tidying aesthetics

The city finally broke down and got us that lawn toupée we've been asking for.

While I was looking up where I should put the accent in "toupée," I came across this gem of a site.

Got new couches at our place -- fine, leather-bound couches. Our place also smells of rich mahogany. It's like Hef's rumpus room.


Finally finished this butterfly painting. Or rather, Mother's Day came, so I turned in what I had done. Bob Ross might be slightly prouder on this one than my last one.

forbidden geekdom

Tonight is the night I finally get to begin playing a table-top RPG with Pete and his Homestarmy.

That, combined with the geeky webcomics I read plus my immersion into old Peanuts strips lately zapped this comic into my head. There's an old Seinfeld episode where Jerry is annoyed at his dentist because he converted to Judaism just for the jokes. I'm starting to think that maybe that's one reason I'm into geeky things. Even though I take such things very seriously, I just can't deny the humorous goldmine.

I had a hard time getting the sizing right when I uploaded it as one comic, so if you can't read it, you'll have to click on the top and bottom images separately to embiggen them.

This is pretty much the conversation I've been having with Pete for the last month. He says he takes it very seriously. Then I call him out and say, so are we LARPing then? And he says "NO LARPING!" The humor in it, of course, is that you can take this stuff pretty seriously; but there is a line that you just don't cross. I joke that, hey, we're so close to the line anyway -- maybe it'll be fun.

Alright, and finally here's a link to actually find out what LARPing is. I actually found out only a couple of months ago. Coincidentally, it was when Pete and J.R. were chatting about it during our Star Trek podcast. Everything geeky just kind of came together.

the first time i've ever won a sporting event

Right to the point -- our team, Jim's Orphans, won our softball game on Thursday.

Here is a crappy video showing how bad I am at following the ball. The hit went far into left field, but seeing it happen in the camera's viewfinder I totally thought it went right. Anyway, Cyrus made an incredible catch that I totally missed.

Anybody ever see Reservoir Dogs?


So I caught a couple of pop-ups in the third inning. I hit two fly balls directly into center field, but the opposing team didn't field them. I also hit a line drive directly to the pitcher. A lesser man would have been killed by the ball's velocity, but this guy annoyingly caught me out.

Here I am posing on first base. On the next play I slid into second and the play after that I ran into their short-stop when he fielded the ball right in the baseline. He tried to call me out for interference and I told him the baseline belonged to me, not him. Then the game ended.


We tried something new this week by playing music at ever at-bat of ours. My personal favorites were Scott's "manatee monologue" and Clint's "Like a Virgin."


Yeah. Final score 10-8. Maybe it was 9-8. Something like that.

another lost post

May I just take this moment to point out that I called the fact that the island moves three months ago? I may have been wrong about a lot of things with that little X-Men comic thing, but I was right about the island moving.

A couple of things to point out: 1) Jack's dad may actually be alive and not an aberration. 2) There aren't set rules for what the characters are destined.

I think the makers of the show have stated in podcasts that Jack's dad is indeed, dead; but they have a knack for bending the truth through wordplay. Jack never found his father's body. The casket landed inland and was empty by the time he got there. I think that Christian took one of those weird drugs from Romeo and Juliet (you know, one of the ones that give the impression of death but not really and then the drug-taker wakes up three days later), and then woke up on the island. He possibly did this on purpose and met up with Jacob or whoever.

Locke asked Claire where her baby was and Christian told him that Aaron was where he was supposed to be. If Christian is speaking for the will of the island then the island's will is in contradiction with the rest of the Lost universe in terms of the fate of Claire's baby. I think that ultimately, besides the conflict between the two puppeteers of Widmore and Linus; we're also going to have to deal with a much broader conflict between more universal forces. One force of fate (off-island) wills Aaron to be raised by Claire, while another one doesn't. We as viewers won't be able to rely on what we perceive as character destiny since even fate seems to go two ways.

Also, I'll just say it now. I don't like the island being considered a real character. I like how the crazy happenings on the island have put other characters in situations that refine their personalities, but I still think that so far that's only made the island's occupants good characters and not the island itself. Random behavior is not character development. If the island is indeed alive and a life form and by the end of all this we'll understand its actions and motivations and thought and dreams, THEN I'll consider the island a good character.

Ben is still the man as far as best character in the show goes. This fact makes me worry, however, since the actor who plays him initially signed on for, what, like three episodes or something?

catching up with rexbasior '08

Let's see how fast I can mention stuff.

I'm proud of this snowboarding video we did about a month ago, but am seriously amazed at its low traffic on YouTube. Last I checked it had nine views. Nine. It has so few views that AP Style guidelines indicate that I spell the number out with letters. And I'm not even mad. I'm impressed. How does a video called "70s Snowboarding" promoting itself as lost footage from 30 years ago to vintage Bowie only get nine views in a couple of weeks?



