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Show About Cows
mood:   relieved
Today is April 26. I am watching a show that I taped off PBS called The Standard Of Perfection: Show Cows. (Side note- moo:cow::key:kitty for Rachel language). There were two reasons I wanted to tape and watch it. First because there was another "Standard of Perfection" show about cats, but I forgot to tape or watch it. Also because my Aunt Karen loves cows, especially Holsteins. So cows are cool. The people in this show are mostly east coast so it is pretty funny to hear Boston accents talking about milking cows and stuff. Normally you hear things about cows in a midwestern accent, or maybe Texas for your rancher-type comments. These people really have a good relationship with their cows it seems like. the title of this entry comes from the title of the email I sent to Aunt K telling her to watch this show!


Oh man, these internets
mood:   weird
Today is April 25. Very busy day at work because I was fightin' demons alone. Or maybe just helping people. For lunch I had another oatmeal, raisins, and cocoa powder concoction. Tonight I got another disc of Trailer Park Boys from Netflix and it contained the one with Alex. He seemed like a really friendly guy. It is one of the sweetest and most heartwarming episodes of TPB that I have seen. The only thing that would have made it better? More kitties!

List of Roland-Story High School class of 99 folks on myspace


A super-sexy secret agent!
mood:   okay
Today is April 20. I am watching this movie called CQ about making a Barbarella-esque film in Paris in the 60's. Jason Schwartzman is in it as a director. He is pretty adorable, as always.

Last night I had a really cool dream that I actually remembered. One of the highlights was that I worked for Dunder-Mifflin. I was walking out to my car and I saw Dwight coming in. He had a burgundy newsboy cap on, and I said "Nice hat, Dwight." I was leaving work to go to the hospital for an operation. I had to fill out a big questionaire before I could be admitted. One of the questions asked how you felt about doctors tickling their patients with various implements, including feathers. Then they assigned me to a nurse, and then we found ourselves on a bus. Some jerks on the bus were giving me a hard time but then my nurse got them away from me. I don't knokw if I ever got my operation.

On Sunday I went to Ames and had dinner with Dad, Grandpa, and Jonathan. We went to Dublin Bay and it was very tasty. Dad and I entertained Jonno by recounting the plots of some episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm. I'm guessing we must have seemed like raving loons to him! After supper we hung out at Grandpa's and watched a couple episodes of Entourage. We saw one where the guys go to an Apple store so Johnny Drama can get headshots done during what seemed to be a Photoshop workshop. I was looking at the visuals trying to determine when they would have shot the scenes. There was an actress portraying a specialist with dark brown hair in braids. In the credits she was listed as "Mac Salesgirl." I was basically flipping out. I was like, "That's where I *work*!!" To quote Tracy Morgan, other crackheads ain't got to watch their jobs on TV. It was probably just trippy since all the stores look alike. I mean, Hy-Vee delis are similar, but each one has it's own different layout and signs and stuff. Entourage was actually a pretty good show. Good for when you want to watch something light and just enjoyable.


Say what, say what
mood:   confused
Today is April 15. I just have a couple of things to share. First is a song I wrote today which is the Calypso National Anthem. It was inspired by C-po sitting up in the classic cat pose and staring at something intently. I asked "Are you standing on guard for me?" Then I just started singing, mostly inspired by the Geddy/Alex version from the South Park movie.

Recently in my dvd-watching I decided to finally finish up on my SCTV box sets. There is some seriously funny stuff on there. Today i was struck by a simple truth: Borat is the logical continuation of Yosh and Stan Shmenge. I'm sure if Leutonia was real like Kazhakstan, John Candy and Eugene Levy would have gotten as much crap as Sacha Baron Cohen does today. Then again, the Happy Wanderers were more concerned with cabbage rolls and bizarre Christmas rituals than having sexy time or throwing Jews down a well. But still. I stand by it.

And, just so this blog is not "all Canadian whore, all the time" I'll throw you a few links to some good ol' Americans. The Onion AV Club has a new feature where cool people get to show how they're soooooo coool by shuffling their music collection and discussing the random stuff that comes up. Check out Crossy's and Patton's take on the subject. Right now it totally smells like garlic or some kind of spice. Is it a storm brewing, or just some crazy stew? Only the other inhabitants of the complex know for sure.


Adventures in Peripherals
mood:   irritated
Today is April 12. Postscript to Tuesday is that I took a lovely walk around the neighborhood, probably one of the longer walks I have been on in awhile. Saw what I assumed to be a bunch of GuideOne peoples walking around too. I swear they must get a paid lunch if they can prove they were out walking around. There are always so many, and they never ever smile =(

So the main topic for today is how USB hubs are total j-holes. Our two that sit on the bench both went down within days of each other, and then mine today at home was being squirrelly and not wanting to charge/mount my shuff. Tried it in the powerbook, fine, then on the side port on the KB of the imac, also fine. Plus it mounted my external drive no problem. No clue why it just wanted to put on a flashy light show instead of synching in iTunes. So USB hubs...you're on notice.


