worthless foray into second rate photo editing

i've been playing around with images of my family members (and myself) on picnik. if you don't have a design degree/don't want spend 85 hours learning photoshop, it's a great, cheap way to edit photos, all from the comfort of your web browser.

i'm thinking of making a t-shirt of the image of my grandfather: paterfamilias. my fear is that he will see it and say, "what the hell kind of drugs has that fool been taking." that's a probably more of an excuse than a fear.

things that make me laugh pt. ii

on blogging and voice

what is your desired 'voice' when you write? other than 5 pages of a half-ass sci-fi novels, i didn't do much writing before the blog world took over. and i don't really think i can count lame history papers on the spanish armada or why eisenhower was really a genius for letting the ruskies take berlin...

the more i write on blogspot, the more i've been thinking about the idea of voice. i know from the two literature courses i've had over the age of 18, that a writer's voice is typically pretty specific. kind of like its audible counterpart. the thing that drives me crazy about this concept is that there is a voice i want to have and voice that i actually have.

but my desire is subliminal. typically, this is how it works. walking down the street (more likely, sitting on the couch), i hatch an idea that sounds interesting to me. at that moment, i begin to imagine how i would write the post with my desired voice. my desired voice is a casual genius. an offhand observer of the world, he's sharp, but never overbearing. he knows the game has been going on for years, so he's naturally cynical, but not depressed--he realizes the value of humor. he has a ready knowledge and wisdom about nearly everything and can candidly discuss any subject intelligently. but since he doesn't need to impress you, he feels comfortable talking about whatever subject interests him at the moment, no matter how trivial. since he is such an amazing person, whatever interests him is going to be damn interesting to his readers.

then, i actually sit down to type up a post. what comes out is shockingly different: trite, random, insular, and all around hastily written. i usually get distracted or bored toward the end of my posts and cut them short out of laziness. as much as i'd like to think of myself as a great undescovered writer, blogging his way to relevance, i'm just like the other 99% of the people with blogs--a self-absorbed nerd with spare time.

but why is it so hard to be honest? if i know i'm not the writer i want to be, why can't i at least set out to be turthful? it would seem far simpler to write from my own perspective than from the artificial one.

i'm guessing this is where those who actually know something about writing chime in and say something about why it's so difficult to be a good writer because of the difficulty writing the truth. i'm not exactly sure what the saying is, but isn't there something that says that all beauty is truth? i think so.

i just realized lewis has a great quote on this and found it here.

Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.

C. S. Lewis

franny

yes, we did get a dog. yes, we named her franny. try not to read into it. we're pretty obsessed with her right now, even through she has issues in the urination arena. she is a 7 month old golden retriever from a local rescue shelter. so she has some confidence problems as well. but have no fear, she's starting to come out of her shell inch by inch.

right now, sticks are a pretty big deal for fran. that, and sleeping underneath my desk while i work. we'll have plenty more stories to come, but enjoy the pictures for now.

i get a bike, my wife gets an education

my wife had her first day of classes yesterday. we went to a local coffee shop before to "prepare ourselves." by that, i mean she read some proverbs and i stubbornly and unsuccessfully tried to upload a file for work (depressingly, it was the second place i'd been to besides my house to upload this file). then it was carpool time. the students headed off to begin their new lives, i moped upstairs to wallow in self-pity. it was a good morning.

so far, class sounds good. to start the class, her teacher locked her in a room with a homicidal schizophrenic. apparently, she did pretty well for a first-timer. i like their hands-on approach!



i'm sure many of you are wondering where i've been recently. sorry if i didn't return g-chats or respond to facebook group requests. i've probably been out riding my brand new old schwinn bicycle: the traveler iii. i got it with the birthday money my wife spent on shoes which i later returned. with some very slight tinkering on the bike, everything mostly stays together. i've taken a couple rides through forest park already. mostly, i hear people crashing or running into things because my bike is so amazing. so, if you start hearing about a lot of bike and people wrecks--it's ok, it's just me and the traveler iii.

road rage

on sunday, we visited a church in webster grove, about 15 minutes away. the service itself was great and we enjoyed a nice lunch with the members afterward. as we left the neighborhood, we heard tires screech and i slammed the breaks as a ford escort with racing stripe flew down the street we were about to turn on.

we were in a pretty quiet neighborhood, without much of shoulder and no sidewalks, so it was kind of scary to see car go flying by right in front of us. my wife decided she should let the chump know how frustrated she by honking the horn. that's when everything became really fun.

naturally, psycho hit his breaks, flipped the escort around and started barreling towards us. not wanting to instigate a high speed chase, i had no choice but to sit, listen to the sound of squealing tires and a red lined engine and await my fate. when he got right in front of us, he, shirtless with bright orange hair, leaned out of his car and shouted, "if you wanna do something, do it!"

then, he raced off in the opposite direction. of course, we were all more than a little rattled and drove slowly home. we passed him once, at a gas station up the street. he eyed us suspiciously as we drove passed. i wonder if he even recognized us. i kept an eye in the rear view mirror the entire ride home, all sorts of disasters playing out in my head.

i've experienced crazy drivers before, but this opened up a entirely new chapter to me. welcome to st. louis!

