The Men Who Stare At Goats

The Men Who Stare at Goats – nee` Goats – is a pretty funny picture.  I enjoyed it.  And its not just funny, it also makes you think.  Which is pretty solid.  I enjoy Jeff Bridges.  I enjoy all the actors, actually.  My main problem is believing Ewan McGregor’s American accent, but I just remind myself of my own Scottish Brogue attempts and settle down.

This picture is not rip-roaringly hilarious.  It’s a slight tale of redemption, good vs evil, and goats.  Mainly, I found it to be a “what happens next” type of story, and done quite well.

The jokes about Jedi warriors are tight.

 

New Fringe!

Oh, man, there was a new Fringe on last night.  Thank God for Hulu because I couldn’t watch it until today.  As Fringe episodes go, it was pretty solid.  It didn’t contribute much to the overall story arc, but it wasn’t a throwaway episode by any means.  There was a lot of character development going on for Broyles last night which really fit well in the case to be solved.  I dug it.

Man, I love this show.  It’s annoying being a Fringe fan, though, which I may have mentioned before, because there is this sense that the show could be way, way better than it is.  I blame the studio system or whatever it is for limiting the story.  As I’ve said at times, I wish mini-series were more vogue – or that networks were more willing to throw down for one season of a really great show.  It would be great if Fringe could be in a format like that so it doesn’t seem to be attempting X-Files type shows.  There’s a lot I’ve read stating it was designed to be more of a weekly procedural – and if that’s the case, I would probably still watch it.  But if that’s the case, then don’t start a big season long arc.  Especially not one as juicy as war with an alternate universe.  I don’t need that kind of stress.

Anyway.  I’m still at 0 words for NaNoWriMo, so I don’t think it’s happening.  On the plus side, lots of school work has been done.  Woot!

 

One-Timer

I could blog about my parking lot incident or my job hunting – both of which did not go well.  Instead, I have a short rant.  It is not really a rant, more of a complaint.

I am tired of, well, the, well, interjection of, well, the word “well” in, well, EVERYTHING.

Since I have taken up noticing the “(comma) well (comma)” phenomenon I see it everywhere.  And it is driving me crazy.

I suspect I am the only one.  But I thought I might mention it.

Out.

 

It Starts…

Once again, I am attempting NaNoWriMo.  This year, I am doing things a little differently than last year.  For one, I will not be doing a novel that I already had started.  That was cheating.  Two, I will actually try to write my novel this year.  It was a miserable failure last year and I think I will try harder.  I am not sure if I will do another nanowrimo blog – that only time will tell.

I am without my iMac.  As suspected, it was the victim of lightning.  Many capacitors on the logic board were bulgy and fried and it was no worky.  Such a fix would cost us at least five hundred dollars, so we chose no.  I will save up to get a MacBook at some point, and hopefully retrieve my lost data.  It is difficult to live without my information.  I am hoping we can get the files transferred to Sam’s computer – but it hasn’t happened yet.  The iMac contained all my resume information, music, and pictures.  Oh, dubious fate!  Why hast though cursed me so?

Anyway.

I have a paper to write.

 

Top Chef: Las Vegas

In the period of no cable (which I am rapidly realizing was awesome) Sam and I missed the start of the new Top Chef Season.  Luckily, we’ve only missed the first four episodes as eps 5+ were all “On Demand.”  We didn’t start watching the last season until midway through, and after watching the first few I’m pretty glad.

There’s too many chefs!  I like to see Tom talking to each chef for a while and see several comments about the food – it is educational at times.  But all these chefs really take away from it.  And there were commercials On Demand!  I had to sit through the exact same Tom commercial about Diet Coke.  Diet Coke will never be something I enjoy as my soda drinking is limited enough.  When I actually drink it, it will be the real stuff.  Research (actual, rigorous research, BTW, not the fake Fox News research) suggests diet drinks generally increase your appetite, anyway.  That makes you fatter.

