The New Musings of a Quiet Geek

Black Panther was great. Just as   Wonder Woman   gave little girls a superhero to "look up to," little African boys (Yes, not just African American   boys) have their own hero. But what was even better about this movie is that it was so much more. It wasn't a stereotypical Eddie Murphy or Whitney Houston movie.  Even 5, 8 years ago, we wanted this to happen but this might have been just the right time. T'Challa is king of the fictional African nation of Wakanda that millennia ago became rich in a fictional mineral called vibranium that allowed them to  become the most technologically advanced country on Earth. They decided to keep this secret, however, and disguised themselves with a cloaking shield and the guise of a "shithole country." (See? Relevance!) Wakanda has reached a crossroads. Xenophobia is really no longer working. The villain of the movie, Wakandan by blood but certainly not upbringing, Killmonger, takes the throne in an effort to take the...

So I'm back in Portland. Still not 100% but I have the energy to do what I need to do.  (Isn't that the slogan for "Powdermilk Biscuits?") I have nothing more to add to that. Questions? Fingers crossed that I get back on the hospital's free care program because this upcoming bill (Still paying off the April fun...) will be horrible even after my insurance pays their part... Oh, Amos' self-cleaning litterbox finally bit the dust after the rake kept getting stuck and made noises like an MRI machine. (Machine gun for the non-medical among us).  Guess who, while recovering from neurosurgery, had to take the outercasing off to convert it to a normal box? Man of Steel devolved into non-stop action towards the end of the movie but I really can't say any of the action scenes were completely unnecessary. They made logical sense. They were just too long.  Readers of fanboy rants know the issues they had with all the previous movies.  Too much Luthor and not enou...

On Monday, the holiday, the internet crapped out.  Calling my internet service provider to see if there was some kind of outage, it turned out to be my equipment that malfunctioned.  The woman at Tech Support seemed to think that given that I had an older model it had died of old age and to replace the cables etc. as well.  On Wednesday, the new modem arrived and I was back in business thought it was hideously sluggish.  Under normal circumstances with a DSL modem, when this happens you reboot it. Doing so killed it again.  Thursday, I realized I had switched out the Ethernet cable   (Firefox wants to capitalize it. Who am I to argue?) but I had left the original phone cord in place so I switched it out.  Nothing happened. Talked to my father on the phone and made lunch and then it worked.  Better than it had since last weekend. I spent an entire post on Mission: Impossible last time and that had low readership but I want to discuss another spy...

Yesterday morning, I went to a funeral for a well-respected churchgoer. It was very touching. Though I knew the man well enough to want to pay my respects, I wouldn't say I knew him all that well. Yet, I cried twice. One of the hymns they'd played makes me weepy anyway as perhaps I will always subconsciously connect it to when we moved away from my hometown. (That's my explanation for that but hopefully there's a better one.) I realize now there was transference as well. Many things the two of his children who spoke related to us my own father would do/does. And then I discover he had the same cardiologist as my grandfather... As I was preparing dinner last night, I blew up the microwave which caused the whole apartment to fill with smoke. Just before I had to go back to work... I had followed the directions on the package and never had a problem withthe product before save for water leakage but something wasn't right. I couldn't possibly have cooked it for more...

For a couple weeks now I've been editing my free author webpage provided by my publisher. I was kind of irritated to have to edit HTML but I did it. Recently, I thought there must be an easier way to do this. I discover in the help section that there's a web editor function! Yay, right? Wrong. I can't see the damn buttons that they say are there. I read the help section again and down at the bottom of the page it says that you must have IE 6 and that IE 7, which I had, can't see it. It doesn't mention any other browsers so I download Firefox 2 and try that. Not surprisingly in hindsight, this doesn't read it either but I love the spell-as-you-go function so I'll keep it around while I sulk... In cheerier news, as I mentioned on Twitter, I finished reading Buried by Robin Merrow MacCready. (I borrowed the copy I had given to my mother.) Overall, I liked it. The mystery of what happened to Claudine's alcoholic mother seemed fairly obvious to me halfway th...

Yesterday afternoon, my parents came down to celebrate my father's birthday. Because of my dance group commitment, we ate an early dinner at Applebee's. I had a beer with my Cheddar-Jack Mac and Cheese (which turned out to be Pepper Jack) because, as I pointed out to my mother, all I do is unlock doors and read. After dinner, I took them on a tour of the church and seminary downstairs where I volunteer. Exciting, no? The night got even better during the dance group when I laid down on the floor behind the desk and took a nap. I wonder if anyone saw me as they were much more expedient than normal getting out of the building so I could lock back up. No one said anything to me about it but still I wonder... The birthday "excitement" continued when I stayed home from the library and they took me grocery shopping and then we were joined by my roommate for a walk down to the local Starbucks where I tried their "Leprechaun Latte." I don't know how green it ...

