Hard to believe it was actually good tasting too. I’ve had gluten-free bread and cake before. The experience was rather obvious, disappointing and made me grateful I’m not allergic. Somara did a great job making this moist. It was as if you couldn’t tell.
What I love the most is the cat’s impeccable timing to speak but some cats are pretty good conversationalists with humans.
This sweet little person is the daughter of a wonderful couple. Kora’s mother is not a member of the Water Tribe that lives around the South Pole, but a key leader for why I enjoy eating at work.
I even got to meet Kora recently because she came to visit her mother at the cafeteria to say hello to all of us at Apple. She’s a hoot.
As an overdue gift and why I will always remember her name, I contributed an awesome print I bought at an Invader Zim convention of Korra. My hope is to inspire for the Avatar is in good company of other strong female role models albeit fictional: Princess Leia, Sabrina the Teenage Witch’s aunts Hilda and Zelda, and my recently newfound heroine…Spider-Gwen aka Spiderwoman in an alternate universe.
Let’s all give a big Texas welcome to Kora as I look forward to her mastery of the elements.
Bashing on the second musical event that put Austin on the map (Austin City Limits on PBS being the first) became passé a couple years ago, namely when Doritos was a major sponsor. This article sums up most of my feelings. In short, SXSW has become too large for its own good and needs to be put on a diet. The lack of a “big-name act” doesn’t bother me. Who or what one is is subjective and always smacks of the dying labels’ telling us what to like. SXSW transformed into a trade show decades ago which means us residents aren’t welcome. So going downtown is a bad idea for over a week.
I think its biggest problem is Austin having festival fatigue. SXSW is the kickoff for a half-dozen events in which we’re invaded by assholes from the coasts who think they’re entitled to the comforts we paid for. Then they get the crazy idea about moving here, burdening the already overburdened infrastructure Gov. Shitbag and Lt. Gov. Herr Red Skull plan to sell to foreign interests as tolls.
When SXSW concludes, we’ll have Moontower Comedy Fest, Psych Fest, Eeyore’s Birthday, the F1 race Gov. Goodhair foisted on us, ACL Fest for two weekends and then Fun Fun Fest. Throw in all the UT sporting/graduation events, you can see how we Austinites got rather grumpy.
Maybe next year they’ll tone it down. HA!
After my three-day stint as acting Team Manager went pretty well despite a half-day caused by icy conditions, I received another chance for a full week. It was pretty cool, I mean even cooler than past times. I learned more things to assist with my co-workers’ development as well as my own. I’m getting better at this in my opinion. Will I become a manager? I don’t know. It’s not entirely my decision. I have only regained interest in pursuing this option over the last couple years thanks to my past manager Eddie. His predecessor held me back because he claimed I couldn’t make the “hard decisions.” It’s all in the past. Let’s see how it goes.
In other news, when work wasn’t consuming all the prime-time waking hours, we’ve had Stars games (they’re looking solid for a playoff bid), getting my exercise routine back on track, a birthday party, running my D&D game (going well, thank you), squeezing in some pinball and eating at a closed treasure. Oh yah, a trip to the Lego Store.
I totally skipped SXSW this year. There wasn’t anyone I wanted to take time off to see and Saturday belonged to the birthday girl. Saturday’s Waterloo lineup did have The Church and Twin Shadow. Maybe next time.
Now get ready for a whirlwind of stories over the next several days. I want to make sure March 2015 has at least 31 posts.
Nelson has been an awesome friend of mine since 1991, I just rudely never saw him that way until 1993 because he’s a tenacious dude! OK, I think the verb is appreciate.
Either way, he celebrated last Saturday with Pi Day and Albert Einstein except Nelson is tangible, not an irrational number, yet he is a constant in my life; oh, and he’s not dead. He was recently in Dallas to drop me a line.
Springfield, IL (my former hometown as a kid) made the news in a bad way but at least it wasn’t for a race riot.
As you can see above, that’s the current mayor who was also mayor when I lived there, I remember how he got boo’d during the Redbirds’ season opener in 1981, one guy yelled “Lower my property taxes!” Anyway, I digressed. In the photo above he’s handing Cobra Commander the key to the city. Yup, the mayor is a Republican. Sure Cobra is a terrorist organization yet they’re one we can do business with and they support our local economy. Did he mention they’re also anti-Communist?
Quick reality interruption. Springfield, IL is going to be hosting a GI Joe convention. Back in the Eighties, Cobra had a fake town called Springfield where they trained soldiers, built super lasers, the works. Since they lost the bid to be the Springfield of The Simpsons, I’m guessing the local government decided this runner-up award was better. Being Republicans, they also didn’t see the irony.
