Zathras' Great Machine

Cat photos!

Well, Marie was a little too skittish last night to be terribly cooperative for the camera, but here are a couple of photos of her...

Me getting a photo of Marie but with her turning her head away from the camera right before I released the shutter... (that's Denise in the background.)

...and here's Marie in her de facto home, the side bedroom of my apartment (which has not been getting any use for some time). Most of that stuff in the background is gone now, since I picked up real pet supplies a little while ago.

Marie is already looking a lot better today than she did yesterday... she smells a lot better, and her coat is much smoother. I made that trip to Giant to pick up various supplies for her, including a large litterbox with real litter -- Marie is obviously litter trained, since she took to the box right away.

I also got her a couple of cat toys, which she seems to like (particularly the one with the catnip in it, of course) as well as some real cat food -- grocery stores don't carry the quality stuff, but I picked up some Iams, which Denise says is about the best you can expect without going to a pet store.

Marie also entertained me and Denise with her reaction to canned cat food. :-) Once I pulled the little tins out of the bag, Marie immediately perked up and came over... when I opened one and began to prepare it for her, she just about knocked me over trying to get at it. She wolfed it down pretty fast, too. Still not used to eating regularly.

Rescued cat

Denise and I were heading out last night to go to Rockville for another round of battle with CompUSA over her notebook. As we headed to the dumpster to drop off a load of trash, Denise saw a spotted tabby sniffing around the trash, looking for a meal. The cat was a friendly sort and came right up to us for a "sniff and greet".

Denise is something of an expert on cats (har! understatement), and she told me that the cat was likely a former domestic pet that had been abandoned. After looking at her for a few minutes and talking about it, we initially were going to leave her be, so we headed over to the bus stop to wait to go to Rockville. As we talked about it further, though, I started to become too upset about the stray (especially one so sociable), so we nixed the trip to CompUSA and decided instead to bring the cat into the apartment.

Denise gave her the once over. She determined that our new guest was a female, probably around 6-8 months, who had been a stray for some time, although she was definitely a domestic at some point a while ago, judging by her various behaviors. She also said the cat was generally in good health for the most part. We gave the cat water, milk, and some leftover spaghetti and chicken from the other night's dinner. Probably not the best meal in the world for a cat, but compared to what she's probably been eating for the past several months... (when we first saw her, she was rooting around in some old plastic bags looking for scraps and found what was, apparently, an old chicken leg, which she grabbed and ran off with).

The cat was rather skittish at first, and still is as I write this, though she's calming down. She seems to have taken quite a shine to me, less so to Denise -- which really surprised me, since Denise "feels" cats so much better than I do. Anyway. The cat wolfed down a hell of a lot of food -- not surprising, since she's on the thin side and probably hadn't had a decent meal in ages.

Denise and I talked about various options, including her possibly taking the cat back to Petaluma with her -- a notion that we discarded after some brief discussion. Not sure what I'm going to do yet -- I might try to keep her, or I may give her to the local SPCA. Have to mull it over.

Meanwhile, Denise and I need to make a trip to the Giant to pick up some supplies. We tried to make a makeshift litterbox for her last night, but it doesn't appear that she understood what it was for, so we're going to pick up a pan and some litter. Probably some other things, too.

I've decided to name the cat Marie. Photos to follow later.

--Ah. Last minute update. Denise just told me that Marie has figured out what our makeshift litterbox is for. *grin*

Bemusing discoveries

So Denise and I went to see "Return of the King" yesterday. It's an excellent film, but be warned that it's long -- about three and a half hours. Don't get any soda at the concession stand.

As usual, I had to keep shifting around in my seat -- my lower back has always had some minor problems, and theater seats aren't created for comfort in any event (I always try to get the handicapped seats, but they were taken this time, of course). Anyway, after we got home and were getting ready for bed, Denise wondered about my physical build -- I never really thought about it, but she thinks my legs might be unusually long. She also wondered about how tall I was because she was sure my estimate of my height was wrong, so before we nodded off, I said I'd measure myself in the morning.

This morning, I did so, and made a rather surprising discovery. For the past fifteen years or so, I've been walking around thru life thinking that I was 5' 9.5" tall. Turns out I'm actually 5' 11.5" tall. How weird. I gained two inches that I never knew about. (No, not two inches there.)

