Home Alone

I ate dinner with Angela and Dan as part of the WNC HIV event. We talked movies and books for about two hours, which is my idea of a hot time. They followed me home afterward to borrow DVDs, including Yellow Submarine, Love Actually, About A Boy, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Kingdom of Heaven. Dan also unearthed my old VCR copy of the “Rat Pack Special.” He loves Dean Martin. These are the guys who lend me Harry Potter books, and I let them leave with as much as they wanted. Dan promised to check what books of mine he’d want to read just as soon as his own pile dwindles. When they left I fiddled the art and watched the first 20 minutes of The 40-Year-Old Virgin. Eh. I assume the humor creeps in later. I got to bed later than usual (around 1 a.m.) and slept the whole night. I woke up feeling great.

The new gal in the office is trying o make social inroads with me. There’s no reason to be unsociable with her; we just have vastly different energy levels and styles of conversation. She learned of my interest in wrestling and promised to bring in a gift playing on that. She made a big show of handing over what are, in reality, Power Rangers. Look like little Happy Meal toys. I think her kids lead her astray. It’s a nice thought. I hope she doesn’t feel she’s failed to make nice.

When they left, I contacted Travis to remind him of They Might Be Giants tonight. He wants to go, but we don’t have a set meeting time tomorrow. I’m also to hook up with Meredith and Josh. I’m playing this one loose. As long as I see the band around 9:30, I don’t care what we do or where we meet.

Picture of the Day
From the BBC:

In the news
The rhetoric over Iran’s nuclear program continues to become heated. The Iranian president shrugged off concerns of a United Nations’ report on the program. The findings might lead to a standoff on the Security Council over potential sanctions.

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Monday might see a nationwide walkout of immigrants to protest the ugly debate over border policies. May 1st has long been the European May Day to celebrate labor rights.

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Gas prices went down overnight here by seven cents. Thanks, Bush.

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Broadway has become more of a desperate tourist trap as musicals have emerged in two disturbing trends: a) the what-the-hell remakes from other media; and b) jukebox musicals, where a slim story is woven between songs by a particular performer. The latter has seen shows based on Johnny Cash (which just closed after about a three-day run), the Beach Boys, The Four Seasons, John Lennon, and of course, the best and first, Abba. The former of the trends has two new members. First is The Wedding Singer. The NY Times says it too easily glosses over the ‘80s and turns the show into a musical version of Trivial Pursuit about that decade. The second remake is Lestat, the third vampire musical in as many years and seemingly the third to go down in flames. Rumors swirl that Mel Brooks wants to bring Young Frankenstein to the stage to follow up The Producers.

Bachelorhood

Your Sister leaves for Columbia (the city, not the country) after school today, leaving me to fend for myself until tomorrow night when she returns. I’m to meet up with some teachers at a local restaurant for tonight’s regional HIV charity event.

We had hoped to attend a wine tasting last night but arrived to find the tasting ended early. By about an hour. I was unhappy; it struck me as unprofessional. These people regularly hold these events and mail postcards to their clientele to lure them in. I’m hesitant to go to another one. Thank goodness we didn’t have to pay to park. We instead had dinner at the pub. This was before 8 p.m. so we knew the kitchen would be open. Before we left, the varsity volleyball coach and her husband sat next to us, and they talked shop a bit. She packed as we returned home and gave me phone numbers for the people I’m to rendezvous with tonight and tomorrow at the concert.

The drawing continues to go well. So well, in fact, I may not ink it. A detailed pencil sketch would be alright, wouldn’t it?

Picture of the Day
When Clinton was prez, I paid 88 cents a gallon. Just saying.

In the news
A Senate panel recommends closing FEMA and starting a new version, the National Preparedness and Response Authority. Surprisingly, it also wouldn’t be under Homeland Security anymore. That suggests the chain of communication in someway hindered the Katrina response, which isn’t reassuring as to FEMA’s reaction to a terrorist strike.

Harry Potter and the Back-Breaking, Gigantic Encyclopedia

It’s again raining and thundering outside the office windows. The clouds are dragging the mountain tops. I woke up at 5 a.m. but couldn't drag myself out of the bed. I stayed up 'til midnight reading.

