kapgar

They call me the whore...

There's a girl I met recently. I don't really know her other than as a relative acquaintance. I see her from time to time and we say "hi." Not much more.

That should do well to establish our "relationship."

So when you really don't know someone any better than this, is there a "good" way to tell her that her excessive use of facial makeup results in her looking like a dime-store hooker?

I'm not saying she's quite up to Tammy Faye standards just yet, but she's getting dangerously close.

I tread dangerous ground.

Hey! Got a meme in the extended post...

To terrorize y'all's neighborhood...

Halloween 13
I nabbed this from SJ a bit ago but I only now got around to completing it. I was waiting until closer to the actual holiday. Seems close enough now, don't you think?

1. What’s the scariest movie you’ve ever seen?
   The "Version You've Never Seen" of The Exorcist. That damned spider walk scene gives me the willies.
2. What was your favorite Halloween costume as a child?
   It's a tie between Perseus from Clash of the Titans and Emperor Palpatine from The Return of the Jedi. Both homemade by my mom.
3. Given enough money what would be your fantasy Halloween costume?
   I would be one of the Colonial Marines from Aliens. Specifically Drake (Mark Rolston) because he had that mutha of a gun.
4. When was the last time you went trick-or-treating?
   I think it was back in 1997 while in grad school. I could be wrong. Maybe it was the year before that during my senior year of college.
5. What is your favorite Halloween candy?
   I love Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Although, I would love to get my hands on some of SJ's Reese’s Peanut Butter Pumpkins. Never heard of them before.
6. Tell us about a scary nightmare you once had.
   I'd really rather not talk about it again, so I'll link it.
7. What is your supernatural fear?
   Ouija boards. I tried one once and it worked. Never touched it again.
8. What is your ‘creepy-crawly’ fear?
   Spiders and cockroaches. Not much of a fan of either. Although taking pictures of spiderwebs has made me a bit more tolerant of the former.
9. Tell us about a time when you saw a ghost, or heard something go bump in the night.
   Never saw one, per se. But was visited by the spirit of my friend Mike who died back in 1993. He visited me via my radio cutting songs in and out and playing songs he liked that the station I was listening to at the time never has played before.
10. Would you stay overnight in a real haunted house?
    Absolutely. Might take me a while to actually enter, but I'd do it eventually.
11. Are you a traditionalist or a creative carver of your Jack-O’Lantern?
    More traditional. Actually, I don't even really carve that much. I like whole pumpkins for decoration along with gourds and indian corn. That and you don't wind up with rotten, smelly pumpkins by the time the actual holiday rolls around.
12. How much do you decorate your house at Halloween?
    We decorate the inside moreso than the outside. Pumpkins, lights, gourds, the works.
13. What do you want on your tombstone?
    I'm not even entirely sure I want a tombstone to be honest. I'd rather have my ashes spread in a few different places as a tribute. A little bit spread on Hawk Hill near Sausalito, CA. Some along the lakefront or at Soldier Field in Chicago. Maybe a little urn along the bar at my fave pub, Old Towne, in Geneva, IL (just don't put me in a mixed drink, please).

Steal at will, as per usual.

They had some character...

Typically, I'm not a big Hollywood gossip whore. Sure, I've mentioned a few things here and there on this blog, but they certainly do not constitute a majority of my posts. But this one was too good to pass up simply because of how it was handled by one of the subjects.

According to IMDb, both Matthew McConaughey and Lance Armstrong are battling rumors they are gay. If you recall, the celeb mags and tabloid rags were alight over the summer with shots of McConaughey and Armstrong, along with Jake Gyllenhaal, bicycling together everywhere. Apparently, they even coined a new word for it... the "bro-mance," which sounds like something that belonged in Monday's episode of How I Met Your Mother.

Yeah, so they spent a lot of time together and even, *gasp*, biked shirtless. But to automatically come to the conclusion they are gay simply because of this and the fact that both had recently broken up with their significant others? Please.

McConaughey's response [in an interview with Details magazine]? "We tried it (being gay). It wasn't for us."

That's classic! I give Matt big props for having such fun with it and not coming off as a jackass like so many other celebrities would.

If you're interested, I have a TV meme/list in the extended post. Check it out.

