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Vote Vote Vote Vote Vote Vote Vote Vote

Do you get the idea I want you to vote??  Seriously – regardless of who you're voting fore, get out there and VOTE!

If you're undecided about the Presidential campaign, try one of these sites to take a little survey and see who should vote for.  Some of the questions can be a little funky, but if you do all of them, I think you'll get a good idea of who you agree most with:

www.whoshouldyouvotefor.com

PoliticalBase.com

www.votehelp.org

www.votechooser.com

And if those don't do it for you, go to Project Vote Smart which collects all the information it can about every candidate, including state senators and representatives.  You can spend hours sifting through the information if you're so inclined!

Don't forget to vote tomorrow!!

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Reboot!

Wow, I suck as a blogger, eh?  Over two months since my last post and only four since July.  Ugh.  

Let's start again, shall we?  Here's a little update and an offer at some excuses as to why posts have been sparse:

First of all, I got married at the beginning of October.  Woot!  But that took up the vast majority of our time.  In fact, we're just starting to remember what it is like to NOT have a wedding to plan and not come home to our version of Martha Stewart's workshop, with tables covered with ribbons, stamped cards, things to fold and stuff to cut.  I thought that planning a wedding would provide lost and lots of good material for blogging, which it probably did, but I really only had time for three posts. 

So between our wedding and me being in the wedding party of a friend a month before ours, things were pretty hectic this past summer.

Secondly, after the wedding comes the honeymoon!  We had a great TWO WEEK trip, going to Las Vegas, then Lost Angeles and Malibu, then driving up the Pacific Coast Highway to San Francisco and Napa/wine country.  That WILL provide some fodder for some posts once I get my head around it all and sort out some photos I'd like to post. 

So besides wedding related stuff, what have I been up to?  The usual: reading, listening to music, cooking, NOT blogging…  a couple of highlights of stuff that I'm into recently:

  • Posting and reviewing on GoodReads.com

  • Speaking of reading, the last few books I've read have been: "Good Omens" by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, "The Ridiculous Race" by Steve Hely and "The Watchmen" by Alan Moore

  • Currently reading: "The United States of Arugula " by David Kamp

  • Also been poking around on DancingSpoon.com (for foodies) and JamsBio (for music obsessives).  Also finally starting to understand Facebook.  Kind of.

  • Saw Ryan Adams for the second time back at the beginning of September.  Great show!

  • Enjoying the new Ryan Adams CD, Cardinology and the new Metallica CD, Death Magnetic.  Also enjoying heavy rotation in off the iPod: Ryan Adams, The Shins, The Raconteurs, Tool, Cream, and my annual Halloween mix featuring Iron Maiden, Type O Negative, Motley Crue and a few other "scary" metal songs.

  • Catching up on TV: Mad Men, The Amazing Race, The Simpsons, Family Guy, Dirty Sexy Money, Survivor, Kitchen Nightmares, and looking forward to Top Chef starting in a few weeks and Lost starting up in January.

So that about wraps up what I've been up to recently… I promise I'll start to post more often now!!

Web/Tech

Thursday Morning Web Giggles

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First of all, the best t-shirts I've seen in a while…  Band Geek Hero.  I know what you're thinking: "Finally!  I can get a Glockenspiel Hero t-shirt!  If only they will come out with the video game now!"

Second: Sexy People Portraits.  Regrettable portraits of people in the past.  Tread with caution, lest you find yourself in there. 

Last but not least, The Dairy Arch, a blog put together by my actor/comedian/performer/blogging cousin.  It gathers together some of the funniest stuff (according to him… but I trust him) out on the web.

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Myachi – Yes, it is a Reference to Mr. Myagi

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Just heard about "Myachi" a new hand game that is catching on rapidly.  This is one of those crazy things that crops up once in a while that kids latch onto and could quickly become a national obsession.  Past examples: hacky sack, Koosh balls, wall crawlers…  those are just the ones I think of from my childhood. 

The official web site is here, but it really doesn't explain the concept very well.  For a better view of what it is all about, do a search for Myachi on YouTube.  With only 678 videos as of this writing, it still is a young phenomenon (compare that to a search for "Diet Coke and Mentos" which brings up over 7,000 videos). 

