I am procrastinating at so many damn things right now... My room is still only half painted, along with the hall and the extra bedroom. I need to put some extra joists on the upper part of the deck at Fort Awesome or I swear someone's going to break through at the party the weekend after next. I have ten live Cracker shows that I said I'd distribute and still haven't burned or shipped. (I swear I'm going to get them out on Monday.) I still need to get all my static pages on this site on to the new layout. While I'm at that, I need to import all my old archives into Movable Type... From the front page of this site, you'd think I just started blogging five days ago. And of course, you all know I'm Old School...
So much stuff to do, so many damn trips out of town. I'm really looking forward to tonight's camping trip, but hoping I can get out of the canoe trip that is tentatively planned for next weekend. Of course, even if it is canceled, I'll probably just sit around and watch TV or play video games all weekend, but I would like to finish up the work on the house before the party.
Speaking of which, anybody in the Kansas City area is welcome at the party Saturday, June 15 at Fort Awesome in Shawnee, KS. If you need directions to Fort Awesome, Email me.
I completely failed to do my packing last night. After my early racquetball game I came home and watched my nightly two episodes of The Simpsons. After that, there were a ton of good movies on. The many movie channels I have were simultaneously running "Patriot Games", "Soylent Green", "Raising Arizona", "Proof of Life", and "Airplane!". I kept switching back and forth between those until it finally hit me that I only had about three hours of sleep Wednesday night. I went to bed at around 9:00, confident that my alarm would wake me up at around 5:30 and I would have no problem getting up. Well, I don't even remember it going off, and I slept later than I was hoping to. So I didn't get packed. Besides that, I forgot to put the clothes from the washer in the dryer. I'll have to pick out the shirts and shorts I'm going to want for the trip and dry them while I pack, and I'll probably end up bringing them damp. But it's going to be hot down there, so it should be fine if I hang them up when I get in.
I am certain it is going to be an excellent weekend camping, though. The campground is divided into sections. There's a "family" section, a "quiet hours" section, and an "up all night drinking and carousing" section. We're in the "up all night like Gilbert Gottfried" section.
My Bonnaroo ticket came in last night. It's nice. It looks like a rave flyer. After Bonnaroo, no more big trips for me. At least not for a month or so.
I've got a few more things to wrap up and then I'm on off. Have a good weekend everybody.
Welcome to Zombo.com. Anything is possible at Zombo.com. Even buying Zombo.com t-shirts now, apparently...
I wish my life was this interesting.
TNN will be producing new episodes of Ren & Stimpy, and John K. is back for them. Will they be good? Probably not... Will I watch them? Probably...
I'm heading down to the River Ranch Resort to camp this weekend. On Saturday we're going on an 8-hour canoe trip. That'll be the longest I've ever done. I'd like to go on one of the multiple-day trips some time this summer, but I'm not sure that I'm going to sneak that in this year.
So I need to pack tonight... Let's see. I'm going to need to bring:
Tent
Tarp
Sleeping Bag
Pillow
Cooler
Ice
Beer
Hot Dogs
Buns
Condiments
Flashlight
Propane
Portable Stove
Lantern
Clothes
I guess that should about do it. I should be able to locate that stuff and get it packed this evening. Checking the weather it looks like it's going to be nice. Hot and dry, which should make being on the river about perfect. Looking forward to the trip...
Sorry, bad attempt at a Big Smith reference for the title...
Well, I think I'm going to make it through the day. I am very, very glad that my 8:00PM racquetball partner called to cancel, though. I'm going on a camping/canoe trip tomorrow and I need to find all my gear and get the car packed tonight. If I played 8:00 racquetball, I probably wouldn't be ready to get to sleep until after midnight tonight. As it is, I'll probably be in bed by 9:00, and I am very much looking forward to that.
Hmm... I think I'd be OK with going out in Missouri regularly on Wednesdays, but I'm definitely going to have to head out earlier and be on the way home by midnight at the latest. I can handle this every once in a while, but certainly not like I once could. Also, I work a lot earlier at this job than my last. My last job people came in to the office anywhere between 8:00 and 10:00. I was often the first one in, and I rarely made it in before 8:30. Here, I like to try to make it in by 7:00, but that hasn't been happening much lately. Hours are flexible here, but I prefer to get in early and leave early. It also works better since those are about the same hours my team works.
Verdict: Go to bed before 3:00AM from now on. That is still possible even if I do go out in Missouri. I don't know why I'm so hesitant to make that fifteen to twenty minute drive...
In to work, early even... Kind of tired. A little hungry. I'm very confused.
Damn... I wish I remembered those ramblings of the principal at the end of Billy Madison. Speaking of which, why are there so many infidels out there that prefer Happy Gilmore to Billy Madison? Any what is John Turturro doing in Adam Sandler's next movie?
Here is a list of plot keywords for The Big Lebowski. The only one I don't understand is "dance".
I need to get to sleep, but I felt a quick entry was in order. I went out for my normal bar night at Rusty's Last Chance. Plenty of women there, but kind of a college type crowd, the music is mostly hip-hop, not to my liking, and it's too loud to talk besides... After about an hour I was tired of it, so I decided to go into town.
I threw some Big Smith in the CD player and headed out to Harry's, which is rapidly becoming one of my favorite bars. It did not disappoint, with a friendly crowd and Talking Heads, Bob Marley and Radiohead on the speakers within the first fifteen minutes I was there. I ended up talking to a guy who was heading out to see Onward Crispin Glover. They're a band I've seen in the listings around here but have never gone to see. I decided I'd head out and catch the show after I finished my beer.
