kapgar

I'm dreaming of...

Howsabout a Christmas Eve edition of Snippet Wednesday?

Ho-Ho-HACK
First the good news, I'm pretty much done with what I had over the weekend. I'm back to having a varied and flavorful diet with few to no gastrointestinal repercussions.

And just in time for Katie to get sick. Which she did yesterday on her first official full day off from both work and school.

Helluva vacation, isn't it?

Merri-Lee
I could say that I was building dramatic tension by holding off a couple days on drawing names from the Amos Lee live EP contest. Or I could say that I was trying to give people a little more time to enter. Or I can just face facts and admit I freakin' forgot until I was driving home yesterday from work and Amos Lee played on shuffle on my iPod and burned like a flaming beacon of guilt from the Heavens. CRAP!

Officially six people entered: sizzle, Sheila (CSR), Whit, Marie, Faiqa, and Nanuk the lurker. I'm going to assign numbers in order that they entered and use my fantastic random number generator (Katie) to pick one of you.

What's this? Must be a glitch. Katie picked 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. Hmmm... okay then. I guess you all get a copy. Consider it my way of abating the guilt of having forgotten. ;-)

Just e-mail me with the e-mail address you have associated with your iTunes account and I'll get that EP gifted your way. Sheila, I know you wanted to wait until you have your iPod, but you can still use iTunes now and listen on your computer even without an iPod. Let me know if you'd still like to wait, though.

Anybody who missed out on the contest but would still like to order the EP (it's only US$4.49) can do so at iTunes.

Blue
Last night, I finally saw the Family Guy "Blue Harvest" Star Wars special. I can't believe how faithfully that team recreated many of the scenes from the original Star Wars film. Seth MacFarlane, et al, did a magnificent job of showing their undying love of the original film while still giving it their Family Guy spin that I was floored. The animation was gorgeous without straying from their style, the casting of Star Wars characters was spot on (although I'll never forgive them for killing my love of Obi-Wan Kenobi), and the humor was some of the best I've seen from Family Guy in years.

"Oh wait, now we gotta do the rest of this thing with Danny Elfman?" Brilliant.

Best
And now I'm off to begin work on my "Best Of..." year-end lists: movies, albums, and songs. Since I forgot to do a TV list in May for TV when I usually do it, I think I may include that one here as well. Hey, even the networks have talked about abandoning the traditional season structure for show production, why can't I with the awards, right? This is going to be a lot of work as I just picked up eight CDs from the library yesterday all of which could be contenders as 2008 releases. Aye aye aye. Why do I do this to myself?

Oh yeah, because I love it!

And I'm sadistic. Or is masochistic? I can never remember.

Oh tidings of comfort and joy...

We interrupt this week-long 5Q Extravaganza to bring you... SNIPPET WEDNESDAY!!

FreeLee
I am an unabashed fan of Amos Lee. Have been since Katie and I first saw him perform live as the opening act for Norah Jones some years back. And I'm doing my part to promote his fantastic music by blogging when he releases new music or material. Well, he now has a five-track Live Session EP available on iTunes. While I would highly recommend just going over there and buying it outright for yourself (it's only $4.49 and it's iTunes Plus, meaning that it's higher bitrate and DRM free), I'm going to give away a copy here. The deal? Leave a comment saying you want to be entered in the contest. The catch? You have to be an iTunes user as this is an iTunes-exclusive album. Come next Monday at whatever time I decide to write my post, I'll close the contest, assign numbers to the entrants, and use some number randomizer to pick one of you to receive a copy. That simple. And, no, this is not limited to just people who have commented here before. Maybe this will serve as a bit of a delurker carrot-on-a-stick if you will. C'mon out and play!

Blogrolling
The third-party Blogrolling service has now been down for more than two months. Apparently they were hacked and are both fixing their security holes and upgrading to what they're calling Blogrolling 2.0 all in one fell swoop. And it's pissing those of us who still use the service (because we're too damned lazy to just handcode our rolls) off severely. I have a ton of people I need to add and some I just discovered desperately need to be updated. My blogroll still has Hilly's old Typepad URL for chrissake! So any of you more recent reads, don't think I'm dissing you. I'm not. I just can't make an update. If it's not fixed soon, I may have no choice but to handcode. I'll give them until the New Year or until I'm so inclined to do it myself, whichever comes first.

Faced
Just when you thought Facebook and other social media services were our friends comes this little bit out of Australia about a couple who were in default on their mortgage. After months of trying to find them and serve them with legal documents about their situation, lawyers convinced a judge to allow them to serve these docs, legally binding, via their Facebook accounts. The one condition was that they couldn't be posted in a publically visible area of their profile. Wow, if ever there was support for Miss Britt's belief that Facebook and MySpace were evil and used for stalking (listen to the episode dated 12/03/2008), this is it. Tip for anyone hiding from authorities of any sort... don't keep using social media accounts while on the lam, 'tay?

Cube'd
I found my ideal Christmas gift. It has to be one of the coolest things ever... the Cube Clock. Basically, it's a cube-shaped clock made to look like a Rubik's Cube. No, it doesn't have the full twistability (is that a word?) of its inspiration, but it does twist in at least the top layer. If you look at the top right cubit, you'll see a sticker indicating time (facing), alarm (right cubit), calendar (not visible), and temperature (also not showing). Simply, whichever of these panels is aligned above the clock face controls which mode the clock is in. And the three cubits underneath the display help with settings. I wonder if you just smack the top of the cube for snooze.

Blago
Okay, I'm sure you're all sick to death of me ranting and raving about busted Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, but I have one more thing I need to share with you. And I'm sure when you hear that it was sent to me by everyone's fave Sheila over at Charm School Reject, you'll likely read attentively. And it's also sort of a holiday song. Sort of.

"Blagojevich" by John McHugh
(to the tune of "God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen")

Get packin', Rod Blagojevich
The state's in disarray

The Tribune wants you unemployed
At least by Christmas Day.
The TV pundits want your head
Could there by pay to play?
Oh tidings of comfort and joy
Save Illinois!
Oh tidings of comfort and joy

Good riddance Rod Blagojevich
Your Elvis look's inane,
The Senate's mad, so's Lisa's dad
You drive us all insane.
Our transit's broke, the state's a joke,
The Tollway's one big pain.
Oh tidings of comfort and joy
Save Illinois!
Oh tidings of comfort and joy

Good luck old Rod Blagojevich
The feds have quite a place
Fitzegerald's poked his nose around
And if he has a case,
George Ryan's moving stuff around
Creating extra space.
Oh tidings of comfort and joy
Save Illinois!
Oh tidings of comfort and joy

Until next week, I bid thee adieu!

I'm back in the saddle again...

After a two-week hiatus during which he saw the world, reinvigorated his persona, and bedded many other blog theme days, Snippet Wednesday makes his triumphant return!

Razr
Yeah, I'm back on my Razr for a little while as I had to send my Nokia E71 back England way yesterday. I may have griped about a few issues I had with it here and there, but it is certainly a great phone and I will miss having it around. Dammit.

Comments
So did you all notice anything new about the comments here? 

Yep, Typepad implemented a new comment system for their users. It's opt in only so not all the Typepad blogs you visit may have it rolled out yet. Basically we now have an avatar system (although you need to set up a free Typekey account, which is apparently now known as a "Typepad Profile," so your avatar will show up), nested comments with direct replies, and e-mail notification should a reply be posted to your comment (also requiring Typekey). The fact that it requires Typekey/Typepad Profile kinda bugs me, but it's a step in the right direction.

War
When Katie and I bought my camera the other day, I opted for a four-year warranty. The 20% off that I received covered the cost of the warranty, so why not? Anyway, the woman at Sony asked me if I was aware that the warranty covered X, Y, and Z, but not A, B, and C, with "C" being "acts of war."

Me: Acts of what? You mean the warranty actually says that?

Her: It does now.

Me: I'm guessing for reporters in warzones?

Her: Yep.

Me: Wow!

Panda
Jesus, we can't win for losing with movies on Netflix. First it was the travesty known as Fred Claus and, last night, it was Kung Fu Panda. Maybe it gets better the further you watch into it, but we got through the first half hour or 45 minutes and were bored to tears. We hadn't even chuckled once by the time we shut it off. I'm on the verge of deleting all films from our Netflix queue and just populating it with TV discs. Okay, not really, but you get my point.

Nottie
Speaking of bad movies (and I admit I brought this one on myself), I was flipping through the on-screen channel guide and saw that some channel was playing The Hottie and the Nottie last night so I flipped it on out of sheer morbid curiosity. "The what and the what?" you might be asking. It's a Paris Hilton attempt at an acting career. Need I say more? I got through three minutes and 32 seconds before flipping the channel. Simply put, David Caruso can out-act Paris Hilton and that's saying something. What it's saying, I'm not sure, but it's something. The fact that this movie came out earlier this year and is already on extended cable also says something... about it stinking like year-old eggs, perhaps, but still.

Big city downtown...

This Snippet Wednesday is brought to you by the good folks in the United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois.

