Thursday, January 31, 2008

Ways to know you're gonna have a bad day.


You start to make a sandwich and the bread looks like this.

This image stolen from the Skull a Day blog.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Rag and bone

I have spent entirely too much money this weekend. Eating out, buying shit I don't really need. I gotta not buy any new books until I've read a bunch of the ones I've already got. I have an addiction. Seriously.

But it was Trip's BDay so I took him out Sunday and we had a good time. Then tonight we went out again and saw Cloverfield. I'd it deserved a +1 chainmail overall (to assuage longtime readers). I liked the ad campaign that didn't tell you much about the movie, but it loses points because it's soooo hard to watch one of those handicam/Blair Witch style movies. Motion sickness can be a problem for movie enjoyment. Still worth a gander, although I probably won't be going back to watch it ever again.

Ohh and last week I finished watching the Ken Burns documentary on WW2, The War. Damn it's good. So much depth. I recommend it to anyone with some time to kill and an interest in World War 2. It's enlightening.

So my internet continues to suck. Comcast is supposed to be updating the channels sometime soon, so I'm hoping once that happens it'll be fixed. But if it continues to drop out in the wee hours of the morning (when I use it) I'm gonna throw a shit fit at someone. Here's hoping this posts without problem.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Lonely wind blowin through

Apparently I'm the only one who is amused by the serious cat. Plus no one comments here anymore, a sad state of affairs. Ohh and my shoulder has hurt for the last few days and I have no idea why.

But on to other topics. I say No Country For Old Men tonight. Another Tuesday, I have nothing else to do type of moment. It was as good as a movie experience can be in Martinsville, which is to say I was the only person in the theatre (and from what I could tell, the only person in any of the theatres at Movie Town). The film itself was good, but disquieting. It had this thread of loneliness that seemed to run throughout. From the movies basic themes to the austere, wind whipped landscapes to the timbre of Javier Bardem's voice, just seemed to drive home the distance between people.

After the movie I drove through Martinsville and speaking of lonely places. Nine o'clock on a cold Tuesday night and the area practically shuts down.

I also watched Shoot the Piano Player last night, which was exceptional. Francois Truffaut's French New Wave took hold of me and wouldn't let go. It also had a sort of lonely theme with the main character being fractured somehow. Fantastic. Probably didn't hurt that I downed a bottle of Argentinian Cabernet Sauvignon, which was also good.

Ohh and The Pursuit of Happyness, the Will Smith movie. It was exactly what I expected. Not great, not bad just average. The standard times are tough, guy perseveres and things work out plotline. Don't bother would be my recommendation.

Friday, January 18, 2008

Serious cat is unfuckwithable

For those who need to a moment to get it together... Serious cat. If you doubt him, see how he deals with that.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Pork swords

Now listening to: The Flaming Lips

I haven't written in a while just because there hasn't been a lot going on that would be interesting. I continue to battle the cold from hell and seem to be winning, but wake up every afternoon with my everything muffled in my right ear. It sucks.

Tonight I went to see the movie Juno, which was high quality. I went alone, had dinner and goofed off all by myself. I used to really enjoy doing that sort of thing alone, but it seems to have lost some of it's luster. I suppose that's because I used to spend most of my free time in the company of many friends, whereas now I tend to be alone most of the time.

But anyway, Juno was exceptionally good. Well put together storyline, good dialogue, likeable characters. I'm saying filet mignon. Ohh, and the soundtrack is very cool too.

Anyway it's bedtime for me. I need to rest up for another fun filled work week.

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Recreational diptheria

Still feeling fairly ill. I woke up today feeling a little better and hoping my cold was nearly it's culmination. So I decided to trek out into the real world in search of food, supplies and entertainment. I got shitty food from Ryan's (the lure of mashed potatoes and gravy prove to be my undoing once again). I then shopped around a bit, finding that shopping in Martinsville at 6p.m. is a bad idea.

Every corner I turned was inhabited by an ill tempered and shrieking child. I'm looking at DVDs in Walmart? A pair of boys yelling about who gets to play the goddamn demo DS. Picking out juice in Kroger? A little girl screaming about god knows what. By this point my sinus headache had kicked into overdrive and I felt like my forehead was in a vice, so screeching kids made my night just wonderful.

