Labels: Updates
This is Chris dot com
Sunday, January 25, 2009
C'mon, Man... Don't Make it Weird
Things might get a little weird on this website today, because I'm trying to switch to WordPress and it's... well, a little weird. Bear with me.
posted by Christopher at 10:13 AM 
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Sunday, January 18, 2009
It Werked!
I have successfully migrated everything over to a new server. Thanks for all your help, toraton of codelove!
Some fun stuff coming soon, but in the meantime celebrate by please to enjoy this video:
Some fun stuff coming soon, but in the meantime celebrate by please to enjoy this video:
posted by Christopher at 10:39 PM
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Monday, January 12, 2009
The Holiday Season Ends... NOW
While the Holiday Season™ always seems hectic, the 2008-2009 Holiday Season© seemed much more hectic than usual. That's because it was more hectic than usual.
Basically, every day that either Carrie or I "had off" for the span of about two months turned out not to be a day off at all, but a family holiday, trade/craft show, or wedding event.
That's right, this Holiday Season® had an extra holiday: The Duncan/Briggs wedding. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
First was Krismuhs Eev. Because of the snow my family tried to cancel our traditional Crhistmas Eve Brunch, but my brother and I were all like, "Screw that!" and decided that even if the rest of the fambly didn't wanna do it, we (with Carrie & Cassie) would do it anyway. And because of our obstinance everybody except for Pa, Jason, and Alexis had brunch at The Village Inn on Christmas Eve. Take THAT!
There was still snow on the ground on Christmas Day, making it only the 2nd or 3rd White Christmas™ of my entire life. Carrie & I went in the morning to drop Suki off at her folks' house before continuing on to my folks' place for the traditional Li'l Smokies, scrambled eggs, and orange rolls for breakfast. We then opened stockings & prezzies before going over to G'ma's place (just up the slippery road) for more prezzy opening.
In the afternoon it was over to Carrie's folks' house where we mixed things up a li'l bit by opening prezzies before stockings! Gasp! I KNOW! This was because Christine came and joined us for the stocking opening portion of the day! Hooray! It was good to have her there. We got her cute stocking stuff (and a cute stocking).
Then there was a marvelous pork dinner, for which we were joined by the people who live across the street from Carrie's folks, and eventually Carrie & I went back to our house.
It was an interesting Christmas, the first one in who-knows-how-many years that I didn't get any video games! Instead I got a bunches of DVDs and a handfuls of books. Carrie got me the T-Mobile G1, which seriously kicks some major bottom. It came in the mail a week or so early, though, so I had it before Christmas. In addition to that she got us some Jonathan Coulton tickets for his show at the Moore Theater next Friday. Carrie also gotted mostly of DVDs and a few of books (one each from me), but I also gave her a pair of fantastic frog slippers.
New Year's eve was (as always) only 6 days after Krismush, but in the meantime this time there were a couple of wedding events, including girls-only drunk bowling at Chalet Bowl in the Proctor district:
There was also some sorta bridal/wedding shower that weekend. Not to mention the usual Fools Play funtimes!
New Year's Eve was another good time party, but New Year's Day was unusual in that it was the first time in years that Carrie & I didn't go out and see a movie. We just had been doing way too much and still had way too much to do for the upcoming wedding.
The very next day, in fact, was the rehearsal dinner. Carrie got a wedding-party gift: a walking cane with a concealed knife/sword. The head of the cane is a skull. A robot skull. It K's all kinds of A. There was hanging out with Lawrence and some of his New Orleans friends at The Parkway afterwards. Good times.
The next evening there was a girl group getting together to make all the programs for the wedding (which were much more complicated than the programs at my wedding, which were printed-out pieces of shiny gold paper folded in half). I was on errand duty and drove people and things around for a while.
Then that Saturday was the actual wedding. The wedding started around 6:30. I got to the location around 1:30 to help with setup and bringing in box after box of hooch and putting up decorations and locating things and supplies and all that kind of thing. Carrie was one of Lawrence's groomsmen, and while I wasn't a bridesmaid I did have a role in the wedding: I got to escort Christine's mum down the aisle. This meant I got to wear a nice suit. I clean up well:
Anyway, it was a very pretty wedding, which you would expect from Christine & Lawrence. Lotsa peacock feathers involved in the decorations and corsages and whatnot. Here's all the peoples standing up there:
And here's my favorite picture I took of Chrstine. She's purdy:
Anyhoo, I took about 40 photos and uploaded them all (full sized) to this page in case yer interested.
After the wedding we hung around and helped clean up, then I drove Travis's daughter back to her house. When we got off the freeway I heard sirens behind me and pulled over just as a cop car went flying past us. We continued on and went up a road to a T-intersection. I turned left and then when I looked in my rearview mirror I saw that if I had turned right I would have run into about 18 cop cars all arranged higgley-piggley all over the road, completely taking up about a one-block section. Whew! Didn't want to get mixed up in that!
The next day I took Lawrence's family to the airport so they could take their respective flights back home.
Oh! And mixed up in those past two weeks were also daily going and feeding a cat and lizard, and letting Boston Terriers out to pee in thier backyard. Almost forgot about those.
After that we were actually done. No more holidays. No more weddings. No more events. I had intended to get started on the new year that Monday (a week ago today), but honestly Carrie & I were just so exhausted that all we've been able to do for the past week was clean the house from the New Year's Party and sleep. And play Animal Crossing: City Folk. And sleep.
Then today we went out to Safeway and bought food fixin's, and cooked a wonderful, healthy meal of Mahi-Mahi salad with spinach, green beans, pecans, and parmesan cheese with a creamy lemon dressing that Carrie made from scratch. It tasted so very, very good. Carrie & I both agreed that today, Monday the 12th, was when the new year was finally able to start for both of us. So we drank a bottle of bubbly wine to celebrate with our om-nom-nummy dinner.
Now I'm just finishing up this post and then I'm going to start making many, many lists of all the things that I'd like to accomplish. Then I'll start moving around the list items to that I know when to accomplish what pieces of each list. I'm using the fantastic backpackit website to do all of this. I absolutely lorve that website. Too bad it doesn't have a good mobile version; if I wanna use it on my T-Mobile G1, then I have to navigate the browser to the full website (easier than it sounds; I just poke one icon and I"m there, but it does take longer to load than I'd like and isn't really formatted for the small screen).
What kinds of things am I listing? Oh, let's see. I'm in the process of teaching myself to use PHP with MySQL to create custom database-based shopping cart applications. I have a handful of movie reviews and articles that I'd like to write for THIS VERY WEBSITE (gasp). Carrie and I are working on a joint etsy site. I have a major writing project that I'm going to be diving into head-first in February, so I have to gear up for that. I'm transferring THIS VERY WEBSITE's server and looking to switch over to Wordpress. And there is one extremely major project that may seriously change a huge chunk of my life, but that for now will remain a secret. Except to those people who it involves, in which case you'll be getting an email from me later this week.
Oh, and also a very fun and awexomely good-for-me project: Starting tonight (in about a half-hour) I'm beginning this program. I'll be posting my progress here and on my twitter account, so that's probably gonna be pretty boring for you, but it's incredibly exciting for me, especially after the six weeks have passed (though for me it's likely gonna be closer to eight weeks).
Whew! That's about it for now I guess, but Happy New Year (finally) everyone!
Basically, every day that either Carrie or I "had off" for the span of about two months turned out not to be a day off at all, but a family holiday, trade/craft show, or wedding event.
That's right, this Holiday Season® had an extra holiday: The Duncan/Briggs wedding. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
First was Krismuhs Eev. Because of the snow my family tried to cancel our traditional Crhistmas Eve Brunch, but my brother and I were all like, "Screw that!" and decided that even if the rest of the fambly didn't wanna do it, we (with Carrie & Cassie) would do it anyway. And because of our obstinance everybody except for Pa, Jason, and Alexis had brunch at The Village Inn on Christmas Eve. Take THAT!
There was still snow on the ground on Christmas Day, making it only the 2nd or 3rd White Christmas™ of my entire life. Carrie & I went in the morning to drop Suki off at her folks' house before continuing on to my folks' place for the traditional Li'l Smokies, scrambled eggs, and orange rolls for breakfast. We then opened stockings & prezzies before going over to G'ma's place (just up the slippery road) for more prezzy opening.
