raindrops tapping on the window

I’m sitting here writing perl code and looking out of the window. The whole sky is this dull, uniform grey, it’s raining, and I’m thinking “wow. Rain is bizarre. Seriously! It’s stuff falling from the sky. If it were anything else except for water falling, there’d be mass panic. I mean, to get up into the sky, you need a big honking plane or a helicopter or something. It takes effort. It took humanity a few thousand years to get from ‘ug, sky big’ to balloons, and then another few centuries to planes. It takes work to get up there. Anything in the sky is serious stuff.

Apart from a lot of water, which we accept with complete equanimity.”

Now this wet, thick air is moving in over the city… enveloping the entire town in a wet, thick embrace, and mist is condensing on the outside of my window, since it’s maybe 10 degrees cooler inside than out. It’s a day which makes me pine for bed, the comfort of my love’s arms, soft talk and easy sleep.

Side note. When I was 13, my age *was* my shoe size.

found on ‘s journal.

Due to the extreme drought in Florida, the following caution was issued:

The Florida Department of Fish and Wildlife is advising hikers, hunters, fishers, and golfers to take extra precautions and keep alert for alligators while in Bay, Seminole, Osceola, Polk, Brevard and Orange Counties.

They advise people to wear noise-producing devices such as little bells on their clothing to alert but not startle the alligators unexpectedly.

They also advise the carrying of pepper spray in case of an encounter with an alligator.

It is also a good idea to watch for fresh signs of alligator activity.
People should recognize the difference between small young alligator and large adult alligator droppings.

Young alligator droppings are smaller and contain fish bones and possibly bird feathers.
Adult alligators droppings have little bells in them and smell like pepper spray.

zugzwang & approbation

zugzwang TSOOK-tsvahng noun

A position where one is forced to make an undesirable move.

From German Zugzwang, Zug (move) + Zwang (compulsion, obligation).

approbation ap-ruh-BAY-shuhn, noun:
1. The act of approving; formal or official approval.
2. Praise; commendation.

Approbation is from Latin approbatio, from approbare, “to approve or cause to be approved,” from ap- (for ad-), used intensively + probare, “to make or find good,” from probus, “good, excellent, fine.”

There is a pain pressing in my left eye like a white hot needle pushing into the back of my skull.

I am unable to sleep, and it hurts badly enough that it’s upsetting my stomach, as well.

A hot shower has not helped, and I fear it’s only getting worse. Possibly a migraine, but those usually effect the crown of my head.

I am *very* tired, but this is keeping me awake, hurts too much. I’m out of pain medicine, as I threw away my percocet, because it had expired, and I’ve not refilled the prescription. I’m out of alieve. There’s not even any booze in the house to take the edge off. I’m going to call a cab, and go to Walgreens for some sort of treatment.

I just finished watching the pilot for enterprise, the latest star trek television franchise.

overall opinion – not bad, better characters than voyager, some of the same writing flaws.

as always, I have a “3 strikes, you’re out” rule. if the show doesn’t grab me by the third show, forget about it. if two out of three are crap, and one is good, the same. (that’s why I stopped watching next gen, until someone told me the show was getting better 2nd season. I thought the first season of next gen was kakadoodie, as was 70% of the voyager episodes I’ve seen. (I’ve seen maybe ten episodes total, 6 of which were just because they were on at a friends house.) I really liked next gen, later on in the series, the original series, and ds9.

potential spoilers follow