thisischris.com -- This is Chris dot Com -- the website of Christopher Grant Harris

I'm changing the way ANGRY BEEF works... again. I'm turning it into a blog. That way I won't have to worry about programming a JavaScript database for it, since I apparently can't program one that FireFox will read correctly. Rowr. It should be a while before I get everythign setup. I'm going to try to use b2evolution (I settled on it after a long, long time of trying to get Movable Type to work to no avail -- too complicated to setup). I'll keep you posted (duh, this is a post).

Saturday, February 26, 2005

Ice Cream Makes the Hurt Go Away

Last evening Carrie & I went and had ice cream with Linnea, which is cool because we don't get to hang out with just her very much (on account of she's got a two year-old kid). I gave her a backrub, too, which is nice for me because my own wife doesn't like backrubs, so aside from the very occasional Brandy backrub I don't have any outlet for that.

Earlier, though, Jimbo and Mary came over before Carrie came home, so while they waited for her I showed them all the old art stuff I've been digging up recently. They had a bit of an announcement for us, then had to leave to go up to Bellingham.

I finally got around to getting an account on Shane Glines's Drawing Board, so if you see anything by ANGRY BEEF, that's me of course.

Umm... yeah. I think that's about it.

Friday, February 25, 2005

Fun With Tiny Canvases

I'm on a creative kick! Not only did I make cornbread muffins after I painted yesterday, but this afternoon I painted again! A while back I got a whole bunch of tiny canvases (4" x 6" — the size of photographs), and I went ahead and painted on one of them. Here's what came out:

It's based kinda on an old Gil Elvgren pinup painting, with some obvious Shane Glines influence. I think it's super cute.

Hooray for me and paint!

Mario is Made Outta Post-it Notes

UCSC Engineering Building Gets an 8bit Upgrade

Thursday, February 24, 2005

The Girl in my Head

A while ago (several weeks now) I sat down with a piece of paper and a pencil and asked myself if I could draw a realistic looking person with no reference. I came up with this surprisingly good sketch:

So this evening I sat down with a canvas and some paints and brushes and asked myself if I could paint a realistic looking person based on a reference that I made up with my brain. I came up with this surprisingly good painting:

It's surprisingly good because I haven't painted a human being since 1998 or so. I guess it's kinda like riding a bicycle, though (even though I still can't do that).

Who is she? She does not exist; she's just a girl in my head, except now she's immportalized on canvas. Weird the way that works, huh?

"Immortalized on canvas." Man, that sounds pompous as all hell. Forget I wrote that.

Kitty Fantastico vs The Ghost Balloon

Here's an unbelievably cute photo of Miss Kitty Fantastico playing with a Ghost Balloon. Why do I call it a ghost balloon? Well, see the heater on the floor? Through some insane trick of physics, if you put a balloon on that heater while the fan is going, the balloon will rise into the air, point directly west, and hover approximately two feet off the floor. And it will stay there.

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

We Don't Understand !

Last evening Brandy picked me up at my house here. We went to Target where she bought a USB cord (and also Season 1 of Sex and the City), then Circuit City where she bought Citizen Kane, then we stopped by Stadium Video where she rented How Green Was My Valley.

She has to write a paper on film to send to NYU, so she decided it would be interesting to write a paper about Citizen Kane vs How Green Was My Valley: why How Green won the best picture Oscar for that year but is now almost forgotten, and why Citizen Kane would lose that Oscar but now be regarded as the greatest film ever made in the history of history. What was it about How Green and the people of America the year it came out that would so strike a chord that it would win best picture over the greatest film ever made? What was it about Citizen Kane that prevented this?

Fascinating stuff, huh? So she made some potstickers and we settled in to watch How Green Was My Valley.

It's a horrible, horrible movie. Just awful. It goes nowhere; it wanders all over the place; it has unnecessary narration; actions are obscure and unexplained; bad, bad, bad.

So Brandy & I really, really don't get it. We don't understand! Why would anybody ever like this film that much?

She's going to try to find some original critics' reviews of the film from when it came out to see if they can shed some light on the subject.

