MadMup.com

It's a good thing I don't live in a town with skyscrapers and their ilk. If I did, I'd be tempted to go swinging around on them, and that wouldn't end well.

I just got back from Spider-Man 2, and man, was it ever good. It built on the first one, but in many ways exceeded and surpassed it. Man.

It was so good. 0 comments

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The first time I met Improv Guy Steve, I was wearing a unique T-shirt. I think it was my Pac-Man tee. The next time I met up with him, I was wearing a ComedySportz tee that depicts an Atlas-figure holding up a sort-of globe. Next, my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shirt.

It's become something expected of me - he waits on pins and needles to see what I'll wear next. Frankly, it's starting to stress me out. I've only got so many interesting T-shirts! He's already seen my cool Superman tee, too! Pretty much the only cool ones I have left are my Weird Al shirt and my Chudnow shirt (Chudnow is the inventor of ComedySportz, and the Chudnow family had a junk metal business. The logo for that business is on this bright orange shirt with the word "Chudnow" under it. Pretty neat.). So I'm either going to have to start avoiding him or buying more T-shirts.

It got me to thinking about the whole "wearing T-shirts" process, though. I consciously go through a process when I'm picking out a T-shirt to wear in public. Does this one look good enough, will this give people a chuckle, is this out of place - all that kind of stuff. Other factors come into play - if you're like me, you have specific memories and thoughts associated with different shirts, too. "I want to feel like *Emotion A* today, so I need to wear the Beatles T-shirt. The Emmitt Smith tee is too *Emotion B* for me right now." This goes for when I wear them under other shirts or sweatshirts, too. Even if no one can see it, I still go through the process.

It makes me wonder when I see a person wearing a T-shirt that says "Rice Chex" or "Pennzoil" on it. You know the type - the rest of the outfit is nice-looking, but here's a strange corporate logo tee to top off the outfit.

"I like Rice Chex!" he's proclaiming.

"Good for you, buddy." I always think.

I prefer people to wear T-shirts that either a) are design-y, or 2) make me laugh. It's fine if you want to wear a purple tee with weird squiggles through it or a tee with the words "Can't Sleep - Clowns Will Eat Me." But why are you wearing a McDonald's T-shirt? Sure, you might have gotten it for free, but make it a work shirt, for Pete's sake.

And don't get me started on bumper stickers... 0 comments

I got to do a little improv tonight - very little, as it happened. We did a gig for "Relay For Life," a charity event that raises money and awareness for cancer research. It was (actually, still is) being held at one of the local high schools, and the different groups of people involved will have someone walking on the track for 12 straight hours. They take turns - someone might walk for a half hour, then another group member will walk, and so forth.

We did about 20 minutes worth of games in the middle of the track, down towards one end. Like most high school tracks, it surrounds a football field, so we actually performed right under a field goal post. We played Good Advice-Bad Advice, Forward Reverse, 185, and Body Freeze. I think we were scheduled for 30-45 minutes, but we only did about 20-25. That was enough, really. We weren't on any sort of stage, and only people that came up close to us and sat on the grass could hear and see us. "Outside" is not really the best environment for improv.

Lowest point came early on: one of the performers in Good Advice-Bad Advice was giving bad advice and mentioned smoking...at a function involving cancer. She felt awful the rest of the evening, though I don't believe many folks caught it.

Afterwards, I headed to the grocery store because I was out of milk, and I've been in the mood for cereal lately. Well, okay, I'm just about always in the mood for cereal, but particularly so lately. As I got out of my car, a lady came up to me and asked if I could spare any money for her to get gas to drive home, about an hour away. I gave her what I had in my wallet - $4 - and said, "That's all I got. And if you spend it on alcohol, I hope you choke on it." I said it with a smile on my face, and she smiled back and said, "Oh, I don't drink," so it was okay. You understand I didn't really want her to choke - I was just making sure she knew I wanted her to use the money for gas.

And now I'm home, enjoying my ice cream bars. I mean, my cereal. Uh...yeah. 0 comments

A lot of you have heard this already, but I feel guilty about not having posted in a while, so here's a recording of Dave singing "Brown-Eyed Girl."

