A Rare Thing

Moving Words

2007-09-24T22:02:56Z

So today I decided that my web presence needed an overhaul. Not only is MySpace an eyesore that the blind should avoid, my LiveJournal site was outdated and nearly as hideous. I think I was listening to too much Greenday and Fall Out Boy when I designed the backgrounds for my pages.

I’ve moved my blog to Wordpress now and in doing so enabled easier searching of the archives, RSS and a much more palatable motif (you’re welcome K). The RSS should update my Facebook page now as well which should hopefully get some of my friends interested in what I have to say, and no longer relegate my blogging to an exercise in futility. The blog will still serve as a mental word dump where my current obsessions are fleshed out, be it art, politics, tech, food, entertainment or just daily life.

Let me know if you have any suggestions and please feel free to comment.

Bye LiveJournal it's been fun!

Ok, I fell off the train again!

2007-07-14T20:16:42Z

Like I told you before, I knew I would lose the drive to write regularly... But I'm back... So here's a quick update of life between the spring and now.

K has neared the popping point. The baby will be here within the next three weeks. Actual due date is the 24th, but they say she could go into labor any time now. If she is late, our doctor has told us that he will only wait a week to induce. The nursery is done, and the rest of the house, with the exception of the dining room (which has turned into a yard sale repository), is just about ready. We're so excited.

I've also started to do alot more research into Buddhism, and I'm starting to think that the Buddhist path is indeed the path I am meant to follow. It is helping me be more mindful of my thoughts and actions and definately making a dent in my stress level. We've been going down to temple in Canaan NY, just on the border of Massachusets. It's a bit of a haul, but it's a great community.

I'm still watching too much tv, though the summer schedule is a little slim this year. The highlight so far has been So You Think You Can Dance. There are some really great dancers on there this year, though the sister of last years winner is by far the crowd favorite.

Book-wise, I had a bit of a nostalgic period start a little while ago. Back in high school I really enjoyed a number of fantasy series, so I dug them out of the closet. I'm currently re-reading all my old Dragonlance books. They are quick reads, but really quite enjoyable.

We've seen some good movies over the last several weeks. The three most recent were Knocked Up, Transformers and Harry Potter... more soon...

Spring Unsprung

2007-03-16T04:32:07Z

This damned weather is going to drive me insane. It was glorious out there over the last few days... Mother nature teasing us with her warm winds and her drizzling showers, melting the snows and gracing the world that ethereal glow that only daytime fog brings. Now it's all been turned on it's head, as the temperature drops, the winds begin to whistle in the night and Schenectady floods. All the while, a pisser of a snow storm is brewing to the south, preparing to drop anywhere from one to three feet of snow in our freshly melted laps again. I don't know if my back can handle anything over 2 feet at this point. Ah well... I should hit the sack. Night.

Mid Season Pilots

2007-03-16T04:04:23Z

So I'm skipping right over the travesty that is Sanjaya's continued rampage of mediocrity and cutting directly to more entertaining fare. I caught the pilot of October Road tonight and was pretty impressed. It's a pretty solid story with some seriously enjoyable hooks, enjoyably worded dialog and reasonably talented actors. I should have known when I saw that it was created by the same folks that gave us Beautiful Girls.

The story of the worldly outsider returning to his roots, only to have to find his place in a small town world, has certainly been done before in a dozen different ways. In fact it's being done this year on the very same station with Jericho, although that particular embodiment has a profoundly different take, which I might add, I am still really enjoying. In any case, October Road will be worth following for a number of reasons, but my hope is based on a yearning for witty dialog. You know, I think thats the main reason that I find myself watching Gilmore Girls with K every time Netflix drops a disc our way. The torrent of witty reparte is astounding.

I also caught the pilot episode of Raines. It's not much to write home about. Jeff Goldblum plays his typical low key weirdo. Alternatingly interesting, humerous and blase. The plot device of the "ghosts" is curious and could turn out to be interesting in the long run if well executed. It's funny how many of these "flawed" detectives there are out there in TV land. I mean just as a short list we've got...

The broken detective who lost his family in 9/11 (CSI:NY), The sarcastic bug loving detective (CSI), The annoyingly macho detective (CSI:Miami), The psychic crime solver (The Dead Zone), The fake psychic wannabe detective with an idetic memory (Psych), The obsessive compulsive genius (Monk) and now The schizophrenic detective whose hallucinations help solve crimes (Raines). Bah! I guess they've got something there seeing as how I watch all of these damn shows. Now all I can hope for is that someone decides to make a show out of Odd Thomas.

