In Which I Post Seemingly Random and Unconnected Comments While Stealing Esteban's Post Title Protocol

...which is itself remarkably similar to that of A.A. Milne's chapter headings in the Winnie the Pooh series.

Speaking of adorable and precocious characters, I received a link to this a few minutes ago from Dr. Recruiter. His kids themselves are adorable and precocious. His son, in fact, could be Calvin. (The cartoon. Not so much the theologian just yet.)

John Calvin and Thomas Hobbes

Speaking of Dr. Recruiter... having memorized the 16 intelligence agencies for last week's quiz, I now have to memorize for this week the 19 Directors of Central Intelligence and the years they served. I hope he doesn't count spelling. Some of those names are a bit nuts.

Another point on this track is my baptism. Dr. Recruiter, his family, another guy, and I will all be formally received into the Orthodox Church in a little less than two weeks! We have one more Sunday liturgy in which we must be spectators and not participants in Holy Communion. This is exciting! Saturday, April 26 at 9 AM, California time. (Hint hint, Paddy, E, Nathan, and Gtargirl)

This also means that there are only two more weeks of the fast! Today, my mom made soy-beef enchiladas with fake cheese for me. They weren't half bad.

Last, but not least, poor Vladimir the Laptop is relapsing. Again. His recurring condition of power connector failure is now on round three, and this time with no warranty to cover repairs. When the connector finally gives out completely, it's pretty much over for him. But wait! There is a solution that will breathe new life into a sad little laptop with heart failure! I have been shopping around for the last week, and I have found a docking station that will make a lovely pacemaker for Vladimir. Here's to several more years of partnership between him and me! (At least long enough for me to save money for a new laptop.)

A Minor Adjustment

My phone is in a coma. It has been slipping since Sunday. It'll turn itself off, then refuse to turn back on again. To actually make the thing work, I seem to have to take it apart then put it back together. This has grown tedious very quickly.

I called T-Mobile today. (once I got the phone turned on...) Since my last phone upgrade through them was in 2004, I qualify for (am long overdue for) a free upgrade! Woohoo!

Even better, though, is this. I knew a month ago that my cute little pebl was not long for this world, so I did some shopping. It turns out that there is a phone with all the features I wanted when I got the pebl, plus a feature that I missed once I had the pebl. It's not costing me anything. It doesn't come in blue, but you can't have everything, right? It'll get here sometime next week.

I only hope the pebl holds out long enough!

*bluetooth*mp3 ringtones*quad band*flip*camera*USB*
PLUS caller ID rings!!!

A Brief Message to Peter Jackson

Mr. Jackson,

In addition to those I mentioned in the post a few days ago, please do also bring back the brilliant Howard Shore. The whole thing would sound wrong without him. K, thanks.

Guess Who's Back?

Peter Jackson and New Line Cinemas have finally ironed out their residual issues from the LOTR trilogy, and the outcome is exciting. PJ, as has long been rumored, will indeed be at the helm for the making of The Hobbit. !!!

I'm hyperventilating. Talk amongst yourselves.

We have three years to wait, as the target release date is 2010. Of course, the story will also be told in two parts, which means it will be four years yet before Lobelia of the Sackville-Bagginses makes off with Bilbo's silver. This in turn guarantees that Tolkien's loyal minions must wait *gasp* five or six years before we may acquire the boxed set extended version. Oh, the agony of it all!

Potential existential crisis notwithstanding, the article I've linked points out that many things are up in the air. For example, Weta Workshops (the geniuses behind the trilogy monsters, both live and CGI), New Zealand, and the cast have not been confirmed.

Um.

Ok, I am neither the least nor the most zealous of Tolkien's disciples, but really. Even if I didn't absolutely love Hugo Weaving as Elrond or Ian Holm as Bilbo, the precedent is set. How can they not return? Who else but Agent Smith could possibly be the Half-elven of Rivendell? Honestly, I would be saddened to see any face other than Sir Ian McKellan's under Gandalf's crooked grey hat. Then there's Andy Serkis. Would Sméagol live at all without him? The very thought of it is ghastly!

This has been a long time coming. I find myself still irked by the exclusion of Tom and Goldberry, the thorough mangling of The Two Towers, and the utter destruction of Faramir's moral fiber (the most grievous of the three, in my opinion). However, these faults of the movie trilogy have not tempered my excitement that The Hobbit will finally be brought into the Twenty-first Century. It's fairly clear that the second movie will be dominated by the Battle of Five Armies, but I do so look forward to meeting more of Durin's race.

Sam Gamgee thanks Paddy of the Mountain for the link.

Your Tag's Showing

Can a coffee house be Christian? Hmm. Is it nominal, practicing, or devoted, I wonder? Perhaps it only thinks it's Christian because it is on the campus of a Christian college.

Or is it a house for Christian coffee? And seriously, it's weird enough having a coffee house calling itself Christian. How does coffee become religious? Do the beans have weekly chapel? Altar calls? If it's grown in South America, would that make the coffee Catholic? Would Catholic coffee be allowed? Would beans be asked to make some sort of profession of faith before being allowed to move in? How would Christian coffee justify its bitterness?

I'm just getting started here. Would evangelical coffee go on missions trips? Baptist coffee would be careful to only associate with the best-looking packaging. Calvary Chapel coffee would constantly talk about how it was saved from a life surrounded by drugs. Imagine the noise, though, when the coffees start discussing which of them is the freshest.

