Birthday recap

So, my birthday has come and gone, leaving me officially 23 years old, one of those fun years where nothing actually changes and you just feel older. (To be fair, I'm not sure if there are any milestones left that actually change what you can do except 25 and full car rental, which somehow isn't all that exciting.) Of course, I don't really feel that much older, but give it time - I'm sure as soon as I hear about some high school students born in 1991, I'm going to feel decrepit.

Anyway, here's the recap:

My parents sent me a package on Saturday which, against all post office odds, arrived on Sunday. Inside were five books, including a "Great Movies" book that my mom had autographed by Roger Ebert when he was at a signing in the DC area. Cool. There was also some money (not in cash form, of course) and $100 in Borders gift cards, which I put mostly to use yesterday.

Alma and I went to Par King for a round of mini golf - we finally got to play on the red course again and I did pretty well - 42 was one over par due to a mediocre back nine, but I had two holes-in-one in a row on the front nine, which was awesome.

Then we went for steak at an Outback. I warned Alma jokingly not to tell them it was my birthday, so of course she did, which was cute of her. The free ice cream wasn't bad, though it was kind of funny that it was topped with a scoop (literally) of whipped cream that was about as big as the scoop of ice cream. I'm a little alarmed that this means their whipped cream probably comes out of some sort of gallon container. The steak was good, anyway.

Then it was off to Borders to burn through the gift cards. I still have 20 bucks left on one of them, so I can get another CD or two or a DVD yet, but I started by getting the two CDs on my earlier list that I knew could be found at a Borders: The Last Broadcast and Out-of-State Plates. Then I sucked it up and bought the Simpsons Season Six. For those of you who are thinking of getting it, the packaging that it comes in is kind of lame. I don't mind the idea, but as Alma noted, they should have made it a metal tin shaped like Homer's head that opened from the side. Instead, it's plastic and has to be pulled open from the top. Inside there's a card saying that "anal-retentive nerds" can call an 800 number to get a box that fits normally on their shelves. Whether this means a box that looks like the previous five seasons, into which the DVDs can actually be transferred, or whether it just means some cheap cardboard that makes things rectangular, I don't know. I also don't know whether it's free or not (though you'd think it would be).

Odd note from watching some of the DVDs: in "A Star is Burns," the huge belch let out by Eudora Welty is missing from the soundtrack, even though it shows up in the closed captioning.

Anyway, it was an excellent birthday. Activities, food, and things I enjoy, and I got to spend the whole day with Alma, which as far as I'm concerned is the most important part. She really is the best.

Festivities.

We have much to discuss.

Friday night was a party at the Parthenon restaurant in Greektown with Alma, many other Loyolans, and Jan, whom I hadn't seen in forever. We caught up a bit, though I have so little to contribute to most discussions of that sort ("yeah, I graduated in December... well, I've been looking for work... yeah, the jobs I really want are impossible to get... so, nothing really") that it ended up being half funny stories from the days of quiz bowl and half funny contemporary Jan stories. I ordered something called an Amnopita that had lamb, vegetables, and I think half the feta that Greece annually produces, and that's some salty stuff. Woof. I have never eaten so slowly (I was the last person to finish their entree), except for that time when I ate a big heaping bowl of salt.

Saturday night was a semi-impromptu birthday dinner thrown jointly for me and Brian (Alma's sister's fiancé) by Alma's parents. Brian's birthday is four days before mine, so it was like splitting the difference. We had Chinese food and a very tasty cake with a lot of strawberries (usually I'm not the biggest fan of fruit in cakes, but the strawberries were relatively fresh and so quite enjoyable). Alma's parents are always so generous and nice, which probably explains where she gets it from.

Flashing back to Friday, I sampled a new pop variety: Mountain Dew Pitch Black II. Apparently unwilling to completely resurrect last year's grape flavor, the folks at Mountain Dew came up with this version, which comes complete with a "sour bite," as the bottle describes it. I'm Mr. Sour, as we well know, so of course I was all over this.

