Why yes, I did send this to my mother.

I love you, mom, and thank you.

Image from someecards.com

I like my eggs poached, thank you very much...

Yes, I am a superficial douche.

And I like poached eggs and rye toast.

New York City in Food

Wednesday into Thursday, I went into New York, and spent time with Lux. When Lux and I get together, there is always great food and wonderful places.

Here they are without commentary.

Lunch

Slow-Cooked Lamb Sandwich on a rosemary bun with farinella
At Locanda Verde(Foursquare Venue)
This check-in earned me this wonderful Foursquare badge:

(Go ahead...you can laugh, you know you want to.)
Coffee:
A triple shot Americano at Cafe Grumpy (Foursquare Venue)
Which earned me this Foursquare badge:

Beer:

Stone Ruination IPA at The Pony Bar (Foursquare Venue) (Yes, FAU that is Instagram. Mock away.)

Dinner:

Deviled Duck Eggs


Homemade New York Style Pretzels and Seared Shrimp


Quail Egg Toast


Weisswurst and Lagunitas IPA
At Ardesia (Foursquare Venue)

Breakfast:

Poached Eggs, Homefries and Rye Toast at The Olympic Flame Diner. (Foursquare Venue)

A note of thanks to Lux and Katrina for their hospitality and their friendship.

I love this city

Yes, this picture showed up on most of my social media last night, but I am a superficial douche, so I am sharing it again.

Reminder: Beers and Books is today!

Hope to see you there!

Facebook Event

Another Party Heard From

Sometimes a comment is so wonderful, it deserves special mention.

Anonymous has left a ew comment on your post "Wait! What? I'm a Leo now?":

The reason the horoscope fits is because IT WAS CREATED TO DO SO. By being broad and one-dimensional, they make lonely idiots think they fit in with the rest of society. Which brings us to your writings. Your blog is filled with copious amounts of meaningless tedium. Do everyone a favor: shut the hell up and look up the definition of futile, you superficial douche.

I love the train but...

I really do. It is, by far, my favorite form of transportation, but...sometimes the delays are just inconvenient. I have been lucky over the past couple of years, with very few issues and over the past couple of weeks, I have been watching the weather to ensure that my travel wasn't compromised...but today...

It's not that cold, so...a weather related delay? Argh.

In addition to working on two quality hours of sleep, which was the same amount of quality television that the Chevy Chase Show produced, and really not great coffee from the Coffee Beanery, I am in hurry up and wait mode.

Here are my favorite modes of transportation:

1. Train
2. Walking
3. Bike
4. Plane
5. Kayak
6. Bus
7. Rickshaw
8. Being Carried in a Litter
9. Hospital Gurney
10. Car

On sleeping

I love sleeping. There are few things as enjoyable as waking up, checking the clock, and sighing contentedly because I have another two hours before I need to get up. I wake up most mornings around 3, regardless, and sometimes it is because of dreams (as I have well documented) and sometimes it is my clock waking me up.

This morning, it is different. I tried sleeping at a decent point, and I did fall asleep for a little bit, but then I awoke, and tossed, and turned...and now...

I am awake. Not wide awake, but unable to sleep.

I blame part of this on the hubristic post from earlier where I credited the Mountain Goats with the ability to sleep well through the night.

I see much coffee in my future.

I hope the fences we've mended fall down beneath their own weight

First of all, I love that someone made a video for this song from clips from Moral Orel, especially since the Mountain Goats were used a couple of times on the show. It makes sense for a show about regret, alcoholism, suffering, and the ennui of living a life that you are not meant for.

I am drowning
there is no sign of land
you are coming down with me
Hand in unloveable hand
and I hope you die
I hope we both die

I am still playing with the idea of a Facebook group trying to get the Mountain Goats here as part of the Roots and Branches program at the Egg.

Mostly because I want to hear all of Tallahassee live and the Egg is a wonderful stand in for the depressing imagery presented by the lyrics.

Slightly off topic, I have been listening to this album as I have been falling asleep over the past couple of days and I have had surprisingly dream free nights or the dreams I have had have been pleasant and enjoyable.

