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Seven Day Meme: Dies Sextus

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 05:00:20 GMT

I tried to find something either profound or really funny, but I could not think of anything. So here is my go-to quote from one of my go-to people whenever I need to come up with something from someone important. It's one of those things that will always be true. No matter how easy whatever it is you are good at may seem to outsiders (even if it doesn't seem easy at all), so much goes into being really good at something that they'd be amazed at how much like work it actually can be. And once you think of it like that, it's probably not really as amazing as it originally seemed.

"If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful at all. " - Michelangelo

This is a ridiculously lazy post. I've spent all of my post-work hours watching way too much TV and fixing up a contract for one of my friends who is (hopefully) about to get a lot of money taking pictures for a local college's big ol' homecoming coronation events. Anything to get a little sliver of the Big Money pie!

Seven Day Meme: Dies Quintus

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 02:28:58 GMT

A favorite YouTube. Well, all I really watch on YouTube are music videos, clips from movies/shows and the occasional comedy special. I did have one non-music/tv/comedy clip bookmarked, and that was the classic "Kelly Kapoor: A Tribute", but surprise, surprise, copyright infringement got it pulled. So, music video it is! Here's the video to the latest song I heard at work one day, then waited and waited to be played again, then frantically scribbled snippets of lyrics for in order to find out what it was. Turns out that the song originally known as, "Jamiroquai.... sipping wine... killing time..." is actually, "Seven Days In Sunny June." It is Jamiroquai though, so I got that part right.

You know, I didn't even know they made songs beyond that one everyone knows ("The one with the dude in the funny hat and the moving floor") and the one from "Napoleon Dynamite ("That song from 'Naopleon Dynamite'"). This one is better that both of those.

I don't even like the summer, but sometimes just seeing people hanging out and having a good time makes me wish it was summer again. Who doesn't want to call up their friends, put on a bunch of silly outfits and run around like crazy people? This reminds me: I really want to play freeze tag, but I think I'm about 20 years too old. I'm pretty sure that once you're in your 30s, you are beyond the point where there will ever be an appropriate time to say, "hey guys, who's up for some freeze tag?"

This is not a meme. It's a TV Post.

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:14:15 GMT

I've been trying to get this one up for days, but since I always wait to late to get around to my seven day meme thing, I run the risk of the dreaded back-to-back post, so this never makes the cut. But, I said I wanted to get this up before TV actually really started, and that day is today (finally!), so here goes...

This years crop of Things I Am Watching looks pretty good, mainly because there is not much new stuff in there. New TV is always a crap shoot, and as I have learned, almost nothing good can come of getting too attached to a new show these days. This is especially true of the five of us who don't really care for shows about cops and/or doctors.

I went into last year excited about two new shows. One I watched from day one. Not wanting to be disappointed twice in one season, I decided to hold off on the other until I heard news on whether or not there would be a second season, and if not, on if the first season would have a satisfying ending. Guess which show aired twice, got moved, pulled for a month, moved to Saturday night, then canceled with about as open-ended an "ending" as possible. The other one is... wait for it... about cops.

This season I am, again, excited about two shows. I'm gonna watch both of them this year, so don't get attached to them.

Mondays
8-9: House. Yeah, that's right, I'm still watching it. I am very excited about the premier, because it's got Andre Braugher, who you may not know as Detective Frank Pembleton from my beloved "Homicide: Life On The Streets" I am also pretty excited about seeing House in the nuthouse, because for once he won't be the craziest person in the room.

8-9 Heroes. I will probably not really watch it for real, but I will try to find and watch the pilot online sometime, just to see what T-Bag's up to. Online watching has the double bonuses of no commercials and being able to fast forward through all things not T-Bag. My mom still thinks I watch this show, and was shocked when, this afternoon, I was like, "Tonight is 'House', and then I've got to find 'The Big Bang Theory' online somewhere before the night is over." She was like, "No Heroes?" Poor thing. I had to break it to her that I had really been into Heroes since season one... which is even sadder, as I did not even start watching until about three episodes from the end.

930-10: The Big Bang Theory. I just watched the entire two first seasons last week, and it is now my token sitcom. I have already been spoiled (inadvertently, before I finished the second season) about the big thing in the season opener, but that's okay. I am spoiler-free for everything else, so I figure it all evens out. I'm not a fan of science, but the show is not a science-heavy as I thought. I mean, there are science jokes, but I don't need a textbook or anything, so it's cool. I know Leonard is supposed to be the main guy, but he is the most annoying part of the show. But that's alright, Doctors Cooper and Koothrapali and not-Doctor Wolowitz (he has a Master's Degree in Engineering!) make up for his shortcomings.

I need something to fill the 9-930 spot, but I'm not watching Two And A Half Men.

Tuesdays
8-9: V. It does not come on until November, so I will have to remember to tune in. It's got Elizabeth Mitchell (Juliet from Lost) and Morris Chestnut (Ricky from "Boyz N The Hood:. My 16-year old self is really excited), plus it's a remake or re-imagining or re-something of the crazy miniseries(es)-turned-actual series from back when I was a kid. The one with the freaky alien lizards that (spoiler alert!) were here to take all of our water and harvest humans food. Hopefully the special effects will not be the kind that are scary now, but laughable in 25 years... I'm looking at you, "V" from 1983!
9-10: Melrose Place. I watched the pilot. Yeah, that's about it. I cannot tell any of the generically "pretty" young people apart, and that was enough to make me go, "This is not for me." I miss the old Melrose. Plus, it's on the CW and I could not take myself seriously watching it.

Wednesday
Nothing. Number of televised basketball games being played on Wednesday nights... nine, including the Carolina and Maryland games. This is a case of the TV stars aligning so that everything comes on just as it should.

Thursday
Thursday is gonna be The Day I Wish I Had A DVR. All conflicts, all the time makes Thursday the busiest night of television this season. This is great, because basketball starts up in a little over a month, and this year's schedule features only three Thursday games, all at 7, all non-conference and not against any must-see opponents.

8-9: Survivor. Oh man, I missed the first ten minutes of the premier, but I know enough to know that that one guy, I think his name is Russel, is quite possibly the most annoying Survivor ever. He's a bad guy so bad even I hate him. Though, I have to admit the fact that he refers to his alliance as the "dumb-ass girl alliance,” did make me laugh. Still, I cannot wait until he is gone. (Fact: The reason I originally started watching Survivor was that I tuned in once and saw a "character" so vile, I was like, "I hate this dude, and I must watch this show until he gets voted off!" For once it is appropriate to say that it seems things have made a complete 360.

8-9 FlashForward. The first 18 minutes of the pilot are online, but I did not watch them. I want to go in unspoiled and end up (hopefully) confused and excited at with the rest of the world. Well, at least my fellow East Coasters. The show is loosely based on a book I really want to read it, but as intriguing as the premise sounds, I am afraid that reading it will ruin things show-wise. I am hoping this will serve as my fake!Lost until real!Lost comes back (for the last time!!!) in January. It's got what sound like a crazy confusing (in a good way) plot, an excellent cast (everyone on the internet seems to be excited for Charlie and Harold, I'm in it for Courtney B. Vance and Joseph Fiennes). How can it go wrong?! ::tries not to think about Kings::. My only question is, why is this even coming on at 8? It seems more like a 9, or even 10, show.

9-930: The Office. Maybe. I stopped watching during the last season, and did not watch the premier the other day. I'm all Jim-Pamm'ed out, and that seems to be all I hear about. I am not sure even even Cornell's Andy Bernard and Kelly Kapoor (not from Cornell) can make me sit through all of that. (Okay, I watched the premier later. It was not the episode I thought it was.. the one with the big event. Instead it was hilariously office-based. The fake rumors to throw people off the scent of the actually-true rumor? Kind of genius.)

10-11 The Mentalist. This is the last-season premier show I just got into. I just started watching this like two weeks ago. In fact, I need to be watching it now so I can be done with season one by the time season 2 starts up. Of course every episode is kind of the same thing, but I still dig it. It's a cop show without being too much "cop show" for my tastes.

1130-1230 Project Runway. It really comes on at 10, but so does The Mentalist. But, unlike The Mentalist, PR reruns almost immediately. I don't know who I am going for just yet, but four episodes in, they have gotten rid of almost all of the designers I wished gone. There's only one left, and he was in the bottom two this past week, so hopefully his time is coming. Once they weed out all of the low-level designers, I can get down to the business of figuring out who is actually good.

Friday
Nothing.

Saturday
Again, no shows, but eight games. Just like Wednesday, only with most everything going down in the daytime.

Sunday:
10-11 Mad Men. Before yesterday, this read, "This season's kind of been a bit slow, and way to heavy on the Draper family for my tastes (The less Betty, the better. That's what I always say.), but tomorrow's episode seems to be more office-based, so that's good." Today I say, Finally! Less home, more office. I still hate Betty, but that's to be expected. That thing with the tractor? I heard a bit about it before hand, so I was prepared. Then I turned the station for a second (football!) and missed the actual event, which is good, because I can't take that kind of thing. I am having a hard time keeping up with who all of the new British people are (I need some sort of organizational chart), but I am glad that they are no longer sending that one guy away. I like him. I am worried about Roger though, I mean, he wasn't even on the overhead! This is the part where, if I was into that sort of thing, I'd say something like, "needs more Pete/Peggy!"

10-1030 Curb Your Enthusiasm. I don't have HBO anymore, so I can't watch it on Sundays. You know what? I think I've just found my Monday 9:30 show! This season's storyline revolves around the reunion of the cast of Seinfeld. I could not be more excited! (Side note: I recently bought the complete Seinfeld box set for $99! Score one for waiting a long, long, long time to buy something!)

Seven Day Meme: Dies Quartus

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 03:04:19 GMT

I am trying to watch the Emmys (and the game) as I do this, so there will be random brusts of "Suck it, Emmys!" and "Yess! Emmys!". Probably more of the first than the second. First off, the Emmys suck. But thank goodness they lump everything together, so when they get to the big reality/miniseries/movie/variety segment I can flip back over to the Cowboys/Giants to pass the time before I tune in, hopefully, in time to see Michael Emerson get what he deserves.) Are you kidding me... Aikman, Emmit and Irving are on the sideline. I don't even know you Tony Romo and other assorted Cowboys, but you guys are no Aikman, Smith and Irving. Oh, The Daily Show just won something... is it sad that since the election I have watched probably five episodes of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report... combined. That is just sad.

A favorite site? This is probably the hardest one yet. I'm not a social networker. I don't myspace, facebook or twitter. I don't check any big news sites. I don't read any of the big blogs. Yet, I spend a lot of time online. Clearly I need to better manage my time. I check about 10 sites regularly... most of them you already know... LJ, TWoP (well, not so much over the past few months, but that's about to change.), a local blog aggregator, my friend's message board, a couple of random boards I lurk on... that's really about it. I can see this is gonna suck... just like the Cowboys are managing to do.

101 Muppets of Sesame Street, brough to you by The National Post - It's just what it says it is, a flash-based image featuring 101 Muppets from Sesame Street. My favorite Big-Name Muppets? The Count, Elmo and Oscar The Grouch, Barkley and Slimey. My favorite Muppets you may or may not know by name. The Two-headed monster (two horns up, two horns down), Mr. Johnson (Remember Grover sucking as a waiter? Mr. Johnson was his poor, haggared customer), Don Music, The Amazing Mumford ("a la peanut butter sandwiches!") and the Yip-Yips

Another Emmy for The Daily Show. Yay! Also, I see you Roger Sterling. Man, this show needs to be over by 11... that much I know.

