Pointless

Just making myself jealous by typing this blog entry on a MacBook.

IMPRESSIONS:

Great chiclet keyboard. Easy to type on. Keys are very giving, very fun to hit.

HORRIBLE pointer. Have always had this problem with Macs. The mouse pointer is a joke on these things. I have no idea why they are so far from sensitive. You want to click on a small spot on the screen and it just feels like you have to hunt for it more with the Mac pointer. I'm probably just crazy for noticing that, as it seems nobody ever mentions that. I certainly do.

Currently reading "Columbine" by Dave Cullen and "Deserter Country" by Robert Sandow. Both tell completely different stories, but both are equally fascinating. Also reading "Dark Tower VII" for fun. The Dark Tower stories are perfect, and I'm reading the last one extra slow so it doesn't end so soon. I like books for that. I don't have to let the stories end until I'm good and ready.

Sorry for such a long break between entries, but since this blog is basically just for me, I'm sure none of you readers, if there are any, can bring yourselves to mind.

Project!

Let’s take a minute here and talk about something that has been pawing at me for quite a while. I think the whole lot of us should re-invent the writing wheel. Let’s drop plot and setting, character development and the whole lot of it, the self-consciousness of it all and just write. Write me a story, make it flow however you want, and email it to me. I want to take a look at what all of you can do without any linear structure to bind you. I’m not talking about making modern art in a paragraph, I’m talking about making something that tells a story, but drops all the bullshit and worry, and I’ll post my work right here on this very blog once I sink my teeth into it.

We should all let it go and write something beautiful. No more worrying about how good it is, let’s just write.

elservo at gmail dot com will be waiting for submissions. I'll put up my favorites.

Easter is coming and at the movie theater that means a hell of a lot of work, with early shows to add insult to injury. My skeleton crew of four employees will have their hands full with the crowds, I am sure, and I will have to balance work with sanity as the weekend draws nearer. It is an odd balance keeping an even keel in the offseason in Ocean City, as the lack of people and things to do is enough to make most people go absolutely crazy, and there is me, who might already be a little crazy, trying desperately to grasp onto a routine or two to bring some small-town normalcy to life.

I would love to spend a day or two a week outside taking pictures, but on the eastern shore it’s windy from September to May, and it’s a biting wind that picks up and falls to pieces seemingly in an instant, always knocking you off your balance just when you think things are calming down, and so even if it isn’t what you wanted to do, you hang out in your house far more than you wish you were, listening to the breeze knock against your double-pane windows and rattle your screen door, but it’s a time when you can clear out the clutter and try to understand what your cats are doing, what their motivation possibly could be when they pointlessly paw at one another and then lay on their back when the cat they’ve been annoying pounces on them.

It’s life, even when it’s inside, but I really want to get outside and do something. I want to go swimming in the ocean, catch a flounder, take a walk, anything.

But yeah, Easter is coming. Not much of a holy day to me, but there is still something nice about Easter Sunday. I like the taste of ham on pretty much anything, so give me some bread and mayo and let me at it. Some hard-boiled eggs too and maybe some Tater Tots. Haven’t had Tater Tots in a while. Random paragraph. Apologies all around.

So enjoy your Easter everyone, and think of me when you wake up with nothing to do on Sunday. Put a slice of ham in the mail and send it my way, I’ve got the mayo.

So long Netflix, you will be missed.

I have decided to see how my life functions without Netflix for a while. Cancelled my account after watching countless movies thanks to its service, and so far, I've been able to get by without it. Lots of ways to watch movies these days, and with me working so much, it's nice to have more things to do than slog through my latest stack of DVD's that arrive in the mail. It sucks though because I just added a bunch of friends and was having a lot of fun comparing my reviews to theirs, but this was long in coming, and I finally pulled the trigger right as the new billing cycle was coming up.


I don't have much more to speak of at the moment. My visit from my brother, his wife, and their son Mark (my nephew!) has just ended, and I'll put some pictures of the visit up as soon as I get the chance. He liked to take my glasses off and stick the stems in his mouth. I'm okay with that as I like to do that too. I absolutely adore the little guy. Wish he could stay seven months old forever.

And I like Kyle Korver.

I guess Kyle is attempting to take a charge, or he just saw a mouse on the baseline and freaked out. Regardless of the truth, check out the guns! Don't know if I like the huge arms or the black socks better, though. Gotta play better defense, though. You look like me out there.

