Hand-me-ups

With my brother moving across the country, he needed to get rid of some things. I was kind enough to take his much larger (42" or so) television and surround-sound system off his hands. It's a tough burden, but what are siblings for?
So now I've got a sweet hookup.

Coming soon: There can be only one -- I go all Highlander for a wedding. To find out if I'm wearing anything underneath that kilt, stay tuned.

Hands-on diplomacy?

Can someone explain to me what's going on with world leaders and their inappropriate signs of affection lately? First Putin's kissing some boy on the stomach and now Bush is giving hit-and-run massages to the German chancellor?!?
It's getting creepy.

I forgot to mention ...

... if you want a good book to read sometime soon, check out Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything." It's an excellent look at, well, just about everything -- the creation of the universe, the formation of our planet, the evolution of man and how we've affected the planet since we've been here. It's well worth reading.

Catch-up

Well, things look like they might be returning to a semblance of normal at work, and thus my life looks to be settling back down a bit, which I look forward to. What have I been up to the past couple of weeks or so?

I spent July Fourth at the barbecue and party of a couple of friends from 1 p.m. to 3:30 a.m. Good times.

I went up to D.C. to see "Spam-A-Lot" with my brother. I highly recommend the show if you have a chance to see it. Almost all of the funniest parts of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" with the boring parts taken out and more funny stuff thrown in. It was great.

I've seen a couple of movies -- "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," which feels about as long as its title (although I wasn't a huge fan of the first one, in the movie's defense), and "The Devil Wears Prada," which was quite funny. And I really like Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway (so cute).

Speaking of cute/hot, Kristen Bell is on the cover of the current issue of "Shape" magazine. Wowsers. Reuben told me about it and I finally saw it today at the grocery store. Wowsers.

I had to meet a job candidate I was interviewing on Monday. We were supposed to meet at 9 a.m. I woke up to the phone at 9:20. For some reason, my alarm never went off. I have no idea why, but was not a good start to the day. Although she was very gracious and we've since hired her, so it must not have put her off too much.

And just now I ran spellcheck on this blog post and accidentally kept hitting "replace," thus changing 1 p.m. to 1 pooh and 3:30 a.m. to 3:30 ahoy. Apparently, I also went to DEWY to see "Spam-A-Lot." And Kristen Bell's hotness now makes me exclaim "Washers."

Clearly, it's time to go to bed.

Hey, now, you're an All-Star

Sorry for the lack of posting lately; the next few weeks will be pretty busy, but I'll try to post some if I can. In the meantime, in honor of this week's All-Star Game, check out this very cool sports clip.

100 things about me: 41-50

41) If I find a cockroach in my apartment (hey, it happens sometimes when you live on the ground floor in warmer climates), I catch it in a small shoebox and throw it out behind my apartment building. I don't do this out of kindness or a desire to not kill cockroaches. I do it because, if I smash them, they make a freakin' awful mess.

42) I really like animal crackers. A lot.

43) Also, chocolate-covered raisins.

44) And chocolate-covered cherries, although you can't eat quite as many of those without making yourself sick.

45) I like the theory of vegetarianism, but could never do it myself. Mostly because I don't like most vegetables and would, thus, starve to death.

46) I'm a pretty fastidious recycler.

47) Although I will often go out of my way to do things that are environmentally sound, if given the choice between an air dryer and paper towels in a restroom, I will almost always choose paper towels. I don't really know why.

48) It's become a reflex for me to say "bless you" when someone sneezes.

49) Having the right showerhead is really important. Too much or too little water pressure and it can really throw your whole shower experience off, and that's just a bad way to start the day.

50) My recent escapades are not the first time I have ripped open my shirt acting like Superman. When I was in high school, I went to the national Student Congress and was giving a speech on adoption. It started -- in a very serious tone -- with something along the lines of: "This bill is very important to me because, you see, I was adopted. Luckily, I was raised by an incredibly loving couple who found me ... after my home planet of Krypton exploded." Then I ripped open my shirt and pronounced myself Super Senator, or some such thing. From that point on, everyone knew me, which was, as G.I. Joe says, half the battle. Still didn't get into the final round, though.