Maria was totally in town last week. We went to a really awesome concert with the group Swell Season, which is actually Glen and Markéta from Once plus also the other dudes from Glen's other group, The Frames. You may remember Glen and Markéta at the Oscars when they won for best song and Glen gave a heartfelt speech and then Jon Stewart was like, "Man! That guy is arrogant!" The Oscar band cut off Markéta so Jon brought her out again. Remember that? It was really sweet. Anyway, at the show we went to, Glen was like the life of the party, but Markéta didn't really seem like she wanted to be there. AWESOME show though. Soully.

Here's the only picture I took while Maria was in town. She sure looks pretty for all the stress in New York she's been dealing with lately. It's super sad since she used to love visiting there. It's a whole lot like that one Simpsons where Homer explains to his family why he hated his experience in New York City so much. I own the dvd. I could hurry and rip that part and show it right here, but it would take a little while. I'll just say that at the end of Homer's story Marge says, "Oh Homer, of course you'll have a bad impression of New York if you only focus on the pimps and the C.H.U.D.s."


The picture was taken at Tucanos. We went there to celebrate Kristi doing something. I think it was important. I ate several pounds of Brazilian meat, an entire pineapple, a plate of mashed potatoes, a salad and a crème brûlé (ugh, that was annoying to HTML).

We also ate at Café Rio.

Oh! Forgot to mention. You totally may have noticed that there are no longer borders around my photos. Ever since I decided on this particular blog template however many years ago, I've been annoyed that it automatically puts borders around the pictures. So, I finally got into Blogger CSS and switched up the formatting. It's no big deal, but old blog entries such as this one should look cooler now.

Look at this sign.


Since when are those fountains convenient when they're on?

So remember Free Comic Book Day! I cleaned up. I hit Hastur Hobby, the Library Night Flight, the Night Flight on State and Black Cat in Sugarhouse. I also tried to go to the Night Flight at Cottonwood Mall even though the wizardess that runs the joint ALWAYS calls me out when I read comic books and don't purchase them. When I drove to Cottonwood, here's what I found.

Yeah. Cottonwood Mall is gone! Who knew? I guess they're building another one, but you can't just destroy something and then put something else in its place and say it was the thing you destroyed. Can you? I guess you can say that.

I really hate electric car windows. I get the feeling that all new cars have them, but I'm particularly old school about this one. Give me a roller any day. I don't like it when I'm in someone's car and they go into the grocery store "for only a minute" and they forget to roll down the windows for me and I'm stuck there and can't just roll them down myself. Also, I hate it when the car's battery dies and while I'm napping in the backseat, it rolls into a lake and because of water pressure I can't get the door open and I would be able to roll down the window, but can't because they're electric.

My inside door handle broke (again). That means I have to roll down the window and reach out to the other handle to open the door. That also means that if I turn off the car before rolling down the window I have to restart the car just to get out. It's either that or struggling across the front seat to the passenger side, hoping to heaven I don't slip on the knobby shifter that's sticking straight up.

A kind neighborhood Samaritan relieved me of my whole window rolling down problem (again).


In thanks, I unchoicefully gave this Samaritan my car stereo (again).


Here is a video of today's snowboarding. In it you should be able to see my sweet sweet dizzy new board shorts. For once the fact that swim trunks are called board shorts makes sense. Also notice the iPod Shuffle getting knocked off toward the end. Good times. Sweet weather. Thanks to Scott for supplying me with one last pass for the season.



I was also going to talk about our softball game tonight, but it took forever for that one video to load that I think I'll just do it later (plus two snowboarding videos make great bookends for this entry). We like totally won btw.

free comic book day

Everyone remember that today is Free Comic Book Day. That means you go to your local comic book retailers and collect the awesomest free comics they have left.

Don't like comic books. Fine. Do it anyway and I'll take them off your hands. Next time there's a Free Lanyard Day, I'll go out of my way to hook you up.

soylent train is people! it's people!

A week ago I learned that a literal passenger train called Frontrunner was opening up for riding between Salt Lake City and Ogden. After spending a little bit of time in New York City, it's nice to see us westerners getting into a commuter rail system. I knew it wouldn't fly though since we all, to quote The Closer in Singles, "love our car." The Closer was a total environmentalist in that show too. This is when that guy who was dying in that one Julia Roberts movie tried to sell her on his "Supertrain" idea with great music and coffee.

I also figured that since I wasn't aware of it, then nobody would be.

