Dinosaurs

this is awesome:

"I need to know if she really thinks dinosaurs were here 4000 years ago. I want to know that, I really do, because she is going to have the nuclear codes" 

Hilarious, but painfully true.

~m

Chrome pt.2

there are some definate hits here ... so far i am loving it.... but there is at least one area that isn't doing it for me: bookmarks.... 

here's how i see it, Chrome lets you import all your settings and practicall everyting else from IE or Firefox right on install.... but for the life of me i can't seem to figure out how to import a folder of links (say from another computers' Favorites' folder)

this is of course only my preliminary thoughts. let me play with it for a few more days and i'll report again.

Chrome

everyone needs to, at the very least, check out google's latest offering: Chrome. i just installed it and have been playing with it for a about an hour.... i post my thoughts tonight.

This Is How I Roll

test for yourself by clicking on my stats:


here is my summary page, click to see full size...

In The Meantime

check out this video by the band needtobreathe. not only is it a really cool song, the video kicks ass too...

~m

Updates

"i am going to make an effort to post here regularly" this phrase is often uttered on this blog... but as you may (but probably not because i never update this damn thing...) have noticed.... i have not been keeping my word. for this i apologise.

but give me one more shot... you know i am good for it right?

~m

First post this year...

sorry for the long absence... lots has been going on... will try to post soon...

~m

Fatherhood

well i have been looking after William full time now for about 3 weeks ... so far things are going great... he is a ball of fun and just a pleasure to be around... that is not to say that there are times that i get frustrated and stressed... but the great stuff out weighs the tiring stuff infinitely...

he/ we are starting to settle in to our own little routine and getting more into the groove of it.

that's about all for now...

here he is just being himself...

Back to the Blog

wow

it has been a while since i have posted here...i actually need to post about not knowing how to get started.

some really great stuff though. our son was born on the 26th of september and he is doing great. there were some issues after we got back from the hospital but all's good now... i am going to upload some pictures to flickr and then i post them here.

out for now

~m

Omnia mutantur nos et mutamur in illis

this past week Bridget and i celebrated our 2nd anniversary as a married couple. it was very nice, in that we had a great time at dinner whilst reminiscing and marveling at how our lives have progressed since we started dating almost 8 years ago. i love her. truly.

it is strange, in retrospect i should have done so many things different... so many tangents where i should have stayed on the straight and narrow...

i don’t know, they say that hindsight is 20/20 or maybe my saying this is a defense mechanism to help me accept ‘my reality’ or maybe it is true, i don’t know nor do i care really, but I can’t help feeling that any one of those, supposed missteps, being redone, would inexorably alter where i have ended up... and i just can’t bear to think that i might be somewhere other than here.... i’ve got it pretty sweet here... wonderful, loving wife, a child on the way, pretty great family and friends, etc, etc, ad infinitum.

now i’m really not trying to get all Robert Frost or anything really, conversely i guess i’m just marveling at how times have changed and how i too, have changed accordingly. and relishing every minute of it, every pungent, sweaty, teary eyed, blood caked moment of it. and it in light of my impending fatherhood, hard as i try, i can’t seem to find any reason now too.

how ‘bout you?

~m

Erie Man discovers how to 'burn' Saltwater!!!

i had read this article this morning but this video that engadget put up is really exciting:

could this be the end of high gas prices?

~m

HA. HA. HA.

i am sure all of you think this is real funny....



~m

Weekends and Webcomics

so apparently babies cost money. even before they are born. lots of money, apparently.

Bridget just had her baby showers and we were really touched by all the nice gifts we got from all our friends and family. yesterday we went out to pick up the rest of the essentials we needed to get before baby gets here, which should be anytime between 2 and 7 weeks from today... baby stuff is expensive, but i really think that the stuff we got is worth it... i guess all we gotta do right now is sit and wait for him to get here....(Tom Petty’s ‘The Waiting’ plays in the background)

in other news, labor day weekend was just awesome. we got to spend time with Bridget’s parents and my buddy John came up so we got to hang out with him too. we miss John. he needs to move closer to PA... Monday we got to fire off a couple rounds from my other buddy’s Bushmaster C AR-15 and the .45 XD so that was equally great... on a side note... i need to get to the range more often.... my groups are just pathetic...

those of you who know me have probably heard me mention the webcomic Penny Arcade in some form or another. lately i have noticed that i am, more and more, getting my 'funnies' fix from the internet as opposes to other media. the logical reason for this is that i am on the intenet more often than i am aywhere else because of the nature of my job. now some of you may say that i am not a alltogether logical man nor do i play on on tv so to i say that that is why i believe that there may be another reason alos; you see, just like bloggers, i think that webcomic artists have more creative freedom to express their ideas without being constained by the standards of other media like print or tv. (Wired magazine did a great article on the Penny Arcade guys which echoes a similar notion to this.). as a result i have stumbled upon more than a few really funny stips like this one by Scott Meyer. with the staggering amount of really good material out there, i think that i may be significanly limited if i choose to stick to one type of media exclusively... what do you think?

out for now...

