crowemojo

I occasionally read about a movie, or some friend whose opinion on the subject I respect tells me about a movie, and I think to myself "I definitely will see that!" but then it fades into obscurity.  So here is my running list and easily accessible reminder to myself of movies that I would like to see: (in no particular order)

Before Sunrise
Before Sunset
The Darjeeling Limited
The Wrestler
Synecdoche, New York
Milk
Waltz With Bashir
Slumdog Millionaire
A Christmas Tale
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Persepolis
The Lives of Others
The Best of Youth
Capote
The Science of Sleep
In Bruges

I'm going to break a fundamental rule I set for myself this morning.  I never intended for this blog to be about politics in any way.  Hell, I post so infrequently, it's barely about much of anything.  I heard something today that I had to respond to, but I didn't want to start things with my friend that I heard it from, so I chose to vent here.

I heard someone exclaim "Socialism here we come!" as a reaction to Obama's win and I just can't fathom it.  Under Bush we all got "Stimulus checks" (redistribution of wealth), we "nationalized banks", we "nationalized insurance companies", and we "nationalized brokerage houses."  Now Obama mentions raising taxes on a certain tax bracket back to what they have been in the past, and utters the phrase "spread the wealth" while talking to someone on the campaign trail and suddenly people are worried about socialism?  It's beyond ridiculous, and causes me to question the basic intelligence of people who buy in to that right wing talking point.

What makes this worse is the person who proclaimed "socialism here we come" preceded it with "Let's move to Alaska!"  Implying that it would be the last bastion of democratic ideals for people who don't agree with the economic policies of our new president elect.  So let me get this straight, you want to move to a state where the residents get a goverment check every year just for living there (it is a redistribution of profits from oil in Alaska to all Alaskan residents) because you are afraid of socialism?  WTF?  Think for yourselves!  Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh and whoever the hell else should be the last people in the world that you choose to parrot.

Last weekend I hosted a lure coursing event near where I live.  Lure Coursing is a humane activity which attempts to imitate the coursing of the rabbit or hare by sight hounds but without the hare. The sight hounds chase an artificial lure, usually a white kitchen garbage bag, sometimes tanned rabbit skins, or fake fur strips.  To set up the "lure" coursing course a fine line composed of braided rope is passed around a series of pulleys staked to the ground within a large field.  The lures are attached to the main line and the whole system is driven by a lure machine that causes the lures to run in a continuous loop through the pulleys. The lure machine is capable of driving the lure at speeds up to 40 miles per hour.

Basically, lure coursing is a way to see your dog really have fun chasing something.  Most people are surprised the first time they take their dog coursing by how much their dog loves it, and that's not just sighthounds.  In running these events for the past year, I've seen several breads of dog come to try it and more often then not, they really love it.  At the events that I host, the primary focus is having fun and letting the dogs do something they enjoy.  To that end, we only run one dog at a time, and we keep the courses that we use simple and safe for the dogs.  (What constitutes a safe course is a point for another discussion)

This last weekend, one of the people that came was an amateur photographer with a nice DSLR camera, so we got some really great shots!  As I was looking through the different pictures of Tango and Samba, it seemed like a great illustration of how a greyhound runs.

To those of you who regularly read my blog, this post is in regard to an online quiz that I created mostly for the fun of it consisting of 30 general knowledge questions dealing with somewhat obscure topics. Actually, there were 29 questions, but one of them was a 2 point question. I mostly made this test for the fun of it, and to see what the test creation process was like on a new site, www.helloquizzy.com.

Much to my surprise, the test kind of caught on. Lately it's been averaging over 500 people taking it a day, and I find myself often getting emailed by people wanting to know the answers to the questions. So, if you haven't taken the test, I encourage you to take it.

Wall-E - I liked it a lot. I will own it, I will probably watch it every once in awhile

Wow, where to begin? I liked this movie quite a bit. While I may change my mind with future viewings, I'm pretty confident that this movie stands alone as "the best Pixar movie" out there. There is a certain poignancy to this movie that sets it apart. There is a beauty here, a simplicity of story telling, a truly incredible display of the art of showing thoughts and emotion through non verbal means.

The movie has very little dialogue in it, relying instead on expressive beeps and whirs and moving background music. Interestingly, with less dialogue in it then most half hour sitcoms, it still feels like the movie has more emotional depth then anything Pixar has released so far. I think this is what made me appreciate this movie so much; it felt like a special experience, a shining example of excellence from a group of people that are at the top of their game. I’m a firm believer of not setting expectations before seeing a movie, so I’m going to bring my gushing to a close and simply encourage you to see this movie for yourself, hopefully you will not be disappointed.