So on Monday we decided to take advantage of Frontrunner's free rides before the pricey rides would begin later in the week. Our goal: the 7:25 train. Here's how the night went down:

6:49 - I arrive by foot at the 7:00 meeting place; once again, vastly overestimating the time it would take to walk two blocks.

7:09 - Group breaks into carpool groups and heads to the UTA train hub.

7:17 - Group arrives at hub and parks near Bricks (or whatever it's called). A big line is forming for the group Minus the Bear. Based on their fans, Minus the Bear appears to be an early 80s British punk band.

7:18 - I snap this picture of Jane and Chelsea. Notice that there's actually a huge throng of people at the platform.
7:25 - Nothing in particular happens

7:48 - Our 7:25 train arrives. Passengers packed like sardines begin filing out.

7:50 - I snap this picture of Shanna and Maxim in front of our train arguing about how many stops we should ride.


7:52 - We make our way to the door. Random passenger inexplicably halts her physical efforts to get off the train in order to pose for stranger's photo.

7:59 - After taking a right past the door, we attempt to climb the stairs to Frontrunner's second level. We get stuck in the stairwell because of the sheer amount of bodies packed in. With the lack of space, I'm only able to get this shot.

8:05 - A natural settling of bodies occurs and a nicer picture of some of us in the middle of the stairwell happens.

8:07 - Another Frontrunner arrives on the adjacent track. People begin filing aboard the new train. We realize that the other platform was an option the entire time.

8:20 - The other Frontrunner train departs.

8:25 - In extreme panic, we attempt to open the doors of our train to escape. The doors don't respond.

8:31 - Yet another Frontrunner arrives on the adjacent track.

8:33 - A broadcast comes over the speaker system informing us that there was a problem with our train and to exit out the west doors to enter the other train.

8:34 - We begin wading through the throng of people attempting to board the other train.

8:39 - We finish wading through the throng of people attempting to board the other train.

8:45 - We arrive at Arctic Circle. I order the halibut sandwich combo and a pastrami and swiss burger.

10:41 - After arriving home I hear a UTA commercial that seriously says, "UTA Frontrunner! Catch it... if you can!"

To sum up, I'm glad people are into the train, but the excess of people taking advantage of the free ride was just post-apocalyptic in scale. Also, it would be really nice if the train actually worked.

do you hear what i hear?

While on iTunes today, looking up the name of a certain Yazoo song ("In My Room"), I came across this enlightening image:


Over the past five years, I've had a love-hate relationship with iTunes. Maybe I should call it hate-love. I started hating in the early days when iTunes would attempt to take over my PC and I didn't know how to use it. I started loving when I was forced to. I became a Mac person and soon realized that even my mp3 player allegiances would need to be switched. My old iRiver player did not (and still doesn't) work with my current Apple technology. I immediately drove to the Apple Store and bought an iPod. I splurged and bought the biggest (at the time) model at 80 GB (a bigger hard drive than my PC).

Entrenched in iTechnology I went back to iTunes, and indulged in it, trying to fill 80 gigabytes. Browsing iTunes is very fun, but can be very very expensive. I quickly learned that these things called "podcasts" not only filled space on iPods very quickly, but they were free too! And sometimes, sometimes they were enjoyable to listen to.

Now I listen to A LOT of podcasts, mostly while driving. I tend to commute a lot anyway. Looking through my playlists, I have 42 different podcasts in possession. That's not 42 podcasts total, it's 42 different shows, each with their own count. Some of them I've only listened to a couple of times and some of them are actually video podcasts. Of the 42, I subscribe to 30. That means I get about 30 new podcasts to listen to every week.

Anyway, as a guy who listens to a lot of stuff, I figured I'd course over some of my essentials (btw, click on the images to be taken directly to that particular show in iTunes).

1. Extralife Radio
This baby really started it all. Back when I had an "oldschool" radio show, my co-host Abel got the host of this geek-centered podcast onto our show. So I downloaded this particular podcast way back before I got back into iTunes. Scott Johnson really got me excited about the whole podcasting thing. He even allowed me to do a segment on old video games on one of his sister podcasts called The Final Score. Anyway, his Extralife podcast deals with all things geek: video games, movies, tv, comic books, etc. Scott's a webcomic artist and two other webcomic guys join him on the show (one actually drew that picture of Maria and me for Valentine's Day). These guys are geeks, but very un-serious.

