...the goose is getting fat...and I along with it. My lord there has been no shortage of holiday goodness around the studio. It would be rude of me not to sample each and every one. And so I have.....several times.
I had been doing pretty good. I was watching what I was eating...working out a little and loosing some weight but from Thanksgiving to New Years its just a hopeless cause. To hell with trying to do good....bring on the cookies!!
Results from the poll show that people hate the lemon pie....me too!! I put it on there for my wife and she didn't even vote for it. Take that lemon pie!! Pumpkin and apple will fight to the death to determine the true winner.
Favorite Kind of Pie
pumpkin (25%)
apple (25%)
banana cream (20%)
lemon (0%)
chicken pot (10%)
pecan (10%)
blueberry (10%)
And just in time for the holidays and new poll is up!!
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Monday, December 10, 2007
Christmas Time at Chase Manor
As December was approaching this year my wife proposed we get a 2nd tree for our game room. I immediately checked to see if she was ill. Our existing tree is quite a job and combine that with 2 Christmas villages and lights in the backyard and front, I already had my work cut out for me. But she insisted that it would be a smaller tree on which we could hang all of our cartoon/kid ornaments.
Secretly I suspected that this was her way of getting rid of Spiderman. I have a Spiderman ornament and he is in a cool web slinging pose. Each year I put it in the center of the tree and each year she asks "Does it have to go in the center?" to which I reply it most certainly does. But now Spidey, Jimmy Neutron and all our Disney ornaments have been cast out, to a tree of their own. Spidey front and center.
Putting up a 2nd tree was not as much work as I thought and has added Christmas cheer to the west wing. That was a good thing....but then..
With the Christmas lights, I put those barely moving deer and a snow man in the backyard so the kiddos can look out the kitchen window and ooo and ah. Out front I usually just put lights in the trees and bushes. This year my wife suggested putting icicle lights on the house. With most houses around us having lights up on their houses I figured this would help make our street a powerhouse of Christmas cheer. Her suggestion of a 2nd Christmas tree worked out well, so what could possibly go wrong.
First thing was locating the lights. I went to a Lowes, Home Depot, Garden Ridge, France, Target and three Walmarts before finding them. But I got em so SCORE.
The guy who takes care of our yard offered to put up the lights. You silly fool!! I can do that myself. No problem...its just lights..its not like its hard or anything to hang lights. I continued to laugh at him until he drove away. As he sped off I remembered that the last time I tried to get up on the roof I had a panic attack and peed my pants. My laughter turned to a pained look. The kind our President gets before speaking..
But I had a plan. I would put the lights up.....at night!! That way if I freaked out and started crying OR if I fell off the roof and landed in a bush, no one would see me......or call 911, mmm yeah it wasn't a well thought out plan.
So out I went. Dark. Cold. Perfect. I started with what I thought would be the easy part of the roof line....the part that I could get to from the ground. Of course all the bushes and plants were in the bloody way, so much creative maneuvering was in order. With that string of lights mostly on it was finally time to get on up on the roof. Woohoo lets go!!
My yard is sloped so it took some time to find a nice stable spot for the ladder. I trotted on up with lights in hand.....looked out on the vast, dark, cold roof. Here we go. I put my left foot on the roof...aaaaaaannnnnnd decided that there was no way in hell I could do this. Maybe if I sorta...turned around...no no that's even scarier. Well why do I need to put the lights on the gables anyways...I mean.....sigh...YOU FAILED.... I would call yard man the next day.
After two hours I had put up one and half strings of lights. I suck.
The next day yard man put all the lights up. My wife called to tell me how beautiful the house looked. I got home and saw no lights and none of the outside plugs were working, which is always a good sign. Quick trip to the circuit breaker box and sure enough the outside circuit tripped. Well we will just flip that back on an....POP-a flash of orange-smoke....FLIZZLE FLAZZLE!!
