Notes on a day

I almost feel sorry for the people who have to make covers for classical CDs. I mean, there's only so many ways you can photograph a guy cuddling a violin before it gets into the "really creepy" area.

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Nothing ever manages to be quite as cool in real life as it is in my imagination. Probably because real life has other concerns besides just being cool. Like actually working.

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Shorter me: Science is fucking amazing.

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I find myself criticizing the grammar on some of the signs in the music department on occasion. I don't know if this is a sign that I'm an obsessive grammar Nazi, or just that boredom is driving me mad.

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There's a version of the Biblical Apocrypha at work, subtitled "The Authorized Version of the Books That Are Not in the Bible."

Okay, I'll bite. Authorized by who?

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Forgiveness really isn't free. If it's going to mean something, it has to be accompanied by change. If you keep saying "sorry" then going and doing it again, you don't get off scot-free.

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I'm constantly tempted by shiny new electronic widgets. But I've come to wonder what I'd ever use them for. Also, I'm usually poor, so they're not THAT tempting. I could have two monitors hooked up to my computer, so I could watch TV and browse the net at the same time, make my time-wasting much more efficiently.

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I'm worried about going back and watching the original Star Wars movies after the drek that the first three were. Because the worst part about them was how they took the most recognized and feared villian in the world, and made him into a whiny, stupid, unsympathetic brat. Will I be able to see Vader without the "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" and emo-prettyboy bullshit, even in his most badass moments?

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I know, you're not supposed to accuse your political opponents of being stark raving mad. And I'd stop doing it if they'd stop acting like it. For example: Our Oldest Enemy. It's a book, obviously. Can you guess who it's about? France. Yes, France. Um, yeah.

Right, so. With everything else going on, what's most important to write a book about? Why, bashing the French, of course! Dude. Seriously.

WTF do Republicans have against the French? Why are they so obsessed and threatened by them? It's just another of those things I don't get, I guess. Ohnoes. France.

In Which I Try Far Too Hard at Pretentious Sci-Fi With Meaning and Screw It Up, All in 100 Words

His symbiotic nest of wires unwound at the first sound of her voice. The wires coiled back to lurk in their reef of computer parts. Dylan stretched quiescent muscles, then stepped over to her.

"That was easier than I'd thought," Julie said.

"Well, dealing with women's confusing enough without extra layers of interpretation," Dylan said, "Sometimes you can't beat direct experience."

"Nice excuse," she said, when she'd caught her breath from the kiss.

"It works," he said, then was interrupted by a blare of Chinese pop from her cell phone.

Dylan glared at the offending bit of technology. "Damn thing."

Music request

Okay, I am once again tired of my music. Therefore, I am requesting advice from you, my loyal minions. Give unto me good places to download classical, jazz, or international music. Or other kinds. Or links to online radio stations that don't suck. Anything like that.

I am bored, I have broadband, and I thirst for new distractions.

Things I wish I'd written.

This is a really good article about Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, which is up there in my top ten favoritest games ever, I think. I found it from this Metafilter post about "New Games Journalism". Which seems to just be writing about games and what they do, not just how to beat them, I guess.

And apparently, PC Gamer wants articles from random gamers. I hardly game any more, though.

Don't Check Your Email in the Morning

The title of this is the title of a book I saw somebody reading at work. I'm betting the book's something about organizing your life and not wasting time and so on. In that respect, I think the most valuable part of it is the title. Not just about email, but about getting on the net in general. I shouldn't even turn on the computer until I've done other stuff, I can get on and waste two hours easily without accomplishing anything. LJ, forums, blogs, news sites, mail, newsgroups, there's a zillion distractions. Plenty of things for the butterflies of distraction to settle on and keep you from actually accomplishing anything. It's the old Civilization/X-Com/etc "just one more turn", but in Internet form. Each little distraction takes only a minute, at most, but they lead to others, that lead to others, and they build up until two hours are gone without you even noticing.

That's one of the reasons I should get around to fixing my bike, so I can go out and exercise and enjoy the good weather while it lasts. But I need to replace the tire, and I'll go do that in just a couple minutes, once I finish reading this post about the Smurfs and look at this flash file with a singing cat.