Sea Lion!

Yes, it's love.

nobody@vox.com(Andrew) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:57:50 -0400

After a good weekend of shooting under occasionally rigorous conditions, I have to say, I LOVE my new little Canon G9. I only worry that I'm gonna end up loving it tooooooo much. I have way too much money tied up in my big camera to suddenly start favoring the little dude, ha. But it's so good. It really is. I barely took a bad photo all weekend, and the videos! The videos. Oh, I love the videos. I owe you a sample video!

And yeah, I could get used to this 12.1 megapixel business. Talk about lovely wallpaper for the computer. This camera is a wallpaper machine. And I haven't even tried all the features yet! I need to figure out a scenario in which I can use the ND filter. Hmmm.

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Matt is cool.

nobody@vox.com(Andrew) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 17:50:46 -0400

I don't know if this is old news, if everyone in the world has already seen it or not, but I think this is pretty darn cool:

(Hella better video quality, which I recommend, here.)

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008)

Very, very awesome. And kind of a small (big, huge) world, isn't it?

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The Humming Meadow.

nobody@vox.com(Andrew) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 20:34:05 -0400

So, have I ever fully expressed my love for Eisley? It's funny, when I think of my absolute favorite bands and musicians, they don't always leap to mind for me, but truthfully, I think, if I had to rank my top ten all-time faves, they'd make the list. I just can't think of many bands that produce NO songs I dislike. Even R.E.M., which is probably my #1 all-time favorite, has some songs I'm not thrilled with (mostly, ahem, on albums they've produced in the last several years; I think they began to lose me with Reveal, and I haven't bought an album of theirs since then, which for me and R.E.M. is a huge deal). But Eisley, I don't know. I love every song I know by them, and I think it has to do with three things. One, they make some absolutely beautiful multi-part harmonies. Sherri DuPree and Stacy DuPree (and, I suppose, Chauntelle DuPree, too; I don't honestly know how the singing shakes down on most of the songs) sound pretty amazing together. Two, there seems to be an exceptional amount of care and effort put into the writing, arrangement, and production of each song. I'm always impressed. And three, I think the band has quite a gift for melody. Lovely stuff. So, because I'm on an Eisley kick tonight (happens once every week or two these days), here's a song I love from the Room Noises CD:

Brightly Wound

Eisley

Dude, the album art appeared! Rock on. But yeah, I love that. A lot. My favorite part comes at 1:04 into the song. One of my favorite parts of any song I can think of. I'm a sucker for that. Aaaaanyway. There you go. My gushy Eisley post! I want to see them in concert.

In other news, I seem unable to pull the trigger on a camera purchase. Not sure why.

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It's the humidi-TAY.

nobody@vox.com(Andrew) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 13:48:25 -0400

So, since they have an "embed" link at their site (I can't get it to work here, but I've tried!), I'm going to assume that AccuWeather.com won't mind me sharing this video here this way. If AccuWeather.com would like me to take this down, I'd be more than happy to do that for AccuWeather.com. Because I looove AccuWeather.com, and I wouldn't intentionally step on AccuWeather.com's toes. Soooo, here's the current Raleigh forecast from my favorite crazy weatherman, DOCTOR Jim Kosek:

Jim Kosek rocks.

Yeah, I love that. I do. I've watched his videos for five different cities, and they're all the same ... yet different. I think Jim's AccuWeather.com forecasts are fun. Crazy, but fun. So yes, once again, I love you, AccuWeather.com.

Is that enough links back to the site, AccuWeather.com? Is that a fair trade for letting me show that video? One more would be better? Okay.

AccuWeather.com.

And oh yeah, IT'S TOO HOT OUTSIDE.

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Nothing can stop a Trane.

nobody@vox.com(Andrew) — Mon, 26 May 2008 03:18:00 -0400

I should get a premium subscription to the AccuWeather.com website. If it wasn't $80 (eeek!), I might just do it. I might agree to pay $40 for a year. I'm tempted to give the free trial a go, anyway. Hmmmmm.

