I said my next post would be a review of Civ IV. Fortunately, I didn't promise how long it would be.
All you need to know is that I had a great weekend, a long one, an exhausting one, with lots of driving from the corn fields of Iowa to the blacktop around Ted Drewe's. [Don't worry, you may or may not get to know more about the weekend.]
I had to do laundry Sunday night, so naturally, I fire up a little Civ while doing it.
I didn't make it to bed until about 1:30 this morning. Not a good way to start the week, especially when your COO is getting back from his two week vacation. [Don't worry, more about Civ will come later, too. But that really is all you need to know.]
7/17/2006
7/11/2006
explosion of chihuly
Hmm, my intent is to write about things roughly as they are happening, but I seem to be continually behind the times here on Stay Curious these days. Here it is Tuesday, and you are just now allowed to know how awesome my weekend was.
As awesome as it can be with family, of course; they are on their way through to Michigan and Ontario for camping and whatnot. Friday we went to Soda Fountain Square for dinner; good times. My sister took forever with her milk shake, kind of like how she took forever walking last year when it was free t-shirt night at the baseball game and we ended up being too late to get free t-shirts. Went back to the apartment, played a couple games, and did a reasonable job of getting to bed at a decent hour.
That was important because I was taking them to the Missouri Botanical Garden to see the Chihuly exhibit in the morning. I'm not particularly artistic myself, so it's one of those things that I more felt I should see to expand my horizons and crap like that rather than actually wanting to go, but I figured my family would like it and in general I like the garden a lot. The exhibit incorporates glass blowing into the lawns, fountains, and in particular, the foliage in the climatron and temperate house. It was pretty much what I expected, impressive in the scale of the work and every once in a while inspiring an unexpected appreciation for a certain color or shape or something, but basically feeling like a distraction from the gardens rather than an addition to it. I most disliked the glass lillipads put in the ponds between the climatron and the rose gardens. My parents both liked it, and I successfully ran the juice dry in my dad's camera! Unfortunately, my sister didn't seem very enthused, so that's a bummer because I thought she might get into it, but what can you do?
As I am sure you know, the real excitement of the weekend, the reason it has existed for months and months and months, is because it is the opening weekend for the second Pirates movie! The first one is the kind of movie that if it’s on and I walk by, it will take me 20 minutes to realize I stopped to watch it. And have I mentioned recently how awesome Keira Knightley is? Even if that’s not a draw for you (horror of that notwithstanding), what’s not to love about a fun movie with pirates and sword fighting and a feisty governor’s daughter? Obviously, a movie made simply because the first one did well isn’t going to be as good, and in particular I’m not a fan of the CGI creatures, but let me just say that my Pirates craving has been satisfied. And I got to show Julie and my parents a real movie theater; you know, the kind that gives you mints afterward.
Then Sunday kind of gets lost in a blur of seeing church people I haven’t seen in a couple weeks and doing laundry and spending some time with my neglected computer and cheeseball-filled World Cup goodness and being a taxi driver for a certain someone and so forth.
Next up: initial review of Civ IV! Oh, how exciting it is when your package finally reaches Hazelwood, MO. Even Sid’s talking tutorial is worth a mention…
As awesome as it can be with family, of course; they are on their way through to Michigan and Ontario for camping and whatnot. Friday we went to Soda Fountain Square for dinner; good times. My sister took forever with her milk shake, kind of like how she took forever walking last year when it was free t-shirt night at the baseball game and we ended up being too late to get free t-shirts. Went back to the apartment, played a couple games, and did a reasonable job of getting to bed at a decent hour.
That was important because I was taking them to the Missouri Botanical Garden to see the Chihuly exhibit in the morning. I'm not particularly artistic myself, so it's one of those things that I more felt I should see to expand my horizons and crap like that rather than actually wanting to go, but I figured my family would like it and in general I like the garden a lot. The exhibit incorporates glass blowing into the lawns, fountains, and in particular, the foliage in the climatron and temperate house. It was pretty much what I expected, impressive in the scale of the work and every once in a while inspiring an unexpected appreciation for a certain color or shape or something, but basically feeling like a distraction from the gardens rather than an addition to it. I most disliked the glass lillipads put in the ponds between the climatron and the rose gardens. My parents both liked it, and I successfully ran the juice dry in my dad's camera! Unfortunately, my sister didn't seem very enthused, so that's a bummer because I thought she might get into it, but what can you do?
