Existential Sushi

Yesterday, a coworker came back from lunch talking about the happy roll, and how it had made her happy. That's when I realized that if I ever opened a sushi restaurant, I would go the opposite direction: Existential Sushi. The menu almost develops itself. The malaise roll, the boredom roll, the ennui roll, the futility roll.

Now, what actually goes into one of these rolls? Who knows, we're talking marketing at this point, not production. Additionally, decorating would be easy too. Just take some public domain images of famous essentialists, Camus, Heidegger, Sartre, and Photoshop (well Gimp, I prefer open source) in some sushi! A simple but effective way to merge the two pillars of the endevor into a common image.

Speaking of Jean-Paul Sartre, there would have to be a nausea roll, but even with this strongly themed menu, that might not be a big seller. But it did remind me of a story I was told of an unfortunate attempt to get someone to try sushi for the first time which resulted in projectile vomiting. The story was told, ironicly enough, at a sushi restaurant, so maybe this idea of an existential sushi has been bubbling up through my subsconscious for a while now just waiting for the correct overt triggers.

So there it is, my idea for a restaurant should I ever want to give up on computer programming. No stealing!

The Craft, Dog, and the Tipping Point

I went to Dayton for the first time since Feb, and had a good trip. I got caught in traffic Saturday morning heading up, but I left early enough that it was probably a wash between heading straight up 71/75 and taking 275 around. That road is a complete mess right now. They've got it torn up to the point that you can only use one lane, and even that gets blocked sometimes to let construction equipment onto the road. On the drive I listened to The Tipping Point, and that book is really fascinating. For example, if you want to found your own army, organize the men into fighting units of no more than 150 men, otherwise you'll have discipline problems.

Suzanne and Jon have been watching episodes of Dog the Bounty Hunter, and that's interesting for different reasons. I would have never guessed at how much help they get from the friends of the fugitive. The "wisdom" of Dog is usually enough to make you laugh more than once an episode, so the show is pretty easy to watch. I took pictures of Abby, and I think I converted Suzanne to Gimp over Photoshop. (Gimp does have the advantage of being free.) I even learned about the red eye reduction tool when Suzanne asked about it. I haven't been zapping red eye in my photo editing, but I guess I don't have an excuse not to now.

Chip and I completed a minor woodworking project; I needed a new flap to cover the crawlspace on an addition to my house. I wanted something more sophisticated than a sheet of plywood, and the final result ended up looking almost impressive. Now I just need to get it painted and put in place. We also watched The Craft, yes it's kind of cheesy, but it's also the style of movie I enjoy. It kind of freaked me out how much Robin Tunney http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000677/ looks like Kristen Stewart http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0829576/. It's really surprising that I had never seen that before. Also ironic was the use of of the theme song from Charmed in this movie. (However, since this movie predates Charmed by 2 years, it would be more accurate to say that it's ironic that Charmed picked a song used in this movie for their theme song.)

Finally, I stopped by Michele and Dan's on the way home. Karina was completely wild. I did get to see Ethan take 2 steps. (One step on 2 different occasions.) She introduced Ethan after Thomas and Percy the trains and a toy airplane, however, that's more credit than he usually gets from Karina. She probably spent a good half an hour or more spinning in circles and talking about the need to spin faster and faster in musical terms. She also told me Pluto is a dwarf planet and repeatedly made use of the word Gondola as a synonym for boat.

What if the Lord of the Rings movies had been cast like Tarintino films?

I first thought of what the movies would have been like if Samuel L. Jackson had been given the role of Gandalf.

Gandalf [facing the balrog]: You shall not pass mother...

So (not that the Tolkein estate would ever allow a travesty like this to come to pass) here's my casting proposal:

Gandalf: Samuel L Jackson
Saruman: Ving Rhames
Elrond: Christopher Walken
Galadriel: Uma Thurman
Aragorn: Bruce Willis
Boromir: John Travolta
Legolas: Brad Pitt
Gimli: Kurt Russel
Eomer: Tim Roth
Eowyn: Daryl Hannah
Faramir: Michael Madsen
Denethor: Harvey Keitel
Arwen: Rose McGowan

Priceless gem found while cleaning up last night

Lest anyone start casing my house and contacting disreputable pawn brokers, the gem in question is a TV preview DVD put out by Warner Brothers for the fall 2005 season. What makes this so priceless, well I'll get to that. Caroline made the good call to check out the contents.

• Close to Home - Looks like a Cold Case variant, except the main character is trying to solve suburban crimes. Looked bland but tolerable. Wait, this aired on CBS??
• E-ring - Starred the late Dennis Hopper, probably the best thing it had going for it. Plot was something about how the people working in a certain section of the Pentagon protect the world. What's going on here, this show aired on NBC???
• Freddie - Irresponsible guy tracks his family down and has his sister & grandmother mother move in with him. Caroline actually saw this in Costa Rica, I may vaguely remember adds for this from '05, but it looked really bad. This aired on ABC, what's going on at the WB's marketing department????
• Hot Properties - I don't think the term cougar had made it into widespread use yet, but that's the only recollection I have of this preview, and I just watched it last night. What in the world, this aired on ABC too????? (Surely the next show will be a WB show.)
• Invasion - I actually remember the ads for this. Aliens take advantage of a hurricane to body snatch a local woman and the only people who notice are her young daughter and a couple of crackpots. I don't think the show lasted long, and it's...another ABC offering??????
• Supernatural - Finally, I know this is a WB show, I've heard of and remember the previews for. I've only ever watched one episode, but this may be the only show on the disc that didn't die a quick and overlooked death.
• Reunion - The gimick, a bunch of perfect looking friends turn out to be not so perfect. You find out how one year at a time. I bet the makeup department was sweating that one, fortunately, I don't think they had to worry about that for long. #*&^%& this is a Fox show!!!!
• Related - Looks like an attempt to recreate friends, except instead of 6 friends you have 4 sisters. I think I remember ads for this back in the day too. Finally another WB show.
• Just Legal - The only person an 18 year old who has already passed the bar can get to hire him is a burned out drunk of a lawyer. I remember the ads for this one too, but I don't think it lasted long either. At least is was another WB show.
• Twins - It had one of the Rosanne kids on it, and oh my, did it look awful!!! It's a WB show, but wow, who in the world ever green lit this. The Rosanne kid is the smart responsible one running the family business, and her twin is blonde and vapid. Oh yeah, Melanie Griffith is the mom after she looks all weird from too much plastic surgery. It's another WB show, but maybe they should have left this one out.
• The War at Home - I've actually seen an episode or two of this. It wasn't bad, and it might have lasted for more than a season, but it's a Fox show. What's up with this WB promo??????

