Wave the Terrible Towel to honor a fallen legend

Myron Cope died today and the Steeler nation is saddened. He was Pittsburgh's announcer for 30 years or so (feel free to check his bio). He was the inventor of the Terrible Towel and coined the phrase Immaculate Reception. I've only heard clips of his game coverage and seen interviews, but even with that limited exposure I understood that he was one of a kind. So doff your cap to the memory of one of the Steel City's great men.

On to other topics, my alba mater, Ferrum College, had reports of a gunman on campus. Nothing really came of it, but it sucks to hear about. I'm thinking it may have all been a misunderstanding, at least I hope so. I don't want to hear about Ferrum being shot up. Hell, I don't want to hear about any school being shot up, but particularly not Ferrum. That may be the place where I was happiest in my life and I'd hate to think of it otherwise.

Black sun in a white world

Spent the evening at Trip's watching the Oscars. I love the Oscars and tonight I actually figured out why. I love lists. They provide a wonderful start for conversation and discussion and I enjoy that. The Oscars is essentially a lot of lists that ultimately turn into another lists and provide debate options for all time.

The Oscars didn't seem to hold a lot of surprises really and there are several movies that I still need to see, the top of the list was There Will Be Blood. Daniel Day Lewis is the man. I also want to see Persepolis, the black and white animated movie.

Hmmm, other news... I read the fifth of Orson Scott Card's Ender books, Ender's Shadow, and it was worthwhile. Probably the second best of the books in the series so far. I may head to the library and get a couple more of them since they do make my overnight work time go quicker. I started KJ Parker's Devices and Desires, which is good a couple hundred pages in.

Still missing my Xbox 360. I picked up a collection of old school Sega Genesis games to play on my PS2 and looked at a few of those this afternoon. Some Sonic the Hedgehog, Golden Axe, Vectorman and three, count em, three Phantasy Star games which I am gonna try to get into soon.

Nerd urges. Nurdges?

Christ I'm missing my Xbox 360. I don't think I mentioned it here, but my 360 red ringed a week or so ago. For those of you not in the know, red ring is the three flashing lights on your machine that indicate that it had run to hot and is fucked up. It's not uncommon and after less than I year mine died and I had to ship it off for repair. This means that Nick is the only Xbox 360 owner I know who's machine hasn't red ringed. He's only had his for like 7-8 months, so good luck to him.

It's funny, normally, I can sometimes go for a week without looking at the thing, watching movies, reading and whatever. Now all I want to do is play it. It's annoying. I've resorted to playing my PS2 just to fill the time, but can't seem to get involved in any game I've got for it. I did play quite of Einhander tonight, which is a PS1 shooter that's fun. Still it was a desperation move to fill the empty hours of my pathetic excuse for a life.

I've been debating getting a PS3, but that's just stupid. Why pay $400 for another system when I don't really have time to play the one I have usually. It's just a knee jerk reaction that I've managed to squelch so far.

I have been looking into getting a new cell phone, since my contract is up soon and they are trying to lure me into a new one. The phone I really like is this one, but it's incredibly expensive for something that is way more than I really need. Still my nerd genes cry out for it like baby birds exhorting their mother to vomit up the sweet technology to satiate their hunger. Wow, how's that for simile?

All hail booze

I've found, that when you are down being drunk makes things seem better, at least for a little while. It's not a solution, really and not something I'd advise you use all the time, but occasionally it is a nice diversion. I had a lovely bottle of French red wine from the Rhone region and supplemented it with a few beers. Suddenly things seemed better.

I also watched No Reservations, the Catherine Zeta-Jones movie. It wasn't bad, but nothing really special. Maybe a +1 chainmail rating. I'm now watching Planet Terror and it has just the right amount of horror/humor/badassedness for the moment. Oh and Rose McGowan is smokin' hot. Even with one leg.

Nothing new

I don't feel great either emotionally or physically. Nothing seems to be going my way and I'm just trying to weather the storm. So I hope you'll forgive me for my lack of posts.

At least that bullshit is over

So Valentine's Day... I've expressed my distaste in the past and have not changed my mind. Why would I? It's just a kick in the ball in the middle of February every year.

