| Wallyball |
[Feb. 10th, 2006|04:43 pm] |
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It seems as though I might be playing Wallyball tomorrow morning with a few of my cousins, my fiancee, and my uncle and aunt. I discovered Wallyball several years ago but have only played it sporadically, and it is enough removed from mainstream sporting that a person in my family can safely play it and still be welcomed at family events. jay-slash-kay. :) It's like Volleyball only you are allowed, and encouraged, to use the walls as a method of deflecting the ball. It is played in a Raquetball court and is very fun. We will probably play from 10am to noon, after which I will probably be rather sore, since I'm not so much for the whole "physical sports-related activity" thing. |
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| New Wipers |
[Dec. 7th, 2005|10:30 pm] |
Last year I had trouble with a rather odd part on my car: the windshield wipers. You know that part in the end of Shawshank Redemption when Morgan Freeman is doing the voiceover as Andy Dufresne is walking out of the Warden's office the night before the big event, and he said "I mean seriously, how often do you look at a man's shoes?" (or something to that effect) Well, I sort of feel like that with my car. Seriously, how often do you pay attention to the windshield wipers? Well, last winter mine were severely busted, so I dropped about $15 on some special uber-winter wipers at Checker. Wouldn't you know it--they stink. This winter they froze in place and I had to bend them to the shape of my windshield, which pretty much rendered them entirely ineffective.
Hrm...
So I went and dropped another $15 on some standard-issue wipers, and let me tell you, I feel like I have an entirely new car. The Plymouth lives once again! Every time I think that little red guy is finally going to up and die on me, the good Lord gives it another lease on its red-with-silver-trim life. Here's to another few weeks/months of inadvertent Lee Iacoca promotion as I toodle down Highway 10 each morning on the way to work. Now if only I could find a sweet deal on a Corolla... |
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| Mario Kart! |
[Nov. 20th, 2005|09:08 pm] |
Having just purchased Mario Kart DS, I can, with confidence, say that the Nintendo DS has finally arrived. Sure the thing went on sale several months ago, but until now I haven't played any games (even counting Nintendogs) that really justified my purchase of the system. Sure, Mario 64 DS was neato, but using the touch screen as an analog stick was...*shudder*. Advance Wars Dual Strike was OK, but basically a rehash of the first two Advance Wars. But man oh man, Mario Kart DS is awesome. It's like, the coolest of cool. It's got 16 tracks from older-school Mario Kart games as well as 16 new tracks. It's also got wireless internet multiplayer. Um...shyeah. That's just about, oh, super awesome! So yeah, you can take your PSP and shove it up your UMD. ;)
It's also been really nice out lately, which is good on the ol' Plymouth (136000 miles and counting), and the low gas prices bode well for our trip to Lincoln over Thanksgiving weekend. Forecasts predict a very high chance of coolness with a possibility of good gravy (probably on the turkey). Oh, and I have a copy of Oldboy from Netflix I really need to get watchin'... |
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| Stagecoach |
[Nov. 11th, 2005|05:57 pm] |
Recently I rented an old-school western movie called Stagecoach. It stars John Wayne and was directed by John Ford, and is supposed to be one of the all-time classic westerns. It took a few days to get through it, mostly thanks to my recent purchase of Star Wars Episode 3, and for most of the time I was kind of wondering what all the fuss was about. On one hand, the movie had many interesting characters who were much more than cardboard cutouts, and they were all on a rather interesting journey in a (you guessed it!) stagecoach. But I didn't see what was so revolutionary about it. But near the end, during a massive chase scene between the Americans and some warring Apaches, it suddenly became clear. The chase scene was incredible, and I can completely understand how it helped pave the way for every modern chase sequence today. This was the original Fast and the Furious, folks. Insane camera angles, lightning-quick editing, crazy stunts (even one that was directly ripped off by Spielberg in Raiders of the Lost Ark), and lots of shooting.
The cool part, though, was how this chase scene was *not* the climax of the movie. The climax, as it turned out, was more of an emotional one several minutes later as John Wayne's character finally confronted the guys responsible for gunning down his family.
So for the long and short of it, just know that Stagecoach is pretty darn sweet. Yay for old movies! |
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| Saturday |
[Nov. 5th, 2005|10:35 pm] |
Morning: Watched more Episode III extras. Put new lug nuts on my rear-driver's-side tire. Way cool.
Afternoon: Drove to Mason City. Hung out with Seth. Had a burger at Culver's and played pool. Awesome.