Fantastic Contraption - Do not click this unless you have nothing to do. Seriously. It's one of those. What is it? Well, it's been described as "A fun online physics puzzle game". Look, it has the words "fun" and "physics" in the same place, yet I am recommending it. If you can get past level ... hold on... drama time! I demand an Emerson win, but will begrudgingly, seriously begrudgingly, accept Slattery. (Side note: word is there are HUGE Lost spoilers out there. I did not ~~really~~ read them. Okay, I opened the post and closed it real fast once I saw all of the angry reactions. Then I opened it again, read a bit of the spoilage and closed it again.) I always get stuck on junkyard. I got through it once, but I can never remember how. Stupid physics!

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS Ben! That is all.

Basketbawful - That's right, sports. It's not ESPN ora nything, it's a blog. A basketball blog. But not just any basketball blog, a basketball blog that mocks things. Things that are... awful. Hence, basketbawful I love it for its hatred of Kobe, its heckling of Jordan and its constant mocking of all things stupid. Oh man, I can't wait til the season starts!.

Wait. They nominate five people for Writing in a Drama and four of them were "Matther Weiner and____". Four of five? Come on! The Mentalist's real-life Aussie accent is off-putting. Like, not the accent itself, but that it's coming from The Mentalist's mouth. (Note: I know his actual name is Simon Baker, but I always refer to him as his TV title)

Outstanding Comedy. 30 Rock? That is just a guess. ::is over 30 Rock:: Shocking! 30 Rock!

The Drama category is up next and there are two shows I love (Lost and Big Love), one I should, but don't quite yet (Mad Men), one I watch (House), one I used to watch (Dexter), Breaking Bad and Damages. I really, really want Lost to win, I know Big Love has no shot and am pretty sure Mad Men is going to take it. But the Cowboys are winning, so at least I've got that. Shock of shocks, Mad Men wins! I am slightly angry, but can't get to ranting about it because it's 11:03... and time for Mad Men.

Seven Day Meme: Dies Tertius

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 02:01:34 GMT

Yesterday I had a picture of a library, so it is only fitting that the topic for day threee would be "a favorite book". Too bad I can't say I planned that. Anyway, my book is The Giant Golden Book of Elves and Fairies with assorted Pixies, Mermaids, Brownies, Witches, and Leprechauns, written by Jane Werner Watson and illustrated by Garth Williams. Here's a picture from the inside, because the cover is kind of big.

A copy of this book lived in my house long before I was born. I don't know who it belonged to originally, as my house was one of those big family houses, where everyone lives (at one point there were 13 people here!). Adding to matters was the fact that a new kid came along about every ten years or so (Ma in '56, my uncle in '57, my aunt in '65, me in '76, my brother in '80, my sister in '87). So, when you find a children's book around here, you can usually mark its owner by the publication date. That's kind of hard for a book that came out before most of us were born. The copy I grew up with had the original 1951 green cover, so I'd say it belonged to one of the kids born in the '50s. I say this because the subsequent 1950's reprints had a white cover.

How do I know so much about the reprinting? I've done my research! This because the book always lingered in the back of my mind as something I'd like to read again, but I never knew how to find it. I used to wander the children's sections of bookstores hoping someone had it. No one did. Then I'd forget for a few years, remember again, and the hunt would resume. One day it popped in my head while I was online and I vowed I would find (and buy) it. This would have been great if I had 1. seen the book in the last 25 years and/or 2. remembered the name. All I had to go on was that it was "it was a book about elves and it had all of these cool little pictures... some of which were kind of scary when I was a kid," and "I'd know it if I saw it". Yeah, try googling that.

I searched and searched and searched some more. "Books about elves" got me pages and pages of books about elves that were not the one I wanted. I tried "books about gnomes" and got nothing. Fruitless search after fruitless search until finally "books about fairies"! Excited, I was like "Yes! Now I can buy a copy to replace the one I lost years and years ago!" Wrong! It went out of print in 1979. Noooooo!!!! But it was cool to find scans of some of the pages. I could remember some of them like it had been days, not decades, since I'd seen them.

Turns out the book was one of those hard-to-find items that people who knew it loved, but you had to be at the right place at the right time to see it. "Sporadic reprinting" was an understatement, the 50's printings were followed by editions dated 62, 79, and 99. There was not a copy to be found... well, a copy that was under $200. All of the bookseller's pages were filled with people like me who remembered the book but were mad that they could not find it anywhere. (The bottom of this page is full of people with similar stories. Here are two of my favorites.

"And then there was the horror story of a customer who remembered taking the book out of the library every week and was told that the book had been recalled and was going out of circulation. Her mother tried to buy the book from the library, but the librarian grabbed it out of the child's hands and said she would burn it first. Horrors!"

"I fear I have bit off more than I can chew . . . it seems that the book my wife wants me to locate 2 of is none other than: The Big Golden Book of Elves and Fairies. One for a present and the other to replace our current copy which has a very battered cover (but otherwise is pristine). Judging from your web page I might as well join De Leon is rummaging around Florida for the fountain of youth...... Seriously, how tough (and expensive) is it to find this thing (non-binding quote, of course- I'm just interested in an order of magnitude estimate of what I'm in for since I'm your basic blue collar daddy of a three year old)."

Craziness. I felt bad that I could not find the thing, but at least I was not the only one. And at least I was not one of the ones shelling out 200 bucks for a kid's book. That's insanity! Luckily, after much clamoring, it seems it is back again. I have just discovered (right now, while searching for info for this post), that it went back into print in 2008! And it is at a reasonable $11! $200 is beyond excessive, $11 is definitely doable. I think this may finally be my chance!

Seven Day Meme: Secundus Dies

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 02:43:35 GMT

So today's meme requirement is that I post a favorite picture. First I was gonna go with a painting (but I didn't want to chose something predictable. Something by Michelangelo, some sort of Roman statue, a painting of Heliogabalus smothering his dinner gusts with a deluge of rose petals, a picture of some band I like. No to all of them. Instead, something much more interesting. Well, maybe not more than a Michelangelo. Let's not be crazy.)

This is Chetham's Library. I know this because wherever it was that I saved the image from, the title was "chethams_library_interior-734003.jpg". I don't know how I found it, perhaps google imaging "library". When I saved it, I didn't know anything about Chetham or what made its library so spectacular, but I knew I wanted to be there.

We all know how I feel about old times that aren't ancient but not the 20th century, is that I am not too fond of them. I mean, I know there was good stuff happening, but I could do without the plague and lack of indoor plumbing/heat/television/stores/everything that makes living now not suck. But, I love what they were doing with buildings. Look at this library! Now, think about the last 100 libraries you've been in. Think of any library you have ever just been past. Did any of them look like this?! Probably not.

Everything now is sheet rock and drywall and bricks. The same basic idea over and over. No personality, just siding. Do you know what I hate? Those housing developments where it's all the same -- white house, cream house, gray house, yellow house, white house, tan house, cream house, white house, white house, white house, oh look, another yellow house! Vinyl siding as far as the eye can see! The only thing missing is the creepy goth kid with scissors for hand with the free haircuts and topiary gardens. Oh, and trees. Those places never have trees.

Anyway, if I was independently wealthy (or even dependently wealthy) I'd build this kind of house in which a room like this would not be out of place. All high ceilings and dark wood. Maybe some stone. You can never have enough stone. Oh, and shelves and shelves of books. I've always wanted one of those rooms where it was just floor-to-ceiling shelves of books. The only problem is I am short and scared of heights, so the ones on top would be the ones I'd never read.

According to this place, Chetham's Library (in Manchester) is the oldest public library in the English-speaking world, and holds over 100,000 volumes, 60,000 of which were published before 1851.

Tomorrow: a favorite book/fanfic. I am pretty sure it will be a book.

Seven Day Meme: Primus Dies*

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 03:35:07 GMT

Oh look, a meme! Taken (without permission) from eevilalice .

Coming Attractions:
Day Two: a favorite picture
Day Three: a favorite book/fanfic (It will be a book.)
Day Four: a favorite site
Day Five: a favorite youtube clip
Day Six: a favorite quote
Day Seven: whatever tickles my fancy (could be anything!)

My song is "Segurança" by Maxwell. It seems I am about 13 years too late to the Maxwell bandwagon. But it's cool, he took an eight-year hiatus, meaning I only really missed five years of actual music... hooray for that! I downloaded his latest album because I heard it was good, and then liked it so much I ~~downloaded the three that came before~~ went out and bought it. That never happens. Between him and The Beatles, I have bought more cds in the past two months than in the past five years! I almost went to a concert, but I refused on principle. The $50 ticket price was already pushing it, but what's up with $17 in fees, Livenation and Ticketmaster? No thank you!

Anyway, this song is from one of those "Red, Hot and..." CDs that probably only a few of you have ever heard of. I think they were to raise money for AIDS research. Indeed they are. I actually owned "America Is Dying Slowly". The title track (by the Wu-Tang Clan) was actually pretty great. I don't remember any of the other ones. I am not sure what the title means, but from the lyrics and a few not-so-informative Googles, I am going to go with something in the area of "security".

And, because I can't just go with one song, here's all of the random stuff I have hunted down in the last few months. If you'd listen to it backwards, you'd be able to trace my musical mindset through the past three months.

* The title of this post is in no way a statement at all related to anyone from the El Sobrante area of California, that's just my Latin degree usage for the month of September. As far as I know, Les Claypool and friends are all still alive and kicking.

Old music and video games. Thank you VH1 Classic!

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 23:00:46 GMT

So, Wednesday is the big day for All Things Beatles, right? I am late to the party, but I have decided that I need to buy something. The only problems are, I don't know what to get and I am cheap. I only own one official cd, which is, of course, Sgt Pepper's (When I first started listening to them, I figured why not start with the one that is supposed to be the best album ever? Turns out it's alright, but I'd definitely rank it behind The Beatles (White Album) and Let It Be. And possibly Revolver, A Hard Day's Night and Help.) So, I need to get something else. I don't buy much, so I have a good amount of disposable cash, what better to dispose of it on? But, what to get? That is the question.

Option 1: The Box Set:
The complete catalog remastered.::drool:: I have all of the albums on my computer. That is cool, but not the same as actual CDs. I miss actual CDs. I was actually moved to buy one a few weeks back, and realized how much I miss the actual presence of "stuff". I miss the booklets and the pictures and the actual CD, you know? Loading songs on to the mp3 player just isn't the same as pulling a case off of the shelf and loading something up to listen to.

I will spend money on things I know are good, and sometimes it's easier to knock out the whole catalog at once. (See also: Led Zeppelin). The problem: The $199 price tag. Ouch! With 17 discs, it comes out to 12 bucks a disc, which is about as much as I will pay for anything. (Cheap!) I don't know. (The cheapest I've seen it is $180. That's better, but still 60 more than I spent on the LZ box. Of course that was well near a decade ago.) I just found out about this yesterday, and I think I need to own it, and am considering the old-school "showing up to the store at midnight to buy it" course of action. Everything I have read about it makes it sound like something I need to have. Not want to have, need to have. But.... $200!! I am sure that they will all be released individually eventually, but that's not the same.

