noodlings

Your faithful blogger recently discovered some old drawings and illustrations I made on my old Gateway PC when I was living a sad, lonely existence in Kansas. These were made with the Microsoft Paint app that came with Windows at the time (what in the name of Bill Gates came before Windows 98, anyway? I can't remember for the life of me!) As you can see, my drawings focused on my childhood fascination with spaceships and UFOs. Not sure what that means, but I suppose it does prove that my master's degree in art history had little effect on my own artistic aspirations!

Tony recommended two books I'm excited to pick up: Long Way Back by Brendan Halpin, and King Dork by Frank Portman. I'm in the middle of re-reading Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality by Donald Miller. It's essentially the tale of the author's "faith journey" (how I despise that phrase!) - from his allegiance to a "slot-machine God" to his loss of faith and subsequent rediscovery. Miller is an engaging writer, and the book is full of great quips, stories, and insights that are both amusing and worthy of reflection. His style is very down to earth - many of his chapters begin with sticky, quotidian things like money or lonliness. It's clear from the start that Miller is liberal, which I'm sure will turn off many readers. He's also painfully honest about his own doubts. But by the same token he makes a convincing case for Christianity's enduring appeal - the faith, that is, not the bureaucracy. I'm not doing it much justice, but trust me - it's a good read - especially if you find yourself asking the "big questions" or are on your own journey.

oh, the places you'll go

Tonight LeAnn and I took a drive to Balltown, one of my favorite places around Dubuque. There's a fantastic panoramic view of the Mississippi River valley near Breitbach's restaurant. After a few wrong turns, we made it. The sun was starting to set so I had some fantastic light to work with. I took several pics but unfortunately most of them were overexposed in the sky. Here's one of the most successful.

On the way back into town, my photographic senses must've been tingling because I noticed a majestic old red brick building I've never really paid any attention to before. It's at 30th and Jackson. The place is huge - it's hard to believe I've never really noticed it before tonight. It's fallen into disrepair - windows are missing and bats have presumably taken over. While I was taking pictures, LeAnn struck up conversation with a couple that live nearby. They told her the place was originally a brewery, which sounds mistaken to me. The Star Brewery is located near the river. Were there two breweries in town? I need to research this further.

tag, you're it

saigon
Originally uploaded by jaymce.

One of the coolest things about Flickr is the ability to "tag" photos. In other words, you can label your photos with as many keywords as you wish. This helps you stay organized, and it allows others to search and find photos more easily. This, for example, is one picture that will come up if you do a search on "Saigon". It will also come up if you do a search for "Vietnam", "weathered", or "license". I originally thought this was Photoshopped, but now I'm not so sure, judging from the other pics by the same person who, by the way, does amazing work. Check out his other stuff if you have time to kill.

You can see a list of Flickr's most popular tags here.

Flickr

Waterfall, Trail of the Cedars
Originally uploaded by chiliboots.

I've found a new online photo site I'm trying out to store and share my pictures with friends and family: Flickr.com. This is a test. I took this photo at Glacier National Park last summer.

Trader Joe's

Joanna mentioned that Minneapolis/St. Paul is getting their first Trader Joe's. Although I've heard the name, I didn't know what is *was*, exactly. Fortunately, she sent me an excellent NYT article. Now I'm green - GREEN - with envy! It's essentially a small chain of grocery stores, started in California, that specialize in wine, cheese, and hard-to-find imports. Their employees travel the world looking for exotic delicacies to import or re-create. I believe there's one in Chicago. I think I hear a road trip calling!

victorian thunderstorm

I shot this photo during a thunderstorm in April. This is the first time I've successfully captured a lightning bolt on film! I sat on my front porch for roughly forty minutes, snapping the shutter whenever I saw light in the sky. At the end of the evening, I had snapped about fifty pictures. At no time, however, did I think I had anything good. It wasn't until the next morning, when I downloaded the pictures, did I realize I actually had something halfway decent! This was shot at 1/2 second.

rockin' with Rush

The National Review recently published a list of the top 50 conservative rock songs. I read about it on the New York Times, ironically enough! I'm sure some liberals are crying foul, but I think it's an intruiging idea. It reminds me of Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" (not on the list), whose refrain sounds like patriotic rallying cry - that is, until you listen to the lyrics.

