reporter
2005.07.29 5.59
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roadtrip: pittsburgh 2005
2005.07.25 23.13
This past weekend I drove to Pittsburgh with two buddies of mine. We left Friday at 1 PM and took a straight shot on the Pennsylvania Turnpike to The Iron City with no stops. My driving was only mildly scary to the passengers -- which is a good thing to hear. Personally I thought I did a decent job with minimal stunt work. Upon our arrival we checked into the Holiday-Inn Express in South Side. The prerequisite extra cot was brought it to prevent the frightening possibility of The Accidental Touching Of Your Bunkmate's Skin When Sharing A Bed. This did not prevent the other dreaded fear from occurring -- The Accidental Breathing Of Polluted Air Fouled By Your Bunkmate's Bodily Functions. Nice. Anyway, the evening began at The Grand Concourse where everyone was concerned about my formal clothing (American Eagle jeans, Banana Republic dark grey tee, brown Diesel strap sneaks). I fit in perfectly, of course. There'd been earlier talk that I would stick out like a sore thumb. Not. As for the food, they had the best oysters I'd ever slurped. Mmmm! I went with the New York Strip Steak for its maximum protein potential. From there we journeyed down the South Side bar scene to imbibe heavily at Smokin' Joes, a kind of pool hall (albeit with only one table) beer joint. Our waitress looked like someone out of the show The O.C. We met up with the brother of one of my travel partners and the college buddy & wife of the other. From there we walked to a hole in the wall place called Bar Eleven. Bartenders were dressed as Santa Clause and blew fire into the air. Every drink seemed to come with a free little plastic toy. Hello? Choking hazard? At one point a machine was blowing foam around to give things a Christmas snow look. One of my friends wanted to find out how one of two girls sitting at a dilapidated pool table acquired the string of beads she was wearing. I asked. She told me the Santa bartender gave them out. Seeing as I was already out of questions to ask, I then inquired as to their plans for the weekend and if they happened to involve Ozzfest. The bead-wearing girl answered again: ''What's that?'' I replied, ''Oh, this festival with music.'' Then things turned ugly when she responded with ''You know, we're not STUPID.'' I wanted to say, ''Are you sure?'' but instead I muddled through with ''I was being sarcastic'' -- which was not as fulfilling as saying something wry like ''That's funny... you look stupid.'' I don't need to be ducking from the flying b**ch slaps, however, so mission accomplished. The prettier, non-bead wearing girl told me her friend had drank too much. They departed quickly and were gone. Everyone accused me of running them off. I call it Mean Drunk Reduction Best Practices.
The next morning we crawled out of bed, waved away aforementioned noxious fumes, showered, and enjoyed the famous Holiday Inn Continental Breakfast. This was better than others I've had before. I had the Quaker brand Plain Oatmeal mixed with peanut butter, peach yogurt, and two hard-boiled eggs (white only) along with coffee and orange juice. If that repulses you, please let me know so I can cross you off my list. After liberally slathering ourselves with SPF 45 sunscreen, we left the confines of the hotel and drove the 40 some-odd minute drive to the concert grounds. We hung out in the parking lot and drank lots of Yuengling Lite. We entered about an hour before Rob Zombie was to take the stage and got adjusted to sitting under the hot baking sun. Actually, we found some shade under the trees near the second stage during Rob’s show. My personal favorite highlight of the show was when Mr. Zombie asked the crowd for requests. Some guy kept requesting Living Dead Girl even though it'd already been performed. Yelling "HE ALREADY PLAYED THAT!" was my only public speaking engagement for the day. Great show. From there it was on to the main stage where lesser bands played. I ate the traditional You Must Eat One When In Pittsburgh Sandwich from Primanti Brothers. It's composed of toasted white bread, a meat patty thing, French fries, coleslaw and maybe something else here or there. It was OK. Iron Maiden was the next major performer to take the stage. Very interesting. I've never been into the Maiden. I like 'em, but I won't be running out to purchase their oeuvre. The crowning glory for the evening was Black Sabbath taking the stage. Ozzie is so good. I was already a big fan, but the wonderful threatrics made me double over with enthusiasm. Ozzy rocks! \m/
feeling catty
2005.07.21 20.42
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portal
2005.07.19 19.37
I have been going through a lot of my older disks and archiving them on my harddrive as of late. I technically have enough content from as far back as 1987 that I can backfill my blog. I'm trying to save some money so hanging out at home and totally not doing anything seems to be the way to go. Here's the result of that. Keep in mind that I was sending these to my ex-girlfriend Laura at the time, so if you think I'm acting excessively goofy in the photos -- that's why. Also, I have no clue what I was thinking when I started putting other things in my shirt (including the freaky cosmotology hair model head thing). Been working from home today while air conditioner people came to figure out whatever they needed to do. Woo.
