jesse leo dot com - 2010
Old junk, photos, etc. 2006 2007 2008 2009 Photographs E-moi: jesse at (duh)
Sky of Fire
1/5/11: -- Everyone is talking about the new $tarbuck$ logo. Why is this newsworthy? No idea. -- The best movie posters of 2010. The Buried poster is absolutely brilliant, gives me a panic attack just looking at it... -- Bear with me while I work on my usual yearly website flush for 2011. Man it feels strange typing that number... 12/31/10: -- Added to my Bucket List: Run 8 Tuff Miles. -- Essential New Years Eve skill Part II: How to avoid and/or deal with a hangover. The short answer - water and sleep are your best bets, no surprise there. But ixnay on the aspirin? Who knew? 12/30/10: -- Essential New Years Eve skill: how to open a bottle of bubbly with a knife... -- 7 billion people on this globe, quite a large number. Here's some perspective. 12/29/10: -- We've intentionally left New Years Eve blank on our calendars, just too much going on for entertaining and/or partying. Not that ever do much of that. Looking forward to relaxing with some cheapo champagne and maybe a movie or two, then at 11:58 switching over to whoever is filling in for Dick Clark to see the big stupid ball drop. If we survive 2011 we resolve to be less lame next New Years. Maybe. 12/28/10: -- I've long wondered whether those goofy sweaters people put on their dogs are really necessary. As it turns out, they may be for certain breeds. -- Twenty five years of the kids coming downstairs on Christmas morn, good stuff. 12/27/10: -- For once the weatherman got it right, this was a pretty hardcore snowstorm. Bummed that it was too gusty and frigid to get out and really appreciate it properly. 12/25/10: -- Post Christmas Melancholy setting in already, though a late-night viewing of A Christmas Story is helping lift my spirits a bit. The big day snuck up on us yet again, and just like that it's over. The living room lies in a state of wreckage, the boys made out like proverbial bandits this time around! My sister being taken ill cast a bit of a pall over the past few days, though she looked much better this morning. Hospitals are such depressing places, but on Christmas Day they're downright sepulchral. All in all though, it was a pleasant if a bit frenzied Christmas. I remember exactly 365 days ago I resolved to do it right next time around, to slow down and do it Bob Cratchit style. Ah well there's always next year... 12/24/10: -- Who's pooping on Twitter. The internet has hit a new low. -- Good stuff - James Earl Jones and Aaron Neville team up to read Twas the Night Before Christmas... 12/23/10: -- Probably the coolest snowman you will ever see. -- Christmas 2.0, too clever not to share (thx Jeremy). -- Study: placebos work even if you know you're taking a placebo. I just don't see how this is possible. Is it just the routine of taking something, anything, at a set time each day that makes the symptoms disappear? If that's the case then we can all simply pop a multivitamin with breakfast every morn and enjoy 125 years of vigorous health. -- Pucker up! Mistletoe kissing explained. Sounds like that Dickens bloke had a lot to do with it. 12/22/10: -- Another Spider Man performance cancelled due to the recent safety problems. I say bag the entire production before someone gets killed. Safety aside, my sister saw the show and said it was fraught with technical glitches. Tickets are supposedly over $100 a pop, not acceptable. 12/20/10: -- Playin' hooky to (hopefully) do some house stuff! Someone remind me why we chose this month out of all the good months of the year to try and pull this off... 12/16/10: -- Oh, this is good stuff. Maybe Julian Assange (Wikileaks founder, if you've been living in a cave) is every bit as creepy as the allegations against him claim. Here is a collection of lovesick emails he sent to a young woman he was trying to land back in 2004. Cr-cr-cr-creeeeeepy. I once stalked courted a girl in similar fashion, with similar results. Sometimes flowery prose delivered via cyberspace just isn't the answer. -- By the end of the closing meeting our pens were nearly dry from all of the John Hancocks, but yeah - it's official! We're homeowners again. God help us... 12/14/10: -- Knock on wood Maria and my health has been holding steady, despite our two sick sons who are sneezing and couging in our faces every few minutes (see yesterday's post). I expected to be blowing chunks by now. -- Slate on why gift cards are such a lousy thing to give for the holidays. Some valid points, but I dunno, I kind of like receiving them. Not to mention their re-giftability... 12/13/10: -- Here's some actual footage of that Metrodome roof that caved in from heavy snowfall, look out below! -- So Jakey's been power-barfing all weekend, and today we had to pull Aidan out of school early for feverish symptoms. Wifey and I are fine for the moment, but it's safe to assume we'll both be face down in the bowl before long. Trying to enjoy this one last night of good health... 12/10/10: -- Guess this would be considered carrion luggage... -- Abbey Sidewalk (via Kottke). But what's this? Paul isn't barefoot but appears to be wearing sandals, I guess this kind of defeats the whole I buried Paul thing. 12/9/10: -- Aidan recently gave me the best advice I've gotten in a long time. Apparently his teacher was sitting with him at the keyboard taking a memo as he dictated, here was his message: Dear Daddy, Be young. The opposite of young is old. Don't be old. Be proud of me. Aidan Hope you know that I am, buddy. I need to tell you more often. 12/8/10: -- Titanic eroding faster than previously thought. -- On the 30th anniversary of John Lennon's death, NYT readers share their where were you moments. I was nine years old and vaguely remember it being all over the news, though I was oblivious to the true impact. 12/6/10: -- Well if ya gotta be stuck... -- Kids beware, Krampus comes around this time of year... -- So it looks like we're not the only ones buying a house. Ours is bit more modest... -- We're in one of those strange places where we'll get six inches of snow and everyone else a light dusting. Can anyone spare a shovel? It made for a hectic morning and a cuss-laden commute, but that aside it certainly is beautiful up there in the boonies. 12/2/10: -- If movie trailers count for anything, Sucker Punch will be the highlight of my adult life. -- Kim Jong-Il looking at things (via Kottke). Most of these include his usual gaggle of grinning toadies looking on, silently praying for his approval. Interesting though. I am so being him for Halloween next year. -- NASA has announced a major discovery regarding the potential origins of life. I have no idea what any of this means, but it sounds like a big deal. 12/1/10: -- Fascinating stuff - an online reseller is turning big profits by intentionally pissing off customers and treating them rudely, at times even threatening them with violence. Long story short: a critical flaw in Google's algorithm is being exposed, in that it cannot differentiate between negative and positive sentiments. And since the internet is buzzing about how lousy this guy is, he shows up prominently in Google searches - and reaps the benefits. Full NYT story here. -- A nice write-up about my beloved boing boing. Despite their success they've stayed true to old-school blogging: "Boing Boing is a holdover from a time when the best blogs were written by smart people who posted whatever was interesting to them." -- Maybe if I danced like the guy from Chromeo I'd get more chicks. 11/30/10: -- A collection of unbelievable shots from the 2010 National Geographic Photo Contest. I'm gonna go with #14 (baboon melee) as my fav, but every single one of these is truly fantastic. -- For $300 you can get every issue of Playboy from 1953 to 2010 in digital format. For the articles, of course. -- The Cohens Brothers' films ranked from worst to best. Some of these rankings are questionable, and there are a few I'd never heard of. But this list is spot on with it's pick for #1, one of my all-time favorite movies. Oh yah, you betcha. 11/29/10: -- WB ponders life after HP... -- Big hullabaloo over the newly Wikileak'ed docs. Seems to be more of an embarrassment than the diplomatic disaster everyone is making it out to be. -- A raucous first-ever sleepover Saturday night with our cuzzy May-May, a good time was had by all. Check one more rite of childhood passage off the list... 11/26/10: -- President Obama gets 12 stitches after catching an errant elbow during a hoops game. Gotta imagine the guy has pretty good health insurance. -- The Kids are Alright. Don't look now, but all of a sudden they're good actors. I caught Deathly Hallows the other night and was pretty impressed. Dark. Grim. Our three young friends are on the run from Voldie and his cronies, all the while desperately searching for Horcruxes (artifacts which store Voldie's life force). Assuming you read the novels, you know the deal. There's a lot less whiz-bang and many more tension-laden conversations between the three, scenes I wasn't sure they'd be able to pull off. But I'm happy to report they did. I think we can safely assume these kids - Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint - will have plenty of non-Potter career choices ahead of them, long after they've cast their last Expelliarmus spells. Until then I'm already looking forward to the final chapter next summer. Just wish it didn't have to be in 3-D. -- Hell with Black Friday, Cyber Monday is where it's at... -- When goats attack. Unfortunately this isn't something to kid about. -- Feeling a little better about yesterday's gluttony, apparently cranberry might be good for your teeth. So I got that going for me. But even if this is true, it won't help with the 14,621 calories I consumed... -- I resisted the temptation of lining up at 4:15am with the rest of the Black Friday crackheads, though it wasn't easy... 11/23/10: -- Top 5 NYC food trucks. Honorable mention should go to the pulled pork truck that haunts the area down by the Staten Island ferry. Last summer I stopped for a bite, it was to die for. -- Not sure what to make of the airport screenings situation. I mean yeah, who would want to be felt up/groped/fondled right there in front of an entire airport (wait, don't answer that)? And the notion of a bare-all butt-nekkid scanner image on display for security screeners isn't that appealing either. At least give me a month or two to workout and get a tan first. So what to do? My fear is that all of the whining will cause the TSA to back down, and then a month later the pantyhose bomber blows a hole in the fuselage of Continental Flight 329 en route to Des Moines... -- Netflix getting greedy... 11/22/10: -- If I was an owl I'd dig chicks with big spots... -- Walk a straight line. Now do it blindfolded. Strange, huh? -- I realize that summer is long over, and I also realize that any respectable Photography 101 or Website Design 101 textbook will tell you to avoid using photos where the subject is looking off the page. But I just love this shot too much. I think we were looking at a house that day (hell, were there any days last summer not spent looking at houses). She was excited and she was in her element and she was glowing. So was I nervous on that unseasonably warm November day all those years ago? Nah. Felt like the most natural thing in the world. Still does. Happy anniversary, babe. Tonight, we feast :) 11/19/10: -- At first I thought it was just teachers. But in speaking recently to a water/well contractor I noticed the same phenomenon, something my wife and I have joked about: no one looks at me. If I'm one of three people in a conversation (with formal or new acquaintances only, it's not a problem with friends & fam) - even if I'm contributing to the conversation - the speakers won't make any eye contact whatsoever. A glance in my direction to acknowledge my input, not much more. Weird! The only possible explanations I can come up with are: 1. I don't interject myself into the situation flamboyantly enough. It's something I've tried to avoid most of my life, low key being my modus operandi. A lot of guys enter a room and try to become the scene, that just ain't me. 2. There's something awkward about my appearance that makes people uncomfortable. A booger, maybe. But every time? 3. My otherworldly beauty overwhelms to the point of turning people off. Yeah, I like that one. Let's go with that. Whatever the case, it's getting old. Maybe I'll start doing what Aidan does, when really trying to get a point across he'll grab you by the mouth and get almost nose to nose. Seems to work for him. -- Letting go of HP, this is a nice read. -- Is When Doves Cry un-coverable? The Awl investigates. Heck, I wouldn't try that one under any circumstances, not even after four margaritas at an empty karaoke bar. Not even while driving alone, and especially not in the shower. -- This is terrific, nine minutes of movie introductions. Can you name them all? 11/18/10: -- Looks like it's gonna be another cold one on Hoth... I love it. -- NYT reviews Deathly Hallows. 