The Arbitrary ChuckJerry

Maybe it's just because this is the summer season and everything else sucks ass, but I'm loving Entourage. I've watched it from the beginning, two seasons ago and I loved it then, too, so I know it's not a fluke or anything. But this thing jsut keeps on getting better.

First of all Ari Gold is easily the best character on television today. There's no one even a close second at this point. He's like a caricature of a person, except he's got feelings and motivations and what not. He's brilliantly written and acted.

Interstingly, the most useless character is Vince. He's obviously the reason all of those personalities are brought together, but he might as well just not be there. If they made a show about just Drama and Turtle, I would watch it, assuming Ari was their agent. Those are the guys that make the show. Hearing Drama talk about his old TV shows, like his 3 story arc on 90210 where he battered Tori Spelling, is goddamn hysterical.

Now I'm assuming that the show is chronicling Vince's ultimate rise to some kind of super stardom, which really allows them to have happy endings to each story arc. In another show, I might complain that it was unrealistic because everything just ends up working out in the end, but it really doesn't bother me here. I just enjoy being along for the ride for that half hour every week.

I think Meaghan put it best when she said, "I love Entourage. I'm happy when it comes on and I'm sad when it goes off."

Riven, you may know, is the sequel to the game Myst. If you've never heard of Myst, then all you need to know is that it is a computer game where you have to solve different puzzles to win. The graphics are pretty cool and are punctuated by fairly precisely placed Quick Time movies when something interesting happens.

The long version of the story is that I bought Myst whenever it first came out a while back, more than 10 years ago now, and I really enjoyed it. A couple years ago I was in Circuit City and I happened upon the 10th anniversary edition of Myst that came with its sequel, Riven, and the next sequel, Exile. It was on the sale shelf, if I remember correctly, and I bought it. I played Myst again and remembered how much I loved it. Then I tried to play Riven and I couldn't install it correctly. Then I played Myst 3, and I thought that it might be even better than the original. So as you may have guessed, I was pretty pissed off that I couldn't play Riven.

Like I say, this was a couple years ago and I looked online to see if anyone else was having trouble with the Riven installation in particular and lots of people were. I fixed the problem and was then able to play Riven. Right about that same time, within a couple of days, actually, we moved from one apartment to another, and packed and unpacked all our stuff. In that time, I misplaced the DVD-Roms that those three games were on. Again, this is the long version of the story.

So a couple days ago we were cleaning out one of our closets in the redecoration I mentioned earlier where the garbage room is now going to be the nursery and the computer room is now the computer room and treadmill and piano and turtle room. In the process of cleaning this closet, I found those games, which I was pretty happy about. I remembered that I had a problem installing Riven, but since I had fixed it, I figured it wouldn't be an issue.

I played Myst 3 again, since I really enjoyed it the first time. I had really never actually played Riven, I just walked around the opning boards before we moved those couple years ago, so I wanted to see what it was all about.

I put in the DVD and click on the program and the same thing that was happening before was happening again. The screen would go blank for a second as if the game were going to start and then it would just go back to the Windows desktop.

I searched again online and came up with all sorts of ransom issues it could have been and I didn't remember the first time what I had done. The suggested going into the files in the Riven folder and changing lines of text, or making it playable in a backwards compatible way with Windows 98 as opposed to XP, or downloading one of about ten available patches that do something, and all this random stuff. Also some people mentioned a Quick Time issue that comes up with some installations.

I screwed around with this thing for about 3 hours only to discover that the way to get the Riven program to work was to uninstall Quick Time 7 and reinstall Quick Time 6. How fucking counterintuitive is that? I don't even have words to describe that ridiculousness. And I feel like part of the puzzle in beating Riven is just being able to install the damn program correctly.

Since I bought this 10th anniversary game, they have subsequently released Myst IV and Myst V, which I thought about buying on Amazon or something. When I go to read the reviews, though, both of them have issues not necessarily with the game play, aside from some people complaining that the puzzles are too hard or too easy, but rather with being able to install the programs correctly on their computers because whatever equiptment they have is not compatible with the game. So now I probably won't buy the two sequels, even thought I know I would enjoy them, because I'm afraid I won't be able to play them since apparently some anti-piracy aspect of the discs the games are on makes them automatically incompatible with a huge portion of the people who want to play the game and actually buy it legitimately.

