Theremins and occilators, oh my!

Lately I've been obsessed with the film music of Bernard Herrmann. I've familiarized myself with the soundtracks to many of his films, and today I decided to actually watch one of them so I could associate these tunes with an actual movie. Today's selection was The Day the Earth Stood Still (rented from my Apple TV too, thank you very much!).



The movie was quite enjoyable, and I'm glad I rented it. However, I noticed they're remaking it, due for release this year. I'm rather wary - I think this is a film that shouldn't be tampered with.

But wait! Bernard Herrmann wrote the score to many other films, including Journey to the Center of the Earth, which - wait for it - is also being remade this year!

I hope they at least use some excerpts from the original scores.

Frary Peak, Antelope Island

Yesterday my friend Justin invited me to go hiking. Together with his wife, his brother-in-law and his wife, we made our way to Antelope Island. We choose the longest, most ass-kicking hike on the island: Frary Peak. It's only about 3.5 miles each way, rising about 1500 feet in the process. It's a decent workout if you're brutally out of shape like I am.


On the way to the trail head.

Looking ESE across the Great Salt Lake towards Kaysville.

Blow snake.

Justin "Irwin" vs. Blow Snake.

OK, this scene didn't really look like this, but the picture is a lot more interesting with the saturation cranked all the way to 11.

The hillllllllllllllls are aliiiiiiiiiiiive with the sound of music!

Justin performing his patented Sleeping Lizard technique.


GREAT SUCCESS

Tiger Swallowtail

More pictures

Booze and Strippers

Tonight I attended a bachelor party.

The person who is getting sold into submission tomorrow is a good friend, and also a good Mormon. Let's do a little comparison of normal bachelor parties and Mormon bachelor parties:

SIGHTS
Normal bachelor party: Naked women gyrating inches from your face.
Mormon bachelor party: The movie UHF.

SOUNDS
Normal bachelor party: Motley Crue and AC/DC.
Mormon bachelor party: The "80s Alternative" station on Sirius radio.

SMELLS
Normal bachelor party: Booze, vomit, the naughty regions of strippers.
Mormon bachelor party: Burnt potato and hair spray due to the logistics of potato guns.

TASTES
Normal bachelor party: Booze, vomit, the naughty regions of strippers.
Mormon bachelor party: Red Vines and Sprite.

TOUCH
Normal bachelor party: Nothing. You can't feel anything from the alcohol.
Mormon bachelor party: Nothing. You still have to stay a safe distance from each other, lest somebody think you're gay.

Jesus Day

I dedicate this post to my good friend Sarah.

I received this wonderful piece of mail today:





My morbid curiosity got the best of me, and I opened the letter to find:

- A welcome letter telling me that this will be the best year of my life thanks to faith and prayer. Conveniently, there is a portion on the back of the letter where I can choose to send some seed money for "God's Work".

- A "Prayer Rug", which consists of an 11" x 17" piece of paper with a drawing of Jesus crying on it.

- A pamphlet describing the various miracles of people who have used the enclosed Prayer Rug. Most of them appear to have been blessed with money. Whether or not this comes from the seed money of God's Work is not mentioned.

- A list of prophecies that will take place. This piece of paper is sealed, and I'm not supposed to open it until I've used the Prayer Rug. If I don't use the Prayer Rug, I am supposed to destroy this list without opening it or reading it.

- A postage-paid envelope I can use to get my free "Deuteronomy 8:18 Prosperity Cross" (along with any seed money I wish to contribute).

The entire package is so amazingly wonderful that I would love to post the complete text of everything. Alas, it's rather lengthy (I couldn't bother to read more than a few sentences myself), but I may take a picture if I feel so motivated.

Admittedly, I haven't thrown any of this away. See, Sarah is busy corrupting her nieces into believing that Jesus didn't put a big yellow pipe in the middle of their street. We all know the truth. Perhaps if I request this Deuteronomy 8:18 Prosperity Cross and gift it to Sarah, she will see the error of her ways and finally admit that Jesus did indeed put a big yellow pipe down her niece's street.

Happy Birthday, Mr. M3

Next year, my car turns 10 years old.

Last night, on the way back from visiting my grandmother, it also hit 100,000 miles.



Some random facts:

- When I bought the car, it had just over 34,000 miles on it. Since it was six years old at the time, that averages about 5,600 miles per year. I have put on about 16,500 miles per year since I've owned it.

