Women’s Curling – the USA team’s Nicole Joraanstad.
I could watch her sweep for hours on end. She really puts her hips into it.
Blonde girl. Sweet bouncing hips.
Ummm….yeah.
U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!
Archive for category insight
Working on some park photos tonight.
I can’t be the only one who sees it:
Or maybe I’m still 12 deep down inside…
I made the mistake of returning to an Ikea store today (yesterday, by the posting date on this). We need some curtains and while we’re not sure what we want, we still haven’t seen it and thought maybe we’d get lucky at Ikea and maybe find some other things in the process. My wife digs Ikea. I think Ikea is lame. We left with a wok (yay stir fry!) and two cheap plastic bins my son can put his overflowing lego collection in. It was a total waste of my time and I now know why I only need to visit an Ikea every 4 or 5 years.
I know Ikea stores are a fresh and new idea for a lot of people, but Pittsburgh had one of the first. Way back when I was a kid and didn’t care a bit about home goods, the hillfolk of western PA were getting dumb little chairs and tables at Ikea. The first time I actually stepped foot into one was when we moved back to Pittsburgh in 2004. My wife’s hotel was across the highway from it and we lived like 10 minutes away. Basically, it was quick local shopping for us that people would drive hours to visit – go figure.
I initially thought it was the best place in the world. But I noticed that the more I returned the less enthused I was about what they had. It lost its luster a little more with each visit. We’ve owned a few things from Ikea. We had some chairs that were fine. We gave them away after a couple of years because we really didn’t need them any more. We had some neat big white curtain thingies that we used in front of our sliding glass door. We had a funky-sized artowrk thingy that the movers broke when we came to Dayton. My daughter’s side table in her bedroom as I type this came from Ikea and it does what it does.
In fact, that’s the thing about Ikea – their shit is fine. If you just need to slap together a little table and toss it in the corner, it’s fine. Need a shelf somewhere? Stop at Ikea, their shelves are just fine.
So my wife got me to drive to the Cincy Ikea that opened in late 2008 or something like that. Long enough ago to be established but recent enough to still be ‘new’ and an attraction for people.
I can say that the place offers me next to nothing. In general, I don’t think their furniture is nice. It’s plasticky. Not necessarily literally (although sometimes) but in a more general way. If I was allowed one adjective to describe the furniture in Ikea, I’d choose plasticky. (and I’d spell it like that too) Every thing has a shiny, plastic, retro-modern look to it – even wood items. It’s not that it necessarily looks cheap, it just doesn’t look right. It looks like dollhouse furniture or something. I can’t quite put my finger on it or find the right words to get close. It’s off.
Which is fine when you’re finding something significantly cheaper than you can elsewhere – like the aforementioned fabrics, little sidetables and one-off shelves. That’s the one place Ikea excels…or at least makes some sense to me.
But it just feels like as far a big things go, you can do much better for “same ballpark” prices at any number of furniture stores…and the things generally will have nice finishes that don’t look so plasticky…and aesthetic design, not just functional design.
Speaking of design, the style just screams college dorm room chic to me. Again, I use that for lack of a better term, but it’s like a manufactured, fake sophistication – fauxphistication (can I trademark that?). I can’t imagine furnishing my house with the stuff at Ikea (and I mean in any significant way, remember, I have some of this crap in the corners around here too) beyond the age of 25…30 if I’m generous and definitely at 25 (or less) if you’re in a relationship and cohabitating.
I dunno, it just doesn’t do it for me on any level. I’m less enthused everytime I visit a store. I suspect the same happens to their products in the house (again referring to big things – like doing a room in all Ikea crap). Like at first it’s a shiny and sleek and everyday it starts to look a little plastickier (oh yeah, I went there with the spelling) and a little less shiny until you hate it and realize you bought weird fucking Swedish shit for your house.
I’m sure there’s someone going to read this who swears by the place and has an Ikea house that will be sure to let me know how nice their stuff is. That’s fine. To each their own. It’s certainly not for me, so maybe it’s for you.
