I recently wached the movie Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer. I liked it, but I've always been a bit of a superhero/comic book geek.. the kind that doesn't actually buy comic books or follow the adventures of superheroes. I am looking forward to the start of season two of Heroes (Sept. 24. Woot!) Anyway, the movie got me thinking about other superheroes, what makes them tick, how they do their thing, and all that.

With the exception of Batman (who I would classify more as a philanthropic-terrorist-vigilante-hero rather than a super-hero) most of the characters that come to mind have some sort of extra (super, if you will) ability. Superman is kind of your catch-all hero as far as powers go: speed, strength, flight, x-ray vision, heat vision, super-hearing, super-vision, super-everything – he does lack invisibility, but oh well. Aquaman.. he can talk to fish, and I think he was a pretty good swimmer, but I'm not well versed in aquatic heroes.

Now, my question to you is, if you could pick ONLY ONE superpower, what would it be? And the second part: if you had to pick EXACTLY TWO superpowers, but you couldn't choose the one that you picked for the first question, what would they be?

It'd be nice to get more than 3 comments on this.

Here are mine –

1 ability: Telekineses – the ability to move things with your mind – this can be loosely used to enable other abilities, like flight (lift yourself up off the ground), super-strength (move a car/building/person with your mind rather than body), invincibility (stopping bullets like Neo in The Matrix), etc.

2 abilities: Super strength and Invisibility. Super strength provides protection against most attacks that a superhero would come across (think bullets bouncing off Superman's chest), and invisibility adds a huge advantage by being able to utilize the element of surprise.. over and over again. It would also be nice if you just wanted to be left alone – no one's going to be able to bug you if they can't find you. (Cell phones should be turned off while invisible.)

Last week I posted (it was an odd post, don't go back looking for it) about placing an order at thinkgeek.com for some random t-shirts and a free "STFU Beer Stein." That box came Tuesday afternoon, and Wednesday I wore my brand new "Geology Rocks!" t-shirt.

Wednesday night I was about to put the stein into my dishwasher (which I still haven't run since the "pool party incident") and noticed something…

I'll drink out of it if someone wants to paypal me a $20 donation. 🙂

For the second time in two weeks I left my cell phone at home today.

I don't use it very often, and even less when I'm at work, but for some reason I can't cope with not having it in my pocket. I think it makes me feel safer, like if something were to happen or come up, that I would be ready for it. I feel disconnected and isolated without it.

I can't keep track of the time. The clocks at work have been disconnected (yay construction) for, I think, almost 2 wees now. When I'm away from a computer, I normally turn to my phone, which obviously didn't help me much today. I'm also going to blame my lack of a phone for the fact that I thought today was Tuesday up until about 8:45 this morning.

It's been an odd day. I think I'm getting sick (for the first time this calendar year) and the feeling of an empty pocket hasn't helped anything at all. I know, it's really pathetic.

Do you have anything that you'd feel equally disconnected from and lost if you were without it?

I found this article via slashdot today and my mouth kind of opened in awe. NASA is going to put a lightsaber into orbit.

From the article:

Stowed on-board the orbiter, in addition to a new module for the international space station, will be the original prop lightsaber used by actor Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker in the 1977 film "Star Wars". The laser-like Jedi weapon is being flown to the orbiting outpost and back in honor of the 30th anniversary of director George Lucas' franchise.

I mean, at least fly up something useful.. like a droid. R2-D2 is going to be a lot more useful if something goes wrong than a lightsaber. Right?

It almost reminds me of the upcoming Pepsi Purple debacle.

Just from looking at the clothes that I wear, it's easy to tell that I've still got that student mentality going on. T-shirt and shorts, t-shirt and jeans (sometimes), t-shirt and khakis (with as many pockets as I can find) – that's pretty much how it goes every day. Sometimes I'll toss on a long sleeved shirt on top, and probably roll up the sleeves, but for the most part I'm a t-shirt guy.

Why?

It feels good. It's comfortable. I'll dress up when I feel the need, like when I'm doing something special with someone special, but other than that, it's pretty rare.

I think 90% of the shirts that I wear are either from thinkgeek.com or free shirts I snagged from various bands. My posting mojo is really low tonight, sorry about this. 😛  …. Anyway, thinkgeek.com, I recommend checking it out. Right now they've got their t-shirt grab bag sale going on. You pay $6, you get a random t-shirt design. I couldn't help myself, I ordered 4 this morning, and I also ordered a free STFU Beer Stein. 🙂

Sometimes I like to eat my lunch at home. Even if it means driving to one side of town to go to Culver's and then driving all the way to the other side to pull into my garage. It's like 5 miles, but part of me feels like there may be something wrong with it. It doesn't really matter though, it's more of a comfort thing.

I noticed a package on my front porch when I pulled in today, which kind of surprised me a bit. All I could make out was the green and white coloring on it and the word "pledge." The first thing through my mind was "crap.. another group that has figured out that they can guilt me into donating to worthy causes." I was wrong. It was free stuff.

Maybe a month ago, I ran across the site eatjustonemore.com which is a promotion from del monte (the fruit people) and starkist (the tuna people. They were offering (they're out now) a "starter pack" for healthier living, which included a pedometer, recipes, coupons, that kinda stuff. I wanted the free pedometer, so I gave their marketing department all the information they needed to make a few bucks off of me.

So that's what was in the box. A pedometer, a notepad of shopping list sheets, a pamphlet with recipes and coupons (there were coupons for dog treats and stuff too, I didn't read any of it, so I'm not sure if they are suggesting that I eat them to be healthy), an ID badge type clip with a loop off of it (no idea what this is for), a silicone wrist band, and… drumroll.. a packet of tuna.

Someone sent me tuna in the mail.

Don't ever send me tuna.

Really.

So, that's pretty much the highlight of my day – I got a box with a pedometer and tuna in it. Top that. 😛

No lolcats today.. but still cute

Capers the otter (click the picture to go to the youtube video)

And the panda-puppy 🙂