If you find yourself not enjoying it (though I don't know how that could possibly happen!), fast forward to the end to hear Dave and I engage in some banter. 0 comments

Just a little while ago I heard that my little niece Natalie, who is seven months old, fell and broke her leg today. Doctors say she'll be fine, but it was quite traumatic for her, her mom, her dad (my brother), and all the grandparents involved. She's got a cast on her leg and may have to get a different cast or a full-body cast on Friday. Keep her and the family in your prayers, okay?

And here's a picture of her and Uncle Mup from this last Saturday. I took it myself, so please forgive the angles.

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I've made it home without many ill effects. I still hate driving, and I still particularly hate Chicago.

I'm sorry about the lack of audio blogging, but the service was "being worked on" all weekend. Bah.

Well, I'm home. Regular updates will ensue. 0 comments

The mighty Brewers vanquished the evil Twins in a come-from-behind victory, 7-6.

While I don't believe the Brewers to be "mighty" nor the Twins "evil," the game was quite enjoyable. The new stadium the Brewers play in has a retractable roof, and long about the fifth inning, they closed it, and that was neat to see. I have pictures, and I'll try to get them up sometime this week. Keep in mind, though, that I took pictures of the Weird Al concert on April 1 and they're still not up. My intentions are good, but don't hold your breath.

Earlier in the day, I attended the wedding of a girl I grew up with. Here's the interesting fact about the wedding: she married the oldest son of the lady who taught me in Kindergarten. And, in fact, the bride had also had her now-mother-in-law as a teacher in Kindergarten. Rumor has it that this last Christmas, while they were gathering and decorating the tree, the future mother-in-law pulled the future bride over to the tree and pointed out an ornament - one the future bride had made for her Kindergarten teacher, 20+ years ago. Is that not one of the neatest things you've ever heard?

I saw a lot of people at the wedding that I hadn't seen in a long time - ranging from a few months to 10+ years. There's a weird set of feelings to deal with... whew.

Tomorrow I meet up with an old friend for breakfast, then have Father's Day dinner with my family before heading back to Indiana, where I'm sure my cats have given me up for dead.

Make sure you call or see your dad and let him know you love him - even if things are strained between you and him right now for whatever reason, make sure you let him know tomorrow that you love him. I don't ask you for much, but I'm asking this. 0 comments

Well, my trip went almost without incident.

Almost.

Somewhere slightly north of Chicago, I was talking to my friend Josh on my cell phone, and I said to him, "Why am I seeing a sign that says 'Freeway ends, traffic light ahead'?" He gets on Mapquest or something similar and tells me that 41 and 94 split, and I got on the wrong one.

I've made this trip dozens of times and never done this. Kids, let this be a warning to you: talking on the cell phone while driving is a bad idea.

Josh proceeded to help me get back to the Interstate, and a half hour later, I was headed north on 94. In the process, though, I had to pay two tolls - one to get off the interstate because I could only go south, and then one to get back on the interstate headed north. Problem is, I didn't have any change at all. The little sign said "If you don't have correct change, call this number within four days." So I've got to call that number and I'll probably have to mail them a quarter, which will cost 37 cents to mail...

So with that half hour lost and the two traffic jams in Chicago (on a Thursday night!!!), I got to my parents' house at 1:00 a.m. Not too bad.

I woke up at 9:00, got ready, then headed to Madison with my dad to go to the junkyard to get parts for my van and my brother's car.

Those of you who are unfamiliar with junkyards might need some explanation here. A junkyard is basically a cemetary for cars, but a cemetary where people are able to come and pick the parts they like off the bodies. There are rows and rows of cars in various states of disrepair. Most of them have ended up there because they were in accidents or abandoned by the side of the road. If you need a mirror, a tire, a fan, or a front seat, a junkyard is a good place to get one - if you don't mind the work involved in getting it.

See, you've got to get the part(s) off the car yourself, so you have to haul tools around. Then you have to haul the parts around. And did I mention this is all outside? A Mup outside is a Mup not in his natural habitat - a Mup outside amongst cars doubly so.

I actually have a bit of a sunburn now, even though it rained off and on for the (approximately) five hours we were there.

