I suppose a little recap of events that happened between the last rambling (which was written in a state of barely coherent, sleep deprived, semi-horny silliness) and right now.

Sunday morning, after finishing my chronocling of festing's descent to a new record low (but still, a hilarious low; or at least it seemed so at the time), I walked out into the overbright morning sun, stumbled into Tobias, and took off in minimal traffic. Halfway back to the Louisville Compound, I remembered that Jaeger had asked me to take down Ziyal's ppp connection after I was finished. Doh! I didn't feel like journying all the way back across Boulder to do it, so I kept proceeding on my way, and figured it wasn't the end of the world if the idle connection stayed up a few extra hours. (But still metaphorically smacked my forehead a few times for forgetting.)

Slept. (Although trying to sleep in a totally silent room without the constant hum of Argo's fan is always a little disconcerting. Fortunately, the memory of some... ahem... wallpaper was still relatively fresh in my mind, and that's all I'll say.)

Woke up 3 hours later. Showered. Returned to the Boulder Compound. Unbenownst to me, bouncing was just minutes behind me.

I attempted to stealthfully re-enter the Compound, descend into the alcove, and situate myself at Argo's console, and succeeded in doing so. The wallpaper fest continued.

After a while, breakfast was offered, but I declined since I was not feeling hungry in the least after all the chips and cheese sauce I had consumed over the course of the fest.

I queried Jaeger about which multiplayer world domination games he possessed, and found that we had a common installation of Call To Power. I suggested a game. He agreed, and Willy also joined us.

Willy bailed early in the game, and allowed the computer to take over his player, since he was apparently having some rotten luck. I, on the other hand, was having some fantastic luck. My early streak of good fortune, combined with some risky gambles that paid off, was leading to a thriving empire. I declared war on Jaeger's Japanese after they repeatedly refused to cease their trespassing, despite the gracious mercy I had shown them earlier when they did not pay me my rightful tribute.

After a while at that, I think everyone but me was getting weary at the game (a look at the power graph upon quitting revealed that even though I was having great fun expanding my empire, there really wouldn't have been much challenge to the contest), so we switched modes and went to do some location shooting for The Worst Scifi Trilogy Conclusion Even.

This time, bouncing accompanied us. Jaeger was going give bouncing a cameo role in some scenes which would not appear in the actual film, but instead be put on the deleted scenes and outtakes section of the DVD. Unfortunately, after a couple of shots, the camera batteries went dead, so filming was truncated. Fortunately, we got enough footage for the bare essentials of the sequence. Since the escape pod prop was destroyed after the shoot, whatever was filmed will have to do.

(Once again, my total lack of physical conditioning became evident during the shooting, which, despite the fairly minimal amount of physical activity reqired, rendered me out of breath and with sore muscles afterwards. /me really, really needs to do something about that, lest it deteriorate further. I found this most recent discovery a surprise to myself, and disconcerting to the point of being disturbing.)

There was some theoretical plan that we might do some shooting on the sound stage back at the Compound, but due to lack of initiative on the part of anybody.

Jaeger showed me the last few minutes of a Simpson's episode he had on his hard drive, which referenced The Matrix. He seemed mildly disturbed that I have not been faithfully watching The Simpson's lately. I was complacent about the matter.

In an effort to explain my frequent usage of the term "Snoochy Bootchie" (and other variants) over the course of the fest, I popped the Mallrats DVD into Argo and located the first scene where it is uttered by Jay, and played it for Jaeger's amusement. Since the film was highly amusing (IMO), I just left it running, and we ended up watching the majority of the scenes. Although the Xine player didn't quite know how to handle the seamless branching, so it would occassionally skip over to a visual of Kevin Smith et all doing the audio commentary. I eventually figured out how to crudely bypass this sequences, but in the process of learning, I ended up skipping past several scenes in the middle. Oh well.

Inconvenietly, Willy temporarily joined us during the fortune teller scene, and left thoroughly disgusted. As if the previous night's debauchery on the part of Jaeger and myself wasn't enough already. Oh dear, oh dear. lol.

Shortly after the impromptu partial screening, I discovered to my amazement that it was already after 1800. I packed up Argo, the Free Dmitry signs, and my other belongings, and departed.