The electrician comes out the next day and sure enough the circuit overloaded. Yes the POP-FLASH-SMOKE was my first clue. The backyard lights (3 amps) were on the same circuit as the front house lights (18 amps) and the circuit is a 20 amp circuit. Damn you 1 amp. The GFI outlet had a short in it which caused the main circuit to fry, but with some plutonium adjustments to the flux capacitor and proton pack....we were back in business. A lesson in how electricity works for only $270.
Light problems aside, I'm glad we got em. And now at last, Chase Manor is ready for Christmas. Bring it on.
Secretly I suspected that this was her way of getting rid of Spiderman. I have a Spiderman ornament and he is in a cool web slinging pose. Each year I put it in the center of the tree and each year she asks "Does it have to go in the center?" to which I reply it most certainly does. But now Spidey, Jimmy Neutron and all our Disney ornaments have been cast out, to a tree of their own. Spidey front and center.
Putting up a 2nd tree was not as much work as I thought and has added Christmas cheer to the west wing. That was a good thing....but then..
With the Christmas lights, I put those barely moving deer and a snow man in the backyard so the kiddos can look out the kitchen window and ooo and ah. Out front I usually just put lights in the trees and bushes. This year my wife suggested putting icicle lights on the house. With most houses around us having lights up on their houses I figured this would help make our street a powerhouse of Christmas cheer. Her suggestion of a 2nd Christmas tree worked out well, so what could possibly go wrong.
First thing was locating the lights. I went to a Lowes, Home Depot, Garden Ridge, France, Target and three Walmarts before finding them. But I got em so SCORE.
The guy who takes care of our yard offered to put up the lights. You silly fool!! I can do that myself. No problem...its just lights..its not like its hard or anything to hang lights. I continued to laugh at him until he drove away. As he sped off I remembered that the last time I tried to get up on the roof I had a panic attack and peed my pants. My laughter turned to a pained look. The kind our President gets before speaking..
But I had a plan. I would put the lights up.....at night!! That way if I freaked out and started crying OR if I fell off the roof and landed in a bush, no one would see me......or call 911, mmm yeah it wasn't a well thought out plan.
So out I went. Dark. Cold. Perfect. I started with what I thought would be the easy part of the roof line....the part that I could get to from the ground. Of course all the bushes and plants were in the bloody way, so much creative maneuvering was in order. With that string of lights mostly on it was finally time to get on up on the roof. Woohoo lets go!!
My yard is sloped so it took some time to find a nice stable spot for the ladder. I trotted on up with lights in hand.....looked out on the vast, dark, cold roof. Here we go. I put my left foot on the roof...aaaaaaannnnnnd decided that there was no way in hell I could do this. Maybe if I sorta...turned around...no no that's even scarier. Well why do I need to put the lights on the gables anyways...I mean.....sigh...YOU FAILED.... I would call yard man the next day.
After two hours I had put up one and half strings of lights. I suck.
The next day yard man put all the lights up. My wife called to tell me how beautiful the house looked. I got home and saw no lights and none of the outside plugs were working, which is always a good sign. Quick trip to the circuit breaker box and sure enough the outside circuit tripped. Well we will just flip that back on an....POP-a flash of orange-smoke....FLIZZLE FLAZZLE!!
The electrician comes out the next day and sure enough the circuit overloaded. Yes the POP-FLASH-SMOKE was my first clue. The backyard lights (3 amps) were on the same circuit as the front house lights (18 amps) and the circuit is a 20 amp circuit. Damn you 1 amp. The GFI outlet had a short in it which caused the main circuit to fry, but with some plutonium adjustments to the flux capacitor and proton pack....we were back in business. A lesson in how electricity works for only $270.
Light problems aside, I'm glad we got em. And now at last, Chase Manor is ready for Christmas. Bring it on.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
It's a Wonderful Bug's Life
Results from the poll:
The Ant Bully (19%)
Antz (14%)
Bee Movie (5%)A Bug's Life (62%)
A new poll is up just in time for the holidays!