Some of the songs on the list are clear cut - I'm lookin' at you, Sweet Home Alabama - and some of the choices are surprising or just plain odd - Gloria (U2), Right Here, Right Now (Jesus Jones), Rime of the Ancient Mariner (Iron Maiden!).

the lost art of handwriting

I'm fascinated by handwriting, and I love to psychoanalyze people based on their writing style (not very fair, really. Especially when I know them already!) I'm not too impressed with my own - I gave up on cursive a long time ago, but it hasn't prevented me from admiring others'. This is something I'd like to improve upon. Does anyone teach remedial handwriting? :-)

Along the same lines, I'm amazed by the quality of calligraphic fonts that are available through Veer. They're an oxymoron - digital fonts which approximate, quite convincingly, someone's handwriting. To confirm this, almost all of the calligraphic fonts are literally named - "Mr Blaketon", for example, or "Mrs Blackfort". One of my favorites is "Mr Keningbeck". It does make me wonder if we are losing touch with an art form that was taken for granted before the advent of the PC.

the rapid demise of film

Canon announced today that they will no longer develop new film SLR cameras. However, according to this article, they will continue to sell current model SLRs "as long as their demand remains."

Although I own a Nikon digital SLR and love it, I'd be hard pressed to admit that the picture quality rivals film. Photographer Ken Rockwell has argued that in order for digital compare to 35 mm film, the cameras would need to be roughly 25 megapixels (compared with standard 6-8 today, with top-of-the-line models going up to 11). See Rockwell's argument here. This estimate is contested here.

We all saw film's demise coming (everyone except Kodak, that is), but it's still hard to believe that the tide is turning so quickly. I wonder long how long it will be before Target and Walgreens stop selling film altogether.

extort this

A couple of cyberpunks recently tried to intimidate MySpace into paying them $150 grand for some user information they hacked. When they went to make the deal, they got a surprise.

Veer

I'm a font geek. Once of the best collections I've found is Veer. They're not free -- heck, they're not even cheap! But they're fun to browse.

Veer also has some amazing illustration collections, both vintage and contemporary. I personally like the fifties and sixties era space-age stuff.

Finally, they have some nifty desktop wallpaper you can download. I used to have this on my PC at work.

rollin' it, Katamari style

My friend Paul turned me on to this blog entry from Wired.com. A must for any Katamari fans! (May 22 entry)

http://blog.wired.com/games/index.blog?entry_id=1486025

act your age

It's official - I'm a Yelp addict. The site is a collection of local business and restaurant reviews written by anyone who cares to throw their two cents in. It's a great resource if you're traveling to a new city and want some tips on where to visit or grab a bite to eat. And best of all, it gives amateur critics like me a place to exercise my critic skills for good, not evil! My friend Tony turned me on to the site. You can find my reviews at mpwillis.yelp.com. Tony's are at fastnbulbous.yelp.com. He's about 400 reviews ahead of me, but c'mon - he's got an unfair advantage with Chicago!

Both LeAnn and I tapped into our inner children this weekend. LeAnn's incident started on the drive to her parents' house Saturday. She was driving. As we cruised down her parents' road, we approached a group of teenagers who were walking down the street. They were in the middle of the road, backs to us. As we grew closer, LeAnn slowed down. One or two of the kids looked back and began to migrate to the side of the road, albeit rather slowly and with great reluctance. Rather than drive around, LeAnn slowed the car even more and gently encouraged them, in her way, to make way. For about thirty seconds, it was a standoff, Oldsmobile Alero vs. teenage mob, at the OK Corral. My window was down. One of the kids asked with that tone of voice that's more of an accusation than a question which only teens can muster, "Why don't you just drive around?" And LeAnn shot back, just as quickly, "What does it look like I'm doing?" Or something equally witty - I don't recall for sure. I just looked at her like, What the hell are you doing? The wisdom of getting into a battle of wits with teenagers is questionable at best, but I was really wondering what Maddie made of her Mom's reaction!

