Went down to Beantown after work yesterday. Met up with my former roommate from Los Angeles for her 25th birthday. Went to Faneuil Hall, had some din-din and some drinky-poos.
Here are some slightly blurry but also slightly artistic shots of Faneuil Hall decorated at night for the Holidays.
Either way, this morning was rough getting up and then driving to Portland for work. Josh sleepy, Josh go to bed now!
And Happy Birthday to Jesus!
Sweet! I just found out they're releasing Sealab 2021 Season Two DVDs on February 1, 2005!
On the DVD is:
And 13 Episodes:
These aren't the best episodes, and it's sad because the voice of the captain died last year, but still it's better than 90% of the rest of the crap out there ...
So the last time anyone put windshield wiper fluid in my car was in Southern California. This is why it was bad:
#2. Maine is cold. Yesterday morning it was -5 out. (That's almost forty degrees below freezing, by the way.)
#3. My windshield wiper fluid was frozen solid yesterday.
#4. In the winter there's lots of salt and sand on the roads in Maine. This gets on the windshield.
#5. Lastly I live in very Western Maine, one town away from New Hampshire. I drive an hour to Portland each morning. Portland is due East from Bridgton. The sun rises in the East.
Thus yesterday morning I drove for an hour directly into the sun with a windshield so crunked-up with salt that by time I got to Portland I could barely see my hood ornament. It was frightful. The worst part? It never rose above freezing all day, so I still haven't replaced the windshield wiper fluid. Argh.
Monday was Day One for Bank of America in Maine. All of the Fleet Banks are gone, all signage replaced by B of A.
I mean, in 1994 there were all sorts of banks all over Boston. Fleet, Shawmut, Bank of Boston, BayBank. Now they're all gone. Fleet bought Shawmut, Bank of Boston bought BayBank to form BankBoston, then Fleet bought BankBoston.
And now there's only Bank of America.
Weird.
Sadly I missed last Thursday's episode of The OC titled "The Chrismukkah That Almost Wasn't" because of my company holiday party and a VCR error. I just tried to watch it yesterday, and the tape was empty. Damn.
The party was worth it, however.
I wanted to mention, though, from two weeks ago how creepy I think it is that Toby Ziegler's ex-wife / baby mama is also Caleb Nichol's ex-girlfriend / baby mama.
(Toby being from the West Wing, of course, with Caleb being from The OC.)
The actress playing both is Kathleen York.
Maine has over 3,500 miles of coastline.
Looks what I found today! The trailer for the new Ice Cube flick XXX: State of the Union!!
It looks so good. I mean, it's a bad action movie, but it's got Cube.
One time my former roommate Netflixed the first "XXX" with Vin Disel and I watched it. Lord, it was bad. I like James Bond movies, too. But not with Vin Disel, and not with the guy who directed "The Fast and the Furious".
This one we got Lee Tamahori, who directed the last James Bond movie, Die Another Day. The one with Halle Berry. It wasn't bad. Hell of a lot better than The Skulls.
The trailer is genius. Ice Cube breaks out of prison first, it's genius.
I used to be very against Old Navy, primarily because of the very annoying commercials. Very, very annoying. Plus it seems like every jackass in the mall wears three or four very largly-branded Old Navy items. I just view the store as cheep and ghetto. And I'm lots of bad things, but cheap and ghetto? Hopefully not.
Then one day before a vacation when I needed some new duds I went into the store. And I actually ... kind of liked it. I mean, how can you resist three dollar tee-shirts or five dollar jeans?!
So I bought some tee-shirts and went home. Then I tried them on. And they didn't fit.
I checked the tags, they said Large. I've been a Large since junior high. Well, for a few minutes in high school I was XL, but that was the early 1990s when baggy flannel was in. Anyway, I was amazed that the Larges didn't fit.
So I went back to the store, which was fun because it was next to a Tower Records and I love Tower Records. I got a Medium, and tried it on. And it fit perfectly.