Here's the problem. Sour is all well and good, but it's better when the sourness is coming along with something sweet. Bafflingly, even though Pitch Black II contains 75 grams of sugar in a 20-ounce bottle (which, reduced, is something like emptying four sugar packets into a pony shot glass full of water), it's not especially sweet. The result of this is that the sourness has a harsh, chemical-like effect rather than a pleasing tang. Drinking this stuff feels like you're trying to scrub soap scum out of the back of your throat.

So, normally I like sour stuff, but this is just too much. Combined with the lack of sweetness, the raised level of acidity caused by the sourness just invites problems. It's not as unpleasant-tasting as regular Mountain Dew, but it sure doesn't feel very good going down. I can't recommend it.

Hey, prehistoric forest

Shortly after I made the last post I saw one more thing worthy of addition to that list: apparently they're coming out with a Special Edition DVD for Tommy Boy. Now, I love Tommy Boy; it's one of the few movies I have on DVD that I might consider a "guilty pleasure," because I mean, come on - it's so dumb, but it's hilarious. Regardless of my opinion on the film, though, talk about a movie that really didn't need a special edition - and yet they dug up a ton of stuff. Four featurettes? Seven storyboard comparisons? (This is one of those films where it's hard to believe they bothered having storyboards, but I guess I stand corrected.) 15 extended scenes? 19 TV spots, for crying out loud? To quote Richard, "Yikes." On the plus side, we now know for certain how to spell "Schnike."

The big 2-3

The upcoming birthday (Monday, the 29th, for those of you who had no idea) is not exactly a milestone, but it's the first birthday I've had on my own (not at a house owned by my parents, in other words). You may say "What about last year?" and it's true, last year I was on my own, but last year I was too much on my own - I spent pretty much the entirety of the day moving into this apartment (thankfully, no such effort will be required this year), and so I didn't get to enjoy the birthday or even the day at all.

Anyway, I'd been meaning to codify the things I want slash have been meaning to get, so I'll take this opportunity to do so, and you can all consider this the last-minute gift ideas portion of our program.

Doves, The Last Broadcast: I own their latest album, Some Cities, and it's pretty good. I listened to the sound samples for this one (their second) at Borders and loved what I heard, but ended up holding off on buying it. It's probably top of my list for the summer now that I've picked up Twin Cinema.

Fountains of Wayne, Out-of-State Plates: When I first heard Fountains of Wayne had a double album coming, I was ecstatic - then it turned out it was unreleased stuff and rarities. That's what's kept me from already buying it, but I own all three of their previous LPs so I'm getting this one at some point, it's just a matter of time.

The Reindeer Section, Y'all Get Scared Now, Ya Hear: It's not supposed to be as good as Son of Evil Reindeer, but I love everything Gary Lightbody has ever touched so far, so it's gotta be worth picking up.

Steve Burns, Songs for Dust Mites: I don't think most people took this album seriously when they heard who it was by, but honestly, it's got some really good stuff on it. Alma, who is a big Steve fan from his Blue's Clues days, burned me a copy a while back, but I'm actually not sure where it is - but more importantly, I like to own CDs that I really like if at all possible, and since this wasn't exactly a big hit, it could stand to sell another copy.

The Long Winters, The Worst You Can Do is Harm: This one came out about a year before When I Pretend to Fall, a very enjoyable album. Barsuk kinda rules as a label, doesn't it? By the way, I have never seen any of the last three albums in any store, only on Amazon, on the off chance that anyone is seriously using this for ideas.

The Truman Show Special Edition: One of my top 25 or so movies of all time, and it's coming out with a Special Edition? I'm sold! The old version was one of the first DVDs I bought, way back in 1999, so I'm sure the video quality will be a bit improved here. There are also some special features (including cut scenes), which the original version lacks. Might not be essential enough to buy myself, but I wouldn't say no to owning it.

