What on Earth is happening to me? Two weekends in a row and I've actually been busy? Poor Mango. Despite my best efforts to play with him a little bit each day, I feel that he's becoming a widow to something that under normal circumstances might actually resemble a social life.
This was my four day weekend and I actually spent a lot of it out of the house.
On Wednesday, I went to go get my tickets for Cowboy Mouth. I got 4 comped tickets out of it. Apparently the girl at the ticket booth wanted me out of the way so the hot guy in front of me could continue to hit on her. For the rest of the day and the next until just before the show I was trying to get rid of the extras, to no avail. By 5:00 Thursday evening, I was pretty much convinced that I wasn't going. I honestly was feeling like the kid who needed his parents to tie a slab of meat around his neck to get the pets to play with him. Then, I saw that a friend of mine, Stacy, got comped tickets as well, and she too was completely fruitless in getting rid of her tickets as well. So much for the "wanting to get me out of the way" theory.
In any event, it was a Cowboy Mouth show. Of course it was freaking stellar. I lost my voice after the first two songs and was pretty much just croaking after that. For those of you who don't know, Cowboy Mouth is a rock band from New Orleans that is pretty much constantly on tour, like 200 days out of the year. Their drummer, Fred LeBlanc, is also their lead singer, and his kit is right up front and center. Fred does not allow any emotion from the crowd other than raw unadulterated exuberance. The man knows how to work a room and Thursday night was no exception. I've been to shows where it's obvious that the band really doesn't want to be there. Every time I've seen Cowboy Mouth, it's exactly the opposite. It's so obvious that they're all having a blast that you can't help but enjoy yourself. They're a 4 piece Tenacious D that rocks 8 times as hard.
Thursday night I was wearing shorts. Friday I was in flannel pajama pants. I needed the day to recoup, and with the weather being what it was, I decided to make chili instead of the cottage pie I was considering. I don't know why, but I always fail to put enough meat in my chili and always go overboard on the vegetables. It's still good though. I went to bed early (for me) so that I could be on a day shift for the Werewolf game Saturday.
Game was okay, and I got home around 5:00 wondering what I was going to do. Every time we had game in the afternoon before, it was because of my schedule, namely because I had to be at work that evening. I was completely unused to getting home from an afternoon game and I didn't know what to do with myself. Lo and behold, I get a text from someone I've not seen or heard from in well over a year asking me if I wanted to hang out at Trinity Hall. Being that it's Trinity Hall, and how even a fake Irish pub is still pretty cool, I took her up on the offer.
It was good catching up, and the cider was flowing, but who should I run into there but Sloane Gunman of Assassination City. Small world, eh? Apparently there were a few of skaters over at the Lakewood Bar and Grill and I was invited to come. I'm not going to lie, I really wanted to go. I don't think it has anything to do with my dropping one set of friends for another, newer set of friends; I just think it's an age thing. I'm more comfortable and get along better with people who are closer to my own age or older than me. But, I didn't go as I see Ass City ladies on a fairly regular basis. Instead, Sam and I cut out of there and went to see Zombieland.
Woody Harrellson was great, and there were parts that were absolutely riotous, but ultimately, I felt it fell flat. Maybe it was becuase I was subconsciously comparing hi, to Shaun of the Dead, but I just really really did not like the lead character. Throughout most of the movie, I was hoping he'd get eaten and it'd just be Woody Harrellson kicking zombie ass for 90 minutes.
A couple more things.
Wednesday, December 9th at the Granada Theater, Less Than Jake. Be there. Go go Florida ska.
Off topic: I can now discern Mango's, "I'm not feeling so good and am about to throw up" meows. While being able to discern those meows is a good thing, his throwing up is not. Fortunately, I've been able to wrangle him onto some area with linoleum instead of having him urp on the carpet.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Cochese Reviews Old Ass Movies: The Seventh Seal
Given that my Netflix queue is chock full of movies that came out before I was born and given that I'm just seeing many of these for the first time because of being raised on crap '80s movies, I'm going to assume that there are a number of people my age and younger who may be in a similar situation. So, as a service to the public and totally not as a means of attention whoring, I thought I'd take notes and write reviews of these movies. I'm not by any means professional in pretty much anything I do, so I wouldn't expect it here. That said, I will have more to say than, "Worst. Movie. Ever." or "Hated it!" if I don't like a movie. I'm nothing if not a verbose son of a bitch.
Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal is one of those movies you see parodied or referenced an awful lot. The movie takes place in Sweden, with Antonius Block, a knight, and Jöns, his squire, returning home from the Crusades. We find the two on a beach when the Knight (played by Max von Sydow) is approached by the hooded and robed Death. The Knight challenges Death to a game of chess, and so long as he can ward off Death, he can remain alive to get his affairs in order, and if he happens to win, he gets to live, apparently forever.
During his journey back to his castle, he meets an assortment of characters, from a troupe of actors to a blacksmith and his wife to a girl that is to be burned as a witch. All of these characters help Antonius along on a metaphysical journey as he and Jöns make their way to Chez Block.
When Antonius and Jöns arrive at his castle, with the blacksmith, the blacksmith's wife, and Jöns's wife/housekeeper (that he picked up along the way) in tow, there's a last supper served by Antonius's wife before Death comes for all of them, as Antonius had recently lost his chess match. The movie ends with the moon-touched juggler, Jof, seeing Death leading everyone else in a sort of dance on the hillside.
As I've said, there are a number of movies and television shows that have made reference or parodied this. Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey comes immediately to mind, as they challenge Death to games such as Battleship and Twister. Interestingly enough, Metalocalypse also comes to mind, particularly with Toki Wartooth's father, who looks very much like Death from The Seventh Seal, the only exception being that Toki's father also sometimes wears a sort of Amish-looking hat. Oh, and how could I forget? This reminds me of every single college student film project ever, not necessarily in content, but in style. I guess it just shows how influential the movie was that it's so oft copied.
There's a ton of symbolism and existentialist philosophy in the movie. Jöns seems to be the person in control through much of the movie. Jöns seems unconcerned with the nature of God and often laughs as he remarks that he needs no one but himself to give his life meaning, though at other times he chooses to believe that life is just a big joke and we are the butt of it. Think The Comedian from Watchmen. Contrast this with Antonius, who is filled with angst over his lack of knowledge of the nature of God and the meaning of his life. For the uninitiated, these are some pretty heavy duty existential and absurdist concepts at work here.
As for minor stuff? Holy crap is Max von Sydow young in this movie! He's so thin, so young, so blond! Having seen him only as old characters such as Brewmeister Smith and Ming the Merciless, it's just so weird seeing him 20-30 years younger. I could hardly recognize him.
Oh, and interesting movie tie. In the movie Strange Brew, the name of the brewery where all the mind control experiments take place is Elsinore Brewery. In The Seventh Seal, the acting troupe was initially heading to the town of Elsinore. Max von Sydow was in both movies. Of course, I'm sure there are people smarter than me who will recognize the link between The Seventh Seal and Hamlet, what with Hamlet taking place in Elsinore and the characters of both Jöns and Hamlet's gravedigger having similar absurdist attitudes toward life and death.
My next old ass movie that's coming to me will be High Society, so hopefully there won't be all this philosophical crap that I love but no one else does. No, in the case of High Society, you should expect a lot of unfavorable comparisons to The Philadelphia Story.
Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal is one of those movies you see parodied or referenced an awful lot. The movie takes place in Sweden, with Antonius Block, a knight, and Jöns, his squire, returning home from the Crusades. We find the two on a beach when the Knight (played by Max von Sydow) is approached by the hooded and robed Death. The Knight challenges Death to a game of chess, and so long as he can ward off Death, he can remain alive to get his affairs in order, and if he happens to win, he gets to live, apparently forever.
During his journey back to his castle, he meets an assortment of characters, from a troupe of actors to a blacksmith and his wife to a girl that is to be burned as a witch. All of these characters help Antonius along on a metaphysical journey as he and Jöns make their way to Chez Block.
When Antonius and Jöns arrive at his castle, with the blacksmith, the blacksmith's wife, and Jöns's wife/housekeeper (that he picked up along the way) in tow, there's a last supper served by Antonius's wife before Death comes for all of them, as Antonius had recently lost his chess match. The movie ends with the moon-touched juggler, Jof, seeing Death leading everyone else in a sort of dance on the hillside.
As I've said, there are a number of movies and television shows that have made reference or parodied this. Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey comes immediately to mind, as they challenge Death to games such as Battleship and Twister. Interestingly enough, Metalocalypse also comes to mind, particularly with Toki Wartooth's father, who looks very much like Death from The Seventh Seal, the only exception being that Toki's father also sometimes wears a sort of Amish-looking hat. Oh, and how could I forget? This reminds me of every single college student film project ever, not necessarily in content, but in style. I guess it just shows how influential the movie was that it's so oft copied.
There's a ton of symbolism and existentialist philosophy in the movie. Jöns seems to be the person in control through much of the movie. Jöns seems unconcerned with the nature of God and often laughs as he remarks that he needs no one but himself to give his life meaning, though at other times he chooses to believe that life is just a big joke and we are the butt of it. Think The Comedian from Watchmen. Contrast this with Antonius, who is filled with angst over his lack of knowledge of the nature of God and the meaning of his life. For the uninitiated, these are some pretty heavy duty existential and absurdist concepts at work here.
As for minor stuff? Holy crap is Max von Sydow young in this movie! He's so thin, so young, so blond! Having seen him only as old characters such as Brewmeister Smith and Ming the Merciless, it's just so weird seeing him 20-30 years younger. I could hardly recognize him.
Oh, and interesting movie tie. In the movie Strange Brew, the name of the brewery where all the mind control experiments take place is Elsinore Brewery. In The Seventh Seal, the acting troupe was initially heading to the town of Elsinore. Max von Sydow was in both movies. Of course, I'm sure there are people smarter than me who will recognize the link between The Seventh Seal and Hamlet, what with Hamlet taking place in Elsinore and the characters of both Jöns and Hamlet's gravedigger having similar absurdist attitudes toward life and death.
My next old ass movie that's coming to me will be High Society, so hopefully there won't be all this philosophical crap that I love but no one else does. No, in the case of High Society, you should expect a lot of unfavorable comparisons to The Philadelphia Story.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Introducing Cochese?
I just got back from the premiere of Whip It at the Magnolia with Assassination City Roller Derby (I keep spelling that out because it's easier for those people who do "Who's talking about AC Derby recently?" searches) and I'm too wound up to go to sleep. Don't worry, I'll get to the review soon enough.
I headed there straight after training at White Rock Lake because I'd have been pushing it had I gone all the way home then all the way back uptown during rush hour. I got there and hung out with the skaters before the movie. It was pretty dead at first, but it started picking up closer to the show time. After the movie and in the lobby was really where I had the best time. I even stayed at the derby table through the second showing and afterwards with Tenille, Trigger and Ripper. I really wasn't planning on that, but it was totally worth it. I just like hanging out with people closer to my own age who have similar interests. I'd say the average age is somewhere in the late 20s or early 30s. It's awesome being a part of a group where you're not older than everyone else by like a decade.
Good news, everyone! I was dubbed with an Official Derby Name. I am now Cochese. It came about when one of the moviegoers was talking to Trigger Mortis and she was introducing herself, and as she turned to me, she wasn't quite able to accurately describe who I was and what I was doing there. I suggested "AC Derby fan numéro uno" which I'll admit is a bit presumptuous of me. That apparently wasn't good enough for Trigger because she insisted I pick out a Derby Name and use that to introduce myself. I was a bit taken aback at the honor, I'll admit, and Cochese was the first thing I came up with. Had I more time, I may have come up with something more clever, but what can you do? You don't say, "I'll get back to you on that" when you're offered a Derby name, you give yourself a freaking name. Mind you, Cochese isn't bad at all, and considering I'm facebook.com/cochese, it's not unwanted. There is, however, a Coach Ise for the Rubber City Roller Girls, so some modifications may have to be made. Of course, he's named after the Apache warrior Cochise, whereas I'm named after the fake character from the fake '70s cop show Sabotage, so there may not be a problem.
I do feel that now that I'm Named, I should be doing more to support the league other than typical fan stuff. Things like recording stats, timing penalties, keeping track of fouls, typical NSO (non-skating official) stuff. Hell, if I get good at that, I could go full-on zebra.
Oh, and apparently my blog post about my first AC Derby bout made it to Smack the Ripper, which would ordinarily be pretty awesome, but I kind of said some things about her mom...
...
...
...It's just that her mom's very religious and I was feeling sorta awkward when she started in on how the Masons are a cult and about when I wouldn't confirm with her my love of Jesus. Hey, Ripper was cool with it, and I can completely understand. My parents do, say, and think some things that I personally find to be kinda nutty. They're just real far away so I don't have to deal with it most of the time.
Okay, so for the review of the movie. I'm not going to lie to you, I enjoyed the hell out of Whip It, but I realize that I'm totally biased. I really liked Ellen Page and Daniel Stern and the father-daughter relationship their characters had in the movie. Oh, and Zoë-freaking Bell was in it as Bloody Holly! Chances are you have no idea who I'm talking about, but I bet you've seen her work. She's an amazing stuntwoman who was Lucy Lawless' double in Xena, Uma Thurman's double in the Kill Bill movies, and she played herself in Death Proof. I was also particularly fond of the ending. As for the skating? Hooray for hip checks, though I wish I'd seen more booty blocks.
As far as gripes? They're really no more than the same sorts of realism gripes I have when watching a submarine movie (a freaking DOG on a sub, really?) For example, there were more elbows flying than at a Macho Man Randy Savage match. That'd never happen. Oh, and when Ellen Page's character finds out that one of her team mates is a mother, she acts all shocked. I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt and say it's the reaction of a naïve character, but really? Moms that are derby girls aren't in any conceivable way considered a rarity; it's actually pretty common.
Overall, I'd recommend this movie pretty highly. True, it's pretty easy to play Spot the Trope, but it's fun and it's funny, and it's got a lot of strong women kicking ass.
I headed there straight after training at White Rock Lake because I'd have been pushing it had I gone all the way home then all the way back uptown during rush hour. I got there and hung out with the skaters before the movie. It was pretty dead at first, but it started picking up closer to the show time. After the movie and in the lobby was really where I had the best time. I even stayed at the derby table through the second showing and afterwards with Tenille, Trigger and Ripper. I really wasn't planning on that, but it was totally worth it. I just like hanging out with people closer to my own age who have similar interests. I'd say the average age is somewhere in the late 20s or early 30s. It's awesome being a part of a group where you're not older than everyone else by like a decade.