Supergeek

The review is up over on Gig Matrix, but this was how I went to the opening of "Superman Returns":

This looks like a job ... for me!
Originally uploaded by commonbriguy.

You can see more photos by clicking on the photo and going to Flickr. Oh, and I added the theme song to my MySpace page.

I also got called in to help at work, so it seemed only appropriate that I show up in tie and glasses, then declare that it looked like a job for Superman before ripping open my shirt to reveal the logo beneath.

I also decided it would be funny to stand in the background of the television newscast that they do from the newsroom, pretend to hear a call for help, then rip off the glasses, and tear open the shirt while running out of the room. I have no idea how much of that made it on TV, but if I get fired tomorrow, it will still have totally been worth it.

This may be a job for Superman

First of all, you'll notice the new clip -- a trailer for "Superman Returns." It opens Wednesday. I already have my tickets to see it on IMAX. I'll write a review over on Gig Matrix as soon as I can.

Things here have been busy lately. Without getting into too much detail, I'm now temporarily managing a very understaffed and overworked copy desk, and things are going to get much worse over the next month or two before they get better. I'm also doing hiring, which is an interesting first for me.

And this morning, we're getting another sewage backup at my apartment. Goody. So while I had put off looking into buying a house until things at work settle down, I'm freaking tired of this crap and may have to look sooner than I had thought. Because I have so much extra time to devote to that. Grrr...

On the bright side, I went to an Elvis Festival and the beach yesterday. However, I've discovered that you can see only so many people dressed as Elvis before it just becomes disturbing.

What would you do-ooo-ooo for an AP stylebook?

The 2006 AP stylebook has been out for a few weeks now. We got copies at work and, like the word geeks we are, pored over the changes. Because I like that new stylebook smell myself, I ordered my own copy from online. Unfortunately, it was delivered via UPS, which thinks that if it doesn't catch me once, it should keep trying later and later in the day. If I were a normal person on a normal work schedule, this would be sound reasoning.

But I'm not.

So after the three delivery attempts failed, as I knew they would, I got to go pick it up from the customer center. I called the number and found the nearest one where my package was supposedly being held. I drove out there to find that it was closed. There were directions to another customer center.

So I drove there...

... only to find that it was, in fact, at the first place I'd been to; they just didn't open until 2 p.m.

So I drove back to the first place after running a couple of other errands.

What was intended to be a 10-minute trip to pick up one package took about an hour.

I like style plenty, but this was a little ridiculous.

I can still hear you now

Random observation:
I was getting some work done on my car this afternoon and was sitting in their customer lounge. I couldn't help but notice that when the cell phones of the couple of other people in the room rang, they would answer, then get up from their chairs and -- rather than leave the room -- walk a few feet away and stand and talk, with their back to the rest of the room. I understand the urge; it feels a little more private. But I also couldn't help but laugh because, after all, we were in a room about the size of my bedroom. And they weren't talking quietly. So it's not like taking a few steps in the opposite direction suddenly prevented me from hearing their conversations.

I had to resist the urge to pretend like I suddenly couldn't see them either.

Cool clips: I am so sorry...

First, a disclaimer, this clip is in no way cool.

It is, however, funny. But only because of the total atrociousness of it. And the fact that it seems to be real.

Watch ... and be amazed.

Superhero quiz

Well, I think this was a forgone conclusion (Sorry that the coding is screwed up; I can't figure out how to fix it.) ...

Your results:
You are Superman

You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others. Superman 80% Spider-Man 60% The Flash 55% Wonder Woman 50% Robin 50% Supergirl 50% Green Lantern 50% Hulk 40% Catwoman 35% Iron Man 35% Batman 30%

Click here to take the "Which Superhero am I?" quiz...