Today’s visit was a special treat though because of the extra super special Sunday morning crowd. It was the stop-and-gawk theme park mentality taken to the max. And yes, I realize that’s kinda what you do in a furniture store – stop and look. But it was a wonderful mix of yokels from the southern Ohio, Southern Indiana, Northern Kentucky area who were amazed at the shiny visions of plasticky furniture that was “surely from the fyooture” and wannabee hipsters and intellectuals who took it way too seriously and discussed extra-loudly why this piece worked and why it would work in whatever area of their swank pad needed this piece. It was like the fucking Twilight Zone. I’ve never seen so many Ikea-goers with the checklists and tiny mini-golf pencils going around scribbling whatever it was you scribble on those little pieces of paper. My daughter and I picked up a paper/pencil combo about halfway through and kept imaginary mini-golf scores with it…whenever we weren’t pretending a cobra was jumping out of everything that could be opened and striking when we opened it.
Turns out we didn’t find any curtains and their selection of artwork/stuff for the wall was lame at best. I’m convinced at least 50% of it was the same stuff I saw during my last visit to the Pittsburgh store 4 years ago.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot – the stupid-ass product names. Arrrgh! I’m convinced it’s just abstract word association with ‘modern’ misspellings. For example, let’s pretend we need to give a clock a product name. Hmmm. Clock. Clocks keep time. Units for measuring time. Hours. Days. Minutes. Years. Decades! Now a funky modern misspelling and voila!
The clock product name is Dekad.
It really feels that shallow and manufactured most of the time….just like the furniture!
(yes, I understand the names are usually Swedish words that are just literal translations or adjectives describing preferred qualities of the product, but’s it’s not cutesy and SKÄRPT – it’s silly and OMTÖCKNAD.)
Whatever. Your mileage will vary to be sure. I’m not a fan of the place and, by my estimation, won’t step foot in another Ikea store until 2014 or so.
Caught this yesterday on SHO:
I never in my life thought I’d be able to sit through (let alone be entertained, forced to think and laugh…and even get a bit misty-eyed by) a two hour and ten minute monologue about faith by the chick who was Pat on SNL, but I did…and I’m recommending it to you.
I just want public record of the fact that today – December 2, 2009 – is the day the transition from little girl to total teenager has happened in our home.
Today in response to my making a joking comment about my daughter forgetting her band practice time sheet and signing it and handing it to her I was met with, “I know, daa-aaad!”
…and she said it in that tone of voice. (you have it in your head right now – and you’re spot on)
So I egged it on a little by questioning her lack of practice and got my first bit of real-world first-hand “teen logic” about how she needs this program for her computer that I’ve been dragging my feet on getting because she’s not sure if she’s hitting notes right and practicing wrong develops bad habits and wonk wonk wonk – essentially it was my fault she doesn’t practice enough. (not snotty about it, mind you, but definitely the twisted logic that we use with our parents at that age – and I’m sure it made perfect sense to her as she said it.)
Like I totally stepped out of body for the 45 seconds the whole conversation took and I could see the scene from above – a legit out of body experience! And I’m telling myself, “Holy shit! This is the moment. This is the first toe being dipped into the cold swimming pool. This is the beginning of the teen years coming on. At first it’s just a glimpse here and there. Then patterns develop. Then it’s more common than not. And before you know it – you have a fucking teenager.
It was truly a moment that made me both chuckle and feel a little sad at the same time.
I just want a written record of this moment. Definitely for posterity, but also so I can come back and read this a few years down the line when I can’t figure out why my kid seems to have gone totally nuts and does only things that makes me want to smack her upside the head.
Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs
Heh
The Taking of Pelham 123
Yeh
Food Inc.
Meh
Not too often I sit back and smile and just think I had a good day. That’s not to say things suck, but as I get older the little victories mean less and it takes more to light up that inner smile. Also, it seems like everytime in my life when I sat back and thought, “You know, things are good.” it was immediately followed by my world crumbling around me. So much so that I’ve become a little superstitious about actually acknowledging it. So let me just add the disclaimer that I’d like the external forces that control the universe (particularly my corner of it) to know that I’m not gloating as much as simply relaying the events of my day. (awkward smile)
Today I was reminded how much my kids kick ass. Like serious ass. Like your kid sucks compared to my kid sort of stuff.
Today was parent/teacher conferences and report cards.