Good news, everyone! I was dubbed with an Official Derby Name. I am now Cochese. It came about when one of the moviegoers was talking to Trigger Mortis and she was introducing herself, and as she turned to me, she wasn't quite able to accurately describe who I was and what I was doing there. I suggested "AC Derby fan numéro uno" which I'll admit is a bit presumptuous of me. That apparently wasn't good enough for Trigger because she insisted I pick out a Derby Name and use that to introduce myself. I was a bit taken aback at the honor, I'll admit, and Cochese was the first thing I came up with. Had I more time, I may have come up with something more clever, but what can you do? You don't say, "I'll get back to you on that" when you're offered a Derby name, you give yourself a freaking name. Mind you, Cochese isn't bad at all, and considering I'm facebook.com/cochese, it's not unwanted. There is, however, a Coach Ise for the Rubber City Roller Girls, so some modifications may have to be made. Of course, he's named after the Apache warrior Cochise, whereas I'm named after the fake character from the fake '70s cop show Sabotage, so there may not be a problem.
I do feel that now that I'm Named, I should be doing more to support the league other than typical fan stuff. Things like recording stats, timing penalties, keeping track of fouls, typical NSO (non-skating official) stuff. Hell, if I get good at that, I could go full-on zebra.
Oh, and apparently my blog post about my first AC Derby bout made it to Smack the Ripper, which would ordinarily be pretty awesome, but I kind of said some things about her mom...
...
...
...It's just that her mom's very religious and I was feeling sorta awkward when she started in on how the Masons are a cult and about when I wouldn't confirm with her my love of Jesus. Hey, Ripper was cool with it, and I can completely understand. My parents do, say, and think some things that I personally find to be kinda nutty. They're just real far away so I don't have to deal with it most of the time.
Okay, so for the review of the movie. I'm not going to lie to you, I enjoyed the hell out of Whip It, but I realize that I'm totally biased. I really liked Ellen Page and Daniel Stern and the father-daughter relationship their characters had in the movie. Oh, and Zoë-freaking Bell was in it as Bloody Holly! Chances are you have no idea who I'm talking about, but I bet you've seen her work. She's an amazing stuntwoman who was Lucy Lawless' double in Xena, Uma Thurman's double in the Kill Bill movies, and she played herself in Death Proof. I was also particularly fond of the ending. As for the skating? Hooray for hip checks, though I wish I'd seen more booty blocks.
As far as gripes? They're really no more than the same sorts of realism gripes I have when watching a submarine movie (a freaking DOG on a sub, really?) For example, there were more elbows flying than at a Macho Man Randy Savage match. That'd never happen. Oh, and when Ellen Page's character finds out that one of her team mates is a mother, she acts all shocked. I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt and say it's the reaction of a naïve character, but really? Moms that are derby girls aren't in any conceivable way considered a rarity; it's actually pretty common.
Overall, I'd recommend this movie pretty highly. True, it's pretty easy to play Spot the Trope, but it's fun and it's funny, and it's got a lot of strong women kicking ass.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
One Crazy Weekend
Alas, my parents have made it back to Florida, and I'm one chair and a half (slightly smaller than a love seat) and two cheap end tables richer, not to mention some new towels and some new sheets. I'm thankful for all that, but spending time with the parents was exhausting. We visited the 6th Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza on Thursday and the State Fair on Friday.
And during the nights we didn't go anywhere, they got to discover the power of Hulu, and boy do I really wish I'd not done that. I had to endure hours of Dancing With the Stars and Grey's Anatomy. I'm not saying that Grey's Anatomy is a bad show, but I've never seen it, and given that the last season ended on a cliffhanger, I had no idea what the hell was going on. So, while they watched stuff like that, I was at the computer playing WoW doing Brewfest stuff and other piddly stuff that didn't require a lot of attention or time invested.
Oh, here's something that didn't make it into a 140 character post onto Facebook/Twitter/Plurk because of certain people (family members) who are on my Facebook. Holy crap, I'm pretty damn sure that my dad's racist. I don't know if he's always been that way or if it's something new that's cropped up since moving to backwoods redneck Florida. This opinion comes from a couple things he said over the course of the week. First, repeated laments of "people who come to this country and don't even speak English." Secondly, there's his bitching about how every time there's some kind of white-on-black crime, it's automatically a "black thing." That said, in the case he was bitching about, there was a pretty obviously racist element to it.
Of course, his is an appended racism. He's only racist against people of color that he doesn't know personally. "Oh, I'm not talking about you; it's all those other black people/Hispanics/take your pick that I have a problem with." I don't care which people of color he qualifies, qualified racism is still racism.
And during the nights we didn't go anywhere, they got to discover the power of Hulu, and boy do I really wish I'd not done that. I had to endure hours of Dancing With the Stars and Grey's Anatomy. I'm not saying that Grey's Anatomy is a bad show, but I've never seen it, and given that the last season ended on a cliffhanger, I had no idea what the hell was going on. So, while they watched stuff like that, I was at the computer playing WoW doing Brewfest stuff and other piddly stuff that didn't require a lot of attention or time invested.
Oh, here's something that didn't make it into a 140 character post onto Facebook/Twitter/Plurk because of certain people (family members) who are on my Facebook. Holy crap, I'm pretty damn sure that my dad's racist. I don't know if he's always been that way or if it's something new that's cropped up since moving to backwoods redneck Florida. This opinion comes from a couple things he said over the course of the week. First, repeated laments of "people who come to this country and don't even speak English." Secondly, there's his bitching about how every time there's some kind of white-on-black crime, it's automatically a "black thing." That said, in the case he was bitching about, there was a pretty obviously racist element to it.
Of course, his is an appended racism. He's only racist against people of color that he doesn't know personally. "Oh, I'm not talking about you; it's all those other black people/Hispanics/take your pick that I have a problem with." I don't care which people of color he qualifies, qualified racism is still racism.
Monday, September 21, 2009
It's like a god-damned family reunion
Okay, I've been very very bad in catching up on my RSS feeds, so if I normally comment and haven't lately, that's probably why. It's just kind of weird getting a comment to something you posted 3 weeks ago, so I tend to avoid it as much as possible. By the way, Glynis, that apple frangipane tart looks amazing.
I've finished four seasons of Doctor Who via Netflix and have now started in on Torchwood. I've only seen the first 2 episodes (Season 1 Disc 1), but I'm getting a distinctly Doctor Who After Dark vibe to it. Not that that's a bad thing. It's aimed at a more mature audience in that it drops more profanity and I don't think we'd ever see a Doctor Who Monster of the Week that's a sentient gas that gets off on people getting off. Well, not officially anyway. I'm sure something like that would have eventually come up in a Doctor Who fanfic if Torchwood didn't come up with it. All I'm saying is that it seems decidedly different from the show that spawned it, but that's not necessarily bad.
I do think I'm in trouble. I didn't even make it through a single episode without resorting to creating a macro of the show.
My parents are in town visiting. I took them to derby last night, and they really enjoyed themselves, particularly during the second bout (The Treasure Chests vs. the Booty Queens). I do hope they start going to bouts in either Tallahassee or Panama City as a result. Other than derby, I've gotten decidedly less sleep since they've been here simply because of the conflicting schedules. It's also weird and crowded having three people and four pets in my apartment for a week when I'm so used to it being just me and Mango. Speaking of which:
It seems that my parents have got it in their head that they're going to buy me a couch while they're here. On the one hand, free stuff is good, but on the other, I'm really bugged out by their motivation for it. I graduated in 2004 and, I must add, through nothing I have said or done, are still feeling guilty for my paying my own way through college via scholarships, loans, grants, & GI Bill. I think had my brother actually graduated after they'd paid his way, they wouldn't feel so bad. I'm just kind of uncomfortable taking their charity because there are people who have far greater need of their generosity than me.
I've finished four seasons of Doctor Who via Netflix and have now started in on Torchwood. I've only seen the first 2 episodes (Season 1 Disc 1), but I'm getting a distinctly Doctor Who After Dark vibe to it. Not that that's a bad thing. It's aimed at a more mature audience in that it drops more profanity and I don't think we'd ever see a Doctor Who Monster of the Week that's a sentient gas that gets off on people getting off. Well, not officially anyway. I'm sure something like that would have eventually come up in a Doctor Who fanfic if Torchwood didn't come up with it. All I'm saying is that it seems decidedly different from the show that spawned it, but that's not necessarily bad.
I do think I'm in trouble. I didn't even make it through a single episode without resorting to creating a macro of the show.
My parents are in town visiting. I took them to derby last night, and they really enjoyed themselves, particularly during the second bout (The Treasure Chests vs. the Booty Queens). I do hope they start going to bouts in either Tallahassee or Panama City as a result. Other than derby, I've gotten decidedly less sleep since they've been here simply because of the conflicting schedules. It's also weird and crowded having three people and four pets in my apartment for a week when I'm so used to it being just me and Mango. Speaking of which:
It seems that my parents have got it in their head that they're going to buy me a couch while they're here. On the one hand, free stuff is good, but on the other, I'm really bugged out by their motivation for it. I graduated in 2004 and, I must add, through nothing I have said or done, are still feeling guilty for my paying my own way through college via scholarships, loans, grants, & GI Bill. I think had my brother actually graduated after they'd paid his way, they wouldn't feel so bad. I'm just kind of uncomfortable taking their charity because there are people who have far greater need of their generosity than me.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Dem der netterwebs
So, I've been out of the loop and off-line for some time.
Catching up on my RSS feeds is promising to be a daunting task, but this post-PAX post by Mssrs Paul & Storm makes up for it. It really makes me wish I had gone to PAX. Seriously. That post is filled with videos that are so filled with geek joy and pure unadulterated WIN that it's hard to not get caught up in it, and that's just secondhand from crummy YouTube videos.
I've been gaming quite a bit as well. Yes, World of Warcraft. I'll get tired of it in a few months because the characters I've got on my main server are pretty much on their own because everyone I know that plays is on a different server and playing end game content. I'm on Korgath, but apparently some people I know play on Icecrown, Korialstrasz, and Gnomeregan as I have some lowbie characters on there but I don't know why. And there's the RP server Cenarion Circle. At least I know who's on that server. But it's really hard to just up and switch servers. I have so many characters on one server and they all mail stuff back and forth to each other because they all have different secondary skills. All the lowbie herbalism mats that my 59 Rogue got in doing the Exploration Achievements went to my Inscription toon, Voudoun, and any and all loot drops that I can't use get sent to Jägermonster for disenchanting. I wish I could ship all my toons on one server to another server for a single price instead of having to pay $15 for a single character. I mean, I could start a Death Knight on another server at level 55, but they're about as fun as Warriors and Paladins, and I'd have to start from level 1 playing anything fun, like Warlocks, Rogues, and Shamans.
Other gaming? I picked up The Beatles Rock Band. I said it on Twitter, but I've got to give my congratulations to Paul, Ringo, and Yoko for allowing Harmonix to make the game, and for making sure it was even better than Rock Band 2. Hell, I was playing the Ed Sullivan stage and it gave me freaking goosebumps. Sure, it's not like being there, but it's a hell of a lot closer to being there than the old fuzzy black & White video everyone has seen. My parents are coming to visit from Florida next week and I think they'll get a bigger kick out of it even more than the original Rock Band.
Ahh, and because I couldn't just pass up on it, I went to the Pirate Punk Pre-Bout party at the Barley House last night. I enjoyed the everloving crap out of it, finally met someone from the Livejournal face-to-face (who's far cooler than she lets on), and was thanked again and again for helping out and helping take down stuff. I'm helping, Bizarro! Feeling useful rocks. It's going to be even better next weekend for the pirate themed bout, given that not only will I be there, but my parents as well (and hopefully my co-worker that goes to Scarborough Faire as part of a pirate troupe). From what I've discovered is that it's hard as hell to actually get people to come out to see a derby bout, but relatively easy to make a fan out of someone once they're there. I'd love to see my parents become derby fans, even if their home teams would be Tallahassee and Panama City. Even if they aren't local fans, the more fans there are nationwide, the better it is for everyone.
Catching up on my RSS feeds is promising to be a daunting task, but this post-PAX post by Mssrs Paul & Storm makes up for it. It really makes me wish I had gone to PAX. Seriously. That post is filled with videos that are so filled with geek joy and pure unadulterated WIN that it's hard to not get caught up in it, and that's just secondhand from crummy YouTube videos.
I've been gaming quite a bit as well. Yes, World of Warcraft. I'll get tired of it in a few months because the characters I've got on my main server are pretty much on their own because everyone I know that plays is on a different server and playing end game content. I'm on Korgath, but apparently some people I know play on Icecrown, Korialstrasz, and Gnomeregan as I have some lowbie characters on there but I don't know why. And there's the RP server Cenarion Circle. At least I know who's on that server. But it's really hard to just up and switch servers. I have so many characters on one server and they all mail stuff back and forth to each other because they all have different secondary skills. All the lowbie herbalism mats that my 59 Rogue got in doing the Exploration Achievements went to my Inscription toon, Voudoun, and any and all loot drops that I can't use get sent to Jägermonster for disenchanting. I wish I could ship all my toons on one server to another server for a single price instead of having to pay $15 for a single character. I mean, I could start a Death Knight on another server at level 55, but they're about as fun as Warriors and Paladins, and I'd have to start from level 1 playing anything fun, like Warlocks, Rogues, and Shamans.
Other gaming? I picked up The Beatles Rock Band. I said it on Twitter, but I've got to give my congratulations to Paul, Ringo, and Yoko for allowing Harmonix to make the game, and for making sure it was even better than Rock Band 2. Hell, I was playing the Ed Sullivan stage and it gave me freaking goosebumps. Sure, it's not like being there, but it's a hell of a lot closer to being there than the old fuzzy black & White video everyone has seen. My parents are coming to visit from Florida next week and I think they'll get a bigger kick out of it even more than the original Rock Band.
Ahh, and because I couldn't just pass up on it, I went to the Pirate Punk Pre-Bout party at the Barley House last night. I enjoyed the everloving crap out of it, finally met someone from the Livejournal face-to-face (who's far cooler than she lets on), and was thanked again and again for helping out and helping take down stuff. I'm helping, Bizarro! Feeling useful rocks. It's going to be even better next weekend for the pirate themed bout, given that not only will I be there, but my parents as well (and hopefully my co-worker that goes to Scarborough Faire as part of a pirate troupe). From what I've discovered is that it's hard as hell to actually get people to come out to see a derby bout, but relatively easy to make a fan out of someone once they're there. I'd love to see my parents become derby fans, even if their home teams would be Tallahassee and Panama City. Even if they aren't local fans, the more fans there are nationwide, the better it is for everyone.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
With fronds like these, who needs anenomes?
Well, isn't that wondermous! I actually DID get written up for breaking a rule that wasn't even a rule until my boss got pissed off and made it a rule! Retroactive punitive measurements FTL!
Long version: We had two days of furlough, meaning we don't come into work, and we don't get paid. Unfortunately, those were 8 hour days, and we work 12 hour shifts. So, we could either take four hours of vacation and not come in at all, or work for four hours. I decided to work four hours. I came in for an hour, then left to catch a movie, then came back and finished my time. Apparently I was supposed to read my boss's mind and know that that would piss him off to the point that he'd write me up for a rule he'd yet to create.