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Latest Fun With Dead Trees reviews - I come back with my second review in as many days in Augusten Burroughs' Magical Thinking: True Stories and *lynne* does the same with a review of Yann Martel's Life of Pi. So am I now exempted from reviewing again for another month? Claire and *lynne* seem to be covering the site pretty well in my absence. That's gotta count for something, right?

Well, it's a free for all...

After yesterday's mental and emotional drain, I think today will be a snippet post... yep, a little fun for everyone!

911 is a joke in yo' town . . .
Walking across campus today, I observed a campus security officer getting out of her golfcart (nice!) and pushing one of the emergency alert buttons. Now I realize she was just testing it to make sure all was good, but when you see a cop pushing an alarm button, doesn't it unnerve you a bit?

I'm strong to the finish . . .
Can somebody please tell me when the damn spinach recall/ban is going to end? I miss my spinach pizzas and spinach on Subway sandwiches and spinach salads.

I'm truly suffering here, people!

Film processing . . .
I know I'm a couple weeks late on the stormwatch photos, but they are in the process of being, well, processed. And, thanks to Dariush for the head's up on Wal-Mart's great $5.88 prints/CD deal. Actually, when I took them in there (along with a third roll of shots from a trip to Kuiper's Farm in Maple Park, IL, this past weekend), I discovered that if I only have a CD made and no prints, it only costs $1.98 per roll. That's pretty flippin' awesome.

Chinese Democracy?
Listening to the radio on the way to work this morning, they announced that tickets will be going on sale this Saturday for the Guns 'n' Roses Chinese Democracy world tour. They will be arriving on the "Nightrain" in Rosemont, IL, on November 27.

My first issue, clearly, is that only one of the original members of Guns 'n' Roses is in this band and that would be Axl. They also have Dizzy Reed from the Use Your Illusion era of the band now, too, but he doesn't count. He was just a keyboardist. Seriously. Check out this lineup... W. Axl Rose on vocals, Richard Fortus and Robin Finck on guitar, Tommy Stinson on bass, Bryan Mantia on drums, and Dizzy Reed on keyboards. Actually, G'n'R have two keyboardists, having retained the services of Chris Pitman in addition to Reed. The only person in the bunch I've heard of is Stinson because I worship The Replacements. Otherwise, Fortus and Finck are known for giving the "bluesy chops" to Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful." Hmmm...

My second issue is that they still haven't released the damn album. It's more than a decade in the making and it's release date has been pushed away more times than Mark Foley in the YMCA of Greater D.C. Do they have a drop date for the album yet? The G'n'R site doesn't even mention the album.

My final issue is that this is Axl. How many tours has he personally sabotaged? How many shows have been canceled in the past due to his antics and volatile personality?

Okay, I'm not buying into it. It might be cool, but that's if the concert defies the odds and actually goes as planned.

Meme/list/whatever . . .
I have a meme, or is it a "list," in the extended post for anyone interested.

Goodbye my friend...

My dear friend,

Why has our friendship failed? I feel as though our relationship was never quite given the chance it so richly deserved.

Was it something I said? Was it something I did (or did not do)?

I've tried to be a good friend. I talk about you on occasion. I visit. Even when I'm exceptionally busy, I will check in to make sure things are kosher with you.

Yet you spite me so.

Regardless of the efforts I have made to allow our friendship to bloom, you make absolutely no move whatsoever to take "us" to the next level. You seem more than happy to just sit there and do nothing; content in my actions, but never reciprocating.

I don't get it.

But I don't want it to end. Clearly, I feel more indebted to our friendship than you.

Some might call it codependency, others obsession. Me? I prefer to use a Web acronym to describe it... BFF... yes, "Best Friend Forever." That's what you mean to me. And that's what I thought I meant to you.

Is it because I am just one man? A lone soul in a sea of millions striving to be your pal?

I know you are well loved. You have many, many friends. But none of them would ever treat you the way that I would if you'd just give me a chance.

Those other 101,872,606 "friends" you have? They don't care about you the way I do. They're nobodies. Just faces trying to be cool by association.

Tom, why am I not your friend? Please explain this to me and help me reconcile my feelings.

Still your BFF,

Heartbroken in Chicagoland

I've got a meme for you in the extended post, courtesy of C(h)ristine.

Everybody's down on their knees, listen like thieves...