In the afternoon it was over to Carrie's folks' house where we mixed things up a li'l bit by opening prezzies before stockings! Gasp! I KNOW! This was because Christine came and joined us for the stocking opening portion of the day! Hooray! It was good to have her there. We got her cute stocking stuff (and a cute stocking).
Then there was a marvelous pork dinner, for which we were joined by the people who live across the street from Carrie's folks, and eventually Carrie & I went back to our house.
It was an interesting Christmas, the first one in who-knows-how-many years that I didn't get any video games! Instead I got a bunches of DVDs and a handfuls of books. Carrie got me the T-Mobile G1, which seriously kicks some major bottom. It came in the mail a week or so early, though, so I had it before Christmas. In addition to that she got us some Jonathan Coulton tickets for his show at the Moore Theater next Friday. Carrie also gotted mostly of DVDs and a few of books (one each from me), but I also gave her a pair of fantastic frog slippers.
New Year's eve was (as always) only 6 days after Krismush, but in the meantime this time there were a couple of wedding events, including girls-only drunk bowling at Chalet Bowl in the Proctor district:
There was also some sorta bridal/wedding shower that weekend. Not to mention the usual Fools Play funtimes! New Year's Eve was another good time party, but New Year's Day was unusual in that it was the first time in years that Carrie & I didn't go out and see a movie. We just had been doing way too much and still had way too much to do for the upcoming wedding.
The very next day, in fact, was the rehearsal dinner. Carrie got a wedding-party gift: a walking cane with a concealed knife/sword. The head of the cane is a skull. A robot skull. It K's all kinds of A. There was hanging out with Lawrence and some of his New Orleans friends at The Parkway afterwards. Good times.
The next evening there was a girl group getting together to make all the programs for the wedding (which were much more complicated than the programs at my wedding, which were printed-out pieces of shiny gold paper folded in half). I was on errand duty and drove people and things around for a while.
Then that Saturday was the actual wedding. The wedding started around 6:30. I got to the location around 1:30 to help with setup and bringing in box after box of hooch and putting up decorations and locating things and supplies and all that kind of thing. Carrie was one of Lawrence's groomsmen, and while I wasn't a bridesmaid I did have a role in the wedding: I got to escort Christine's mum down the aisle. This meant I got to wear a nice suit. I clean up well:
Anyway, it was a very pretty wedding, which you would expect from Christine & Lawrence. Lotsa peacock feathers involved in the decorations and corsages and whatnot. Here's all the peoples standing up there:
And here's my favorite picture I took of Chrstine. She's purdy:
Anyhoo, I took about 40 photos and uploaded them all (full sized) to this page in case yer interested.
After the wedding we hung around and helped clean up, then I drove Travis's daughter back to her house. When we got off the freeway I heard sirens behind me and pulled over just as a cop car went flying past us. We continued on and went up a road to a T-intersection. I turned left and then when I looked in my rearview mirror I saw that if I had turned right I would have run into about 18 cop cars all arranged higgley-piggley all over the road, completely taking up about a one-block section. Whew! Didn't want to get mixed up in that!
The next day I took Lawrence's family to the airport so they could take their respective flights back home.
Oh! And mixed up in those past two weeks were also daily going and feeding a cat and lizard, and letting Boston Terriers out to pee in thier backyard. Almost forgot about those.
After that we were actually done. No more holidays. No more weddings. No more events. I had intended to get started on the new year that Monday (a week ago today), but honestly Carrie & I were just so exhausted that all we've been able to do for the past week was clean the house from the New Year's Party and sleep. And play Animal Crossing: City Folk. And sleep.
Then today we went out to Safeway and bought food fixin's, and cooked a wonderful, healthy meal of Mahi-Mahi salad with spinach, green beans, pecans, and parmesan cheese with a creamy lemon dressing that Carrie made from scratch. It tasted so very, very good. Carrie & I both agreed that today, Monday the 12th, was when the new year was finally able to start for both of us. So we drank a bottle of bubbly wine to celebrate with our om-nom-nummy dinner.
Now I'm just finishing up this post and then I'm going to start making many, many lists of all the things that I'd like to accomplish. Then I'll start moving around the list items to that I know when to accomplish what pieces of each list. I'm using the fantastic backpackit website to do all of this. I absolutely lorve that website. Too bad it doesn't have a good mobile version; if I wanna use it on my T-Mobile G1, then I have to navigate the browser to the full website (easier than it sounds; I just poke one icon and I"m there, but it does take longer to load than I'd like and isn't really formatted for the small screen).
What kinds of things am I listing? Oh, let's see. I'm in the process of teaching myself to use PHP with MySQL to create custom database-based shopping cart applications. I have a handful of movie reviews and articles that I'd like to write for THIS VERY WEBSITE (gasp). Carrie and I are working on a joint etsy site. I have a major writing project that I'm going to be diving into head-first in February, so I have to gear up for that. I'm transferring THIS VERY WEBSITE's server and looking to switch over to Wordpress. And there is one extremely major project that may seriously change a huge chunk of my life, but that for now will remain a secret. Except to those people who it involves, in which case you'll be getting an email from me later this week.
Oh, and also a very fun and awexomely good-for-me project: Starting tonight (in about a half-hour) I'm beginning this program. I'll be posting my progress here and on my twitter account, so that's probably gonna be pretty boring for you, but it's incredibly exciting for me, especially after the six weeks have passed (though for me it's likely gonna be closer to eight weeks).
Whew! That's about it for now I guess, but Happy New Year (finally) everyone!
posted by Christopher at 4:54 PM
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Saturday, December 20, 2008
There is no Fools Play Tonight!
Due to the inclement weather, Mud Bay Coffee is closing early today. So there will be no Fools Play this evening. We'll be back next week with Santals Lap!
Labels: Fools Play, Updates
posted by Christopher at 3:53 PM
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Sunday, November 16, 2008
Sometimes It's Really Nice to Live in the Future
Holy cow, yesterday I did a quick video chat with Jason of jeffthefish.com, and it was awesome! I have been wanting to do a video chat with someone since the 21st century rolled around, and now it’s easier than ever! I encourage you to get a Gmail account if you don’t have one, and set up Gmail Video Chat, and hit me up!
posted by Christopher at 10:16 AM
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Friday, October 31, 2008
The Ocean Shores Pirate Has Gone Batty!
HAPPY HWEEN EVERYBODY!Since it is Halloween today, that means that it's time for my annual Article in which I do some sort of Halloween craft with my best fictional friend, the Ocean Shores Pirate! Go over there and read that article now for a fun and funny adventure through the magic of Halloween crafts.
Well, I gotta go now and get ready for my annual Halloween tradition: making a metric tonne of Reuben sandwiches!
Labels: Articles, Halloween, Ocean Shores Pirate, Updates
posted by Christopher at 4:28 PM
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Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Wouldja Lookithat?
Hey! I just did a minor re-design of this site! It's the first one since the (very) early 2000s. Like 2001 or so. Basically I put the site navigation links along the top and then moved everything in the left-hand navbar into the right-hand navbar over there →
It's only a cosmetic change, though; the code is pretty much a mess. I'm gonna tweak it a little bit more, but this is basically how I want it to look. Partake and enjoy!
It's only a cosmetic change, though; the code is pretty much a mess. I'm gonna tweak it a little bit more, but this is basically how I want it to look. Partake and enjoy!
Labels: Updates
posted by Christopher at 5:01 PM
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Monday, October 06, 2008
The Times, They Are A-Changin'
And so, soon, will this website! October will bring about a couple of new things here:
- Switching to a new server
- My current hosting service just got a big fat "F" from the Better Business Bureau. Time to jump from a sinking ship to a nice, shiny, new ship.
- Bye-Bye, Blogger
- Though I dearly love Google and its products, Blogger has increasingly become all about its Blogspot service and has all but abandoned we who are using it to upload content to our own websites. So, like Tangentbot before me, I'm going to be switching over to Wordpress.
- RE-DESIGN!
- Holy crap! Yes, that's right. When I switch over to Wordpress I'm going to do a slight re-design on my website, the first one in about seven frikkin' years (about durned time)!!! Don't worry, it won't be too different, but I'd like it to be a li'l bit more W3C compliant...
