Tch, looks like Finley‘s out. No April 12th post. I was hoping Beefy’d also miss his deadline, but no such luck. Finley’s blog was okay… I never really got excited about it for two main reasons: I hate sports and he doesn’t believe in paragraph breaks. Still, there were some high points; I liked reading about his daily web rounds and his trip to the casino/resort in Skagit Valley. One of the cool things about the IMBC is that it makes you realize everyone has something to offer.

Brett and I went to lunch at this restaurant on 2nd Avenue called Noodle Ranch. We were turned on to it by a complimentary micro-review in The Stranger. Weird place. It was kind of dark, utterly deserted, had an unfinished cement floor, and bizarre chairs that looked like something made in shop class with extra bits of plywood and two-by-fours. The art on the walls consisted entirely of mostly-blank canvases with off-center symbols reminiscent of Greek characters, cattle brands, or crop circles. But what exactly does one expect from a cafe that specializes in, and I quote, “Pan-Asian vittles”? We both got the chicken pad thai. Awesome deal — for $7.50 we each got a huge, heaping plate of the slightly spicy noodle amalgam. Neither of us could finish the meal in a single sitting, so we grabbed a couple takeout boxes. Amazing stuff.

I started reading Runaways. If you’re not familiar, it’s a comic set in the Marvel universe. Basically tells the story of a bunch of kids who find out their parents are supervillains. Jones and Beefy recommended it to me. Overall, the story is decent, but I really dislike the main characters — they’re unrealistic, tempermental, irritating, and overly stereotypical. And of course half of them are immediately lusting after each other, setting up lame love-triangles. Of course, I’ve barely even started on volume 2 yet, so I’ll give it time. At least the art is good.

Today’s image is an amazingly detailed rendering of an armored alien examining a skewered, translucent critter. If you know the artist’s name, please let me know in the comments below.

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Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred three score and six.

Revelations 13:18

Don’t worry, I’m not going to go all Jesus-freak on you. But I do like the way the verses in the King James Version sound and this one seemed like an appropriate quote with which to open post #666. All the Revelations verses are pretty interesting, but did you ever notice that the number given in the KJV could possibly be interpreted as 12,066? (That is, 603 score and six, or (603 × 20)+6.) Of course, this falls apart when you consider that the Textus Receptus, from which the new testament in the KJV was translated, phrases the number as “hexakosioi hexēkonta hex.” Even if you don’t speak Greek, the meaning is pretty clear.

Another interesting fact about the number of the beast: If written in Roman numerals, it displays all the characters up to five hundred (D) in descending order. To wit: DCLXVI. And it’s the sum of all the numbers on a roulette wheel. And it’s the TCP/IP port used for multiplayer games in Doom. Oh, and it’s the last three digits of my checking account number (cue spooky music).

Alright, now that I’ve stamped the life out of that subject… I saw Thank You for Smoking tonight. Just barely made it to the theater in time — I sat down literally about twenty seconds before the film started. It was very good. Reminded me a lot of The Weather Man, though it has a much happier tone overall. But they’re very similar films; both are about divorced men hated by the public who make a connection with their progeny, deal with the death of a father figure, make (and recover from) huge mistakes, and eventually go on to bigger and better things. One thing I loved about Thank You for Smoking was that they didn’t cheapen it by making the main character learn a moral lesson. I love it when a film has the balls to feature a likable, unscrupulous protagonist who doesn’t change his ways or get his comeupppance at the end. And there was some great thought-provoking stuff on the philosophy of argument and its purposes. I’d definitely recommend the movie to anyone.

BTW, I hate to say it, but I’m enjoying the current IMBC dramafest. Drama’s a wonderfully piquant thing when you’re not part of it. To properly enjoy it, you need a modicum of schadenfroh, but anyone who knows me knows I possess this quality in abundance. Tim’s most recent post (in which he gives Posyden a piece of his mind) was particularly delicious. In fact, so greatly has T. Dizzle amused me that I have awarded him a spot on my blogroll. I can’t wait to savor the fallout from the feuds that are now forming in our little community. The entertainment potential for this quarreling is quite high.

