I bought some piri piri chicken cold cuts earlier this week on a whim. They taste okay, but my god do they smell. And not only do they smell, they infect every other food object in their immediate vicinity in the same smell. This morning I had piri piri yoghurt, and piri piri milk with my cereal. This evening I shall most likely have piri piri zucchini and piri piri peppers in my piri piri pasta sauce. Ugh.

... I guess the moral of this story is that I should really stop buying food on the basis if how fun its name is to say.

For anyone who has read Terry Pratchett's 'Making Money':



It's also further proof that although modern computing technology may be smarter, more versatile, and a whole lot less messy than its predecessors, there's something appealingly ingenious about a machine that does just one thing but does it entirely through the application of basic physical principles. (I have probably said this before -- many times -- but, eh. It's still true.)

I've been a bit bothered lately by the fact that I didn't have any kind of real long-term goals, work-wise. I mean, I liked my job, and wanted to get better at it -- still do -- but that was it. I didn't have a lot of forward momentum, and I didn't have a fall-back plan if the technical writing thing got boring.

Now I'm thinking I might start looking into User Interface Design theory. I don't know if that's terribly practical, practical's never been my strong point, and I'm not sure it's something I have any knack for, but it is a topic I find very interesting and it does fit in rather symbiotically with my current work, while being distinct enough to not just feel like more of the same.

So... I'm not sure yet what the next step is, but I like the feeling that there might be one.

I've been battling a particularly nasty document at work these last two weeks, and I'm afraid it's winning. Every day I work and work but seem to make hardly any progress, and every day I come home more and more drained. Ah, well, it's going to have to be essentially done by next Monday, for whatever quality of 'done' I can manage in that time, so at least it's not going to be hanging over me forever. And at least I got some laughs out of how outrageously bad the original document was. Some bitter, hollow, borderline-hysterical laughs.

At least I have Farscape Season 1 to keep me company. It's strange, I saw the first episode a few years back and was utterly bored by it at the time, but now I find I'm really enjoying it. Maybe it's just because work has melted my brain. Maybe I should be worried.

... In the meantime, though... On to the next episode!

I biked all the way to work and back today! It didn't even take much longer than the bus, even though I ended up riding most of the way back with a flat back tire. (Unbeknownst to me; I thought the road was just unusually bumpy.) It looks like the bike could actually become my primary mode of transportation. You know, once I get that wheel fixed. Man, it really is a good thing that repairs to the frankenbike are free.

Update: ... And I've just had one of my most productive after-work evenings ever. It is seriously weird how physical exercise can make one more energetic, not less. Now I'm even more peeved that I won't be able to ride my bike tomorrow.

I just got ahold of a copy of Atlantis: The Lost Empire, a movie that I absolutely adored when it first came out, but which I hadn't seen in so long that I'd forgotten a lot of the details. (Including the fact that the fabulously wealthy, eccentric old man who arranges to have a crew of misfits and mercenaries sent off in search of a mysterious, magical island is named "Mr. Whitmore"; the Lost fan in me was very much amused. Can that really be a coincidence? Are both the show and the movie making reference to some third thing of which I am unaware?)

Anyhow, the weirdest thing about watching the film was the way that it so strongly echoes so many of my own story ideas, and the fact that I honestly can't remember what the causality of that is. Did I watch the movie and love it so much that I decided, consciously or subconsciously, to steal many the bits I liked best and insert them into my own stories? Or did my stories come first, and the reason I loved the movie was that it reflected the ideas that were already in my mind so beautifully? A bit of both? I kind of suspect it was the former, though I honestly can't remember well enough to be sure. It was a pretty strange feeling, regardless.

However, as much as I love it, Atlantis: The Lost Empire is also one of those films that makes me doubt my good taste when it comes to movies. Most movie reviewers didn't like it much at all, and for the most part, I can even understand and agree with their reasoning. And yet, and yet. The combination of visual spectacle and sharply written banter is more than I can resist. When a film is this fun to watch, it's hard for me to get too hung up on details of plausibility, depth, or even coherence.

Besides, a solid majority of reviewers liked -- even loved -- The Reader, so what do they know anyhow.

I now have Skype! My username is k.r.langer, and although I'm unlikely to use it any more than I use my landline (i.e. not much), it would be cool to at least be theoretically able to contact other people using the program, so please, please send me your Skype name if you have one! I'm hoping to be able to eventually entirely replace my landline with Skype, and this is sort of a trial run to see whether that's actually going to be possible.