 2000-02-02: Saber Time |
 2000-02-02: More Saber Time |
 2000-02-03: Terminator |
 2000-02-04 Hi! |
 2000-02-05: I do not wanna go |
 2000-02-06: Idea? |
 2000-02-07: Possessed |
 2000-02-08: Bionic |
 2000-02-08: Normal |
 2000-02-09: Psycho Watch |
 2000-02-11: Flowers |
 2000-02-12: Feminine |
 2000-02-13: Gimme The Remote |
 2000-02-16: Peek |
 2000-02-17: Strange Hold |
 2000-02-21: Bonus |
 2000-02-21: No Fem |
 2000-03-02: Courtin' |
 2000-03-06: Bonus |
 2000-03-07: I'm wearing shorts |
 2000-03-10: Good Friday |
 2000-03-20: Sick |
 2000-03-21: The Thinker |
 2000-04-03: Need Shower |
 2000-04-07: I Am Not I |
 2000-04-20: Happy |
 2000-05-04 Suited |
 2000-05-16: Bonus 1 |
last appointment
2005.07.17 18.18
Seeing as how I have way too much time to write about anything, I figure I'll give you a LASIK update. I had my last appointment for the year when I was in Houston for my court appearance. They told me I didn't have to come back until 2006. My vision is 20/15 with both eyes, so what do I have to complain about? Nothing. I need the little paper thing so I can get rid of the corrective lenses requirement on my license, but other than that, LASIK is awesome. Go get it.waiting gamesters
2005.07.17 18.18
I'm getting used to weather delays. It's 7:20 PM (probably eastern time) here at Bush Intercontinental Airport Terminal E. My flight is delayed. Actually, we have to wait until 8:30 PM before we can get ''more info.'' I don't know what the info is going to be, but I hope it's worth the wait. Chew is either sitting in his kennel in an air-conditioned van, or he's in the air-conditioned confines of the QuickPack facility by baggage claim. As long as they have him in their possession, he will be cool. He has water dish filled with frozen water, so that should keep him occupied for the next several hours in case he'd like a little drink. I'm enjoying a frozen Caramel Light Frappacino from The Evil Empire (Starbucks). They have us all hooked! Too bad the cigarette making people didn't think of selling coffee. What else is left that's addicting but hasn't been mass marketed and franchised beyond all recognition? I can't think of anything. Dammit.On Friday I saw CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY at the 11:15 PM show at the Willowbrook 24 AMC Theater. They corralled us into a roped off section (like... a corral... ummm) until the clean-up crew had done its job. We gots the good seats. In this instance, good seats means we had the metal handrail thing in front of us so we could prop our feet up. Metal handrails are awesome. They should put them everywhere (including here in the airport terminal waiting area. I'm propping my foot up on a seat across from me, but I'm dreaming that it's a metal handrail. Mmmm. And now, back to the movie review. I like Tim Burton's work, but the plain truth is that the original film has beautiful, dreamy songs that have held up over time. A movie like this lends itself to being a musical. A movie like this also lends itself to having an antogonist. Slugworth played that part in the Gene Wilder original. Guess who's the antagonist this time around? No one. Nobody. Nada. Zip. The songs that the Oompa Loompas sing aren't that good and vary in quality. The ending of the film does feel more in line with what happens in the book. I recall reading Charlie and The Chocolate Factory when I was in elementary school. It was a sequel to Willy Wonka and began with the glass elevator stopping at Charlie Bucket's house to pickup his family and take them to the factory. If this film succeeds, perhaps they will continue the story beyond the first book. In any case, my hope for sequels notwithstanding, the movie was OK. I will wait for the DVD for viewing number two. It really didn't have to be made, but they did it anyway. Whatever.