Dutiful
Yeah, I'm back in Chicago for jury duty. They completely neglect me for the entire first week of my on-call period. I'm finally told to show up on Monday of my second week but don't get selected. Don't have to go back in on Tuesday, but wind up needing to show up on Wednesday. And I'm on a strange schedule to boot... Late morning. This means I don't get a normal lunch break either. And if Monday was any indication, they won't have nearly enough time to complete jury selection today and I've only got tomorrow and Friday left in my on-call status. What kind of weak ass case will be tried and deliberated in two days? None. They'll either send me on my way, again, or I'll get screwed and have to serve during the Thanksgiving holiday. Hey, I was happy to help before and you should've taken advantage of my graciousness then. Now? I'm just pissed and annoyed.

Truffle
He has been found. I'd scoured everywhere and had no luck. Then, at the end of my workday on Tuesday, I decided to look under a spare chair in my office. There he was. Probably muttering "dumbass" under his breath. But he's been found and I will live up to my end of the bargain and never look at an orange iPod Shuffle again.

Formatting
Sorry there's no formatting to this post. I'm typing using the mobile interface that Typepad offers and RTF is not one of the available options. C'est la vie.

Video
For those of you who have been recommending them to me for days, I found the Indy rape episode of South Park and Star Wars II episode of Robot Chicken in the iTunes Store. Totally worth the money! Holy crap. I was dying laughing. How does South Park not only stay good but actually improve after 11 and a half seasons? And to the crew behind Robot Chicken... Bravo!

Nokia
I know I'm tempting fate by actually mentioning it here, but WOM has yet to contact me about returning the phone they gave me to review. Heck, I even went the honest route and e-mailed them on Monday to ask what I should do. Nada. Well, if they don't want it...

Now it's time for some Uno on my iPod. Adieu.

Rollin', rollin', rollin', keep them doggies rollin'...

Facebook
Even though Katie and I no longer work at the gym (we still work out, just not work at), we still talk regularly with many of our former coworkers and we've become friends with some of the newer employees by extension through our continued relationships. Since I'm a guy who doesn't often think of himself as actually being 33, it's cool to have these "friendships" because they help continue my delusion of youth. The other day, though, this came crashing down when, during a discussion of a picture on my Facebook account of me with my BiL, Scott, that one of these gym girls thought made us look like twins (poor me), the other said, quite bluntly and clearly as an age jab (I hope unintentionally), "you have a Facebook account???" Um yeah. Thanks.

Rustling
Ha! Times are so tough that people are digressing back... way back... like 1800s Old West back. A cattle rancher in Maple Park, IL (two towns west of where I live), reported that six of his bull Holstein calves were stolen over the weekend. One has since been recovered. If one of them was named Norman, we could pin blame to Billy Crystal. Or, I guess it could be PETA reps since his plan was to ween them to full size and then sell them for meat. But, regardless, this is only the second case of cattle rustling in Illinois in the last 15 years. Giddyup!

Apple
Apparently, the apple on the cover of the book Twilight bears a bit more significance than it may seem. Robert Pattinson, who plays vampire Edward Cullen in the movie version due on November 21, was caught shopping in the Manhattan Apple Store. See? Vampires have taste... and for more than just blood. Suck on that, y'all! Get it... "suck on that"... vampires? Of course, don't pay any attention to the freaky seven-year-old's request to be bitten that is actually the substance of that IMDb post.

Obamac
Oh yeah, speaking of Macs, according to Famecrawler, President-Elect Obama is a Mac user, too. My officemate said, "just when I thought my love for Obama couldn't get any greater." Yeah, she's a Machead too.

Ankles
I finished my second yoga session several hours ago and my teacher (Yogi? Berra?) is impressed with what I'm able to do as a beginner. It's kinda funny, but several moves are ones that I used to do in pre-practice stretches for football in high school and they've stuck with me through the years. Who knew football would prepare me for yoga. Today, as I was sitting with my feet pulled in and the bottoms of them together, she expressed how impressed she was with the flexibility in my ankles and insteps. And to prove it, she asked if she could stand on them... on the bottoms... as they faced upward. That was, er, weird. Thank God she weighs only like 95 pounds soaking wet.

And thus we wrap Snippet Wednesday #24.

Yeah, she's a promise in the year of election...

Well, y'know, today being the day after election day, howsabout an election-themed Snippet Wednesday for numero 23?

No? Oh well. Sorry. I got nuthin' else.

Obama
Congratulations, President Obama. I know I've expressed my concerns about you here, but I sincerely hope you are the real deal and that all those people who have elevated you to near messiah-like stature are right. We need someone who can lead right now. You have been given the relay baton. Our hope for the future is in you.

[Image heisted from WWDN:iX who heisted it from The Daily Kos]

Landslide
As I tweeted last night, I've pretty much known all along Obama would win. It just seemed to me like a foregone conclusion. But I had no clue that it would be by such a large margin. As the numbers began pouring in, I was floored how one sided it turned out to be.

Chicago
I have to say I'm 100% impressed by my fellow Chicagoans who, by the accounts I've heard and read so far, behaved themselves rather fantastically at the Obama rally in Grant Park (photo gallery) last night. I'd also like to point out, as I did on Twitter, that the first time you heard Obama say the name "McCain" during his speech, there was respectful applause from the audience. A far cry from the booing and catcalling that emanated from the crowd when McCain first mentioned "Obama" during his concession speech. Just sayin'.

8
I was just checking headlines... Proposition 8 was passed (or is close to passing?) in California? Seriously? Wow. I'm shocked, offended, and just downright disappointed. Please tell me I'm misreading this. Or tell me there was a late surge in votes that defeated it and it just hasn't been reported yet. Gay marriage is (close to) banned?

I think my biggest problem with this whole thing is the insistence by pro-8ers that marriage is an institution between one man and one woman. Yeah, our country's 51% divorce rate proves that we've got that one nailed, doesn't it? Even worse are quotes like this idiot...

“It’ll keep the country from getting further into this tolerance thing,” said Brandon Maddox, 16, of Canyon Country.

God knows we wouldn't want people to be tolerant of each other, would we? No wonder we're viewed as a nation of idiots. We've got people like Maddox representing our future. What kills me is that he was interviewed in this article and he's not even old enough to vote. How can we possibly respect his opinion?

I'm off to bang my head against a wall.

Heads turning as the lights flashing out...

And now Snippet Wednesday is into those awkward post-21 years when nothing good happens. Guess we'll have to wait until he turns 25 and is able to rent a car. Bummer. Happy 22nd... meh.

Housekeeping
There are some magazines you expect to find in certain places. Boy's Life in dentist's offices. Mother's World in a day care. Two-year-old Sports Illustrateds in doctor's offices. But when I find a Good Housekeeping  on the floor of a bathroom stall in the men's locker room of my gym, I'm gonna start to worry.

Camera
I went out during my lunch break yesterday to start looking at some DSLR cameras. And, much as I thought I might, I fell head over heels for the Sony Alpha A350. It's a 14.2 megapixel beauty with in-camera image stabilization, live preview screen that tilts both up and down for those awkward shot angles, and just feels like a solid freakin' camera. Best thing yet is that since Sony bought out Maxxum, all my old Minolta SLR lenses will work on it, saving us a nice chunk of change. I think I mentioned this some time ago when I was drooling over Sony's first entry into the DSLR category, the Alpha A100, but I wasn't in a purchase place at the time. Now I think we really are. This is, barring catastrophe, supposed to be my birthday and Christmas gift from Katie while she scores a new MacBook to use for school. Sounds like a fair trade, right? Actually, she might be making out a bit more, but oh well. She needs a computer she can use in class and she, like me, is a Mac Whore (tm). Do any of you know much about this Sony? Many of you are really gifted photographers, I'd love your input.

Nokia
Don't ever let anyone tell you bitching doesn't work. I griped last week about how I wanted to take part in that trial of the Nokia E71-NAM smartphone but, 1) they never got back to me, and 2) I'd have to pay for the service during the trial period, remember? Well, very soon after that post went up, they mailed me back and corrected themselves. It is an unlocked phone and I can use it on AT&T. This makes me VERY happy. So now I'm going to play. Just a matter of them sending it my way. And this phone has received some pretty rave reviews on both Diggnation and Wired. I just don't want to have to send it back.

Soccer
And speaking of photography and all that good stuff, I'm finally getting around to posting photos and video that I took from the two Illinois Wesleyan women's soccer games Katie and I went to. Not the best sports shots I've ever taken, but, in the past, I always managed to sneak onto the sideline with my SLR. A bit different when you're in the stands with a point and shoot, don't you think? If you can't see the Pictobrowser, check out the entire Flickr album.

Out cold...

Guess what! Snippet Wednesday can now legally drink! #21, y'all!

Plurk'd
In the midst of my frustration over being frozen out of Twitter (which has allowed me back to play in their sandbox, BTW), I went ahead and signed up with sue on Plurk. It's a far different experience than Twitter although both are marketed as microblogging social network sites. Instead of being message on top of message, like Twitter, the messages you post are listed in a timeline and you can continue a conversation based on a single Plurk (?) in a threaded box as opposed to having to dig around to find a reply if your respondent forgets to throw the @ to make it a Twitter direct reply. I also like that it's all Ajax based and dynamically updates itself. It's pretty nice. The only downside is that there aren't nearly as many people in Plurk as there are in Twitter. So I'll use both. For now anyway. Gotta up my karma rating. ;-)

Griping
A friend forwarded this to me and, as a Web designer, I gotta admit that I love it. Thank you to vilain.com.