2. Movies You Should See
This is a very popular movies podcast in the UK. It lacks the traditional "British Reserve," though. Pretty much the average show is five people in a room going on about one single movie of their choice. Drunkenness and swearing are allowed and encouraged. Despite the light atmosphere, they usually get pretty involved in whatever movie's depth between jokes. Examples of some movies they've done include Top Gun, Pan's Labyrinth, L.A. Confidential, The Burbs, Last of the Mohicans, Some Like It Hot, Sunshine, Galaxy Quest, Se7en, Office Space, American History X, Wayne's World, Big Trouble In Little China, Full Metal Jacket, and Brief Encounter just to name a few. It's pretty much all over the map. Personally, since they go into such detail about the movies they do I usually only listen to the show if they're discussing a movie I've already seen. That's just me, though. Whenever I have listened to them talk about all the awesomeness of a movie I haven't seen, I've still had a dang good time. From the success of this podcast, the same group of people started a "nouns you should verb" system of podcasting. They're fun network of podcasts also includes Albums You Should Hear, Games You Should Play and Books You Should Read (which is perhaps the most original of them all, since it's run by listeners sending in their own voiced book reviews).

3. Filmspotting
Here's another film podcast, which I believe I've mentioned before. This one is far more "produced" as a show than Movies You Should See, but it has plenty of spontaneity as well. It's two intelligent guys (Adam and Matty (I actually met both of them at Sundance and they're really cool)) talking like Ebert and Roeper about film. Not only do they cover current releases, but they also do great stuff like focusing on a particular filmmaker or genre and have an ongoing marathon of that particular body of work over several shows' time. Also included is a contest where they "massacre" dialogue in a particular movie and listeners get to email in with their guesses of which movie the lines are from. Extremely informative with their information and extremely engrossing with their opinions. Very essential.
4. Make It So
From Simply Syndicated, the people who brought us Movies You Should See, comes this absurd Star Trek podcast. These guys are obviously very into Star Trek, but some die-hards accuse them of not being fans since they tend to hate on Trek so much. Even if you're not a Star Trek fan yourself, it is fun to hear from a sort of skewed perspective on the show. They don't have a ridiculous, encyclopedic knowledge of Trek, but they give us such discussions as the benefits of dating a shape-changing alien, awarding "The Cast of Voyager" as "The Worst Character in Star Trek," and how the crew would obviously use the giant screen on the bridge to play video games between long voyages. This podcast, is obviously a big influence on J.R. Watches Star Trek for the First Time.

5. The Uncanny X-Cast
Here's the other big influence on J.R. Watches Star Trek. Here are two guys who grew up together. Both read X-Men as kids. One stopped reading entirely, and one still read after growing up. Now they come together and discuss X-Men with one of them an expert and one of them picking it up again for the first time. It's a pretty interesting dynamic and it works well for me because growing up I was a huge fan, but have been an on-again off-again fan in the years since. These guys go on about current issues, but the main attraction for me is that they also have started the comic book from the very beginning of the chronology and are slowly progressing through the entire X-Men universe. The biggest drawback to this one is that they don't make the separate shows for the new stuff and old stuff. A single podcast can be well over two hours long.

6. Grammar Girl
Okay. Pretty much all my other essentials are way geeky, but here's one that's way nerdy. Each week Grammar Girl tackles a specific grammar lesson and gives us interesting and funny methods for remembering it. It's quick. Usually about five minutes. After geeking out so much, this podcast of very useful information is very welcome. Plus, it helps me be snobby about having a better command of the English language than most commoners have.

Anyway, those are some of my essentials. I've got a bunch more that may be more interesting to others including The Official LOST Podcast, The B.S. Report with Bill Simmons, The Classic Tales Podcast, Indiefeed: Alternative / Modern Music, etc. What am I missing? Are there others that need my attention? I'd really love to know if there are and why I should be listening.

Anyway, go ahead and subscribe to the following. They're totally free.


The Jon Madsen Movie Commentary Podcast

J.R. Watches Star Trek For the First Time

guitar heroine

So babe and tried out the Wii's online capabilities with Guitar Hero III for the first time earlier.

She rocked "My Name Is Jonas" perfectly. The perfect 100% Guitar Hero game has eluded her for several months. Perhaps the move to NYC enabled her inner demon child to do the necessary shredding. The perfect game is something that has even eluded me.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to grab the camera in time before the screen change. So I've sorta re-represented the spectacle here:

i'm just a caveman

So talking about Kyle Korver during tonight's Jazz game yielded this friendly memory:

graffiti party

Just about every Friday afternoon I have absolutely no plans for the evening. Invariably, wherever I find myself that night, I tend to wonder how I came to get there.

My friends simply have connections. They're not always my kind of connections, but they can be plenty interesting.

Take last night's graffiti party for example. I have no idea on the details, but apparently some house invited everyone over to spray paint the walls with whatever artistic flair they wanted. Vast amounts of spray paint were even provided. I don't think the occupants anticipated the lovable juvenile attitude of Joe, who used the situation to showcase some colorful (read: blue) imagery.