Monday, November 19, 2007
Thomas the Expensive Tank Engine
Christmas is approaching...there it is....right behind you!! And so begins the shopping. Now both my daughter, Wonder-pea, and my son, Lil Pumpkin, dig the Thomas the tank engine. When visiting any Barnes and Nobles much time and fun is spent playing with these little trains.
Wonder-pea has been a Thomas fan for awhile and has a few engines and some track, all provided by family members at previous birthdays, christmas etc. We've been thinking of expanding the collection, maybe even getting a train table like they play with at the book store.
As it happens, I found myself in the Toys R Us and decided that I would pick up a few things. Ya gotta start the shopping early before everything is gone and you are left with giving your children scotch tape and beef jerky. So here is me...beating the rush.
This first thing I took a look at was a Roundhouse where Wonder-pea and Lil Pumpkin could store all their trains after a hard day of training around.
How much is this thing........hummm oh here it- $80.00!!! HOLY POOP!!! I dropped it like it a hot biscuit. Once I finished shaking I turned it over with my foot and looked at the price again... and again...and again...and again...
I quickly walked away.
Maybe another little train with a coal car would be good. $20.00!!! OK train with no coal car $15.00. My Pirates of the Caribbean figures from NECA, which are pretty detailed, run $14.00.....why in gods name is this thing $20. And then I saw that the Thomas line boasts: Made from Real Wood. Damn you real wood.
How about "Made From Something that Won't Make This Stuff So Expensive".....like paper or feathers. The more I explored the wonderful toy world of Thomas, the more it become clear that Learning Curve, the makers of this cash cow, are rolling in the freakin dough. Sure it's "official" merchandise and then there is the "real wood" thing. But come on. A little 3 inch train should not be $20.
After my mind stopped spinning, I though, o-k maybe we can just get the table. It's just an average looking table with a scenery image on top. We will get the table and trick- uh-CHECK...to see if other family members want to buy the crazy expensive trains, track etc.
Tables run: $250-400. My.....god...
I hope the kids enjoy the scotch tape and beef jerky.
Wonder-pea has been a Thomas fan for awhile and has a few engines and some track, all provided by family members at previous birthdays, christmas etc. We've been thinking of expanding the collection, maybe even getting a train table like they play with at the book store.
As it happens, I found myself in the Toys R Us and decided that I would pick up a few things. Ya gotta start the shopping early before everything is gone and you are left with giving your children scotch tape and beef jerky. So here is me...beating the rush.
This first thing I took a look at was a Roundhouse where Wonder-pea and Lil Pumpkin could store all their trains after a hard day of training around.
How much is this thing........hummm oh here it- $80.00!!! HOLY POOP!!! I dropped it like it a hot biscuit. Once I finished shaking I turned it over with my foot and looked at the price again... and again...and again...and again...
I quickly walked away.
Maybe another little train with a coal car would be good. $20.00!!! OK train with no coal car $15.00. My Pirates of the Caribbean figures from NECA, which are pretty detailed, run $14.00.....why in gods name is this thing $20. And then I saw that the Thomas line boasts: Made from Real Wood. Damn you real wood.
How about "Made From Something that Won't Make This Stuff So Expensive".....like paper or feathers. The more I explored the wonderful toy world of Thomas, the more it become clear that Learning Curve, the makers of this cash cow, are rolling in the freakin dough. Sure it's "official" merchandise and then there is the "real wood" thing. But come on. A little 3 inch train should not be $20.
After my mind stopped spinning, I though, o-k maybe we can just get the table. It's just an average looking table with a scenery image on top. We will get the table and trick- uh-CHECK...to see if other family members want to buy the crazy expensive trains, track etc.
Tables run: $250-400. My.....god...
I hope the kids enjoy the scotch tape and beef jerky.
