Your Mom's A Blog

Some time ago a friend of mine who worked for The Company propagated hs wife's tendency to make mom jokes. This tradition carried to a variety of conventions and I couldn't help but bring it back to the lab where I work. Ever since, I kept a record of all the jokes that were made. I've been meaning to post them to a blog and have finally gotten around to doing it. A lot of people contributed to this list and I thank everyone for their participation. I encourage everyone to take a look. The link to the blog can be found in the sidebar of my blog. Enjoy!

Inside the Actors Studio

The truth is that I watched a few episodes of Inside the Actors Studio last year and basically have been watching it ever since. I still haven't seen all the episodes of past seasons, but I've seen enough to know that James Lipton askes the stars 10 questions at the end of every show. These 10 questions originally came from a French series, "Bouillon de Culture" hosted by Bernard Pivot. Since I'm a long way off from being invited to the Studio, I figured I would answer the questionaire right here, right now:

1. What is your favorite word?

Yes.

2. What is your least favorite word?

No.

3. What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?

Discovering and/or understanding a part of myself that was previously unknown.

4. What turns you off?

Laziness and Disaffectedness.

5. What is your favorite curse word?

Goddamnit. If that's not a real curse anymore, then "mother f@#&er."

6. What sound or noise do you love?

In soccer, the loud compression sound made when a hard shot is taken on goal and it is deflected off the goalkeeper's body (not hands).

7. What sound or noise do you hate?

Loud, melodramatic, fast, and repeated wet kisses between people trying to get attention in public.

8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?

Acting.

9. What profession would you not like to do?

Mining.

10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?

Yes Hayden, you understood.

Unexpected Events

I successfully managed to survive Guildpact PreRelease this weekend, though I'm sore and tired as hell (playing soccer last night didn't help, but it sure was fun). As usual, I drove Friday night to Long Island, stayed in a nearby hotel for the night and then got up obscenely early to drive to the location and start the show. I think we had about 130ish unique players on Saturday. Everything went well, save for a fire alarm which required us to evacuate the tournament room with 3 flights in process. This was a new experience for me, but the arrangement I decided on worked well. We had everyone evacuate with the judges leaving last. When it was safe to go back inside, we let the judges in first and had them watch the tables. Then we let players in flight by flight, but only if they had their cards on the table frozen "mid-game." Finally, we let everyone else in. Worked like a charm. Beyond this, there were no drawbacks except that it was a very long day and I was beat. I drove back Saturday night and got some sleep (not much) before heading down to Neutral Ground for day 2 of the PreRelease. Again, there were no major problems, though by the end of the day I was so exhausted that I was barely able to think straight - let alone understand the questions players were asking (now imagine me going to soccer and playing in goal -cause that's what I did). I think Northeast attendences for Guilpact were pretty much as expected. Not sure how this set compated to Ravnica, because I had to leave before our boss got to Neutral Ground (soccer freak that I am), but I suspect it was close enough. The real shocker of the weekend was finding out that my mentor was re-hired by the company he worked for (though in a different department), so he will in fact not be leaving and will in fact remain head judge for NYC. The plus side to this is that I won't have the pressure of head judging everything, but the downside is that I don't get that nice pay increase that comes with being a head judge. Well, that's life for ya and it doesn't really impact my plans - I'm still going to pursue my Level 3 status because one never knows what the future may hold.

In homage to The Girard, the above-left image is the card he was referring to in the comments section of my previous post...sort of. Problem is, so is the guy to the right, who happens to have the specific text of interest. They are both good, but will the real Girard please stand up?

Guilpact on the Horizon

Wow, it's been over two weeks since I've posted an entry. I guess part of the reason is because nothing special has happend. I haven't really went anywhere or done anything out of the ordinary. I wish I could be more like Steve and talk about what I do during the day (I love reading all the minute details of what happens), but I feel like that would be a waste for most of the people that read this blog. Why? Well, because my day would go something like this: "The mouse bone samples I embedded in plastic solidified much quicker than the last batch and I think this is because I was using an old (and contaminated) N,N-dimethyl-p-toluidine stock last time. I did some thin (2 micron) sectioning of bone samples myself for the first time today and I did a good job at it. However, there are folds in the sections and this needs to be remedied before I actually analyze the sections via FTIRI spectroscopy." See, nobody wants to hear that crap do they? I know I don't.

Prehaps of more interest is that soccer has been going very well. I've settled into my position of keeper quite nicely and am improving each week. I'm one of 4 keepers in my club as of now and that's barely enough for the number of teams we will be feeding into our large indoor tournament at the end of March. I'm slowly buying keeper gear in order to make my efforts a bit less painful, but my current credit card bill is, for the first time ever, greater than the amount of money in my checking account, so I'm trying to stretch the purchases out. Nobody's complaining, though. In fact, I get a fair amount of praise. Last Monday, for example, I made a truly impressive, professional save where I dove and had near full body extension. Simply infuego. I've got to start doing more administrative stuff for my club, though, as I'm the officer in charge of Membership. So, tonight after a lecture downtown I'm going to make a run from one bar to the next and drop off flyers promoting our club. My goal is to do this and not shell out a single dollar for covers, drinks, or one-night stands.

I guess there's no better way to end this post than to note that it's nearing the end of January and that means a new Magic expansion is on the horizon. Guildpact PreRelease events are this weekend which means I'll be crazy busy the whole weekend, and may even be late to soccer on Sunday night (ugh). This PreRelease will likely be the most memorable and bitter sweet of all because it will be the last event that my Level 3 mentor will be at. I actually won't get to see him on Saturday, because he'll be in NYC and I'll be on Long Island running the one day PreRelease we have over there at Hofstra. Still, I'll see him on Sunday when I help him in NYC, but I will be both happy and sad.

Netflix for the New Year?

One of my New Year's Resolutions is to watch a lot of movies. In a way I'm cheating with this because I tend to watch a lot of movies as it is (very often 3 a week). When I signed up for Netflix a few years ago, things really took off and I can honestly say that the membership is worth every penny. One of the great things about Netflix is how you can link your account to the accounts of your friends. You can then see what they have at home, what's in their cue, how they've rated movies, and so on.

If any of you out there have Netflix accounts, send me a friend request (hayden-william.courtland@mssm.edu)!

For those of you that already have access to my account or will soon have access, here are some important facts about how I rate movies (note that Netflix only permits ratings from 1 star to 5 stars):

• I have rated over 1,300 movies on Netflix (you can rate movies you see in the theater, not just rented movies)
  
• If I rate a movie 5 stars, chances are good that I own it
  
• If I rate a movie 4 stars, it means I had a really good time watching it
  
• Since I can't give 0.5 star ratings I round borderline ratings up
  
• Certain movies get rated high because they are exempt from normal movie requirements (e.g., 007 movies, Transporter movies are supposed to be fantastical and over the top)
  
• If a movie takes itself seriously in a dramatic way and there is no character growth by the end of the movie, I will not like the movie