I can't taste anything. I can only notice that things are spicy. But because I can't actually breathe, nothing has any taste beyond the most bitter medicinal taste (or the most painful salsa hot taste).

A shot of whisky would have helped. But I think a flexeril will work as well.

Kat, breathing is good. I think you should do that.

I am cranky mccrankypants tonight. A friend called and he's trying to get together with me but will not give me firm plans. This is someone who I gave up trying to get together with over a year ago because he either cancelled at the last minute or wouldn't commit to anything in advance. He's also notorious for calling 10 minutes before he'd like to get together. And then gets surprised when I'm not available. And, it's not like he lives down the block. He lives an hour away. Planning is kind of necessary.

Tonight he sounded pissy that I wouldn't commit to just dropping by and seeing if he's available this week. Look, mister, we live an hour apart. Just dropping by is not a good use of my time. I told him I couldn't do that and he needed to give me a specific day and time and I'd see if I was free. He literally could not do it.

I don't know why this is bugging me so much. It's totally status quo.

Sorry for the rant. Carry on.

Hivemind question: Does anyone know how to repair some salt-damaged Uggs? There is some shrinkage and some staining on the instep.

Based on the advice of a shoe-store owner, I have stuffed the boots with wadded up newspaper and soaked them with a mixture of vinegar & water and brushed them clean.

Not sure if I should get a shoe tree to try to stretch out the nubuck.

A rant on io9: Is "Science Fiction Humanism" A Contradiction In Terms?

Talks about Clarke, Sagan, Dick, Star Trek, Whedon, etc.

huh huh, Cash said shrinkage.

msbelle is twelve.

I'm very excited to learn about Noah's violin. So cool.

So, Physics people, I was reading about gravity (which, as we know, is a harsh mistress). Because from what little science I understood on the subject, it seemed that gravity itself was still rather mysterious. Which lead me to Lorentz transformations and off to alternatives to General Relativity and discovered:

By the 1980s, the increasing accuracy of experimental tests had all led to confirmation of General Relativity (GR), no competitors were left except for those that included GR as a special case. Further, shortly after that, theorists switched to string theory which was starting to look promising, but has since lost popularity. In the mid 1980s a few experiments were suggesting that gravity was being modified by the addition of a fifth force (or, in one case, of a fifth, sixth and seventh force) acting on the scale of meters. Subsequent experiments eliminated these.

In short, Einstein works, bitches!

Also, string theory is right out.

That's gotta be a bitch if you staked your physics career on string theory twenty years ago.

What will Dr. Sam Beckett do? He'll never make it home now, if string theory doesn't work!

What will Dr. Sam Beckett do?

He'll get a beagle and a space ship.