failure weblog

last weekend i dropped by the briar shoppe in rice village. they’d called me because a new shipment of the lighters i’d been interested in had arrived. instead of waiting a couple of weeks before going in like last time, i headed right over and checked them out. i ended up getting the gun metal version. here’s a link to a site online selling the same lighter: elighters.com – lotus. the picture on there makes it look more bronze than it really is, but you can get a general idea.
since i seem to have gunked up my zippo butane stick lighter using cheap butane, i also went ahead and got some lotus butane (“filtered five times” they said). hopefully that and a bit of care and upkeep will help the lighter to last a long time.

at some point i watched a league of ordinary gentlemen with the potts’. it’s a documentary about the professional bowling association and the changes it has gone through in the last couple of years since it was bought by some ex-microsoft employees and given a new image. it follows a few of the better players through some of the season. they discuss bowling, its history, the changes, etc. i thought it was pretty interesting, although it’s one of those documentaries where it feels like they’re making fun of the subject matter (due to editing) as much as they are documenting it. earlier last week i watched the extras on the dvd by myself before returning it to netflix.
earlier last week i watched bubble. it’s a story of a few people in a small town that work at a doll factory. all unknown actors from the area it was filmed in were used to make the film. it was also done with digital. it runs short, and i didn’t think it was a real strong movie. from watching the extras, i know they basically let the actors use their real lives and experiences in scenes, with just a basic framework and direction for the plot. it’s all an interesting idea, and some aspects of it are good, but overall i came away somewhat ambivalent about the movie as a whole.
also earlier last week i watched samaritan girl. it’s a korean film about two girls who become prostitute and manager in order to save money for a trip to europe. the one prostituting ends up dieing and the other has a hard time dealing with it. her way of coping with the situation drives a wedge between the relationship between her and her father (her mother is dead), and eventually the father finds it impossible to deal with things. while some of the plot seemed kind of unrealistic, i thought the last half of the film was pretty strong and i really liked the way it ended.
saturday night i watched cool hand luke. i’d actually never seen it before. while it’s a somewhat slow paced film, and some of the acting and dialogue is kind of hokey, overall it’s a pretty cool movie. obviously there are things from it that have entered collective culture. what i was kind of surprised by was some of the religious symbolism in the film. i’m not really sure what the implication was, but i can kind of see what some of it might be. anyway, i thought the concept for the character and the way things work out was an interesting take for hollywood. i don’t watch many films from the late 60’s though, so maybe this was a lot more common during that era of film. the car washing scene, while somewhat hokey…or maybe not merely somewhat…was still pretty nice visually. but in the end, i can see how a lot of disenfranchised people could find themselves identifying with the main character, and wishing they could handle life and adversity as well as he does in the film.

apparently someone came by last night and tried to steal a bicycle (it belongs to one of the other tenants) that was locked to the carport at my house. i assume that because i noticed the bicycle was in a different position this morning, and there is a place where the rubber-coated wire is almost cut through. having failed at that, they evidently decided to take the license plate from my motorcycle. i noticed something looked different when i got in my car this morning before heading to church, then after looking and thinking for a few seconds i realized what it was. but i waited to call the police until after i got back home.
this sucks of course, but it particularly sucks since it is a personalized custom plate and now it’s in the database as stolen. so i’ll probably have to get something else, and it will probably be hard to find anything i want that isn’t already taken. or if i get it reissued — if they even do that — then i run the risk of getting pulled over, having a gun pulled on me, taken to the ground, and handcuffed before they realize i have a legitimate reissued plate on the appropriate motorcycle. based on that scenario i’m thinking they won’t reissue stolen personalized plates. but who knows? guess i’ll find out this week.