One last note, there are some concepts in the movie that some people may find offensive, but I think they are handled well, and will most likely only offend those with a predisposition to be offended by those issues.

Post 3 things you’ve done in your lifetime that you don’t think anybody else on your friends list has done.
See if anybody else responds with “I’ve done that.” If they have, you need to add another! (2.b., 2.c., etc…)

1) Won a 6 foot tall trophy in a karate tournament

2) Written a greasemonkey script to automate internet dating site responses

3) Ridden on the back of a motorcycle through the crowded and crazy streets of a bustling city in India (Chennai)
3.B) Corresponded with a popular mainstream author and received an unpublished novel from them to read.

I've been casually talking about how nice it would be to move to Indy for over a year now.  It seems like summer is the season to sell a home, and last summer, I was definitely all talk.  I remember sitting in my friend Allan's house earlier this year, and they were starting the process of looking for a new house because they had to move for his job.  It got me thinking; moving to Indy had been one of those things I had talked about doing, but never made any progress on, but there was really no reason for it.  There was nothing really stopping me from just trudging that path and hoping for the best.  That night I started casually browsing home listings on realtor.com, and just letting myself ponder the possibilities of living close to so many people I had considered good friends, and even more people that could probably become good friends, but were merely friendly acquaintances at the moment.  I also pondered what it would be like to visit home and not have to spend the entire day driving to get there, and the more and more I thought about it, the more obvious it became that I had to get off my butt and make it happen.


I'll probably post the various listings that my house shows up on in the next week or so as all that propagates, and in the mean time, wish me luck, especially all my friends in Indy, who I am already planning on wrangling into a board game addiction once I arrive on the scene!

I've had a good friend, huge table top role-player, practically begging me to go to GenCon for years now.  When it moved to Indiana a few years ago he figured I was a lock, how could I say no?  I'm not really sure I can clearly articulate my aversion to GenCon in the past.  I really enjoy table top role playing, but not *THAT* much, and I had always gotten the impression that it was all about that.  My uninformed image of GenCon was a bunch of people in a giant room playing different table top role playing games.  That didn't sound fun to me.  I wouldn't enjoy pickup games with people I don't know, half the fun for me is the gathering and fellowship shared with friends.

So I always said no.

This year, it dawned on me that maybe GenCon had a bit more to it, and this combined with my somewhat recent board gaming addiction to cause me to at least check out the event list and see if it sounded like any fun.  A few hours of excel manipulation later and several hundred checkmarks in the "Interested?" column.  The end result, I'm going to GenCon!

Anyways, I went, I saw, I gamed, I spent money.

I just got back from my first ever GenCon, what a blast! One thing really made an impression on me and that was the drastic differences from one vendor booth to the next.   I am planning on a bigger writeup, but it was getting too huge, so I separated this part out.

 

 

Here is a fun clip; a comedian pointing out how often the base chord progression from Pachebel's Canon is used in modern music.  If you want to follow along, here are the songs he points out (taken from wiki):

• Vitamin C - Graduation
• Aerosmith - Cryin'
• The Original Caste - One Tin Soldier
• Blues Traveler - Hook
• Green Day - Basket Case
• Matchbox 20 - Push
• Better Than Ezra - Good
• Bush - Machine Head
• U2 - With Or Without You
• Natalie Imbruglia - Torn
• Avril Lavigne - Sk8ter Boi
• Twisted Sister - We're Not Gonna Take It
• Laverne & Shirley Theme Song
• Bob Marley - No Woman, No Cry
• The Beatles - Let It Be

I saw a MasterCard commercial today that I'm pretty sure had the opposite of the intended effect.  It's one of those commercials that talks about how much everything costs, and then how the result of those things is priceless, but this time it was really focusing on the convenience of speed pay.

The set up, a guy is taking care of his animals (an elephant and a monkey) and is clearly suffering from a cold or flu.  The cute animals are obviously concerned, and when he happens to drop his MasterCard, they pick it up and head to the big city.  Then there is a series of quick scenes of the elephant buying things that would help comfort someone with a cold; chicken soup, a blanket, some medicine, etc.  For each purchase, it shows the elephant using his trunk to hold the credit card up to the speed pay terminal and then heading on his way.