Arguing with him revealed even more of the hypocrisy. His argument started that it was "common sense" to know that he meant that those four hours were supposed to be contiguous. I then asked if it would have been okay if I'd come in from midnight to 4AM (which I pretty much did, I was actually at work for nearly 5 hours in total). He then revised his argument to say that no, that wouldn't be okay because my supervisor didn't know about it and that I knew he meant I was supposed to come in the first four hours or the last 4 hours of the day. At that point, I asked "If my supervisor mistakenly thought I was going to come in the last four hours and I came in the first four hours instead, would I still be here standing in front of you getting written up?" He wouldn't give me an answer for that, so that pretty much confirms my suspicions that he's writing me up simply because he's butthurt.
I about jumped out of my skin and throttled him when he offered up the classic, "You can choose to enjoy your time here, or you can choose to be pissed off" while conveniently leaving out the fact that management has been little by little raising the temperature of the water and hoping we frogs don't notice that we're being boiled slowly. God I hate that choice argument. It's nothing more than a modern version of scumbag Clayton William's so-called joke: "If rape is inevitable, then relax and enjoy it." Mind you, I'm not saying my job is in any way similar to rape. Don't try to tell me I am. What I am saying is that while the premises of the argument are different in the two different scenarios by an order of magnitude, the logical arguments in the two scenarios are identical. One could just as easily tell a depressed woman to eschew anti-depressants and choose to enjoy clinical depression or tell someone that no, no, it's not that you hate eating fertilized and mostly developed duck eggs , you choose to not like balut and you can just as easily choose to like it.
To assuage my annoyance, I decided to spend a bit of money. I picked up a Me First and the Gimme Gimmes CD that I didn't have and the most recent Owl City for research on whether I should get tickets for him and Brooke Waggoner in October. Yeah, I totally should. Funny how I came to buying an Owl City CD. I heard of Brooke Waggoner only because one of her songs, Daylover, is in the iPhone game Tap Tap Revenge and I really really liked it. So I hear of the headliner through an iPhone app that happens to have the opening act in it. Talk about convoluted.
Ahh, and before I leave, check out this video from local Dallas band Giggle Party:
And be sure to check out the short web series Anarchy For Breakfast. The videos are typically less than 3 minutes, and there are only 6 of them, so it's not a lot of time lost.
Long version: We had two days of furlough, meaning we don't come into work, and we don't get paid. Unfortunately, those were 8 hour days, and we work 12 hour shifts. So, we could either take four hours of vacation and not come in at all, or work for four hours. I decided to work four hours. I came in for an hour, then left to catch a movie, then came back and finished my time. Apparently I was supposed to read my boss's mind and know that that would piss him off to the point that he'd write me up for a rule he'd yet to create.
Arguing with him revealed even more of the hypocrisy. His argument started that it was "common sense" to know that he meant that those four hours were supposed to be contiguous. I then asked if it would have been okay if I'd come in from midnight to 4AM (which I pretty much did, I was actually at work for nearly 5 hours in total). He then revised his argument to say that no, that wouldn't be okay because my supervisor didn't know about it and that I knew he meant I was supposed to come in the first four hours or the last 4 hours of the day. At that point, I asked "If my supervisor mistakenly thought I was going to come in the last four hours and I came in the first four hours instead, would I still be here standing in front of you getting written up?" He wouldn't give me an answer for that, so that pretty much confirms my suspicions that he's writing me up simply because he's butthurt.
I about jumped out of my skin and throttled him when he offered up the classic, "You can choose to enjoy your time here, or you can choose to be pissed off" while conveniently leaving out the fact that management has been little by little raising the temperature of the water and hoping we frogs don't notice that we're being boiled slowly. God I hate that choice argument. It's nothing more than a modern version of scumbag Clayton William's so-called joke: "If rape is inevitable, then relax and enjoy it." Mind you, I'm not saying my job is in any way similar to rape. Don't try to tell me I am. What I am saying is that while the premises of the argument are different in the two different scenarios by an order of magnitude, the logical arguments in the two scenarios are identical. One could just as easily tell a depressed woman to eschew anti-depressants and choose to enjoy clinical depression or tell someone that no, no, it's not that you hate eating fertilized and mostly developed duck eggs , you choose to not like balut and you can just as easily choose to like it.
To assuage my annoyance, I decided to spend a bit of money. I picked up a Me First and the Gimme Gimmes CD that I didn't have and the most recent Owl City for research on whether I should get tickets for him and Brooke Waggoner in October. Yeah, I totally should. Funny how I came to buying an Owl City CD. I heard of Brooke Waggoner only because one of her songs, Daylover, is in the iPhone game Tap Tap Revenge and I really really liked it. So I hear of the headliner through an iPhone app that happens to have the opening act in it. Talk about convoluted.
Ahh, and before I leave, check out this video from local Dallas band Giggle Party:
Giggle Party's "Jason Bought A Hatchet" from Jason Reichl on Vimeo.
And be sure to check out the short web series Anarchy For Breakfast. The videos are typically less than 3 minutes, and there are only 6 of them, so it's not a lot of time lost.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Something creepy this way comes
Yesterday was productive.
I got my inspection done on my car, picked up my comics, and got my tickets for Mastodon and Dethklok (Holy crap nearly $40—That's like $10 more than it was to see them last year).
Snags? I wasn' t able to pick up tickets to Brooke Waggoner. It turns out she's only opening for someone, and I didn't know for whom at the time. Apparently she's opening for Owl City, a one man synthpop/electronica band. Does anyone know anything about him? All I know is that the cover of his most recent CD has a pic of the Burj al Arab hotel in Dubai, something halfway around the world that I've actually seen with my own two eyes (It was built but not yet open when I was there in late 1998). Synthpop piques my interest as I love me some Freezepop.
Second snag? After all this, I treated myself to Café Brazil. The food was fine, but I got the distinct impression that I was not wanted there. Upon entering, I was immediately asked if I was getting something to go by the girl who would be my server. It was only after I asked for a menu that I was allowed to sit down. This alone I could have shrugged off, but not when combined with what followed. As I was waiting for my bill, one of the male servers nonchalantly leans on the bar near me. Again, by itself, not so bad. After I paid my bill and went to leave, nonchalant guy picks that exact moment to go up to the front of the restaurant, making me seem as if he's following me out to make sure I don't try something with my server or the college-age girl she was talking to (who I had to pass to get to the door). WTF? Eating alone and minding one's own fucking business doesn't make a person some kind of sexual predator. Seriously, am I so creepy that going someplace to eat a salad in peace triggers some kind of Pervert Alert in people? I think I'll go back there sometime next week (preferably in the morning as I know those servers a bit better) to say how unwelcome I was made to feel and also to ask up front if I'm really that creepy. It doesn't help that this article has made me hyper paranoid about these sorts of things.
Brighter side? Derby is this weekend, and it's the ACRD Championships. There's the barbecue/tailgate party beforehand and then the afterparty, well, after. I don't own a grill, but I do wish to contribute to the merriment and whatnot. Which would be better to bring, plenty of hot dogs, bratwurst, and traditional grilling noms in exchange for allowing me to use someone's fire to cook OR make some Carolina style pulled pork and share with everybody? I also have strawberries and rhubarb in the refrigerator, so a homemade pie is also looking pretty likely as well. Why yes, this certainly does look like I'm trying to bribe people into being social with me using food. Don't you judge me, I'm a damn good cook and I need the social encouragement after that crap I talked about above.
Regardless of which route I go, if you've got nothing going on, I highly recommend you come out to see it. Tailgate is at 5:00, doors open at 7:00. $15 for tickets at the door, kids under 10 years old get in free, BYOB (no glass), 3022 Moon Dr, Mesquite, just off of I-30 and Gus Thomasson Rd. You don't want me to keep talking about this, do you? I'm gonna drag at least one of you Dallas-area people to a bout one of these days if it kills me.
I got my inspection done on my car, picked up my comics, and got my tickets for Mastodon and Dethklok (Holy crap nearly $40—That's like $10 more than it was to see them last year).
Snags? I wasn' t able to pick up tickets to Brooke Waggoner. It turns out she's only opening for someone, and I didn't know for whom at the time. Apparently she's opening for Owl City, a one man synthpop/electronica band. Does anyone know anything about him? All I know is that the cover of his most recent CD has a pic of the Burj al Arab hotel in Dubai, something halfway around the world that I've actually seen with my own two eyes (It was built but not yet open when I was there in late 1998). Synthpop piques my interest as I love me some Freezepop.
Second snag? After all this, I treated myself to Café Brazil. The food was fine, but I got the distinct impression that I was not wanted there. Upon entering, I was immediately asked if I was getting something to go by the girl who would be my server. It was only after I asked for a menu that I was allowed to sit down. This alone I could have shrugged off, but not when combined with what followed. As I was waiting for my bill, one of the male servers nonchalantly leans on the bar near me. Again, by itself, not so bad. After I paid my bill and went to leave, nonchalant guy picks that exact moment to go up to the front of the restaurant, making me seem as if he's following me out to make sure I don't try something with my server or the college-age girl she was talking to (who I had to pass to get to the door). WTF? Eating alone and minding one's own fucking business doesn't make a person some kind of sexual predator. Seriously, am I so creepy that going someplace to eat a salad in peace triggers some kind of Pervert Alert in people? I think I'll go back there sometime next week (preferably in the morning as I know those servers a bit better) to say how unwelcome I was made to feel and also to ask up front if I'm really that creepy. It doesn't help that this article has made me hyper paranoid about these sorts of things.
Brighter side? Derby is this weekend, and it's the ACRD Championships. There's the barbecue/tailgate party beforehand and then the afterparty, well, after. I don't own a grill, but I do wish to contribute to the merriment and whatnot. Which would be better to bring, plenty of hot dogs, bratwurst, and traditional grilling noms in exchange for allowing me to use someone's fire to cook OR make some Carolina style pulled pork and share with everybody? I also have strawberries and rhubarb in the refrigerator, so a homemade pie is also looking pretty likely as well. Why yes, this certainly does look like I'm trying to bribe people into being social with me using food. Don't you judge me, I'm a damn good cook and I need the social encouragement after that crap I talked about above.
Regardless of which route I go, if you've got nothing going on, I highly recommend you come out to see it. Tailgate is at 5:00, doors open at 7:00. $15 for tickets at the door, kids under 10 years old get in free, BYOB (no glass), 3022 Moon Dr, Mesquite, just off of I-30 and Gus Thomasson Rd. You don't want me to keep talking about this, do you? I'm gonna drag at least one of you Dallas-area people to a bout one of these days if it kills me.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Mystery Music Theater 2600
Sometimes I really like the way fortune occasionally smiles. I decided to hit up Café Brazil, as I wasn't feeling like cooking up anything. Fortunately for me, I'd forgotten my iPhone so I was relegated to getting a copy of the Dallas Observer to occupy my time while I waited for my food. Lo and behold, guess what I found out? Available starting today are tickets for
MASTODON AND DETHKLOK
at the House of Blues on Wednesday, November 11th. Say what you want about the House of Blues being corporate trash, but it's no more corporate than the Palladium Ballroom considering the House of Blues actually allows you to buy tickets at the box office with no 30% "convenience" fee. Sure, it's no Granada, but there haven't been any concerts I've wanted to see since Jonathan Coulton and Paul & Storm.
I've not seen Mastodon in concert, so I can't speak for them, but I have seen Dethklok in concert, and they put on one hell of a show. Just like Metalocalypse, their live show perfectly blends comedy with melodic death metal insofar as the audience is pretty much put into the plot of a Metalocalypse fic that unfolds during the concert. Anyone who wants to go, give me a heads up because I'm sure as shit going to be there.
Shifting gears sort of abruptly, I put down my pre-order for Rock Band Beatles today. Holy crap. I was going to get the full set so I could get some new wireless equipment. Unfortunately, it isn't $180 as I thought it would be, but rather $250. Forget that noise. With that $70 markup, I'll get the game alone, thank you very much. Oh, speaking of the game, it was $65 instead of the $50 or $55 I was expecting. That must have been one hell of a price Harmonix paid to get the first digital versions of Beatles songs. No, seriously. Apple doesn't have their stuff on iTunes and Amazon doesn't have their original stuff in their MP3 store either. Eh. Until the game comes out next month, I'll be busy with new downloadable stuff that I'd not seen. Another Weezer pack (with My Name is Jonas and Pork & Beans), a Rancid pack (2 songs off of ...And Out Come the Wolves and one off of their new album), and a decent Spinal Tap pack that has classics such as Stonehenge, Big Bottom, and Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight.
Finally, for those of you who are fans of MST3K, on Thursday, August 20, the three guys from Rifftrax will be broadcasting a riffing of Plan 9 From Outer Space. It's kind of similar to how This American Life occasionally broadcasts a live show to theaters throughout the country. Only, you know, MST-ified.
Holy moley! An entire post where I didn't mention roller derby.
...crap.
MASTODON AND DETHKLOK
at the House of Blues on Wednesday, November 11th. Say what you want about the House of Blues being corporate trash, but it's no more corporate than the Palladium Ballroom considering the House of Blues actually allows you to buy tickets at the box office with no 30% "convenience" fee. Sure, it's no Granada, but there haven't been any concerts I've wanted to see since Jonathan Coulton and Paul & Storm.
I've not seen Mastodon in concert, so I can't speak for them, but I have seen Dethklok in concert, and they put on one hell of a show. Just like Metalocalypse, their live show perfectly blends comedy with melodic death metal insofar as the audience is pretty much put into the plot of a Metalocalypse fic that unfolds during the concert. Anyone who wants to go, give me a heads up because I'm sure as shit going to be there.
Shifting gears sort of abruptly, I put down my pre-order for Rock Band Beatles today. Holy crap. I was going to get the full set so I could get some new wireless equipment. Unfortunately, it isn't $180 as I thought it would be, but rather $250. Forget that noise. With that $70 markup, I'll get the game alone, thank you very much. Oh, speaking of the game, it was $65 instead of the $50 or $55 I was expecting. That must have been one hell of a price Harmonix paid to get the first digital versions of Beatles songs. No, seriously. Apple doesn't have their stuff on iTunes and Amazon doesn't have their original stuff in their MP3 store either. Eh. Until the game comes out next month, I'll be busy with new downloadable stuff that I'd not seen. Another Weezer pack (with My Name is Jonas and Pork & Beans), a Rancid pack (2 songs off of ...And Out Come the Wolves and one off of their new album), and a decent Spinal Tap pack that has classics such as Stonehenge, Big Bottom, and Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight.
Finally, for those of you who are fans of MST3K, on Thursday, August 20, the three guys from Rifftrax will be broadcasting a riffing of Plan 9 From Outer Space. It's kind of similar to how This American Life occasionally broadcasts a live show to theaters throughout the country. Only, you know, MST-ified.
Holy moley! An entire post where I didn't mention roller derby.
...crap.
Friday, July 31, 2009
When I turn the hat around, it's like a switch
Where shall I begin?
I've laid off the DDR for the past week as I do believe I've injured myself. Not seriously, but I think all the jumping around has given me shin splints so that it really hurts to continue more than a few minutes. This is what I get for not taking it easy and not bothering to see the clock to see that hours had passed by playing it the night before I discovered my shins killing me the next morning. Maybe I need to hit up the Thighmaster.
