365 Days
There is a fun group on Flickr called 365 Days. What you do is take a self portrait everyday for a whole year and post each picture to this group as you take it. So far I am up to 8 days and I am going to see how long it keeps my interest. Have a year's worth might be pretty cool. You can see my first 8 entries here.
Monday, April 21, 2008
The five steps
Hanging out with one of my roommates under specific conditions has five easily discernible steps.
Step 1: A few of us are hanging out on our back porch. He gets of home from work, decides to skip dinner and starts drinking beer like he's got 12 hours to live.
Step 2: He begins to get loud, goes on and on in circular monologues.
Step 3: Everyone else begins to ignore him and have their own conversations.
Step 4: He gets mad because no one is paying any attention to him, goes inside grabs his telephone, calls one of his alcoholic friends and proceeds to talk loudly into the phone, effectively ending every other conversation and ruining everyone else's night.
Step 5: The rest of us go inside and shut the door while he prattles on and on about how tough life is and how he likes to be alone and yada yada yada.
It's been a long time since I've lived with an actual alcoholic. Even saying that, I'm not sure if my step Dad or adopted Father were alcoholics. I know they went through some times where they each drank too much but alcoholics are different than the guy that drinks too much in a period in his life. Chris, my roommate, is a straight up alcoholic and his problem has become our problem. It's impossible for him to have a few beers and chill out. He's got to get really drunk and when he gets to a certain stage he can completely ruin a night. He'll go on long rants full of self loathing and can get physically intimidating. He's never gotten violent, and I've never seen him get violent, but when he's all shitty he likes to intimidate. The most annoying aspect of him after beer-one-too-many is how self centered he gets. Oh, the world is against him, he's got it hard, he has a hard time finding the right gal and on and on and on. It's fucking getting old. He wasn't too bad when he moved in but, holy crapola, what a pain in the ass. Melanie is afraid to have a friend or two over because Chris might have that one beer that creates the monster. The loud, self centered, self loathing monster that doesn't know when to shut the fuck up.
He's already had one intervention and almost got it together for a while. It may be time for another.
Hanging out with one of my roommates under specific conditions has five easily discernible steps.
Step 1: A few of us are hanging out on our back porch. He gets of home from work, decides to skip dinner and starts drinking beer like he's got 12 hours to live.
Step 2: He begins to get loud, goes on and on in circular monologues.
Step 3: Everyone else begins to ignore him and have their own conversations.
Step 4: He gets mad because no one is paying any attention to him, goes inside grabs his telephone, calls one of his alcoholic friends and proceeds to talk loudly into the phone, effectively ending every other conversation and ruining everyone else's night.
Step 5: The rest of us go inside and shut the door while he prattles on and on about how tough life is and how he likes to be alone and yada yada yada.
It's been a long time since I've lived with an actual alcoholic. Even saying that, I'm not sure if my step Dad or adopted Father were alcoholics. I know they went through some times where they each drank too much but alcoholics are different than the guy that drinks too much in a period in his life. Chris, my roommate, is a straight up alcoholic and his problem has become our problem. It's impossible for him to have a few beers and chill out. He's got to get really drunk and when he gets to a certain stage he can completely ruin a night. He'll go on long rants full of self loathing and can get physically intimidating. He's never gotten violent, and I've never seen him get violent, but when he's all shitty he likes to intimidate. The most annoying aspect of him after beer-one-too-many is how self centered he gets. Oh, the world is against him, he's got it hard, he has a hard time finding the right gal and on and on and on. It's fucking getting old. He wasn't too bad when he moved in but, holy crapola, what a pain in the ass. Melanie is afraid to have a friend or two over because Chris might have that one beer that creates the monster. The loud, self centered, self loathing monster that doesn't know when to shut the fuck up.
He's already had one intervention and almost got it together for a while. It may be time for another.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
A librarian's memoir
"Being a librarian, he discovers, is not as much about ivory towers and great literature as it is about making popcorn, getting physically assaulted by 70-year-old women and cleaning up vomit."
Amen.
"Being a librarian, he discovers, is not as much about ivory towers and great literature as it is about making popcorn, getting physically assaulted by 70-year-old women and cleaning up vomit."
Amen.
Blogging in the sack
So, I am doing something I have never done before, blogging in bed. Melanie has a laptop and she is zonked out here next to me and I am laying here with the laptop on my knees. This is pretty cool except I still haven't adapted to the laptop keyboard and my left foot has fallen asleep. Not the whole foot, just the heel.
Today was an awesome day. I slept in to about 10 and we had a great breakfast, she had grits and sausage and I had eggs and hashbrowns. After some digesting and tea on the back porch we road our bikes to Park Road Park. The park was full of activity. All six softball fields were being used for little league games (with temporary fences and portable pitching mounds, the playground was full, and pickup basketball was being played. It was a little cloudy and temperature was stuck right at 72 degrees. Heavenly.
