Future Poltergeist

Armenia

Relia at the park, with no one nearby to talk to: "Ladies and Gentlemen, [pause while she tries to think of something to say] I . . . am here!"

Interesting interview with Patrick Stewart ( via i09 ). He's asked why Shakespearean actors do well with sci-fi roles and he answers: I think that the experience that we get in making a 400-year-old text work is exactly what you need for giving credibility and believability to fantasy, science fiction, and the like. And I think that's exactly right. I did two Shakespeare plays down in Austin ('Midsummer Night's Dream' and 'Romeo & Juliet') and this is what I found as well. Shakespeare told interesting stories and is well known for a good turn of phrase. But the writing is 400 years old and the style of the language has changed quite a bit. That means that the actors (and directors, etc.) have to work extra hard on communicating the story to the audience. You have to attack the script, figure out what you're trying to say and then convey that to modern ears. When it works, the story opens up and it's quite enjoyable. When it doesn't,...

Very cool video of air traffic over Europe restarting after the skies calmed down. You can really see what areas were effected quite well. Also note the test flights early on to try to tell how big of a problem the ash was. To my knowledge, all of those flights tested just fine.

Nifty little article from Slate trying to catalog the different various people you might meet during a flight delay. Which is a useful thing in these ashy volcano threatened days. The first one is often on the other side of my phone at work: Outside Flight Ninja Responds to a delay by immediately calling his or her travel agent or assistant and plotting routes around the problem. Is there a train station near by? What's the drive time to the nearest airport, if I rent a car? These people walk away from other travelers so their solution won't be copied. They know the tricks of the major airports and departure times of alternate flights by heart. Sadly, we travel agents don't have a lot of good info for them. In a fluid situation with flight cancellations (weather, closed airports, mechanical problems) our booking systems don't really keep up well. The airlines just don't update the schedules that quickly. So what do we do? Go online. The FAA has a good s...

This is the best 'Lost' recap I've ever read.

On their newest addition, August, born this morning. Carrie blogs here so you can drop by and congratulate her yourself. The name August was on our list because the FP Gal really likes the name 'Gus'. If we have another boy someday we can always go with Gustav I guess. Am I wrong in thinking that it's the only month that is also a boy's name? --- Now it's our turn, ok?

1937 Jaguar (and why don't they make cars as beautiful as this anymore?)

While Relia was saying goodbye to the FP Gal: Relia: Are you going to work? FP Gal: Yes. Relia: Why? How Calvin & Hobbes is that?

Been awhile since I've done one of these: If Relia started a blog it would be called 'Big Pink Tap Shoes'. Which I think is still available. The girl could not be more in love with the color pink. She wants a pink birthday and a pink Christmas. As far as I can tell, Christmas only comes in White, Green and Blue. But I'm open to correction. I mentioned the Lost Booker contest a while back. Well, I read three of the six and happily cast my vote for 'Fire from Heaven' by Mary Renault. It's very fine historical fiction telling about the childhood of Alexander the Great. Which is a tough trick since the only sources available are quotes of quotes some time after he died. Very, very well done. We've had a gloriously drizzly weekend. Very fine sleeping weather (once bedtime actually happens!). Don't know how much longer it'll go but I'm enjoying it for now. That's all!

And really no big news of other sorts either. Relia and I had a good day while the FP Gal was kicking her heels up at some kind of further educational thingie (actual technical term). We went to the MOA and met up with my Mom to walk around a bit and see the aquarium. Mom knew about 25 random people walking around out there and almost rushed the stage to tackle Eric Perkins. It was a good time. Later my Dad stopped by and visited for a bit. Relia gave him an exam with her doctor stuff. She put the stethoscope on and put it to his chest. He started to make some kind of joke and she cut him off, "Take a deep breath!". I'd say she's about of a quarter way through med school right now. A good day.

About a month ago we were eating beef stir fry. Well, the FP Gal and I were, Relia was dawdling. She ate all of the veggies but wouldn't eat the beef. She proudly declared that she didn't like it. The next day we went grocery shopping at a local supermarket. The store has been selling generic fudge sandwich cookies for a very good price/mass ratio. As I picked up a package, Relia saw me and wanted to know what it was. I'm very protective of my snack foods. I told her they were 'beef cookies'. At first she didn't want any. But then there was a small sample and she discovered the truth. Or at least part of it. She knows that she likes them but doesn't know that it's fudge. She still wants the beef cookies.

The NFL released the 2010 schedule on Tuesday. The league has become so popular that this was actually something of an event. It was a talker for sports radio as people combed through each team's schedule to figure out who had advantages and who got screwed. Each year this discussion brings about one incredibly ignorant criticism: bad teams end up with harder schedules than good teams. The first thing you need to understand is that the difficulty of a schedule is determined by adding up the wins and losses of the opponents from the previous year. For instance this year the Vikings will play teams that had a combined record of 129-127, which is a pretty average difficulty. The Lions, who were one of the worst teams in the league play teams that went 130-126. (Not much disparity there but in the AFC South, Houston's difficulty was 140-116 while Indianapolis was 132-124). So how do they figure out who a team will play each year? Let me use the local division (NFC North) ...

Relia asked to watch part of the wonderful 'Earth' series from BBC this morning. Part of what we watched was the Jungle episode which features this very nice bit: This is very much like how I met the FP Gal. I remember more clicking and less hopping about but she can clear up the record.

Sorry about missing posting yesterday. There is nothing new on the baby front. The FP Gal is having some pre-contractions but she had those for weeks before Relia so we're not anxious. And truth to tell, I'd rather not go today. It would only spoil the grandeur and pageantry that is Earth Day. Yesterday I was mentally composing two fairly geeky posts. One on NFL scheduling and one on the new Doctor Who. The very geekiness made me hesitate. But I've remembered that a) this is a fairly geeky blog to begin with and 2) it works best when I write about things that interest me. So (Relia willing) those posts may be up later this morning. Hope you're all doing well!

Here's a list of 'hidden gems' in Boulder, CO. It's a bit foghornable, but probably fun. Of if you were looking for some hiking in the area, I hear that they have that . The Indian Peaks area sounds especially nice. Down south near Colorado Springs are several nice things. Pikes Peak and Garden of the Gods, of course, but also Cave of the Winds (I'd recommend the Lantern Tour ). I'd skip the Royal Gorge as it's not worth the price. I hear that Denver is a lot of fun but I never was able to spend time playing there...

Last night was even rougher than the bug/frog incident. Relia was up every other hour until we finally threw in the towel (blanket?) and brought her into bed with us. Then we got a blessed 2.5 hours of sleep. The FP Gal emailed me this evening. Her parents have taken pity on our poor sleep deprived selves and are taking her for the night. We. Have. A. Night. Off! Even better, I have a random day off tomorrow. There is a serious chance that I could sleep in until 7a or so. Oh, I'm so stoked!

Last night around 3a, Relia burst into our room screaming about a bug in her bed. It was the FP Gal's turn for overnight duty so she moved to settle her down. I'm fuzzy on what happened from then on. At one point Relia was in bed with us. She was also on the floor next to the bed. And the FP Gal put her back in bed during a particularly noisy period. As I dozed on and off, my brain somehow turned this into a movie called 'Bug in the Bed'. I told the FP Gal about this movie this morning. She told me that she didn't want to spoil the ending but it turned out to be a frog. Relia sadly said, "Lots of frogs". Before putting her to bed tonight we assured her that the bed was clear of all frogs, cows and any other animal that might wander through. We also assured her even if there were some animals, they would want her to sleep calmly. I've got no idea if she bought it or not. She already had some kind of nightmare about 930p. Here's hoping t...