October 2001 Archives

Well... I took Friday off and made it a three day weekend. Sarah and I went into Baltimore to visit the Inner Harbor. It was a nice day out, though a bit chilly. We ate lunch at the Hard Rock and then took a little boat trip around the harbor. Sarah had wanted to go on the two hour tall ship ride, but they were sold out. So we just took a one hour ride on an ordinary boat. The wind made it a little too cold, but I guess it was my own fault for not bringing a jacket. When 5:00 rolled around, we hit the aquarium. I don't know how long they're doing it for, but on Fridays, it's only $5 if you enter after 5:00, which is a pretty big savings. The dolphin show was cool. The seahorse exhibit was very cool. And seeing all those sharks was pretty amazing.

Friday night, our friend Jason came down to visit. He used to live around here but we hadn't seen him too much since he moved back to New York. He stayed until Sunday afternoon, so we got to have a pretty nice visit. And it convinced Sarah for sure that she wanted a Gameboy Advance. ;)

Posted on October 1, 2001 1:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

O.K. I'm SERIOUSLY considering avoiding beef. Sarah doesn't eat it any more after reading Ruth Ozeki's My Year of Meats, so I end up eating it fairly infrequently. We also don't go to Taco Hell as much any more and I often end up going the chicken route there anyhow, so I don't even eat it there. I also tend to just like turkey burgers better and I usually get ground turkey instead of ground beef. Consequently, it seems like when I DO end up eating beef, I feel a bit ill. Last night, we went to Doc Harry's in Centreville and I had a really amazing steak. Now, maybe I got as sick as I did from it because parts of it weren't cooked nearly as much as I like. Or maybe because I ate a bit too much. But I felt REALLY sick. I guess it could've been a combination of a lot of things, but it makes me a bit wary of beef.

Now, I probably won't go out of my way to avoid it. If sausage has it in it, that's fine (though the turkey kielbasa we've been eating lately has been quite tasty). If I'm suddenly in the mood for a cheeseburger, I'll probably have one. If I decide to get steak, I'll make sure the thing's cooked enough and I'll go easy on it. But I'll probably think twice about getting steak at all. Of all the beefy things in the world, steak seems to bother my tummy the most. Though an undercooked or severely overcooked hamburger does it, too.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not going veggie. I'd never be able to give up chicken or fish. And I don't like enough vegetables to do it. But I can see myself letting beef slip a bit. It's just not worth the gastrointestinal distress.

Honestly, I think this is all Ryan's doing. He probably cursed me using his veggie magic.

Posted on October 2, 2001 10:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Let me relate to you my recent dealings with the happy people at Phish Dry Goods. My brother recently graduated from Boston University with a masters degree. I hadn't gotten him anything because I couldn't think of anything at all that he'd need. However, when he told me about the Live Phish set that was coming out, I decided to get that for him. So I pre-ordered it and had it sent to my parents' P.O. Box. Since I was having it shipped the cheapest way available, I was supposedly allowed to use a P.O. Box.

So... a couple weeks go by and I get a call. Apparently, for items over $50, they ship by UPS only, so I can't use a P.O. Box. I tell the guy that I'll get back to him, since I needed to find an alternate shipping address. I talk to John a couple hours later and get an address and e-mail it to them, since customer service was closed. The next day, I get an e-mail saying that they shipped it to the original address using priority mail. I thought that was great. Yay.

However... a week later, I get a box by UPS from Phish Dry Goods. What's inside? Why, it's the CDs I ordered for John. I check the tracking info and it was shipped FOUR days after they told me it had shipped priority mail. So I write them and ask what's going on, telling them that I gave them a proper address and asking why they lied to me about shipping it priority mail. So they write back and tell me that I should've used a physical address. It was like they hadn't read my letter at all. So I wrote back again.

About a week later, I finally get a reply from them, basically saying the same thing. They tell me that if I want the rest of the order to go to a different address, I need to provide it to them. Well, the physical address I gave them after they asked for it was printed at the bottom of that very e-mail, since I'd quoted my original response from them. Finally this past Friday, they left me e-mail and voice mail saying they fixed the problem and the remainder of the order should go directly to John. With a half-hearted apology and no offer to refund the shipping costs on top of all that. So now I get to ship it to John myself, which is what I was trying to avoid by giving them a different shipping address in the first place.

