Utilization of College Impulses

I’ve been meaning to run by the UCI bookstore and pick up some new license plate frames (the original plan was to just move the old ones, but when we took them off, we realized they looked kind of ratty) — if possible, before the plates arrive. Around 11:30 or so I decided I’d run up on my lunch hour, then drop in at the Apple Store at Crystal Court (excuse me, South Coast Plaza) and see if they could give me any pointers on some weird stuff my iPod is doing. (The Googles, they do nothing.)

I hadn’t been in the bookstore in several years, and it was mostly familiar, with only shelves and departments rearranged, but this was my first visit to the new Student Center. It was actually kind of eerie, since what I’d seen of construction made it look like they’d razed the entire old building except over at the bookstore/Cornerstone (sadly, now a Starbucks) end of the place. And yet the landing in front of Crystal Cove, the hallway below it, and the landing above, all looked strangely familiar. (And I could swear the only thing changed about the restrooms was the auto-flush sensors and the graffiti.) It turns out they actually kept most of the building below the terrace intact, in some cases moving stairways or adding partitions, and mainly built around it.

Most eerie: In the checkout line, I heard “La Vida Loca,” which for some reason I associate with the Student Center Zot-n-Go.

While I was there, I remembered a photo I took of the old Student Center from the top floor of what was then the Humanities Office Building. (10 years ago, as it turns out.) I had enough time left on parking that I figured I’d run over and try to match the shot. On the way, I pulled up the website with my phone and looked at the original photo so that I could match as closely as possible. I’ll try to post the before and after photos tonight. Edit: I’ve posted the before and after photos at K2R.

UCI Student Center: 1997UCI Student Center: 2007

By then I figured I didn’t have enough time to deal with the iPod, so I’ll just wait until the Spectrum store is done remodeling and drop in next week.

Current Mood: 🤔nostalgic
Current Music: The World is Not Enough, Garbage
Current Location: work

Heat Wave and a New Car

Last weekend I spent a lot of time reading on the balcony after things cooled off enough that outside was better, with the slight breeze, than the inside. I finished rereading A Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan, and started on The Farthest Shore.

Monday alenxa and I tried to run out to the local second-run theater and see Pirates 3 again, but they were sold out. None of the other movies looked interesting, so we spent an hour and a half in Barnes & Noble instead, then went for an early dinner at Ruby’s.

Even though it cooled off substantially Monday night, the apartment stayed warm, no matter how we arranged the fans. We seriously considered sleeping out on our balcony.

Tuesday I had the dubious honor of changing a tire in 85-degree heat, which was better than changing it in 100-degree heat on Monday would have been, but still not much fun. I took it to Costco, where they said they could repair it (it was an obvious puncture, with a 1/2″ bolt sticking out of the tire), but the tire was worn down far enough they wanted to replace it. I told them I was looking at replacing the car in a few months, so they stuck with the repair.

As it turned out, we ended up replacing the car this weekend.

Current Mood: 🙂relieved
Current Music: Almost Rosey, Tori Amos
Current Location: home

Cool

The theme of the day, at least for me, has been trying to keep cool. I went to see Transformers (and I have some things to say about it at K²R) in part because I was curious, in part because I found a Regal movie pass I’d forgotten, but in part because movie theaters are air conditioned better than our apartment is.

Came back mid-afternoon. Rehydrated. Opened up all the windows since it had gotten to the point where it was just as hot inside as outside, and at least outside had a breeze. Thought about swimming, then thought about just sticking my head under the shower for a minute. Finally settled on swimming, for the first time in several years.

We’ve been in this apartment for something like 6 years, and until today, neither of us had ever used the pool. The last time I swam was on our 2003 trip to Hawaii with the IVC choir (with alenxa of course, and also andrea_wot and zehntaur, though I can’t recall whether either of them were on that side trip), when we stopped at a small bay on the north shore of Oahu. That was salt water, so buoyancy was another issue. (On a related note, every time I walk down the main aisles of the Spectrum, I get stopped by the “Wonders of the Dead Sea” spa people. It’s getting to the point where I want to start responding, “Yes, I have heard of the Dead Sea!” and then rattling off a bunch of facts about it. Then telling them I still don’t want their spa products. Do I look like their target audience?)

