It was an astronomical week at work this time around. Not because of anything work-related, though. Just lots of Northern Lights. Little spears of green light thrown by Pallas Athena from her perch up on Olympus. And one night there was the craziest meteor, a lot of us thought it was leftover debris from that satellite that fell to Earth- it was super-bright and gave off sparks, and about halfway through its arc, it turned green. I know Alberta doesn't have much credibility after that Okotoks Twitter Hoax but that's what I saw.
Otherwise work was nice and quiet, I just drove my truck and listened to many podcasts. If you have time, definitely check out this episode of DNTO, at least for the stories told by Jack Tueller, a WWII pilot and trumpet player. They also post to a YouTubeo of him, very very cool.
Thanks to my new friends at NPR's Monkeysee (and the related podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour), I checked out The Tobolowsky Files. Everyone knows Stephen Tobolowsky but you just didn't know his name. He's that guy from that show you like. Seriously. Turns out he's also a fantastic story-teller. Sorry about the obnoxious ads on that website, I just get all my podcasts from iTunes but I dunno how to hyperlink there. One last amazing podcast- the most recent episode of This American Life. If you get them the week they're posted they're free (and you can listen online for free too) so just go listen right now- it's this crazy (true) story about a P.I. agency staffed by soccer moms headed by a guy who starts to dabble in some extracurricular activities...
My drive home from Hinton this morning featured not strange astronomical phenomenon, but strange roadkill- a fox and a cougar, though not together. I've only ever seen one live cougar in the wild and it's sad that now I've seen an equal amount of dead ones.

My friend JimSmash sent me some Hulk comics! Sweet! Me like Hulk. One of them was this classic from 1977. Spoiler alert- the unexpected super-villain is none other than Bi-Beast! Yup, the clone robot thing with the dual nature (plus he has two faces on his head) that was made by some bird-people on a floating island somewhere. I was a little hesitant to google him but it turns out he isn't as obscure as I might have thought, and even cameoed on a relatively recent episode of Avengers:Earth's Mightiest Heroes. It says so  on his Wikipedia page.

My dad and I went for another ride yesterday, possibly the last of the season but hopefully not. We decided to go to the Brazeau Dam, just to see. Why not? When I was a kid we went to see the Grand Coulee Dam in Washington. That one was a little more impressive.

It's the late Jim Henson's 75th birthday! Lots of love for him all over the net, from the Googlelogo to announcemnts of Henson-related graphic novels (Dark Crystal!  Yeah!) and this video of the Muppet song by OK Go (to be fair it wasn't strictly for his 75th but whatever). Pallas liked it as much as I did.

 Happy Hobbit Day! Hobbit Day, of course, being the birthdays of both Bilbo and Frodo Baggins, who were born on September 22, 2890 and 2968 (Third Age) respectively.
Did you know Alberta's own Evangeline Lilly is appearing in The Hobbit as the Elf Tauriel, a role created for the film. She was my favorite thing about Lost, well her, and that hobbit.

I owe Pallas five bucks. We were upstairs playing while Michelle was making supper. Then there was a vacuum sound and Pallas asked what it was. "Mommy's vacuuming." "No. That's not!" "Yes, sweety, that's the vacuum cleaner." "Mommy's not vacuuming! She's not!" And we then had a protracted argument, which I thought I would end by saying, "Yes it is, I'll bet you five bucks." She answered by saying something about 6:35 which is her favourite number for some reason and then we went downstairs for supper. And Michelle was not vacuuming anything, it was our neighbour doing something outside. So I guess I owe her $6.35.

