California Road Trip - Day 2

We had breakfast at Lori's, a 50's themed diner and then went to Macy's to find G some shoes and a hat for A. We then took the #30 out to the Palace of Fine Arts and wandered around taking pictures. We then took a #28 over to some bunkers on some coastal cliffs that overlook the Golden Gate Bridge. You could see a nude beach from up there! We bussed over to Haight-Ashbury and ate at Cha Cha Cha's. I had sangria and cajun fish. As we were wandering away from the restaurant, we passed a tattoo parlor and went inside. G and I spent some time trying to convince A that we should all get tattoos as a way to remember the trip. We almost had him convinced until we found out that it would take the rest the day to get us all done. A headed over to Alamo Square while G and I went to the San Francisco Mall. We didn't do much shopping, but I did get some cannoli at Segafredo's. Then we all took the cable car up to the bay and hung out on the beach.

Day 3

California Road Trip - Day 1

I met up with G at the SFO BART station and we rode the train to Powell station together where we met up with A and then headed to our hotels. They were both staying in a hotel a block south of Market St while mine was two blocks north of Market. We checked in and met back up at the cable car and took it down to Fisherman's Wharf. After hanging out on the wharf and eating at In N Out burger, we took a very crowded F train back to our hotels to change for dinner. We had reservations at the Cliff house, where I had some saki and a curry seafood dish. There are such nice views from both inside and outside the restaurant, and the sun was setting as we ate, so we got tons of great pictures. A and I went to a bar in the Castro and drank a bit before eating some turkey burgers and crawling into bed at 3 am.

Day 2

Deflated

I drove over a screw that stuck in my tire on Sunday, so I had to put my spare tire on last night. Last time I needed a tire change, Ombre De Chevalier was nice enough to do it and give me lessons. So, I loosened the nuts, jacked up the tire, removed it and put the spare on. Tip: to tell which side of the tire should face out, check for the inflation valve.
Anyway, I was a filthy mess, but I had to run to the corner store after that to get some cash so I could do two loads of laundry. As I am getting cash and buying a soda, I hear a rather strange conversation between one of the workers there and a customer. My friends and I started a blog called Overheard in Minneapolis, which is a blatant rip-off of Overheard in New York, so I posted it on that blog and you'll have to go there to read it. We certainly aren't the only ones who had that idea, and there is a list of other Overheard blogs on the sidebar, which are great mood elevators.

Let THEM eat cake, I'll be eating pie in the corner

I am not a fan of cake or it's stepbrother the brownie. Carrot cake is great, as is cheesecake, but the generic bread-with-some-extra-sugar that passes for cake these days is just not worth the fat and calories. Every time I am at a wedding, I am accosted by a pushy person holding a small plate with a slice of evil. If I politely refuse the abomination, I get a sneer or an eye-roll. I am chubby enough without adding to my thighs with something barely palatable. At the very least, there had better be some good frosting that I can nibble on to make the whole thing worthwhile. I know I will still get dirty looks because of the cake left on my plate, but the sweetness of the frosting will help me cope with the social rejection.

My disdain for cake started with the brownie. A brownie is often just a drier version of cake with less yeast and more chocolate frosting. Sometimes people try to improve brownies, making them "special" with the addition of a controversial ingredient. It adds a whole new dimension to an otherwise boring snack food, but it can upset and confuse people if they are not expecting it. So, be sure to warn people if you decide to take the leap and add nuts to your brownie recipe!

Pudding cakes are an attempt to alleviate some of the dryness inherent in cake, but it doesn't add moisture as much as another weird flavor layer. So, why attempt to improve on something that has outlived its usefulness? I say we push cake aside and let pie take its rightful place on the table at birthday parties, weddings and all other occasions that require dessert. Pie is so much more versatile than cake. You want fruit? How about two crusts? Can you handle three inch thick whipped cream? How about some weird chalky, but yummy egg whites made stiff and added to a citrus goo? Pie will give you all that and more. In fact, pudding belongs in pie, not wasted in a cake.

I <3 maps

Kottke continues the work of Rankin and shows us that Manhattan is a small world after all. The best thing on Rankin's page is the overlay of the US and Europe. If my 2003 road trip had taken place over the pond, I would have visited Copenhagen, Warsaw, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kiev, Bucharest, Rome, Madrid, Porto, Paris and Berlin.

Did you know...

that the nearest black hole to our planet is 1600 light years from Earth in the direction of Sagittarius, orbiting V4641?

Braiding now legal

Remember this post about the unfair licensing requirements for hair braiders in Minnesota? Well, the rules exempting braiders are now in effect, so the system worked.

Rollercoaster of...

In 2001, I visited Cedar Point in Sandusky Ohio and rode Millenium Force, which was the tallest steel rollercoaster in the country at the time, rising to 310 feet. Steel Dragon 2000 in Japan is taller, but is not currently running due to an accident. The same is true of the current record holder, Kingda Ka, in New Jersey. I was surprised to learn that two of the 4 tallest steel rollercoasters in the world are not currently operating.

This year I am going to Magic Mountain in California, which just opened its seventeenth rollercoaster Tatsu, breaking the tie with Cedar Point for the park with the most rollercoasters. There is debate as to whether Superman The Escape is actually a rollercoaster or simply a ride, because it is does not travel a circuit like most coasters do. If it was counted as a coaster, Magic Mountain would actually have 18.

Books

So, I just read my first book since January, which is a little misleading. I did a lot of reading for school since then, and read several short stories in The Scribner Anthology in February and March, so I am not a total clod. I am starting out with two lighter books to get my momentum up again, Where the Heart Is by Billie Letts and Goodnight Nobody by Jennifer Weiner. I have seen the movie version of Heart and I loved Weiner's first two books. When I finish those two, I'll move on to something a little more challenging.

TJ's is here

Trader Joe's in St Louis Park is open! It looks like they will open some other metro locations in the future.

If you think you might come to California...I think you should

I was contemplating where I would like to spend my birthday this year when A Long December came on the radio and solidified my decision: in June I am Goin' Back to Cali. I've been to California twice before, one week just in San Francisco and a Labor Day weekend in Berkeley and Yosemite. I have not yet been to LA, and some friends are going to San Francisco the weekend before my birthday, so I am doing both! I fly out to SF, spend four days by the bay with A&G, then I head down the coast in a rental car. Things I want to see are Monterey Bay Aquarium, Big Sur (parts of it), various coastal animals like sea lions and such, the Santa Ynez Mtns, and the Santa Barbara Zoo. Hearst Castle is a maybe. Then I am going to Magic Mountain and then into LA for 3 more days before flying home. I leave in 5 weeks... can't wait.

All my caliroadtrip tagged bookmarks

My Geek Code

GM/B$ d- s:+ a- C++ PS+ PE- Y+ t+ X-- R+ tv++ b+ DI++ G e h- r- x?

What is yours?

I can't get this outta my head

The Night Chicago Died
Daddy was a cop on the east side of Chicago
Back in the U.S.A. back in the bad old days

In the heat of a summer night
In the land of the dollar bill
When the town of Chicago died
And they talk about it still

When a man named Al Capone
Tried to make that town his own
And he called his gang to war
With the forces of the law

I heard my mama cry
I heard her pray the night Chicago died
Brother what a night it really was
Brother what a fight it really was
Glory be!

I heard my mama cry
I heard her pray the night Chicago died
Brother what a night the people saw
Brother what a fight the people saw
Yes indeed!

And the sound of the battle rang
Through the streets of the old east side
'Til the last of the hoodlum gang
Had surrendered up or died

There was shouting in the street
And the sound of running feet
And I asked someone who said
"'Bout a hundred cops are dead!"

I heard my mama cry
I heard her pray the night Chicago died
Brother what a night it really was
Brother what a fight it really was
Glory be!

I heard my mama cry
I heard her pray the night Chicago died
Brother what a night the people saw
Brother what a fight the people saw
Yes indeed!

And ther was no sound at all
But the clock upon the wall ......
Then the door burst open wide
And my daddy stepped inside
And he kissed my mama's face
And he brushed her tears away

The night Chicago died
(Na-na na, na-na-na, na-na-na)
The night Chicago died
Brother what a night the people saw
Brother what a fight the people saw
Yes indeed!

The night Chicago died
(Na-na na, na-na-na, na-na-na)
The night Chicago died
Brother what a night it really was
Brother what a fight it really was
Glory be!

The night Chicago died
(Na-na na, na-na-na, na-na-na)
The night Chicago died
Brother what a night the people saw
Brother what a fight the people saw
Yes indeed!

Season Finales - (the ones that matter)

May 11th - My Name is Earl and The Office
May 14th - Survivor, L&O:CI, Grey's Anatomy (Part 1)
May 15th - How I Met Your Mother, Grey's Anatomy (Part 2)
May16th - Scrubs
May17th - The Amazing Race
May 18th - That 70's Show and Will & Grace both air their Series Finales
May19th - Numb3rs
May 21st - Simpsons, Family Guy
May 22nd - King of Queens, 24
May 24th - Lost

Webtracks

City Pages' annual Best of edition has pixel art by Eboy, which I dig.