Friday, November 09, 2007
Monday, November 05, 2007
Friday, November 02, 2007
Bee Movie
Bee Movie opens today. Yes its out right now!! Go....hurry.....time is running out!! ReelFx did some promotional spots for the film. I have a couple shots I did up in the animation section. Enjoy.A new poll is up as well. Here are the results from the previous:
Favorite Team Fortress 2 DEFENSE character
Demoman (33%)
Heavy (33%)
Engineer (33%)
A three way tie!! You're all winners!!
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Spiderman 3 on DVD
Not gonna buy it. Not gonna rent it. Look at him over there, sitting in the rain, looking all depressed. What went wrong with my movie? Too many characters? Too much dancing? Too much crying? Yes, yes and hell yes.
Have you forgotten dear Spiderman why your 3rd outting sucked so bad? If so, reread what I wrote about it here and then here.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Eagles Scream
Tonight I hit a steam rating of 10 after spending about a week bouncing around in the 9.somethings. Woohoo!! I have no idea what this rating means but woohoo!! I've been playing TF2 a lot and by a lot, I mean A LOT!! I need to ween myself down on the game play so I don't burn myself out. I've been telling myself that over the past two weeks. Apparently I'm ignoring myself.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Peace Love Frankenstein
There is a new shirt design in the My Shop area.....hard to believe? Tell me about it. It's the first new anything to go into My Shop in months. One wonders how long My Shop will stay in business.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Team Fortress 2
TF2 is out!! Yes its true. I have been playing the Beta Orange Box release for a few weeks now and its a lot o fun; I'm actually doing pretty good...who would of thunk it possible. Now you can join in on the fun by going HERE.
Big congrats to my buddies up at Valve: Andrew Burke, Hamish Mckenzie, Karen Prell and Matthew Russell.
Poll results...for: Of my 5 shows, which will rock the hardest this season
HEROES (40%)
The Office (47%)
LOST (7%)
24 (7%)
Smallville (0%)
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
..damn you NBC
Technology is pretty awesome when it works but when it doesn't, its really really annoying. Take our dual tuner DVR for example. Recording an entire season of a series...wonderous...recording two shows at once...a miracle of the modern age. The only problem is that one of the dual tuners is flaky and must only be able to hold 6% instead of 100%.
We discovered this when the disk space suddenly jumped from 56% to 100%.
We discovered this last Thursday when we had premieres of The Office and Smallville scheduled to record at the same time.
Smallville recorded but The Office did not, even though we were at 56% full at the time of the recordings; 100% after. I jumped around like an angry monkey...hit the DVR with my club and threw a rock at the TV, but to my dismay The Office was still not showing up in my playlist.
Then I remembered that NBC had just announced that they were pulling out of iTunes making episode available for FREE, the day after they aired. Awesome. The next day I happily went to nbc.com to download The Office premiere.
The kids are in bed, the wife is ready to watch and.....why isn't it working? Let's try again...nothing. Glad to see they tested it out. Reboot..nothing...try Firefox...no.....curse at it unmercifully...nope. There is nothing NOTHING on the page that says anything about "what you need to view the shows". Brilliant. Does it use some fancy new Java plugin or magic...who knows. Also nowhere does it say "having trouble viewing the show?". No support!! Fan-freakin-tastic.
Fortunately there is a forum on nbc.com and a thread for Tech Support. Sure enough, many folks are having the same problem. This is Friday...NBC's new season launched on Monday...their player is not working and no one from "support" is telling people anything in the forum. NBC you are upsetting me.
I check iTunes, maybe just mayb-NO...no Office season 4, which the more I thought about it the dumber this seemed. People use iPods to watch their TV..to take it with them. Pulling out of iTunes completely alienates that market. But I guess NBC doesn't like making money.
So I turned to Google. For the love of god Google tell me where I can find this episode. Google returns some options but what a surprise the content has been removed...most likely by NBC. No no consumers...you will watch our shows on our broken player or you won't watch them at all!!