Treading water is more tiring than I remember. And I seem to have no natural buoyancy. When I lie on my back, I have to flap my arms and legs from time to time or my face starts sinking below the surface. Still, I was out there for about an hour, trying to keep out of the way of the family teaching their two kids to swim (I think it was the mother and an aunt, with the father sitting out on the deck). When I realized that my eyes were clouding up with chlorine, and my fingers were beginning to look like prunes, I climbed out and walked on unsteady legs back to the apartment, rinsed off, and collapsed for a few minutes.

It’s still warm, but it’s a manageable warmth. Evening should be more comfortable.

Current Music: Aimee Mann, Ghost World
Current Location: home

Fun with Electricity! (Also Coffee and the Bust of the Year)

Heat wave + 3-day weekend = way too much hot air trying to sneak into the server room. Extra measures are being taken to ensure that the server AC can keep things cool, but I’m probably going to spend much of the weekend worrying about getting a “Server X down” SMS.

Brownout during lunchtime. I was at the Spectrum food court. All the lights flickered off and back on, and the muzak went silent for just a second. Twice. Here at work, most of the desktop machines rebooted. (Servers, of course, are on UPS.)

Coffee Crisis! Coffee maker at work shut off this morning just a few cups in. Determined that the power outlet had gone dead. Tried plugging it into another outlet, via extension cord + power strip. Power strip started buzzing, then circuit breaker tripped. Further analysis of coffee maker’s plug identified melted, cracked plastic. The company we lease it from can’t send out a replacement ’til Tuesday.

So, only 3 cups of coffee for the entire office. No gladiatorial combat, oddly enough. Though I did joke that it must be a fiendish plot by the cafe downstairs to sell more coffee.

Bust of the Century: Yesterday afternoon, got onto the 405 and immediately got stuck in traffic. Turned out to all be rubbernecking from something going on by the side of the road, where police were searching a stopped car. Lots of them. At least 5 squad cars, from at least 2 different cities, and a sheriff’s car.

Current Location: work

Bookses

Finished reading The Man Who Was Thursday on Friday.

Went to see Stardust again. It holds up quite well to a second viewing. Ever since seeing it last week I’ve been desperate to reread the novel, but maldis still has my copy. Since we were near a bookstore, I decided to pick up the paperback version, though, since it’s actually a different format than the one I’ve got already. The downside is that it doesn’t have Charles Vess’ illustrations. The upside is that it’s more portable.

I ended up rereading the whole thing last night. short comparison.

We’ve been trying to be out during the hottest part of the day, since our air conditioner isn’t terribly effective. It’s not really the AC’s fault, it’s the airflow in the apartment (or lack thereof). I’m out on the balcony right now, which is really nice. Step through the giant open screen door into the living room, and it jumps up considerably. Further back, into the room with the computers? Forget it!

So I’m sitting outside, occasionally glancing out at the trees, or up at the not-quite first-quarter moon, typing on the laptop.

Current Music: You Better Leave the Stars Alone, Ego Likeness
Current Location: home

Random

Got out to Santa Monica last week to meet up with my brother and his coworkers as they returned from a conference in Taiwan via LAX. Must remember to post pictures of dinosaur topiary and sundry oddness. (Edit: I finally got around to it.)

Speaking of photos, alenxa and I managed to get some really interesting cloud & sunset pictures yesterday.

Saw Stardust w/ andrea_wot and zehntaur. It was good. Disappointed to find how few people went to see it, though. Seriously, Rush Hour 3? At least it didn’t lose to Daddy Day Camp. Anyway, Stardust is highly recommended. If you haven’t seen it, try to catch it this weekend while it’s still in theaters.

Apartments are resurfacing the parking lots this week. Tomorrow through Saturday we’ll have to park on the street. This place doesn’t have enough street parking normally, never mind when 1/4 of the spaces are unavailable.

Re: Continuity questions (Annuals, specials and spin-offs)

Hmm, let’s see if I can have a go at this:

> Flash Annual #1-13

Annual 1 is tricky, because Wally’s seeing Connie, not Tina, but living in his mansion. I put it between #4 and #5, figuring that he’s met Tina, but they’re not dating yet.

Annual 2 I put between #19 and #20 — it’s clearly after the long Vandal Savage story that ends in #18, but before the Invasion!-through Porcupine Man story that starts in #20.

