Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?

It's been awhile. No apologies -- we're all bigger than that. But now here I am, the one that you love, asking for another day. Wait... someone else used that in their blog recently. Damn. How about: But now I'm back, to let you know I can really shake it down. Anyone? Ah, forget it. ; P

What have I been up to, you ask? Work, work and more work. The show is running fairly smoothly at Second City, although it's frustrating to me that all I can do there is maintain the status quo. I'd love to be into the details of making things better, but I barely have time to run in, run the show, and run back out. I did find time to stage manage a two night Black History Month show called "The Soul of the Second City," but it was a mistake to have taken on other stuff during this hectic time. It was a fun show, though. At Columbia, my boss David's mother passed away so he was out of the office for a couple of weeks and as usual it fell to me to pick up the slack. And wouldn't you know it, all that extra stress resulted in my coming down with a nasty cold last week. I took most of the week off from work. It would have been nice if I hadn't felt to lousy. And of course this week's been doubly stressful as I try to catch up with all the things that fell through the cracks last week while I was gone. Sigh. And top it all off with a healthy feeling of guilt over how screwed they'll be in a couple of weeks. At least they're interviewing a candidate for my job tomorrow. Cross your fingers!

At home, I don't think I've posted since I got my new computer! It's a Gateway GT5405E with Windows Vista and a 19" flatscreen monitor, and it's awesome! It was totally worth the money, and I'm SO happy that I have it. It's been especially nice this past week while I was cooped up in the house feeling ill. I have plans for some fancy accessories for it, but I'll write more about them later as they happen. Kingston had some visitors staying at the apartment two weekends ago, which was nice. I like guests, and I like his friends, so it works out well. Kelly and I celebrated the two month mark on Friday, and she's continuing to be my salvation from all the work. We had a great Valentine's Day, and are planning to take a trip together in April as a joint birthday present. Yay! Not much else to tell -- some birthdays, some drama, an aborted attempt to go to Owosso and visit Heather (it's now been postponed to April), the usual sturm and drang.

And speaking of sturm and drang, I saw "300" on Sunday. I quite enjoyed it, despite feeling a little dirty afterward. I get that feeling from Frank Miller projects a lot. A cup of misogyny, several tablespoons of homophobia, and a few dashes of fascism to taste. "The Dark Knight Returns" still stands as the best comic book of all time, but there's only so much slack I can cut you, Frank. Come on back down to Earth now, buddy.

But as long as we're on the subject, here it is -- your Moment of Zen:



That's it for me; I'm off to bed. Tot ziens!

Why am I not doing more important things right now?

Because random crap like this will always fascinate me, that's why.

- Steve Jobs is cooler than you are. So are the Barenaked Ladies. Seriously -- DRM is ridiculous. There will always be ways to work around it. This has been true since the invention of the home tape recorder. Obviously, in this situation there are people working at cross-purposes; Apple wants to sell iPods, while the record companies want to sell music. Those two goals will likely never be completely compatible. But, hey, if cities start banning iPods, maybe Steve's thinking will change.

- And what's up with that story, anyway? Is it the same situation as the smoking ban or helmet laws? Is it okay for the government to make it illegal for us to be unsafe in a public place? I've been wearing my Chicago Bears hoodie a lot lately because it's been so cold here, and I've been almost run over at least twice because of my lack of peripheral vision when that hood's up. So, should we ban hooded sweatshirts? Maybe we should ban hats while we're at it. But then people might get sick when it's cold, so maybe we should ban everyone from going outside when the temperature gets below a certain level. I'm being facetious, but this could be a slippery slope.....

- Cool gadgets: this software can apparently measure things within a picture. And this baby monitor GUARANTEES that no other wireless signal can interfere with it. Why can't we get that technology on other devices?!

Gotta run. Now, here it is - your Moment of Zen:

And speaking of writers.....

.....sometimes they get screwed! I'm sure we're all aware that the world is not always a fair and pleasant place. Sometimes bad things happen to good people. Peter S. Beagle is an author that I'm fond of. He's most famous for having written "The Last Unicorn" and adapting it into an animated movie in the 80's. My personal love for his work comes mostly from "I See By My Outfit," a non-fiction account of him and a friend traveling from New York to San Francisco on motor scooters in the 60's. It's an awesome book, and I highly recommend it.

