Backporch Beer » Odd

You’ve Been Infected – A Halloween Zombie Meme

etrigan — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 15:36:50 +0000

Sorry to tell you in this manner, but you’ve been infected and now you’re a zombie. You only have your friends to blame. For the rest of the day all of your status updates and tweets must include the phrase “BRAINSSS!!!”. You can infect other people by tagging them in a note on Facebook or mentioning them on Twitter, and including a link to this page.

Don’t worry too much, though, this infection will mysteriouly clear up by 2:00am (in your time zone) on November first AFTER Daylight Savings begins.

David Cross and H Jon Benjamin, at “The Room” NYC April 24th

etrigan — Thu, 07 May 2009 02:50:02 +0000

For those of you who have seen “The Room” including a Q&A with Tommy Wiseau…as I did with several people at Alamo Drafthouse tonight.

Miscellaneous Foodstuffs – Summer 2008

etrigan — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 01:01:38 +0000

On the way out from State College I made a stop at a vending machine — it beckoned to me as the siren call of all vending machines, particularly ones in unfamiliar places, do.

The Mallo Cup was good, but it was only a couple weeks ago that I tried it so it definitely passes the longevity test of vending food. The Hanky Panky was tested immediately and I only ate a handful and eventually threw the rest away. Interestingly, though…

…the location of the Hanky Panky in the vending machine caused raised eyebrows…but I suppose if there is Hanky Panky to be had then it’ll happen near a Party Mix.

Before I left for Brazil, Becky and I went to the “Low-main” — the “lesser” shopping center just south of the Domain — which the developers unsuccessfully are trying to call Arbor Walk. We intended to go to Mighty Fine Burgers but the Sunday lunch crowd was in force so we went across the parking lot to Red Brick Pizza and had some mighty fine pies, although the concept of sauce is lost in translation…as is the understanding of the English language…and the Italian language…unless — and someone correct me if I’m wrong — the Italian actually have a word “RedBrick”.

Meet Close Call

etrigan — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 12:40:06 +0000

Several of us had a near-death experience Sunday, but I wanted you all to know that we’re just fine and explain what happened. Becky, Sandy and I decided to go see the new Batman movie — awesowe, btw — and we got a call from Mike and Kelly that they were going to the same theater about the same time. We weren’t sure if we could make the 12:55 show so when we bought tickets for the three of us, we picked the 1:10 showing. Just after we entered the air-conditioned lobby, Kelly and Mike were there waving us into the earlier theater assuring us that we hadn’t missed it, and this theater was less crowded. I skipped my usual Icee© and Junior Mints© to rush inside. Trailers were playing already, but I still got to see three (oddly) comedy-oriented trailers before some studio logos flickered by and we saw these words:

presents

Eddie Murphy

An audible gasp came from our row. We shielded our eyes and dashed from the theater, nearly out of breath partially due to the running and partially due to hyperventilating over the fact that we almost had seen Meet Dave. Lucky for us, Mike kept a cool head and spoke to a manager. They had routed the wrong data stream to our theater and quickly corrected it.

Thank you everyone for your concern. The trauma has passed, and we are all just fine.

Overbearing Signage

etrigan — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 14:10:10 +0000

Supposedly due to drag racing and several major accidents on Route 220 as you head out to Black Moshannon State Park the signage is very “in-your-face” about safety.


You can see the signs coming a ways off.	Almost didn’t catch this one at all “Slow Down. Save A Life”	“Don’t Tailgate”	“Buckle Up It’s The Law”

“Targeted Enforcement Area”	“Keep Alert”	“Keep Min 2 Dots Apart”	…and then some BIG dots.

Sheetz

etrigan — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 13:56:48 +0000

One of my favorite pastimes is perusing the fast food offerings of foriegn locales. In the exotic world of State College, Sheetz is the dominant convenience store and I had a chance to slip inside and grab these snapshots.


Bugles Sweet & Salty Caramel	Doritos®: The Quest	Mint 3 Musketeers is nothing new, but giving it to us in a two-pack, ala Almond Joy is special.

Forget having to try to speak PimplyFacian to place your order, just put it into this machine and swipe your card…		…or even better, just pull your sealed pre-made smootie/shake from the fridge below, pop it into the machine above!

The Breakfast Becky Smoothie

etrigan — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 13:09:46 +0000

Breakfast Becky is known for extolling the importance and beneficial nature of breakfast. While we’ve been in State College she hasn’t been enjoying her favorite breakfast, so I’m sure that when we return one of the first sounds I’ll get to hear is our blender blending.

