Do they Plan to Call it Blade Runnerz?

It appears that the folks behind Eagle Eye are trying to get a sequel to Blade Runner off the ground.  I love Blade Runner, but I have no interest in seeing sequel made.

Pun Intended

I've noticed that, usually, when someone says "no pun intended," they not only intended the pun, but also only said "no pun intended" to call attention to the pun.

Evil League of Evil Seeks More, Well, Evil

Do you long to be a supervillain, or are you just inclined to costumed singing?  Either way, you might be interested to know that the the Evil League of Evil, made famous in Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, is accepting applications for membership.*  The best applicants will appear in the bonus features on the DVD of DHSAB and, I can only assume, will receive singing letter of praise from the Thoroughbred of Sin, suitable for framing.  Applications are due by October 11, so get evil-ing!

* Henchmen need not apply.

Lance Back in the Saddle?

Lance Armstrong is planning a comeback.  That's right, just like Michael Jordan and Brett Favre, the seven-time winner of the Tour de France and former World Champion is returning from retirement, allegedly to spread the message of cancer awareness and cancer survival.  He's already signed a deal with Astana.  Since that team already has Alberto Contador and Levi Leipheimer as general-classification contendors, and since Armstrong just turned 37, I'm not sure how he is going to find a role for himself.  Could he be content to be a domestique?  I can't imagine that.

Armstrong's first race will be the Tour Down Under in January.  He plans to contest the Tour de France and is considering the Giro d'Italia as well.

PR: Nicole

Tonight I set a personal record on the workout called Nicole.  This workout doesn't come up very often, although it is alleged to be a benchmark, like all the "girls."  I've only done it once in the 20 months I've been doing CrossFit.  That once, just under a year ago, I managed 6 rounds and a total of 99 pull-ups.  Tonight I also completed 6 rounds, but I managed to squeeze out 107 pullups, so I'm pretty happy with my performance.

Cephalopods + Yarn = Fun

Lookie what I made! His legs are poseable! How cool is that?


Here he is about to attack my sunglasses, for scale...


I cannot take credit for the pattern...I bought it along with a few others here on Etsy and they were well worth the few dollars each. Her patterns are very easy to understand...lots of illustrations and explanations of abbreviations and techniques. I'd say that if you can knit socks using double-pointed needles, you can knit one of these little guys. I also made the elephant, and it was about the same difficulty level.

PR: Grace

I set a personal record for Grace yesterday:  19:56.  That's not a particulaly fast time.  I've lost some of the skill I once had at the Olympic lifts, so I took my time.  Still, it's progress.

McCain Flip-Flops Against Stem-Cell Research

Senator John McCain has previously voiced support for federal funding of research on embryonic stem cells, research which has the potential to dramatically improve treatment of many illnesses. This week he released a statement indicating that his stance is now much more in line with the Republican Party's platform.  In particular, he would not only continue George Bush's denial of federal funding for ESC research, but also criminalize somatic cell nuclear transfer, a procedure which yields stem cells that are genetically identical to a patient's own cells and thus immensely useful.

This move by McCain is clearly aimed at winning over religios extrememists in the Republican base, and it adds to my hope that Obama will be elected. 

Too Young to Smoke

Newton, being a dog, enjoys sniffing at the ground and objects thereupon during our walks.  When he sniffs at cigarette butts or cigarette packs, I enjoy telling him he's too young to smoke, because that's the most ridiculous and least relevant reason I can think of.

PR: Fran

Tonight, I managed to knock 41 seconds off my previous best time for Fran, setting a new PR of 5:14. I realize that time is rather slow compared to some of the better CrossFitters out there, but I'm quite pleased with the progress.

Edit: I realized that when I first published this post, the time I reported was a minute too fast. I've corrected that error now.)

Pole to Pole

Apparently, the only Hummer dealership in Las Vegas, the city that serves as the world's exemplar of conspicuous consumption, is closing down due to weak sales.  Instead, the dealer will be selling Smart cars.  Hah.

Sleeping

Here are a pair of photos Alison took recently of a sleeping Newton:



And here he is waking up just enough for a good stretch:

In Popular Culture

xkcd is great, if for no other reason than because it allows me to put up a one-sentence, one-link entry with eleven* tags.

* Well, it would have been eleven, but I reached Blogger's 200-character limit at ten. Can you guess which one is missing?

In World Without Don Lafontaine...

Don Lafontaine, the man who provided the voice-overs for seemingly every major motion picture for the last 30 years, and the inventor of the phrase, "In a world...," has passed away.  Based on his appearances on NPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me and that Geico commercial, he struck me as a pretty funny guy who didn't take himself too seriously, so I 'm sad to see him go.

PR: Linda*

As predicted, today's workout was terrible.  However, I did manage to set a personal recored, though with a caveat.  You see, I've never actually completed Linda before.  The two times I've attempeted it,  somwhere around the round of six I've felt light in the head and and on the verge of vomiting, and thus decided to quit.  Today I managed to complete the workout, which represents progress, but my time of 37:22 wasn't exactly fast.  I'll do better next time.

Linda!

Egads, it's Linda.

House of Pancakes

Fans of House of Leaves might enjoy the latest xkcd.

Next Up, Manganese

I don't really follow the information-technology news like I should, but even I have heard about Google's release of their open-source browser, Chrome.  I downloaded and installed the beta version of Chrome, and I find that it has some nice features, although I'm sure I'm not exploiting them all.  The speedy launch is perhaps my favorite feature, although I also enjoy how the tabs are independent processes as well as all the info displayed when you open a new tab.  I encorage you, gentle reader, to check it out. 

Lessons Newton Taught Us: Oral Hygiene

Here's another fun fact I would never have known without Newton's help:

Oral hygiene is its own reward, at least if your toothpaste is poultry-flavored.

Hole in the Wall

Note to American television networks: Japanese game shows should not be copied, even if they are wildly popular in their home country.