Scattershot Post - Filler for September

Nothing of importance, really. but I don't want a gap in the blog archive that shows absolutely nothing for September. Topic? Lets pick... entertainment!

Books:

There's the Dresden Files Side Jobs book that's out next month, followed by the next to last Wheel of Time book out early in November, then another Dresden files book way out in April that'll continue the main storyline. Good reading! I need to go over the first Wheel of Time books again to re-familiarize myself.

Games:

Team Fortress 2 is without a doubt the game that made me love online gaming. Eve didn't do it; there's a reason why this game is nicknamed "Spreadsheets Online". Starcraft II didn't do it (as great as the game is, you're either the OCD Multi-tasker that builds five bases and two dozen Battlecrusiers/Carriers within ten minutes, or the guy that repeatedly gets overrun by the former when he starts building his first Siege Tanks. Usually, I'm the latter. (Also, sorry for the majority of you that had this paragraph go over your heads.)

TV:

I think I mentioned before that I do not have Televisions service of any kind, including the free over the air kind (signals don't get out to here), but now that an HBO miniseries based on A Song of Ice and Fire is in production, I may have to reconsider. Yeah, I could wait and buy the inevitable DVD collection, but... There IS something to be said for seeing it sooner than later. Then again, why have another monthly bill, especially for something that I'll never use? If this one doesn't make me call up DirecTV or Dish, then I don't think anything will.

Movies:

Due to 1) the closest decent theater being an hour away, and 2) a lack of Television that walls me off from the primary marketing outlet for new movies, I haven't seen much that wan't on Netflix, and I still only bother watching maybe one Netflix movie a month. Still, I decided to go see Scott Pilgrim vs The World Last month, and have to say it was pretty good. Sadly, juding by box office returns, it looks like I was one of only about 300 people nationwide that actually paid to see it. This pretty much says it all.

Nightlife/Social:

One of the reasons why I adjusted so well to moving to Nowhereville, WY is that to me, a Saturday night at home is better than a night on the town, even when said town is hip and trendy. But I still have my karaoke, and I still run the show on Friday Nights. Good times!

Music:

I went to see Streetlight Manifesto Back in July, and in spite of a great show, I was reminded why I don't go to concerts. I can recreate the experience by walking into a sauna fully clothed, tape a picture of the backs of people's heads to my glasses, and just play one of their albums through. I could probably get closer and a better view if I was willing to muck about in the mosh pit, but I don't feel like getting shoved around by 19 year olds that have no other outlet for aggression. I'm just too old for that shit.

And now, posted with no explanation or reason, ELO's Don't Bring Me Down.

Scattershot Post - Volume 13

• You know you're working for the right people when one of the executives walk around wearing this shirt.
• One of my Karaoke superstars told me there's only a few things he enjoys more than singing in front of a crown. One example he gave me was ice cold Visine in your eyes when you're baked off your ass. It has to be ice cold; he held the bottle out of the window of a moving car in winter to achive the proper tempature. And, yes, for the full effect you must be, as he said, "Baked off your ass".
• One of the local ranchers was moving his herd to a new pasture this past Sunday morning. I heard mooing, stepped outside my back door, and watched the cows walk down highway 414. Viva Wyoming!
• Starcraft II drops on July 27th. If you don't hear from me for about 30 days after that date, don't worry.
• Origins Game Fair in less than 30 days! Hooray for Vacation!
• And now, the Zac Brown Band will play me out. If Jimmy Buffet wrote country music, this is what it would sound like.

Scattershot Post: This time, it's personal!

• About a month ago, my Director was asking the locals if they had an old anvil that they weren't using. Like, 18th century blacksmithing tool, drop-on-a-road-runner-for-hilarity type anvil. No kidding. The man who had one declined politely; he didn't want to give it up. I love this state.
• Happiness is a local bar that has Fat Tire on tap.
• Looks like I have made back my initial investment on the Karaoke System. Next stop: Profitville!
• For Christmas, my folks gave me a sweet gift: Three independently controlled 2.5 qt crocks in a single unit:

Its first appearance was at a coworker's Super Bowl party. It performed admirably!

