Today is your lucky day! Or it is if you like it when the 13th falls on a Friday. Okay, I know today isnt a holiday, but Ive been bad about updating, so thats what you get.

Does anyone know anything about region-free DVD players? Is it worth going to Target or somewhere to buy an ultra-cheap hackable player to augment my current (un-hackable) Sony changer? Im thinking about doing it because there are DVDs that come from other places that are totally worth watching, but are unavailable in Region 1, right? DELICATESSEN, anybody?

Also, I talked my landlord out of putting all concrete in the back yard so well still have some grass. It might actually be a change for the better – well see. So Ive averted Friday the 13ths unluckiness, at least for now.

Saw the 12:15 show of Harry Potter last night. Liked it quite a bit. I havent
been talking about movies as much as Id like to, so Im working on changing
that. I think I might be suffering from a lack of structure in my day-to-day
at the moment. Maybe I should get a job. Then, of course, I wouldnt have nearly
as much time, but still….

Redundant Post Title & Post Topic? Check!

BootieLAs second anniversary was a fun time and our BBQ was a resounding success, I think. Opinions have yet to pour in, but with the amount of food we served, it couldnt have been much but a success.

Probably San Diego tomorrow, and maybe the beach sometime this week (I havent been in a LONG time now). Maybe twice this week. Also, tons of web work – ShoeHardware is up and running and selling shoelaces like hotcakes, so thatll keep me busy for awhile. There are lots of little problems and issues that Im fixing, although the site seems to be doing the job of taking orders and getting them delivered without a hitch. Otherwise, I have a zillion projects to complete. A zillion.

Its suddenly been a long time since Ive updated again. Why? I dunno. New York, I guess. I worked a lot. Saw TRANSFORMERS. Loved it. What else? Put pictures up on Picasa (click here). Wandered around Manhattan with CJ. Stayed with Katie, Andy & Amy. Went out late on Tuesday night. Had an all-around good time.

Yesterday, did a lot of cleanup and organizing, then replaced the AIO at Winston’s (I’m so hip!). That place is getting quite the staff. Then CJ & I went to see RATATOUILLE. Cute – decent characterization, and great digital vistas of a Paris of Yore. Now Im working on the homepage for ShoeHardware. Its going live today or this weekend – go buy stuff!

I love my new AIO, btw. I’m now a scanning/copying/printing MAVEN. I don’t fax, though. A boy must have principles.

90 years old today! Happy Birthday!

Im looking forward to our brunch – so many people are coming, its almost absurd. Im going to try to take a lot of pictures and see everyone, despite the lack of time. Its not every day that someone you love turns 90, so were going to celebrate.

Glen Mills!

Harrowing as it may have been, we made it here late last night. The story went as follows:

• 5:45 landing at JFK
• expensive cab ride with a chatty cabbie who loved PATTON and WW2. Misplaced daddy worship? Yes!
• breakfast at the Moonstruck diner. Is that like the TV show?
• Work from 9 – 1 with MWS (and CJ!) that included running cable and getting supplies
• Lunch with MT & RF (RF being a college friend of CJs)
• DIE HARD 4 at 34th Street – awesome
• Grabbed our stuff from MWS and got a 6:30 train outta Penn Station
• Picked up in Media at 11 after 3 trains and a bunch of phone calls to alternate options by KF, who is this trips personal Jesus
• sleep
• wake to the every-half-hour calls from an IRA meeting scheduler
• update clapboard

So thats my up-to-the-minute situation. Keep close – more is coming.

Tonight, Im off to New York red-eye style. Were off to New York, in fact, and, with all thats on the menu, its going to be a busy trip, to say the least. The agenda looks sort of like this:

• Thursday: NYC.

  Some MWS, some searching out tasty food. Train to Media in the evening. Anyone know a good cab company in Media? Hell, anyone know ANY cab company in Media?

• Friday – Sunday: Hometown Pride

  Grandma O turns 90 on Saturday, so weve got a lunch in her honor. We may go see the Philly Zoo (in keeping with our Zoo-Craziness Campaign) on Friday or we may be too busy working on the house and yard. Well see.

• Monday – Wednesday: NYC again

  Ive got to work on Monday & Tuesday and we leave on Wednesday, but were going to try to squeeze in some Transformers, some bar hopping, some sight seeing and some good eating. Im also going to get some Dunkin Donuts.

So… Thats the plan, in case anyones interested in meeting up while were back east. Even though mostly my time is planned for me, I want to make sure to make the best use of my time as possible. Call me or e-mail me if you wanna try to get together and well make something happen.

In the meanwhile, I have to pack and work and clean. Cant come home to a house and home as messy as the one in which Im currently living. My attention to detail has really fallen by the wayside recently. Crazy anal-retentive cleanliness gene… failing… discomfort… growing……..