So that was the extent of new shows. Did any of you happen to catch them? What did you think?

Idol Continued

2007-03-14T02:03:34Z

Ok, now that Sanjaya's done... on with the reviews.

Haley was pretty good (in the beginning), but Diana was right, she is under-singing..... and ouch... she forgot her words. Overall, she looked good tonight and she sang pretty well, but I think she's on the cutting line after that slip up. Also, she needs to be careful with the melodrama, it was almost too much.

Phil had really good vocals this week, but someone in the face must have been pulling faces at him, because he had that goofy grin on his face far too often throughout the song. I'd say that was a pretty memorable performance, especially since I don't think I'd ever heard the song before.

Lakisha's vocals were probably just as she wanted them, but I think it was a pretty pitiful rendition of a fantastic song. Blech. I disagree entirely with Randy. Well except that she had a nice dress on. With all of them for that matter. I like Lakisha, but that was sub-par.

Time to see Blake hopefully knock this one out of the park...

Hmmmm... not a home run, but I think that again, alot of it was that the band wrecked it. Well that and that Blake needs some dance lessons, or perhaps just not "dance" if thats what you want to call that. I wonder if the judges will ever mention that the the band was a mess.

I think I may need to spend some time "pity" voting tonight.

Stephanie was relatively mediocre, as was the song. So mediocre actually that I didn't even notice her forgetting her lyrics.

Chris Richardson picked a song that was faaaaaar to fast paced for his vocal comfort zone. He doesn't need to trill like that either. Justin Timberlake impersonations have a time and a place (I guess), but this was not one of them. He just didn't make the grade. As Simon said... Dreadful...

Jordan wrapped it upwith a song that like most of tonights songs, dated back to a land before time. And I am sorry to say that the performance was somewhat on the primitave, with only sporadic hints of brilliance. I don't know if I just missed it or what. I think she needs some work. This is not a three girl race, not just yet anyway.

With that, I hereby "Ponunciate" this blog over! Catch you tomorrow.

The Sanjaya Report

2007-03-14T00:48:19Z

Well he was in tune... but I think part of my issue with this kid is that he dances like a little kid on a state fair talent show stage trying to emulate his mother and sings with no breath. He doesn't put any force behind his vocals. Weak! Randy had it dead on. Weak!

Ignore him until he goes away, pleeease...

Pronunciate!?! An Idol Update

2007-03-14T00:44:41Z

Ack!

So I've decided that this is certainly not going to be my favorite episode of Idol. Diana Ross didn't need to be celebrated tonight. Especially if she is going to make up recockulous words like "Pronunciate".

Brandon, I'm not sure if he sucked or if the song did.

Melinda was pretty good, but the song near about bored me to tears. Maybe thats why she and Paula were crying at the end, because I sure didn't see anything that was tear invoking.

Chris did indeed murder the arangement, but really needs to stay in this. I think he would have been much better off with just a piano behind his vocals instead of that full band. I haven't thought it yet this season, but I was reminded that sometimes the band is a detriment to the singers on this show. Oh... and yes, Chris, put your glasses back on.

Gina Rocked It! Hands down, I have no idea why the judges had an issue....

Uh oh... here comes Sanjaya. Time to turn up your t.v.'s

Some people...

2007-03-09T15:23:44Z

You know, I can't begin to tell you how many telemarketers and recordings call me here in the office on a daily basis. The recordings are easy enough to hang up on, but I try and be courteous to the people that actually cold call me. I remember what it was like. I worked nights for the Saratogian, our local paper, for the better part of a year as a teenager. It was an ungrateful job, with quotas that had to be met nightly or you lost your job. It could easily put you in a foul mood.

The thing that irks me is that some of these people, whether it be out of annoyance or stupidity, can be so ignorant as to back talk me when I politely tell them that I am not interested in their product. I mean it's one thing to try and continue your pitch, I can respect that, but the idiot that called me from the Saratogian had the short sightedness to follow up my rebuff with a drippingly sarcastic... "Way to support your local paper.." click!

I was so pissed off. I sat here for a minute to reign in my temper. I told myself that the ignorant ass probably didn't realize that although I may not want to recieve a free trial of the Sunday paper (which of course they would eventually start billing me for), I might actually, by some stretch of the imagination as a small business owner, run ads in his freaking employers paper!

