Shopping Surprise

Long time since the last Celebrity Sighting! And coincidentally a second one of local sports heroes at Bellevue Square. Went in to buy a gift and who's there? The Bone and Rick Rizzs.

Let There Be Light!

Behold, one of my first home improvement projects. I'm really just happy that I didn't electrocute myself in the process.



to



and voila!



Lights now automatically turn on when I enter the hallway and thus I don't have to fiddle with light switches when I come in from the garage with both hands full of groceries. I've done a bevy of other small changes, but no photos quite yet -- don't worry, updates soon!

Remembering Foody Goody

A sad day -- I'm sorry to report that Foody Goody (most recently known as the Pan-Asian Buffet is now defunt and has turned into a Big 5 Sporting Goods store. For those that remember, Food Goody made a name for themselves by being the nastiest of the area Chinese buffets -- not an easy task by any stretch of the imagination. A gamble to your well being anytime you ate there, Foody Goody not only epitomized the stereotypes of Chinese buffets but broke new ground in areas of uncleanliness and marginally cooked food. As my friend G likes to say, you have a chance to bleed out your ass when you eat there. It's hard to say that about any other licensed restaurant establishment, and it is for reasons like that that Foody Goody transcends being just another eatery but rather is elevated to the status of legend.

That Time Again

My computer has just about run out of hard disk space. In this day and age where hard drives are measured by the terabytes, one might wonder what my computer is filled with. The answer is simple: not much. I have a 37GB hard drive (of which 34.4GB is usable). People have iPods with larger capacities that my computer. Good thing adjacent to this monitor is a box from Newegg with a 640GB hard drive, and atop that a plastic case containing Windows 7. I'm sporting Vista right now and haven't had any of the problems that people seem to be plagued with, but alas it is time to upgrade. When next I post I'll have ample legroom to save more useless crap.

♦ I was just at Best Buy exchanging a movie, and man are they busy over there. They have scores of people prepping the floor for Black Friday. Black tubs and black plastic wrapped displays are abound, littering the show floor ready to be unraveled to the masses early Friday morning. I for one hate crowds so I will not be in attendance to this madness, but I'm sure some people will be scoring some good deals.

♦ Both Moulin Rouge! and Disney's Beauty & the Beast graced my television screen this past weekend -- guess I was in a musical mood. We need more sing songy movies! Tangled comes out tomorrow, and I highly suggest you see it. Thanks to friend Hilary I was able to see a screening of it a couple weeks ago and it was wonderful, harkening back to the classic Disney movies of old. It's got the girl, the guy, the evil villain, and a colorful host of supporting characters. Maybe I'm not as impressionable as I was when I was younger, but the songs in recent Disney movies don't seem to be as good as they were growing up. This is true of this movie as well as The Princess Frog. But don't let that deter you in the least, and go see Tangled.

How I Drove Fourteen Miles in Eight Hours and Forty Minutes

Or, SNOWMAGEDDON, 2010 !!! Events happened in real time. All entries have combined into this one super-post for correct chronological reading.
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8:02PM

Dear me, I've been on the road for an hour and a half and might be a mile away from my workplace. Radio is saying things like "thunder snow" incoming, as well as drivers calling in with their stories of being on the road for hours - just trying to get through Seattle. Luckily I filled my gas tank yesterday and am dressed warmly, otherwise I would have other troubles. Though chances are I will have to pee into a bottle before the night is over...

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8:38PM

I've gone about 0.3 miles in the last half hour. At this rate I should be home by early tomorrow evening. For people who are wondering, "doesn't David always bitch about people texting and driving?" I counter that this shouldn't really considered driving - a parking lot would be a more apt description.

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8:59PM

Triptometer at 60.3 -- 0.1 miles since last update.
Definitely just urinated in my car; a precarious balancing act, if I may say so. If I'm gonna be here might as well be a little comfortable. Good thing I keep a bottle of Purell in here. And if necessary, I have other empty bottles available before I need to resort to my Nalgene.

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9:32PM

Trip: 60.5
Three lanes of traffic taking up four lanes... Not sure how this started as the lane turtles are still visible, but I don't think this illegitimate alignment is hurting anything either. Just passed a guy helping someone else jump their car in the middle lanes. Three people have walked past me in the shoulder -- I still haven't reached the next exit after my work yet.

