I stopped by CVS on the way home today, which is right next door to Newbury Comics, so I popped in to see what is what.  They have these monthly DVD sales, this month it is a foreign director sale…  So I started browsing the sale section:  Kieslowski?  Check.  Kurosawa?  Check.  Jackson?  Check.  Then I come across Terry Gilliam.  I think to myself:  “Wait a second, Terry Gilliam is American!”.  I then pace the store, angrily trying to decided whether I will hold this in or notify one of the people working the store…  I decide I just can’t hold it in, and pull one of the guys aside.  He didn’t seem to care, but a co-worker overheard the conversation and mentioned that “I was the second person to bring it up, but the DVD is still on sale”…  :)

Now Johnny Ramone dies… It just seems like The Ramones are destined to die fairly young (in their 50s).. If I were Tommy, Marky, or C.J. I’d already be in my car driving to the doctor… Seems like strange timing with the recent benefit/tribute as well as the release of the documentary..

A few more “ribbon magnet” observations: I think the cheesy cursive font the words “Support Our Troops” is written in on the most popular variation adds that little bit of tackiness to the fiasco. Also, I saw a hybrid ribbon (half yellow, half red, white, and blue) today that really cheesed my goat.

My war? It’s the war against hideous “Yellow Ribbon Magnets” on the back of cars. I am all for supporting the troops, but these magnets aren’t the way to do it. First off, why a Magnet? Do you plan to STOP supporting the troops at some point in the future? Do you support the troops, but not enough to make a permanent commitment to them? I mean, really, when your clearcoat is more important than the life of our kids overseas and otherwise, what does that really say about your support?

Second, if you are going to put something on the back of your car displaying your support of the troops, does it have to be a gaudy faux-ribbon? I know this is purely an aestetic thing, but on the ride in I saw 100 of these things and they are simply ugly (Especially the Red, White, and Blue variant). On the other hand, I saw several bumper stickers displaying support for the troops in normal “bumper sticker” format and they conveyed the same message without being ugly.

Finally, it seems that about 50-60% of the people who ride with these magnets feel the need to rotate the “ribbon” so that the “Support Our Troops!” text on the one arm of the “ribbon” is parallel to the pavement. As if they are saying “You are too stupid to recognize this symbol” or “Here, retard, I will straighten this text out for you because you OBVIOUSLY are too spastic to read it at an angle”.

It’s a silly war, sure, but it’s my war…

Boy, was this weekend fun…  I put this post off all day thinking I wouldn’t be able to summarize the weekend properly…  I just decided to say screw it, and just give it a stab.  I’m sure the other guilty parties can fill in the blanks…  Here are some pictures

and I left work around 4:30pm on thursday and hit the road to Rochester…  The weather was kind of crappy, with the hurricane remnants and all, so it took us about 6ish hours to get out there…  I drove the whole way there, and we only stopped once for sugar and urination.  We were originally planning on going directly to Nick’s, but we heard Dez wouldn’t be in until midnight, so we ended up on floor for awhile instead.  I met a bunch of the frosh, did some intro sheets, and just hung out..  Even when I feel out a bit of place being so old, I still feel comfy at CSH.  I will admit, however, that this time I felt more awkward and old than any previous time…

We (Matt, , and myself) headed out to the airport to pick up dez while rounded up the troops to meet us at Nick’s.  It was a great time, I’d say 15-20 CSHers showed up throughout our time there, and I almost finished my plate (just a handful of home fries left).  Afterwards, however, I began some evil.  See, Matt and I had a pact:  We would consume the Krispy Kreme “Original Glazed” Frozen Blend together.  We recruited a few others (well, and the rest of the people who came in my car) to join in while sitting at Nick’s.  What the others didn’t realize though was that on the way home from Nick’s I would be possessed by an evil demon that would take us directly to Krispy Kreme.  What they ALSO didn’t realize is that when I asked “What size?”, I would ignore the response and immediately order 5 *large* drinks.  The drive-thru attendant responded “5????” and snickering was heard in the background.  This was a sign of things to come.  To make an awful story short, the drinks are terrible.  On top of that, we drank them after nick’s, which multiplied the upset stomach factor by 10x.  On top of that, we were wired until nearly daylight, but feeling like shit.  I tried to sleep but I couldn’t hold my eyes closed.  For real.

By morning, however, I was feeling great, even though I woke up at 1pm and missed my lunch with .  I mailed him telling him I was a spaz and we all went to Dibella’s.  Mmm, I missed that place.  A large gaggle of people took a walk around campus, Matt had some fun.  Towards the end of the walk, I broke off and met up with Bob…  I hadn’t talked to him in person, well, probably since Scoot’s BBQ last year, so it was great catching up with him.  After an hour or so I headed back to the residential side just in time for some spaz balancing on monitors in the quad outside of NRH.  I can’t believe this guy perilously played with monitors for like 45 minutes and Campus Safety never even made it around. :)  I took so many videos of that guy that I filled up my camera and wasn’t able to take any photos for the rest of the weekend.