Now, lest you think this ends poorly for LeAnn, fast forward to the next day. LeAnn, Maddie and I decided to go to Palisades State Park for a picnic. It was a glorious afternoon, and we had a perfect grilling spot next to the Cedar River. After we had gorged ourselves on some brats, Maddie and I took a walk to the river. The grass was full of dandelions which had gone to the puffy seed stage, perfect for blowing in the wind. I picked up a couple of perfect specimens and handed one to Maddie. She gave it one half-hearted puff and threw it aside. I don't know why, but that really irked me. I picked out that dandelion especially for her! Such ingratitude! So did I suck it up like a man? Hell no! I decided to start running back to the picnic table, leaving Maddie screaming in the dust, knowing full well it would irk her. And boy, did I get my reaction. She screamed bloody murder, and by the time she made it back to the table, she was in tears. I knew I'd get a reaction, but I didn't expect...tears! I felt like a heel. I was. Just desserts, I suppose, for my condescending reaction to LeAnn the day before!

One other incident to relate about the picnic. While we were cooking the brats, LeAnn somehow managed to go all dyslexic and referred to the picnic basket as the "pisnic" basket. We were a little punchy and had a good laugh, when Maddie, out of the blue, bellowed - yes, bellowed - "PISS OFF" to her Mom! It wasn't said with any acrimony, but she clearly had the spirit of the thing. LeAnn IMMEDIATELY started laughing harder, while I did my best to put on my stern face and explain, in a lame fashion, what that meant and why it wasn't appropriate. Don't know that it stuck, though. By this time, LeAnn is doing her best to stifle her laugher, and tears are literally streaming down her face. We still don't know where Maddie picked that one up.

hot dogs, Chicago-style

Ah, home sweet home.

Last day of Apple training was much more palatable to my brain. The last half of the class was spent putting everything we learned to use, which I loved. Everyone in class downloaded and installed a little app which completely hosed our computers, and our task was to diagnose the problems (note the plural) and solve them, one by one, until everything was fixed. It was TOUGH. I enjoyed the challenge, even though I was not able to successfully solve all the problems. This is the way I learn: by doing.

Anyhoo, Molly and I had one more great Chicago dining experience before we left. We went to Portillo's in Elmhurst for lunch - one of the guys at Mac Specialist recommended it. The place looks like an old-fashioned diner and the interior is decked out with all kinds of fifties memorabilia (the revolving door even has song titles stenciled on it in the style of the old jukebox cards - nice touch). I ordered the jumbo dog with everything, which includes hot peppers, tomatoes, and a big slice of kosher pickle sittin' on top. It was SO good. I also had a big slice of chocolate cake for dessert. Again, amazing. The cake was light and moist, while the frosting was out of this world. Heaven!

It sounds like what I had was the genuine Chicago-style hot dog, according to this entry in Wikipedia. "Dragged through the garden" indeed!

Here's Mike Royko's hilarious smackdown of former Illinois Senator Carol Moseley-Braun, who had the audacity to suggest that a Chicago-style dog has ketchup!

pretzel fever

Made it through day two of the three-day Apple training. Today was rough going, covering issues that are of greatest interest to computer programmers and network administrators - two job descriptions that I'd be hard-pressed to fit into. The hard truth of the matter is that I'm not a natural when it comes to tech support. I enjoy working with computers, and I find it very gratifying to help others. I think that I have the patience and people skills to teach others what they don't know and not embarrass them if they make mistakes. But those are the limits. I have no mind for networking, or hardware repair. Which is why I'm probably ok in the role I have at school - it's technical, but not hard core.