Maybe it's just the security professional in me, but I can't help but immediately think of how incredibly insecure this is, no signature, no checking the card, it's so broken that even an *ELEPHANT* can use your card, should you happen to lose it, or worse, if it is stolen.  This commercial has me adding "request a non speed pay card" to my list of considerations when getting a credit card.  Although, truth be told, that was already in the list anyways.  I think mostly I'm just amused that the MasterCard marketing arm put out a commercial that serves to highlight a major flaw with their new system.  I guess they figure that no one will notice that aspect of things, or that the people that would aren't within their target demographic, and sadly, they are probably right.

I finally got a dog! This is Tango, my new pet. I ended up going to an animal hospital that specialized in racing greyhounds last weekend to see what they were like and I was hooked from the start. The very first dog I actually looked at was Quinlin, the beautiful blue Bristol that you see with me in this picture. He was very loving and gentle from the start, happily looking me in the face before resting his head on my lap. All of the greyhounds I looked at were incredibly well trained, not pulling at the leash at all, happily inserting themselves into their muzzle (which is recommended if they are going to do any serious running at a dog park, etc.) and generally just being happy to be there with you.

Anyways, I was hooked on Quinlin from the start. For a time, there was another greyhound, Precious, who I originally told them I wanted, but upon further reflection I decided to go with Quin. Precious had a large prey drive (read: likes to eat cats and other fluffy objects) and had snapped at a baby once in the past, whereas Quin had hardly any prey drive at all. One of the other dogs there was named Tango, and I really liked the name, especially with my ballroom dancing hobby, so that’s what I went with.

Tango has been a treat so far. He is very well behaved and loving, and becomes instant friends with anyone he meets. Taking him for small walks has been a lot of fun just because everyone is drawn to him and he loves the attention. Within seconds of meeting a stranger, Tango will be leaning up against them, lapping up all the affection he can get. Since Tango lived in a home before, he is already familiar with how things work, and hasn’t seemed to need much house training. We both fell asleep yesterday in the same room and I woke up to him sniffing me in the face because he had to go out. It’s pretty hard to beat that on your first day.

So far, the only downside has been greyhound gas. This is some of the worst smelling stuff I have ever encountered; I’m a bit impressed to tell the truth. He lets one slip and it’s time to relocate. I’m working on curbing that with some yogurt (which all of my reading tells me should help) so we will see how it goes. I got to see him bolt after something once, yesterday in the backyard, and it was pretty amazing. Blink once and he’s reached the fence, thankfully he didn’t try to run through it or jump over it or anything like that. I’ve started already on trying to click train Tango, I’ll keep you all posted on how well that works. I think if I stick with it, it is going to be very effective, but anyone who knows me knows how big of an “if” that really is.

So I guess from my last post, not everyone knows all the details that I assumed they might.  Rather then pour over a description of things in more detail, which would just take for ever and likely never get posted, here is a bit more about some of the things I had mentioned.

New Job: I started working for a new company on September 11th, 2006.  I started looking after having some disagreements and internal things with Crowe, which I don't need to go into detail about.  Once I looked, I found this company, and the offer was so good that it was hard to refuse.  I work from home, travel little, but when I do travel, it tends to be more interesting (I got to spend a week in Tokyo) and it is a definite step up in my career.

 

New Car: I traded in my Sebring convertible for a used 2001 Lexus LS430.  I love the car; it's incredibly comfortable and has tons of cool features.

 

Moving: One of the nice things about my job is that, since I work from home, I can live anywhere I want!  This means I am no longer chained to South Bend, or anywhere else really.  I do however own a home here, so before I can move, I need to save up money for movers and sell my house, which is quite the daunting task.  So for the moment, I'm still in South Bend.  My original plan had been to move to Indianapolis, because it is very conveniently located in terms of proximity to relatives and I know so many great people there.  Another cool thing about working from home as I do, and something I haven't quite taken advantage of yet but fully intend to, is that I could easily go visit someone for a week and not have to use vacation time, as long as I had an internet connection and time to work during the day.  I see a trip to Seattle in my future.

 

New Girlfriend: I have recently started dating someone, her name is Hannah, and it has been really great so far.  She's intelligent, agnostic, liberal, beautiful, enjoys games (we've been playing through Diablo 2 at night lately), and has been amazing to be with.  Oh, and she loves discussing things, and when people call her on things they don't agree with.  In short, she's perfect for me, ... so far.

