The Official Site for the Lackluster Goings-On of Michael Kaiser
Posts tagged best good friend
Galactic Surprise
Oct 13th
The Girl turned 30 this week. Or, as she puts it, she celebrated her first anniversary of being 29. We celebrated on her actual birthday with a little party at our house, so that The Kid could participate. My mom and in-laws were all in attendance. Then the plan was to go to Outback on Saturday, but (insert nefarious mustache twirling here) the REAL plan was for her mother and sister to take her out shopping so we could set up a surprise party at her sister’s house. Totally worked, and she got suckered. I was sure she was on to us, but I guess not, though now her hindsight is 20/20. Good thing I’m an excellent liar! (“Hi honey!”) And even though she has told me she doesn’t like surprises, none of us were maimed or killed, so I guess it worked out. This was my first planning of a surprise party, and while it was not my idea, and I did have help, gotta say it’s not all that fun! Found it to be a big source of stress, actually. Ultimately worth it of course, but I think on her 2nd anniversary of being 29 I’ll plan something out loud. The Girl handled turning 30 much better than I did. I had a real crisis of DC proportions, but she seems to have cruised through it. I guess it helps when you’re pregnant and have bigger things to worry about.
Next day, went to Star Wars: In Concert with my Best Good Friend at the San Jose Pavilion (home of the Sharks). The crowd was pretty good, though not sold out, which worked for us because we moved up a couple rows to give ourselves some elbow room. The music was, of course, amazing and it was great to hear it live. Sometimes the videos set to the music were equally amazing and moving, but sometimes it seemed like whoever made all those up was just mailing it in. But it’s hard to beat a stadium full of persecuted people all loving the same thing, cheering for all the same things that make you cheer. It’s very energizing! And unlike conventions, no discernible B.O. that I noticed! Aside from the concert itself, there were a bunch of Star Wars props in the lobby, but the crowd and lighting were too intense to score any decent pictures. What was really cool was, even though it was a 7-10 show on a Sunday night, many delinquent parents brought their kids anyway. It’s awesome to see that something I loved as a kid is still going strong for the next generation and it warms the heart to see a bunch of little dudes holding lightsabers and head banging to the Imperial March!
I created a site for myself called Desktop Geekery, so that I have somewhere to put the wallpapers I make for myself, instead of discarded them after I get bored. It’s also my first Wordpress theme. Even though it looks like the Default them (and essentially is from a style perspective), I learned all kinds of fun stuff about built in Wordpress functions to get it to automatically display the Wallpaper thumbnail and download links the same way for every post. Ginchy! Well I think so anyway…
Dragons of Changing Seasons
Sep 29th
My Best Good Friend, who thinks he’s lame but who does all these amazing things and goes to all these amazing places and meets all these amazing people (and who NEVER updates his blog about any of it) is currently taking more painting classes from D&D artist legend Larry Elmore. My Good Buddy loves Larry Elmore. I’ve always liked Larry Elmore, but there’s something about his work that is often too stiff for me. I remember when my Good Buddy and I found out that they had reissued the Chronicles Trilogy with new covers NOT by Elmore, he thought it was blasphemy and I thought it was an improvement. Let’s look:
vs.
The top isn’t bad. Heck, it’s a classic! But there’s something more lush and real about the one below by Matt Stawicki, and not just because it makes for a better wallpaper! It also reminds me of a How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way lesson, where tilting a camera angle is often more interesting and compelling than shooting a scene straight on.
So I’m right and he’s wrong. What else is new?
I feel like reading Chronicles again. I wonder if it will hold up?
Ultimate Star Trek
May 11th
Went to see Star Trek opening day last week (or course) with my buddy. I found, going in, that my enthusiasm wasn’t that high. I think I mostly went because I didn’t want everyone asking me if I went, and also it just seemed obligatory. But I was honestly feeling kind of burnt out on it already, what with all the news, trailers, footage leaks, etc.
But after watching it…WOW! My Trek enthusiasm was revitatalized! The movie was one awesome moment after another, and me and my buddy were all nerd-giddy as we went over the movie scene by scene in the parking lot. Seemed like all the other theater goers loved it too, as all the right laughs and shouts of excitment were heard in all the right places. (Unfortunately, I didn’t see any Klingons or Andorians walking around, but lots of Trek shirts and guys who looked like they don’t get laid much, so the experience still had that nice feeling of home.)
Then…as the days progressed, the flash and pop of the movie started to fade, and the actual plot became more prominant within my brain, and now I realize the movie sucked. It’s one of those horribly lazy screenplays where nobody earns anything. I hate those! But what’s weird, I still kind of like it even though it really did suck. Maybe that’s the secret of Abrams power. He’s tricking me into liking it somehow. Or at least trickED. I don’t know if I would enjoy it again now that I’m onto him.
But yeah, it’s a really bad story directed really well. I’ve recommended it to people, even after realizing I’ve been conned. Not sure why. Damn that Abrams. I feel so Lost!
(Get it? Ouch.)
Slow and Steady Loses the Race
May 5th
WOW, I think I skipped an entire month. Perhaps Twitter is ruining my blogging enthusiasm. So much easier to write a one sentence thought rather than construct entire paragraphs. Da horror!
So what have I done? A bunch of stuff. In-Laws came and went again. (They still think I hate their visits, but I really do like it because somehow I end up watching way more of the TV I want when they’re here. Not sure why it works out that way, but I am not going to question it.) Went to Seattle on business. Been there once before, and like last trip, ate at the Space Needle and did not have time to hit the Experience Music Project nor the Sci-Fi Museum and Hall of Fame. Must visit that city when not working someday. (I managed to peak inside the Sci-Fi Museum when it was closed and saw a huge Gort in the lobby. Coool!)
But inbetween all that I did something worth doing, for once. As I may or may not have stated before, a buddy of mine and I agreed to run a 5K, 10K and 1/2 Marathon by September of this year. We set this goal last September, giving us a year to do it, so of course we’re just getting started now, because lazy is our M.O. We settled on the Mission City 5K Run for Fun held at Great America. It was their first year doing this, and it was pretty cool. You run through the park, which was nice, but then the last half of it involved circling around many a parking lot, which wasn’t as nice, but by then I was so tired I didn’t really care about the ambiance. The cool thing is they close the park down for the runners to enjoy after the event, and the price of admission is included in the race price, which was all of $20, so that’s about as cheap as Great America gets. Of course, I didn’t have time to stick around and enjoy the park, but perhaps next year I can drag the family with me and make a day of it.
I can’t say I trained for this very hard. I knew about for a month and started running at the gym a week prior. (See M.O. above.) It hurt, but I did better than I thought. I only stopped once, about half way through it, for about a minute. Legs hurting me didn’t stop me, a mild asthma attack didn’t stop me, feeling the contents of my stomach crawling up my neck stopped me pretty quick. There were children present, I didn’t want to scar any of them for life. After a brief catching of breath and a quick shot from my inhaler (I know ladies, could I be more sexy?) I finished fairly strong. That is to say I finished #338 out of 560, so not strong strong, but winning wasn’t the goal at all, just completing. Considering how little I trained, I’m fairly happy with my 12 minute mile average.
Time: 37.23. Beat that losers! (Sooo sad…)
Next stop is the 10K. No plans yet on which one, but I don’ t think I can get away with no training this time, so I signed up at Snaps Fitness, which is a 24/7 gym literally right across the street from my house. If I can’t make that work, well…that would be sad.
