This is Chris dot com

Dollhouse Trailer

2008-05-15T16:18:00.001-07:00

The Forbidden Kingdom (2008)

2008-05-15T15:37:00.000-07:00

(Jet Li & Jackie Chan: 2 great tastes that taste great together)

Say you have a friend who isn't very movie savvy. One day he comes up to you and says, "Y'know, I've never really seen any Kung Fu movies, and I'd kinda like to get into that genre." Well, The Forbidden Kingdom would be a perfect movie to show him. It's kinda like a "My First Wuxia" movie. Start with this one, and then a few movies later he might be ready for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and then a few movies later he might finally be ready for Jet Li's Hero. [Read my full review here]

Birfday Funtimes Continue

2008-05-09T08:06:00.000-07:00

Tuesday (my actual birfday) I got a bunch of cupcakes at work, and my boss gave me a gift certificate to NoiseBot. There were several other good ones, but in the end I selected this T-shirt:

Carrie had to work late (until like 6:00 or something), but then after she got off we went down to Gateway to India for my birfday dinner, where we were met by Christine & Lawrence. I had Gosht Korma! Very good!

Later on in the evening Carrie & I went out and saw Forgetting Sarah Marshall (Another "Blanking Blank" title movie!). It was very funny and incredibly intelligent. Now I have two movie reviews to write.

Wednesday we cleaned the house and then in the evening went downtown to The Harmon restaurant, where we met my whole family, which came to 9 entire people around one table. Carrie & I hadn't been to The Harmon in a few years, and we were pleased to find that it was still very tasty (and they still had their beer ski). I had a steak with a green peppercorn reduction on a bed of crispy onion straws.

Then everybody came back to our house, where we were joined by Neighbor Gary. I then opened presents. I got cool stuff!

Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
2 books by Anthony Bourdain
Juno on DVD
A book on do-it-yourself home maintenance and repair (very useful)
A Bluetooth headset so that I can legally talk on the phone while in my car
Point by Cornelius
Many cards and some moneys

Carrie made me some lemon cupcakes with chocolate frosting (my favorite cake combo), and after those I played some Smash Bros with my own Bro and Cassie.

Thursday in the afternoon Lawrence took me out to see Iron Man. I now have three movie reviews to write. When I got home I got a package from Amazon.com, which I thought was odd because I hadn't ordered anything from them. Turns out it was a birthday gift from Taisha, Battlestar Galactica - The Complete Epic Series (Limited Edition Cylon Head Packaging)

Thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday in person, online, over the phone, and/or by giving me a gift!

It's My Birfday Today

2008-05-06T08:15:00.000-07:00

But it felt like it started yesterday. I'll explain: Our friend from Guam stayed with us the last couple of nights (she's not originally from Guam. I believe she's originally from Alaska. She went to college with my wife. Then she lived in Togo for a couple of years. Then she moved to Tacoma for a couple of years. And now she's been living in Guam for a couple of years, but it looks like she might be moving back to the Seattle-Tacoma area soon). Yesterday afternoon after Carrie got off of work, the three of us all took Suki down to the dog park and walked around. She was very well behaved, although two other dogs snapped at her. She's been much more well-behaved these last couple of weeks. We stopped by Trader Joe's on the way home and picked up fixin's for dinner.

After we got home the two of them went out on "errands" (which meant getting me some birthday presents). I fired up the barbecue. While the coals were getting warm I unlocked "Mirror" mode in Mario Kart Wii.

When the girls got home I cooked up some teriyaki salmon while Carrie made a salad consisting of spinach, blueberries, pine nuts, cheese, steamed asparagus, and poppyseed dressing. We all (including Suki and Fantastico) sat out on the front porch and listened to music from the ’90s while we ate. It was very nice. For dessert I ate a cookie that my co-worker had made when she was drunk the night before. It was good.

Carrie gave me one present at midnight, a very cute little pouch that could hold something like an MP3 player or my digital camera. The pouch has drawings of weird animals/creatures and robots on it! Hippy Barthday to Me!

