amazingadrian

...has been pretty good actually. Having got my test done, I decided to unwind mostly by slacking off.

I spent the last two days on Second Life, wandering around Burning Life 2008, Second Life's biggest holiday. They set aside a whole bunch of sims (11? 22? somewhere around there), and let different residents and organizations make art-builds and displays. With the recent improvements to Prim glow that Windlight brought, there were some truly stunning artistic displays. One of my favorites was a half-built steel tower with all the steel support rods glowing through a wire mesh  wall interlayed with sparse concrete. There were clear glass elevator panels inside that lit up when you touched them. Very cool. There were a bunch of other neat things, including some displays of marked frusteration against the government (there was an alarmist display about the government's failure to support New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina and how they are endangering other cities with sub-par levee regulations, and a bitter display about the upcoming presidential election). Most of the builds were promoting things like world peace, and a lot were just silly or artsy. I met some nice people there, especially the folks from the Starfleet Academy. I saw the Green Lantern Corps display about their in-world fight against the Anti-Monitor, and it was very inspiring. Unfortunately, their recruitment is closed right now, but it will open again later in the year. Anyhow, it felt good to devote a full day to this huge event, since I have this tendency to only visit towards the end of the event and have very limited time to wander around (truthfully, it would take around a month to see everything. There are that many builds.)

I took a break from Second Life to finally watch the free movie I scored from Papa Johns several years ago, Jackie Chan's "Mr. Nice Guy". Now this is a film I have seen plenty of times before, a classic early-mid 90's martial arts flick. It is classic Jackie Chan; he plays an unassuming celebrity chef who has a chronic habit of finding himself in the wrong place at the wrong time, especially when he winds up in the middle of a dispute between a local street gang, an affluent mob, and a news reporter who filmed a gun battle between the two groups. Chan whips out his signiature brand of whacky, prop-driven martial arts to protect the reporter and his friends when both groups come after him for doing so, intent on getting back the reporter's incriminating evidence before she can use it against them. The film is both amusing and serious and a bit unbeleivable, but it works. Jackie Chan makes it so.

This morning I went shopping to pick up a few things for my next speech, and found a remarkably killer deal at Food Lion. I found a wine that was normally $11 being sold for a little over $5! It is Casillero del Diablo's 2006 Chardonnay (a Chilean wine). I probably won't try it for a while yet, and I'm still not sure why it was so cheap in the bargain bin when its brothers were being sold on the shelves at full price. The bottle seems to have gone through a manufacturing or shipping defect in that the lable and company stickers seem to be coming off, and the seal has two small puncture holes in the top, which are perfectly symettrical and probably manufacturing error. Those holes shouldn't matter much, because there is the wax seal under it and then the actual cork of the bottle. So it's a really good deal of a wine. This gives me two bottles in my larder, and I know I intend on using one during Thanksgiving (I'll likely be spending it here again instead of at home); as for the other one, maybe I'll try it on Holloween (which, again, will see me staying home instead of partying) or perhaps I'll just save it for New Year's.
----------------
Now playing: Genesis - Taking It All Too Hard
via FoxyTunes    

Here's a comprehensive article about compulsive sexual behavior, and how to tell what is normal from what isn't. It would be a great thing to show someone who might have a problem, which is why I'm posting it here. If you or someone you know exhibit these signs, getting therapy can greatly improve your quality of life.

A Bhuddist Monk accidentally burned down his own temple while trying to get rid of a hornet's nest. Talk about bad Karma...

And...here is a video that's really kind of nasty. When we go to hotels, especially fancy ones, we tend not to think about these things, because we have a certain measure of trust that the hotel staff will actually work to keep things suitably clean for their guests. In a hidden camera report, a news team discovers that many hotel cleaning staffers are lazy.