This was originally posted as a comment on RAWbservations, but I thought "Hey, I need to post more stuff like this on my blog..." so, here it is:
At Baybrook mall on Sunday, within the span of ten minutes, my wife Ann (alias, obviously for those who know me) and I ran into our next-door neighbors, a former co-worker of mine, and one of the few females in my life who showed extreme interest in dating me yet I had no interest whatsoever.
I actually never spoke to her, but it was strange. I first saw her in Williams Sonoma (with her husband, I assume, as they both had wedding rings on). Ann and I left there, went to Kirklands and outside Kirklands ran into our neighbors. We browsed Kirklands for a few, and then left for the car. As we were about to reach the exit, the female of non-interest and her husband come out of a shop right next to us, and proceed to follow us out the exit and into the parking lot. We had parked pretty close to the end of the lot (near the "road" that circles the mall) between Sears and Mervyns. As we were approaching our car, that's when we saw the old coworker walking through the parking lot right next to our car towards Sears. As I talked to the old coworker, the FoNI and her husband got in their car, which was parked *right* across the aisle from our car.
I have no clue if she recognized me or not, but that was just a weird 10 minutes...
Full of Shat is a site dedicated to Mr. William Shatner with, among other things, the College of Shatner where you can learn to talk and dress like the man himself. No-Lyfe's dream become a reality. No word yet as to whether or not Hero is actually the dean.
[1] I'm almost positive that nearly every anime fan that ran across the article cringed that the title called it "japanimation" instead of "anime." I've never really understood fandom's objection to the former, though. [2] Leading anime producer AD Vision, based in Houston, is completely and entirely run my John Ledford and Matt Greenfield apparently doesn't exist [3] On one hand, it's cool that it touches almost exclusively on anime that I've actually seen. On the other, it suggests that they're a bit out of date. ADV has (or used to have?) a music video with the newest releases. It was always a game for me to see how many of the ones they'd show that I'd seen. I never seemed to crack 50% -- and that was when I was a full-fledged anime fan. I haven't seen but a few features in the past three years or so and one of the reasons that the conventions lost their allure was that so much of what everyone was talking about was stuff that I hadn't even heard of. [4] My lady friend and I went to a video rental store last night for the first time in a long time. Thankfully it was Hollywood Video instead of Blockbuster because they inexplicably (and I don't know if this is still their policy or if they finally found their senses) put anime in with the rest of the "action" or "drama" sections, which was a lot worse if you're in the mood to rent anime. I was able to check out what Hollywood Video had in one isle, which was nice. There wasn't much and most of it was pretty old. Unfortunately, and unsurprisingly, there isn't an anime store in my small Idaho city. There's actually only one comic books store. [5] I gotta find a way to start watching more anime again. The problem is that anime has always been something of a social activity for me. I've always watched it with other people. Unfortunately there isn't a huge market for it here in Idaho (outside of Boise, perhaps) so there aren't a whole lot of people to watch it with.
Quote of the Day: When The Dodgers Were In Brooklyn
"While most people know that Brooklyn is a borough of the city of New York, few people today know that Brooklyn was once an independent city. It was brought into the larger city of New York in the early 20th Century, but it retained its own identity for decades. When did people stop saying they were from Brooklyn and start saying they were from New York? Around 1957, when the Brooklyn Dodgers announced that they would be pulling up stakes and moving to the west coast. Losing the Dodgers took the heart out of Brooklyn, and it has never been the same." -Andrew Olmsted
Below, Adam posted on the miraculous happenings in The Ukraine. One thing I've been meaning to pass along is a pair of pictures of opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko taken with only five months apart. Since I can't presently upload to NLJ, so for now I'll just link to the article.
As Ukraine's popular pro-Western opposition leader claimed victory Tuesday in hotly contested presidential elections, the mystery surrounding an appearance-altering illness that twice prompted him to check into a Vienna hospital persisted.
Yushchenko accused the Ukrainian authorities of poisoning him. His detractors suggested he'd eaten some bad sushi.
Adding to the intrigue, the Austrian doctors who treated him have asked foreign experts to help determine if his symptoms may have been caused by toxins found in biological weapons.
Medical experts said they may never know for sure what befell Yushchenko.
But the illness, whatever it was, has dramatically changed his appearance since he first sought treatment at Vienna's private Rudolfinerhaus clinic on September 10.
Known for his ruggedly handsome, almost movie star looks, Yushchenko's complexion is now pockmarked. His face is haggard, swollen and partially paralyzed. One eye often tears up.
I hope they can find out whatever the cause of it is - and I hope they can find something to fight it.
Well, Alex, you may have cursed Houston with all your talk of cold sand and calcified mountains.
This morning I looked out the window, and for the first time this fall, there was a layer of frost on every house's roof in my neighborhood. Not completely unusual, but unusual for so early in the "winter" (apologies to those from more northerly climates). I was even a little more suprised upon getting into my car. I had to turn the winshield wipers on to get rid of a layer of ice completely covering my windshield. Well, imagine my shock when pulling out of my driveway when I see on most neighbor's lawns something completely unexpected: a thin layer of snow/frost covering the entire lawn of a few neighbors and parts of the lawn of most others. Now, this is 8 AM in the morning, so a lot of the rooftop frost had melted in the direct sunlight it was getting, but here, still in direct sunlight, was either snow or frost patches all over the grass.
Is it just me, or does anyone else have a sense of hope that in a country struggling to gain its democratic footing away from tyrrany and corruption, that the good guys look like they might be able to pull this one out? It's obviously not the same level, but I get the same feeling from this event as I did way back when the Berlin Wall came down.
Sol Angela Cartagena said she was with her 2-year-old daughter when she had a drink at a hospital cafeteria in Girardot, southwest of Bogota, and suddenly felt lightheaded.
"When I woke up I was in the countryside with my 2-year-old daughter beside me," the woman told RCN TV, adding that someone had performed a Caesarean section on her and taken her baby.
Carlos Cespedes, a gynecologist, confirmed that someone had removed Cartagena's baby. Apparently Cartagena had been drugged, causing her to black out before the operation. It was unclear where it was performed, but authorities said Cartagena was lucky to be alive.
"This is the strangest thing I've seen in my professional career, and I believe this patient had all the luck in the world in not dying before getting to the hospital," he said.