Happy Wednesday.

Hot off the presses, heres a pair of movie reviews from tonights Monday night movie – ONCE. John Carney (“circus folk – small hands”) directed this flick from the Emerald Isle that we saw at the Arclight. Heres a pair of reviews from me and Casey, to give you an idea, either of the movie or of our differing movie tastes.

So Im looking into setting up a super-simple phone system, and Im wondering why I cant manage to find even the most basic list of what Im going to need. Theres no mention of hardware that seems completely obvious to me, and I dont understand what that hardware is, exactly, without someone saying “you need a BLAH to get connected to your major telco.” Also, I dont know what SIP is.

Looks like Im playing outside my field on this one. What else is new?

Just thought Id mention that because I tried to install the updated Beta for Safari for Windows and it blew chunks. The install locked up my system the first time, then the second, it went smoothly, but when the promised-browser opened, there were no menu bar items (although the places they should have been highlighted when I zoomed over them with my mouse) and the address bar wouldnt take any addresses.

Ill try one more time today (Ill restart first and have nothing open, just to give Apple a fighting chance), but Im not optimistic for the worlds most stable operating system at the moment.

I cant believe a week has gone by – I feel like nothings happened, but that cant be true. This is an update to break me out of the habit of not updating, and to make it seem less intimidating to update when I actually have something to say. Im trying to be efficient again, but I have things to fix and stuff to do.

More later. WAITRESS tonight. OCEANS THIRTEEN was pretty good, if a little disjointed.

I feel a little like my weekend started on Thursday, since I eventually left for San Diego and crawled through traffic that afternoon. Friday was a movie day for me, waiting for Cathryn to finish her business before heading back up here for the “real” weekend. I ended up getting back far too late to go to the once-vaunted Spider Club, and opted instead to go to bed.

Saturday was a do-nothing day – I caught up on work and on some e-mails, but mostly it was laundry and wishing that my computer crashed less. Then, Saturday night was BootieLA. Its at a new location, but it was a great one, and a great party to boot. Next month is the 2-year anniversary, so that should be fun, too.

Yesterday I struggled out of bed after a mere 4 hours of sleep to go with CJ to get some shoes for work, then got home and immediately went down to Venice to go surfing. My first surfing experience basically ever was marred by a terrible calf cramp (I only seem to get them in the water – why is that?) and terrible weather (60, cloudy and windy as hell), but overall, it was still a very very fun experience. I even managed to get up on my board some.

Last night, Pris finally got home so she and I went out for a drink to celebrate her return from Barcelona and her birthday (albeit a day late) and then a collapsed into bed. five hours later, here I am. It was a long day yesterday.

Sprint has generally been good to me as far as customer service goes, but because I missed the 30-day cancellation on the mobile broadband thing, Im SOL (as they say) and have to pay the $200 early termination fee. As it stands, thats cheaper than 3 months of service, so Im coming out ahead by the end of the summer (when Id be using the card very little if at all).

Technology often gets the best of me, if I do say so myself.

Anyone want to help me build a better NAS box for my house? Im currently running a full WinXP machine, but I feel like I might be better off running something else, and maybe some dedicated hardware would do the trick. Now, if only I had time to set something up, and test it. Geh.

Nerdy!

The weekend slid by fast. Katie, Andy and Amy came for Saturday, which turned into Saturday afternoon after airport snafus, and then Saturday night at the Dime. It was a good time, although the New Yorkers were tired. My car battery died on Sunday, necessitating a bunch of research into the best way to acquire a new one, a task which has yet to be completed because it seems that car batteries are $75. Weak.

PIRATES 3 was decent – I feel like it was as good as it could have been, given the insane situations set up by the second one. The various pirates were full-fledged witches now, too, which was totally lame, and when Jack Sparrow was in Davey Jones Locker, it was more like THE CELL than the watery grave that any sane person would imagine. There was some swordplay, but maybe not enough, but Jacks flying around using the ropes was pretty cool to watch. All-in-all, flawed, but LOADS less shitty than SPIDER-MAN 3, so that was good.

Casey & I also caught THE TV SET in the first of what Im going to try to make a weekly Monday night movie thing. It was decent, if meandering, and well-acted all around. I found it hard to sympathize with the main character, for whose “problems” I would gladly give a hearty sum. I also didnt care about the cliche “you work too much” homelife troubles of the British executive, especially because they added up to nothing at the end of the flick.

Come to next weeks movie night – if youre interested, Ill send you an e-mail about what well be seeing. I have no idea what itll be yet, but suggestions are always welcome.

Happy Tuesday!