11/17/10: -- The physics behind cat lapping... -- Someone leaked the first half hour of Deathly Hallows onto the internet, and boy are they gonna get it. Personally I don't see the allure, as excited as I am about the movie why not wait a couple more days and see the full-quality real deal on the big screen? 11/16/10: -- Fall photograpy at its finest. Rusty and gray around here, wouldn't mind rewinding a month or so... -- Ladies & gentlemen, start your downloads. After too many years of legal jousting, The Beatles have finally come to iTunes. There are some great ads on Apple's site, turn up the speakers and click here. -- Finally, a logical explanation for why knuckleheads like us keep crankin' out kids. We're not much different than crackheads in this regard. -- Movies featuring people trapped in underwater caverns breathing via small pockets of air on the cave ceiling tend to make me nervous. But nevertheless, the trailer for Sanctum looks pretty damn intense. -- Cats vs Gators. 11/12/10: -- A True Blood graphic novel? Why not?! -- Glorious day/weekend on tap, we're reminded that November isn't completely useless. Fuzzy flannel shirts and rosy cheeks kinda days. Make some outdoorsey plans, dear readers, there's no telling how long this will last. 11/11/10: -- Is it possible to oppose the wars in which we are currently entrenched, but still honor & respect our vets and active soldiers for the unthinkably huge sacrifices they have made/make? Can I take that stance without pissing everyone off? Well, there it is. -- Just got back from the mall. Christmas decor everywhere and carols playing loudly overhead. Think I need to go lie down for a while. -- Spooooooooooky: a video tour of the Katrina-ravaged Six Flags park in New Orleans, now abandoned. 11/10/10: -- A bunch of stills from the upcoming Deathly Hallows flick, lots of consternation on those Gryffindor brows. I'm really getting excited about this one. -- FDA is proposing new warnings to be planted prominently on packs of smokes. Click on the left column for the different categories (cancer, lung disease, can harm your baby, etc), some of these are downright creepy. Hey, whatever it takes to get the word across. -- I'm a star... 11/9/10: -- It's published now, and therefore official: Vick's is a good way to get kids with colds to sleep. Well duh. -- Now we know why the inaugural dance is done to a slow song, click here... -- Sneakiest sneak play ever. 11/8/10: -- Campa's birthday yesterday was all but ruined by the disturbing events of last Friday - some goon(s) made their way into the house and absconded with the lion's share of her jewlery. No Hope Diamond in that collection, but some nice pieces worth a decent chunk of change. And if there's anything to be said for sentimental value, a few items were priceless. Cops believe it was a kid looking for a quick & easy score, and jewlery like that can be converted to cash in a hurry. Probably supporting some sort of addiction. Cops and insurance company are on board, so we'll see what happens. 11/5/10: -- Keep your eye on the goalie in green, absolutely hauls ass to make a truly epic save (via Kottke)... -- November is National Novel Writing Month! Ok here goes: **sound of chirping crickets** Ok nevermind. -- Xbox Kinect is out! Will it dethrone the Wii? 11/4/10: -- Despite being even broker than I am, MGM has confirmed that they will in fact bring Bond back in 2012. -- The oldest person in the world has died at 114! -- Believe it or not this is Aidan. In the spirit of the season I picked up a great iPhone app called iMut8r, dangerously fun. Gives you the ability to transform your loved ones into horrifying monsters. Now that I think back, given the mood Aidan was in that day not much photo manipulation was needed for that shot... 11/2/10: -- I want it. -- Inactivity, be it real or perceived, will prove costly. Dems should prepare for a caning - at least the House will be gone if not the Senate... Sarah will take the White House in 2012... dark times ahead, people, dark times. I'm only half kidding about the White House. But what can the average shmuck do? Click here. 11/1/10: -- Yeah, it was pretty damn good. We hit Main Street in Kent, then made the rounds in the spirity little neighborhoods down around back. Buckets were nearly full by the time we wrapped up. Temps took a nosedive around 7:30, but by then we had pretty much done all the damage we could do. Every year Halloween threatens to overtake Christmas as The Big One. It's just that much fun, and we're already thinking of decorating ideas for next year. Creepy costumes, crisp October nights, spooky movies, blazing jack o' lanterns, grinning young-uns... this stuff will never get old. Not even long after we have. 10/31/10: -- Up to Kent for some serious looting & pillaging! The big night is finally here, and it looks to be a beautiful, if a bit chilly, evening. And because I'm big on traditions, it wouldn't be Halloween if I didn't post a link to Thriller! 10/29/10: -- Hoping it's not too late to find this costume for Jakey ! -- A sneak peek of this Sunday's Sherlock episode. We'll be out trick or treating at that time of course, so the trusty ol' VCR will be rollin'! No, we don't have DVR. Take pity on our broke asses. -- We've had so many near misses in the past few months, I make a point of not getting emotionally attached to any property. But out of the blue it looks like this one might actually happen. Bank is on board, and today's inspection went pretty well. Could this be it? We'll know more on Monday... and yes, I'm aware that it's poop brown. That's hopefully temporary. 10/28/10: -- The fadeaway truly is a thing of beauty, and KB certainly has mastered it. But let's not forget who came first... -- SyFy gets the gas face for canceling Caprica after season 1. Like that network has any other shows worth a damn going on? -- Early reviews of Mac Office 2011 have been mostly positive, though Pogue hates it (methinks the man is a little too set in his ways). I read somewhere that Outlook for Mac does not have the "resend" feature, which is something I use constantly in Entourage. Lame. I might muck around with it at home for a few weeks before making a decision. -- So in 1928 there were either cell phones or time travelers... I dunno, to me it looks like a guy in drag itching his ear. -- How to take better photos of the kids: ixnay on the flash. -- How to break into a Windows PC should you be inclined to do so... 10/26/10: -- How could such a prolific suspense novelist be such a lousy typist? Hunt -n- peck! Hunt -n- peck! -- It was difficult enough for me to set aside my traditional Holmesian sensibilities to see the recent Robert Downey Jr. Holmes flick (which I rather enjoyed in spite of myself). So I approached the BBC's 21st century Holmes reboot, which aired on PBS last Sunday, with great trepidation. But let me tell you - Sunday's episode, named A Study in Pink, was absolutely terrific and kept me enthralled for the full 90 minutes. Fans of really good TV (not just Holmes geeks) owe it to themselves to get on board. -- The case for another trilogy. Count me in. -- Interesting bit about the cholera situation in Haiti. So preventable... 10/22/10: -- Well well well, looks like Clarence Thomas was lying about that Anita Hill stuff afterall. Is anyone actually surprised? Now the question is can he still get in any legal trouble all these years later, afterall he was under oath at the time... -- So The Hobbit film is still very much a go, and yes it will be directed by Peter Jackson. Here are some recent cast announcements. They need to hurry up and get this damn thing filmed, Sir Ian McKellan (Gandalf) is probably about 109 by now... -- Apparently pumpkins are like catnip to big cats... -- Ah, well played. Faux News dangles a $2M contract in front of Juan Williams' nose and successfully brings him over to the Dark Side. The boneheaded things Williams has been saying on air could only have been scripted by Bill O'Reilly himself... 10/21/10: -- Subject: Fire -- So the Apple event yesterday talked a lot about revenue numbers, which are through the roof. Then they released an updated version of iLife, the nifty app suite that comes bundled with Macs (iPhoto, Garage Band, iMovie). They talked a bit about the next version of OSX (Lion!), which seems to be based largely on the OS used in iPhones. Cool. Last but not least they unveiled two amazingly light Macbook Air laptops, the things are almost paper-thin and gorgeous. The 11-inch model has me panting with lust. All in all a good day for Apple fanboys like myself. 10/20/10: -- Apple is hosting its highly anticipated Back to Mac event today. With all of the focus on iPads and iPhones, Steve Jobs is no doubt trying to remind folks that his company also makes some pretty darn nice computers as well. My guess is that they will announce an update to OSX (10.7?), along with a handful of jazzed-up uber fast new hardware for me to salivate over. ARS liveblog here. -- NBA bans the Concept 1 sneaker on the grounds that is gives an unfair competitive advantage. Gotta imagine demand for this shoe just shot through the roof... -- PBS to air a new 21st century Holmes series starting this Sunday, certainly worth a look. -- Now that is an eclipse... 10/19/10: -- New Zealand airline to offer Cuddle Class, allowing couples and/or families to book a whole row of seats and stretch out together. However they do ask that the clothes stay on. 10/18/10: -- The other night I dreamt that these two stoner girls were going around collecting funds to help a boy named Oliver, who was dying of cancer. But it was later revealed that Oliver did not exist, and they were fraudulently stealing the money for their own selfish ends. Then somehow Snuffaluffagus entered the dream, and that's all I can remember. Really wish I was making this up... -- An entire meadow of plump, perfectly orange, flawless pumpkins and Jakey chooses this bumpy abomination. Of course. Dude needs to visit his dermatologist, pronto. But after seeing the finished product everyone unanimously agreed that the warty complexion adds to the horror - it's as if some foul, highly infectious disease is eating away at him. Knowing that his affliction will quickly worsen and soon kill him, Jakey's foul-tempered friend is committed to spreading as much evil as possible every night leading up to 10/31... Since we're on the subject of pumpkins, I stumbled across an interesting experiment conducted to discover the best way to preserve your jack o' lantern's longevity, read on... 10/15/10: -- In a rare interview to promote the upcoming NBA 2K11 game, $ claims that if He were in the league today He could hit 100 points. And yes, call me a fanboy but I believe him. He was a master at drawing contact, and what with today's ticky-tack rules and whistles going off every four seconds, He would be shooting free throws almost every trip down the floor. So let's say it would be a pretty boring 100 points... As for the video game, no thanks. Basketball games on gaming consoles never feel right to me, the controls are clumsy and I have a hard time getting a feel for 'em. -- Runners, you may have been stretching incorrectly all these years. Funny thing is I've been doing the types of swinging stretches the story recommends for years, but not because I've had some keen athletic insight - it's really because I'm too lazy to endure the tedium and discomfort of static stretches. -- 88 and still shooting, ya gotta love it (via Kottke). 10/14/10: -- Gossip-worthy love triangle involving one of the rescued Chilean miners, and according to the article "At least five wives have found themselves dealing with mistresses at the rescue site." Whaaaaat? Are men in such short demand in that country? Or is there something about a miner that makes the ladies' hearts go pitter-pat? 10/13/10: -- Just spent 30 minutes on top of a giant rock that only I know about, dozing in and out and wondering how such an impossibly perfect day is allowed to exist in such a flawed world. Ah, 'tis then I love to wander, Wander idly and alone, Listening to the solemn music Of sweet nature's undertone; Wrapt in thoughts I cannot utter, Dreams my tongue cannot express, Dreams that match the autumn's sadness In their longing tenderness. From Autumn Dreams by Mortimer Crane Brown 10/12/10: -- Daytripped on Sunday back to Block Island for one last glimpse, one last breath of salty air, one last stroll down Water Street. Because a year is such a long time to wait... We caught it just right - nary a cloud to be found, Block Island Blue as far as the eye could see. We sat outside the Old Post Office Bagel Shop having breakfast in the sun, feeling like we'd just won the lottery. There was an occasional chill breeze, yes, but what do you want for October? I took a quick dip off of Kids Beach, and truthfully the water was still a nice temperature - not to mention almost Caribbean clear. Just made sure that warm towel was at the ready of course. Late lunch at the Mohegan, and picked up a few doo-dads around town. Then reluctantly climbed back aboard for the somber return trip, the day had flown by as we knew it would. In some ways this month rivals its older cousin September, especially out there. According to the local paper, 10/23 is supposedly the pinnacle of the year. I'm taking this with a grain of salt as the 23rd happens to fall on a Saturday this year, and well, I'm sure there is some motivation by local businesses to have one last busy weekend out there. Just sayin'. But I'm sold. Who knows, maybe we'll put it on the cal for next time around and pack our thickest sweatshirts. 