Thursday, October 22, 2009
Vacations... What are those again?
Next week I'll be on an 8-day cruise with my wife. Our truly official first vacation after being married for 4 years! We haven't gone anywhere (except to see friends in the mountains, but that wasn't really a 'getting-away-from-it-all' type of vacation) since our honeymoon, so I'm looking forward to it. Which means you won't see any updates for the next week and a half after tomorrow. Sorry, but I don't think anyone reads this anyhow--so I guess I'm the only one who will be missing the updates...
Friday, October 16, 2009
The Many Faces of the Sky
Something that just strikes me as weird is how versatile the sky is over a short period of time.
I left my house at around 6:45 AM this morning to a completely blackened darkness, mostly due to the fact that stratus clouds covered every direction as far as the horizon of my 'in-the-woods' house would allow me to see. Said cloud coverage continued up to about 7:10, as I passed my second 'checkpoint'* on my way to work. At this point, I encountered a number of sunrise phenomena.
[* I travel a two-lane highway for some 55 miles on my way to work, passing through no less than 4 'settlements' as I like to call them--small towns where the population can be counted on fingers and toes. I affectionately refer to these as checkpoints.]
First, there was that eerie sepia-tone tint that everything has as the sun crescends over the horizon at such an angle that the light is trapped under the clouds. See, the clouds were starting to dissipate in the direction of the sunrise (East, if my middle school-era education serves me), but the clouds directly overhead and in every other direction were still thick. So, I got to experience that 'I think I'm in the 1940's' feeling driving down the highway.
This is always a fun experience to behold. For one, you experience that invisible wall for seeing complete cloud coverage in one direction, while zero cloud coverage in another--without any gradual smoothing between the two, as if somebody put a giant glass bottle around the clouds and I was actually trapped inside with it. (Fears of crashing through proved unfounded.) Again, you get that cool tone of color as you drive.
Finally, once you get out from the range of under the doom cloud wall, you get that weird 'dystopia' effect--the one where, as you look ahead, things look like early spring: bright, cheery, full of hope; while as you look behind, all you see is the dark, forlorn clouds that you had just left, almost as the sky looks over a destroyed metropolis. (Is it just me, or is it weird that in sci-fi movies, dystopias are in a constant state of rain/heavy cloud coverage? As if to say after complete destruction of a city, they could never have a bright sunny day to take the kids to the park...)
Finally, I get to work, and it was like I woke from a dream. Absolutely no cloud that I could see, save a few whiter clouds to the south. This, of course, makes it all the more strange that I had encountered no rain on my entire drive, but got inside my work building just in time for the rain to come here.
Anyways, that was my adventure today with weather. In case anyone is interested, the computer still is dead and is not looking good for me. On the other hand, I came up with some interesting plot points for NaNoWriMo.
Oh, and yes, it's Final Fantasy Friday--week three in a row. Tackling soundtracks from FFX and FFXII mostly today.
I left my house at around 6:45 AM this morning to a completely blackened darkness, mostly due to the fact that stratus clouds covered every direction as far as the horizon of my 'in-the-woods' house would allow me to see. Said cloud coverage continued up to about 7:10, as I passed my second 'checkpoint'* on my way to work. At this point, I encountered a number of sunrise phenomena.
[* I travel a two-lane highway for some 55 miles on my way to work, passing through no less than 4 'settlements' as I like to call them--small towns where the population can be counted on fingers and toes. I affectionately refer to these as checkpoints.]
First, there was that eerie sepia-tone tint that everything has as the sun crescends over the horizon at such an angle that the light is trapped under the clouds. See, the clouds were starting to dissipate in the direction of the sunrise (East, if my middle school-era education serves me), but the clouds directly overhead and in every other direction were still thick. So, I got to experience that 'I think I'm in the 1940's' feeling driving down the highway.
This is always a fun experience to behold. For one, you experience that invisible wall for seeing complete cloud coverage in one direction, while zero cloud coverage in another--without any gradual smoothing between the two, as if somebody put a giant glass bottle around the clouds and I was actually trapped inside with it. (Fears of crashing through proved unfounded.) Again, you get that cool tone of color as you drive.
Finally, once you get out from the range of under the doom cloud wall, you get that weird 'dystopia' effect--the one where, as you look ahead, things look like early spring: bright, cheery, full of hope; while as you look behind, all you see is the dark, forlorn clouds that you had just left, almost as the sky looks over a destroyed metropolis. (Is it just me, or is it weird that in sci-fi movies, dystopias are in a constant state of rain/heavy cloud coverage? As if to say after complete destruction of a city, they could never have a bright sunny day to take the kids to the park...)
Finally, I get to work, and it was like I woke from a dream. Absolutely no cloud that I could see, save a few whiter clouds to the south. This, of course, makes it all the more strange that I had encountered no rain on my entire drive, but got inside my work building just in time for the rain to come here.
Anyways, that was my adventure today with weather. In case anyone is interested, the computer still is dead and is not looking good for me. On the other hand, I came up with some interesting plot points for NaNoWriMo.
Oh, and yes, it's Final Fantasy Friday--week three in a row. Tackling soundtracks from FFX and FFXII mostly today.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
The Power of Music
In yesterday's post, I commented on how I had a rough start to the day based off of the fact that I was roused from sleep by one of the most dreckful songs the 80's had the gall to produce. This was sandwiched between other irks, such as an unworkable computer (looking all the more to be a dead computer now) and a dead stop to my NaNoWriMo story idea.
