nanovivid

Last night I discovered Most Extreme Elimination Challenge on SpikeTV. Some of the re-dub is completely hilarious, and what’s not hilarious is twisted and therefore entertaining. And really, if you haven’t seen people make fools of themselves on a bizarre Japanese game show, you have yet to truly live.

♫ Shiloh - Jacko

Paige: Hello, and welcome to the Krazy Hildi Show! Today, we’re in some special city where some special couple will get their bedroom destroyed, I mean, decorated by KRAZY HILDI!

[Introductions, bla bla bla]

[Couple comes into the room Hildi is going to be decorating]
Hildi: Hey! I’m really excited about this room. What did you two have in mind?

Homeowner 1: Well, we were thinking they’d like…

Hildi: You know, I don’t care. So why bother? Since this room has perfectly normal white walls with no wallpaper to take down or cover, I’ve decided that we’ll be doing the walls in LIVE MONKEYS! [Homeowners look shocked] Come on, you’ll get on board after you see how great it looks.

Homeowner 2: So… monkeys. Um, this doesn’t seem like a good idea. Won’t they eventually… die? And where’s PETA?

Homeowner 1:Yeah, I’m calling them now. [Storms out]

[Cut to Hildi applying glue to a monkey]

Hildi: Ok guys, come over here. See, it’s a very simple procedure. You just dip the monkey’s back in the glue, then press it against the wall. [Deomonstrates]

Monkey: SCREECH!

Homeowner 1: I think I’m going to be sick.

Homeowner 2: Oh good, PETA is here, and they’ve brought the police!

Hildi: Excellent! More people to help! [Motions to nearest officer] Now sir, you just grab that monkey and I’ll get the glue ready…

Policie officer: I’ve seen all I need to see. [Puts handcuffs on Hildi] You have the right to remain silent…

Paige: But HIldi, if you go to jail, you won’t finish the room on time! Though… maybe the monkeys weren’t such a good idea.

Hildi: I guess you’ll have to take over. Use my original plan of painting the walls with a mural of monkeys that have my face.

Paige: Ok… we’ll do what we can.

Monkey: SCREECH!

♫ Seal - I'm Alive (BT & Sasha Mix)

I am the anti-productive. I swear, that Atlanta trip killed all my motivation to get anything done. Ugh. There’s so much stuff I need to do and so little of it that I feel like doing. ::sigh:: I just need to get my head back into the residence hall database get that taken care of and then move on. Must… find… motivation.

Tonight is Scrubs, Will & Grace, and QESG at Ney’s. Yay! And speaking of Courtney, we had lunch at Calhoun’s today… very tasty and fun, of course.

Heh, Jeremiah is getting mad hits from his article about the Switch campeign. Go ahead!

No, I’m not listening to Somnambulist again. What would give you that idea?

♫ BT - Somnambulist

I was looking through my bookmarks the other day and rediscovered Dodging the Parabola Fish. It’s an awesome, hilarious article about Mario games and a couple people who were obsessed with them. One of my favorite quotes: "Ghandi Mario has achieved enlightenment!" (Read the article, you’ll get it).

Tonight, Ney and I watched Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and were very entertained. It’s sort of like What Not To Wear, only the scary guys with long hair are getting made over, not telling other people what to do. A good change, I’d say. During that time, Bravo showed the new G5 commercial three times, and I’m already tired of it. It is a sexy computer though.

I got a pretty big freak out earlier today when I posted an entry and it promptly disappeared from the site, but was still in the database. It turned out that my provider was moving my site to a new host and I happened to catch it in transition. All is well now, but that was much too stressful.

I luuurve this song. Nickel Creek is the shiznit. Also the shiznit: Adam’s mad photo skillz. I keep coming back and looking at this picture in particular. I can’t put into words what I like about it… it’s just awesome.

♫ Nickel Creek - Green and Gray

Tonight was way fun… well, as a matter of fact all of today was fun. This afternoon, Dan came over while I was weeding the edge of the driveway and the little garden thing and helped me with that. Then we played a little Super Smash Brothers Melee and then went running. Here’s hoping that the two days in a row of exercise will help get me out of my lazy streak.

After showering, I went over to Lynley and Dan’s for dinner (yummy ravioli) and then we met Courtney and Brittany at Calhoun’s. I had some delicious bruchetta and "Downtown Amber" which was also quite tasty. We hung out there for a couple hours and then went to Wal-Mart to get hair dye for Lynely and Ney to use.

Back at LJ and Dan’s, the girls did their hair and Dan and I hung out downstairs and talked. We need to do that more often. Talking with Dan is always a highlight.

