I fulfilled a goal this afternoon when I went and saw Avenue Q in Portland. I first heard a song from the soundtrack and loved it freshman year of college. It's rude, offensive, vulgar, awesome, and hilarious. In short, Sesame Street for adults. Four point five years ago I told Sarah "If this comes to Portland. We are seeing it."
Well it came, and a group of friends saw it no questions asked. It was everything I could hope for and then some. I don't think I have been that entertained and happy in a long time. It truly is a great show. But I really can't say enough about it or describe it. If you haven't heard it, download/buy the soundtrack and listen to it. It is truly amazing.
I'm also basically in love with the guy in this picture now.
Back to school, back to school
06 25 2008 - 11:48 pm. Category: misc
PSU's summer term started on Monday. I'm taking two courses: science-fiction literature and fencing. These will earn me 6 quarter credits, 3 semester credits. This will put me at the 150 semester credits necessary to sit the CPA exam... but that's not the exciting part.
Now that I bought them, I have no excuses. I needed them for fencing, but also wanted them for running. I bought them, I'm committed, and now I must run. I've run the past two days and my legs are already hating me. It's going to be a funtastic summer.
Even the simple "an guarde" position of fencing, the opening one, makes me likes begin to cry. The profes... "coach" is a nice guy. Horrible speaker though. He just seemed uncomfortable talking to us in a lecturing atmosphere.
Raw-hide FIRE!
06 23 2008 - 3:25 pm. Category: misc
I was on a boat, it was like a 1800s Mississippi River style boat. With the paddles and railing and everything. Hell, Samuel Clemens could have been the captain, but I don't remember the authority figure that specifically. The boat was a lot longer though, battleship style. And that is what it was. I was in charge of prepping the line of fuses and powder that allowed the ignition guy to light one fuse and set off all our cannons. We were practicing for when we encountered the rogue vessel we were pursuing.
This prep work was me taking sticky lengths of something resembling raw-hide chew toys, laying the first by the ignition guy, the second at the end of that one which then connected to the strand that ran to all the cannons. These are the two things that had to be replaced, but not the fuses to the canons. I was worried because we were running low on these raw-hide chew fuses, and the ones we had left were rather short and couldn't do the job well.
To remedy this problem, I busted out my bottle of lotion. I then gooped this to create a path between the ignition guy and the cannon fuses. This was the test run in case I had to do this later. It worked! The spark flew down the line of lotion to the cannons just like gun powder. Shortly after, we saw the rogue vessel and turned to attack!
As I looked across the water at the vessel, it was the same design as ours, and it had women dolled up western-brothel style and female zombies dolled up western-brothel style on it. The zombies were obviously in a state of decay and didn't look as attractive. Our job was to destroy them, they wanted to kill us. The women and women zombies shot across the water and boarded our ship. Their cries which I cannot specifically remember were accusations that our crew were both whores and lesbians. I should point out at this time that I was a guy in the dream, the captain was a guy, and the ignition guy was a guy. I don't remember any women on our ship. The non-zombie women attacking were the original owners of what I realized was a floating whore house and they wanted it back. Don't ask me what zombies had to do with this.
We were being boarded and there was nothing we could do. I turned to the captain and asked what action should we take. Our only option was to fire all our cannons at the zombie/whore vessel across the water. Hopefully this would scare the boarding zombies and whores into surrendering. As quickly as I could, and just like we practiced, I laid out and prepped two raw-hide fuses for the cannons.
UPDATE: Holy crap guys! I got my first spam comment! Or at least it's the first one that has made it through the blogging software. I'm so proud! I have no Idea who Doug is, or what the hell he is talking about. From the looks of it he's a real person, and his blog exists. But his comment is still a random soliciation of some advertised content, therefore spam. Thanks Doug!
Triffids?
06 19 2008 - 03:06 am. Category: misc
I'm an ever-increasing fan of The Colbert Report. On tonight's episode, the author guest was Junot Diaz and his book is The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. While discussing a part of the book, Diaz describes them as being like "triffids."
At that point, Colbert stopped and applauded him for geeking out to such an extreme level by this reference. I had no idea what they were talking about, so I paused the show (<3 the DVR), went to my computer, and pulled up the Wikipedia article on triffids. You can find out what they are by yourself.
