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Ahh.. summers in Ohio. What did that mean? Trips to amusement parks and carnivals, mainly: Cedar Point (the gem), Geagua Lake (since closed, sadly), and Sea World (closed for awhile apparently, even though on my last trip to Ohio, I happily advised my row-mate to “definitely go check it out” — oops. Figures, it never really made sense to put an ocean park in OHIO of all places, did it?).

Anyway, without further adieu, here’s my list of carnival games that I love. I was talking with Steph the other day and that Roller Bowler game came to mind, and that was inspiration enough for this post. Thanks Steph!

Roller Bowler.
Man, this game was awesome. Deceptively simple, yet wickedishly hard. Oooo.. There’s one for sale on eBay! Only 104 days till Christmas! Act Now!

Whac-a-Mole.
Ok, even though I said that Steph inspired this post, that’s only half true. Cuz Masnick wrote up a post last night that mentioned this game, and I was like “Wow, two mentions of carnival games in one week — yah, I should write this up.” I do remember that it was fairly easy to cheat at this game though. At some kid’s birthday party at Chuck-E-Cheese’s in like 1986, I recall four kids, each with their hands holding down a mole. The moles had no chance, and the machine was streaming out tickets like a mofo, natch.

That Spinny Rope Ladder Game.
I did love this game, although apparently being a fat, nerdy kid does not prime you for a career in spinny rope ladder walking. I never did get even remotely close to that darned bell. Oh, the bell!

Other games that I love, but this list is getting long.
Shoot Out The Star (man, I love that game). Shoot The Clown In The Mouth With A Water Gun. Throw Darts At Balloons. Throw Rings At Bottles. Throw Balls At Bottles. Throw Dimes On Plates.

Hmmm. It appears that I love all carnival games. I can’t really think of one that I don’t like. Man, I’m a sucker. Or maybe just a huge aficionado of ginormous stuffed animals.

Oh, SNAP! I just found this: Wii Carnival Games.

Happy New Year! Ok, this is becoming somewhat of a tradition — I did it for 2005 and 2006.. Here’s a little list of the cities that I’ve spent at least one night in… This year had my Thailand trip, so that bumped up my city count a bit…

As per the previous lists, this is in somewhat chronological order of the first stay and *s indicate multiple stays…

West Hollywood, CA
San Francisco, CA*
Las Vegas, NV
Truckee, CA
New York, NY*
Ithaca, NY
South Lake Tahoe, CA
North Hollywood, CA*
Bangkok, Thailand*
On an Overnight Train, Thailand
Krabi, Thailand
Ko Phi Phi, Thailand
Phuket, Thailand
Pigeon Point, CA
Hillsborough, CA*
Princeville, HI
San Diego, CA

Wooo.. that’s a nice little list… and it’s awesome to go back through the year and remember everywhere I’ve been… and shudder at just how quickly it all flew by.

Happy trails, everyone.

This was a good year for me musically, me thinks… I took a look at my Last.fm chart, as well as my iTunes to gather some data.. here are my top 11 tracks of 2007..

1. Your Hand in Mine – Explosions in the Sky
2. The Way I Am – Ingrid Michaelson
3. My Favourite Book – Stars
4. I Defy – Joan as Policewoman
5. Foundations – Kate Nash
6. Your Red Dress – Alaska in Winter
7. Sky Blue Sky – Wilco
8. My Eyes – Travis
9. New Young Pony Club – Ice Cream
10. To Build A Home – The Cinematic Orchestra
11. The Salmon Dance (feat Fatlip) – The Chemical Brothers

Well, I guess these were not necessarily all released in 2007, but, these tracks came to my attention in the past year…

Here they all are, in a Seeqpod player, for your listening enjoyment:

Hmmm.. not that Mongolian Candidate needs a new name, but since we haven’t played together in like a year, maybe, just maybe I’ll join up with a new band someday.