10/8/10: -- I generally like Michael Moore, though sometimes he seems to just reinforce the "leftist loon" stereotype. But this time he's spot on with an assessment of the now decade-old War in Afghanistan. Way back when, after justification for the Iraq War was determined to be horse manure, Afghanistan seemed to be the one that 'made sense'. After all that's where Osama is hiding, right? The dude who actually had something to do with 9/11... So here we are ten years later, let's say we bag him (assuming he's still alive). Is that it? Everybody go home? Will the Taliban stop fighting at that point? Does anyone really know what the mission is anymore? There's no focus, no end in sight. At this point is it about saving face? Well how about saving soldiers instead? There, I've said my peace. Nothing even vaguely political will be posted here again. At least not until early November ;) -- Never been a big fan of Time of the Season, until now... -- The general consensus: Secretariat lays the feel-goodness on a little too thick at times - this is a Disney flick afterall. But Diane Lane is supposedly terrific, and the sound of those thundering hooves as Big Red powers away from the pack makes it impossible not to smile. And no, that's not a spoiler. He wins. Big time. 10/6/10: -- Verizon-enabled iPhone coming in early 2011? Hell, I'd probably be willing to eat the early termination fee to get off of AT&T's crappy network... -- Helluva goal... -- USB thumb drives, pen drives, whatever you call 'em: "The mosquitos of the digital world" when it comes to spreading trouble... -- Tim Gunn's brave video is all over the internet today, and with good reason... 10/5/10: -- So wait a minute, having an ironclad immune system actually makes you more susceptible to colds? Incidentally I was pretty sick yesterday for no particular reason. Doing better now, but I have a feeling it's going to be a loooong winter. -- Times Square Bomber idiot gets life. So, we the taxpayers get to pick up the tab for his room and board for the next 50 years? -- Caprica resumes tonight and I no longer have SyFy Channel, FRAK! Season 1 recap (or would that be re-Caprica?) here. -- Never cared much for the Cathy comic strip. Actually that's being nice, I despised it. But the strip wrapped up last week, and after so many years the final episode of pretty much anything gets to me. So here it is, the last-ever Cathy. 10/4/10: -- Extended trailer for Grit. Oh yeah. -- Quite possibly the best ever use of duct tape. 10/2/10: -- Appalling. Read this. Sounds like something out of the Nazi playbook. -- A great collection of tips for traveling with kids. The list speaks specifically to traveling internationally, but many of these tips can apply to local jaunts as well. 10/1/10: -- Received a fairly convincing-looking email that was actually an iTunes receipt scam of some sort. Be on high alert, people. Mouse over links within these kinds of emails to see where the links point, don't actually click. -- I had to post this, parallel parking is in fact an art form. It's worth mentioning that there was a car close by on either side of me at the time of parking, and I did it in one take with surgical precision. Maybe there's a career in this! I patrol the sidewalks offering aid to the Parallel-Impaired. My customers stop their cars in the street and simply get out, I dash into the driver's seat and finish the job. Car keys aren't returned until I'm paid in full... -- Spotted in the wild: a GTI with automatic transmission. Who would DO such a thing? Why is automatic even an option for that car? Clearly such a fine vehicle belongs in the driveway of a more deserving driver, someone who "gets" it... 9/30/10: -- Can't think of a better way to honor Tony Curtis' passing than by cozying up this weekend with a bottle of Chardonnay and a long overdue viewing of Some Like it Hot. I haven't gotten around to reading his memoirs yet, though I intend to. Apparently that whole Marilyn Monroe kisses like Hitler thing was taken way out of context. The reality is that he and Marilyn had been lovers early on in their careers, and during the legendary yacht scene the smooching was genuinely hot. Read Ebert's terrific tribute here. -- Good news (see below), bridge jumping will not be necessary. 9/29/10: -- And on this fateful evening when our hero, despite scouring every inch of his vehicle, is unable to scrape together the necessary coins for his usual lottery ticket, karma will likely find humor in selecting this very same evening for our hero's numbers (going on 12 years now) to hit. Our hero just wants this documented someplace so there will be no mystery tomorrow morning when officials try to determine what drove our hero to throw himself from the top of a tall bridge. Not that our hero is superstitious or anything... -- Now this could be cool, NIN's Trent Reznor working on an HBO mini-series based on his dystopian Year Zero album. -- Is it considered dorky to have a warm & fuzzy feeling about the imminent release of Office Mac 2011? -- Well this explains a lot. Scientists have long known that falling in love releases chemicals in our brains designed specifically to overwhelm logic and reason. But according to a recent study, the "levels of seratonin in couples who are madly in love... are comparable to people suffering from OCD..." Whether it's God, Mother Nature, L. Ron Hubbard, or whatever you believe in - we are programmed to fall in love with one another, and these high levels of chemicals are brought into play to ensure that we are powerless to resist. 9/28/10: -- The End is Near (again). This time the projected date of impact is sometime in 2098, there's a slim chance that an asteroid will slam into Earth with the force of a 20 megaton bomb. Poof! Where's Bruce Willis when we need him? I'm guessing that if he's still alive in 2098 he'll be in no condition to save humanity... -- Candy for Dexter fans. -- Stopped in a coffee shop the other day to grab some quick to-go stuff. As usual there were 100 other things to do/places to be, so I fidgeted in line and checked the time obsessively. But I did take half a moment to inhale the scene: folks seated at tables slowly sipping frothy goodness, some nibbling on scones while perusing the Arts & Leisure section... two young men enjoying a lighthearted game of chess ("You prefer white? Sure, no problem. Are we allowing En Passant?")... an older couple chatting quietly over their mugs and blinking fondly at one another... Indie Music that didn't suck wafting around the room... some pretty young thing smiling at the screen of her Macbook, no doubt sending flirty tweets to some lucky fella ... all of the things that make coffee houses great were in full effect. Ah, simpler times... So... anyone interested in babysitting next Sunday ? No reason. -- True Grit looks terrific, if trailers are to be believed. 9/27/10: -- My beloved North Light will shine again next month. Stalwart sentinel, beacon of comfort for lost, weary sailors - we support you in your noble vigil! -- Owner of Segway company dies - by rolling off a cliff on his Segway! Is this for real? 9/24/10: -- Guess he really hates pennies (via Kottke)... -- Well that settles it, I'm buying a new mountain bike and moving to Colorado... -- Clever. I chuckled loudly, especially at that bit about the dinosaurs and the cockroach. 9/23/10: -- Blockbuster files for bankruptcy, guess it was just a matter of time... -- So in trying to come up with a way to summarize our Block Island trip, I thought it best to talk about the weather. Now hear me out before you close your web browser - it truly made all the difference. Never in all the years we've been going out there have the conditions changed so many times, so definitively, so remarkably. It literally did a 180 at least five times, instantly transforming beach days into hiking days and rainy washout days back into beach days, then later into shopping days and eventually into hang-out-at-the-house days. Throughout the week the nights brought us a combination of dazzling constellations, a Hurricane-like deluge, and towards the end of the week a milky-white almost full moon. In sum, a little of everything. We were reminded why September is King. Damn you, little porkchop-shaped island. Damn you for showing no sign of lessening your grip on us... -- Wow, check out the new HP trailer... Wow. 9/22/10: -- Was enjoying the Super Harvest Moon for about 10 minutes before these rain clouds rolled in. But man, it really was somethin' while it lasted. Here's hoping for a clear night next time in 2020... -- Pleased to report that Aidan's procedure went well, he's already back to his old chatterbox self. Thanks for all of the well-wishes everyone has been sending, no doubt they helped! For most of his life so far (though he's been getting more tolerant of late) brushing that boy's teeth has been like, well, pulling teeth. And I always knew it would one day come back to bite us, let's hope this is the last of that nonsense. -- Plain ol' bad driving to blame for the Titanic disaster? -- Hang on!! 9/21/10: -- It's a blessing and a curse to be this busy, two days back from vacation and we are completely over-booked. The blessing in this is that we've been propelled right in to real life and this has kept our post BI Blues at bay. The curse is, well, being this inundated sucks. Duppy is scheduled to have a tooth removed tomorrow at Danbury Hospital, and the only way to accomplish this is to knock him out completely. Needless to say it will be a day of nail biting and pacing for us, please join us in wishing our little guy lots of luck. 9/20/10: -- It was everything we needed it to be. Details to follow of course, first need to get caught up at work and real-life stuff. Heck, there's still a pile of salty/sandy towels to be washed. Suffice to day that I'm my usual melancholy post-Block Island self, and wouldn't have it any other way... 9/17/10: -- Really hoping a trashy beach novel will help take the sting out of the fact that the end of vacation is drawing near. Cuz this one's gonna hurt. Finding it impossible to enjoy Block Island anymore, all I can think about is the countdown in the back of my head, tick tock tick tock, til we board the return ferry back to reality. Such is my curse. 9/15/10: -- Make no mistake about it, it's darn chilly at night and in the morning. But the past two days have been highly beachable, in fact yesterday's 5 hours on Mansion was one for the ages. There's some talk of some hurricanes headed this way, threatening to either strand us here or make the ride home a puke-a-thon. But as far as I'm concerned Sunday is 100 years from now, this vacation still has plenty of life left in it... 9/11/10: -- What to say? It's the trip I think about every day of the year, it's what keeps me going during the worst of times. And here it is. Sometimes it even lives up to my impossible expectations, once or twice it's even exceeded them :) Dragging this battered ol' laptop along, will try to post some pics if we can find some wifi ! 9/8/10: -- Close call... you hear that wooshing sound? -- Visited a local farm over the weekend and picked some of the ripest, freshest, most squirty-delicious peaches in recorded history. We didn't even know they grew around here, yum ! 9/6/10: -- Sp-sp-sp-spent last n-n-night in a t-t-t-tent with J-J-Jakey... worth the shivers, though, to hear him proclaim first thing as he woke up: "This is fun !"... 9/3/10: -- An early review of Machete. Oh yeah. So freaking there. Trailer here. They just, ummmm, messed with the wrong Mexican! -- The power of music... -- Drink up, you might live longer... -- The hurricane effects we'll feel this evening are being downplayed by most, but I for one have battened down the hatches and stocked up on bottled water, batteries and canned goods. If you need me I'll be holed up in the basement through Labor Day. 9/2/10: -- Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, we're free at last! (condo closing was today) -- Ah nice, another Gulf of Mexico oil rig disaster... 9/1/10: -- Frightening but beautiful photograph of Earl at work. Just hoping he finishes up and moves on by the time we get to Block Island. Although I heard somewhere that another Cat 3 might be following on his tail... I used to obsess over these things, as our annual BI trip usually coincides with Hurricane Season. But I'm starting to finally accept that some things are in fact out of our control. We could just have easily picked a week in August (paying almost twice as much) during which it rained the whole time. An epic time will be had regardless. -- Fresh out of the salon with their Aunt Kasey haircuts the boys took the school by storm yesterday! Can't believe it's September already. Initial reports are that they both did well, and there was little or no crying during the bus loading phases... 