Band Math

(F-e1) + (B-e2) = J
F>L>B>J
F>= $3.00

[F = The Famed
B = Stuck on Broadway
L = Ludo
J = Anything But Joey
e1 = the new guy(s) in The Famed
e2 = the new guy(s) in Stuck on Broadway]

So that's what I thought of the show. I don't think there's anything contradictory in there...

A happy Lawrence Day to all!

As most good days do, this one started with a bit of Galaxies, and then we headed out with a carload of Michelle, Shannon, Nicole, Netty, and me. And a can of corn. First stop: Pochi, where I got misself an orange smoothie with \'tapioca pearls,\' or as I call them, \'ammunition\' (launching them through a straw works very well :) ). Now we\'re at Free State Brewery, drinking and looking at menus while we wait for the arrival of Newgen--who\'s still at work--and Aaron--who\'s on his way from Manhattan w/ Amber.
After this, it\'s on to the show, which, as I understand it, will consist of The Famed and Stuck on Broadway opening for Ludo. Am I interested in any of these bands? Not particularly. But it should still be a good time. The first two bands, for those who don\'t know, are the two halves of a band I never really cared for. If they split along the correct fault lines, though, there\'s a good chance I\'ll like one or the other. And either way, I\'ve been curious to see what the Granada is like inside.
For now I shall enjoy cheddar ale soup and wild mushroom ravioli to the tunes of Skriggety-Skruff and the Good Times. (Ok, I don\'t know what their name is, but there is a live band here). Mayhap I\'ll post from the concert if that\'s possible.

Coldstone

Location: coldstone (duh), poaching internet from Java
My rolling crew and I are enjoying iced creams in 4 delicious flavors: cake batter w/ oreos (netty), mint w/ chocolate shavings (nicole), peach w/ gummi bears (michelle and shannon), and coffee w/ heath bar(me). Mmmmm. This after a rousing game of Chipotle-fueled disc golf. Quite a day.

I'd play it...

Ah, Internet-ville. Full of so many kooky people doing so many absurd things. But some of these things are also entertaining. Like the guy who's working on a Homestar Runner mod of Half Life. Unfortunately, the project seems to have died (probably had something to do w/ the release of Half Life 2), but the dude posted on his forum a few days ago, saying he'd like to finish it. Not that anyone's playing the original Half Life anymore... At the very least, though, you should check out the player models. It's interesting to see how he made 3-D 'sense' of the nonsensically-shaped HR characters (there's even a Trogdor model). There was some talk of making the mod open-source, so mayhap I can get my hands on those models in the near future and 3DS them to the Max.

Link from a killa

Here's something interesting... I was going through my journal, and I found a web address I'd written down over a year ago in my American English class. The one taught by Professor Murray, who was recently convicted of stabbing his wife... It's just a silly little linguistics test, to see if we could determine how some new words were added to the language. It's not all that interesting, but a guy who had most likely killed someone a few months earlier gave it to me, which is interesting in a weird, weird, very weird way. Enjoy. (Note: when I typed in the address, I got 404'd!, so the site is brought to you courtesy of archive.org, one of the most useful/cool websites out there.)

My Life

Episode 1138

A Trivial Pursuit

Wings! Tuesday has again come to the Galaxy, and our hero
must now meet his destiny at BUFFALO WILD WINGS. He
woke up late in the afternoon, and most likely won't eat anything
until wing-a-lings. The resulting hunger will make potato wedges
unavoidable.

Meanwhile, his wife Netty has traveled to the remote planet of
Stone House, where she leads a rescue mission to save the
babies there from an evil foe known only as Laura B.

In the chaos of the moment, one thing seems clear: there will
be wings and trivia very soon. And based on recent patterns,
SUPER TENNIS seems likely as well...

2 cool things

Hello, and welcome to today's episode of 2 Cool Things. First up, something I didn't have time to post before the weekend's G.C. excursion: the 1-hour Will Wright talk from this year's GDC, in which he talks about his new, mind-bogglingly awesome game, Spore. That guy's a freaking genious.
And Thing 2: the Cloud Harp project, in which a laser/telescope setup is used to generate music from clouds. The samples they have on the site actually kinda sound the way they should. Ensign--Cool Factor 5...engage.

In other news...