The Simpsons - The Complete Fifth Season: One of those things that I don't own yet only because it's so inevitable that I'm going to I didn't feel the need to rush right out. Also, I've already seen all the episodes, after all. But I'm going to own the first eight seasons (at least) eventually.

The Simpsons - The Complete Sixth Season: Just came out. This one features my favorite episode ever (Lemon of Troy), plus several others in contention for the top ten (Bart of Darkness, A Star is Burns, and Who Shot Mr. Burns? Part One), and then a slew of other excellent episodes. Total must-own, for the last two of the season alone.

Star Wars Trilogy (Widescreen): Lucas' changes bug me a little, which is why I've resisted contributing money to this DVD set, but ultimately how can I not own such a great trilogy in the best (at least currently) format?

So yeah. That's all I've got right off the top of my head, but it's not like nine different people are going to be buying me birthday presents, and most of those who are probably know what they're getting me anyway. Like I said, this will mostly just serve as a reminder to myself once I actually have some money to throw around. So, 2009 version of me, happy 27th birthday!

You had to send the wrecking crew after me

Borders only had one copy of Twin Cinema when I got there, so it was lucky I showed up when I did. Twin Cinema, for those not in the know, is the third and latest album by the New Pornographers, the Canadian indie rock supergroup led by clear musical genius Carl Newman (anyone largely responsible for Mass Romantic and Electric Version, not to mention his solo album The Slow Wonder, which may be the best of all of them, is obviously a genius).

I've given it one listen through so far. There are few if any albums I love on the first listen, so the fact that I'm a little iffy on it right now doesn't mean much. Even if I end up not liking it as much as the previous two, though, "Use It" (the third track) is totally awesome and was worth the fifteen bucks by itself. "Twin Cinema," the title track and opener (the NP convention), is pretty rocking as well.

I suppose what I'm not liking as much so far is that the album isn't quite as hard-driving awesome as the previous two seemed more to be. It certainly has songs like that - the two I mentioned in particular - but there are also slower songs, some that don't really kick out where they should (in particular, the Dan Bejar-penned "Streets of Fire" has an obvious moment where it should start to rock out and it doesn't take it, instead sliding into an extended fadeout). I suppose it's nice that they want to play with convention a bit, and there's plenty of rock to like here regardless, but on a first listen there's an unsatisfying quality about some of it. I think that will change with repeated listens, but it's a less immediately enjoyable album than either Mass Romantic or Electric Version. Still, it's got some great sounds that, assuming they come together for me, will make the whole affair just as good as its predecessors in the end.

Sorry to be tardy to the party

I had meant to install Haloscan comments from the very beginning, but their website is unreasonably finicky about inputting usernames (I think I've figured out that it just doesn't like capital letters) and so I gave up for a while. After getting a couple of spam comments on the last post, however, I tried again and finally got it to work. So we've got this now, which means if there's any more spam I can at least delete it (something Blogger didn't seem to allow on its comments, for reasons I can't fathom). The old comments are now wiped away, so sorry as far as that goes, but I think we'll all live.

Brand saturation

Drew and I held the "Great Root Beer Taste Test" yesterday, with assistance from the wonderful and ever-patient Alma. We tested an amazing fifteen brands, and there were even some out there we missed (I don't recall seeing any Dad's, and I'm pretty sure Jones makes a root beer). But 15 was puh-lenty, believe me. Interested in seeing the results? Of course you're not! But you can do so anyway at www.bigflax.com/pop/rootbeertest.html.

Roll out the barrels

Continuing on the root beer theme established in the last post, Barq's is apparently test-marketing a soda product with the same name as the frozen confection. Barq's Floatz will be the Vanilla Coke of root beers, with an infusion of vanilla flavor designed to simulate the taste of having your root beer with a scoop of vanilla ice cream dropped into it. While the frozen variety may have been too expensive to justify its existence, this sounds pretty damn good. Unfortunately, it's only selling in Louisiana, Mississippi, and maybe a couple other southern states at the moment. Let's hope it proves popular; I'm cutting back on pop in my diet but I still can't resist taste-testing a new variety.