Holiday Advice from someecards.com

I was going to snark something about when you are alone, you are with the only person who really loves you, but then I realized how completely crass and awful it was, and not true. I have friends and family who love me more than I love my self reasonably often, and I am okay with that, and I am grateful to have them in my life. You know, the whole celebrate the victories, lament the defeats, and to offer the kind (or not so kind words) when they are needed type of thing. Once again, I am lucky to have the awesome (in that they invoke a feeling of awe) friends and family members that I have.

So, no snark, just sincerity.

The card still makes me laugh though.

Image via someecards.com

Some links

Beer Commercials Are Not Stupid but they are aimed at 16 year old boys (or their mental equivalents).

Ted Hall speaks: You know, the guy you just needed to spend one more minute with the woman at JFK and screwed up traffic patterns on the East Coast.

I am very happy that I have an excuse to watch CurrentTV again.

All Over Albany had an ARA piece on choosing a restaurant that could be a skit on a sketch comedy show. (I am looking at you, Portlandia.)

But Elizabeth has GF and vegan banana bread, so that could answer some of their questions.

Heather at Sugar & Spice made a spinach and chickpea soup that looks amazing. It looks like something that would be perfect for the cold and windy night that we are experiencing here.

Foreign Policy has a slide show about the Art of the Egyptian Protests. Some of them are interesting, some of them surreal.

Kitchen Condescending proves to you what you should NEVER USE PREGROUND PEPPER.

While the Clean Eating Project proves that everything is better with bacon. (Though, I disagree about vodka infused with bacon. It can be very very good.)

And finally, the Winklvi speak to The Daily.


Edit at 6:17 pm EST:
I forgot to post this above but it sparked quite an intense reaction from FAU. Someone was more cynical about the Volkswagen Darth Vader commercial than I could every be.

Responsible Parenting

The other day, FAU and I were talking about something (I forget what the context was) and the activities of another set of parents came up. At that moment, we both reaffirmed that we were not criticizing the actions of the other parents, we would have just done it differently.

That is generally my modus operandi when it comes to other people's kids and the various parenting styles. Most people are trying their hardest to do right by their children and they love them, care for them, and are trying to make them better people. They deserve a certain amount of respect when it comes to the choices they are making regarding their children. This is one of those things that most parents (and most people) understand.

And then there are those who don't.

(NB: I may have been one of these people at one point. I have, on occasion, seen the world through binary influenced lenses. I now try to maintain a more nuanced point of view. This may be the start of wisdom.)

When these people are parents (to children, their pets don't count, no matter how much they claim that their dog/cat/weasel is "just like a child"...because...would you leave a child in the house all day with a bowl of water and a bowl of kibble while you went out to work?), I will me more tempted to give them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they have picked up on something that I haven't or actually have seen something that was against the shared values that most of us have.

When these people are not parents, and use the stock phrase "What kind of parent...", it drives me up the wall. (Note, I am not saying that the ability to have unprotected sex imparts any knowledge innately, however, what I am saying is that if you haven't done it, you are in no position to criticize as situation unless you are ACTIVELY involved in the lives of the children and parents or if the parents are engaging in neglect, et cetera.) This morning, while perusing my social media feeds, I saw someone use the phrase "responsible parents wouldn't..." from a woman who has nothing but pets. Now, I don't know this woman at all. I assume that she is reasonably intelligent, thinks out what she may say, and considers her words carefully, but that could be misreading the person entirely. "Responsible parents wouldn't..." sticks out to me, especially when none of us know the extent of a situation (it was a dog bite with a family pet and a toddler) because if her dog bit my child, would it be her fault, as a responsible bog owner? Yeah, yeah, yeah...false equivalency, I know.

Bad things happen all the time, and we are so quick to assess blame, especially when it comes to parenting, but...take some time, and think it through, before you start making value judgments that are at best ill-informed and at worst a sign of bigotry.

A little bit of Crockett in the morning.

While chatting with the Man/Myth/Legend Lux last night, he stumbled upon this gem.



This is wonderful.

I am a huge fan of mash-ups (see my glowing prose for Glee after the Superbowl or my love of Jaydiohead) and this one...it has Crockett's Theme in it! You don't get better than that. (Yes, I know that last phrase was complete hyperbole but understand that most guys between 35 and 43 have a huge soft spot for Miami Vice and as bad as it was...Sonny's amnesia...it was a hugely influential.)

