new blog feature!

Accute eyes may have noticed the new Quicktime play bar over on the right beneath that picture of me. I got the idea from Monica's blog. She does this awesome "song of the week" thing with a little mp3 player embedded right into her blog. I couldn't get the same player working so I had to mess around with, and make up some HTML to enable the same sort of listening experience here. Actually I didn't experiment with her player as much as I could have. I bet it would have worked if I uploaded the songs to the recommended third-party and if I gave them my blog password (which would have done all the work for me, but I was way nervous about doing something like that).

Ok, sorry too much talking. Hit play on the bar over there.

Weeks ago, I decided that the first song definitely had to be "Common People" by His Majesty Bill Shatner. Somewhere along the way the line between laughable camp and straight-up total awsomeness has disintegrated. This song is just sweet. I don't care what you say. So listen to it at work, put your headphones on and crank it up!

I'll change the song every few days.

Here it is down here just in case you're reading an archive and it's now the distant future (what's it like? Do we have warp speed yet?).

me rockin' the shooting range

1910-2008

The wind suddenly picked up outside. It kind of reminds me of the time years and years ago when President Benson died and we had that sudden microburst that uprooted trees.

President Hinckley visited New Zealand when I was there in 1997. He actually opened the massive congregation up for random questions. One guy asked if anything miraculous, like the appearance of angels, took place during a specific revelation given to the church leadership in 1978. He pretty much said it was a strictly spiritual experience consisting of a good feeling. I'm not sure exactly how many miraculous divine things the guy has seen with his own eyes. It could have been quite a few. I'm guessing, however, that most of the time he saw and heard the exact same way we do. It was faith that drove him and it was in faith he succeeded. This certainly doesn't take away from the mantle of prophecy. It's really why his story is so miraculous. Men become great because they spend their lifetimes seeking God, not because God spends mens' lifetimes seeking men.

I don't know exactly what he saw here, but no doubt he's right at home now.

i just don't know what to do with myself

Maria and Rhett are both out of town. What should I do this week?

Btw, I gave Adam, the host of Filmspotting, a ride to the airport yesterday morning. I had a chance to tell him my idea for starting a business where I get everybody I know to give me 50 bucks a month and then they call me whenever they need an errand done during the day. He said it was a brilliant idea, so suck on that everyone who thought it was a dumb idea! Actually to be honest, he said it was a brilliant idea for a film.

You may not believe this, but here is Quentin Tarantino:


Here's a zoom-in. See the chin?


He was just wandering around Park City like a crazy man lookin' for something. I saw him twice. Maria can vouch for me the second time.

i'm hit!

Maria just tagged me.

Here are the instructions:

Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself.
Tag 7 random people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs.
Let each person know that they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. Senior year I asked the student body president to Homecoming dance using the same gigantic Hershey's kiss that a different girl used to answer me the previous year for Prom.

2. Before the internet and before owning The Complete Book of M*A*S*H, I used to write in what I called The M*A*S*H Log to determine what time of the year my favorite episodes would be on.

3. I was reading The Grapes of Wrath right up until I had to take the final in high school. I came really close to finishing. I seriously had only half a page left before the teacher made us put our books away for the test, so I didn't get to that one really creepy scene. You know the one!

4. I've thrown up in class on three separate occasions that I can remember. Once after coming in off the merry-go-round, once with the flu and once after an allergic reaction to the codeine prescribed to me for a broken arm.

5. I have journal entries of me wanting to be a ninja a good 12 or 13 years before ninjas became the bee's knees.

6. Back when my mother and I moved back into the family condo with my other two brothers, I moved into the large master bedroom with one of my brothers, my other brother took a normal bedroom and my mom took the other normal bedroom. When my other two brothers moved out I didn't graciously let my mom have the master bedroom, but actually annexed the other spare room while also staying in the master bedroom.

7. I am the seventh child in my family and was born in 1977 on the 27th of the month at 12:07 p.m. weighing seven pounds and seven ounces. Years later my 77th favorite movie would turn out to be Se7en.

