The Expedition blew another spark plug on Tuesday. It'll be somewhere between $1000 and $5000 to fix it, depending on what we do. We may or may not be able to get Ford to pay for some or all of the repairs, we don't know yet.

The Honda got a flat tire yesterday morning. We won't have a replacement tire for it until Friday.

My Eclipse is having the bottom end of the engine replaced again before I even got it back. Under warranty, so it's free to me, at least, but still. Apparently something failed while dyno-testing it.

My new Gran Canyon fell over in the trailer on the way home, shearing off the left mirror and punching a hole in the interior wall of the trailer with the handlebar. It was cinched down hard with ratchet straps.

The major set of problems I am dealing with at work right now are so overconstrained that I am not sure there is a solution, and I am certain that there is no good solution.

I'm probably coming down with whatever it was that had Amy so sick while I was gone. At the very least, I've been feverish and in a lot of muscular pain since yesterday afternoon.

There's some other stuff that I just don't know what to do with right now. I hope things will work out but I don't know how to help them to do so.

If you've got something good going on in your life, I'd certainly love to hear it right about now. *smile*

Current Mood: numb

(If you don't have the context for any of this, then trust me, you're better off. Just treat it as general philosophical musings.)

Transcendence is one of those things that is amazing and wonderful and nearly impossible to communicate to anyone else effectively. Religions are all about someone having had a moment of transcendence and trying to communicate to other people how they could experience the same thing, and they are mostly about failing to manage to do so.

To make it worse, when you've just had a transcendent moment, you're likely to be on a "high" from it and really wanting to share that high with other people.

Unfortunately, managing to effectively communicate even a trivially simple transcendence is incredibly difficult. If what you experienced was a momentary transcendence of a giant cultural minefield, filled with centuries of baggage and vast depths of justifiable anger, then not only is it likely to be impossible to communicate, but it's an even more wonderful experience in the moment and you're so unlikely to be in a headspace that's good for effective navigation of treacherous waters that you're doomed before you even start thinking about talking about it.

And I cannot express how sad that makes me. Except that it's enough that I can't even summon my usual misanthropy to distance myself.

(And yes, it makes it worse for me personally that the transcendence in question was about touch, and I am a profoundly kinesthetic person in a very touch-hostile world.)

Current Mood: crushed

I will be in Chicago from Wednesday 4/16 through Monday 4/21. All day Thursday I have to occupy myself, much of the rest of the time I'll be visiting my little brother. If you're in the area and want to consider getting together or something, drop me a comment with a phone number and when you're available, and if scheduling works out maybe I'll call and we can get together. Comments are screened so you don't have to show your details to everyone.

Current Mood: excited

dogemperor has some worrying things about Hillary Clinton. (Not the first time, but a good summation so far.)

Current Mood: worried

Hrm, I wonder if Creature Comforts is out on DVD. I really need to get me some of that. It's a freakin' brilliant show. Go search for it on youtube if you've never heard of it, really.

Current Mood: impressed

Riding along the road to Rochelle city,
Riding along the road to Rochelle city,
I met three girls, and all of them were kitties.

Current Mood: musical

I was, indeed, extremely sore yesterday.

But I also woke up with the solution to several of the problems I was fretting about w.r.t. today's gaming. Clearly I need to arrange to have that done to me (yes, I use that phrasing intentionally) more often when I'm stuck on a GMing problem. Or maybe other problems. *grin*

Current Mood: happy

I feel very, very well used.

I expect to be quite sore tomorrow.

I rather like having two guys in my life.

Yes, these are all related statements. *grin*

Current Mood: happy

If you know anything at all about horses or dressage, or ponyplay, then watch this video. It is worksafe, assuming that dancing horses isn't somehow verboten.

I have seen a lot of dressage. This is not dressage. It is horse dancing. Buh.

Current Mood: impressed

The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.

I have lots to say but have been using up my quota of writing on work. And I haven't been online much throughout the holidays. Maybe I'll manage to write some about all the wild things going on sometime soon. Maybe not.

Current Mood: busy

AHAHAHAHAHAhem.

Current Mood: amused

Hey, if you're on LinkedIn, drop me an invite at deb at pobox dot com with your LJ id and I'll add you to my network.

I'm pondering upgrading my account, but haven't gotten to that quite yet, and I see at least a few of you out there. But since I haven't upgraded yet, I can't just InMail you. I suppose I could try sending invites to your LJ email addresses, but I know it's kind of a pain to sort out invites that go to the wrong email address.

Current Mood: productive

http://artofmentalwarfare.com/pog/covert-agent-speaks-out/

Submitted for your disturbance without comment.

Current Mood: busy

siderea has written yet another wonderful post, this one on the subject of attitudes. I strongly recommend reading the whole thing.

Current Mood: impressed

ZOMG someone actually did a live-action Lobo Christmas special.

(I have more updates to come later—it's been quite a week—but I had to share that.)

Current Mood: tired

Start with http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3U0udLH974

Then watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JynBEX_kg8

Current Mood: impressed

I'm 4 today!

Current Mood: yay!

I'm having a grouchy day for no obvious reason. My back hurts, but it's not particularly bad. I feel sort of low-level icky. This is probably why I'm feeling grouchy, but it doesn't seem like it's enough to justify being a bitch.

Bleargh.

Current Mood: bitchy

Why You Should Not Shave Your Ass Hair.

There's nothing more I can add to that.

Current Mood: scared

Today's installment of Laugh At Other People's Pain. Video, sound is not required but makes it funnier. Site had blocked popups, so I can't guarantee it's not annoying.

Current Mood: impressed