Keep Your Pants On...

...another exciting blog post will be coming on sunday.

and yes, i know some letters are supposed to be uppercase.

winkwink

no. i am not drinking.

sunday will come soon, and then you will know.

God Willing and the Ice Storm Doesn't Come

If you are my facebook friend, you know that my family has been in town for several days to celebrate the nuptials of my cousin Randy and his new bride, Deanna, who was given away at the altar by the King of Rock N Roll, Elvis. That's right. At the reception, which was Tony and Tina's, the performer who played the best man congratulated Granny for walking from Arizona to Nevada across the top of the 20th century's greatest engineering marvel, the Hoover Dam.

And thanks to the ice storm in Chicago, they are currently stuck at McCarran.

Las Vegas. You can check out any time you like, but...
You can finish that sentence.

Thirteen miles away on the east side, life is pretty good. In 4.5 minutes a pizza will come out of the oven, and I will be at liberty to grade papers with a stomach full of margherita.

At least McCarran is an arguably entertaining airport. For those who play slots, there are slots. For those who drink, there are bars. There are restaurants, especially a pretty good enchilada place near the Starbucks. Thus, in honor of my family, my list of things to do while waiting for your "delayed," but really-we-all-know-it's-canceled, flight:

1) nap. Ain't no shame. Just sprawl out in the floor, use your carry-on as a pillow, and snooze.
2) Read a book. Some people carry tablets and kindles, but personally I prefer these for gaming. By reading a book, I mean an actual, real, live book with two covers and pages with words in between.
3) Play a game on your tablet, kindle, iPod, or phone. The last time I was stuck was inside an airplane, and I discovered a game on my iPod that I never knew existed. It's called Vortex. It's challenging.
Most airports that I've traveled through offer accessible plugs, so you can also take advantage of the delay to charge these devices.
4) Play cards. You may not have your Apocalypse Kit on you now that it's 2013, but Hudson News is bound to be able to hook you up.
5) Watch the people. In the immortal words of Ani DiFranco, "I'm going to drain my little pink heart of all its malice and/kick back for the afternoon in this flourescent palace."

If you do each of the above things for an hour, you can start the cycle all over again, or you can engage in a number of other activities including flirting, rock-paper-scissors, snacking, shaving, etc.
What do YOU like to do when you're stranded?
Now, you have plenty to keep you busy checking out all of my hyperlinking, and I have a pizza to smash.

The family's 3:20 p.m. flight is now scheduled to depart at 10 p.m. We'll see.

Fly safe! And stay out of the ice.

Right Quick

I have little to say tonight, but what I have to say is important.

Boys and girls, it doesn't seem as if zombies are going anywhere anytime soon. 

I first read about the film Warm Bodies in this episode of the new Thoroughly Entertained blog, and I immediately knew that I wanted to see it. 

Many, many thanks to Miss Gokey, who happily gave up two hours of her President's Day to see it with me at Aliante Station. 

It's PG-13. Its cheesiness is part of its charm. It made me laugh, and it almost made me cry. 

It wasn't the whole from-the-zombie's-perspective thing that got me. I was blown away by that concept already, when I read Dust.So no, it's just that Warm Bodies is flat-out inspirational. 

Take those cinema passes you have laying around and go see it. 

In the meantime, or if not, at least check it out on tumblr. Unlike on my phone, on this laptop, tumblr moves. That kind of freaks me out, and so I hesitate to link it. It'll be okay. 

Be inspired. 

Oh, for the love...

Pictured below is the day's take:

Are you kidding me? The text is centered again? I should re-name my blog a 2nd time and call it "Centered Text." Anyway, as you can see it wasn't much, but it was honestly more than I expected. I ate only the Ferro Rocher (or whatever) and disposed of the rest, ever mindful of the Legend of the Poison Cupcake.

