Sunday, March 29, 2009
The Paul Walker Post
Last night Sarah and I stopped by Nick’s place for the oddly themed ‘Paul Walker Experience’ party. There where cutout Paul Walker heads hanging on every wall; a giant Fast and The Furious theater banner in the kitchen and the TV was running back-to-back PW films (featuring such classics as Joy Ride and Running Scared). I personally love a good theme for a party, and the idea of picking the worst theme possible and doing it justice is hilarious to me. Even though we couldn’t say for long (Sarah being important enough to warrant business travel the next morning, and all) it was good to stop in and catch up with Nick. The guy’s portfolio has some impressive pieces to it, and it’s nice to see creative people getting to enjoy their work. I’d love to take him up on his offer to collaborate on a video project in the not to distant future.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
The Tweater Post
I really like Twitter. At first I didn’t really ‘get it’ as many of you probably don’t. But after giving it time and seeing the power of the social networking tool I am beyond sold. For those of you still on the fence or in the dark about the whole thing, let me try and pitch it to you.
Twitter is a micro-blogging service. What’s micro-blogging you say? Well think status updates or mini, one-sentence blog posts and you are pretty much there. The beauty of Twitter is that you subscribe to the people you’d like to ‘follow’ and every time they post a comment (Tweat) then you are notified. Over a given day you will be constantly connect with whomever you want to follow and will receive updates during the day. Some people use the service to promote things with links or offers. Others simply like to keep you updated on whatever they are thinking or doing at any given time. What you use it for is completely up to you. I keep track of my favorite webcast releases and the score of the Caps games for example. As well as follow people you can view mini-profiles of anyone on Twitter and see who they are following. This is a great way to expand your network as well as see what other streams people are subscribing to. I am particularly fond of Twitter’s iPhone abilities and find having a mobile Tweatdeck to be very addictive and engaging.
So that’s pretty much it. Its one of those things that is blowing up right now and will become the norm very quickly. With celebrities and companies jumping on the bandwagon, and other sites mimicking its features and layout (I am looking at you Facebook) Twitter is going to be around for a while. Might as well get in on the ground floor.
There are many pages out there (like this one) that list celebrities and Tweater’s of note. Some Celebrity Streams I subscribe to, to get you started:In the world of Jamie (@ lobodestroyo) a few of my friends have jumped on board. You can catch there streams below:
Twitter is a micro-blogging service. What’s micro-blogging you say? Well think status updates or mini, one-sentence blog posts and you are pretty much there. The beauty of Twitter is that you subscribe to the people you’d like to ‘follow’ and every time they post a comment (Tweat) then you are notified. Over a given day you will be constantly connect with whomever you want to follow and will receive updates during the day. Some people use the service to promote things with links or offers. Others simply like to keep you updated on whatever they are thinking or doing at any given time. What you use it for is completely up to you. I keep track of my favorite webcast releases and the score of the Caps games for example. As well as follow people you can view mini-profiles of anyone on Twitter and see who they are following. This is a great way to expand your network as well as see what other streams people are subscribing to. I am particularly fond of Twitter’s iPhone abilities and find having a mobile Tweatdeck to be very addictive and engaging.
So that’s pretty much it. Its one of those things that is blowing up right now and will become the norm very quickly. With celebrities and companies jumping on the bandwagon, and other sites mimicking its features and layout (I am looking at you Facebook) Twitter is going to be around for a while. Might as well get in on the ground floor.
There are many pages out there (like this one) that list celebrities and Tweater’s of note. Some Celebrity Streams I subscribe to, to get you started:In the world of Jamie (@ lobodestroyo) a few of my friends have jumped on board. You can catch there streams below:
Friday, March 27, 2009
The South Korean Post
Last night I headed out to Auld Shebeen to get a few drinks in with Alex, Jev and Matt in a little send off for Alex. He is moving to South Korea of all places for work and will be gone for the better part of three months. The usual Alex nonchalant attitude hid his excitement pretty well, but it was pretty evident that he was excited about the opportunity. Can’t say I blame him though! His company will be sending him over there to observe clients and assess needs in person, and will be putting him up in a swanky hotel and compensating him for his time. I imagine he will have a fun few months over there seeing all the things the country has to offer. I can’t imagine living in a foreign country that’s so…well foreign, but I respect the hell out of his adventurous endeavor.