We arrived fashionably late; around 11. It was a little too late. Things were settling down and we had a hard time finding good wall space for our work. They also wouldn't let Rhett pull out his paintball gun. Shortly after arriving we were sort of ushered out.

Someone had a pretty strong opinion about the Omaha music scene (someone else had an opinion against it).

beautiful weather moot

Man, it was such a beautiful day today!

Too bad that was tarnished by owing 10 bucks on my taxes.

Too bad that was further tarnished by paying even more to file online.

you don't have to look if you don't want to...

... but it will be the first thing you see.


Some of you may have noticed my limping and Facebook complaining about my foot. Last year when I went to have my footy warts frozen, they bubbled up a bit, faded and the menaces simply returned a few weeks later. I resolved to get rid of them again a couple of weeks ago. I told Chrissy, my derm, what had happened and asked if there was another avenue we could try. She said the laser machine was down, so she froze my foot again and made sure I made a follow-up appointment to check on the progress (and by then the laserer would surely be fixed). Well, within a day the rotten foot leprechauns were back to normal. When I went back I complained to her and asked if it was time to get the laser out. Somehow she talked me out of it and suggested a re-freeze. I was like, you know, c'mon. So then she said we could freeze them and if I wanted to she'd write a prescription and I could drop acid on them myself at home.

Anyway, I haven't tried the acid yet, because SHE FROZE THE HELL out of these little buggers this time. I think they're dying and it sort of hurts, but knowing those guys are hurting makes it hurt so good.

falling back into the last century

Our house, as nice as it is, really only has one cable out in the whole place. It's in the front room, which means it's the only place at my house to watch tv. It's just on the other side of the wall to my room, so I could drill a hole through the wall and run cable into my room that way. A more plausible option for a renter like me would be to skip the whole hole drilling thing and simply run cable around the living room, into the eating nook, past the computer area, into the kitchen and then into my room. In either case, I'd have to split the cable from the source, which I don't really care to do. There are enough wires and gizmos sticking out from the back of the tv.

A couple of days ago I purchased an archaic antenna to attach to my room tv.

It's pretty old. It even has those forky connectors that we used to use to set up the 'ol Atari 2600. Works wonderfully though. With it, I became re-acquainted with an old friend -- flipping through channels.

See, for the past several years we've had digital cable and TiVo™. Both have changed my life for the better and I'd sacrifice two of my limbs for them, but they do come at a cost (besides the monthly fee (which Rhett actually pays for (the TiVo™ part anyway))). There is a huge delay (about seven seconds) when the channel is changed. I think the delay is increased because of the combination of both technologies. Is seven seconds worth the ultimate convenience, control and selection of these technologies? Well, yes.

I wouldn't say that being able to casually flip through channels is a more important friend than digital cable and TiVo™, but it is like a friend who may have been my friend long ago, but was abandoned by me when I got cooler, more popular friends. Thanks for still being my friend, Ability to Casually Flip Through Channels! And thanks for not going anywhere!

The biggest problem with my particular ability to casually flip through channels is that I only get broadcast channels, not the hundreds of quality cable channels the living room gets. That means a couple of average channels and like 17 Spanish channels. Why do Spanish-speakers get so many more channels? I'm pretty sure they're not even a majority in this part of the world yet. It seems like the marketplace would demand that there actually be more English local channels. Oh well. I'm considering learning Spanish by flipping through all the channels above 20.

wiigin' out!

Leave it up to Kristen Wiig to take an unfunny concept and make me laugh 'till I choke.

in memoriam: 1924-2008

So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord. And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Beth-peor: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day. And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated... And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, In all the signs and the wonders, which the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land, And in all that mighty hand, and in all the great terror which Moses shewed in the sight of all Israel.
-Deuteronomy 34: 5-12

"If this god is God, he would live on every mountain, in every valley. He would not be the god of Ishmael or Israel alone, but of all men. It is said he created all men in his image. He would dwell in every heart, every mind, every soul."

"All who thirst for freedom may come with us. The shadow of death will pass over us tonight, and tomorrow we will see the light of freedom."

"Almost at the moment He died, I heard Him say, 'Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.' Even then. And I felt His voice take the sword out of my hand."

"I tried not to come. I tried, I told my love it had no right to live. But my love won't die..."

"I have orders to bring you to God... heathen."

"I'm a seeker too. But my dreams aren't like yours. I can't help thinking that somewhere in the universe there has to be something better than man. Has to be."

"Imagine me needing someone. Back on Earth I never did. Oh, there were women. Lots of women. Lots of love-making but no love. You see, that was the kind of world we'd made. So I left, because there was no one to hold me there."

