Whatta Weekend

Spacebee's Birthday Hat

It was quite a celebratory weekend here in Madison; we pretty much partied straight through from Friday at 5pm when we set out for a fondue dinner of epic proportions.  Three hours later I was filled with tiny bits of boiled meat, veggies, and chocolate-covered rice krispies.  We met a few pals and then dove into more celebrations, and long story short I woke up Saturday morning not feeling the greatest.

A Spacebee coworker was retiring and had a bash at the Hilldale Great Dane on Saturday.  Free beer from 4pm until 7pm started things off, and I hilariously fell asleep at wwhazz’s with a beer in hand around midnight.  Hey: two consecutive party nights don’t agree with my 31 year old bones.  So sue me.

Alas, I think the Iowa trip has been delayed.  Consolations to belly for her loss, and hope everything goes well next weekend.  Diamond Jo will always be there, and I’ll be ready to stick my finger in the small of his back and whisper “gimme everything you got.”

I’m super behind on TNG on my DVR… need to sit down and catch up. I saw that Time’ Arrow is on there and excitement can’t describe my feelings.  HELP A FORTY NINER! HE’S GOT A BAD COUGH! OH NOES, AN ALIEN STOLED HIS LIFE FORCE! GUINAN, HALP! TIME WARP! PICARD IS A DANDY FOP! DATA IS A FRENCHMAN! SAMUEL CLEMENS OF THE 24TH CENTURY!

My Saturday

Today I spent an hour at Garys Hobby Center and then ate a sub from Lee’s Deli. All in all a great experience!

The Door’s Almost Shut

We’re approaching zero hour on 2009 and I couldn’t shrug my shoulders harder if I goddamn tried.  Work is busy and I’m attempting to purchase trinkets for everyone I know by next week.  Me and spacebee and belly and wwhazz ate at Pedros-Pedros-may-keen-mayx-ee-can the other night after a night of shopping.  It was a grand ol’ time, especially that deep-fried Snickers bar for dessert.

Not much goings-on elsewhere so I’d like to frankly discuss the 1964 classic Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.  Thusly: it’s not entirely clear to me just what drugs the creators were using, but I salute them and their efforts.  In a story ostensibly about the titular reindeer the spotlight instead falls upon (a) an elf desperately seeking a career in dentistry and (b) a north woodsman with a revolver hanging from his belt that clearly has mental problems.  It seems to me that the writers wanted to craft a different story entirely but were forced by the General Electric corporation to adapt their lunacy into a framework descended primarily from a one minute Christmas tune.  I don’t know whether the coercion took the form of ducats or whippings– the result is the same.  Also: everyone really hated that fucking Rudolph.  They just shit on him and shit on him until he saved the goddamn day.  He should have pooped in Santa’s mouth.

For those not on the spacebook, my concise review of How the Grinch Stole Christmas:

Zachery Moneypenny feels that the grinch was right to hate those whos- did you see the lunatic instruments they endlessly played?! How bout this: I’ll buy your downstairs neighbor a musical abomination consisting of a bowling ball, a huge metal pipe, and CHIMES and we’ll see if a steampunk xray machine detects any heart shrinkage on YOU.

I have nothing else to say about that shit.  Let’s all get together some Thursday night and watch star trek dvds.  I have one season on dvd (five, I think?) and can provide whiskey.

Everyone else out there: HAVE A GODDAMNED MERRY XMAS!

Good to be Back

Kangaroo Lake

We had a really fun time up in Door County this weekend.  Check, check Teh Flickr for some great pics from Peninsula State Park and Kangaroo Lake.

There was a lot of wine, booze, and food had by all, and we had to work it off eventually– my personal favorite was the two hour bike ride through Peninsula in the rain and cold.  Mercifully, at the the end of the ride we climbed to the top of Eagle Tower.  Long story short: ride uphill seven miles, then climb a giant tower.  Fun…

It looks like the Bay Bridge fell apart yesterday– wow, great repair job fellas.  I can only assume mass chaos in the Yay Area today so good luck on everyone’s commute!

Not much else to report. Er, what’re y’all dressing as for Halloween?

The Canfield: Epilogue

Real looking, eh?

