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Last week my brother Brian left his car with me to save on parking fees while he went on vacation. At the start of the week I was nervous that his car would be stolen or broken into. Of course I have not heard that this area is unsafe for cars. In fact I have a couple of friends with cars in the area and they have never had any issues, but this wasn’t my car so I felt nervous at first.

After it escaped the first few nights unscathed I was able to stop worrying and I immediately got spoiled. Cat and I drove to Corona to get some Italian Ice from the Lemon Ice King of Corona. I drove to my storage space on the west side of Manhattan. I drove a few boxes to a thrift store. Cat and I went to a large super market where she could put a shopping cart down the aisle without having our elbows knock cans of tomato paste off the shelf. It was great!

The day after Brian took his car back Cat and I both felt sad. We had just gotten into the habit of having a car. As we stayed in Monday afternoon we both almost suggested we drive somewhere before remembering we no longer had a car.

Of course, on Wednesday night I got a parking spot directly across the street from our apartment’s front door. So Thursday I didn’t drive anywhere. I put off going to storage until Friday because I knew I wouldn’t get that good a parking spot again.

I only had the car a week and I didn’t want to drive it so I could have a good parking spot. I immediately became someone’s elderly uncle. I liked stepping out of the apartment and seeing it right there. The car would look at me and say “If you wanted to, you could go for a drive right now!”. It was a nice feeling.

I hope Brian goes on vacation again soon!

May.14.2008 :: Tags: Brian, driving, parking :: 1 Comment »

1. The Incredibles
2. X-Men 2
3. Iron Man
4. Spider-Man 2
5. Rocketeer
6. Darkman

May.13.2008 :: Tags: comic books, Movies :: 3 Comments »

1. X-Men 2
2. Iron Man
3. Spider-Man 2
4. Rocketeer
5. Spiderman

explanation: I only considered Super-Hero movies that were comic books first. So that eliminates a lot of movies, including the probably #1 on my list: The Incredibles.

X-Men 2 did it all for me. Great use of powers, great action, great character moments, great surprises, smart plot.

Iron Man is so recent it could drop in my mind as time goes on. But right now its hard not to place it 2nd.

Spider-Man 2 is easily the best of the Spider-Man films, and that is almost entirely due to the villain. Doc Ock was protrayed realistically as opposed to Green Goblin who felt like a campy send-up of a villain. I actually don’t mind the third Spider-Man filled, but it is the least enjoyable of the 3.

Honorable Mention goes to Superman which is great in a lot of parts, but even though I love the silliness of Gene Hackman’s Luthor I now find his character too over the top for a villain who should have felt like a real threat.

Rocketeer made the cut, which might surprise some people bit I find that movie just fun. In a pulpy way. Sort of a light Indiana Jones.

I wanted to put the Crow on but I think I enjoyed the imperfect Spider-Man films more. But the Crow made me believe a Spider-Man movie could be made.

I am also the person who enjoyed Mystery Men.

Better then all of this stuff? The Bruce Time cartoons. Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, Justice League (in particular the 2nd season of the Unlimited episodes) and Batman Beyond.

May.12.2008 :: Tags: Brian, cartoons, comic books, Movies :: 7 Comments »

I liked this movie a lot! One of my top 3 favorite super-hero movies already, and it could move up as I mentally compare it to Spider-Man 2.

Also if you haven’t seen it yet, listen during the award ceremonies to the music. And listen to James Rhodes cell phone ringtone when Tony calls him. It’s the uber-cool theme song to the 60s Iron Man cartoon that I linked to back in April of last year.

Here it is again:

You probably won’t hear Hulk’s 60s theme song in his upcoming movie, but here is a link to it:
Doc Bruce Banner…
(it’s good)

May.06.2008 :: Tags: cartoons, comic books, Movies, online videos :: 3 Comments »

“I did it for America.”

In January of 1999 I worked for a consulting company that was based in Phoenix, Arizona. The company (unnamed and therefore making this blog google-proof) was having its first ever company meeting in New Orleans over a weekend. Because the company had no true base of operations there were folks from all over. I had just moved to New York and a friend of mine (that got me the job) lived in New Jersey. Also at the meeting were a couple of Australians that had only recently started doing work for us.

The first night there everyone was having dinner when the Australians commented that Americans couldn’t drink like Australians. As a 24 year old who wasn’t that far out of college I took great offense at this. I didn’t say anything to the Australians, because I didn’t like talking to anyone I worked with when I didn’t have to but mentally I decided I had to prove them wrong. For America.

Continue Reading »

Apr.23.2008 :: Tags: anecdote, hero, job, vomit :: 2 Comments »

Dyna Moe sent an email to Will and I because she had found this site (ColorWars) that was posting images of people as children and then pictures of them recreating the image as adults.

Dyna knew that we had already done this, so she said we should submit to it. So I did. I think there is a prize (a flash drive), but I am not sure I submitted correctly to win the prize. I just wanted to post the embarrassing picture of me and my brothers on the internet.

It has since been picked up by some blogs, where one of the commenters refers to our image as “just creepy”.