So then I move across the country, and drive by the Old Navy all of the time. See, it's next to Target. And I love Target. I love Target much more than I love Tower Records.
Finally last week I went into Old Navy again. And the same thing happened again. Bought a Large, went home, tried it on, it didn't fit.
I mean, I've bought lots of clothes (okay, not lots, but enough). And they always fit. (Well, there's this Guess shirt I got as a gift, and that doesn't really fit correctly, but other than that...) And thus I'm convinced that Old Navy has a grand conspiracy to make the population of the US feel skinnier by over inflating the sizes of their clothes. I'm sure people probably would buy more clothes if they feel skinnier and thus better about themselves. Old Navy makes lots of money, everyone wins.
Except the people who buy the wrong size inadvertently by buying the right size ...
It's five degrees out right now. That's cold. That's "nostrils stick together" cold. That's "snow crunches like styrofoam" cold. That's "stay in bed until noon" cold. Ugh.
I'm really psyched for this week's The West Wing. The last two weeks have been great. I felt it really fell off last year when Aaron Sorkin left/was fired, so this year almost stopped watching it. Glad I didn't.
The whole upcoming election on the show has really given it new life. The other year when Bartlet ran for re-election against the nincompoop Bob Ritchie (a very thinly veiled jab at the Bush brothers) there was no threat. We knew Barlet was going to win. But this year they're really stacking the deck - will it be Jimmy Smits' character? Ed O'Neill's? Alan Alda's? Maybe the current VP Bob Russell? Maybe the former VP John Hoynes? Without knowing too much about the insider working of Warner Brothers and NBC, I'd say they almost all have an edge. Probably not Russell or Hoynes, since they're both kind of assholes. But still, they journey there will make for some good TV.
But I have to say it's not the best TV ever made. I think making CJ the Chief of Staff is just odd, and Toby being the new Press Secretary is totally bogus. But last week's paralysis and wheelchair-bound President episode was the most dramatic the show has been since Sorkin left. And Josh meeting with Hoynes while James Taylor sang "A Change Is Gonna Come"? Pretty sweet.
So that got me to thinking: What are my favorite episodes of my favorite shows? With a little free time at work and the wonders of the internet, here's a short list, in no particular order:
Let's start with the West Wing. There are lots of great episodes, but my favorites are for sure Season Two's "18th and Potomac" and "Two Cathedrals". The first was totally out of left field - as the staff is busy preparing for the public announcement of the President's MS, secretary Delores Landingham goes out to buy a new car ... and doesn't come back.
"Two Cathedrals" was a little more melodramatic, what with the cursing in Latin and all, but the rain, Mrs. Landingham's funeral, and the re-election announcement ... very good.
Season Three's West Wing had two of my other favorites, "Bartlet for America" with Leo in front of the House committee about Barlet's MS, and the flashbacks to alcoholism and running for office. That season also had, in a wildly different tone, "Dead Irish Writers". The one where it's revealed Donna was born in Canada, something about a Superconductor and Hector Elizondo, and my favorite moment in TV history ever: When Amy Gardner throws a water balloon at Josh from her office window. Mary-Lousie Parker is smart and funny and the cutest thing ever, and Josh is sarcastic and handsome and, well, has a great name.
Any time I see that episode I cheer.
On a much more serious note, the end of Season Four had "Commencement" and "Twenty-Five", the last West Wing of Aaron Sorkin's career, and, I feared until two weeks ago, the last good West Wing ever. Zoey is kidnapped, Andy goes into labor, and Bartlet invokes the 25th Amendment, giving the Presidency to the Speaker of the House, Glenallen Walken (played very straight by John Goodman). Very well done episodes.
ER. Haven't watched it in a couple of years, after awhile the episodes all start to run into each other. But a few stand out.
Season Three - "Random Acts". Anthony Edwards is beaten to a pulp in the bathroom. Another of those "What the ...???" moments.