After I did finish my beer I walked in the general direction of where the band was going to be playing, passing by Blaney's, a blues type of club. I had to stop to get some cash, then I went up to The Hurricaine, where Onward Crispin Glover was playing. I got as far as the door before realizing that that was really not my type of music. The song they were playing was some late 80's sounding power ballad, so I doubled back.
I took out my ID and cash to head into Blaney's, but there was no doorman or cover charge. So I grabbed a coke and sat down. It was some mediocre blues combo, and they only played two songs before they took a break. When they returned from the break, the musicians were all different, and it was only then that I noticed that about 85% of the people in the bar had instruments by their sides. Apparently Blaney's has an open jam session every Wednesday night. The players for the rest of the night were pretty damn good. They played one song that I've heard Steve Kimock play before (he lists it as "Meters Jam"), and plenty of good stuff that I didn't recognize. They then closed, and I wandered towards my car.
I stopped off back at Harry's to kill a bit more time and drink another coke, then headed out from there. I stopped off for a slice of pizza and went home. Now I am home and need to go to bed. I think I'm going to start making Wednesday nights my night out in Missouri, though. It was a beautiful night, and it felt wonderful to wander around outside in shorts. I think I'm probably done with Rusty's, but we'll see how well work goes tomorrow before I think about making this a regular appointment.
Anyway, I liked the crowd much better over there than the normal Rusty's crowd. Folks were friendly, the music was at a volume where you could actually talk, and it really isn't that long a drive. But it was a late night. Time for sleep now.
After playing Supremacy this weekend, I'm itching for more board gaming. I don't really know too many people up here who enjoy board games, at least not of the complexity of Supremacy or even Axis & Allies. I do have some computer gamer friends that I might be able to talk into playing, but I haven't really tried.
Anyway, I just noticed on Avalon Hill's website that there is a new version of Risk called Risk 2210. Has anybody played this one? From the small amount of research I've done it sounds interesting. There are different types of units, different rules for amphibious attacks, and at least some sort of energy market. I'll have to do some more looking in to this one.
I watched the HBO Special In Memorium: New York City, 9/11/01 last night and got pissed off all over again. Pissed off firstly at the sheer evil of that act, and pissed off secondly that not even nine months later I had practically forgotten. Seeing that footage again reminded me of the scale of that attack. One of the images that really struck me was a shot of a bridge leaving Manhattan absolutely choked with people fleeing the city after the second plane struck, but before the towers collapsed.
Apparently Bagwell and Biggio weren't too impressed with their performances last friday either. Actually, Biggio did all right, didn't he? (Thanks Fark...)
I was asked where I found that old SVN web page. Yes, as a matter of fact the server that hosted that web site is no longer up, but it is archived at the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. They certainly don't have complete records, and a lot of graphics are missing, but you can find a lot of old web pages on there. Did you have an old web page in college that you'd rather forget you ever did? Take a look, it may just be archived there.
They do have this site's second layout archived, along with the old KRBE website that I did a long time ago. That design didn't last long... It was god-awful ugly, and I'm happy that the horrible background graphic I came up with isn't stored in the archive. Can any of you find any old stuff you've done and are willing to admit to?
I flew down to Houston last Friday early in the morning. A friend picked me up at the airport. After heading home and unpacking, we went downtown for lunch with another friend who would not be in town for the weekend. He works for a still solvent energy company downtown. We got to his building and I needed cash for lunch. I saw an ATM in the lobby and went to get money. It wasn't until I had started the transaction that I noticed the Enron logo above the ATM. I guess it was for their credit union or something. The obligatory jokes about there being no money in the ATM were exchanged, and became funnier when the ATM in fact failed to give me any money. The next ATM had blue-screened, so I couldn't use it. The third gave me money. We ate sushi and went home.
Later that evening we went to see the Astros play the Chicago Cubs. It was one of the better baseball games I've ever seen. It went twelve innings, end ended in the bottom of the twelfth with Houston down by two with two outs, two runners on base, and Jeff Bagwell up to bat. Unfortunately, as was the case several times earlier in the evening, he tried to crank one out and ended up popping out. Still a good game, and the Astros new stadium rocks. My only complaint is that we had seats in the upper section. My seat in particular was in the front row of the section, and the drop from the rail two feet in front of me scared the piss out of me. I guess there are four sections, but they're stacked vertically, so if you fell from the top section, you would fall almost to field level. But that's not a problem with the stadium, just with my phobias.
Saturday we went to a day time pool party. We played about ten minutes of beach volleyball in the Houston heat until I realized that I was rapidly being drenched in sweat, and may not get a chance to shower before we go out in the evening. I wimped out and ran for the house to get back in air conditioning, and was able to cool off before I got too stinky. (I think...) We ate lunch at Freebirds, and once again I couldn't even finish my Monster. I don't know what I was thinking trying to eat a Super Monster once... Saturday night was spent out at the Brewery Tap throwing darts and drinking beer. The Brewery Tap is my second favorite bar ever, second only to Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop in New Orleans. The Tap has good draft beer, a jukebox full of the best music I've ever seen at a bar, beautiful heavy wood tables, and plenty of dart boards. We got one of the old SVN guys to come out for a beer or two, but were eventually kicked out when the bar closed.
Sunday, my hosts had a small party... More beer, bratwurst, video games, beer, and darts. Then some more beer. On Monday, we grilled again, I got packed up and they shipped me home. It was a fun trip, the weather was not unbearable, and I didn't even spend too much money.
Now if you'll indulge me for a moment, the trip did make me rethink some of my politics a bit. I've always been against using public funds to build stadiums for private sports teams. The politicians always use "downtown revitalization" as the excuse for this spending of public funds. I always assumed that it was just a good way for the mayor to spread some public money around to his contractor friends, and that of course the downtown area is not going to be revitalized.
