Thoughts on the World Cup

My family has being giving to this child in Ghana through the Christian Childrens Fund for years. We were always happy to get his letters and thrilled when he became healthy enough to start playing soccer.

Today, I turned those letters over to the FBI because I now assume he is a member of Al Queda.

Who is bad now, you twelve year old punk?

Friendly does not equal heart healthy

This food will kill you! Kill You!

Friendly's New Burger Takes On The Double Down - Slashfood:

"Cue the requisite gasp of shock as we roll out the numbers: 1500 calories (870 of those from fat); 79g of saturated fat; and a whopping 2090mg of sodium (trouncing the Double Down, which weighs in at a paltry 1380mg of salt)."

How Should I Caption This?

Either:

"Behold the Power of my Ass"

or

"Those MmmmBop residuals won't continue forever."

A Day in the Berkshires

While TEA and my father went for a walk yesterday, I made some astoundingly good breakfast sandwiches which had a secret ingredient.

Afterwards, TEA and I went into town in search of the comic book shop. We found Fantasy Realms in Pittsfield, where TEA picked up Superman #700, Brightest Day: Green Lantern Corps #49 and The Flash's ring. TEA was impressed with the shop, which is in the process of re-inventory right now, and the owner was great!

After that, TEA decided that he wanted to do some fishing. He did well, and my father was a competent assistant to the great white fisherman. (After TEA had settled down, my father and I realized that in the event of an Apocalypse, we are both f****d when it comes to living off the land.)

TEA's allergies were bothering him, so after fishing, he went to take a nap, my father decided to rest in the sun, and I...well...I read the comics that TEA got earlier in the day.

TEA ended up napping for about three hours, which proves that non-drowsey Children's Benedryl isn't worth the name.

At that point we were hungry, and TEA thought that wings sounded like a good idea.


We headed down to the Olde Forge Restaurant, which has a wonderful variety of craft beers. I had the Newport Storm IPA while TEA has a Saranac Root Beer (funny story, when TEA got his draft root beer while we were waiting for our table at the bar, a woman loudly informed us that we couldn't give that to a child as it had alcohol. "No, it doesn't," I replied. "YES, IT DOES." The bartender set her straight quickly, but...how incompetent does she think that I am? Really? I would give my kid a pint f beer in a bar? I would think that I know a little better than that.) and then it was time to decide what to eat, which TEA decided quickly and then proceeded to read one of his comics.

I had a sandwich (which was okay) and TEA and my father each wings. My father had hot wings (which were tasty but not too spicy) and TEA had a house style (and I am forgetting the name) that tasted of curry, brown sugar, cinnamon and Unicorn smiles.
They were so tasty.

After dinner, we went out for ice cream, and there was a mishap with a cone collapsing and my father making a great save, the return drive to my dad's place (singing Journey all the way) and sitting outside on a cool summer night with nice fire going.

So...all-in-all...I engaged in geekery, I spent a good amount of time on a boat, had yummy food and beer, and ended the day sunburned and sore. It was an almost perfect day and I am glad that I was able to share it with TEA and my father.

(A Very Special Thanks to PJ who told me to try The Black Keys - Brothers, which is great chill by a lake music and I have been listening to it as I have been composing this post, out on a deck, with the sun coming down on me.)

Why I Love Her

I love Janeane Garofalo for a couple of different reasons.

However, the piece that you can watch here has my favorite line ever from her.

"Q: Who is your secret conservative crush?"

"Janeane: I don't know.  I don't have one.  Barry Goldwater....no Barack Obama."

TEA Expresses A Film Review

He feels about it the same way his father does.



We both loved Toy Story 3 by the way.

More Dreams

Last night (or more this morning) I had another hospital dream where I was an intern.

In this dream, however, I was also a patient due to the fact that my left eye was ripped out during a botched surgical procedure.

In addition, most of my fellow interns were addicted to horse.

It made for an awfully interesting morning.

This Made Me Go "Ha Ha"

All Over Albany has a link to a woman at Sage who is using Twilight in her COLLEGE LEVEL ENGLISH COURSES and it made me think bad thoughts about Sage. Wanting to be fair, I went to the Wikipedia page and saw this below. The section in bold was (in all likelihood) written by someone who has a connection to this *cough* fine educational institution.

Russell Sage College - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

"The self-contained 10-acre (40,000�m2) campus is located in the historic district of Troy, New York with 19th century brownstone residences, Victorian gates, formal courtyards and walled gardens. This campus is on two blocks and is a safe campus for the most part because there hasn't been any crimes. However, there aren't many businesses thriving around Russell Sage College, which means you won't have many things to do. The area around it is pretty ghetto. There is a bowling lane, numerous antique and jewelry stores, a public library nearby, and several independent coffee shops in the area. There is easy access to public transportation for students to get around. It is better for students to have their own cars or network with people who have cars to get around."

Why yes, I am a douche. Thanks for noticing.

Who Will See It With Me?

