I’ve been having really weird dreams lately.  I just now woke up (slept from about 8-12) after dreaming one of ’em.

I was in my room at home, which for some reason was the front end room, which isn’t really my room anymore.  I looked out the window, and the now-big tree that blocks much of the front horizon wasn’t there.  In the distance, in an otherwise blue sky, there were a few giant puffy white clouds, but there were trees growing up through them.  I guess it’d make more sense to say the clouds were passing through the trees, but the clouds were at normal cloud-height, not tree-height.  It looked like something out of a video game: the clouds were totally opaque, and you’d just see a random branch sticking out here and there.

And apparently the sun was setting right behind this cloud/tree formation, because the sky was an amazing orange around it.  I grabbed my camera and ran out front to take a photo.  (Ran, because as anyone who attempts sunset photos knows, they sky is completely different one minute to the next, and it’s gone before you know it.)

Outside, my parents were washing some car that wasn’t ours but that was parked in our driveway, and it was parked at the bottom, which makes no sense.  And the car had dad’s new radio on top of it.  I wasn’t paying enough attention to them to notice that the radio-on-top-of-car-while-washing was bizarre, but of course that’s how things go in bizarre dreams.

I hopped up on the back of dad’s truck, trying to get a good shot at this amazing sunset, but as soon as I got out the door, dad said, "Can you get me another one of these?"  Apparently he really liked the new radio and wanted another.  Then he says, "For the operating system, were we supposed to choose linux, or FreeBSD, or...."  Apparently the radio was a computer based on open-source software.  "Well, we chose linux and it seemed to work."

I’m trying to focus on this sunset, and getting rather annoyed at this nonsense about the new radio.  My parents stop washing (or whatever they were doing to that strange car) and come over to the truck.  Now, my dad isn’t "computer illiterate" -- he’s a straight up technophobe, as in, won’t touch a computer with a 39.5 foot pole, won’t use a CD player (prefers tapes), etc.  He starts talking to me about the differences between linux and FreeBSD.

Dad: I figured linux has more packages, right?
Me: Uh...
Dad: There’s probably, what, 25,000 packages for it?
Me: (utter silence)
Me: There’s probably a ton, yeah...
Dad: So how many gigabytes is that?
Me: (head reeling; realizing this amazing orange-sky-sunset-with-monster-trees-up-in-the-clouds is going to pass me by without so much as a single snap)
Dad: It came on two CDs, so I mean, it’s at least a gig and a half...

And that was the end.

For the record, I have been eating salsa lately, which I’ve never actually done before, except very occasionally at parties, etc.  I don’t like anything spicy, so I’ve always tended to avoid it, but lately I realized that I really like mild salsa.  So I suppose that could explain the strange dreams of late.  Also, I found that Tostitos mild salsa has a strange taste to it.  Not sure what it is, but I don’t like it at all.  ChiChi’s mild salsa has the same salsa-base-taste but lacks the strange component, and that’s what I’ve been eating.  (With shredded cheese on top.)

The article says:

"Fahrenheit 9/11" ... instantly became the top-grossing documentary in the nation’s history.

Moore says:

Moore made no apologies for his partisanship.  "Documentaries by their very nature are supposed to have a point of view," he said during the conference call.  He calls his documentary "an op-ed piece -- it presents my opinion based on fact."

Merriam-Webster says:

Main Entry: doc·u·men·ta·ry
Function: adjective
1 : being or consisting of documents : contained or certified in writing
2 : of, relating to, or employing documentation in literature or art; broadly : FACTUAL, OBJECTIVE

This is going to be an exciting week.  Cassini will finally move into orbit around Saturn after 7 years of travel, and Spiderman 2 is coming out after... well, after about 2 years since I saw the first one.  But the ending of the first one was so sad and bittersweet, and I’ve been anxious for part 2 for a long time now.  Plus, the new one has Dashboard Confessional and Taking Back Sunday on the soundtrack.

Oh, and The Starting Line is your new favorite band.

I’m really starting to hate this plant.