Option Two: The Video Game
Disclaimer: I am not a fan of Guitar Hero, Rock Band and Guitar Hero/Rock Band-related things. You wanna play guitar, play a guitar. Plus, you gotta buy all of the stuff that goes with it. You know, fake guitars. I finally got a Wii a few months back, and my sister bought Guitar Hero: Somethingorother (and two controllers). She played it all the time, but only when I was not home, because I declared my room a Guitar Hero-free zone. My friends all love it, but if I wanna hear "Paint It Black" I just drop "40 Licks" into the CD player. If I never hear "Slow Ride" enough it won't be too soon. What I am saying is, I don't get the hype.

Enter The Beatles: Rock Band. Have you seen this? (Here's the trailer. It has no game footage, but it's still amazing.)I think I need it. Yes, I know Rock Band is not Guitar Hero. But! I have recently learned that the controllers are compatible. I own approximately one Wii game... Wii Sports. This is a waste of my Wii. (Note to self: MK: Armageddon. Get it.) This game looks so good, that I am considering overruling my dismissal of all things "fake guitar-playing games" to get it. I figure I can't play and Ma can't play, so I can play her and we'd both just suck together. Plus I am sure that I would be so distracted by the graphics to even focus if I could play. Two other things I am sure of are that I would always be George and she (as a leftie) would be Paul. One more thing I'm sure of: Paul sucks.

Seriously. Look at this game. This one's my wallpaper.

The Cavern, The Ed Sullivan Stage, Shea Stadium, Abbey Road and The Apple Rooftop. All of the important places are there. I am so awed by the visuals, that I can name all of the venues, but don't even know if it has all of the songs I need. I know there are 45 of them on there, so it has to have at least some of the important ones, right? Did I mention that I am not even in possession of my Wii? My sister's in some sort of kind of moved out state. and both my Wii and her Guitar Hero controllers are at the new spot. That is no good, and kind of a check in the "con" category.

Here's some actual game footage. This trailer's my favorite because of the back-to-back awesomeness of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", "Helter Skelter" and "Come Together".

There is a serious chance I will buy them both.

I just realized that I was supposed to be uploading while I was typing this up. It seems I missed Sixties! Week at lookbacksongs, but I've already done the hard part, might as well post it!

Things not in this post: work, sports, music, television.

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 05:51:09 GMT

In the absence of too much watchable television, and in the hours I am not wasting in a job I despise, I'm trying to be somewhat productive. There seems to be a train of thought that says that, job-wise, I should be doing something else with my time (it's true!), so I paint. I'm not sure how that translates into "not working here anymore", but I am sure that it is at least tangentially related. So anyway, here's some stuff I did/am doing.

This is a thing I had an almost completely different idea for, but my manager saw it and wanted it for his soon-to-be-born daughter. So I scrapped the original idea, filled in the blank space with letters and flowers and here it is. It's very pink.

This is a huge sign I made for work. It's posterboard and crayon. Crayon's great, because you can fill huge spaces with little to no effort. Plus, the big sweeping strokes is the grown-up equivalent of good ol' scribble-scrabble (is that hyphenated?) Seriously, crayons are under-rated.

Maybe I should have darkened this image. It's a new version of something I did before. I like this one better, but I can't bring myself to paint over the old one.

This is the old one.

There, that's a better picture... of half of it.

And the other half.

That's what it looks like now. Notice it is not finished? That's what I do. I get sidetracked.

When I saw this picture in a magazine back in like '07, I was like "Man, I know someone who would love this!" and made a note to get it on paper for her. I started drawing it way back in the day (Serously? June '08?!. I am almost positive that 90% of those look exactly the same now as they did then.) I have not finished it.

Yesterday. Almost done... but not done.

But now it is closer to finished.

And, because I must always work on more than one thing at a time, here's the one that "goes with it".

Yesterday. Not done.

And now. Again, closer, but not quite.

Oh yeah, my room is still a mess. It was good for a while, but I did not finish that first time, so now I'm back to my normal state of "everything's on the floor". It may not be as bad as that last time ::looks around:: or maybe it is. I am not sure. I got a bigger bed, so I lost some floor space. Perhaps I'll handle that on Tuesday. I need to find my wallet, and I am sure it's in here somewhere.

Maybe next time I will discuss my new favorite house-related problem: we need to get a pole or something in the basement, because the shoddy 70's workmanship that gave us such hits as Hold On, Why Are My Shoes Floating Away (basement floods) and Wait, Why Are The Walls Cracked Like (old house shifting)That has manifested a new issue... The Top Floor Is Slowly Falling Down (one day my upstairs room will be my downstairs room). There's a guy coming to look at it tomorrow.

The contents of this post are a mess... literally!

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 06:06:33 GMT

For one thing, cluttered homes tell us more about the personalities of its occupants than do homes stripped to their carefully arranged essentials--it's the optional, extraneous items we leave lying around that bear the stamp of our quirky inner selves. -- A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder - How Crammed Closets, Cluttered Offices, and on-the-Fly Planning Make the World a Better Place by Eric Abrahamson and David H. Freedman

In the age-old tradition of telling people you are going to do something in an effort to ~~shame~~ motivate yourself into doing something, I am going to post pictures of my ridiculously messy room and then clean it!

Since I am always working on the weekends, my manager decided to give me this entire weekend off. I left work at 7:30 yesterday and don't go back until 11AM Tuesday morning. That gives me somewhere in the vicinity of 87.5 hours of time at home. Now, subtracting somewhere between 8 and 10 hours per day for sleeping, that brings us to somewhere between 63.5 and 47.5 hours... hours in which I have nothing to do (save for watching Kings tomorrow at 8 and trying to watch the race sometime around that same time). I don't care about the Fourth of July, so it's not like I have a cookout to go to or anything. My plans for the three day weekend was "to stay home, maybe watch some tv, do some painting, sleep... you know, the usual." Instead, I am gonna clean. I can't spend three straight days in this squalor. So, I will clean it, and catalog my progress (I'd say "or lack thereof", but no... there will be progress!) Okay, enough with the yapping, on to the cleaning! Now, where are those trash bags?

That's my desk. It's not as bad as it has been, except that my dinner trash is still there. That's not so good. But the papers are all neatly stacked, the books are lined up like on an actual adult's desk and the pens and brushes are all in the appropriate cups.Empty cup count: 1. Container of writing utensils: 1.

I thought if I pulled the computer-based books out of the closet and put them on the desk, it would motivate me to actually open them. Good one, me!

See that pile? It is, from top to bottom, the Wii box, random papers and canvases, mirrors I bought "because they look cool!" and my degrees! I could have at least put the degrees on the TOP of the pile!

This is immediately to the left of the desk. There is the tv (and assorted stuff) on a bar on a trunk. The trunk is empty and inaccessible. This is an issue.

My DVDs are (collectively) one of the only things I make sure has a proper place. Note yet another tin of pencils. (Count: 2)

Oh the closet! Not so good. What is in there? My bookcase, a stack of paintings, a container of yarn and assorted crocheted items in various states of completion, a box of painted pots, a bag of wooden shapes, an extra comforter and a few actual clothes. No cups or pencil tins though.

Canvases, a purple tub of cross-stitch stuff, books and pots. Who

More canvases, more books.

Those are my initials! I see things, get all excited about them, buy them and then..... put them in front of the closet?

The floor is just covered in stuff. That pile of clothes was in better shape this morning, but I woke up late and had to toss it in order to find a shirt to wear to work. There are two shoe boxes of paint, various books and other crafty items down there.

The dresser. Top drawer = a few socks and come pillowcases. Second drawer: The Wii (what?!). Third drawer: shirts I don't wear since the stupid dress code. Drawer four: see drawer three. Drawer five: same as the last two, only pants. I can't even get into drawer five.

The top of the dresser is not so bad. That box is a Patron box. My sister insists I return it. It is full of stuff I had to pull off of the floor when the phone guy came in to replace my jack. The lamp shade belongs to something I am supposed to be painting for a coworker ("in progress" for almost a year), and that thing next to it is yet another pile of canvases.

This door is about fifty years old. It needs to be replaced. There's no knob, you know. (Just a piece of paper I taped over the hole to keep the light out.) I think that Sesame Street calendar is from 2005.

The problem with being the kind of person who works best at night, is that when it's time to sleep, everything just gets tossed next to the bed. This poor lil table! Paper, paper, paper! Books, magazines, more paper, paint samples from my 'I want a bright blue bathroom!" phase, more craft paint, candles, clothes, a Duke bear I just bought. Three (more) containers of pencils!

Closeup of the table. There's my old camera, my mp3 player, my headphones (with tape on them!(, umm a fancy light bulb... what do they call them? The ones that are supposed to last for 10 years? I am not sure I am into that, it's only about 60 watts, and the one I use now is a 100W. Poor Kurt Angle is lying in a mess and that big green thing is a crayon thermos I bought today to keep all of my spare change is. How much will I find in my cleanings? Who knows?!

Clothes from this morning's search, a newspaper. This is ridiculous!

The bed is full of stuff, and free of sheets. This bed is on its last days (perhaps, its last day.)

There is one sad spot of clean floor. That carpet is also going on fifty years. I am not gonna pull all of the furniture up, but that carpet has got to go. I already have cut a small hole in it under the chair. That's all I need. Goodbye, ugly green, carpet!

The DVD case is not a footrest, yet guess what my foot is on right now? I don't know why those pants are there. I don't even wear them - they're too big and have shallow pockets (I lost a wallet like that!) Probably because I can't get into drawer number five..

I had other stuff to talk about, but I of got stuck on that one thing... and this horrid movie.

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 04:43:54 GMT

Preface: Oh man, I got excited that Grease was on only to find out what I am experiencing is not so much, "Cool! Grease is on!" as "Well, at least I got to watch the last 20 minutes of Grease." Seriously, it was "There Are Worse Things I Could Do", racing, carnival, "You're The One That I Want", "We Go Together", credits. Lame! Even lamer? Grease 2 is coming on next. I like to remember it as "good". I am sure watching it will render that memory false.

Oh goodness, it's "Score Tonight" , which I thought was called 'Bowl Tonight" I have not seen this in ages, so I don't recall much. I am pretty sure that I'm gonna mark out for "Cool Rider" though. Don't judge me.

So, it's been a while. "Hello!" and all that. Congratulations on everything... the birthdays, graduations, near-graduations, completions of freshman years, acceptances to college, trips abroad, safe returns, almost-done-with-grad-schools, breakups that got you away from people who suck, (There it is! "Cool Rider!" Umm.. it's kind of lame, but better than the rest so far.), marriages, LJ deletions (boo!) and everything else. I am sure I forgot something.

Thank mole for sparing you from scrolling past my post-NBA playoffs and Draft thoughts. Basically it's this: The Magic had a good run, those puppets sucked, I am all Kobe'd out, the draft was full of guys I had never heard of, it seems focusing on football was in Paulus' best interest, I hope Shaq + LeBron brings as much ego-clashing ridiculousness as Shaq + Kobe and I think that's about it.

And because it's everywhere else. Michael Jackson, huh? Did I mention that I have been waiting for this since I was in second grade? Not in a "I hate you. Go swallow a knife." kind of way, but in a "This guy is so big, I wonder what it will be like when he dies" way? It was always just a thing. Like, whenever someone mentioned Michael Jackson, I almost always brought up, "Man, when he dies, it's gonna be crazy, right?" I was alive when John Lennon died, but wasn't old enough to know what was going on. (I didn't even know anything about The Beatles until shamefully late. I am talking, "You mean the guy who sings "Got My Mind Set On You" guy was in the 'biggest band ever?' Weird. I like how everything in the video's all moving around." 11-year old me was not so musically savvy, it seems.) And now it's happened, and it's big and all, but I am not sure if it's what I thought it was gonna be. I think part of it has to do with the fact that media has changed so much since I was six, so the coverage is so overwhelming (both in actual number of outlets and in things covered. I could have done without the stretcher picture, helicopter ride and 911 call. And this was all from Serious News Networks) that you kind of get burnt out on it all so fast that it's two days later and you're, "Okay, enough already." Also I've been at work for most of it.