Well, I can now admit that I was 100% wrong about that. The Brewery Tap is at Milam and Louisiana in downtown Houston. When I used to go there, 90% of the time I could get parking on the street right next to the bar. Since then, the area has actually blossomed. People go down there, there are new condos going up, and it seems like a place I could actually consider living. Wow... Maybe I'll have to start voting for Democrats or something... Nah...
Special Bonus For Those Who Read This Far!!! You can see the results of the University of Houston Student Video Network Student Production Awards (The SVeeNies) for the 1995-1996 production season here. I won awards for Makeup (Aliens from The Enterprise vs. The Aliens Who Vomit On Themselves To Keep Their Skin Moist), Best Guest Performer (Torgo on Science Fiction Theater), Best Information/Variety Show (Pirate TV: Producer), and Best Series (Young Pups, Producer).
Well, I'm flying out tomorrow morning. I don't think I've been back to Houston in about two and a half years. If I remember right, the last time I was down there was when the Kids In The Hall did their first stage tour. I'm heading down for a weekend full of drinking and playing video games, drinking and watching the Astros, going out and drinking, drinking and playing board games, and a little bit of drinking.
I guess there are going to be a couple of parties, I'm going to try to get in touch with the few residents of Houston who are still speaking with me, and it looks like the weather is going to be decent. I guess I'll see you guys tomorrow morning. Maybe I'll blog from Houston, but I think that I'll be visiting about 45% of this site's readership, so I don't know exactly who I would be blogging for, anyway...
I hope everybody enjoys their Memorial Day weekend, and have a beer for me.
I don't know if I've linked it before, but Big Smith has started up their own recording label MayApple Records. They're taking pre-orders for their live CD "Gig", which should be released in the next several weeks. You can see a track list here. In addition to many songs that don't appear anywhere else ("Why You Been Gone So Long", "Drive Every Weekend", "Darlin' Corey", "Should I Stay Or Should I Go"...) the CD includes video footage of "Trash" and "12 Inch 3 Speed Oscillating Fan". Kick ass.
I'd better get my order in now...
Mesmerize, Galvanize, Tantalize, Rise Rise Rise...
Update: 5/23/02 1:27PM: I fixed the link.
Last year things started to get a bit tense between India and Pakistan and I started to freak out thinking it was about to come to a shooting war. Tensions eased and it looked like both sided stepped back from the brink.
Well they're at it again, and once again I'm starting to get worried. Suman Palit has some nice background on Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee and Pakistan's General Musharraf.
Little Green Footballs is running a question and answer with the Airline Pilots Association on the subject of arming airline pilots. It includes this exchange:
Q. Aren’t pilots too busy flying the airplane to use a gun?A. Pilots are trained to do numerous tasks simultaneously. For example, one task that they must be prepared to perform is to use a fire extinguisher if a fire breaks out in the cockpit, regardless of other pressing duties. A suggestion that pilots should ignore the fire and continue to fly the airplane would be ludicrous. Yet, some have suggested that pilots should ignore terrorists breaking into the cockpit and continue to fly the airplane — an equally ludicrous notion.
Sweet! Pilots are trained to perform multiple tasks. For example, unloading their clip on a terrorist while putting out a fire and landing the plane. I would pay to see that.
The guy that brought us My New Fighting Technique is Unstoppable, My New Filing Technique is Unstoppable, Get Your War On, Get Your Enr On and Get Your Voltr On has two more pages of cartoons. Also a weblog.
Wisconsin is once again number one in binge drinking. I get the feeling that the reporter doesn't feel too bad about that, either.
If you do a heavy leg workout on Monday, don't go on a long bike ride up and down hills on Tuesday. If you do, Wednesday will be bad.
Was anybody else watching 24 as religiously as I was? There were a couple of episodes in the middle that didn't seem to do much of anything to advance the story, but I enjoyed almost every episode.
Update 9:44 AM: I go on from here to recount the events of the last episode, so spoiler alert and all that...
Well, they showed the last episode of this season last night, and it took some guts to do what they did. Last week, we found out that Nena, Jack's ex-girlfriend, was the double agent. In last night's episode, she told Jack that her daughter had been killed by the terrorists. The idea was that, consumed with rage, he would rush the terrorists and they would be ready for him and kill him. She was right, he did attack, but surprised them and ended up killing all five single-handedly. He finally cornered Victor Drazen, played by Dennis Hopper, who threw down his weapon and surrendered. Jack gunned him down in cold blood, still thinking that Drazen had killed his daughter.
Jack returned to his office, on the way being told that his daughter's body was not found. Since he knew that Nena had lied to him, he figured she was the double agent and warned his superiors. In the mean time, Jack's wife had stumbled upon Nena downloading data. Her cover blown, she was attempting to cover her tracks and escape. Nena tied Jack's wife up, and as she went to leave the room, we see her pause and cock her gun.
Jack is racing back to headquarters, and as he is pulling into the garage, Nena is pulling out. They exchange gunfire, and Jack forces her into a parked car. He pulls her out of the car and holds a gun to her face, angry that she has put his family in danger. Other agents arrive on the scene, talk Jack into dropping his weapon, and Nena is arrested. Jack enters the headquarters and is reunited with his daughter. He then tries to find his wife, and can't locate her. He retraces Nena's trail of dead security guards, and finally finds his wife, tied up in the chair, shot in the chest. The show ends with Jack cradling his wife, crying, and saying "I'm sorry" over and over. Damn...
