Omphaloskepsis  -

+ 1 - 4 | § ¶My Upcoming Week, Aug. 30-Sept. 5

Monday

Work

Last Comic Standing -- 90-minute episode, third season premiere

Tuesday

Work

Last Comic Standing

Moving Lyz into her new place

Wednesday

Work, starting training class

The Drew Carey Show -- two new episodes

Psi Phi -- New member meeting, party

Thursday

Work

Studio 7

Friday

Work

Jeremiah: "Crossing Jordan" and "Running on Empty" -- the final episodes of the second season *finally* get started

Saturday

(perhaps?) Seven Days in September on A&E

Whose Line is it Anyway? -- zero, one, or two new episodes

Sunday

Church

No specific TV plans

Something something exclusions something.

davidh

+ 1 - 5 | § ¶ILIA: To Iowa and Back Again

I went to Iowa yesterday to visit my friend Marty. It's supposed to be about a two and a half hour drive, though with extremely heavy rain at points slowing things down, it was closer to three. I left home just after 10:30am, crossed over the Mississippi River and under the sign welcoming me to Iowa at nine seconds before noon (I tried slowing down a little to make it more exact, but the surrounding traffic kept me from slowing down too much), and arrived at Marty's just before 1:30.

After catching some lunch, he showed off some of his eclectic music collection (among other things, techno remixes of various songs (including the Smurfs theme song!) and some song parodies), and we watched a couple movies and some TV. "John Carpenter's Vampires" was on the Sci-Fi Channel... it was pretty cheesy, and we had fun mocking it.

We briefly discussed politics, including a recent comment by Dick Cheney which caused a bit of controversy by seeming to go against the Republican agenda. But really, it was keeping in line with the party's basic concept that the States should be free to make their own decisions on things not reserved to the federal government.

As was to be expected, we also discussed math, including some interesting properties of combinatorics, and mapping numbers. You know, all of this math talk in the past couple weeks is almost enough to get me to go back and take another math class to learn more about number theory. Almost. :-)

The evening came to a close around 9, because I had to get back to town, and Marty had homework to both finish (as a student) and grade (as a TA). I left Iowa City shortly before 9pm, and along with a short rest at a rest area, I got home around 11:45. It was dry most of the way home, but it started raining again maybe a half-hour before I got back to Peoria, but fortunately it didn't get too heavy.

All in all, it was a very good day.

davidh

+ 0 - 5 | § ¶Feeling blah, getting better

As I stayed up way too late Wednesday night/Thursday morning, I was not feeling very well when I woke up at 6:45, so I didn't go into work today. But this afternoon, I was feeling more a little better, so I got a few things taken care of...

Went shopping for some more shorts, since I only have a couple pairs that I can wear (they're a few years old). However, the only kinds of shorts I could find are ones that are either made out of blue jeans, or have tons and tons of pockets, neither of which styles I was particularly interested in. I found a couple shirts on sale, though, so I bought them.

Got my brakes checked out at Midas. Good timing... the front pads were nearly worn through, or worn out, or whatever it is that they do. Also got an oil change, which I haven't had in (mumblety-mumble) months.

There's a barber shop just a couple buildings from Midas, so while my car was being worked on, I got a haircut and beard trim. The beard was getting quite bushy, so it's nice to get that back under control.

On the way home, I saw that Little Caesar's is open again. Didn't stop in today, but it's nice to know that it's again an option for supper.

Hey, Colm Meaney (Chief O'Brien on TNG and DS9) will be on Stargate: Atlantis tomorrow night. Nifty!

davidh

+ 0 - 5 | § ¶Activities Fair, plus moving, Halo, Iowa, and Oswald

The Activities Fair at Bradley went fairly well on Monday. A whole bunch of people signed up (including one "Harold Potter" from Little Whinging, Surrey :-) ) for more information about Psi Phi (I'll be adding them to the mailing list and sending out an introductory message Tuesday evening). Along with myself, Captain Don, Grand Nagus Joan, Communications Officer Kristen, Constable Jon, former Captain (and former my-roommate) Joel O., former Nagus Eric, former First Officer Elizabeth, and members Marisa and Kristi were each behind the table at one point or another. (If you were there and I forgot to mention you here, I apologize.)

Don, Joan, and I each brought a variety of items to show off... books, CDs, and such. We cycled through which items were on the table, because with the intense heat, items (especially black ones, which many SF items are) tended to get pretty hot after ten or fifteen minutes.