man, i haven’t put something on here in almost two weeks. i’d actually written out most of this stuff earlier this week, but firefox crashed and i hadn’t saved it. as a computer guy, i know the most important thing is to save and make backups, because computers flake out. but i hardly ever do it. could be that i’m lazy. or it could be i’m an adrenaline junky, and living on the edge is the way i get my kicks. go ahead and try, you can’t stop me. i’m cuhraaazy!
anyway. let’s see if i can recall what’s been happening with me…
wednesday (jan 10th) after the radio show i picked up aphelia from a motel and we met up with jay lee, jennifer the intern, and barrett and his girlfriend at the big top. aphelia listens to the show and hangs out on irc with us, but much of the time he’s actually asleep because he’s in england so he just logs the stuff. he was in town from england for his job, so he decided to meet up with some of us after the show. i may have to go back to the big top more to see the bartender smile — she has a beautiful smile. but i probably won’t. 🙂
on thursday (jan 11th) i signed up for second life. several people i know through different channels had talked about it, so i figured i should get on and check it out. in second life i’m “phliKtid obscure”. most of the second life world seems to be consumed by gambling/casinos, dance clubs, and sex clubs, but there is some other stuff to be found if you look around. i’ve been on five or fix times since then, and i’ve finally managed get somewhat familiar with the way things work, meet a few people, and find a few places i kind of enjoy hanging out. i’m not much of a gamer, and i’m not into fantasy/role-playing, so for me it’s more like irc with visuals as a bonus. a couple of things i find hilarious are the way the avatars start typing when someone is typing for chat, and how if someone makes a hard landing (from flying, which you can do in second life) their avatar topples onto the ground and then clambers back up. i made my first purchase a couple of nights ago, a set of western shirts. now i need to get some cowboy boots. i can see how people could get addicted to playing it. so far i’ve not found anything compelling, but once i’m on i tend to want to stay in and see what happens or who comes around instead of leaving to do something else. i was the same way back in the day with irc.
anyway, if you’re on second life, send me a message. i don’t have any land, and as of yet i’ve not broken down and given them a credit card to get linden dollars, so don’t be asking me for stuff. ; )
friday (jan 12th) i went into work late because we were doing a maintenance window that night. i got out later than i’d planned, but afterward i went ahead and went over to natalie‘s for a game night. i met a few new people, and saw several people i hadn’t seen in some time (including natalie). pretty much the whole time i was there we played one game…it was fun, but it went on for a long time.
saturday evening i went and saw the lonesome spurs and unknown hinson at the continental club. it was the first show i’d been to in some time. when i got there the lonesome spurs were already playing. it was two folks, a guy and girl, both playing electric guitars (hers may have been acoustic, but i think it was electric). they were using something to create a bass drum beat during songs, but they didn’t have a drummer or any other instruments. it kind of made me think of a country white stripes. the guy was a good guitar player, and the lady made me think of loretta lynn — strong voice, loud, and kind of brash with some attitude. i thought it was a pretty good set, although i felt like a drummer or bass would help fill out the sound some.
ha! i just went to their website and it says “the white stripes of country”. the site compares her to wanda jackson. i can see that since i know a couple of her songs and a bit about her, but it wouldn’t come to my mind because i’ve never really listened to much wanda jackson. that’s something i’ve been meaning to change for awhile now, i just haven’t gotten around to picking up some of her stuff. anyway, check out the lonesome spurs website.
unknown hinson is kind of a schtick thing. the three guys that played appeared to all be older, and they all seemed to be pretty good musicians. it’s kind of a mix of rock’n’roll, rockabilly, and blues. the persona of unknown hinson is kind of a hard drinkin’ rockabilly vampire. i think. the set was pretty good, but the novelty wore off for me after awhile and i left before they finished.
saturday was also my brother’s birthday, but i still haven’t emailed him or tried to call him or anything. at least i already gave him something for his birthday during xmas. (the pipe. remember? i wonder if he’s tried it out yet? maybe i should call him.)
sunday i was planning on going to kaleo, but G-d didn’t wake me up in time. that’s kind of a somewhat-joking position i take, which is that if G-d wants me to go to church in the morning then He will wake me up. so i don’t set my alarm. i woke up sunday and thought i might be able to make it and just be a little late, but then on the way there i was blocked by a marathon. as if G-d not waking me up didn’t prove it, the marathon blocking my way definitely proved that G-d didn’t want me at church. so instead i went to an einstein bagels and had a bagel and some coffee. after church i met up with the hartleys, the potts, sue’s brother shawn, and some friends visiting the potts at lupe tortilla’s for lunch. in the afternoon i went over to first baptist houston for simcha’s dedication. the church had a reception afterward where they served some finger foods and cake. i also met tiffany’s roommate lacey for the first time.
i had monday off due to it being the mlk holiday. i hadn’t realized i had monday off until friday afternoon when i was at work looking at someone’s calendar, so i hadn’t made any weekend plans. besides hanging out at the potts’ house, i don’t remember what if anything i did.
as far as the rest of this week, other than watching a couple of movies (which i’ll discuss in another post) and chatting in second life i don’t think i did much of anything.
last night (friday) i went out to vietopia for happy hour with some folk from work, then we went over to berry hill for some tamales for supper.

