Utterly Pissed Off

Buckle up, kids. This post ain't gonna be happy.

I'm currently halfway through my seventh hour of a 4 hour bus ride to DC. And we're still in New Jersey. I'm on the Bolt Bus, which though comfortable and equipped with outlets and wifi has become my absolute least favorite bus line ever. They've even beaten out that Chinatown one that sold me a ticket to a non-existent bus. Seriously, this is utterly ridiculous. I've already used that free wifi to send two nasty emails to their webmaster (the only contact info available - I'll never get a response). Oh, the irony. We're on pace to arrive in DC around 10 PM, 4.5 hours after we were supposed to get there, making the trip a total of 8.5 hours.

So, how did I get in this situation? Well, taking the bus from midtown we headed to the Lincoln tunnel. Apparently, it was closed. I guess. I'm honestly not really sure. So, our intrepid bus driver circles the block and eventually gets us to the West Side Hwy, where he points us toward the Holland Tunnel. 2 hours later, we're still haven't got there. At 5:30, when I'm supposed to be rolling in to DC, we finally get to the Holland tunnel. Hooray. But here's what I want to know. Why in the hell did this bus driver not know the tunnel was closed? And why did he think it would be a good idea to use the West Side Hwy to get downtown? I mean, something must have been going on because EVRYONE was stuck in traffic, but I think it had more to do with crap on the highway than the tunnel. Who know. But, I'm seriously pissed off.

Around 7:45, we roll in to some Roy Rogers wonderland in southern Jersey and our driver is like, "I know traffic has been hell, but I'm giving you exactly 10 minutes to get some stuff." Thanks. Have I mentioned that we're constantly being passed by semi's? Apparently, this bus only does 45 MPH. I'm so effing pissed. Good thing I thought to bring more than one DVD for the trip...

Speaking of which, we're just passed exit 2 in New Jersey, and I've already spent about an hour surfing the net, watched 2 episodes of Get Smart, 2 movies (Fletch and Ferris Bueller's Day Off), composed a blog post and lost my mind several times over.

Our driver is an ass.

Confessions of an Indy apologist

So, what with all the Indiana Jones quotes I've been putting up, it seems pretty natural that I'd drop a review on you all. Don't worry, I'm keeping this one spoiler free, so feel free to read on. Yeah, I know. Most of you have seen it already.

So, I've seen Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull twice now. Yeah, twice. I guess that says something about what I thought about the movie, but don't make too many assumptions just yet. I decided opening night at the Ziegfeld was as good a place as any to experience Indy 4, and I was constantly geeking out about how it was being shown in digital projection. Turns out I shouldn't have been. The biggest negative impression that I came out with was, "it really could have used some film grain." The digital effects (especially the kooky lighting) mixed with the crystal clear projection just made the movie look so... new. And for an Indy movie, that just didn't fly with me. I was also a little worried by some of the dialog which seemed forced and a generally lightweight feel to the whole event. Thoughts like, "can't these people act?" and, "Indy would have never paused there," flew through my mind more often than I'd like. But, there were also parts where I couldn't help but smile and really feel like I was on another adventure with the coolest PhD ever to grace the screen. Though I didn't feel ripped off, as I left the theater I couldn't help but feel more than a little let down.

But...

Then I saw it a second time. I'd had a day to mull it over in my mind. It seemed as if every passing hour I grew to like the film better. After all, it was another adventure with Indiana Jones, right? It's not like these things come around all that often anymore. I met with some friends and headed to the Battery Park theater where, mercifully, the film was not digitally projected. Hooray for a dimmer picture and gritty film! Not being so nervous this time, I just sat back and enjoyed. And enjoyed! All the things that I'd had a problem with before just seemed to melt away. Gone were the strange exchanges between Indy and his costars. Gone were the cringes at kooky plot elements (except for one, but that's allowable). Everything just seemed better. Had I become that much of a movie snob? I mean, it's not like this was meant to be Wild Strawberries. This is Indy does B-Movies. Yes, the original three might have been canonized by many (myself included), but I don't think it was ever meant to be anything more than an entertaining movie. And I was entertained.

