Super Bowl Eve

Today was a great, lazy Saturday.  Jess and I did some shopping, watched a movie, and caught up on the Tivo.  Nothing terribly exciting. We caught two episodes of "Seventeen Kids and Counting," in which the Duggars went on vacation to San Francisco and a wild animal park.  We have some preparations left to make for our Super Bowl get-together at our house. There is grocery shopping and cooking to do but I did mop the kitchen floor, which was badly needed. My folks called me this afternoon to report that my dad is going to the hospital on Monday to have a catheter put in so that he can begin dialysis.  His years of ignoring his diabetes have caught up to him, and he will be having dialysis three times a week, beginning on Wednesday, now that his kidney efficiency is down to about 10%.

This evening we have been reading and watching Austin City Limits.  Nick Lowe (who I never heard of but really liked) was on, and so were The Swell Season.  I really enjoyed "Once," so it was nice to see them perform, and in HD no less (thanks WPSU!). 

Bryan Koval: Bookseller

A few weeks ago Jess and I decided to unload some books that have just been taking up space on bookcases around the house. Not books that I particularly like, but old textbooks, books that I won't read again, etc. So far, we have sold 5 books and made about $65! Not too shabby, considering it is essentially free money, with the added benefit of having less stuff to move the next time we move. I may branch out to DVDs and video games too, once I see what kind of prices are out there for things I would be willing to get rid of.

More fun from the College of Business

Two questions:
1. Why is her hip talking?
2. She looks a little like she is flipping the bird, right? (Thanks Jess!)

I know it is a blurry picture. The iPhone isn't exactly the best camera ever, and it is awkward taking a picture of an office.

Rocky Mountain High

Today I added a new graduate school to my seemingly endless parade of institutions to which I am applying: The University of Denver.  

Things I like about DU:

1.  Jess has had some nibbles in and around Denver as she has been doing her job search.

2.  They have a program that I am interested in.

3.  The Rocky Mountains look pretty darn sweet.

Things I am not so sure about:

1.  1431 miles is a long way from home.

2.  The program is 90 credits and very expensive.

3.  The Colorado Rockies wear purple uniforms.  I cannot support that, even peripherally.

So we shall see what happens. I want to be done obsessing over long-term career and life plans.

Chia Homer

My in-laws got me a Chia Pet Homer Simpson for Christmas. So far he is looking pretty good!

Update! More Duggar news!

I tracked down the official wedding website of Josh and Anna Duggar. Things I like about this website:

1. Pictures of the happy couple wearing matching golf shirts.

2. You can watch the video of them awkwardly getting engaged at a family restaurant in Arkansas anytime you like.

3. If I wanted to, I could send the Duggars an item from their gift registry. Yes, even a 20-ounce bottle of soda.

In all, this really adds to the mystique that is the Duggar family. I never knew Josh Duggar was the proprietor of a car dealership!

DUGGARS!

Being the omnivore for pop culture that I am, on Sunday night I decided to Tivo "A Very Duggar Wedding." For the uninitiated, the Duggar family is a crazy, exceedingly-conservative family with 18 kids (all biological). The Duggars have their own show on TLC, and all of their kids have names that start with the letter J. For this special, the oldest Duggar child, Josh, married his sweetheart Anna.

Without a doubt, this was the most entertaining TV I have seen in weeks. Here are some of the things I learned about life and love from this TV special.

1. If you want to make sure that you have a sexually unfulfilling life, grow up in the Duggar household. Josh and Anna had their first kiss (not just kiss together, but kisses in life) during their wedding ceremony. Throughout the show, Josh made it very clear that he wanted the wedding to move quickly so that they could get out of there . . . . presumably to bump uglies. Prior to the wedding day, JimBob Duggar , patriarch of the Dugger clan, finally gave Josh "the talk" about the birds and the bees. He described the process as "kinda like Legos." And last but not least, as a gift JimBob gave Josh a CD entitled "On Your Wedding Night," which featured a medical doctor describing the technicalities behind it all. Comic gold.

2. Two of my favorite things about weddings are dancing and drinking. There was room for neither of these activities at the Duggar wedding. As we all know, dancing encourages unclean thoughts. Everyone knows that Jesus turned water into wine at a wedding, but according to the Duggars, this was a mistranslation. A more accurate translation would be "grape juice" And did they ever have juice . . . 80 gallons for their 300 person wedding!

3. Men and women are inherently different. JimBob Duggar made many references to this, when explaining that men focus on the physical aspects of a relationship, while women are focused on feelings and other mushy stuff.

4. A wedding for 300 people requires 200 pounds of crab salad.

5. When in doubt, sing your bride a song at the wedding. Bonus points for singing badly. Anna - Just remember, Josh will do his best to be faithful to you. If that isn't reassuring, I don't know what is.

On the whole, this was a gem in the vast wasteland of reality TV. A+++

Its like an owl without a graduation cap!

