Exit Music (for a film)

Me and Adro went out on a date last Friday... caught "The Last Station" at Liberty Hall.

It's about the last days of Leo Tolstoy. Which is what most movies at Liberty Hall are about, aye comrade?

Sadly, this film was in the big theater, which means you're only going to be able to hear about 75% of the movie. The sound in that big theater is TERRIBLE. Still, it's a fun atmosphere, being able to buy Free State beer and sitting four feet up off the floor.

The film ambled along slowly... we follow an old relationship and a young one. Of course, it's the last days of Tolstoy, so you know he's gonna die. I liked the setting, early 20th Century, Russia... but not 10-feet-of-snow Russia.

I could have gotten up and left midway through the movie, but we stuck it out. I ended up lightly enjoying it. Adro mildly disliked it. She gave it a 5 out of 10, I'd give it a 6 out of 10.

The next movie I watched recently was Zombieland. I got Adro to watch the first five minutes with me (she likes scary, but not stupid-scary. I, on the other hand, can only handle scary if it's also stupid.)

I heard great things... it was OK. The main concept -- a zombie attack in a closed-down amusement park -- is fun. I enjoyed that part. And all the imagery was morbidly funny.

But overall, it was just OK. Too many "why on earth would you do that if there was a zombie invasion?!?" moments. It was on the same enjoyment level as the Tolstoy film. Another 6 out of 10.

High and Dry

I didn't even know shannon doherty was on this show! Don't roll your eyes kate, u r getting dropped next week, and i'll be watching and laughing...

2 + 2 = 5 (The Lukewarm) ((and Dancing with the Stars))

I just decided that the month of April will be all Radiohead song titles for blog post titles. And I'm starting early.

This title is inspired by the fact that last night, around 11 p.m. (about 22 hours ago), I finally decided to put a counter on this blog. You can find it on the right-hand column, beneath the archive of blog posts.

I'm very excited by the numbers... as of this writing, I'm at 48 hits, and that's within 24 hours of posting the counter. I know I checked the blog four times to monitor the counter, and I know Adro clicked over here twice today (she told me so). I don't think Evey checked in at all today. So, minus the Jones family, that's 42 hits in less that a day. Pretty solid! (And I know the number is probably skewey based on spammers and whatever else... regardless, I'm excited, even if only 10% of that number -- 4.8 people -- were real people who came by the blog today.)

I did set the counter to count every view of the site, not only unique views. So if you check back three times a day... well, I don't care, someone is still looking at the blog, and that makes me happy.

Now... Dancing with the Stars.

I've never watched this show before, and I never plan on watching it again... but there is one thing that is drawing me into this show right now. No, not Pamela Anderson... not Erin Andrews... not the Pussycat Doll... it's Kate Gosselin!

Yep! I want to see that witch go down!

I dislike Kate on a Sarah Palin-like level. Someone needs to start a Web site where we can raise money... donate a dollar, 50 cents goes to Haiti, 50 cents goes to bribing her dance partner to drop her on her head. Talk about worthy causes!

There are some things I don't get about the show. If you've watched before, maybe you can help me:

Why is everyone orange?

Does the old judge like dancing at all, or is he just there to bitch?

What is the incentive for these famous and wealthy people to win? Is there a cash prize, or a donation to a charity? Or is it just incentive enough to be there when Kate gets dropped?

...DROP KATE!!!

The photos accompanying this post are pics of Evey and her pancakes in San Diego... some fancy breakfast place we stumbled upon downtown. The time difference was in our advantage, we strolled right in the place when we got there around 8 a.m., when we left an hour later, there was a line going down the street!

Behind on 2010 goals

I'm feeling very self-satisfied this Sunday evening. The White Russians I'm drinking help, sure, but I'm also happy that my laundry's done, the girls are tucked away in bed and I hit more than a fair share of 3-pointers in Sunday pick-up ball this morning. Plus, another great weekend is in the books, so I'm tip-top.

One thing is bothering me, though... my goals. I'm behind on my goals.

This time last year, I was grinding through my Jacko comic. By July, I'd be done with it. It was a 22-page black-and-white comic that, though totally unsuccessful, I'm exceedingly proud of.

I have many goals for 2010, one of which is writing an illustrating a children's book. I made my first trip of the year to the drawing board last week... it didn't go well. Turns out, I'm lousy at drawing my main character. That is discouraging. (The main character, btw, is a fox. If I can't get a handle on drawing a fox, I may change the animal to a monkey or a donkey or an emu or a sloth... whatever animal I can draw that can actually be identified as the animal I'm trying to frickin' draw.)

I also want to write a novel (or screenplay) this year, and I haven't worked on that project since Dad died.

