A Veritable Cornucopia of Useless Information

Bumper sticker slogans - it’s free and easy to do!  Make your own!  If nothing else, I’m pretty sure I didn’t read or hear these at some point in the past:

• Guns don’t kill people, people kill people, but guns make it a lot easier for people to kill people.
• Violence doesn’t solve anything, but it’s a very effective means of conveying one’s point.
• The One Law of Broken Relationships: men are pigs; women are gullible.

One pleasant additional benefit of receiving large amounts of rain in August and September is that, for the first time in several years, the leaves on the trees here are turning brilliant shades of yellow, orange and red.  This is a vast improvement over  the “dry and dead” of previous years.

The number, quality and variety of places to eat in downtown/Haymarket Lincoln has been a highlight of my years spent living here. (It’s also safe to say that, collectively, these fine establishments have been a prime factor in my current “not as trim as it used to be” figure.) That being said, one of the few things lacking in my downtown living experience is a decent fast (but not necessarily “fast food”) place somewhere between my places of residence and work.  As you can guess, I was fairly excited to find out that Scooter’s Coffeehouse now offers breakfast and lunch sandwiches.  I tried the roast beef sandwich last Friday; I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was.  A local (well, South Omaha) bakery, fresh ingredients, vacuum-sealed…tasty goodness.  I’d probably have lunch there almost every day but for the fact that the sandwich itself is nearly $6 and the meal combo is $7.50.  My downtown Lincoln lunch dream remains unfulfilled…

Rusty and the Captain make it happen on South Mountain.

The Valley of the Sun (and the Smog over the Valley…)

Mr. and Mrs. Tom Rice, walking out of the church.

(Most of) the JDE gang, at the reception.

Rusty and Cody.

A collection of thoughts and observations from my southwesterly jaunt…

• While Corona in Nebraska is best described as “god-awful”, Corona in Arizona is more along the lines of “surprisingly tolerable”.  I guess the proximity to Mexico and the vast quantities of Corona consumed at places like Dos Gringos in Tempe may explain the difference.
• Apparently, Arizona law allows campaign signs to be erected almost anywhere; nearly every major intersection would have a half-dozen or more placards, banners, etc.
• Rusty’s dog has made me reconsider my resistance to ever owning a (primarily) indoor dog.  His Siberian husky is exceptionally cute and well-behaved.
• I had heard of Fry’s Electronics, but I had never wandered into one until this trip.  The best way to describe Fry’s is probably “what it would be like if Newegg actually existed in the real world”.
• Small epiphanies in interpreting nonverbal communication are always a good thing.
• Oh, what I would give to have a random sports bar in Lincoln offer Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA on tap as the “Beer of the Month” and for a random grocery store around here to sell Stone Arrogant Bastard Ale.
• If/when I ever get married, April has already promised to a) show up at said hypothetical wedding and b) dance with me.  So, I got that going for me, which is nice.
• Finally, it was great to catch up with so many wonderful people and to see Tom and Amy start their lives together.  Even though it’s one of the most obvious and oft-repeated statements about the human condition, it never hurts to say it again: In the end, all we have is each other.

I’ll be heading off to Arizona tomorrow for a mini-vacation and to attend Tom and Amy’s wedding.  I’m very excited about the trip (hopefully, pictures will be posted upon my return); however, a thought occurred to me today: This is the first air travel experience where I’ll be traveling alone.  The previous 15 air travel adventures I’ve gone on, I’ve traveled with at least one member of my family, a friend, or a business contact.  I’m somewhat surprised that this hadn’t happened before now.

I had (for me) an exciting thought while I was walking home for lunch today: I now know how I will go about setting up my media system at some point in “the mysterious future”.

Until today, I had resigned myself to the following: Use a whitebox Windows tower as my media server, using the machine I purched from Lincoln as the starting point for what would ultimately become a reasonably respectable server, and one that would last me for several years. However, I really don’t need yet another computer to become a semipermanent presence in my life, and I’m also planning on purchasing a Mac Pro down the road as well.

However, I (hopefully) now have another option. If all goes as planned, I’ll be able to pick up a “whatever the final of name of iTV will be” in early 2007. Assuming that if I can set up the iTV such that it will be able to stream live TV content from a TV tuner card I have installed in another machine (say, for instance, in a Mac Pro), I would have one fewer computer to deal with, and would provide me with that I think would be an elegant media center solution.

I am currently in the following situation:

1. I have had the entire series of Spaced on my computer, ready for viewing, since June.
2. Our “traditional” BSG viewing night wrapped up last week.

There are only 14 half-hour episodes in all…is anyone up for watching them with me this week or next?

At some point during the course of moving, I lost my nail clippers, so I bought another pair while on my lunch break.  Nail clippers are one of those mundane items that go unappreciated unless you are without a pair, or worse, have a pair that doesn’t clip nails in a satisfactory manner.  Since I like to keep my nails trimmed such that they are not useful for, well, anything, it’s important to me that the nail clippers’ blades are neither too sharp or too dull; that the curve of the blade is slight; and that the clippers are not overly wide.

Luckily for me, the clippers I purchased today are nearly optimal in those three respects.

As many of you know, I’ve been moving recently.  For the record, this is the 11th time I’ve moved since August 2000.  Hopefully, I will only have 1 or 2 moves left before I’ll be able to settle down somewhere for an extended period of time.