Speaking of Torgo, I recently picked up Sims 3. There are a lot of things I'm not too fond of, like the nickel and diming micro-transactions for cool furniture that should have been included in the game in the first place, but the game as a whole is pretty spiffy. I ordered pizza with one of my characters and a Torgo Pendragon was the person who delivered it to me. How cool is that?
I've also taken to using Sims 3 to create my co-workers with all their issues. For example, with only a few character traits, I can actually re-create the co-worker who digs through everyone's trash, has been caught sunbathing nude at work on the weekends (not while I was here, thankfully), leaves rotting food setting out on the desk so he can add them to his compost heap at home, and maintains a stack of newspaper clippings that make John Nash (A Beautiful Mind) look sane. These people are ripe for parody, as am I. Sadly, there are no fezzes available for wearing. Yet.
As for the rest of the weekend, I've got Derby tomorrow in North Richland Hills. I'll see how it compares to Assassination City. I'm trying to maintain a non-bias, but I'm finding it difficult considering how I like the laid back attitude of Assassination City. Actually, it's not laid back, it's just the lack of OMG SRS BSNS that takes over some of the other leagues I've seen. You know how some people can take something they love and turn it into work to the point that it's not fun anymore? AC Derby still knows how to have fun while they're busting their and other people's asses.
Tonight, though? I've got a couple DVDs from Netflix that I need to watch. First, I've got the first giant robot anime that I've enjoyed since Evangelion, Code Geass. I got to admit, I'm not typically a fan of CLAMP, but this is really well done so far and sooooo not cutesy. Of course it goes without saying that the character designs are beautiful. The second movie? DEATH BED: THE BED THAT EATS (Thank you Patton Oswalt).
And if I want to save those until work on Sunday, I did stop by Movie Trading Company and picked up Road House and Over the Top for the glory that is Mike Nelson's Rifftrax of those two movies.
OH, and holy crap these past few weeks have been awesome for weather. It's been unseasonably cool. Like not even reaching 90°F for a number of days. It's amazing. Although one of the thunderstorms killed my VOIP router, so my Vonage should probably be cancelled. Maybe I should switch to a Skype account with a WiFi phone considering that I now have Google Voice and can have people just call that from now on.
I've laid off the DDR for the past week as I do believe I've injured myself. Not seriously, but I think all the jumping around has given me shin splints so that it really hurts to continue more than a few minutes. This is what I get for not taking it easy and not bothering to see the clock to see that hours had passed by playing it the night before I discovered my shins killing me the next morning. Maybe I need to hit up the Thighmaster.
Speaking of Torgo, I recently picked up Sims 3. There are a lot of things I'm not too fond of, like the nickel and diming micro-transactions for cool furniture that should have been included in the game in the first place, but the game as a whole is pretty spiffy. I ordered pizza with one of my characters and a Torgo Pendragon was the person who delivered it to me. How cool is that?
I've also taken to using Sims 3 to create my co-workers with all their issues. For example, with only a few character traits, I can actually re-create the co-worker who digs through everyone's trash, has been caught sunbathing nude at work on the weekends (not while I was here, thankfully), leaves rotting food setting out on the desk so he can add them to his compost heap at home, and maintains a stack of newspaper clippings that make John Nash (A Beautiful Mind) look sane. These people are ripe for parody, as am I. Sadly, there are no fezzes available for wearing. Yet.
Tonight, though? I've got a couple DVDs from Netflix that I need to watch. First, I've got the first giant robot anime that I've enjoyed since Evangelion, Code Geass. I got to admit, I'm not typically a fan of CLAMP, but this is really well done so far and sooooo not cutesy. Of course it goes without saying that the character designs are beautiful. The second movie? DEATH BED: THE BED THAT EATS (Thank you Patton Oswalt).
And if I want to save those until work on Sunday, I did stop by Movie Trading Company and picked up Road House and Over the Top for the glory that is Mike Nelson's Rifftrax of those two movies.
OH, and holy crap these past few weeks have been awesome for weather. It's been unseasonably cool. Like not even reaching 90°F for a number of days. It's amazing. Although one of the thunderstorms killed my VOIP router, so my Vonage should probably be cancelled. Maybe I should switch to a Skype account with a WiFi phone considering that I now have Google Voice and can have people just call that from now on.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl, but she doesn't have a lot to say
This certainly was one of the better weekends I've had in some time.
Wednesday was pretty dull, but I did get the house cleaned. I probably should have gone to the grocery store as well, but I didn't.
Thursday involved seeing Rancid with my friend Billy from College Station. Rancid's set, although short, kicked all sorts of ass and I got sucked into the pit and was bouncing around for the entire time. It was awesome. Oh, in the crazy random happenstance department, at the show I ended up running into the waiter who served us at Café Brazil earlier that afternoon.
Friday involved celebrating Stacy's birthday all the way in the middle of nowhere, i.e. Azle TX. I was worried I'd be late, considering it's on the other side of Ft. Worth, but I got there at a reasonable hour. I know I had a great time, and I was able to evangelize about the awesome that is Strongbow with two six packs that were very well received.
Saturday was derby night, and that was even more fun than the bout last month. Although I wish I got there earlier than I did so I could snag a seat closer to the action, it was still a blast. For one, I actually put in a bit of effort into the costume. As I said earlier, I was going to go to Goodwill and get a white button up shirt and spraypaint an S on it, then wear a black tie. Turns out that because it's Texas in summer, the only shirts they happened to be selling were t-shirts and polo shirts. WTF? So, I had to drop the $20 on a brand new shirt and spraypaint that.
I didn't particularly care about dropping that kind of money on a new shirt that I was going to immediately ruin. After derby, I especially didn't care because I got plenty of compliments and questions about the shirt and my favorite fez from a number of the skaters and some other reactions from other people. One person at Lee Harvey's needed to get my picture because he too was a fan of the Dead Kennedys and knew exactly what I was trying to do. Also, someone at the skating rink asked me if I was taking bets on the bouts because of the dollar sign that my shirt and tie made. That was kind of weird.
I'd previously mentioned that I'd been led to believe that over the 4th of July weekend, I'd be meeting up with someone from my hometown who was down here in Texas but had been stood up. While it is true that we didn't have a chance to meet up, being stood up turns out to be far too strong of a phrase. Apparently her hotel didn't have the Internet access that they say they did, and since my number was only available to her online, she couldn't call. I was informed of this when she got back to Indiana and she sent me an apology and explanation, though I asked for no such explanation. We've actually kept in consistent contact since then, so I find this overall to be a series of fortunate events, particularly compared to some of the memories I have of her from 7th grade math class.
Finally, I've been drooling over some of the designs over at shirt.woot.com. As far as shirts that have come and are on the bubble, I'm really digging on this Back to the Future/Doctor Who shirt and The Filthy Hippies fake band shirt. As for this current derby (theme: tattoo), I have to confess, I really like this one. You know, with the short shorts, the striped socks, and the old school Vans, it reminds me very much of a roller derby logo, especially with their love of Betti Page era pinups and punk.
Wednesday was pretty dull, but I did get the house cleaned. I probably should have gone to the grocery store as well, but I didn't.
Thursday involved seeing Rancid with my friend Billy from College Station. Rancid's set, although short, kicked all sorts of ass and I got sucked into the pit and was bouncing around for the entire time. It was awesome. Oh, in the crazy random happenstance department, at the show I ended up running into the waiter who served us at Café Brazil earlier that afternoon.
Friday involved celebrating Stacy's birthday all the way in the middle of nowhere, i.e. Azle TX. I was worried I'd be late, considering it's on the other side of Ft. Worth, but I got there at a reasonable hour. I know I had a great time, and I was able to evangelize about the awesome that is Strongbow with two six packs that were very well received.
Saturday was derby night, and that was even more fun than the bout last month. Although I wish I got there earlier than I did so I could snag a seat closer to the action, it was still a blast. For one, I actually put in a bit of effort into the costume. As I said earlier, I was going to go to Goodwill and get a white button up shirt and spraypaint an S on it, then wear a black tie. Turns out that because it's Texas in summer, the only shirts they happened to be selling were t-shirts and polo shirts. WTF? So, I had to drop the $20 on a brand new shirt and spraypaint that.
I didn't particularly care about dropping that kind of money on a new shirt that I was going to immediately ruin. After derby, I especially didn't care because I got plenty of compliments and questions about the shirt and my favorite fez from a number of the skaters and some other reactions from other people. One person at Lee Harvey's needed to get my picture because he too was a fan of the Dead Kennedys and knew exactly what I was trying to do. Also, someone at the skating rink asked me if I was taking bets on the bouts because of the dollar sign that my shirt and tie made. That was kind of weird.
I'd previously mentioned that I'd been led to believe that over the 4th of July weekend, I'd be meeting up with someone from my hometown who was down here in Texas but had been stood up. While it is true that we didn't have a chance to meet up, being stood up turns out to be far too strong of a phrase. Apparently her hotel didn't have the Internet access that they say they did, and since my number was only available to her online, she couldn't call. I was informed of this when she got back to Indiana and she sent me an apology and explanation, though I asked for no such explanation. We've actually kept in consistent contact since then, so I find this overall to be a series of fortunate events, particularly compared to some of the memories I have of her from 7th grade math class.
Finally, I've been drooling over some of the designs over at shirt.woot.com. As far as shirts that have come and are on the bubble, I'm really digging on this Back to the Future/Doctor Who shirt and The Filthy Hippies fake band shirt. As for this current derby (theme: tattoo), I have to confess, I really like this one. You know, with the short shorts, the striped socks, and the old school Vans, it reminds me very much of a roller derby logo, especially with their love of Betti Page era pinups and punk.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
If the kids are united...
This weekend is going to be eventful, it seems. Tonight, I've got someone coming up from College Station and we're going to see Rancid and Rise Against at the Palladium (but honestly, mostly Rancid). I've seen Ben Folds and the Blackest of the Black tour at the Palladium, and I got to admit, I'm not a fan of the venue. Mostly because if I want to be sure I get tickets, I have to get gouged by Ticketbastard because the Palladium refuses to sell tickets at the box office until the day of the show. The House of Blues doesn't do that. Neither does the Granada or the Lakewood.
Then on Saturday, there's derby in Mesquite. BOOYAH. I don't know why, but despite Ass City not being as well established as, say, the Texas Rollergirls in Austin, I have a better time up here in Dallas. They most certainly have good choices for themes. Last month was a Ramones theme, this month it's the Beatles. Before last month it was the Clash and David Bowie. I still need to pick up a white dress shirt at Goodwill before then in support of the Deadly Kennedys. Why Goodwill? Well, I don't want to spraypaint a black S on a brand new shirt, do I? (Looking at that pic, holy crap, when was Zachary Quinto in the Dead Kennedys?)
Other news. In order to make exercise something other than complete and utter drudgery, I've invested in *gasp* a metal DDR dance pad. I was hesitant at first, getting one from Red Octane, because the last pad I got from them was complete shite and lasted all of a week before breaking (the zipper connecting the top half to the bottom which kept the foam padding inside sucked). I also picked up some new DDR games. Apparently I picked the right game initially. I already owned DDRMAX on the PS2. It's now selling on Amazon for $95. I did my research on the games I didn't have and got a number of them used for cheap. (Side note: one bad thing about getting used things that contain porous materials. You can always tell when it was previously owned by someone who smoked in their house. Ugh.) Amazing how the time flies playing a game and getting one's workout at the same time, eh?
Blogged with the Flock Browser
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Weak in Review
Let us see. Early in the week I made pho from scratch by following this recipe. It was good, but I highly doubt I'll make it anytime in the near future. To say it doesn't re-heat well is an understatement. Actually, it's not the re-heating that gets me; the fact that is becomes gelatinous in the refrigerator is what grosses me out. I think I'll stick to making curries, thank you very much.
Thursday had me slinging dice for the first time in years, this time playing old school Werewolf: the Apocalypse. It was great, but it's going to take some time getting adjusted to pen & paper rules. The last time I played Apocalypse (or any White Wolf, for that matter), it was live action. This is much better. Far less drama.
Today I was supposed to go out with someone down in Austin who's down here visiting from Indiana, but it seems apparent at this point that I've been stood up. I don't know what's more sad; the fact that I'm continually fooled by people who agree to something and then fail to follow through or at the very least call to apologize, or the fact that I pretty much expected this outcome from the very beginning.
But hey, as I expected this, I wasn't too upset when the plans fell through. I was able to have alternate plans and celebrate this 4th of July in my own way. I woke up early, watched Team America: World Police (can you think of anything more fitting?) and baked a Quiche Slygly. Holy crap was it delicious. The gruyère really makes it. Don't skimp and get something like Swiss or something worse. Sure, it seems expensive as hell, but I only used about a third of the 8 oz block I bought and even that was a little bit too much.
Oh! Fun fact for today. Apparently someone in one social networking sites I inhabit took issue with the fact that I watched Team America on today of all days (though my friends on Facebook seemed to be as amused as I was by it). If that pissed him off, I wonder what he'd think of my (slightly) hyperbolic analogy of "patriotism : nationality :: racism : race." I'm not quite willing to give up on the idea of patriotism as a whole, but that's because I discern between patriotism and whatever the hell it is that rednecks, Dominionists, and neo-conservatives practice.. I'd label that senseless kind of flag-waving demand for lock-step agreement in anything America does (unless, you know, dem der libruls are running things) as jingoism.
Sorry for that aside. Hey, my weekend' s not even over. I have tomorrow off as well. I'm going down to Austin to see the Texas Rollergirls. For real this time. Hopefully I'll see the Hell Marys beat the crap out of the Honky Tonk Heartbreakers. Hey, I was raised Catholic, I gotta root for the team in the Catholic schoolgirl outfits, especially the one whose number is a reference to the Whore of Babylon. :D
Thursday had me slinging dice for the first time in years, this time playing old school Werewolf: the Apocalypse. It was great, but it's going to take some time getting adjusted to pen & paper rules. The last time I played Apocalypse (or any White Wolf, for that matter), it was live action. This is much better. Far less drama.
Today I was supposed to go out with someone down in Austin who's down here visiting from Indiana, but it seems apparent at this point that I've been stood up. I don't know what's more sad; the fact that I'm continually fooled by people who agree to something and then fail to follow through or at the very least call to apologize, or the fact that I pretty much expected this outcome from the very beginning.
But hey, as I expected this, I wasn't too upset when the plans fell through. I was able to have alternate plans and celebrate this 4th of July in my own way. I woke up early, watched Team America: World Police (can you think of anything more fitting?) and baked a Quiche Slygly. Holy crap was it delicious. The gruyère really makes it. Don't skimp and get something like Swiss or something worse. Sure, it seems expensive as hell, but I only used about a third of the 8 oz block I bought and even that was a little bit too much.
Oh! Fun fact for today. Apparently someone in one social networking sites I inhabit took issue with the fact that I watched Team America on today of all days (though my friends on Facebook seemed to be as amused as I was by it). If that pissed him off, I wonder what he'd think of my (slightly) hyperbolic analogy of "patriotism : nationality :: racism : race." I'm not quite willing to give up on the idea of patriotism as a whole, but that's because I discern between patriotism and whatever the hell it is that rednecks, Dominionists, and neo-conservatives practice.. I'd label that senseless kind of flag-waving demand for lock-step agreement in anything America does (unless, you know, dem der libruls are running things) as jingoism.