Season Four - "Exodus". The ER is sealed off due to a chemical spill, Weaver gets knocked-out or some such, so Carter takes over. At the end a firefighter praises Carter, and he says, "I'm just the intern." A great moment - haven't we all been in a lowly position at work and risen to the occasion, only to shock someone with how menial our position really is? Genius.
Season Eight. Third-to-last episode of the year. We all know Mark Greene is dying, Anthony Edwards is leaving the show. But we didn't expect him to die in the first three minutes. He and Corday and his daughter are on vacation in Hawaii, the staff gets a faxed letter from him. He sounds happy, and well. The staff smiles. There's another page. In Dr. Corday's handwriting. "Mark died this morning at 6:04 am..."
Damn.
Then the next episode we jump back in time to that last week in Hawaii. Greene gets his goodbye episode. Very clever.
Yep. I guess I like the episodes that are a little bit shocking. Out of the blue. Sure, I love Las Vegas or The OC for their complete predicability, but every once in a while I like to be surprised. Shocked, saddened. It endears you to the characters in a whole new way. And that's why we watch these shows. To see what happens to our fictional President as he wheelchairs on into the sunset ...
Over 90% of the nation's lobsters are caught along the Maine coast.
I got a message on my cell phone the other night from my ex-girlfriend. She's not going to be shipped to Iraq. Phew.
I don't want to see her dead, you know? The more recent ex-girlfriend? Sure. But not her.
Look what I bought at Target the other day. Two new holiday baking treats! Nestle Holiday Shapes and Morsels and Nestle Swirled Morsels.
The Swirled Morsels combine semi-sweet chocolate and white chocolate into one tasty bit.
I haven't baked anything with either yet, but I plan on doing it soon. I'll let you know how it turns out ...
Well that's it. No more DVDs. I'm not buying any more. Because on Wednesday Bob Iger annouced that the Walt Disney Company will start to release its movies on the Blu-Ray format.
But it's not that simple.
Blu-Ray ain't the only game in town. Toshiba and NEC have come up with a competing format. It's HD-DVD. And of course it's not compatible with Blu-Ray. But Paramount, NBC Universal and Warner Bros. said they will release films in the HD-DVD format in time for the 2005 holiday season.
Thus it looks like this is the last Holiday Season for DVDs. So next year expect to get The Incredibles on Blu-Ray and Ocean's 12 on HD-DVD.
How did this slip by me?!? There's a new Michael Crichton book! State of Fear came out on Tuesday!! Crap! I have to update my Christmas wish list! What's Santa's fax number?
I guess this one takes on environmental issues or some such, I'm wary of reading too many reviews, but very excited to read this book. I really do hope I get it for Christmas ...
One of the ladies at work yesterday had a band-aid on. A band-aid three days past its prime. It's all gooey around the edges and ratty and I'm sure if I got close enough, it'd probably smell like the Dickens.
I heard rumors that one production assistant even lost a limb due to a chipboard accident. Dang.
Anyway, band-aids. If you do wear them, change them every day. For the love of your co-workers.
I forgot yesterday to say Happy Hanukkah to all of my Jewish readers. All one of them. (Hi Lauren!) Have a good festival of the lights, there.
I was thinking about this in the shower this morning. Is it "old wives' tale" such as a tale told by an old wife, or is it an old tale told by a wife?
It's 6:05 am and I've been up for a couple of hours.
Not a good way to start the day, I'll tell you that.
Had a crazy dream that literally shook me out of my
sleep. Yep, the standard. Still in love with the ex.
The worse part is that she was still in love with me.
We were in some cool city on vacation - kind of like a future city or something. Maybe Houston. We had rented a car and she had the map and I was driving and thus were horribly lost. But I wasn't pissed (imagine that!) It was more amusing and adventurous. We loved each other and were having fun.
Then I woke up.
