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Phantom Limb November 30, 2006

Posted by Patrick in : Music , add a comment

Can these guys stop writing incredibly catchy songs that stay in my head for days?

A Christmas boogey November 29, 2006

Posted by Patrick in : Music , 2 comments

If I had only half the moves of some of these characters…The first minute can be a little repetitive, but it gets better. Enjoy!

Sufjan’s Songs for Christmas November 27, 2006

Posted by Patrick in : Christianity, Music , 2 comments

Since Colin gave a nod a few days ago for Sufjan’s newest 5 CD release of Songs for Christmas, I picked it up over the weekend when I was at the mall. It can be had for just over $20 at Borders. That’s not a bad deal for over two hours of Christmas music which is packaged pretty nicely. Inside the box, you receive a songbook with lyrics, chords, and Sufjan’s story of how he at first hated Christmas and then came to love it. You also receive a cartoon strip of “The Worst Christmas Ever” and five stickers. Speaking of which, Adrian, are the stickers at your place? I can’t find them.

His study of Christmas and music is personal and funny. Here’s a good quip:

What did the angels renounce in the wake of the shepherds’ trepidation? “Have no fear,” they petitioned with trumpet blasts and a garish display of constellations. But that’s like waving a gun in a bank lobby and demanding: “Everybody stay calm!” Music, of course, works much differently. The most discriminating of chord progressions can disarm the most arrogant of men, including myself. Christmas music does this to the highest degree. It intersects a supernatural phenomenon (the incarnation of God) with the sentimental mush of our mortal lives (presents, toys, Christmas tree ornaments, snow globes, cranberry sauce), leaving in its pathological wake a particular state of mind one can only describe as “that warm, fuzzy feeling.”

My arm hurts November 24, 2006

Posted by Patrick in : Sports, Software , 2 comments

My brother purchased a Wii system this past week and it is a blast. So far, he has only two games: the standard Wii sports game and Zelda. It’s an impressive system. I just learned too that you can buy previous Nintendo, Super Nintendo, N64 games as well as Sega Genesis and Turbo Grafix 16 (do you remember that?) games.

Talking to my brother, I’m amazed at the current game console market. Do you know that a PS3 sold on eBay a week ago for $9000? Who has that kind of money for a game system? Out of 174 PS3’s, the average price for a PS3 on ebay is just over $2600. That’s ridiculous.

Anyway, my arm hurts from playing a bunch of tennis and bowling. I’m actually kind of worried that there will be scores of hard-core gamers out there who will injure themselves with Wii. I almost punched a hole through my parents’ dropped ceiling earlier today.

Okay, this post is a little embarassing. Happy Black Friday. My sister and I plan to see The Departed tomorrow. I’ll let you know how it is.

9:36ish King’s Rendezvous November 23, 2006

Posted by Patrick in : Friends , 1 comment so far

I’m not sure who started it, but a group of high school friends started congregating at King’s on Thanksgiving morning for some pre-game feasting at 9:36ish. This Thanksgiving marked the ten year anniversary. The crowd varies from year to year, but it is always a highlight. It’s fun to learn what everybody is up to.

This year, I learned to pace myself. On a normal day, I order the King’s Country Breakfast which is truly a breakfast fit for a king: two eggs, four strips of bacon, a good serving of home fries, two pieces of toast, and three pancakes. It wouldn’t be that bad on a normal morning. But when you visit your aunt’s at 2:00 PM and do not stop eating until 7 PM, digestive tract space is at a premium. Today, the lesser two eggs special was the better fit.

Have a good Thanksgiving everybody.

Seven hours for one second November 21, 2006

Posted by Patrick in : Movies, Reading , 6 comments

Sunday, I showed up for an extras’ call for Smart People. I still don’t know what the movie is about. All I know is Dennis Quaid is the main actor playing a CMU professor. He was on set on Sunday. And for the seven hours there, I think I probably had a second’s worth of camera time. The glamour of Hollywood is wearing thin.

While waiting to be called on set, I started Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor. This novelette has been on my list for a while. So far, it starts out with Hazel Motes as a painfully awkward son a preacher man travelling to the big city after the war. So far, I’ve only read chapter one.