Long fuckin week

As my title suggests I am exhausted. Work has been trying, I haven't been sleeping very well and I got some upsetting news from a friend this week. So I think I'm just gonna finish this up and go to sleep for a long, long time and hope I wake up with my reserves not still spent.

I had to run NASCAR's Bud Shootout last night, which did everything in it's power to make my normal slack Saturday night into a stress-a-thon. So that was fun. Did I mention I hate NASCAR with every fiber of my being? From Hell's heart I stab at thee!

I downloaded an album this week from Amazon's mp3 service called Look Directly at the Sun. It's a collection of Chinese bands and it's pretty good. It's got a very 70s underground rock vibe to it and I am enjoying it. Heard about it on a NPR podcast.

I'm talking gourmet shit

What an eventful few days. Got to experience the pure joy of watching the Patriots going from the best team ever to the biggest disappointment ever. How sweet is that? And such a compelling game, if only I hadn't of had to watch it at work with people who don't really give a shit about football. Ahh well, at least I'm getting overtime for watching football.

As some of you may know, I had to work during my office's Xmas party. Not a huge deal really with my antisocial nature and all, but it paid off for me. I got a $50 gift card to the 202 Market where they had the party and Trip and I made use of it tonight. That was some serious gourmet shit, man. And I'm glad I had the gift card since I still paid more than I like to even with the card.

But it was so worth it. I debated cheaping out, but said "What the hell?" and went for a steak. It was heavenly. Add a glass of wine and Radiohead on the stereo and I was thrilled. I wanna go back... of course, that means I need to save up and wait for a celebratory occasion.

Also Gamefly has shipped me Call of Duty 4 and I played a little bit of that. It's so beautiful, even on my standard def. tv. I had to take it out, just cause I want to beat COD2 before I get into it because I know I won't go back otherwise. Still I'm fighting the urge to get online and shoot some people in the face.

I also read Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game and the first of it's sequels Speaker of the Dead. Good stuff. Probably gonna have to hunt down the rest of the series. But right now I'm re-reading Neuromancer, which I recommend to anyone with a passing fancy to sci-fi. William Gibson is not an author to be trifled with.

The oracle has spoken

For those of you wondering how this weekend's Super Bowl will go, I have received the answer from the holiest of places. That's right, it's a prediction based on Techmo Super Bowl! Few doubt the genius that lies within one of the greatest games of all time, so why not apply it to modern problems?

For those of you too lazy to follow the link The Pats squeak out a win 24-21 and Kevin Faulk is named MVP. So it is written, so let it be done.

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.

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.

My new favorite game

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

A Christmas on a bizarre schedule, even for me

So it's 7:39am and I'm up and wide awake on Xmas morning. I woke up at 4:30am after a sole hour of sleep yesterday and am now filling my time in the usual ways, watching movies. I expect much of the day will be filled in this manner.

Yesterday I girded my loins for a full day with my parents and went to see my brother and his family. Except for the traveling it was pretty good. Kelly made a nice lunch and I enjoyed hanging with Gabe. Also Cameron had a great time, with more presents than he could stand to open. So I considered that visit a success.

I slept through most of the drive home, completely exhausted and then climbed right into bed around 6:30pm for a "nap" that lasted until 4:30am and now I'm wide awake, having a cup of tea (Lady Grey seemed appropriate considering the movie) and preparing to watch The Queen.

Ohh the picture? Well that's the message Santa left me when I inquired about a gift. I suppose I wasn't quite good enough this year. What else is new?

Middle age riot

Long night of work followed by long hours of slack. I watched Running With Scissors, which is based on the memoir of Augusten Burroughs' childhood. Imagine a childhood filled with batshit crazy parents and being forced to live with their even crazier psychiatrist. Scary, yet amusing.

I'm just counting down the days until I'm on vacation. It's gonna be nice. My big problem is gonna be trying to not spend all my damn money. I'm ahead of the game for a change and I need to not get it in my head that I have plenty of money, because that's always when I spend too much and end up struggling. Being poor bones.

I think I'm gonna go to bed now. Have to do pretty much the exact same shit tomorrow as I did today.