After the monitor fiasco, we headed to the Old Toad, and caught up with even more CSHers…  This is when the story starts getting a little blurry, thanks to the magic of JD.  After a few hours (and some killer Shepard’s Pie) at the Toad, we headed over ‘s place for a little get-together.  Tim H. (former Goodrich co-op) met up with us…  I’m sure it was great hanging out with him that night, but the night is a little blurry…

I managed to avoid a hangover Saturday morning, and we all got up and headed over to Welcome Back…  Boy, what a beautiful day!  We hung out at Mendon Ponds, I geocached with Jared, I caught up with and a bunch of others…  Even that cycloptic bastard showed.  It’s just hard to encapsulate the day like that…  After the picnic, 20 of us went to Dinosaur BBQ for some tasty, tasty, pig.    Mmmm…  Boy, do I love pig.  We then ran over to Abbott’s for some custard, and then back to floor for FUMN.

This episode of FUMN (which, admittedly, was a bit thrown together for Wes’ benefit, and wasn’t entirely planned out) consisted of:

1. Meet the Feebles
2. Wild at Heart
3. The Crazies
4. Naked Lunch

People didn’t seem to get into Meet the Feebles so much this time around…  It was totally by request, a bunch of people asked me to show it, yet a bunch of the audience seemed to shrug it off…  This I can’t understand, but it is tough programming one of these events..  People love/hated Wild at Heart, exactly as I expected (and hoped).  Even if people weren’t into it, there is no arguing that it isn’t fucked up.  The Crazies was a movie I hadn’t seen in a LONG time, but was well received…  I had remembered it being really bleak, and even though it is a hokey b-movie, I think it isn’t too far from reality.  And Naked Lunch, well, I hadn’t shown that since the 2nd FUMN, and really felt it deserved a second showing..  That said, I should have shown it early on, because it was clearly the most fucked up of the bunch, but it was on so late that barely anyone saw it (including me, who passed out on the couch).  Thanks to everyone who came out for it, and I was glad that my lack of planning wasn’t a total disaster.  There are a few upcoming DVD releases on the horizon that I am really looking forward to for future FUMNs.  I can’t believe I have been doing this at least once a year for 5 or 6 years now…  There’s still plenty of fucked up cinema out there for you guys, so as long as you (and the committee) have me, I’ll keep coming back…

Sunday we hit up Dibella’s one last time before heading back.  I did the first 200 miles, and Matt did the second.  We made it back in amazing time, just over 5 hours…  I had plenty of time to return to my apartment before heading out to see End of the Century: The Story of The Ramones with the SNFC….  Only one other person showed up, I guess even today The Ramones don’t get the respect they deserve… :(

We rock.

I think my favorite is “huffing airwick”… On one hand, I picture this teenager who’s run out of glue and silver spray paint. OTOH, it sounds like an indecent trist between and myself.

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Apparently the entire time I have had the CacheCard installed in my TiVo I have been using incompatible RAM, so that my 512MB DIMM is only recognized as a 256MB one…    I guess I will have to order a replacement DIMM once Nick (creator of CacheCard) clues me into what to buy so I don’t make the same mistake twice (even though the RAM I ordered was found following a link off of the CacheCard FAQ, but whatever).  That RAM is like 30 bucks these days, so I can’t really complain too loudly, although it still sucks.

I’ve been packing up for my trip to Rochester tomorrow with .  We are leaving straight for Rochester after work (4:30pm or so), probably ending up there five or six hours later.  As protocol dictates, we will be heading directly to the mothership that is Nick’s. I would estimate around 10pm, but traffic and weather will truly dictate.  I am really psyched about Welcome Back,  as well as doing some Intro Sheets…

Yesterday was a rather gentle reintroduction to work after the holiday weekend. One of our new coops got his security clearance, so I was able to take him into our secure lab and show him “the good stuff” for the first time. This whole process takes quite awhile, so it was the perfect cure for the back to work blah’s. After work I headed over to casa de and for dinner… I was expecting Adam and to go and play poker, but I guess they didn’t feel like it… So we hung out, Adam cooked up some fish that ruled, and we headed over to Flattop Johnny’s for some 9-ball… I played Matt twice, Lost the first game, Won the second, I played Adam 3 times (for $5 a game) and won 2 times, and I tied rory 1-1 (again, for $5 a game).

When I got home I just chilled with watching TV and chilling out… A good day.

Again, I have more Gmail invites to give away, if anyone is looking.

Been hanging out in Jersey with the fam and … Just kinda chillin’ out, hung out with Chuck and Johnny last night and watched Kill Bill Vol. 2. Today we visited my grandparents and setup a wireless network in the house to replace the cat-5 mess that is strewn along the walls of the house… Works real well, ripped out all of the cat-5 just now..

I have another load of 6 Gmail invites, up for grabs.

I bought 4 tickets to see comedian Stephen Lynch (with some other comedian guy opening) at the Orpheum theatre in November… They are orchestra tickets and only like 9 or so rows back, so it should be a good time.

I have another supply of Gmail invitations available… I have made previous Gmail posts friends-only, but since the response has always been minimal I guess I will open it up to “the public”. The first 5 people to respond to this (either via email or a comment) with your email address get accounts.

Update: That’s it for this round of Gmail invites, come again next time. :)