8/31/10: -- We were designed to squat, not sit. Anyone feeling adventurous? Let me know if you try it. Me, I'm too scared of falling in. -- Loved this tune since back in the day, but the video is just plain creepy. What's with all that eye makeup? -- I cheered out loud, this is terrific... 8/30/10: -- Taking today off might have been one of the best ideas I've had in a loooong time. I'm thinking there can't be many more of these perfect days left... 8/26/10: -- Here I was thinking I was hot sh*t for having completed the two month Insanity course. Took a bit of a layoff, ok a really long layoff, then tried to do one of the workouts today. Holy Mother of Pearl... MEDIC! 8/25/10: -- In case you haven't seen this yet, someone recorded all of Chewbacca's Star Wars dialogue on a sticky note... -- The secrets of Trader Joe's success... (via Kottke) -- Plain & simple investment advice from Mark Cuban... 8/24/10: -- Excited that tomorrow AM will be our first "garbage morning" at our new lodgings. Hoping it goes better than this... 8/23/10: -- I wasn't even the biggest 'Lost' fan, but the new Weezer album cover is so irresistibly pleasant, just wanna pinch those big cheeks! -- Forbes' list of the top ten highest paid authors. This is good motivation for me as I sit at the keyboard, so far I'm just a few lines into Chapter 1: It was a dark, stormy night. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy... -- Say it ain't so - are they really going to let Russell Brand defile my 6th favorite film of all time with an ill-conceived 2011 remake? -- Mowed the lawn on Saturday. I'll be doing that now that we have a back yard, and I suppose it will get old at some point. Just not in the foreseeable future, I'm already looking forward to the next one. Speaking of which, I'm hoping to pick up a battered but capable used push-mower on the cheap. Please keep your eyes peeled for us, thx ! 8/20/10: -- Recently Jakey started asking some of the tough questions, such as "Where did I come from?" and, when told that we made him, followed up with "How did you make me?". I was thinking of going into the bit about the stork, but then my quick-thinking wife answered that we made him from our love. Awww... I like that answer because it's true and because it seemed to satisfy him. For now. -- Well that settles it. Once they prove that Enceladus can support life, I'm outta here. -- Tried this and nearly busted an ankle... 8/19/10: -- Yesterday morning it was deer, today it was an owl - got up to tinkle around 4:30AM and heard him hootin' away like nobody's business. We're officially in the boonies and you'll hear no complaints from me... 8/18/10: -- Filming the leviathan. I love this stuff. To me it's geeky awesome that with all of our so-called wondrous technology there are still a few mysterious creatures left who evade capture, who thwart every attempt to be studied. Oh yeah - and those tales about the Architeuthis dux trashing ships and dragging shrieking sailors down to their watery graves? Every one of them true... -- Woke up this morning to a chorus of birds and family of deer grazing in the back yard, sure beats 18-wheelers roaring down Route 7... 8/17/10: -- Intentionally set myself up to become the victim of a Caddyshack line, and my ever lovin' sis did not disappoint: KJLS: Who helped you with the move? ME: We had Grandpa. Plus Uncle Pete is a big strong young man, and I'm no slouch myself... KJLS: Don't sell yourself short, Judge... You're a tremendous slouch. Maybe there's hope for her afterall ;) -- Good Lord where did all this stuff come from? It's been the most tiring weekend in history, but so far we've spent two nights in the new place! It's a veritable obstacle course, navigating room to room, but another week or so and things will be right as rain. Thanks to all who have helped, we couldn't have come close to pulling this off without yous. If you're trying to reach us our usual home phone number has been ported over, cellphones are useless there (thanks AT&T!). 8/13/10: -- My right arm now dwarfs my left, due to the fact that I've been lugging The Passage around for the past month or two. But I gotta tell ya it's worth the muscle imbalance. Not perfect, but 'epic' comes to mind. Yes, I'm just like the hordes of other idiots pining for 2012 when supposedly part 2 will be released. You could glance at the plot and yawn: Military attempts to develop super soldier using secret elixir found deep in the jungles of the Amazon. Things go horribly wrong. Run. Heard this one before? Trust me, you haven't. Cronin pulls it off beautifully, and this is a fat, juicy, rollicking read. If ever a novel was ripe for a film adaptation, this is the one - rumor has it that Ridley Scott will direct, let's hope he does it justice. Casting should be simple: Michael Ironside for Wolgast, Michelle Rodriguez as Lish (that's an easy one), Ben Kingsley as Sanjay, Whoopie G. as Lacey...? That one might be a stretch. Hey Ridley, I've got some ideas - call me. Let's do this. 8/12/10: -- Figure some brown nosing never hurts, so while our landlord is on vacation we've been bringing HDawg over for playdates with her dog Shunka. A little bit of toy aggression, but overall they seem to have hit it off rather well... The packing has been ongoing, where did all this stuff come from? Trying to con family members into helping us move (we promise to buy ya a pizza!). Who knows, we might actually pull this thing off afterall. 8/11/10: -- By the numbers, iPhone users get more nookie. So right there is reason enough to put down that Blackberry... -- A montage of Obama and basketball. He has a nice lookin' stroke, but no right hand whatsoever. Think I could take him... 8/10/10: -- Students like Macs. -- After 35 years of computerized calculations it has been determined that the Rubik's Cube can be solved from any position in 20 moves. And here I am happy that I can complete one side... -- Stephen Hawking: time to abandon ship... 8/6/10: -- Lightning has been bottled. -- World's greatest HORSE shot. Wonder how many takes? -- Having owned a condo for several years, the notion of renting feels like every dollar handed to a landlady is a dollar flushed down the commode. But the condo sale closing date is supposedly 8/20, so with no dream house lined up this will be a good move for us. And in the short term this should help us catch up on a bill or two. Noses will still be to the ground for our perfect Hobbit Hole, but for now we'll be enjoying a lovely lil rental house up in the boonies. Anybody got a truck? No reason... 8/4/10: -- It was a flawless day at Peach Lake for the 2nd annual Leo Family Reunion last Saturday. Hard to believe all - errr, almost all - of the fine folks pictured here are related to me in some way (thank God for name tags!). SO glad this has become an annual thing, plus we were invited to stop by and use the beach whenever we like! 7/30/10: -- The funky, swanky house we'd been drooling over fell through. At the 11th hour the sellers decided to pull it off the market. Them's the breaks. For once, my ability to remain emotionally uninvolved actually paid off. Wishy Washy Sellers: if by some miracle you read this, we wish you a lifetime of flat tires, stubbed toes and paper cuts. With a shrug of the shoulders we jumped back online and kept poking around - pleased to report that there are still plenty of other spots available. And house-huntin' season still has lots of legs left in it. Going to check on some interesting possibilities tonight, fingers are crossed. 7/27/10: -- The end is near. -- Couldn't sleep last night so I queued up for the midnight Starcraft II launch party at the local Gamestop. Biggest collection of geeks anyone has ever seen, and I was proud to be amongst their ranks. At any moment I expected the legendary ROTN laugh (around the 00:29 mark) to break out, but sadly it didn't happen... 7/24/10: -- I was feeling depressed about it all day, having watched 30 minutes of Jake at his last day of basketball camp. He was kind of dragging around, not paying attention, ignoring the lead of the instructor, etc. It's not that I have dreams of him playing for a D1 school someday, hitting a buzzer-beater to win the NCAA title. I will not be one of those a-hole dads out in the driveway screaming that he can't come in for dinner until he hits five consecutive foul shots. But I do firmly believe that sports - hoops, lacrosse, baseball, quidditch... hell even ping pong - are a great way for young lads to build self esteem. Not to mention that whole exercise thing. So I was heartened to hear that after I left he really turned things around - dribbing up and down the court at 100 miles per hour, participating in the drills and going all out. Mom says he was a cherry-cheeked sweaty mess by the end of the session. That's muh boy... 7/22/10: -- That's right, I saw Eclipse the other night. You wanna make something out of it? I make no apologies for being on the vampire bandwagon, no apologies and no secrets about it. Except for one: my secret infatuation with Bella. Not that I have a thing for actress Kristen Stewart, who is probably half my age and seems to have less personality than a pair of wool socks (unless she just acts that way in interviews). It's her portrayal of Bella that gets to me. Maybe it's the black eyes, or that look of utter intoxication as Edward swoops in for a smooch. The movie? The usual stuff: vamps, werewolves, teen angst, rippling pecs, dreamy kisses... you get the idea. I don't pretend to be above such things, I'm only human. Which is unfortunate, as that means I have no shot with Bella. She's only into guys who have fangs and live forever. Anyone know when Breaking Dawn comes out? 7/21/10: -- A collection of bare nekkid RS covers. They keep asking me when I'll do one, told them I don't roll like that... 7/20/10: -- Aha! So I've been right all these years with my pronunciation of more than one octopus. But so has everyone else, apparently. Guess I'm not so special afterall. 7/19/10: -- More house-hunting during the weekend, looked at a raised ranch for sale by a handyman. Place was freshly painted, spotless and mint - dude had recently redone everything himself down to the last shingle. It presented itself flawlessly, but was completely devoid of both character and soul. Imagine the John Mayer of houses. Driving further north we checked out a place that had character and soul up the wazoo - I was instantly transported back to the house I grew up in, complete with a creepy dungeon-like basement and 110 degree attic. Crooked beams, uneven floors, plaster with cracks... but trust me - in the right environment these are all good things. The place had a funkiness that I'm doing a terrible job of describing. Decent fenced-in yard, and a pretty good deck as well. But here's the thing: there's an above-ground pool. We hadn't even seen it yet when the realtor mentioned the "pool removal credit at closing" - if that's not a red flag I don't know what is. It's no secret that those things can quickly become money pits, and in some cases actually decrease the value of the home. But that said, we did go on to spend the balance of the afternoon in Gammy's pool and had a terrific time. There's no getting around the fact that we have two young boys who really enjoy the water, boys who grow bored and restless very easily. Boys who might stand to benefit from the therapeutic effects of swimming. And here we are going on two straight weeks of 90 plus degree days. So I just don't know. Let's say the miraculous happens and we actually get the place. If we yanked the pool would we be kicking ourselves next summer? Or let's say we keep it and find ourselves scrapping and scrounging for sofa coins to maintain the damn thing. I just don't know... 7/16/10: -- More on 'Antennagate': Apple has posted a page explaining how most smartphone antennas - iPhone or otherwise - are subject to signal loss if held a certain way. The test videos speak for themselves, though Mr. Hands does seem to be squeezing the bejeezus out of those competitor's phones... -- Apple offering free cases and/or refunds to people having problems with their iPhone 4. Hasn't affected mine at all (knock knock knock). So far it's been terrific. -- Jumped on the bandwagon and started climbing the first steps of the Mt Everest that is Justin Cronin's The Passage. So far it's very catchy, though if I closed my eyes I'd swear I was reading a Stephen King novel (hey wait, if my eyes were closed how could I read?). Maybe that's why King himself wrote a love note of a review that appears prominently on the back cover. -- Zack Gill is single-handedly making the accordion cool again. Or has it been cool all along? Anyway, I'm trying to setup a private performance for my wife's birthday in November, anyone have any Brushfire connections? A few strings you could pull? Anyone? Bueller? 