5.11.98

    No giant revelations to report so I'll just tell you about my weekend.

    Friday I left work at around noon because my eyes were drying out from the big honking monitor that I'm working on for the web page. I just wanted to close my eyes -- not to sleep, though that wouldn't have been difficult -- but just to rest them. This can't be a good thing. I don't know about carpal tunnel and dry-eye being a hazard of my chosen career field. It's gotta beat steel beams falling from the sky or tongue paper-cuts, right?

    So, I went home and went to sleep and clenched my teeth while dreaming of cats and burglars. Hmmmm...now that I write it out maybe it was all about the words "cat burglar." I think I dreamed that I had a hundred cats in the apartment but only one of the cats was mine and I couldn't figure out which one. Then people started climbing in the windows and carrying stuff away but I couldn't stop them because all of these cats were in the way. The clenched teeth just means I'm stressed. I am stressed. Very stressed.

    Then T. called and woke me up to tell me that he was going to the gym. The same gym which he bought a membership for and was going for weeks without telling me. Go ahead and guess my reaction to that one.

    So, I decided to go to my gym and do a little boxing. It's so nice to work out on the weekends and Fridays because the classes are so small. I'm feeling a little trimmer, although my back is killing me from the workout I did Sunday morning, but I have a long way to go before I'm "fit." A small class means more room, more attention from the teacher and less hard-bodies to make me feel inadequate.

    T. and I decided to blow a wad of cash on an exquisite Italian meal at Bruno's Ristorante on the corner of Centinela and Venice. Okay, I'm lying. We didn't intend to just blow cash but at some point past the Tiramisu dessert it ended up that way. You know how that is. If you are ever in L.A. I must highly recommend Bruno's for its atmosphere alone. Vaulted ceilings, robust statues, marble everywhere, oil paintings and claw-footed tables. Before we went out T. surprised me with an early birthday gift -- SoundBlaster 16!!! I'm very excited (notice the exclamation points). I'm such a loser and got duped out of a sound card with my computer. I've been wanting to dabble with sound (don't worry, no MIDI's are forthcoming) but have been procrastinating dealing with it.

    Saturday morning I woke up a little early and decided to make a small site for Owen to highlight his little newsletter he's been sending out. I've just been bored and wanting to do a little design. It's really simple and I'll consider making it a little more exciting if he keeps up the writing. In any event, it captures the spirit of Owen (which is odious to be sure) and also tells a little something about New York City where he currently resides. So, you know, I've got that whole big-city-left-coast-right-coast thing going for me. I don't think he'll mind if I show it to you. Maybe I'll tell you more about Owen later.

    T. finally got his tired butt out of bed and gave me nasty looks while I worked on the web page.

    Somewhere around noon we headed out to the Museum of Jurassic Technology. I had been wanting to go ever since I saw the sign out in front of the building and then read a review that said it was quirky or something like that. Since we could think of nothing else to do and since T. couldn't convince me to see Deep Impact we headed over.

    Let me preface my critique by telling you that T. has notoriously bad taste in movies. He is suckered in by every trailer for every crappy movie. Thus, we see a lot of crappy movies and I tease him about it. (See The Big Hit for an illustration of this point.) That said, The Museum of Jurassic Technology makes up for a number of the crappy movies I have suffered through at the hands of T.

    The Museum was...boring. The concept was intriguing. Basically, I think, the curators wanted to create a museum of oddities and curiosities such as those which existed many, many years ago before the communication and technology boom which today helps museums bring together actual collections. The end result was a really dark, cavernous, maze-like museum with lots of dioramas and objects that were unclearly labelled and without any sort of context whatsoever. At a number of spots were little phone devices that, I presume, we were supposed to pick up, press a button and listen to a description. I say presume because none of them worked. It was all terribly disorienting and disappointing.

    After that we rented a Sony Playstation with Tomb Raider and Toshinden 3. You've probably heard of Tomb Raider and Toshinden is a fighting game kind of like Mortal Kombat. I like it a lot. It's not as bloody as a lot of the games out there and I have seriously kicked T.'s ass a number of times. Tomb Raider is frustrating. It's a little difficult to figure out how to make Laura Croft (the star) move the way you want her to. The first time I played I was disgustingly bitten by bats among the face, head, neck area until I died. The second time I managed to get control of my weapons enough to kill the bats but then I nearly used it all up ammo firing wildly in all directions to kill two wolves. I did kill them but spent almost forty minutes of frustration trying to get to the next room. Then I jumped in a pit to try and kill a bear but broke my legs and died instead. *sigh* The story of my life.

    Sunday I worked out and made Pillsbury® Grands Cinnamon Buns (yumm). We played with the Playstation some more. Did laundry. Argued in the laundromat about money issues. Cleaned the apartment and played more Playstation. Watched King of the Hill ("...and there it goes..."), Simpsons and the X-Files. How much longer is the X-Files running, anyhow? I wonder how long Carter had that episode kicking around his brain: telemarketers as zombies controlled by a bug-lord king. Loving it. Just loving it.