Side Effects
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
When I said I went to Knight and Day, I may have failed to mention that the ladies had NO desire to see that movie. We let them be and Colin and I went on our happy little way down the street to the theater.Upon our return we learned that Kristen and Kendle seemed to have spent those two hours pouring over wedding books, and swapping ideas.
The good news is now Kristen will be getting her makeup done professionally by my little lady.
The bad news is we are now in some sort of wedding overdrive mode. I suppose it's better to be thinking about these things sooner rather than later but let's get real honest here kids. What's more important? The fate of the whole world (of warcraft) or whether or not my second cousins twice removed will RSVP or not?
Clearly I'm not going to invite cousins that distant :) But thinking about it and hashing that all out IS more important than killing dragons.
You all thought I would say WoW is more important, didn't you? Fools, I haven't played that game in weeks.
So the list's are coming together. I assume at some point in the next few weeks we will start looking for places to actually do this thing at. I imagine these big humps will be well out of the way well before 2011. I just can't imagine this not getting pulled together...we have almost TOO much time.
Labels: Colin, Kendle, PC game, wedding
Chicago, for the millionth time
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Another weekend in Chicago. Let's see. I'll run down the list:Oakbrook Mall
Brookfield Zoo
Logan Square Cookout
Shopping at North and Claybourne
Knight and Day
Dinner at Revolution
And I drove the whole way, like a champ.
Highlights included:
1) Surprisingly, Knight and Day. It was cute, and fun. I won't ever see it again, but I'm not mad I saw it, like if we had gone to see Eclipse or something. Colin's enthusiasm for Tom Cruise was enough to make it enjoyable.
2) I saw some wolves at the zoo. I know I'm supposed to be getting over this wolf thing cause I think I JUST stopped getting wolf gifts from relatives, but they are SO COOL. But seriously guys, the only wolf gift I want is a REAL WOLF. I don't need a tape of their howls, or a shirt, or a book about them. Just the real wolf, thanks.
3) Boy do I love me some California Pizza Kitchen. I first ate it when I was in LA...cause i thought to my self...who would have the best CALIFORNIA pizza kitchen pizza? LA. That's who.
A big thanks to Colin and Kristen, who let us crash at their place saving me hundreds of dollars and who were also excellent hosts.
But it's good to be home.
Labels: Chicago, Colin, Kendle, LA, vacation
Engaged....me this time
Thursday, June 24, 2010
You thought you proposed to your significant other. You got the ring, you went to her place or maybe went out and surprised her. Brought the ring out, maybe even got down on one knee.That's real cute, but you got nothing on me.
I devised a scavenger hunt of sorts. Six clues leading to a final prize. The first clue I taped to the bathroom mirror so Kendle would be sure to see it after her shower. She came out of the bathroom holding it up, asking "what's this?"
"You better put some pants on before you open that..." I replied.
So she's running all over the house finding clues. Outside, downstairs, in our room, all over. The last one points her to this book, which she opens to find this:
Now that ring cost me 8.50 and was glued into the book. Before I could tell her that, she had ripped it out and was holding it up, crying. I've always said the one thing I can't handle is a crying girl, but this was a different kind of crying.
So between tears, I tell her that the part she MISSED was the whole story of how we met that I wrote for her on the 15 pages BEFORE that.
She goes back and reads it. See I fancy myself a writer so I thought what better way to personalize an event such as this than by using a skill I have. So she gets done, and then I said the words every girl wants to hear:
"You get to pick your own ring out...let's go."
See boys, I had done my homework, I went to all the stores and had found what I thought would be something she would like, and I'm sure she WOULD have loved that ring, but here's the secret: Just get her a SYMBOL of a ring, then take them to the damn store and let them pick it out themselves. They are the ones who are stuck with the thing on their finger for the rest of their lives, not me.
My fears were confirmed as we were shopping. There was one other guy in there and he was LOST. He had no idea what to get or what she would like. I made the correct decision with my 8 dollar ring.
So here's what she ended up picking out.
