What James Knows

My hair grows alarmingly fast it seems. I’ve been going to the same haircutter (She’s not a barber because she’s a woman, right? I don’t want to call her a stylist because I’m a guy) for over 10 years. Paula (the haircutter) is up by my parents’ house so I plan haircuts to coincide with visits to my parents. This usually works but I haven’t been up there in awhile. As a result, my hair is starting to get out of control. When it gets this long it loses its fight against gravity and falls into this game show host part. I can deal with it by constantly running my hands through it to try and keep it pepped up. That doesn’t work though. It just falls back down.

Overall, this doesn’t bug me. I can wait until I get another haircut. I end up trimming my sideburns to varying degrees of success. I trimmed them at least a month ago and now my ears are being overrun once again. I can get by for another couple weeks though.

Monica on the other hand cannot. Apparently my longish hair is pissing her off. I thought that her telling me that my hair is “really too long” was just a joke. I took it in stride. That was until the other day when she threw down an ultimatum to get my hair cut. It needed to be done. Seriously. Or Apple Butt. I explained to Monica that I thought she was joking so she suggested we come up with a safe word for when we need to talk serious. That safe word is Apple Butt.

Anyway, I don’t want to go to a different haircutter despite a few being readily available within a few blocks. Fortunately, the Neon Gloworms are playing near my parents house next weekend and I was able to coordinate a trip up there looping in a haircut too. Now I just have to deal with my hair…or rather Monica does. I’m OK.

Tags: Haircut

I used to watch a lot of TV when I was a kid. I watched a ton of stuff. Granted, that hasn’t changed too much. Now I just watch DVDs instead of TV as it airs. As a result of this childhood hobby, I have fond memories of shows that were either short-lived or just not watched by a lot of people. These end up popping up in conversation from time to time and a wave of nostalgia flows over me. The shows in question range from C.O.P.S. and Beyond Belief to Out of This World and The Adventures of Pete & Pete and many things in between.

Now when you put my childhood love of watching Television together with my current love of watching DVDs, you get my current excitement when one of these shows come out on DVD. That time has come again in the form of Ghostwriter. Does anyone else remember this non-long-running PBS show?

I used to try to watch Ghostwriter all the time. Unfortunately I didn’t have a concept of time slots back then so I never knew when the show was on. I’d feverishly check the TV Guide channel for when it would come on but more often than not, I’d miss it. As a result, I’d catch episodes sporadically, never really getting the full mystery. Now I’ve got a chance to catch up. I’m worried that the show won’t hold up over time though. I’ve run into a few shows lately where the nostalgia isn’t enough to cover up the dated crap shoot that the show actually was (Fantastic Four and The Flash, I’m looking at you). I’ll add it to my list and see what happens.

Tags: DVD, Ghostwriter, Nostalgia, PBS

I heard a lot about HBO’s True Blood as the show was airing but as I’m not a subscriber to the premium cable channel I was unable to watch it. I did however pick up the first season on DVD when it went on sale at Target a few weeks ago. With Monica recovering from the removal of some wisdom teeth, we flew through the episodes in a few days. I have to say that it’s pretty good.

Vampires are real. They can live right next to you and you wouldn’t notice…unless they stepped out into the sunlight. True Blood takes the idea of vampires and casts them as second class citizens. They’re in the place that African Americans were back in the 50s. People are suggesting segregation or outright murder and there’s a Vampire Registration Act floating around Congress. This presents an interesting idea that I’ve only seen once before (Fox’s brilliant, but canceled Greg the Bunny). How would the world react to vampires suddenly revealing themselves all around us?

Set in a small town in Louisiana, True Blood takes us into the life of Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) who can read minds. So right off the bat we’ve got vampires and physics. There’s more but I won’t get into it here. She meets Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer) a vampire that’s been around since the Civil War. He saunters into her life with his southern drawl and the two become enamored with each other, almost to Twilight levels of crazy vampire-on-human passion. Murders start happening and fingers are pointed. The town of Bon Temps has a mystery on its hands!