7/14/10: -- Our home was recently overrun with Ctenocephalides (both canis and felis), and no pet was safe. Spent a small fortune on foggers, sprays and shampoos. In a manic fit Maria snipped off much of H-Dawg's coat trying in vain to slow the onslaught. Things are better now, but what to do with all of these little black corpses? It's like the floor is littered with tiny commas... 7/13/10: -- New iPhone ads: warm & fuzzy or over the top sentimental piffle? You be the judge. -- No fancy pyrotechnics, no laser beams, no synchronized dance steps, no wires suspending the band members over the crowd, sometimes dipping low enough for high-fives... None of that. Just Jack in his trademark jeans/t-shirt/mandals, guitar, a few buddies/special guests, and a perfect summer night for a concert under the stars. My one regret is that while tailgating we missed a sneaky early set with Jack and G. Love goofing around on a side stage. Anyone with tix to this show - get there early! 7/10/10: -- Road trip today to take in the Jack Johnson concert in Mansfield, MA! Outdoor venue, things are likely to get a bit soggy... Word on the street is that G. Love might make an appearance, if so we could be in for a rollicking good time :) 7/9/10: -- Belly-laughs & beverages with old friends last night, my face muscles and abs are exhausted. Wish it could happen more often! But even if it's only an annual event my weary soul is soothed to know that there's always another silly night out there on the horizon... -- Ok so I was totally wrong, Lebron went to Miami. The Cavs owner seems kinda bitter, eh? Honestly I think this is a disastrous move - not only is he now hated by countless Cleveland fans, but he's going to a team that already has a leader/scorer/stud/ball-hog in Dwyane Wade. There simply are not enough shots to go around, not even taking Chris Bosch into account - no doubt he'll also turn cranky pants if he doesn't get his fair share of the offense. And forget the nonsense everyone is saying about Lebron becoming Scottie Pippen to Wade's Jordan, Lebron is not the kind of player to take a backseat to anyone. It'll be interesting to watch Miami implode and underachieve next season. 7/8/10: -- What I would give to have been at Radio City last night... -- Lebron will stay in Cleveland. You heard it here first... -- Seth Grahame-Smith has been raking in the dough with a string of creepily goofy monstrous takes on classic literature - Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and God knows what else. But of all of these, Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter seems like the silliest notion of all. Perhaps one more attempt to cash in on his lucrative fad? Not so, this is actually a very decent summer read. No, seriously. And the fact that Tim Burton is working on a film adaptation brings me immense joy. But who to play Honest, Axe-wielding Abe? He's got to tower over everyone at 6'4", be able to swing an axe like a viking warrior, deliver a speech with Lincoln's trademark eloquence, and look great with a beard. Does such an actor exist? 7/7/10: -- I have no way of confirming this of course. But it's like they were struggling for ideas and couldn't come up with anything... so Jack finally just said f*ck it, let's surf. Love it. 7/6/10: -- Scuba diving Dachshund. Why? Just... why? -- Prince, I heart you and all, but... I think you might be off with this bold proclamation. -- Spent a raucous 4th on Long Island with relatives, mercifully they have a terrific back yard with a pool! All told a great weekend, capped off by the amazing fact that we met nearly no Long Island Expressway traffic on the way home last night. Inexplicable, but we'll take it. 7/2/10: -- From the I'll take it if you don't want it department, read on... -- Should big-time CEO's (e.g. Steve Jobs) reply personally to customer inquiries/complaints? -- The offer we received for our condo was so ridiculously low that I wouldn't even insult a parakeet by lining the bottom of his cage with it. Come on now, I know this is how the negotiation game starts, but jeez... -- Best day weather-wise in the past five years. No, seriously. I'm having a hard time not believing that some Higher Power is behind that blue-ness... 6/29/10: -- Snubbed again by Time Magazine, I might just cancel my subscription... -- One day he just started referring to H-Dawg as his "buddy ol' pal, Ruffy Ruff". Search me, I have no idea where he came up with it. Usually he follows it up with an affectionate eye-gouge or a loving choke hold. Honey, in her indefatigable patience, grins and bears the punishment. She is indeed a gem. -- Deathly Hallows trailer is up, looks terrific. The two parts thing is kind of lame however. 6/28/10: -- Review: new HP theme park fails to impress... and keep in mind the reviewer was allowed to cut through the lines. -- I'd been flirting with the idea of taking a Selfish Day, escaping for a few hours of me-time. So last Friday when a friend we were visiting in RI had some Block Island-based clients to attend to, how could I not tag along? Towel and vampire novel in hand I plunked down on Mansion Beach for a few hours. Fate and the sun were smiling on me, the weather was flawless. Therapeutic would be a gross understatement, but it's all I can come up with right now... 6/24/10: -- Mad soccer football skills. But hey no fair - I saw him use his hands at one point. -- For the record I am NOT waiting in line for a new iPhone, though I hear a zillion other folks are. Heat and all. -- Turned 39 yesterday. Many folks I've spoken with say that this one is tough because you spend the entire year obsessing about reaching the big Four-Oh. But there's hope - they unanimously agree that actually hitting it is no biggie. And I'll no doubt be reminding myself of this. Over. And over. And over. And over... 6/23/10: -- Gulf oil spill just went from bad to worse... 6/22/10: -- Dying to find out how Butterbeer tastes in real life! -- Been too busy for blogging, and not much to report on Dad's Day, unfortunately - my dad and I both ended up working. But there was time to hit up a carnival for an hour or so in the sweltering heat, already planning a return trip when the sun is feeling a bit more merciful. Didn't even catch Sunday night's True Blood, you know life has spun out of control! 6/18/10: -- Slate reviews Toy Story 3. I guess if the passage of youth makes you a blubbering wuss like me you should plan on bringing a box of tissues to the theater. Whether it's the bells falling silent at the end of The Polar Express, or this rendition of a grown-up Calvin (would give credit to the artist, but don't know who it is), this kind of stuff gets me every time. Although the other day while walking in the woods something pleasant happened: I picked up a stick - about three feet long and an inch thick with a sweeping curve - just like a scimitar. I was about to snap it in half and throw it for H-Dawg, when I suddenly felt the old surge of energy shoot up my arm like it was 30 years ago. It was the perfect sword, and there would've been serious trouble for any orcs in the vicinity... -- Spain: When all else fails blame it on a hot chick... -- Game 7 was an ugly, scrappy affair. Didn't really become watchable until the fourth quarter, when some late 3's made things pretty darn exciting. To the C's credit, they had Kobe on lockdown and did a great job containing him. So it was the lesser-known fellas that stepped up and got it done. And in the end, there can only be one... SI photo gallery here. 6/17/10: -- For all the marbles: Game 7 Celtics vs Lakers tonight, surely it will be worth a few hours of missed sleep. Who ya got??? -- Your daily upsetting photo for your viewing pleasure, brought to you by BP... 6/16/10: -- So I guess there has been some mild interest in the new iPhone... 6/14/10: -- If you've watched any FIFA games so far you've surely noticed it - the droning sound in the background like 100,000 hives of pissed-off hornets. Apparently these are from giant bugles called vuvuzelas, and despite a growing number of protests they ain't going anywhere ... -- Red colored drinks and friends over last night for the Season 3 True Blood premier. But not too many drinks, it was a school night afterall. TV Without Pity has a recap of what I thought was a pretty good 'sode. Though I could've done with fewer male hiney shots. My wife would disagree. -- All of your iPhone 4 questions answered here. -- A handy site for monitoring BP's progress... 6/11/10: -- A CT man who was stuck in his basement tries - and almost succeeds - to escape by amputating his own arm. Eeeeewww. -- Jakey received his Pre-School diploma today ! -- So all throughout the season I've been saying "just save us all a bunch of time and give the damn trophy to the Lakers already." But don't look now - suddenly we have a terrific tied up NBA Finals in progress after the C's big win last night. Between this and FIFA it's a great time to be a fan of sport... -- Another love letter of a review for Kid. Ok maybe I'll reconsider my stance (see yesterday's post) and go, but only if somebody else buys the popcorn. 6/10/10: -- Archaeologists have discovered the oldest leather shoe ever found. Bah, there are sneakers in my active footwear rotation in worse shape than that thing... -- Thought for sure this one would get panned, but here's a surprisingly positive review of the 2010 Karate Kid reboot. From the trailer it looks like the beloved "Wax on, wax off" has been replaced by "Jacket on, jacket off." Hey, times have changed. Hate to say it, but even my love of Jackie Chan probably won't be enough for me to cough up $12 for this one, we'll most likely Netflix it. There's something about Will Smith's son that just irks the hell outta me... 6/9/10: -- **Gasp** Ronal... DOH! Watch around the 2:23 mark, love it love it love it. And I've been doing the Ronaldinho shuffle (1:56) at random times for three days straight. Fifa is gonna be sweet... -- Was asked the other day how the house selling is going. Suffice to say we don't bother making the beds anymore before going out for the day... -- Math geeks have crunched the numbers and determined that Kobe Bryant isn't the most clutch player in the L afterall. Interesting point - we do tend to forget about all of the missed buzzer beaters. That said, I'm still giving him the rock in the waning seconds... -- Heard that Radio Shack will be carrying the new iPhone 4. So we should assume it'll be marked up by an additional 15% and stop working after two weeks? 6/8/10: -- Feeling serious lust for the new iPhones announced yesterday... 6/4/10: -- Go Flash go... go Flash GO !! -- This makes me angry. -- How to properly load a dishwasher. Now I know why there are always residual food particles on our dishes... -- While commuting to work today I noticed a small turtle on a doomed mission to cross Candlewood Lake Road. He seemed determined to become a speed bump for someone, so I had to pull over. Ignoring his look of annoyance as he disappeared inside his shell, I scooped him up and deposited him in a patch of grass down by the water. These days I can use all the karma points I can get. 6/3/10: -- Lotsa iPhone'ers talkin' (and squawkin') about AT&T's new data plan. But NYT's David Pogue claims most users will actually save money, read on... -- A collection of freaky Dunkin Donut flavors from around the globe. Pork Floss anyone? -- House update: The dream house we'd fallen in love with (scroll down to 5/17 post) has some high voltage wires hangin' low over the back yard, so we had to (sniff sniff) pass. Hurts, too, because it truly was perfect. Unknown health risks aside, on humid days the wires crackle like a level 37 wizard's lightening bolt spell. Drove around last weekend and looked at a number of places that were meh at best. Then got a call this morning from the missus, claiming she'd found The One. Found out an hour later it's already under contract. None of this matters, of course, if no one buys our place. These high highs and low lows are going to be the death of us. 6/1/10: -- Took in Iron Man 2 over the long weekend. I'm too lazy to type up a full review, suffice to say I had mucho fun. Here are a few random thoughts (**minor spoiler alert**): -Robert Downey Jr is terrific for this role. -Gwyneth looked thin. Great, mind you, but thin. -Scarlett looked, well, like Scarlett. Mercy. -Don Cheadle's considerable talents are wasted in something so blockbuster-ish. But hey, a guy's gotta eat. -Mickey Rourke's Russian accent was almost believable. Almost. -This applies to all Marvel movies - stick around until after the credits. OMG they found Mjolnir! -Where was the 'You complete me!' line as Stark jumped from the plane? Saw it in a trailer, must've ended up on the cutting room floor. Bummer. -- Learn to jump like LeBron (or just read about how he does it). Strong legs are just the beginning... -- Don't mess with a man's beer. Especially YOU, mom... -- Google to become a Mac shop, dumping Windows based on security concerns... -- Shame shame on 15% of yous... -- Best Memorial Day weekend (weather-wise at least) ever? 5/28/10: -- So yeah, I guess the 2-year old smoking video everyone is taking about is in fact real... -- Anyone versed in the potential hazards involved with living too close to high voltage power lines? No reason. 