But even I am better off than the folks not retiring at the university because they don't have anything else to do.
Dude.
Volunteer.
Get a hobby.
Take a nap.

If Princeton is your life, you have a very, very sad life.

In regard to people not taking the Voluntary Incentivized Retirement Program because they can't afford to-- that I get, and I do not judge. But when whether or not they start layoffs is dependent upon how many people retire with VIRP, and people aren't taking the year's salary in a lump sum because they're worried about being bored?
Then, yes. I do judge.

Okay, so technically he actively avoids walking on me to the point where Lady was more willing to sully her paws, but lookit how cute he is:

( You can't handle the cute! )

A song for each episode of Supernatural Season 4.

( Season 4 )

My TV has just informed me that "Star Trek is this generation's Star Wars."

But.. with the-how and the-1966? And Star ...Wars?
DOES NOT COMPUTE.

I like scifi. I like scifi because it's awesome. Therefore because scifi is so very awesome, other people must like it too, right?
When I encounter another human being my question is not: Does this person like scifi? My question is: Why wouldn't they like scifi?
And I know that there are people who don't like scifi and don't get why I do like it anymore than I get why they don't, but still, wouldn't your default assumption occur along the lines of wanting other people to like what you like?
So when fellow white fen randomly decide that People of Color don't like scifi, I find myself boggling. Why wouldn't PoC like scifi? Scifi is awesome.

So yeah, newsflash, fandom is just as diverse as the rest of humanity.
*headdesk*

*waits for those of you so inclined to run screaming for the hills*

There was an ad for one of these in a coupon circular that PUs and I were making fun of. I immediately dubbed it the zombie plant and decided that in addition to being unkillable, it would grow and grow and take over the house and kill all the occupants.

So you can add "Killer Zombie Plants" to the list that already includes:
-Angry Mutant Squirrels
-Giant Mutant Crabs
-Flesh-Eating Crickets
and -The Killer Robot Who Drives An Ice Cream Truck

I have been looking forward to this movie for weeks. I even declared it to be a (few hours early) birthday gift from you to me. I mean, you've got Lou Diamond Phillips, who is one of those made of awesome actors who can actually pull off a crappy movie (see also: Bruce Campbell & Sean Patrick Flanery), and he's fighting the frakking Jersey Devil! There is no way in which that is not awesome. So you go ahead and give me a really fun to watch movie, only to end it by killing off Lou Diamond Phillips.
You do not kill off the hero of your movie.
Sure, he died saving the day and finally killing the Jersey Devil, but usually that's a fake-out death (à la the monster coming back five times) such that the love interest/kid/whoever can be all boohoo only to have the hero triumphantly emerge from the flaming rubble having somehow miraculously survived unscathed (à la Indy J surviving a nuclear explosion by hiding in a fridge-- you know, totally logical stuff like that).
Way to ruin a really awesome movie there, SciFi.

Oh well, it's my birthday! Yay!

Not celebrating Earth Day just makes them angry.

The fact that you are just now realizing that you don't need to look pretty to sing pretty is really pathetic and sad.

So sometimes that lullabye about how Momma's gonna buy you a mockingbird starts running through my head. The trouble is that I only know the opening lyrics:

Hush, little baby, don't say a word,
Momma's gonna buy you a mockingbird,
And if that mockingbird won't sing,
Momma's gonna buy you a diamond ring...

And that is the point where I forget what comes next and start making shit up:

And if that diamond ring should crack,
Momma's gonna buy you a Cadillac,
And if that Cadillac won't start,
Momma's gonna buy you a beating heart,
And if that beating heart should stop,
Momma's gonna buy you a traffic cop,
And if that traffic cop should die,
Momma's gonna buy you an apple pie,
And if that apple pie should rot,
Momma's gonna buy you a cooking pot,
And if that cooking pot should burn,
Momma's gonna buy you a flowered urn,
And if that flowered urn should break,
Momma's gonna buy you a wooden stake,
And if that wooden stake should split,
Momma's gonna buy you a first aid kit,
And if that first aid kit won't heal,
Momma's gonna buy you a spinning wheel,
And if that spinning wheel should prick,
Momma's gonna buy you a fried drumstick,
And if that drumstick clogs your veins,
Momma's gonna buy you a flying plane,
And if that flying plane should crash,
Momma's gonna buy you some V8 Splash,
And if that V8 Splash should spill,
Momma's gonna buy you a daffodil,
And if that daffodil should wilt,
Momma's gonna buy you a highland kilt,
And if that highland kilt should tear,
Momma's gonna buy you a grizzly bear,
And if that grizzly bear won't growl,
Momma's gonna buy you a hooting owl,
And if that hooting owl won't hoot,
Momma's gonna buy you some drugs to shoot,
And if those drugs don't make you high,
Momma's gonna buy you tsetse fly,
And if that tsetse fly should bite...

This is why it's really for the best that what little maternal instincts I have are directed at cats.