I found this quote on a coaster at a bar, but I like it anyway:
"We do not remember days. we remember moments." -Cesare Pavese
I also like this one: "If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness and fears."

Ever been mistaken for an employee while shopping? I have and it is hilarious.

Myspace is not just for 14-21 year olds - it's for me too.

Trader Joe's is "coming soon" to Minnesota, before the end of May hopefully. I was 100% wrong about the location. I forgot all about Excelsior Boulevard. Could they have built any closer to Whole Foods?

Also, the new library downtown opens May 20th, or for $250 (or more!!) you can attend the benefit on the night of the 19th. This includes a progressive dinner, and I really need to attend something like that.

The Venerable Book Meme

"The search began for more substantial sources of energy, and before long the well-endowed water resources of the Merrimack River were tapped." (from my environmental history book)

The Venerable Book:
1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open it to page 161.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence along with these instructions.
5. Don't search around and look for the coolest book you can find. Do what's actually next to you.

Movie News Roundup: Part 1

First I wanna make sure you know about two of my favorite blogs about all things Hollywood, Cinematical and TV Squad, which are part of Weblogs, Inc.

Cannoli

One day they will lock me up and ask me what I want for my last meal. I will probably ask for an appetizer of fresh mozzarella balls, scallops in butter and garlic for the main dish and cannoli for dessert. Ever since I tried my first cannoli around the age of 15, I have realized the best dessert in existence does not even contain chocolate. I get my cannoli at Buca di Beppo (who's version is drowned in chocolate) or Lund's deli, which probably horrifies the City Pages food critic. She wrote a whole article in this week's issue about cannoli and didn't mention either one. You get a paragraph of its history, tips on where to get the best local versions and even how to order some on the web.

You're only a day away

Even now - post deadline, having shirked my responsibilites - my stupid ass still refuses to write the paper!! I can think of 87 other things to do, none of them is finishing the big, huge, giant, 30% of my grade Paper. I get -3 initiative, -2 focus and +5 sloth for the past 3 days.

Repeat adventure script for KOL - courtesy of SolarFlare

Originated by Ohayou and working in Firefox:

javascript: function A(w){ if(/hypnotist|baio|crazy
bastard/i.test(w.document.body.innerHTML)) return; var
i,j,r=[],f=w.document.forms[0]; function q(n,v) {
r.push(n+'='+escape(v)) } if(f) {
for(i=0;i<f.length;i++) { with(f.elements[i])
if(type.substring(0,6)=='select') { j=-1;
while(++j<length) if(options[j].selected)
q(name,options[j].value) } else
if(type=='checkbox'||type=='radio'?checked:type!='button'&&type!='reset')
q(name,value); }
i=f.getAttribute('action')+'?'+r.join('&'); } else {
i=w.document.getElementsByTagName('a')[0].getAttribute('href');
if(i.substring(0,9)!='adventure') {
i='campground.php'; n=1; } } if(--n)
with(mainpane.document) { open();
write('<script>charpane={location:
0}</script><frameset cols=*
onLoad=setTimeout("top.A(top.mainpane.x)",50)><frame
name=x src="'+i+'">'); close() } else
mainpane.location=i;
menupane.document.body.firstChild.nodeValue=n||'';
return void 0 } if(n=prompt('Number of clicks?','10')) A(mainpane)

Here is the same type of thing for IE, but I have not tested it yet. It seems to be the work of many different people:

javascript:if(typeof overNover=='function')overNover(); else{(D=document.createElement('script')).setAttribute('src', 'http://users.adelphia.net/~dramatix01/scripts/r.js');void top.document.body.appendChild(D)}

A List, A Trip and A Race

I have been trying to work on a big upcoming movie post, but I keep getting sidetracked.

This morning's dream was a doozy:
My boss sees me showing some of my coworkers an IRS webpage.
She prints out the page, which is now like 500 pages and tells us to call the people on the list.
Xander* calls to tell me that Reeree is going to San Francisco for work and when she comes home, Nate will meet her at his house to get her on the light rail.
Nate then tells me that this San Fran thing is long term - not just a few weeks.
Then I look outside to the harbor and see brown boats with black sails racing.
I see 4 guys on horses in the water (which is up to the top of the horses' legs) and realize they were the racing officials.

*names have been changed to protect the guilty

Midterms

Yay - a B in Modernism and a big fat A in History - w00t!

Collect them all: Care Bears

Care Bears
The official page lists 19 Care Bears, including an all-white True Heart Bear, but Wikipedia lists 38 bears, some of which are new since 2004. The Care Bears live in Care-a-lot, a town made up of clouds and they often had to teach kids lessons about how not to be a jerk in their cartoon series. They even had a movie in 1985, which I remember seeing in the theater, and 4 more after that. They also had 11 Care Bear Cousins, who lived in the Forest of Feelings. There were different villains in each movie, but the television series had both Professor Coldheart and Wizard No Heart.
"Friends" of the Care Bears include Strawberry Shortcake and Holly Hobbie (each with their own sites) and Twisted Whiskers and the Get Along Gang (who's sites are not yet available). Friendship, in this case, means they are all owned by American Greetings.
See which Care Bear you are here or here. There is a popular quiz about Dysfuctional Care Bears, but I can't find a version available to the public.
(Australian site)

School's out for Spring

Yesterday was my last night of school until March 13th, since it's Spring break/Midterm time. In Environmental history, I have a B/B+ average going on my weekly papers and I figure the midterm essays we did last night will get me a B as well. My grade is a mix of weekly writing, class participation, midterm and final papers, so my grade estimation right now is a B, which I am okay with considering that he didn't give out a single A last semester, only some A minuses.

I haven't a clue how I am doing in Modernism. Last week we turned in our midterm papers, which were paragraph answers to 5 questions, but he hasn't returned them to us yet. As far as class participation goes, I again would give myself a B, since I don't always have a lot to say, but I do talk more than the back half of the class.

I still haven't picked a major to fall back on if I decide Math is not for me. I thought of English for a while, which is basically Literature at my school, but my current classes have more than enough lit interpretation for me. My recent inklings are Pharmacy and Library Science. My job wouldn't pay for either of those, but I might be able to swing it myself. Now I am going to take a look at the class schedule for Summer and Fall.

Dorrie and the Weather Box by Patricia Coombs

was one of my favorite books when I was young. We recently found our battered, written-on, cover-missing copy on my mother's bookshelf. The illustrations were probably the best part, with Gink the cat, the big witch, angry androgynous Cook, and the swirly orange sky. I realized it was part of a series, but I don't think I have seen any of the other books:

1 Dorrie's Magic
2 Dorrie and the Blue Witch
3 Dorrie's Play
4 Dorrie and the Weather Box
5 Dorrie and the Witch Doctor
6 Dorrie and the Wizard's Spell
7 Dorrie and the Haunted House
8 Dorrie and the Birthday Eggs
9 Dorrie and the Goblin
10 Dorrie and the Fortune Teller
11 Dorrie and the Amazing Magic Elixir
12 Dorrie and the Witch's Imp
13 Dorrie and the Halloween Plot
14 Dorrie and the Dreamyard Monsters
15 Dorrie and the Screebit Ghost
16 Dorris and the Witchville Fair
17 Dorrie and the Witch's Camp
18 Dorrie and the Museum Case
19 Dorrie and the Pin Witch
20 Dorrie and the Haunted Schoolhouse

Cash or Credit?

In the past month or so I have purchased a video iPod (Samwise), got contacts (today) and bought new shoes (some comfy green New Balances). It's strikes me as odd since these are all little things I wear, one for entertainment, one for health and one for comfort.

The goverment changed my birthday

While trying to file my taxes online this year, I find out that Social Security has my birthday wrong, so I had to go the local office yesterday and show them my birth certificate to prove it to them. I had been to that same office two years ago to request a new card, so I knew what to expect. Or did I? My memories from last time included a metal detector and a room full of about 50 adults and 60 children. The first thing you do is stand in line to see a receptionist, who gives you a number and verifies you have everything you need. When it came time for me to get my number, both of the women working the windows got up and walked away. So, there I sat for a few minutes looking at 5 empty windows, until a woman returned to give me my number, look everything up and glance at my forms.

Then it was time to sit, wait and enjoy the people watching which consisted of:
A man who sat right next to my niece despite at least 15 other seats being open
An angry older couple with a man who nearly went into the woman's bathroom
A worker looking at her computer screen as if everything was suddenly written in Russian
A cute little girl who kept handing us brochures
In those brochures, there are such useful definitions as "Retirement - when you retire" and "Death - when you die"
More than one conflict over the line and usage of windows
A building worker replacing nearly every light bulb in the place
A man wearing a hat that was way too small for him


An hour later, my turn came and I explained the deal. They assured me no one would be able to apply for anything in my name, which doesn't really comfort me, since you hear about people getting welfare checks for dead people and collecting 5 SSI checks through fraud. But, they will be investigating what happened, and I may or may not find out why the date was changed. It's funny, since I have to go through all of this to correct it, but it probably just took a keystroke for it to be changed in the first place.

