Discrimination?

So my computer has BOINC on it. It is a program that lets you use your spare processor time to help analyze data for things like SETI and other processing intensive science projects. I have it on my computer and it only does one project at a time. But my fiance just put it on her iMac, and it will do two projects at once. Is that sloppy programing, or am I doing something wrong? Or is something wrong with my version of BOINC?

Moving

So now I have begun moving. I brought a dresser and a big sack of laundry and my gamecube and some of my favorite movies to my fiance's apartment, which I guess I should start thinking of as my apartment. I don't know how long it will take me to get all of my things moved, but I do know that gas is expensive, and I'm not really looking forward to all the trips I'll have to make. On the plus side, moving in together means one less thing to worry about before the wedding.

As far a jobs go, I will probably end up working evenings and weekends, while Anna mainly works days. Some people probably think that would be a strain on a relationship, but since we have been living ninety miles apart for just over three years, it will be an improvement, because we will see each other at least sometime everyday, unless one of us needs to go out of town for something. But I'm excited. Anna is way more organized than me, and that means that I might get to spend more time doing things like blogging and writing, and less time sitting in squalor. Good for me, too bad for my slothiness.

Book Club

About one year ago, after graduating from college, I decided to join a book club at my local Barnes & Noble. The book was Gulliver's Travels. I had a good time, so I decided to keep going. Other books we have read include: Fahrenheit 451, The Book Thief, Davita's Harp, Four dialogs by Plato, An Anthropologist on Mars, Alan Alda's memoir, Rabbit-Proof Fence, Blink, Picture of Dorian Grey, The Alchemist, Swann's Way, and tonight The Year of Magical Thinking. Probably half of the books are ones that I never would have read if it wasn't for the book club, and most of them I enjoyed. Even the ones that I might have read eventually someday, I was glad to have the added pressure of the book club to keep me moving along. Unfortunately, since I will be moving to live with my fiance, I will probably not be able to attend the book club after tonight. I hope that in my new home, I will be able to join a book club, or to get one started if there aren't any that I can join already in operation.

Is anyone even reading this?

Hello, faithful readers! I don't know if there are any of you, but I am curious about that, so I would appreciate it if you posted a reply to this post if you happen to read it. I don't know what will happen, but I want to know. Perhaps you just want to say, "Yes, I am reading!" Maybe you will have some suggestions about what direction I should take with my blog. For now, I will just provide you with an idea of what I did today:

Got up at about 5:30 am, after an hour of hitting snooze. I ate some eggos and drank an energy drink, showered, applied wart remover to my plantar wart, brushed my teeth, dressed, and made it to work by 6:30 am. Then I was bored for about eight-and-a-half hours. Then I went home, called Anna, who didn't answer, so I called my parents, chatted with them for an hour, and tried Anna again. Still no answer, so I finished watching Pulp Fiction, which I had started watching last night, but was too tired and turned it off. During a scene in the middle of the movie, right after the line, "get the gimp," the phone rang, and it was Anna, so we chatted, and then I finished the movie. Then I watched the season finales of The Simpsons, Family Guy, and American Dad. At some point during all that I ate some Brie and crackers and a sandwich. Then I did some internet surfing, culminating in this blog entry.

Boy, my days sure are boring. Good thing I am going to be moving in with Anna soon. Maybe then I won't be so painfully alone so much. Well, I hope someone reads this.

Ow, my arm!

So I was playing some Diablo II on my computer, and now my arm hurts. I don't remember that happening back in High School when I would play Diablo for hours on end. Does that mean that I am getting old, or did I do some damage at some point in between? I don't know, but I hope it feels better soon, cause I want to play some more!

Waiting

I am sitting here in my fiance's computer room, and I am waiting, and I am bored. It is almost twelve-thirty, and she is supposed to come home for lunch, and I'm hungry. I have an interview this afternoon for a job, so that I can move here and live with her, but I'm sick of waiting for that too. I am just tired of waiting for things to happen. Why won't they just happen, already. I guess Madonna was right..."Time goes by so slowly for those who wait."

Walking

So I went for a walk this afternoon. I have a couple of routes that I follow, depending on how long of a walk I want to take, and I was in the mood for a medium-long walk. Unfortunately, nature was not on my side for that. My normal walk of that length takes me to the river, and then follows a path along it. Recent rains destroyed that plan, because the path was under water in some places. I took some city streets to try getting to the path in several different places...not because I thought I could get to it, but because I was curious about just how flooded it was.

My curiosity rewarded me, because of what I found one of the trails leading down to the one along the river. There was a barricade where the trail started going downhill to the river, and I stopped there to look at the water going by for a moment. I saw something move out of the corner of my eye. It was a wild turkey! It was trying to make itself look extra big and scary, and it was looking right at me.

I know that turkeys can see color, and I was wearing a bright green shirt and a red Minnesota Twins cap (the "alternate" cap...in a 7 7/8ths), so I tried to remain as still as possible, so I wouldn't scare it away. I turned off my iPod to listen to it. It didn't make any sound, but I could hear rustling in the other direction. After a few moments, an hen emerged from the brush. I realized that they must be a mated pair, and he was trying to scare me off to protect her. It made me think of the way that Anna protects me. I can't wait until we get married and become a mated pair.