My son generally does well with the exception of reading – where he’s not failing or behind, but he has to work to keep it up. But every year without doubt we’re told how he is an example of what a student should be – hard working, willing to help, polite, well manner and behaved – just a pleasure to be around. Last month was his third consectuive year for receiving the ‘citizenship award’ that the school gives. He’s only been in school three years – do the math. How can that not make you smile? Add to that the fact that he’s a hardcore middle linebacker that will rip your fucking head off and you can’t lose. We always joke that he’s like my wife and he is – in almost every way. Just read the adjectives I used to describe him and you have my wife…except I’m not sure she ever played middle linebacker, but she will rip your fucking head off.
The other half of the joke is that my daughter is just like me – and it’s true. A lovingly cynical, over-talented cutie with a scathing sense of humor that is both quick witted and silly at once.
My daughter excels without having to put forth much effort. She’s ridiculously bright and has been a straight A student for as long as I can remember. She always test at advanced levels and finally with this meeting there was recommendation of moving towards getting her in the honors program now that she’s in middle school. Plus, she’s the one who always got into the extracurricular stuff ranging from student council to land lab to origami to band to whatever else she’s done. To make matters even worse, she’s popular. Walk down the hall with her in a mostly empty school and you’ll still hear a dozen hellos from students and teachers alike before you get where you’re going – and tonight was no exception. The theme of our meetings about her have gone from “great student, a pleasure to have in class” to “we have to make sure we find ways to keep this girl challenged” – I don’t claim to know how much of things is nature vs nurture, but again, I can’t help but smile.
Just the kind of day that makes you sit back with a kind of bewildered smile and think, “Damn, we’re doing something right.”
Plus, I went for a haircut this afternoon and got one of the girls I like with no wait on a walk-in. That was pretty sweet too.
It really feels like we’re at a point in life where we’re just kind of settling in. Finally buying a house was big step in that general vibe. I was just looking back and since I moved out of my parent’s house (at 18), I’ve never lived at one address for longer than 35 months. That’s kind of crazy, I suppose – in 18 years, I’ve never lived in one place for as long as a three year span. It’s especially odd if you consider the first 18 years of my life where 15 of them (from 3 until I moved out) were spent in the same rural, small town home.
I’ve known my wife for half my life and been married for 13 years (last month) and our lives have been very migratory in many ways – always moving from area to area and always traveling for person reasons within that greater context. It’s just what we’ve done and it’s worked out greatly for us.
But in the past year – all of that seems to have changed. We sort of acknowledged that we’re in a pretty good place and that it looks like we can continue to advance our lives while staying put. We bit the bullet and bought the house last winter and decided to spend our resources not staying mobile, but rather establishing some minor roots. We generally have a 10-year plan at this point. Our youngest (my son) just turned 8, so in ten years we’ll have two adult children and be free to open up all the options again and see where (if anywhere) it takes us.
I’m not sure where I was heading with this. Lately I have a feeling of ’settling in’ – not really slowing down, but changing focus. I’m not sure if it’s good or bad, but it’s different and that’s why I’m noticing it. Seems like a good time in life to get our ducks in a row, lay low and wait for the signal that it’s time to sping forth into whatever it may be that needs sprung into.
It’s the kind of thing that is necessary, but not exciting…and I think my little blog reflects that.
Crank 2: High Voltage
Every bit as stupid and awesome as you’d expect it to be.
Adventureland
A slow moving movie full of uninteresting characters I barely cared about.
It was two years ago that we got the HHR. I can’t say I regret buying it. It’s a decent vehicle at a good price, but when it comes time to swap out to a new vehicle I’m certainly in a place where I’d like something a little more upscale and sportier…and maybe a sexy black color. But being as the wife has swap privledges WAY before I do, I should just forget about that for now.
In two years I put 17,180 miles on it – which is a bit lower than the standard 1000 miles per month thing that seems to get thrown about a lot.
But that includes amusement park trips. If we had used the Nissan for those drives I’d be under 12,000. (yes, we’ve driven over 5000 miles to amusement parks in the past two years…even sicker considering the only 2009 trip drives have been a handful of jaunts to Kings Island)
And this is more of a stretch, but if I also knocked off the 5 drives back home, I get a number that’s under 9,000.