It sucked, but I was worried that he was going to find her tied and unharmed. That would have been rather unbelievable, as during her escape, Nena had shot just about anybody she ran into on sight. It just would not have made sense for her to have left Jack's wife alive. They did leave themselves a bit of an out... She was shot in the chest, had been recently shot, and there were paramedics right around the corner. She may just have been unconscious and the next season could open with her getting medical attention and being revived.
I don't get the feeling that they're going to do that though, and that takes some guts. They're set up for next season, though. Nena told Jack that she wasn't actually working for Drazen, so now he has a bit of a personal score to settle with whoever she's working for. I assume that David Palmer will be president by then. (And hooray for Palmer leaving his bitch-ass wife...) I liked Palmer's character, and hope he's in the next show at least for a bit.
All in all, cool show. I'm looking forward to next season...
The Onion has some home improvement tips for me.
I don't care how much they might save the poultry industry, I don't care moist and delicous they might be, I hope to God that I never again see a picture of these hideous freaks.
This is all me. I don't even think I want to go back through my Quicken records and see how much money I've spent at Home Depot in the last four months.
Just a bit, and I think I have it mostly back where it was when I went to bed last night. I have to resize the random pictures, but I've done enough that I'm going to go to bed now.
Finally, I am not going to fix the site just yet. After I realized that I'm going to have to resize my random pics, I decided that I'd rather just sleep now. So sleep I shall. Good night everybody...
I always like The Rabbit's poems.
ODE TO A WORKING STIFFYMonday, Monday, sloggy slog!
Head is empty, full of fog.
Tired and weary, mired in bog,
Draggy dragging, like a dog!Woke up late (no time to jog),
Urgent, blameless morning hog.
Spanky! Shameless! Soggy sog!
Dreaming Britney booby snog!Monday, Monday, sloggy slog.
Is it true, I'm just a cog?
Inert, aimless, bump on log!
Better read the Rabbit Blog.
Let me tell you one thing. If I haven't lost a hell of a lot of weight tomorrow, I'm going to be quite pissed off. My entire intake of food today consisted of:
1 bowl Rasin Bran
1 cup Skim Milk
1 Hen House™ Turkey Sandwich (not even any cheese!)
1 Bottle Arizona™ Green Tea
1 tsp. Peanut Butter
1 16oz. Glass of Coca Cola® Classic
I played a very hard hour and a half of racquetball, then spent the next two hours doing my leg workout. I am ready to collapse, but I need to stay up for the next fifteen minutes so I can get some laundry in the dryer. I don't think I'm going to make it, though. I'll just have to set my alarm to wake me up early enough to dry it while I'm taking a shower.
OK, I'll stop bitching now. How was your day?
I just looked, and this site looks extra-junky in older versions of Netscape. I went around and around with problems like this with my last two redesigns of the site. I hate it, and it is a pain in the ass.
I notice a couple other sites have problems in old Netscape. USS Clueless's menu bar doesn't float to the left properly. A few graphics on Little Green Footballs don't quite line up properly, and he's a pro web designer. Nevertheless, I'm going to need to figure out what I'm doing wrong and fix it.
Looking at my statistics, the allocation of browsers visiting this site are:
92.9% - Internet Explorer
3.5% - Netscape
0.1% - Opera
0.04% - Konqueror (Linux web browser)
0.04% - Lynx (Text based browser)
The rest are either "unknown" or various perl libraries. Those are probably all automated robots. Of the Netscape users, I'm sure most are people using the newest Netscape, but I can't be sure without looking at my logs manually.
Web design is a pain in the ass...
Last Friday's show was pretty good. I went with a friend who came up from Arkansas and another friend from Arkansas who currently lives up here. Opening for Big Smith was a guy from Springfield whose CD Mark Bileu produced. I've seen the guy once before, and remembered enough of his songs from the last time I saw him that I bought his CD. I haven't given it a listen just yet, and I don't even remember the guy's name...
Well, that's a big part of the story from that night... I was going to be driver-boy, but had a few beers too many while my Arkansas friend drank water. He ended up driving home. It was cool to see Big Smith play a full set here in Kansas City, and I hope it isn't too long until they come back. The place was nice and packed, so I can't see why they wouldn't be back. There wasn't much of a dance floor up front, but I made good use of it during the second set. I was dancing next to a cute little black-haired tattooed woman, and was about to say something to her when one of the members of my party started dancing with me. That's cool, though... I got her picture, and I saw her at the last Big Smith show so I'm sure I'll see her again.
I was wondering what they were going to do with a 3:00AM bar time. They just played their normal set, though. They wrapped up at around 1:45, and even then we heard the waitstaff bitching about staying up too late. They played all their normal songs, nothing odd. Mark didn't do the little rap thing he's been doing during Trash. I'm not even sure if they played Ponce de Leon... I'm sure they did, I'm probably just not remembering right.
All in all, a good show. It looks like I won't be seeing them again until the weekend after Bonnaroo. Some of you will be lucky enough to catch them on their mini-tour. I know my Arkansas friend is heading out to Memphis, and may continue on to New Orleans. I'd suggest you Texans head out to Ausin to catch them, but they are just opening when they're out there. If it gives you an excuse to visit Austin, I guess that isn't a bad thing.
Well, until I installed this new system, almost every page on this site was completely static. Because of this, I had total control over every file on the site, and nothing would make unpredictable changes behind my back. I was a bit nervous about going to Movable Type simply because I didn't know it very well, and wasn't sure how it worked.
Well, I've been bitten for the first time. I spent quite a while last night tweaking the style sheet for the page to get the layout to work correctly. Unfortunately, I didn't tell Movable Type about the changes I had made, and when some automated updates were made to the site Movable Type overwrote my style sheet with an old version, trashing my changes. I should be able to fix it tonight, but until then the layout will be less than perfect. (I still haven't even looked at it in IE4.0, so it might be all messed up...)