After a few more minutes I decided it wasn't worth making the guy lose his job, which he most definitely would after one complaint, that is assuming that the folks running the "discount department" are the hard asses that I worked under. If thats the case, his days are likely numbered anyway.

I'll just take a deep breath, relax, and hope the guy lightens up and begins to think a little bit before opening his yap. I surely don't envy him.

Idol Update III

2007-03-09T02:10:10Z

WTF!!!!!

I mean seriously, this is absolutely rediculous.

While I may agree with most folks that Sundance did a pretty bad rendition of Jeremy, voting that poor bastard Sanjaya through is just a half step down from voting through William Hung.

I am dissapointed in you America.

Your own kind of music...

2007-03-08T19:53:12Z

So I mentioned Soul Coughing in my earlier entry, and as with most times I think or talk about music, I can't seem to get it out of my head even after a couple of hours. Soul Coughing in particular has a funny place in my life.

At some point when we were all teens and figuring out who we were in the world, I think most of us come across some piece of sub-culture that we realise not many other people have noticed and that begins to help us flesh out who we are. For me it was when I was about 17, I was driving home late from a friends house and caught most of "Screenwriter's Blues". The DJ didn't mention the name of the band, but the song got stuck in my head.

For days I listened to the radio, just hoping to catch it again. Eventually I was sitting in my car again late one night and I heard it. Still there was no name. I even tried to call into the station to find out the name, but I couldn't get through. The next day after school I made my way down to the local record shop, the only independant shop around those days. I picked through the owners brain for a bit and eventually he figured out what it was that I was talking about. The album wasn't even out yet, but the owner of the shop had a promo copy of the album that he had gotten just a couple of weeks before. The CD title was Ruby Vroom.

I must have listened to that cd two hundred times over the next week. Every word and intonation of the singers voice engrained in my memory. I don't think I'll ever forget the lyrics to a single song. I had internalized music before, a habit I picked up from years of choir as a kid, but this was the first time that I ever felt like I had discovered something all my own. The only other music to come close like this was Blind Melon, but that was mainstream. Well at least No Rain was. I grew to hate that song eventually, but that never happened with any song off the original Soul Coughing album.

You know, over the years, I have found friends because of this band, seen the group and eventually just Mike Doughty himself over a dozen times in venues large and even better small. I've spoken with Mike Doughty a handful of times after shows and even had my voice end up in a song, they used to sample yells from the crowd and loop them into live performances. I can say that no band, or musician has ever made more of an impact on me personally or the way I look at language.

Anyway Screenwriters Blues has surfaced in my head again over the last few days and I thought I'd share some of it with you all. The video I found on YouTube is pretty cheesy, but hell they were nobodies when they produced this. I'll try and put up a mini concert sometime over the weekend too if I can find enough good material on YouTube. Hope you enjoy...

Feelin Good...

2007-03-08T18:56:59Z

It's a new day, I mean it seriously feels like a different day than this morning. My morning was going fine, but I was feeling a little blase when I got to work. In fact I have been feeling a little blase all month. But after just an hour and a half out of the office I feel like a new person. I look like one too. About a month and a half ago now I realized that I needed a hair cut, but by this last couple of weeks it was more than apparent that I needed one desperately. I mean I usually keep my hair pretty short, but as of last weekend I was able to do my hair like Marcell from Top Chef. Abso-freaking-lutely ridiculous.

Surely not the height of fashion.

So yeah, this morning I finally made it downtown for the hair cut. Janelle took about two and a half inches off the top, leaving me looking like a civilized human being again. One who does not have to wear a hat twelve hours of every freaking day. Even K was begging me to get my hair cut, and that has never happened before. I was so close this last weekend to shaving my head completely. The only reason I didn't was that K really didn't want me to, and I didn't have a set of sheers to do it.

To top it off, I went ahead and splurged on a grande mocha over at Starbucks before hand. It was just what I needed, with the exception of noticing yet another example of what jerks there are in the world. As I went into Starbucks, there was an adorable standard poodle parked right outside the doors in a sit stay, staring in at the nice warm shop. Mind you the dog was not tied to anything, just sitting there, not even a leash to be seen. Between it's practically manicured paws was a 3 inch Milkbone. So I squeezed into the store thinking that the owner was probably just grabbing a quick cup of coffee and that they would be out to take care of their dog long before I had my coffee.