(Let me tell you, "Reproduction" is a lame, lame song... but every so often it gets stuck in my head. This makes is no less lame, just infuriatingly catchy. "Reproduction! I don't think they even know what a pistil is! I got your pistil right here... Where does the pollen go?" Oh man, I am pretty sure I am about to download this. Somebody help me.)

"Thriller" came out midway through first grade, and by second grade, it was pretty much the Biggest Thing Ever. I don't ever recall being a huge (I think my favorite song is "Human Nature"... maybe "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'".), fan (I know I had a collection of trading cards, some with stickers... stickers I promptly plastered all over the basement wall. I am almost positive one of them is still there. My friend with the three (soon to be four) kids and the angry wife wore a "Thriller" jacket in our fourth grade class picture. One of my other friends got the "Thriller" ViewMaster set for his 7th birthday, and everyone was all over that. ), but I remember he was HUGE back then. You know you're big when your music videos premier on NBC. NBC! That sounds crazy now, but that's what happened. Those videos were events. Do people even still care about videos? That's a serious question.

Anyway, after years and years of wondering what it would be like when Michael Jackson died, it turns out that I was at work, talking to some of my work friends, when the lady at the service desk, ringing some lady up, gasped and was like "What?!" Being nosy, I asked her what was up, and she said "Michael Jackson died." And after the initial shock, I explained how I'd been not-really waiting for this, and here it was. "I was at work". Lame "Talking to white people" my coworker said, which got him a "Just like Michael Jackson. Wait, too soon!"

And just last week, I was really wanting to see the epic five-hour "The Jacksons: And American Dream" and now it's on Sunday at 2 and 7. Luckily for me, I work from 130-10. So, it will be on for ten hours straight, and I will be here for approximately 2 hours of it. Yes! Work ~~is for suckers~~ wins again!

I can't even remember what else I was gonna talk about, but this is long enough, so I guess I'm done.

"Do It For Our Country" has got to be one of the most terrible songs I have ever heard.

And, for Bean: Listen To The Band: Volume 1

Don't let the icon fool you... it's not all sports

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 02:33:54 GMT

Dear NBA Finals Announcers,

Please tell me again how great/outstanding/spectacular/talented/a man among boys/BEST EVER!!!! Kobe Bryant is. I mean, you have not told me in .04 seconds, I am in danger of forgetting. You, almost to a man, are so far up on Kobe that ~~I am wondering how you can even speak~~ you are making me like Shaq... and I have hated Shaq since the early 1990s. Soon you will make me like LeBron. I am afraid that by the end of this game I will be wearing a Michael Jordan jersey. When you just now said that they should make a new Finals MVP Trophy called the Player Not Named Kobe Bryant MVP Trophy? That was genius! No, wait, that was disgusting. I hate you all. The Magic are up by 5 and SHOOTING 75% AS A TEAM!! TALK ABOUT THAT!!!

And now... quizzes, because this post has been sitting here all day waiting for me to have something non-quizzy to add. I slacked off on my catch-up post, then I deemed the "books I bought" post not interesting enough to carry things. Then it was game time. Then then there were more quizzes. So instead you get a small taste of my disgust at the 2008-09 Kobe Bryant Finals featuring the LA Kobes and the Orlando Not-Kobes

Your result for The 3 Variable Funny Test...
the Wit
(67% dark, 38% spontaneous, 16% vulgar)
your humor style: CLEAN | COMPLEX | DARK

You like things edgy, subtle, and smart. I guess that means you're probably an intellectual, but don't take that to mean pretentious. You realize 'dumb' can be witty--after all isn't that the Simpsons' philosophy?--but rudeness for its own sake, 'gross-out' humor and most other things found in a fraternity leave you totally flat. I guess you just have a more cerebral approach than most. You have the perfect mindset for a joke writer or staff writer. Your sense of humor takes the most thought to appreciate, but it's also the best, in my opinion. You probably loved the Office. If you don't know what I'm talking about, check it out here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/theoffice/.
PEOPLE LIKE YOU: Jon Stewart - Woody Allen - Ricky Gervais

The 3-Variable Funny Test! - it rules -

Your result for The Perception Personality Image Test...
NFPC - The Artist
Nature, Foreground, Big Picture, and Color

You perceive the world with particular attention to nature. You focus on what's in front of you (the foreground) and how that fits into the larger picture. You are also particularly drawn towards the colors around you. Because of the value you place on nature, you tend to find comfort in more subdued settings and find energy in solitude. You like to deal directly with whatever comes your way without dealing with speculating possibilities or outcomes you can't control. You are in tune with all that is around you and understand your life as part of a larger whole. You are a down-to-earth person who enjoys going with the flow.

The Perception Personality Types:

Take The Perception Personality Image Test at HelloQuizzy

Your result for The Director Who Films Your Life Test...
Mel Brooks
Your film will be 52% romantic, 51% comedy, 22% complex plot, and a $ 23 million budget.

You're a busy and hilarious kind of person, not terribly romantic, and you seem to fit in with everyone around you. Mel's filmography: The Producers, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Spaceballs, High Anxiety, Dracula: Dead and Loving It, To Be or Not To Be. Your film will be hilarious, and probably have a few ascerbic digs at Nazi Germany -- Mel's signature. THEN your film will be turned into a successful Broadway musical! You should insist that he play your grandfather and that Carl Reiner play your other grandfather and that they do their 2,000 Year Old Man routine.

Take The Director Who Films Your Life Test at HelloQuizzy
The only Mel Brooks film I have ever seen in Spaceballs. But it's good, so I guess I am not displeased.

Your result for The Classic Dames Test...
Jean Arthur
You scored 21% grit, 33% wit, 33% flair, and 29% class!

You are a little bit of everything: smart, nutty, classy, and even a little scheming when you need to be. However, you aren't exactly the most effective dame around, as you're sometimes given to fainting and mumbling incoherently. But you're pretty steadfast and true, and might I add, cute as a button, even if you're not sure exactly what you want. Still, you end up with the likes of Jimmy Stewart and Cary Grant...not too shabby!

Find out what kind of classic leading man you'd make by taking the Classic Leading Man Test.
Take The Classic Dames Test at HelloQuizzy

Since it told me to, I took the Leading Man one... mainly because I did not know who that lady was, and I figured... "if nothing else, the Leading Man test has to have Jimmy Stewart".. which brings us to...

Your result for The Classic Leading Man Test...
Jimmy Stewart

You are the fun and friendly boy next door, the classic nice guy who still manages to get the girl most of the time. You're every nice girl's dreamboat, open and kind, nutty and charming, even a little mischievous at times, but always a real stand up guy. You're dependable and forthright, and women are drawn to your reliability, even as they're dazzled by your sense of adventure and fun. You try to be tough when you need to be, and will gladly stand up for any damsel in distress, but you'd rather catch a girl with a little bit of flair. Your leading ladies include Jean Arthur and Donna Reed, those sweet girl-next-door types.

Find out what kind of classic dame you'd make by taking the Classic Dames Test.
Take The Classic Leading Man Test at HelloQuizzy

Your result for The Interaction Type Test...
The Beaver

You are often dominated by powerful emotions, although generally a sound sense of purpose guides your actions and relationships with others. In most undertakings, thoroughness, determination, persistence and concentration bring successful results. Great courage is shown when in physical distress or mental strain. An ability to fight off all opposition is the result of your determination and tremendous staying power. Self-control is one of your main characteristics; actions and feelings are restrained by a cautious, secretive nature.

Take The Interaction Type Test at HelloQuizzy

Your result for Which musical mode are you?...
You are Mixolydian Mode

Mixolydian Mode. The darkest of the Major Modes. Characterized by the lowered 7th scale degree. Your general outlook on life is positive. You see the good in the world and in people, and you cling to the hope that in the end the good will prevail, whatever that means. You feel like in any given situation, the best answer is to just have a good time. You don't like people who take things too seriously. Despite your fun-loving demeanor, you have an introspective side. You have strong opinions but don't particularly like getting into arguments.

Take Which musical mode are you? at HelloQuizzy

This one and the humor one are the most on-point of the lot. This is probably the most on-point quiz I have ever taken. Too bad I have no idea what the Mixolydian Mode even is.

Your result for The Despot / Small Woodland Creature Test...
Charlemagne the Squirrel
38% Brutality, 26% Wackiness, 52% Playfulness, 48% Strength, 62% Kindness, 29% Agility and 57% Intelligence!

Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 to his death. Today he is regarded not only as the founding father of both French and German monarchies, but also as the father of Europe: his empire united most of Western Europe for the first time since the Romans. Part of Charlemagne's success as warrior and administrator can be traced to his admiration for learning. His reign and the era it ushered in are often referred to as the Carolingian Renaissance because of the flowering of scholarship, literature, art, and architecture which characterise it. Such success for a mere squirrel is surely one of history's most inexplicable occurrences. Charlemagne was able to balance his time between hoarding nuts for winter and enlightening the known world. The squirrel's good-natured attitude, and love of life were boons to Charlemagne...and to you.

Take The Despot / Small Woodland Creature Test at HelloQuizzy

because the post-show texts are too short and take too long.

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 02:43:36 GMT

Well, that was interesting, and not really in a "What is going on here?" kind of way, because really, I'm kind of beyond that now. I only watched because it was the season finale, so I figured it had to at least try to be entertaining. I don't know, it wasn't too bad. (Disclaimer: I did not see last week, and only caught the last 20 or so minutes of the one before that. That was the one with the Angela flashback, wasn't it?) Anyway, like I said, it wasn't too bad, but I have some issues. I'm not gonna talk about all of it, just the One Big Important Part.

I read spoilers (all the time), so I knew someone was gonna go. And I had a feeling that with Sylar's new power and the way they always seem to be heading back towards the Five Years Gone thing, it was probably gonna be Nathan. So, I wasn't really shocked at that part. Don't get me wrong, I was still angry. But shocked? Nope. Plus, it was the season finale. And we all know it's not a Heroes season finale unless Nathan Petrelli dies. What I was shocked at though was what happened after he died. (And I'm not gonna jump on the "Claire's blood!" thing, because really, if you're watching this show expecting logic and consistency, stop it. Stop it now.)

So, that thing Angela and HRG had Parkman do... what's up with that? I understand Angela was grief-stricken and all, but that was a bit extreme, even for this show. That guy is not Nathan. I know he looks like Nathan and talks like Nathan and seems to be Nathan, but it just does not seem very Angela Petrelli to say, "You know what? My son just died. And instead of dealing with it, I'm gonna have this multi-powered psycho pretend to be him for ever and ever. Good plan, right guys? Guys? Someone find me Matt Parkman! Yes, that Matt Parkman. No, not the baby. Parkman Senior!" What is the benefit? You still have a Nathan around? I am all for more Nathan, but not at the possible expense of my life and the lives of everyone I know. They do know Sylar is a crazy murderer, right? The same crazy murderer that they have been trying to kill forever? Why did HRG go along with this? Are they relying on the powers of Parkman to make things right? Matt Parkman? Senior? Oh, the imminent failure...