Unfortunately, activity was dampened by rain... from around 1:45 to 2:15, it was raining fairly heavily, and since most of the items on the table were paper-based (books, flyers, sign-up sheets, VHS tape boxes), we had to shut down for a while. Then the rain stopped, and the immense heat began again, and we were good to go for just over an hour. Around 3:30, the rain started again, and since the Fair was set to end at 4:00 anyway, we just shut down and left.

Other recent and upcoming events...

We got Joel O. pretty much moved into his dorm room on Saturday, with assistance from Jim (getting the first load into my car) and Kevin (both loading and unloading cars). Joel picked up some of the leftover items on Sunday, though he's leaving a few items here for a couple weeks.

I watched Red vs. Blue, Season 1, on Sunday (I borrowed it from Eric). That's a pretty funny little toon, created using the Halo Xbox game.

This Saturday, I'll be visiting Iowa. Road trip! :-) (Just gotta make sure I get my oil changed before I leave... don't want to have the car lock up on me halfway there.)

Interesting... Diedrich Bader (from The Drew Carey Show, though in this episode he's credited as "Dietrich" instead of "Diedrich") is on an episode of Quantum Leap on the Sci-Fi Channel right now. It sort of hard to take him seriously, since I tend to think of him as Oswald.

davidh

+ 3 - 1 | § ¶Ten Years Ago Today

A meme borrowed from Keith R.A. DeCandido, but breaking with the tradition of keeping memes at my LiveJournal because this one's really just a starting point to do some real blogging. . . (more)

+ 2 - 2 | § ¶My Upcoming Week, Aug. 23-29

Monday

No work

Lunch with Dad

Activities Fair at Bradley

Supper at Bradley (?)

No specific TV plans

Tuesday

Work

No specific TV plans

Wednesday

Work

The Drew Carey Show -- two new episodes

Psi Phi -- Returning member meeting, planning for the semester

Thursday

Work

Studio 7 on the WB -- quiz show

Friday

Work

Stargate SG-1: "Covenant"

Stargate: Atlantis: "Underground"

Saturday

Possibilities TBA

Whose Line is it Anyway? -- one new episode

Sunday

Church

No specific TV plans

import org.psiphi.utilities.blog.Exclusions;

davidh

+ 2 - 3 | § ¶Solo, Frodo, Piscopo, Matho

This evening, Joel is moving back into the dorms, and I will again be living alone. Well, Patches will still be here... she has always been here, and I wouldn't be surprised if she stays even after I move on some day. :-) But in terms of other Humans, there won't be anyone else around.

I think I will try the living alone thing for a while. I lived by myself (without even a cat) for a few years before I bought this house, so I'm not really worried about how that'll be. In fact, there will be several benefits. For example, I won't have to worry about getting the right balance between the alarm clock being loud enough to wake me up, but not loud enough to bother the other bedroom (I'm not sure I ever quite reached that balance anyway), and I'll be able to micromanage the thermostat, since I'll only have to worry about whether I'm too hot or cold, not whether a normal person feels the same way (if any Psi Phi member can truly be called "a normal person" :-) ).

Of course, there will also be disadvantages, such as not getting paid any rent... but really, that's not really a big issue.

Other recent events and random items:

Psi Phi alumni member Meg C. was in town Thursday and Friday. I only got the chance to spend a little time with her, but it was time well-spent. She brought a videotape of some Japanese television, including commercials. One of the items on the tape was a segment with Elijah Wood playing pool, then getting dressed up in a silly outfit (reminiscent of Harry Potter, actually) and saying something like "I'm a bad boy" in Japanese. The commercials were pretty funny, too, even without the translation.

Joe Piscopo (The Comic, TNG: "The Outrageous Okona") is considering running for governor of New Jersey.

Two interesting math-related articles, about a society that can't count and ants that can.

davidh

+ 2 - 3 | § ¶Assorted bits: headaches, trees, Psi Phi, and more

Random bits from the past few days, not deserving of individual entries.

I had headaches off and on from Sunday afternoon to mid-day Tuesday. Tylenol kept them under control, and I'm all better now. Cause unknown.

The Little Caesar's that's a five-and-a-half minute walk from my house is closed for remodelling. There's another one across town, but it's not worth it to go out there.

I had a fun little conversation about geometry on the surface of a sphere and a hyperbolic plane last night. Help! I'm getting (re-)hooked on math! :-)

There's a big thunderstorm outside at the moment. I hope the tree stays intact. I really need to find someone to take care of that.

