Score!

From StarTrek.com:

LINDA PARK: The first Star Trek was not my first Star Trek. I started with Star Trek: Next Generation, and I loved it. I loved the holodeck. I loved Wesley. He was, like, my first crush, so that kind of kicked it into high gear for me. Later on I started to watch some of the earlier, Captain Kirk episodes, but for me I’ll always be a Next Generation fan. That was my first one, so I’m going to stay loyal to that one.

Cool. No word yet on when Jolene Blalock will be confessing her love, but she will…oh yes, she will.

More Cowbell

I’m getting ready for bed, and Ferris is starting to bark.
So I let her into the backyard, so she can see that there’s nothing there.
I follow her into the backyard, and it is just breathtaking…the storm has moved on, so the clouds are breaking up…their bottoms are just slightly glowing with the light of the city, and I can see Saturn through a hole in them.
The rain is still dripping off the trees in my yard, and it’s cold, so my breath swirls around my head while I stand in the grass, watching Ferris secure the area.
The smell of many fireplaces hangs in the air, and I can hear the soft roar of the freeway, many miles away. Funny how the sound carries in the cold, still air.
My face is still cold as I write this…boy, I love Autumn.

Here Comes The Rain Again

Some things happened today that were cool: I hung out, all day, with my brother. I took my wife and kids to his house, and we played Tony Hawk 3, and Age Of Empires at his house. Jeremy works all the time and doesn’t live very close, so we don’t get to hang out as often as we used to. The kids totally look up to him, and just love being around him, and he took the day off today to hang with us, so that was really, really cool.
We went to lunch, and Ryan said to us that while he was at science camp, all the kids started calling him “EMENEM”, because of his short blonde hair. So I asked him if he was the Real Slim Shady, or just one of those imitators. Ryan takes a beat, and he says, “Well, Wil, here’s your answer.” And he stands up! I totally missed it, at first, but Anne caught it…I was so stunned, when I got it…that type of subtle, non-fart-related humor just doesn’t exist in your average 12 year old. As I reflected on it, I felt really warm and fuzzy, because I see both Ryan and Nolan developing senses of humor that are very smart, ironic, dry, and sarcastic…I wonder where they got that? *grin*
Ryan is *almost* ready for his first trip to Milliways…I’ll go pick out a towel for him next week.
We do this work with Ferris, where we train her. We work on a skill for a few times, treating her when she does it correctly, and then alternating treats with praise, until she knows what it is we want her to do.
Using this technique, we’ve taught her to sit, lay down, and roll over.
What Ferris really needs to learn is to come when she’s called, and we’ve been working on that. I have her sit and stay, then I walk away to another room of our house, and call her. When she comes, I give her a treat and some praise, and we repeat.
Small problem with Ferris: she is very smart, and when she’s learning, for example, to lay down, she will hear me say, “Ferris..” and she’ll just lay down, and look for the treat. So I have to make her get back up, and start over again. Sometimes it takes awhile.
I promise this will pay off…just bear with me.
So the other day, I’m working with her, and she’s very excited, because she loves the attention, she loves having something to do, and she loves the treats and praise. We’ve been doing the “sit, stay, come, good dog” thing for about 5 minutes, and she is getting really excited. She’s got lab in her, so when she gets excited, she just about turns inside out. I have her sit and stay in the kitchen, then I go to the complete opposite end of the house…past the ballroom, the conservatory, and right into the study. I call her, and she comes running into the room, crashes into me, looks at me, and then she sits, she lays down, and she rolls over. I just about died. I don’t know if it’s translating, but it was so damn funny to me, seeing her show me all her skills, without me saying anything…
Anne and I watched “Blow” night before last. I really enjoyed it. I thought it was a bit over-edited, but I liked the script and acting. that Ted Demme is quite the director, I tell ya what.
It’s raining here in Los Angeles, the first real rain of this season, and I really love it. It’s all yummy and chewey. Tonight, for dinner, Anne made turkey meatloaf and mashed potatoes and I built a fire in the fireplace. After dinner we all sat by the fire and played Apples To Apples, one of the coolest games, ever.
Yes, today was, indeed a good day. I hope you enjoyed yours, as well.

Preludes and Nocturnes

I had a semi-vivid dream last night. I say semi-vivid, because it felt very real when I was dreaming it, but as the day has gone on, I’ve lost most of it. Here’s what I recall: I was being chased by this very large man, who was some sort of creature. He was part simian, part alligator, and part human. He was terrifying, and was going to kill me. I was so scared of him, and I was running away, and, though he was very dangerous and bent on killing me, he was saying, “If I could only communicate with them [meaning humans], they’d understand. Why don’t they understand me?”
So I got the feeling that he/it was trying to communicate with us [humans], but he couldn’t speak our language, so we were afraid of him, and he was desperately trying to talk to us, so he was chasing me…I’m sure there is deep symbolism here, but I’m not very motivated to seek it.
The strange thing is, I was thinking to myself as I was laying in bed that I miss dreaming vividly. I just don’t dream as often as I used to, or at least I don’t remember them like I once did.
I was reading Ishmael before bed, and I had watched the X-files (with the freakshow), so I think I know where the dream originated…but it was still…uh…interesting, or something.

Karma Whoring Part 2

In the world of comedy, we call this a “call back”.
Har. Har. Har.