The Darkside

2008 CSA Wrap-Up

2009-05-21T20:35:00.003-04:00

Can't believe I never finished this out last year.

Well, for my own benefit, since that's the whole reason I did this in the first place, here's the remainder of last year's CSA. Because they sometimes have to swap things out at the last minute, or had extra "bonus" stuff, there may be some things missing... I'm not really going to remember that almost a year later.

Week 17/22

5 tomatoes
1 pt. cherry tomatoes
6 4th of July tomatoes
1 squash
1 zucchini
12 pcs swiss chard
1 eggplant
1 onion
1 bulb of garlic
12 ears of sweet corn
2 bell peppers
4 banana peppers
6 gladiolas

Week 18/22

5 tomatoes
6 4th of July tomatoes
1 pt. cherry tomatoes
1 yellow squash
12 ears of sweet corn
2 bell peppers
4 banana peppers
1 pt. blackberries
2 sprigs of basil
1 onion
1 winter squash
1 lb. green beans
1 eggplant

Week 19/22

5 tomatoes
1 pt. cherry tomatoes
1 yellow squash
1 zucchini
1 onion
2 bell peppers
4 sweet peppers
2 eggplant
2 acorn squash
3 turnips
12 ears sweet corn
1 lb. green beans

Week 20/22

4 tomatoes
1 pt. cherry tomatoes
4 sweet or hot peppers
2 carnival squash
2 onions
1 eggplant
1 yellow squash
1 zucchini
1 lb sweet potatoes
2 bulbs of garlic
3 heads of lettuce
3 turnips
12 cut flowers

(This week included an awesome recipe for Quinoa Stuffed Carnival Squash that we made quite a few times for the remainder of last season).

Week 21/22

4 tomatoes
1 pt. cherry tomatoes
4 bell peppers
4 sweet or hot peppers
2 winter squash
2 onions
1 eggplant
12 pcs swiss chard
1 lb. sweet potatoes
2 bulbs of garlic
3 heads of lettuce
3 beets

Week 22/22

4 tomatoes
2 bell peppers
4 sweet peppers
4 hot peppers
3 heads of lettuce
2 winter squash
2 mini pumpkins
12 ears of sweet corn
1 lb. green beans
3 beets
3 radishes
1 onion
12 cut flowers

And that's all!

We were really happy with our CSA last year... so we renewed for 2009 (and have already picked up week 1 of that!). The only major complaint is that it's a drop-off at Amy's gym way out in BFE... but it's not THAT bad, especially for fresh veggies weekly!

Live From Value City Arena, 2008 Edition

2008-09-21T07:18:00.002-04:00

It's OSU move-in day again, and I'm set-up on the floor of the Schott once more. I've lost track of how many times I've worked this event now. It's definitely been awhile - going back to when it used to be at the French Field House.

Things are going pretty well so far this morning - for the first time everything I needed was already set-up at the table and waiting for me - so THAT'S a good start. Plus I'm actually feeling human and not like the three-times dead zombie I was last year, so again, I've got that going.

A flawless start just makes the day so much better...

CSA Update

2008-08-27T22:56:00.004-04:00

Haven't updated in awhile, so let me catch up on the good 'ol CSA:

Week 12/22

3 Tomatoes
1 massive zucchini
2 Banana Peppers
1 bulb hard-necked garlic
3 odd-looking carrots
1 sprig of basil
2 yellow squash
2 green peppers
1 onion
3 heads of lettuce (again with the lettuce!)
2 large (summer) squash - 1 8-ball, 1 mini-pumpkin looking one (high-ball was it?)
1 pt cherry tomatoes

Week 13/22

3 heads of lettuce
5 tomatoes
1 onion
1 yellow squash
1 zucchini
2 green peppers
3 banana peppers
2 large (summer) squash - 1 8-ball, 1 patty-pan
1 tiny eggplant
1 pt. cherry tomatoes
2 sprigs basil

Week 14/22

5 tomatoes
3 green peppers
3 banana peppers
1 yellow squash
1 zucchini
2 sprigs basil
1 onion
2 large squash (another patty-pan and another mini-pumpkin looking one)
1 pt cherry tomatoes
1 smallish eggplant
3 heads of lettuce
1 pt. blackberries!

Week 15/22

3 heads of lettuce
1 sugarbaby watermelon
1 pt cherry tomatoes
6 tomatoes
1 summer squash (8-ball)
1 pt. blackberries
1 onion
4 banana peppers
2 sprigs sage
3 sunflowers

Week 16/22

5 tomatoes
1 pt cherry tomatoes
1 smallish eggplant
2 green peppers
6 banana peppers
3 heads of lettuce
1 pt. blackberries
1 large squash (I think we skipped it?)
1 yellow squash
1 zucchini
6 4th of July tomatoes (kind of in between cherry tomatoes and regular ones)
1 onion
1 bouquet cut flowers

--And that's it! I can't believe we've still got 6 weeks to go! Should be interesting getting into the late Summer/early Autumn crops to see what we get.

The farm our CSA is through lost their first two crops of corn to weather, so unfortunately we haven't gotten ANY corn from them. That's a bummer, but hey, helping farms through disasters like that is part of why we DO CSAs, right? They've given us more than enough stuff to make up for it.

As you can see, these past few weeks have been VERY tomato and pepper-heavy. Since Amy doesn't like red pasta sauce, there's not much we could cook to easily go through that volume of tomatoes before they go bad... so I've been making a lot of fresh salsa! Taking a HUGE batch to a potluck at work tomorrow, actually.

Anniversary, CSA Update

2008-07-22T17:18:00.005-04:00

Quick CSA Update, week 11/22 - halfway over already!

3 tomatoes
1 onion
2 huge yellow squash
1 green pepper
2 banana peppers
1 cucumber (pickling)
1 sprig basil
2 ridiculously huge zucchini
1 large bulb of garlic
1 smallish light purple eggplant (they had white, but those were even smaller)

The recipe they gave us for this week is for a tomato, basil, & mozzarella salad. It sounds pheomenal - can't wait to try it out, especially with fresh mozzarella.

We're clearly being overwhelmed by zucchini and squash here - they're so large that most things I cook with them only use one at a time and we get 3-4 each week! Gotta come up with more things to do with them.

So today is our EIGHT YEAR Anniversary. Completely crazy. Eight years ago today around this time I was posing for pictures getting ready for things to start - they were just about underway at this point.

Amy & I are of course continuing the Anniversary Steakhouse Tour. So far, we've been to, in order:

Ruth's Chris Steakhouse
Mitchell's Steakhouse (Crosswoods)
Smith & Wollenski
Morton's
Walker Station
The Top
The Claremont

This year we're going to the brand new Eddie Merlot's on Polaris. It just opened a couple months ago, but saved us from having to dip into the well of places we've already been (together but NOT on the Steakhouse tour), like J. Gilbert's, J. Alexanders, or even Hyde Park. After that, we'll be looking to travel to find a new place that meets the requirements.

After dinner, hopefully we'll be able to see The Dark Knight... depending on how late it is I suppose. Chris says we're 2 of 12 people in the US not to have seen it yet...

More CSA

2008-07-15T20:07:00.004-04:00

Still keeping track so that we've got a decent record of everything we got. Amy tells me that this is apparently the first year Bird's Haven Farms has done a CSA, and they're learning quite a bit. I guess they also do "self-pick", and that's why we only got swiss chard once, for example (self-pick folks picked it all up!). Also, I guess they were planning on only giving fruit to people who got the "large" CSA, and only gave the medium folks (like us) some to make up for the slow weeks.

This is our first year trying out a CSA, so it's all new to us anyway. And it's still been a blast getting so many fresh veggies every week and looking up new recipes to use them in.

So anyway, the updates:

Week 9/22
(in week 9 we were driving back from Chicago on our usual pick-up day, so someone from the gym picked out our share for us)

1 yellow squash
1 zucchini
1 tiny eggplant
1 huge kohlrabi
1 head of cabbage
1 tomato
2 tiny carrots (that's pretty much all they have carrot-wise)
2 cucumbers
3 turnips
1 green pepper
1 bulb (or whatever you call a "head" of cloves) of garlic! [the sheet says we were supposed to get an onion, but somehow we wound up with fresh garlic instead. Works for me!!]

Week 10/22

2 tomatoes
2 large yellow squash
1 bunch of fresh basil
1 bell pepper (a purple one! I didn't even know such a thing existed! It looks most like the one in the back in this pic:
2 banana peppers!
1 onion (for real this time)
1 huge zucchini
1 huge kohlrabi
1 cucumber (pickling variety)
3 turnips

Another nice haul. I made a zucchini & onion stir-fry (with fresh garlic) to go with dinner tonight and boiled the cabbage to serve with a southwestern pork loin we had. Turned out pretty tasty I think, though the zucchini I used was too much - it made it hard to keep the moisture down in the stir-fry and things got soggier then I usually like.

Amy's making kohlrabi & turnip stew using a recipe she's made a couple times now. It's tasty, and makes for good lunches especially.

CSA Week 8/22

2008-07-01T19:13:00.005-04:00

Picked up this week's CSA today, and it was another pretty impressive haul. We got:

3 heads of lettuce
1 massive cucumber, 1 curvy cucumber
1 large yellow squash
2 large zucchini
2 bunches of broccoli
1 large kohlrabi
3 wimpy carrots
10 leaves of kale
1 green pepper
1 eggplant
3 turnips

Their featured recipe was for the eggplant, but it was just plain fried eggplant. When trying to think of what to make for dinner with our haul, focusing on the eggplant specifically, there was fried or roasted eggplant, eggplant parmigiana... I wound up going with Ratatouille -- probably at least partly inspired by having watched the movie last week (our first Netflix selection!).

It turned out pretty good, and I have to say it was a lot easier to make then I expected. I mean, with all the different veggies involved, I figured the prep-time would be a pain, but really it was just a matter of chopping it all up & throwing it in the pan for awhile. Easy! And actually a nice filling meal, despite being vegetarian...

Diving into the CSA

2008-06-25T18:06:00.004-04:00

So after reading about them and seeing them around here and there, we decided to dive in and try out a CSA this year. That's community-supported agriculture, for those that don't know but don't want to follow the link. Think of it as kind of subscribing to a local farm -- you pay $$XX for the CSA and each week you get a variety of farm-fresh vegetables, locally grown and in season!

I've been really happy with it so far. We went with Bird's Haven Farms for our first try, primarily because they have a pickup location at Amy's gym, which she'd be going to anyway. They started a bit early in the season, so the first few weeks were a little thin, but things are really hitting a great stride, and it's so nice to have a variety of different fresh vegetables to work with each week.

I wanted to try and keep track of everything we've gotten without needing to worry about losing the little pieces of paper they give out, so here goes. So far, we've gotten:

Week 1/22:

4 heads of lettuce (chosen from several different varieties, none being "iceberg")
1 bunch of swiss chard
4 radishes
1 ginormous cucumber
2 onions
1/2 dozen eggs

Week 2/22:

4 heads of lettuce
1 qt. strawberries
1 lb. spinach
1 huge cucumber
fresh herb planter/basket

Week 3/22:

4 heads of lettuce
1 qt. strawberries
4 radishes
1 huge cucumber
1/2 dozen eggs

Week 4/22:

4 heads of lettuce
2 large cucumbers
4 radishes
1 green pepper

Week 5/22:

4 heads of lettuce
1 large carrot
2 lbs. potatoes
1 large cucumber
1 green pepper

Week 6/22:

4 heads of lettuce
2 large cucumbers
10 leaves of kale
2 large yellow squash
1 green pepper
2 beets
1 huge zucchini
1 lb. green beans

Week 7/22:

1 green pepper
2 bunches of broccoli
1 kohlrabi
3 smallish carrots
2 beets
2 medium cucumbers
2 turnips
9 leaves of kale
1 large yellow squash
1 lb. green beans

And that's all so far. Last week (6/22) and this week (7/22) were great hauls. Amy's actually started bypassing the biggest cucumbers, simply because we can't eat that much cucumber in a week.

Again, one of the best parts for me has been trying new foods. I'd never had swiss chard before and I love it (sauteed with some garlic & olive oil). Kale and kolhrabi were new tastes for me as well. I can't wait to see what's still to come.

Live From Value City Arena

2007-09-16T09:05:00.000-04:00

Another OSU move-in day, and another day working the morning at the Schott. I wasn't sure I was going to be able to make it at first, because I woke up this morning and my cold (or maybe the weather change?) led to me feeling slightly worse than death warmed over. It also doesn't help that I got sunburned pretty badly yesterday while at the neighborhood tailgate party. It wasn't even that sunny - wtf? Definitely snuck up on me.

Thankfully as the morning has gone on, I've been feeling quite a bit better. Which is good, since I'm here until noon... Things are fairly slow today, which is nice. Apparently with the away game yesterday lots of folks moved-in early this year.

Which is fine, because it makes for a slow morning with downtime for recovering and the Intarwebs.

Insight Makes The Deal

2007-08-29T22:16:00.000-04:00

Well, with the opening game of the season less than 72 hours away, sold out, and being broadcast only on the previously mentioned Big Ten Network, it's getting down to crunch time. Come Saturday there are going to be a lot of pissed off Buckeye Fans...

BUT... less than there would've been as of yesterday.

Big Ten Network, Insight reach deal

Wednesday, August 29, 2007 4:20 PM

By Bob Baptist

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

The Big Ten Network and Insight Communications reached agreement on a contract today, clearing the way for Insight cable subscribers in central Ohio to watch Ohio State's season-opening football game Saturday in the comfort of their homes.
Ohio State will open the 2007 season against Youngstown State at noon in Ohio Stadium. The game is one of an anticipated three or four Buckeyes games, including Sept. 8 against Akron, that will be carried on the new network.

Insight will carry the Big Ten Network as part of its "classic" service package when the network launches programming at 8 p.m. Thursday. In central Ohio, the network will be available on Channel 24 to subscribers without set-top converters and on Channel 26 to those with converters, Insight spokesman Bob Lau said.

(Check the Full Article)

Yes, that's right - Insight and the Big Ten Network came to an agreement, and the 2nd largest cable company in Columbus WILL be carrying the new network when it kicks off tomorrow night, and therefore WILL be showing the game on Saturday. And it's even going to be on the basic service ("classic") tier... which seems to me like Insight gave-in somewhat on that. Personally, I've placed most of the blame on the Big Ten & the network from the beginning, as the whole nonsense that it has to be on the classic service is just stupid. A sports add-on or special sports package (which we already have... with ESPNU, CSTV, etc.) is the perfect place for a new niche channel like this - there's no reason everyone should have to "pay" for it (even if the cost is hidden in their regular cable bill and not itemized).

But... in Columbus (and Evansville, IN apparently), Insight gave-in, while in other areas it'll be on the sports tier where it belongs. From their previous "use this to send a complaint to the Big Ten Network" site, there's a little more detail:

We believe that the compromise we have reached with The Big Ten Network is a good one. We are carrying the channel as part of our Classic service in the communities we serve in Columbus, Ohio and Evansville, Indiana which are in the heart of Big Ten territory. In the rest of our cable systems, which are located primarily in Big East and SEC territory, we will provide the channel on our Digital 2.0 tier alongside our other specialized sports programming. These additional areas include all of our Kentuckiana communities in and around Louisville as well as Lexington, Bowling Green and Northern Kentucky markets.

So... win one for the bad guys, I guess. But hey, at least we get to watch the game! Bonus!

W The Movie - WTF?

2007-08-21T09:36:00.000-04:00

I don't know what to think of this... the facepaint gives it a very trippy King Diamond/Damon Zex vibe... I want to watch more in that "staring at a trainwreck" kind of way.

For The Weekend Shopping List

2007-08-10T14:03:00.000-04:00

Couple things I stumbled across today for your weekend shopping list.

First off, because making a buck off of someone else's problems is the American Way, and because any chance I get to mention Ron Mexico is a win for me, I bring you the Michael Vick Dog Chew Toy. Referred to as "the only thing you can still buy with Vick's name on it".

In infinitely more practical news, I TOTALLY need one of these. The ECO Media Player - an mp3 (and other media) player powered by wind-up hand crank! No more running out of juice right in the middle of a plane ride, or worrying about leaving your wall/car charger at home when going on long trips. Instead, "one minute of winding gives up to 40 minutes of play time".

Of course, the "up to" part is a little worrisome. I mean, a gallon of gas in my car could last "up to" 20 years if I didn't drive it anywhere.... but small print-shmall print! It's a hand-powered mp3 player!! Think of the starving children!!

It's That Time Of Year

2007-08-08T11:17:00.000-04:00

Sanity returned to the world this past Sunday, as football is officially back in season. That long, HORRIBLE drought between the NBA finals and the return of real sports is over. It's a shame it had to come back with the f'ing STEELERS winning a game, but hey - at least Santonio Holmes landed one of those TDs. Oh, and Brady finally got an f'ing deal signed. So, yeah... get your ass to camp, son. I'm guessing even with the late start, he'll make an appearance in at least one of the preseason games, probably multiple.

Of course, we all know preseason NFL is garbage -- but at least it's there while we wait the next 3 weeks or so until the College Football season kicks back into gear. The teams started camp this week, and I have faith in Tressel and the rest of the coaching team to field a strong bunch again this year. I know there's a LOT of questions on the offense, and based on past experience, I wouldn't be surprised if Tressel fell into a 2 QB system before deciding who the clear starter is (though I HOPE that doesn't happen), but meanwhile, those first four games should be a good warm-up. The schedule feels fairly week this year, especially to start. I mean seriously, a I-AA?? I know it's Tressel's old school, but STILL. Check out the helmets of the first four games this year, IN ORDER:

I mean seriously, was that intentional commentary by the scheduling committee? Washington could end up being a tough game, but the others? Well, the helmets say it all.