I am tagging:

1. The Jon Madsen Movie Commentary Podcast
2. Blogging Forgotten Realms
3. A Game a Week
4. Locke vs. Demosthenes
5. Peter and Nichole
6. Brad and Chelsea
7. Gluten-Free Girl

So everybody do it, hard! Otherwise I'll plotz!

Also, apologies to Abel, because I still haven't gotten around to his tag and that was like a year ago. I didn't really know what this tagging thing was all about back then.

getting with the times.

My new year's resolution is to pronounce this year as "twenty-oh-eight" rather than "two-thousand-eight."

fff 9 and 10

Last week Maria's mom let me partake in a Christmas Olive Garden gift certificate extravaganza. Just a couple of hours ago Maria made me a yummy pizza bread thingie. I've had them before, but this one was the best.

welcome back everybody

I'm super glad you were able to find me again. In case you're wondering, I had to transfer all my rexbasior.com files from my old server to my new one. Presently I don't know where any of them are. I figured it would be a good time to finally switch over to a blogspot account. The real rough thing, though, is that all my pictures are gone. Even when I can find them on whatever server they're on, I'm pretty sure I'll still need to manually re-upload them to all my entries because the entries are already scripted for the wrong location. I just spent a good chunk of time doing just that for some of the recent stuff. I anticipate it will take a month or so to re-upload all the photos from this last year alone. Before that, I'm not even sure since the photos I used weren't from the computer I publish from right now.

Fortunately, the last couple of days have been semi-warm. It's been so cold lately. It's been too cold to go out. It's been too cold to dine. It's been too cold to think.

I don't shower much.

top 32 songs of 2007!

32. "Less Talk More Rokk" by Freezepop
I guess I can blame my nephews for unlocking this song on Guitar Hero II and then getting it stuck in my head over the summer.

31. "Tarantula" by Smashing Pumpkins
Ok, but without Iha and that other girl, aren't they just another version of ZWAN?

30. "thnks fr th mmrs" by Fallout Boy
Fine. Even though they seem like they represent everything that bugs me, I still tend to like most of their songs.

29. "Shadowplay" by The Killers
This is a Joy Division cover and I've been listening to a whole lotta Joy Division this year because of the big movie (see previous post).

28. "Men's Needs" by The Cribs
This has a pretty dancy indie beat. Plus, the singers switch on the chorus. Keeps us as listeners on our toes.

27. "Bodysnatchers" by Radiohead
I'll be honest. I don't actually remember how this one goes because I forgot to download it when the album was free. I gotta give props to my boys radiohead though.

26. "Big Girls Don't Cry" by Fergie
This wins the award for lamest AND most fun lyrics to sing. Everybody sing: "I'm gonna miss you like a child misses a blanket."

25. "1234" by Feist
The whispery then jubilant dynamic works. Also, Apple demanded that we all heard it a lot.

24. "The Sweet Escape" by Gwen Stefani
Wasn't this from last year?

23. "Girlfriend" by Avril Lavigne
Now that she's finally old enough to be out of high school, it's refreshing to finally hear her sing the sort of song she should have sung in high school.

22. "Rehab" by Amy Winehouse
Not super great, but it's different enough to enjoy singing to.

21. "Heinrich Maneuver" by Interpol
Um, all their songs sound similar, but at least it's a sound i like.

20. "Business Time" by Flight of the Conchords
Great comedic songs aren't just funny, but also great and soulful even if they weren't funny.

19. "Brianstorm" by Arctic Monkeys
I bought their album when I couldn't find Arcade Fire. It was pretty much the next thing in the alphabet. Sweet album though.

18. "What Goes Around Comes Around" by Justin Timberlake
You probably liked it too. It's serious stuff.

17. "Gimme More" by Britney Spears
Less serious. She's a trainwreck, but c'mon. It's Britney, bitch.

16. "Iran So Far" by Andy Samberg and Adam Levine
Yeah, I think that Ahmadinejad looks like Jake Gyllenhall too! Funny. Funny. Funny. "I know there are no gays in Iran, but this is New York City, baby!"

15. "Grace Kelly" by Mika
This Queen homage is a pretty good one, but not quite awesome enough for me to go pick up this cd after winning it from the radio station.

