nook and crannie in the yard. Quite a bit of work, and still not done. KG bought some flowers for planting, and some yard stuff for the boy. Now that he's running around, I figured it would be nice to clean up the yard for him. Make it a friendly place.
The landlord stopped by on Saturday to snake the drains. Seems some concrete got down there last weekend when he was fixing the front steps. He expressed an interest in selling this place, and asked me if we had thought about buying at all. I hedged on an answer, since I wasn't sure where he was going with the conversation. Anyway, he mentioned he had offered it to our downstairs neighbors for a reasonable price. I'm aware that they are house hunting, but I also am aware that they are looking to get out of here. So, with a little prodding from KG's mom, my wheels started turning...
We could offer to buy this place from him. Move downstairs, make some repairs, and rent our apartment to help pay the mortgage. Our apartment is technically 3 bedrooms, and with new windows and doors could fetch at least a couple more hundred a month then what we're paying now. Or, even as is could go for a little more. That should, in theory, leave us with paying pretty much what we are now for a mortgage rather than rent.
Of course, this means two things. One, we have some work to do in order to get a mortgage. This is not my strength. We also need to look at some creative possibilities. That is my strength. So, we'll have to see what develops. The more I've thought about it, it would really be a good idea. This place could become a nice little home. If we're really lucky, perhaps we could manage to rent the upstairs to family or friend. My sis comes to mind.
Food for thought.
Speaking of food, I seriously have 5 boxes of Cheez Its in the house right now. All with SW characters on them. That's a lot of salty snacks. I bought a huge box of Apple Jax to get the lightsaber spoon, and ended up with a duplicate. Looks like RB will be getting a new spoon!
Pepsi has SW bottles now, so I bought a few of those. I also bought Crispix for the R2 bowl offer. Then at Walsmart I picked up SW sneakers for the boy. I couldn't resist getting the 4 saber Grievous for myself. The cashier looked at my items and said "Looks like someone's little boy like Star Wars." To which I replied "Nope, but Daddy does."

A Purple Umbrella and a 50 cent Hat

KG and I are hanging out, chilling to ZLX on a Friday night. They just played "Heartbreaker". This, of course, leads to a Zepp twofer, because you have to play "Heartbreaker" and Living Loving Maid" together. Kind of like "Peace Frog" and "Blue Sunday". Or "Brain Damage" and "Eclipse". The songs flow together.
OK, typing quotation marks is a real pain in the ass, so enough of that. And why the hell doesn't a keyboard have the cents sign? That's annoying.
Anyhow, as I was saying, or trying to say before I got distracted by my poor typing skills... There are certain classic rock standards that just have to be played back to back. It's the way of the world. Problem for me is, although I enjoy both songs, I'm always bothered by the coupling of heartbreaker and living loving. For me, they just don't together. Strange. Makes me wonder why I'd harbor such a crazy notion.
Well, when I first got into zeppelin, I borrowed most of their albums from my Uncle Mark. He's the one primarily responsible for turning me on to all the great classic rock acts. When I finally turned my attention away from prog rockers Genesis, he was ready and willing to lend me good music to groove on. Groove I did, and groove I still do.
The first copy of Zeppelin II that I listened too was on cassette. I carried that in walkman and car for some time. II and III are still my all time favorites. Anyhow, I guess back in the day when cassette tapes were the dominant format, the labels would occasionally re-arrange the order of certain songs so that the tape length was relatively uniform on both sides. Saved the consumer some time not having to fast forward or rewind to hear the whole album.
Zeppelin II was so re-arranged. If memory serves me, heartbreaker was followed by "thank you" on side A, and side B started with living loving maid. So, that's how I learned the album. Everyone with their vinyl or CDs knew the songs went together. I, I did not. And so, everytime I hear that twofer, I think about how they don't belong together. But maybe they do.
Some of us have developed a slightly different perspective, and that is a good thing.