Of course, unless you have tickets or DirectTV, you're probably not going to be able to watch those games anyway, thanks to these assholes. I love how they're playing up the conflict to be a problem with the cable providers, completely glossing over the ridiculous price and placement demands they're making of these places for a TOTALLY NEW, UNPROVEN entity. I mean seriously, do they really expect this to get ANY worthwhile numbers outside of college football & basketball season? It's not like they're going to have the rights to show bowl games or NCAA tournament games on there....

I'll leave ya with a bit o' non-football related content. Saw this video today from the folks behind a couple quality webcomics I read. It's one of the characters from Looking For Group, with a fun little Disney parody song:

The New Boogie Man

2007-07-26T21:27:00.001-04:00

So, you know how parents (and grandparents) used to (and presumably some still do) scare their kids into behaving by telling them stories about the boogie man, the monster in the closet, or whatever local scary legend there was?

Well, next time they act up, I'm thinking of telling my dogs that if they don't shape up, Ron Mexico is going to come take them away in the middle of the night...

(btw, I know I've been slacking here -- but I HAVE been throwing stuff on the tumblelog pretty regularly, so make sure you're keeping an eye on that feed too. In fact, that picks up posts here too, so if you want to watch just ONE feed, that'd be the one...)

We Live In Interesting Times

2007-07-10T22:00:00.000-04:00

Per the "Ancient Chinese Curse" that wasn't.

An exciting day today, complete with bomb scare, evacuation, business continuity planning put to the test, random filtered details, sketchy news coverage, and eventually a return to normal by lunch time! Can't beat that.

In the end, it apparently was a misplaced or forgotten briefcase with someone's repair kit of some kind. It got blown up by the bomb squad to be on the safe side.

News coverage:

---The local NBC affiliate has my favorite quote in their article:

Police evacuated the building, along with Grease Hall and a journalism building. Police created a perimeter of yellow tape, as students and staff gathered to watch the investigation.

GREASE Hall! Looks like someone wasn't paying close enough attention to the spellcheck! :)

NBC appears to have the most complete/informed post-event wrap-up.

---10 TV (CBS affiliate) has it's own coverage, which was also reproduced by the Dispatch. I have to call them on a possible exaggeration - it mentions "several hundred" people standing around outside the buildings. Now, I suppose it's possible the crowds died down after I left the scene, but I definitely wouldn't call the crowd that I saw "several hundred".

---News Center (ABC & FOX local news) had to get in on the misspelling game in their article:

Baker Systems Engineering building as well as nearby Drees Lab and Campbell Hall were evacuated during the incident. No one was hurt and students and faculty were allowed to return to the buildings within a short time.

Not quite as fun as "Grease Hall", but still missing the trailing "E" there. They also mention Campbell Hall has having been evacuated, but everything I heard pointed to Journalism being the only building on the other side of Neil evacuated...

---Mykola Bilokonsky actually has some really good coverage on his Newsvine page, though he also mentions Campbell Hall being evacuated... *shrug* What he's got is definitely more personal & more interesting than the short pieces the big money sources offer.

---There is currently no mention of this on The Lantern or UWeekly pages -- though I'm sure it'll be the front page of the Lantern tomorrow (what else is there to talk about all Summer), and I'd be pretty shocked if Corey Spring doesn't get his blog-on about it ....

Action Movie MAYHEM

2007-07-05T22:43:00.000-04:00

Been a good week for action movies! This weekend my Dad & I saw Live Free or Die Hard. You never know what you're getting into with these supersequels (part FOUR in this case), especially when it's been twelve YEARS since the last installment, and the star isn't exactly a young 'un. That said, I have to say this movie paid-off BIG TIME. It was extremely well done, a great addition to the Die Hard franchise, with some perfectly classic John McClane moments. Yes, there was some unbelievable stuff in there (the jet vs. semi-truck being the worst), but keep up your suspension of disbelief and enjoy the old-school action and great one-liners. And I have to say, the PG-13 rating didn't seem to hurt the movie at all. Only one F-Bomb in the whole movie, but the cursing (or lack thereof) didn't bug me at all. You NEED to see this movie. They even updated the song!

Monday night I saw Transformers with Hutch, Holly, Randy , Gary and Hutch's friend Tony. I have to say I had my qualms going in -- I played with Transformers, watched the cartoon and even read some of the comics, but I was never a HUGE Transformers fan - GI Joe always won top-spot for me. Still - how could a live action film do it justice? Well, I'd have to say this one did a pretty good job of it. The BEST part was hearing Peter Cullen's voice narrating & doing Optimus Prime once again. Totally brought me back to my childhood & gave me chills. The robots were VERY well done, looking well integrated into the scenes. The fight scenes were a little too busy to follow at times, and there were some rather big plot jumps (not necessarily a HOLE, but skipping something that should've been resolved) - but just like with Die Hard, I think it takes a backseat to a fun, VERY well done action movie. I could've done without Bumblebee pissing on the dude though...

Around The Internets

2007-06-28T21:50:00.001-04:00

As I've mentioned several times before, I'm a total Web2.0 junkie. I'm a sucker for trying out all the fun new toys, gadgets and gizmos. Some catch on and keep my attention for prolonged periods of time, while others kind of fade into the background as I devote my time to other things. Time is a limited commodity, even when I stay up way later than my wife & daughter most nights, I still can't fit everything in.

So, to blatantly steal an idea from Warren Ellis, here's a quick update on where I am, relatively actively, around the Internets as of late June 2007. Most of these are linked in the sidebar, but just in case you're not paying attention.

The Darkside - my personal blog. Containing typical bloggy-type things. Such as, for example, this post. You're reading it right now. Presumably. Maybe.
MySpace - isn't everyone?
Facebook (profile not linked directly, just search for me there if you want to find me). I probably check on Facebook a little more frequently than MySpace, but neither are ignored (or obsessed over, for that matter).
The Aggregated Darkside - combo-feeds/Tumblelog
Del.Icio.Us links
My Digg feed
Flickr Photos
Yelp Reviews
Movie Reviews: Flixster or Trusted Opinion (I'm not fully sold on either just yet)
last.fm music profile
Twitter
the Columbus Underground , (fairly regular poster in the forums, as "shroud" naturally.

I think that's a pretty fair compilation. At least of stuff I check into "actively". (Which varies depending on the service. I obviously don't have new movie reviews to add daily or even weekly, but when I do, I add them one or both of those places. And last.fm is basically passive scrobbling for the most part.) If you're interested in any of that stuff, be sure to add me as a friend - the one thing about my web2.0 addiction is that I can always use more "friends" on all these social services. Ever the wandering loner, eh?

Anyways, it's a good time, and as far as addictions go, better than most. Something tells me that it's not going to net me any government assistance though.

Heavy Metal Addiction?

2007-06-20T13:49:00.000-04:00

Normally I'd post a quick link to an article like this on Ye Olde Tumblr, but this one definitely requires a special highlight:

Sweden Supplements Income of Heavy Metal Addict

06/19/2007

A heavy metal fan in Sweden is so obsessed with his favorite music that the state of Hässleholm in the southern part of the country has deemed him psychologically impaired and eligible for financial assistance from Employment Services.

According to Blabbermouth.net, the story was first printed in the Swedish publication The Local, which reported that 42-year-old Roger Tullgren underwent psychological analysis after losing numerous jobs because he stayed out late at so many shows he couldn’t make it to work the next day. He claims to have attended almost 300 rock shows last year.

“The fact that I am so into music has affected my work situation to the extent that I have had to quit some jobs,” he said.

Tullgren started seeing a psychologist when he was fired from his last job and went on welfare. When the analyst realized the severity of the man’s situation, he had Tullgren sign a paper that indicated his “heavy metal lifestyle” was a “disability” and the man became qualified for a wage supplement.

FULL ARTICLE

I'm not totally sold on the veracity of this (the initial mention coming from BLABBERMOUTH seems a little suspect), but seriously... being SO METAL the government has to PAY YOU. Well played.

Baz Approves. ROCK ON, Young Swede.

Best News I've Heard All Day

2007-06-18T12:44:00.000-04:00

Well, thankfully (as far as I know) so far I've managed to avoid all the personal information/social security breaches, including all the credit card company leaks, OSU leaks, etc. But when the story broke last week of the backup tape with the personal information and social security numbers for all state employees and their dependents I figured it'd finally happened to me too.

I know several folks who have had their information compromised, and have been acquainted with some folks who have actually had their identities stolen. It can be a painful process getting everything cleaned up. Prevention & remediation plans are underway in pretty much every sector at this point to try and stem the tide, but it seems like there's still SO much to be done.

So anyways, the good news... I've been digging through all the news reports of this State leak since it first came out, and thankfully saw the news I was looking for today:

But the state has confirmed that the tape contains the names and Social Security numbers of all 64,467 non-university state employees. If they were enrolled in the state's pharmacy-benefits management program, their address and phone numbers also are included, as well as the names and Social Security numbers of 75,532 dependents.

Read the full story here. Emphasis added by me (the good news in question).

So one more break. Don't know how long it'll last, but good news for me and many of my friends and family for now at least. If you were one of the state employees who WERE affected (or a family member of), I'm assuming you'll be getting a letter in the mail soon (if you haven't already), and I'd strongly recommend taking advantage of the ID protection services they're offering. See the State Employee Identity Protection website for more info.

Eastern. Conference. Champions.

2007-06-03T00:37:00.001-04:00

The Cleveland Cavaliers are going to the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history!!

Before I get to that though -- I have to back up a step. Sadly, I slacked off and never got around to blogging about LeBron's INSANE performance in Game 5.

There's dominating performances and then there's totally putting a team on your back and carrying them through to the win. Scoring 29 of the team's last 30 points. 25 points straight. All the scoring for the team in BOTH overtimes. EVERY. SINGLE. POINT. He was driving and dunking and no one could stop him - the entire Detroit team, coaching staff, and every fan in that building knew who was getting the ball - but they just couldn't stop him. Even the few times they DID keep him outside he threw up shots that had NO RIGHT to go in, but did anyway! If you missed this game, you missed an unreal performance.

Take a few minutes to read some of the raves. It was all over the sports talk & news outlets. A particularly interesting one: 25 Points, 25 Memories.

So how do you follow-up a performance like that? Well, you can't really expect to TOP it... but it's important not to relax -- after all, last year the Cavs were in a VERY similar situation -- drop the first two games in Detroit, win the next two in Cleveland, go back to the Palace and steal a win... only to lose in Game 6 at home, then, hearts broken, get crushed in Game 7. Well, NOT THIS YEAR!

Things started out pretty close, then the Cavs got into a great rhythm at the end of the 1st, only to go cold during a 21-MINUTE TECHNICAL DELAY. It's ridiculous they let it go that long. Detroit kept it close, and LeBron did pretty much all his scoring from the line. The rest of the team did a GREAT job in stepping up to fill the gap.

The game stays close until the 4th Quarter... when not LeBron, but "Boobie" Gibson, the ROOKIE takes over. Draining 3 after 3... It was GREAT to see them finally pull away and knock it home. An absolutely great moment. a 21 year old rookie out of Texas, only 1 year younger than LeBron, but he looks like he's 16, and standing next to the big guys it's a riot - he looks like a freaking hobbit standing next to Z. But his play is HUGE. "Boobie Trap" indeed.

Great game, great night, great team! Gotta love it.

Journey Round The Internets

2007-05-29T20:44:00.000-04:00

Been staying up a little later the past few days and playing around with lots of different sites out on the Internets. Feeding my bizarre Web2.0 addiction primarily -- I'm a sucker for that kind of stuff, as I'm sure you know by now, and I've found a lot of fun sites there to feed said addiction lately. Most of them things which have been around for a little while that I just hadn't gotten around to previously.

I'll call your attention to the right-hand sidebar there, where you'll hopefully notice two new additions:

The Aggregated Darkside --Followed a link/brief write-up from Warren Ellis to Tumblr, and decided to sign-up. Tumblr is apparently a site for "tumblelogs". As they put it, if blogs are journals, then tumblelogs are scrapbooks. Essentially, it's blogging without the commentary - just a collection of links, pictures, videos, etc. And Tumblr has a really nice interface for importing whatever RSS feeds you want to throw at it, as well as pre-made import scripts for common sites like Digg, Flickr, Twitter, YouTube, etc. So, as you might guess from the name, I've set it up to import my stuff from all over the webosphere2.0. Plus some extra pics & links thrown in just to share. If nothing else, it's hopefully an easy one-stop-shop feed you can subscribe to to keep an eye on all that is Max. Or something.
Last.FM -- I've known about Last.FM a LONG time... but never bothered signing-up for it because I listen to my own iTunes music the vast majority of the time, and already have so much crap imported into iTunes that I didn't really see much need for Internet radio, social or no -- but then there's the whole AudioScrobbler thing they've got going. Basically, you can download a utility which CAN play their Internet radio (tag channels, friend channels, specific bands, whatever), but can ALSO pay attention to what you're listening to in the audio player of your choice and write it out to your profile, so you can build nifty little "recently played" lists like the one on the sidebar there. Or, if you rather, you can do "top plays", or whatever. It's pretty fun. And hey, I've even got two friends there already! (Thanks Gary & norb). FWIW, I already turned OFF my last.FM feeds to Tumblr because it was just too much - in comparison to everything else, the songs I listened to (per song) were just drowning the other content.

I also broke down and signed-up for Twitter today. I honestly don't know if I'll have much use for it at the moment, but it seems to be the current rising wave, so I want to at least poke around at all the different things you can do with it. The basic premise is that Twitter answers the question "what are you doing RIGHT NOW?" -- kind of like the Facebook "status" field, only even more immediate. You can add friends to a feed, and see all their updates automagically in your stream or RSS, or you can get the updates pushed to your phone via text messages (you can update via text msg as well!), IM, custom desktop apps, etc. It's apparently "really addicting" -- I suppose that depends on having friends using it too, and ATM, as far as I know, I have none. :P (heh)

So yeah, I love me some web2.0. I'm such a sucker.

Anyways, more fun from around the Internet, random link edition:

Belly Dancer gets half her butt liposuctioned away:
A German belly dancer has been given twice as much compensation as she asked for - after a plastic surgeon accidentally sucked away one of her buttocks instead of reducing the size of her thighs.
Yeowza. LINK.
What to do with that wedding ring after a failed marriage? Why, GIVE IT A PROPER BURIAL, naturally.

That's all for now. Gotta get back to watching the Cavs fight for an even playing field heading back to Detroit. Let's go Cleveland!! Can you FEEL the excitement Z?

Umm... I'll take that as a yes?

The 4400: Viral Assault

2007-05-25T23:14:00.001-04:00

Season 4 of The 4400 (the series) hits USA (the channel) on June 17th (the date). To rev up, they appear to have put quite a bit of work into a viral marketing campaign, including several themed websites, videos (hosted on YouTube, naturally), etc.

What's a real shame is that the first I heard about any of this is when Googling around this afternoon trying to find a premiere date for the new season. With all the work that went into it, why is the only thing I saw on it a Sci-Fi Wire news blurb from May 23rd? Now admittedly, per that story they just launched things on 5/21, but still - have we already become so jaded to viral marketing like this that no one cared enough to notice? Or are they going to ramp it up and get the word out a bit louder in the next week or two as the actual premiere gets closer? I would think some actual TV spots for the ads would be pretty cool -- though it might be a hair too realistic & freak people out, possible backlash, yada yada yada. Still, wouldn't it be fun if they ran something like this. That one won't embed - here's a shorter hack version from the ad company on YouTube:

I'm really pretty impressed with the amount of stuff out there. These aren't simple, quick one-page sites, they've actually put some effort into them. Here's what I've dug up so far:

Anti-Promicin: promicinterror.com
Pro-Promicin: promicinpower.com
Informational(?): promicininfo.com

Each site seems to have plenty of videos (the article mentions at least 80). I like the commercial-type spots a bit better than the "dispatches".

One thing they seem to be doing differently from some other viral marketing, is that they're actually ENCOURAGING roleplaying - non-paid, non-affiliated people joining up, typing stuff in character about their own stories, their own abilities or exposure, etc, etc. Though it's a pretty early 4th wall break for the site, the PromicinTerror has this "Contribute to the Cause" link which explains it a bit more:

Play a character and become a part of The 4400 universe -- tell us the part of the promicin story that only you can create! Take a look at some of the videos, articles and photo-illustrated stories on Promicin Info, Promicin Terror and Promicin Power. Then decide what new promicin story you'd like to tell and how you'd like to tell it. See suggestions below for creating a great submission.

They've even got forums setup on PromicinInfo where there's all kinds of folks posting in character, about promicin/4400y things, and some of THOSE people even link back to their own in-character personal blogs... of course, some of them link to unrelated sites, and some link to in-character blogs that BREAK character... I was able to register for an account on the forum & post a reply to one of the threads (I made it neutral enough that it wouldn't break kayfabe)... very cool touch, but as the word gets out, I'm assuming it's going to take some AGGRESSIVE moderating to keep griefers out. Because lord knows the Intarwubs luvs them some griefers.

So if you're exited for the new season of the 4400 to start, or if you're just a fan of viral marketing and fan-involvement, check it out!

EDIT: Unfortunately, their "embed video" links for the non-YouTube flash vids don't seem to work so well (with Blogger at least), so I had to cut out a couple. Be sure to check out the "Protect our Children" video on the first page of PromicinTerror.com - it's quality.

Solid Footing

2007-05-23T10:59:00.001-04:00

So our deck is done! (Well, the CONSTRUCTION of the deck is done).

We went ahead and loaded it all up last night with our brand new outdoor furniture (including Evie's own little picnic table Grandpa got her) and our old grill. Take a look:

I think it's great! And done in time for a Memorial Day cookout even! Too bad it's supposed to rain this weekend... We'll also have to UNLOAD the entire thing within a week or two and seal/stain it, but for now we're living it up!

If it does rain, then at least I won't have to regret missing the great weather if we wind up seeing PotC: At World's End (which I definitely hope to do). Can't wait, should be a good one! (Though the threequels haven't been working out so well for other franchises... but I have hope.)