It's exactly what she wanted, and that's exactly what I wanted...so yeah. Engaged. Details to come.
iPhone Wipe
Monday, June 21, 2010
So hovering around 200MB a month of 3g Data has had me in a tizzy about trying to use less so I can justify getting the cheaper 200MB a month (instead of unlimited) data plan for my iPhone.So look closer at my bill and I'm getting these charges at 1am for anywhere from 1 to 35 MB a night. So I wipe my phone, cause I figure its some app I have that's doing it.
It's a long story that you aren't interested in. But it turns out I didn't have to wipe my phone. The story you ARE interested in is my wallpapers. So after the phone wipe I had the plain old default wall paper on my iPhone. "That just wont do!", I said and Kendle promply took my phone from me and found this little gem:
I rocked that for about a day but it was too much. I requested that she pick a different one. Maybe something from Transformers....maybe something with Megan Fox in it?
So my baby picks this one for me:
Now we all know how I feel about boots and shorts, but thats what she picked out, and that's what will stay there for a LONG time.
Best GF ever.
Blue Waters
Friday, June 18, 2010
I went over to the Blue Waters open house last night after work. For those of you who don't know, Blue Waters is this new computing facility that will eat up so much power and cold water they had to put it RIGHT NEXT TO the power plant, so they they could nab enough watts at once.So I went over there thinking "Who's gonna care about this, I'll be in and out in no time." It was an 45 minute wait. The interesting thing was I was banking on a bunch of nerd and scholarly types. There were TONS of high school students. And clearly...with school being out, they were not on a class trip. They were just checking it out.
So I finally get inside and they take us up to the server room. This is the room where "Science gets done." That's what the lady kept telling us. It was like we were children and didn't understand processors or ram or anything. She seriously pointed to the racks and said "these will be where the science gets done." No, this is where the numbers will be crunched. The science will be done in a office somewhere where they interpret the numbers....yeesh!
So this is the inside of the computer. There will be five of these in one rack. The big bricks in the middle are processors. So they have 8 POWER7 processors from IBM. Each block has 4 chips, each chip has 8 cores, and there are 8 blocks in there, so thats 256 cores in each unit. Times 5 units per rack = 1280 cores which can all talk to each other from what I understand. But thats just one rack. This place is huge. 20,000 square feet to be exact. So they are going to have a TON of racks.Oh and those big silver blocks to the left and right of the processors? Thats water cooled ram. They didnt tell me how much was in there, but it's safe to assume it's ungodly.
So here you can see how big the room really is, and each of those black boxes are the racks. So as you can see they will have lots of 'em.So then they led us around the other plces, like the water room where they pump in all the cold water to cool this stuff, and the power room where they pull in all the power to run these machines.
So someone asks "what OS will they be running" and its Red Hat, and someone asked if they have UPS's and the answer was no...which I found odd, but maybe if the power goes out, no battery could keep them running so they might as well just shut off.
So that was that. You probably will never be able to go in there again with out some super secret 007 clearance, so it was neat to see.
I'll see you all Monday, Hunka out.
Labels: Champaign
The Karate Kid
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
So let's start this off with I'm gonna try REAL hard not to talk about the original as we talk about this "re-make." I use quotes cause it's not a remake, its not a reboot, its just a movie with the same title, and themes.Different characters, different names. It's not even in the same country. This one takes place in China. Shit the art form isn't the same. This one uses Kung Fu. IT'S NOT A REMAKE.
Yes, a kid who doesn't know karate finds a mentor in an Asian handyman who works at his apartment building. Yes they moved because the single mom had to make a better life, and yes, they compete in a karate match that has more than a trophy riding on it. So they stole a script, but they put different characters with different motivations in it.
NOT A REBOOT!
This stars Baby Smith (Dre Parker in the movie), and Big Daddy bank-rolled this, so I have to assume Big Willie Style was on set. Well beyond that, it looks like he might have had an unofficial hand in the script writing. There were SO MANY times when I felt like that line I just heard should have been in the Fresh Prince of Bel Air.
This movie had alot of the same themes as that TV show. The stranger in a new land. The quiet uprightness of the "natives" contrasted to Dre's "thuggish" brashness. Even the strict mother from the rough side of town made an appearance.
