Blessed by the Potato

So, without having my car, I had to leave my cat back in Toronto to be spoiled rotten a while longer. Back in London on my own, I find that I miss her — last night, I woke up for no reason at all in the middle of the night, and then ran around the apartment at full tilt. I ran to the kitchen, and got a drink of water, then sat there and breathed heavy for a few minutes, then I sprinted to the bathroom, then back to my bed to roll over and take a nap…

It’s just not the same.

Here’s an interesting story about implanting magnets beneath the skin to give someone a magnetic sense. It dovetails nicely with what we’ve been talking about at work recently. I’ll just leave you with that for now, and come back to comment on it a little later.

Ooh, another good read. I love the line “What started strictly as a desire to play with some expensive equipment…” so true.

You can find insanity & pseudoscience fairly easily on the internet, but I’m specializing in my particular field of insanity (and even attending a conference next week where I will hold conversations, face to face, in a manner that is at least on the surface cool and rational, with people who are totally batshit fucking loco).

Well, I just got a report that my car has been stolen and recovered by the police with the ignition ripped out. I’m waiting for the case officer to call me back so I can get the details…

Not even a week after graduating, too.

Edit: so it was stolen and taken for a joyride then dumped. They towed it to the exact opposite end of the city from me (south of the 401 — my dad figures they get paid by the km for towing), so I’m not even going to bother shelling out $60 in cab fares to go look at it first, I’m just having it towed for repairs.

There wasn’t too much in there that they could have stolen (and who knows, it might still be full of my junk). My poker set, my jacket, my sunglasses, the stereo & CDs, the tools and pump, and the irreplacable fabric frisbee. I hope that’s still in the trunk…

I had a chance to look at another Star Wars fan movie today. This one is about an hour long, and isn’t totally focused on lightsaber combat (while well-done, their colouring wasn’t very consistent, especially in the outdoor scenes). They don’t say in the movie exactly when or where it takes place, but I believe it takes place before the days of the old republic, when the Sith had legions of lightsaber-wielding goons, and the Jedi were on the verge of extinction (and before they got real picky about that one master one apprentice and no love interests rule). It’s about 60 minutes long, and I thought the acting was actually rather good (the pacing was a bit slow in places, but for Star Wars fanflicks, that’s a bit of a relief, actually).

I give you: Reign of the Fallen.

*** SPOILER WARNING ***

So what happens is that a city is protected from the Sith army pretty much only by virtue of being in the middle of nowhere and having a giant planetary shield generator. Haunted by dreams that destruction is heading their way, one of the apprentices leaves into the wastelands to try and find a legendary weapon to save their people. The other one, who views himself as the stronger one, is jealous that he has been passed over on the job of leading the people (at this time it looks like the Jedi were more than advisors, as well). So, he falls to the dark side and has a nasty surprise waiting for the other apprentice when he returns.

Now, heed that spoiler warning if this will bother you… so it had some elements of lightsaber fighting that I really wanted to include in the story I was working on for Netbug, namely using more of a flickering blade technique (here it was used to get past a parry where the blades were locked together), and moreover, having a Sith fight a Jedi who was clearly an inferior swordsman, but being defeated by his mastery of the Force. They even included my idea for stopping a swing with the Force instead of parrying it! Neat-o!

Anyhow I hope you enjoy it, too.

There are a number of people I know who’ve gotten married recently, or who are planning on it in the near future. That, or they’re planning on moving out on their own. Either way, lots of people thinking about what to put in their new kitchens. One traditional thing (moreso for the people getting married than those moving out on their own) is to get some china with a pattern that they pick out together (read: that the bride and her mom pick out together). However, this isn’t a very useful tradition for most people: my own parents recently bought a new set of china because they realized that their wedding china was… hideous. Even with that, and with making a point of using their new china as often as they can — they still save it for special occassions, but use it for more of them, like thanksgiving, birthdays, tests, etc., instead of just christmas and easter — even with that, they still hardly ever use their china. Sometimes, they don’t realize until they’re halfway through a meal that they used the regular plates.

So why even bother? Aside from my parents, no one notices when we use the regular plates. It also saves a lot of attic space not having to store a bunch of barely-used plates alongside a dress that was only worn once. Perhaps most importantly, you just can’t beat the timeless solid white of Corelle plates. There are no patterns to form weird Rorsach patterns when food covers part of it, and no paint to slowly chip off with each use.

Yeah, I really like my Corelle plates. The best part about them is that I don’t need to constantly worry that I’m going to break them — I can actually use them. They are nearly indestructable, and that’s their big selling point. They’re not completely indestructable, as I have broken one since moving out here to the L-dot (and people are still amazed that I’ve managed to do that). Given how clumsy I am and how many other dishes I’ve broken over the years (particularly beakers in the lab… ugh), only having one broken bowl is a pretty big testament to their durability (and to give more credit to them, I dropped it from shoulder height with spin).

For those picking items for your wedding registry, it’s important to put some things on that people will want to buy for you, as well as what you want. Having a china pattern on record is nice, but most people I’ve talked to don’t want to be giving china, knowing that it will be used less than the 9th fondue set on the pile (a problem made worse if your pattern doesn’t have universal appeal so people wonder if a mistake was made). A good idea I saw recently was to put a bunch of board games on the registry (everyone needs a scrabble and monopoly, and not everyone has them yet). They’re reasonably priced for your poorer, younger friends, and fun to buy (rather than “hey, how’re you liking that toaster I got you?” … acutally, toasters can be sort of fun, but you get the idea.)

Full disclosure: this post was in no way supported by Corningware/Corelle or Parker Bros. games. However, it could be.