28 August 1999: Visitors from Down the Street

Saturday, 28 August 1999:

Visitors from Down the Street

I had a moderately productive day today. I went to the gym and decided to try using the treadmill. I quickly learned two things about the treadmill:

The machine claims that I burn fewer calories than I do on the elliptical walking machine unless I'm cranking along at a speed I can only maintain for a few minutes. Probably because on the elliptical thing I can go slower but burn calories because I'm going "uphill".
If I'm going to be running, than I'd be better off going outside and actually running. After all, the area around Apple is fairly nice (not as scenic as being up on the hills or by the ocean, but...), and the fitness center has maps of a few measured routes to run. So, maybe I'll try doing that. It will probably build up my muscles and endurance for something useful, as opposed to having lots of endurance for using an artificial exercise machine.

I also don't think I mentioned that a couple of weeks ago I finally met my (John-mandated) goal of doing 30 sit-ups on the abdominal crunch machine, at the lightest weight of 15 pounds. It took me about two and a half months to get to that point; when I started I could do about seven. So I repeated the goal a couple of times, and then bumped the weight to 20 pounds, at which I can do 27 reps. More news as it breaks.

I've also been discovering the joys of Target (that's pronounced "tar-zhay" for you sarcastic buggers out there), and bought a couple of new shirts there. I wear pretty basic polo shirts, and buying them from The Gap or Banana Republic is pretty expensive. Moreover, The Gap's material is pretty heavy, which is not so good for heat waves like the one we had last week. I found some shirts at Target which fit, are of lighter material, and cost less than half as much. Woo-hoo! Sure, they're probably cheap material and won't last as long, but at only a little over ten bucks a pop, who cares? They look fine.

Target is an interesting store. They sell fairly good stuff at quite good prices, and cater to people from all walks of life. And the one near Apple is always busy. It's probably the closest thing to a real melting pot as exists in America. Pretty impressive, actually.

I also broke down and bought a toaster oven there. Why? Well, partly due to Matt's surprise that I don't own a toaster, and partly because of many fond memories of toasting bagels and corn muffins on vacation on Cape Cod as a teenager. Plus, maybe I'll actually use it. It surely doesn't hurt to have around.

I also swung by a couple more car dealerships, and it does indeed seem like 99 Honda Civic hatchbacks simply aren't available anymore. Guess I'll wait for the 2000 models. Bill suggested that I go through AAA California for help, since he said they bought their new Civic through them, and got a good deal. So I guess I'll do that. (I tried to create an account on their Web site, but it wouldn't recognize my account number. Gah.)

I came home, did a bunch of laundry, and watched the latest episode of Crusade: "Visitors from Down the Street". Straczynski can be awfully clever when he wants to be, and sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. This time, it does. The Excalibur picks up a couple of aliens dressed in 20th century American business suits, and the aliens accuse humanity of having been interfering in their culture for years. The answer to the question, "What's going on?" is neat and clever; the sort of thing an SF short story is supposed to be.

Of course, what makes this a delightful story is that it's a satire of The X-Files; the two aliens picked up are lime Mulder and Scully (the woman actually seems very much like Scully; the man has some characteristics of Mulder, but the British accent throws it off a bit; I have a strong suspicion that he was played by Jason Carter, who played Marcus Cole in B5, but I haven't looked hard enough to confirm this), and a Cancer Man analogue shows up later on, as well. I suspect that Straczynski finds this conspiracy stuff to be a bit silly and untenable (as do I), and of course X-Files is exactly the opposite from B5/Crusade in that it's clear the writers did not have a plan going into the series, and have been making everything up as they go along (which is why I no longer watch it).

An entertaining episode.

Went to Borrone tonight and finished reading the second issue of Comic Book Artist, and wrote most of a letter to a friend.

I also read the collected first three issues of Transmetropolitan, Warren Ellis' acclaimed series from DC. It was cute, but not particularly impressive. Lots of piss and vinegar and occasional clever dialogue, but basically your standard near-future dystopia and the nonconformist reporter throwing brickbats at it. Certainly not nearly as good as Ellis' Planetary or Stormwatch/Authority comics from Wildstorm.

Michael Rawdon (Contact)