It took me until the very end of the volume-ending bonfire thingy to realize that Peter does not know what is going on. When the scene first started, I thought they were burning ActuallyDead!Nathan, and everyone was in on the fact that the Nathan standing there with them was in fact SylarIsNow!Nathan. But that's not what was going on. (It's not, is it? I didn't think it was, but maybe I missed something.) That's when it hit me that the only people in on the plan were the ones who were actually in the room at the time. So Peter has no clue that the guy who he thinks is the brother he just reconciled with is not really his brother at all, but the murderous lunatic who he and his just-reconciled brother and everyone they know has been trying to save themselves from and kill for the past few years. Oh man, when he finds out, he's gonna be pissssed! Or emo. One of the two.

Of course now I expect it will only be a matter of time before we have to deal with Sylar figuring out what's going on and returning to his old form. It's inevitable, right? And that is when Nathan will really be gone, so that will suck. Or perhaps they were saving Nathan's body all along (someone has to be. They couldn't have snuck off for an impromptu burial that fast.) and they will somehow bring him back (cue healing blood!) and then all will be right with the world. Maybe. Who knows?

Also, and I look to Cookie for the answer to this, how come I only watched a handful of episodes yet every time I tune in, someone is going into Building 26 and resucing Mohinder from the room full of people on gurneys? I swear I've seen it happen twice this season (and I watched a total of 3.5 episodes). What's up with that? Has he done anything this season besides get strapped onto gurneys and monologue annoyingly over opening/closing montages?

Pointless holiday posting.

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 00:00:49 GMT

Because it's Easter I watch Bible movies. It's (almost literally) the least I can do. (I also eat turkey. No ham though. I don't like ham.) Yesterday I watched The Ten Commandments. It's what a bible movie should be.. big and epic with classy, classy 1956-style special effects... Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner and Vincent Price. I faded out after a few hours, but I at least made it through the parting of the red sea. I think I threw in the towel around the time of the golden calf. I just don't have the attention span for the four-hour epic. Plus, I was sleepy.

So today, on Easter proper, I saw that "In The Beginning..." was on. I got kind of excited, expecting the super-long one made back in the 60s. I watched it a few years back, but have not seen it since then. (It seems that The Ten Commandments is the go-to Easter movie. ABC shows it EVERY Year.) What I wanted was the one where the guy was going to make a movie of the entire Bible, but found that that was kind of hard. The movie ended up being about four hours long and only go up through Abraham.

Imagine my surprise when I go to look up the name of the director, only to find.. surprise.. this is not the movie that is on. Nope. That movie is "The Bible: In the Beginning" (It's got John Huston, George C. Scott, Ava Gardener and Peter O'Toole) This is some TV movie from 2000, which, according to reviews is not-so-good-but-alright-for-what-it-is. I decide to give it a try, at least until 10, when the Sopranos comes on A&E. I'm supposed to be working (see icon), but it would make nice background sound... plus, I heard the special effects were alright (surely better than T10C's use of popcorn as hail.) I figured I'd give it a chance, because it's Easter and there's nothing else on. But, this movie's kind of bad. "I don't know. This seems bad." About five minutes in I was done. But I am lazy, and did not turn it off. And then, eight minutes in... "Ouch, that is terrible hair on that Adam... wait.. is that... LOL Mohinder, I mean Sendhil. This seems to be not so much an epic, as a tragedy."

I am not sure what was more distracting, that wig or the fact that Martin Landau is playing Abraham, thus I expect him to end every sentence in, "Is that something you might be interested in?" I've really got to turn this thing off. (Ha! Looking for a video to illustrate my point, I came upon my second Surprise!Heroes sighting on the day. Hello, HRG! I've really got to get back to work.)

And now, a random tenuously-Easter-related story that ended in learning!
When I was a kid, I could never remember when my dad's birthday was, because the first year I was old enough to actually understand such things, it was the day before Easter. So, for years, I was like "Happy Birthday!" only, it would not be he right day , because Easter was always on the move. (Turns out I must have been six when that happened, because that's the only Easter date that lines up.) I was thinking about that this year (because I told someone a few days ago that his birthday was the 7th, when, in reality, is is not. I still can't keep up with it! It's like how when I was in kindergarten, I did not pay attention to the left/right thing, and it still gives me trouble to this day. I am one of those idiots who just points "that way" or has to hold a pencil or make an L with my index finger and thumb to get it straight.)

I decided to try to figure out where I went wrong, by figuring out when it was that Easter fell on the day before his birthday. (It was 1982) And then, got caught up in the idea that there must be some sort of term that differentiates between holidays that are always on the same day (Halloween,Christmas, etc) from those that always move (Easter, Thanksgiving). (Much like how a few years ago I thought that there was a word for "hand you write with". I thought it would be some form of "dexterity", but not really. Turns out that the answer is just "handedness" and I was disappointed.) Anyway, all I found out what that all of the holidays that are scheduled around Easter are "moveable" feasts and Christmas a "fixed" one and that the way that they actually determine the date of Easter? One of the most complicated processes I've ever heard of. (Something I just read said that Easter is considered the holiest of holidays. I did not know this. I just assumed it was Christmas. I shall make a note to ask around about that. )

And now, I have decided to fill my Religious Movie Easter Quota with Clash of The Titans. Yeah, it's in 12 parts on YouTube, but that's alright, it's a classic and definitely better than what I was just watching.

Not just any meme. A Heroes meme? What?!

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 03:49:32 GMT

Non Heroes-related things first!
1. Why can't I find an ~~downloadable~~ online-watchable version of the Hall of Fame induction ceremony? I know where i should be able to find it, but I am currently getting the dreaded "Error 503 Service Unavailable" message. Fail!
2. Why did Michigan State even bother beating Connecticut if they were gonna get to the Big Game and embarrass themselves by choking spectacularly when it really matters? This is why I hate the late-tourney upset! You end up with some no-business-in-the-finals team wasting space on the court and making for bad sports/television. Do you know what this means? Loudmouth Tarheel fans coming out of the woodwork talking trash about being a dynasty and "oooh, we got two titles in four years" and all of that. Excellent. Only, not.
3. I really want some Taco Bell.

And now.. a meme! Cookie ~~chickened out on giving me Mohinder, even though, with these questions, the only one with potential for real negativity were #7 or 8. Oh, the missed opportunity!~~ gave me Angela.

1. Do you like this character?
Are you kidding me? Of course I do! I always have, from way back in season one when she was just a crazy old lady who stole some socks. (Did I hear that that was actually explained this season? I think I read somewhere that it was, but i could be making that up.) Remember when the big rumor was that she was gonna die in Volume 2 (I did not like that at all), and everyone was trying to prepare me for the eventuality of her demise? Well look at her now! Still alive and... doing something crazy involving digging up bodies with my two favorite characters, Peter and Claire's horrible wig.

2. What name/s do you call this character?
Angela. What should I call her?

3. What image-color do you associate with this character?
What else? Black. Not only because she wears it all the time, but because it's one of those colors that represents seriousness, power, wealth, class, sophistication and, of course, evil! All qualities that are very Angela. And then there's the whole "color of death and mourning" thing, which, still... appropriate.

4. What image-song do you associate with this character?
Hmmm... off the top of my head I can't come up with a song that is appropriately Angela. I'll get back to you on this one.

5. What blood-type do you think this character is?
Like Cookie, I don't even know my own blood type. (Neither does my mom. I know this because a few years back when I was wondering what mine was, she was like, "I don't know." I do know that my great-grandfather was AB. That's the really rare one. That relates not at all to Angela Petrelli, but whatever.) I guess Angela can be O, because, besides AB, I don't even know what the other one is? B? Is B one? Who knows these kinds of things?

6. Of all of the titles that this character appears in, what character do you like to put this character with?
What does this even mean? I've read it like five times, but I don't get it. So, like Cookie, I will go with something along the lines of "Which character that Angela has had scenes with do you like seeing Angela in scenes with?" In that case, I'd have to go with Nathan or Peter.
Though, as of late, I'm thinking she needs to be in more scenes with HRG. Then again, I am thinking everyone should be in more scenes with HRG. Wasn't there an episode a few weeks back that was something like this? That one I turned off after about five minutes?

7. What would you want to say to this character?
I don't even know if I'd be able to speak in the presence of such greatness, but after tonight's episode, I"d probably ask, "What's going on here? And not just tonight, but in general?" I don't know, but I bet that if there was anyone who could adequately sum up everything that's going on, in the sense of "well, it all started this one day..." in an "in the beginning" sense, it would be Angela. Or maybe I'd ask "How do you do it?" you know, remain so calm in the face of all of the craziness.

8. Which do you want to do with this character: Shake hands, hug, or kiss?
Well now, only two of these are viable options and I am not a hugger (and I imagine Angela is not either). So handshake it is!

9. Please choose 6 friends with your choice of character.
I don't tag, so speak up if you want one.

So, as I've mentioned before, I am not really keeping up with this season. I get the general idea... someone (Danko) is rounding up people with powers and other people are trying to stop him. At one point Nathan was down with the plan, but now he is working against it. HRG is... I don't know what he's doing. He seems to be on the inside, but not a willing participant. Or maybe he just hates Danko. Hiro is on his annual side-quest that keeps him alive and on the shoe, but out of the main action, this time some side job involving the double fail of two, count 'em, two(!) two Matt Parkmans. Oh, the humanity!Micah was Rebel. Tracey is frozen. Mohinder's been absent, but is now back and headed to India. Peter was mad at all of the other Petrellis, but made up with Angela (who is on the run?) and is now all salty that she called Nathan (and Claire) in to help them dig holes near some abandoned place that looked like concentration camp barracks. I have no idea how Claire got with Nathan, but know that that scene last week where she was helping him get undressed after he got drunk was sixteen different kinds of gross. Did I forget anything? Oh, I think Dank is the character to finally make me relinquish my long-term hatred of the actor who plays him.

I have only watched a few episodes here and there, and so far they've been alright. Well wait, one sucked, but a few others were pretty good. I am not sure if need/want to go back and watch what I've missed. I think I will just kind of jump in now and see how it all ends up. Though, I fear that with Sylar's new power, there's gonna be a bit of a thinning of the herd, so to speak. Though, I will admit that I like seeing characters playing other characters playing their character? You know what I mean? Like the two Dankos or the scene where HRG was pretending to be Sylar pretending to be HRG. That's interesting. Of course now I am going to go into every scene like, "Wait. Is that ___ or is that Sylar pretending to be ____?" That could get annoying after a while. Oh, and I like his plan to destroy HRG and the way it has all worked out so far. (Though I call shenanigans on HRG not immediately recognizing the fakeness of his "wife's" signature.)

Why I love the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Sun, 05 Apr 2009 22:00:23 GMT

SO here I am distracted from work (again) after finding the most epic of videos. What is it? It's the ceremony-ending jam from last night's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony and it's my new favorite thing that I am really excited about that no one I know would really care that much about that I am now posting about here because who does not love a good post about something someone else is excited about that they don't really care about? I am sure that is the most run-oniest of sentences I have ever posted, but such is my excitement.

I often get excited for the RnRHoF inductions, because there's usually a chance that something great can come out of it. Obviously, sometimes you get a crappy class. But sometimes you get a class which has the potential for one of those once-in-a-lifetime things that makes you go, "Man, I wish I was there!". I mean, there's always the lame "person who you have never heard of but wrote some song you've probably heard a million times", but the top of the class usually includes some pretty great performers (you know, being the Hall of Fame and all. Though soon all of the good ones will be taken, and it will be more like the Hall of Mediocrity inductions, but that is hopefully more than a few years away. ::crosses fingers::) This year's class included both Jeff Beck (legendary guitarist, Yardbird), Run-DMC (rap legends, but completely irrelevant for the purposes of this post) and Metallica (who I used to love, then fall out of listening too, but often go back to again).

