I seem to have come down with a cold. (Not a surprise, considering where I work.)

I’m going home soon to curl up on the sofa with hot tea and a good book. So don’t be expecting anything profound until my head clears.

Freedom & Necessity (1997) Steven Brust and Emma Bull

Delving back into Brust section of my bookshelves, I came back with Freedom and Necessity, a book that I remember as complicated, although good. And since I remembered nothing of the plot, I figured it was a good candidate for re-reading.

I have to admit that as much as I like this novel, reading it makes me feel stupid.

Read more about Freedom & Necessity

I found out today that someone I graduated from high school with died earlier this month.

I had only 42 people in my graduating class. It was a Catholic high school and we were the next to last graduating class. Mismanagement is probably the primary reason the school closed, at least that’s how it felt at the time.

I hated high school—I’d even go so far as to say I despised it. I was painfully geeky, and brought down upon myself all the teasing that being smart and ugly brought you in high school.

My class has not held a class reunion, despite the fact that it’s been almost 17 years since graduation, and I’m not sure if I’d want to go if there was a reunion. Maybe things would be different after all this time, but the idea of seeing some of my classmates again gives me a sick to my stomach feeling—as if all the intervening years had dropped away to make me who I was then, instead of who I am now.

And today I find out that Amy has died, and it brings the realization that despite there being so few of us, there are those I graduated with that I hardly knew. I pulled out my yearbook when I got home. Found what she’d written to me. “I don’t really know you, but you seem like a nice girl…”

It doesn’t make me feel bitter, as much as it makes me feel sad and small. Sad, because I never knew her, and now never will. Small, because part of me still doesn’t want to know my former classmates. Small, because I fear that I’ll have turned out to be just as pathetic as they expected.

Oddly enough, the mortality part of it doesn’t bother me as much as I’d have thought it would. I’ve made huge changes in my life in past years—quitting smoking, reducing my drinking, increasing my exercise—all in theory to improve my health and extend my life. Except that for the most part it’s the short term benefits of those acts that have been important, not the long. Smoking seemed to exacerbate colds, exercise makes me feel better physically and mentally, and the drinking went out the door with the smoking.

In my gerontology class several semesters ago, we were supposed to tell the class how we imagined our old age. I, like several others in my class, can’t imagine my old age. Such a thing is almost surreal to me, like the idea of interstellar travel. I have no idea that tomorrow will bring, so it makes little sense to worry about things even further down the road. (Despite that I still set aside extra money into my retirement fund each paycheck. I may be blind to the future, but I’m not foolish.)

I was told that Amy left behind three children, at least one of whom will never really know their mother, and that does sadden me. Somehow, those children and their loss seem far more real to me than their mother.

And that too is sad.

In my on-going effort to learn more about CSS, I’ve redesigned the main page of my site.

I’ll probably be redesigning other pages in the site over the next several weeks, but you have to start somewhere.

…All the Other Rats are Doing It

Quiz Time!

Interesting that I’m as likely to become Republican as I am Nazi.
(more…)

There’s nothing like trying to learn something by yourself to make you feel like an absolute idiot.

And so as a reprieve from idiocy….

The Infinite Cat Project: Cats, looking at cats, looking at cats…

The Treason Trial of Aaron Burr. I have to admit that everytime I hear the name Aaron Burr, I immediately think of the milk commercial. (clip available here if you scroll down.)

And the bird flu, an on-again off-again threat since ’97, is once again garnering attention and worry. Is the world prepared for a flu pandemic? Probably not. But then if we can ignore genocide, we can probably ignore almost anything.

First, science is fun.
Second, because of places like this.

Happy Birthday Erin!

The Phoenix Guards (1991) & Five Hundred Years After (1994) Steven Brust

Sometimes you just need to read a book that you know is going to make you happy. When those times come upon me, I frequently read Steven Brust.

The Phoenix Guards and Five Hundred Years After are two of the ‘Khaavren Romances’ centered around Khaavren the Tiassa, and written in the style of Alexandre Dumas.

