some days you got it. some days you…

Rochester got about four inches of snow last night (which suddenly made me thing of the album “six inches of snow” and now bad reggae is stuck in my head thanks to that) and I got my butt kicked in class. It was a great way for Sifu to send home the fact that I don’t currently have a strong enough root/impart enough intention into my techniques; all of which I needed to be reminded of (plus after the last few classes I might have been getting a little too big for my britches). Still I would have prefer a less ego-deflating lesson. Either that or I just need to work on getting rid of my ego.

Ok, I just checked the insta poll. I’m psyched that I had 9 people respond so far (which confirms that the audience of my page is at least as big UPN’s)! Of course 33% or 3 people didn’t know that I’ve been postings MP3’s. Folks, no offense but it’s right above the survey. Not to hard to find. Check out the current Shonen Knife goodness!

Tina is back from the Olympics and meeting Steve Young! Thankfully Chuck was with her at the time and kept her in line. ;-)

Finally, my blog goal for the evening is to try to get comments up and running tonight. So perhaps by tomorrow I’ll have a way for folks to respond.

they’re ba-ack…

Today we spotted Mariah in the nest box and a collective sigh of relief went up from kodak.com. Each year we always start to hold our breath about this time hoping that the Peregrine Falcons will make it back safely for another year of Birdcam. This year they’ve taken their sweet time making it back (especially considering the site dedicated to them is going live on Monday). We still have yet to spot Cabot-Sirocco (the male), but hopefully he isn’t far behind Mariah. She’s spent most of the day off most of the cameras perched atop Camera 1:

This also means two things: 1. I won’t be going out to the nest box again. I have no desire to have one of these birds attack my head (they are very territorial and will go after any nest intruders). 2. We won’t have to go with our back up plan. If the falcons had not returned we were going to place Tony in a Chicken Costume up in the nest. I still think that would have generated more traffic to the site. Oh well, there is always next year.

In other news, the last two days have been super self affirming. Unfortunately, the CFI I’ve mentioned in past posts is going to slip its delivery date. That’s not good, but there isn’t much that we can do about it. Otherwise work is great (especially now that the falcons are back). Outside of the big k.com, things are rockin’ as well. Last night was another good martial arts class. I finally feel as if I’m coming into my own when it comes to sparring. It is the second night in a row I’ve been complimented on my creativity. Now I need to work on breaking out on better angles when pushed/pressured. Things on the plays are also going well. We’ve got a venue, performance dates and hopefully *knocks on wood* a tech director. Plus I really feel like I’ve improved as a director. And, even with all that, I had time yesterday to veg and play PS2 for a bit (Baldur’s Gate = mindless fun…. yea!)!

Finally, there’s some new stuff on ze blog. I’ve added a rockin’ Insta Poll. So you’re expected to fill it out. Yeah, I’m talking you! Plus, there’s a new MP3 packed with 100% engrish goodness. Give it a risten!

– 30 –

monday, monday

I don’t get spam e-mailers. I work up this morning to find all of my accounts bombarded by credit-check, get rich quick, and sex site e-mails. The funny part is not a single one of these e-mail’s subject lines suggested their contents. There wasn’t even a half hearted attempt like: subj: Matt, here’s the information you requested…. Instead it was stuff like the following from “Crissy”: subj: I’ve changed my address. May be it’s me, but I don’t get the thought process behind this. Like I’m supposed to think:

oh look, my friend Crissy has decided to move without telling me. Wait a minute… I don’t have a friend Crissy. But she’s decided to move and is sending me the information. *opens e-mail* Oh, my new friend Crissy (and she must be my friend because she sent a nude picture of herself) hasn’t moved in the real world. But she’s got a new website! That I can visit! For only $19.95 a minute! That’s both a relief and a deal. Now where is my wallet…

Do these people get any bites from these random e-mails? Have you ever bought something from one of these?

