Let's roll some dice, watch some movies, or generally just geek out. New posts at 6:30 pm ET but only if I have something to say. Menu at the top. gsllc@chirp.enworld.org on Mastodon and @gsllc on Twitter.
I will never apologize for a gratuitous Star Trek reference, however forced it may be.
Well, my post for this evening was accidentally scheduled for 6:30 am ET, so it went out before I got out of bed. No worries. I’m just throwing this one in as a follow up to provide proof of eating my first tacos in at least 17 years. That’s right. A patent issuing on the day I last had a taco has already expired.
I will never apologize for a gratuitous intellectual property law reference, however forced it may be.
But you need proof, so here it is.
When I saw the menu, the tacos were loaded with beef, so I didn’t think to order extra beef. What I got was rather light on the details. As a result, I had to eat some more when I got home.
But don’t worry (why would you even care?). The fact that these are from Taco BHell doesn’t guarantee that I’ll wait another 17 or so years before eating them again. Cheese will. Also, there’s one annoying thing about eating tacos that I had long forgotten: Take one bite, and the shell collapses. I had to shove them into my face, or everything would have fallen into my lap as I was eating. That’s a buzzkill because to me a taco isn’t a taco without crunch. If you eat soft tacos, there’s something wrong with you. Just eat a burrito or enchilada. There’s nothing wrong with that, but those aren’t tacos. Nothing with a soft shell is.
It bears repeating, but he’s wrong for including hard shell stuff.
I’ll still probably eat tacos before today’s patents expire, just not from Taco BHell.
And no, they’re not authentic Mexican food. Who cares, Francis?
I honestly can’t tell you the last time I had a taco. I can tell you the last time I tried. In 2004 or 2005, a bunch of us were flying to Miami for my older brother’s bachelor party in Key West. We made a stop on the way to the airport, and there was a Taco Bell nearby. A few of us were hungry, so we stopped in and ordered food. As the last one to order, I paid expecting everyone to pay me back. As soon as he found out I had paid for everything, my brother, being the asshole he is, said we were in a hurry, and if I didn’t leave right now, he’d leave me there. (I’m a picky eater, probably due to lingering childhood food allergies or pressure to eat, and my family would often use food to torture me as a child.) Tacos aside, deciding to go on the trip was my mistake. I should have said, “Okay,” and let him leave. But I didn’t. I acquiesced, and of course no one paid me back.
That clearly leaves a bad taste in my mouth (so to speak), but the reason I don’t eat tacos — or Mexican food generally — is because, other than mozzarella and parmesan, I hate cheese. As any cheese hater can tell you, an order requesting no cheese on something that usually has cheese rarely comes back as ordered. I have no problem peeling the cheese off of a turkey club, but if the food is hot, you can’t just peel away the cheese. As someone who hates to waste food or make a server’s life harder on them, I won’t order anything hot that generally comes with cheese. Ergo, if I go to a Mexican restaurant, the only thing I can order are fajitas. Even tamales, which I love (and recently had), tend to come with cheese even if the menu doesn’t mention it. Consequently, if I’m not in the mood for fajitas, Mexican food is out, but in any event, tacos are out.
It’s all the same, and it all has cheese.
So, here we are on Taco Tuesday at least 17 years since my last taco, and I’ve decided to break that fast. I’m having tacos for dinner, and I’ll probably go to Taco Bell. I’m a picky eater but not a snobby eater. What I hate, I won’t eat, and what I like, I like even if it’s low quality. Taco Bell is good enough for me.
Continuing my current theme of acting, I provide a video of Dionysus. One of the lesser known (if unsurprising) domains of Dionysus is the theater. But don’t worry; this video just talks about getting drunk.
Well, no. It speaks a lot about his story generally. Something, something, grapes, something. Maybe I’m the one that’s been drinking.
Just a random thought that hit me as I celebrated Easter this year.
Obviously, Christianity starts with not just an idea but a specific event centered around a being. Who that being was/is/might be as it relates to your own worldview is not really relevant to this random thought pixelated into blog form. (For a hint where I stand, note again that I celebrate Easter.)
Now stay with me.
As I drove the long way home, the thought came to me about what great story potential there is within Star Wars lore to discover and explore “The First Jedi.” There must have been a person around whom the beliefs first coalesced.
I began to relate it all to the life story of Jesus and the events that are the basis of Easter celebrations and, as my mind continued to wander through the miles, I realized I’ve always wanted…
Sundays now are lazy days for me. I either post something silly or other people’s work. Usually both. Today, keeping with my acting/theater/movie run of posts over the past couple of days, it’s a montage of Warldorf and Statler insults.
The title of this post may make you think that I’m talking about this:
But nope. This post is different.
Any of these could be photoshoped, but this next one has to be.
Still funny.
This next one is weak.
And this one may be the only real one.
Probably not.
This one isn’t a photoshop. Seriously.
I already picked on Ron Perlman once, but I can’t help it. Besides, this one may be the only legitimate one. There are plenty of images of cats that look just like Perlman that don’t mention him.