Five days until the BU Activities Fair. I've got a flyer prepared (pretty much the same layout as last year's, just with new decorations around the edge and new TV/movie dates on it, so I just need to get a bunch of copies of that printed out, as well as a sign-up sheet and a poster for the table.

Seven days until the Psi Phi returning members meeting. Gotta get all of the interesting news from the summer compiled together here pretty soon.

Thirty days until the Psi Phi Reunion begins! Still a lot of preparation to do.

I may slow down my blogging a bit for the next couple months... aside from the "upcoming week" posts, maybe two or three new posts per week. As always, plans are tentative and subject to change. :-)

davidh

+ 3 - 2 | § ¶Speaking of math...

...is what I was doing for over two hours last night. Marty, a friend from Iowa, is a grad student in mathematics, and when I pointed out my recent entry about my weird brain to him, we got to talking about my concept of "close numbers". Is closeness transitive, reflexive, or distributive? If a and b are close, and c is the average of a and b, what is the relationship between a*b and c²? If this relationship exists between a*b and c², are a and b necessarily close? (No, no except for a=0, yes, they are close, and only when c/(a-c) is an odd integer, respectively.) And we wrote proofs for each of these.

Now that was fun. I regularly talk about geeky things with friends, but it's not that often that I discuss nerdy things.

Marty also pointed that my disclaimer ("Warning: algebra inside!") isn't quite right, since this is more accurately described as number theory. He's right.

davidh

+ 4 - 1 | § ¶Omphalo-whatsis?

Just when you were getting used to the oh-so-clever title of "David Henderson" for this blog, I've decided it's time for a change... and "Omphaloskepsis" is as good of a title as any.

Omphaloskepsis... What kind of crazy word is that?, I rhetorically hear you asking. Literally, it means the contemplation of the navel ("omphalos" is the navel; "skepsis" is whence we get "skeptical"), but figuratively, it refers to introspection. Since this site is primarily about lovable little ol' me; since I write about not only events, but also about my internal thoughts and feelings and such; and since I like big, unusual, and funny words like this one, I think this is an appropriate title.

davidh

+ 3 - 2 | § ¶My Upcoming Week, Aug. 16-22

Monday

Work

No specific TV plans

Tuesday

Work

No specific TV plans

Wednesday

Work

The Drew Carey Show -- two new episodes

Thursday

Work

No specific TV plans

Friday

Work

Stargate SG-1: "Affinity"

Stargate: Atlantis: "Poisoning the Well"

Saturday

Moving Joel to campus

(perhaps?) Movie

Whose Line is it Anyway? -- one or two new episodes

Sunday

Church

(perhaps?) Road trip

The Dead Zone: "Shadows" and "Tipping Point" (8-10pm) (last two episodes of the season)

Not specifically included included here is random Olympics viewage and random cleaning of the house.

davidh

+ 3 - 2 | § ¶My brain functions weirdly

I enter Exhibit "A" as evidence [Warning: algebra inside!]. . . (more)

+ 2 - 2 | § ¶Greg Long concert

Friday night, I went to see Greg Long in concert at St. Paul Lutheran Church, here in Peoria. This will be my write-up, after I've finished writing it up. But since I have other items to post, I'll keep this here as a placeholder. I hope to have it finished on Monday. . . (more)

+ 3 - 3 | § ¶Assorted items

Catching up on a few things, in approximately chronological order [Contains spoilers for "Last Comic Standing]. . . (more)

+ 1 - 4 | § ¶Oh, Shooters!

Monday night, I went over to Bloomington again to see Dad. He was doing okay, and after talking for a while, we went out to Shooters, a new(-to-me, at least) all-you-can-eat buffet, which includes steak. He wondered if I would write about the restaurant, and I have decided to do just that.

My first run through the buffet line, I got some breaded fish and fried chicken, plus a slice of cheese pizza. The fish was excellent, and the chicken was pretty good. The pizza, though... well, I never thought I'd encounter a pizza I didn't like, but this one was not very good at all. The crust was blah, the sauce was nothing to write home about, and the cheese was very bland.

Dad brought over a small ribeye steak, and it was okay, but not great (I think it could've used a bit more cooking). I got samples of a variety of items, including their macaroni and cheese (among the better restaurant M&C's, but not quite as good as Kraft), mashed potatoes (pretty good), spaghetti (good), cottage cheese (restaurant cottage cheese is very hit-or-miss; this was a miss), chocolate pudding (good, but with a different taste from what I'm used to), sliced turkey (good), chocolate cake (fair; the cake was a bit dry, but still okay), and vanilla ice cream (good). I also finished Dad's baked potato, which he didn't like, but I did. It reminded me a lot of the baked potatoes from some restaurant I haven't eaten at in many, many years, though I can't recall the name of the place.

