July 10th thru the 14th, 2006

Monday July 10th, 2006

Ah, linguistics. Anyway, on Sunday there's was the gym and some weight-lifting for a change, and the kickball game Sunday night. Added to the magic number 34, remember to carry the bad knee and bad back, and the equation spells soreness squared. But recently, without my going into a lot of detail, I can say that I have had occasion to sleep on a new bed (not mine) much more firm than the one of the last year or so, and it's done wonders for my back. One can only assume what kind of walking pretzel I'd be today, otherwise. Pretzeling. Whatever.

Kickball
We won! My first game in many weeks. I don't recall th'other team's name, but we where in kelly green and they where in forest green, so it was a grudge match, let me tell you. But the Third Grade Bad-Asses pulled out a win, hoo-ha! I got the first RBI, sacrificing our runner at first so the runner at second could advance around the bend. Then they scored one a few innings later, and then our first runner sac'd one to the outfield so our gal on third could trot in. That's right, we nearly used actual "strategy." Whodda thunk it? It was a good time by all. And now we got momentum, yeah? We'll see.

What Is This, a Review Website?
Buncha 'reviews' follow, compelling me to consider compiling all of the other 'reviews' I've ever done in the blog, and indexing them for easy, quick access. Which no one will ever access. But heck, how many readers do I have, anyway, 3? Clearly this is more personal diary than anything else. And the exercise of HTMLing is a kind of meditation. And anything to keep me away from the video games and crap movies I end up reviewing anyway, right? Sure. So. Here you go.

Oh, wait, forgot to say. Italy beat France in the World Cup final, 5-3. After a 1-1 tie, overtime, and a shoot-out. In otherwords, there was no winner. You heard it here last.

Casa D'Italia
Last Friday, met a friend at Casa D'Italia, a little Italian place on 65th and 27th ave NE. Small, cute, had a back-yard patio that was charming. I had the Pasta Basilicata, which was penne and spicy marinara and prosciutto and some other pork product. I rather liked it, though I only ate half. Th'other half came home with me and was consumed the next day. I'm giving the place only 3 stars because, while I liked it enough, and I wouldn't mind going back, I don't feel a compulsion or obligation to go. But if you're in the neighborhood and in the mood for pasta, Or looking for a jeans and sneakers romantic spot, you can say it comes recommended.

Deadwood
Been watching Season 2 of "Deadwood" via Netflix. Damn, this is a good series. I admit I was reluctant to watch it at first (with the same reluctance I still hold for "The Sopranos") since it's HBO and the wild-west and all. But a friend urged me, and I gave it a shot. The writing is amazing, and I would give it 5 stars for the dialogue alone. The plot is drawn more or less from history, though the intricacies are the writer's own and expertly consistent. And thanks to a cast of actors I have not seen often enough, I find their characterizations 100% believable and compelling. Necessarily there's a flatness to some characters, but complexity does come in the flatness, so while one might be an icon for evil, it's a complex evil. Heck, even Powers Boothe, one of the B-est actors of all time, manages in most scenes to be less himself and more the character he portrays.

The first season is more historical than the second, and plays more around the final days of Wild Bill Hickock. The second season, so far, is better in my opinion, being less dependant on the historical and getting more into the day-to-day complications of a camp in the verge of becoming civilized. The character of Al Swearengen is becoming more and more fascinating, emerging from merely "the bad guy" to "the bad guy you want to watch," not unlike Tony Soprano himself, I imagine. And the widow Garret, a throw-away character in the first season, has taken on much more shape and depth in the second.

Harsh language, occasional nudity, lotsa violence, this is not one for the kids. But I recommend it for anyone for a discerning taste in quality writing.

Hexic
Been playing Hexic HD on the Xbox 360, a downloadable "arcade" game, created by Alexey Pajitnov, the same guy who created Tetris. Basically you have a grid of hexes, and you can rotate a cluster of three around their shared central to try and move 3 same-colored hexes into a different cluster, eliminating them for others to fall into their place. Very much like Bejeweled, then, except for the shape of the grid. But there are a few enhancements. You can create a ring of 6 same-colored hexes around a central hex, turning this central hex into a star. Get 6 stars around a central hex turns that hex into a black pearl. I have not accomplished this yet. Occasional 'bomb' hexes drop onto the board, counting down for nine turns before their explode and end the game, though they can be eliminated in the normal way. Starred hexes (as opposed to pure stars) will drop in, for bonus point when eliminated, and 3 starred hexes together will eliminate another layer of hexes around the central 3, for big points. Blah blah blah. Fun, idyllic, but not quite the addictive of Tetris. But as I mentioned Bejeweled, fans of that will like it.