Anyways. Always with the tinkering. Facebook. George Lucas. Even Blogger. Why? To make something better? Not if you ask all 8 billion Facebook users, or the remaining 8 Star Wars fans. George Lucas has never held the Star Wars universe in the same esteem as his fans- for him it's always been about developing new technology to do cool things and making money while doing it. That's not even a cynical criticism by me- I love Star Wars and always will because he can't go back and tinker with my childhood- it's just a widely-accepted reading of the ample history available on how Star Wars came to be. It's also pretty commonly held that Lucas's strengths aren't in the "people skills" category. He makes neat stuff but doesn't always understand or seem to care why others like it or dislike it.
Mark Zuckerberg has never held Facebook in the same esteem as its users- for him it's always been about developing new technology to do cool things and making money while doing it. A common reaction to the howls of rage that accompanied the new(est) Facebook was along the lines of "no one's forcing you to use this free service that you enjoy". True enough, though I would argue that Facebook isn't free- just the costs are hidden and indirect. It's a $50 billion company for a reason, and that reason is not to give you more enjoyment. Does Zuckerberg and co care that you dislike the new Facebook? I doubt it, they never cared before all the times they changed it. Zuckerberg's strengths aren't in the "people skills" category. He makes neat stuff but doesn't always understand or seem to care why others like it or dislike it- and there still isn't a "dislike" button on Facebook.
Though you can always, like Vader, scream "Nooooooooo!"

Vacation over. My only regret is that I didn't take more. And that I didn't discover any perfectly preserved dinosaur feathers like these guys did. I hardly ever discover any dinosaur bones of any kind, and I live in a province chock full of dino bones. Every now and then we find some clam-type fossils at work, not even brachiopods which are supercool, just normal old clams. Is it too much to ask for a trilobite every now and then? Yes I understand the basics of biostratigraphy and all that. Still. Look at this crazy guy. It's like a long wormy trilobite.

There's so many calories in that cake that it may spontaneously explode. Your computer. But it's so yummy! So yeah, I had a pretty good birthday. Actually it was pretty quiet, all rainy outside so we stayed in and watched movies and read. X-Men First Class was fantastic.
The girls picked me out some gifts, and then Pallas told me, "Thanks for the birthday presents daddy!"

Here you go.

So I'm an uncle now! I have a niece. Yay!
Other than that, still on holidays. Weather's great. Alberta Beach isn't. Reading lots. Watching some shows. True Blood is goofy as ever but still a lot of fun. Rewtching BSG a bit, that first miniseries is good but the acting and filming aren't as great yet as they will be. Started watching LOTR during my workouts- the first time since I got back from New Zealand almost 7 years ago. Crazy. It's cool to recognize some of the scenery from having been there, and also I have a guidebook with coordinates so I can look up other places on Google Earth if I want to. First I would have to download Google Earth I suppose. Remember this place?


Pretty sure they reused it for The Hobbit.
Also, I have a niece!

Finally went to see the chiropractor today. He expressed a fair bit of dismay over the state of my back and neck, which I thought was pretty much all healed up. He could tell it wasn't, and then did unkind things to them, hopefully not as punishment. Now I kind of feel worser than before. But I still ran my 10 km, goldurnit.

Finished reading Horsemen of the Esophagus: Competitive Eating and the Big Fat American Dream by Jason Fagone. It was recommended by Christopher McDougall in that book I read last week. Pretty much the opposite of that book, in a way, but just as interesting. Funny, crazy, kind of alarming. It's all about the competitive eaters, whose major league webpage can be found here. I considered looking up some YouTubeos of eating contests but then I thought better of it. Besides my YouTube is about to burn out from all the Elmo videos we've been watching. At least Pallas can identify Feist by sight now, and thinks Katy Perry is a princess.

Somehow I was able to snag a vacation here in the most coveted bloc of the year. Actually, even though I have somehow accrued enough seniority to be one of the seniorer guys on my crew, I forgot to put in my requisition slips in time and was left with the dregs. But who's laughing now? The best week of the summer is upon us, and everyone else is going back to school leaving us free to wreak havoc at our leisure. And little secret- it's my birthday soonly. Haha! Evil plan complete. But thus far no actual havoc wreaked. However I was able to do a full workout today, almost completely healed up after my moto-mishap of not even two weeks ago. Even Wolverine wants to know my secret. And the secret is cale. Or possibly chia seeds. Maybe whey protein or even just the blueberries. Smoothies, anyways. Liquid healing factor. Enjoy a Game of Thrones funny sent to me by my friend Sarah. You know what's weird? New and improved Blogger somehow doesn't have the ability to make separate paragraphs. Seems like a step backwards to me.