1. Riggins's new neighbor = stone cold fox. I hope she knows that she's powerless against his flaxen-locked, wrong-side-of-the-tracks sexiness. And the kid is great, too. My one request: put your glasses back on, Neighbor Lady!
2. Every time I resolve that Lyla Garrity is a ho (aka, cheating on her crippled boyfriend, trying to stifle his dreams of playing for the national quad rugby team), they turn her into a sympathetic character (aka, the whole school hates her and she cries, her parents reach the verge of divorce). I'm so conflicted!
2a. Ah, good old Lyla, making a drunken spectacle of herself and then accusing Street of being in love with a girl he just met. We missed you, Lyla.
3. Is there a better character on television than Jason Street? He has the heart of a champion. A life champion.
4. My buddy brings up a good point: whatever happened to Coach Taylor's job offer from the University of Texas? And what is TMU? Texas...something that begins with M...University?
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
I Hate That Dirty Water, part 1
I promise there will be a recurring "I Love That Dirty Water" segment, but I need to put the word out to a population I've lost all patience for: people paying for the T with cash.
It took less than two months of tap-and-go Charlie Card bliss to view with resentment and scorn those paying for the T with money. Who are these throwbacks, these anachronistic dinosaurs that cling so tenaciously to the old ways of exchanging bank notes for services? Paying with bills is bad enough, but at least once a week, I get stuck behind some brain donor that pays with dimes. For real. The nerve of these people.
Here's the plain and honest truth for those of you outside the Hub: if you pay with cash, it takes like, 30 seconds to get on the T, and that's if you have two dollar bills. With a Charlie Card? Like, half a femtosecond. I'm not even kidding around. If your T is late, you can blame the people paying with cash.
The MBTA is partly to blame. They're enablers. I say, get rid of the cash-taking parts of the fare machine and put this demon to rest. Some people will argue, "Well, I don't take the T often enough to warrant a weekly or monthly pass, so I just pay cash." My rebuttal: shut up. I take the NY subway ten times a year, tops, but I still have a Metrocard in my pocket. Get a stored value Charlie Card and end our collective misery.
That's how you can tell you're in Boston, when you see people paying for the train with dimes. Try to pull that crap in New York, and you'll have angry riders descending on you with ill-intent faster than Cleon after Cyrus got shot. People paying for the train with cash makes me hate that dirty water.
It took less than two months of tap-and-go Charlie Card bliss to view with resentment and scorn those paying for the T with money. Who are these throwbacks, these anachronistic dinosaurs that cling so tenaciously to the old ways of exchanging bank notes for services? Paying with bills is bad enough, but at least once a week, I get stuck behind some brain donor that pays with dimes. For real. The nerve of these people.
Here's the plain and honest truth for those of you outside the Hub: if you pay with cash, it takes like, 30 seconds to get on the T, and that's if you have two dollar bills. With a Charlie Card? Like, half a femtosecond. I'm not even kidding around. If your T is late, you can blame the people paying with cash.
The MBTA is partly to blame. They're enablers. I say, get rid of the cash-taking parts of the fare machine and put this demon to rest. Some people will argue, "Well, I don't take the T often enough to warrant a weekly or monthly pass, so I just pay cash." My rebuttal: shut up. I take the NY subway ten times a year, tops, but I still have a Metrocard in my pocket. Get a stored value Charlie Card and end our collective misery.
That's how you can tell you're in Boston, when you see people paying for the train with dimes. Try to pull that crap in New York, and you'll have angry riders descending on you with ill-intent faster than Cleon after Cyrus got shot. People paying for the train with cash makes me hate that dirty water.
Monday, February 26, 2007
Overture, curtains, lights. This is it, we'll hit the heights...
Even though I only saw one movie out of every movie that was nominated for anything this year (no joke. It was The Departed), I found the 79th Annual Academy Awards to be a delightful romp. Some observations:
Note - Don't think of these observations as stale. Think of them as considered and well-reasoned. (read: I fell asleep right after the broadcast and didn't feel it was ethical to post during work. What integrity I have!)
1. We've seen plenty of brother-sister combinations in Hollywood, but have two siblings ever been such an aesthetic mismatch as Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal? She's an attractive woman, no doubt, but put her next to her dreamboat brother, and it's like Secretariat at Belmont. Thirty-one lengths!
