This just in

There is at least one sane person left in Washington D.C..

That is all.

Pixelart Movies, Flash Puzzles, etc

Our first Broadway Series show of the season was last night... Hairspray. It's honestly been so long since I've seen the movie that I remembered almost nothing about it... other than it was one of the "fat Ricki Lake" movies. I do remember that I didn't really care for the movie at all. The musical I really enjoyed, however. It was a pretty fun time. May have to go back and give the movie another chance. Still... as far as fat Ricki Lake movies go, you can't beat Cry Baby. Now there's a quality flick.

Some other quick links/blips:

• The Eyezmaze site has been updated. There are two versions of the "Grow" game I hadn't played that were very fun, and some other minor updates. Check it out. There's even a blog there where he posts stuff in progress.
• In a new twist on "cliff notes", some guy has created pixel-art animated gifs covering most all of the important scenes in Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back. They're good-sized files, so be careful.
• Shadowboxers in movies! I have no idea when these are coming out / when you'd be able to see them, but check out Horrors of War with Joe Lorenzo (and G.Lo here and there) and Living In Technicolor, with Pizzuto in a crazy-house!
  

Fire It Up

As previously mentioned, the Fall Fireball was Friday. It was a good time, though things started out a little disappointing, as they did away with all the "open" tables this year, leaving only reserved tickets. The $45 "guaranteed seat" tickets make a lot more sense knowing this, but I still can't see paying 1.5 times as much just to have a table to set your crap on for a little while. Maybe buying a full or partial table next year, I guess... It was a good time -- there was a lot of good stuff in both silent auctions. We bid on lots of stuff, but unfortunately only got one thing - a checker-pattern ottoman "crouton" - which we won because Amy was the only person to bid on it. I was bummed about losing out on both Cincy-trip packages, which were the things I probably wanted the most. The good thing is that at least they got more money off them for 2Cos/Shadowbox. Also cool auction-wise was Pat & Cindy winning a cruise in the live auction! Very nice. The band shows were, of course, the best part though -- Downtown DFN (the 2Cos band) played for a bit, and later BillWho? did a two-hour set, including lots of good tunes.

Saturday we hit-up the Ren Fest, and Amy was able to come along this time. Got to see some shows I missed last time, and introduce Amy to the fun. Hopefully we'll be able to do it again next year in slightly warmer weather, but we'll have to see how things are going. Also good on Saturday was OSU beating Indiana. Not that that was a huge surprise, but you never know with OSU on the road...

Sunday watched the Browns get whipped by frigging Detroit at home. It's typical Cleveland karma that it was Garcia who came in to lead them to the win. It was a bad football day in general, as my fantasy teams fared pretty poorly as well. I did go shopping with Amy for a bit earlier in the day, so at least it wasn't entirely wasted.

Flock, Fireball

This preview ain't for the faint of heart! If you're the bleeding-edge type and don't mind a few scrapes and busted knees from time to time, feel free to give it a whirl.

Flock

Trying out a new web browser which is based heavily on Firefox, called "Flock". It's supposed to be the first "social" web browser, a la all the other web2.0 apps that the hipsters are all up on these days. I've been interested in trying out a lot of this stuff myself, so I gave it a whirl.

It's not too bad. VERY bleeding-edge, as noted, and there are a number of show-stoppers which will keep me from using it full-time I think, but I do like the blogging integration thought. Flickr integration is pretty cool as well. Instead of regular favorites, it uses your del.icio.us account, which is both interesting and not-so-good. It doesn't seem to be able to group favorites in folders, so there's no "open in tabs" option which I've become pretty hooked on, among other stuff. ... and the funniest part is I first tried to post this blog from within Flock, using the built-in blogging tools, and it completely failed... wasn't able to connect and post it after all. Very funny.

A couple reviews with screenshots if you're interested:
A Firefox Fan's Perspective Of The Flock Browser
Flock, Under Those Feathers

Anyway, so yeah... it's an interesting thought, but not a winner just yet. In other news, going to the Shadowbox Fall Fireball tonight. Amy gets to go this year too! In fact, I think this may be the biggest crowd we've been with yet -- me, Amy, Gary, Randy, Heather, Pat & Cindy. Very slick. Should be a blast. Here's hoping they make crazy amounts of money and that everyone has a great time.