Que ridiculo...ah ha..ah ha ha ha ha ha. (a little obscure, perhaps, especially in writing as opposed to aloud.)

All the Deomcrats, a significant protion of the Republicans, the scientific community, and the public at large want to see an expansion of stem cell research. Today, the Senate is set to pass a bill that will expand stem cell research, and President Dubya is going to veto it, thus killing the bill since it seems pretty clear that the two thirds override vote can't be mustered up.

I'm not a huge fan of abortion, but I don't relate stem cell research at all with abortion, nor do I really see it as a pro life issue. I think all of this is beside the point, though, since the bill has basically already passed through both houses. Basically Dubya is just vetoing this bill for the sake of vetoing it. He has never, ever used his veto power in the 5 plus years he's been in office and he's going to use it today on a bill that has widespread bipartisan support, support of the experts in the field, and the support of the public.

That's just a fucking slap in the face, in my opinion. He's using his power just to use it. Even if he disagreed with this bill on a personal level, how can he turn away what is essentially the will of the country? This is different than a senator voting against the bill for personal reasons, since his vote counts for 1/100th of the opinion. In vetoing the bill, Dubya is just choosing to ignore the country as a whole. What a jerk off.

This summer I've got a fair amount of time on my hands given that my only two responsibilities are to go to MMG's wedding, which I already did, and to go to BPG's wedding, which I certainly will do. Aside from that, there's nothing that's really on tap except for converting what is now our ironing/music/workout/playstation/recycling/garbage room into a nursery, which is in progress slowly but surely.

So I've taken on two things to improve at that, at least on the surface, are going to make me more worldly. I'm trying to get better at both golf and chess. At the moment I suck at both. Well, it's fair to say that I suck at chess. In fact there's no other way to put it. I don't actually suck at golf. I'm bad, but in the few times I've played this summer it's clear to me that everyone is bad at golf. So given that, I'm actually only a relatively poor player versus a completely sucky player.

I've never really put too much thought into chess and though I've been interested in it it's always something that I just never latched onto because I wasn't good at it right away. My problem is that I play really defensively without actually knowing what to defend against. In the times I've played in the past, which are generally few and far between, I am capable of picturing my moves many steps in advance, but I don't really give much thought to my opponent's moves so my plans inevitably fall apart. I decided taht I was interested enough in chess to get better at it so I bought The Complete Idiot's Guide to Chess which had better reviews than Chess For Dummies. I figured this was as good a place as any to start. It gives a fairly complete, if elementary, overview of the game and I've already learned a fair amount. I haven't played too much, mainly just been reading, but I'm on track to improve my game and there is honestly nowhere to go but up.

Golf is something that was not even on my radar until I was in college. Around then me and Brian and Luke and whomever else would go out to the pitch and putt somewhere off route 80 and play sometimes. We were bad, but it was a fun way to kill a copule hours. They also had a driving range there and sometimes we'd do that too. That was about the extent of my golf experience before a few months ago. Around that time two things happened that opened up the world of golf for me. First is that a friend of mine from work, Kiran, who plays left handed, got a new set of clubs to replace his old set. He gave me his old set and now I have a set of golf clubs. Second is that this other friend from work, Wallace, got a set of clubs off of Amazon and started playing. Wallace and I had essentially the same amount of experience, none, and so we started going to the driving range and such together and usually Kiran would come with us too.

So now this summer we have all been playing golf with relative frequency. We've gone out twice now and played with the three of us and Kiran's dad at two different courses in Queens, and we have plans to go out again this week to play. Kiran and his dad have been helping Wallace and I to get a little bit better, and actually both of us have improved to a level that's acceptable for playing golf on a public course.

The great part about both of my new hobbies is that neither one has been expensive for me at all. I bought that chess book, but that's the extent of my expenditure so far. I'm thinking about buying a program so I can play against a computer and at the same time it can give me tips and what not. Golf is usually very expensive to get started with but I've literally been given all of my equiptment. Kiran gave me his old clubs and some old gloves. Wallace gave me an extra glove and some extra club covers that he had after he bought a separate set off of Amazon (Wallace buys a lot of stuff off of Amazon). I've been given tees and balls as well. In general golf is expensive, though, and to continue that hobby I'm going to have to accept that. It's about $40 to play a round depending on where you go, and it's like $10 to go to the driving range and hit balls. But I'm pretty content with my mismatched set of old clubs and newer club covers and my old school Bagger Vance bag.

