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

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 But yeah, as you've probably heard, it's now out of date.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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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:

1. Morton's: Hand's-down the best. Phenomenal.
   
2. Ruth's Chris: Very very tasty.
3. Smith & Wollenski: Great desserts, interesting sauces, good steak
4. The Top Steakhouse: good steaks, good dessert, fun atmosphere & history
5. Mitchell's Steakhouse: Good, yet disappointing atmosphere (Crosswoods location), and good steaks, but just not quite up to par with the others.
6. 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

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?

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

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!

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

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!

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.

more

Star Wars at COSI, Gaming, LibraryThing!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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...

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

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?

Friday Fun

Well, I've almost made it through my third day back at work. It hasn't been as bad as I expected getting back into the swing of things here - though Wednesday itself was pretty tough.

Luckily, to keep me going through the brain-drain, the Intarwub (primarily YouTube) has provided entertainment:

• Heat Vision and Jack -- this is a pilot for a TV show with Jack Black, Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson that was DOA. This is one of the most entertaining things I've seen in quite some time - it's so ridiculous.
  
• For the comic book folks - Civil War reenactments? Try SECRET WARS reenactments!
• C For Cookie - Sesame Street meets facism, anarchy is gluttony?
• Though it's still more than a month away, you may want to start getting ready to celebrate the National Day of Slayer - June 6th, 2006.
  

Two Weeks Later, Sci-Fi Day Pass

Been two weeks since Evie was born, and they've went by in a flash. As we've done for the past 9 months, I'll still keep most of the purely Evie-talk over at her page, but that doesn't mean that this will be purely devoid of baby-mention. Still, for baby-talk and pics, be sure to stay on top of things there.

Because Amy is the awesomest wife/new mom ever, I did get to hit the 23rd Annual Ohio Science Fiction Movie Marathon this past weekend. Since Evie was originally due on the 20th, it was really unlikely that I'd be going, but since she came early and friends & family were available to help out, Dad & I did get to go, which was awesome. We've been going every year since I was in middle school (I'm pretty sure 1990 was the first year we went), and it's a heck of a lot of fun. These days Gary and Hutch come too, as well as other folks depending on availability. The highlights of this year's marathon for me were definitely Godzilla: Final Wars (which I hadn't seen) and Serenity and Forbidden Planet (which I had seen before - the latter quite a few times). They also showed about 6 Batman serials from the early 1940s (during WWII) which were hysterical - so different from anything they'd show today - Batman got knocked out at LEAST once per episode, sometimes more often, and was constantly getting bailed out by Robin and even Alfred!

Getting ready to go back to work later this week, which means polishing off yard work and such so that Amy will be able to just relax and hang out with Evie during the days. Found out that we've got a robin's nest on our fence. We didn't really want one because the dogs might bother it / get into it, but after tearing down two completed nests, it came back a third time and now there are eggs in it, so I'll just try and leave it be and keep them safe:


There's three little eggs under the proud parent there. I don't think the dogs know about the nest, so lets hope that things stay that way. You'd think that even in a neighborhood without any mature trees like ours, there's still GOT to be a safer/better place to nest, but hey, I guess for a bird this persistent, we can allow a little backyard squatter.

April 11, 2006

All details, and links to more pics over at Baby T's page!

Make It Stop

Another weekend, another Monday. Not a whole lot of note done over the weekend. Saturday Amy & I just hung out and relaxed, Sunday Amy went out with the girls while Gary & I hung out, gamed, & relaxed. So relaxation is good.

Going back even further for a sec to pimp Shadowbox - Go see Crazy From The Heat at Easton. It's a damn good time, including new sketches for quite a few of their better regular characters - Jason's Scary Stories, American Top 40, Dr. Mystery, the game show gang, etc. Lots of fun. Additionally, of course, BillWho? rocks the house with some great tunes.

Today was a pretty busy day at work, but I did get a bit o' free time here & there to do some interesting reading. This is what really got me worked up - Telegraph headline: "Bush is planning nuclear strikes on Iran's secret sites". ARE YOU SERIOUS? I mean holy crap, as if the whole propaganda parade wasn't already bad enough, now they're alleging that folks in the administration are refusing to take the nuclear option off the table. The story has spread to a lot of other sources as well, and SERIOUSLY. SERIOUSLY - the fact that military action is on the table AT ALL here is a testament to how deluded folks in Washington must be about how things are going over there. Given the news from Iraq, the fact that we're still in Afganistan, how could we POSSIBLY afford (money-wise, troop-wise) to open up yet ANOTHER front? This does make last week's story about the US plan to build new nukes for the first time since 1989 (possibly up to 125 new nukes a YEAR!) a LOT scarier...

A senior Pentagon consultant said that Mr Bush believes that he must do "what no Democrat or Republican, if elected in the future, would have the courage to do," and "that saving Iran is going to be his legacy".

...YEAH. And that's your warm fuzzy thought of the day right there.

Illness, April 1st Fun, Further Evidence

So I'm pretty well recovering from the plague that struck me down last week. Unfortunately, I've passed it along to Amy, who isn't open to get the same NyQuil/DayQuil benefits that got me through last week. I feel really bad and hope that it makes it's way through pretty quickly.

We did have a pretty good weekend. Saturday I spent a good portion of the morning checking out all the various Internet April Fools shenanigans that were out there. I think the overall quality was a hair down this year (perhaps because it was a Saturday?), but there was still enough good stuff out there to make for an enjoyable hour or two. The nice thing about April Fools Day on the Internet these days is that most folks are wise to the games now and basically nothing is taken seriously that goes up, is announced, or changes on 4/1. Which means the malice is gone and it's just fun. Although a lot of the original pranks are gone now, this is a pretty comprehensive list of what WAS there. Some of the standouts for me were Google Romance, My Little Pony the RPG, Burgercraft, and Wikipedia's homepage, which was redone with all fictional stuff. Of those, all are still up except for the Wikipedia changes.