Yes. I am a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge weather nerd. Guilty as charged. I made a birthday list, and it's filled with swanky weather stations. I have a small weather thing that gives me indoor and outdoor temperatures and humidity and predicts upcoming weather trends, but I want MORE. I want an anemometer and a digital rain gauge! Especially an anemometer. I want that bad. Weather nerd, me, yes.

(The title comes from the commercial I've now seen a billion times, since in plays before every video at that website. If I had a premium account, no ads! Ha.)

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Your local forecast.

nobody@vox.com(Andrew) — Sat, 24 May 2008 20:24:46 -0400

AccuWeather.com is my single favorite website. I mean it. I love it. I'm a big weather nerd to begin with, but that site just rocks my world. I keep finding new stuff to love. At first, I was just kinda watching the little twice-daily weather videos. But after a while, ooh, I started watching the little video blogs the meteorologists put together, and the little info videos, which I quite enjoy. And now I have happy little weather nerd crushes on both Karah Donovan and Kate Bilo, and then there's Jim Kosek. Jim Kosek, in case you haven't seen one of his videos, is ... well, you just plain ol' need to see this to understand:

Weatherman Gone Wild

Yeah, like the guy says in that video, I imagine you either love him or hate him, but yeah. I like him. And he really does do pretty much every video that way. He does Raleigh, too, so hey, I get my forecast from him some days! Well, some days he's so out there that it undermines the forecast and I get very little information from his videos, but still. It's entertaining. Last week, he spent a whole video with only his head visible, and he appeared to be taking a nap. It's a tad insane.

Did I mention Kate Bilo and Karah Donovan? Did I? Crush, crush. Ha.

I should have just gone into meteorology like I once briefly considered. It would have been a bit of a dream job. That or chasing tornadoes. But if I HAD, I'd almost certainly be married by now, because I like girls who know weather way, way too much. Nothing's cooler than a weather nerd girl. Nothing.

But I digress. AccuWeather.com. Awesome sauce.

(Thanks to Sara for the awesome sauce.)

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Blasphemy!

nobody@vox.com(Andrew) — Fri, 23 May 2008 22:41:48 -0400

I think I have pretty good taste in movies. I really do. I can be a wee bit of a film snob, in fact. So that makes what I have to say here rather difficult for me. Deep breath. Okay. Here we go.

I've been watching Raiders of the Lost Ark this week, in anticipation of seeing the new Indiana Jones flick. Because believe it or not, I never have seen Raiders. I've never seen ANY Indiana Jones movie! How insane is that? I see a LOT of movies. I think I'm at least reasonably knowledgeable when it comes to movies. I've certainly seen more new movies than older ones, but I generally catch the older movies that are notable. Which, of course, the Indiana Jones movies are. I can't explain how I managed to miss those movies. It's been bugging me. So yeah, I'm watching Raiders of the Lost Ark. I'm about, I'd guess, 80% of the way through. But when I woke up this morning, the ol' family was going to the new movie. So, I went along. I'll probably watch the end of Raiders tonight.

