Gems like this put a smile on my face.

Thank you to the geeks with too much time on their hands.

[ADDENDUM: Photos here, here, and here.]

March came in like such a lamb, we should have seen this coming.

Here’s a constantly-updated news page to follow along as we here on the Front Range hunker down for a night of snowy bliss.

Expecting blizzard conditions to early tomorrow morning and 8″-12″ of snow in the city; parts of I-70 and other entire freeways are already closed and the Red Cross shelters open. I’ll post pictures as soon as I find my USB cable for the camera.

Fasten your seatbelts; it’s going to be a bumpy night.

True Believers in all the religions in the world agree there are only three faiths: My belief, godless heathens, and witchcraft.

I find it interesting that rap of every type doesn’t get stuck in my head unless it has a melody or sing-song pattern to it. It’s impossible for me to do rap, too. My brain requires lyrics with actual musical notes to perform it.

Something has started today
Where did it go, why you want it to be?
Well you know November has come
When it’s gone away.

So it’s not surprising in the least that I don’t know one word of this song other than the chorus.

Gorillaz has great hooks.

They sink me with every track.

I thought for many years I was the only one who was skeptical of the Dalai Lama. Of course, I’m skeptical of all religions - and especially of religious leaders - but somehow the Dalai Lama is seen as off-limits for any kind of doubt or questioning from progressives. You’d think that with all the religious extremism of the neo-conservatives on the other side, liberals would be more willing to question authority. Alas, we are but sheep.

The sad truth about the Dalai Lama is his B.S. (belief system) isn’t any different from the others out there. He was the ruler of a serfdom in which young children were recruited and then sexually abused in monasteries and where women were forced to marry early and stay pregnant. Sound like any other religious leader you know? How about now?

For more reality check, you can read this post on Skepticblog and here’s a great video clip for your enjoyment.

If you get nothing else from this, please (for the love of whatever deity you choose) do some research before you put a “Free Tibet” sticker on your Subaru.

I should also add that I will spend the money on a ticket to see the Dalai Lama if he comes through town; it’s not often one gets to see a salesman of his caliber.

Carpetbaggers never change their fabric.

Remember that birthday thingy I had in Las Vegas a few years back?

Well, we’ve decided to do it again this summer, but this time for my love. Yeah, the guy who doesn’t do birthdays is going to do this one … and in style.

Details will come if I have your contact info. If you’re worried I don’t, post a comment here and I’ll get in touch. That is if you’re invited at all.

Won’t know until you try.

This is NOT safe for work … unless your colleagues are like mine, anyway.

Game over, man.

I bought one of these contraptions, which came in the mail while I was visiting family in Dallas last weekend. So after my nightly trek to the gym earlier, I came home and started an herb garden.

Now, there’s a string of words I never thought I would utter. I’ll be amazed if anything grows in it. I am, after all, the only person I know who has managed to kill a potted cactus. No green thumb here, just a black one. How goth, I know.

But if it works, I’ll try lettuce and tomatoes next. Maybe.

Homegrown salad? Don’t mind if I do!

I’ve never heard anyone put depression in to perspective like Cary Tennis:

I think it is biochemical. I keep it at bay with exercise, meditation, adequate sleep and good nutrition. But it is never completely gone. I will have a good few weeks or a good few months, and I will be riding high, and then something will shift. I will miss exercising or will eat too much of the wrong thing, or get off my sleep schedule, or I will be flying and eating unfamiliar food and suffer jet lag, or maybe I will not be aware of what happens, but suddenly there will be an aura of awfulness around my loved ones. Everyone will sound stupid and intolerably cheerful, and I will imagine the satisfying ways I might lash out at them to right the perceived imbalance, the wrong that seems to be at the core of existence, and when I cannot arrest it in time (I usually can, these days, because I am so alert to its name, its claws, its rustle, its enervating aroma), it will lead me to contemplate the ways in which I might put a satisfying end to all this.

I also think it is behavioral. My head is full of chatter. When I started hearing it, at first I did not believe that it had any relevance or power. I had voices that said I could not write, that life was hopeless, that I might as well give up. I went through stages with this. At first I was not consciously aware of these voices. Then I became consciously aware of them but did not know what to do about them. Then I consciously and concretely challenged them. That was the beginning of my liberation from that source of depression.

That, kiddies, is a dead-on description of my lifestyle and why I do what I do.

Someone very close to me recently found out what it’s like when I skip going to the gym for a few days … or miss my vitamins … or don’t get enough sleep. Lucky for me, like Mr. Tennis, I feel it when it hits and try to stay out of other people’s lives for a day or so, but I made the mistake last weekend of not taking my own advice and instead lashed out. More than once, even.

Some friends are just amazing in their tolerance of my behavior. Or they’re total pussies. Either way, I’m glad to have them.

You can read more of Cary Tennis on Salon.

An open letter from David Hayter, one of the screenwriters for WATCHMEN:

This is a movie made by fans, for fans. Hundreds of people put in years of their lives to make this movie happen, and every one of them was insanely committed to retaining the integrity of this amazing, epic tale. This is a rare success story, bordering on the impossible, and every studio in town is watching to see if it will work. Hell, most of them own a piece of the movie.

You have to understand, everyone is watching to see how the film will do in its second week. If you care about movies that have a brain, or balls, (and this film’s got both, literally), or true adaptations — And if you’re thinking of seeing it again anyway, please go back this weekend, Friday or Saturday night. Demonstrate the power of the fans, because it’ll help let the people who pay for these movies know what we’d like to see. Because if it drops off the radar after the first weekend, they will never allow a film like this to be made again.

I’ll be seeing it again in Dallas this weekend.

Who’s with me?