But lets stop talking about Will's TV show and talk about the movie.
Rule one in making a movie set in china. Don't put too many R's in your main characters name. Bringing your movie to an emotional high by having the crowd chant our protagonists name as he gets up from the beating of a lifetime is smart. Having 2000 people who can't pronounce R's chanting "Parker" was a poor choice.
"Pa-ka, Pa-ka Pa-ka!"
I get it. Dre Parker....he's American, and black and we had to reflect that in his name. But did we? Can't we just SEE that on screen?
And finally, *spoilers* I know they had to outdo the crane kick for a finishing move, but for a kid who had NO training other than maybe a few months, to jump up in the air, flip over 360 and land a foot to someones face, and then LAND on your same foot (see...his one leg was broken, so he only had one left to use) is just unbelievable. At least in the original he TRAINED to do that kick, in this one, our boy Dre figures it all out on his own.
All that being said, it was pretty ok. The characters were flushed out, the visuals were stunning, and the Kung Fu was impressive to watch, they just didn't make me believe how he could become so good in so little time.
Another weird one
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
So I have this dream last night. I'm going on a trip to the tip of Flordia. I'm going with my next door neighbors from my old house...the Voelkers. This makes sense to me, cause I'm under the impression that Max lives there now. So Momma, Pappa, Sister and Max Voelker all gather up and I throw my bags in their car and we start walking.What? Did I stutter? No, this is a dream. Weird shit happens.
So we start walking. We walk past the baseball diamond a block from our house and through southern champaign and into the woods.
We end up in some weird building where to get down we have to take an elevator, and stairs and all this weird stuff.
After getting through the building (and we are now something like...one day into our trip) I look around and realize that the Voelkers have their bags with them. They have been carrying them the whole time. Mine are in Champaign. So I ask "What's the deal?"
"Since we are taking you to Florida, we couldn't afford 5 tickets, so we saved money by walking."
Clearly unconcerned for their financial ruin, I'm more upset about my clothes, and how I have none for this trip. But then I figure I'll just buy some when I get there, so no big. Perhaps I could have offered to buy my own ticket? Who's selfish? Me, thats who.
So cut to an 80's movie montage of me trying on all these clothes, but seriously, it's an 80's montage, so the clothes are 80's and the music is 80's. It was...rad?
So this morning at work, Beth looks it all up and tells me this:
To dream that you are walking with ease, signifies a slow, but steady progress toward your goals. You are moving through life in a confident manner. Consider your destination. To dream that you have difficulties walking, indicates that you are reluctant and hesitant in proceeding forward in some situation. You may also be trying to distance yourself from certain life experiences. The difficulty in walking is a reflection of your current situation and the obstacles that you are experiencing.
So I don't know if not having cloths is a difficulty/obstacle, but I did never stop moving forward. Maybe it's the good interpretation then?
Labels: dream
TURKEY!
Monday, June 14, 2010
I went bowling.I got a turkey.
Here is the proof:
Also of note I got a 162 score. I think thats a new all time high.
AND THE BEST part of it all was that Kendle was busy at SatC2 while I did all this, which means I didn't have to GO to that silly movie.
Yay me.
Stats
Tuesday, June 08, 2010
So about a month ago I started submitting my blog posts to some social news sites. Why? What would "the world" want to do with my little old blog? Probably nothing. But there are some interesting stats that came out of this.
The yellow bar is something I added to show you were I was on average before I started doing this. You have to take out Friday and Saturday, cause I never post on those days, but still the first three days of posting I more than doubled my hits. Then....nothing. It was weird. Then of course if you put a hot model in your posts, you get more hits.
So far I haven't learned anything I didn't already know. Sex sells.
It's funny cause the ones I have the most fun writing get zero attention, and the ones I throw up as filler seem to be really popular. I thought for sure that the Betty White one would be a winner.
It all comes down to this: YOU guys love me, and you know who you are, my 32 everyday people. Then whenever I put up boobs or butts I get more hits from "everyone else."