Sorry for that aside. Hey, my weekend' s not even over. I have tomorrow off as well. I'm going down to Austin to see the Texas Rollergirls. For real this time. Hopefully I'll see the Hell Marys beat the crap out of the Honky Tonk Heartbreakers. Hey, I was raised Catholic, I gotta root for the team in the Catholic schoolgirl outfits, especially the one whose number is a reference to the Whore of Babylon. :D
Blogged with the Flock Browser
Sunday, June 21, 2009
So this is what getting out feels like
This weekend I didn't do a whole heck of a lot other than cook (chili 5 way on Wednesday, shrimp & pineapple fried rice on Thursday, chicken curry masala on Thursday), but I totally made up for it on Saturday. Saturday I spent a good 5 hours at roller derby watching the River Valley Roller Girls from Ft. Smith, AR play the Lone Star Assassins from Dallas' own Assassination City Roller Derby (ASS City for short) and the other teams from Assassination City, the Deadly Kennedys play the Bombshell Brigade. I gotta confess, just based on the white shirts and black ties, I'm partial to the Deadly Kennedys. The Jello Biafra reference in their name only plays into my preference of them a little bit. It's kinda like how when I can finally see Austin's league, the #4 ranked Texas Rollergirls, I'm pretty much already going to be partial to the Hell Maries because of their Catholic schoolgirl plaid skirts that are part of their uniform. Hey, at least I'm admitting to it.
Overall, it was a great time. I was sitting next to the mom of the captain of the Lone Star Assassins. That was fine until the awkward moment when (almost) out of the blue she started talking to me about how the Freemasons were a cult that didn't believe that Jesus Christ was our Lord and Savior and began insisting pretty hard that I praise Jay-sus. Fortunately, being raised Catholic and having a degree in religious studies allowed me to sort of deflect it by quoting Scripture at her (namely Matthew 6:5-6 where Jesus lambastes the hypocrites who make their religion a public spectacle and praises those who are faithful but don't brag about it).
Anyway, after derby let out, I actually tamped down the social awkwardness (I know, shock of shocks) and went to the afterparty at Lee Harvey's. My co-worker Frank was right. The place IS a real dive. That said, it was still fun nonetheless. Despite the partially hipster crowd (the place is known for its PBR, after all, and that shit's like pheromones for hipsters), the place was really laid back. Just like as I said with derby, Lee Harvey's is a place where rednecks, punks, bikers and hipsters can get along despite starting from totally different places. Personally, I think it's the tattoos that bring them together, as all those groups are pretty well known for having them.
After downing a few reasonably priced Shiners, I made the quick jaunt to the 24hr Café Brazil to kill the buzz before driving home. However, looking at the reviews on Yelp, I probably should have had some of the food there. Like I said, busy night for me.
But wait! There's more! Next week I'm getting started in a Werewolf: the Apocalypse game. I'm getting into the game through my friend Ange, and while I've not met the storyteller, he is anti-power gamer, which is good. I don't know his gaming style yet, but he seems very SRS BSNS. That's not so good. That said, he's flexible regarding my schedule, which is a first for normal people that have normal jobs. I'll just have to see how things are once we actually play.
Overall, it was a great time. I was sitting next to the mom of the captain of the Lone Star Assassins. That was fine until the awkward moment when (almost) out of the blue she started talking to me about how the Freemasons were a cult that didn't believe that Jesus Christ was our Lord and Savior and began insisting pretty hard that I praise Jay-sus. Fortunately, being raised Catholic and having a degree in religious studies allowed me to sort of deflect it by quoting Scripture at her (namely Matthew 6:5-6 where Jesus lambastes the hypocrites who make their religion a public spectacle and praises those who are faithful but don't brag about it).
Anyway, after derby let out, I actually tamped down the social awkwardness (I know, shock of shocks) and went to the afterparty at Lee Harvey's. My co-worker Frank was right. The place IS a real dive. That said, it was still fun nonetheless. Despite the partially hipster crowd (the place is known for its PBR, after all, and that shit's like pheromones for hipsters), the place was really laid back. Just like as I said with derby, Lee Harvey's is a place where rednecks, punks, bikers and hipsters can get along despite starting from totally different places. Personally, I think it's the tattoos that bring them together, as all those groups are pretty well known for having them.
After downing a few reasonably priced Shiners, I made the quick jaunt to the 24hr Café Brazil to kill the buzz before driving home. However, looking at the reviews on Yelp, I probably should have had some of the food there. Like I said, busy night for me.
But wait! There's more! Next week I'm getting started in a Werewolf: the Apocalypse game. I'm getting into the game through my friend Ange, and while I've not met the storyteller, he is anti-power gamer, which is good. I don't know his gaming style yet, but he seems very SRS BSNS. That's not so good. That said, he's flexible regarding my schedule, which is a first for normal people that have normal jobs. I'll just have to see how things are once we actually play.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Down and Out in the Emerald City
So, since the last time I made an entry, I've gone to Seattle and come back, had the community I helped administer returned to its original owners, and been interviewed by the police.
First things first. Seattle. Holy crap for crap I had a splendid time. I got to hang out with friends, I got to see a macabre circus show, I got to see roller derby up close and personal, I got to try a $5 milkshake (licorice flavor!), and I had sushi for the first time in well over a year (hooray conveyor belt sushi!)
The macabre circus of which I speak is called Circus Contraption, and it's very difficult to describe. I'm going to go with equal parts circus, burlesque, and musical. It had its very funny moments, and the second act showed a seedy underbelly and became significantly more dark than the first act (while still maintaining its sense of humor when needed).
The next night we drove to Olympia to watch the Cosa Nostra Donnas take on the Pikes Peak Derby Dames road team. I had so much fun, I want to go watch some of Texas' local teams, namely the Dallas Derby Devils, Assassination City Roller Derby (both out of Dallas/Ft. Worth), and the Texas Rollergirls out of Austin. I was supposed to go to the Austin game last weekend, but I couldn't get my oil changed until the same Saturday their match was and it took so long getting the oil changed that I fell asleep and couldn't wake up in time. I WILL make it to the Assassination City bout on the 20th, you can count on that. Anyone in the Dallas area is more than willing to join me. $12 for a night out is cheap.
The thing I really loved about derby is that its attitude is like a combination of punk and minor league baseball. The people involved on it are completely unpaid and do it only for the love of the sport, and there's a big DIY attitude among the people involved. Oh, and the original names they come up with are clever and occasionally geeky, and sometimes cheeky (That skater's name is Fanny Fister). Also, with the way the seating is set up, it's entirely possible that you could find yourself with a lap full of roller girl if you sit up close.
This is what a $5 milkshake looks like:
Licorice milkshake. Before you shun it for its flavor, it wasn't an overpowering kind of licorice like Uozo. Rather, it goes together surprisingly well with the creaminess. You can take a gander at the burger that accompanied it here. I'd link to the Lunchbox Laboratory's website, but while it looks all kinds of pretty, someone who loves Flash ENTIRELY TOO MUCH designed it. Looking at the site, they didn't offer it the day I was there, but apparently they will also make a bacon & brown sugar milkshake. That's just downright madness.
LJ Abuse finally got around to our complaints about the community mod account getting compromised. They wielded the banhammer about and returned the community to the original creators. Since then, we've lost one of the first demi-mods (who went certifiable in the community while it was being administered by the revolutionary mods), and now the community mods include both the mods-in-exile (like me) and the revolutionary mods and things are actually surprisingly calm. Funny how things like that work out.
Oh, and as for the police. Apparently, someone at work got his panties in a twist and started sabotaging things at work, like pouring some sort of solution on one of the laboratory meters and tossing a computer monitor in the basin a few months ago. I honestly have no idea who did it, though it could have theoretically been anybody. It all happened in a building that people rarely go to and there are a lot of disgruntled people. I'm more annoyed at what the results were. Not counting the having to be questioned by the police, they've been implementing some absolutely idiotic policies as a result that do nothing to curb the behavior. All they are doing is making everyone else even more disgruntled. Oh well. this too will pass. They'll get bored with their little inquisition and then things will eventually go back to the way they were. I just have to wait them out.
First things first. Seattle. Holy crap for crap I had a splendid time. I got to hang out with friends, I got to see a macabre circus show, I got to see roller derby up close and personal, I got to try a $5 milkshake (licorice flavor!), and I had sushi for the first time in well over a year (hooray conveyor belt sushi!)
The macabre circus of which I speak is called Circus Contraption, and it's very difficult to describe. I'm going to go with equal parts circus, burlesque, and musical. It had its very funny moments, and the second act showed a seedy underbelly and became significantly more dark than the first act (while still maintaining its sense of humor when needed).
The next night we drove to Olympia to watch the Cosa Nostra Donnas take on the Pikes Peak Derby Dames road team. I had so much fun, I want to go watch some of Texas' local teams, namely the Dallas Derby Devils, Assassination City Roller Derby (both out of Dallas/Ft. Worth), and the Texas Rollergirls out of Austin. I was supposed to go to the Austin game last weekend, but I couldn't get my oil changed until the same Saturday their match was and it took so long getting the oil changed that I fell asleep and couldn't wake up in time. I WILL make it to the Assassination City bout on the 20th, you can count on that. Anyone in the Dallas area is more than willing to join me. $12 for a night out is cheap.
The thing I really loved about derby is that its attitude is like a combination of punk and minor league baseball. The people involved on it are completely unpaid and do it only for the love of the sport, and there's a big DIY attitude among the people involved. Oh, and the original names they come up with are clever and occasionally geeky, and sometimes cheeky (That skater's name is Fanny Fister). Also, with the way the seating is set up, it's entirely possible that you could find yourself with a lap full of roller girl if you sit up close.
This is what a $5 milkshake looks like:
Licorice milkshake. Before you shun it for its flavor, it wasn't an overpowering kind of licorice like Uozo. Rather, it goes together surprisingly well with the creaminess. You can take a gander at the burger that accompanied it here. I'd link to the Lunchbox Laboratory's website, but while it looks all kinds of pretty, someone who loves Flash ENTIRELY TOO MUCH designed it. Looking at the site, they didn't offer it the day I was there, but apparently they will also make a bacon & brown sugar milkshake. That's just downright madness.
LJ Abuse finally got around to our complaints about the community mod account getting compromised. They wielded the banhammer about and returned the community to the original creators. Since then, we've lost one of the first demi-mods (who went certifiable in the community while it was being administered by the revolutionary mods), and now the community mods include both the mods-in-exile (like me) and the revolutionary mods and things are actually surprisingly calm. Funny how things like that work out.
Oh, and as for the police. Apparently, someone at work got his panties in a twist and started sabotaging things at work, like pouring some sort of solution on one of the laboratory meters and tossing a computer monitor in the basin a few months ago. I honestly have no idea who did it, though it could have theoretically been anybody. It all happened in a building that people rarely go to and there are a lot of disgruntled people. I'm more annoyed at what the results were. Not counting the having to be questioned by the police, they've been implementing some absolutely idiotic policies as a result that do nothing to curb the behavior. All they are doing is making everyone else even more disgruntled. Oh well. this too will pass. They'll get bored with their little inquisition and then things will eventually go back to the way they were. I just have to wait them out.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Best. Concert. Ever.
That's the name of Jonathan Coulton's new live DVD/CD, and while I don't know yet if the DVD lives up to that, I do know that last night's concert definitely ranks as one of the most fun concerts I've been to.
If you've never been, a Jonathan Coulton concert isn't really just Jonathan Coulton. Even though Paul and Storm are technically the opening band, they play for an entire hour and then they come back out a few times during Coulton's set.
Really, the audience was in rare form, and we were told as much by Paul and Storm. During one of the audience participation moments, we were given a relatively loose order (DEJECTED ARRR), and when the audience members that actually acted it out, every one of us tilted our head to the same side. This prompted Paul and Storm to comment that Dallas must be some sort of capital of Method Acting. I think the fact that the Rennaissance Faire is in town had something to do with that.
Paul and Storm played more of their full length songs than they did last time, which I think is a good thing, even though I kind of missed their rejected commercials.
JoCo's set was good, and we were treated to two different encores. In that way, I was reminded very much of Ben Folds. The first encore was First of May, but they brought up The Bad Philosophers to do their rendition in ASL, AS SEEN ON YOUTUBE:
I'm so going to have to download some of their podcasts, you know, what with the philosophy degree and all.
Second encore was I Feel Fantastic, which has got to be one of my favorite songs that I don't actually own on a CD. The only noticeable song missing from his set was Tom Cruise Crazy.
Overall, it was a terrific show, made all the better by a rowdy rambunctious audience. But don't take my word for it. Both P&S and JoCo tweeted about how much they enjoyed doing the show.
jonathancoulton: Jeez Dallas. You were amazing, thank you.
paulandstorm: [P] Thank you from both of us, Dallas; and I apologize for saying your whole state smells like sweaty balls. It *is* hot here, though.
Okay, play us out, Keyboard Cat.
If you've never been, a Jonathan Coulton concert isn't really just Jonathan Coulton. Even though Paul and Storm are technically the opening band, they play for an entire hour and then they come back out a few times during Coulton's set.
Really, the audience was in rare form, and we were told as much by Paul and Storm. During one of the audience participation moments, we were given a relatively loose order (DEJECTED ARRR), and when the audience members that actually acted it out, every one of us tilted our head to the same side. This prompted Paul and Storm to comment that Dallas must be some sort of capital of Method Acting. I think the fact that the Rennaissance Faire is in town had something to do with that.
Paul and Storm played more of their full length songs than they did last time, which I think is a good thing, even though I kind of missed their rejected commercials.
JoCo's set was good, and we were treated to two different encores. In that way, I was reminded very much of Ben Folds. The first encore was First of May, but they brought up The Bad Philosophers to do their rendition in ASL, AS SEEN ON YOUTUBE:
I'm so going to have to download some of their podcasts, you know, what with the philosophy degree and all.
Second encore was I Feel Fantastic, which has got to be one of my favorite songs that I don't actually own on a CD. The only noticeable song missing from his set was Tom Cruise Crazy.
Overall, it was a terrific show, made all the better by a rowdy rambunctious audience. But don't take my word for it. Both P&S and JoCo tweeted about how much they enjoyed doing the show.
jonathancoulton: Jeez Dallas. You were amazing, thank you.
paulandstorm: [P] Thank you from both of us, Dallas; and I apologize for saying your whole state smells like sweaty balls. It *is* hot here, though.
