Everything is Unfinished

I’ve added a new feature to this little bloggy blog. Look over to the left and you’ll see the Quotes of the Day, provided by The Quotations Page. I’ve been meaning to add them for a while now, but I wanted to create a new column for them over to the right. Unfortunately, my scant knowledge of CSS has so far rendered me unable to do so, so for now the quotes will live where they are. Although if anyone knows how to add a third column, I’d appreciate the help. I also need to fix my comments. But, as the title says, Everything is Unfinished so it’s not a huge deal. There will always be more things to add or change.

Last night we picked up the first two seasons of The Office on dvd, then promptly watched 5 episodes. I’d never seen the show before, despite being a big fan of BBC America. I think I resisted it because of the theme song - it doesn’t seem to go with the rest of the show. Apart from that, however, the show is brilliant, and fortunately not very close to how my office operates. My favorite character is Ricky, with Tim, played by Martin Freeman a close second. Martin is also playing Arthur Dent in the new Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy movie, and if his work on The Office is any indication he will be awesome.

One of my co-workers just came up to me and was asking about our vacation policy. Neither of us really know much other than we get 10 days of vacation time per year. Since I started at the end of March, I get a pro-rated amount of vacation which I *thought* worked out to be 6.5 days, but is actually 7.5 days! That makes me so happy, I think I’ll put up another Orlando picture:

Currently Stuck In Head: Blink 182, I Miss You

Last night I spent the evening with Natalie, and we had the pleasure of once again seeing Guster. They’re touring this summer with Ben Folds and Rufus Wainwright so we got to see 2 hours of awesome music, with some Rufus Wainwright in the middle. I did like some of Rufus’s songs, like the one he opened with that was in Latin, the French one from Moulin Rouge, and the one from the Donnie Darko soundtrack, and one or two others. But most of his set felt like a death march, and he personally didn’t have a very good on-stage presence. I got the feeling that this was by far the biggest venue he’d played. One cool thing that happened though was, as he was introducing his one and only political song which is about gay marriage, there was a rainbow in the sky. Some people in the crowd made a big sign on a ripped-open box to let him know and he saw it as he was finishing the song.

Guster was amazing again, and opened with Demon which I’ve decided is one of my favorite songs of theirs. Their set was very mellow though, which led me to wonder if I just haven’t noticed that their music is that mellow or what? And as usual I felt extremely old and out of style in the crowd, but at least I didn’t have butt cleavage, visible love handles created by my tight low-rider jeans and midriff tank top, or a fist-sized hold in my pants that showed my hairy ass. Yeah, we saw all those things.

Ben Folds was by far the rockingest of the three performers, playing some of his solo stuff and some Ben Folds Five songs. Not Mess, which was too bad, but that’s ok - I’ll listen to it 55 times in a row when I get home tonight. Love that song. There were a few songs that required audience participation and that was fun. Ben had Rufus come out and do a duet with him to Careless Whisper which was really cool, and which I surprised myself by knowing all the words to. Guster also teamed up with Ben on a song of Ben’s, then they improvised a reggae tune called “Rock Out With Your Cock Out”, which is what a heckler yelled at Ben in Chicago once. Before they played together though, Guster needed some extra time so Ben told one of my favorite jokes: A pirate walks into a bar, and the bartender notices he’s got a steering wheel coming out of the crotch of his pants. The bartender asks the pirate, “I notice you have a steering wheel coming out of the crotch of your pants. Doesn’t that bother you?” and the pirate responds, “Yarrr, it’s drivin’ me nuts”

Natalie made a really good observation too, that Ben seems to have “little man” syndrome. It’s very obvious once it’s pointed out, because a lot of his songs are about him telling people who screwed him in the past to fuck off.

Ideally the show would have been 3 solid hours of Guster, but it was good overall. The weather was perfect, just a bit chilly later in the evening. It was strange though to see Guster and Rufus in the daylight. I wonder if the crowd would have gotten into them a little more had it been dark.

Two years ago today, Johnny and I got married. It hasn’t all been perfect, but it’s been the best 731 days of my life.

I wish he was here :(

*****EDIT*****

Look what I got!

They smell so good! I’m in a much better mood now. But I still miss you Johnny. Can’t wait to see you Thursday!

As I mentioned a while back, I’ve started reading the web comic Penny Arcade. It’s an off-beat, geeky comic about gamers and although I don’t get a lot of the specific game stuff, I think it’s pretty funny. Through them, I found the web comic PVP which in turn led me over to Goats. They have a lot of cool t-shirts including this one:

Click on the image to get to the other merchandise.