The last time I measured myself was when I was in my late teens, when I was 5' 9.5" -- I could have sworn that I learned in health class in junior high and/or high school that growth is pretty much complete by the time you're in your late teens, but Denise told me that it typically continues into the early to mid twenties, so I must have gained it back then. (This also means that I'm not as overweight as I thought I was... I'll have to look up those BMI indicators and see what my ideal weight is supposed to be for my real height. I was thinking that I was about 20 pounds overweight, but it's probably closer to 12-15 pounds.)

Anyway. I'd offer a movie review, but I don't really have anything to say that other movie critics wouldn't have already covered... I did find it rather amusing, though, that in the credits, there was a section called "Rock and Foam", and it had six names listed. I pointed that out in amusement to Denise -- this is a film with such a high budget, and that paid so much attention to detail, that they had six people who did nothing but make artificial rock and rock faces and the like. There have been movies made whose entire budget was less than what Peter Jackson spent just making fake rocks. "Eraserhead" comes to mind, for example, or "The Evil Dead".

How to have a relaxing Thursday evening

1) Go to the grocery store with your sweetheart, pick up all the ingredients for a fine homecooked meal.
2) Return home and plan when to have dinner.
3) In this case, watch "How the Grinch Stole Christmas".
4) Cook dinner together. If you have a strong, almost psychic link with each other, marvel at how you automatically choose certain cooking assignments for yourself and let your partner handle others.
5) Have dinner by candlelight with Enya playing in the background. If you're Parrish, scarf the garlic bread you made and look sheepish when Denise catches you doing it, even though you know she'll just laugh.
6) Look at the Victoria's Secret catalogue that you received in today's mail. Marvel at how most of the women aren't really all that attractive, some of the women are actually repulsive, and two of them are very beautiful. Do several web searches trying to find out who the two that you like are. Find out that they are Marisa Miller and Alessandra Ambrosio.
7) Make blog entry detailing all of the above.
8) Think about when to have dessert.

Yay and Argh!

How can it be both, you ask...? Well, I'll tell you. :-)

First, the "yay". Dinner last night went very well. Denise and I did all our own cooking (such as it was), turned off the lights, set several candles on the table, and put Steve Roach's Quiet Music on the stereo. We didn't fry the tater tots -- thank you for your suggestions and comments, Matt! -- opting instead to try baking them in my toaster oven, which worked out quite well. Accompanying the tater tots were turkey burgers, young peas, and a dessert of Pepperidge Farm Chessmen and eggnog with nutmeg. All in all, it was a wonderful evening, marred only by someone outside relentlessly pounding on a neighbor's door (at midnight...? WTF?)

So what's the "argh"? Denise and I tried taking some photos last night with our digital cameras, and I realize that, if I want to start getting more serious about photography (which I'd like to), it's going to be time to buy a better camera soon. Currently, I'm using a Canon Digital Elph PowerShot S110, which is more than adequate for everything I've been doing so far, but for more serious photography, it's not enough.

Naturally, I've been doing web searches, but the field of digital photography is exploding so much that it's hard for me to find the information I need... if anyone can recommend some good links, I'd appreciate it. Or even if you just have some "sage advice". Here are the features I would be looking for in my next camera:

1) Good in low-light conditions (say, portraits by candlelight).
2) Macro mode for closeups.
3) High enough resolution to produce photo-quality 8x10 prints.
4) At least 4x optical zoom -- the more, the better. Digital zoom not relevant; I don't take digital zoom into account because, IMO, it's a joke.
5) Powerful and versatile flash. The S110's flash is not effective at more than about ten or twelve feet; I'd like at least double that. I'd also like some control over the flash so I can do things like "fill flash", for when lighting is adequate but you want to overcome those little shadowed areas you sometimes have.
6) Not as important, but if the camera includes movie mode, I want MPEG format, not AVI, which sucks. (I'm also willing to look at cameras that don't take movies.)
7) Ability to use manual or automatic controls.

That's about all I can think of offhand... meanwhile, I'm going to get back to the newspapers.

Saturday night begins...

...and things have been relatively sedate around here for a while. Denise and I had dinner with my mother on Thursday night at a restaurant I picked out called Corduroy, a hotel restaurant at a Four Points Sheraton downtown in the District. Hotel restaurants are usually pretty mediocre, but I got a recommendation for this one from the Washingtonian, which said it was pretty good. It was. Very good.

Today, Denise and I ventured forth to Pentagon City to check on some electronic equipment and to get her bracelet repaired. I typically avoid shopping malls in December -- I've been doing it for so long that I had completely forgotten why I hate it so much. It is a damn zoo out there. Jeez!