Now, I understand that they're busy with this release and everything, since fans have been waiting for something like this forever. But to lie to me and ignore me... that's just ridiculous. This is probably the worst case of customer service I've had to deal with recently.

Freakin' hippies.

Posted on October 2, 2001 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I watched Space Camp last night. It was just as good as I remembered it being. :) The DVD is pretty barebones with only the feature and a trailer on it, but it was still a good buy at less than $10. There was one odd thing about the movie, though. I remember the effects being fairly poor, but there was some pretty blatant badness here. I don't know if this was a problem with the transfer or if they had to reconstruct the effects and did a bad job of it or what. Every single time the sun rose over the Earth while they were in space, you could see the sun as a dark spot THROUGH the Earth before it rose. Often while the shuttle was travelling through space, you could see the matte lines. When Andie was going to rescue Max, you could VERY obviously see two dark lines attached to her which I assume were cables holding her up. I'd never noticed this before quite this badly in my many viewings of this movie. I guess going digital isn't always the best thing in the world for movies.

Posted on October 3, 2001 2:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, I've updated my pages some. :) I cleaned up the HTML a bit, so it'll be easier for me to edit them in the future. And hopefully they'll now render nicer in different browsers. We'll see. The HTML is still a bit of a mess, but it's much better than it was. Using a graphical editor kinda sucks. Hopefully having more readable HTML will convince me to actually update the content. Not that I have anything interesting to say or anything.

Posted on October 3, 2001 2:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So I'm sitting here listening to the Crosby, Stills & Nash box set that Sarah got for me used from McKay's in Centreville. I'm now on disc 4, which mostly has group and solo stuff from the late 70s, the 80s, and the early 90s. Listening to some of this stuff, I again have to wonder what happens to certain artists. There seem to be few artists who can consistently produce good work over a long period of time. I don't know why artists feel their music has to "evolve" or something. I know music and musical tastes change with time. I know that music production today is different than it was when CS&N started. But why does it seem that most of the time, when musical artists evolve, it ends up sucking? U2, Elton John, Sting... the list goes on. The only group I can think of that really DID evolve and turned into something so much better than they originally were is the Beatles. Not that I hate their early stuff, but how can anyone compare that to Sgt. Pepper or the White Album? I know that taste in music is subjective and maybe someone out there actually likes Sting more than The Police, but this just seems to be a widespread, bizarre phenomenon. Maybe this condition is caused by the creative well running dry. If so and I were someone like Sting or Bono, I'd just give up on music instead of convincing myself that the crap I'm churning out is remotely good and oh so much more mature than what I was doing before.

At least The Cure has never let me down.

Posted on October 4, 2001 1:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Woo hoo! My blog's had its first hit from a Google search! And the mystical phrase that brought this curious person here? Why, it was "through school naked", of course. Unsurprisingly, this came from someone using AOL.

Posted on October 4, 2001 2:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On Saturday, Sarah and I are going to see Tori Amos at the DAR Constitution Hall. We've never been to this particular venue before, but it looks pretty nice. Should be a good show, too. I didn't like a lot of the stuff off of her latest album. It was a cover album and I thought a lot of the covers were either uninspired or just took the song in an entirely yucky direction. So hopefully she'll play some older stuff, too. And hopefully she'll play some REALLY older stuff.

This tour's supposed to be just Tori and her piano. I'm happy to hear that. Tori with a band is good. Tori without a band is amazing. It's just an entirely different experience. I'm looking forward to it.

Posted on October 5, 2001 10:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Though it's over a week before the wedding, tonight is Michael's bachelor party. For some inexplicable reason, I feel frightened at what sort of bachelor party Michael will have. It SOUNDS normal enough from what little I know of what we're doing. But this is Michael. I fear.

Posted on October 5, 2001 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hrmmm. I'm pretty chatty today. Oh well. It's a Friday.

I seem to have a somewhat obsessive personality. Which I really dislike, since it often makes me do and feel things I'd rather not. The most common way this manifests itself is in my dislike for uncleanliness and disorder. It's not just that I dislike them. It has a physiological effect, too. I get tense. The muscles in my shoulders tighten. I get agitated. It doesn't always happen and sometimes I wonder if it's either selective or I've just learned to deal with the mess around me. I also get obsessed about other stuff. Like when someone doesn't write me back. I wonder why. I obsess about it and make up reasons. I know I'm being foolish and I can tell myself I am, but I can't stop feeling that way and it really gets out of hand. It really has a great emotional effect. I wish there were something I could do about it.

