Wednesday, January 25, 2006

And The Beat Goes On

Still going. It's midweek already - when you're busy these days just fly by. Some interesting news lately:
  • Read about the Crack Tax in Tennessee today. It blows my mind. Here's a thought - when these people come in to pay this tax, how about ARRESTING THEM FOR DEALING DRUGS??!?? Seriously... "Well, this drug problem is getting pretty bad... what if we try and make some money off it in the process?"
  • Disney buys Pixar for Eleventytrillion dollars. $7.4 BILLION. Seriously. That's just obscene. It worries me, because Disney is getting desparate, and throwing out that much cash could seriously come back to bite them. Hopefully getting Jobs and his vision more involved at the House of Mouse will freshen things up and revitalize the Dis.
  • 24 Shocker: CTU has ANOTHER mole! Who'd have thought it?
Amy has a doctor's appt today and I have one tomorrow... gotta love it. The one tomorrow is INCONVENIENTLY right-smack in the middle of the day, which means I had to take a full day off. That's a pain, but at least things aren't TOO crazy here...

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Whootsauce

Shadowbox finally announced it: Coming in February, Sunday Shadowbox performances of The Who's Tommy! Should be a great time. Nice to see them kicking it old school Rock Opera-style. I wonder if they'll bring one of Steve's pieces out of mothballs once Tommy's done?

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

24 clichés, This Day In History

So 24 has finally started back up. Four hours in, and it's promising to be another good season. Lots of good action, some serious house-cleaning of old characters, plenty of twists and turns and "off-protocol" stuff. And including plenty of usual 24-cliches:
  • someone Jack cares about does something stupid & makes the situation much worse. (See: Terri, Kim, Chloe, new kid, etc)
  • Jack has a reason not to fully trust/cooperate with CTU, leading to him talking other agents into working "off-protocol" with him as well.
  • Jack does stuff SO INSANELY off-the-board/illegal but does something so heroic his crimes are absolved/not spoken of, except by:
  • New "uptight administrator" from District to take over and cause more drama by acting like a dick & preventing people from doing their jobs.
  • MORE moles! The 24-world government is made out of frigging swiss cheese it's so full of security holes.
  • "Face in shadows" guy who's running the terrorist operation from some remote location... (who may yet turn out to be NOT the main bad guy, but just another lackey himself)
  • The "multi-layered threat": It LOOKS like this situation is bad enough to warrant significant panic/CTU attention, but it's really just a set-up for THIS next, WORSE situation.
  • Plenty of "with all due respect, sir"... which admittedly isn't just a 24-cliche, but used in almost every drama on television. It translates to: "Fuck you pal, you're wrong."

There are plenty of others I'm sure, but those are the ones coming to mind at the moment.

In other news, 16 years ago today Washington DC mayor Marion Barry was arrested for possessing/smoking crack. He is convicted & does jail time. Five years later he is RE-ELECTED MAYOR. Gotta love it.

Friday, January 13, 2006

Friday the 13th Linkfest

Just a few quick links to keep you going today - most with a slightly spooky tint to help you get your Friday the 13th on:

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Stupid Cough

I wish my cough would go away. The damn cold I had back in the last week of December (which also happened to be our VACATION) is pretty much gone, but I've got this nagging cough that's driving me crazy. I don't WANT to have to do back to the doc, but we'll see.

Had a pretty good weekend. Hung out with Pat & Cindy for the first time in awhile, and played a couple different versions of the Scene It DVD trivia game, which was fun. Pat & I had two nice comeback wins. The Disney version of the game (as you might expect) is pretty damn easy, but the TV version is HARD! I mean, they include a pretty good mix of stuff, but no one (or hardly anyone at least) is going to be familiar with ALL that stuff - from soaps to sitcoms to cop dramas, etc...

Also saw The Producers with my parents. The reviews on it are all over the place, but I have to say it was great. I highly recommend it - Nathan Lane is hysterical, Mel Brooks's dialogue and lyrics are great, and Broderick, Thurman and Ferrell do good jobs as well. If you're totally not into musicals, you still won't like it, but I don't think this is really tied to the stage version for success in the same way that RENT was. It's not quite as innovative & blow-away good as Chicago, but definitely a great time.

I need to get back to work, so linkage:

Thursday, January 05, 2006

Tired, Sore, Happy

My back is hella sore this morning, and I'm pretty darn tired, but I'm still in a pretty good mood.

Texas beat USC for the national championship last night. That's quite possibly the best non-OSU college football game I've ever seen. It definintely lived up to the hype, and I'm SO glad that I don't have to hear about how unstoppable USC anymore (for now, at least).

Futurama may return, a la Family Guy. I'm STILL not a big Family Guy fan, but I'd LOVE to see Futurama make a comeback - that show is hysterical, and definitely deserving of a second life.

Looks like campus is getting a new "cereal restaurant" - this sounds pretty interesting. From the Lantern:

Cerealicious Café will open soon on the corner of 16th Avenue and High Street, said Jeff Coyle, part-owner of the café.

"Our slogan is 'What's in your bowl?'" Coyle said. "Basically, it's a mixture of cereal and toppings. Mix any cereal you want with any topping you want and it's going to taste incredible. Pick your favorite, then flavor it."

Upon ordering, the customer will watch employees of the restaurant put two scoops of cereal and one scoop of a topping of their choice, into a carryout container for them, Coyle said.

The customer will then have the choice to get skim, 2 percent, whole or soy milk for themselves, he said.

One of these three-scoop bowls costs $3.50, Coyle said.

Meghan Griesemer, a senior in English, is skeptical.

"It sounds like a cheap meal, but they have to have the cereal I like for me to go there," she said.

Coyle said Cerealicious Café will have 30 cereals to choose from, including favorites from four major brands: Kellogg's, Quaker Oats, Post and General Mills. It will also have 40 different kinds of toppings, including fresh fruit, freeze-dried fruit, cookies, candy and nuts.

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

Holy 2006 Batman

Yeah, it's 2006. I can't believe it either.

The break/vacation was great. Amy does a way better job of summing up our vacation then I ever could (stupid horrible memory), so go read her recap. If you care, that is... Out of me you'll get some quick highlights:
All in all, a good time. And I almost don't mind being back at work.

Which I really should be doing now - but I wanted to mark these links so I can find them later, and share them with you...