Festival of Randomness

The Adventures of Being Crotchety in New York

2008-06-06T19:11:43Z

Liz had a one-day conference down at Columbia University, so the whole fam is in NYC for three days.

Well, not exactly; since I'm too cheap to spring for $350-$400/night NYC digs, we are instead kicking it Jersey-style over in Fort Lee.

Perhaps I am too crotchety for my own good; instead of looking for fun things to do, I'm just searching the internet for tips on free or cheap parking.

On the plus side, in our wanderings, Dexter and I found a playground in Central Park featuring a bunch of hippos standing (and some "submerged" into the ground). Go, free entertainment!

More posts (and eventually pics) later, I'm sure. Tomorrow is our big day of wandering all around Central Park; visits to Victoria Gardens, Central Park Zoo and the Museum of Natural History are all possibilities.

Oh, Glorious Internet

2008-05-21T04:44:10Z

Man, just when I think I can't be pleasantly surprised by the Internet anymore, I stumble across people who are translating the entire bible into LOLcat-speak.

THE. ENTIRE. BIBLE.

Okay, granted, they're only 61% complete currently. And granted, I don't even find LOLcat that amusing in the first place. But you've got to admire the dogged determination, or something.

If nothing else, it will be one of the great tests of the comedy theory of "it's funny; keep doing it and now it's not funny; KEEP doing it and now it's REALLY funny." While I am only familiar with the first three states, keeping this joke up for the entirety of the Bible might find additional "not funny" "EXTREMELY funny" as-yet-theoretical states. It's like some sort of Internet meme Large Hadron Collider.

Overanalyzing Children's Books

2008-05-18T17:44:01Z

So there has been a lot of Busytown love around our house, centered in particular, this week, on Cars and Trucks and Things that Go.

In general, I would say that if you ever have an opportunity to travel to Busytown, DO NOT GO. You'd think it would be fun because you could drive in a pickle car and visit Lowly Worm, but the chances of you falling, having something sprayed or dumped on you, or being caught in a horrible vehicular accident are basically 100 percent. The denizens of Busytown are so generally incompetent, in fact, that I've started to imagine it as some sort of Island-of-Doctor-Moreau-esque experimental location, filled with the tragic cheerful-but-mentally-deficient failed byproducts of genesplicing.

However, Cars & Trucks & Things That Go has, at least, introduced me to my new favorite Scarry character. Allow me to quote:

Say! Who is that making a mess of the [highway lane] line? That's not Goldbug, is it? No, it can't be Goldbug. He would never do a thing like that. That fellow must be Maniacbug.

And just for emphasis, he is also labeled. Stare into face of insanity and be forever changed:

I also came across this Flickr comparison of the 1963 and 1991 editions of the Best Word Book Ever. Kind of interesting to see what has been changed. My favorite is the relabeling of "beautiful screaming lady" and "brave hero" to "cat in danger" and "fire fighter", respectively.

Small Household Victories

2008-05-02T14:01:37Z

In the interest of getting some actual (if boring) content on here, I had two recent minor "i am a successful homeowner" victories:

1) Snaked my own sewer pipe. I could tell it was time to clear the roots out of the main sewer line again, so I decided to rent an electric snake and do it myself. The snaking itself was super easy. Actually getting the 100+ lb. snake out of my trunk and into the basement (and back) -- not so much. Mental note: make sure there is another adult available to help next time.

2) Upstairs sink was draining slowly again, so on a semi-desperate whim, I used the toilet plunger on the sink. Holy moley, does that ever work! (Side holey moley: there is some amazingly gross crud hanging out in our sink trap!

Of course, I'm still barely keeping up with mowing and not killing the front landscaping. One minor victory at a time, people!

Eponymous Song

2008-05-01T19:07:10Z

Happy Spring!

I know most of you reading are familiar with the song (and at least one of you reading can be heard in the video itself!) but I had to post it anyway.

Fostering the Nerds of Tomorrow

2008-03-09T05:11:36Z

Spent the day volunteering at the Mass. Regional Finals for Destination ImagiNation today. (Each team needs to supply a volunteer, so a friend whose son was participating enlisted me.) I had only been peripherally aware of DI, but man does it seem like a neat program. It's a little hard to describe, but basically it's an extracurricular activity in which teams of kids work for several months to solve elaborate challenges. It's nice to know I had a (very small) hand in helping to foster a new crop of nerdlings (technically, I guess I was mostly dealing with nerdlettes, since I was working with the improv/theater arts challenge and it was almost exclusively girls). As a bonus, all volunteers are strongly encouraged to wear a silly hat. My hat collection is a shadow of its college-days glory, but this did give me a reason to wear the Knitted Froghat (thanks again, rsheslin!) in public for the first time in years.