The next book in the franchise for me to read (Goblet of Fire) is a monster at 734 pages. The previous book (Prisoner of Azkaban) clocked in at 448. But again these are quick reads. I picked up the book last night and within two reading sessions had finished off 180 pages. The kids just got to the wizard school, something that usually happens inside of 50 pages. It’s already much darker as four people have seemingly died before we even see Harry. The book also already surpasses the film as it greatly expands the Weasley family presence.

Your Sister made a curry dish last night with steak fillet. It was a tad underdone for her, but I liked it a lot. I don’t know when I became a grisly carnivore but there you have it. What we ate last night was virtually steak tartar. And it was tasty.

I made some significant progress on the Star Wars art last night, altering the shirt to look more like a jedi tunic, and starting the shirt creases for the Solo drawing. It’s looking good so far.

Picture of the Day
New WWE champ Rey Mysterio wearing Justin Bradshaw-Layfield’s hat while on tour in Italy.

In the news
Fox News commentator Tony Snow is now the White House press secretary. He was a speechwriter in the first Bush administration and served as guest host for Limbaugh. This will be interesting. Snow should be able to handle the press corps on a regular basis but when a big story comes up, he might buckle. He’s used to working behind a mic in a studio with a friendly audience. This will be more combative. I don’t think the administration’s choice of a FOX News guy should be surprising or that unsettling. After all, the job is hardly objective. You have to be a fan of the boss to work that gig day after day. And this surely gives FOX an inroad to White House access, at least until the first hard-hitting story they have to pursue against administration policies. I wanted a guy with more polish than McClellan, and Snow is that. It could have been much worse, after all. Could have been Ann Coulter.

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Evidence suggests our solar system rests within a binary star system. The newly discovered Sedna object outside Pluto’s orbit might be a small second star. How far away is it? It needs 12,000 years to make a full orbit, compared to our 365 days.

Making Plans

I woke up early Monday at 4:30 and this morning at 5:30. Your Sister claims I never needed much sleep, and now I’m determined to just get up and draw until I got to work. For a week now, I haven’t had a full night’s sleep. I’ve been simply rolling over and trying to get more sleep, but it leaves me dragging the rest of the day.

Because she’s got a conference Thursday night and Friday, I’m going to Friday night’s They Might Be Giants concert with her, but now I might be taking Travis. He needs to get back to me about it. He alone came over last night to watch rasslin’ as Kathy and Tonia were too pooped to watch the show. I went to the TMBG site and found they have a series of songs inspired by the names of the venues they are playing on the tour. It’s fun stuff and a nice introduction to their skill. But Your Sister also set up a dinner date for me Thursday night with Angela and Dan, another couple we hang out with. They’re the family that lends me the Harry Potter books. A local eatery is hosting an HIV charity night with 20% of the each order’s proceeds go to at least one Western North Carolina HIV agency.

I measured the wall space for the planned landscape painting. And when I say “landscape,” keep in mind that the land will comprise only a tenth of the painting scene. The rest will be sky and clouds. Because the wall is white, I can’t use a very light blue sky because it will blend in at a distance. Unless we put a strong border around it. Hmm. I have to think about this. Anyway, the space and location will determine the look of the painting.

Picture of the Day
The cockpit of the new Airbus A380. I think it’s an 841. Note the keyboard stations in front of both seats.

In the news
There’s some wailing and gnashing of teeth over an Internet communications bill that would allow the larger telecommunications companies to create a filtered version of the Internet for broadband users. The fear is that they will charge you extra to either access the whole Internet or charge you to get their filtered version. AOL already offers this filter by providing zones in which you can access sponsored or sanitized Internet content. Some AOL customers never leave the AOL version of the Internet for fear of viruses and porn.

The fear is that these big companies will dominate the ISP market and ruin the chaotic nature of the web. To that, I suggest one simply buy access through another provider, like DirecTV’s ISP (HughesNet as it’s now called). Here in Mayberry, you can get fast-access service through only one company because the market is too small for a big name to compete against the local phone company, and their charges are insane. If I gamed online, broadband might be enticing. Our neighbor has offered to hook us up onto his DSL account, an offer that, while very neighborly, makes me a mite nervous. If his account goes down, so does our access, and there’s no way of knowing how much of our online activity he might be privy too. I don’t access anything that dial-up can’t give me in a reasonable time.

