kapgar

So drink your gin and tonica and smoke your marijuanica...

Welcome to another fine (albeit snowy) Snippet Wednesday. I'd also like to wish a Happy Hanukkah to all my Jewish friends out there! Shalom!

Celebrations
On the topic of holidays, I have to apologize to some of my family. My recent spate of non-posting led to me not wishing some happiness to my family members. Back on November 21 was my parents' 40th wedding anniversary. Happy anniversary, Mom and Dad! And Monday was my brother's 32 birthday. Happy birthday, old man. I love you all and am sorry.

Run
Yesterday morning, due to bad planning, I didn't get to work out. I was dragging all day long. I could've worked out in the afternoon, but I just didn't feel like it. Wow, I've become a total morning workout person. I need to do it to stay awake. Anyway, so I made up for it this morning by running. Took a completely new route through the neighborhood and kept at it despite the dusting of snow we received overnight and the biting cold outside. I ran 3.09 miles total and that final 1.09 felt incredible. If I'd had more time, I think I could've kept going another couple miles without a problem. Of course, when I actually do have the time, I never feel like keeping going. Know what I mean? Oh, and in case you're wondering why the oddball distance, that's when I happened to get back to my driveway and it also balances my total run distance in the Nike+ GPS app at 26 miles even. Yep! I've almost run a full marathon (never mind that it took 9 or 10 individual runs to get there; we won't mention that).

Tweets
I Tweeted something today about some topic or other, blah, blah, blah. But it seemingly resonated with a few people as I got replies back from a couple friends that, when viewed in the mentions column of Tweetdeck, looked like this...

Yeah. I totally am. ;-) (no ego there, eh?)

Egypt
In response to the retiring of both the Indiana Jones and Prince of Persia lines of LEGO sets, the company has released a whole new series called Pharaoh's Quest. Sure, they may not be 100% faithful to Egyptology, but they're pretty darn cool. You can never have too many mummies!

And for those of you who watch The Walking Dead, there is a figure in one of the sets that I think is a total brick doppelgänger for Shane. Uncanny, ain't it? Well, yanno, for being non-contoured and yellow and really small and all that.

Slider
Someone at work brought in some White Castle Sliders for their lunch. We had been talking about it before he got them and I mentioned that I haven't eaten a Slider since I was about five years old. Considering I turn 36 on Sunday, that's a helluva long time. He thought it necessary that I try one again.

Well, that box arrived and I took one whiff and realized exactly why it's been 31 years since I've had one. I call it Gag-Reflex-Inducing-Scent or Eau de Crap. My sense of smell is still struggling to recover.

Like a record, baby, right round round round...

For many years, Katie and I have been using a tiny little food processor for our kitchen chopping needs. It's a great food processor, don't get me wrong... just really small. If we were ever prepping a large amount of food, we'd need to use the thing in phases and that just got to be a pain in the butt because you'd rarely have consistency.

A couple weeks ago, we finally took the plunge and bought ourselves a much larger food processor in the form of the Cuisinart Pro Classic 7-Cup Food Processor (model DLC-10S).

Geez, these things are not cheap. But once you've taken the plunge, there's no going back.

We used it for the first time last week to make large batches of guacamole and salsa. We like to make a lot of each and have it around for a while and even share with some friends. So if the Cuisinart can withstand all the chopping that would be necessary for Kapgar-scale batches, its place in our kitchen would be cemented.

Here are some photos of the affair. Bear in mind that I forgot to photograph the guacamole and only have shots of the salsa...

Starting with the onions.

Next come the tomatoes. Note the nicely chopped onion bed below
and Katie's blurred hand on the right.

A blur of red through the feed tube.

Adding more tomatoes through the feed tube while the rest is still blending.

After everything is done chopping and mixing.

Good stuff and perfectly made (the way that we like it).

This thing worked wonders with our Tex-Mex night. How do you say "hallelujah" in Spanish?

Here are some photos of the Cuisinart and all the stuff that came with it.

 
The blade is something you don't wanna mess around with and you don't want near kids. Click through on the photo to see how wicked the teeth are on that blade.

 
Other stuff includes (clockwise from top left in the first photo): dough kneading blade, detachable disc stem, stainless steel chopping/mixing blade, spatula, stainless steel shredding disc (cheese grater), and stainless steel slicing disc (4mm). In the right photo, we have what's called a flat chopping/baking cover.

 
The disc stem kinda confused me at first until the LEGO builder in me
put two and two together and got this.

Or I could've just watched the nifty DVD that was also included. Stupid me.

This is a beautiful food processor and I'm so glad we got it. Especially considering we have Thanksgiving coming up and we're hosting this year.

It was also nice that we got it on sale. It was $50 off the list price at CSNstores.com.

My only complaint with the product is that it's not easy to store all the stuff that comes with it. Having some sort of case or pouch to store the extra blades and wheels and lids would be nice. At the very least blade edge covers to protect people as they feel around through their kitchen drawers trying to find them would protect from bloody finger tips.

As for CSNstores.com, I gotta admit I was a bit hesitant to purchase anything there. Why? Well, we've been burned by enough online stores in the past to wind up being very choosy about where we order online. 99% of our online orders are through Amazon or iTunes. Once you've found a place you like and trust, you rarely go elsewhere.

But we tried it anyway.

CSNstores.com is pretty much an online shopping mall. It's got a little bit of everything all broken up into individual stores to make browsing easier. If I could think up a product, I came pretty close to always finding it there.

The only problem was that even if I could find it listed on the site, it didn't always mean it was in stock. I was initially searching for a chef's knife that I had seen in a bricks-and-mortar store and they had it for a good price. However, it was on a 12- to 15-week backorder. So were most other knives I thought could work as a serviceable replacement. Heck, many other brands of food processor were also on backorder. I almost think that CSN would benefit from an advanced search option that would eliminate backorder and out-of-stock items in addition to the options for model, price, ship time, and user ratings. Just to make it easier to find what you want that is available for immediate shipping.

Speaking of shipping, this is where my mind was blown. I ordered the Cuisinart on a Sunday and had it in my grubby little hands that Wednesday. An hour after I got it, I received the shipping confirmation e-mail. No, not the delivery confirmation, the shipping confirmation. This can be perceived as both good and bad. It's good because the shipping was faster than anticipated. It's bad because their e-mail confirmation system needs to be tweaked a bit. For me to have received it on Wednesday, the shipping had to occur on Monday. Yet I didn't receive the confirmation until after I received the product. I'm willing to forgive this right now simply because I got the Cuisinart so quickly.

All in all, my reviews...

• The Cuisinart Pro Classic 7-Cup Food Processor - 4.5/5.0 stars. I maintain that some sort of case or pouch for all the extra bits and pieces would be nice.
• CSNstores.com - 3.5/5.0 stars. They have a great and varied selection of products, but a large number of search results came back as out of stock or backordered. And they need to improve their e-mail confirmation system. But I would certainly use the site again, especially if they come back with a better price than Amazon or my local bricks-and-mortar store.

'nuff said.

For the record, and to keep the FCC happy, this is a solicited and paid review.

It's alright if you love me, it's alright if you don't...

You know what? I'm not going to call this a Snippet Thursday: The Reckoning. Nope, not this time. I'll just call it a Belated Snippet Wednesday. Does that work for you?

Takeover
There are groups of people out there who fear that the United States is being overrun with immigrants or people of different races, religions, creeds, whatnot. Obviously these people are all kinds of whack in the head. They are fearing the wrong thing entirely. You wanna know what I'm afraid is going to take over our fair country? THE DUGGARS! Damn, the kids are having kids now. Another pregnancy was announced this morning on the Today Show. The growth of the family is going to be exponential from this point forward. It's only a matter of time before EVERYBODY in the USA is a minority to the Duggar clan. I can see it now... The United States of Duggar... I pledge allegiance to the Duggars...

Help.

Uno
Yesterday, my Tweep kimt205 Tweeted about an e-mail she received that asked the following...

I agree, that's a good question. And it's one that can expand to more than just Twitter users. For those of you who are Facebook junkies or blog readers... what if you could only follow one person on those platforms as well? Who would it be?

No, I'm not fishing for you all to say, "You Kevin! Of course it's you!" I'm genuinely curious how all of you would answer. And, yet, it's a question I'm unable to repond to personally. I really don't know if I could do it. You?