Okay, play us out, Keyboard Cat.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
sudo apt-get install blogentry
First things first. I've been busy installing the new version of Ubuntu (Jaundiced Jackalope) and getting it to run juuuuust the way I like. For the most part, I've found it ridiculously simple. The things I was most afraid of not working properly was wireless internet and, more importantly, my EVDO (mobile broadband) card. Interestingly enough, both of them worked flawlessly. There's always the difficulties with odd things that not everyone uses, but I now have my Truecrypt volume running and a decent password manager. The strangest thing is that I had issues getting VLC to play DVDs properly. This is odd because VLC will play most anything. It turns out I just needed to do a restart. I got Miro for my video podcasts and Hulu, and am only missing iTunes because while it's possible (albeit difficult) to use something else with an iPod, you sort of need it for an iPhone. Maybe I'll eventually need to learn how to use WINE. GRRR.
Despite the difficulties, I've totally been geeking out with it and loving every minute of it. The only thing I'm missing is my old Muncie Star Press money bag from when I was a paperboy. I use that as my dice bag. Yeah, I've been craving pen and paper gaming as of late, mostly because of WOTC's recent D&D podcast featuring a 4E campaign with Gabe & Tycho of Penny Arcade, Scott Kurtz of PVP Online, and TV's Wil Wheaton. I miss that kind of comaraderie in a gaming session. It's a damn shame that I've never had a gaming group last more than a couple months. :( Stupid real world concerns.
Now the joyousness. I've discovered that for the second year in a row, I and two others got screwed out of a merit raise this year. My promotion last year was their reason for denying me a raise last year, and that very same promotion is the very same reason they're using to justify. No. Not justify. There's nothing just about it. It's the very same excuse they're using to deny me yet another merit raise. The plant jackass that backstabs and lies and got caught screwing up? His measly 1% merit raise compared to my 0% merit raise indicates to me that even though the management (and everyone else) can't stand him, he is a better employee than I and more meritorious than I am.
Okay, so denying me a raise last year isn't entirely accurate. What they did was that they pushed the raises from January to April. I got my promotion at the end of March, so I had half a paycheck of that raise until my promotion put me at the bottom rate at a higher pay grade. So, basically, what happened is that I got a promotion raise, but I've been denied a merit raise two years in a row. This from the same bureaucracy that took nearly two years to get me uniforms. Maybe they're telling me something.
Despite the difficulties, I've totally been geeking out with it and loving every minute of it. The only thing I'm missing is my old Muncie Star Press money bag from when I was a paperboy. I use that as my dice bag. Yeah, I've been craving pen and paper gaming as of late, mostly because of WOTC's recent D&D podcast featuring a 4E campaign with Gabe & Tycho of Penny Arcade, Scott Kurtz of PVP Online, and TV's Wil Wheaton. I miss that kind of comaraderie in a gaming session. It's a damn shame that I've never had a gaming group last more than a couple months. :( Stupid real world concerns.
Now the joyousness. I've discovered that for the second year in a row, I and two others got screwed out of a merit raise this year. My promotion last year was their reason for denying me a raise last year, and that very same promotion is the very same reason they're using to justify. No. Not justify. There's nothing just about it. It's the very same excuse they're using to deny me yet another merit raise. The plant jackass that backstabs and lies and got caught screwing up? His measly 1% merit raise compared to my 0% merit raise indicates to me that even though the management (and everyone else) can't stand him, he is a better employee than I and more meritorious than I am.
Okay, so denying me a raise last year isn't entirely accurate. What they did was that they pushed the raises from January to April. I got my promotion at the end of March, so I had half a paycheck of that raise until my promotion put me at the bottom rate at a higher pay grade. So, basically, what happened is that I got a promotion raise, but I've been denied a merit raise two years in a row. This from the same bureaucracy that took nearly two years to get me uniforms. Maybe they're telling me something.
Blogged with the Flock Browser
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
This is why I'm not allowed to have sharp things
I was coming back from getting the mail and I saw a dirty coin on the ground. It was so grimy that I couldn't tell if it was a penny or a dime. I picked it up and It turned out to be a penny. Yes, I know, BORING.
However, from seeing that penny, I started thinking about Dr. Horrible. And then I was thinking how Dr. Horrible, being an evil genius, might go about trying to resurrect Penny, The Man With Two Brains or The Brain That Wouldn't Die-style. Of course, this would make for a horrible story (pun intended), but I just would love to see more of Felicia Day. As an actor. Not in any sort of pervy way.
Pondering this more, instead of a typical Bride of Frankenstein look, I was thinking a resurrected Penny would become a super villain. Do gooders would find her at all kinds of bad times. You know, turning up like a Bad Penny. Not only would Felicia Day still be in the Dr. Horrible universe, but it also fits in with Whedon's style. Yes, Billy was able to resurrect the body of the person he loves, but in the process he ends up killing everything he loved about her.
All that from seeing a penny on the ground. And THAT is why I'm not allowed out of the house.
However, from seeing that penny, I started thinking about Dr. Horrible. And then I was thinking how Dr. Horrible, being an evil genius, might go about trying to resurrect Penny, The Man With Two Brains or The Brain That Wouldn't Die-style. Of course, this would make for a horrible story (pun intended), but I just would love to see more of Felicia Day. As an actor. Not in any sort of pervy way.
Pondering this more, instead of a typical Bride of Frankenstein look, I was thinking a resurrected Penny would become a super villain. Do gooders would find her at all kinds of bad times. You know, turning up like a Bad Penny. Not only would Felicia Day still be in the Dr. Horrible universe, but it also fits in with Whedon's style. Yes, Billy was able to resurrect the body of the person he loves, but in the process he ends up killing everything he loved about her.
All that from seeing a penny on the ground. And THAT is why I'm not allowed out of the house.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Good thing I had savings
So, I've taken the cat to the vet, I've given him a name, and I've spent a buttload on all the things you need when you first get a pet, such as litter box, nail clippers, pet carrier, etc.
Unfortunately the name I had given the cat in my head was pretty lame, but it's stuck. The cat is a neutered male and named Mango. I totally wasn't thinking of Chris Kataan's character when I came up with that. I thought of it because I initially thought the thin hair on his back side was due to mange instead of excessive cleaning.
So far, Mango seems pretty laid back, other than getting him into a carrier to get him to the vet. That proved to be difficult. But other than that? Pretty great news from the vet. He'd already been neutered, he wasn't microchipped by a previous owner, and he doesn't have FIV. He seems to have been taken care of before I got him because he stops eating when he's full instead of gorging himself and throwing up on the carpet. I'm going to have to get those nails trimmed, however, because getting a gentle pat, pat, pat on my eyes as an alarm clock isn't my idea of a good time.
I've been talking too much of my cat as of late, so I give you a technology C-C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER!
There are a couple programs/add-ons I think people might like.
From Steve Gibson, I've found one of those programs you don't realize you've been missing until you try it. Katmouse is a nifty little mousewheel utility program. What it does is relatively minor but insanely useful. It allows you to scroll on windows that aren't on the top. For example, you can be watching something on part of the screen on VLC or Quicktime or whatever, but you can also scroll through the website that's underneath without having to click on the browser first and thus hide the video window. I can't believe something like this isn't part of generic mouse software it's so simple.
The other thing I've found to be pretty awesome is a Firefox add-on called XMarks. It used to be called Foxmarks, but now that it's also available on Internet Explorer and Safari, the name wasn't entirely accurate. Get an Xmarks account and install the add-on, and XMarks will sync up your bookmarks to their server. This is great if you surf the internet on multiple computers because your bookmarks will be the same on all the computers that you have (that are running XMarks, of course). This can also be useful if, like me, you wipe and re-install your operating system fairly often. That's just one fewer thing I have to worry about backing up when I wipe everything.
Unfortunately the name I had given the cat in my head was pretty lame, but it's stuck. The cat is a neutered male and named Mango. I totally wasn't thinking of Chris Kataan's character when I came up with that. I thought of it because I initially thought the thin hair on his back side was due to mange instead of excessive cleaning.
So far, Mango seems pretty laid back, other than getting him into a carrier to get him to the vet. That proved to be difficult. But other than that? Pretty great news from the vet. He'd already been neutered, he wasn't microchipped by a previous owner, and he doesn't have FIV. He seems to have been taken care of before I got him because he stops eating when he's full instead of gorging himself and throwing up on the carpet. I'm going to have to get those nails trimmed, however, because getting a gentle pat, pat, pat on my eyes as an alarm clock isn't my idea of a good time.
I've been talking too much of my cat as of late, so I give you a technology C-C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER!
There are a couple programs/add-ons I think people might like.
From Steve Gibson, I've found one of those programs you don't realize you've been missing until you try it. Katmouse is a nifty little mousewheel utility program. What it does is relatively minor but insanely useful. It allows you to scroll on windows that aren't on the top. For example, you can be watching something on part of the screen on VLC or Quicktime or whatever, but you can also scroll through the website that's underneath without having to click on the browser first and thus hide the video window. I can't believe something like this isn't part of generic mouse software it's so simple.
The other thing I've found to be pretty awesome is a Firefox add-on called XMarks. It used to be called Foxmarks, but now that it's also available on Internet Explorer and Safari, the name wasn't entirely accurate. Get an Xmarks account and install the add-on, and XMarks will sync up your bookmarks to their server. This is great if you surf the internet on multiple computers because your bookmarks will be the same on all the computers that you have (that are running XMarks, of course). This can also be useful if, like me, you wipe and re-install your operating system fairly often. That's just one fewer thing I have to worry about backing up when I wipe everything.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Now Old Mr Johnson had troubles of his own
Ever since last night, off and on, I've had a stray cat mewing at my back porch and occasionally my front door. I was mostly able to ignore it (I respect its privacy and don't wish to look to see if it's a boy or a girl), though I did go out onto the porch to pet it last night. I thought it'd get bored and wander off after I went to go to sleep. WRONG. Just as with the camping song, the cat came back the very next day.
I went to the grocery store today, and when I came back, there it was. In the light, I could see better, and it looks like the poor thing has got mange or some other kind of thing. Well, I don't know if it's mange. There's still hair everywhere, it's just not as thick in certain places on its back half. A kid coulda taken an electric razor to it a couple weeks ago to give it that same look.
After I put my groceries away, I went back outside to pet it for a few minutes. It's very friendly. My next door neighbor pulled up then, so I decided to go to the mailbox, as I don't want to get reported to management. I can see where someone else would get annoyed. After all, if its mewing was distracting to me actually being awake at 3AM, think of how much more annoying it is if it's 3AM and you're asleep.
When I came back from checking my mail, the cat was no where to be seen. I didn't think anything of it until I went inside and about 15 minutes later I smelled rain. Sure enough, it had started to rain, and shortly thereafter I heard the thunderclap. I suppose the cat heard the thunder before I did and that's why it went to find some place to stay dry. At this point, I feel bad, because while I'm hesitant about keeping a stray considering my 12 hour shifts, there's no way in hell I was going to make it stay outside in a Texas thunderstorm (even if Texas thunderstorms are the premature ejaculation of weather patterns: noisy and powerful and over all too quickly).
Here are a couple pics of the cat so you can see how much of a heartless bastard I am for not relenting soon enough. Forgive the quality of the photos; the thing seems to never stop moving, so there's a bit of blur in the first one.
I went to the grocery store today, and when I came back, there it was. In the light, I could see better, and it looks like the poor thing has got mange or some other kind of thing. Well, I don't know if it's mange. There's still hair everywhere, it's just not as thick in certain places on its back half. A kid coulda taken an electric razor to it a couple weeks ago to give it that same look.
After I put my groceries away, I went back outside to pet it for a few minutes. It's very friendly. My next door neighbor pulled up then, so I decided to go to the mailbox, as I don't want to get reported to management. I can see where someone else would get annoyed. After all, if its mewing was distracting to me actually being awake at 3AM, think of how much more annoying it is if it's 3AM and you're asleep.
When I came back from checking my mail, the cat was no where to be seen. I didn't think anything of it until I went inside and about 15 minutes later I smelled rain. Sure enough, it had started to rain, and shortly thereafter I heard the thunderclap. I suppose the cat heard the thunder before I did and that's why it went to find some place to stay dry. At this point, I feel bad, because while I'm hesitant about keeping a stray considering my 12 hour shifts, there's no way in hell I was going to make it stay outside in a Texas thunderstorm (even if Texas thunderstorms are the premature ejaculation of weather patterns: noisy and powerful and over all too quickly).
Here are a couple pics of the cat so you can see how much of a heartless bastard I am for not relenting soon enough. Forgive the quality of the photos; the thing seems to never stop moving, so there's a bit of blur in the first one.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
EXTERMINATE!
So I've recently started watching the new Doctor Who, and I have to admit that I've grown rather fond of it. Sure, some of the plots leave a lot to be desired, but at least the effects are tolerable. The glut of rubber monsters were pretty much the reason I couldn't get into the old one before (that and the only time you can get British shows on PBS is late nights on the weekends), but the new one is actually pretty damn compelling. Even when you take something as hackneyed as introducing The Devil as an antagonist for a couple of episodes, it's still pretty damned awesome.
One of the things I noticed when I was looking some stuff up is that some people seem to be noticing a trend with Doctor Who in the baddies' use of automatons/zombies/golems as henchmen. Of course, the baddies who use these are inevitably evil geniuses. While I can definitely see the trend as well (and noted it independently before I looked it up), one thing I can't believe no one's noticed yet was in the Satan Pit episode.
The Devil or whatever name you choose to use was able to control people by having letters of an ancient language marked on their bodies. Helloooo!! That's pretty much right out of the Jewish golem myth.
Okay, enough. My only reason for making this post was to share some awesome Dalek cosplay that was recently seen at Supanova, an Australian sci-fi/anime/comic convention. Seriously, it's downright adorable, even moreso when you think of them saying "EXTERMINATE" in Aussie accents.
You can see the rest of the pictures over here.
One of the things I noticed when I was looking some stuff up is that some people seem to be noticing a trend with Doctor Who in the baddies' use of automatons/zombies/golems as henchmen. Of course, the baddies who use these are inevitably evil geniuses. While I can definitely see the trend as well (and noted it independently before I looked it up), one thing I can't believe no one's noticed yet was in the Satan Pit episode.
The Devil or whatever name you choose to use was able to control people by having letters of an ancient language marked on their bodies. Helloooo!! That's pretty much right out of the Jewish golem myth.
Okay, enough. My only reason for making this post was to share some awesome Dalek cosplay that was recently seen at Supanova, an Australian sci-fi/anime/comic convention. Seriously, it's downright adorable, even moreso when you think of them saying "EXTERMINATE" in Aussie accents.
You can see the rest of the pictures over here.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
D-U-M-B Everyone's accusing me
If there is one thing that defines me more than being a complete technology slut, it's that I'm a cheapskate. So when one of my co-workers mentioned that he was getting rid of his iPhone because it didn't support MMS (which is what Picture Mail uses), I jumped at the chance. Sure, I wasn't going to switch to AT&T, but I'd been eyeing the iPod Touch as something to watch video on when the laptop is just too bulky. Not only that, but there are the applications.
Of course, getting the thing to work was an exercise in patience because of all the crappy things AT&T does to lock things down. First I had to restore the phone. Once it did that, it wouldn't work without a SIM card. Of course, not only any SIM card would do. Not only did it have to be an activated SIM card, but Jose (my co-worker) had to fill out a lot of crap in my iTunes so that AT&T could verify his identity. Fortunately, once that was all said and done and once the SIM card was removed, this time it worked just fine. Now I effectively have an iPod Touch that has a camera and GPS on it, and I got it for less than half what Apple would charge.
