Inasmuch as Judson College was rockable, the guys did. I know they were exhausted, but they didn't play like it. Played through most of the hard rockin' songs, which ST tells me is their set every night, without variation. The sacrifices you make to get a fan base -- I'd be bored out of my gourd. Anyway, I tried to grab a couple of pics, despite the lousy lighting.

It was terrific to see ST again, and the guys in the band as well. I understand that they get to go home from touring in two weeks; Godspeed, fellas.

Many things afoot, as usual.

Often I find myself looking for the most important thing that I could say in a blog post, but that is a conceit that usually turns out to frustrate me. There are simply too many things that happen to a body during the day to write them all down, or even to pick the most important ones.

I stayed home from work today, feeling unwell. I'm not sure how much of it is psychological versus physical. Very much job-related, I'm afraid.

I decided that I won't waste space in this post on work-related bullshit. Suffice it to say that I am worn down from my time at this company. I feel stale.

Shel's been looking around for work, for both of us. She periodically forwards things my way. Tonight I'm sitting down to look at a few of them.

We started watching Battlestar Galactica -- the new series, starting with the miniseries. I'd heard both good and bad about it, and while I initially had misgivings about some of the more radical departures from the original design, after watching it, I can honestly say that it is some of the best sci-fi I've seen since Joss Whedon's Firefly. You, whoever you are, geek or not, need to go watch yo'self some BG in a hurry. C'mon already. I mean, Commander Adama is played by Edward James Olmos, who we know kicks @$$ as a boss from his days in Miami Vice.

Our friends CAH, WH, and JH came to visit this weekend, and it was a great time, albeit exhausting. We went two places Shel and I have talked about visiting but hadn't as yet followed through: Brookfield Zoo and the Shedd Aquarium. Both were worth every penny. Zoo-wise, I'd only been to lame versions, like the Birmingham Zoo. Consequently, I was in no hurry to visit another. It was, however, a terrific place. Wolves, Bears, Snakes, Elephants and a terrific Primate house. What was best about it was the carefully scripted way in which the visitor encountered the animals. The entire zoo seemed a calculated presentation to encourage wildlife conservation via thoughful edutainment. In this project it was a great success. I sure wish I'd had this kind of experience as a kid.

Hanging out with our friends made me miss, well, hanging out with our friends. We've got one pair of Chicago-native friends 'round here. Although I will say that Shel has been doing a great job in the past couple of months of meeting our neighbors.

We have to move on with life, somehow. I can't stay in this job forever, though I don't know where to go next. CAH suggested that I look into the IT job that will be coming open at his institution. But he can't even get the words out of his mouth before he follows up with a firm statement that I would be miserable in a place like the town his school is in. It's a one-ATV town.

Okay, I'm off to read some job descriptions.

Well, the doctor and I decided to do some switcheroos on the meds. I had been on Effexor and Strattera for two years now, and they lost their effectiveness. I guess the body adapts, or something. So about two months ago, we scaled down on the Effexor slowly and got me off it. The week I went totally off it was hell. I took a sick day to stay home and turn my face to the wall.

Once that fun was done, we decided to switch off the Strattera and go with Ritalin.

Yes, Ritalin. The fabled drug beloved of young ADHD cases everywhere. It's the Ovaltine of ADHD.

I've been on it a week now, and it's okay so far. What's just joyous about the whole affair is that, for those of you who don't know, Ritalin is an amphetamine -- it's speed, really -- and it can be really addictive. Which is just peachey for me, given my pre-existing tendencies toward addiction. I mean, just look at my stupid toy and anime collection.

Anyway, we're still fiddling with the dosage -- I go back to the doc in three weeks to report.

Today I scored big on Ebay. I've been looking for this one particular scale model of Captain Harlock's Arcadia Spaceship, as seen in Arcadia of My Youth, which BTW is one of the all-time great anime feature-length films. Anyway, so the film came out way back in like 1982 or so, and Bandai of course swiftly produced a model kit of the ship, at both 1/1000 and 1/1600 scale.

This model has been next to impossible to find, as it went out of production quickly. Anytime you see the thing available in online overseas hobby shops it's going for several hundred dollars.

A couple of months back we spotted a 1/1600 version on Ebay, but by the time we got near the finish, it was up near a hundred dollars, and I gave up the ghost. Shel, BTW, was actually supportive of my bidding to win the thing.

So I just happen to do a quick check on Ebay today on a couple of things, and what the hey?! There's a kit some dude in Japan is selling, for like 19 bucks! And what's more the thing is at 1/1000 scale: it's the big one, people! And somehow this thing slipped under the radar -- nobody had bid on it. I checked it and there were 23 minutes left in the auction.

I bid the minimum, and lo and behold I win the dang thing! Here's hoping that the auction was for real after all; I have an email into the seller requesting a total price and other sundry items. Here's hoping!


Quote from Arcadia of My Youth: "At the faraway point where the rings of time come together...we shall meet again."