Annual 3 is easy: between #28 and #29. #28 wraps up the Porcupine Man story. The annual features Wally’s Justice League transporter being delivered. He uses the transporter in #29.

Annual 4 is unclear, since there’s nothing to really anchor it, but I set it around the time of #55, the War of the Gods crossover, because Armageddon 2001 and War of the Gods ran more or less concurrently.

Annual 5 is another slightly vague one, but I place it around #66, early in Waid’s run and right after the framing sequence of “Born to Run,” because it’s the last time you’ll see Chunk for a long, long time.

Annual 6 is explicitly set during “The Return of Barry Allen,” between #77 and #78

Annual 7 is out of continuity

Annual 8 is a bit vague, but I’d place it just before “Dead Heat” because Wally and Linda have worked through the worst of their post-“Terminal Velocity” relationship issues.

Annual 9 is either out of continuity or so far in the future it doesn’t matter.

Annual 10 is sometime after “Hell to Pay,” so shortly after #129.

Annual 11 is unclear, but sometime before “The Black Flash” starts in #139. I’ve put it between #134 and #135, which doesn’t *quite* fit.

Annual 12 is early in the Dark Flash saga, probably not long after #152, because no one knows who he is yet.

Annual 13 is shortly after Wally’s and Linda’s wedding and honeymoon — I’ve put it right before the start of “Wonderland,” between #163-164

> Speed Force #1
> Secret Files #1-2
> 80-Page Giant #1-2
> Flash Plus Nightwing #1

The rest of these are trickier to place, especially since they range all over. I’ll let someone else give them a try.

> Also, are there any other spinoffs or major guest appearances from around 1992-2001? Thanks!

Well, there’s Impulse, of course. There’s Flash: Iron Heights, which fits nearly into Geoff Johns’ run right after “Birth Right” and Flash: Our Worlds at War which brings Cyborg to Keystone City.

Green Lantern #66-67: “Fast Friends”
Green Lantern/The Flash: Faster Friends (2 parts, the comic book seen in season one of Lost)
Robin #62-64
Flashpoint (a 3-part Elseworlds mini)
Amalgam Comics: Speed Demon
Legionnaires Annual 3 has XS meeting Barry on a trip through time.
New Year’s Evil: The Rogues
Silver Age: The Flash
The Kingdom: Kid Flash
Wonder Woman Plus Jesse Quick

Cosplayer Coincidence

Wayne Lippa wrote:

So, I was looking at a few of your other pictures, Kelson, and just out of curiosity, what was the story behind the photo of you and Misty Lee?

Early last year I followed Mark Evanier’s blog for a while, and in one of his posts he recommended a magic show in the Los Angeles area. It was a one-weekend show with one act of Misty Lee and one act of Sylvester the Jester. I got tickets and went. I think it was around March, or maybe May.

So during the 2006 Comic-Con, I was walking around and saw someone who, at first glance, seemed to be wearing a very good Zatanna-style costume. I asked her if she’d pose for a picture (which unfortunately turned out to be out-of-focus, so I didn’t post it). As I lowered the camera, I recognized her as Misty Lee.

I told her I’d been to her show in Burbank, she said something about “I hope it wasn’t ___ night, that one was terrible!” I couldn’t remember which day of the weekend I had gone, and she offered to pose with me for another photo. She also offered me tickets the next time she did a show in the area. She seemed very happy to be recognized as Misty Lee, magician, rather than as random attractive woman in hot costume. I handed my camera to the man she was walking with, and glanced at his name badge: he was her husband, Paul Dini.

So I got my picture taken with Misty Lee, by Paul Dini! (It’s too bad I look terrible in that photo — I’m 5-10 pounds heavier than I am now, only half-smiling, and starting to blink.)

The Question of the Day

It seems that the question of the day is, “What page are you on?”

No spoilers.

I’d pretty much figured on not picking up Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows until after Comic-Con. I had some things I wanted to make sure I got finished first, in particular some website updates. But then alenxa finished the book on Saturday, and I decided that the updates I had left weren’t quite so important as the ones I’d done Saturday afternoon. So I picked up the book Sunday afternoon, and put it down around 11:00 at night, a little over halfway through.