My Favorite Verb

2008-05-05T22:53:00.000-07:00

"Would have had to have been being"

As in: "He would have had to have been being eaten."

They DON'T Go On Your Roof

2008-05-02T16:28:00.000-07:00

Hey! Guess what I got. Here's a hint:

It's shingles! The second coming of the virus that causes chickenpox!

It thankfully isn't a very bad case. It's only a couple of inches on the back of my neck, and is more annoying (and unsightly) than actively painful. Just stings a little. The swelling is starting to go down and the blisters are starting to crust over, so I should be getting steadily better over the next week or so.

Space Boomerang

2008-05-02T07:54:00.000-07:00

What would happen if you threw a boomerang in a microgravity environment (like, say, if you were in the International Space Station)? Well, now thanks to astronaut Takao Doi, we have the answer, and it is completely awexome:

(via Pink Tentacle)

"Of the Month" May '08

2008-05-01T22:00:00.000-07:00

Link of the Month:
TV in Japan
The website that tells you: "This is what TV is like. In Japan." Often weird, often hilarious, and often starring American film actors hocking strange Japanese products.

Game of the Month:
Mario Kart Wii
Aaah. It's about durned time. The best video game franchise in the history of history has finally come to the Wii, and thanks to the included Wii Wheel, you have the option of playing it a whole new way. Other than that it's very similar to the DS version, with 16 new tracks and 16 classic tracks from previous Mario Kart games. Glorious goodness. And they've greatly improved the online play—it's a whole lot of fun, you can play up to 12 opponents from around the world, and you can play until you decide to quit without penalizing yourself or screwing up the people you're playing with.

DVD of the Month:
Juno
Very close to being the best movie of the year 2007 (only beat out by Grindhouse and Hot Fuzz). A wonderful celebration of wit, intelligence, and honesty. Go read my full review to see why you should own this movie. Plus (in case you don't trust my tastes) it was Ebert's favorite movie of 2007.

Do NOT Patronize the Downtown India Mahal Restaurant

2008-04-30T12:16:00.000-07:00

Yet another incident in a long string of violent, horrible behavior from the owner of the India Mahal restaurant, this time involving a young mother with 6-year-old and a baby in her arms!

Read the story and please, please, please pass it along to everyone you know. If you have a blog, post a link to the original story. This kind of behavior cannot be tolerated.

(via Shiny Distractions)

It is One Week Until My Birthday

2008-04-29T20:49:00.000-07:00

This post has nothing to do with the title. It's about mowing the lawn! Yesterday (Monday) I took the lawn mower out of the garage to tame the backyard lawn. I was having a heck of a time getting it to start (due to the fact that it's been sitting in my garage for half the year). At one point I wondered if any leftover grass in the blades had hardened to form some sort of preventative blockage against the blades spinning, so I tipped the mower on its side and took a (safe) look. It seemed to be okay down there. So I returned the mower to its upright position and tried it again. It worked this time. Apparently my lawn mower needs to be periodically tipped over onto its left side in order to work. Something about distributing the gasoline; I dunno.

Jonathan Coulton Has the Coolest Instrument EVAR

2008-04-29T16:40:00.000-07:00

It's called the Tenori-on. It was created by Toshio Iwai, the same guy who created Electroplankton for the Nintendo DS. Here he is using it to perform "My Monkey" at the Triple Door in Seattle this last weekend (I didn't go to the show 'cause of Fools Play):

(By the way, the woman he's singing with is sweetafton23, a very talented and funny singer/ukulele player)

I think it would kick ass to own one of these instruments, if only they didn't cost quite so durned much. Though I imagine it would be better off in the hands of Tangentbot. I bet he could K some serious A with it.

(via Jonathan Coulton)

Tacoma 6th Avenue Farmers Market

2008-04-28T22:03:00.000-07:00

Carrie & I just got back from the first community meeting about the upcoming Tacoma 6th Avenue Farmers Market. We're very excited about being within walking distance of a farmers market.

Current plan is to have it start on July 15th and then run every Tuesday from 3:30 to 7:30 PM.