With Au Jus

It makes me crazy. Seriously. Such a little thing, but it bugs the crap outta me when you see an ad for roast beef, carved beef, a french dip sandwich, etc... and it says "served with au jus" or even worse "served with a side of au jus"... Au jus is french for "with juice" -- generally referring to the meat's juices from cooking. So essentially those ads are saying "served with with juice" or "served with a side of with juice".

I'm really not an anal person. I just have issues. Really.

The weekend went by pretty quickly. Amy was gone all weekend - she's currently in Phoenix, and is getting back tomorrow. It's been around 95 there, but unfortunately she still has a pretty nasty cold... I feel so bad for her to have to be travelling AND be sick. Think good thoughts and hopefully she will be home and healthy soon.

OSU won on Saturday. That was good, but they really won despite their best efforts otherwise. It was a rough, rough game to watch. The offense still needs a LOT of work. With two road games coming up, they better get their act together fast. There's a lot of stiff competition in the Big Ten still to come.

The Browns got annhiliated on Sunday... but I didn't watch since they showed the BENGALS game instead. So instead of watching football, I watched a couple different shows on Sci-Fi network. First was Riverworld, which was pretty good. It's apparently a pilot for a series that never happened, but it did pretty well on it's own. It's interested me enough to add the books to my "to-read" list... A really cool concept, so it'll be nice to read more on the whole setting and story. The other thing I watched was both parts of the Legend of Earthsea miniseries. Apparently the author of the books it was based on, Ursula K Le Guin wasn't very happy with the adaptation. I haven't really read much fantasy lately, but I'll probably have to add some of the Earthsea books to my reading list as well.

Should be a good week. Amy gets back tomorrow, I'm going to Shadowbox on Wednesday to see Freak Show again, and going to the Fall Fireball on Friday (which Amy will be able to attend this time!) Woohoo, and a good time shall be had by all.

I Gave In To Peer Pressure

Well, I gave in to peer pressure and saw Serenity on Friday. I haven't seen Firefly yet (though I expect I'll borrow the DVDs and watch them sooner or later). I do have to admit, it's a pretty good movie. It's not a GREAT movie, mind you, but it is a pretty good one. I suspect the reason it's getting so much hype (at least from some circles) is that there are very, very few good sci-fi movies coming out these days. That, and of course the Firefly fans whose consumer power got the movie made in the first place. I really liked the Captain's character - it was a bit shallow, but it was a good take on the concept, and even though seeing him go from the good intentioned yet focusless rogue to the defender of an ideal seemed a bit rushed, it was definitely a nice turn of plot. I'll have to agree with Jeff in that it would have been great to see this story told over a longer period of time, such as a second season of Firefly, for example... but on the other hand, I seriously doubt it would have had the same budget, and I doubt they would've taken the same liberties with some of the characters that wrap things up so nicely at the end. So yeah... I saw it, it was good. I'm glad I didn't wait till it was off the big screen. Sadly, it doesn't appear to be doing all that well at the box office... wasn't even in the top 5 this week. Likely DVD sales will rule the roost, as they did for the series.

Amy & the girls were all in Amish Country this weekend... but I still went to the Ren Fest on Saturday with Pat & Cindy. It was a pretty good time. About as cold as last year when I went, but it wasn't raining this time, so that's an improvement. The Nuns have a new CD out, which we listened to on the way down - it's still very funny, and that meant their show was a little different then last year (though still some of the same stuff). Saw the full armor joust, which was fun, a fireeater, the Swordsmen, the "Naughty Navels" belly dancers, and a decently entertaining pub sing. Lots of other shows we didn't get to see, but I'm going again with Amy (hopefully) in two weeks, so we can check out more stuff then.

Saturday night OSU lost to Penn State.... blah. The defense looked pretty inspired, but the offense just wasn't getting things done. I honestly don't know what more we could do there... maybe Penn State's defense is just that good, but after how awesome we looked moving the ball all over Iowa, you'd think we could've done a LITTLE more than that.

