Jay McGavren's Journal

“Kiss me”, I said, because it was the most natural and obvious thing for us to do. And she did. Diana’s a good kisser. :)

Wow, someone I can be myself around, without fear of reprisal. Imagine that. (Actually, now that I’ve experienced it, I wonder why I ever put up with anything else.)

I was horrified to see Chris Rock cast opposite Anthony Hopkins in the appropriately-titled Bad Company a year ago, but it looks like there’s more odd couples on the way. The upcoming Disney film Home on the Range features the voice talents of Judi Dench… and Roseanne Barr. Jesus.

Tim Berners-Lee has been knighted for his invention of the World Wide Web. This puts him in the company of Sir Isaac Newton, among others, and I’d say he deserves it.

As far as I know, Sir Berners-Lee still drives an old Volkswagen to work every day, though. :)

Whew!

I’m mostly settled back in after my Christmas trip to Omaha. I still have laundry to do and thank-yous to write, though.

Not one but two of my friends got me ultra-cool music - one bought Aphex Twin, the other Boards of Canada. My profuse thanks to both. Now if only my family was that good at listening to my dropped hints… Not that I did badly there, either - I got enough clothes to last for two more winters, and enough cash to pay for a big chunk of my new couch.

Seeing my family and friends all gathered together reminds me of what I’m missing out on the rest of the year. Sure, there’s e-mail and the phone, but that’s not the same. I hope I can meet friends of that caliber down here in Arizona, but I haven’t yet.

I grabbed my Segway and headed for the skate park...

I got to try one! Scottsdale Fashion Square has one of like 4 Segway Stores in the whole country, so I headed down for a test drive.

The paper said there were huge lines last week, but I got there just before 6:00, so the store was barren. It also helped that they’d started up a $5 fee per test drive, since so few of their visitors were seriously considering a purchase. They made me don a silly biker’s helmet, gave a 10-second explanation, and I was off and rolling.

I’d been expecting something a little more supernatural - like rocket skates that magically knew where I wanted to go, and an obstacle course to take them through. What I got was a 10-foot-square roped off area and a scooter that kinda lurched forward rather than gliding. It was still interesting, though. Leaning back and forth to move was totally natural; I actually had more trouble with the steering knob. Doing 360s in place was a no-brainer.

When they get down to $1000, and there’s a way to mod them so they can do fifty miles an hour and do ollies, I’ll be buying one. Until then, I think it will just remain an expensive curiosity.