Now, I know that Raiders of the Lost Ark is one of the most beloved of all movies. Ever. I know that. I know! But ... and here's where it gets hard ... I kinda think it's just ... okay. I think it's a fun movie. I think it's entertaining. I like it. But I really don't loooove it. I expected to just fall head over heels in love with it. But no. I don't feel that way. As fun as it is, that's not enough for me. I find myself paying far too much attention as I watch it to the little things I don't like. Little things that aren't really so little. Like, you know, the stilted dialogue. I get it, this is an homage to B-movies, to old serials. I see that. I appreciate that. The dialogue is still not great (it reeks of George Lucas). I find the score to be enormously intrusive and annoying. Yeah, that Indy theme is classic. But it's overused, and the music in general is overdone. I find the character development to be pretty iffy. Particularly when it comes to the Karen Allen character, Marion. I'd say Mr. Spielberg and Mr. Lucas and Mr. Kasdan had certain issues when it came to developing female characters back then. And speaking of Ms. Allen, I kinda don't think her performance was all that strong. And finally, I don't think this is a movie that holds up all that well. I wonder if my issues with the film have something to do with the fact that I'm looking at it for the first time in 2008. I've seen countless movies that no doubt borrow freely from Raiders of the Lost Ark, and maybe the idea that I've seen so much of this before, that it's not fresh to me like it would have been in 1981, maybe that's a big problem with me seeing it now. I feel like this is one blasphemous paragraph. I can't help it. I LIKE the movie. In parts, I like it a lot. But #17 on the top 250 at imdb.com? I don't see that. What was it, #60 on the AFI top 100 of all time? Hmm. I think I've seen 100 better movies. 200. Did I say that I like the movie? I do! And maybe something will happen in the last 20 minutes that I haven't seen that'll make me come back here and take all of this back. But I doubt it. I DO like the movie, though. This is just me feeling like this is a movie that isn't quite living up to the hype, that's all.

So that brings me to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It's interesting to me just how similar my feelings were today to the feelings I've had while watching Raiders of the Lost Ark. In both cases, I love the first hour or so. And in both cases, I think things lose momentum the longer the films go on. I think Crystal Skull is a very good action/comedy. I do. It's paced well, it has what's good about Raiders, and it does justice, I think, to a couple of the original characters. Harrison Ford is great. No one else has aged so well. It's an impressive looking film. I think the writing was pretty decent, actually. I didn't have as many issues with dialogue, in fact, as I did with Raiders. But STILL. I think it's very good, not great. For one thing (this could be a spoiler, so watch out!), Steven Speilberg and his alien obsession is getting a little tired. I found that aspect of the movie to be pretty, oh, what's the word? Lame? Kinda. And once again, I get that these movies are an homage to B-movies! But how many times can one suspend disbelief? The plot holes and improbabilities (impossibilities) get to be a bit much. A guy repeatedly missing his mark when shooting a gun is one thing. Four guys with machine guns firing at someone ten feet away and never even coming close? Hmm. So yeah, I liked the movie. I did. I would recommend it, even. But ... okay, here's where it gets REALLY BLASPHEMOUS. I promise, I have good taste in movies! I do! But here we go...

I kinda sorta (don't hate me!) like the National Treasure movies more than either of the Indiana Jones films I'm discussing. Now, am I saying National Treasure, parts one or two, are GREAT films? No. They're dorky and quite far-fetched. And I think they're fun, just like I think the Indiana Jones movies are fun. But for me, I just kinda like 'em both more. Particularly the second one. I find the fun parts to be a little more fun. I think the chemistry among the actors is better. I find the general plot to be more interesting. Now, I fully understand and accept that I'm THE only person alive who feels this way. Or, at the very least, I'm the only one admitting it. It's just an opinion. But I kinda want to see National Treasure 2 again. I have no particular desire to see Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull again. I DO, however, want to see Temple of Doom and Last Crusade. Definitely. And I love Harrison Ford. He obviously kicks Nicolas Cage's ass.

So. There. I said it. Whew. It was hard to get that out there. But I feel better now. Ha.

Iron Man kicked ass, though. Oooh.

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Go, Cook, go!