Sunday was a do-nothing day for me, other than watch more football. The Browns won, which was fun, but surprising. They pretty much won dispite themselves, as it looked like a sure loss until the fourth quarter when we scored twice in under a minute, thanks to some help from the Bears. Amy got home Sunday night, so it was nice to spend some time with her before she gets back on the road again for work.

Back at work today, of course, and Amy leaves again for another trip, getting back Thursday, which means it's Max's Continuing Home Alone Adventure. Not exactly sure what I'm going to do... getting pretty bored and fed up with City of Heroes (to the point where I actually cancelled my account). Maybe I'll rent some other games, or maybe I'll just read. It's not like I don't have a huge stack of books in my "to read" pile.

The Hype Surrounds Me

So apparently according to everyone and their uncle, I need to immediately rush out and see Serenity. From the good press and hype it's getting (even if the box office sales didn't quite agree) it's apparently the best movie since Empire Strikes Back, or The Godfather, or Citizen Kane, or Casablanca, or whatever your favorite movie may happen to be. AND... from what I understand, immediately after watching Serenity I will be so in awe that I will want to track down Joss Whedon and have millions of babies with him.

I have a problem with hype. I didn't watch Forrest Gump for a very long time after it came out because of how much hype it was getting. When I finally did watch it I discovered it was, indeed, a very good movie and possibly worth most of the hype. But the hype still kicks me in that rebel nerve and makes me want to not see it...

We'll see. Even aside from the hype, from the trailers I was still pretty lukewarm to seeing Serenity. I'm sure I'll see it eventually, but I'm not in a huge rush, and if I do end up seeing it, I'd like to see Firefly first.

In other news, apparenty you don't even need to have ANY EXPERIENCE AS A JUDGE to be nominated to the Supreme Court. Absolutely frigging insane. Gary's right, we should just get Dubya to stick him out there as a nominee and be done with it.

Again With The Busy

Really, it shouldn't be surprising, but the new week brings a whole lot more busy-ness at work. Interviewing for an open position this week, plus all the other stuff that being early in Autumn quarter brings, means things stay busy. Not really a bad thing.

The weekend came and went pretty quickly. Friday night was nothing exciting - still home alone - watched some TV, played some CoH, hung out with the dogs. No surprise there. Saturday Amy was getting home. I'll let you read her recap of how fun her trip home was - I spent the day mowing the lawn and taking care of some other basics here. As soon as she got home we buzzed out to the wedding, which was downtown at the Kelton House. Amy got home at about 4:10pm, and the wedding was at 4:30. Somehow we managed to make it there less than 10 minutes late, and still got to see almost everything. In between the ceremony and the reception they let folks tour the house for free, which was really cool - some very nice looking old rooms and furnishings, and the basement area was very cool, including the room with information on the underground railroad. It was a very nice wedding (though I couldn't hear 90% of what the minister said), and a very nice reception with some good grub.

Sunday we visited with my parents for awhile. Amy did some scrapbooking, Dad & I hung out and watched football. No Browns or Buckeyes this weekend, but still some decent games. I can't believe the Bengals are still undefeated... Just insane.

After work today we had dinner at a new place nearby called Ha Long Bay Asian Kitchen. Mostly Vietnamese-type stuff. Amy wasn't feeling too great, so she got chicken fried rice (which was really good), Laurie got some rice crepes with stuff, and I got some really interesting "Sesame Beef Rolls" and a mixed beef Pho. Good stuff. The rolls were interesting, but kind of odd, and I don't know that I'd do them again. The Pho was definitely tasty, on par with Lac Viet in the North Market. If we ever go back (which I don't feel the need to rush back...) I'd definitely get it again. Polish off the night with a trip to Cold Stone Creamery for the return of Cake Batter ice cream! Fresh off the salmonella stint, it tastes the same to me, just as good as ever. We weren't the only ones missing it apparently... there's a link on their site (which apparently needs updated) where you could put in your e-mail address to be notified when it returns.