Gotta run - but I also wanted to share this PG edit of 300:

Close, But No Cigar

2007-05-21T22:54:00.000-04:00

I'm still here. Things are going pretty well in Maxville. VERY busy at work lately, but that's a good thing - keeps things focused, yet busy means it's not all one thing and doesn't get boring. It also helps the time fly by very quickly.

Outside of work, our deck is almost done! It LOOKS done, but there are a few minor details I'm assuming should be polished off tomorrow. I'll get some pics up once it's all finished. (Of course, the "finish" (sealing/staining, etc.) won't be for another week or two). Not exactly looking forward to that, but you do what you gotta do. I AM looking forward to the deck itself - it looks awesome.

The title up there would be tonight's Cavs game. The boys put up a tough fight up in D-town, but fell JUST short at the end. The upside to the loss (if there is one) is that they went for the WIN instead of the tie at the end, LeBron driving the lane before kicking out to Donyell Marshall for a nice open look at a game-winning 3 that was JUST off... If they can take one of the games in the Palace before coming home to Cleveland, they'll be in GREAT shape. I believe.

Been having fun Yelping it up too, throwing up several more reviews tonight, and getting the beginnings of my favorite restaurants list together. I'll fill it out as I get more places reviewed. Hopefully soon. I threw a link to my Yelp Reviews over in the sidebar there. Still only have ONE friend there so far (thanks Irene~!)...

Last but not least, this week I FINALLY got around to checking out 24 Hours, the Kleptones double-album that came out LAST YEAR. It's not as thoroughly awesome as A Night At The Hip-Hopera, but it's still some solid Kleptones goodness... well-executed mashuposity that is definitely worth your time.

Cavs SQUEAK By, Get the Road Win

2007-05-14T22:22:00.000-04:00

Well, after looking TERRIBLE in their first road game of the series in Jersey Saturday (and ruining my ALL SWEEP, ALL THE TIME master plan, the Cavs took back control of the series with a squeaker-win tonight in Jersey, 87-85, and will head home to the big C to get the job done. Gotta hope the Bulls can do their part tomorrow night and get another win against D-Town so they don't get TOO fresh on us waiting for the conference finals to start. Better yet, force that series to game 7 so that the Cavs can polish off the Nets AND get some rest.

The ESPN gallery's currently a little thin (give 'em a break, the game just ended), so no EmotiBron tonight. Instead, Z brings you a LITHUANIAN KARATE CHOP!

Hi-YAH! Take THAT Mikki Moore! What kind of a name is Mikki anyway?

Yelp Me Out Here

2007-05-09T15:22:00.000-04:00

So someone over at the Columbus Underground forums mentioned this social restaurant/store/entertainment review site called Yelp. It's kind of like Yahoo reviews or Citysearch-meets-Web2.0. A dash of social network, a dash of local reviews, etc. Just my kind of new toy to play with, and very similar to the previously mentioned Trusted Opinion (ref'd here) or to a lesser extent LibraryThing (ref'd here). Only, you know, with a much larger base than just movies or books.

So I checked it out, and it seems like as good a place as any to throw my opinion out there. After all, I definitely enjoy checking out new restaurants, and have tried my hand at reviews in the past. Well, this is a much less formal, more social way to do so. I've only written up a few reviews so far, but I'm sure more will be coming - it fits a good niche, and is "flashier" than the other options. Here's my page. If you sign-up, be sure to "friend" me - I look so lonely with no friends there! ;)

In other news, the Cavs are up on the Nets 2-0! Only 10 games away from an NBA championship baby! That's right - I'm calling for the Cavs to SWEEP the ENTIRE NBA playoffs! It could happen, right?

What do you think LeBron, can you & the boys make it happen?

Bring On The Nets! (or the Raptors if they're lucky)

2007-04-30T22:38:00.000-04:00

The Cavs finished off their sweep of the (starless) Wizards tonight 97-90. Lots of sweeps going down in the first round this year. They're getting knocked for kind of slinking by most of the games in this series (especially given the Wizards being without their superstar and another of their top players)... but a sweep is a sweep.

Next up is the winner of the Toronto-New Jersey series, which the Nets currently lead 3-1. You ready for the next round LeBron?

Ok, ok, take a few days off and rest the ankle. They still need to finish up that other series anyway. In the meantime, let the Pistons & Bulls start softening each other up for the finals!

Here We Go Brownies!

2007-04-28T20:48:00.000-04:00

NFL Draft 2007! Your refreshing breath of football in the midst of the NBA & NHL playoffs and (sigh) baseball season.

Now, the Browns are pretty well known for horrendous draft picks since returning to the league. With such AWESOME first-round picks as Tim "home sitting on my" Couch, Willie "fell on a knife" Green, Courtney "ouch" Brown, Gerard "big money" Warren... and the Dynamic Injury duo of Kellen "Motorcycle Soldier" Winslow and Braylon Edwards. Jeff Faine at Center is in there somewhere too... while not as uber-bust as the other early picks, he's still got to be considered a loss.

So this year the Browns craftily managed to land themselves drafting third overall. Lots and lots of hot air was spent the past few months talking about who they'd pick... Adrian Peterson? Brady Quinn? Joe Thomas? When the time came, they played it safe and went for the area that arguably needs the MOST help for the team, picking up Joe Thomas from Wisconsin for the key Left Tackle spot. I have to admit, I was a little disappointed, but it definitely WAS the safe pick, and you can't argue that the Browns O-Line has been BAD. Still, I was bummed because this was a good pick for the future, but doesn't build any real excitement for NOW.

Then... the magic happens. Miami heads to Buckeye City and bites on Teddy Ginn WAY ahead of projections, instead of taking care of their gaping QB problem. And that means Brady slides further... and further... (they even took him off to a private room so he didn't have to deal with the "doesn't that suck" close-ups after every team that DIDN'T pick him).

And at #22 the Browns trade-up, back into the first round and land him after all. Two top-5 rated picks for the Browns in one year. NICE. And, Brady, like a champ, comes out & puts on the hat and holds up the jersey, being the last guy actually in attendance who hadn't done so at that point.

Of course, he was holding up the wrong jersey - so I had to do a little editing work for you. Not at all noticeable, I'm sure. ;)

Honestly though, I'm really happy about this - this is probably my favorite top 2 picks for the Browns since they returned to the league. They filled a much needed hole and STILL managed to get someone that we can hopefully ask to carry the franchise forward into the future. As long as he doesn't get sacked into oblivion first.

So I say, in the enternal mantra of the Cleveland sports fan, "This is the year!" ;)

Movies... Third Time's Still A Charm?

2007-04-27T22:47:00.000-04:00

Yeah, I'm still here. Been a little busy lately, what with Amy being nasto-sick this week, and being out of the office at work Tuesday, Wednesday and half of Thursday for a training thing out in Dublin.

I DID get to hit up Tropical Bistro for the lunch buffet Tuesday (excellent as always) and finally got to try Benny's Cheesesteaks for lunch Thursday. I'd have to say I definitely enjoyed the cheese steak (I even opted for the cheesewhiz, going for the more authentic). I'm obviously no South Philly person, but at least one person who IS enjoyed it. I'd definitely go back, but given how freaking way-outta-the-way it is for me from home OR work, I don't know how often that'll be realistically.

So, in other news, after poking around in Trusted Opinion a bit more this evening, rating some more movies... that prompted me to hit-up IMDB and look for what movies were coming out this Spring/Summer/later this year that I was interested in checking out. (Those that I've already heard at least something about, of course...)

Sadly... or maybe predictably, most of them were sequels or adaptations. What's REALLY odd is the sheer number of the THIRD installments in a franchise coming out this year. While Hollywood may be "out of ideas" as the common criticism goes, they sure seem to have hit on quite a few successful franchises lately to be cracking out this maybe #3s.

Here's what made my list, roughly in order of expected release:

So, you'll note the FIVE starred third installments listed above. As well as a FOURTH installment (Die Hard) and a FIFTH installment (Harry Potter). I'm sure there are other movies coming out soon that I'll be interested in seeing, but scanning ahead through IMDB's coming movies list, these are the only ones that really caught my attention so far.

I also saw two OTHER third installment movies coming out this year... Resident Evil: Extinction and Rush Hour 3. I have really NO interest in seeing Resident Evil. I'm sure I'll end up seeing Rush Hour 3 at some point, but I'm pretty well Chris Tucker'd out for the time being. His shtick got old REAL fast.

What movies are you folks looking forward to seeing the rest of this year?

That Post-Marathon Glow

2007-04-19T21:42:00.000-04:00

Well, that's been here and gone by this point. Still, I had a great time. I posted by full review on a couple different forums, including the Sci-Fi Marathon forum and Columbus Underground. Not that it's really all that in-depth, but go there for a longer recap. For the short version - attending (in our extended group): me, Dad, Gary, Hutch, Randy, Jeff, Angel, two of Jeff's friends I don't really know, and Mike F. Always a blast hanging out with everyone, and this was no different. One of the best get togethers of the year, IMO. Best & Worst:

Best Movie I'd Already Seen: Flash Gordon. MAN, I love that movie. It's a CRIME it's out of print.
Worst Movie I'd Already Seen: Star Trek: The Motion Picture *yawn* pan-pan-pan "here's the outside of the Enterprise" pan-pan-pan "here's the outside of VGER" pan-pan-pan "here's the audience napping" pan-pan-pan
Best Movie I Saw For the 1st Time: Fido. A fun new take on zombie movies.
Worst Movie I Saw For the 1st Time: Automatons. SWEET MERCIFUL JEBUS MAKE THE BAD MEN STOP. Someone hand me a knife - even the MEMORY of this movie makes me want to gouge my eyes out. I'm not sure, but I think they may have been trying to make some political statement? Maybe?
Best Food: Fully Loaded Gateway Fries. YUM!
Worst Food: Greek Wrap. My fault for not paying closer attention, but it contained no meat. Not bad as much as just not what I wanted.

So yeah, the Marathon's over for another year. Back to normal life. In which I STILL haven't ditched the damn cough that's been nagging at me for a couple weeks now. It got better for a bit, and most all the other symptoms are gone, but this shit is getting old, man.

Take your mind off the doldrums with some fun games:

And if Flash games aren't your speed, see Emily Short's Interactive Fiction games. The only ones I've played at length are Galatea and Glass, but they're both very well done, immersive interactive fiction (that's a fancy way of saying "all text") games.

Psyched For The Sci-Fi (Marathon, That Is)

2007-04-10T19:42:00.000-04:00

The 24th Annual Ohio Sci-Fi Marathon is this weekend at the Drexel Gateway theater! Noon Saturday to (roughly) Noon Sunday. I'm totally psyched.

My Dad & I have been going to the Marathon every year since the THIRD annual marathon back 1989 at the Drexel North! (Don't do the math, it doesn't work out.) Well, sadly, my dad actually missed one year, but I haven't missed one since. We cut out early a couple of the early years (I was still very prone to migraines those first few years), but we were there. We even got our pictures in the Dispatch while waiting in line one of those years at the Drexel North. To see a history of all the years, locations, and films shown, check out the Marathon History link. Suffice to say I've seen Them! on the big screen far too many times.

Over the years, we've picked up quite a few other folks for the outing - Gary (for quite some time now), Hutch, Randy, Featherstone, and many others have dropped in from year to year. We're doing our part to try and keep it alive at least!

This year's flier is here [pdf].

The (tentative/theoretical) schedule is:

Doors should open at about 10:30. Like last year we'll have a reel of pre-blast off trailers starting at about 11 or 11:15.

Noon Countdown & Blast Off
12 MONKEYS

2:30 KING DINOSAUR

4:05 THE GREAT YOKAI WAR - Ohio Premiere

6:20 Costume Contest
6:30 PUZZLEHEAD - Ohio Premiere

8:10 FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE SPACEMONSTER

9:55 FIDO - Midwest Premiere

11:40 AUTOMATONS - Ohio Premiere

1:10 CHOPPING MALL

2:45 NIGHT OF THE COMET

4:25 MINDWARP: AN INFINITY OF TERROR

6:00 SLITHER

7:45 STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE

10:10 FLASH GORDON
Noon Presentation of Certificates to survivors (if any)

Should be a great time. Can't wait! You should join us!

Snow, South Park, Cleansing The Filthy Internets

2007-04-05T14:57:00.000-04:00

Well, for anyone in the area, after a gorgeous start to the week with highs around 80, it SNOWED last night and earlier today. Gotta love Ohio weather.

If you're stuck inside thanks to the crappy weather, I give you yet another option for killing time. EVERY South Park episode EVER, streaming straight to you, thanks to the miracle that is the Intarwub.

Check out AllSP.com while you still can. They don't host the vids, but even still, you know this one has a limited shelf-life. This is actually one that really irks me, because if Comedy Central's "on demand" offerings through the cable company were any good (see the HBO On Demand model), I'd GLADLY watch the shows there... but instead all you get are 5 minute clips of Stewart & Colbert, and a random smattering of 1-2 episodes of each of their 4,000 shows.

If you can make it through the extreme traffic, Video Hybrid is another site worth checking out.

In case that's just all too much for you to handle, you can always head to the righteous side of the 'net:

Believe it or not, there are actually MULTIPLE Christian-themed YouTube clones out there. Check out GodTube ... the obvious choice, but if that's not enough for you, how about GospelTube? I guess with the popularity of YouTube, endless clones like this (with targeted audiences) were inevitable, and hey - they do serve a good purpose for their niche audiences. And this isn't really a particularly SMALL niche, either.
If watching videos and making online connections isn't enough for you, you can facilitate off-line connections through MyChurch.org - self-described as "Facebook for Churches". Somehow I don't think that means you can use it to invite everyone you know to your kegger of biblical proportions, but I suppose it WOULD help you figure out the name of the girl you hooked up with behind the pews last week...
Finally, I'm sure most of you have already seen this one before, but check out Conservapedia, for "A conservative encyclopedia you can trust." Beacause one Wikipedia wasn't enough, now you get your wide-open editable, in-depth but not likely to be well-referenced information in multiple flavors of bias!

Anyways, have fun... as for me, I'm finally over the death plague acquired by way of Amy last week... though Evie was running a mega-high temperature yesterday and had to stay home from daycare today, so I would up working from home this morning while keeping an eye on her.

My Humps?

2007-04-02T20:10:00.000-04:00

Brilliant!

Well, That's a Relief

2007-03-30T11:24:00.001-04:00

Can I Get An ALL SYRUP Squishee?

2007-03-29T14:47:00.000-04:00

So apparently, though the deal hasn't been finalized yet, they're working on a promotional deal which would turn some 7-11s into Kwik-E-Mart reproductions to help promote the Simpsons movie. Not only would it copy (at least some of) the look, but you'd also be able to get some classic Simpsons products, like Buzz Cola, KrustyO's cereal and Squishees!

Check it out.

All I can say is that. is. awesome.

No mention of Duff Beer, but I suppose that'd be a tough one since they're PROBABLY spinning the movie toward a younger audience.

POTC3 Trailer - W00T

2007-03-20T10:23:00.000-04:00

May 25th is ENTIRELY too far away.

EDIT: Grrr... stupid "Pirate Player" flash nonsense doesn't embed properly, and tries to take over the whole page instead.

Go see the new trailer here , or in High Def at Yahoo.

And commence drooling.

Ron Lewis Made My Baby Cry

2007-03-20T08:18:00.000-04:00

Well, I made Evie cry. but it was in reaction to Ron Lewis's 3 that tied the OSU-Xavier game on Saturday to send things into OT. After being down 11 with about 6 minutes left, and still being down a chunk with TWO minutes left, I'd pretty much written this one off. I definitely have to give that team credit - they rallied hard, and fought their way back. Even after I thought it was finally over (Butler misses the 3, and Xavier goes to the line with a chance to go up by FOUR)... the second free throw rolls off the rim, Harris grabs the rebound, and they drive down the court in time for Lewis to throw up the HUGE shot.

There's also video of it (official even!) over on YouTube. You have to click the link though - "embedding is disabled by request". I guess CBS and/or the NCAA doesn't want you watching their content without seeing their logos and such, despite them being littered through the video too.

But anyway, the game -- it was awesome. How could I NOT stand up and shout? Well, unfortunately Evie wasn't really ready for the standing and the loudness, and started crying... :( We got her all settled down fast enough, but I still feel bad.

Meanwhile, the Buckeyes went on a tear in overtime, and made it into the Sweet 16! Teed up for a rematch with Tennessee -- hopefully it's a good one!

Lets Go Eagles!

2007-03-13T23:01:00.000-04:00

I don't do NCAA tournament pools (or any other kind of "fantasy" sports) for money. It's all for fun and bragging rights. Still, I do tend to pay attention and take them seriously. For the pools I'm in with friends and folks at work, I actually put in "real" picks this year.

But I couldn't resist the tradition, so I did go ahead and fill out a full bracket with my Coin-Flip Picks '07. This is purely based on the coin - no "weighting" for 1 seeds, no home-team favoritism - just flipping a coin and recording the predicted winner of each matchup.

So how'd it come out this year? Well, no #1 seeds upset in the first round this year (last year I had a 16 seed in the Final Four), but THREE #2 seeds dropped their opening games (Georgetown being the sole survivor)

The Final Four: Winthrop, Virginia Tech, Georgetown, Pennsylvania

The end result: Winthrop over Georgetown

Let's Go Eagles!

No Coffee

2007-03-11T11:09:00.000-04:00

So I've been at work since 8am this morning. "Just in case" there was any DST-change related chaos. You know - like planes crashing into buildings, servers spontaneously bursting into flames because their clocks are an hour off, that kind of thing.

Well, the other person who was supposed to be in @ 8 is MIA.

I made myself a half-pot of coffee around 10 to keep the energy up, had a cup. Went back to get another cup a bit later, and the pot was nigh-empty. The student who came in at 10:30 had hit it up.

And the sad thing is... I can't be mad at the guy - he's here working outside our normal hours to help us cover.

But I'm sad that I have no more coffee.

News Flash: Still Winter

2007-03-07T10:11:00.000-05:00

This just in: Though it may be March, and we may have had some nice mild temperatures last week, it is in fact still Winter in Ohio. Nice heavy flurries coming down outside ATM - though only an inch is expected to accumulate last I heard.

