CyberCemetery Story

It's always fun to tune into NPR on your morning commute and hear your coworkers! Woohoo!!

Read the print version of the story here:
"UNT's CyberCemetery keeps dead federal agency websites alive"
by Catherine Cuellar, KERA 90.1 Reporter

Or listen to the MP3 here.

(This story played on KERA 90.1's "Morning Edition" on 8:36am, 2.19.07.)

The Leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.... and Birthday Boy

Kim Jong-Il turns 65 today. What kind of birthday cake do you think he likes, anyway?

Now, don't you have "I'm so ronery" echoing in your head? (Okay, maybe not for those who've never seen Team America: World Police. Hey kids, buy the DVD and a teeny tiny portion of the profits may go to Trey!)

Want to hear what I sound like being interviewed for our local NPR affiliate KERA 90.1, just one day after overcoming the flu? Then tune in to "Morning Edition" on Monday to see if the story plays. (Don't worry, if they archive it on their website later, you know I'll be linking to it.)

[Sniffle, sniffle, snork. ] That's all for now.

As Promised, Geekery

And here's the link to the photos I took at Timothy Zahn's Borders book-signing on 02.07.2007.

So, I never actually wrote about the experience, being as I was busy with a sick Alex, and then busy being sick myself. So here goes.

I walk into Borders a little after 6pm, and immediately upon entering, spot him. Yes, that's Timothy Zahn himself, working at his laptop in the Borders cafe, nobody around to bother him yet. I pause for about thirty seconds, during which he briefly glances up, and no doubt absorbs the goofy "I see a Celebrity of Ultimate Geek" expression on my face. He looks down and wisely pretends not to have seen me. I pull myself together firmly, remind myself that I have been in the same room with this man before, and by golly, I'm not here to make his life a more frustrating experience, and walk off to find a manager or fellow DFWfanforce member.

I find Denise, who's organizing the event, and she shows me where to put my things in the back room--upon which I geek-out again, abeit slightly less so than over Zahn. It's a back room... in a bookstore. Oh, heaven! Then I run out to the bathroom to change into my Pink 7 gear, and come back to find the 501st changing into their armor. Along the way, I run into Helen, one of my fanforce pals from The Line (aka the Bellydancer). Denise gets us to slap stickers on people's books that they brought from home (like my copy of Heir to the Empire). We feel geeky and important.

Jeff, Brandon, and Jonathan from DFWfanforce show up a bit later, and we briefly catch up before I run off to the back room again. Zahn's lining up all the costumed of us to escort him in--I'm placed behind the stormtroopers and in front of Anakin and Vader, who flank Zahn. We all march out to the podium and table that's been set up for him, and all we costumed geeklings form in a V-pattern behind him, like a very, very confused flock of migratory birds.

Zahn talks awhile about what it's been like to write Star Wars EU, then gives a long Q/A session. The length is pretty awesome to listen to, as a fan--but as a gal in a hot costume in a really well-heated Borders, I nearly pass out. Literally--vision starts going and everything. I have to back out of line and sit with my head down while Helen gets me some water--darn that heavy, hot helmet!

I had to leave not to long after that, when the real signing began, and left my books under Helen's protection. I ran by Walmart to get some supplies for the flu-beleagured Alex, and then spent the rest of the evening watching movies with him.

Happy Commercialized Excuse for Oppressing Singles Day

You can read my personal feelings about Valentine's Day in a previous post--albeit that I've been happily non-single for six years. Still, something about forcing people (particularly, often the male half of the relationship*) into a hastily-planned show of love that may be less than sincere doesn't sit well with me. Then again, perhaps that's just my flu talking.

I'm working from home today--felt much better, then got up and took a shower. Man, do you realize how much energy it takes to get up and stand under water for half an hour? I'm worn out just from getting dressed, then dragging myself and my laptop to the couch.

Okay--sorry, this is my day for griping--but this story about Cleopatra not being such a looker is a little ridiculous. First of all, there's the small matter of whether or not the coin's designer ever saw Cleopatra--much less up close. Second, there's the matter of cultural ideas of beauty being different every decade, much less 32BC versus 2007AD. So regardless of whether to us, "She does look as if she's forgotten to put her teeth in," maybe we ought to just leave a little mystery in the myth of Cleo's beauty.

Immediately upon leaving this morning, Alex burst back inside, shut the door, and pronounced that yes, once again, it was snowing. Again. In Texas. I'm wondering if we mistakenly entered the wrong house sometime around Christmas, if we both took a wrong turn home one day and now we're living in Missouri--because clearly it can't be Texas we live in, not with all this snow we've been having. Bizarre.

And here's Alex's contribution of the day: the uber-helpful error message he received from The Gates Error-O-Matic (or, The Empire Formerly Known As MS):



*For a hilarious illustration of this, listen to this excerpt from this past week's episode of A Prairie Home Companion.

We Got the Funk--er, Flu

Seems like I had a bunch of stuff I intended to post last week. Well, Alex had the flu for a solid week, and as of Sunday gave it to me for awhile, so I'm resurfacing from the funk. Perhaps I can get back to the previously intended posts at some point.