Don’t judge the show by my cynical description. It’s actually really damn good. It’s a great serial with each episode flowing seamlessly into the next. Actually, each episode ends in what feels like the middle of a scene, appropriately enough right after something big or exciting happens which brings me right back for the next episode.

My only actual problem with the show is the DVD packaging. In typical HBO fashion, the package is bulky and a pain in the ass. While not as frustrating as some of their others (ie: The Sopranos, Six Feet Under), it’s still way too big for something that was released in 2009. It’s more like a package that would have been released 10 years prior. There are 5 discs included here and they include a total of 12 episodes. The content could have easily fit onto 4 or even 3 discs. Some discs have only 2 episodes on them and the only features included are commentaries so there’s no excuses really. Plus each disc is on its own side. It’s tough to explain this but basically you have to unfold the case and each fold has a DVD on it so there are 5 folds and one or two extras that list out the episodes. While this might look nice, especially with the big picture on the back, it’s just not practical when DVD packaging is smaller and slimmer than ever before. If HBO didn’t make such great shows, I would be angrier about it.

Anyway, I think it’s saying something that my only complaint about a show is its packaging. True Blood is pretty damn good. The features on the DVDs (with the exception of the commentaries which I haven’t listened to yet) immerse you in the world of the show with vampire PSAs and commercials as well as an In Focus look at Vampires in America. All good stuff but I would have liked to have some more info about the behind-the-scenes, special effects and how they adapted the books into the show. Still a good deal though. Now to wait (im)patiently for the second season to hit DVD.

Rating:

Tags: DVD, HBO, True Blood

Wednesday was a snow day. We got a bunch of snow and my office was closed. Monica worked from home so we hung out for the day. She worked and I played video games. I braved the storm around 11 to go to the post office and check my PO Box. After that I had no intention of going outside for the remainder of the day.

Monica had other plans though. She insisted on going outside on her lunch break and making a snowman. I had no interest in doing so. Although she asked several times I held strong. I offered to make her hot chocolate when she got back. Her friend Kara wasn’t as stubborn though and joined Monica in the creation of a snow person.

About a half hour later Monica came back. They had built a snow woman complete with boobs (with nipples). They had also made Princess Leia-like buns on her head. Monica was concerned about her safety though. It seems that there were some kids in the courtyard too and she thought they were up to no-good. Her suspicions proved correct because as she gazed at the snow-woman from our apartment she witnessed her destruction at the hands of these children. She was torn limb from limb (…or snow from snow?) and her body was used to build a snow fort just a few yards away from where she once stood.

Monica was pissed. I could understand if this happened a couple days later or something but her and Kara just finished building the snow-woman and right after they leave these kids go and destroy it? That’s just disrespectful. Monica was hatching schemes of revenge. She was going to dismantle their snow fort under cover of darkness. These fumes of anger dissipated slightly when she saw littler kids playing in the fort that the bigger kids created. Now that these supposedly innocent kids were having fun there she didn’t want to go out and pee all over it. (That was my suggestion.)

The next day we went to work. We left a half hour early to give us enough time to shovel our cars out. As we walked past the snow fort we found two snowmen standing tall just around the corner of the walkway. Why were these two snowmen still standing strong while Monica’s snow-woman was taken from us way before her time? Were these kids sexist? What the hell?

A few days have passed now. One of the aforementioned snowmen has been torn down but the taller of the two is still standing defiantly. I admire his strength.

Tags: Snowman, Winter

I think the search for an officiant is officially over. Monica and I went up to Wappingers Falls two weeks ago to meet with the Justice of the Peace there. Then we got stood up. We had some miscommunication it seemed. I thought I was meeting the Judge at his home but the address he gave me was his office. We waited for a bit but no one showed up.