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9:59PM

Trip: 60.6
I've moved approximately 180 feet since last update. I'm starting to get a little worried because it's snowing more and not much movement by cars, meaning it's starting to stick. I voted against side streets initially because I thought it would be safer with less compacted snow/ice on the road, but with nearly half an inch coating I-5 the benefits are slowly being negated. Wind and snow seems to be increasing. More people leaving their cars and walking around, one lady in a Prius in the middle lane turned on her emergency blinkers, got out, and hopped the guardrail -- presumebly to pee. Wish I had thought of that., though I fear it's too cold for my preciouses.

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10:29PM

Trip: 60.7
After fifteen minutes of park, got to move a little. Prius lady has taken a second bathroom break, as has a handful of others. My latest advance has allowed me to see the horizon for the first time - a red sea of brakelights. Some small number of people seem to have turned their engines off -- not a good idea, and I'm sure that's what is resulted in the small pockets of people needed jump starts. KOMO 1000 has finally told us that there are spun out semitrucks blocking Interurban, but are close to being cleared off. Well see how legitimate that information is.

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11:12PM

Trip: 61.0
Wish I had my real camera, but maybe you can make out the sign: I'm one mile away from the first exit past my work; the first exit since I've gotten on the interstate. There are a rising number of abandoned vehicles on the shoulder. Thinking some more, I guess if you are running low on gas shutting off your engine might be the only recourse, at the risk of not being able to start your car again. Despite being on the same stretch of I-5 for about four and a half hours now, I'm actually not doing too badly. Since I like being prepared, I have a pound of almonds with me and more food in the back. I still have close to half a gallon of water in addition to all I've drank. If things get really ridiculous I have a flashlight, thermal blanket, and shovel at my disposal. Heaven's forbid I have to bust out the fire starting flint...

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11:23PM

There is about an inch of standing snow on I-5 now, and while it's still coming down sideways it is subsiding. A fireman just ran past my car, as he needed to part some lanes for the above firetruck to get through. There are firemen jogging down I-5... this might be classified as a real disaster. I haven't passed that sign from the previous post yet.

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11:35PM

Trip: still 61.0
An ambulance just made its way past me on the right, and what do I see? Assclown drivers trailing its path! Way to take advantage... On the bright side, I just reached the exit... sign. I could probably get off and take E. Marginal back to work in forty-five minutes. Tempting...

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11:48PM
DOT representative just said they have two lanes open. Still under the sign, hope to see these open lanes soon...

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Tuesday Nov. 23rd, 12:16 AM

Trip 61.1
Uh... I have not moved an inch since they said lanes had been cleared. The snow is officially ice now, and I'm wondering if I should take the exit (if I ever move from here) and try MLK to 900. I'm ready to fill another bottle, but I'm flanked by two semi cabs, and they'd be able to see everything. Everything.

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12:31AM
Trip: 61.4!
Movement! Slighly killed as KOMO 1000 just told me they might have reclosed all lanes to get tow trucks on scene. I'm at about six straight hours in my car, marking this the second longest stint I've ever spent continuously in transportation. Chances are I will not be going to work tomorrow.

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12:50AM

Trip: 61.6
I can see the exit to MLK... I'm going to go for it. I-5 south completely is blocked according to WSDOT due to ice. I'm going to take my chances with surface streets.

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1:13AM

Trip: 62.1
Finally on the offramp...

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1:18AM

Shiet, 900 has no movement... Unsure if I can even get on. I might have to be super adventerous and take super side streets. There's a good number of people driving way too fast past me... there is a layer of ice on the ground!

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1:25AM
Alright, still in same spot trying to get on 900. A Sound Transit bus is slipping backwards on the onramp... That's probably not helping... Well no, movement now. Gosh I hope this isn't a wrong decision...