I convinced him to start a blog of his various misadventures, so stay tuned and I’ll update you guys with links when he has something up. It was good to get to spend some time with him and the guys before he got on his plane. There was a bachelorette party going on at the bar while we where there and I have a pretty hilarious picture of the bride to be autographing Alex’s rear-end. So if he never makes it back from the other side of the world at least I’ll have found memories of him immortalized in my iPhone.
I convinced him to start a blog of his various misadventures, so stay tuned and I’ll update you guys with links when he has something up. It was good to get to spend some time with him and the guys before he got on his plane. There was a bachelorette party going on at the bar while we where there and I have a pretty hilarious picture of the bride to be autographing Alex’s rear-end. So if he never makes it back from the other side of the world at least I’ll have found memories of him immortalized in my iPhone.
The Duplicity Post
Duplicity is a tough movie for me to review because it is so bland I can’t rant or rave about it- which generally makes for boring blog posts when it comes to a reviewing things (least in my case). The movie failed to excel in any given category and left a bland taste of nothingness in my mouth after leaving the theater. I had high hopes for the film,
Not-so-secretly-hoping it would be a marriage of Ocean’s 11 and Mrs. & Mrs. Smith, based on what I had seen from the trailers, and deliver as a quirky crime drama/romantic comedy. Unfortunately nothing about this film impresses.
There is a lot wrong with this mess but the real kicker is that the whole thing relies on the performances of its leads (Owen and Roberts) but sticks them with stereotypical, cardboard-cutout roles that are pretty much self-centered conmen who are completely unrelatable on all fronts and fail to woo or charm anyone but themselves. The director clearly picked two people he thinks would look good in bed together and slapped them on the cast list without a second thought because there is zero chemistry in this movie between the two otherwise competent actors.
The whole thing just felt like a big waste of time. Do yourself a favor and skip this one.
Not-so-secretly-hoping it would be a marriage of Ocean’s 11 and Mrs. & Mrs. Smith, based on what I had seen from the trailers, and deliver as a quirky crime drama/romantic comedy. Unfortunately nothing about this film impresses.
There is a lot wrong with this mess but the real kicker is that the whole thing relies on the performances of its leads (Owen and Roberts) but sticks them with stereotypical, cardboard-cutout roles that are pretty much self-centered conmen who are completely unrelatable on all fronts and fail to woo or charm anyone but themselves. The director clearly picked two people he thinks would look good in bed together and slapped them on the cast list without a second thought because there is zero chemistry in this movie between the two otherwise competent actors.
Considering this movie is essentially a longwinded chronicle of said non-existent chemistry (with a side of cliche money grabbing) it is safe to label this movie a failure.Besides the soulless cast, the film’s plot is redundantly pointless. I found it far too much effort to care about two wooden characters stealing formulas from stereotypically evil shampoo companies… taking into account all the wrongdoing that goes on in this world I think they could have come up with something a little more engaging.
The whole thing just felt like a big waste of time. Do yourself a favor and skip this one.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
The Perverted Puppets Post
After our DIY dinner at Ali and Bob’s on Friday we decided to head down to the Tally-Ho theater in Leesburg (it’s a quick walk from their house) to catch the improve comedy show that was going on. The show started D-Cup, a comic troupe specializing in off-color comedy. We came in halfway through the first act which was…lets say…a little terrible. Ok, a lot terrible. We had been there for about 15 minutes when they took an intermission to set up for the second half of their act. We where debating if we wanted to stick it out but ultimately decided to give it a shot. Fortunately for us our perseverance paid off because the second part of the show centered around ‘Simon, Simon and Simon’, three eerily decrepit ventriloquist dummies with a tendency to say the most horrendous things you can possibly imagine.
