|
| | I feel I should do some sort of 03 recap since it was such a significant year in my life. I m not gonna give a complete summary such as bp did but instead will just mention the really big events...
February. The big change of milieu. Quit Stoner after 4.5 years of employment and became a full time Philly boy.
March. War. War in Iraq and ever minute of it televised in vivid technicolor. I honestly thought this was the coolest thing ever. Hopefully all future wars will be televised.
April-June. That three month span was largely engulfed by insane volumes of wedding madness. The planning, arranging, fretting, etc.
July. Best... Wedding... Ever. So there it was. The big day. Nearly perfect. I know I keep saying that and people are supposed to think their own wedding was the best thing ever, but our wedding seriously was the best. Seriously. To this day (even this past weekend) we still get compliments about how wonderful it was. Not bad for a Holiday Inn basement affair.
July II. Another significant July event that gets overshadowed by the wedding. New friends. We met (thanks to an online RPG player locator of all things) Dan, Karri, Amanda and Mena, with whom we almost instantly became the greatest of friends.
August. Vegas. Three days in the city of sin for Chad and Daria s wedding. Great trip, wish it was longer. Stark juxtaposition of our two weddings. Ours: 18 months of rigorous, maddening planning. Theirs: meet with the wedding coordinator for 15 minutes the day before. Me: jealous.
September. Honeymoon. Jamaica rules. Being an absolute bum in Jamaica really rules. Gluttony, sloth and more pina coladas than I could count in a Carribean paradise.
September II. Bloodbowl! Best league ever! Uthus Bathu returns. My new league tracking software is lauded as the greatest gift to mankind since the invention of the integrated circuit.
November. Soccer mom van. Nuff said.
December. The King Returns. Greatest... Movie... Ever.
And that s 03 in review. Pretty significant in the bampf timeline. I really don t foresee much in the way of life altering events on the horizon for 04 save for me hitting 30... holy fuck, I ll be old.
So anyway, everyone have a great New Year s. We ll be heading to a Luper party and then to my parents for the tradition shooting of many guns. Sweet.
-bampf | | | I promised pics of our festive living room a while back. Finally got around to uploading:
Xmas 03
Voile.
-b | | | Back from the long break. Xmas was very good. Got much loot. Some highlights:
New DVD player
MP3 Player
New set of garb (including shoes and hosen... Nice!)
Family Guy and Simpsons DVDs
Books
Replica Nazi daggers
Underwear
Official Myron Cope Terrible Towel
Assorted processed meat products
a whole bunch of stuff really, there was quite a bit more, but those are just some of the ones that come to mind. My family tends to go all out when it comes to Xmas gift-giving. The van was brimming with gifts for the drive home.
Attended three or four Xmas parties. Had lovely Smith(Kelley)-Varner Xmas dinner. Lots of quality family time. Then Friday thru Sunday was spent at the Allenberry Murder Mystery. It was pretty cool. The food had been talked up considerably by everyone who had gone in years past... however I found it disappointing. Mediocre at best, but plentiful. The murder/theatre bit was cool. Quite a bit too corny for my tastes, but it was neat none the less. There was a gala dance thing Saturday night so we got to do the formal thing, Kristyn showing off a lovely new dress. So that was nice... at least until late into the evening when the band exited and the PA regressed into the Electric Slide and YMCA... Fucking Electric Slide... I swear a peice of me dies every time I m forced to endure that song... not a little peice either.
Anyway, the whole event wrapped up Sunday morning, leaving the rest of the day to hang out at the store. Always a good time. Ended the weekend at MoMos (the worst Sports Bar that ever was) watching Tommy Maddox suck, causing us to loose to the Ravens in OT. An appropriate finish to a season dogged by his gross incompetence. If he s our starting QB next year, I may completely forsake my blessed Steelers... don t know if I can root for the Eagles though, I d have to work on being surly and drunken.
So that was my holiday weekend. A couple more days of work (and toilet-seat-up bachelor life) and I return back to the midstate for New Years festivities... looking forward to that.
-bampf | | 12/23/2003 11:06:54 AM It s beginning to look... | Comments (0) |
| Almost Xmas time! Yay! I ll admit I m a pretty big Xmas fan. It s not quite Turkey Day but it s still pretty good. I m heading to Ship after work today for the five day weekend.
Xmas fetsivities will abound. Kristyn s grandparents on Xmas Eve. Present s at the inlaws Xmas morning and then to my parent s for more present opening (works out well, since my siblings don t stir before noon or 1 pm on days they have off). Then back once again to the inlaws for a big Xmas dinner with both familes... that s a nice new tradition we started last year. Hopefully we ll keep it up from now on.
