Archive for March, 2008

I’m on vacation

Wednesday, March 26th, 2008

The Birdfathers

I’m in Siesta Keys with my wife and some friends and it’s been pretty fun so far. I’m not a huge fan of the beach. I love the nature aspect - the birds, the dolphins, etc. I just don’t care about laying around on the beach. Surprisingly though, I’ve had a lot of fun and I’m warming up to it.

The picture above is one of my favorites that I took of these seabirds (anyone know what kind they are?). I walked up to a group of birds and they parted like the Red Sea and these two (one from each group) walked over towards each other and stood their ground. Their wings aren’t normally like that but when you would get near (I think that’s what causes it) they would put them out like they were holding two guns ready to stick you if you got any closer. I loved it. They were walking around the group like, “Don’t move punk.”

I ended up feeding them some white bread by holding it up in the air and letting them swarm me and swoop in to grab it from my hand. One of the birds just hovered in front of me, staring me in the eyes and squawking. It was very intimidating but awesome.

To see some more pictures from the trip, go here.

Posted in Nature | 2 Comments »

I’m not crazy…

Saturday, March 22nd, 2008

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140216838575
 [BROKEN]

If you go to the above link, you’ll see that I’m selling my Shigeru Miyamoto signed Super Famicom. For those that don’t know, I went to New York back in 2005 to meet Miyamoto-san, the creator of Mario, Donkey Kong, Zelda, etc. I brought my Super Famicom (the Japanese Super Nintendo) for him to sign because I didn’t just want some generic postcard with an autograph. I believe the Super Nintendo to be the best video game system of all time and who better to christen it but the best game designer of all time…

I’ve been reading the comments on websites that have linked to the auction and it’s pretty clear that a lot of people don’t understand why I’m selling it. Well, I’ll clear it up for them:

I have way too much stuff in my life but I don’t have enough room for it. When I have to assess the the usefulness of the stuff I have, this Super Famicom is at the bottom of the list. I never play it; I never even look at it. It just gets put with the rest of the boxes of crap I have to move into a new useless closet every time we change apartments. You could say that the item’s historical value alone is worth the ownership and I would agree with that. But, owning things isn’t one of my priorities right now and so the value is different for me, just as it is for every other person in the world.

I’ve decided to keep the video game stuff that I play most, which is everything from the current generation. I have some old video game systems that I may keep around but I doubt it. If I really, really want to play Mario Paint, I can just download an emulator and the ROM. I don’t need to play it on my HD TV. I really don’t even keep current games anymore except for stuff like Rock Band that is fun for parties. I mostly just use GameFly and if something is worth having for multiple plays then I keep it.

That’s really the main reason I’m selling it. I’m sure if I waited I could get more money but who cares? I’m not trying to retire. It’s not like if I wait 10 years I’m going to get a million dollars or something. And is that really the point? I’m not greedy. I don’t need the money.

Basically, the whole point of having this thing was that I got to meet one of my heroes and selling this piece of gaming history isn’t going to change that experience at all. The pictures speak for themselves…

Posted in Toys for Adults | 37 Comments »

The Office: Silence Breakers

Thursday, March 20th, 2008

A Chinese woman was talking about a 3-week trip she was making to China and someone asked her if she would be able to volunteer at our company’s booth at the Columbus Asian Festival. The person asked if another woman (white with a tan) would be willing to volunteer and she smiled and said, “I would be willing to attend the festival.” They all laughed and the conversation sort of trailed off into silence and then the white woman with a tan tried to break the awkward silence with, “Yeah, my ten year-old’s a BIG Asian fan.”

What does that even mean?*

I guess I’m just pulling for humor here because I’m absolutely positive her son’s just an anime fan or something. I just love silence breakers. They never end up being anything substantial or meaningful to the conversation. They are just there so you can be nice and keep pretending that you want to talk to a stranger.

*Is this my new thing? Italicized sub-headings? I like it.

Posted in Calmedy | No Comments »

Sadat X’s “The Lump Lump”

Tuesday, March 18th, 2008

The Lump Lump

YouTube Preview Image

I’m trying to remember when I first got Sadat X’s Wild Cowboys album. Of course, I bought it when it came out and of course, no one else in my area had it - I’m just trying to remember what was going on. According to Wikipedia, it came out right after I graduated from high school. That summer is kind of a blur although I think I went to Disney World with my cousin. I also started working at BP and that was my first above-minimum wage job. Also, I finally got my driver’s license. That had to have been a good summer.

I wasn’t terribly aware of Brand Nubian. I knew about them because I was always watching Yo! MTV Raps and I loved Punks Jump Up. I think around that time I really started to seek out all of the stuff I missed when I wasn’t able to drive. I was also just buying anything with a name I recognized on it. That’s probably why I bought the Wild Cowboys album although I may have seen a video on Yo!.

Don’t you just love the inanity of personal blogs?

Anyways, this song is from that album and it’s probably the best one on there. It’s got the simplest beat - just an escalating organ and some boom bap drums; nothing more. The first verse is advice for fellas to keep their eyes on their girls because if they don’t watch it, their girls will leave them. The second verse is a love note for a career girl that is clearly not in it for Sadat’s money. The last few lines leads me to believe that their relationship could possibly be a result of someone not following the advice from the first verse. In the third verse Sadat kind of loses focus. He starts out complaining about the woman he meets in bars and ends up reminiscing about Good Times. Basically, this is your average 90s rap song and who better to perform it than Sadat?

Please enjoy the above video and, please, if you like, take some time out of your busy schedule to not care as much as I think you don’t.

Posted in Hip Hop Notes | 2 Comments »