So, stay tuned for those! Oh, also, thanks for everyone who responded with ideas for my "Of the Month" stuff for October. Especially thanks to Taisha, who was the only one who actually commented on my post about it. For some reason everybody else emailed me, even though instructions were very clear that I wanted you to comment. Weirdos. Anyhoo, some good ideas, and I'll put that up later today. Mucho!
Labels: Updates
posted by Christopher at 7:24 AM
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Wednesday, October 01, 2008
Of the Month Dilemma - Please Help
Every year for my "Of the Month" choices in October I like to choose more horror-themed things. It's October 1st and I haven't updated yet. That's because this year I am stumped. I just can't think of anything good. So I need your recommendations!
- I need:
- 1 WEBSITE
- A total of 2 of the following:
- DVD
- BOOK
- VIDEO GAME
- ALBUM
Labels: Of the Month, Updates
posted by Christopher at 6:11 PM
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Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Fools Play Rasslin' League - This Saturday!
Do not forget to come and see FPRL this Saturday at the Midnight Sun in downtown Olympia! Also, the FPRL site has been conveniently re-designed and has info about all of the many, many new characters that we're planning on debuting.
Forgetful though you are, do not forget.
Forgetful though you are, do not forget.
Labels: Fools Play, Updates
posted by Christopher at 2:37 PM
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Monday, July 28, 2008
Converse Freely
I went and saw The Dark Knight earlier today with the Hudnell sisters. So now you can all talk about it around me. That is all.
posted by Christopher at 10:20 PM
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Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Kind of a Milestone
Yes, my previous post was my 1,500th post. Yowzah. I guess that's what happens when you've had a website since The Year 2000. Woot!Labels: Updates
posted by Christopher at 10:44 PM
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Friday, May 02, 2008
They DON'T Go On Your Roof
Hey! Guess what I got. Here's a hint:
It's shingles! The second coming of the virus that causes chickenpox!
It thankfully isn't a very bad case. It's only a couple of inches on the back of my neck, and is more annoying (and unsightly) than actively painful. Just stings a little. The swelling is starting to go down and the blisters are starting to crust over, so I should be getting steadily better over the next week or so.
It's shingles! The second coming of the virus that causes chickenpox!
It thankfully isn't a very bad case. It's only a couple of inches on the back of my neck, and is more annoying (and unsightly) than actively painful. Just stings a little. The swelling is starting to go down and the blisters are starting to crust over, so I should be getting steadily better over the next week or so.
posted by Christopher at 4:28 PM
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Monday, April 14, 2008
Fashion Show Crunch Time
Okay, so basically for the next two weeks I'm not going to be able to do too much socializing because it's crunch time for the Bead Factory's Fashion show. I have an entire booklet to design by sometime next week, and it's a lots of works.
Labels: Updates
posted by Christopher at 10:18 PM
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Thursday, April 03, 2008
Labels Page, because I am AWESOME
Hey. You. Yeah, you. Look to the left at this site's main navigation area. In the second section from the top, look at the link just above "Archives." Yeah. Oh yeah. You ain't hallucinating, sweetcheeks. It's a link I like to call Labels. See, my super-advanced PHP programming skills allowed me to do what Blogger could not: I, using only my own two hands and my highly-developed brain, CREATED A PAGE THAT CONTAINS LINKS TO ALL OF THE LABELS FOR MY POSTS. Uh-huh. That's right. Try not to faint.
Labels: Updates
posted by Christopher at 6:33 PM
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Monday, March 10, 2008
Creatively Satisfying
For the past couple of months I haven't been working on any personal creative projects. I've just kinda been taking a break and doing other things, like playing Super Mario Galaxy and watching all the episodes of Battlestar Galactica that I can get my grubby mitts all up ons.
But recently my creative side started itching to get going again, so I had to think about what I really wanted to do. There are four main categories of creativity for me:
But recently my creative side started itching to get going again, so I had to think about what I really wanted to do. There are four main categories of creativity for me:
- Writing
- Fiction: short stories, screenplays, novels, etc.
- Visual arts
- Drawing, painting, CGI, etching, jewelry/pendant design, etc.
- Music
- Crazy Boy Floyds songs!
- Web
- Articles, Movie Reviews, etc.
Which one did I want to do? Did I want to focus intensively on one of them, like I did back in summer of 2006 with my "Painting of the Week" project? Or maybe like last fall when I wrote fiction stuff every night?
In the end I decided that there are seven days a week, and four creative activities. That's plenty of time to do all of 'em, right?
Well, Saturday night & Sunday afternoon are already taken up with Fools Play, and that satisfies me creatively. I'd like to have a day or two off as well, but I can probably do stuff Sunday evenings.
So I figured I can work on these things one night a week each, on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, with Friday off and Wednesday as an optional "floater" day that I can switch with a different day if I have something else to do then (if I have a social engagement on Sunday evening, for instance, I can do stuff on Wednesday instead).
So every week I'm going to work on an Article or a Movie Review for this website, I'm going to work on a science fiction story, I'm going to draw or paint something (maybe I'll even paint some robots!), and I'm gong to try to write a CBF song (the music for one, at least). I'm not promising that I'm going to COMPLETE any of these things every week; but I will at least try to work on all of them.
Labels: Updates
posted by Christopher at 10:16 PM
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Thursday, January 31, 2008
Is Kaput
So my computer surgery was only partially successful. I had to take one of my two hard drives to a doctor. The computer doctor guys called today and said they couldn't recover anything from my hard drive. It equals kaput. Lost a lot of stuff, including handouts and advertisements I made for the Bead Fact'ry. Also all of my business invoices I mailed out last year, which are kind of important come tax time so I have an accurate account of how much money I made. Not quite sure what to do about that.
But I ordered a fancy new hard drive from TigerDirect, and it should show up sometime next week. Then I'll re-install XP and all of the programs I need (I still have all of those) and I should be mostly back up and running again.
But I ordered a fancy new hard drive from TigerDirect, and it should show up sometime next week. Then I'll re-install XP and all of the programs I need (I still have all of those) and I should be mostly back up and running again.
posted by Christopher at 10:18 PM
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Monday, January 28, 2008
Delicate Surgery
posted by Christopher at 11:46 PM
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Sunday, January 20, 2008
Cloverfield (2008)
Directed by Matt Reeves
Cloverfield is the brainchild of J.J. Abrams. It plays something like this: Imagine a cross between The Blair Witch Project, a giant monster movie, the TV show Felicity, and a surprisingly large dose of the obscure 80s movie Miracle Mile. In a good way. In a very, very good way. [Read my full review here]
Note: I actually saw Sweeny Todd before i saw Cloverfield, but I just wanted to get this review out of the way because it's more timely (Cloverfield just opened this last Friday).
Labels: Cloverfield, Movie Reviews, Updates
posted by Christopher at 11:16 PM
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Thursday, November 15, 2007
Winterfest Approaches; I Go Away
Officially now (well, after dinner) begins my week-long build up to my appearance selling my Thirsty Robots Stuff at Winterfest 2007.
So, other than working on that, working on stuff for my web design clients, and going to Fools Play on Saturday, I'll pretty much not exist until Thanksgiving. During which I will probably still be etching stuff.
So I hope to see some people at Winterfest, otherwise I'll re-emerge after.
So, other than working on that, working on stuff for my web design clients, and going to Fools Play on Saturday, I'll pretty much not exist until Thanksgiving. During which I will probably still be etching stuff.
So I hope to see some people at Winterfest, otherwise I'll re-emerge after.
posted by Christopher at 6:04 PM
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Saturday, November 10, 2007
Sick Days
So, this whole past week I've been sick. And it was a kind of sickness that got worse as it went along instead of better. So for the past few days my wife has basically prescribed bedrest. No work (I wasn't even able to go in to Ever After very much at all during the week), just lie around and get better.
Now I'm finally starting to feel better, and I have a stack of 30 unread emails in my inbox and a whole bunch of people I need to call tomorrow. So if you've been one of those people who has been trying to get a hold of me recently, my apologies. I've basically been non-existant for the past week.
