Da Bishop!

Okay, so I have two blogs - one here, and one on MySpace, and I've been racking my brain trying to figure out how to put them together. I'd really rather post once than twice, but I want all my friends to see it. So I've taken a page from Jay Lee and created a syndication profile for my MySpace blog on LiveJournal.

So in other words, you won't see any more posts from me as da_bishop. Instead, please add this profile to your list of friends: ericbtx. That way, you'll get everything I post from now on.

We'll see if this works. Thanks for your patience, everybody...

Anybody going to this? It's this Sunday:

http://www.houstonpress.com/php/retail/hou/musicfestival/

I went last year and had a lot of fun. If anybody's interested in going, let me know...

Anybody doing anything interesting for the 4th? A couple ideas I've already been thinking of are:

• Astros game


• Freedom Over Texas/fireworks show downtown (is it really the last year for this?)

Admittedly, my options are a little limited since I am between jobs, but I am somewhat flexible. Anybody have any other ideas?

It's "the greatest heavy metal tribute to Air Supply in the Tri-State Area" - HAIR SUPPLY!

Anyone who knows me well will laugh at this: my brother-in-law invited me to join an NCAA Basketball bracket league on ESPN, and I'm actually winning the thing! In fact, it says my choices are in the top 2% of everyone playing nationwide!

As Mike R. pointed out when the tournament began, my choices mostly agreed with the committee, putting down very few upsets in my bracket. But sure enough, that's mostly what has happened. My biggest difference was that I put UT going to the Final Four and losing to Ohio State, but I figured if I didn't do that, they would take back my diploma or something... Other than that, it's been shockingly accurate. Who'd-a-thunk-it? We'll see how I do the rest of the tournament...

Yet another animated video from Straight Outta Lynwood. That means that most of the songs on the album have videos now - most of them were contributed by well-known animators. This song is one of the best on the album - he turns R. Kelly's pretentious dramatic indulgence into something really mundane. It's even funnier with animation...


Trapped in the Drive-Thru

Well, it's official - the rumors are true. We were notified today that our Statement of Work (contract) with HP for our training team will not be renewed when it expires, on April 30. There's a chance we may be able to find something else within HP, but our boss told us to start looking elsewhere if we haven't already.

Good thing I was working on my resume and job search agents last night... I'm working on retooling my resume; I'd like to go back to my roots and get more into communications. I've been slowly pushed toward a business analyst role over my career, and it's always been a little over my head. It would be nice to do something more creative and communications-oriented again.

So if you know of anything out there, let me know...

Hey, FYI, if you're a Best Buy Reward Zone member in Houston, you can buy pre-sale tickets online for the Police Reunion Tour show starting at 10 am today. You have to login at www.myrewardzone.com, and then you can get a presale code that you can use to order online. My friend Jason and I are each trying to get two tickets, which is the maximum per person. I'll let you know what happened...

BTW, they've announced the date and venue for the show - it's 6/29, at the Toyota Center downtown. Glad to hear it's a Friday night...

I know exactly what this guy is talking about in this article from Slate:

"Short Attention Span Gaming: The pleasures of UNO and Galaga on Xbox Live Arcade."

I too have Uno and Robtron:2084 on my 360, and they came with a webcam so you can see everyone you're playing against. More than once I've thought about how I'm playing a $5 game on a $400 machine (though I only paid $300)... I've definitely noticed that more adults play the arcade games and more teenagers play the expensive 3-D disc-based games. Interesting...

Somewhere between the analog past and the digital future lies the movie I am watching right now... TRON.

Too geeky to be cool, but too ahead of its time to be passe'. It will always lie in that odd limbo between criticism and praise.

I always love the misfits in this world, and I've loved blocky, geeky Tron since I was 12. Rock on, Alan-1...

Some day I will make a movie with Cindy Morgan, Diane Franklin, and all of my 80's idols. Someday...

I've never had the proper appreciation for the people I know and the life I live. I know now that gratitude is the finest feeling one can feel. I think it's amazing, when I think back upon the places I have been, the people I have known. I know it's corny, but I'm in a corny mood. Thanks, everyone. Thanks.

Got this idea from dancin_sister_t. Since my birthday was less than a week ago, this seemed pretty topical to me...

January 14:

Events:

1784 - American Revolutionary War: The United States ratifies a peace treaty with England.

1954 - Marilyn Monroe weds Joe DiMaggio.

1972 - The TV comedy Sanford & Son (an American import of the British comedy Steptoe and Son) premieres on NBC.

1973 - Super Bowl VII: The Miami Dolphins defeat the Washington Redskins. The Dolphins become the first NFL team to go undefeated in a season. (Supposedly when the regular season ends each year and no team is undefeated, the remaining Dolphins get together and open a bottle of champagne. This may be an urban legend, of course...)