- I bought the car on eBay, from an Audi dealer in Dallas, Texas.

- When I hit 100,000 miles, "Don't You Want Me" by The Human League was playing.

- My car surprisingly has only visited three states: Utah, Wyoming and Nevada.

- I average 26.4 mpg, but the car also requires premium gasoline which negates the semi-ok gas mileage.

- I have taken it up to 130 mph and still had to room to accelerate. I didn't go any faster out of fear of wrecking and being caught (no tickets at that speed, they haul you straight to jail).

Google Reader and other thoughts.

1) How come I never knew about Google Reader until now? A ton of you have journals on Blogger, and some of your journal URLs are incredibly long or hard to remember or both. With Google Reader, I have everything all on one convenient page, much like the "Friends" option in LiveJournal. This is SO much easier now!

2) I'm finally opening up this journal to the rest of the public. I don't know if this will be good or bad, but it will be different. My life, on display! Oh the humanity!

3) The song Road of Many Signs by The Herbaliser is rad.

Apple TV, Part Deux

So after a few months of owning my Apple TV, I am quite satisfied with it. My satisfaction grew even more tonight, as I discovered an unintended benefit of it.

I've used the movie rental feature several times. Rather than go to the video store, you log on to iTunes directly through the Apple TV and choose the movie you want to rent. It automatically downloads it to the device, and you can watch it at your leisure.

This works great for the times you don't feel like putting on pants to go to the video store. However, tonight I had the realization that you can also use it to rent movies that you would normally be too embarrassed to actually check out and have to deal with a real person. I did just that thing tonight, and enjoyed watching a movie that I've secretly wanted to see for several years but didn't want to be caught watching in public. No, I will not tell you what it was.

-ian.

So, after having an uncustomary change of thought, I've decided to throw caution to the wind and take my Europe trip after all.

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Monday, June 2 - SALT LAKE CITY UT(SLC) to PARIS FRANCE(CDG)
Delta Flight 170
Depart SALT LAKE CITY UT(SLC) at 05:00PM and
Arrive in PARIS FRANCE(CDG) at 11:15AM (next day)

Tuesday, June 3 - PARIS FRANCE(CDG) to COPENHAGEN DENMARK(CPH)
Air France Flight 2350
Depart PARIS FRANCE(CDG) at 12:50PM and
Arrive in COPENHAGEN DENMARK(CPH) at 2:45PM

- Stay with my favorite Swede for a few days

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Sunday, June 8 - COPENHAGEN DENMARK(CPH) to AMSTERDAM THE NETHERLANDS(AMS)
KLM Flight 1128
Depart COPENHAGEN DENMARK(CPH) at 12:15PM and
Arrive in AMSTERDAM THE NETHERLANDS(AMS) at 1:45PM

- Stay with my friend Saskia for a few days

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Tuesday, June 10 - AMSTERDAM THE NETHERLANDS(AMS) to PRAGUE CZECH REPUBLIC(PRG)
CSA-Czech Airlines Flight 623
Depart AMSTERDAM THE NETHERLANDS(AMS) at 02:40PM and
Arrive in PRAGUE CZECH REPUBLIC(PRG)at 04:05PM

- See Prague for a day and a half

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Wednesday, June 11 - PRAGUE CZECH REPUBLIC(PRG) to YEREVAN ARMENIA(EVN)
CSA-Czech Airlines Flight 930
Depart PRAGUE CZECH REPUBLIC(PRG) at 09:40PM and
Arrive in YEREVAN ARMENIA(EVN) at 04:10AM

- Visit Armenia and Georgia for a week

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Tuesday, June 17 - YEREVAN ARMENIA(EVN) to PARIS FRANCE(CDG)
Air France Flight 2999
Depart YEREVAN ARMENIA(EVN) at 09:45AM and
Arrive in PARIS FRANCE(CDG) at 11:55AM

Tuesday, June 17 - PARIS FRANCE(CDG) to LOS ANGELES CA(LAX)
Air France Flight 72
Depart PARIS FRANCE(CDG) at 01:15PM and
Arrive in LOS ANGELES CA(LAX) at 03:45PM

Tuesday, June 17 - LOS ANGELES CA(LAX) to SALT LAKE CITY UT(SLC)
Delta Flight 3790
Depart LOS ANGELES CA(LAX) at 07:05PM and
Arrive in SALT LAKE CITY UT(SLC) at 10:00PM