This morning I took the car in for some fairly major maintenance. They’d offered a complementary rental, which I happily accepted, and arranged for Enterprise to send someone over. (I would have been quite willing to walk, since it was hardly even sprinkling, but figured if they’d made the arrangements, I might as well. As it is, I think it would have been faster to walk.)

Naturally I pulled the book out in the waiting room. After a few minutes, the 50-ish man a few chairs over asked,

“What page are you on?”

“428.”

“432.”

I found it funny that we were not only both reading it, but within a few pages of each other.

After picking up the rental, I drove over to my allergist. Afterward, as I was making my next appointment with the new receptionist, I noticed the book on her desk (open and upside-down, but it was recognizable by size, color, and a name which jumped out at me before I looked away). Before I had a chance to mention it, the doctor walked up, noticed my copy sitting on the counter, and said, “Oh, you’re reading it too?” She then explained that her son and daughter (the latter turned out to be the unfamiliar receptionist) had each gotten their own copy so they could both read it immediately. At this point the daughter asked me,

“What page are you on?”

I opened the book. “448.”

“Oh, I’m on page 530” (or something around there). “I’ll close it so you don’t see anything.”

Independence Day

Wasted a good chunk of the middle of the day on message boards. Did some minimal shopping, and discovered that The District will have both a Pei Wei Asian Diner and a Peet’s. And as near as I can tell, the movie theaters opened on the 4th, because I don’t remember seeing a “Now Open” sign on Tuesday.

alenxa and I left for Laguna Beach at 6:45. We clearly drove the canyon in record time, since we were parked in a lot up on Forest and Broadway by 7:10. So we walked out to the beach, found ourselves a spot, spread out the beach towel and set in to wait.

I quickly determined that I should have stuck with shorts instead of changing into jeans, because while she sat down and started crochet, I immediately took off my shoes and headed down to the water to check out the waves and take pictures of the scenery. (I was planning to try out the fireworks mode on the camera, and figured I’d go for some establishing shots.) Naturally, I got soaked.

Watched the stars slowly appear. Planets first. Venus was fairly early, then Jupiter. Wispy clouds caught the setting sun. Watched people: the 20ish guys playing frisbee with penalty push-ups for missing a throw, who would lash each other with wet seaweed. The family burying their father in the sand. The girl who screamed that she didn’t want to get wet, though she had gone down to the water in a bikini. The woman holding a plastic bag above the waterline as she walked out into the waves to a waiting boat. The couple taking turns dunking each other into the water.

Around 8:30 the sun was down, and a single firework popped off to the west, probably heard by more people than seen, though its smoke was silhouetted against the glow of the western sky. Over the next hour the light continued to fade, people left the water, more people arrived and set up camp on the beach, or on the lawn just above. Shortly before 9:00 we started hearing vaguely eastern-sounding music, and looked around and someone was doing a procession of some sort.

Finally, at 9:00, the fireworks started. At first they were obscured by their own cloud of smoke, which made for an interesting nebula-like appearance with thin smoke reflecting light and tendrils of thicker smoke in front, blocking it. After a while a breeze came up, blowing the smoke eastward along the coast. Maybe 5 or 10 minutes in, the first fire engine drove past down PCH. No doubt someone messing around with fireworks who didn’t know what he was doing. (The number of fire trucks and ambulances that drove by last night was disheartening.) The show was over by 9:20, but we could still see the fireworks from up in the direction of Newport Beach. We waited, watching those, while the crowd dispersed.

The Diedrich Coffee we used to go to is now a Starbucks. I suppose it’s better than closing it altogether, but there’s another Starbucks about 300 feet away. It’s a bit silly. I’d called Coffee Pub earlier in the day to find out how late they were open, and they closed that afternoon. In the end, we decided to go to BJ’s across the street and split an appetizer and a pizookie. (Sadly, pizookies are crispy now, instead of chewy.)

We drove back by way of PCH to Newport Coast Drive, saw some interesting fog effects, and I managed to completely lose my bearings with all the twists and turns through the hills. Fortunately you can’t go wrong by staying on the road. Home around midnight.

Notes for next year: Shorts, flip-flops, and jackets.

July 4, Reading, Weekend

Spent Saturday afternoon shopping for alenxa’s parents’ birthdays. Not terribly exciting, though we did go to Javier’s for lunch. We’ve never been there for dinner, because they’re always terribly crowded and they won’t take reservations for only two people. But we’ve always walked straight in for lunch. Sunday was mostly spent with the previously-mentioned relatives.