This post idea originally came from Tiff and I really dug it. So I asked, she said yes (I think), and here it is.

I'm 31 years old and have been a music fan for quite a vast majority of that time. Be it listening to whatever my parents happened to have playing in the car when I was a child or those first early cassettes I bought on my own (The Beach Boys, "Weird" Al Yankovic, Europe, The Beastie Boys, and Bon Jovi - motley mix, isn't it?) or any of the hundreds of CDs and digital tracks I've purchased or downloaded over the years. Music has been there for me.

But I, like Tiff, have always run into a problem that plagues the music industry as a whole. This problem is that there are very few albums out there that can be considered wholly listenable. Sometimes you'll hear a song on the radio that you like and are interested in purchasing but you fear buying the entire album on which the song is contained because the rest may be, and usually are, complete crap.

Yes, this problem has been abated somewhat by digital downloading in which you can just buy individual tracks, but it still hasn't stopped the music industry from putting out tripe and calling it music.

This has made me appreciate, even more, those "perfect" albums. The ones where I can sit and listen to the whole thing beginning to end, with no desire to skip tracks at all.

No, despite the prominence of the album cover on this post, I do not consider Europe's "The Final Countdown" to be a "perfect" album.

While there are more, here are ten such albums that I have on my iPod...

• Depeche Mode "Violator" - my first DM experience and still one of my favorites, although "Ultra" is up there.
• Bruce Springsteen "Born to Run" - 10th Avenue freeze out!
• Van Halen "OU812" - not nearly their most popular, but my personal favorite.
• Motley Crue "Dr. Feelgood" - one of my first and best live music experiences ever.
• The Replacements "Pleased to Meet Me" - damn you, Eric, for making me a Replacements freak.
• U2 "Boy" - heaven; pure heaven.
• Radiohead "The Bends" - I still prefer the older Radiohead.
• Michael Jackson "Thriller" - he's a freak, but this album rocks.
• INXS "Listen Like Thieves" - there are several INXS albums I could have picked, but this is one of the coolest.
• Aerosmith "Toys in the Attic" - nothing like the classics.

What would make your list?

Oh, and I've got a meme for you in the extended post, courtesy of *lynne*.

God put a smile upon your face...

This has got to be one of the coolest things I have ever seen in terms of independent video production.

Basically, an artist named Ahree Lee began taking a digicam self portrait of herself on November 1, 2001. This trend continued every single day. I think it's still going on as she calls this film a work in progress.

Well, she has now taken each shot and spliced it together into a film showing her evolution over what amounts to nearly five years. Each photo is a single frame within the video and, while it may sound a bit weird, the end result is fantastic.

And the music on the video was written by her husband. It, too, is really good.

Yes, this video is also available on YouTube, but if you watch it on AtomFilms, she actually receives a royalty for it. Either way, it's free to you.

Check it out.

Oh, and I've got a meme for you in the extended post, courtesy of SJ.

Just eat it, eat it, eat it, eat it...

Okay, some of these questions may be a little similar to Meme-ology, but there are enough new ones in here to justify doing it anyway. Oh yeah, stole it from Wordnerd.

The Food Meme

How do you like your eggs?
Really depends on my mood. I like 'em scrambled, fried, hard-boiled, soft-boiled, smashed, whatever.

How do you take your coffee/tea?
Coffee would be black and medium to medium-strong in taste. I also like Frappucinos. Tea would have to be green and hot or unsweetened and cold.

What are you favorite breakfast foods?
I love plain cereals like Cheerios, Rice Krispies, and Corn Flakes. But I also like eggs, waffles, pancakes, English muffins, and bagels. But these latter ones I don't eat all too often. Typically because they take too much time to prepare. Unless it's a weekend.

Peanut butter: smooth or crunchy?
Smooth Jif. That's the only one I'll eat. Actually, it's the only peanut butter that either Katie or I will eat. The rest just doesn't cut it.

What kind of dressing on your salad?
Bleu cheese, ranch, Italian, vinaigrette, French.

Coke or Pepsi?
Coke. Preferably Diet Coke varietals anymore.

Tell me more, tell me more...

