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October 26, 2005
Cool web comic
Geek AND Hookup/sex humor! What's not to love?
The Least I Could Do
The first few are not so great, but it gets funnier.
Posted by Nakia at 02:46 PM | Comments (1)
October 24, 2005
The Transporter
One of the things I did this weekend was watch The Transporter. Not high-art by any means, but here are some thoughts:
1. The oil-slick fight was pretty cool.
2. How come all these action movies fall prey to the "helping out the girl" syndrome? Badass transporter gets screwed over, but is going to walk away until the girl appeals to him for help. This is lame. Do studio execs think it makes the movie more appealing to women? Do women who aren't forced to by men watch these movies anyway? Would men care if the motivation was just "badass wants to get back at the guy who tried to blow him up"? For movies like this, I'm fine with that. It's not like we watch this movie for riviting plot anyway.
3. Movie comparisions: Ronin. Maybe it's just because they're both set in the south of France. Ronin actually puts a nice twist on the "help the girl" angle, as de Niro and Co. are hired by the girl, then get double and tripple crossed. Ronin was, of course, 500000 times better.
4. The entire end fight in the 18 wheeler was ripped off from Raiders of the Lost Ark. I was complaining vocally about this during the movie, to the point of annoying Sarah. After the Transporter, I put in the Raiders DVD to demonstrate. Even Sarah, who has not seen Radiers 7650 times like I have, agreed that the two fights were basicly the same. Then I got to hear the "It's not the years, it's the milage" line, which was just gravy.
I'm not sure why I needed to write all that about a movie that's average at best. There was REALLY good baseball on this weekend, yet I write about The Transporter.
Am I becoming one of those "complain about it on the internet" people?
Posted by Nakia at 04:48 PM | Comments (5)
October 17, 2005
The rest of the weekend
The Wilco show dominated the weekend, I guess. Saturday we ate some Waffle House then left Asheville. We stopped in Hendersonville on the way back. My gradfather's ashes were scattered off Jump Off Rock just outside the town, so I wanted to visit. There was actually a wedding going on up there, so I just left my grandfather some cigarettes (he smoked Lucky Strikes after WW 2, but had switched to Camel nonfilters by the time I knew him) and we took off.
We then stopped at the outlets in Gaffney. I was horribly allergic to something there, to the point I was feeling dizzy, so we didn't stay long. We did get some $50 bookshelves from the Pottery Barn outlet.
Ordered pizza and watched football and baseball Saturday night. I don't really pull for either Notre Dame or USC, but that was a hell of a game. And Virginia pulls off the upset over Florida State.
Sunday Sarah worked, so I did some writing, then watched "Videodrome" from Netflix and finally got around to watching the first episode of Lost season 2. More on those later.
It's fall break here at Winthrop.
Posted by Nakia at 02:26 PM | Comments (2)
October 15, 2005
I'm the man that loves you.
Writing about the Wilco show is hard, just because it was so damn good. I'm tempted to say "words can't describe it" and be done, but that would be a cop out. It certainly makes the top five concerts ever, maybe even top three. Well, certainly the top three. Wilco was just incredible.
Thomas Wolfe Auditorium in Asheville is a nice place to see a show. The acoustics are good, it's not too big, and you can buy a pretzel if you want. And the parking situation is good, too. Sarah and I parked in the garage a street behind the auditorium, then cut through an alley behind the venue to the front. Across the parking lot was Wilco's tour bus. Who did we see as we were walking up that alley? None other than Jeff Tweedy, out for a little pre-show smoke and stroll. He was across the parking lot, back by his bus, so it's not like we got to talk to him or anything, but it was still cool just to see him hanging out by himself. It was a good omen.
Sarah and I grabbed a smoothie and muffin at Malaprops (very cool bookstore) before the show, then found our seats about 7:30. The opening band was Rose Hill Drive. They were skinny, very long haired guys who looked to be about 20 and sounded like they were in 1976. I tunred to Sarah and said "I think it's time to head down to Houston and get Aerosmith tickets." She cracked up. It was Foghat meets Ted Nugent. Not that they were bad. I just wonder what kid finds there dad's old record collection, pulls out the "Stranglehold" single, and says "We should sound like THAT!". They were also very loud, so Sarah and I listened to most of their set in the lobby (along with lots of other people).