In the meantime, however, much like our friend RAW, PSB has run into some hard times. Seems that the studio that made the movie of "The Last Unicorn" has screwed him over, as did the people who made the animated version of "The Lord of the Rings," which Peter helped on the screenplay for. You may be aware that the 25th Anniversary DVD of "The Last Unicorn" was released this week. If you are planning to buy it, or any of his books (such as the recently released sequel "Two Hearts"), please buy them directly from the author, so that he can begin to gather the money he needs to pursue his legal battles.

That's all. Peace out!

Bear down!

In this case, that's not a command (as in the team fight song), but a description of the aftermath of the game (as in "Officer down!"). Sigh. Chris encapsulates the whole thing beautifully on his blog. (That's the benefit of having friends who are writers!)

And now, here it is - one last Moment of Bears' Zen:

And blah, and blah, and blah.....

Siskel and Ebert came on Letterman once and told how during the closing credits of their show, when it looked like they would lean across the aisle to one another and continue debating the merits of whatever movie they had just argued about, they would actually just say "And blah, and blah, and blah..." for as long as they needed to. They had no interest in actually talking to each other any more. I'm going to ramble on today about nothing, so if you're in a hurry, just pretend I said something interesting while the credits were rolling, and change the channel. : )

- First Oxford American turned me on to Andy Griffith's rockabilly singing career by including "Mama Guitar" on their annual Southern Music Issue CD, and now I find this fun anti-wiretapping clip from the Andy Griffith show.

- Is it wrong that I want to try this? Wired Magazine reports that by having a magnet implanted in your fingertip, you can use it to sense things like whether a wire is live before you touch it, or when you're going through a magnetic security scanner at a store. Too cool!

- I've only recently discovered the website "Popmatters," which, as you can guess from the name, revels in the art of popular culture. They recently ran an essay that not only blew my mind, but has one of the best titles ever: "Different Worlds: Does The OC endorse the economic segregation that threatens America?"

- My friend Jon has a strong response to the Isaiah Washington debacle. I guess that answers my question!

- Michael Chabon is serializing his new novel in the New York Times! Dickens who?

- And last, but certainly not least, here's an interview with Ira Glass about the upcoming "This American Life" TV show. The interview includes clips from the show, and the TAL website has announced that the show will begin airing on Showtime on March 22!

And now, here it is - your Moment of Zen:

Novel-length post.

This is gonna be a long one. There's a lot going on in the world this week for some reason. Let's get started.....

- Bears News: Wow; "Wife induces labor so husband can go to Bears game." Yay; "Bears' Johnson gets court OK to travel." Yikes; "Dallas needs a coach. Lovie Smith is underpaid. Hmm....."

- Kingston sends this week's Fuck You You Fucking Fuck Award out to Isaiah Washington. The dude is trying to cover his ass, but even his network wants his head on a platter. Is this a good sign that our culture is trying to overcome hate speech, or a bad sign that we're all too politically correct for our own good?

- In other entertainment news, the Oscar nominations came out today. I feel vindicated that "Dreamgirls" was shut out of Best Picture and Best Director. It just isn't that good, people! (You'll have to excuse me -- I work in a theatre department, and this movie is all anyone seems to want to talk about.)

- Also, controversy at Sundance as Dakota Fanning gets raped in her latest film. Reminds me of all that controversy over "The Pain and the Itch" at Steppenwolf last year. Chris Jones, the Chicago Tribune theatre critic, wrote a review of the show. Then he wrote a separate article which mentioned that as a parent himself, the show's use of an actual 9-year-old to play the part of the 6-year-old who gets a venereal disease made him uncomfortable. (I can't link to the articles because they're too far back.) To my mind, this is the job of a critic: to point out how the play made him feel so that we, the educated consumer, can then decide if we would feel that way, and if we want to feel that way. The folks working on the show, of course, declared that he was trying to censor their art. Sigh.

- In theatre news, here's a GREAT article in the Guardian written by Fiona Shaw about her experiences working on Beckett plays with crazy director Deborah Warner. Should be required reading for theatre students.

