July 3rd thru the 7th, 2006

Monday July 3rd, 2006

Now, me, I don't like camping, and I don't like boating, and I don't even much care for large bodies of water in general. But sometimes you've got to go against the grain, just to test yourself, and I have to say, I had a pretty good time. Got a nice bit o' sun on my face, hung out with some cool people, slept in the freezing cold which makes cuddling with your SO much more meaningful, in my opinion. So I felt pretty good.

Also deserving mention is the "Phoenix" composting toilets near the campsites. I have never been in a chemical toilet that had NO bad aroma whatsoever. After you do what you need to do, you dump a small scopp of woodchips from a nearby bucket. And the whole thing smelled of woodchips, nothing more.

The next morning I was able to get the fire going again from a few remaining embers, and we had breakfast of eggs, Canadian bacon, and instant mashed potatoes. I don't know who's idea the potatoes were, but that person is a genius. After breakfast, me and the GF needed to head back to town, though the others were going to stay, so we moved camp (our site was windy) and then hopped in the boat so they could drop us off.

Then we came home, ate some Subway, watched Monk, and turned in early. Camping is tough on the body. But it was fun, and I'm glad I spent this 4th of July weekend with some friends just relaxing on a beach net to a fire I made myself.

Happy Endings
Last Friday I watched Happy Endings, as the GF had rented it, watched it, and told me I would probably like it. And I did. Lisa Kudrow, who is a fine actress, and who's Phoebeness is overlookable when she's around different faces. Also Maggie Gyllenhaal, a fabulous work of art, though in this film she had it easy with a fairly straightforward role. Indeed, most of the roles were fairly uncomplicated, save Kudrow's, though the real workhorse was the editor, who delivered an A performance. If you like indie films though don't bother with any of the nonsense, this one is a good pick.

WoW Update
Warning: boring for those who don't care. As soon as I am done typing up the blog for today, I'm going to turn on some AM radio and hop on WoW. Calsaulen (paladin) hit 26 last week and so Dakota (60 Rogue) has been farming silk for the Alliance cloth donation quests, and as soon as Agnossia (Priestess) and Sardonica (Huntress) hit 26, they should be good to go as well. Xoxa (Warlock) is coming right along at 22, and might even make 24 today if I push it. Grimkin (Mage) is resting at 26, waiting for the others to catch up. And then it's the push to 30, a milestone, and then 35, where they can all become experts in their professions. This is especially exciting for Grimkin, as he'll finally be able to raise his tailoring skill from 225 ceiling he's sitting at now, and make some Runecloth bags for everyone.

Wednesday July 5th, 2006

Maybe I should start a rating system, since this is a blog and everything. I'll use stars for now until I think of something else. So I'll give this one three stars, which means see it if you like, but if you don't, you're not missing anything.

4th of July
How did you spend your fourth of July? I spent mine in the time honored pastime of doing housework and yardwork. Helped install a ceiling fan, twice, mowed the lawn, and cleaned my bathroom. Had lunch at the Greenlake Bar & Grill, blackened fish tacos, delicious. The weather tried to ruin any kind of fireworks display, but held out until the end.

Me and mine didn't know what we wanted to do re: a fireworks display; there were plans and then other plans and then changed plans and people deciding not to participate. Gasworks park was going to be an option, but by the time we rolled out of our cribs, they were already parking and walking from as far away as Wallingford (for those not familiar with Seattle: that's far). We drove around a bit despite common sense, and finally figured we'd give Queen Anne a try… we more or less stumbled across a parking spot 2 blocks away from 5th and Lynn, which had a small dead-end street overlooking lake union pretty much perfectly. By the time the fireworks got started there were roughly 200 people there or so. The display was just a bit above head-height. Leading up to that we were able to see a thunderstorm raging on the horizon, with literal oohs and aahs from the crowd whenever there was lighting. And during the display itself, we could see two other shows going off away on the distance, bookending the one we were watching. All in all, not a bad fourth. Hooray America.

Political Apathy
(this entry has been moved to the archives of AntiPundit.com. You can go directly to the archives, or go directly to the page with this entry.