And if I do, maybe it will be named:

Astronaut Cowboy
Donkeytail Spurge
Rhymes With Desk
Black Squirrel
Burping Otter
The Melikes
Surely Shirley
Benadryl Bailey
Lazy Jane

Any other good names? (thanks stepha for a lot of these)

So Jason and I were discussing cars the other night, and we decided to start a lil’ top 5 meme.. Who knows if it’ll actually continue, or if it’ll die right here, but whatever, it’s fun.

He asked me, “if money were no object, what would my top 5 cars be?”

Jason posted his top 5: a 2006 Lotus Exige, 1991 Acura NSX, 1990 BMW e30 M3, 1998 Porsche 993 911 Turbo, and a Spoon Honda Fit race car.. Interesting… all great cars, it’s obvious that J wants speed & handling from his cars… Someone likes to drive fast.

Hmmmmm… so, without further adieu, here’s my list…

1. Lotus Exige 265E
   
   Yah, J has the 2006 Lotus Exige on his list. But, I want the Lotus Exige 265E. Why? the 265E runs on e85, so it produces 44 more bhp, and 70% less carbon dioxide emissions… So, I can go fast AND be nice(r) to the environment. Al Gore would be proud. That’s a lot of responsible get up and go.

   Also, it’s handy if you’re ever being chased by an Apache Helicopter..

   Damn, I want that car.
   

2. 1988 Camel Trophy Land Rover 110 and/or a 2008 Range Rover Sport
   
   I’ve always loved Land Rovers, especially the old Series ones.. They’re so bad ass looking, and you can do an engine rebuild in the middle of the African desert with only a 3/8″ wrench. The Defender is the last of the line of Land Rovers in that whole series, and while I do really like the Discovery, the distinct character brought on by the boxy lines died with the Defender. So, as long as we’re in the “money no object” category, I don’t want just *any* Defender.. I want the one that raced in the 1988 Camel Trophy race through Sulawesi.

   Ok, ok.. if I can’t find a 1988 Camel Land Rover in decent condition (since, as seen in this video, they sure did go through a lot of abuse), I’d settle for a brand new 2008 Range Rover Sport.. That thing has real offroad cred, AND you look bling’in rolling up in it. After all, it’s handy if you’re ever chased by a tank. (ed: I did not mean for this post to be a running homage to the best car show on TV, Top Gear, but I guess it’s kind of turning out that way..)

   Oh yah.. one last thing. For both the Rovers and the Lotus above, left-hand-drive please..
   

3. 1974 BMW 2002 Turbo
   
   So, originally I was going to put the 2002tii on my list (and actually, for this slot, I almost put an old Austin Mini Cooper too). I love the old 2002, and the tii is the most desirable.. But, since this is a “money is no object” list, I think I’ll go with the 1974 BMW 2002 Turbo.

   Only 1,672 of them were ever made, I believe it was only available in the classic Alpina White with the BMW blue and red decals (hot 70′s styleeee). I love that “TURBO” is written on the air dam in mirror-image, so that it proudly announces who it is as it zooms up behind you in the rear view mirror.

   HOLY CRAP!! There is one for sale on craigslist right now for $40k. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm…

   (sound of gears turning in my head)
   

4. 1966 Lincoln Continental Convertible
   
   Check it out.. an American car in my list. Woohoo. Kennedy was a fan of them, and the boys from Entourage can be seen in one in the opening titles of their show. The ’66 Continental was a huge car (almost 19 feet long), a gas guzzler, and rode like a sofa on wheels. I love that it has 4 doors, 2 of which are suicide.. So frikkin’ cool.

   Aha.. craigslist strikes again.. Here’s one for sale for $23k…
   

5. 1991 BMW Alpina B10 Bi-Turbo
   
   Yes, yes.. I know.. I already have a Bimmer on the list, but I guess I just like them or something. I love the E34 M5, and the Alpina B10 Bi-Turbo was the fastest of that breed… So… yah, that’s what I’d like. 360hp in a four door sedan is quite a wolf in sheep’s clothing, and it’s awesome to be able to share that power with four friends.

   And, here’s a video… I don’t think it’s Top Gear, but the dude has a British accent, so it’s kinda like it..