14. "Myriad Harbour" by New Pornographers
Here's a real classy band. I'm serious; pay no attention to the title. Saw them live and they can really kick it out. They're like a Canadian supergroup.

13. "Young Folks" by Peter Bjorn and John
Most effective use of whistling since "Patience" by Guns 'n Roses.

12. "Stronger" by Kanye West
This was more of a direct lift from the source material than usual, but it's nice to hear the guy head more electronic. He does it well. It helps me consider crossing genres more.

11. "Intervention" by Arcade Fire
This song is pretty inspiring. It sort of makes me want to stop working in the field, put my plowshare down and just sing in protest.

10. "Statues" by Foo Fighters
Dave on piano? Weird. They're looking and sounding really 70s, which I think is pretty cool. This is a song Wings should have written.

9. "LDN" by Lily Allen
I'm not sure why Amy Winehouse is so much more popular than this bird. This song just brightens me up. It's like white chick reggae.

8. "The Bird and the Worm" by The Used
I really never liked anything by them after their first album until this throat bleeder came along.

7. "Dashboard" by Modest Mouse
They've recently hired Johnny Marr, the guitarist from the Smiths. How cool is that? Anway, this song is way more fun to growl along to than any other one of theirs I've heard in the past.

6. "Bleed It Out" by Linkin Park
Every few years a Linkin Park song comes out that I really like and I'm slightly ashamed. This one has a steady charging rhythm propelled by the continuous switching of rockin' and chant rappin.'

5. "Identity Theft" by Nellie Mckay
My main girl always has a spot on the top 32! She really got more lively on her cd this year, with an even more retro sound.

4. "Hang Me Up to Dry" by Cold War Kids
These cats have a pretty unique perspective on music-making. I may have listened to their cd more than any other this year.

3. "Supermassive Black Hole" by Muse
Muse is so freakin' hot right now. I love this one since it's a lot more groovy than rocky. Have you tried "Knights of Cydonia" on Guitar Hero yet? Sweeeeeet.

2. "When Your Mind's Made Up" by Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova
This was taken from the recording session scene in Once. When everything comes together, it's just one more of several musical highlights from the film. I really wish Control had a similar scene. It also helps that I find it the most beautiful song from the soundtrack.

1. "Rag and Bone" by The White Stripes
Jack and Meg loot an old southern estate, and it royally rocks. Just listen to it. The whole album is actually pretty good, maybe one of their best.

Anyway, that's it. It's never quite as detailed as the top movies. I probably forgot 32 or so songs as well. Lemme know what I missed.

top 32 movies of 2007!

Click on the image! You know you want to.

32. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
One of my pet peeves involving talking about movies is when people say, "It makes me so mad because that's two hours that I'll never get back!" You can say that about any movie, not just the ones you hate. In fact, you can say that about any activity. Maybe you look at your cel phone and then two hours later you check the time again. Do you actually say out loud, "I'll never get those two hours back!" Fact is, the clock is ticking, and we're gonna die of heart disease 50 years from now whether or not the two hours was spent in a good or bad movie. They're both wastes of time to a certain degree. Just because we sat through a bad movie doesn't mean we would've administered to the wounds of orphans had we not gone to the theater that day. The last two hours will always be two hours you don't get back. When I grade movies for my end year list I use a letter grade scale. Usually, every movie is passable in the sense that I didn't feel punished by watching it, so "D" tends to be my lowest grade. Anyway, I've never come closer to uttering the phrase that peeves me than while watching this movie. Pirates did not receive a D. Perhaps I was in a bad mood, because most of my friends weren't nearly as enraged as I was; but I was actually angry that I was in the theater during most of this boring series of moving images. I could leave it at that, but let me just ask quickly: what was the deal with that supposed "pump-up" speech delivered by Keira Knightly to the other pirates? They weren't even able to join the fight. Why was the speech delivered? Meh.

31. Transformers
I must be getting old because the worst movies on the list this year were two of the biggest blockbusters. I do remember enjoying this a lot when I saw it, but it bugged me and wore down on me more and more as I thought about it later. That last battle scene was pretty cool, I admit, but it did have some flaws. Probably the biggest reason I'm betraying the transforming robot concept that really was my life from 1984-1987 is because the robots themselves had no heart or personality. Did anyone come out of the theater and say, "Wow, which transformer was your favorite? Mine was totally Barricade!" Maybe people did, but I'd be surprised. They were really more like props than characters.

