Category: Stream of Consciousness

Shaving Needs

2012-10-12, 4:17 pm
Categories: Stream of Consciousness

Longtime readers will remember these chilling before-and-after images from some 11 years ago:

Bearded Thad A Clean-Shaven Thad

I can't do that anymore. The beard. My skin's gotten more sensitive, and if I go even a day without shaving now I start to break out.

The rub is, shaving irritates my skin too. Particularly under my chin.

Recently I ran out of cartridges for whatever-the-hell Gillette-or-maybe-it-was-Schick razor with too many blades I was using. And, at the suggestion of Brontoforumgoer Shinra, I tried this new combination:

A safety razor with roughly 9 months' worth of blades and a soap/bowl/brush set. As Shinra notes, it's a bit much to pay upfront (upwards of $65) but it'll pay for itself over time in the rock-bottom prices of safety razors. It's basically the opposite of the standard razor/blade sales model; in this case it's the razor that costs all the money and the blades that they're practically giving away.

It took a bit of getting used to (there are tutorials on the Internet, mostly video but some text -- the gist is, wet the brush thoroughly, run it around the soap in circles until it works up a lather, lather your face, swipe with one side of the razor, swipe the next spot with the other side, rinse, repeat; Geothermal has a more thorough rundown in the thread I just linked) but now I'd say I'm getting at least as good a shave I did with the Five-Blade Monstrosity I was previously using, and less irritation under my chin.

Of the different blades I've tried so far, the ones that have worked best for me have been the Merkur that came with the razor and the Blue bird (sic). The Gillette and Shark, on the other hand, nicked the hell out of my face the first couple of days I used them -- I'm not sure if that's actually the fault of the blades themselves or just that I wasn't used to the safety razor thing yet (and was shaving without my contact lenses in), but at any rate I had much better luck with the pack-in razor and the Blue bird. I mean, I guess if I were to compare things that are likely to rip my face up, I would expect a shark to be much more dangerous than a bluebird in that regard.

Elementary

2012-10-11, 9:28 pm
Categories: Stream of Consciousness, TV

It's funny, looking at what cycles into the zeitgeist -- the little bits of culture that come bubbling back up and then suddenly everyone has a different version. Vampires, zombies, fairy tales -- Sherlock Holmes.

I watched the first episode of Elementary. It lacked the fun of Guy Ritchie's Victorian Buddy Cop version, and the sheer genius of the Moffat/Gattiss/Cumberbatch/Freeman version.

Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu were perfectly good as Holmes and Watson. They really didn't have any chemistry to speak of, but that's not their fault, it's the writers'. Watson as drug addict Holmes's handler? Not a good setup, and definitely seems to owe a little too much to that recently-concluded other TV adaptation of Sherlock Holmes, House.

And as for Holmes being a genius, well, it comes across as more that he's the only character who isn't a complete moron. You need the world's greatest mind to tell you that a guy doesn't have the same size foot as the one that kicked in the door? That doesn't make him a genius, it makes you a really terrible forensic detective.

Indeed, there is one brilliant observation that solves the whole case -- and Holmes doesn't make it, Watson does.

All this to say: I don't think I'll be checking out the second episode. I guess if I want my Sherlock fix before next season, I'll just have to go see The Hobbit. Oh darn.

Disconnect

2012-10-10, 9:12 pm
Categories: Stream of Consciousness, Work

If you've ever been laid off, you've probably experienced this: they tell you that your services are no longer required, and then pile a shitload of extra work on you.

The week ending 9/28, I imaged 25 computers and shipped 36. This week I've imaged 42 and shipped 56, and it's only Wednesday. And that's just the upgrades; that doesn't even include the new hires -- because in the immediate aftermath of being told the company can't afford to hire me, of course I am immediately inundated with a bunch of shipping requests for all the new people they're hiring.

Sometimes it's hard to stay motivated. But as I've said before, in the absence of promotion (or even continued work) as an incentive, there's still professional pride and loyalty to the guys I work with. They're not the ones who made the call to lay me off, and they're the ones who are going to have to do my job on top of their own in a couple of weeks. I may as well make that transition as smooth as possible for them.

Plus, if we do huge numbers my last few weeks here and then they suddenly start to fall behind as soon as I'm gone, well, then I've left a handy chart they can show the bean-counters, in the language bean-counters understand best.

Jobsearchin'

2012-10-09, 9:27 pm
Categories: Stream of Consciousness, Work

You know, it feels different this time.

The last long-term contract I had ended in 2010 and was followed by three months' unemployment (aside from a few freelance Web assignments).

This time I've already had an interview. Haven't heard back from them (they never call when they say they will -- you know, I've often made the unflattering comparison between looking for work and trying to meet women, and I'm afraid it's once again apt here) but I think it went pretty well.

And today I got a cold call. Well, a bulk E-Mail, at any rate. Only for a three-day job, and it steps on the last few hours of my current contract, but I think I can make it work.

Good pay for three days; obviously I'd rather get something longer-term, but it beats the hell out of unemployment.

Seriously, unemployment sucks; I very much hope to avoid it. We'll see...