In other geek news, Dexter is officially a huge TMBG fan. I had to go out and get Here Come the 123s today, because I have been playing the videos online for Dexter and he is now requesting the songs all the time ("Listen to 'number two' in car?"). And a new ~~Terakian~~ dork is born.

Some More Music-Related Things

2008-03-03T18:25:10Z

HOLY CRAP, is the new TMBG kid's album (Here Come the 123s) ever good!! Even if you don't have kids, I recommend checking out their new video podcast for families. Hosted by knit-puppet versions of the Johns, this weekly vidcast features a song/video from their new CD, along with a song/video from one of their other kids albums. "Nonagon" and "813 Mile Car Trip" are two of my favorites so far.

Also, I finally signed up for eMusic so that I could catch up on all the music I've been missing. So far I've downloaded some Colin Hay, Free Design, Edith Piaf (by special request from Liz since we recently watched* La Vie En Rose), and to my delight the new Doughty album is up there so I grabbed some of that, and will grab the rest when my download credits renew. Anything you guys think I should be listening to? Oh, we also recently bought the Vampire Weekend CD, which makes me feel like a bit of a corporate whore since it's such the Official Hot New Band You Must Own(TM) right now, and the Ingrid Michaelson CD, which has some very good songs and one ridiculously great one (the single "The Way I Am"). We also obtained** the fantastic Peter Gabriel cover of Book Of Love.***

Yay! New music! Now I just need to stop only listening to podcasts on my iPod so that I can actually hear some of these new tunes...

*And by "watched," I mean "Liz watched and I slept through." The parts I was awake through seemed good enough, though.

**This song is on the soundtrack of the American remake of "Shall We Dance." All the online music stores have this album as an "entire album only" purchase; needless to say, the rest of the disc looks like crap ("Sway" covered by the Pussycat Dolls? I'll pay you NOT make me download that...). Luckily, I was able to find it via the internets -- and not even through bittorrent! A Genesis fansite had the mp3 for download.

***Oddly enough, this song has also just been covered by Mike Doughty. In an annoying rehash of footnote number 2, this track is ALSO only available by buying the entire album from iTunes. I'm hoping that in a few months they'll unlock it so I can get it for a buck.

Everything That Does Not Include Failure

2008-03-03T03:29:11Z

Just so everyone does not think it's all Spectacular Failure and Large Stretches Of Never, Ever Posting In My Livejournal, here are some other bits of recent news:

1) Dexter attended his first concert Friday night (Dan Zanes). For those unfamiliar, Dan Zanes specializes in playing family-friendly all-ages music, with a healthy dollop of traditionals and standards. Basically, his concert is a big-ass all-ages sing-along dance party, which makes for a pretty fun vibe. I think Dex was a tad overstimulated, as he spent the first half of the concert in stunned silence, but after he got used to the experience he started having a good time.

2) Um, I guess that's basically it. I'll try to think of more stuff later.

How To Fail Spectacularly

2008-03-03T00:38:00Z

1. Put water on to boil.
2. Turn on the wrong burner.
3. While prepping dinner, place a glass Pyrex casserole dish on the (unbeknownst to you) active burner.
4. Wait 5 minutes.
5. "Enjoy" the fun as said casserole dish literally explodes all over your kitchen.

The only good part is that none of us were directly in the kitchen in the time, which is why this post is not entitled "How To Grievously Injure Yourself And All Your Loved Ones."

In conclusion, harrumph.

TOO LATE, Robot Bill Clinton!

2008-02-05T18:34:57Z

Your charming-yet-automated phone call comes too late, for we have already voted for Obama. Not sure if it matters in Massachusetts, but we'll see.

Side note: Is Obama doing any robocalling? If so, do they call it Robamacalling? Because they really should.

...And To All A Good Night!

2007-12-24T23:04:33Z

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years, everyone! I actually have a lot I've been meaning to post (busy couple of months), but never got to it in real-time. Perhaps I will use the holiday lull to indulge in some retro-blogging.

