random bits

[cellio]

I've noticed that when there is a great feline tussle in my house that leaves piles of hair around, the vast majority of the time the hair belongs to Baldur. I see several possibilities: (1) his greater surface area makes him more likely to be hit; (2) his hair just doesn't stay attached as well as the other cats'; (3) he gets picked on a lot (he's the biggest cat BTW); or (4) he has developed the "eject hair" escape technique. Hmm.

I missed the first episode of the new TV show "Pushing Daisies" but caught the second. Wacky! Surreal! Fun! The narration as commentary is a nice touch. Yeah, that it's written by the person who did "Wonderfalls" shows; I hope "Pushing Daisies" fares better. ("Wonderfalls" was great for about 8 or 9 episodes, then sucked for a couple more, and was then pulled after 13.) I'm also watching "Journeyman", about which I'm undecided.

We drove through the rockslide zone of Route 28 on the way to visit my parents today. No rockslides were in progress at the time, and it looked like last week's had been completely cleared. The news had said inbound lanes would be completely closed for the weekend, but we saw continuous traffic while we were driving outbound so we didn't look for an alternate path home. It turned out that one lane was open. That was fine for a Sunday, but I'll bet it sucks for commuters right now. That said, rockslides suck more.

Two Shabbatot ago a first-time (in our minyan) Israeli torah reader asked me to be his checker. I expressed concern that I wouldn't be able to keep up; he said he reads holy texts slowly. His "slow" was too fast for me. Then this past Shabbat a different reader asked me to check for him and I figured this wouldn't be a problem; I had just a bit of trouble keeping up. Both times I was checking from the new Plaut (oodles better than the old Plaut), and using a magnifying glass to be safe. I conclude that my problem is Plaut + magnifier, not necessarily me, and I should only check when I can do it from larger Hebrew text such as what Trope Trainer produces. (I'm not the only torah reader in our group who uses that software, and in fact I have been handed TT output to check from at times.)

Without saying anything about the merits of Al Gore's work, I do admit to being puzzled by how this is a peace issue. Of course, in political processes all bets of rationality are off, but still... isn't there a more appropriate category in which to consider his work?

I heard a cute story recently: One night at dinner the seven-year-old girl asks her parents "where did I come from?" Oh crap, the parents each think; we thought we had a few more years before we'd have to deal with this. They exchange glances and then fumble through a discussion of birds, bees, and what happens "when mommies and daddies love each other very much". The girl says "oh" and everyone sits in silence for a few minutes. Then she continues, "my friend Becky comes from Cleveland".

Comments

[alfiechat.livejournal.com]

I have really been enjoying Pushing Daisies. I also watch Journeyman, and I can tell you, I already hate the hero's brother, what a jerk! anything else you've been watching that might be interesting? I caught Women's Murder CLub Friday night, because it's based on a series of James Patterson novels that I read. I liked it. I also have been watching Moonlight on Friday nights too. Thank goodness for DVR.

[cellio]

Those are the only two current-run shows I'm watching. I look forward to the return of Jericho later this year, and I'll probably watch 24 again. That's it so far as I know. (I don't get Sci-Fi channel or there'd be more.)

[geekosaur]

Actually, I think there isn't a good category of Nobel Prize for Al Gore's contributions. It seems to me that every year, within a couple months after the prizes, there's discussion of expanding the categories — that rarely goes much of anywhere.