Thursday, August 28, 2003

Whee...that was fun. So I've finally finished up all the random crepe I've been working on for the past week, and I have a few minutes to post again. .... Hi. Heh, I really don't have all that much to say come to think of it. GASP I'm broken. I can say that you all should check out "Cowboy Bebop" if you haven't already. Very cool, stylish show that one... And yes, I really just said that about a cartoon. Love it. I picked up the first 4 DVDs of it and have been watching it when I've found time. (Did I mention that this past week sucked?) I'm also very tired of having lunch in the mall, come to think of it. Oh yeah. And I'm tired of seeing hundreds of attractive girls randomly throughout the day, but going out and seeing nothing but the LCD of Houstonian XY's. (Yes, of course that meant "Liquid Crystal Display.") Where the hell do they all go at night? They have to be doing something... Sigh...it's a pillow fight isn't it? A lingerie pillow fight... In slow motion. I knew it. j.s.

Wednesday, August 27, 2003

THE STARTING LINEUP FOR YOUR 2003

CHINSTRAPPED YARD GNOMES!!!

**Fireworks go off "Mortal Kombat soundtrack begins playing**

Quarterback: Aaron Brooks (N.O.)
Runningback: Marshall Faulk (St. L)
Runningback: Fred Taylor (Jac)
Wide Receiver: Randy Moss (Minn)
Wide Receiver: Donte Stallworth (N.O.)
Tight End: Jeremy Shockey (NYG)
Kicker: John Carney (N.O.)
and
Defense/ST: The Baltimore Ravens

**FANFARE**

j.s.

Okay, quick recap from last weekend...sporting event madness.

Friday night my Dad and Derek and I had tickets to the Astros game. We ended up being in the Club Level, which was very, very cool...the only place in the stadium where you can get real booze and not beerwater. (Guess the groundlings simply can't be trusted with that kind of alcoholic powah.) Was a good time, even though we lost to the damn Reds. Stupid commies.

Saturday we had tickets to the Texans pre-season game, so we headed out there around 5:30. The snag was, we didn't have a parking pass and there is no paid parking anywhere remotely near Reliant Stadium. Derek became very concerned about this when I exited Kirby and headed directly toward the season ticket holder parking. For whatever reason, I remained unworried. Then, just outside the stadium, two women in a pick-up rolled down their window and randomly yelled into my car.
"HEY!"
"Hi there!"
"Hey. You guys need a parking pass?"
"Yeah! As a matter of fact I do!"
"Okay, here!"
At which point, she jumped out of the truck, ran over to my window and handed me a parking ticket. They then proceeded to hold up traffic while I merged into their lane in front of them to get into the parking lot.

Derek simply shook his head, apparently boggling at "how these things possibly happen to a real person I'll never know."

Then, when we were walking into the stadium, Dad called again and said he had passes to the "Club Lounge" area, where we went for the first 10 mins. of the game. Very nice...and again, the only place where you can buy real liquor at the game. Woot!

Anyway, game was good. We looked great for the first quarter, then proceeded to suck for the remaining 45 minutes of play. Gonna be a long year. =[

We took off around the middle of the 3rd quarter, when I met up with Russell and Melissa and went to "The Sidecar" to see a band called "Pushmonkey."

Bleh...

The lead singer looked exactly like the lead for Smashmouth, the bar itself didn't have a bathroom, (they had a portajohn outside) and when I asked some random girl if I could bum a cigarette she bit me on the neck instead.

Overall it wasn't good. But hanging out with Russell and Melissa was cool, so that more than made up for it.

Sunday was very low key...though I was offered yet another set of tickets to see the Astros play the Commies. I turned it down.

And that was about it. I had my Fantasy Football Draft last night, so I will post my team up here in a sec...because, of course, that is super-important when you guys are deciding what team/player to root for on Sundays this year.

j.s.

Tuesday, August 26, 2003

The pictures from New Orleans are up now...finally... I think my computer has tapped into my thought processes however...
I was thinking about the "Bourbon St." picture as it was scanning, and about how much cooler it would look in B&W... I look up, and the computer had already done it for me. I didn't even know it could scan in black and white...and I couldn't figure out how to make it do it again...