Doctor Who: Scream of the Shalka

2012-10-08, 8:42 pm
Categories: Cartoons, Comics, Stream of Consciousness, TV

Another old Who review. Originally posted Bronto, 2008-07-11. This is about Scream of the Shalka, starring Richard E Grant -- which is timely, as Grant's set to show up in this year's Christmas special.

Scream of the Shalka is an animated Webcast from '03 that was originally intended to serve as a pilot for a new series.

All in all, the biggest weakness is Richard E Grant's Doctor: bluntly, he's a prick. He's got all of Eccleston's sarcasm and condescension, with none of his whimsy or manic energy.

Now, there's a reason the Doctor is a prick, it's just not a very good or interesting one. The canonical #9 and #10 have done the "guilt and isolation" schtick too, but much better; the Doctor covering up his personal pain with constant wackiness is much more enjoyable than covering it up by simply insulting everyone and brooding all the time.

The most interesting element of the series is the robotic Master -- one of very few hints that Grant's Doctor has a sense of humor, and the only thread I would have liked to see developed had this made it to series. (The one brief nod on the current series: Derek Jacobi appearing as the Master in Utopia.) The serial's writer, Paul Cornell, would go on to use a similar idea years later in his Action Comics run, starring Lex Luthor and a robotic Lois Lane.

Aside from that, it's a generic alien invasion plot. The animation is serviceable -- and, since it's properly-done Flash, vector graphics and all, looks great on an HDTV -- but very low-budget; it would definitely look at home alongside any number of current cartoons on Nickelodeon or CN. Animations are simple, backgrounds are practically nonexistent (but lots of Kirby dots!). The animators' later attempts (the missing eps in The Invasion and The Infinite Quest) look a good deal better.

Anyway. It's worth checking out; the price is right. And I'd like to see more animated Who (either new stuff or more Invasion-style fill-ins of missing episodes). But ultimately, it's like the '96 movie: it's an interesting "What-If" for a series that never was, but the one we got instead is much better.

As One Door Closes

2012-10-05, 10:17 pm
Categories: Stream of Consciousness, Work

Today was the celebration for the end of the project I'm on.

I'll be honest -- I wasn't terribly in the mood for celebration. The thing we were celebrating is the same thing that means I will be filling out an unemployment form two weeks from now.

(That's a little glib. My temp agency has, once again, stepped up; I've already had an interview and even if that doesn't work out they told me they've got another bite. Still and all, the point is that with the project over I've got my walking papers, wherever I may be walking to.)

The boss took us out to lunch. And one of the help desk guys asked me, "So what's next for Thad?"

This is exactly the kind of thing that I would have assumed would upset or depress me -- people actually acknowledging that yeah my days here are numbered. (Ten.)

But it didn't. The way he said it -- friendly, upbeat. Optimistic. Just the assumption in his phrasing -- there is something that's next for Thad.

And that cheered me right the fuck up. After that my day wasn't such a downer.

And then we went and raced go-karts.

Powdered Toastman

2012-10-04, 9:54 pm
Categories: Cartoons, Stream of Consciousness, TV

Featuring Frank Zappa as the Pope.

Ren & Stimpy is available for purchase or streaming at Amazon, or on Netflix. Contrary to the title of the DVD set, the episodes are not uncut; most notably the entire Bloody Head Fairy sequence is missing from Haunted House. This episode, however, is intact and is not the cut-up version shown on Nickelodeon.

(I'm not sure about the streaming versions but have no reason to think they'd be any different from the DVD release.)

Anyway. Zappa loved oddball cartoons, so he fits right in here.

And I'm sure one of these days I'll get to Duckman...

Who? Who? WHO?

2012-10-02, 9:31 pm
Categories: Politics, Stream of Consciousness

I've said before that I don't know who I'm going to vote for this year. Romney's right out, and I just don't think I can grit my teeth to vote Obama again either.

Johnson? There are things I like about him but if I can't grit my teeth to vote for a Democrat I sure don't see how I can grit my teeth to vote for a Libertarian. The Libertarian Party has become synonymous with a total lack of empathy for the less fortunate and an obscene worship of big business. Johnson's one of those guys like Ron Paul -- he sounds good to college kids because he wants to end our foreign engagements, decrease domestic surveillance, and end the drug war -- all good things. But you start digging a little deeper into his policies? Not only does he want to replace the IRS with a flat tax, the dude wants to abolish the Board of Education.

Stein? Well, I can't find any red flags with her, but unfortunately I've come to believe the Green Party is a dead end.

I used to be registered Green. I voted Nader in 2000. I saw him blamed for Gore's defeat, and the Green Party backed down and allowed itself to be controlled by that narrative. The leadership told Nader he couldn't campaign in swing states if he was going to run on their ticket again, and he told them he would campaign wherever he wanted.

(A quick aside: While I acknowledge Nader was one of many factors in Florida in 2000, I believe that saying "It's Nader's fault" is corrosive because it lets many more important factors off the hook: the voter disenfranchisement efforts, the intervention by Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris, the Supreme Court ruling, and -- most importantly, to my mind -- the point that Gore ran a terrible campaign. Nader makes a convenient scapegoat for the Democratic Party, but saying "It was Nader" implies it wasn't any of those other things, and does nothing to address them. Meanwhile, voter disenfranchisement, government by cronyism, a deeply partisan Supreme Court, and Democrats behaving like Republicans continue to be problems, even as Nader has ceased to be an issue.)