As I am sure you know, the real excitement of the weekend, the reason it has existed for months and months and months, is because it is the opening weekend for the second Pirates movie! The first one is the kind of movie that if it’s on and I walk by, it will take me 20 minutes to realize I stopped to watch it. And have I mentioned recently how awesome Keira Knightley is? Even if that’s not a draw for you (horror of that notwithstanding), what’s not to love about a fun movie with pirates and sword fighting and a feisty governor’s daughter? Obviously, a movie made simply because the first one did well isn’t going to be as good, and in particular I’m not a fan of the CGI creatures, but let me just say that my Pirates craving has been satisfied. And I got to show Julie and my parents a real movie theater; you know, the kind that gives you mints afterward.
Then Sunday kind of gets lost in a blur of seeing church people I haven’t seen in a couple weeks and doing laundry and spending some time with my neglected computer and cheeseball-filled World Cup goodness and being a taxi driver for a certain someone and so forth.
Next up: initial review of Civ IV! Oh, how exciting it is when your package finally reaches Hazelwood, MO. Even Sid’s talking tutorial is worth a mention…
7/04/2006
how to celebrate the fourth of july
Other than blogging, of course! So much to write about, where to start?
After much fun with good barbecue this weekend, I was thinking what more fitting way to celebrate such a patriotic holiday as treating our leaders to the things they feel are "medically necessary in a humane and compassionate manner". Heck, the manufacturer says they're comfortable, safe, and don't cause injury, so, well, they must be. You see, we want our leaders to get all their nutrients; Cheney and Rummy look especially in need of some lifestyle assistance. So, we line up President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Secretary Rumsfeld, Justice Roberts, General Myers, and others who propogate the wreckless immorality in our prisons, and just as the band strikes up for the finale in the fireworks display, we force-feed them through Texas-sized plastic tubes shoved oh so daintily up their nasal cavities. Of course, due to budget constraints, there's only one tube available. As the President's the born-again one, he'll get the feeding tube last, so he can really know what it's like to follow Hebrews Chapter 13, "...remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured."
Ok, while they suffer "dumping syndrome" - nausea, vomiting, bloating, diarrhea, and shortness of breath - for the 3 hours the procedure, give or take, will last, what's next? Ah, Cardinals baseball! I made it to my first baseball game at the ridiculous waste of money otherwise known as the new Busch Stadium. It was my reward for working a ridiculous number of hours the last couple weeks. Good times. They had lost 8 straight, so it's funny to see fans of the first place team seem anxious, upset, and even angry. They booed the Cardinals a couple times. And people left before the end of the game. And this for a team that, let me repeat, was in first place in their division! I was most upset with St. Louis people and my respect will take some time to fully recover. But the ending helped a lot. Those that stayed figured out what to do with seat cushion night. Sure, you can sit on them. But what are seat cushions, really? They're pieces of foam wrapped in plastic. And light objects with a plastic surface area, when banged together, are thundersticks! Seat cushion night may never happen again, but that was playoff energy. Ah, good times. Nothing like winning in the bottom of the 9th to a raucus crowd armed with lots of projectiles.
[How ya doin' there, Georgie?]
So that was a while ago, but there hasn't been time for writing. Why you ask? Well, you, that's because work has been crazy. Among other things, one funder decided to change a contract and another one didn't get funding they were hoping for in the next year. So, lots of extra budgets and moving things around and "one more scenario..." and confused and angry staff and setting off alarms and sore necks and more goodness I'm sure that I've forgotten.
[Yeah Rummy, I bet you're glad we funded buying all these restraint chairs instead of funding programs that provide employment, training, and emergency assistance to veterans. It's not like those people did anything for our country, anyway. Having trouble settling into civilian life? Eh, just re-up; who cares if you're 39 or have damaged vision or carry deep psychological wounds. But ways of inflicting non-lethal pain on foreigners; that's a good investment for the nation!]
Saturday was good. Got to see some Liberty friends. All except the one I haven't seen in forever because she's been in Europe. Nope, her plane decided to stay in Chicago for a while. Good going Sarah.
[General Myers, you're probably enjoying this, watching all these civilians get what they deserve. But you wouldn't command uniformed personnel to do anything to anyone that couldn't be done humanely to you, right?]