Meh, whatever. I could rationalize it down to zero if I had to.
The point is, I’ve had the HHR for two years now. At this point, I’m pleased with my purchase.
(and yes, I said, “jaunts” – fuck you for noticing)
I’ve been seeing a lot that annoys me or gets under my skin lately. You’d think that’d be the perfect time to blog (being as I have a way of bitching that elicits conversation and reaction), yet my blog is as slow as ever.
The truth is, I’m not in the mood. I have too much going on lately – nothing major just more of the mundanities of life for the most part – to go beyond being annoyed, irritated or just disagreeing in my mind and silently knowing I’m right and the world is slowly going to hell in a handbasket.
A little of Dave’s interesting interview with GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz:
This week started with a new PC. My old one was ancient. I originally built it in August of 2001 and did some minor upgrades in 2004 when RCT3 came out. To call it dated would be an understatement. It’s funny how you just get used to the way things are because it never really bothered me. I just noticed it seemed to be taking longer and longer to process photos and figured it was time to upgrade. I wanted to build something top-of-the-line with an i7 processor, but decided to just get a Dell-built Quad Core at less than 1/2 the cost. If I end up using it even two years it was worth it. Already amused by how fast Photoshop processes for me now. Who knows how much time I’ve wasted/lost over the past few years. I suck.
But I do have a sweet 22″ widesreen monitor that, when set to 1920×1080 as I have it, offers a whole buttload of screen real estate. Much more than my meager self is used to. I’ve spent much of the odd hours of this week loading programs and transferring files.
Then came some more photo requests. This past winter was slow as hell, but the spring has made up for it. Oddly enough, a couple of the photos were on film so I had to do some scanning. I never did really good scans the first time around and I have a ton of film I shot from 2000-2003. I keep thinking I need to just pay to have some quality scans done, but I never get around to actually doing it.
Then the nice weather came and the reality of being a homeowner hit when I suddenly realized our yard looks like shit and everyone else’s looks like they brought pros in to finely manicure the grounds. I’ll be honest with y’all here – I don’t even own a lawn mower yet…or a rake…or a shovel…or anything. So we decided that this weekend will be spent buying crap to keep up with the yard. I’m so not amused. I used to be more outdoorsy and I still have a lot of the liking to work with my hands thing in me from childhood (my parents weren’t and aren’t afraid to get out and get dirty and I used to have it in me too).
I’ve also come to note that of the 6 houses on the cul-de-sac that we are easily the youngest…by a good margin. I’ve also noticed that I’m not nearly as friendly as the others. I’ll smile, wave, say hello, share a few words about the weather, whatever…but I don’t need a friend. I’m not coming over for tea. I’m not helping you build shit. I’m not fawning over your shitty dog. I’m not sitting on the deck and talking all evening over a beer. I’ll be a friendly face that lives on your street. I won’t be your friend.
It sounds shitty, but it’s how I feel. Fuck you, I write the rules.
That’s how my week has gone.
Just read this:
I have to say I agree 100% with the idea that the commercials are necessary to the pacing. Obviously the answer is that eventually shows will be written with non-commercial pacing, but we’re not there yet. Just found the idea interesting.
Which leads me to something else that I think will be lost in the world of entertainment in the near future – spontaneity.
Since we moved, we’re stuck with Time Warner. I fucking hate everything about Time Warner. Their prices are too high, their offerings too few and their equipment sucks major ball sack. I always knew it, but after sampling AT&T for a few months before we moved, it’s painfully obvious. The sick thing is that even though we moved less than a mile as the crow flies, there’s no plans for AT&T to make service available here any time soon. I’m disgusted every time I sit down to watch TV and I cringe every time I pay the Time Warner bill.
With all of that said, it’s made me consider being on the bleeding edge and just dropping a service provider altogether. A combo of an antenna, a PC hooked to the TV and something like a Roku along with my Netflix subscription would probably cover everything I already watch.
I’m only concerned about losing two things – discovery and spontaneity.
I know I’m old school in this aspect and I think I talked about this before on this blog, but when it comes to my entertainment I prefer a little spontaneity and I like the random process of discovering something I enjoy.