For now, I'm going to leave you with a few brief things, and then get myself back to sleep. This whole sitting-up-in-bed thing is remarkably draining.

I had a great email from work today pointing to this YouTube video, March of the Librarians. It's a documentary-style parody of ALA Midwinter 2007, and it's good for a giggle. Here are my favorite parts:

• "fabulous facial plumage" sported by male librarians
• a stormtrooper and jedi make an appearance
• the necessities of life--"coffee, food, and email"

And for those of you fortunate (and wise) enough to be a part of the Wii craze, the Homestar Runner guys have ported several of their games for the Wii--just point your Wii browser to http://www.videlectrix.com/vii/ and have at it! (I'm looking at you, Jared.)

"How's the Sicky?"

• Alex is sick with the Flu+, a combination of the flu that's going around, plus the respiratory funk that's going around. Poor guy's miserable.
• Timothy Zahn's book signing (and my costumed appearance as Pink Seven) was fantastic--particularly because I got to hang with my "The Line" pals Helen, Kodiak, Brandon, and Jeff. I missed you guys!! (photos coming soon...)
• Because Alex's been sick since Tuesday evening, we've consumed a lot of media while sitting on the couch: Lost, Smallville, and Heroes, of course, but also Wild Things, Tristram Shandy, Idiocracy, Grilled... I forget the rest. Oh, and a really hilariously pseudo-academic show on how ancient Egypt was populated by aliens who flew heliocopters. I mean, Stargate is more convincing. Honestly.
• This is Working Saturday #2 of 3 for me. Sigh.
  

One-Day Weekend

Well, it was short, but we packed a lot in. We went to Cabela's with Alex's parents (now we've got to take mine, when they're here again) and "wow"-ed at the taxidermy, the gun library, and the aquarium. We even ate wild game in the restaurant--Alex had an elk sandwich, and I munched on venison bratwurst.

Once home, Alex and I hunkered down on the Fat Couch to watch the Superbowl. And I must say--this is the first Superbowl that I've been entirely captured by the game itself the entire time. There were some amusing commercials, and there's nothing like seeing sing Prince"Purple Rain" in the rain, but considering the amazing antics of Rhodes and Adaii, the Colts running backs, I was glued to the action. See, when Alex and I play Madden (the football video game, not the man himself), I'm always the running back. It's the only position I can get the hang of, and it's how I learned football (not so long ago, in 2001). And now that they broadcast football games with graphics, like the first down and all, and it looks more like a video game, I can actually follow it. So I was thrilled to watch the Colts win last night.

Me, the humanities student who always hated sports, except for the World Series. Shocker.

Anyway, this weekend we also managed to watch Flyboys (quite enjoyable), and Thank You For Smoking, which was sheer genius!! I need to own that movie. It's got the snappy dialog, the dark humor, and the gleeful joy of watching a fictional Congressional hearing. What more could I ask for? Okay, besides a song and dance number.

Then on NPR this morning, there was a story about ray guns in the military. I love living in the future.

If you're going to be in Dallas this weekend, please please please do myself a huge favor and go see Scott McCloud when he stops at Zeus Comics. I need to live viariously through you, as I'll be working again this Saturday and cannot have my three books by him signed. Sigh.

I guess it would be too much to be able to see Timothy Zahn and Scott McCloud in one week, right?

My Not-So-Funny Bone

I woke up yesterday to find, to my delight, that snow had once again covered everything! (Where do I live now, Canada?) I ran to get Alex's camera, ran back to the front door, ran out the door to go get some shots of the house--and totally bit it on the icy driveway. I had, foolishly, put on Alex's shoes (that make me look like a mouse in a giant's boots), and one of them slipped off slid across the driveway as I fell with most of my weight on my left elbow.

I'm not a person to swear, normally (aside from "cr4p" which is just fun to say), but I let out the loudest, most outraged, "D*** it!" in my shrill voice that I could mange. I bet it looked hilarious from an onlooker's perspective, but unfortunately for the world, no one was outside to witness it.

I managed to limp to the end of the driveway to take my photo, and then limped inside, where I waited around another hour or so trying to decide if I should go to work, or go in to get my elbow x-rayed. It hurt terribly all day yesterday, and typing wasn't so fun, but was dramatically better this morning. This is just one more instance that proves a) I am the most uncoordinated, ungraceful person who has ever taken a decade of ballet lessons, and b) my childlike enthusiasm usually only gets me into trouble.

Other than that, yesterday was exciting--we're (or rather, I'm) launching two new digital projects at work, and Alex and I had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory (I'd never been there before). The avacado eggrolls were fantastic, as was the grilled eggplant sandwich and the white chocolate raspberry cheesecake. Eating out at such places restores my faith in cooking. Maybe not my cooking, but the fact that somewhere on earth, people are being creative with food and making it well. Can you tell that I'm a little tired of my own fare and its boring nature?

And... that's about it. I worked today (just like I will on two other Saturdays this month), so there will probably be little in the way of interesting weekend activities to report. Alex and I are going to Cabella's tomorrow with his parents, but that's about the extent of it.