I was wrong. I should have known that the dog was just someone's fashion accessory, left outside like muddy shoes. I watched each and every one of the people in line ahead of me leave and walk straight past the dog, a few saying comforting words to it and shaking their heads as they continued on their way, but not a person sitting at a table paid the dog any mind. The poor thing just sat out there, eventually breaking it's sit stay, probably because it's pompom ass was frozen, to press it's nose against the door and stare longingly into the warm place where it's "master" sipped their latte and daintily partook of their muffin. Arg. And to add insult to injury the dog didn't have any interest whatsoever in the milkbone. I mean really, it says something about a person when you are willing to pay easily $65 on your dogs haircut, but then you leave it on the sidewalk in sub zero windchill with the cheapest possible treat you could buy. Ack....

Anyway I am way off topic. Well actually not since that was pre-haircut. After the haircut, with my head feeling bristly short and clean, not to mention refreshingly cool in the cold air, and my belly full with warm mocha and caffeine, I jumped back in the car and drove home listening to the country station I landed on a couple days ago. I'm on a bit of a country kick I suppose, with the exception of the Soul Coughing tunes that I've running through my head the last couple of days. The short of it is as the subject line says... I feel good.

I hope the rest of you are having as good a day as I am. Catch you later.

Idol Update II

2007-03-08T18:11:37Z

So I have to admit, I'm just not nearly as interested in the womens night of competition. If this were purely a vocal competition, I'd say that the only three that stand out to me are...

Lakisha Jones
By far the best vocals of the season, but her image may cause her problems down the line. The good news is thatshe has taken Simons advice on style.

Melinda Doolittle
Again, she's got incredible pipes, but her image is in even worse shape. I don't know if it's her mousy personality or a bone disorder, but the way her shoulders are shrugged up, makes her look a little awkward. I hope that she continues to loosen up, both stylisticly and physically if she can, as she continues in the season.

Gina Glocksen
The female Daughtry of the season. She doesn't have the best vocals of the bunch, but she has that edge and personality that just pulls me in. The funny thing is that she has had the image from the start, but she has been masking it with silly song choices and bad clothes. Her hair and tattoos say who she really is and last night we finally saw some of that. I'm really looking forward to seeing what she can do now that she has shrugged off the good girl image a bit.

Oh and just a note... although Antonella wasn't horrendous last night, she still sucked, and the girl who went after her last night as well. They both sure as shit better get cut this week or I will be really dissapointed.

Well thats all for this update... On to the more important bits of life.

American Idol Update

2007-03-07T03:31:56Z

Blake Lewis
311? Novel choice, and for sure a surprise, but how in the hell could the three of them not know that song? I enjoyed, though it was surely not Blake's best performance. Oh and lets hope we never see another impersonation, or character or what ever he called that, his cool factor curdled a bit when he exposed that bit.

Sanjaya
Perhaps it was not nearly as "dreadful" as last week as Simon said, but it was pretty bad. I have a bad feeling though that he will still be here come next week because he picked a likeable song. Damn his ingenuity. But dear gods, Hula dancing?

Sundance Head
Sundance, Sundance, Sundance.... Dude destroyed a perfectly enjoyable song. And I do not mean destroyed in the "Dude that rocked" kind of way. I think the big guy ought to pack up and try again next year. I'm sorry about that too because he seems like a really nice guy.

Chris Richardson
Did a pretty good job tonight. Not the most memorable song, but really well sung.

Jared
Oh... and then there was Jared. This guy is interesting. His voice isn't too bad, but then he goes all goofy after last weeks face reveal (which in truth wasn't thaaat bad), he follows up with a Carelton Banks impersonation (don't say you can't see the resemblace). His stylist should be shot this week. He probably drew the short straw and got Sanjaya's stylist from last week.

Phil Stacey
Judges couldn't have been more spot on. This was completely the wrong song, and his opening vocals sounded REALLY bad. In the end the vocals panned out, but the song was a disaster.

Brandon Rogers
I wasn't a huge fan of this tune either, but he had the energy tonight and it was certanly an original choice. For once I have to agree with Randy's opener, and not the normally sage advice of Simon.

Chris Sligh
Chris is by far the most talented of the remaining Idols, not only does he have the most refined and "adult" voice of the group, but he has a great personality and very good song choices.

So predictions for this week? Nah, but I'll tell you who ought to go home...
Sanjaya & Sundance

Second string of cuts ought to be Jared and Phil.

What do you all think? Leave a comment.