Last night I grabbed a late dinner with a friend at the Cheesecake Factory, which was delicious if excessive and over-the-top as usual. While we sat there gorging ourselves on entrees fit for the Brady Bunch, our conversation slowly turned from how good we have it to God and religion. My friend, who was raised in the Catholic church, told me that she's lost her faith. She wants to believe, she told me, but just doesn't have the unquestioning faith in her church that she once had, and feels guilty as a result (insert de rigeur aside about Catholics and guilt here). As we talked and she shared her frustrations with me, I found myself in a very strange position: I became the believer. I urged her not to lose faith. I suggested that that most people have doubts from time to time, and I even threw in the old chestnut that faith is a choice freely made, not something that must be proven (like a formula) or that you just accept because that's what Mom and Dad tell you to do. In short, I sounded like a full-blooded Christian bent on trying to save a soul! It was odd, to say the least, and I didn't even realize it until we were halfway through the conversation. It really bothered me that she was losing something that was clearly important to her, and I wanted to reassure her the best way I could. Pretty funny, coming from me, the poster child for agnostics.

No blog entry would be complete without some mention of food, and this, dear readers, leads me to tonight's dinner. Molly and I went downtown - I wanted to show her Millenium Park, and we both wanted to get out of Villa Park for a litle while. Her reaction to "the bean" surprised me - she thought it was wierd! I, of course, love it to death, and immediately labeled her as "anti-bean" and "bean-prejudiced." We didn't really come to any agreement about it, but we did decide, on a whim, to stop in Potbelly's (aka "Potbelly Sandwich Works") for dinner. It was perfect. It's essentially a sub shop, so the eats were cheap. Cheap but good. The toasted sandwiches reminded me of my old favorites at Yellow Sub in Lawrence, Kansas. The atmosphere is relaxed, too - call it "flea shop funky". The restaurant occupies the corner of a large office building but feels more like a comfortable, worn-in shoe - Mother Hubbard, perhaps? - with old paintings, vintage sofas, and light fixtures fashioned out of ships' steering wheels. There are a few balconies with odds and ends, but unfortunately no seating.

The icing on the cake were the potato chips. I'm not a big fan of chips in general, but for some reason I'm fascinated by local varieties whenever I'm in a new town. It's not unlike picking up the local newspaper. Potbelly's, as it turns out, sells Vitner's. The mascot, featured prominently on the front of each bag, is a bag of potato chips that also happens to be a saxiphonist. He wears a big pair of red Ray Bans, and "Vinnie" is emblazoned across his forhead. But the greatest detail? The potato chips that are flying willy-nilly out of his sax. It's inspired, I tell ya. Imagine my surprise when I turned the bag over and found out that they're made in Freeport, Illinois, the town I called home between the ages of six and ten! The bag mentions that Vitner's is also famous for popcorn (cheddar cheese flavored), corn chips, and...pretzels, which also just happen to be the mascot for the Freeport High School! Yes, I too could've been a pretzel if my parents had not re-located to Dubuque in 1979. *sigh* A great end to the day.

God's insurance plan

A bit of inspired hilarity from David Plotz's blog about the Bible: regarding God's covenant with Noah (and mankind)...

"9:9-17. God announces His first covenant with man, that He will never again destroy the earth with a flood. He doesn't rule out other catastrophes. (God, apparently, is the opposite of an insurance company. He offers flood protection, but no other coverage.)"

Hilarious!

