Entry: Just another manic Tuesday

It's not really a manic Tuesday. I just had that song 'Manic Monday' (The Bangles) stuck in my head while I was thinking of a title for this entry. :)

Had the big move this last weekend. I now have furniture in my new house. Yeah! I can sleep in a bed again!! The move was relatively uneventful with the exception of the death trap that I got from UHaul. I felt like a dead man walking (err....driving) when I was behind the wheel of that thing. I had the help of some friends as well. I'd like to thank Clay (with his brand new Honda CRV), Corbette, Justin, Wicke, and Tracy. I definately appreciated their taking time out of their hard-earned weekends to help with the effort. Imagine what a heart-breaker it is to finally get your washer and dryer moved in only to find out that the plug on the end of the dryer chord doesn't match the plug in the wall due to new wiring codes. Go figure. Yet ANOTHER trip to Lowes. Man...I must REALLY love debt!

I get to spend the rest of this work week scrubbing the heck out of my apartment to get it ready to be abandoned. Fun fun fun.

Oh yeah....I hate watering my lawn. Bah!!

Article: Warcraft + IPod = Terrorist

This is an interesting albeit frightening account of how playing Warcraft and owning an Ipod can lead to terrorism. Here's another link here. Man...I really feel for this guy. I really don't know which part of this story would irk me the most if it ever happened to me.

Entry: As I mature...

Many thanks to Benson for sending me the following...

• I've learned that you cannot make someone love you. All you can do is stalk them and hope that they panic and give in.
• I've learned that no matter how much I care, some people are just jerks.
• I've learned that it takes years to build up trust, and it only takes suspicion, not proof, to destroy it.
• I've learned that you can get by on charm for about fifteen minutes. After that, you'd better be very well endowed.
• I've learned that you shouldn't compare yourself to others - they are more screwed up than you think.
• I've learned that you can keep vomiting long after you think you're finished.
• I've learned that we are responsible for what we do....unless we are celebrities.
• I've learned that regardless of how hot and steamy a relationship is at first, the passion fades, and there had better be a lot of money to take its place.
• I've learned that 99% of the time when something isn't working in your house, one of your kids did it.
• I've learned that the people you care most about in life are taken from you too soon and all the less important ones just never go away.

Entry: Dreams

Ever have a horror dream? And no...I'm not referring to a nightmare. I'm talking about a dream that wasn't really something that scared you, but had a real horror genre about it. Kinda weird but also kinda cool at the same time. (This is about the time that everyone reading this starts to wonder about just how much of a freak I am). I had one of my first last night. Maybe that's what I get for sleeping on a hardwood floor. :)

WARNING: The following is extremely abstract and subjective content. Feel free to enjoy or ignore. :)

Seriously though...physicians and PhDs often scoff at the academics who devote their lives to the study of dreams. I'm hardly a dream expert but I can definately appreciate their dynamics by what I observe through experience. I started paying attention to things like these a few years ago when I suddenly realized how to tell when I was about to fall asleep. For most people, they lie there (in whatever state of fatigue) and wait to wake up the next morning. The next morning when they wake up, the last thing they remember was lying there in bed waiting for the sandman to take them. Suddenly...BLAM....it's morning and time to wakeup! "When the heck did I fall asleep??" There are actually ways to tell that you're about to doze off and I'm glad that I was able to notice it. It makes life simpler. For instance, if I'm at work and I am feeling a bit fatigued or drowsy, if I notice the signs, I'll immediately get up and go for a walk. However, if I'm feeling fatigued and drowsy and the signs aren't there, then I'll be fine. Weird how that works.

Being a computer nerd, I also tend to observe the dream mechanism through the eyes of a programmer. Sound weird? Of course it does! :) But seriously...have you ever woken up from a dream and remembered it quite lucidly but, as the day progressed, you could remember less and less of it until it gets to the point that you remember that you HAD a dream but really have no idea what it was about? Happens to me all the time. Have you also noticed that, even though that dream has been forgotten, that it could be repeated later in another dream? Or better yet.....when you wake up one morning and you're still in that weird delirious state, that you find that you not only are very lucid about the dream that you just had but also of some previous dreams that you've been unable to recall? Or even have the ability to remember dreams that you don't even remember ever having? Again...weird. To me, it seems like there are parts of the brain that are randomly accessible (analogy to RAM) during a dream state but, after awakening, become more and more inaccessible until they reside completely in protected memory which is completely unaccessable to the conscious mind. I think that those protective barriers are broken-down and re-created every time that we dream.

There are also those few golden minutes after you often awake that your mind is stuck between reality and the dream state. I read a study a few years ago that suggested that that particular state is analogous to substance intoxication. It's weird how you can dream of flying pink elephants and, if you wake up at just the right moment, you can spend the next minute thinking that there are flying pink elephants outside your window even though you're awake. Then again...I don't know if this applies to everybody, but I find it weird at times. I've even gone so far as to ask people weird things right after waking up only to be quite embarassed a few minutes later after I'm completely lucid.