Instead

Another largely unproductive day at work. I'm sort of discouraged, because it looks like we won't be making closing tomorrow. During my short tenure in this position, we've made closing. Every month. Without fail. But... Not this time. Through no failure on my part, mind you. One patient will remain on our error list, and there's nothing I can do about it. Such is life.
My manager is on vacation, kicking her heels in Sin City. The manager who is instead for her is off tomorrow, and asked me to be instead for her. So, this puts me in the unique situation of being in charge of two departments for the day. I feel the lure of the dark side already. How I would love to terminate a whole bunch of people in my one day as boss. I can imagine MC and JC coming back on Monday to find both their departments empty.
Of course, I wield no such power. But it's fun to imagine. On the plus side, I am literally in charge of myself, so I decided to give me a break. I told myself I didn't have to do any work today. And I haven't. I'd tell me to go home early, but I have to drive to NH tonight for a wake. So I'm actually stuck here waiting for KG to drive up. Bummer. Maybe tomorrow I'll let me go a little early. Me deserves it.
In other news, I've been spending quite a bit of time on Lego Star Wars. It's been a lot of fun. I managed to make it through all the levels pretty quickly, but now I have to replay each one to find all the secrets and bonuses. That'll unlock the bonus level, which I'm hoping has something to do with Episodes 4-6. There is something thoroughly enjoyable about sitting on the couch, controlling little Lego SW characters. A novel idea that turns out to be quite addictive.
Yesterday, Molius blogged about all the annoying comments he got at work when he decided to wear a tie. I've gone through the same thing, even when I was wearing one once a week. So, with that fresh in mind, I've been sitting here at work today in a tie and blazer. I can't begin to tell you how satisfying it is to me to see the look on these jokesters faces when I inform them that I am dressed this way for a wake. It may be sick, but it gives me a good laugh.

RPOs and popping zits

KG and I had very different days at work today.
Jimbo stopped by the cube for a chat this afternoon. He was inquiring as to whether or not I'd be interested in coming over this evening to watch him perform self-surgery on a blood clotted fingernail. I declined with regret, since that sounded pretty fun. Later today, he stopped by after having succesfully employed an office paperclip to do said surgery. I'll have to admit, his finger looked a lot better.
This lead to a conversation about our signifigant others' proclivity for popping back zits. Seems both our ladies enjoy this past time. For me, it's an occasional, short lived torture. KG does a good job. She gets all my posion out. Jimbo's gal likes to force them before they even have a head. That's brutually dedicated work.
Molius brought me a TK Pez dispenser. It makes a nice compliment to my Mikroman.
KG works for the same company that kept me employed for a good number of years. Biffdis. The wonderful world of mutual funds and financial services.
Seems they have this silly policy that if you want to open a mutual fund, you need to send in an application and a minimum of 1K. Seems fair to me. Any old hows, she told someone to reject an account application beacuse there was no check. Someone was nice enough to try calling the guy three times. They held the app for several days. Couldn't get a hold of him. So, the verdict was to write a pleasant letter of rejection, and return the application to him. This should, in theory, inform him that he failed to send a check, and allow him the oppurtunity to rectify his oversight.
Not to be. The person processing the rejection demanded a manager's approval for the rejection. The manager, excercising his MBA entitled authority, made an exception and told them to open the account. Decision made on a whim. KG, being the woman I love, baulked at the notion, and said so. As only KG can.
So, net result: The shareholder, because that's what he is now, gets a new account with no money. He can send the money whenever he sees fit. KG, she has a meeting with the Bob's tomorrow morning to discuss not the process or procedures used to make her decision, but the tone of her voice.
That's work for you.
Oh, and someone finally invented the perfect alarm clock.

