rshah21

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As a huge Sorkin fan, I was sad to see the West Wing go, but happy to learn that Bradley Whitford would be back in the fall on a Sorkin vehicle. So I was on the couch, glued to the TV for last night's debut.

First it was interesting to see what were the Bradley Whitford mannerisms as opposed to the character of Josh Lyman from the West Wing. From the hands in the pockets to the way he sits down, to the head angle when talking, there were a few moments when it seemed Josh Lyman was going to break through. I also thought Matthew Perry did a pretty good job (I liked the bit about Pat Robertson).

Amanda Peet on the other hand, needed to stop looking like a kid in a candy store. The twinkle in her eye in every scene seemed too fake, too wide-eyed for someone who had been in the business. She didn't deliver her lines well in the emergency meeting after Judd Hirsch went off in the opening scene.

Finally, the lighting of the show needs some serious work. On a HDTV, the whole thing seemed too dark - it was difficult to pick out certain characters....

On the whole, it wasn't the greatest of premieres, but it didn't fall flat on its face.

Between dealing with a "partner's" arbitrary cuts to my project plan that left my project's rates eroded over 50% (we may walk), a day full of football.

1.) In the Pats game, of the first foiur flags thrown by the zebras, three were picked up, including, for the first time I ever heard one, a no-flag on ap otential false start cause "a whistle was blown in the stands". Poor officiating, or better recognition that the officials are human?

2.) TO's first act in Dallas? Personal foul penalty for a crackback block. Some things don't change. First drive for the cowboys - 8 plays, 8 penalties. Sweet.

3.) Fantasy Football causes some interesting division in loyalties. Because Jae's a Dallas fan, I'm now remotely interested in the Cowboys. Except for Jason Witten - who my fantasy league opponent has starting. For today, Jason Witten is a f*cker

Closed out a four week engagement with a healthcare startup today. Felt like being back in 2000 - Aeron chairs, free food in the kitchen (including my Achilles' heel - Swedish fish), people being brought on every day with no clear roles and responsibilities, tons of employees thinking that content sells....

And now, on to my next engagement - owning an account with a major US gov't agency, dealing with systems that could get Y sent home, permanently. Talk about a jarring change (not bad, just jarring). Working with two other big name tech firms, trying to get them to develop systems using today's tools and technologies, instead of using stuff that was old a decade ago. This is going to be fun.

Picked up some new goodies - an Inno for XM, Verizon V640 EVDO card (plugged it into the Mac, it was working in 2 minutes), Madden 07 for Xbox360 (best feature - no Madden). Amazon continues to enjoy my patronage =)

Only thing missing is the kitchen skin. Though you could probably detach it from the wall with the tool and attach it to one of the two key rings. From Wegner. Price: $1200.00

Turned out to be a pretty good concert. The weather helped (as did the bug spray). There were a few video tributes from the Japanese composers, and a good selection of music - from the golden oldies (Super Mario, Zelda, Sonic) to the new stuff (Warcraft, Prey, and for the encore, the as-of-yet-unreleased Blue Dragon). My only wish is that for a concert so heavy on Final Fantasy (four total pieces, including Aeris' theme, Sepiroth's theme and two others) there was no Final Fantasy footage.

In terms of nerdiness, it wasn't over the top, ala GenCon or ComicCon. J was a little surprised by the male-female ratio (60/40), but chalked that up to the gals supporting their men. The weirdest thing we saw - a male (or extremely butch) Yuna escorted by a farily well done Auron.

Random thoughts entering my third decade of life.....
Thanks mom and dad.
Aug 2nd felt no different that Aug 1st, though 2006 felt A LOT different than 2006
Working all day sucked. Leaving J at the airport that night was tough.

The macbook pro is an awesome machine (well, once you put a ton of RAM in it). Parallels works like a charm, with one nit of it not autodetecting the active network device on its own. But the emulation speed is far beyond "just usable" for most applications.

The workshop phase of the project ends today, so no more cambridge. Working 16 hours a day didn't leave any time to see friends... sorry guys.

On my way to see Play - the orchestral concert of video game music. (J's idea. Lots of local friends coming) Reviews forthcoming

Oh yeah. WB shows on iTMS, including season 1 of B5. That's a buy.

Add Diet Coke with Splenda from a fountain to the list.

For those not paying attention to East Coast news, the Big Dig is falling apart. A large chunk of the tunnel roof connecting I-90 to the Ted Williams tunnel fell into the roadway a couple of days back, killing a woman, and Mormy (I mean Romney) has stepped in and closed most of the Dig. The plus side of this is that we get to see Mitt, trying to look all presidential while talking about undercutting bolts, stress and strain, and wearing one of those orange vests while looking at the tunnel roof and pretending to be an engineer. The minus side is that Boston traffic took one gigantic step backwards - what was a fifteen minute trip from Cambridge to Logan is back to a ninety minute trip. Oh well, time to leave the lounge for the trip back to DC.

So, little more than a month after I move to DC, back to Boston for a 5 week project. Unfortunately, my travel schedule will be insane - Boston Monday to Wednesday, back to DC for Thursdays, back to Boston for Fridays, weekends in DC. J is none too pleased.