So yah… that was a little difficult to come up with this list, but I think I’m pretty happy with it. I’ve got quite a range of cars for everything from the track, to the mountains, to roadtrips.. There are a ton more cars that I really love (like a Porsche 993 Carrera 4, an old 60′s Mustang, the EV1, an Audi S8, and a ’97 RX7) , but these are my five.. for now, at least.

So, I’m headed to NYC for my semi-annual east coast trip… It’ll be awesome to see my NY friends again, and I’m also going to my 10 year college reunion next weekend up in Ithaca. Wow. 10 years. I’m OLD. But yah.. we’re gonna stay in the dorms and stuff and frolic around campus and stuff. Maybe Jablow will keep his shirt on this time.

But yah, I’m going to be taking a few days off of work to run around NYC doing NYC things, so here’s a partial list that I’ve come up with… If anyone has any other suggestions, please let me know. I like fun. For some odd reason, my last two trips to NYC included going out to Brighton Beach (including once to pick up a nightstand with Korby), which is pretty far out there, so maybe I won’t do that again. Then again, if anyone needs help moving furniture from some remote stop on the MTA, you know I’m always up for it.

• Buy some new sneakers. I’ve been looking for a good pair forever, and NYC better have some.
• Go to B&H on a day that they’re actually open.
• Rock out on records at Turntable Lab.
• Stock up on Superhero Supplies.
• Ooo. Yum. Fried Twinkies. Park Slope Chip Shop.
• Play poker with Joe.
• Damn.. so many good shows are playing while I’m in town.. Feist, Lily Allen, Interpol, Bloc Party, Madeleine Peyroux. And, The Fucking Champs are playing the night that I get in.. but.. Hmmm.
• Freemans looks cool.
• Museum Mile Festival — Woohoo! Nine Museums FREE on June 12th from 6-9pm
• go to the MoMa. Check out the orb. And the 50 Years of Helvetica exhibit…
• Go to a Yankees game. Yankees vs. Diamondbacks, 1:05pm June 14th
• I like art. The Affordable Art Fair – June 14th
• Dance Indie at Mondo: an Indie Rock Dance Party Woo! – June 15th

Oh yah.. I’ll also be telecommuting a few days from NYC — anyone have good suggestions for good cafes where I can work? I’ll be in the Columbus Circle area…

So yah.. I like TV. I like my Tivo. I like my couch. Together, they compose the triumvirate of happiness that is my living room.

“Shows I Watch Because I Actually Want To Watch Them”

The Office
Hands down, the best show on television right now. Yes, I loved the BBC original series, but the American version has taken the show to a new level. I love the breadth of the cast, and Steve Carell is, of course, a comic genius as Michael Scott. I fear, however, that the show is in danger of jumping the shark soon, though honestly, I didn’t expect them to be able to maintain the energy through a second season — the show’s writers mightly proved me wrong, so I look forward to it returning in the fall.

Heroes
Mutant super powers are cool. The main story arc (Save the Cheerleader, Save the World) isn’t as interesting to me actually — I just really like seeing all of the different manifestations of mutant powers and such.. Cuz yah, those are cool. This reminds me — The Tick was such a great show. Spoooooooon!

Friday Night Lights
Ever since my roadtrip through West Texas back in 2005, I’ve had this strange fascination with that whole region, so when Friday Night Lights aired, I had to watch. Set in the fictional town of Dillon, TX (and yes, FNL is meant to evoke memories of the book and the movie of the same name), it’s actually a damn good show about a high school football team in a small town. Sure, the show centers around football, but I wouldn’t call it a football show, per se, it’s much more about the town and the characters. Soundtracked extensively by the band Explosions in the Sky (so good!), FNL is melodramatic and cheesy, but damn, it’s good. Oh, and it sure doesn’t hurt that there are hot chicks on the show too. Critics love it, but the ratings don’t, so I don’t know if NBC will bring it back next year..