I am no comedy connoisseur, but when you have awkward situations and an abundance of vulgar references it’s just not very funny. However if you have the same references and foul mouths coming out of puppets…well then it’s instantly hilarious. Some of the lines from the night had us all in absolute stitches, and one comment in particular became the quote of the evening for us long after the show is over…no I won’t repeat it, for fear of loosing my bloggers license. That and out of context it would make no sense…actually come to think of it, in context it makes even less sense…maybe that’s why its so damn funny! If you get a chance to catch the Simons with D-Cup I’d recommend it (least the Simon-portion of the act). That is if you have as poor of a sense of humor as I do, and can stomach puppets doing and saying things that puppets should never do or say....
I am no comedy connoisseur, but when you have awkward situations and an abundance of vulgar references it’s just not very funny. However if you have the same references and foul mouths coming out of puppets…well then it’s instantly hilarious. Some of the lines from the night had us all in absolute stitches, and one comment in particular became the quote of the evening for us long after the show is over…no I won’t repeat it, for fear of loosing my bloggers license. That and out of context it would make no sense…actually come to think of it, in context it makes even less sense…maybe that’s why its so damn funny! If you get a chance to catch the Simons with D-Cup I’d recommend it (least the Simon-portion of the act). That is if you have as poor of a sense of humor as I do, and can stomach puppets doing and saying things that puppets should never do or say....
The GWFD-Dinner Post
On Friday Sarah and I headed over to Ali and Bob’s for the first official “Guests, What’s For Dinner-Dinner”. Ali and Bob suggested the idea a few weeks back and we’d been looking forward to giving it a try. The concept is pretty simple, but makes for a really interesting dinner event. Guests bring 4-5 random ingredients over for dinner which will have to be used in some way to build the meal everyone will be eating. For every ingredient brought an additional ingredient can be added. So for example if I brought over a lettuce, we could add some tomatoes to the list of items and make a salad. Necessary extras like seasoning, salt and sugar are free passes. Sarah and I brought over the following for the trial run:
After deliberating around the table for a while thinking about our options we eventually settled on what we where going to shoot for and what we needed to add as the 5 allowable ingredients to add to the mix. After some thought about what we could and count leave of the list Ali and Bob added the following ingredients:
The evening was spent working away as a team building the meal out of what we had. I am not a cook by any stretch of the imagination, so working with Sarah, Ali and Bob was fun and educational for me. I learnt the best way to chop chicken (against the grain) and methods of determining when certain foods are cooked properly. When the dust settled we where left with a three course meal starting with a tasty Feta Salad, followed by a zesty dijon chicken dish served with toasted peppers over rice, and followed it up with a baked apple log drizzled with chocolate. It worked out really well and the meal was very tasty. If definitely didn’t taste the like the random assortment of ingredients that where splayed on the counter top a few hours before. The whole evening was a lot of fun and definitely something we’d like to try again. Hopefully any future attempts will result in as tasty a meal. Bob’s tagline for the event is ‘If the Dinner Goes Badly You Can Blame the Guests’- so we’ll have to be sure to pick wisely next time!
