Family weekends...

... are generally more hassle than reward, thought the reward part usually makes up for it. If that makes any sense. This weekend, we're taking 5 kids under 10 to see Sesame Street Live.
Being a parent is weird in that, as I would never in a million freakin' years have any desire to see Sesame Street Live, I do have a huge desire to watch Jackson see Sesame Street Live. Him getting a kick out of it will make it totally worth it, and I now have a massive amount of respect and understanding for my step-mother who took me and a friend to see Weird Al back in 1985 when I was 10.
There are 5 kids because cousins who live in Grove are coming in for it, and since Jen's mom, a CPA, is neck-deep in tax returns, she had to give up her ticket, and we are taking the child of a family friend. So my two kids, two cousins, and a family friend. Everybody got that? The cousins being in town means we pretty much spend the whole weekend at the In-laws, wrangling various children and preparing meals.
We may all go to the Air and Space Museum on Sunday as well. I hope that isn't too much stimuli for one weekend. Or too little.
Wish me luck.

In other news:

One of my favorite comic artists, James Jean, has done some work for Prada. Now that's big time.

Another Fav, Adrian Tomine, who hit the big time with Illustrations for The New Yorker and Weezer, has a comic up on NPR's site to coincide with their story about Long Duk Dong's cultural impact. The fact that a story about Long Duk Dong's cultural impact even exists makes me love NPR that much more.

I think because of Veronica Mars, Heroes and Fanboys, Kristen Bell has now replaced Sarah Michelle Geller as geekdom's favorite hottie. Because of this. And this. Nerds are going ape-shit.

South Park Studios has launched. Every episode of South Park. Free. No shit. My favorite is Mecha-Strisand, because of Robert Smith.

I think that's all I have.


-JP

In which I show you another baby pic

Joey has decided that he enjoys waiving his hands in the air. Waving them like he just doesn't care. He also has this crooked smile that just kills me.


Bow down to the cuteness*--->


Um... I don't have much going on right now. Just humming along.
No new geek news, nothing too exciting happening at work...
Jackson is gearing up to go see Sesame Street Live in a few weeks with his cousins.
He's getting crazy good at jigsaw puzzles.


So, um... yeah.


-JP




* You are not worthy.

Holy Crap!

Lost military rocket crashes into Tulsa apartment building




Watch the skies, people!




-JP

Another weird dream

This is really weird. I never remember my dreams, but this is the third in a week or so that I have vivid recall of. It also features famous people.

In my dream, I was chosen to participate in a new reality show hosted by Steve Carrel, called Celerity Scavenger Hunt. Each participant is teamed up with a celebrity and then they go on a scavenger hunt , hence the title. Each week, someone would get voted off. It's like The amazing race meets Dancing with the Stars. And just like DWTS, the celebrities are decidedly D-list. I was pared with Kari Byron, the hottie from Mythbusters. Steve Carrell does the whole Intro, and off we go. Kari and I have to look for a envelope hidden in a park somewhere. We figure out that it is in Central Park, NY, which is near where we already were. So we went and got the envelope, but were instructed not to open it. The first part of the contest was to take 12 hours, and we did it in like 20 minutes. So we went and got a coffee. Then in real life, I knocked over the cup of water sitting on the night stand, waking me up and spilling water everywhere that I then had to go clean up.

Like I said: Weird. And I'm just the kind of nerd who has a dream about Kari Byron that is completely non-sexual. That's even weirder.

In Other news:

Jackson is adjusting well to being at home. In fact, I think he's a lot more relaxed. The teachers at his school kept telling us little stories here and there about how quiet he was. We were always a little mystified by that, because he's a little blabbermouth at home. We fugue he was weirded out about something. He also was kind of solitary at school. He's either just watch, or play by himself, which is fine. I'm still like that, but since he's been home, it seems like his vocabulary has doubled, and his sentences are more complex. Could be that we were just not paying attention, but still. This week he went to story time at the library and participated just fine. Who knows?

Joseph is rockin' along. He's looking around real good and smiles when he sees me. That'll melt your heart a little.


Other than that, not much going on.

-JP




Side note about Kari Byron: She's a pretty cool artist.

I'm a Nerd.

But I never really realized how much until the other day.

I was watching the Made-for TV, backdoor Pilot for Knight Rider. This should have been enough, I know. The only reason I wanted to watch it, is because originally Will Arnett was going to be the voice of the car. They replaced him with Val Kilmer, which seemed an odd choice, and it made me curious about the whole show, so I downloaded it completely legally, of course. Just so you know, the movie sucked egg rolls. It was basically a two-hour car commercial. Lame.

But I digress.

Here is why I'm a Nerd: The main dude driving KITT, was supposed to be The Hoff's illegitimate son. The Dude looks a lot like The Hoff, and even wore a maroon t-shirt and leather jacket, much like The Hoff did back in the day. Now, in the original series, Michael Knight was actually officer Michael Arthur Long, a cop who was betrayed and nearly killed do to some kind of industrial espionage. He was saved by the Knight foundation and given facial reconstruction and a new name for some reason. Then he went out with his kick-ass car and kicked some ass. My point is that the kid shouldn't look anything like The Hoff, but like Officer Long.


Soon after I realized this, I realized that for some reason Knight Rider trivia is in my brain instead of actual useful information and I wanted to kill myself. When I told Jen about it, she inquired as to why I can't remember the most mundane things like taking out the trash, but I remember God-Damn officer Michael Arthur Long.
Why can't history tests and things like that stay in me head instead?



I feel shame.



-JP

Star Wars by Saul Bass and McSpaced

Do you guys know who Saul Bass is? He Invented the opening title sequence as we know it.
I borrow* from him all the time.
Click here.
Or here.

Then watch this:



Awesome work, random YouTube guy!

In other news:

They are making an American version of Spaced, one of my all time favorite British sit-coms. As far as American remakes of British shows go, I have mixed feelings. While most of the reality based ones like What not to Wear and Antiques Roadshow seem to do quite well (Just look at American Idol or Trading Spaces), Most of the imported sitcoms do not. There are notable exceptions, like The Office, All in the Family and Sanford and Son, but for every Three's Company, we seem to get six or seven Couplings or the horrible Red Dwarf remakes.
I think the reason is not so much that Americans don't get British humor, it's just that they can't translate it very well when you have studio executives pulling the strings. It seems the less they mess with the premise the better, as with The Office. This has a lot to do with the creative team as well. If the makers "get it" and have respect for the source material, then the outcome can be really good. This is not the case for Spaced. The creative team attached is led by McG (McSpaced?) of Charlies Angels: Full Throttle fame(WTF!?!?) Simon Pegg has made his feelings very well known, and is not happy about it. His main problem is that while they do intend on giving them a small payment, meant basically to shut them up, they are in no way otherwise connected to the project, other that having their names mentioned in the press releases and marketing materials. Even there, they oddly omit the series co-creator Jessica Hynes, probably because she isn't as famous in America as Pegg is. Weather or not the remake is any good, Pegg says wh would have at least liked a phone call. Bastards.
Let's hope they don't fuck up the remake of Life on Mars, either. This one I really don't get, because the original would do just fine on Network TV with no changes at all. It is a fantastic show.


That is all

-JP






*read: Steal