blog.circusgeek

a personal blog with nerdy bits thrown in

Category: Entertainment

  • Birthday, part 33

    Had a nice, chill birthday today. It was very nice, 2nd day off from work, spending time doing whatever I feel like (which, hasn’t been much, and it’s been glorious).

    Yesterday Kelly and I went for a late lunch at Tin Shed, I had the delicious “Cajun Kicker” burger, and despite the drizzle of rain, the covered patio area was nice and warm to sit in. Last night I met Snooks at Kennedy School for some pizza and beers, and got home early enough that I started cleaning the garage up. What a mess it had become after a few months of neglect (cobwebs, empty boxes piled up, etc).

    Today I played around on the computer most of the day, some video games, backing up some files, and made my first Amazon MP3 purchase (a great one-man act out of Seattle, Tim Seely). What a great experience; buying high-quality MP3 files for a reasonable price (the full album only cost $6.99). Tonight Kelly and I went down to Moon & Sixpence for dinner and drinks. Had a great time hanging out with my best friend. 🙂

    Not sure what I’m going to do tomorrow, perhaps finally get around to the yardwork I hope to get done while the weather holds. Or, maybe not. To be continued…

  • Gratuitous Amounts of Energy

    This is the best thing ever. Don’t argue with me, I’ve got ENERGY LEGS!

    Found this during lunch today via this blog post. Hilarious stuff, though Powerthirst is probably the best one.

    “MENERGY”

    *dies from laughter*

  • Heroes, Radiohead, and The Doctor

    The week was pretty busy with work, though I did manage to go out some. Spent time with Snooks on Monday at Kennedy School, and my brother Travis at Moon & Sixpence on Thursday.

    Friday I was pretty exhausted and Kelly had class, so I came home and relaxed. Had a couple beers, but ended up going to bed pretty early, though Kelly and I did finish watching the first season of Heroes, which was fantastic. What a great show. Now I’ve got the first four or so episodes of season 2 recorded to do a mini-marathon with. Brilliant!

    On Saturday I woke up unusually early for me on a weekend, 7:30am (just as Kelly was headed to class) and couldn’t fall back asleep, so I just got up and got a lot of little things done around the house. It was pretty easy to do, it was pissing it down outside, just a miserable rainy day.

    One of the things I finally did was buy the new Radiohead album In Rainbows, which in case you’ve been living in a cave (or don’t care for Radiohead) is being sold directly by the band now that they’re out of their recording contract with the big labels. Reports have been good regarding the sale, despite the fact that it’s a “name your price” sale. I opted for the box set route (which is VERY expensive) because I want the physical CD, though I wouldn’t have probably done it had my friend JB not gone in on it with me for the vinyl that I have no use for. It’s a really good album, and if you like Radiohead, I suggest going and buying the digital download for whatever you feel it’s worth to you, $2 or $20, if for no other reason than to ‘stick it to the man’ and prove that big labels have become largely irrelevant in an age of cheap recording options and virtually free distribution and promotion options.

    Sunday was another largely lazy day, Kelly had some schoolmates coming over to do some studying, so I went and picked up pizza for them from a spot down the street and then hid out in my office for a few hours surfing the net. Later Kelly and I watched the last couple episodes of the 3rd season of Doctor Who, which was also really good (if you’re into that sort of thing, like I am). It was a good, relaxing weekend.

  • Shout Out Louds

    Tonight Kelly and I went to see the brilliant Shout Out Louds at Berbati’s Pan. We started off the evening going to Huber’s for a drink, then moving on to Shanghai Tunnel for some food before heading into Berbati’s.

    Unlike the Editors show, it was pretty empty when we arrived, so we were able to sit in the back and relax while the two opening acts played. The first was Johnossi, a duo (who, like Shout Out Louds, also hail from Sweden) who’s sound was pretty hard rock, with a couple near-pop songs thrown in. Sadly, about halfway through their set the guitarist’s sound dropped out so there was a forced intermission while they scrambled to fix the problem, poor guys. The second opener was a group called Nico Vega, who were also pretty loud and heavy. They were (to me) an odd pairing for Shout Out Louds, unlike in just about every way, but I was impressed the female singer’s powerful voice. She had some serious pipes!