But, really, it's awful. We could barely sit through it.

Oh, and I accidentally left my watch over there. Oops!

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Tuesday, February 22, 2005

Portfolio Plus

Hey, dude, I just totally revamped My Online Portfolio and added a whole bunch of stuff, including some (rather poor quality) photos of the mural I painted a while back.

Dude, you should so totally go check it all out!

Anything Into Oil

Technological savvy could turn 600 million tons of turkey guts and other waste into 4 billion barrels of light Texas crude each year

And here are the people who make it possible.

Seriously, the possibilities of this technology are staggering. It's been around since 1999. I'm a fairly futurist-minded guy. Why haven't I heard about this before?

Monday, February 21, 2005

The End of the Season

On my lunch break today I beat Oracle of Seasons, which means I've beaten both Zelda Oracle games. I happened to have the foresight to take some screen captures of the ending. Here it is, if you want to be SPOILED!

Seasons

Yesterday (Sunday) I basically spent the whole entire day just relaxing and playing The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of the Seasons. I've decided that I should really play through all the Zelda games I haven't yet (i.e., the GameBoy ones) before I play The Minish Cap. That, and Best Buy didn't have it in when I went a-lookin'.

Carrie made this really kickass chicken w/sausage soup. We at it lots.

Practice kinda fizzled again. Just me and Taisha, and I didn't have that much to teach her. A few days ago I did help her find her biological mother, though! She'd been looking for years and years, and it took me ten bucks and 15 seconds to find her.

Around 9:30 or so Carrie came and picked me up and took me to Panamonica's, where she'd been bartending since 5:00. That was fun.

Saturday, February 19, 2005

The Babysitters' Club

Thursday evening I drove out to Tacos Guaymas to buy din-dins for me and carrie.

Yesterday was a bit of different. After work Carrie came home, then Sophia was dropped off. The three of us walked down to Engine House #9 (E-9) for dinner. I had a gigantic soft taco. Gigantic!

The we walked home, and I went to Fred Meyer and bought:

Crayons
Ice Cream
Balloons
Apple Juice Boxes

That's right; we had Melina over. Linnea & Jay had a dinner to go to (at Stanley & Seaforts), so they dropped of 'Lina over here where Sophia could help entertain her. She cried for a minute when she was first dropped off but then I "accidentally" inhaled a balloon, and that made her laugh. She was fine from then on.

We batted balloons around, the girls colored in a whole bunch of Sanrio pictures and watched Monsters, Inc. Later on we even taught Melina how to play Mario Kart (see the picture). Eventualy Melina tired everyone out, even Sophia, but she kept on a-runnin' around.

I spent much of the day investigating different browsers. I plan (maybe today... but likely not) on writing an article about my investigations.

Friday, February 18, 2005

We Taught a Two-Year-Old How to Play Mario Kart

Carrie, 'Lina, & Sophia

Easy Goin', We'll Laugh Our Cares Away...

The last couple of nights I've gotten much better sleep. I don't actually remember my dreams, which is a good sign, as it means they probably weren't terribly stressful. Althought last night I do remember that Keira Knightly was in one of my dreams, and I was on some kind of a quest and she lived in a building and I would have to go to her for advice. Strange of my dream people to pick her rather than just making someone up.

Yesterday (Thursday) I worked my be-hind off and got the PSBF stuff up and (mostly) running. Took many an hour.

Keira, I need some help on my quest...

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Dreams in Darkness

I don't know what it is, but last night I had yet another incredibly vivid dream. This one didn't have quite as coherent a plot as my Teen Titans dream, but it still wasn't bad. I was in a Mystical Ninja (Goemon) style video game, first-person perspective 3-D. I was in an old timey Japanese city, trying to flip over these floating crab-like things to find three ghosts. There were also small cubical leprechauns all over the place.

These vivid dreams are cool and all, but they're so intense that I'm not getting anything even closely resembling restful sleep.

