So little to do and so much time to do it!

No time for a blog today (so yesterday's posting of our teams' NFC project will have to suffice). I must go vote (didn't do it Wednesday like I planned... got caught up in a moviefilm). Then I must go figure out a costume for the evening as DWS is playing a house party on the south side of town shortly after I get off of work tonight. BUSY TIME!

The Last Man

I Don't Know Much, But I..."

LOVE Horatio Sanz's impression of Aaron Neville; cocoa buttery goodness. ONTO TODAY! (I foresee many of these impromptu bastardizations of capitalization in today's entry, BEWARE!) I'm beginning to think that Bobby Moynihan (the newest Featured player on SNL) may be the long overdo replacement of Horatio's role on the show; which as I see it, was to be goofy and fun no matter what circumstance (a comedy sketch failsafe). I'm still raving over last week's episode, so I'll point out this example: Moynihan in the Asshole Advertising sketch, crying. BRILLIANT! You may go watch that clip on Hulu if you like... Hulu... Huuuuluuu... HULU!

Forrest Gump is on HBO at this very moment. Forrest Gump is in my opinion, the best movie that I, personally, enjoy.

I plan on rocking the vote shortly (Billy Shortly) after this little P.Diddy right here. Perhaps I'll write about my choices on Friday or Monday. The only candidates I've endorsed at this point are Barack Obama and The Guy Who Isn't Leonard Boswell. If somebody tells you that "Ut oh! I think I blog'ed myself totally just endorsed Tom Harkin via twitter!" then that person is a liar. I'm on the fence with Harkin. He's beginning to look a lot like Boswell... who looks a lot like Hillary Clinton (politically). That type of Democrat needs to be removed the same as the GOP needs to distance itself from Neo-Conservatives and the Evangelical Right. The last election was obviously a step in this direction, in that the people supported change more than their candidate. I think that some of that is definitely spilling over into this election, in addition to overwhelming support for a candidate people really believe in. As I've said, I don't believe in him so much... but I'm definitely very much supporting a vote for change.

I began a diet the day after watching the DWS show video... I hadn't realized up to that point just how much bigger I am these days. Without divulging the detail of an exact weight, I will announce that I've successfully shed nine pounds (-9 LBs) over this two weeks. It's my goal to triple that loss over the next month or so. GOALS!

Weekend in Review, NFC

NFC comes to an end this evening...

----Friday----

Friday night, I gathered with some of 48 Hour Film Project Des Moines' finest to receive our character, prop, line, and genre (Alex Watkins, chiropracter; a net; "Darn the luck!"; fantasy or film de femme). We chose to go with fantasy, probably because La Femme Nakita is the only Femme I want on my brain. Leather zip up onesie ftw. Some ideas came out, we settled, we threw out ideas for our story, then others departed. I stayed to help write the script. That was done at 2am, seven hours after we received our info. Leave, sleep, then return on Saturday around 11:30am, breakfast borrito in one hand and a can of Dr. Dogg in the other.

----Saturday----

I arrived to the fellas going over location and shooting plans for the day. Etc. etc. I depart with our director to pick up our lady talent... two beautiful young ladies; one of which I may suggest is the cutest lady I've encountered in my journeys. We wait around for them to take forever (I said they were ladies, amirite?). I then drove us to Ewing Park, where we wasted WAYYYYY (notice the capitalization with additional letters on the end for emphasis) too much time. It was pretty awesome to see the way this group works, with proper equipment and whatnot. The park was a great place to spend what'll probably be the last really nice Saturday of the year. Moving along, we got some footage at B&B Supermarket, downtown around Nollen Plaza, and at our Producer/Editor/Co-Writer's sister's house. By the last location, I was spent. I spent a lot of time in my car listening to Big D & the Kids Table, then Dr. Dog. It was just after we left the park when our director decided to veer away from our script in favor of some cheesier gag shots. Being the group's most novice member, my attempts to keep us on task were most futile and exhausting. I ended up driving the two actresses home all by myself, marking the first time I've been alone in my car with two ladies, let alone two very attractive ones. It was pretty super awkward as I had nothing to say (never do in those situations), but I survived and am stronger for it. I returned home to watch SNL and go to sleep.