Made It To Friday, Social Network Stuff

Well, made it to Friday in the first full week of the quarter. That means that theoretically things should START slowing down at work. They'll still be pretty hectic for awhile, but not as insane as they've been these first two weeks.

Amy's been out of town since Wednesday, so it's been yet another installment of Max's Home Alone Adventure. This actually will be the longest one of the year I think, and she gets back tomorrow, so it's really not too bad. I will be very happy to have her back home though... As for what I've been up to while she's gone, just taking care of the pups, not a whole lot really. Nothing out of the ordinary by any means.

As for the weekend, just because she gets back into town doesn't mean Amy gets to relax, unfortunately... Saturday we're going to one of her friends' wedding. So no rest for the wicked... I should get my car in for an oil change this weekend as well, but I'll probably put it off a little longer. It's due time-wise, but not mileage-wise yet. Enh. After having to get new brake pads then a new tire on the van, I'm a bit worried about the "extras" that might come with the oil change at this point.

So what else have I been doing? Well, futzing around with various social network services. I'm still not completely sold on them, but they're all neato "tools" and a big part of Web 2.0, which is a really interesting concept that I'm trying to stay on-top of.

So far I've tried out:

• Livejournal -- more of a blog/journal service than a social network, but the profile page and it's interlinking with other folks who list the same interests was a core-part of the others...
• Yahoo 360 -- Yahoo's still very raw version which also feels more like a "uniform personal homepage" then a social network...
• Orkut -- Google's social-network service. (Which is invite-only, though if you want to check it out, the invites are not hard to come by, and I can invite whomever.) Orkut seems to have a lot of great groups, and is one of the better organized that I've seen... but it's also been swarmed by Brazilian folks and as a result a LOT of the discussions and such are in Portugese.
  
• Friendster -- One of the "original" social network services. Haven't checked this one out too much yet, but it seems like it might be a little more dating/hook-up oriented, which I obviously have no want or need for.
• MySpace -- Another of the older services. It strikes me as ugly and chock-full of ads.
• Facebook -- Originally only for college folks, they've now created a separate one just for high schoolers as well. The college one is very much like the other social networks, but seems to have a pretty huge buy-in among alot of the young'uns coming through the past year or so.
• Imeem -- Different from the others in that instead of being web-based, it's actually more instant-message based, with groups, blogs, and such all tied in for added flavor and overlap.
  

So what does it all mean? Well, not really much of anything... but it's fun to screw around with all the different technologies. Hey, Amy's been out of town... ;)

Weekend Ups and Downs

A pretty bi-polar weekend, to be sure.

Saturday we were supposed to be going to the Ohio RenFest with some friends. I went last year but Amy was out of town for work and couldn't go. I think she would really enjoy it, and have really been looking forward to going... but sadly, Amy was really having a rough day Saturday, woke up pretty sick and wasn't going to be able to go. We were going to be driving folks in the van. I was originally still going to go, so I took the van out to get some gas and I heard this thumping... sounded like a flat tire, so I pulled over to check it out... but it wasn't flat. Was walking around to check the other side when I saw a huge bolt sticking out of the tread. So... plans cancelled, instead I went to NTB and got a new tire. Fun fun. The upside was I got to watch some of the OSU game. Didn't get to watch the whole thing, b/c we had to get out to Grove City and pick up Amy's nightstand from the Kittles warehouse. Still, nice seeing OSU give the Hawkeyes a clubberin.

Sunday was a much better day... we headed down to Via Colori 2005. It was a pretty cool setup. I was disappointed by the very limited food options (like two places), but there was some really awesome artwork. I wish I'd brought the camera - going to have to remember that next year. Luckily some folks on flickr took some pics. After that we had lunch at the North Market, then saw Corpse Bride. I really dug the movie - it was kind of short (about 75 mins, maybe even a little less), but a nice little story. Very cool stuff, highly recommended.

Television

Going from a pretty extended period where the only thing I was interested on tube-wise was Rockstar, we're now solidly into Fall Season Premiere Week. All kinds of good stuff coming back into action.

