Back From the Brink

Ah Biloxi; land of a thousand... um.. people. It was good. We saw some dude win $10k in the middle of the night/early morning. He was old and unimpressed. I love me some addiction.

On lighter notes, I got a goddamn job. Booya. Payin bills, eatin out, workin, lovin it. I've been in one day and it was all reading some manuals on how to be an employee and where things are and how to learn more things and how the company works and the usual mind numbing stuff but tomorrow is day two. Time for some real work. Which is sweet.

To celebrate, I went to GameStop and got some used SNES games. They were 50% off. I got that Mickey Mouse game where you try to save Pluto, Super Ghosts and Ghouls, X-Men and Spiderman vs. Arcade, and Earthworm Jim. Super G & G is a BITCH. I forgot that games used to be kinda hard. The learning curve on these things is like a damn brick wall. Ah well, I shall emerge victorious sometime.

As a final note; the newest SB email on HomestarRunner is funny as hell. I don't know why but I've been laughing all day.

Job

I have a second interview tomorrow. If I get the job, I'ma headin' over to GameStop to get some GBA games for the airplane flight. I'll let you know.

Diet

So I thought of a great new diet. It's called the Patented Pants diet and it requires very little from the dieter. All you need to do is go to the store once a month and buy pants. Not just any pants, bigger pants. The idea here is that you purchase successively bigger pairs of pants and stand inside them like on TV. You hold the pants out with one hand and make the "Omigod, I can't believe I lost all this weight" motion with the other hand. That's it.

After a while you should be able to get another whole person in there and then you can tell your friends, "look, it's like I lost a whole person." Now, this isn't gonna help you come swim season but it's still a damned good idea. Hmmm, maybe you could buy big swimsuits to hold out. No. No that's no good. Stick with the pants and bring them to the beach. Maybe you can make that work. And if someone's not havin' it, just choke 'em out with the pants.

36 Hour Forcast

This is bullcrap. I'd settle for like, 3.6 mins. Meteorologists, and here I don't mean to make generalizations but, they are the dumbest people ever. And maybe it's not the people themselves; maybe it's the whole field, the discipline if you will. I mean, come on. We as a race have been concerned with the weather for thousands of frickin years. You think we would have this one down by now. Christ. I'm going outside, rain my ass.

The Schedule

Tomorrow, the interview, 10intheam. A job would be nice. I haven't bought any extra stuff in a while and I would like to get some GBA games or a CD or some damn thing. Which reminds me, The Bravery drops their disc (do people say drop anymore) in a few days. That should be hot. It would be nice to be able to buy that when it comes out. Right.

Friday, the trip to Biloxi. Riverboats, gambling and booze; sounds like a party to me. I can't wait to see those riverboats. Also, this means a flight. I am leaving from NC and flying in to Gulfport, MS which is just up/down the road from Blux. I hope I get peanuts. I think I have a layover in ATL but I can't remember. Anyways, it's been a while since I've been in the Atlanta airport. Yep. Lots to do there. Got all that, stuff. Oh, Ben and Jerry's. That's a plus.

Anyways. That's the tentative for the next few days. It's on.

Job

Hells yeah. I got me a job interview. Which is good. 'Cause right we could use a little cash influx. It feels like I might as well just pay some guy to kick me in the teeth, light my money on fire and then take my Coke. That is no good man.

An aside. Spiderman 3 in May 2007?!? What the crap. I could make Spiderman 3 by 2007. It would be all Blair Witch style with the cheap camera and the worthless actors. I would have MJ lose the map and then cry in the closet when Peter got eaten by the Manspider. And then they would try to leave SoHo only to find that each road led them back to the same place. There would definitly be soe heavy breathing and then, Catwoman would find this tape and we would bring the whole thing full-circle. Damn. That's sounding kinda hot. I'm on it.

The Tour d'Fence

So yesterday I decided to get off my lazy ass and become a real competitor. The kind of man that you read about in magazines with pictures of cars and guns on the front. Or possible just a big picture of sweat and muscle fiber. Hell yea. I was going to compete in the Tour d’Fence.

Though not as widely recognized as some “other” races, the Tour is generally considered to be the most grueling two mile loop that starts and ends outside my apartment. Maybe the second most but you get the idea. Hell on wheels. To mix things up a bit, I flew in Lance “Chinese Baptism” Armstrong. Winner of a number of things and biggest badass this side of some river.

We started off at an even pace but I pulled ahead when Lance decided, foolishly, to take a nap. After five minutes of intense pedaling and lead widening, I suddenly realized that I had somehow ended up behind him. We were neck and neck (or a mile apart with him sort of walking his bike and taking the occasional break to talk to fans) for the rest of the race.

It was only through sheer will and determination that I was able to finally pull ahead and cross the finish line mere moments before my man Lance who had stumbled into a well filled with knives in the middle of mile two and lost time bringing himself back to life. As a cyborg.