Now I'm finally starting to feel better, and I have a stack of 30 unread emails in my inbox and a whole bunch of people I need to call tomorrow. So if you've been one of those people who has been trying to get a hold of me recently, my apologies. I've basically been non-existant for the past week.
posted by Christopher at 2:54 PM
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Saturday, September 15, 2007
"Of the Month" September '07
This, my 1,400th post, is only almost half a month late! Yikes! A lot has been going on, so fear not! There are a bunch of major updates coming down the pipeline... after next week (it's our 3rd wedding anniversary on Monday, and Carrie & I are going to Orcas Island for the week. So no updates 'til I get back). But in the meantime, here are my "Of the Month" choices for September 2007:
Link of the Month:
Gaijin Smash
Gaijin Smash is the hilarious story of an African-American who decided to live in Japan. This resulting blog is one of the funniest, well-written, and least politically-correct websites on teh intarweb tubez right now
DVD of the Month:
Samurai Jack Season 4
The final season (sad and crying) of one of the very best animated television shows EVAR. I'd only actually seen ONE (1) of these episodes when they originally aired, becuase for some reason (I suspect mild retardation) Cartoon Network practically buried Season 4. But now I can watch them whenever I want! Take THAT, jerkoffs!
Album of the Month:
Dr. Octagon: The Return of Dr. Octagon
Back in 1996 we were introduced to Dr. Octagon, a deadly, libidinous, hilarious, and doped-up doctor. Unfortunately before he could put out another album, he was apparently killed by Dr. Dooom around the turn of the century. Turns out, though, that he wasn't killed—he was abducted by aliens! After becoming embroiled in a plot by a gigantic gorilla to destroy and/or take over the cosmos, Dr. Octagon escaped to return to Earth. Now a much more enlightened being, he has dedicted himself to saving the planet from aliens, from our own destructive ways, from the afore-mentioned gorilla, and most importantly from terrible music! The Return of Dr. Octagon is an ingeniously hilarious, mind-bogglingly creative, and enjoyably bizarre hip-hop album unlike anything I've ever heard before.
Link of the Month:
Gaijin SmashGaijin Smash is the hilarious story of an African-American who decided to live in Japan. This resulting blog is one of the funniest, well-written, and least politically-correct websites on teh intarweb tubez right now
DVD of the Month:
Samurai Jack Season 4The final season (sad and crying) of one of the very best animated television shows EVAR. I'd only actually seen ONE (1) of these episodes when they originally aired, becuase for some reason (I suspect mild retardation) Cartoon Network practically buried Season 4. But now I can watch them whenever I want! Take THAT, jerkoffs!
Album of the Month:
Dr. Octagon: The Return of Dr. Octagon Back in 1996 we were introduced to Dr. Octagon, a deadly, libidinous, hilarious, and doped-up doctor. Unfortunately before he could put out another album, he was apparently killed by Dr. Dooom around the turn of the century. Turns out, though, that he wasn't killed—he was abducted by aliens! After becoming embroiled in a plot by a gigantic gorilla to destroy and/or take over the cosmos, Dr. Octagon escaped to return to Earth. Now a much more enlightened being, he has dedicted himself to saving the planet from aliens, from our own destructive ways, from the afore-mentioned gorilla, and most importantly from terrible music! The Return of Dr. Octagon is an ingeniously hilarious, mind-bogglingly creative, and enjoyably bizarre hip-hop album unlike anything I've ever heard before.
Labels: Of the Month, Updates
posted by Christopher at 3:33 PM
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Tuesday, July 24, 2007
You Did What Now?
That's right, I wrote an article! I know what you're thinking: "Holy crap, Chris ain't written an article in nine months!"
Well, first of all, your grammar is atrocious. Second of all, you're absolutely right. It was about time I wrote another article. So here now I present to you the rules of my favorite all-time game:
Well, first of all, your grammar is atrocious. Second of all, you're absolutely right. It was about time I wrote another article. So here now I present to you the rules of my favorite all-time game:
The Best Sport EVAR:
TWO STICKS!
Go read it now. NOW! And then organize a Two Sticks league in your neighborhood.
Labels: Updates
posted by Christopher at 11:23 PM
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Tuesday, July 17, 2007
What's Going On!!
The Puget Sound Bead Festival continued for the duration of the weekend. I actually went and walked around the show on Saturday for a bit, and saw the out-of-town girls (in order I saw them) Nicole, Brandy, and Gretchen.
That evening Fools Play did an ambitious new format called "Learnin' the Ropes" in which we try to get our apprentices ready to perform in the span of five (5) days. It had a really large audience, due mostly to friends of the apprentices wanting to see them perform.
Sunday I left Fools Play practice early so I could help tear down the classrooms at the PSBF. Then I drove up to Issaquah for Mike's birthday diner at XXX Root Beer. Man, that place is so good. I had a bacon burger the size of my plate. Then afterwards I went and ordered onion rings.
Carrie & I both took Monday off so we could recover from the PSBF, but also for another reason: we needed to buy a car. A couple of our bead colleagues had bought a car just last week from Toyota of Puyallup and highly recommended the salesman, so we went down there as well and talked with him. And ended up buying the exact same car that they'd bought. They didn't have our 1st choice color available at all, and our 2nd choice color was down in Portland, so it would have to be driven up and so wouldn't be ready until Tuesday. But we were also satisfied with the salesman (though the paperwork department for some reason took for-freakin'-ever). So if you ever want to get a Toyota, go to Toyota of Puyallup and ask for John Martinez, and tell him that Chris Harris & Carrie Hamm sent you (we'll get some sorta kickback if you do).
Monday evening Carrie & I went out on a date and saw Ratatouille.
That brings us to Today, when, after an afternoon nap, Carrie & I went and picked up our new car from the dealership. And here it is:
It's a brand-spankin'-new Toyota Yaris 4-door sedan. Only 400 miles on it. And it's so freakin' cute! I made Carrie drive the rental home from the dealership just so I could drive the Yaris home [evil laugh].
I bought a new car! In the past 8 months I've bought a house, a MacBook, a new mattress set, and a new car. I'm a grown-up! All I need to do now is get a dog.
Then after I dropped Carrie off at the store to teach her evening class (I dropped her off with my NEW CAR) I headed back home and noticed a car in front of mine had the same Toyota of Puyallup dealer plates that I had. "Hmm," I thought, "they got their car at the same place I got my car. That looks like the same type of... hey, wait a minute!" Indeed, it was Robbie, the friend who bought the same kind of car last week! He pulled over at our house and we talked about how cool the Yaris cars are. What's plural for Yaris? Yarisses? Or Yari? Anyhoo, I also gave him back the couple of Gamecube controllers that we'd borrowed, oh, quite a while ago.
I leave you with a pretty picture of the clouds reflected in my new car's hood:
That evening Fools Play did an ambitious new format called "Learnin' the Ropes" in which we try to get our apprentices ready to perform in the span of five (5) days. It had a really large audience, due mostly to friends of the apprentices wanting to see them perform.
Sunday I left Fools Play practice early so I could help tear down the classrooms at the PSBF. Then I drove up to Issaquah for Mike's birthday diner at XXX Root Beer. Man, that place is so good. I had a bacon burger the size of my plate. Then afterwards I went and ordered onion rings.
Carrie & I both took Monday off so we could recover from the PSBF, but also for another reason: we needed to buy a car. A couple of our bead colleagues had bought a car just last week from Toyota of Puyallup and highly recommended the salesman, so we went down there as well and talked with him. And ended up buying the exact same car that they'd bought. They didn't have our 1st choice color available at all, and our 2nd choice color was down in Portland, so it would have to be driven up and so wouldn't be ready until Tuesday. But we were also satisfied with the salesman (though the paperwork department for some reason took for-freakin'-ever). So if you ever want to get a Toyota, go to Toyota of Puyallup and ask for John Martinez, and tell him that Chris Harris & Carrie Hamm sent you (we'll get some sorta kickback if you do).
Monday evening Carrie & I went out on a date and saw Ratatouille.
That brings us to Today, when, after an afternoon nap, Carrie & I went and picked up our new car from the dealership. And here it is:
It's a brand-spankin'-new Toyota Yaris 4-door sedan. Only 400 miles on it. And it's so freakin' cute! I made Carrie drive the rental home from the dealership just so I could drive the Yaris home [evil laugh].I bought a new car! In the past 8 months I've bought a house, a MacBook, a new mattress set, and a new car. I'm a grown-up! All I need to do now is get a dog.