Back at home, I was greeted by parents who wanted to take me out for a birthday dinner. Now I had foolishly continued to devour the chips sitting on the desk next to me throughout the course of the day, so I wasn't feeling terribly hungry. Had it just been myself, I would have been thoroughly happy to just plug Argo back in, put on a little music, sit back, and contemplate the rambling course of the universe (or the wallpaper).

As it was, I didn't have the heart to turn down a birthday dinner, and they had been hanging out waiting, so I took a quick shower, and elected to do Chinese. Very yummy, it was. That new Hunan Garden restaurant down the street really does know how to make better Chinese than the rest.

When we returned home, I was presented with my presents. From my parents, two DVD's: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and a classic, Casablanca. From bouncing: The Scifi Channel's epic adaptation of Frank Hubert Dune classic into a television miniseries: Dune.

Gee, if I were a casual observer, I would suspect that some people in this house have gotten the idea that Bitscape likes movies! :)

I considered having a screening of something that evening, but felt extremely tired, and so returned to the solitude of the Lair. (Where I actually ended up listening to music for 2+ hours before going to sleep, but anyway...)

Monday. Bitscape's day off. For no real reason except that he felt in advance that this would be a good time to take it. I think the premonition was a good one.

Surprisingly, I woke up at almost the standard time for going to work, but I knew that I was going to do no such thing. I wired up Argo, who had been sitting dormant on the floor for far too long, and powered up. (Over the course of the fest, Bitscape has once again pulled a 180 in his philosophy of what makes a good desktop wallpaper. The pendulum swings. Go figure.)

Spent some time getting Argo's affairs in order, beefed up the security a bit more (I'd love to go into detail, but then that would be tilting my hand to any would-be crackers reading this page. And we know how many of those there are). I emailed the guy who entrusted me with his signs, informing him of my location and further contact info, and... went back to sleep. For nearly 6 hours.

Woke up at 1500. Decided it would probably not be a good idea to spend the entirity of my day off without even once venturing out of the Lair. So I took a shower, went to Wal Mart, bought some toothpaste and Gatorade, and searched for ant poison, but I didn't find any of that. Right about now, I'm wishing even more that I had.

Damn ants. Just because I leave a few open containers containing fast food remnants on my dresser for an occassion or two, it doesn't mean the little things should keep returning with the expectation to be fed every night. Grrrr.

Went to Walgreens to get my prescription filled. While I was waiting, I wandered through the book aisle. Big mistake. They happened to have a Farscape paperback. House of Cards. Intrigued, I picked it up and began reading. It's not like there's much else to do inside a Walgreens while one waits for a prescription. By the time my prescription was ready, I was halfway through the second chapter.

Now, being the once avid Xena fanfic reader that I was, I should know better than anybody that a quality adaptation of a tv show's setting and characters into written form can prove at least as addictive as the show itself. I think I once said that the Farscape show is like crack. Once you get going watching it, you just do not want to stop.

Having paid for my prescription at the pharmacist counter, I was on my way out of the store, to return home. Before I reached the checkout stand, I doubled back. To the book aisle. The rest, as they say, is history.

4+ hours later, darkness has fallen outside, everyone else has arrived home, done whatever it is they do, and gone to bed.

Bitscape gets up from the couch.

Yes, it was a very good book, thank you.

...

And so, with my wonderful little mini-vacation drawing to a close, my room is as hideously messy as ever. Random wires all over the floor. Probably some organisms of unknown origin growing beneath the piles of laundry. Hmmm, I wonder if there's an ant hill under there somewher. And, um, I should get some exercise one of these days.

A vacation day at its best: Sleeping a ridiculous number of hours, getting absolutely nothing useful done, and the great verture of the day being a trip to a couple of local convenience stores. Yes, just as it should be.

Alright, time to pop some sedatives and hit the hay. I have work in the morning, and it's a damn good thing I do. It's been fun. Tomorrow, it will be high time to return to the office. (Although I probably won't think so until many hours after I arrive.)

With images recapping the adventures of Moya's crew floating through my head, I will now terminate this transmission.