This is how it starts (bottom-to-top): beets, mangoes, ice, kale and protein powder.

This is what the completed “yummy” breakfast looks like.

I’m sure Becky will step in with corrections, pointers,…defense? but you get the idea.

sidebar: A couple years ago we were in CostCo when Vita-mix was doing a demo and selling their top model for $350. Being a gadget lover I was mesmerized and I begged and pleaded Becky to let us get one. She insisted that our blender was just fine and we didn’t need a new one, especially at that price. Three barely competent blenders later (and an increased love for the real deal smoothie on her part) and she’s rethinking her position.

Hail Storm 2008

etrigan — Thu, 22 May 2008 15:59:33 +0000

Due to some weird bug with the SDHC card interfacing to my new camera, I thought this footage was lost but I fiddled some more and it suddenly appeared yesterday. This is unedited (and way dark — it was 12:25am) footage I took on May 15th while the storm was raging. You can’t really see anything at all, but listen to the difference in the house from the start of the video (when it was hailing) compared to the end of the video (when it was just rain).

Didgeridoo Park

etrigan — Thu, 01 May 2008 01:58:18 +0000

There were several “only in New York” moments (like the tiny trained cat and dog show off Times Square) but the only one I caught on video was this dude in a suit playing his didgeridoo sitting in a barred park.

We Cheer

etrigan — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 21:34:53 +0000

I know this is targeted at tween girls, but I know more than a few rhythm game lovin’ people who would want try this out.

…and I’m probably fey enough to want to play it, too. Then again my wife accuses me of being a tween girl at heart.

Sorry, Brian, Free Is Not Always Better

etrigan — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 21:10:47 +0000

Consider this a public (in so many ways) bookmark. I heard the tail end of this story on NPR a while back. I was suddenly reminded to go look it up by today’s Dilbert.

The interesting thing is that many times, free things are good but the question is, what happens when free actually has a downside.

Women: Your Country’s Achilles Heel

k-pho — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 17:48:36 +0000

So …. uh …. apparently, in 1973, Chairman Mao offered 10 million of his country’s women to Kissinger. They were a problem, see, because they were having too many babies, making China poor. Damn kids kept taking up all the resources. Kissinger: “we’ll think about it.”

Austin Best City To Live and Make Movies…Shreveport #3

etrigan — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 21:59:51 +0000

Thanks to the Austinist for pointing out that MovieMaker Magazine named Austin as the #1 place to “live, work and make movies”. Initially, I think “Oh, that’s great! We’re almost done with our latest film project, contributing to the coolnes.” Then I think “But wait, we still haven’t made our own film, unprodded by the fine folks at the Drafthouse.” So, all you Morte dal Disegno people need to start looking for adaptable content. Focus on things that could be shot cheaply and have optimally just a couple days of filming. (Planning, rehearsals, construction, etc. can take longer but I would like to keep the actual shooting of the film to a longish Saturday/Sunday schedule.)

Also in the article you will note that Shreveport, La — hometown to several regulars here at the Backporch, including myself — showed up at the #3 slot…mostly thanks to all the films that were wrapping up productions that moved north after Katrina.

Lions Were Just Nicer In The 70’s

etrigan — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 15:30:39 +0000

I received this bulk mail from a co-worker earlier this week. It is awesome on so many levels.

These 2 guys bought this cub from the zoo when it was newly born…after sometime the cub became big and hard to handle at home… so they decided to send him to his motherland Africa… a year later the 2 guys decided to go to Africa and see the cub again.

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

Here’s the supposedly full true story of Christian the Lion.

The Return of Juno (Ad)

etrigan — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 17:47:12 +0000

I’m not sure if it is intentional or dynamically appropriate, but this article about the rise in teenage pregnancy came with an ad for Juno.

Sidenote #1: I saw Juno again on Tuesday night and it is still wonderful. (I would still leave my wife in a highly inappropriate manner for Ellen Page.) I took the time to focus on Jennifer Garner during this viewing. The first few seasons of Alias had me falling madly for Garner as she kicked so much ass. The last season or two (or was it three?) bundled with her successive film roles dulled that emotion, and the tabloid Bennifer 2 explosion left me with the opposite feeling — I kinda hated to even see her — but she has redeemed herself with Juno and I believe she may be looking at a Best Supporting Actress nom.

Sidenote #2: It’s a good thing all those abstinence classes are having such a strong impact on America’s youth. /snark