brykmantra.com

I did it! Eleven daily posts in a row!

Sheesh, I used to post several times a day, for over three solid years. But times change, returns diminish, the sexy veneer of blogging itself is no longer shiny and enticing; the motivation for such labors ebbs considerably.

Anyway: To finish off this post, here’s a pretty picture and some assorted rambling: This picture to the left is from the online game I mentioned on Friday, Bang! Howdy; it’s a pretty good bunch of mini-games, more than just the Tetris retreads of Puzzle Pirates by the same company. The avatars are much cooler and more detailed, as you can see here, but the male avatars seem very lame to me. Or maybe I just like looking at girls better. . . . In other news, I got my 2nd set of surgery followup scans a couple of weeks ago, and last week the doctor said the tumors are still gone and the surgery itself is still healing like it should after a year. I also had to see the doctor because I was having this really weird infection in my nasal membrane that was making the end of my nose red and swollen. I looked like a cross between Karl Malden and Rudolph, but after a weekend of anitbiotics and ointment, I’m back to my old pointy-faced self. . . . Also: Heroes was unbelievably great tonight, better than I could have hoped for. It took place five years in the future, after Sylar had killed and absorbed many of the supers, including Mika, D.L., Candace, Nathan, and, finally, (OH NO!) Claire, and he and Peter, the other megamultipower, began their Inevitable Gigantic Ultimate Final Awesome Battle O’ Doom (IGUFABOD) … we don’t get to see how it ends, but on the plus side, it’s just been postponed to the past — got that? That is, after Future Hiro got shot in the future (his present) by former good-guy Parkman, who is now a high-ranking goon in the Even More Evil Department of Homeland “Security”, Present Hiro teleported back to the past (his present) to try to kill Sylar and stop Peter from Blowin’ Up Real Good. But you just know that it won’t happen before another IGUFABOD between the Two Titans of Smouldering Moodiness (TTSM’s).

Anyway, I think I’ve done my duty for another day. Will I keep posting every day up until my birthday? I doubt it; my music sequencer isn’t gonna string grooves together by itself — I’ve gotten practically ZILCH done since my stupid little blogging jag.

Anyway, keep checking back just in case …

Yes, my co-worker and longtime reader turns the big Half-Century tomorrow (Monday), so I need to trot it out in the open in my public forum:

Happy Birthday Vickie! May the next 50 be even better!

I’m having trouble with the animation (the blank spot you’re seeing below), so until I get it fixed: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, YAY KIM!

I’ll barely be getting in under the wire with my post tonight …

Hey, I’ve been busy!

With what?

For starters, I’ve just signed up with LaLa.com, a CD exchange service, and I’ve gotten addicted to listing what CD’s I have, and what others have that I want.

More on that later …

Also I’ve been wasting a little time checking out Bang! Howdy, an Western-themed multiplayer minigame site from the folks who brought you Puzzle Pirates …

And finally, I’ve been working on a little graphics thing for Yay Kim’s birthday … that’s right, tomorrow (Saturday) is Kim’s birthday (I always remember it because it’s the same day that I first moved to Dallas in 1986), so head over there and wish her a good one …

And check out this space tomorrow, for the little surprise thingie I’m working on for her …

It rained a lot earlier this week, so out comes the raindrop bullet.

Because in Texas we never know when we’re going to get rain again through the middle of the year.

I can’t believe they’re already showing the season finale of 30 Rock. At least there are some early episodes I haven’t seen yet, so it might last me a few more weeks — assuming the network jerks don’t deprive us of reruns.

That would be sinking really low, but they can do it.

Speaking of NBC sitcoms, The Office is soliciting office horror stories; submit your own, or go wallow in the misery of others.

Temptation note: There’s also a video component to the contest.

Co-workers of mine, you have been warned.

Keri Russell had a guest shot on Scrubs tonight. She doesn’t have that miraculously ecstatic hair she had on Felicity, but she’s still hot. It’s a wonder she doesn’t get more work these days …

And speaking of Scrubs, at least one writer is worried about Zach Braff’s future career prospects.

I was just thinking last week how Cartoon Network never shows their best cartoons any more, especially Samurai Jack, Johnny Bravo, and Courage the Cowardly Dog.

Well, as of this week, I’m 33% satisfied, because they’ve started showing Courage at 9C on weeknights!

Two to go!

And finally, Attack of the Show has been counting down the best of “The Internets” this week, and yesterday was Viral Videos. #2 on their list was something I’ve heard about for a long time but never seen: An amateur actor’s really awful audtion video for Stanley Kubrick:

PS: I’ve posted seven days in a row: Good quality posts!

Only four more to go to fulfill my minimal self-obligation … !

Every once in a while, I browse the recent deaths on Wikipedia — not out of some grim fascination, but just to note the passing of someone that was largely ignored by the mainstream media in favor of the much less worthy.

For example: The news outlets were all over the death of sensationalist writer Kurt Vonnegut Jr. on April 11, little attention was given to the passing of longtime character actor Roscoe Lee Browne. You might not recognize the name, but you’ve seen him (and heard him, since he does a lot of voiceovers) lots of times: The balding black man with the rich, Shakespearean voice.

James Earl Jones may get all the attention in that category, but Browne had his share of fans too.

So go check out his impressive record of work, and see some recent tributes in his memory.

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It also occurs to me that, in my recent post-slacking, I’ve neglected to say anything about the passing of Art Buchwald, the longtime political satirist that was a huge influence to me in high school.

