152 insights into my soul

Back home from Hilton Head. Actually left later than the rest of the fam to try and (unsuccessfully) get some extra sleep. I dunno why I've been telling people its a six hour drive, when its closer to 4 1/2. Well, at least the way I drive. Though I guess that six hours counts stopping for food, but this time I didn't, so I left at 8am and got here half past noon.

As I said on facebook, the vacation went by too fast. Already unpacked and catching up on stuff on the DVR.

TV commentary:

Kings- Wait, I was reading the forums, and Kings is based on the Bible?! I did not know that. And I'm assuming since the show is dead in the water, and they knew about it beforehand, so that's why this past ep is like on fast forward with the time? ( spoiler cut )

Happy New Year! Instead of a big samich, ended up getting some party platters from Subway. But the guys told sparkboy that a platter could feed 5 people. Bull, I think it can feed more than that. Especially with my family, who eat like birds. So he ordered three platters, which was entirely too much.

Oh, and apparently my family was all offended because I had didn't know who Pacuqiao was. I guess because he's Filipino and mussed up De La Hoya and is considered so great in the boxing world, I'm supposed to have some Flip pride about him or something. I suppose he has some pretty good accomplishments.

I also saw the trailer for Crank II (ooh, a cameo by Jenna Haze!) You know, I thought it would be about someone else in a similar sitch, I didn't realize Jason Statham's character is still alive (oops, spoiler!). WTF?! Yeah, they made it seem like his heart was still beating in the end, but shouldn't every bone in his body be shattered?! But whatever, I guess its just more LCD sex and violence.

Murray Christmas! (Well, technically, its past Christmas, but I'm only now making a post, so whateva) Anywhose, the 24th had zarathrustra94 and turdburgler to my parents' humble abode for Christmas Eve dinner. Heh, I ended up subjecting them to my terrible parallel parking. But I swear I do better on the right side of the street, trying to parallel park on the left side throws me off. But lots of food as usual, though I think the fam was trying to stuff C+T a little too much.

Afterwards, dropped them off at the 30th Ave station, because I didn't want them walking the 15 blocks to the station in the dark, cold, and slippery ice. Hit Mt. Carmel after that for the Christmas Choir performance and Christmas Eve mass. I dunno if I haven't been getting enough sleep or something, but I was feeling so tired during mass and opening the gifts after midnight once we were back home.

Today, (well, Christmas) headed over to NJ for the usual. More food as usual, so stuffed myself on lumpia and bbq ribs and honey glazed ham and lasagna. Some good eating. Alas, A didn't come up this year again, which kinda sucked. Owel. Alas, since BK didn't show up for a couple of hours (plus, there was a movie playing on the DVD player that people wanted to finish), didn't get to do a lot of Rock Band 2-ing. I mean, I got to sing three songs and drum another two, but I woulda liked to play some more before having to leave. Sadly, he did not have the Weezer DLC, so wasn't able to try the Greatest Man that Ever Lived. Well, his 360 seemed to be having issues anyways, where the game wouldn't play any of his DLC songs, giving an "unable to play the selected song" error and kicking us back out to the join in screen whenever we tried playing one of those songs. Anyone ever have this problem?

Finally saw Moulin Rouge the other day. I had isabel79 bring it down with her. I liked it. Not as much as Rent or Enchanted, but I thought it was clever how many songs they managed to work in. Speaking of musical movies, Mamma Mia comes out next Friday. Righteous!

Which reminds me of trivia last week. Since none of us watch American Idol, or would watch a movie like "Dreamgirls", the answer to the question of which American Idol alum won a best supporting actress Oscar did not come to us as instantly as it did everyone else. I knew who it was, but had trouble getting the name to spring to mind. Luckily, I remembered the name was mentioned in the Lil' Mama remix of Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend". So I played it in my head and remembered the answer was "Jennifer Hudson". The competition is pretty tough, while we're always in the top 3 to 5 teams, it seems we can't even miss one question if we wanna win something. Alas, we can't place unless we do perfectly and the competition misses key questions, which has yet to happen.

But getting back to vacay, I forgot to mention my noble steed for this trip, a 2008 PT Cruiser I dubbed "Prickly Pete": ( under the cut )

The license plate had "awl" on it. An awl is pointy, and PT sounds like "Petey", hence "Prickly Pete". I decided to rent a car for the trip, and since Enterprise does unlimited miles in-state and bordering states, it was only $270 for the week. Eh, I didn't want to put Star through the strain of a 300 miles back and forth drive, plus that way I had more room to ferry people around just in case. I had chosen "full size", and was expecting a Fusion or a G8, so I was surprised to get the Cruiser. It was a pretty cool ride. Though annoyingly, it did not have cruise control, which usually comes in handy when driving 4+ hours. Speaking of long drives, kept myself awake this time by playing the soundtracks to Rent and the Buffy musical on the CD player. I figured I won't fall asleep if I'm singing along. But since I had a better vehicle, didn't mind driving around. So, took turns being chauffeur with isabel79 and the Indy (I'm not the only one naming cars!).