sunday found me at kaleo. the music was nice, and i really found depth and value in some of the things the pastor had to say about revelations 3. afterward, while playing with some of the kids, i experienced a reminder of the fragility of human sanity. a few kids were chasing me around, having a grand time, when dietrich managed to latch onto one of the front edges of my untucked shirt, which he pulled. a split-second rapid-fire of popping pearl snaps later, my chest was laid bare. unfortunately not in the metaphorical sense, but in the much less pleasurable, very real and blindingly pale out-of-shape sense. the room went dark and closed in on me. i quickly clutched my shirt and overshirt around me and stumbled toward a wall to rebutton my shirt and collect myself, analyzing if there were any good way out of this situation. i thought this sort of thing was only supposed to happen to teens at school dances? (although this did happen in a (former) ymca gymnasium…hhmmm….)
it’s really not that i have an issue with my body, it’s that i was trying to protect everyone else. no, really! think of the children! and it’s a house of worship — i didn’t want people having to question their faith in a loving and compassionate G-d. let’s just say i’m nowhere mentally near being able to dance like david did. (and everyone should be thankful for that.)
and to think i was this close to putting a white t-shirt underneath before leaving the house. don’t be misled and dismissive like i was, there is wisdom in the ways of elders. the traditions passed down are sometimes there to protect you, not just restrain you.

i picked up a few movies over the weekend…

• blade runner (director’s cut) — ridley scott (warner brothers)
• the blues brothers (25th anniversary edition) — belushi and aykroyd (universal)
• finding nemo (2-disc collector’s edition) — pixar (walt disney)
• full metal jacket — stanley kubrick (warner brothers)
• the good, the bad, and the ugly (2-disc special edition) — eastwood, leone (mgm)
• the royal tenenbaums (criterion collection) — anderson (touchstone)
• the empire strikes back (2-disc limited edition) — lucas (20th century fox)
• return of the jedi (2-disc limited edition) — lucas (20th century fox)

i’ve been planning on buying blade runner for some time, but i kept hoping they’d release the original cut as well. i decided to give up on waiting and just get this one. the blues brothers is a classic i’ve also wanted for some time but just hadn’t gotten around to getting. finding nemo was one of the movies stolen from 9023 by the pot-smoking kids. full metal jacket is kubrick, and that’s enough. the good, the bad, and the ugly i got because i’ve been wanting some old eastwood westerns for some time and this looked like a cool release of this movie. this copy of the royal tenenbaums replaces the version i let tamara have. she identified with margo a little too closely during those final days of her mental collapse, or embrace of two-faced nature, or defeat by sin, or whatever it was. in fact, a few days before she admitted she was having the affair (and thus obviously while she was having it) we were at target and we bought a coat for her that had a strong visual resemblance to that of margot. i kind of wish i’d had some clue just how much she was behaving like margot. i bought the two star wars movies to get the original versions on dvd. this makes like the third set of star wars i’ve bought…i hope this one lasts.
there were a number of other films that jumped out as me as needing to be in my home collection, but i decided to show at least a bit of restraint. there’s always next weekend…