Anyway. We did some window shopping, got her bracelet repaired, then stopped off at Giant on the way home to pick up some supplies. We're going to try for a quiet, home-cooked, candlelit dinner this evening, with some soothing music (probably Steve Roach) to go along with it. I'm sure everything will go well, with the possible exception of the tater tots -- those can't be microwaved, so I'm going to take a stab at pan-frying them in oil. Wish me luck. :-)

Giant was also predictably crowded and included the usual gang of idiots, including one little girl in the checkout line who said, four times in a row, "I'm looking for Vanilla Pepsi." There was also an elderly lady in the bake section who said that there was only one kind of bread she ever ate, and if Giant didn't have it, she'd die. Afterward, Denise told me that we were both fortunate that our autism isn't so pronounced that we took her literally.

In other news... I was doing a search today on when I can expect to see the fifth season of Babylon Five on DVD. Looks like there's no date announced as of yet, but in searching, I discovered that there are "Easter Eggs" on the Bab 5 DVDs that I already have. Seasons Two and Three include blooper reels, including some really funny outtakes. One gag, in particular, sticks in my mind: there's a scene where Morden is being held in a prison cell, and Sheridan is watching him on the monitor. Sheridan turns to the monitor to look at Morden, then turns away to speak to Lyta Alexander (off camera). He shakes his finger at the monitor and says, as he does in the episode, "Every record we have says that that man is supposed to be dead!" Ed Wasser, who plays Morden, then clutches at his chest, feigning a heart attack, and keels over. The crew and everyone else on the set immediately starts roaring, and Boxleitner looks around in puzzlement, not knowing what was going on since he wasn't facing the monitor at the time. "Huh? What?"

This has kind of got me curious as to which of my other DVDs, if any, also have Easter Eggs... I'll bet at least a few of them do. I'll have to do some more searches.

More later... for now, I'm trying to win a copy of "Pirates of the Caribbean" on eBay, and I want to keep an eye on my auction.

Museums. Calm and Contemplative. Not.

So Denise and I had another nice and pleasant day, or somewhat... I suggested visiting a museum, and she chose the Museum of Natural History. It has a typical museum mixture of displays that are fascinating (formation of the solar system, collections of meteorites, geology) and others that are dreadfully boring (native South American cultures -- sorry, I know that's going to offend someone, but I think it's dreadfully dull stuff).

I also had my first run-in with a breeder. I was looking at a display at one point and standing next to a woman who had a young sprog, probably not even old enough to walk yet... as I was looking at the display, the sprog suddenly cut loose with an earshattering scream. The problem is, for most people, that's just a nuisance or irritation, but because of my autistic neurology, my hearing is unusually acute, which means that if I hear a loud noise (particularly if it's a very high-pitched one, as sprog screams usually are), it's not just annoying, it's actually physically painful.

So the sprog screamed, and I grabbed my head, plugged my ears, and gasped out loud, "Aigh!" and staggered away. (Which was not an act. Well, it may have been a little bit of an exaggeration, but not much of one.) I walked over to stand by Denise to wait, either for the sprog and breeder to leave or for the sprog to fall silent. I would have been content to leave things at that. The breeder, however, was displeased, and decided to say so.

Breeder: Haven't you ever heard a child cry before? That's what children do, after all.
Me: Yes, I have, but that doesn't mean I enjoy it.
Breeder (sarcastic): Well, I'm sorry, I certainly didn't mean to offend you.
Me (quite sincerely): It's OK, it's not your fault, it's the child's, I don't blame you for it.

I guess that kind of threw her, since she just shook her head, looked exasperated, and left.

Someone want to tell me why my behavior was offensive? I mean, I know I'm not the crown prince of tact or anything, but I really don't see any reason that I should have to stand quietly, subjecting myself to physical discomfort, out of "courtesy" under such circumstances. Baby screams hurt, and I'm not going to try to tolerate them just to avoid offending someone else's sensibilities. If I'm near you and your child, and your child screams, I'm either going to move or (more rarely) ask you to move, depending on the circumstances. I may even move away if your child isn't screaming, just so I can be at a distance in case the child does scream. If that offends you, tough luck -- unless you can give me a good reason I should have to stand nearby and suffer. (I'm not holding my breath.)

Damn. You know, I don't care much for children, especially when they scream, but let's face it -- as the breeder said, it's what children do, they don't know any better, so you certainly can't blame a child for screaming. But what excuse do breeders have for expecting everyone to tolerate (or even love) their sprogs?

