Is there something going on this Sunday?

I'm looking forward to the roads being wide open when driving back from Indy Sunday. I wish I could get more excited about football..

WGN Radio offers Blago afternoon slot.

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2009/01/26/chicago-radio-station-offers-blagojevich-a-show-of-his-own/

I've heard Blago plenty of times on Sports Central, and he's just not that great unless he's talking about himself.

It's fun to stay at the..

Finally started a structured exercise program at the Y. I'm scheduled to be in 3 times a week and they've got me set up in the tracking software that integrates with the machines. In terms of difficulty of the assigned workouts to start things, they're a bit under my level. The important part is just getting in there 3 times a week and making a habit of it.

It'll be a month until they start adding anything but cardio to the workout assignments, but hopefully I can break my 40 pushup barrier before then. I've hit 42, but I have to do them fast and they kill me. We'll see how it goes with me doing them mornings and evenings.

I think it's time to get back up to my 100 situp benchmark again. Not that I'm having back problems anymore, but it couldn't hurt.

Also, what if I need to move? I need all the muscle I can get for all this crap.

Blah Blah Blago

What exactly does Blagojevich hope will come of his nonsense media circus? Is he thinking that there will be some groundswell uprising of the people in this country that will lynch those impeaching him? There's no possible realistic outcome from all of these appearances in lieu of actually showing up at his impeachment.

The word 'politics' is derived from the word 'poly', meaning 'many', and the word 'ticks', meaning 'blood sucking parasites'.
- Larry Hardiman

I'm thirty years old, but I read at the thirty-four-year-old level.
- Dana Carvey

Very little is known of the Canadian country since it is rarely visited by anyone but the Queen and illiterate sport fishermen.
- P. J. O'Rourke

I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, It's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, And that enables you to laugh at life's realities.
- Dr. Seuss

Ultimate X-Men Vol 19:Apocalypse

Dear god this is horrid. I think I'm officially buying no more Ultimate X-Men. I love Kirkman's other stuff, but there's just too many characters, not enough interesting things happening, and I kind of hate everybody.

Testing data flow. Electrons launching. All systems go.

A little learning is a dangerous thing but a lot of ignorance is just as bad.
- Bob Edwards

Full dance card

Tutoring, date night, computer house calls, trainer meetings. I still feel like I'm not doing very much, though. Back to school?

The Walking Dead Vol 9 - Here We Remain

Back to the slow burn. This book is mostly an endcap to the first 8 volumes with Rick bonding with his son and dealing with phone conversations with his dead wife. Some characters are regathered, then set in motion for what I assume is the next super arc. If you read this series, you're safe waiting on buying this until Vol 10 comes out and doing it altogether.

The post to keep folks away.

So I pushed my high score up to 42 pushups. Damn if it doesn't get hard past 30. Most of the time I just stop at 30 so I don't cry afterwards for being a little girly man.

I flipped on the new Xbox when I got home from work and was treated to having footage of all the high points of the inauguration instantly available. Even the 18 minute rock star speech. I don't know who can bitch about Obama after the direction he laid out there.

I'm really falling in love with the Xbox Live Arcade. Physical media is so passe! My ideal is becoming reality - just laying there on the couch and not having to fiddle with discs if I want to become a gaming grazer. I can move from area to area - a little puzzle here, a little shooter here, some freakin Uno, jump over to Netflix to browse through my queue and watch a few minutes of something. If only I could teach my cat that it's ok to actually lay on me while I'm on the couch. He will learn.

Nothing insightful.

I don't have anything insightful to say about tomorrow. I just know that there's a magical feeling in the air with the changing of the guard. I don't care if Obama fucks up. At least he'll be somebody with a rational stated position on whatever happens and you know he's actually *thinking* about it.

All science is either physics or stamp collecting.
- Ernest Rutherford

New Year's Resolution Updates

Still having trouble breaking through on the pushups. Am staying in the 30-40 range. Need to start doing it spread around the day.

No McDonalds is holding steady. I got it once on the weekend and it was a nice breakfast treat. I may have lost a few pounds from this already.

I've got some tab printouts for the harmonica from harptabs.com. I also picked up an inexpensive 10 hole blues harmonica. I've almost got When The Saints Go Marching in down, but I feel guilty practicing at home. It seems that the harmonica is a natural enemy of felines.

