J.R. and I are planning to do a podcast tomorrow afternoon sometime (Friday, June 27). I'm guessing about 3 or 4 o'clock. If you can, please join us online. More people are always fun. Hopefully Ustream is up to the task. You'll have to go to both of our pages to hear us both.
J.R.'s page:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/star-trek-stuff
My page:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/thejonblogcam
Thursday, June 26, 2008
geekdom 4: the wait is over!
Sorry about the delay, as usual. One of the funnest things about these role-playing games is the fact that even though there is all this characterization involved, it's still totally a game and chance rears its ugly head in really funny ways every once in a while.
If you're unfamiliar with how it works, for just about every action you and your opponents do, you roll a 20-sided die. If you roll a 20, that's very very good for you. If the other guy rolls a 20, it's very very bad for you. If you roll a 1, it's so not good that it's bad (i.e. you attempt to start a campfire and you blow up the camp). So if I were to roll a 1 and the crippled mouse were to roll a 20, the mouse might just get the best of me.
This comic has been in my head for a couple of months. I was intimidated to do it, so it really feels good to get it down. Panel 2 was supposed to be the payoff, but it turns out that panel 1 and 3 are money. Praise tracing!
Here are the videos to go with this. As usual, they are incredibly long, so if you watch them, watch them in fast forward. I may have gone and gotten a bite to eat in the middle of them.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
new york city: the journey
I realized I forgot my camera before I even got on the plane. I considered running home real quick and picking it up, but I didn't want to risk missing the flight. If I missed the flight, it would have a total waste of the JetBlue voucher that Tom gave me for my birthday and it also would have meant that i'd have to hurry and book another flight with less legroom and no free tv. Then THAT would mean I'd have to go home again and get my portable dvd player. So I figured I'd just go without my camera. All of the following pics are from Maria's camera.
On the way over, TNT was showing Starship Troopers. I watched a lot of that, but flipped around to Cartoon Network and VH1 Classic. The guy next to me was watching Starship Troopers too, so I always knew when the commercials were over. NPH is in ST. Remember that? I brought along two books and two magazines, but didn't crack any of them thanks to JetBlue and its media stimulants.
I rested, but didn't really sleep by the time we touched down at JFK at about 5:30 AM. I hate taxis, so as usual, I hopped onto the wonderful JFK Airtrain (a big reason I prefer JFK to LaGuardia). This was not before having the usual Airtrain metrocard trouble that I have every time I go. See, you take the Airtrain to the subway terminal, but the Airtrain costs five bucks which you pay for after you ride it if you're arriving in the city. After that, you need to buy another metrocard to ride the subway. The signage doesn't explicitly spell out the whole ordeal and I think they get a lot of people paying too much for an Airtrain pass when they wanted to be buying a metrocard subway pass. Anyway, during all this hubbub I met this guy named Mike from Salt Lake City who was visiting his friend in Brooklyn. I sort of helped him through the process even though I had to re-figure it out myself. It was his first time in NYC and he was eager, but skeptical.
So about 45 minutes later I arrived at Maria's apartment where we napped the morning away. She took work off. When we awoke we took a short jaunt through Wall Street. Maria lives at the heart of the financial district, which means her neighbors seem more stressed out than the rest of the city (except for her neighbor in 7F who, by the sound of it, has found a really really exciting way to relieve stress).
After the Wall Street adventure it was back to the apartment because I desperately needed to shave. I had grown quite accustomed to receiving compliments about the 'stache, but since it made my upper lip too hot and it had a bunch of food in it, I decided to shave it. Maria didn't want me to shave unless it was my decision and it totally was. Honestly, it was hard to keep it long enough just to show it to her once I came to New York.
That afternoon, we wound up near Times Square. I think this may have been the day we went to The Burger Joint, which is a favorite grease festival of Maria and her peeps. Pretty damn good. It's well hidden behind a curtain in the lobby of a ritzy hotel.
Rather than seeing a broadway show we hit a movie. I always feel a little bad when I see a movie in New York, when I could be doing hundreds of other things; but hey, a movie is a movie and I'm always up for it. Plus the theaters there are pretty neato because the auditoriums are stacked on top of each other and you need to take like five escalators to get where you're going. Anyway, we saw Get Smart. If I were in a worse mood I may have liked it less, but I thought it was pretty good. Honestly, I was shamefully looking forward to seeing it. Over the past few weeks I've been giggling to myself at some of the tv spots while others in the room seem to be rolling their eyes. See if you can guess the part that had Maria and me in stitches.
