My brother-in-law, Rob, scored a 74 shooting hoops in Party Games …using a mirror.
Wii: 74 in hoops, with a mirror
While I can’t score more than 12 points, my brother-in-law scored 74 points …with a mirror.
Category: Fun
Fun things, like games, trivia, and the like.
The Most Sublime Hot Dog
Explosive food, little old ladies, and an empty bucket on a train.
The other night I had the most sublime hot dog. I don’t mean it was good, I mean it turned straight to gas.
The place was the MCI Center, and I got to see the Wizards play the… oh, who am I kidding. I was trying to make out the cheerleaders from four stories up while eating 6 oz of cotton candy from a plastic $5 bucket. Which, I might add, I refused to throw out since I paid so bloody much for it.
The most enjoyable part of the evening was not the game, but the ride home. As we were waiting for the metro train to arrive, an old lady sat down next to my friend Mike and started to listen in on our conversation.
“So, Walt, we’re thinking of having you over for Christmas. Have you ever had lamb before?”
“Yeah…”
“Oh. What’d you think?”
“I didn’t care for it that much,” And as I noticed the old lady listening in, I quickly added, “but the Bar-B-Que kittens were delicious.”
This prompted the look I was after. And she instantly engaged Mike in conversation to check the veracity of our conversation. At least enough to ascertain that we were good friends.
As the conversation took a turn to prior places lived, it turns out Mike and the old lady had both been to Germany. And, much to the confusion of those around them, started speaking in German. And they did quite well, I must say.
Too well. Cutting me out of the conversation, along with every other eavesdropper in earshot.
I informed Mike that this was America, and that we spoke English here; then I asked to see his legal status. Normally, I don’t engage in this kind of bold maneuver with an armed officer of the law, but by now the overpriced confections instilled a bravery that only spun sugar can do.
Naturally I backed down as he has more ways to kill me in his little finger than a pissed off villain in a James Bond movie.
At this point the train arrived, and I sat down next to the nice little old lady. And her friend. And some other chick who thought it might be the wiser move to ignore me.
“So,” asked the little old lady, “how do you know each other?”
“Him?” I glanced to Mike. “He’s my parole officer.”
Mike over heard enough to flash his handcuffs at me. The little old lady looked mildly uncomfortable and changed the topic.
“Where were you seated?” she inquired.
I explained we were in the 400’s. She then wanted to compare ticket prices (like that mattered now). And then we compared how many times we’ve been to a game at the MCI Center.
There’s a lot of promotional stuff going on at these events, whether it’s Chipotle throwing burritos into the crowd or t-shirts being dropped from parachutes to lucky winners below.
“So,” she continued, “have you ever caught anything at a game?”
“A cold.”
While I got a polite chuckle for quick delivery, she had enough and said, “get your friend; I want to talk with him.”
I yelled over to Mike, who was standing by the door. “She wants to talk with you, apparently I said something again.”
The chick to my left had vacated at the prior stop, so I slid into her old spot, and Mike took mine in front of the old lady.
And immediately, she switched into German again. Clearly, she wanted to practice.
I leaned over and said, “excuse me, you’re talking in code again.”
Mike turned to me and said, quite loudly, “I’m sorry. She said you had a nice ass.”
Without missing a beat, I addressed the old lady, “It’s true. You may be wondering why I’m covering my lap with a bucket.”
Mike, it turns out, wasn’t the only person to bust out laughing, seems a lot of people were riding our conversation, not just the train.
What Is the VDOT Thinking?!?
Sometimes you just have to wonder what VDOT is thinking when they build an intersection. (photo)
October 31st, 2007 – the intersection of Ashburn Village Blvd. and Shell Horn Road. My buddy Chris and I are driving, and a van races up next to us in the left turn lane.
I start laughing out loud so hard I almost wet myself while reaching for the camera.
I don’t know what was funnier, the fact that she was totally oblivious to her surroundings until the very last minute and we had to kindly let her over the solid white line into our lane or the idiots in VDOT who put a stop sign in the middle of a left-hand turn lane.
I swear, this picture is not doctored!
Abnormal Urinal Heights
Who on Earth would need a urinal this high? You’d have to pee out of your chin.
So I’m at O’Faolain’s Irish Pub in Sterling, VA and have to hit the little boys room.
The urinals had to been designed by the Thornton Burgess Toiletry Company.
The Baby Bear urinal was at my ankles. The Moma Bear urinal was where you’d expect it. And the Papa Bear urinal was at my chest. Seriously.
Take a look at where would “it” would have to be and use the standard height of a stall’s handle as a reference point.
I guess Andre the Giant was Irish.
Appetizer – 300 Pieces?
So I opened the menu, and the appetizer offered 300 buffalo wings. Three Hundred.
Went to lunch at the new Wings’N’Things off Rt. 606. Guess what they had on the menu?
A Platter of 300 Buffalo Wings. And they were serious.
I can only eat six before I’m full. Oh, and the catch, they all have to be the same sauce.
That’s a lot of appetizers.
iPee
Did I just have the first recorded iDream, because there was an iPhone in it… I wonder how AT&T is gonna charge this conversation. (Read on to see the conversation, which was just as strange.)
True story.
I was standing at a urinal when my iPhone rings. Now, normally I don’t answer the phone while in a restroom, but I was curious as to who was calling me as I haven’t made the number widely public yet. A huge green banner said it was my wife.
It was at that moment I woke up.
Or, more accurately, half-way woke up.
It was the middle of the night, I was under the covers, and when I turned my head, I could clearly see my wife sound asleep, and beyond her, my iPhone sitting in the charger, dark.