30. Smokin' Aces
Didn't this come out last year? It must've been the first movie I saw all year. I saw it with my pop culture team in California. We picked it because the other two guys had already seen Children of Men. I still haven't seen that one. Anyway, this shoot 'em up tries to follow a certain style that doesn't work and has too many characters with dead ends. Plus, sheesh, is Jeremy Piven the most annoying person ever or what?

29. The Dance
You probably don't know, but this was an LDS picture that came out early in the year. It's about three different couples of different age groups on the night of the "big dance." For being such a huge event, I was really amazed at how lame the event turned out to be. Maria had a good point in being annoyed at the unnatural line deliveries of the oldest couple.

28. Spiderman 3
Strangely, I've never been a very big fan of this franchise. I definitely prefer the old cartoon with Iceman and Firestar. Obviously this one was bloated with not enough room to really draw us into all the characters, which is sad because I've been looking forward to the Venom storyline. Fortunately that part was probably my favorite; not because of Venom, but because of Topher Grace. He's actually got some watchable charisma. Makes me wish he was originally Spiderman instead of Tobey. I never understood Tobey Mcguire's raves for his version of Spiderman.

27. Blades of Glory
Didn't hate it. It had one really funny part, but for the most part it was just a pretty good time I'll never get back.

26. In the Land of Women
I stayed for Adam Brody. I fled from Meg Ryan. Actually, I sort of involved myself in the watching of this, but looking back all I remember is some estrogenal confusion.

25. Ocean's 13
Everyone else on earth felt betrayed by Ocean's 12, but this was the one that offended me. In my mind, Soderbergh tried something new with 12, and then sold out with 13 by just making the masses happy by feeding them the same elements of the first movie. It wasn't really as original or cool as the first two. Canning Julia Roberts may have helped though.

24. Lars and the Real Girl
I sort of feel guilty for not liking this as much as most people I know who saw it. Obviously this movie spoke to a lot of people in a way that must have evaded me. There are two or three things that I really can't overcome. This was my first Ryan Gosling movie. Presently he's the critics' total darling snook-'ems. I have no doubt that his performance in Half Nelson was far more gripping than his performance here. He seemed to be channeling David Arquette. Also, the lack of perceivable human conflict made most of the action redundant. This guy with delusions brings his problem into a series of different town situations and the townspeople all act... exactly the same. It sure is inspiring that these people are so accepting, but the episodic nature doesn't do much to scroll forward the gears of the development. My biggest problem with the movie though is its use of humor. I personally feel that when the unusual delusion of Lars is introduced it's meant to be played for laughs. The filmmakers don't make an obvious mood change to designate when we're no longer supposed to find the delusion humorous and many people in our theater found themselves laughing when they were supposed to find the situation touching. Perhaps they had less "film intelligence" than many others we were watching it with, but I personally think that the filmmakers purposely wanted the humorous/touching line to be vague. As a result, audience members wind up with "hindsight guilt" for their initial impulses toward humor -- even though that's exactly how it was meant to be presented. Some filmgoers, no doubt, would say it's an effective storytelling tool. I sort of think it's deceptive and insulting. Actually, I'm sure most would probably say they noticed no such thing. I guess sometimes I'm known for noticing things that don't exist.

23. Sydney White
It seems like there was a pretty funny part in this. Can't remember. I tend to sort of like old stories that are vaguely re-told in present-day.

22. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
They proved a pretty good point by making the longest Harry Potter book into the shortest movie. Changing up the directors also really helps. It keeps the "V Rule" that says that the fifth of any movie series is the worst one (see Star Wars, Rocky, Friday the 13th) at bay. Of course my favorite part from the book (Snape's flashback of being tormented by Harry's dad) was handled in like 4 seconds here. Unfortunately, this was one of my least favorite Harry books, so how good could the movie have possibly been?

21. 300
I really don't a huge level of digital effects and I really think most moviegoers don't. Of course this movie does a good point in making something interesting out of making an entire movie using digital image processes rather than just the special effects.