Be still my heart

Kevin Smith is coming to my hometown. I missed him once at the UofM and never really thought I'd see him in person. But my tickets have been purchased!

You are all right now!

Last night I finished watching She's Having a Baby and realized how much of my family's vocabulary was inspired by this movie. We always laugh at the parents with the mining gear at the foot of the bed, instructing the kids on how better to conceive, but there are so many other hilarious parts, like her dad griping about wanting a grandchild so he can have a picture of it on his desk at work, and her mother reliving the pain of labor which makes her husband say, "You are all right now!"

Other great parts of the movie:
The steak that fell in the grass, blood raw on one side and burnt to a crisp on the other
Alec Baldwin's lovely girlfriend
Jake stripping down to put on scrubs
the angry photographer, "I can't work like this!"
"He'd probably end up working on a loading dock and hating every minute of it."
the grouper, smelt and swordfish
"You burned the dog!"
"NetSu? We own that,"
the cross-eyed boy with the impetigo
Jake spraying dental floss and his underwear with breath spray
the random people at the end suggesting baby names

Back on the Interweb

A few weeks ago my computer stopped letting me log on. It would get to the Welcome screen (which it should have bypassed) and when I select which acct I want to log in under, it would show the desktop for a few seconds and then immediately log out and go back to the welcome screen. I tried several things and was about to bring it in when I remembered that my cubicle neighbor suggested it might be a problem with my spyware/adware programs. I uninstalled them both and got back in last night!

Truth in Blogging

About a year ago, I posted something false on my blog. I just found out about it now, and have posted the correction as a comment. I found out by browsing through Snopes.com, which bills itself as the Urban Legend Reference Pages. Often when I get an email or hear a rumor, I'll look it up on Snopes to get the real deal. Here is what I have learned over the past few years:

Companies are not going to give you free things for forwarding emails.

The day after Thanksgiving is not the busiest shopping day of the year.

Ligers and Tigons really do exist. Also real are a wholphin (whale-dolphin), cama (camel-llama), and Dzo (cow-yak), as well as many zebra-donkey-horse combinations which include mule, hinny, zorse and zeedonk.

The racist remarks attributed to Elvis, Tommy Hilfiger and Lauryn Hill are all false.

Top 11 Movies of 2005

Surprise, I had to go with eleven again this year. In alphabetical order:

The 40 Year Old Virgin 9/10 - Hilarious but still realistic. Judd Apatow and Steve Carrell deserve the nomination from the Writer's Guild.

Batman Begins 8/10 - Bale is great as Bruce Wayne, but I felt he was missing something as Batman. I still prefer Michael Keaton. Michael Caine and Liam Neeson were wonderful. It has been announced that there will be a sequel in 2008.

Brokeback Mountain 10/10 - Amazingly sweet story and beautiful landscapes. The acting, setting and script are all good as seperate pieces, so they integrate well. Even the sad, bleak parts of the movie are captivating. I nearly didn't see this one in the theater, but I'm very glad I did.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe 10/10 - Others felt this was too long, but it was worth it for me. Its box-office success has assured there will be more Narnia movies.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire 10/10 - Faithful enough to the original story, the movie kept the frenetic pace and sense of mystery that made the book impossible to put down. Order of the Phoenix starts filming in February for a June 2007 release, and Rowling is writing the seventh book this year.

The Interpreter 9/10 - An international thriller that could have easily been a snoozefest, but Sydney Pollack kept the suspense going.

Memoirs of a Geisha 9/10 - An adaptation I have been waiting years to see. While Ziyi Zhang did Sayuri justice, I think Ken Watanabe's Chairman was the most accurate portrayal.

Serenity 10/10 - The finale that the TV series deserved. Too bad Firefly wasn't made as a movie from the beginning, it would have made a great space trilogy.

Sin City 9/10 - Gritty, violent and even gruesome at times, I still enjoyed this one. The casting was dead on. The sequel is due out next summer.

Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith 8/10 - An appropriate ending to the saga, I think I expected too much from this movie.

Zathura 9/10 - Funny, with a sense of adventure. There are only five human characters in the movie, yet it never gets tedious.

Spring Quarter

School starts today, and I am taking two classes, Environmental History and Modernism. Modernism is the period of change and rebellion that took place in art, music and literature that started around the end of the 19th century and continued well into the 20th. The class fulfills two different generals and also takes care of one major requirement if I decide to be an English major (who would have ever thought?).

TV

24 starts next Sunday, January 15th and Monday, January 16th from 7-9pm Central time.

Since I got my DVR, I've been watching more of the following shows:
Daria
Grounded for Life
Home Movies
Futurama
MadTV/SNL
Grey's Anatomy
Arrested Development
How I Met your Mother
Entourage
Blow Out
Queer Eye

And AOL provides a midseason schedule for new and returning shows.

Happy New Year - Now You're Old

So, while looking in the mirror on New Year's Eve, I discovered my first grey hairs, and I'm only 28! Many people subscribe to the superstition that what you're doing on New Year's is what you'll be doing all year, but luckily I am not one of them.

I had a dream last night...

I was in an unspecific Russian city for work and had to meet this grey haired man at the end of the day because I had no idea how to get back to my hotel. He drove up on a golf cart type thing and asked why I was waiting in this lobby, and I told him it was because I was all turned around. Then, a Chinese woman leads me across the lobby towards a big wall, but before she gets to the wall, she goes down a steep set of stairs that I had no clue were there. It was an optical illusion so you couldn't see them until you were at the very edge of the floor. We went down the stairs and then had to like slip under the floor onto another set of steep stairs, and I remember thinking, "My grandparents could never have done that," because it was a tight fit. But then my grandmother was at the bottom and hurrying me along. I was surprised that she had made it down the stairs, but she just rushed me through a door and up a ramp. We were in a zoo watching a tiger exhibit, which had a big pool and a few rocks. The landing we were standing on seemed too close to the tigers, but then I figured they wouldn't build an exhibit the animals could easily escape. But all of a sudden one of the tigers did get out and came toward us! My grandmother and I, along with a few other zoo visitors, backed up along the ramp and I tried to close a door to keep the tiger in, but it was too late. Now the tiger had turned into an alligator and was coming towards my grandmother and I, so I grabbed her and hung off the side of the ramp, kicking at it when it got too close. Finally, zoo security released a long, brown dog onto the ramp and it like herded the alligator back into it's enclosure.

Did You Know

that Mr. Pibb + Red Vines = Crazy Delicious? Actually, I wouldn't know since I can't seem to get enough Dr. Pepper lately. But watch the video on the link above for great humor involving cupcakes and Alexander Hamilton.

Attention Everyone I Know:

We are now playing The Game

Information wants to be free, aka My Utopia

This needs to happen more often: "More artists take a stand against DRM".
Doesn't it seem wrong that an artist can't even legally burn a CD of their own work? The RIAA, MPAA and their evil ilk are justifying all of this bullying by pretending that they are protecting the interests of the artists who created the work. In reality, they are protecting the profits of the corporations who now own that artistic work. So, what needs to happen is that more artists (movie makers, actors, musicians and authors) need to harness the simple distribution that the Internet now allows instead of relying on the studio's current ways of force-feeding work to the public (radio stations, entertainment "news shows", and advertising). They retain the rights to their work and choose who and when to sue in order to protect it instead of turning the job over to the studio who then hides behind the RIAA. The more quality artistic work that stayed owned by the artist and freely available, the more people would reject the inferior force-fed Hollywood product. Discerning consumers would learn to seek out the quality art they want, and the lazy ones would be left with the peanut shells.

Transit Woes

Is there something in the water? Twice this week I have boarded a crowded number 11 bus to head home from work and seen almost every seat full except a window seat near the back door. Both times there was a woman sitting in the aisle seat blocking the empty seat and I stood in the aisle and said, "Excuse me." To most people this means, "Could you move for just a second so I can sit down," but not to these ladies. They each just turned their legs into the aisle, leaving about 7 inches for me to squeeze my not-skinny, winter-coat-covered body through! I am tired of seeing people take up more than one seat on the bus, not because they need to, but just so they can be comfortable while other people have to stand. Your bag is not more important than another person, and that other person paid the same fare you did and their butt deserves just as much room as yours does. If you insist on the aisle seat, at least stand up to let a person sit in the window seat when they politely ask you.