I know, community involvement doesn't really sound like me, but I get to do geeky internet-related activities, so that's good by me!

The next meeting is in two weeks from today (Monday).

Kobe Blue, the Greatest Pilot in the Galaxy

2008-04-25T14:28:00.000-07:00

I thought this was pretty funny (marginally NSFW):

(via Dustin Weaver's Livejournal)

Coleslaw Clothes

2008-04-24T14:11:00.000-07:00

This is probably the funniest piece of Engrish I've seen in a while:

(via engrish.com)

The Return of Under the Mailbox Theater

2008-04-20T21:42:00.000-07:00

For those of you who missed Fools Play Improv last night, you missed something a li'l incredible.

More then 10 years after it went off the air, Under the Mailbox Theater was back! In Fools Play form!

That's right, John Griffin, host of UtMBT, hosted last night's episode of Fools Play. There was a mailbox and everyone's favorite sourpuss, Bill the Mailman. There were even cameos by Mr. Speederbike and the Postmaster General! There were a whole bunch of Fools Play characters who originated in UtMBT, including Jerry the Spy, Horace & Cecil, and Dr. Daniel Poddleoppoly (sp?).

We learned what happened after the show ended: John left the mailbox. He and bill had a falling-out, which caused Bill to go "upriver" and found a utopian society (of, it turned out, paper cutouts of John's face). Dr. Daniel Poddleoppoly gave John some insightful advice about the situation, including, "You can leave the mailbox but still bring the mailbox with you," and, "There is a hole inside of you that only a mailbox can fill."

Bill the Mailman got some sense beat into him (literally) by the Postmaster General, and he and John finally made up after all these years. John concluded by hoping that they helped the audience to find the mailboxes within themselves.

The show was a huge hit. We'd love to be able to perform Fools Play: Under the Mailbox every so often, because it's a great format. It was totally awesome (dude) to go back and revisit something else that is having its 15th anniversary (!!) this year. Yes, I started performing a weekly, improvised, sketch-comedy stage show AND producing a weekly, scripted, sketch-comedy TV show when I was 15 years old. How the Hell did any of us have time for that?

Mario Theme Played with RC Car and Bottles

2008-04-20T18:12:00.000-07:00

Mario Theme Played with RC Car and Bottles
It sounds impossible, but just watch the video.

(via Wynn Ryder)

Most Unwanted Song

2008-04-17T18:01:00.000-07:00

So apparently these two Russians did extensive polling of Americans to discover our tastes in music. They then compiled the results and created (with the help of musician Dave Soldier) one song that statistically was the song that Americans most wanted to hear... and one that was statistically what Americans least wanted to hear. From the article:

"...over an accompaniment of bagpipe, tuba and accordian (statistically, America's least favorite instruments), an operatic soprano (our least favorite type of singer) raps (ditto) about cowboys (ditto). Their research indicated that the most hated lyrical subject is holidays (disliked by 33%), so the song is suitable not only for Christmas, but Easter, Labor Day, Veterans' Day, and Halloween. These interludes are introduced abruptly by a children's chorus ("Hey everybody, it's Yom Kippur!"), who couple their refrains with cheerful commercial messages. By the end, the subject has shifted to human slavery and genocide. The whole thing, going on for nearly 22 minutes (the least favorite song length), is as impossible to ignore as a car crash."

When I listened to The Most Unwanted Song I nearly wet myself; I was actually crying with laughter. It is truly one of the most spectacular pieces of music I have ever heard. I also thoroughly enjoyed The Most Wanted Song, with its absolute over-the-top blandness and inanity of lyrics (including an over-abundance of "baby"). I thought both were hilarious. Go on. Click those links. Listen for yourself and then decide for... yourself. Here's some more info (and a link to buy a CD of the songs).

(via tangentbot, in a round-about way)

オバッチの Jacket Lunch Box

2008-04-16T15:22:00.000-07:00

Whoever runs the オバッチの Jacket Lunch Box has the unusual hobby of re-creating album covers using only ordinary bento lunch box ingredients.

