So a little research on YouTube turned up this video clip from a 1969 movie. Can you name the famous cartoon character who’s voice is in this scene? It’s best evident at 3:08 or so.
Non-Existence.
This has been a little bit of a strange week thus far. I’m already in a weekend frame of mind, which isn’t entirely unusual in itself since I’m sort of wired for the weekend but tonight I keep thinking tomorrow is Saturday. And it’s only Wednesday. And I have to get up at 5:30 tomorrow morning to work the early shift.
I think the week is a little weird because it’s bookended with extra days off. I called off sick on Monday due to that 24-hour bug thing I had (which is completely out of my system, apparently) and I have a forced day off from work on Friday. Jamie will be out of town and Earl has taken a vacation day on Friday so it looks like there might be an adventure in the Jeep this weekend. And I’m kind of thinking about that. I have other things on my mind as well, but I’m definitely in a weekend mood.
Last night we had our adventure at Dunkin’ Donuts; tonight Jamie, Earl and I dressed in a presentable manner and went to Barnes and Noble where we read books, interacted with society, looked wise and had a cookie. There were no discussions about the lad named Beef Stew because he doesn’t work at Barnes and Noble, so instead we talked about important things such as the unavoidable arrival of 2012 in three years, the quality of a pumpkin chai and whether George Carlin lived in Nevada or not.
Yep, definitely in a weekend mood.
Windows 7.
Yes, it’s true. I have been selected to host an official Windows 7 Launch Party. The event takes place on Friday, October 23. I’ll be giving away some door prizes (including a copy of Windows 7 Home Premium) and the party is more of a happy hour with some Windows swag and chances to play with the new operating system thrown in.
I have to admit that I am very impressed with the latest version of Windows. It surprisingly runs better than Leopard on my MacBook Pro (the jury is still out on my comparison to Snow Leopard) and looks and feels gorgeous. I have been using a 90 day copy of the RTM (release to manufacturing) version on my PC and I have been quite pleased.
I could get into lots of details of the changes and such, but I found a very thorough review of Windows 7 on ActiveWin. Follow this link to read (or skim) the 70 page review if you’re so inclined.
Snack.
Earl and I ran out to the local car dealership to put his work vehicle in for it’s routine maintenance. The weather was so balmy that I decided to pick him up in the Jeep. The Jeep is still in summer mode in that the sides and back are off and the doors have been removed. To make sure no autumn chill made the ride uncomfortable, I threw my sweatshirt on over the clothes I had changed into after work: the same comfortable t-shirt and jean shorts that I had worn during my sick day yesterday. Earl was dressed in similarly styled clothes: including a pair of cut off sweat pants and a t-shirt. He threw on a fleecy jackety thing to complete his ensemble.
After picking him up from the auto dealer I suggested we stop at Dunkin’ Donuts for a treat. After bombing around in the Jeep in relative darkness for a little bit, the bright lights of the store were a bit startling. I imagined that we looked like those folks you see in a 7-11 at 3:00 a.m. that are looking for a quart of Ben and Jerry’s and they’re not fussy about the flavour.
We opted for iced tea and a donut (so healthy) and sat down in the corner just to shoot the breeze a little bit. We discussed important issues like the complete reshooting of the varicose veins commercial they show prior to the main feature at the local theatre and the missing crew member at the Dunkin’ Donuts (who has a license plate that says his name is Beef Stew).
More importantly, we decided to sell the house and move into a trailer because we felt very dressed for the part.
Digs.
Yesterday when I was busy getting the cold that I now seem to be over, I put together my new desk. Earl and I have been arranging the furniture in the offices a little bit. This is the newest addition and it resides in my studio. I have plenty of room to be a geek now.
Recuperating.
So I have spent the day home from work recuperating from a bout with an apparent 24-hour bug. Yesterday afternoon I was hit hard by something that got me all stopped up. It was a struggle for me to breathe, I was sweating like a pig and I just felt like crap. I doubled up on the Vitamin C intake and hoped for the best but the bug ultimately won and I called off sick from work today. That’s very rare for me.
I ended up going to bed fairly early and didn’t wake up until between 11 and 12 this morning. When I awoke I had a nurse watching over me. I believe he said “no pictures” and told the camera to get out of there. I guess it was his Sean Penn imitation.
After spending until 1 p.m. in bed relaxing, fading in and out of consciousness and playing on the computer a little bit, I finally jumped into the shower and threw on my best clothes from 2003 (jeans shorts and a t-shirt) as I wanted to just feel comfortable. I had some lunch, drank more juice and by 2:30 or so I was feeling better. I’m not 100% by any stretch of the imagination but I’m getting there and feel like I’m making progress.
I think the boatload of sleep is what helped the situation. I’m going to take it easy this evening to make sure all is well before heading back to work in the morning.
Pandora.
I have recently discovered Pandora Internet Radio on my iPhone and have fallen in love with the service. It works flawlessly on my iPhone, even on the non-3G connections. The only problem with it is that I can’t listen in Canada without building up a HUGE international data charge.
Here’s the link to Pandora if you’re not familiar with the service.
Here’s the stats on my profile just in case you’re interested in what I’m doing on there. I have also added it to the “DJ SuperCub” tab at the top of the blog.
Lights.
I was out for a long drive (okay, a really long drive) when I tweeted the following1:
Yes, I saw a UFO tonight. It was a cone shape light, almost like someone was shining a flashlight in the air with a beam that appeared the come down a long way. The beam slowly split into two and then extinguished, leaving a luminous cloud behind. The cloud lingered around for about four minutes before dissipating.
There were hundreds of tweets appearing on Twitter around the same time I tweeted my sighting; folks from Maryland to Buffalo to New York to north of Boston had seen this thing. Folks had pulled over to the side of the road where I was driving and looking out the window.
NASA reports that they launched a rocket tonight: Night Time Artificial Cloud Study Using NASA Sounding Rocket. The launch was from the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
I’m guessing that’s what I saw.
1 Yes, I pulled over to Tweet.
Heritage.
Today is my mandatory day off from work so I made a trip up to where I grew up and surprised my dad by joining him for lunch. He was busy at work at the family business; when I arrived my dad was eating lunch in the office with my uncle and my aunt. I grabbed a lunch special from the Chinese restaurant across the street and joined them. We talked about the usual stuff; what was going on with the family, the town gossip and the general state of affairs in the world.
Afterward Dad asked me to join him as he went up to the local tractor dealer. We checked out new lawn tractors that will probably double as a snow-blower for him. It was a good visit and I felt very grounded.
I took a picture with Dutchess, who lives with my aunt. She is eight years old and prior to living with my aunt she lived with my grandfather (until ’05). Dutchess spends her days at the lumber yard/hardware store. She is camera shy.