So we made an appointment to meet Judge Chase last Saturday. He’s a pretty nice guy and he went over the ceremony and what we’d need to do. Monica and I are still a little weary about it though because we don’t have a contract really because he doesn’t do that. We’re in his schedule now and we have his word but Monica wants stuff in writing. Plus the fact that we had a complete mix up the week before doesn’t help matters. I’m optimistic though.

One thing I thought was pretty funny was that the Judge suggested a few things to do during the ceremony including this one where we’d each pour a vile of colored sand into a vase to represent how our separate lives are joining together as one or some other crap. I had my own thoughts about it but I held my tongue until we left. As soon as we were out I said “We’re not doing any of that stuff, right?” and Monica said “Of course not. Sand? Really?” I love this girl.

Tags: Wedding

I often buy used books. They’re cheaper and the quality of the book doesn’t bother me. As long as it’s in one piece and all the pages are there, I’m good. I’m obviously a lot more critical of DVDs and video games, but books can be beat up and still work fine. It’s just paper. One of my regular haunts when searching for used books are library book sales. You can usually get a bunch of good stuff for 50 cents or a dollar a piece. They had one in Ossining a few months ago and I picked up a couple of Isaac Asimov books. I had read The Robots of Dawn last year so I was interested in checking out more by Asimov.

Yesterday morning I picked up I, Robot (one of the aforementioned Asimov books) and something fell out of it. It was a gift certificate to the Palisades Center Mall that expired 5 years ago. I can’t read the name on the “A Gift For” section but it looks like this was from Pete. Pete dropped $30 on this gift certificate and Huddle? never used it. Poor Pete. Anyway, I took the book to work and when it came time for lunch I went downstairs and popped it open. That’s when the second prize fell out in the form of 4 wallet size photos of some kid.

I just started cracking up. What a bizarre find. Look at that kid’s smug face! And the background? No lasers? Such a disappointment. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with this. The gift certificate is going in the garbage but I almost feel like putting the pictures on my refrigerator. If anyone asks I’ll tell them it’s my buddy Pete. Although I might get a call from Dateline…

Tags: Used Books

I’m going to warn you now. This blog post is going to take the long way around. Let’s take you back for a minute. When Monica moved in with me about a year and a half ago, I made a big deal about the fact that her DVDs had been adopted into my DVD collection. I took the good (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) with the bad (Bridget Jones’ Diary) and I treated them like any other DVD that was in my collection, except for the fact that they were immune to possible trading. As a result, the DVDs that I hadn’t seen made their way to my “To Watch” pile. That’s the other thing. I separate my DVDs. On one side are the ones I’ve seen and the other side (more specifically in a corner) are the DVDs that I haven’t seen yet. Despite the fact that I had little to no interest in watching Bring It On it still ended up on the “To Watch” shelf because I hadn’t seen it.

So this is how I ended up watching Sex and the City. Continue Reading »

Tags: DVD, DVD Collection, Sex and the City

I’ve left most of my recent car troubles out of the blog as of late, mostly because I didn’t know what would happen next. I’ll provide a brief rundown now because I think it’s just about done.

As you may know, I was rear-ended on Halloween. That was almost three months ago. Fortunately, no major injuries seemed to be sustained. I had some whiplash in my neck which went away, but Monica has had some back troubles since. It comes and goes but she’s been seeing doctors to hopefully make everything OK.

My car was a different matter. The rear end wasn’t demolished by any means. It looked like some minor dents and scratches but I don’t know much about cars. When we were hit, my car was pushed into a pickup truck that was stopped in front of us. There was no noticeable damage to the front end of my car, but when I moved it it sounded weird.

I brought my car in to J & B Bodyworks where I brought my car in when I was in an accident earlier in 2009. Geico went and looked at the car and work began. While the car was in the shop, I was driving a rental car from Enterprise. About a week later I was informed that there was some incremental work being done on the car. This was in addition to the original estimate. From what I understand, when they took the bumper off to start working they found more stuff that needed to be fixed. OK. It’s all covered so let’s get this done.