Then we went to Dad's place of work to put the new-to-us tires on the rims, and then came home to have Mom's birthday dinner.

Afterwards we played a game of Scrabble, and now I'm typing. Pretty exciting, yes?

Tomorrow there's a wedding to go to, and then a baseball game.

I suspect there will be more sunburn.

Labels: Scrabble

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Well, here I go.

I'm off to Wisconsin about two minutes after I finish typing this. It's my mom's birthday today and Father's Day on Sunday, so it's time for a trip. Regular readers will know that I look forward to traveling like most people look forward to root canal. My trips have been tending towards the "root canal" end of the spectrum lately...

I've checked the tires and everything else I can - it all looks good. The CD player is loaded and there are extras in a case. Got clothes, laptop, books, and my pillow. The cats have been fed and watered. (They've been giving me the evil eye as I've been loading the van - they don't like it when I leave.) I think I'm set.

I'll try to leave at least one audio post per day, okay? And maybe a typed one, too, depending on circumstances.

If you never hear from me again, my van probably went all "Christine" on me and should be destroyed before it claims more lives.

Bye, ya'll! 0 comments

I posted these over on the THorum, but not everyone who reads this is from there (surprisingly enough), so I thought I'd link to them here, too.

These are two of a few recordings I have of my friend Dave and I singing some songs in one of those recording booths you find at amusement parks and fairs. The recordings are fairly old (7 or 8 years) and from tapes, so the quality is really not very good at all. So I offer them here for whatever amusement/enjoyment you can get from them.

Your best bet is to right-click on the links and "Save Target As..."

Yesterday - pretty much just me.

Twist & Shout - me on lead with backup and hilarity from Dave.

If you're really good, I'll post Dave's version of Brown-Eyed Girl, which I feel is just terrific. 0 comments

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Number 276 on the list of things I've done: Karaoke DJ.

A while back I was invited by one of the Improv fellows to help him do some of the entertainment for a meeting of the Civic Theater-related people. They had hired a karaoke machine and we're planning to have people sing, and the first thought was to do an American Idol kind of thing with it - making comments on people's singing and stuff. We settled, though, on just doing plain old karaoke, and I volunteered to be the "machine running guy" since I knew that would keep me from being up in front of the people and possibly singing. Plus, my talents of organization (rarely used, but still there) came in handy, as the first thing I did was put the 20 available CDs in numerical order.

It was fun, and as always, there's one or two people who are really quite good, some people who are passable, and then some who are just plain awful.

The one bad aspect was that when people would dance around in some manner that involved thumping their feet on the floor within a 20-foot radius of the machine, the machine would skip, or sometimes lose power. Other than that, though, it was a rousing success.

Brandy - I know you're terribly proud of me. 0 comments

There's a free way to play official Scrabble online! Huzzah!

Go here and sign up so we can play.

Thanks to Brian A. for the heads-up!

Labels: Scrabble

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All righty, enough time has passed, I think. Here are the answers to the music game from a few days ago. I'll list the lyric, and then under it in a "spoiler tag" I'll list the title and artist. I'll also list the first person to have guessed correctly.

To read the spoilers, click and drag over the text to highlight it.

1. You’ll remember me when the west wind moves upon the fields of holly
Sting – Fields of Gold
Guessed first by Brian A.

2. I saw you walk across the room for maybe the last time, I don’t know
Phil Collins – Can’t Stop Loving You
Unguessed!

3. Hold on to my hands, I feel I’m sinking, sinking without you
The Cranberries – When You’re Gone
Unguessed!

4. Give these lovin’ arms one more try
Jewel – Have a Little Faith in Me
Unguessed!

5. I used to live alone before I knew ya
Rufus Wainwright – Hallelujah
Unguessed!

6. To me you're like a growing addiction that I can't deny
Seal – Kiss From A Rose
Guessed first by Brian A.

7. Only a man in a funny red sheet Looking for special things inside of me
Five For Fighting – Superman
Guessed first by Antalya.

8. I've dreamt so long I cannot dream anymore Let's run away, I'll take you there
Evanescence – Anywhere
Guessed first by Antalya.