    Shout Out Louds at Berbati's PanShout Out Louds went on sometime around 10:45pm, and put on a fantastic show. They sounded great, hitting every beat and note perfectly. They opened with The Comeback from their first album, and finished with the brilliant Tonight I Have To Leave It before an encore-like final few songs. The singer had mentioned how exhausted they were, not getting any sleep for the past two days and were about to call it a night after Tonight I Have To Leave It, but then somewhat last-minute they decided to play a few more songs before finally leaving the stage. They put on a great show, and if they were as exhausted as they’d said, it didn’t come across in the sound at all, I could only tell by watching the faces of individual members, they looked tired, but were pro’s the whole show.

    There was a downside however, the rudeness of certain idiots in the crowd. I’ve heard stories before that Portland is, sadly, somewhat known for it’s rude audiences. It’s something I’ve only recently began to notice, but tonight I couldn’t help but feel both angry and embarrassed by some of the fuckers in the crowd. If you’re not there to support the band, then get the fuck out! Stop being rude. I tried to let it pass and just enjoy the show, but there were a handful of morons who ended up ruining the mood for me at times. Argh! All of this aside, it was still a great show.

  • Order of the Phoenix

    Today Kelly and I went back to Kennedy School a little past noon to catch the 1pm show of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. It was good, though seeings how I’m currently about 100 pages from re-reading the book (and no, I haven’t read books 6 or 7 yet) I was a bit annoyed at all the differences between the book and the film. I understand why most of the changes were made, I mean, the book is 850+ pages, and in order to really capture it properly the movie would have been 5 hours long. However, it was so badly truncated in spots, and whole character sub-plots were cut out that it made it feel like it was somewhat hollowed out. It was still good, just not as true to the book as the other four films have been. Oh well.

    We got home and watched more Heroes. Such a fantastic show. I’m going to be sad when I’m caught up and go from DVD marathons to waiting week to week for new episodes.

  • Home, Simpsons, Moon

    Since yesterday’s post, I attended most of the rest of the conference, sadly missing the last speaker in order to catch the flight home. The flight took a bit longer than was scheduled, arriving a bit after 8:30pm (instead of 8:10), though thanks to a co-worker (and his wife, actually) I got a ride home rather than having to take mass transit. I was able to spend the evening catching up on Kelly’s last couple days, as well as sharing my experiences of my trip.

    Today was, thankfully, pretty mellow. Kelly had class, so I was able to sleep in a little bit (with the cat at my side). I woke up around 10:30am, made coffee and had some cereal, and finished the rest of my unpacking, doing laundry, and generally getting things back in order.

    After Kelly’s day of class, I met her at Kennedy School around 5:30pm. We sat in one of the bars, had a couple drinks, and then went down the hall to the theater to watch The Simpsons Movie, which was fun and worth seeing (a few scenes had me nearly wetting myself with laughter). After that, we went to the local grocery store before heading home.

    As I set in to play some Call of Duty 2 online I got a call from my brother T who wanted to come into town to the Moon & Sixpence for a few pints, so I ended up there hanging out with him for the remainder of the evening. Good night out, though I hope tomorrow Kelly and I can relax around the house a bit. Of course, if it doesn’t rain too badly, I might just get in some yardwork. The curse of homeownership. 🙂

  • Goose Hollow & travel prep

    Today after work I met Ghost Dog at the Goose Hollow Inn for sandwiches and beers, since both our ladies were going out to see Lou Diamond Phillips star in Camelot. Had a good time out, and got home early enough to start getting things organized for tomorrow’s flight. Not sure when I’ll post next exactly, perhaps tomorrow night from the hotel (unless, of course, the hotel doesn’t offer free WiFi). Otherwise, sometime soon-ish.

  • The Tunnel, and Editors

    Editors at Berbati's Pan, September 19, 2007Tonight Kelly, Miranda and I went to see Editors play at Berbati’s Pan. We’d started out meeting next door at the Shanghai Tunnel for some drinks and dinner. Kelly and I met there at about 6pm. Miranda joined us shortly after. We had a great time chatting, and I had the delicious noodle bowl (veggies, chicken, and curry sauce) along with a few pints of Guinness. It wasn’t until we’d been there for a little bit when Miranda mentioned that the show didn’t start until 9:30… and there were two opening bands. Obviously this meant it was going to be a late night.

    We got into Berbati’s shortly after 9pm and decided not to stand around in the venue the whole time so went through to Berbati’s bar / restaurant area for a bit to sit down. We ended up missing the first opening act, Ra Ra Riot, but went in to catch the crazy, yet fun Biffy Clyro, a loud rock band from Scotland, the singer of whom Miranda commented looked like “a cross between Animal and Charles Manson“. Pretty fair description. They were really good, just not quite what I was expecting as an opening act for Editors.

    Editors came onstage at around 11:15pm, and put on a GREAT show. We’d seen them before last year at Dante’s, but this was a much better show. Not only was this show to support their fantastic second album An End Has A Start, so they had more material, but their stage presence had also grown. It was an awesome show.

  • Fantastic photos

    Martin Klimas still life photographyI found this article from one of the design blogs I read regularly. A photographer named Martin Klimas has taken some amazing photos of clay figurines, the moment they shatter in to bits.

    From the interview: “I drop the figurine from the same height in complete darkness while the lens of the camera is open. When the figurine hits the ground, the sound triggers the lights to go off for a fraction of a second.”

    My favorites: 1, 2, 3, 4. And there are more at his website.

  • I broked the internets!

    Haven’t written in a few days. I intended to, but I couldn’t. I broked the internets! 🙂

    It all started Saturday, which was truely a day to myself. I didn’t leave the house except for some grocery shopping (translated: I bought beer and some meat to grill). I spent most of the day tinkering around my home office, backing up data, updating software, and researching some new computer equipment to buy. Fun stuff, yeah? Yeah, well it was for me. And, it was nice to spend a day doing practically nothing. Not seeing anybody, not going anywhere, just hanging out by myself. Well, me and the cat I guess.

    The research was for a new WiFi access point. I have been running on a dinosaur, the original Apple Airport (known as the Graphite model) since around the year of our lord 2000 AD. It was old, slow, and though it worked, I’ve recently been using the wireless a lot more (what with the new laptop) and it’s shocking how long it takes to transfer a large file over that old, slow WiFi connection. I also wanted to move to a WiFi router, something new that could take the place of my old WiFi access point and my old ethernet switch. One power plug instead of two, one or two less cables snaking along the wall, etc. This, after loads of research, lead me to the newly released Apple Airport Extreme (1 gigabit ethernet version).

    While out grocery shopping Saturday I tried to visit the nearest Mac store and buy one, but they’d closed. Oh well. I spent the night surfing the net and watching season 3 of Black Books, a very funny / snarky English comedy series.

    Sunday however, I was able to purchase my new toy. So I got home with it in the afternoon and set in getting it all hooked up. One thing I knew was going to happen in all of this was that my current setup was going to break a lot… my old setup was such that my broadband modem fed into my Linux server, which then fed to my ethernet switch, which then fed into my old WiFi access point. Long story short, a LOT of configuration was done on my Linux server to get all this working… and I had to undo it all, and do a lot of new stuff, to get everything back up and running.

    I had however underestimated how much of a pain some of it would be. Getting my network up and running and getting my computers online was really easy. That part only took 10 minutes. What was more troublesome was getting my Linux server happy again, and then discovering some things that meant some larger changes to my setup (new nameservers, routing for my domain name, port forwarding, blah blah blah). What that all means is that Circusgeek was offline for a couple few days until everything got sorted out. Which, as far as I can tell, happened today sometime. Now I’m finally able to post to my blog again. Hence, the long-winded post. 🙂

    Now that it’s all running, things are faster and I’m happier overall. More than anything, I’m just glad to have everything running again. What a pain in the ass!