In other root beer news, I had some Diet A&W at my aunt's house on Tuesday. Maybe it's just that I'm getting more used to diet soda because it's pretty much all Alma ever has on hand, but I thought it tasted just like regular root beer. Not a bad alternative if I get tired of water (and oh, do I get tired of water).

In one last note, Drew has quasi-inspired me to perform a root beer taste test. I plan to acquire bottles or cans of Barq's, Mug, A&W, and one or two other, slightly lesser-known brands (I've never seen Hires in this region, but Dad's is a possibility), and then compare them in a side-by-side pop extravaganza. Yes, I'm a total dork. But stay tuned for that.

We all float on

The other day at the store, I saw something in the frozen section called "Barq's Floatz," a product which was apparently a "root beer float in a cup," or something like that. I like root beer floats, and the novelty of seeing them prepackaged into such a form was too amusing to pass up. Well, it wasn't really worth it. Floatz combines something like a soft, root beer-flavored Italian ice with a fairly tasteless vanilla ice cream, then puts them together in a four-ounce cup six times and charges $4.50 for the privilege. They taste pretty good, but talk about a product that has no real reason to exist. With tax, each cup costs more than 75 cents, and I'm fairly certain that two scoops of vanilla ice cream and a can of root beer in a glass would cost less than that - and even if they did cost slightly more, you're also getting far more than four ounces' worth. I'm not sure who the target market is: people who refuse to be seen drinking a root beer float in public, but also don't own an ice cream scoop? People who think vanilla ice cream is too flavorful and root beer too fizzy? It's baffling. I may have eaten all six without thinking twice, but you can bet I wouldn't bother buying Floatz a second time.

This post would be longer, but I have more Sudoku to play

When it came up as the answer to a tossup at the Burns, I had no idea what the hell Sudoku was (as evidenced by the fact that I spelled it wrong in my notes). In fact, it's amazingly fun and incredibly addictive. All you have to do is place numbers in a 9x9 grid so that every row, every column, and every smaller 3x3 box contains the numbers 1 through 9 only once. I'm still on the "Light and Easy" section in the book of 100 I just bought, but that's only the first 25. 26-50 are "Moderate," 51-75 are "Demanding," and 76-100 are "Beware! Very Challenging." I think the difference is mostly just how many numbers the puzzle gives you to start (and maybe how many are in any given area, as well). If you like being logical and deducing answers using your reasoning abilities, this very well may be the game for you. Certainly it is for me.

I promised some discussion of books, but that will have to wait as I'm tired.

It's like ray-ee-ayn

Good God, it's really coming down out there. The entrance to the parking area behind my building, a narrow driveway, is a bit lower than the surrounding area and not well-drained, so I have to drive through a lake to get in and out. Brilliant. Of course, it could be worse - I could be at the Cubs game, or at the Botanic Gardens with my parents and grandparents (I bet they're having a blast right now).

Quickly, the ones no one got from the meme of a few days ago:

5. Boston - Peace of Mind (good guesses all, and I probably should have More Than a Feeling, but I don't)
8. Crosby, Stills and Nash - Suite: Judy Blue Eyes
10. George Harrison - All Things Must Pass
18. Sting - If I Ever Lose My Faith in You (I do have several Police songs as well)
20. ZZ Top - Gimme All Your Lovin' (I didn't realize this one was apparently so obscure)

In the next day or two I'm going to do an entry about books, because amid all the movie stuff I wonder if anyone thinks I read. (Plus whenever I'm asked to name my favorite book I invariably tend to stutter for a while as everything I've ever read suddenly goes out of my mind.) But I don't have time to do that right now.