Aurelio's

Made it through the first day of training unscathed. I'll skip the geek report for now about all the cool things I learned, and go straight for the OTHER highlight of the day - lunch! Our instructor took a few of us out for pizza at a local place called Aurelio's. It's in an unassuming strip mall that looks like any other, but once you walk in through the carved wood door, you're transported to another time and place. A large mural greets you inside the front door with beaming visages of the Aurelio family (I can only assume). It's a nice, homey touch. There's also a large photograph of a Gulf war soldier in the desert proudly holding up an Aurelio's t-shirt. Several walls are covered with Polaroids and snapshots of various babies, all future customers.

I liked the dining area. It's dark, with dark wood paneling and stained glass placed here and there. The tables are formica, but have a red checkerboard pattern. And red and green Italian umbrella shades - the kind you'd find over a patio table - are suspended from the ceiling everywhere. Roy Orbison played on the stereo. GoodFellas came to mind as I looked around and took it all in. I get the sense that not much has changed since they opened their doors, and I like that.

We all dug into the pizza buffet, which is usually not my favorite way to try new food. But the spinach and cheese pazone (or is that calzone?) was fantastic, and I liked the capers in the pasta salad. Yum! If you're in the neighborhood and you happen to appreciate the charms of local pizzerias, you owe it to yourself to check it out.

livin' it up in Oakbrook Terrace

I'm writing to you tonight from my comfy, faux-leather desk chair at the Comfort Suites in Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois. I'm here for three days to attend an Apple training for troubleshooting and user support - one of those geeky parts of my job that I enjoy. I'm actually quite excited about the class - it's hands-on - a big perk - and as many of you already know, I'm a Mac fan at heart. Even though - even though! Apple does not have a lock on trouble-free machines. Contrary to their marketing campaigns, I experience lock-ups and crashes almost as often as I do on PCs. Sacrilege, I know. But it's the truth. But I love Macs anyway. Probably because Apple appeals to my designer at heart. I was going to say, my propellerhead spirit, but that sounded weird. The thing about design that Apple "gets" is that it's not just about clean lines and quasi-modern forms. It's about experience, and how people use and understand and don't understand how a computer works. Also known as interface design, or experiential design, something I'm fascinated with (see Don't Make Me Think : A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability by Steve Krug). But I digress.

One thing I love about this hotel: free wireless internet access. Not sure if it's standard at all Comfort Suites - I doubt it is. But it seems all the hotels in this area - which seem to cater to business travelers - have it. Gotta have that edge. I haven't checked out the pool or fitness room yet.

Early reports about The DaVinci Code movie aren't that promising, although I doubt that will stop anyone from seeing it. I know I will. But I'm glad I read the book first - it's a fun read, and it's hard to know how a film adaptation can top the book. Especially since Ron Howard cast Tom Hanks, who is way off the mark from what I imagined. Richard Gere, I can see. Maybe - maybe - even George Clooney. But Tom Hanks? Nah. Not to take anything away from him - I generally enjoy his performances and thought he was great in Road to Perdition. But not this role.

Found yet another interesting article on Slate (good ol' Slate!). David Plotz is "blogging the Bible," in his words. He's set out to read it - all of it - and jot down his thoughts and observations along the way (Plotz is Jewish, by the way). His first post struck me as observant and amusing. He's respectful, but keeps an irreverant edge. It reminds me of the two months or so when Nicky, myself, and another UD seminary student set out to read the Bible together, starting at the Old Testament. We didn't make it all that far, but we had some spirited discussions. It's not easy to discuss something like the Bible and maintain respect and goodwill while approaching it from such divergent views. In that regard, we had something special. I look forward to following Plotz's posts.

And while we're on the topic of God, why do some churches offer classes in marriage preparation and then limit the attendance to couples who only plan to marry in their particular church? You would think that any church worth it's salt would be interested in preparing ANY couple for success in marriage. Of course it makes a certain amount of sense for a couple to attend marriage "class" at a church they belong to. But make it a requirement? Dumb. By all means, the church should charge for their service if they see fit. But drop the requirement. Or give me a good reason why it's in place.