20. Enchanted
I just remembered this one. I'll have to just stick it in here.

19. Crazy Love
I just saw this one last night. It's a documentary about a weird girl and a crazy guy and their treatment of each other over the course of four decades. I won't even say anything more than that because the actual story hinges on two or three AMAZING events that I already knew before I saw it. Fallout from these events is shown in the movie discussed on major television talk shows, which kind of makes me wonder what the need of making this movie was when the material has obviously been covered elsewhere. I'm sure, however, that if I didn't know what was coming, this relationship would have had me absorbed to no end.

18. Disturbia
This built a steady tension well. I really appreciate that enough restraint was used in the first half to enable that.

17. Live Free or Die Hard
I think the lack of a good villain didn't quite put this one in the same league as the other ones. Also, I wish they'd stick more to what's worked in the past. The vast expanse isn't nearly as thrilling as the patented Die Hard closed spaces.

16. The Bourne Ultimatum
This was pretty good as a thoughtful action movie, but I'm really surprised it's made so many critical top ten lists. I get sick of saying this, but even though the hand-held shaky-cam is a trademark of the series, leaving it out would have put it in my top ten. Kudos for actually managing a high-speed chase in Manhattan, though.

15. Breach
On the other hand, even more kudos to Breach for somehow managing to put excitement into a traffic jam rather than a high-speed chase. This was an excellent case study about the most notorious traitor spy in the history of the United States and the appeal of Catherine Zeta-Jones (who strangely doesn't appear in the film).

14. Ratatouille
Pixar served up par for them, which is merely near perfection. Maria and I laughed the hardest we laughed all year during the "Lifted" short that played at the front.

13. Sicko
Most people I know are Michael Moore haters and I know better than to simply believe all the facts presented, but at least they were presented in an entertaining way. He'd certainly be a lot more effective in getting his side across if he did a better job of telling the other side. If anything, the movie got me to think about healthcare. Maybe I'll come up with a better solution someday.

12/11. Grindhouse
Since Planet Terror and Death Proof were released separately on dvd, I'll go ahead and treat them like two different movies. Death Proof was very well made, and that end car sequence was pretty amazing, but it takes a really long time to get there (especially after watching another movie entirely before the droning exposition even begins). Most critics I read or listened to felt that the car-chase Death Proof was far superior to the zombie-infection Planet Terror. I relinquish all my critical cred by stating that I think Terror has the edge. It had a lot of funny and a lot fun on the way to the cheesy last shot showing the remnants of society as a post-apocolyptic desert caravan.

10. The Menagerie
Maybe this Star Trek episode isn't technically a movie, but this year was probably the first time it was shown in a movie theater. They really cleaned up the image and added some amazingly subtle effects that made this feel every bit as enticing as any film that came out this year. This particular episode is probably closer to an episode of The Twilight Zone than Star Trek and the word "cerebral" is often thrown around in describing it. Classy intellectualism aside, the real appeal is the high drama not only elicited by the great William Shatner, but also by the old Enterprise captain, Jeffrey Hunter. I think I talked about it more here.

9. The Simpsons
We just watched this in New York again. It would have been nice if they cut some of the dopey characters and instead focused on more of my favorites like Mr. Burns, Lenny & Carl, Gil, etc. It's still pretty stacked with laughs. I've never heard Peter Nash laugh so hard. My new favorite part is when Homer dumps the animal waste into the lake, sees what he's done and jumps into the back seat of the car, telling the pig to "Drive! Drive! Drive!" I wonder what my favorite part will be next time I see it.

8. I Am Legend
I'm a huge fan of Omega Man, so I was very surprised that I Am Legend was closer to it than it was to Transformers. The cgi on the "night seekers" was a mess, but the film was saved in a pretty good execution. I really liked how we're slowly given revelations about what had happened in the past, and although the figures of the enemies was a visual problem, the scene where Will Smith sneaks into their little hive is plenty scary.

7. Juno
As delightful as Juno was I was sorely let down because of the incredible critical and festival response. Perhaps I thought it would be more "life changing." No matter though. Plenty funny with awesome delivery. Trust me, I'll be using the term "food baby" several times in the next year.