[click on image to increase size]

STD
It blows my mind to think that a Web site actually exists that allows a person to send an e-card to people that they may have infected with some STD. Yeah, you read that right. If you have contracted an STD, you can enter all the information you have about former lovers and have an e-card delivered to them informing them that they should get tested. While it's better than no notice at all, I'd really think that there must be a better, and less anonymous, way.

Single
I think I can now consider myself at least a tangential San Francisco 49ers fan. Why? Because my man, "Samurai" Mike Singletary has been named head coach of the team after the sacking of former head coach Mike Nolan. Need a reminder of my love of Singletary? Here you go...

Nokia
About a week and a half ago, I got a killer invite. Some site asked if I would be willing to trial a smartphone and write about it on my blog. It's a Nokia E71-NAM and it's a gorgeous phone, here's hoping the functionality equals the form factor. I began talking with the rep at this site and she seemed pretty gung ho about sending it to me. Then the ball was dropped. I could only have it for two weeks and I was required to pay for the service on the phone. First, two weeks is not nearly enough time to really get a feel for the phone. Second, it's a load of crap that if you are solicited to review something that they are not paying for it. You're using your time and your resources for it, right? It's one thing if I could take the SIM card out of my AT&T Razr and put it in this phone to try it, but this phone is locked to T-mobile. A week ago I asked them how much the service would cost for the two weeks and they have yet to get back to me. It could've been so much fun to play with this phone. Dammit.

Punched
If I never buy another game for my Nintendo Wii, let it be this one... a revised version of the classic Punch-Out! with all the same characters and even the same music, but updated and looking FINE! The only problem is that I have to wait until 2009 to get my grubby mitts on it.

Jump in...

I swear I'm having the worst time keeping count of Snippet Wednesdays. I always have to go back at least one or two to figure out which number I'm on. This one should be #20. I hope.

Flowers
So, even though Katie and I said "no gifts" for our anniversary this year (to each other, that is), I still did buy her some roses. I had to. Sorry. But I forgot to order them ahead of time to have them delivered to her work. I'm kinda glad I did forget, too, because I wound up buying them from a place near where I work, Dave's Floral, that has a cool recycling program going on. For every box from their shop as well as vases or baskets from any shop that you bring back to their store, they will give you credit for one free loose rose. How cool is that? Katie and I have a ton of vases and baskets sitting around that we don't use and now, instead of simply throwing them in the recycling bin, we can get something for them in exchange. The owner told me that one guy brought in 40 used vases and now has 40 roses available for him to pick up at any time for any occasion. I really like this idea a lot and wish more people would do it.

Nuke
Everyone (at least I hope everyone) has heard the phrase "Jumping the Shark," right? It's in reference to an old episode of Happy Days where the Fonz jumps his motorcycle over a pool with a shark in it as a stunt. Most people point to that scene as being when the show Happy Days got bad. Real bad. And now, people can point to that line in the sand for any TV show or movie or musical act and say that's when they "jumped the shark." However, an article on Cinematical talking about the pending new Ghostbusters film seems to coin a new phrase (well, it's new to me anyway) that I really like. The author, Elisabeth Rappe, says "Nuke the Fridge" in reference to the most recent Indiana Jones film in which Indy survives a nuclear test blast and subsequent throwing and tossing when he gets stuck in a refrigerator. This scene alone really blew the film for me in all honesty and I love the idea of now using "nuke the fridge" as a replacement for "jump the shark." Any other good ideas?

Eli
I'm so happy because one of my favorite new shows from last season, Eli Stone, finally returned with a new episode last night. I really enjoy the fantastical elements in Eli Stone because they are not too terribly over the top. You realize that anything truly strange is a vision in Eli's head and that makes the show all the more believable. Plus it has one of the coolest casts on TV. So bring on more Eli!

Cheadle
The Hollywood scene is abuzz with the news that Terrence Howard, who played Jim Rhodes in this year's Iron Man, has been replaced by Don Cheadle. I've read that it was an inability to come to terms on a contract and I've also read that the filmmakers plan to take the character in a different direction. Who will ever know the truth, really? Whatever. I don't care. I love Don Cheadle and feel he is one of the finest actors working today and can't wait to see him take on the role of Rhodey.

Story
I think this is one of the greatest spoof trailers I've seen. And, much like the twist on the Stand By Me trailer from a couple years ago, this shows that the right amount of altered atmosphere can severely darken even the most whimsical of films.

What the world needs now...

Snippet Wednesday #19 is here. RUN!

Thanks
I wanted to take a moment to thank all of you for your comments on yesterday's post. Even though we may not have all seen eye to eye on the topic (nor should we), you were all very respectful and nice in how you worded things. I was terrified to post that because of how hot topic politics are in the blogosphere. But I feel better about what I wrote and how it was received. So thanks again!

Senate
I think Iron Fist had the best idea, though, in that a blogger needs to petition Illinois Governor Blagojevich for what will (if recent polls hold) be the upcoming open Senate seat in Illinois. And, since I live here, why not me? So that's it. Let's make it official. I'm pushing to receive Blago's nomination to the Senate under the PRB party banner. Anyone want in on the campaign?

Lilly
Guess who's our houseguest again until about Sunday? Yep, the Lilly Monster. Woo hoo. Fun times will ensue. Oh, and for those of you wondering and did not get the note in Twitter, she is fine. It was an abscess in her gums caused by gingivitis, not cancer.

Silverman
Dammit! Dammit! Dammit! I hate when I accidentally hit the wrong button in iTunes and buy a whole something or other instead of just downloading the freebie that is being offered. Did it once a couple years ago and it worked out in that the album I got was pretty decent. This time, though, I subscribed to the entire second season of The Sarah Silverman Show. D'oh! Nothing against Silverman. I've heard the show is great. But that's $18.99! GAH!!!!!

Mob
I've been pretty addicted to an application in Facebook called Mob Wars. Fun game kinda like a really watered down SIMS about mob life. However, to really do anything good or to survive fights, you need a big mob consisting of all your friends. Yeah, I have a lot of Facebook friends, but only a small number are interested and have signed up to join my mob. However, MadIrishMan tipped me off to a Firefox plug in and a script that will invite people to join your mob even if they're not your Facebook friend. In a few days time, I jumped from 18 to about 140. I feel dirty; but I like it!

XRT
One of the only reasons I still buy the occasional physical compact disc has come a month early... the OnXRT: Live From the Archives collection. Annually, WXRT 93.1 FM Chicago puts out a collection of live performances they have recorded in studio or at local clubs on a single disc and sells it with all the net proceeds going to charity. And this one -- volume 11 -- is pretty good. Check out the playlist...

• "Mr. Jones" - Counting Crows
• "Teen Angst (What the World Needs Now)" - Cracker
• "Bubble Toes" - Jack Johnson
• "Polyester Bride" - Liz Phair
• "Rain on the Scarecrow" - John Mellencamp
• "Touch of Grey" - Grateful Dead
• "Love My Way" - Richard Butler
• "Ecstasy" - Rusted Root
• "Waiting on the World to Change" - John Mayer
• "Turpentine" - Brandi Carlile
• "Time Zones" - Widespread Panic
• "(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes" - Elvis Costello
• "See A Little Light" - Bob Mould
• "Come Home" - Back Door Slam
• "Big Love" - Lindsey Buckingham

Nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah, BATMAN...

Welcome to another exciting installment of Snippet Wednesday!

Sox
While I'm happy for Chicago White Sox fans everywhere that they beat the Twins and won the AL Central title, I stand by my earlier statement that I have no desire to see a Cubs-Sox World Series simply because the people in this city and its suburbs are too immature to handle it. So, since I'm a Cubs fan, LOSE SOX!!

Lullaby
This alternately fascinates and terrifies me. It is called Rockabye Baby! Lullaby Renditions of Nirvana. I got it through my library because there is no way in the name of all that is holy that I would ever spend money on something like this. But that doesn't stop me from wanting to give it a listen. Should be interesting. Pray for me.

Older
So the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) has determined that the Chinese female gymnasts were all of age for the 2008 Olympic Games thus negating the possibility that they might have to cede their team gold medal. Hmm, sorry, but I'm still not buying it. I'm throwing down right now... BULLSHIT!

Rooster
I feel after sharing my dad's joke yesterday that I should give equal blog time to a classic my wife forwarded this morning. For anybody asking, yes, it is a blonde joke, but we feel okay telling it because Katie is blonde and I used to be blonde once... long ago... when I was very young and had hair (as I aged, it turned brown)... *sigh*

A blonde calls her boyfriend and says, "Please come over here and help me. I have a killer jigsaw puzzle, and I can't figure out how to get started."

Her boyfriend asks, "What is it supposed to be when it's finished?"

The blonde says, "According to the picture on the box, it's a rooster."