I finally got around to reading The Time Traveler’s Wife (thanks, andrea_wot!) Very much a character study: what would spontaneous, involuntary time travel do to someone, and to the people around him?

Plans for July 4: Head down to Laguna Beach before sunset & find a good spot to watch the fireworks display. They launch them off of the bluff to the north of the main beach. I think it was 3 years ago that we first tried going there, but arrived too late. We were walking down Broadway, and could hear the finale, but by the time we made it to PCH, it was too late. We spent some time at the Diedrich Coffee across the street to let the crush of cars dissipate a bit. Then the year after that I was sick, so we just walked down the street to see what we could of the local fireworks display. Last year we made it out to Laguna on time and found a spot on the beach well before the fireworks started, which was nice. Again, we stopped at Diedrich before leaving.

This year, Diedrich is gone. There’s a Starbucks about 300 feet away, but it’s just not the same. (And, of course, Starbucks is quite literally responsible for Diedrich being closed!) There’s apparently one more coffee place in walking distance — Coffee Pub on Forest, which looks pretty close to where we parked last year. Maybe we’ll give that a try.

Spreading the Doom Around

Caltrans has been resurfacing the Ramp of Doom for the last few weeks. No major accidents there, though on the opposite ramp yesterday a moron tailgated me on a curve at 50 MPH while holding a cigarette in one hand and dialing a cell phone with the other (I think she must have been steering with wrist pressure alone).

Anyway, this morning… big accident at the Walnut entrance to Jamboree. Looked like an overturned (and backwards!) gardening truck. Several fire trucks, a ton of police cars, a couple of random cars that looked okay (maybe witnesses, or people who stopped to help). The ambulance was just leaving as we arrived. The ramp was completely blocked, so plan A was to continue to Harvard… along with everyone else. Harvard isn’t built for that much traffic. So, on up to Culver, over a block, and back down to Jamboree (after a 2 mile detour).

Then, after I’d dropped alenxa off, I got on the 405… and guess what? Another accident! I couldn’t quite tell what was there, since it was on the other side of the freeway, though the fire truck was on the near side at the center divider. Looked like at least 3 cars, maybe 4.

And of course a construction crew at the classic Ramp of Doom.

It was one of those mornings…

Wicked

Finished reading Wicked. Very good. Also very different from the musical. And I don’t mean in a Les Mis or Phantom condensed-the-heck-out-of-it way. I mean in a took a few high points from the book, then connected the dots with its own story way.

At least it wasn’t on the level of, say, Starship Troopers.

Electronica

I’ve finally done it. After resisting for years, I’ve bought an iPod.

Unfortunately, I haven’t had a chance to play with it yet. Our music collection is on alenxa’s computer, which is old enough that its USB port is USB 1.1. This hasn’t been a problem until now, since she syncs her iPod with Firewire. Little did I know that the latest generation of iPod only supports USB. I charged it this afternoon, and started the initial sync this evening. So far it’s about 1/3 through.

At least future syncs won’t be so bad.

In other news, I’ve found myself in the middle of an online firestorm twice this week. Safari for Windows and a relaunch of the Flash comic book.

Quick bits

Finished The Bard’s Tale this weekend. [Review moved to website.]

Also watched This Film is Not Yet Rated, which alternates between an expose of just how arbitrary the ratings are, and an attempt to determine just who actually sits on the ratings board, since their identities are kept secret. I think I lost faith in the ratings system in high school, when The Joy Luck Club (which we’d read for school) came out with an R rating.

Visited alenxa’s family on Sunday for her sister’s birthday.

Finally packed up the old camera to send it in for repair so we can have two cameras at Comic Con this year. We kept trading off who had the camera last year based on who was going to which panel, and kept running into “If I’d only had the camera!” moments. There’s only so much you can do with a fuzzy, fixed-focus, zoomless VGA-resolution cell phone camera.

Re: To be honest i hope Bart stays

Christening Wally West and/or Bart Allen as The Flash was never necessary. DC already had an established character, Barry Allen, as The Flash.

