Timber!

Despite getting to bed late last night and making the mistake of having a Coke at the movie (the caffeine kicked in just as I closed my eyes to fall asleep), I was up shortly after 8 this morning, and, feeling ambitious, got showered and dressed shortly thereafter.
I decided to head to Lowe’s to see if they had the leaf blower in stock. They did, so I grabbed one, and then decided to take a look at the TV stands.
A while back I found one there that I liked, which consists of multiple separately-purchased components. When I found it the time before, one of the components was not in stock, but given that I’d had more luck with the leaf blower this time, I thought that maybe I’d have some luck on that front as well.
Nope.
Once again one of the components – probably the same one – was not in stock.
However, I noticed that they did have that exact same component in black, as opposed to the stainless steel used in the display model, and that there was no reason that I couldn’t just go with the black rather than the stainless steel, so that’s what I ended up doing.
From there I went to Wal-Mart, where, after having breakfast at the in-store McDonald’s, I wandered around aimlessly without buying anything, and then headed to the barbershop for a haircut, and to Shoppers to pick up some groceries.
I came home, tried out the leaf blower, and assembled my new TV stand.
I plan on putting the old TV stand up in one of the guest bedrooms, and given that Scott is coming over later, I was wise enough to realize that I should wait until he gets here to try hauling it up the stairs, as it is kind of heavy and unwieldy.
However, I did decide to move it out of the way and closer to the stairs, figuring that this was a short and straightforward enough path to take with it.
Of course, I totally forgot about the case of bottled water that I’d set down on the floor earlier, and as I moved to set the TV stand down, my leg pressed up against the case and sunk into it and the end result of this was Jon fall down go boom.
I sighed and decided to stay where I was for a little while before getting up and assessing the damage.
Nothing appeared broken, and it seemed that the worst of it was an abrasion on my leg where it rubbed up against the edge of the TV stand as I fell.
I would say that the worst part was the wound to my pride, but honestly it’s not as though I have any of that left to injure.

Iron Man: Short Review

Frickin' awesome.
I had only two complaints, one of which matches up with the only real quibble I saw in most of the reviews I read, namely that the musical score was pretty weak. Not horrible, certainly, but just lacking any real oomph.
Still, any movie that includes the song Institutionalized by Suicidal Tendencies is okay in my book.
The other complaint I have is specific to me - and to my bladder. There is a rather important scene that's included after the credits, which was very, very cool, but the credits were too goddamn long. My kidneys were already feeling like they were going to explode when there was still a half hour left to the movie, so I really didn't appreciate the additional wait.
Anyway, great movie, and quite possibly better than Spider-Man 2. I haven't decided on that yet.

Yes, My Evil Plan Is Working!

It isn’t often that my evil schemes come to fruition, which could actually be why I don’t often hatch any evil schemes, though I suppose it’s equally possible that causality could flow in the opposite direction.
But this “chicken or the egg” conundrum aside, the point is that today one of my rare evil schemes came to its even rarer fruition.
Of course, it was only “evil” inasmuch as Sloth is one of the Seven Deadly Sins, which is to say that it really wasn’t very evil at all.
Despite the fact that the forecast earlier in the week had called for rain all weekend, it’s a gorgeous day. Currently sunny with a temperature of 86.
So, a bit before 2, I stopped by my boss’ office to give her an update of the status of some of the things I’ve been working on, and when I was done, just as I’d planned for her to, she said, “Well, it’s a nice day, so if you want to take off a little early…”
So I did.
And what am I doing with this extra time off, earned though my Machiavellian scheming?
The laundry.
Yes, my devious methods have truly borne glorious fruit!
Later tonight I’m going to see Iron Man with Scott and a bunch of other people. So far everything I’ve read about it has been overwhelmingly positive, many claiming that it’s the best super hero movie since Spider-Man 2, which is a very bold claim indeed.
(Spider-Man 2 just barely edges out Batman Begins in my best super hero rankings because a. that lousy week that Peter has at the start of the movie so perfectly captures the spirit of the character and b. there is a fight scene on the side of a frickin’ building, to say nothing of the fight on the elevated train.)
So that should be good.
In any case, I suppose I should get back to enjoying my ill-gotten gains.

Yep, That Pretty Much Sums It Up

(From xckcd)

My New Favorite Typo

Today in an IM conversation with Scott, I typed the word "scientist," or rather, I meant to.
What I actually typed was "scientiest," which has officially become my favorite typo, and needs to be introduced into the lexicon.
I won't provide a definition; the meaning is obvious, as demonstrated by this sentence, which uses two forms of the word:

"No one is scientier than Einstein. He's the scientiest!"

That was pretty much my excitment for the day, unless you consider mowing the lawn to be more exciting than making a funny typo, which I don't.
Well, there was also the thing with my former boss' office.
Shortly after I got in today I got an IM from my former boss asking me for my extension.
He called and explained that he was out of the office and needed to get onto the VPN, but that his SecurID token was in his office, so he wanted me to get the master key and go into his office to get it.
The person I was supposed to get the key from wasn't in yet, so I told him I'd let him know as soon as I had it.
After about an hour, she still wasn't in, so I asked him what he wanted me to do. He told me that the key was in a box on the desk of the person I was supposed to get it from. So I got the key and went into his office where I found a SecurID (and all kinds of packets of Splenda) in his drawer.
However, he said that he had two SecurIDs there and that he wanted the one that wasn't on a string. I found only one SecurID, and it was on a string, so he was SOL.
I still say inadvertently coming up with the word "scientiest" was more exciting.

There Must Be 50 Ways To Cook Your Bacon

Today I found this site, which has links to fifty ways to use bacon, many of them – like Bacon Wrapped Tater Tots and Bacon Popcorn – brilliant, while others are a bit iffy and still others seem downright gross.
I love bacon as much as the next guy who doesn’t suffer under any religious objections to pork products – okay, I love bacon at least ten times as much as the next guy – but despite what many people seem to think, not all great tastes taste great together, so Bacon Ice Cream? Not so much.
One of the uses for bacon I found was Egg Salad with Bacon, which sounded like a great idea and something easy enough that I could make some for dinner tonight.
Apparently “easy enough” just wasn’t easy enough for me, though, and I ultimately decided against it.
My mom called earlier tonight to tell me about something that happened at the post office today. She went in to buy some stamps and noticed that there was a bank shaped like an old-fashioned mail truck on display. My dad had actually made some banks like that – using old post office box doors – so my mom asked who had made it. Turns out it actually was one of my dad’s.
So that was cool.
And that’s pretty much all that happened today.

Draw Your Own Conclusions

At Kathleen’s party, Scott made an observation: I haven’t posted a new drawing here in a long time.
It’s true; I haven’t.
Why? Well, I just haven’t been doing that much drawing lately.
Why not?
None of your damn business, that’s why!
*Cough*
Sorry about that.
What I meant to say was, “I don’t really know. It’s just one of those things. Sometimes I feel like drawing. Sometimes not so much.”
I also haven’t seen anything in a while that made me think, “Hmm, I should draw that,” and going back and looking at some of my unfinished pictures I can see why I’ve left them unfinished.
But somewhere along the line I suppose I should draw something, so for those of you (namely Scott) who are eager to see something new, all I can say is be patient; I’ll get around to it eventually.
Not much of note happened yesterday or today, so I don’t really have much to write about.
Maybe I’ll be more ambitious tomorrow.