Circa 10/31/96

He sat alone in his apartment, waiting. This was nothing new. In fact, it was pretty much an established ritual. Not that he minded, though. No, it wasn’t waiting for friends to call that caused him annoyance. Often he was left hanging by one person or the other. Hours spent waiting for plans to take shape. It wasn’t this at all.
It was the fact that he spent this time so idly that ate at him. The period between getting home from work and actually heading out for the evening had the possibility of being constructive time. Time spent catching up on the perpetual maintenance of his apartment. Time spent paying bills, or pouring over the flood of magazines and newspapers that came in daily. Time spent organizing and throwing out. Instead, this down time was often spent in front of the TV, accomplishing nothing. He could perhaps rationalize this if he was absorbing something useful from the TV- even pure entertainment. But as of late he could not even remember what he had watched five minutes ago. Truth be told, it was time spent slacking- physically and mentally.
Projects left uncompleted. Phone calls put off. In his own low-rent psychoanalysis, he felt this was a result of childhood development (or lack there of). His parents, however eager to encourage his myriad hobbies and interests, never put any pressure on him to follow through and complete something. They never required him to become proficient in any endeavor. He saw the tenfold uncompleted model kits of his youth. All were projects begun with enthusiasm and intent. All were begun with diligence. However, when it came time for the tedious assembly of engine parts or the like, he lost his steam. All were left half finished. He saw these incomplete kits reflected in the semi-chaotic clutter of his apartment. He saw it in Mark’s music video he was creating-mired at the three quarters completed point.
As far as the apartment clutter, the problem seemed to be that as long as things remained at a level he considered manageable and livable, it was OK to leave it be. Occasionally, it would sink lower. He would spend several phrenetic hours "cleaning house" until again he reached the acceptable level of disorder.
As for the music video, that was more complicated. He truly desired to complete that, if not for himself then at least for Mark. What had been completed had been done in a burst of creative energy. He had stopped to rest and contemplate how to arrange the ending. During that hiatus he had lost his momentum. Now the stress of wanting to finish the project, coupled with the stress of other pressing matters, chocked his creativity. Those bursts of inspiration were coming less and less. It truly upset him.
Chris sighed and snubbed out his cigarette. He looked at the mashed filter thoughtfully. Smoking helped whittle away the time. It was a sure way to kill seven minutes and take the edge off of boredom. Also, it kept him from actually doing anything. To get up and clean would mean leaving an unattended smoking article. To read or pay bills would distract him from smoking, leaving the cigarette to burn into a cylinder of ash. At three dollars a pack, Chris did not feel quite so rich as to allow himself such shameless waste. So he let the habit remain what it was. A crutch.
Now he sighed more loudly and stood up. The cat, which had been sleeping against his leg, looked up quizzically. Petting Quentin on the head, Chris reflected on how his reflection also ate up a lot of time. He never made any serious effort to resolve anything. He would just sit and reflect on his life. He would acknowledge his problems and shortcomings to himself, and then let them be. No plan put into motion on actually addressing and redressing them. If knowledge was half the battle, then it was one more thing he spent his life in only going half way.
For someone who supposedly craved resolution in life, he had developed a rather pernicious habit of leaving loose ends.
The tolls of his inaction were beginning to show, however. It was this more than anything else that made him realize it was time to break this pattern. It was one thing to wade in mediocrity and lack of initiative* if it only hurt yourself. But others were affected, and that he felt, was unallowable.
He felt that the center of this mental holocaust was the quagmire of his adolescence. Those years were a juggernaut of turbid emotions he could not reconcile with. To avoid the confrontation with his own damaged soul that he felt was unavoidable, he intellectualized rather then emoted. To open that flood gate would be overwhelming. Perhaps though, he feared, it was time to do just that.
The Great Flood. Sacrifice. Rebirth.
It was without a doubt frightening. His own emotions were his personal Gethsemane. He would drink the cup of his psyche only with grave resignation and dread.
Chris S

I found that entry on my journal file. Were it not for KG and Nick, I'd probably be singing the same song these days.
Just for shits and giggles, I googled my blog name. Only two hits came up: the blog itself, and this. Interesting, someone is keeping track!

Sneaky Sith Bastard

I went back to work today, woohoo! Of course, there were tons of problems, lots of things to catch up on. I took a Vicodin around 10, and felt pretty stoned for the rest of the day. Not pleasant stoned. More like my eyes were out of focus and I couldn't concentrate.
On the way home I popped into Newbury comics to pick up Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds B-Sides and Rarities . I'll be spinning that shortly. While I was there, I saw these neat little mini busts of various Star Wars villians. They didn't have any Stormtroopers in stock, so I opted for Vader . I got home opened it up, and found Darth Maul inside! Hey, I got nothing against Maul. He's pretty cool, in a junkyard dog sort of way. But I wanted Vader.
Oh well. Could have been worse. It could have been Wat Tambor.

Post Op Blues

So, today was a fun day. We had our first real taste of spring. Sunny and warm, almost hit 70. I was feeling very lucky, as I got to leave work early, and finally managed to pick up Lego Star Wars, which I will be getting back to shortly. On a less exciting note, I got to undergo some dental surgery .
In order for the DMD to get the post done, he had to cut away the gum around the tooth. They peel it back like a banana. Then, to insure that it heals up nice, they cover the area in silly putty. OK, maybe it's not really silly putty, but it sure looks like it. Silly me, I thought it would be a small area, right around the tooth. Oh no... the lower half of my jaw is covered in this pink shit. I've been oozing blood, and the temporary crown isn't placed as well as it was, so I can't bite down very well.
This will last a week or two. In the meantime, I have a scrip for Vicodin (nice!), and I'm on a soft food diet. Not supposed to smoke, either. Oh well. I was reading over the post op instructions, and I noticed they also advise against heavy lifting. Heavy lifting???? I'm not sure what that has to do with my teeth, but I'll avoid it anyway.