Best Buy admits to keeping fake rip-off site

2007-03-05T15:14:00.000-05:00

(From Boing Boing)

Best Buy admits to keeping fake rip-off site
Best Buy has admitted to maintaining a fake version of its website for internal use at its stores. This is part of a scam where Best Buy lists cheap prices online and invites customers to come to the store to take advantage of them. When the customer gets there, a dirtbag salesman loads up the fake website and shows them that the price has "gone up" while the customer was driving over to the store and offers to sell the item for the new price.
State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal ordered the investigation into Best Buy's practices on Feb. 9 after my column disclosed the website and showed how employees at two Connecticut stores used it to deny customers a $150 discount on a computer advertised on BestBuy.com.
Blumenthal said Wednesday that Best Buy has also confirmed to his office the existence of the intranet site, but has so far failed to give clear answers about its purpose and use.

Link to full article

The crazy thing is I've actually been hit by this crap. When we were getting our video camera we checked the prices online at a few different locations, and went to Best Buy b/c it was coming up as the cheapest - only to find out that the sticker in the store was a good deal higher. When we mentioned seeing the price on the web page THAT MORNING, before coming to the store, they pulled up the web site on one of the computers there, completely identical to the one we'd seen at home EXCEPT for a higher price (the same price shown in-store).

While I admit I would've fallen for their garbage, Amy & my mom stuck to their guns, and the dude finally gave in and said if we could show a print-out of the web page we'd seen, they'd "price match" - so we printed THEIR OWN WEBSITE and brought in the proof to get the better price. But how many people wouldn't have taken the extra step?

Cartoon Nostalgia Overload

2007-03-05T08:29:00.000-05:00

Almost a half hour of old-school cartoon openings. The only two I didn't recognize and recall watching at least once or twice were Blackstar and Heathcliff & Marmaduke (though the regular Heathcliff one I remember quite well).

Of course, there are lots more great ones that didn't make it into this, but still - some quality memories here.

OUCH.

2007-02-28T13:36:00.000-05:00

No, seriously - OUCH.

No matter how bad your day has been, you're having a better day than Shaun Livingston did Sunday. Squeamish viewers, this is not the YouTube you're looking for.

Men's BBall: Big Ten Champions!

2007-02-25T19:27:00.000-05:00

The "Thad Five" (and the rest of the bball Buckeyes, of course) scored a tough win today at home against the Wisconsin Badgers to lock up the outright regular season Big Ten title for the second year in a row today. It was a seriously tight game, coming down to the last minute with Ron Lewis scoring an awesome flyover block to stop Wisconsin's last minute game-winning shot.

One more regular season game to go (at Michigan), but the outright title is secured, as is (most likely) the #1 NCAA tournament seed in the Midwest... so a little bit of celebration (and some net-cutting) is well earned.

It's been a heck of a fun season to watch - and it's not even March yet!

Speechless

2007-02-21T08:02:00.000-05:00

I... yeah... just watch.

The Meltdown, The Showdown,, The Good TV

2007-02-20T22:03:00.001-05:00

For the 2nd day in a row the weather's been decently above freezing, which means all the snow is melting away. Nowhere near all gone yet, but it's going fast, and it's made things wet and nasty. Personally, as long as the roads are relatively clear and safe, I'd rather it stay nice and white off the road - a nice coating of snow just makes Winter feel like... well Winter. Though I have to admit it sure is nice to open the door & let the dogs out without feeling like I need to put on a coat.

Good news in the College BBall world tonight, as Michigan State upset Wisconsin (who was either #1 or #2 depending on which poll you look at). This leaves OSU a half-game ahead in the conference standings, with the opportunity to pull a full game ahead assuming we can get the job done against Penn State tomorrow night. It also both adds and subtracts a little sizzle from the big Wisconsin-OSU rematch coming up this weekend... on one hand, though the polls won't refresh before then, it's not really #1 vs. #2 anymore... but on the other hand, Wisconsin will be looking to get out some frustrations. OSU will still be looking for payback for the loss in Madison. Should be a good time - hopefully the team stays focused and plays strong!

Drew Nietzel, SUPER SPARTY!

In unrelated news, it's worth mentioning that Heroes is f-ing AWESOME. Not that it ever fell all that far, but this week's episode has flung it right back into position as possibly the best show currently on television. I mean seriously, that ROCKS. And next week's episode looks really promising. At the same time 24 remains excellent as well. The formula/repetitive nature of things is beginning to bog things down a bit, but the surprise reveal/appearance at the end of this week's ep is more than enough to leave me wanting more. And of course, there's LOST - which before the midseason extended hiatus had been on quite the slide in my opinion - just treading water/churning gears without moving forward at all - no character development, no mystery progress, no nothing. Just a little soap opera-action. Since the return, both episodes have been MUCH better, with this past week's Desmond-centric episode REALLY getting things back to what I love about the show. A lot of fun stuff there, and yes, still more mysteries introduced, but enough of a teaser-answer there and some really intriguing new questions.

Oh, and finally - in a bit of good news, they finally put the remainder of Day Break on the ABC web site. Go watch it while you still can!

Holy Crap x2! A second OSU Snow Day!

2007-02-14T07:25:00.000-05:00

I guess when hell's already frozen over, it doesn't take as much to stay that way - and since my theory was disproven, there's no need to keep up any pretenses - OSU is closed again today - ALL DAY TODAY!

Snow Day!

2-14-2007

Ohio State Columbus campus remains closed today
Classes are cancelled on Ohio State's Columbus campus on Wednesday (2/14).

College and administrative units are also closed.

The Ohio State University Medical Center and other essential services (such as police, residence halls) will remain open.

This message applies to the Columbus campus only. Decisions relating to regional campuses will be based on local conditions.

Holy Crap! OSU Snow Day

2007-02-13T15:22:00.000-05:00

Sadly, my theory that each OSU President only cancels classes once during their tenure has been disproven -- President Holbrook cancelled classes at OSU main campus today beginning at 1:30pm !

And even better - we got to leave, as apparently we're not considered essential staff in this case. Woohoo!!

Check it out.

Snowmageddon, Rock Star, V-Day

2007-02-13T10:33:00.000-05:00

Believe it or not, I've actually got a ton of stuff to blog about - but a combination of lots of being busy and increased laziness (due to lots of being busy) have just let it pile up. I'll hit on a couple things here, but will hopefully have more for later too.

It's nasty as heck outside today, as we're currently in the middle of the worst winter storm of the season here in C-town. Snow and yuck started around 4 or 5 this morning and is supposed to continue through tomorrow -- including a possible shift to "wintry mix" for awhile - AKA ice and sludge, then back to snow. The roads were a complete mess coming in (due to the timing of when things began, they hadn't gotten a chance to clear at all), and are only getting worse.

At least the view is purty, right?

In other news, Rock Star: Supernova (the band made by the show, that had to add the "Rock Star" bit thanks to the other band that had the name first) has so far fared about as well as I expected -- for many of the reasons I outlined in my Why Rock Star: Supernova Fails blog from last year.

This interview with Gilby Clarke touches briefly on the show in general, including how it quickly spun into "Tommy Lee's new band":

antiMUSIC: Did the TV show end up being different once it got going from what you were presented?
Gilby: Oh, it was definitely different from what I was presented. When I sat down in those meetings I was under the understanding that it really was, you know, a new band between myself, Tommy and Jason, you know. And it certainly was represented more like Tommy Lee's new band. I definitely didn't sign up for that. You know, I respect Tommy, as a guy in the band, of course, but I was kinda disappointed with the way they were advertising that. But you know, we got the right winner in the end. There's definitely a lot of things I don't agree about with television, you know. Television is editing and all kinds of things. I think most people who went to the tapings of show but then saw the show actually on TV, saw two different shows, but I'm sure, you know, look this is my first shot at doing something on television. And I definitely learned a little bit from doing it.

While this New York Post article does a great job of highlighting the problems as far as what went wrong. I don't fully agree with all his suggestions for what to avoid doing wrong next time, but he definitely makes some good points.

Cheers! Maybe I can drink the total lameness away!

Finally, in other news, it is of course Valentine's Day tomorrow. Amy & I already had our nice dinner out, when we went to M last Wednesday. It was phenomenal, and I had the best sushi roll I've ever had there - the Surf-and-Turf Roll - a jumbo tempura prawn rolled inside-out with cream cheese, scallions and a bit of daikon, with filet mignon beef carpaccio layered across the outside/top. It was AWESOME. Extremely decadent, but wow it was good. The rest of the meal was excellent as well - I love that place. Tomorrow we've got our Broadway Series tickets (convenient timing, not planned), to see All Shook Up. Yeah... I don't know about all that. We'll see I guess. Hoorah for Elvis.

For those last-minute planners out there, if you're still looking for somewhere to take your sweetie out for dinner tomorrow night, LOOK NO FURTHER - White Castle has your back. Make your Valentine's Day STEAMY! Yes, seriously.

Make your Valentine’s day STEAMY! Take your Valentine to White Castle on Wednesday, February 14 between 5 and 8 p.m. and enjoy hostess seating, candlelit dining and your own server. Reservations are required, so check the list below for participating Castles near you!
Special this year, you can also treat your honey to a romantic White Castle dinner in your home! Cupid’s Crave Kits include eight cheeseburgers, one sack of fries, two regular soft drinks, coupons and keepsake items to heat up your homespun romance. Now, ain’t that sweet?

For more information or to make a Cupid’s Crave Kit reservation, call the phone number listed for the your city of choice below.*

* Cupid’s Crave Kits are not available at all locations. Reservations are required.

Is that not 8 trillion kinds of AWESOME?

You know it is.

Holy Ridiculous Freezeosity

2007-02-05T16:08:00.000-05:00

So it's around 11 degrees outside at the moment -- up from a whopping 1 degree this morning (pre-windchill!!). It's so cold most of the area schools are canceled today. I'd say I wished OSU was closed as well, but since we're considered a critical service, we'd still have to be at work anyway, so OSU might as well be open. It's so cold out that the car (which was in the parking garage all day) radio display was noticeably slow in refreshing when changing stations/volume/etc.

Not that I would've minded a day off today - even though it wasn't a late game, it'd still be nice to have a day off to relax and recover after the Super Bowl. Not as bad as working the day after Christmas (by a longshot), but hey, I wouldn't be upset if this guy gets his wish. (He actually got on the radio at least twice last week in Columbus, and I'm sure he got other gigs elsewhere too - hope those web page ads pay well).

Speaking of the Super Bowl, I did watch the whole game. My parents came over, we cooked up some "football snacks" (fondue, lit'l smokies in BBQ sauce, meats, cheeses, etc. - tasty!), and just hung out. I'm surprised no one I know had (or at least invited me to) a Super Bowl party, but I guess I could've taken the initiative there too, and I know a lot of folks were just done with football for the year after the National Championship traveshamockery. The ads were pretty disappointing overall - not really bad, but nothing really GREAT either. I guess the Blockbuster ad with the mouse was probably my favorite, and the Budweiser Rock-Paper-Scissors thing. The halftime show wasn't bad either - I thought Prince did a good enough job. Very showy, especially for the rain. My big complaint there is I really didn't like his "All Along The Watchtower"... that just sounded bad.

And now enters the long drought that is known as the football off-season. At least Buckeye Basketball is doing well this year, picking up a big win at MSU Saturday. Mike Conley Jr. is just scary-good. And of course that Oden guy makes a few plays here and there too. The Cavs...well they're not BAD, but they've stumbled quite a bit from having a East-leading record a month or so ago. Hopefully they turn things back around firm-back-up on the winning ways.

Not much else going on at the moment... have to take Amy's car into the shop AGAIN today, as the ABS warning light is on, and this is a bad time of year for her ABS to not be working properly. Hopefully it's a warranty-covered fix... but it'd be even better if our cars would just WORK...

Busy Sunday, Poor Car, Poor Animals

2007-01-22T13:13:00.000-05:00

Happy Monday... or something. I actually had a pretty good weekend. Saturday was largely a lazy. Hung out with the fam, went out for a tasty lunch at Amy's favorite (Texas Roadhouse), etc. Nothing really of note. Contrast with Sunday, which actually wound up being pretty busy. Didn't go to church because of the horrible weather, but we did hang out with Amy's mom & cousin and watched X-Men 3 instead, so that was fun. After that I got to play beast of burden/photographer at Evie's first swim lesson . I had a blast watching and taking pictures - the class is all people we know (Evie, Allison, Katie, Audry, and Glenn), so that was funny too. Be sure to read Amy's writeup for all the details (and of course, pics).

After swim-time I shoveled the drive/walk (first snow of the year and it's ~3 inches + a bit o' ice!) and then watched some football. I was rooting for the Saints, so it's a bummer that they went down so hard to Chicago, but I don't really have a beef with the Bears. I mostly just can't believe how lopsided it was - LOTS of mistakes by the Saints. I think the poor weather (and poor field condition especially) definitely played a role. I was definitely very happy to see the Indy/New England game - it was a really well-played game, with a nicely orchestrated comeback on the Colts' part. Peyton finally gets over the hump by beating the nemesis Patriots and making it to the Super Bowl. Now can he win the big one? I guess we'll see in two weeks. I'm actually pretty bummed out that the Super Bowl's only two weeks away, because that means that two weeks from today begins the months-long sad span that is known as the football off-season. I just can't get into other sports at anywhere NEAR the same interest level.

In other news, been having some car issues lately. To begin with, I'm well overdue for an oil change and just need to make the time to get that done. Not easy with Evie around, but my laziness is also playing a role here too - I hate taking my car to the shop, even for an oil change, as something else always winds up being wrong. Last week/weekend during the endless downpour I noticed my speakers warbling a bit. They've been fine since, but I'm wondering if I got a wet wire somewhere which was causing things to not do well... And finally, this morning as I turned on the car I noticed that one of my headlights is out. Fun fun. So I guess I'll be taking it in sooner rather than later. (Oh, and of course my a/c is still broken, but it being winter that doesn't really matter at the moment). My poor car just needs some TLC.

Last but not least, I got a huge kick out of this this morning - check out this breed of goats that go stiff-legged when they get exited:

Then there's this poor dog with narcolepsy. I feel bad, but it's so funny it's hard not to laugh:

There's a longer video here about a different dog with narcolepsy (a news story about a poodle with the condition) - with the full story it's more sad than funny, but there are still some pretty entertaining zonk-out moments from the poor dog...

Yeah Toast

2007-01-17T14:50:00.000-05:00

Or maybe it should be "Yeah, Toasta". Check this out:

I need one of these! A ceramic toaster that pulls the bread through this little stand-up thingy and spits toast out onto a nice forked-catching rack on the other side. This design won first prize at a "Ceramics for Breakfast" competition over at DesignBoom. According to the designer, "This toaster is designed to engage the user, re-invigorating the social context of toasting by questioning everything about what we toast with today." Read more about it.

I really could've used one of those last week and earlier this week while in the grips of la grippe. I'm well on the road to recovery at this point, but I believe that was one of the worst colds I've had in recent memory - perhaps ever. Holy crap that was no good....

In other good news, I read on BoingBoing today that they're going to be turning one of my favorite books into a SciFi Channel Miniseries. George Clooney is executive producing a miniseries based on Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age. (see SciFi news blurbs here).

The book is set in a pretty distant-future type setting with a society based around the wonders of nanotechnology. It's a big departure from my favorite Stephenson book (Snow Crash, which is a gritty pure-cyberpunk type book - in fact, IMO it's one of THE definitive cyberpunk stories. I'd LOVE to see an adaptation of that), but I still really enjoyed it. I'd say I'm definitely excited to see the miniseries here, but I'm also pretty skeptical on how well they can pull it off - all the nanotechnology effects in the book are going to make for some pretty hardcore special effects and CGI-work, and the book's immersive interactive storybook/illustrated primer (as mentioned in the subtitle) leads the book on some pretty odd tangents which, while interesting, could have a hard time translating to a TV audience. Since it was only just announced, it'll be a long time before it makes it on the air, and there's always the possibility it'll die on the production shelf and the project will never see the light of day... I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Is it Friday yet?

2007-01-10T09:42:00.000-05:00

To say I'm having a bad week would be an understatement.

I started coming down with a cold sometime over the weekend. A coworker was showing symptoms on Thursday, so I suspect he's to blame for this particular infection. It started out slow enough that I thought I was going to get by without any major symptoms, but the decline continued and I hit condition critical last night. I'm NyQuil/DayQuilling through the day today - hopefully it's a short one.

Then there was the OSU football debacle Monday night. Yeah, that's pretty much all I have to say about that. At least it was a good time hanging out with everyone BEFORE the game massacre started. Chris has some pics up over at his site.

Unfortunately OSU sports let-downs weren't through yet, as last night the men's basketball team dropped a tough one to Wisconsin. This SHOULD'VE been a blowout as well, but the team managed a rally near the end... which fell a bit short. So far the basketball team has only beaten people we're "supposed" to beat. For a team sporting the supposed greatest college basketball player in all creation and even some fictional worlds, that's not that impressive. Hopefully as Oden continues to get healthy, they'll continue to refine the game around him and everyone will settle into the proper roles.

Coach Matta can't believe the week I'm having either!

So that brings us to last night - my cold is on full-bore and I can't get to sleep worth crap, so I take a shot of the good ol' big Fing Q, original green death flavor. It does it's job and I finally get to sleep - only to get woken up at ~1:50 or so by work. (I'm on call this week). I pursue the issue for the next hour or so and end up getting BACK to sleep shortly after 3. Alarm goes off at 5:30, I zombie-walk through the motions, discover WINTER HAS FINALLY ARRIVED (the first noticeable snow of the year on January 10th? Are you kidding me? Well, at least it looked thin enough to not bother shoveling the drive.

I've been fighting off dozing through the morning. Wish me luck.