- Chicken Breasts
- A Cucumber
- A packet of English Muffins
- A bottle of Morimoto Soba (Beer)
- Dipping chocolate
After deliberating around the table for a while thinking about our options we eventually settled on what we where going to shoot for and what we needed to add as the 5 allowable ingredients to add to the mix. After some thought about what we could and count leave of the list Ali and Bob added the following ingredients:
- Apples,
- Peppers
- Tomatoes
- Rice
- Feta Cheese
The evening was spent working away as a team building the meal out of what we had. I am not a cook by any stretch of the imagination, so working with Sarah, Ali and Bob was fun and educational for me. I learnt the best way to chop chicken (against the grain) and methods of determining when certain foods are cooked properly. When the dust settled we where left with a three course meal starting with a tasty Feta Salad, followed by a zesty dijon chicken dish served with toasted peppers over rice, and followed it up with a baked apple log drizzled with chocolate. It worked out really well and the meal was very tasty. If definitely didn’t taste the like the random assortment of ingredients that where splayed on the counter top a few hours before. The whole evening was a lot of fun and definitely something we’d like to try again. Hopefully any future attempts will result in as tasty a meal. Bob’s tagline for the event is ‘If the Dinner Goes Badly You Can Blame the Guests’- so we’ll have to be sure to pick wisely next time!
The Office Lurker Post
My company operates on three floors of an office building behind Tyson’s 2. There are other tenants in the building which I believe spans about 9 floors or so. ID badges are issued to everyone that grants access to the necessary levels and offices. Anyway, being sick and slovenly in the mornings last week led me to forget my ID badge on Wednesday. I made do all day by borrowing co-workers’ tags when I needed to hop floors or go on a break. However on one particular trip away from my desk I forgot to procure a card and found myself locked out. I began dialing a co-worker to come let me in, but as I did so someone came out of the elevator and walked towards our door. I hung up and politely waited for her to open the door. I explained that I was locked out and calling to get in but now I can just tag along with her. She smiled and seemed very obliging. I went back to work and thought nothing more of it.
An hour later an email came in to all tenants reporting the sighting of an ‘unidentified person lurking on one of the floors’. The note advised that we keep an eye on who is in our suites and to lock up all valuables. The incident with my key-card had long since left my mind, so I was actually taken aback by the email. I asked my cube-mate Eric if he got the email, and he told me that this sort of thing is rather common, and that he had known of people being robbed in the past in a similar fashion. The whole thing shocked me to be honest, and the use of ‘lurking’ on the email made me picture an evil man in a trench coat luring children into abandoned offices with candy. Then it dawned on me… what if I am the lurking creep? I had never seen the woman who let me into the office before, and while she seems obliging she might have just been polite to cover up her worries that I was some sort of evil-doer… There wasn’t any other instance reported during the rest of the week, so either the lurker moved on, or he’s still in hiding. Possibly behind the water cooler. Waiting for the perfect time to strike!...Or its just me and I need to lose the trench coat if I ever want to be accepted in the workplace.
An hour later an email came in to all tenants reporting the sighting of an ‘unidentified person lurking on one of the floors’. The note advised that we keep an eye on who is in our suites and to lock up all valuables. The incident with my key-card had long since left my mind, so I was actually taken aback by the email. I asked my cube-mate Eric if he got the email, and he told me that this sort of thing is rather common, and that he had known of people being robbed in the past in a similar fashion. The whole thing shocked me to be honest, and the use of ‘lurking’ on the email made me picture an evil man in a trench coat luring children into abandoned offices with candy. Then it dawned on me… what if I am the lurking creep? I had never seen the woman who let me into the office before, and while she seems obliging she might have just been polite to cover up her worries that I was some sort of evil-doer… There wasn’t any other instance reported during the rest of the week, so either the lurker moved on, or he’s still in hiding. Possibly behind the water cooler. Waiting for the perfect time to strike!...Or its just me and I need to lose the trench coat if I ever want to be accepted in the workplace.