• And now, I leave you with Miss Murder by AFI. Before you comment that this is the wrong song, wait until the long-assed emo-intro is over at about 1:46. If emo-ballads transitioning to punk rock isn't your thing, maybe this will persuade you to watch: It has bunnies!!

Scattershot Post - Two Barrels of Word Pellets

Several items, none that can fill out an entire post. You know the drill:

• In Salt Lake City, there is a store called Game Night Games that specializes in European board games, and other semi-obscure games. Meaning you wont find them at Toys R' Us between Chutes and Ladders and Sorry. The have open tables on weekends, so I learned how to play Puerto Rico with some like minded strangers. I'm liking Salt Lake more and more these days.
• In electronic gaming, Starcraft II recently was pushed back to a release in the first have of 2010, and that makes me sad. I wanted a Zergling rush for Christmas. (For those of you unfamiliar with the terminology, it's kinda like this).
• A few weeks ago, I got the news that Dabel Brothers Publishing are going to finish the comic book series based on Robert Jordan's The New Spring. This series was first published by Red Eagle Entertainment and illustrated by the Dabel Brothers, but some business SNAFU kept the last issues from being completed. So now, the Brother's are publishing it themselves, and they are also illustrating/publishing the comic book based on the Wheel of Time series. I just got the first taste of it in the mail today. Friggin Sweet.
• I'm enjoying the whole karaoke master gig, but some nights, the drunken idiots are out in force. This past Friday was one of those nights. Some sloppy-drunk girl got belted by some angry-drunk guy, and some stupid-drunk dude just couldn't get it in his head that I. Don't. Have. Any. Music. From. Crystal Dew. English, mother****er, DO YOU SPEAK IT?!?!?
• I'm juggling three consecutive weekends involving a wedding in Pittsburgh, a move to another apartment, and a visit from my sister. When it rains, it pours.
• And finally, here's a band that I've recently discovered: Streetlight Manifesto. Any band that lists the Squirrel Nut Zippers as an influence must be good.

Scattershot Post - Weekend Activities

Sorry for the lack of posting, but work has been keeping me especially busy with difficult tasks and aggressive deadlines, but I just wanted you all to know I'm not dead or anything. So I'll just leave you with a short post on what I've been doing on weekends.

• I've been doing a little freelance work helping the King of the Cosmos rebuild the heavens by rolling all of the assorted junk on earth into spheres akin to large popcorn balls and throwing them into the sky.
• With the help of Karaoke master, Dr. Winston McCool (not his real name, obviously), I've learned that I can sing a Bob Dylan tune dead on.
• One of my esteemed colleges has lent to me his three seasons of Deadwood on DVD. Despite success and critical acclaim, the show only lasted for three seasons due to the incredible production costs of making all of the sets and costumes authentic. It's a clever show, despite heave use of the Carlin Seven, especially number five, which is every character's favorite name to call somebody.

Hope to have more soon, maybe expanding on the subtleties of Karaoke. Until then, Good Day.

Scatter Shot Post - Fuzzy Returns to Washington...

...and this time, it's personal!

• The flight down there almost left on time, a shift in the wind meant all the planes had to take off from a different runway that was on the other side of the airport. At least I wasn't inside one of the planes at the back of this line.
• Traffic in DC is miserable, and should be avoided at all costs. The Metro Rail system, in contrast, is pretty sweet. Well maintained, quick, trans running every 5 minutes on peak hours, every 10 on non peak hours, and is quick and fairly reliable. Tiffany tells me that as good as it is, when it fails, it fails in an epic fashion. Makes sense, because any problem with the Metro will take down at least an entire track, and possible the whole system. Not fun in Rush Hour. Still better than driving in this town.
• The week I was there was also Restaurant week in DC, where all the local eateries are encouraged to participate by offering a 3 course meal for a set price (20.08 for lunch, 35.08 for dinner). We went to Dino's Italian Restaurant, and had some awesomeness (procuittio wrapped peaches. Yum!) Tom has the complete write-up at We Love DC.
• If you are even in DC, you need to go to the International Spy Museum. First. Sure, you can visit the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, and the Smithsonian if you have time, but this should make this a priority.
• Monday night, I had dinner at a chinese bakery/cafe (Maria's Bakery). It's been said that you can know if an ethnic restaurant is good when everyone else that's eating inside belongs to that ethnicity. Mine was the only pair of round eyes in the whole place, I think. I decided to order a few things I never heard of, just for little adventure. Details here.
• Also went to the DC Improv with Tiffany and saw Mitch Fatel. He's "very funny" as he says in his opening remark, and knows how to work the audiance into his act.
• One more Restaurant: Green Fields Churrascaria in Rockville. It was convientlyly, right next to my hotel, and in the same building as the training center I was at. He're all you really need to know: It's a Brazillian BBQ place, where they bring you meat, followed by different meat, with some more meat after that, and they don't stop until you say, "Ok, that's enough meat for me. I'm full." Mito, Brian, this place is for you.
• Return Trip: Stopped off at a rest area in Echo, UT to take some pictures that I always wanted to share. Check it out.