----SNL----

This episode was without a doubt, the funniest this cast has put together. The Registered Sex Offender Trick-or-Treat sketch with Will Forte was fantastic. Jon Hamm's Don Draper and John Ham sketches must've made Josh Brolin envious. Why were all of Brolin's sketches so bad!?! I was worried about weekend update with Seth Myers as I've never seen him do anything funny. Amy Poehler wasn't there because Will Arnett's child was emerging from the murky depths (I realize the Lady of the Lake was Matt Besser, but it was a UCB sketch so the reference works!). I've gotta say, I didn't mind a solo Seth Myers. A couple of his quips came off somewhat Norm Macdonald, which I am a fan of. I suggest you go to Hulu and watch as much of this episode as is available.

----Sunday----

LONGGGG (see earlier parenthetical explanation) day. I worked from noon 'til five, then drove home for a snack before heading to band practice. After waiting for Kenny to show up, we practiced a couple hours and I headed over to meet back up with the NFC team. We ate some Jimmy Johns, chatted a bit about comics, Iron Man, The Dark Knight, and future Marvel movies. Then we parted ways so that Sam could get back to editing. The couple of bits I've seen of his work so far were excellent. I went over to a buddy's house, where we played some of the most epic Super Bomberman I've ever witnessed... dramatic draws like whoa. I'm pretty good at committing suicide via bomb in that game. I'm wondering if the Gaza Strip kinda looks like a real world Super Bomberman? I didn't wonder that last night though. I just went home and got my sleep on.

----NOW----

I'm going to head over the NFC team hub to record some voices and get my name in the credits a few more times! Actually, I've gotta add some pictures to this entry and get dressed before I head over there. Honesty.

----EDIT----

I'm not going to bother with pictures.

Time... Not space. What?

I'm taking today off to prepare for the National Film Challenge weekend that is upon us in just six point five hours. Sure, that's plenty of time to write down some thoughts (I'm am already here...); however, I'm not feeling very strongly (or even weakly) about anything today. Also, I have some podcasts to catch up on. I should probably also eat sometime soon... If you're bored enough to be here right now, I'd suggest checking our the new DWS MySpace page and "friending" us (if you're still on MySpace). After that, maybe hop on over to FunnyorDie.com and watch the Ron Howard video... I like that guy. When you're done with those things, you should come back here and leave some kind of comment. Maybe you could write a short blog of your own that may inspire me to resume blogging on Monday? I'm out of ideas.

Notice of Late NO Blog

I had intended to write up a blog update from here at work; however, I'm not feeling particularly bloggy. So, today equals another fail. Hooray!

Urban Design

Here's a song from the recent DWS show:

Japanese people don't hold very many erections.

Where to start today off (I'll confer with my notes...): DRUG-TOWN STORY! At some point a little over a week ago (or maybe exactly one week ago), another fella and I were at DrugTown on 42nd & University collecting snacks. After grabbing chips, cookies, and drink (the perfect snack-time combination, imo) we proceeded to the check-out lanes. At the cashier was a large and obviously drunken, black man (the comma makes it not a stereotype!); I'll call him Joe Six-Pack. He was very excited about Barack Obama, yelling things like "HOPE, MOTHERFUCKER!" at the man behind him in line. A man who was clad in casual gear (black athletic shorts and slightly large t-shirt... flip-flops) and had a cart full of some random junk (I don't recall what was in his cart). I'll call him Joe the Plumber. Six-Pack was taking forever in line as his credit card wouldn't run, so he had plenty of time to make this situation very awkward. It might've been much worse if PJ (Plumber Joe) were not a Barack Obama supporter as well (or intelligently non-confrontational in his situation). He nodded his head and told Joey Six'er that he was "preaching to the choir." The cashier continued to work on the CC-dialer issue, calling over another employee (obviously defeated in his life's trials) and finally, after maybe six minutes, got things up and going. Joe Six-Pack left the store "get'n out the vote" for Obama. The cashier continued to help Joe the Plumber and the cashier's co-worker opened the next register to help me and my buddy. Our cashier apologizes to us (not for his comb-over or pedephilic mustache) for the large, boisterous man... he told us "that one's a decent, good man." He then stopped and reflected a second (before asking me to pay my total) and said "I guess we've gotta ask ourselves, are we ready for President Biden?" I asked, "huh?" to which he replied, "I give it two months before somebody kills that muslim Obama, so we're basically electing Biden." I said, "that's a pretty sick view of our country, dontcha think?" "I'm just saying... I'm a Republican."