Labels: website
Pandorum Review
So I was looking through the movies they had on Netflix streaming and I found this little gem of a movie. Typically the stuff on streaming is always Part 2 of a shitty trilogy, or some really off art movie that no one wants to watch. Clearly they are stepping up their game because I saw Up on there, and this one. Which I've been wanting to see for some time, but never had the gumption to go to the store and rent it.
My initial reaction was "Man am I glad this is free AND I didn't have to get off my couch to watch this"
The special effects were sub par, the only actor to SPEAK of was Dennis Quaid and He's showing his age and d-list status. If it was up to me I'd also speak about Ben Foster. I'm sure most of you are saying "who?" and thats the way it's supposed to be. But I saw him in "Get over it" with Kirsten Dunst, so I knew who he was. He's clearly growing up to be the same douchey person he was in that teen flick.
I'm gonna throw that in here just because I can.
So it's a story about a guy who wakes up on a ship traveling to another earth like planet, 124 years away. Instead of a warm welcome by the flight crew he's to replace while THEY go back into hibernation, he wakes up alone...with zombies trying to eat him.
They go on to explain this whole space maddness thing (Called "Pandorum") that can cause a person to think the world is ending and they sucumb to violent tendancies and histaria. In one parturaly bad case from the past, some dude jettisoned all the sleeping people when he thought they would all die. So all the sleeping people died in space....alone.
Well so obviously someone on this flight is suffering from this problem and they are the bad guy, someones the good guy, trying to fix things. And there is a girl whos pretty to look at. What more do you need?
So the reactor is dying which is the plot of the whole movie. Get to the reactor, fix it so they can get to the new earth.
So the whole time I'm watching this movie I keep saying to myself "Why would that person do that?" and then one minute later they would flat out say "I did this because..."
And it wasn't that I missed some subtle nuance of the character, they just wrote it that badly. It was like the action WAS the motivation to flush out the character.
Also they hid behind memory loss alot to keep the suspense up. I guess being in cryo-sleep makes someone loose their memories for awhile after they wake up. A perfect way to feed us bits a pieces at a time. This would have been ok except it was bits and pieces that had EVERYTHING to do with character motivation, and NOTHING to do with the mystery aboard the ship. He kept remembering his girlfriend on earth, and why she wasn't there. They could have just had that be the whole first flashback and then had him start to unravel the mystery of the ship. But no...
So I get through the whole movie and I'm pissed because this movie sucked and wasted my whole night. Then the next day I start to think about "the reveal" which happens about 2/3 of the way through when they talk about how the aliens/zombie/monsters came to be, and how it was all due to the sickness of one person.
I'll just go ahead and ruin it for you here. So stop reading if you want to see it.
One guy goes nuts on a ship with 60,000 people on it. He wakes up a few and tortures them and throws them in the reactor for dead, then goes back to sleep. All passengers on board had this goo in them to help them adapt to the new planet, so instead of adapting to the planet, they adapted to the ships reactor and became aliens/zombie/monsters and lived on that ship, feeding off the crew members and basically running the show.
Flash forward 800 years and our hero is woken up and saves the day, and discovers they have been on the new planet the whole time, just under the ocean of it.
And that's the part that made me double think this whole thing. It's not your typical space aliens story anymore. Some sicko twisted humans into a new race AND kept them trapped on the new planet under the sea for 800 years. Now we are into a psychological horror movie.
Man...if only they had played that part up, and not the killing part.
Carnival Debauche
Monday, June 07, 2010
Man...where do I start? I guess with this: They say that if you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say anything at all.That's the worst lesson anyone could ever teach someone. It just makes them get walked all over, and the people with the problem don't ever learn they need to change. So lets get started. I warn you...it's kinda long, but I added lots of pictures to keep you entertained.
I went to a Burlesque Show on Saturday. What a terrible show. From start to finish it was just one big fuck you to the people who came to see it.
It started off before we even entered the theater. Here is the archive of the advertisement on the website:
http://www.canopyclub.com/showinfo.php?id=1632
"Doors: 8:00pm," right? So you would expect to get there at 8 or possibly a hair after and go right in. Not so. The doors were locked and they were still doing sound check till 8:45! The lobby of the Canopy club is tiny, and there was a fire hazard amount of people milling about for far too long.