Then, Wilco. They opened with "Misunderstood" which was just perfect (I was actually hoping for that song in an encore, and I got it first thing). Since I can't find the setlist on the internet yet, I'll do my best from memory and totally screw up the order.
Misunderstood
Hell is Chrome
Kingpin
Jesus, etc
I Am Trying to Break Your Heart
War on War
Hummingbird
I'm the Man Who Loves You
Ashes of American Flags
Monday (in Encore #2)
Outamind, Outasite (in Encore #2)
"A New song"
That's all I can remember right now. I'll update when I get home and can look over Summerteeth and A Ghost Is Born. There were a lot more songs, as they played for almost two hours. I would have liked to have heard "Heavy Metal Drummer" (that song's just fun) and "Theologians" but I ain't complaining.
A highlight: About halfway through, while they are between songs, Tweedy looks out at the first few rows and says "Hey! How old are you?" He's talking to this little girl on her dad's shoulders. She says "six". Tweedy says "Don't you know that Wilco is "adult themed?" with a big grin, then asks her "Is this your first concert?" The little girl says "no." Tweedy shrugs. She then asks "Will you play 'Hummingbird'? Tweedy says "We'll play Hummingbird in just a few minutes, sweetie, I promise. It's probably the only song that's appropriate for you anyway."
If the story ended there, it would be nice enough. But two songs later, when they do play "Hummingbird," Tweedy sets down his guitar, takes the mike out of the stand, the goes down into the audience to sing "Hummingbird" to this little girl. He even held her for a verse or so. It ruled.
The band was phenomenal -- tight when they needed to be, noisy and experimental enough to challenge the audience a little, but they knew just when to pull it all back together. Great energy. Sarah and I rocked out in our balcony seats and could not have been happier.
What surprised me a little was how everyone knew the words to the YHF songs, but clearly there were some people confused by the Being There songs. Granted, Being There is almost ten years old, but it's a lot more accessible and was on a major label. I guess YHF got people into Wilco, which is pretty cool. It makes me feel good about the music public.
I'm now convinced that Wilco is the best band out there. Period.
Posted by Nakia at 12:34 PM | Comments (5)
October 14, 2005
Random Friday Thoughts
It's Friday. I do have a job and I have lots of shit to do.
Grading another batch of tests. I think the best way to take care of my grading is to just do it -- block off a day or two and knock it out. Schedule other things accordingly.
Kanye West's "Gold Digger" may be the best pop song I've heard in a long, long time. LOVE IT!
Nickelback's "Photograph" however, makes me want to vomit, yet I find myself singing along. What makes, say REM's "Nightswimming" so much better than the Nicelback's crap, even though they deal with similar themes? Is it enough to say Nickelback sucks and be done with the argument?
Wilco tonight it Asheville. Pretty excited about that one.
Watched "I (heart) Huckabees" courtesy of Netflix Wed. night. I thought it was great, but then I am a philosopher. Sarah liked it not so much. Maybe I should have my students whack each other in the face with a ball to experience pure being.
I'm also finally catching up/getting into Lost. The first season is coming my way via Netflix and I'm taping this season so I'll be able to watch it once I've figured out what's going on in season 1. I did watch the 'Season One recap show, so I'm not totally in the dark.
Fall, I believe, is my favorite season.
Wilco tonight. Did I mention that already?
I impressed the hell out of some of my students by mentioning I owned the first Dashboard Confessional CD.
Ben Folds is playing at Furman. How come all we got was Allgood about 24 times? It's like Jimmy said "We try to get good bands, but Allgood always shows up."
And I'm spent. . .
Posted by Nakia at 12:19 PM | Comments (4)
October 12, 2005
Getting Grading Done
I'm doing pretty well with the Getting Things Done method. I just filed a bunch of stuff in my 'to be filed" box, actually and my Inbox is almost at empty. There is one thing, though, that constantly derails me. It's an essential part of my job, so if GTD and I are to continue our relationship, then I have to figure out some way to better integrate it into the system.
That thing is grading.