VD (yeah, I said it again) is a good day to examine the fourth chapter of National Geographic's brain special, "The Emotional Brain." This is the final chapter I will cover. The 5th chapter, "The Aging Brain" is not something that interests me, as I already know that our brains start preparing for death as soon as they reach maturity around the age of 24. Borrowed time, indeed. So, back to the emotions. 

There are only six, according to the scientists quoted in the booklet. They are fear, anger, sadness, joy, surprise, and disgust. An interesting factoid is that humans have what is called an "impact bias" by which we imagine events happening and predict that our reactions will be far more intense and long-lasting than they really are. The booklet also says that we humans underestimate our own resilience. 

On the joy front, 60% of people's predisposition toward joy is genetic (nature). The rest is born of our experiences (nurture). Things that increase happiness include: strong ties to family and friends. Charitable actions. Here's one of Miss Gokey's favorite quotables, verified in...well, blue and yellow text: EXPERIENCES MAKE US HAPPIER THAN POSSESSIONS DO. 

Miss Gokey always uses this as an excuse to take a trip instead of buying furniture, and I totally agree. Finally, older people tend to be more satisfied with their lives than younger people. 

Despite all of these happy facts, the brain, says Nat Geo, has a definite negativity bias. This is apparently evolutionary. We still feel a primal need to protect our family from a looming woolly mammoth. 

The booklet does go into love, but mostly lists the chemicals and brain regions it affects. Nothing good for your VD reading. So, that, over the course of several weeks, has been your brain. Enjoy it while you can, before a zombie comes to make it her/his lunch. 

I have a load of laundry to finish and new episode of Supernatural to enjoy. Although there is a piece of mail I keep waiting for that refuses to arrive (I called to check this afternoon, and it's going to be another two weeks yet), I did get something good in the mail today. If you don't know what it is, you just haven't been paying attention. 

Hopefully my Granny got something good in the mail today, too, from me. Today is her birthday, may it be a fun, productive, and memorable one filled with the kind of joy that lights up both sides of the brain. 

Random Media Reviews

I feel ill-equipped to deal with posting tonight, so I thought I would use the old idea I put out there a while ago about telling you about random movies I've been watching on Netflix. For a while there, I was on an indie-road-trip-film kick, and I thought

The Go-Getter was decent. This high school kid who has lost his mother steals Zoe Deschanel's car and takes it on a quest to find his long-lost brother, who is 18 years older than him. It's creepy in places, and if you suffer secondary embarrassment on the behalf of your fictional characters, this one's chock full of that. It ends well, however, so I recommend it, only if you have nothing better to do.

I also cued up a movie called Drool. It had nobody in it I recognized. It is the story, told from her daughter's perspective, of a mother-of-two who lives in a dream world most of the time. A new neighbor moves in, and when the mom befriends the new neighbor, she also begins an affair. Her husband catches her and pulls out his gun, at which point...mom accidentally shoots him. The road trip component involves the family (including the new neighbor) dealing with the body. It's not bad, so I recommend it, again if you've nothing else on your plate.

Then I watched one that was terrible. Really, really terrible. So terrible that I don't even remember the name of it and wouldn't tell you even if I did, because, in the immortal words of one of my long-lost collegiate sorority sisters, "Some days just need to be wiped off the calendar."

Finally, I decided to watch Craigslist Joe. In this one, a sensitive guy decides to see if he can live for a month using nothing but the tools of societal decay: social media. Specifically, well...as the title would imply. His experiments result in shenanigans and realizations. I recommend it if you are into sociology.

Right now, I am actually in the middle of Percy Jackson and the Olympians: the Lightning Thief, because my students credit it with any and all interest they have shown in ancient Greece. So far, so good. I'll get back to that now.

I must say. Watching movies about quests is not the worst way I could be spending my new borrowed time. Now, if you want some *real* entertainment news, check out Thoroughly Entertained. Enjoy!

Power to the People

This post is timely to the Super Bowl, which means it's...not timely at all. I would have talked about the power outage issue on Tuesday, if I hadn't been so excited about Shiloh's album release.