you are cadetblue #5F9EA0 Your dominant hues are green and blue. You're smart and you know it, and want to use your power to help people and relate to others. Even though you tend to battle with yourself, you solve other people's conflicts well. Your saturation level is lower than average - You don't stress out over things and don't understand people who do. Finishing projects may sometimes be a challenge, but you schedule time as you see fit and the important things all happen in the end, even if not everyone sees your grand master plan. Your outlook on life can be bright or dark, depending on the situation. You are flexible and see things objectively. the spacefem.com html color quiz This weekend I went with my cousin/roommate and his mother to a science fiction convention in Springfield, MA. It was so much fun. The guest panel was mostly female which is OK with me but, as occurred to me last night, the age range was pretty diverse. I saw talks/Q&A sessions with ...

So my aunt and uncle came up from New Jersey on Tuesday so Wednesday, we went to Applebee's to meet them and my grandparents for lunch. Overall, I suppose it was a good experience but I would recommend the soup and salad option unless like a very small lunch. I was expecting big bowls of both not little tiny ones. The food itself was very good, however. Because of the handicapped taxi being very busy my cousin and I had to hang out in the parking lot for probably 45 minutes. Let's say I enjoyed the margarita, well, margarita and a half really, I had later... (It didn't hurt that I finally know that waitress' name as well...) Saturday, I went up with my aunt and uncle to see my parents' new house. There was a turkey dinner at the church there that night to benefit the family of a baby whom is home now I guess but was born three months early. I also set up my parents' DSL for them on their desktop and upgrading their anti-virus software as well. Sunday, we went to...

I figured it was time to update you on what I've been up to this week. On Monday, I started my volunteer job at the seminary library. I've only gone in for a couple hours each day but I went in all week. This week, I did was move books out of the chapel area and other shelving but I was told I might do some cataloging and other tech service stuff so that'll be good. Sure it's been all grunt work but someone has to and I didn't really do any of that when I worked at RCC so this has been good. Yesterday and today the cell phone problem was corrected. Yay! The battery was delivered yesterday and after charging it, it still didn't seem to work. The booklet said I needed to wait until the "battery icon" disappeared. It never went away which concerned me but I pressed the power button today and it worked! Yay again! I also finally got around to setting up my voice mail. Of course, only three people have my number... The last couple days, I've really been...

In the last installment, our heroes cleaned their teeth, closed a bank account and ate cheeseburgers. And now, possibly, the conclusion to "The Sword of She-Ra!" (Or something like that...) Tuesday (July 3rd), we drove up to Maine and I reconnected with my roommate and his cat. Nothing of import happened. Wednesday, my grandmother had a barbecue. My cousin had to be there of course. We played with his cars and his action figures. It's after afternoons like this that I wonder why I want children... I returned to the apartment to find my cousin/roommate and his friend who came up for the day were going to the movies as soon as my aunt arrived. We went to see Ratatouille . I loved it. Patton Oswalt of The King of Queens was perfect as Remy the Rat and it has Peter O'Toole in it! I have no nitpicks. (Sad, huh?) I debated whether to share with you what happen that night but I've decided I will. My aunt had removed the closet door so we could stick one of the litterbox...

I promised myself I would no longer rant about the trivial but, well, maybe I blew that already with the "SpongeBob No-Pants" post so allow me a few moments to ask, what the bloody hell was America thinking voting off Melinda Doolittle? Admittedly, I watched American Idol , only sporadically, as usual frankly, but there were at least three women with talent this year. Only Jordin made it to the final. Melinda was the best by far. Now, maybe the audience figured that Melinda needed less help to get an album out which is definitely true but Blake sucked, OK? I was not impressed by his Maroon 5 or his rapping. And he looks like a boy band reject but that not his fault entirely I'm sure... I also realize only 12 year old girls actually vote on these things and they probably thought he was hot. Whether he can sing or not is irrelevant. This statement is backed up by what constitutes as "popular" in today's music... Was it a slam against Simon and the judges? They...

I've tried hard to blog about good things that I've gone on in my life lately but, frankly, it doesn't make good reading so let me tell you about The Elevator Incident. Thursday, after our internet and phone was fixed, we went out do do an errand and go to the local coffee place. This was the first time we had done that together by ourselves since my move up here. (I'd done it alone but my roommate/cousin is in a wheelchair so snow drifts had been an issue.) Everything was going well until we returned to the apartment building. The elevator was broken. It didn't move. All it did was open and close the doors. Remember, one of us is in wheelchair. Our apartment is on the second floor. See the problem? Problem 2: it was after five in the evening. The answering service for the office was apparently in California. Our maintenance guy was on vacation or something so his replacement, though very friendly and helpful, was not as familiar with our building. (Would things hav...