When we got back we relaxed a bit more on the back porch and then piled into my souped up '89 Honda Civic and tooled down to Lowe's. About two weeks ago our roomie Chris secured us a used gas grill that had been sitting at one of his company's offices. Since then it had been gathering dust in our shed and I decided that today it shall live again. It needed a new burner and a grate that goes beneath the grill. The parts cost about 45 dollars and were surprisingly easy to assemble. The grill fired up right away after Melanie reminded me to open the valve on the gas tank. Most things don't work out quite this well when it comes to 'some assembly required.' Grills start at $99 at Lowe's so we came out ahead and this grill should last us a couple of summers.
The One Big Loud Guy had told me earlier in the day to call him if we got the grill running and he'd swing by for a cookout. He came by, Chris arrived after work and Wendell got back from a funeral. The five of us each had our own grub. I had a fat ole cheeseburger; Loud Guy, Chris and Wendell had steak and Melanie had a tuna streak. We all got fat and happy and listened to music on the porch and had a few drinks. The Loud Guy had a Zombies concert he wanted us to hear and I played that. After that ended I shuffled and hour's worth of Beatles and then an hour of Drive By Truckers. DBT is perfect music for hanging out. There is a lot of variety in their output. After a couple of hours the Loud Guy took Wendell to the Fariview Grill on his way home and the rest of us went to bed. Good times.
So, I am doing something I have never done before, blogging in bed. Melanie has a laptop and she is zonked out here next to me and I am laying here with the laptop on my knees. This is pretty cool except I still haven't adapted to the laptop keyboard and my left foot has fallen asleep. Not the whole foot, just the heel.
Today was an awesome day. I slept in to about 10 and we had a great breakfast, she had grits and sausage and I had eggs and hashbrowns. After some digesting and tea on the back porch we road our bikes to Park Road Park. The park was full of activity. All six softball fields were being used for little league games (with temporary fences and portable pitching mounds, the playground was full, and pickup basketball was being played. It was a little cloudy and temperature was stuck right at 72 degrees. Heavenly.
When we got back we relaxed a bit more on the back porch and then piled into my souped up '89 Honda Civic and tooled down to Lowe's. About two weeks ago our roomie Chris secured us a used gas grill that had been sitting at one of his company's offices. Since then it had been gathering dust in our shed and I decided that today it shall live again. It needed a new burner and a grate that goes beneath the grill. The parts cost about 45 dollars and were surprisingly easy to assemble. The grill fired up right away after Melanie reminded me to open the valve on the gas tank. Most things don't work out quite this well when it comes to 'some assembly required.' Grills start at $99 at Lowe's so we came out ahead and this grill should last us a couple of summers.
The One Big Loud Guy had told me earlier in the day to call him if we got the grill running and he'd swing by for a cookout. He came by, Chris arrived after work and Wendell got back from a funeral. The five of us each had our own grub. I had a fat ole cheeseburger; Loud Guy, Chris and Wendell had steak and Melanie had a tuna streak. We all got fat and happy and listened to music on the porch and had a few drinks. The Loud Guy had a Zombies concert he wanted us to hear and I played that. After that ended I shuffled and hour's worth of Beatles and then an hour of Drive By Truckers. DBT is perfect music for hanging out. There is a lot of variety in their output. After a couple of hours the Loud Guy took Wendell to the Fariview Grill on his way home and the rest of us went to bed. Good times.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Brad Bird on Ollie Johnston
One of the classic Disney animators, Ollie Johnston, passed away recently. A personal favorite of mine, Brad Bird, wrote a nice piece on Mr. Johnston for an animation blog. You can read it here.
One of the classic Disney animators, Ollie Johnston, passed away recently. A personal favorite of mine, Brad Bird, wrote a nice piece on Mr. Johnston for an animation blog. You can read it here.
Your show blows
I know something that will help you get through today: A collection of John Stewart's best smackdowns put together by the Comedy Central Insider. Found the link via the No Fact Zone.
I know something that will help you get through today: A collection of John Stewart's best smackdowns put together by the Comedy Central Insider. Found the link via the No Fact Zone.
I Heart the Mekons
A few months ago I was overjoyed to buy the new album by the Mekons. It's called Natural and I've played it several times. Below is one of my favorite songs off the album. This performance sounds different than the version on the album. I can't tell if it's mixed differently or if it's live. Either way, it's great. On lead vocals, Jon Langford.
A few months ago I was overjoyed to buy the new album by the Mekons. It's called Natural and I've played it several times. Below is one of my favorite songs off the album. This performance sounds different than the version on the album. I can't tell if it's mixed differently or if it's live. Either way, it's great. On lead vocals, Jon Langford.
People don't use Google?
From the smart people at Metafilter I found a chart displaying which search engines are used the most. You can view the chart here. I use Google exclusively, which do you use?
From the smart people at Metafilter I found a chart displaying which search engines are used the most. You can view the chart here. I use Google exclusively, which do you use?
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Right Wing Blogs
The Village Voice has a hilarious guide to right wing blogs here. Find the link via Tom Tomorrow.
The Village Voice has a hilarious guide to right wing blogs here. Find the link via Tom Tomorrow.
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