So even though Voldemort isn’t actually in the latest Harry Potter movie, now seems like a good time to comment on it. I know you’ve all been waiting with bated breath to hear me talk about it, just like I’m sure you’re all frustrated that I haven’t finished chronicalling the Canada trip. (I’ll get back to it, if not for your benefit then for my own. See, if I write about the whole trip now, I can cut and paste the blog entry for my scrapbook pages when I get to them!)

**Spoiler Warning**
I liked HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban. It has been my favorite book of the series so far, and I was excited for it because the previews made it look leagues better than the first two movies. I did enjoy the first two movies, but this one was indeed way better as a film. I purposely didn’t go back and re-read the book first, so that I could enjoy this movie on its own to some extent, and I’m glad I did that. I just finished re-reading it the other night and the whole time I was thinking things like “they should have put that in the movie” or “they really changed that scene”. But overall, whoever adapted the book did a pretty good job. I know one of Johnny’s complaints is that they explain a lot of things that they could be showing, and if he had written the movie he would have had it open with Sirius Black escaping from Azkaban. That would have been a good way to set up the movie, but it also would have given away the fact that Sirius is an Animagus, so we would have known that Harry wasn’t seeing the Grim. The main problem I had with the movie actually could have been cleared up with a quick explanation, though - Lupin never tells Harry who Mooney, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs are. Well, that and there’s not nearly enough Snape.
**End Spoilers**

Like I said, I re-read HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban earlier this week, after re-reading the first two books as well. I’m ready to start book four but I can’t find my copy of it right now, so I’m going to have to go digging through boxes. I think I could read these books over and over again for years. It’s easy to see why they’re so popular - I love losing myself in them. Book six is underway with no projected release date as of yet, but I’ll be buying a copy as soon as it’s available! Incidentally, in my search for news of the book, I came across JK Rowling’s official site which had a lot of cool information on it about her and her characters.

Since I promised comics, I have two more that I thought were both funny and pertinant, and surprisingly about politics. This is how I like politics though: broken down into small pieces and with a punchline. Too bad Capitol Critters isn’t on anymore.

But what blog entry would be complete without a picture of one of People Magazine’s 50 Hottest Bachelors?

Currently Stuck In Head: Genesis, Land of Confusion

A picture of Moe not enjoying his birthday seemed to be a great way to start a blog entry about Moe’s actual birthday today. Head on over to Woody’s blog to leave a message for the birthday boy!

Ok, when did I get so freakin’ old? I don’t know how it happened but last Saturday my baby brother Myke turned 24! Happy birthday Beeb - any requests? I’ll be up this weekend. No, you can’t have my new Gameboy. And on Thursday, Moe turns the big 3-0. We pretended it was his birthday last month, which he wasn’t too happy about. But his passage to a new decade begins the 13-month-long celebration of my high school friends turning 30. I’m the last one, crossing the barrier next July. I’m not sure where my whole life went to, but it’s been a pretty good ride so far. And now that I’m using nostalgia to revert back to the past anyway, I’ll get to live it all over again AND make some new memories.

Ok, I’m not sure that most of that made any sense, so I’ll just post my Orlando picture and be done:

Currently Stuck In Head: Steve Miller Band, Fly Like An Eagle

If you’ve ever walked past Hot Topic in any mall, you know that everything old is new again. VH1 is in on the trend too, with the series I Love the 80’s, I Love the 80’s Strikes Back and even I Love the 70’s. I started wondering how long they’d be able to wait to do I Love the 90’s, and I got my answer yesterday - it begins July 12. How long can it possibly be until I Love the Aughts? Maybe they’ll do the first five years in 2005.

Not to be out-retroed by everyone else, Nintendo has released a retro-looking Gameboy Advance SP. Finally, some old school I can get into! I mean, I like Strawberry Shortcake and all, but give me the original Super Mario Brothers and I’m content for hours. I know this because I went out and got one today and played SMB for hours. The farthest I’ve gotten without warp zones is level 3-4, but I’m pretty surprised at how much I remember of the game - all the hidden 1-UPs and such. I also got the original Legend of Zelda and have realized how dependent I was on the overview map I used to have from Nintendo Power to get around. I’ve managed to find and beat the first dungeon level, but I may have to look around online for some help from here.