Been loving Call of Duty 4 and its FAB multiplayer via Xbox Live. I mean sure, it's great fun playing multiplayer with a realistic FPS, but COD4 got it perfect with its reward system based on how well you play, and for how long. When you play your first multiplayer match, you're at an extreme disadvantage against the people you're playing against because you have all the basic weapons and none of the add-ons, but slowly you level up according to the number of kills you get and suddenly the game gets interesting. If you like to use a certain type of machine gun, the game reqards you for sticking with it by saying "kill 25 people with it and yo uget a nifty laser sight!" and dammit, you want that laser sight. Later on, the game goes "oh hey, you want a SCOPE for that badboy?" and you're all "HELL YEAH I WANT A SCOPE FOR THIS GIANT MACHINE GUN" and the game is all "KILL 75 PEOPLE THEN!" and you're all "OK QUIT SCREAMING AT ME!!!"

That is Call of Duty 4. The single player option is a lot of fun too, but I just can't get over how the multiplayer keeps you playing until the wee hours in order to get all the fun bonuses that turn out to be truly helpful when it comes to pwning all those little kids around the country that play far more than you do because they have no jobs to worry about while you, in fact, do.


You GOTS to check out pandora.com if you like music and have been having trouble finding new stuff to listen to. You type in a band you like, and up pops a bunch of streaming music with similar sonic properties. Excellent for those times when you're cleaning house and need some noise on in the background, but be sure to have a notepad file open while the music is playing so you can write down the bands they play that you dig. Thanks Crystal for pointing me toward this, as it has become my latest addiction.

Watch this movie. Been watching a lot of DVD's lately and none of them have grabbed me like this one did.

Opened up the theater today and there were a number of things to get done, and even though I tried to take my time, I had it all completed by 5:30. Good times. I think I even got a little sweaty, so apparently I did something.

Hey Mercedes - Every Night Fire Works

Now I could pound on the keys so hard and
Make the mallets slap the strings and
Pump the pedals till I'm breathless and
Sing off key and
Wouldn't that be just like me?

I'm not sure exactly when it became clear to me that my favorite album of all time was "Every Night Fire Works" by Hey Mercedes, but as I sit here in my little computer cove with my Bose noise cancellers slapped over my ears, I can't say that there is any other album that I love nearly as much as this one.

As I have tried to deny over the years, there simply isn't another album with such a gorgeous wall of sound whose every note strikes some kind of chord with me. Could it be the drumming that I can't escape as being some of the best drumming on any rock album of this new century? Is that just my opinion? Am I totally alone in that opinion? Someone tell me.

And as for why this album lives on so strongly to me, it must be because I have no real memories of enjoying it with friends. This album doesn't really get a lot of play unless I've got my cans on while trying to put some good words into my word processor. I don't have any memories of sitting with a buddy under the stars at the lake, talking about how amazing Hey Mercedes is. I recall talking that way about the first Pearl Jam album, but now when I listen to that album all I can think about is the fact that we were probably all really stoned and none of us truly enjoyed that album at all. None of my closest friends from way back in the day have ever even heard of Hey Mercedes, and I guess that kind of makes this album all mine. Sure, my friends that used to live here in Ocean City had a lot of love for Hey Mercedes, or at least pretended to for my sake, but what I've realized in retrospect is that I love this album because I love it. There is really nothing that affected my opinion of it. I bought it at the music store because it had a blue cover, and I'm a sucker for the color blue. It made me think of Texas, where the sky's so big you fear you'll never see it all even if you spent every hour of every day looking up at it. Odd, I know.

But then I heard "Eleven To Your Seven." I believe it's the finest example of what makes me like music, and if any of you have any desire to understand me better, listen to it. Sometimes a word, a book, a poem, a movie, or a song encapsulates someone's psyche because it contains everything that a person loves or hates, or it contains everything that a person happens to be. This song is jangly and nervous, it bites it's nails, it doesn't settle on anything, it keeps looking around for something, it loses its way, it comes back, it says some silly shit, and then it's gone.

But I could be handsome
If you'd only pull the curtain
And is it so tragic
To think that we never happened.
But how far can you drive
Before you realize
Your head will never be the same again.

Please Watch Friday Night Lights

I need to stress something here on this blog, and I'm going to keep it short and sweet.


WATCH FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS.

The wife and I just tore through season one, and it's another Freaks and Geeks. It's a critically praised NBC show that is going to be cancelled if more people don't tune in.

And you seriously need to tune in. It is an absolutely incredible show, and I barely ever have anything good to say about television. Sure, I watch a lot, but barely anything sticks. TV is usually just noise for me, but man, Friday Night Lights is something altogether amazing that I just can't ignore.

So please watch it, and if you don't wanna listen to me yack about it, here's a professional writer (as well as a good friend of one Chuck Klosterman, who also loves the show) that is pleading with all of you to save it.

Now go watch some episodes. They're all right there in the link. You can thank me later.