Tuesday, February 15, 2005

A Screenplay You All Can Read (if you so choose)

Well, I transcribed out what I can remember of my Teen Titans dream, and present it to you now as an Article. You should take a look:

I Dreamt an Entire Episode: A Teen Titans Screenplay

Yesterday was Valentine's Day

The night before, however, I had an incredibly vivid and detailed dream wherein I appeared as a guest star in an episode of Teen Titans. I was animated and everything (although I didn't have a beard for some reason... I think it was because I was also teen-aged in the episode). I was attacked by a giant robot (well, not giant, but larger than I was), swam with Aqualad (whom I kept on calling "Wil" by accident) and Beast Boy, and passionately kissed Raven.

It was a really good episode of the show. I'm going to write it out completely when I get a chance. Sometimes I'm amazed at how coherent my dream people can be—it was a complete episode of Teen Titans, with commercial breaks and even the opening introduction!

Anyhoo, on Valentine's day iteslf I completed my yearly ritual of giving a single red rose to all the (local) women in my life, including all the women who had to work at The Bead Factory on this holiday. They all seemed very appreciative, and some were absolutely surprised (Steph and Linnea especially). Some expressed that I was the only person to give them anything so far that day.

<RANT>
Look, folks, I exist partly to make other guys look bad. But if you can't do something as simple as give a rose to your girlfriend/wife/significant other, than you deserve to look bad.
</RANT>

Unfortunately I spent so much of the day running around chasing after girls (just like my whole life) that I didn't get very much actual work done. I did deposit a paycheck in the bank, though, and got take-out from The Rosewood, which I ate with Carrie at Missa's desk (poor Missa is sick).

After work Carrie cooked for me one of my favorite meals of hers, chicken pasta in a bleu cheese cream sauce with mushrooms, onions, and garlic. We relaxed for a while and then went and saw Sideways at The Grand.

It was a very good movie. I will be reviewing it before the week is out.

Sunday, February 13, 2005

Google... of the Future

I had a dream last night that I was somehow in the future, and I wanted to know what had happened to some of my friends. So of course I googled them using Google... the Google of the Future!

It actually wasn't that different than the Google of the present.

Anyway, 66khz had a huge online library of songs you could listen to that stretched back decades. The Wastelanders also had an extensive history. I can't remember too many others.

Hey, buddy! You're a cheep-cheep! You're in the wrong game!

Saturday, February 12, 2005

I MADE PUDDING FROM SCRATCH

That's right! I made chocolate pudding from scratch for my sicky wife to make her feel better... and it was good.

I've also started playing Metroid II and the GameBoy Zelda games.

And here's a picture of the real-life Death Star!

Thursday, February 10, 2005

Portfolio: An Online Gallery of My Artistic Endeavors

I'm finally updating my Online Gallery. I totally forgot to upload anything there when I switched servers. But it's here now. http://thisischris.com/gallery/

I also did some stuff that gets rid of all that Windows crap that you never use but that takes up tons of RAM and sucks the life outta your computer. I followed the instructions on www.blackviper.com.

One More Time

After we got up at Mark & Viki's house yesterday (Wednesday), we got the kids ready for school and sent them off. Then we took the monster SUV back down to T-town, where Carrie dropped me off here at the house and then headed to work herself.

Around lunchtime she called and asked if I wanted to go with her to Metropolitan Market on account of she wanted a salad. So I picked her up and we went, and I got some potato leek soup (my favorite soup from there, although a bit salty).

Carrie took monster SUV up so she could meet the kids at their house after school. I went up a little bit later. We all went to Red Robin for din-dins, and I tried their new peppercorn burger (too much onion). I helped Sophia with some math homework stuff in the evening, then helped her load songs onto her iPod. After they went to bed Carrie found Sex and the City on OnDemand and watched some season 3. I went and picked up Mark & Viki from the airport.

I went? Yes. Why? Because Carrie is sick. Again. I can't f--king believe it. Neither can she. That's like three times in the last two months. I just called my doctor and made an appointment for her for today, so we'll see what the heck is going on.