100 things about me: 31-40

31) For most of high school, I would get up at 5 a.m. and either go to the gym or run three or five miles.

32) I always started out the run listening to "Eye of the Tiger."

33) I love that part of the run where you really hit your stride and it just feels like you're flying.

34) Despite that, I don't really like running anymore. I'm not sure why. It's hard on your body, and I just like biking and doing other things more. But I still toy with the idea of running a half-marathon or marathon one day, just to see if I could.

35) I played junior varsity tennis for two years in high school.

36) I was also on the speech and debate team. I mostly did oratory, though I dabbled in all of the other events, as well.

37) The American Legion sponsors an oratorical contest. I ended up second in the nation. The scholarship money from that and winning the various levels up to the national level paid for a very big chunk of college.

38) In college, I was the student speaker at the journalism school's graduation.

39) I still get nervous speaking in front of other people, even in small crowds.

40) When I graduated from high school, I was voted "Most likely to become governor of Colorado." Which was funny because, at the time, I hated politics.

Cool clips -- Ninja Revolution

Having just spent Saturday night playing "Karaoke Revolution," this clip seems appropriate.

I've also added an archive of past clips, in case you feel like reliving the good old days.

Aaarrrrrrrr.....

Sorry for not posting in so long, but life on the high seas has been busy and Blogger and Flickr have both been scurvy dogs and giving me trouble. I went with a group of me mates to the Blackbeard Festival this weekend. It started off kind of lame. There was a kind of boring tour of a re-creation of an old ship and a simulation pirate attack that had some interesting history, but was not nearly as exciting as you would think a pirate attack might be.

But there were a lot of people walking around dressed as pirates and soon we found the rest of the festival, which had lots of vendors selling cool pirate booty (a word we enjoyed bandying about quite a bit). So I bought a pirate hat and eye patch. Alas, there were no peg legs or parrots to be purchased. And naturally, we went to work that afternoon dressed in our pirate garb in order to intimidate the land lubbers.

Click on the picture below to see a few more piratey pictures:

A few days away

I had a few days off of work, so I decided to get out of town and go visit some friends up in D.C., which was a most excellent time. A few discussion threads and observations from my time up there:

The metro's recorded voice says, rather emphatically, "Step back from the doors." The way it says this makes me think that what it means is: "Step back, bee-yotch. You did NOT just crowd the doors." Public transportation really should have more of an attitude.

I had a lengthy conversation with Dave and Reuben about MySpace, which was sparked by Christa (the discussion, not MySpace). Besides Christa's thread on how we didn't really know anyone our age who had a MySpace account, we talked largely about how it seems like a blog, but is really the polar opposite. When blogs first came out, they were all about anonymity (still are to a large degree). MySpace seems to be about including as much information as possible, including the easiest way for pedophiles to reach you. Despite my preference for relative anonymity, I now have a MySpace profile. I needed another Web site to ignore on a consistent basis. On the bright side, I expect it to greatly enhance my cyberstalking.

A lot more people on the East Coast, and especially in D.C., are single in their late 20s and early 30s. Clearly, I'm in the wrong city.

KFC has decided that their meals would be much better if, rather than putting it in those pesky, separate boxes, they put it all together in one bowl. And added cheese.
That is gross on so many levels. I don't care what my brother or the colonel say.

100 things about me: 21-30

21) I have a Superman shirt that I bought because, obviously, I like Superman. For some reason, every time I wear it, at least one stranger will call me "Superman" and talk to me as I were, in fact, the Man of Steel. The first time it happened, it was a crazy homeless guy, so I didn't think much of it. But the same thing has happened numerous times since then. "Hey, Superman, shouldn't you be out saving the world instead of getting an oil change?" "Hey, Superman, you better be careful doing laundry. You don't want to shrink your outfit." I don't get it. I'm just wearing a shirt; it's not like I'm wearing a cape and tights, too. I wonder if something similar happens to people wearing sports jerseys...