Scatter Shot Post - 07/15/08

• Today is the nine month anniversary of my Job. Yay!
• I'm currently rewriting an SQL procedure that was meagerly documented, fragile to begin with, and had patchwork-alterations made to it about 15 times in the past 3 years. This is kinda like major reconstructive surgery on a gnarled mass of scar tissue. We can rebuild it. Make it stronger, faster, less prone to screwing up and gobbling up man-hours to fix...
• I discovered that Pasta Carbonara leftovers must be microwaved for a longer time at a lower power level, lest you turn it into a mass of scrambled eggs with pasta embedded in it.
• For reasons that I can't quite explain, I had What is Love by Haddaway stuck in my head this afternoon. Maybe I should put Night at the Roxbury in my Netflix Queue...
• The fishing trip has left my arms lobster red, as punishment for violating my longstanding agreement with my skin: no more than 60 minutes of direct sunlight per day, with at least a half hour break every 20 minutes.
• Last weekend, I achieved one of my long incomplete video game goals: I finally blew up that friggin' ion cannon at the end of the Terran campaign in Starcraft. A solid dozen of Battlecruisers For-The-Win. I just wish I had a hotkey that could cue up Flight of the Valkaries, as it would have been especially appropriate.
• Speaking of Video Games, I found that I don't have the stamina to stare at a screen all day like I used to. I used to be able to do about 8+ hours in front of a screen if my parents would let me (they didn't). Now I'm usually only good for about two hours, or if the game is particularly engrossing, maybe 4 or 5 on a weekend before I have to turn it off for the day. I'll take this as a sign of full recovery from a childhood Nintendo addiction.
• I know I've already made several of you aware of this, but this blog is the funniest thing I've read in a long time. Read it if you haven't already. Start with the earliest posts.

That's enough for now. Good night, God Bless, and Good Luck!

Scatter Shot Post - Fuzzy Goes to Washington

Some, but not all, of you know that I'm in the DC area this week to take a training for work, and to visit some family. Here's the bits:

• While in Wyoming, I have missed alt-rock radio formats, strolling through streets lined with tall buildings, and conversation that doesn't involve ranching or ranching related topics.
• While in Wyoming, I have not missed pretentions Indie music or issues, streets packed with parked cars (both moving cars and those parked on the shoulders), and conversation that revolve around politics, especially by those heavily entrenched in Red and Blue ideology.
• Dumb: Fancy Hotels charging for Wi-Fi access. Dumber: Fancy Hotels charging for Wi-Fi access while the Panera Bread in same friggin' building give it away for free. I'm eating an Asiago Roast Beef sandwich as I type this. Yum.
• Turndown Serivce. So, let me get this this straight: for a small fee, you'll have an employee hoist the crushing weight of a blanket and comforter on his/her broad shoulders and roll them away so my weary self has one less step to his slumber ritual? Unless this deal includes a glass of warm milk and a bedtime story read by a grandmotherly person, I ain't sold. And it better be a GOOD story, too. None of this lame-ass Goodnight Moon shit, either.
• Learning Tree is probably as good as it gets for tech-related crash courses, both for the quality of the education, and the amenities they give the students. (Free continental breakfast, equipment that is both recent and functional, instructors that know what they're doing, etc.)
• Reston Town Center is a place where I feel like I'm a bum by simply walking the same streets as the beautiful/rich/important people. But I still have an attractive personality :-)

That's all for today, join me next week when I espound a movie that was actually released less than 6 months ago: Indy 4. Short version: All the complaints, and most of the praise this movie has spawn is pretty much spot on.

