Repurposing

Yeah, that's a Nintendo 64 controller. I have always admired stoners' creative bongs. I remember a certain unnamed friend in college who had transformed a bottle of Mrs Butterworth's.

In other news, I'm sick as a dog. I've always thought that phrase was odd, and perhaps that's why I repeat it. I am a giant snot producing factory right now. It hit the night I bought Halo 3. One would assume, then, that this was an opportune time to get sick, skip some work, and get in some Halo.

Yeah that's what normal people do. Unfortunately, I have too much going on at work. That is a odd phrase from me, I know. I don't know how to explain it other than I actually want to go to work. I don't want to stay home and play Halo. Well, let's be honest, there is a part of me that would like that. But there's this almost alien realization I have that makes me want to do well, and actually enjoys working.

I know, very strange. I punched a timecard for a long time there, devoting only the amount of brain power required in order to get by. But something has occurred- I have actually been given responsibility. And people (strangely) listen to what I think. Yes, I know. It's insane. And this actually leads to me caring about it more. This is all very new. And perhaps it will fade.

one night in prague

One night in Prague, I went out with a healthy mix of local ex-pats and touring rich kids. I suppose I was one of the rich kids. My parents had given me a sizeable amount of money for actually graduating college, something I'm not sure they actually expected me to accomplish. And for good reason- it was up in the air for a little while there. I did two things with that money- one very good and one very, very bad. The bad one was invest in tech stocks right before the bubble burst. That was around January 2000. If you have no clue what I'm talking about, just be glad you didn't invest then. It was a bloodbath of epic proportions. It would have probably been more productive for me to take that money, spend it on crack, and then go to rehab.

The wise thing is that I went to Europe for a month and half. I won't bore you with all the life changing/affirming moments. I think I'll bore you with one though, because I thought about it tonight.

That night in Prague. We went to a bar on the west side of town and I had absinthe for the first time. The next immediate memory is Tom running across the Charles bridge naked. And holding a girl whose name I forget as she cried because she just found out her brother died. Going to the Jewish quarter and telling the Aussies about the Golem. And long after the group had split up, finding a rave and dancing with strange exotic women. Yeah, I did that. Once. At the end of the night I sat in the internet cafe, watching the sun come up and checking my email. It was 2 weeks before I'd find out I had to come home. I sat there and wrote to a list of people, some of which I barely knew. I didn't even meet Julia until 2 days later. But the reason I bring it up- the reason I look at that night- everything was right in the world. For one night. Tom and I were going to the Bone Church the next day with the Australian girls, and the Boathouse Hostel was 5 tram stops away, on the Cerny Kun exit. I didn't worry about mortgage, bills, keys, or gas. It was good. I'm not going to say it is all downhill from that moment, cause it absolutely isn't. But that was up there...

Tempted as it may be... (Superbad 11/10)

I am not going to discuss Auburn football. I will not write about how pathetic they looked in a loss to a school they should never lose to (the very school that caused Alabama's coach to get fired last year). I won't bring it up again.

Let's talk about Superbad. I'll try to remain focused and review this movie calmly. Deep breath... OK.

Superbad is the greatest film in the history of cinema.

OK, that wasn't a good start. Let me explain. There have been films throughout my life that naive or no, I consider to be in my wavelength. Clerks definitely fell in that category. And while Superbad is about high school (mostly), it still fits. Perfectly. It's not even the events in the movie- it's the tone. It really reminded me of growing up. And on top of that, it's hysterical. A lot of times I'll watch a movie and not buy into it and start picking it apart from a story or technical aspect and derive enjoyment out of that. But the good ones make me forget all that. Children of Men did that (for very different reasons). I got completely lost in Superbad- never questioned the characters or situations. That's not to say it isn't ridiculous- it is. But it didn't affect me at the time.

I'm staying vague for a reason. Go see this movie now.

Sony Defense Force!

Meanwhile, in the world of video games...