(via Pink Tentacle)

The Incredible Upside-Downs

2008-04-16T15:19:00.000-07:00

The incredible upside-downs, created in 1903, are first read right-side up, then finished by reading upside down! Gustave Verbeek accomplished this for 65 installments! Weird but topsy-turvy!

(via Arflovers)

Fashion Show Crunch Time

2008-04-14T22:18:00.001-07:00

Okay, so basically for the next two weeks I'm not going to be able to do too much socializing because it's crunch time for the Bead Factory's Fashion show. I have an entire booklet to design by sometime next week, and it's a lots of works.

I'm On Vacation...

2008-04-07T18:11:00.000-07:00

... right NOW! I've gone with Carrie and her grandmother to a cute little house we're renting out on the water near Purdy/Gig Harbor. We're there RIGHT NOW. It's super cute, and I'll prolly be taking a tonne of photos.

Anyhoo, we'll be here until Thursday, and there is no cell phone reception at all. There is free wi-fi, though, so if'n ye want to get ahold of me you'll have to do it over teh intarweb tubes.

Time to relax. I'm making burgers for din-dins!

Labels Page, because I am AWESOME

2008-04-03T18:33:00.000-07:00

Hey. You. Yeah, you. Look to the left at this site's main navigation area. In the second section from the top, look at the link just above "Archives." Yeah. Oh yeah. You ain't hallucinating, sweetcheeks. It's a link I like to call Labels. See, my super-advanced PHP programming skills allowed me to do what Blogger could not: I, using only my own two hands and my highly-developed brain, CREATED A PAGE THAT CONTAINS LINKS TO ALL OF THE LABELS FOR MY POSTS. Uh-huh. That's right. Try not to faint.

Fools Play Funtimes

2008-04-02T22:56:00.000-07:00

This Saturday, April 5th 2008, is Fools Play's 15th Anniversary! We're having a big 15th Anniversary Show, and to go with it you can enter our online 15th Anniversary Contest!

Also, have you met this character on Fools Play Island yet?
If not, you should go dig around the Format Forest RIGHT NOW until you do! It's seriously the craziest, coolest, and most fun quest you can undertake on all of Fools Play Island. You think you've seen it all on Fools Play Island? THINK AGAIN!

Fool's Day Round-Up

2008-04-02T14:43:00.000-07:00

Here were a couple of my favorite intarweb pranks from yesterday:

Chemical Periodicity Remains ONLY a Theory
(via jeffthefish)

The Legend of Zelda Film Trailer
(via Whedonesque)

Surprisingly, Maddox's annual April Fool's Day joke wasn't ready yesterday!

"Of the Month" April '08

2008-04-02T14:36:00.000-07:00

Link of the Month:
My Wish List
It's that time of year again: Time for you to buy things for me for my birthday! BUY THINGS FOR ME! Don't forget to sort the wish list by PRIORITY. And DO NOT buy me Mario Kart Wii (Carrie is getting that for me). Thanks in advance! I'M SHAMELESS!

DVD of the Month:
Battlestar Galactica Season 3
Here is the of-told story of my relationship with BSG: I watched most of the 1st season and enjoyed it very much. I watched the beginning of the 2nd season, but then I just kinda fell out of habit of watching it, and I kinda forgot about it. When the 3rd season premiered I thought, "I'll give it another shot." I was immediately hooked. And to my shock every single episode of Season 3 just kept getting better and better and better and... I don't know of any other single season of any other television show that had as many "Holy Sh*t" moments as BSG Season 3.

Album of the Month:
Leeni : 8 Bit Heart
Leeni is a local (Seattle-based) woman, who made the wise decision of composing the music for her latest album almost entirely using an old-school, 8-bit Nintendo Gameboy®. She also has a very pretty voice, very soothing and highly reminiscent of someone (exactly whom... I just can't put my finger on it). The songs tend to be a bit on the long side for my taste (the shortest one is more than 3:30; I like my songs in the 2:00 to 3:00 range), leaving only room for 9 on the entire album, but the Gameboy music is just plain fun and innovatively used, and the songs never grow tiresome. This album is right up my alley and I highly recommend it.