But then I see it...my salvation....Amazon.com. Apparently I can pay $1.99 and download the episode from something called Amazon Unbox Video. Wow sorta like ITUNES! You would think that with the problems NBC was having with their own FREE player, that they might point people over to Amazon....make a little cash and keep people happy. Insanity!
In the end The Office premiere was pretty funny...making the journey worth it; Amazon I have feelings for you...call me.
We discovered this when the disk space suddenly jumped from 56% to 100%.
We discovered this last Thursday when we had premieres of The Office and Smallville scheduled to record at the same time.
Smallville recorded but The Office did not, even though we were at 56% full at the time of the recordings; 100% after. I jumped around like an angry monkey...hit the DVR with my club and threw a rock at the TV, but to my dismay The Office was still not showing up in my playlist.
Then I remembered that NBC had just announced that they were pulling out of iTunes making episode available for FREE, the day after they aired. Awesome. The next day I happily went to nbc.com to download The Office premiere.
The kids are in bed, the wife is ready to watch and.....why isn't it working? Let's try again...nothing. Glad to see they tested it out. Reboot..nothing...try Firefox...no.....curse at it unmercifully...nope. There is nothing NOTHING on the page that says anything about "what you need to view the shows". Brilliant. Does it use some fancy new Java plugin or magic...who knows. Also nowhere does it say "having trouble viewing the show?". No support!! Fan-freakin-tastic.
Fortunately there is a forum on nbc.com and a thread for Tech Support. Sure enough, many folks are having the same problem. This is Friday...NBC's new season launched on Monday...their player is not working and no one from "support" is telling people anything in the forum. NBC you are upsetting me.
I check iTunes, maybe just mayb-NO...no Office season 4, which the more I thought about it the dumber this seemed. People use iPods to watch their TV..to take it with them. Pulling out of iTunes completely alienates that market. But I guess NBC doesn't like making money.
So I turned to Google. For the love of god Google tell me where I can find this episode. Google returns some options but what a surprise the content has been removed...most likely by NBC. No no consumers...you will watch our shows on our broken player or you won't watch them at all!!
But then I see it...my salvation....Amazon.com. Apparently I can pay $1.99 and download the episode from something called Amazon Unbox Video. Wow sorta like ITUNES! You would think that with the problems NBC was having with their own FREE player, that they might point people over to Amazon....make a little cash and keep people happy. Insanity!
In the end The Office premiere was pretty funny...making the journey worth it; Amazon I have feelings for you...call me.
Monday, September 24, 2007
TV Returns
It's a week of premieres!! Three of the five shows I watch come on this week; LOST and 24 don't start 'til next year.
Check out the commercials:
HEROES
The Office
Smallville
Poll results for: What I did over the summer
Wrestled a lion (7%)
Got thrown out of a theme park (13%)
Saw a crappy movie (47%)
Went out..got drunk..threw up...repeat (13%)
Embraced internet dating (13%)
Spent a couple hours in jail (7%)
New poll now up!!!
Check out the commercials:
HEROES
The Office
Smallville
Poll results for: What I did over the summer
Wrestled a lion (7%)
Got thrown out of a theme park (13%)
Saw a crappy movie (47%)
Went out..got drunk..threw up...repeat (13%)
Embraced internet dating (13%)
Spent a couple hours in jail (7%)
New poll now up!!!
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Iron Man
The official teaser is a bit different than the one leaked from Comic-Con...but its still pretty damn cool. Go summer 08!!!
Monday, September 10, 2007
Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
From Comingsoon.net:Full Indiana Jones Title Announced!
Source: Paramount Pictures
September 10, 2007
The title of the new Indiana Jones adventure, now in production under the direction of Steven Spielberg, is Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, it was revealed today by actor Shia LaBeouf.