Anyway, look for more changes in this space to come. Hopefully I'll have access to the archives by the end of this week. In the meantime, if you click through to any of the slideshows on the left (Ice Storm, Lambeau, etc.) you'll see the old site and should be able to see the archives in all their glory.
Have a good day!
Well, perhaps the launch was a bit prematue. I'm still tweaking a bit... I keep my screen resolution very fine, and my browser windows are always maximized. I decided to see what the site looked like when your browser wasn't as big as mine. Unfortunately, it looked like crap. The banner along the top would wrap down below the menu bar and the body just went all wacky. I think I have it nailed down now, but let me know if you still see anything wacky. I refuse to install an old version of Internet Explorer on this machine, so I'm not going to be able to see what this looks like on old IE until I go in to work tomorrow. I'm sure nothing will work on there. We'll see. Anyway, if you see anything odd, or if you just have any comments, let me know.
How was your weekend? Did you spend all day Sunday in front of your computer, even though it was a beautiful day out? No? I guess it's just me...
Well, I'm far enough with my redesign and site conversion to go ahead and make this public. I have the cool new random picture deal up along the top, and the site is now running Movable Type. If you're into that kind of thing, you can now post comments on my entries by hitting the "Comments" link at the end of each entry.
There are still several things I have to do. I still need to import all the old blog entries into Movable Type. I'm hoping to get this months done today and then just do them a month at a time as I have time. I haven't converted any of the old static pages to the new look yet, and there may be broken links all over the place. Email me if you notice any. The home control stuff is not on the page any more. I tried to set it up, but I just have too many switches now. I think the home control section will get its own page, but that will require a little bit of a rewrite to that whole thing. Also, until I get all my old entries imported, you won't be able to get at my archives.
Thanks to my friend at ps-ef.com, Gimpysoft's mail server is now working again. It turned out to be a fairly simple problem, and it's fixed now. I think I'll be slowly migrating away from my ryano@anc.net email address, so if you email me regularly, start trying to send mail to ryano@gimpysoft.com now. I'll make the big switch eventually, but not just yet.
Well, if you have any comments about the site, go ahead and stick them in the comments for this post. This new system will make it a bit easier for me to update the site, so hopefully it'll update more often now. I may open it up to allow some of you folks to post stuff here if you're interested. If you are, let me know.
Well, I think I'm going to get started importing this months entries.
I just made my periodic update to the weight chart. It clearly shows progress, more progress than I thought I was making as a matter of fact... No time to chat, though. I need to head in to work so I can take off a bit early and hit the gym before Big Smith. See you there tonight...
Like I said, I got my first contest entry today, but it was sent to my work Email address, and I unfortunately forgot to forward it home. I'll post it tomorrow.
I am really looking forward to Big Smith tomorrow night. It's been a while since I've been able to see them play a full set, and bars in Missouri are open until 3:00, so they could go for a while.
I'm still working on the site redesign. It's starting to turn into a major redesign. I've kept the same basic layout since my first real design here, I've just changed colors and some minor graphics. I'm trying to draw an entirely new logo (Purple Gyakui will stay) and rework the site to have CSS handle the layout instead of tables. I guess that's how things are supposed to be done these days. I should know. I'm a web developer. Umm... I actually just like writing back-end code, I suck at design. Nevertheless, the redesign is proceeding, and may roll out sometime soon.
I got in to the gym for the first time in almost two weeks tonight. I had to take some time off... My wrist had been bothering me, and any weights and racquetball was just making it worse. It's much better now, and I guess I'll be back on the three to four day a week plan again now. Leg workout tomorrow. Hooray, I don't need to walk any time this weekend anyway. Actually, after the first two leg workouts I did I couldn't handle stairs for a couple of days, but since then I just have a bit of soreness. I guess I should up the weight, but I'm not in the mood to kill myself like that again just yet.
They're releasing more Bonnaroo tickets this weekend. You can order them at their website for $140 each. I'm sure the remaining tickets will sell out almost instantly, so get them if you can.
Well, see you all at Big Smith tomorrow night.
I've received the first entry in the Get Ryan A Date contest. Don't be left out! Send your entries in now!
Like I said, I've been doing the online personals thing for a while. One of the ads I responded to was a girl from New York who is about to graduate and move back to Kansas City. We emailed back and forth a couple of times until she asked me the $64,000 question. That being: "So why are you using a personal service?"
I thought about that for quite a while, and ended up sending a response somewhat along the lines of what I said in the last post... I'm not meeting the person I'm looking for through friends, bars aren't working, the Salon personals sounded like they attracted intelligent women, etc. In retrospect, I think I wrote far too long an Email and probably came off as a bit creepy. Which I am, of course...
Anyway, that was a couple of weeks ago and I never heard back from her. I got an email from her last night. It was a mass-mailing notifying people that she's going to be moving in the next couple of weeks so email will be sporadic. At the bottom of the email she had a link to her blog, so I checked it out. It turns out she's holding a dating contest herself, but she has the opposite problem... Too many responses and too indecisive to decide who to date. So she posted snippets from ten responses she received and asked for readers help choosing her perfect match. My response didn't make the cut..
Big Smith tomorrow night! Sweet. Maybe I'll meet a hippy-chick or a glasses-wearing-geek-chick there... I've seen both out at Big Smith shows... One more new date listed on their website. On their little mini-tour, in addition to Memphis, New Orleans and Austin, they're playing Oxford, Mississippi. What is in Oxford, Mississippi that would get them down there?