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

Did it Again

Crap! I did it again. I wrote a Movie Review and forgot to mention a great performance by one of the stars. In order to rectify that, I wrote another apology Article:

With Apologies to Kate Bosworth

In the afternoon Carrie & I headed over to Mark & Viki's to watch their kids. We went to a floor hockey game that the twins were in. It was kinda interesting. We made pasta for din-dins, then I watched Sky Captain on the big projector screen downstairs. That's a good flick. So good that my mom even wants to own it. That movie's totally gonna be PWNED by my mom!

Tuesday, February 08, 2005

Carrie Came Back

Carrie is back! Hoo-ray!

Um, yesterday... yesterday... cabin... cabin... cabin...

I basically spent the whole entire day cleaning the house. Especially doing laundry and dishes. But anything else? Nope. I didn't even leave the house.

Oh, you should check out "Disneyland Renovation Week" at ANGRY BEEF if you haven't already.

Carrie came home at like 11:00 at night. As felon Martha Stewart would say, that's a good thing.

In the middle of the night I had some weirdness happen in between my shoulder blades. Not pain exactly, but just a really strange uncomfortableness. Probably not a real word.

Monday, February 07, 2005

Omelette du Fromage

In the morning when the three of us woke on Sunday, Brandy immediately wanted to play Animal Crossing. I made huge, giant omelettes for the three of us with mushrooms, ham, onion, green pepper, and sharp cheddar cheese. Lots of all ingredients. I actually made just one giant omelette and then cut it into three pieces at the end for each of us.

Unfortunately I somehow lost complete track of time, and after Geoff & Brandy left I got a call from Linnea asking if I had erin's Hand Woven Gems handout ready. Oops! So I rushed like a crazy man in a crazy world to get it done, then printed it out myself and drove it down there. Unfortunately I forgot Linnea's sweater here at the house (I joked that she left it there when we were totally making out).

After that I got to work on some website stuff. I did the most recent ANGRY BEEF Sighting and updated this here 'blog and other miscellaneous stuff, when all of a sudden out of the blue I got an email from Kris, a.k.a. "Archie" from the Fools Play of olde. Wow! It'd been forever! We exchanged some emails real quickly and then switched over to instant messaging, where we chatted for a couple of hours or more. She lives in Dublin (the real Dublin in Ireland), and we talked quite a lot about weddings, because her folks are throwing her a big one in May. We looked through my online wedding photo album together.

While we chatted I wrote my review of Beyond the Sea. Ch-ch-ch-ch-check it out! W-w-w-w-w-what's it all about?

Taisha came over after work and I made a really awesome marinara pasta sauce from scratch. It had mushrooms, onion, and ham in it, as well as a whole bunch of oregano. It was really, really good. I cooked down the tomatoes into a thick sauce and everything! After that we watched The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra and laughed our asses off. It doesn't seem to really matter how many times you watch that flick. Still funny.

I got super sleepy when she left, even though it was only like 7:30 or something crazy like that. I talked with Carrie briefly over the telephone (I miss her!!!111!!1) and then kinda fell asleep on the couch watching Chobits on "On Demand." Didn't like it very much. When I woke up Aqua Teen Hunger Force was on and I moved to the bedroom and fell instantly to sleep.

Sunday, February 06, 2005

Rassle Dazzle

Yesterday (Saturday) I drove Carrie to Mark & Viki's at 7:00-ish in the morning so she could drive them to the airport, then I came home to quickly put the handout for Cuff Your Enthusiasm on a CD and took it to the store. Carrie got home in Mark & Viki's car (behemoth SUV) while I was still there and was really confused as to where I'd gone.

I came back home and while she fixed some of her jewelry I dumped a whole bunch of music onto her little MP3 player so she could listen to it on the plane. Then at 11:00 she took off in the behemoth SUV to pick up the other girls and go to the airport, leaving me all alone.

I spent the rest of the time until 12:45 cleaning and cleaning and cleaning. And eating sushi. And cleaning and cleaning.

At 1:00 we had a last-chance FPRL practice to go over everything for the evening. It lasted quite a bit longer than I had anticipated—it was actually longer than a regular practice. I swung by Fred Meyer on they way home real quick for an onion, green pepper, diced ham, sliced olives, and mushrooms. Then I came home, cleaned for just a bit, then jumped in the shower and rushed off to Fools Play, only 20 minutes late.