Then there was Scrabble playing and drink drinking and more good times. That’s what the subject is from. It’s a word I invented during Scrabble. It makes me laugh, and I have no idea what it means.

Such a great day. My friends are good people. :-)

Something I somehow forgot to mention in my last entry… during Trading Spaces last night, Vern made a design decision that we majorly disagreed with! This is unheard of. We (me and everyone I watch TS with) almost always love everything Vern does. But in this particular episode, the kitchen he did had these gorgeous red walls and he PAINTED OVER THEM. WITH OFF-WHITE! We’re all like, Vern, what the eff? It was very unsettling. What’s happening with TS? Frank is going all modern-industrial and Vern is making bad decisions? What’s next, Kia doing a room I love?

Breakfast tomorrow morning at the Little Grill! Yay! That means it’s so bedtime.

♫ Fischerspooner - Emerge

Tonya came to visit last night, that was so fun! We really don’t have enough chances to hang out. We went to Dave’s Taverna for dinner and sat at "our table" and ordered "our pizza"… basically it was exactly the same as last time we were there without the distracting hot guy sitting across from us (I can’t remember whether I’m allowed to tell that story or not… oh well, too late). Then we went back to my apartment and hung out, watched some TV, and then talked for a long time. Of course, we ended up staying up way too late and then at like 2 she went to Courtney’s where she was spending the night. Sorry about that, Ney. :-)

I’m going to see Reloaded again tonight, this time with Dan. Wheeee!

♫ Coldplay - Spies (I love this song!)

Life has been music and artalicious recently. It started Friday night after our Arbor Day celebration at Dave’s Taverna (our == me, Ney, and Dave). We went to Mel Steffy’s voice recital of 20th century music. She did an excellent job and it was quite enjoyable. Then Courtney and I went to the "Hair House" (see, the guys who live there have longish hair, thus the Hair House) for an Oscars Mad concert. It was the first time I had seen them, and they were really good. Props to those guys for some quality music. The party itself was kind of strange, because there were a lot of people there I kinda knew or knew of, but wasn’t really comfortable around, so even though the music was really enjoyable, it wasn’t the most fun time ever.

The next musical incident was Saturday night, at Bandfest. I only went for the first two acts, Shapiro and Jibbercomb. Shapiro totally blew me away. Quality, quality music. Very arty and jam-based. You can download some songs from their website, but seeing them perform live is waaaaay better. Jibbercomb was good too, but a lot of the songs sounded really similar and didn’t quite do it for me. The best part was at the end when Ry grabbed his guitar and added that to the mix.

Sunday night was Erica’s senior art show gallery opening. It was quite nice and the food was delicious. ;-) The new pieces she created for the show are very cool, especially the lip series. I had the opportunity to buy the umbrella pieces that graced our apartment over the summer, but unfortunately Tonya had to go and get them. Grrrr. However, I have managed to forgive her because I’m getting Set Free, which has major emotional impact for me. So there. Go ahead Erica with the mad art skillz.

Then yesterday evening was Daniel Stutzman’s senior piano recital. He is an amazing piano player, and rocked the house. I don’t normally get into classical music a huge amount, but he really made it work. Great stuff.

So that is the cliff notes version of my adventures into the arts as of late. Moving on to random events (and jumping back in time), Saturday night after Bandfest, I went over to Ney’s apartment to hang out with her and Josh. That was lots of fun. Josh is so on crack, it’s great. We watched TS and I Love the 80s, and then went and rented Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, a first-time viewing for both Courtney and myself. It did indeed prove itself most excellent. Party on, dudes! Classic. (And for some reason Keanu Reeves is frighteningly good at playing a stoner. Agent Smith is totally bogus, dude).

Tonight after hanging out with Erica and watching some random tv, Ney asked if I wanted to take a walk because it was freaking nice, I said of course. So we did. Walking and talking is the best. Many subjects were discussed, and it was good to connect. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and processing about some of my friendships (one in particular) and trying to shift some expectations to be more realistic. Good stuff. Afterwards, Brittany joined us for a trek to the mart of wal.

That’s just about it, I think. Work continues to be busy as we move faculty and staff to the new email system. Things have been quite smooth so far and are getting smoother every session. Only a couple hundred people left to go. Yay! :-)

For some random linkge, there are new explodingdog pictures. Ones I like:
i came here to find out who you are
i loved you at all the wrong times (I’m so feeling this one)
i need to know if i can trust you
and a silly one:
i think i need some space to think

Hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful weather. I know I am.

♫ Mint - Digital Mix

I just (and by just, I mean almost an hour ago) finished watching basketball (yes, you read that right). Though I mostly watched because I got to hang out with Erica and hear more about her colossal squid obsession (and she’s quite obsessed).

