Ithaca Mafia.

Things I Forgot To Post Over The Last 13 Weeks.

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:33:51 -0500

January 8, 2010.
The Wife: “I think this has two lines on it.”
Me: “Are you sure? It looks pretty faint.”
*Both stare intently at the stick*
The Wife & Me: “Two lines!”

February 11, 2010.
The wife swears off Saltines for the rest of her life.

February 24, 2010
Homework.

March 1, 2010.
Me: “Woah. Did it just move?”
Nurse: “Yep.”
Me: “Wow.” (smiles) (pause) ”Cool.”

Camouflage Tree, East 64th.

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:28:19 -0500

Camouflage Tree, East 64th.

Best of New York Food 2010 - New York Magazine.

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:41:06 -0500

Best of New York Food 2010 - New York Magazine.:

This crispy fried pork hock was my birthday meal this year. I think about it often. The crispy outside + succulent inside, falling off the bone = Best. Pork. Ever.

Big congrats to Chef Jim & Joseph Leonard.

The first draft… is away.

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 20:43:25 -0500

The first draft… is away.

Four years ago today: Best. Birthday. Present. Ever.

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:10:32 -0500

Four years ago today: Best. Birthday. Present. Ever.

Birthday Beard: Day 112.

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:36:00 -0500

Birthday Beard: Day 112.

Song For The Moment “Fall Hard” by Shout Out...

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 10:29:53 -0500

Song For The Moment

“Fall Hard” by Shout Out Louds

Matty tipped me off to the new album by everyone’s favorite Swedish indie rockers earlier this week. I procured it from a well placed source, and have now been enjoying it for the past 24 hours. These boyos write some sweet-ass pop tunes that never fail to put a smile on my face.

Can’t really ask more of a band than that.

In the world of elaborate one-take videos, Ok Go are, for the most part, tops. Therefore, it...

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:43:00 -0500

In the world of elaborate one-take videos, Ok Go are, for the most part, tops. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that their latest video is taking the internets by storm (and rightly so). Fan of their career-making treadmill video (or fans of Mouse Trap) would be hard pressed to find a more entertaining 3:54 to watch.

Check it.

UPDATE: WIRED’s got a look at how the video was made.

Jacoby and Clay get new numbahs.

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:21:48 -0500

Jacoby and Clay get new numbahs.:

(Or, it’s almost baseball season, but there still isn’t anything else of significant interest to report about.)

Sunday morning with the Family. (The wife and I look the same,...

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 12:55:22 -0500

Sunday morning with the Family. (The wife and I look the same, just substitute papers with iPhones playing Plants vs. Zombies).

For Ben, The Beard License.

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 08:06:36 -0500

For Ben, The Beard License.

Mr. Big Stuff.

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 20:46:29 -0500

Mr. Big Stuff.

Return of the King.

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 17:45:00 -0500

It would appear that my PS3 successfully transferred my deets to the new unit list night. Barring any last minute roadblocks, this week should see my sweet restoration to the Playstation World. I’m sure Duck and SpaHa and my fellow [iM] crew has moved on without me — killing n00bs on Modern Warfare with newfound skills I can only dream of — but I’ll work hard to make my way back into the ranks.

Kluv is back, baby. And my grenade launcher is coming with me.

Don’t know of it was the rain, the day, or just dumb luck...

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:02:23 -0500

Don’t know of it was the rain, the day, or just dumb luck — but I was in and out of the DMV this morning, new license in hand, in the same amount of time it takes to get breakfast at McDonalds. Fortune smiles.

It’s alive… ALIVE! Fixed Ethernet… Now...

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 20:44:31 -0500

It’s alive… ALIVE! Fixed Ethernet… Now attempting transfer…

Let's Go Black Knights.

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 15:28:00 -0500

I am not quite up on this Lip dub phenomenon, but, from what I gather, it’s a fairly big hit with the kids these days and their wacky internets. This afternoon, my old pal Tommy forwarded a little video to a bunch of us that some students from our High School alma mater put together. I was impressed by the fact that they: did it in one take, had a steadycam, and got to do something like this as part of a class. I hope these dag-blasted kids appreciate what they’ve got these days.

Why, when I was their age, we didn’t have fancy Video Production Classes — we sat in our classes without joy, and were lucky to steal a few minutes in Study Hall for some “Magic: The Gathering”, or enjoy a stolen chocolate milk bag from the cafeteria. And, by God, we liked it.

(If we wanted to humiliate ourselves on video, we did it on our own time.)

Play. Station.

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 11:18:32 -0500

So, this weekend, with the help of my bro and father-in-law, I attempted the daunting Playstation motherboard re-flow — the most successful of all “YLOD” fixes. Two hours, a lot of screws, some compressed air, a 750-degree heat gun and some thermal compound later, my Playstation magically turned back on. The disc, trapped within, ejected. There was hope.

Came home last night and attempted the Data Transfer Utility (which clones one PS3 to another). Crestfallen: my ethernet and/or wi-fi were no longer working on the old one. No ethernet = no way to do the data transfer from the old PS3 to the new PS3. Ooof.

So, tonight I will attempt to open again, checking connections in the hopes that something is just loose. Otherwise, it’s likely that the ethernet got fried when the motherboard died the first time. Then it’s onto option #2, a backup to an external drive. That should save some of my data, but not all of it — and would spell the end to our Rock Band group, the world-renowned Abbey Normals.

But, something is better than nothing. (I hope.)

Niece time.

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 16:14:51 -0500

Niece time.

"Con"-Ed. Ha!

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 10:01:38 -0500

We just had the semi-annual experience of an unannounced Con-Ed Worker showing up at our office for “work”. It always amazes me how they just appear and demand stuff (which sounds fairly serious) in a very nonchalant manner, like: “Hey, show me to your meters, I gotta swap ‘em all out.” Why? “Because they’re old.” Or “Yeah, you might lose power or something while we do it.” Do you know for how long or when? “Nope. Maybe only the 2nd floor. Tough to say.”

This is inevitably followed by 5-10 minutes of a few of us in the office trying to discern whether he really is a Con-Ed worker: He shows us his badge (sure, it looks real, but what the hell do we know?), says we can call and check with Con Ed (Yay, let’s sit on hold for 3 hours). Eventually, we break down and let him rummage around in the power room because we’ve got tons of other crap to deal with.

I think it’s all the Consumerist posts on Energy Scams that makes me wary. Hopefully our building doesn’t blow up.

Commute Mix.

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 11:03:58 -0500

The songs my iPhone served up (on shuffle) this snowy morning march into work:

1.) “Heartattack And Vine” by Tom Waits
2.) “Beautiful, Sorta” by Ryan Adams & the Cardinals
3.) “She Said She Said” by the Beatles
4.) “Kola Kola” by the Clash
5.) “Venus De Milo” by Television
6.) “From Blown Speakers” by The New Pornographers

They were accented, delightfully, by a rousing game of “Plants vs. Zombies” on the same phone…