Then after I dropped Carrie off at the store to teach her evening class (I dropped her off with my NEW CAR) I headed back home and noticed a car in front of mine had the same Toyota of Puyallup dealer plates that I had. "Hmm," I thought, "they got their car at the same place I got my car. That looks like the same type of... hey, wait a minute!" Indeed, it was Robbie, the friend who bought the same kind of car last week! He pulled over at our house and we talked about how cool the Yaris cars are. What's plural for Yaris? Yarisses? Or Yari? Anyhoo, I also gave him back the couple of Gamecube controllers that we'd borrowed, oh, quite a while ago.
I leave you with a pretty picture of the clouds reflected in my new car's hood:
Labels: Fools Play, Life, Links, Movies, Pictures, Restaurants, Updates
posted by Christopher at 7:39 PM
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Monday, July 02, 2007
Did Anybody Get the License Plate Number of the Truck That Hit Me?
So yesterday (Sunday) there was some excitement in my life, though not really of the good kind.
I woke up at a regular time and got ready and all that, then got in my car and drove down towards the Supermall, where I was meeting Mike so we could go see Ratatouille. I got off Highway 18, went down West Valley Highway to 15th St, and from there took the little one-way side street to the left that winds around until it dead-ends at Supermall Drive.
As I was pulling up to the light at Supermall Drive, I noticed that my brother was in the middle of the three lanes (the left two lanes are left-turn only lanes, and the one right lane is right-turn only). So I pulled over to the left-most lane and pretended I was shocked to see him there. He laughed, then we waited at the light for a little bit until it changed so that we both had green left-turn arrows. I let Mike go a couple seconds before me because after you turn left there the two lanes on Supermall Drive merge into one, and I thought I'd let him merge in front of me there.
Then as I pulled out on my green arrow a white pickup truck came from the left, ran the red light, and hit my car right at its driver's side front wheel.
It spun my car sideways a little bit so I could see that the truck continued through the intersection. I quickly straightened my car and pulled up behind the truck so that I could pull over near it when it pulled off the road.
It was at about that time that I realized that the truck not only wasn't slowing down, but was rapidly accelerating.
I hadn't gotten a make, model, or license number on it yet, so I slammed on my own accelerator and gave chase all the way down Supermall Drive. When the truck turned right onto 15th St I pulled out my cell phone and quickly dailed 911 and continued the chase while talking to the emergency operator, turning onto 15th right behind the truck.
I couldn't get close enough to ready anything on the truck because my front driver's side tire was rubbing up against the mangled side of my car. I just couldn't accelerate fast enough to catch him.
He obviously knew I was chasing him because he took the next right onto the freeway. I chased him up the on-ramp and then decided that I really shouldn't drive freeway speed with a tire rubbing up against the side of the car (I could smell burning rubber), so I pulled over and informed the operator where the truck was heading. She said she let the Highway Patrol know where it was going, so I pulled over on the side of the freeway.
Here's a map of exactly where the impact took place.
After I got off the phone with the 911 operator I called Carrie to tell her that I wasn't hurt or anything. While I was talking to her Mike called me to ask where the Hell I was. He hadn't seen me chase the guy off, and just assumed we'd pulled over into the Wal-Mart parking lot just south of where the impact took place. But when he couldn't find me or the truck anywhere he called me. So I told him where I was and he said he was on the way.
I got off the phone with Carrie, and Mike & I hung out on the side of the freeway for a while until a fire truck showed up. They looked over the car and made sure I didn't want an ambulance or anything. I was a little worried about my shoulder because that's where I felt the impact when it happened, but I didn't need to go to the hospital or nothin'. They said if I was sore the next day that I should just go to my regular doctor.
So they left. Then a while later the Highway Patrol showed up and took all my information and everything. Then the tow-truck driver showed up and hooked up my car. After the cop gave me the report he'd filled out I went inside Mike's car and called my insurance and told them what was going on. The tow-truck drive told us where he was taking the car (we didn't know any Toyota body shops in Auburn, so we let him choose) and I passed that info on to the insurance people. They also told me that there'd be a rental car waiting for me at the Enterprise on St. Helens in Tacoma. I knew exactly where that was.
Then the tow-truck took my car away and Mike drove me back to my house. Needless to say I did not go to Fools Play Practice that afternoon.
I was very disappointed. I really wanted to see Ratatouille.
Anyway, I spent the rest of the day just relaxing and doing stuff on Konpyupyu here and watching BSG and stuff like that. My back felt like it was stiffening up a little bit, which I expected, but I took a couple of muscle relaxers and it seemed like it was helping. Carrie left at one point in the evening for a store meeting.
Thankfully when I woke up this morning my back wasn't sore, my neck wasn't sore, and my shoulders weren't sore. Well, not any more sore than usual at least. It was like nothing had happened. Except of course that my car wasn't in the driveway and I hadn't seen Ratatouille.
I woke up at a regular time and got ready and all that, then got in my car and drove down towards the Supermall, where I was meeting Mike so we could go see Ratatouille. I got off Highway 18, went down West Valley Highway to 15th St, and from there took the little one-way side street to the left that winds around until it dead-ends at Supermall Drive.
As I was pulling up to the light at Supermall Drive, I noticed that my brother was in the middle of the three lanes (the left two lanes are left-turn only lanes, and the one right lane is right-turn only). So I pulled over to the left-most lane and pretended I was shocked to see him there. He laughed, then we waited at the light for a little bit until it changed so that we both had green left-turn arrows. I let Mike go a couple seconds before me because after you turn left there the two lanes on Supermall Drive merge into one, and I thought I'd let him merge in front of me there.
Then as I pulled out on my green arrow a white pickup truck came from the left, ran the red light, and hit my car right at its driver's side front wheel.
It spun my car sideways a little bit so I could see that the truck continued through the intersection. I quickly straightened my car and pulled up behind the truck so that I could pull over near it when it pulled off the road.
It was at about that time that I realized that the truck not only wasn't slowing down, but was rapidly accelerating.
I hadn't gotten a make, model, or license number on it yet, so I slammed on my own accelerator and gave chase all the way down Supermall Drive. When the truck turned right onto 15th St I pulled out my cell phone and quickly dailed 911 and continued the chase while talking to the emergency operator, turning onto 15th right behind the truck.
I couldn't get close enough to ready anything on the truck because my front driver's side tire was rubbing up against the mangled side of my car. I just couldn't accelerate fast enough to catch him.
He obviously knew I was chasing him because he took the next right onto the freeway. I chased him up the on-ramp and then decided that I really shouldn't drive freeway speed with a tire rubbing up against the side of the car (I could smell burning rubber), so I pulled over and informed the operator where the truck was heading. She said she let the Highway Patrol know where it was going, so I pulled over on the side of the freeway.
Here's a map of exactly where the impact took place.
After I got off the phone with the 911 operator I called Carrie to tell her that I wasn't hurt or anything. While I was talking to her Mike called me to ask where the Hell I was. He hadn't seen me chase the guy off, and just assumed we'd pulled over into the Wal-Mart parking lot just south of where the impact took place. But when he couldn't find me or the truck anywhere he called me. So I told him where I was and he said he was on the way.
I got off the phone with Carrie, and Mike & I hung out on the side of the freeway for a while until a fire truck showed up. They looked over the car and made sure I didn't want an ambulance or anything. I was a little worried about my shoulder because that's where I felt the impact when it happened, but I didn't need to go to the hospital or nothin'. They said if I was sore the next day that I should just go to my regular doctor.
So they left. Then a while later the Highway Patrol showed up and took all my information and everything. Then the tow-truck driver showed up and hooked up my car. After the cop gave me the report he'd filled out I went inside Mike's car and called my insurance and told them what was going on. The tow-truck drive told us where he was taking the car (we didn't know any Toyota body shops in Auburn, so we let him choose) and I passed that info on to the insurance people. They also told me that there'd be a rental car waiting for me at the Enterprise on St. Helens in Tacoma. I knew exactly where that was.
Then the tow-truck took my car away and Mike drove me back to my house. Needless to say I did not go to Fools Play Practice that afternoon.
I was very disappointed. I really wanted to see Ratatouille.
Anyway, I spent the rest of the day just relaxing and doing stuff on Konpyupyu here and watching BSG and stuff like that. My back felt like it was stiffening up a little bit, which I expected, but I took a couple of muscle relaxers and it seemed like it was helping. Carrie left at one point in the evening for a store meeting.
