Monday, September 28, 2009

Things that make me go huh

Is it just me or does the Dodge Charger remind anyone else of a shark? Seriously, every time I see one -- and I've been seeing a lot of them lately on Sweat Sock City highways -- I hear the "JAWS" theme. Please tell me it's not just me.
Oink oink

Hello world, I am back after an unintended absence. I recovered from my trip to the UK just in time to be felled by a mysterious bug, which sounds all the more exciting if I say I was stricken by swine flu. I didn't go to the doctor so I don't actually know if I had swine flu, regular flu, allergies, the cold from heck, or all of the above mixed into a nice compact one week of debilitation.

My symptoms included a low grade fever (101.6 to 101.8 F) that came and went at will, kind of like a teenager sneaking out. I had a churning stomach that made me either ravenously hungry or absolutely disgusted at the sight of food. My cough sounded like my lungs wanted to erupt out of my chest and that tickle at the base of my throat was enough to drive me to distraction. The aches and pains and chills only lasted about two days. I don't make mention of the headache because with the exception of Friday's headache, the others were just ye olde run o' the mill pain that I suffer from on a fairly regular basis, kind of like recognizing an old friend dropping by for 3-4 days. The rest of the time, I was either completely exhausted or full of energy. It was like I was on my own special kind of speed.

Anyway, I'm saying it's swine flu because that sounds a lot more dramatic than anything else, plus I'm secretly hopeful that it was because now it means I'm immune (at least for this season). And also, it wasn't really that bad (at least what I had) and it ended fairly soon, about a week, give or take a day, as the symptoms seem to be making a slow exit out of my system.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

For fangirls/fanboys

FYI -- Yahoo! is shutting down its Geocities service on Oct. 26. Read more here. If you have files etc on a Geocities site, you may want to consider moving them. I started my online adventure on Geocities so I still have minimal files there, mostly of the non-fangirl nature. Feels like the end of an era. I wouldn't be surprised if other free hosting services started closing down as well.

Friday, September 18, 2009

LotD

Calling to Follow Up? Hand Me a Fork. I always wonder if I should do this and I never do, just like I don't do the 80 million other things one is supposed to in order to get a job. I feel validated on this one now. YMMV.
Watch that S-car go

My Prius just clocked in -- get this -- at 54 miles per gallon. Just awesome.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Home sweet home

I'm back after another business trip overseas. It may take a few days to get over the jetlag. Watch this space...

Friday, September 04, 2009

LotD

This is story about Cameron Todd Willingham prompts the horrifying question: did Texas execute an innocent man? It's a long and engrossing read, very well-written, and there's some ambiguity as to the final conclusion of what happened here, but thought provoking. There are follow-ups to this article including a rebuttal from the prosecutor here and the author's response here.

Thursday, September 03, 2009

Mystery

I'm reading an Agatha Christie novel, "Murder at the Vicarage." I used to love Dame Agatha and own quite a few of her books. Some were a little odd like "Destination Unknown" or "Evil Under the Sun", but others like "The Murder on the Orient Express" or the tour de force that is "The Murder of Roger Ackeroyd" still thrill. The one I'm reading is Miss Marple's first outing, and it's funny going back and reading a childhood favorite, as I'm seeing things I didn't necessarily notice before. I forgot how colloquial the language is, how interesting the turn of phrase is, and how subtle she is about dropping clues. Of course, the sketching of small town life -- country village -- is something she does really well and her characters, prominently Poirot and Miss Marple, are particularly well defined with their idiosyncrasies and mannerisms. I'm having a good time revisiting and am just a few chapters away from the end. Hoping to finish this evening. Despite all these years of reading Dame Agatha, I still don't know whodunit.