OK, rant mode off... *grumble*

Anyway. Denise and I saw a number of enjoyable displays and a number of boring ones... my own favorite, of course, was the Hall of Gems and Minerals, which includes, among other things, the Hope Diamond. Fun day. We wrapped up by sitting outside briefly thinking about dinner and finally deciding to go to the Chinese place at the Silver Spring Metro stop because we couldn't think of anything better. We had a good meal and amused ourselves by listening to a couple of older NTs at the next table, prattling on about the things that were incredibly important to them but desperately dull to us.

We then headed home, relaxed for a bit, and watched the conclusion of "Battlestar Galactica" together. The show did have one or two flaws -- most notably, why did the Cylons choose to attack on the same day they knew the Galactica was being decommissioned? Wouldn't it have made more sense to wait until the ship was out of service? (A more minor one that Denise pointed out: how can these people have such advanced space travel, including FTL capability, but not be able to treat cancer?) Overall, though, I liked the show a lot, and I'd definitely like to see it become a series. The original "Galactica" had some very serious flaws and was also pretty juvenile, whereas this one had only minor flaws and was much more mature and adult.

And that's the news for Tuesday...

OK, so it's been a while

OK, OK, Shaw, you got my attention, jeez.

So it's been about a month or so since I made an entry. Life has been topsy turvy... I got laid off in mid-November, which was very upsetting, even though the boss gave me several months' warning that it might be coming. The rest of November was very hard on me, but I've made it thru OK with support from family, friends, and of course my Sweet Babboo (who put in a lot of time supporting me -- a public "thank you" to all, but to her in particular).

Denise got here last Wednesday, and we're mostly relaxing together while I'm on my "vacation". Her notebook computer gave up the ghost -- again -- and we took an impromptu trip to CompUSA today to have them look at it -- again. They really need to replace the damn thing. They've tried everything else, so a new unit is really called for at this point. Which most likely means, of course, that they'll never do it.

Fortunately, I do have a spare computer -- the company's old file server, which got retired some months ago. It's a Compaq and thus a bit tempermental, but I did get it up and running with some help from Denise.

Denise and I watched the first part of the new "Battlestar Galactica" this evening. It's a very interesting variation on the original "Galactica", which I watched when I was a kid (Denise would have been too young at the time; she has never seen the original series and therefore has no basis for comparison). It will also be interesting to see what kind of ratings and reviews it gets... the Skiffy Channel has apparently said that if it does well, it might come back as a new series.

Cinema report: Do not, under any circumstances short of a death threat, see "The Cat in the Hat". It is bad, so bad that I actually fell asleep in the theater. I don't recommend "Timeline", either... it's not dreadful, but it's pretty weak and even features such glaring errors as a woman who speaks only French, then is suddenly bilingual. "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World", is quite good, although it does move kind of slowly.

Denise and I were thinking of seeing "The Return of the King" together, but that fantasy went out the window pretty fast after I looked at early ticket sales. This is going to be a big event, obviously, but even so, I have to admit that I wasn't expecting a response that big.

I'm also slowly going thru the new DVDs that I bought last month... I watched "The Ring" and was very impressed with it. I also watched "Die Another Day" and was not disappointed -- it's standard Bond formula for the most part, although there have been some changes to the formula since the early Bond, of course. No more Soviets to fight against, so now Bond is fighting North Koreans. Some of the humor is a little more racy, too. The theme songs, by Madonna, are excellent -- especially the end theme, which is a great dance number.

I installed VirtualPC and Windows XP Professional on the Hieronymous Bosch. It's not a speed demon, of course -- you can't expect much in that department on an emulated computer. But other than its lack of speed, it performs quite well, and moving documents, files, and so forth between the "Mac" and the "PC" is all but seamless. Now I'm anxious to try Linux.

I finished RealMYST not long ago. Without giving anything away, I will say that the new "Rime Age" is quite a disappointment.

Read in today's paper that the Supreme Court is taking a couple of Miranda cases, including one in which an officer was Mirandizing a suspect, the suspect interrupted the officer by saying that he already knew his rights, then agreed to answer the officer's questions. What, exactly, is the point of disagreement, here...? The suspect said he knew his rights and waived them, so I don't see how anyone can argue that the suspect's rights were violated.

And that, I believe is the news for now... no more Zamboni, at least for a while.