Powerless

Power outage at work! Been awhile since that's happened, our usual annual summer power failure. Only about 30 minutes, but enough to frag the servers, it would seem.

Dachsund DIY

This clip (from Cutebreak) amuses me...


Dachsund playing fetch by himself.

Gruh

Today was annoying. Just dealing with work stuff. Way too much going on, too few people to do it, and nobody communicating and/or knowing what's going on. It stresses me out.

Simpson Looking Back

Jessica Simpson's lamenting more than her expressionless eyes, I guess...

Who Knew Dickless Had Big Balls?

I did. Don't believe? Check it out...



Best chick Grunge band? They certainly get props for their band name, which is great for a Grunge Grrl Group. Kelly Canary's vocals (I would classify them as a gila monster gargling gunpowder and whiskey-soaked razorblades) are alternatively off-putting and charming, especially when paired with the killer riff they have as the bedrock of that tune. Dickless were a blink-and-you'd-miss-them band, but the above cut is priceless and unforgettable.

Their tune, "Sweet Teeth," plays a bit with Sabbath's "Sweet Leaf" riff, adding bucketloads of Grunge to it...

Dickless, "Sweet Teeth"

Yawn

I woke up around 3:30 this morning. Just woke and couldn't get back to sleep. It's been nicer than it has been -- cool in the evenings, and not blisteringly hot and humid as it has been.

Plane in vain

This is my one shot from the Air & Water Show. My camera's battery died before the Blue Angels appeared! This is kind of a tradition for me -- I wear out my camera's battery so when it's time to try to shoot the planes flying around, the camera's dead. Not like it matters -- I don't have a fancy camera, no telephoto or anything, so it's hard to get killer shots, anyway. Still, I liked the above so you could see just how low that plane got. It has to be fun for the people in the boats out there, getting buzzed (both literally and figuratively).

GoBots

While looking into the loser predecessor of TRANSFORMERS -- the ill-starred GoBots, I stumbled across this gem of a clip from the GoBots show, which is unintentionally hilarious.

Air & Water, Shown

Round 1 of the A&WS, the Blue Angels this year. They alternate with the Thunderbirds. I had the boys downtown, catching "Despicable Me" again (in 3-D). They wanted to see it again, so I obliged them. Gotta love those double-barrel 3-D prices ($35 for the boys and me, good lord -- that's why 3-D is so popular -- lets the theaters ramp their prices skyward). Anyway, it's crazy-hot-n-humid here, still no real relief in sight. The boys had a good time downtown, despite the teeming hordes.

Soundwave

I got my boys the old TRANSFORMERS show on DVD. The show was always conceived as a toy-selling medium, of course, but I remembered watching it in my childhood, so I was watching it with them a bit. I think Soundwave is the spookiest of the Decepticons -- not only does he have that cool synthesizer voice, but he's big and is always lurking about creepily, and lacks any discernible personality -- all terribly creepy. Megatron's a blowhard, and Starscream is a shrill buffoon, but Soundwave is the most inscrutable, and, therefore, the most alien and malevolent-seeming. You don't know fully what Soundwave's up to, only that it's no good. One thing that always bugged me about Soundwave is that formidable-seeming device on his shoulder. I had always wanted him to fire that sucker, which could be a gatling gun-type weapon, or, perhaps, a missile launcher. But he never, ever used it. It irked me as a kid. Even as a type of microphone, it never showed up. I guess they just put it up there on his shoulder to make him appear more badass.

My favorite Decepticon was Shockwave (although Starscream always amused me, with Cobra Commander's voice and all, and his endless scheming against Megatron -- the "Odd Couple" relationship between Megatron and Starscream amuses me). My favorite Autobot was Brawn. B1's favorite Autobot is Optimus Prime ("He's very strong, and he agrees with some stuff and sometimes he doesn't."); his favorite Decepticon is Shockwave (B1 says "He looks interesting and cool, and when he talks, his yellow dot eye flashes"). B2's favorite Autobot is Bumblebee ("Because he's small.") His favorite Decepticon is Thundercracker ("Because he's BLUE!")

Air, Water, Show

The Air & Water Show is this weekend, so the city's full of roaring planes the past few days, as the participants practice, get their dose of airtime, buzzing the city. Jetwash weekend! Shock and awe! I saw a flight of Stealth fighters and a pair of B-1 bombers fly earlier today. Something loud is flying now, an F-15 they trot out. There should be an F-22 flying this year, too, since there wasn't one last year.

Feed the Tree

As you can see, the clementine is doing just fine! In case you were worried.

Zzzzzzzzz

I had insomnia this morning -- work-stress was waking me up, around 3:30 a.m. I couldn't go back to sleep, so, as I usually do when insomnia hits, I just do stuff. In this case, laundry. I got that done in the wee hours, and managed maybe another 25 minutes of sleep between loads. Still, not enough sleep. Gruh.

This morning's going to be crazy-busy. There's a conversion to XML going on, and our IT people have fallen behind on that, so, I'm having to lend a hand to get the wheels of (publishing) industry rolling again. The Editorial Commando strikes again. I'd rather not, but I was "asked" to do so, and so, I add that IT workload to my manuscript mountain range on my desk. I figure I can give them an hour of my day, and hopefully get their stuff done (odds are it'll be an hour of my day, each day, for the next four months. So, that adds up! My success in this endeavor is invariably my doom -- I'll be "rewarded" with more of that stuff, once I demonstrate that it can be effectively done.)

I sent out a query for a different book of mine, in hopes that the agent I sent it to would be amenable to it. We'll see. I truly can't get my hopes up, but it's a good fit for the agent, so we'll see if he goes for it or not. My bet's on not, but one has to try, regardless.

Totally wiped today. Sleep-debt's a bitch. I will try to make it up over the weekend, although we'll see how it goes. I'm invariably the first responder with the boys, so they'll wake up like at 6:30 and be like "Daddy!"

Saw at the Ralph Lauren Rugby store the other day, the obligatory nippled mannequins -- male and female, sportin' the nips. Now, I ask you the aesthetic behind that. Can you imagine the people in charge of the window displays, saying "We need nippled mannequins. Perkily nippled mannequins." I mean, they're mannequins, so realism is kind of beside the point (so to speak) -- nobody's going to look at them and think "OMG! Those people are statues!" They're mannequins. So, why give'em nipples? There's some psycho-sexual undercurrent at work with them, right? Show chick mannequins in bikini tops with perky nipples? Oh, how risqué, Ralphie boy! What sly and elegant subversion! (sarcasm)