This is one of the many reasons I refuse to drink alcohol. I don't really have many moral or ethical reasons for it. I do dislike the taste of what little I've tried. I also dislike how stupid some people are about it. And there are other reasons. And, for some inexplicable reason, I'll often get amazingly upset when friends of mine drink. Though not always. Sometimes I think it's hilarious. But as for the obsession thing... I just get worried that I'd find some kind of alcoholic beverage I really like the taste of... or I'll drink enough some time that I actually feel the effects and I'll like them a lot... and I won't be able to stop. I can see it happening VERY easily. Sarah occasionally gets fruity/minty/chocolatey concoctions when we go out and she tries to get me to take a sip, but I just won't. It just doesn't seem like a good idea to me.

Of course, everyone who's reading this probably thinks I'm a freak now. :) But, since the small handful of people who actually read this ever already KNOW I'm a freak, that's O.K. :)

Posted on October 5, 2001 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well... this weekend's just been a BARREL full of excitement. Friday night was Michael's bachelor party. We went to ESPN Zone. I'd never been to one before. The food was how I'd expected the food at Hard Rock Cafe to be before I went to one. Overpriced and mediocre. Some other people had worse experiences with it. Ah... but the whole point was to get Michael drunk, which I think worked well. Ryan schooled me in duckpin bowling, which he'd never played before. I started off well with a strike in the first frame, but then I utterly fell apart. It must've been performance anxiety. At least I schooled Matt in Virtua Tennis for a little while. Coleman, Ryan, and I all left around 11:00. Lord knows what happened afterwards.

Last night was the Tori show. We had a good time. The venue was actually better than I expected. When we sat down and I saw that each row of seats wasn't raised one bit over the one in front of it and the seats weren't even staggered, I started to worry. But the girl in front of me must've been blocked by someone else in front of her and she leaned out of my way quite nicely. Rufus Wainright was the opening act and he was actually really good. I'd heard good things about him before, so I'd wanted to hear him but never really made an effort to. Tori herself was in top form. She played a few covers from her latest cover album, but she played a lot of older stuff, too. And, thankfully, some really old stuff like Crucify and Baker, Baker. All in all, it was a good show and we had a good time. Though the guy next to Sarah was very jittery and was making her motion sick until she asked him to stop.

And the $20 program we bought had stuff in it written by Neil Gaiman.

Good times, good times...

Posted on October 7, 2001 10:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Another Google hit. This time, the terms were "sarah naked bowling". Interesting. What's the fascination with nudity here? Will I ever get a hit that doesn't involve the word naked? How many pages of search results did they have to go through to find mine? Freaks.

Posted on October 8, 2001 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I keep forgetting that today's a holiday, since I have to actually be at work today. So there's no mail today, which makes me sad, since I love getting packages and I was expecting at LEAST one, if not more. Ah well...

At least I'm taking a few days off this week. Michael and Jennifer's wedding is on Saturday, so Sarah and I are leaving here Wednesday night to stay with her grandparents for a few days. Sarah's grandparents live about an hour away from where the wedding's taking place, so we'll have a place to stay without having to pay for a hotel. Saving money's good.

Posted on October 8, 2001 1:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm still debating with myself about whether or not I want to bring my camera to Michael and Jennifer's wedding. On the one hand, I think it'd be cool to play around with the black and white film I got and see how it turns out. On the other hand, the camera's big and the flash would make it that much bigger and I'm not sure I'd have enough light to go without the flash, even with the 400 film we got. Maybe I'll do some tests around the house with what I think may be similar lighting conditions and see how that works out. Or maybe I'll just forget about it, since I'll probably never get the shot I want with everyone else there trying to get the best shot with their automatic cameras. We shall see...

Posted on October 9, 2001 3:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The mail never came yesterday. Oh well. I guess it's just fine anyhow. It's not like I would've had time last night to watch any of the DVDs I'm expecting. Tuesday's our big TV night and then I had to do some laundry and pack for our trip. I'm still not sure if I'm going to bring my camera. I didn't pack it, but I may ask Sarah to grab it before she comes to pick me up. Even if I don't bring it to the wedding, it might be nice to use it along the way or while we're in Ohio. Experimenting with a camera is more fun when you're visiting somewhere else. There's just a lot more you can take pictures of. I leafed through a photography book last night. It makes a lot more sense to me now than it did when I first got my camera. Hurray for small victories.