While I've been sort of gluttonous with the free apps (lots of radio apps and other music stuff), there was one app I've actually paid for: Oregon Trail. Awwwww yeah. Dysentery is back, baby!
I've recently been thinking of a way to write with a little bit more frequency. One of the things I was thinking was having a list of things that identify someone as a geek. Not really a, "You might be a geek" thing, but something more substantial than that. I think it'd be fun, but I'd like to have a huge list (Yes, a "You might be a geek" list of sorts) before I started so that I could do it regularly for quite some time. That said, I'm pretty sure if I was to wait until I felt I had sufficient material, I'd never get started.
Of course, getting the thing to work was an exercise in patience because of all the crappy things AT&T does to lock things down. First I had to restore the phone. Once it did that, it wouldn't work without a SIM card. Of course, not only any SIM card would do. Not only did it have to be an activated SIM card, but Jose (my co-worker) had to fill out a lot of crap in my iTunes so that AT&T could verify his identity. Fortunately, once that was all said and done and once the SIM card was removed, this time it worked just fine. Now I effectively have an iPod Touch that has a camera and GPS on it, and I got it for less than half what Apple would charge.
While I've been sort of gluttonous with the free apps (lots of radio apps and other music stuff), there was one app I've actually paid for: Oregon Trail. Awwwww yeah. Dysentery is back, baby!
I've recently been thinking of a way to write with a little bit more frequency. One of the things I was thinking was having a list of things that identify someone as a geek. Not really a, "You might be a geek" thing, but something more substantial than that. I think it'd be fun, but I'd like to have a huge list (Yes, a "You might be a geek" list of sorts) before I started so that I could do it regularly for quite some time. That said, I'm pretty sure if I was to wait until I felt I had sufficient material, I'd never get started.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
In which I come up with a lame "In which I..." subject line
Normally, I like to be pretty reserved and calm about things. Notice, I say normally. Currently, I'm about to jump out of my skin in a very messy joygasm because I just found out that Paul and Storm and Jonathan Coulton are coming to Dallas on Wednesday, May 13th. Color me extremely surprised. The last time they were here, the online ticket vendor that Club Dada was using really screwed the pooch and online purchase was completely unavailable until something like three days before the show. Needless to say, it was a rather intimate show. In addition to that, They had just played in Houston and Austin during SXSW a couple weeks ago, and I didn't think that they'd be returning to Dallas this soon. It's rare times like these that I actually like being wrong.
For any non-geeks reading, Jonathan Coulton is computer programmer-turned-folk musician known for his geek-friendly themes such as zombies, unrequited love, monkeys, and mad scientists. His best known work is easily Code Monkey, though two of his other songs have made it into Rock Band, Skullcrusher Mountain and Still Alive, the ending theme to the game Portal. Example:
Portal - Still Alive typography from Trickster on Vimeo.
Paul and Storm were initially part of the a capella group DaVinci's Notebook, who may be familiar to people who listened to Bob & Tom in the '90s. While they still attract fans from that sort of demographic (their song The Captain's Wife's Lament matches that kind of humor), they've expanded and become very geeky in their touring with Jonathan Coulton, as indicated by their song Live. They also wrote the old-timey theme The Ballad of the Sneak for the Brothers Chaps at Homestar Runner.
For any non-geeks reading, Jonathan Coulton is computer programmer-turned-folk musician known for his geek-friendly themes such as zombies, unrequited love, monkeys, and mad scientists. His best known work is easily Code Monkey, though two of his other songs have made it into Rock Band, Skullcrusher Mountain and Still Alive, the ending theme to the game Portal. Example:
Portal - Still Alive typography from Trickster on Vimeo.
Paul and Storm were initially part of the a capella group DaVinci's Notebook, who may be familiar to people who listened to Bob & Tom in the '90s. While they still attract fans from that sort of demographic (their song The Captain's Wife's Lament matches that kind of humor), they've expanded and become very geeky in their touring with Jonathan Coulton, as indicated by their song Live. They also wrote the old-timey theme The Ballad of the Sneak for the Brothers Chaps at Homestar Runner.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Rock Band is the new movie soundtrack
Back when I was in high school and later in the Navy, any money I spent on CDs went to movie soundtracks a lot of the time. It allowed me to get pretty much the songs I wanted without having an album full of crap. That said, they also functioned as a way to get me into stuff I'd not normally listen to. Forgive my complete lack of indie cred, but it was thanks to movies like Grosse Pointe Blank that I learned that there was more to the '80s than hair metal and cheesy pop. Those 2 soundtracks introduced me to The Clash, The Pixies, Siouxsie & the Banshees, and Echo & the Bunnymen. The Wedding Singer introduced me to The Smiths and Elvis Costello. And as un-frakking-believable as it is, Queen was virtually unknown to me until Wayne's World. I blame my father for that heinous oversight.
Nowadays, I'm not buying very many CDs anymore. Oddly enough, it's not because of the economy, I have more disposable income than ever before. No, it's primarily because the RIAA. I won't buy a CD from a band that's associated with them unless it's at a concert (the band gets significantly more profit from those sales instead of a buck or two if I bought it at a record store) If I'm going to get new music, I'm probably going to buy it on CDBaby, since they only sell music from independent artists.
I'm still getting exposed to new music, however. Now I get exposed to it through Rock Band. The interesting thing is that people like me are getting exposed to newer stuff we wouldn't normally listen to, and younger people are being exposed to the great things of the past. Some of the stuff that I enjoy playing on Rock Band I wouldn't be caught dead buying (I'm looking at you Modest Mouse and Panic at the Disco).
As for the old stuff that the youngin's (that apostrophe marks the loss of the letter G, not as a way of making it plural) can get exposed to, I'm thinking specifically of Dylan's Tangled Up in Blue, The Grateful Dead's Alabama Getaway (not to mention 2 whole Deadhead track packs), and Judas Priest's Screaming For Vengeance. I specifically am excluding The Who and Boston because although they're very well represented in Rock Band, you get to hear a lot of them on classic rock stations. Not so much with The Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, and Judas Priest.
This doesn't even include the independent and Harmonix bands that are included. I've bought a number of Freezepop albums (Sorry, I think Liz Enthusiasm is truly outrageous) since first hearing them on Guitar Hero 1. Bands like Bang Camaro are able to book gigs all over the country instead of merely New England thanks to their exposure in Rock Band and Guitar Hero.
Oh! Speaking of independent music. Check out these pair of Youtube videos. The first is Zoë Keating. She's a cellist who's currently touring with Amanda Palmer (of the Dresden Dolls). She uses pedals to loop what she's playing through a MacBook so when she plays it's like a cello quartet (or possibly a quintet or sextet.)
The next person, Kutiman, takes music in existing Youtube videos, cuts them up, and makes something completely different. It may take some time getting used to the jittery video, but it's totally worth it.
Sorry for all the links, but I like to give credit to the people who make such awesomeness possible, and I hope you do at least check out a couple of them.
Nowadays, I'm not buying very many CDs anymore. Oddly enough, it's not because of the economy, I have more disposable income than ever before. No, it's primarily because the RIAA. I won't buy a CD from a band that's associated with them unless it's at a concert (the band gets significantly more profit from those sales instead of a buck or two if I bought it at a record store) If I'm going to get new music, I'm probably going to buy it on CDBaby, since they only sell music from independent artists.
I'm still getting exposed to new music, however. Now I get exposed to it through Rock Band. The interesting thing is that people like me are getting exposed to newer stuff we wouldn't normally listen to, and younger people are being exposed to the great things of the past. Some of the stuff that I enjoy playing on Rock Band I wouldn't be caught dead buying (I'm looking at you Modest Mouse and Panic at the Disco).
As for the old stuff that the youngin's (that apostrophe marks the loss of the letter G, not as a way of making it plural) can get exposed to, I'm thinking specifically of Dylan's Tangled Up in Blue, The Grateful Dead's Alabama Getaway (not to mention 2 whole Deadhead track packs), and Judas Priest's Screaming For Vengeance. I specifically am excluding The Who and Boston because although they're very well represented in Rock Band, you get to hear a lot of them on classic rock stations. Not so much with The Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, and Judas Priest.
This doesn't even include the independent and Harmonix bands that are included. I've bought a number of Freezepop albums (Sorry, I think Liz Enthusiasm is truly outrageous) since first hearing them on Guitar Hero 1. Bands like Bang Camaro are able to book gigs all over the country instead of merely New England thanks to their exposure in Rock Band and Guitar Hero.
Oh! Speaking of independent music. Check out these pair of Youtube videos. The first is Zoë Keating. She's a cellist who's currently touring with Amanda Palmer (of the Dresden Dolls). She uses pedals to loop what she's playing through a MacBook so when she plays it's like a cello quartet (or possibly a quintet or sextet.)
The next person, Kutiman, takes music in existing Youtube videos, cuts them up, and makes something completely different. It may take some time getting used to the jittery video, but it's totally worth it.
Sorry for all the links, but I like to give credit to the people who make such awesomeness possible, and I hope you do at least check out a couple of them.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
I woke up this morning, had a scone and a large house blend
It's been an interesting start to the weekend. Instead of coming home and going to sleep shortly afterwards, I decided to go to Cafe Brazil to eat breakfast (only because we don't have a Kiev in Dallas and a thousand geek points to whoever gets that reference). This in and of itself isn't out of the ordinary, as I usually do this once every month or two after I get off work for the week. No, the weird thing is that I actually ordered my eggs over medium (though they came out over easy). I've never had eggs any way other than scrambled or boiled. It was actually pretty good, especially with some of the tomatillas and chicken from the enchilada mixed in.
I decided to switch my car insurance provider. Funny story. They decided to hike my premium up ten bucks. I thought this a bit odd since I've not had a wreck or a ticket or any other thing that would make my insurance go up in, oh, ten years. I sent off an e-mail to them politely asking what the deal was, and while I was waiting for a response I went looking for rate quotes elsewhere. It turned out that I could get an identical policy for about $75 cheaper. That's not a reason for switching since it's virtually guaranteed that Progressive would have matched the price. However, when I got my reply from them, the answer they gave me was kind of weak ("Oh, it's the Texas Legislature's fault that we have to charge you more because of insert bill name here") and worse, the lady made the noun "policyholder" plural by adding an apostrophe S. Seriously? Policyholder's? It's not even a common pluralization mistake, like adding an apostrophe S to nouns ending in vowels (like "Oreo's"). So, I sent them another e-mail telling them why I wasn't renewing my policy with them. I wasn't snarky or anything (which is actually quite the accomplishment when we're talking me and grammar), but I did tell them the grammatical error was the thing that pushed me to someone else. Hey, the way I see it, if people aren't notified that they suck in so many words and if there are no consequences for their crappy grammar, then they'll never learn.
After pretty much having absolutely zero interaction with anyone whatsoever barring co-workers for several weeks, I feel I'm getting that "need to be social" vibe again that I hate so. I hate it because people prove to be nothing but a huge disappointment time and again, and it's absolutely moronic of me to have this instinctual need to be get screwed by them, figuratively, not literally. It's getting so bad that I might even go to The Church. I shudder at the thought.
There are a couple things that I'd like to link to, but this post is getting too long as it is, so I'll talk about them in a later post.
I decided to switch my car insurance provider. Funny story. They decided to hike my premium up ten bucks. I thought this a bit odd since I've not had a wreck or a ticket or any other thing that would make my insurance go up in, oh, ten years. I sent off an e-mail to them politely asking what the deal was, and while I was waiting for a response I went looking for rate quotes elsewhere. It turned out that I could get an identical policy for about $75 cheaper. That's not a reason for switching since it's virtually guaranteed that Progressive would have matched the price. However, when I got my reply from them, the answer they gave me was kind of weak ("Oh, it's the Texas Legislature's fault that we have to charge you more because of insert bill name here") and worse, the lady made the noun "policyholder" plural by adding an apostrophe S. Seriously? Policyholder's? It's not even a common pluralization mistake, like adding an apostrophe S to nouns ending in vowels (like "Oreo's"). So, I sent them another e-mail telling them why I wasn't renewing my policy with them. I wasn't snarky or anything (which is actually quite the accomplishment when we're talking me and grammar), but I did tell them the grammatical error was the thing that pushed me to someone else. Hey, the way I see it, if people aren't notified that they suck in so many words and if there are no consequences for their crappy grammar, then they'll never learn.
After pretty much having absolutely zero interaction with anyone whatsoever barring co-workers for several weeks, I feel I'm getting that "need to be social" vibe again that I hate so. I hate it because people prove to be nothing but a huge disappointment time and again, and it's absolutely moronic of me to have this instinctual need to be get screwed by them, figuratively, not literally. It's getting so bad that I might even go to The Church. I shudder at the thought.
There are a couple things that I'd like to link to, but this post is getting too long as it is, so I'll talk about them in a later post.
Monday, February 23, 2009
We could be happy (down) underground
I used to be absolutely fascinated with Australia in my later years in high school and into my time in the Navy. The first thing that I'm sure caught my attention that time was the (probably with extra hyperbole added for free!) disproportion of men to women and the resulting lack of respect women down under got from men because there were just so many women. There were many hormones clouding the judgment, I'm sure, and I was additionally suffering from a severe case of White Knight Syndrome, which I now find to be sexist against women (by thus assuming that women both want and need to be cared for by a big strong man).
My fascination with the continent that's also a country didn't really wane with losing my virginity because I discovered this absolutely CRAZY AWESOME way of electing people to office. This was a time when I was pretty much politically clueless but nevertheless opposed to both parties. Australia uses Alternative Voting (also called Instant Runoff voting) where it's mandatory to rank order your preference of candidates for a ballot to be accepted. If no one candidate gets a majority of first place votes, the person with the least number of them gets excluded and those ballots go to the second name on their list. And if no one candidate gets a majority of votes, the candidate with the lowest amount gets dropped, and those votes go to the highest ranked (still-included) candidate, and so on until one candidate gets a majority of the votes.
Mind you, I still think it's a great system and in time I think it could break the tyranny of a two party system, but it will never ever happen here. The Right will claim that it's against what the Founding Fathers wanted and the Left will claim it's disenfranchising their voting bloc. I don't know, maybe I'm assuming that they think that poor = stupid.
But I digress.
Australia doesn't seem quite so shiny to me anymore, though I admit that it's looking betting in comparison to New Zealand as of late. (Update: Apparently the New Zealand legislature has delayed their absolutely horrible Guilt Upon Accusation copyright law.) If you thought poorly of corporations like the RIAA and MPAA for their contempt of their consumers, you've obviously never seen the misplaced cynicism the Australian government hold towards its citizens' ability to make their own decisions regarding consuming creative content. Either that or they believe the bullpucky (Thank you Dr. Maddow for adding that to my vocabulary) about videogames turning people into homocidal maniacs (Doom and Littleton, CO, anyone?).