As promised, I gave the Evidence another shot. This episode was definitely MUCH better than the pilot, especially as far as the acting and dialogue goes - Estes and Jones felt a lot more natural and not as forced... so it wasn't BAD like the pilot was, but it also really wasn't all that stellar - falling into a "meh" category that might get it watched every now and then, but definitely isn't going to earn it a place in the already way-too-crowded regular viewing schedule. The gimmick of seeing the evidence first and last isn't holding up well either... it's somewhat intruiging, but not really all that earth-shattering. Ah well, still LOTS of other TV to watch, not like I needed one more show.

Still In Tact, The Evidence

Well, I'm still in one peace, and the healing process is coming along pretty nicely. At this point, it's really just down to some achiness at times, and the "steri-strips" (basically tape which takes the place of stitches on small incisions) are still hanging on, but all-in-all, things seem to have gone well.

I've mentioned it before, but I still contend that DVR is a larger contributor to my brain-rot than video games, regular TV, and the Internet all put together. You'd think that after we got the dual-tuner DVR box with more storage space, Amy & I would have trouble keeping up with everything being recorded.... but you'd be wrong. Instead, we keep adding new shows to the DVR schedule just so that we can keep it stocked with things to watch. I'm thinking we may need to join a 12-step program.

Anyway, the newest thing I threw on to check out was the pilot episode of ABC's The Evidence. I've been a fan of Orlando Jones since the "Make 7-Up Yours" commercials, and the premise sounded SOMEWHAT interesting... (that you see the evidence first and have to try and piece it all together, then see what it's actually from as the show rolls on). Anyway, I WANTED to like it - but I was VERY unimpressed. The acting felt REALLY stilted from both leads (Jones and Rob Estes) - there was a lot of "buddy movie" type lines but they felt SO forced, I don't know that the chemistry is really there between them. The show itself, aside from the attempt at the new spin with the evidence thing (which is VERY minor), is just another Law & Order / CSI rip-off crime drama, and didn't really present anything new. Because I really dig Orlando Jones, I may give one more episode a shot, but right now this one's a definite pass for me.

So, I lived

Well, despite my absence here, I did make it through the surgery last week just fine. Since I hadn't really mentioned it here, if you hadn't heard about it, don't worry, it wasn't a big deal. I didn't really go out of my way to let folks know, but I wasn't dodging the topic either.

Anyway, recovery has gone pretty well. I was back at work on Friday. In pain, but back at work. Which is good because of the vacation the week before, and the coming baby-leave, I really want to miss as little work as possible. I'm still in a bit o' pain today, but hopefully everything's on the right track.

In the meantime, things keep rollin' on along, and I ought to get back to work...

Lists of Bests: Mindless Web Fun

So I'm newly re-addicted to Lists of Bests. It's been acquired by the Robot Co-Op and tied into 43places, 43things, and All Consuming, and revamped with all kinds of new goodness. The downside is that it didn't retain the things I'd already marked as "consumed" from the old Lists of Bests site... but the upside is that it's got a new fresh look and snazzy new features - the ability to create your own lists being among the best, definitely.

Recently at TechCrunch they posted a really awesome looking preview of Google's forthcoming online web calendar, CL2. I've checked out a number of the many new webcals so far, including 30Boxes, Spongecell, Eventful, Kiko, and Planzo... honestly they're all pretty much the same with maybe ONE distinguishing feature or focus for each. CL2's integration with Gmail alone should be enough to push it through to the next level -- basically it's moving towards more of an MS Exchange-level of integration. I'm really excited to try it out, so hopefully it makes it out of private status soon.

Ahh, Vacation

Earlier this week Amy & I took our last pre-parenthood vacation, heading down to Glenlaurel Inn in the Hocking Hills for a brief yet incredibly relaxing and much needed vacation. Our goal (sure to take many years' time) is to eventually stay at least once in each of their rooms. This time around we were in the MacKenzie Royal Suite. The story being that in the olden days, Scottish nobles would always keep one suite or room always ready in case the king or queen decided to stop by for the night. It was a really nice room, a little larger than the pictures make it out to be.

While we were there, Amy was a serious champ and we hiked Cedar Falls, Ash Cave. and Glenlaurel's own Camusfearna Gorge. Not too shabby! Pictures of the nature-type scenes, and a few of the room are here. There wasn't really any snow on the ground (it did snow briefly while we were there, but didn't stick), but there were lots of great icicles along the cliffs:


I think we even managed to capture a couple pretty decent pictures of me in the process as well. Can't beat that.

We came back Tuesday night and were still off on Wednesday for some relaxation around the house and to get a few errands done. Unfortunately Mr. Migraine paid me an unwelcome visit, so I had to turn in early on the errands, but I did manage to make it through a visit to baby Alison! She's an awesome girl, and even at less than two weeks old was a lot of fun - she makes some seriously funny faces. Can't believe it's just over a month now until Baby T comes along...

March Already

I can't believe it's already March. Seems like time alternates between flying by so quickly you can't catch a breath, and crawling so slowly it's worse than watching paint dry.

Anyway, here's a few links to keep the March boredom away:

• MC Hammer has a blog!
  
• Homeless blogging! (NOT by MC Hammer)
• Hilarious Something Awful Photoshops: Choose Your Own Adventures!
• Re-Imagineering: Disney and Pixar professionals talking about "imagineering missteps" (in park design and such) and musing on the future. Given that I'm an admitted hardcore Disney-phile, I agree with a LOT of what they have to say on changes to the parks which haven't worked, what could improve things, etc. I really hope that some of this stuff catches the right ears (er, eyes).