"You who are reading me now are a different breed - I hope a better one. I leave the 20th century with no regrets. But one more thing - if anybody's listening, that is. Nothing scientific. It's purely personal. But seen from out here everything seems different. Time bends. Space is boundless. It squashes a man's ego. I feel lonely. That's about it. Tell me, though. Does man, that marvel of the universe, that glorious paradox who sent me to the stars, still make war against his brother? Keep his neighbor's children starving?"

"Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!"

*sigh* I'm gonna miss you so hard, Chuck!

live podcast #6

if you happen to be on your computer RIGHT NOW (Sunday the 6th of April, 2008), then head over to jrwatchesstartrek.blogspot.com for a live geekfest.

bob ross must be spinning in his grave

I got back from my first oil painting class a few hours ago.

Yeah.

I'm doing it through the local community education program for adults. When I think of adult education I think of that Simpsons where Homer teaches the class on successful marriage and there's a sign out front of the education program center that says "We take the 'dolt' out of a-dolt education."

A long while back we got this awesome class catalog in the mail that had tons of sweet classes in it. Most classes were between 50 and 60 bucks so I figured that even if the classes were a little lame, they would still be cheap enough to try guilt-free. One of the classes was break dancing. Totally. I also considered yoga, photography, Photoshop and drawing (for the dozenth time). The guy on the phone said people complained that the drawing class was too hard, so I avoided it; although maybe it's a different kind of "too hard" than the "too hard" in college.

So for 50 bucks I settled on oil painting. Then, two days ago I went to pick up my supplies. That's where they get ya. After getting oil tubes, brushes, tape, a palette and other miscellaneous debris my tab at the art store was about 100 bucks. I did pick up some watercolor stuff that I may not need (the suggested materials list included oil and watercolor equipment, but it turns out we can sort of pick whether we focus on one paint type or the other), so I'll probably be returning some stuff, but I still need to go back and pick up some mineral spirits, many more canvases and even more brushes.

Our teacher is a lovely hippie soul named Tera. Her motto seems to be a very friendly "figure it out." I always wanted to break myself into art class, but the same thing happens every time I do. Everyone in the room already knows exactly what they signed up to learn. They just use it as a place to do it. After Tera turned us loose to art ourselves silly, I sort of put out a needy vibe by subtley stating how I've never really painted before, I've only taken a couple of drawing classes and I'm also very colorblind. Halfway through my masterpiece of the night I contracted some kind of anxiety associated with an inability to determine what set of procedures I needed to enlist to actually make something of a picture.

Tera said we'll be doing more technique next week. I'll report on that.

In the meantime, here's how we turned out today:


I think it actually looks pretty good if you take a few steps back from the computer.

overusing photobooth

Maria bought me this sweet sweet shirt before she left.

It pretty much means that I'm better than you. It also means that I now have an added amount of pressure to accomplish something that is logically impossible.

We haven't decided when I'm going to go over there to visit. I think it mostly depends on her work travel schedule. She might come next month for the Swell Season concert, so probably after that. I really ought to see what events are in New York over the next few months.

My debit card expired yesterday. I think it's pretty momentous, because this might be the first debit card I've ever had that has expired before I've lost it. Look at me crush it with my gigantic left hand!


Yeah, It got pretty hammered. It didn't work in lots of places because it was crooked, or damaged or both.

I really liked it because it had the easiest "security code" ever: "444."


Here's my new debit card. I'm a little peeved that I get the same old "horses and stagecoach" visual routine. Look how shiny the letters are! Also, look how jealous Dre will get when she sees my new card's expiration date.

nerd it up again

if you happen to be on your computer RIGHT NOW (monday the 31st of march), then head over to jrwatchesstartrek.blogspot.com for a live geekfest.

enter: gorthon

So far I've only achieved one life goal: learning double-dutch.

Another life goal I have is to participate in some kind of table-top role-playing game. My good friend Pete, who is part of this geek cabal known as the Homestarmy, graciously talked to some of his best nerd friends about it. I guess they've been looking for an excuse to start playing again. Hopefully, in the next little while I'll be clutching a 20-sider.

Here's a clip from Freaks and Geeks (my new favorite show starring James Franco). In it the role-playing geeks become cool because they welcome the cool kid from school into their group. If everything comes together, I would be honored to make Pete and his friends cool by my presence.

my beloved is gone!

I think this is a good thing. I think we'll both come out of this better in the long run. Doesn't mean I'm particularly happy.

final fish finally

Alrighty. I finally finished the YouTube version of the Fish Sandwich Fest '08. This is the best version. It's far shorter, tighter and has graphics to display the rankings as they happen.



Click here to go to YouTube.

tales from tivo vol. 1

Recently in conversation I proudly stated that with the exception of seeing who's on Letterman sometimes, I don't watch any programs at all on CBS. I was met mostly with agreement. I suppose some of my friends who were silent have a passion for CSI and Survivor.