Friday through Sunday after Xmas we re going with Chris and Kathy to Allenberry Playhouse for a murder-mystery weekend. Essentially it s a three day long dinner theatre. Lots of very formal dinners and dances as actors advance the plot around you. Sounds very cool. Think Clue with more food and no Tim Curry. Should be a lot of fun... had to break out all of my formal-wear that I never get to wear. Cool.
All in all I m really looking forward to the next five days.
Anyway, regardless of your religous predilection, everyone have a wonderful Xmas (or Festivus or Winter Solstice or whatever)!
-bampf | | | Quick synopsis...
Hockey was cool on Thursday, despite a disappointing overtime loss... a fight took place 00:02 into the game! Sweet! Big thanks to Dover for including me!
Friday Eldritch was very cool. Thanks go out to Dan. Thanks also to Kristyn for getting me killed by randomly shooting NPCs in the face.
Saturday was South Street Xmas shopping and then back to the midstate. One more Return of the King, no flaming reel of doom this time, yay! And it s still so damn good! Must go see it several more times!
Sunday was family Xmas party with my Dad s side of the family. Very cool. Tons of awesome food, good times.
Sunday night I return home sans wife.
X-mas... very close.
I want some egg nog. Dammit.
-b | | | Happy birthday to Brad today! The big 4-0! Forty and still so damn sexy. Amazing.
-b | | | Went to see another viewing of Return of the King last night. Didn t go quite as well this time around. Well into the second half of the film, as it raced towards the climax, the film (in true Gremlins 2 fashion) burns up before our eyes! The fury of the audience was palpable. After some fiddly the projectionist gets the movie to resume right after it left off. Then a few minutes later we loose picture. Then it comes back and we loose sound. Then it burns up again. Apparently several screens were having similar problem and the angry crowds in the lobby were near riot.
Theatre mgmt (who were no where to be found) called in the police. Probably a good idea. Anyway, we were there with Dan, Karri, Mena and Amanda and they were all furious (none of them had seen it yet and Dan and Karri waited in line for hours beforehand to insure good seats)... twas an ugly scene. We were given free passes, hopefully they re valid at any AMC as we probably won t return to that one for a while.
All in all in interesting experience, especially from a sociological standpoint. After the final burn people actually started throwing shit at the projector window, nearly hitting other movie-goers. It was nice to see that the movie is so good it s able to rip at the very fibers of our civilization. I m pretty sure if a screening of Elf went up in smoke people wouldn t be driven into a frenzied bloodlust (if anything they should be thankful).
So, anyway, now we have even more reason to go see it again this weekend (which we were planning on doing anyway). In the long term I m hoping for another 3-4 viewings. Would be nice if they offered some more all-three-in-one day deals since the opening day ones sold out so fast.
On an unrelated topic, I m going to a Flyers game tonight with Dover. Should be fun. It s only the second (third if you count a rain delay) Philly sports event I ve attended since moving into the Sports Complex s backyard. I m almost kinda ashamed. I figure I ll go to check out the Philly Soul this spring... cheap tickets to see pro football is a good thing.
-bampf | | | Return of the King... so unbelievably good. Peter Jackson is our new lord and savior. He really exceded all my expectations. I kinda thought Two Towers was clearly not as good as Fellowship, and I was bracing for a possible let down as he tried to pack so much material into just over 3 hours... but the third movie is amazing. Easily the best of the series and just a true grand finale to an amazing epic.
He has done the books justice.
I m not gonna go into details of the movie to avoid spoilers, but we were both just blown away. We have tickets to see it again tonight and are planning a weekend showing in central PA with Chris... I imagine we ll probably see it at least a couple more times after that... yeah, it s that good.
As we were filing out of the theatre at 3:30 am, there was just an awe that hung over the crowd. I over-heard a group of teenagers in front of us call it the "Star Wars of their generation." That made me exceedingly happy... just re-enforcing the obvious... how Peter Jackson has succeeded where Lucas has failed miserably.
So, anyway, why are you here reading... go! See it! See it now! See it over and over!
-bampf | | | I have crushed my enemies once more. Leaving the BloodBowl pitch slick with their blood and entrails. Huzzah. Friday I drove to Hbg to crush Evan 3-0. His team was badly outmatched, and he played reasonably well despite that. He managed to take out quite a few of my players, but was unable to even threaten the end zone. He ll be back next season with a better team. Uthus Bathu scored once more to tie him for the league lead. Nice. He s the league s favorite son, y know.
