Meme courtesy of Rory

Posted on by grahams

“Once tagged by this entry, the assignment is to write a blog entry of some kind with six random facts about yourself. Then, pick six of your friends and tag them; no tag backs. This explanation should be included.”

  1. I am unable to wink.  When I try to wink, I manage to close one eyelid while the other lid mostly closes and flutters.  It almost looks as if I’m having a seizure.  Every once in awhile after lots of deliberate attempts I will pull of a vague approximation of a normal human wink.  This victory is short-lived.
    [info]coco_b

    makes fun of this handicap.

  2. When I was young, I was out on Lake Hopatcong with my dad and Uncle Johnny in our 12′ fiberglass rowboat.  This boat happened to have a 10hp engine, which was likely way too much for such a small boat.  Anyway, we were cruising along at full speed when we hit a large wave, throwing everyone out of the boat.  The boat ran around at full speed in a widening approximation of a circle.  The boat kept passing me, getting closer at each pass..  Eventually a passing boat pulled me out of the water, and it was discovered I had a nasty gash on my ankle, going to the bone.  To this day, I maintain that the boat hit me while I was in the water and it was the boat motor which made the gash.  My dad thinks I cut my ankle on one of the fishing rod holders on the boat when I was flying out of the boat.
  3. When I first got to RIT, I had one of the small single rooms in Sol Heumann…   (TMI ALERT) I tend to prefer sleeping sans-pajamas, and since I had a private room, I did so.  One night there was a fire alarm in the building which I guess didn’t wake me up, and the female RA let herself into the room to wake me up.  I jumped out of bed, buck-ass naked, giving her quite a show.
  4. I had a Catholic baptism as a baby, went to church and catechism as a boy (
    [info]oldlady

    even taught some of the classes), and was on track to be a good little fucked up Catholic.  But before my First Communion I mentioned to my mother that I didn’t want to bite god (receive the host), and my parents decided to remove me from catechism and let me make up my own mind when I was older.  Clearly, even as a child I recognized that eating the flesh of Christ was not only creepy but also dangerous!

  5. I can point my big toes directly towards each other (90 degrees from the way your feet are supposed to point) and walk forward.  My orthopedist told me I was “triple-jointed”, which I assume means “REALLY double-jointed”.
  6. I tried eggs again last weekend, I’m still not a fan.
[info]coco_b

[info]naten

[info]kylegirl

[info]carrierwave

[info]notweak

[info]james_kieliszek

Inspection

Posted on by grahams
[info]coco_b

 and I met up with Mauro (our agent) and Tony (home inspector to the stars) this morning to have the new place inspected.  Pretty much everything went well, although the stairs to the rear deck need a bit of repair….  But an area we thought had water damage turned out to be wallpaper that had been painted over and which started to bubble up a bit…  Not fun, but much better than water damage.. =)

I have a bunch of pictures I’ll throw up once I can take them off the camera…

New House

Posted on by grahams

Front of Building
Originally uploaded by seangraham.

Corinna and I finished negotiations, and tonight our offer on a condo in Watertown was accepted! Here are some pictures, most are from the MLS listing, but the larger ones towards the end were taken by me. I’m sure there will be more in the future, but these should whet your appetite!

Obviously, the offer is only the first step in the process, we still have to have an inspection, sign the purchase and sale agreement, and close, and occasionally things go wrong along that process… But we’ll find out soon, because we are closing on the new place the same day we are closing on the old place: May 31st!

Awesome (Extended) Weekend

Posted on by grahams

This weekend was all about entertainment and real estate. The Independent Film Festival of Boston is going on, and coco_b  and I hit up a bunch of screenings:

  • Fay Grim – This sequel to the 1997 film Henry Fool, which I have never seen, opened the festival. I really liked this film… Corinna and Audra have raved for a long time about HF, but I’ve never had a chance to see it. After seeing FG, it’s at the top of my Netflix queue. The story was well crafted, the characters were really interesting, and the actors did a fantastic job.
  • The King of Kong – A documentary about the Donkey Kong world record. Obviously, I had to see this film, but my expectations weren’t high. This might have been the best movie of the festival. The documentary was fantastically paced, the subjects were fascinating, and the film made the trivial consequences seem like the most important things in the world. I knew a bit about Billy Mitchell and Twin Galaxies through nerd osmosis, but I couldn’t even begin to imagine the dirty dealings and shenanigans… Even Corinna, who isn’t a gamer by any stretch of the imagination, loved this film.
  • Rabbit – A short film set in a kindergarten “learning to read” book, where all objects have their names printed next to them. It looked like illustrations from a Dick and Jane book, but with a far more surrealist premise. It was very enjoyable.