This summer I'm working on chess and golf. Maybe next summer I'll take up polo or jai alai, or maybe even just work directly on my general snobbery.

All of the Arab countries must know that Israel is more powerful than they are and at the end of the day probably have more of the world's support. If we take that as a given, it astounds me that people insist on fucking with Israel. We've reached the point again where Israel is tired of just sitting back thinking about how badly they want to kick Hezbollah's ass, now they're actually doing it.

I can't say I blame them. It would be nice if Israel would just chill like it does most of the time, but they're certainly entitled to want to eliminate Hezbollah, and from what they've been saying, they won't stop now until they do.

The problem, obviously, is that this whole situation, in conjunction with clowns all over the world including North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, D.C., New Zealand, ok probably not New Zealand, but in lots of places, really has the potential to blow the whole world up. And I say that in a figurative sense, but could just as easily mean it in a literal sense.

All I'm saying is that if I was some other middle eastern country, I wouldn't fuck with Israel except to just be really passive aggressive about them even existing in the first place. I hope this whole thing ends in a moderately destructive way as opposed to an enormously drawn out and destructive way.

In the summer I try my best to not just sit around and I usually go running in a park near my house 3 or 4 times a week. I don't always meet that goal, but I'm pretty good about it. At first I thought it was kindof stupid, but figured it was the best way to stay in shape. Now I sortof enjoy running, so I guess that's good.

I run with my iPod and I've decided what my favorite running music is. Depending on how I feel on the particular day I'm running I usually run a minimum of 3 miles and generally a maximum of 6. Usually I'm in between 3 and 4 miles and sometimes I just get a whole lot of energy and run 5 or 6.

On the days I run a shorter distance the best music to run to is the "Hot Fuss" album by The Killers. The songs are all filled with lots of energy and give me motivation to keep up my pace. By the end of the album I've run roughly 4 miles which is abour my goal. Another album that I enjoy running to is "Mr. A-Z" by Jason Mraz. That one is not so up tempo, but good to keep a general pace. This is a good in between distance album because by the end of it you're at about 4.5 miles.

My new favorites are good for the days when I feel like I might run for a while. There's a band called Hot Hot Heat that has two albums called "Elevator" and "Make Up The Breakup". If you run them back to back on the iPod, the two together are good for at least 6 or even 7 miles and every song is filled with energy which is good for running. Also the end of the second album is really good, so it's kindof motivation to keep on going until the album ends.

Anyone else have favorite exercise music? I'm interested to hear some more. Another pretty good one is "Late Registration" by Kanye West. Lots of energy and such, but it gets bogged down a little bit with the skits in between every couple songs.

Today I went out with a lot of energy and just got slammed by the heat. I was ready to go 4 or 5 miles and then every time I would get into the sun I just felt like I wanted to stop. When I hit a shady part, I felt fine. I ended up going only 3 miles, which is kindof lame, but what can you do?

If you guessed that the title of this post is the theme to The Daily Show, then you are weird. Almost as weird as I am for having actually made this the title of the post. Anyhow, that is the title of the post because yesterday Kathy and I went to a live taping of the Daily Show and I want to tell you about it.

The event on the whole was pretty cool, but I don't think I'd do it again. The reason is because we got there at like 3:30 with the expectation that we would wait outside the studio until about 4:45. The confirmation email we received said that we had to be on line by 4:45 and we should come early if we wanted to guarantee ourselves a seat. The overbook the show just to ensure a full house and they just give the tickets to the people who are first on line. That leaves a few people out of each show. Incidentally, if you are left out of the show, then they give you VIP tickets to another show that guarantees your admission, which is good if you live in New York and can manage to get to the studio on another day, but sucks if you're on vacation or something.

