Ploafmaster General

Yeah, I took down the ads.  They pretty much didn't have anything relevant for my site.

On a seperate note, I've been wicked busy lately, and since Valerie's computer died, I can only maintain my blog at work - not the best idea, so I've been slow to keep up.

Hopefully I'll have my first Apple in a few weeks and I can post more regularly.

Heh heh...yeah.  So I'd been wondering why I couldn't see the Google Ads on my page, and then it struck me...

Adblock for Firefox.  I'd been bolcking the whole Google Page Ads thingy, so I couldn't see it, even on my site.  I took that off for now so I could confirm that it works, but now all I see is a "public service" ad.  It's great to donate to Katrina relief, and all, but does this really mean that there are no relevant ads for my site?

That's wack.

So I'm expirementing with ads on my site - but feel free to ignore them.  It's for something on which I'm working with friends, and we've never used AdSense before.  So my site is the guinea pig :-)

Well that was...ick.  The Czech's mutilated us today, beating the US Soccer team 3-0.

Let's hope our boys can tackle the Italians on Saturday - though I won't be too broken up about it if we don't, since, well...they're Italian :-)

I don't typically follow soccer, but I do find it entertaining.

This year is the World Cup tournemant, and the first game for the US team is against the Czech Republic, Monday, June 12th at noon EST.

I mention this because I'm getting ready to head to Prague, and I'm not quite sure what the mood towards Americans will be if the US happens to best the Czechs in game one.

I'd say I'll root for Italia, but they're in the same group in Stage 1, so either way I could experience some sour looks at the sound of my English...If we win, of course :-)

Afghan donkey bomb plot foiled

It's really hard not to laugh at that...

Holy CRAP!

My crazy lil' bro Nick just got a call (well, my mom got the call, but it was for him) about an audition he did for Evan Almighty, the upcoming sequal to Bruce Almighty.

I don't know what kind of role he'll have, be it extra or walk-on, or maybe one line...but apparently they've been trying to contact him for a while via cell phone, but his battery has been kaput, etc...

Either way, they're filming in the Charlottesville/Crozet area, and he'll be doing something.  I hope it's a visible part, just so I can see my bro on the big screen!

Woot!

Well I officially have the U-Haul scheduled for July 1st when Valerie and I move!

I believe Val has scheduled the movers as well, for June 30th, to take care of the furniture.

Now we just have some final maintenance and packing, and it's count-down to moving day!

I just read a hilarious review of the wretched film, Bewitched, on New York Magazine's website.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Well I finally dug out the manual for my digi-cam, and figured out how to take pictures in "Macro" mode - the special set of functions designed for taking pictures WAY up close.

This lets me take focused shots of objects just under 2 inches from the lens - so I decided to experiment :-)

Check out the results on my Flickr page, or course.

And now for today's dose of piss-you-off-real good:

American TV Stations in Fake News Inquiry

Wow.  Thank you, you six conglomerates who own almost all of America's media outlets.

O-jay biz-Nachez, I've finally posted a few photos of house stuff, like I said I would.  Though I only posted three...why?  Because that's enough to get the point.

Love it.  Deal with it.  Go to my Flickr page.

Yeah yeah yeah, no pictures yet, blah blah.

But I did see a movie last night.

Dave and I watched Shop Girl – my latest selection of the ole’ Netflix queue. This morning I gave it a 3 out of 5, which was a little generous; I was feeling more 2.5, but to my knowledge , Netflix doesn’t allow half stars.

Steve Martin’s novella-turned-film starred Claire Danes, Jason Schwartzman, and Steve Martin himself. The acting was generally decent, but acting alone couldn’t save what appeared to be amateur screen-writing. The story felt disjointed all the way through, and every time the movie took a turn for poignancy, Steve Martin’s voice kicked in - not as his on-screen character, but rather as an omniscient narrator. Martin’s bland narration further interrupted the flow of the story, as well as what could have been a few moving portions of the film.

I agree with Dave, who felt that this movie could have been truly good had it been about thirty minutes long and without dialogue.

Okay, so it's been a while since I've written anything, but hey - it's been a busy long weekend.

Hopefully tonight, I should be posting the pics of the refinished hardwood floors on Flickr, along with some snaps courtesy of Dave from James' bachelor shindig.

Peace, doge.

I may have my first bit o' freelance work coming up shortly...

My buddy Patrick may have a site to design in the near future which requires some database storage and retrieval. Since I'm the main database dude that Patrick knows (I think), he's asked me if I want to help him with it should this pan out. So I said yes.

We'll see! Could be a nice small-scale start into my own side projects!

This past weekend I had the floors refinished in the entire house! The final coat of polyurethane should be cured and dry by tomorrow, so I really can't wait to see the final results around the place.

I already saw some of the floors and the difference is remarkable. It looks like I have brand new floors in the house.  I'll post some photos on Flickr after I take them tomorrow.

For you B-Bawlas out there, I just read an excellent, exciting post on Kottke.org about the 2006 NBA Playoffs.