Bought my annual bottle of Old New England Nog last week. Only 9 LJ posts since I last talked about it, which is a pretty sad commentary on my high blogging hopes for 2007. Oh well, maybe next year. In the meantime, I drown my bloggy disappointment in nog. Bloggy nog. Mmmm.

Graphic Design-y Goodness!

2007-10-22T19:23:35Z

So I've had enough freelance coming in that I finally decided to update my super-old program suite, and bought* CS3 and Quark 7. They just arrived today! Yay! So excited for all my new tricks! Of course, now all I need is for my new computer to get built so that I can actually install them. Boo!
!
*Technically, Liz bought them. Thanks, Student/Faculty Discount! I love you the best!

First Day Of Running The Wood Stove

2007-10-14T18:30:48Z

Title says it all. There are plenty of bitter aspects of fall and incipient winter, but a cozy fire burbling* in the wood stove sure as hell is NOT one of them. Mmmm.

*Those of you who might take issue with this adjective have probably not seen what happens when you close the damper and turn down the airflow on a fire. The flames get decidedly more ... languid.

The Lure and Dread of the App-O-Rama

2007-10-13T23:10:40Z

So, in my recent excursions around the intarweb, I stumbled upon a moneymaking scheme known as the "app-o-rama" which has me somewhat intrigued. If you haven't heard of it, these are basically the steps:

1) Apply for several dozen credit cards all at once, picking ones with good bonuses and cashback, and most importantly including several that have 0% Balance Transfer for 12 mos. (and ideally very little transfer fee).

2) When all the cards come in, take out as much as you can in Balance Transfers from the 0% cards.

3) Take this money and put it in a 5% or 6% savings account for 11 months, then pay the cards back and keep the interest.

Obviously there are a lot more details, and while not illegal, this is certainly not encouraged by the CC companies, so you have to pay close attention to minimum monthly payments and other letter-of-the-law stuff. But if you're willing to put up with all the hassle and CSR-wrangling, and you're willing to have your credit score go down the crapper for a few months (it eventually comes back), you can actually make pretty good money -- $50K at 5.5% is nothing to sneeze at, interest-wise.

But, to me it seems like too much hassle, and I absolutely HATE haggling, which is a lot of what this is (calling the cards and asking for higher limits, to waive the BT fees, etc.). Also, as a stay-at-home dad with a personal income of <10K/yr, I suspect I wouldn't get enough credit to make it worth my while.

If anyone else wants to try it, though, let me know how it goes! There is no shortage of websites to tell you how to do it.

Week Part II

2007-10-13T19:12:06Z

First off, finally changed the template for my page -- nice to see they've implemented Vox-style templates. Most of you probably just read this via your own friendpage, but personally, it's nice to have something with some contrast. My eyes were going out reading this on Liz's Macbook (did I mention Liz got a new Macbook? She's spoiled!), even with Nocturne activated.

So, before I completely forget what happened. Last weekend we took a quick trip to Boston. Perhaps financially ill-advised, as it took our monthly finances from "surprisingly in the black" to "oh shit," but what else is new? Friday morning we headed into Boston to hit the Children's Museum, which was a lot of fun. Had some lunch by the water and then headed over to our friends Jenn & Jim's house in Lexington. That evening was J&J's standing babysitter appointment, so we just added our kid to the pile and then the four of us went out for a fun adult evening. Sushi, drinks, and dessert fondue*. Pretty damn fun! Then to bed.

Saturday morning we hung out a while, received our biennial giant pile of hand-me-downs from J&J for Dexter, and then they all headed off to a SteveSongs concert, while we headed over to the
DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Gardens, which we hadn't visited in a year or so. Very fun, and it just so happened their current indoor exhibit was very cool: Trainscapes, in which they commissioned a dozen artists or so to make landscapes for a model train to drive through. As one could guess, the results ranged from the traditional-looking to the avant-garde. I think this was my favorite:

Then we drove home and had a quiet rest-of-the-weekend.

*no, not all at the same restaurant.

Brain-Eating Amoebas

2007-10-13T00:46:38Z

Heard about this on the Kevin Smith SModcast. Lisa & Greg, sounds like you picked a great time to get the hell out of AZ: Lake Havasu teen 6th person this year killed by brain-eating amoeba

A Very Active Week

2007-10-08T15:29:07Z

So.

Kicked off Monday at 6:15 with a trip to the Surgicenter for the long-awaited (dreaded?) ear tubes for Dexter. Went pretty smoothly and surprisingly quickly, although he was pretty bitter while coming out of the anesthesia. No immediate effects, although he does seem to be mimicing a bit more. Also, this may or may not be related, but he has been a giant stumblemonster all week. Maybe the removal of all his "ear goo" (note the technical term) wacked out his balance?