Did we eat again after that? Maybe.
We found ourselves back in the apartment that night which was fine because we had so much How I Met Your Mother and The Living Daylights to watch. I also brought my guitar controller for the Wii. With Maria's controller we were able to have an actual real guitar match or two. Her roomie, Chelsie joined us. Chels is quite adept and eager at the thing. After that, we introduced Jaclyn to the dice game. We spent Friday night in, but had a blast the old fashioned way. I got some awesome Chinese from down the street.
Saturday was a lot more New Yorky. We hit up the Broadway show Xanadu which was pretty funny, especially the female lead. It's based on the movie starring Olivia Newton-John and is about an ancient Greek muse who inspires a struggling artist to open a roller rink. Maria and I watched the movie together a few months ago. It has some golden moments, but for the most part it's semi-disastrous. To give you an idea of what kind of movie it is, I'm pretty sure it's Phoebe's favorite movie on Friends. Anyway, the Broadway musical had all the great music from the movie, but poked fun at the movie a little to much for me. I thought they could've relished the camp a little more than just stabbed it so much. Tony Roberts is in it. He did some great stuff in Annie Hall, a great film that's a lot about New York.
There's a really fabulous comic book shop called Forbidden Planet. Maria said she totally went in there a while ago and thought of me. I bought some multi-sided dice and a replica of the original Star Trek phaser. I also got a sweet video of a Starship Enterprise model with working lights. I'd put it here, but for some reason, the video I got from Maria's camera isn't working on my computer. If I ever get it working, I'll stick it on my and J.R.'s Star Trek blog.
For some reason, this is the only picture I got at Forbidden Planet. I had to take it because I think it's a misuse of an apostrophe.
That night we did the only thing we planned in advance, which was going to Ninja New York. It's a wonderful restaurant that's run by ninjas. They lower you down into a secret cavernous lair and then sneak up on you whenever they can. Chelsie, Jaclyn and this Dan guy (who works at VH-1 Classic!) came along.
We got a couple of sushi rolls and some crab cakes. The following video shows a ninja preparing the clams special that Dan got. If you watch you'll see the ninja pick up the fire a couple of times.
I had to catch the plane after that and Maria and I said good-bye. Even though it wasn't planned as well as we would have liked, we had a great time and she was really good to cart me around. For those of you thinking about visiting, you'll enjoy it. Maria will treat you right and her place is really roomy and nice.
Anyway, on the flight home, Mike (the guy I met on the way in) said hi to me on the plane. He was in a much better mood than when I saw him last and said he had a great time as well.
Bravo showed Beverly Hills Cop.
On the way over, TNT was showing Starship Troopers. I watched a lot of that, but flipped around to Cartoon Network and VH1 Classic. The guy next to me was watching Starship Troopers too, so I always knew when the commercials were over. NPH is in ST. Remember that? I brought along two books and two magazines, but didn't crack any of them thanks to JetBlue and its media stimulants.
I rested, but didn't really sleep by the time we touched down at JFK at about 5:30 AM. I hate taxis, so as usual, I hopped onto the wonderful JFK Airtrain (a big reason I prefer JFK to LaGuardia). This was not before having the usual Airtrain metrocard trouble that I have every time I go. See, you take the Airtrain to the subway terminal, but the Airtrain costs five bucks which you pay for after you ride it if you're arriving in the city. After that, you need to buy another metrocard to ride the subway. The signage doesn't explicitly spell out the whole ordeal and I think they get a lot of people paying too much for an Airtrain pass when they wanted to be buying a metrocard subway pass. Anyway, during all this hubbub I met this guy named Mike from Salt Lake City who was visiting his friend in Brooklyn. I sort of helped him through the process even though I had to re-figure it out myself. It was his first time in NYC and he was eager, but skeptical.