showtime at the hi-pointe

the past two weekends, i walked down the block to dogtown's local theater, the hi-pointe. the single screen theater has been around since the 20's, under various owners. apparently, they typically show a mixture of indie and big-name flicks. the past two i've seen have both been blockbusters: the dark knight and tropic thunder. more on those later.

i'm pretty excited about being able to regularly stroll down the street to catch a flick. though i was spoiled with the "riveria" in knoxville, the place more than makes up for its lack of option with class. if you can handle the steep steps to the men's bathroom (ADA standards noticeably absent), you are rewarded with urinals that have been voted the best in st. louis by the river front times. yes, they have the generous full length models.

its pretty amazing to watch a movie in a place where people having doing the same for the past 80 years. i'm excited about experiencing many other st. louis gems, but this has been my first.

also, you gotta love a place that let's you know what you're getting into on the marquee.

ok, now onto the movies. if you aren't a nerd, you probably shouldn't read on. i'm not planning on editing to much of this and it will get pretty dorky. also, while i don't give any secret plot points away, i will discuss the movie in detail.

the dark knight:
i went into this movie with very high expectations. i was a big fan of batman begins because it restored the story of batman to something above an overblown music video. but it also was just a good film. batman has always been melodramatic and overwrought, but in a way that still told a good story.

the dark knight may be one of the few sequels that actually exceeded my expectations. as before the tone of the film was excellent. realistic enough to draw you in, but with enough comic book high-paced action to keep things moving.

the acting was excellent. heath ledger literally disappeared into his role. you find yourself watching the movie just for him. as a whole, his scenes stand out as my favorite.

the plot really takes it up a notch from the first. whereas batman begins strayed into hero movie formula on occasion, the dark knight dug in like a good crime drama. at times it was difficult to keep up with the plot--which was good. it's nice to have multiple layers to sift through. it picks up with what batman started in the first film, which is one of the themes of this one. we see batman dealing with what he has created choosing to fight as a vigilante. the fake batmen were a smart addition. the opening scene is excellent--it sets up the plot while introducing us to the joker's sense of style.

the writers really let themselves go with the joker. i think this is where the film truly succeeds. they allow his character to run free, which brings out the complexities of the story that make batman so great, like the relationship between batman and the joker. does the existence of batman make the joker's appearance inevitable? (though i haven't read it, apparently this is the theme that the killing joke by alan moore explores, next on my list of graphic novels to read)

will and i were discussing this when he was in town and i have to give credit to him for bring it up. but it is through the joker that the movie also explores philosophical questions. the first comes from the pressure that citizens, policemen, etc. put on batman to turn himself in. the joker has decided that if batman turns himself in, he'll stop killing more people. out of fear, everyone then places the onus on batman stop more murders. if only he would reveal himself, the joker will stop. what we are willing to sacrifice to have what we want right now? ultimately, the joker changes his mind and decides that life is better with batman around.

the other occurred when the joker rigged the two boats to explode. the boat with the regular citizens votes to blow up the other boat, containing criminals. if one boat does not blow up the other before midnight they are both destroyed. they know it would be wrong to incinerate the other boat, but by taking a vote they try to pass off responsibility to the majority. i thought this was an interesting point about potential weaknesses of democracy, majority rule, and reliance on opinion polls. that's me reading into it.

i love any film that rises above its genre. the dark knight transcends the common super hero movie. but then again, i'm a pretty huge nerd.

tropic thunder:
this movie is pretty funny. nothing special, it pretty much meets expectations. there's nothing like hollywood making fun of itself. unfortunately, its blazing saddles attempt to mock racism seems more like lip service--it takes shots at african-americans, asians, and mentally retarded people alike, but it's generally a funny movie. however, if you find yourself in the wrong circle, you may have to defend your decision to see the film.

things that make me laugh pt.i

i laugh every time.

music: TVOTR

today, i've been enjoying the new tv on the radio single. you can, too:
http://www.tvontheradio.com/

the album comes out next month. if you need to be reminded why you should be excited, watch "wolf like me."

charred paper, fractured plaster

for the past week, i've been forging my resume into a titanic juggernaut that thwart the most stubborn receptionist. or, for an entire week, i've been staring at the past three years of my employed life boiled down to 3 bullet points, fighting back tears and feelings of inadequacy.

why is i'm judged by merits my resume writing capabilities over what i have or haven't done? it just seems to encouraged embellishment. to be honest, this works to my advantage. i haven't actually been working that long. it still drives me crazy.

to spice things up, we decided to hang pictures, shelves, and maps in our apartment this week. mostly, this went according to plan. we generally bickered about the placement of items, moved them around, moved them back, and settled for something neither of us really loved. hanging on plaster is painful as well, but we figured out where we needed to drill pilot holes and where we did not and moved on.

the one piece we didn't argue too much about was our cheap, target "wine rack and glass holder." we both thought the most natural place was next to the refrigerator in the kitchen. dutifully, i pulled out the appropriate tools, measured, and marked the holes and began to drill.

about halfway toward the required anchor depth, i hit and impenetrable barrier. like any man, i assumed i just didn't have to right drill bit, accepted the excuse to go to home depot, and bought a masonry bit--fire wall be damned!

but this trick also failed. after several hours of sweat, tears, degenerate speech and foul oaths i managed to get the thing on the wall--crooked. which is where it sits now.