Saturday I ran my usual round of errands and got ready to go out with a girl I used to hang out with. We'd lost touch but I decided to bring things back. I still don't see a lot of things coming out of that. Try, try again. She is incredibily well read and I'm jealous of her musical and literary knowledge. However, I have Google, and she does not. She doesn't get on internets at all, matter of fact. Is that a showstopper? Not really, but it would be another bonus. Oh, speaking of The Mysteries of Women, that girl from last week that gave me her email address never wrote back. Either she doesn't check her mail, or it was the Token Giving The Email Address. I briefly considered sending her an email on Friday informing her that I was going to be out of town and that if she'd planned on sending me a 2 AM booty call email that I'd be unavailable to respond. It's in my Save Draft folder. Maybe I'll send it next Friday when I go to Ozzfest.
The airport in Houston constantly plays a recorded announcement that says that ''inappropriate remarks or jokes concerning security may result in your arrest'' as a threat against anyone who, supposedly, plans to make some terrorist or bomb jokes. But what about jokes about cops in general? Or maybe a really good joke about a combination lock? What if I was to tell a joke about the size of somebody's badonkadonk not fitting through the metal detector. Wham! I get arrested and go to airport jail. ''Sir, how do you plea to the telling of the inappropriate joke?'' ''Guilty as charged, b***ch.''
on board
2005.07.16 0.15
So, I'm sitting on the plane and typing in four point font so the guy sitting next to me cannot see anything that I'm typing. Pain in the ass. He hasn't been so bad, but I am constantly aware of the violations he makes into My Personal Space. Right now it's not so bad, but when we were sitting on the tarmac and waiting for the control towers to get it together, he was skeeving me out. Oh, yeah, the delay. Last time I went to Houston there was a huge two hour delay where we had to wait forever to take off. Bad weather was to blame. Fine. Today I scheduled a flight two hours earlier and, guess what? Two hour delay. I need to work in a two hour advance so that I won't have to wait for the two hour delay.As I'm typing this I'm thinking that aforementioned dude to my left (sitting in the middle seat) is aware that I'm skeeved and is crossing his arms and keeping away from me. II likes me some personal space. Supposedly I'm gonna hit up some dinner then see CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY. They had some interviews with Gene Wilder on NPR and I really felt sad that the original may possibly get lost and foreshadowed by this big budget rendition. I'm willing to bet that the songs aren't half as good as the ones from the first film. They played a snippet of the Oompa Loompa song about Augustus Gloop and, instead of implying that his lifestyle wasn't a great idea (like in the original), they outright tell you it isn't. I liked the clever way they presented half truths and half lies in that original film. Gene Wilder revealed that the whole opening sequence where he's walking out for the first time and using a cane was his whole idea. The thought was that everyone would see this decrepit old man and would hush and feel sorry for him. Wonka would get his cane stuck in the ground, then do a forward somersault and leave the cane behind. Wilder felt that the screenplay needed that introduction to get you into the idea that Wonka is constantly skimming the line of truths and the half-truths. ''My dreams become reality.... and my reality becomes dreams.'' I need to revisit my top ten movies list and make sure Wonka is on there. It's that good.