I didn't vote Nader in '04 -- I went lesser-evil that time and backed Kerry, because Bush was just so bad. But I think the Green Party made a huge tactical error in retreating from Nader and cowering under criticism from the Democrats and the media. Honestly, what's the worst possible thing that could have happened if Nader had run as a Green in '04 -- John Kerry might have lost?

Meanwhile, the Green Party proved it's not willing to fight, and will back down any time people say mean things about it. If I wanted a nominally-liberal party that backpedaled under criticism, I'd just vote Democratic.

(I'll say one thing for the Green Party, though -- at least they didn't nominate Roseanne Barr.)

Still, I don't see anyone else who's better. I loved the idea of Americans Elect, but I think we all knew how it would end going in -- get a bunch of people on the Internet trying to choose a candidate, you wind up with a bunch of Ron Paul write-ins.

I've said before that I'm sorely tempted just to write Carter's name in. He's as likely to win as any third-party candidate (and only slightly less likely to win Arizona's electoral votes than Obama). And then I could tell people I voted for Carter, even though I'm only thirty years old.

Worth it to throw my vote away for a joke? Hell, maybe; way I see it, I'm throwing my vote away no matter what. (So why vote at all? Well, there's plenty on the ballot where my vote might make a difference: taxes, overrides, bonds, County Sheriff...) I guess a tick mark under "Green" might have ever-so-slightly a higher influence than a tick mark under "Other" in the final tally, but not very much. The Green Party certainly won't reach the threshold for federal matching funds; it didn't when Nader was running and it's only gotten less popular since.

Ain't Nothin' But a Number, But Yeah That Number is 30.

2012-10-01, 5:07 pm
Categories: Stream of Consciousness

I am thirty years old today.

(Well, I'm actually not, as I write this. I am writing it early so I can go drinking Monday night instead of writing a blog post about being 30.)

There are things to grouse about, I guess. It really is hard to believe my twenties went by so fast. My current career trajectory is "Oh good, I haven't been laid off this week." I'm losing my hair and I'm more fragile than I used to be -- asthma and allergies and I haven't had this many headaches since my teens and a couple weeks ago I started getting dizzy spells again though I'm pretty sure that was just because I was using a damn expired inhaler.

On the other hand, I feel good. I'm in better shape all the time -- I'm tempted to say "best shape of my life", but on the other hand in college I lived at a seven-thousand-foot elevation and biked everywhere. Then again, my waist was four inches bigger around then than it is now.

I've got a nice house, a wonderful fiancée, toys that keep me busy and challenged, and ideas for what I'm going to try next. Maybe I'll narrate audiobooks. Maybe I'll finally make that RPG that's been puttering about in the back of my mind since high school. Maybe I'll help build an art project with my uncle and then he'll draw my comic book about that time I went to the ER a few years back.

Neil Gaiman gave a great speech this year about following your dreams -- there's a mountain, he said, and even if you can't get there yet, just try and take one step closer in everything you do. Put like that? My life looks pretty good. I may not be where I want to be, but I'm always moving closer, a little bit at a time.

Plenty of time ahead of me. Hell, the amount of time between now and the day I have to renew my driver's license is longer than my entire life to date. (Arizona: not all bad.)

And always doing something to move a little closer to the mountain? I guess that's one reason I started blogging daily (or 5 days a week with Zappa posts 7 days a week, or whatever it is I'm keeping to right now). It's just a thing to do. It's discipline. I started working out, and I started writing something every day. (Well, not started writing something every day, because I've been doing that all my life. But started posting something here every day.) People seem to like the stuff I write. It makes me feel good. Maybe someday I'll be able to do something creative and make money at it; in the meantime, at least I'm keeping some measure of schedule and focus, however small.

And hey, thanks to the people who read this. Thanks still more to the people who write things to me. (Maybe I should take that animation of Mickey Mouse violating Silent Bob off my contact page. I'm 30 years old.)

Register to Vote

2012-09-28, 9:40 pm
Categories: Politics, Stream of Consciousness

Something I have addressed before: Zappa was cynical as fuck about our political system and our two major parties, but he was still a huge advocate of voting.

If you're not registered to vote, register to vote. The deadline is October 6 in the earliest states; check your local listings.

Even if you can't find a Presidential candidate you want to vote for in either major party -- believe me, I can relate --, even if you can't find one in a third party -- hell, I can relate to that too --, there's other shit to vote for. Maybe there's someone you'd like for a representative, either federal or state. Maybe there's a ballot measure deciding funding for your local teachers, firefighters, and police. Maybe you have a disgusting, racist monster of a sheriff who is pissing your county's money away pursuing frivolous lawsuits of his own and paying off not-so-frivolous lawsuits against him, and you should vote for whoever's running against that odious piece of slime. You know, hypothetically speaking. Paul Penzone 2012.