Typically, my name was misspelled in the authors list, but I’m a co-author of (yet another) academic paper. I don’t think there’s much I can do about the name thing at this point, as I was holding the journal in my hands earlier, but I think I can live with it. I’m used to stuff like that by now :/
On Friday night I watched Ju-on, which is the original, Japanese, version of The Grudge, which I watched a week before.
Overall, I thought this was a better, scarier movie; and it seems that all the logical fallacies I griped about in the last one (including the one I didn’t mention, dealling with why everyone in Japan is an American ;) ) were introduced in the American adaptation; and that the ideas that weren’t introduced in the Americanization were done more effectively here, making the previously stupid ones much less so.
The only gripes I have with this version are:
Anyway, this movie is still silly, but it is also much scarier than the American version, in my opinion. It really just combines all the little heeby-jeeby things we are all familiar with into one creepy package, which, although it’s not really terrifying, does give you (surprise) the heeby-jeebies.
This just rocks… I’m my favorite X-man! And I ddin’t even cheat or anything!
| GAMBIT Holy crap! You are: |
| The one guy who EVERYONE wanted to see in the movies! Gambit just kicks ass. If he can’t obliterate someone by hucking kinetically charged cards at them, he can beat them to death with his quarterstaff. AND he’s a pimp. So what are you doing on this site, anyway? Shouldn’t you be out stomping people’s shit in right now? |
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From Marcia Barrett Nice via LinuxChix Live.
This weekend I’ve dicovered a few things I think are worth sharing:
1000 Blank White Cards – a DIY card game in the style of FLUXX, only even more chaotic. I played my first game last night, and it was quite a bit of fun (especially the ‘Ski Free’ Sasquatch card I did, which requires you to lap the room while attempting to avoid the attention of any furry beasts). Maybe I’ll scan in some pics of the better cards latter, and add them to my gallery.
NWN CEP – A community-created and maintained expansion for NWN that adds a bunch of new content to the game, allowing you to play more modules.
From Gina and other chix:
I’ll admit that since the instructions didn’t say that one couldn’t use google, and since some questions actually encouraged/required it, I used google for two or three of the other questions. I figure that makes me even more of a geek :)
Besides, I got to learn some interesting trivia- like where pong was patented :)
Surprisingly, I woke up and I’m hardly even achy. My butt’s a tad sore, but my legs are fine, and my back feels better than it did when I woke up yesterday! Ah, the miracles of keeping muscle injuries elevated…
Anyway, I think I was just dehydrated (despite all the water I made a point to drink continuously) or lacking in readily available calorific goodness (really likely) last night when I felt so ill after getting back from the ride.
I think I’ll bike in to work again today :)
Today Beth and I tried to partake in the FLCC Thursday night slow ride. We left work early, and biked down one side of the valley, past the commons, and up the other side of the valley on Rt. 96 and waited at the appointed meeting place. Once 17:30 showed up, and no other cyclists did, we figured we had somehow missed them (we weren’t sure we had the right place, as it was the ‘Cayuga Professional Centre’, and we were looking for the ‘Tompkins Professional Building’, but the description of the place matched up) and started biking out on our own. As we rode, we picked Taughannock falls as a destination- we figured it was as good a place as any, and besides, we were probably about halfway there already.
We continued along 96 until we reached a pizza place where we stopped to get water and directions. Following the directions we turned off of 96 and onto some scenic country roads, and eventually ended up on a road the directions didn’t match. As we stood there looking lost, and Beth tried to call ctl for directional assistance, a motorist stopped and asked if we were okay and whether we had a flat. We got directions from her and were on our way again.
We biked down some more scenic rolling country roads and met up with Rt. 89, which we turned left on and soon got to the base of the falls. We wandered around a bit, resting and rehydrating, and moaning over the fact that the refreshment stand (which normally sells ice cream, which by this point we could really use) was closed.
