Archives for the month of: July, 2004

if you don’t already read eric’s site, i direct your attention to the recent flurry of comments over girls/guys gone wild/mild. this and eric’s declaration of superhero amore has resulted in a lot (read: more than 2 comments) of interesting feedback…and geek facts.

yesterday i received my copy of wil wheaton’s second book, ‘just a geek’. so far, it is incredible. i almost missed my el stop this morning because i was so engrossed in the first chapter. his first book, ‘dancing barefoot’, was surprisingly evocative for so few pages, and so far ‘just a geek’ is delivering too.

in chapter one wil mentions how his grammar has improved over the past few years. i can’t help but think that my grammar is awful. i don’t really know what a ‘passive voice’ is, but i’m pretty sure i use it all the time…maybe even in this sentence? all i can say is that grammar was never really stressed during my formative years. i could write better than most of the students in my school so i think my teachers left me alone (to my own detriment). any writing skill or ‘style’ i might of had was a result of reading in every spare moment, even while walking from the bus to the school.

Read the rest of this entry »

bonus: ‘spiderman: the peril of doc ock’ in legos!

Overview

amazing. so fucking cool. unbelievably awesome. see it immediately.

for once, the critics are right…the second is so much better than the first. which is not to say, of course, that the first one wasn’t good. because it was – ‘spiderman 2’ is just SO GOOD. this is a fully fleshed out movie with deeper characters, a more exciting plot and great b-storylines. AND, lots of fun sam raimi camera stunts.

Read the rest of this entry »

Overview

the chronicles of riddick was pretty cool. it was a great looking film, which is what originally made me sit up and pay attention when i first saw the trailer. david twohy and the wheats have created what seems to be a fully developed and well-established world on the same scale as (and i’m preparing for the backlash here) the star wars, lord of the rings and star trek universes and those franchises/book series have been around for decades. the movie was visually striking with a rather different structure from your average action flick (or probably most movies in general) and is just what i would expect as a big-budget sequel to ‘pitch black’.

apology: sorry for all of the parentheticals.

Read the rest of this entry »

after much phone wankery, the comcast rep finally offered me basic analog cable plus cable internet for 12 months at $34.99 a month.

that’s right. you heard me.

this, after the original quote was something like $90 a month after some dinky little 3 and 4 month specials ran out. what was it that made him finally offer it to me? was it that i asked about special packages and introductory deals at least 5 times? was it that i asked him to tell me the price per month after the ‘money saving promotions’ were over? was it that i told him a friend of mine got digital cable + cable internet for $60 a month? was it that i made him repeat my package at least 3 times? 3 times more every time he asked for my phone number or name again? or was it that i finally told him to forget about the cable and just give me the internet by itself?

we shall never know. but one thing is certain: i’m only giving up 35 bucks to comcast a month for the next year, and that feels like a victory.

*nerd alert* Qapla’!

if no one reads this besides a handful of my friends and coworkers, that’s cool. but hey, i like comments! leave me comments! you don’t have ANYTHING to say about abraham lincoln or maybe vin diesel? i know you do. do you think the new design sucks? do you like it? kyle commented, what about everything else? i welcome input. oh, and i know it’s a bit off in opera, but opera users, you’re just going to have to cool it for awhile until i can dig up an opera hack that works and doesn’t also throw mozilla out of whack.

also, working on my portfolio website. again. finally. look, i just redesigned all of this site – what do you want from me? photoblog, you say? ok, dammit, i mean…i’m working on that too, but it’s hard when i can only do this at work cause i have no internet at home (and no pc there either to check css). it’s an ongoing process.

this weekend i unpacked more stuff like my dvd player and computer. still no cable, still no internet, still no bookcases set up (so boxes of dvds and books are everywhere), but otherwise things are sort of falling into place.

saturday eric and i went to see ‘the chronicles of riddick’ which was pretty cool. i think i may have become a vin diesel fan. i know i know! sigh.

sunday i went to see the evanston fireworks, though eric wasn’t able to get in touch with ozzie and jesse. but, lo and behold, when we got to the South Blvd. beach, ozzie and jesse were standing right there! we battled the gnats and lake-bugs and saw some great fireworks. we all got faked out like 3 times by false finales. there were some kids behind us talking about abraham lincoln (you don’t know who abraham lincoln is?? our 16th president??? he looked like a magician is this sounding familiar?!?) and some idiots behind us shooting (illegal) fireworks off over a crowded beach in full view of the evanston police.

monday ozzie and jesse came over to eric & jon’s and we grilled some sausages and burgers and ate lots of snacks and drank a lot of beer. jon had a copy of the latest harry potter movie, so we watched that (after some confusion involving hooking eric’s computer up to the tv) too, although the opening title screen looked more like ‘natty notter’ since it was in russian or something. there was a lot of passing out afterwards, then some adult swim later on. saw the episode of ‘futurama’ where bender turns into a girl robot and the ‘family guy’ that takes place after the apocalypse.

today i finally got this one dvd project out the door…after a whole year. i can’t help but think that i would rather be unpacking or cleaning up the new apartment right now.

hahahahaha oh come on.

on wednesday i moved all of my stuff from the old apartment to the new one. jon and eric helped with the couch then mom, dad and i were on our own for everything else. we had my parents’ pickup and my grandparents’ little saturn station wagon. it took 8 hours to shuttle everything back and forth, making for about 6-7 trips total. things are still sort of a mess over there, but furniture is set up and the kitchen is getting in order. the new place is pretty big, so for awhile it will be a bit sparse. i am still waiting to find the perfect entertainment center, although that will probably have to wait until i buy a bigger tv. 19″ isn’t going to do it for me (hahahahaha. ha.).

anyway, ok, also i would like to get a bigger bookshelf because i have an insane amount of books. the bookshelf at the old place was filled – i mean, books shoved on the top and the sides and wedged in there and everything – and my bookcase at my parents’ house is in the same state. mom and dad brought up this coffee table mom got from a neighbor for $10 which is not the most attractive thing in the world but will serve its purpose for a good long while as i would rather be investing in like a nice reading chair for the sunroom, a ginormous tv, an actual bed instead of a steel frame for my mattress, a second computer monitor, a larger dresser and a ton of lighting fixtures.

tonight is a little get together at pat & jessie’s, then tomorrow eric and i am going to see ‘the chronicles of riddick’ at 1pm if anyone is interested. sunday is the big family 4th of july party at my aunt and uncle’s where i could possibly meet my cousin’s man-friend…but i still don’t know if i’m going to go. things are really messy at the new place and i don’t want to leave it like that. there is a lot of drilling and screwing and…uh, mounting…ok i swear i’m talking about furniture here. none of you believes me do you? *sigh*