Friday was relatively normal at work. Got just about everything set, since almost all of us are going on furlough and/or vacation in the next few weeks. I hope not many of the other folks will want drastic changes to a bunch of things, since we’ll be short-handed for a while.

Had lunch with Temre and one of the other people from upstairs. We had Mexican food, and talked a lot about various things. I said that the impact of Rock Band and its sequels won’t be measured in the gameplay, but in how it makes younger kids hear/play classic songs like “Won’t Get Fooled Again” multiple times.

Friday, I cooked plantains, or tried to. I thought I could peel them. I was wrong. Plantains are usually sold very underripe, so they can’t be peeled, and you have to cut the peel off of them with a knife. I did this, and it all worked, but it was annoying. Underripe plantains, after being cooked, taste a lot like potatoes. (Ripe plantains taste a lot more like bananas.) Stephanie said that plantains are a big staple in the Bahamas, since the soil there isn’t deep enough to grow cereals or potatoes.

I think there’s a flaw in my first disc of Babylon 5 Season 4, though, since it skipped like crazy in the last two minutes of the second episode. This annoyed the heck out of me and Stephanie. I tried to clean the disc, but it didn’t make any difference. Wonder if it’s a pressing defect or a piece of crud that I just didn’t see. I am surprised at how much Stephanie likes Babylon 5. Well, the show had good characters, pretty good writing, pathos, humor, fun, and some very quotable lines:

I’d like to live just long enough to be there when they cut off your head and stick it on a pike as a warning to the next ten generations that some favors come with too high a price. I would look up at your lifeless eyes and wave (wave) like this. Can you and your associates arrange this for me, Mr. Morden? —Vir Cotto