In the course of the last few months, I've picked up a Wii and an Xbox 360.  So if any of you out there who read this have either of these, I would appreciate having a few more GamerTags and Wii IDs to add to my list.  Just post a comment or email me.

I knew when I started blogging that it wasn't something I would be very good about sticking too.  I just never think to post something, and even when I do, it's an ordeal because I want it to be clever and well written, so just quickly and effortlessly hammering something out doesn't work.  So life got busy, and the blog got dropped a few levels on my list of priorities.  You also get to a point where the longer you have gone without blogging anything, the harder it is to return.  I've had a lot of things happen between my last post and now, some of them huge and major parts of my life.  I've quite my job at Crowe and started working somewhere else (but unlike many bloggers I know, I've got nothing but love for Crowe and wish them all the best), I bought a new car, and I've recently started dating someone seriously that I'm very excited about.  I also probably won't be living in South Bend for much longer, but don't see a move date (or location in) in sight.  So yeah, lot's of new stuff, which most of you probably already know about.

Ok, here's the thing. I hate dance clubs. It's a pretty level, all encompassing, no exceptions statement. I hate them. If they were "ballroom" dance clubs, I wouldn't mind, but that just clearly establishes what a tool I am.

Anyone who knows me, or at least has brought the topic up, knows of this hatred. I still find myself *in* a dance club from time to time, in spite of how well established my position on them is. There was an incident in Vancouver, with a certain polyamorous friend and one of her boyfriends who was dressed like Spider Jerusalem, and there was that one time after the corporate Christmas party where we all went to heartland, and there was last night, when a good friend who is leaving town in a few weeks wanted me to go to club fever with her. That about covers my clubbing experiences of the past 4 years.

I never feel comfortable in my own skin in a dance club, I never feel like I belong. I can't even stand there and feel natural. Unnatural. That's the pervasive feeling at a club that leads to my hatred. I know as I glance around that anything I do isn't going to look any worse then half the other people in the club. I'm capable of nodding my head to a beat, stepping back and forth rhythmically, and flailing my arms in a vaguely artistic fashion. It's never been a question of physical capabilities, it's the mental roadblock, that little voice in the back of my head, screaming at the top of its lungs, "You look like an idiot, and everyone else here thinks so. The only reason they aren't pointing and laughing is because it would be rude." I don't even have to dance to feel that way, merely standing too close to the dance action brings such thoughts to the forefront. I can not tell you how many women I have known that have vowed to show me how to enjoy a club. They have all failed. "Just get drunk, then you will have a blast." Sorry, that doesn't work for me.

I think that's why I liked mosh pits, there is a beautiful lack of talent or grace or even distinguishing characteristics to this activity. I look at it and I see a pit, the sum of its parts, no individuals. I can't make out certain people that look good at moshing and others that look bad, I just see a pit. That I can jump into without hesitation.

Anyways, on to the point, I hate dance clubs, but occasionally go to them. Here is what women who drag a dance club hater to a club should realize:

• I am here because I know you want to be here, not because I enjoy dance clubs.


• My feelings about dance clubs are not going to change.


• If I don't dance with you, it's not personal.


• Yes. I am bored. No. I will not tell you I'm bored. I knew what I was getting into when I agreed to come here, and it would be uncouth for me to complain the whole time.


• Please don't ask me "Are you ok? Is something wrong? Are you having fun?" Yes. I am fine. I'm not really having that much fun, I'm bored, but see the previous point.


• You don’t have to keep me company as I sit to the side, I'm content to people watch, please, dance and enjoy yourself, that is why we are here. The more you feel obliged to keep me company, the more I will regret coming along. Occasionally stopping by to say hi, catch your breath, maybe even show your appreciation for the night, is always welcome.

When it comes down to it, the more you hang your fun on me having a good time, the more disappointed you are going to be, and the more inadequate I will feel for not being the kind of guy that enjoys dance clubs. If the only way you are going to have fun is to dance with *me* then we probably shouldn't go in the first place.

At least I got a blog post out of going to a club this time ;) And to those keeping track, yes, I still enjoy ballroom dancing, it is possible to enjoy one and hate the other. Even more interesting, I've found that a lot of the girls I know that really enjoy clubs, have been so initimdated by the prospect of a ballroom class that they refuse to even try it once to check it out. Perhaps that should be the topic of another post.