Well, comparing Las Vegas with last season, I must say I prefer last season.  The chefs were far more colorful in character – thus far, the LV chefs seem better at cheffing.  My favorite is Kevin, who seems to cook amazing food and seems to be an all around nice guy.

I still maintain the show ought to be “Top Dish,” though.  It’s asinine not to take into account previous challenges.  The show is subjective anyway, so there’s no need not to.  It’s not like they can’t change it – it’s a TV show.  People change things all the time.

Anyway, the restaurant wars was pretty crazy – but not as crazy as last season.  There was no decorating the restaurant or naming the leader beforehand.  It was all “cook a meal for fifty people.”

Top Chef is a pretty okay show this season, but I see why they sometimes pick people with crazier personalities over technical folk.

I still maintain Toby is a bit of a jerk, though.

 

Apple Picking

We took Zachary apple picking on Sunday.  It was a day filled with apples.  The orchard in question was Blake’s Orchard and something which is important because there are there Blake’s Orchards.  This made it difficult for Sam’s friend, Dena, to find us at ours as she was at a different one.  Hilarity ensued.

The Apples were nice and ripe and we enjoyed many to the core, despite a lack of honeycrisps at this time of year.  Pies will surely be cobbled together in the near future and I must admit I am already a bit appled out.

Orchard judging:  I must admit, I prefer the setup at the orchard I’ve been to with the Willsons named “Klackle.”  There’s not much love for their over the top carnival atmosphere (though it was free there and you had to pay at Blake’s) what I liked were the free hayride train rides out to the orchard.  There was something more carefree about it.  We had to drive ourselves out the orchard, which meant waiting for other family to get lost and then find the correct path.  Luckily, everyone made it out alive.

Last night we carved pumpkins, and event Zachary enjoyed from a culinary view.  He liked chewing the lids of the jack-o-lanterns.  I chose a simple smiley-fang face with triangle eyes and Sam went with a blazing-eyed demon.  We each carved half of Zachary’s resulting in an interesting interpretation of the post-modern school.  A commentary on pumpkin carving, if you will.

Tomorrow, we head to Muskegon where we will visit my family and enjoy a party on Saturday night.  I am very excited to go see everyone, but I fear boredom will set in as our funds for gas and events are fairly limited right now.  No matter, I should be able to nail down several school assignments which have thus far eluded me.

Next weekend is Halloween Camp and I wish I could attend.  However, we shall be back in Marysville on Monday and it isn’t prudent to drive all the way back to Muskegon for one evening – though I would certainly enjoy myself and I suspect Sam would as well.  It would also be fun to take Zachary trick or treating – we’d probably head to the nice neighborhoods so as to milk them for full-size candy bars.

It might be best to stick around here as I will need my gas funds for the speedy drive home when Christofski’s Spawn emerges onto the world.  Armed with a plethora of religious texts and amulets, I will see to he is a demon-less child.  One must be prepared.  Little Joaquin will bless the Mascorro household, true, so I probably shouldn’t joke about it.  Sam and I must now try hard to have a little girl so Joaquin can get betrothed quickly.

Sam is at work right now being a Real Vet.  Which is pretty neat, because since she’s at a real clinic without mean people telling her what to do, I expect her to have a good time.  I am watching Zachary in a deathtrap of floor vents and outlets and slowly going mad because of it.  I hope my efforts to find employment will work out so that I don’t go crazy with boredom.

 

On Blogs

I have talked about this before, but I am going to talk about it again.  I love WordPress – I really do.  But, most of my friends use Blogger.  And Blogger is connected with my Google Account.  I feel I am missing out on a golden opportunity here to fuse the two.

Man.  It’s confusing.

 

Port Huron: Taurus Comics and the Raven Cafe

Sam and I went out this evening in search of fun.  A few minutes away from the driveway found contact problems with Sam’s eyeballs.  There was no question of a movie – her original plan – so we were going to stop only at the comic shop and then head back to PH Mom’s.  This was half of what happened.