The Waters Are Hating

2007-01-07T00:34:00.000-05:00

It seems like most of the best stuff on SNL in recent years comes in the animated & digital shorts. TV Funhouse (I can't believe they've been airing those for TEN YEARS now) stuff like this, plus the newer digital shorts (especially the Lonely Island stuff like "Lazy Sunday" and of course "A Special Christmas Box").

Anyway, so I caught this on the rerun tonight and it had me cracking up. Quality parody, especially with all the poor translations and nonsensical cameos.

Silent Star Wars

2007-01-03T13:43:00.000-05:00

This is so well done - my only beef is that I wish it was longer! There's so much MORE he could've gotten into the concept. Maybe even keeping the same length, but breaking it into three separate parts (all about this length) rather than all rolled into one?

The Darkside: Not Quite So Dark?

2007-01-02T22:10:00.000-05:00

Playing around with different blogger templates to try and find something a bit easier on the eyes (for folks out there who don't dig the white-on-black -- I know you're out there).

Hopefully this one works a little better. I wish there were an easier way to make it more...interesting... but their fancy new template-system doesn't play too nicely with major hackage. I'd really like to at least get an image up sharing the title bar or something - we'll see. I can't imagine getting a wealth of time to poke at it any time soon.

The Shadowbox Shindig was a blast. Amy & I were talking it out and we're pretty sure it was our 5th straight year, which is awesome. This year we had a table (from the Fireball) AND one extra, so a total of nine in the group! Amy & I both got all fancied-up for the night out:

I will say the difference between expectations here is a bit unfair. Me getting fancied up involves a t-shirt, jeans, and a non-tucked in dress shirt, combined with messing up my hair with some gel. Conversely, Amy spent quite some time mastering the look - and she looked good! See for yourself:

One fun side-effect of this look for me is how easily it slips into greaser-mode, as can be seen at the left. I don't know what the hell was going on in this pic - I think I was talking or something.

Anyway, we had a blast - BillWho? put on a great show, as always. Added bonuses this year were a complete lack of Christmas music (it's good and all, but by New Years especially it's time to move on), Carrie Lynn getting back into action, Gabe back in action, a few preview songs from the upcoming Sex, Lies and Shadowbox, and of course, favorites from the past couple years worth of shows. Mary doing "Space Truckin'" just owns.

For more recap of the night, including a great pic of me making good use of the party favors, see Laurie's recap. Inexplicably, she's also got a picture of Amy's abandoned uncomfy shoes (they made it about 20 mins in). Because hey, why not?

Hope everyone's having a great new year so far. Less than a week 'till the OSU-Florida National Championship Game (woot!) and the end of the college football season (un-woot :( ). Enjoy the games while you still can!

Exeunt 2006

2006-12-31T15:11:00.000-05:00

Well, I'd have to say it's been a heck of a year. Though my blogging has suffered mightily this year, in most other aspects of my life, things are going pretty damn well. Highlighted, of course, by the arrival and first 8 months of Evie! It's been a wild time, and things won't be settling down any time soon.

Aside from that most awesome of awesomeness, some other stuff of note from the Year In Max:

Got what I believe to be the best birthday present ever, from my wife, who is awesome beyond words.
Played my first "real" full game of golf. ("Real" is in quotes mainly because of a) how poorly I did and b) I don't believe anyone was bothering to keep score - except perhaps my uncle).
Guitar Hero I & II
Got introduced to another great series of books by Randy: George R.R. Martin's A Song Of Fire and Ice. Of course, this marks the second series he's introduced me to which I've gotten REALLY into, and then been faced with waiting many years for the conclusion of the series.
Finally visted my uncle & his family at their new (swank) home in North Carolina.
An AWESOME undefeated regular season for the OSU Buckeyes - and holding out hope to bring home the National Championship in another week or so.
Attended a Daily Show taping.
Saw a great rock show in Cleveland: Kamelot & Epica
Took my Dad to a Browns game (we won!) and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. We also hit up the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Good times.
I'm sure there's a lot more stuff in there my brain is leaving out - especially closer to the beginning of the year...

Anyway, good times.

Tonight we're hitting up the Shadowbox Shindig for the 5th (or 6th??) year in a row. Promises to be a great time - we've got the group back up to NINE this year (from a low of just Amy & I the past two years).

Hope everyone has a great one! See you in 2007!

Day Break: Robbed!

2006-12-19T20:38:00.000-05:00

Like most folks, when I first heard about the mid-season "gap filler" Day Break, I thought - they made an action/mystery show out of Groundhog Day? I hope Bill Murray gets a cut.

I stuck it on the DVR list mainly because I like Taye Diggs and thought the concept was interesting, but honestly didn't hold high hopes. Since it was an afterthought, and there were so many other shows we were trying madly to squeeze in, the episodes started piling up, and neither Amy nor I were all that rushed to watch them. Lots of other more important or interesting things to fit in our limited free-time.

So eventually, a few weeks ago we got around to watching the pilot ep. I think I queued it up mainly because it was a 2-hour premiere and I wanted to get it off there to clear up some space. And what did we find? It's a good show - no, it's a great show. We got quickly hooked in, and burned through the rest of the saved eps in no time. I knew the premise sounded really interesting, but this was VERY well executed. They got a lot of the obvious stuff out of the way early: he CAN be hurt and have it carry-over from day-to-day... therefore, he CAN die. He CAN change the day, resolving a major issue which somehow influences other folks, his day restarts at 6:17am no matter what's going on or where he is -- and rather than hanging the show on the gimmick of the repeating day, it's just a part of what played out to be a great mystery show, with a pace infinitely faster than The Nine, a good deal faster than LOST, and even moving things faster than Heroes. The best comparison of pacing is probably 24. It's a GREAT show. MUCH better than LOST has been so far this season, IMO.

So... after watching last week's episode, including a really intriguing twist at the end... imagine our frustration to find it not on the DVR queue to record this week - replaced with something else. A quick trip around the Intarwubs and I find that it's gotten the big yank.

Why did the show fail? It's (IMO) easier to follow than LOST, 24, or Heroes - with the now commonplace recap-intro at the beginning of each episode - so I can't imagine that's why people didn't watch.

The thing is - every time I mentioned it to someone they had the same response I did - "Isn't that the Groundhog Day TV show?" Unfortunately, I think the "gimmick" being a familiar one is what doomed it. People just weren't interested. Combine that with expecting it to keep LOST's audience when they really aren't similar shows, and I believe most people didn't give it a chance out of the gate. Which is a serious bummer, because I think the show could've caught on. And the best part? According to the FAQ at ABC's site they ARE planning on having him solve the mystery and make it to the next day this season. Solving the mystery during the season? *gasp* I know - UNHEARD of. Sure, I don't know what they would've done to eek out another season, but still... all for naught, the show was stillborn. If it had been on it's own to start the fall season it might've had a chance, but as a midseason filler, not so much.

So it's gone, and the 2nd season question won't be an issue. But this season IS all in the can. So -- the saving grace -- ABC IS planning on showing the remaining episodes on their web site (see "Watch Day Break Online Now" on the left-side of the page). Not only that, but all the episodes they've already aired are there as well. So go watch, give it a chance - I really think you'll dig it. It's NOT just Groundhog Day with guns.

Watch my show before they shut the lid!

UPDATE 12/29: Well, it looks like they've given DayBreak the total hucklebuck now - it appears to have completely vanished from the ABC site. Despite initial reports that it would be running online for the rest of it's season, that's a no-go. A few different pages seemed to indicate this was due to "music license issues", whatever the crap that means. I guess now we hope for a DVD release to find out how Hopper's day is resolved... bastiches.

ROCKTAURANT: I Want One!

2006-12-15T15:28:00.000-05:00

So not like I didn't already have PLENTY of reasons to be jealous of the metal fans in Scandanavia - now along comes the ROCKTAURANT. Seriously!

Basically, the lead singer of the Finnish band Lordi (they're kind of like GWAR, only not quite as intentionally disgusting, and with more of a hard rock feel) opened a horror-rock themed restaurant! Sounds AWESOME. Too bad the "distant" plans only mention the UK - I doubt something this cool will ever make it to the US.

I guess for now I'll just have to hope to make it back to the VERY COOL Jekyll & Hyde Club in NYC sometime soon. Haven't been since going to NYC with Gary, Irene & Jeremy.

Get Your Vote On!

2006-11-07T08:50:00.000-05:00

Make sure to get out there and vote today! This is our first time using the electronic voting machines in our district today, so for all I know I'm voting for whoever Ken Blackwell wants me to, but hey, I'll at least be giving it the old college try! If you need some info on the different candidates/issues, check out OhioElects.

The new machines supposedly print out a receipt of who you voted for -- does that mean that if things don't go my way I can take it back tomorrow for a refund?

Evie gets to vote TWICE today! Er, well go with two people who are voting at any rate...

The Answer Is Obvious!

2006-11-01T07:42:00.000-05:00

EDIT

Ok, so predictably the link on YouTube to Hugh Laurie's "Protest Song" from SNL didn't last long... but - he DOES have it on his web page. While it probably won't be there forever, it's definitely way more stable (and presumably, way more legal) than the YouTube version, so check it out, on his videos page. Under "Saturday Night Live" clips, click "All We Gotta Do Is". And wait for it to load...

You need Quicktime, and it's pretty high quality, which means it's a longer download, but IMO, worth the wait for a laugh.

Midwest Daily Taptacular

2006-10-31T22:09:00.000-05:00

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!

Beware The Ubersick

2006-10-30T20:48:00.000-05:00

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!

Banemite!

2006-10-24T10:57:00.000-04:00

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.)

Slacker Ahoy

2006-10-04T14:15:00.000-04:00

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 --

Movies - I want to see Fearless, The Protector, Flyboys, The Illusionist, Idlewild, and Talladega Nights, ALL of which are playing right now, and most likely NONE of which I'll get to see in theaters.. one or two at MOST.
The Ohio RenFest is running through this month.
Shadowbox's current show (FreakShow '06) AND their production of the Rocky Horror Picture Show are both currently playing.

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!

Rock Star: 0-2

2006-09-17T07:31:00.000-04:00

So there he is. Two years in a row now Rock Star has chosen one of the LAST people I would've wanted to win. At least last year my major complaint with JD Fortune was that he was just a major asshole... in this case, I dislike (and in some cases loathe) pretty much everything about Lukas Rossi -- or, as Rick at OnlineOnslaught called him, Lord Revlon Q. Faggenstein.

See, I think the LAST thing the music scene needs at this point is another gothed-up, whiny-voiced emoboy... BUT... I think they telegraphed the pick pretty early in this case. There was the Hollywood Gossip Blog that said Lukas had already been picked as the winner at least a month ago... there was his endless praise from Tommy Lee & the boys... and in the finale it couldn't have been clearer -- the other three remaining folks got pretty soundly panned by the band (and Tommy Lee especially)... well, until AFTER they'd been eliminated, then at that point it seems like every one of the eliminated folks is going to have Dave Navarro and the entire band-formerly-known-as-Supernova backing them. So did they really lose? Is it better to be fronting a band with pretty much no solid future?

So, anyway... I don't anticipate them gettting any of my business. But if you care, here's an interview with Rossi after the win, and they've got two songs up on their MySpace page.

Supernova Goes POP

2006-09-12T23:12:00.000-04:00

Who's that you ask? Why, that would be the band Supernova. No, no not THAT Supernova - the original one, a pop-punk band originally from the 80s. Apparently these guys weren't too happy about their name being co-opted by Tommy Lee's projet du jour, and applied a little of the 'ol lawsuitification a couple months back. Well the (current) verdict is in, and for now, a judge says ixnay on the upernova-Say for Mssrs Lee, Clarke and Newstead.

I stress current in the verdict, as it's entirely possible something will still shake-out here to change the result -- either an appeal and overturned ruling, or some kind of buy-out or heavy licensing fees. Given the high profile of the show, and insta-money to be made or lost on the deal, I wouldn't be surprised at all to see the name remain unchanged.

Nevertheless, this only further adds to my opinion on the flash-in-the-pan side proect / shaky future of the band. There are still some performers left on the show that I'm really interested in -- Toby and Magni primarily. If Lukas wins, my interest in Supernova drops to about negative 4.3 trillion.

Of course, if the rumor mill is correct, I'm SOL. But that's just a rumor. We'll know the REAL outcome tomorrow night! Oh, t3h DRAMA~!!

Go Print Me Some Dinner!

2006-09-12T08:36:00.000-04:00

Yes, print! So there's this restaurant in Chicago called Moto (Hello Moto), and the chef there has a specially modified inkjet printer which uses food-based "inks" (carrot juice, purple potatoes, tomato juice) to print images onto sheets of soybean & potato starch to make printed edible food! And... wait for it... he calls it a FOOD REPLICATOR!

And Star Trek geeks everywhere were rejoicing.

Seriously though, this sounds freaking awesome. You know I love to try new and different restaurants, and this is just crazy. I'm sure the place is insanely expensive with a year-long waiting list, but I'll at least have to look in to eating there next time I'm in Chitown.

Printed sushi (pictured) -- even the MENU is edible. But the printed food isn't the only cool thing about Moto. The chef (Homaro Cantu) has all kinds of CRAZY stuff going on there. Fish baking in a crazy little box right at your table, cheese literature which tells its own history, flavored packing materials... plus lots of very tasty looking and very snazzily presented other options. Check out this photo essay of a multiple course meal at Moto (about 3 posts in).

I'm so there.

Read More:
-Story at First Science
-Story at New York Times

Fall TV Comin' Atcha

2006-09-07T08:27:00.000-04:00

So the season premiere of House was this week. It was most excellent. I'm a little torn on the ending, but it was a great episode and the series has definitely picked up right where it dropped off. Still in my top 5 shows.

Other than House and the almighty football, not much else has started back up yet, but here's a rundown on what I'm waiting on, including the announced/projected premiere dates:

24 (FOX): 2-hour 6th season premiere (projected) 1/14/2007 8pm
Big Love (HBO): 2nd season premiere (projected) 6/3/2007 9pm
C.S.I. (CBS): 7th season premiere 9/21/2006 9pm
Cold Case (CBS): 4th season premiere 9/24/2006 9pm
Doctor Who (SciFi): 150-minute 2nd season premiere 9/29/2006 8pm
Everybody Hates Chris (CW): 2nd season premiere 10/1/2006 7pm
The Ghost Whisperer (CBS): 2nd season premiere 9/22/2006 8pm
LOST (ABC): "special presentation" (recap show?) 9/27/2006 9pm
My Name Is Earl (NBC): 2nd season premiere 9/21/2006 8pm
N.C.I.S. (CBS): 4th season premiere 9/19/2006 8pm
Numb3rs (CBS): 3rd season premiere 9/22/2006 10pm
Rome (HBO): 2nd season premiere 1/7/2007 9pm
The Sopranos (HBO): 6th season "winter" premiere (projected) 3/11/2007 9pm
South Park (Comedy Central): 10th season "fall" premiere 10/4/2006 10pm
Top Chef (Bravo): 2nd season premiere 10/18/2006 11pm
Veronica Mars (CW): 3rd season premiere 10/3/2006 9pm

Ok, so looking at that list -- Holy hell that's a lot of TV. Admittedly some of them don't start until 2007, so the specific runs will overlap a LITTLE less... but still. Clearly something's gotta give, as I don't forsee having that much free time. To make matters worse, there are quite a few NEW shows debuting this fall that I'd LIKE to check out:

Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip (NBC): series premiere 9/18/2006 10pm
Jericho (CBS): series premiere 9/20/2006 8pm
Six Degrees (ABC): series premiere 9/21/2006 10:01pm
Heroes (NBC): series premiere 9/25/2006 9pm
The Nine (ABC): series premiere 10/4/2006 10pm
Daybreak (ABC): series premiere 11/15/2006 9pm

Yeah... so as you can see, who knows what will make the cut and what will get dropped for sheer sanity/braincell-preservation. Inevitably at least one, likely several of the new shows will tank, so that will help... we'll see how things go.

The Big 3-0

2006-09-01T09:57:00.000-04:00

So yeah, today's my b-day. I decided to have a fireworks show to celebrate. Well, that or re-use one of my 4th of July pics instead of trying to find something more appropriate. One of the two.

It must be said loudly and in clear print that I HAVE THE BEST WIFE EVER. PERIOD. Seriously, Amy has outdone herself this year - I haven't even been awake three hours yet and I think this is likely to be my best birthday ever - she's been giving me the royal treatment all morning. On top of that, she really outdid herself with her gift - she's been conspiring over the past month and, knowing my obsession better than anyone else, got me 30 CDs! She's crazy! How did I manage to be so lucky as to get a wife this awesome?

Still not sure what all we're going to do today - we both have the day off work, so it's great just to hang with Evie (and the pups), but I'm sure we'll get out at some point. At the very least we'll be out for dinner at Mortons.

In non-birthday news, we had our Fantasy Football draft (with the OIT-related gang) @ BW3 last night, & it was awesome. Even feeding 9 hungry guys, $100 of food goes a LONG way (it was part of the fantasy football package Hutch set up through Sportsline). Had an awesome time with the gang last night, hanging out, joking, eating, drafting. It's going to be a fun league - much thanks to Hutch for setting it all up.

Ok, so one last piece of b-day news: It's also Laurie's 30th b-day today. From her post, it looks like she's got an awesome day lined up ahead of her as well. Make sure to stop by and wish her a good one!

Already? Really?

2006-08-31T14:29:00.000-04:00

Hmmm... only one day left on the lifeclock. Anyone know the way to Sanctuary?

Everything You Learned In School Was Wrong #2: The Brontosaurus

2006-08-29T15:09:00.000-04:00

If you were poll the random "person on the street" about their knowledge of dinosaur names, or their favorite dinosaur, chances are that most folks would name the Tyrannosaurus Rex. But after the mighty T.Rex there would be quite a lot of folks who would name the Brontosaurus (thunder lizard). The massive swamp-dwelling herbivores have been one of the staple dinosaurs for appearance in schools and popular culture for years, starting from when it was first discovered and named in the late 1800s. The gentle giants that all the kids love. So popular the Post Office chose it as one of the four dinosaur stamps they released in the 70s.