Darth Pope?

OK, so maybe I've got a little too much Star Wars on my mind these days. Now that the Pope has died, and a new one must be chosen... I came up with an idea for world peace.
We need a Sith pope. One who will rally the flock. Convert all the right wing fundamentalists, since their ideology is pretty much the same. The Catholic church has power, money and influence. Create a grand army of the faithful, Christians Soldiers, if you will.
Then, like the Romans, the church should occupy the Middle East. Reclaim the Holy Land. After all, it is their holy land as well. Crush all resistance with brute force. And what do you have? World peace. More or less.
It worked for Sidious. He did end the war. And Vader did technically bring balance to the Force. So maybe it'd work here as well. Hell, while we're at it, how about giving me some Jedi powers? All I really want is the ability to do the Force push. Or maybe the choke. That'd be cool. I have a feeling I'd be neck deep in the dark side in no time!

Chillin at Toshi Station

The Force was in full effect today. Not just for me, either. I started off my day with a trip to Target, WalMart and Borders to partake of all the new SW merch. I was good. I came home with a Clone Trooper, a T shirt for Nick, some M-pire M&Ms, the novel, and the visual dictionary.
This evening, I did a stormtrooping gig at the MoS. They are going to have a huge SW exhibit this summer, so they wanted a couple of troopers to show up tonight for a private party. It was a good time. On the way home, I popped into Toys R Us to check out their display. Tons of really cool toys which I resisted. I did pick up some SW beanie babies for Nick and a lightsaber lollipop for me.
The day was not a total success. Lego Star Wars was the one thing I really wanted to come home with today. After searching fruitlessly for it most of the day, I learned it hasn't been released yet. Tuesday. D'oh!
So, I will have to be satisfied for a few days with what I have. I've got me some reading to do at any rate. Then, Tuesday, it'll be time for some fun in front of the TV.

The acting President was kissing an imaginary toaster...

Just watched the season finale of Battlestar Galactica. Wow. I say it again... wow. For those who haven't been following, now is a good time to start. It's mini-series month on Sci Fi. So, you can catch the pilot, and they'll be rerunning the first season. It's been the best hour on TV this year, and I'm already looking forward to July, when season 2 launches. I'm almost as excited about it as I am about ROTS.
Speaking of men in robes, the watch is on for poor John Paul Dos. JP, I hope your journey is easy. It should be interesting to see how the world plays out with his passing. Big changes are afoot. I'm hoping for the best.

They're after me lucky charms

So, we're doing a system upgrade at work this weekend. Our server has been shut down, all the laptops returned, all the desktops sleeping. Tomorrow we'll have a shiny new update. To prepare for a computerless weekend, I had but one task today. Print the Alpha list.
The Alpha list is a fearsome creature. A 500 page report that has been rumored to slow our network down fo hours, creating havoc for the brave souls in Operations. The legend of the Alpha List strikes fear in those who depend on it.
Well, I did a test run yesterday, and found myself with only a large document that took fifteen minutes to print and had no apparent impact on the speed of our network. Nice. So I wisely decided to wait until the end of the day today to print 2 copies. It'd take half an hour, most of the people who use that printer would be gone, and it would be more up-to-date than something I printed yesterday. Ha!
I warned folks I was running it at 3. Leave the printer alone, and all will be well. At 3, I ran it, and all was good. I checked on my report, I walked away to get some more paper. I returned a few moments later to discover the Leperchaun pulling the drawers out. She managed to jam the printer while impotently poking about. The report was getting all screwed up, the printer was off line, and the minutes were ticking by.
Molius to the rescue, the printer back on line. I manage to get my 2 copies printed, and only stayed half an hour late.
Tomorrow, I head back in to test the system. Make sure we can all continue to do our jobs badly. Then, it's off to the stores to check out all the ROTS merch. Do our taxes, and then head back to Cambridge to do some trooping. A full day for sure. Others will be spending the day actually putting our whole business back on line. To those about to spend a rainy Saturday not rocking, I salute you!