Evening: iTrip arrived. Let Matt take it to test it out, and early reports are all good. Currently watching Episode III. Way double awesome. |
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| Behold, Mario Kart! |
[Nov. 5th, 2005|10:27 am] |
The Mario Kart series has been awesome ever since its inception on the good ol' SNES years ago. Mario Kart 64 was a staple game during high school and college, and (along with Goldeneye) made for some of the best video game parties ever. Mario Kard Double Dash!! on GameCube, however, was not...oh, not all that great. It wasn't a stinker, but it really wasn't up to par with its predecessors.
Ladies and Gentlemen, behold: Mario Kart DS.
Click on the Mario Kart DS Presentation - Part 1 - Offscreen video. This game is looking soooo good. It's classic Mario Kart action, running at 60 frames per second, on the coolest tracks you have ever seen, and you can play wirelessly on the internet. When this thing launches on November 14 you will freak out. I know I will.
Oh, I also ordered an iTrip LCD on Sunday, hoping it would be here today for my drive to Mason City, Iowa. According to FedEx.com it is "On FedEx vehicle for delivery", so I'm holding my breath and hoping a man in a purple uniform rings the doorbell in the next two hours... |
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| Fake vs. Fake |
[Nov. 3rd, 2005|05:45 pm] |
It's been a decade since Jurassic Park. Why, then, does Spielberg's original Tyrannosaur look more realistic than Peter Jackson's?
Not to pick a nit here, but there comes a time when you just have to ask yourself if CGI is really the way to go. Still, though, I do appreciate what Jackson and co. have done with the Lord of the Rings. The Battle of Pelennor Fields, for example, is awesome despite the fact that it is largely CGI. But sometimes, well, I guess a good ol' puppet just gets the job done (see: Yoda in Episode IV). Many of the dinos in Jurassic Park were puppets, with only a scant six minutes of CGI in the whole film. Nearly the entire "Ford Explorer" scene was done with massive puppets, and a CGI dino only in the wide-angle shots such as when it is eating the tire off an overturned vehicle.
All this, and I still really want to see War of the Worlds. And yes, Episode III is awesome. :-) |
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| Podcast |
[Oct. 14th, 2005|04:04 pm] |
A few months ago my cousin Ed and I had the idea of doing a Podcast, so we gave it a shot and things went pretty well. We continued to do it on a weekly basis, and now have 10 shows under our proverbial belt, with the 11th one on its way tonite. To check out our show, click here with iTunes open, and it will take you right to our show within iTunes. I came up with the name "Square Two" because it sounds pretty neat, and it's kind of, like, where do you go from Square One? Right to us. We have no format other than to talk about things which interest us, and that usually turns out to be some sort of computer-related issue or concept.
I must say, it's cool to have something like this even if, on the grand scheme of things, it is fairly inconsequential. It makes me feel good (how hippy is that? answer: very) to know I have a part in creating something that others can enjoy, and even though we receive no income or money or compensation in any form for our show, we don't really mind. In fact, we don't mind at all. It's cool to do it for the joy of simply doing it. My brother Phil has been on several shows with us too, which is also extremely cool because, well, he's an extremely cool dude. ;-) |
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| Shameless |
[Oct. 11th, 2005|11:10 pm] |
It's a good thing to create something, and to watch it evolve over time, and to see it mature into something of which you truly are proud. While I can't say that Walking Taco is finished, it certainly has, to quote the old adage, come a long way, baby. The following is a link to what the site looked like on its very inception:
Original Page
The graphics are a mess, my photo looks like I'm angry, and there appears to be some sort of poo-like pixellated monstrosity in the upper-right corner (it's supposed to be an actual walking taco).
Now, compare it to the current page:
Current Page
It's a healthy blend of CSS and HTML, with a dose of graphical touches and a nice background to boot. It took many iterations (the background alone took on at least a dozen forms. It's not actually blue, by the way, but a subtle mix of blue and blue-green on a four-by-six-pixel canvas) but I am very proud of the current design. It looks almost professional, which is a tough thing to do. There's still a lot I would like to add, though, but that's for another day... |
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| Do you believe in miracles? |
[Oct. 10th, 2005|08:06 pm] |
An email from my aunt I received exactly five days ago:
Steve and I have always been very grateful for our extended families and the wonderful support they have always given one another. We are now asking for your support in prayer for our family, especially for Jeremy and Natalie. First, I should say that Jeremy and Natalie are expecting a baby in May. Today they received news from their doctor that the baby has developed without a brain. As a family we have turned to our creator for his divine strength and peace. We believe that God is a miracle working God, so we are giving this little one to his care and trusting that he loves our baby more than we could ever love him or her. We ask that you join us in prayer. Pray for God’s perfect will to be done and for peace and strength for Jeremy and Natalie. (emphasis added by yours truly)
An email I received from Natalie this evening:
We did go to the peri-natal specialist today at 2pm and the doctor looked at our little 9 week old baby with specialized ultrasound equipment. After looking at many parts of the baby from many different angles he said that he was quite confused because he saw a totally normal 9 week old baby with a normally round skull. He said he saw no signs of a neural-tube defect. Jeremy asked the doctor if he has diagnosed babies with this type of defect this early and he said yes and that our baby does not appear to have anything wrong with him/her. We will be going to him again in a month just to rule anything out being that the skull does not develop “fully” until 12 weeks. But, the doctor said, if I were his wife, he would tell me to go home today not worrying about a thing. PRAISE GOD!