WTF.

I collected my change, grabbed my unbagged groceries, and left the store a bit in shock. This is the first time I've witnessed first-hand the type of ignorance I assume has majority in this country, in such a painfully unexpected moment (a late-night snack transaction).
Anyways, as a metaphoric epilogue... What if Joe Six-Pack in all of his excitement forgot to register to vote or Asgard-forbid he lives in Ohio and his vote never gets counted? What if Joe the Plumber says he's likes Obama, but actually intends to vote for the old white guy? What if our dumbass cashier or one of his cousin/wife's relatives actually attempt an assassination? UGHHHHHHH. While I trust in Biden's ability (last year I assumed the ticket would end up Biden-Obama), I'm excited for the symbol Barack Obama represents in this election... which if anything, is a symbol that the people are beginning to demand change. I hope the average Joes don't fail again.

Another hump day sans humping.

First things, I just did a quick Wikipedia search to reveal the mystery behind the name Wednesday (random knowledge never hurt anybody, unless that random knowledge is sound economic policy and your name is Ron Paul - then it hurts your chances of your colleagues listening to you). Guess what? Wednesday is pretty cool. "The name comes from the Middle English Wednes dei, which is from Old English language Wēdnes dæg, meaning the day of the English god Woden (Wodan) who was a god of the Anglo-Saxons in England until about the 7th century. Wēdnes dæg is like the Old Norse Oðinsdagr ("Odin's day"), which is an early translation of the Latin dies Mercurii ("Mercury's day"), and reflects the widespread association of Woden with Mercury going back to Tacitus." The key part of this information is that Wednesday is relative to "Odin's day." Odin is the father of Thor, which I haven't done the research (brief Wiki lookup), but I'm going to assume Thursday was once actually "Thor's day" because it immediately follows "Odin's day." IT JUST MAKES AWESOME SENSE! NEXT!

I read about twenty comics yesterday (finally catching up). Stand-outs among the last month's books included Deadpool, War Machine (Iron Man Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. #33), and Ghost Rider. The new Deadpool series is perfect thus far (three issues in). The three-part Secret Invasion tie-in was able to establish that ol' Wade Wilson is still wacko, yet he's got the skills to pay the medical bills (or maybe Agency X has a sweet health care package?). One reveal here is that Deadpool is actually working for Nick Fury on this assignment. Looking at the solicits for the next two issues, it looks like DP may be headed for some darker adventures (similar to the pre-Cable & Deadpool, Deadpool series). I'm down. Unfortunately, Medina isn't doing the pencils going forward... hopefully Marvel doesn't pull an X-Factor on me and throw an awful art-scribe on my new favorite book.

War Machine: Weapon of S.H.I.E.L.D. was a solid read (much better than any Iron Man: DoS books since the Extremis story). Away from the book, I read yesterday that Don Cheadle will be taking over for Terrance Howard as James Rhodes (aka War Machine) in the movies. I thought that TH was a perfect casting choice, so I'm a bit bummed... at the same time though, Don Cheadle is awesome and I'm sure he'll serve the role well. Hopefully he's locked up for a couple of films, so we can really see the WM in action. Back to the comic, the coolest thing in this book was the ending (a particularly gnarly new WM armor). Check it out!

Finally, the Ghost Rider series has been fantastic since Jason Aaron took over. His spin that the Ghost Rider is actually a tool of Heaven, mixed with naughty nurses and nuns, as Johnny Blaze seeks Zadkiel for a reckoning - all excellent. The only thing I'm not 100 percent a fan of with this series currently, is the art. The style is fitting most of the time, but here and there the character's faces get very warped and goofy... the inking doesn't help the matter much. Luckily the story is solid enough to cover for any art issues. I wish I could say the same for X-Factor... what a fall from grace (I blame the She-Hulk crossover).

Outside of the Marvel Universe, Driving While Stupid plays tonight. I need to sit down and run through the songs by myself at some point today to make sure I've got them down... I'd say I'm 90 percent certain I won't make any big mistakes. One of the things DWS is known for are crazy, generally obscene things happening at shows (Kenny). I don't think anything is planned yet for this evening... we'll see. It should be fun...

In Loving Memory...