okay, so here’s my story about the new remote the potts’ got me for xmas. it’s the logitech harmony remote 676. it’s a universal remote that uses a usb connection to download the codes for your devices from logitech’s website. after entering my stuff and going through the steps, everything basic worked on all of my devices…except my a/v receiver. it’s a sony str-da2000es. i spent a couple of hours over several days mucking around with the remote, trying to get it to control the receiver, but pretty much to no avail. i could get it to change the volume, but not turn it on/off or change inputs. i eventually got frustrated trying to use logitech’s troubleshooting guide and knowledgebase, and repeated attempts at deleting/re-configuring the remote and getting it to “learn” the ir commands from my working remote.
last night a google search turned up a page that said in order to work with universal remotes the sony receiver needed to be in “av1” mode instead of “av2” (the default). for the receiver, you turn it off, then hold down “input mode” and hit the power (I/O) button. each time you do this, it switches between “av1” and “av2”. i then also had to do this on my remote (rm-lg112) so the original remote would work with the device. for it, hold down the “use mode” button and press the main power (I/O) button. you should see “main” or “2nd” show up on the screen. use the easy scroll button to see “main” and push the easy scroll key to select it. use the easy scroll key to select between “av1” and “av2”, then press it to select. the use mode light will blink once for “av1” or twice for “av2”. having done this, i once again went through the online setup process and prepared to enjoy my working remote.
except it didn’t work. bleh. on the good side, it could now turn on the receiver — but it didn’t change inputs, or turn it off. after another hour or more of messing with it, reconfiguring and deleting both activities and the device, i eventually stumbled onto something. the list of what command it would use to change to an input was blank. saying “i have my remote and know what to do”, which meant it was “learning” ir commands, never worked. i did it over and over and it never worked. power toggling never worked correctly either. eventually i chose “i don’t have the remote, but i know what needs to be done” and chose ir commands from the dropdown list. i did this for every input. and it worked! my inputs changed when i changed activities. if it was off it’d turn it on and set it to the right input.
but it wouldn’t turn it off. *sigh* i went back into the online config and told it my remote has a separate button for on and off (which isn’t true) and then instead of telling it i had my remote i told it i didn’t but i knew what needed to be pressed and picked “poweron” and “poweroff” from the drop menus. i then yet again uploaded the config via usb to the remote (for the i-don’t-know-how-many-th time). and FINALLY the basic functions of each device worked, and everything turned on and off at the appropriate points.
the whole thing was certainly a much more painful process than i’d expected, and i had to do roundabout methods that weren’t intuitive or accurate for my remote in order to get it to work. i’m assuming that most people probably just enter their devices and things just magically work, no sweat. but not for me. on the good side, now that i’ve got the basics worked out i can move on to creating all kinds of crazy one-button custom codes to control my a/v devices as a whole.

i’m maxed out on my vacation time at work, which means my constantly accruing vacation time just disappears. so i took tuesday jan 2nd off. i spent most of the day with the potts’ family. i went to the children’s museum with them in the morning. i’d parked near it for a year or two while working in the medical center, but i’d never gone. it’s pretty cool. unfortunately, there are all these kids there, and it didn’t really seem like it would be right for me to push them away from things so i could play around with the exhibits. we then ate lunch, then we came by the house and i gave jack a number of cans of paint and a bunch of painting supplies to use at his new office. i had a lot of stuff from 9023 that i’d probably never use. i’ve still got a lot of crap from 9023 to give/throw away.
wednesday, i whipped up a new promo for the radio show. there was a request for promos to play during a new 5pm news show, so i put something together and submitted it. i wanted something that would be appropriate for a promo during a news show. here it is. also, the local fox tv affiliate came by the radio show because they wanted to do a segment on the new mac quicktime vulnerability. they’d used jay in the past as an “expert”, so i guess he’s on their call list. anyway, they came by and shot some footage of the guys in the studio room, then they came into the control room to shoot some board shots. the camera guy said they (fox) require him to do it. i guess it’s a standard tv shot for segments about radio. (think about it…pretty much every tv segment about a radio show has the guy(s) on the mics with headphones, and a shot of the board with the dials and knobs and meters and lights and such.) they aired some of the footage, and that’s where i come in…