There is some deal about my rental car in Philly and how I have to give it up in lieu of public transportation. I'm not looking forward to that. It will probably give me the chance to blog on the train, but I doubt I'll be that prolific given that I have to head out early and will be groggy. Compounding the issue is the fact that I will have my dog here starting Monday and getting him around is not as easy as it sounds. I think he's good to walk for one mile and then he's useless. I can probably get him all the way down to South Street where the vet is, but from there I have to walk all the way back to Market to hit the train. I know, wah wah. People are starving in Africa and I'm bitching about a rental car. Maybe if I had a nice bike with a giant basket for the poochie. Hmmm.
I'm watching MISS CONGENIALITY 2 on the airplane, although I'm not listening to it. I took a pass. The movie has the appearance of sorta funny, but I'll wait until it's on cable. Sandra Bullock is still TEH HOT. Between Madonna winking at me and Jules Asner rubbing up against me to walk past, I could handle another celebrity brush if Miss Bullock was involved. Maybe something like she could sneeze on me or maybe she could lose her balance and use me to get it back. I know -- I'm sick.
This little 7 year old boy sitting across from me on the aisle is the most car obsessed child I have ever met. ''Dad, is the Porsche fast?'' ''Yes, son.'' ''Dad, does the Lamborghini have three models?'' ''I don't know, son.'' Crikey. If this kid knew what I was holing up at the storage place he'd flip his lid. I'm not sayin' nothing. He is occasionally squinting and trying to read my 4pt text, but to no avail. Heh.
Coming back to the movie at hand, they are portraying the FBI as this place that has giant LCD walls that have blue lattices on them when they aren't doubling as Dr. Evil viewscreens. Clever. I suspect the FBI is a lot like where I work. Beige. Lots of beige. This morning I noticed they were painting one of the walls a dark mustard color. Guess they ran out of beige paint?
Reminder to self -- send Richard Noble his copy of the Mardi Gras videos we made. Them were some good times. The superbowl party was quite memorable. Oh, and girls are pretty. Of course. Duh.
screen test
2005.07.15 7.02
I'm leaving Philly for Houston this afternoon. I get a whole weekend this time. Not much else to report other than a busy workweek and two serious training sessions. My weight is stuck at 168 pounds so I'm a little depressed about that, but I guess that's still way better than the 147 pounds I was at in April 2004. I understand that my housesitter DP is now 6 pounds heavier thanks to a new workout program. Oh! There is some news -- I'm flying Chew Chew back up to Philly on Sunday night. I had to get him out of there as some 5 year old neighbor chick has been kicking him and making him hate on little kids. That's not what he was like before, so I'm going to have to buy a short mannequin and get him used to short people once again. It's either the manequin or I could ask Shawn. Har. I kid. I kid. And now, Superman Returns screen test goodness.
recovery
2005.07.10 9.34
Friday night I had some friends over to hang out in the city. First, we hit up some Northern Liberties bars -- The 700 Club and The Standard Tap to be specific. Good times, but like the U2 song says, they just didn't have what we were looking for. We headed south towards Market and, I believe, went straight to The Plough. It has a longer name, but we just call it The Plough, or Plough for short. No, I'm not going to tell you the longer name. No, I don't remember it. Something like Plough and the Stars or something. Did I mention that I began my evening by drinking two Stoli martinis with some apple liquor thrown in for fun? Beer is my friend. Stoli is my enemy. I have to remember that. Perhaps a tattoo is in order. I was fine for that night, even meeting a really smart and pretty girl named Sue and getting her email address, but the next day turned into Trauma Central 101. I had a headache. I got sick. I slept for hours and hours during the day. I couldn't eat. At around 6 PM, I was finally able to keep down a pickle. No pickle jokes, please. At 7 PM, I figured I was safe to try something bland, so I hopped into the car and drove to Cherry Hill, NJ to see THE FANTASTIC FOUR and eat a Nacho Grande! Mmmm. The large Diet Coke was Nacho Grande's friend last night. The movie, while technically faithful to the color and tone of the comic, didn't seem to translate well to the screen. The comic itself is a bit campy, however, so this was probably to be expected. Stan Lee had a little cameo as the mailman and was looking very Mr. McSpeedy Delivery. I do want to see this film again, although I'll wait for the DVD. Bring it on. BEWITCHED and DARK WATER were sold out when I bought my tickets, so maybe there's something else to see later on. My next film will be in Houston on Friday when I see CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY with my dad.I'm off to Silk City for some food. I'll post more time warp blog entries when I return. I feel drawn toward IKEA today, though, so you may have to take a breather.