The Sniffles Post
So I am behind on my blogging and for that I apologize. I’ve been wallowing in self pity with flu symptoms for the past two weeks on and off. Today I was going to head down to the Emerg-a-care place if I don’t feel better. I think I called my illness’ bluff though as I feel a million times better this morning. Still not 100% but notable improvement. About time too really. Being sick for an extended period of time really gets the better of me after a while and I become particularly mopey. So anyway, I’m about to do a blog-dump and purge myself of postings that would have ordinarily been spaced throughout the week/end. Please excuse me.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
The Shamrockfest Post
This weekend DC101 and Hot 99.4 put on their annual Celtic music festival; Shamrockfest. Having heard rave reviews about previous years, I decided to trek out to RFK Stadium and partake in the festivities. There were live bands, multiple stages, beer trucks galore and lots and lots of drunken people wearing leprechaun beards and clover hats. We went VIP and got the all inclusive tickets which was nice, and Sarah was kind enough to be my taxi-cab for the day, so I was able to kick back and not have to worry about getting myself anywhere afterward. Unfortunately the weather was pretty dreary and the majority of the day was spent standing in large puddles. The whole experience reminded me a lot of the old days of HSFstival… Eric and I had a great time and met up with a few of his friends while we where roaming the grounds. All in all a pretty fun way to spend the day, I just really which the weather wasn’t so authentically Irish.
Monday, March 9, 2009
The Congressional Invite Post
It’s officially official now. Friday April 3rd I become a U.S. Citizen.
Being that I was unable to take the oath when I passed my citizenship test, I had to wait for a notification in the mail that would tell me where and when I can go back and swear in. They can only swear in so many people in a given day, and when I sat the Citizenship test and had my interview with an officer, they had already filled up the session for that day. So it delayed my naturalization a bit…shame. But now it will all be worth it because I get to go to a special naturalization ceremony in the Congressional Auditorium in the US Capitol Building! From time-to-time they hold the ceremonies in special locations and at historic landmarks. To get to become an American in the Capitol Building is absolutely amazing. I was excited about the day I’d take the oath before, but now it’s going to really be a momentous occasion for me. Sarah has rejiggered her trip to Texas so she will be able to attend the ceremony as well, which is awesome. I am really excited! I need to stock up on apple pies and fireworks!
Being that I was unable to take the oath when I passed my citizenship test, I had to wait for a notification in the mail that would tell me where and when I can go back and swear in. They can only swear in so many people in a given day, and when I sat the Citizenship test and had my interview with an officer, they had already filled up the session for that day. So it delayed my naturalization a bit…shame. But now it will all be worth it because I get to go to a special naturalization ceremony in the Congressional Auditorium in the US Capitol Building! From time-to-time they hold the ceremonies in special locations and at historic landmarks. To get to become an American in the Capitol Building is absolutely amazing. I was excited about the day I’d take the oath before, but now it’s going to really be a momentous occasion for me. Sarah has rejiggered her trip to Texas so she will be able to attend the ceremony as well, which is awesome. I am really excited! I need to stock up on apple pies and fireworks!
Sunday, March 8, 2009
The Watchmen Post
Watchmen is one of the big releases for me this year, and is a film I’ve been looking forward to intently for a good while. Considering the breadth of the original graphic novel, Zack Snyder has done an amazing job of tethering down the 12-comic series into a 2:45 movie. The film is true to the source material almost to a fault. The artistic direction and visual appearance on screen is a frame-to-frame match with the graphic novel. Unfortunately the pacing and plot progression that worked so well for a series of comic books, doesn’t work the same way for a motion picture. While respectively accurate, the necessary pacing adjustment needed to keep the audience engaged where not made, and I found myself very aware of how long the movie was throughout. As a prior fan, I am more than willing to forgive that because I was entertained from start to finish, but I don’t think that the average moviegoer will say the same though. One thing I can’t forgive however, is the soundtrack….oh my god It was rough, almost comically so. The tie-ins where shameless at best and really detracted from the scenes. I also found the gore to be overblown in many instances, and beyond the level of violence needed to get the point across in any given scene.