Of course, this is a debate that will most likely go on for decades. There will be the critics and the apologists. The ending of Last Crusade was a more fitting end to the franchise, for sure. It's going to take me a long while to think of Indiana Jones as a tetralogy rather than a trilogy. And yes, it's my least favorite of the four. But it's still pretty darn fun. If you'll indulge me the use of William Safire's famous term, I'd like to say to all those nattering nabobs of negativism out there one thing: see it one more time, then let's talk.

The telling of tales

Boxcar Dave is a band-wagoneer but I have no regrets. I present to you the inaugural game of Ticket to Ride on my board, played by Jared (Black), Collin (Green) and me (Yellow). Look at those three graceful tracks! Beginning with Helena - Los Angeles, Dallas - New York and Portland - Nashville, I wasn't sure if I had enough for a win. But I picked up some long tracks and made the best of it, barely beating out Collin for the Nashville - Pittsburgh stretch, and coming in just under the wire with Seattle - Helena stretch. Lucky me! What was even luckier was my drawing Seattle - Los Angeles and (ready?) Los Angeles - New York after already having completed them. I also planned to head from Pittsburgh directly to New York, but I wasn't getting the cards and took the jag through DC giving me what I thought to be the longest route. Having just recounted, both Collin and I had 38 trains - meaning we both should have gotten the 10 point bump... meaning we tied! Count for yourself. Which means the person with the most completed routes wins. I got 5. I believe Collin also finished 5 (Saul St. Marie - Nashville, Winnipeg - Houston, Montreal - Atlanta, Duluth - Houston, Seattle - New York) and we're still tied! Which means the player with the longest route card wins - which we both got!

And the rules say nothing more. Folks, I believe we are deadlocked.

Except that I just realized that the scoring is wrong. Having recounted, Collin shorted himself some points. If you add his track score (80), plus his destination score (59) plus his longest train bonus (10) you get 80+59+10 = 149. Adding my track score (71) plus my destination score (66) plus my longest train bonus (10), you get 147! A game that at first I had thought I won, and then thought had ended in a hopeless deadlock I had actually lost by 2 points! The inaugural game!

Collin wins by 2!

Note to self - Pride cometh before the fall. Never photograph a winning game.

Indy quote of the day

"Don't call me Junior!"

Tomorrow at midnight...

Indy quote of the day

Indy took the weekend off, so that he could return the lost Sankara stone to its village. He also made an appearance at Cannes! What a weekend! Good thing he came back alive. But we all knew he would, right? It's like he once told Marcus Brody,

"Besides, you know what a cautious fellow I am."

True, true.

To you JayMoo

Recently, a friend of mine posted some pictures of him with some so-called "celebrities." He thought I was being sarcastic when I told him my pictures with celebs would be knock his socks off. Well, JayMoo, get ready to have your world rocked.

OK, so this one is a bit cheap. I didn't actually meet the guy, I sneaked into the photo. It's still pretty cool though.
Here I am with my buddies James Watson and Francis Crick, better known as the dudes who figured out what DNA looks like. We were all having a pretty good time after that one, so we snapped this little piccy in celebration.
Here I am with one Sir Isaac Newton. If I remember right, I was trying to get a note from him to get out of my Science of Fluxions class. You can tell this is an old photo. I have hair.

I bet your mom knows more of these guys than she does of yours. Consider your world rocked.

Indy quote of the day

OK, today is not strictly an Indy quote, but a Sallah quote. I hear John Rhys-Davies gets asked to say this a lot. Well, we'll say it for him today.

"Asps. Very dangerous. You go first."

6 days.

Indy quote of the day

From Last Crusade:

"Nazis - I hate these guys."

Only 1 more week guys. And yes, I must admit that I am a little nervous. Why do you think I'm trying to pump myself up so much?

Indy quote of the day

To Willie Scott:

"Nothing shocks me. I'm a scientist."

