More Firefly

For anyone who wonders why I enjoyed the show so much:

Think of it as Star Wars, if Han Solo were the main character, and he still shot Greedo first.

(lva)

Blog is Back

And so my little corner of the internetosphere seems to have resurfaced, like flotsam bubbled aloft by a wave. I'm no longer 100% sure why Obscurorant vanished for several days. C'est la vie.

The other night I dreamed that I was captured by zombies. Yes, you read that read that right - captured, not eaten. I recall waking and thinking to myself Dude, how slow are you? They're zombies - run faster.

Big Plans

Some day things will change. Some day, things will be different. I shall have progressed, from a cranky young man living alone to a cranky old man living alone. And then I can begin to focus on important things.

Like scaring the children.

Yes, every neighborhood needs a crazy old man, to serve as a semi-mythical , nigh demonic figure in the over-active imginations of little tykes. To bear the honorarium "Old Man __________." I will inspire in them equal parts mirth and fear.

The children are our future. And they should be scared.

Get off my porch you goddam kids. Leave my bread alone! Mind pods!

Perspective

This song by X has been embedded in my brain since I woke this morning:

no one is united
all things are untied
perhaps we're boiling over inside
they've been telling lies
who's been telling lies?
-The World's A Mess It's In My Kiss

I need a new soundtrack. Suggestions?

News of the Day

I've loaded some more picture to my flickr account, including a set from this year's first trip to Fenway.

The Fenway pictures do a fine job of revealing my camera's shortcomings. It's an aged Cannon PowerShot S100 and it does yeoman work handling pictures at close range, like snapshots from weddings and the like. But if you want to take a picture at a distance (like the skyline over Fenway) or an action photo (like Trot swinging for the fences) well then not so much.

Under the Big Black Sun

When one has a nagging case of the blues, as I have lo! these past several weeks, a bit of retail therapy can be in order. Fortunately for me, this a relatively inexpensive proposition, as I'm easily distracted by a $0.50 paperback or the $3.99 CD. Anyhoo, here's some of my new acquisitions...

First off, I finally grabbed a copy of the Firefly DVD. The show is every bit as absorbing as it was on the first viewing. Most of the programming on TV is just plan shite, and most of what is worth watching airs on cable; watching the pilot episodes for the second time I couldn't help but be slightly amazed that Firefly managed to air at all on the carnival freak show that is network television. So go watch it already, and then go see the upcoming movie.

There's been music too. Like The Best: Make the Music Go Bang, a compilation from X, and you can never have too much X. This is an excellent place to start if you're not familiar with this band; or you can just go and buy the best parts of X's catalogue, re-issued by Rhino Records. Also in the rotation, two Richard Thompson CDs - Action Packed: Best of the Capitol Years and Shoot Out The Lights. Why two? Because sometimes you feel like hearing 1952 Vincent Black Lightning ("red hair and black leather, my favorite color scheme") and other times more like Did She Jump Or Wash She Pushed.

Secret Agent Man

This article did not make me feel particularly confident in the FBI. Among the jewels embedded within:

FBI supervisors in the war on terror have acknowledged they lacked expertise, but Director Robert Mueller says he is unwilling to require such managers to have backgrounds in Arabic, the Middle East or international issues.

Which makes sense, since such requirements might require Mueller himself right out of a job.

Mueller described his own expertise in Middle Eastern terrorism as having been "relatively limited" when he took over the FBI a week before the Sept. 11 attacks. For instance, he acknowledged he didn't know that a blind sheik imprisoned for plotting attacks in New York had been a spiritual adviser to Osama bin Laden.

"I am not certain of the role played between the blind sheik and bin Laden," Mueller conceded.

Yikes.

Death Sells

Suicide 100% Disappear 87% Bomb 80% Posion 60% Cut Throat 60% Stabbed 60% Natural Causes 60% Eaten 33% Accident 27% Suffocated 7% Disease 0% Drowning 0% Gunshot 0% How Will You Die?? created with QuizFarm.com

(LvA)

Men vs Women

1. I found this article to be very amusing.
2. I also found it eerily reminiscent of parts of my own life.

(lva)

First Time (This Year)

Wednesday night I made my first trip to Fenway this year. Heather has a few pictures in the Fenway section of her photoblog.

This snap she took of Trot swinging the bat is giving me camera-evy; my four year-old digital doesn't have those nifty zoom features.

My Cup Runneth Over

I will own this. I will watch this. Religiously.

An Auspicious Day

In addition to Memorial Day, this weekend marked the occasion of another celebrated holiday: the birthday of my younger sister.

In honor of this august occasion, I would like to share with you the secret of our close, loving and mutually-supportive relationship: a little game I long ago dubbed...

Who's Got the Toad?

My sister and I whiled away many pleasant hours playing game after delightful game of Who's Got the Toad? In case you'd like to try this at home with your younger sibling(s), here's how to play.

1. In addition to your younger sibling and yourself, you will need several other participants. Two is enough, but three or four is really ideal.

2. You will also need a toad.

3. Now - you and your compatriots should surround your younger sibling, each with one arm outstretched and hand closed, while chanting in unison "Who's got the toad?"

4. One by one you and the other participants should open your hands.

5. The person actually holding the toad should open his or her hand last - and deposit the toad on your younger sibling.

6. Merriment ensues.

In retrospect I am sometimes amazed that I survived to adulthood without being smother in my sleep by my sister. But then I have always been a very light sleeper.

Happy birthday Mary Margaret.

Et Voila

I have returned. You may now slay the fatted calf.

Apparently this site went down for a couple of days because I exceeded my monthly allotted bandwidth. How this happened is a complete mystery to me. Judging by comments and referrals I guess about six or so folks actually visit and read daily; maybe another dozen or so stop in once a week. This is not exactly site-crashing traffic, so I suppose I must blame all those google searches.