dwinn in 3d

Subject:	Your thoughts to my thoughts.
Time:	12:46 am.

Poll #1470915 Halloween Colors
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: Friends, participants: 7

Is purple a Halloween color?

Yes.
1 (14.3%)

No.
2 (28.6%)

Eh.
4 (57.1%)

Why is purple a Halloween color?

It's not, so stop saying it is.
2 (40.0%)

This only happened in like the last twenty years or so.
2 (40.0%)

The only reason it might be inculded is because it's the closest color to "black."
2 (40.0%)

It's always been a Halloween color.
0 (0.0%)

Shit BONERZ
2 (40.0%)

Comments: Read 4 or Add Your Own.

Time:

10:40 pm.

So the Julie and I went to Sushi Nara, billed at Michigan's ONLY (or maybe by now 1st) conveyor-belt sushi restaurant. It works exactly how you'd figure -- plates of sushi roll by your table and you pluck what you want from it. First a little sign rolls by with the name and the type of roll, and then the small covered plate o' sushi. It's full of variety, reasonably priced, and was pretty tasty on top of being fairly amusing.

Behold, the greatest sushi roll evar!

Comments: Read 1 or Add Your Own.

Subject:	I Done Did It: May
Time:	2:26 pm.

Spring is here! Yardwork abounds. I was on my usual May vacation the last two weeks of the month; in the first week, I got a lot of home repair and such done. I replaced some trim along our doorwall, added a new cellular shade to one of our downstairs windows, replaced a bunch of old, loose electrical outlets, and macgyvered a loose window screen into place. I also went walking/jogging every day, enough to lose a little poundage that I'd be getting back in the second week of vacation (the Julie and I's trip to Chicago, which is its own post).

Five, Five Word, Five Word Film Reviews:

Wolverine: This film was completely unnecessary.

Star Trek: Fun, but not Star Trek.

I read:

Threads of Malice by Tamara Siler Jones: The last of the Christmas gifts from Mer; I liked this but thought it could have lost about a third of its 500+ pages without losing the story; it was also rather grim (in terms of killing children, sodomy, etc.) On a whim I went back to check out what I thought of the first book in the series (of course I can't find it in my LJ archives now) -- I thought it could lose a few hundred pages.

Sheepfarmer's Daughter (Deed of Paksenarrion Book 1) by Elizabeth Moon: I bought this from Amazon for 2 bucks to help get free shipping; I thought it would be young adult fantasy, and it certainly started that way, but then it blended into some surprisingly detailed medieval military fantasy.

Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film 1978 to 1986 by Adam Rockoff: I found this using Google Books in my local university library and saved myself thirty bucks! It was a fun read, relevant to my interests, but I don't think I read anything that I hadn't really known before. I can respect Rockoff's taste in the films he liked and/or panned.

Comments: Read 1 or Add Your Own.

Subject:	My iTunes Receipt meme (cleaned up for easier reading)
Time:	3:18 pm.

Bandages -- Hot Hot Heat

Satellite -- Guster

Angry Johnny -- Poe

No Cars Go -- Arcade Fire

Come On Get Higher -- Matt Nathanson

Cuts You Up -- Peter Murphy

You're All I Have -- Snow Patrol

Crack the Shutters -- Snow Patrol

Take Back the City -- Snow Patrol

Ghost of a Chance (Live) -- Rush

Comments: Add Your Own.

Subject:	I Done Did It: April
Time:	1:54 pm.

April was so nondescript that it took me this long to remember to do this. Beyond waiting for some actual spring to happen, yardwork, and NBA/NHL playoffs, not much is happening.

I read:

Romancing the Vine by Alan Tardi: A New York chef closes his restaurant after 9/11 and moves to Italy to work on a vineyard. This was given to me by the Julie for Valentine's Day; it's a cross between a travelogue of the Barolo region of Italy, a cookbook, and a biography. I liked this, although I think I learned more about winemaking than I'll ever need to know, and that said pursuit is not for the generally lazy, such as myself.

Marvel Adventures Iron Man, Vol. 1: Heart of Steel by Fred van Lente and James Cordeiro: Collects issues 1-4 of the monthly comic. I bought this for Julie as a gift. It is a collection of perfectly serviceable Iron Man stories.

The Chris Farley Show: A Biography in Three Acts by Tom Farley Jr. and Tanner Colby: Farley's tragic/comic life. A story as old as time -- the son felt like he could never please the father, and his vices destroyed him. Anyone who grew up watching SNL or Farley's (sadly) short film career would love this.

Comments: Add Your Own.