If it weren't for mysteries like these, life would be a lot more boring....dont'cha think? :) Personally, I think that mysteries like dreams, Nessie, the origin of the universe, what's in a black hole, UFOs, and whatnot, are a healthy component of life. Without them, so much would be lost. What fun would there be if we could explain EVERYTHING? Then again...that's simply the gospel according to Miller. ;)

Entry: A beautiful day in the neighborhood

So, I met this girl at this wedding about a month ago. Nice girl. Married...mother of one...a classic profile. Being that I was having a slow morning at work yesterday, I sent her an e-mail saying "I'm bored. Feel like entertaining me?". Yeah...well...we're chatting on IM later that day and she randomly says something to the effect of "Ummm.....I'm married." Of course, I'm like "WTF...where did that come from??". Apparently, my previous e-mail gave her the impression that I was propositioning her. It never even dawned on me that that's how she would take it! Wow. Talk about embarassing. Then there's the whole thing about worrying whether or not she believes that I didn't mean it that way.

Saw 'Snakes on a Plane' this last weekend. That movie rocked! It's a completely plotless attempt at humor through slapstick comedy and scenes of horrific death. It would take a special kind of person to enjoy this movie but, if you are one such person, then this movie will have you cracking up! One spoiler though....DO NOT SIT THROUGH THE SONG AT THE END CREDITS. THE MUSIC IS HORRIBLE AND THERE IS NO EXTRA SCENE AFTERWARDS.

I am now residing at my new house in Hanahan. The big move isn't until this weekend, but I've officially transferred my flag from my apartment. By the way...sleeping on hardwood floors BITES!!! Rex seems to like his new digs though. He has a little lamp that I put by his tank and he just sits there mesmorized by it. It's kinda like that scene from 'Finding Nemo'. "It's so.....pretty!". I'm wondering if it's healthy or not.

By the way...at the ripe old age of 29, I am not scared in the slightest to publically say that my mom rocks! That woman has volunteered so much effort to the finding and situating of my new house that it boggles the mind how she has enough time for it all. She's the best!

I have kids in my new neighborhood. And by kids, I mean LOTS of kids. I never thought I'd say this, but it's actually nice to see. I haven't seen packs of little kids playing together in yards like this probably since I left Saudi back in the 80s. I put some sprinklers out in the backyard area to do some watering and, immediately, a couple of young-uns came over and started running through them. They were in a state of rapture while they did it too. If they only knew what was in store for them as adults, they'd never grow up. :)

Entry: State of the Miller

Yep....it's been almost two weeks since my last post. I'm slacking again. <:(

I just noticed a song that is playing on my computer. It's 'Time After Time' by Sarah McLachlan (featuring Cyndi Lauper). Is it just me, or is every other song that comes out these days just a cover of an 80's song?! I heard a remake of 'Every Little Thing She Does is Magic' yesterday by some band that sounded like Nickelback (or, maybe it actually was them). I'm having flashbacks to Korn's cover of Floyd's 'Another Brick in the Wall'. Spooky, I say.

By the way...Tracy can't spell. :)

I've been preoccupied with the new digs for the last few weeks. I haven't moved in yet. That fun is reserved for next weekend. I'm spending my time now making home improvements and making sure that everything is good-to-go when it comes time to move.

I saw a couple of movies this past weekend. Of course, they're the kinds of movies that hardly anyone I know will ever want to see. I saw 'Pulse' (which was kinda hokey, but had a really well-done bathtub scene). I also saw 'The Descent' on Sunday. Not bad. It kinda wreeks of 'The Cave' though. Except, in this latest incarnation, the bad guys all look like Gollum. And I must say that the last few seconds of that movie made absolutely no sense at all.

Why does buying a house have to cost so much $$$ ???

Entry: Random Entry

For all of you enthusiasts out there, this is the one week of the year that you should tune in to the Discovery Channel. "Why?" you ask. Because, it's SHARK WEEK! I have no idea what it is about sharks. They're so fascinating and so terrifying at the same time. Of course, I know that this is an irrational fear, but then again, what isn't these days? I was watching one of the shows last night and they had a clip of a Great White shark attack that was caught on film. I wasn't repulsed by it...I just thought it looked something straight out of a movie. There was a group of people in the water...one of them shouts "SHARK" and they all scatter for the nearest boat. One woman doesn't make it. She doggy paddles as fast as she can, but she's still the odd one out. The giant shadow moves toward her slowly and she starts panicing and splashing even louder. All of a sudden, the water goes red when the shark gets to her. It was weird SEEING something like this that actually happened.

Of course, as we all know, there's a monster heat wave battering the east and mid-west. My question to you is this...if there was a camera crew driving around in a hot city taking pictures of folks, is THIS the picture that you'd want them to take of YOU? If this dude were smiling, it would have looked like a commercial for bottled water. I could imagine it now...just add the Barry White voice. "Oh yeah baby...."


So, I was reading CNN and noticed this story on how some online gambling site is taking bets as to when Fidel Castro will die. I think that that's hilarious and sad all at the same time. I don't have anything personal against Cuba. Castro took control ov the goverment 50+ years ago and has outlasted how many US presidents?? This guy's a fighter....you have to admit. I also try not to use death as an excuse to celebrate as some people have been doing recently. Granted, I'm not a Cuban refugee and can't exactly empathize with them, but still. Did any of you ever go to StromWatch.com back when Strom Thurmond was still alive? It had a graphic on the top of the page that showed Strom's face morphing into a skull and back. Laughing at it was one of those guilty pleasures. :)