This week's Rome was just enh ... kind of a treading-water kind of episode in between major events it seemed. The side-story (about a Centurian's family) was pretty interesting, but the main dance with Caesar and the gang was kind of boring. Hopefully things pick up again next week.

The Rockstar: INXS finale was this week. As I predicted/feared some time ago, JD won. I do have to admit that he's a very talented guy, and his style seems to mesh pretty well with the band... but man it always sucks when the dickheads win. I don't feel quite as cheated as I have with some of the other reality-TV screwjobs I've gotten sucked into in the past, and both Amy & I feel a lot less opposed to JD then we used to be. The jury is out on what I'll think of the "new INXS", but I do still have my eye out for an INXS "best of" album, and I'm sorely tempted by the Rock Star: A Night At the Mayan Theater CD. Especially b/c it's got Jordis's version of "The Man Who Sold The World", which is probably my favorite song from the series.

Since FOX started their fall season a week earlier than most, I've now seen two episodes this season of Bones and House. I'm extremely underwhelmed by Bones... it seems to be just another CSI wannabe show, with nothing to really distinguish it from the scores of other crime drama shows... blah characters, blah stories. House though... I only watched one episode of it last year, and was really unimpressed. Both episodes I've seen of this season, however, I've really dug - I think it's extremely well-done. It also cracks me up that the main star (the guy who plays Dr. House) used to be the idiot on the Black Adder shows... so very different characters.

Lost premieres tonight. I'm still mad at them for the complete, horrible, horrible, non-resolving ANYTHING cliffhanger from last season. That won't stop me from eagerly watching tonight, however.

Mmm... boob-tube brain-rot.

Where'd the Weekend Go?

Yeah... so that wasn't much of a weekend, I suppose.

Saturday Amy had a bunch of stuff to do in the morning, so I spent most of the time she was gone trying to get as much of the housework done as possible, so that we could enjoy the rest of the weekend. The last thing on her list for the morning/early afternoon had been to take her car in for an oil change and get the brakes checked. Turns out she needed new pads, which are pricey (though could be worse)... and takes time. She wasn't feeling too hot, so she called me to come pick her up rather than waiting two hours. By the time I made it over there, it wasn't going to take all THAT much longer, so I decided we could go to my parents' house and she could relax there.

Well, my Dad was there, and his foot had really been bothering him... He had told Mom not to worry about it and go to the OSU game anyway, but was considering how he was going to drive himself to the urgent care when we showed up. So I took Dad to Urgent Care, once they took him back, I headed back, took Amy back to the car place, then headed back to Urgent Care to get Dad. Turns out, they wanted him to go to the Emergency Room b/c it could be a number of things which they couldn't diagnose or treat in the urgent care. So I took him up to the ER. Luckily, they were showing the OSU game in the lobby. The ER was, of course, very slow... they took an x-ray, ran a bunch of tests, etc...

We were planning on hitting up MadLab Saturday night (had tickets and everything), but the window on that slips by while in the ER. Thankfully, Amy's a superstar and called them and got them to apply the tickets to another show. Saturday was their last "Choose Your Fate" superhero show, but their other stuff looks interesting too. Also around this point, my Mom calls Amy b/c she can't find my Dad... so she winds up leaving the game early and meeting us at the ER. Thankfully, when the tests came back, it looks like it's nothing mega-serious - they're "mostly sure" he has gout. Yuck. Very not fun and painful, but treatable.

That was pretty much Saturday. Sunday I worked move-in day all morning from the Schott, went out to lunch with Amy at Walt's 50s Diner, and went grocery shopping... And that's about it. Yeah. And here I am at work, first week of the quarter, woo-hoo!

This should be a pretty damn good week for TV. Haven't watched last night's new Rome yet, but looking forward to doing so. Most of the fall seasons premiere this week - Lost, CSI, etc. Additionally, the Rockstar: INXS finale is this week. I'm 95% sure that JD is going to win, which is somewhat disappointing, but both Amy & I find ourselves hating him slightly less... I think he's toned down the dickery somewhat, and he's definitely very talented. I'm still pulling for MiG, but I guess I'll be happy with any of the final three. Still really hoping I'm wrong about JD though. There are enough mega-ego frontmen in the biz already.