The highlight, though, was the waffle. Yes, the place makes fresh waffles for supper. The idea seemed odd, but this was quite possibly the best waffle I've ever had. Fresh from the waffle iron, it was big and fluffy, nice and warm, and tender and delicious. If I get a chance, I'm definitely going to go back for breakfast there some time.

davidh

+ 1 - 4 | § ¶Pepperoni Guy has Clout

Today's pizza day in the cafeteria at work. I went in to get lunch, and saw that there was three quarters of a fairly good-looking pepperoni pizza available. When the head chef saw me coming, he told me to wait just a minute, because he had another one in the back that looked better than the one that was out. Indeed, the new pizza looked even better, and I took a couple slices from it.

As I was selecting my pieces, the chef smiled and said to me something like "You've got clout around here.", before returning to the kitchen area.

So now I have both a nickname ("Pepperoni Guy", for what should be obvious reasons) and influence on the cafeteria staff. Nifty. :-)

davidh

+ 0 - 5 | § ¶Buzzsaw Charlie

At this very moment, two gentlemen from CILCO are in my back yard, trimming a tree which has been growing over the power line connected to my house. I have a mixed reaction to this [Updated 11:15am]. . . (more)

+ 1 - 4 | § ¶Sunday evening and prayer request

Sunday evening, I went over to Bloomington to see my Dad. We went out to supper with Dan (my brother, not the gamer from Saturday) at Tobin's Pizza, since Dad had a special coupon for a free large pizza and up to three beverages; since their "large" is only 14", we got a second large at regular price. As usual, Tobin's had good food and great service, so I left a larger tip than usual (though I guess another contributing factor to the large tip was that the server was kinda cute :-) ).

After we dropped Dan back off at his place, Dad and I talked for several hours at his house about some rather serious topics. He is going through a very trying time, and how things go over the next few days could end up having a major impact on my life as well. Though I would rather not get into any specifics about this just now, I would like to ask any readers who pray to please remember my Dad and his situation in your prayers.

davidh

+ 3 - 2 | § ¶My Upcoming Week, Aug 9-15

Monday

Work

Bloomington to see Dad

No specific TV plans

Tuesday

Work

Last Comic Standing: Final Showdown (two hours) (additional correction: Last week was the semi-finals)

(perhaps) The Amazing Race (I've missed the last couple episodes... might just skip it again)

Wednesday

Work

No specific TV plans

Thursday

Work

Last Comic Standing: Results show

Friday

Work

Greg Long concert at St. Paul Lutheran Church

(probably not, but perhaps) Opening ceremonies of 28th Summer Olympics (tape delay)

Stargate SG-1: "Avatar" (second airing)

Stargate: Atlantis: "Childhood's End" (second airing)

Saturday

(perhaps today?) Alien vs. Predator with other Psi Phi'ers

Whose Line is it Anyway? -- one or two new episodes

Sunday

Church

The Dead Zone: "Instinct"

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davidh

+ 3 - 2 | § ¶Head Usher

This morning at church, the head usher was out, so I guess I was sort of the unofficial head usher for the second morning service. Actually, Steve, another guy in my Sunday School class who ushes from time to time, handled some of the stuff, like saying the offertory prayer. (In church growing up, I learned to pray silently, and I still prefer to not pray out loud.) Still, it was a big responsibility, and I think I did alright.

davidh

+ 2 - 3 | § ¶Wargaming, Pirates, and Pizza

Saturday, I went to my first wargaming event. . . (more)

+ 3 - 2 | § ¶Pardon me... is your zipper stuck?

Last night, as I was walking out to my car (so many fascinating things seem to happen at that time of the day), I noticed a lady in a fairly nice dress sitting on the pavement behind her SUV, which had the trunk door open (it opens to the side, like a regular door, rather than up or down like most trunk doors). "How odd", I thought, and continued to my car.

