My morning so far

Lying in bed on my side, staring at the glowing numbers on my clock that say I should have gotten up 15 minutes ago, I give a small cough.

Directly behind me, I hear: SPLASH, clatter, scrabble-scrabble-scrabble.

I know without turning over what sound it is: the sound of my cat being so startled by my tiny cough that she upends my water cup and zooms out of the room. "Thursday, you total spaz," I mutter as I climb out of bed and head to get a towel.

Ah, well; at least the cleanup got me up and moving.

Maybe I should start riding my bike to work ...

I calculated my commuting cost (via UrbanCincy), and here's what I got:


Yikes! That's good money that could be spent on important things like clothes or video games!

The calculator is from Metro, whose point is that sure, a bus pass might cost $40 a month, but look at what driving is costing you! Not to mention the hassle of commuting ...

I don't think I'll be giving up my car just yet. But good job, Metro - you got my attention.

Guitar Hero II rocks my socks

It's been a while since I pulled out the old Guitar Hero II, and it turns out the reason for that is that I was playing it alone. The only reason to play Guitar Hero II alone is to unlock more songs so you can play more with your friends.

Last weekend I carted my game and two guitar controllers up to West Chester, where some friends and I spent hours dueting on the 15 or so songs that were there, and it encouraged me to finish unlocking the rest of those songs. Which I finally did tonight for the Easy difficulty, thanks to a combination of persistence, Star Power, and luck.

So now I'm working on the Medium difficulty, and a couple things are different. For one, I get paid for each song I clear. Now I can visit the store and buy new characters and even songs. Awesome!

Another thing: Tonight I played my three songs to clear the Battle of the Bands venue, and suddenly, the audience is clapping in unison, and the screen flashes, "ENCORE! Do you want to go back on stage?" So I select yes, expecting the fourth song in the set to start up - but instead, some Spinal Tap song I've never heard of before comes on. I play it and clear it ... and now it's there in my setlist, presumably as a permanent option.

This post probably won't make sense if you haven't played Guitar Hero. Which is why you should totally play Guitar Hero.

From texting to movies to the GOP to DRM

Wil Wheaton eloquently sums up how the face of media is changing:

The revolution may not be televised, but it’s being blogged, YouTubed, MySpaced, Facebooked, Dugg and Netscaped.

Yes, the sound bite is hokey, but the column is actually this beautiful summation of every "OMG MSM sux" blog post you've ever read. It'll make you a believer - and, weirdly, make you want to text-message more.

Also! Are you reading Wil's blog? Because you probably should be. It has stuff like the column I posted above, but it also has stuff like this:

This afternoon, while I was trying to pull out a bottle of Tejava (99 cents at Trader Joe's) to enjoy a cool glass of tea, a bottle of clementine Izzie soda looked up at me, shouted, "Hooray! I'm free!" And launched itself onto the floor and landed in a sticky explosion of horrible, entropic freedom.

Of course you're reading his blog. If you weren't, it would just be ... weird.

(Actually, what's weird is that a copy editor in Cincinnati feels the need to promote the keynote speaker of Penny Arcade Expo. I blame the Chardonnay.)

Hello, fall

Welcome back, fall! It's been a while since we've had a good old-fashioned 85/49 day with isolated thunderstorms.

Hmm - I get a B ...

85%The Movie Quiz

FilmCritic.com - Movie Reviews

Game day, part 2

The Buckeye game was a blowout, of course. (Final score: 38-6.)



But every now and then, the scoreboard would flash the scores of other college games that were going on. When that happened, the stadium would erupt with cheers - because we could see that Michigan was losing to Appalachian State.

After the game, my sister and I made our way back to the Varsity Club party, where they had switched the TV over to the Michigan game. And let me tell you, the final five minutes of that game were more exciting than the whole of the OSU-Youngstown State game.



Appalachian State is located in Boone, N.C., which Wikipedia tells me has a population of 13,274. That means it's probable that the Mountaineers had more fans in Columbus yesterday than in their own hometown. (Possibly 10 times as many; the stadium seats over 100,000, and there were thousands more watching at the bars.)

There was pandemonium at the Varsity Club as Michigan's final field goal attempt was blocked:





(Here's a pretty good recap from the AP, and stories from Charlotte and Asheville - which, naturally, capture the mood in Columbus just a bit better than this column from Detroit.)

Game day

In May or June, I got a letter from the OSU athletic department informing me that I've been selected for the honor of purchasing tickets to the Wisconsin game. I immediately sent back a check for $120, which is my way of letting the athletic department know that I'd be honored to accept this honor. And in August, I got a letter informing me that, while they thought they could squeeze me in for the Wisconsin honor, it turns out that one is full, so here are tickets for the Youngstown State honor instead.

I wasn't surprised, because it happens every year. But I feel certain that I am working my way up the food chain, and after 10 years or so, I will be able to attend, say, the Northwestern game.

Anyway, I took my sister along.



If you go to a Buckeye football game, especially a non-conference game, there is a good chance you will spend so much time at the parties outside that you might not make it into the stadium.




But we got there by halftime, which was cool, because it was alumni band day, so we got to see four Script Ohios forming at once (the student band has two little ones going in the end zones):






Gotta love Script Ohio.