This weekend we’re heading up to Pittsville to an ol’ fashioned turkey hunt and (for those of us that don’t hunt or have guns) fun-time extraordinaire.  To tide the weary masses over until such a time as I have a picture of myself holding a dead turkey, I present you with a (stolen from Facebook) picture of the aforementioned Native American mannequins that reside in the lobby of The Canfield Hotel.  Their eternally unchanging countenance reflects the deathless quality of the establishment itself, or if you get off on antonyms, they illustrate the momentous changes of the region since the days the Sac people (led by Black Hawk) freely roamed the cliffs and valleys of now-northern Illinois/southwestern Wisconsin/northeastern Iowa.  Finally, if your proclivities run to the ‘hipster douchebag’ then you’ll be delighted to know that they are “fucking insane” and “not to be missed.”

Shouts to Kate for getting me this image via Spacebook.  See y’all this weekend.

The Latest and Greatest in Opinions

Corona Beer Commercials

I really, really hate Corona beer commercials.  Fuck that asshole who skips his Blackberry into the water like a stone, or that bitch who squirts a lime into her husband’s face because he looked at another woman.  All it does is convince me that only assholes would want to drink your shit beer while they sit on a beach.  In conclusion: fuck Corona.

Amazon Kindle

So I’ve been reading a variety of books on the Kindle for about a day now.  I’m sure I’ll have more opinions, but this is pretty much the 24 hour first impressions: it’s pretty good, with one really annoying ‘feature’ and one kind of annoying aspect.

The great thing is that the e-ink that they tout as having the same reading experience as real paper is really great.  I read out on the balcony this morning in the sunlight and it was easy as pie– no glare problems whatsoever.  The online store (accessible from the device as well as from a web browser) is pretty good as well, with lots of free classic books.  I got McTeague, Heart of Darkness, and Darwin’s On the Origin of Species for free so far.  I also got The Death of WCW for $9, which I’m kind of using as my test book.

The one really annoying thing about the Kindle is the ‘feature’ that it shares with the iPhone: if you tilt it sideways it will go from portait to landscape mode.  The problem: if I’m sitting or lying down and reading, I may tilt the unit in such a way as it switches when I don’t want it to.  It’s really annoying, and I had to hunt around to find out how to the turn the feature off.  The iPhone does the same thing, and I don’t like it there either.

The kind-of annoying aspect is that, (I think) due to the way the e-ink display works, when you turn the page the whole screen goes dark, and when it fades away it leaves the content on the next page.  It’s an odd visual tick that distracts when you’re reading.

Finally, the book management on the device is pretty poor.  You just get a straight-up list of all the books on the Kindle; no ability to sort them into directories, tag them, or anything else.  You can sort the (eventually) giant list by author or title.  I’m hoping in the future to be able to define folders or something to be able to do my own custom sorting.

Overall: I love reading on the thing, it’s only a bit of the organization of the content outside of the context of the book itself that I have some beef with.  I’d recommend it to people who want to be able to take lots of books various places.  I got the DX, which has a 9″ screen.  The original Kindle has a smaller screen, but I hear it’s also much lighter, which would be a plus.

Revisiting the iPhone

In doing some research for this article, I went back in time and re-read this post from July 2007, where I rehashed something Scientist said in comments about why he would never get an iPhone.  I declared that I had no interest in getting an iPhone (which had been released just a few prior) mostly since I felt that “I own a laptop and a desktop computer (not counting my work laptop), and there really isn’t a good reason to buy a phone that does the exact same shit.”  Well, later that year I ending up buying an iPhone when I was working on the Quicken for the iPhone project, and I haven’t really looked back since.  I actually really like it these days, but I gotta admit that the 3G version is about ten thousand times better than the Edge.  Also, the App Store opened up a whole new realm, and my favorite current video game is actually on the iPhone even though I would have laughed at you if you suggested that one year ago.  Summary: I really like the iPhone today, and a lot of the concerns I had back then turned out not to be a problem.

The Wildcat Formation

Today’s science lesson: the Wildcat Formation.  I’ll be shamelessly using Wikipedia as my primary source for this paper; it’s the baddest source I ever saw (like Michael Jackson’s Bad or George Thorogood’s Bad to the Bone, not bad bad.)

The Wildcat Formation is a “variation on the single-wing formation,” used in high school and college football for years but currently showing well in the NFL as well.  It is heralded most directly by a direct snap to the running back.

One reason that the formation is so effective is that

the rushing play is 11-on-11 (although different variations have the running back hand off or throw the football). In a standard football formation, when the quarterback stands watching, the offense operates 10-on-11 basis. The motion also presents the defense with an immediate threat to the outside that it must respect no matter what the offense decides to do with the football.