2. Aside from the Ice Age short, which I recall seeing a commercial for, where do these animated short films get shown? Let's get these bad boys out in the theatres. We want cartoons!
3. According to Merriam-Webster, stick-to-itiveness is a word. Spelled like that. Reason Number 76,585 why that dictionary sucks.
4. I counted no less than six "wrap-it-ups" during the ceremony (not including the Al Gore one). Some people think the wrap-it-up is hilarious, and I'm sure the show's producers were cracking the whip on acceptance speeches. I think it's terrible. This poor shlub that won for best animated short might never even get invited to the Academy Awards again, let alone win. Let these people have their time in the spotlight! I'll stay up, I promise. Another example of corporate greed trumping the celebration of artistic achievement.
4a. Almost all of those wrap-it-ups came in the early portion of the show, which was front-loaded with all of the technical and writing-type awards. I'm sure someone could go back and compare speech lengths, but it seems to me like Forest Whittaker and Martin Scorcese got a little bit longer leash than the guy that won for sound mixing (and even if the times were equal, it doesn't make a difference, because it seemed to me like the heavy hitters got more time, and I'm a firm believer in perception being reality). Producers gave more leeway to the big name stars in terms of acceptance speeches? I am no longer uncynical with the film industry.
5. My disenchantment with Jessica Biel is reaching folkloric proportions. First she comes out on stage wearing a dress we just threw out of my grandmother's closet, then the Interweb tells me that she's dating Wilmer Valderrama! What happened to Derek Jeter? Jessica, your Boston College crop-top t-shirt from Summer Catch is the reason I came to Chestnut Hill in the first place. Don't break my heart by leaving the Captain.
6. I believe Leo when he tells me that Hollywood takes its obligations to society seriously. Except the obligation not to poison our children's minds with images of graphic sex and grotesque violence.
7. Explain to me how the dude from Coldplay is married to Gwyneth Paltrow. Not only is he a talentless hack, but he’s also ugly. How has he pulled the wool over so many eyes!
8. Wow, the Al Gore movie won? Whodathunkit?
9. Clint Eastwood is so badass, he could have got up there and said “Glippy gloppy glooppy goo,” and I would have said “Oh, he’s talking about Ennio Marricone!” Remember, there are two types of people in this world: people who present at the Academy Awards, and people who dig. You dig.
10. I zoned out for a while. Who won for best editing?
Note - Don't think of these observations as stale. Think of them as considered and well-reasoned. (read: I fell asleep right after the broadcast and didn't feel it was ethical to post during work. What integrity I have!)
1. We've seen plenty of brother-sister combinations in Hollywood, but have two siblings ever been such an aesthetic mismatch as Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal? She's an attractive woman, no doubt, but put her next to her dreamboat brother, and it's like Secretariat at Belmont. Thirty-one lengths!
2. Aside from the Ice Age short, which I recall seeing a commercial for, where do these animated short films get shown? Let's get these bad boys out in the theatres. We want cartoons!
3. According to Merriam-Webster, stick-to-itiveness is a word. Spelled like that. Reason Number 76,585 why that dictionary sucks.
4. I counted no less than six "wrap-it-ups" during the ceremony (not including the Al Gore one). Some people think the wrap-it-up is hilarious, and I'm sure the show's producers were cracking the whip on acceptance speeches. I think it's terrible. This poor shlub that won for best animated short might never even get invited to the Academy Awards again, let alone win. Let these people have their time in the spotlight! I'll stay up, I promise. Another example of corporate greed trumping the celebration of artistic achievement.
4a. Almost all of those wrap-it-ups came in the early portion of the show, which was front-loaded with all of the technical and writing-type awards. I'm sure someone could go back and compare speech lengths, but it seems to me like Forest Whittaker and Martin Scorcese got a little bit longer leash than the guy that won for sound mixing (and even if the times were equal, it doesn't make a difference, because it seemed to me like the heavy hitters got more time, and I'm a firm believer in perception being reality). Producers gave more leeway to the big name stars in terms of acceptance speeches? I am no longer uncynical with the film industry.