Monday evening, skipped yogalates to go see Tim Wise speak on campus. Liz sponsored this event and thus was already familiar with him, but me, not so much. I have to say, he is an excellent speaker.

Tuesday and Wednesday: lots and lots of work! Between Liz's normal load of work and classes, and my freelance having a particularly crazy week, it was pretty chaotic for a few days there.

Thursday evening, weekend got kicked off early with a Jonathan Coulton/Paul & Storm concert. We went with our friends Scott & Jeni, who actually know P&S from letting Da Vinci's Notebook crash at their house back in the day. As expected, concert was excellent -- JoCo just keeps getting better and better. Loved the addition of Fancy Pants to the set, and I almost got my dream of him doing Soterios Johnson, except that he ran out of time. I also managed to win the Paul & Storm mailing list drawing, netting me a CD, a jello-mold brain, pachouli incense and a ninja sword. Pretty sweet! After the concert Scott & Jeni and Paul & Storm went off to have a late night snack and chat, but it was getting late so Liz & I begged off and went home.

This entry is already getting long, so Friday and Saturday come later.

Re-Emerging

2007-10-01T19:17:31Z

Hello, LJ-world. Sorry I suck at keeping you updated!

Short list of what is going on:

-- Liz is taking two classes this semester and trying not to explode. Hopefully she won't.

-- Latest Braun Exercise Fad: Yogalates classes! They're fun, and the teacher is great. Liz and I are taking the class together on Monday nights (a "fitness date night") and hopefully her presence will inspire me to actually stick with this long enough to see tangible benefits. Plus, yogalates is totally fun to say. yogalates.

-- Dexter goes in tomorrow for ear tube surgery. General anesthesia, which is freaky, but only for five minutes, so that takes away a lot of the freaky factor. But seeing as how he has gone through nine rounds of antibiotics for various ear infections since last November, we are actually looking forward to his new infection-free middle ear lifestyle. Not as fun: getting to the Surgicenter (another fun word, btw) at 6:15am tomorrow morning. Boo!

-- My brother Larry is getting married next year. We have met his fiancee Marissa a few times and she is awesome. Wedding will be in the Torch Lake area of Michigan, so that will be a fun (if random) vacation. I have been asked to be a groomsman, and Dexter has been asked to be ringbearer. Hopefully by next July, he will be old enough to not eat the rings or run out of the church or say "Hail Satan!" or anything (since I don't believe AJV will have any access to Dexter between now and then, the last one at least seems pretty unlikely).

OK, I better go. The Dexter stirs from his unearthly slumber. I will try and post again before, say, May 2008. Bye!

Best Zoo Ever. (Also, Hi!)

2007-05-10T03:35:05Z

First off: Hi. Sorry I've been gone so long. Goal for 2007 is to up my posting from "rarely" to "infrequently." Baby steps and all that.

On to the main event. I don't know if there's any sort of award for zookeepers, but whoever had the brilliant idea to put squirrel monkeys and capybaras in the same enclosure should get one. Monkeys riding around on capybaras? That, my friends, is capital-A Awesome.

In other news, things go well. Lots of housework. Doing some freelance, which is nice. Dexter grows ever larger. Looking forward to summer and the multiple trips we will inevitably be taking.

Crazy Nog

2006-12-21T00:10:05Z

Crazy Nog, originally uploaded by robo_randy.

This was my impulse liquor-store purchase of the holiday season. Ye Olde Eggnog is made in beautiful Ye Olde Somerville, and it will ye olde fuck you up in proper holiday style.

My favorite bit from the label: "Our laboratory staff developed this traditional NEW ENGLAND EGG NOG after extensive research and experimentation and we unconditionally recommend it to be America’s finest."

Kudos to you, Old New England laboratory staff. Kudos.

A McSweeney's-esque Interlude

2006-09-22T05:14:30Z

Additional Verses Of "The Wheels On The Bus" (And How These Items "Go") When Daddy Sings To Dexter:
Monkeys ("eek eek eek")
Lions ("roar roar roar")
Robots ("beep beep beep")
Lasers ("zap zap zap")
Zombies ("eat your brains")
Draculas ("bla bla bla")
A Bus ("I am recursive")
Godzilla ("reaaaaahhhhh")
Pirates ("arr arr arr")
People ("let us out!")