Then the doors opened, people streamed in and snatched up any chairs they could. We didn't get enough. Which was to be expected. It wasn't set up like a theater, it was set up like they set it up for a concert. Big open floor in front of the stage, 'cept no one crowded around so it was basically empty and people were all scrambling for chairs. I feel like they should have set up a ton of folding chairs or something for this particular performance. ESPECIALLY SINCE IT WAS OVER 2 HOURS LONG. No one wants to stand still for that long, I barely made it sitting that long.
So the show starts...not on time I might add, but that was expected since the doors opened so late. The Host comes out and basically starts talking about all the wonderful people who helped contribute to this, like the light guy who was contacted THAT MORNING to runs lights for the show. Wait what? Shouldn't that have been the FIRST thing you line up? How did you rehearse the lighting changes? Well it showed. All lights were overhead, and let me tell you guys something about the human body and overhead lighting...it's not pretty. Dark circles under the eyes and nose, makes everyone look like a skeleton. Now lets get some big girls up there getting naked...now I see skeleton faces and shadows on their skin accentuating their cellulite.
One of the later acts gets up on stage and apologizes for his act before it even STARTS. He was ALSO contacted that morning and asked to perform and did not have enough time to prepare.
And boy did it show. All the acts that were "filler" while the girls changed costumes were horrid. The comic made me laugh but he often forgot where he was in his jokes. The "psychic" used slight of hand and things written on cards to "guess" what people were thinking. But if I saw the slight of hand...you know it wasn't so slight.
The audience participation contest came WAY too soon (i.e. people were not drunk enough yet to be into it) and used a party gag that not everyone could perform, so they just ended up giving away the prize to whoever got closest to tying their cherry stem in their mouth, which was basically "Do you still have the stem in your mouth? You win!"And this cost me 10 dollars pre-sale? 20 at the door?! I feel sorry for those people that waited to get tickets. It was a mess from start to what I assume was the end, as I left before the end of the show. It should have been free admission with a five drink minimum.
Now the host of the show is what ties all these random acts together. He's the glue that binds and the thing that keeps you entertained when things slow down. This guy mostly relied on his ability to cuss to get some cheap laughs. At one point in the show he looked at the band and was clearly stalling for time, and asked "Well...I don't know what to talk about, what do you want to talk about?"
That's YOUR job! Ugh.
Near the start of the show the house band left the stage, and a guest band came on and played 2 songs. Ok...so far, so good. Then about 1/2 way through the show (or at least 1/2 way through the time I was there) they came back and played almost a full set. They DID say "vaudeville" as well. But I was under the impression that vaudeville was alot of quick variety acts, not just 3/4 of a set by a band smashed in between a few other acts.
So enough negative, there had to be something good, right? The FUNNIEST thing I saw was during guest bands longer set. Some lady and her guy friend came up to dance next to the stage. They were not part of the show, just dancing for fun. The lady was this tiny, skinny almost bird like lady with a ridiculous hat on. So shes out there dancing her little heart out when I guess she got hungry, and spied the cherries (which had been left on stage this whole time) from the audience participation contest. So she just reaches up on stage and grabs a few. I was shocked. Even more shocked when she went back a second and third time for more! Where was she putting the pits?!And finally there was a number where some little minx in a red lounge dress came out and sang one of those slow sultry lounge songs. THAT girl had talent. She had some serious pipes on her and it was one of the few times I was not checking my watch to see what time it was.
I'm sure burlesque shows had their place in the 1870's but in this day of internet porn, seeing a girls ankle just isn't gonna titillate me anymore. It should have been this rowdy house full of guys hootin' and hollerin' at the girls, clamoring to get closer to the stage to see more, drunk off their asses. Unfortunately that wasn't the mood in the joint, and I'm doubtful you will ever see that again. Everything has a time and a place and burlesque's was 140 years ago.
All that being said I have one caveat. I'm 100% positive that putting on a show of that magnitude is hard. There is so much that goes into it that the audience doesn't see. The booking, the rehearsals, creating the choreography, etc etc etc. I can't even begin to think I could pull it off, so kudo's to these guys for dreaming big. But I know good theater when I see it, and that just felt like something pulled together at the last minute.