Mini Concert: CAKE

2007-03-02T18:53:25Z

Wheels & I Will Survive

Daria & Ruby Sees All

Comfort Eagle & Stickshifts and Safety Belts

Rock & Roll Lifestyle

American Idol Update

2007-03-02T15:54:45Z

Wake the fuck up people....

I'm not gearing that toward you folks that actually read this, unless of course you voted for the whisper singing michael jackson wannabe Sanjaya. I mean seriously, there is no way that he should have made it another week. The kid is a train wreck.

And although the tag line "vote for Pedro" was particularly annoying, the guy did not deserve to go home last night. If anyone other than Sanjaya should of gone home it should have been Brandon Rogers with his mundane song choice or Sundance Head, who I might add, I find unique and personable, but far from the best singer. My vote, if we were voting for who to cut, would have been Sanjayah and Brandon.

I was completely stunned to see AJ Tabaldo get cut last night. He didn't show a ton of personality, but he has a hell of a voice. And his performance last night? He killed it! Not to mention that if you compare it with Leslie Hunt's performance of the same song last night, it was like night and day. The girl could barely keep herself in tune and to call what she did scatting would be like calling David Hasselhoff a musical genius. It's only something the Germans would do.

In general, I thought that the decision on the girls side was fair. Leslie could probably have gimped through another week, but she wasn't long for the competition, and that Alaina chick was doomed after her performance this week. I would have been ok with losing the little harlot Antonella since her performance was terrible as well, but the topless blowjob photos released on the internet seem to have bought her the teen vote for another week at least. We'll see how much play she can get out of that.

Ah well, back to real life and time to stop ranting about "reality" television....

Slacker...

2007-03-01T15:32:38Z

Hey there again... yeah, yeah... I know I've been slacking. Far too much time penned up at home feeling like shit and playing EQ 2 to try and ignore the discomfort. My body is in revolt again. I'm a right mess lately. I really need to get myself straightened out. Time to re-institute the diet and sanity plan. With a baby coming I think it's only fair.

In other less whiny news... K is finally showing, though it may not be as noticable to others as it is to me. Oh and we had another ultrasound yesterday. It was pretty incredible, but I actually felt like we didn't see as much as the last one. The doctor asked if we wanted to know the sex of the baby and I had a moment of weakness and just stood there blankly as K said no. I don't know what came over me. I guess the suspense is killing me. It will be worth the wait though. As my brother said to me the other day, and I'm paraphrasing a bit here, "There are only so many surprises in life, why spoil it".

I realised the other day, just how much there was to do around the house to get ready for the baby. Those twig shaped cabinet pulls that we bought seemed like a really good idea at the time, but um... think again. Oh and let me tell you, I sooooo want to get rid of the wall to wall carpet in our living room and finish the basement. Thats been hanging over my head for far too long.

Just to make it official... I am ready for the snow to go away. I want spring to get it's ass in here already.

In entertainment news...

American Idol has been pretty good this season. A few of the guys have been doing well, but there are a few, like Sanjaya that just need to go. As for the women, a few have great voices, but there is very little personality on their side of the aisle. My early favorites are Chris Sligh and the Beatbox Guy. We'll have to see what happens though.

24 has been pretty good so far this season, but I'm finding myself looking more forward to Grey's Anatomy and House than I am 24. Kind of odd. Maybe the plots are getting too predictable. It's always some plot within the white house staff. Can't we just get some good old fashioned terrorist play? I think the level of drama has just been way better on Grey's.

Prison Break has been good as well, but I am getting a little sick of seeing the other inmates get picked off week after week. Especially when it's the good ones that keep dying.

Lost... freaking awesome, but I haven't watched last nights episode yet. In fact I think I may go do that right now... catch you all soon.

Misery in Minneapolis....

2007-01-17T01:53:18Z

IDOL Update Part 1

Is there a reason the folks at American Idol have decided to torture me for the last 44 minutes... ? Seriously... is there? wait.... make that 48 minutes.

I mean dear sweet jesus, the people auditioning out in Minneapolis are making me wonder if I ever want to go back there... ok, perhaps thats an exageration. It's just that of the 2 people they've put through in this first hour truely do not deserve to be going to Hollywood, at least based on what we have been forced to witness.

The sad part is that even the numbskulls that we are supposed to be able to mock, haven't even been mockable. They've just been downright depressing. I think perhaps they screwed themselves when they started the episode with that poor Jessica chick breaking down. ((Sigh)) Let's see if they can shape it up in the next hour and ten minutes.