nobody@vox.com(Andrew) — Wed, 21 May 2008 16:05:09 -0400

So after listening to David Cook's cover of U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" a few more times after last night's American Idol, I'm thinking I like that as much as anything he's done all season. I think it's my favorite song of his since "Hello," which is saying a lot (because that performance was amazing, and was certainly the song that convinced me of David's talent). I think I like "Looking For" equally as much. I really do. And watching him sing it, it makes it even better. The (moronicasinineridiculous) judges like to talk about, you know, star-making moments and crap, and for me? Watching David Cook completely own that audience during that performance, it was pretty great. He looked like a veteran up there. By comparison, David Archuleta, to me, wasn't even close. The kid can sing. He truly can. I won't deny that he's a fine singer. But he's just not as good as David Cook in any number of ways. He's not as creative, his voice isn't as powerful, he's not as good of a performer, he's not as versatile, and he's just plain ol' dull. I suspect that may be just what most Idol voters want. He's a safe, boring choice. But I don't see any way that David Cook won't be the more successful artist in five years. If we're talking about David Archuleta in 2013, I'll be shocked. I won't be surprised if we're still hearing Mr. Cook on the radio then. On the radio we'll be listening to in our homes, because gas will be $17 a gallon then, and we still won't have cars fueled by anything other than gas, and no one will be able to afford to listen to the radio while driving around. But I digress.

Yeah, I expect Little David to win tonight, but David Cook's the best this season. One of the best in any season. He's helped (with Brooke) restore my faith (or establish a little faith) in this show. If he wins, it's extremely well-deserved. I hope it happens. And not just because he's a Royals fan (though that, of course, proves his awesomeness more than anything else, ha).

(Also, I think "Dream Big" wasn't bad at all last night. I liked it. I admit it. And oh yeah, the judges SUCKED last night, did I say that? They did. Blech.)

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Magazine Overload.

nobody@vox.com(Andrew) — Sat, 10 May 2008 11:54:41 -0400

I'm up to my eyeballs in magazines. I've always subscribed to a couple of magazines (Entertainment Weekly and Esquire are the two I pay for at the moment), but last fall I received a notice from United Airlines that I was about to lose a chunk of frequent flier miles, and they said I could redeem them for magazines before they expired. So, I did. I went from receiving two magazines, one weekly, one monthly, to receiving SEVEN. And I'm here to tell you, that's too many.

I think I've discovered that, if you're gonna get that many magazines, you need to stick to ones that can be read in short bursts. The one that gives me the most trouble these days (that is, the one that takes longest to get through, thus making my enormous pile of unread magazines grow ever higher) is The Atlantic. This is not a magazine you skim. It's serious, it's well-written, it's in-depth. And it makes me a little crazy as I sit there reading fifteen-page articles about topics I don't particularly care about. Still, I try to read these magazines cover-to-cover. I've also been getting Conde Nast Traveler (I had a limited array of titles to choose from when United contacted me, and I went for a broad range of topics), which is a good magazine, but HUGE. It's like getting a little encyclopedia in the mail each month. That one takes forever to get through, too, but for different reasons. It's because it usually does have articles I want to read, but wow, so many pages. Wired Magazine is pretty great, actually. I enjoy it quite a lot. But again, it's semi-thick, and it just takes a long time to do it justice. I could see myself subscribing to it with my own money someday, though. The fourth magazine I've been getting for "free" is some random golf magazine. I really, really like golf. I used to play multiple times a week. I got to the point where I was even fairly decent. Not great by any means, but you know, I shot fairly regularly in the 80's, at least. With a little work, I could have been actually pretty good, I imagine. I shot 1 over par for nine holes on at least one occasion. But yeah, now I haven't played in two years, I guess. Which is too bad. I miss it sometimes. And I have nice golf clubs! So I've been getting that magazine. It's not bad. I've rarely known so much about new courses opening in the western part of Scotland, I must say. And that one takes very little time to get through. And finally, I've been receiving Blender. I can't decide what I think of it. This is my second free subscription to that magazine (the first was really free; not sure who sent it to me or why), and yeah, it was good enough, apparently, for me to sign up a second time. Half of it kinda sucks, because I honestly couldn't possibly care less about some of the musicians they profile. But I have found some good songs because of them, and there's always something useful there. And it takes NO time to "read." Very little reading involved. And they do profile people I like sometimes. Like, in the issue I've been looking at today, they ask Ingrid Michaelson (who yes, I do like) some questions to find out if she "rocks" or not. They do this each issue with someone new. The questions are like, "have you ever trashed a hotel room?" Or "do you have a stripper pole in your house?" Which are dorky questions in general, and they suck if you're talking to, you know, 50 Cent, but ask those questions to Ingrid Michaelson, and they become kinda fun. She likes to "tidy up" hotel rooms when she leaves instead, she says. And she lives with her parents. So no pole. I don't know, I enjoyed that, ha. And that kinda sums up what I do like about Blender. It's not at all mentally taxing (unlike the articles I read in The Atlantic about the global clash of Islam and Christiantity), and some of it's dumb fun. So, yeah.