When I sat back down and hit play, Colbert's next line was something to the effect of "people at home are rushing to Wikipedia to find out what triffids are."
There is a prize out there somewhere and I think I should get it.
Set a record
06 17 2008 - 5:37 pm. Category: internets
If you are not already aware, Firefox is trying to set a world record by having the new Firefox 3 have the most downloads of any software in a 24-hour period.
They are having some bandwidth issues, but I have downloaded and installed a copy. Some of the features are pretty awesome. You can now tag URLs with keywords and pull up those URLs simply by typing the keywords into the bar. You can also pull up frequently visited sites with keywords. For example, simply typing in "never" in my browser will pull up my blog.
So you should go get it and help break a world record. The end.
When I return
06 16 2008 - 03:02 am. Category: two cents
I've come to the conclusion that, assuming reincarnation is the way the death/birth cycle works, I'm coming back as a raven. And here's why:
1) I'll retain a portion of intelligence, which is just always a nice thing that I can be pleased with.
2) While walking through stores, I often go "ooh shiny" and wander off towards something either interesting or literally shiny. It stands to reason that I would be just as pleased finding shiny things as a raven.
3) I have a "gotta catch them all" personality. There are numerous DVDs, CDs, and books I would like to buy just because they would make a set with books, CDs, and DVDs that I already own. I'm a fan of lengthy fantasy series and have collections of swords, pens, books, and Star Wars toys. Ravens too collect things and take pleasure in gathering, so again I would be content.
4) Back when Golden Compass was coming out, I took their little "Meet Your Daemon" quiz and it said mine would be a raven.
12 of 12, June
06 13 2008 - 12:17 am. Category: 12 of 12
Alright folks, it is time for this month's 12 of 12. Thankfully I can post this from my friend's neighbor's hijacked internet. Today was an eventful day, and by eventful I mean I fell asleep frequently. This set all took place in Seattle and Tacoma Washington. So lets get this started...
11:31:50 (I slept in) Any morning that starts out with Guitar Hero is a good morning, and consequently a good day. Sarah and I have been kicking guitar hero ass all week. I'm sure that's how we will finish off today as well.
12:16:05 My phone died so we hopped into a mall to get a car charger. I have seen some strange things in malls, but I think this is toward the top of the list.
1:00:19 We drove past these signs all week. Be a hero and report carpool lane violators!
1:13:03 Oooh shiny. Sarah has chosen a good place to move.
2:23:57 We grabbed lunch at Qdoba. Basically it was a clone of Chipotle. The quesidilla was tasty though. I devoured mine quite speedily.
4:00:07 We had time to kill before the apartment cleaners were gone, so we headed down to Pike Place Market. I napped on the drive from her new place to the market.
4:02:09 These guys were pretty adorable. The vendor was nice enough to take one out of the tank for pictures, but I liked how this one turned out best.
4:29:19 Despite both being somewhat sick, we managed to chill in the sun and take a picture of us being completely adorable. You can kind of see my new Warcraft shirt!
5:27:42 Sarah checking out her new bathroom. It's pretty shiny. We moved some boxes in today, the heavy moving commences tomorrow. Woo!
5:53:22 My friend is not named "Bjork" but that's the button we pushed to test out her intercom system. Fun times!
7:03:47 We've discovered I'm a driving narcoleptic. Give me a couple minutes riding in a car and I'm out. So today I slept until 10:30, and took nice little naps in three different car rides.
7:17:48 Like good little capitalists, we heard a radio commercial for Wendy's frosty shakes so we went and got some frosties to finish off our adventuresome day.
All that's left for today is to drink some beer and play some more guitar here. I've finished this post and now Sarah is painting her toenails. It's a wonderful life.
No discrimination here
06 11 2008 - 6:04 pm. Category: bio, misc
I am proud to say that I am not a discriminatory shopper. When I hit up a mall, I treat the entire spectrum of young adult clothing and accessories equally. I went in purposefully to Victoria Secret to pick up their cologne Very Sexy for Him. A friend of it wore it one day and I commented on him smelling tasty. Who doesn't like to smell tasty? So I bought some too.
Then we happened to be wandering through Hot Topic, and I came across another World of Warcraft, Alliance t-shirt. I could use another black t-shirt, and the design is pretty awesome. I'll have to throw up a picture of me rocking it sometime in the future... maybe tomorrow and make it part of 12 of 12... I don't think it is that bad owning two Warcraft t-shirts.