Her boyfriend decides to go over and help with the puzzle. She lets him in and shows him where she has the puzzle spread all over the table. He studies the pieces for a moment, then looks at the box, then turns to her and says, "First of all, no matter what we do, we're not going to be able to assemble these pieces into anything resembling a rooster."

He takes her hand and says, "Second, I want you to relax. Let's have a nice cup of tea, and then..." he said with a deep sigh, "Let's put all the Corn Flakes back in the box."

Robin
The CW network is cashing in on the current popularity of the Batman series with a series dedicated to his sidekick, Robin. Sorry, there is a reason why Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale have said they do not intend to ever re-introduce the character to the new movies. It's because he's just not that great a character.

Fossett
Just got a news alert that a hiker may have found items belonging to missing adventurer Steve Fossett. I realize that there is a lot of space in this country, many areas that remain unexplored to some degree. But I gotta say that it amazes me to no end that despite all the technology we have and the gadget geek that I believe Fossett was, that we have not been able to locate his body or his stuff until now, like a year or so later.

Your own personal Jesus...

Welcome to Snippet Wednesday #17!

Authentic
Katie was driving this morning when she passed by a church with "Authentic Jesus" on its front sign. Can anyone tell us what constitutes an authentic Jesus as opposed to a fake Jesus and what studies have been done to validate these findings? Can I take them on their word on this? If they're lying, who would I file a complaint with?

Domobacca
I'm starting to wonder if these two little beasts were separated at birth. At left is one of the Target Domokun Halloween plushes and at right is the Mighty Mugg Chewbacca. Eerily similar, aren't they? And, yes, that's a candy corn in Chewie's mitt.

Henson
Speaking of little creatures, happy birthday to Jim Henson, creator of The Muppets and so much other great stuff that has entertained me throughout my life. You are a true artist.

Mattingly
My BiL Scott sent this bad boy my way. It's an oversized (5" x 7") 1985 Topps Don Mattingly card. Back in the day, I was a diehard Yankees fan (I was born in New York and raised a bit in Connecticut, so I'm excused) and "Donnie Baseball" was m'man. I collected all kinds of Mattingly baseball cards until I stopped collecting sometime in the very early 90s. Scott, who got back into card collecting recently, has been sending me the occasional Mattingly card for kicks. Two of them are in magnetic frames on our fridge while this one is now displayed on my overhead cabinet at work. Thanks Scott (and Becca).

Dairy
Winter twatted this morning about a report that PETA is asking Ben & Jerry's ice cream company to start using human breast milk as opposed to cow's milk. Seriously? Well, as she said, that would be one dairy I'd like to see.

Dew
When the first thing you do upon entering your place of employment in the morning is to head to the breakroom and buy a Mountain Dew, you know something is wrong.

I've got my spine, I've got my Orange Crush...

Snippet Wednesday #16 is upon us. Tremble! Or not. As the kids say, "whatevs."

Wally
I had to go shopping at Wal-Mart yesterday during my lunch break. I know, I know, I feel dirty enough as it is. No need to rub it in. Especially since I was stuck in the line of the slowest cashier in the history of man. Holy crap was she slow. She was planning out her bagging strategy as she scanned. So instead of grabbing the next item and running it across the scanner, she'd rummage through the items on the conveyor and pick what she thought would go best in the bag with something else already in there. While that's nice for the person who will be carrying the bags, it's AGONIZING AS HELL for the rest of us. Combine her with the fact that I had a woman two ahead of me in line that was contesting every item's price as it's scanned and I was ready to go Wally on the place (that's what I'm going to now call "going postal" in a Wal-Mart... I'm goin' Wally on yo ass!).

Bleeked
But I did make it out of Wal-Mart with one item that I'd be wanting for some time but kept forgetting to buy... orange Tic-Tacs! Yeah, I'm rockin' it Paulie Bleeker style!

TRL
Well, I guess it was just a matter of time before MTV killed one of the few remaining shows that had anything even remotely to do with music. After 10 years, Total Request Live, also known as TRL, a semi-music related show that made Carson Daly "famous" (and I use that word very loosely) was axed. I wonder what poorly acted series this move is making room for?

Microsoft
Not that it's any big surprise, but the second Microsoft/Jerry Seinfeld ad is meeting with criticism much like the first. Admittedly, I can see Avitable's point with the ads. The more I think about it, the more I can understand what he suggested. But the point of advertising is that it should hit you right away assuming that you may only ever see the ad once. Advertising should not be like watching an Orson Welles film where you have to go back and watch it again to see how all the clues fit together to reach the ending. You should be moved to take action immediately and these ads just don't. Well, they do move me to want to buy this t-shirt if only they were available in more than just small and medium. You've seen pictures of me. I could fit my arm (singular) in a small or medium.

Audiophiles
Speaking of kick-ass t-shirts, this one is right up my alley and available in a size that could reasonably fit my generously sized upper torso. But I'm curious why it goes up in price by $2 from large to XL and then back down by $1 in the XXL and XXXL ranges. Strange.

Fey
Not that you haven't seen already, but it's just so damn cool we should all watch it AGAIN...

Every sperm is sacred...

Time for some snippets! It is Snippet Wednesday #15 if I recall.

Zazzle
I don't get it. The night before last, I created four items at Zazzle to tie into my declaration that I shall heretofore be known as "kapgar ocho cinco" (a declaration that true believer *lynne* reflects in her blogroll... y'all take notice!). Three of those four items were linked to in the post because they were approved immediately. They were the mug, sticker, and keychain. The fourth item, a pair of women's Keds sneakers were on hold pending approval by the "Zazzle Content Review Team." And they were sweet shoes. The kind even I would've worn if they made Keds for men. Yesterday, I receive an e-mail stating that my shoes were declined due to me violating their "No names or images of celebrities" policy. Well, okay, I guess on the extreme fringe I can possibly understand this. I am using, verrrryyyy loosely, a derivative of the name of a celebrity on my product; unless, of course, they're referring to moi as a celebrity (but I think I'd give me permission, wouldn't you?). So I go check, expecting that my other items were pulled, ex post facto. And they're all still up for sale. Now that's what I call consistency in policy enforcement.

Fringe
Speaking of fringe, I'm on the fringe regarding Fringe, FOX's new supernatural, paranormal, extra-terrestrial, semi-believable, über-weirdo, X-Files-channeling series that debuted last night. It was something that I had no desire to watch whatsoever, but, for whatever reason, actually tuned into. It was slow going. Not terrible, but far from great. If this was still summer and if my regular season shows weren't going to start within the next month, I'd likely keep watching it. But with all these other shows to take up my time, I'm not entirely sure. What did all of you -- if any of you watched it -- think about it?

Palin
I know exactly who I'm voting for in November! Thanks to occasional fish, via edenza's Google Reader account.

Seizure
I know this has been talked about before, but I thought it had been voted down. Apparently not. I ask, is anyone else terrified of the fact that the U.S. government can just up and take your electronic devices after international flights terminating in the U.S.? No rhyme or reason and no guarantee on when it will be returned. Sorry, but this scares me to no end. I know it says that this is only for people coming to the U.S. from foreign countries, but that doesn't necessarily mean it cannot happen to U.S. travelers returning home from overseas, does it? I can see the envelope being pushed to include that. Sometimes, the country I love scares the ever-loving bejeebus out of me.

Tracks of my tears...

Snippet Wednesday #14! We survived #13! Celebrate!

Okay, that's way too many exclamation points. Even for me. Yikes.

Madness
I had been hearing about this mockumentary of the making of the movie Tropic Thunder called Rain of Madness for some time and I've been wanting to check it out just about as long. I found out yesterday that this spoof movie is available... and free to boot. If you have iTunes, check it out. It's a free half-hour of video content. Even if you don't have a video iPod, you can still download and watch on your computer. How can you go wrong? I also love how they're spoofing the whole Apocalypse Now/Hearts of Darkness movie/documentary relationship. Seeing as how I studied both in grad school, I can totally appreciate it.

Nealon
Okay, I don't watch Weeds; not yet anyway. So I really have no way of knowing how good Kevin Nealon is in it. I'm hoping those of you who watch Weeds will confirm that his entertainment abilities haven't waned at all. Why? Because Katie and I have tickets to see him do a live stand-up routine at Pheasant Run in St. Charles, IL, next Friday night. And I'm really looking forward to it. I loved the guy in Saturday Night Live and, when you combine that with the fact I haven't seen a stand-up comedian in... well... I don't even remember how long, that's just a lot of expectation. Please tell me he's good. Please? Oh, and also please tell me that I shouldn't worry that this gig isn't listed on his official Web site.

Mourning
I'd like to hold a moment of silence for the poor, little guy at right. I found his broken, discarded body in a rock garden in a parking lot outside a Goodwill store. Considering how much joy these little minifigs have brought me throughout my life, I just knew I couldn't leave him there to rot in the hot, late summer sun. I've named him Louis after Dan Aykroyd's character in Trading Places; once a rich and well-dressed sort of fellow whose life and prosperity were taken from him and he was left a broken and forgotten man. It's just not fair. And now I must figure out how best to honor Louis' memory. Any suggestions?