Sunday was family stuff, just as the Fourth of July is supposed to be. Almost scary, actually, all this time in St. Louis, the American family get together around the pool, the grill, and vacation photos really does exist! Ooh, and don't forget the strawberry shortcake and two kinds of lemonade.
[Don't worry Cheney, we haven't forgotten about you. What's that? You think you're bleeding and developing lesions? Oh, that's supposed to happen. Good job Johnnie, you might want to press a little more forcefully on his chin if he starts trying to move again.]
Speaking of moving, drove past an incredibly moving sight while in Liberty, if being moved to embarrassment counts. Liberty is a Baptist town, and our mega-church for Baptists, Pleasant Valley (no, not this Pleasant Valley, with the running count of people entering hell as you surf their website) decided to put up some American flags. Now, this makes sense; Liberty is an all-American town in the heartland, and it's the Fourth of July weekend. Need I repeat the name of my town? At any rate, it wasn't the fact that they put up a couple American flags around the parking lot. It's that they literally surrounded the parking lot with flags. Then after building their fence, they decided to fill much of the grassy land between the parking lot and the road with what can best be described as gobs and gobs of flags. It was absolutely amazing; at once incredibly familiar and yet also showing that I have been successful at getting away enough from Liberty to be appalled as much as anything else by the scale of the effort. Is that fear? If we only have a hundred flags, the terrorists might think they've won! I don't know why; it is just as possible that each flag had a very specific meaning, perhaps a loved one lost or something like that. What I took away from it, in addition to the fun that is the Fourth of July as one gets closer to rural America, is that I've been able to put myself in a different enough position to at least notice something like that and have mixed emotions about it.
[Do you have emotions, Chief Justice? Nah, none of those, no ideas, no agendas; you're just a good-looking doll with the all-American family, right? Ah, so what if you want the President to be able to torture people at will. He's an American, elected by other Americans (well, you know, in theory, kind of like our capitalist system...), so surely anything he does can't be bad.]
And what is the all-American holiday without the all-American hero? Superman is back, in all 157 minutes of glory!
Oh, sorry, I forgot the memo; whenever someone refers to Superman, they are supposed to say Superman returns.
With exclamation points!! Superman Returns!!
After much fun with good barbecue this weekend, I was thinking what more fitting way to celebrate such a patriotic holiday as treating our leaders to the things they feel are "medically necessary in a humane and compassionate manner". Heck, the manufacturer says they're comfortable, safe, and don't cause injury, so, well, they must be. You see, we want our leaders to get all their nutrients; Cheney and Rummy look especially in need of some lifestyle assistance. So, we line up President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Secretary Rumsfeld, Justice Roberts, General Myers, and others who propogate the wreckless immorality in our prisons, and just as the band strikes up for the finale in the fireworks display, we force-feed them through Texas-sized plastic tubes shoved oh so daintily up their nasal cavities. Of course, due to budget constraints, there's only one tube available. As the President's the born-again one, he'll get the feeding tube last, so he can really know what it's like to follow Hebrews Chapter 13, "...remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured."
Ok, while they suffer "dumping syndrome" - nausea, vomiting, bloating, diarrhea, and shortness of breath - for the 3 hours the procedure, give or take, will last, what's next? Ah, Cardinals baseball! I made it to my first baseball game at the ridiculous waste of money otherwise known as the new Busch Stadium. It was my reward for working a ridiculous number of hours the last couple weeks. Good times. They had lost 8 straight, so it's funny to see fans of the first place team seem anxious, upset, and even angry. They booed the Cardinals a couple times. And people left before the end of the game. And this for a team that, let me repeat, was in first place in their division! I was most upset with St. Louis people and my respect will take some time to fully recover. But the ending helped a lot. Those that stayed figured out what to do with seat cushion night. Sure, you can sit on them. But what are seat cushions, really? They're pieces of foam wrapped in plastic. And light objects with a plastic surface area, when banged together, are thundersticks! Seat cushion night may never happen again, but that was playoff energy. Ah, good times. Nothing like winning in the bottom of the 9th to a raucus crowd armed with lots of projectiles.
[How ya doin' there, Georgie?]
So that was a while ago, but there hasn't been time for writing. Why you ask? Well, you, that's because work has been crazy. Among other things, one funder decided to change a contract and another one didn't get funding they were hoping for in the next year. So, lots of extra budgets and moving things around and "one more scenario..." and confused and angry staff and setting off alarms and sore necks and more goodness I'm sure that I've forgotten.