So about 45 minutes later I arrived at Maria's apartment where we napped the morning away. She took work off. When we awoke we took a short jaunt through Wall Street. Maria lives at the heart of the financial district, which means her neighbors seem more stressed out than the rest of the city (except for her neighbor in 7F who, by the sound of it, has found a really really exciting way to relieve stress).
After the Wall Street adventure it was back to the apartment because I desperately needed to shave. I had grown quite accustomed to receiving compliments about the 'stache, but since it made my upper lip too hot and it had a bunch of food in it, I decided to shave it. Maria didn't want me to shave unless it was my decision and it totally was. Honestly, it was hard to keep it long enough just to show it to her once I came to New York.
That afternoon, we wound up near Times Square. I think this may have been the day we went to The Burger Joint, which is a favorite grease festival of Maria and her peeps. Pretty damn good. It's well hidden behind a curtain in the lobby of a ritzy hotel.
Rather than seeing a broadway show we hit a movie. I always feel a little bad when I see a movie in New York, when I could be doing hundreds of other things; but hey, a movie is a movie and I'm always up for it. Plus the theaters there are pretty neato because the auditoriums are stacked on top of each other and you need to take like five escalators to get where you're going. Anyway, we saw Get Smart. If I were in a worse mood I may have liked it less, but I thought it was pretty good. Honestly, I was shamefully looking forward to seeing it. Over the past few weeks I've been giggling to myself at some of the tv spots while others in the room seem to be rolling their eyes. See if you can guess the part that had Maria and me in stitches.
Did we eat again after that? Maybe.
We found ourselves back in the apartment that night which was fine because we had so much How I Met Your Mother and The Living Daylights to watch. I also brought my guitar controller for the Wii. With Maria's controller we were able to have an actual real guitar match or two. Her roomie, Chelsie joined us. Chels is quite adept and eager at the thing. After that, we introduced Jaclyn to the dice game. We spent Friday night in, but had a blast the old fashioned way. I got some awesome Chinese from down the street.
Saturday was a lot more New Yorky. We hit up the Broadway show Xanadu which was pretty funny, especially the female lead. It's based on the movie starring Olivia Newton-John and is about an ancient Greek muse who inspires a struggling artist to open a roller rink. Maria and I watched the movie together a few months ago. It has some golden moments, but for the most part it's semi-disastrous. To give you an idea of what kind of movie it is, I'm pretty sure it's Phoebe's favorite movie on Friends. Anyway, the Broadway musical had all the great music from the movie, but poked fun at the movie a little to much for me. I thought they could've relished the camp a little more than just stabbed it so much. Tony Roberts is in it. He did some great stuff in Annie Hall, a great film that's a lot about New York.
There's a really fabulous comic book shop called Forbidden Planet. Maria said she totally went in there a while ago and thought of me. I bought some multi-sided dice and a replica of the original Star Trek phaser. I also got a sweet video of a Starship Enterprise model with working lights. I'd put it here, but for some reason, the video I got from Maria's camera isn't working on my computer. If I ever get it working, I'll stick it on my and J.R.'s Star Trek blog.
For some reason, this is the only picture I got at Forbidden Planet. I had to take it because I think it's a misuse of an apostrophe.
That night we did the only thing we planned in advance, which was going to Ninja New York. It's a wonderful restaurant that's run by ninjas. They lower you down into a secret cavernous lair and then sneak up on you whenever they can. Chelsie, Jaclyn and this Dan guy (who works at VH-1 Classic!) came along.
We got a couple of sushi rolls and some crab cakes. The following video shows a ninja preparing the clams special that Dan got. If you watch you'll see the ninja pick up the fire a couple of times.
Sunday was church of course. I really liked the ward. The gospel doctrine teacher gave out full size candy bars. Afterward, we just happened to have a linger longer. I couldn't pass up a sloppy joe, but Maria resisted because she wanted to go to he Shake Shack afterward.
I must admit, I liked Shake Shack's food more than Burger Joint's. The burger patties were thinner at Shake Shack and I like that a lot more. I like it going down easy like sandwich meat. Even the cheese fries were really good and they were really just cheez-whiz on crinkle fries. I made a mistake of getting a hot dog instead, so I had to finish Maria's burger. The hot dogs didn't treat me too right this time. If I have one thing against this trip, it's the hot dogs. They've been better in the past.
Here are some photos from the roof of Maria's building.