5. My disenchantment with Jessica Biel is reaching folkloric proportions. First she comes out on stage wearing a dress we just threw out of my grandmother's closet, then the Interweb tells me that she's dating Wilmer Valderrama! What happened to Derek Jeter? Jessica, your Boston College crop-top t-shirt from Summer Catch is the reason I came to Chestnut Hill in the first place. Don't break my heart by leaving the Captain.
6. I believe Leo when he tells me that Hollywood takes its obligations to society seriously. Except the obligation not to poison our children's minds with images of graphic sex and grotesque violence.
7. Explain to me how the dude from Coldplay is married to Gwyneth Paltrow. Not only is he a talentless hack, but he’s also ugly. How has he pulled the wool over so many eyes!
8. Wow, the Al Gore movie won? Whodathunkit?
9. Clint Eastwood is so badass, he could have got up there and said “Glippy gloppy glooppy goo,” and I would have said “Oh, he’s talking about Ennio Marricone!” Remember, there are two types of people in this world: people who present at the Academy Awards, and people who dig. You dig.
10. I zoned out for a while. Who won for best editing?
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Lightsaber physics update
Ok, so those scenes I vaguely recalled? One of them occurs during the climactic battle between Luke and Darth Vader at the end of Empire. Luke's lightsaber gets knocked from his hand, and the handle bounces away. Ok, so it's definitive. When a lightsaber leaves the user's hand, it shuts off.
However, comma, flash forward to the climactic battle between Luke and Vader during Return of the Jedi. Vader throws his lightsaber in order to destroy the catwalk that Luke is standing on. The lightsaber stays on, and wreaks the damage that Vader intended. Ok, Star Wars, which one is it. On or off?
However, comma, flash forward to the climactic battle between Luke and Vader during Return of the Jedi. Vader throws his lightsaber in order to destroy the catwalk that Luke is standing on. The lightsaber stays on, and wreaks the damage that Vader intended. Ok, Star Wars, which one is it. On or off?
Lightsaber physics
My roommate and I are watching The Empire Strikes Back. Remember the scene where Yoda sends Luke out into the wilderness, and he fights the apparition of Darth Vader? Luke chops the ghost-Vader's head off, and he falls to the ground, lightsaber still on and functioning. A number of questions arise.
Firstly, does the lightsaber have some sort of shutdown mechanism, by which it turns off once it leaves the user's hand? I vaguely recall scenes where the saber has been flung from some Jedi's hand, followed by a shot of an impotent handle clanking around on the ground. But in this case, Vader fell with the lightsaber still in his hand. Was it still on? Assuming it was, did it damage whatever part of his body it fell on, or did it start disintegrating the soil, or both?
For the sake of this post, let's assume that it stayed on (even after eventually leaving ghost-Vader's hand). Even if Vader did land on the lightsaber, it still would have come in contact with the soil, and my bet is that Dagobah's gravity would draw the lightsaber downward. Now, the question is, would the destructive power of the lightsaber's lightblade, combined with the force of gravity, draw said lightsaber inexorably downward, toward the planet's core (assuming, of course, that it wouldn't melt somewhere in the mantle)? I mean, gravity is a powerful force, but it doesn't pull us through the crust and into the bowels of the planet. This all comes down, I suppose, to what the nature of the lightsaber's power is. Does it automatically destroy everything in its path? Is there a limit to what it can reduce to atoms? If anyone is a physics major/Star Wars buff, please enlighten me.
Firstly, does the lightsaber have some sort of shutdown mechanism, by which it turns off once it leaves the user's hand? I vaguely recall scenes where the saber has been flung from some Jedi's hand, followed by a shot of an impotent handle clanking around on the ground. But in this case, Vader fell with the lightsaber still in his hand. Was it still on? Assuming it was, did it damage whatever part of his body it fell on, or did it start disintegrating the soil, or both?
For the sake of this post, let's assume that it stayed on (even after eventually leaving ghost-Vader's hand). Even if Vader did land on the lightsaber, it still would have come in contact with the soil, and my bet is that Dagobah's gravity would draw the lightsaber downward. Now, the question is, would the destructive power of the lightsaber's lightblade, combined with the force of gravity, draw said lightsaber inexorably downward, toward the planet's core (assuming, of course, that it wouldn't melt somewhere in the mantle)? I mean, gravity is a powerful force, but it doesn't pull us through the crust and into the bowels of the planet. This all comes down, I suppose, to what the nature of the lightsaber's power is. Does it automatically destroy everything in its path? Is there a limit to what it can reduce to atoms? If anyone is a physics major/Star Wars buff, please enlighten me.
