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• 09:35 My radio interview on NHPR from yesterday is now on the interwebbing. Listen to my melodious ums at ping.fm/G6GJh #
• 15:42 The afternoon's salsa and guac making is fini. Thus endeth my IndyDay food contributions, done one day early. #

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From my favorite online TV show at the moment...

This brings to mind when my friend Mark got his earring when we were in high school. I did not in anyway have this conversation with him... I guess dudes with ear-bling were in back in 1986, though I didn't have the stones to let someone put a needle in my lobe. What I remember most: after he had his "starter earring" in for a while we looked at it in the downstairs boy's bathroom at school, and saw just how infected the spot had become... so bad it looked like he's packed guacamole around his lobe to hold the damn thing in. It kinda makes me want to throw up. (Eventually, the infection cleared up and it looked stunning. I'm sure Mark will agree, especially if he's still got it pierced. Mark?)

Those of you dying to hear me um and ah my way through a radio interview about my Future Tech story, now's your chance! NHPR has posted both Windows Media and MP3 versions of my interview yesterday on its Word of Mouth program. As always, there was more to say, but never enough time, but you can get the full scoop by reading the story.

• 09:12 Why do so many of my dreams involve leaking roofs? #
• 10:54 I'll be on New Hampshire Public Radio, noon hour. They are pros. They even sent me a script. I figure 2 minutes for me to mess it up. #
• 17:25 It's always nice to get reminders to hand in stories I've already handed in. Way ahead of you, automated reminder system. Nyaa. #

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• 12:56 Not sure what to read every day online? How about 10 Blogs You Should Be Reading DAILY snurl.com/2rlx1 courtesy of PCMag.com #
• 15:38 The mail giveth (stimulus check) and the mail taketh awayeth (story rejection). #

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As if not having another rousing season of Doctor Who this summer weren't enough, the Brits have more greatness based on past properties in the pipeline:

The Prisoner is being revived, as a six-episode mini-series. And Sir Ian "Gandalneto" McKellenhhimself will be playing Number Two, the mind-mucking badguy. Amazing. Hopefully they'll give it a real ending and not a surreal Cirque de Soliel ending like the original show.

And am I the only person who thinks the title Quantum of Solace for the next Bond filme is pure awesome? Well, you will after you see the trailer.

If you don't read blogs... well, then you're probably not reading this. But if you do, and you're at a loss for what to fill your RSS reader with to take up time now that there's no TV, you could do worse than to read my latest story for PC Mag (and my first that's an online-only!), Ten Blogs You Should Be Reading DAILY. It was hard to pick 10 that update all the time and are worth reading by the entire world, but somehow, I managed it. (If you don't like any of the choices, well... you're just crazy.)

• 14:11 Bloglines.com has been down for 10 min. I feel like I've lost an appendage. (addicted to RSS? oh yes. May resort to Google Reader!) #

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When is going to an awesome, well stocked farmer's market no fun at all?

Just about every time I got to the Ithaca Farmers Market. Every single time, I vow never to go again, but I'm always back a few times a year. Mostly cause I love the breakfast burritos from Solaz, which are only at the market. But that still doesn't make it worth the two hours of life lost this morning.

Before we left, I told the wife -- whom I call Farmer Squanto -- that "humanity hasn't pissed me off in a while, so sure, I'll go with you." After all, she was buying.

I didn't think it would be so bad, though.

It took a full 20 minutes to get a parking space, which was only mildly annoying. But a full hour, from the moment I got back in the car until we exited on Route 13? Inexcusable. Not that the city put a cop at the intersect to alleviate some of that traffic, hell's no. Must be you need an MVA for that bit of public service to take place. I saw an Amish guy getting out of a pick-up and helping with traffic more than anyone else (he wasn't driving, so I guess it was okay... maybe he was Mennonite? I'm too pissed and ignorant to try and figure it out. He did have a very stylish purple shirt on under his vest, which I don't recall seeing in that Harrison Ford movie... but I digress).

The only time it's feasible to go there in the summer at all is before 9:30am, and I'm not a damn farmer, so I'm not up by then on a Saturday! For the love of all things organic, someone should re-think the parking or exit strategies in that area for next year. Preferably, by next week. Cause I really, really like those burritos.

• 23:37 Watching the last Resident Evil flick. I like vegas better covered in sand. Zombies seem par for the course. #
• 23:39 Zombies can climb the fake Eiffel Tower but not chain link fence. That's good to know when undead apocalypse comes. #
• 09:13 Dictionary.com Word of the Day: "harbinger". For years, I pronounced this "har-bring-er." #
• 10:36 first bad firefox 3 experience: had to completely uninstall/reinstall to get any extensions to work, even if I tried manual delete. #

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Ever since I left the theater, I've considering how best to articulate my feelings about Wall-E. Beautiful. Haunting. Loving. Sleek. Dystopic. Greatest soundtrack going -- even the Peter Gabriel song on the credits. Maybe even hopeful, but then again, maybe not -- not for the humans, anyway, though the closing credits might try to convince you otherwise. No matter what, it's an achievement in every way.io9's full review sums it up just about perfect, thought they're a lot more pessimistic than I think Pixar wanted us to be (but that's Pixar's own fault for making that sugar-laden, cyber-addicted spaceship in the stars look just a little too real for the future of humanity.)

Oh, and the short at the beginning is fantastic... makes me wish Pixar had the rights to re-create Bugs Bunny in CGI. In fact, I think they pretty much did, without any need for Mel Blanc.

