At This Time, I Only Eat Hot Dogs and Artichokes

So, John and I regularly chat during the day on YIM.  Some days it's only a few sentences, and others it's long conversations.

His first message to me today was to ask if I'd seen the super-cut "Star Wars - The Force Awakens" trailer.  It combines all of the footage from the three trailers.  I finally got some time and watched it.  You can too:



I told him when I was done that I was now seven-years-old and want all the toys.

The Duck Army Videos

Have you seen the Duck Army video?



When I showed this to my wife and friends, there were 8 million views, and as I compose this there are over 9.6 million views.

Now, Adam Savage (of Mythbusters) saw this video and had to have his own collection.



And we all have the same reaction as Adam does.

But Adam made a duck bomb.



Adn then now, he has made a hanging bomb.



And here's how he made it.



Now, as Adam says, these are dog toys.  My Dad and I could not imagine them lasting long against a dog, but apparently, they are pretty sturdy.  Also, pretty annoying.



I'll admit that I did this post mostly to have all of these videos together for myself, but...  Share and Enjoy!

Music Thoughts

Yesterday, Mark Knopfler's song "Going Home" from the "Local Hero" soundtrack came on my iPod.  I think I listened to it four times.

When touring with Dire Straits, Knopfler used to close the concert with that song.  I first heard it as the last song on the live concert album Alchemy.  It's an amazing song.

And actually the entire "Local Hero "soundtrack is interesting with some very touching portions.  And listening to "Going Home" you can easily see why he was chosen to do the soundtrack for "The Princess Bride".

Long Weekend

So, I took a long weekend on Friday (in no way connected with not getting Columbus Day off on Monday) and had a special fun weekend.  I'll take it backwards.

Sunday, Jennifer was look for something to watch on Amazon, and she happened to come across "Back to the Future".  Now this movie is 30 years old, and I would have bet large sums of money that we had watched it together, but apparently not.  So we watched it and she really enjoyed it.  I asked if she wanted to watch Part II, and she said sure.  We almost didn't watch Part III, but she was hooked.  It was a great movie marathon.

Saturday was our monthly GURPS game.  We had a good length session and had lots of fun and laughs.  I was sore and a little distracted, but that was to be expected.

Friday, I started a new tattoo piece on my arm at a tattoo shop called Tigers Blood Social Club that Jennifer and I found on Alameda a few months ago.  And Friday, it was my turn back under the gun.

I've been pondering the concept of this portion for a bit, and have been looking at this artwork for inspiration.  The symbol in the artwork is a stylized S from the font that DC uses for the Kryptonian language in the comics and was also used on "Smallville".  I asked Ryan, the artist, to combine the artwork with a design from this t-shirt.

It was a long session, but we talked about movies and music and comics.

Ryan is traveling next month, so I'll be going back in December, and we'll see if we can finish this one.  I will say that the arm (at least where I got mine done) was a lot easier than on the back.  He was rarely tattooing and making my skeleton vibrate.

Hearing the Martian

So, I take regular walks at work to keep from sitting all day.  I thought it would be good to listen to something other than music, so I've been catching up on my podcasts.  Until I started walking, I hadn't listened to podcasts since finishing fieldwork in Lodi.  You see, I like to read while on BART, and so I have music for that, and I would listen to podcasts while I was driving to and from Lodi.

Now my two main podcasts are Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier's "SModcast".  I've been listening to it pretty much since the beginning, and it's lots of fun.  However, I ran out of those.  I also listen to Kevin's "Fatman on Batman" in which he interviews people associated with Batman in movies, TV, and animation.  Lately it's become an overall celebration and chat about all things comic books with Marc Bernardin.  I have also recently run out of those as well.

So, I went looking and found out that Adam Savage does a podcast called "Still Untitled".  Now, it's not news that I really like "Mythbusters", so this just kind of follows along.  And this podcast is all kinds of fun.  My only complaint about it is that it is too short.  Or at least, it seems that way.

I've already written about Andy Weir's The Martian, but there is more to the story now.  Adam interviewed Andy in the video below:



And recently, I listened to the podcast spoilercast of The Martian.  I won't embed that one because if for some reason you haven't read it yet, and want to, the temptation to watch may be too strong.  Just remember that the movie opens Friday (tomorrow).  One of the things the guys brought up regarding how good the book is, is how great the audio book is.  You see, the majority of the book is written in first person journal format, and the act of having it read to you is a lot like hearing a real first person account of a tale.

So, I picked up the audio book.  It's about an 11 hour MP3.  I started it on Tuesday, and with travel to work, daily walks, and lunches and things, I have managed to be about 8.5 hours into it right now.  It took a bit of will power to get over personal the stigma of smiling, giggling, and snorting at the funny bits while I'm walking around the block in Walnut Creek or while on BART.  And those BART rides haven't all been just from MacArthur station to Walnut Creek, yesterday it was going through Oakland on the way to and from San Leandro.

If you can take the time, listen to the book.

And then tomorrow, go see the movie.