In with the new …

I welcomed in the New Year with continued dysentery the color and consistency of split pea soup. The Prof has suggested I rename this journal to “Salamander’s Diarya” (say it out loud if you don’t get the joke). Several doses of Imodium later (taken as directed, one after each bowel movement, not to exceed four in a 24 hour period) and I can now guarantee that the poop chute won’t be seeing any action for a few days. I tend to over-react to Imodium, which is why I save it for last recourse in any irritable bowel situations.

Having exceeded the boundaries of good taste with the first paragraph of 2012, I will now try to refrain from any more comments regarding my alimentary canal for at least a few entries. In all seriousness though, it’s been top of my “for your consideration” list for a few days. When you spend half your time analyzing the course to the nearest facility and the other half negotiating the pre-planned course, it becomes difficult to remember that there are other far more important things occurring in the universe.

I did stay up until midnight and watch the ball drop in Times Square. It may be the last time I do it – while I like watching the ball, the show surrounding the event was painfully lame (and mostly commercials). I then tuned in a local station and watched the midnight fireworks over Big City. I was prepared for disappointment; it seemed unlikely that a fireworks display would really come through well on television, even on big screen HD. I was wrong, though, and I really enjoyed the fireworks display. I was well and truly ready to retire after the fifteen minute display, though.

Because I felt rather pooped out today (sorry … couldn’t resist) I spent the majority of the day in my pj’s watching television. I watched a few items I’ve had queued on NetFlix for months. The first was “Mine”, a documentary about what happened when the original owners of some of the animals rescued during Katrina tried to reclaim their pets. It was hard to watch, but should be mandatory viewing for any pet owner or anyone involved in pet rescue. I’ve always said I was going to get around to getting my cats micro-chipped, but after watching that I’m going to raise the cash however I can and do it. During an emergency pictures, notes, collars with tags, and promises by people involved in the rescue amount to nothing. In a crisis situation the only thing you can depend on to identify your pet is something that is guaranteed to stay with him no matter what. And that’s a microchip.

It must have been documentary day, because the other thing I watched was “Between the Folds”, an hour long look at modern origami. While I thought I was somewhat knowledgeable about origami, I had never heard about things like the wet paper technique and computer mapping to plan new creations. The last part was a look at the relationship between origami and mathematics, which was on a level that I could understand and which I found fascinating. I may well queue that up for another look.

Current plans are to watch an episode of Star Trek: Voyager (also streamed from NetFlix) and retire with a good book. I don’t return to work until Tuesday, and I don’t want to think about it until then.

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3 Comments

  1. RYC: I completely agree about mashed sweet potatoes. They’re That Bomb but I wasn’t capable of even that. A couple of years ago I discovered Alexis brand sweet oven tots andy fries. 400 degrees and 25 minutes of inattention and life is good

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