Also, I like this song. I like it a lot.

I just went to see Transformers 2. It was really, really terrible. I would say more, but it's already been said better.

I don't think I really like this 8-hours-of-work-a-day business. I mean, I do like my work, and I would most likely keep going even if I didn't have to do so to earn a living, but eight hours is a bit much.

If I had free reign to divide up my week days however I liked I think they might look something like this:

• 4 hours work


• 2 hours volunteering, social action, etc.


• 2 hours academic study


• 1 hour interesting, vigorous, uncompetitive exercise


• 7 hours cleaning, errands, socializing, creative work and misc. free time


• 8 hours sleep

That would be much better. All the self improvement and productivity I crave, but with much less potential for tedium and eye strain. Unfortunately, that kind of schedule really isn't an option at the moment, and may not be ever -- especially not if I want to be able to keep paying the rent for my apartment. But still. If there's value in thinking about utopias on national or international level (and I would totally argue that there is), I think there's got to be some value in thinking about utopias on the personal, individual level as well.

Today started out not-so-good -- I somehow managed to pull something horribly painful in my back just by casually stretching my shoulders and ended up being quite late to work as a result. However, today does have one huge upside:



Bike! This beauty cost me a whopping $25. It's a kind of Frankenstein's monster bike, resurrected from the scrap heap by some talented and intrepid hipster/hippies (hippiesters?) down at the local bike recycling joint. It rides really very nicely, too, and if I ever have trouble with it I can bring it back to the workshop where I got it at any time and have it fixed up for no additional cost. Pretty sweet!

I'm not likely to do much riding tonight though. My back's about 95% better than it was this morning, but it could still use some resting. There will be plenty of opportunity for biking tomorrow.

Is it just me, or is Safari just keep getting worse? When it first came out, it seemed to me to be faster and more stable than any other browser available at the time. Now it seems sluggish and crashes not infrequently. Isn't software supposed to get better and more polished over time, not less? I am disappointed, Apple, I really am. Keep this up, and I might have to switch back to ugly, ugly Firefox.

I don't really get why RRSP contributions are limited to 18% of salary. That seems like a pretty regressive policy, on the whole; it means that people drawing large salaries are able to derive more benefit from the RRSP program than people with smaller salaries. It means, for instance, that no matter how thrifty I am, I can still only save a fraction of what someone with a larger salary is entitled to save in their RRSP. It's kind of aggravating, really.

Anyhow, mostly I'm just happy that I currently happen to have the means to be saving at all, even if it does make me feel even more like an impostor adult than usual. It's just that I'm so used to programs being weighted to help people with less income save as much as possible that I'm a bit thrown when a program doesn't seem to be structured with that end in mind.

What have I done today? I made pancakes. I totally failed to buy a used bike from the local bike recycling project. I spent far too much time browsing through a used book and video store. I started watching Ashes to Ashes season 2 at the behest of a coworker. I got some tasty take-out tempura from the Japanese restaurant down the road. I tinkered with the layout of my dreamwidth blog. I sketched a portrait of my current D&D character and posted it there.

In short, I accomplished nothing of any note. But I had more fun than usual in the process.

PS. I've been using Photobucket for image hosting, and while it's serviceable, I'm not exactly thrilled about it. Can anyone recommend a better alternative?

I would really like to take a bath this evening. A nice, long bubbly soak with a good book to read. Showers are okay and all, but you can't put bubbles in them and trying to read is probably a bad idea. *pines for bathtub*

I've been reading some old Cable and Deadpool comics lately. They're kind of fun, though the plots are pretty incoherent and the pop culture references are stale verging on moldy. I think I like the premise of the comics a lot better than the comics themselves. I doubt I'll be reading any more.

This Marvel wiki claims that Deadpool is Canadian. Is this true? I sure hope so. The world needs more babbling, mentally unstable, amoral Canadian superheroes.

Went to my first yoga class today. My legs have now officially turned to jelly.

My flexibility seems to be slightly above average for the class, which is not so surprising given how many of the other participants are middle-aged or older, but my balance and endurance are way, way below average. Which is good, I suppose. It means that I'll have something to strive for.

The yoga teacher kind of cracks me up, though. I can't get over the impression that he's actually some sort of B-list actor who's been hired to play a broad caricature of a yoga teacher. He just acts so sensitive and new-agey, but he's also such a total jock at the same time. It's kind of perfect.

