The Slashdot Meetup last night was pretty fun. We had about 12 people show up, including another girl (for a total of three!). The venue, Establishment Bar, pretty much sucked though. It was this big posh city place full of suits and loud music. We waited there for about an hour and then headed around the corner for some Thai food. We finished the night off in one of the George Street video arcades watching Slashdotter Chris work his Dance Dance Revolution magic. It was amazing; he was playing in “double” mode where you dance across both platforms hitting all eight arrows. I would’ve given it a try, but my experience in Step class has soured me for rhythmic athletic enterprises for life. So instead Snookums and I raced on Harleys. Like I said, fun night.

I’m playing around with some new software called Kung Tunes. It uploads the details of whatever current mp3 is playing in iTunes to the site. You can see it down on the right under “listening”.

Recent Pop Culture Ingestions:
I just finished reading Douglas Coupland‘s latest novel All Families Are Psychotic. (Hmm. It appears it hasn’t come out in paperback in the US yet. Weird.) I haven’t liked his last couple of books and this one sure didn’t impress me at the start. It just struck me as too wacky and gimmicky, like Dave Barry’s Big Trouble (which I hated). Things just get more and more farcical. Eventually I just gave in and accepted it, and that’s when it got a lot more fun. By the end I was having a good time. It doesn’t have the emotional weight of Microserfs, but it made me laugh a couple of times. I thought the whole “Princess Diana” bit was random, but I did like the resolution of it.

The Buffy Series 4 DVD has been out for ages in the UK, but we still haven’t procured a copy. (The exchange rate makes UK stuff very expensive for us.) It’s out here in Australia, but it’s not in the cool little “book” format. Instead you have to buy two huge boxes, each with several separate DVDs (in separate cases) in them. That, of course, just wouldn’t “go” with the rest of our collection. So we remain in limbo, not sure whether to shell out for the nice version or suck it up and go with the crap one. (Waiting ages for the US version to come out is out of the question.) I’ve been suffering Buffy withdrawal, though, so I caved and rented the first disc of Series 4 and last night we watched the first episode, “The Freshman”. I wasn’t happy. Why is it that Buffy gets totally shit upon in the first episode of every season? Willow was a jerk to her, Giles blew her off, and her Mom was less than sympathetic. I did like Xander’s little “What would Buffy do?” speech, but hello? What happened to character continuity? Xander was an ass all of Season 3. Now suddenly he’s not an ass anymore? And Willow went from nerdy computer girl to sexy trendy Wicca over the course of one summer? I don’t buy it. I’m hoping that the entire episode was constructed to make you feel Buffy’s sense of alienation and discombobulation, because that’s how I felt. Otherwise it sucked and I really hope it gets better soon. (Also, the random phone call bothered me until I read that it was the first Angel crossover event. Great. Now I’ve gotta rent those too.)

After the Buffy disappointment, we watched Wim Wenders’s film Wings of Desire. You may have seen its much crappier and cheesier “remake” City of Angels. Wenders’s version is much better, but it’s also pretty challenging. Not a lot happens. Parts are in monochrome and parts in color. Dialogue is in German, English, and French, so there are a lot of subtitles. There are random appearances by Peter Falk and Nick Cave. To be honest, I’m not sure how I feel about it. Ebert makes some good points in his review, and while I can appreciate it artistically, it’s not the kind of thing I really enjoy myself. At any rate, it’s worth seeing just to realize how completely crap the Nicholas Cage/Meg Ryan version is.

Feel like some wacky Flash game fun? Brigita linked to several gems today that have kept me busy for half an hour now. I managed to figure out the lamp puzzle, but I really suck at the miniature nun game. I keep getting attacked by rocks.

Sometimes my recent search requests piss me off… like when I realize that I’m the #1 result for skanky Koreans. Seriously. Go on, laugh.

Snookums and the Art of Zen
I don’t think I mentioned it on the site, but I gave the Snook a “zen garden” for his birthday last month. It’s this little wooden box filled with sand and smooth polished rocks, and it comes with a tiny rake so you can smooth it out. He likes it a lot. It’s set up in our dining room and every week or so he redesigns it. It helps him de-stress. Since I figure some of you could use de-stressing too, I’ve decided to share his designs with you. Next time you’re upset or frustrated, just stare at the zen garden for a while. It’s the next best thing to being a Buddhist!

Damn the BBC! They stole my idea! Well, rest assured we won’t be reading any Garrison Keillor crap in the web-goddess book group.

Health Report: I am back in action, friends. The tummy bug seems to have fled and I’m feeling a lot better (though I already miss its pseudo-bulimic weight loss side effects). I even ventured back to the gym today for another round of Body Pump. Overall I’ve lost just shy of 20 pounds since starting Atkins six weeks ago. Isn’t that insane? I don’t feel like I’ve lost 20 pounds. I don’t think I look that dramatically different. I have noticed little things, like my jeans being looser and fitted blouses looking better. I guess since I’ve been putting on muscle it’s not so much getting smaller as getting denser. Anyway, onwards and upwards… and thanks for all the kind words over the weekend.

As each day brings a fresh assault on our personal liberties (courtesy of the “War on Terror”), I know a lot of folks are worried about the erosion of privacy and the creation of a “Big Brother” state. I’m not. It’s already here. Today I received my summer copy of Notre Dame Magazine in the mail. Only problem is, I never gave them our new address. In fact, I’m pretty sure I never even told them I was moving to Australia. Sure, it took ’em eight months, but those dogged Catholics eventually tracked me down. I can’t believe it. (The things that school will do for an alumni donation!) So don’t bother getting worked up over national ID cards or Ashcroft’s TIPS army of informers. Big Brother is already here and he’s evidently in league with the Pope.

For some reason I found this experiment really hilarious: scientists at Cambridge University injected mice with speed and made them listen to The Prodigy. Of course, several of them died. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not pro-animal cruelty. That part is sad. It just seems like such a random experiment. What, did they put on a strobe light and give the mice miniature glowsticks too? And how the heck does this relate to Huntingdon’s disease? Weirdness.