I haven't had insomnia like this for months - back in
the spring when I was still in Los Angeles. It's
really frustrating, because I know I'm tired, I feel
tired, but I can't sleep.
No doubt she was on my mind because it was her
birthday last Wednesday, and I spoke with her just the
week before that. And the thing is that we're very
different people now than we were then, and although
we still are friends and care for each other, I don't
love her, nor does she love me.
But it's still rough to wake up and feel happy and
loved and in love, and then have that dissipate in the
cold gray morning. Rough.
First stop was Baja Fresh in Faneuil Hall's Quincy Market - the one I found out about ... oh, about ten months ago. Man, how time flies. It seems like ... well, another life ago.
2. Bank of America. It's everywhere. Not all of the Fleet Banks have been changed out, but most have. My question: What happens to the name of the FleetCenter when there's no more Fleet Bank??
3. I knew the Disney Store in the CambridgeSide Galleria closed years ago. That's the one I worked at during college. I heard rumors that the one in Faneuil Hall closed too. Yep. It's gone. That sucks, because I remember going there when I was little and always loving the Disney. But also the Copley store is gone, too. I don't think there are any Disney Stores in Boston proper anymore. That's foolish.
4. They are, however, building an Urban Outfitters in Faneuil.
5. There's no huge-ass Christmas tree outside of the Prudential Center! Don't they do that anymore??
In 1994 Brunswick resident Angus King became only the second popularly elected independent governor in United States history. (The first one? See last week.)
Yesterday I finally registered the Jetta in Maine. Only $370. I was scared it was going to be much more. Since it was a bargin I even sprung for the specialty license plates with the lobsters on them.
Today the car gets inspected (Maine's odd like that). And we're going to Boston for Holiday shopping. I'm just psyched that I get to eat Baja Fresh at Faneuil Hall! (Hey, it's been a good five months since I've had it, man! Back off!)
It's so nice to wake up to gentle flurries this morning!! I forgot how much I love seasons. Sure, it's a pain when it gets colder, but right now I have to say, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! I just want to play Christmas Carols all day today. Buy some candy canes. Drink Egg Nog with an elf. This is so exciting!
Did you see that George Clooney ruptured a disc in is spine? That's what I did this summer!
That guy is such a copy-cat. Always stealing my best ideas. Watch, he'll probably quit his job and move in with his brother now, just 'cause that's what I did. Punk.
Oh! Forgot to say this yesterday - Cute Girl at Work said that my friend Kelly was voted off The Biggest Loser this week. We forgot to watch it. Hey, if there's no Scrubs on we're not getting off our duffs, okay?
So does this means that Kelly is the biggest loser? Or maybe NOT the biggest loser? I don't know. Still bummed I missed it.
I'm not a permanent employee at the company where I work. I'm a "project employee", which puts me above "temp" and somewhere below "tree slug" on the work/evolution scale.
It's okay, I've gotten over the fact that I'm a 28 year old with a college degree who can't even land a real job. And by "real" I mean official, since I'm already doing the equivalent of several of the "real" employees at my company.
Anyway, I thought the worst part of my being "project" was not getting benefits or vacation days or paid holidays, which are all pretty lousy. But this morning I found out the worst part of the job is not getting parking.
See, it's raining today. And I usually I park pretty far away from work. Sure, I could pay for parking in the garage everyone else parks in, or even pay for one of the lots on the street. But that's not likely with the money that they're paying me. So there's this free street parking down the hill that I use. Mapquest says it's a half a mile away. A good ten or fifteen minute hike.
So this morning I parked in my usual spot, and got out of my car. Man, I forgot how much fun forty degree rain is.
Then I hear, "Josh? Hey Josh!"
It was a woman I work with. She was with the other coordinator in my office when I was pulled over the other day. And apparently she lives right by where I park. But she drives to work.
Isn't that odd? I consider that close to work, and she considers it far enough to drive.