Nooooooo
I love my wife. She's so cute. Take last night, for example. We went upstairs to see what recorded on the TiVo. Being Wednesday, she was expecting to find recordings of the latest Modern Family and Cougar Town. Imagine her dismay when there was nothing.

Me: Sorry hon. Nothing new.

Her: Noooooooooooooo!!!!

Me: Obviously they're on a break week.

Her: Noooooooooooooo!!!!

But you have to imagine her whining that word with a little kid's petulence and an oversize frown stretching across her face.

I do love her.

Ponzi
I've decided that the only way I'm going to survive in this economy and make my millions so I can retire by my desired age of 40 is to start my own Ponzi Scheme. Does anybody know how to initiate an effective Ponzi Scheme? Would you like in at the ground level? I'll share my profits. Just sign your name to all the associated start-up documents and we'll be rich in no time. Deal? Anybody?

Challenge
I'm thinking about starting up another Kapgar Photo Scavenger Hunt (No, this has nothing to do with my Ponzi Scheming). It's actually been a good six months now since the start of the last one and my initial plan was to do it every six. So much for that. But I can still get it close enough for government work.

My question to you, though, is should I run it in December or wait until the new year? On the one hand, we can get some pretty cool holiday photos. But on the flip side of that, you'll be contending with holidays and vacations and may have difficulty posting photos by the given deadlines. So, what say you? December Holiday Edition of the Kapgar Photo Scavenger Hunt or kick it off in 2011? Majority rules on this one.

Oh, and if it helps with the decision process, I plan to allow people to just post links to their photos on Flickr or other photo sharing sites instead of having to write it up as a blog post. So those of you with cameras in your phones can just post on the go, too. Does this affect your decision at all?

Snippets
Do you now see why I love Snippet posts? Absolutely no relation between the items I'm talking about whatsoever. Just completely random thoughts floating through my nogging now shared with the world via the wonder of the World Wide Web.

Sure, it's a train wreck of ideas, but I don't care. Do you?

Nothing stays the same...

I'm so relieved I survived the pseudo Storm of the Century.

I know it knocked down a lot of trees and temporarily knocked out power on a pretty small scale, but, otherwise, it was pretty weak.

A lot of huff and puff, but little true blow.

I actually think there is a greater potential for disaster on my drive to the gym in the morning.

On my way there, I have to traverse a subdivision where a lot of the residents like to run along the street in the early morning. And I swear that every freakin' one of them wears black with no reflective tape or patches or lights at all and it's pitch black when I'm driving. Add to that the fact that there are so many curves in the road in this neighborhood that my headlights are usually pointing away from them by the time I come upon them that there is no possible way in all that's holy that I'll ever see them.

I hate to wish ill on people, but one of them needs to be hit by someone so they and their neighbors will learn to either wear light, reflective clothing or USE THE DAMN SIDEWALK!! Nothing against runners, but this particular batch are morons and deserve what's coming to them if they're not going to be intelligent about how they exercise.

Yesterday was an interesting day in terms of Twitter. Their servers were overloaded, as per usual, and I was craving an avatar change.

So I pitched my standard avatar, which had already turned Pepto Pink (tm) in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and Twitter replaced it with their default egg avatar. Of course, the overload meant that nothing I was trying to upload was processing so the egg became a nice big joke amongst all my Tweeps.

Until, that is, the first of my uploads finally processed an hour or so later leaving me with a zombie I had created on the Sears Zombie Catalog site.

Then it became a new avatar another hour later when I created a variant of the default Twitter egg with my face hatching out of it.

Gotta be honest, I really dig the hatching egg -- as corny as it is -- and I'm gonna stick with it!

More than meets the eye...

Happy Snippet Wednesday and Happy @kapgar Day!

Cobaxl
Steven Hyden of The Onion's A/V Club wrote a fantastic piece on the long-running feud between Axl Rose of Guns 'n' Roses and Kurt Cobain of Nirvana during the transition period from the metal era to grunge. I knew there was animosity between the two of them, but I had no idea how deep its roots were. If you like music history, check this piece out. Thanks to @petcobra for the tip.

Moon
I saw the first Transformers movie and enjoyed it. Never saw the second and never wanted to. Only want to see the third because of how much of the filming was done in Chicago and the fact that I actually saw it as it was happening. But, let me tell you, if film titles were the sole determiner when deciding if I was seeing a movie or not, Transformers: Dark of the Moon certainly would have me running for the hills.

I must offer my sincerest apologies to George Lucas. The Phantom Menace is no longer the dumbest movie title of all time.

Netflix
I received an e-mail from Netflix informing me that they were sending me the next available film in my queue. It was the second film in the list since the first was on a short wait. Then, a day later, I got another e-mail telling me my first choice was available at a downstate distribution center and they were sending it to me as well. So my three-disc subscription was going to temporarily become a four-disc subscription. A way to keep users happy? Has this happened to anyone else?

iPhone
I've been using my iPhone 4 for two months now and I really need to get cracking on a review of what I think. There's just so much I want to say. I may have to spread it out over a couple posts or run the risk of having a post that reads like a novel. Yikes!

Typepad
This is the second time I wrote this post. The first time, I forgot to give it an interim save and the browser froze up. What I don't get is that Typepad has an autosave feature kinda like Microschlock Word and it constantly annoys me by telling me that it has a saved copy of a post that I already published a few days prior. Of course, the time that my browser freezes is the one time that the autosave feature kicks in only to save the title and nothing in the post. This makes no sense since I came up with the title after I wrote two and a half snippets. What gives?

Shows
So what shows have all of you given up on this new television season? There are a couple that we're thinking of ditching and wondering if any of you may have the same opinion. Please share!

Okay, I'm outta here. Time to catch up on the season finale of Mad Men.

Those were the days...

Since yesterday was our ninth anniversary, I couldn't quite make a Snippet Wednesday work properly. So, to make up for it, I'm bringing you a Snippet Thursday: The Reckoning!

Stool
Katie and I desperately need a new bar stool or two for the table in our kitchen. But, for some reason, we have not been able to find one we like to save our lives.

Huh?
Was that snippet just completely random? Yeah, I agree. It's actually a teaser I've been asked to place on my blog in anticipation of a future product review for a company called CSN. I put the word "bar stool" with that link on there and then they will send me a product of my choosing to review. I just felt the need to try to work "bar stool" into some semblance of context. And we would really like some barstools. But that's not what I'm planning to review. The good thing is that, soon after I do my review, I will be giving away a gift certificate to their online store to some lucky reader. Don't worry, this sort of thing won't become commonplace by any stretch. I just wanted to try doing another product review as it's been quite a while. We'll see how it goes. Plus, I have a pretty cool idea for the product I want to review and how I'm going to do it. But it's kinda time sensitive, so here's hoping I get it in time.

Brittany
But if there is one thing you may see a lot of around here, it's me avowing my love of Brittany on Glee. I did it a couple weeks ago and, after this week's episode, I'm going to do it again. The girl kills me and her scene with the meatball in Breadsticks a la Lady and the Tramp was absolutely adorable and heartbreaking all at the same time.

Museum
Speaking of cool girls, there's one named Kate McGroarty who recently won a Month at the Museum contest through the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. Basically this means that she will be living in an exhibit and blog, video, and Tweet her interactions and experiences. How cool is that? She's going to eat there, sleep there, do some other stuff there. I'm hoping she gets a little privacy for the bathroom. Oh yeah, and did I mention she gets $10,000 for the month? Would you do it?

Reiner
For as long as I've been cognizant, my dad has had a full beard on his face. Until this last half year or so, that is. Lately, he's become a little more experimental. First, he shaved it down to a goatee and now it's just a moustache. Yes, of course we've been giving him crap about his "porn star" 'stache - we just couldn't help ourselves. However, this past week, Katie and I were watching 30 Rock with guest star Rob Reiner when she chimed in with, "that's what I miss... having Rob Reiner as my father-in-law." And it finally clicked... ohmigod, Rob Reiner is my dad! My dad is Rob Reiner! Finkel is Einhorn!

 

Well, yanno, minus the directing and acting credits, of course. And the huge bank accounts. And the Hollywood contacts. And... *sigh*

Despicable me, I’m having a bad bad day...

Just a quick one today.

Katie decided to have some fun and made me into a Minion.