LaBeouf, who stars in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull with Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett, Karen Allen, Ray Winstone and John Hurt, announced the title during today's MTV Video Music Awards, which were broadcast live from Las Vegas.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is a Lucasfilm Ltd. and is being distributed by Paramount Pictures. It will be released in the U.S. and simultaneously in most territories worldwide on Thursday, May 22, 2008. Frank Marshall returns as producer, with Kathleen Kennedy joining George Lucas as executive producer.
Interesting that in the poll "Of the many rumored titles for next years Indy 4, the most LIKELY title is:" Kingdom of the Crystal Skull got a whopping 0%.
Poll results:
THE FOURTH CORNER OF THE EARTH (14%)
THE QUEST FOR THE COVENANT (21%)
THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL (0%)
THE LOST CITY OF GOLD (21%)
THE CITY OF GODS (36%)
THE DESTROYER OF WORLDS (7%)
A new poll is now up...woohoo!!
Friday, August 31, 2007
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
First Day of School
Today was Wonder-peas first day of school; pre-k to be exact. She could not be more excited. Going to school is something she has been talking about for months. We only hope that it meets up to her expectations.
This morning when I woke up, I remembered what I didn't like about school. You have to get up so damn early. I had a scary moment of clarity "Wonder-pea getting up early for school will mean I WILL have to get up early.......every morning!!!.....CRAP it's like I'M back in school all over again!!!"
Once everyone was up, dressed and ready to go it was time for pictures so we could: A. capture the first day for scrapbooks and grandparents B. remind Wonder-pea how thrilled she was to go to school, when she starts complaining about it......next week.
When we got to school we walked her to her classroom. The hallways were busy with little ones with lunchboxes and backpacks. One little girl's backpack was literally as big as she. Was she wearing the backpack or was the backpack....wearing her????
We settled Wonder-pea at a table with another little girl. Both girls looked at each other with that shy "I'd like to talk to you but I'm not sure how to start" look on their faces. And thus began her busy day of stories, crafts and snacks. The beginning of a long road...
Yesterday I had told her to enjoy her last day of freedom for she will be a slave to the education system for at least the next 17 years. Wow. That is a long time to be learning stuff. I am 36 years old. I have spent half my life learning stuff in an official capacity. I have spent the other half of my life forgetting most of that stuff.
And now the circle will repeat. I just wish school would start at noon.
This morning when I woke up, I remembered what I didn't like about school. You have to get up so damn early. I had a scary moment of clarity "Wonder-pea getting up early for school will mean I WILL have to get up early.......every morning!!!.....CRAP it's like I'M back in school all over again!!!"
Once everyone was up, dressed and ready to go it was time for pictures so we could: A. capture the first day for scrapbooks and grandparents B. remind Wonder-pea how thrilled she was to go to school, when she starts complaining about it......next week.
When we got to school we walked her to her classroom. The hallways were busy with little ones with lunchboxes and backpacks. One little girl's backpack was literally as big as she. Was she wearing the backpack or was the backpack....wearing her????
We settled Wonder-pea at a table with another little girl. Both girls looked at each other with that shy "I'd like to talk to you but I'm not sure how to start" look on their faces. And thus began her busy day of stories, crafts and snacks. The beginning of a long road...
Yesterday I had told her to enjoy her last day of freedom for she will be a slave to the education system for at least the next 17 years. Wow. That is a long time to be learning stuff. I am 36 years old. I have spent half my life learning stuff in an official capacity. I have spent the other half of my life forgetting most of that stuff.
And now the circle will repeat. I just wish school would start at noon.
Monday, August 20, 2007
The Phantom Blahs
Not surprising that the poll for WORST Star Wars film resulted in Phantom Menace(55%) being the winner. Second place went to Attack of the Clones(36%) with Revenge of the Sith(9%) coming in third; not a lot of love for the prequels...shocking. No votes were cast for the original trilogy...the Ewoks rejoice!Keeping the Lucas theme going...a Indiana Jones poll is now up!!
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