Yes indeed, Natalie. Praise God from whom all blessings flow... |
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| An Extra Lease on Summer |
[Oct. 2nd, 2005|06:04 pm] |
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A few days ago it was down to the 50s, with overnight lows approaching freezing. I shut the windows in my room, took the air conditioner out of the living room, and began to prepare myself for the onslaught of coldness and snow that comes with winter. Well, as it turned out, the good Lord gave us a few extra days of summer! This weekend has been exceptionally nice out, with temps in the upper 70s and a light breeze to boot. Sure it's kind of trite to write about the weather, but once you live through a Minnesota winter you begin to appreciate any extra days of summer you can get. |
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| Commentary Tracks |
[Sep. 28th, 2005|07:33 pm] |
I like to watch DVDs with commentary tracks, if for no other reason than to gain a little bit of insight into the process of filmmaking. And while I am not a filmmaker by trade, I have spent time on a few odd projects here and there. The trouble is, commentary tracks are kind of a gamble: you might get a good one attached to a bad movie, or (and much worse), a bad one attached to a good movie, or sometimes both will be bad and on rare occasions both will be good. But to discover which of the four criteria a given DVD meets, you must be willing to invest time in a) watching the initial movie, and b) watching it with commentary.
DVDs with good commentary:
A Beautiful Mind
The Lord of the Rings Extended Editions (Director/Writer commentary track only)
Terminator 2: Extreme Edition
Rounders (so I've heard)
Suicide Kings
And probably others, but they don't come to mind. I was watching Saw with commentary (rule of thumb for watching commentary tracks: turn the movie subtitles on) but have postponed it for now because the movie is kind of, oh, not very lighthearted. It's good, if you like those horror/splatter type of movies, but...yeah. Anyway, today I decided to give Napoleon Dynamite a try, and so far the commentary track is really good. I'm looking forward to hearing more of it.
On a side note, I have decided to get up five minutes earlier (making my waking time 5:37am) so I can watch an episode of Fullmetal Alchemist before going to work. I've seen the show once, and it's time to give it another run-through. Wow, is it good. |
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| Segway |
[Sep. 27th, 2005|04:29 pm] |
Today, as I was pulling out of the parking lot after work, I saw a guy coming down the sidewalk on none other than a Segway:
I stopped my car and got out to talk to him, and we had a very nice chat about his modern mode of transportation. I kind of acted as though I didn't know what it was, even though I have read about them and seen videos on the internet. He was more than happy to tell me about it, and demonstrated a few things like turning in place and going up curbs. It was totally awesome, but totally expensive. Still, I can't help but want one even though it does, essentially, what a $29 Wal-Mart foot-powered scooter would do.
I asked him if I could try it, and without hesitation, he replied "No". I was a little bummed, but then, if a random guy got out of his 1989 Plymouth and asked to ride my Segway, I would have probably said the same thing. :-) |
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| Off-Brand |
[Sep. 26th, 2005|04:26 pm] |
Sometimes the off brand or store brand can be royally gross. Case in point: Always-Save brand macaroni and cheese from Super Saver. It's gross. Like, eating boiled cardboard gross. But every now and then I stumble across a holy grail of off brand, and it's so great that I feel like shouting from the mountaintops.
The other day I bought a bag of "Super Crunch" White Restaurante Style tortilla chips and this afternoon I decided I needed something on which to munch. Behold, the bag of chips calling to me from the dining room table! Let me tell you, these chips are awesome. They're better-tasting than Tostitos, and less than half the price. Go for it, if you're looking for a cheap and tasty snack. mmmm...
edit: after talking to El Gato last night, I decided to fire up Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels. Man, that is one hard game. Ninja Gaiden be darned, this game is tough. Cool, but whoa, it's hard. Like old-school hard.