In 1998, I was riding the bus home from library and it started to get very crowded. One kid was taking up a whole two seater by stretching his legs out so no one could sit down. A guy asked him to move, and when the kid wouldn't, the guy sat down anyway, pushing the kid's legs further over. They exchanged some choice words and it escalated into a fight when the guy was about to get off the bus. Imagine, two idiots fighting in a 2 1/2 foot wide bus aisle, that is full of other people! I was sitting next to another girl and we both just put our hands over our heads and ducked down. It wasn't long before other passengers got the two to stop fighting and the police arrived. They wanted people to be witnesses, but I had not seen enough to know who had started the fight. I just hope the guy didn't get into any more trouble if the kid was under 18, since the kid was being an ass.

One morning this week I was sitting next to a woman on her cell phone. She told the person on the phone about how drunk she was last weekend and then they get into an argument about how she doesn't want to have a long term relationship. Hey, maybe you should have private conversations in private! There is also a guy who rides my bus home who will talk loudly with anyone around him who will respond. He doesn't seem to understand that whole bus doesn't want to hear his opinion on politics, war, local issues and "that internet".

Passengers are not the only offenders on buses, however. The drivers can also make for a lovely ride. Just before Thanksgiving, I had a driver who made a racist comment about some men he thought were going to board the bus. I was shocked at a the time and couldn't think of anything to say to him. I reported the incident on the website, but haven't heard anything back yet. My sister told me that she recently witnessed and elderly lady fall of a wheelchair lift while it was in motion. The woman had pushed her husband onto the lift and stood behind him while the driver started the lift. After she fell, the driver was mad because he had to fill out a report, and yelled at the woman that she wasn't supposed to be on the lift with the chair. Hmm, I think it's the driver's responsibility to make sure there is only one person on the lift before he starts moving it.

Random

Now this is a Funny Picture.

I got cable installed yesterday, along with a DVR and 6 months of HBO and Showtime. I hope to catch Love Actually this month, since it's a holiday movie.

My last Drawing class was on Monday, and I think I did pretty well. Next up is Environmental History and Modernism (a literature class). Maybe I should decide on a major soon. I will only have 2 generals left after those two classes.

I am trying to get 'organized' while I have some time off of school and a small amount of time off of work. What that means, I am not really sure... some weird combination of FlyLady, GTD and my own systems, I guess.

The Wisdom of Christmas Carols

All I Want For Christmas Is You - I just want you for my own, more than you could ever know.
Away In a Manger - The cattle are lowing,the poor Baby wakes, but little Lord Jesus no crying He makes.
Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) - They're singing "Deck The Halls" But it's not like Christmas at all, Cause I remember when you were here and all the fun we had last year.
Christmas Time Is Here - Olden times and ancient rhymes of love and dreams to share
Christmas To Remember - We'll come blowin' back to somewhere like some wild restless winter's wind.
Christmas Without You - White Christmas and I'm blue.
Do They Know It's Christmas? - The greatest gift they'll get this year is life.
Do You Hear What I Hear? - Listen to what I say: Pray for peace, people everywhere.
Grown Up Christmas List - No more lives torn apart, that wars would never start and time would heal all hearts
Happy Christmas (War is Over) - And so this is Christmas and what have we done? Another year over and a new one just begun.
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing - Joyful, all ye nations rise, Join the triumph of the skies.
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas - Faithful friends who are dear to us gather near to us once more. Through the years we all will be together if the Fates allow.
It Came Upon A Midnight Clear - Beneath the heavenly strain have rolled two thousand years of wrong.
Jingle Bell Rock - What a bright time, it's the right time to rock the night away.
Last Christmas - I gave you my heart. But the very next day you gave it away. This year, to save me from tears, I'll give it to someone special.
Let it Snow - When we finally say good night, How I'll hate going out in the storm. But if you really hold me tight, All the way home I'll be warm.
Let There be Peace on Earth - To take each moment and live each moment in peace eternally
Mary's Boy Child - Let everyone know, there is hope for all to find peace.
Miss You Most (At Christmas Time) - Every other season comes along and I'm all right, but then I miss you most at Christmas time
Mr Grinch - You have garlic in your soul, Mr. Grinch. I wouldn't touch you with a thirty-nine-and-a-half foot pole!
O Come, All Ye Faithful - Sing, choirs of angels, sing in exultation
O Little Town of Bethlehem - The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.
Please Come Home For Christmas - Oh, what a Christmas, to have the blues. Please come home for Christmas, if not for Christmas, by New Year's Night.
What Child is This? - Haste, Haste, to bring him laud, the babe, the son of Mary.

Peru wants it's stuff back

CNN reports that Peru has warned Yale University that relics taken from Machu Picchu by Hiram Bingham in 1911, 1912 and 1914 must be returned. Hey, could I accompany them on the flight home?

Office, Earl move to Thursdays and Scrubs returns!

TV Squad alerted me to this release from NBC that tells us that, starting in January, My Name is Earl and The Office are moving to Thursday and that Scrubs will now be on from 8-9 Central on Thursdays. Hmm, where have I heard that idea before? I am surprised that Joey won't be back until after the Olympics and that NBC still only has 3 hours of prime time comedy programming per week.
Um, weren't the Olympics just on like 15 months ago? Oh that's right, now we get this "joy" every two years instead of four. I thought we had special sports channels on cable so that people who wanted to watch sports could tune to those and that network tv could continue it's normal schedule.

NBC's new mid-season schedule, which begins January 2, follows (all times
ET); new series are in upper case (except "ER"):

• Mondays 8-9 p.m. "Surface" 9-10 p.m. "Las Vegas" 10-11 p.m. "Medium"
• Tuesdays 8-9 p.m. "Fear Factor" 9-9:30 p.m. "Scrubs" 9:30-10 p.m. "Scrubs"
  10-11 p.m. "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit"
• Wednesdays 8-9 p.m. "E-Ring" 9-10 p.m. "The Biggest Loser: Special Edition"
  (new title) 10-11 p.m. "Law & Order"
• Thursdays 8-8:30 p.m. "Will & Grace" 8:30-9 p.m. "FOUR KINGS" 9-9:30
  p.m. "My Name Is Earl" 9:30-10 p.m. "The Office" 10-11 p.m. "ER"
• Fridays 8-9 p.m. "MOST OUTRAGEOUS TV MOMENTS" 9-10 p.m. "Dateline NBC" 10-11 p.m. "THE BOOK OF DANIEL"
• Saturdays Movies and variable programming
• Sundays 7-8 p.m. "Dateline NBC" 8-9 p.m. "The West Wing" 9-10 p.m. "Law
  & Order: Criminal Intent" 10-11 p.m. "Crossing Jordan"
  

Soelo Desk Reference

I have been fiddling around with this Thing in my head for months now. I've called it everything from an Interests Inventory to a Mind Map and I have struggled with the how and why of it all. Basically, I want some sort of complete listing of topics/subjects/ideas that interest me and way to organize information about each of them.

How: I have a mind that understands things best when they are sorted, organized and aligned, so I started by looking at some ways information is handled by others, like search engines and libraries. I ended up with ten broad categories that I want to focus on and then broke those down into smaller and smaller parts.

Why: Renaissance Man is the term that keeps popping into my head, despite my not being male and living in modern day. Perhaps generalist is a better term. Having some general knowledge about a wide variety of topics is appealing to me. I keep feeling like there is another reason I want to do this that I have yet to find.

When: I hope to focus on this during the month of December. I assume it's an ongoing process, but I want some framework down before January and some routines built.

The Berenstain Bears

Stan Berenstain, one of the creators of The Berenstain Bears died on Saturday.

I have fond memories of reading these books as a child and just ran across a ton of them at Booksmart uptown. I couldn't find my favorite one though, which was The Berenstain Bears and the Messy Room, where Mama gets fed up with the sloppy cubs. They end up with closet full of shelves full of shoe boxes with all of their stuff neatly arranged and labeled. Hmm, I wonder if they will come and tackle my closet.

A Dream of violence

I was in line at a grocery store with my friend Debbie when the woman in front of us took her hand out of her pocket and a candy bar wrapper fell out. It was on the belt, and Debbie picked it up and was going to throw it away when the woman got very upset. Debbie didn't understand why, but I explained to her that maybe it was a game piece and suggest she just give it back to the woman. Before she can, the woman lunges at Debbie and they fight for a little before she manages to escape. Later we are sitting on the 'husband benches' and see a woman we know. We start to explain what happened, but my alarm goes off.

Fears and favorites

My number one fear is sharks (my name is Sarah and I am selachophobic) but some of my favorite marine animals are skates and rays, specifically the order Rajiformes. Imagine my surprise in finding out that Rajiformes are closely related to sharks, yeesch. Well, it's not that surprising, but the main thing that differentiates them in my mind is that most rays have weird little square mouths, not huge gaping jaws with scary knives jutting out of them. I remember being in a zoo in Ohio with my mother and seeing a tank of rays that were trained to slap one of their fins on the water. I don't know what species they were, but I think they were young and about the size of an adult's hand.

