1) Birthday party for 20-year old twins (friends of the family) soon.
2) Humongous Cal-Duke game today in NCAA tourney.
3) Desire to finish Dragon Age: Origins so I can move on to Awakenings.
4) Need to start playing still-unfinished new Sims 3 expansion cuz they asked me for feedback.
5) Need to plow through more episodes of Breaking Bad season 2, since season 4 starts tonight.
Good god that is a lot to deal with on a Sunday!
First, just in case I run out of time here, and in case you don't follow me on Twitter, I need to repost a photo I took yesterday at the Berkeley Marina that I am extremely proud of. Maybe it's just me. You may think it's stupid. That's okay. It's still making me laugh. The Berkeley marina is a very popular place for kite flying, and with Spring now fully in effect, the kite fliers were out in force yesterday. Occasionally, you see folks manning these humongoid, balloon-type kites, which are awesome to look at even if there doesn't seem to be much point to them. Oh wait--the point is that they're awesome to look at. Right. Anyway. While rounding the bend along the marina walking path with my little dog, Mila, we came upon one of these humongoid balloon-type kites, which was essentially a giant, floating lookalike to Mila. So, quick-thinking chap that I am, I crouched down to dog level and snapped this shot:
My dog contemplates boarding the mothership.
I just like it. Sue me.
TV UPDATE: Breaking Bad might just be the best show on TV right now. I'm LTTP myself--just catching up on Season 2 on Netflix now, as Season 3 starts tonight--but I am in love with it. Bryan Cranston is an acting powerhouse on this show--pathetic, sad, funny, desperate, angry, sarcastic, bitter, devious, scared--and if you know him only from Malcolm in the Middle, prepare to be blown away. The plot is like a darker version of Weeds : Milquetoast, browbeaten high-school chemistry teacher finds out he has incurable cancer, and, in attempt to earn money for his pregnant wife, and son (w/cerebral palsy), hooks up with a lowlife former student to become...a crystal meth dealer. It's as sad and depressing as that sounds, yes, but it is also very, very funny at times (the creator, Vince Gilligan, said in one interview I saw that you really could see the show as "a comedy"), and is also scary as HELL, quite often. The first few episodes of Season 2, in fact, is some of the most terrifying TV I've seen in years--truly. The wife and I watched every minute in edge-of-the-seat dread. Just the extent to what the writers put this poor guy through, and watching him try to extricate himself, is exhausting and agonizing but extremely entertaining, if you like that kind of thing. And I do. A lot. And on top of everything else, the cinematography of the show, which takes place in New Mexico, is just gorgeous, every episode. I highly recommend it if you haven't watched yet. Just be forewarned, there is some gruesome, awful stuff in this show, both in terms of physical *and* emotional violence. (Also still digging Damages, keeping my hopes up that Lost will deliver, and marveling at how damn funny Ugly Betty has been in its final *sob* episodes).
Books: Finished Kurt Eichenwald's The Informant, which was fascinating--though it's quite amazing how faithful Steven Soderbergh's movie was. I saw the movie first, and wanted to get more insight out of the book, but, actually, the movie covered it all well enough. Now I'm contemplating returning to Patrick Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind, which has been the "it" book of the fantasy genre for awhile now--except I'm a tad fantasy'ed out right now, still. I have something like 30-40 unread books at home that I've bought (a horrible habit of mine--I just buy and buy), so I'm gonna sift through those to see if there's something that grabs me: LeCarre maybe? Not sure. I need something to keep me entertained during the long flight and back to PAX in Boston later this week.
Speaking of which: PAX East! Boston! I'm going to be there! Yay! I'm moderating one panel and speaking on two others, which, as far as I'm concerned, is a bit of overexposure, frankly, but what the heck. I will do my best to entertain, even if it means throwing in a little juggling or soft-shoe dancing. You can find the full schedule here if ya like--the one I'm moderating is the very first one listed. If you happen to be at the show, by all means say hi! I only bite Nazis.
Okay: the bday party beckons. I am off. Hope y'all are having a happy Sunday.
--Jeff
25 comments:
Meeting up with Shawn at PAX? Record an impromptu out of the game? Please?
Is out of the game still happening or is it dead?
You know, I remember an old CGW Greenspeak column in which you compared teenage boys and girls and how they diverged in "nerd" interests. Boys were supposed to get nerdier and continue playing WOW and reading comics, while girls matured and moved on to more "cool" interests. Funny, how you're daughter has digressed into a nerd, eh? lol.
You know, I remember an old CGW Greenspeak column in which you compared teenage boys and girls and how they diverged in "nerd" interests. Boys were supposed to get nerdier and continue playing WOW and reading comics, while girls matured and moved on to more "cool" interests. Funny, how you're daughter has digressed into a nerd and wants to "aspire to be a wood elf", eh? lol.
Hehehehe!
Duke butt raped Cal!
Hehehehe!
Yes, that was a sad basketball game. But let's leave the "butt raping" comments to less refined folks, shall we? We are better than that here at this blog!
I LOVE YOU JEFF! IF YOU EVER TURN GAY, I'LL FOLLOW YOU AND MARRY AND CHERISH YOU FOR AS LONG AS YOU LIVE!!!
(:
OH, how I wish I could be attending PAX East...Sure, I'll be at the one here in Seattle but I love being out among all the people =)
Don't feel too bad about keeping a stockpile of books on hand. All of us book obsessed folks do that. I Like to keep anywhere between 20-30 on hand. When it's time to start a new one, I'm not always in the mood for some, so it helps to have a variety of unread ones around.
