Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Holy crap, I'm sore. Used to be, a guy like me could play basketball 3-4 times a week and not be too much worse for the wear. USED to be, a kid like me could play basketball all day everyday (never said I was good, especially back then) and not think twice about it. The way it is? Well, holy crap I'm sore.
So as you might have guessed, I played basketball yesterday for the first time in over 18 months. It was fun, I was very rusty and out of shape, and badly in need of new basketball shoes, and did I mention out of shape? Now I've been going to the gym quite a bit since the summer bedlam that was a movie shoot. But I've mostly been working out, with only 15 minutes or so of cardio, because I usually can't handle more than 15 minutes of cardio if I'm not chasing something. If you throw a ball into the mix, then cardio becomes play and I like to play. Long story short, I thought I was in pretty descent shape, but after 90 minutes of basketball I realized I was very wrong. I have to get into better shape. What if I have to run for my life? I need to be able make it around the corner, at least. Okay fine I'm exaggerating. I could make it around the corner.
More holy craps from the past 2 weeks:
Holy crap I've been busy. This feasibility study of mine has picked up momentum and all of a sudden I feel a bit more pressure than when I began. My job is to meet with as many people as I can, identify the needs of the industry and plot a strategy that will satisfy those needs through the creation of a new organization, or the expansion of an existing one. And as I discover common needs, and communicate those needs and possible tools to satisfy them, people grow excited about what I will write. And so I must admit to feeling a bit more pressure.
Holy crap I love my new food processor. Our old blender was a piece of junk. I wrote about it once before, we had to send it to the shop. When it came back? Just as bad, except in a different way. The control thingy would just pop off, essentially locking the blender at whatever speed it was in when the thingy popped out. But this new one? Man! It rocks. Blender, Food Processor, Juicer, Mixer and not too enormous and stylish too. The other combo machines really suck. But in the past two days I used the food processor to make a Sweet and Sour sauce for a roasted chicken and then a chipotle, peanut butter BBQ sauce. It totally made my day, each time.
Holy crap I can't believe I waited so long before buying a wooden cutting board. I kept trying to do it on the cheap. I have a good plastic cutting board that I've had forever. It's worn in enough to be just right. But I needed another one and I kept buying really cheap plastic ones, that would slide all over the place and the last thing you want when using a sharp knife is a sliding surface. So Lilleri and Bjorn and Virpi and Jyrki came over with their little babies and we had a night of sushi. And I finally had my excuse to go out and buy a sturdy, wooden cutting board and it has made a huge difference.
Holy crap am I mad at our new Digital Video Recorder. When wefirsts got it, I loved it, but then it started to show "symptoms" of hard disk problems. And we just bought the thing 3 weeks ago! We have to take it in, wherever the hell in is. And we already have several shows saved that we like and haven't seen yet. I am so mad. It has totally killed the buzz from the food processor. Totally.
Holy crap the sun has been out for about an hour over the past 3 weeks. Forecast forever? High 30's to Low 40's, cloudy, wet, grey. Forever. No wonder I'm writing a damn revenge story because of it. Funnily enough I couldn't write about it during the summer time, but November is ripe for tragic story telling.
So as you might have guessed, I played basketball yesterday for the first time in over 18 months. It was fun, I was very rusty and out of shape, and badly in need of new basketball shoes, and did I mention out of shape? Now I've been going to the gym quite a bit since the summer bedlam that was a movie shoot. But I've mostly been working out, with only 15 minutes or so of cardio, because I usually can't handle more than 15 minutes of cardio if I'm not chasing something. If you throw a ball into the mix, then cardio becomes play and I like to play. Long story short, I thought I was in pretty descent shape, but after 90 minutes of basketball I realized I was very wrong. I have to get into better shape. What if I have to run for my life? I need to be able make it around the corner, at least. Okay fine I'm exaggerating. I could make it around the corner.
More holy craps from the past 2 weeks:
Holy crap I've been busy. This feasibility study of mine has picked up momentum and all of a sudden I feel a bit more pressure than when I began. My job is to meet with as many people as I can, identify the needs of the industry and plot a strategy that will satisfy those needs through the creation of a new organization, or the expansion of an existing one. And as I discover common needs, and communicate those needs and possible tools to satisfy them, people grow excited about what I will write. And so I must admit to feeling a bit more pressure.
Holy crap I love my new food processor. Our old blender was a piece of junk. I wrote about it once before, we had to send it to the shop. When it came back? Just as bad, except in a different way. The control thingy would just pop off, essentially locking the blender at whatever speed it was in when the thingy popped out. But this new one? Man! It rocks. Blender, Food Processor, Juicer, Mixer and not too enormous and stylish too. The other combo machines really suck. But in the past two days I used the food processor to make a Sweet and Sour sauce for a roasted chicken and then a chipotle, peanut butter BBQ sauce. It totally made my day, each time.