Aweschome.

I also heard some very distressing news today. It seems that Wesley Willis died last Thursday. =[
.....
This makes me very sad.

I'm still very busy from the project that I started last Wed., so this is going to be really short. I'll update as soon as I possibly get a chance, which will be very soon, I promise.

j.s.

Friday, August 22, 2003

The new A Perfect Circle album comes out September 16th.

Must come faster....must come faster...must come faster...

j.s.

Wednesday, August 20, 2003

I have a LOT of stuff to do...so no posting today really. In fact, I'm not even going to be at my computer that long...I do think, however, that I will pick up a little extra RAM tonight at Fry's Electronics for added EQ Speedin'.

j.s.

Tuesday, August 19, 2003

Where are we going? And why am I in this handbasket?

I'm tired...I'm especially tired of consuming things. There simply has to be more to American culture than the purchasing of goods and services...but when you boil it all down, it all seems to come back to the almighty Dollar. Baseball game? Providing they're not on strike to protest the additional millions they want to be paid to play what is, in essence. a child's game, that'll be $55.00 per seat, $4.50 per NitrateDog and $7.00 per beerwater. Apple pie? 2 for $1 at McDonalds, the great culture-eating behemoth. As for the rest of American culture, it seems to revolve mostly around killing things and being very, very nervous.

I know the founding fathers of this country were originally building themselves a little plutocracy of their very own, free of the "oppressive" taxation of King George...but don't you think a little forward progress is a good thing? Haven't we become more enlightened? Evolved a bit? Capable of understanding humanity without empirical value attached? Am I the only one who thinks that "The pursuit of happiness" should include a "Utilitarian" modifier? Kind of a silly question since when you look at the context of the rest of that statement it seems pretty clear what they're saying...(i.e. "Fuck you." and "Leave me alone.")

I don't pretend to know what a better alternative might be to the way things are...hell, I don't even know what it is I'm really ranting about...I think it's just that something feels wrong.

This just doesn't feel like the way life is supposed to be spent...doing things you don't want to do in order to collect paper...which you then trade for things you do....after which your paper supply is relatively low, so you go back to doing things you don't want to do to build it up a bit again...rinse, repeat.

I mean, EVERYTHING is a commodity to be sold, bought or bartered. And I'm flirting perilously close to quoting Maynard here... ("All you read and wear or see and hear on TV Is a product...")

Perhaps it's just me, but looking at it like that it does seem kinda arbitrary and meaningless doesn't it? Unless $ is your driving focus in life...in which case I'm both happy and sad for you.

Look, I'm not a commie...I understand "The Tragedy of the Commons" and all, and realize why some amount of accountability and possession is necessary given basic human nature, and I'll also acquiesce that we typically measure said "accountability" in currency...however that is basic human nature. When do we take Human Nature 201? And better yet, who teaches us?

Erm..no...that's a spiritual can o' worms I don't want to open...I've already had an "evangelical cowboy" proselytize to me earlier today... (I'd also like to note that I'm very proud of myself for sitting quietly after receiving his propaganda...)

Okay that's enough...I think I'm going to go do something meaningless and expensive.

=]

Bye,

j.s.

Monday, August 18, 2003

Hi.

Relatively slow weekend...as I live and breathe I swear I can't remember much of what I did on Friday. I think it involved Heinekens at some point...and I know Brother's pizza was in there somewhere. But all I can really recall was dodging a knife fight in the parking lot of Brother's, and watching Cowboy Bebop until 2 a.m. The rest...gone. Amazing how that happens.

Saturday was a friend's wedding (Bernie and Katy, see the "Aggie Bachelor Party" post earlier) which was very cool, and sported some absolutely breathtaking bridesmaids...gorgeous, even in bridesmaid dresses. The church that the service was held in was in the Museum District, and as such was suitably beautiful. And the reception was a great time, though honestly, the centerpieces did leave a bit to be desired.