Another goal I made for myself... and this is really revealing... but I've always dreamed of having an article published in Esquire. I made it a goal to pitch a story to Esquire every month for a year. I started this in November (weird timing I know) and pretty soon I'm going to fall two months off my goal. My plan is to post some of those submissions here soon, after I get a backlog of them going.

Anyway, I'll try to keep you posted. Maybe if I write about it here, I'll be more motivated (read: pressured) to get downstairs and draw/write more.

Before I close, I must write about my sweet, sweet Evey some.

Today we colored together. Evey demonstrated to me that she can write the letter "E" which I find very cool. She can also identify the letters of the alphabet at random... I write an "R" and she says "R!" I don't know how long she's been doing this for, and I admit I didn't even try to teach her any of this. But I'm happy to see she's getting it. I asked her who taught her and she said "Grandma."

Evey was REALLY good this weekend. She went through a spell a few weeks ago where she was being a bit ornery. I haven't hardly had to discipline her at all lately. I don't know what to attribute this to, but she's been really sweet lately.

The photos in this post are of Evey watching the mini-DVD player in our hotel room in San Diego. If given the choice, I think Evey would prefer to watch her movies on this little player than the 40-inch flatscreen. And she would preferably be watching "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs," except I mailed that disc back to NetFlix.

Maybe that's why she was being ornery?

My top 100 songs of all time (100-91)

I recently (a few months ago) created a list of my TOP 100 SONGS OF ALL TIME. I published 100-50 in my zine for Pulp Legacy... I'm going to get some crossover use out of it here, and publish my top 100, 10 at a time, for the next 10 weeks. I'll post these Thursday night, to give you something to read to shake off the hangover on Friday mornings.

I'll avoid any commentary here... just the list. I'll include commentary (if I have any) in the comments section as the weeks progress.

Here's the key:

Rank, song, band, album, year.
Boldface denotes I’ve seen the song performed live.

100. “Maps,” Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Fever to Tell (2003)
99. “Got You (Where I Want You),” The Flys, Holiday Man (1998)
98. “Gold Dust Woman,” Hole, Crow 2 Soundtrack (1996)
97. “Carlotta Valdez,” Harvey Danger, Where Have All the Merrymakers Gone? (1997)
96. “Leg of Lamb,” Queens of the Stone Age, Rated R (2000)
95. “Lets Go Crazy,” Prince, Purple Rain (1984)
94. “Spies,” Coldplay, Parachutes (2000)
93. “Mother ‘93,” Danzig, Thrall: Demonsweatlive (1993)
92. “Only,” Nine Inch Nails, With Teeth (2005)
91. “Wail,” Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Now I got Worry (1996)

Phone tag with Sis

I talked to my sister for an hour this evening. When was the last time you did that -- talked to a sibling for an hour? It was good to catch up. I'd rather have done it over a beer, but the phone call is just so much easier when you both have kids.

I never know when to call my sister. Evey stays up pretty late, typically, but Sis's kids get to bed at a decent hour, so I don't like to call too late.

Last night I called her cell phone around 8 p.m. and left her a message, something like this:

"Hey Sis, it's your brother. Haven't talked to you in a while, so I wanted to check in. I hope you're not too bummed about the Jayhawks still... just remember, we still have 2008. Anyway, I love ya, call me when you get a chance... bye."

This morning, I got up, and I had a cell phone message from my sister. "Cool, she called me back," I thought. Then I listened to the message, left for me an hour-and-a-half after I left my message.

It went something like this:

"Hey Seth, it's Jess... haven't talked with you in a while so I wanted to check in. I hope you're not still too mad about the Jayhawks... but I was pretty mad myself... in fact, I didn't even want to talk about it for a few days... but I'm over it now. Anyway, I love you, call me when you get a chance, OK? Bye!"

I was like... "Whoa!" We left virtually the same message for each other, 90 minutes apart. Crazy, huh?

Whack-a-mole

Last night I got Evey dressed for bed. I pulled out a pair of pajama pants and said, "How's about this, Evey?" She responded, "No... how about... Captain America? Captain America is my FAVORITE."

So you know that warmed my heart! We went with the pajama bottoms I had just pulled out, and then I searched for one of her Captain America shirts and put it on her.

A little while later she walked up to Adro's full-length mirror. "Dad?" she said, "I don't think I'm match."

She was right -- she didn't match. And I was even more impressed than before.

My 10-year, no-KU-anger pact

Here are a couple photos... thanks to my cousin Melissa for sending the first one to me.

The first photo is of Mom, Dad and Jett... I think they're at Uncle Vince's wedding here? If the date is correct this was taken four months before Dad died. Good friends Richard and Dale are in the background chatting.

The second photo is Evey in the tub. There's a bath toy, these pellets, that dye the water. Evey likes taking colored baths. If I ever took a bath, I'd probably like there to be color in the water, too. But not yellow.

