watching expired appliances align

atlantic city & the gamerooms

i was in atlantic city this past weekend. did some gambling. took a few photos (slowly being displayed on the front page of this site). ate pizza at 6:30am one morning. enjoyed a steak sandwich at the white house sub shop.

but i didn't know atlantic city could inspire such serious internet pontificating until i read "the worst game room ever". it's a long article with lots of pictures about a guy who stayed at the quality inn. he visited the hotel's game room, and i've got to say, it looks pretty bad. his entire tale is fun to read and something worth doing this afternoon.

here's a snippet of what the author had to say about the ice cream machine in the game room:

It's filled with crap, and I know what you're thinking. It's just gooey melted ice cream. Gross, but not too gross. You don't want to touch it, but even if you were unable to keep the ice cream wrapper from touching it, it wouldn't be a dealbreaker.
No, no no no. Even if you want to believe it's ice cream -- and it's not -- please scroll back up and check out the photo of the dreaded machine. See that poster thing depicting all the assorted cones and sundaes a person could conceivably get if the machine suddenly morphed into a better model that actually sold cones and sundaes? Posters like that haven't been produced in at least, what, fifty years?

(link via kottke.org)

17 going on 23

i think last night's episode of THE O.C. had something for everyone. i think it was a fun episode, but not one of the most memorable.

the fight between julie and hayley could've been a lot better! - why were there no underwater shots? why were there no over-the shoulder close-ups in the water? we see the two women jump into the pool and splash around a bit and that's it? bah. i wanted more.

but when jimmy decked caleb - that was great stuff. especially since sandy had been calling him k.k. all night. that was the best line of the night (when sandy first said that).

i'm just typing random notes here. no cohesive thoughts. i forgot to make this entry last night. i was too busy watching SMALLVILLE.

what else?

the trucker had thing was appropriately ridiculous.

and the poker nonsense was nonsenese.

"radio dispatched throughout the entire Southern California area"

we here at balgavy.com HQ require an email address when someone wants to post a comment. not an uncommon practice. another standard practice is for said commentor to make up that email address. i'm down with that. it's cool, and usually pretty damn funny.

we've also taken to calling jamie by his shortened blog name - "apes." and that's led to the fake email addresses that end in @apes.com.

has anyone checked out apes.com yet? the world wildlife fund missed a big opportunity when they let that domain slip, i'm sure of it. apes.com sends all web viewers direct to ALL PHASE ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS.

rest assured, like the staff of all phase, the staff of balgavy.com can be found "arriving in a clearly marked service truck and wearing a uniform with an Identification Badge letting you know they are here to serve you with pride."

cameras, out in the world

i'm keeping my fingers crossed that new photos on randompixel will start coming in soon and be interesting. basically, a guy sent a few cameras out into the world. they were returned to him and he's scanning the photos and posting them. the neat part is that he sent the cameras out five or six years ago.

also, as soon as i get around to cleaning my desk, i'll finally post the photos jamie took for the borrowed camera project.

safety roll

Three or four years ago a roll of really cheap pink toilet paper entered my bathroom. I’m an adult with a job and that means I can afford good toilet paper. I prefer Charmin, but Cottonelle will do. The thin toilet paper that you can steal from work or buy for $.59 per roll at the bodega just isn’t up to my standards.

Sometimes you run out of toilet paper, and that’s where the cheap stuff enters the picture. It’s uncomfortable. It’s scratchy. It’s flimsy. And when it’s pink it’s not even aesthetically pleasing. On occasion, it’s the only thing in the bathroom. Sooner or later, we run out of good toilet paper and need to place the pink roll next to the toilet. I don’t know who brought the pink stuff into my house, but I owe that person a beer.

For the past three years, I’ve used the pink roll as the “safety roll,” functioning in the same way that the end of a cash register tape does. If you’ve ever worked a register, you know that when the tape roll is reaching the end, it has a red stripe printed on one side, alerting the user that it’s time to get a new roll. Cheap pink toilet paper serves the same function in my household. Everyone I’ve ever lived with is pretty good about buying new toilet paper but every so often it’s necessary to use the pink roll.

Due to it’s not-so-pleasing nature, the pink roll is only used for half a day and then replaced by the good toilet paper. The safety roll returns to its spot in the cabinet and is reserved for another occasion three or four months into the future. Over the course of the past three or four years I’ve purchased two or three rolls of cheap pink toilet paper. They’ve been among my wisest investments.