It turns out there is another genus called Mobula that have the same general shape, and there are some that leap out of the water. Read about them at The Flying Mobulas of the Sea of Cortez and don't forget to read the last page that talks about the evils of Bycatch (unwanted or unintentional catch) and how one in four marine animals caught in nets are thrown away for various reasons. Remember dolphin-safe tuna? Well there are still many other animals affected by the fishing industry, including whales, birds, turtles and even sharks. As much as I dislike and fear them, I don't think they should be killed.

Dreamt

The dream opens on Tracey Gold (from Growing Pains) who is telling us how happy she is that she was able to get the loan to fix up her coffee shop, the one I am standing in with my mother and sister. It becomes clear that she bought it from my mother and has an interior covered in wood, like a lodge. She tells us she was able to make use of all the "estuary" my mother left behind, which ends up to be tons of animal parts, especially feet and tails that are now decorating the rafters of the shop. There are also some very large bones worked into the architecture. Now we sit down to wait for our food. My sister and I both order po'boy sandwiches, hers with dog meat, and mine with cat! The sandwiches come and we are disgusted not because of the pets we are about to eat, but because the bread on the plate is just the heel of a small loaf and covered in a runny egg. The meat is just two medallions and there is no top to either sandwich.

**I just dreamt about Jessica Simpson, and now she is getting a divorce. Let's hope I'm not becoming psychic

Save Arrested Development

at SaveArrestedDevelopment.com because it's anything but your typical sitcom.

Seriously - how many sitcoms fit into one of these molds?

A two-parent household with 2 or 3 kids (Oh the trials of raising a family! Hey, my husband hates his job and we have ungrateful kids, too! I love this show!)

A gaggle of friends who work together, live together, then finally end up sleeping together. (You'll never make a copy that is better than the original, so stop trying)

An office where people spend 95% of their time socializing and throwing witty banter around in meetings and 5% of their time working.

Sony = so NO

Boing Boing tells us to read a Wired article discussing Sony's rootkit and how it made it past various anti-virus programs. One of my favorite quotes is "The only thing that makes this rootkit legitimate is that a multinational corporation put it on your computer, not a criminal organization." Boing Boing itself is constantly providing updates and roundups on the whole Sony Rootkit debacle.

Dreamt last night

I am in the audience of some kind of live variety show and a stunt with bats goes wrong. A guy has to climb up a wooden ladder to rescue his daughter who was so covered in bats that I couldn't tell she was there. The guy is mad and says he and his family are leaving, so the cast decides that the whole weekend is cancelled.

I am with my niece, uncle and Jessica Simpson. We are disappointed about the cancellation because we're staying at a hotel and are trying to figure out if they will let us check out now instead of staying all weekend. We are playing in the game room and realize it is 3:30pm, too late to check out. Jessica says we should see if we can trick them into letting us check out even though my niece is still in the room and we haven't packed. I tell her we would have to give them the keys and would not be able to get our luggage if we did that. Then we try to figure out how to drive my uncle back home, since we are in Duluth and his house is on my way home.

Don't treat your customers like criminals

Boing Boing has a great post that talks about why box-office revenue might be declining. It's not so much that movie quality has gone downhill, but that the MPAA (movies) is acting like the RIAA (music) and assuming that their customers will try to pirate the product.

I would argue that the average movie quality has certainly declined because of two things: formula-based movies and audience splintering. Formulaic movies, like Little Black Book and A Lot Like Love in the rom-com genre, may make back the money it cost the studios to produce them, but they don't inspire much loyalty among viewers. Aside from a few blockbusters like Lord of the Rings, few movies have wide ranging appeal. As the target audience becomes more specific, the studio assumes less revenue and is less than forthcoming with cash and time for production. Thus the final product suffers from a rush job and fails to deliver on the promises made in the slick, funny trailer.

Riddler - Geosense

Back in 1996 when I thought the net was just for chatting and playing games, one of the first sites I visited on a regular basis was Riddler.com. They still run some of their Classic games, like Drag Race and Scrambler and have added several new ones like Geosense where you race to find the given city on a World map. You can also play Europe and US map versions. For geography nerds like me, it's a dream come true.

AT&T Logo

Michael Bierut talks about the iconic logo (we call it the DeathStar) which will soon be replaced.

Confusing Country Names

While reading the Tales of the City books, I became confused about the country of Guyana in South America. I had always thought it was in Africa, but it turns out I was confusing it with either Ghana or Guinea. That's not the only set of countries with easily confused names:

Angola in Africa and Anguilla in the Caribbean
Angola is a country on Africa's west coast that ended a 27 year civil war in 2002. The war had started in 1975 when they became independent from Portugal and continued until the death of Jonas Savimbi, who had led one of the warring factions.
Anguilla is an island territory of the UK that has been under British rule since 1650 when English settlers from Saint Kitts colonized it.

Democratic Republic of the Congo and Republic of the Congo, both in Africa They border each other in Central Africa and the Democratic Republic (formerly Zaire) is almost 7 times the size of the Republic. More differences between these two are best explained on Wikipedia.

Mauritania and Mauritius, both in Africa
Mauritania is a medium sized country on the west coast of mainland Africa, while Mauritius is a small island in the Indian Ocean near Madagascar. Mauritania had a bloodless coup in August 2005 and the party in power claims to be preparing for genuine democracy. Mauritius has been a democracy since it's independence from the UK in 1968. It also has one of Africa's highest per capita incomes.

Slovakia and Slovenia, both in Europe
Both are former parts of Communist countries that joined NATO and the EU in the Spring of 2004. Slovakia was paired with the Czech Republic to make Czechoslovakia and Slovenia was part of Yugoslavia.

But the most confusing set of Countries have to be these:

Gabon and The Gambia, both in Africa
Both countries are on the Africa's west coast. The Gambia is further north and surrounded by Senegal on all sides but its Atlantic Coast, while Gabon is on the Equator and borders Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon and Republic of Congo.

They are slightly less confusing than: Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Guinea, and Guinea-Bissau in Africa; French Guiana and Guyana in South America; and Grenada in the Caribbean because all seven have the G-N-A pattern in their names.

Equatorial Guinea, which is near but not actually on the Equator, is the only country in Africa with Spanish as the official language. Its current leader Obiang took power from his uncle after executing him in 1979.
Ghana is the home country of Kofi Annan, the current Secretary-General of the UN. It's one of the three "tall" countries (along with Togo and Benin) on the southern coast of Africa's northwestern region.
Guinea is also on Africa's northwestern coast and became independent from France in 1958. Since then, there have only been two real leaders of the country that is still struggling economically.
Guinea-Bissau is very small and one of the poorest countries in the world. The citizens have suffered coups, questionable elections and civil war since the early 80's.
French Guiana is on South America's north coast and still belongs to France. As part of France, it's part of the EU and still has a disputed border with it's neighbor, Suriname.
Guyana is also in South America, on the other side of Suriname. It became independent from the UK in 1966, but many of it's citizens still emigrate there, and to the US and Canada, which has caused a population decrease. There are an estimated 500,000 Guyanese living abroad, while the country's current population is only about 750,000.
Grenada is an island nation in the Caribbean, and has been battered by two recent hurricanes, Ivan in September of 2004 and Emily in July of 2005. It is considered a Commonwealth Realm and recognizes Queen Elizabeth as its monarch.

God's Loofah Sponge

Also known as Saturn's moon Hyperion

Encyclopedia Brown

Harry Potter refueled my love of adolescent fiction, which explains my recent readings of A Wrinkle in Time and The Phantom Tollbooth, two books I neglected to read when I was younger. One series I did manage to read often was Encyclopedia Brown and it seems there are some issues over getting it to the big or even small screen.

Each book had several cases in it and the last sentence was something along the lines of him saying, "Mr Thompson is lying! He was on the porch last night." You then had to figure out the clue that proved his accusation, some of which were pretty obscure. I think they could do great things by making him a combination of MacGyver and Cliff Clavin with tons of useless information in his head and lots of wacky contraptions that actually work to get Sally and him out of the bind they're in and catch the crooks.

IMDb turns 15 today

Internet Movie Database turns 15 years old today. In 1990, it had a vastly different user interface because it started on a UseNet group, but today it is the first place I go for information on movies, television shows and actors.

World Heritage sites

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization has designated a list of 812 properties as World Heritage Sites. They state, "What makes the concept of World Heritage exceptional is its universal application. World Heritage sites belong to all the peoples of the world, irrespective of the territory on which they are located." and "To be included on the World Heritage List, sites must be of outstanding universal value and meet at least one out of ten selection criteria."

Although there are 20 sites in the US, I have only been to 4 of them: Yosemite, Waterton Glacier International Peace Park, the Statue of Liberty and the Grand Canyon.

Honda Galang

MIA's 'Galang' is the song playing in the background of that cool Honda commercial with the red car flying around the city.

