i know this much is true

I haven't updated this in a couple of weeks. Time to remedy that.

A couple of weeks ago I broke down and tried the online dating scene. I have to say, the experience has been positive -- I've been a on a few dates with the first girl I met and it's been pretty pleasant. Except for one thing. I have come to realize that I am terrible at dating.

Let's back up a bit, though. In my college years, I was known as a bit of a ladies' man* (albeit a clumsy one). But that was a few years ago, and since I moved to Virginia, things have been rather slow dating-wise. I'd say I'm attentive and polite on dates, and I joke around, but goddamn am I awkward. Case in point: on the last date I went on with this girl, we went to dinner and ordered food. She said something about taking a picture, and for some reason, in a haze of date-induced nervousness and anxiety, I interpreted this as, "Let's take pictures of our food." Yes. I have no idea why I thought that, either.

So I dutifully pull out my cameraphone and proceed to take a photo of my plate, and meanwhile she takes out a camera and takes a photo of me. I didn't realize this until she showed it to me, at which point I felt like an idiot. And there is now a photo on Facebook of me taking a picture of a burrito. It probably has to be seen to be believed, so here you go:

Beyond that, however, things seem to be going swimmingly. And yes, the burrito was excellent.

* This is not true.

i've made a huge mistake

You may have seen this making its rounds on the intarwebs. It's a graph of different majors at Wellesley College, sorted by percentage of virgins. Although it doesn't have engineering listed on it, I suspect that it would lie on the right half of the chart. Also, I call bullshit on the compsci stat. There's no way those fuckers get more action than English majors. English majors are slick operators.

It may or may not be a trivial issue to summarize a major (or perhaps non-major) event in your life, but man, reading other people's sentences is addicting. Consider yourself warned.

Yesterday at work we got the following e-mail:

"Langley Research Center's new emergency loudspeaker system, called the Giant Voice Alert System, will be tested between 3-5 p.m. Thursday afternoon, March 19. The test will include a tone sound and a recorded voice saying 'This is a test.' The system consists of nine clusters of large horn-style speakers on tall wooden poles erected around the center. "

My first thought on reading this was, the Giant Voice Alert System? Seriously? Is that really the best NASA can come up with? My second thought was, if I were the one testing it, I would totally say, "I am the great and powerful OZ. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!"

I've been working on getting the second bedroom of my apartment more user-friendly. To that end, I've essentially made it into an, in my opinion, awesome man-cave. Yes, that is a box of Goldfish on my desk.

Continuing the tradition of Hollywood taking my childhood and beating it into submission with a hard drive that stores video files instead of rolls of film, one of my favorite books as a kid, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, is now being made into a movie. I'm not exactly sure whether to laugh or cry, but now I want to find that book and read it again. Also, I want some pancakes.

fall of the phoenix

Phish kicked off a tour last weekend here in Hampton, and lo and behold, the city was absolutely inundated with the Phish clientele. The local Wal-Mart parking lot (which is right next to the Coliseum, where they were playing) was chock-full of RVs, VW camper vans, and old buses. In fact, just a little ways down the road from my apartment I saw a sign in front of a rather dingy-looking establishment that proudly stated, "PHISH PHANS PARK HERE!" The venue is at least three miles away. It therefore came as no surprise to find out that Hampton PD was out in force all weekend. Apparently, they were very busy.

I never had a game console as a kid, instead we were the first on our block to have a computer, and later the Internet. As a result I grew up playing Wolfenstein 3D and Day of the Tentacle instead of the Legend of Zelda and Donkey Kong Country. All well and fine, but sometimes I wish I did have a Super Nintendo, just like I wish I had some Power Wheels. And now, my wishes may have been granted. Of course, I'd have to buy the cartridges, too. I fear it may be like my desire to own a record player -- if I get one, I'd have to start collecting records. Why are all the fun hobbies expensive?

And now, a reminder of why Flight of the Conchords are awesome:

we'll be right back

A couple of posts ago I made a reference to Legends of the Hidden Temple. This, coupled with recently watching some old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles episodes with my friend Mike, have reignited my nostalgia for the television shows that I used to watch (and in some instances, still do).

I have many fond memories of my early childhood, and a lot of those involved watching Saturday morning cartoons on ABC, CBS, PBS, and the Disney Channel (yay for cable!). I probably owe a lot to the Children's Television Workshop. There are of course the usual suspects -- TV shows that probably everyone knows about. But there are plenty of more obscure shows that I am equally, if not more, fond of. These are what I think is missing from TV today. As I got older, they shows changed, and even then I sensed that their quality was slowly decreasing.

Then again, I don't really watch TV anymore -- with a couple of exceptions -- so what do I know? After all, Sesame Street is still going strong, and there are a few channels that will air reruns every now and then of older shows. But I have to wonder if kids watching Saturday morning cartoons (do they still have those, and if so, are they getting up early to watch them like I did, or are they just playing Halo?) will remember them with the same fondness that I do: