Wedding pics! 7/30/2005 11:35:00 AM (See what I'm talking about)


Our wedding pictures are now online. Go to www.markanddana.com to check them out!
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 IMDb Bottom 100 7/28/2005 06:54:00 PM (See what I'm talking about)
I was really, REALLY impressed with this list until I got to number 83, one of my favorites of all time.

Sure, having three "Police Academy" movies on the IMDB worst 100 movies list is understandable. Two "Baby Geniuses" movies is reasonable. Even the 1964 classic "The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!?" makes sense.

But to ignore a shitstorm like "Camp Utopia" for one, and Mikey-Fitz trademark "Bongwater", and instead have the classic, gets-better-every-time "Spice World" on the list?

There is something seriously wrong with IMDB. Seriously.

Addendum: movies on the list that I want to see based on the title alone:
  • Monster a-Go go

  • Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders

  • Future War

  • Santa with Muscles

  • Girl in Gold Boots

  • The Creeping Terror

  • Eegah

  • The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!?

  • Santa Claus Conquers the Martians No shit, I have seen this movie. BUT, it was so long ago (think: Pat Pope, if you know when I hung out with him) that I'm willing to give it another shot.

  • Robot Monster

  • Shanghai Surprise This one sounds dirty, doesn't it?

  • Plump Fiction

  • Surf Nazis Must Die



Aaah. it just leads to the ever-present question: just what did people do before the internet?
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 Blog surfing, comment cruising 7/28/2005 08:04:00 AM (See what I'm talking about)
Just found this friend's blog by following a comment from one of my posts (see where that gets me?) - for someone who doesn't think anyone's reading his blog, he sure talks alot.

Apparently "The Futureheads" have a pretty good album - I've gathered as much from the twelve times he's mentioned that. Also, he likes to poop, and talk about pooping. This much I already knew.

Let's welcome BJ to the "blogosphere" (I really hate that word) and collectively persuade him to get rid of the Fu Manchu, even if we're all just jealous our wives/girlfriends/whatever don't let us get away with ridiculous facial hair. I remember the time I had a moustache for about an hour. That was totally awesome.
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 Updates... 7/28/2005 07:02:00 AM
OK, so things have been a bit lacking in the posts arena lately. No kidding. BUT, I did finally update my and Dana's site, with a splash page at least, and our new snail-mail address so you people can stop emailing and asking us for it. :)

There's also a link on there for our old wedding website (neatly tucked away for your convenience), and D and I are currently in the discussion phase of what we want to do with our site - we're thinking about a community blog, and I'm thinking about the best way to implement one.

I'm also using the site to update my HTML/CSS skillz, as I very possibly may be out of a job in the near future. I'll need some stuff online to show people that I actually know what I'm doing, you know?

In other news, D and I went for a ride last weekend on my birthday (her back was bothering her too much so future rides together will be cut in half in distance until she gets it fixed). D took a trip to the Social Security office to officially change her name - in about 14 days she'll have her new Social Security card, and from there everything else trickles down - credit cards, loans, drivers license and passport (D - don't forget we have to get you a new passport!).

Working from home is going pretty well, but to be honest it can be difficult to concentrate at times. The whiteboard that we bought and installed in the office is actually very useful, though - a visual reminder of things I've yet to do. Too bad we have books stacked up like crazy just beneath it (picture) - makes it a little hard to get to.

Most of our wedding bills are paid off, our proofs from the photographer should be on the way soon, along with a link on our website to her pictures, so keep checking - they should be up there any day now (as soon as I hear from her, they'll go up).
That's about it. Our first confirmed visitors (D and K) will be following me home from Chicago in August (the next time I'm in town to work).

Let me know if you have any ideas for our website - anything you'd like to see. I'm going to (again, building the skillz, you see) create an XML/XSL viewer for our online pictures to make that easier - probably integrated with some ASP (.NET?) action for auto-discovery of new XML files, so that once uploaded everything just works. That's all any of us want anyway, isn't it?
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 Little Woodrow's 7/27/2005 07:31:00 PM


Originally uploaded by MarkFitz.
A better picture...



EDIT: Okay... Maybe it's not that much better... but it's neon!
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Originally uploaded by MarkFitz.
D and I are having a drink (or two?) at our new favorite hangout, Woodrow's. It's next door to the Turkish restaurant we just had dinner at (yummy!). Both of which: two blocks from home! Yay for convenience!
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 Open letter to HC at LATimes.com 7/27/2005 03:31:00 PM (See what I'm talking about)
Hillary vs. the Xbox: Game over: "Of all the games that kids play, which ones require the most mental exertion? Parents can play this at home: Try a few rounds of Monopoly or Go Fish with your kids, and see who wins. I suspect most families will find that it's a relatively even match. Then sit down and try to play 'Halo 2' with the kids. You'll be lucky if you survive 10 minutes.

The great secret of today's video games that has been lost in the moral panic over 'Grand Theft Auto' is how difficult the games have become. That difficulty is not merely a question of hand-eye coordination; most of today's games force kids to learn complex rule systems, master challenging new interfaces, follow dozens of shifting variables in real time and prioritize between multiple objectives.

In short, precisely the sorts of skills that they're going to need in the digital workplace of tomorrow."
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 NASA = National Avian Suicide Assistance? 7/27/2005 06:44:00 AM (See what I'm talking about)
Honestly, is spaceflight and exploration of worlds unknown really worth even one more bird's life? A national tragesty. (I just invented that word, I think. I like it.)

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Originally uploaded by MarkFitz.
D took my picture at the end of ou second pitcher of Shiner Bock at Baker St. pub down the street from our place. I decided to wear my new shades (same as my lost old ones). We went on a ride today and it was HOT AS HELL. We earned our two pitchers. And it's my birthday.
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 Fly the friendly skies! 7/22/2005 01:36:00 PM
...or not. I guess we'll see.

So I was trying to e-check-in for my flight tonight (8pm), hoping there would be some possible better seats available on the flight - when I checked in on Monday in Houston they asked if I wanted to upgrade to the "Economy Plus" seats for an extra $20 - and I made the horrible mistake of turning it down. Well, I didn't want to make the same mistake twice.

As it turns out, I didn't. I just made a different mistake.

So I log in to united's website and went to the e-check-in. Clicked on my flight and hit "request upgrade". Selected the drop-down to use 2x 500-mile upgrade certificates (thinking, "I've got 4000 miles - no problem"). Well, yes. Problem.

I realized when I printed out my ticket that it said "print out and bring your 500-mile upgrade certificate(s) with you to the gate to receive your boarding pass". Realizing something was amiss, I continually tried to get to the "purchase upgrades" link on the ual website to no avail, so ended up calling them. At first I got lost in phone tree hell and had to hang up. After calling back, I knew I was successful when put on hold and told to wait for an agent. Soon enough, I was speaking to a friendly Indian man (at least they didn't make an attempt to disguise his voice, and he didn't say his name was "Joe" or anything bogus like that). Of course, he had to put me on hold when his script didn't tell him what to say, and he said he would "check with his sources".

He came back on the line and told me that if I showed up to the gate with the ticket but no certificates, they would just downgrade me back to my old reservation.

Man, I sure hope so. I want to get home. I'm skeptical, though...
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 LONESTAR ROLLERGIRLS 7/20/2005 09:38:00 AM (See what I'm talking about)
Rollerderby in Austin. What else can I say? We totally have to go!

In other news, I know my posts have been.... lacking lately. I'll make an effort to be more blog-productive when I return home to Houston this weekend. Promise!
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 Uh oh... 7/19/2005 02:56:00 PM
Back in Chicago for work this week. Took a break from my wicked computer skillz and checked out the latest on the PSP: EA announced an SSX game for it.

All I need now is the announcement of an Amplitude/Frequency type game and I can move it over into the "must-have" category.

Oh.. add a Katamari Damacy game to the "wanted" list on PSP as well.
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 Vin Diesel 7/15/2005 07:42:00 AM
He can do anything. ANYTHING!
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Originally uploaded by MarkFitz.
Note to self: the monkfish comes with bones. lots and lots of bones!
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 John Davison's 1UP Blog: What's The Big Idea? 7/07/2005 03:38:00 PM (See what I'm talking about)
This kind of BS just irks me, and the note that the blogger got from his co-guest who happened to be a survivor of Columbine illustrates just how ridiculous some of these things are.