Johnny Trash sings the blues

Quiz bowl is a funny game
You have to love it 'cause there's no fame
Though I was strapped for cash
I gave a weekend to play Trash

I went to Ann Arbor to play Trash
I drove, drove, drove, and I didn't even crash
And it's Burns, Burns, Burns, the singles Trash
It's singles Trash

I played Craig, Greg and the rest
Alma came too and she's the best
You may ask, "How did it go"
And I say, "Just click below"

I went to Ann Arbor to play Trash
I drove, drove, drove, and I didn't even crash
And it's Burns, Burns, Burns, the singles Trash
It's singles Trash

Now that's what I call commitment to a bit. Yes, Alma and I (with the packet-less and thus moderation-bound Colby in tow) headed to Ann Arbor this past weekend for the Montgomery Burns singles Trash tournament. So did I do any better than last year? Read on to find out.

Ripped from the blog-memes

Stealing from JQ, here's the first post that hopes to get people more involved. I have listed below 20 artists who have just one song in my WinAmp playlist. Your job? Guess which one in the comments box. I'll update this as people guess correctly. One-hit wonders will generally be excluded, because that's too easy.

1. Avril Lavigne - Complicated (Tyler)
2. Beck - Where It's At (Tyler)
3. Billy Idol - White Wedding (Tyler)
4. Bon Jovi - Living on a Prayer (Tyler)
5. Boston
6. Bush - Glycerine (Drew)
7. Cat Stevens - The Wind (Drew)
8. Crosby, Stills and Nash
9. Dido - White Flag (James)
10. George Harrison
11. Jackson Browne - Doctor My Eyes (Drew)
12. John Lennon - Imagine (Drew)
13. Journey - Don't Stop Believing (James)
14. Neil Diamond - Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show (Drew)
15. Paul Simon - Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard (Drew)
16. The Pixies - Where Is My Mind (Greg)
17. Smashing Pumpkins - 1979 (James)
18. Sting
19. Warren Zevon - Werewolves of London (James)
20. ZZ Top

So we're gonna try this thing

Here's the deal. I've been thinking recently about converting the "blog" portion of BigFlax.com into, well, an actual blog. Why? A few reasons.

1. Easier commenting. Call me an attention whore, but I enjoy knowing when people have read what I've written. But I tend to get few if any comments in the forum on BigFlax, probably because people rarely feel motivated enough to click over there and start a thread. But if all they had to do was enter a comment in a box at the bottom of the entry, maybe they'd do it more often. Maybe it's wishful thinking on my part, but it's worth a shot.

2. I feel like it will just be easier for me. For one thing, this means I can update from any computer anywhere, so you won't necessarily have to go days without an update just because I might be out of town. Plus, it's easier to just click open a browser, type a few things, and publish, as opposed to opening FrontPage, entering some stuff, reopening it to make sure there aren't any three-space breaks between sentences, blah.

3. Easier links on the side. Not that there's anything wrong with my friends/links page, and by all means still visit it. But I can now have a list of all the blogs I look at in any way, and I won't have to feel like I'm cluttering up my site too much.

We'll give it a whirl, at least. Archives from beyond the current month will be converted into normal BigFlax.com pages, so this won't be too different except for on a day-to-day posting basis.

RIP Edward August Schroeder (scroll to the last profile). You know things are wrong with the world when grade school friends start coming home from foreign countries in body bags.

It would be naive to deny that racism still exists in this country, but if there's one place where its existence is routinely overblown, it would have to be the world of sports - and more particularly the world of sports journalism. Hardly a month can go by without someone pulling the race card on a major story, it seems. The latest one is just as stupid as all the rest: Scoop Jackson, on ESPN.com, claiming that the "conspiracy" to drive Dusty Baker out of Chicago is being conducted by the white media establishment. I hope Scoop realizes how crazy he sounds.