The problem is... there's no such thing as a Brontosaurus. It's been removed from books and museums because, despite everything we've heard about the mighty Thunder Lizard, it actually never existed. In fact, the guy who discovered it mis-identified the fossil skeleton he found when a mostly complete skeleton was found with the wrong skull in 1879. In actuality, the skeleton he found was of a species he'd already discovered and named two years earlier - the much lamer-sounding (though perhaps appropriately named) Apatosaurus (deceptive lizard).

The goof was actually discovered and published in 1903. So why are we still calling it a Brontosaurus more than 100 years later? Well, the correction was first published in Geological Series of the Field Columbian Museum , which from the name you can probably determine is a pretty obscure journal, even if you're NOT familiar with geological study. The catchier name also was used as the mascot for the Sinclair Oil Company for many years, and was, as previously mentioned, even listed on a US Postage Stamp. So people know Brontosaurus.

In practice, most folks recognize Brontosaurus as a synonym of the scientifically correct Apatosaurus, and geologists generally have more important things to worry about than this little misnomer.

But that still doesn't change the fact that your teacher was wrong.

Again.

Everything You Learned In School Was Wrong #1: The Solar System

2006-08-24T22:04:00.000-04:00

Quick - what's wrong with the above picture? It's a diagram of the Solar System - the kind of thing we've seen in our textbooks and used for...oh, about the past 75 YEARS. Nine planets in the Solar System - just one of those givens we all know and love. But yeah, as you've probably heard, it's now out of date.

So what changed? Was a new planet discovered? Confirmation of a tenth planet, newly discovered? No, not so much. Instead, "they" (the IAU) voted today to change the definition of a planet. Yes, you read that right, change the definition of a planet. APPARENTLY scientists have been pretty unhappy about Pluto being included in with the rest of the planets for quite some time now. It's too small, too barren, it's got a funny orbit... it doesn't fit in with the cool kids. And what do we do with things which don't fit in? Why, ostracize them, of course! We give it the astronomical equivalent of making it ride on the short bus, out of sight and out of mind for all the normal kids. So, thanks to the eggheads, Pluto is now no longer a planet. Instead, it's newly demoted to a new "dwarf planet" status, which it'll have to share with at least two other things, with quite a few other likely candidates soon to join it, pending "approval". They resolved the following:

The IAU...resolves that planets and other bodies in our Solar System be defined into three distinct categories in the following way:
(1) A "planet" [1] is a celestial body that: (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and (c) has cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit.

(2) A "dwarf planet" is a celestial body that: (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape [2], (c) has not cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit, and (d) is not a satellite.

(3) All other objects [3] except satellites orbiting the Sun shall be referred to collectively as "Small Solar System Bodies".

This whole process the IAU has been going through for changing the definition of a planet actually went through several stages... at one point it was even seeing more likely that we'd have TWELVE planets instead of 9. Or even more than 50! Obviously that'd never work... so instead we LOSE a planet.

Needless to say, the backlash started pretty quickly. There's bumper stickers, shirts, and some good stuff in a Worth 1000 photoshop contest. I'm sure more is already on it's way.

Still... this isn't the FIRST time that Pluto's gotten the short end of the stick anyway - so this shouldn't come as THAT big of a surprise. After all, among the whole group, he was the only one who couldn't walk upright, wear clothes, or speak English....

Good Advice

2006-08-24T09:03:00.000-04:00

So in between calls, I spent the better portion of the morning so far typing up a post, only to have Firefox crash and lose it all. Bastards. The funny thing is that several times I thought about pressing the little "Save as Draft" button and skipped it, figuring I was almost done. Save and backup your work kiddies!!

For what I lost, it's something I really want to write about, but for now it'll have to wait - phone shift is over and there's more work to be done.

So for now, I'll just share this good bit of advice:

Stupid RoadRunner

2006-08-17T08:12:00.000-04:00

So I was actually in the midst of crafting up a new blog last night when RoadRunner decided to go down. It had been working fine all evening (well, as far as I know - I was only using it sporadically), but then as I'm pulling up another page as reference - poof there goes teh Intarwub.

So instead I'll cut my fair recap really short. We went twice, enjoyed both trips, weather cooperated for the most part. First trip with Jeremy, Irene & Alaina, second trip with Amy's Mom & Shari. Good times. Highlights:

FOOD: Ohio Food Pavilion gyros, corn nuggets, sweet potato fries, roast corn-on-the-cob, deep-fried oreos, lemon shake-ups
Art show (with an AWESOME huge painted "Periodic Table of Phobias", complete with key.
Cool custom name-sign to hang on Evie's wall
Butter cow, butter Browns & Bengals mascots
Amy toting Evie around in the Baby Bjorn for the first "real" time.

So yeah, fun stuff. Outside of the fair, I DID have more to talk about, but you know - stupid Internet. So instead, some links:

Courtesy of Laurie, a blinged-out cat. That's just weird man. He needs a litterbox with spinners and he's all set.
From BoingBoing, NASA Can't Find Moon Landing Tapes. (full article here) REALLY? I would think that's the kind of thing you'd consider pretty damn important. Maybe they should've opted for somewhere more secure than under Neil Armstrong's bed when going for the proverbial "safe place". Why weren't they in the Library of Congress? What this actually made me think of was the whole "Apollo Moon landing never happened" conspiracy theory. I'm DEFINITELY not an ascriber to that theory, but I'm sure this story will lend them some more arguing power - after all, the original high quality film is "lost", so you can't see the bad set pieces. Right? Anyway, it also reminded me of the really cool movie Capricorn One (though it was Mars in question there).

Mitchell's Ocean Club

2006-08-05T20:42:00.000-04:00

So back in May I used the comments form on the Cameron Mitchell web site to pass along my concerns about the planned overhaul to my favorite CM restaurant, The Ocean Club. I actually DID hear back from someone, and she offered to invite me to one of their practice nights before the reopening... of course I accepted and Amy & I took them up on it! I believe last night was their first "large" practice night, with two more coming during this week before the official reopening this Wednesday (8/9).

Very noticable change right away -- they put a small waiting area/lounge over the Easton ground-floor exit right there, with a huge wood-paneled sign for the place. Here's their new logo (from the CM web site):

Inside, the layout is almost exactly the same as before - host/hostess stand in the same place, bar in the same place (and shape), slightly raised seating area to the left, and main dining area beyond the bar. The DID add a really nice outdoor patio running along the outside of the place (above the entrances to the various Gaps on the outside there) - which is supposedly going
to be heated in the winter for use year-round. There's also a piano just beyond the host stand (with mic), to suit the new "piano club" feel. Though the lay-out and shape are the same, the DECOR is completely different. Gone are the bright blues and ocean-style theming, all replaced with wood paneling (a medium shade, not TOO dark), a rock-wall, a white curtain illuminated with color changing lights around the bar (think "M"). Overall, the look is very "high class steakhouse", not "fusion seafood".

Which makes sense, because (as you might've noticed in the logo), steaks are now featured in the menu just as prominently as seafood, possibly even moreso, and the entire menu has been expanded and restructured around that. The PRICES have increased accordingly as well. It's now in the M - Mitchell's Steakhouse pricerange, going from "moderate" to "expensive". Steaks (and the "Chef Creations") fish items are now served a la carte, and there are separate potato and "accompaniments" sections for side dishes. Thanks to that, where before two could eat a 3 course meal and get out for maybe $60, now you're looking at upwards of $100 instead.

For appetizers, we opted for one of the new choices, a Wisconsin Aged Cheddar Fondue. It was served in a white crock with a tealight burning under it to keep it warm, and french bread, carrots, broccoli, cherry tomatoes and chunk salami for dipping (using provided fondue forks naturally). From watching the servers coming out of the kitchen, it seemed like this was a pretty popular appetizer last night - pretty unique (even though The Melting Pot is also at Easton, but outside of that setting...) and very tasty.

They have a pretty good selection of salads - Amy had the "signature"; salad, which is includes apples & walnuts like the signature salads at many other CM restaurants, with a slightly different dressing than elsewhere. I had the french onion soup w/ brandy aged swiss. Both were just "ok" - good, but nothing to write home about. On the soup-side, stick with the she-crab bisque (making it's return).

For entrees, they have about 8 or so "chef's creations", then a featured fish (7 or 8 different types of fish) and steaks (7 or 8 different cuts, including prime rib). The steaks seem pretty similar in price, cut and preparation as Mitchell's Steak House. It's been awhile since i've been there, but I wouldn't be surprised if the fish options were similar to the Fish Market - in a lot of ways the new Ocean Club feels like a mix of the two. Gone are almost all of the Asian fusion menu items featured fairly prominently at the old Ocean Club - the sole returning entree is a slightly fdifferent take on the Ginger Crusted Salmon (which happened to be possibly my favorite dish at any restaurant anywhere). The salmon (and crust) is exactly the same (though a larger cut of salmon), and the sauce is exactly the same (thankfully - it's incredible) - though with the larger cut of salmon there's not quite enough on the plate now... our server was kind enough to bring me a bit extra when I asked. It's not served on sticky rice any longer (presumably to get you to pony-up for one of the potatoes or other sides), though it does come with stir-fried snap peas instead of the broccoli. I'd be OK with the peas, but I REALLY miss the rice - the sauce is so good and the rice was able to further highlight it. Amy had the petit filet, which was quite good - as I said, pretty much like Mitchell's.

The dessert options are pretty typical for a CM place - creme brulee, a cake or two, etc. They DO have Baked Alaska which is one of those classic desserts that you really don't see offered much these days, so that's cool. We split the "Georgia Peaches & Cream" - like a warm peach crisp served a la mode.

In all a very good experience, and I'd recommend the place. I do miss the funky ocean-themed decor, but the new look suits the new price point very well. I'm not sure the mall will be able to support ANOTHER restaurant in that price range (on top of Smith & Wollenski's and Melting Pot is only one notch down), but we'll see. As for the menu, it's larger than before, and very high
quality, though I really do miss the Asian fusion focus.

Final Score.... I'd say 4/5.

I [heart] Perpetual War

2006-08-04T13:24:00.001-04:00

Fear is your new god. In a post-Cold War age when the threat of Global Thermal Nuclear War is no longer hanging over everyone's heads, how do you keep the masses in check? Peak Oil. Global Warming. Pandemic Flu. Terrorism. Perpetual War.

There are real problems and imagined problems. Plenty of real things to worry about... but the sensationalism and fear-mongering used to keep things in people's faces (not to mention get ratings for the media outlets) is just ridiculous.

Meanwhile, our government uses these to tighten the reins:

- US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said the US government could "indefinitely" hold foreign 'enemy combatants' at sites like the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"We can detain any combatants for the duration of the hostilities," said Gonzales, speaking to the Senate Armed Services Committee.

"If we choose to try them, that's great. If we don't choose to try them, we can continue to hold them," he said.

(emphasis is mine. Rest of article is here.)

Yeah. It's that italicized bit which really gets to me. Cause see, how DO we know when the "Global War on Terror" is over? What exactly are the victory conditions? Because I'm pretty sure there's been terrorism in some aspect or another for, oh I don't know, ALL THE HISTORY OF MANKIND. Or at least acts which could easily be portrayed as terrorism. Patriotism or Terrorism - depends on which side wins, right? That's what's so 1984 about all this... it's Perpetual War. Keep the hostilities going forever and that way you don't HAVE to worry about silly things like personal freedoms, civil rights, etc... because National Security comes first... and the people are scared enough to agree that it SHOULD come first.

It makes me so crazy...

More TV: Superheroes, Psychics and Rock Stars OH MY!

2006-08-02T22:46:00.000-04:00

So yes, I did watch the first episode of Who Wants To Be A Superhero? on Sci-Fi. I have to say I wound up enjoying it a lot more than I thought I might. I was primarily watching for the train-wreck effect, and there was definitely some of that ("Cell-Phone Girl?!?! That's the best you could come up with? Even Fat Momma is more creative!) -- but the "test" they put them through I thought worked out really well. It definitely fit with the whole idea of being a superhero, so that was cool. The contestants (characters) are pretty widely varied -- some good ones there, like Major Victory (campy goodness), Nitro G (great costume), Lumeria (cool name), as well as the lame (the aforementioned two, plus Iron Enforcer, AKA "big buff guy who takes his shirt off). The elimination ceremony thing was pretty cool too. I have a feeling this show will walk the line between interesting and lame, but I'll stay with it as long as it doesn't stray TOO deep into the lame. If you missed it and you're interested, they've got the entire first ep free (without commercials) up at Sci-Fi's site (see the link under "What's New" currently mentioning it on Sci-Fi Pulse).

Awhile back Kevin at work talked about a new show he'd seen on USA and recommended - Psych. The premise is that the guy's dad was a cop and while he was growing up drilled him with memory tests and forcing him to notice and recall the most minute details, basically instilling him with an insanely overpowered eye (and memory) for detail. He solves several cases for the police through details he notices on news reports, and they bring him in for questioning/possible arrest because they figure only someone "inside" could've known these things -- not believing that he could possibly just notice. To get out of being arrested he tells them he's a psychic, and he winds up working with the cops as a psychic, bringing in his friend. The two of them are HUGELY funny, and the premise works out really well. I can't recommend this show highly enough.

Yes, despite my doubts I AM still watching Rock Star: Supernova. Now that I'm finally getting more performance episodes under my belt I'm firming up my thoughts on the performers. I still think Dilana is near the front of the pack, though I think her vocal range may be a bit limited, and that combined with her lower, gruff voice may hurt her in the long run.
Lukas has the look, and seems strong but he just comes off as a wierd little troll, and his limitations are starting to show through too. Most of the performers are really off-and-on, but the ones I'm keeping an eye on are: Dilana, Storm, Toby and Magni. Several of the others have had some GREAT performances, but have tanked heavily at other times. Zayra, Jill and Patrice all need to GO. They're not doing anything other than making my TV cry every week.

Still looking forward to a NUMBER of shows coming this fall. I have NO idea how we're going to be able to fit them all into the schedule (the answer is: we probably won't), but still - I really hope to catch some of them. Thanks to the wonders of YouTube, the first eps. of two of them are already available: Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip and Heroes. Watch them QUICK if you're interested, they probably won't be there for long. Read more about leaked Fall TV (and other online TV resources) at the most recent Livin' In Cowtown blog.

Why Rock Star: Supernova Fails

2006-07-25T22:28:00.000-04:00

I know I promised a rant about Rock Star: Supernova awhile back... but as it turns out I just happened to read an article today which hints at a lot I planned on incorporating into this. See Ousted contestant bats back. Alternately, see the article in the Calgary Sun, or the Blabbermouth summary. Key quote (at least with regards to what I'm interested in):

She says many contestants feel its members — Tommy Lee (MÖTLEY CRÜE's drummer), Jason Newsted (former METALLICA bassist) and Gilby Clarke (former GUNS N' ROSES guitarist) — are not exactly hellbent on making the new band a success.

"Because Tommy Lee's got MÖTLEY CRÜE and Jason Newsted's very passionate about (Canadian metal band) VOIVOD, there are a lot of questions as to whether this band is going to really take off. That's up in the air," she says.

This is probably my biggest complaint about the show. From the first I heard about who would make up the new band for the show, Supernova, my first reaction was "well it's not really a REAL band then, is it?" Basically I see this as another "supergroup"-style project -- muscians in other bands, better known (and arguably much more committed) to those other bands, getting together to make a larger combined splash than they would individually and capitalize on some name recognition to push an otherwise unguided project. Now Gilby Clarke has been on his own for some time now, and even if he WANTED otherwise, G'n'R is a victim of Axl's demented, hard livin', out-of-control ego. So he's pretty invested in this new project as an attempt to regain mainstream success.

On the opposite end of the spectrum we have Tommy Lee - who has flittered in and out of MANY various main and side projects over the past 10 years or so, ranging from multiple TV projects to rap-rock, solo projects, guest appearances all over the place, and of course, the Crue. Given the high income potential of the Crue especially, and his supposed recent reuinting with the band, Tommy really doesn't seem likely to hold a vested interest in making sure Supernova is a success.

Similarly, since his departure from Metallica, Jason Newstead has been all over the map, notably producing/mentoring a few new bands, a stint on bass for Ozzy's band, and his heavy interest and involvement with Voivod.

So add these together and what do you get? Well, I think the level of commitment comes across in the band's attitude on the show. Tommy Lee especially, but to a lesser extent Newstead and even Clarke are clearly there to have a good time and hit on the attractive female contestants. I haven't seen them be hard on ANY of the contestants, give anyone a real critique any more biting than "we wish you rocked more" or "that was a bad song choice for you". Come ON - if they were really vested in the success of this new band, then finding the right FACE and VOICE for this new project would be PARAMOUNT. They wouldn't be letting backtalk and an awful performance from Zayra slide because she has "spunk". They wouldn't be letting half the performers phone it in each week and praising them for "rocking" (regardless of how good the performance actually was).

Ultimately this project isn't going to work because the Supernova band members, based on their history and attitude towards the show, aren't vested in making it a success. This is NOT a long term band. The novelty factor of the supergroup-status combined with buzz from the show will likely lead to good sales for Supernova's "debut" album, but don't expect to see a second album from Supernova -- at least not as backed by these three rockers.