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
More analysis on this one will appear at my sister website, AntiPundit.com. This will be the 'entertainment' review. Watched this one while doing chores on Sunday. Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room is a documentary based on the book of the same name. I like documentaries, and I wonder if I've watched enough to be able to discern what makes a good one versus a not-as-good one. I think this one was okay. As it was based on a book, it was helpfully divided into chapters. And it featured interviews with the authors, who nevertheless came across as separate analysts, though they where able to weave their own experiences into the narrative, giving us the "why we made this" aspect that I feel other documentaries lack, or focus on way too darn much. But everything else was just as you expect it. From the standpoint of being informative, I do, now, understand the Enron debacle much better than before, so if nothing else, they did their job. 3 stars because it delivered, but no more because it wasn't an amazing piece of cinema. See it if you want to know what happened better; skip it if you know the details and got other things to do.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour '06
Good ol' Blockbuster, good ol's lazy Sundays. Good ol' Xbox 360. I've always been a fan of the Tiger Woods series, and '06 delivers just as well. I'm still stuck in the "challenges," not having played a full 18 yet, but the challenges are set on the same courses, so it's all the same. Of course for me, the point of the game is collecting the achievement balls, such as first hole-in-one (did that one already!), back-to-back eagles, an entire round of greens-in-regulation, etc. I have played golf in real life, but there's little similarity between that experience and the one in the game—which is why I like it. And why I think people with no interest in real-life golf can still find TWPGAT06 accessible. It's faster than real life, puts you at the professional level, affords you all the extras of accessorizing your bag and your person, takes you to courses too expensive to play at for real, and so on. In short, the game eliminates the roadblocks that a non-player would face before experiencing immersion. 4 stars because I'll probably buy it someday. When I do, I'm sure I'll bore you with progress updates.

Friday July 14th, 2006

Welcome to the It's a Jungle Out There, Samurai
Me and mine been watching the Monk, which is a pretty good lil' tv show, and I've mentioned it before. I watched two episodes yesterday morning and now we're on the last disc of season 2, trying to finish it off so we can move on. But damn it, and pardon my harsh language, but I got that theme song stuck in my head. I don't hate Randy Newman, and I know it's not his fault they changed the song, but I do not LIKE the new theme song. And I'm not the only one. Sarah Silverman starred in one episode as a crazy woman who, among other things, hated the new theme song of her favorite actor's police-drama TV show. But, bull by the horns and all that. What did I do to get rid of the fell tune? That's right, catchy J-Pop with words I don't understand. My two favorites: "Yatta" by Happy Tai, and "Joshi Kashimashi Monogatari" by Morning Musume. Both of these thanks to various internet wanderings. You gotta hand it to the Japanese, the know how to stretch a song out—JKM clocks in at nearly 6 minutes, and though the backing band tries to mix it up, it's pretty much the same damn two phrases over and over again. At any rate, it mostly worked. The internet truly has changed the way we work live play learn and fatten our jowls on international multiculturistic cures for pop-hypochondria.

The Week Has Gone By
Monday I had my CCNA class, and learned much. I had to take the exam from the last class so the teacher could enroll me in this one, and of course, though it's only been a few weeks, I forgot everything. But I studied up, like I used to, over the course of 10 minutes, and passed the exam no problem.

Tuesday was the usual coffee gathering at Revolutions. One new person, a nice dude. Also, thanks in part to my new political awareness (read: naiveté) there where some good discussions, including an interesting debate on the evolution of the preocreative urge. A few of us where on the side of: genes like sex and caring for babies, but don't know to "procreate" as it is concept and genes don;'t got minds. Others where on the side of: of course genes only strive for procreation,, and liking sex is the mechanism. I shant place the debate here as I will bias it with my view. Suffice to say it where a good time.

Wednesday was meat-free day for me and the GF, our mid-week meat fast just to remind us not to get complacent about food awareness. It's still working. Which is saying something, because this Weight-Watchers has given me cause to eat way way way more vegetables. I am an over eater, I know this, and so now I turn to those little cherry tomatoes and baby carrots and radishes—LOVE the radishes, so filling.

Thursday I meant to post all of this, but I didn't get a chance to. Didn't do much, really, except domestic things. I went to the gym, though. And again Friday, which is today.

Weight Watchers Weigh-In
206.8, down .4 from last week, for a total loss of 11.2 lbs. I should not be disappointed that this week was less than weeks past; nevertheless it shall be motivation for me to hit the gym more often. I am well within the points they give me every day and week, so no worries there. In fact, as I type this, I have 6 left for the day, if want them, and I've had all my meals today. Cool.

Website Updates
If'n you got pause to look, pretty much all of the old content from before that I care to put back on the website is back, listed under the "Index of Other Content" above. This includes Utterly Amazing Trivia, Rife With Typos, Really Bad Poetry Dot Com, Fotoshop Phun, and a few others. Who knows, maybe I'll even be inspired to add content to those sites now. Just maybe. I'll let you know.

WoW and the Twenty-Sixes
All of my alts are now at level 26, and Dakota spent some time farming silk cloth for the last hold-out, Xoxa, and so now she too has finished all of her silk-cloth donation quests. Now we start the move to 30, which should go quickly as everyone has lots of rest XP saved up. And Xoxa will by the time it's her turn. Who knows, maybe they'll even hit 40 by the time Burning Crusade hits stores? Hope so, since they'll be on pause for a while while Dakota goes for 70.

Lots More Later at AntiPundit
Gotta go now, gotta HTML-ify this and then there's lots and lots to talk about over at AntiPundit. See ya soon. Hang in there. Eat your vegetables.