Best. Tweet. Ever.

Thank you, @JohnFugelsang!

Worth the read

One of the great things about The New Yorker is that they are one of the few places to still do long form journalism. (But now that Sarah Palin has decided to save journalism, this may change.)

Lawrence Wright's The Apostate: Paul Haggis Vs. the Church of Scientology is an amazing piece of long form. I appreciate well sourced and well written pieces even when I don't like the subject, but Scientology fascinates me.

Anyway, for something interesting and fascinating, give it a read.

Edit (6:32 pm): Slate has a great blog post about how it is candy for journalism nerds.

Here is a video of Davis responding to Anonymous/4Chan's attack on Scientology:

Observations

(Not that I am first to say this) The halftime show on Glee was much better than Black Eyed Peas. Combining Thriller with Heads Will Roll was brilliant. Speaking of the Superbowl halftime show, the wonderful chart from ESPN shows what America thought. (via someecards.com)



(And watching that video further solidified my crush on Karen O.)

However, this does not make up for my disappointment that LCD Soundsystem is breaking up after their April shows. It wasn't that I was late to the game with them, it is more that their (or his) music was evolving to the point where it was great and more accessible for a wider audience. In an album, I could see the people who like Crush FM claiming that they like this band.

RPI and Union (Union had a better one) both had good weekends in hockey, and I am interested to see if there is any movement in the today's poll. Speaking of the ECAC, there was an article from a couple of weeks ago regarding how the ECAC is no longer the EZ-AC for non-conference opponents.

Don't forget that Beers and Books is this Thursday.

Apparently today is something called UAlbany Day, so...all you proud SUNYA alums, rock that Purple and Gold today.

Don't forget to become a fan of A Futile Mistake on Facebook.

What did you think of the game?

The best part of my morning (so far) has been checking my e-mail and not finding any messages from the various GroupOns that I was signed up for. "Why not?", you ask. It was easy to make them go away after the awful Tibet ad. I learned from Gawker (this morning) that there was a joke there, but I did not see it and it was a case of poor concept being poorly executed.

So, goodbye Groupon. I am not going to miss you.

I also tweeted during the game and had a great time doing it. (Well, what was there not to love? I had good food, good beer and great company along with a moderately exciting football game)

My two favorite tweets of my own:

What was my favorite part of the evening?

(This is apart from Slash and "Sweet Child O' Mine", right?)

The redemption story of Ben Rothlesberger did not have a happy ending. That was my favorite part. The tough times (their words, not mine) that he had to endure while sitting out his suspension (yes, someone actually verbalized that sentiment) and being alienated from his teammates were in the past, and Ben and the Boys in Black and Yellow (Ben likes women in black and yellow too, but that is mostly from the bruising) were supposed to win, because losers lose, winners win, and the quarterback gets the cheerleader (even if she wants to be left alone) and that was the story arc that was supposed to be written. Thank goodness for small favors that it wasn't.

Air of December

This song came up on shuffle this morning while I was on my way to get my first (of five) cup(s) of coffee this morning, and it made me think of when I first heard it.

I remember you put a chill across my face

I was fourteen and it set patterns. Music does that for me. It (apparently) always has. It could be one of the reasons that the pop music that I love does not generally fall into the "girls, cars and parties" music that is often so much of pop music.

That is came up this morning was interesting. Did the song set my mood for the day?

I am incapable of answering that question.

Best Ad of the Night

As I am typing this, the winner has yet to be determined, but the Chrysler ad, featuring Detroit, or the Detroit ad featuring Chrysler, is going to be the big winner.

Any advertisement that makes me have goosebumps is doing something correct.

And now I feel like Andy Rooney...

Andy Rooney starts off his rants with "Did you ever..." reasonably often.

Did you ever misread a situation so completely that it left you speechless and wondering how you got where you were?

I completely misread something and I am left feeling foolish.

While is not a foreign feeling to me, it was unexpected in this case because I was operating on my belief system and I forgot the lesson that I have learned so any times before but keep forgetting.

Lesson learned, and maybe the placenta of cynicism that I so try to maintain will remain intact in the future.