Speaking of obsessions… ::drool::

I have this "major field exam" that I’m taking tomorrow night (even though I graduated in December… go figure). It’s basically me being nice to the math/cs department and helping them with their statistics gathering, or something like that. They’re feeding us pizza afterwards, thus Ney’s question…

So what time is your big pizza exam tomorrow?

Sample question: which of these is a pizza topping?
a) cheese
b) mandrian oranges (damn skippy!)
c) your mom
d) all of the above

That is all.

♫ Crydamoure Presents "Waves"

What is Tsef Te’ g-gun, you ask? It’s the opposite of Nuggetfest, a two-year tradition of celebrating the switch from daylight saving to standard time. Since we’re now doing the opposite - switching from standard to DST, we needed the name to be the opposite. Michael came up with the bright idea of spelling it backwards and pronouncing it with a French accent (of course, he also decided that a zeppelin was the opposite of a chicken nugget… go figure).

Unfortunately, I must report that while Tsef Te’ g-gun was fun, it was nowhere near as cool as Nuggetfest. We just ordered pizza and watched tv… not near as fun as sitting in the car and talking for hours (and almost getting accidentally kissed by a certain person). The evening was brightened by the ongoing debate of what Lynley should name the stray cat she found. Courtney’s suggestion (which I endorse) is Bacardi, and we’ve agreed to call her (the cat, not Lynley) that until Lynley picks a name.

I kind of wish I had gone to the barn dance that was on campus tonight, but I just wasn’t feeling the hoedown energy flowing. Now I need something to do. I guess I could just go to bed, since it is really midnight.

♫ Shiloh - Dream On

Well, I realize why it’s a bad idea for me to get out of the habit of blogging: it’s kind of hard to get back into it. So here I am, hopefully getting back into it. It’s been over a week since my last real journal. What has happened, you ask? I’m glad you asked, because I’m about to tell you.

Friday night after a nice run, I went out to eat with Tonya at Dave’s Taverna. We got pizza and had some really good conversation. It’s too bad that we don’t get more chances to hang out, because it was such a fun time. Once we returned to campus, I hung around Hillside for the rest of the night, watching some basketball (can you believe it?), talking to people, and getting to partake in Theresa’s delicious banana bread and key lime pie (two separate foods, not mixed into one… that would be weird!).

On Saturday I was mad productive! I got up, watched the end of MST, went to the weight room, and went running. Then I went to 7th Heaven with Dave (yummy) and from there to Joanna’s senior theater show… that was awesome. She did such a good job of assuming different characters and switching between them. Go ahead! :-)

As if that wasn’t enough fun, after Joanna’s show, Courtney and I watched Trading Spaces and then Strictly Ballroom, which Courtney hadn’t seen before. Strictly Ballroom is one of those movies that people tend to really like or really not like (we both fall into the "really like" category).

Sunday morning I awoke to the very odd sight of white ground. The weather had decided to go all funky on us and dump a couple inches of snow! I decided that would be an excellent excuse to stay inside and do nothing, so I did. Actually, I read some. But other than that I didn’t do anything until Courtney came over and we watched Romeo + Juliet. Neither of us had seen it, and we both liked it. I really enjoy Baz Luhrmann’s work and I’m looking forward to seeing what he does in the future.

This week has been eating-out-alicious (mostly because I’ve needed to go shopping all week). Last night was the only time this week I didn’t eat somewhere other than home. Tonight I finally went shopping. Yay for having food.

On my office wall I have a headline clipped out of a magazine that says "Escape from SQL HELL" and sometimes when I’m in the middle of trying to work out a nasty query I stare at it and think "Yep, that’s what I want to do." The end. Wasn’t that a great story?

In general, I’ve been busy enough to avoid a lot of deep introspection, so there’s really not much to report as far as personal stuff. So I’ll talk about music instead. This week I’ve been listening to a lot of DJ mixes, particularly from Hybrid and Jason Dunne. Celldweller has gotten some rotation, and I’ve been really enjoying a new Shiloh tune called Dream On (ask me and I’ll give you a listen). Also, Two Egrets by Collapsis (thanks to Adam’s mentioning it), Need More Time by The Epoxies, and Just You Wait by The Paybacks have graced my playlist this week.

Tonight I finally got around to listening to some Godspeed You! Black Emperor and… wow. I had heard they were good, but I didn’t realize quite how good. Epitonic has a couple GYBE! songs for download.

I guess that’s about it. More on my life will be forthcoming as it develops.

♫ Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Yr. Skinny Fists, Like Antennas to Heaven...