AFK
06 09 2008 - 4:41 pm. Category: misc
This blog is going to be put on hold for a couple of days while I help a friend find a new apartment and move into it. Hopefully I will be back to having regular internet access to post this month's 12 of 12 on Thursday.
In the meantime, three cookies and a personal favor to the person who can find me a good torrent of this guys music. His name is Josiah Leming. He was an Idol contestant, and supposedly he has gotten a record contract.
Bigfoot "oof brownies"
06 08 2008 - 02:27 am. Category: misc
For some reason the blog software doesn't like tables, and put a huge gap here of like ten <*br> tags. I'm hoping this will get rid of it. It didn't, sorry about the awkward space.
This is what happens when a bunch of college graduates get together, drink, and then try to eat a frozen cake. After years of higher education, we all showed our appreciation to this delicious homemade cake by attacking it primitive-style.
This is the only picture I took at the Rose Parade, the few seconds of it that I saw. Bigfoot (or sasquatch) is a supposed resident of the Pacific Northwest, so it only stands to reason that he would be in the parade. I was up far too late to really sit and see the whole parade, and the weather was cold and wet (surprise!).
Anyone for an oof brownie? I'll take one!
I certainly hope so!
06 06 2008 - 02:00 am. Category: misc
When Boyfriend and I were walking along Waterfront Park and we came across this little bit of sidewalk art. I think it's completely adorable. I like to imagine that it's two joggers who cross paths every day, give each other a smile and a nod, and just enjoy a friendly face. Simple pleasures.
It was a fun adventure. I hadn't walked the Waterfront in some time. We ended up writing the bus back to the park and ride. I love the Max, but I've never trusted buses.
The Portland Rose Festival is this weekend. I was at the office watching the navy boats come in, and silly me I forgot my camera. I also forgot to take pictures of the Waterfront Village (like a mini fair) when Boyfriend and I went. Hopefully I'll be going to the Rose Parade on Saturday morning. However I am going to a graduation/birthday party the night before...
Sadly I won't be able to get close enough to the navy ships docked along Waterfront. Since 9/11, there has been a fence that keeps people about 50 feet away from the edge of the boardwalk, and it's guarded. Used to be that you could go right up to the edge. Sad times indeed.
Stay on target... stay on target...
06 04 2008 - 03:43 am. Category: misc
We're almost there, but it's not over yet. CNN predicts that Obama will win the democratic nomination. Finally, he got it. Now Hillary needs to graciously step aside and throw her support behind him.
He's taken on Hillary, the media, and the republicans. Now the democrats need to pull their act together as a cohesive party and win this election. I think this country is ready for some significant change. But the party that can't work together can't provide it.
Yesterday I went to Kentucky Fried Taco Chicken Bell* for lunch. I like to think that I have a fairly simple name. Derek is only five letters, no complicated usages of vowels like Aurthur or Michael. It follows a nice consonant, vowel, consonant pattern. It is also the simplest spelling, none of this "Derrick" or "Deryk" nonsense. Am I wrong?
At KFTCB they normally take your name then call it when your order is ready. Instead of calling my name, they called out my order. Why you ask? Because when I told the cashier "Derek" apparently she heard "Dark." I'm glad someone at least had the forethought not to call out that name since it is obviously wrong.
I can't imagine how to say Derek better, unless I want to slow it down and sound kinda tarded. This isn't the first time I've run into people not getting my name when I say it, so apparently I'm at fault here.
*KFTCB is a KFC and a Taco Bell in the same building in my home town.
Post deliveries two posts in a row, I'm surely breaking some rule
06 01 2008 - 03:07 am. Category: internets
A lot of secrets sent in are sad, tragic, and sometimes make you aware of something you hadn't considered before. This one really struck me though and the fact that it is true is quite tragic. If the $3.99+/g is the personal cost I have to incur to get our country moving in a sustainable direction I think it's a small price to pay. Yeah it sucks, but you do what you have to do.
Post Secret also had a link to a website that is worth checking out: I Found Your Camera. It updates every Thursday and photos are always interesting.