And while at Borders today, I picked up A Simple Plan. About eight years ago, I watched this movie with my friend Jeff and was captivated by its dark plot. The story follows two brothers and a friend stumbling across a large sum of money and the decisions they make in order to keep it. As the story unfolds, you watch how it’s the small decisions that shapes lives and character. It’s one of the scariest movies I’ve seen.

Claudia still limping along November 19, 2006

Posted by Patrick in : Random , 3 comments

Claudia is the name of my ‘96 Mercury Sable. Apart from the dent on the trunk, bike grease smeared across the back seat, the car is still chugging along at 163,000 miles. A couple of months ago, my headlights stopped working all of a sudden. A cop in Bloomfield pulled me over around midnight one evening to tell me this. Thankfully, he let me go. The next day, another cop pulled me over, and this time he realized my inspection stickers were outdated. Again, he let me go which continues my lifelong streak of never receiving a ticket. Judging by my car and my appearance, I think he surmised that I was a broke college student.

Shortly thereafter, my coworker and I diagnosed that the multifunction switch on my steering column was bad. With great eagnerness, I bought a used switch from a junkyard and replaced it. This meant removing the bottom cover to my steering column which meant removing the ignition lock cylinder (the place where you insert the key). And ever since then, my car has stopped working.

A couple days ago, I towed it to Walter’s Automotive in East Liberty. This place came as a recommendation from three different friends and I can’t stop talking about the shop. It’s a small place with one garage and sparse parking. Waiting around to talk to him could leave your head spinning because of the incessant phone calls and continuous parking and reparking as cars are shifted in and out.

But, it’s worth the wait. Tim, the guy who runs the place, is honest and fun to deal with. He has many stories of working with cars, owning rental properties, and Pittsburgh in general. He looked at my car and diagnosed that it was the passive anti theft system, which basically shuts down the ignition system when it’s been tampered with. Only a dealer can correct this problem. So he gave me a good contact at a dealer whom I’m presently dealing with and didn’t charge me a dime for his time. He’s definitely the guy I’m going to work with from now on. Check him out if you’re in the Pittsburgh area.

Data visualization to the max November 17, 2006

Posted by Patrick in : Software , 2 comments

Check out some of these great projects done by Ben Fry who’s currently teaching at CMU this year in their school of design. “His research focuse[s] on combining fields such as Computer Science, Statistics, Graphic Design, and Data Visualization as a means for understanding complex data.”

Smart person? November 16, 2006

Posted by Patrick in : Movies , add a comment

With all my busyness lately, I committed to a twelve hour shoot for this movie Smart People that they’re filming in Pittsburgh this Sunday afternoon.  Are they sure that they have the right person?  It starts at 11 AM.  I hope to get some much needed reading done.

Up too late

Posted by Patrick in : House, Movies, Music , 1 comment so far

I think it was the Masala tea that James and I had at Udipi for dinner. These last couple weeks have been busy and I’ve barely made a dent in the house. First of all, there’s a lot of work at work, which is a good thing. But it’s caused me to stay late some of the days which is rare. Currently, I’m working with SD cards and trying to implement a FAT file system on an embedded device. Needless to say, it’s going a bit slower than I had hoped.

The apartment fits the slow category as well. I was already to tackle the kitchen, but there’s a slight problem. My kitchen floor slopes a bit. It’s not drastic, but it’s noticeable. Maybe that’s expected for a 75 year old house, but I’m not sure. I plan to have a professional come in and look at it, and give me advice on the structure in general. You’d think these things would come up in the home inspection.

And as far as enjoying things around town, Andrew Bird played a good show last Friday night at CMU. The sound was a little muted, but he was good. He opened for Blackalicious, which ended up being the largest rap/hip-hop show that I’ve been to. It’s odd. Pittsburgh does not get that many artists that come through its steel gates, but the ones that come, end up returning again and again. This was Bird’s third show within the past year.

The plan for the next few days is to pick colors for the rooms, tow the car to a shop (the ignition doesn’t work), and figure out a budget. I’ve always been terrible at budgets. Anyone have any advice?

Oh, and I got a call for another movie that they’re filiming in Pittsburgh: Smart People. They asked for tomorrow, which I can’t do. It would have been a 14-hour shoot beginning at 11 AM.