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A week ago today I adopted a puppy that I found through Petfinder.com from the animal shelter in Aberdeen. He’s a mini-dachshund/feist mix. He’s gonna be inside so I didn’t want a huge dog. I was having a lot of trouble coming up with a name, so I called him Puppy for days. A few times I accidentally called him Bailey. I came up with Reese when I was watching Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Yeah, I know that’s crazy but I like the name.

He gets along well with everybody. He learns quickly and hasn’t been that mischievous yet *knocks on wood*. I wish I could work at home so I could hang out with him all day, but I can’t do that.

For the first week and a half or so of the Olympics I was really into it. Now I’m getting tired of it. I still leave it on in the background, but I’m usually not paying attention to it. Congratulations to all the winners, but I’m ready for you to be off my TV.  I call upon the youth of the world to go home so I can watch Heroes, Chuck, Life, The Office, etc. I’m also ready to get back on a normal sleep schedule.

There was this one commercial for a lawyer in Tupelo that came on almost every commercial break during the first week or so of the Olympics. It’s so bad that it’s funny and if you see it enough it gets stuck in your head.

It turns out that this commercial ripped off another commercial, which I think is done better.

Playing for Keeps: A Superhero Novel was first released in podcast and pdf form on playingforkeepsnovel.com. My first exposure to it was the podcast version, which is read by the author, Mur Lafferty. The paper version was recently released.

PfK is about group of people that are part of the Third Wave of superheroes. The Third Wavers have super powers, but their powers are kind of lame. Their powers are so weak that they’re considered useless in crime fighting. The main character is Keepsie Branson. Her power is that anything that she owns can’t be taken away from her. Third Wavers are looked down on by the powerful superheroes.

The Third Wavers get involved in a battle between the heroes and the villains in the city. As the story goes on, they learn that their powers are stronger than they initially realized. I really enjoyed the book. It makes me think that characters like Dazzler might not be so worthless after all. Next, I’m reading Headcrash.

• Headcrash, Bruce Bethke
• Childhood’s End, Arthur C. Clarke
• Timeline, Michael Crichton
• Unshapely Things, Mark Del Franco
• Finding Serenity, Jane Espenson
• Serenity Found, Jane Espenson
• On Bullshit, Harry G. Frankfurt
• On Truth, Harry G. Frankfurt
• The Appeal, John Grisham
• Playing for Pizza, John Grisham
• The Taking, Dean Koontz
• Playing for Keeps, Mur Lafferty
• The Night Watch, Sergei Lukyanenko
• The Day Watch, Sergei Lukyanenko
• The Twilight Watch, Sergei Lukyanenko
• The Final Watch, Sergei Lukyanenko
• Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
• His Majesty’s Dragon, Naomi Novik
• Throne of Jade, Naomi Novik
• Black Powder War, Naomi Novik
• Empire of Ivory, Naomi Novik
• Victory of Eagles, Naomi Novik
• Lyra’s Oxford, Philip Pullman
• Unholy Domain, Dan Ronco
• Elantris, Brandon Sanderson
• Titus Andronicus, William Shakespeare

So The Wheel of Time is finally being made into movies. This isn’t as exciting to me as it would have been 5 or 6 years ago, but I’m still glad. I think The Eye of the World and the next 1 or 2 should get their own movies, but after that they should start combining books. In some of those later books, not much happens….

That’s probably why the one season per book TV show thing wouldn’t work like they’re doing with A Song of Ice and Fire and The Sword of Truth. Speaking of The Sword of Truth, its series starts up in November.

I finally got around to finishing Night Watch a few days ago. I had been interested in it since I saw the movie when it came out on video. I vaguely remembered parts of the movie as I read the book, but I think I’m gonna have to watch it again.

The book is divided into 3 sections and each section could be its own little short story. At the end you’ll see just how the sections are connected. In this world there are supernatural beings called Others. Others are magicians, vampires, etc. There’s a balance between good and evil Others and 2 groups maintain that balance. The Night Watch (good Others) keeps tabs on the forces of evil and The Day Watch (evil Others) keeps tabs on the forces of good. The story focuses on a Night Watch programmer named Anton who has just been thrust into field work. I really like the book except for the last section. I got bored and just wanted it to end. I didn’t like the ending much either, and I can’t remember if its the same ending they used in the movie. I’ve committed myself to reading the second and I hope the story gets better.

I’ve gotten 4 new books in the mail this week. I don’t think I’m going to finish my 2008 list this year.

• Headcrash, Bruce Bethke
• Childhood’s End, Arthur C. Clarke
• Timeline, Michael Crichton
• Unshapely Things, Mark Del Franco
• Finding Serenity, Jane Espenson
• Serenity Found, Jane Espenson
• On Bullshit, Harry G. Frankfurt
• On Truth, Harry G. Frankfurt
• The Appeal, John Grisham
• Playing for Pizza, John Grisham
• The Taking, Dean Koontz
• Playing for Keeps, Mur Lafferty
• The Night Watch, Sergei Lukyanenko
• The Day Watch, Sergei Lukyanenko
• The Twilight Watch, Sergei Lukyanenko
• The Final Watch, Sergei Lukyanenko
• Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
• His Majesty’s Dragon, Naomi Novik
• Throne of Jade, Naomi Novik
• Black Powder War, Naomi Novik
• Empire of Ivory, Naomi Novik
• Victory of Eagles, Naomi Novik
• Lyra’s Oxford, Philip Pullman
• Unholy Domain, Dan Ronco
• Elantris, Brandon Sanderson
• Titus Andronicus, William Shakespeare

I got an email about that postal employee who stole one or more of my Gamefly and/or Netflix rentals. She plead guilty to 1 count of Delaying or destruction of mail or newspapers and 3 counts of Theft of mail matter by officer or employee. She’ll be sentenced on September 29 and any other charges will be disposed of then. I could go out to Los Angeles and speak at the sentencing if I wanted to. I’m curious to see what her sentencing will be, but I don’t want to be involved in any way. No major harm done.

It’s been a while since I updated. Things have been very busy lately.

I moved out of my apartment. Everybody else was leaving and I didn’t want to stay either. Management became bunch of bitches after the cool lady had a baby a left. They pissed me off so many times with all the stuff they didn’t want you doing to their precious apartments. I can understand why, but I need more freedom. A lot of people left and I can’t think all of them graduated. Anyway, the process of moving has kept me busy. For the past couple of weeks it’s seemed like the only thing I’ve done every night was pack, clean, or unpack. I ready to spend my free time having fun again, but there’s still a lot of stuff to do.

I now live kinda of the edge of town in a residential area without a billion apartments around. I have to drive about 5.5 miles to work instead of less than 2 like before. I like it because it gives me time to plan and listen to my new Sirius satellite radio. I’ve been getting up early on weekends lately and I’m starting to like it. Is that another sign of getting older? I might have to start eating breakfast again.

When I first came to Starkville, I didn’t think that I would still be here 11 years later. I do have an idea of where I want to go from here, but that’s something you’ll have to talk to me about in person, over the phone, through IM, etc.

Work has been busy for the most part lately, and that’s how I generally like it. I’m hoping to get involved in more interesting things. I also want to do some traveling for my job, but there doesn’t seem to be a lot of opportunities for that.