Scatter Shot Post 4/28/2008 - Movies

Ah, Netflix! catching me up on my movies! Much like Episode 3, here's my thoughts on several movies from the past few years (and one even older still):

• The Transporter: I think I can watch anything with Jason Statham. Snatch, Italian Job, It's all good. I have Transporter 2 and Crank in my Netflix queue, so a Statham deficiency shouldn't be an issue.


• Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End: First one was great, 2nd was... alright, this one... meh. Interesting ending, sort of, but just bit too... slow. You'll get better entertainment by watching this pirate movie because it's funnier, shorter, and free.


• Casino Royale: This one gave me all kinds of Elvis-esque celebrity sightings. Le Chiffe looks like a young Chris Walken, The local police captain (brief scene) looked like Stan Lee, and I think Richard Branson had a cameo in the airport security scene.


• Clerks: Entertaining? Yes. Overhyped? Yes again. I think the big draw with Kevin Smith is that he's an independent flim guy which gives him street cred. When a Major $tudio makes a movie with potty humor, it's crass and appeals to the lowest kind of movie-goer. When an indie guy does it, it's high art! (There's a little more to the film than that, but not much). But from what I hear, Mr. Smith is a pretty down to earth guy, and recognizes this himself, so I can't begrudge him for his hipster fans.


• Stardust: Suspension of disbelief works in tiers; you much choose which tier you need when seeing any fiction or fantasy movie. Sure you can rig a bomb to go off if the bus goes under 50, but there's NO WAY IN HELL it could jump that gap in the highway without any ramp.
  Likewise, if a star crashes to earth in hot-chick form and the only ill effect on her is a bit of disorientation, I can overlook the Wall. You know, the one with the broken part guarded by an old dude in lieu of repairing it. Nevermind that it's only about 6' tall and anyone with a step ladder or good running start could go over easily. And standing solidly on a cloud is just fine. Same with the air pirates making a living by bottling lightning. Once you establish the 'Bedtime Story' tier of SoD, it's perfectly acceptable. But the Bus jump in Speed? Pure BS.


• Ocean's Twelve: I was hoping for a real thief-off between Lefleur and Ocean's team, stealing bits and pieces from all over. But there wasn't as much of that as I hoped for. The ending ranged from convoluted to lame, and just didn't do it for me. But the part where Julia Roberts' character, Tess, masquerades as {spoiler redacted!} just drops me with laughter. I always thought that someone should make a movie where a Big Name does something like that with their role.


• Ocean's Thirteen: Ok, now we're back to what made the franchise great! (whether O11 should even have ever become a franchise is a different question.) Al Pachino screws over one of the team's good friends which sends him into a coma. Now, they're going to elaborately ruin his new casino with all the shiftiness that made the first installment great. Plus Pachino, who always does great when around gambling or mob activity in movies. And the means of how they get the funding for a major piece of equipment makes a great ironic twist. But LeFleur's Cameo seems tacked on. They didn't use that character to its full potential in the last movie, why even bother with him this time?


• Shoot 'Em Up: Much like Snakes on a Plane, it's really all in the name. Escapist Action with a high body count and sweet gunplay. Should you watch it? Let me tell you this: The first entry on the High Body count list gets there by having a carrot forcibly inserted into his mouth, and then it's punched through the back of his throat. If that makes you roll your eyes disapprovingly, don't bother. Everyone else, check it out.

That's all for now. I'm sure I'll do another one of these in the future. In the meantime, I will not apologize for getting the chorus from the pirate song stuck in your head; you will suffer just as I did. Give it two weeks before the healing can begin.

Scatter Shot Post - 04/09/2008

Let's jump right in shall we?