The "media" think they're telling "us" what we want to hear. But what we want to hear is honest debate - not a pre-drawn conclusion. They're feeding the sharks with stuff like this and it's eaten up by the public because nobody wants to turn the mirror on themselves. Listen: who's getting in an uproar about this stuff? Kids? No - parents. Because they don't know how to control their kids, they attack a symptom - not the source - of the true problem: THEM.
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Originally uploaded by MarkFitz.
Awesome. Dana wouldn't let me rent it though...
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 Home! 7/02/2005 08:43:00 AM
Yes, we've arrived safely in Houston. We stayed about an hour and a half outside of Houston on Tuesday night, and pulled into our driveway at about 10:30 or 11:00am on Wednesday. We unloaded the truck straight through until about 2:30 (I only almost passed out once), and went a couple blocks to an Irish pub for some lunch. I had a salad and Shiner Bock, Dana had the fish and chips (of course) and a Miller Lite. I hate to admit it, but I think her light beer was more called for than my darker Bock.

So, we came home, showered, and took a (much needed, well-deserved) nap. We had, throughout the unloading, created a list of essentials (TP, paper towels, beer - that kind of thing), and after rising took a field trip to Target, filled up the car, and found some grub. Came home, continued unpacking, and went to sleep.

We woke up at about 6am on Thursday (Dana had to get to work, and didn't want to pay for parking, so I drove), but had not yet unpacked the coffee machine. D'oh! While Dana slept through instructions on how to fill out forms, I came home and, zombie-like, continued to unpack. Only now (Saturday morning) does it appear that we're beginning to get settled. There are still boxes and packing materials everywhere, but the family room is finally taking form (while Dana was out running this morning and I was watching the Tour, I laid down the rug in the family room and unpacked CDs), and I think I've finally unpacked - and washed - all our new glasses. You should see it - we're more well-stocked than a nice bar (as far as glassware, anyway).

Today, we plan on catching a matinee of Batman, since it's so damn hot (yes, it really is that hot down here - we're told until Halloween), followed by some shopping - I need to find a nice desk to set up my work area.

The apartment, overall, is more spacious than I remembered, and everyone who helped pack the truck (THANK YOU again!) will be excited to learn that I think we might actually need to buy more stuff to fill the place up (including a big desk).

I'm happy to report that getting the DSL working was as simple as plugging in the modem. It just doesn't get more simple. Also, once we found Dana's phone, the VoIP line was just as simple to install - the only hitch was that I guess they recently switched to a new ordering system, so our voicemail wasn't set up yet. All that took was a quick support call (over the VoIP line, of course), with maybe 2 minutes of wait before being helped. And by the time I logged in to my account again, sure enough, the voicemail was set up.

OK, on to the stuff you guys really want to hear (or do you?). Marriage. D and I had a good talk about this last night over dinner (ate across the street from where we had our first lunch on Wednesday, at a BRITISH pub). We both agree that it's weird being married because we both expected to feel some kind of profound change - getting married is a big deal, and we thought it would be more, I don't know, tangible, I guess - but nothing really feels different. The only real difference is that now when we refer to each other it's "My wife.." this and "my husband.." that. It's really the only difference. Sure, we're living together, but let's be honest: we spent most of our time with each other anyway.

So, that's that! Also on the list for today is stopping by a bike shop to find out about local clubs (MUST. GET. ON. BIKE.), and tomorrow our goal is to find a new cellphone for D. This weekend we've got to get the office set up the rest of the way, as D has to begin studying and I need a place to work from on Tuesday that isn't my lap in the TV room (where I am now). Believe it or not, but my computer isn't even working yet - the only one that's hooked up now is the work laptop, and we've been using that exclusively so far. That will have to change.

So, we've still got lots to do, but my work primarily in the kitchen over the past several days while D was at work is starting to pay off (and the fringe benefit is I get to exert my total control over what goes where, which is a real bonus!).

That's enough for today, I think. The live tour coverage is about to start (it's been all pre-race stuff until now and I'm getting bored with it, which is why you get this entry). I'm going to look up movie times (and theatre locations!) and plan out the rest of our day.

Oh yeah - today we've got to return the truck as well! It's been parked out in front of our house since Wednesday. I'm sure the neighbors LOVE that.

Later! Be sure to check Dana's blog later as well - she plans on writing about how "humbling" her run was this morning. I think she partly melted.
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