Anyway, the end of every induction ceremony features members of most of the induction class and a few of the (... what do you call them?) inductors (?) getting together to play one of the more well-known songs of one of the new class. This is usually the best part of the show. I mean, I like seeing people I like get up and give a speech as much as the next person who likes that kind of thing, but what I want to see musicians do is play music. That's kind of their job.

So this year's show-ending jam was, in the words of Larry David (the fiction version, not the real life one), "prettttty, prettttty, prettttty good!"

That video there combines so many great things that I don't know where to start.

First off, it's "Train Kept A' Rollin" which is my favorite Yardbirds song, this is already good enough.

Even better, it's being played by two of the actual Yardbirds. In 2009. This is kind of epic in itself. Especially since it's not just any two Yardbirds, but two who are among the greatest guitar players ever. (Which is kind of what makes the Yardbirds remarkable to start with. They also had Clapton.) And though Jeff Beck is good (and "Clapton is God"), he's no Jimmy Page. Then again, who is? Well, this guy.

Add to that the fact that, as it's part of the end-of-induction-ceremony jam, it's also being played by a five-person version of Metallica that includes the return of Jason Newsted. This is where it becomes enough to make me wish I had the fancy cable again. (I don't get Fuse. Curses!) Unlike some bands, Metallica did the right thing by Jason. There is nothing worse than seeing some group get up to be honored and seeing crabby ex-members either glowering angrily from a seat in the audience, awkwardly standing to the side onstage or, even worse, being interviewed later on about how they weren't even invited to the ceremony. I mean really, what does the new guy have to say about being in the Hall of Fame? He's just lucky to be along for the ride. Though, to be honest, he seems like a cool guy, I possibly just resent him for getting treated a lot better than Jason did. Of course part of that is because Jason left and the other guys went "Wait. He left? Hmmm.. could it be because he was kind of a third-class citizen of the band? Hmmm..." Also, I am notoriously resistant to lineup changes. I will give him this though, I love his enthusiasm and, more importantly, really need to know what he uses on his hair..

My Bassist. New Bassist..

Plus, unless my eyes are deceiving me, Kirk is playing some sort of negative black-on-white version of the KH-2 M-II Ouija board guitar. I didn't even know that existed. I think I like it better than the original.

Either one of those alone is enough to be a capital-E Event, but they're both happening at the same time. I don't even have words for how great that is. (Except maybe I do, because I am typing them now). This means that my two favorite living musicians are on stage at the same time playing the same song. Kirk and Jimmy on the same stage at the same time? Same stage! Same time!! I can't even process that. When I first read it I was like "Oh man! Oh man! I've gotta tell... wait.. no one really cares." And now here I am. I shake my fist in anger at the fact that last night I did not live closer to Cleveland!

Oh, and there are some other guys there too.. you know, Joe Perry (Aerosmith), Ron Wood (Rolling stones), Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers).
(Left to Right: Trujillo, PAGE, Beck, Wood, Flea, HAMMETT, Perry, Ulrich, Hetfield, Newsted)

I can't decide if this is now my favorite or my second favorite Hall of Fame performance ever. I mean, I still love the George Harrison tribute performance of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", featuring Prince, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, Marc Mann, Steve Winwood & Dhani Harrison (George's son), but maybe not as much as this one. It's a better song, but... did that have Hammett and Page? I think not! (Also, Tom Petty is an automatic detraction.)

Oh Coach... no. Just... no.

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 23:50:29 GMT

Oh man, not only did my team lose this weekend (earlier than I had them slated to), but now there's actual real-life facepalm-inducing commercial. From about two seconds in, I was like "Is that.. Coach K? No way!" And it only got worse. I could hear Ma in the other room, laughing away, as one-by-one- actual coaching legends slid onto the screen. Luckily, if nothing else, I can take solace in the fact that Roy is in this too, so at least I can't take anything from those fans about it. But still, the second-hand embarrassment... it burns.

What do we have there?
The "Ricky Business" lip-synching to "Old Time Rock And Roll" scene. In each and every form it fails to be funny, yet it lives on.
Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock And Roll". This could be broken down into "Bob Seger" and "Old Time Rock And Roll", but there's no need to pad the numbers.
Guitar Hero. Have you ever spent a night watching people play this game? It's like, "couldn't we just pop in some CDs and listen to the music without having to watch you stand up in front of the TV making a clown of yourself?" I don't get the phenomenon. Just play an actual guitar! It's like Wii bowling.. if you're gonna put in all of the work of bowling, just go to the bowling alley.
Embarassingly Bad Dancing. The video speaks for itself.
Coach K doing something which can rightfully be mocked. "Bad" recruiting/coaching/play-calling/substitutions are one thing, but at least they are a part of the game. This is away-from-the-court, and thus, doubly bad.
Lars? I can't decide. I don't hate him because he "killed" Napster (both because he kind of had a point and Napster was just one thing of many. Which reminds me, I broke disc one of "S&M"... I need to fix that.) My issue with him is that he's kind of overly pretentious or pompous or something. But, that's part of his charm. So, it's not a full hate, just a strong dislike. I actually think I dislike James more.

Though I did kind of laugh at "We're playing the Guitar Hero!", so there is that...And now I have to go and rush a roast in the over before Kings starts. It's new and I like it, but I am sure it's gonna be canceled any day now. This means I am torn between enjoying it while it lasts and trying to decide if its worth getting invested in something that will surely be pulled for some sort of reality TV program of either the "famous people competing at some mundane every day event" or "everyday people doing extraordinary things" variety. I mean, it's a TV show that actually got me to break out a book kind of like a Bible (Technically it was a Bible "summary" or something. Though, to be fair, I first went for my "My First Book of Bible Stories". Who woulda' thought that a book I was given as a gift when I was four would come in handy for TV watching almost 3 decades later? I bet the people who gave it to me didn't!) That's a feat in and of itself. Plus, it looks really good (more like a movie than a TV show) and, only three episodes in, has characters I both really, really like and wish were dead. Good work soon-to-be-canceled show! And now, roast time!

Bracket? What bracket? Whose got a bracket?

Sat, 21 Mar 2009 04:37:34 GMT

Thursday was cool,but Friday is KILLING my bracket! Killing it! And do you know what the worst part is? The main offenders come from my home conference! (And I mean "home" literally. The ACC is based in Greensboro.) After today "always go with the conference" may be stricken from the Official Tournament Strategy come next year. Seriously, can someone NOT Duke or Carolina win one? Clemson? Out! Boston College? Out! Wake Forest? ~~Losing as I type.~~ Out! Florida State? Out! Seven (SEVEN!!!!) of the twelve ACC teams made the tournament. How many are left? Three. Duke (of course) , Carolina (of course) and Maryland (that's right.). All of that talk of "powerhouse conference" all for what? The same teams to make it through that make it every year.

This post has been in progress for a while, and things have only gotten worse as time has passed. When I came home from work, I was 19-25, which was not too bad (but trying to figure out the percentages killed me. It ended up being 78 or something.) Now, four or so hours later I am 23-32. That's nine wrong! Who goes from 5 wrong to 4 wrong in the span of about 6 games? Me, that's who.

My mistakes are spread out so that I got at least one participant in each of the second round games right. This means I can end the weekend on the right track, but it's gonna be an uphill battle. Of course I work during all of the good games tomorrow. Maryland/Memphis, UCLA/Villanova, Duke/Texas. I'll miss them all.

Please, you know what time it is. Time for a meme or five.

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 06:33:15 GMT

I was bored, and it's not time for the obligatory "How my picks fared in the tournament" post (I called five of eight games. Not too good, but nothing that can't be corrected later in the weekend. My brother, on the other hand, ended the night 8-for-8.), so here are some memes. (Also, the post I was gonna make got eaten thanks to blogthings' weird thing where you click on "LJ" and it takes you to a "new post" window which, if you had forgotten, and left the start of a new post in it, means that your old post goes the way of the dodo, while some stupid code saying that "if you were a president, you'd be Kennedy" reigns supreme. High five, blogthings!)

Anyway, today memes, tomorrow I will either resurrect the TV post (I just started watching two new shows.. well, one "new", one "new to me", and now I'm gonna talk about them. Oh, and Lost, I'm probably gonna talk about Lost.) or work (Someone, I will not say who, may or may not have done something that may or may not end up in a lawsuit. Could go either way. ~~Where's the ::shifty eyes:: icon when I need it?~~ Good times!)

Up first, a random meme whose only instructions are as follows:
Google "Unfortunately, [yournamehere]"

Unfortunately, Kim has inherited his position of leadership on the basis of filial loyalty and commitment to his father's ideology
Unfortunately, Kim is a talented person but sleeping around in this industry is only going to defame her reputation.
Unfortunately Kim is something we seem to have to tolerate on this site.
Unfortunately, Kim was eliminated after two weeks while judges described her dancing skills as COLD!
Unfortunately Kim will not be attending the ceremony, due to her time in federal prison.
Unfortunately, Kim wore an ugly dress.
Unfortunately Kim died.
Unfortunately Kim's entire family is now disgracing our airwaves in America.
UUnfortunately, Kim is mistaken.
Unfortunately Kim is also her own worst enemy - she's never had to develop true friendships or real skills before.
Unfortunately, Kim was not with them.

Well, these are mostly false. I am sure I have worn an ugly dress, but that would have to be many, many years ago. I have not worn a dress since the seventh grade opera field trip... some time in 1987-88. Other than that, I will admit to having, at least once, been mistaken and, as I am not able to be all places at once, having not "been with" some "them" at one point or another. And I guess I am something to be tolerated on this site, but that's what it's here for, right? It seems that sharing a name (rather first or last) with a jailbird rapper, ruthless dictator and Kardashian means my results are, how shall we say, not so good?

You Are Most Like John F. Kennedy

You live a fairy tale life that most people envy.
And while you may have a few dark secrets, few people know them.

What Modern US President Are You Most Like?

I don't know. I think it was because I said I liked to read and I had siblings.Kennedy does not seem like a bad choice, though one of my friends hates him, so I wonder if that's a bad sign.

You Are Intense and Courageous

When You Are Comfortable:

You are bold and dramatic. You have confidence in yourself, and that's enough to get you through anything.

People see you as capable and goal oriented. You have your eye on the prize, and others admire that about you.

When You Are At Your Best:

You are a hard worker. You need security and stability in your life, even if that means putting in long hours.

People see you as solid and dependable. You are always able to see the good in situations. Other find this comforting.

When You Are in a Social Setting:

You are a glamorous, social person. You love being the center of attention and an object of adoration.

People see you as charming and charismatic. You are naturally dazzling. You are ambitious, and find it easy to get ahead in life.

What Do Your Initials Say About You?

LOL section one! Oh, how you are mistaken! I have been described as many things, but I am positive "bold", "dramatic" and "goal oriented" have not been among them. I am not a fan of long hours (they cut into basketball/sleep/tv time!), but I do them, and I am totally one of those "everything will work out in the end... somehow" people. Also, I am not "glamourous" and would prefer someone else be the center of attention, thank you. In short, what my initials say about me are "These are the letters her name starts with".

You Are Peanut Butter Sandwiches / Do-si-dos

You are easy going and naturally happy. You don't need a lot to make you smile.