• Within three weeks of review day, we lost two employees. I'll not post the circumstances of each on the Intarwebs, but now we're looking for one entry level and one experienced programmer position in the IT department at our company, so those of you who know me, contact me for details if you're interested.
• On weekends, I often visit a co-workers home and play board games with his family. His wife is a gentle soul, that doesn't have a competitive bone in her body, and she's made alternate rules to Settlers of Catan. The short of it is, the robber is out of the game, and anyone who rolls a 7 gets a free resource of his/her choice. Sounds fun on the surface, until you realize that it nullifies the ONLY way a person can directly affect the game. Way to destroy a game dynamic, there.
• In the IT department, we have two or three chocoholics, the majority of whom are Mormons. I guess when your religion forbids alcohol and caffine, chocolate is the closest thing to a vice that you're allowed to have.
• In other game news, Magic Online has shut down its 2.5 servers, and will go up as the new and improved Magic Online 3.0 server. As someone who has dealt with a server crash in the middle of a draft several times, I'll be looking forward to something that has a bit more stability.
• It's April. It snowed here (lightly) for three of the last five days. I'm not pleased.

That's it for now. Good day!

Scatter Shot Post - 02/02/2008 - Home Cookin'

• I've been doing a lot of cooking recently, and have a lot of random non-sequential thoughts about the topic. You know what that means: Lock and Load!
• As mentioned before, I'm trying to restrict my diet to mostly things I've cooked myself, or by someone I know, at least casually. So, fried chicken from the Grocery Store Deli is OK,(it's fresh everyday!), any thing that includes a packet(s) of mystery seasoning, says "ready to eat" or only needs cooked in a microwave for 90 second or less is out. My grocery shopping consists of buying ingredients, not self-contained meals.
• Since I've been here, I have opened exactly 6 cans, 4 of which were releated to making tomato sauce or pizza sauce (more on that below) .
• After a little over three months of doing this, here's my summary of it in a single blurb: Cooking is easy; Cooking well, not so much.
• I only condsider a cooking expirament to be a failure if I have to throw food out due to the meal going terribly wrong. When wasting food is preferable to eating that crap, it's time to throw in the towel.
• To date, I've had to throw something away only once, and the meal was perfectly fine the first time around. I made beer cheese soup. pretty good the first time around, but when I tried to reheat a portion of it, it separated into an oily top part, and a chewy bottom part which was like some kind of cheddar flavored chewing gum. after a few bites, I decided it wasn't worth it, and disposed of it. This is what is often refered to as a cullinary abortion.
• Hmmm... I wonder if Wrigley can market cheese flavored gum in Japan? They eat all kinds of oddly flavored stuff, why not a pack of Cheddarmint?
• Today, I had some difficulty in reproducing my father's tomato sauce, so I exchanged ideas with my sister. Her World of Warcraft Character is called Tomatosauce so I figured she'd know something. Eventually, I decided to add in a little more sugar, and that helped. We also exchanged a few meatball ideas. Mine didn't come out so well.
• Even if your too lazy too cook, there are three things you can do before resorting to opening a can of Chef Boyardee: (1) A grilled cheese sandwich. There's the typical 2-3 slices of american version, but latley, I've taken a liking to this: a slice of provolone, sprinkle lightly with basil and oregano, and set a second slice of provolone on top of that. The oils from the cheese bring out the herbs, giving an Italian flavor to the sandwich. (2) You can just make some eggs. Seriously, you can't screw up an egg. Omlette, over easy, scambled, whatever. Toast some bread, and you have a a decent meal in front of you. (3) Last Resort: just have a bowl of cereal or something. The grocery store up here recently had a sale on just about all of theirs, after the markdown and manufactures coupons, I walked away with 10 boxes for $15. I don't think I'll have to buy any more until at least this Fall.
• Cassaroles are great, becuase they can be thrown together from whatever stuff you have on hand. I put some cubed leftover chicken, some brocclli, cheese and rice together, and I ended up with dinner, and lunch for the next 5 days. Same with the Macaroni and Cheese I made.
• One final note about the meatballs I tried to make today: while searching for meatball recipies, i came upon recipes for Sweedish meatballs, which inevitably, let to me rediscovering a Childhood memory of mine.

Bork. Bork. Bork!

Scatter Shot Post - 12/06/2007 - Grapeshot

This edition of SSP will have larger bullet points, but still to small and too many for a proper post for each.

