Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Erich Schneider's LiveJournal:

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Saturday, June 27th, 2009
9:52 am	Circus The two of us went to the circus last night and had a tremendously good time. We went last year, but this year was even better. With their new tent they have a lot more space and better-arranged seats, and they make really good use of it - even though the storyline behind the show is the same, it is muchh, much more fun. It didn't hurt that we sprang for really good seats. Some of you who are old hands with modern circuses (Cirque du Soleil etc.) may not be as impressed as I was. But knowing nothing else, I say, if you're in the LA area, make the effort to go see it. You will not be able to stop smiling. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
9:49 pm	Done! Many years ago, in grad school, a local TV station started showing the original Star Trek in its production order. I decided to start watching the episodes and to take notes while doing so, so I could see when various concepts were introduced into the series. The station stopped showing the episodes in production order after two weeks, though, so I stopped watching them. I kept my incomplete file of notes, and vowed that one day I'd take up the project again. Two and a half years ago, I asked for the original series of Star Trek on DVD. To my surprise, several members of the Villani family went in and got them all for me, and I restarted the project. Tonight, I finished it! A few nights ago I watched the last filmed episode, "Turnabout Intruder", and tonight I watched the original pilot, "The Cage". Perhaps I will write up a report with my findings. For now let me just say that although a "First Federation" is mentioned in the third filmed episode, "the" Federation itself is not mentioned until the 19th, and it isn't until the 23rd that we hear of the "United Federation of Planets" (in one of my favorite episodes, "A Taste of Armageddon"). I regret that I did not think to note those episodes when Capt. Kirk loses his shirt, and those where he engages in fisticuffs (a majority of the episodes, I think). My next project of this kind? Well, also since grad school I've wanted to watch the Indian TV series adaptation of the Mahabharata. A local Indian grocery store has the 16-DVD, 94-episode set for $100... (11 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, June 7th, 2009
9:29 am	My friend. Twenty years ago today (technically, tonight), my best friend, Erin Hellner, died. We met when we became members of the same student residence at Caltech in 1987; at the time of his death, he was on a leave of absence from school but still living in Pasadena and working there. We were both computer science students, both rabid Larry Niven and Led Zeppelin fans, and it was he who introduced me to the Dead Kennedys and the Sex Pistols. Erin died as a result of autoerotic asphyxiation. Was it suicide? I don't know. One thing I do know is that a copy of the Loompanics book catalog for 1989 was circulating around our circle at the time, and it had an article on "autoerotic asphyxiation and why it is a totally stupid thing you should not try, because you can easily kill yourself". He had certainly read it. What was he thinking? I'll never know. How would my life be different now if he were alive? I know for certain that had he been alive for six more months, I would not have done certain things that changed the course of my life for the next few years. Looking back on the last 20 years those things seem pretty minor now, so the most probable effect is that my life is a little less rich for not having him around. I was going to dedicate my Ph. D. dissertation to him, but I never finished it, so that never happened. I have some physical photos of him but I've never scanned them in; the only thing close to one I can find online is the one below, which shows some wall art that was drawn up in our student house, based off of a picture of him throwing a tennis ball (while playing a traditional game of the house). RIP, Erin. Oh the things you could've done. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 20th, 2009
1:16 pm	Clericus So, those of you who are fans of Father Ted (and if you haven't seen it and are one or more of (a) Irish in heritage (b) Catholic practicing or lapsed, or (c) a fan of British broad comedy, you should watch it immediately) know that there's an episode involving an all-priest soccer league on Craggy Island, complete with tournaments that are taken very seriously. "Ha ha," we thought when we saw that, "in the Father Ted universe the Church is still so all-pervasive that you can have all-priest soccer leagues." Well, a few days ago when I was reading an Italian newspaper online, I learned that in Italy there actually has been such a tournament for the last three years, the Clericus Cup, consisting solely of teams of priests and seminarians from the various institutions around Rome. This year a team of American priests is in the finals for the first time. I don't know if they stole the idea from the TV show or not. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 13th, 2009