22) I got strep throat a lot when I was little. Eventually, they said if I got it once more they would take out my tonsils. I never got it again (well, not for many years). Apparently, my immune system responds well to threats.

23) Up until third grade, I wanted to be a paleontologist ... until I found out that, in reality, it's a pretty boring job.

24) Other discarded, or at least delayed, possible careers: teacher, video game tester, psychiatrist, reporter, president, bikini inspector.

25) I'm a picky eater. Once at dinner, a group of friends decided for every letter of the alphabet they would name a food I didn't like. With the help of the waiter who made up some obscure food for a letter or two, they succeeded.

26) I'm finicky when it comes to women, too. It's the Achilles' heel of my dating life. A lot of women catch my eye, but few can hold my attention.

27) I went backpacking around Europe with some friends for a month in the fall after graduating from college.

28) On that trip, I played cards with a cute French girl on a train that was stuck for an hour or so.

29) I did not make as much of an effort as I should have to hang out with a cute Dutch girl.

30) I did dance and make out with a really drunk older French girl at a jazz club. It was her idea, not mine -- mostly because we were right in front of her father.

It's aliiiiive!!!

I'm going to try a little experiment and see what havoc my monster can wreak. You may notice the slightly unwieldy video clip in the sidebar to your right. As popular as online videos are these days, it seems a shame to let the viral revolution pass me by. So I'm going to post a different clip every week, probably on Mondays from now on, to give you an amusing start to your week. Plus, being in the sidebar, if you need a pick-me-up, you can come back to it without scrolling through past posts (because I post sooo often). If I can figure out an easy way to do it, I might even keep an archived list of video clips. And if you've got any suggestions, please send them my way via e-mail.

Me and my TV

For a look at the next season of TV, check out Gig Matrix. (More will be coming once the CW and Fox announce their lineups.)

In the meantime, my TiVo and I are still working out the kinks of our relationship. It's still taping a lot of things I don't want. The first thing I asked it to tape was "Robot Chicken" -- a show on the Cartoon Network -- so it immediately started taping every animated show it could get its grubby little digital hands on. For a while, I had all the Sponge Bob Squarepants and Dora the Explorer I could handle.

Clearly, I needed to nip this in the bud.

Me: TiVo, we need to talk.
TiVo: (silence)
Me: You need to stop taping all the cartoons that are shown in a given day. I don't want to watch that many cartoons. Stop treating me like a child.
TiVo: (silence)
Me: Look, I appreciate the gesture. Really, I do. I just think things are moving a little fast. That's all. I mean, we're still getting to know each other. I'm sure it will get better, but I'd just like some space.
TiVo: (silence)
Me: You know, a response of some kind would be nice.
TiVo: (silence)
Me: (getting angry) Fine. Be that way. I was just trying to communicate.
TiVo: (silence)
Me: You just need to back off, TiVo. Don't be getting all in my face with your "suggestions." You don't know me. So don't act like you do.
(I storm off)

Several minutes later, the phone rings.

It's TiVo:
"What's your favorite scary movie?"

Briguy by the beach

I spent a couple of days down in the Outer Banks earlier this week with my family. We expected beachfront property, and got a little more than we bargained for, but it was fun nonetheless.

In other news, it's been quite a week for technology in my humble life. It was E3, which is THE video game convention. There's a lot of coverage up on Gig Matrix that you should totally check out.

I also broke down and got Tivo. I had been afraid to do so for fear that it would be an enabler to my TV addiction. But, as one friend pointed out to me, "If you have a separate tape for every day of the week, you just need to get Tivo."
Which is a good point.

I've only started playing around with it, but it is pretty great. So many shows at the tip of my fingers... I can watch them anytime ...

Ah yes, I have chosen the form of the Destroyer.
And it is this.