This post is also about a little company in my hometown called NIPSCO and the manner in which they perennially ruin my summer vacation. Nine years of living in the desert have made me eager each July to witness a really rockin' summer thunderstorm, and I usually get to. Problem being that five minutes in, the lights flicker. Then, seven minutes in, the lights go out and the house mobilizes to first try to prevent, and then try to bail out, the water that inevitably rises in the basement because there is no power to pump it away from the interior. Every. Single. Summer. The power goes out just like it did at the Super Bowl.

Now, thanks to my North Las Vegas Hometown Emergency Planner wheel, I know not only how to prepare for this annual event, but how to act when it takes place. You may remember my first mention of the wheel back in January. Now you get to see what it looks like.

And here we go again with the centered text. Someday I'll learn how to format, but that day is not today. 

What follows is transcription, not writing, and is actually available on the above-linked website. That, however, is not as fun as the actual wheel, or as fun as supporting your 2nd-favorite blogger. You have already heard most of the power outage information, but here it is stated in a slightly different way, and as we are all aware, repetition is the key to knowledge. 

HOW TO PREPARE FOR A POWER OUTAGE:

- Be prepared to be independent for 72 hours or longer.

- Store at least a 72-hour supply of food, drinking water and other supplies.

- One gallon of water per person per day and food that won't spoil

- Keep flashlights or light sticks, portable radios, and extra batteries on hand.

- If you own a generator, learn its safe and proper operation - use only outdoors.

- Be sure that you have at least one telephone that does not depend on electricity - cordless phones will not work in a power outage. 

- Keep cell phones charged.

- Know how to start or connect a backup power supply for essential medical equipment.

- Know how to manually release and open any electric doors, ie garage doors.

- Keep cash and coins on hand.

- Keep vehicle gas tanks at least half full.

- Conserve electricity during peak energy periods.

HOW TO ACT:

- If your power goes out, check your home's circuit breakers or fuses first. 

- See if the lights in your neighborhood are off. 

- Contact the power company for information or to report an outage.

- If you see any downed power lines, stay at least 10 feet away from them. 

- Protect appliances from possible power surges. 

- Unplug appliances and computers and turn off lights. 

- Leave one low wattage incandescent light on so you know when power is restored. 

(Editorial comment/question: Do you think leaving a light on is really necessary? In my experience EVERY SUMMER because thanks a lot, NIPSCO, there is a white-noisy hum that announces that power is back.)

- Keep refrigerator and freezer doors closed as much as possible. 

- Add dry or block ice to the freezer to help keep food frozen. 

- Discontinue non-essential water usage. 

- Do not drink cloudy or dirty water. 

- Don't be alarmed if chlorine level is higher than normal. 

- Notify water officials of low or no water pressure. 

- Try to stay as cool as possible by staying inside on the lowest floor out of the sunshine.

- If you use a generator, never plug it into any electrical outlet in your home. 

- Plug appliances directly into the generator using heavy-duty extension cords. 

- Place generator outdoors and away from windows, household exhaust fans or dryer vents. 

- If you use candles for lighting, place them on a fireproof surface. 

- In an area-wide outage, traffic signals may be out - remember intersections become 4-way stops. 

- Anticipate long traffic delays while the power is out. 

- Check on neighbors with special needs: the elderly, mobility-impaired, medically dependent, or children who are home alone. 

AND THERE YOU HAVE IT! Now, you remember what to do. I suggest getting your own handy wheel for your locality, so that you can read it with your trusty headlamp when things go awry. Mine has a list of important phone numbers such as fire, police, and poison control, which means that my planning activity for this week is already done! Good job, North Las Vegas. My love/hate relationship with North Las Vegas will never get old. 

It's too bad NIPSCO is so good at letting the power go out now, when power outages back in the 80's were a rare thing. As an adult, power outages suck, but as a kid they are fun because of the playing rummy by candlelight. I suppose that if we wanted to, we could play rummy by candlelight anyway, just for funsies. 