9. It’s the perfect time of year somewhere far away from here
BNL – Pinch Me
First guessed by Antalya.

10. But this voice keeps whispering In my other ear, tells me I may never see you again
Eagles – Peaceful Easy Feeling
Unguessed!

11. Thanks for the joy that you're given me I want you to know I believe in your song
Dobie Gray – Drift Away
First guessed by syko.

12. In tales of ancient glory, Every knight and maiden fair shall be joined when the quest is over
Mitch & Mickey – A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow (from the A Mighty Wind soundtrack)
Unguessed!

13. Well, I've been afraid of changing 'Cause I've built my life around you
Fleetwood Mac – Landslide
First guessed by syko.

14. I have a picture pinned to my wall - An image of you and of me and we’re laughing with love at it all
Thompson Twins – Hold Me Now
Unguessed!

15. Somehow I’ll show you that you are my night sky
Evanescence – You
First guessed by Antalya.

16. She's a good girl, crazy 'bout Elvis
Tom Petty – Free Fallin’
First guessed by Antalya.

17. I wish you could swim like the dolphins-like dolphins can swim
The Wallflowers - Heroes
Unguessed!

18. I thought I was being cool Yeah, I thought I was being strong
Mike & the Mechanics – All I Need Is a Miracle
First guessed by Meags.

19. Sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti
Toto – Africa
First guessed by Brian A.

20. He just smiled and gave me a vegemite sandwich
Men at Work – Down Under
First guessed by Brian A.

Not that anyone's keeping track (or handing out awards!), but here are the totals:

Unguessed: 8
Antalya: 5
Brian A.: 4
syko: 2
Meags: 1

Thanks for playing! If you enjoyed it, Brian's got one going on right now, too! 0 comments

(WARNING! LONG POST!)

You might not know it, but I hate to drive. Hate it, hate it, hate it. Little trips around town are fine, but I hate to drive long distances. And, yes, I include 1.25-hour trips in this category.

So when something like the story I'm about to relate happens, it just reaffirms my desire to never leave the house.

I sometimes have occasion to go with our local movie reviewer to see an early showing of an upcoming movie. Tonight we were headed to see Pitch Black 2: Electric Boogaloo (otherwise known as The Chronicles of Riddick), when my van got a flat tire on the Interstate.

No problem! I have a full-size spare in the back and I'm perfectly capable of changing a tire, even though I hate doing it because my hands get so dirty. I get the jack out and jack up the van and get to work removing the lugnuts. It all goes well until the last one. It won't budge. I try some more, and pretty soon both the lugnut and the tire iron are getting "rounded off," which means the corners on the nut and the corners in the wrench aren't grabbing each other any more.

From the road I can see a place called "Wrecks, Inc." I figure it's a car place of some sort and might have a better wrench, so I call Information and get their number. A security guy answers and says, no, they're closed. After I tell him my story, though, he says, "Well, I've got one of my own in my truck - I'll trust you, if you want to come and get it." It must be something in my voice that causes people to pity me. Can they tell I'm an idiot just by listening to me, I wonder?

So I head in that direction, which involves me climbing over a fence by the Interstate that has a barbed wire at the top. I have a few smarts left (and a healthy fear of tetanus), so I grabbed a floor mat from the van and put it over the barbed wire before climbing over. You know how they put a huge heavy blanket over barbed wire in the movies? It was kinda like that, only a lot more shaky and tentative.

So then I start jogging over this field, which I soon realize is an undeveloped part of a cemetary. Turns out that's going to be handy, as I am horribly out of shape (worse than I thought!) and have to stop jogging after about 50 yards. I walk the rest of the way, noticing the lovely cement crypts they have sitting out by their warehouse, and the other lovely ones that have been spray-painted gold. Why do people need to have spray-painted gold crypts? No one sees them!

Anyway, I get to the place and get the wrench from the feller (yes, he was definitely a "feller," not a "dude" or a "guy") and traipse back to the van. It fits much better, but we cannot get this nut to budge. It just won't move a centimeter!

So I start calling towing places...