Anyway, we stood outside the studio from 3:30 until almost 6pm. We were told that we waited an unusual amount of time because the rehearsal was running late for some reason. I guess usually people get let in around 5:30. So we get into the studio at like 6pm and just sit there for like 15 minutes while they played really loud rock music. Like inordinately loud, so much so that no one was really talking over it. Then after those 15 minutes or so some guy comes out to warm up the crowd. I think he was a comedian, but he didn't really tell any jokes. At first he just walked out and said, "everybody cheer really loud. That's not loud enough. Really loud. Stand up. This side, cheer. That side, cheer." He did this for way too long. Then he started to make fun of people in the crowd, which was kindof funny. After he stood around for a while, he introduced Jon Stewart and Jon came out and everyone cheered.

Jon asked if anyone had any questions and a few people asked him random question about the Mets, William and Mary (his alma mater), and his kids. I thought about asking him who chose the loud rock music that was playing, but I didn't. He kept taking question until the producer or somebody told him the show was ready to start and then he sat down and they started the show. If you've seen the show, then you know what happened then.

The only interesting thing I can add is that the guys who do the reports during the show are probably less than 10 feet away from Jon when they do them. The guy who went on yesterday did what he called an "emotional weather report" which was pretty funny. But I can imagine being in the studio when someone rolls out and pretends to be in Iraq or wherever and he's literally 8 feet away from the desk and that being pretty funny.

During the commercials they play the loud rock music again and everyone just sits there for the 3 or 4 minutes or whatever it is. The one interesting thing is that yesterday they did the first segment, took a commercial, did the interview, took a commercial, and did a third segment. When the show aired, the interview and third segment were switched so it was segment, segment, interview for TV instead of segment, interview, segment, at the taping.

The guest was Owen Wilson who was promoting You, Me, and Dupree and based on the interview I will not be seeing the movie. Owen was either very high, or is possibly the stupidest person on Earth. He swiveled back and forth in his chair for the whole 8 or 9 minutes he was sitting in it and answered each question in an odd manner with zero alacrity. At one point Stewart goes, "so exactly how high are you right now?", which is what everyone in the audience was thinking.

At the end of the Daily Show now they do a lead in to the Colbert Report and after they had done those three segments instead of doing another commercial break they chatted with Colbert for a while. They asked him if his rehearsal was also running late and he said no, but then it occurred to me that in order to do the lead in to Colbert they need to hold up the audience for that show. I don't know whether they tape that before or after the lead in, but they do need to coordinate it somehow. Then about 30 seconds later they do the actual taped lead in.

Then the show was over and Stewart walked out and bowed and everyone cheered. Then we walked out and it was over. All in all it was a fun thing to do once, but I don't think I'd do it again mainly because of the waiting. Incidentally, also at the taping that day was Ghetto Bob Wilson and his sister Ghetto Christine. It was a mad coincidence that we were both there and that Kathy spotted him on the line. Also Ghetto Bob had a baby early this morning (Congrats G-Bob and Carla) and he was expecting Carla to go into labor at any time, but he was at the taping anyway because Carla told him to come since she wasn't in labor yet.

Most of you are aware that this past weekend was Matt Guiney's wedding to Sarah G. on the William and Mary campus in Virginia. The tag line for the wedding was "a decade of courtship, a lifetime of happiness", which I though was pretty clever and beautifully self deprecating on all parts. Even though the only obligation I had as a guest was to be there on Saturday for the ceremony and reception, if you can call it an obligation, rather than privilege or what have you, it really ended up being a three day committment to the cause since we spent essentially all day Friday driving down to Virginia, and all day Sunday driving back. We drive on both days from just about 11am until 7:30pm, give or take. Friday we hit traffic, and Sunday we stopped for about an hour for lunch, so we evened out the travel time even though there was no traffic.

The whole event was very fun, however, and I'm glad that I went not just to support Matt and Sarah, but also to see everyone who was down there too. We hung out on both Friday and Saturday night at the bar and generally had a good time. If you were there, then you know all about it. If you weren't, then you know what goes on at weddings I'm sure, so I'll spare you the details. What I will do is share some of my favorite pictures from the weekend. They span the time from when the wedding started until the drive home to New Jersey where I dropped off Chris, Dave, and Rick who all squeezed into the back of my Sentra for the journey.