I could probably keep going, but my head is starting to hurt. This is nonsense. Can we please not engage in ridiculous marketing ploys? Please?

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Now playing: Celine Dion - All By Myself (sung by Gregorian monks, which is a hilarious irony, really.)
via FoxyTunes

I Caved

I swore I wouldn't do this. I mean, I'm already on myspace, and I don't get it, so I don't use it. In fact, I'll probably end up deleting the myspace account. Again. But last night, Stacey had me all nostalgic, and one thing led to another...

I joined facebook.

So, uh, if you're there, friend me! K, thanks.

Now I'm going to go delete my classmates and myspace accounts in a mad attempt to rid myself of this feeling that comes from joining yet another social networking site. *shudder*

This Made My Day

I just ran across a piece of paper I was given with an address in "Alba Quirky."

That would be a major city in New Mexico.

I can't stop laughing.

Wednesday In the News

It's either a remarkably odd news day or I am really in a weird mood.

Ok, people. Forget stem cells. Forget deforestation. Let the geneticists and the environmentalists work together to solve this problem for the benefit of all. Time to genetically modify the moose. Awwww, c'mon! It's for Norway! Who wouldn't want to protect the land of the fjords! I mean, think of all the work Slartibartfast put into the design! ;)

Yes! Let's give America's kids adult anti-psychotic drugs at a slightly lower dosage and call it okay! I give it five years before they decide this was a Very Bad Idea. Hey, if a kid is in really bad shape, fine. But it seems to me (for a variety of reasons) that kids in general are getting overstuffed with too many chemicals. They're surrounded by over-processed food and carcinogenic cleaners. Their parents are overworked, harried, stressed. The kids pick it up. Internalize it. Have no coping skills. And we solve this problem by medicating? Here's my solution, in case anyone cares. Sell the SUV that is both the size of a small European nation and requires the budget of one to operate and insure. Cut out at least one of the twenty programs your kids are in. That would be cutting one program per kid. Just because the parent thinks they're omnipresent and a perpetual motion machine doesn't mean the kid has to be as well. For the sake of all that is good, take some of the pressure off your kids, and I bet you a good percentage of the kids end up not actually needing the meds. Heck, some of the parents might not need their meds, either!

We are a sick society, aren't we?

And while I'm on the subject... You know that $40k you got from selling Andorra... er... your freaking Armada? You know the $40k per year you're saving that was previously spent on gas, insurance and programs? Yeah. How about quitting that extra job you had to take to finance it? Or if, as I suspect, you take your identity from your work (which is killing you, btw), and you just. can't. quit... consider putting that money to use. Investments, college funds, or *gasp* some deserving charity. You know, save the whales, save the fjords, genetically alter a moose, plant a rainforest, feed a village in Africa, feed the guy on your local offramp, do SOMETHING.

And here's one that would have made John Adams and Thomas Jefferson cringe. Does this sound dangerously close to double jeopardy to anyone else? (Hey, man, I know you already served your time for shooting the guy. 40 years ago. But now he's dead, and we think it's because you shot him. 40 years ago. So we might charge you for that too.) WTF?

News Flash

Ah, breakfast. Now, I must say, I rarely eat breakfast. Breakfast foods and I don't tend to get along so well, you see. When I do eat breakfast, it frequently resembles something closer to lunch. You know, me and my grilled cheese. Mmmmmm. For a while it was corn dogs from 7-11. Mmmmm.

Anyway, the fluff editorial journalism of the day is this: Wendy's has the awesomest* breakfast menu among breakfast serving fast food places.

Yes, they carry several incarnations of the standard egg-meat-cheese sandwich. Yes, there is a breakfast burrito. *shudder* The brilliance of this menu lies in the final option among the combos. You see, Wendy's offers Biscuits and Gravy*. What took so long? When Biscuits and Gravy* is so obviously a gift from God, it amazes me that Fast Food only recently (this year!) thought to incorporate this culinary wonder into the morning menu. Perhaps the delay was a result of fear and reverence for its esteemed goodness?

Alas, Wendy's also offers a chicken biscuit sandwich, which had my mouth watering this morning, so I cannot say whether the Biscuits and Gravy actually lives up to its potential. The chicken biscuit did, though. It is a wonderful thing to be able to order a breakfast item involving meat without having to say "No egg." It is reassuring indeed to know without doubt that when I bite into said breakfast item, I will not, indeed cannot, find myself with a mouthful of nausea-inducing fluffy yellow potential poultry.

Another stroke of brilliance was the Wendy's tradition of choice of sides. No longer are we limited to hashbrowns! The breakfast eating public now has the option of a cinnamon roll or blueberry muffin. This is a thing of beauty, and I can personally recommend the blueberry muffin.

I have been a fan of Wendy's since their resurgence in SoCal, and especially since I lived next door to one for three years. First the late hours, then the 99 cent menu, the non-fry side options, and now Biscuits and Gravy... Dave would be proud.

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* Of course I'm aware that "awesomest" is a glaring misuse of the superlative suffix -est. However, had I used the correct superlative "most awesome," you, the reader, would likely have missed the emphatic tone intended in the statement.

* I am capitalizing "Biscuits and Gravy" because, in this case, it very nearly qualifies as a proper noun. Besides, it's fun to use random capitalization for emphasis!

* In case anyone questions my subject/verb agreement here (Biscuits and Gravy is...) I submit to you this rule regarding collective nouns.