How to save a life, round 2
06 01 2008 - 02:55 am. Category: two cents
I was just going to do this in comments on the original entry, but my archives are currently broken. It's late, I'm not at home, so I can't pester boyfriend to fix them. received two comments on my How to sav a life (the one about aborting fetuses so they don't have a chance to sin, therefore they get a free ride to heaven). Here's the first:
Your knowledge of theology is obviously quite limited. You do not discuss the results of the Atonement, nor any of the possible values obtained by living a life in relationship with God. You confuse Calvinism and Arminianism in your logic, and also assume that there are greater and lesser degrees of sinfulness (a non-Biblical idea). Actually, no one gets into heaven with Sin in their lives. The scriptures are very clear on this (eg Romans 3:23). Someone simply has sin, period, not a quantity of sin. The Augustinian ideas, although widely read, especially by non Christians, because of Augustine's brilliant mind (his thoughts on time, and his book of confessions, among many others) - are generally agreed to be innacurate, and have been regarded as so since the middle ages. It wasn't until the reformation and the rise of predestinarian (calvinistic) thought that he really received widespread attention again. Also, it is important to remember that Jesus' death atones for ALL of our sins by virtue of our accepting Christ as our personal savior. Again, your understanding of atonement and sin is clearly undeveloped and based on very few (if any) in depth readings and studyings of the scriptures. Perhaps a further study is in order?
- I stated that I based it on Wikipedia research, I don't assume to be well educated on this topic. I know the argument is not well supported or researched, that wasn't really the point. Honestly I don't find it worth arguing on that level since abortion should be a woman's right to choose, end of story.
- If there are not degrees of sin, then why are there the seven deadly sins? Shouldn't they all be deadly or not?
- My knowledge of scripture is non-existent. The last scripture I read was in the picture bible as a child. It was rather cruel of them to disguise it as a comic book. But is my limited knowledge and picking and choosing of knowledge to support my argument any worse than the picking and choosing that evangelicals use to denounce things like homosexuality?
- So if Jesus died to atone for my sins, then there is no need to worry about sinning correct? If sins have already been atoned for then really they aren't sins anymore when you commit them.
I don't mean to pick a fight with Matt, the gentleman who left the comment. In fact, I'm damn happy I even got a comment from someone. But if you're going to spit a paragraph at that like me, I have to respond. The second comment I received from James:
If you buy into the religious wacko ideas, you are already lost to any amount of reason, facts, or logic. Wouldn't it be nice if all the religious wingnuts just went off by themselves and allowed people with functioning brains to live in peace?
- I by no means by into them, don't worry.
- I agree that everyone should just keep to themselves. I don't bother you, you don't persecute me, everyone is happy. Unfortunately some people can't stand to have things any way other than theirs. By all means they are entitled to it, but by no means do they have the right to force it upon others.
I hope these two guys are still reading. I think my "how to save a life" post made it into StumbleUpon, in which case I highly doubt they'll be back. Always glad to have a reader.
I fulfilled a goal this afternoon when I went and saw Avenue Q in Portland. I first heard a song from the soundtrack and loved it freshman year of college. It's rude, offensive, vulgar, awesome, and hilarious. In short, Sesame Street for adults. Four point five years ago I told Sarah "If this comes to Portland. We are seeing it."
Now that I bought them, I have no excuses. I needed them for fencing, but also wanted them for running. I bought them, I'm committed, and now I must run. I've run the past two days and my legs are already hating me. It's going to be a funtastic summer.
I've come to the conclusion that, assuming reincarnation is the way the death/birth cycle works, I'm coming back as a raven. And here's why:
I am proud to say that I am not a discriminatory shopper. When I hit up a mall, I treat the entire spectrum of young adult clothing and accessories equally. I went in purposefully to Victoria Secret to pick up their cologne Very Sexy for Him. A friend of it wore it one day and I commented on him smelling tasty. Who doesn't like to smell tasty? So I bought some too.
We're almost there, but it's not over yet. 
Yesterday I went to Kentucky Fried Taco Chicken Bell* for lunch. I like to think that I have a fairly simple name. Derek is only five letters, no complicated usages of vowels like Aurthur or Michael. It follows a nice consonant, vowel, consonant pattern. It is also the simplest spelling, none of this "Derrick" or "Deryk" nonsense. Am I wrong?