Which makes me think, Indiana Jones is probably the coolest PhD ever to grace the silver screen. Oh, and the Ghostbusters. Indiana and the Ghostbusters. Making science cool for over 20 years...

8 more days.

Another Root Beer Related Review

So, I'm trying to get back in to the swing of regular blogging. For some reason, this Finals session really took it out of me. Probably just a bad case of super-super senior-itis. But, last Wednesday I took my last final exam ever and to celebrate, I opened up the bottle of root beer that the kind folks over at Thomas Kemper sent to me. Seriously guys, this is good stuff.

So, as I mentioned before, they've got a new line of cane sugar sweetened sodas coming out (or perhaps they've come out - it's taken me a bit longer to get this review up. Sorry, TK). After living in Mexico and having been treated to 2 years of cane sugared Coke, I realized just how syrupy sodas made with corn sugar really are. So, as soon as I heard they were making the switch, I was raring to try it. After greedily devouring the sample bottles they sent to me (one each of Root Beer, Ginger Ale, and Black Cherry), I can say that this was a step in the right direction.

Thomas Kemper makes the best black cherry soda I've tried, and every time I'm at my local jazz club throwing back a Boylans black cherry, I wish it was a TK. The major advantage that the Thomas Kemper black cherry has had over the Boylans is body. Too many black cherry sodas have good flavor, but not enough body. It's like biting into a cherry that's half-filled with water. I'll admit that I was afraid that in switching to sugar, the TK was going to end up like the Boylans (also cane sugared) - and it kind of did. The flavor is amazing. I still prefer it to any other black cherry soda around, but it seems to have lost something. Smoothness maybe. Roundness. I don't know. But, what it has picked up is a bit of a tart afterbite that wasn't there before. It's this great little reminder that this is a cherry soda right before you move to your next swig. I wasn't expecting that, and it was a nice surprise. So, all in all, I'd have to say that the new black cherry is only marginally better than the old, which is to say it's still pretty dang good.

The second soda I sampled was the ginger ale. Thomas Kemper ginger ale was something of an acquired taste for me. When I bought the big variety packs at Costco, this was always the last flavor to go. It had way too much kick for my liking. It was the only soda I'd ever drank that burned going down. I'm not sure if I've gotten used to it or if the change in formula also took out some of the burn, but this is a REALLY good ginger ale. It's definitely moving up on my priority list. All of the three sodas I tried were lighter tasting, but the ginger ale benefited the most from it. It's not heavy at all. You get this initial ginger bite, and once you swallow, your mouth is free to move on to the next taste. It went really well with the curry I was eating that night.

And finally, the root beer. This stuff is just great. It's just as smooth and tasty as the original recipe, but unlike so many other sodas, it doesn't leave your mouth feeling like the inside of a Slurpee cup. I'd have to say that it did lose some body, but at this point I'm just guessing that's part of kicking out the corn syrup. I loved how it was so much easier to taste the vanilla, which really made me wish I had another bottle to devote to a good float. Oh well. I hear it can be had down in DC, but maybe that's just a rumor to lure me down there...

All in all, I'd have to say that my expectations were happily met. I'm not sure if the switch has some economic back story or if it was purely for the taste, but it's a step in the right direction. With all these changes that keep popping up about one of my favorite products, I've worried that the quality was headed downhill. You know, corporate expansion at the cost of product quality. Well, so far so good. Keep it up TK. And please start distributing to New York. Please?

Indy quote of the day

From the oft maligned Temple of Doom:

"Fortune and glory, kid. Fortune and glory."

9 more days...

Indy quote of the day

Finals are almost done! To help me get back into the swing of blogging, and because I'm SUPER excited about the new Indiana Jones movie (who isn't?), each day I'm going to put up an Indy quote to help me get in the right mood for the movie. I'm going to start us all off with one of my favorites:

"It's not the years honey, it's the mileage."

Only 10 more days...

Oh boy...

Seriously?