Unnecessary perhaps, but we got some damn good stories and characters out of Wally’s run as the Flash. We also got Impulse. How likely would DC have been to introduce Impulse if they still had Barry as the Flash and Wally as Kid Flash? And it’s hard to imagine Young Justice without Impulse.

Similarly, it was unnecessary to create Barry Allen in 1956. DC could easily have pulled Jay Garrick off the shelf, dusted him off, and revamped him, but they chose instead to create a new character using the Flash name. And this was someone who carried three titles for the better part of a decade!

Pirates of the Coffee Bean

Dread Pirate KatieWent out to see Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End on Friday. alenxa wore her pirate costume again (previous versions at last year’s Pirates and, in a more appropriate setting, on the deck of the H.M.S. Surprise). We got to the Irvine Spectrum around 6:15, and ended up about 30 feet from the front of the line for the 8:30 showing. We had pizza from the food court, and later chocolate chip cookies from Donna B’s.

Since some moron genius decided to chop the courtyard in front of the movie theater in half and put in more shops (have they filled the shops in the last expansion, yet?), the theater has had to get a little creative in finding room for lines. Ours started between California Pizza Kitchen and P.F. Chang’s. Being off in the corner, we only got to see the pirates in our own line.

Anyway, the movie was a lot of fun. My main objection was that it got hard to keep track of all the double-, triple-, and quadruple-crosses. Despite what the reviewer for the L.A. Times thinks, it doesn’t require intimate knowledge of the previous films. All you have to know are who the major players are, and how they stand in relation to each other. You can do that by seeing the other films once while sober.

It let out around 11:30, and we went looking for a place that was still open to get something to drink. We stopped at Coffee Bean, where we discovered all the employees were dressed up as pirates. The guy at the counter was impressed with Katie’s costume, saying she was the first serious pirate they’d had all night (I guess they all stayed closer to the theater?) and gave us our drinks for free.

The rest of the weekend

Weekend Antics

Friday: Finally watched The Legend of Zorro (the second one with Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones). Much better than I expected, even if they did play fast and loose with history. Odd moment when alenxa recognized one of the actors as Ben from Lost.

Saturday: Mostly trying to catch up on my website. (Lots of new stuff in the last couple of weeks.) Ran some errands. Dropped by the local comic store for Free Comic Book Day & picked up several books, including a BSG book which is supposed to be a prequel, but which I don’t dare read until we’ve gotten a bit farther along in watching the show. Also felt I ought to buy something, and not just grab the free stuff, so I picked up (and read) a JLA book I’d been meaning to read, Syndicate Rules. It’s a sequel to both JLA: Earth-2 (in which the Justice League meets their mirror-universe counterparts, the Crime Syndicate of Amerika) and JLA/Avengers, which I finally read a few weeks ago after picking the series up at Wizard World LA. Much better than I’d been led to expect by some of the reviews.

Sunday: Went out to see Hot Fuzz, figuring Spider-Man 3 was guaranteed to still be in theaters next week. Great fun. Keep your eyes open: Once he arrives in Sanford, no detail is wasted. I liked Shaun of the Dead better, but I think that’s largely because the genre conventions being spoofed were more straight-forward: Zombies vs. a combination cop-buddy/horror/action film.

It was amazingly clear out, since it was the first day of Santa Ana winds (though they died down by midday). I seriously considered driving up into the hills to find a nice viewpoint, but after the movie, a late lunch, and some errands, it was running late enough that we just went home.

TV Thoughts

Heroes: Excellent!

Veronica Mars: The rumors about Veronica and Piz just didn’t make sense. Then I saw the first 30 seconds of the episode, and it suddenly made perfect sense. Can you say rebound?

Lost: Locke did exactly what Ben wanted him to. The others are big on the concept of “good people.” If he’d killed his father himself, he wouldn’t have qualified to join. Getting Sawyer to do it proves that he’s resourceful and manipulative enough to get “bad people” to do the dirty work for him — just like Ben manipulated him into blowing up the sub.

So, how long did it take to pull the trigger on Locke’s dad, the con artist, being the original Sawyer? 1 year? 1½?

Also, I’m operating under the assumption that the wreckage was either planted or simulated. I never liked the “they’re all dead and in purgatory” explanation, and the show’s producers have denied it several times. If they’ve reversed course on this, I probably won’t be watching Season 4 (assuming there is one).