Of course I had to have a little return fun.

That is all.

Make your own.

Cocked your head to the side and said I'm angry...

It's been a week and a half since I last blogged.

Wow. I'm pretty sure that's the longest I've been neglectful around these parts.

You know it's bad when both your wife and your mom have taken notice of the fact that you haven't blogged in a long time and are actually a little mournful about it.

I know it's a very off-day, but I hope you don't mind some snippets. Given I've missed the last two Snippet Wednesdays -- and even the last two potential Snippet Thursday: The Reckonings -- I don't see it being a big deal that I do it now, right?

Rest
And on the 14th day, they rested.

This past Sunday marked 13 consecutive days of exercise for Katie and me. As you know, we've been working out weekday mornings for quite some time. Well, a couple weekends ago, we started exercising on weekends as well. Two really long walks in a row now that the heat has calmed down a bit and a 20-mile bike ride this past Saturday. That one caused us to be a bit sore, so we took Sunday off. And we're back at it again this week. All five weekdays so far. Not sure what will happen this weekend. We'll have to wait and see.

Camera
I guess it was a good thing I distracted myself with exercise this past weekend. I was feeling a bit naked without my trusty Sony D-SLR. My friend Eric was shooting a wedding and asked if he could borrow it. This is the first time my Sony has not been with me or at least somewhere I knew he should be. I felt a bit "off," if you get my meaning. Nothing was quite right until Monday when I got my camera back -- in perfect working order -- from Eric. Gah!

Beans
But not having my Sony around gave me time to play a bit more with the camera in my new iPhone 4. It's a nice camera. Not perfect by any stretch, but nice... and far more portable. And what's really nice is the automatic geotagging I get in my iPhone photos when they're uploaded to Flickr.

Of course, even this isn't perfect as the geotag of this Jelly Bean photo would indicate. Apparently, I found myself some jelly beans to photograph in "a mysterious place with no name" in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean near the western coast of Africa.

Guess it's a good thing my passport finally came in the mail, eh?

Bloody
Katie and I are tearing through True Blood seasons 1 and 2 on DVD right now. We got free video-on-demand of all episodes of season 1 from Amazon and season 2 came in from the library but is due back soon. Funny thing was a conversation between Katie and I as Bill and Sookie were having sex and he bit her, drawing blood down her neck...

Katie: [jokingly] "Edward would never do that to Bella!"

Me: "That's because Edward is not a real vampire. He has no fangs. He couldn't if he tried."

Heh.

Chiro
Speaking of conversations, this happened at the chiropractor's office the other day. We finally discovered how old he was.

Me: "You're not even in your thirties!?!?"

Him: "You were born in the Seventies!?!?"

I get it, I'm old.

Lamb
The other day, a coworker and I were coming in to work together and she told me about a book she just started reading. She wasn't sure if I'd ever heard of it because it was, to her, a pretty unknown author. Turns out it was Christopher Moore's Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal. Only like my favorite book of all time. It took some work to not hug her right on the spot.

Hunger
Speaking of books, on the very strong recommendation of @DownWithPants and @Amanda234, I began reading The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. It's the first in a three-book series and, so far, it reminds me a lot of Takami's Battle Royale (loved the book, hated the movie) and Bachman/King's The Running Man (loved the movie, haven't read the story). And I don't have to wait between books as the final book in the series (Mockingjay) came out this week. I hate waiting. I'm not a patient person at all.

Okay, I'm outta here. Have a great weekend!

All in all, we're just brilliant thieves...

WANTED:
One person willing to write some book reviews for me on my Goodreads.com account. I have fallen a bit behind and really need to get off my lazy ass, but, well...

Titles that need reviews include:

• Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (book 2) by Bryan Lee O'Malley
• Scott Pilgrim and the Infinite Sadness (book 3) by Bryan Lee O'Malley
• LEGO: A Love Story by Jonathan Bender
• Practical Demonkeeping by Christopher Moore

PREREQUISITES:

• The ability to write a fantastically compelling book review.
• It must have emotion and charm and wit.
• It must sound like it was written by me, which is what I'm going to say it was anyway.
• It must speak to my true inner feelings about the time I spent reading these books. Since I have no time to detail how I felt about them, you must figure this out on your own.
• It must conform to AP Style Guide standards. Not really.
• It must be good, duh.

COMPENSATION:
The internal knowledge that you have written a fantastic review that will make others either rush out to buy and read it immediately or avoid it like the plague. I emphasize "internal" because once these reviews are written, they become the property of Kapgar, Inc. and you will receive no public credit for the writing you have done. I will disavow any knowledge that you participated in this endeavor.

Oh, and no money will exchange hands. Warm fuzzies only.

TIMELINE:
Now. I need them as soon as possible. The books have already been read and my Goodreads page is making me look like a slacker since I haven't updated it with a review in a couple months. Hell, I never even notified people on my page that I was reading any of those four books. How crappy am I? So the sooner, the better. Get crackin'.

SUBMISSIONS:
Please offer up writing samples and/or completed reviews in the comments. If I like them, I'll make sure to copy them into my Goodreads account and delete the comment from this blog to erase any evidence that you wrote it before Google has a chance to index it into its eternal memory.

Good luck!

(For the record, I am not really soliciting reviews. I'm just hoping this will give me the proper motivation to get off my butt and write them myself.)

A friend of mine just gave me two tickets to see the Kane County Cougars this Sunday. Cool!

Katie and I live a mere five miles from the stadium, and yet we hardly go. I think it's been six or seven years since we've been to a Cougars game.

For the record, the Cougars are a Class A affiliate of the Oakland Athletics. And they're playing the Peoria Chiefs, the Class A affiliate of the Chicago Cubs.

Looking forward to some photos!

Go do, you'll know how to...

Just a handful of quick snippets for you today. Sorry it's so rushed.

Vote
Only a month left until CBS2Chicago finalizes the choices for this year's Capture My Chicago book. If you haven't done so already and you have a free moment, can you please check out my profile, create a quick on for yourself, and vote on some of my photos? I hate whoring myself out like this, but I'd appreciate it.

Music
I've been checking out some really great music this week. Stuff from the library and stuff from friends. I've really taken a shine to Hot Chip's albums One Life Stand and The Warning as well as Kelis' Flesh Tone and Jonsi's Go. If you want to check out some new stuff, there you go!

Dune
My buddy Whall Tweeted this earlier today and it cracked me up to no end.

If you don't get it, I'm not even going to try to explain it.

Tweets
Speaking of Tweets, Avitable posed an interesting question today on his blog -- "has Twitter killed blogging?" I've seen this question asked before but finally decided to comment. As I said on his blog, I can't speak for everyone, but it has certainly diminished my desire to blog as much. And I think being able to distill your thoughts into 140 characters or less is a great skill to have. Don't use as many words and save some time. Maybe it's just me. Head on over there and share your thoughts if you're so inclined.

Well, it's time to get ready for a nice dinner with Katie. Talk atcha soon.

It's been one week since you looked at me...

With just a couple hours to spare, here I am! With Snippet Wednesday! Huzzah! Huzzah!

Reminder
There are so many bloggers that have kinda sorta given up on blogging in recent months. Several of them, I'd like to just reach out and say, "what gives? C'mon! Just write a couple blog posts!" But wouldn't that be hypocritical considering I haven't blogged in a week and, even when I do blog, it's infrequent at best. So I'll just shut up, okay?

Fantasy
As I was logging in to write this blog post, an e-mail came in from Brandon informing me that he's starting back up his Blogger Fantasy Football League. Now this is something worth celebrating! YES! It means we're that much closer to the real NFL season. Oh happy day!

Drives
Yes, my replacement Time Capsule arrived and is hooked up (within two days, mind you). And we bought a Western Digital My Book as a secondary drive and it is hooked up. Our WiFi network is up and running. The TiVos have refreshed their recording queues. The hard drive on the iMac is backed up. And...

Works
I finally got around to downloading one of those pieces of software that will allow me to transfer my music from my iPod back to my computer. I went along with Juliette's suggestion and purchased the full version of PodWorks. And it works! It's currently transferring all the music back from my iPod to my iTunes account and it's copying right where it is supposed to go on one of the external hard drives. I was considering PodManager, but discovered that it pulls the music from my iPod and places it on my desktop for me to then copy into iTunes. PodWorks cut out that extra step and is uber easy to use.