Actually, I think there's a certain amount of value in having fitness instructors who, in one way or another, embody the ideal practitioner of their art, both physically and in their personality. After all, it seems that most people attend these classes because they want to improve themselves, to bring themselves closer to some particular ideal self. If the instructor resembles the kind of person they want to be, then that feels like a big old testimonial for the program. People are probably more likely to engage with a program if the instructor is someone they feel they can model themselves on. I imagine that's true of all kinds of activities, actually, not just fitness classes.

Not that I want to be like Mr. Sensitive Jock, exactly. But still. He does have a very calm, unflappable ease to him that I wouldn't mind incorporating into my own personality. Hmm... learning as a process of Borg-like assimilation of found traits in an ongoing, futile attempt to build towards perfection? Works for me, I guess.

Bah, this dating thing isn't going to work. I'm glad I gave it a shot, I'm sure I would have regretted not even giving it a chance, but there's just no getting around the fact that I've got nothing by platonic feelings for this guy. Which is kind of too bad, since he really is a good individual, and we have a lot in common, and, besides, he really is fantastically fit. But ultimately that just isn't enough. Hormones are fickle things, but essential, and this time they're not budging.

Now I've got to figure out how to tell him that it's not going to work, which is hard and not something I'm at all good at.

... I guess I'll sleep on it, anyway. I'm pretty sure that right now would not be the optimal time to deliver such a message. Though I suppose it's possible that's my cowardice speaking. Well, tomorrow. Tomorrow I can deal with all this.

Since Dr. Tiller's murder, I've been reading a lot of online discussions about abortion. And I really need to stop now. It's only making me angry, and not accomplishing anything at all productive.

I also finally got around to watching Pan's Labyrinth. Which was just as horrifying and excellent as I'd heard it was. Though, man, the second trial annoyed me. I don't mind main characters making dumb choices, as a general rule, but I'd at least like to be able to understand why they made the choice they did. "Because I thought I could get away with it" was a pretty unreasonable reason to take such a pointless risk.

On the positive side of life, I found out what my annual bonus is going to be. It's not a huge amount of money, but then I've only been working for the company for a little over half a year, so that's not exactly surprising. Anyway, I now have the delightful task of deciding what to spend it on. Honestly, I'm torn. I've been wanting to get a roomba for ages, but haven't been able to justify the expense to myself so far; this could be my chance to indulge. On the other hand, I also am kind of drawn to the idea of buying new clothes, etc, in an attempt to improve my appearance and maybe look a bit more professional. Or I guess I could do both. Hmm, hmm. Really, that's the kind of conundrum I don't mind facing.

A quick note: I've just been reading The Brick Testament, a collection of strange and appalling bible stories illustrated with lego. It is about as strange as it sounds, but much, much awesomer. The book of revelations is particularly creepy/impressive, although the section on King David and his sons was in some ways more surprising -- it's amazing how much more readable those stories become when you add little lego-man pictures. And how much more NSFW.

Apparently, one of the other houses on my block is being sold for some $750 000 dollars. (Or at least that's what the people selling it are hoping it will sell for.) Granted, it's a considerably nicer looking building than mine, but still! Suddenly, my rent looks awfully reasonable.

Also surprisingly reasonable is Microsoft Office 2007. I've heard a lot of negative things about the new design from various people, but so far I quite like it. And I've heard Word 2007's styles feature utterly shames Word 2003's, which would pretty much be enough to sell me on the upgrade all by itself. Microsoft OneNote is also surprisingly good. Oh, Microsoft--! When did you get so competent? This experience almost gives me hope for the upcoming Windows 7 release.

Not reasonable at all is Dreamwidth's system for journal customization. Okay, sure, it's exactly the same as LiveJournals, but at least LJ has enough decent prefab looks that only the hardcore need mess with their customization system. I'm determined to bend the confounded thing to my will, but I make no guarantees on how long that will take.

Unrelatedly, I was reading about The Art of Memory the other day, and trying to come up with a place I could use for the architectural mnemonic. For the longest time, I couldn't come up with any place I could get a clear sequence of more than about 20 places from -- but then it came to me! Instead of physical places, I could use scenes from Chrono Trigger! Not only I have pretty much memorized that game, but the way that the game's designed makes it so that the scenes are each visually and emotionally distinct from each other, which is perfect for a mnemonic base. The only problem comes in deciding what counts as a 'scene'. Does Chrono's arrival in 600 A.D count as a scene, even if there's no dialog? Do dungeons count as scenes separate from their bosses? These are certainly difficult questions that need to be resolved before I move ahead with my plan, but I think the potential is definitely there.