The King of Pointland

The New New

Yech

Jessi, Eileen, and Maggie had people over for dinner at their place. I managed to drive out of my neighborhood and to the Metro station. While walking through Mt. Pleasant, I came to a patch of road with dirty, crumbled ice on the surface. Not a big deal.

But as I walked onto the street, it immediately became clear that what I was stepping on was not the surface of the road, but rather the surface of a one foot deep puddlle of murky, ice cold water. As my momentum carried me further, I irrationaly hopped forward, hoping that if I moved quickly enough, I could somehow walk on water.

This only made the onlookers laugh harder.

The Weather Outside

Holy Moley, there's quite a bit of snow out there. It's the Blizzard of the Century, as my Dad pointed out on the phone.

I walked over to Andrew and Maureen's, over there in Riverdale. It was all cold and snowy, but I do love snow. It was good to see the children sledding. It's so important to go sledding, isn't it?

By the way, I enjoyed Gangs of New York. I love a good period piece. Add in some of the ultra-violence, and an outstanding performance by Daniel Day-Lewis, and what more could you want?

Too Dee

Well, I helped some friends move today. Now my back is for crap. I hope it heals. Please heal, back.

I am going to see a movie tonight -- Gangs of New York. I still haven't seen it, and this may be my last chance to see it on the big screen. Unless it comes to be considered a classic. If that were to happen, I might be able to see a newly restored print in the year 2043, at the 2D Cinemaplex. I would turn to the young couple sitting next to me and say, "You know, it may surprise you, but this is the first time I've seen this movie! How about that?" And the young lady might say, "Glangsy pangsy -- tood. T'la la. OK?" And because I won't be hip and with it, as I am now, I won't know what that means.

Nope, better to see it tonight.

Tazo

A new Tea Reader.

Row row row your boat

This morning I had a lucid dream -- I became aware, during the dream, that I was dreaming. This was the first such dream I had had since watching the movie Waking Life.

I remembered that I was supposed to make an attempt to read. Fortunately, I was in the city and there were plenty of posters and signage. So I concentrated on a particular sign, an ad for a play, and damned if it wasn't complete gibberish. These was extremely exciting. I wanted to tell people, "Hey, it's true!", but I knew that they weren't dreaming.

I also had the presence of mind to look for a hot babe so I could get it on. But nobody wanted to sleep with me! There was one woman walking down the sidewalk. As I approached her, she looked nervous and crossed the street. I think she thought it was creepy that a strange man was walking up to her.

So this dream was too lucid.

That's it.

Alias Grace

The quest for anti-aliased fonts in KDE continues. I have XRender support, the right version of Qt, and the latest KDE, too. I can see that Qt wants to make me happy, but it can't for some reason. So I'm starting from the bottom. I can now do anti-aliased text in a pure X program, using the Xft library:

Well, it's a start.

Go Ask Alice

I'm old enough to remember the very first Space Shuttle launch. I remember watching the coverage on TV, and the biggest concern was that one of the insulating tiles on the underside of the craft would come loose. If that happened, the reporters stressed, the shuttle would burn up on re-entry. So we all watched the landing with baited breath, but everything was fine, and the shuttle landed safely. Once shuttle flight became routine, even after the Challenger disaster, I, like everyone else, stopped worrying about reentry. You know the rest of the story.

I tried a new restaurant tonight, the Prince Cafe in College Park. A wall of tobacco smoke and loud Middle Eastern music greeted me as I entered the dimly lit interior. The source of the smoke was soon apparent: at every table at least one person was sucking on the long slender hose of a hookah. I felt like I'd entered the Interzone of David Cronenberg's take on Naked Lunch. I felt very out of place.

I'll say this much: the food was good. I had a sweet lassi and the chicken beryani. Both were quite tasty. The service, however, was terrible. After waiting 20 minutes without being approached by any of the waiters, I walked up to the cashier and ordered the food myself. My meal was eventually delivered, and some time after I was done, the plate was taken away. There was no other interaction -- the waiter never spoke to me. He never brought me my check, either, so I had to go up and ask for that, too. I doubt I'll return, but if you have plenty of time and don't mind feeling extremely isolated and alone, check it out.

Finally, David gives Chicago two big thumbs up. Hot damn!