Sunday I slept in and found that I had left my headlights on all night...had to call AAA to come out and jumpajumpa mah Opal. Oh yeah...and the AAA guy wanted to pour a hot Coke on my car battery for reasons he would not divulge...has anyone ever heard of that or was it just some sick tow trucker fetish that I was the unwitting receipient of? I guess it was to clear off some of the deposits on the battery terminals...but it doesn't seem like batter acid would be eaten off by...another acid. I'm thinking it would instead just give me gummi cables.
Admittedly I could be wrong here however...I don't make any pretense about being automobile savvy.

Anyway, after getting my car jumped, I headed to Luis' place and brought him a pizza and a giant potato in a hardhat...the international symbol for "Get Well Soon" of course since he had ACL surgery on Friday. Sat about, watched .hack//sign and then headed back to D's place and logged into EQ where I was until 2:30 this morning running a raid for the kiddies...good times.

And now, I'm going to head outta here and to Mom's house where I have a steak cookin' up on the patio for me...=]
(This is Texas in August after all...Barbecuetropolis.)

I've also finished the rough outline of the new Meaty Efreeti site. Should be ready pretty soon...

j.s.

Friday, August 15, 2003

So...I'm giving serious consideration to taking some more writing classes. No, seriously. Perhaps even a film/screenwriting class or two. Still in the very planning stages right now, and you all know how I am with things like that. No follow through skillz.

Seems like a pretty good idea right now though.

Anyway, thought I'd run the idea by you guys and see what you thought about it...

Also I checked my stats here...I got someone from a "Yard Wranglers" group to come here (one can only assume they were duped by my "yard gnome liberation front" post...I love it when a plan comes together. =]

And a few from some weird "TeenBeautyQueen" yahoo group page...your guess is as good as mine.

Who the hell are al....oh, nevermind. Thanks for dropping by.

j.s.

Thursday, August 14, 2003

I forgot to plug in New York... Sorry.

The thing is, I was just talking to Derek about how the heatwave in France had killed something like 3,000 people, and how global warming was still treated as a myth in some political circles... and then I glanced over at the Internet and saw "BLACKOUT!" on CNN.com. (Fearmongering through laconic bold print. Glad to see some things remain constant without electricity...)

I guess we're all going to have to "simply adapt" to that new E-Z bake globe thing a little faster than we thought, huh Bushie?
Your Mighty Business PowahPowah and it's refuse refusals are going to kill us all...or at least make us look like melanin leopards in the process of your razing of our sky and Earth. And the best part is...I highly doubt anyone will say a thing about this possibly being attributable to global warming creating higher climate fluctuations. You think?
Besides, how horrid would we all feel if they did? How awful would you feel for buying that Hummer 2 and parading it around your city streets with no destination in mind on a Friday night if you knew that you were partially responsible for not only the increased funding of global terrorism...but also killing off thousands of people overseas due to your behemoths' exhaust fueling the Greenhouse Effect?

We can't have that now can we?

Not in this market...

You know, you're right. Perhaps once we've emitted some more CO2 into the economic climate and we're all glistening with oil under the sweltry, rose-colored inversion of our greenback effect, then we'll have the time to give consideration as to whether or not the things that we're doing just might be killing many, many people the world over. How stupid and insensitive of me.
"THE POWER OF PRIDE! THE POWER OF PRIDE!"

**Waves a little American flag and gives Republicans a "thumbs up" sign**

Now, and before you all get on your "but you drive a car too you hypocritical asshat!" bandwagon...yes, it is true...I drive a car. A car that gets well over 20 mpg. And my next car will be even more fuel efficient. I also leave my wheels at home and carpool with folks whenever humanly possible...and sometimes when it's completely infeasible and I end up stuck places simply because I don't have a ride. I also have the unfortunate luck of living in a city with more sprawl than an NBA orgy, so public transportation simply isn't an option for me. But I'm doing what I can...and I'm doing it right now. Okay?
Okay.
So what are you doing?

Now, what do these things have to do with one another? Global warming, and the "BLACKOUT!" in NYC?

You're smart folks...I'll leave that one up to your AcronymiC prowess.

j.s.

Some major revamps are in the works for the M.E...content, layout and cyber-geographic differences. Will tell you more as I figure out how I'm going to pull it off.
Keep an eye out.