((EDIT: 9:03 and now a third has gone through, and I feel I can safely lump him in with the others. Now the cowardly lion wanabee is making me cry and not with laughter.))

After the storm...

2007-01-16T18:22:13Z

Well we made it trough the night without losing power again. It was a tad miserable getting up at 7:30 today to salt and sand the driveway, but I can't really complain as there are still 25,000 people in Saratoga county without power. At first I thought that it must be a miracle that we didn't lose power except for a few minutes yesterday, but I think it really comes down to some excellent tree trimming by the power company over the last year, combined with the fact that most of the dead branches probably blew off earlier this year when we had those 3 days of bad wind storms. God knows we lost power then.

I'm just typing to try and warm my fingers since it's only 52 degrees in here today. Someone turned off the heat in here again over the weekend. It seems to be warming up pretty quickly though.

Anyway, 24 was pretty damn good last night. I wasn't too shocked at the "big ending" due to a damn drudge report story yesterday. A tad dissapointed on that note. I am really enjoying the development of Jacks character, the torture he's endured seems to have definately made an impact on him, as has the situation with Curtis, but I have a feeling that the end of last nights episode is going to change things a little. I had visions of Bruce Banner in my head as Jack looked off into the distance.

In other news, we are coming up on the middle of week 13 of the pregnancy. By chance, I found a handy little ticker on the web today so I thought I'd toss that in here as a nice reminder of whats happening on a week to week basis. Due to resizing, it's a tad hard to read, but you can click on it to read the full entry.

K is still having trouble with the texture of meat in her food, so we are still eating more pasta and risotto than I prefer. The good news is that she's finally able to brush her teeth without wretching. Hopefully the morning sickness is fading. I'm looking forward to eating chicken again soon.

I found myself wishing that there were a 4d ultrasound system in the area last week after our doctors appointment. I had seen one at the Medical Conference I attended a couple of years ago and had assumed that they were wide spread now, but it turns out that there are a pretty limited number of clinics sporting them so far. Looks like the closest ones are down in the city (NY), over in Boston, and up in Montreal. In case you don't know what the difference is, here is a side by side comparison.

I finished Liquor last week and started on the sequel Prime a few days ago. Liquor ended up being a really enjoyable book overall. The end seemed to come a bit quick, but it was still quite riveting. Prime has been a bit slow to start so far, but it seems to be picking up. I think the problem was that at the start of the second book, the characters didn't have any goal to really overcome, just a bad restaurant review. But the proverbial shit has started to hit the fan now so things should intensify.

Well there is lots to do in here today, so I ought to get to work. I'll try and update again later today, otherwise there will probably be an idol recap tonight around 10.

Icy Update...

2007-01-15T22:45:48Z

Well the power did in fact go out a little while ago, but it was a reak quick one. Came back on in just under a minute. We'll be pretty damned lucky if thats the extent of it. The ice doesn't seem to have built up too much more, but the sun just went down about 30 minutes ago and I think that will set everything freezing again. Now that the cable box has recycled, we are just sitting here watching a rusted root concert. I haven't thought of them in a real long time. But it's a pretty good concert for music that I don't really know.

I am constantly amazed at the plethora of live concerts and recorded sessions on the HD channels. Not to mention that I have seen more episodes of Storytellers, Cross Overs, Cross Country, Life & Rhymes, Ledgends of Jazz etc. in the last few weeks. I've really enjoyed it. MHD (the HD MTV/VH1/CMTV hybrid channel) is the best MTV offshoot in over a decade. It's actually all music. No stupid crap ass degenerate shows like the Real World and Jack Ass.

Now: Time to make tomato soup and crackers. A perfect way to settle into an icy yet cozy winter night at home.

Maybe I'll check in again later...

The Ice Storm (07)

2007-01-15T19:00:15Z

Well hello out there from the frozen tundra of Upstate NY. We are in the middle of one hell of an ice storm. It's pretty incredible. So far there is "only" a little more than a quarter inch out there, but they are estimating a 1/2" to Inch by late tonight or tomorrow morning. Due to the weather, we are home from work. It's been a pretty slow day overall. We've just done some cleaning and preparing for the inevitable loss of power. I also shot some photos out in the yard. I wish there was some sunshine, it would be incredible to see. I'll mix some shots into my entry.