I finally get one that has an available truck, but he says, "I don't know where we'd tow it - nothing's open any more." Grrrrrr. "But," he continues, "I know a tire place that does roadside assistance."

Well why didn't you say so!

I called them up, and yes! they'd be happy to send someone! In an hour.

Grrrr.

"Yes," I said, "Please do."

While we waited, I took the wrench back over to Ray. I don't know if that was his real name, but he looked like a Ray to me. I was so thirsty, I asked him if he had a drink-dispensing machine that might have juice or something. All it had was soda.

At this time, let me tell you that, aside from some sips of Vanilla Coke, Vanilla Pepsi, and Pepsi Blue when they first came out, I have not had soda for two and a half years. Let me also tell you that all of this traipsing about and jogging and trying to get the lugnut off had made me extremely thirsty.

I bought a soda. An Orange Crush, because it seemed to be the least damaging of what was available, and I used to like it a lot. Man, was it awful. *shudder* I honestly could hardly drink it. I guess I've lost my taste for soda or something. Ugh.

Back to the van. Wait. Finally, the feller came. Yes, another "feller." But this feller had a HUGE air compressor in the back of his van and was able to use an air ratchet to get the lugnut off in two seconds. Then he put the spare tire on and checked and filled all four tires. Then he charged me a bunch of money and went on his merry way.

I came back home, having not seen any movie and having sat by the side of the road for three hours. Yes. Three.

On the bright side, I got home a little earlier than I would have otherwise, and I was able to get gas for $1.73 on the trip, which is twenty cents cheaper than gas here in town!

So this little trip coupled with the last big one I took really has me wanting to pursue the hermit life. My next one is a week from Friday - I'm headed up to Wisconsin for Father's Day and my mom's birthday, and I think Dad has plans to give my van a thorough going-over. I'm thinking that's not such a bad idea. 0 comments

All right, here's the deal. The official rules are "On your current playlist, hit shuffle and pick the first twenty songs on the list (no matter how cheesy or embarrassing), and write down your favourite line of the song. Try to avoid putting the song title in the line. Then, have your friends comment and see if they know the songs." (Props.)

Here are mine:

1. You’ll remember me when the west wind moves upon the fields of holly
2. I saw you walk across the room for maybe the last time, I don’t know
3. Hold on to my hands, I feel I’m sinking, sinking without you
4. Give these lovin’ arms one more try
5. I used to live alone before I knew ya
6. To me you're like a growing addiction that I can't deny
7. Only a man in a funny red sheet Looking for special things inside of me
8. I've dreamt so long I cannot dream anymore Let's run away, I'll take you there
9. It’s the perfect time of year somewhere far away from here
10. But this voice keeps whispering In my other ear, tells me I may never see you again
11. Thanks for the joy that you're given me I want you to know I believe in your song
12. In tales of ancient glory, Every knight and maiden fair shall be joined when the quest is over
13. Well, I've been afraid of changing 'Cause I've built my life around you
14. I have a picture pinned to my wall - An image of you and of me and we’re laughing with love at it all
15. Somehow I’ll show you that you are my night sky
16. She's a good girl, crazy 'bout Elvis
17. I wish you could swim like the dolphins-like dolphins can swim
18. I thought I was being cool Yeah, I thought I was being strong
19. Sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti
20. He just smiled and gave me a vegemite sandwich
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I just got back from taking a walk, something I rarely do.

I felt the need to do something, and that's what I ended up doing. I wasn't particularly planning to go anywhere, but I ended up walking to the grocery store and buying some Dots, some Dove bars, and some gum.

This won't surprise most of you, but I've just been feeling...man, I don't even know. "Malaise" pretty much sums it up. I thought maybe a walk would help or at least tire me out. I am feeling tired now, so maybe that worked a little.

I feel like doing everything and nothing, both at the same time. I want to get in my car and drive for 10 hours straight, and I want to never leave my house again. Bah. I'm sure you know what I mean - you've been there, even if you've never heard the word "malaise" before. I'm not so sure I know how to pronounce it, myself.

Before I left on this walk, though, I smushed a spider. I kid you not, as I did it, I said these words out loud: "Sorry, dude. I wholeheartedly approve of your mission, but not your creepiness."