(S)omeone once asked, in all seriousness, which was the best translation of Dumas’ The Three Musketeers into English. The two fastest answers she got were “Learn French, as nobody’s managed to make a translation that’s half as good as the original”, and “The Phoenix Guards.”

Read More about Steven Brust’s The Phoenix Guards & Five Hundred Years After

$#&$&@ stinkin’ spammers…

Due to the high amount of comment spam I’ve been getting, and the fact that Blacklist doesn’t seem to be working, currently comments require approval before they’ll appear.

Sorry.

So go ahead and comment, it’ll just take a few hours for the comment to appear. At least until the volumn of comment spam drops, or I get MT blacklist to work.

ADDENDUM the First: Latest version of MT installed…

ADDENDUM the Second: Latest version of Blacklist installed. Comments have now been set to previous status. Cross your fingers….

Unlike Pericat, I’m okay with the top items in my referrer logs.

vlad taltos
odd things
plane picture
grass jelly
cirque dreams program
craft corner deathmatch
states admitted to the union
plush germs
stephen hawking iq
bathtub

Oddly enough, I know precisely which pages each request was sent to.

So, apropros of nothing in one of Pericat‘s posts, I wondered whether countries other than Canada had flags with plants.

Belize has a tree, although it’s not the focal point
British Indian Ocean Territory has a tree, though I have no idea where they’re located
Lebanon has a nice tree in the center of their flag.
Norfolk Island also has a tree in the center of their flag.

So, from what I found, it looks like only Canada, Lebanon, and Norfolk Island have flags that feature plant matter. Of those three, I have to say that I think the flag of our great enemy to the North, Canada, is the most attractive.

I love the internet.

All flags in alphabetical order
Flags of the World

So, they’ve cancelled “Enterprise.” the last Star Trek show left on the air.

Michael and I have not watched it (he, for lack of access; me, for profound lack of interest) but my mother (who has a framed certificate saying she graduated from Starfleet Academy) hated last season, and pretty much gave up watching. (Though I know that this season she at least watched the episodes with Brent Spinner.) So I’m not really surprised at this turn of events. Michael, however, is a little saddened, since this will be the first time for years that there won’t be a Star Trek show on.

To be honest, I could care less, since the only Star Trek show I really liked was “Deep Space Nine.” I can watch “The Next Generation” but can’t stand any of the other shows (and I’m pretty vehement about it too. Michael watched an episode of “Voyager” where they landed the ship on a planet. I think I made fun of that for years. [Giant ship. Itty bitty legs.]).

But he’s right that it is strange. No more Star Trek on TV, and no more movies.

Whatever will I mock?

Oh, wait. Reporting like this:
“Star Trek” movies also have been released.

Really?

The schedule for this years Festival of Ideas is out. Except for “Ethical Leadership in Business” they all look very interesting. (Though come to think of it, ethical business values may be pure fantasy, so it COULD be interesting at that)

Monday, Feb 21 · Constance Morella
The Marshall Plan: The Gift That Keeps on Giving
The Legacy of the Marshall Plan
Mountainlair Ballroom · 7:30pm

Wednesday, Mar 2 · Julian Bond
Civil Rights: Now and Then
Mountainlair Ballroom · 7:30pm

Monday, Mar 7 · Carolyn Kepcher
Ethical Leadership in Business
Mountainlair Ballroom · 7:30pm

Monday, Mar 21 · Cyril Wecht
Role of Forensic Pathology in Modern Day Society
Mountainlair Ballroom · 7:30pm

Monday, Mar 28 · Moral Values Debate
Reds vs. Blues: The Question of Moral Values in America
Mountainlair Ballroom · 7:30pm

Monday, Apr 18 · Morgan Spurlock
Supersize Me
Mountainlair Ballroom · 7:30pm

Monday, Apr 25 · Seymour Hersh
The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib
Mountainlair Ballroom · 7:30pm