Playing devil's advocate, Joe told me that I needed to watch Big Bang Theory. He then explained the premise, which sounds pretty good. It's about a really attractive young blonde who lives next door to four total nerds. I suppose it's sort of a sit-com version of Beauty and the Geek. He said he was going to TiVo it for us. He did, because while I sat down in front of the TV to have a bite, I found the program available for viewing.

First of all, the girl in the show isn't that hot at all. Second of all, the nerds are far more annoying than funny. Not that I'm a nerd or anything (I'm more of a geek), but I'd rather the nerds have a little more humanity to them. Funny concept, sloppy execution.

At the end of the program, TiVo recorded a couple of minutes of How I Met Your Mother, which is a show I had heard is pretty good. It actually sucked me in and fortunately I found the entire episode recorded as well.

I assume someone recorded this particular episode because it had a special guest-starring role by the great Britney Spears. Honestly, I thought she was really funny. She actually had a pretty small role, which may have helped, but I really commend her for making me laugh. The biggest surprise was the main guest-starring role by Sarah Chalke, possibly my favorite girl on television. These factors made this ep a really great introduction to the show for me.

I knew that Willow from Buffy was in it, as well as Neil Patrick Harris, but I didn't know that Nick from Freaks and Geeks (and the upcoming Forgetting Sarah Marshall movie) was also a series regular.

I've been meaning to extol the virtues of Freaks and Geeks for a couple of weeks now. Hopefully a post is forthcoming.

Anyway, a quick check on IMDb shows that a good chunk of Freaks and Geeks regulars have appeared on How I Met Your Mother. Apparently, the latter creators are huge, huge fans of the former.

So besides all that casting stuff, I thought the show was plenty funny. Excellent use of flashbacks, editing and timing. Plus, Doogie Howser is hilarious. There are jerks and then there are mean people like a grown up Doogie Howser that make you laugh your head off.

Yeah, so that's what I watched on TV.

fish sandwiches revealed!

Alrighty. This is the long version. I'm gonna cut it up some more and throw in some graphics, but in the meantime, this will give you the required fish sandwich information you'll need in the future.

lent advice

Before I forget, A&W Restaurant has the best fish sandwich in town. It's true. We did a blind multi-variable taste test. Photographic and video evidence are on their way.

I'm still probably going to go to Arctic Circle for my fish sandwiches, though.

prophecy fulfilled?

Anybody catch this sketch on Saturday Night Live two Saturdays ago?


It was Amy Poehler at her wackiest poking fun of some of those "Queer Eye" type fashion shows on Bravo! (also SNL New Girl was in it and I think she has promise). During the sketch, though, Maria pointed out a "curious lump" that she surmises may be some kind of unborn child.


It's common knowledge in the comedy world that Amy Poehler is married to Will Arnett (who is famous as G.O.B. from Arrested Development (and he also plays "Jonathan" in the official ninth best movie from 2007, Hot Rod (although it's quite actually third best))). If, the curious lump is indeed some kind of baby and if said hypothetical baby was actually caused by Poehler's actual husband then...

The forthcoming child will be THE FUNNIEST BABY EVER!

attention total nerds!

Right now, J.R. and I are recording J.R. Watches Star Trek For the First Time. If you're at your computer RIGHT NOW (Ides of March 2008 4 p.m. MST) then you can hop over there and join us live. If you're reading this later (perhaps on Google Reader), then you can't. Sorry and/or you're welcome.

plugged in even harder if that's even possible

Yesterday (3/11 Day) was officially the day that I turned on the A/C to the car. A few years ago I noted that St. Patrick's day was A/C day. Hopefully, the globe really is warming. My bones hurt in the cold.

Anyway, on topic:

When iPod Shuffles came out, I made fun of them hard. I couldn't stand the thought of no display to tell what songs are playing or how much time is left for the song or how much time is elapsed or what album it's from or what track or whatever. I live for stats like that. Some people need to know the media (and meta-media) they're exposed to. So therefore, I thought iPod Shuffles were for chumps.

I bought an iPod Shuffle.


It's partly out of a justified necessity. I don't feel good working out (and snowboarding) with my normal iPod because I've heard that the big iPods have this danger of getting their internal hard drives scratched and useless after too much movement. My old mp3 player worked fine for this, but its uselessness in hooking up with a Mac made an Apple purchase necessary.

It has a cool clip built in so I don't need to buy a holder.

It's only 50 freaking bucks for the one gig model. It's only 70 for the two gig, but I'd go crazy filling up two gigs worth of songs that I can't see the song title to.