I have to grade. It's a necessary part of my job. I also have to grade in a way that provides feedback to my students. I can't just slap a number or letter on an assignment and move on. I also have to get the assignment back in a timely manner. It's one of the things my students evaluate me on, and it's important that they know how they're doing in the class. Grading, however, constantly derails my program. I lug up the papers or tests and spend a few days focusing almost exclusively on getting the grading done. Meanwhile, other stuff piles up. My Inbox gets full. My desk gets cluttered. Other things don't get done. Then, it takes me a couple of days to recover and set things in order after the grading is finished because I didn't "maintain" very well during the time I was grading. I also notice I am less productive when I have papers to grade even when I'm not actually grading. It's just hard to focus on anything else besides the stack of papers.
I'm not entirely sure what to do about this, but I need to do something, since grading is a necessary and important part of my job. Next semester, I'll be teaching more classes, so there will be more papers to grade. That's why it's important that I figure this out sooner rather than later.
Posted by Nakia at 03:28 PM | Comments (4)
October 11, 2005
About the Wenches. . .
I guess I never got around to clarifying last Monday's comment. last weekend, Sarah and I went to the Carolina Renaissance Faire, just north of Charlotte. It was pretty standard as those things go, but fun nonetheless. We watched the joust and saw jugglers, belly dancers, and a pirate comedy show. We ate beef stew from a bread bowl (no giant turkey legs for us, which is apparently all people know about Renaissance fairs. No one ever asks "How was the joust?" or "was there any cool armor for sale?". Everyone just asks "Didya get one of those giant turkey legs?".) My favorite part was the Ent walking around. A guy on stilts and a tree costume slowly strolled around the fair. It was pretty cool; I'll post some photos whenever, well, I figure out how to post photos.
Speaking of armor, there was only one booth of maille stuff, and it sucked. David makes better stuff with one pair of pliers tied behind his back. Hit the circuit, man!
Posted by Nakia at 12:26 PM | Comments (1)
October 10, 2005
Harper Time
Last night John and Amelia Harper made the hour drive up I-77 to visit and have dinner. We were glad to see them and hang out for a bit. While we miss all our Charlottesville peeps, it's good to be so close to the Harpers. Although the next time we eat, we'll steer away from Mexican (even though nothing else is really open on Sunday in Rock Hill).
Other things this weekend . . .
Sarah and I went furniture shopping. We didn't buy anything, but did learn that good stuff is not cheap, but probably worth it. I also learned I hate Rooms to Go, but that's just me. I am cursed with wanting the $800 bookshelves at Ethan Allan.
The most frustrating thing this weekend was the (non) D&D Meetup. Somehow I found this site -- Meetup.com -- that lets people with similar interests find each other in their area. There's one for Charlotte D&D players. An in person meetup was scheduled for Saturday and four or five people had RSVPed. I RSVPed, went, and no one else showed. I was pretty angry and dissapointed for a couple of reasons, the least of which was I cut short all the stuff I wanted to do around the house Saturday and drove my ass all the way into Charlotte to go to this thing. I don't understand how five people all RSVPed and then crap came up for everyone at the last minute.
The second reason is I really, really want to get gaming. I am going through withdrawl or something. The past week or so I've felt like something was missing in my Rock Hill situation. Sarah suggested it might be a D&D group. She's probably right -- the lack of gaming friends and a regular group is a big hole, given that I've had a gaming group (even if we didn't game all the time) for the past five years or so. That may also explain the inordinate amount of time I've spent on ENWorld lately. I want my D&D, dammit!
The other dissappointing thing this weekend was the Red Sox getting swept by the White Sox. That sucked. They sucked. They get a bye year, I guess, for winning the Series before I really begin complaining. I just hope the Angels can put the Yankees away. Game 5 is tonight.
And speaking of baseball -- 18 Innings! Holy Crap! And, as much as I dislike Clemons, him coming in from the bullpen and pitching three innings as the Absolute Last Astros Pitcher and winning the game was pretty impressive.
Still haven't seen Serentiy yet.
But at least I haven't had Bojangles in a week.
Posted by Nakia at 03:38 PM | Comments (4)
October 05, 2005
The Right Choice in 2008
I'm turning my blog into a political forum:
Posted by Nakia at 04:02 PM | Comments (4)
October 04, 2005
Sincerely.
