Like this was a big surprise.

I’m a literature nerd.
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Scientists have developed a way of converting one blood group into another.

The technique potentially enables blood from groups A, B and AB to be converted into group O, which can be safely transplanted into any patient.

This won’t solve the blood shortages–there simply aren’t enough people donating blood. (And I can’t donate anymore, since doing so pushes me over the line into anemia.) But it may help those of us who are universal donors rather than universal recipients.

Space thriller Serenity has beaten Star Wars to the title of best sci-fi movie in an SFX magazine poll of 3,000 fans.

Here’s the top ten:
1. Serenity
2. Star Wars
3. Blade Runner
4. Planet of the Apes
5. The Matrix
6. Alien
7. Forbidden Planet
8. 2001: A Space Odyssey
9. The Terminator
10. Back to the Future

“Well, my days of not takin’ you seriously are certainly coming to a middle.”

72 degrees and mostly sunny right now, then snow on Thursday.

And the last thing I did on my vacation: We finished watching Farscape. In three days we watched the end of Season 3, all of Season 4, and The Peacekeeper Wars.

My brain hurts.

Actually, it was pretty good–even Farscape – The Peacekeeper Wars, which Daniel had said was horrific. Of course a good bit of The Peacekeeper Wars was completely ridiculous, (Have a baby and then get up and kick butt? Unlikely.) but mostly I found it a satisfactory conclusion, in that it tied up all the loose ends and left me with a feeling of closure.

For the series as a whole, I found it hit and miss. Some episodes just didn’t make a lot of sense or made me cringe, while others were absolutely fantastic (the episode where John kept seeing things as a cartoon–pure genius). And in the middle of the series, I didn’t much care for how John changed from a use your brains to solve problems to a kick ass and take names kinda guy who thought first with his gun. That, combined with the number of scantily clad women aboard Moya, made it feel at times like a geek’s fantasy world. But that eventually sorted itself out, so for the most part it was pretty satisfying.

What I found interesting was that even though I found many of the episodes only to be so-so and even at times maddening, as a whole, I thought Farscape was very good, primarily due to an excellent group of actors who had fantastic chemistry. I mean, the sexual tension between John and Arin was… whew! And the desire to know what happened to those characters that made the whole thing so compelling.

That and the fact that they weren’t afraid to kill people off.

Now we have to decide whether to start watching Battlestar Galactica – Season One while my grandmother is visiting my Aunt in Virginia, or wait and save it for later–probably to watch it in the basement. Despite the fact that she really enjoys science fiction, I don’t think I want to watch Battlestar Galactica with my grandmother for the same reason we didn’t watch Farscape with her–just a little too much sex. (Either for her to enjoy the show or for me to be comfortable watching the show with her.)

Then we figure out what we should watch my grandmother finishes watching Babylon 5. We’ve watched it before. She’s now in the middle of Season 3. We have The Wild Wild West, but we really need something geekier in the line-up.

The USPS is coming out with Star Wars stamps, and is letting people vote on their favorite stamp, which will come out in a full sheet.

“Jedi Master Stamps”

My favorite?

But only because they didn’t have a stamp of just R2-D2.

(via This is not my blog)

Went to see Shooter (enjoyed it, but wouldn’t recommend it to my parents on grandmother).

And read. (My latest recommendations: What Angels Fear by C.S. Harris and Moonshine by Rob Thurman.)

Eat.

And buy things I can’t get in Morgantown.

Especially things relating to food:

Joseph Beth’s Bookseller
Fresh Market (grocery store)
Sur La Table (kitchen)
DSW (shoes for Michael)
Wild Oats (grocery store)
William-Sonoma (kitchen)
Papyrus (stationary store)
Aveda
Half Price Books
Jungle Jim’s (grocery store)
Newport Aquarium
Barnes & Noble
Graeter’s (6 pints of ice cream plus dry ice & cooler)
Sur La Table (kitchen)
Hush Puppies

That would be 3 bookstores (plus two where I didn’t buy anything) 3 grocery stores, and 3 kitchen related stores.

Plus ice cream and the aquarium.

And that pretty much sums up the first part of my vacation. The second part? Lying on the sofa reading. And probably some eating of ice cream.

I’d say that makes a perfect vacation.

Oh no! Not the dreaded fdg! Whatever shall we do?

It’s like an evil plan of bad weather.

It’s like the weather gods saying, “sunny, warm weather for everyone ELSE.”
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For those of you who aren’t Americans, or for those Americans who have been living in denial about how the Bush Administration treats returning veterans, things are not going very well for some of the veterans in VA hospitals across the US. As I and others warned years ago, cutting veteran’s benefits really couldn’t come to to any good.

But not only do they refuse to accept blame for the results of their actions, we now see someone trying to make an infestation of bats in a clinic in Oregon sound like a good thing:

“Eradication has been discussed but the uniqueness of the situation (the number of colonies) makes it challenging to accomplish,” according to the report, which said the bats were being tested for diseases. “Also, the bats keep the insect pollution to a minimum which is beneficial.”

(via my brother)

Not only is it the first day of spring, but it actually feels like spring outside!

Yay!

While searching for information on Adobe Acrobat, I found the information I needed in an Amazon review. While scrolling up to look at the specifications, I noticed an interesting recommended accessory for Adobe Acrobat 7.
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They are drilling concrete in the room next to me.

You can not even imagine how loud it is.

Even through my headphones and over the music in my headphones I can still hear it. Luckily, it’s techno, so the noises occasionally blend in with the music.