Monday morning we hit Battery Park and saw the Statue of Liberty from a distance. That blob to the right of Maria is the statue.
I must admit, I liked Shake Shack's food more than Burger Joint's. The burger patties were thinner at Shake Shack and I like that a lot more. I like it going down easy like sandwich meat. Even the cheese fries were really good and they were really just cheez-whiz on crinkle fries. I made a mistake of getting a hot dog instead, so I had to finish Maria's burger. The hot dogs didn't treat me too right this time. If I have one thing against this trip, it's the hot dogs. They've been better in the past.
Here are some photos from the roof of Maria's building.
Monday morning we hit Battery Park and saw the Statue of Liberty from a distance. That blob to the right of Maria is the statue.
We did get better pictures of the statue, but I like this one of Maria. I guess I could actually bother to put up a better picture of the Statue of Liberty, but instead I'll just say, what, you've never seen a photo of Lady Liberty before? Look it up!
After that, just for fun we went to Barney's New York. I really only know Barney's from that Saturday Night Live sketch with Jimmy Fallon as the really snobby pretentious clerk who works there who is always folding shirts and looking down at the clientèle. You know the one, right? Fallon invariably cracks up whenever he does that character. Anyway, it was pretty trippy in there. Maria looked at a few shoes and most of them were about 700 bucks. There were a few jackets for like $2,500. Our clerk seemed pretty pretentious, but very helpful (perhaps all those Jimmy Fallon sketches has made Barney's salespeople want to be a bit more approachable). After trying on a couple of $100 cardigans (and frantically trying to re-fold them correctly) we started to head out.
On the way out we looked up, and we saw... guess! You wouldn't believe it. Here's a hint -- the second most profitable living Beatle. YES! RINGO FREAKING STARR! Ringo Starr went shopping with me at Barney's New York! So instead of leaving I said to Maria, let me stay and hang out with Ringo. So we played it cool and just kept shopping on that same floor. Fortunately I didn't weird him out since there was plenty of stuff to legitimately shop for.
I'm not sure what it is, but I uncharacteristically get star-struck when the moments come. I've been trying to work on my non-creepy celebrity approach dialogue, but I haven't thought up a really good one that makes me seem non-gushing.
Anyway, Ringo bought the same hoodie that I tried on. It could very well have been the exact same one since Ringo is probably my size. Like many people you see in movies or on tv, he's smaller in person than you'd think. I totally was like Ringo Starr is shopping in my wake! He looked good too. It was fun to hear him talk all Beatlesly. He and his wife (or whoever she was) got the same guy who was helping me to go find a t-shirt of a specific size so that they'd have two. The t-shirt said "peace" on the front. If anything, Maria and I agreed that our conversation with him should have been: "Really, Ringo? A "peace" t-shirt? Don't you think that's just a little too obvious?"
Anyway, if we didn't run into Ringo I wouldn't have found this snazzy track top marked down to $50 from $100. I think it adds seven years of sophistication.
After that, just for fun we went to Barney's New York. I really only know Barney's from that Saturday Night Live sketch with Jimmy Fallon as the really snobby pretentious clerk who works there who is always folding shirts and looking down at the clientèle. You know the one, right? Fallon invariably cracks up whenever he does that character. Anyway, it was pretty trippy in there. Maria looked at a few shoes and most of them were about 700 bucks. There were a few jackets for like $2,500. Our clerk seemed pretty pretentious, but very helpful (perhaps all those Jimmy Fallon sketches has made Barney's salespeople want to be a bit more approachable). After trying on a couple of $100 cardigans (and frantically trying to re-fold them correctly) we started to head out.
On the way out we looked up, and we saw... guess! You wouldn't believe it. Here's a hint -- the second most profitable living Beatle. YES! RINGO FREAKING STARR! Ringo Starr went shopping with me at Barney's New York! So instead of leaving I said to Maria, let me stay and hang out with Ringo. So we played it cool and just kept shopping on that same floor. Fortunately I didn't weird him out since there was plenty of stuff to legitimately shop for.
I'm not sure what it is, but I uncharacteristically get star-struck when the moments come. I've been trying to work on my non-creepy celebrity approach dialogue, but I haven't thought up a really good one that makes me seem non-gushing.