It was kind of freaky being out there between the sound of grinding ice with every step across the grass, to the snapping of tree limbs coming from the woods every few seconds. As I was shooting, a tree came down next to the house, nearly hitting the new fencing. K called out from the porch asking me to come in, I had to agree that it would be a good idea. As I got into the house and took off my shoes, another branch about twice the size of me came crashing down 3 feet from where I had been standing. Timing is everything I suppose. I'm glad we took down the dying trees that were so close to the house over the summer, that would have been a disaster.

At this point K is playing EQII (at least while we have power), and I'm just watching TV. ((Judging Amy at the moment)) Sort of ironic that it's the episode where an ice laden branch crashes into their house. Now it's just a waiting game. Time to hope that the brownouts slow down and the power waits to go out until after 10pm when 24 is over. No matter what though, I think we're prepared. Blankets and Mummy bags are unrolled, my long underwear is layed out, all of our flashlight batteries are loaded, as is the radio and the laptop here. I've dragged in a pile of candles and set up a stack of reading material for after the laptop dies. Wish us luck. We wish you all the same.

((EDIT: I just talked to Mom & Dad. It seems that there is trouble up at their place as well. Dad went out to move and set up the motor home in case of a power outage, only to find that a leak in the roof had clogged with ice and was spilling into the cabin. After dealing with that, he went back inside, only to notice shortly there after that the motor home had slid down the slight slope of the driveway into their tool shed, bending the ladder on the back of the vehicle. Ack! Dad moved the motor home again thinking he had a better footing. He set an egg timer and came back to check when it had gone off. It had slid another foot back towards the shed and the barn. He's got the front wheels planted on the lawn now. Let's hope it stays put. It may be my only chance of seeing 24 if the power goes out before 8pm. Hope everyone is hanging in there.))

A momentary lull before the week explodes...

2007-01-14T05:24:13Z

So tonight after work K and decided to go and see Casino Royale at the local dinner and a movie place in Saratoga. Unfortunately we were wait listed and told to just show up 10 minutes before the show to grab a seat, "someone always cancels". So we lounged around the house until 7:30 and then headed downtown. I was jazzed. I've been looking forward to this movie for a while and to watch it over dinner seemed like a sweet combo. Unfortunately for us and the 6 other folks on the wait list (we were first) the party of 8 that was way late showed up just as they were getting ready to seat us. Sonofa...

So grumped out and hungry, we hit price chopper (an unpleasant experience as always, Shop Hannaford!) and grabbed some mac to make at home. Far from nutritious, but quick and easy. When we got back home, I realized the upside... I could watch the eagles semi-final playoff game. I came in just as we scored the second touch down. It was pretty rockin. From there we were good up until just after half time. Then it was all down hill. The Saints just kept running the ball and our poor defense was just exhausted. This was the Saints strategy all the way until the end. Why we f***ing punted on that last play I will never know. With 2 minutes left in the 4th, there was little to no f***ing chance that we were going to get the ball back. Ack!! The upside is that I got to chat with my father about 12 times throughout the game. It was nice to share some time with him, even if it was just over the phone.

Now it's time to dig in and get ready for an exhausting, but kick ass week of TV. It's gonna take alot to pull me out of my HighDef coma come Saturday. Here's the line-up.

Sunday - 2 hour 24 premier!

Monday - EVEN MORE 24!!!

Tuesday - New NCIS, The Unit, Law & Order: SVU and American Idol premieres!

Wednesday - EVEN MORE American Idol! plus Friday Night Lights, CSI:NY and Top Chef

Thursday - New CSI, Grey's Anatomy and Shark.

Friday - New Psych! sweeet!

Holy crap!?!, that adds up to a minimum of 18 hours of entertainment this week. Wish me luck with that coma.

Walkabout Highlights

2007-01-12T17:01:09Z

So for the last two nights, I have decided to walk around downtown Saratoga and shoot some photos. When I got down there the other night, I decided to continue with the Mannequinisms series that I started last year.

The whole idea is to capture the awkward beauty of these mostly headless sentinels that surround us daily. They are strangely stoic, subtly changing and beautiful in their own right. This project is giving me a chance to shoot a little bit of fashion (one of my favorite photo subjects) and at the same time focus on an un-noticed aspect of downtown.

Anyway, here are a few of the shots. You can see the rest by heading over to my deviantart gallery (just click any of the images to get there) there are some other subjects covered there as well, mostly nature shots. Hell I'll even toss one of the latest nature shots in here too.

((Edit: For some reason my deviant art embed isn't working. Adding deviantart banner as a jump link.))

