Attributes of a TimeChaser: Witty, sarcastic, opinionated, loyal, sometimes spaztacularifically geeky.
Chasing Time for: 33 years
Nicknames, Aliases, Pseudonyms and Nom de plumes: TC, Toki, Times, Chase, Timey Boy, Old Man
Interests: Music, Scifi/Fantasy, Anime, Science, History
Major Fandoms: Doctor Who, MythBusters, Top Gear
Other Worlds
A personal challenge to read at least 50 books by the end of 2012.
1) Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut
2) The Day the Universe Changed by James Burke
3) The Blessing Way by Tony Hillerman
4) Dance Hall of the Dead by Tony Hillerman
5) The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King
6) Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey
7) Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Captain's Honor by David and Daniel Dvorkin
8) Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Valiant by Michael Jan Friedman
9) Star Trek: The Next Generation - Exiles by Howard Weinstein
10) Star Trek - The Captain's Daughter by Peter David
*Here's a question I've been pondering. If I decide to read a compilation book - a single volume composed of several books previously published separately - should I count the entire thing as one, or each individual book?
My parents are out of town this weekend at a church camp retreat thing. So of course, that's when shit happens.
Around 9:30 last night, I got a call from grandma that she heard a loud bang and then saw someone walking around her house. I saw people outside but it was too dark to tell who they were. One comes and knocks on my door - turns out it's just a couple of our neighbors who heard the noise and were investigating. I go out and take a look for myself, and find that the noise came from the brand new pool heater system. It's just making a loud buzzing now and there's a smell of oil inside it. We ended up having to pull the breaker to turn it off.
And that wasn't the end of things. When I went over today, I discovered that the water level in the pool had dropped about a foot and a half, so I switched off the pump. I'm not sure if the two problems are related, but it's a safe bet since one came right after the other.
In the last year, I've had the misfortune to buy several DVDs that ended up having bad discs, usually manifesting themselves as terrible glitching. It happened again last night when I put on the special features disc to my brand new Star Trek Next Gen movie collection. I suppose now I'll have to take the whole set back and get a replacement.
This has happened so frequently of late that I'm forced to wonder if I just have really bad luck in buying the bad ones that make it through, or if quality control has gone out the window and the DVD-making industry just doesn't care anymore.
However, I have played some discs that have appeared to develop glitching later on on our family DVD player, and they have played fine compared to my personal player. In some cases, I'm certain it's a bad disc. In others, it may be an indication that I need to replace my DVD player.
I just had an interesting experience.
We get a knock on the front door. It's a cop, and he's asking for me. Uh... OK. Asking how old I am, mentioning an incident at a house somewhere else in the neighborhood, asking if I have a blue Schwinn bike. Nope, don't have one.
I guess someone else by my name was involved in whatever happened, although I still don't know what happened as the police officer didn't elaborate on the details.
So yeah. Fun times.
It's been a few weeks since I posted (other than music and Who news), so I guess it's time for a pointless update.
What have I been up to lately? Nothing exciting, as usual, but I've been in geek overdrive.
First off, I discovered a new used book shop that opened up just this side of the causeway. After the first visit, I was disappointed to see such a small and piddling SciFi/Fantasy section. But this presented me with an opportunity. Rather than continue to waste space boxing up all the books I didn't want to keep, I packed them all up and over a couple of days took them down to the shop to donate them. So now they have a good deal more scifi and fantasy, and I have clearer shelves, which helps me in the process of not only cleaning my room, but reorganizing what I plan to keep, something that has been impossible since I ran out of free space some time ago.
And now, to the geeking. With Doctor Who over for the season, and next season not expected until late in 2012, I've shifted my major fandom back over to Star Trek. I revived my Next Generation DVDs, and now I have the Nex Gen movie collection as well. I also saved some old Next Gen novels from a box that was meant for the used book shop, and dug out some others from storage. I've also discovered how many Trek books are available on Kindle, even some of the old TOS and TNG novels that would be out of print or hard to find now.
I think the shift to Trek also comes as a reaction to my recent reading. I hate to admit it, but I left The Eye of the World unfinished, because it took so long to read and I wasn't exactly happy with its uneven pace. As a consequence, I've temporarily lost my interest for epic sword-and-sorcery fantasy and would rather let my mind wander in the world of starships and aliens.
I also briefly flirted with a bit of a Batman craze after watching Nostalgia Critic's Top 11 Batman: The Animated Series Episodes video. I finally watched The Dark Knight (killer film), Batman Returns (which, oddly enough, I never had seen til now), started rewatching the animated series, and even tried watching the 2002/2003 Batman-related series Birds Of Prey (not too surprised it got canceled after one season).
The only other thing I can think is worthy to mention is that my uncle took me out to lunch while he was here last weekend. Due to my health problems and anxieties, I haven't eaten out in a sit-down place in years, but it was fun, we went to a place I'd wanted to try for some time, and the food was really good.