The Gorillaz concert Saturday night in Toronto was fascinating and at the same time utterly unfulfilling. The band performed behind a translucent curtain that had a multimedia slide projection show on it. Above them hung a huge screen that had a video show projected on it. The show was short (lasting only an hour or so) and devoid of any of the typically concert interaction cues (thanks to having the band behind a curtain). There was no single point of focus and one couldn’t tell what was happening on stage. The band had almost no interaction with the audience (thanks to the screen). In fact, it took the crowd about two minutes to realize that they left the stage (probably one of the reasons there was no encore… a concert first for me). As for the videos, my hope was we were going to get videos of the cartoon versions of the Gorillaz playing the concert. Nope. Instead we got loops and patterns. No attempt was made to relate them to the show. Which was too bad., and a major missed opportunity. I’m still very happy that I went to see the show. I just wished it had been another weekend because I had to miss some fun goings on here in Rochester.

In other news, I’m scheduling a hair cut this week and I’m going to do something radical. I’m not completely sure what yet. But I think this will be part 2 of the makeover (only about a month and a half late). Oh, and a new MP3 will go up tomorrow. Any preference? I have a couple choices… wacky or more serious or just bad?

btw, Jenny I just tried the colorgenics and have to put in the vote that it’s a bunch of hooie. Mine made no sense (not even in those vauge fortune telling terms). I think I could get better results from Ms Cleo.

brain a leetle foggy

I went to a wine tasting last night. Very good, with the exception that tasting wine leads to getting tipsey. And I got a little tipsey. Ok a lot tipsey. So after about the third wine I don’t think I was the best judge of quality. Julia’s parents once shared a valuable piece of advice with me: if you do a winery tour, stop buying after the second stop as everything tastes good by then. I think they learned that lesson the hard way. Speaking of Julia, we had a long IM conversation last night (she had to suffer through my less than stellar typing due to my inebriation).

Back on the wine tasting, I met some new people and had a couple interesting conversations. They were all part of “The Young Friends of the MAG” (Memorial Art Gallery… where the boozin’ was held) group.

It looks like I’m not the only one who had a night of drunken fun.

Ok, I’m being a me too type and trying the Friday Five. Here’s mine for this week:

1. Hey, baby, what’s your sign? Do you think it fits you pretty well? Virgo and no. I’m a perfectionist and can be a little anal but that’s where the similarities end.

2. What’s the worst birthday gift you’ve ever received? That’s a tough one. I honestly don’t know. I’m always psyched when I get gifts. Oh wait, for years my family thought I liked Star Trek a lot more than I ever did. So I would get Star Trek gifts (typically books my mother found on the reduced rack) and usually try to explain that I didn’t want them to no avail.

3. What’s the best birthday gift you’ve ever received? Again I’m not sure. I really liked the presents that I got this year from everyone

4. What’s the best way you’ve celebrated your birthday thus far? Probably this year’s. Anytime I get to spend time with friends and they give me presents is cause for celebration.

5. What are your plans for this weekend? Goin’ to Toronto to see the Gorillaz. Plus I may have a date on Sunday night. Woo Hoo. Did you feel hell freeze over?

GRRRRRRR!

AAAARRGGUHHHHH! BLOGGER just lost my five paragraph post! GRRRR!

I don’t have enough time to re-key it, so you now get the short version in bullet form (it’s probably better this way anyway):

• I (and everyone at kodak.com) seems to be in a BLAH mood. Not quite a depression (that would take too much effort). Jenny seems to be experiencing the same thing. I’m also fighting a cold.
• I hope both the cold and the BLAH lift by the weekend as I’m going to Toronto on Saturday to see the gorillaz in concert.
• Last night was a good martial arts class. Pat killed my legs: today I have two half dollar sized bits of muscle pain halfway up my outer thigh nerve lines (making walking and climbing stairs ohh so much fun) thanks to his super accurate Thai kicks. There was also lots of sparring last night. Both Pat and Aaron did very well and I was pretty satisfied with myself (it helps having people to try and stay better than). I’m also started getting tutored on breakfalls by an Aiki Ju Jitsuist. I spent a chunk of time after class being pitched across the room.
• I blew Aaron’s cover by announcing he missed class on Monday. Next time let me know ahead of time when you’re going out to raise hell without Jenny knowing, ok? I’ll be happy to tell her you were in class *wink* *wink*. (I like the “I had to write a paper excuse” you gave her… great save!)
• Finally, I’ve been thinking a lot as of late about the amount of self censoring I’ve been doing on the blog. I’m not sure if it’s a mood or I simply care too much about what all my readers (the five of you) think. Who knows… A lot of thoughts and little things haven’t made it to the blog. Oh well…

Ok. Before this gets lost, lemme post!