I need to get more sleep

2007-01-09T20:24:04Z

But please don't tell that to K. She is constantly telling me I should go to bed earlier. Last night I crashed around 10:30, and damn did it feel good to get a full nights rest. When I woke up this morning, my dreams stood out like vivid stamps. I had some really good ones last night. Not much plot wise, but the imagery was just gorgeous. Maybe it's that I've been on an artistic bent since the weekend, but the dream left me wanting to go out and shoot alot more photos while we have this weather.

In the dream, I was on my way to work early in the morning. As I walked out the door, all I could think about was how incredible this weather was and how warm it was in the sunshine. Pure blue sky, not a single cloud. As I walked up out of my driveway (I was coming out of an old quadruplex where I lived in junior high) and toward the road, I saw that the large bank of the hill just beyond the driveway was in full bloom, and covered in a lush blanket of flowers. The tree's had also popped their buds and were full of green and small flowers. The air had a sweet scent to it. I just absorbed it all and walked up to the road and started walking the sidewalk to work. Not a care in the world, jut plain happy.

That's pretty much how I woke up too. Happy with a thick layer of groggy. I must either be subconciously jonesing for spring or this sundays weather mixed with that story I saw about cherry trees blossoming in NYC last week is just mixing together and lingering in my head. I think I'm going to head downtown tonight and do some shooting. I need some new work on my deviantart page, and this wave of creative juice is just the excuse to make some. I have the day off tomorrow so I can edit and post anything worthwhile then.

A Ben Folds Five Mini Concert

2007-01-08T22:14:01Z

"Philosophy"

Underground"

The Last Polka"

One Heck of a Sunday!

2007-01-08T20:18:13Z

What a Sunday! It was fantastic. K and I got up early yesterday and met up with a bunch of friends over at The Country Corner Cafe in Saratoga. It was about 60 degrees and pure sunshine. I don't think I'll ever see a January day in NY like that again. Anyway, we had a really great breakfast potato pancakes, sausage, bacon and O.J. for me, it totally left me craving a Woodchuck and missing Minneapolis and the Black Forrest Inn. The food was delish and had some really funny conversations. A couple of folks split off afterward though, while the rest of us went out to the Wilton Wildlife Preserve to do some Geocaching (definition) (official site).

We stopped off at Barnes & Noble so some folks could pick up some schwag to drop in the caches. I stayed outside trying to re-initialize our GPS unit. The GPS turned out to be malfunctioning, so K and I ran over to EMS and bought a new mid range unit. Everyone met back up at EMS and we left for the wildlife preserve. It took some adjusting to figure out how the new GPS worked and to learn to adjust for loss of signal, not to mention how to read the interface, but we eventually got a hang of it. The first cache we did took about an hour and a half, but it was a 5 part multi-cache so that wasn't extrordinarilly long. We were'nt so good at being stealthy and as such were spotted by other geocachers and letterboxers that were hunting other caches in the area. It is so amazing that there are so many caches hidden around the area and so many other people participating. It's amazing that there is such a large community out there, and that most people, "muggles", don't even realize it.

Anyway, after the first cache a couple people had to take off, but the three of us that were left went and did one more cache at the preserve. It was a pretty easy find, but it was down a path that I had always taken to be a deer path. It actually turned out to be one of the most beautiful sections of trail in the preserve. Anyway, from there we went out for a late lunch at Moe's. K accidentally ordered my nacho's with steak instead of ground beef, but it was a happy accident. Those nacho's made my afternoon. Once our bellies were full, we decided to hit one last cache over at Skidmore since we had found a couple of TravelBug's in the previous two caches. The cache is known as the TravelBug hotel. People leave TravelBug's in there so they are easily accessed by visiting geocachers over the winter months. Pretty neat idea for a cache.

The night ended up being just as fun. The dogs were dead tired by the time we got home, and truth be told, I think K and I were pretty wiped too. K and I did some quick touch up cleaning as everyone was due to show up for our D&D game in just a short while. We had more people over than normal since one of our friends had some other friends in town for the weekend. It took us some time to get into the game, but once we did, it just went smooth as silk. The party dynamic was spot on and the night turned into more of a role playing session than a dice rolling game. It's night like last night that really make me enjoy playing D&D. We finished up just a little early, so I was even able to watch an episode of NUMBERS and an episode of CSI. All in all it was one of the best days I've had in a couple of months. Thanks to everyone involved!

(EDIT: I'll post some pics of the geocaching fun when I get home tonight)