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1:39AM

62.5.
Terrible decision. DOT says I-5 now has a few lanes open so hopefully that helps, but the problem now is that the lane to 900 is blocked by a stuck bus and semi-truck. That they were stopped leads me to believe at some point they were trying to merge to the I-5 lane, but are now cock blocking everyone. The lady in the SUV behind me just took her car over the median and pulled a U-ie. Seeing as how I'm fairly certain I would bottom out and end up in a really embarrassing position, I'm stuck waiting. The good news is I'm no worse off than if I had stayed on the interstate. Though now I'm unsure what the stuck bus and truck mean for me once the I-5 lane starts moving.

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2:00AM

Yep, that could have been me. Thirty feet down, and I can see traffic moving ahead -- albeit very slowly. Just passed 7.5 hours in my car. I've been in here longer than I was at work today.

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2:22AM

Trip: 62.9
So... Close...

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2:27AM
Jeezus, not sure if I'm driving or sliding. Better than I-5 though. Here comes the hills!

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2:52AM
67.0.
Survived 900 going about 7mph, and just took a minute and a half leak in an alley at Airport and Logan. Sorry, no picture. Next: Sunset!

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3:08AM

70.7
Victory! Home in eight hours and forty minutes. Never trying that again.

Thanks to everyone that voiced their concern and wished me well! I'm sure you guys had something to do with me getting home safe and sound.

Home Sweet Home

My goodness, over a month without updates -- I'd better have a good excuse! And luckily, I do:



I was thinking of creating a new blog (one open to the public) that documented all the changes and improvements I am currently (and plan on) making to the place, but I figured I barely have time for one blog -- another would be disaster.

That said, it's been a slow and tedious process of cleaning and moving. There's already been some things done that I will outline here soon, but quite frankly there's just oh so much to do. I think my next post will have a quick picture tour.

In other aspects of my life, I haven't been to the gym in a month, am eating really crapily (but enjoying it oh so much!), and it's starting to get cold... oh so cold.

Quick Pics

Been too long so let's throw a some pictures up!

♦ Hawaii was fantastic, and can really be summed up by one picture:



♦ This leaked photo from the set of Captain America has me very worried... he looks absolutely silly. Note: This is not Chris Evans, just some sort of stunt person.

I didn't know they had sculpted ab armor back in WWII, but Chubby definitely needs them.

♦ And speaking of super hero movies, is it wrong that I spent a sizable chunk of time debating whether to spend $40 on the special exclusive metal-cased Steelbook version of Iron Man 2 rather the normal version with all the same extras minus the shiny case for half the price?

I'm not sure you understand how shiny it is.

♦ I'm not a huge fantasy sports guy, generally I just draft with my friends and let things play out. Heck, my usual strategy for football is to draft all Seahawks and hope they do something ridiculous. This year though my baseball team actually made the playoffs (3rd seed out of 4 spots), so i took a little control and navigated them to the finals. Started out pretty well when I logged in a few days later and saw this:

Utter shellacking of the opposing team, 23-0. I was well on my way to victory, until i went to Hawaii. Apparently the finals is a two week ordeal, not just one. So not really setting changes for the second week while I was out of town, I was surprised when I came back to gloat and found myself down 13-11 with four days left. Luckily my players pulled through and I secured the top spot.

This was the first year we ever did an auction draft, where you actually have to bid for players in the beginning so it's a lot more involved. Well, until I'm dethroned I can go about bragging that now due to the game needing more skill, this clearly shows that I am the superior fantasy manager amongst my friends.

♦ Lastly, I got a new phone: the Palm Pixi! Sounds kinda silly I know, but this thing is a beast. While I was happy with my "dumbphone", it got a little frustrating using the inaccurate touchscreen keyboard as well as some subpar aspects in features as simple as text messaging. Contact management and even synching photos was a nightmare. Luckily I was somehow eligible for an upgrade and I went into the AT&T store and saw the Pixi for $30 (after rebate). How could I say no? I've had my eye on webOS for a while (as evidenced by this post way back in January of '09), and the fact that this wasn't a slider phone and had a real keyboard had me sold. I recently realized how important having an e-mail client on you could be, so this purchase was a no brainer. I LOVE this phone. The only thing my old dumbphone did better was it lasted six days with average use without having to recharge -- this thing goes on the charging dock every night. Image is of my sexy unlock screen.

... Hello Honolulu

Goodbye Seattle...