• I just moved from my cozy cubicle that I had to share with a person, to my very own personal cubicle, that I have all to myself... right near the major foot traffic path that leads to the breakroom. I'm still deciding whether or not that's a move up or down, but the coworkers refer to the person that occupies this cube as the "Lunch lady." No lie. (BTW, the cube location isn't merit based, but seniority based; I lost a coin toss to the co-worker that started the same day as me).
• Since I moved out, I've been trying a new diet. Diet, refers not to a calorie-counting, fat reducing weight loss scheme, but rahter an adjustment to what I eat. Simply, I don't eat anything that I don't cook myself (almost). So far, I like it a lot, and I'm getting more enabled in the kitchen. I'll probably have a larger post about this some time in the future.
• I still need to pickup a wireless router soon. Right now I'm parked in my room with a reclining chair that I dragged in here, with a blanket over me enjoying the warm glow of bandwidth. Not bad, but I'd like to be able to do this from the living room, but don't have the cable legnth. I'll probably wait a few weeks on it though.
• The weather is always a the hot topic of conversation around here. I deeply suspect that the weather might be the most exciting thing in the entire Bridger Valley.
• This Saturday is the office Christmas Party, a semi-fancy dress kind of deal (I have to wear a jacket), held at the local middle school. Aparently, it's a good time, and probably better than the parties of my previous employer. I think I mentioned before on this blog that we don't have a Holiday Party, we have an honest-to-goodness-baby-jesus-and-the-wise-men C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S party. Sometimes, living in Mormon country shows it's benifits.
• My parents called me, looking for ideas for Chistmas gifts. If they read this post carefully, they may just find one.
• Tonight, we are expected to have a big snowstorm. I'm hopeing to see endless white in the morning. This area has a much higher rate of White Chirstmases than PA does.
• This has made my friggin' week: Prince Caspian Trailer - May 16th. W00t.

Scatter Shot Post - 10/11/07 (Travel Edition!)

• Hooray to Iowa, for free Wi-Fi at all their rest stops. Other states' DOTs should take note.
• When using a GPS, remember to set the navigation mode to "Automobile," not "Pedestrian," for the "fastest route" will then take you off of the highway, through neighborhoods, and tell you to turn the wrongway on one way streets, avoid interstates altogether, and tell you to drive into oncoming traffic.
• When leaving a hotel, remember to check yourself for ALL belongings when you leave. this will save you from having to double back to pick up something critical, such as your cell phone, and completely wasting a morning and a half tank of gas. *sigh*
• Need a quick lunch, but would rather not pull over? Clif Bars are for-the-win.
• My trip through Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana can be summarized thusly: corn corn corn corn corn corn corn corn...
• When going long distances, avoid I-80 through Ohio and Indiana. There are hefty tolls. best to just take I-70 through those states, then turn up.

That's all for now. Looks like this trip is going to be 4 days instead of 3. As of this posting, I'm in Omaha, and it looks like Nebraska alone is going to take all day. I'll try to get to Cheyenne tonight, then make the brief trip over to Mountain View the next morning. Next time I post, It'll be from Moutain time.

Scatter Shot Post 10/01/07

Or "topics that aren't worth an entire post for each item"

• Two shopping bags full of books are worth about ten bucks at half priced books. Not much, but at least I don't have to lug those ones across 6 states.
• Phone plan adjustment: Added text mesaging service, removed moble web. Since they increased the price of texts, it now offically costs less to do the basic plan that it does to pay per texts. The 5 bucks they get from that is now offset by the 5 they lose due to me canceling my mobile web, which is next to useless. Since this overall reduces my bill, I like to tell myself that they are losing money as a direct result of raising text messaging rates. Whatever helps me to sleep at night.
• TGI Friday's is one of the few places that I know that will sell you a good Cobb Salad. We need more of them.
• for the past 4 months, I've been spending most of my free time searching job boards for a new posistion, and now I'm spending it fretting about a move that resulted from that search. When I'm done, I'll have a lot of free time. I need to remember what I used to do with that.

I like this kind of post. I'll have to do it more often, especially when I don't have anything profound to write about.