Friday, June 30, 2006

Never was there a more feared grazing animal


I would like to unveil the name and logo of next season's Lucky Breaks League fantasy football champion, The Surly Caribou! Posted by Picasa

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

St. Elsewhere

Man I'm kinda beat. All this rain makes me wanna just sleep and, honestly, I haven't been doing a whole lot of it. I get a couple of days off now tho, at least. Of course, when I head back in on Friday it's gonna be for an 11 day stretch, with three of those being overnights. I'm probably gonna need to get a hotel room for those days... although, of course, those are right during the holiday. I imagine I'm gonna be completely beat.

Last night was a pain. All the flooding meant Emergency annoucements went out constantly and I just didn't wanna be there. I had this internal scream going all night long. That's where I'm acting normal, talking to people normally, etc., but inside all I can think is this scream that I want to leave. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

Anyway, I'm hoping to watch some Deadwood tonight and the UFC thingie on Spike tomorrow. There may also be sushi in my future.

Ohhh, a Jeep update: a starter for a '95 Jeep Wrangler is roughly the size of my fist, but it costs an arm and leg. Thank you.

Saturday, June 24, 2006

Suffering outweighs joy

Yesterday I arose fairly early (for me), showered, fixed my lunch and generally steeled myself for the workday. I managed to make it to the Jeep with all the things I need to carry with me (cd player, my aforementioned lunch, book, etc.) and head to work in a timely fashion. Sadly it was not to be, as my starter went from sounding bad the night before to completely dead.

So I tried to scramble to find a ride to work, calling my mom who was out shopping with Grandma. Of course, it took forever to get her and she was in Danville. By the time she got home and I drove to work in Roanoke I was three hours late, so that's fun. Ohh did I mention on the drive up there was a torrential downpour for like 3/4s of the ride? Oh yeah, it was fun.

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Nacho Muerte

Saw Nacho Libre last night... it was bad, very bad. I was shocked with the badness. It tried to be quirky, but never got you involved. It tried to be funny, but never landed more than a minor chuckle. I'm sorry a guy with a Mexican accent is not a basis for an full length comedy. Even the wrestling matches were dull. I'm saying mudbutt.

After watching that turd, Trip and I at least could get the taste of it out of our mouths with the deliciousness of Deadwood. Al Swearengen, you are a tasty treat. I can hardly wait for next week's episode where he has to get even with Hearst.

I'm actually looking forward to working this weekend because there are such good things on tv. Saturday the Ultimate Fighter 3 finale is on Spike. Also a new episode of the Venture Bros. drops on the Cartoon Network. It may take the sting out of work.

Sunday, June 18, 2006

Win or lose, what's the difference?

Today had it all: a trip to the bookstore where I bought no books, a trip to the grocery store where I bought too much crap, work, reading and I was pulled by a cop just before making it home. Fun huh.

The cop thing was really no big deal, I have a headlight out. Which sucks since I replaced both lights like 3 months ago...maybe a little longer. It was odd since the drive home tonight seemed really uneventful up to that moment. He did the cop thing where he rode right up on my bumper for a while to see if I would speed, but only cops do that so I always slow down. But now I get to replace a headlight... it's always something.

I read Nick Hornby's The Polysyllabic Spree, which was alright (+1 chainmail all told). It's a collection of columns he wrote about his book buying and his book reading over the course of a year essentially. It had some cool moments, but his reading habits and mine are completely different i.e. he reads a lot less tripe. Well, he reads a different kind of tripe. I tend toward escapist fiction and he seems to mix in a lot of classics and literary biographies. Both really kind of marginalize who you can talk to about em, but it seems a lot cooler when you don't have a big dragon on the cover of your book.

Friday, June 16, 2006

Sushi and science

It's been a good weekend for me. Watched Deadwood again Tuesday, cause you can't ever see it too much. Wednesday I spent the entire day playing WoW and watching the Venture Brothers. Man you gotta see that show, it's incredibly awesome. The new season comes on the 25th and I can't wait. It's hard to describe why it's good. It's well written, the voice acting is great and it just sideswipes you with these great lines. Ok, it's not so hard to describe why it's so good.