Two Years

My calendar at work yesterday mysteriously says "tomorrow will be two years" and I sit and ponder what in the world I was talking about. I assume it is something intensely personal and that's why I didn't put what it was (in case of snoopy coworkers) and I decide to check my blog to see if I can remember what was happening October 6th, 2003. Well, duh! That was the day I started my blog.

731 days during which I probably

worked close to 4,000 hours (167 days)
slept for 5,600 hours (233 days)
watched 2,800 hours of television (117 days)


Last year on this day, I posted about My Movie DataBase and my personal top ten movies of 2004 as of that date. So, in keeping with tradition here are my top ten of the year so far:

Batman Begins
The 40 Year Old Virgin
Interpreter, The
Kingdom of Heaven
Madagascar
Must Love Dogs
Serenity
Sin City
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, The
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith

We are Legion

This is probably one of the best blog posts I've ever read. It's on Waiter Rant, which is an always interesting look into the lives of servers.

Which Serenity character are you?

You scored as Zoe Alleyne Washburne. The Soldier. You are the second in command, and that is fine. You like a chain of command, but only when the one in charge has earned your respect. Those who earn your love or loyalty will find no one better to guard their back.

Which Serenity character are you?
created with QuizFarm.com

*I was busy this weeked so I haven't seen the movie yet, but I've heard great things*

Did you know

that there is no scientific evidence to suggest that we use only 10% of our brains?

MIA is at the Fine Line tonight.

Tickets are $18 and you might run into me there.

Soda Fountain

Cool: get a 2-liter bottle of diet soda and some Mentos and make a mess in your local park.

Conquer the world all over again

There is a demo available on the official website of Age of Empires III, which will be released on October 18th. I loooved the first two as well as Age of Mythology. The first PC games I played were SimCity and Civilization and I think they had a profound effect on the types of games I like to play. No first-person shooters for me, I prefer turn-based empire building followed by a swift defeat of my enemies with my technologically superior army.

Civilization's sequels Civ II and Call to Power were great, especially with the expansions like Fantastic Worlds. Unfortunately, Civ3 was a massive disappointment and I haven't risked getting any expansions for it. The good news is there's a Civ4 on it's way, releasing October 25th.

Superman, Superbucks

The budget for Superman Returns is nearing $326 million, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire's budget is $305 million. Add the cost of Titanic and Spiderman 2 (only $200 million each) and you have four movies that cost over $1 billion to make.

Surftracks

Drive to China: a proposal for a bridge over the Bering Strait

IGN interviews Billy West, the voice of Fry, Zoidberg, the Professor and Zapp Brannigan on Futurama.

Placeopedia connects Wikipedia articles with their locations.

See the world from the top of Mt Everest.

Want to watch live tv from around the world?

MIT offers OpenCourseWare which is "a free and open educational resource for faculty, students, and self-learners around the world."

Read who made the list of the 50 biggest nerds of all time, including what their Defining Nerd Moment was. Example: 14. Millhouse Van Houten Bart Simpson's bull-nosed sidekick. Defining nerd moment: Millhouse manages to out-nerd other Simpsons' characters, even Martin Prince, Professor Frink and Lisa, when he buys Bart's soul for $5 and sells it to Comic Book Guy for Alf pogs.

Keep track of the numbers that shape our world, and then visit the hunger site and the five other tabs it links to so you can help save the planet a little each day.

What makes Uranus unique?

The planet of Uranus has an axis that is almost parallel to it's orbital plane (most planets' are close to perpendicular), so it looks like it's rolling as it orbits the sun. This means the polar regions would experience 42 years of light and 42 years of darkness, since one Uranian year is equal to 84 earth years.

As for the mythological figure Uranus, he seemed to have a problem with not having kids the usual way. He is credited as the father of the Erinyes, Hecatonchires, Cyclopses and Titans (and therefore the grandfather of Zeus). Then, there was the whole thing where Gaia (his mother and wife) got tired of him constantly reproducing with her and hiding the kids that she convinced their son Cronus to cut his manhood off with a sickle. Cronus then threw the body parts into the sea and stories differ as to whether Aphrodite was born of this, or if it produced the island of Corfu. The blood from this fun family activity fell to Earth and produced giants and nymphs.

Wizard DNA

I finished the Half-Blood Prince last night and ran across a post that discusses the ancestry of Harry and some of his classmates.

Dark, acrid smoke now rises above Victoria Falls gorge in place of the mist

ZWnews.com reports on the current state of the area surrounding Victoria Falls. This is the result of Operation Murambatsvina (Shona for Operation Drive Out Trash), where the government destroyed the homes of urban poor people claiming it was just a crackdown on criminal activity.

Geeking out over Harry Potter

The last four weeks of my life have been dominated by Harry Potter books. I started reading the first one on August 13th, and am nearing the end of book five today (600 out of 870 pages). On Wednesday, I saw the trailer for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in the theater and have now watched it several times on Netflix. It opens by showing Harry in each of the three previous movies and then showing the longer-haired version of him that will be in the new movie. They show Ron and Hermionie the same way, and then quick shots of various parts of the Triwizard tournament, along with Dumbledore's ominous quote. In order to fit all 734 pages of the book into one movie, neither the Dursleys nor Molly Weasley will be in this one. I wish they'd keep it all in, but I realize how confusing the story would be if it was split into two movies. I really can't wait until November 18th!

The Wisdom of the White Stripes

Black Math - Is it the fingers or the brain that you're teaching the lesson?
Fell in Love With a Girl - My left brain knows that all love is fleeting.
I Wanna be the Boy… - I never said I was the heir to a fortune, I never claimed to have any looks.
Seven Nation Army - And I'm talking to myself at night, because I can't forget.
Sugar Never Tasted so Good - Until her soul fell next to me
We Are Gonna be Friends - Tonight I'll dream while in my bed, when silly thoughts go through my head.

Puttin' on the Hits

Do you still have nightmares about a man with an orangutan puppet around his neck when you hear the song 'Guitarzan'? If you have any clue what I am talking about, you remember the lip synch game show from the early 80's, Puttin' on the Hits, with your fabulous host Allen Fawcett:



He now has that typical former star look (slightly bigger head, still too-large hair and pain-hiding smile) and held a show at the Palace Station in Vegas.


But seriously, I loved this show and can still hear him saying, "... a perfect score of 30!"

It's been one week since you looked at me...

Last Wednesday I saw Must Love Dogs with my sister, the MiddleChild. It was your typical rom-com but had some extra comedy in it, especially the opening sequence.

Thursday, Mom, MiddleChild and I went to the Minnesota State Fair. I had one of those Nut Rolls and a basket of scallops and chips. We visited the dogs, horses and cows and pet all of the ones we could reach.

Friday, I went to the bachelorette party for Wedding #2. We were instructed to dress up, and it's a good thing because I probably wouldn't have been admitted to 'drink' (the name of the bar is 'drink') wearing my typical casual Friday outfits. It was packed as usual in there, which is so rare with the places I frequent in my old age. Loud music, sweaty strangers and overpriced rail liquor is no longer my idea of fun. But, on the rare occasions I still participate in that debauchery, I have a good time despite it all.

Saturday was shopping (fabric and a Kodak photo printer that I returned) and another movie, The Brothers Grimm. I'd say it's 2 out of four stars, because there were so many ways it could have been so much better. There were too many characters that were unnecessary and we never had time to get to know or like the leads. Something tells me this movie was very different before it went into the editing room.

Monday I had my first meeting of Intro to Drawing. I hope to minor in Studio Arts, which means 5 art classes. We have to do 5 blind contours, 3 modified contours, and ten regular contours over the next 2 weeks. In class, I did a contour of a plastic army man that I really like, even though his head is completely wrong.

Tuesday I went back to Best Buy to return the printer that was not compatible with my camera. Kodak Digital Cameras older than two years appear unsupported as far as accessories go. I also went to Michael's to get all of my drawing supplies, which was almost as much fun as getting them in Diagon Alley. I got a salad and went to Fish Lake Park for a picnic and to repack my supplies into an arty box that I painted black, green and copper. I went home and did one regular contour of a shirt on a hanger.

Wallpaper on vacation

Whoa, this is very pretty. I have long had an idea of painting my pictures (that give a 360 view) from the top of the Empire State building on the four walls of a room someday.

Sean Astin on 24

Scooter's comment is right on:

This must have you in an absolute frenzy:

Astin making '24' debut in 4-hour opener Reuters -

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Sean Astin, who starred in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, is joining the cast of Fox's real-time drama "24," which will again kick off its season with four episodes screening on two consecutive nights.

I really can't take a Monday class in January, since there is no way I can miss that.

Nanotechnology

Scientists have discovered a way to make sheets of carbon nanotubes very quickly. "The new technique should allow the nanotubes to be used in commercial devices from heated car windows to flexible television screens."

Cute Animals 2

I babysat for a couple who owned a hedgehog, and it was really cute when it yawned. But I had no idea how cute they are when they're babies.

Why on Earth are you watching that show?