  • Fido – I really wanted to love this one.. The basic premise is this: A idyllic world, stuck in the 50s, where Zombies have been domesticated and are effectively pets/slaves to humans. And that sentence makes it sound like a winner, but it was an idea that just shouldn’t have been stretched to feature length. The movie was effectively Lassie but with a Zombie instead of a dog. Lassie episodes were only 30 minutes, this film was 90, and the stretching was evident. I really loved almost everything about this film; The concept, the characters, the acting, the cinematography, etc. was all great, it the story just couldn’t support a feature length film. I think this would have been an awesome 45 minute short…
  • Death Trike – A funny little short about a homicidal tricycle.  I don’t feel I need to elaborate much more..  Very fun…  From the director of Forest of the Dead.
  • Black Sheep  – Another huge highlight of the festival..  Genetically engineered sheep with a thirst for blood.  Very much in the spirit of Peter Jackson’s early films like Bad Taste and Dead Alive.  Very well paced, very funny, and properly gory.  Those Kiwis sure do know how to make a horror flick.
  • Monster Camp – I was afraid this documentary about Live Action Role-Playing (LARPing) would be a bit to exploitative..  I mean, I think LARPing is hilarious, but I laugh in private..  My fear for this film would be a theatre full of people laughing at the people dressed up as lizards..   But thankfully the film was very delicate and well crafted..  The filmmakers weren’t playing for laughs even if there were plenty of them in there, and when people were laughing, it didn’t seem cruel..  That could be because it was a theatre full of Boston-area nerds, though, so I’m not sure…  But I had the feeling that the subjects would have been able to laugh along with the crowd and not be terribly embarrassed..    It was a very fun film, and really provided insight into the LARPing scene..  I also think it made me a bit more sympathetic to LARPers in general…  I think playing helps many of these people in a similar way I think Computer Science House helps people;  A sort of “social primer” to help not-terribly-social people develop those skills they need in the real world.

To further Xtremeify this weekend of entertainment, Corinna and I went out to Providence on Saturday to see Stephen Lynch at Lupo’s.  Before the show, we met up with Omar, an old friend from the Rovia days…  He’s getting his Ph.D at Brown, but I hadn’t seen him in a few years, so we grabbed dinner and caught up a bit.  The show was fantastic!  Our seats were pretty good, and Lynch (who’s been on Broadway for a year as The Wedding Singer) was on his game completely…  He seemed to have really missed being on his own…  He had some verbal sparring with a heckler, but he seemed to have the upper hand..  It was a great show…  Unfortunately, Corinna’s mysterious food allergy reared it’s head again, but she took enough Benadryl to keep it somewhat in check in order to enjoy the show.  The Benadryl put her on her ass, though, so she slept the whole ride home and missed out on Black Sheep that night…  She woke up with the flu, so fate is apparently not smiling upon her.. =(

On Sunday, even though Corinna was feeling shitty, we managed to squeeze in 5 open houses…  Out of the 5, 3 weren’t even really worth considering, one was OK,but the last one turned out to be really cool.  We haven’t made an offer yet, we’re hoping to have a few more viewings in the next day or two before we make our decision, but we’re both rather excited about this place…

Friday Five

Posted on by grahams

From

[info]thefridayfive

:

1. What is your all time favorite book?
Neuromancer

2. What is your all time favorite movie?
This is a tough question, but if pressed, I’d probably have to answer My Blue Heaven

3. What are you reading right now?
I’m currently between books, but I think I’m going to start The Nasty Bits next.

4. What is your favorite show on tv?
Good Eats

5. What is the last movie you saw in the theater?
This is a very time sensitive question for me..  Right now the answer is Fay Grim, but I am seeing 4 other films in the theatre this weekend alone. =)

From

[info]fridayfiver

:

1. Turn your head to the right — what do you see?
A radiator cover

2. Stand-up — do you like how tall you are?
5’10” (Update: I guess I should have actually read the question..  Of course I like how tall I am, I’m perfect!)

3. Do you believe in heaven or hell?
Not at all…

4. What is your favorite piece of jewelry?
I don’t wear jewelery at all.  I bought

[info]coco_b

a ring (note the lowercase ‘r’) she likes very much.

5. What is the last thing you took from someone else?
I was given some complimentary tickets to the Coolidge Corner Theatre.