Anyway, Ringo bought the same hoodie that I tried on. It could very well have been the exact same one since Ringo is probably my size. Like many people you see in movies or on tv, he's smaller in person than you'd think. I totally was like Ringo Starr is shopping in my wake! He looked good too. It was fun to hear him talk all Beatlesly. He and his wife (or whoever she was) got the same guy who was helping me to go find a t-shirt of a specific size so that they'd have two. The t-shirt said "peace" on the front. If anything, Maria and I agreed that our conversation with him should have been: "Really, Ringo? A "peace" t-shirt? Don't you think that's just a little too obvious?"
Anyway, if we didn't run into Ringo I wouldn't have found this snazzy track top marked down to $50 from $100. I think it adds seven years of sophistication.
I had to catch the plane after that and Maria and I said good-bye. Even though it wasn't planned as well as we would have liked, we had a great time and she was really good to cart me around. For those of you thinking about visiting, you'll enjoy it. Maria will treat you right and her place is really roomy and nice.
Anyway, on the flight home, Mike (the guy I met on the way in) said hi to me on the plane. He was in a much better mood than when I saw him last and said he had a great time as well.
Bravo showed Beverly Hills Cop.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
macho trumps geek
I just gotta say really quick that I apologize in advance for not finishing the latest "In the Geekdom" comic. I've had lots of requests over the past couple of weeks, but I just haven't pumped it out. The biggest reason, perhaps is because the latest comic requires a little bit more of an artistic quality to it and I'm totally insecure about my drawing ability. The way I see it in my head is totally awesome, but I could just throw the idea up with stick drawings. The finished product will likely be between the two visualizations (probably closer to the stick drawings).Okay, and also, I'm leaving to New York in a few hours. If anybody needs me to pick anything up or take anything to Maria, let me know.
The Geekdom comic will be done early next week.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
while i'm online and posting
Yesterday was delightfully full, but out of nowhere today became suddenly enjoyable when the Homestarmy (Pete, really) got me a ticket to the Real Salt Lake game (with food!).
"Defender passes to mid-fielder! Mid-fielder holds it. Holds it! HOLDS IT!!!"
Yeah. Final score: 0-0.
I gorged myself on Famous Dave's brisket. I also bathed in an Eskimo Pie. It was really embarrassing. It pretty much got all over me. Everyone had to wipe me off.
"Defender passes to mid-fielder! Mid-fielder holds it. Holds it! HOLDS IT!!!"
Yeah. Final score: 0-0.
I gorged myself on Famous Dave's brisket. I also bathed in an Eskimo Pie. It was really embarrassing. It pretty much got all over me. Everyone had to wipe me off.
how many words does video paint?
You know your Tuesday was interesting when you get your hand stamped twice.
Yesterday was my brother Andy's birthday. He hadn't been to Lagoon in like five years and wanted to go pretty hard. So, with all his kids and many of his wife Emily's sibs with their kids, they made a day of it and invited me along. Since this was my first trip to Lagoon this year I was stuck with what is surely a Murphy's Law dilemma. Should I pay for a day pass for 40 bucks only to pay the same amount the next four times I come to Lagoon, or should I pay for the season pass for 100 bucks and only use it once? After doing some obvious math, I determined that $100 is less than $160 and bought what may very well be my only Lagoon pass for the year for $100.
It was good to get back to Lagoon for three reasons:
1) I was able to test out the wetness on the new ride called odySEA with my nephew Charlie. Amount of wetness on odySEA: 37.
2) When nobody else wanted to go, I was able to hit up my favorite ride, The Samurai. Andy said it best when he said it's like the ride in Happy World Land called the "Happy Go Barfy." Samurai was closed 95% of last year, so even though after the teen operators took 20 minutes to load everybody and then literally LOCKED THEMSELVES OUT OF THEIR OWN CONTROL BOOTH, it was still such a joyous experience that I didn't throw up after (almost though).
3) I managed to get some better video of Colossus. See, in the past year, I've become a sort of YouTube celebrity due to my Lagoon roller coaster point-of-view movies. They get thousands of hits more than my actual "films" (which actually get tens of hits). Last year's Colossus video had my finger obscuring the camera lens for most of the time. I've received about 50 YouTube text comments saying "move UR fingur dumb***." Hopefully this video will change all that which I'm embedding below.