Birthdays:

1741 - Benedict Arnold, American general (d. 1801)

1875 - Albert Schweitzer, Alsatian physician, Nobel laureate (d. 1965)

1919 - Andy Rooney, American journalist ("Didja ever wonder why...")

1938 - Allen Toussaint, American singer

1948 - Carl Weathers, American actor (He was great on Arrested Development...)

1959 - Geoff Tate, American musician (Queensrÿche) (Thought topknot might appreciate that one...)

1968 - LL Cool J, American rapper and actor (Now I do feel old - LL Cool J is pushing 40...)

Deaths:

1898 - Lewis Carroll, English writer and mathematician (b. 1832)

1957 - Humphrey Bogart, American actor (b. 1899)

1966 - Sergei Korolev, Russian rocket scientist (b. 1906) (He was the Soviets' answer to Wernher von Braun)

1984 - Ray Kroc, American fast food entrepreneur (b. 1902) (Founder of McDonald's. Reminds me that I'd like to see Fast Food Nation...)

Holidays:

New Year's Day in Eastern Orthodoxy, see Julian Calendar. (On my birthday this year (last Sunday), we joined the Julian New Year celebration at Fitzgerald's with Russians, Ukranians, Romanians, Greeks, etc. Lots of fun...)

Festum Asinorum, medieval burlesque festival celebrating the Flight into Egypt. (Wondering what exactly a "burlesque festival" is. I'm imagining women with tassels and bad stand-up comics...)


Fun stuff - thanks for the idea!

I just sent this message out to most of the people in my webmail address book, and I want to send it out to everyone who reads my blog too.



Hope to see you there!

Sitting at the bar in SRO with my Dad, watching UT vs. Iowa in the Alamo Bowl, with my laptop connected via wi-fi, playing QB1 Online and looking up obscure movie and TV stuff for Dad on IMDB.com. So needless to say, it's hard to write anything very detailed or deep while I'm doing all this...

My hellacious month is finally winding down, and my body's been "sending me urgent rest telegrams," as Hawkeye Pierce would say... (Would his name make him an Iowa fan? He was from Maine...)

Soon I'll write a proper set of postings about my trip to NJ, NYC and Philly, and I'll upload pictures of both that and my nephew's holiday visit to Houston. Right now it's all I can do to stay conscious and spell properly...

Not sure what I'll do after the game tonight - probably crash at my Mom's townhouse tonight), unless I get a better offer... (I'm townhouse-sitting for her, which gives me some much-needed privacy.)
I think I see the Mezz on the trivia board - wonder who's there... Isn't that UFC thing tonight?

I've been invited to a New Year's Eve party tomorrow night, but I'll probably go into the city first. Anybody doing anything interesting for New Year's? I might join you before I head over to the party...

Hope everyone's having a good holiday week...

Hey kiddies, it's Woot-off time again! Time to quickly decide whether the thing they're offering is trash or treasure, before it expires! And of course, keep an eye out for a Bag O Crap! Good times, good times...

Woot.com

Pretty fun... give it a try!

I'd really like to get this album...

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6263882&ft=1&f=1

In a response to one of bshirley's posts a couple months ago, I talked about my theory that the situation in Iraq is just like what happened to Yugoslavia, since their histories in the last century are very similar. On NPR this morning, they were speaking to an historian named Niall Ferguson who has written a new book called The War of the World. He stepped back to get a completely fresh and objective look on the last 100 years of world history, and he arrived at some interesting conclusions. You can listen to the interview here.

The first part of the interview is about the rise of Asia in the last century and Asian countries' efforts to eliminate European colonial influences. But it's the second part of the interview that really made me take notice: he essentially says that what is happening in Iraq right now is very similar to what happened when the West tried to democratize Yugoslavia, which seems to confirm what I've been saying for a couple years. I think I might want to get this book...

Okay, as I said in my last post, I was pausing the "White and Nerdy" video to see some of the hidden details (which in itself is quite nerdy). There was one I had to share with you. During the line, "I'll ace any trivia quiz you can bring on," Al holds up a Trivial Pursuit card to the camera. But it isn't a real Trivial Pursuit card, of course - I think Al and his buddies had a lot of fun making up some fake trivia questions. Here they are, for posterity:

• Geography - In what city is the largest ball of twine built by one man?


• Entertainment - What's the deal with Lindsay Lohan? I mean, seriously?


• History - F.D.R. - was he faking it?


• Arts and Literature - On what page does Harry Potter die in the next book?


• Science and Nature - What is the melting point of a gorilla's head?


• Sports and Leisure - How many Wicket men are there on a 43-Man Squamish team?