Thankfully when I woke up this morning my back wasn't sore, my neck wasn't sore, and my shoulders weren't sore. Well, not any more sore than usual at least. It was like nothing had happened. Except of course that my car wasn't in the driveway and I hadn't seen Ratatouille.
posted by Christopher at 5:01 PM
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Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Yesterday (Monday) I finally posted my danged review of Pirates of the Caribbean At World's End (PotCAWE). You should so totally go read it now!
Pirates of the Caribbean At World's End
Anyhoo, yesterday was a weird day. In the afternoon I successfully did my new regimen of afternoon Konpyūtā work, shot of a blog, and did my daily grind.
Then I picked up Carrie from work and watched an episode of Battlestar Galactica 2.5. A while later I noticed a handful of news reports online (starting with a blog post on Michael Tanner's MySpace page) saying that Chris Benoit and his family had been found dead in their home. Wait a minute, I thought, wasn't he supposed to have fought for the ECW championship on Sunday? Sure enough, he'd dropped out of the match at the last minute. Needless to say, this put a damper on the rest of the evening.
At one point I went to Fred Meyer to drop off Carrie's paycheck at the bonk (and to buy some laundry detergent). Rachel at the bank declared that she wasn't looking forward to going to the midwest with Linnea & the girls this week, because apparently it was 90 to 95 degrees over there. Yikes! Don't blame her for not looking forward to that. They're all gonna be out of town for ten days.
As I was walking back to the car my brother called to see if I had heard the news about Benoit. We all agreed that it certainly seemed like it should end the whole "Mr. McMahon is Dead" angle that they had going on in WWE.
When I got home I mowed the lawn, but I had a devil of a time getting the mower to start at all. I had to prime it an awful lot before it would finally catch. A little unnerving, considering this is only the third time I've used it. Well, it ended up working, so I guess nothing to worry about yet.
Don't recall too much what happened in the evening. I did turn on Raw for a few minutes. They had quickly whipped up a tribute to Benoit (their archive crew is phenomenally good at doing super-high-quality work at a moment's notice), but I couldn't watch very much of it because people like Tazz and C.M. Punk getting teary while trying to talk was too much for me. I watched some more Battlestar Galactica instead.
posted by Christopher at 7:38 PM
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Thursday, June 21, 2007
It's Easier if You Sing
Nothing really interesting happened on Tuesday. To me, at any rate. I'm sure other people had wonderful Tuesdays. Mine just kinda happened. Nothing bad, y'know. Other than work stuff it was just kinda there then gone. There wasn't anything appetizing in the house for dinner, so I was bad and swung by Jack in the Box to try their new sirloin burger (not bad). I watched a li'l bit of ECW. Y'know.
One thing I did get done was that I updated the right-hand bar on my links page. I divided the blogs list into people I actually know in RL versus people I've never actually met. So if I know you in person and you have a blog (a non-livejournal, non-myspace, non-loowa, etc) but your site isn't on the list there, let me know and I'll put it up for everyone to see!
Yeserday (Wednesday) Carrie went straight to the Trader Joe's after work. We both just had a li'l bowl of cereal at 6:00 because we were hungry but didn't want to ruin our appetite for later.
Around 7:15 Carrie picked up Lawrence and began teaching him how to drive at UPS. Apparently (I wasn't there to verify) Lawrence drives a whole lot better if he sings about what he's doing as he's doing it. "Oooh, yeah, I'm puttin' on my turn signal / Now I'm turning left!"
They drove straight to Christine's, and I walked to join them there at 8:00 so we all (Me, Carrie, Lawrence, Christine, Steph, and soon Melissa and later Travis) could watch So You Think You Can Dance and eat some Lasagna that Christine made and salad that Melissa made, and drink a bunch of wine that Carrie brought and eat a bunch of ice cream bon-bons that I brought. And have a really good time. Which we all did.
After that Carrie & I went on home.
One thing I did get done was that I updated the right-hand bar on my links page. I divided the blogs list into people I actually know in RL versus people I've never actually met. So if I know you in person and you have a blog (a non-livejournal, non-myspace, non-loowa, etc) but your site isn't on the list there, let me know and I'll put it up for everyone to see!
Yeserday (Wednesday) Carrie went straight to the Trader Joe's after work. We both just had a li'l bowl of cereal at 6:00 because we were hungry but didn't want to ruin our appetite for later.
Around 7:15 Carrie picked up Lawrence and began teaching him how to drive at UPS. Apparently (I wasn't there to verify) Lawrence drives a whole lot better if he sings about what he's doing as he's doing it. "Oooh, yeah, I'm puttin' on my turn signal / Now I'm turning left!"
They drove straight to Christine's, and I walked to join them there at 8:00 so we all (Me, Carrie, Lawrence, Christine, Steph, and soon Melissa and later Travis) could watch So You Think You Can Dance and eat some Lasagna that Christine made and salad that Melissa made, and drink a bunch of wine that Carrie brought and eat a bunch of ice cream bon-bons that I brought. And have a really good time. Which we all did.
After that Carrie & I went on home.
posted by Christopher at 11:28 PM
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Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Re: The Lack of Writing
Why haven't I written a review for Spider-Man 3 yet? I only have to write that one and then the one for PotCaWE and I'm all caught up on my reviews and can move on to more important thangs.
Maybe that's why? Am I afraid of actually starting something important? The summer is rapidly slipping away and I've done nothing terribly productive with it so far. Grumble, grumble. So here's the what-what: no matter what, I'm going to write my Spider-Man 3 review tomorrow (Thursday). And I'm going to write my PotCaWE review on Friday. Period. The end. The foot has spoken.
Maybe that's why? Am I afraid of actually starting something important? The summer is rapidly slipping away and I've done nothing terribly productive with it so far. Grumble, grumble. So here's the what-what: no matter what, I'm going to write my Spider-Man 3 review tomorrow (Thursday). And I'm going to write my PotCaWE review on Friday. Period. The end. The foot has spoken.
Labels: Updates
posted by Christopher at 10:37 PM
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Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Unhealthy
Yesterday (Tuesday) for most of the day I felt... just off. I'm fairly confident that all the horribly unhealthy food I ate over Memorial Weekend caught up with me, 'cause my body felt like crap and it didn't help my brain any.
I find it really frustrating when my body gets in such a state that it affects my thought processes.
Anyhoo, there were some good things about yesterday. In the afternoon Carrie & I went to Mandolin Café, where to our delighted surprise we discovered our friend Mandi had just started to work—it was, in fact, her first day! She dyed her hair dark and it looks really cute on her.
The reason we were there was because I was meeting a charming pair of ladies (one of whom is an unabashed Trekkie) who need a logo and a website for a business they're starting up. Hey, those are the services that I provide! Coincidence? I think not. We had a very good meeting and I'm looking forward to coming up with some cool stuff for them.
While I did that Carrie took Lawrence to the DMV so he could get his learner's permit. Unfortunately none of them knew that you needed THREE pieces of ID if you're an out-of-stater. Whoops! All that time waiting at the DMV for nothing. I ended up walking home from Mandolin because they were still down there. But it was a very nice day (just on the verge of being too hot but not quite there) and Mandolin is just under a mile from my house (about .8 miles), so it was a nice walk.
After I took Carrie to the Bead Factory to teach her evening class I watched V for Vendetta (Two-Disc Special Edition)
(which I'm borrowing from my co-worker). Quick review: I did like it quite a bit. I didn't mind the change of focus at all. There were only two things that bothered me, and one of them was just because I've read the comic, and they didn't even have my favorite scene from the comic in the movie! 3 or 3½ stars.
After the movie (and partly inspired by it) I made a dedicated effort to get cracking and get over my off-ness. I cleaned a tonne of dishes. I did some WordPress research for another client of mine (though nothing terribly fruitful came of it). After Carrie came home I made dinner (I hadn't eaten any yet) of shrimp gyoza and mixed vegetables with a splash of soy sauce. Much healthier than my other recent meals!
We went to bed and I typed up my movie review of Hot Fuzz. It is now available for y'all to read! You should read it now. NOW!
I find it really frustrating when my body gets in such a state that it affects my thought processes.
Anyhoo, there were some good things about yesterday. In the afternoon Carrie & I went to Mandolin Café, where to our delighted surprise we discovered our friend Mandi had just started to work—it was, in fact, her first day! She dyed her hair dark and it looks really cute on her.