~m

Of Time Past or Five and a Half to Six Pounds

yesterday was the beginning of the 35th week of the pregnancy. it seems so close now. about 5 weeks to go.

a lot has happened since the last post, there has been great loss and great joy but mostly just a lot of the usual nonsense of life... we thoroughly enjoyed the Simpsons movie and i was actually able to catch “The Bourne Ultimatum” and “F4 : Rise of the Silver Surfer”... i really liked the Bourne movie, but then again i have been a fan of the series so that really wasn’t a shocker... F4 was alright... i definitely liked it better than the first Fantastic Four movie but that is really not saying much.

one of my bosses passed away last week. everyone who knew him kinda expected this because he was sick for a while now but you can never really prepare yourself for this kinda thing. He was a good man and a good boss. He was also really, just a very nice guy. He was the one who i interviewed with for this job and He was my direct supervisor.

He will be missed. Greatly.

Bridget and i have been trying to keep up with the preparations for the arrival of the baby ... getting the birthing plan done, prepping the room, etc. etc. etc. all here doctors’ visits have been going fine and in fact, he has estimated that the kid weights around 5.5 to 6.0 pounds already(!). Awesome. Bridget is feeling the babies kicks and movements much more pronounced lately and the enormity of it all is leaving her more than a just little tired and expectedly uncomfortable. still, all is going well.

Sunday is Bridget’s shower so her parents are coming up and then my buddy John is coming up this Monday so this should be another good weekend.

~m

Interview with Homer Simpson and Dan Castellaneta on the Bob and Tom Show

this was live this morning on the Bob and Tom Show... i added the pics...

enjoy!

~m

30 Weeks or Now Don't Spoil It For The Rest Of Us.

bridget started her 30th week of pregnancy this last wednesday. it suddenly seems like it is so close. and then it seems like it is still so far away... again very exciting time but i still can't really describe the plethora of emotions that encapsulate this chapter of our life... i want to though... but i have to think i have to mull it over a little more first.

in other news

i got done with it last week... and i have to say (NO SPOILERS), while i have not read a ton of books in my lifetime, of those that i have read, this one ended very, very agreeably. that is rare for me. don't get me wrong, i have read some great endings, not the endings i may have been expecting or even one that i wanted to see, but all great non the less. that's why i really want to talk about my thoughts on the ending with someone, but seeing as i am the only one done with it, i seem to be being shun by anyone even remotely interested in it. so on a side note... if you are done with it and seem to suffering the same affliction i am , then drop me a line.

anyone else do anything interesting this last week?

~m

The Good Weekend

it is always nice to have a good weekend. you know what i am talking about... you get to hang with people that you care about, have good food and just basically relax. and if you get to bogart a 7 week old baby, well... that's just gravy.

we had one of those this past weekend. we got down to pittsburgh to celebrate Bridget's grandparents 69th wedding anniversary. how awesome is that? sixty-nine years... we'll be 2 years this september.... so to me, that is just... well... awesome.

additionally we got to meet the newest addition to the family, Bridget's new niece, Melina Jo. that was just a blast, she is such an angel so we kept stealing her from whomever was holding her for more than a couple a minutes.

Zeus was, intrigued with the baby. i think he was more concerned with us not paying him as much attention as we usually do... this might be important to keep in mind when our baby arrives...

we were still playing around with the camera when we got home, taking shots of Zeus mostly, at least until he got fed up of posing. the attached pic describes my dogs personally far better than anything that i could ever say.

so how was yours?

'The Transformers Movie' or 'I hope you like to read...'

so i told Mohan that i'd post a review of the Transformers movie after i had some time to think about it… so here goes:

this tends to happen a lot with all movies that are based on franchises or topics that are close to my heart, in this case the transformers were such a big part of my childhood that it is hard for me to describe the franchise without getting a little nostalgic. as such the movie is inevitably held to an exceedingly high (and unfair) standard. if i were to reviewed it in this light then its rating would undoubtedly come out skewed to the lower end of the spectrum. however, i cannot simply ignore the main context of the movie for doing so would simply render the review (as it would, the movie) irrelevant. so here is what we are gonna do, we are gonna consider and rate the contextual element of the movie (i.e the transformers mythos) and the overall quality of movie experience (plot, direction, flow etc.) separately. we can then adjust the two scores to get the overall movie rating. lets get started.