No progress on other resolutions aside from limiting video games well. The temptation is there, but my quotas are sticking.

Today's Twitter output so far.

It solves everything if I crosspost, right?

negman Fun fact: Blankets are too complicated. about 1 hour ago from web

negman Fun fact:Early model Tandy computers from Radio Shack had edible CPUs. In fact, they are still edible to this day. about 1 hour ago from web

negman Funfact:If moving your house, put the desired destination as the return address, drop in mail, and it will be returned for insuff postage. about 2 hours ago from web

negman Fun fact:Used motor oil is an excellent fertilizer. about 2 hours ago from web

negman Fun fact:They Might Be Giants are not, in fact, giants. about 2 hours ago from web

negman We have declared war on Russia. Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles were launched 15 minutes ago. about 3 hours ago from web

negman Best winter storm of the year. Little enough that I could pull out no problem. Enough that it plugged the asshole lane. about 3 hours ago from web

Bloggity blog blog

So, somehow I've gone from nothing to writing this blog, a diablog with my wife, a blog that tracks my comic pull lists, and a twitter feed. As far as I can tell, the only person reading this one is my brother, my wife reads the second, nobody has a reason to look at the third, and nobody follows me on twitter. Is this unhealthy or should I continue enjoying leaving my little trail of breadcrumbs?

Discuss amongst myself.

It's raining man OR The man who fell to earth.

So I managed to make it to the top of Agency Tower in Crackdown last night, which was exciting. The problem was that, in trying to figure out the best jumping off point for the dive into the bay, I slipped and took the very long fall to my untimely doom. Sadness! Perhaps I will try again tonight. How many random people can I kill dropping grenades from a mile high?

bands to check

(15:07:12) flansclone: Cloud Cult - The Meaning of 8 is a pretty solid album
(15:08:54) flansclone: Deer Tick - War Elephant is something I mean to listen to more, caught me on the first few playthroughs.
(15:09:03) flansclone: Bishop Allen is a great band if you've never listened to them.

Crackdown mini-review.

It's like Pac-Man with guns, cars, and you can kick the ghosts off buildings.

You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.
- Jack London

Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday.
- Don Marquis

New Years Resolutions

No more McDonalds breakfast on weekdays.
Be able to do 100 pushups - can do 40 now.
Learn to play 5 songs on the harmonica.
Write a short story.
Paint a minature.
Get insurance licensing.
Gaming on weekends plus 1 weeknight unless travelling on weekend. Then 2 weeknights.
Learn to make chili.
Be less anti-social at work.

Enforced obsolescence.

Due to assorted government programs the government has forced a stimulus plan by obsoleting analog TVs with no input connections, used baby clothes, and domestically produced small run toys. The TVs will be useless when the analog signals stop - forcing them to be replaced. The used baby clothes will all be thrown away because stores can't afford lead testing on them with new laws - forcing parents to buy new clothes. The domestic toys can't afford to be produced because they would need to have each product tested for contaminants at prices that would unrealistically explode the bottom line. Go government!

Xbox Live Arcade - Castle Crashers

I feel that old familiar pain. The ache in my wrists from playing a button masher for too long. When I beat the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 4 player brawler solo I couldn't bend my wrists for almost a day. Turns out just an hour of Castle Crashers now will do that to me. Not sure what happened that we can't play online, but it's still pretty fun local with two players. Little cartoony knights killing ridiculous things with magic powers and swords? Sounds like a win to me. If arcades were still relevant, this game would have an extremely prominent position in one. If only..

Kittensense tingling!

It turns out that I have a part of my brain now dedicated entirely to tracking cat location, whether they're doing something bad, if they have food, and if they're trapped in a room. When you remove the cats from the vicinity that part of my brain starts sending out missing cat alerts constantly. I get a sense of panic when one doesn't come to bother me for too long. I wake up in the middle of the night realizing that I haven't been walked on or meowed at. I experience panic if I'm in the kitchen and I don't have an escort in the pantry making sure I remember where the canned food is kept. I really hope this goes away quickly, because the first night of it has left me a wreck.

For me to check out at home

http://www.dealhack.com/archives/2009/01/50_bestselling_2008_mp3_albums.html

Sooo.. I guess I like Jazz.

Good John Coltrane mp3s available cheap from Amazon today. My Favorite Things EP.