Alice in Chains' Sean Kinney had this to say when talking about the internet leak of the group's upcoming album (which comes out this week):

"You know it's gonna happen 'cause it's part of [how the industry works nowadays], but you just hope it doesn't happen too far in advance," drummer Sean Kinney replied. "It's nothing unique [to this band]. [But] we hadn't been through it [before], 'cause we hadn't made a record in 14 years, so I think that's the initial shock. It's like, 'What?' We were talking about it earlier... It's like going to prison — you're know you're gonna get raped, but you're not ready for it. You think you're all prepared for it, but you're not really prepared for how violent that rape is. It's like, 'Wow! He's really giving it to me.'"

Yikes.  I'd hate to hear his analogy for ticket scalping.

Is it just me, or has LiveJournal lost a lot of its appeal due to Facebook? I know I check it a lot less often, although truth be told I'm not on FB nearly as much these days either. Well anyway, for those who are still around I figured I'd provide an update of sorts. Here goes, in no particular order:

• Hopefully everyone that made it out to our place for the Labor Day weekend cookout had a good time. zena73 and I sure enjoyed seeing everyone, even with the numerous sports injuries incurred. kymkyhgq's engineering skills with the volleyball net were most impressive, and I did in fact take a picture of the setup before finally bringing the net down. As I mentioned to a few people that day, we may decide to host another event around the holidays, so the anticipation starts now!
• Although I'm not technically on South Beach anymore I still say I am because I'm trying to use its concepts on a daily basis. The result so far is that since I began in late June I've gone from 216 to about 190. I'm not a Stevens graduate but I think that works out to around 75 lbs.
• A few months ago I decided to finally act on my desire to do something for the community, so I submitted an application to join the East Windsor volunteer rescue squad. I finally got a call last night, and I have orientation next Wednesday. So the next time mpgreco rolls an ankle I'll be ready.
• The house updates continue. This week we had a carpenter out to frame an area under the basement staircase that we will now use to house the litter boxes. That will free up the back room on the main floor for its intended use - library and record room. Additionally, I hope to get some sanding/priming done in the kitchen this weekend. Why the delay?
• Well, as some of you know I've been kind of ill lately. By the Wednesday after the cookout I started feeling lousy, and Thursday began four straight days of fever, fatigue, and coughing. What I thought might've been the flu seems to have instead been an upper respiratory infection of some kind. I ended up taking about a week off from work. This all culminated with my visit to the emergency room last Saturday, but things have improved markedly since then. I'm still coughing a bit but it's a fraction of what it was. I'm still using my inhaler though.
• zena73's sister is visiting from Australia for the next few weeks, and the countdown continues to my family's visit around Christmas.  Anyone know where we can pick up an inexpensive sofa bed?
• Picked up a ticket to see Field Music in Brooklyn this December.  If anyone wants to join me, I'd love to have company.

I think that about covers it for now!

Who wants to share their Wii friend number for some happy time racing fun???

There is evidence there will be a major flu epidemic this coming fall. The indication is that we will see a return of the 1918 flu virus that is the most virulent form of the flu. In 1918 a half million Americans died. The projections are that this virus will kill one million Americans in 1976.

-- F. David Matthews, secretary of health, education, and welfare (Feb., 1976)

I haven't used Skype yet but it is installed on my computer.  One of the things it does is to tag any phone number it comes across on the internet so you can just click and call.  I was amused to see it catch one of the songs on my last.fm account:



Apparently that number originates from Micronesia.  The song makes no mention of that oddly enough.

I'll post a few more reminders in the coming weeks, but I wanted to get it out there now that zena73 and I would love to get a group together to catch Star Trek when it opens next month.  Opening day is May 8, so you should all have plenty of time to make arrangements and whatnot.  Depending on who comes, we can meet in the most logical place (doesn't have to be down by us).

So ponder it for a bit, and let me know if you're interested.

Is that not the coolest DVD art ever?

Paddy O'Furniture.

( Adventures in yardwork contained herein... )

So I found out during my most recent tutoring session that my student has a family health crisis and will be returning to China for a few months starting in two weeks.  I'm a bit conflicted - obviously the situation sucks for her and that's of paramount importance; but of course it sucks for me as I was just getting into a bit of a groove.  Turns out planning even one 2-hour lesson a week takes a lot longer than I thought it would, but I realize I'm a beginner at this thing.

On the other hand, though, I'm a little relieved.  The beginning of this tutoring actually came at a bit of a bad time, seeing as how things have really picked up at work and I now spend at least a few nights catching up on stuff at home.  So from a practical standpoint this is a much-needed temporary relief.

And I suppose I can take the time off to start making better lesson plans and charting a real course.  I've been focusing in on grammar pretty hard, but I can now plan to introduce some civics as well (since she does want to become a citizen and that means passing the exam).   So there's your silver lining I suppose.

Maybe, but even if not it will have the greatest soundtrack ever.  Oh and needless to say, I'm all over this.

After biding my time for the last few years, I was finally able to scoop up the grayflannelsuit.com domain (I was forced to take .net when I started my site).  Woo!  Not sure how I'll work both domains, but I think eventually I'll just have one automatically redirect to the other.  And if somebody wants to pay for grayflannelsuit.biz, they can have it.

Last night was tutoring session #1, at a library about a mile from my house (so once the weather gets nicer I can bike there).  I hadn't prepared anything formal, as I just wanted to do some introductory stuff and get a sense for how good her English is.  And fortunately it's pretty decent.  She actually quite the self-starter, and watches this show on one of her Chinese stations that teaches English. 

She's in her mid-40s (by my estimate) and has one adult child who is working back in China now.  She's been on the continent for around 11 years, having spent the first 8 or so living with her husband and son in Montreal.  She's able to communicate her ideas when speaking, which is a big help for me.  I haven't seen her writing yet but she says it's not very good.  

One of her main goals is to become a citizen, so I can probably combine that with the basic English teaching to accomplish two goals at once.  And hey, we already got something accomplished, as she now has a library card.  We'll be meeting every Wednesday for a few hours, so I guess now I have to put together something resembling a lesson plan.

And I've already learned something myself - Chinese women typically do not take their husband's family name when they get married.  So there you go.

When last I wrote about my foray into tutoring, I had expected to get going last fall.  Long story short - it didn't happen.  I managed to get in touch with my student assignee a few times but we could never get a meeting set up.  So last week I received a new assignment from Literacy Volunteers, a Chinese woman also looking to improve her basic English skills and become a citizen.  I sent her an email on Friday and had planned to call tomorrow, but to my surprise she took the initiative and called me last night!

So we have our first session scheduled for Wednesday evening at a local library - I don't plan on doing anything formal, it'll just be a meet n greet type thing.  It's been so long since I took my certification classes that I'll have to dust off my materials and make sure I remember what to do.

For those who haven't hopped on the Christian Bale Meltdown Bandwagon, it's not too late.  Thanks to the AV Club, the original rant and its many progeny are all located in one convenient place.  Even the comments have great links.  So go forth!  Just don't get in his line of sight, whatever you do.

Over on this here website you can see a bunch of imaginary book covers made to look like '60s era novelizations of movies.  Very clever.  Here's a few samples:

I challenge anyone to watch this and not think it's awesome.  Go ahead, try.