I've discovered that while I still don't particularly enjoy mowing the lawn, it feels a lot less crappy when it's your lawn.  There's something quite satisfying about making your property look nice.

So change has begun at the homestead...Val and I ripped up some carpet in a room with the aid of her sister, Elizabeth.  On Saturday, the hardwood floors will be refinished.  I even replaced the light bulbs on the front porch (It looks so much more inviting!).  Finally, we're having a roofing estimate early next week to compare with one we already have.  The re-roofing of our house should happen some time in the next few weeks.

I still have to figure out about getting some stuff painted, and I need to buy a weed-eater.  I also need to figure out if I should call a moving company in advance of the July 1st moving date...

So much to do, yet so exciting!

You know, I told Mugs that since I bought the special version of Weezer's Blue Album, it's like I've found an old friend.

That sounds really cheesy, yes, but I mean it. I have so many good memories associated with that album, and I just plain love the tunes.

This past week I've found myself driving with the windows down and the stereo BLASTING. I still know all the words, and I can even hum along with every guitar solo. This album represents so much of what was good about Weezer before they pooped out the Green Album. There's some pop sensibility without sacrificing all of their musicianship. Are they virtuosic? Certainly not, but you can actually hear some attention to musical detail on this album and Pinkerton. The lyrics, though not often serious, at least appear to be more carefully written. Not like the last three albums these blokes put out...

Listening to the Blue Album again has made me want Pinkerton even more. I still don't know how I lost the discs so many years ago, yet managed to keep the cases.

More than a stronger desire to have Pinkerton back in my collection, hearing the Blue Album after so long an absence has made me even more dissappointed in Weezer's decline. Their sacrifice of quality in an effort to attain and maintain commercial success is obvious. This isn't a simple matter of calling them "sell-outs" because they've acheived popularity. There's a palpable difference between the quality of the first two albums and everything else they've released since Rivers' public statement about seeking fame and fortune.

Oh well...I can't have everything I want...I can only hope that Ozma won't make the same mistake now that they're back together.

Okay, so Mugs FINALLY decided to ditch Blog.com and hit up some mad-hot WordPress action.  His blog has moved - again - and I've changed the link on the side bar accordingly.

So, I was reading the Weezer webiste to see if they were planning to release a 10th anniversary edition of Pinkerton, just like they did for The Blue Album.  I noticed, however, a much sweeter announcement:

The first US Rentals show in many years is happening in Los Angeles on July 7th at The Henry Fonda Theater (with the legendary Ozma supporting) and the tix are on sale now.

Wow.   The Rentals reuniting is cool, and all...but OZMA!!!??!??!?  HELL YES!!!!!

The return of one of my favorite bands of all time...a band, whose initial break-up literally saddened me for an entire day.

I read this announcement as I was listening to "Say it Ain't So" off of the Blue Album, incidentally.  My trademark Weezer song.  And now I'm listening to "In the Garage."

I'm so happy my spleen could burst!

Man, everyone shoud listen to Car Talk.  This morning, as Valerie and I were heading to the bank, we heard Click and Clack talking about Wal-Mart's decision to start selling wine.  They had listeners of their show submit suggested name for the, um, Sam's Choice Special.

My personal favorite?

I Can't Believe it's Not Vinegar

Alright, some link-reorg stuff going on...

I removed A Pair of Pathetic Peripatetics because it's become somewhat defunct.  Mugs, though, has created a new version of a blog, reincarnating The Writing on the Bathroom Wall.  He still has his site where he posts his personal literature, but this new site is more of a crazy blog like mine, I suspect.  His old blog still exists at muggsy.blog.com, but that's fairly redundant considering his lit site.

So go visit his new joint and post comments, defame him, and be merry.  Or punch yourself in the face.

And I don't mean a thin layer of mucous either.

On Friday I saw Thank You for Smoking with my buddies Dave and Jake. Holy crap. This movie was hilarous, intelligent, and excellently filmed. The lead roles and supporting cast contributed well. The dialogue between Aaron Eckhart and Rob Lowe was a high point. I think I'll add this to my collection when it hits DVD. Valerie had already seen it with a friend of ours, and she approves, so that should be an easy sell.

Saturday, I watched an achievement in acting. Valerie, Dave, and I watched Capote, starring the incredible and versitile Philip Seymour Hoffman. It's easy now to understand why Hoffman received Best Actor at the Oscars this year. Wow, his consistency of voice, physical expression, and facial mannerisms blew me away. The photography was terrific. The camera shots were delicious. The supporting cast contributed only positively. I'm going to watch this a second time before sending it back to Netflix.

On a final note: Friday evening - or rather, Saturday morning - I exposed Dave to Battlefield Earth. Here is a movie that I currently consider the worst film I have yet seen. With a story by the inimitable L. Ron Hubbard and a budget seemingly of one half of ten dollars, Dave's conclusion was, "I think that movie made me go blind." I can't help but wonder why my friend Chris, from whom we borrowed the DVD, even purchased it.

Ciao.