6. Hot Rod
I'm not ashamed. I thought it was brilliant. Raising money to save a guy's life to punch him in the face? Brilliant. Homage to the warehouse scene in Footloose? Brilliant. Falling down a hill more than the obvious amount of times? Brilliant. Having the 80s band Asia do the soundtrack? Brilliant.

5. Control
I didn't have the best time watching this movie, but I can't deny its excellence. I thought I'd appreciate it because it dealt with a band I like and it was directed by my favorite music video director. Actually it was far far less than a music video than I would have thought. In fact there wasn't even that sequence where they lay down the tracks and everything comes together and we get to share in the musical experience (I really wish it did have that too). No, what I really remember is seeing Ian Curtis slip into a tortuous whirlpool of anxiety, insecurity and depression. The guy was no hero, but I sure felt rough for the guy and his wife. I wrote about it more here.

4. No Country For Old Men
I don't know, maybe I'm ranking it too well. Like Juno, I was sort of let down by all the critical acclaim I heard before seeing it. It was pretty effective though. Javier Bardem was really really scary. He had a really really scary haircut too. I'd probably feel more justified putting it in this really excellent position if I could just come to terms with the last third. Lots of people are complaining about the ending and I didn't have a problem so much with the very ending. I did, however, feel that the rug was pulled out from under us quite a bit too soon. The decline at the end was less fun when the tension still wasn't on the brink.

3. Waitress
Ugh. I've been typing for hours now and I could sure go for a pie. I never watched Felicity, but I just might because Keri Russel is wonderful in this. I have watched Firefly so Nathan Fillion is already like my favorite man. Even Andy Griffith reminds me of my stepdad. This movie is just sugary sweet -- like a good piece of pie -- and I don't even eat pie usually.

2. King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
I was really close to putting this in as number one. It's far more my kind of movie: a documentary about oldschool arcade game championships. If you don't know, the movie is about two very different men. Steve is a very nice, down-on-his luck novice gamer. Billy is the arrogant champion as aloof as Michael Scott and a haircut even more humorous than Javier Bardem's in No Country For Old Men. Billy should be named "villain of the year." When Maria and I went, I was sort of worried that the documentary would reveal the loserness of videogaming, but thankfully and gloriously the serious focus on the competion was played completely straight. Coming out of the theater all she could talk about was how much she hated Billy Mitchell. Despite not being a Christopher Guest-type mockumentary, the movie is packed to the brim with genuine and welcome humor. My only complaint is that the filmmakers could have let Billy's villainy stand on its own. They didn't need to paint him villainous as obvious as they did.

1. Once
Somehow, this year, the sensitive musician movie came out on top over the one about the video games. We just watched this one again and it's totally not perfect. At times it feels a little bit draggy, but it totally had some kind of magic that absolutely no other movie had this year. Watching it the second time, I noticed that I sort of liked it for one of the big reasons I disliked Lars and the Real Girl, which was a sort of lack of antagonists. Obviously, I might have some problems with my opinionating. On the other hand, it is a different story and worked in a different way. In this one, the power of this guy's music brings everyone together. Everything doesn't work out perfectly. There are conflicts to overcome, but by the end, all characters are more fulfilled by what the main characters have created together rather than what's been dealt with. Right now, I don't know very many people who have seen this, so I'd encourage you to see it and hate it if you can. It is very different. Different enough that I'm sure it doesn't fit everyone's taste, but definitely worth seeing.

Some movies I didn't get around to seeing that I'm surprised about were:

Zodiac, The Hoax, Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters, Hot Fuzz, 1408, Sunshine, Rescue Dawn, Into the Wild, Southland Tales...

Were any any good?

I wanna send out a special thank you to the Broadway and Regency theaters here in Salt Lake. This year I broke some records in the amount of independent films I saw.

fff 8: birthday

This past Friday was Laura's birthday party so her mom made some chicken and some dessert and jazzy stuff like that. I ate it. As a total bonus, later that night we went to Cafe Rio and I filled up my punch card, thus enabling a free meal on a later date. Ah, the grandeur of Free Food Friday! Not only do I get free food, but I get free food credit!

airing of grievances '07

Another Festivus is come and gone and now for the Airing of Grievances.