I almost forgot to mention that on the drive over to Chicago, I received a refresher course on just how beautiful northwestern Illinois can be. There's a stretch of Highway 20 between Dubuque and Freeport that runs along a ridgeline overlooking farmland. It's stunning - a beautiful valley that would surely earn the praise of the early American landscape masters Thomas Cole, Albert Bierstadt, or Frederic Edwin Church. But today it was especially beautiful because we (Molly, my co-worker who was driving) and I could see thunderstorms off in the distance. It was awesome to behold. The grey dipped down from the sky and rubbed out the land like a wash of watercolor or a smear of charcoal. Isn't one of the definitions of "sublime" to feel completely absorbed or consumed by an experience? It was like that. Watching from the ridgeline, seeing the clouds sweeping below us felt like I had a telescopic view of the world, in which I could see everything moving to and fro across its surface. At that moment I wished I could paint - I doubt a photograph really could have done it justice. Maybe Thomas Cole. Not me.

Duran Duran and courage

Lots of good, thought-provoking articles in Slate recently...

In this article, Michael Kinsley takes a closer look at those who defied authority during the crises on 9/11 in order to save their lives or others'. He puts his finger on what I was fumbling with in my earlier post about United 93 (the movie). I quote: "The defiance of authority is a big reason the United 93 story is so thrilling. This was heroism, American-style. Dissing the Man on your way out the door. These folks were cowboys. John Wayne and Clint Eastwood don't have time for the rules, and neither did they." I never really thought about it that way before. Interesting, because the film portays them as anything BUT John Wayne/Clint Eastwood types. But that just makes their actions that much more impressive.

What's just as interesting, however, is Kinsley's assertion that the people in the World Trade Towers who obeyed orders to return to their offices also showed true courage. Kinsley suggests that those who ignored directions to return their offices only survived because they were the exception to the rule. If *everyone* had decided to leave the building, chances are the stairways would have become congested and impassable. The survivors, in essence, survived because of everyone who decided to heed the (bad) advice to return to work. Kinsley concludes: "And sometimes obeying authority is the counsel of courage while defying it is the counsel of cowardice. It probably took more courage to climb back up to your office in the World Trade Center than it did to proceed down and out of the building. Foolish courage, as it turns out, but you never know." How scary is that? I know myself well enough to believe that I would have most likely obeyed authority if I was in either of those situations. What would you have done?

The other article I enjoyed was by Jody Rosen, Slate's music critic. He describes the current state of music criticism as a pendulum which is swinging towards favor with pop music, by which I mean Britney Spears, Kelly Clarkson, or whoever is dominating the Billboard charts at the time. He suggests that this is a backlash against an earlier generation of critics who held popular music, including metal, rap, and R&B in disdain. He describes a writer/critic who recently reviewed a 1986 Rolling Stone Record Guide. The result? The guide either ignored or dissed rap and metal - "the two genres that within a few years would dominate the pop charts," he says with a smile. Of course, hindsight is 20/20, but needless to say, every top 20 list or record guide will have its own bias, no matter how much they lay claim to objectivity.

The article is remarkably even-handed, and I agree with his ultimate conclusion that the dichotomy between professional rock critics and those who love Top 40 is false, more often than not. I have a special place in my heart for Top 40 and make no bones about enjoying musicians who can write (or perform) a catchy hook (although Rosen doesn't spend any time talking about musicians who don't actually *write* their own songs). In high school my good friend Tony often ridiculed and disparaged Top 40 acts that I really liked - Duran Duran and Wham! come to mind. In those early days I found it hard to defend my appreciation for "The Reflex," although in retrospect I am not embarassed to admit that I *still* enjoy several songs by both those bands, even as I also grew to love bands on the other side of the aesthetic spectrum like Sonic Youth. What's the lesson? Just that music criticism is subject to whims, fashion, and politics, just like everything else. No surprise there, I suppose. But it's sure fun to read a music critic admit as much!