that’s right, my hands and arms are now famous! if anyone wants to get their picture taken with my hands and forearms, just let me know! for a few bucks, one of my famous hands and arms might even be cajoled into going around your neck or waist for a photo op. you’ll be the envy of your small circle of pedestrian friends!
in the segment, they started the board shot with a close-up of a small sign that’s on the kpft board. i think they used it because it says “kpft” in big letters at the top, but they obviously didn’t pay attention to the rest of the text. it’s advice for djs, and one of the things it says is to not use any of the fcc prohibited words…then goes on to list them all, unobfuscated. so the whole list was aired on the local fox station. granted, if you don’t know it’s there you’d probably not notice. although subconciously you might feel either like cussing or sullied for some reason after seeing the segment.
last night was the geek gathering for the radio show. there was a pretty good turnout. there were some good conversations and laughs. i left around 11pm and headed home. i’d just finished an iced white mocha latte, so i was somewhat wired. i ended up watching tape (discussed in the previous entry), then spent a couple of hours messing with the remote the potts’ bought me for xmas. i’ll give it its own entry.

i need to backfill a few movies i’ve seen and some music i bought over the last month or two.
a month or two ago i watched thank you for smoking. the movie was both enjoyable and frustrating. can something be so ironic or mocking that it flips around to being sincere? the story is basically about a p.r. man for tobacco, and the contortions he goes through to spin things. but it’s also about everyone else spinning things and being hypocrites too. i felt like it was a statement about moral relativity, but was embracing it as natural and good — or at least so common that we might as well accept it. i kept expecting the people living on lies and deceit to reap the results, but instead it seemed to say that everyone defines their own moral code and that’s fair enough. it mocked the absurdity and hypocrisy of the characters and their positions, but at the same time embraced it as normal and valid. the movie makes you think, but the interpretation i walked away with wasn’t a view i feel comfortable espousing.
over thanksgiving i watched flags of our fathers when i was in brady back on oct 21st. (i mentioned it in a blog post on oct 25th, but haven’t gotten around to discussing it.) it’s the story of the guys from the famous raising of the flag on iwo jima during world war two. part of it is about iwo jima, part of it is about them being brought back to the u.s. as heroes to pitch war bonds. it was done by clint eastwood, who is evidently also planning on releasing a movie about the same time frame from the japanese perspective. i believe it was based on a book by the son of one of the four guys. it’s been awhile since i saw it, but at the time i thought the action scenes were impressive. the perspective and possibly more honest telling of events from that time frame was also interesting. the parts with the son talking to his (now dead) father’s friends to learn about what happened seemed sort of disjointed from the rest of the film. and it had some interesting takes on ira hayes and the way white u.s. culture perceived and treated him. don’t think you’re walking into a “hoo-rah! G-d bless america cuz we’re perfect and that time was perfect back then!” film. it’s more complex and honest than that.
about a month ago i watched a scanner darkly. it’s a rotoscoped film by richard linklater, based on a story by philip k. dick. i’ve only read one or two of dick’s stories, but they’re certainly intriguing. in the mid or late 90’s it became hip to want to do movies based on his stuff. (blade runner was a forerunner by years, and is one of the few movies from dick’s stuff that is good. although minority report had some coolness.) this movie has a number of well-known actors. the rotoscoping gives the film a surrealistic feeling, which is pretty much appropriate for stories by philip k. dick, but overall i didn’t feel like the movie was that strong. which doesn’t mean i think it was bad, but it felt like at some point the rotoscoping became distracting more than enhancing, and overall the movie just felt sort of flat to me.
last week i watched the big kahuna, a film with kevin spacey and danny devito. the trailer made it look good, but the trailer had little in common with the movie. they sliced dialogue and sequences so it played like some other movie — a movie i’d have rather seen than the one i did. i didn’t see at the end that it listed the movie being from or based on a stage play, but the movie smelled of it. maybe that’s just the feel someone making the movie wanted. whatever the case, i thought the dialogue and visuals were constrained and fake feeling, something i feel is a necessary trait of most stage plays…but film isn’t constrained like that, and i’d rather it not be. even though there were some decent conversations and societal questions raised in places, overall i’d not suggest the movie.
this past weekend i watched constantine over at the potts’ house. i don’t think i had originally realized it was based on the dc comic hellblazer. i never read hellblazer, but i had a couple of issues and was familiar with john constantine because i read a lot of vertigo stuff back in the day. (e.g., i have a complete run of the original sandman series.) trying to pull all of that story-telling style and tendencies from my brain was difficult, but i think the movie had the feel of a lot of the vertigo stuff i used to read. i was really impressed with the visuals/effects. keanu reeves playing constantine really jacked things up for me though. he just isn’t the right guy to play a hard-nosed bad-ass. he was good in the first matrix film because he played a constantly confused and overwhelmed character. that’s what he’s good at/for. they really should have gotten someone else to play constantine. really. outside of that, i thought the movie was decent, and like i said i really enjoyed the special effects. oh yeah…the guy who played satan, and the portrayal of satan, was excellent.
last night i watched tape. it’s a movie shot on digital by richard linklater. i think it was part of a project to give some directors a minimal amount of money to shoot a cheap film on digital. it has a grand total of three people in it, and the whole movie takes place in a hotel room. and if you can’t get past that, you don’t deserve to appreciate this film. it starts off with a very slow pace, but the tension and conflict slowly builds over time until it’s pretty intense by the end. the context is a couple of high school friends getting together, and there are some unresolved issues. one brings up something that happened in high school, and forces an awkward scenario by having the third party come over. the movie is based on a play, but unlike the big kahuna, this doesn’t feel like a stage play on film to me. the movie is not about visuals, although the filming style is good for the movie — it’s about the characters, their perspectives and faults, and how they interact. i felt like each character wanted control of the situation at any point, but each one had a different way of dealing with things: one buries/denies/avoids, one rationalizes/trivializes/distances, and the other confronts/manipulates. each technique works and falls apart, and they are emotionally cornered as the three people work through the awkward situations. although the interplay between the characters seems forced at points (the writer had to force ongoing interaction to keep the people talking, after all), overall i felt the actions and feelings of the characters seemed very realistic. in general, i could see a lot of this drama playing out in real life between real people. the central subject matter is pretty emotional and touchy, and each character’s handling of it seems plausible. if you can handle a minimal cast, an extremely minimal set, and a slowly building pace that is completely based on character interaction and confrontation, i think you’d really enjoy this movie.
and while i was doing my xmas shopping, i picked up a few cds at half price books:

• tennessee saturday night – red foley (proper)
• wildwood flower – june carter cash (dualtone)
• red dirt girl – emmylou harris (nonesuch)

…at least that’s what jack would have you believe. we’ll see.
i helped jack move some stuff from his old office to his new one on saturday night. when i was getting ready to leave, my element wouldn’t start. something was wrong with the battery or the electrical system, as the lights and electronics were flickering, buzzing, and behaving oddly. jack gave me a jump and it started up. in case the battery had run down, i left it running at my house then headed to the potts’ residence. as soon as i stopped it, the dome light was dim. jack gave me a jump again. when i got home, same thing. i figured it was the battery since getting a jump worked, but i didn’t know for sure. sunday, sue came over before church and took me to autozone where they verified the battery was kaput (and i gave a little cheer since i didn’t want to deal with electrical problems) and i bought a new one. i put it in and things were normal again.
i spent new year’s eve at a semi-formal dinner and party at chris and mary’s place. i managed to overcome my aversion to dressing up and tucked in my western shirt and wore a suit jacket. of course, i was also wearing wrangler blue jeans and snake skin boots — but i was pretty dressed up for me. the food was good, i smoked my pipe, i had a couple of drinks, i smoked a cigar i’d brought, i came home (around 4am). i’m not much of the swingin’ bachelor, but i guess i did alright.
2006 wasn’t a bad year, all told. even though there were some painful, frustrating, and anger-inducing pieces, overall it was mostly about endings. i finally managed to wrap up pretty much everything related to the painful, gaping wounds in my back from tamara. i know i will always have scars, but at least most of the healing process is over and i am at a point to stand or fall on my own, not due to tamara.
today i had my first meal of 2007: goode company bbq. starting off the new year eating sausage and brisket with beans and potato salad, drinking some sweet iced tea, and listening to classic country music just seemed a good choice.