- Also in the Guardian, a great quote from Kate Jackson, lead singer for the Long Blondes, "Student debt is the greatest threat to art today."

- And another musician weighs in on making money vs. making art: John Mellencamp talks about his Chevy truck commercial, "I’m not saying it’s right. I’m not suggesting it for anybody else. This is just what I did this time to reinvent myself and stay in business. Sometimes I get sad about it really. I still don’t think that people should sell their songs for advertising."

- Comic Book Science In The Real World, #3: Bionic eyes might actually be true!

- No one I've ever talked to remembered this awesome video game from my youth, and I was beginning to be worried that I had dreamed the whole thing. You play the members of the band Journey on a quest to get your instruments back from outer space and get to your concert. Don't stop believin'!

- I don't know why I had to find this in the Houston Chronicle, but apparently Houston and Chicago are going to be the test markets for the new $1 George Washington coin! It should roll out in mid-February.

- This article made me angry. The headline asks, "What's wrong with the CTA? A $6-billion shortfall. Suspect decisions. Soaring ridership. Can our train system be fixed?" Then it goes on to tell you that what's wrong with the CTA seems to be: a $6-billion shortfall, suspect decisions, and soaring ridership. But they never bother to suggest any solutions, or to answer the final question of whether or not it can be fixed, short of finding someone to pony up the $6-billion.

- Random weirdness: beer for dogs!

- Here's a moral quandry: The courts ordered the Unabomber to pay $12-million in restitution to the families of his victims. So far they've gotten about $7,000 from selling the land his cabin was on, but the dude had no money or possessions to speak of. So the government wants to auction off his writings and letters to raise some more of the money. Kaczynski has appealed, arguing that his intellectual property is not covered under the restitution law. His family is also concerned, as many of the letters are from them or to them, and they argue that their words shouldn't be subject to seizure because of Ted's actions (and in fairness, they turned him in with the promise that their name would be kept out of the whole mess, and the government screwed them). The victims are split between wanting the money, not wanting Kaczynski to get any more publicity because of the auction, and not wanting him to be able to retain the rights to his writings and publish them later. It's a crazy mess that makes me glad I'm not a judge!

- More news from the marriage front: the marriage rate is declining, but now it appears that educated people are more likely to get married, and to stay married longer. Weird, considering that earlier statistic about how people with a graduate degree are more likely to cheat on their spouse! Statistics suck.

- The 100-Mile Diet is sounding better all the time..... Meat is ridiculously bad for the environment.

- Too much time on your hands? Read this interesting essay on reconsidering the original Star Wars trilogy in light of the prequels. It proposes that the actual masterminds behind the rebellion in the original trilogy were... R2D2 and Chewbacca!

- And lastly, this fun gadget is designed to help disabled people work on computers, but think how nice it would be to have it set up at your bed on your day off.....

And now, since I'm still high from Sunday, here it is - your Moment of Bears Zen:

Instant karma.....

...just add brahman. But seriously, folks, a couple of months ago, I wrote:

- Between the date, and the new job, and the Bears' AMAZING victory on Sunday, I'm feeling fairly lucky these days. Thank goodness I sucked so hard at bowling last night. I was beginning to worry about what kind of payment the karma gods might demand.

What a young, naive fool I was. So far this year, I'm actually in a relationship, I've started the new job and it's going great, the Bears are IN THE SUPER BOWL, and I got my highest score yet in the bowling league last week! Yikes! (At least I lost at cards on Tuesday. Phew!)

It's for moments like this that I have the hexagram tattooed on my arm, y'know? To remind me:

It is not given to every mortal to bring about a time of outstanding greatness and abundance. Only a born ruler of men is able to do it, because his will is directed to what is great. Such a time of abundance is usually brief. Therefore a sage might well feel sad in view of the decline that must follow. But such sadness does not befit him. Only a man who is inwardly free of sorrow and care can lead in a time of abundance. He must be like the sun at midday, illuminating and gladdening everything under heaven.

In other words: enjoy it while you've got it! It's always been hard for me to do, to be honest. And in light of the week the rest of my family's been having, I feel even guiltier for doing well. What did I do to deserve any of this?