And now, without further ado, the world's most delicious sandwich awaits. Enjoy your weekend!

Today is the Day!!!

It's the first day of the rest of your life.
It is the day to attempt to achieve something worthwhile.
Today is the day to move past your past.
Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting, so get on your way!

But none of that is important considering what today REALLY is...

It's the day Shiloh's 2nd album, Mrs., is released!
(Their website is still linked to their first album. I'll link their label later on.)
It's not Shiloh, but there's also this, which is at least a part of Shiloh, and here you can hear a bunch of b-sides from Mrs.

You may not all have been waiting for it, but I have.

To celebrate, I decided to go to a real, live record store. There is one in Vegas. Miss Gokey told me where it is: on Sahara and Arville. It's called Zia Records, and it's been in town for about five years, according to the blonde cashier. In my own defense, I moved away from that part of town about six years ago, so...

Oh, wait. There's also one on Flamingo and Eastern, and that one's been there longer. Oops. There are also two in Tuscon and three in Phoenix. Zia is therefore described, in my opinion, as a regional chain. It's a comfortable chain, anyway: loads of vinyl, CDs and movies, containing most, but not all, of exactly what you want. I spent my time there wandering around saying to myself, "I wonder if they have..." and my searches were successful about 80% of the time. So. If you're in the area and in need of a physical media fix, Zia Records is your store.

It was a good time to visit a record shop, considering that just last week, Carl Azuz of CNN Student News was talking about how digital media has overtaken physical media in various ways. I'll discuss that more soon, when I review a bunch of Netflix films I've been watching on weekends. In the meantime...

Although I'm not sure what happens with Mrs. today (there's the link to the label), and far be it from me to tell you what kind of music you like, if you have ever had a cousin, or a broken heart, or if you've ever awakened wondering how you got where you are, Shiloh's music is for you.

If you think it's not, then it's a good thing Carl Azuz informs us that Tuesday is the day when most new media is released, so hopefully you find something out there in this wide, bright world that makes your toes tap today.

Achievement and Success

I was driving in to work today and I had a fleeting thought, which I've forgotten now, but some words that someone said to me came back to me in a flash and I thought about tweeting or posting on facebook, "What if some words you said to me were the most important words I ever heard, and you never even knew it?"

Yes, I know it's Friday night. I have NOT been drinking. In fact, I got a late start on the evening but am trying very hard to accomplish some things, and I think I've been succeeding, but we'll see. 

I skipped posting last night because I finally read the "Unconscious Brain" chapter of the National Geographic special, and after some lame excuse about how there is "difficulty...making black-and-white distinctions about states of the brain," the chapter covered Alien Hand Syndrome and drugs, then dedicated four whole spreads to sleeping and dreaming. Needless to say, immediately after finishing it, I fell asleep. I dreamed that Jodi and I were at a Denny's sharing a platter of pickle spears and some limp grilled cheese sandwiches. This is not the first time in recent memory that I have dreamed this. (The chapter informs us, by the way, that people who are actually hungry rarely dream of food or eating, and people who are thirsty don't dream of drinking.)

The most interesting part of the chapter was about intention and action. Apparently, if you research a political figure that you don't like and give a speech from their perspective, you will like them better afterwards. You will also TELL YOURSELF you didn't really mind them in the first place. The authors use this example to show that our brains will often act without processing first. Then, after the fact, our reasoning will think of ways to justify our actions by modifying our memories to make us think we intended all along to do the thing we have just done. Good job, brains. Good job. 

Today is an exciting day because we get to FLIP our calendar page in our Disaster Preparedness Calendar. We are supposed to buy one more can of meat, baby food if we have babies, and aspirin. Check, N/A and check!

Today is also an exciting day because I'm going to end this post by sharing images of the Chain. 

Please allow me to direct your attention to the location of the electrical outlet as compared to the end of the chain! Honestly, not that much time has passed, but those links disappear quite quickly!

In conclusion, I leave you with this week's winning chain links.