It looks cool.  Looks like they are making a ton of money off of it as well – all that a Myachi bag consists of is a small 3-inch rectangular bean bag.  By the time Christmas rolls around, there should be a national shortage of them, schools will be banning them and parents will be standing in line at Toys R Us at seven in the morning to get their hands on the latest shipment. 

Oh, and the name?  A combination of "Mr Myagi" from the Karate Kid and Tai Chi.  And yes, the whole thing was originally conceived of as a drinking game.  Further proof that I should drink more often and write down my ideas while doing so.

Food and Drink

For Barbecue Wonks Everywhere

Its not secret that I'm a barbecue nut, and while I'm not exactly at the cutting literary edge with this book review, I figured it was worth mentioning in hopes of exposing it to a few new pople who might be interested in it.  Cornbread Nation 2: The United States of Barbecue is one in a serious of books that collects essays, poems and short stories about Southern Cooking, and in this specific case, all about barbecue.

In reality, most of hte book is abou tbarbecue – there is about 1/4 of the book that is about Southern food in general, including everything from ice cream trucks in the Virignia area, to the history of Ruth Chris' Steakhouse to geophagists - people who eat dirt.   It is all very interesting though, especially for a foodie who loves Southern food and is all well written. 

Food and Drink

One Order of Dirty, Complicated Food Please

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After watching the latest seasons of both "Top Chef" and "The Next Food Network Star," you can't help but notice that EVERYONE is concentrating on "clean, simple flavors" which got me to wondering…  at what point did food get so muddied and complicated that this trend started? 

I guess you could make an argument that heavy sauces that mask the flavor of the main protein are a distraction, but if you've ever had a good Bearnaise sauce, then you know its really not anything to complain about.  If I'm going to a fine dining establishment, I want complicated and complex food that makes me go "WOW!" not a couple of sliced tomatoes and a basil leaf that gets passed off as a marinara sauce. 

Culture

America The Littered

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For this Independence Day, we returned to the Esplanade in Boston for the Boston Pops concert and fireworks.  We did it differently this year, showing up around noon and being content with being able to hear the concert by being near a speaker station and being right on the riverbank for a great view of the fireworks.


After a great day and a fantastic fireworks display (that was unfortunately clouded by a lack of wind that kept the smoke in the way of the fireworks), we turned around to see the field where we were and discovered that our fellow concert-goers had shown their love for their country by leaving their trash all around it.  Add not just cups and napkins, but towels, a deck of cards, pizza boxes, and bottles.  It was so disappointing to see all this trash ruining a beautiful city park on a the river after a day of celebrating our country.


It is beyond me that people can have such feelings of self-importance that they feel they can just leave their garbage on the ground for others to clean up after them.  I know that it was a lot of younger people that did this, since it was where those groups were that the biggest messes were left, and it is particularly disappointing since with all the issues in this country involving pollution and the environment seem to be having some sort of an impact on people, but then something as simple as picking up after yourself is too much for them.  

Television

Scraping the UNDERSIDE of the Barrel

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So here we are, a few months after the writers strike ended and summer TV is in full swing.  Summer television has never been renowned for its high-brow nature, but this year…. oy vey!   Here’s a few of my favorite deep digs from the networks:

These shows are so bad they aren’t even bad enough to be good.  The only good things: Swingtown and Mad Men. I’m a little late to the bandwagon on the last one, but trust me, it is worth hopping on ASAP!


Culture

Nostalgia Algorithm

Very interesting and funny article from Wired magazinethat talks about predicting the popularity of nostalgia entertainment.  I agree that while I’m excited for a new X-Files movie, I’m not quite sure if the timing is right – it hasn’t been quite long enough for me to truly yearn for another movie, and with Lost on the air, that is fulfilling the freaky sci-fi conspiracy show void.  After Lost finishes up would be a perfect time – people would be looking for a similar thing to fill that void, and looking to old DVDs of X-Files and Lost would be a great segue into a new X-Files movie.