Ice: I can't believe I forgot you last year! I hate you and I hate everyone who gives me more ice than liquid in my drink. It's winter. I have no need for ice-cold anything. Plus, I can't deposit a gushing stream of liquid down my throat when my lips are forcibly clenched to prevent shards of ice from being swallowed whole. Ice from ice machines also smells funny. It does. Maybe this is why.

Airports: Get some more chairs! Also, because of security scares, I'm not allowed to leave my luggage. That means I have to take my luggage to the bathroom with me. There's no way in Hell I'm going to let my bags touch an airport bathroom floor. The result is a meticulous and painful balancing act that, I can only assume is extremely funny to witness, is still something I would love to not participate in again.

Cold (temperature): I hate you.

Cold (illness): I hate you. I had like four colds in the past couple of months. Obviously you stupid colds haven't heard of physical or diplomatic immunity.

Writer's Strike: I feel for the plight of you writers, but I am still grieved.

Waiters in New York: You provide the same service as in Utah, but you servers wait for us to ask you to bring the check. Don't you want to usher us out? There are people waiting! Sure, you're probably being nice by providing some post-meal personal time for us, but that's not what I was raised with, so you're wrong! It's very disappointing.

Anxiety: You caused my favorite living band to not come to Utah, thus dashing the most anticipated live event of the year! You also paralyze me in encounters with new people and prevent me from putting people I know on this very list!

Diagonals: Utah streets are very well organized. So what's up with American Fork being all diagonally and shiz? And how about Fort Union and Union Boulevard not just being all diagonal when they're not supposed to be, but actually having the same name? Don't even get me started on you two!

The west side: All you sprawl from Jordan Landing (stop being so similar in name to Jordon Commons) up to the airport with your perfectly-lined up streets, I'm talkin' to you. You're boring.

Coupons: Stop expiring! Especially the big ones that I had to purchase big things to get (I'm looking at you 25% off at R.E.I. with a complimentary lift pass to The Canyons that expired a month ago).

Thief who stole my car stereo: Get a job hippie!

Transformers: How horribly grieving it is that the movie I looked forward to for 20 years has, the more I think about it, become the biggest movie disappoinment I've seen this year.

fff 7 - business expense.

This past Friday I tagged along on Maria's business trip. We ate at this place called VYNL, which was really really good. The menus were old LP covers. Solid. She got reimbersed by her company (as well as all our meals on Saturday and Sunday).

nyc christmas video!

Merry Christmas.

take!

Christmas can be hard when you get to a point where you debit more than you come away with.

Anyway, I'm doing something a little bit different for gift giving this year. I'm getting something for my girlfriend, my parents, my girlfriend's parents, the two guys I live with and maybe everyone who gives me a gift and THAT'S IT -- officially.

I did, however, buy a bunch of gifts for ANYONE ELSE who wants them. So if you're reading right now, come over to my house and pick up a gift. Tell my friends about it (maybe not necessarily your friends -- it'd be nice if everyone who picks up a gift is actually someone I'm acquainted with). You won't know what you'll be getting, since the presents are wrapped. They vary from sort of good to nearly awesome, so try to choose wisely. This is an experimental year. I think it'll work. I still have some presents I purchased last year that never got into the right hands. I'll be out of town from Thursday to Sunday, so maybe try to pick them up before then.

fff 6: double my pleasure!

This week I got a double bill of Free Food Friday. First, work gave out croissant sandwiches with chips. I think they were for clients or something. I was wearing headphones at the time I grabbed one, so that probably helped my looking the part of ignorance on the matter. Later in the evening was Maria's work party. Creamy chicken, roast beef, mashed potatoes, cheesy potatoes, rice pilaf, broccoli -- nummy! There was also free OJ at the bar. Oh, and also there was a brittle magician and some Rockband harmony. It was so freakin' adequate.

Btw, relating to the last post, I also want instructional books for Christmas. Perhaps computer programming for stuff I have no knowledge of, like SQL.

give!

It's time to throw in some ideas of what I want for Christmas. I'm happy to report that I got three out of the seven things I asked for last year (even if I did buy them myself). The following have convenient Amazon.com links, so don't be afraid to go all webby!