Last night I was not in a good mood, for various reasons. I found myself flipping around the channels; I landed on AMC and The Karate Kid. I watched this movie uncoutable times during my childhood; it was one of the few we had on tape. Sure, it's a little silly now, though I found myself actaully getting a little tense during the big tournament at the end. Sweep the leg, Johnny, indeed.
What affected me more was the movie after The Karate Kid. Stand By Me started at 10:30. I was tired, so I only watched an hour of it (it was the edited version anyway), but I do love that movie.
Stand By Me, based off the Stephen King short story "The Body" is great for many reasons. It features a host of young (male) acting talent -- River Phoenix, Wil Wheaton, Kiefer Sutherland (who is damned scary in the movie), Jerry O'Connel, and John Cusak. It also has Corey Feldman, who is the ubiquitous 80's teen. Richard Dreyfus narrates and briefly appears. Great cast.
The movie is also great because it functions on mutiple levels. One one level, it's just funny, with uncountable great lines. "Chopper, sick balls." ". . . and then your mother goes around the corner and licks it up." "LARDASS! LARDASS!" It's also a very effective coming of age tale, about friendship and the loss of friendship, about what it means to be a kid. (I claim that few adult writers write children as well as Stephen King; "The Body" is the work that proves it, I think). It's also an allegory. Four boys on the verge of adolescence ditch their folks, follow some tracks, leave the tracks to founder in a swamp, then find a dead body. Is that when adulthood begins, when you confront death for the first time? The boys are never the same after that; their quartet (ka-tet, to use another King term) is broken.
I was 10 when the movie came out in theatres, so I must have been about 12 when I saw it for the first time on video. I, too, had three good friends I spend lots of summer hours with -- building forts in woods, hanging around the school playground, playing Dungeons and Dragons. We saw ourselves in those kids in the movie. There was a tough kid and an overweight kid. I, of course, was Gordy -- the smart, kinda quiet, writer kid. One thing I am not sure I realized consciously until last night was that the kid who identified most with Chris, (the River Phoenix character), is now, like Chris in the film and River Phoenix in real life, dead. I don't know why it took me ten years to make that realization.
The film ends with "I never had friends like I did when I was 12. Does anyone?" While I am not sure about that, there is something about that time. You're on the verge of something big; you know it on some level. But for the moment your friends are your world -- your summers are free, girls are not yet part of the picture, -- almost no adult pressures are put upon you. It is the last time of Youth.
Stand by Me gets that. And that's why it's a great film.
Posted by Nakia at 10:43 AM | Comments (4)
October 03, 2005
Swabbing the deck (and wenches!)
An eventful weekend for the Popes followed a busy week. What happened, you ask? Well, there was dirty work, followed by a day of tavern revelry.
I had one goal for Saturday -- stain our back deck. I wanted to get some color and water seal on there before the weather started to turn. Saturday looked to be a perfect day for it. It was sunny and warm but not too hot. I borrowed a pressure washer from my cousin and sprayed the deck. It was the first time I had ever used a pressure washer, so I alternated between peeling finish off the treated wood and barely getting the red clay off. That task compelted, I went to Home Depot for some stain. I find I alternate between Home Depot and Lowes. For awhile, I didn't like the Depot here very much, but I've gone there exclusively over the past month. So there's the Question of the Day -- Depot or Lowes?
Having bought the materials (rollers, brush, stain, extention pole) and fought with the Depot people about a rebate (why is the rebate sign still up if the rebate ended on September 5th?), I got home and got started. I don't think I did a horrible job, but I'm glad I didn't invest in the super long lasting stuff, because I want to stain the deck again now that I know what I'm doing (i.e., don't use a roller). It took me all of the afternoon and wore me out. I'm not quite finished, either. There are a few rails left and some trim work to do, but I ran out of stuff. I hope I can get a quart of stain and don't have to buy a whole gallon to do maybe 5 square feet.
Beat, we just stayed at home on Saturday night, watching football. A&M needed overtime to beat Baylor. Furman won. UVA lost. South Carolina got killed. The USC game was interesting. I fell asleep sometime during the Notre Dame game, but I understand they won.
Sunday -- wenches! More on that later.
(No Bojangles over the weekend. No extra cokes, either, so I did okay).
Posted by Nakia at 10:37 AM | Comments (9)