I could've gotten a Nano, which is flash-based like the Shuffle, so there's less danger of internal damage. I didn't because of cost and also because I'm kind of changing my tune about the non-display thing. Since I'm planning on using it for physical activities I figured it would actually behoove me to NOT have the tempting distraction of a display.

Here's my first pump-up playlist I entitled "partyyyy" (maybe I should've called it "pumtttt").

1. On A Plain -- Nirvana
2. Sweat -- Oingo Boingo
3. Flash -- Queen
4. Paranoid Android -- Radiohead
5. Guerilla Radio -- Rage Against the Machine
6. House of Jealous Lovers -- The Rapture
7. I Am One -- Smashing Pumpkins
8. Rusty Cage -- Soundgarden
9. I See Red -- Split Enz
10. Hyperactive! -- Thomas Dolby
11. Rag & Bone -- The White Stripes
12. Common People -- William Shatner
13. Date With the Night -- Yeah Yeah Yeahs
14. You're Gonna Miss Me -- The 13th Floor Elevators
15. Party 'Til You Puke -- Andrew W.K.

What do you think of my playlist? Are there other songs that you use to get pumped? What do you think of my songs? If you are unfamiliar with any of these, get familiar, because I really do listen to awesome music.

I took Yvette-a-tette (that's the name of the Shuffle. I named her after my other iPod, Yvette) to the gym today with this playlist. I must say that I only got up through "House of Jealous Lovers." Part of that had to do with my ending my 14-minute run with a little leg stretching while I attempted to let the machine take my pulse. I lifted my right leg up behind me and rested it on the treadmill's side hand-rail. I figured I'd do a little impressive gym stretching and decided to lift my other leg over onto the other hand rail. So I kind of attempted to get into this sort of "flying" position. That's when my left glute pulled. Hard. At least the machine wasn't running because the last thing I needed was to trip on the treadmill (again).

yrdraziw wen

So I'm working on some HTML programming basics and I'm coming across some pretty unique code. Anybody ever try out the "bdo" command? Yeah, it's the first for me as well.

It's funny. I've been thinking about modern computer science lately and I really do relate it to fantasy wizardry in a couple of senses. Perhaps it's because I've been playing so many old-school RPG computer games in the past few months. In those old games magic is performed in two separate ways. One way is with magical items or ingredients such as reagents or wands or something. Another way is through incantation, or simply through words. Although the items to perform the magic are obvious, both methods are still "magic" because the science of it can't be explained by commoners.

Now, fantasy aside, we get two types of people who work technological computer magic. One type uses hardware -- special devices or specific programs they've mastered in ways that bewilder the commoners. The other type uses programming or special words to manipulate the digital universe.


Is it any wonder computer geeks love fantasy role-playing so much?

© jonmadsen ¥28112 ÷ £14

at least itunes approves of us

It took forever, but iTunes finally accepted the J.R. watches Star Trek for the first time podcast. If you enjoy hearing my and J.R.'s and J.R.'s kids' voices, you should really go ahead and hit up our page on iTunes. Also, future live broadcasts of the show will be handled over on the blog page.

For those of you that don't know, my friend J.R. has hated Star Trek for 30 years, but recently decided that he will watch it all. This podcast is simply me helping him cope as he goes through the whole thing. It's not too dead serious. We actually joke around through most of it. If you hate Star Trek you could still listen and have a pretty pleasant time. In fact, hating Star Trek may even help.

Anyway, it's a lot of fun. Everybody should do it. We've already got three episodes in the can in which we talk about the first season of the original series.

So, to sum up:

J.R. watches Star Trek for the first time at iTunes

J.R. watches Star Trek for the first time blog

j.r. watches star trek for the first time volume 3

Planning to do this at 5:00pm MST.

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b-day party pics '08!

Here's a pretty good shot of Maria and me last night at my big giant birthday party.


So the party went down at Skybox. They were extremely accommodating. They got us a big table in less than 15 minutes and everything.

Unfortunately, we had a drastic shortage of party guests.


The hostess and the servers were understandably rude to us because the two of us monopolized a 12-person table for our entire meal. The event was really depressing.

Actually after about five minutes 20 of my friends showed up and we had to get some extra tables too. Monica even brought me a gift: Hotrod on dvd. I think I rated it as my ninth most favorite movie from last year, but honestly I think it's more like the third. I got the halibut and chips. After that we played on the awesome big-person arcade games. I played the life-size basketball shoot three times in a row and got major back sweat from it. I also played the football throw game and beat Clint by three points. Maria beat me on the motorcycle game because I have cycle-turn-dyslexia. There's also the sweet racing game where four of us could race at once. Plus I got to the third screen in Donkey Kong. We had a wonderful time, but I forgot to take pictures of all that.

The hostess and servers weren't really rude. They were, in fact, quite nice.