Apr.18.2008 :: Tags: Brian, flickr, Will :: 2 Comments »

Recently I was sitting with some people and all of a sudden the room seemed to get brighter. Then I realized it wasn’t getting brighter so much as everything was beginning to be bathed in a soft glow. A fuzzy, blurry, soft glow. I covered up my left eye and things looked mostly normal. But my left eye seemed to be losing focus. It was happening quickly.

I didn’t say anything to anyone I was with because internally I was terrified. I though my eye’s were failing and I was about to go blind. I started thinking if I knew anyone in my family who had severe eye problems. I couldn’t think of anyone. Then I started thinking about what I could do if I went blind. What kind of job could I get if I can’t see. I was almost finished reading the Amber Spyglass and I would not be able to read the end of it.

I noticed if I kept my left eye closed for longer periods it didn’t seem as bad when I opened it back up. So I became closing that eye for long stretches of time. Slowly it seemed to get better. Then I got nauseous. Then I got super hot. What was going on?

I thought back to my day. I hadn’t eaten anything unusual. Then it struck me. I had cleaned the bathroom floor with some sort of bleach cleaner. I couldn’t remember washing my hands after that. I might have, but I couldn’t remember doing that. And then I ate a sandwich hours later. I smelled my finger tips. My right hand smelled fine, but my left hand had a hint of bleach.

So I got up to go home (still having not mentioned to anyone how sick I felt). There were no open bathrooms where I was, so I headed outside. I felt like I was going to vomit. Out on the street of manhattan people were everywhere. I didn’t want to vomit in front of everyone. It might seem stupid to care about that, but that mental thought kept me from being able to stop and vomit in a street garbage can. So I started walking down side streets looking for privacy.

You might realize this, but its hard to find privacy in New York city. I ended up getting on a subway and going home. On my way to the subway I had to stop every few blocks to steel my stomach. When I got to the subway station I figured I was going to hurl before a train even came, so I walked all the way to the end of the platform which was blissfully empty. But moments after getting to the end people started walking over there. I couldn’t vomit here.

I got on the train preparing to jump off a the next stop. But each time the train stopped I told myself I could ride one more stop. So I did. Soon I was in Astoria. It was only a matter of time before I got to my own stop. So I slowly sipped some water I had with me trying to distract my brain.

I finally got to my stop and began the long walk home. I stopped every few blocks to continue to try and steady my stomach.

I walked in my apartment and Cat was still awake. I told her I felt sick and ran to the bathroom where I hovered over the toilet. But it was too late. I couldn’t vomit. I missed my vomit window.

I didn’t tell Cat what had happened until the next day. I think she would have been too upset to think I had eaten bathroom tile cleaner. I stayed up until 3 am and by then I felt mostly better.

Part of me was worried that I had ingested poisonous material and not gotten it out of my system. But mostly I felt awesome. I felt that I had beaten back the poison by sheer will power. Mind over body.

Truthfully it was probably such a small amount of bleach that I wasn’t in any real danger. But I prefer to imagine I was like the Dread Pirate Roberts drinking iocane powder. Or that I had a healing factor like Wolverine. Or that I ate the 96er like John Candy in the Great Outdoors.

Apr.17.2008 :: Tags: anecdote, Cat, sick, subway :: 6 Comments »

All day yesterday my yahoo emails were being sent with this at the bottom:
between 0000-00-00 and 9999-99-99

I didn’t write it. My signature file was empty, and disabled. I have no idea what caused it.
Will guessed it was “a really timid predictor of the future, guessing when the next World War will be.”

So I am posting it here so if anything goes wrong we can track it back to this omen.

Apr.16.2008 :: Tags: omen, Will :: 1 Comment »

Despite Tarzan becoming one of those characters that has become a part of the public consciousness, many people prefer author Edgar Rice Burrough’s series on the planet Mars. I haven’t read enough of either series to make a choice between the two but I do think its a shame no movie has ever been made based on the John Carter series.

I guess its kind of silly. In the first book John Carter falls asleep in a cave and wakes up naked on Mars where he quickly kicks everyone’s butt and falls in love with a Martian Princess. Still, silly is a short step away from fun and under the right person it could make a great film.

Well I just found this youtube video (via the Beat) from a pitch Bob Clampett made for an animated John Carter movie:

Look at that animation! That is all hand animated. It looks fantastic! I am amazed when I see hand drawn animation that looks that fluid. I guess growing up with He-Man and Transformers tempered my expectations, but I wish all animation looked that good.

Now I read that Pixar is planning to make a John Carter trilogy! I am sure that will be good (Pixar has only made one bad movie - Cars, I am looking at you) but I am not sure it will be a success. I hope it is.

I only wish Brad Bird was directing it. If he was, I’d order the DVD Box-Set right now.

Keep reading these:

Apr.10.2008 :: Tags: Brad Bird, Edgar Rice Burroughs, garfield, Movies, online videos, Pixar :: 1 Comment »

This video for www.insertshowhere.com was a lot of fun to make. They didn’t mind my ridiculous need to create a backstory for my character (I play Dad). So while it has nothing to do with the video you should keep in mind I work at a sausage factory and then spend my evenings working on my hobby, making more homemade sausage.

Apr.03.2008 :: Tags: insertshowhere, online videos :: 1 Comment »