Via the Rabbit Blog, the most successful time waster I've met in a long time. What's Better: Two that I just did are "Less Than Jake" vs. "Army of Darkness" (AOD of course...) "Intellivision" vs. "Mullets". The current #1 champion is Kirsten Dunst, and the current #1 loser is Osama Bin Laden. Surprisingly, Michael Eisner currently ranks as worse than the KKK. Now Jack Black vs. Chow Yun Fat... I had to think about that, but I gave it to Chow Yun Fat.
Well, Heather's column got me thinking. I've been using the Salon personal ad service for a while... I've responded to some ads, and I've even gotten a few responses to my ad. But I'm not getting nearly enough traffic. This is where my idea came to me...
I'm going to have a contest. Email me responses to Salon's personals questions, and I'll post an ad. If you have a picture of me around, email me the one you want me to post with the ad, otherwise I'll just pick a decent one I have sitting around. If I get a response to your ad, I'll send you a CD of some sort... If any of the contacts lead to an actual in-person meeting, I'll send you a Gimpysoft.com T-Shirt. I know that's not fair, once the person has responded to the ad I probably will fuck up the actual exchange of emails and never actually meet the person, but those are the breaks.
The questions that need to be answered for the Salon personals site are:
About Me:
Profile Nickname:
Profile Headline:
My Occupation:
Education: (leave blank,high school,college,grad school,post grad)
Religion: (Agnostic,Atheist,Buddhist,Catholic,Hindu,Jewish,Muslim,Protestant,Other [specify])
Star Sign: (Leave blank, or one of the zodiac)
Relationship Status: (Leave blank,Single,Couple,Discreet)
Height:
Weight:
Hair Color: (Black,Blonde,Brown,Red,Grey,Bald)
Eye Color: (Blue,Brown,Green,Hazel,Other)
Cigarettes: (Leave blank,Never,Sometimes,Often)
Booze: (Leave blank,Never,Sometimes,Often)
Drugs: (Leave blank,Never,Sometimes,Often)
Self Deprecation: (Leave blank,Never,Sometimes,Often)
Who I'm looking for:
Education: (leave blank,high school,college,grad school,post grad) Religion: (Agnostic,Atheist,Buddhist,Catholic,Hindu,Jewish,Muslim,Protestant,Other[specify])
Star Sign: (Leave blank, or one of the zodiac)
Relationship Status: (Leave blank,Single,Couple,Discreet)
Height:
Weight:
Hair Color: (Black,Blonde,Brown,Red,Grey,Bald)
Eye Color: (Blue,Brown,Green,Hazel,Other)
Cigarettes: (Leave blank,Never,Sometimes,Often)
Booze: (Leave blank,Never,Sometimes,Often)
Drugs: (Leave blank,Never,Sometimes,Often)
Self Deprecation: (Leave blank,Never,Sometimes,Often)
Last Great Book I Read:
Most Humbling Moment:
Favorite On Screen Sex Scene:
Best (or worst) lie I've ever told:
If I could be anywhere at the moment:
Song or album that puts me in the mood:
The five items I can't live without:
Fill in the blanks: (blank) is sexy; (blank) is sexier.
In my bedroom you'll find:
Why you should get to know me:
Who I'm looking for:
And that's it. You can leave almost all of those blank if you'd like. It probably wouldn't make any sense to blatantly lie about anything, so the first section I'll just fill out truthfully, unless you'd like me to override one of them. Send me in answers to any/all of those questions and I'll post the ad. Get Ryan A Date, win fabulous prizes.
Send any entries to contest@gimpysoft.com.
Another excellent column by Heather Havrilesky in today's Salon. It's on the perils of online dating, something I've dabbled in a bit myself. With about as much success as my other attempts to find dates.
I do still think the online thing just might be my best bet, though... I'm fairly certain I'm not going to meet the person I'm looking for through my current friends. For some reason, I have it in my head that it's very important that I date someone who likes to read. I haven't met anybody who reads in such a damn long time... I doubt I will meet anybody who reads at the bars I hang out at currently. I need a change of scene, anyway...
I've found a pretty cool place that seems to be populated by the glasses-wearing geek chicks that I think I'm looking for. It's a nice little bar. They serve many kinds of scotch and whiskey. They sell cigars. Everything is old and they play jazz. I just need to find some folks that'll go there with me. Going out alone just isn't working for me any more. I will be bringing somewhere between one and four people with me to Big Smith this weekend. I need to meet some folks at a Big Smith show...
Gotta go to the gym tonight. Gotta eat something light for lunch today. Gotta update my Salon personals ad. Gotta go to lunch now.
A plethora of new Big Smith dates announced, including Austin, Memphis, New Orleans, and three weekends at Chester's. It's cool that they're starting to make it out of their immediate home territory more often these days. They're coming to Kansas City this Friday. I'll see you all there.
So last weekend, I finally got off my ass and decided to see how much it would cost to put hardwood floors down in the kitchen and dining room. I measured the area, and the over-estimate of the area that I came up with was around 300 square feet. Armed with this knowledge, I went over to the Home Depot. It turns out that even the cheap stuff runs around $2.94 a square foot just for the wood. Add in the tools I'd need and I'd guess I'd be closer to $1250 or so for the whole thing. So I'm putting that off for a while.
Instead, I bought a couple of gallons of Kilz and about five gallons of paint. My roommate did a kick-ass job in the hallway where I had removed wallpaper a couple of weeks ago. It is now finished, painted an off-white color called "Pale Shadow". I had also taken down the atrocious paper in the guest bedroom, but that room didn't quite get finished. It is primed, and has one coat of paint, but one coat hasn't covered the green that used to be under the chair rail. Another couple of coats and it'll look nice in there. I should be able to get on that tomorrow.