Translation: it was thweeet. |
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| Rain, Rain |
[Sep. 25th, 2005|10:14 pm] |
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It rained all day today, which is kind of peaceful in a way. I have some "songs" on my iPod that I put on there last winter which are really just long sounds of thunderstorms and rain. It's really soothing to hear the rain patting against my window pane when I go to bed, and I'm looking forward to turning off the light in a few minutes and drifting off to non-digital water from the sky. It's a good thing, folks. |
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| Today... |
[Jun. 12th, 2005|11:15 pm] |
-I went on a walk to get a pop from the gas station with Eve and Matt
-It was super nice outside
-I turned some of my old pants into cutoff shorts
-I made kool-aid, which I haven't done for a while
-I finished watching Terminator 3, which is a much better movie than its box office receipts indicated
-I washed my electric blanket, which I have not done since I received it midway through high school. I no longer use its electric functions, but it is a nice comfy blanket to have on my bed nonetheless. |
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| Tigers! |
[Apr. 29th, 2005|04:26 pm] |
Mac nerds get excited over strange things. I've been salivating over the release of Apple's new OSX Tiger operating system for several days (weeks?) now. It's a big deal in the Mac community when these things happen, and the last time a significant update to the operating system happened was 18 months ago with the release of OSX Panther. (note for cat lovers: see any patterns here?) This Tiger operating system has several improvements over Panther, but it's mostly stuff that only Mac nerds would get excited over. A little tweak to the internet browser, a cool new mini-application thingey, a neat-o search feature...things that, when I try to explain to others why I am so excited about it, suddenly don't sound as cool anymore. :)
So yesterday I got home from work and saw a little note from FedEx hanging on the door, saying they had tried to deliver my new operating system but I was not home. Horror! I quickly got on my Mac, hopped over to Google Maps and typed in the location of the FedEx warehouse. It was a good half hour away, and it was nearing rush hour, but I had to have my Tiger. An hour later I was back home and busy installing and upgrading my computer like a mo'fo.
So what's the big deal? Well, my computer runs a bit faster now. And I can surf the internet, and I can transfer stuff to me iPod, and I can send email...basically everything I could do before. Only now I'm doing it on a newer (and therefore "better") system. w00t! |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 21st, 2005|10:26 pm] |
I went to look at a problem my car was having today, since it was so nice outside, and I wanted to put my new tool set to the test. And by that I mean I wanted an excuse to use the ratchet and maybe a screwdriver or some similar metal object to do something useful. My brakes act up when I use them a lot, like if I come to a sudden stop or am in a sort of stop-n-go situation, so I thought if I took off my front tire and stared at the braking mechanism for a while I would be able to figure something out.
I took the tire off and was amazed at how hot the whole assembly was. It was crazy, like my tire and rim was going to burst in to flames any second. I think the issue with my brakes has something to do with them heating up and expanding, causing them to rub against the brake drum, which makes my car act kind of funny. I wasn't able to do anything useful other than stare at the brake pads, scratch my chin, and say "Hmm" to myself.
But then I decided to clean out my car with my cousin's shop-vac, a bottle of 409, and a rag. Even though my car is 16 years old and has brake problems, it now looks nice on the inside, and I feel as though I have just received a new lease on my transportation. It's a good feeling to ride in a freshly-cleaned car, even if the brakes might go out on you. :-) |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 19th, 2005|05:25 pm] |
I saw some more previews for Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith today. I remember waiting in line for Episode 1 way back in the day, in May of 1999, and how cool of an experience it was for all of us who waited for a few days outside the old Stuart Theatre building. (now the Roccoco) I still get a bit nostalgic when I walk past that street corner, even though the waiting was only a few days.
Episode 2 was a bit different, and I was joined by a few friends outside the Southpointe theatres. Robert actually waited with us, which was kind of odd because he's never been the world's biggest Star Wars fan. It was pretty fun stuff, though.
And now with Episode 3 I feel like it's that time all over again. I'm getting that giddy sort of feeling whenever I check online and find out more stuff about this movie. It's gonna rock your socks off, folks. And if it doesn't, well, I guess it won't.
On another note, I'm halfway through the book Sphere by Michael Crichton. Hizzle told me a while ago that it was the only book he read clear through in one sitting. It's simply that good. And while I'm not reading it all in one sitting, I must say it is a very good book nonetheless. If you like cool stuff you should definitely check it out. |
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