Strangely-Normal.com

I just got home from work, a full hour later than I usually arrive. I take Hwy 6 (a.k.a. the Hanlon), to the 401, then west to Hwy 6 south to the 403, west on it until it forks with the Q.E.W., and then on the Q.E.W. to Centennial, where I get off, and three minutes later arrive at my apartment. For your viewing pleasure, I would like to present a list of the top gears and roughly top speed I reached in my car on each of those stretches of highway.

• Hwy 6 (Hanlon): 3rd gear (about 65 km/hr)
• 401 West: 2nd gear (maybe 40 km/hr)
• Hwy 6 South: 4th gear (70-ish)
• 403: 5th gear (85 km/hr… maybe, but not for long)
• Q.E.W: 4th (75 km/hr)

I find it sad that I didn’t hit 5th gear for the first hour of my journey. I didn’t see any accidents, people were just driving really slowly. I did, however, see I think a total of 15 snowplows. Each one was followed by a salt truck, and I really like watching 4 snowplows clear off a highway. I’m home safe, which is the important thing.

basically this list is for my own memory

• clean out car
• go grocery shopping
• go swimming
• read
• find something fun to do in Hamilton
• get rid of at least 2 monitors
• clean computer room
• take over the world
• cook something awesome

A fleet of highly advanced aliens come to earth in peace. They allow the people of earth to mostly continue on the paths they have chosen, with a few exceptions. All war ceases. Scientific inquiry is allowed to flourish with the exception of space travel, religions slowly peter out. After a couple of decades, the human race has mostly been pacified and domesticated. The overlords are essentially benevolent non-dictators and their presence is mostly a positive one. Society seems almost Utopian. And then the damn humans have to go and mess it all up, because people can’t stand Utopian societies. They always go wrong.

Childhood’s End is a really fun book. The alien overlords seem nice and mostly harmless, and even though the plot isn’t exceptionally shocking, it flows at a nice pace and keeps one interested. I like how there was a Trojan giant squid that didn’t really seem to further the plot line at all, and how a Ouija board played a central part in the major turn in the plot. It was good.

This book was my first Arthur C. Clarke, and from it, I would definately read more.

I have recently become interested in viewing some of the original Doctor Who stuff. Some of it is just awful. The Underwater Menace is a perfect example of this. First off, video only exists for the third of the four parts of this story. The other parts are simply black and white photos with descriptive text. The other thing is that the story makes next to no sense. It’s campy, but not awesome. I will not watch it again, but I will pass it on to Courtney to watch.

I spent my weekend doing very domestic and boring things: grocery shopping, laundry, cooking, etc. Alan and I are trying to make a copycat recipe for Tony Roma’s Kickin Shrimp appetizer. We know it has mayo and this awesome Asian sweet chili sauce, but beyond that, we’re still experimenting. Also made a chicken and banana muffins on Saturday, and today chicken noodle soup, and apple crumble.

I am reading my first Arthur C. Clarke book, and so far it’s quite good. Will post a short review when I finish it.

Just finished Ray Bradbury’s classic The Martian Chronicles. It’s a collection of short stories revolving around a general storyline: the early colonization of Mars through the settlement and then eventual desertion of Mars.
Though I found it tough to get through some of the stories, I liked the general storyline, and the stories picked up my interest in the last few stories, where Earth went to war with itself and was destroyed.

This book wasn’t one of my favourites of Bradbury’s. I would recommend someone new to Bradbury’s work to instead pick up Dandelion Wine, or Something Wicked This Way Comes. I think I still like Isaac Asimov more.