Carpetblogger

ZOMG!!! DINOSAURS WITH GUNS!!!!

Dude! Jurassic Park IV to feature ARMED DINOSAURS! Desert Eagle on a Velociraptor? This could be the best thing to happen to action movies since snakes started purchasing coach seats!

Thanks to Dinosaur Comics for the link, and just in general.

What iPods Reveal About Your Taste

Inspired by this DCeiver post I just read, I felt the need to list my iPod's top most listened to songs.

1. Sons and Daughters - The Decemberists
Wow...the scary part is this count of 140+ listens does not include all the times I've played this song in my car. What is even more frightening is the fact that this album is less than a year old.

2. This Is Our Emergency - Pretty Girls Make Graves
No real surprise that PGMG would be in the top of this list. And this song just...well...rocks!

3. Anytime - My Morning Jacket
This is a bit of a surprise - I'm not heavily into MMJ, and yet I find this one song awesome.

4. Chemical, Chemical - PGMG
They make two appearances! I'm still so sad they broke up!

5. Skylark - Arrah and the Ferns
Poppy, catchy, fun. And short. The kind of song that lends itself to frequent play.

6. Too Little Too Late - Metric
Checkout my indie cred. That said, I'm surprised my most listened to Metric song is not Dead Disco.

7. The Pot - Tool
Once again - logical Tool would be on the list (a holdover of my metal days), weird that it's one of the new songs.

8. Hotel - Broken Social Scene
Strangely, I haven't listened to this song in a while. But I listened to it all the time at my last job.

9. You File - Denali
I'm SO Indie Rock...

I'm going to stop here lest you discover just how much I listen to Pretty Girls Make Graves... I will say that Palomar and Menomena also crack the top 20.

Building a New Machine

I simply refuse to shell out the $39 for the damn Belkin "laplink" cable - what a rip off! Cables are substantially overpriced to begin with, but $39 for a double end USB with a chip in the middle? Meh! That's right! Meh!

So I've doing file transfers the semi old-fashioned way - over the network. Though I neglected to bring home ethernet cables yesterday so I did some file transfers over the wifi. Very, very, very slow... I was going to use my external hard drive that I've had for a while. But it...um...died, it would seem. Hard drives aren't supposed to click, right? Fortunately it was just a backup device so no real harm done there - just an annoyance. Since it's an enclosure anyways, perhaps I'll just go buy a new HDD a stick it in there - would be somewhat logical for the stuff I need to backup.

My latest dilemma is stickering - as those of you who know me know, I have put stickers on my laptop for personalization AND to make sure no jerk runs off with my laptop when I'm going through airport security. But this computer is so...pretty. It's really really pretty. I'm torn!

Nomenclature

In merely hours, I will have my new computer. Something just occurred to me - it needs a name! This laptop has served me well under the moniker "yossarian". Before that, my Toshiba was "hebrewhammer". So what will the new one be?

The nominees so far:
t-rex - gotta love Dinosaur Comics!
bender or morbo - Futurama
adama - BSG
arthurdent - Hitchhiker's Guide
koufax - The Pitcher
gromit - though Gromit would be lonely without Wallace (not to mention we had a Wallace and Gromit at NGP when I was there)
strindberg - It always seems to come back to August Strindberg, doesn't it?

Right now I'm leaning Koufax, but I'm open to suggestion. There is some time before it's arrival, and even more time before I install the OS and commit to a name.

Uh Oh, Ronald D. Moore is Getting Ideas...

I was flipping through some BSG stuff (as we have already established, I am a n3rd), and I decided to check out Ronald D. Moore's blog. For those of you who are unfamiliar, Ronald D. Moore is the executive producer of Battlestar Galactica and was formerly the best writer on Star Trek TNG. The first entry in his blog is about the Soprano's ending - and I was very happy to see that he LITERALLY had the same exact reaction I had. Then I read this line: "It's poetic. It's exciting. It's perfect. And most of all, I wish I'd thought of it first."

He's not going to give us any closure, is he?

Dammit.

Hail to the Chief!

Cordero is still a National. All is well in the universe.

Ramen - It's Not Just for College Kids Anymore

My mother and younger sister recently made a visit to my oldest sister in London. They brought me back a most fantastical gift - the Wagamama Cookbook!!! Oh delicious Wagamama... your closest location right now is Boston. Which I suppose is closer than the pond jump, but still...

So in order to properly satisfy my Ramen cravings, I have to make it myself. And I'm not talking that $.59 package you get at Food Kitty - no, I'm talking about a REAL MEAL!!!!

Last night was a Ramenture (Ramen + Adventure). First the prep - on Sunday I went to the Tan-A-Supermarket and acquired some vital ingredients - the Ramen noodles themselves, Chicken Stock cubes, and canned Bamboo Shoots. The Asian grocery store was quite an experience - they don't take Visa! I was all set to buy some bowls and other fun stuff, but I was thwarted by only have a $10 in my wallet. It was also weird to see live Tilapia swimming about as if they were Lobsters. Mmm....Lobsters.

Then I went to Kroger to acquire the rest of the ingredients, which had varying degrees of success. After confirming that the vegetable I picked up was in fact a Leek ("Excuse me, is this a Leek?" "Of course that's a Leek!") I next went to find Spring Onions. Except I forgot exactly what Spring Onions were (and yet I can still remember the last Federalist candidate for President (Rufus T. King in 1840)). So I bought a White Onion instead. Whoops! And who knew Kroger didn't carry Ginger Root?