I’m not too surprised. The middle of Illinois is at the crossroads between Yankees (my family) and Hillbillies (many neighbors). If there’s guns, explosions and a convenient surrogate to express their racist attitudes, you can count on a large segment to get off from the stupidity.
Another little celebration in California with the better weather in store for him. Hopefully the food matches. As always for me, his card will be late yet I don’t think he counts on me too much there.
According to his personal site, his bike was stolen so I think I’ll chip in toward him buying a replacement. I too know the sting of this kind of theft over 20 years ago in Austin of all places.
Drop him a line, wish him well. Don’t bother with Facebook.
I was born 30 years too late, then again, if I were 16 I wouldn’t have had a chance in hell in affording this stuff.
Somara gave me her vote as per the Maggi Republic with expensive things so I could pledge the max for the unpainted stuff. Now all I need is a bigger house with a decent sized gaming room to set up a town for my players to operate from.
He was most famous for being the silent member of The Simpsons triumvirate when the little-cartoon-that-could became its own show on Fox. However there was much more to Sam and his career.
Originally he began in animation with Filmation working on Fat Albert so his knowledge in cartoon production helped enormously given Brooks only knowing live action and Groening doing weekly newspaper strips. He was also known for being the youngest show runner in history with the last season of Taxi. There other numerous credits Sam has for writing, directing and producing: Cheers, Friends, Barney Miller, It’s Garry Shandling Show, The Tracey Ullman Show, The Drew Carey Show and highly underrated Best of the West.
We all heard about how his arrangement from The Simpsons that made him independently wealthy. Afterwards he only worked if he felt like it. What separated Sam from other people who landed a fortune was his character. He never became an asshole, he donated heavily to charity and when he knew his life would end soon from cancer, Sam made sure all his money would be allocated to what he held dear, namely animals and environment.
It’s a shame someone as nice and creative as he was didn’t live longer while CEO (thieves in suits with MBAs) are the ones the SCLM can’t praise enough.
Thanks Mr. Simon for all your work. From the Saturday morning fun you contributed to through the laughter during Prime Time.
Man how I loved this commercial in high school! It was one of my favorite New Wave singers plugging something on network television! Grace Jones I didn’t mind but she had more of a reputation for being “crazy” acting on David Letterman. She was pretty cool in Conan the Destroyer and has a nice singing voice.
You can definitely see the MTV influence in the ad’s lighting, funky angles but it’s the punchline that clinches it. Not sure if Honda makes these scooters anymore.
I had begun to give up on my friend Doc as 2014 was winding down as the Christmas card I sent to him, Masami and Nicholas (I’m calling him Baby Doc due to all the Nick’s in my family) bounced back. I figured I had pissed him off or something worse, like he had given up on friends, etc. Hell, I feared he was dead.
Instead I received an e-mail from him at his new gmail-based address in my work inbox, quite a gamble he took that I’ve stayed for almost 16 years.
Doc is fine. Internet access at his farm isn’t exactly consistent, hence why I support a Rural Internet-ification Act and the FCC’s reclassification of access as a public utility. He gave a quick summary over the last several years but what touched me the most is how he still thought about me. I’m in the same boat. I mean how can’t I? The dude changed my life by inviting me down to Austin 21 years ago! Without him, I don’t want to think of what I’d be doing now. Probably something terrible, wishing I were dead as I’m freezing my ass off in the Midwest at a more soul-crushing job. Worse would be living near my parents in Raleigh-Durham, the Indianoplace of the East Coast. Nope, Austin is home and Doc knew me better than myself.
I need to get him a comment account with the Doc handle and write him back in greater detail about my doings. Or see if he has an RSS Feed Collector.
The results came in and they were ugly. I think I also forgot to do a screening in 2014. Either way, I fell off the wagon. My weight is back up alongside my cholesterol. On the upside, my glucose (aka, the diabetes II bullet) was 90! Thank you Plant Nanny and Texas tradition of always having unsweet tea on hand.
I’m not super worried. The nurse said I knew what to do based upon my past scores. Me? I was waiting for the weather to finally improve while stabilizing. I definitely would have a harder time keeping it up in a colder climate. I think after the ice storm bust of last week, I will be back on track. I’m swapping out the rowing progression bar for the stair climbing. Oh I plan to row once in a while but I’m setting a new crazy goal because I’m tired of being winded when I take just a flight of stairs. Seriously, I struggled even during the days I could pull off three miles/day.