Anniversary Recap: The Top, Movies

2006-07-23T22:21:00.000-04:00

Amy & I had a great dinner at The Top Steakhouse yesterday evening. The place has been there over 50 years, and per their own admission haven't changed much. It's VERY dark inside (well, in the area we were seated in -- the bar area looked a little more open & lighted). They have a piano which someone was occasionally playing which was really nice - though it would've been cooler if it was a bit more consistent. They have bread & butter (naturally), but ALSO a complimentary relish tray of pickles and (cold) sauerkraut. Very unusual, yet tasty! The steaks were excellent - priced comparably for this tier of place -- BUT also included two sides, which is different from most of the other top-tier steakhouses. As usual for us, Amy had the filet & I had the ribeye. Both were EXCELLENT, done perfectly. Also worth mentioning was my excellent Lobster Bisque. The Creme Brulee Cheesecake for dessert was quite good as well, though we were both filled to bursting. Excellent food, a fun atmosphere, and HISTORY baby. A good time, and recommended. Where does it fit in? Here are my ratings of the Anniversary Tour destinations so far:

Morton's: Hand's-down the best. Phenomenal.
Ruth's Chris: Very very tasty.
Smith & Wollenski: Great desserts, interesting sauces, good steak
The Top Steakhouse: good steaks, good dessert, fun atmosphere & history
Mitchell's Steakhouse: Good, yet disappointing atmosphere (Crosswoods location), and good steaks, but just not quite up to par with the others.
Walker Station: Just not on the same level as the others. A really nice place, but a lot newer, and obviously kind of the "family" restaurant for the area. Steaks were good, but also not quite on the same level.

While we won't decide until next year, the preliminary indications may take us to The Clarmont next year. We'll see!

After dinner we hit-up a movie and saw Lady In The Water. Amy & I have both enjoyed M. Night's previous movies -- not quite as much Signs, but I think we both really enjoyed The Village. This one seems to be getting a lot of bad reviews, but I really enjoyed it, and I think Amy did to. It was billed going in as "a bedtime story", and therefore I wasn't expecting a horror movie or thriller like his previous films, and I think the bedtime story is what we get here -- it's obvious that this is a new mythology he's trying to introduce here, and the mythology is what makes things really interesting. The actual story is kind of straightforward, and doesn't stand-well on it's own, but in introducing the story of the Narfs, the Blue World, etc, things come together pretty well and make for a nice, straightforward entertaining story. As for "depth" to the story, there is a movie critic character which M. Night uses to vivisect typical "predictable" movie structure as well as critics of his past films.. there's a line something like "What kind of pompous egotistical person would presume to know what lied in the thoughts and intentions of another human being"? That said, without spoiling things TOO much, it does feel somewhat egotistical of M. Night to cast himself in the part he plays in this film... So yeah, not a movie without it's faults, but enjoyable, and recommended.

On an unrelated note, I saw a preview for a new animated movie, Renaissance , today. It looks AWESOME. Check out the trailer yourself.

That's Just Wrong

2006-07-21T20:57:00.000-04:00

There are a lot of things that are just plain wrong. Since it's wrong that I've been too busy to blog for a whole week! (The HORROR!), I figured I'd finally take the time to write about some other things which are just plain wrong.

The President groping the German Prime Minister. While the news reports seem to try and play it off, it sure looks to me like something she wasn't very happy with. I mean I know they do things differently "down south", but isn't unsolicited neck massage covered in Sexual Harassment 101? Maybe Bush is more like Clinton than the Neocons would have you believe...
A new Charlotte's Web movie. Because the 1973 animated film was such a integral role in the lives of so many people within shooting distance of my age, of COURSE Hollywood needs to CRAP ALL OVER IT with a live-action Babe-style talking animal movie.
In watching the GSN 50 Greatest Game Shows of All-Time, we got to see an episode of Three's A Crowd. This show (from 1979) poses that age-old question: Who knows a man more, his wife or his secretary? They ask the men questions, then ask the secretaries what the men answered, then ask the wives what the men answered (revealing what the men said AND what the secretaries said). Think Newlywed Game, only with secretaries thrown in for some really inappropriateness. The episode shown was pretty much a textbook example of how rife (and apparently "normalized") sexual harassment in the workplace was in 1979 -- lots of questions about "the most revealiing outfit your secretary has worn", "other than kissing, what sign of affection is the man known for?", etc. This show was such a train wreck it couldn't help but be entertaining - especially since one secretary talked about how the man would give her unsolicted neck rubs all the time, and pointed out she DIDN'T like it....(sound familiar?) And the other threesome where the 19 year old secretary was obviously taking some MAJOR barbs at the wife, sparking a Jerry-Springeresque brawl between the two at one point. (Missing the "Jerry" chants though...)

I have a rant about Rock Star: Supernova coming one of these days, but I'll save it for later.

For now, looking forward to enjoying this weekend. Tomorrow Amy & I hit our SIXTH stop on the Anniversary Steakhouse Tour. SIX YEARS. Madness. The plan for tomorrow is The Top Steakhouse, however they don't take reservations so backup reservations have been made elsewhere, just in case.

Brain Rot: What's On The DVR?

2006-07-14T22:32:00.000-04:00

So, you'll recall I mentioned awhile back how with LOST's season finale we'd entered that Sahara Desert of boob-tube goodness, the Summer off-season. Yet somehow, despite not having any "real" shows on queue the DVR managed to hit almost 80% full. So what the hell am I rotting my brain with?

The 4400: The 4400 is a great show - sci-fi, time travel, super powers, conspiracies, mysteries - etc. Yes, it owes a LOT to Rising Stars, but I think it's still a great show. I also really like all the new questions they've introduced this season -- who are the different factions in the future? What is Isabelle's REAL role? What was Matthew's REAL role? Who sent Matthew? What's the deal with Jordan Collier? Etc, etc.
Rock Star: Supernova: Amy & I both really enjoyed last year, even if JD wasn't really our pick to win, it was a really well done show with a great format. The format has been preserved, and yes, while Brooke is still annoying as hell (they didn't hire her for her mic skills, obviously), everything else remains high quality. The "band" Supernova is going to have to work really hard to convince ANYONE they're not yet another of Tommy Lee's 5 minute side-projects, and it doesn't help that Tommy seems to be the person taking things the LEAST seriously, but still - a good show. Sadly, thanks to a DVR malfunction last week and 50 minutes of TORNADO WARNING SPECIAL NEWS REPORT CRAP this week we've only seen like two ACTUAL performances - so I don't know much about the performers yet, but I hope to.
The World Series Of Pop Culture: How am I just now finding out about this show? They apparently had online testing to get people into the show, and I can't believe we didn't get in on this. We could've DOMINATED this show. If they do this again, I hope I find out about the casting, because I think we could clean up.
Mythbusters: Thank goodness for the automatic series recording on the DVR. I had NO IDEA this was coming back with new episodes this Summer - but the DVR found it and grabbed the new ep -- all about the crazy catburglar stunts from Hollywood - climbing in through ducts, cutting glass, getting through the laser security field, safe cracking, etc. It was a really fun ep, better than most of them from last season actually.
America's Got Talent: Enh - I don't know that I'm really all that sold on this one. I'm starting to get the American Idol vibe from it -- that is that now, after all the worthless joke acts are gone and the "real" talent remains, I just don't care anymore. It's just another Idol-style show, only supposedly focused on ANY talent. Yet oddly enough, it's singing which gets the most interest. Yawn. I think this is getting cut.
I've Got A Secret: This is the remake running new eps on GSN. It's OK but not great, and was originally added to the DVR when we didn't have anything else going on. Now that there are plenty of other options, it may get cut as well. Bill Dwyer's funny, but the schtick gets old.
Next: Speaking of getting old, Amy got me into this silly MTV "dating" show, where one person gets to go through 5 people to find the right match, saying "NEXT" at any time to send the current person packing and bring on fresh meat. It's a lot like an accident on roadside - too horrible not to watch, but the schtick here is about done for me as well. It's OK background noise, and is worth an occasional chuckle at least.
ECW / TNA Impact!: So yeah I've REALLY been giving it to my brain lately by getting back into some professional wrestling. The ~~WWF~~ WWE has mostly lost my attention, but their attempt at reviving ECW caught a little bit of interest, and TNA is different enough that I'm not too bored with it either. They're good for a quick bit of entertainment, and can't possibly be any worse for my brain than stuff like Next...

So yeah... that's a suprising load of garbage I'm pouring through the brain these days. On top of that, a number of shows have recently been recommended to me, so I'm considering checking out The Closer, Psych, and Hex, may watch at least the first ep. of Eureka, and am DEFINITELY planning on giving Who Wants To Be A Superhero a chance. Somehow.

Or maybe I'll give it all up and become a Luddite.

Viva Italia

2006-07-10T13:20:00.000-04:00

So I did wind up watching most of the 2006 World Cup final yesterday, and enjoyed seeing the Italians pull-out the win (in a shootout) over the Frech to claim their 4th World Cup. Gotta stay true to the family heritage, especially since the US team didn't make it out of group play.

Watching the star French player get thrown out with a red card due to a pretty vicious headbutt was pretty fun too:

Even if he did still get declared best player of the tournament.

I must say I enjoyed watching the game. So much so that I found myself wondering if I'd be watching more soccer in the future - like Premier League or Serie A games (assuming Insight still has FSC). Crazy eh?

Anyways, had a pretty good weekend other than that. Friday night we did our second run at Dream Dinners. Still really loving it both meal-wise and deal-wise. The "date night" session on Friday turned out to be just us and one other couple, so it was nice having the run of the place. I'm looking forward to trying some of the new meals from this batch.

Saturday the Fishes & Sabs came over for dinner, and that was a blast. So great watching Abby interact with Evie & Allison. Football games this year are going to be quite the kidfest I think -- hopefully it doesn't start to bother the non-kid folks in the group.

My parents came over to hang out on Sunday, which was nice though Amy had a pretty nasty headache and Evie was starting to come down with a little cold, and those were no fun. Sadly, we didn't get to go see Pirates 2 with Laurie, or check out The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged) again, but hey - we're only human! And besides, we get along pretty damn well for having a new baby around!

Speaking of getting around, Campus Hop on Thursday sounds like it could be fun. Anyone interested?

Red, White & BOOM!

2006-07-04T12:14:00.000-04:00

Amy, Evie & I went down to Red, White & BOOM! last night with my parents at the Pepsi/WNCI party as usual. We all had a great time, and aside from a few early showers, the weather was excellent - not too hot, sunny or even humid. There's a longer write-up on Evie's page. I mainly wanted to share a couple more of my pics here -- I think they turned out pretty good given it's just our little Coolpix camera.

Superman Returns, Shakespeare Abridged

2006-07-03T16:38:00.000-04:00

So Friday night "the gang" (including Brew!) got together for Superman Returns at the Arena Grand. The Arena Grand is always the place to be for taking big groups to opening night/weekend, and it's all because of two beautiful words: Reserved Seating. While it's definitely not always worth the extra $4 (or whatever it is), in these cases it's MORE than worth it -- you show up 10 minutes before the show starts, no waiting in line or stressing, you walk in, there are your seats together and waiting for you. Thanks to Hutch we were smack-dab in the front and center of the balcony.As for the movie, well I think Dave's Long Box summed it up pretty well:

Superman Returns is better than Batman Returns, but not as good as Batman Begins. It's also not as good as X-Men 2, but it is better than The Fantastic Four and is about a third as good as both Superman and Superman II combined. It's not up there with Blade, but it's twice as good as Daredevil and five times as good as Catwoman. It would take all the combined good parts of Elektra, Batman and Robin, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze to equal half of Superman Returns, but Superman Returns would have to be twice as rad to equal The Incredibles or Spider-Man 2. Having said that, I'd say it was a little better than X-Men 3 and four times as good as Superman III and IV (separately.) It's no Swamp Thing, though.

Honestly, I enjoyed the movie quite a bit. I thought it ran kind of long, exacerbated by the fact that some parts were played pretty slow, but Routh made a GREAT Superman, looking and sounding almost creepily like Christopher Reeve, and Kevin Spacey was a freaking AWESOME Lex Luthor. Kate Bosworth was OK as Lois, but enh, it was passable. Jimmy Olsen was particularly well cast also. The story wasn't quite sure whether it wanted to focus more on Lex's plot or on all the drama associated with Superman being away and returning after so long.

Saturday night Amy & I made it down to Schiller to see Actor's Theater doing The Complete Works Of Shakespeare (Abridged). I'm very excited that this made it into this season's Shakespeare in the park - I've been dying to see it for years, and it was well worth the wait. The three man cast did a great job, especially the guy who played all the female parts - his falsetto was particularly amusing, and the random puking on the crowd was a good touch as well. I'd say my favorite parts were Romeo & Juliet, Titus Andronicus, and of course the whole second act with it's multiple takes on Hamlet. There's a chance we may make it down this weekend to see it again, that's how good it was.

Gotta run, going to see Red, White & Boom! tonight! Should be a great time, as always.

Don't Do Drugs Kids!

2006-06-29T15:26:00.000-04:00

Teen Who Cut Off Corpse's Head To Make Bong Sentenced

On April 8, 2005, Buckalew went broke into a tomb, opened the lid of a casket and cut off the head of a corpse. He stole eyeglasses and a bow tie from the dead man. He then wrapped the head in plastic bags and took it home, The Caledonian-Record reported.The teen reportedly told friends that he planned to leave the head outside to dry and would then bleach it, a police affidavit said. The witnesses said his plan was to turn the skull into a bong -- a pipe generally used to smoke marijuana. Buckalew went to an apartment where some of his friends were and told them that he had chopped off the head because he was bored, according to The Caledonian-Record.

Star Wars at COSI, Gaming, LibraryThing!

2006-06-28T10:39:00.000-04:00

Evie had a great time hanging out with her cousins from North Carolina this weekend. Check out this awesome pic of Evie, Kate & Rob all reading:

Since the fam was in town, Saturday we hit up COSI to check out the Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination exhibit. I've been interested in checking this one out since I first saw the ad for it while leaving COSI when we saw the Titanic exhibit. I didn't really have a good idea what to expect, but I was pretty happy with the results. It was a nice mix of props, models & costumes from the movies, interactive exhibits regarding applying some of the "science" from Star Wars, and video clips talking about the setting, the science, etc. It was pretty chaotic and we weren't able to all stay together, but for the most part I think we all had a great time. Evie did get pretty frustrated haggling with a jawa over a new NannyDroid though...

Read more about the visit on Evie's page. Lots more pics are on the pics site.

Sunday I hooked up with my friend Mike for some serious strategy gaming goodness. We played two games of Abalone, two games of Stratego, and a game of Age of Mythology. Not a bad afternoon at all - I had a blast, and it was good to see Mike again because we haven't managed to connect-up much lately. Hopefully one of these days we can get a few more folks together for a game of Civ, or even better, the ever-elusive game of face-to-face Diplomacy.

One more thing I have to share before I go -- last night I stumbled upon a site called LibraryThing. Basically, it's a site which allows you to keep track of your book collection. You can import your collection list using various methods, or add it book-by-book by searching on name, author, or even ISBN. On top of this, it lets you add descriptive tags, ratings and reviews for each book. It uses your collection, tags, ratings, and other people's information who used the same tags/liked the same things to recommend other books to you -- or you can just browse tags or other people's collections with the same books to find things you might be interested in. I got sucked in pretty hard and entered most of my collection last night (mostly using ISBN, it was fastest). I went ahead and added a link to my collection in the sidebar, but here's a direct link as well.

Becuase I Have A Problem, That's Why

2006-06-23T22:29:00.000-04:00

So yeah, we went to Fujiyama last night with quite possibly the biggest group turnout EVAR. Let's see if I can figure out who all was there. If I leave someone out, bear in mind I have a horrible memory:

Randy, Heather
Jonesy
Me, Amy, Evie
Chris, Carrie, Allison
Beth, Paul, Abby
Steve, Holly
Gary
Jeff, Angel
Dan
Adam, (mind-blanking...Erin?)
Steve J.
Todd, Mica
Mike, Monica

I think that's everyone... for a grand total of 22 adults and 3 chilluns. It was a great time, but I'm pretty sure the staff were completely overwhelmed. They had us split onto three "sides" of the hibachi pairs there. We were on the "separate" side, and I think the separation made things a little easier, because from our side things went pretty well, but a number of folks mentioned mess-ups and service problems on the other side, which stinks. Still, it was awesome seeing everyone all together like that. I'm pretty sure it's the largest group assembled from the "gang" for anything other than weddings. I got a couple pics of the "just guys" and "just girls" shots (sadly after Chris, Carrie & Allison left though) and will get 'em up soon. Randy's camera had the full-on everyone shots. Lord knows how those turned out.

So after all that, what do we do for dinner tonight? Go back to Fujiyama of course. My Uncle T & his family are in town from North Carolina. They're big Japanese steak house-style fans, so we had to hit it up, and who am I to turn down such a good meal? I could eat there 7 nights a week I think. Well, maybe if they had sushi on the menu, too - that would be the total knockout blow. Anyways, we had a good time, got a good chef, and it was a blast seeing the kids (my cousins, 9 and 6) watch the show. The downside is we had the worst freaking service I've ever gotten there. It really was downright apalling. The waitress was almost never in the room, turned in her papers out of order (therefore getting a chef to a later table before us), took forever with our drinks and our salads. Yeah. Ridiculous. I'm wondering if it was the same person waiting us who caused the problems for the other folks last night -- if so, that explains a LOT, and I'd say that even if she is brand new, she needs to shape-up damn fast or they need to find someone else. Maybe put her with a "trainer" or something, someone who can keep an eye out and make sure she's doing things right, because it was ridamdiculous.

But you know what? I'd still eat there again tomorrow.

AND Sunday.

Yeah, I know.

Insta-Cover! Fujiyama Madness

2006-06-22T11:04:00.000-04:00

BoingBoing linked this neat little "tool" - the Fake Name Generator. Each time you reload it presents another fake yet plausible identity, complete with address, phone, a fake credit card number (!), even a disposable e-mail address courtesy of Pookmail. It's a little scary to think what could happen if it hits upon someone's real info in some of the aspects, but still, it's pretty interesting, and perfect for the low- (ok, no-)budget spy on the run.

Frank D. Schulz
158 Elm Street
Sioux City, IA 51101

Email Address: Frank.D.Schulz@pookmail.com
(More information at PookMail.com)

Phone: 712-233-4627
Mother's maiden name: Lisena
Birthday: December 26, 1960

Visa: 4539 0656 4999 1861
Expires: 10/2007

Going to Fujiyama tonight to visit with Jonesy and celebrate Randy's dual-action good events. With TWENTY-TWO people in the party. That's just obscene.