“Shows I Watch Because It’s Like A Trainwreck, and I Can’t Look Away”

The Hills
Yes, LC has grown up (a little) since Laguna Beach, and now has very her own show.. I honestly can’t believe that this is “reality tv,” since every episode is so perfectly crafted into a dramatic little unit. Unscripted? Perhaps. Reality? Probably not. But who cares, really? Again, the abundance of hot 20-something chicks seems to be a good formula. And I can’t really watch Laguna Beach anymore without feeling icky cuz I’m getting way too old for that.

The Real World
Speaking of feeling old, anyone remember the first seasons of The Real World? New York, San Francisco — wow, those were soooo long ago. Anyway, back in our day, it was all about following people around to their jobs and stuff as they tried to make it in these big cities. Then, apparently MTV got tired of finding interesting people to cast, and instead now just fills a house with a bunch of hotties and a hot tub. (ok, Jon Brennan wasn’t exactly “interesting” but he was amusing to watch as he did absolutely nothing the whole summer) Anyway, it makes sense cuz being on The Real World really is just a stepping stone to a lifetime career in The Gauntlet, Road Rules and C-List celebrity-dom. But yah.. the Denver season has just been non-stop fights, drunken sexcapades, and melodrama (one girl has a complete breakdown after she gets lost walking to the nail salon). USA! USA!

“Shows I Watch Whenever I Can Catch Them, I Can’t Tivo Them Cuz I Only Get Them Through My Cable Box That The Cable Guy Configured ‘Incorrectly’ So That I Get All Of The Premium Channels For Free”

Weeds
I heart Nancy Botwin. I seriously love this show. But, I have no idea when it airs because my Tivo has killed my ability to correlate temporal schedules with television airtimes. Oooooo! I just checked on the interwebs and the show is starting back up on April 1st (oops. the show isn’t starting back up in April.. reading is hard.) But yah, this show is truly great — go rent the first 2 seasons on Netflix. Mary Louise-Parker supposedly turned down a role on Desperate Housewives to do this show, and I’m sooo glad that she did cuz she’s da bomb. Zooey Deschanel is awesome in it, but I think she’s a guest star, but hopefully we’ll see more of her. And it’s on Showtime so they can swear and show boobs and stuff. And it has great music, including the theme song, “Little Boxes,” which was actually written about the houses in Daly City. See? You learned something today.

“Shows I Watch Because I’m Too Lazy To Delete The Season Pass Off Tivo and That Piss Me Off After I’m Done Watching”

LOST
Ok LOST. You had me riveted for the first season. I credit you for letting the networks know that America still wants smart dramas with complicated plots (without you, perhaps Heroes and FNL would never have made it past the pitch). But, YOU SUCK. I’m tired of watching you with your stupid plot twists and conspiracy theories. And WTF was up with last night’s stupid episode where I wasted a whole hour watching 2 completely new characters. I mean, seriously, where are all of these extra people coming from? I’m really getting annoyed with watching a whole episode and really just being frustrated at the whole thing. And we’re all gonna find out that this whole thing is just a dream that Walt had while napping on the plane ride to LA. You suck, LOST. I hate you.

24
Ok.. 24 is also starting to piss me off. First off, I’m kinda getting sick of all the torture. Really, think of something new to do, please. And yes, for the previous seasons, I’ve been willing to suspend disbelief for a whole bunch of things. I mean yah.. Jack runs into a room full of 30 bad guys, and is able to shoot and kill all of them. Ok, sure. It took you 5 minutes to get a court order from a judge at 3am? Sure, whatever. I’ll let that one go. But, Jack is able to kill one of his captors after being held in a Chinese prison for 2 years by BITING HIM IN THE NECK!?!? Come on. Next thing we know he’s gonna start having super mutant powers to bend space & time… oh wait.. ok, maybe that’d be cool. But seriously, this dude has had like 6 really bad days already. I think season 7 should be the day that Jack just did nothing but sit around. Maybe go to Home Depot. Bed, Bath and Beyond, if there’s time.

Happy New Year, everyone.. got back today from my roadtrip to LA with the gang, and it was a blast.. pics & stories, tk.

