Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Midwest Daily Taptacular

So this afternoon I headed over to the Drake to attend a taping of the Daily Show, visiting Columbus (and OSU campus specifically) for their Indecision 2006 "Midwest Midterm Midtacular" coverage. They're here all week (which means shows Monday - Thursday).

I sent an e-mail back in August when I first heard about it, requesting tickets. Hadn't heard anything back since, so I assumed that it was a no-go. BUT... last week I got the e-mail saying I had two tickets for tonight! WOOT! Well, complicated WOOT, as Amy wasn't able to go (staying home with Evie for the neighborhood Trick-or-Treat action). Gary's sick (ubersick, I'm afraid). Jeff originally showed interest last Friday, but it's his anniversary. Randy had his own tickets (same day even!), so I went with Tyler from work. We waited in the rain outside Drake for around 1.5 hours, only to get inside and wait INSIDE (past the metal detectors!) for another hour or so before finally getting in. We were afraid Randy & Heather weren't going to make it in, and it looked like they were indeed the LAST folks in the door - but they actually got to be up behind the producer/sound table, so that was cool. (Or seemed to be anyway, I wasn't able to catch up with them after the show to see if they felt the same).

The taping itself was a BLAST. Beforehand they had a comedian come out and warm-up the crowd, getting everyone to scream & yell & shout & generally make noise, then cracking jokes with folks, calling out random people and poking fun here & there. A pretty good time. Unfortunately, I can't remember his name :( He played the Funny Bone last weekend... but that doesn't help. Anyway, he was decent, and got folks going pretty well, then Jon Stewart came out and chatted with folks for awhile, taking questions from the audience which ranged from what comedians made him laugh to what he would want to be reincarnated as (an otter, BTW). Pretty awesome to just take whatever questions from folks, and he handled them all well. The only one that was kind of stiff was someone asking him about running for president - he just said he wasn't and moved on immediately.

As for the actual SHOW portion, there weren't any retakes (or none needed that happened at the time I guess), so it went amazingly fast. It seemed kind of odd that there were pauses about the same length as commercial breaks in between segments. It's kind of funny how little actual CONTENT goes into a 30-minute show after commercials and such. The guest was an OSU professor (apparently they invited plenty of politicians, but no one was available/interested) - he was OK I guess, but it would've been nice to see LeBron yesterday or Borat on Thursday. No clue who's scheduled for tomorrow.

So yeah, watch the Daily Show tonight (or the replay tomorrow at 8)! There's an almost infantismal chance you'll see me in one of the crowd-panning shots! And if not, we'll it's still cool that they're IN TOWN. Despite the long wait in the rain, and inside, and the short actual TAPING, the overall experience was a blast, and I'd definitely do it again!

Monday, October 30, 2006

Beware The Ubersick


Holy wow... yesterday was HORRIBLE. Starting late Saturday night (or very early Sunday morning, depending on how you look at it), Amy & I both got really horrible awful sick. Needless to say it was VERY unentertaining, and lasted all night and the majority of the day Sunday. Thankfully my parents were able to come over and take care of Evie, because we were pretty much useless. Such an odd thing, as we were both fine as of typical bedtime Saturday night, then WHAM...

From the sound of things, most of the staff and older kids at Evie's daycare have had this recently. Evie has NOT gotten it, thankfully... though I think Allison might have. :( For everyone else, hopefully if you haven't already gotten it, you won't - it's the SUCK.

Meanwhile, today at work was decent (though hellabusy), and tomorrow should be a good day at work, followed by free tickets to the Daily Show taping at the Drake! Woot!

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Banemite!



So apparently the US Goverment has banned Vegemite!

No, not due to it being nasty stuff (which, you know, is a pretty fair complaint) - but due to some wacky ingredient restrictions. So for all those expatriate Aussies in the US looking for their salty-black-tar fix.... NO SOUP FOR YOU! (more)

Oddly enough, I picked up a small jar at Jungle Jims awhile back, which still resides in my cabinet at home -- so I've got contraband now baby! Black market here I come!

(and yes, I know I'm still slacking.)

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Slacker Ahoy

Wow, been awhile since I hit up the 'ol bloggage... at least by my standards.

Anyway, yeah I'm still here. Been up to many things:
  • First two weeks of Autumn Quarter -- AKA, the busiest time of the year at work. LOTS of work to do.
  • Not one, but TWO edition's of Max's Home Alone Adventure (guest starring Evie!). It's fall, which also means Amy starts traveling for work frequently. She's home all this week though - YAY!
  • Got and have been playing The Warriors for PS2. Very fun game - makes me seriously want to see the movie again, since it's been so long I remember pretty much NOTHING about it.
  • New TV! So far Heroes and Jericho both get the big thumbs-up, Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip gets a fair-to-middling, Six Degrees gets a middling-to-enh.
  • Graphic novels from the library -- great way for someone who doesn't want to spend $$ on comics like me to keep up on quality funnybooks! Most recently I've VERY much enjoyed reading Alan Moore's runs on Supreme.
  • FOOTBALL! OSU football and NFL both in full-swing at this point. The Browns only have one win so far, but OSU's undefeated! WOOT!
  • Mike & I also hit up Cleveland last week for a concert by Kamelot & Epica. GREAT show. Very fun.
So yeah, staying very busy. So busy I'm missing out on quite a bit too --
I know, I know, being a parent and all means not having time to do everything you want. I'm cool with that- not saying my life sucks or anything (far from it!!!) but there is just a LOT going on right now that I want to do... gotta make choices choices choices!