lederhosen

Back from Melbourne. Got up at 4 am, v. sleepy. brandtotter very generously drove me to Spencer St. in the wee hours of the morning; next time I book a Melbourne trip, must think more carefully about return flights. (Living as close to the airport as I do means I forget to factor in to-airport travel times & costs when choosing flights...) Also, much love to asagwe & shadow_5tails who picked me up on arrival in Melbourne on the Friday evening.

( Weekend things. )

Oh, also, got to see how big Byakko has grown - I think he will be the Monster Cat that Cuddled Melbourne to Death when he's fully grown. Think of something white and fluffy, add more fluff, and give it Elijah Wood eyes and you have the idea.

And an amusing shindy at the petrol station when we stopped for snacks last night. I didn't hear the beginning of it, but it seems to have been a case of a condescending & difficult customer and a long-suffering checkout guy who wouldn't let her buy her cigarette papers for less than the listed price. I walked in at about this point:

CUSTOMER: "You know what you are? You're a rude little boy. I'm going to make sure your manager knows about this."

CHECKOUT GUY: "You know what? This is my last day. I'm not going to be here tomorrow. I don't care. And there's nothing you can do about it."

CUSTOMER: *froths* *complains some more about 'rudeness'*

CHECKOUT GUY: "Ha ha!"

She then rounded on the other clerk, who was also grinning, and then on all of us who were waiting in the queue, before stomping out. It was a guilty pleasure; I don't think it's right to taunt people, even when they're being unreasonable... but some of them surely *deserve* taunting, and I know plenty of my LJ friends have to deal with people like that customer every day.

jazzmasterson and harliquinn, the Mad Science Mix arrived yesterday :-) Will probably throw it on while cleaning house for imminent arrival of parents.

Yay octopus!

And, via silmaril, Texas has passed a law allowing schoolkids with diabetes to follow their blood sugar management plans. I think theweaselking says it best.

While waiting to meet Neil Gaiman yesterday, and reminding reynardo and sarin_girl of the 'no licking' rules, we snagged the Day of the Triffids DVD. (The BBC one that actually resembles the book, not the B-movie.) Looking forwards to watching that; I remember it scared me as a kid.

A quote I came across on the web today:

According to the gun designer of The Matrix.
Larry & Andy Wachowski: Who uses a .50 Desert Eagle?
Gun Designer: A wanker.
Wachowskis: No, who are they made for?
Designer: Wankers.
Wachowskis: Our wankers in this film want Desert Eagles.
Designer: Your film.

And for just about all of you, a beautiful image about work frustration here.

Still trying to track down an eyeball-moulding kit so we can take a cast of my eyeballs. They don't seem to be in common use these days. So far, all three people on the 'might have one' list turn out to have been old optom classmates of my supervisor, which is handy, but we may have some difficulty finding what we're after.

(No, I am not going to use plaster of Paris if I can't find the proper stuff.)

And I, for one, welcome our new parrot overlords. And our squid overlords, too.

Also, creepiest webpage ever. (Link points to a page with description & pointer to cached ick, rather than directly to the creepyness.)

The exercise machine says I just did 30 km and 680 calories worth of pedalling. I know the distance readings are rather generous (it works out at about 3 metres per step, presumably via an invisible imaginary bicycle) and I'm unable to judge the latter, but it was 136 minutes' worth on the top setting. So now I am v. v. sweaty and about to stagger off into a shower before I make dinner. 136 minutes, BTW, translates into halfway through Robocop before the tape became unwatchable (will see if reynardo can fix this when she wakes, she has the Magical Techie Touch I lack) and all of Vampires: Los Muertos.

I exercise best when I've got eye candy that will take my mind off the physical work without actually requiring any real brainpower, and V:LM certainly did that. Vampires, no particular intelligence required or offered*, and much of the plot recycled from the previous movie anyway... although rather lighter on John Carpenter's usual slapping-women-around schtick, for which I am grateful.

So, since I do want to do a good long exercise session like this every so often, any recommendations for future viewing? Stuff without too intricate a plot, which probably means action, but still enjoyable. Which for me means either "not completely stupid" or "has vampires in it".

And after ten minutes sitting down I don't feel completely dead, which is good. I may get the hang of this 'fitness' thing yet. I'm not trying for anything fancy there, just enough to keep me healthy and energetic enough to live the life I enjoy, and so far the exercise thing seems to be doing a lot for that. I'm having a lot less trouble with backache than I used to, and I feel good when I stop exercising, and anything more is a bonus. And I'm blithering because I'm puffed, so I'll stop now.

*You're a seasoned vampire hunter but you insist on sleeping outside, alone, you wake up to see a skimpily-clad woman you've never met before but who looks remarkably like the sketch your tame bitee drew of the Head Vampire, and without further ado you get hot 'n' heavy with her, HELLOOOO! I guess we can change your name to 'Expendable Black Dude'.