Seriously Warner Brothers, you put out a fall preview disc, and only 4 of the 11 previews are your own shows. what were you thinking???? I don't even remember how this ended up in my possesion, but 5 and a half years later, it provided quite a bit of unintended comedy.

My Life in Concerts

I'm not a huge concert goer, so here's a quick list.

• 38 Special - KY State Fair
• Bad Company (w/o Paul Rogers) - KY State Fair
• The Violent Femmes (College)
• The Moody Blues - Jacksonville
• Jethro Tull - Jacksonville
• The Moody Blues - Jacksonville (yes again)
• The Moody Blues - Jacksonville (yes again)
• Queen plus Paul Rogers - Jacksonville (closes a circle of irony with Bad Co at the state fair)
• The Police - Wrigley Field
• The Moody Blues - Southern Indiana (yes, yet again)
• Lady Gaga - Louisville, won tickets at work

So, one thing that should be immediately apparent is that I really haven't seen bands playing in their heyday. Many of my favorite bands, The Doors, Hendrix, The Rolling Stones had members die before I was born. Others like, Led Zeppelin and The Who had members die before I was a teenager.

A side effect of this, the crowd at The Lady Gaga concert was more energetic than any I have been to so far. There were a lot more women in their thirties than I would have expected. The number of mothers their with either their daughters or a group of teens was about what I would have expected. The number of women in the 30's or 40's in the crowd was really quite surprising.

At other concerts I've been to, being dressed up was owning one of the band's t-shirt or a tie-die shirt. At this concert, fishnets and heels were nearly ubiquitous, even among guys in the crowd. Frilly little tutu things were also popular as was face paint and caution tape worn as clothing. Then there were some more exotic costumes elaborate costumes that mimicked something Lady Gaga had worn at shows or in videos.

This was also by far the biggest production at a concert I've been to. This is the only one with props, fire effects, costume changes, and dancers. Actually, there were multiple stage changes where the entire set of props in use changed.

My biggest fear was that Gaga would just phone in a performance since this was just Louisville, but she was high energy from start to finish, still jumping up and down during the 2nd encore. She was also good at getting audience participation, however, I have to confess, the Gaga claw as a form of crowd participation still mystifies me even after having seen the show. Still, the bottom line was that I was entertained. I'm glad I won the tickets and went to the show.

Childlike happiness

Caroline showed me this link this week:

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/apple

I especially like the 4 panels where the main character is happy with his purchase. The way he carries around his iPride remind me of the way my nephew Blake carried around a toy that was called Kasey the Kinderbot, or something like that. He was too young to understand most of the educational games, but he loved the idea of having a robot friend. He carried it around with him and took it to bed much like the character in the comic.

Now, the cartoon's happiness soon vanishes into a spiral of foolish materialism. However, I keep wondering what it is about kids that they can be so happy with either a favorite toy, or just playing that we seem to loose as we grow up.

Kids and To-do lists

I watched my sister Michele's kids last Sunday afternoon. My nieces took to the idea of a to-do list for the visit when I suggested it. Blake kind of came up with an implicit to-do list of play video games and read about video games on the web.

Here's Taylor's list:

• Paint
• Play Rock Band 1 (because we haven't played that one in a really long time)
• Bounce on the ball (a big red exercise ball)
• Play chess
• Practice Karate kicks and chops

Lauren's:

• Eat candy cane
• Color pictures
• Help Eric do chores
• Play Lego Rock Band
• Eat rest of candy cane (added after she decided she wouldn't eat the candy cane all at once)
• Eat fancy chocolate now (as in, before lunch and not for desert)
• Eat lunch
• Do Karate punches
• Bounce on ball (the ball was popular)
• Help Ma do chores

Regan's

• Help Eric do chores
• Color pictures for Ma
• Draw weird pictures
• Eat lunch
• Do Karate kicks
• Do Karate punches (she scared Lauren & Taylor with her kicks & punches)
• Play Lego Rock Band
• Eat fancy chocolate for desert
• Bounce on big red ball (I told you the ball was popular)
• Help Ma do chores

There are some interesting differences. Taylor's list was the shortest, and she was the least interested in keeping the list up to date. For example, she did paint a picture of her suffed dog Mojo, but didn't mark that item off her list.

Regan was most concerned with accuracy. For example, she didn't mark off Rock Band even though we decided we didn't have time for it.

Lauren on the other hand was most concerned with making sure everything was scratched off the list. To this end she, marked off Rock Band once we decided we didn't have time to play, marked off Help ma with chores when she left my house, and marked eat lunch when I started cooking it.

One thing I thought was interesting was how Lauren and Regan mixed fun with work on their lists. Arguably, Taylor's list and Blake's implied list are nothing but fun. I don't think most adults would approach their to do lists that way, but maybe we should. To that end, my list for the weekend will include the following:

• Do taxes
• Watch Superbowl