Anyway, this internet bill is only in the committee stages and has yet to go to the congressional bodies for a vote. The panic seems premature. There’s also another answer: cough up the dough for the Internet you want. Buy extra stamps to mail another check to another company. Stop buying $4 coffees every morning and use that $120 a month to get the access you demand. We’re not wealthy, but we can budget to get what we want. Seems other people can too, especially if they use subways to move around town. I’ll stop before I sound like I’m railing against city folk.

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Bush is quoted as saying about the immigration debate, “I know this is an emotional debate, and I can understand it’s emotional, but one thing we cannot lose sight of is that we’re talking about human beings, decent human beings.” That’s exactly the right tone to take. Maybe the new chief of staff knows what he’s doing. Unfortunately, this comes about two weeks too late. Bush eased environmental regulations for gas refinement today and ceased purchases of oil for the strategic reserves. This is a good start. But yesterday, Bush said the following: I base a lot of my foreign policy decisions on some things that I think are true. One, I believe there's an Almighty. And, secondly, I believe one of the great gifts of the Almighty is the desire in everybody's soul, regardless of what you look like or where you live, to be free. When we’re dealing with Islamic fundamentalist terrorists, maybe we shouldn’t make any comments that sound like a Crusade. Just saying.

A Row, A Late Show, And A Mow

We had lunch together Friday afternoon as Your Sister was in town to buy fabrics for the guest bedroom. When I got home, I found her unhappy with what she had chosen and assembled but I thought it looked good. The black furniture is now softened with a deep red bedspread and gold sheets and pillow covers. Because the room is otherwise so light from the white walls & rug and the all-day sunlight, these design works nicely. But she was frustrated with the process of choosing the colors and a little frayed about the edges, and we argued needlessly most of the night. All was well before we went to bed.

On Saturday we ate at Rocky’s, grabbed some new videogames at Blockbuster (using a balance compiled when I traded in older games), and drove to the new airport stores. I picked up some office equipment for the studio and we walked through the pet store. She still hints that she’d welcome a dog into the yard, but I can’t do that to our cats or the neighbors. We hear enough barking dogs at night. We also hit the World Market to find paintings that I’ll steal from for color and composition. She wants me to make two additional paintings now to decorate the house. We then went to The Asheville B Plaza (Bed Bath & Beyond, Best Buy, and Barnes & Noble). She returned fabric that we agreed didn’t work with the room design while I perused Best Buy. We camped out at B&N for hours; I picked up a new copy of the pocket-sized Constitution and Declaration of Impendence, and she got some books she might teach next year. We met Travis and Kathy for what became a three-hour dinner and adjourned to their house when Tonia called to announce she was home from Spring Break. That led to another five hours of talk and beer and a “Saturday Night Live” rerun with half of Boondocks Saints thrown in. We got home at 2:30 after Kathy taught us Euchre, a card game that might make more sense when one is sober.

On Sunday, I bought her a DVD/VCR for her classroom. She worked there for a bit and I mowed the lawn. I managed to remove the mower blade, sharpen it and reinstall it before hand. I had to mow in two stages as I was feeling a little beery and wanted to avoid heat stroke. Before we watched a very entertaining new “West Wing,” I ordered a pizza, and we ate it on the deck. We discovered that birds are using the paper towels we put in the compost bin. They’re using them to build nests, we think. We’re trying to help Mother Nature by composting paper towels, but the damn birds are recycling it. (*shakes fist at Mother Nature*)

Sketch Day
I’ve started detail work in the Star Wars sketch. Notice here the work on her right hand and the folds of the shirt. Now that I’ve gotten my drawing seas legs back, I have to tweak the drawing to reflect traditional jedi clothing. I fear drawing the costume exactly as she wore it will look less like a tunic and more like exercise sweats. If I change it, I'll make the sleeves looser, and extend the shirt to look like the tunic hem.

In the news
The Iranian president questioned again the legitimacy of Israel (again) and allowed women to attend soccer games of the first time since 1979.

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In honor of Shakespeare’s birthday (April 23), here’s the Random Shakespeare Insult Generator.