Oh...I keep meaning to ask you if you've ever read anything by Arturo Perez-Reverte. He writes mystery/thrillers much like a somewhat less academic Umberto Eco. He also has a Dumas inspired series of novels (Captain Alatriste). Based on various things I've heard you mention, his books seem like something you might enjoy.
Will there be any recordings of your PAX happenings?
Wow, I hope that Sunday went well for you! On one hand it seems you were probably up all-night. On the other you probably had a blast doing basically nothing productive all day!
Tristessa,
Doh, wish you were at PAX East too! Yes, I have read Perez-Riverte! I've read, The Club Dumas and The Flanders Panel--and I have Queen of the South and the first Captain Alatriste books sitting here in my backlog! :)
Checking on the PAX recording....
There is a pretty decent movie of Alatriste starring Viggo Mortensen...but it never got a release in the USA (thank you internets!). I'd recommend reading the books first though, as the movie condenses multiple volumes into a 140 minute running time.
The decision to miss PAX East was mainly due to my work schedule and my brother coming to Seattle for a visit. I couldn't get another stretch of vacation days in this time period. But there's always next year.
(regarding DRM and your twitter)
NOW you know why many of us are not buying C&C4, or anything from Ubi.
Please hit whoever at EA thought this was a good idea with a pan for me. Guess what?. Pirates play with the crack. Buyers lose progress. Great work.
Does anybody here know if Assassin's Creed 2 has been cracked yet - Jeff, do you?
Ubisoft's DRM seemed to be holding firm for at least the first week.
I've finished playing AC 2 on the PC (a completely awesome game), and I can report that I never got disconnected once during the roughly 30 hours it took me to complete the game, even though, of course, the authentication process was constantly on. It would be nice to know that the DRM at least did its job, and that the pirates were unable to produce a working copy of the game?
The big PAX news I'm seeing out of Boston seems to concern the release of the new Nvidia GTX 480 - a screamer of a card (everyone is complaining about it, of course, saying it's too hot, too loud, costs too much, doesn't run significantly faster than ATI's 5870... blah, blah, blah... hey, it's only the fastest GPU on the planet!).
Green, I'll bet that you end up getting one of those babies in your Pax goody bag, you lucky dog (didn't you get the swine flu or something the last time you attended one of these joyous occasions?).
Also, I never fancied you to be a college basketball enthusiast? It's kind of infected your Twitter feed. I wish that we non basketball enthusiasts could filter that out somehow?
The Goose
Have you played Mass Effect 2 Yet? It's phenomenal. I like it much more than Dragon Age, and it's a lot longer. I beat Origins but currently Awakenings is on hold because I, too, am fantasy'ed out right now.
Breaking Bad is amazing. I had no idea Cranston was such a great actor, moving from comedy to drama. That sounds like something Tom Hanks might do...
Did you ever beat Fallout 3? I played it on easy so it only took about a month or so, even with all the DLC.
So...
Did you end up reading anything while on the trip?
Were any panels recorded for us poor unfortunates?
When it says, this post has been removed by a blog administrator, what does that mean? Does that mean that Green himself removed the offensive text, or do these blogs actually have genuine 'administrators' reading them?
I'm not sure I like that?
It's kind of like 1984, isn't it? Big Brother is reading this?
Hey, Blog Administrator, if you're reading this right now, and you think you're going to silence me, or delete my posts, then you've got another think coming. I'll take it elsewhere. Yes, you heard me right. I'll go to another place on the web and post my comments there. The last thing that I need at the end of a difficult day is to come here and be confronted by Big Brother. Screw you, Jack. It's a free world, my friends - that is what I am talking about.
Socrates.
Name of the Wind is a great book.
Uuuuuhm Jeff? That guy on ugly Betty reminded me of you.
Yeah!
It's the return of the cheap-shoes guy!
I've been waiting for this guy to come back here, because quite frankly I need me some cheap ass shoes. Dude where have you been?
Let's see what we've got here?
Huh?
Air Jordans? Aren't those from the 90's? This must be old stock?
You can tell when Jeff's blog gets rusty is when the shoe spammers show up. Hey Jeff get an account on Facebook. Then go on the Howard Stern show. You are liberal and so you're right up his alley. Not trying to make fun of you or anything.
Maybe Jeff is stuck over in Europe and won't be able to get back to Frisco for awhile.
Jeff, could you please make a comment regarding Out of the Game? It kind of feels dead now, but I would love to see new episodes.
Jeff, have you played Just Cause 2? It's incredible on the PC - especially if you have a GTX 480.
But what's especially hilarious for any of the old GFW podcast listeners is hearing the voice of The Black Market Dealer.
I swear to god, it's Whiskey Nerd!
You have to play Just Cause 2 just to hear the sound of this guy's voice. It's almost laugh out loud funny.
Have you been catching up with Breaking Bad? You need to hurry, man, because it's hitting the fan. This show is shaping up to be as good as the Sopranos. The tension is unbelievable! I take it you've been busy lately. Do you plan on picking up the new Red Dead this month?
I really feel that Jeff hangs onto this blog just to please his old CGW/GFW fans and would like nothing better than to put all that behind himself and move on. I think that what he would like to do is to tell us that those days are over with, get over it and go get a new life.
Post a Comment