11:33 pm	Find I went to play games at Game Empire tonight, and in the used RPG bins found a copy of the old FASA Traveller adventure Action Aboard: Adventures on the King Richard written by none other than mycroftca back in his Chicago gaming days. Hopefully I'll remember to bring it along for an autograph the next time I am going to see him - unfortunately I will have to miss Dungeon Master this weekend due to a prior commitment. That's two of his Traveller adventures I've managed to find now... (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 12th, 2009
10:53 pm	Trek So, we saw the new Star Trek movie tonight. I came out of it kind of like I expected I would: neither totally pumped nor totally horrified. I just want to say two things: ( Maybe someone will think there is something spoiler-like here ) (11 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, May 11th, 2009
9:14 pm	Salvage So here's an OK-looking pair of shoes: OK, the insides are a little damaged but they're a not terribly shabby pair of brown leather Sketchers. I found these shoes sitting on the street next to a bus stop while walking to the library two months ago. They looked perfectly OK and happened to be exactly my size, but the laces were messed up. I eventually got replacement laces and today managed to wear them to work, finally. And they turned out to be pretty nice! So don't let anyone say that good things can't come to you out of the blue. (But now, based on my scavenging success, one of my co-workers says I'm now qualified for the job "hobo" if things get much worse.) (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, May 10th, 2009
9:47 am	Yo Hello, all. I know it's been two months since I posted anything here. Mostly it's been because the stuff that's been going on for me hasn't been stuff I've wanted to tell lots of people about. I have been spending a lot of my free time learning Italian. I've done the first two levels of the Pimsleur course on Italian and am about a third of the way through the third. My comprehension is enough that I can read Italian newspapers and Wikipedia articles on-line, which is a time sink that can eat up any amount of time I have. Plus there's downloading clips of Italian TV shows and trying to understand what they're saying. Here's a picture of a visitor from space standing in front of an interesting dome. We attended a wedding inside that dome. (It's the Integratron out near Joshua Tree.) (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, March 9th, 2009
7:44 am	Seven Today is clynne's and my seventh wedding anniversary! The memory of standing in the park that morning literally surrounded by our friends and families is as clear as yesterday. (As is the memory of the enormous wedding feast after!) I love you, sweetie! (16 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, March 5th, 2009
3:49 pm	First Last night, I went out bowling with six other people, and I was the oldest person there. This sort of thing has probably happened before, but last night was the first time I realized it. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009
1:09 pm	Job As of today, I have been at my job one year. I still have much to learn in the way of finance industry knowledge. I should get on that. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009
9:54 am	Cholesterol Late last year my doctor had me take a cholesterol test. My HDL ("good") level was 47, LDL ("bad") 136, and total 201. She told me to change my diet and exercise with the goal of getting LDL below 100 by February. clynne suggested I go on Weight Watchers with her to facilitate a low-cholesterol diet, which I did. I retook the cholesterol test early this month and got the numbers back yesterday. HDL 53, LDL 94, total 163. Yay! Plus I've lost 17 pounds in the process. Those twisting yoga poses are a lot easier now. I go back for another test in August. Both of my parents have had cholesterol problems, so I'll probably have to start taking pills for it someday, but hopefully good habits will stave that off for a while. (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, February 12th, 2009
10:16 am	Back I'm back at work after going back to Kentucky for my grandmother's funeral. It was nice to see everyone, and everyone was happy to see me. The weather there was better than it was in California when I left (although it got significantly worse as I was in the process of flying home). I did some gaming with my dad, which is always fun. My uncle the ninja firefighter has taken up playing the bagpipes. I encountered several flight delays getting back to California, and my plane from Chicago to LAX had an unusually large number of people with Finnish passports. So after two days of weekend and three of funeral-related absence I have two days of work and then a three-day weekend. That's what I'm talkin' about! (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, February 6th, 2009
