Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Words fail to express how surreal and messed-up is the very notion of a whole chicken in a can.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Regular readers of this site may have noticed that I’ve been a bit thin on content lately. Part of that is because the last two rolls of film I developed weren’t exactly successful (though I hope the slide film I pick up today is a different story), and certainly photography-related posts have become a staple around here.
A bigger reason, however, is that I’ve simply not had a lot to say lately. I doubt that I’m bumping up against the limits of my blogging. It’s just that there haven’t been a whole lot of primary sources of input for me lately. It’s much less desirable for me, these days, to re-post something I’ve seen elsewhere (unless it’s REALLY good), and even in that department I’ve lately run thin because I’m in a rut as far as my daily web reads are concerned (maybe that’s a good thing considering my real life reads have increased at least a little bit). I suppose if I took some time to read some articles I’d at least be able to write some sort of response or rendered opinion.
But really, if I had to choose one main reason for my lack of insight, humor, or what-have-you around these digital parts is that I’m under a bit of stress these days, both good and bad, and I’ve only recently begun to realize how that’s affecting my mood, attention span, and enthusiasm for outside stimuli. I’ve recently transitioned to a new church, I’m waiting on graduate school details, I have to do my taxes, blah blah blah blah blah.
I can just sum it up by saying I’m a bit distracted these days.
The grand irony, of course, is that such circumstances have, in this post, generated one of the longer pieces of writing I’ve posted in quite some time. That’s probably more a result my long-winded writing style (when unfocused, as here and now) than really having anything to say. I also can’t help but think that I’m likely to find a host of small and trivial things to post over the next day now that I’ve made such a statement. I often find that my later actions contradict my earlier words, but I’m certainly not going to hold back sharing something funny or interesting should I come across any.
Whatevs…that’s all for now.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
So now it’s after 12:00 AM on February 15th, and I can break the silence. Little of this will be a surprise to anybody at least a little familiar with my taste in cinema.
One of the things I did for Valerie on Valentine’s Day was to go with her to watch any movie of her choosing. That sounds mild-mannered enough, but 1) I talk/crack on movies MST3K-style all the time, b) I’ve written a short treatise about “chick flicks” in the past – a genre for which my wife has a predilection, and 7th) I promised Valerie I wouldn’t complain or say anything during the movie or for the entire day.
She LOVED this idea.
So we saw Confessions of a Shopaholic. Blah blah far-fetched blah. Blah terrible script blah cheesy humor blah blah. I’ll not repeat many of the rants I’d typically give such a wasted movie-making venture. I’ll just add that the only things saving this movie from 1/5 were the too-brief inclusion of John Goodman (who makes almost any scene worth watching) and Ed Helms (a.k.a. “Andy” from the American version of The Office, here playing a self-help teacher).
2/5
P.S. I want to make it clear that this was but a two-hour slice of our Valentine’s Day. The rest was full of many mushy-gushy couple things, and we had a blast.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Tonight I finished reading Isaac Asimov’s acclaimed collection of short stories: I, Robot. This is my introduction to Asimov’s writing but I enjoy it already. While I enjoyed his style of writing, I was most impressed by the heady concepts which I found pervaded the anthology. Besides the in-depth consideration of the psychology of robotic machines, we’re presented with a picture of the human impact of the presence of such technology from its near introduction to its startling potential future.
At a brief 256 pages (or 192 in my 70’s edition belonging to my wife’s late father) it makes for a quick read of all stories. Now I feel like it’s but a small taste to whet my appetite for more of Asimov’s work.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
I made my inglorious return to Facebook several weeks ago because I got tired of calling up my mom to tell her stuff only to find she already knew because of her friend status with various people I know. So I’m back in the loop, at least for now. I still see the same thing as I did over a year ago – people friend each other, and once you’ve made your digital connections there’s little else to do but post status messages and use their mountains of useless apps.
But now it’s just a bigger and more tangled mess, and no more so than on the default view when you log in: the News Feed.
I feel that there’s very little rhyme or reason to this view. Here you have a jumble of status updates, comments, fan-mentions, sponsor surveys, app notices, friend notices, et cetera. Is it chronological? At first it may appear that way, but over the course of any given day I begin to notice certain items jumbling, disappearing, reappearing, moving further up or down the list, and who knows what else. It’s fairly often that I see something posted early in the week suddenly appear underneath a status message posted two hours ago even though there are more recent items below.
There. I’ve released a little bit of steam over this still-almost-entirely-a-waste-of-my-time website. Yeah yeah yeah, I’m still on Facebook. Maybe in another year I’ll look at it the way I look at my cell phone – just another “necessary” communication tool. But for now it feels like using cough syrup; you feel like it could be helpful, but it’s disgusting all the way down.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Tonight is the opening for the new VCA exhibit, “Building Images: Seventy Years of Photography at Hedrich Blessing.” There will be around 80 images, many quite large, which showcase a broad spectrum of the studio’s work. The exhibit runs through April 12th.
(image courtesy Ansel Olson)
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
I was in the car with Val last night when “Bohemian Rhapsody” (Yes! It has its own Wikipedia entry!) came on the radio. I can never resist the opportunity to crank it, and I still mist up a little at the sound of the first guitar solo (I mean, you do, too, right? You’re not heartless…are you?).
So this evening, I’m perusing the web as usual when I come across the most glorious of mash-ups…a smooshed audio tour de force (farce?) containing pieces from nearly every cover of the song that could be found. While the genres and quality truly run the gamut, it’s actually…well…awesome. Beware the end, though…I believe there’s some coarse language (in case you’re sensitive to that or at the office).
(via waxy)
Holy Smokes, the ban on smoking in restaurants in Virginia passed today.
I’m getting mixed signals from the news, though – the Times Dispatch article to which I linked says there’s more voting to be done. NBC 12, on the other hand, reported on the 6:00 news that the bill “now heads to Gov. Tim Kaine for approval, where it is expected to be signed into law.” I’m guessing NBC is a little further ahead than the Times Dispatch (I hope so), but either way there’s sure to be more detail as time passes. The main thing I’m trying to hear now is when the measure is to take effect. Some sources say October 1st while others say January 1, 2010. I’m hoping for the former 
UPDATE: Okay, so NBC 12 updated their story and removed the portion stating that it’s moving to Kaine’s desk. Regardless, it seems that at the latest VA restaurants could be smoke-free by the end of this year. I’m pumped!
UPDATE 2: Final word for now…so some of the bill’s teeth were pulled. The delay is indeed ’till January 1, 2010. So it won’t take effect this year. At least it will sometime, though. Additionally, the Times Dispatch reports that another more craptaculous exception was included to “allow smoking whenever minors are not allowed.” Oh well. It’s a start. It’s a good thing that our state government was able to do anything here in the land of tobacco.
Oh man…Layer Tennis starts again today. Set your phasers to “stun” and your Interwebs to today’s match.
Should be grand!
As part of their “One in 8 Milliion” series, the NY Times site has a short audio/photo piece on Georgiana DePalma Tedone, a 90-year-old who still makes her own mozzarella cheese in Brooklyn.