Oh...and blame Kevin Smith...I watched all of his "An Evening With..." DVD last night and became inspired.

j.s.

Tuesday, August 12, 2003

A few of the Otakon shots are up on the "Picture Pages" section! Go look if you don't believe me... And with the exception of my New Orleans pics, which I now have in my messenger bag and will scan tonight and post tomorrow...seriously...I'm caught up on the whole uploadin' pics thing.
For this site anyway.

I am so unbelievably exhausted right now...I can barely see the monitor...and yes, it's 12:30 in the afternoon. Funny.

j.s.

Monday, August 11, 2003

Wow...so what a bizarre weekend.

We'll start on Friday when I arrived in Baltimore...I think that's where I left off here...

So I get in and hop a cab to Little Italy to have dinner at Ciao Bella, one of my favorite places in Baltimore. They were showing "The Freshman" outside on the side of the restaurant and the whole neighborhood was there. I can't tell you how awesome that is...a huge, close-knit, Italian community all getting together and sitting outside on a summer Friday night to watch movies with Marlon Brando in them...=]

After dinner, I rode back to the hotel and saw someone outside dressed up as "Grr."
!!!
I completely lose it and beging pointing and singing exultations of praise for the person who is walking around downtown Baltimore dressed up like a character from Invader Zim. Shortly after, I see that "Otakon" is in town, an anime convention, and it all makes more sense. Awesome.

So I packed my things and took the Water Taxi to my old apartment in Fell's Point. I really, really, really miss that place. I've been trying to convince Mom that I can still work from there as well as field any issues we might have with clients in the Baltimore/D.C. area...alas, she isn't buying it for whatever reason. =(

Anyway, hung out at my place for a bit, and then went over to Max's on Broadway for a few beers...which was great too. My regular chair was open, so I got to sit upstairs with all the old, creepy carnival memorabilia and drink "TurboDogs" (Remember the New Orleans novella?) all night.

Saturday I got up around 11ish, and headed over to my typical coffee house, saw Desiree, my coffee girl who was very happy to see me and whom I was very happy to see. Yay! A few sips later and I'm back on my way toward the Inner Harbor. I get to the Water Taxi stop and catch up with an old friend that I used to work with on the Clipper City from back in the day. He gives me a lift in his boat to the Inner Harbor and I wave goo'bye there. Very weird.

Brooke and Tim show up around 2ish, and we wile away a few hours up in the hotel room staring wistfully at all the "Furries" that are coming and going out of the Otakon 2003convention. I find that I have an unnatural attraction to girls that are dressed up as anime/video game characters. (Like that's a huge stretch of reasoning right?) The worst part is that I'd never give the majority of these girls a second look if I saw them on the street dressed normally...but put a Chun Li skirt or a foam sword in her hand and I melt like limon gelato in August...very upsetting.

So we head over to the boat party...a good time is had by all. Scavenger hunt, relay races, some incriminating pictures...(That Miguel guy is an odd one...he seems to have the preternatural ability to force people to make weird faces whenever they come within 20 feet of him. This pendulum swings the opposite direction on the cool-o-meter when one consideres that he is attempting to make his living as a professional photographer. Maybe he should do tabloids...) Anyway, the boat ride was good, many beers were imbibed, I left with a serious buzz on...which is why I decided I had to break into the Otakon.

So I head over immediately after leaving the boat, armed with a day-glo plastic squeaky hammer, with Brooke attempting to be the voice of reason behind me. We walk in...I blow right by fat security guard that I dubbed "Officer Snackwells," who becomes irate and demands to know where my badge is.

"I left it in the hotel...I just got done taking a shower in a friend's room."
"You need your badge to get in."
"C'mon man, the convention center closes in 30 minutes and I'm supposed to meet someone here...gimme a break."
"You need your badge to get in."
"Yes, I think we've covered that..."
*we briefly stare at one another, he eyes the door as if to send subliminal instruction...I make my save vs. Snackwells Psionics and remain*
"So...what if I whack you in the head with this here squeaky hammer...and you forget I was ever here and let us in?"
...
"No."
"Hmmph."
So I spin on my heels and walk back out the door, angered by the whole exchange and as determined as ever.
We go down a couple flights of stairs outside, and go in another door, just out of sight of Officer Snackwells.
Success!
Until we try to go up the escalator, where we are ID'd again by Off. Snackwells...(he must've been on his "A" game that night, I swear.) He pops out of his misshapen aluminum chair and begins to waddle in a furious manner at us.
We make a break for it and head back down the escalator...he rides right behind us to ensure we leave...we do, and he goes to yell at the security guard who was supposed to be watching the front door.