[Yeah Rummy, I bet you're glad we funded buying all these restraint chairs instead of funding programs that provide employment, training, and emergency assistance to veterans. It's not like those people did anything for our country, anyway. Having trouble settling into civilian life? Eh, just re-up; who cares if you're 39 or have damaged vision or carry deep psychological wounds. But ways of inflicting non-lethal pain on foreigners; that's a good investment for the nation!]
Saturday was good. Got to see some Liberty friends. All except the one I haven't seen in forever because she's been in Europe. Nope, her plane decided to stay in Chicago for a while. Good going Sarah.
[General Myers, you're probably enjoying this, watching all these civilians get what they deserve. But you wouldn't command uniformed personnel to do anything to anyone that couldn't be done humanely to you, right?]
Sunday was family stuff, just as the Fourth of July is supposed to be. Almost scary, actually, all this time in St. Louis, the American family get together around the pool, the grill, and vacation photos really does exist! Ooh, and don't forget the strawberry shortcake and two kinds of lemonade.
[Don't worry Cheney, we haven't forgotten about you. What's that? You think you're bleeding and developing lesions? Oh, that's supposed to happen. Good job Johnnie, you might want to press a little more forcefully on his chin if he starts trying to move again.]
Speaking of moving, drove past an incredibly moving sight while in Liberty, if being moved to embarrassment counts. Liberty is a Baptist town, and our mega-church for Baptists, Pleasant Valley (no, not this Pleasant Valley, with the running count of people entering hell as you surf their website) decided to put up some American flags. Now, this makes sense; Liberty is an all-American town in the heartland, and it's the Fourth of July weekend. Need I repeat the name of my town? At any rate, it wasn't the fact that they put up a couple American flags around the parking lot. It's that they literally surrounded the parking lot with flags. Then after building their fence, they decided to fill much of the grassy land between the parking lot and the road with what can best be described as gobs and gobs of flags. It was absolutely amazing; at once incredibly familiar and yet also showing that I have been successful at getting away enough from Liberty to be appalled as much as anything else by the scale of the effort. Is that fear? If we only have a hundred flags, the terrorists might think they've won! I don't know why; it is just as possible that each flag had a very specific meaning, perhaps a loved one lost or something like that. What I took away from it, in addition to the fun that is the Fourth of July as one gets closer to rural America, is that I've been able to put myself in a different enough position to at least notice something like that and have mixed emotions about it.
[Do you have emotions, Chief Justice? Nah, none of those, no ideas, no agendas; you're just a good-looking doll with the all-American family, right? Ah, so what if you want the President to be able to torture people at will. He's an American, elected by other Americans (well, you know, in theory, kind of like our capitalist system...), so surely anything he does can't be bad.]
And what is the all-American holiday without the all-American hero? Superman is back, in all 157 minutes of glory!
Oh, sorry, I forgot the memo; whenever someone refers to Superman, they are supposed to say Superman returns.
With exclamation points!! Superman Returns!!
6/28/2006
oh my goodness
Have the Royals now won fully one out of every three games they've played this season?
Has my Amazon order for Civ IV really not shipped yet?
Am I getting old? Seriously, old people talk about health problems. And for the past couple days, my neck has been bothering me. Three people know this, I almost told a guy over lunch (ahh!), and now you know.
Has my Amazon order for Civ IV really not shipped yet?
Am I getting old? Seriously, old people talk about health problems. And for the past couple days, my neck has been bothering me. Three people know this, I almost told a guy over lunch (ahh!), and now you know.
6/21/2006
silly grocery store
Why do you put all the good cookies on sale at once! My pantry did not need three boxes of cookies.
And my time demands do not need a new computer game, yet I feel compelled to go pre-order Civ IV...can't stop myself...
And my time demands do not need a new computer game, yet I feel compelled to go pre-order Civ IV...can't stop myself...
6/20/2006
small world
Who says computers don't bring people together? This is just too good.
I set up a profile on some website a while ago that I couldn't figure out how to later delete; one of those where part of it is free, but to actually have real conversations with people all of a sudden costs money, and of course they restrict any information that might let you find each other outside of the site. Anyway, not being stymied by the delete problem, I took advantage of the fact there isn't any other personal info besides the picture by simply changing the picture. No problem, right?
