I'd like to congratulate myself

Nanu-nanu! On bringing back the word "Shazbot" to my office. Those of the appropriate age should appreciate that. I've gotten a couple of other people around here saying it as well as me. It is a pretty proud moment.

Favorite Radio Line of the Week

I pretty much listen to one radio station when I am at work, and this was my favorite from last week. It was a "man on the street" interview:

Host: How long after you met this woman before you consummated the relationship?
Man: About 30 minutes.

Dream Theater Concert

Last week I went to the Dream Theater concert at the Nokia Center in support of their new CD Systematic Chaos. The last time I saw them, they were on tour with Queensryche on a double headline bill, and this was during the Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence tour, I believe.

The opening acts. First up we had Into Eternity. I only caught the last few songs from these guys, and I think I am a better person for. At times they degenerated in to that awful Speed Death Metal “singing”. At other times it didn’t even look like the guitarists were playing anything but the most basic of chords, they didn’t even have their fingers on the frets. I’ve seen better acts playing on the streets in New Orleans

The other opening act was Redemption, or as I like to call them Dream Theater Jr. Similar musical style, and I thought the lead guitarist was really good. Their main problem was that the lead singer seemed to be singing a different song than the band was playing. Also they had some really weird musical transition in their songs that would throw me out of the tune. They have a keyboardist like Dream Theater but the others drown him out too much.

Now we get to the main act. I think Dream Theater is quite an awesome band, and their drummer Mike Portnoy is probably my favorite drummer out there right now. He is just awesome, and he has the best stage presence in the group. He really knows how to get the crowd riled up. I think the guitarist, John Petrucci, is quite good, I don’t go ga-ga over him like others do. Like others, John Myung, the bassist, fascinates me, because he seems so detached from everyone else. He seems to have his part of the stage staked out and everyone just leaves him alone there to do his thing. James LaBrie still has a great voice. Keyboardist Jordan Rudess is not drowned out and he is pretty great too.

Jordan had a couple of really nice solos, and I think a keyboardist can never look cool, but he does try and he can almost pull it off. The last time I saw Dream Theater, Mike Portnoy seemed to have a bunch of solo sections, but this time he didn’t have any which I was a little disappointed in. I have only listened to their new album once, and a few other songs a couple of times. That was mostly what they were playing so I wasn’t as familiar with what they were playing. The encore paled in comparison to when they played with Queensryche. This time they came out and played a couple of more songs. Mike Portnoy returning in a Dirk Nowitzki jersey which is cheap pandering to the crowd, which I like. With Queensryche both bands came out together and played the Who’s Baba O’Riley. That would be hard to beat. No complaints really with Dream Theater, they were just great.

Side Note: One guy sitting by me, from Indianapolis, purposefully scheduled his business trip so that he could see Dream Theater. I don’t think there is any band I would do that for.

Loaded Questions #22

This week from Loaded Questions:

Hypotheticals: If 50 people in your age group were selected randomly, how many do you think you would find leading a happier life than yours?
Hmmm, I actually have a pretty carefree, easy going life, but even considering that I will hedge my bets and say 25.


Anything Goes: What nasty habits do you have?
Nasty? I have bad habits, but nothing I would really consider nasty.

No-Brainers: What is/was your worst subject in high school?
Easy: Math. I probably should have failed 10th grade geometry.


Personals: What is the grossest thing you have ever done in public?
Easy questions this week: vomit. Thankfully(?), I was too drunk to really remember it.

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Ever wanted to see an exploding whale?

Well now you can:




The 70s ruled...

A new fish

Because I am a big dork, I can't tell you how much this tickled me:

New fish is named after Batman | Practical Fishkeeping magazine

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I still love me, some ME

Well here we are again with a small interview, and this time it is from Greg! Let's have look see shall we?

1. The obvious: if you could have any one superpower, what would it be?

Now this is something I have actually thought about quite a bit. You know the most obvious one is flight, and while quite cool, I’ll pass. Super-strength? Another good one, but scratch that one as well. Invisibility, this one almost passes the muster. It really appeals to my voyeuristic tendencies, but not his one either. The reason I passed on these is because they call all be simulated to a certain degree.

Flight – planes, trampolines, hang gliders, etc.

Super-strength – Do you know how strong you feel when you
are moving 2000 lbs of rice even if it is with the aid of a pallet jack? You
feel pretty damn good.

Invisibility – It seems there are always ways to spy on people, and feed the voyeur in all of us.

That is why the power I chose is: invulnerability. Sure if a plane is going down, with flight you can jump out and fly to safety. But that will be little help in a car crash. With invulnerability I would be able to walk away from both. It would be a pretty cool party trick having people whack you over the head with baseball bats or whatever. With flight you would get pretty tired of giving people ride. Invisibility is pretty much a one-trick pony at parties. Plus, with invulnerability it would seem you could parlay that into a bunch of different jobs.

2a. You must watch some reality show for two hours every day. Which do you choose?

Now this I could do. If I am flipping through the channels and see Top Chef on, I will drop in. Or Hell’s Kitchen because Gordon (Ramsey?) is just SO over the top he is hilarious. I enjoy cooking so these actually entertain me.

2b. Okay. But suppose you don't have a choice. The show is chosen for you. Which show would you most dread being forced to watch?

I Love New York. Look it up.

3. Muppet Babies -- cute or creepy?

Growing up, kind of cute. Now….creepy

4. What comic do you really enjoy but are sort of embarrassed about or at least cannot defend liking so much?

I’ve been thinking about this one for a while now, and I can’t think of anything that comes to mind. There maybe a comic or two… I would have to go through a whole months worth of comic to get a better idea. There are a bunch of T&A comics out there, but I don’t read any of those. I figure if I am going spend that much on that kind of material I’ll just buy some porn. If I think of something maybe I will come back to this.

5. Is there something -- comic, movie, book, TV show -- that you loved
as a kid but have looked at now and wondered WTF was I thinking?

In this case a picture will truly speak a thousand words:

SMURFS. Even when they were popular I think I was outside of the demographic they were trying to appeal to. I really loved them. And I didn’t just watch the cartoons. I had little figures. I read the books. I think you get the idea. Plus I stuck with them even after the popularity had faded I’m talking into…junior high school.

So there ya go. More crap about me. And again:

Wanna play? Here’s how!

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."

2. I will respond by asking you five questions. I get to pick the questions. (They probably won't be the same ones you see above!)

3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.

4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.

5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Don’t worry if you don’t know anything about comics – I won’t assume you’re a comic reader – or a superhero comic reader – when I pick my questions. (If you are, though – fair game!)

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