Posted on October 10, 2001 10:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, I'll be silent for the next few days. I'm sure my legion of readers will understand. I don't even think they HAVE computers in Ohio and western Pennsylvania, so I couldn't blog if I tried. Enjoy the silence, pals. See you on Sunday.

Posted on October 10, 2001 2:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hello, my children! I'm back.

Actually, I would've been back yesterday, but somewhere along the way during the trip, Sarah caught a nasty little bug, so I took care of her yesterday. We're not sure where she got it, since we both ate the same stuff and hung around the same people. I guess my immune system is just mightier. Yay for me! It's kind of surprising, since I slept like hell the whole trip, as I had to sleep on a fold-out bed and the bar was extremely evident to my poor tortured back. Ah well.

The wedding itself was nice. Jennifer looked lovely and Michael cleans up pretty good. We left the reception fairly early, since we were driving back that night. Sarah started feeling sick on the way back and she deteriorated rapidly. I ended up driving the last couple hours back and I managed to not get lost. My driving ability isn't really wonderful, especially at night. My night vision seems to be a little off. Actually, I think what it is is that I tend to have to look at things a little longer to recognize them and I read signs slowly. So night driving is taken to a whole new level of fun. But the roads were pretty clear and we didn't die, so all's good.

Posted on October 15, 2001 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It saddens me that things like this continue in this world. On the one hand, it's really awful that the South Korean people don't really give Koizumi a chance. On the other, I can't believe that the Japanese people won't admit to their wartime atrocities, going so far as to print blatant falsehoods in their history texts. Now, I understand that, no matter what his position, Koizumi's hands are tied. Post-war Japanese prime ministers are a short-lived breed and it's almost certain that he'd be ousted before he even got a chance to accomplish anything. He's one of the more popular and promising prime ministers of recent years. But I doubt the older, entrenched politicians would ever allow a change, even if it meant a better relationship with Korea. I honestly can't remember what Koizumi's personal position is on the issue, but it really doesn't matter.

It really IS too bad that such things happen in the world today.

Posted on October 15, 2001 2:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wow. I had a super-spiffy shopping day today. :)

I got into work and had a mail from Half.com telling me that the Grateful Dead's Ladies and Gentlemen... The Grateful Dead: Fillmore East New York April 1971 4 CD set was in stock for around $19. When I went to check if it was still there, it amazingly was. Usually when I get those Half.com alerts, the CD's already been snapped up before I even get to look. The same seller also had a CD I'd been planning to get for Sarah for Christmas. So that worked out extremely well.

Then I had this mail from CDNow. I haven't bought anything there in ages because their prices suck and their shipping costs are outrageous. CDNow killed off their Fast Forward Rewards program a few months back and I had a bunch of points accumulated but not enough to use for a free CD. Well, the mail said that, since I was a member and I'd had points left, they were going to let me do a buy 1 get 1 free deal. So I ordered The Cure's upcoming greatest hits CD with the bonus acoustic CD and The Innocence Mission's latest.

Then I bought a bunch of stuff from Amazon and used a $10 coupon that pretty much just covered shipping. But... eh... oh well. :P

Shopping today was all about happiness.

Posted on October 16, 2001 1:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, today's a banner day for me. Not only did I have my happy li'l shopping experience earlier in the day, but I received 5 DVDs (actually, one was a 3-disc set) in the mail and all of them were sitting securely on their hubs.

I should just call it a day and go to bed now.

Posted on October 16, 2001 3:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Where is my Star Wars Episode I DVD?! It was supposed to come out yesterday. The place I ordered it from says they have over 2900 copies in stock. I pre-ordered it over a month in advance. They still haven't shipped it. Not that I loved the movie as much as I loved the original trilogy, but I wanna see all the extra stuff. Gimme gimme gimme!

Posted on October 17, 2001 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Poor Sarah's still sick. She even seems to be getting worse. She can barely talk today, her cough has made her throat so raw. What makes matters worse is that, being unemployed, she has no health insurance, so she can't go to the doctor. If this is some kind of infection, she'll need antibiotics. I keep telling her she should give me whatever she's got so I can go to the doctor and get medicine for the both of us to share, but she won't do it. My immune system is proving to be surprisingly strong this time around.

Posted on October 17, 2001 1:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I just realized I hadn't blogged at ALL today. How careless of me!