You genuinely care about people and are a great friend. You're always doing your best to make the world a better place.

Even though there isn't an immature bone in your body, you still are like a big kid sometimes.

Why make life complicated when the best parts are actually quite simple? You enjoy the small joys of life.

What Girl Scout Cookie Are You?
Oh, Gross! Ask me what my least favorite kind of cookie is. Not "Girl Scout Cookie" but "cookie, in general" is and "Peanut butter cookie" will be your answer. Either that or "cookie with coconut in it." Disgusting! [My favorite is the "Tagalong" AKA "Peanut Butter Patty". They only come 15 to a (red) box, but they are worth every penny!]

You Are an Adventurer

You're not good at any one thing, and that's the problem.

You're good at so much - you never know what to do.

Change is in your blood, and you don't stick to much for long.

You are destined for a life of travel and fun.

Your strength: Your likability

Your weakness: You never feel satisfied

Your power color: Bright yellow

Your power symbol: Asterisk

Your power month: May

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

No posts for months, and when I do... it's Bracket time!

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 05:17:21 GMT

I generally do pretty well in these things, mainly because I don't fall into the trap of over-thinking it. The only teams I ever see play are teams that play Duke, so I have no idea who most of these teams are from year-to-year. I mean, I know which teams are usually good, but sometimes even a national powerhouse has a klunker of a season (or three). I generally stick with a system of "Who was good back when I was in high school? I choose them!" among other things (including no "teams I have never heard of" (That's you, Binghamton) , "teams from religious schools" (BYU? Bob Jones? No dice!), "teams with silly names" (sorry Austin Peay!) and so on. Like mole, I have no confidence in a school whose name starts off with a direction (exceptions are made for states which include an actual direction in their name: North Carolina, West Virginia, etc.) or a school whose name ends with "State" but starts with something that is not a state (Ball State, Murray State, things like that.)

Other than that I just go with who I think will/should win. I favor my home conference (though only in the 9-team configuration, none of those Big East Refugee Conference Killers), but not my home state. I will always pick Kansas to choke in the end, and I admittedly always pick the Blue Devils to last way longer than anyone who is not a fan will say is sensible. (Though, I don't ever pick them to win.) I usually do well in the first round, falter a bit in the second and have to wait until the Sweet Sixteen for things to shake back out in my direction. By the time the Final Four comes around, I usually have 3 of the 4 right, and am either 100% or 0% correct in my Championship selections.

First Round!
Midwest:
Louisville over bracket-killing-play-in-game winner, Alabama State.
Ohio State over Sienna, because I always go with a "real" school over something like "Sienna".
Inevitable 12-over-5, Arizona over Utah.
Wake Forest over Cleveland State, because Cleveland's not a state and WF is like 30 minutes from my house. Plus, I rarely go against the
conference.
West Virgina over Dayton. (See, OSU/Sienna)
Kansas over North Dakota State, because Kansas is a powerhouse and ND State just sounds lame.
Boston College over USC because, I don't know, when I think of the Trojans, I think football.
Michigan State over Robert Morris, because.... what's Robert Morris?!

West
UConn over Chattanooga. One's a Big East powerhouse, the other is a city in Tennessee.
Texas A&M over BYU because I never go with the churchy school.
Purdue over Northern Iowa, because they are the one I know.
Washington over Mississippi State. Toss up.
Marquette over Utah State, because... Utah does not seem like a hotbed of basketball activity. (Though I just discovered that Marquette is in Wisconsin. Hmmm...)
Missouri over Cornell because I used to like Mizzou back when Quinn Snyder was the coach, and I always stick with my teams.
Maryland over Cal. This was a hard one. Cal's ranked higher, but I like Maryland, so I went with them.
Memphis over Cal State Northridge. It's a combination of the powerhouse vs the "who are you again?" thing.

East
Pitt over East Tennessee State. Again, a Big Time school versus someplace none of us have ever heard of. I don't like directions in names.
Tennessee over Oklahoma State.
Florida State over Wisconsin. I don't know, just seems right.
Xavier vs Portland State. Oregon is a State, Portland is not. If your school can't get that right, how can they win anything?
UCLA over Virginia Commonwealth. UCLA is something like my back-up, so it's hard to go against them.
'Nova over American University. Is that even the teams' name? That's what my notes look like. I am sure they suck.
* Texas over Minnesota because I like Texas' colors and am not a fan of the sporty midwest in general.
* Duke over Binghamton. Do I even need to explain?

South
* UNC over Radford because I 16 has never beaten a 1.
* Butler over LSU for no real reason, it's an 8/9, it could go either way.
Illinois over Western Kentucky?
Gonzaga over Akron. Man, this bracket is full of teams I despise.
Arizona State over Temple, because .. oh man, Wikipedia just killed my reasoning... so now it's "just because".
Syracuse over Stephen F. Austin because the only way SFA could have a chance is if they were playing Robert Morris.
Clemson over Michigan, because I have not heard much of Michigan this year, but Clemson's kind of good.
Oklahoma vs Morgan State because while one would think Morgan State's team would be good at basketball, I doubt they are "beating a Big 12 team" good.

Round 2! (Fight!)
Midwest
Louisville over OSU
'Zona over Wake.
Kansas over West Virginia
Michigan State over Boston College. (Because being ACC can only get you so far when you are new-to-the-conference and I hate you.)

West
UConn over A&M
Washington over Purdue
Missouri over Marquette
Memphis over Maryland.

East
Pitt Tennessee
FSU over Xavier.
UCLA over Nova
Duke over Texas.

South
UNC over Butler
Illinois over Gonzaga
Syracuse over Arizona State
Oklahoma over Clemson.

Sweet 16!
Loiusville over Arizona
Kansas over Michigan State
UConn over Washington
Missouri over Memphis (Am I crazy? Maybe.)
Pitt over FSU
Duke over UCLA. (It was only just now that I realized I fantasy booked my way to the same match-up I wish for every year. Good work, me!)
UNC over Illinois
Syracuse over Oklahoma

Elite 8!
3 Kansas beats 1 Louisville
1 UConn beats 3 Missouri.
1 Pitt beats 2 Duke (I will still go for them, but seriously... will they even get this far? ~~Probably not.~~)
1 UNC beats 3 Syracuse

Final Four!
1 UConn beats 3 Kansas because Kansas always chokes.
1 UNC beats 1 Pitt because I like to go with the conference AND to see the 'Holes get thisclose before losing.

Title Game
1 UConn beats 1UNC if for no other reason than that I will never, ever say that Carolina will win it all. Ever.

And because it does not happen as often as it should.. pictures of Blue Devils with trophies!

I wanted to include a picture of dejected semifinal-losing Tarheels, but I could not find one ~~with Tyler Hansborough crying~~ good enough.

This would make a perfect "Sports!" icon, if only I could read the "Duke" behind the trophy. Crazy trophy design fail. Pocius was great, but never got to play. Paluus sucked balls, but was out there night-in and night-out helping other teams score. And now they are both graduating and going off to lives in which they will either not play or suck in the NBA.. ::Shakes fist::

Both Duke and Carolina are playing in the tournament this year. This is not news. What is is that they are both playing here this year. We usually get one of them, but this year? We get them both. Around here that is bigger than getting the Super Bowl. And, I have the money to get tickets to the tournament! How often does that happen? (Not as often as it should) But, I have a job. A job that writes you up when you are late/call in. This means that instead of doing what I want to do and heading to the Coliseum tomorrow to watch practice, I will be at work. And, instead of being at the Coliseum (or, truthfully, the house) this weekend to watch the games, I will be at work. I lose again!

A Heroes post? What?!

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 03:36:34 GMT

So, today I was so bored (where's my House?!?! Seriously, it seems to be on the same two-weeks on, two-weeks off schedule as the second season of Lost. This sucks, as I did not know until I had already used up my I-don't-have-HBO-so-I-watch-Big Love and the Conchords-online-on-Mondays earlier in the day, leaving a gaping hole in my prime time schedule.) I decided to watch Heroes. I have not seen a minute of this volume since some scene with HRG and Mohinder in a parking garage back in episode one, so I have no clue what is going on. None. Wait, no. I tried to watch last week or two weeks ago, but it seemed I stumbled upon a black-and-white HRG flashback. And we all know how much I love those. That one got about five minutes.

Do you know who I hate? That one new guy. The one with the Russian sounding name (in real life). From what I can guess, he works for the government? I don't know. But, prior to this he was batting 1.000 at being on shows I love, playing characters I hate. Bad guys so unpleasant even I am like "Dude, you suck and can't die soon enough!" DA Ed Danvers (Homicide: Life on The Street), Governor James Devlin (Oz), Edmund Burke (Lost). Check. My hatred of this dude spans two decades and three networks. He has also crapped up Law and Order:SVU and House, but only in single episodes. I am pretty sure he played uncredited sucky characters on Rome, The Wire and Six Feet Under... you know, just to make sure all of his bases were covered.

Parkman is hanging out with Peter. Instant fail.

Things are fated to blow up again? Shocking!

Daphne is not really dead. Fail again.

Who is that kid hanging out with Claire? Same question, only replace "Claire" with "Sylar". It's 12 minutes in and I am bored. This could have something to do with that "no clue what's happening" thing I've got going on.

I left for a while to get my dinner and came back to who I assume was baby Sylar on screen and "The Chain" (Fleetwood Mac, from 1977's "Rumours".) playing in the background. When I was that kid's age, I loved Fleetwood Mac (and also toy cars). I was never abandoned at a diner though. That's probably a good thing.

Random things I need to work on:I just realized that the tv I am watching is too small because the tagline says "Ho watches the Watchmen?". Initially I could not decide whether the appropriate response was, "That's not how you spell it," "That sounds wrong grammatically" or "Some of them probably do."

I leave again to wash my plate and come back to see tiny Sylar seeing his dad kill someone. His mom? I think that's what he said.

Here is a random thing I find annoying. Whenever there is a flashback to a character (in anything, not just Heroes.) that shows the character as a child, the child in invariably dressed the same way as said character dresses as an adult. Little Gabriel was dressed exactly as grown up Gabriel used to. Same dorky glasses and all. I am pretty sure that if we are ever privy to a flashback of little Nathan Petrelli, he will be wearing a three-piece suit.

It took me 47 minutes to realize that it was not a big deal that that Dude I Hate was not
listening to Nathan because he is only a Senator. I don't know why, but I thought he was the President. I was wrong.

Peter got shot and I missed what happened next. Did Nathan fly him away? I guess he did. Then Peter flew off on his own? I have no idea what is happening. Messing around on the internet with the show on in the background may have something to do with that.

LOL. Did that guy strap a bunch of bombs onto Parkman? This may, in fact, be the first thing that this guy has ever done that made me go, "You know, maybe it would not be so bad if you didn't immediately die a fiery death!" Bravo, Guy I Still Harbor Residual Dislike For!

Do you know what I just realized while seeing that NBC commercial? This episode had no Hiro. That means that it was probably way more enjoyable that I gave it credit for.

Well, that was... an hour. The preview for next week was about as uninformative as can be "Matt has a bomb strapped to him! Will it explode?!", I kept waiting for it to cut to something else, yet it did not. Oh well, at least House is back next week.

And, on an unrelated note, How dare Lost make me choose between my two favorite characters! It's not fair. I mean, of all the people to have kill Locke. And of all the people to have Ben kill. Any other combination and I would have been just fine. But that? That?! Man...

You win this time, Mother Nature!

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 05:50:14 GMT

Every year I'm surprised when I find that it's time for the calendar to turn from February to March. You'd think I'd be used to it by now, but something about going from the 28th (sometimes 29th) to the 1st is just weird. But, I thought, if it's March now, that means spring is coming and that this seemingly endless cold will end. I used to love winter as a kid, but now that it never snows, I'm just mad. Cold + snow = good. Cold for no reason = the worst! So, bring on March, I thought, and it's windy mildness turning into rainy April and then unbearable heat that will have me wishing for winter's return.

Weather forecast for March, 1-2, 2009. 3-7* inches of snow. Excellent.

*Unlike the last few times, this time it is actually falling, and hard. I'd say we are at a good 2.5 inches now, with huge fluffy flakes falling as I type. I took pictures, but of course I have no idea where my card reader is. I lose again.

Lost post! Lost post! This right here is a Lost post!

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 02:26:14 GMT

And not a post that is "not able to be found", but a post about Lost, which I should be watching right now, but there are commercials on (Frost/Nixon and whatever), but all I'm saying is that I am glad this show is back. Four minutes in and there's the first "Whaaaat?!?!" moment. I won't say what it is yet, since I am an east-coaster and all. But you will know it when you see it.... or when you see him. (I was not that into the recap episode, it was kind of lame. They usually are though. This one was broken down by character/group/whatever, so that meant I could tune in and out as I pleased. So, I guess it did not suck as much as it could have.

As far as the episode so far... (the spoilers are the same color as the background) so, the island is "disloged from" time? Or maybe the people are? What? Is everyone "dislodged" together? ::confused:: Is Locke in a different "time" as everyone else? I need other people to be watching this when I am so I can discus these things! Also, I am mad I missed the credits, because I don't know if Jin's gonna be on this one or not. I did see Ethan's name though, so that should be interesting. And now, enough posting... more watching. Oh snap! It moved again. Wow. I wonder how long that's gonna last.

Look... memes. Again.

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 03:06:02 GMT

Memes! But none of the "good grief, why are you typing so much?! People have lives, you know!" question-and-answer variety. Those come later. These are much different and way less wordy. (Mainly because it is freezing in here and my fingers are way too cold for all of that typing.)

I signed up at bean's LJ, and one of the "conditions" was that I had to post it myself. So, I am posting.

"The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me. It will be about or tailored to those five lucky "victims."

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
- what I create will be just for you.
- it'll be done this year
- you have no clue what it's going to be. It may be fic. (Probably not though. Like, "probably" meaning "I am 99.9 percent certain it will not be" probably.) It may be poetry. (Hey, I do enjoy a good funny poem.) I may draw or paint something. (Who me? Draw something? Yeah, maybe.) I may bake you something and mail it to you. (What?) Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!
- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

Here is one I randomly stumbled across that wins on two levels. I get to pick things and put them together in funny combinations AND it gives me an excuse to not be all, "I want to draw something, but I am ~~terribly slack and lacking inspiration~~ out of ideas!" And unlike Illustration Friday (which I had a good idea for last week and failed to execute), this one has some sort of "it's for someone else" accountability attached. Which reminds me of something else I need to do. Anyway...

1. Comment and I'll pick two of your LJ interests and draw you a picture, using Paint, something or other.
2. You have no say in what I draw you!
3. Put this in your journal. And the pic someone drew for you.

1. Go to the sixth folder where you store your pictures.
2. Find the sixth picture and post it.
3. Explain why you saved it.
4. Tag four others to do the same.

1/2. The picture. It's Colin Farrell, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and Jared Leto as Alexander The Great, Cassander and Hephaistion in Oliver Stone's "Alexander".

3. Why I saved it. Three reasons. Firstly, I like (most) things Ancient Greek and Roman. (Things I do not like include philosophy, bathing by coating onself in olive oil and having a slave scrape the resultant dirty goo off with a strigil and mathematics.) Second, I like pictures. And thirdly, I draw a lot of things based in ancient times. Since there are not too many people running around these days in togas and cuirasses, I have to rely on pictures. This means I have to have a lot of pictures of ancient Greek and/or Roman things. This includes things from movies about ancient Greece or Rome, both very good (Alexander) and very bad (Troy).

4. Ehh... I'm not much of a tagger. Participate at your own.. what's the opposite of risk?

This post here? Basketball post.

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 04:18:36 GMT

I know, I know. Almost no one cares about basketball. That is okay, because this post is not for those people. If I was one of those people all considerate about not clogging up people's friends pages with things they did not care to read, I'd make some sort of filter. But what fun would that be? (Answer none. Nothing that is extra work is ever fun.) Instead I will say "Hey! Basketball post!" and allow you to move on knowing that you will miss nothing here except talking about basketball (and a funny flowchart. But is is a funny sports-related flowchart, so I guess that is also a bust.) Maybe next time I will return with fascinating tales of work and not-work. Though really the only things I have are work stories involving such things as habitual sexual harassers (my old manager), in-house robberies (and other such in-store rings of crime), and actual workplace fisticuffs (I broke up a fight!). I am sure there is other stuff, but those are the funniest ones, thus they are the ones I lead off with. And now, basketball!

Oh, has anyone seen The Curious Case of Benjamin Button? I started watching it last night, but had to cut it off early to go to bed. I feel like I should see it in the theater, but it's right there waiting for me in another tab! Does it get lame after the first 45 minutes? Up to this point it was really good, but I'd hate to pay $4 for 45 minutes of good followed by two hours of terrible and leave the theater fuming because I could have just watched it at home. You know I only do one movie a year, and with The Half-Blood Prince coming out sometime or another, 2009 is already spoken for.

Okay, now basketball.

I started this way back a few weeks ago (we played Purdue on December 2nd ), so there is a bit of outdated stuff in here. I considered updating it to fit the current game, but I will not because this game is rather boring. [Ha! I wrote this yesterday (the 31st) and am posting it on the 1st, so even what is "new" is now "old". This will make for all kinds of ~~confusing~~ interesting tense changes.] I blame this on the fact that all of the regulars are out of town for winter break, so Cameron Indoor is filled with people who are so excited to be at an actual game that they are actually paying attention. This is a far cry from the ongoing obnoxiousness of the Cameron Crazies. I still hate them, but there is nothing like a game with no crowd sounds to remind you how big a part they play in things. (Also, ESPN2 flew in the B-team of announcers. I am thinking Len Elmore is involved, but I am not sure. All I know is that they are boring. He just said "those flashes are too far and too few between." That is not even an actual sense-making sentence, is it? Now they are wishing each other "Happy New Year". It is 4:59 ET. Shut up.)

Anyway, on to the important stuff... the team. For once we finally have a bench. To most teams, "having a bench"; is one of the fundamentals of being a functioning basketball team. For us, it is a new and amazing development. In the past, we've consistently played seven, maybe eight guys. While it made for excellent team chemistry, there was also a downside. That downside was that once someone got injured/tired/in foul trouble, there was nothing to be done about it. This year, there are about ten players getting substantial playing time. You have no idea how much better this makes us. Before it was just the same dudes over and over. You've been playing 30 minutes straight? You're not sitting down! Got a tweaked ankle or a cramped thigh? Suck it up, Nancy, there's no one on the bench but Collins (::groan::) and Wojo (::gag!::). You start the game, you finish the game. Maybe if we end up 17 up with two minutes left, you can sit down early and Pocius will get in (usually not though, which infuriates those of us who think he is criminally underused!). Other than that... same dudes all game long. So what if Paulus goes stone cold and puts up enough bricks to build an arena large enough to hold a reasonable number of ~~Cameron Crazies and other assorted nutcase~~ fans. He starts. He plays. It was the worst, and I never understood why Coach K(rzyzewski) insisted on sticking with it.

Do you know how this made me feel? Like this.

(Do you know what else makes me angry? My transparent-backgrounded gif not having a transparent background.)
But this year, we have players! I don't understand why this did not happen before, but I am sure that the change has something to do with the the fact that the Blue Devils haven't seen the Elite Eight in... I don't know how many years. (And I will not be looking it up because it is embarrassing and I would like to forget it. )

(This is unrelated but now "The Ladies Man" is on Comedy Central. This is excellent, because I love "The Ladies Man". Do you know what just went off? "Bachelor Party". Now, I know most of you don't know what that is, but for those of you that do, how can you run 'Bachelor Party" on basic cable at 3 in the afternoon? I did not watch it, but I am willing to bet that, in its edited state, its runtime was somewhere in the vicinity of 45 minutes. Also unrelated, I just found out yesterday about the Viacom-Time Warner dispute that means that in about seven hours I will be deprived of my beloved Comedy Central. There are a lot of other channels going away too, but they all suck.)

Old stuff: We just finished trouncing Purdue. I don't care about the Boilermakers, as they are in the Big Ten, and I am not a fan of any conference in which more states are known for growing corn than anything else. What does matter is that we had three guys in foul trouble in the first half and it didn't even matter. In any other year we would have been DONE. Instead we're up by 13 with 1:18 left. The Boilermaker fans are not amused, as this is about the fifth time in the game that my sound has gone out. At first I thought it was some sort of ESPN failure, but instead it seems to be a censoring move. I don't know what they are saying, but I know that any complaints would be moot because of the Cameron Crazies. Though, to be fair, I loathe the Cameron Crazies. Fans are now chanting "Paulus Sucks!", and I am like "Yeah, he does! But not as much as he used to, so shut it!"

Another plus! There seems to be no serious star this year, and I like that. Everyone's good. And I'd rather have a team with ten "pretty good" guys than one with two superstars and eight guys who play like the kids from the middle school up the street (Lincoln Hornets! They are my go-to team for "insert scrub team here" type jokes. While I actually fear real-life hornets, as a mascot they are not so menacing.) I think it is supposed to be Henderson, but he has not really been that spectacular this season. Most of the hype this season seems to be around Singler and Scheyer. Singler I don't care for (due to my pro-backcourt bias), but I like Scheyer. (It also doesn't hurt that other teams hate him. This is always a bonus.) He may be my new favorite. Sadly, it always takes me so long to settle on a favorite that by the time I start paying real attention, whoever it is I like is already well on their way to graduation (not early entry, graduation!). Shceyer is a junior.

On the opposte end of things is Plumlee. I don't know who this freshman cat is, but I am already hating on him (and his brother who is coming next year and his even younger brother who it seems every announcer in every game has 'heard is the best of them all." I predict Plumlee and his brothers will be the new Duhon and his brother, meaning, I will hate them all.) Now the fans have thrown something onto the court. Yeah, because that will help your team make up 18 points in 15 seconds. Only, it will not.

New Stuff: Two Top Five teams (UConn, Oklahoma) lost this week, and another (Pittsburgh) has a tough game (vs. Georgetown on the 3rd) coming up. This means that if things go well for us tonight (We are currently beating Loyola 36-19) and terribly for Georgetown Saturday (let's hope), we could enter next week second in the polls. This is good news going into the regular season. Of course this would also ensure that I would not be able to watch a game without suffering through sixteen extra mentions of the (#1) Tarheels, but I will take that if it means that we are working our way back up the rankings. Then again, we were pretty high this time last year and we see how that worked out.

Man, this post kind of lost something along the way. I think the main things to take away from it are that I am glad we finally have a bench, I am happy the team has no real breakout star, Sheyer is the man and I hate all Plumlees. And in closing, a funny flowchart. When I found it it was about basketball. But, I used my handy Illustrator skills to edit it to be about a much better sport. I predict it will be put to good use by the end of the season. I'm not saying by who... but by someone.

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