vin devil

lea visited this weekend, celebrating her birthday this sunday. happy 22, lea!

saturday saw a morning kicked off with huevos rancheros, cooked by yours truly. cooking breakfast can be fun, but as is often the case, cooking time and a late wakeup combined to delay breakfast until 11:30. up next was a visit to devil’s lake, which was very pretty and very crowded. we hiked a bluff trail that ended up being plenty of a workout, then turned around and walked back along a railroad line. the dells are within a few miles of devil’s lake, which leads to the crowds of, uh, fun-to-watch people. we then hopped back into town to do dinner at vin santo’s, a nice little restaurant up in middleton. following dinner, lea watched csi episodes on dvd while i baked a cheesecake from scratch. turns out baking a cheesecake is a little bit of a pain. i had to get a springform pan for the occasion, and the top of the cheesecake came out a little burnt (the recipe called for 15 minutes at 500 degrees), but it was worth it, as the large majority of the cake was quite tasty. i do like cooking, and it turns out baking is not that bad, either.

brazil

all of the bits in this movie where pryce was imagining himself as an angel fighting a giant samurai robot sort of bewildered me. excepting that, though, ’twas a nice little dystopia. and robert de niro was hilarious.

her majesty

reviews say it is highly reminiscent of neutral milk hotel, but i’m not so sure i agree. pirate music.

insane?

have you taken this insanity test? if i say “gonads and strife,” do you know what i’m talking about?

something reminded me of these a few minutes ago. i can’t for the life of me figure out what it was.

rock paper scissors

so, i’ve programmed up a rock paper scissors game, suitable for online play. if for some reason you decide that you really, really need a strategy guide to play, check out world rps. there’s something screwy about my implementation, though: a) i haven’t really tested it much at all, and b) i think that the emails it sends out occasionally get rejected for being poorly formed. whatever. try it, if you like.

also fun, in the world of rock paper scissors: a programming contest. granted, one that is long dead. i should have worked on this for AI back at Carleton. i find the iocaine powder bot especially amusing. an extract from its webpage:

“Assume the opponent thinks you will use P.1. Your opponent thinks you will play rock to dull the scissors they would have played to cut the paper you would have played to cover the rock P would have predicted, so they will play paper to cover your rock. But you one-up them, playing scissors to cut their paper.”

by the way, while playing rock paper scissors, be sure not to get involved in any land wars in asia.

seabiscuit

watching horse races is fun. however, i doubt i will ever be able to watch a movie starring jeff bridges again without thinking about the big lebowski.

delicatessen

caro & jeunet’s movie about eating people. lindsay and i are trying to expose the group to more foreign films.

snatch

heidi was talking about how this is among her favorite movies, and then people watched it while i was in northfield. i showed them: i watched it on my own. well … maybe i didn’t show them anything.

friday driving

here comes the weekend. i’m going to northfield. i made a mix to listen to in the car:

1. tonight we mean it, the dismemberment plan
2. slower, mineral
3. that’s not how it’s s’pose to be, vicious vicious
4. kc accidental, broken social scene
5. dragon, the beta band
6. attack el robot! attack!, calexico
7. consequence, the notwist
8. distopian dream girl, built to spill
9. young offenders, the constantines
10. a dozen roses, braid
11. so pretty, kid dakota
12. this is progress, love-cars
13. all st. day, and you will know us by the trail of dead
14. grey ice water, modest mouse
15. the stupidest boy, 12 rods
16. song against sex, neutral milk hotel
17. caribou, pixies
18. parking lot, mineral

i’m referring to it in my mind (and now here) as a drunken/passed out/alert type of disc, for lack of anything better to call it. lots of new stuff, lots of old stuff. i also burned somehow obtained a copy of “up in flames” by manitoba, so i’ve got more new music around than i can shake a stick at. i’ve had the manitoba for a while, but it’s been heavily eclipsed, since i “obtained” broken social scene’s “you forgot it in people” at the same time. i’ve since purchased the broken social scene disc. it’s good. you should listen to it, if you haven’t.

i got a haircut a few days ago. i hate getting my hair cut. here’s a picture of it, sort of, from noah’s site. there are also other pictures of dan’s improptu birthday party there, but i’m not linking to it yet. since i’m mentioning noah’s site, i should also mention drew’s. and lindsay’s. i already mentioned dan’s. it’s an epic party, on the web. fun fun fun.

also, i bought a suit yesterday. more on that later.

good omens

i think i enjoyed this book more when i first read, as a freshman in college, but it’s still funny. very douglas adams.