Linkstorm

It's the busy time of year at work, and I've got a bunch of things that need done, but I've gotta throw these links up here, they're histerical..

• Gillette is making a FIVE-BLADED RAZOR. Because obviously four blades just can't cut it. The best part is this was predicted by The Onion early last year, in a hysterical little article. And Mad Magazine called the "blade wars" way back in the 70s, which you can see some of here. It's just insane. And each new multi-blade cartridge gets more and more expensive. I've been going backwards in the razor technology simply because they're so damn pricey.
• Forget regular Velvet Elvii... you need a Velvet Yoda Elvis. More crazy black velvet art here.
• If you're at all familiar with the concept of Magic: The Gathering, check out Katrina: The Gathering. It's hysterical. Sure to offend a lot of folks, but madly funny nonetheless.
• Speaking of offending folks, this dude is batshit psycho.
  

Rome

So thanks to the wonders of HBO On-Demand, I've seen the first three episodes of the new HBO/BBC original series Rome. I have to say I'm really happy about what I've seen so far. It definitely appeals to the history-bug in me, being set in "the epic days of Rome" (basically the same timeframe as Shakespeare's Julius Caesar).

The story is decent, but nothing spectacular - I'm not sure how much of that is writing and how much of that is the constraints of historical fiction, but still, it's not bad, just could be better. The acting is very good (all British folks), and the scenery, costumes, sets, etc are all AMAZING. Randy tells me this is supposedly the most expensive TV series ever made, and I could totally see how that would be the case... it doesn't feel stripped-down at all, very epic, very high-quality movie-esque.

If you have HBO, I definitely recommend checking it out. If you don't, well it's an HBO series so it'll definitely come out on DVD.

Here's For Football

Yeah... so not a particularly great weekend for football. Went over to Beth & Paul's place on Saturday night to watch the OSU-Texas game. It was a pretty good football game, but so heartbreaking, and so frustrating to watch. I definitely have to agree with Mike about getting Stanley Jackson/Joe Germaine flashbacks and not wanting to see that again. The really frustrating thing is I can't even see how there was a question about it... one moved the ball and scored points, the other didn't. Sure, Troy Smith didn't move the ball as well as they SHOULD have (only field goals from all those turnovers is DEPRESSING), but still... and putting Zwick in when we all we need to do is move the ball into field goal range (which Smith HAD managed to do)... yeah. Fumble!!!

The Browns lost too... this didn't surprise me. The nice thing about the Browns this year is that my expectations are SO low that should they actually manage to stumble into a WIN, I'll be pleasantly surprised. There were some moments of greatness for the Browns in the game, that was nice.

Linkosity Revisited

Some more quick links for you:

• Though I'm an admitted huge addict of the Shadowbox, I'm not averse to finding other theatrical-type things in town which may be cool. Along those lines, I'd really like to check out MadLab. It also helped them get my attention that they're currently doing a superhero thing.
• The new Walkman is damn sexy looking. I love that integrated display BIG TIME. This seems likely to be the first serious competition the iPod may have to face.
• If you haven't already heard of it, you should read up on the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
  
• Progress is a good thing, and the folks at Adult Swim think so, too...

Freakshow 2005

Get your butt over to Shadowbox and check out Freak Show 2005 as quickly as you can. They've managed to put on another AWESOME show, keeping up a pretty good streak, especially following the muy-awesome Best Of this year. It's got a lot of awesome sketches including a great kids show sketch (with a slightly different set-up for it which was nice), and several recurring favs. The band's set list on the night was the HUGE stand-out. Definitely may be one of the best shows music-wise that I've seen there. Highly recommended. One of the best parts of the show for me (and Amy too) was that it's all new (or at least new to us) -- they've been recycling some stuff even in their non Best Of shows lately, but this was all new. In fact, I was really happy with everything but the very last sketch -- that wasn't too bad, but seemed a little slow. The more than made up for it with the awesome finale.