Verses Which Daddy Is Officially Not Allowed To Add To "Old McDonald's Farm"
Slaves

Monster in my basement

2006-09-06T18:25:10Z

Monster in my basement, originally uploaded by robo_randy.

By and large, bugs and spiders do not bother me. This guy, however -- eesh! Wikipedia helped me to confirm that this is, in fact, a common "house centipede." I found this quote to be especially funny-because-it's-true: "Because they eat household pests, house centipedes are considered among the most beneficial creatures that inhabit human dwellings, but because of their alarming, frightening appearance and painful bite, few homeowners are willing to share a home with them."

Songs and Books and Beer

2006-08-20T06:37:44Z

Busy week for going out; tonight we went to a concert of the semi-famous Jonathan Coulton at the Montague Bookmill.

First, it was a great opportunity to visit the Bookmill again, which is a fantastic used bookstore right next to a river (it is, in fact, an old mill building) out in the middle of nowhere. And you've got to appreciate any bookstore whose motto is "Books you don't need in a place you can't find."

Second, if you are unfamiliar with Mr. Coulton, please make yourself familiar with him. I've pimped him several times in this journal, so what are you waiting for already? As a bonus, also in attendance was his frequent collaborator, noted author, expert and PC John Hodgman.

Thirdly, we had already been planning to go to the concert (with much anticipation, I might add), when Liz received an email from a friend of ours, Liz C. in New York, telling us that she recently realized that we lived (relatively) near Montague and, as such, should come up on Saturday because her brother-in-law was doing a concert there. Oh, and had she told us about her brother-in-law, because his songs were really great and we should check out his website.

So yeah, we got to hang out afterward and catch up with Liz and meet Jonathan Coulton. Not that it would have been hard to meet him otherwise, I suppose, but it's the "having something to talk about" that usually prevents me from starting conversations with performers I admire.

Oh, and the cafe attached to the Bookmill (the Lady Killigrew) serves delicious food as well as beer floats. Not root beer. Real beer. Mmm, dark stout and vanilla ice cream!

Wash Your Brain Out With SoaP

2006-08-18T05:17:35Z

Hi again. Lots of random stuff over the last month or so. I'll try and backdate some stuff.

An old college friend, Chris W., randomly was in town on his way from PA to ME. It so happens that tonight was also the sneak preview opening of Snakes on a Plane. One does not ignore cosmic alignment of this magnitude.

Spoiler: There were, in fact, motherfucking snakes ALL OVER that motherfucking plane. Who'd'a thunk it?

The movie itself is goofy and highly enjoyable, especially if you liberally quote from Airplane throughout the movie. "The lives of everyone aboard depend on us finding someone who can fly this plane -- who has not had snakes for dinner!"

We went to see the film at Northampton's Academy of Music, which is a very cool old art-house theater. Perhaps that was a mistake, because the Cinemark one town over apparently had a full house, whereas we only had about a quarter of the seats filled. Even worse, the audience (aside from our group of four) seemed to mostly be hipsters who were watching the movie far too silently. Why the hell are you not talking and making jokes? Are you afraid of missing the plot? Here: THERE ARE SNAKES ON THE PLANE!!! It was reminding me of when I got dirty stares for talking during a showing of Basket Case 2 at the Nuart.

Too many snakes. Must sleep now.

And When It's All Been Said And Done/Better That You ... Mowed The Lawn!

2006-07-13T05:07:49Z

OK, I'm officially giving up on the dream of having this be anything like a regularly updated journal of my doings. Hope everyone is happy with random humorous snippets; clearly that's all you'll get.

Anyway, we finally dipped a toe into the crazy future-world of MP3 players and got ourselves an iPod. Nothing fancy, just a 512MB Shuffle that is specifically for working out/housecleaning. All those commercials with the silhouette people doing their crazy dances? Fuck that noise; they need to show those silhouettes washing the dishes and mowing the lawn, because this thing ROCKS for making that shit bearable.

I did have a moment of irony the other day while I was mowing the lawn, and the Shuffle popped up with "No One Lives Forever" by Oingo Boingo. Yes, nothing makes you feel extra-good about yardwork drudgery than an incredibly rocking song about how life is so short.

Man, it's hot and humid here. Blech! On the plus side, we go to Martha's Vineyard for five days on Friday, which just happens to correspond with the weather becoming AWESOME. Yay!