UPDATE: please see comments below. it turns out that i have zero original ideas, but i am happy to steal the ideas of others and share them with the world.

we'll go pick up the keg

that's what we thought we heard ryan say to sandy, et al. turns out he and marissa were going to pick up the CAKE. it makes more sense that way. but it also removed the best part of the show.

what a snoozer of an episode for THE O.C.

the trailer for next week looked good, though.

all i do is talk

the new day 17 musings are now posted at bears will attack. they got a lot of submissions this month. i wrote something but it didn't make the cut and because there's very little that i've got to write about, i'll post it here:

I couldn’t stop talking about Matt Kennedy Gould, television’s Joe Schmo. I have no idea how we got onto the topic but as Friday night became Saturday morning my roommate and I excitedly traded sentences about why Joe Schmo was amazing TV. The tackiness of the show mixed with the enthusiasm of the participants and the meta-reality commentary was something we couldn’t have used more energy describing. We left the bar early Saturday morning knowing we’d convinced two of our friends that they missed the best thing that happened on television last year. April 17th should officially become Matt Kennedy Gould day. That guy is the nicest man to ever grace basic cable.

On Saturday night I went to a party with the two friends I thought I’d converted. Neither mentioned the show. Their lack of appreciation left me saddened and depressed.

bird's nest

there is nothing new on the internet today that i feel like commenting on. this is a sad state of affairs. for me, not the internet. my brain has become an empty space that holds my head. and my head is just a space to hang my beard. and i'm in flux regarding the way i feel about my beard. i grew a large beard last summer and feel the urge to do so again. but it looks ridiculous. and i'm very tempted to trim it. i finally trimmed my moustache last night. not a lot. just a tiny bit. i told myself i was grabbing the scissors in order to "stimulate growth" but i think i really wanted to trim the entire thing so that it didn't scrape against my upper lip. it has become incredibly annoying using a napkin after every bit of food or sip or water. enough about that. my facial hair is failing to amuse me.

so many pictures

a really great look at the behind the scenes photo selection process SPORTS ILLUSTRATED used during the most recent superbowl (via digital photography review)

this baseball obsession may not end...

a few days ago the black table ran my comments about the free preview of major league baseball's extra innings package in the weekly blacklist.

welcome to portland

i just got home from o'connor's. i was there to meet the group i'm happy to call me tv club. we'd assembled at the local bar for a few drinks and talk of THE O.C.

first off - a few questions. what did summer mean when she said something about seth only being able to paint the ceiling? what was that about? why was there a joke that we all totally didn't get?

i guess that's my only question.

oh, and marissa's shirt - the sleeveless one that had a normal strap on the left side but then had a wooden or metal ring on the right? and was showing some kind of white undershirt? what was that about? very odd.

but seth and summer were great together. i can't remember what else i enjoyed. the seger line was repeated often at the bar. everyone loved that.

once again, a top notch episode. but next week looks troubling.

there was also discussion that it's about time one of the characters gets an episode all to herself. we decided on summer. everyone would love that. but then the ladies would miss out on having a non-seth episode and we don't think that would fly.

more later, i guess.

UPDATE (12:47pm): i want to also mention that while at o'connor's the text messaging on mobile phones got out of control. i had no idea people actually used their phones for texting. i mean, i knew it existed, but i had no idea it was as frequent and common as it is. it was very disconcerting. i think i'm going to have to get one of these mobile phone things soon.

"i'm so glad you're rainman."

the neuticles did it again!

i just got home from another second monday at brooklyn's buttermilk. the bar was packed for dr. fact's night of fifty questions and with 36 correct answers, my team, the neuticles, came away with the top prize. jamie, kaci, jim and i focused on winning. the competition was steep, with last months winners, sparkle motion, coming in second. actually, they tied for second with a team called the easter bunnies (but we think the easter bunnies consisted of 12 or more people). cheryl's team had another good showing (after ducking out on the competition last month) and tied for third.

a few highlights included my properly answering the name of paris hilton's dog (tinkerbell) and jamie seemingly knowing the answers to a few of the math questions before they were even read. everyone contributed and it feels good to be back on top. we didn't win the free beer during the bonus round, but we'll let that one slide.

as per custom, we took a few photos in the photobooth.

(and the best quote of the night goes to kaci for saying to jamie "i'm so glad you're rainman.")