The Miami Dolphins have had considerable success using the Wildcat, and even teams that don’t run it themselves admit that they have to spend extra time preparing the defensive plan to counter.

Check this page of search results for more videos describing and showing the formation in the wild.

Now onto other news… this piece of goddamned fucking nonsense has officially replaced Daniel Hinkel (he bought me a drink at the Karaoke Kid; not a bad fellow) in the pantheon of Stupid Shit Written for a College Newspaper (2009 Edition).  So in the interest of being added to yet another Enemies List somewhere in a Langdon St. efficiency, I give you Motherfucking (I Am Not Kidding) Erin Kay Van Pay:

According to Dr. Michael Farken of California’s Santa Barbara Regional Psychiatric Hospital, “Peen-Face” is a temporary physical condition that comes to fruition upon photographing a subject without their knowledge. It has serious consequences for the reputation of the victim. Peen-Face occurs when the subject’s mouth is open so far wide and in such a manner that it appears that a “peen” has either just been inside the cavity or is about to penetrate it. As the number of pic and run incidents increases, the number of Peen-Face cases increase s proportionally. Victims are typically in the background of the photograph talking, eating or playing beer pong. Lewd comments almost always follow the posting of pictures that contain this ailment.

Texas A&M freshman Sam D., 18, was shocked to find that moments after his buddy tagged a picture of him at a house party in which he had moderate Peen-Face, seven comments from three friends were posted accusing Sam of homosexuality. “My friends now think I’m gay. I was on the phone when [the picture] was taken… with my girlfriend.” Adds Sam, “Peen-Face has ruined my relationship and my life.”

Daily Cardinal: if that is supposed to be an attempt at humor, then you have failed spectacularly.  You now have XPAC Heat. I hate writing GET-OFF-MY-LAWN opinions about college idiots, but when you write something so spectacularly stupid that it will probably used as a punchline in the next Funny/Stupid/Epic/Action Movie in the franchise (punctuated by someone’s dick getting exposed/hit/falling off or a fart that blow dries someone’s hair/smells/causes an explosion) it stimulates my Old Man Ganglia and I start shaking my fist at no one in particular.  Stop.  Just stop. Please.

Pizza Crawl and Road Warriors

UPDATE: Got some pictures posted on Flickr

My good friend Tim H. (known round these parts as SushiPowered) took me into Berkeley for a good time pizza crawl and sightseeing festival today. We ate at Zachary’s Pizza (also known as the inspiration for my own well-loved Patxi’s Pizza in Palo Alto) and then moseyed through town to the gourmet ghetto where we were prevented from eating Cheeseboard Pizza by their cursed ‘closed-on-Sundays’ rule.

Zachary’s was really, really good deep dish pizza and I endorse it with my highest recommendation.  We got the Zachary’s Special: sausage, green pepper, onion, and mushroom.  Terrific in every way.

Once presented with the forlorn closed sign at Cheeseboard, we ambled up a block and hit up the Original Peet’s Coffee & Tea.  There’s a small museum in the back with lots of historical Peet’s stuff, and I snapped a few phone pics of the joint.  Definitely cool, since I like Peet’s so much.

On the way out of town Tim showed me Indian Rock Park, from where you can see most of the bridges in the bay area (from san mateo up to golden gate).  It was super fun, and I got some pictures there too, but without a polarizing lens they will all be shit.  Once Tim gets his photos up on Flickr I can try to link them.

Finally, we took the long way out of town due to road construction in the hills, and came back down Claremont Canyon on a way twisty road.  Tim told me about some dudes that rode out of the canyon on longboards and suggested I find the video on YouTube/Vimeo.  Well holy shit, you’ve gotta see this video:

Adam Kimmel presents: Claremont HD from adam kimmel on Vimeo.

That is some pretty cool shit right there, son.  And I can say that I went down that hill in a CAR and it was a rush.

So, good pizza times, great vistas, and I even got firsthand knowledge of a traditional daredevil hangout.  not bad for a Sunday afternoon.  Oh, and all the interesting software talk I could ever want.  I need to make this a priority every time I’m out in the Bay Area.

PAX 2008

I spent the weekend in Seattle to attend the Penny Arcade Expo, put on by the guys who make the Penny Arcade webcomic that I’ve been reading since the late 90s.  I met up there with EvilAntnie and Alandovos and had a great time, though I’m not sure if we’ll make the trip next year.