That's a lot of stuff!

What's this? Looks like someone's going somewhere...

Clap On? Stop Living In The Past

In an effort to be more energy conscious at work, we just got new light switches installed which turn on the lights when it senses motion, and turns them off when it doesn't. It's like we're living in the future! I can already see the practicality of using this in a home environment (bathroom, laundry room, garage, kitchen), and will probably be making implementating these one of the first home improvement projects i embark upon.

Time Crunch

Man, I don't think I've been this busy in a very long time -- can't even spare some minutes to post an update! Well, one of my favorite quotes when the "I don't have time" excuse is given: "Make time."

♦ Got to see David Pauley pitch a pretty good game against the Cleveland Indians last last Saturday. The M's lost 4-2, but the more importantly about this game was that 1) I got a Mariner's fleece blanket out of it and 2) I accompanied my friend Trevor (along with Brian and G) to a pre-game U.S.S. Mariner hosted Q&A session with M's GM Jack Zduriencik. Interesting to hear a GM field and defend (or acknowledge) fan generated questions about such a dismal season. Ex: "I know you can't mention any names *cough Chone Figgins*, but are there players on this team that you brought in and felt that, 'whoops, we just flat missed the evaluation on that guy?'" Jack: ... [few seconds of silence] "Yes."



I also took the time see if I could make some nice hand held panoramic photos of the field. The one above is during the Q&A, with the following being from the three hundred level during the game.





♦ My baseball playing season is over, having lost our first and only playoff game. It was a heartbreaker, as we were up 2 runs going into the bottom of the ninth inning. I'll formulate a more detailed end of season report in the near future, but baseball for 2010 is officially over.

♦ 1.5 weeks until I leave for Hawaii, and beach ready body is in dire straits. The flurry of closely scheduled baseball games prevented me from going to the gym as much as I would have liked, but I've gotten back on the horse. Tonight might have signified the hardest leg workout I've ever done, resulting in difficulty walking back to my car for the first time ever. Abs might be out of the question now, but we'll see how much definition can be chiseled in between now and next weekend.

♦ Have you seen the A&E show Hoarders? That stuff is intense. It's amazing to see what some people can live with in their homes -- especially when they don't acknowledge any sort of problem. I actually had a little bit of a hoarding tendency myself (unable to let go of some useless things), but I think I've grown a bit out of it. We'll see what happens after I get my own place! Which...

♦ If all works out according to plan, I will receive the keys to my new home the night right before I leave for Hawaii. Kinda of ill-timed as I won't be able to see it or spend time in it for a week, but man, one step closer to becoming a full fledged adult.

♦ Go see Machete.

Crash!

Semi-truck vs train = me late and walking to work.

Update Update!

Hrm... so what's been happening?

♦ After a documented horrendous start to my baseball season, I've gone 7 for 14 with two doubles in addition to two walks over the past four games to increase my batting average from 0.219 to 0.304 (coming from a low of 0.182). My secret? Switching to a wood bat. Not sure if it's extra focus or the smell of the maple, but I'm starting to get hot -- just in time for the playoffs! Despite our struggles the whole year, we won our second game last night and have been playing good baseball of late. Hopefully we'll keep this rolling into our last two games and continue it on in the post season.

Feel the Louisville Slugger. Thanks to Brian/Trevor for the pic!

♦ The trailer for the upcoming AMC series, The Walking Dead, based off the addictive reading Image comic book is out. It starts almost exactly like 28 Days Later, but I'm fifty issues in and if the TV's show anywhere near as good as the book it'll be a solid retelling. And all from the director of the Shawshank Redemption!

♦ My trip to Hawaii is in a little under a month, and my plan for a beach ready body is in jeopardy. I've gone to the gym twice in the past three weeks, and eating and sleep habits have been terrible. I'm skinny... and fat. Hopefully I can make the most of these remaining four weeks.

♦ I just bought a cast iron grill pan and cannot wait to use it to pump out some steaks. There are high hopes this will be the best $18 I'll ever spend. I'm not ready to make an investment on a full on grill yet, so this should be a viable alternative and take pan frying to a whole new level. Not to mention my chicken now looks classy with the cross hatching grill marks.

