Oh, drabbles.

Came across an interesting site this week: 100words.com. Members who want to be featured on the site promise to write a 100 word entry everyday for a month. The content doesn't matter, nor do they have to be connected, but each entry has to be exactly 100 words long. I don't think I could write that regularly for a month, (I participated in National Novel Writing Month a few years in a row with Xander and never managed to finish my one story,) but I wanted to try a writing a few things with the 100 word limit. Here are my first couple of tries:

Fortunately Matt had put his hands out at the last minute to break his fall. As he lifted himself up off the sidewalk, he turned to see what exactly he had tripped over. He picked up the slightly oversized black chess pawn that was sitting upright on the concrete a few inches behind him. It was oddly cool to the touch for such a warm day. He turned it over, looking for some sort of marking, and found that the bottom of it appeared hollow. Peering into it, a wave of dizziness quickly washed over him. He began to fall…

-----

Stepping out of the front door pulling her suitcase, Alex looked behind her to make sure she hadn’t left a bag in the hallway. As she locked the door, she had a good feeling about her decision: she knew that she had made the right choice to leave. With the weeks of indecision and questioning behind her now, she knew there was no going back.
Climbing into the taxi at the bottom of the driveway, Alex told the driver that she was headed to the airport. “Going on vacation?” he asked.
“You could say that,” replied Alex, smiling to herself.

Do you have any 100 word stories in you?

Save the words, collect them all.

Do something utible and save a word. The website Save The Words is encouraging everyone to adapt an under used word and to promote it regularly. I adopted the word 'utible', a synonym for 'useful'. So go and adopt a word today; you'll even get an adoption certificate:

60 golden ounces vs. 750 rosy milliliters.

Not to accuse any of my friends of being alcoholic, but when I saw this, there was one specific person I immediately thought of getting this for, especially for their upcoming birthday. From Vat19.com, you can order a 60 ounce beer glass. That's 5 cans worth of brew! For those people who buy two Forties at a time because one isn't enough but can't quite finish both in a sitting.

But then I saw the 750ml full-bottle wine glass and was conflicted: Which would they appreciate more, being able to drink 5 cans worth of beer without opening a new one or to drink an entire bottle of wine without needing to pour more? And honestly, I don't know the answer . . .

You Feeling Good?

As a fan of Nina Simone's "Sinnerman" (maybe you know it from The Thomas Crowne Affair?), I was happy to come across this song and music video on Dailymotion. It's her "Feeling Good", which is a great soulful song done in her exceptional style. The video is the lyrics to the song, but the typography is beautifully animated and manipulated in a very unique way, giving them life and accentuating the rhythm of the song. I just may make this my new happy song.

Feeling Good, Nina Simone
Uploaded by mrfnk

And if you haven't heard "Sinnerman", it's got such a quick beat I love to use it for driving music:
Nina Simone - Sinnerman on Dailymotion.

What is a Dushku exactly?

For those Joss Whedon fans out there, don't forget that tonight is the premier of his new show, Dollhouse. Fortunately I was reminded about this when listening to Fresh Air on NPR last night. They had a lengthy interview with Mr. Whedon about many of his projects, including Dr. Horrible and Dollhouse. I definitely recommend a listen if you like his work. It's especially fun to listen to Joss himself singing the sing-along commentary (if you hadn't heard it on the Dr. Horrible DVD).

• Joss Whedon: Slayers, Dolls And Singing Villains from WHYY's Fresh Air.

It's unrelated, but I found this great recipe to make your own Skittles Vodka. I think we should attempt this at the next New Year's party. Nothing too complicated, just Skittles and vodka. But it sounds good and looks so colorful. I wonder if they would fluoresce under a black-light?

Oh, and I have another two celebrity sightings to report. This past weekend I was walking through Universal CityWalk, headed towards the park's main gate. As I passed the Hot Topic and Bobby Lee (from Pineapple Express and MadTV) was walking out. Then inside the park on the Studio Tour, as we were passing Stage 28 (where the original Phantom of the Opera sets are) we drove right past Paul Vogt (also from MadTV and The Rerun Show). Any of his sketches as Mrs. Garrett from Facts of Life are hilarious.
Who will it be next? Will it be someone you know without looking them up on IMDB?

