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An evening with TSO

November 15, 2008 at 12:17am by windracer

For my birthday last month, my younger siblings got me tickets to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert here in Tampa tonight.

If you listen to any Christmas radio, you’ve probably heard TSO standards like “Christmas Eve/Sarajevo” or “Wizards in Winter.” In fact, until tonight those were the only two songs by the group I had on my iPod. If you haven’t heard, or heard of, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, think Christmas music in the rock-opera style and you should have a good idea of what TSO is all about.

Not only was the music and singing fantastic, the light show and pyrotechnics were amazing. It was also cool to see the wide range of people at the show: couples, families, and folks of all ages. In fact, the two guys sitting next to me, drinking some beers and “woo!”ing during all the good parts looked like they belonged at the hockey game instead of a concert, but were having a great time like everyone else. You never would have pegged them as TSO fans if you ran into them on the street.

Overall, it was a cool experience and a nice way to start the upcoming holiday season. Time to hit up the Amazon MP3 store for some more tracks for the Christmas playlist!

What do you think, sirs?

November 11, 2008 at 7:12pm by windracer

I found this New York Times article via slashdot … “Mystery Science Theater 3000” turns 20 this month!

MST3k premiered on Thanksgiving Day 1988 on KTMA in Minnesota. It was eventually picked up by Comedy Central where I discovered it as a sophomore in college in 1992 (back when Jon Stewart was still on “Short Attention Span Theater“). I remember having a group of friends come down to visit one weekend for KingCon that summer and telling them “guys, you have to see this show.” We were hooked (and their wives probably still hate me for introducing them to it).

MST3k was a Saturday night staple during my college years:

I recall setting up the VCR to record the Turkey Day marathons and asking my roommate who was staying at school over break to change the tapes every 6 hours (man, TiVo would have made that soooo much easier!).
I remember watching Joel’s last episode, and Mike’s first one.
I would occasionally post in alt.tv.mst3k (that’s on Usenet for you younger folks ;-)).
I remember worrying when Comedy Central dropped the show (but then SciFi picked it up).
I wrote an alternate version of the lyrics to the opening theme (who hadn’t, back then?).

And it’s still a (small) part of my life today:

I have an unopened copy of “Manos: The Hands of Fate” on VHS (Torgo!).
I’m the proud owner of a copy of “The Amazing Colossal Episode Guide” (autographed by the Brains)
I might even still have old copies of the MST3k fan club newsletters laying about.

The original Brains now run “Cinematic Titanic.” I’ve purchased, downloaded, and watched the first two episodes and they are really great … reminds me of old times with friends on Saturday nights.

Keep circulating those tapes …

Take On Me, the literal version

October 8, 2008 at 7:30pm by windracer

a-Ha’s “Take On Me” was a groundbreaking music video. I still remember seeing it for the first time on MTV at my grandmother’s house back in the 80s (we didn’t have cable at home). Here’s a hilarious version of it that explains what’s really going on. Pipe wrench fight!

Finally got to use my circular saw

September 23, 2008 at 9:18pm by windracer

The day before Hurricane Charley hit back in 2004, I cut plywood sheets to protect all of our windows using my tiny jigsaw (which is all I had at the time), and it took forever.

But now that our new impact-resistant hurricane windows are in (partially paid for by the state of Florida thanks to the My Safe Florida Home project), we no longer need them! This:

has been replaced by this:

The boards have been just sitting in the shed (and garage) taking up space and providing a haven for hundreds of cockroaches, ants, and other creepy-crawlies (shudder). Over the weekend, we cleaned out the shed (in preparation for getting rid of it altogether) and moved all of the wood (after I fumigated to kill the insect hordes) into the garage.

After the 2004 hurricane season I purchased a 7″ circular saw, figuring I would need it at some point when it was time to replace the plywood, not wanting to have to use the jigsaw again. Luckily, I never had the need to use the new saw … until tonight when I started cutting up those old plywood sheets for the trash. Wow, it’s like cutting butter … and kinda fun! 🙂

Strange sightings on my commute home

September 2, 2008 at 9:45pm by windracer

I saw two really odd things on my drive home from work this evening.

First, on the exit ramp from the highway, I was behind an old lady in her late 70s/early 80s driving a late model Lincoln Continental with a license plate frame that read: “Mailmen do it first class.” I wondered if she realized what that means.

Then on the last stretch of road before my neighborhood, I looked in my review mirror and discovered that the guy behind me in a Jeep Cherokee was wearing full mime makeup! Yup, white face, exaggerated smile with the dots in the corners, etc. It really freaked me out … it looked like he had just come from a bank heist or something. You don’t usually see mimes driving motorized vehicles.

Attention to detail

August 26, 2008 at 7:56pm by windracer

I consider myself to be very detail-oriented, so it bugs me when I run into examples of where it’s obvious no one else is paying attention to the little things.

Take this receipt from today’s lunch at Subway for example:

Huh? Happy Holidays!? Happy New Year!? It’s August! No one working at this Subway (like the manager) has noticed this? For the past 8 months?

Ok, I can’t completely fault the employees of my local Subway. I must admit that I’ve gone there quite a few times this year and this is the first time I noticed (in my defense, though, I really only glance at the receipt to check the points balance on my Subway card).

I have a (non-technical) colleague at work who is fond of the following phrase when he’s telling me how I should solve a programming problem: “C’mon, it’s just a simple IF statement.” Now I don’t know a lot of about POS systems (point-of-sale, not the other meaning for POS) but in this case I think a simple IF statement would have worked. If the current date is greater than or equal to, say, January 15, don’t print that message anymore!

Sheesh.

What is it about this shirt?

August 16, 2008 at 9:27pm by windracer

Last month when we were on vacation, I bought this t-shirt at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland. Out of all the other shirts in the gift shop, I thought this one was the coolest: it was simple, had no writing (except for the small Rock Hall logo on the back), and just looked sweet. It also helped that it was subtle: the younger people I was with had no idea what the “symbol” was … they thought it was just a cool logo.

I’ve worn the shirt a couple of times since I bought it and every time, at least one person comes up to me to comment on it.

One lady thought it was the disc used in toy guns (like this one, I guess?). One person thought it was a stylized bio-hazard symbol. Most older folks know what it is, though, and just say what a cool shirt it is. I had two people approach me about it just today while grocery shopping!

I have a lot of other t-shirts, but this is the only one that seems to inspire complete strangers to walk up to me and talk about it.

Oh, and if you still don’t know what it is … look here and search the page for “snap-in.”