After a while, we decided we might as well ride the last mile or so up to the falls overlook (at least 200 feet above our current position), so off we went. It was around this point that it really started to hit me, and I had to take about 3 breaks on the way up, though I did manage to bike the whole way without walking. It wasn’t that the grade was too bad, because it really wasn’t as bad as it would seem, it was just that after all the other hills we had already biked my legs no longer wanted to follow my silly sadistic/masochistic commands. I already had a headache at this point, but was trying to ignore it.
When we finally made it, we stopped and rested again, and marvelled at the lack of waterfall. The drought has made the falls drier than I have ever seen them before- leaving only a thin trickle of water, about as forceful and voluminous as what you would see coming out of a leaky garden hose. The river under the falls had actually dried almost entirely in places, AFAICT- only leaving some puddles isolated from each other in the riverbed.
As we hung around up there, to our surprise a group dof cyclists rode up- the Thursday slow ride we had wanted to meet up with originally! It turns out that we had been at the right place, and the website was wrong in at least two regards- the name of the professional building (apparently it’s changed) and the time everyone was meeting- currently they meet at 18:00. D’oh! Also, we had apparently taken a very roundabout and hilly route to the falls, which caused us to probably climb about 1400 feet, according to one cyclist (which explains why I was so tired- I thought we had only climbed about 700 feet!).
We joined back up with the group for the ride back to the Professional Centre along less steep, less trafficked, and more scenic routes. As we rode, we all chatted a bit (I was gratified to get reinforcement on my belief that yes, it is much harder to ride a mountain bike for normal road conditions- “Well, riding a mountain bike will definitely make you strong!”), making introductions and small talk and such. I was surprised that I was able to keep up with the leaders in the group for most of the way (as was Beth, but that doesn’t surprise me)- even though I would usually fall way back on the inclines I would always easily catch up on the declines.
Eventually, we made it back to the Professional Centre and disbanded. Beth and I were originally going to bike back to the Commons and catch a bus back to campus (avoiding biking up the other half of the valley again), but as it was already quite dark, 96 is a busy road, and we (at least I) were really quite tired and achy, we ended up calling up ctl for assistance. After trying to find out when any buses go past there (they don’t after 19:30, and it was already 20:00), he and happicow ended up putting together the trailer hitch bike rack I bought a few months back, and happicow came and picked us up. At some point during loading our biks on the car, I lost my water bottle, which I had taken off my bike :(
By the time we got home, in addition to that headache I mentioned earlier, I was also quite nauseous. Hence, pretty much immediately after getting inside I tried to get some sleep, staying mindful of the muscles in my upper back (which had started to hurt again after the ride) by trying to get comfortable in a chair (hence elevating the offending area). As that wasn’t too successful (due both to lack of comfort and a fly who kept bugging me), and as after two hours of fitful napping I felt a bit less likely to hurl, I decided it was in my best interests to eat something. So I made myself some green/white tea and a plate of eggs & pasta, and wrote this up.
Hopefully, tomorrow I can still move. I’m thinking I’m gonna opt for taking the bus to work, if I am able :)
Hopefully, I’ve done myself no longterm damage, so I can do the ride (the proper way, avoiding so many steep climbs) again next week- this time actually meeting the other cyclists at the start of the ride!
All in all, we biked 22.456 miles in 2:08:20, going an average speed of 10.5 mph.
After taking it easy all last week, and after starting to ride again on Saturday (on my old bike) with no ill effect, I thought my back was better. Consequently, after biking to work on Monday and getting an abnormally good time (also with no ill effect) I decided to take different bike routes to/from work yesterday and Tuesday. Yesterday I took the super-long route both to and from work, turning the normally 2.2 mile ride into a 4.7 mile ride, meaning I biked over 9 miles total.
Today when I woke up, my back hurt again, for the first time in about a week. :(
As I plan to partake in the FLCC slow ride today (which will probably put me at biking over 30 miles today, including getting to and from the meeting location), my back had better get used to the idea rather quickly.
I hope that tomorrow morning when I wake up I can still move :)