5/27/10: -- Jack on Ellen. SO glad he cut his hair. 5/26/10: -- Never thought we'd see the day, read on... -- Bring back the lunchbox! -- Amazingly awesome collection of fireworks photos... 5/24/10: -- It's the characters, stupid. Well I'll be damned, they got it right. Well, as right as they could've. Any frequent Jesse Leo dot com'er knows of my disdain for Lost - a show that started with such great potential, but ultimately ended up stringing viewers along for six years with nonsensical twists, flashbacks, pointless details and ridiculous parallel universes while ABC raked in ad revenue. So somewhere around late Season 2/early Season 3 I tuned out (though I admit to listening from the other room sometimes while my wife watched). So maybe this is why I actually enjoyed last night's series finale. The balderdash was stripped away and the focus was blissfully simple: the characters and their relationships with one another. The mountain (or would that be hatch-full?) of storylines that went nowhere over the past few years didn't even matter. We, the viewing audience, are sentimental creatures and last night gave us exactly what we needed - less decoding/head-scratching and more soul. Or maybe old age is morphing me into a weepy ol' sap? After last night my new dying wish is that one day when I'm lying there gasping out my final few breaths, a loving pooch will cozy up beside me and lick my cheek... The show has an occult-like following and the internet discussion boards will no doubt be buzzing for many months to come, arguing over timelines, purgatories, alternate endings, and a million other things (like where the heck were Michael and Walt? And how did Penny die? I could go on and on). Perhaps I'll steal some time tonight and browse for answers. Not that anyone will have them. 5/21/10: -- BP must be desperate for ideas if they're looking to Kevin Costner to solve the oil spill crisis. Maybe he learned a few tricks while filming Waterworld... -- Quick, go to google.com - they have a working version of Pac Man to celebrate the game's 30th anniversary. My God has it really been 30 years? Waka Waka Waka Waka Waka Waka ... 5/20/10: -- Facebook CEO in hot water. I'm not sympathetic. -- Happy Birthday Aunt Kasey! 5/19/10: -- Remember those LifeLock security commercials where the company CEO brazenly offers up his social security number to the world, all but daring crooks to take a shot at him? Turns out his identity has been stolen 13 times! Dummy. 5/18/10: -- 11 animals that mate for life, awwwwwww... -- MS looks to overhaul Hotmail. Haven't logged into my account in many moons, like pretty much everyone else I know it's used strictly for "signing up for shit". And as such there are no doubt several thousand unread messages, none of them useful. -- Obama got bank. -- Congrats to my sis on her brand new sparkly beautiful Macbook Pro. Kate, I never really liked you anyway... 5/17/10: -- Arstechnica reviews Super Mario Galaxy 2, coming out in a few days. Jakey is extremely excited about this one. Ok fine, I am too... -- Spoke to an IRS representative today to obtain some old tax info. He was every bit as stuffy, monotone and fear-inducing as one would expect from an officer of such an agency. But by the end of the conversation I had actually managed to get a chuckle outta the fellow, and he turned out to be quite thorough and helpful. -- Pick up a copy of Buying a House for Dummies (I assume there is such a book) or talk to any realtor and they'll tell you that rule #1 is not to become emotionally attached to a place unless the ink is dry. Bummer, cuz we both fell in love with a great house over the weekend. It's a hundred to one - all of the planets, moons and stars are going to have to perfectly align for this to have any chance whatsoever of working out. But we'd be fools for not at least trying... And since we're on the topic, anyone wanna buy a condo? We'll throw in a fresh coat of paint. And our kidneys. 5/13/10: -- Young boy is sole survivor in plane crash. Makes you wonder... -- It's true, one of these things now adorns our doorknob. Because the boys need a yard. And because if we want to hang up window boxes in a certain area of the deck we should be able to do so without receiving a letter warning us to take them down or be fined. And because we can't go on living eight feet away from a total douchebag. And because energetic, barefooted lads should be able to sprint around the house without me yelling at them every five seconds for fear of pissing off the guys living beneath us. And because I want to be able to lie in the sun with a Coolatta and a novel and not feel like half the world is watching. And because H-Dawg needs to be able to stretch her legs while there is still some puppy left in her. And beacuse I always imagined myself living in something that says farmhouse on the outside and Hobbit Hole in the inside. About a hundred things have to go "just right" for this to actually work out, but you never know. The mortgage guy and the realtor assure us it can happen (that's their job afterall), so if they can pull a rabbit out of a hat - why not? -- A tiger doesn't change its stripes, but apparently Jupiter does. I'm sure this is Obama's fault somehow. 5/12/10: -- Amazing/upsetting pics from the Gulf. The goo-soaked animals get me every time. -- The inside scoop on Twitter funnyman Tim Siedell (badbanana), including his Top Ten Tweets! The man makes me laugh out loud almost every day... -- Maybe there's hope for Facebook afterall, read on... 5/11/10: -- As if you needed another reason to use Twitter, click here... -- Nuke it... ? -- The salsa version of Clocks > the original. -- So at what point do they throw up their arms and admit they have no idea how to stop the oil leak? Then what happens? It gushes for a few months until dry, leading to an eventual ecological cataclysm? Just askin'... 5/7/10: -- Ebert on why 3D sucks (except for Avatar of course). -- Who says there's no money to be made playing video games? Read on... -- A less than kind review of the new Iron Man flick. Not that it matters, the hype alone will carry this one well into the summer and it'll surely rake in a zillion bucks. Twelve of those bucks will probably be mine, I mean come on - Scarlett in a catsuit? Count me in! 5/5/10: -- Celebrated Cinqo de Mayo exactly one time - parked 9 miles away from Panchos & Gringos and, over the course of an hour, slithered through a writhing mass of bodies to get within shouting distance of the bar for a cerveza - which was promptly knocked out of my hand. No Mas! -- Damn, I was outbid at the last second for 'Nude, Green Leaves and Bust'... 5/3/10: -- I'm thinking my son and his lovely assistants (pictured here) would make lousy drug dealers, between the three of them there was hardly any Kool-Aid left for the customers! They set up an impromptu booth at a tag sale we held over the weekend - a sale to which hardly anyone showed up, I might add. In fact I think their cupful of quarters beat our meager profits from the sale itself... -- A photo compilation of the greediest people of all time... 4/30/10: -- 70. Blue with a few cloudy wisps. Light breeze. Birds. Bees. Butterflies. Birkenstocks... Flawless. Sublime. Want to bottle a few of these and stash them away for September BI... -- Goonies Quiz ! It's only ten easy questions, but that's Good Enough for Me (nyuk nyuk). -- In case you ever wondered what it's like to stand inside a stadium while it's being demolished... 4/29/10: -- Steve Jobs on Adobe and Flash, it seems the gloves are off. Put simply, Flash is a popular technology used for viewing videos on the web. Apple has been long criticized for not supporting Flash on its mobile devices such as iPads, iPhones and iPods. I'm sure Adobe will have a juicy comeback, this battle gets more interesting every day... -- Not a huge fan of People, but recenlty read this article (thanks Aunt Marion!) about Holly Robinson Peete, Autism mom and wife of former NFL star Rodney Peete. Stories like this are always very reassuring, I often try to imagine what our Duppy Conqueror will be like in two years, five years, twenty years. Comforting to know that people with seemingly unlimited resources (good God did they really spend a half mil on treatments & therapies?) go through the same day to day stuff we do. 4/28/10: -- Croatia wins at the buzzer! Or not... 4/27/10: -- Study shows that Internet addiction is becoming a serious issue among college students. Said it before, if I were a student nowadays I wouldn't last a single semester. So glad my university computing experiences were limited to some minor geeking out on old Macs to tweak the school newspaper layout, and maybe the occasional game of Mahjong Tiles. -- The wine industry is doomed. 4/26/10: -- As the Lost series finale looms near, the writers explain what's going on and what to expect for the final 'sode. I still don't get it. And I don't think they do either. Still say they should've wrapped the damn thing up in one season, but that's just me. Halfway through season 1 it seems ABC realized there was big money to be made, so the writers began piling layer after layer of storyline goop to string people along as long as possible. 4/25/10: -- Kottke has a terrific roundup of various reports, celebrity sightings, photos and shared experiences from Marina Abramovic's performance at MoMa, which we recently saw firsthand. Essentially the performance consists of a table with two chairs in a well-lit chamber. Museum visitors are invited to sit across from Abramovic and stare into her eyes for as long as they like (blinking is allowed of course, talking is not). Some last for hours, some less than a minute. Some burst out laughing, some are moved to tears. Most politely bow out after 10 minutes or so. It was interesting to read that the usually rock-solid artist had a breakdown when her ex-boyfriend and fellow partner sat across from her. Say what you will about the performance, but I think the photos are intense. Having read some of the interviews and reports I regret not having given it a go, though I wouldn't have lasted long. 4/23/10: -- Packing up and heading home from PA this morning, sanity still intact... barely. 4/20/10: -- Time traveler caught on film ! -- A demonstration of what happens to jet engines flying through volcanic ash. 4/19/10: -- Wife and boys took off to PA for a few days, I'm to join them in progress later this week. First solo weekend in as long as I can remember, and all told it was kinda nice (that's not to say I haven't missed my lil rugrats of course!). Made a ridiculously long to-do list and hardly put a dent in it, but I guess that's to be expected. When not busy working and/or stressing over what should be getting done I did find time to dive into a terrific novel, take a hike or two with H-Dawg, and even catch a late night showing of Death at a Funeral (full review later). The occasional weekend off is ok, just not that often - this place is too damn quiet for my liking. 4/16/10: -- Forced myself to endure a Justin Beiber video (my conscience won't let me link to it, search Youtube if you must) this morning just to see what the fuss is about. It was predictably dreadful, he's basically a cutesy little lad who paid close attention in the How to Move, Dress & Make Cool Gesticulations Like a Rap Guy class. A pretty young thing (PYT!) bats her eyelashes but refuses his advances at first, then (surprise!) relents by the end of the video. I think Beiber is 16, awkward because he's probably not yet allowed to use sexuality to appeal to his audience. Give him a few years. For now he can only grin slyly, send flirty text messages and hint at 10PM makeout sessions when mom ain't lookin'... New Kids on the Block, Backstreet Boys and other 90's boy bands of their ilk lowered the bar to such a place that nowadays it must be terribly easy produce a product like Beiber. If I had any sense I'd start teaching my boys how to fist bump properly right now. Guess I'm just getting old. After all his video has over 80 million views on Youtube, while I scrap & scrounge between the sofa cushions for coffee money. Like he gives a &*#@ what I think. That's right, Justin, no dropping the F-Bomb 'til you're 18... 4/13/10: -- Macbook Pro lineup gets a few bumps under the hood, very droolworthy... -- Giving hope to disorganized wanna-be fiction writers everywhere, new book reveals that Agatha Christie's methods were messy - in fact the Maven of Mystery's notes consisted of tangled masses of scribblings spanning several notebooks and many years... -- Happy Birthday to Grandma Nanclyn, the wisest woman I know ! 4/12/10: -- Sticking a failed hard drive in the freezer alongside the frozen veggies might - just might - save your bacon. Anyone ever tried this with any success? I once kept one alive long enough to extract the data by holding it upside down at a weird angle. Hey when you're desperate you'll try anything. -- Sunday done right: a spirited hike with dogs, friends and family followed immediately by a top-down ride in an ol' Jeep Wrangler (want one!) for ice cream. Days like that make it really hard to miss Old Man Winter. -- After seeing something like this I'm not sure how we got along all those years before the internet... 