Ratings
My God, I happened to be tuned in to FX last night as they began showing the premiere episode of the final season of The Shield (no, I didn't watch as I haven't seen any of the series yet; they're in my Netflix queue). But I was amazed by the announcement of the rating of the episode... TV-MA-L-S-V. Woah, when it takes nearly as long to say the rating as it does to play the episode, you know it's good!

Welcome to the new dark ages...

I do believe we have now hit lucky number 13 in Snippet Wednesday! Woo hoo!

6669
Katie started her fall classes last night and had to pick up her campus parking permit before class started. I received a call from her on my commute home about it.

Katie: "You'll never guess what my parking permit number is... 6-6-6-9."

Kevin: "Wow! The best of both worlds... Satanism and sex!"

Katie: "Um, yeahhhhhh."

Segel
Avitable and I were having an e-mail conversation about Freaks & Geeks this morning and the fact that it was recently re-released on DVD (at a much lower pricepoint than the $160 set I had to pass on a few years ago). If you haven't seen the show, I highly recommend it. Fantastic cast. Great writing. It's one of Judd Apatow's early forays into entertainment and you could see the promise just oozing out of every episode. Hell, the only negative was that it was so short lived. Thinking about it made me realize how much a fan of Jason Segel I've become. You've got F&G, How I Met Your Mother, Knocked Up, and Forgetting Sarah Marshall, among many others. And now I want to see Forgetting Sarah Marshall again. I mean like desperately want to see it. And it won't be out on DVD for another month. DAMMIT! But, when it does come out on September 30, it will be in three-disc set glory! Oh I can't wait.

Microsoft
For years, I've watched as Microsoft has fallen further and further behind the times. First it was their inability to fix bugs and security holes in their programs. Then they sat on their laurels as other companies like Mozilla and Apple developed better Web browsing software than their Internet Explorer. Recently, they finally decided to try to curb the exodus from their Vista OS by hiring Jerry Seinfeld as a commercial pitchman (as detailed quite nicely by Dave). And yesterday, I read an article that describes how IE8 is going to have a feature called "InPrivate Browsing." Microschlock's PR people are making it sound like the second coming. As though Web users have not known browsing until they've tried this simply because it will allow them to not record cookies, files, logins, etc., while surfing. As IE8 program manager Andy Ziegler says in the article, "Users should be in control of their information. That's at the core of privacy." Well duh. And before you strain yourselves patting each others' backs, perhaps you should realize that this has existed on Safari for three years or more. It's called "Private Browsing." Not only are you just now getting caught up on 2005, but you can't even come up with a more original name.

Whoring
Yes, I'm going to keep whoring myself out for votes until the contest ends this Sunday. I am almost in double digits! As Vahid pointed out, I'm beating Perez Hilton! That's big time, baby! Head on over and vote. Only 661 more to go and I can tie the Comics Curmudgeon.

Oh, and for every ten votes I receive, I'll put a piece of clothing back on! Sound like a deal? Haven't we seen enough of Avitable's nakedness lately? Wouldn't you rather see me clothed?

Ready or not...

Güten Snippet Wednesday, meine Freunden (ick, so how bad was my German?).

Twittedog
Lilly's surgery is tomorrow and we're all worried, as you might expect. I want to thank you all again for the well wishes you were sending. All of us appreciate it. Katie, Brian, and Jen were all a bit weepy about the outpouring of love (I wasn't weepy because I already am well versed in how fantastic all of you in the blogosphere are). And yet, despite the impending surgery, you'd swear nothing was wrong with Lilly as she still leaps around with nary a care in the world. Nothing's holding her back. She was even at our softball game last night as my brother and I and our team got bumped in the first round of the playoffs (hey, we were the wildcard playing the team that hasn't lost a game in two years and we held them to only five runs). Okay, back on topic... if anybody is interested in hearing how things go with Lilly tomorrow, I set up a Twitter page for her. Jen (the SiL) is supposed to update it regularly via her cellphone. So go follow a dog's twats. Wow, that sounded a bit, erm, off.

Rights
I would just like to say that San Francisco would likely be my favorite city in the world if it weren't for my illicit love affair with Chicago. Not only is it a fantastic city with a ton to do and gorgeous as well, but the steps that this city has taken towards universal gay rights is amazing. As Jester said in his radio show last week, SFCA is the moral compass of the world, or something akin to that. And I love how they just recently ruled that doctors cannot deny care to homosexuals because their religious beliefs don't gel with the "lifestyle." Thank you, San Francisco legal system! Suffice it to say, if I found out that my doctor felt this way, I'd leave his practice out of principle. I don't think it's right to impose your beliefs on somebody and especially not where medical care is concerned. Sure, the case in question was fertility related and not a life threatening medical scenario, but still. It's called the Hippocratic Oath, people.

Boom
I'm kinda stoked that a Sonic Drive-In is opening near us. Not only is it near us, it's on my commute route to and from work. I've never been to a Sonic before, but I've always heard cool things about them. Combine that with the fact that I've seen commercials for them on TV for a couple years now and you got yourself some yearnin' goin' on. Any recommendations from you Sonic lovers out there? Oh, and I dug how their exterior signboard read "Sonic Boom Coming Soon!"

Fished
Laurence Fishburne of The Matrix fame is joining the cast of C.S.I. in the ninth episode of this season as a replacement for William Petersen's Gil Grissom character. Okay, I have nothing against Fishburne. He's done some fine acting. But isn't C.S.I. dry enough as it is without adding Mr. No Nonsense-No Emotion? Not that Petersen was the most emotive actor out there, but the quirkiness he gave to his character made it acceptable. I haven't seen "quirk" from Fishburne since his Cowboy Curtis days.

Gimme money...

I swear to God, every time I now think the words "Snippet Wednesday" in my head, I wind up singing a strangely bastardized version of The Bangles' "Manic Monday." That can't be right, can it?

Anyway, we're on to Snippet Wednesday #11! And there was much rejoicing!

Begging
While in Chicago for Davecago, Katie and I saw our fair share of beggars asking for money. I don't know why I thought this, but for some reason, the concept of these guys as actually having a lot of money hit me. What if they'd had such fantastic luck panhandling that they had tons of money and continued to play the role of poor just because it was so lucrative? Is this really such a stretch? We only see a little bit in their buckets, guitar cases, hats, etc., at any one time, but this doesn't mean that they hadn't removed big chunks of cash and put it in a pocket to make it look like they had nothing. What if they do return home at night to really nice houses and families and the like? Do you think this could be possible? Remember Orlando Jones in Office Space? He said he made more selling magazine subscriptions than he did in his software design job. Why not for panhandlers, too?

Van
On the way home from Chicago, we were driving near one of those big Ford conversion vans with all the windows blacked out and heavy duty, aftermarket locks welded on the back and side doors. Katie's response, "yeah, somebody is tied up and drugged in the back of that van." I think I agree. But I also think we may be watching too much CSI and Criminal Minds.

Homero
I think I'm going to find a quarter and etch Homer on it then return it to general circulation kinda like what happened here. How cool!

Gymnastics
I have always loved Olympic gymnastics. I really have no idea why. It's not something I ever wanted to try, it's nothing I'd ever be capable of doing, and the kids are so freakishly young and small that I actually said about one Chinese gymnast last night, "She's so tiny I could fold her up and put her in my pocket," so it's certainly not sex appeal (well, except Alicia Sacramone who I think is the first gymnast I've ever seen who actually has a body and doesn't look 12 years old and, yes, I feel horrible for her after what happened last night). I think I may have finally figured out the real reason, though, while listening to a commentator during the women's gymnastics routines last night. I think it might be because it's the one time you can say something akin to "she's got great spread in her legs!" and not be arrested for indecent public behavior.

Pryor-itized
Thank you, Cinematical!

Scraps
Are any of you scrapbookers or stampers? If so, and if you live in the Chicago area or are willing to pay for shipping, my mom is having a big scrapbook and stamping supply sale this weekend. Here are some of the details...

Rubber Stamp/Scrapbook Supplies Closeout Sale

Many Thousands of New Items

Everything Must Go!!!

Rubber stamps, card stock, envelopes, ribbons, embellishments, punches, stamp pads/re-inkers, storage units, handmade cards, embossing powders, adhesives, markers, specialty papers, handmade cards and much, much more!

Friday - Saturday, August 15-16, 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.

I know my mom said it's okay to post her address and phone number, but I still feel weird about it. You never know what kinds of freaky people are crawling for that information. So, if you're seriously interested, e-mail me at kapgar5@gmail.com and I'll give you her information. Sound good?

Are you diggin' on me...

Are you ready for Snippet Wednesday #10??

Yeah, I'm not either. Just thought I'd ask in case. But, yanno, I have now broken into the double digits. That's a big accomplishment considering we bloggers usually have the attention span of gnats and give up on regular things like this way too quickly.

Oh well.