Also, while out and about I noticed I was sweating. Initially I thought it was just the unseasonably warm weather, but finally figured out that I had a fever. Bleh. A fever and the temperature is skyrocketing outside. Is it too much to ask for winter to be fucking winter? Just a little chill in the air?

I made it all better by coming home and watching loads of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations. I cool food around the world show on the Travel Channel. After that I pulled out my iPod for some tunes and started reading Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses, which I've always been interested in, but never got around to reading. It's been a little difficult getting into, but I think I'm getting it slowly. We'll see how it goes.

I've been listening to a ton of new music, but don't feel like writing about it now. Check last.fm if you wanna know before I take the time to delve into it.

Thursday, January 03, 2008

Staying out in the cold and catching one

So I am making a concerted effort to fend off a cold, Trip's cold to be specific. I blame all my day-dwelling friends for weakening my constitution by making me rise during sun-enriched hours. Also sitting in the rain this weekend probably didn't help, but whatever.

Speaking of day dwellers, I am considering the possibility of turning into one. I could take a day shift at work. There are pros and cons for both sides and I'm not sure which way to go. The big problems are the 4 a.m. wakeup call which necessitates an 8 p.m. bedtime. Also the increased social aspect of having other people in the building could be stressful. I dunno, I'm torn.

I'm currently going through a number of best music of 2007 lists and trying to see what I missed. I've got a preliminary best of list myself, but haven't finalized it yet, with so many songs unheard and a few tracks that probably are on there for more nostalgic reasons than any other.

A few albums I'm 100-percent sure I recommend are :The National's Boxer, Okkervil River's The Stage Names and LCD Soundsystem's Sound of Silver. Good stuff.

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Back to our regularly scheduled dullness

So the holidays are finally at a close. We can all return to our everyday mindnumbing existence. I gotta tell you my vacation seemed like more work than normal. Traveling, making an effort to be social, it was almost more than I could handle . But I had a good time.

The day after Xmas, Mike, Shannon, Trip and I went out drinking in Martinsville and had more fun than I thought (given the location). Greg joined in at some point and we even had shots of Barenjager to make the night go smoothly (but expensively). Thursday Trip and I went to Roanoke and hung with Kevin and he made it to Martinsville on Friday to hang once again, bringing Courtney and Langdon out to play as well.

Friday night I didn't sleep, as Nick piled myself, Mike and Shannon into his family truckster to head to Leesburg to see Adam and Rachel. I gotta say, the Williams' hospitality was in full effect, making a nice dinner, cooking up breakfast and buying steaks for tailgating. I'm definitely giving my stay a five star rating.

Sunday we went to the Cowboys at Redskins game. Got there early and tailgated some, it was fantastic. We bribed a parking attendant to let us in on the primo parking right next to FedEx Field and had a kickass time. Right about the time we were ready to head into the game the rain started. It was not warm, I can tell you that. We lasted for around three quarters in our nosebleed seats (literally no one was behind us in the stadium) as the rain broke down our warmth slowly but surely. At that point, it was obvious the Cowboys were done and so we headed out, avoiding traffic and regaining feeling in our nethers.

I forgot to mention I was forced to maintain a day-dweller schedule through most of this trip and I still haven't fully recovered. Last night I was unable to stay awake at 4 a.m. and had to hit the sack. Doesn't sound that bad to most, I'm sure, but Friday I won't be able to do that and will have to drive at 6 a.m. It's a problem.

For New Year's I kept it fairly low key and watched a movie with Jill. Quiet, but pleasant. And yesterday, on my final day of vacation Trip and I went to Gboro for some minor shopping. We went to Bravo!, this Italian eatery that I don't recommend. I won't be heading back there. We went to Starbucks and I drank too much latte and we debating the bourgeoisie nature of Starbucks and Trip's inherent goofiness.

I can't say my vacation was relaxing, but I did enjoy it. I hope everyone's holidays went well and am looking forward to 2008 continuing the promise of the last week of 2007. But now I return to the weekly grind of commuting and working, with the added bonus of annoying BCS games going on all week.