Well today I get home from work, check my email, and what do I find but a note from the website saying that someone clicked that they liked the picture. Not just anyone, of course; that wouldn't be noteworthy. It's somebody I know! How cool is that?
I set up a profile on some website a while ago that I couldn't figure out how to later delete; one of those where part of it is free, but to actually have real conversations with people all of a sudden costs money, and of course they restrict any information that might let you find each other outside of the site. Anyway, not being stymied by the delete problem, I took advantage of the fact there isn't any other personal info besides the picture by simply changing the picture. No problem, right?
Well today I get home from work, check my email, and what do I find but a note from the website saying that someone clicked that they liked the picture. Not just anyone, of course; that wouldn't be noteworthy. It's somebody I know! How cool is that?
6/18/2006
new record
I apparently haven't been to a traditional Methodist wedding before, or at least not one in Flo Valley. Getting family and wedding party down the aisle and back out was half the service. At one point, the pastor led a prayer for the new couple. Then he led us in the Lord's prayer. Then he led us in a prayer for the new couple. I'm not sure I've ever in all my years of parents who are both preacher's kids sat through three consecutive prayers. Lest you think I'm complaining, though, the whole sucker lasted 28 minutes by my watch. Well done! Congrats Matt and Erin.
6/17/2006
fashionably late
I've been needing to do some cleaning and throwing stuff away and organizing and whatnot for a while in my room, so I got some of that done this morning. As of this writing, there are no clothes on the floor, only yesterday's clothes in the hamper, and all the clean clothes are hanging up in the closet! The old magazines are out in the trash, and I have one neat pile now by my bed of stuff left to read. Even have the shot in the Post-Dispatch of the new stadium hanging above my bed.
So, it only took me until mid June to pull out my summer clothes and stash winter sweaters in their place. At that pace, I'll get them back out, what, around January?
So, it only took me until mid June to pull out my summer clothes and stash winter sweaters in their place. At that pace, I'll get them back out, what, around January?
6/16/2006
16 bit sadness
For post 256, a quick flashback. I've had my beloved Fossil Watch since we went to Portland for debate nationals in 2000 and Ricky convinced me I should buy one.
I came home for lunch today (why is it, now, that I am eating alone today, Kelli?). Walk into my room and hear a thud as I walk past the door. Mark this day, June 16, 2006, for it has seen the first visible scratch inflicted on my watch, just inside of the marker for 2. So sad.
I came home for lunch today (why is it, now, that I am eating alone today, Kelli?). Walk into my room and hear a thud as I walk past the door. Mark this day, June 16, 2006, for it has seen the first visible scratch inflicted on my watch, just inside of the marker for 2. So sad.
6/10/2006
pinked out
Jodi dragged me out of bed way too early on a Saturday morning. Not to do something cool like see a baseball game or go on a float trip or something. No no. To spend the morning surrounded by lots and lots of pink. And spend $20 on a t-shirt. Seriously, even the Sun Chips were in a pink bag.
But it's for a "good cause", and it was really quite a bit of fun. Her friends Cathleen and Tom were in town, for Race for the Cure, from Kentucky. They ran, but I was content to walk with Jodi (as it seems most people did, by the way). I consider myself quite tolerant of pink, but that was amazing; everything was pink. I was happy when we got done that the bottled water was clear!
They basically had booths set up between about Tucker and 18th street, and the course was a loop around them west on Olive to Compton then back east on Market to City Hall. This allows for some incredible views at the top of a couple hills of block after block of people packed together. Good times. I'll skip a lengthy discussion of all those cute runners as Julie now knows about Stay Curious. Hope you're having fun in Chicago.
But it's for a "good cause", and it was really quite a bit of fun. Her friends Cathleen and Tom were in town, for Race for the Cure, from Kentucky. They ran, but I was content to walk with Jodi (as it seems most people did, by the way). I consider myself quite tolerant of pink, but that was amazing; everything was pink. I was happy when we got done that the bottled water was clear!
They basically had booths set up between about Tucker and 18th street, and the course was a loop around them west on Olive to Compton then back east on Market to City Hall. This allows for some incredible views at the top of a couple hills of block after block of people packed together. Good times. I'll skip a lengthy discussion of all those cute runners as Julie now knows about Stay Curious. Hope you're having fun in Chicago.
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