UPDATE: jamie's notes from quiz night

but that's the flavor i don't like!

the current soap at my bathroom sink is the banana flavor just for kids anti-backterial foaming hand soap from bath and body works. it makes my hands smeel like runts.

turning serious for a minute

i don't like to get political very often, but this post by jeff jarvis about howard stern's most recent fines, freedom of speech, michael powell in the fcc rolling over to michael copps' views and the impending content witch hunt by ashcroft may be the best thing on the internet at this very moment.

the speakers are better

one of the positives of having a new computer at work is that i've now got the power at my desktop to have a million applications running. and i can't bring myself to turn off itunes. i'm currently streaming the indie pop rocks! tunes from soma fm. it's a good mix of music and i think it's going to have to become one of my primary sources for listening to new stuff now that i won't be hanging out most evenings with music buying machines dan and sujan. one of the fun highlights on this stream is the occasional "station i.d." i just heard andrew from american analog set remind me that i'm listening to soma fm!

UPDATE: tullycraft to pavement!!! does it get any better? (btw, i heard a little shrimp boat earlier)

maybe it was the package of starburst

i can't seem to turn my brain off tonight. somehow i've managed to become slightly productive during this non-sleep state. two updates to balgavy.com today:

AM I TALKING TO A PUPPET? (Tale 10 from The Innkeeper's Reckoning by Jeremy Paquette)

and

SHAWN'S 2003 MOVIE LIST (yes, it came in after the oscar deadline but i'm a nice guy and have cancelled the deadline entirely. if you've got a list (or half a list) email it to me and let's get it posted.) and i'd be a terrible person if i didn't mention that shawn's got a hot new blog called glammarless.

also worth noting, i added the front page of balgavy.com to photoblogs.org. that means i'll try to update the picture at the front of this website more than once every three weeks. look for an update every seven to ten days.

wonderfalls off the schedule

all that smart water i've been drinking lately seems to be keeping me from falling asleep.

as you may not know, wonderfalls was cancelled. i think kfan was the only person besides me who watched it, so don't worry. you only missed a show that was developing into something good. i found out about the cancellation this weekend and sent kevin a note. he was pretty steamed. and i can understand why. but i also understand the other side of the story. for the past few days i've been trying to think about how the argument for that other side goes. just now i read it never ends on teevee.org which does a nice, cute job summarizing the world of network television.

now that i've mentioned that, i'll also mention that episode 4 of wonderfalls really had me coming around to liking the show more. i read earlier tonight that it's rumored the show may continue in canada. (via whedonesque)

they syrup is on the inside!

i got a little out of control tonight while watching baseball. i saw an ad for a mcdonald's commercial and starting blogging about it instead of watching the baseball game.

the post is on my dvr blog:

lovin' it a bit too much

resolution for 2004: get out more

in some "back home" related news, dan sent me an email tipping me off to pitchfork's review of skywave's new album, synthstatic. pitchfork gives the album a 7.5 on a scale of 1 to 10. that's a pretty high number and the reviewer really seemed to enjoy the album, even though he may have used the word "derivative" half a dozen times (or maybe the reviewer just mentioned the idea that many times).

anyway, i've only seen skywave once, and that was in the spring of 2002 (photos located here). while i never saw them in fredericksburg, i caught them in brooklyn and had a great time at the show.

since i just spent the weekend on the couch coughing and sneezing due to a cold, i'm in the mood to see what the rock lifestyle is all about. alex stopped by last night and reminded me that it is possible to go out for three days and nights in a row. i'm jealous of his endurance. and excited about a lot of the things coming out of my hometown the past few years. hopefully in the next few months there will be a few more interesting announcements about characters of note that i grew up with.

grumbling

i'm now using Mac OS X at work and i hate it. why do people try to make okay things better in all the wrong ways?

empowered

sarah f. has a written a piece for prettywitty.com called You Can Have the Town, Why Don't You Take It? (The Hilton Sisters Take On 21st Century Feminism):

Truly girls of the modern era, The Hilton Sisters enlist all the benefits of capitalism to create a new kind of feminist persona. Paris and Nicky have cast aside social morals usually drilled into famous heirs. And not in a Lizzie Grubman way. They may be spoiled attention seekers, but The Hiltons revel in these traits of their upbringing.

but sarah, that still doesn't answer the question of how paris would react if i stuck the ends of an ethernet cable in my ear like a stethoscope.

get me a magnifying glass

i'm now working in a different buliding. same company. same job. but now we have free bottles of water. rumor has it they don't show up that often, but they arrived yesterday and i procured a bottle of glaceau smartwater. it tastes like water and it looks like water. the little pint bottles are cute and comfortable in my hand. the packaging is clean. but here's the thing - i'm drinking water with electrolytes! it's like gatorade without all the color and flavor. and it's freaking me out. where are those electrolytes hiding? why can't i see or taste them? i can't even feel them on the back of my tongue. my body is just absorbing them. and what if i start drinking five pints of "vapor distilled + electrolytes" enhanced water every day? can a person suffer from an electrolyte overdose? i think i'm about to find out.