The Michael Bay Experience: i liked ‘the rock’. it was a fast paced, action filled shoot-em-up that will definitely be remembered as one of Bay’s finest. hell, i even liked ‘armageddon’ so it would stand to reason that i would like it when mr. bay direct a movie about cool vehicles that change into robots and blowing shit up simply because he does that kinda job quite well. this theory is proved further in ‘transformers’. the action sequences and animation (rendered so sublimely by the good people at ILM) left me almost breathtaken. almost. there were a few sequences where the camera was panning around the action, while the action was taking place thus leaving me sorta lost for the details. the non animated actors all played their parts to an acceptable level though sometimes i felt like the robots emoted better. as in the star-wars prequels, there was some definite, low-brow or trailer trash humor that i could have done without but i can’t fault bay for pandering to the lowest common denominator. as noted above the animations were in a word: spectacular. the soundtrack on the whole was very complementary of the onscreen actions and not at all over powering. the overall plot was engaging so no complaints there. if this was a movie about a completely different topic and i was reviewing it, i would have no qualms about giving it a strong ‘-A’. so is the case here.

Transform and Roll Out: getting Peter Cullen to voice Optimus Prime was definitely a stride in the right direction. there could have been no one better to embody the archetype of the leader of the Autobots then Mr. Cullen. hearing the immortal “One shall Stand, One shall Fall” line alone was worth the price of admission. similarly, utilizing the talented Hugo Weaving as the voice of Megatron (due to reportedly being decided as unsuitable for the part by bay, Frank Welker, the original Megatron only lent his voice to the game version of the Decepticon leader.) was also inspired. on that note, use of the infamous and original ‘transformation sound’ whenever the robots transformed actually gave me goose bumps (yes, i realize i am a the quintessential transformers dork/nerd/geek/etc. well buddy, i wear these taunts as badges of honor. Honor dammit!). the actual transformation sequences were also (again, as noted above) well thought out and impeccably executed. these are the aspects that stayed true to the ethos of the original series and is what i really loved about this movie. there were also a couple other aspects that i didn’t take so kindly too, namely and in order of ascending importance: character design; don’t get me wrong, as cool as it was to see a giant freaking Optimus, i still winced at the sight of flames on him. i can see the need to have his vehicle form modernized, but flames?! seriously?! what is this?! monster garage or orange county choppers?! as for Megatron, where the hell his hand cannon? again, i can see the logic in changing his form to a spaceship instead of a gun but why the hell do you have to mess with perfection and nix the hand cannon? seriously, micheal, making him all spiky and shit was nice, the vampire fangs was a little much but if you really wanted a menacing baddie, how much more badass is a freaking cannon, semi-permanently mounted to his hand? not to be nitpicking but the hand cannon is prototypical Megatron!

but the thing that really bugged me was that the dialogue between the robots was lacking; one of the aspects of the transformers that was really great was that both leaders, Optimus and Megatron, truly believed in their respective causes and as such both constantly conveyed this passion to their troops, in albeit dissimilar methods. so much of what made the cartoon great was tightly entwined in the dialogue between and amongst the transformers. I mean what would Starscream, for instance, be without his constant backtalk and conniving inner monologues on overthrowing Megatron? also, Megatron wasn’t just a powerful brute destroying everything in is path, he was a brilliant, military strategist, as conveyed by his elaborations of his evil plans. i missed that. still, regardless of who directed it, the transformers in this flick stayed almost entirely true to the spirit of the cartoon garnering a resounding ‘A’ rating.

thus, all in all i must confess that bay and his team, much to my suprise, significantly exceeded my expectations and made a thoroughly enjoyable ‘transformers’ movie, one that appeals to both the hardcore transfan than the casual moviegoer alike. an almost perfect combination of hollywood blockbuster and 80’s nostalgia joyride that is without a doubt the best movie i have seen this year.

this however looks to challenge that title…


~out

Till All Are One

if you recognize the title of this post then you are probably gonna be watching the Transformers movie that is now open. i am going to watch the movie tonight... with what was sufficiently low expectations. i mean Bay did a great job with the Rock and all but this is my childhood he was remaking! and flames on Optimus?! seriously Micheal?!

anyway, after getting a frantically excited phone call from my buddy Al, and reading a 10 out of 10 rating from my buddy Mo, i have to admit that i am more than a little excited.

in other news:

so apparently comedy central has signed a deal with Fox to get a bunch of brand spankin new episodes of futurama airing in 2008. i really got into futurama late into its second season but have since become a devoted follower... the characters and plot lines, apart from being utterly hysterical, became intensely rich towards the end of the series... it will be interesting to check out whether the new eps either follow that pattern or '''start from scratch'' in terms of character and plot depth...

tomorrow is also independence day here... so if you will be handling any fireworks, please be safe. (dammit! i am starting to sound like a grownup!)

~out

Trunk Monkey

DAMMIT! I WANT ONE!!!

Part 1


Part 2