Seeing this, and STILL undeterred, I do some quick gorilla math in my head and figure we have about a 20 second head start on him if we go back to the first door and run through...so we begin to head that way. It was here that Brooke's pleads for sanity actually broke through, as she made a very poignant and rational point....something about being thrown in jail for trespassing on an anime convention, and how pathetic that is.

Yep. Ya got me there.

So we went back to the hotel. And this poor couple...**shakes head sadly** This poor couple decided I would be a good person to get into an elevator with...surgeon hat, doctor's mask, squeaky hammer and all.

The wife walked into the 'vator and (I swear to you, I'm not making this up) bowed her head right at me and looked down, exposing the top of her head.

I look at her...
Then at the hammer...

Her...

Hammer...

"Um...do you have a headache or something?"
"No, no...I'm just tired..."
"Oh. Good!"
WHACK! *squeak* WHACK! *squeak* WHACK! *squeak*

Poor thing...she just cowered there in the elevator, flailing her hands wildly and yelling for help.
And her husband acted as if it were the funniest thing he'd ever seen...thank God for good humored people...

So after this, we ate some stolen pizza, which turned out to be awful, and then crashed.

Sunday I awoke around noonish, showered and caught up with Brooke in the lobby, where we decided we would go over again, but this time be legit and pay for a badge to get in. Turned out, this was unnecessary as they let us in for free. (Woot!)
The convention was absolutely surreal, and awesome. I loved how unapologetically geeky and into dressing up in costume everyone there was. Was so very, very cool. (I'm wearing my "Otakon 2003" convention T-Shirt today... "You have gotten better at geekdom! (124)")

I have almost an entire roll of pictures of Brooke and I at the convention, a couple of which I will post in the "Picture Pages" section when I find time to scan them, along with the pictures from New Orleans, which I STILL haven't scanned. Bleh. I'll do it this week, I swear.=[

Anyway, I was supposed to leave on Sunday at 4, but was having much too good a time at the con so I decided to skip the flight and catch an early one out on Monday. Crashed out at the hotel another night, then left Baltimore today at about 8:40 on an AWFUL flight.

I swear, we bounced off every single pocket of turbulence and swirling air current, and eddied around like a giant metal jellyfish. Was absolutely awful...God I hate flying.

So Derek met me at the airport, and we grabbed lunch real-quick-like before he had to catch his flight to Chicago at 2pm. I drove the Jeep out of the 'port, and headed straight back here to the office...which is where I'm typing this.

I think that pretty much brings you up to date...I'm meeting Dad at Memorial City Mall here in about an hour or so to do some B-Day shopping...which is good.

Oh! And it also seems that the very heavens conspire to make cool shit happen on my birthday every year. The last couple years have been huge meteor showers, and this year Mars is closer to the Earth than it has been in 28,000 years, and will be illuminated by a full moon tonight. Nice...I am still awesome.

Talk to you soon,

j.s.

Why hello!

I am 28...my God.

j.s.

Friday, August 08, 2003

Hi.

I leave in about an hour or so... Sigh.. I really hate this part.

Love to travel, hate to fly. 60 people crammed into one anothers' territorial bubbles, hacking and sniffling and sneezing all over one another, spreading their pestilence and plague and general people gooeyness...
And then there's Roger Ramjet in the pilot's seat downing martinis and gaining pleasure from bouncing along through turbulent air throughout the entire trip. ("I got 22 booters today...how many'd you get Bill?")
And, of course, Lil' Miss Molly Stewardess...whose skin looks like 4" pleather, who has hair the consistency of a Brillo pad from constantly being in that pressurized cabin, and who hulks over me like a giant ape when informing me of all the things I'm doing WRONG! (i.e. God forbid!! My seat back is not in its' fully upright position. I am the scourge of rows 15 to 25.)