♦ I may or may not have just bought a house.

Yikes

Sorry for the negligence... very busy, lots of stuff to talk about. Baseballs, cast-iron pans, mortgages, oh my!

CGI + Comic Books = Win!

Despite the recent success of live action comic book movies, there are always limitations and budgetary concerns when creating one of these summer blockbusters. Sets, costumes, talent, effects (practical and computer generated) all have to be taken into account. What if you could remove some of those variables? It's been speculated before the in the past that the "next" superhero movie could be all CG and when you really think about it, comic book characters and universes are ripe for such an imagination. These films are generally special effects laden globe spanning wonders with wild costumes and elaborate sets -- why not keep everything virtual?

With Marvel Comics' recent acquisition by Disney, the possibility of a Pixar produced movie set in the Marvel universe is a real possibility. What could it look like? The best place to get an idea is video game cut scenes. While Marvel: Ultimate Alliance had some pretty neat ones, the following opening cinematic for the upcoming DC Universe Online MMORPG sets the bar a little higher, and shows us what is be possible.

Voice acting a little shoddy, but you get the idea. This was done on a limited video game budget (by the amazing Blur studios) -- imagine if it got thrown any sum of major motion picture money.

Pet Peeve: Shopping Carts

You know what bothers me? Lazy people who don't put their shopping carts in a designated area after they use them. Is it that difficult to maneuver the cart thirty to fifty more feet? The store was gracious enough to provide carts to facilitate a better and convenient shopping experience for you, the least you can do is help them out a little bit and in turn also not render a parking stalls useless.

Not all is lost though-- as i was typing this another car pulled up to a space where there were two carts sitting in the next stall and its occupants graciously took them to the store with them. Good to see there's some sense of community left, but personal responsibility seems to have gone out the window.

Sun Cat

Kitty cat sleeping on the sidewalk... hope it's not dead.

7:26PM Update: Phew

No no, it's alright apparently -- maybe. It doesn't move away when you get really close, have you ever met a cat like that?

Microsoft Pulling Me Right Back In

I’ve been exclusively using Gmail and Google services for a while now having made the switch from Hotmail oh so many years ago. Google Calendar, GChat, Picasa, Google Maps, heck even this blog sitting on Blogger -- it’s been all big G for quite some time. Unfortunately when I needed a professional sounding e-mail address (FunkyMoron wouldn’t cut it) and with the knowledge that my UW e-mail wouldn’t last forever, I discovered a huge problem. I could not find a combination or permutation of my name that I liked that could be put in front of “@gmail.com" -- they had all been taken.

I thought I was S.O.L. with Hotmail because let’s face it -- it had been around much longer than GMail, and there was no way my desired name would be available. But Microsoft had an ace up their sleeve -- a brand new service, dubbed “Live” -- complete with a new “@live.com” domain. Quickly I entered in my first.last names and was greeted warmly with a “Your Account Has Been Created.” I was elated! Now I was armed with the best possible e-mail combination to move along into the professional world.

Since then, I’ve switched from Rhapsody to Zune for my music needs (was iTunes really ever an option?), bought a heavily discounted Microsoft “LifeCam” to video chat with my sister, and used Outlook to check the @live.com mail on my computer. The appeal of Google is that everything is in the “cloud”; all your data is accessible from anywhere. And they do it much better than Microsoft does.

Until now?

I randomly ran into a review of the “New Hotmail”, and how it was being touted as the next big thing. They too were moving into a threaded type approach (they call it “conversations”) in addition to introducing a new feature called “Sweep”. Maybe I’m a sucker for clean-line artistic videos, but this got me thinking that Microsoft is stepping up their game -- granted Google already has a lot of these features.

Long story just a little bit shorter, they’ve got a whole new suite of fantastic new programs dubbed “Windows Live Essentials” coming up (“Wave 4”, or 4th beta versiom, was just released). Most important to me -- Windows Live Mail, which I’ve got up and running replacing my bulky and slow Outlook. It consolidates my @live.com mail, @gmail.com mail, RSS feeds, and calendar (Google and Facebook events) all into one place on my desktop. It’s pulled my GMail, Live, and Facebook contacts into a contact book -- though I can’t combine them unti my Hotmail gets upgraded to the above video experience (within the next month).