Tube-Tied
As you all know from my paltry post yesterday, YouTube decided not to play nice. Well, I can't really fault them as it is their policy to not accept videos longer than 10 minutes in length and I was openly defying that. But it sucks no less. However, thanks to Marie and Hilly, I've now discovered Vimeo and am in the process of uploading videos there. Much nicer user interface and so far it's playing well with what I'm giving it. One video done and processed and another one in the works. I'll try posting the new video tomorrow. Wish me luck... I'm cooking yet again!

Wal-phone
Katie and I have pretty much ruled out getting iPhones again. Even though they've dropped in price and whatnot, they're still comparatively expensive and we just don't have that kind of a budget for a phone and don't plan to anytime soon. However, I'd still like a smart phone and have discovered the Palm Centro. What I like about it is that it works just like the Palm Pilots that I've been using for years now, just with a phone in it, so I know it will work on Mac and PC and sync with my Outlook account at work. Plus it has threaded SMS messaging so you can maintain a conversation with someone kinda like using Gmail and not have to search all over God's green acres for past messages. That's pretty sweet. The biggest bonus, though, is that they're currently available at Wal-Mart of all places for a mere $18.88 each. And that's taking into consideration that we're not new AT&T users. The free Centro deal at Best Buy this week is for rookies only. I hate that. I'm still having trouble wrapping my mind around the idea that we're thinking about buying cell phones from Wal-Mart. That's just strange.

Knighted
The Dark Knight has broken $400 million... in a mere three weekends. That's just insanely cool. We all know it's repeat business that is driving this one and Katie and I have seen it twice. How many times have you seen it?

Homely
I take issue with this headline... Joss Stone playing homely wife in "Tudors." Sure, the character she will be portraying was not known for being good looking. But this is Joss Stone. You do not make her play "homely." No no. Never.

Scooter
In celebration of Marty's birthday, I am going to celebrate Scooter Wednesday (yes, all this happened this past Saturday, not today, deal with it). More photos are available at Flickr.

I don't feel like dancin', no sir, no dancin' for me...

Grab your scissors, it's time for Snippet Wednesday #9!

Waiting
I've always read the stories about how Netflix supposedly flags your account when you rent too many movies in too short a period of time. The theory is that this is them thinking that you're ripping movies and making your own copies. I was what I liked to think of as a Netflix Preferred Customer... not renting too many, not renting too few. Therefore, I was not being penalized and I was always sent the "long wait" or "very long wait" DVDs immediately. Not anymore apparently. I've been waiting for Mad Men, s1 d1, ever since its release. I'm getting tired of it. I know it's popular, but damn Netflix. Give it up already.

Cuil'd
Some of the developers that worked on Google have splintered off and launched their own Web search engine, which they tout searches three times as many pages as the king. The engine is called Cuil (Irish for "knowledge" and it is pronounced "cool") and to be honest, I'm not impressed. Okay, so some bugs may need to be worked out of the system, but why the hell would you launch it if it weren't at least close to ready. I played with it on the first day and none of the links off the main page worked at all and I'm not too keen on how the results are presented on the page either. Seriously, when the search engine doesn't even find your own site when you enter its name into the search, there's something wrong. Hell, Google already registers Cuil as the top result when you search for the name. Cuil, not so much. I don't see this happening. Sorry. And I'm not the only one.

TEAL
This is my kinda street team. TEAL stands for Typo Eradication Advancement League and they are four people who traveled the U.S. this year trying to correct typos that are out there for the public to see. It's funny as hell. Click on any of the points on the map and you can go through to their blog where they detail what they did in each locale. Great stuff.

Hero
I have a new hero. His name is Daniel Morey and he is a carpenter from nearby Naperville. He also recently won a Lego building competition and has been added to the Lego payroll so he can build all day long every day at the new Legoland Discovery Center that is opening tomorrow at the Streets of Woodfield outside Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, IL. Lucky bastard.

Quaked
I think everyone I know was in the LA area for the quake that hit yesterday. My brother, Karl, Whit, Erin. I can safely assume Hilly and Neil as well. And I am so so jealous. I miss the New Madrid earthquake, I miss all tornadoes. Eventually karma's just gonna hit my ass with the perfect storm, isn't it?

Fifth
According to a recent study, one fifth of Americans are watching TV online instead of on their TV. Really? That many? I know a handful at most. And I'm not one of them. I'm sorry, but I can't stand sitting in front of my computer to watch a TV show. That's what my TV and DVD player are for. And I'm not about to trade my 42" plasma for a 19" computer monitor... a couch for a card table chair. Now if this study includes watching on an iPod, okay. I do that when I'm away from my beloved plasma, but not otherwise. Do you?

Rollin'
I've been meeting a bunch of new bloggers lately via teh Intarwebs and I have my guestposting stint on Karl's site to thank for many of them. So last night I started adding a bunch to my blogroll. In recent weeks, my roll has jumped from the mid 60s to about 81. And I'm not even sure I got them all. I was half asleep as I made the updates, so please do me a favor and check for your site on there. If it's not posted, please don't think I overlooked you intentionally. I just glazed over. Seriously. Just tell me and I'll add you in. That's really all it takes.

The Addams Family started...

Just another Snippet Wednesday... wo-o-oah.
Wish it were a Sunday... wo-o-oah
Cause that's my fun day... wo-o-oah
I don't have to write day...

Just another Snippet Wednesday.

Pillows
We always miss the cool stuff. The Kane County Cougars, our local single-A minor league baseball team, hosted what might end up being the largest pillow fight in the world with 3,872 people this past weekend. It bested the previous world record by about 200 people.

Pyramid
I think Katie and I have a new beer to love. Upon recommendation from a friend, we tried Pyramid Apricot Ale. I never would've thought to throw apricot into a beer, but damn, it was good.

As always, enjoy in moderation!

That would be my PSA for the day.

Handy
As a result of all the dogs we've had around lately, I've had to kick my allergy meds into high gear to ensure I'm okay. I'm only borderline allergic and nothing bad happens, but I really don't want to take any chances. So I called in a refill to a Walgreen's near where I work yesterday. This is an old Walgreen's. I think it even predates me moving to Illinois in 1987, so the drive thru was pretty dated. As a result of this ancient configuration, I was able to watch as the drawer opened for the car in front of me in line and a human hand reached out to take their money. It was all quite surreal watching this seemingly disembodied, yet fully animated, hand reach out from a drug drawer built into a brick wall (at the angle from which I was viewing, I couldn't see the person on the other side of the window due to glare). I was actually a bit freaked out. When I got up to the window, it was all I could do to not grab the hand and try to drive away with it.

Gas
Holy cow! Katie and I found gas here in the Chicago suburbs for $3.94 today! You can bet we were all over that like white on rice. We both refueled. You have to when it's that cheap!

Sad that we're getting that excited about $3.94, isn't it? Well, considering I paid $4.29 a week ago, I guess I should be happy.

TiVommercial
This is kinda cool... TiVo and Amazon have inked a deal in which viewers, who see something they like in the course of a TV show (not a commercial), can actually press a button and order it automatically from Amazon. This is the ultimate in product placement and, so long as the ordering options are not highly intrusive, I think it has the potential to be pretty cool. Of course, it will be intrusive as hell, I'm sure.

Have a good rest of your Wednesday.

Hey now, you're an all star...

Hey all! Welcome to Snippet Wednesday #7. Buckle up!

Ninja
Just as I was clearing out the junk mail in my Gmail account, I caught a subject line that actually might've made me read had I not already known that the sender was a notorious spammer. It said "Ninja attacks in NYC's Times Square." How cool! Hey, I've got tons of NYC friends. Anybody witness or been victim of ninja attacks?? Any pictures??

Yeah, that's what I thought. Bummer. No cool stuff ever happens.

Stars
For the first time in my life, I actually watched (and listened to) the MLB All-Star Game. I have no idea why I committed myself to that whole damn thing. It was 15 freakin' innings after all. I started it with a friend after work, then continued it on the radio while I drove home, and then Katie flipped it on as we were trying to fall asleep. I can't imagine having been a fan watching it in person in NYC where it didn't end until 1:30 or so in the morning. Time to call in dead to work.

Poehlerized
So Amy Poehler is being considered for a leading role in the new spinoff of The Office set to debut after the Super Bowl in February, eh? Could be interesting. I'm not a huge Poehler fan, but she could be good. Personally, I'd love to see her real-life husband, Will Arnett, in the show. Maybe just in wildly inappropriate cameos like David Koechner currently does in the primary version of the show as Todd Packer.

Desnudo
Apparently, Megan Fox wants to star in a movie in which she's naked 100% of the time. I don't see any problems with this. Do you?

Windmill
This is the coolest thing in the world (well, until the next coolest thing comes along)... a Lego windmill! Two feet tall and it actually works on battery power. Sadly, I doubt we'll see any of these dotting the sides of the highways. That would be a lot of Legos. But I want one!

Knighted
For those of you following me on Twitter, you already know, but Katie and I got our tickets to see The Dark Knight at 9:15 a.m. on Friday on our local IMAX screen. I can't remember how long it has been since I've geeked out this much. Well, probably last night, but still.

Countin' dogs, funky dogs, nasty dogs, atomic dog...