I did this last year, so I thought it would be fun to do this again… here’s my list of cities that I’ve spent one a night in (*’s indicate multiple visits) in.. in rough chronological order:

New York, NY *
Hoboken, NJ
San Francisco, CA *
South Lake Tahoe, CA
Truckee, CA
Philadelphia, PA
Las Vegas, NV
Los Angeles, CA
Chicago, IL
Chelmsford, MA
Chatham, MA
San Diego, CA
Avon, CO
West Hollywood, CA

Hmm… not as many as I would have hoped.. This year’s travel was severely limited by my broken ankle, which basically meant that I really didn’t leave 94102 for like 5 months.. Perhaps 2007 will have travel in the cards…

Woohoo.. another blog meme wagon to jump on.. Willo put together a list of cities that she visited in 2005 (cities in which you’ve spent at least one night).. I guess this meme was really kicked into high gear by Kottke last week.. hmm… 7 days to reach me, that’s a little slow.. oh well.. here’s my year in cities.. It was quite a travel-y year, it seems.

In rough chronological order… Entries with *’s were visited multiple times…

Beijing, China
Shanghai, China
Hangzhou, China
Hong Kong, China
San Francisco, CA *
Hillsborough, CA *
On a ship between Miami, FL and the Bahamas
Chelmsford, MA
Providence, RI
Hanover, NH
New York, NY *
Las Vegas, NV *
Stateline, NV
San Luis Obispo, CA
San Diego, CA
Tucson, AZ
Van Horn, TX
Austin, TX
Sulphur, LA
New Orleans, LA
Hot Springs, AR
Guymon, OK
Vancouver, BC Canada
Hatch, UT
West Yellowstone, MT
Cody, WY
Salt Lake City, UT
Twin Falls, ID
South Lake Tahoe, NV

Wow.. that’s a lot, but I guess I did a lot of travelling last year.. new years in China, and then 2 roadtrips, plus the multiple birthday trips.. woo! This year has started off with New York, Hoboken, and San Francisco already, so already I’m on my way to another banner travel year..

Ok.. Om started a little meme this week by listing his 10 favorite mac apps, carlo followed suit… and now I wanna play, but I’m not a mac guy, so I’m just going to list my 10 favorite windows apps in the same vein… c’mon, just cuz I don’t have a mac, does that mean I’m not as cool? Anyway.. on to the list.. these are my 10 favorite apps.. When setting up a new computer, these are the apps that I make sure are installed before I start to do anything…

• TextPad is my text editor of choice — much, much better than Notepad, which is just awful. For editting HTML, config files, SQL, or anything text-y, it’s awesome.
• ACDSee is what I use as my default image viewer. It’s super-fast, lite, does lossless JPG rotation, and even opens PhotoShop files.. The publisher now has a new, fancy version, but I still install the “Classic” version since it’s got exactly what I need and nothing more.
• PuTTY has won out over SecureCRT (which I used to use and love) only because I’m a cheap bastard and PuTTY is free.
• Konfabulator rocks. Apple Dashboard basically stole the whole idea, so I think that’s why they ported the whole thing to Windows since Apple kind of screwed them. Yahoo! just recently bought Konfabulator, so I hope they don’t F it up. I run a whole suite of widgets that run the gamut from clocks to wifi indicators to MLB scores to earthquake monitors.
• Yahoo! Messenger. I run five instant messaging clients. In order of personal preference, they are YIM, Skype, AIM, MSN and Gtalk. I’ve been using YIM the longest, but I do prefer its interface, overall feel, features and.. yes, smileys. I tried using meta-clients like trillian, but I hate them. And the reason I run so many IMs? Different people are on different IMs, so until interop actually happens, I’m stuck.

Hmm.. that’s only five. But that’s really it for me… Sure, I could list Firefox, Outlook, iTunes, and Excel but now we’re getting out of the realm of “apps” and moving into full on applications, which I think is out of scope for this little bite sized meme.. So that’s it.. If you have any suggestions of any other apps I could use, please let me know…