Fools Play Improv presented Fools Play Rasslin' League's "Rassle Dazzle." It was a very well-done show, and every single superstar was in it except for Fry (we kinda forgot about him). You can read the show results here.

It was Taisha's birthday earlier in the week, and since she didn't really publicize it very well, I gave her something she'd been wanting for quite a while: my original painting entitled He's In a Happier Place, Now.

After the show we went to the Robin, where service was insanely slow. Geoff & Brandy bought me a chicken caesar wrap. I left when the checks came to make sure I'd make it home first, but somehow Geoff & Brandy beat me. We all watched Lost in Transition and had a little slumber party type of thing. I don't think I snored, but Geoff did just a little.

Saturday, February 05, 2005

Pretty fly

Well, I didn't get a chance to write my review of Beyond the Sea yet, but it will be coming. I will probably have a chance on Sunday.

Yesterday (Friday) I cleaned out my bedroom closet and then put stuff back in it in a way that makes it seem still clean. At any rate you can walk inside of it now. Carrie's closet is still in process, but we've really whittled down the amount of clothes just lying around. I did a tonne of laundry and cleaned the kitty litter and all that stuff I'm supposed to do except for dishes. Didn't get to them, and now they've piled up quite a bit again. I watched the cast commentary track on The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra while doing so.

I loaded up the trunk of the car with garbage, went to the bank at Fred Meyer, then hit the dump. The minimum at the dump is now $10!! That doesn't make it quite as worth it. Before when it was $5 it wasn't such a big deal to just run by and throw stuff away, but now it's rather expensive.

I put up a new Clearance Sale section on thebeadfactory.com, then later in the day I made a handout for Erin. Speaking of which, I need to put that on a disc and take it down to the store... like right away. As soon as I'm done here.

Linnea, Erin, and Heather all came over for a while in the evening, then I went to the local market and bought some parmesan cheese so Carrie could make her fantastic brown rice with mushrooms dish that she figured out how to make recently. Iron Chef quality, truly.

Carrie flies away for two days today. Not looking too forward to that, lemme tell you.

Friday, February 04, 2005

Already got it covered

Well, nothing much new has happened since I wrote an entry last night at 8:00 or so. I continued uploading all my files. I still need to upload some stuff for the Articles section, but ANGRYBEEF.com and FPRL and CGH Design are all up and running.

I picked up both Erin and Carrie after work and drove Erin home (you can practically see our backyard from her house). Sometime around Tuesday or Wednesday I had made a mix CD of some of my favorite stuff, mostly pop-y fun stuff, and when the girls got in the car it just happened to be on "Rest in Peace," Spike's song from the Buffy Musical. Erin recognized it almost immediately and said, "I am so glad you're listening to the Buffy Musical." Later in the drive she also said, "How much of a nerd am I for knowing this song?"

I replied, "How much of a nerd am I for having it on a mix CD?"

Thursday, February 03, 2005

Home Is Where the Heart Is

Well, we're back up and running (obvously). There are some new features here at thisischris.com now, too! If you'll notice at the end of each post now there is a place to leave comments, so I urge you all to do so and let me know what's goin' on. I'll read them comments whenever I notice 'em (plus I get an email ping whenever you leave a comment) and probably respond as well. Boo-yah!

Also be sure to read the new article about the endings of all the different Metroid games, Samus Aran is a Hottie.

Also I've finally put up my "Of the Month" stuff for February. Hey, don't bitch at me; it was physically impossible for me to upload it before today!

I'm going to now write my review of The Life Aquatic as well, so take a read of that. Last night I saw Beyond the Sea, and I'll hopefully get up a review of that tomorrow.

This new host seems much better than the last one, especially considering the much-expanded storage space it affords me.

Keep an eye out for any bugs, like broken links and missing images. Post a comment about it if'n you sees one. I prolly didn't get everything transfered over in completely perfect fashion.

This is Chris dot com

Monday, February 28, 2005

Again...