Sony Defense Force is my new favorite blog about video games. Let me initiate you into dorkdom very briefly. Xbox and Wii have their shit together. Sony is languishing with an overpriced console and very few noteworthy games. It has become a running joke over the years how pathetic Sony has become. So what is a blog to do?

Get Defensive.

Here are some examples.

At first, you look at it as just some rabid fans, who are playing the age old my X is better than your Y. It's America at its finest- Coke/Pepsi, GM/Ford, ad infinitem. And I'm fine with that. But after reading it for a while, you realize... it's a giant joke. It has to be. Look at the last link above- they take the August sales numbers and combine all things Playstation to show that the "Playstation Brand" is the leader. Right NEXT to that, you see the two Nintendo systems. And if you added them up... well you'd need another chart. Once you get the joke- that this site is the equivalent of the Colbert Report- it's really an interesting read. I saw the NPD numbers on Kotaku, and I immediately went to SDF waiting to see how they'd spin it. Brilliant. I wish I had thought of it.

Oh, and try out the flash game called Bloxorz over there...
I am completely addicted to it------------->

Review: The IT Crowd 7/10

I had the opportunity to sit down with The IT Crowd. I watched the first season (6 episodes) and half of the second season over the weekend. It is not The Office, nor does it pretend to be. It's much sillier, and obviously, to a certain extent, a child of it. The show centers around two nerds who work for a giant corporation, and their wacky adventures. Oh there's a cute girl now in the department who knows nothing about computers? Hijinks ensue. Had that been the whole show, I doubt I would have finished the second episode. Fortunately, the show has a nice self-aware feeling to it, and deftly avoids the typical dumb humor that roams free here on American sitcoms. My favorite moments of the show so far include the introduction of the night shift worker and the season two premiere where the guys get suckered into going to a gay musical. The musical is called Gay! The gay musical!

Perhaps the funniest minute in the show is currently making the rounds- it's this anti piracy commercial that opens the 3rd episode of the 2nd season. If you can watch this clip and not laugh your ass off, you should probably skip over this one.

I'll rate The IT Crowd 7/10, and with the 2nd season being so much stronger than the first, they could work their way into an 8. I do not know if you can see the IT Crowd in the US yet, but I do know that if you know the right dark alleys of internetdom, they wait.

lost season

So.

I watched Auburn lose to South Florida tonight. It is almost alarming how quickly the entire tenor of the fall is precariously balanced on Auburn's record. It is, as if a new feeling, now apparent to me that there is more to life than football. One need not comprehend what it's like to actually legitmately care what a bunch of kids wearing a uniform do. I don't need you to understand. That's actually good, because speaking as a rational adult (whom I certainly attempt to be from time to time) there is no excuse.



But as someone who spends his falls yelling at televisions in the vain hope that it will all work out for the best, I wouldn't have it any other way. It is a ritual to me. Like church used to be.

Auburn will most likely go on to have a decent year. But last night, that vain hope of an undefeated season proving all the critics wrong was dashed. Until you lose, you have every right to think you're the best. But one loss (to a Conference USA team no less) and suddenly you look just like everyone else. I had hoped the first week's close win was not indicitive of the season. But after tonight, it is obvious that it was.

Despite all this boo-hooing and sadness, in every college (and most likely pro) football fan a well of hope springs up. As I exited the bar last night, drunk and mad, a part of my brain did what it has done since I was aware of football- the thought crept up and wiggled its way into my conscious like it always does-

"Next year...next year we're going to be good"

Trying to be funny

Today at work, it was dictated to me that I needed to come up with something funny.

It starts with
"Chris, step in here a second"

and ends with us trying to do something different advertising a morning show. I personally took over, becoming the arbiter of what was funny. My coworkers tried getting all elaborate. I simplified it down to words and phrases. Here is some of what I deemed funny:

1. Buoyant.
2. Dog Toupee
3. Truckload
4. "That's not in the Constitution"
5. Street Legal
6. Platypus

How these are going to work: Our morning crew sits around a table and someone asks if they saw that video we showed the day before, the response is something like "I didn't know couches were street legal". The End. Meant to be nonsensical and quirky. Hey, I want to watch that witty show.