So, I have a public thing for zombies and a public thing for Milla, so it is only natural that the Resident Evil movies, as awful as they are, are some of my favorite films.

Alice kicks ass, and I am looking forward to this...who is willing to see it with me?

via io9

Wishing my life away

Arcade Fire's "The Suburbs" comes out in a little more than a month, and I am looking forward to it.

Between this album and Zero History, I am looking forward to a good amount of media that is due to come out.

It's Vuvuzela Time

Now you can browse any website with the option of having a vuvuzela in the background.

No, seriously. Try it with this site.

It is not completely annoying.

(Via Zombie Planet)

What Should I Do?

I have friends flying in from Texas next week to hang out in Albany.

I do have a couple of things planned already (State Museum to see the 9-11 exhibit because my goal is to make people I love and care about cry over a tragedy and some food venue related places, Wolff's for the World Cup, Lionheart for Happy Hour to people watch, the Palais at 3:30 in the morning, et cetera, and one of the days is being taken over by a trip to the Berkshires.) but I am looking for more options.

What would you do that is fun and cheap in the Capital District?

Tuesday Rundown

Radiohead is almost finished with their new album.

This is amazing:



Via The Awl, Gawker and Joe.My.God.

Cheap Eats: Two Chicago Style hot dogs for two bucks...called? The All Over Albany Classic

Yeah, I still have a thing for LiLo and this is just sad...

New York State, in an effort to raise money, raised the tobacco tax, again, instead of furloughing useless baggage, like they had threatened. So, woman in awful poly-blend pant suit who parks in front of my house because she doesn't want to pay for parking and who drives down every day from Ballston Spa in a vehicle that gets about 8 miles to the gallon gets to keep her job (which is probably annoying other New Yorkers) and a pack of cigarettes is now going to cost $10 a pack. That seems fair.

Wait...what is the problem here?

A T-Shirt I Love

If you remember, I had H1N1 last fall and Erik had this t-shirt made up.

You can now buy it here.

All proceeds will go to the Drinking Fund.

Bourdain on Food

I agree with the statement wholeheartedly.

Secondly, via the Dinner Party Download, Anthony Bourdain's favorite dinner party joke.

Why did Jesus cross the road?

Someone nailed him to a chicken.

My war on fast food | Anthony Bourdain | Life and style | The Guardian:

"I am still genuinely angry at vegetarians. A�shocking number of vegetarians and even vegans have surprised me with an occasional sense of humour, refrained from hurling animal blood at me, even befriended me. I have even knowingly had sex with one. But what I've seen of the world since my first book was published has, if anything, made me angrier at anyone not a Hindu who turns up their nose at a friendly offer of meat."

Thanks, Lemon for the link.

The Economist on Obama and BP

One could wonder that if England had beat the upstart Americans in that match of football on the pitch in South Africa, everything would have been okay.

American politics and business: Obama v BP | The Economist:

"Mr Obama is not the socialist the right claims he is (see article). He went out of his way, meeting BP executives on June 16th, to insist that he has no interest in undermining the company’s financial stability. But his reaction is cementing business leaders’ impression that he is indifferent to their concerns. If he sees any impropriety in politicians ordering executives about, upstaging the courts and threatening confiscation, he has not said so. The collapse in BP’s share price suggests that he has convinced the markets that he is an American version of Vladimir Putin, willing to harry firms into doing his bidding."

No Cars Go

I know that I have been listening to too much Arcade Fire as of late, but this cover of No Cars Go made me have to testify about the first one! It's not that it is bad, it is just that the first version of the song is damn near perfect, so why screw with it?

You know you want one.

You can get it here.

Remember, Christmas is coming!

Needing an Ethnographic Eytomologist

As I was walking down the street, I came between two men having a conversation that I was able to overhear. The reason that I was able to over hear this conversation is because they were having it from opposites sides of Madison Avenue.

They were talking about --- and one gentleman said to the other, "No, I haven't seen --- since that n**** merc'd me."

I have no idea what this means.

Now Urban Dictionary provides two definitions, neither of which fit the above statement.

This is and will continue to bother me until I figure it out (or forget it).

Any help would be appreciated.

Well, isn't this Smurfy...

New Series

VODO presents: Pioneer One:

"An object in the sky spreads radiation over North America. Fearing terrorism, U.S. Homeland Security agents are dispatched to investigate and contain the damage. What they discover will have implications for the entire world."

It is wonderful and internet only. I love geekery!

Happy Father's Day!

I have always been one of those people who distrust adults who declare their children to be their best friend. There is something creepy and co-dependent about it. My son and I have been spending a lot of time together recently. Doing fun father/son things and what I have realized is that TEA could easily be my best friend, in addition to being the most important person in my life.

This was much longer, and there was a lot of navel gazing to it. I redacted it all because the important thing is that I am lucky to be a father.

Thank you, TEA, on Father's Day, for allowing me to be your dad.

Edit: See the picture, totally cuter than a cat.