Tuesday warrior, mean mean stride
mood:   happy
Today is April 11. Current music was a live version of Tom Sawyer (just ended). I put the part in the title because I used to think it was "Monday warrior" in the lyrics and not "Modern-day warrior." Like instead of a weekend warrior maybe? Or a dude that goes to work on Monday even though he hates his job? Not sure what I was going for. Mondegreens can be tricky.

Next one that has come up: "Shoot High Aim Low," one of the all-time great underrated Yessongs. It's this random little gem off the mostly forgettable Big Generator album from 1987. I even downloaded a live version from iTMS from "The Word Is Live" (yet another Rhino release).

Did I tell you guys I finally decided to spring for Premium Crosswords? This is because I am such a premium dancer. (Yes). You can download the .puz files, and then play them in this Carbonized app that runs fine but whose icon looks like butt in my dock and when I command-tab. If I'm at work I usually just print them off and work on them in the breakroom so someone else can use the computer. When you join the premium xwords, you not only get each day's puzzle, you also get access to their archives going back to October of 1996. I am completely serial. With my year's subscription and a laser printer at my disposal, I'll have enough Monday thru Wednesday puzzles to keep me occupied for ages! I have even started doing some Sunday ones too. They are not too bad once you can figure out the gimmick or theme of that week's puzzle.

One of my goals for today is to take a walk in the morning. I have 1 hour 10 minutes left to complete this. Wish me luck!


Instant Oatmeal
mood:   accomplished
Today is April 6. I made some instant oatmeal for breakfast, and now I'm watching The Squid and the Whale. Jeff Daniels is the king of asshattery in this movie, and his older son is learning to become the prince. How did everyone in this movie not win millions of awards? I mean awards that matter. I guess that is why my job is computering and not movie reviewing.

Two Friends, Two Rivers, You Do The Math
Monday night Molly and I went to Omaha to see Death Cab For Cutie at the Sokol Auditorium. It was a really good show. She had played their songs for me many times, most notably in the car on the way to training at the hotel in Nov 04. They rock pretty hard in person. The venue was really neat too - auditorium/gymnasium/et al. If I lived in Omaha I'd probably have to go to more shows at that place. The parking was kind of sucky though. We had to drive around a bit and then park on a random street like when you go to the state fair. We drove back that same night and when we stopped at a truck stop to get a drink and a snack, Molly played one of the ultra controversial Touchplay machines. (the reason I had a separate title for this portion of the entry is because I thought of it during the show and I thought it would make a good title. But then once I started writing this entry I made it about oatmeal, so I had to do a sub-title)

The other thing I wanted to talk about: my friend Michelle also has a new blog, about her Trip To Europe. Like Faith, she has a lot to say. For sures check it out if you have been to Europe yourself or are thinking about going.


Lewis Black vs. Everything
mood:   relaxed
Today is April 2. I helped some mostly nice people at the bar today, and then got to spend a few good hours in the back working on repairs. One was really maddening and if it would have worked right I could have got way more done. You know what I mean.

We were supposed to have a meeting after work, but then there was crazy weather and a tornado watch so they called it off. I came home and watched the new Simpsons episode, with the bullfighting. It was pretty weird, but I liked how they drew Grandpa in his matador costume. Rt. now I'm watching my DVD of Lewis Black standup stuff I got from Netflix. It's some different comedy central specials and some other bits. The first one was from 98 and this 2nd "CC Presents" is from 2000. He's upset at the new millennium. He's not happy at Hilary Clinton running for Senate. (At this point her opponent was still Guiliani - he was upseet at having to choose between the 2 of them).

Here's some links for ya. First is Cartmanland, where you can go to download South Parks. This is an invaluable resource for peoples without cable. The other one is a TV show on Channel 101 called Yacht Rock. I first heard of this in a wiki article on Kenny Loggins (only the browser history in the break room knows exactly why I was looking at that page, but anyway). Then a couple days later I saw a link to it when I was reading up on Snakes on a Plane. After I watched one, I had to watch them all. I've been trying to help spread the word but so far nobody at work thinks it is as funny as I do. So check it out, see what you think. Finally, wanted to give a quick shout-out to my buddy Faith. A long-time supporter of The Land of Rach, HFH has now started her own blog. And she's written more words in 2 months of entries than I probably will in like a year ;-)


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