david-s.net - David Schlosnagle's Words, Photos, and Links

I finally got a chance to watch some of TV shows cluttering the Tivo, and one of them was this past week’s Alias. If you haven’t seen it yet, I’m going to ruin it for you and let you know that the whole premise of the show was “ice-five”, which is either an homage to “ice-nine” in Kurt Vonnegut’s excellent Cat’s Cradle, or a cheesy rip-off. I have a feeling they meant to go for the former, but it ended up much more the latter, using only the “ice-nine” from the story, and skipping out on all of the sarcasm and irony encirlcing the Books of Bokonon (Although I guess Marshall could qualify as the midget Newt Hoenikker).

I’m not an Eminem fan, but his new “Mosh” video/animation has a message I definitely agree with. T-minus 5 days til the end of the world.

If you have a chance, Tivo, record, or watch one of the replays of the September 29th Daily Show if you can. I have to say that it was one of the funniest ones I’ve seen. Not only does Jon refute the claim by O’Reilly that 87% of the Daily Show audience are intoxicated stoned slackers. (Yes, I know O’Reilly was joking, but I don’t know if I’d argue with Stewart’s counter that most O’Reilly viewers are hopped up on crystal meth).

In other news, Comedy Central busts out a survey from the University of Pennsylvania showing who are the smartest late night viewers. You can take the quiz yourself and see where you fall. My results are below :)

You got 6 out of 6 correct on your first attempt. Excellent work! But when do you sleep? Check your score against these averages:

• “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart viewers - 3.59 correct
• “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno viewers - 2.95 correct
• “Late Show” with David Letterman viewers - 2.91 correct
• No late-night comedy viewing - 2.62 correct

Yeah, I think I’m still here, I’ve just been busy driving around visiting people. Two weekends ago I had to go clean out my PSU apartment, which my roommates had managed to completely destroy in the 3 months I’ve been gone. We did a pretty good job cleaning, I’m just waiting on the security deposit to see how bad they rip us off. It was nice being back in State College for a couple days, its hard to believe I won’t be going back for the fall semester.

Last weekend I ventured back up 70W, beyond the “Welcome to Pennsylvania: home of gray skies, non-stop rain, and miles of pointless orange barrels” and through the cattle chutes of the unpaved, newly jacked up prices Turnpike. At the end of that wonderful journey, I arrived at my house, and stayed in the new guestroom (a.k.a. my old bedroom, my parents didn’t waste any time getting rid of me). Saturday, my friends and I went down to the Pirate game, which was sold out thanks to fireworks night, but we managed to get standing room only tickets. We stood on the lower level right behind home plate, not bad for $8. The Pirates even managed to surprise me and beat the Rockies 6-1. After the game and fireworks, we headed over to Tequila Willies to celebrate Mike’s bday. Sunday was family day; we went over to the Shadyside arts festival to check out the works of art. I have to say, the Penn State Arts Festival was much nicer and more open than Shadyside, but we did manage to find a photo for in my old bedroom. I’m still trying to find something for the walls in my new apartment. I’ve found some I like, but I haven’t bought any yet. Monday, I took a vacation day and went dahn ta Primanti Brudders for lunch with Diane and Dave. I still can’t believe they don’t have Heinz ketchup there, and they consider themselves a Pittsburgh institution. In the evening, I began my trek back south below the Mason-Dixon line. Mike’s family was visiting D.C., so I met up with him on Tuesday night in Clarendon. Wednesday I got a call from Pooch saying he was crossing through VA on his way to surf the Carolina coast with a couple of his old roommates, and we hung out and played pool in Arlington. The rest of the week was pretty much the usual work week with no more visitors.

This past weekend was mostly spent relaxing by the pool and reading. I just finished White Noise by Don DeLillo, now onto Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. I’m not sure how much I’ll enjoy this, but The Fountainhead is one of my favorites, mixing architecture, ethics, and idealism in one.

I did see one interesting thing while at the Tyson’s Corner mall, an Aston Martin Vanquish in Bloomingdales. I can’t say I’ve ever seen a quarter of a million dollar car just sitting in a department store being used as a slide for little kids. It was amazing seeing one up close, but I could never spend that much money on a car, besides, that would buy five different M3s, or a mixture of M3s, M5s, and Porsches, or something a little more reasonable like a house.

In honor of the Statue of Liberty’s reopening, I would like to recommend a book from one of my favorite authors, Leviathan. The book draws its plot from Lady Liberty and is well worth checking out. It’s a shame that you can’t climb the stairs to look out from the torch any longer. I guess that’s one more thing I’ll never get to do.

On a lighter note, check out this movie for the only W. from Craford, Texas that would get my vote.