And just for fun here's the 2008 Jet Star 2 video:
***
Tuesday night was also Joe's band's club debut. Parental Control is a cover band that specializes in 90s era tunes. Monica was kind enough to pick me up from Tuesday night RPG so we could make it on time. A bunch of us were there, but ultimately numbers were lessened by historic Game 6.
Here are a couple of clips:
I messed around with the long-time exposure on my camera to get some sorta cool show images:
Anyways, afterward we met up at the Pie Pizzaria, which is a place I swore I'd never go to again, but since I officially wasn't hungry I figured it would be a good time to go and not count it. It really was perfect, because I only drank one slice of Pie pizza while there.
They got this jukebox there and I scammed a quarter off Cinnamon and tried out a song I've never heard. Anybody know about "Four Sticks" by Led Zeppelin? It's from that album with the old man carrying a bunch of sticks on his head, but I heard that the reason it's actually called "Four Sticks" is because when they recorded it John Bonham was having a real hard time with the difficult drumming, so finally he just grabbed two sticks in each hand and totally nailed it. Monica totally didn't believe me, but I swear I read it very recently. Can anyone verify this?
Anyway, Tuesday was pretty busy.
Yesterday was my brother Andy's birthday. He hadn't been to Lagoon in like five years and wanted to go pretty hard. So, with all his kids and many of his wife Emily's sibs with their kids, they made a day of it and invited me along. Since this was my first trip to Lagoon this year I was stuck with what is surely a Murphy's Law dilemma. Should I pay for a day pass for 40 bucks only to pay the same amount the next four times I come to Lagoon, or should I pay for the season pass for 100 bucks and only use it once? After doing some obvious math, I determined that $100 is less than $160 and bought what may very well be my only Lagoon pass for the year for $100.
It was good to get back to Lagoon for three reasons:
1) I was able to test out the wetness on the new ride called odySEA with my nephew Charlie. Amount of wetness on odySEA: 37.
2) When nobody else wanted to go, I was able to hit up my favorite ride, The Samurai. Andy said it best when he said it's like the ride in Happy World Land called the "Happy Go Barfy." Samurai was closed 95% of last year, so even though after the teen operators took 20 minutes to load everybody and then literally LOCKED THEMSELVES OUT OF THEIR OWN CONTROL BOOTH, it was still such a joyous experience that I didn't throw up after (almost though).
3) I managed to get some better video of Colossus. See, in the past year, I've become a sort of YouTube celebrity due to my Lagoon roller coaster point-of-view movies. They get thousands of hits more than my actual "films" (which actually get tens of hits). Last year's Colossus video had my finger obscuring the camera lens for most of the time. I've received about 50 YouTube text comments saying "move UR fingur dumb***." Hopefully this video will change all that which I'm embedding below.
And just for fun here's the 2008 Jet Star 2 video:
***
Tuesday night was also Joe's band's club debut. Parental Control is a cover band that specializes in 90s era tunes. Monica was kind enough to pick me up from Tuesday night RPG so we could make it on time. A bunch of us were there, but ultimately numbers were lessened by historic Game 6.
Here are a couple of clips:
I messed around with the long-time exposure on my camera to get some sorta cool show images:
Anyways, afterward we met up at the Pie Pizzaria, which is a place I swore I'd never go to again, but since I officially wasn't hungry I figured it would be a good time to go and not count it. It really was perfect, because I only drank one slice of Pie pizza while there.
They got this jukebox there and I scammed a quarter off Cinnamon and tried out a song I've never heard. Anybody know about "Four Sticks" by Led Zeppelin? It's from that album with the old man carrying a bunch of sticks on his head, but I heard that the reason it's actually called "Four Sticks" is because when they recorded it John Bonham was having a real hard time with the difficult drumming, so finally he just grabbed two sticks in each hand and totally nailed it. Monica totally didn't believe me, but I swear I read it very recently. Can anyone verify this?