Sunday was Philly Con amidst the snow. The weather and illness meant only three of the seven registered players showed... d'oh. That was OK. We played anyway and I won. Got a cool trophy miniature out of it and was done and back home in time to see Tommy Maddox make us loose... again. It s nice being 15 minutes from downtown... I take back some of my Philly cursing from last week.
And lastly, we got Saddam. Sweet. I know it s now en vogue to bash the war, but I m sticking to my pro-war stance. I really don t care about WMD, the truth of the matter is the world is less one maniacal dictator... you know, the guy responsible for killing over sixty thousand Iraqis (and that s not counting dead Israeli innocents from suicide bombers that he helped finance and endorse)... anyone who thinks the world is not a better place minus Saddam Hussein is sadly deluded.
-b | | |
Traffic sluggish on the Blue Route from the 95 Junction through Exit 1 McDade.
Traffic extremely slow on the Blue Route from the intersection with I-76 all the way to the PA Turnpike booth, a distance of 4.5 miles.
On ramp merge onto PA Turnpike East barely moving.
Accident on the Turnpike causing crawling traffic entire way from Blue Route to Ft Washington Exit and beyond (distance of 6 miles).
Flooded roads caused the closure of Pennsylvania Ave, causing major delays on Ft Washington interchange and diverting all traffic onto 309 South (opposite the direction I need to go).
Long story short, two hours later I make it to work.
I hate Philly.
-b | | | I just found out today (thanks to the Edogg) that the Upright Citizens Brigade first season is available on DVD. This makes me exceedingly happy. UCB was a brilliant show. Some of the most absurdly funny sketch comedy that ever was. Ass Pennies and Pro PowerBall rules!
Reminds me of a conversation I had over Halloween with some of the Perkasie folks (the guys I met through Kristyn s family, and while in Italy). We were debating the greatest comedy troop ever (invalidating SNL for the rotating cast).
I ranked 1-3 as Monty Python, UCB, followed by The Kids in the Hall. Kristyn s philistine cousin tried to argue that SCTV should be number one because it was the most accessible... worst... argument... ever.
-bampf | | | I m a movie snob. I readily admit it. I ve taken a fair amount of grief over that... can t count the number of times KBN, or Tubby, or Rob have badgered me about watching films like American Pie or Scary Movie or whatever other shite they re presently amused by. Even my fair wife has tried to make the "I just wanna be entertained argument."
I rebuke you all. Idiocy is not entertaining, regardless of the glossy presentation.
I ve heard the argument over and over again about 'turning your mind off' and simply enjoying a movie for what it is. To me that is a contradiction. If my mind isn t engaged, I don t enjoy. I hate fluff. I hate Farrely brother films. I hate teen films. I hate sit-coms. I hate prime time TV. There you have it. I hold very high standards for myself and expect the same out of products I consume.
The reason I bring this all up now is two fold. First I am horribly dismayed that Bubba-Hotep still hasn t made it to Philly. This movie has won about a dozen Indy film awards and is breaking per screen records in its very limited release. Why is it a limited release? Because it s extremely quirky and doesn t fit the deplorable studio movie mold. A mold dictated by the aborrhent movie going masses throwing their money at shite movies. So now only shite movies can get proper funding. Arrggghh.
Second, I just read an excellent article on filmthreat.com addressing the gap between movie-goers and critcs. Essentially trying to explain why movies with huge grosses often get critically panned. Here s a snippet that resonated particularly well with me.
Some people just like to be entertained. I have no problem with that. When that's all you like, however, it starts to say something about you. You can't handle things that make you think. Movies that are too deep confuse you. If there isn't a car chase or gun fight every fifteen minutes, your attention starts to wander. Subtitles? Forget it. If you wanted to read, you'd pick up People. When the only reason you go to the movies is to get a few chuckles and see someone jumping off a building, that says you are happy just being entertained. Children who have suffered severe head trauma are entertained much the same way.
Yeah.
Anyway. At least the Return of the King is close... Peter Jackson has assuaged my film anger for the time being.
-b
| | | Many happy items to report...
First- SNOW!! Snow, snow, snow, snow. Snow. I love snow. I really do. I love playing in it. I love watching it fall. I love seeing the world crusted with white. I even like shoveling and driving in it. Snow is terrific and we got a bunch of it. Sweet.
Second- Xmas. It s here. Xmas is great, too. Kristyn and I Xmas-ified the house on Saturday. We bought a tree from the Boy Scouts, who were selling them right across the street (I had two little boy scouts carry the tree home rather than risk messing up the new van s interior... don t worry I tipped them handsomely). We put on some Xmas music and set about decorating. It was really great. Really special on a couple fronts... it s our first tree, our first Xmas as husband and wife, and as an even stronger reminder we used a bunch of the crystals that were wedding decorations as ornaments. Sweet. We finished the night off with hot chocolate with great globs of marshmallow fluff topped with whipped cream! Good stuff. I have a series of pics documenting the decoration process, I ll post them later.
