How I Spent My Saturday

This weekend I did a lot of stuff, and had my camera. Here's how I spent my Saturday.

Went to Mom's house in Burlington to celebrate her birthday. Fixed her computer and gave her cool presents, like a Lego backpack and the pictured fan that spells words as it spins. We also went out to an antique mall and Big Lots and all that sort of stuff, but we had to stop at a local veterinary hospital that had hilarious huge inflatables of a tick and a mosquito. It was particularly ironic that these were lit up by floodlights which were covered by dead bugs.

We ate at the Blue Ribbon Diner, which was pretty amazing. I'll definitely be returning. Lots of good food choices. Apparently, each month they have a different burger, and this month featured this amazingly titled item. Believe it or not, I decided I had to get something else, that being the "Knife 'n' Fork Chuck Burger". Not as cool a name, but check out that description! "Black Angus Chuck Burger on 'Texas Toast' topped with cheese, bacon crumbles, a little brown gravy and an onion ring on top. Served open-face with 'gravy fries'" Well, I was sold. That whole description sounds like a Patton Oswalt routine. Had to do it. Here's what the masterpiece looked like.

Back to Carrboro to do some shows at the DSI Comedy Theater, saw a really great Cajones set and a decent episode of Match Game. Then off to Casa Ward to play Scattergories. Fiz SitKimmons and I were a team, and we smoked the fuck out of everybody. Mainly because in the final round, I volunteered Hollywood Hulk Hogan and Hunter Hearst Helmsley. It was fun to be around everybody, especially Eitan, who made it into just about every picture. Finally met the lovely Kathleen, who did not sing "Take Me Home Again", but was fun to be around. Katie was giggly, Joe was amusingly caustic, and Tommy tragically died and was marked by his assailant.

Oh, and Jeremy got his revenge on me by using my camera to take a picture of his man-staff.

Sunday had no pictures, but Brantley and I brunched, I shopped, I napped, and I lazed.

Flea Market Wackiness

So this weekend I went out to do some flea marketing with my friend Jess, and we came across some nutty things, which I thought I'd share with you courtesy of the fine folks at Flickr.

Actually, it all starts the day before when I saw a cool crack in the sidewalk that looked like a directional arrow, pointing straight down the street.

Okay, onto the fair. We got there and discovered that the Dorton Arena was hosting some sort of Christian inflatable party activity demonstration fair. Oh YES! Music was provided by, of course, Heaven. The whole arena was full of these giant bouncy amusement thingamajigs. Jess and I were quite amused by the inflatable church, thinking that there should've been a sign that read "If the chapel's a-rockin', don't bother knockin'." For some reason, I just loved the roller coaster with the stiff-backed inflatable people jammed into their ascending car. The best one, though, was the huge Steroid Man that invited you to jump up and down under his crotch.

Elsewhere at the fair, we had the loneliest employee in the park, trapped in her giant orange pac-man. I waan't quite hungry enough to have a giant neon fried Twinkie. I think the most artistic shot of the day came from some lovely painted mermaids. My favourite product was the extremely creepy chimp-dominated Noah's Ark, accompanied by the pitiful Cleopatra.

But the photo of the day has to go to something Jess pointed out at a booth selling crappy purses. Yes, please.

CageMatch 8-9-07

We had another CageMatch last night. Not much to say about the production side. I had a devil of a time coming up with a screen for the challengers, 1-2-3 Ingestion. Lordy, these names. The video was a simple affair, focusing on Elaine's stupendous achievement of five CageMatch wins. I amused myself by using incidental music from "Battle Of The Planets" and a remix of Europe's "Final Countdown". I also chose an amusing entrance theme for 1-2-3 Ingestion, "Eat The Rich" by Aerosmith.

The identity screen is here, the video is here.

We also premiered the new CageMatch Loser Pin last night, via a special appearance from PT Scarborough as famed Smitty's Bar postal deliveryman Shoney "Postie" Taylor. PT was hilarious, as usual, and it seemed like people were really happy to see him on stage again, so that was cool. Elaine gave a boffo show and won their sixth title, a measure equaled only by the now-legendary Siegel-Prov.