Juliette, you are a goddess amongst mere girls! I love you! I love you! I love you! I love you so much right now that, I tell you what, I'm going to buy a copy of your book, Morning Neurosis, and attend one of your signings so you can throw your John Hancock on it! Oh wait, I already did that. I guess you're just going to have to take my word for it, okay?

Runaways
One of the movies I've most been looking forward to this year is The Runaways. It's the biography of the all-girl rock band from the 70s featuring Joan Jett and Cherie Currie. I figured that if there was any one movie that Kristen Stewart would excel in, it would be one in which her regular drugged-out appearance would be a natch fit. Basically, I was just waiting to find out it was in theaters. Then, a few weeks back, I opened up my Rolling Stone magazine and saw a big two-page spread for the movie. This is it, I thought. Um, not exactly. It was an ad for the DVD/Blu-Ray release of the movie the following Tuesday. Huh? Did it never make it to theaters? How did I miss it? Well, whatever, it is now coming in from Netflix. So I'm a happy camper.

Playlist
I had fun today asking all my Tweeps to set my musical playlist for the day. I challenged them to just name any artist or band and, if available on my iPod, I would add a pair of songs from them to an On-the-Go playlist to set my musical mood for the day. Damn, it was fun! I got some great suggestions, a vast majority of which I had available, but several I did not. I should do this more often. It was even more fun than setting my iPod to shuffle.

Well, I'm out of here. Adios.

On an island in the sun...

Happy Snippet Wednesday. It's a late one. Sorry about that. Just been a little busy lately, but I didn't forget ya!

Ke$ha
It has been 19 hours and I still have Ke$ha's "Tik Tok" stuck in my head. It's been there since my iPod Shuffle came across it yesterday morning during my workout. The worst part is that I don't know the song that well so all I've got going back and forth in my skull is her signing the words "Tik Tok" and then the "oh-e-oh-e-oh-oh" part. Painful, I tells ya.

Shutter
Katie and I finally got around to watching Shutter Island last night. I had read the book by Dennis Lehane several years ago and remember liking it, although I don't remember much of what it was about. The movie was interesting. Not Scorsese's or DiCaprio's best by far. It comes off as very convoluted and overwrought. However, I will say that Michelle Williams was fantastic in it. If you need a reason to see it, then do so for her. I'm not a big fan of hers, but this was a career maker for her.

Jaws
Speaking of movies, the library got in a copy of Jaws that I've gotta pick up for Katie and I to watch. This past weekend, I saw a Bio Channel feature on the making of Jaws and it was way cool. Katie didn't watch it as she's never even seen the movie. Oh, she must be introduced to the greatness that is Jaws and STAT!

Capture
Guess what! Capture My Chicago is back and I'm all signed up and have submitted something like 70 photos for potential inclusion in the book. As you know, my photos didn't garner enough votes last year to be included in the printed coffee table book, although they were part of the DVD that came packaged with it. This year, though, I'm planning to submit a ton to increase my chances. The 70 I've already submitted constitute about four or five times my total submissions from last year. So I'm off to what I hope is a good start. Ideally, by sending in more, my name becomes more visible on the site and people click through to see the rest of what I've offered up. If you're willing and able, please check it out and sign up to vote. You don't have to be Chicago residents to vote so far as I know.

Shame
There are times when I naively think that our society cannot possibly be one in which hate groups such as the KKK can ever survive. Then I read stories like this, about a guy who thinks that the Blackhawks and Cubs are giving off the wrong idea by taking part in the Chicago Gay Pride Parade, and realize that some elements of our world truly are still living in the Dark Ages. Just. So. Wrong.

Tat
I now know what my next tattoo will be. Well, Norman anyway, not Boba. No offense, Boba, but I'm a Stormtrooper kinda guy. Yes, I know your father was responsible for their ultimate creation, but still. Do you think Katie would fly with this one?

Okay, now I've gotta go and take care of some stuff around the house. w00t!

Yours in a simple rhyme...

I needed to give myself a little challenge today, so I’m presenting you with Haiku Snippet Wednesday! Buckle up, y’all.

Stanley 

Lord Stanley’s Cup moves
To Chitowns’ Gay Pride Parade.
Rock on, Brent Sopel.

Norman

Is it wrong to like
blogging more as Norman than
blogging as myself?

Unwanted

Cheap Trick’s “I Want You…”
is too overplayed these days.
They have other songs.

Bricks

A tech blog asked me,
“Can we use your Brickworld pics?”
Of course I said yes.

Pitchfork

Less than a month till
the Pitchfork Fest hits Chitown.
I’m far too happy.

Adios, peeps!

I'm smiling next to you...

In Memoriam

And did you know you could make me scream...

Holy crap! Wait, is it? Can it be? It is! Kapgar is getting Snippet Wednesday posted early in the day for our reading (dis)pleasure!

Blogiversary
I was scanning down my page yesterday and happened to notice that little widget reminding me that I was one day away from my blogiversary. Wow! I almost missed it again. Five years this time. It's a biggie! Yay me!

Oil
The estimates on oil spillage into the Gulf of Mexico has been increased dramatically. Honestly, I don't even want to know how much is spilling. It's just too depressing. The only thing more depressing is the belief I have that it will never truly end or, at the very least, never be completely cleaned up.

Fallon
Speaking of Mexico, Jimmy Fallon did a segment on his late night show last night called "Pro/Con: Watching the World Cup." One of them that made me laugh out loud was, "Pro - several players from Team Mexico have already received yellow cards and red cards; Con - they were hoping for green cards." Sorry, but it made me laugh.

Bells
If you want a pretty good album to check out, give a listen to Treats by Sleigh Bells (iTunes | Amazon). It's really a unique album compiled by two artists, Derek Miller and Alexis Krauss, that blends several genres of music styles with Krauss' fantastic vocals. Their album was distributed and is being highly championed by M.I.A. and her label so that should tell you something about how eclectic it is. 

Shatner
William Shatner is creating a documentary based on his life. One of the things you learn in media school is that documentaries are, by their very nature, skewed to the creator's beliefs. God only knows how skewed an autobiographical documentary will be. Think it will be sponsored by Priceline?

Well, I'm off to the gym. Have a good one.

We call it Star Wars...

I'm not usually a fan of posting just a video and nothing else, but this Adidas video starring Daft Punk, Snoop Dogg, David Beckham, and Noel Gallagher, among others, edited into the Star Wars Creature Cantina sequence has left me awestruck and speechless...

All I can say is that I'm sad it wasn't me.

Higher res copies are available on YouTube and thank you to Pitchfork for bringing this to my attention.

Is he alive or dead...

This conversation actually happened in the locker room of my gym this morning...

Gary: Hey Kev. Have you seen Iron Man 2 yet?

Me: Yep!

Gary: Chaz [his son] and I have decided it is the perfect movie for four reasons.

Me: Oh? And they are?

Gary: 1) It has lots of Air Force stuff. 2) It has an Audi.

Me: You like Audis?

Gary: I love them. I own a TT convertible, but you've probably never seen it since I always walk or ride my bike to the gym.

Me: You must show me.

Gary: Will do. 3) It has cool engineering stuff and, 4) cool physics stuff.

Me: You forgot #5.

Gary: What's that?

Me: It has Scarlett Johansson in a leather catsuit.

Random Other Guy in the Locker Room: YEAH! Now you're talkin'!

Gary: Who? I don't know who that is. But she can't be as cool as my reasons.

Me: We all have our entertainment needs.

ROGitLR: Yes, we do.

One of my reviews was given "Review of the Day for the Chicago Burbs Area" status today on Yelp.

And I never would have known if it weren't for the sudden onslaught of comments and kudos from people I've never met.

Hmmm... maybe I should write some more reviews. This particular one was nearly a year and a half old. Whoops.

Your sex is on fire...

Yesterday, I read a great review of the film Sex and the City 2 from Cinematical's Jenni Miller that confirmed all the fears I have regarding this movie.

Please note that both Katie and I were huge fans of the original series on HBO, but hated the first movie and have no desire to see the second. Another review I read (but cannot find now) said that the show and characters are perfect for a half-hour serial, but too much for anyone to handle in a movie format.

Read below for one of my favorite paragraphs from Jenni's review to see why I fear this film or click through to the entire review.