Who knows if it will be any good (can they deliver the lines?). I did enjoy the latter half of work today, thinking hard about what I find funny and seeing if other agreed.

A night out

Sunday I spent the day finishing a video game (the excellent Bioshock) and doing "house stuff". Sunday night, I decided I needed to get out and do something interesting. This actually began earlier. During some menial house activity, such as folding clothes, I fire up a podcast. The newest Bottletree podcast featured the two bands playing Sunday. While neither band made me want to immediately go, neither was unappealing. So later when I decided to get out, that was the first thing that occurred to me.

I like The Bottletree (but I don't really like adding "The" to the title of it). I like crowd there. Mostly.

It's always an interesting mix. Sunday was no exception. One thing that those who know me well understand is that I'm quite solitary. There are plenty of times I like being alone. I also enjoy being alone in a crowd. Going to Bottletree is like that for me. I melted into a wall and did some quality people watching. There's a couple of classifications I see (and these are by no means the only ones).

a. Trendsters. You know who you are. You're wearing a funny hat or an ironic shirt. You're drinking a PBR. You're probably in your early 20's. You hope you're in your early 20's.

b. Grown up trendsters. I think I probably fall into this category. Those who are older, not quite as stupid, but are a little eclectic. I can handle these people.

c. The dragged-in. Those arriving at Bottletree through no choice of their own. They are the ones talking loudly during the quiet moments of the music, or spending the night on the patio.

I'm over-simplifying. And for that I apologize. My point is that Bottletree serves as kind of a nexus of things I love (good music) and hate (posturing scenesters). But I don't really hate them. In fact, I enjoy watching them.

The two bands I saw were Oh No! Oh My! and Au Revoir Simone.

ONOM for short were pretty good. catchy poppish. toe tapping or the classic Ditchell slight head bob. I'd see them again.

ARS. Three cutish girls and keyboards. Very Postal Servicy. Decent- but unfortunately they hit as much as they missed.

I ran into two denizens from my past- Mike F. from the Isley period (95-97) and Darryl from the Video Xpress days (Christ... 90-93?). I did not recognize either of them, but they did me.

Other notable appearances were the ubiquitous Red and Blonde of Red Blondehead. They were both shocked to see me, as if I had disappeared for some long period. Which I apparently have. Was last night my debutante ball, reintroducing myself to sociality?

Um no. Last night I was stir crazy. I sincerely appreciate Bottletree's function in the rich fabric of Birmingham, etcetera ad infinitum. But it's not really my place. 90% of the time, I'm going to On Tap. On Tap is a warm blanket. I can go to On Tap, play trivia, plant myself at the bar. That feels good. I don't think I will ever feel comfortable at Bottletree. This is not their fault and god knows they don't need to cater to my desire for trivia and sports. They are what they are, and I'm glad.

I'd like to end my first long winded blog with a explanation of what exactly you're reading. There was a time when I wrote quite often. I want to get back to that. And I am most certainly starting auspiciously. I am severely tempted to go back and edit this post, checking for tense violations and such...but at this point I am not too concerned with it. I think I just need to write something and actually put some effort into it. If for some reason you stumble upon this and actually enjoy it, then that's a bonus. One of my goals is to write not for anyone in particular, but develop a consistent tone and less rambling. Very boring stuff to you, but important to me.

So.

I made a blog back when they weren't cool. I blogged for weeks on end. I wrote all kinds of long winded descriptions of my life. I poured my heart into it.

And now, it must be gone. Cause I can't find it.

So I'm starting over. I need an outlet. I need something to dump my brain into. This will be it.

Tomorrow I'll start. Tonight I sleep.