I’m almost done with Fables vol. 6 now. Really interesting stories… Mr. North showing up, Snow White’s septuplets (by the Big Bad Wolf), Jack’s scheme in Hollywood, Boy Blue’s adventures in the homelands with the vorpal sword and witching cloak… all great. Especially Boy Blue’s story (who bears a striking resemblance to Stupendous Man). And there’s a huge, huge twist at the end, but I don’t want to ruin it for anyone.

I can’t believe how awesome Fables is. It’d make an awesome GURPS setting. Too bad it’ll never happen. They could easily do an entire series of books on it, like they did with Transhuman Space.

Moved some of my stuff over to the new apartment and got the new keys (they changed the locks earlier today; the previous lock was special one used only for vendors like the painters, carpet cleaners, etc.). The new linoleum floors look amazing — they look just like hardwood. Gotta replace the flickering fluorescent lights in the kitchen.

Beefy’s put down most of the IMBCers now, but the retaliations have been entertaining. Because of the trend, the whole competition’s been referred to as “The Drama Factory.” Posyden’s response to the trash talk was pretty funny — he posted videos of two of the things Beefy hates most: anime and fursuits. Speaking of Posyden, I got a kick out of his recent “IMBCer reviews.” I got off pretty easily, compared to the other participants:

HJO3….dude…I got nothing against you, but your blog post are boring as hell….however..I respect you enough to not insult you further than that.

He has a point. I should find a way to make these posts more interesting. At least my spelling and grammar are better than average.

Need some help with the ladies? Learn how to be an obnoxious lover in French.

Some taxidermists have way too much free time…

Seacrest out.

We dropped Brett’s moving truck off in Kent this morning. Also made arrangements for the second parking space and gave the complex manager the cashier’s check for the deposit and first month’s rent. Had Arby’s for lunch while we were in Federal Way. And I learned there’s a Maggie Moo’s about a mile from our apartment. Woot. Then, after returning to Seattle, I called Qwest and set up the landline for the new place… my new number will be (253) 835-3377 (which I think is easier to remember than my current number, (206) 728-4483).

Finished reading the 4th Fables trade last night. Fantastic story. And they introduced the coolest character — Frau Totenkinder. She’s this immensely powerful witch (and one of the good guys) who battles Baba Yaga in front of Old King Cole’s penthouse. She’s also the witch who lived in the gingerbread house and ate children (which explains her name — German for “Miss Deadchildren”). Apparently she was killed a number of times over the years, including the time Hansel and Gretel burned her to ash in her own oven. The last couple pages of the trade set up a bunch of surprise events for the next volume. Definitely loving this series. They do tend to kill off characters a little too frequently though… Boo, Bluebeard, the original three pigs… man.

In IMBC news, we’ve had our first casualty since the contest began. Tim (of Spiffy Randomness) was disqualified on a truly trifling technicality — his April 7th post was literally four words short of the minimum. How bogus is that? I wish he could’ve stayed in, but some of the participants are quite cutthroat about this little endurance trial. Anyway, to clarify the rules (and make sure the disqualification was as fair as possible), we all voted on exactly what parts of a post count towards the official wordcount. I’ll update the rules page with the expanded definition sometime later today.

You might not be able to tell from the thumbnail, but today’s image is exceptionally keen. I highly recommend everyone take a gander.

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Things learned today: (1) Moving is not fun, (2) Brett has way too much stuff, and (3) the traffic on I-5 always sucks.

I don’t have a whole lot to talk about ATM, so I’m going to use this post to review tonight’s new Saturday Night Live episode in great detail.

