I keep finding things to do other than posting. Like work. Damn job.

I checked my retirement account as part of our preparations for refinancing our home loan the other day. Thanks to Stanford's incredibly generous contributions and my maxing out my donations, i'm up to $50k. Which means i could retire next month and have a kickass time for four months or so. Maybe that's a good model for the rest of my career, work for a few years then retire for a few months. Hrm.

I finally got back my framed reprint of a Peter Saville Factory poster, and hung it on my wall at work. There's an odd synergy between it and my PhD. A cog in the machine?

One of these days i'll post another album review. I've had a few notable thoughts lately on short-lived heroes Life Without Buildings and recent releases by Arcade Fire and Bloc Party. I was watching TV today and heard the banjo-laden sounds of the Magnetic Fields's "I Think I Need A New Heart". Not on some indie music show mind you, but in a freakin' dog food commercial! Funny they left out some of the lyrics ... i don't know if "i always say i love you, when i mean turn out the light" would encourage people to buy dinner for Rex.

Speaking of refinancing, i've sent a wealth of financial information over to the Stanford Federal Credit Union for their consideration. The critical step, appraisal of our house, is scheduled for first thing Monday morning. I spent a bit of time over the weekend painting the remaining unmodified kitchen walls yellow. This weekend, thanks in part to the cancellation of our scheduled MIPS junior faculty retreat, i'm going to tackle painting the kitchen cabinets. We bought new handles for them at Restoration Hardware that should complete the look. V is painting the kitchen windows, which should put the finishing touches on the room. On Monday i also picked up some timers for our external lights, which i mounted in the switch boxes in the house. They're digital and provide some nice functionality while integrating with the wall.

Kevin returned from his Hong Kong sojourn on Sunday morning, two days earlier than V expected (no story there, just a miscommunication in dates) so his phone call at 8:40am awoke us a bit rudely. But we rose and fetched him from the airport, grabbing breakfast at Copenhagen Bakery in Burlingame and then doing a bit of shopping at the Apple Store and Best Buy. Kevin passed out on our couch that afternoon after his long journey across the Pacific, while i did more random domestic chores and watched the Empire Strikes Back on HBO.

While V had to work on President's Day, Kev and i watched the original Planet of the Apes on cable then headed out for lunch at Bombay Garden in San Mateo. We spent much of the rest of the afternoon cruising up and down the peninsula, checking out an import video store Kevin used to frequent and running a few of my errands. We got cornered by someone collecting surveys for an outfit called Body Feng Shui in the dry cleaner parking lot. As she was rather cute we both filled one out, and i have since received three calls asking when i can come in for a free consultation and massage. That'll teach me.

As promised, here's a [rather stylized] shot of me and my long(er) hair. Naturally it has to be shown with me strumming a guitar. I'm getting more used to it ... thoughts of shaving it off immediately are becoming less and less frequent.

I've been trying to watch the True Story of Black Hawk Down on the History Channel. I liked the movie, and i find the subject matter intensely interesting. But it's just so damn depressing. What a clusterfuck. Probably a good lesson to ponder while debating what to do in Iraq. On the political tip, while it's comforting that Dubya's reign has less than two years to go, i'm not so sure his ridiculous approval ratings will translate into a Democratic victory in 2008. Hilary and Barack? I like both, but let's be realistic here: America is not ready to elect a woman or an African American to the oval office. At this point Republican former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani may be the favorite. Which isn't an entirely unpleasant prospect, as he's got fairly liberal views on many social issues. Enough that he's not endorsed by many ultraconservative members of the GOP, which is another plus in my book.

I'm wondering how much longer Fox is obligated to wait before busting out the "best season ever!" ads for American Idol. Especially because as near as i can tell they've run out of talent. What a bunch of boring performers. Who chose the past-their-prime Tears for Fears stinker "Sowing the Seeds of Love" for the group performance on Thursday's elimination show? And who would've thought the ensemble would've been so lacking in harmony? Also, there's no doubt in my mind that Paula was either drunk or heavily medicated on Tuesday's show. Slurred, fawning speech? Check. A noticeable lack of equilibrium? Check. I kept waiting for a bottle of pills to appear on the judges' table and a producer's hand to quietly enter the frame and snatch it out of view.

I've been increasing my proficiency with Visual Basic, and as a result my iTunes Log application has grown by leaps and bounds. I've integrated some of my assorted iTunes perl scripts with it, along with basic functionality for controlling iTunes directly from the Log. Every week or so i have a hot idea about what else it can do, and spend a day or so fiddling until i get it in there.

That seems to be my mantra of late ... think of something cool to do, and do it. In the house, at work, on the computer.