Today's Snippet Wednesday (#6, I do believe) is brought to you by special guest blogger, Lilly Monster. No she doesn't have her own blog. She's the dog that Katie and I are dogsitting for the next week for my brother and SiL. This is our first dogsitting episode and actually one of the few times we've even had an animal in this house... aside from me, of course.

So take it away, Lilly...

*woof*

That's right, you're all pads. How about I type?

Conflict
As I was heading into downtown Chicago on the train to meet up with Kim and Beth for CBSC, I was sitting and waiting for the train and happened to look at my ankle. Seeing how much branding was down there in that short amount of space made me wonder if I'm a walking, talking conflict of interest. Check this out...

We have Nike vs. New Balance for athletic wear dominance. Plus we also have a religious conflict going with Nike, Greek God of Victory, vs. Horus, Egyptian God of the Sky.

Whose hell will I burn in?

Jacobson
Almost a year ago to the day, I talked about how NBC 5 Chicago reporter Amy Jacobson was fired when she was caught on camera at the home of Craig Stebic who was a person of interest in the disappearance of his wife, Lisa. The kicker was that she was there in her bikini. Yeah, nothing going on there, right?

Well, to celebrate the one year anniversary of her sacking and her subsequent inability to land a job, she's now suing CBS 2, the channel that aired the footage of her at Stebic's house. Oh yeah, also named in the suit are the owners of the house from which the footage was shot amongst a few others. Jacobson claims that anytime her son hears the word "unemployed," he cries uncontrollably. Well, move away and get a job in some other field if it's that bad for the kid. Jeebus.

Oh, better be careful or she'll add me to the list of defendants.

Lotto
Lottery aficionados in Florida are now being given a new option, well, for a little while anyway. They can either walk away with the $250,000 prize in the Summer Cash promotion or win gasoline for life. It's actually not unlimited, though. They get a $100 gas card 26 times a year for life. That's $50 in gas a week, which, for many, might barely fuel a single car for that span of time. Of course, you cannot take a lump-sum payment like with the cash and, say you live for the next 44 years, you'll only wind up making $114,400. And lord only knows how they'd go about taxing this one for ya. Plus, if you keep taking payments each year until you die, what's to stop the Lotto Mafia from sending out hitmen after you? I always wondered what would stop a lotto commission from trying to have you offed so they could stop payments because your next of kin cannot inherit lottery payout schedules.

I think I'll take the cash. Thanks.

Solar
Speaking of cars and gas, looks like Toyota is at it again. There is talk about a launch next year of a new solar-powered Prius. The article is very brief and very vague. All they say the solar will help with is the A/C system. I can't see that being the case. That's a lot of potential additional money to run a fan. But it's still kind of a cool idea.

CBSC
Last night was fun with the inaugural class of the Chicago Blogger Social Club. Nilsa, unfortunately, could not make it. But we had a blast at Hard Rock Cafe anyway. Here's a picture of us all...

From left to right: Steven, Kim, Ansleigh (in a Monkey Peace hat), Kate, Beth,
and me (in my Bad Monkey shirt)!

Oh yeah, and Beth? I've added you back into my blogroll. Sorry about that. My bad.

Peace and love and who's number one...

Welcome to Snippet Wednesday #5! 5 is my lucky number. Always has been. So why does it feel like it's luckier for you this time around than it is for me? Oh, that's right, because today is the day I announce the winner of the Wii Fit Sock contest and I have to pay for shipping. That's why! Well, anyway, that's at the end of this post. If nothing else, I'll make you read this whole thing before you find out who won. NO SCROLLING TO THE END, YOU CHEATERS!

Byzantine
I love this like nothing else. An internal Microsoft memo was leaked written by Bill Gates to his former minions regarding the insanity he experienced trying to download some software from the MIcrosoft Web site. It's funny as hell to read. But what's strange is that, even though I'm a Certified Mac Whore (tm), I must admit that I've never experienced this level of Hell on the MS site. Of course, I've never really downloaded much more than copies of IE and a multitude of security patches and upgrades for their software, but still and all the same. I do hope this is legit and not some joke post.

Tipping
Just to avoid any confusion regarding yesterday's post, Katie and I are good tippers and we've never not tipped a waiter. Typically we tip about 20% and have been known to give more (especially when Dave2 follows up with table dancing). But, if they give crappy service, they will receive a crappy tip. That's the truth.

Scranton
First it was The Office Convention last October, now it's The Office Games this month to launch the new video and board games that are associated with the funniest show on TV. And the whole shebang will be presided over by Mindy (Kelly Kapoor) Kaling. Man, Scranton gets all the cool stuff (I keed, I keed). But, at least the games will eventually be released to the rest of us non-Scranton residing folk.

Helmethead
I went to my parents' house yesterday during my lunch break to go through some boxes of stuff I had in their crawl space. I got rid of a box, condensed a few others, and brought some stuff home, much to Katie's chagrin. The loot included a collection of sports and non-sports cards, my autographed David Mack Kabuki comics and trade paperbacks, my collection of KISS stuff from my friend Mike, and this gem...

It's a kids batting helmet for the Pittsburgh Pirates that my grandfather (Pop Pop) gave me probably when I was about two years old. I never got rid of it and I'm glad I didn't. It's pretty sweet, although it only barely fits my huge head. I kinda had to slam the top of it to get it that far down my skull and it left welts. Go fig, eh?

I think I'm going to start a Flickr album with all the cool crawl space swag I find. Eve may be interested in the KISS stuff I dug up. Some seriously cool shit in there.

Five
I guess five is lucky for more than just me, though. It's SJ's five-year blogiversary (spread out over 13 different blogs, apparently) this week. I know we're already like halfway through the celebration, but go give her some love!

Socks
Okay, now let's figure out who won the free pairs of Wii Fit Socks. I promise you that I have not worn them... yet. We had entries from Sheila (Charm School Reject), BA, Odie, Scott, Beth, and MadIrishMan (I think).

As much as I'd like to see those socks come back to me as the wrapping paper around a copy of Donnie Brasco, I'm going to have to DQ MIM since I don't think his was a legitimate entry. And BA made me jealous by taunting me with the fact that he now has a copy of Wii Fit. Grrrrr... And, Scott, sorry, while it was quite celebratory in nature, that was a brain-numbing amount of exclamation points. Gah.

So our winners are:

• With her creative English contractions - Sheila
• With her promise of green polka dots contrasting with purple skin - Odie
• With her desire to not share toe jam amongst family members - Beth

Congrats! E-mail me your mailing addresses and I'll send them out as soon as possible.

All we are is just another brick in the wall...

I'm having a little trouble believing that I'm already up to Snippet Wednesday #4. How the hell did I get this far already without getting frustrated and giving it up? No idea.

I got some gems for ya.

Underage
The Chicago Public School District is apparently having a tough time with attendance. Without going into specific numbers, suffice it to say they are well below the state average. So how best to improve this trend? How about bribing kids to go with incentives for perfect attendance? That's exactly what they did. They mustered together a brand new Dodge Caliber (remember my love of those?) and drew a name.

The winner? Ashley Martinez. Oh yeah, did I mention that she's a 12-year-old seventh grader?

Good call on the prize list, CPS. The damn thing will likely have been driven into the ground before she's legal.

And Christamighty, Mr. Martinez, couldn't you have pulled that damn Bluetooth off your head for the photo shoot? You look like a friggin' tool.

Wall*E
While reading the Boston Globe article I referenced yesterday, I noticed a sidebar button with Wall*E in it. The movie hasn't even come out and I've already declared myself a bonafide freak for the little guy. Damn if he isn't the cutest hunk of steel and tank tread I've ever seen. So, of course, I clicked through. What would you expect?

It was a quiz about robots throughout cinematic history. The quiz functions in a very backassward manner that makes no sense whatsoever (keep clicking the "next" button), but it's got some interesting information in it. To be honest with you, I did pretty poorly. I'd tell you my score if the quiz actually gave me one. But it was still a fun read.

Amos
Yay me! New Amos Lee!

I only wish I could go see him on his next tour, but he's in Chicago on a Monday night. WTF?

Lemonade
The town the melo is referring to in her definition of "suburbia" is the town where I spent many of my formative years and it is where my parents continue to live to this day. I spent a lot of time there and have witnessed how much it has changed. And the story she relates cracks me up to no end.

But at least they were 20-ounce cups. I think most kids cheap out and use the supersize Dixies.

Ballgame
Julianne Hough looks pretty cute in a Cubs jersey and hat singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the Cub's seventh-inning stretch against the O's last night. Too bad she doesn't sound like she looks. But, as Katie says, everyone sounds bad in the seventh-inning stretch. Shame.

WordPress
I'm having all kinds of fun configuring plug-ins and widgets for the new blog. It's interesting. I really think I'd be better off creating my own from scratch, but that requires learning some PHP code. I may actually do it, though, just not yet. In the meantime, I'll have to make do.

Can any of you WordPressers recommend any cool plug-ins and widgets that you like? Links?

Fox on the run...

Snippet Wednesday #3 is now in the books! On the books? In/on... it's one of those two. Oh whatever.

Luke
'nuff said (see picture at right, courtesy of Wong/Getty).