Speaking of Top 40, have I mentioned what a godsend iTunes is for recovering lost fragments of my youth? I thought I'd long ago downloaded or bought all the songs from my childhood that I loved. But each week, it seems, I hear a snippet of a song on the radio that I'd forgotten about. This week it was "Thunder Island" by Jay Ferguson. You may not recognize the song title, but believe me - you know the song. It's an awesome slice of seventies pop/rock, and I'm digging it big time.

This weekend LeAnn and I somehow started identifying bands whose names repeat themselves. Like Duran Duran. There's more than one would think! To wit:

Duran Duran
Gus Gus
Oingo Boingo
The Horror The Horror

I'm sure there are more...can't think of 'em right now, though. Feel free to add your favorites!

Finally, here's a funny modest proposal outlining the reasons why a PS3 would make a better "life partner" than a spouse, by Reihan Salam and Will Wilkinson.

the best American novel

The New York Times printed revealed today that the best American novel of the past 25 years is...drum roll, please...Toni Morrison's Beloved. I was happy to see three of my personal favorites, JK Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces, Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian and Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, were runners up. You can read the article here.

One book that didn't make the list, but I never get tired of plugging: The Last Crossing by Guy Vanderhaeghe (see, I love the book so much I've memorized how to spell that damn tricky Dutch name!) Truth be told, I believe Guy is an English author, but the novel should be considered anyway since it's one of the finest westerns written since Lonesome Dove. Not that I've read that many. But I've read both of those, and I'll be damned if anyone has a cross word to say about either. But that's just the whiskey talkin'. Did I mention that Tombstone wasn't that good? (the movie, not the pizza..although the pizza has no braggin' rights, either).

Commencement is tomorrow. Big day. Weather is supposed to be cold and rainy, unfortunately. I'm not sure who's giving the address. Stay tuned!

the list of 10

Some stuff I'm chewing on/enjoying lately (while pretending I haven't posted anything in almost six months):

1. Zunafish. Great little site I read about in the New York Times. Essentially a 21st century trading post, you can swap books, CDs, DVDs, and games with other members. All trades are one to one, meaning any CD can be exchanged for any other. There's no cash trading hands, except for the one dollar transaction fee which goes to the website for each trade. The biggest catch: if you want something that's hot, you better have something equally in demand to trade!

2. Yahoo Music/Launchcast. I'm totally addicted. You rate artists, songs, albums, etc., and the big Yahoo jukebox in the sky plays songs based on what you like and what you don't. Like having a friend with an endless collection of music and who knows exactly what you like. Which is kinda like my friend Tony, aka Uncle Fester (see www.fastnbulbous.com). Except Launchcast won't laugh at me when I admit my weakness for Duran Duran. :-)

Thing about Launchcast is, it's not compatible with Apple/Mac OS X. iTunes is great for buying music, but let's face it, Apple, your selection of radio stations sucks. Can't even hold a candle to Yahoo Music's site. Either catch up, or someone please twist Yahoo's arm so us poor Apple users can enjoy the benefits of their great site.

3. E3/Sony PS3 launch. Could care less. Still trying to catch up with games like Shadow of the Colossus, Ico, Guitar Hero for PS2. I'm seriously considering picking up a used Xbox, however, so I can be the last person on the planet to play Halo.

4. Google Earth. I'm totally addicted to this cool little app. Think of Mapquest combined with satellite imagery of the entire world. Amazing. I looked up the hotel I stayed at in Glacier National Park last summer, and it popped right up, right down to the little cars in the parking lot. Ah, memories!

5. Tombstone (the movie). I rented this 'cuz I'm in a Western mood. Not too impressed - I thought the dialogue was rather clunky, and the storyline was predictable and full of cliches. On the plus side, Val Kilmer as Doc Holiday was great, and I rather enjoyed spotting such unlikely actors as Jason Priestly and Thomas Hayden Church in cowboy getup. Looking forward to Wyatt Earp and Maverick next. Best of all, the second season of Deadwood comes out on DVD next week!

