i woke up this morning sounding like Barry White.

my throat is raspy, my chest is on fire, and i'm coughing up more phlegm than the Marlboro Man.

in an effort to alleviate my symptoms, i went shopping. i came home with a couple of spiffy new shirts, and a couple of movies (Dune and the pilot episode of Farscape).

i've decided to spend the remainder of the day in bed watching movies (those i bought and whatever else comes on one of my two dozen movie channels). so far, i've seen Boycott and Soul of the Game.

all in all, not a bad way to spend the day when you don't feel like doing anything else.

Happy Birthday, Mommy!

there is a deli in the hotel that adjoins the building i work in. i stopped by there quickly to grab something for lunch, but ended up spending most of my lunch break there.

the deli was full of firefighters, and not just any firefighters, but firemen. lots of them. in their white and navy department t-shirts. with muscles. and muscles. and more muscles. i don't think i've ever before taken so long to eat a sandwich.

Jean and i were talking a little about crocodiles and alligators (there may be a croc attack on Survivor next week, so i'll have to watch an episode). crocodilians are cool, so here's a link to a good Croc and 'gator page, with descriptions and photos.

there's a population of crocodiles "which occupies the brackish water cooling canals at the Turkey Point nuclear power plant in Florida". yea for irradiated crocs.

i haven't seen too much Grammy talk. did no one watch? i saw part of the show while over at mike's. we'd listen to them read the nominees, then we'd both say "who?" after an hour of "whos?" we stopped watching. the show sucked anyway.

i finally watched this week's Buffy and Angel. Buffy wasn't all that great, though it did have some good moments, and one sad one that got me all weepy (i love you, mommy!).

Angel was better. i liked it bunches. it had action, it had drama, it had sex, and it had a dead guy working in the elevator. i think Cordy and gang went too easy on the wench that didn't pay them for getting rid of the third eye on the back of her daughter's head. i'm not saying they should have kicked her ass or anything. something more along the lines of "you know, we broke the charm to get rid of the eye. what makes you think we can't put it back?"

and what's with Angel? he's spent a few centuries as a vampire and he's just now figuring out that people suck? tsk.

that's all the Buffy/Angel comments this week.

why is the plural form viruses and not viri? this is the question that keep me up at night.

wtf? my boss just came by to tell me to "take it easy today. you've been working hard all week." me? working hard? puh-leez.

monday was a holiday. i didn't work. the three middle days these week have all seen me fighting insomnia and trying to stay awake here at work. all total, i've read fewer lines this week than i usually read during a single day.

i've been taking naps, for pete's sake. how much easier could i possibly take it? catatonia?

as much as i would like to attribute my headache to the bucketfuls of wine i must have imbibed last night, i'm quite certain that a hangover does not usually include a sore throat and swollen lymph nodes. boo to the virus and/or bacterium causing this. four times this winter wasn't enough?

something i can blame on the wine is the now-deleted two posts from early this morning. wrong kind of blog for that. bad terrence.

heh

"Does not support" is not the same thing as "refutes". Hooray for Kansas

why is everyone talking about moving the earth farther away from the sun? it's not like we are going to be here in 5 billion years anyway.

after telling me on Tuesday that it should only take 5 hours to repair my car, the Service Guy said yesterday evening that they needed a third day (a mechanic had locked the keys in the car and couldn't get in to drive it into the work bay). displeased, i told him that i needed my car. i haven't been able to drive it for five days. the Service Guy promised to take care of it, then rented a truck for me for a day. a Ford F150. a big truck. a butch truck.

i spent all evening driving around. a truck like that gives you command on the streets. all the little coups and sports cars scatter to get out of your path. all of the little old ladies turn nervously into parking lots. teenagers out cruising the strip worship you. pedestrians flee the sidewalks. stray animals climb trees or run back to the families they abandoned years before. it's a good feeling. one that ends at 5:00pm today. then, it's back to my little Weeniemobile.

this is cool, if you've ever wondered what a sonic boom looks like.