Clarity
Oh man, Honda has announced the release of the FCX Clarity (although I do remember reading about this previously) and it had a ceremony in Japan with several celebrities being given the car. So my question is, how the heck do I get on this list of people who receive a freebie car? Any chance Honda is looking for bloggers who will whore their sites in exchange for one of these cars? If so, sign me up! I'll promo it and write about it! I'll even make it a new special event-based blogging day. I'll call it Honda Monday! So, um, Honda execs... how about it?

Pulp
Yep, it's time to nix Fun With Dead Trees. It never quite became the book review blog I had hoped it would be and it's my fault. Hell, when even I can't keep up with regular reviews (simply because my desire to read is nil), you know there's something wrong. I can't expect my guest reviewers to do all the work for me. So I'm killing it... check that, let's call it "recycling." Fun With Dead Trees will soon be no more and I'll be moving all my personal reviews to my GoodReads page where about half of them are now anyway. If you have reviews on FWDT and you'd like to keep copies, I'd suggest a quick copy/paste as they'll be gone in a week or so. Hurry on over!

Fox
So how many copies of Firefox did all of you download yesterday? I got three. One for my Mac, one for a loaner laptop, and one for my work computer. Needed to be done. Quite pretty.

Rage
You know, the discovery that road rage and bumper stickers are very closely correlated (no, not that they elicit road rage, but that people who have bumper stickers are more prone to it) shouldn't surprise me. And yet it does.

Hulk
Got this from Marty and Karl. Kev likey...

Find out Which Marvel Superhero Are You at  LiquidGeneration.com!

Winner takes it all, loser takes a fall...

Time for Snippet Wednesday #2! (and there was much rejoicing... yay.)

Closer
Katie and I started watching the TNT series The Closer on DVD recently and are loving it. The final disc of season one should be in today from Netflix and then we're on to season two. We've also set the DVR to catch any episode it can find including the upcoming season four. I mean it, we are hooked. Katie walks around using Kyra Sedgwick's twang as she says "thank yewwwwww." And me? I just get a kick out of seeing G.W. Bailey who was always one of my faves in the Police Academy series. Overall, though, the cast rocks.

To all you people who are Closer whores (I know I read a post from one of you recently, but I cannot find it for the life of me now), does it really stay this good throughout the series or are we setting our expectations way too high?

Gag
Does our gag reflex get more sensitive as we age? I ask because, while I'm brushing my teeth, I also brush my tongue to get rid of that morning/dragon breath that tends to occur. Bear in mind that I don't brush that far back on my tongue at all, but it seems like my desire to toss, and thus ruin all my brushing efforts to that point, is heightened of late. Sometimes it's so bad, I start to see stars. Can't be good, right?

Spam?
We've all had the discussion about deleting spam comments from our blogs in the past. If it's garbage and it has nothing to do with the topic at hand, nix it, right? Well, what if it's from someone you don't know, a company actually that is promoting sex paraphernalia, but the comment they leave actually is related to a post? Not just in some peripheral way, either (for example, saying "Oh, I totally agree with you" and not being more specific). This referenced my actual post. Are spambots getting that intelligent that they scan your text to develop smarter comments or do you think this was a legitimate comment? Nix or keep?

Playlist
It's time for a little spring cleaning of my iPod playlist. No, not the big iTunes Master List, but the smaller subset that always makes it on my iPod. It was already pretty small as it is but it will be even smaller. To the point where having a larger iPod almost seems foolish.

Out of curiosity, though, do you ever clean up your playlist? If so, what criteria do you use to make the decision what to nix? Is it like clothing... if you haven't worn (listened to) it in such-and-such amount of time, it's gone?

Pod
Speaking of iPods, with the warranty-related problems I've been having, I'm thinking about just swapping out for one of the new iPod Nanos. I may do this today, even. With this trade-in, Best Buy will kick in their lemon rule and allow me to swap and the next available iPod is the whopper 80GB, and this just seems like a ridiculously large iPod to own. I don't see the purpose in having such a large damn iPod that I wouldn't even fill up 25% of the way. If I could use it as a portable hard drive, then I could see it. But each time I plug my Mac-formatted iPod into a Windows-based PC (computer at work), it always prompts for a reinstall of the firmware and won't read it without me doing this, so hard drive usage of this iPod is non-existent unless I never use it on anything other than my home computer. So whaddaya think? A Nano? In anticipation of picking up one of the new iPhones down the line? Sadly, I have no choices other than this. The swap must be done within the same product line.

Winner
First of all, a big thank you to everyone that chimed in last Friday to congratulate me on #1,000.

As for the winner of the contest, I counted up the number of correct answers for each entrant and then employed a highly scientific method by which to pick a number; well, not really. But it still seemed to work and thus we have our winner. And it is... [drum roll, please]... #63...

KILAX! Drop me a note and let me know if you'd prefer a gift card for Amazon or iTunes and I'll figure out how to get it to you.

Boom, here comes the boom...

I'm starting to wonder if I should just declare Snippet Wednesdays. Everybody seems to have themes of some sort... Dave's Bullet Sundays, ajooja's Friday Bullets, Avitable's Lazy Sundays... and they all center on weekends. I think we need to give some recognition to the middle of the week. So, yeah, I'm declaring this the Snippet Wednesday #1 (even if I've done these on Wednesdays before, this is the official start)!

Obama
Well, Barack Obama has apparently sealed the nomination for the Democratic Party. And I still don't know who I'm voting for. No, this doesn't mean I want to vote for McCain. I don't. I guess I keep hoping for some killer third-party candidate to come along.

I think I've finally nailed down why I'm suddenly so indecisive and negative. In the beginning, I was all about Obama. I bought into his promise of change. And yet I've seen nothing but the same shit only amplified over past campaigns. I was expecting the "change" to start with campaigning. I thought he'd remove himself from the mud slinging that typified American politics. In fact, I expected him to. And he didn't. He just dove right into the pit and began flinging like everyone else. And this Democratic Party campaign has been more divisive than most I remember.

Obama's luster, in my mind's eye, has been tainted by his willingness to participate in bullshit politicking.

Death?
No, this is not a snippet dedicated to Brandon's wife.

If you were given the choice between certain death at the hands of an invading army or an uncertain future being whisked away to an alien world, which would you choose? This was the dream my brain graced me with in the 10 minutes of snooze time I had this morning. An army, much akin to the invading Latin American army in Red Dawn (they were advised by Russians, otherwise they spoke perfect Spanish; never noticed that when you watched the movie as a kid, didya?), was barreling through all U.S. towns killing everyone. Then, when they got far enough away, they would wipe out the remainder of the town with a nuke.

However, aliens that looked like a cross between Whitley Streiber's vision (not modern teenage girls) and those from Shyamalan's Signs and other more recent films were preceding the army offering the chance for people to go with them to their world. But there was no way to know if this was going to be some paradise or a human smorgasbord.

If you had to make a choice right then and there, what would it be?

One thing is for sure, I'm never hitting the snooze bar again.

Games
I'm upset with both Target and Circuit City right now. Their Sunday ads looked like they were offering some cool stuff with a couple of new release video games this week and I wanted them.

Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures came out and Circuit City was offering a T-shirt and Belloq Lego. I could give a rat's ass about the T-shirt, but I thought it would be cool to have a Lego minifig that looked like Belloq in his Jewish ceremonial garb from the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Well, that was how I interpreted it with how quickly I glanced at the ad. So I went into CC yesterday only to discover that Belloq was an unlockable character in the game and not a toy to use with my Indiana Jones Legos. Dammit. (You'll have to forgive that I'm not a big gamer so "unlockable" didn't register in my head as video game jargon.)

Target's ad promised some cool swag with copies of Guitar Hero on the Nintendo DS. I have no idea how Guitar Hero would play on the DS, but color me intrigued by both it and the swag. So I went in there only to discover that the game isn't coming out until the 22nd. I've seen CC and Best Buy advertise ahead of time, but never Target. Even the sales guy was confused by this tactic.

I walked out without buying anything at either place. Since there's no free shit to be had yet, I must wait until it's more cost effective to buy them. I need to save up some coin to pay the balance on my copy of Guitar Hero: Aerosmith coming out soon.

Explosion
I've heard of some great excuses for why an online service has been rendered temporarily unavailable in the past, but this one takes the cake.

StatCounter, the service I use to count hits on my site, was giving me single and very low double digit counts over the weekend. At first, I wondered how I offended so damn many people. But yesterday, I found a post on the StatCounter blog explaining that they had an explosion at one of their data centers. A big explosion.

Not that I'm doubting the authenticity of this story. It's just a whopper of a tale, don't you think?

Daisies
Pushing Daisies was ranked in an AOL poll as the best new TV show. Cool! Totally deserved although I would've also been happy with that honor going to Eli Stone.

Contest
Oh yeah, I've got a little celebrating to do on Friday and I hope you'll join me. There will be a giveaway. But you have to be a commenter on this site. Not a regular one... a single comment will do. So if you're a lurker and want to participate, comment on any post sometime before Friday to be eligible. Details will be forthcoming.

Nevermore
Best. 404. Error. Screen. Ever.