1. Behringer Miniamp AMP800 Ultra-Compact 4-Channel Stereo Headphone Amplifier
Since we got Rockband in our house we have the problem of not being able to hear the music over the tapping of the real-world drum pads (and most likely whatever other ruckus is going on in the house). With this miniamp, we could plug four sets of headphones into it, blast ourselves silly with music and still leave the rest of the house relatively quiet.
2. 40 Years of the X-Men
This is a dvd of pretty much every X-Men comic ever. You need to get it for Mac. Actually I'm pretty sure it's Mac and PC compatible.
3. Super Mario Galaxy
I've heard that this is like the best Wii game out right now. I've heard Super Mario Party 8 is a blast too.
4. Bioshock
I downloaded the demo of this and it's amazing. Imagine if you will that an Ayn Rand type figure built an underwater utopia in the depths of the ocean. Now imagine that the society failed and is now over-run with mutants for some reason. Now imagine crashing there and enjoying all the objectivism art decor while mutants try to kill you. Yeah, it's pretty sweet. Get the Xbox 360 version.

5. The Complete Peanuts 1967-1968
Of course I would love getting any of The Complete Peanuts series. I like this one because Violet, my favorite Peanuts character ever, is on the cover. There's also a new Charles Schultz biography I'd love to read.6. Star Trek The Original Series - The Complete First Season (Combo HD DVD and Standard DVD) [HD DVD] (1966)
This one is tricky. Star Trek has already been released on standard dvd. Don't get that version. It has to be the dual version of HD on one side of the discs and SD on the other. It's the only version with the updated effects that they've started to ratchet into the old show in the past couple of years. I think it works great -- much much better that the updated effects Lucas did for the old Star Wars movies. They're way subtler. So don't bother getting me the original standard dvds. The link should point you right to them. Here's a little hint: the version I want is way way more expensive than the other one.
And once again, if you don't like anything on the list, check out last year's or feel free to get me something on my Christmas wishlist from 2004 or last year (with the exceptions of Home Movies Seasons 1-4, M*A*S*H Season 4, Music from the O.C. Mix #2 on cd, Interpol: Antics on cd, Dance Dance Revolution for the PS2, Karaoke Revolution for the PS2, snowboard boots, basketball shoes, New Order: A Collection on dvd, bathrobe, customized Converse shoes, Star Wars Battlefront II for PS2, PS2 controller, The Klingon Dictionary, Auto Repair for Dummies and Fargo Rock City)

Consider yourselves lucky. There's so much stuff I want. I walked into Barnes and Noble the other day and seriously wanted like ten items on the table of items designed to catch customers' eyes. Sometimes I wish I were you.

free food friday 5!

Butter mashed potatoes, beef stew, lettuce salad, homeless shelter turkey, stuffing and mixed veggies.

Some caterers were at work during lunch. I don't know who the meal was for or why, but I partook.

Several hours later, I realized the majesty and magic of the day.

one "art" please

Yesterday I considered wearing a hat. I was scheduled to tour the Art Institute of Utah and I wanted to look more studenty and less bald.

I've always thought that it would be fun to go to an art school. I think it was ever since I first saw Some Kind of Wonderful and the high school guidance counselor in that movie suggested that Keith go to an art school. I was like, there are such things as art schools? Neato.

Most of the tour consisted of an in-depth interview. That's been happening a lot lately. I hate those. I was leaning toward the "interactive media design" major. The curriculum has stuff like scripting languages, logic, web authoring, editing and anthropology (strangely).

The tour certainly would have been more interesting if it was during school hours and the classrooms were open. The ones I did see had the slanty desks, though. The library had hardly any books at all. Like 30. My tour guide, Lauren, said that the school was more concerned with the equipment. Hmm. You know what I love about art school? No reading. I actually brought my camera, but also felt like too much of an idiot to take photos.

The restaurant there should be pretty fun. It's like an experimental restaurant where the culinary students can practice, sort of like those hair schools where you can get your haircut cheap. I'll definitely do that.

I'm sure I'll enjoy the restaurant. That'll probably be all the school I'll enjoy, based on the bottom line.