Reunion premieres September 8 - Mathew St. Patrick may be the only reason I am tuning in to this murder mystery chronicling the last 20 years. I also wonder how they are going to handle aging these people from 18 to 38.

Simpsons premieres September 11 - I read an article between one and two years ago that said some of the old writers were coming back, and the series was expected to improve again, since most consider its quality to have waned. Using data from IMDB, it looks as though the only person to have returned to directing after a hiatus is David Silverman, who directed 19 episodes in seasons 1-7, and then one each in 14 and 16. As far as the writers, it looks like the only people with significant spaces between credited episodes are George Meyer and (1-5 and 10-13) and Jon Vitti (1-5, 7, 13, 15-16). So where is this resurgence of talent from the old days?

Survivor: Guatemala premieres September 15 - Rumors abound that Steph and Bobby John from the last season are going to reappear this season, since the original number was said to be 18, and there are only 16 contestants on the official site. Jamie looks like the cute one this season, but I'll reserve judgment until I hear him speak.

Arrested Development premieres September 19 - Fox's site acts like the network has always championed the show and never treated it like a red-headed step-child. This year it gets a time slot that is less prone to being delayed by NFL overtime.

Kitchen Confidential premieres September 19 - the poor actors in this picture have been airbrushed so badly they look like wax figures! Seriously, the guy on the left Nicholas Brendan, a.k.a. Xander, does not have eyelids covered in hair, but the picture makes it look that way. It's also nice to see John Francis Daley (from Freaks & Geeks) in another show.

King of Queens premieres September 19 - a.k.a. Fat Guy, Skinny Wife #1, but Patton Oswald and Jerry Stiller make this one worth watching.

How I Met your Mother premieres September 19 - again, it might just be Jason Segel that makes me want to give this one a chance.

The Office premieres September 20 - I tried watching the BBC version, but it couldn't hold my interest. This American version does an excellent job with Steve Carell and Rainn Wilson providing some of the best cringe-worthy moments.

My Name is Earl premieres September 20 - Jason Lee playing Banky/Brodie about ten years older and after a spate of bad luck. Well, Mallrats was ten years ago, so it fits.

Lost premieres September 21 - Undoubtedly last year's best new show, I didn't get to see it as often (or as clearly) as I would have hoped, even though I did see the finale. Thankfully, Season 1 comes out on DVD September 6th. My favorite characters are Hurley and Sayid.

Still Standing premieres September 21 - a.k.a. Fat Guy, Skinny Wife #2, but this time it's their kids that make it worth watching.

Joey premieres September 22 - Another one I didn't see as often as I wanted to last year, but I don't think I missed much. It helped with the Friends withdrawals I was suffering.

Numb3rs premieres September 23 - I saw only two episodes of this last season, but my sister and mother have both insisted I will like it. Sabrina Lloyd from SportsNight is a bonus.

Grey's Anatomy premieres September 25 - I have never seen a second of this show, but I have read so much about it that I must start watching. I've always liked Sandra Oh and Patrick Dempsey.

L&O CI premieres September 25 - Chris Noth comes back as Mike Logan and partners with Annabella Sciorra in the fifth season.

Amazing Race premieres September 27 - Teams are now made up of four family members and travel fewer distances this season. The challenges are supposed to be more family friendly, the Yields more effective, and I wonder if we will see less inter-team bickering?

Will & Grace premieres September 29 - I find myself hoping that the eighth season will be the last one. Still a good show, but the reruns are often better than the new episodes.

That 70's Show premieres November 2 - This is the first season without Topher Grace and Ashton Kutcher, since they are 'big' movie stars now. The other four, Laura Prepon, Mila Kunis, Danny Masterson and Wilmer Valderrama haven't really hit it big with any movies, which doesn't seem fair. I know they'd make much better stuff than "Win a Date with Tad Hamilton" and "A Lot Like Love". It's not that Grace and Kutcher didn't make great movies ("Traffic" and "The Butterfly Effect"), but I think the other four would do well in starring roles. Kunis does great as Meg on Family Guy.

This Fall in Network Primetime

Starting at 7pm Central / 8pm Eastern

Monday:
ABC - Wife Swap - Monday Night Football (new lineup in January)
CBS - King of Queens(Sept19) / How I Met your Mother(Sept19) - Two and a Half Men / Out of Practice - CSI: Miami
FOX - Arrested Development(Sept19) / Kitchen Confidential(Sept19) - Prison Break
NBC - Surface - Las Vegas - Medium

Tuesday:
ABC - According to Jim / Rodney - Commander-in-Chief - Boston Legal
CBS - NCIS - Amazing Race(Sept27) - Close to Home
FOX - Bones - House M.D.
NBC - The Biggest Loser - My Name is Earl(Sept20) / The Office(Sept20) - L&O SVU

Wednesday:
ABC - George Lopez / Freddie - Lost(Sept21) - Invasion
CBS - Still Standing(Sept21) / Yes, Dear - Criminal Minds - CSI: New York
FOX - That 70's Show(Nov2) / Stacked - Head Cases
NBC - Apprentice: Martha Stewart - E-Ring - L&O

Thursday:
ABC - Alias - The Night Stalker - Primetime Live
CBS - Survivor: Guatemala(Sept15) - CSI - Without a Trace
FOX - The O.C. - Reunion(Sept8)
NBC - Joey(Sept22) / Will & Grace(Sept29) - Apprentice - ER

Friday:
ABC - Supernanny - Hope & Faith / Hot Properties - 20/20
CBS - Ghost Whisperer - Threshold - Numb3rs(Sept23)
FOX - Bernie Mac / Malcolm in the Middle - Killer Instinct
NBC - Three Wishes - Dateline NBC - Inconceivable

Saturday:
ABC - Movie
CBS - Crimetime Saturday - 48 Hour Mysteries
FOX - Cops - America's Most Wanted
NBC - Movie

Sunday:
ABC - Extreme Makeover: Home Edition - Desperate Housewives - Grey's Anatomy(Sept25)
CBS - Cold Case - Movie
FOX - Simpsons(Sept11) / The War at Home - Family Guy / American Dad
NBC - The West Wing - L&O CI(Sept25) - Crossing Jordan


*The purple shows are what I watch, plan to watch, or will admit to watching.
*It seems the networks' official sites understand they need to tell us what time and day these shows are on, but neglect to give us the dates they premiere. Epguides did that for me.
*No WB or UPN listings, they have nothing I watch from 7-10.
*Returning in 2006: 24 and Less Than Perfect

Office Marathon tomorrow

On Wednesday, NBC is having a marathon of The Office where they will show four episodes: Pilot, Diversity Day, Health Care and Hot Girl. There were two more, The Alliance and Basketball, which the really should show instead of a L&O rerun. Odd thing is, I have seen those two episodes, and not much of the other four, so I will have seen all six by the time the new season starts.

Also, Thursday brings two Scrubs reruns in the 8E/7C time slot. That would be a great Thursday line up (Joey, W&G, Scrubs and The Office), 4 shows that can hold their own instead of two heavy hitters with two losers at the :30 time slots.

Minneapolis woman was not even drunk

One semi-circular table, two empty wine glasses, two small saucers, two sets of silverware and one tea light candle in a glass holder were all unceremoniously tipped over a small ledge and shattered on the floor of Louis XIII at 1:03 pm on Saturday, August 13th. Witnesses report the diner and her companion escaped without injury and blamed her new shoes and abnormally large feet for the table mishap. A waiter and bartender rushed over to the site, now boasting lots of broken glass and two beat-red customers, in order to reseat the offender at another table with an identical potential for disaster. No further entertainment was provided after the woman's sister arrived and the trio was served lunch without incident. Further coverage of the incident here.


This is certainly the most embarassing that has happened to me this whole year. What about you? Post your story in the comments.

Cute animal alert:

Two new species of lemurs have been found.

You know those infomercials are lying to you, and here are some sites that prove it:

Kevin Trudeau is under an order by the FTC where he's only allowed to promote books, newletters, publications or non-branded products.

Don LaPre, has declared bankruptcy twice and has had many brushes with the law in regards to his "businesses".

Carleton Sheets seems to be selling bad advice, and has many people upset with billing problems.

Wonderfalls

Jaye is near the breaking point and furiously asks the brass monkey in her shrink's office, "Why do you talk to me?" and his reply is a simple, "Because you listen."

Yes, there are talking animals in this show. Don't let that scare you away. Don't let the stiff, pinched-faced women who play her mother and sister scare you away either, or the Horrid Haircut who plays her brother. (I can tell you're almost convinced!)

There are runaway macaws, nuns, class reunions, liars, cheaters, fat guys named Pat, a sad delivery guy, an inept security guard, lesbians, a hostage-taker, a mail-order bride, a whole tribe of Seneca Indians, a fake documentarian, an injured father, a Canadian housekeeper, and a mouth-breathing manager. And then there is Jaye and her friends Mahandra and Eric, the really good parts of the show.