The reason we were there was because I was meeting a charming pair of ladies (one of whom is an unabashed Trekkie) who need a logo and a website for a business they're starting up. Hey, those are the services that I provide! Coincidence? I think not. We had a very good meeting and I'm looking forward to coming up with some cool stuff for them.
While I did that Carrie took Lawrence to the DMV so he could get his learner's permit. Unfortunately none of them knew that you needed THREE pieces of ID if you're an out-of-stater. Whoops! All that time waiting at the DMV for nothing. I ended up walking home from Mandolin because they were still down there. But it was a very nice day (just on the verge of being too hot but not quite there) and Mandolin is just under a mile from my house (about .8 miles), so it was a nice walk.
After I took Carrie to the Bead Factory to teach her evening class I watched V for Vendetta (Two-Disc Special Edition)
(which I'm borrowing from my co-worker). Quick review: I did like it quite a bit. I didn't mind the change of focus at all. There were only two things that bothered me, and one of them was just because I've read the comic, and they didn't even have my favorite scene from the comic in the movie! 3 or 3½ stars. After the movie (and partly inspired by it) I made a dedicated effort to get cracking and get over my off-ness. I cleaned a tonne of dishes. I did some WordPress research for another client of mine (though nothing terribly fruitful came of it). After Carrie came home I made dinner (I hadn't eaten any yet) of shrimp gyoza and mixed vegetables with a splash of soy sauce. Much healthier than my other recent meals!
We went to bed and I typed up my movie review of Hot Fuzz. It is now available for y'all to read! You should read it now. NOW!
Hot Fuzz (2007)
Labels: Life, Movies, Restaurants, Updates
posted by Christopher at 11:56 PM
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Sunday, May 13, 2007
Special Delivery!
Yesterday (Saturday) I got up in the morning and went and uploaded my latest movie review! You should go read it now. NOW!
Grindhouse (2007)
Carrie & I were originally planning on going out to breakfast, but we ended up getting up and getting ready so late that it was more like going out for lunch.
We went to The Spar down near the waterfront. As we were walking up to the building Carrie noticed somebody in the kitchen who looked familiar. Turns out it was Chris, our downstairs neighbor from back when we used to live in the apartment (the one with stained-glass windows). We also ran into Katie, which we kinda expected.
We had deep fried seafood and Spar chips, and it was a very good lunch.
We came back home and I got ready for and left for the Fools Play workshop. After the workshop Mike & I got a pizza at Brewery City Pizza. They do make some tasty pizzas there. We ate it back at Studio 321 before setting everything up and working out the kinks in the new format.
That's right, Mike & I were the only two Fools who could make it to this show, so we invented a brand-new format: Fools Play Special Delivery! In it, Bill the Mailman goes around delivering mail to people, but not before he opens the letters and reads them! In the end he discovers a vast conspiracy and sets off to stop it Hot Fuzz style.
It was a frikkin' hilarious show. There were several scenes where both Mike and I could not stop busting up while we were performing them. And thankfully the audience was busting up right along with us.
After the show we went to Rib Eye, where I sat with Mathias, Sandy, & Amber. I had a French dip and two Pepsis, on account of I needed the caffeine so that I wouldn't fall asleep on the way home.
Labels: Fools Play, Life, Restaurants, Updates
posted by Christopher at 9:19 AM
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Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Insert Coin to Continue
Where was I? Ah, yes, I'd gotten sleepy while writing the previous post, so now I'll continue from where I left off.
I seem to remember us eating breakfast out at the Parkway on Saturday morning, but I can't be 100% for sure.
At any rate, my brudda picked me up for Fools Play at 2:30 so we could do the whole workshop thing, then we went to Mekong for some Phud Thai, then back to Studio 321 to do a Fools Play Co-Show with the group known as "Quiet Monkey Fight." There were a grand total of eight of them, and only three Fools!
Carrie came down and saw the show, and brought Trevor (because it was his 15th birthday) and his friend Andrew. It was overall a thoroughly enjoyable show. Everyone thought that the first scene of the night was one of the best, but for some reason it's almost impossible to remember what it was. I've forgotten once again.
We all (including Carrie and the boys, but excluding anyone from QMF) went out to Rib Eye afterwards, before I drove Trevor and Andrew back up to Fife and then Carrie & myself back home.
Sunday was my birfday! The plan was to get some people together in the early afternoon and go see Spider-Man 3. Unfortunately the show sold out so early that only four people (other than me and Carrie) got into the show. Fortunately one of them was Geoff, my co-birthday buddy, because I'd gone to the theater early and bought tickets for me, Carrie, and Geoff. Unfortunately I'd managed to lock my keys in the car when I did that. Fortunately Carrie was able to get the Tarbets to drive her to the theater.
Anyhoo, after the movie people started coming over to my house, and I started up the coals in the barbeque. Carrie and the rest of the Bead Babes had a store meeting at 6:30, and it didn't get over until after 9:00. But in the interim a whole bunch of people did show up, and I made 20 hamburgers on that grill. I ran out of both buns and bread before the last one was made, so Jamie had to have his low-carb style.
We all had a pretty durned good time, and some of my friends who had never been to my house before were able to come! I like people to see my house.
Everyone started trickling out between 11:00 and 12:00 (because the next day was a Monday, and most peoples work on a Monday). Somebody left a DS at my house (see this post). Neighbor Gary spent the night on the couch 'cause he was meeting a friend at 8:00 in the AM at Metropolitan Market, and it made no sense for him to drive all the way down to Oly just to have to drive all the way back up in the morning.
That brings us to Monday, which was thoroughly uneventful. I can't remember a thing about it right now, but my brain is a little fuzzy this early in the AM.
Then yesterday (Tuesday) after work my dad came over and we took him to Katie Downs from lunch. Then he and I worked in the backyard, creating a new flower bed next to the lilac tree. We went to the Fred Meyer and bought a whole bunch of flowers which we then planted. Take a look!
Doesn't look like much now, but that's 'cause everything was just planted! Give it a few weeks to grow and you'll be amazed at the riot of colour in my backyard!
Carrie went to teach class in the evening and I went to Trader Joe's for food supplies (other than cheese, which we still have a tonne of thanks to Amsterdam). Then I watched the episode of Numb3rs that I'd missed on Friday, and then a new episode of Veronica Mars guest-starring Paul Rudd! Very funny episode.
Carrie called me to pick her up shortly after that, and we at the leftover pizza slices from Katie Downs.
When I came to bed (after ECW) I started my new tradition: writing before I go to sleep. Now that I am 30 years old I am entering a new phase in my life. I am going to start writing up a storm, for reals. In the past I've dabbled with writing, but (aside from in college) never really put aside any time to write consistently. Well, from now on I'm going to be writing almost every night before I go to sleep. I'm going to start with stuff for this website: Movie Reviews and Articles that I've been long neglecting. Then I'm going to be moving on to other writing endeavors. I'll keep you posted.
Two of my favorite writers, Robert A. Heinlein and Haruki Murakami, started writing for reals when they were 30. I think I'm in good company.
I seem to remember us eating breakfast out at the Parkway on Saturday morning, but I can't be 100% for sure.
At any rate, my brudda picked me up for Fools Play at 2:30 so we could do the whole workshop thing, then we went to Mekong for some Phud Thai, then back to Studio 321 to do a Fools Play Co-Show with the group known as "Quiet Monkey Fight." There were a grand total of eight of them, and only three Fools!
Carrie came down and saw the show, and brought Trevor (because it was his 15th birthday) and his friend Andrew. It was overall a thoroughly enjoyable show. Everyone thought that the first scene of the night was one of the best, but for some reason it's almost impossible to remember what it was. I've forgotten once again.
We all (including Carrie and the boys, but excluding anyone from QMF) went out to Rib Eye afterwards, before I drove Trevor and Andrew back up to Fife and then Carrie & myself back home.
Sunday was my birfday! The plan was to get some people together in the early afternoon and go see Spider-Man 3. Unfortunately the show sold out so early that only four people (other than me and Carrie) got into the show. Fortunately one of them was Geoff, my co-birthday buddy, because I'd gone to the theater early and bought tickets for me, Carrie, and Geoff. Unfortunately I'd managed to lock my keys in the car when I did that. Fortunately Carrie was able to get the Tarbets to drive her to the theater.