While my roommate was working on the hall and the guest bedroom, I was painting my room. The color I chose was "Majestic", probably about the same shade of blue as my old web page layout, before I turned it maroon. Maybe a bit more purple than that. I'm doing the room's trim in a maroon very similar to this. We'll see how that looks. If I don't like it, I can put the trim back to white, that didn't look too bad. I really like how the room looks with the new color. I'll post some pictures as soon as I'm done, but I still have another couple of hours of painting to go. The most upsetting thing about the new color is that I can no longer have anything black in the room. My candle holders and couple framed thingys are going to have to go in another room. I need things with lighter wood frames. I'll have to see if I can find some gray metal candle holders instead of the black wrought iron ones I have now.
The Cracker show last friday rocked. I just checked Cake's website and it looks like they're they're coming to Kansas City. Kick ass.
One of the things I'm most looking forward to about tonight's Cracker show is one of the covers they've been doing lately. I've noticed it on setlists from the last three shows, so I'm hoping they'll play Bob Dylan's "The Man In Me" tonight. You may remember it as the song played when The Dude is knocked out and has his flying/bowling dream in The Big Lebowski
I managed to find an mp3 of Cracker's version, and if you'd like you can download it here. If you listen to the chatter at the beginning, you can hear David Lowery mention that they worked the song up because "Actually, we've watched The Big Lebowski about seventy times in the last three months." One of the band members then exclaims, "Nothing is Fucked, Dude". This show is going to rock...
Cake likes Tom Tomorrow. Tom Tomorrow likes Cake. I like Tom Tomorrow and Cake.
Susan Breslau. Professional extra for Jerry Zucker movies. I did not know that he did Ghost... Well, you learn something new every day...
If you're in Houston this summer, don't miss this once-in-a-lifetime event. I notice that you can post reviews... I tried to come up with a description of it as a "brutal deconstruction of the stadium event" or something like that, but I'm not witty enough to pull that off... Can anyone else post some witty reviews reviews?
Well, I have the distinct feeling that today is going to be a good day. I weighed in this morning and was only two pounds away from getting my tattoo. Although I still haven't done my monthly update to the chart, today I tipped the scales at a meager two hundred and thirty pounds. That's not a new low, but it ties my previous new low which occurred back in freaking November. I think this Slim Fast is actually working for me.
For the second time in my life, I'm going to see Cracker tonight. A little Cracker Soul always does me some good, and from the show reviews and setlists I've been seeing, it sounds like it's going to be a fun show. Now if Cake would only announce the rest of their tour... One weird thing, Cake is headlining one night of the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. I found that rather odd... I mean check out this lineup. How exactly does Cake fit in there again? I'm not going to be able to make that, I'll be at Bonnaroo that weekend.
Oh, little side note, when I was at my doctor yesterday she was making small talk while she did her thing and she asked me if I was going on any trips this summer. I told her I was going to a music festival in Tennessee in June. She asked me what kind of music, and I told her Jam Bands. She replied, "Oh, like String Cheese?" I don't know why, but I did find that very cool. I like my doctor.
One final thing... When I first heard that the
Yesterday, Matt Drudge reported that Westwood One was paying radio stations up to $300,000 to carry Bill O'Reilly's new radio show. Apparently, this didn't please O'Reilly too much.
Oh, and one more thing. I did in fact rent Mulholland Drive last night, but I didn't watch it yet. I also rented Waking Life, and since that was a two day rental, I watched it first. I really enjoyed it. It's an animated film that isn't much more than various people talking about their views on the meaning of reality and the purpose of human existence. I'm a sucker for that kind of stuff. Some of the people were rather spacey, but there were enough that weren't to make it definitely worth watching.
One cool thing is that I recognized a coffee bar in Austin that I spent a couple of hours in the weekend before last. I watched the credits, and sure enough, it was the same place. It was cool that I even recognized a cartoon version of it...
I just got back from my annual physical. The doctor noticed that I've lost weight, and my resting heart rate and blood pressure are noticeably down. I mentioned to her that I'm often tired. I had always attributed that to being overweight and not getting any exercise, but now that I've been exercising regularly for about a year, it's something that I thought was worth bringing up. The cute nurse (no ring) drew a couple of vials of blood, and they're going to send those off to check for anemia and for thyroid problems. I'm hoping for thyroid problems. If that's the case, I'll get on replacement hormones which will boost my metabolism. (Well, boost it to a normal level, anyway...) I should then start losing weight again.
Actually, I've been on the Slim Fast diet for a couple of weeks now, and I am finally making progress again. I took almost this whole week off from the gym because my wrist has been hurting. Weights and racquetball seem to aggravate it, so I figured I'd give it a rest. I'm heading back in tonight for racquetball and my chest workout. Tomorrow is racquetball and Cracker with my friend. I'll sneak in a leg workout if I think I have time.
But back to the physical... They're going to do the blood work to check on the thyroid or anemia, and whatever they do for normal routine checks. I should hear about that tomorrow or Monday. More importantly, while I was there I got my doctor to refer me to a psychologist. She recommended three, and one of the three is covered in my health plan. So finally I'm getting the help that we all know I so badly need.
I'm kind of looking forward to therapy. It seems like such a real grown-up thing to do... My doctor recommended a Psychologist. They'll actually do one-on-one therapy and spend time with you, whereas a Psychiatrist will just medicate and follow up to see how the medication is doing. The Psychologist can refer to a Psychiatrist if they think medication is necessary, but the Psychiatrist won't spend time in individual therapy. I think that's what I'm looking for right now, anyway. Now all I need to do is drop the hammer and actually call the doctor to make an appointment. I'm not sure that's something I want to do from work... I guess I'll call this afternoon.