Holy crap I can't believe I waited so long before buying a wooden cutting board. I kept trying to do it on the cheap. I have a good plastic cutting board that I've had forever. It's worn in enough to be just right. But I needed another one and I kept buying really cheap plastic ones, that would slide all over the place and the last thing you want when using a sharp knife is a sliding surface. So Lilleri and Bjorn and Virpi and Jyrki came over with their little babies and we had a night of sushi. And I finally had my excuse to go out and buy a sturdy, wooden cutting board and it has made a huge difference.
Holy crap am I mad at our new Digital Video Recorder. When wefirsts got it, I loved it, but then it started to show "symptoms" of hard disk problems. And we just bought the thing 3 weeks ago! We have to take it in, wherever the hell in is. And we already have several shows saved that we like and haven't seen yet. I am so mad. It has totally killed the buzz from the food processor. Totally.
Holy crap the sun has been out for about an hour over the past 3 weeks. Forecast forever? High 30's to Low 40's, cloudy, wet, grey. Forever. No wonder I'm writing a damn revenge story because of it. Funnily enough I couldn't write about it during the summer time, but November is ripe for tragic story telling.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
You tell me why there's daylight savings in Finland. Who the hell thought this was needed? What are they saving for anyway? Is it something they do to themselves to sell more booze? Why, when you have the choice, would you consciously choose to have sunset at 2:30 instead of 3:30? It doesn't make one bit of sense to me. Not one.
Perhaps it's obvious...it's the middle of November. The month when a morning blizzard turns into an evening icy death. When, at the same moment it is raining, freezing rain, sleet, snow and regular old rain. When I can walk down the street, directly into the freezing and wet winds and then turn and walk the complete opposite direction, only to have the wind shift along with me just so it can continue blowing that freezing wet crap into my face.
And the funny thing is, no matter how bad November is it's still not worse than March. March really really sucks.
So I've been pretty busy these past few weeks. School, work and life. But this weekend I had a chance to get back to J-town, Joensuu for the Rokumentti film festival - Documentaries & Movies with Rock & other music as a central theme. My job? In a word? Party.
They flew me out there, paid for my hotel, paid for 4 of my meals - at the local haunt, Amarillo, which is not a perk, even though they paid for it. They asked me to host a couple of American filmmakers who made a documentary on the Hardcore punk scene in America in the early 80's, "American Hardcore". It was a well-made and entertaining film. I introduced the guys and after the second showing on Saturday I led an 11 minute Q&A. Other than that, my role was to make sure that the guys enjoyed their stay in my old home town. I think I did a half-decent job. Although in retrospect, I could have done a pretty good job with 50% of the alcohol. But like I said, it was Joensuu, during a festival.
I mentioned to the guys that you can order absinthe at Jokela. I had no intention of drinking it, even though they were both excited to do so, with the sugar burning and everything. So what happens? I have one. Well, let's just say that was an hour into our stay in Joensuu, and let's also just say that I am glad to be back home, to go to the gym, to eat some good food and to only have juice and water for the next several days.
Perhaps it's obvious...it's the middle of November. The month when a morning blizzard turns into an evening icy death. When, at the same moment it is raining, freezing rain, sleet, snow and regular old rain. When I can walk down the street, directly into the freezing and wet winds and then turn and walk the complete opposite direction, only to have the wind shift along with me just so it can continue blowing that freezing wet crap into my face.
And the funny thing is, no matter how bad November is it's still not worse than March. March really really sucks.
So I've been pretty busy these past few weeks. School, work and life. But this weekend I had a chance to get back to J-town, Joensuu for the Rokumentti film festival - Documentaries & Movies with Rock & other music as a central theme. My job? In a word? Party.
They flew me out there, paid for my hotel, paid for 4 of my meals - at the local haunt, Amarillo, which is not a perk, even though they paid for it. They asked me to host a couple of American filmmakers who made a documentary on the Hardcore punk scene in America in the early 80's, "American Hardcore". It was a well-made and entertaining film. I introduced the guys and after the second showing on Saturday I led an 11 minute Q&A. Other than that, my role was to make sure that the guys enjoyed their stay in my old home town. I think I did a half-decent job. Although in retrospect, I could have done a pretty good job with 50% of the alcohol. But like I said, it was Joensuu, during a festival.
I mentioned to the guys that you can order absinthe at Jokela. I had no intention of drinking it, even though they were both excited to do so, with the sugar burning and everything. So what happens? I have one. Well, let's just say that was an hour into our stay in Joensuu, and let's also just say that I am glad to be back home, to go to the gym, to eat some good food and to only have juice and water for the next several days.