Subject:	Cheeseburgers? Nope. We got spaghetti -- and blankets.
Time:	3:34 pm.

I went to our local Popeye's yesterday after work due to a "8 pieces o' chicken for 4.99" promotion. As you might expect, they were very busy. As you might not expect, they were not participating in the promotion. This made several people very, very angry. I, luckily, am blessed in that I can afford to pay regular price for the chicken, and I escaped before any punches were thrown.

This made me late to visit my LCS, and I figured I missed out on the first issue of VIKING, but friendly retailer guy had one behind the desk that he was willing to sell to a regular, so all ended well.

Comments: Read 2 or Add Your Own.

Subject:	Splashcat Holmes and the Case of the Imperceptive Detective
Time:	4:32 pm.

So last week, after months of badgering by the Julie, I finally broke down and got some new glasses to replace my over-ten-year-old specs. I figure hey, I'll get home after this and surprise her with them as I walk in the room!

Well, it was a good plan, but -- she didn't notice them.

So we went out to eat and I figure now that we're like 3 feet apart and ostensibly looking at each other as we have a conversation over our meal that she'll suddenly get this look on her face and notice! But alas, it was not to be. I kept on wanting to crack up laughing, which only made things worse because she kept wondering why I was smiling so much.

Anyways, this goes on throughout the night -- at one point she was inches away from my face -- and she goes to bed, so I leave a Twitter hint for her. The next morning, having found the Lenscrafters bag near my desk in the office, she came upstairs to wake me up:

J: "So what was this I was supposed to notice?"
D: *feign ignorance*
J: "Could it be... THESE GLASSES!" *points to nightstand* *cue dramatic music*

That's my Junior Batman!

Anyways, here's a pic of the new glasses in action as I help some student (buy a ShamWow).

Comments: Read 2 or Add Your Own.

Subject:	I Done Did It: March
Time:	2:38 pm.

My time was spent waiting for and then enjoying March Madness, spending plenty of time with my homies

dannimal,

fairmer, and the enigmatic Pherph.

I read:

The Tuscan Year: Life and Food in an Italian Valley by Elizabeth Romer: The Julie gave this to me for Valentine's Day. It was an in-depth look at life on a Tuscan estate from the perspective of the homeowners, with a focus on the cooking of the matriarch of the family; the author is a chef who spent a calendar year living with the family. The book was an interesting look at what is likely a forgotten lifestyle (I think this was written in the early 80s) but, as you would expect, does a fine job of making one want to travel to middle/northern Italy.

Ball Four, by Jim Bouton:

brightorange14 gave me this book for Christmas. I knew that this was considered one of the best books written about baseball or even all sports; it did not disappoint. What could have easily been either a sanitized primer on life as a MLB pitcher in 1969 was actually a very funny yet poignant look at Bouton's life in baseball; as he says in closing, he spent his life gripping a baseball to find that it was actually the other way around. Good stuff.

Now I got to hope for the best and pray that our work reorganization resolves itself with me still gainfully employed.

Comments: Add Your Own.

Subject:	I Done Did It: February
Time:	1:44 pm.

Not much more to report this month; still waiting for spring. Playing Bioshock and WoW; watched Super Bowl and now getting prepped for March Madness -- hoping my team can put a couple of wins together and get back into the tournament.

I read:

Attack of the Pod People (anthology): Mer put this together for me as a Christmas gift; I liked all but one of the stories within. Especially good were the three Mer wrote! *plug*
Heaven's Bones by Samantha Henderson: Also given as a Christmas gift, I was worried about this one since the author was the same as who wrote the one story I did not care for in the anthology above. (Man, that last sentence is unwieldy.) However, I liked it quite a bit for the blending of Victorian-era gothic horror and fantasy/scifi/time travel elements.
Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut: What else can be said that hasn't already been said? Loved this.

The Julie and I saw:

Friday the 13th (2009): Nowadays when you make a horror film you can go one of three ways: You can go the post-Scream-self-referential-horror/comedy-way, you can go the "just delicate enough to get a PG-13 rating to make a lot more money" way, or you can go to "damn the ratings, I want gore, sex, and torture" way. Overall I liked this remake, mostly for the nods to a number of the previous movies in the series, but I struggled to classify this one until Julie mentioned that she kept expecting "the other guy from Supernatural to show up" (since the lead actor in this movie is also on that show). Then, it all came together -- this was like a rated-R episode of Supernatural. Plenty of boobies and machetes in the head and such, but still, you could have chopped 30 minutes, sanitized it, and run it on the CW. I would not be surprised if this actually happens later this year or next.

Comments: Read 2 or Add Your Own.