Before I go into my post today, I wanted to take a second to hype up what I feel to be a very important post by one of my brothers in blogger arms, Mikey Miller of Who Do I Have to F&$k to Get Laid. He recently interviewed Jeanne White-Ginder, the mother of Ryan White, the young boy who contracted HIV via a blood transfusion treatment he received for hemophilia back in the early 1980s. Ryan died in 1990, but his mother is still very much involved in HIV/AIDS advocacy.

Mikey's interview is posted on his site in its entirety.

Please take a moment to go check it out. It's an incredible interview.

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Speaking of interviews, what follows is part of an ongoing interview series begun by Kelly and thrown my way by Belinda as part of the BlogHer 2006 Conference. I may be doing it wrong as it seems as though they each interviewed someone else, but I wasn't sure who I'd want to interview or who, in their right mind, would want to interview me. So I'm answering the standard questions myself. If it makes you feel better, pretend that Belinda is interviewing me and the answers are posted on my site instead of hers. Here goes...

1. When did you start blogging and why? Or talk about your blog. What can I learn about you in under five minutes?
Using blogware (in my case, Typepad), I've been blogging since June of last year. However, using whatever means were at my disposal (read: "static HTML"), I've been posting online blog-like entries since early 1998. Yep, more than eight years. That's a long time.

Five minutes may be more time than you really want to spend with me. Trust me on that one. Well, if you decide to stick around the full five minutes, you'll learn that I am a movie, TV, and book nut; I have several regular readers whose friendship I cherish greatly; and I love my wife almost too much for it to be truly healthy. I'd like to think that's what you'd walk away with.

2. How do you use blogging to build friendships?
I read my favorite blogs and learn about people and comment on their sites and hope that they reply if it necessitates one. I also use my favorite blogs to find other new people and wind up on their sites and learn about them. It's the ultimate social network.

3. Who do you read every day, rain or shine?
I'm hoping rain never becomes a factor in my reading. My bloglines subscription is about 87 strong, but this also includes a few news sites and Flickr feeds so I know who has added new photos. I have many that I read on a regular basis including Dave, Karl, SJ (both sites), Johnny, Neil, Dustin, Sandra, Sizzle, Jax, Jacynth, Kim, Mikey, Pauly, Alissa, Carly, Chanakin, DGM, Dagny, RW, Hyperion, Brandon, Eve, Gary, Bec, Sheryl, Elaine, Jill 1, Jill 2, Tracy, Kelly, Ryan, Belinda, Nicole 1, Nicole 2, Nat, Jackie, BA, Sass, Jenny, Hilly, Claire, MM, Rabbit, Dariush, Bre, Lynne, ChickyBabe, Suze, Anomie-Atlanta, and Shane. Then there are also Jack and Xtine, if they'll return from their self-imposed hiatuses. And, I suppose Chase as well (heh heh). You'll notice I'm being much more thorough this time around than the last time this sort of question came up.

That's a lotta damn links. God I hope I remembered everyone. If not, please don't be offended.

While I may not necessarily be on their sites every day, I do read every post as often as they post 'em. There are a few others that I've only recently discovered via some blog affiliations and I'm currently getting to know them as well.

4. Why did you choose to share that piece of yourself in a photograph?
My head? Seemed like a no brainer. Wait, that doesn't sound right.

What'll you do for money honey...

Got this from Nicole and also saw it at Karl's and Dave's as well as others I may be forgetting. It's called Meme-ology.

Grub-ology:

• What is your salad dressing of choice?
  It really depends on the salad and my mood. Sometimes it's bleu cheese, sometimes ranch, sometimes French, other times a nice vinaigrette or Italian, then there's always Caesar.
• What is your favorite fast food restaurant?
  I think Subway and Chipotle constitute "fast food," so I'll choose them.
• What is your favorite sit down restaurant?
  Eduardo's Mexican restaurant in DeKalb, IL.
• On average, what size tip do you leave at a restaurant?
  15-25%. Unless you really piss me off; then all bets are off.
• What food could you eat every day for two weeks and not get sick of?
  Rice.
• Name three foods you detest above all others.
  Mushrooms, olives, pickles.
• What is your favorite dish to order in a Chinese restaurant?
  Kung Pao chicken.
• What are your pizza toppings of choice?
  Sausage and pepperoni if I'm in a carnivorous mood; spinach otherwise.
• What do you like to put on your toast?
  Peanut butter.
• What is your favorite type of gum?
  Cinnamon. I have no real preference for actual brand.