First of all, I never wished Andrew a happy birthday here on Clapboard. The guy turns 27 only one time and his doltish brother cant even get to a computer to write a happy birthday message from somewhere in Ohio. Pretty weak brother. Sorry Drew. Ill have to write you two next year. If my memory hasnt failed me entirely by then because Im so old.

Also, yesterday was the 30th birthday of Star Wars. Did I do anything for it? Nope. Today, Ill put the original trilogy on in the background while I work to make up for it. I like those movies, especially the first one. I did see a guy walking down Sunset Blvd yesterday dressed as Tatooine Luke.

Today is John Waynes 100th birthday, also. 100? If he wasnt dead, hed be pretty old. As it stands, though, it seems like maybe today is just a good day for Iowa to get some free publicity.

Happy Saturday, everyone. Katie, Amy and Andy are coming in a few hours, so I need to be getting some work done before that. Off I go. But first Ill go grab Star Wars.

At Worlds End… or just at 12:30am, which was the first un-sold out time that we could make, what with the busy schedule of PA work of Casey and all. Its going to require a nap beforehand to make it through (considering how tired I was last night at 10pm, Im probably going to suffer a bit for this one), but Im psyched for 2 hours and 45 minutes of nonsensical battling.

Im also resigned to swimming home in a river of drool, but thats a different story.

So tell me what you think of it, gentle readers, and Ill do the same. It cant be worse than Spider-Man 3, which was as appealing as technicolor vomit, both in style and in substance. Maybe theyll even make this one good enough to make up for PIRATES 2s near-disaster. Only maybe, but still.

Shiver me timbers, mateys! Shiver em right quick! Aarrrrrrr!

Spring 2007 – DC & Baltimore

Ill probably put some more stuff up this week and maybe Ill put the Yellowstone pics both here and there in the next couple of days. You know, if theres a module for putting a random photo up like I already have, I could move everything to there and use Googles bandwidth rather than my own…. Hmm.

One of these days, Ill update for real.

In the meantime, Ill mention that were completely unpacked, all laundry is washed (some is drying and very little is put away), and Ive moved my pics from my camera to my computer. Now I have to organize them and post some online.

In the meanwhile, Ill be catching up on some work (I have a lot of that to do), opening all the bills that I got sent (yay!) and maybe watching some Animaniacs. I hear its a funny show. I need more 2-disc holders for my DVD cases. Maybe I can buy them seperately. Speaking of that, my remote got broken while I was gone, so I have to buy a new one, despite the fact that it works mostly. Ghetto.

BTW, anyone have any experience with Picassa? Ive been asked to download and use it for the Becca and Dave wedding pics, but Im ignorant. Ill post a link when I can.

Despite the fact that we drove, I wanted to post and mention that Im home. Awesome trip. Fantastic. 449 pictures to go through and decide which 100 or so to print and post.

Ill post more later – Im helping Casey unpack. Or hindering. Depending on your point of view.

Ive been away for a long time already!

Wedding, DC/Baltimore, Glen Mills and momentarily, Im off to Ohio!

I got to see Meg & Ket, Kurt, Scott & Sharon, Becca & Dave (obviously), Mike & Heather, Paul & Alyssa, Matt, Steve and Jim & Kat and maybe people Im forgetting because Im exhausted.

Ive been doing yardwork and such for my mom while Ive been in Glen Mills and otherwise hiding in the house reading and organizing old stuff that I didnt know I had. I wish I was faster at scanning things, because Id totally do an embarass-matt website where I put the worst of my high school poetry online, complete with doodles and nonsense.

Anyway, Ive gotta go to bed now because Im getting up at 4:45 am to shower and catch a plane. Lovely, right? Anyway, pictures will be coming forthwith, this much I promise, even if it IS a few days down the road.

The last couple days, Ive been hanging out with Meg & Ket and wandering around the greater Silver Spring area. I got Dunkin Donuts this morning, and Im now sitting in a soft chair that is located geographically almost exactly where I used to play club volleyball during my time here at UMBC. I found a good deal on a sweatshirt, but Im still rocking the old one, because hell, its probably 10 years old.

Today its work and then hanging out with Krol, which is very exciting, and then Im hoping that we can meet up with Scott and Sharon for an evening of fun and excitement old-school style. Maybe Sharon will initiate Naked Hour like she always used to. Well see.

Ill post pictures next time. Next time, gadget… next time.

Three hours of sleep later, here I sit, in LAX, playing on my new Sprint Mobile Broadband card.

W00t. Nerdy!

Im going to check flights fo rmy Grandmothers 90th birthday, respond to CI-related e-mails and start searching for the latest version of Remote Desktop without having to run the WGA nagware on my computer. Im very against WGA nagware, despite the fact that my version of XP is legal on this computer (I think).

In a few hours Ill be in Baltimore/DC and the fun will begin! Happy Wednesday, everybody!