Pretty crappy game on Saturday, eh? I was a little bit mad for a while... and then I remembered that I vowed not to get mad again at the 'Hawks for a ten-year window after the 2008 championship. I'll still abide by my self-imposed ten-year no-anger pact with the 'Hawks.

Had I decided to not honor that contract, I'd say such things as, "they thought they were entitled to a win," "they came out tentative and expected the other team to roll over," and "I'd trade Xavier Henry for Ali Fukalshiimama straight up any day." But I'm abiding by the pact, and will not say such things.

Instead, I only remind you that 2008 was one awesome run, and there's always next year.

These ncaa commercials r making me hungry for a kfc bucket o' chicken... And to fill out the census.

A couple days in the office

Sure, most of the time I'm at work I'm at my desk writing or editing copy, but then there's also a lot of days like these:

Let me show you the world through Evey's eyes

Here is a good use for your old electronics: give them to your kids!

Yup, I've always had a hard time throwing away an old digital camera, even if it didn't work well, or the hardware was obsolete. Well, Evey was always interested in my camera, but that's MY camera... I don't want her playing with it. I don't want it to get broken. And she's too smart for a fake toy camera...

That's when it dawned on me -- pull out one of my old working digital cameras. The camera is a good six, seven years old... still works, but the weight of the thing, the screen size, the resolution of the photos -- it's crappy compared to the stuff we're using today. But Evey thinks it's the best thing ever!

So Evey has her own digital camera to shoot photos with now. She's getting better at it with practice. I downloaded the first batch of photos so you can see some examples of what she's doing right now. In the future, I'm sure I'll only save the good ones.

Evey also has a real cell phone. It's my old cell phone from five or so years ago. Again, I have a hard time throwing away electronics. And now, Evey feels like a rock star with her real cell phone... she had a fake plastic one for a while, now she has a REAL plastic one.

Here's her conversation in the backseat while we were driving home from work today:

"Hi Sadie."
"Do you want to come over?"
"OK! Let me ask my Mom and Dad."
"Mom, Dad! Sadie wants to come over!"
"OK, Sadie, you can come over!"

The whole time me and Adro are having our own conversation -- Evey is entertaining herself with this pretend phone call.

(At least, I think it was pretend. I better check that phone when I get a chance.)

Seth and Eric's Angels

Here's a great photo I got of Trish, Adrianne, Bella and Evey a couple weeks ago in my basement.

So, how was your weekend? Mine was pretty spectacular, I'm not gonna lie. (But I'm not going to give you any details about it here, sorry.)

Good news: Ryno set up my wireless internet for me tonight. I think this will enable me to blog more... I never feel real comfortable blogging in the office at our new house because I feel I'm making too much noise over here while my girls are asleep. Now, with the wireless, I can blog from the basement on my laptop. (but the main impetus for the wireless was to get my Blu-Ray player ready for NetFlix streaming movies -- what do you think, worth the effort? Vote in my poll, please!)

Big 12 Tourney champs! Awesome. great job, 'Hawks. Now, on to the REAL tournament.

(btw, Evey's hair doesn't always look like 1988... it's just in this photo, after she took out her hair bow or whatever.)

Even 80-year-old women...

Can use the ABSOLO!

How did Abasolo miss out on this one??? I saw it on TV at 4 a.m. on some infomercial a few weeks ago! Abasolo has had the name since he was born!

AND HE COULDN'T INVENT THE ABSOLO????


(The guy on the left just found out Abasolo didn't own the patent on the Absolo!)

The Oscar goes to...

Night-night time

The case of the moneky's tail

Here's a photo of the girls in our hotel lobby in San Diego. Not a great photo, but we do need to cherish these photos of Evey while she's still shorter than her Grandma Judy...

You can see by the photo that Adro is holding on to, well, a leash... connected to Evey's backpack. While we were in San Diego, Evey often wore a monkey back pack that had this long tail. She loved this back pack. She'd put it on, and ask one of us, "Hold my tail!"

Before this trip, I always hated the look of these things. I mean, keeping your kid on a leash?

But now that we did it for a week, I have a different perspective. It helped that Evey loved the thing, and never fought us. But it was also good to know that Evey couldn't run too far away... it kept her out of the revolving door at the hotel, out of the street downtown, etc. It even kept her from falling once, as she was about to bite it as I was holding on to the tail, and as she about hit, I yanked her back up before she could hit the ground.

***Went and saw Avatar with my Mom last week. Pretty cool movie! I would suggest you go see it in the theaters while you still can. It was an intense three hours. At first, during the set-up, I didn't think I was going to enjoy the movie. But once the main character went into the machine and became one of the natives, I was hooked. That was cool.

***Also went down to Stillwater to see the KU/OSU debacle with my friend Travis. I'll share a bunch of photos later. Still a great time, even though the game didn't go our way.