Thank you, Blogger

I think that I should acknowledge folks at Blogspot and blogger for having some kind of crazy like to an youtube video about zombies, with the song "Re: Your Brains", by Jonathan Coulton. As some of you might know, zombies are not only my favorite type of monster, but also my favorite film genre, and probably in my top five as far as general pop culture things go. I know that there is no such thing as a zombie in real life, but for some reason I think that they are the most interesting horror staples (the others being vampires, werewolves, demons, ghosts, and mummies). I think that the reason that they are so interesting to me is that they are relatively inept, but people can't seem to get along in a way that allows them to survive an outbreak of zombies. The best zombie fiction ends up with everyone dead. But the reason that everyone ends up dead in not because they couldn't fight off the zombies...it is because they couldn't band together to fight the zombies off. In Night of the Living Dead, the last man left alive in the house gets shot by a sharpshooter in the sheriff's department. In Dawn of the Dead, everything falls apart because of a selfish gang of regular people who try to raid the mall. In Day of the Dead, things go bad because the sciencey people don't get along with the militaryey ones. In Land of the Dead, things fall apart because Dennis Hopper's character is an asshole. In Shaun of the Dead, things only work out because people figure out how to put the zombies to good use without getting bitten themselves. Anyhow, the best zombie fiction is not stories about men versus monsters. It is stories about men versus men, in a time of crisis. The actual zombies are simply a backdrop of trouble that can be overcome by working together...but how many people can actually do that?

Back home, nothing to write.

I'm back home, I won't be having anymore ergonomic issues...but I can't think of anything to write. Sorry to tease you!

Free Comic Book Day

Today was the traditional holiday when one sits back with a tasty Mexican beer, and enjoys reading their free comic books. That's right, the first Saturday in May is Free Comic Book Day, and I got mine! I'm unfortunately at my parents house, using their computer, and it is not ergonomic. Oww, my wrists...must...stop...typing...

Spiderman 3...lame?

I saw Spiderman 3 a few hours ago, and I must admit, I thought that it was actually kind of lame. Since it just came out today, I won't put any spoilers in here...even though I don't think anyone reads this. Let me just say: Love story=lame. Villains=lame. Plot=somewhat disjointed, and also lame. As anyone who has seen the trailers knows, the main villains in this movie are Goblin Jr., Sandman, and Venom. The story keeps jumping between them, and it would have been much stronger if they had focused on just one villain. I can picture them taking the elements of the film involving either Sandman or Venom, keeping everything with the New Goblin, and making a totally workable picture of the same length, but with a much stronger plot.

I feel that I should mention that I did enjoy Spiderman 3, I just think that it wasn't as good as it could have been or as good as its predecessors. I think that the first two movies about the character were great, and revived the "Superhero film" as a genre. Unfortunately, this movie may be signifying the end of an era, which is a shame, because I really want to see good movies based on some of my favorite comic book characters: The Green Lantern, because that would be great eye candy; The Green Arrow, because he is badass and foul-mouthed; The Justice League, because that would be awesome; Powergirl, because she is stacked; The Avengers, because they deserve more than a couple of direct to DVD animated features; and Red Sonja, because the one movie about her is pretty sucky, and she deserves better.

It's fun to laugh

I am between funnies right now. After work I watched disc two of the first season of The Extras, a funny series by Ricky Gervais, the creator of The Office (the British one). My favorite bit was when the Ricky Gervais character when into Patrick Stewart's trailer on the set of a movie, and tried to give him a script that he had written. I guess I should explain that the main characters are extras in movies, and each episode has an actual famous person as a guest star. So anyhow, Patrick Stewart told Rick Gervais that it is important for actors to also be writers, and he described a screenplay that he was working on, in which he would play a character similar to Professor Xavier in the X-Men movies, but he would use his powers to make women's clothes fall off. When Gervais finally gave Stewart the script, and asked him to show it to people he knew in TV, Stewart said, "I'll make it so." Gervais said he had never seen Star Trek: The Next Generation, and it was funny.

Anyhow, I said that I am between funnies. I bought the current issue of TV guide, because tonight's episode of My Name is Earl is "laugh and sniff". There is a card with several places to scratch and sniff at designated times during the episode. The I will get to see The Office (the American one), 30Rock, and Scrubs. And all of those are usually pretty funny. I sure hope so anyway.

Something...

I don't know what to write, but I feel that I should write something, so here goes.

Today, I slept in until a leisurely 9:00 am. Upon waking, I watched the movie Cool Hand Luke. I hadn't seen it before, but it was pretty good. When it was done, I puttered around on the internet for a while, and then I took a shower. After I got cleaned up for the day, I watched an episode of Malcolm in the Middle on TV, and then I went and picked up my comic books for this week. It was an exciting week in the world of comic books, because the final issue of the year long weekly series 52 came out today. Notice that the date is 5/2. Those people at DC Comics are pretty clever. Did you know that the C in DC stands for Comics? Maybe they aren't so clever after all. Anyhow, after I read 52, but before reading any of my other comics, I went for a walk. I'm not sure how far I went, but it took about an hour and forty minutes, so if I had to guess, I would say it was about six miles. Then, I went back on the internet and made a blog entry. I might write more later, but I am noticing that it is time for Jeopardy, and I feel like watching today.