I think Johnny was as happy as I was about the retro Gameboy. Since before we even got our Gamecube he’s been telling me I should get a Gameboy so I can play Super Mario 3, and I kept saying no, I didn’t want to spend that much money for one game, didn’t need one, etc. So when I saw the commercial for the retro one, I immediately called him and told him I wanted one. He happily told me to go get one, and I think he’s just as excited as I am to play these old games :) I’ve also got Tetris on the way - not the new stupid Tetris with all the different options, just plain old bare-bones Tetris. I don’t know if I’ll ever leave the house once that gets here! After that I want Pac-Man, Donkey Kong and Super Mario 3, but I’ll wait a bit to get those. Maybe till after I beat Zelda.

Now then, I promised to put up my favorite ROTK screenshot:

Click on the picture for a 4-page gallery of screenshots from ROTK, all of which feature Legolas. It was almost too much for even me to take!

During Reagan’s reign in America, I wasn’t paying much attention to politics. Not surprising, since I was only 5-13, and considering that I don’t pay much attention to politics even now at 28. There are very few people like Johnny who started watching CNN at age 8. Anyway, the point is my actual memories of Reagan are extremely filtered, and my general feelings about him were good. Simple because he was the president meant that he was a good guy, to my young mind. I really had no idea what he did in office until very recently, and due to my overwhelming apathy all I know now is that most of his actions and policies were generally bad, from a liberal perspective. As is still true today, I got most of my news from comedy, so I was more aware of how people were making fun of Reagan than anything else. So the picture I have of him is of a kindly, crinkly-faced older gentleman who didn’t really know what was going on most of the time. But no one wants to believe that about the most powerful man in the world - that’s one of the big reasons that people today delude themselves into thinking that Dubya is actually in control of things. It’s also the reason one of my favorite sketches on SNL is “Masterbrain”, where Phil Hartman plays a Reagan who shows his doddering fool side to the public, but behind closed doors he’s orchestrating deals and cover-ups and funnelling money. There’s a transcript of that sketch here.

Anyway. My point is that even though a lot of people think Reagan is the best thing to come out of Hollywood since sliced bread (and its sequel Sliced Bread 2: Electric Boogaloo), he got us into a lot of the crap that we’re dealing with now. And it’s nice to find out that people you admire share your views. Woody has links to two blogs that I read occasionally: Christopher Priest and Peter David. Priest wrote my favorite comic Quantum and Woody and David writes a lot of comics and short stories and novels including Star Trek novels. (I haven’t actually read any of his stuff but I enjoy his blog.) Priest’s most recent post talks about how, despite his politics Reagan was a good leader in that he got the country out of the funk it was in. But he also notes, quite correctly I feel, that Reagan was “a made-to-order icon of The Good Ol’ Days, Of White America”. With all the reminiscing about how great it was when Reagan was president, it’s going to be that much easier to push through legislations that, say, ban gay marriage. I can see the Bushies using their “do this for us in honor of The Gipper” shield in place of their “do this for us or the terrorists have already won” shield. You can see how it’s already happening by going to Bush’s official re-election site. Ugh! On Peter David’s most recent entry, he gives some odds on how much the RNC will exploit Reagan. If you’re a betting person, I think he’s got some pretty solid leads. There’s also some pissed off right-wingers in the comments on that entry making lots of stupid, racist remarks. Fun stuff.

With all that being said, say what you will about the man - this is just cool:

And to get back to my old ways of posting, here’s (FINALLY!) a screenshot of Orlando from ROTK - I can’t find my favorite shot of him from the whole trilogy, but I’ve got it saved at home so I’ll post it later. For now though:

Currently Stuck In Head: Modest Mouse, Float On

I’ll catch up and post days three and four, along with more recent stuff, after I get back from cropping tonight. But rather than edit the last post with pictures, I’ve put them all here: O Canada! Pictures Enjoy!

After a short 6 hour nap, we got up at 9:00 on Saturday morning so we could get free breakfast. I should note that our hotel was nice - certainly nothing extravagant, but we had a really firm king bed, a balcony, and we were a block from the falls for only US$75. (We didn’t realize that we would long for its luxury once we got to Toronto. More on that later.) We weren’t necessarily expecting anything outrageous for the free continental breakfast, but what kind of hotel in Canada doesn’t have donuts?! We made do with the marginally more healthy bagels, toast and fruit. Then it was off to get a new tire.

The automobile gods must have figured we went through enough the night before, because we actually found a place that had a tire in stock and could install it for a mere US$52. We got directions from the guy at the front desk of the hotel, who first tried to convince me that Wal-Mart would be a better place to get a tire, and then gave me the most garbled directions ever, including one wrong turn. Once we found Niagara Battery and Tire, though, they were very pleasant and got the job done quickly. They even gave us some coffee mugs to take with us. We stopped to get our money changed and buy some Canadian snacks from a vending machine, then we headed back to the hotel to take advantage of the free parking and walked down to the falls.