TV commentary:

( Swingtown )

( More Burn Notice comments )

Holy cow, its frickin stormy out there! I'm at a Wendys an hour south of the Cell, having dinner. But driving back, hit some heavy pockets of rain and wind and lightning. I couldn't see but 5 feet in front of me!

I'd make a poll, but since I'm posting this on my mobile, I can't. But when confronted with this kinda weather while driving, do people pull over or push through?

Me, I drive through hoping I can get out of it and be on my merry way. But there were dozens of cars on the side of the road, that's how bad the weather was! So, am I being foolhardy?

Happy New Years! Its the first post of 2008, just winding down from celebrating New Years with the Fam. Had it at the 'rents this year rather than isabel79's since we couldn't cart the whole clan over there this year. Ridiculously, there was even more food than Christmas. Big samich, a dozen lobsters, a whole lotta pork chops in addition to the usual stuff. I was thinking, who's gonna eat all this stuff? I mean, there's 25 of us, but some of these people eat like birds. I guess that's what leftovers are for. Did break my no alcohol rule and tried some of the Eiswein from the Euro trip.

Owel, weird traditions the family has. There's the grape thing, where you eat a dozen grapes after midnight and keep the seeds and its supposed to bring you money for the new year. And then there's the turning on all the lights thing. But apparently there's also a leaving all the doors open and the faucets running as the clock strikes midnight. WTH?!

Heh, was watching an ep of L&O:CI before it was time for the ball to drop, and it started out with a couple of guys doing a recreation of the duel between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton. Strangely enough, that's not the first Aaron Burr killing Alexander Hamilton thingie I've encountered over vacation, there's also this video where a drunk guy explains the whole Aaron Burr/Alexander Hamilton thing. It has Michael Cera of AD and Superbad fame, though I'm trying to figure out if the Ashley Johnson in it is the one who played Chrissy on Growing Pains. But I digress, in the CI ep, the duel was intercut with someone setting up a sniper rifle, a Chey Tac M200, to be exact. Coincidentally, since the Military channel has been doing a Futureweapons marathon, saw the ep where they did a littly ditty on the Chey Tac rifle not 24 hours before. An awesome-cool weapon.

But I digress again. I immediately recognized it as the Chey Tac, and I figured they were just gonna say it was a generic rifle, but the whole insane range and power of the Chey Tac actually figured into the episode, as the shot was made from a huge distance and the target was wearing a vest. Given that .408 round can easily punch through steel plate, I still think there should have been a more grievous wound, but such a wound would be too graphic for TV. Anyways, the ep seemed to be strange product placement for the weapon, given when they find it, the company logo is prominently displayed on the box and they're all, "This is the only weapon in the world that could've made such a shot!"

And sparkboy got all these Mika songs stuck in my head now.

Thanksgiving came and went, some good eating. Had a lazy Friday. Went to isabel79's today and hit the mall to get some of the Christmas shopping out of the way so I don't have to lug it back here when I come back for Christmas.

Hit Toys R Us and got the boys some Sigma 6 G.I.Joes. On line, was surprised to see parents buying like this generic playset stuff, and all I was thinking was, do these parents not know their kids? Who wants some crappy farmer playset and cheapo plastic dinosaurs when they could get cool army guys with guns and kung fu grips?! If it were me, I'd want the Joes. Of course, mebbe I'm just biased and other boys would prefer that stuff.

Had lunch at Fridays with the family. Some good eating. I swear the waitress looked totally familiar, but I didn't want to ask. Particularly because the reason she looked familiar was prolly because she reminded me of one of the strippers at the Pony.

sparkyboy got Singstar Pop and Singstar 80s for the PS2. Ida know, I like the scoring system in Karaoke Revolution better, but Singstar has better song choices, prolly because they focused on certain genres, rather than trying to be widespread like Revolution. 80s is pretty cool, tried "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go", "Hold Me Now", and "Come On Eileen", which are pretty fun, but kinda fast paced and hard to get "right" by Singstar's scoring system. Half the time I had to just slur through the words!

Just got back from the cabaret, a place called La Nouvelle Eve. It was pretty cool, its not a big production like Moulin Rouge or that other big one whose name escapes me right now. It was a smaller, more intimate venue, so your senses weren't ovewhelmed and you could really take it all in and enjoy the show. And the tour director said its a more accurate portrayal of the Parisian cabaret.

But like I said, it was a pretty entertaining show. Though there were some topless performances, and I don't care how old I am, seeing that sort of thing with my parents present still weirds me out.

Owel, tomorrow I fly back stateside for a few days back in NYC before heading back to the ATL.