In more Shadowbox-fandom, they've also set a date for the Fall Fireball , October 21st. Amy & I will definitely be there (unless Amy ditches me again), as will Gary, Randy, Heather (supposedly), and Pat & Cindy... and probably some other folks too. If you're interested in going, you should - it's a great time, and for a good cause.

Linkage:

• I'm definitely not a legal expert, but if this case doesn't have serious national importance before it's over I'll be really surprised. Unless one of the parties backs out, I'd expect to see some Supreme Court activity. The whole background behind that case is a complete mess, and one of the hugest uphill battles that same-sex couples will have to face... Regardless of how serious you are about a relationship, or even if you adopt the kid, in the end it's still only genetically related to ONE of the parents. I'm very interested to see where that goes.
• People like this are why I have so little faith in the world. Saying he's got a history of psychiatric problems is a bit of an understatement don't you think?
  
• Another day, another moron. Here's a tip: If you're going to steal things, try not to beat up your girlfriend afterward. The real shocker there is that FOOTBALL TICKETS are valued over $10,000. You have got to be kidding me.
  
• iPod mini too big for you? Fear not, the mini is no more - now get yourself an iPod nano! Can the iSophagus be far behind?
  

Tired & Awake Too Long

Ok, I've stayed awake much too late and need to be getting to bed.

That said, before I do I'll kill some time and throw a quick weekend recap and some links at you. Thursday for my birthday dinner we hit up The Ocean Club. It took much deliberation on my part, since I didn't feel like Fujiyama (mainly it didn't feel different enough since it hasn't been all that long since I went), but I finally picked OC, and was very happy with the results, as always. Our server was phenomenal as well, and made the night much more fun. She even hooked us up with a free dessert.

My memory is absolutely awful - I have to strain my brain to remember what I did three days ago. Yet I can remember all sorts of pointless trivia without any problem. Go fig.

Also this weekend (Saturday I think), Amy & I went and saw The Aristocrats at the Arena Grand. For those of you not familiar with it, it's a documentary about this one "special joke". It's extremely, extremely tasteless and will most likely offend most folks not very desensitized to that kind of stuff. I thought it was pretty well put together, and it was very interesting to see all the different versions of the joke. I think Gilbert Godfried or Billy the Mime were my favs. Amy really didn't enjoy it at all, and I feel pretty guilty for taking her... I guess I should've tried to prep her more for what to expect, or just skipped it altogether...

Sunday we went to the Greek Festival downtown with Laurie. It's a pretty good time. Not much different this year from last year - dancing was fun, but the same, food was tasty, but the same, cathedral was pretty, but the same... you get the idea. Tickets were only $4, but parking was pricey and the food wasn't cheap either. It may not end up being an every year thing for me...

I leave you with link central...

• It's always good to learn something new every day. Today I learned that you don't have to be currently serving on the US Supreme Court to become Chief Justice. Go figure. In fact, Rehnquist was actually one of the exceptions. Most Chief Justices weren't previously on the court. Nutty.
  
• White flight is some scary stuff. I couldn't believe when I was talking with someone the other day who'd never heard of it. Not only have I heard of it, I've seen it slowly happening to the area where I grew up. Gary sent me this link about how bad it's gotten in Detroit. Columbus is seeing plenty of gentrification as well... (see this documentary) When I get really geeked up about this kind of thing, I wonder if I should've went into Sociology.
• What to get the spoiled rich brat who has everything? A WHOLE TOY STORE.
• Although most of you already know my opinion about politics, the current administration, etc, I'm very disappointed that it took less than a week for the Hurricane Katrina/Gulf Coast disaster to become the next big political boiling point / finger pointing parade.
  

Let The Good Times Roll

I really should've updated earlier in the week to get that mopey entry off the top -- the doldrums really only lasted through Monday, and it's been a pretty good week since then.