4/11/10: -- Pixels by Patrick Jean. Cool. 4/9/10: -- Prepare to be inspired... -- Who knew that the size/shape of a ball player's tuckus has so much to do with his potential ability? 4/8/10: -- Spring is definitely in the air. Yesterday morning en route to the office I stopped to admire a handsome male turkey with plumage fully spread and on display, just like those old elementary school Thanksgiving decorations. Figured he was obviously strutting his stuff for someone other than myself, and sure enough there was a bashful female peeking out from the tall grass nearby. But she was having none of it, after a minute or two she darted off into the woods. The Turkey Whisperer in me shot my new friend a telepathic message: I feel your pain, brother... 4/5/10: -- This is bizarre. Dreamt last night I was eating Jelly Babies, only they were large - roughly 8 inches tall. Must be all of the Easter candy I ate yesterday... 4/2/10: -- A Jamaican Patois lesson to the tune of Green Eggs and Ham... Ya mon! -- Skiing is a rich man's sport, and as such I've pretty much given it up. But every year around this time there's that one weekend, the 72 degree weekend where we officially transition into Spring. I still hear Killington calling to me - the sunglassed & t-shirt'ed bashing on corn snow bumps, the bright blue skies, reggae band and watered-down beers on the deck... I have unfinished business up there one of these Aprils, sigh... 4/1/10: -- The iPad has started hitting the streets, the early reviews are in. I like what Andy Inhatko says about the importance of not playing it safe: "after a week with the iPad I'm suddenly wondering if any other company is as committed to invention as Apple. Has any other company ever demonstrated a restlessness to stray from the safe and proven, and actually invent things?" So true. It's always Apple coming out with the cool sh*t, and a week later everyone else scampers to release their "me too" implementation. -- Sorry y'all, no moronic April Fools tricks this year - too busy and too exhausted. Besides, my mom was the only one who would fall for them. Although I think one year I nailed Aunt Kos, she actually believed my site was seized by the Feds and I was being investigated by way of the Patriot Act for expressing anti-American sentiments... Yeah, that was a good one! 3/31/10: -- So yeah, we hit NYC on Sunday to take in the MoMA Tim Burton Exhibit. Sketches, poems, carvings, figurines, costumes, motarized monster merry-go-rounds... pretty much anything and everything you would expect to see from the Master of the Macabre. There was almost too much material to get to in one pass, and the exhibition chambers were damn crowded. But what we saw was wondrous - the framed scribblings and doodlings on faded crinkled notebook pages grabbed me the most, you could just imagine a bored Burton pretending to pay attention in some tedious directors meeting, absently whipping up these masterpieces. I only wished there was more material from Sleepy Hollow, one of my all-time favorites. Also on display that day was the work of Marina Abramovic - The Artist Is Present, featuring a live naked man lying in the embrace of a skeleton, videos of self-mutilation, raw onion eating, breast groping and neverending staring and/or yelling contests. To enter the exhibit you were required to pass between a seemingly catatonic nude man and woman standing about two feet apart - it was impossible to not brush up against them. In such a situation who gets the ass and who gets the crotch? And do you dare make eye contact? We ain't tellin'... But it poses quite the social dilemma. I spose that's what the artist was going for ? -- Uma, oh Uma... how could you ? -- Buyer's guide to choosing the right iPad model (not that I could justify buying one at this juncture)... 3/30/10: -- Why you can't work at work... -- Wil Wheaton on the importance of gaming. Hear hear! I honestly believe that the hours upon hours spent in my younger years slaying imaginary orcs and dragons in my head have been beneficial to me as an adult... somehow. And I further believe that spending time with Jakey (Aidan has zero interest) at the Wii console does benefit our relationship - moderation is key of course. 3/29/10: -- LAME - filming for The Hobbit delayed again... -- College student breaks Rock Band World Record. Lucky for me video games (Nintendo aside) weren't very far along when I was in college, World of Warcraft would've caused me to flunk out after two semesters. 3/26/10: -- Ebert reviews 'Hot Tub Time Machine.' Think I'll wait for the DVD, seems like one of those flicks where all of the good stuff is used in the trailer. He makes an interesting point about John Cusack however... -- Nakey Jakey is officially four today! 3/25/10: -- Oh hellz yes !! -- The inevitable death of the coral reefs will have far worse consequences than just sucky snorkeling... -- Month 2 of the Insanity workouts, I'm still alive but my thighs aren't speaking to me. Say what you will about the dorkiness of the infomercial (or any infomercial for that matter), these workouts are the real deal... -- At long last, one of life's great mysteries is explained. Sort of... 3/24/10: -- Won't hear me praise GoDaddy very often, the WalMart of domain registrars. But today I give them props... -- Annoying but fun Daffy Duck parachute game... 3/23/10: -- The internet is having way too much fun with Biden's F-Bomb dropping... -- There's a new doctor in town, looks promising. -- Finally got around to digging through the birthday party photos (see above, possibly my favorite picture of Jakey ever). Aidan got into the action as well, showing off his considerable lung power while spraying saliva all over the icing. -- So now what happens? -- I knew it! They're having an affair. Someone notify the Drudge Report at once! -- Funny site for uploading past/present photos, I think the Morris side of the fam has some potential entries for this one. 3/22/10: -- Fascinating interview with Magnus Carlsen, the youngest Grandmaster of all time. Seems like such an ordinary kid, aside from the fact that anyone named Magnus is cool by default (via Kottke)... -- Bedroom shrines, don't know if I'd even be able to open the door... -- Now we see why people throw b-day parties for their children at dorky places like Stew Leonard's or Chuck E Cheese rather than arranging it themselves... everyone had a terrific time, but my God - putting together a Suber Bowl halftime show is probably far less complicated... I'll try to steal a few minutes tonight to dig through the photos. And will someone please take this leftover cake outta here !?! -- What Obamacare means for most of us. 3/19/10: -- Authentic Uggs are bad, knock-offs are even worse... -- Every so often something you're looking forward to actually lives up to its billing and is every bit as wonderful as you'd hoped. I'm thinking of all those December through February 11:30PM dog walks so Honey could piddle before bed - the arctic air felt like 1000 knives stabbing from every direction, I'd be begging her through chattering teeth to hurry up already so we could get back inside to the dry, overpriced electric heat. The only respite while watching her pace around in circles looking for just the right pee spot would be to look skyward and imagine what the 70 degree sun would feel like just a few months later. And here it is... -- Our hoops season ends Sunday morning @ 9AM, will be glad to have put it out of its misery... -- I must be getting old. People - over 61 million views? For this? Are you kidding? 3/17/10: -- Just in time for St Patty's Day, 10 things you may not have known about Guinness... -- My Patrick's Pot on You! In some alternate universe where I'm cool & hip and have no responsibilities I'm taking a half day today so, beginning around noon, I can park my 1/800th Irish arse at a bar and call out: "Bartender! Pour me something mean and green, and keep 'em comin'! And don't be stingy with the Creme de Menthe!" 3/16/10: -- Brainy pooch checks himself into the ER for injuries... -- Ok admit it, you too want a capybaras as a pet. But pass on the Albino Gator... 3/15/10: -- When Mom Jeans attack... -- The often ruthless TV Without Pity is likin' Caprica as much as I am... -- Game tonight. Our horrendous record has made the playoffs a statistical impossibility, but believe it or not there is comfort in this - we can play loose, with a &*$^ it kind of attitude. Take risks. Run around like morons, see what happens. There are no bad shots. And tonight there will be plenty of them taken, oh yes... Basically if I get the ball and the rim is even remotely visible, I'm hoistin' one up there. This could be fun! My teammates are encouraged to do the same... 3/12/10: -- Wonder if they did this in one take... I dunno, kinda prefer the treadmill one myself. -- New Gaga/Beyonce video. Don't know whether I should be amused, shocked, aroused, entertained or horrified. Guess that was the idea... Trivia time - what movie is their, ummm, vehicle from? 3/11/10: -- A collection of amazing shots from Kenya... -- Recently added to my Bucket List: a month of training with Mark Twight at Gym Jones. Genuine fitness vs the appearance of fitness, it's a beautiful thing. -- And there was a loaded Smith & Wesson on the table because... ? 3/10/10: -- RS reviews Valleys of Neptune... -- Gulf War Syndrome (the first Iraq War) is officially the real deal. I know a certain vet who has these sort of vague symptoms, maybe now he and others will get their due... -- I'm suddenly craving a cuppa joe and a free hour in a highfalutin coffee shop, click here... -- Awesomely awesome BSG remake of the Beastie Boys' Sabotage video, includes a side by side comparison! God I love the internets... -- Aidan started up Equine Therapy again yesterday. Feeling badly for "Dixie", his diminutive steed - with Aidan now tipping the scales at almost 50lbs, the poor thing is probably dealing with considerable back pain (she's roughly the size of a German Shepherd). 3/9/10: -- The sibling side effect of autism, an interesting read. Mom stress levels are mentioned as well, but of course no mention of dads. Autism dads are apparently impervious to stress, it seems. Someone must've forgotten to send me that memo. -- MVY streaming the new just-released Hendrix stuff... -- Sweet, merciful 55 degrees yesterday and today. It's not supposed to last beyond tomorrow, but damn I'm so ready for winter to end... 3/8/10: -- Some other random Oscar regurgitations in no particular order: I'm craving all those old Brat Pack John Hughes movies all of a sudden. Such a great tribute. James Taylor doing In My Life for the in memoriam segment - more perfection (despite a few glaring omissions). District 9 was too good to get nothing. Kate Winslet gets more beautiful every year. Hosts Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin seemed to vanish for loooong stretches. And this was ok, hardly anyone noticed/cared. -- I'd like to spank the Academy: Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed The Hurt Locker, and who among us doesn't like to see David topple Goliath? But I think the Academy got it wrong this time, either Best Director or Best Picture shoulda gone to J.C. Just sayin'... 3/5/10: -- Watching Recount on HBO again, hoping this time around it will end differently... -- This is discouraging... -- Trying to look at the bright side of the amount of work I've been doing - if ever I'm captured by terrorists and subjected to sleep deprivation I'll be completely unphased by it... -- Might hit 50 tomorrow and Sunday, so ready for this. Promised H-Dawg we'd go hiking, if you see me this weekend make sure I actually do it. 3/4/10: -- Thieves abscond with almost 30 grand worth of Macbooks and Macbook Pros. Windows 7 laptops were apparently unharmed... -- A collection of cool Alice videos. -- So it wasn't an un-popped popcorn kernel afterall, our little guy's first tooth came out last night! 3/3/10: -- Ten reasons to avoid talking on the phone... -- So with the Vancouver flame sadly snuffed out (come on, these past Olympic games were awesome. Seriously.), our stagnant Netflix queue is back in rotation. And yeah, The Hurt Locker was terrific and gritty and praiseworthy... but was it the epic Avatar-dethroning masterpiece everyone was raving about? I just don't know... -- Did our day just get shorter? 2/28/10: -- $ to buy the Charlotte Bobcats. 2/26/10: -- Ebert remembers Siskel on the tenth anniversary of his death, a terrific read. -- Wired reviews Alice... -- Don't know which is more frightening - the fact that Apple's iTunes Store just sold its 10 billionth song, or the list of most popular songs downloaded (scroll down on the page a bit)... 