6. NewsRadio. I love this show. Been watching seasons one and two on DVD from Netflix, and I think it's held up remarkably well since it was on the air ten years ago. The cast is uniformly solid. It's probably not a fair comparison, but I've seen a few episodes of The Office (UK version), and I think NewsRadio does the office humor bit so much better. But that's just me.

I still mourn the loss of Phil Hartman, one of the funniest men I've ever seen. It's creepy, though, that the theme of his death runs as a side-story in several early episodes, and his character is borderline-paranoid that random people are out to kill him. Phil, you are missed.

7. Mission Impossible 3. Loved it. One reviewer trashed it because she couldn't separate Tom Cruise the actor from Tom Cruise the scientologist, couch-jumping, Brooke Shields-bashing guy. I don't have that problem. Thought the movie was terrific in terms of sheer popcorn action escapism, and the helicopter/bridge scene is bound to go down as a classic (although that particular setup is starting to get a little cliche - haven't we seen it before in Matrix 2 and Alias?) And yes, everyone is right: Philip Seymour Hoffman plays the best bad guy I've seen in long, long time.

8. United 93. Loved it, for exactly the opposite reason as MI3 (I refuse to put in those ridiculous colons - stupid, people!). Harrowing, of course. My heart was beating like a madman for almost the entire film - it's strangely a relief when the terrorists finally hijack the plane. The end left me in tears. It took me a while to figure out what exactly I found compelling. But here's one thing: although it's largely speculative, the movie defines, for me at least, what heroism really is. I don't care that much of what happens in the film is surmised. I don't care whether the passengers indeed managed to break into the cockpit or not. What matters, to me, is the fact that this plane never reached its intended target, and that is due to the passengers who decided to make a stand, knowing full well that they would not live. Those, my friends, are heroes.

The movie also represents what seems like a new genre. It's not a documentary, but it's based on actual events. Not just based on events: it's been pointed out ad nauseum that the director went to great lengths to be as accurate as possible in recreating the event. He cast people who resembled the actual passengers, and dug up the cell phone transcripts so the conversations were identical to what actually was spoken that day. So the movie tries, as closely as possible, to recreate what happened on 9/11. But it's not a documentary in the sense that there is no attempt to try and explain or understand or put into context what happened. In that sense, the movie still hews to the oldest of art forms: a story. But herein lies the second irony: the movie tells a story without two central components: there are no central characters, and there is no resolution. So, you see, the movie falls into a grey area. And that is the other reason, I suppose, I appreciated it. I guess you have to see it to understand what I mean. But it's not for everyone, needless to say.

9. A cool site for those of you interested in preserving parts of this country's history/heritage/memory: 11 of the most endangered historic sites:

http://www.nationaltrust.org/11Most/

Note that Fort Snelling in St. Paul, and the lone stairwell of the World Trade Center are two of the sites.

10. Metacritic. Another one of my favorite, nay, essential! websites. As its title implies, this site compiles online reviews of whatever makes you weak at the knees: movies, books, music, DVDs, videogames. Click on, say, Mission Impossible 3, and the site kicks out capsule summaries from virtually every newspaper and online critic you can think of. Not only that, but it arranges the reviews in order from highest marks to lowest and even AVERAGES the scores to give you an overall snapshot of whether critics like or dislike the film (or book, or DVD...) in question. Great site design and an indispensible tool for those who want to be in the know.

11. (I'm feeling generous!) Ping pong, aka table tennis. Played it last weekend with some friends of LeAnn, and within the space of a half-hour I became a ping pong paddlehead. Like tennis, except I can actually keep the ball in play for more than fifteen seconds. Oh, and when I DO hit it into the net or across the living room, I don't feel like my head's going to explode with frustration. Must be those cute little paddles! Must...play...more...ping-pong...