I've already found two songs today that I rather love thanks to Blender, one directly, one indirectly. It makes me think that, if I could just corral a couple more (at least a dozen more), I might be able to whip up a mix CD. I haven't done that in a while! Hmmmmm. And if I do that, Blender will totally prove worth all that money I spent on it (ha, haaaa).

So yeah, my advice with magazines is, don't get seven at a time. It's fun getting them in the mail, less fun when you end up with a (no exaggeration) two-and-a-half foot stack of unread mags in your closet. And if you do get seven magazines, make them mostly monthlies. And fluffy. Because it's gonna take you a while to get through that Atlantic article about asteroids hurtling toward the planet. You'll be a better person for reading it, but you may be happier reading something fluffy about Taylor Swift or the best way to see Baja on a budget. Or maybe that's just me.

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I bet you think this song is about you.

nobody@vox.com(Andrew) — Wed, 07 May 2008 14:25:46 -0400

I think it says a lot about how I feel about American Idol this season that, the day after watching David, David, Syesha and Jason perform as the top 4, I just spent fifteen minutes watching Brooke White talk to EW.com, and I spent another few minutes last night watching her talk to Carly Simon on Fox News (which was so awesome, and soooo aww-worthy; I loved that!). I think, in some ways, a good half, maybe two-thirds of my enthusiasm for this season died with Brooke's departure last week. She was THE one I wanted to win. And YET, much as I feel like seeing someone like Noelle leave early on The Bachelor is a really, really good thing for Noelle (because "winning" that show is ... not usually such a great thing), I feel like Brooke being knocked out when she was was probably a very good thing for her, too. There's more of a chance this way that she'll get to record her own kind of album without the Idol machine meddling and forcing her into some kind of watery pop radio slot. This way, perhaps she'll get to do something really cool and, yes, Carly Simon-y or Carole King-y, which is who she is. It's what she ought to be doing. She's great at that kind of music. BUT, still, not having her around this week is a bummer. I do really like David Cook. Not as much as I liked Brooke, but he's really, really good. He'll be a hit on the radio. I have no doubt. He's inventive. His "Baba O'Riley" was too short, but so good last night. And it seems he may be a Royals fan, which is awesome! Hee. The other David, eh. I think he's a nice kid, and he's a fine singer, but he just sings every song exactly the same, and it's just not interesting to me. Syesha is a better performer than I realized, and she can certainly sing, but I can't really get excited about her, either. She's like the one throwback idol this season, singing the kind of stuff we usually hear on the show (not my kind of music). So while she's fine, again, eh. I don't know. And I've liked Jason since I first saw him, but the last two weeks, I've finally lost interest. I've begun to feel annoyed by him. I mean, I really, really did like him once. His "Hallelujah" was great. His "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," not bad at all. But now he's phoning it in, I don't think he cares, the effort is lacking, and when I think of how Brooke or Michael Johns or Kristy Lee Cook or any number of other departed idols would have REALLY given it their all had they made it to the top 4, yeah, Jason's piddly twee crap just starts to bug. So yep, this was all about Brooke for me, and it's just not the same now. Oh, well. Go David Cook! If he were to go home (I don't think he will), I don't know if I could keep watching.

I do think it's amazing that someone who sings like Brooke (I loooooove her voice, everything about it) made it this far on American Idol. I'll take Carly Simon any day of the week over Whitney Houston and Celine Dion.

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