Sex and the City 2 not only panders to the worst stereotypes of Americans abroad but also to the Middle East. Watch as Charlotte stumbles in high heeled sandals in the desert and tries to get iPhone reception while riding a camel. Stare in horror as Samantha fellates a hookah pipe in public. Check out Carrie as she wanders the beach forlornly followed by her handsome manservant holding an umbrella to shield her from the sun. Look on aghast while the four of them perform "I Am Woman" in the middle of a giant karaoke club, complete with belly dancers. At least Miranda has enough sense to try and get Samantha to observe local custom and wear a little more clothing than usual, despite Samantha's menopausal hot flashes.

Considering my confirmed fears, I would like to offer up four alternative versions of the movie, one focused on each main character, that should've been made instead.

Sex and the City: Carrie's Cackling
In a scene reminiscent of A Christmas Carol, three ghosts visit Carrie to reveal the truth to her about her relationship failures past, present, and future. Although finally confronted with all the details as to why she's been dumped, cheated on, abandoned via Post-It Note, and otherwise loathed, she still doesn't see that it's her own annoying character traits that have caused it all. This movie bombs because Carrie was everyone's least favorite character on the show anyway.

Sex and the City: Miranda's Mullings
Miranda decides to quit her job as a lawyer after one final case... defending a big NYC mafioso against charges of battery, first degree murder, coercion, and anything else you can think of. When her defense fails, his family plants her in cement shoes in the Hudson River. Considering how much she has always preferred her career over family, her husband Steve never realizes she's gone.

Sex and the City: Samantha's Sluttery
Samantha spends the entire movie in quarantine as the CDC examines her and attempts to name the many mutated strains of sexually transmitted diseases and various bodily rashes she has collected during her sexual escapades.

Sex and the City: Charlotte's Shenanigans
My favorite of the bunch... Charlotte cracks under the strain of her "perfect life" facade and tracks down her first husband (Kyle McLaughlin) and goes Rambo on his family. The FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit is called out to help explain her mental snap.

I can guarantee a couple of these I'd be interested in watching.

I like that Norman is already showing his allegiance for the 2010 Stanley Cup Finals.

I shall show mine tomorrow.

Walk on...

Well, it's been a few weeks, but I now present you with the triumphant return of Snippet Wednesday!

Walk
My buddy from across the pond, Dan of All That Comes With It, is involved in a pretty ambitious fundraiser called Hadrian's Walk. Basically it's a group of 60 people from around the world who will be walking the 60 mile span of the Hadrian's Wall Footpath in July in honor of Joseph Salmon who died in 2005 at the age of three. The money raised goes to help provide financial assistance to those who have lost a child. Right now, the crew behind this fundraiser have gotten nearly halfway to their goal and they need your help. Generously donated items such as buffs and t-shirts are available for purchase with proceeds going to the Joseph Salmon Trust and a raffle is also being held. If you have the opportunity and are interested in a very worthy cause, check it out.

Nest
One of the big deals right now in the area where I live is the discovery of a Bald Eagle's nest at a place called Mooseheart two towns south of me. I had to see this for myself, so I stopped off on Monday night on the way home from work to check it out. It's pretty cool. Sadly, due to the distance, I couldn't really get quite as close a shot as I would've liked and, because it was so far away, the focus is a little soft. But check it out anyway.

Willie
Can you believe that Willie Nelson cut his hair? Yikes! I never thought I'd see the day.

Guide
You may or may not have seen the Tweet last week, but the DuPage Convention and Visitors Bureau some weeks back asked if they could use some of the photos I've taken of the area and posted on my Flickr account. I have no problem with it, so I zipped up some high-res copies and sent them over. Last week, they e-mailed me to say that they used one of my shots in their Visitors Guide. My shot is the speed limit sign on page 41. I received a pair of guides in the mail today and, on those, you can see where they gave me credit for the image. And the card included in the mailing said that more opportunities may be available in the future. I'm stoked. It's really flattering to have your photography recognized like this so, yes, any chance I get, I'll submit photos.

Toons
On the way home from work today, I was listening to a local college radio station, WONC FM 89.1 out of North Central College, when they played a sound bite from Ren & Stimpy meant to intro their 5 p.m. happy hour programming. Hearing Stimpy's voice made me reminisce about the heyday of great cartoons that were introduced when I was in high school. My freshman year marked the start of The Simpsons, sophomore year was Ren & Stimpy, and my senior year was Beavis & Butt-head. Oh man, those were some great years in cartoon programming. *Le sigh*

It felt really good to write up a Snippet Wednesday again. Sorry it took so long.

Breakin' up is hard to do...

Welcome to the final Snippet Wednesday of April 2010. Can you believe we're done with 1/3 of this year already? Yikes!

Hunt
Just so you all know, yes, the photo scavenger hunt is still on. I've been debating how I'm going to approach doing it and receiving some input from people here and there. I now think I have it all figured out. It is going to start on Sunday and run through the month of May. But what I'm going to do is give three things that you need to find each week. So, each Sunday, three new clues will be revealed and you will have the entirety of that week to take pictures that work for those clues. I would like you each to then put links to your photos in the comments to the corresponding post. How's that sound? So keep an eye out this coming Sunday for the first round of clues.

Hawks
This prayer comes courtesy of my in-laws. I feel its words beating in my heart and coursing through my veins during this NHL postseason.

Our Father, who art in Chicago,
Hockey be thy name.
Thy will be done,
The cup will be won,
On ice, as well as in the stands.
Give us this day, our hockey sticks,
And forgive us our penalties,
as we forgive those who cross-check against us.
Lead us not into elimination,
but deliver us to victory
In the name of the fans....Lord Stanley,
and in the name of da HAWKS.
Amen!!

Norman
Please don't forget about Stormin' Norman right now as he endures a very difficult end to a relationship. He could use your support. Truly.

Films
Today, I just didn't feel like listening to music. [What?? Who is this? Who are you and what have you done with our kapgar??] I know, I know. It's almost blasphemous, right? Well, what I did instead was play movies on my iPod in the background as I worked. Kind of an interesting approach. They were all movies I've seen several times, so I knew I wouldn't need to pay attention at all and I wouldn't be sucked away from my work. That was the plan anyway, and it worked for Star Trek and Blue Harvest. But not quite so well for Inglourious Basterds. Not that I don't know what's going on, but so much of it is in foreign languages that I don't speak that I couldn't just listen peripherally while I work. I still did my work, but I just could not follow along in my mind's eye. Bummer. So, my tip to you, if you want to play movies in the background while you work, avoid those in foreign tongues, okay?

Dinner time, y'all!

'Cause I'm saved by the bell...

Wow. Didn't realize it had been so long since I blogged. My bad. But I'm back in time for Snippet Wednesday, so that's good, right?

League
Major League? A League of Their Own? 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea? No. She's Out of My League, the new Jay Baruchel flick. Katie and I just saw it and it was cool. Surprisingly cool. Highly enjoyably cool. Basically, it's the story of a guy who, according to his friends, rates a 5 on a 10 scale (Baruchel) who, through an act of courtesy and professionalism, scores a date with a 10 (Alice Eve). The rest of the movie is him trying to come to terms with why she would possibly want to be with him while his friends and family keep giving him a mixed bag of advice. I think the best thing about this was that there was very good chemistry between Baruchel and Eve that gave a great air of legitimacy to their on-screen relationship. Plus, his friends (Mike Vogel, T.J. Miller, and Nate Torrance) were hilarious.

Battery
I really wish someone would create a car battery that never dies. Is that really so hard? Can someone get on that so we don't have a situation where Katie's car sits dead in a parking lot again? That would be swell. Thanks!

Pelicans
On Sunday, Katie and I went with my parents to see some pelicans that had temporarily stopped in mid migration at a nearby pond. I haven't posted the photos yet, but, while there, I took a series of 55 photos of them in flight. Instead of just trashing a majority of them, I strung them together as a pseudo stop-motion film. Kinda cool, albeit short. So enjoy!

Pelicans in Flight from Kevin Apgar on Vimeo.

Shorts
I'm still in shock that it's early April and I was able to wear shorts yesterday. No, not to work, but afterwards. It was pretty damn nice. I gotta do this more often!