Labels: Ashley, Champaign, review
Betty White, Soul Sucking Demon?
Friday, June 04, 2010
I almost didn't post this. I encourage you to read this in the proper frame of mind while I busy myself coming up with a "is it too soon, yet" joke.Let's get started:
Anyone else think it's weird that Betty White is the OLDEST Golden Girl, and she's the only one left standing? To quote wikipedia:
"Ironically, even though White was the oldest of the four actresses who portrayed the Golden Girls, she has outlived all three of her co-stars. Beatrice Arthur, who was three months White's junior, died in 2009; Estelle Getty, despite being a year younger than White, died in 2008; Rue McClanahan, twelve years younger than White, died in 2010. She is now the last of the four Golden Girls."
Ironic? Or is there something more sinister going on here? Betty White..."a goddamned national treasure", or soul sucking demon? Let's take a look.
On July 18, 2008, Betty started her re-rise to fame, and appeared on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, four days later Estelle Getty dropped dead to "natural causes."
On April 25, 2009 Bea Arthur had been battling cancer and lost, which is RIGHT around the time Betty was getting her role and filming 2009's blockbuster hit, "The Proposal" which was released in late June of that year.
Further proof, from this promotional piece that came out right around the time the movie hit. Ryan says "we've been working for months together." That coroborates my previous findings in the timeline. Ryan Renolyds know's whats up, at 1:20 Betty shows her true colors, and at 1:40 he calles her a sething demon. A demon who eats souls? Possibly. But he never explictly says that.
In early January, 2010, a Grass roots campaign on Facebook called "Betty White to Host SNL (Please)" forms, and a few days later on January 14th 2010, Rue McClanahan sufferd a minor stroke.
Betty Hosted SNL on May 8th 2010, many people calling it her career comeback. Less than a month later Rue McClanahan sufferd another stroke, killing her.
I'll let you make your own conclusions, but I think the evidence speaks for itself. Betty White is using the lifeforce of the other Golden Girls to boost her career. I suppose if her career starts to suffer now we will know for sure.
In case you didn't get it, the whole post was a joke, and a satirical look at causation and coloration.
Labels: celebrity, TV, Video, WTF?, youtube
I was hurt as HELL
Thursday, June 03, 2010
I was informed that my last post was "not a real post." So I'll share this little gem with you...So we pulled into McCormick's pretty late. I think around 9:30 or so. Which in summer time means it's still super bright out...just not in the deep woods under the massive canopy that only Southern Indiana can grow. So we get in...it's pitch black, as our eyes are used to the headlights being on. NO ONE has their porch lights on. I KINDA know where our cabin is, but I don't know which exact one it is. So I just park the car near the middle of the cabins and start looking around.
Well it's really dark (as previously mentioned) so I just blindly wander off towards the first cabin. I know there is a fence, I just don't know WHERE the fence is, so I carefully walk forwards.
Naturally on the upswing on one of my steps I catch on the fence which is a lot LOWER than I rememberd and pitch forward over the fence. I threw my hands up to save my pretty little face, but did not spare my knee, as you can see in the picture. As I landed I skidded forward through the sticks, mud, and possibly poison ivy (my mind said). Time told me that (thankfully) there was none.
There Heather...is THAT a real post?
Labels: HeatherJ, picture, Shackamack, Weekend
McCormick's Creek 2010
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
As always, it was back to McCormick's Creek this spring. I don't really think I need to tell you what went on, as the same stuff happens every year, and I've already written about it a million times. Beer, burgers, friends, and walks to the fire tower/inn/falls/pool.Just click here: http://blog.hunka.net/search/label/Shackamack and read all the old stuff.
Or check out Colin's latest blog, he always does something fun.
And then of course there is the obligatory Picasa page stuff from me:
 |
| McCormick's Creek 2010 |
So feel free to paruse the internet's various hotspots for all the info on what a great weekend I had.
Labels: Colin, Kendle, Momma Hunka, Pappa Hunka, Shackamack, Weekend
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