Based on a recent angel_grrl post, I looked into my chat statistics. Wow.

Start date of chat logging:
August, 2002

Total size of chat logs:
130M

Number of independent contacts I have chatted with:
1061

Number of pages a book containing all my chats (based on this guidance) would be:
~ 50,000

Biggest Chat Log:
2.0M with Tiffany

Top Chatters, in order:
1) Tiffany
2) Lyra
3) Ryan
4) Cassi
5) Erika


Ok, so the 50,000 pages would consist of a lot of lines only consisting of nothing more then “Crowemojo: heh heh” and that the size of the files is certainly inflated with always labeling the timestamp, contact name, and status changes during the conversation, but still, damn, I’m a loser :P

In other news, yay for a blog entry that wasn't 2 months since the last entry *and* managed to clock in under 2 pages.

I recently went to see the movie “Thank You For Smoking” at an art house theatre in St. Louis. Movie aside (it was excellent, by the way), it was easily one of the most interesting collections of moviegoers that I have ever experienced. The theatre was about a quarter full of people evenly dispersed in such a fashion as to gain maximum distance from strangers while still maintaining an acceptable view of the screen. There were three people in particular that made it so interesting.

The old def guy:
The old def guy sat in the back and had one of those hearing assist headsets that the theatres hand out on. I don’t think anyone knew that he was wearing headphones, but most of all, he lacked the most basic ability of realizing how damn loud you are. Whenever he had something to say, he practically shouted it. This wouldn’t be so bad if he weren’t such a contemplative moviegoer that apparently likes the sound of his own, booming voice. He was one of those people that liked to make remarks about the obvious, or remarks that in general, really have no merit. For example, his first comment came when Adam Brody was first on the screen, “Adam BRODY! Hah!” Reading his words doesn’t do them justice. This wasn’t an excited claim, more like an old life-long-smoker proclaiming something with brevity while reminiscing, … if that makes any sense. Other comments included, “There she is!,” when Katie Holmes first appeared on the screen and the occasional “Oh My!” or “That’s quite funny”

The consummate shusher:
This person was only really a response to The old def guy. The first time The old def guy struck, everyone was mostly confused or disoriented. We couldn’t tell if it was this weird loud rear-channel part of the movie or what. Every comment after that though was subject to the consummate shusher. After the comment, the shusher would shush The old def guy as hard as they possible could. Thinking that maybe if the shush were louder and more emphatic, it would work. (No one suspected that the guy was wearing headphones, which was only revealed after the credits, while walking out.) This guy shushed, and he shushed hard. I’ve got to believe he may have even crapped his pants, just a little.

The dim-witted funny laugh:
Funny laughs aren’t really anything new in a movie going experience, and I’m sure I could fill a blog post just describing all the interesting and amusing chortles that I have come across, but when you combine a funny laugh with someone relatively dim-witted, what you get is truly a thing of beauty. Anytime something particularly funny happened, especially a comment or something not as obvious as a pratfall, the audience, playing their part, would laugh and sigh and then return to the movie. About two seconds later, while everyone is contemplating how funny the comment was, maybe even thinking how they can work it into their banter repertoire, the dim-witted funny laugh gets the joke, and laughs hysterically. Until you have experienced this phenomenon, I’m not sure you can truly appreciate how amusing it is.

So that wrapped things up, even if the movie had sucked it would have been an interesting experience. Maybe there is more to be said for seeing movies in theatres then just the popcorn and big screen after all.

Slow … Quick Quick, Slow … Quick Quick
Rock-Step, Trip-ple-Step
One Two Three-And-Four
Is that a rock step or a lock step?
I know the basic, but not much else
Can you do a cross body lead in this?
How about a twinkle into a promenade? Or we could go straight to 5th position.
CBM, Rise and Fall, Cuban Motion, Heel-Toe
...
...
Would you like to dance?

Surprisingly, the answer lately has been “Yes.” As many of you know, I recently looked into Ballroom Dancing, and it has been surprisingly enjoyable. I guess there have been two main things that were surprising about it.

( 1) How much I enjoy it! )

This is already much longer then I thought it would be, so reason number 2) regarding my ballroom introduction surprises will have to come at a later date.

This past two weeks, I have been in an Microsoft certification bootcamp. This was offered by a company I found on the internet and taught by a Microsoft Certified Trainer. The goal was to get certified as an MCSE with my messaging and security certificates.

For those of you that are curious, ( here is how it went. )