And then I remember that everything happens for a reason. Everything I've done for the last 34 years is what I've done to deserve this. I hope you all remember that as you go through your own lives. If you don't feel like getting it tattooed on your arm, then just call me and I'll remind you. I promise.

And for those of you who are going through hard times, you can call me too. Because this too shall pass.

Peace out!

Read a book, goddammit!

'Cause hey, it's the Year of Vonnegut!

*

Know what I mean? You might if you're a fan (see below). KVJR has been a hero of mine for decades now, ever since I read "Harrison Bergeron" as a short story in third grade. I've read every book (okay -- I listened to the last one on tape), and I own every book except the last one. But it came out in paperback this week, so it won't be long now! I'm still dreaming of the day when I adapt "Bluebeard" as a stage play. Someday!

In the meantime, here it is - your Moment of Zen:

Intertextuality strikes back.

Hmm. First it was Peter Pan. Then it was Unicorns. Today's intertextuality winner is: Phil Collins. He's been all over the radio, Kelly and I had a discussion about him at a restaurant on Sunday, last night at the bar we all got into a long discussion about the meaning of "Sussudio," and then today, Stereogum features him as their "It's Okay To Like..." artist of the week.

I guess we really are "living in a land of confusion"!

And so, here it is - your Moment of Zen:

Good TV.

There are times when I suspect that "good TV" may be an oxymoron, but every once in a while, things come along to convince me otherwise.

- Today I bought a Season Pass to "Lost" on iTunes. This way I don't have to worry about being home to watch it when it airs, but also don't have to wait until it comes out on DVD. Yay! I love this show. Admittedly, I'm three episodes behind, but with the video iPod that my father was so awesome as to give me for Christmas, all that's about to change, baby.

- Also in iTunes news (non-TV related), they now have "Mean Girls" available in their movies section. I'm starting a pool as to how many people ask me about the movie in the next month. : )

- Variety.com reports that one of the best fantasy book series of the last decade is being turned into a TV show. HBO has bought the rights to George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Fire and Ice" and wants to make one season per book. Maybe this will be the motivation that George needs to finally finish Book Five.....

- And then, the Sci-Fi Channel is developing a series based on Neal Stephenson's "The Diamond Age." Neal is one of the smartest science-fiction writers out there currently, and I for one am eagerly anticipating this new venture for him.

Life and Death continued.

I'm paraphrasing here, but there's an old story about the first encyclopedia that goes something like this: the Emperor demanded that his wise men write down the sum of all human knowledge and bring it to him, so that he might teach it to his son. The wise men brought him a set of books twenty volumes long. "Too long!" cried the Emperor. "I will die before I can teach him all that. Just pick out the important parts." The wise men went away and came back with a single, heavy volume. "Still too long!" cried the Emperor. "Do you think I have nothing to do with my time but teach?" The wise men went away again, and this time returned with only a single piece of paper, on which they had written the most simple distillation of all human knowledge. The paper said, "This too shall pass."


RIP, RAW.


And now, in honor of the man who first exposed me to Zen, here it is - your Moment of Bob:

Yummies.

Two delicious foods in the news today.

- Sweet and sour stamps (the front is scratch-n-sniff, and the glue is flavored like sweet and sour pork in celebration of the Year of the Pig).

- Meth Coffee (super caffeinated blend with added yerba mate, which according to their press release "produces a gradual buzz arc for periods of intense play and creativity").

Sounds good to me!

First day.

One of my favorite episodes of "This American Life" is "First Day" which is all about new beginnings. I've been thinking of it, as today is officially my first day as Stage Manager of the Second City ETC stage. (I like it with all caps and no periods, although many people still spell it e.t.c. -- originally it stood for "Experimental Theater Company" but the official line now is that it doesn't stand for anything, which is why I don't use the periods.)

I'm excited, for sure. I'm also a little nervous. Not about the show itself -- that part's easy. I'm nervous about how this change will affect my life. Only time will tell, but I do believe that everything happens for a reason (it also always seems to all happen at once -- see yesterday's post). Regardless, there's no stopping it now. Here we go!

On other fronts, today I was on the train next to a man who is definitely a front-runner for the title of Stinkiest Homeless Man EVER. But that's not the worst train news today.....

And now, here it is -- your Moment of Zen:

Friends and Lovers.

