L4D2: Acquired.

Steam Name: acelin

bleary, bloodshot eyes
good sleep is beyond the reach
of my fingertips

© Ryan Nutick 2009
Cross posted to PokingBadgers.com

Some Star Wars lulz for the geek parents that need a little pick me up. There's some light profanity:

http://www.collegehumor.com/article:1794889

The following will only make sense if you play Team Fortress 2:

RP in COV was pretty dead tonight. Couldn't make headway, so I fired up some Team Fortress 2.

I went to my favourite 32-player Lotus-clan server... and our team got our asses handed to us repeatedly.

Fortunately, we're a bunch of good-humoured guys and gals...so we decided to have some fun with the other team.

For instance, everyone (/everyone) took a heavy, stayed in the spawn, and kept triggering the 'sandvich' power on a payload map, and inviting the BLU team to our "luncheon".

Or the all-medic rush.

Or the all-cloaked spy rush.

Didn't win any more maps, but we caused some of the other team to ragequit...so it was a moral victory. So, we've got that going for us, I guess. ;)

I just watched a bunch of videos on You Tube with my Son of Classic Sesame Street and I ended up crying remembering when I saw them at this age. Please comment if you remember this video.

I think I need to stop thinking. When I think it would appear that melancholy happens.

*sigh*

http://kjtoo.com/2009/11/23/non-sequitur-guilty-pleasures-musical-edition/

http://kjtoo.com/?p=2646

Queen is one of those guilty pleasures: a band whose music is great, but I’m embarrassed to admit that I like.

— Anonymous, during a recent conversation we had about music.

I don’t have any trouble admitting that I like Queen, personally, but I do hesitate sometimes before revealing that enjoy some other musicians and musical groups, like Ace of Base and (gasp!) Yanni. I also like enough of the music from The Backyardigans, a Nick Jr. show that my young apprentice occasionally watches, that I’ve purchased several songs from their repertoire (ostensibly for my son’s enjoyment, though I listen to them when he’s not around).

Some people consider ABBA a guilty pleasure, but so much of my childhood occurred while “Dancing Queen” and “Waterloo” were spinning on my dad’s record player that I can’t feel even the slightest bit of embarrassment about enjoying them.1

What makes a guilty pleasure? Why should I (or anyone else, for that matter) feel guilty for enjoying the music of a 70s Scandinavian pop group (or a 90s copycat of a 70s Scandinavian pop group) or a smug, over-coiffed, Greek synthesizer slinger?2

Context plays a big part; the music I’ll readily cop to enjoying depends a lot on who I’m talking to and what sort of music we’re discussing.3 Am I likely to mention that I own half a dozen Enya albums when the musical topic is metal groups? Not terribly.4 That’s not to say I’ll deny owning those Enya albums, mind you—there’s just less of a likelihood they’ll be mentioned in that context than if the genre of the moment is overdubbed, ethereal Irish New Age.5

There’s also the context of the artist or group itself. ABBA is a product of the early 1970s, and everything about ABBA—from their glam-pop sound to their stage costumes and album covers—is a testament to the time period. There are aspects of every decade in the past half-century that are mocked, from the exaggerated Nuclear Family of the 1950s to Free Love in the 1960s and Big Hair in the 1980s,6 but I don’t think any decade is shunned with such socio-fashionistic fervor as the 1970s.7

Then there are individual songs from artists or groups who might not otherwise be considered guilty pleasures. Neil Diamond’s “America” with its bombastic, unabashed patriotism; the saccharine sweetness of “Lovely, Love My Family” by The Roots (produced for another Nick Jr. show, Yo Gabba Gabba!); the sappy sentimentality of Marc Cohn’s “Silver Thunderbird”—all songs that tug at my emotions to such a degree that I often struggle to keep the tears down when I listen to them.8

What else about a genre, group, artist or song might make it a guilty pleasure? What are your personal musical guilty pleasures and why are they guilty?

1. In my memory, my father owned exactly three distinct categories of LPs: ABBA, Bill Cosby and Country & Western.
2. I don’t know that Yanni is actually smug, but he certainly comes across that way. If you’ve ever seen his Live at the Acropolis performance, you may know what I mean.
3. Peer pressure: no expiration date.
4. I may not be likely to mention that I own three Metallica albums, either, as Metallica fans seem to be divided into pre-Load fans and…me.
5. Which, admittedly, is a fairly specific genre.
6. What are the 1990s mocked for, you ask? Mostly Ace of Base and Yanni, I think.
7. Is there any musical genre more scorned than disco? I think not. Nonetheless, I do enjoy a Bee Gees tune every now and then.
8. Yes, I’m destined to turn into the sort of father who is moved to tears by long-distance telephone service advertisements on television. I’m told it’s hereditary.

http://kjtoo.com/2009/11/22/at-last-we-have-the-mighty-butterball/

http://kjtoo.com/?p=2663

“We’re going to get a turkey,” I said on the way to the grocery store last night. “Gobble gobble gobble!”