Thursday July 6th, 2006

CCNA Class
Last night. Got there just a wee bit late. Somehow our instructor got stuck with 4 classes at the same time, but this is Continuing Ed, and so the total number of people was still less than 20. Still, it might get confusing, so some of us are going to come in on Mondays instead. I may still go on Wednesday to do labs. Last night we had to re-instal operating systems on the removable hard-drives, something I do not know how to do… but I managed. Now I have a lot of reading to do. WANs and Routers, here I come.

The Family Guy
I am not one to insists works of art or forms of entertainment are in some kind of competition with one another and it is necessary to declare one is "better" than the other. I might insist Tool is better than Britney Spears, but that's actually an entirely moot point, and I say it is even superfluous to say I like one more than the other. If it comes up, contextually, so be it, but there's no reason to declare it.

All that said, which is better, "The Family Guy" or "The Simpsons"? Well, my humble opinion is that while "The Family Guy" is aces at the instant zinger, the out-of-nowhere gag (often using their trademark flashback), "The Simpsons" are better at carrying the laughs through an episode, and building up the humor over the course. That's just my opinion though, and I'll watch either one. This comes up for no better reason than the GF has been renting episodes of "TFG" and we've been watching it on an occasional evening. And it is hilarious.

Political Apathy
(this entry has been moved to the archives of AntiPundit.com. You can go directly to the archives, or go directly to the page with this entry.

Friday July 7th, 2006

Weight Watchers
Woot and 3 quarters. I have earned my "5 pounds lost" milestone. Indeed, I have lost 7.8 pounds. If we consider that my original weigh-in was off, and the new scale is the accurate one, I've actually lost 10.8 pounds, but Weight Watchers only knows that I've lost the 7.8, so we'll go with that right now.

The secret? I am a bad snacker, and so I try to snack on vegetables and the like. Yeah, I know, it's tough, but I gotta tell you, my chubby little friends: celery is your best buddy. Things could get dicey though: when/if I slip below 200, I get 200 fewer calories a day. Egadzooks, as the kids from 1887 say.

Update—I asked WW to rest my starting weight, which they did—erasing all of my previously entered weights. Grab dabbit. Now I have to remember what I used to weigh. I guess the blog is serving a purpose.

Junebug
If you decide to see Junebug, a quintessential indie flick, it will be because of Amy Adams. Don't get me wrong, I doubt she would have gotten all those award nominations, including an Oscar nomination, if weren't for Phil Morrison's direction, Angus MacLachlan's script, and a perfect balance in Embeth Davidtz. But Amy steals every scene, just by smiling, which she does a lot. Her character, and her acting, take an other wise slow, almost slothful, almost overly contemplative pacing, and give you a reason to sit there and way through shots of empty rooms and moody background music. Otherwise, I don't know what's going on in this film. There's some kinda symbol in birds that show up subliminally here and there. There's the whole fish-outta-water-thing, and something about the use and uses of art. But none of it adds up to a revelation that makes you go "Aaaaaaah," at the end, or even in the middle. So I give it three stars, mostly because I either didn't get it or the getting was just in the letting it wash over you. I mean, I don't get Wes Anderson's movies either, but at least they have a quirky texture that's fun to play with.

Political Apathy
Announcing the imminent birth of www.Antipundit.com, where, I plan on shifting all of this political commentary. I bought the domain name yesterday, and now I just have to create a logo and the layout and so on. No link yet, so just sit tight. I mean, like I said, I have to make a logo. That's more important than anything else. I am no intellectual (although I play one on TV) and I am not educated and I have no political experience, so my comments are more along the lines of those gossip columns you see on back pages of your newspapers Arts & Leisure section. Why give it it's own website? I dunno. The internet is about anonymity through individuality, you see. I am one unique fish in a vast sea of other unique fishes. Someone said "to be great is to be misunderstood," or something like that. And someone else said "The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about." Combining those with some 10th grade sophistry, we get "To be great is to be unknown," which makes no sense at all, thus satisfying a post-modern sensibility as well. Ye gods.

Update: the sight is now live. www.antipundit.com is not available for your dining pleasure. If you looked at this blog before 11 am PDT, the commentary you saw here is now moved there.