Remember that song? Carl Anderson and Gloria Loring? I liked it, but then I can be a sucker for cheesiness sometimes.

Anyway, my point is that it's nice to get to know someone as a friend before you start dating them. It doesn't happen often, and it can be a hard transition, but it's sure fun. And it works well for me, since I can sometimes have difficulty making a great first impression. But over time, I really grow on you. Like a fungus. (I put the "fun" in "fungus"!) Just ask Kingston -- he hated me when we first met, and now we've been friends for almost 20 years.

I've talked here about the Euchre League. Brownlee and I met a really nice team there, Kelly and Liz. We had a blast playing each other in the league a number of times, and after Brownlee and I switched the night we played on, the four of us started getting together on other nights to play. Then we started being social outside of cards -- mainly going to shows that Brownlee or Liz were in. Kelly and Liz are also both on my team in the bowling league (Kelly's the one who got us all signed up). And so on.

From the beginning, I thought that Kelly was really cute. But she's younger than I am, and fairly normal, and I never sensed any romantic interest from her, so I just enjoyed being her friend. Then the fungus kicked in. She e-mailed me last week asking what I was up to, and somehow this time I did sense a romantic interest. So I invited her to the party on Saturday, and one thing led to another, and now we're dating. We went out again last night, and it was really great.

I have a history of rushing into relationships, and that's especially easy to do in a case like this, so I don't want to get too excited here. I don't want to jinx it. But so far it feels good, and I'm happy, and I'll keep you posted on how things develop. : )

Peace out.

Life and Death.

Notes from the news that I've missed commenting on because of the holidays.

Deaths:
The guy who invented Ramen Noodles.
The guy who created Scooby Doo.
One of the guys who created Tom & Jerry.

Life:
The 100th anniversary of Picasso painting "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" - the painting that changed art (and my view of it) forever.

So, here it is - your Moment of Zen:

Tired is as tired does.

Kurt Vonnegut tells a story in one of his books about his favorite party joke. People would often come up to him and ask, "So, what are you working on right now?" And Vonnegut would say, "I'm working on committing suicide by cigarette." In the spirit of that remark, I am currently working on committing suicide by tiredness. I doubt that this qualifies as the busiest time ever in my life, but I'm not as young as I used to be, you know, and it gets harder and harder to maintain this level of activity without a break.

[I have some videos that I'd love to get up here as well, but I'm still working on converting them. I'll keep you posted. And if any of my family is reading this, send me any pictures that you might have!]

After my return from California on Monday the 18th, I worked for a few days, and then headed to Muskegon for Christmas. Had a great time there, hanging with the family (especially got some good quality time with Dad, although he's not pictured here):




...and then on Wednesday the 27th, I drove to Grand Blanc to visit Kingston's family. I hadn't seen them in years, and it was really nice to catch up with everyone, even though the visit was brief. Thursday, he and I drove back to Chi-town just in time for me to head to the airport and meet Mom and Pat's flight in from North Carolina. Friday, Wes and family came over on the train and we all were tourists for a couple of days:











...culminating in a visit to the Field Museum on Saturday afternoon:




Among all of that, we found time to see three movies: "Polar Express," "Happy Feet," and "Dreamgirls." I had seen "Polar Express," but only on TV. It's still creepy on the big screen, but the story started to grow on me. "Happy Feet" was much better than I anticipated. It was a little too long, and I was a little creeped out by Steve Irwin being one of the voices, but overall it was very enjoyable, especially the music. And "Dreamgirls" was fun, although I had a lot of problems with the direction. I thought it looked pretty, and Eddie Murphy in particular gave a fantastic performance, but they made a lot of easy choices that could have made the movie so much better if someone had just been paying attention to the details.

We did have some bad car karma over the weekend, as I parked the rental car too close to a fire hydrant and managed to get us towed on Friday, and then on Saturday when we got back into Michigan, we found that Wesley's van had been broken into at the train station while they were away. Thanks to the amazing powers of my Treo, however, I found a nearby Lowes that was still open and we got their window covered in plastic and duct tape so they could make it the rest of the way home. (The Treo is also responsible for all of the pictures you see here!)

