As of today, and for the next three hundred sixty some-odd days, I have a fifteen year old daughter.
It’s been a moderately lousy week month year so far, and at first I woke up this morning feeling grim and glum, but when I realized what day it is today I cheered right up.
Happy Birthday, Erica!
As we’ve learned, over and over again, my musical tastes are unlike those of most people. They’re similar, mind you, but just a bit off-kilter. It’s as if you took a normal person’s tastes and rotated them about five degrees from reality. Oh well. I got a kick out of the meme (I found here) so you’re stuck with it anyway. Unless you choose to stop reading at this point, of course. (more…)
Beep. Wait. Beep. Wait. Beep. Wait. Beep.
This is the pattern of sound in my home right this minute. I’m not there now, but I know that the beeping continues because, it turns out, we don’t have any 9V batteries in stock. I’ll be hitting the store during lunch, indeed, so that when I eventually get home I can do something about the smoke alarm at the top of the upper stairway.
The one that woke me up at about one-thirty and interrupted my sleep many times until my alarm finally went off, that is. (I’d also like to thank the waste management service for the nearby apartment complex for emptying their dumpster at quarter ’til six in the A.M. Rock on with your bad, noisy selves.)
Am I tired? Oh yes, yes I am tired. It’s going to be a long, long day. The only “arrr“s you’ll be hearing from me will be growls of frustration…
Fourteen. This is it. Summer is at a close, and so is this silly little project.
I didn’t save a particular artist for last, but I sort of like the way things ended up. For all of the mindless pap you find before, during and after your average bit of anime, sometimes you get lucky and hear something from Yuki Kajiura. Her style definitely isn’t for everyone. This project hasn’t been about what everyone likes, though, has it?
Since we’re wrapping this up, and because your typical soundtrack cut is shorter than most regular songs, I threw in an extra track. I hope you enjoy “Key of the Twilight,” “Liar You Lie,” “Nowhere” and “Melody (Salva Nos version).”
That’s all, folks.
Since it seems to be the thing to do, today:
1. Take a picture of yourself right now.
2. Don’t change your clothes, don’t fix your hair…just take a picture.
3. Post that picture with NO editing.
4. Post these instructions with your picture.
I really don’t photograph well, do I…?
I’ve been… busy. Making contraptions, that is. Intermittently. After work, mostly.
Allow me to show you my bizarre creations, won’t you? Note that the only contraptions I’ve bothered to save are those which satisfy some “above and beyond” quirk of mine. For instance: Don’t Stop completes the goal in mere seconds, but the fun part is watching it climb the hill and throw itself off the side. Four Plus 1 is an exercise in very, very slowly removing all four of the accessible orange balls. As with all of my creations, the trick is to click the “back” button when prompted as the goal is reached.
For her part, Erica managed to get three of them in the same challenge with her Push and Roll. That’s right, I hooked my darling daughter on Fantastic Contraption. You know what? She’s not doing too badly. Her solution for “Mission To Mars,” Chain Reaction, elicited a forehead slap from me. “Why didn’t I think of that?” (My solution to that puzzle didn’t warrant posterity, I assure you.) Her Push-Over is a much more creative contraption to solve “U-Turn” than what I’ve done so far, too. (I have an idea, I just haven’t been able to make it work yet. Argh.) Erica showed promise right from the start with her straightforward yet amusing LastMinuteSave.
Other contraptions of note that I’ve cobbled together include Brick Bridge, Goal & Clear, Latch & Chain, Tilt & Go and the Humpmobile. I’m probably not done yet, either…
