Ploafmaster General

Oof...that was a long but excellent weekend.

I left work early on Thursday for a home inspection. That went mostly well - there were several things pointed out that we needed to deal with that were unexpected, but not world-ending. I just need to get some estimates and figure out if the house is still worth the work and time.

Friday I headed SW to Farm-Vegas and hung out with my Mom at Mugs' place for a while, also seeing my sis-in-law and nephew. That was excellent. Mugs and I then headed further SW to Greensboro, NC for Tom's bachelor weekend. Mass-chillage ensued. Drinks were poured. Drinks were emptied. Jokes were tossed. Insults hurled.

Sometime on Saturday night we decided, after 7 hours at Natty Green's, that we should go to Steak and Shake for some 2:15 AM munchies. That was the dumbest idea I've ever had. While nobody threw up that night (or the following morning), we all felt like we would. Several of us even had the craps all night. Huzzah.

Thankfully, Robert made is signature Biscuits and Gravy for, well, brunch on Sunday, and we all parted ways tired but satisfied.

Less than three weeks 'till my bro's wedding now, and I'm looking forward to it. There's little better than partyin' down with the people you love most.

I'm really psyched about this coming Friday.

Shortly after Valerie leaves for work, I'll head SW towards Farmville to start collecting my brothers.  I'll pick up Mugs at his joint before heading south to Keysville for Nick.  Then we'll head to Greensboro, NC, where Tom and an Air Force pal will meet up with us at our buddy Robert's place.

We'll spend the weekend eating pizza, drinkin' fine beer at Natty Green's pub, and participating in the general  nonsense so common to our personalities.  I can't think of a more fantastic way to say "Adios!" to Tom's bachelorhood than gettin' us fellas together for beer, food, and nonsense.

Rock on.

My buddy Patrick's wife gave birth to their new daughter last night around 10 pm, I believe!  Congratulations, homie!

A 12 hour drive from Tallahassee to Richmond. Ugh. It was nice to see Val's sister perform at FSU, but I never expected to be this wiped out upon my return. I'll try to get my pictures up on at least Flickr by this evening - there aren't many, but man does that new camera shine. Super sharp pictures.

In other news:

Tonight I formally apply for the mortgage - I still don't have a house picked out yet, but this will be one more step out of the way.

Tomorrow, my buddy William will come with me to look at the awesome Seminary Avenue house again. He has a Class A contractor's license, I believe, and should have a much more critical eye than I.

My brother Mugs has turned into nearly as much a computer nerd as I already am; he's preparing to install Linux on his laptop so he can continue swimming in the ocean of Open Source software available. Not what you typically expect of a fellow concentrating in creative writing.

Oh yeah, go check out Yahoo's new map system - it may actually give Google a run for its money (although Google still has simplicity going for it).

My buddy Jake just created a new site, and while I added his link to the, "Friends of the General" section, I forgot to mention it. It's called CAUGHT IN plei·ot·ro·pism's GRASP and he has yet to post more than a greeting.

Additionally, Mugs has created a new site for his literary wares, and you can find it over at www.peripatetics.net/bjwarshaw.  Yes, that's the same location as our joint webiste (which hasn't been updated in AGES), but I decided to let him use some web space for his own personal web development.

If you didn't already notice it in the comment to the last post, my buddy Patrick has set up a blog on his site: http://www.newbornproducts.com/blog

Check it out.  Now.  Do it!

My buddy Jake approached me recently about starting a traditional Celtic band - just a small group that would perform occaisonally at Rare Old Times, and Irish pub in Richmond's West End.

Considering I'm 3/8 Irish (woohoo!) and I recently restrung my guitar, this should work out quite nicely. Now I just need to go find some music...

Yesterday, at around 6:20 pm EST, my little nephew was born to my brother Mugs and his lovely wife, Valorie!

Little Donavan Patrick Warshaw came into the world at 7lbs 9oz.!!!

Now I get to play the part of the crazy uncle...Oh ho ho...{{devlish laugh}}

A Pair of Pathetic Peripatetics is now live. It looks boring, and there's barely any content, but that'll change soon enough. Enjoy!

Soon, oh yes, very soon, my brother Mugs and I will be creating a new website called "A Pair of Pathetic Peripatetics."

This website will stay up as the content of the new site will likely be more focused on discussion, issues, humor, or who knows. The content will be jointly edited by my bro and I, and I will attempt to work on some kind of graphics for the site (yeah, I still have to work on this one first).

Here's to another grand web adventure!

What, I ask you, could be more thrilling than a 7' tall professional athlete, dressed in plate armor with a chain mail undercoating? How about a weaponized wheelchair? How about the on-screen death of Jud Nelson (who, by the way, hasn't aged a day since The Breakfast Club)?

This very AM, I was fortunate enough to catch the final half-hour of Shaquille O'neal's cinematic tour de force, Steel: a cutesy little tale of ex-Army scientists who try to defend Los Angeles from a less benevolent ex-Army scientist and his attempts to distribute ultra-sophisticated weaponry (some sorts of laser pistols, it would seem) to some rather unsavory locals.

Would any Shaq film be complete without a rap "song" from the man himself? Though I can't seem to recall the title of this wunderwerk, I can assure myself (and the rest of you!) that it must have been a pure masterpiece.

I am left in awe of Shaquille and his "triple-threat" ability. Just as he owns the court, he enforces his dominion over the musical and cinematic entertainment industries.

Here's to Shaq. I salute you, Big Guy. Keep up the great work!

Allow me to weigh in on my initial impressions of Mozilla's Firefox:

It rocks the crap out of MSIE, hands down.

Dan has already mentioned most of the reasons, so I won't go into them, but let me say this:

As a student who frequently writes papers while researching, I have always found it frustrating to have 3 to 4 browser windows open plus my word processor. It becomes difficult to see which pages are which, and it's an eye-killer just trying to look at the bar. With Firefox, all I'll ever need open are two windows, that's it. By sacrificing a centimeter of space in my browser window (though if I'm remembering properly, it's made up by the lack of a useless grey bar at the bottom), I save time and aggravation galore. I'd say it's worth it.

Gotta fly. I think I just wanted to make my first post in Danland, so now I have. More Brian-esque contributions will inevitably follow in the near future.

I'm happy to announce that yesterday, my wife Valerie and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary!

In an age and culture where marriage is cheap, I'm proud that we've lasted this long, and we both look forward to years and years down the road.

I love you baby :-)

Me bro' Mugs has been writing a bit of delightful short pieces of late o'er at The Writing on the Bathroom Wall. Go check it out, especially the clever haiku...

I'm particularly glad that he seems to have resurrected the Perpetrator concept - a series of absurd fictitious crime abstracts.