Anyway, Tuesday was pretty busy.
my acceptance speech to the arte y pico award
For the second time in my life I've won a blogging award. For the second time the award has come from Abel -- an accomplished writer, incredibly nice guy and above-average demeanor. In effect, it's praise worth bragging about. Officially the award is given out for "El arte es maravilloso, mas aun cuando se puede compartir con otros," at least according to the website. I can't argue with that, partially because I'm overcome with emotion and I really don't know any Spanish even thought I took Spanish for a couple of years.In an interesting turn, I'm going to now make a couple of petty complaints about receiving the award. First, is that most other authors who display the award have white backgrounds on their blogs. As a result I had to open up Photoshop for 15 seconds in order to blacken the background on the award image on this page. Second, I really can't stand pico de gallo. Whenever I'm at Cafe Rio I always have to tell them to leave the squishy gross stuff off my salad and I hate that and sometimes I forget.
I guess the rules of Arte y Pico are as follows:
1. You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award through creativity, design, interesting material, and also contributes to the blogger community, no matter of language.
2. Each award should have the name of the author with a link to their blog.
3. Award winners have to post the award with the name and link to the blog of the person who gave them the award.
4. Please include a link to the “Arte y Pico” blog so that everyone will know where the award came from.
Last time I won an award, the award pretty much stopped at me. That may be because I just re-awarded myself to some of my other blogs. This time I'll actually award some people who aren't me, so here goes:
1. Marmalade Memoirs
It may seem like I'm doing this just because she's my girlfriend, but her blog is awesome, outdated title and all, because it's great to hear what's going on in New York through an interesting non-tourist. Also, as a semi-Latina she may understand all this Spanish stuff going on up in here.
2. Simply Stephanie
Steph is a relative newcomer to the blogging scene, but she's totally posting with a vengeance.
3. Penny Fathrington
This particular blog isn't written by Penny himself (THAT would be amazing), but is a tribute to him by the fortunate souls who have come across him and tasted of his sweet sweet ribbon candy.
4. Locke Vs. Demosthenes
I threw this one an award because I need to remind myself to comment on the recent post on choosing candidates. Plus, it's a really good idea with some good writing. Either Locke and/or Demosthenes should run for office. One or both of them will probably rule the world some day.
5. Average Joe's Sports
This guy is not a sports drone all about stats and facts. He's got some real incendiary and thoughtful opinions that are awesome (even though I rarely actually agree with him especially when he DOESN'T talk about sports which actually is quite often, but is still just as good if not better than his sports insight).
Sunday, June 15, 2008
i am so not remiss
Yeah, it's time.
I've been pretty voidy lately and I apologize. I'll just quickly mention two things.
First, I'm very happy to report that while I wasn't blogging, I've been able to do my other internet stuff, namely my two podcasts -- the jon madsen movie commentary podcast and J.R. Watches Star Trek for the First Time. In the last week I've been able to upload episodes of both.
The Sixteen Candles commentary turned out to be pretty good. I really wish I had more people in the chatroom. Next time maybe we'll do it at a more convenient hour. Half of it was co-hosted by Dre, which made for some great conversation.
Many of you have been hesitant to give the Trek podcast a listen, and I understand that. You hate Star Trek, it's a basic human tendency. Still, in that case you may relate to our latest podcast in which we discussed some episodes that we really really hate. There's something for everyone! I am kind of happy though because our average rating on iTunes is four stars (based on one review (not us!)).
So go visit the podcast links on the right side of the page.
***
The other thing i've been thinking about lately is the NBA Finals. Tonight as I was watching game 5, I found myself switching sides. Over the past month I've been cheering for the Celtics, but tonight I mostly hoped the Lakers would win (in case you didn't hear, they did).
I'm getting really ambivalent and antsy about the whole thing. I'm not a true follower of basketball, but I'm sucked in now. Strangely, I feel that I'll have anxiety no matter who wins. I shouldn't get into major sporting events. I'm never really rewarded -- it's lose-lose. My problem is that my sense of feeling sorry for losers overshadows my sense of pride in winners.
During the past week I've been reading Phil Jackson's book called The Last Season. I can think of at least three things wrong with that title. The book is about the Lakers' 2003-2004 attempt at the NBA championship. A more fitting title would have been Why Coaching Kobe Bryant is Such a Ginormous Pain. Although I don't commend Jackson for obviously spreading around the poor image of Kobe Bryant, I've sort of come to know him through his words. Even though I don't necessarily think he's a super cool guy, just the fact that I know him a little bit better makes me empathize with him a bit more. For that reason I want the Lakers to win.