Sunday morning we had Second Christmas:









...and then that night, Mom and Pat and I volunteered to babysit ALL FIVE nieces and nephews so that their parents could have a fun night out for New Year's Eve. It actually went pretty well, but we were all so tired that even the kids were ready to hit the sack by 11:30pm. My nephew Xavier got Apples to Apples Jr. for Christmas, and we had a great time playing that in the hotel room.

Monday we spent relaxing with my sister's family:



...(and watched "Garfield 2" - sigh). And Tuesday headed back to Chicago. Wednesday I was back at work at Columbia, then took Mom and Pat to see the Second City Mainstage show (obviously I would have preferred to take them to the ETC show, but it didn't work out with our schedule). And Thursday they went to the Shedd Aquarium while I worked, and then I dropped them at the airport in the evening. Then I headed straight to Second City for a last couple of days shadowing Lee.

Saturday night we had a birthday party for Kingston at the apartment which was a big success. It was our first big party since I moved in, and I think it went really well. If nothing else, I cleaned our bathroom so thoroughly for the party that it's almost unrecognizable (who knew the walls were actually WHITE?). Also at the party was a wonderful young lady that I'll be going out with again on Tuesday, so let's plan on a separate post about that in a few days.

Last night was Lee's last night as stage manager of ETC, so there was a big party connected with that, and tonight is the Second City Holiday Party. Tomorrow, as I mentioned, I have a date, and Wednesday the Stingrays are getting together on an off-night to practice our bowling in preparation for the League's resumption on Monday. Then Thursday night I officially begin my reign at SC. Dad is coming into town for the show, and even though in some ways it's just another show, in other ways it's a big deal and I'm pretty excited for it. This is the cast backstage just before the show last Thursday:



And of course, this begins the next few months of working TWO FULL-TIME JOBS. I'm definitely going to die.

Blog-worthy.

The holidays are a busy, busy time. I've been meaning to post for so long now that it's almost physically painful to me. BUT -- here I am at last with at least a quick recap of my wonderful trip to EUREKA ("I have found it!"), California.

I got up very early on Friday morning and headed down to the airport. Everything went perfectly, and I winged my way to Phoenix for a brief layover, and then on to Sacramento. There, I rented a car and drove on up to Nan and Shawn's place in Eureka. There was a little confusion as Google Maps sent me on a route that may have been physically the shortest, but involved much winding and twisting and ended up taking longer than it could have. It was a nice drive though, and I arrived in plenty of time, so I wasn't complaining.

The main purpose of the trip was to see the production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Cinderella" that Nan was in (as Cinderella). The role was double cast, so on Friday night we went and saw the other girl so the part, and then on Saturday I was able to see it with Nan. It was a classic community theater production, and I enjoyed myself immensely. Nan was great -- almost TOO great, as she was clearly several levels above the rest of the cast, but having seen both versions it was clear that she inspired many of the others in the show (especially the Prince) to really shine when she was there.

On Saturday we had a... [searches for the right word while flailing arms as if boxing short people] ...lovely breakfast with Nan's friend Serena, shopped for awhile, and then saw "Eragon." (It wasn't as lame as I had feared, and Jeremy Irons turned in a much better performance than he did in "Dungeons and Dragons," although John Malkovich was apparently sleepwalking when they filmed his scenes.) Then we went to the show, and out for drinks afterward.

On Sunday we went out for breakfast again, then returned to their house to relax. Shawn left to do some work on a construction project he'd been hired for, Nan took a nap, and I read and watched some football. In the afternoon, Nan was performing in a Christmas concert at her church, so I dropped her off to rehearse and drove up the coast to sightsee a bit (pictures below). Then I came back for the concert, which was really nice. Nan and Serena both did an amazing job -- they are fantastically talented singers! After the concert, we met Shawn and went to a Hanukkah party, which we left after a couple of hours to get to the "Cinderella" cast party. Phew!




And on Monday morning I had to bolt out pretty early. But I got better directions and ended up right in the middle of the Redwood Forest on one of the most beautiful drives I've ever been on! I got to Sacramento right on time, and headed home. And here's the most amazing, unbelievable part of the trip:

THE AIRLINE GOT ME HOME HALF AN HOUR EARLY!

I know! Can you believe it? Way to go, Southwest!