I love TV.  A lot.  This comes as no surprise to anyone, I don't think.  Tonight I was reading Entertainment Weekly, and came across a startling confession from Jon Hamm (purveyor of Jon Hamm's John Ham). He auditioned for the role of Jack Donaghy on 30 Rock.  Wow.  In the interest of full disclosure, I must admit that I love both 30 Rock and Mad Men.  However, to think that the same man had the chance to play two of my favorite TV characters floors me.  

Here is what I like about Don Draper on Mad Men:  He is able to drink and smoke at work all of the time without either habit negatively impacting his job performance.  He has a secret, shameful past that makes the ladies want him.  He wears suits.  Best of all, you too can be like Don Draper.

Here is what I like about Jack Donaghy on 30 Rock:  He is friends with Liz Lemon.  He also wears suits.  For a high level GE executive, his life is terribly out of control on the things that matter.  His mother hates him.  He tried to kill Jerry Seinfeld.

Today's work

One of the buildings in my residence hall area is being renovated, so this bulletin board shows the paint colors, carpet samples, etc. Exciting stuff!

Lamest Candy Dish Ever!

I know that a basket full of Saltine's would really motivate me to learn more about internship opportunities.

Can you say, "Liz Lemon!"

Last night I had a dream, and Oprah was in it. I was some sort of personal assistant or valet to Ms. Winfrey as she embarked on a dating reality show. That's right, Oprah had resorted to meeting a significant other Brett Michaels style, seemingly without the slightest concern for Steadman. I don't really remember anything about the show, but I do remember riding in the back of a pick-up truck with O and bounding recklessly through some mountainous terrain. Needless to say, this is the best dream I have had in quite some time, and the fact that I remember even the tiniest detail demonstrates how vivid it was (I don't typically remember my dreams)!

Nickel and Dimed

This afternoon I finished Nickel and Dimed, our book club book for the month.  On the whole it was OK, but I have some issues with it.  I think that the author tried to do too much, and as a result gave the various aspects of her arguments too little attention. I was most interested in the stories of her co-workers in the various minimum wage jobs that she worked, and less impressed with her whole pseudo-social experiment of making ends meet on a minimum-wage budget.  Had she decided to channel all of her attention to the stories of the underemployed, I think it would have been a more rich and captivating book.  

That being said, if this book has gotten people to think about the need for a living wage its a good thing.  My mom would read this and be pretty stunned by a lot of it, so if people like my mom get involved in advocating for the working poor, I guess its worth reading.

Overall rating: C+.

Lazy Saturday

Today has been the epitome of a lazy Saturday.  Despite Jess and I both being on call for work, we were able to essentially sleep all night, and I woke up at 11:30AM.  I sold my copy of World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War on Amazon, so I went to the P.O. to drop it in the mail.  The afternoon was spent watching Tivo and the Food Network, reading Nickel and Dimed for book club, and watching the first part of John Adams on DVD. 

After supper, I spent my Best Buy gift cards from Christmas on Tiger Woods 09 for the Wii, and while Jess attended to a particularly nasty duty call I golfed for 2 hours and 54 minutes.  My affinity for video game golf can be traced back to 2003, when Jess and I moved to Harford County and bought a PS2.  Tiger Woods 04 was probably the game that got more play than any other (with the possible exception of Kingdom Hearts).  The problem with these games are that they cause me to be delusional and think that I actually have talent for golfing.  This latest version for the Wii is particularly dangerous because of the life-like golfing moves that are necessary.  So far I am doing OK and it is quite enjoyable.  I think putting is a challenge, but I am already doing a good bit better than I was during my first round.  

I am keeping my fingers crossed that it will be a quiet evening without significant duty disruptions.  

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas - A Review

Last night Jessica, Rashaad, Elizabeth, and I went to see "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" at The State Theatre. I had very low expectations for this movie, and I was pleasantly surprised that it was not terrible. I would not describe it as amazing, life-changing, or awe-inspiring, but it was OK. There was just something about it that fell short. It was a pretty decent looking movie (the cinematography was fair), and I cannot really say that the acting was poor. What bothered me the most was that it was very, very predictable. Take for instance the scene where Bruno falls off of the swing and scrapes his knee. As soon as the Jewish man from the Nazi death camp who worked in the house begins bandaging Bruno's knee, I said to my self, "Before he was taken away to this death camp, I'll bet that man was a doctor." I'm no soothsayer, but I was right!

Although the movie had a message that I have heard before (Nazis are evil) and the story could have been told in a 25-minute short film, I'd give it a C+ almost strictly based on the suspenseful build-up to the "surprise" ending .

Day One

My goals for this new and exciting blog project:

1. I will publish something everyday that I have access to the Internet.
2. I will write about things that are important to me.

I guess that is it. I thought that perhaps I would have more detailed goals, but for now I will keep it simple.