Anyway, I got a ride to work this morning. True, when I had to run out to "Bed, Bath and Beyond" (don't ask) I got completely soaked, but at least that was the end of the day ...
You might have seen this in the news yesterday, President Bush is in Ottawa meeting with the Prime Minister and having dinner of Canadian Beef ... beef that is illegal in the US due to the mad cow disease from 2003.
Granted, Bush has never been much of a tourist. I just looked it up - he'd been President for a year and a half before making his first major foreign trip, visiting Slovenia, Poland, Sweeden, Brussels and Spain. And you know, Slovenia is much more important than say, a country that we share a 3,200 mile border with.
I think it's simpler. Bush is pissed at Canada because most of them oppose the war in Iraq. Even the former Prime Minister, Jean Chretien, did, and said so.
I think that's why the US is still enforcing the ban on Canadian beef that's been in effect since May of 2003. Retribution. Canadians oppose the war and oppose Bush (58 percent of Canadians say the president's reelection was a bad thing). I think they are better informed than Americans, and thus smarter than Americans - and that scares Bush. And now he wants them in on this retarded-ass missile defense shield, so he's trying to woo them. I hope they don't buy it. They're smarter than that. They're for sure smarter than Americans ...
Last Updated on: December 30, 2004
© 2004 Joshua Paul Edwards
12/24/04 - Merry Christmas!
12/23/04 - Sealab 2021 Season 2 DVDs!!!!
Commentary on all 13 episodes
A Tribute to Harry Goz (voice of Captain Murphy)
20 Questions with the Cast
A Tour of 70-30 Productions
The Rough Cut of Der Dieb
Ronnie
*Der Dieb
*The Policy
*7211
*Legend of Baggy Pants
*Hail, Squishface
*Bizarro
*Tinfins
*Feast of Alvis
*Vacation
*Fusebox
*Brainswitch
*Article 4
*Return to Oblivion
12/22/04 - Frozen.
#1. In Southern California they don't use anti-freeze windshield wiper fluid.
12/21/04 - Asshole of the Year
12/19/04 - The Chrismukkah That Really Wasn't
12/19/04 - Sunday Morning Maine State Trivia
12/18/04 - Quitter.
"Hi, I'm Pedro, and I'm never going to be on a winning team again."
12/15/04 - Old Navy Conspiracy
Leo: Charlie?
It was one of those "What?!" moments that come along very rarely in TV.
Charlie: Leo, there was an accident at 18th and Potomac. Mrs. Landingham was driving her car back here.
Leo: What happened?
Charlie: There was a drunk driver, and they ran a light at 18th and Potomac. They ran it a high speed.
Leo: Charlie, is she all right?
Charlie: No, she's dead.
Season Two - "Hell and High Water". George Clooney's Doug Ross saves a child from a drainage pipe. Got me hooked on the show.
Looking through the episode lists of my other favorite show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer I can't believe how many good episodes there are. So many stand out. I'll mention one here quickly, Season Three's "Lover's Walk". The triumphant return of Spike, singing along to "I Did It My Way" as he crashes back into town. Funny, violent, unexpected, everything you want in a show ...
12/10/04 - Blu-Ray
12/09/04 - State of Fear
12/09/04 - Band-Aid
12/08/04 - Hanukkah
1. The Big Dig is done (albeit leaking) and the elevated portion of 93 that used to run through Boston has been dismantled. So you can stand in Faneuil Hall and see all of the way down to The FleetCenter! It's amazing. No more ugly rusting roadways!!
On the way home we stopped at Toys R Us in South Portland and I took this rather sad image of my former boss:
12/05/04 - Sunday Morning Maine State Trivia
(I read once you should always blur your license plate number if you're putting it on the web.
I know, I know, it's probably stupid, but hey, better safe than identity thefted.)
12/03/04 - Snow
"Hey gar-con, pour me 'nother one!!"
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