It was, not surprisingly, very busy at the falls. It was Saturday of an American holiday weekend, the weather was beautiful, and the crowds were out full force. We spent about 2 hours walking along the waterfront taking pictures which I’ll edit in later, since I’m at work now and they’re of course at home. The falls were beautiful, but much smaller than I remembered. In fact, the whole gaudy, tourist-trap town was smaller than I remembered. It manages to have a large number of gift shops, however, and plenty of ice cream carts and shops. Never one(s) to pass up ice cream, Johnny and I got some refreshments and witnessed a very old, very crotchety, very American lady refusing to pay $3.69 for her grandson’s double-scoop in a waffle cone when the person who scooped it told her it would only be $2.69. We rushed away before we could be accused of being from the same country as her. And I don’t remember all of the cheesy stuff either: Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Museum, Marvel Action Adventure, the Criminal Hall of Fame and for some reason, a bunch of haunted houses. Of course, I was only 9 or 10 when I was there before, and the only things I *do* remember are the Skylon Tower and a fountain in a part that we splashed in.

Around 2:00 we left Niagara Falls and headed up to Toronto. We passed a car with “Just Married” signs on it, and inside were two guys in tuxes. I’d forgotten that gay marriage is legal in Ontario. Yay for Ontario! We honked and waved at them, and I’m sure they were thinking “Heh, stupid Yanks probably got the shock of their lives when they saw we’re both guys.” Wait, do Canadians think of us as Yanks, or just southerners and Brits? Anyway, we made it up to Toronto without incident, passing not one but two IKEAs on the way! IKEA is one of the few things that Columbus doesn’t have, so it’s very novel to me. We decided we’d stop at one on the way back. We also decided to stop somewhere along the way and get a picture of Toronto from across the lake. The highway that we were driving ran pretty close to the lake, all around the southwestern end.

Upon arriving in Toronto, we found our hotel. Our smelly, cramped, crappy hotel. The whole place was dingy and smelled like fried food, and our room was barely big enough to house the double bed, not to mention the TV armoire. If our room was in The Sims, I wouldn’t have been allowed to put everything in it because the people wouldn’t have had room to walk. Add to all this the fact that we were supposed to have a room with two queen beds. The inconvenience netted us 10% off our bill, which *almost* covered the cost of parking. At no time was I told that there was no parking at the hotel, until we were illegally parked to check in. We had to pay an extra $15 a day to use the hospital parking garage a block away. The traffic gods strike again.

We escaped our hotel and walked to the nearest subway station. On the map it looked like a few blocks, but it was probably closer to a mile and half. Not a bad walk, really, unless you’re as graceful as I am - I tripped on a crack in the sidewalk and went down hard. Scraped my knee through my pants and bruised my arm somehow too. We went downtown to get some food and see some sights, and we technically did both. We found the Hockey Hall of Fame, but didn’t want to tour it then because we were looking for food. You’d think this would be an easy thing to do, but apparently we were on the wrong street because everything was closed! So we went up to Eaton Centre, this huge 4-story mall. We got there at 6:30 only to find out that it would be closing at 7. On a Saturday night! But there were some restaurants in the mall so we ate at one. They had sweet potato fries, one of my favorite foods that I rarely can find. After dinner, we knew we wanted to find a bar and watch the hockey game - game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals - to experience the Canadian crowd. It was getting chilly though, so we went back to our hotel to change and get our jackets. On the subway, I saw a guy sitting near us who looked JUST like Orlando Bloom. Specifically, this picture of him. In between sneaking glances at him to make sure he wasn’t actually Orlando, we realized that there was a streetcar running between the subway station and the hotel, so we spared ourselves the walk this time.

As soon as we got into the room, I fell asleep. I was so exhausted by this point, and sore from falling down like an idiot, so Johnny let me sleep and when I woke up he was in his pajamas and we decided to stay in. We watched some hockey, some cartoons and some movies including Bull Durham - in French. It was titled “La Belle et Le Veteran” (The Beautiful [Woman] and the Veteran). I guess the play on the team’s name doesn’t translate well. It made me wonder how many movies get retitled for American audiences because the translation doesn’t hold up. As I was wondering this, I realized my forehead was hurting. I looked in the mirror and saw a lobster staring back at me - I got sunburned! All the planning and packing I did, and never once did I think to bring sunscreen.