nanovivid

So this DC trip, we have ended up at the Apple Store Tysons Corner. And of course I have to make a post while I’m here. We’re having a good time so far, and planning to go see Big Fish tonight. So yeah. Fun fun.

♫ Pink - If God Is A DJ

We’re only coming up on a week past, so I considered delaying the trip recap further, but I know my loyal readers (heh) have been waiting with baited breath. So without further ado, we begin with Friday, where after several hours of driving, Jeremiah and I reached Adam’s house. Adam gave us a driving tour of Raleigh, then we headed to the Apple store, because a road trip is not complete without a visit to the local Apple store.

We also stopped by Barnes & Noble for Adam to pick up a christmas gift, and on the way out, ran into Nate. That was extremely unexpected, since he didn’t know I was in the area. It was cool to see him for the short time though.

Then it was off to dinner at Hotpoint, where we met up with AJ, Maiko, and Nathan. The food was completely amazing. I got a garlic shrimp burrito and it was so full of deliciousness that I hardly knew what to do. Then it was off to see Return of the King. I fear that my enjoyment was strongly damped by the location of our seats. By the time we reached the theater, the only place with a group of seats for all of us was the front row. I think I’ll have to re-watch it to see if it’s better when viewed without a cramped neck.

Saturday was mostly full of laziness up until the evening, when we went to Sushi Blues. The place has great atmosphere - live blues/jazz - and the food was scrumptious. It was my first sushi experience, and it was a very good one. I will definitely be looking for more sushi action in the future.

Sunday there was more hanging out up until the sad time of departure. After the return drive, Jeremiah and I had a delicious dinner at Ruby Tuesday’s. I highly recommend trying the blackberry lemonade… it’s incredible! Then I headed back home so I would be ready for the day and a half of work.

The trip was really great and I hope I get another chance to hang with Adam in the future. He’s good people. It was a weekend full of fun and wonderful food. North Carolina weeeeeeeeee!

♫ Spiritualized - Feel So Sad (Rhapsodies)

Tonight Ryan and I resolved to purposefully see a bad movie. House of the Dead appeared to fit the bill. This steaming pile of crap more than fulfilled our expectations. As soon as the neon-outline effect video in the credits hit the screen, I knew this would be one hell of a good stinker.

I guess what I’m going to say contains "spoilers"… as anything could spoil the film better than what it does to itself. From the poor "plot" setup (a rave on an island) to the obviously low budget (this "biggest rave of the year" apparently had not more than fifty people at the most) to the strange editing choices (random splicing of video game footage), House of the Dead reaches for new heights of suckyness, the likes of which few have ever dreamed to attain.

If you’re looking for a great movie to MST, House of the Dead would be a good choice. I’m really glad I only paid a dollar and a half to see it. The entertainment was definitely worth that much, but not much more.

♫ Sheltershed - Shooting Stars

So the weekend with Abbey was great. She is such good people. Friday night we watched the extended version of The Two Towers. I enjoyed it much more than the theatrical release. There were many moments I would find myself wondering how they could have possibly cut all the exposition and important scenes that they did. Despite the length, I didn’t get bored. The movie really does make a lot more sense in the extended edition. I’m still not happy with how Faramir was handled since it diverged so far from the character in the book, but that’s my biggest gripe with Two Towers. In the context of the extended edition, Faramir’s actions do make more sense, it’s just the disparity with the book that bothers me. Overall, definitely a worthwhile watch.

I was also introduced to Eddie Izzard via Dress to Kill. He is completely hilarious. For example:

We stole countries! That’s how you build an empire. We stole countries with the cunning use of flags! Sail halfway around the world, stick a flag in. "I claim India for Britain." And they’re going, "You can’t claim us. We live here! There’s five hundred million of us." "Do you have a flag?" "We don’t need a flag, this is our country you bastard!"

Since Abbey had been awake for thirty-some hours, sleeping way in on Saturday was totally on the menu. I woke up a couple hours before her and finished reading Neuromancer, which I am a bit ashamed of not having read sooner, considering its huge influence on many of today’s sci-fi works. Definitely a recommended read.

So we finally all got up and did stuff and eventually ate and then went to a play and that was fun and (can you tell I’m getting tired of writing) eventually slept and then I came home.

Great weekend. Oh, and Abbey’s friends are insane and cool too. Now for a three day week! I’m all about the time off from work lately. Yay.

♫ The Appleseed Cast - Fight Song

As promised, here’s some more about last weekend’s trip to visit Jeremiah. I left Friday morning from the local-ish airport, which was much nicer than going to Dulles. There’s even free parking! Very cool. The airplane was über small - one seat on each side of the aisle. Window seats for all. We arrived in Pittsburgh in plenty of time for me to meander my way through the terminal and have lunch. Then it was on to the 737 that bore me to Boston.

We boarded the T and headed to Jeremiah’s apartment/dorm thingy. After hanging out for a bit we decided to search out dinner, and settled on Legal Sea Foods. Despite a twenty minute detour as we had difficulty finding the place, we made our reserved time. The meal was rather exquisitely delicious, if a tad on the pricey side.

Then it was back to Jeremiah’s for some MST3k action (and it was quite an appropriate film for Halloween night). I also got to meet his friends Sean and Neil, who are both very cool and fun to hang out with.