Why is this box epic? Well it's flat out tall, for one thing:


And then there's the whole triple decker aspect:


And the fact that the top layer has this plexiglass lid that slides on:


And it wasn't like I got to make 3 equal in size slots, the different pieces were different heights and widths and thicknesses, and the bit with the lid has grooves and lips and I had dreams about this box. I spent a lot of time at work just thinking and planning and drawing and figuring out how the hell I was gonna make the damn thing. There aren't instructions for this level of creative problem solving. It took like, mad engineering skillz and it also took over my brain. So I'm glad it's done.*

Now what was all this epic effort for?
This:


Yes, that is a falsie. No, I do not know why it's on the cover of a book. I'm guessing it's supposed to be "art", but the foam rubber is disintegrating and was getting smooshed by the original slipcase it came in (preserved in the bottom shelf). The goal of the plexi is that peeps can see the book cover without touching it (or breathing on it), and then access the text (in a wrapper in the middle shelf).

*Of course now they want me and Jody (who gave me this monstrosity and was my sounding board and helped with the thinking thinky thoughts) to write an article about it for the Alumni Newsletter or something.

So I've been thinking about whether or not we're the Black Sheep of the family, and I'm gonna say, "no" simply by virtue of the fact that Uncle Joe is way worse than us. We're more like Gray Sheep. I mean, we're not party-crashing criminals, we're just weird. So maybe we're Alien Sheep here to protect the Earth from the Cabbage Pod-People (yes, I know that was Cow Aliens, work with me here). Or if you want to skip the convoluted Darkwing reference, we're plain old aliens in Sheep's clothing who only pretend to be Sheep once or twice a year, so we're out of practice, and it shows.

1. How does strapping a bomb to a guy with abilities show that people with abilities are dangerous? I mean, you don't need special powers to build a bomb (Exhibit A: Guy who strapped the bomb to Parkman), so all it's really proving is that people with bombs strapped to them are dangerous, and um, I'm pretty sure we already knew that.

2. How awesome would it be if "Rebel", the superhacker who's basically leading the entire abilitified resistance movement from afar, turned out to be Micah?

I was staying really strong in my Not Gonna Watch Stargate: Universe resolve...
And then they added Lou Diamond Phillips to the cast. Sigh.

The "NOW!" can be roughly translated as follows:
Now, dammit! Listen, if those whiny bitch machines don't haul their Mighty asses out here right this instant, I'm selling them all as scrap metal. Ya hear me? SCRAP METAL!

Happy Valentines Day,

To my old loves who are no longer with us:


To my old love who is now a big fatty gorilla:


And to my new love:


Who likes to hang out in bags:


Previously, I was donating to the American Humane Association in honor of my beloved valentines, but this year I decided to switch it up and donate to Best Friends. I sponsored a cat named Abby, who is not named after Abby from NCIS, but that's sorta why I picked her.

How does this work?
Well, it goes a little something like this:

Me: What do you think about Zombies vs. Werewolves?
Me: I think the inevitable Zombie Werewolf would be AWESOME!
Me: But would it be the result of a Zombie getting wolfed out by a Werewolf bite, or a Werewolf getting zombified by a Zombie bite?

So, I've been wearing the same pendant for 8 (maybe 9?) years now. I got it at a souvenir shop in Maine (called appropriately enough, Maine-ly Maine) for $3. According to the little card that came with it, the Nordic rune "eihwaz" is the "primary rune of defense and protection from harm". Now, I don't expect three-dollar pendants to be bastions of historical accuracy, but I liked the idea of it, and my response to the question "Does it work?" (had it ever been asked of me) would have been, "I'm not dead yet."
Anyway, I wore it for a long time on different cords and I think a chain for a while. Most recently, and for the longest duration, I've been putting it on a piece of hemp until it gets skanky and then I cut off the hemp and replace it.
Now, it started out looking like this.
But now, it looks like this:


Or maybe you can see better in this one how the jump ring has just about worn through the pendant to the point of bendyness:


So, now I need a replacement for the sole piece of jewelry that I wear, and I start thinking about what I'd like. I eventually decide on a cat's paw type thing, and start looking for that. In my searches, I find lots of "paw"s that are just a circle pad with circle toe pads (in other words, generic animal paw representation). I also find that on Etsy, you can request custom items. So I sit down (I was totally already sitting) and think "if I could have any pendant design I wanted, what would it be?" I came up with the idea of two cat's paws, one slightly larger than the other, with the bigger one for Ringo and the smaller one for Lady.

Which was artfully made by talented Etsy artist KDemARTe:


And it is so very perfect, with the big goofy Ringo paw and the small dainty Lady paw, and now my missing* kitties can be with me and keep me safe.

*Okay, so technically they're not "missing" in that I know exactly where they are (on top of the bookshelf in the boxes I made for their ashes and artifacts), but you know what I mean.

I hadn't even tasted it yet when I took the picture, but it was just so pretty and colorful. The ingredients: brown rice, fried onions, and steamed broccoli and dried apricots (which I did not steam together, but totally should have). In addition to looking pretty, it also tasted quite good, but I think I prefer white rice to brown rice (I'm a rice racist! Oh noes!). I only got the brown rice cuz it's whole-grainy and whole grains are supposed to help reduce cholesterol.