Oh yes, Australia's famous (at least in my mind) for what I like to call their Ministry of Censorship. They're the government organization that assigns ratings to things like movies, music, and video games. If they refuse to provide a classification to something, then that item can't be sold in Australia, thus effectively censoring such a thing. Call me weird, I have a problem with people telling me what I can and cannot watch or listen to.
That isn't to say I hate everything coming out of Australia. Not by any means. Look at Yahtzee's game reviews and The Night Air podcast. I just have no desire to live there anymore.
The Night Air is something that Wil Wheaton turned me onto in one of his posts and is actually really great in a different sort of way. Wil refers to it as， "the lovechild of Joe Frank and This American Life, babysat by William S. Burroughs" and that pretty much nails it. If you're unfamiliar with Joe Frank as I am (How he got on NPR with such a normal name is completely beyond me), think of him as a less conservative Paul Harvey.
As for Yahtzee, well we've already seen that you don't need to have great artwork to have great humorous content. Randal Munroe draws stick figures in his webcomic and I think they're brilliant. Similarly, the simple animations Yahtzee has during his reviews are simplistic, but his commentary is downright riotous, if a little foul mouthed (which I like).
My fascination with the continent that's also a country didn't really wane with losing my virginity because I discovered this absolutely CRAZY AWESOME way of electing people to office. This was a time when I was pretty much politically clueless but nevertheless opposed to both parties. Australia uses Alternative Voting (also called Instant Runoff voting) where it's mandatory to rank order your preference of candidates for a ballot to be accepted. If no one candidate gets a majority of first place votes, the person with the least number of them gets excluded and those ballots go to the second name on their list. And if no one candidate gets a majority of votes, the candidate with the lowest amount gets dropped, and those votes go to the highest ranked (still-included) candidate, and so on until one candidate gets a majority of the votes.
Mind you, I still think it's a great system and in time I think it could break the tyranny of a two party system, but it will never ever happen here. The Right will claim that it's against what the Founding Fathers wanted and the Left will claim it's disenfranchising their voting bloc. I don't know, maybe I'm assuming that they think that poor = stupid.
But I digress.
Australia doesn't seem quite so shiny to me anymore, though I admit that it's looking betting in comparison to New Zealand as of late. (Update: Apparently the New Zealand legislature has delayed their absolutely horrible Guilt Upon Accusation copyright law.) If you thought poorly of corporations like the RIAA and MPAA for their contempt of their consumers, you've obviously never seen the misplaced cynicism the Australian government hold towards its citizens' ability to make their own decisions regarding consuming creative content. Either that or they believe the bullpucky (Thank you Dr. Maddow for adding that to my vocabulary) about videogames turning people into homocidal maniacs (Doom and Littleton, CO, anyone?).
Oh yes, Australia's famous (at least in my mind) for what I like to call their Ministry of Censorship. They're the government organization that assigns ratings to things like movies, music, and video games. If they refuse to provide a classification to something, then that item can't be sold in Australia, thus effectively censoring such a thing. Call me weird, I have a problem with people telling me what I can and cannot watch or listen to.
That isn't to say I hate everything coming out of Australia. Not by any means. Look at Yahtzee's game reviews and The Night Air podcast. I just have no desire to live there anymore.
The Night Air is something that Wil Wheaton turned me onto in one of his posts and is actually really great in a different sort of way. Wil refers to it as， "the lovechild of Joe Frank and This American Life, babysat by William S. Burroughs" and that pretty much nails it. If you're unfamiliar with Joe Frank as I am (How he got on NPR with such a normal name is completely beyond me), think of him as a less conservative Paul Harvey.
As for Yahtzee, well we've already seen that you don't need to have great artwork to have great humorous content. Randal Munroe draws stick figures in his webcomic and I think they're brilliant. Similarly, the simple animations Yahtzee has during his reviews are simplistic, but his commentary is downright riotous, if a little foul mouthed (which I like).
Friday, February 13, 2009
Damn it, Dick, you've really done it this time.
I've been a fan of Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine since, oh, back when his first CD came out back around 2001. I've purchased all of his albums to date, some multiple times because I've lost a couple of them by lending them out to people.
I've witnessed him get more and more bitter regarding intellectual property these past few years and I've endured it up to now because I understand his point that he makes next to nothing because a majority of his profits go right back to the major record labels since all he does is lounge covers of popular tunes by bands who are owned by those labels.
That said, he's gone too far this time and I'm returning the CD he just sent me yesterday. I don't care that he already has my money for this CD and his next two. I'm that disgusted that I'm just willing to write off the loss.
While I'm not a fan of copy protection, to be honest, I don't mind the copy protection he's embedded on his CD. It doesn't install spyware on computers like Sony did a few years ago. Instead, there's an inaudible code embedded in the audio tracks that tie it to a particular purchaser so that if the tracks end up on an online file-sharing site, they know who to come after. In my opinion, that's all fine and good because it's silent. I can't hear it, and it will only affect those who are actually violating copyright.
The reason I'm choosing to return his CD is that on one of the tracks of his new live CD, Viva La Vodka, he mildly lambasted a fan at one of his shows for recording some video of the show on her cell phone. An argument could be made that it's disrespectful to be distracted like that during a show or that flash photography is distracting to the band, but no. He specifically stops the show to tell her that she's stealing from him. Tacky? Absolutely. What's worse is that this is one of the cuts that he chose to include on his live CD. Not only is he assuming this woman is a thief, by including this particular cut on the CD, I can only assume that he thinks that I'm a thief as well. I don't like that assumption.
Now that I think about it, what does that say about him and what he thinks of himself and his shows? Does he think his shows are so uninspiring and dull that some crappy quality video with even crappier quality audio posted to YouTube is identical to the experience of actually being at one of his shows? Is that what he's saying? Because that's what I'm getting.
He's getting to the level of Prince in levels of douchebaggery. Next thing you know he'll order a takedown notice of a video of someone's baby because there just happens to be 20-30 seconds of one of his songs playing in the background.
The thing that really gets me is that by doing the entire paranoid bully routine, he's playing right into the hands of those very record companies who are making it so difficult for him to make a living at what he's doing. If it weren't for these record companies' price gouging on rights (that go directly into their pockets and not to the artist, by the way), then he would have a significantly higher profit margin on his record sales. Just imagine if there were Creative Commons licenses on the music he was covering and he could go directly to the artists instead of through a record company with more lawyers than God (which isn't saying much, because all lawyers go to Hell).
This entire nonsense of berating a fan during a show reminds me of a few years back when I was at the Warped Tour. It's one of those festivals where most of the bands only have 30 minutes to play. One year, Anti-Flag spent 20 of their 30 minutes to rant and rave about the evils of capitalism and the Bush Administration. Yeah, because people paid money to get lectured at a music concert, not to actually hear music.
I've witnessed him get more and more bitter regarding intellectual property these past few years and I've endured it up to now because I understand his point that he makes next to nothing because a majority of his profits go right back to the major record labels since all he does is lounge covers of popular tunes by bands who are owned by those labels.
That said, he's gone too far this time and I'm returning the CD he just sent me yesterday. I don't care that he already has my money for this CD and his next two. I'm that disgusted that I'm just willing to write off the loss.
While I'm not a fan of copy protection, to be honest, I don't mind the copy protection he's embedded on his CD. It doesn't install spyware on computers like Sony did a few years ago. Instead, there's an inaudible code embedded in the audio tracks that tie it to a particular purchaser so that if the tracks end up on an online file-sharing site, they know who to come after. In my opinion, that's all fine and good because it's silent. I can't hear it, and it will only affect those who are actually violating copyright.
The reason I'm choosing to return his CD is that on one of the tracks of his new live CD, Viva La Vodka, he mildly lambasted a fan at one of his shows for recording some video of the show on her cell phone. An argument could be made that it's disrespectful to be distracted like that during a show or that flash photography is distracting to the band, but no. He specifically stops the show to tell her that she's stealing from him. Tacky? Absolutely. What's worse is that this is one of the cuts that he chose to include on his live CD. Not only is he assuming this woman is a thief, by including this particular cut on the CD, I can only assume that he thinks that I'm a thief as well. I don't like that assumption.
Now that I think about it, what does that say about him and what he thinks of himself and his shows? Does he think his shows are so uninspiring and dull that some crappy quality video with even crappier quality audio posted to YouTube is identical to the experience of actually being at one of his shows? Is that what he's saying? Because that's what I'm getting.
He's getting to the level of Prince in levels of douchebaggery. Next thing you know he'll order a takedown notice of a video of someone's baby because there just happens to be 20-30 seconds of one of his songs playing in the background.
The thing that really gets me is that by doing the entire paranoid bully routine, he's playing right into the hands of those very record companies who are making it so difficult for him to make a living at what he's doing. If it weren't for these record companies' price gouging on rights (that go directly into their pockets and not to the artist, by the way), then he would have a significantly higher profit margin on his record sales. Just imagine if there were Creative Commons licenses on the music he was covering and he could go directly to the artists instead of through a record company with more lawyers than God (which isn't saying much, because all lawyers go to Hell).
This entire nonsense of berating a fan during a show reminds me of a few years back when I was at the Warped Tour. It's one of those festivals where most of the bands only have 30 minutes to play. One year, Anti-Flag spent 20 of their 30 minutes to rant and rave about the evils of capitalism and the Bush Administration. Yeah, because people paid money to get lectured at a music concert, not to actually hear music.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Seven deadly sins, seven dirty words
Oh for the love of all that's holy I'm cynical. I recently saw this little gem on the internet and was pretty much filled with revulsion at having watched it. I'm not depressed and I'm not in a particularly bad mood. I just don't like the assumption that this kind of frou frou nonsense has universal utility. I especially don't like this attitude of, "Oh, you choose to be depressed or pissed off, so it's your own fault if you aren't constantly wearing your happy helmet and inspiring joy joy feelings in all those around you." I say we should take this philosophy to the detainees in Guantánamo Bay and tell them that it's their own faut that they aren't choosing to enjoy their extended Caribbean vacation.
I don't know. I just take umbrage at people who go up to depressed people and tell them to be happy as if it's the easiest thing in the world to do. It's not, especially when someone is depressed. Hell, if the person actually turned their emotions around on a dime like these people are wanting them to, they'd still find fault with them and call them manic depressive. It's a no-win situation for the person being told what to do.
Shifting gears a little bit, something else that royally pisses me off is people who rattle that same tired cliché about people who swear only do so because they have a limited vocabulary and are too stupid to come up with the words to get their point across without swearing. Bullshit. There are a myriad of reasons for using profanity other than ignorance, some of which include dramatic effect, brevity, or as an emphatic interjection. For example, say you suddenly find a live grenade in your pocket. You have about three seconds to live. Do you say, "My word, why I belie*BOOM*" or do you say something like, "Oh, shit!"?
I'll be the first to admit that there are some people who are just terrible at swearing. Like middle schoolers. They suck at swearing and throw in profanity in places that make no gorram sense and use it so often as to dull the impact of using them. That's no reason to denigrate an entire class of users of certain words simply because a vocal minority improperly uses them.
I don't know. I just take umbrage at people who go up to depressed people and tell them to be happy as if it's the easiest thing in the world to do. It's not, especially when someone is depressed. Hell, if the person actually turned their emotions around on a dime like these people are wanting them to, they'd still find fault with them and call them manic depressive. It's a no-win situation for the person being told what to do.
Shifting gears a little bit, something else that royally pisses me off is people who rattle that same tired cliché about people who swear only do so because they have a limited vocabulary and are too stupid to come up with the words to get their point across without swearing. Bullshit. There are a myriad of reasons for using profanity other than ignorance, some of which include dramatic effect, brevity, or as an emphatic interjection. For example, say you suddenly find a live grenade in your pocket. You have about three seconds to live. Do you say, "My word, why I belie*BOOM*" or do you say something like, "Oh, shit!"?
I'll be the first to admit that there are some people who are just terrible at swearing. Like middle schoolers. They suck at swearing and throw in profanity in places that make no gorram sense and use it so often as to dull the impact of using them. That's no reason to denigrate an entire class of users of certain words simply because a vocal minority improperly uses them.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
I love new media
To be more correct, I should probably say I love using new technology to access old media. My parents pay something around $100 a month for basic DSL and an expanded cable lineup, of which I'm sure they watch maybe a half dozen channels.
Me? I will admit I pay a premium for internet access. But I have FIOS at 15MB/s down as well as 15MB/s up. But if I were to get even basic cable tacked on, my Verizon bill would easily balloon to at least $125 a month. Instead, I get my movie and television fix from a multitude of sources.
For movies and TV shows of the past, there is, of course, Netflix, both via mail and their View Instantly movies.
As far as television is concerned, I catch MSNBC's pundit shows via their podcasts. Heroes, Battlestar Galactica, Psych, and Chuck I'm able to watch on Hulu. New episodes of [adult swim] cartoons I can watch on their own site if I'm too impatient to wait for the season to come out on DVD (as I am with Venture Bros). And gods forbid, I actually pay for The Daily Show and The Colbert Report on iTunes ($10 a month each for a month's worth of new episodes).
I know I could catch the shows on their respective sites, but news and current events shows sort of need to be watched soon after they air, and I don't have the bandwidth the stream those shows over my mobile broadband connection that I have at work. Additionally, I don't have the time to watch it at home during my work week, what with the 12 hour shifts. It's still a hell of a lot cheaper than a cable subscription, yes?
I know overall, I'm certainly not saving any money on media consumption as compared to my parents. I'm just spending it diffferently. My cell phone bill is significantly higher than that of the average user because I have both the phone and the $60 for the EVDO line into my laptop. I just see internet as a necessity for me whereas suburbanites twenty years older than me consider cable TV a necessity.
Me? I will admit I pay a premium for internet access. But I have FIOS at 15MB/s down as well as 15MB/s up. But if I were to get even basic cable tacked on, my Verizon bill would easily balloon to at least $125 a month. Instead, I get my movie and television fix from a multitude of sources.
For movies and TV shows of the past, there is, of course, Netflix, both via mail and their View Instantly movies.
As far as television is concerned, I catch MSNBC's pundit shows via their podcasts. Heroes, Battlestar Galactica, Psych, and Chuck I'm able to watch on Hulu. New episodes of [adult swim] cartoons I can watch on their own site if I'm too impatient to wait for the season to come out on DVD (as I am with Venture Bros). And gods forbid, I actually pay for The Daily Show and The Colbert Report on iTunes ($10 a month each for a month's worth of new episodes).
I know I could catch the shows on their respective sites, but news and current events shows sort of need to be watched soon after they air, and I don't have the bandwidth the stream those shows over my mobile broadband connection that I have at work. Additionally, I don't have the time to watch it at home during my work week, what with the 12 hour shifts. It's still a hell of a lot cheaper than a cable subscription, yes?
I know overall, I'm certainly not saving any money on media consumption as compared to my parents. I'm just spending it diffferently. My cell phone bill is significantly higher than that of the average user because I have both the phone and the $60 for the EVDO line into my laptop. I just see internet as a necessity for me whereas suburbanites twenty years older than me consider cable TV a necessity.
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