Yes, I was that big of a dork as a teenager: I followed the work of a newspaper columnist.

So now I’m making up for it, partially, by posting a picture of this Watergate-era book that I’ve had all these years, and which I brought back from storage my mom’s garage a couple of years ago.

We just really don’t have an equivalent of Buchwald these days; sad but true.

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Speaking of Watergate and belated observances of mortal-coil-shuffling: On Sunday (Earth Day!) I mentioned a Nixon quote and remarked “It’s no Checkers Speech …:

I neglected to mention two things:

1) That day, the 22nd of April, was the 13th anniversary of Nixon’s death, and always worthy of mention. I was at my mom’s house at the time, and she was watching 20/20, in which Barbara Walters was interviewing Louis Farrakhan, as I recall, when ABC News broke in with news of the death. I had been in the middle of explaining to my mom who Farrakhan was, but never finished due to the breaking news.

2) I should have also said, upon mentioning the aforementioned Checkers Speech, that said historical landmark is widely available, even in video form, thanks to the miracle of “The Internets” … so let’s watch it, shall we? Yes, let’s!:

I’m not taking a lot of time to blog tonight, because I’ve taken too much on previous nights (five straight nights of posting, BTW, woo-hoo!), and because I spent time last night posting new pictures of little Bristol the Destructodog to my Flickr page, so check them out!

And in case you’re reading this at a time when those are not the latest pictures on the page, here’s a link to Bristol’s page.

And check back tomorrow, because I’m determined to continue my daily posting through the end of the month … !

I knew Heroes was starting back tonight — after six freaking weeks off the air! — and that Wired was doing a story about it, but I had no idea that it would be in this issue, and on the cover, and arriving today.

Coolness.

So here’s something I’m wondering: The good guys always have these sociopathic mass-murder machines captured and under sedation, and THEY DON’T KILL THEM.

How freaking stupid IS this shadowy international conspiracy, anyway?

Now, you know that I’m not a violent person, and that I love each and every living thing on God’s green Earth.

Having said that, I think we can all agree that it would have been best for all those other living things if they had separated Sylar into his individual component molecules within the first half-minute that they had him unconscious the first time.

Since they grandly forked up that opportunity, though, I would have settled for having his total disintegration accomplished on his second or even third apprehension.

Oh, but noooooooo, they wanted to STUDY him, for SCIENTIFIC purposes.

Yeah, how’d that work out for ya?

“By studying him, we might learn something wonderful!“

And all you ended up learning how to pick your ass out of your teeth.

Yeah, nice job, Dr. Discovery. Enjoy exploring the afterlife.

ANYWAY: At least Unstable Dirty-Bomb Man, whom they also let live when they had a chance to do otherwise, is now turning out to be not so unstable, and working for The Forces of Good.

Another decision that will be biting Shadowy Sulu Conspiracy in the gluteus before it’s all over.

So: Four more episodes before the season finale! Enjoy it while we can!

Let’s see, what to post about today?

Ooh, I know: It’s Earth Day!

Um … okay, I got nothing …

Except as Amy Poehler said last night on SNL: “Tomorrow is Earth Day — So suck it, Neptune!”

And also that, at some point in 1970, the year of the first Earth Day, I bought a “Save the Earth” t-shirt, with some circular eco-logo on it.

I also seem to recall, during that same year, giving a let’s-not-go-nuts-over-this-ecology-thing speech in Speech class.

Yes, even then I believe in moderation and balance in all things.

Oh, and another thing: G4TV has, in observance of Earth Day (and because environmentalism is all hip and trendy once again, and that’s what that channel is all about), been promoting their recycling-resource website called Gcycle.com.

The main thing they’re conserving seems to be an art budget, since all of the drawings look like they were done by first graders.

But at least they succeded in making it appear that their heart’s in the right place.

But remember that this is the network that, as I mentioned on Friday, devoted four hours of airtime to cannabis-programming, simply because the date was 4/20 …

… So naturally, because today was Earth Day, they had … um … a Jamie Kennedy Experiment marathon.

But hey, at least they’ve got a stick-figure website!

Okay, one more thing: A 1970 everybody-panic article in Time magazine about the environment.

Bonus points: It begins with a quote from then-President Nixon!

It’s no Checkers Speech, but we take our Nixon fix where we can get it.

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Okay, so see why I cut my posting down to once a week? Because it murders an hour or more of my time, even when I’ve absolutely nothing to say. And for what?

Well, okay, to pad the old resume …

I don’t know yet how effective that’s going to turn out.

Yet.

Anyway: HAPPY EARTH DAY!

Whatever that means …

It occurred to me that maybe, just for the rest of this month, I could try to post every day, just like in the old days — just not several times a day like in the first three years, and not taking an hour per post.

So far, we’ve got two days in a row, so far so good …

Anyway, today I’m getting back to my roots by finding and posting funny stuff that I find on the “Inter-nets”.

Let’s start with this BP commercial I’ve been seeing lately, with a cool song and cooler animation:

Next: I’ve previously mentioned the Jack-Black-produced VH1 series, Acceptable TV, and here’s one of their latest short parody pilots, this one kind of a cross between Profiler and the old HBO series The Hitchhiker:

And finally a short sketch from a British (or Scottish?) comedy show:

Okay, that wasn’t too bad, as long as I can curb my tendency to rattle endlessly …

More tomorrow, maybe …