There where certain elements that couldn’t be touched and had to be done exactly right to make this movie go over with the fans. If Dr. Manhattan was botched CG, or the Comedian’s dark-side was reeled in for ratings, the fan boys would cry foul. I can say though with confidence that if you are a fan of the original characters, you will be blown away by how well they are portrayed in the movie. Jackie Earle Laley IS Rorschach/Walter Kovacs so much that it is scary. The efforts that have gone into maintaining the integrity of the characters and the world they live in, is incredibly impressive. Any changes that where made where done for the right reasons. The main two being the removal of the Black Freighter subplot, and the alteration of the ending. Personally I applaud these changes wholeheartedly and think that their inclusion would have soured even more people to this already unique movie.
Watchmen is a hard movie to review because I honestly think that many people will hate it, and it’s not easy to defend. I see all of its shortcomings, but at the same time forgive them. If you don’t walk into this movie already a fan I don’t think you’ll walk out one. However if you are familiar with the source material you wont be disappointed with this dark and atmospheric social commentary-of a hero movie. I can’t stress enough how this movie is not for everyone, and won’t be what a lot of people are expecting. That said, its one of the best comic adaptations I think possible, and a dynamically engaging movie that I enjoyed immensely despite its shortcomings.
There where certain elements that couldn’t be touched and had to be done exactly right to make this movie go over with the fans. If Dr. Manhattan was botched CG, or the Comedian’s dark-side was reeled in for ratings, the fan boys would cry foul. I can say though with confidence that if you are a fan of the original characters, you will be blown away by how well they are portrayed in the movie. Jackie Earle Laley IS Rorschach/Walter Kovacs so much that it is scary. The efforts that have gone into maintaining the integrity of the characters and the world they live in, is incredibly impressive. Any changes that where made where done for the right reasons. The main two being the removal of the Black Freighter subplot, and the alteration of the ending. Personally I applaud these changes wholeheartedly and think that their inclusion would have soured even more people to this already unique movie.
Watchmen is a hard movie to review because I honestly think that many people will hate it, and it’s not easy to defend. I see all of its shortcomings, but at the same time forgive them. If you don’t walk into this movie already a fan I don’t think you’ll walk out one. However if you are familiar with the source material you wont be disappointed with this dark and atmospheric social commentary-of a hero movie. I can’t stress enough how this movie is not for everyone, and won’t be what a lot of people are expecting. That said, its one of the best comic adaptations I think possible, and a dynamically engaging movie that I enjoyed immensely despite its shortcomings.
Monday, March 2, 2009
The Lonely Island Post
People have mixed feelings about the state of Saturday Night Live these days. Some feel that it is well past its prime and the cast is but a shell of what it once was. Other are still big fans who tune in every weekend. Personally I have never been a huge fan, but always enjoyed catching an episode here-and-there if I was home. After high school I sort of forgot it excited unless there was a guest star I was particularly excited about. That said I am a huge fan of the new Lonely Island CD that came out a few weeks back; Incredibad. The Lonely Island is a comedy group that are also SNL staff members [Wikipedia]. The CD is not for everyone and is downright tasteless at times, but oh man it cracks me up. Depending on your sense of humor you ay want to check it out- or run away from it. My personal favorite tracks are Space Olympics and I’m On A Boat, the latter incidentally came on at a bar the other night which made me very happy.
The iPhone Post
This weekend I made the switch from Version over to AT&T in order to get an iPhone. I’ve been after one for a while, but with the carrier exclusivity I never really considered it an option. Our family plan is up next week and I was excited about having the option to upgrade my phone to something more iPhone-like. The Blackberry Storm was my front runner after hearing positive reviews from people who picked one up. However after thinking about my options I found that it was silly to get something as-close-too what I actually wanted rather than just ditch my old number and switch to AT&T. The downsides are that my family and Sarah (who get the majority o my calls) are all on Verizon, so I wont be using in-network minutes. That and I need to get my new number out to everyone before the old phone goes dead next weekend. If you call the old # you can get the new one from my voicemail. The iPhone is so great- I have already added a few free applications to it and am very impressed so far. Too bad today I am sick as a dog and can’t really enjoy it as much as I want to. Oh well, I’m stuck in a 2-year plan, so it will be there tomorrow.
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