Guinness + Wil + Drew = Me happy

I finally snagged by first two pictures with a celebrity (click to embiggen):

In the left picture is me with Wil Wheaton. Actor, author, blogger, tech junkie, and a nice guy. On the far left is Alex. He was this guy I chatted with at the bar, and was pretty cool. While waiting for more people to show up, we played Tetris on the Nintendo DSes that he brought. In the right picture is me with Drew Curtis, founder of Fark.com a great website for when you want to waste time. The items posted there are actual "news" stories culled from across the web, with remade headlines and cynical commentary. The occasion was a 10th Anniversary for Fark.com. They were being held in various places around the country and it was pretty cool that Drew showed up. And Wil being there just made it that much more awesome (he has his own Fark tag).
Afterward, Alex, Sam (another guy we met) and I went to go get food. Before the party, it was raining fairly hard, but fortunately it abated before we went out. Alex convinced us to try King Taco, just down the street from the Old Towne Pub where we were. The tacos there were really good and just spicy enough. I had never heard of them before, but it's definitely worth going back.

You can check out the rest of my pictures from the night here: Pasadena Fark Party

It's like they know me.

From GraphJam:


And in case there were any questions:

Pride and Prejudice 2: Electric Boogaloo

I came across this book today and I thought that you guys would appreciate it. Author Seth Grahame-Smith has taken the classic brit. lit. of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and made it just that much more spiffy:

Because everything is better with zombies:

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies features the original text of Jane Austen’s beloved novel with all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie action. As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton—and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she’s soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy. What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers—and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield as Elizabeth wages war against hordes of flesh-eating undead. Complete with 20 illustrations in the style of C. E. Brock (the original illustrator of Pride and Prejudice), this insanely funny expanded edition will introduce Jane Austen’s classic novel to new legions of fans.

Found via Neatorama.

Can I get some service here?

I'm slowly coming to the end of a long mobile contract with AT&T (originally Cingular) and I'm in the mood to shop around. I've looked at all the plans that the major carriers have to offer, but I'm curious as to what kind of experiences you guys have had with your services, good or bad? Any particularly frustrating or enlightening anecdotes?

I'm not particularly loyal to a single brand at the moment and I have had no problems with AT&T coverage or customer service, but I tend to be a low maintenance customer and haven't needed lots of customer service. Most of the major carriers out there have unlimited night/weekend minutes, which is when most of my calling happens anyway, so that's a non-issue. Currently I'm only using about 400 anytime minutes and roughly 200 text messages per month, and I'd like to have the option of unlimited text and/or data, but it's not a deal-breaker, just a preference. In addition to new service, I'm also looking at new hardware. I usually prefer flip phones over bar phones, but I've had my eye on the LG Scoop/Rumor with the slide-out QWERTY keyboard. I found out that my brother has one and so I played around with it over the holiday and I like the basic form and function, but I'd have to do some jury rigging to set my mp3s as ringtones (without having to buy ringtones from a service), which is annoying.

Another phone I saw out and about is the Samsung Alias, which is like a standard flip phone, but it flips both along the short and long sides, using the same screen and keypad in both directions. It looks convenient, but I'm worried that the buttons would be too small for my fingers. Any of you have had particularly good experiences with your hardware?

Where to go to Hell.

Image via Wikipedia

In my wanderings of the internet yesterday, I came across this article, which is somewhat appropriate for tonight's movie. Should one of the characters of Drag Me to Hell make the titular request, they'll have three lovely vacation choices right here on Earth, none of which involve brimstone (though it might be fun to skate across a frozen lake of blood and guilt on in the 9th circle.)
According to mental_floss, there are 3 Hells on Earth (other than a phlebotomist's waiting room [just kidding Mel.]):

• Hell, Grand Cayman.

Located just north of Seven Mile Beach, the main attraction in Grand Cayman’s tiny Hell community is a jagged black rock formation called phytokarst – formed by the biological erosion of limestone and dolomite by algae – surrounded by tropical flora. According to legend, an Englishman visiting Grand Cayman in the 1930s attempted to shoot a bird over the rock formation, missed, and cried, “Oh, hell!” The name stuck.

• Hell, Michigan.

Hell, Mich., is located about 15 miles northwest of Ann Arbor, in Putnam Township. There are a couple of stories as to how the town got its name, but the most widely accepted version goes like this: Before his death in 1877, George Reeves, an early settler of the area who operated a flour mill and a whiskey distillery, was asked what he thought the town should be called. He responded, “Name it Hell for all I care.”

• Hell, Norway.

It’s actually quite common for Hell to freeze over in this small village in central Norway, about 200 miles north of Oslo. Temperatures in the Stjordal municipality occasionally dip below zero during the winter. The name Hell comes from the old Norwegian word hellir, which means a cave hidden by an overhanging cliff. In modern Norwegian, hellir means good luck.

So the next time someone tells you to go to Hell, don't get angry. Just remember that they're asking you to go to a lovely tropical Caribbean island.