Then weeks went by. All the while I’m driving this rental car that I’m not really a fan of. Thanksgiving comes and goes and then finally after a full month, I get my car back. I was so excited to get it back and I get in and start it up and it still doesn’t sound right. Sure, the whole rear end looks fantastic but there’s still a noise or a vibration in the front right side of the car. I don’t know how else to explain it.

A few days go by and I bring the car back to J&B. I explain the issue and they look at it that day. They say that it was an issue with the tire balance and they re-balanced them for me. Great. I pick up the car and the noise is still there.

Dave took a look under the hood while he and Jess were up here and he suggested it might be the engine mounts. So, that weekend I bring my car into my regular mechanic for an oil change. While the car is there, I ask him to look the car over to see if he can find the cause of the vibration. It was determined that the lower ball joint had play and the drive belts were making noise and the engine mounts were OK. Geico wouldn’t cover this as it was seen as normal wear and tear on the vehicle. Fine. I’ll gladly pay for it if it means getting my car back to normal.

Then I get the car back and the vibration is still there. I’m still weirded out by it so I bring it back to the mechanic. I ask him to look at the mounts and they are cracked and lowered by about a half inch or so. I get Geico to look at it and they cover a portion of it. They can’t cover the whole thing because apparently I’m right at the threshold for having to declare the car totaled.

I get my car back this time and the sound is a little less but the vibration is still present. The next morning I clean snow off of the car and lean on the front bumper while doing so. The vibration stops. I let go and the vibration starts up again. How is it that I can make such a discovery and two different car places couldn’t find this?

At this point I don’t know what to do. I don’t think it’s that much of an issue however the vibration is very annoying to me. Do I bring the car back to the mechanic and see if he can fix it? What of the body shop? Do I try to get Geico involved again? Then the car might be declared totaled and the word “Salvaged” will be sprawled across the title of my car which will make it a real pain in the ass when I want to get a new car. I hate that I paid my car off in full at the beginning of 2009 and since then it’s been in two accidents. I just want it to be OK. Is that so much to ask?

Tags: Car, Car Trouble

There are only a handful of really funny shows on TV right now in my opinion. These include, but are not limited to the likes of 30 Rock, Glee, and How I Met Your Mother. That being said, HIMYM is not a show that I watch as it airs. That’s because I’m still behind and I’m just now getting the opportunity to catch up on previous episodes through the wonders of DVD. I don’t remember how I got into the show, but Monica and I plowed through the first two seasons on DVD so we were eager to check out the next DVDs. We went through the third season in less than a week.

How I Met Your Mother is a very funny show but with a couple major flaws. The whole premise of the show is that in 2030 this guy is telling his kids the story of how he met their mother. Sounds OK, right? Well, it is except that the entire show should theoretically end when he meets the woman that will eventually give birth to his kids. The show isn’t called How I Met and Fell in Love With Your Mother, Got Married and Had You Kids. That title is just far too long. So, with this logic in place, any relationship that Ted (the main character) gets into is doomed to fail because we already know based on the show’s title and premise that he doesn’t end up with any of these girls. As a result, I don’t give a crap about any of his relationships. I just can’t bring myself to do so.

Another big problem with the show is that I hate Ted. Seriously, he’s one of the most annoying and stupid characters I’ve seen on Television. Plus he makes some of the absolute worst decisions I’ve ever seen. What really doesn’t help Ted is his friends, most notably the legendary Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris) who steals every single scene he’s in. When Barney is through, Marshall (Jason Segal) is taking what’s left leaving Ted with little to nothing to work with. It’s actually a little sad.

Anyway, despite these two huge problems, this show is hilarious, not to mention incredibly well-written. The writing is very smart and each episode has a unique quirk to it with pieces falling together almost seamlessly. Sometimes it’s little things like a framed newspaper headline in a scene in the future in Marshall’s office that reads “NYC Lawyer Discovers Nessie” which ties in to a previous storyline. Other times though, it’s the shape of an entire episode as was the case with “The Platinum Rule” where 4 stories are told almost simultaneously that each exist a year apart. That’s just impressive.