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Pandora pick of the week
If you haven't already started an account, go to Pandora and make one. It's an internet radio station that will suggest new music for you based on preferences that you feed into the system. Amazing stuff.
In that spirit, I'll be showcasing a cool new band that I find on Pandora (assuming I actually find a band I like in a given week. It'll probably happen, but if not...well, we'll burn that bridge when we cross it, won't we?)
So check out Ultimate Fakebook. They're from Manhattan, Kansas, and are like a combination between Weezer and the Starting Line. Of course, they broke up a couple years ago (just like Helicopter Helicopter, another awesome band that Pandora teased me with), but not because they didn't rock. "The Scheme to Listen No More," "A Million Hearts," and "Brokyn Needle" are particularly awesome. Go listen!
In that spirit, I'll be showcasing a cool new band that I find on Pandora (assuming I actually find a band I like in a given week. It'll probably happen, but if not...well, we'll burn that bridge when we cross it, won't we?)
So check out Ultimate Fakebook. They're from Manhattan, Kansas, and are like a combination between Weezer and the Starting Line. Of course, they broke up a couple years ago (just like Helicopter Helicopter, another awesome band that Pandora teased me with), but not because they didn't rock. "The Scheme to Listen No More," "A Million Hearts," and "Brokyn Needle" are particularly awesome. Go listen!
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Machine wash cold. Only handle with unicorn-skin gloves.
I was washing all my throw rugs tonight, and I found one that still had its label. This dopey thing had the nerve to say "Do not tumble dry." Is this some sort of joke? It's a $1.50 throw rug from Ikea! Washing and drying this thing cost more than I paid for it in the first place. I've put a merino wool sweater in the dryer before. I've never used a "cool iron" in my life. I mix whites and colors so that I don't have to do two loads. And this cheap throw rug wanted me to air-dry it? This thing didn't stand a chance.
FNL commentary
On tonight's episode of Friday Night Lights:
1) Honestly, what was Matt Saracen thinking? He's QB1 for the Dillon Panthers. If Britney, David Beckham, and Scooter Libby were rolled into one person, Bri-ham-ooter would still be less scrutinized than QB1 in Dillon, Texas. And this guy is out buying condoms? I was only listening at this point (I was in the kitchen putting out a mild grease fire), but even without looking, I was certain that Coach would find out his daughter's boyfriend was buying condoms. That Julie's mom randomly saw him is just beating the viewer over the head. Cmon, FNL writers! Give us a little credit.
2) I'm still divided about Street and Lyla. On the one hand, she has been supportive of him (except for fighting him about trying out for the national quad rugby team). On the other, she is kind of a snake. And he does seem to get along with this Austin girl (an alternative-type cutie with tats and glasses? Ooh la la creme).
3) What was up with Blair getting absolutel posterized in the second half? Oh, wait, that was me just switching back to the BC basketball game...shudder...
4) I love Timmy Riggins as much as the next guy, but isn't he supposed to be the loner from the down-on-their-luck family? He's got a pinball machine! That's awesome! Why is he so sullen all of the time?
1) Honestly, what was Matt Saracen thinking? He's QB1 for the Dillon Panthers. If Britney, David Beckham, and Scooter Libby were rolled into one person, Bri-ham-ooter would still be less scrutinized than QB1 in Dillon, Texas. And this guy is out buying condoms? I was only listening at this point (I was in the kitchen putting out a mild grease fire), but even without looking, I was certain that Coach would find out his daughter's boyfriend was buying condoms. That Julie's mom randomly saw him is just beating the viewer over the head. Cmon, FNL writers! Give us a little credit.
2) I'm still divided about Street and Lyla. On the one hand, she has been supportive of him (except for fighting him about trying out for the national quad rugby team). On the other, she is kind of a snake. And he does seem to get along with this Austin girl (an alternative-type cutie with tats and glasses? Ooh la la creme).
3) What was up with Blair getting absolutel posterized in the second half? Oh, wait, that was me just switching back to the BC basketball game...shudder...