I don't think anyone is "conspiring" to drive Dusty out of town, and I know it doesn't have anything to do with his being black. There is perhaps some agitation from some corners of the fanbase and the media, with people suggesting that the Cubs aren't going to win with Dusty at the helm. In only his third year, this is perhaps a bit premature. Certainly it's not Dusty's fault that there have been so many injuries (although I'll deal with that fully in a minute), and the fact that this year's team is still in contention to even a minor degree when it's been painfully inconsistent all season long is a small miracle. The inconsistency, again, is not Dusty's fault (at least, it's not all Dusty's fault).

That said, there is certainly a case against Dusty, and again, it has nothing to do with him having the gall to be a black manager in Major League Baseball. It is as follows:

1. Dusty cannot handle pitchers. I said that it wasn't Dusty's fault there have been so many injuries, but is that strictly true? Baker is notorious for his mismanaging of starters, and the frequently soaring pitch counts of guys like Zambrano and Prior is indeed cause for concern.

2. Dusty is resistant to playing rookies. The Cubs have a ton of young guys who could perhaps be amazingly productive, but Baker does not seem to like playing rookies any more than he can help. Ronny Cedeno and Matt Murton - two Cubs of the future who both happen to play positions that are hardly being filled by major studs this year - have a combined 86 at-bats in 45 games (or not even two at-bats per). Meanwhile, Corey Patterson was allowed to stink up the joint in center for half the season before finally being sent down. Why doesn't Dusty want to play rookies? The clear answer is that he feels pressure to win now and doesn't think rookies can do that. But you know what? Some rookies can, in fact, help you to win now. Todd Hollandsworth is hitting .248 - let's put Murton in left. Neifi's OBP is .284 - what can Cedeno do at short? No one's asking you to play someone whose position is spoken for by a Lee or Ramirez. This team has obvious holes; plugging them with rookies really isn't going to make things any worse, and it might even help.

3. Historically, when Dusty's teams have gotten to big spots, their uniforms have shrunk. Dusty hasn't had a team finish a season below .500 since 1996. That's pretty good. On the other hand, he's won three division titles and a pennant in that time and has nothing to show for it. The '97 Giants won the West and went out to the Marlins; the 2000 Giants won the West and went out to the Mets; the '02 Giants were up 3-2 in the World Series and led 5-0 at the seventh inning stretch of Game Six, only to give up six runs in two innings, a collapse nearly as bad as the '86 Red Sox, and lose Game Seven as well; the '03 Cubs, I don't even need to repeat it and would rather not. So yeah, it's nice that the Cubs may win more games than they lose for the third straight season, the first time that's happened since six straight between 1967 and 1972 under Leo Durocher (in which time, of course, they won nothing). But ultimately, what does that mean? The same thing it meant in 1972: more years without a World Series.

Can Dusty still be the guy to take the Cubs to the promised land? It's possible. There are some things that need to be put together better with this team, but it's not that I think Dusty is completely incapable of ever winning a World Series with anyone. It's just worth noting that there are some strikes against him. I don't think that any of them are worth driving him out of town over, at least not yet. But not a single one of them has anything to do with him being black, and frankly, as a white person, I take offense at the suggestion. Does Jackson really think I don't want Dusty to succeed, or worse, that I would delight in him not doing so? I would love him to succeed, just like I would have loved it if Riggleman had succeeded, and Baylor, and Lefebvre, and Zimmer, and all the other mediocre-to-bad managers this team has had during my lifetime. I'm a freaking Cubs fan, Scoop - you honestly think I care what color the manager's skin is who finally takes this team all the way? But by the same token, I'm not going to let Baker hang around for ten winless years because it would be racist to think he might have worn out his welcome. No Cubs manager has lasted more than five years since Durocher left; it would be great if Dusty could keep winning and break that streak. We're just looking at the facts and wondering if he can. Now put the race card away and save it for a place where it might really be called for, huh?