At the same time, Kobe plays for the Lakers. For that reason I want the Lakers to lose.
Then again, Derek Fisher's daughter has eye cancer, so for that reason I want the Lakers to win.
Of course, Derek Fisher's daugher has eye cancer, so actually I want the Lakers to lose. I could go on.
The absolute biggest reason for momentarily switching sides is because I want the series to go to seven games -- anything to keep us from being drenched neck-deep in baseball season is fine with me. Plus, it'd be great for the Celts to celebrate in their own town the night they take it all.
Hopefully that won't be on Tuesday. I'm pretty busy that night and I won't see the game (on Thursday too, now that I think about it). Game 6 will also be rough on Joe, who has his band playing that night. He's stressing out about getting people in the door. I think they get paid better if they get more people in the door, so it's really the place to be. Ironically, he's the sports blogger.
I've been pretty voidy lately and I apologize. I'll just quickly mention two things.
First, I'm very happy to report that while I wasn't blogging, I've been able to do my other internet stuff, namely my two podcasts -- the jon madsen movie commentary podcast and J.R. Watches Star Trek for the First Time. In the last week I've been able to upload episodes of both.
The Sixteen Candles commentary turned out to be pretty good. I really wish I had more people in the chatroom. Next time maybe we'll do it at a more convenient hour. Half of it was co-hosted by Dre, which made for some great conversation.
Many of you have been hesitant to give the Trek podcast a listen, and I understand that. You hate Star Trek, it's a basic human tendency. Still, in that case you may relate to our latest podcast in which we discussed some episodes that we really really hate. There's something for everyone! I am kind of happy though because our average rating on iTunes is four stars (based on one review (not us!)).
So go visit the podcast links on the right side of the page.
***
The other thing i've been thinking about lately is the NBA Finals. Tonight as I was watching game 5, I found myself switching sides. Over the past month I've been cheering for the Celtics, but tonight I mostly hoped the Lakers would win (in case you didn't hear, they did).
I'm getting really ambivalent and antsy about the whole thing. I'm not a true follower of basketball, but I'm sucked in now. Strangely, I feel that I'll have anxiety no matter who wins. I shouldn't get into major sporting events. I'm never really rewarded -- it's lose-lose. My problem is that my sense of feeling sorry for losers overshadows my sense of pride in winners.
During the past week I've been reading Phil Jackson's book called The Last Season. I can think of at least three things wrong with that title. The book is about the Lakers' 2003-2004 attempt at the NBA championship. A more fitting title would have been Why Coaching Kobe Bryant is Such a Ginormous Pain. Although I don't commend Jackson for obviously spreading around the poor image of Kobe Bryant, I've sort of come to know him through his words. Even though I don't necessarily think he's a super cool guy, just the fact that I know him a little bit better makes me empathize with him a bit more. For that reason I want the Lakers to win.
At the same time, Kobe plays for the Lakers. For that reason I want the Lakers to lose.
Then again, Derek Fisher's daughter has eye cancer, so for that reason I want the Lakers to win.
Of course, Derek Fisher's daugher has eye cancer, so actually I want the Lakers to lose. I could go on.
The absolute biggest reason for momentarily switching sides is because I want the series to go to seven games -- anything to keep us from being drenched neck-deep in baseball season is fine with me. Plus, it'd be great for the Celts to celebrate in their own town the night they take it all.
Hopefully that won't be on Tuesday. I'm pretty busy that night and I won't see the game (on Thursday too, now that I think about it). Game 6 will also be rough on Joe, who has his band playing that night. He's stressing out about getting people in the door. I think they get paid better if they get more people in the door, so it's really the place to be. Ironically, he's the sports blogger.
Sunday, June 08, 2008
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
Monday, June 02, 2008
happy birthday baby!
Go ahead. Stay in your pajamas. Order in. Have a dessert that you love that I don't understand because it's not cheesecake or crème brûlée. Take a nap. Mmmmmm! Happy birthday.EDIT: I heard a rumor that you're going to be painting the town tonight. Hey, that's awesome too! do that!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)