Lust
I know lust is one of the seven deadly sins, but I cannot help it with these two T-shirts from Found Item Clothing. Damn them and their Twitter account letting me know about this coolness! (They actually found me on Twitter; I'm assuming because of past posts about my Real Genius gear that Katie bought me from their store).

   

Must have. Too cool for words.

Four to the floor, I was sure...

Happy Snippet Wednesday, y'all. Giddy up!

Shaving
While I love having a shaved head, the process is the biggest pain. I don't want to shave every day as that's just a big ol' PITA, so I only shave a couple times a week. The rest of the time, my head is basically 100-grit sandpaper meaning that anything gets stuck to it. I've got one sweatshirt that loves to shed and Katie will wind up picking yellow fuzzies off my head the rest of the day. It's pretty bad. Is there some trick I'm missing to keep myself from being semi-velcroish?

Signatures
One of the things I meant to mention in my post about the memorabilia show was that, while I initially went to get Andre Dawson's signature, I never actually got it. A couple weeks prior to actually going, I found out that he (or his handlers, I'm not sure) was charging $60 per signature. That's just ridiculous, IMHO. Actually, everyone there was charging for signatures, but some cost less or they allowed more than just a single signed item. Whatever. Personally, I am very ethically against paying for signatures. I don't have anything against buying a pre-signed item if you're a fan of somebody and have no other way to obtain a signed piece from them. But to be there in someone's presence and have to pay for them to take a few second to whip out a pen and sign it just strikes me as nuts. Not even someone like Dawson who I loved so much as a player will get one red cent from me for his signature. And especially not after I was told by another guy there that Dawson was in Schaumburg the night before signing for free. However, I'll trade him my signature for his. Deal?

Blackhawks
I was listening to the radio this morning and hearing news of how great a game Chicago Blackhawks goalie Antti Niemi had last night. They also mentioned that after a bit of a post-Olympics skid, the team seems to finally be getting its act back together. And it dawned on me... I really want the Blackhawks to go all the way and win the Stanley Cup. I want them to be good for a long time to come. I don't mean they have to win the Stanley Cup all the time, but just play well and provide good competition for other teams and just not suck like they did for that time period between the loss of Jeremy Roenick and the start of the Patrick Kane/Jonathan Toews era. And I would trade the Chicago Cubs ever winning a World Series again for a consistently successful Blackhawks team. That's how important hockey has become to me. I'll trade the success of a World Series-starved team for our hockey team. And Katie agrees. This coming from a lifelong Cubs fan.

Four
Wow. The Illinois House has approved an option for a four-day school week for public schools in Illinois. That's insane, if you ask me. Their reasoning is that it saves operating costs and in this cash-strapped state, it's needed. But, while I agree that it's a cost savings, how is this ever going to benefit Illinois students? To clarify, students would likely attend for longer hours on the four days they are in school. But still. This just reeks of a bad idea. I could see this being used against college applicants from Illinois as it is unproven how a four-day school week affects their learning ability. Maybe I'm just being cynical...

Issues
Marie invited me to take part in a special day of posting called "Women's Writes" on Monday, April 5, 2010. This is something she's coordinating with a friend in response to Utah's recently passed Criminal Homicide and Abortion Amendments Bill. I really like the idea of this posting extravaganza, but I feel weird being a man writing about women's rights. It's just like how I feel uneasy when asked for my stance on abortion. I have a stance that I feel very strongly about. But, being a man, I sometimes feel it's not my place to get involved in the debate. Am I wrong for thinking this way? And that's just how I feel about this Women's Writes day. Does the fact that I'm a man diminish what I could potentially have to say? Do I worry too much?

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

"Hurrah my soul," sez I, my shillelagh I let fly...

Hey! It's a special St. Patty's Day Snippet Wednesday! So buckle up and kiss your blarney stones g'bye!

 

Grub
Tonight, Katie and I are going to make homemade fish n' chips for dinner. No, not the same as going out to a pub to celebrate this holiest of Irish holidays, but much better on the sanity front, that's for damn sure. Trying to get into an Irish bar on St. Pat's is akin to suicide. And, thankfully, we already stocked up on some Irish beer this past weekend. I'm sure there will be a run on some brands at many grocery and liquor stores tonight.

Google
So are these supposed to be Celtic symbols or is this what Irish crop circles look like?

Dragon
The other night at P.F. Chang's Chinese restaurant in Schaumburg, I think I discovered my ideal tea. It was called Dragon Eye Oolong and it was bliss in a tiny ceramic mug. I wanted to walk out of there with a box of the tea bags along with the mug and the metal pot and cooling rack they brought it in, it was that good. Would that have been wrong?

Jobs
A while back, I featured an announcement about a video contest that was being held by the Chicago Public Library. They're back and this time they're asking people to describe how using the Chicago Public Library helped them with their business. It's pretty sweet if I do say so myself. If you're interested, check it out at www.CPLPowersBusiness.com.

Photo365
I think the biggest mistake I've made this year with regard to the Photo365 challenge is that I've been using whatever camera I have available to me at the time to take my pictures. This has resulted in weird, non-chronological uploads on Flickr as well as me searching through five potential cameras to figure out where the heck the photo is that I want to post. Could be my big Sony D-SLR, my little Canon P&S, Katie's Canon P&S, my Blackberry, or her iPhone. I've used them all. This morning I was scrambling to figure out where they all were because I was nearly two weeks behind in posting my photos. Thankfully I found them. Next year, I may try to limit it to one camera (hopefully a network-enabled cameraphone) so they're all in one place. This is getting nuts. And I'm only a quarter of the way into the project.

It's time to go celebrate what's left of this fantastic holiday!

Clean, the cleanest I've been...

The concept of "Spring Cleaning" applies to computers and online accounts as well, doesn't it?

Right now, I'm spending some time clearing out my iTunes account as well as my Netflix queue. I'm not sure why now, but I am.

I told myself, back when I got my 1TB Time Capsule that I'd never have to delete music again. I loved that idea.

This morning, however, I found myself with 13,010 songs in iTunes and I realized that I had a bunch of stuff that I just didn't give a crap about. Even though I never wanted to delete stuff again, I did. I tore it up in there and, when all was said and done, I deleted 1,500 tracks. Mostly stuff I had gotten as freebies from Amazon or Pitchfork or the library or whatnot. But they're gone and it feels very liberating. I almost want to go through and find more to eliminate.

As for Netflix, I've had a bunch of movies in there that I just kept bumping further and further down in the queue. A lot of Oscar-nominated or Oscar-winning flicks from the last couple years that just no longer held any appeal to me to ever get around to watching. I think I figured that if I didn't watch them immediately after their release, I never would. Right now, my queue looks a bit like this... 

...and it feels great!

Some of you may have been reading on some other blogs about their participation in a project involving Stormin' Norman, my little Lego Stormtrooper.

I feel it's about time that I introduce the project here. Right now, it includes a Flickr Pool, a Twitter account, and a blog called Stormin' Norman's Adventures (subscribe to the RSS feed).

It's been a lot of fun to take part in and been a lot more "freeing" to write as someone else a bit. Is it sad that, for the last couple weeks anyway, I've enjoyed my side project more than my brain child?

BTW, a full list of all the bloggers taking part in this project are listed in the right side bar of the blog under "Hairless Wampas." Hey, I like the name.

Shake, rattle n' roll...

Sorry this is coming so late in the day. Heck, some of you may not even receive notice until tomorrow considering how slow both my RSS feeds and subscription service are to update. Oh well. You'll just have to take my word for it that it was posted on Wednesday.

Steak
As much as I like trying new restaurants and going to small, non-chain places, there's something about Steak 'n Shake that does it for Katie and me. And we had to cave into temptation tonight. God that's some good stuff. The only kinda strange thing is that they've recently introduced Kool-Aid flavored milkshakes. Even our waitress wasn't too keen on them. Oh well.

Blanket
After Steak 'n Shake, Katie and I went to Aldi for some groceries. While loading the purchases into the bed of my truck, Katie noticed that I had a blanket spread out in the bed. She noted that it looked like I was hiding something.

Me: "It's a body. It's perfect because it's so cold that decomposition is delayed a bit."

Katie: "I knew it!"

Me: "Yeah, there are some things about my family I haven't told you."

Katie: "..."