The highlight of Saturday was, of course, Blue Man Group. The show was unlike anything I’ve seen before. We knew it would be different as soon as we walked in and found ponchos waiting in our (second row) seats. The reason for the ponchos became apparent during the banana-mush-shooting-out-of-their-shirts part of the show. Unfortunately, Jeremiah’s poncho didn’t provide quite enough protection from the banana that shot between the hood and his face… and into his ear. Ew. In spite of that messy moment, we both found the show very enjoyable. It’s a mixture of concert, performance art, improv, and just plain fun. The show is totally worth the price if you ever get a chance to see it.

On Sunday we mostly just hung out until it was time for me to leave. I wish the weekend had been longer, because it was a lot of fun. Maybe I’ll go back sometime. The only sad thing about the trip is that I can no longer sing that "I’ve never been to Boston in the fall."

♫ Tomoyasu Hotei - Battle Without Honor or Humanity

So, The Matrix. It was alright. For a fairly straightforward action flick, it was good. As the conclusion to the Matrix saga I found it to be a bit meh. Sure, it was great to have everything wrapped up and there were some good action scenes, but the whole affair seemed a bit too tidy. Ah well, I need to go to bed. Work and all that. You know.

PS - The song over the credits kicks bootay. I need it.

♫ Coldplay - The Scientist (Trifactor Remix)

I know I’ve been slacking on the writing lately. Sorry about that. It’s partially because I’m working on a new design for the site, and partially because I’ve just been lazy. I’m working on a real post. This is not that post.

However, it’s worth mentioning that I saw Kill Bill Vol. 1 Friday night. I rather liked it. Quentin Tarantino’s movies are definitely not quite like anyone else’s. Though unfortunately I missed a few minutes out of the anime part because I had to get liquid out of me before I exploded. The movie was a fun ride… completely over the top at times, but fun. As long as you’re not offended by ridiculous amounts of blood, go check it out. The cinematography, story, and production are top notch. I’m looking forward to Volume 2.

♫ The Album Leaf - The Mp

Last night, I finally saw Lord of the RIngs: The Two Towers. Somehow I just hadn’t managed to get around to seeing it yet. It was definitely very engaging and enjoyable. Plus I finally got to see that part where Legolas jumps up onto the horse… woah. Hot. I want to do that. I’ll definitely be seeing The Return of the King in the theater. It definitely warrants big-screen viewing.

The tickets for Blue Man Group arrived yesterday. It’s less than a month away!

I’m not sure what I’m doing today. Maybe working on a new site design. I should try and get to the weight room too. Why isn’t it summer anymore?

♫ The DropSystem - 27:7 (Beta)

Yesterday we were 100% power free because of Isabel. I have two songs in my library called Isobel, one by Björk, and the other by Dido… but none called Isabel. I felt so unprepared to welcome Isabel. If only the hurricane naming people would have changed that one vowel. I wonder if there’s one guy who gets to decide hurricane names. "What do you do, Bob?" "Well, I name the hurricanes." That would be fun… if it were up to me, I would have named this one Isobel, because then I would have been able to welcome her with two songs, and maybe my street wouldn’t have lost power. I’m going to go talk to Bob. Next time, I’ll make sure this isn’t an issue.

The really odd thing about it us losing power is that 95% of the city had power, but not my street. My candles served me well, both last night and while getting ready this morning. It’s a good thing I had candles… and my iPod also made a spiffy temporary flashlight.

Work today was 76% more relaxed than yesterday due to the canceling of classes. Lots of people didn’t come in, so we got to have a nice quiet day without many interruptions. I’ll thank Isabel for that. Thank you Isabel.

I went with Jenni and David to see Underworld tonight. When we got into the theater, we found it to be about 30% hotter than we expected, since the AC was out. After waiting half an hour for the next showing in a much cooler theater, we got to enjoy the film. I found it to be a fairly fun and stylish movie, if perhaps lacking in substance. I really wish we had been going to see this Underworld instead. :-)

This entry has 25% less content generated by me! Let the link mooching commence… The latest works is a spiffy series of visual illusions (courtesy of Dooce). And this flash cartoon about Mario is funny (thanks to Nick for the laugh).

Now that I have 110% overdone the percentage gimmick, I’m just going to mention that the listening links on the nanovivid.com homepage have been rotated. I think it’s about time to get a few percent more sleep than last night.

♫ Mac IX vs. Carbon Community - Antigravity (Daisykutter vs Paradigm Shift Remix)

Today I bring you David’s tips for getting the ladies all up ons:

1. Listen to Dashboard Confessional.
2. Wear cherry scented underwear.
3. IMing wins her hands down the easiest way.
4. Don’t talk about babies (or farts, adds m.yo).
5. Jeff Buckley is good too.

Apparently he’s quite the expert… or something.

Here’s a couple good links… Calvin and Hobbes and Fight Club - The Connection is a quite entertaining article about the possible links between the worlds of Calvin and Fight Club (thanks to Drew for that one). There’s also this nifty flash-based RPG-esque thingy that I think is pretty neat.

As for me, I got away from work at six freaking o’clock today, w00t for that. I even got to go running. Ohhh yes. Now I need to do some shopping to make up for the extreme lack of decent foodage in this apartment currently.

♫ Phynn - Amon