Ultranormal

  • Down To…

    The Wire is the second coming of Homicide: Life on the Street. The show is really coming along. The characters are great. I keep trying to compare them to the old crew of Homicide, but it’s hard. There are only a couple that really match up well. Bunk is Meldrick Lewis. The old guy who makes doll house furniture is kind of Pembleton, but only of Pembleton had hung around to retirement age. Avon Barksdale is Luthor Mahoney without the flair (the flair being in Omar, who I think is one of the best bad guys on TV). On the surface, the show seems almost cliche. Dig a little deeper, watch a little closer, and the nuances jump out and give the show a depth unlike any cop show I’ve seen in a long time. For instance, in last night’s episode, Bunk and Jimmy go out drinking. The next day in the office, they’re all bleary without actually mentioning a hangover.

    So, if you have HBO, and you’re not watching, shame on you. It’s a great show, and I hope it comes back for many seasons to come.

    In other TV news, last night’s Sex and the City was kind of disappointing. I hate to say it, but I think they’ve run out of steam. Didn’t it feel like a rerun?

    And to counter the point of the show, I don’t think you get a set number of great loves in your life. You get as many as you go out and find, and as many as you need to find the one that will last. It’s a struggle, and sometimes it’s not fun. But, if you stop looking, you’ve shut out the possibility that you’ll find your next great love.

    And still more… Trey was not Charlotte’s great love. He was the great placeholder for love. Aiden may have been a great love, but Big certainly wasn’t. He was a protracted fling.

    I’ll keep watching because there really isn’t anything else on. But, I’m almost hoping this is the last season. I’d hate to see the show limp into obscurity. Go out near the top.

  • Yes, These Are My Boiling Pants

    Because I’m stupid, I wore a black t-shirt and jeans out today. It was 94 degrees outside with 75-85% humidity. I’m exhausted, and I didn’t even do anything other than load the car with the new shelves I bought downstairs and load the groceries. If I weren’t so pale (and fat), I swear I’d go out naked.

  • For You… Snatch

    For whoever searched for Snatch theme song, the name of the song is Diamond, and it was performed by Klint Harvey and Seba. It’s spiffy, to say the least, and is the second track on the soundtrack.

    I love referer logs…

  • You Wanna See?

    So, my favorite thing about Movable Type so far is the modules. My whole pages are modular, and I love it. I can change one file and rebuild, and it changes everywhere. You wanna see? Here’s my homepage template:

    <$MTInclude module="pageHeader"$>
<$MTInclude module="menuHeader"$>
<$MTInclude module="menuLastTenOffset"$>
<$MTInclude module="menuLinks"$>
<$MTInclude module="menuFooter"$>
<$MTInclude module="blogHeader"$>
<!-- start entries -->
<$MTInclude module="blogFrontPage"$>
<!-- end entries -->
<$MTInclude module="blogFooter"$>
<$MTInclude module="pageFooter"$>

    And the stylesheet’s even better. Change one file, and I can change pretty much anything I want about the layout. I love the web. You’d think after all this time, I’d get bored and go do something else. But nope, still hooked.

  • And The Emmy Goes To…

    The coolest thing about the Emmy nomination list for this year is that the nominations aren’t dominated by crap actors who people think are “due”, and there is a good collection of non-network shows and actors nominated. The fact that most of the cast of Six Feet Under was nominated, plus Michael Chiklis (who’s show I haven’t seen, but man, has FX ever gotten a nomination for anything?). It’s a good sign I think that at least the Emmy’s can grow up.

  • We Are Installified!

    Yessiree Bob, Movable Type is now installed on this site, and everything has been migrated over. How cool is that? The only problem was importing. It refused to do all 653 entries at once, and I had to break up the files. I think we’re golden now. There may be some duplicate entries, but I can live with that.

  • Random… RARH!!

    More random goodness, it’s a mechanical dinosaur!!

  • Oh Crap

    So, if this turns out to be more than a witchhunt… we’re screwed.

  • Robin, What Happened?

    Thanks to TiVo, these observations are all about a week old:

    • Because I couldn’t sleep last night, I started watching the Robin Williams special that ran on HBO Sunday. Is it just me, or has Robin completely lost it? Other than the AOL Time Warner stock joke at the beginning, he just wasn’t funny. Maybe it was live, and he was nervous or something, but his normal manic style seemed forced and unnatural. He was trying to be spontaneously unsponteneous, and it just sucked. Poor Robin, he was so much funnier when he was coked up.

    • The last episode of The Real World: Chicago sucked. Everyone tried to be forgiving and philosophical which made for crappy TV. The reunion was even lamer. For all the fights and cattiness this season, it sure did fizzle out there at the end.

    There, that’s it. It’s back to hell for me. See you when I get released.

  • “I want to do… nothing”

    My vacation is coming up in a couple weeks (8/3 in fact). I don’t have an agenda yet. Jen has a bunch of ideas, like putting up shelves or finally decorating our bedroom. Nothing’s speaking to me though. I feel like Ron Livington’s character in Office Space. I want to do … nothing. I want to watch movies, maybe read a book, play some games, take walks with Max, and do nothing.

    I think I may be depressed. There, I said it. I’m just not crazy about doing anything. Maybe it’s just a transitional thing because of my new job. Maybe it’s because my new job isn’t exactly what I thought it would be, which I think is mostly my fault. I haven’t been as motivated to get ahead and set the big vision, because I’m not on fire like I used to be. I’m reacting, and doing what I have to, but beyond that, it’s hard to get excited. Let’s hope it’s just exhaustion and my vacation will take care of charging me back up.

    And in happy news, other than going out to lunch with Jen, Max and Mom today, I have had a salad every work day since last Monday. Getting used to all the green leafy stuff has caused a bit of a toilet tissue shortage, but other than that, the transition has been painless.