The news from Katrina has been pretty grim. It's sad to see all that devastation along the gulf coast. From the sounds of things, it's going to take a long time to get everything cleaned up - lots of people without homes or places to work, etc... In addition to the tragedy factor is the economic impact, which is already in full effect here. Gas prices yesterday jumped from about $2.69 to $3.09 in the course of four hours or so. From reading stories like this one, it's a pretty safe bet they'll only be getting higher in the near-future. Gas prices over $4/per gallon are a distinct possibility, and that's some scary stuff.

Tuesday I had a workshop in the new South Campus Gateway building where HR has it's offices now. It was a very snazzy new space. Still pretty opposed to the whole Campus Partners thing, but it's a done deal now... and I don't think protesting the stuff would really be all that effective. I'm not that passionate about it at any rate. Like I said, the new building was very cool, and the 4th floor view over campus was very snazzy. After the workshop I briefly wandered through the B&N and hit up the new Potbelly Sandwich Works for lunch with Amy. I didn't go very far in, so what I saw of B&N was pretty typical... Potbelly was a pretty good place. The sandwiches are good sized and pretty well priced ($3.79). I got "The Wreck" which was ham, turkey, roast beef and salami - very tasty. They grill the sandwhiches in a similar way to Quiznos. Good food - I'll definitely be going back. The atmosphere inside was pretty cool as well - a lot nicer than most other campus places.

Yesterday was the Mike Nelson show at Shadowbox, and MAN was it a great time. Group-wise, it was just Amy, Pat, and his co-worker Amy. I really can't believe I couldn't talk more people into going, but a) I didn't try TOO hard, and b) it did come during kind of a financially pressed month for more folks. The good times started out pretty quickly, actually -- on the Shadowforums, I'd mentioned that I was a little bummed they'd added the tonight's show AFTER I'd already had tickets for the Wednesday show... and that it would've been nice to come on my birthday. Now, I know we could've probably gotten our reservations moved to the second night, but we stuck it out. Well, because Shadow-folks are 100% completely awesome, they had Mike sign a t-shirt for me with happy birthday wishes. VERY COOL! Could I love the place any more? Big thanks to Jimmy, Julie, and whoever else was involved in that deal.

The show itself was awesome!! Some spoilers below, so if you're going tonight (which you SHOULD) don't read after this: XXXXXXX It had a good portion of the current Best Of show, but also had a sketch Mike had written specifically for the show (which he was in as well), another sketch where he ripped on a few movie clips MST3K-style which was very funny (and defintely brought up some MST3K nostalgia with a quickness), he was in Gary & Galinda (which became Mike & Melinda), he was in Girls 101, and he played Dr. Mystery in one of the older Dr. Mystery bits! Band-wise, the music was almost all from Best Of, but they did do a rockin' cover of the MST3k theme-song, and Mike sang the lead on Sci-Fi Girl!! Such a cool time, and I'm so glad I went - definitely worth the price, and then some!

I've gotta get back to work now, slack-time is over. I'll leave this interesting link: a library in Holland lets you "check out" people with non-mainstream lifestyles/viewpoints/backgrounds and chat with them, learn about them, etc. I think that's a damn cool idea! Being open minded to other viewpoints is a GOOD thing, despite what the moral majority would have you believe.

Back To Reality

There's a silence surrounding me
I can't seem to think straight
I'll sit in the corner
No one can bother me
I think I should speak now
I can't seem to speak now
My words won't come out right
I feel like I'm drowning
I'm feeling weak now
But I can't show my weakness
I sometimes wonder
Where do we go from here

I suspect listening to Pink Floyd can bring on the doldrums in most people, so I've probably done this to myself, but I'm having one of those kinds of days, and I think this sums it up perfectly.

Back at work today, vacation's over. It wasn't too bad when you consider it was a Monday back at work after a week off, and there's catching up with work, with what's been going on at work, etc, etc.... In addition to the usual work stuff, the weather this morning and the news of Hurricane Katrina's havoc down on the Gulf Coast are all probably contributing factors as well.

As usual, I'm sure it will clear up in time. They usually don't last too long. If nothing else, the Shadowbox Mike Nelson show on Wednesday should help. Looking forward to that quite a bit, and I'm really happy they wound up selling out the first show.