From his car seat behind me, Kyle asked, “Why did you say ‘Gobble gobble gobble’?”

“Because that’s the sound a turkey makes,” I said. “Well, a live turkey, anyway.”

“But not dead ones?” Kyle asked.

“No,” I admitted. “Not dead ones. The one we’re getting is a frozen turkey.”

“Frozen?” Kyle asked. “In carbonite?”

Anyone in the PDX area feel like being social this evening?


ETA: I have found socialness for this evening!

Here's the deal: I'm in need of a new hair color and I don't know what I want to do. I'm uber broke so it's going to be an at home job. I tend to be bad with highlighting it myself unless I want to go with a cap and crochet hook (I don't). I am going gray pretty rapidly, if I were to let it go, I'd say the front half of my head would be completely white, with the rest of it a coppery red color I've never had naturally (except for a stint in the 12th grade after I had black dye stripped out of my hair, then it was this light red/brown/coppery color for a few months.

My hair color currently is medium brown. I keep thinking I want it to be medium brown, until I have it, then I'm not thrilled. I'm wearing it really short, so coloring it any color will be fairly easy. The longest pieces are just below my ears and I wear it tucked back. I am getting the dye today (Friday) or tomorrow (Saturday) because I'm really in a bad way with it right now.

I wore it black forEVER, but I think, you know, I'm 40 now and the Snow White thing has become cloying. I can't pull it off any longer (if I ever really did). I'm not totally opposed to going back to the black however. Also, I'm not as young looking as I used to be, so I don't think I can pull off anything too harsh. I'm really trying to put together a certain look, since I'm really going to pursue my Arbonne business, so I have to look like I'm someone you trust to buy skincare/cosmetics/nutritionals from. I don't want to look ridiculous or like I'm *trying* too hard to look 30ish.

SO I really need suggestions. Most of you know me either personally or have seen enough photos of me to know what would look good. So...

HELP!!

So, I've been watching a LOT of serial Sci-Fi recently and was wondering about your favorite swear words. So, A poll!

Poll #1487623 Sci-Fi curse words
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 21

What is your personal favorite Sci-Fi curse word?

Yesterday the kids were totally rambunctious when it was nap time. They were jumping on whats left of their beds(they broke the frames a month ago so it's just mattresses now) and my daughter fell off and hit her head on the drawers. She started crying and my Son started laughing! I heard gaerfindel stop up the stairs and I thought he was really going to lay into him he was so mad. Instead he told our Son this,

"I can't believe you would laugh at your Sister like that getting hurt! I am surprised at you! I would expect this kind of behavior from a diesel but not from you. Now you think about that."

This stopped our Son in his tracks and he looked hurt by the comment. Gaerfie left and he hugged his Sister and said he doesn't want to be a diesel, he wants to be good like Thomas! They lay down for naps and fell asleep singing Weird Al songs. Just wanted to share this moment, thanks!

The word came down from on high... they want a prioritized list of 2-3 conferences I want to go to next year.

This is the first time in my career I've been asked that. I hold no great expectations that I will actually be able to GO to any of these, but its nice to be asked.

My problem is: as a UNIXy Backupy Storagey VMwarey kinda guy, I've got no idea what the hell to ask for. I hear VMworld is pretty cool, but I'd be fighting about 11 other people from my company for the chance to go.

Symantec Vision maybe? I wonder if they have something Netbackup related. Its one of my strengths after all. Wonder if EMC does something with networker/avamar.

Any ideas out there in friendslist land? Anything I should really be thinking about?

http://www.airwargame.com/eng/game/ -- New sweet-looking air sim coming out. From where? Russia.

http://pt-boats.akella.com/ -- Cool PT Boat simulator coming out. From where? Russia

http://silent-hunter.uk.ubi.com/silent-hunter-5/ -- New Silent Hunter sub sim. From where? ... ok, Romania, but still ex-soviet!

Simgames didn't die. They just moved /East/.