Last night I got home from band practice, and it was time to make some Ramen. I opted for the Chicken Ramen recipe, as it seemed the easiest to make. I fully intended to document the whole process here with pictures. All I managed to photograph was the cookbook on my counter, and I haven't even downloaded that picture so I can't even show you!

The stock cooked faster than I anticipated - I was supposed to just bring it to a boil and then serve, but instead I had to reduce it to a simmer and then bring it back to a boil. It was still delicious.

Ramen noodles don't stick to the fridge when you throw them to check for done-ness. This is a good thing to know. Julius also discovered this as he quickly snapped up dropped noodle (he also imbibed some Leek which I accidentally dropped and some chicken which I "accidentally" dropped).

Always pre-heat the Foreman Grill at the beginning. Always. Otherwise it throws your cooking times off.

Party potato-chip bowls make an excellent giant Ramen bowl.

Apparently you can freeze the uneaten portion! I now have tasty Ramen in the freezer!!! WOOO!!!!

Tonight's cooking will be decided less adventurous, but hopefully quite tasty nonetheless.

Dog-Fathering

It occurs to me that it's been some time since I'm posted a tale about the adventures of myself and my four-legged friend. In fact, I hadn't written anything at all about the last few months of back and forth between myself and my dog.

Julius learned how to open doors. Literally. With the handle.

He likes to bark at things he hears in the hall, and the last thing I need is for him to be barking at people all day and piss off my neighbors. So I was keeping him in the bathroom (a large bathroom mind you) while I was at work during the day. But he figured out how to open the bathroom door. I chalked it up to a jump and push since the door swung outward. So I decided he could graduate to staying in the bedroom all day with the blinds drawn so he could look out. The door swung inward so surely he wouldn't get out. To this day I'm still not sure how he did it, but he learned how to open the door that swung inward.

And then he started unlocking the dead bolt on the front door. I am NOT joking. Now granted, pulling the handle to open the front door disengages the dead bolt, and the door is still locked - but this was obviously a problem. So I went to Lowes, borrowed a drill, and installed a hook & eye on the door. Problem solved, right?

Well it was until a bad thunderstorm. Julius...does not like thunderstorms. I'm trying to think of an analogy - Julius:Thunderstorms::Ayn Rand:Other People. There, that ought to make it blatantly obvious how much Julius dislikes thunderstorms.

Julius couldn't get out of the bedroom via the usual method of opening the door, due to my ingenious lock mechanism. So he decided if he couldn't go through the door, he'd try to go under it. By digging. Through the carpet.

I came how to carpet and padding everywhere in the bedroom and a relieved dog ("Thank G-d the thunderstorm didn't get you!"*) I cleaned it up and didn't fault him for his actions - he is after all a dog.

Well, I guess we've decided that dig the carpet is a fun game because this activity has since been repeated. Unfortunately, I have been forced to put him back into the bathroom during the day (with another hook & eye on that door) rather than allow him to tear up my carpet. My parents and I have been referring to this as "Doggy Jail".

*- I spelled it G-d because as I'm sure you've probably figured out, much like his predecessor Phred, Julius is a lantzman. Err....lantzdog.

Whole Foods, I Miss Thee!

http://dcist.com/2007/07/26/organic_grocery.php

If DC is getting an Ellwood Thompson's, I want a Whole Foods dammit! Where else can I get delicious steak, a wide variety of mushrooms, and Fuller's London Pride?

New Computer!

I just ordered a Dell Vostro 1400 - they're business class machine that still has a DirectX video card.

Core 2 Duo 2.0GHZ 800MHZ FSB, 4M L2 Cache
3 Gigs of RAM!
128 Meg Dedicated 256 Meg shared Geforce Video Card
160 Gig 7200 RPM HDD

WOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Food is Terrible and the Portions are So Small!

A man boards a late train in DC, and tells the Porter "Sir - I absolutely must be off this train when we reach Penn Station. Now I'm a very heavy sleeper, so I want you to make sure I'm off this train no matter how much I kick and scream!" The Porter responds, "Absolutely sir." The next morning the man wakes up as the train is pulling into South Station in Boston. He is livid! He finds the Porter and he starts shouting every expletive in the book, ranting and raving! Two other passengers are seated nearby and observe this confrontation. "Gee, have you ever seen someone kick and scream so much?" said the first one. The second passenger responded, "You think that's bad? You should've seen the ruckus from the guy the put off at Penn Station this morning!"

Miss you Papa.
Love,
Michael

Tusic Muesday!!!!

New Interpol album? Check.
New Pumpkins album? Check.
New Spoon album? Check.
New Stars album??!!!??? Check.

Oh yeah - I also picked up the new White Stripes. Eugh - where did all my money go?* It's a good thing I've been bringing my lunch to work all week instead of dining out.

* - Yes, I buy music.

And You Thought I Liked Talking About the Nationals and Red Sox...

My fantastical sister Deborah is now baseball blogging. Go checkout her blog - http://gsbase.wordpress.com/. Now all she has to do is join Facebook.

In other news, I have 2 things to impart.
1. Don't think "Sushi" when your fish comes undercooked - send it back.
2. Julius the unusually intelligent Poodle can recognize that Vulcans are not Humans, and therefore should be barked at.

Nattering Nabobs of City Planning...

Last night I dreamed that Columbia, Maryland had renamed itself Sprio Agnew, Maryland. It was in context to me seeing Wilco at Merriweather Post in Spiro Agnew, MD. My only thought was, "Why the hell did they rename Columbia after Spiro Agnew?" Even in my sleep I'm a nerd.

THIS is our Emergency

What would you do, when your angels have all flown away?

Please don't break up! You guys are WAY too awesome!!! I want to see you play again, without buying a Plane ticket to Seattle!