This season’s episodes were pretty damn funny and this DVD is pretty good as well. There are commentaries, deleted scenes, and a personal favorite: an unrated gag real. There’s also a music video for both “Sandcastles in the Sand” the follow-up to Robin Sparkles Canadian Hit “Let’s Go to the Mall” as well as a video for Marshall’s “You Just Got Slapped” which is a song that’s been stuck in my head for days.

If I can catch up on this season of How I Met Your Mother, I’d consider watching the episodes as they air. I can’t guarantee that because of how I’ve viewed the show already. I think it would be tough to make that transition. I’d go from plowing through an entire season, watching episodes back-to-back-to-back to watching one every week with commercials. That just doesn’t seem that fun. If the show continues to be this consistently funny I’d at least give it a try on-air. Every episode of this season had me literally laughing out loud.

Rating:

Tags: DVD, How I Met Your Mother, Review

It’s no secret that 2009 kind of sucked for me. I think it started out alright but then it got mediocre and then it ended like a horrible foreign film. I stopped writing the daily blog but I had some resolutions. I dug them up and here’s what I had.

1. Exercise for at least 30 minutes a day.
2. Write for at least 30 minutes a day (excluding blogs and reviews)
3. Learn how to play the guitar (seriously this time)
4. Get a handle on my finances and save enough to buy a house within the next year or so
5. Actually film something.

Of those I’ve sort of accomplished two of them but not to my standards yet. What did I do this year? Yes, I went on two vacations, both of which were actually very fun and I’m glad I went on those. The rest of the year just went by and looking at that list makes me sort of depressed. I can’t remember the last time I exercised. Every time I’ve thought about working out in the past few months something happens like I get into a car accident. Writing sort of went out the window, but I’ve been constantly brainstorming scenes and bits in my head. I’m just too lazy to actually write them out. I should try out the tape recorder in my camera and try to get some of those thoughts out. Or maybe use my newly acquired Google Voice number to call myself and leave a voicemail for it to transcribe.

The guitar is an instrument that I’ve had an interest in for years, ever since I first heard Led Zeppelin’s “Heartbreaker.” I took lessons in 10th or 11th grade from a friend of mine but didn’t do much after that. Then I toyed with a CD ROM occasionally but the instrument has sat in a corner gathering dust for the year. Sad really. I don’t even know what I’d do with the knowledge of playing if I learned. It’s not like I’m going to join a band or something. I just want to learn to play the guitar because I want to learn how to play the guitar.

The finance thing I’m somewhat on top of. I’ve increased the amount of money I’ve put into savings. Monica and I are aiming to buy a house in the summer of 2011, however we’ve got that wedding to plan and save for in October that will make a dent in our savings. I’m optimistic about it and hope to have enough to at least put a down payment down by then.

Then we come to the film stuff. I’ve used my camera a few times but mostly for blog stuff like showcasing our new apartment. I’ve also filmed performances from the Neon Gloworms a few times and I’m slowly putting some footage together for a music video for them. This isn’t up to what I’d like to be doing yet though. Those aforementioned ideas that have been kicking around in my head for months need to come out and get on film…or digital whatever-you-call-it. Even if I can make a brief 2 minute video to toss up on YouTube so some random visitor can call me retarded, I’ll be happy.

So with all this said, I don’t think I’m going to make any New Year’s resolutions this time around. I’ve had enough. I think that I’m just going to go into 2010 with some positive thinking because honestly the year cannot be worse than how 2009 ended up. I’ve got some good things going like the wedding and work is going really well. 2010 may not be the year we make contact or the year we get flying cars and robot maids, but I’m looking forward to it regardless.

Tags: 2009, New Years Resolutions