Oop...gotta go. Take care all.

j.s.

Thursday, August 07, 2003

I'm rapidly running out of time before I'm supposed to leave and I have a ton of things to take care of first...the most pressing of which would be my laundry. (Baddum bum.)

Apparently people in the office have had a much closer eye on me than I first thought...I stood up today to walk something over to Derek and my leg had fallen asleep...so rather than shake it around like a normal person might, I instead set out on my trek across the office to see my brother, and simply ignored the rapidly increasing numbness and tingle in my left leg.

I got 5 good steps in before toppling.
Didn't realize what a stir it would make...=]

I am still awesome.

I'm excited about going back to Baltimore tomorrow, will be good to hang there for a couple of days and re-charge.

Too bad Jenny can't make it this year. =(

Damn...I am still exhausted. Happened to me at about this time yesterday. I can't seem to keep my head up. Could be because my mind needs a break...or some coffee...or both. A "coffee break," if you will.

I don't imagine I'll be able to post from Baltimore, but I'll update you once I get back to Houston. Unless you were there with me in Baltimore, in which case I'll tell you what you did...in my own particular fashion of course. =]

j.s.

Wednesday, August 06, 2003

Strange day...felt like I was back at Fandango.

Had to go out and buy 100 gauze pads, cotton swabs, tissues, Band-Aids, 5 copies of "Operation," 150 glow necklaces, 3 dozen squeaky hammers, and some Taco Bell.

And I felt just like I always did after I spent a day doing that in Baltimore...like I'd wasted a lot of time and money on things that people were going to throw away. Such is the nature of the event production beast I suppose though. No wonder I didn't like it.

I'm absolutely exhausted right now, I think I might be coming down with something...which would really suck since I'm supposed to go party in Baltimore this Friday. =[

j.s.

Monday, August 04, 2003

I would also like to hand out yet another Meaty Endorsement.

I can completely stand behind the show "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" on the Bravo channel.

Now before you "boooo," I watched one show yesterday and absolutely hated it...but another one came on after it and I didn't have much else to do, so I watched it. I'm hooked. The tips are all great and relatively on the money, if a bit elementary. At least as far as the fashion ones are concerned. But that is kinda the point considering what they're attempting to do with the show.

And all of the guys on it are funny as hell. You should definitely check it out if you have Bravo.

I dig it anyway.

j.s.

So...the bachelor party was not all that great.

In fact it = bad.

I ended up driving a van full of 12 drunken Texas Aggies to a disgusting casino...where I ended up fiending for a cigarette most of the night... (but didn't smoke one. TODAY MAKES 2 WEEKS!) then drove back to Houston at 5:30 a.m. with no sleep. Finally got to bed around 10. The best parts of the whole trip were the few times that Derek, Russell, Bernie and I got to just hang out together and talk.
Ah well.

I leave this Friday to a company party in Baltimore aboard the Clipper City. And yes, as those of you who are well-versed in my past exploits know, that is the same boat that I worked/lived on for 2 years. Imagine that. I'm still trying to get ahold of Brooke and Tim and see if I can't catch up with them whilst I'm up there. Will be good to see the old haunt too...I still really miss my apartment there. =(

My Dad's dog is apparently tired of his not being home as she has started going to the bathroom in the house. Which is just great. I'm sure she's going to shat on the floor just before my Dad gets home today at 5 and he's going to think I've been mistreating her or something. Wonderful.
Thank God he's coming home today though. I am SO SICK of taking care of that animal. I've decided that, though I love dogs, they are simply too high-maintenance for me. Everyday that my Dad was gone I had to interrupt what I was doing, drive 30 min. to Katy to feed that animal, then drive back out and continue what I was doing. Awful. If I'm going to have a pet that needs that kind of attention it'd better be very, very portable. Like the Sugarglider I used to have named "Chloe." (Yes, I owned a flying rat that I'd keep in a pouch around my neck, what about it?)

Okay, I'm outta here. The day is winding down and I have a lot to get done. Take care.

j.s.