• Intro — Anderson Cooper 360. 7/10. Pretty funny, a great opening sketch. Seth Meyers plays the straight man really well. Banderas made an amazing Vicente Fox. Kenan Thompson’s Cynthia McKinney impression wasn’t very accurate, but it was funny. He should’ve been more bug-eyed.
• Monologue. 9/10. Short, but hilarious. Banderas must have a really great sense of humor. Loved the Shrek 2 reference (“Puss! …In boots!”).
• Basic Instinct 2: Return of the Beaver. 5/10. Not bad, but not particularly funny. Best part: When Poehler says “What do you think of that? That’s my vagina.”
• Confused Contestant on Deal or No Deal. 9/10. Probably my favorite TV parody they’ve done in quite a while. Fred Armisen’s Howie Mandel was awesome. Who knew Banderas could be that funny? Great stuff. And then the suitcase model tries to explain how the game works… Lawl. Roffle. Good stuff. And they really have a point about the gameshow; it’s ridiculously complex considering the demographic it targets.
• Julie the Automated Customer Service Voice. 6/10. A little bit long. I could’ve sworn I’d seen them do this same kind of joke before… is Rachel Dratch’s Julie a recurring character now? Anyway, decent filler sketch.
• Besos Y Lagrimas. 4/10. Pretty good for the first minute, but really dragged after that. None of the performances here really stood out IMHO. I did like the theme song they used though; it reminded me of the town music from Untold Legends.
• 13th Annual Women’s Basketball Coaches’ Fashion Awards. 3/10. A couple funny moments, but mostly just filler. Too long, too boring.
• Weekend Update. 8/10. I always look forward to this segment. Lately it’s gotten a little too preachy about politics… they keep doing the same jokes about Bush being dumb, or Bush being a warmonger. Yadda yadda. The Dan Rather commentary on Katie Couric’s move to CBS was pretty good. Amy Poehler seems to get the best lines in Weekend Update lately — “Also pushing youngsters into intercourse: Me.” Finesse Mitchell’s PSA on the “Signs of an Angry Black Woman” was good. The Chad Michael Murray bit wasn’t great, but I don’t know who he is anyway. Too long. The Chris Kattan appearance was definitely the highlight of the segment. His movies are god-awful, but he’s amazing when he does his characters… Gay Hitler was only on SNL once, but I swear it’s one of the best things I’ve ever seen on the show.
• Catherine Zeta-Jones Has to Kiss the Stand-In Zorro. 3/10. Meh. Feels like someone wrote it in a half hour.
• New Couple in a Karaoke Bar. 4/10. Wow, Poehler and Dratch can really sing! Unfortunately, the sketch was too long and the jokes were pushed too hard. I think it would have been better if they’d focused more on the dysfunctional relationship between the MC and her husband.
• Immigration Commentary, the Immigrants’ Plan. 10/10. Brilliant stuff. Finally, a sketch Horation Sanz can’t screw up. Best part of this week’s show.
• Pretentious Morons Tasting Wine. 5/10. What the hell? I didn’t get the premise for this sketch, but it wasn’t the worst one. Chris Parnell was pretty good… his foppish characters are really funny.

As for the musical act (Mary J. Blige), I skipped all those parts. Not my cup of tea. Overall rating for the whole episode: 7/10.

Update: This post is going up a bit late since my web site became unavailable for a couple hours last night. Whether it was Comcast DNS issues or DreamHost maintenance, I don’t know. I submitted a ticket and went to bed.

(Good Lord, this was a long post!)

I have things to do tonight, so I’m making this post now in case I’d have otherwise forgotten. So here’s a rundown of my day so far: Pinewood Village calls me at about 10:30 am and says “Oh gee, sorry, but it turns out your unit won’t be ready until Thursday. Hope that doesn’t inconvenience you.” And of course I know that Brett already spent last night packing up everything he owns and most of the early morning loading it onto a truck. So I say, “Um. Well. Could you call Brett? I think he’s already on his way there.” Then I wait a bit, everyone plays a little phone tag, and eventually they agree that we can move all his stuff in there, but it all has to go on the carpet because the linoleum’s getting replaced on Monday. Then we have to go back and move everything onto the linoleum because the carpet’s being cleaned later in the week. Fun.

I read Truth, Justin, and the American Way #1 yesterday. I had been hesitant to open it since I assumed the art would done by Aaron Williams or Scott Kurtz and that it would be in black and white. Not so! They actually got someone good (some Italian guy… Ferrario, I think?) to illustrate the whole thing. Not that I really dislike Williams’ or Kurtz’s styles; it’s just that they’re more suited to strips. Anyway, the comic was decent. The humor is a little on the sitcom-y side, but I’ll give ‘em the benefit of the doubt for a few issues. Why is it that the girlfriends of superhero protagonists always seem to come off as whiny and demanding? BTW, if you’re interested in the comic, a bunch of page-scans can be found in this Newsarama article.

I really need to shower and shave, so I’m gonna sign off here. Enjoy this awesome compilation of Web 2.0 logos.

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