2/23/10: -- Happy SIXTH birthday Aidan! I don't tell you nearly often enough, but you're the reason I get out of bed in the morning, and you make your mother & I better people every single day. We are extremely proud of you. 2/22/10: -- Took Jakey to art class on Saturday and fell in love with the place. While he was in the back working on a castle of some sort (haven't seen it yet!) with the other kids in the class, I was walking around the studio admiring the half-finished masterpieces in the making - to some these may resemble shapeless globs of nothing, but to their young creators these works are destined for the Louvre. And rightfully so! Can't wait to see our little guy's creation. Unlike his father, who has less than zero artistic mettle, I really think he's got a knack for painting/sketching/artsy stuff in general. Or maybe that's just the doting parent in me talking... 2/18/10: -- WSJ discusses Bioshock 2, which I have installed but have had just a few scant minutes to explore - this whole being a grown-up thing is a serious time sponge... -- Last night's Olympics went too well for the US. All of the heroes that NBC has been hyping way too much - Lindsey Vonn, Shaun White, Shani Davis - all took gold. It's a conspiracy, I tell you ! Rigged ! Payoffs, briberies, and overall bad form ! Obama needs to fix this. 2/16/10: -- New studies reveal that King Tut was probably miserable and in pain for much of his short life... -- Unbelievably awesome collection of Opening Ceremony shots from the Big Picture. 2/12/10: -- I stand corrected: Was planning on posting a rant about how pathetic the media is for obsessing over Lindsey Vonn's shin injury, and how no one would give a damn about her were she not supermodel hot. But then I took the time to actually check out her resume, and, yeah - the girl can flat out ski. Props. -- The Superbowl spot for Dante's Inferno was indescribably beautiful, such that it has me pining for an XBox 360... 2/11/10: -- A disturbing new batch of September 11 photographs was made public today... -- Anatomy of a denial... -- Caught myself feeling thankful that the blizzard missed us yesterday. I'm officially old & lame... -- Ebert reviews Wolfman... 2/9/10: -- First Lady to take on childhood obesity. A worthy endeavor, but she'll have her work cut out for her - the only muscles kids seem interested in working these days are finger muscles on Wiimotes. -- Sketchpad is a cool free online app for drawing and such, Jakey's gonna like this... -- A collection of gloriously creepy critters. Just don't ask me to translate whatever the hell language that is... 2/8/10: -- When squid attack... -- Who doesn't like cheering for the underdog? The first & last football game I watched this season didn't disappoint, and there was even a decent commercial or two (though no classics, that's for sure). Come on, the Google spot got to you, too, don't bother denying it. 2/6/10: -- People sure make funny faces when they're upside down (via Kottke)... -- A roundup of life expectancy in the US by state.. Yet another reason to move to Hawaii... -- "A disgusting, drooling, foul-smelling creature with a big filthy body and the squashed, teeth-baring face of a rabid bulldog." So says Disney describing this awesome-looking beast from the upcoming Alice in Wonderland... Starting to get siked about this movie, but let us say cautiously siked, in some ways the buildup reminds me of the weeks leading up to Tim Burton's 2005 Wonka remake - a disappointment on many levels. 2/5/10: -- 20 to watch for in 2010. Topping my list are Bioshock 2 (in just a few days!) and the Super Mario Galaxy sequel (for Jakey of course)... -- If you too are on neverending quest for browsing bliss, Chrome is worth a try... 2/4/10: -- Great read from Gary Kasparov, arguably the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) in the world of chess. Kasparov seems to have thrown in the towel and concedes that with modern hardware/software, "Man vs Machine" is a thing of the past. Though to me it's still astounding that something capable of calculating millions of possibilities per second - even an old clunker from the 80's - could ever have lost to us measly humans... 2/3/10: -- So just how smart are octopuses (octopi?) anyway? -- Interesting read on Apple's stubborn refusal to support Flash, even after all these years. -- Sorry Mother, but it appears as if I was right all those years... 1/29/10: -- True story: last night I dreamt I was at some geeky event, a Comic-Con of sorts, and Katee Sackhoff was totally hitting on me. Did NOT want to wake up... -- Look skyward tonight, folks... -- So yeah, I watched bits and pieces of Obama's State of the Union speech on Wed. Whatever, it's all showbiz anyway. Many folks view year 1 of his stint as a letdown. I say it's too soon to judge, but with such lofty expectations how could it be otherwise? Here's what I find most disappointing, and I suppose it's unfair to blame this entirely on the president: the rift between the two parties is so laughably evident, and zero progress has been made in that area. We were promised an end to the partisan bickering, instead we find it worse than ever. Every Republican to a man (or woman) votes along party lines. Same for the Dems. At select times during the speech (too often IMHO), every Dem would leap out of his/her chair and applaud enthusiastically, while every Repub remained seated and grim-faced. And Dems are just as guilty in past speeches when a Repub president has delivered this address, sitting stoically and ignoring the jubilation on the other side of the chamber. Stand for what you believe in, people. We don't elect you to behave like rank and file automatons. You're making the entire two-party system seem so infantile... 1/28/10: -- Send it down, Terrence Williams (whoever you are) !! -- Cherished tech writer Andy Ihnatko weighs in on the iPad... -- A sneaky snow "squall" as they're calling it hit right as the rush hour commute began - spinouts, accidents, and general mayhem ensued. Is it May yet? 1/27/10: -- Wow. iPad is glorious and Apple has once again raised the technlogy bar a dozen notches higher. Can't wait to see all of the "me too" implementations other companies will be churning out in the coming weeks. It's something that I would absolutely love to have (my birthday is right around the corner!), but probably not something I would actually go out and buy for myself. For me I'd probably try to scrape together a few extra bills and get a sparkling new Macbook. That said, damn if that thing isn't sexy as hell... -- Ok maybe the 80's weren't a total bust music-wise (see below), FUV just played the B-52's and the Stray Cats back to back... -- FUV is doing a "five decades" thing for their pledge drive, basically each day they're playing hits from a different decade. 60's and 70's were terrific, today is 80's (so if you had to skip a day, well...). Love that station! -- Apple's much (overly?) hyped big announcement today, wouldn't it be funny if it's not a tablet computer afterall? Liveblog here starting at 1PM EST. 1/26/10: -- Took in Legion the other night. The concept of God finally throwing up His hands in disgust and sending his minions to eradicate mankind (heck, at this point who could blame Him?) is interesting, and there are creepy-cool zombie effects aplenty. But those aside the movie is pretty meh. -- I've never laughed so hard while reviewing proper usage of semicolons... 1/22/10: -- Siked for the Caprica premier tonight! -- So let me get this straight - it just got EASIER for big corporations to buy politicians? This is a joke, right? Someone? Anyone? -- Not the biggest fan of magician David Blaine's goofy stunts and parlor tricks, but it was interesting to hear how he trained to hold his breath for 17 minutes. A bit long-winded (hah! get it?) but worth a listen. Clearly a side effect of oxygen depravity to the brain for that long is monotone speech... 1/21/10: -- The Fuhrer reacts to the recent political news out of MA... 1/20/10: -- Training for a road race. Though it's doubtful that I'll make if off the beach... -- Top 10 creepy ghost photographs... -- MA voters made a statement last night to the other 49 states: "We're content with our state-run healthcare plan, so the rest of you guys can go F yourselves..." Thanks Massholes. -- Way to go, Fisk! 1/19/10: -- Spent more time than I care to admit last night trying - and failing miserably - to master Do You Want to Know a Secret on Beatles: Rock Band. Pathetic when you consider the simplicity of the chords. Not going to even bother attempting anything along the lines of Revolution for quite some time... -- Dude's got mad skills... -- Not since the days leading up to the original iPhone launch has the Apple hype been at such a fever pitch, the web is buzzing about the Tablet device Steve Jobs' crew will supposedly unveil next week. Heck, Gawker was even offering cash prizes for information about the device. But here's an interesting take - what exactly to do with the darn thing? Potentially a 'tweener' in size and power, what crowd will this device appeal to? -- Gratz to my cuzzy and her man for delivering the handsome eight-pounder pictured here! We visited over the weekend - APL at first showed no interest in his new cousin until we asked him to hold him, his expression changed to pure delight. And I've never seen him so gentle! 1/18/10: -- Let's lump as many beautiful people as possible together for a 90-minute span, concoct some pointless story with a bunch of cutesy dialogue, release it on 2/12 and call it Valentine's Day. Like the Jessicas (Biel and Alba) would ever have a hard time finding dates... -- During Mimi's birthday lunch yesterday at Olive Garden Aidan sat (relatively) well-behaved and consumed about 1000 calories worth of food. No tantrums, no fussing, no knocking things over. Perhaps there's hope afterall, the key is to starve him beforehand... 1/17/10: -- Extra special birthday wishes to Mother for the big Six-Oh! We love you ! 1/14/10: -- A cute take from Across the Universe on one of my all-time fav Beatles songs. Very pissed that this one isn't available in Rock Band Beatles by the way... 1/14/10: -- Wonka's kids, all grown up... 1/13/10: -- Did you see the mystery object go whizzing by this AM? -- Truly disturbing images coming out of Haiti... -- Never watched a single minute of the Conan show, but gained worlds of respect for him upon reading his statement... -- Study concludes that Sir Mix-A-Lot had it right all these years... 1/11/10: -- McGwire admits to doing 'roids, gee what a surprise. Where are the goofy man-hugs and chest pounds with (fellow juicer) Sammy Sosa now? Strip him of his homerun record and boot him outta baseball, so says I... -- Oh hellz yes - RELEASE THE KRAKEN! As an avid fan of the 80's cheese-fest that was Clash of the Titans, I am majorly pumped... -- A collection of the top 40 Sesame Street guest appearances... 1/8/10: -- When I'm wrong I say it. Well, sometimes. Avatar is every bit as good as everyone raves, and then some. Worth every molecule of the hype and every dime it rakes in. It's a game changer in the same way that Star Wars was. No, seriously. See it at once, preferably in 3D. 1/7/10: -- My birthday is still quite a ways off, but for all you early shoppers out there - click here! -- Google's sexy new phone (iPhone Killer?) is getting all of the buzz of course, but Philip K. Dick of Blade Runner (novel) fame is none too pleased about Google's name choice... 1/6/10: -- Java art, I know you'll like this a latte (nyuk nyuk)... -- Ten words to stop misspelling in 2010... -- As seen in Inglourious Basterds, the Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda proudly presents Nation's Pride. Tarrantino went to a lot of trouble for a movie within a movie... -- I'm not even a big college hoops fan, but who can resist a classic buzzer-beater? 1/5/10: -- Apparently after all these years IT doesn't exist. This definitely calls for some independent research... -- So Sullivan has already been pinging me asking if we want to reserve Shipley again in Sept 2010. Apparently the owners like our propensity for cleanliness, and would like to lock us down as early as possible. Don't they know how broke we are? Trouble is, thoughts of Block Island release a chemical in my brain that overwhelms reason and logical thought. If we skipped it, the money would probably end up going towards a Zoloft prescription and/or a shrink. BI is the carrot dangling in front of my nose that keeps me sane through these frigid, miserable months... 1/4/10: -- Man it feels strange writing/typing 2010, it's a year that seems so Buck Rogers... anyway, no floofy overly-optimistic New Years Resolutions to report this time around. 2010 will be about survival. I mean yeah, becoming a better dad/hubby is a perpetual goal, and getting back in shape is on the permanent list as well. But damn if last year didn't kick everyone's collective ass... Holidays were fun though! Lots of fatty foods and laughter to go around. We welcomed in the New Year clutching our plastic Wii Band Hero instruments close to our hearts and playing with everything we had.		Some sites I hit: Slashdot Boing Boing Me on Twitter! MVY Radio WFUV Ebert Galactica Watercooler Slate Waxy dooce ars technica On St. John TUAW National Geographic Monty Calvin & Hobbes Daring Fireball Jason Kottke Mashable IDEAS Wired NPR Wikipedia Starbucks Gossip MacNN