Taurus Comics in Port Huron is not my favorite comic shop.  The clerk seemed to have little knowledge of a release schedule for fairly popular books.  Books were not split up by publisher, but thrown frantically into an alphabetized order – disaster.  None of the books were pre-bagged.  Ugh.  I may speak ill of Stillwater, but their comic shop is amazing.  Taurus was a stereotypical experience and I didn’t enjoy it.  It was also poorly lit and dirty.  Most comic shops have clutter about – it’s impossible to not, really.  This had a fine layer of dust coating the wood surfaces.

I did not enjoy my time.

The Raven Cafe, however, was awesome.  It is a coffeehouse at it’s core, but also has a pretty decent menu of soups, salads, sandwiches, and pizzas.  Absolutely delightful.

The walls are lined with bookshelves, filled with old books.  Some carry monikers you might ignore like “The History of Dirt,” but nestled among the clunkers are classic titles and posters of literary characters.  They also have beer, wine, drinks, and coffee.  I fear they may overstep themselves with all that they offer, but while it is open, it is fairly impressive.

My one caveat was the service, which was not too good.  Our server took a very long time to take our order and kept ignoring us in lieu of other tables.  Sam and I are fairly tolerant (especially Sam) but I know a few people who would have left without eating, and in a place like this – fairly new – you need to get those customers and keep them.  Our order was wrong as well – onions where there were none ordered.  Beers were on the menu that were “out.”  The server was friendly, though, and there was “trouble below” that we could hear from our balcony seats.  Some crazy yelling dude.  So, I think it may have been a one time thing.

But there are over 100 drinks offered – tea, coffee, alcohol-based, as well as a beer sampling plank.  When I look back on it, the selection offered is really just smart combining of a few basic menu items.  I hope they stay open, because it is now a place I will look forward to visiting in Port Huron.

 

Midweek Blues

Well, we have been waiting for Sam’s Mom to call Comcast to turn on the Internet here at the farm.  Turns out, it has been on this whole time.  So I started finishing up my work for one of my classes and it is terribly challenging.  But not in the “this is challenging” way, it is challenging to be motivated because of the nature of the work.  It is hard to explain, but it is due to my inability to see how the tasks I must accomplish are actually helpful.

In other news, I’m reading “The Joy of Cooking” and enjoying it.  It is amazing how much Alton Brown has obviously learned from it – in fact he cites it as an inspiration in his own cookbook, I think.

 

Yay!

The first major leg of the journey has ended and the OK Abel family is in Michigan for it’s 2009 Autumn/Winter Tour.  We are at my parents’ house right now digesting pancakes.  Mom and Dad are still in Evansville, so we have it all to ourselves.  Which is nice, though it’s also nice to have mom cook for us.  Later tonight we surprise the Mascorro’s at their baby shower – they think we won’t be in town until much later.

We missed out on seeing my sister this morning.  Last night we got finished with dinner outside Indianapolis and said “Let’s go for it.”  So we did.  I thought we might go down this morning, by poor Sam needed some sleep.  Which is good, because she hasn’t slept well the whole trip.  We shall see the A&W clan soon enough, I am sure.  It is too bad because they have actual social lives, something long lost to Sam and me, and had rearranged their schedule to be home this morning.  Hopefully they got a nice peaceful morning to enjoy, but too bad they can’t have a Zachary fix sooner.

Nana and Papa were very happy to see us.  No knick-knacks were broken in the visiting of the baby, and that’s all you can really hope for in a case like that.

We gassed up at a Meijer last night.  My God.  We didn’t really want to waste time going inside, but we almost did.  It would have been terrific.

There is little news.  Next weekend we are visiting Grandpa Grimm and we travel to Sam’s mom tomorrow for the “big unpacking.”  It is in quotes because it is an event.