Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

Gotta get these out of the way so I can close this browser (and I want to post the eBay item while it's still visible anyhow) ... Some are recent enough that I should really still remember whom I got them from, but I fear I've managed to lose track anyhow. I hope I'll be forgiven for not providing where-found credits.

• For xpioti and others who apreciate the difference between clueful and clueless web site implementation ... a ranking of the US presidential candidates based on the quality of their web sites: Web Server Software and Presidential Candidates. "I'm an American person and... i want up-to-date open source software. I want valid HTML and CSS. I want fast-loading, usable web sites. So which democratic candidate is working for me?"
• This is ... ugly and beautiful at the same time: 3-axle Mercedes / Chrysler Limousine "When auto giants Chrysler and Mercedes Benz merged several years ago, the owner for some reason - even he doesn't know why - decided to mark the transatlantic business deal by merging a 1962 Chrysler Imperial and two 1983 Mercedes 300 Turbos..." The rearmost wheels steer when the front ones do.
• A really bad day on the job (worse for the folks on one end of it than the other): "Me and my Mark 19 Machine Gun: And you say you had a bad day?"
• And a surreal day on the job (from grifyn): "In the file for 'Material Submissions - Brick', you filed -- yes -- a brick. Two weeks ago, again from your jobsite, I received a binder marked [...]" You want to read this one. (It's very short, if that matters.)
• This Star Wars parody of this motorcycle story is probably funnier if you read the original first. Then again, the original is downright side-splitting. "...and watch out for the squirrels!"
• Though I'm sure there'll be some argument with the label "the bravest little Hobbit of them all" ... From 1968, The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins ... MP3, lyrics, and even a music video! By (and featuring) a famous non-elf.
• Curses, foiled ... uh ... "A lone book titled 'Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends' was untouched. But nearly everything else in Chris Kirk's downtown Olympia apartment was encased in aluminum foil when he returned home Monday night from a trip to Los Angeles." (I've seen this linked from several places. Fred: unlike the URL I sent you before, this one has photos.) They do mean nearly everything: "Trerice and his friends unrolled the toilet paper in the bathroom, enveloped the bath tissue in aluminum foil and rolled it back up again."
• Hmm ... more reasonable targets in principle but the tactics make me extremely uncomfortable: Music Industry Puts Troops in the Streets -- Quasi-legal squads raid street vendors. "They said they were police from the recording industry or something, and next time they'd take me away in handcuffs."
• And finally, a New York Times article about what sounds like a really cool book, Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation

Short version of my day: woke up tired from yesterday; Perrine asked me to play with rope-on-a-stick (guess it was "string" day for local kitties?); took my time getting out; took the bus this time; did pick up car, too late to go to MVA so will get the title transferred, registration, etc. on Monday; forgot to buy potatoes; installed new battery; have read most comments to recent posts but have been too distracted / tired to write back yet; tired enough to have trouble figuring out what to eat. More after I've slept.

See, I can keep it to one paragraph when I'm tired! What? Oh, right. Uh, whoops. Never mind.

"Now, I want you to calmly and slowly step away from the '1' key on your keyboard. Keep your hands where we can see them while you do this, please." -- Roy S. Rapoport, replying to someone who had used a few two many exclamation points.

Woke up feeling like I shouldn't be awake just yet, saw Perrine staring at me with her, "I'm waiting patiently TO BE FED in case you haven't noticed yet" face (which it took me a few months to learn to interpret correctly ... she just spends more time up near my face instead of my shins, in "meatloaf" position, staring at me -- which is better than the more aggressive tactics I've heard of other cats using to wake their humans up when hungry), and before I'd managed to pry myself from under the nice warm blankets (but after I was properly awake), got a phone call from a bandmate summoning me to the studio today. (Which reminds me that I want to write about something amazingly cool that happened during the first recording session for this album, back in November, once I figure out how to write it so it doesn't sound like bragging.) So I said I'd grab a bite of breakfast and a shower and run up there. Right now I'm waiting for the house to warm up enough to make stepping out of the shower seem less frightful (I turned on the furnace on the way to feed the cat). Hints were dropped about something fun to play with at the studio. I'm looking forward to finding out what.

Last night after my last post from a keyboard and before the one I emailed from my phone from bed, I read some mail then crawled into bed and programmed the VCR for the weekend ... at a few minutes past 2:00 I was just about done, when I heard what I'm pretty sure were three or four gunshots. I still don't have a good feel for how far that particular sound carries in the city -- my guess is that it was a pretty small gun somewhere around Pratt and Mount, but maybe it was something louder and further away? I dunno. I called 911 and gave them as much of a clue as I could, and heard four more shots while on the phone. The 911 operator said the police would check it out; I've got no idea what they did or didn't find when they did so. I'm guessing that nobody got hit, because I never heard sirens, and the only aircraft I heard just did one quick flyover. (As opposed to being kept awake by the police helicopter circling for a while.) I didn't feel like trying to fit that event into 200 characters (email from my phone is only SMS (Short Message Service), not real email), so I figured it could wait until now.

Okay, house feels warm enough to deal with a shower and getting dressed now.

Back from recording session. Was probably reasonably productive and only feels like I didn't get as much done as I wanted because my desires for the day were unreasonable. [considers how much time was spend fooling around ... considers how much time was spent just waiting for one thing or another ... considers how many parts got recorded ... considers how many takes it took, and how many parts were done in one good take and one "insurance" take ... considers how long the session was] Yep, yep, my "how much I'd like to get done" was unreasonable and what did actually did was a reasonably productive afternoon. A small amount of goofing off, some time spent making my fingers and arm work better, and a good bit of recording. Okay.

I was fed pizza afterwards. I didn't realize how hungry I was until I took the first bite. Yow. On the way home I stopped at the store where I bought the battery for the Honda and returned the old one for recycling, and got my "core credit" ($5) back. Didn't realize how tired I was until I'd gotten everything into the house and fed the cat. Taking a quick look at what my friends have posted on LJ today, and my email, and after that I'm going to set aside a whole lot of things I feel I Ought To Get Done and go crawl into bed for either a nap or the whole night (I'll find out which when I wake up).

Noticed another member of Thrir Venstri Foetr has joined LiveJournal. Was surprised to notice that of all the members here, only two of us have "Thrir Venstri Foetr" listed as an interest. *shrug*

Noticed that even when Perrine is about to do something I'm not sure I want her to do (leap from the radiator to the mouse pad), I'm distracted by the fact that she is a very pretty cat, even for a cat.

Need to decide whether to take the car all the way to Virginia tomorrow despite being nervous about not having registered it yet. GOt the title, got the inspection certificate, got the letter saying that the uncle who signed the title is the executor of the estate of the uncle whose name is on the title; just need to go to MVA and hope there are no snags of the red-tape variety. But that's probably enough that I should keep my driving to a minimum until I've taken care of that detail. Still ... tempted.

Okay, now to post this and see whether it looks like I intend it to look...