As great as having everything in your internet browser is, sometimes it’s good to work with good ‘ol fashioned desktop programs. And for me, it looks as if Microsoft is becoming relevant again. As someone that’s already using their services, it is a nice bonus to see that they are making great strides and improvements to help me out. Very interested to see what’s next.

Adventures at the Mall

But... how do they make any money?

I was unaware you could try on whitey-tighties on at J.C. Penny. Also at Pennies... two elderly gay men using tube socks (previously packaged) on their arms as puppets.

One of these is my new shoe style...

It is Hot Hot Hot!

♦ It's pretty hot outside, huh? Summer has finally come, just like Steve Pool claimed it would. Let's hope it's here to stay a while!

♦ I am on a huge slump in baseball. I have one hit in my first four games (in which our team has gone 1-3), and even that was an infield hit to the shortstop. Nevertheless, I represented my team in two all-star games this past weekend. In the first my futility continued as I struck out three times on a way to a 1 for 5 performance, finally dropping a bloop single into RF in my last at bat. Of course I would end up getting thrown out at the plate later, but that's OK -- we were up 15-4 at that point. The second game didn't go much better, as I reached on an infield hit to the first baseman for my only hit. My only solidly hit ball thus far this season was a routine ground out to the shortstop. I hope to pick myself back up this weekend, as we have two games:

One at semi-shady Petrovisky Park in Renton at Saturday 9AM, and another at 3PM Sunday on probably the best field we have a chance to play: The University of Washington ballfield.

Bing Maps

♦ I have lost all respect for Lebron James. The NBA superstar is in the midst of his first free agency and what does he do? Somehow secures a one hour prime time special to announce where he's going to play the upcoming season. This is probably the most asinine thing I've ever seen a pro athlete do to garner attention. I can't even imagine what was included in this one hour special. Was it a variety show complete with stunts and songs and celebrities marked at the end with a grand climax of James revealing what team he would play for utilizing silver suitcases and models, complete with a tight drumroll?

Even more ridiculous are these headlines I'm reading about how people in Cleveland feel betrayed about James' decision to go to Miami. He's a pro athelete. What did he owe the city? The man evaluated where he could best win and would be a good fit for him, and he made this choice. I don't see how this is a "slap in the face" to Cleveland at all, yet there are people burning his jersey in the streets. Maybe if they made an effort to install a better team there he wouldn't have chosen to leave. He didn't pull a Carlos Boozer and tell them he would resign and then go with someone else, and he didn't pull an A-Rod and tell the fans he wasn't leaving for the money but rather for a chance to win (before going to the Texas Rangers, signing the biggest contract for a baseball player ever). The days of a player being loyal to a team are long gone.

♦ My diet and exercise habits have completely decimated. Partially because of a slight sickness, partially because of my baseball schedule, partially because of my work, and partially because of laziness. However, I have recently committed to going to a Hawaiian wedding for a friend in Septmeber, so like it or not a deadline has been set: beach ready body will be needed by the end of September. Let's see where I can take this body.

♦ I thought I had seen possibly the grossest thing ever when I watched the trailer for The Human Centipede. But while waiting for someone who had Comcast OnDemand and was willing to watch it with me, I queued up John Ketchum's The Girl Next Door in my NetFlix InstantPlay. It was the most horrific movie I have ever seen. What could possibly be worse than three people scientifically experimented to be connected to each other mouth to anus in a row you ask? A movie based on a book based on "the single worst crime perpetrated against an individual in Indiana's history", and I can only imagine worst case of child abuse in America. I'm wary about movies based on true events (after the Invincible debacle) and through my slight research it was discovered that the movie did deviate slightly from actual events, but the tone and most of what this girl suffered through is adequately shown through the film. Here's the Wikipedia entry on the victim , which I encourage people to read. But believe me the words do not convey the grisly depravity of the crime the way a well put together movie can. Monsters like this walk among us, and really makes me wonder about how things like this can happen.

Colors!

So... many... colors... Sandwiched between bagpipers and martial artists, and weather is fantastic. We're about to begin!

12:23PM And now we're just past Westlake...