[wave compression by Metafilter]

after my fourth nap today, i think the drowsiness is finally gone.

heh. i stumped the Guess the Evil Dictator/Sit-Com Character database.

would someone be kind enough to explain the "All your base are belong to us" thing to me?

my mother, my sister and my nephew stopped by last night, unexpectedly. my sister had never seen where i live, and normally, i don't have many guests (i don't like to inflict my roommate on anyone), and when i do, it's almost always someone like me (no, not a rude, insular bastard. a gay guy. sheesh), so usually, i don't bother to be discrete about where i keep my...personal belongings. that proved to be rather embarrassing to my semi-prudish sister when, as i show my sister around and we enter my bedroom, my three year old nephew runs straight over and says "What's that?" while pointing at the bottle of Wet on my nightstand.

after that, my sister wouldn't leave the living room. i doubt that she ever drops by again without calling first.

i didn't get to see all of Buffy tonight. i did see where Giles was really rude to Spike. i used to like Giles. now i hope Glory does something terrible him. poor Spike.

but i won't get to see the rest of it until tomorrow night. tell me, though... is it worth all the excitement i've built up for it?

X-title fans can get the low down on the book/team shake up here.

the new line up for X-Force now includes a mutant named U-Go Girl. how the mighty Marvel has fallen.

i just got the call. my order for War In Concordia: the Shattered Dream is in. today is one big changelingey day!

there's something enormously satisfying about seeing an executive on his hands and knees picking up what looks like half a ream because the printer decided today would be a good day to spit paper on to the floor.

this is funny: MenWhoLookLikeKennyRogers.com

you can even get tips on "How to Look Like Kenny." under Beard Tips, it says "keep beard trimmed neater than Richard Simmon' tank top drawer." what the hell does that mean exactly?

[impersonation by Web-Goddess]

all the proof you'll ever need that Changelings are real. ok, maybe not all the proof, but the article mentions the game to which i'm so attached.

[infusion of Glamour and Banality brought to you by Lots of Co.]

anyone know how to tell when ramen noodles have gone bad?

egad. i have much to do today, but i didn't get out of bed until noon.

my need for a new mechanic escalated this weekend when my car decided to overheat suddenly at 3:30 in the morning on a lonely stretch of highway. in my know-nothing-about-cars panic, i called the only person i could think of who could help me: mikey. he wasn't home. if not for the concern of Trooper Frizzel, i'm sure i would have ended up the plaything of some psychotic truck driver, or the victim of a sweet and friendly yet cannibalistic elderly couple.

the next morning, i called my mommie. she came over, took a look at my car, and diagnosed the problem (a missing freeze plug. she then had to explain to me what a freeze plug is).

i thought that maybe i should learn a little about cars, but decided that's what God made boyfriends for. but, because i doubt my ability to find a boyfriend to fix my car by the end of the day, i have to go out and find someone who can do the repairs and have them done by wednesday.

i have only the slightest idea of how to go about it. i'm going to start popping into shops and talking to big butch guys in uniform covered in transmission fluid and engine grease and try to remember that, in this case, i'm looking for someone to fix my car, not a date.

i went out with a guy last that (both) didn't know i existed until 4 months ago, and has been attracted to me for years. i ignored such contradictory statements because of the number of margaritas he'd consumed throughout the night.

other than that, all was going well. we actually had some things in common, and knew some of the same people. conversation was pleasant, until we turned to movies and such.

he really likes Kristy Swanson. being who i am, i have no idea who he's talking about, so he lists some of the roles she'd played, including the original Buffy in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (film version). hearing this, i perk up a bit, he notices that i now know who he's talking about, and he decides to continue talking about Buffy.

"The movie was all right, but it's better than the show. I hate the show."

i guess he didn't notice the dumbfounded stare, because he kept talking, even extending his pronouncement of 'stupid' to Angel.

i disagreed with him. "Buffy and Angel aren't stupid," says i. "they're just not something everyone gets into."

but he argues that they are stupid, and can't believe anyone watches.

shortly thereafter, i became 'very sleepy', and sent him on his way, with a vague and mechanical "we'll have to do this again sometime." of course, we won't be doing it again.