Okay, here’s another cat actor that you can actually follow on Twitter.
This won’t be a political post, but on this April 15, tax day, I want to say that I hate taxes. (Okay, tax day is actually the 18th this year, but that’s Mythology Monday, so I’m sticking with the traditional tax day for the sake of my blog.) To keep this from becoming too serious, I’ll ignore my hate and instead focus on an anecdote that I sometimes share with clients when they inappropriately ask me for tax advice. I’m not permitted to give that kind of advice, but as most of them don’t respect that, this 100% true story stops their request immediately.
In law school, I took Personal Income Tax because I figured it’d fix my ignorance of tax law.
The final exam was open book, and I got a hold of an outline prepared by three accountants taking the class. The outline was exceptionally well-organized and covered all the material. Nevertheless, after the exam, I went to Ranalli’s (Adams St. location since closed), which was the favored watering hole of Chicago-Kent students in the mid- to late-90s. When I arrived, I announced, “Well, I didn’t think it would happen, but I finally failed a class in law school!”
I didn’t fail, but the C+ I got was my lowest grade in four years at Kent. Did I have the best material available? Yes. Am I stupid? No. Then why did I do so poorly?
Hate is a powerful emotion aaaaaannnnnndddddd I’m back to hate.
No, this isn’t about something serious. Rarely will I discuss serious things on my blog. Drastic Measures is the title of my favorite album by the band Kansas. My guess is that their most popular album is either Leftoverture or Point of No Return (both of which I love), and so perhaps in that way they’re in some odd sense objectively better albums, but the value of an album is always subjective, and this blog isn’t about your opinions. 😛
Well, that was an obnoxious thing to say.
Sure this album’s hits weren’t as popular among their 18 hits. None of its songs are in VCR’s top ten list of Kansas songs. In fact, Leftoverture and Point of No Return are the only two albums with more than one entry. The same can be said for Louder’s list, Classic Rock History, Return of Rock, and Chaospin. I think there’s a clear consensus, but just like with my favorite Rush album, Grace Under Pressure (also an unpopular choice), the heart wants what it wants, and as far as Kansas is concerned, mine wants Drastic Measures.
Being that this is a subjective issue, there’s no point in providing an argument, but there is something that I can say about the album that I find interesting. First, an anecdote. The first concert I ever attended was Billy Joel on The Bridge tour. Among many great aspects to his show was his ability to reduce the intensity at exactly the right moment (ordinary among true pros). His first three songs were high energy, followed by a slower song, Piano Man (which nowadays he reserves for the final encore), and then he ramped it right up again. Once we got to Only the Good Die Young, no one sat down again . . . but I digress.
Drastic Measures mirrors this technique on a smaller scale. The first three songs (Fight Fire with Fire, Everybody’s My Friend, and Mainstream) are high energy, with the first two being the songs released as singles. After that, they slow it down a bit with Andi. Andi is a song that’s either ahead of its time or a prediction of the end of the world, depending on your politics. I’ll let all of you dopes argue over that one.
Well, that was an obnoxious thing to say.
In any event, Andi has a wonderful sound to it. After Andi, everything picks up again. Don’t let Dust in the Wind fool you. Kansas has always been a high-energy band, and Drastic Measures is no exception.
I know we no longer listen to 8-track tapes, so we can listen to songs in whatever order we want, but even today you may sometimes just want to put on an album and let it ride exactly how the artist intended. This is the best way to enjoy my favorite album, Duke by Genesis, and it’s certainly the best way to listen to Drastic Measures.
Okay, I know I burdened you with a lame unboxing just 5 days ago, but this is a good one. This is without a doubt the nicest collectable I now own. Behold, the unboxing of a 1st Edition D&DWilderness Survival Guide with James Ward’s signature in the inner cover.
I’ve spent a lot of time sitting at my computer working on 1st Edition AD&D stuff, and when I do so, I stream Hulu (or whatever) in the background. Lately, I’ve seen a bunch of Seinfeld episodes. When it was originally airing, I loved it just as much as anyone, but you know what? Seinfeld doesn’t hold up at all. The show isn’t really about nothing; it’s about whining like a baby. Both the main characters and the secondary ones are constantly complaining about things that aren’t that big a deal. I was always aware of this weakness of the writing, but the comedy drowned out those issues. However, 24 years later, the annoying parts drown out the comedy.
I think the explanation is that I’ve already heard all the jokes and can anticipate them, so their impact is diminished. However, some of the jokes themselves even fail. I don’t think you can say that it’s a function of my loss of a sense of humor. There are plenty of comedies that I still love to this day, and I’ve sometimes ranted here as to how comedy is dying because it’s catering to a younger crowd that fears the good stuff. The comedies that I still like probably have some jokes that no longer work on me, but it’s their lack of a foundation of annoying characters that keep those comedies relevant.
Well, this is awkward.
By the way, while I was searching for an image to attach to this post, I read that Estelle Harris had just died. I feel bad because she was one of the annoying ones.
I’m getting old, but for once, that’s not the cause.
Play What You Want 