I flew in on Thursday night (the con started on Friday afternoon) and kicked it with maddddddddddddddd and rach-o.  They took me down to Ivar’s-on-the-lake and we had some down-home fast food seafood.  After that scientist took me to Diamond Lil’s card room where we hooted and/or holllared until the wee hours of the morning.  Scientist: about even, me: dead broke.  It was straight up bay area-style asian poker: gambo, gambo, lose.

So I haven’t been to a Nerd Fest in quite a while, but when I was a kid we used to hit up Gen Con in Milwaukee every year until it moved down to Indianapolis.  It was kinda odd coming back into the fold, because I’m a Nerd-In-Good-Standing in some ways (check off the requisite boxes: sci-fi fan, RPG fan, video game fan, quasi-anime fan, CCG fan) while being generally horrified by other element’s of Con Life: cosplay, bad smells, greasy lunatics, EXTREME anti-social behavior.  PAX had some of everything but overall I had a good time; for example I met incredible fucking assholes while playing WoW TCG games and standing in lines (oh, the lines!) The majority of folks, however, were nice and polite.  The PAX Enforcers (volunteers that roam the con) were incredibly helpful.

PAX is mostly organized by a legion of volunteers, and it stands out among other conventions because it’s built around a cult of personality firstly, and shared culture secondly.  So if you want to attend the insanely popular “Make A Strip” session (where the two guys make a comic strip onstage with audience particpation) or the Q&A Session you must stand in a line with literally thousands of people for upwards of one and a half hours before they open the doors the auditorium.  I hate lines and I hate large crowds, so those things don’t sit well with me.

I heard there were 50,000+ people attending this weekend, but as a rule I steered clear of lines and crowds by just going to places where the people weren’t.  If there was a popular session going on, I would miss it and take the opportunity to do stuff that otherwise would have been crowded.  What that means is that I didn’t spend much time in lines, but I also missed the cool experiences that drew me to the convention in the first place which is why I’m on the fence about attending again next year.

The Operational Rule of Nerds: Never underestimate the amount of time a nerd will wait in line to get something free/cheap/signed/limited in quantity.  Even if the place does not open until 10am… if the thing in question is good enough and you think a sane person would show up at 9am, so you’ll be first in line at 8am, then count on nerds sleeping overnight on the sidewalk in front of the doors where the thing will be given away or sold.  Many sane individuals have not gotten a cool thing because the underestimated nerds ability to stand in lines.

I didn’t participate in a whole lot of organized stuff– walked the exhibit hall and saw a lot of new video games that they were demoing (Castle Crashers looks cool), played some WoW TCG tourneys, saw WoW Minis demo, playde D&D 4th ed with Alandovos on Saturday morning (we wiped on the 2nd encounter), and took pictures of all the crziness around me.

Saturday night we hit the concerts: ditched the first band and drank, saw the end of the Darkest of the Hillside Thickets set (pretty good cthulu-metal, if you’re into that), and watched MC Frontalot and The Minibosses.  The concerts went way late so we ditched at around 2am and headed back to the hotel.

I’ll probably have some pictures up once I get back into town (I’m writing this from the SEA-TAC airport). Until then– HOLLLARIT whazzmaster.com.

Raffle-Man

I was entered in the following raffles at Elburn Days this weekend:

• Three entries into the $20,000 or 2008 Chevy Malibu LTZ
• Two entries into the $3,000 vacation package (or cash) Firemen’s Raffle
• Upwards of a dozen entries into the Elburn Basketball 30″ JVC Flat Screen raffle

As of press time I have not heard that I won any of them.  A man can dream.

Tim and I played bingo for about an hour today and I BINGO’d one time, butso did another guy and I only won $25.  One lady won after 4 numbers were drawn (horizontal across the middle).

We ran the Elburn Days 5K on Saturday morning (after staying in the beer tent late on Friday night).  I limped in with an embarassing 33:30, which I suppose isn’t bad considering that my ‘training’ was to run 1.5 miles on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of last week.  Say lah vee.

No segue: if you have an XBox 360 I highly reccommend the games Braid and Geometry Wars 2.  Also: Too Human comes out this week.  I got the demo last week and that game is damn awesome; I’m definitely picking it up.

No segue again: Wednesday is the semi’s and finals for our summer volleyball league.  We’re seeded second and our first game starts at 7pm (champeenship at 9pm).  We played kinda like garbage last week, so it’ll be interesting to see if we can finish off what was a pretty good season.