4) I love Timmy Riggins as much as the next guy, but isn't he supposed to be the loner from the down-on-their-luck family? He's got a pinball machine! That's awesome! Why is he so sullen all of the time?
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Blech
How about those first two posts? Massachusetts politics (which I barely know anything about) and mundane chore-doing (which you barely care about). A winning combination!
The truth is, I couldn't ethically put a link in my AIM profile with only one post up. And now that I've broken down the third wall and commented on the conduct of my blogging, that's three posts. This is easy. Stay tuned for commentary on the existential dilemma and the perils of making a grilled cheese sandwich in one of those conveyer belt toasters.
The truth is, I couldn't ethically put a link in my AIM profile with only one post up. And now that I've broken down the third wall and commented on the conduct of my blogging, that's three posts. This is easy. Stay tuned for commentary on the existential dilemma and the perils of making a grilled cheese sandwich in one of those conveyer belt toasters.
Hang ten. Shirts, in the same direction
I once made fun of a woman on What Not to Wear because she had this hangup (pun intended) about clothes hangers facing in the same direction. Of course, this woman was ten types of crazy, but I should have realized that watching this episode was like looking in a living 360 degree mirror of stone-cold reality.
Hanging up shirts tonight, I might have spent five total extra minutes flopping shirts and hangers around to fit my own twisted sense of symmetry (open part of hanger pointed away from the door, shirt fronts facing to the right). What made me realize that this behavior was significant is that I put no thought at all into how my pants were hung up, just that they were on a hanger.
The problem is, I've never had the experience of being someone else, hanging up someone else's clothes in someone else's closet (although I suppose that if I were someone else, at that point I would be hanging up my own clothes in my own closet. They just wouldn't be mine. Does that make sense?) Point being, is this normal behavior? Do people care which way their shirts are facing? Am I, in fact, one of the regular folks that just hangs up clothes in the same way as everyone else? Or am I a closet deviant? Please help.
Hanging up shirts tonight, I might have spent five total extra minutes flopping shirts and hangers around to fit my own twisted sense of symmetry (open part of hanger pointed away from the door, shirt fronts facing to the right). What made me realize that this behavior was significant is that I put no thought at all into how my pants were hung up, just that they were on a hanger.
The problem is, I've never had the experience of being someone else, hanging up someone else's clothes in someone else's closet (although I suppose that if I were someone else, at that point I would be hanging up my own clothes in my own closet. They just wouldn't be mine. Does that make sense?) Point being, is this normal behavior? Do people care which way their shirts are facing? Am I, in fact, one of the regular folks that just hangs up clothes in the same way as everyone else? Or am I a closet deviant? Please help.
I hope my estimated taxes went toward Deval's ottoman
The latest news from Beacon Hill is that Governor Deval Patrick has ordered ivory backscratchers for all State House employees, as well as emerald-studded backscratcher-holding gloves. The backscratchers can be modified to operate hands-free, using a special motor powered by flaming tax dollars...
...or the governor picked a very luxurious car instead of a quite luxurious car, used a State Police helicopter to go to the funeral of a Cape resident that was killed in Iraq, and (thank you, Fox25 political editor Joe Battenfeld) bought new furniture for his office . . . because Mitt Romney took the old stuff when he left!
I feel like I'm living in the Twilight Zone. There's still a billion dollar budget gap in the first place, Bechtel still cut corners on the Big Dig, and thousands of people are still clamoring to rescind the constitutionally-guaranteed right of gay couples to marry. Get with the program, Massachusetts. You'd never see this kind of fiscal irresponsibility, corruption, and politicization of sexuality in New Jersey.
Ok, maybe you would. But still.
...or the governor picked a very luxurious car instead of a quite luxurious car, used a State Police helicopter to go to the funeral of a Cape resident that was killed in Iraq, and (thank you, Fox25 political editor Joe Battenfeld) bought new furniture for his office . . . because Mitt Romney took the old stuff when he left!
I feel like I'm living in the Twilight Zone. There's still a billion dollar budget gap in the first place, Bechtel still cut corners on the Big Dig, and thousands of people are still clamoring to rescind the constitutionally-guaranteed right of gay couples to marry. Get with the program, Massachusetts. You'd never see this kind of fiscal irresponsibility, corruption, and politicization of sexuality in New Jersey.
Ok, maybe you would. But still.
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