Third- Unexpected gifts. Major thanks go out to Dan, who presented me with an unexpected gift while at Denny s Sunday... a 1st ed Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide, signed and adressed to me (with "fantastic regards") by Gary Gygax. Pretty frickin sweet! Now that is a treasured gift.
Fourth- Hunting Tale. I promised to tell my 'coolest hunting experience ever' last post. So here it is. Sunday I was standing in a treestand looking for deer and trying to stay warm. The stand consisted of a wooden platform (maybe 3'x 3') nailed between four trees, with a tarp overhead. I was leaning against one of the trees trying to block the wind when I spotted a giant fox squirrel (noted for their trademark orange ears and tail). I checked him out in my scope and he was a plump sucker... fattened up for the winter. Suddenly he starts bounding over towards me. I stay perfectly still and the critter starts climbing up the tree I m leaning against. He spirals up the tree as he climbs and next thing I know, he stops right next to me. So my face is about 6 inches from the squirrel s and he s looking right at me. Pretty friggin cool. I could see his long yellow teeth and thought to myself, "Squirrels only ever attack people in the movies, right?" I decided that was true and after a couple long moments he continues on his merry way onto the tarp roof. I moved to try to get a closer look and he starts moving down the opposite tree, again, stopping to check me out (this time about a foot or two away). I thought that was pretty cool. A true close encounter with nature... how very Marty Stouffer of me.
Fifth- Bloodbowl. I gave Kent the drubbing of his life in BloodBowl, 5-1. We have played a lot of practice games and Kent has picked up the game fairly well, but Friday night he failed about every critical roll and just made it too easy for me to score again and again. Uthus Bathu and Thrull D'Kat own.
Hope everyone else had as grand of a snowy weekend.
-bampf | | | I have made my return from the mountains... reasonably none the worse for wear. I didn t kill anything, but then again, I didn t really expect to. All in all it was a pretty good six days away from work.
Turkey Day was a great acheivement in the annals of absolute gluttony. Two plates of turkey, ham, stuffing, taters, and corn followed by a couple desserts at my grandmother s then two plates of turkey, stuffing, taters and corn followed by pie at Kristyn s grandparents. Sweet sweet Turkey Day.
Friday I spent the day hanging out at the Guild and putting the finishing touches on Saturday s adventure. Good times. Got to hang out with Kenn, Angus, Corey and Fenris afterwards. Saturday was D&D. It was good to play with those guys again and we happily added Kenn into the mix. Cool. Adventure went OK I guess. We were rushed for time and I didn t get to the cliff-hanger plot hook I had planned.. oh well. Next time.
From there I headed to hunting camp. Camp, as always, was a giant testosterone-fest. Lots of food, lots of beer, lots of cigars, lots of card playing, lots of crude bodily functions... all unabashedly put on display. Liberally sprinkle in some guns and you got a guaranteed good time. I spent a significant portion of the time by the fire (both indoors and out) reading... an activity that is pretty much universaly frowned on and very un-hunting camp. So I took a little grief for that, but all good natured... I would have read less if they hadn t stripped me of my gambling money so quickly (I was up $60 or $70 at one point Saturday and ended down close to a hundred).
The actual hunting was, in a word, cold. The forecast was for unseasonably warm weather (mid-forties) but didn t prepare us for the gale force arctic winds!! Nasty. Monday, I sat in a tree stand from 6 am (well before sun up) till about 5 pm... the tree swaying with the wind. I kept watching the tree-tops as they danced about rythmically... all very ent-like. Saw a couple of deer but no horns.
Monday night I chatted by the fire with Kristyn s grandfather as the others continued to play poker (except when everyone is hunting, eating or sleeping poker is played continuously). Monday is steak night... giant 1.5" thick porterhouse steaks... cooked over the fire... so damn good. Again with the sweet sweet gluttony.
Tuesday we decided it was too cold to sit in tree stands and instead trudged about the mountain for most of the day. It was exhausting, but working up a sweat is preferrable to sitting still all day while the wind cuts through you.
Afterwards I left the mountain... sweaty, unwashed (yeah, no bath or running water for four days), and probably quite foul smelling. Overall, it was good though. Good to bond with Kristyn s family. Good to get away. I ll be doing it all over again next year. Cool.
I did manage to have the coolest hunting experience ever, which I will relay later. For now I gotta go.
-bampf |
|