Today was a rather unproductive day. Mostly because I keep pounding away at this stupid problem I'm having with event reporting under Windows 2000. It's just not cooperating with me and I can't figure out why. Every single thing I've read says I'm doing it right. Grrrrr...

And still no Star Wars DVD.

Posted on October 18, 2001 4:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I had a very odd dream last night.

I remember very little of the beginning of it. There seemed to be some sort of party going on. I can't be sure if it was at my house (though I live in an apartment) or if it was someone else's, but pretty much everyone employed at the company I work for was there. At some point, I had to go to the bathroom, so I went downstairs to the basement. The basement ended up looking like the basement of my parents' house. CC, a guy who works here, was standing on the steps, just staring at the wall. I forget if I asked him what he was doing there or not. I got downstairs and the toilet was sitting there, around a corner, not really enclosed by walls or anything. So I'm sitting there and I notice there's hardly any toilet paper left. Suddenly, Jeff V., one of the founders of the company, shows up. I ask him to get me some toilet paper and he does. So I wipe and flush and all that and Jeff gives me a wad of cash. He tells me I have to pay for the toilet paper. At the time, I didn't think it was odd that he gave money to ME and then asked me to pay. All I could think about was that I was angry because I was the one who went to the grocery store and bought the toilet paper (which I had). So I'm counting out the money and I get to $39 and I ask him just how much he gave me and he tells me $39. But I still have a lot more money to count, including a $50 bill. So I tell him that the toilet paper should only cost $5, so I take a 5 out. I can't remember if I gave him the 5 and pocketed the rest or if I pocketed the 5 and gave him back the rest. It's all hazy. And strange. VERY strange.

Posted on October 19, 2001 10:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Just got the latest Innocence Mission disc, Small Planes, in the mail. I like it. It's short, clocking in at just over a half hour. But it's good. I like it better than Birds of My Neighborhood, though not as much as Glow. Good stuff, though. Didn't get everything in the mail that I wanted to, but there's always next week. And I can understand the mail being a bit slow with all this anthrax stuff going on.

Posted on October 19, 2001 3:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I really like the fall. The colors are just so beautiful and the temperatures tend to be perfect for me. I'm not really a big fan of summer and winter. I don't like the heat and I don't tend to like extreme cold, either. And, though the snow is pretty, it's not enough to win me over to winter. I prefer the more moderate temperatures of spring and fall. Though often the spring and fall can seem just like summer here in Virginia, this fall has really been perfect so far. Temperatures mostly in the 50s and 60s, beautiful blue skies, colorful trees... perfect.

Posted on October 19, 2001 3:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, it seems possible that my immune system is starting to fail me. About an hour ago, I started to really not feel so good. Tenderness in my glands (quiet, you) and a general feeling of yuckiness... Hopefully it's nothing, but I wouldn't count on it. Maybe a nice nap will help. We'll see...

Posted on October 19, 2001 5:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I never read any of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Or any books set in Middle Earth. Or, really, any Tolkien at all. I don't know why. Maybe just because they seemed so long to me at the time. As I've mentioned before, I think, I'm a slow reader. But that's no excuse, since I read all of Zelazny's Amber novels and there were a bunch of those. All I need to read is 3 books, really, though I could always read more. I honestly don't know why I haven't read them. I'd better get a move on, though. The movie's coming. THE movie.

Even though I've never read the books, I've seen the cartoons. And I know something of what the books are about. And the coming movies have me excited. It's not often that we get a decent fantasy movie, honestly. Or, really, sci-fi for that matter, but it seems like fantasy's gotten the shaft more often than sci-fi. Fantasy movies seem to be permanently mired in the B-movie realm. What better trilogy of films could there be to help drag them out of there. It'd be awesome if the Lord of the Rings flicks caused a revolution in fantasy filmmaking.

If not... hell... it sounds like at least these movies'll be great. Just reading this made me drool.

Oh yeah... and then there's Harry Potter, too. :) Though I think that'll be perceived more as a kiddie flick than as a serious fantasy movie. But hey... it's something.