With TV that means surfing through the channels and having something catch my attention and getting sucked in and enjoying it. Maybe a movie, maybe a documentary about the mating habits of some rare bird found only on a remote island, maybe a sitcom that becomes regular viewing.
With “on demand” programming it’s different. I have to choose to see the show. With channel surfing, it’s being shown to me.
With the world going “On Demand” and everyone watching exactly what they want when they want, I fear this simple joy of spontaneous discovery is on its way to extinction.
I think the same applies to music. I love my iPod. I love having my entire collection of music available anywhere. I sometimes miss driving in the car and just channel surfing and finding a song I like that I hadn’t discovered previously.
My biggest “old curmudgeon” thing to overcome in the face of changing entertainment delivery is how to keep that spontaneity, how to continue that path of discovery.
Because while the tech and the change fascinates me, it’s one area where I’ll be sad to see the old way go.
Is the idea of a formal dining room passe?
Here’s the deal. We have no need for a formal dining room. None. I hate the idea of a room with a formal dining setup just sitting there being wasted space.
Ideally, we’d like to do a huge expensive kitchen renovation and suck up the formal dining room into a new larger, bad-ass kitchen. But that costs a lot of money and isn’t something we’ll be jumping on any time soon.
In the meantime we’ve decided to incorporate it as part of the front room/office and make it a sitting area thus creating one large office/sitting room thingy on the left side of the house. It should be a pretty nice area.
So yeah, that’s where we stand. Some people I talk to can’t fathom the idea of not having a formal dining area and others seem to understand our approach completely.
No formal dining room for us though – we’re leading the way into the 2nd decade of the 21st century and beyond.
Forgot to mention this earlier, but after seeing bits and pieces of Obama’s speech I really want to punch Nancy Pelosi in the mouth.
I think I saw the same look in Biden’s eye towards the end.
Yeah, I’m posting it here even though you’re probably sick of seeing it already. It’s worth a chuckle.
And for the record, as long as idiots like Al Sharpton start yapping about racism anytime someone makes fun of our African American president (even if it has nothing to do with race – or hell, even if it does in the name of good natured humor) then we will never truly be equal…or make any of the final progress needed…or anything productive really.
Fuck you, Al Sharpton (and anyone else who takes offense to this comic under the racism umbrella including animal rights people – because I know some fuckwad out there is offended at making light of the chimp being killed) – thanks for taking those two steps back everytime the rest of us step forward.
Arrrgh!
The bouquet of flowers my daughter got for Valentine’s Day (the one that put the cute little roses I got my wife to shame) are on the table in the entry. That means as I type this, they’re about 15 feet behind me over my left shoulder.
Something must be fucked up with my senses or at least my sense of smell because for some reason the scent the lillies puts off kind of smells like lillies sometimes, but if I catch it just right, it kinda smells like hot dog water and it’s making me a little nauseous. Some serious wires getting crossed in my head – too many drugs. At least I’m not hearing colors…yet.
—
*not to worry about the bouquet for my daughter, it’s not a boy – it’s a tradition from Aunt Rebecca
I’m sure you’ve seen the media articles and the gazillions blogs posting this, but I wanted to as well. When I watched this last night I knew it was going to be all over the place today. This was Letterman at his finest. This is why I watch the show and this is why Dave is one of the baddest motherfuckers around.
Interestingly, I’ve seen some blogs/comments that paint Phoenix as some kind of protagonist in the situation. I have a feeling it could be one of the divides we use to categorize ourselves – Coke or Pepsi, shaken or stirred, Phoenix or Letterman.
Not sure what the deal is with Jaquin. Seems like he wants to change his image legitimately, but it also seems like an attention grab – the place in life where you play a character in a reality situation. A very grey area – the area Andy Kauffman lived his public life in and was a genius for doing so.
Phoenix however was no genius. Dave schooled his ass in a way that makes a man a man.
Just glad I watched this last night instead of hearing about it second-hand today:
Got home last night.
Been away from the online world and stuck in the real world for 8 solid days. Give me some time to come down and reacclimate to the online stuff, which all seems so silly and ridiculous to me right now.