Neither of the two latter situations have remedied themselves; yet, I'm in a much better mood today? Why could this be the case? By an improvement in the third variable--music.
Yesterday, I couldn't get that blasted "Werewolves of London" song out of my head. Today, I woke to Elton John--granted, not a first-string choice of voices to come to consciousness over. Yet, it was one of his better songs ("Somebody save my life tonight") and I actually laid there to listen to it... until my wife reached over me and shut it off. I thought she was an Elton John fan...
Anyways, after this, I grabbed a mix MP3 CD of musicals and proceeded to listen to the Broadway recording of "West Side Story" on my way to work. Haven't heard it in forever, and I don't think I've really liked it more than I do right now (for some unknown reason). Needless to say, I'm all smiles today.
Amazing what a morning choice of music can do to a person, huh?
Neither of the two latter situations have remedied themselves; yet, I'm in a much better mood today? Why could this be the case? By an improvement in the third variable--music.
Yesterday, I couldn't get that blasted "Werewolves of London" song out of my head. Today, I woke to Elton John--granted, not a first-string choice of voices to come to consciousness over. Yet, it was one of his better songs ("Somebody save my life tonight") and I actually laid there to listen to it... until my wife reached over me and shut it off. I thought she was an Elton John fan...
Anyways, after this, I grabbed a mix MP3 CD of musicals and proceeded to listen to the Broadway recording of "West Side Story" on my way to work. Haven't heard it in forever, and I don't think I've really liked it more than I do right now (for some unknown reason). Needless to say, I'm all smiles today.
Amazing what a morning choice of music can do to a person, huh?
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Computers just make my day...
Can you pick up on the sarcasm? I hope so, cause I intended it to be that way...
This has not started off to be a good day. First, late last night, before I went to bed, I started to seriously question my plot for NaNoWriMo--coming up against some legitimate issues with central points to the plot. Not just plot holes or contradictions--Real, serious issues, such as 'Ok, what do we do now?' To wit: I don't have an answer.
So, that wasn't a good mood to be in. This morning, I wake up to the radio going off (as usual, nothing unusual there). However, one of the most annoying songs that was spawned from the 80's (and that's a VERY high bar to jump) was the song that had roused me from my sleep. "Werewolves of London". Specifically, it came on right at the chorus. My eyes weren't even open yet and already I was rolling them. Needless to say, my radio did not deserve the fierce slap it received at that juncture.
So, how can we cap off such a wonderful trifecta of bad-day-iness? How about a complete computer failure?
My wife openly admits to accidentally getting a virus the other day. Nothing I'll complain about, as I've done this no less than a dozen times throughout my life. However, of all of the viruses to be gotten out there, she got a doozy.
Turn on computer - BIOS loads - Windows splash screen - Instantaneous BSoD.
Won't allow safe mode. Won't even attempt to load Windows before the failure screen. This one's going to be fun to fix. I'm thinking a wipe is going to occur. It doesn't sadden me all too much, as I back everything up on media AND an external hard drive. My wife is quite upset, however, as she is an amazing artist (mostly with sketches) and has been in rare form as of late, scanning everything into the computer and coloring it--spending hours on hours. Very little of it is backed up. (In her case, saved online on an art website she frequents, where she can download them back.) I just know it's going to be quite a bit of work for me to get this thing fixed, and with my shortened 'at-home' time now that I'm working (65 minutes away, so the commute zaps even more time), I'm going to have a very busy week (+ -end)
Ah well, at least I have something to do. I hope the day doesn't worsen any...
EDIT: Spoiler--It didn't. Not a bad day... Onto fight the ongoing battle with technology!
This has not started off to be a good day. First, late last night, before I went to bed, I started to seriously question my plot for NaNoWriMo--coming up against some legitimate issues with central points to the plot. Not just plot holes or contradictions--Real, serious issues, such as 'Ok, what do we do now?' To wit: I don't have an answer.
So, that wasn't a good mood to be in. This morning, I wake up to the radio going off (as usual, nothing unusual there). However, one of the most annoying songs that was spawned from the 80's (and that's a VERY high bar to jump) was the song that had roused me from my sleep. "Werewolves of London". Specifically, it came on right at the chorus. My eyes weren't even open yet and already I was rolling them. Needless to say, my radio did not deserve the fierce slap it received at that juncture.
So, how can we cap off such a wonderful trifecta of bad-day-iness? How about a complete computer failure?
My wife openly admits to accidentally getting a virus the other day. Nothing I'll complain about, as I've done this no less than a dozen times throughout my life. However, of all of the viruses to be gotten out there, she got a doozy.
Turn on computer - BIOS loads - Windows splash screen - Instantaneous BSoD.
Won't allow safe mode. Won't even attempt to load Windows before the failure screen. This one's going to be fun to fix. I'm thinking a wipe is going to occur. It doesn't sadden me all too much, as I back everything up on media AND an external hard drive. My wife is quite upset, however, as she is an amazing artist (mostly with sketches) and has been in rare form as of late, scanning everything into the computer and coloring it--spending hours on hours. Very little of it is backed up. (In her case, saved online on an art website she frequents, where she can download them back.) I just know it's going to be quite a bit of work for me to get this thing fixed, and with my shortened 'at-home' time now that I'm working (65 minutes away, so the commute zaps even more time), I'm going to have a very busy week (+ -end)
Ah well, at least I have something to do. I hope the day doesn't worsen any...
EDIT: Spoiler--It didn't. Not a bad day... Onto fight the ongoing battle with technology!
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