Posted on October 21, 2001 5:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is a somewhat sublime feeling. I'm pretty much finished with Christmas shopping for Sarah. And it's only October. I have a few small things I want to get and some stocking stuffers to think of, but I'm done with the bulk of it. I usually try to start shopping a few months before Christmas so I can spread the spending around. I admit that I usually go extremely overboard, but this year we decided to cut back, especially since Sarah's been out of work, so she won't be able to get me as much. Which is fine with me, really. I like buying presents. But anyhow... I started about as early as usual this year. But I kept finding good deals on all the stuff I wanted to get her, so I ended up getting all her stuff in September and October. November and December will be left for the little things and for anything else that might come up between now and Christmas.

This is a good feeling. Now I don't have to worry about budgeting Christmas too much. :) Except for getting presents for my family. Or at least for some members of my family. At one time, we'd decided to not get presents for each other. But my older brother kept doing it, so my mom started doing it, and everyone gets stuff for my niece because she's the baby. This will all lead to ruin, I tell you! ;)

Posted on October 22, 2001 10:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ryan caught a typo on my blog. He was ecstatic. After all the public teasing I give him for his interesting typing, I can't blame him. Here's to you, good buddy.

Posted on October 22, 2001 5:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I really tend to take things far too seriously. That becomes more and more apparent to me as each day passes. Not only do I overanalyze practically everything, I really make a big deal out of very minor things. I can't help being this way, though. I've tried and it really doesn't help at all. I often end up feeling extremely annoying because of this. I'll make a big deal out of things that aren't a big deal and I won't seem especially calm for no good reason whatsoever. It really drives me nuts. It's like my brain can't tell the difference between something that is a big deal and something that's not, so everything has to be a big deal, just in case. It really sucks, though. It makes it impossible to relax, take it easy, and just be, enjoying life and friendships as they are.

This is why I will, no doubt, have a heart attack before I'm 40.

Posted on October 22, 2001 5:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is something of an addendum to yesterday's entry about taking stuff too seriously. I thought about it a bit and it seems to me that I don't make a big deal out of things that really are a big deal. Take the events of September 11th, for instance. I was a bit stunned but it was just something of a fascinating thing to me. While the world was freaking out, it didn't seem like a huge thing to me. I'm unsure whether this stems from cynicism or not. I guess I feel the world is pretty sick and bad stuff happens far too often, so it's just another day. But there have been other big deals that haven't been big deals to me. And some big deals that have been, though I think in a lot of those cases, it was because the situation required action and I had no idea what to do. So... I don't know. It's odd that I can make a big deal out of something someone says to me or doesn't say to me, but thousands of people dying is nothing. I guess in the case of a tragedy like that, the basic facts are known and there's nothing to analyze. But when someone says something to me that bothers me and I don't know why, I have to sit and wonder why and try to figure it out until I get to talk to them again.

Yes. My blog. My personal place for talking to myself. :)

Posted on October 23, 2001 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Just what IS the fascination with naked bowling? The most popular Google search that hits my site involves naked bowling. I really didn't know such a thing existed. It makes me oddly curious.

Posted on October 23, 2001 6:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So I'd been hearing this strange sound coming from the rear of my car for a week or two now. For a while, I only heard this strange knocking when I went over bumps, so I thought it was just something shifting in the trunk, though it sounded a bit different than that. But then I started hearing it as I started the car. I looked around back there and didn't really notice anything. But then yesterday, I got a good look under there in decent light. The little strap holding the muffler in place had snapped. Yay. So I took it to Midas yesterday and was informed that I really should replace the muffler. After having a look at it and seeing how rusted it was, I couldn't help but agree. Unfortunately, this also required replacing a large section of exhaust pipe, too. I can't even begin to tell you how overjoyed this made me. Ah well. Hopefully this'll be the last major car repair for a little while, at least.

Posted on October 24, 2001 9:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today's going to be one of those days... I can tell already. I've been sleeping like hell, which I'm sure isn't helping any. Oh well. Friday couldn't come soon enough.

Posted on October 24, 2001 9:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You know what I haven't had in a while that I'm suddenly in the mood for? An ice cream sandwich. I honestly don't know why, but I just crave one. It's one of those cravings where you can just about taste it. Yum. Ice cream sandwich...

Posted on October 24, 2001 10:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

While chatting with Ryan, he brought up the idea of going duckpin bowling. Sounded cool to me, so I hope it ends up happening. I'll probably suck a great deal, but it'll be fun. I've always enjoyed bowling, even when I'm sucking big time. We'd played a bizarre version of duckpin bowling at ESPN Zone during Michael's bachelor party and Ryan kicked my ass. Yay.