guessing game
2005.07.08 7.17
I was listening to NPR on my drive home. The London terrorist bombings were all the news and it was very much the subject for the entire length of my drive. At one point the host introduced Jessica Stern, Malkin professor of public policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. I wish I'd recorded what she said, but she made the most inane assumptions about the terrorists who might have carried out the London bombings. She suggested that the terrorists performed ''an extremely complicated attack'' and were ''well organized'' because ''it [is] so difficult to coordinate simultaneous attacks.'' Say what? Is she kidding? I hate to break it to you Jessica, but a wristwatch and a cellphone are all anyone needs to coordinate anything. Things continued to drift from reality when she surmised that possibly up to 10 people were involved. Again, how could she know this? Attacks on London by terrorists are obviously few and far between, so how is she even able to take a stab at coming up with this information? The entire interview smelled of impending bad karma as she continued to parade outrageous assumptions such as how the people who planned the attack were obviously local and couldn't have possibly all come from someplace like, say, Saudi Arabia or Syria. Scotland Yard, on the other hand, did not have any solid information about the perpetrators, and even if they did, this woman was not privvy to such data. I can only assume she based her assumption on the fact that there's a large Muslim population in London. For the next few minutes she continued to talk about the terrorists as if she lived in the apartment next door -- in fact, she outright sumised that they lived in an apartment. I wonder where she came up with that one? As we all know, terrorists prefer condos over apartments. No, wait, they prefer to own. Or wait, wait -- they're leasers. Yeah. I turned the station off in disgust. I did some quick research and it turns out that this woman makes her living talking about terrorism and making the same type of wild conjecture during her lectures as well as writing entire books on the subject of terrorism. I need to write some books about terrorism, too, apparently. That's where the money is.fuse
2005.07.06 7.06
Remember when I used to own three pinball machines? I sold two of them back to the guy I bought them off of, and the third I sold to a co-worker's neighbor. This time around, I'm keepin' my machines! I've been watching ebay like a hawk trying to get a good deal and my patience paid off two weeks ago when I won a 1980 Williams' ALIEN POKER pinball machine auction. Supposedly the only problem was that the coin return wasn't working. I drove to Morganville, New Jersey in the wee hours of July 4th and picked up the machine. After putting it all together, I discovered a blown fuse on the power supply board. After replacing that with a $2 pack of fuses from Home Depot, the machine booted up and gameplay was on! I'm sure my neightbors will love the obnoxious sounds this thing makes -- or at least tries to make. For some reason the sound is intermittant. I've found information on the internet that should help me pretend to be wise in the ways of electronics. I will post another update soon with with more details about what I did that weekend. If you want me to kick your ass at pinball, just say so and I'll kindly oblige.the first blogs
2005.07.01 15.24
I have a paperback journal that was given to me when I was substitute teaching at Jersey Village High School back in November 1995. Now that I think about it, I may have hijacked one that wasn't being used. Whatever. I made semi-regular entries in there for a while and I've decided to put those old entries into my blog. If you start seeing entries from 1995 or 1996 then that's why. I could conceivably fill in many more gaps in time that way, but for now I'm concentrating on this first journal. Be prepared for some time warp weirdness.