Doesn't that just sum up almost everything? 0 comments

I've noticed that when I don't post regularly, people don't visit as much.

It's a back-handed compliment, really, and I appreciate it. 0 comments

Oh, I forgot to mention -

No one's actually complained, but I'm sorry the cat cam has been down for so long. I've been having router problems, so the cam server isn't connecting correctly.

I hope to have the issue resolved soon, and I'll let you know. 0 comments

There are people who will tell you that dogs are much smarter than cats because you can teach a dog tricks, but not cats. Not only is that a strange judge of intelligence in my book, but it's simply not true. What any cat person worth his salt will tell you is that cats simply choose when they want to do something, and that is the proof of their intelligence. That's why the love of a cat is a treasure - dogs will like you any time, anywhere. The gift of cat affection (thank you Garrison Keillor) is just that: a gift. You can't earn it, so you know when you're getting it that it's the real deal.

You'll also hear that cats have no personality. Imagine if you will that I've just rolled my eyes as big as possible. In fact, I've taken them out of my head and rolled them around the room. That's how ridiculous I think the phrase "cats have no personality" is. My two cats are as distinct as night and day. Dala is sweet, loving, and friendly. Nutmeg is a jerk. She can be mean, she can be nice, she can be sweet, but she's usually just a jerk. Try to pet her head and you'll get the open-mouthed-almost-bite. Pick her up and she'll meow like you're trying to shiv her in the shower in some sort of cat prison. Try to scratch her belly and you'll pull back a stump. She's just...jerky.

Which is why it's so odd that she's developed this little ritual that she does. Every day after I've showered, I'll open the bathroom door and she'll come in. She's obviously been waiting for the door to be opened, and she comes in and makes an inspection of the room, and then winds herself around my legs for a few minutes, purring. Then she leaves and she's back to being a jerk, until it's time to try to sit on my lap and love on me while I'm trying to play Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic or something.

I'm not sure if she just misses me for the twenty minutes I've got the door closed, or what. Maybe it's just the fact that a door is closed and she doesn't have the freedom to go where she chooses. Comedienne Paula Poundstone (famous for talking about cats) has a bit where she talks about using a water bottle to spray the cats when they were doing something bad (an excellent deterrent, by the way), and then the cats being amazed when she showered. She imagined that they were saying, "What did you do to deserve that?!?" So maybe Nutmeg's worried about me.

I'm thinking the answer is simpler than that. I've heard it said that a dog will spend the rest of its life pining over the loss of its owner, even going so far as to sit on its owner's grave all day every day. But a cat will start using its owner's body as a food source after 48 hours if no one has found them. Cold? Unfeeling? Clinical? Ruthless? Maybe. Or maybe it's just the best answer in the situation. How else will they eat? No one's pouring the food for them anymore...

So I think that when Nutmeg comes in to check on me in the morning, she's not really expressing love. I think she's reading a menu to see what's available for the day.

Labels: cats

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Grrrrr.

I know how to make web pages - I've been doing it off and on for about seven years now. HTML makes sense to me. No, I don't know Java and Javascript and CSS, but I can still make a basic HTML page and be happy with my work.

Blogger, though, has created their own little HTML codes for all the specialized little things that go into making a blog a blog, and I can't get them to work right and look the way I want them to in my own design.

So the upshot is - no redesign for you. Nor for me. The "Come back - one year" is implied.

I know this site isn't attractive at all - you're very kind to keep coming back. I could (and probably will) switch to a different supplied-by-Blogger template. They recently added several new ones that look decent - way better than this one at any rate.

Would it be so difficult for someone to make a Blogger-specific web design program? Macromedia Dreamweaver is a wonderful program - couldn't someone desing an add-on that let you insert Blogger-specific tags as easily as the "bold" and "italics" tags?

And for all of you who are about to suggest I move to "Moveable Type" or some such thing - don't bother. I've got just over 200 posts on here, and I don't want to go through them all to transfer it over. Besides, there's a lot I like about Blogger, I just wish it were easier to design my own page.

Just another wonderful thing to slap on top of an already wonderful weekend. 0 comments