Today Trip and I snagged some sweet, sweet sushi. I even managed to regulate my order so I didn't feel bloated when we left. Of course, we stopped for ice cream twice after that (at my behest). I wanted that mini-banana split I'd seen advertised by Sonic. Yeah... it's really mini.

After we got back to Trip's pad, he wanted to take part in some serious scientific research. Yup, we put Mentos in Diet Coke (actually, diet Big K cause it's much cheaper) and tried to get it to liftoff. We had one decent move and lots of aborted attempts. I also pulled something in my shoudler trying to slam a two liter against the ground... There can be no doubt that we're retarded.

I'm listening to this band Destroyer that has kind of a mellow plugged in Dylan sound. It's quite good.

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Everyone is trying to bum me out

So yeah, I get to work this afternoon and see the bad news. Ben Roethlisberger, the QB that lead the Steelers to the Super Bowl win last season, has had a motorcycle crash and is in serious condition. Man does that suck. I'm glad the news is that he isn't hurt critically and I they mentioned on ESPN that it's probably only gonna take him out for 7 weeks or so, but man it sucks. That could be the season gone. I wasn't going to predict a repeat or anything crazy, but with Roethlisberger at the helm we can win any game. Without him, that's not really the case. So for both his sake and for the sake of the Steelers I'm hoping he has a speedy recovery.

Anyway, in non-football life things are going... well they are going. That's about it. My work weekend went ok, aside from a motherfucker of a storm on Sunday. I sweated out the last 15-20 minutes or so keeping the power up by strength of will alone. Then I got to drive home in the pouring rain, which was fun. Sheets cascading against the Jeep and making it hard to see. Just before I hit Rocky Mount I pulled off the road as it got especially intense and I couldn't see more than a coupla feet in front of me driving 35mph. It took me a full hour and a half to get home.

On the up side, I did get to see Deadwood, cause it was a free HBO weekend for Cox Cable. Man I love that show and will probably watch it again tomorrow with Trip. Later on I watched Revenge of the Sith or whatever the final Star Wars movie is called. Man is it not good. I hadn't seen it since the theater, where the pretty effects take your mind off how horrible the dialog is, the wooden acting and the plot holes. Yesh.

Ohhh and Saturday, my slack work day, I read most of Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell and it is excellent. She has such an affinity for American history that I can't help but get pulled in by it. I still have a few more pages to finish it, but it's a definite foot massage rating. I need to re-read Take the Cannoli, one of her earlier works.

Also my love affair of the Cure's body of work has been rekindled and I've been listening to loads of their early works incessantly. That means more than just Disintegration on repeat when I get depressed.

Thursday, June 08, 2006

Early=surly

So I survived my early morning work meeting. It was tough, but I managed. There were a few harrowing moments on the drive home where I felt consciousness being sapped from me, but I stuck it out. All in all it could have been a 15 minute meeting, but lasted 90 minutes. That's how meetings go though.

There has been a lot of contentious football talk in my comments the last coupla days. You can tell the urge to see some gridiron action is boiling over. I'll almost be sad when the preseason kicks into full gear tho, as it means the Steelers won't be champions anymore, just a 0-0 team looking to get back into the playoffs. Of course, I suppose it's better to be the champs than the chumps (a la every other team).

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

No we don't want to get high Towely

I received some horrific news Friday evening that has affected me so deeply that I have been physically unable to blog. I found out that I have to come in to work on one of my days off... not only that, nay, even worse. I have to get up early and be in Roanoke by 9 a.m. The horror... the horror.

Yeah, I know it's not really a huge deal, but that sort of thing really just gives me something to dread for days on end. It's part of my personality to see the negative a lot more than any positives. Not a lot else going on really. Just working as per usual and trying not to spend much money. Of course, gas prices are once again on the rise. Love that...

One bright thing that did happen this weekend was that I came home after work and mom had gotten a Pittsburgher friend of her's to get me a Terrible Towel. Not any Terrible Towel either, an official Myron Cope Super Bowl XL commemorative towel. How sweet is that? It definitely brightened my night when I saw that. I'm considering framing it, but I want to wave it at Nick, Adam and Mike once first.