View All Archived Entries

Linkage
DAM.com : Front
Type A Graphic Design
Devin's Writing Samples

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

RSS Feeds
RSS 2:XML
RSS 1:RDF
RSS 0.91

1. What was the last song you heard?
"Lullaby of Birdland," Mel Torme

2. What were the last two movies you saw?
'Animal House' and 'M*A*S*H'

3. What were the last three things you purchased?
A beer at Sports Dog; a plane ticket to Phoenix; a fajita burrito bol at Chipotle.

4. What four things do you need to do this weekend?
Sleep, take more vitamins, be charming, make a decision.

5. Who are the last five people you talked to?
Gary, Lauriston, Chance, Marty, Laura

...and dancing as fast as I can. I'll update you on my life very soon, but here's a sample day:

Wake up. Drive. Work. Drive. Work. Drive. Sleep.

Repeat.

You have a dominant kiss- you take charge and make
sure your partner can feel it! Done artfully,
it can be very satisfactory if he/she is into
you playing the dominant role MEORW!


What kind of kiss are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Helluva long day today. Meetings, classes, driving, conference calls, and more. Almost made me feel like an adult. Looked like one, as well -- wearing the good clothes today, and made a couple of heads turn.

Someone who I hadn't seen since the end of baseball season said, "Wow, Dev, you've lost weight." I started back on low-crab yesterday, so that was just fuel for me to take a look and say, "Well, if you think that now, wait until May 15." I could have said that, but I took it as the compliment that it was, thanked her for the kind words, and kept going.

Kelly posted this link to a Psychology Today article on why it's so goofily hard for Americans to experience happiness, enjoy it, and move the hell on. While it might seem to some as the same psychomumbojambi, the piece rings home to me on quite a few levels.

I've been guilty of naval-gazing for many years, going back for over two decades. It's been easy to palm it off on different behavioral quirks and character flaws, but I'm more guilty of sabotaging my own happiness than any outside force.

I can't come close to guaranteeing that I'll take Epstein's advice, but I would be wise to do so. Things are really looking up, and if I want them to stay this way, I need to quit making barriers for myself.

Jeff K featured this lil' Quizilla tidbit. Had to pounce on it:


You have a lot going for you, but most people will
only remember you for one thing, and a lot of
them will try to copy it. They'll all suck at
it, though. Besides, you've got better stuff.


What band from the 80s are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

There may be something very substantial to talk about in the next week to ten days. I refuse to say anything more in public, to keep from kinxing everything. Cross 'em if you've got 'em.

For those of you who don't visit the front page of DaM on a normal basis, you might not know that the front photo has been changed.

As it stands right now, Marty and I will be taking a little trip to Surprise, Arizona at the end of March to see what the Rangers have in store for the season, along with their minor league cohorts. I'm already back in full-on baseball geek mode, devouring news and box scores from spring training. This should be what I need to shake off the nastiness and funk I felt following the Rodriguez trade.

Anyone who thinks that the student athlete has it just as hard as any other student should take a good look at now-fired University of Georgia coach Jim Harrick's final exam for his Coaching Principles and Strategies of Basketball class. What a complete joke.

That said, I wonder if a similar exam for baseball players would yield the same results. hell, my final exam would be a one question affair: "Discuss the implementation and impact of the infield fly rule."

What was...
1. ...your first grade teacher's name?
Mrs. Singleton, at Northside Elementary in DeSoto.

2. ...your favorite Saturday morning cartoon?
'Thundarr the Barbarian' sticks out in my head for Saturdays, but I know for a fact that you could not move me from in front of the TV when the 'SuperFriends' was on the air.

3. ...the name of your very first best friend?
Mike Reynolds. He was my friend throughout grade school, and I hate the fact that I cannot find him now.

4. ...your favorite breakfast cereal?
There was something ... Ah! Cinnamon Toast Crunch! Honey Grahams were also a big player.

5. ...your favorite thing to do after school?
Come home (either my father's house, or my grandmother's) and watch 'Battle of the Planets' and/or 'Star Blazers.'

One of the great online comics I frequently read is Sinfest, a consistently well-written treatise on good, evil, porn, maturity, gender relations, and whatever else Tatsuya Ishida decides to throw in the mix.

T. also runs an occasional journal along with the daily strip, and the one from this week, coinciding with the Oscars, speaks volumes to me:

More on life as a movie. Much of our lives is spent on marketing. Make-up, exercise, dieting, clothes, hair, money, charm, attitude, the strut, the pose, the Blue Steel look. We're like walking billboards advertising ourselves. A sneak peek of upcoming attractions. Meanwhile our actual production is in disarray -- we're over budget, doing poorly at private test screenings and focus groups, creatively stagnant, morale low. So we're endlessly tinkering, touching up, editing, rewriting, tailoring ourselves to best suit a mass audience. There's like this studio executive in our heads telling us to cut certain things out, make it "lighter," give it a happy ending, and put some explosions in there too. Kids love explosions. And the uncompromising artist within protests: "But that's not life!" Thus the inner conflict of our movie life: To be a palatable crowd-pleaser catering to the mainstream... or something true to life no matter what they say?

We were finally able to convince the realty company's contractor to hang the massively heavy white board cabinets this morning, which was done in relatively short order. Once the final cabinet was hung, I wanted to check where the doors for the cabinet would extend to. As I'm opening the door, the damned thing -- which measures 48" x 48" x 5" and weighs well over 50 lbs -- dropped off its mount and straight onto the top of my left foot.

Three things went through my head:

1) OW. Frelling OW!
2) This is great. I'm finally getting used to my left knee and all of its pain, and now I have to deal with a broken foot as well? This blows!
3) Motherfucking OW!

One of the firm's partners saw the whole thing, as did the contractor who hung the monstrosity. The pulled the cabinet off my foot, and we surveyed the damage.

Amazingly, other than soreness and a little redness, nothing happened to my foot. No broken bones, no excessive swelling, no trip to the hospital. When the aforementioned partner, Lauriston, saw the cabinet fall, he told me later "I simply knew it would break your foot." Damned lucky.

Last night's best moment outside of the Rings' clean sweep was the AMEX commercial with Tiger Woods revisiting the role of Carl the Groundskeeper in 'Caddyshack.' Damned funny. I'm hunting for a video link as we speak.

Good news for the people who heard about the Charlie Brown redux of "Hey Ya!" but didn't see it before the server got Slashdotted: the movie is hosted on iFilm for the time being. Get there now.

Update: Found the Tiger Woods 'Caddyshack' ad:

Make with the clicky stuff!