Blog o' Doom

I went to Prague last month, and my trip review has been posted, complete with pictures.

Some things in life are sacred. Some of them are sacred because of beliefs handed down through faith. Others are sacred because the skill that went into them is still awe-inspiring and unfathomable. And still others are sacred due the inexplicable way they have touched and enriched our lives.

One such thing - falling into the last category - is The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Those of you who know me, know that Rocky Horror holds a very special place in my heart. I'm responsible for a majority of my friends' Rocky devirginization. And while I haven't been as many times as some of the people I know (I'm somewhere in the 40s or 50s, I lost count), I went often enough to be an honorary tech crew member of Sins O' The Flesh for almost a year (I ran lights, if you're curious) at the Nuart in Santa Monica, CA and I know many of the cast and crew from the now-disbanded-but-3rd-longest-in-the-nation-at-the-time Carefree Players at the now-closed Carefree Theater in West Palm Beach, FL.

Rocky isn't, in-and-of-itself a particularly amazing film. But its kitschy music, sex-drenched plot, awesome cast, and catchy tunes made it a cult classic. People gather every Saturday at midnight all around the world to see shadow-casts perform in front of a movie screen, watch virgins get devirginized, and socialize with their fellow freaks. It's a ritual that's been performed by several generations since the '70s. It's a place where everyone's weird so everyone's equal. A place with almost no rules, almost no clothes, and almost no way to not have a ton of fun.

So when Ted pointed out that MTV and SkyTV are going to be remaking the film, I was truly horrified! This film - somewhat surprisingly to many of the people who live it every weekend - is perfect. It was just the right amount of everything to become the film with legions of world-wide fans that carry on its traditions weekly some 33 years later.

And of all the people in the world I would trust to remake this film, MTV is pretty far down on that list. Even back when MTV wasn't the atrocity it is today, I wouldn't have wanted MTV to go near Rocky with a thousand-foot pole. In fact, there is only one man who I would trust with Rocky: Richard O'Brien. O'Brien wrote the original - both the script and the music. It's his vision. And despite the fact that MTV has billed him as "co-producer," he is in fact not affiliated with the movie in any way!

To make matters worse, they're reportedly adding songs! How can you remake a musical and change the fucking music? Truly, this is blasphemy.

Not that I think a remake will change what happens Saturday nights across the globe in dark theaters where uptight parents won't admit their kids might be - it won't. However, to remake such a piece of history is just wrong.

In the words of one of the Gods of Geekdom, Wil Wheaton, "online petitions are pointless and don't do anything, but we can still visit Stop the Remake dot Com to feel like we're doing something to stop this travesty from occurring." I couldn't have said it better.

I’ve now been in Zurich for seven weeks and at Google for 5 weeks. How are things? Things are good! I’ve been having a lot of fun. Work is great, I’ve met lots of good people and I even went to a yodeling festival last week in Lucerne! Yup, a Yodeling Festival! How cool is that?

I am enjoying the city, the people, the culture, and my job. Work is challenging, just as it should be, but I’m starting to get a handle of things and settle in there. I’ve been going out a lot in the evenings with folks and having a lot of fun. Things are definitely going well!

But I’d be lying if I said everything was perfect. To be honest, I’m starting to get very antsy without my stuff and a place to really call home. I am, at present, still essentially living out of a suitcase. I’m in a temporary, furnished, one-room apartment, as most of you know. I have only the clothes and items I brought with me on the plane. And I’m not complaining about the accommodations, mind you! They’re very nice temporary accommodations. However, after 7 weeks of not having a home, it starts to get tough. I can’t settle, for lack of a better term, because this isn’t my home. It doesn’t have my stuff. I can’t relax on my couch and watch a movie on my TV. I don’t have my computers which contain all my stuff for the work I do in my spare time (I copied a small subset of it to this laptop, so I can do some stuff). My art and posters aren’t there to greet me when I get home. Nothing is familiar as mine.

Until I get my stuff, it essentially feels like a business trip - I have a place I’m staying which is roughly like a nice hotel room except with a micro-kitchen, but it’s not mine. I miss wanting to go home at night to just be at my home. And while that hasn’t really been a problem, going into my 8th week here, it’s admittedly starting to wear on me.

But that’s OK. Only another month or so, and I should have my stuff and start being able to make myself a home here.

That said - I’m still very happy with my decision to move here. It continues to be a great place and a wonderful experience all around. Don’t forget to check out my pictures and video from the yodeling festival!

For those of you haven't heard the very, very sad news, George Carlin passed away yesterday at the age of 71 due to heart failure.

George Carlin was not only a fantastic comedian but a hero who accomplished much for free speech and bringing awareness of the importance of our principal freedoms.

For those who haven't heard of him (if you're outside of the US this is entirely possible), see this video and this video for a small sampling. In addition, if you've ever seen one of the many variations of the usage of the word fuck videos - that's George Carlin (well, the videos are added by others, but the words are written and spoken by George Carlin in most of the videos). He truly was a brilliant and amazing man who I hope history will remember forever.

Rest in Peace - I miss you already.

Four years ago, when I first started this blog, I spent a while looking at WordPress (WP) and b2evolution (b2evo). At the time, even though I felt b2evolution was a bit too cumbersome, WP was simply not feature-rich enough - so this blog runs on b2evolution. However I preferred the look of the WP skins, I took a WP skin and sorta forced it into b2evo (which is why some pages don't look quite right).

In the last few years I've grown increasingly dissatisfied with b2evolution. So I decided to take another look at WordPress. And I like what I see. So, I've setup a test blog and imported all of my posts/comments/etc.

I'm curious what you all think, though. So check out the test blog and let me know! If/when I switch, I will wipe that one out, re-install and re-import all the data from here - so don't post anything there that you would like to last.

Moving to Word Press will provide several advantages: easier upgrades, I can switch to a supported skin (I could do this in b2evo as well, but I don't like most of the skins), and there was a reCAPTCHA plugin as well (there may be one for b2evo now, I haven't looked since my last upgrade). In addition, the WP developers seem more geared towards smooth upgrades and transitions than the b2evo developers.