Brooke
I don't know if you've all seen tonight's Criminal Minds yet, but Brooke Smith of Silence of the Lambs and Grey's Anatomy guested as the mother of a kidnapped child. At one point, she's talking to one of the agents who is reassuring her that she's working with the best. She says, "I know." Well, duh, of course you know. You've been helped by the FBI before. Hell, you were even working with the Behavioral Analysis Unit. Back when you were kidnapped by Buffalo Bill and kept in a well and threatened with hoses when you didn't properly lotion your skin. Silly girl.

Lincoln
Who ever heard of a trailer for... a book? Well, somebody thought to do it for the new Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith. I was already stoked about this book to the point of pre-ordering it, but if I wasn't, this trailer sure would've sold me on it.

Things
We bought our first Blu-Ray DVD today. No, we don't have a Blu-Ray player yet, but for a mere $3 more than the standard DVD edition, we got a combo edition with the standard DVD, Blu-Ray, and digital copy of Where the Wild Things Are. I really like this combo pack idea that some studios are doing (they're also offering a combo pack edition of the Bourne trilogy). Oh, and if this film sucks, @LarsenonFilm will pay dearly. We almost never buy a DVD sight unseen, but I'd read so many good reviews from some of you as well as Josh Larsen's testament that we figured why not. Don't judge us. We really don't buy many DVDs at all anymore.

Time for bed. I hope.

When they finally get the word...

I must apologize. I got so caught up in the fact that I went through an earthquake yesterday and the subsequent blogging of it, that I completely forgot it should've been a Snippet Wednesday. Guess I'll be having another Snippet Thursday: The Reckoning (yanno, like the last time I effed it all up?).

Fizzy
I'm going out to lunch with some coworkers today and one of them decided we're going for sushi. I'm not sure if I've mentioned it here before or not, but I used to love sushi. Until, that is, December 2008 when I had some sushi and caught the flu immediately afterward. It wasn't pretty. I don't blame the sushi; I know it had nothing to do with it. But the two events happened so close together that my stomach churns at the thought of sushi. Well, I think I may give it another shot today. I hope it all works out for the better. Pray for my intestinal fortitude, will ya?

Fuzzy
I know I rave about The Onion and their videos a lot around here. About the only thing I can think of that compares to The Onion in terms of humor and relevance is The Muppets. And this latest video, all about my Katie's fave Beaker, just furthers that belief...

Big
I dare say that working out is starting to work a bit for us both. Our chiropractor's office is running a Biggest Loser contest to see who can lose the most weight, based on percent, each month for the first few months of the year. Katie rocked January, even beating the guys, and won a one-hour massage. I didn't do so well in January, but, so far as I can tell in February, I've been losing. The scale at the gym says I'm down ten pounds from what I was a couple weeks ago. This is, of course, relative to the scale's original reading as it's notoriously off in terms of actual weight. From what I've been able to figure, it is about six pounds heavy. Hmmm, I like that. I hope it's true.

Buzzy
So far, I'm liking the new Google Buzz, the social media functionality that's now built into Gmail accounts. I read somewhere how it's being likened to a gateway drug between webmail and full collaborative applications like Google Wave, which I considered to be a complete and epic failure, and I would agree on that comparison. But I doubt it will bring me back to Google Wave. The nice thing about Buzz is that it's incorporated into my Gmail screen so it's all right there. Not another Web site for me to log into. Now, if only they would incorporate Six Apart blogware and Facebook, I would truly be happy.

I'm not entirely sure how it worked out like this, but this post has lead to a hankering to listen to an old album by The Refreshments. Can't figure out why.

 

I miss those guys. They put on a good live show.

Come and sail away with me...

Today we did it. We booked our first vacation in nearly two years. Of course, we won't be going on it for more than a year, but it's booked!

Come March 2011, Katie and I will be going on a cruise of the eastern Caribbean as part of a crew of folks celebrating the wedding of Katie's brother, Scott, and our FSiL, Becca. Big woot!

This cruise is going to rock for many reasons:

• It's seven days of changing scenery without having to repack bags in between
• We will be hitting four locations we've never been to before including the Bahamas, St. Thomas, Puerto Rico, and Grand Turk...

• There are a ton of cool shore excursions to choose from (although the list can change between now and then)
• We're there with friends and family
• We get a stateroom with a balcony as opposed to the no-window room from our cruise in 2003...

• It's already half paid off
• There will be some killer photo opps
• Even though we're with family, Katie and I will get a lot of great quality time together

Oh yeah, we're stoked.

I blogged every week day through the entire month of January!

Been a long time since I've been that consistent.

Blog fiber, FTW!

Woo hoo!

And you were right there next to me...

And I said GO! If you're wondering if I want you to [I want you to] I want you to [I want you to].

Sorry about that. Had that song stuck in my head for a couple days now. On to Snippet Wednesday...

Gift
Less than a month until Katie's birthday. More precisely, only about two and a half weeks. I was really starting to sweat about what to get her. But, yesterday, it all finally fell in place. I know exactly what I'm getting her! Now I just need to buy it. I'm actually kinda stoked!

Kreuk
I know that the show Chuck has its detractors and I can understand their complaints, to some degree. But I, for one, love the show and am happy as hell it's back and I thoroughly loved this week's episode ("Chuck vs. First Class") where Chuck goes on his first solo mission on a flight to Paris. Sure, there was still some of the simpering that people hate, but otherwise, he got to kick some serious ass. And the addition of Smallville's Kristen Kreuk as Hannah, Chuck's neighbor on the plane and future love interest was great. She and Zachary Levi look good together and work well off each other. And (only a semi-spoiler... barely) the final scene where the close up of Chuck upon seeing her shows his shock and confusion completely melt away to genuine joy was so well done. I only pray Hannah doesn't wind up as a Ring or Fulcrum agent (if you know, don't tell me). They already used that plot device last year with Jordana Brewster. Please don't pull it again. I just want her to be a normal girl who falls for Chuck and vice versa and they wind up in an awkward relationship simply because he cannot tell her where it is he is going and what he is doing when he disappears from the Buy More. Clearly I'm not the only person who loved this episode as evidenced by this thoroughly exhaustive recap (from whence I blatantly stole the image above).

Lists
While I'm still trying to assess the (dis)value of Twitter lists, I will admit to having made several. Not that they've helped me at all. But I am curious why Twitter coded lists in such a way that it will continue to follow a Twitterer that you are no longer following from your account. Shouldn't they remain sync'd up? Strikes me as weird. Now I have to not only unfollow and block someone, but delete them from any list as well? Wow, takes a lot of steps to let someone know you don't give a damn about them anymore, doesn't it?

Slavery
Another brilliant video from The Onion. I don't know how they continue to do it so well. And it amazes me how easily even the most innocent act can be twisted around and made to sound dirty. Just listen carefully.

Crime Reporter: Man Had Sex With Wife Thousands Of Times Before Killing Her

Well, I'm off to work

Colder than the coldest winter was cold...

We started this new year with bitter cold.

In the last couple weeks, we've been teetering between mid-20s and a balmy high-30s. High enough that, over the weekend, pretty much all the snow melted away and the river outside my office crested its banks.

Today and for the next couple days, though, we're back down to bitter cold and we've been getting a little bit of snowflaking around us. Nothing more than a dusting, really. A teaser of sorts.

I just wish freakin' Mother Nature would shit or get off the damn pot! If you're gonna snow, make it good! If you're not, stop teasing, you bitch!

Jeebus, I'm sick of this crap.

I guess if there's one good thing happening, it's that I left work today shortly after 5 p.m. and there was still some semblance of light around. No, not the sun, which I feel like I haven't seen in weeks, but a hazy, cloudy, brackish white sky. Hey, it's something.

I'm kinda bummed.

[imagine that]

I was trying to take advantage of the Goodreads book swap feature to take a box set of The Chronicles of Narnia books off the hands of someone who was supposedly willing to part with it. Basically this new feature permits you to browse books that other users want to get rid of and then purchase them for nothing more than the cost of shipping.

So I placed the order, submitted my credit card information, received confirmation of the order, and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Nearly two months now since I placed the order and I've received nothing. Thankfully Goodreads doesn't charge your credit card until the seller prints the shipping label so I was able to cancel out of it easily enough, but it still sucks. I was looking forward to this because it was a killer price for this set.

I'm trying to purchase it from another person. Here's hoping this one goes better.

If you change your way, baby...

Howsabout some Snippety Goodness this fine Snippet Wednesday?

Heart
Before about three weeks ago, I can honestly say I'd never even heard of the movie Crazy Heart. Now it's blown up all over due to the Golden Globe award winning performance by Jeff Bridges. Hey, JB is cool and I'll see just about anything that he's in. He was the Dude, after all. The Dude abides. So do his fans. So I'm all about going to see this movie. And now, after listening to snippets from the soundtrack on Amazon, I really want to pick that up as well. Some good country tracks, and there's even a really decent song by Colin Farrell called "Gone, Gone, Gone" that I'm digging on.

Trooper
After sharing this photo with a coworker, he suggested the following, "you have to take him with you on trips and take photos like the gnome!" Of course, he was referring to the fantastic movie Amelie and how the main character, played by Audrey Tautou, kidnapped ("gnomenapped"?) her father's garden gnome and posed him in pictures around the world. Very cool and I think I really like this idea. Katie and I were going to do a whole Flat Stanley album, but, after a mere couple photos, we have no idea where we put our poor Stans. Likely at the bottom of a big pile of stuff never to be seen again. "Troopy" here can fit in my camera bag without a problem. And I could get a nice mix of wide shots with him playing Where's Waldo as well as some cool macro shots like the one you see with the rubberband ball. Oh the fun we could have.

Laughless
I gotta thank @lesombre for this little gem off Huffington Post. It's a scene from The Big Bang Theory without the laugh track. And, to be honest with you, it suffers not at all from not having one. I love it!

I wonder if they could do alternate versions of the episodes on DVD without the laugh track? I think it would be great.

Obsession
In an attempt to mimic my own luck with meeting Lance Guest, Sybil Law is attempting to score a meet-and-greet with her own idol and, apparently, wannabe sex muffin, Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters. I want to help this become a reality. So I'm going to mirror her request and hope that it results in a meet-and-greet. Sybil, don't say I never did anything for ya, hon. And I'd better get at least an autograph out of it if it actually happens.

Emilio
How bad is it that I looked at the headline and the accompanying photo on this news article and thought, "wow, Charlie Sheen's brother looks like shit these days." Yeah, I finally figured it out. Estefan... Estevez... whatever.

Kickstart my heart, why don't you give it a start...

I went through CPR/AED recertification today. It has been a few years since I've renewed my knowledge and, damn, how things have changed.

As I recall, we were supposed to give 15 chest compressions for every two breaths back in the day (yanno, waaaaaaaaay back in 2007, a bygone era) for adults and 10:2 for kids. Or something like that. Just pray I don't have to save your life.

Now, however, according to American Heart Association standards, the ratio is now 30 chest compressions to 2 breaths regardless if you're an adult or a child. The only real change is how hard you press and the immediacy of your CPR actions as opposed to taking time to call 9-1-1 first, whatever.

And, according to my instructor, the European Union standards dictate 100 compressions with no breaths.

Why does something like this change so often and remain so truly unstandardized? Have human beings changed that much in such a short time that we need to adapt this lifesaving technique with this high a level of regularlity? Or is this going to be a butter vs. margarine argument where they keep going back and forth until the end of time as to which is better for you?

But 30:2 is pretty easy to remember... so long as my back and shoulders can hold out through that much chest pumping. I might have to take a break while my patient lies there dying. How inconsiderate of them to make me work so hard to save their life!

Bastards.

Apparently today is De-Lurking Day. Of course, the likelihood that you'll read about this fact before today becomes Friday is pretty minimal. But I'll give it a shot anyway. And, oh what the hell, I'll unofficially extend it through tomorrow. Because this is my blog and I can do that.

So, if you're someone who has been reading my site for a while and hasn't left a comment, why not start now? I don't bite... hard.

Don't wanna be an American idiot...

Oh such a wonderful start to what should have been a nice calm Snippet Wednesday. Alas. Thankfully it's almost over.

Rubbernecking
Why do people feel the need to rubberneck at accidents? Can you please just move on and let the police do their job instead of creating a situation in which more accidents could happen? I left early this morning thinking how nice it would be to get to work ahead of schedule and be nice and relaxed going into my day. Yeah, that didn't happen.

100000000
For a while, I was amused by all the attention my Green Day rant was receiving. Then it just got ridiculous and I became disheartened by the apparent inability of humanity to spell correctly and clearly articulate a complete thought, so I closed the comments on the post. Well one Douchey McDoucherson was so desperate to insult me that she decided to do it through Facebook. I received this as a message (language NSFW)...

100000000 fucks u

because you re silly Green day is the best band in the world , ok?

are you listening mee ? the BEST BAND !!!!!!!!!

you are jeleaous because your fucking ears don't know how good music is you are a crazy ?? sii to o ets ooi eske kina outa rabia no saps que es la bona musica green day o es tot per mi i vas i li comensas insultaa ? que et penses¿¿

First, wow! 100 million fucks? I'm gonna be busier than Wilt Chamberlain, Warren Beatty, and Tiger Woods combined! Couldn't you have just added one more zero to make it easier to say? "One billy-yun" rolls off the tongue so much more easily than "One hundred milly-yun." Don'cha think?

Second, if that's supposed to be Portuguese (it sure isn't Spanish), then you clearly can't spell in two languages. Please, learn your own language before you decide to butcher another one.

Third, yeah, unsolicited communication to my account is now blocked as well. Fuck you, Facebook, for changing all your privacy settings on us and making us hunt for what needs to be changed. Zuckerberg, you self-righteous, "nobody will care about privacy" fucknut. I am sincerely pissed that I was able to be contacted by a complete stranger on Facebook despite having a profile that is otherwise PRIVATE.

I'd cancel my Facebook account if Katie weren't so hooked on keeping up with family and friends using it.

Throwback
Katie and I decided to buy into the soda throwback rage that PepsiCo is offering right now. We purchased a 20-ounce bottle of Pepsi and Mountain Dew and, I gotta say, I don't notice much of a difference in taste. Is that a testament to the efficacy of artificial sweeteners or a condemnation of my taste buds? Not sure.

Haiti
My prayers are with the people of Haiti after yesterday's nasty mother of an earthquake. 7.0 will do some damage. Although nothing confirmed, the reports that have leaked out are not very promising. Even less promising was this Tweet from @WilW (Wil Wheaton) warning people who are trying to aid the relief effort monetarily. Scares and disheartens me that this warning is even necessary. 

Time for dinner!

And you told me all kinds of insanity...

My first Snippet Wednesday of 2010! Huzzah! Huzzah!

Deathwatch
An old college buddy of mine, Bob, has started a blog. Actually, he started it several months ago, but I wanted to give him some time to decide whether or not he wants to make a run for the hills both before it's too late and before I tell some of you about him. But he's gone and written a couple of pretty funny posts to chime in the new year that I just had to share. It's his view on the classic Celebrity Death Watch (part 1 | part 2). Morbid? Sure. But that's why I love it. Head on over and place some bets. I really like the Shia LeBeouf pick. I'm throwing Randy Jackson from American Idol on the list, though.

12K
I have officially broken 12,000 songs on my iPod/iTunes. The 12,000th? "An Eluardian Instance" by Of Montreal (Amazon | iTunes). I really dig on that band. Damn good stuff.

Vampire
One year ago, I couldn't bring myself to include the debut album from Vampire Weekend on my Top Albums list. I only really liked the song "A-Punk" (Amazon | iTunes). One year later and I love the band entirely, am looking forward to the release of their new album Contra next week (is it just me or does the girl on the album cover look an awful lot like Kate Bosworth?), and even am debating looking into the cost of tickets to see them at the Riv in Chicago on March 25. Should I? Shouldn't I? Anybody seen them? Any good? BTW, their new album sounds fantastic. Click on the band name above and you can stream the album right off their Web site. Got a nice funky island feel to it.

Photo365
I was reading a photographer challenge from Digital Photography School that Marty linked to in Google Reader. One of their 30 Photographic Goals for 2010 was to take a picture every day for one year. While I can't guarantee that I'll get them posted to my Flickr account that often, I certainly think I can take a picture each and every day. We'll let the exif data stand as proof of that. But I'm a little late to the party having not taken any on the 1st and 3rd, so I need to pick a new start date. And I think I'll run with my brother-in-law Scott's birthday on the 7th. That should be easy enough to remember.

Adios y'all.