Other tidbits:

- I ran into Phil and Callie at the baggage claim on my way home. I don't know if they read this, but hey, it was great to see you guys!

- If you didn't see the Colbert Report last night, you missed one of the funniest half hours ever to air on television. I bought it from iTunes today, so come over if you want to watch it!

- I'm heading to Muskegon tomorrow evening, and will be in and out of town for the next two weeks. I don't know how often I'll be at a computer, so consider this your official Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Joyous New Year wish!!

And now, here it is -- your Moment of Christmas Zen:

Fruity zen.

Ran across a photo set of labels from old fruit and vegetable shipping crates. Some were beautiful, some were racist, and some were sexually suggestive. Here are a few of the latter:

Niiiice.

"Put the Marduk back in Zagmuk!"

And if that wasn't Zen enough for you, here it is.....

Color me amused.

This made me laugh out loud: it's a Flash-based video game called "Asteroid's Revenge"! Remember the old-school video game "Asteroids"? Well, this is essentially the same game, except you play as the asteroid, trying to destroy as many of the little spaceships as possible. Hilarious!

Just call me Diego.

I'm famous! And not just for the Mean Girls thing (which has come up several times recently!), either. One of Columbia's film students has been shooting some scenes here in the theater building and I helped them out with a few things, so he gave me a credit on the film and now I'm listed on the IMDB!

Bwah-hah-ha!

And now, here it is - your Moment of Zen:

(This would be the character of Shane Oman from the movie)

Time for random!

Nothing personal to tell today, but here's some interesting stuff:

- There's a little group of us who get together to watch football. One of the guys has a high-definition television, which looks great for DVDs and video games, but he won't pay the extra for high-def cable, so watching television on it sucks. Consequently the rest of us refuse to go to his place to watch the games. This has led us to many discussions of the pros and cons of HD. Here is an interesting article about the problems they are having in Canada with switching to HD cable.

- I know I'm a geek, but I find the current case before the Supreme Court on patent law really interesting. Partly because we did a Galileo show for a bunch of patent lawyers recently and I learned a lot about the process, so now I'm fascinated. The main thing they're debating on is the test to determine if an invention was "obvious," because if it is, then you can't patent it. Umm... did anyone read recently about McDonald's trying to patent their methods of making sandwiches?

- In other legal news, a federal judge has ruled that American money is unfair to blind people. I can kind of understand the thinking here, and I certainly won't oppose anything that makes our money more interesting, but the Rehabilitation Act that they cite was passed 33 years ago! If it was REALLY that much of a burden on blind people, wouldn't someone have said something before now?

- Y'all know how much I love me some Garrison Keillor, even though I dissed Prairie Home Companion earlier this week. Anyway, he's been doing some editorials over the last year that the Tribune has been carrying and I've been enjoying. Here's today's, on the Three C's of Christmas: Cookies, candles and carols. A good summary of the modern holiday.

- Oh, and speaking of Prairie Home Companion, I'm sure that most of you have heard that Robert Altman passed away last week. And many of you have probably heard about Lindsey Lohan's misguided sympathy letter to Mr. Altman's family. If you haven't, she made a few mistakes: 1) She didn't use spellcheck. 2) She didn't have anyone proofread it to see if it was appropriate. 3) And then she released it to the press, instead of sending it directly to the family. So. She's stupid. We knew that. But here's a fun opinion column about the resulting scandal, which amusingly turns into a the-British-are-cooler-than-we-are rant!

- And as long as we're discussing opinion columns, that bastard Mark Steyn (who I can't seem to stop reading) has a great one about the old stupid-people-have-more-babies story, this time centering on religion.

- DC Comics has announced the creation of a new line of titles aimed at teenage girls. My niece is three. Is it too early to start buying them for her? I could just save them up, and then she'd have a complete set when she was ready.....

- Ran across a new band today called Matt & Kim. Check out their new video on YouTube - it's HILARIOUS!

Many of you who read this blog don't live in the big city and have never worked at an arts college, so I'm sure that some of you must wonder what my life is like. Let me assure you, it's as crazy as you think it is! I've documented a couple of interesting things that happened to me in the last 24 hours, so here they are - your Moments of Zen: