Thursday, February 28, 2008

TV Land makes me feel old

I always knew at some point the music I listened to as a kid would be on oldies stations on the radio. TV Land has got to be about the same for sitcoms, right? It was bad enough when Full House and Home Improvement were on there, but right now I'm watching Just Shoot Me. It started less than 10 years ago, damnit! I mean what the hell.

EDIT (3/3) - this is my final complaint about Nick at Nite/TV Land. I won't even put words to it. I've accepted defeat. (LINK).

I can't shut up

Something about me being alone makes me want to write. I don't know what it is, it's not like I have that much more time or less things to do, I could be doing all the surfing/tv watching I usually do, but looking back at my post yesterday sort of amazes me. Anyhow, items of interest:

The Elenium: I've been an Eddings fan for... I'm not quite sure. Some time now. Whenever I read the Belgariad, I guess it was last year sometime. Some people (I won't name names. Ok it was Erin. And Chris. And I guess sort of Jared.) had been trying to convince me to read it (and the Mallorean) for quite a while. Chris... come to think of it now I can't recall if he said he liked or disliked the Elenium, but either way he described it to me after me first Eddings Experience, and it sounded like everything I liked from the Belgarion saga. Erin and I picked up the trade paper of it some time ago, but it just went on the shelf next to its brothers. I needed something to read on the flight, so I popped it in the laptop bag. It's awesome. It's quickly shaping up to be my favorite fantasy series, and I've only read a few hundred pages so far. I guess I should finish Wheel of Time before I make that statement, but I'm too pissed at Jordan for dying.

I really want to like comics. I've been looking into some of the "classics", thinking about picking up graphic novels from some of the big names. Not superhero books- well, at least not the traditional ones. The first few I looked into were Sin City - loved the movie, but not sure I like the minimalist style on paper; and Sandman - love Gaiman, but after looking into it, I can't stand the art. I did pick up the 300 book, mainly so I could do a comparison to the flick - it's supposed to be a shot by shot production, with the exception of the subplot they added in to give Lena Headey more screen time (and who's to blame them?). I think I've found the book for me: The Walking Dead. It's by the guy who wrote Marvel Zombies - oh, I bought that too. It was just way too awesome a concept to pass up. Anywho, I've browsed though a bit of Walking Dead, and it hits all the high points - the writer describes it like a Romero movie without an end. Matt, I don't know if you're still reading this, but if you are, read though it at Borders or something, it's right up your alley.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Fenix and Omaha

Phoenix (my stopover out here and returning) was an odd town to see from above. Coming in there were clear views of the well irrigated (by which I mean adequately irrigated, I don't know the source) fields surrounding, a grid of lush and green standing out against the stark desert. Leaving after the sun set (which was stunning, by the by, more on that later) gave a similar view of the grid of lights defined by the large and small streets. Phoenix is big, much bigger than I’d though. It’s the 5th largest city in the country, and also one of the largest in size, giving it a very low population density (2,937.8/sq mi compared to 27,083/sq mi in NYC). The whole of the city is very… regular. Repeating patterns, near groups identical houses stretching for miles few (if any) buildings over 3 stories. Omaha (my destination, and home for 4.5 days) is much the same. There are a few tall buildings (I refuse to call them skyscrapers, the tallest is only a floor bigger than the Corning Tower in Albany), but for the most part the city is a ridiculously large, sparsely populated grid (density of 3,370.7/sq mi – that’s my last quoted number from Wikipedia, I promise). In both cases, I think it’s the lack of any real geographic boundaries. Omaha has the Mississippi, but that’s about it. Phoenix just spreads out in all directions, on a massive expanse of flat land. Something about that flat land really contributes to the sunset for some reason. In both Phoenix and Omaha, the sky really lights up, showing strong red color every night, something I never really saw on the East coast. I’ve read, and been told, that the sunset in the Bay Area are particularly stunning, but you have to be in the right place – the Berkeley Hills, or on the coast, or something like that. Out here in Flat America, as I noticed when we drove across it, there’s a picturesque sunset from everywhere, every day.

I’m hooked on this game Elite Beat Agents: it’s for the ds, it’s like DDR with a touch pad. Adam Lisbon is to blame, both directly and indirectly: he gave us a copy of the Japanese version (Ouendan – which I’m pretty sure translates to Cheer Squad, not in the mood to look it up right now), and by doing so contributed to the amount of exported copies of that game that inspired a localized US version. I’ve gotten over my hatred of rhythm games, originally spurred on by the aforementioned DDR, primarily though Rock Band. This EBA game is fun, but frustrating as hell on higher difficulty levels. I’ve played it so much lately I think I’m doing damage to the touch screen. Not good. I’m trying to build up quote unquote Mad Skillz before PAX, gotta represent. As a result, I’ve got a crappy cover version of Jumping Jack Flash stuck in my head. Not good for sitting though meetings tomorrow.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Oh mc, Won't You Rhyme For Me...


Sunday we spent in SF, primarily for a concert. First we did some shopping. Erin, clearly jealous of my "fly new kicks", bought new shoes of her own, dooming her to carrying her old ones in her purse. Next we visited City Lights, historic paper back bookstore and Beat era publisher. Right down the street was San Francisco Brewing, for beer and dinner. Beer was good, dinner was OK. I'll have to head back to try the "Rainbow Stout", a clever name which took me far too long to get.

Cross town to the Filmore for... probably the least historic concert in a historic venue. 3rd time seeing mc chris, huge crowd, only about 20 there for MC. We got there early, right up to the front. Dead center were a bunch of teeny booper fan girls there for the main act. 2 of the mc fans were a 14 year old and a 6 (!) year old. Even if you're unfamiliar with the music, the attached image should give you a clue. Due to the limited number of geek rap fans there, I actually got a chance to chat with mc beyond the traditional pic of him flipping off the camera. I brought my copy of ATHF:MFFT and he thanked me for watching it. He's headlining a tour in May, maybe I won't have to pay $35+ a ticket to see him if he comes back to the Bay Area. Plus he's on Warped Tour this summer, though the closest that got last year was Fresno.

We left about 45 minutes into Pinback's set. They're not bad, in fact after listening to their myspace free bee tracks I was looking forward to seeing them. For some reason they weren't as good live. Plus a LARGE portion of the crowd was smoking up. You know it's bad when the lead singer asks the crowd to blow the pot smoke to the back of the room, it's affecting his voice. *shrug* We bought the album anyway.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

New Shughes

So I finally gave in to the requests, demands, and pleas of both my mother and my wife over the last... 3 years? 4 years? Something like that. Saturday at the mall I picked up new sneakers, and am retiring my Airwalks. Below, a tribute and retrospective on the flaws derided by many but loved by me. Erin wants the honor of throwing them out. I kinda want to burn them- just for dramatic effect.


Here's the new ones. KSwiss. They're pretty nice, but walking around in the on Sunday kinda hurt my ankles. Not sure if it's just that they're new, or if the fancy lacing I have to use. Well, "have to" is strong. But look at the way they're set up: even laced the way I have it doesn't look quite right. Way better than normal would (I tried), but... what are ya gonna do. Stylin'!

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Chasing the Sunset

Our flight took off just before sunset and landed not long after. I watched the line of red on the horizon for about 2.5 hours, a fitting end to this weekend, I suppose. I saw all of my family on my mother's side in the same place for the first time in over 7 years, which was good, I guess. And I got to see snow.

Friday, February 1, 2008

Unexpected Journey

So, I was going to make a culinary post tonight, detailing my nearing perfection on one of my favoite self designed recipies (which I'll still get to, at some point next week probably), but I've now got more pressing matters to deal with: my grandmother died last night. Erin and I will be flying out tomorrow, and back on Tuesday evening. It wasn't unexpected, but it's still hard to deal with. In fact, I'm pretty sure I'm not dealing with it yet, and it won't hit me untill Sunday or so. I almost knew when I saw her at my mother's wedding in October it would be the last time. Anyhow, enough of this for now, I need to finish up at the office so I can get out of here, and depressing myself won't help that any.

Quote courtesy of wikiquote:
Death is just another path . . . one that we must all take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass ... And then you see it ... White shores ... and beyond. A far green country, under a swift sunrise.

-Gandalf, LotR