Though I thought I'd played duckpin before, I realized that I'd really played candlepin. The rules are fairly similar, though there are some variances and the pin shape is entirely different. But I remember it being fun, so I imagine duckpin will be fun, too. Fun is good.

Posted on October 25, 2001 2:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My Star Wars DVD finally showed up. Yay! Sure, it's over a week since its release, but that's O.K. The thing is selling like crazy, so I can understand it going out of stock temporarily at the place I ordered it from. Things won't be so bad when Shrek is released on November 2nd. They're currently listing about 30,000 copies of that in stock. Awwww yeah...

Posted on October 25, 2001 5:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I watched some of the extra stuff on the Star Wars DVD last night. Not all of it but a decent portion of it. The deleted scenes were very cool. It was so amazing that they spent the time to finish all of these scenes with complete effects and everything. The best part of the deleted scenes documentary was the bit where the guy went through and showed how he finished the deleted waterfall scene. I've always wished that I had the talent to do effects work or work in computer animation, but I really don't. It's just amazing what these guys can do. The creativity involved in coming up with ways to make things look real is immense.

Of course, the one thing that stuck with me from watching the making-of documentary was that Rick McCallum has a potty mouth.

I wish I liked the movie more, but I still find it difficult to not be disappointed. I understand that Lucas wrote the movie for kids and that this movie is basically there to set up everything. But there are various holes and silly plot points. And I still wish that Lucas had found a way to write the story without introducing the character of Qui-Gonn. Obi-Wan had always said that Yoda trained him. Now, I guess you could say that, at some point, Yoda did train him or will train him, as he is only a Jedi knight at the end of the first movie. And, since Qui-Gonn was long dead, maybe Obi-Wan found it unnecessary to mention him to Luke. But it still seems a bit iffy to me. Maybe there was no other way to tell this particular story without introducing a character like that. I feel he could've written a different story about the same thing without him. But oh well. He's there. I still enjoy the film, don't get me wrong. Just not as much as the other movies and not as much as I'd like to.

Posted on October 26, 2001 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Watching the stuff on the Star Wars DVD last night reminded me of something else that's always bothered me a little bit. And it's not just about Star Wars. I've just always had a little bit of a problem with the whole thing about the apprentice becoming stronger than the master and the master getting killed. It was a bit easier to swallow in the first Star Wars, since Obi-Wan was rather old. Though he was probably still strong with the Force, his body couldn't fight any more. But the whole thing in Phantom Menace just seems silly. Qui-Gonn wasn't that old. He was a Jedi Master. Sure, he was a bit reckless at times, but he did a lot of stupid stuff to get himself killed. And then Obi-Wan, not even a Jedi knight yet, goes and kills this guy who was easily holding his own against TWO Jedi? Yeah, right! The whole thing seemed contrived, from the silly shields that kept Obi-Wan from joining the fight to the silly death of both hero and villain.

This sort of theme shows up a lot, though, and it's more unbelievable in other stories than here. I just remember Star Wars better since I've seen it so many times. I know that it's a common element of myth, but it can just rub me the wrong way sometimes.

I won't even go into how I'm bothered by the fact that the only time Luke actually accomplishes anything is when he's totally pissed and the only reason he steps back from the Dark Side is because the Emperor taunts him. That'd just be too geeky. ^_^

Posted on October 26, 2001 11:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sarah and I went duckpin bowling last night at the Falls Church Bowling Center with Ryan and Huyen. The alley was like something out of the 50s. Since I read somewhere that most duckpin equipment hasn't been manufactured since 1969, I'm not surprised. When we signed up for a lane, we were told that there was no mechanic there, so if the lane broke, we just had to go to another one. Cool.

I sucked hard. Really. We played two games and I never scored over 100. Ryan was the only one who did, on his first game. For a while, the best way for me to score was to whip the ball down the gutter and it'd bounce out at the end and knock down a few pins in the back. By the end of the second game, I'd gotten the hang of it a bit. I think I was throwing it a bit too hard, which made me pull to either side for some reason. My technique and form for bowling has never been good anyhow. What was interesting was that I did a much better job aiming for the pins instead of the arrows, which is completely opposite of how it tends to work for me in ten pin.

Afterwards, we hit the 29 Diner. Good, cheap food and fun decor made for a happy meal. Though I wish I'd gotten a strawberry milkshake, I think my tummy was happier that I didn't.