The closest thing I can come up with as a comparison would have to be Northern Exposure, with it's cast of eclectic townspeople and offbeat sense of humor. While not all episodes are exactly even, there are so many shows on right now that are so much worse than Wonderfalls. It succumbed to that all too familiar fate of many FOX shows and was cancelled after only 4 aired episodes. All 13 are on the DVD release, and complete the story arc quite nicely.

Puzzles

I am the geek you see sitting in the corner, doing puzzles and eating lunch alone.

Webkitchen London has had some puzzles related posts lately, and I was lucky enough to solve one of the puzzles posted in the comments. Those posts all started from the fish puzzle, which is just like the Logic Problem magazines sitting in a pile behind my couch.

I always get Games magazine, and one of my favorite puzzles is the Paint-by-Numbers which have been recreated on TylerK's PiCross page. One of my other favorites is Soduko, which was featured on the Kare11 Extra.

1am?

I can't go to bed without telling you to read this. I've always found having the whole bed to yourself to be one the joys of single life.

Beverages

More than 2.6 billion people, or more than 40 percent of the world's population, lack basic sanitation, and more than one billion people lack reliable access to safe drinking water.

But, they can always get one of the five different kinds of Diet Coke, not including Caffeine free, Lime, Cherry or Vanilla.

July at 85

That's 85 MPH, not 85 degrees, since I have been enjoying the heat. It seems like July just started and it's already gone. For me, July consisted of the following (in no particular order):

-being unimpressed with the newly remodeled Walker Art Center
-going to Duluth on a slightly random Saturday
-falling behind on my Calc 2 homework, but holding my own on the tests
-eating at Erte, McCormick and Schmick's, It's Greek to Me and Tiburon
-trying to keep my apartment clean
-spending an afternoon on Medicine Lake, only sunburning my arms
-helping redo my mother's kitchen and bathroom (sanding, painting, tiling)
-not getting a good view of the fireworks downtown because MPD closed the Third St Bridge "for security purposes"
-intending to see Fantastic Four but ending up getting passes to The Island while standing in line (too much action ruins a good story)
-playing inselkampf, ItsYourTurn and KOL
-installing and playing Sims 2, passed on by my sister
-watching Disc 2 of Wonderfalls, the last three discs of Freaks & Geeks, and all of Entourage: Season 1
-work, school, sleep

Over the next three months, I have a record setting four weddings to attend. Two are cousins and the other two are friends, and all are at least an hour away. I'm not complaining, though, just marveling at how weddings always come in clumps.

Origami Tessellations

Flickr has a pool for them, and here's a seven level Fujimoto.

There's also an awesome hex tessellation here. That page is part of origamitessellations.com, which is complete with both English and Portuguese instructions.

SCOTUS?

When did this become a widely used acronym for the Supreme Court of the United States? It's all I hear these days. It must be a rip-off of POTUS.

No circles

is a Flash game where you have to figure out the rules before you can play. I found it on Good Experience Games.

The Wisdom of Garbage

#1 Crush - I will wash away your pain with all my tears, And drown your fear.
A Stroke of Luck - A stroke of luck or a gift from God? The hand of fate or devil's claws?
Breaking Up The Girl - My friend you must be careful, They've a million ways to kill you.
Queer - You're hungry 'cause you starve
Stupid Girl - You pretend you're high, Pretend you're bored, You pretend you're anything, Just to be adored

Hello, this is MIT, can I please get some info?

Order the DVD, meet the star

Amazon.com is enlisting celebrities to help deliver some of it's products to celebrate their 10th anniversary.

More advice from Carolyn Hax

How do you know when it's time to leave a relationship?
When you're lonelier with the person than you would be alone.
Which is why it's so screamingly important to learn to be happy alone before you tie yourself to someone. You need to have that reference point to be able to judge a relationship soundly.

Chicago

Tuesday I flew into O'Hare, landing at around noon. I rode the Blue Line downtown to my hotel, but it was too early to check in, so I left my suitcase there and headed over to Grant Park. I perused my Not For Travelers book and decided to take a free trolley to Navy Pier and get some late lunch. That turned out to be the one and only time I rode the free trolleys, since they had no air conditioning and were always way too full. I had a 3 day transit card, making the busses as free as the trolleys, so I got off at the next stop and walked north over the river. I caught a bus that brought me right to Navy Pier. I checked to see what was playing at the IMAX theater, which turned out to be Batman Begins. I had thought about seeing it while I was in Chicago, since I always see a movie when I am on vacation. It was very crowded, they had assigned seating and it cost about $22 after ticket soda and popcorn. Despite all of that, I loved the movie, especially Liam Neeson and Gary Oldman. I headed back to the hotel after stopping in the Crystal Gardens. It was very hot and humid while I was in Chicago, but as long as you could get into the shade, it wasn't that bad. The wind from the lake keeps you cool. I waited a bit too long to head out for dinner, since it was about 8:30 by the time I headed back into the Loop to find a restaurant. I ate at a bar and grill called the Exchequer, which looked like it could have held a few Mafia meetings in it's heyday.

Wednesday was my 28th birthday and I went to the Field Museum since I was disappointed I'd missed it last time. Although the Maccu Picchu exhibit was gone, it was still an eye opening place. They have a hall of gems with all kinds of precious stones, metals and even replicas of famous diamonds. There is an entire section of jade artifacts, a mock up of a whole African village, and more stuffed and mounted animals than you can imagine. They even have the skeleton of a black right whale on the ceiling. I was resting on bench when I overheard a security radio someone to call 911 and then a man yelling, "I just had to use the washroom." and "I just got out of jail." He was the same guy who had tried to sell me copy of the Onion by the jade stuff earlier. The special exhibit that I picked was the dinosaurs from China. They had about 15 skeletons of dinosaurs that ranged in size from eagle to horse that were all found in China. Behind most of them is a mural depicting what they think the animal looked like when it was alive. The best preserved and most complete T-Rex skeleton ever found, "Sue", is also at the Field. It is freaky to look at something that is not only so ancient, but was also alive at one time.

In the gift shop, I came across a book called 'What Every American Should Know About the Rest of the World'. I expected some partisan slant, but it has turned out to be pretty neutral while pointing out that most of the world's woes are related to oil, religion or the arbitrary borders and leaders that were inflicted on each country in the last century.

For dinner that night, I went to a place downtown that is 3 Italian restaurants in one building, and I went to the one in the basement, La C.... I had some of my favorite foods: scallops (with tomato, garlic, pasta and olive oil), Chianti and cannolli.

Thursday I went to the Lincoln Park Zoo, which is free and located in, you guessed it, Lincoln Park. They had an entire building filled with smaller primates, including sugar gliders and colubus monkeys. The polar bears and seals both have an underwater viewing area where you can watch them swim, and they seem to put on a show for the visitors. The big cats were all inside due to the heat, and most of them were sleeping, except the tiger. The weirdest animal was probably the Sand Cat, which looks like a regular housecat with a slightly larger head and more muscles. As I was heading back downtown, I saw the same huge group of tourists you see everywhere waiting for the free trolley and looking jealously at those of us who got on the bus instead.

Friday I went to the Adler Planetarium and the Shedd Aquarium. At the planetarium, I saw a show called The Stars of the Pharoahs, which was the best part. They discussed what the Egyptians thought of the sky, some of their legends about the gods as well as the many ancient buildings that are aligned with various constellations. The other exhibits seemed geared mostly towards kids, but also seemed to bore most of the kids I saw there.

Sitting in front of the Shedd Aquarium is one of the most vivid memories I have of my trip to Chicago in 1991. It was just as I remembered, and all week I had been enjoying the view of the Lake from the Museum Campus, which juts out on a peninsula. When looking back to the Loop from the campus, you see some of the tallest buildings in the world right next to a calm, picturesque lake. I got some good pictures of some jetskis playing around near the harbor.

Inside the Aquarium, I ran out of room on my digital camera that holds about 250 pictures. I had to delete some duplicates every once in a while. The coolest animals are always the rays, Skate and Sting, in the Caribbean reef. There is a hallway that is set up like the Amazon, complete with different tanks showing the varying water levels and reptiles in the Amazon. I saw poison frogs, a caiman and an Amazonian Python that was so big you couldn't find it's head. I saw a show with Pacific White-Sided dolphins, which look like the Atlantic Bottle-Nosed but have a big white stripe on their side. They also had Beluga whales, sea otters and a huge sea lion in the Oceanarium section. The penguins were being fed and monitored when I saw them, and a tour guide walked by and explained how penguins cool themselves by raising their wings. He also said that a penguin is full grown by the time it is 3 months old, so it's hard to pick out the younger ones. As I headed out to my hotel near the airport on Friday evening, downtown was getting more crowded by the second, since Taste of Chicago had started that day. That was obviously the reason I couldn't find a hotel in the city on Friday night.

My camera is being fussy about sending the pictures to my computer, so I can't upload any of them right now. I'll post them as soon as it behaves.