Yet, still half asleep, I could still ‘hear’ my iPhone ringing in my dream. Curious now as to what would happen, I decided as an experiment to answer it. I closed my eyes and instantly I was back in the dream in front of the urinal holding the phone.
I touched the answer button, lifted the phone to my face, and crystal clear I heard my wife say, very annoyed at me: “Clearly, you aren’t getting the symbolism here.” And then she abruptly hung up on me.
So, I put the iPhone in my pocket, woke up, and made my way to the rest room.
[Is this the first recorded iDream?]
Review: Harry Potter – far better than Transformers
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Loved it, loved it, loved it. …but two minor things distracted me. Still, loved it, loved it, loved it.
I have to say this is the first Harry Potter movie that I walked away from enjoying beginning to end.
Having seen it in iMax on opening night, didn’t hurt either.
The story, while it couldn’t nearly hold everything the book delivered, was extremely well edited, conveyed the pertinent points, and kept good pace. I actually enjoyed the fact that we were shown little snippets of scenes, and left to our own understanding of the wizarding world to fill in the gaps. For instance, we saw the Hogwarts train exterior, then Harry behind a window, and suddenly he was at his destination — none of the details were drawn out. The story moved to film nicely.
Additionally, there are some characters you love to hate (not just Snape this time), and the movie invokes an engaging sense of emotion where you want to just reach out and strangle the antagonists yourself. Well done!
But what really impressed me, especially after seeing Transformers, was the most spectacular display of special effect wizard battles that has ever been seen to hit the screen. You thought the plasma splashing wands were great in the last movie, be prepared for multiple intense battles that will make you want to buy the DVD just to re-watch those segments. And, they spend plenty of screen time on them!
The poorly implemented days of CGI kids on brooms are gone; the special effects are top notch. When you see the dementors, you’ll be amazed at how fluid they look. The special effects team has done wonders with particles and smoke-like wisps.
The dramatic scenes and forced perspective for impressive use of space are just outstanding. There are plenty of interior and exterior shots of the castle to enjoy.
Oddly enough, the only two faults that were remotely distracting were pretty petty. One, during the opening scene some of the sweeps and pans felt overly blurry, then again this could have been iMax exaggerating the effect. Two, Hermione has gone down a cup size, which either makes it feel like they shot things out of order, or they really tried to tone down her feminine side; in the prior movie, she looked like adolescence hit, which made them seem closer to graduation — now Harry looks older, and she looks younger. Weird. Maybe it was just an unflattering outfit. But, whatever it was, it made the ages of the characters just slightly discontinuous.
Walt gives the new Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix a big thumbs up!
Review: Transformers
Transformers… yah, I liked it. But then again, I had limited expectations.
I have to admit that I enjoyed Transformers as an action-packed, explosion-filled, CGI piece of eye candy; having just those expectations and nothing else, I found the movie enjoyable, with only minor distractions for erratic conservation of mass, unrealistic scale, and the frequent violation of physics — in particular stopping a body in free fall.
With that in context, I’m completely dismissive of any plot or acting. In short, I wanted a visual feast and only a visual feast, and Transformers delivered in spades.
Walt gives Transforms a fluffy thumbs up.
Warning To Parents of Young Children
While you may be totally okay with your child seeing giant robotic battles and explosions, the movie did a good job at not going into any gore (several people do die on screen, but they basically crumple to the ground). Where you may take issue is that there’s a segment that feels like a tip-of-the-hat to American Pie with a more than a glossy pass on the topic of masturbation. That PG-13 is there for a reason, and I don’t think it’s the deaths.
Nova Passes
Nova passes.
June 6th, 2007 was a little hard for us. Our cat, Nova, died rather quickly and without warning.
Nova, for those who knew him, was the lighter of our two cats and was about 12 years old. Ever since he was a kitten, he displayed numerous engineering traits that were fairly odd for a cat. In particular, he’d open things. I don’t mean he’d push against a door and get lucky, I mean he’d reach under with his paw, and pull a door open — something that required a great deal of force if the air conditioner was on and pressurized the room.
He’s also open kitchen cabinets the same way. He’d open the pantry to get to treats. He’s even slide open the screen door to get a better view of the birds outside.
In particular, his most amazing stunt was opening drawers.
We discovered this feat when we put his some play mice away. When we came back, he had gotten into them all and the drawer was open. Given that the drawer was fairly heavy and had a knob on it, we saw no way he could have done this without an opposable thumb.
So, we put the toys back in the drawer, turned on a video camera, and sat quietly.
Nova looked up as us, realized we wanted him to go in the drawer, so he walked under the end-table, stood on his hind legs, and pushed the drawer from the bottom. It slid out an inch. Then he walked to the front of the end table, put his paws on the lip of the drawer, and pulled backwards. At that point, he stood up further, reached in and got the mice, and dropped them on the floor in front of him, turning to look at us.
This wasn’t an accident. He did it repeatedly. And more so with praise. I have lots of video footage of him doing this, and other things of similar caliber. He was an intelligent problem solver, a trait that couldn’t be said of his orange twin brother.
Everything ended at 6:05pm that Wednesday.
I came home from work, he got out of his sunbeam, walked into the room with us, and then let out an unexpected elongated cry, fell on his left side going into seizures. Withing 45 seconds, he was dead and lifeless. No warning. No notice. No sickness. Nothing. Just, gone.
10,000+ Items Ranked At Amazon
I just ranked over 10,000 items at Amazon. Whoa.
To say that I’m a book junkie is an understatement. I love books.
Today marks a special day, as the number of items I’ve rated at Amazon.com rolls over the ten thousand mark.
Honestly, I was expecting something between the site blowing up and getting a coupon for a free book.
Looks like the next major milestone will be 4 billion.