After the show, a bunch of us moved over to Speakeasy and celebrated Joe Stanton's birthday. Much fun was had by all, Zannie and Becky danced to the live tunes of Big Fat Gap, and I kicked Zach Ward in the balls. Zach and I also made plans for the upcoming Dual Duel tournament in September, which should rock (if people actually form two-man teams and submit them...). I love tournaments. Brackets rule.

Yes, I Bought An iPhone

Well, I was planning to wait until the price dropped and they worked the kinks out, but after an upsetting trip to the dentist, I decided I deserved a present, and bought myself an iPhone. Yeah, it was expensive (I got the 8G model); yeah, the per-month charge is expensive (another $20 on top of the $40 I'm already spending); yeah, AT&T sucks (but I was always happy with Cingular, and couldn't find a provider in town who I liked more); BUT I bought one anyway.

I like it. Lots. My number one love is that it just WORKS. I've had smartphones before (a Treo and a Kyocera Palm), but they were clunky, the applications didn't work consistently, and the interface was atrocious. The iPhone is very smartly designed, and works like you expect things to work. The touchscreen is phenomenal. The apps are quick, useful, and fun to work with. The interface helps you do what you want to do instead of getting in the way of what you want to do. And my biggest bane from my old phones is nowhere to be seen, as the iPhone syncs beautifully with my computer, sharing calendars, contacts, pictures, mp3s, movies, and just about everything.

The camera is pretty damn phenomenal for a phonecam, taking clear 1200x900 pictures (that get reduced to 640x480 when emailing the pictures from the phone; the full rez versions get synced to iPhoto when you dock the iPhone). I didn't like the software-based keyboard at first, but I'm quickly getting used to it, and it's certainly the best on-screen keyboard I've ever used. The Google Maps interface rocks, and was immensely helpful while wandering through NYC this past weekend. I also had the Manhattan subway system map stored in my Photos application if I ever needed that. There's a dedicated YouTube program which can be amusing, although there's a lot of YouTube videos that haven't been formatted for the iPhone yet. Hell, I even check on my one share of WWE stock every once in a while with the Stock app.

What it doesn't do: to my knowledge, the Notes program doesn't sync to anything openable on the host computer, which is pretty surprising. The camera is stills-only, so you can't take video (which is also pretty surprising, since you have tons of onboard storage space). There's a big omission in that there's no To-Do list. And currently, the iPhone doesn't do Flash, so you can't watch cool animations or see some features of websites. (This is why not all of YouTube is accessable yet.) All of these can be easily fixed with a firmware upgrade, and I'd be willing to bet they will be.

One of the most glaring omissions, for me anyway, is that this thing is an iPod AND a phone and YET, you can't use your own mp3s as ringtones. This smacks of some stupidass agreement that Apple made with recording companies or AT&T or something, and it pisses me off. There's a third party app that fixes this error, but I haven't tried it yet for fear of fucking up my phone. The onboard ringtones are great, and there's enough other toys to play with in the iPhone, but for an iPod phone to not let you use custom mp3s as ringtones is outrageous.

But overall, is it worth it? Hellz yeah. I wanted a phone that worked and worked well, that would sync cleanly and work smoothly on a day to day basis. I didn't need the iPod functionality--I have an iPod for that! But now that I have the iPhone, I notice I am just listening to music or watching videos when I might not otherwise do so. The speakers in the iPhone are pretty decent, and you can just set the thing down and listen without the need for earphones. The video screen is huge and crazy sharp. People are really impressed when I show off the ripped dvd of DON that I have on there. It's a lot smaller than the Treo I used to use, and unlike the Treo, it doesn't crash or run out of juice randomly. The iPhone actually fits invisibly into my daily life, as a good tool should.

I heart my iPhone.

What Not To Do At A Wrestling Event

So in the latest issue of The Wrestling Observer Newsletter, they're talking about a lucha show in Los Angeles that drew a huge crowd. This part amused me:

Probably the funniest story of the night is one that nobody saw. Someone tried to mug Kayam and Enigma de Oro after the show in the parking lot with a gun long after almost everyone had left the area. You have to understand the two were wearing their masks and in nice suits, so the scene had to be something right out of a Santo movie. Both guys simultaneously attacked the gunman and tackled him to the concrete, and held him down until security came.

Can you picture that? Hilarious.