11:14 am	Thanks Thanks to everyone for your kind words regarding my grandmother's death. I'm flying back east on Monday for the service on Tuesday. It is because of my grandma that I can call myself 1/4th hillbilly. She grew up in the town of Manchester, KY, rode a mule to school, churned butter by hand, etc. She became a nurse, moved to the city during the war, and married my grandfather, continuing to work as a nurse until she retired as the head of the central supply department of her hospital, during my time in high school. I lived with her, my grandfather, and my father's youngest brother when I went to high school. I think she found my interests a little strange, but she was always proud of my accomplishments. Oh, and she was living proof that there were people who talked like the stereotypical mountain folk of film and TV. She always pronounced my first name something like "Urrick" ... I will most remember her saying it when she was upstairs calling down to me in the basement, which usually involved calling the name of every male member of our family until she hit mine. (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, February 5th, 2009
8:14 am	RIP My last remaining grandparent, my grandmother Daisy Schneider, died suddenly in her sleep this morning. She was 84. (21 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, January 28th, 2009
10:05 am	Yay! So, clynne has been home since Monday, and it has been great having her back. Thanks to her I am also now the owner of: An issue of an Italian-language yoga magazine An illustrated guide to Venice in modern Greek A copy of the board game Agricola in Italian At least one of every denomination of Euro coin And most important of all - a copy of the Codex Seraphinianus. Apparently I'm pretty easy to shop for overseas - just find something I like, but in another language. While she was away I played a lot of board games, attended a birthday party, went to an inaugural ball, ate out more than I probably should have, and spent a bunch of time cleaning the house. (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, January 11th, 2009
6:35 am	Life So, over the New Year holiday we were at a retreat in Cambria with several dozen of our Gigsville friends. It was all great except for one thing. Great things included: taking another Hearst Castle tour together, Connie-Lynne going wine tasting, me riding my bike on some extended trips (and calibrating my new bike computer!), wacky photo shoots, playing games, writing haiku, great food, and hanging out with friends. The one lame thing: Connie-Lynne got a chest infection while she was there. That function wound up on the 4th, which was Connie-Lynne's birthday. Because she wanted to stay there was stayed the night at the Madonna Inn on our way back, in the Bridal Falls room. It was everything we imagined and more - they take "rococo excess" and run it to its logical conclusion. We had dinner in the steakhouse restaurant and, in addition to our 10oz steaks (which, being on diets, we ate half of) C-L got a "Happy Birthday" balloon and a slice of fabulous pink cake (which we each ate about 1/8 of and gave the rest away). A bunch of Gigsville people had also decided to stay there, so 15 or so of us were trooping around everyone's rooms checking out the features. More photography, game playing, and hanging out ensued, and I was pleasantly surprised to learn something about someone that I would not have expected. The waterfall shower in our room was awesome, too! I want one in the house! Things got sad, of course, when we got back, with Leo. Our catsitter had said he had eaten well when we were gone, but when we got back his rapid slide started and ended with our sad day on Friday. Yesterday we finally got the Christmas tree out of the house and most of the Christmas-related clutter packed away. The house looks a little less like a tornado hit it now. I am up this early on a Sunday because C-L leaves for Italy tomorrow ... and we leave the house for the airport at about 3 in the morning, so I want to be properly adjusted. I then will be living the Fabulous Bachelor Lifestyle for two weeks. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, January 9th, 2009
5:23 pm	Leo Rest in peace, Leo. You were a sweet old kitty and I hope you get your other eye back, wherever you are. Current Mood: sad (16 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, December 31st, 2008
1:50 pm	Out We are soon heading out to our New Years' retreat in Cambria (and a stay in this room at the Madonna Inn). We're back on the 6th. Happy New Year to all! (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, December 25th, 2008
10:20 pm	Redundancy So, my extended family got on me to provide them with a Christmas wish list, which I provided for them about two weeks ago. Today, I received three copies of the boardgame Zooloretto XXL, and two copies of Guitar Hero III for PS2, both of which were on the list. The duplicate boardgames I can return to their points of purchase toward credit for other things. But as far as the GHIIIs go, is there anyone on my friends list who wants to trade a new-in-shrinkwrap copy for a copy of either Guitar Hero II or Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories for PS2? (4 Comments |Comment on this)