Hey Anthony, just wondering if you ever finished the 24 DVDs you got a few weeks back and what you thought of them now that you’ve watched the complete first two seasons of the greatest show on TV.  Don’t know if you heard, but season four won’t be starting until January and they’re moving it to Monday nights.  Thankfully, it’ll fill the void that Monday Night Football will leave at that point.  It’s a long time to wait, but apparently they want to air the entire season uninterrupted so it’ll be worth it.  In retrospect, I probably could have just IMed you to ask you this, but that would be too easy.  Peace out.

Apparently Saves is playing olde songs on this summer your.  I bought two tickets, and one of them has your name on it.  It is on July 10th.  Let me know by telephone or instant message.

My brother Rolly sent me this in an email:

Understanding Engineers - Take One
Two engineering students were walking across campus when one said, "Where did you get such a great bike?"  The second engineer replied, "Well, I was walking along yesterday, minding my own business, when a beautiful woman rode up on this bike. She threw the bike to the ground, took off all her clothes and said, "Take what you want."  The second engineer nodded approvingly and said, "Good choice; the clothes probably wouldn’t have fit."

Understanding Engineers - Take Two
To the optimist, the glass is half full.  To the pessimist, the glass is half empty.  To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

Understanding Engineers - Take Three
A pastor, a doctor, and an engineer were waiting one morning for a particularly slow group of golfers.  The engineer fumed, "What’s with those guys?  We must have been waiting for fifteen minutes!"  The doctor chimed in, "I don’t know, but I’ve never seen such ineptitude!"  The pastor said, "Hey, here comes the greens keeper.  Let’s have a word with him."  He said, "Hi, George!  Say, what’s with that group ahead of us?  They’re rather slow, aren’t they?"  The greens keeper replied, "Oh, yes.  That’s a group of blind firefighters.  They lost their sight saving our clubhouse from a fire last year, so we always let them play for free anytime."  The group fell silent for a moment.  The pastor said, "That’s so sad.  I think I will say a special prayer for them tonight."  The doctor said, "Good idea. I’m going to contact my ophthalmologist buddy and see if there’s anything he can do for them."  The engineer said, "Why can’t these guys play at night?"

Understanding Engineers - Take Four
What is the difference between mechanical engineers and civil engineers?  Mechanical engineers build weapons and civil engineers build targets.

Understanding Engineers - Take Five
The graduate with a science degree asks, "Why does it work?"  The graduate with an engineering degree asks, "How does it work?  "The graduate with an accounting degree asks, "How much will it cost?"  The graduate with an arts degree asks, "Do you want fries with that?"

Understanding Engineers - Take Six
Three engineering students were gathered together discussing the possible designers of the human body.  One said, "It was a mechanical engineer. Just look at all the joints."  Another said, "No, it was an electrical engineer. The nervous system has many thousands of electrical connections."  The last one said, "No, actually it had to have been a civil engineer.  Who else would run a toxic waste pipeline through a recreational area?"

Understanding Engineers - Take Seven
Normal people believe that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Engineers believe that if it ain’t broke, it doesn’t have enough features yet.

(Actually, it’s management/marketing that believes in "feature creep," and engineers hate them for it.  Not because engineers don’t like cool features, but because they prefer to have the desired features enumerated in the initial specification, which they prefer to receive BEFORE beginning the project, and which marketing/management should not be allowed to change a month before FCS.)

Understanding Engineers - Take Eight
An engineer was crossing a road one day, when a frog called out to him and said, "If you kiss me, I’ll turn into a beautiful princess."  He bent over, picked up the frog and put it in his pocket.  The frog spoke up again and said, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a beautiful princess, I will stay with you for one week."  The engineer took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it and returned it to the pocket.  The frog then cried out, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a princess, I’ll stay with you for one week and do ANYTHING you want."  Again, the engineer took the frog out, smiled at it and put it back into his pocket.  Finally, the frog asked, "What is the matter?  I’ve told you I’m a beautiful princess and that I’ll stay with you for one week and do anything you want.  Why won’t you kiss me?"  The engineer said, "Look, I’m an engineer. I don’t have time for a girlfriend, but a talking frog, now that’s cool."

...priceless : )