• 08:54 Finished radio interview #3... didn't ask much about the story, but I got to rail against tech & entertainment monopolies for a while. Fun! #
• 14:06 wettest dentist visit ever. Had to ask for towel to dry my face between his splashy trips into my pie hole. (result=2 temp crowns) #
• 16:27 my mouth is hurty. I miss the novacaine, even if it did make me drool. #

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• 12:45 had to give up my desktop PC to the Wife so she could give an online presentation. actually "working" on the laptop is just not the same. #
• 16:53 I'm heading to the post office to mail my manuscript to my agent. Hopefully she will love it. tinyurl.com/4nfhr6 #

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I wish Rescue Me only came in five minute chucks for ever if they're as good as this one, which was better than the entire fourth season. You'll probably have to watch a commercial to get to the good stuff, which involves words George Carlin said you can't say.

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• 15:56 Calling into second radio interview of the week with www.graveline.com. Plan to minimize ums & uhs for listening pleasure. #
• 21:36 70 pages of manuscript left to publish and toner cartridge needs a shake each 5 pages to keep printing. #

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So, I just spent about an hour trying to print the final 70 pages of the manuscript for my book to send to my agent. Never get caught with your toner low in such a situation... I was taking the cartridge out and shaking it like mad every four to six pages, just to get the printer to see enough of it on the drum to keep going. Stupid smart printers.

I was so frustrated, I went shopping for a new printer immediately... it would be nice to get something that spits out, say, 30 pages per minute. I don't need color, I'd be happy with a monochrome laser (and preferable networkable), but all I can find are all-in-ones with scanners and fax and sandwich makers built-in, which I don't really need. I haven't sent a fax since 2005. Even if the price is good, the prices for ink are terrible -- yet the prices on the lasers are bad enough to make the ink jets look good. Blah. What a scam. Chances are I won't have to do a serious print job again for months anyway. Why bother. I should just go print stuff at the wife's office on the sly.

So, that put me off and instead I signed up for Amazon Prime, so I can get stuff sent to me 2-day whenever I order, just like that (as long as its from Amazon and not a partner). It'll be an excuse to buy even more from them. Luckily, I'll still get screwed by the new New York state tax on Amazon purchases, so I won't go too nuts. But if I don't go nuts buying on Amazon, the Prime membership is wasted! Conundrum City, ticket for one.

Now, i have to decide to whether to buy a new toner cartridge for the current printer, or get a new printer, or just buy some comics. Leaning heavily toward comics...

One of the tougher stories I've written in the last year was PC Mag's latest annual Future Tech feature. Not because it wasn't interesting -- seriously, how often do I get to write about electronic nose technology? -- but because narrowing it down and finding a theme for so much experimental research was a nightmare. I think it turned out pretty well (especially because of the art in all the parts I didn't write -- check out the uber-cool future laptop with roll-out screen). Readers like the future so much that I've got three more radio interviews in the next week all about it.

• 09:55 Found a snake in the garage last night...so small, he was stuck in a spider web. I've seen bigger nightcrawlers. I saved him. #
• 10:23 marketing copy I just wrote for Wall-E (opening Friday): "he will capture our hearts... and crush them into small cubes." #
• 13:02 Exactly one year ago today I applied to VPXI. Tomorrow, I'm going to send novel that got critiqued there to my agent. About frakin' time. #
• 15:46 Just did an interview on Wall Street Journal Radio Network about my Future Tech story. Not sure when it airs. #

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• 11:20 wee! it's hazardous waste drop-off day at the county dump! So long, old, used engine oil stored in orange juice jugs. #

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• 22:11 I can not believe I sat on my eye glass prescription for 18 months... its painfully obvious now I needed these new spectacles, bad. #
• 10:56 NYTimes on Love Guru: "downright antifunny...makes you wonder if you will ever laugh again." Gotta see it now. #
• 16:52 forecast: tstorms all weekend. Thank dog. Another week to avoid painting second 1/2 of garage floor. #

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• 21:00 deep fried Oreo cookies at the Ithaca Ale House... better in thought than in practice. #
• 09:25 fried Oreos part 2: 2 hours of puking from 2-4. dreaming about encrypted RSS feeds over and over didn't really help. #
• 15:16 closing in on the closing of the RSS feed story. I think. I just keep finding more stuff to put in.... #
• 15:53 My chinese glasses are in... at the PO. I have to go pick them up. Oh, the joy of being a four-eyes again is upon me! #
• 18:43 New glasses: regular pair too small for my melon-head. Also, clear vision gives me a headache. Sunglasses rock, tho. #

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• 23:39 The good guys win! And by good guys, I mean me and my neighbors. ping.fm/ragaq #
• 09:15 the best kinda dog? an incontinent dog. #
• 10:18 testing Skype beta 4. It's not permanently full screen like I thought it would be, but it does take some getting used to. #
• 13:04 To the rescue!... taking the wife a VoIP headset at lunch. Last time I did something like this, I got a speeding ticket. So far, so good. #

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It's an interesting thing to be in a completely self-serving side of an argument and win it on the merits of the law.

A couple weeks back I got notice in the mail that the local zoning board of appeals would have a hearting June 17 to grant a variance to a guy who wanted to build some townhouses across the road from me. Yuck. So the wife and I went and sat in on the zoning appeals meeting. For TWO HOURS.

The immediate upside of this meeting: the first guy on the docket was the guy who sold us our house almost six years ago. And of course, we don't like him, cause he was a jerk at our closing. He's a developer type, and didn't get what he wanted from the board. Schadenfreude.

• 10:51 it's typo morning! Misspel something with me. #
• 11:01 your wi-fi sucks. You could buy a new router (and probably should). but there's other things to do. seriously. snurl.com/2jvh2 #
• 16:44 4GB USB flash drive I got for $7? still not big enough. #
• 16:51 66: A month ago this would have been a heat wave. Today I'm so cold, Ihad to put on pants. #
• 17:55 tonight going to a village meeting to see if some joker wants to build townhouses across the street. my vote: uh, frak no. #

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