OK, I give up. I will go rent Mulholland Drive tonight. James Lileks gives it a good review in today's bleat. I've known I need to see it, but this finally pushed me over the edge. And I have a free evening tonight.
And one more observation. I was in a crappy mood last night, and I discovered that any music by Cake can get me back in a good mood. I need to listen to more Cake.
Did you know that Red Forman from That 70's Show was also the guy that killed RoboCop? Well he was...
Hrm... Well, what else... Cracker is going to be in town this Friday night. I'm heading out to the show with a woman I've been playing racquetball with. Her boyfriend will be getting off of work later in the evening and joining us at the show. I thought I might be the only Cracker fan left around these days, but I guess not. Her boyfriend is a big fan... It should be a cool show.
I saw Spider-Man last night. I thought it was pretty damn good, and can't wait for the sequel. Apparently I wasn't the only one who went to see it over the weekend.
Well, a belated update on the weekend trip to Austin... I got in to town last Friday at around noon. I had about three hours to kill before anybody showed up, so I caught a cab and hung out in various coffee shops downtown. I drank a lot of coffee. Now mind you, I had probably slept a total of about seven hours in the previous three days. But I was doing pretty well for a while. My friend from Houston was the first to show, and we had a couple of beers waiting for the Dallas crew to show up. Eventually they did, and we went somewhere else for more beer. Eventually, we headed over to our host's place to change and head out to the show. After some dinner we headed out to the Kimock show.
The first set was a bit slow and my lack of sleep started to catch up to me. The venue was no reentry, and their ATM didn't work. I hadn't brought enough cash with me, so after I had several beers and too many far to expensive waters, I was out of money. The second set didn't really blow me away right away, and I was absolutely dead on my feet. We had to run back to a previous bar to retrieve a credit card that had been left, so we left a bit early. We came back to pick up those who stayed and went home. I think I promptly crashed.
After waking up and such, we went to lunch. It was at the wonderful barbecue place whose name I cannot remember. It was billed as "The Worst Barbecue In Texas". I'd disagree. We ate far too much, then went and played a round of disc golf. I took my shirt off for most of the day, and earned myself a respectable sunburn. We then went out to the Kids In The Hall show. It was funny, but perhaps a bit under-rehearsed. They definitely did flub some lines, and I think this may have been one of their only outdoor shows. Wind was a problem, blowing over set pieces and props. But it was funny... I should have bought a shirt or a DVD, but I didn't.
We then went out in downtown Austin, just drinking beers and such. Eventually we made it back to the apartment, but we had lost our host earlier in the evening and he was not home yet. So we sat for a while. I decided that the patio furniture around the pool would be a more comfortable place to sit, so I went to sit out there. There were three girls and a guy in the hot tub, and I joined them. My friends joined us later. It turns out the three girls were exotic dancers at a club somewhere in Austin. Two of them looked the part, but I didn't really see the other as one... But to make a boring story short, we sat in the hot tub for a while, then our host got home, the girls left, and we went to bed.
Freebird's on Sunday, then we packed up and I was dropped at the airport. I had a two hour layover in Dallas. There was a freaky National Guardsman in the Dallas airport standing in one of the halls. He was just staring off into space and slowly stroking his M-16. I've since heard that the M-16s are actually unloaded. If they had to use weapons, they would pull their sidearm. Interesting facts we learn. So I went to the airport bar to kill some time. I was the only person in there, so I chatted with the waitresses and watched an episode of Law and Order. Then I got on my plane and went home.
Now I can't leave town for three weeks, until my Houston trip. But Austin was fun, and the weather was beautiful. When is it going to warm up up here?
Crap, I'm almost late for racquetball.
Learn all the latest rap lingo at the Rap Dictionary. Update 5/3/02: Fixed the link.
I read McSweeney's every once in a while, even though some of it is either dumb or over my head... I'm not sure which. But I sure did enjoy these three:
Grim Stories
More Grim Stories
Still More Grim Stories
Sweet... Good News/Bad News from Big Smith. The good news is that the double CD will include 23 tracks, plus two CD-ROM videos. Rock! The bad news is that it won't be ready until early June at the earliest. Well I'm stoked...
Checking my local weather, it looks like I'm going to have a Saturday with highs in the mid 70's. It sounds like that's going to be good enough for me to either take another stab at smoking some ribs or take my first shot at a brisket. I'm leaning more towards brisket right now, but if I'm going to do it, I guess I should buy it tonight so I can get it started marinating or seasoning.
I don't know why I'm so eager for brisket after gorging myself on it in Austin last weekend. That was beautiful. Between the five of us, we put away 2.5 pounds of brisket, half a pound of smoked turkey, 3/4 of a loaf of bread, a quart of potato salad, and a pint of the most wonderful creamed corn I've ever had. I've never even liked creamed corn before. That was a wonderful meal.
My city's rec center is having a class in barbecue judging in August. I think I'm going to enroll. If you take the class, you can be a judge at the Shawnee Great Griller's State Championship. I think that would rule...
According to this story at TV Guide, Cokie Roberts is leaving ABC's Sunday morning news show "This Week". Is the NPR gig paying that well? It goes on to say that Sam "The Vulcan" Donaldson may be on his way out as well. George Stephanopoulos will replace Sam, but who can fill Cokie's shoes? My Sundays will be just a bit darker. (At least those Sundays where I'm out of bed before noon.)
Dear... Sweet... Jesus... This is the most downright frightening picture I have seen in a long, long time.
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