For you pirate fans out there, while I was browsing the IMDb, I came across *Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (set to come out next year) and Pirates 3 (set to come out in '07). The fun part is that they're filming at the same time, so we'll get more pirates two years in a row! There is a movie coming out in 2006 called 'Return of the Ninja', so for those keeping track, if we start in 2003 when the original 'Pirates' came out and go on into the forseeable future, it looks like the score is Pirates: 3 Ninjas: 1 Go Pirates!

*Before you click on the links, there are a couple of minor spoilers if you look at the 'credited cast' section, so if you don't want to know who the new characters will be, don't look.

We saw Batman Begins last night! And now I'm reviewing it!

I've been waiting for this one since I heard about it a year or so ago. Actually, I've been waiting much longer than that-- since Joel Schumacher hijacked the franchise and drove it straight into the ground, I've been hoping someone would come along to resurrect it. The first two Batmans (Batmen?) were good-- a little over the top at times, but in a controlled and purposeful way. When it comes to Burton, you either love him or hate him. I love him--he tends to make movies that stand out from all the other crap out there, and I'm looking forward to seeing what he does with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He did a good job with Batman, and so did Keaton. Then Warner Brothers apparently decided that success wasn't for them, and did their best to piss off Batman fans around the world (myself included). But that's all in the past. Christopher Nolan has taken over, and WB seems to have stayed out of his way. (Nolan directed Memento--if you haven't seen it, do so immediately.)

The new Batman...well...makes sense. He's believable. He's a real person in a real world. He uses real gadgets and a real car (well...not real, but you know what I mean). We get the backstory, and we get to understand why he does what he does (though if you've read Frank Miller's "Batman: Year One" graphic novel, you're already familiar with much of this). The story's as much about Bruce Wayne as it is about Batman, which is as it should be. Christian Bale plays a great Batman--he's moody and emotional, seems constantly on the verge of a breakdown, and you always wonder whether he's going to stay true to the 'good guy' code or give in to his instincts for revenge. And the rest of the cast is crazy-go-nuts as well. Michael Caine is the perfect replacement Alfred, possibly better than the last (though I did really like that guy...). And I always like Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman, and Gary Oldman. The girl (because yes, there's always a girl), played by Katie Holmes was really the only weakness. She's an ok actress and all, but she looks 16 and I didn't buy her as an Assistant D.A. I wouldn't say she brought the film down, but a little more thought could have gone into the casting for this part (they considered Natalie Portman, who most likely would have been a better choice). Oh, and the music was quite good. But really, how could it not be? When you combine the talents of Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard, you can't go wrong. It wasn't quite as exciting as Danny Elfman's original Batman score, but it really fit the movie-- a little darker, a little more serious.

In general, it's just much less 'cartoony' than other comic-book movies like Spiderman, etc. In fact, a lot of people are calling this the best comic-book movie ever. In my opinion it's second to Sin City (hm...another Frank Miller job...are we sensing a trend here?) but a very close second. That's just what I think, though. Go see it for yourself and let me know what you think--methinks you'll like it--and then we'll wait together for the sequel(s), already in the works.

Oh, and because some giving things overall scores is fun: 9.5/10

Location: my futon, at home

My wireless router works! (shh...don't tell k-state) And as an added bonus, i got Y! messenger to work on Little Compy! For those who use it, my away-from-home I.D. is wireless_chris_turpin. I'll use it when I'm either away from home or using Big Compy for other things. Hooray for wireless!

The rest of our little day-trip...

So, after Free State we walked over to Signs of Life--a coffeehouse/bookstore/art gallery-- and got our browse on. And a couple of us ordered coffee. I got something called a Jumping Monkey, which is coffee blended with a banana and, I believe, chocolate. It was quite good. A lot better than you're thinking. :) Didn't actually taste very banana-y--the combination of coffee and banana makes a kind of nutty flavor. But the texture was weird...very thick. On the way out, a girl recommended that I try it on ice. Next time, Random Person, next time.
So after our monkey adventures we went to Newgen's and played Anti-Grav for a bit. That's a fun game. Hopefully more developers will pick up on the Eye-Toy potential with the PS3 (or whatever the new version of Eye-Toy is called). Anyhoo, we headed home after that, leaving Newgen free to sleep. The drive home was rainy, but so was nearly all of yesterday.
I'm sure Netty'll have pics up on her blog in the next day or two.