Father's Day

2006-06-19T22:05:00.000-04:00

I had an awesome Father's Day weekend. My write-up of it is on Evie's page, here. Amy wrote-up a bit herself, here. I won't really bother repeating any of it here, other than this picture, which is incredibly mega-awesome and will be put everywhere:

Seriously. I dare you to TRY and resist that. Isn't she awesome??

Speaking of awesome, if you haven't already, make sure to check out the big news over at the Lair. Most Excellent.

Google released an update to Picasa which offers some web uploading/album-type stuff. It's very similar to Flickr in a number of ways, but has some differences as well. I used the pups to experiment with it, check it out.

Last bit of crazy news: using some Father's Day cashola courtesy Amy's mom, I snagged my 1,000th CD today. It is: Warmachine: The Beginning Of The End. (That says Import, but I got it for a domestic price at Magnolia Thunderpussy. Gotta love that place.

Shots, Random Links

2006-06-13T18:06:00.000-04:00

Evie had her two month doctor's appointment today, complete with four shots. She tried to be tough, but four big needles poking in such little legs was sure to produce screams and tears... Still, she did great. I'll write-up more at Evie's page (hopefully). Here she is flying (excuse the quality, it's a phone pic):

Some random links from all over the scope of things:

Article: Was The 2004 Election Stolen? by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., written almost like a legal brief. I'm not really a big fan of the whole "conspiracy! scandal! fraud!" camp of Dems & libs, but it's still a very interesting read.
An interesting, scholarly write-up of everyone's favorite word, Fuck.
A hugely successful-looking new anti-HIV drug. How is this not bigger news??
A BORAT movie!! Score! I've been wondering what Cohen's been up to lately. Trailer here.
Because Ann Coulter is truly a psycho maniac, Henry Rollins writes her a love letter.
Fun, addictive new game: Stackopolis.

Enjoy!

The Bistro, the Baby Show, and the Birthday

2006-06-12T21:11:00.000-04:00

Well, as alluded to on Friday, we had one hell of a busy weekend... didn't spend a whole lot of time just lounging around (or even working around) the house, as we were almost on the run from dinner Friday straight through to Sunday night. Here you get one long review and two brief summaries. The Saturday and Sunday events will get their longer write-up on Evie's page.

Friday: Nostalgia & Tropical Bistro Madness
As planned, we hit up Tropical Bistro Friday night. It definitely lived up to the hype -- the menu is almost a clone of the old Kahiki menu (the drink menu is the exact same picture as the old Kahiki drink menu), the atmosphere tries -- it's kind of heavy on the Chinese Buffet-style decorations, with the golden dragons, pagodas and the like, but it's also got some tiki heads, polynesian lamps, and when we were there Friday night they had a ukulele player from Hawaii playing some awesome Aloha-jams.

Drinks-wise, they have a lot of great choices, including all the Kahiki standards, in their distinctive mugs (which you don't get to keep any longer, unfortunately)... I had a Headhunter, which is rum and various tropical juices. Laurie had a Smoking Eruption in all it's dry-ice glory. Amy was tempted by the Vicious Virgin, but asked what was in it, and it was NOT virgin at all... Even for a non-drinker such as myself, the drink selection was a lot of fun.

Food-wise, the menu is split into "From the East", "From the West", and "From the Islands" just like the old Kahiki menu. Standards such as the Royal Pu Pu platter, Beef/Chicken Skewers, the Tahitian Mermaid (crab & cream cheese between two steaks - excellent), and such are still there, augmented with new choices like lettuce wraps and sushi. I had the beef teriyaki skewer, which was filet mignon cooked pefectly, on a skewer with a whole onion, some pineapple and some tomato, served with rice and a teriyaki dipping sauce. The whole thing is on a big metal skewer and finished off with an open flame tableside by the server. Lots of fun, and very tasty. Amy had the Sesame Chicken, which was good, Laurie spoke highly of her Tropical Chicken (served in a pineapple shell), and Gary had the aforementioned and phenomenal Tahitian Mermaid.

For dessert, pictured above, we had to get the Big Fat Mamasan, a Kahiki classic - a huge pile of vanilla and chocolate ice cream, with chocolate sauce and various fruits (including, or so Amy has told us, coochie fruit). How can you not enjoy a flaming, smoking mountain of ice cream?

So yeah, we had lots of fun, and I highly recommend the place to any good food lover, but especially to fans of the old Kahiki food and service. As a bonus they do daily lunch buffets (other than Saturday) and a brunch buffet on Sundays! For another take (and a horrible picture of me), see Laurie's review here.

Saturday: Evie Goes to Cincy
[pictures are here]
Me, Amy & Evie headed down to Cincy to visit with the Voellmecke clan. En route, as always, was a required stop at Sonic for a cherry limeade. Amy made a potty run at the La Rosa's next door and out of guilt bought a lifetime supply of LaRosa's pizza sauce in the industrial size "feed the whole famdamily" bag. We met up with some of Amy's family on her Mom's side briefly, then spent the rest of the day in the Voellmecke jungle. Saw pretty much all of them in the area, as well as the Chicago contingent. On the way home we hit-up Jungle Jim's... WOW. That's a helluva grocery store. Bought lots of fun stuff including:

Jolt Cola
Virgin Cola
HP Sauce for Gary
Gulab Jamun
Palak Paneer
Brown Bread in a can
some Vegemite!
Two kinds of etouffe mix
various candies
and some other stuff I'm not recalling at the moment...

Sunday: Alaina I.'s First Birthday!!
[pictures are here]
Sunday we hit Dayton with Gary in tow for Alaina's first birthday party. Irene & Jeremy put on one heck of an awesome party. Some awesome grilled kebobs, chocolate-covered strawberries, an awesome strawberry snake cake, cornhole, and a huge inflatable jumping room. Plus the birthday girl herself, who is a heck of a lot of fun (I can't believe Evie will be up and around and doing those things in less than 10 months!) And on top of all the other fun and comraderie, we got to meet their new pug puppy, PIRATE! Check out this mug:

Only 9 weeks old and already in prison! A true pirate indeed!

Friday Yo

2006-06-09T17:31:00.000-04:00

Can't complain about Friday. Got a pretty busy weekend ahead of us, though, so I expect going back to work on Monday is going to suck even more than usual. But that's how things go.

Best Of '06
Wednesday Amy & I hit up Shadowbox for Best of the Box 2006. It was, as you might expect, reeking of awesomeness. I typed up a pretty extensive review on their forums, so I won't really get into it here, other than to say that I definitely enjoyed it, and hopefully things work out so that we'll be able to go back again at least once before Freak Show rolls around.

Tropical Bistro
Tonight Amy, Laurie, Gary & I are going to try out Tropical Bistro, which is kind of a reincarnation of the Kahiki! Or "Kahiki Lite" as it were. We loved the Kahiki, and as with many folks, were very very sad when it closed back in '00. I'm still holding out hope that it'll come back with a full-blown fancy building and everything, instead of just in some strip mall, but with almost the same menu, drinks, several important staff, and a lot of decorations, I'll take what I can get. I'll let you know how it is...

Tomorrow: Cincy & the V-clan.
Sunday: Dayton for Alaina's b-day and hopefully to Casa Fish for game night afterward.
Monday: back to work...

Dream Dinners, Strawberries, 6/6/06

2006-06-06T12:08:00.000-04:00

Dream Dinners
As mentioned previously, Saturday morning Amy & I tried out Dream Dinners in Westerville. Amy's already talked about it on Evie's page, but I wanted to get my own say in as well. Beforehand, I was unsure about the price, as it's a lot of upfront money to put out, but we had a lot of fun there putting everything together, and it's looking like it'll actually work out to be a really good deal. It is a lot of upfront money, but we made 12 meals (11 entrees and a dessert). The meals typically serve 4-6, so of those we split 9 of them (including the dessert) into two portions, making 19 meals and two desserts. Since then, we've had two of the split meals and they were definitely large enough portions for both of us to eat our fill AND have enough left over for me to take to lunch the next day. Given the amount of money we'd probably spend at the grocery store on trips for all those meals, let alone the time and energy we'd spend prepping everything... I can safely give a strong recommendation for Dream Dinners.

Strawberry Love
Sunday we went down to Troy to hit up the Troy Strawberry Festival with Gary, Irene, Jeremy & Alaina. At the festival we met up with Amy's cousin Emily and her friend Dan too. It did rain off and on while we were there, and I got pretty soaked while waiting in the ridiculous line for butterfly fries (or twister chips, or shaved potatoes, or whatever). They were good. Still, I'll take the rain over the 92-some degree heat and humidity of last year. Strawberry-food summary:

Deep-fried strawberries
Strawberry pizza (I had some of Amy's)
Strawberries & Chocolate (some of Irene's)
Strawberry & Lemon Cooler (like a Lemon Shake-up but with strawberry goo too)
Strawberry salsa (some of Emily's)
Strawberry donuts

They were all tasty, but the deep-fried strawberries and the cooler stood out above the rest. And of course, the strawberry donuts ROCK. Jeremy's a total champ for taking on the 1.5 hour line to get us some hot & fresh donuts. They were fantabulous. For NON-strawberry food I had a bloomin' onion, the aforementioned butterfly fries, and roasted sweet corn. Mmmm tasty.

6/6/06
June 6, 2006 -- or 6/6/06 as it were. As you might expect there are all kinds of tie-ins to this. As I mentioned previously, it's the National Day of Slayer. They're releasing an EP exclusively to Hot Topics today with at least one new song on it, and I believe they're doing a t-shirt thing for it as well.

Elsewhere, they're having a party in the real-life town of Hell, Michigan. (I think all Buckeye fans aren't surprised to find out Hell is located in Michigan).

The Omen remake comes out today. It looks pretty decent, but I'm not sure why a remake was really needed.

There's plenty more places talking about it as well... Apparently some bookmaking websites are even making odds on the world ending today. Not really sure how you'd collect on that bet though.

Gah~!, Go RPS yourself

2006-06-02T22:02:00.000-04:00

So of course I've spent the past half-hour or so writing up a nice blog post summarizing the fun of the day's lunch selection dramas and Randy's apparent new nom-de-guerre "Catfish", when wouldn't you know it, Firefox (!) crashes and *poof* all gone.

I'll write it up again sometime soon I guess, but for now, I just want to throw a link out there and be done with it. But it comes with a bit of a story. Back in the day, in my early days at OSU (and working at the good 'ol Customer Services desk), Beth & I would use Rock-Paper-Scissors all the time to decide who had to do the next crap-job, or make the lunch run, or help the next customer, or whatever. The problem was, we knew each other so well that most of the time we'd tie over and over again. Well, one of us found a solution to this on the nascent World Wide Web in the form of Rock-Paper-Scissors-Spock-Lizard, and it's 5 possible signs. Well, we had a desk job that had decent periods of down-time (or even more often, mindless work time), so we figured why stop there -- so we worked out the 7-sign version Rock-Paper-Scissors-Spock-Lizard-Dynamite-UTS. After all, there's always some stupid kid that would try to play dynamite and "blow everything up", just to be a pain-in-the-ass brat, and this gives it actual balanced results.

Obviously, we weren't the only folks to figure out that the game works with ANY number of symbols as long as you're always adding two more, and some dude took it to the extreme with RPS-25. That's twenty five signs for some insane number of different combinations. You've got all your usuals there, as well as Bowl, Axe, Monkey, and even Devil and Nuke. Check 'em out:

My Musical Tastes

2006-06-01T13:34:00.000-04:00

It seems to happen fairly regularly, but I still enjoy it when I search for an album on Amazon (especially when I add one to my Wish List), and it pops up the old "Customers who shopped for XXX also saw these items..." , and it's such a unique combination of stuff that it can ONLY be using my own data to build the list from.

PQ Update, Shadowbox Podcast!

2006-05-31T21:21:00.000-04:00

PQ's surgery went well... and was a good deal cheaper then they originally estimated. When they got in there, the vet was able to confirm that it was just a stopped-up oil gland cyst. They still removed it just to be safe, and drained another he had on his leg that we didn't know about. But they're nothing to worry about, and other than being kind of dopey and needing to get his stitches out in a couple weeks, he'll be fine. It's basically the same thing I had removed from my back a couple years ago - PQ just wanted to be more like Daddy. The other funny thing is that because of where his stitches are, the vet recommended putting him in a child's t-shirt to keep him from fussing with it (rather than a cone-head). I'm not normally a fan of clothing for pets, but vet's orders and all.. Evie gave big brother PQ one of her onesies (with the bottom cut off) - here's Evie helping PQ recuperate:

In other news, Shadowbox now has a (video) podcast! Ownage.

PQ's Surgery

2006-05-31T09:23:00.000-04:00

Pasquale's getting surgery today (at this very moment, I'd imagine) to get a lump on his side removed. It's been there for about a year (maybe even a bit longer?) and doesn't seem to be too serious, but it has gotten a decent amount larger in that time, and they're going to remove it and send it off to the labs for analysis just to be safe. I feel so bad for the little guy! Think good thoughts.

Been kind of a crazy busy week for us - Amy at home especially. Amy's already summed up most of it on Evie's page , but to summarize the highlights of the past and coming week, starting from last Friday:

Hit La Chatelaine for lunch b/c I was craving a Croque Monsieur. Well, they ran out JUST before I got to order - "sorry, we're out - no more for 45 minutes! You should try this instead, it's very tasty!" Person2: "Or this, try this, you'll like it" Person1: "Yes, you try this!" Me: "Go f-yourself, I wanted a damn Croque Monsieur, I don't want this other shit!" ... Ok, well of course I didn't actually say that -- but I was pretty grumpy to the lunch crowd (including Amy & Evie!), since that was the only reason I'd suggested the place at all...
Saturday Nana & Grandpa babysat while Amy & I saw The Da Vinci Code. It was a pretty decent movie. Still not a huge fan of Tom Hanks in the role, but all the major cast did a good job, and it was a solid adaptation. A few logical changes (for timing, etc), a few very odd changes (maybe to make it "easier to follow"? -- oddly enough they seem to make it more controversial), but still, worth seeing, especially for fans of the book.
Sunday was church, errands, and brunch at La Chatelaine so I finally got my Croque Monsieur.
Monday was the holiday - cookout & hanging out @ my parents house. Evie slept almost all day, which was very odd...
Yesterday we had our new freezer delivered, the driveway sealed, and finished collecting up and hauled out all our collected basement crap to the curb.
Today is PQ's surgery, the freezer guy returning to check out a dent, bulk pickup comes to GET all that crap.
Tomorrow is Crazy From The Heat at Shadowbox.
Saturday we're doing Dream Dinners.
Also this weekend is the Columbus Arts Festival and the Troy Strawberry Festival. I hope to do at LEAST one of those, and I guess it's remotely possible we'll end up doing both...

Pesky Bill of Rights

2006-05-29T10:50:00.000-04:00

It just seems to get in the way doesn't it?
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances
And that's just the First Amendment. There's also the Fourth, with it's pesky laws about unlawful search and seizure, and the Fifth, with it's silly due process.

Is it 2009 yet? Or will we just get more of the same? I don't exactly have high hopes for things to turn-around. In fact, in Ohio I'm pretty sure that this asshole will be our next governor. After all, he's used to "helping" close elections [pdf].

Lost Rules, No more TV...

2006-05-25T20:29:00.000-04:00

The Lost season finale was definitely worth it. Even in the first 30 minutes it was MUCH improved over last season's anti-climactic finaly, and they had a good mix of revelations while still progressing things AND setting up a couple (maybe three even?) great cliffhangers for next season. I already can't wait, and it's not until SEPTEMBER. In the meantime, you can brush up on all the little crazy details, secrets, revelations, etc, at the VERY awesome Lostpedia. (Warning: If you haven't seen any of this season's episodes -- the site is VERY spoiler-heavy). You can also fill up the off-season following the Lost Experience ARG (alternate reality game).

Speaking of nothing to do until September, Lost was the pretty much the last of them -- all our shows are now over for the season. Doctor Who still has a few episodes, and I think The Sopranos and Big Love might as well, but all the standard network fare is over. I guess we'll have a lot less TV to watch and a lot more time to play with and stare at Evie instead. I'm also keeping my eye out for good off-season shows - for example, season 3 of The 4400 starts up in a couple weeks -- so if you see anything else good, let me know.

Mothers Day, TV

2006-05-17T21:00:00.000-04:00

So this past weekend was Amy's first Mother's Day. As we've done the past few years, we hit up brunch at the Blackwell. It's kind of pricy, but they go all-out with one heck of an awesome spread, and we had a great time. I only wish I'd been able to eat even more - there were so many great options that I just couldn't fit it all in.

I've been following the various fall TV season announcements the networks have been making. So far I've seen at least bits & pieces of NBC, ABC, and CBS. It's hard to find a really comprehensive compilation of all the news about it out there so far -- times like this I really do miss the Entertainment Weekly subscription. Anyway, from what I've gathered, the following shows on my DVR are returning for next Fall:

LOST
CSI
House
NCIS (without Mark Harmon? This may get dropped)
Cold Case
Without A Trace
Numb3rs
Ghost Whisperer (this too may get dropped...)
My Name Is Earl
Doctor Who (assuming Sci-Fi picks up the 2nd BBC season which is already airing)

...yeah. Just looking at that is pretty scary. I watch WAY WAY too much television. 9.5 hours per week there. 24, I understand, HAS been renewed for three more years, but I assume as usual won't be coming back until January or so so that it can run uninterrupted. I haven't seen anything from FOX yet, so I'm only guessing about House, but how could it NOT be back? On top of those, I'm interested in the following new shows:

NBC: Heroes
NBC: Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip
ABC: Six Degrees
ABC: Day Break (mid-season mix with LOST)
ABC: The Nine

Should be interesting. I'm guessing that I'll have to find things in both lists to trim out as Evie takes up more and more of our time, and I'm sure some things in there will crap out anyway, so it should all even out. Besides, who needs that much TV anyway?