Anyways, the long and short is I kicked his ass. Bring on the rematch Nancy. I got nothin’ but time.


Lots of cows by the trail.


Another onlook. A Lance fan I think.


This should give you a feel for the intensity of the course.


Some rock. I dunno.

I am Treerarded

Sometimes I think my IQ has settled in around the 52 mark. Por instance, I like to think that I am good at recognizing total hotness when it hits me in the face. In fact it seems the opposite is true. Especially when total hotness is instantiated in some online or technical thing. When I hear good music, I recognize. Good food, I'm on it. Good books, like a damn madman. Technology and/or website with tons of fun to offer, like I can't hear or see. That's how worthless I am.

Examples: This was all brought to my attention by my recent descent in to Penny-Arcade. That place is:

A) Funny
B) Topical (in a very dork sense)
C) Loaded with cuss words
D) Better than Maddox (which I must confess I indulged in for a while)
E) All of the damn above.

E.

The same can be said (sans swearing and topicality) of Homestar Runner. Another gem that, though pointed out to me more times than I can count, I failed to catch on to. Hell, my 65 year old father was reading Homestar literally a year before I was.

As far as technology goes, hell, I think the best video game system in the world is the SNES. I currently own that, a PS1 (it uses CDs), and a GBA. Wow. Careful not to cut your hands on that stuff. Well, better luck in the future. Let me know if there is something else I am missing.

I wanna be hip.

The Usual

A) I hate Wake Forest and Gonzaga. Win a damn game.

B) I have been looking in to global warming over the past few days to see what I think about it. This investigation was spurred on by an article that appeared in my college newspaper, the Colligate Times. It's a lot more complicated than it sounds. I thought that carbon dioxide went in to the air and the temperature went up. Wrong. All kinds of crazy stuff happens, clouds move and form, the ocean absorbs some of the CO2 and lots of people get up in arms. Including lots of people who have no frickin idea about what's really going on.

That, I think, may be one of my biggest pet peeves. If you don't have a damn clue and you are unwilling to examine both sides of a senario, shut the hell up. There are people, a lot of people, who judge complex situations (global warming, evolution, right to die cases, famous potential criminals, etc.) without having the faintest idea about the underlying structure of the problem. These same people will go to great lengths to convince you that they are right without having any comprehension of or respect for opposing views. I hate that. Also my computer is dying a slow death. Back to Dell she goes.

On a lighter note, Bill Nye is coming back on the air. He has a new series aimed at a slightly older audience but with the same premise: make science fun and it will be easy. I think it's called The Eye of Nye but I'm too lazy to check that right now. But you should. It's made by the lovely folks at PBS. Check it out and, if you have 5 spare bucks, donate some money. I love those guys.

The scene this morning.

Spring Broke

Ash was great. The concert was this past Saturday in NC and was a damn blast. The Bravery and Crimea opened and Ash headlined. Both of the opening bands were unexpectedly good. The Crimea had a sort of Pixies-ish thing going on and the Bravery was, well I don't really know what the style is called but it was good nonetheless. I don't have a setlist but Ash played almost all of the stuff I wnated them to play including Kung Fu, Burn Baby Burn, and a bunch of stuff off the new album. On that note, I just found out that the US release has a couple extra songs on it. Dammit (I have the import). They did play one song I didn't know from the Road Trip soundtrack I think. This has inspired me to become a real fan and get all of the Ash singles I can get my dirty hands on. Next time there will be no unknowns. The night was capped off by our getting to (briefly) meet Ash. I got to say hello to Tim and Rick as we left. Rick told us to go get drunk in honor of my wife's birthday. Good times. I wish I could have conveyed how much I like their music. Instead I conveyed a basic greeting. For those of you who don't know who Ash is, their website can be found here. Rock on.

I Update Like a Little Girl

So Jean won because she got her act together and I couldn't remember Jon's last name. I am going to see Ash not three times as predicted but once (which is still nice). Spring break has been a blast and has included a trip to Philly to see friends and co-workers.

There it is. All the old shit is taken care of. So, new shit. VT plays GT in the ACC tournament tonight. Although I don't give a good goddamn about basketball, I hope VT does their thing all over GT's face. It would be glorious.

Winter is old. I'm over it. I want to be able to go outside and ride my bike and run and play ultimate again. Instead, I'm trapped indoors due to inclimate weather (it snowed this morning). All I ask for is that nature make up her damn mind. One day it's nice and warm outside, the next it's snowing. That, in my book, is unacceptable.

Oh so, I'm slow on the uptake for photos obviously. I took some at the Philly Flower Show so maybe those will see the light of day sometime. And if I remember (I won't) to take pictures at the Ash concert. Double booya. On a photography note, I did find an old high school friend today who is a photographer. As soon as she has a website that she's proud of, I'll post a link. Well, that's it. Happy birthday to my wife. Go Ash. Go VT. Jordan, see you in a few.