Argh, what the frak is up with all these countries having different keyboards? Its seriously getting frustrating trying to type at a good pace when the keys are in different places. And in France, you hold shift for the numbers rather than vice versa. Anyways, I forgot to mention in the last post what inspired me to be all "Aussie girls are hott!" As I was getting ready to peruse the internet last night, bumped into this way hot Kate Mara looking chick explaining to her parents something in an Aussie accent. Again, hott!

Anyhoo, this morning, as I was getting ready to leave Lucerne, put it on some weird German teen drama to kill time before breakfast. The production levels are on par with Edgemont. Anyways, you had your usual teen drama fare, some harlot is trying to steal some loser who thinks hes so great from his girl next door cutie gf. But then there was some weird dark ritual involving kids heating up a cross (not a Christian cross, as it had an x above the crossbeam) necklace and then wearing it to brand themselves. I think they were supposed to be secret nazis or something. It was in German, so I didn't know what the hell was going on. But then some other students met somewhere to talk about those kids, and were looking all perturbed and they mentioned "nazi" a bunch of times. So unless there's some common word that sounds like Nazi they'd be talking about, I guess Nazi-ism is a subject matter covered by German teen dramas.

So, I'm in Gay Paris right now. We had a several hour bus ride from Lucerne to Paris, with a very, very brief stopover in Burgandy. Okay, so I guess Paris is a pretty beautiful city. Had dinner at some French restaurant. 7500centfish got some Esargot for an appetizer. Eh, I don't see what the big deal is. It was okay, not gross. And ha, ever since the German brauhaus, one of our tourees, who I'll refer to as Texas Tina (like the name of Niki's friend on Heroes) because she's from Texas and named Tina, was taken on stage to do the Chicken Dance, that song has been playing at every place we eat dinner at that has musical entertainment. But yeah, tonight we were treated to French Accordian music.

Then we took a scenic ride through the streets of Paris and saw the Eiffel Tower sparkle up. Just got back, so with all the driving, its definitely been a long day.

So, its 7/7/7. I didn't realize people were making it a big deal about it. I like saw three different weddings today! They think its lucky or something? And is it some sort of lesbian day or something as well?! I saw no less than eight lesbian couples throughout the course for today. And not in a "heh, they might be lesbians" kinda way, they really were lesbians.

This morning, left Munich for Lucerne. But first, a short stop in Austria. Innsbruck, to be exact. Alas, we got less than an hour there. And it seemed like a pretty intersting place. I really need to start carrying extra DVD-Rs with me instead of leaving them in my tote bag that I leave on the bus, as the camera runs out at inopportune times. Used up most of the disc I was using in Austria in the Swarovski store filming all the crystal sculptures. Well, and the hostess, who was kinda cute. Is it me, or are Austrian girls pretty cute?

Next, headed to Liechtenstein. Alas, nothing about Sir Ulrich. (He's blonde, he's pissed, he'll see you in the lists!) But its a small little place. And they somehow have a Flip association there. Izn't zat vierd?! Anyhoo, you can get your passport stamped there, since you normally don't have to since its associated with Switzerland and thus can move between the two freely. Heck, they don't even make too big a deal passing from the rest of the European Community to Switzerland (since it didn't join). The tour director made it sound like the stamp was going to be ridiculously huge ass, but it wasn't. I was wearing my "Trust me, I'm a Doctor" T-shirt, and the cute Lichtensteiner snowflake stamping my passport (Is that what they call it these days?) was all, "Are you really a doctor?" One of these days I'm gonna have to lie and say that I am.

Anyways, getting there and then to Lucerne, passed by the Alps and some big lake who's name escapes me right now. But the views of both the mountains and lake were beautiful. Got some footage of that, but stupid trees by the road kept getting in the way. Did some walking around Lucerne, then had a dinner at some Swiss folklore place. Pops was kinda pissed because the way the seats were arranged, we were on a different table from the rest of the tour group, so our waitress kept forgetting about us. And she's not even Swiss! I think she was Japanese. But she was in the Swiss Miss outfit and had the pigtails. HOTT!

Again, I didn't carry spare discs (I only have 2 left, but another day here and two days in Paris left! I need to save them for things that can't be expressed in digital photos, like performances!), so I missed a lot of the performances. I got a fair amount of their yodeler Sylvia, who I thought was kinda cute. She had the short blonde hair that I sometimes like on blondes if they can pull it off. Of course, all the time she was yodeling, I kept thinking of the Price is Right (what the hell is the name of that particular game?!) because the tune she was yodeling was exactly like the game. And I did get some people trying out those long horns like from the Riccola commercials. But I missed some of the special instruments (like the saw!) and the flag tossing, and the guys in the cow suit going around the crowd as Sylvia played the cowbell. And what's up with going to at least two places with people playing the cowbell but no one playing "(Don't Fear) the Reaper"? (Wait, I made that joke already, didn't I?)

Anyways, just got back from that, getting ready to turn in for a day of sightseeing in Lucerne tomorrow.