Anyhoo, after the movie people started coming over to my house, and I started up the coals in the barbeque. Carrie and the rest of the Bead Babes had a store meeting at 6:30, and it didn't get over until after 9:00. But in the interim a whole bunch of people did show up, and I made 20 hamburgers on that grill. I ran out of both buns and bread before the last one was made, so Jamie had to have his low-carb style.
We all had a pretty durned good time, and some of my friends who had never been to my house before were able to come! I like people to see my house.
Everyone started trickling out between 11:00 and 12:00 (because the next day was a Monday, and most peoples work on a Monday). Somebody left a DS at my house (see this post). Neighbor Gary spent the night on the couch 'cause he was meeting a friend at 8:00 in the AM at Metropolitan Market, and it made no sense for him to drive all the way down to Oly just to have to drive all the way back up in the morning.
That brings us to Monday, which was thoroughly uneventful. I can't remember a thing about it right now, but my brain is a little fuzzy this early in the AM.
Then yesterday (Tuesday) after work my dad came over and we took him to Katie Downs from lunch. Then he and I worked in the backyard, creating a new flower bed next to the lilac tree. We went to the Fred Meyer and bought a whole bunch of flowers which we then planted. Take a look!
Doesn't look like much now, but that's 'cause everything was just planted! Give it a few weeks to grow and you'll be amazed at the riot of colour in my backyard! Carrie went to teach class in the evening and I went to Trader Joe's for food supplies (other than cheese, which we still have a tonne of thanks to Amsterdam). Then I watched the episode of Numb3rs that I'd missed on Friday, and then a new episode of Veronica Mars guest-starring Paul Rudd! Very funny episode.
Carrie called me to pick her up shortly after that, and we at the leftover pizza slices from Katie Downs.
When I came to bed (after ECW) I started my new tradition: writing before I go to sleep. Now that I am 30 years old I am entering a new phase in my life. I am going to start writing up a storm, for reals. In the past I've dabbled with writing, but (aside from in college) never really put aside any time to write consistently. Well, from now on I'm going to be writing almost every night before I go to sleep. I'm going to start with stuff for this website: Movie Reviews and Articles that I've been long neglecting. Then I'm going to be moving on to other writing endeavors. I'll keep you posted.
Two of my favorite writers, Robert A. Heinlein and Haruki Murakami, started writing for reals when they were 30. I think I'm in good company.
posted by Christopher at 7:46 AM
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Sunday, May 06, 2007
Today = My 30th Birthday
Hooray! I'm an old man today!
The past few days have been pretty crazy, so I'll write all about them tomorrow, when it isn't my birthday. For now I'm just gonna enjoy!
Happy birthday also to the Geoff!
The past few days have been pretty crazy, so I'll write all about them tomorrow, when it isn't my birthday. For now I'm just gonna enjoy!
Happy birthday also to the Geoff!
Labels: Updates
posted by Christopher at 9:16 AM
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Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Wouldya Lookithat!
Last night I did a minor redesign here at thisischris.com - so minor that you might not notice. I widened the site by a whopping 80 pixels, and I also centered it. 80 pixels may not seem like a lot, but now I can embed YouTube videos without having to manually resize them. That save me a lot of headache, I tell you what!
Here's an example:
Anyhoo, it was such a nice day (finally) that Carrie y I took a walk in the late afternoon in the neighborhoods to the north. There are WAY fewer homes for sale this year than there were at this time last year. We stopped by the Neighborhood Market on the way home and picked up some chicken breasts. I started the barbeque as soon as we got back home, and Carrie cooked up some barbequed chicken!
In the evening I did a whole bunch of catching up on stuff I've been putting off because of the craziness of last week. I also finished up this redesign. Carrie went to bed way early but didn't end up falling asleep until after I came to bed at normal time. Umm... yeah, that's about it.
Here's an example:
Anyhoo, it was such a nice day (finally) that Carrie y I took a walk in the late afternoon in the neighborhoods to the north. There are WAY fewer homes for sale this year than there were at this time last year. We stopped by the Neighborhood Market on the way home and picked up some chicken breasts. I started the barbeque as soon as we got back home, and Carrie cooked up some barbequed chicken!
In the evening I did a whole bunch of catching up on stuff I've been putting off because of the craziness of last week. I also finished up this redesign. Carrie went to bed way early but didn't end up falling asleep until after I came to bed at normal time. Umm... yeah, that's about it.
posted by Christopher at 8:38 PM
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Sunday, March 04, 2007
Ubuntu? I Buntu!
For the past year or so I've been looking for a good way to abandon Windows for an Operating System that, y'know, actually works. Because of that I've been looking heavily into the Mac frontier, because of all operating systems, it looks like the one that you have to work on the least in order to get it to run correctly. It just works.
The problem is that Macs are damnably expensive. If I were to get a Mac, it would have to be the MacBook Pro, the cheapest of which is $2,000. However, I could get a regular laptop with similar tech specs for under $1,500, onto which I could install a different OS.
What OS, though? I've always shied away from any Linux stuff because all of it seems like a pain to put together. I don't wanna hafta compile kernels and use command prompts and all that crap. I don't even know what a kernel is, really (I have some vague notions). I just want my OS (like Mac OS) to simply work. And I don't want to have to learn a new programming language for it. I don't want to have to work to get my OS to work.
So recently I stumbled upon Ubuntu. This seems to be pretty close to being the best of both worlds. It has the inherent stability of a Linux platform with the ease-of-use of the Mac OS. Plus it has incredible community support, so if I ever need to figure out how to do something on it I can ask somebody and probably get a pretty good answer. It looks like I could use Ubuntu without knowing anything about Linux, too!
So I am seriously, seriously torn. Mac OSX still is the OS that seems to just work the best. I'd still have to fight with Ubuntu now and again (getting some programs to run seems tricky). Going Ubuntu would be cheaper (which is appealing considering we're getting a new deck put in right now), but in the long run would it make me happier?
I burned a boot CD of Ubuntu and ran it for a while on this computer (this computer is a little too old and slow to handle it well), and it does look cool. But not quite as cool as a Mac.
Any advice would be helpful! Seriously! When I ditch Windows this May, in what direction should I run?
The problem is that Macs are damnably expensive. If I were to get a Mac, it would have to be the MacBook Pro, the cheapest of which is $2,000. However, I could get a regular laptop with similar tech specs for under $1,500, onto which I could install a different OS.
What OS, though? I've always shied away from any Linux stuff because all of it seems like a pain to put together. I don't wanna hafta compile kernels and use command prompts and all that crap. I don't even know what a kernel is, really (I have some vague notions). I just want my OS (like Mac OS) to simply work. And I don't want to have to learn a new programming language for it. I don't want to have to work to get my OS to work.
So recently I stumbled upon Ubuntu. This seems to be pretty close to being the best of both worlds. It has the inherent stability of a Linux platform with the ease-of-use of the Mac OS. Plus it has incredible community support, so if I ever need to figure out how to do something on it I can ask somebody and probably get a pretty good answer. It looks like I could use Ubuntu without knowing anything about Linux, too!
So I am seriously, seriously torn. Mac OSX still is the OS that seems to just work the best. I'd still have to fight with Ubuntu now and again (getting some programs to run seems tricky). Going Ubuntu would be cheaper (which is appealing considering we're getting a new deck put in right now), but in the long run would it make me happier?
I burned a boot CD of Ubuntu and ran it for a while on this computer (this computer is a little too old and slow to handle it well), and it does look cool. But not quite as cool as a Mac.
Any advice would be helpful! Seriously! When I ditch Windows this May, in what direction should I run?
posted by Christopher at 9:22 AM
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Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Oh yeah... right...
I'm still here, I'm still here. These last couple o' weeks have been crazy-go-nutz, though. I've just decided to throw my hands up and re-start writing on this site tomorrow, the start of March. So look for my monthly "of the month" update, and then after that I'll try to get back into the swing of this.
Labels: Updates
posted by Christopher at 6:25 PM
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Tuesday, February 06, 2007
New Movie Review: Pan's Labyrinth
I wrote a movie review! Gasp! It's only been almost five months since I wrote the last one (though I only saw a couple of movies in the interim... I really need to get back into the habit of going out to the movies). Anyway, read the review by clicking below:
Pan's Labyrinth
Labels: Updates
posted by Christopher at 11:09 PM
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