Really? It's all one vast conspiracy?

Granted, there are serious questions regarding H1N1 (see previous entry below), but why the perpetual series of clichéd arguments implying the Antichrist, or government 9/11 coverups, or whatever else seems like it must be connected?

My first was in 2003 along with JBL Creature Speakers I have yet to use for anything, let alone an iPod. I rarely used it, save for the religious download of the weekly free track from Apple, as I led a sheltered life and only knew of Mozart, Partridge Family, and Jimi Hendrix.

When Apple introduced the memory-stick Shuffle, I didn't care. When they introduced the thumb-sized clip, I opted for a stick. And when talking pods were released, I engraved a green thumb to read "made with alien goo", loading it with science fiction audiobooks.

Better late than never.

In anticipation of a tag-along to my (now late) mom's annual visit to the Mayo Clinic, I grabbed the newest in portable computing, as its WiFi would connect nicely at my favorite hotel, rather than my having to use the antique PC"s in Mayo's email center.

Tight-fisting a wad of hundreds in anticipation of a Yellow Submarine iPod Nano, I opted for one in blue inscribed with "BBC mediapod" for all the podcasts I keep downloading of my favorite international news source. The new video camera and FM radio are certainly plusses, with the camera being the primary draw.

One is certainly not enough. Next year?

Another browser game that at least has some education value to it:

You start with $1 million, buying property for a business, whether it be a retail shop, manufacturing plant, farm, or raw materials producer. Most people tack on an R&D center to increase quality and allow for a correspondingly higher price on goods sold at market. Some, when the money gets good, start their own retail operations to sell their own products. I personally never got the hang of retail, so I stuck to producing from raw materials.

So, click the link, register, create a name for your company, and have fun!

Only that it took six months for boredom to set in. I'm waiting for one server to finish something called "the end game", where crafty Natars (evil nature) have secret plans to a world wonder that must be stolen and then built in one of my cities. The Natars will, of course, try to steal the plans back and attack my wonder city. If I win, the Travian website creators will forever list me as ...

snore ... Triumphant.

It's not like I'll be winning a car or anything. In fact, my team (alliance) will have to work with other alliances to keep the Natars at bay.

Just for bragging rights.

snore ... I'd rather spend my time doing more productive things like tooling 'round at AW again.

It was my intense fandom that brought this about, right? Just the opposite: I downloaded from iTunes the miniseries from several years ago. And I only did that because several people, including my brother, thought the series was actually worth it.

Alas, I was a fan of the original. And remakes are often crap (as I believe the upcoming Star Trek film will be). The reports I heard were not encouraging: Starbuck is a woman; the Cylons look like us, were created by us, and are bent on our destruction because we enslaved them; cameras were utilized in a jerky, documentary style; it plays more like a soap opera than an action-packed space opera; and so on.

I stayed away until curiosity got the better of me and I made another of my famous (to me, at least) iTunes impulse buys (hazards of owning an iPod Touch, I guess).

Sorry, Dirk Benedict (the original-series Starbuck): Katee Sackhoff is a much cuter in your role; the Cylons-are-trying-to-kill-us-because-they-hate-enslavement may be horribly cliched, but it's handled well enough that it's believable; the jerky camera is very understated (as opposed to the wretched migraine-inducing technique in Cloverfield); and soap operas are more relaxing now that I'm 30 years older (oh, well ...)

So ... here I be, watching a disc's worth a day (four episodes), and I'm kicking myself for not watching sooner.

And the good news is, DVD's don't have commercials. Well worth buying the whole series!

I finally got around to assembling it yesterday.

Enlarge the image and you'll see a couple of rings, four slightly-curved "risers" attached in turn to a small cup from which a pole then meets up with four hooks. Four bent feet hold it all upright.

Packed very snugly with bubble wrap, tape, soft-foamy bits, more tape, a bag with staples and tape, it's all blackened metal tubes, blackened screws with socket tops, and two little Allen wrenches made from the same blackened metal. The instructions are two pages of small diagrams and a bit of text; the box-photo actually helps.

Big ring has four umbrella stand risers attached with itty-bitty screws on either side of each riser; the slab of metal is welded onto a narrow tube and is curved a bit to accomodate the curved metal of the ring. Only half-tighten these screws else it will be difficult to attach the second ring and the umbrella tray with all the holes it has lining up.

Second ring on by putting a different-sized screw through ring to riser, finger-tightening to fit. Put riser tips inside tray, putting a screw in loose to hold risers in position. Tighten screws on rings, then attach feet one-by-one tightening holding screws just a bit, then putting another screw below those until tight. Tighten holding screws.

1.5 hours for all of that.

Now for something that seems relatively easy after putting the umbrella part together -- but it isn't. That big central stick is two smaller tubes and a bigger one. The coat hooks take two screws through a collar (called an "anchor" in the instructions) and then through two stacked metal rings. Holding feet to the tray to the risers is a cake-walk compared to juggling four parts and a screw with only two hands. After another 2.5 hours, I had but one additional step.

The smaller tubes now fit together with threaded ends and into the umbrella tray. Attach to upper tube in a similar fashion, then add a finial with it's own ring.

All done in 4.5 hours, and it looks great.