After I sat down and started the car, I had a better view of what was going on: She was fiddling with the spare tire on the back of the vehicle, and seemed to be having quite a time of it. As I didn't have a pressing need to get home right away, I got back out and went to see if I could help. It turned out that the zippers on the bag that enclosed the spare tire, which start at the bottom of the tire and go around, one in each direction, were immobile just a few inches from being completely zipped. I sat down and tried applying some leverage to each of the zippers in turn, also trying to re-zip them to see if I could get a "running start", but nothing would budge them. I felt around to see if perhaps an inner flap had gotten caught in the teeth, but I couldn't find anything.

Defeated, I apologized for not being able to help, and continued home.

davidh

+ 4 - 1 | § ¶TISSTAAFL

Second and third words are "is so". I had one today. :-)

davidh

+ 3 - 2 | § ¶General Rules for My Blog

I mentioned in the previous post something about a general rule I follow about blogging. I've decided to (a) figure out, and (b) write down some of the other rules I try to follow here. . . (more)

+ 3 - 2 | § ¶Learning delays and sleep

Due to an interesting situation potentially arising at work tomorrow, my training class is being delayed at least one day to Friday.

However, due to this same interesting situation which is potentially arising, I will need to adjust my work schedule to come in earlier anyway. So, here I've been weaning myself off of my usual late-to-bed-and-late-to-rise for a week for one thing, and it'll actually be needed for another thing first.

I would write more about what this interesting situation is and how it affects me, but as The Peoria Pundit points out, "12. Do not blog about work." is probably a good idea. I may mention work a lot, but as a general rule, I try to keep things nice and non-specific.

davidh

+ 3 - 1 | § ¶If they ever start up the draft again...

...I hope they follow Finland's lead and excuse people for internet addiction. :-)

(Of course, I'm above the (current) Selective Service age limit of 26, and I've got some other excuses that would probably get me out of serving (asthma, for one), but it doesn't hurt to have multiple options.)

davidh

+ 1 - 4 | § ¶Sleep deprivation

Well, I actually made it to bed by 11:01pm last night... but due to a combination of discomfort from heat and humidity, and a rather loud cricket just outside my window, I didn't fall asleep until at least 2am, possibly later. And perhaps the can of Pepsi I finished around 10:30 had something to do with this as well.

So, I'm instituting two new policies:

1) No caffeinated beverages after 8pm. Scary, I know, but I think I can do it. I've got quite a few cans of Grape Crush and Dad's Root Beer already, so I won't need to buy anything to make this work.

2) If it's still hot at 8pm, close the windows and turn on the air conditioner, even if it does make a funny noise. Gotta get it cooler in here.

Also, a question to the Peoria metabrain: Do you have any suggestions on a good air conditioner repair company? Who has good service? Who should I avoid? Who has good rates? Who will nickel and dime you to death?

davidh

+ 1 - 3 | § ¶Google sells √2e14 shares

Not content to IPO for e billion dollars, they are now planning to sell √200,000,000,000,000 Class A stocks.

Does their mathematical easter-eggery know no limits? What is the root cause of Google using these radical numbers? Would anyone like to cosine on a loan so I can buy some stock?

Oops, struck out on a tangent there...

davidh

+ 1 - 4 | § ¶My Upcoming Week, Aug. 2-8

Monday

Work

No specific TV plans

Tuesday

Work

Last Comic Standing: Final Showdown (correction: Last week was the Wildcard episode)

The Amazing Race

Wednesday

Work

The Drew Carey Show: Two new episodes

Thursday

Work -- starting the new training class

Last Comic Standing: Results show (half-hour)

Friday

Work

JAG: "What If?" -- It's a repeat, but I missed the first half the last time it was on

Stargate: Atlantis: "Suspicion"

Stargate SG-1: "Icon" -- the 10:00 repeat

Saturday

Gaming in Washington (city)

Whose Line is it Anyway? -- one or two new episodes

Sunday

Church

(perhaps) The 4400 marathon: repeat of the first five episodes

The 4400: "White Light" -- season finale

The Dead Zone: "Cycle of Violence"

#include <stdexclusions.h>

davidh

+ 1 - 4 | § ¶Lazy weekend

This weekend has been fairly relaxing. I've watched Friday's taped Stargates and a couple more episodes of Firefly (one, again with commentary) on DVD, read a few stories in Spider Robinson's The Callahan Chronicals (which I borrowed from Kevin), listened to the Mark Schultz CDs I bought Friday. Later this evening, assuming nothing else comes up, I'm planning to watch last night's repeat of The 4400, listen to the Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban soundtrack and watch new episodes of The 4400 and The Dead Zone.

Then I'll go to bed by 11pm. Really.

davidh