Anyway, now my biggest problem is that I can't get a permanent setup for my laptop. As I type, the computer remains on the tray table with the AC adapter sitting to the left on my old computer desk and the new mouse on my old mouse pad which is in turn on a board sitting on my bed. Every time I get up I have to jump the mouse cord and its sheer distance has my using the touchpad (poorly) unless I have the need to scroll.

Went over to my friend's today. His parents had taken off to the Adirondacks. After tossing around a baseball outside while one of the younger neighborhood kids watched from his scooter, we decided to make a quick run out. I was just outside the red on my fuel gauge and he still hadn't gotten his graduation/Old Forge pictures developed. So he spotted me three bucks for gas, and I took him to CVS to drop off his pics. There are three gas stations on the way; Mobile, Stewart's and Getty. We noted the prices at each on the trip over. Mobile was $1.91/gallon, Stewart's was $1.89/gallon, and Getty was $1.87. So on the way back we stopped at Getty, which was very different and cool from the places I'm used to. The location is owned by a family of Middle Eastern descent. They just recently got over a battle with their gas suppliers over some issue. But what made it cool was their old pumps; they still had separate pumps for the three grades. And they still had you pull up the lever where the pump is to clear the previous fill-up. Surreal. When we got back we talked with his parents a bit, they'd gotten a bit nervous when they'd come back to an empty house. We popped the Simpsons fourth season DVDs into his PS/2. We were just getting ready to start our second episode, "Lisa's First Word", when his friend from down the street showed up. Wow, what a different a month makes. This kid who'd always been teased a little for looking young and being small; when he'd first moved here he and his sister had stopped by while I was over. I'd thought she, being taller and further along physically, was the older sibling only to find out that he was at least two grades older. I share all of this to put things into context. When he came in today, his voice was low and booming, probably more masculine than either mine or my friend's, and he'd grown so much so as to be only a couple inches shorter than the two of us. Even his face looked much older. I guess things just have a way of evening themselves out.

Also, the Serenity teaser from Comic-Con was leaked to the net tonight in a fairly low quality AVI. It still kicked a whole load of ass though. Summer Glau is unreal. When I first posted my feelings about it, over at FFF.N I noted that it was like jumping from episodes of "Gunsmoke" to Once Upon A Time in the West The framing, no doubt due to the illustrious D.P. Jack Wall and the wider 2.35 frame, was just no-other-words-for-it Epic with a capital "E." I fear the intimacy of the series has been lost as a result, but that was perhaps inevitable. Either way, this looks to be one of the cinematic high watermarks of next year, no question.