All in all, though, it was a good night. And I think Sarah was happy to finally get out of the apartment after being stuck inside for a couple weeks.

Oh. And I almost forgot to mention. Sarah beat us all in the second game pretty handily. After how things usually go when she bowls with me, this thrilled her to pieces. :)

Posted on October 27, 2001 11:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So I added a comments thingy in. I'm not sure why, but it seemed like a fun thing to do. And it was just so easy. I guess that's how they get kids hooked on drugs.

Posted on October 28, 2001 11:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ah... thank heavens for The Onion.

Posted on October 28, 2001 12:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Well, this was a pretty slow weekend. Didn't really do much. Sarah was still feeling pretty out of it and slept a lot, so I had to come up with things to do that were quiet. Which meant no dusting and vacuuming (which the apartment desperately needs) and games and DVDs only when she was awake. I'd thought of going to the Baltimore Comic-Con on Sunday, but I decided against it. Sure, the admission's only $5, but I just KNOW I'd go nuts buying stuff or wanting to buy stuff. I don't go to cons to meet the pros as much. I haven't been to a comic book convention in many years, so it might've been fun. But with Christmas coming fairly soon and Sarah sick and out of work, I couldn't really justify the expense. It's all good, though. The only comic I'm desperately looking for at the moment is Young Justice #21, as that's the only YJ issue I don't have.

Watched all of the extra stuff on the Star Wars DVD, as well as the movie itself. All of the extra stuff was really interesting. I'll have to watch it again with commentary soon. I also watched my Starship Girl Yamamoto Yohko DVD and the first episode of the Hakkenden. The Hakkenden's just as bloody as I remember. I'm looking forward to seeing the rest, though I just couldn't see myself sitting down for 6 or 7 hours to watch the whole thing.

All in all, a decent weekend but a slow one.

Posted on October 29, 2001 1:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Man... according to my My Yahoo! page, round-trip airfare to Tokyo out of Reagan is only about $500 at the moment. The lowest I'd seen before was $700 and the highest was close to $1000. This is amazing. I still can't afford to go, but it makes me wish I could all the more.

Of all the places in the world I'd like to go, I think Japan currently tops my list. For quite a long time, the UK topped my list and it's still high up there, but I think Japan's on top now. Perhaps because Japan's a bit more exotic. For convenience, though, I'm sure England and Ireland have Japan beat, since I'll have a slightly easier time understanding an English guy. Though, with some accents, only slightly. England, unlike Japan, also has toilets that I'm familiar with, which would make me happy. Japan also seems a bit more strict as a society, so it'd be a bit uncomfortable. But it's still a beautiful place that I'd love to visit.

Both have wonderful things to see. I love castles and old churches and both lands are covered in excellent examples of both. In Japan, you've got Tokugawa Ieyasu's tomb, Himeji Castle, and so many more man-made and natural beauties. In England, there are dozens and dozens of castles and probably just as many churches.

Lovely lovely. Hopefully before I die, I'll get the chance to visit both.

Posted on October 30, 2001 11:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My sister-in-law is getting her first novel published this month. Unfortunately, as she isn't a blood relative, the getting-stuff-published gene isn't also in me. But... eh... think about buying it. Just for me. I'll... uh... make it worth your while.

Posted on October 30, 2001 1:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Coolness. After waiting a week for parts, Midas finally replaced my muffler and exhaust pipe. My car's much happier now and I don't have to fear going over the tiniest little bumps in the universe. Yeehaw.

Posted on October 30, 2001 3:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This morning I was flipping through the channels and saw this feature on Good Morning America. What I still find amazing and amusing is that all of these features on violence STILL use footage from Wolfenstein 3D and the original Mortal Kombat, two games that are over 10 years old now. C'mon... can't they get new footage from stuff like Soldier of Fortune and Tekken 3?

Posted on October 31, 2001 9:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Gah. This is the second time that I've had Reblogger screw up on me with silly internal server errors. I guess I wouldn't mind it so much if it weren't for the fact that it leaves residue in the comments. Half-comments with no signatures on them are just ugly. As I don't have many comments at the moment, I'm considering moving to a different commenting system. But we'll see. If I was actually doing something useful with this site, I'd get it hosted somewhere I have to pay for it but it'd allow me to do PHP and host the comments myself and stuff like that. But I can't see spending money on the pitiful stuff I do with my site, so... that's unlikely.

Posted on October 31, 2001 10:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)