Now I just need to rein in my eating. I think the right (repaired) foundation is in place as I avoid diet/regular/cane-sugar sodas big time. I had my first Mexican Coke in weeks during the last D&D session, a reward for getting all my “homework” to run the game completed!
Keep watching the progression meters and place your bets. Seattle by April? 230 by May? Triple the height of Burj Khalifa by April?
Right after the death of Leonard Nimoy the man who co-saved Star Trek‘s viability for future movies and TV shows passed away.
Harve Bennett was a veteran of television shows such as The Six Million Dollar Man and Salvage I. After the first Star Trek movie’s lackluster long term likability (it was a hit but it would be on par with the 1998 Lost in Space, seemed good at the time, then aged poorly), Paramount handed the reins of the franchise to Harve over Gene Roddenberry. If the rumors about Gene’s idea have any validity, it’s a good thing Harve took over.
Shortly after the first good version of the Wrath of Khan DVD came out, I watched the extra features with director Nicholas Meyer and producer Harve. I loved how Harve watched every episode on 16 mm film (I guess VCR copies weren’t widely available) to see what made the story tick. He said he set his sights on following up on Khan who was abandoned on Ceti Alpha V, hiding out like Osama bin Laden. One detail I would add, I’m confident Ricardo Montalban got the nod thanks to his weekly “hosting” of Fantasy Island. The next monumental task was enlisting Leonard Nimoy to play Spock. Nimoy wasn’t supposed to be in the first movie/TV pilot neither yet Paramount cajoled him with enough money (I’ll have to read I Am Spock to see). Still feeling typecast in 1981, Nimoy was balking again. Harve said he convinced Nimoy easily by saying, “How would you like the greatest death scene ever?” Boom! The best Star Trek and in many ways, one of the best 10 Science Fiction movies was made.
I’m grateful. Now what Star Trek needs is another person who’s good at storytelling while balancing the backstories of these beloved characters. Something JJ Abrams couldn’t do.
The Wachowskis’ latest outing is a space opera which was probably already dead on arrival due to critics and their sycophants making up their mind in advance; plus the movie being re-scheduled from last Summer didn’t help. In short, Warner Brothers should’ve gambled on the 2014 release thanks to everything else sucking. When the best Summer flick was Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, something is amiss. Guardians of the Galaxy doesn’t qualify because August is when families go on vacation and school starts for a few. Anyway, as I’m writing this up, Jupiter is mostly gone from many theaters in a month unlike Spongebob and Kingsman.
Visually Jupiter is pretty impressive. The giant starships flying through Jupiter’s red spot namely. Most “aliens” are human-animal hybrids with the exception of some resembling the Grays/Anal Probers. The acting wasn’t terrible, besides, if it’s better than the Star Wars prequels, then the movie is ahead. As for the premise, I found it intriguing. Much like The Matrix, the Wachowskis raise a interesting moral question regarding immortality and what would people do to attain it. Another interesting angle entails DNA. Mila Kunis’ character Jupiter (Юпитер in Russian and given by her astronomer father) is an intergalactic heiress thanks to dozens of millennia alongside billions of DNA combinations. Huh? It’s a “more plausible” form of reincarnation except all Jupiter has in common with the former incarnation is their DNA being identical. The humans from space know this a remote possibility so they have wills with a legal system set up to bestow their assets to people labelled “re-occurrences.” Why all the shooting? Jupiter technically owns Earth and her predecessor’s three children want the deed; our planet is pretty valuable despite how much we’ve damaged it. You’ll see why midway.
The action is rather predictable. I wish Kunis had more to do than scream for help as Channing Tatum keeps saving her. The story establishes Jupiter as a person with a strong moral compass and braver than average so it sucked to keep making her dependent on the men.
I applaud the Wachowskis’ tribute to bureaucracy a la Brazil. For a more-advanced civilization, they’re equally behind the curve on processing the paperwork to transfer titles, establish legitimacy, etc. Pay attention to the special cameo during the final encounter Jupiter has in order to be declared the rightful owner.
Jupiter probably won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. It’s not perfect but I found it better than most dreck other fanboys lose their shit over…Firefly/Serenity especially. Hopefully, this will get reconsideration over the years like Speed Racer has received.
Alamo Extras: The second half of our Valentine’s Day double feature which meant we were on time to watch cool things. A Buck Rogers serial from the Thirties we’ve seen before; a kid drumming with a symphony; the Guerrilla Circus (people who do acrobatics in abandoned buildings I think); Two Japanese women making extreme tempura prawns; The trailer for Plan 9 From Outer Space; some light/shadow show; The 1980 Flash Gordon trailer; Kids doing card tricks; The trailer for The Last Starfighter.
