I’ve been fortunate enough to have met some of my favorite authors and musicians.  I’ve met Billy Corgan, Chuck Palahniuk, David Sedaris (twice!), and just last night Augusten Burroughs.  I love getting to see and actually talk to these people.  They’re always really nice and accomodating – signing your books, chatting with you for a few minutes, sometimes taking pictures with people, etc.

My problem is that I always seem to freeze up when it comes to having something to say to them when I get to the front of the line.  I don’t know if it’s some kind of star-struck thing.  I don’t think it is.  I think that mostly it’s that I tell myself that there’s nothing I could possibly say to them that they haven’t heard before.  And I know that’s not necessarily true, but what could I say in my minute or two of seeing them that would be worthy of their listening?  I can never come up with anything at the time.  Maybe I should start thinking about this stuff beforehand and write it down so I don’t forget and freeze up.

I always think of something as soon as I’m leaving though.  Like last night, I should have asked – indeed, wanted to ask – what advice he would give aspiring writers.  But I failed.

Well, next month I get to meet a couple more of my favorite authors, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child and I’ll be sure to make sure I have my question written down so I don’t forget it this time.

In no particular order:

1. Finding out my cousin didn’t like Forrest Gump, and in fact doesn’t like Tom Hanks.
2. Finding out my friend has never played Clue.
3. Witnessing two people get kicked out of a college classroom.
4. Completely understanding the implementation of OAuth.

Yesterday the NC House tentatively passed a bill that would ban smoking in businesses that serves or employs anyone under the age of 18. While it’s not a 100% ban, it’s one step closer to a smoke-free NC. The final vote is scheduled for today, and if it passes, then it will move to the Senate.

The opposition to the bill doesn’t even sense to me. Someone said in the debate on the bill that “if you ban smoking, you should also ban fast food because that can cause obesity.” That argument fails completely on it’s relation to smoking. Sure fast food isn’t good for us, but if you eat fast food in public, I don’t get fatter because of that. If you smoke in public, then I am directly affected.

Similarly, a lady on the news last night was angry because, “It’s a personal choice. Everyone should be able to choose.” Does that apply to me? If I choose to not want to get lung cancer from your secondhand smoke, what choice do I have? Your choice to smoke ceases to be strictly personal when you do it outside of your own home, directly affecting my health.

If it were up to me (and I’m aware that my view is very extremist) I’d charge everyone who smokes in public with negligent homicide.

Go here -> http://www.capitolconnect.com/smokefreenc/ to contact the NC legislators and let them know we want a smoke free North Carolina.

If you’re interested in hearing the big band jazz ensemble in which I play trumpet (The Route 55 Jazz Orchestra), here are the mp3’s from our 2008 Winter concert.

Route 55 Jazz Orchestra – 2008 Winter Concert

Let me know what you think!

For the first time in quite a while, it snowed here in Raleigh.  Its not something that happens too frequently, so when it does, it’s a big deal.  I went out this morning and took some pictures.  Here they are for your visual stimulation.

On January 13, 2008 I saw my 1000th movie, The Brothers Solomon.  Today, January 13th, 2009, I saw my 1130th movie, Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives.  If you do that math, that’s 130 unique movies seen in the last 366 days (2008 was a leap year); a new movie every 2.8 days.  Admittedly, I tend to accumulate things in a more marathon fashion rather than a regular viewing schedule.  It’s not uncommon for me to get three or four movies at once from Blockbuster and watch them the same day, or go to see all 14 movies in the theater in six days.

You may be saying to yourself, “That’s incredibly sad.  Don’t you have anything better to do with your time?”  We can’t all have noble and philanthropic baby-seal-saving and homeless-shelter-building hobbies like you.  My only regret is that movie watching is an incredibly passive hobby to have.  Maybe in the future I’ll start offsetting my time spent movie watching with beach volleyball or croquet.

• @farrelley We use the ZF coding standard: http://tinyurl.com/o54k5 in reply to farrelley #
• Franklyn looks awesome! http://tinyurl.com/9mqcay Kind of V for Vendetta’esque #
• Smart car hits concrete headon at 70 MPH – http://tinyurl.com/a4v3wo #
• @aelst Ooo, that does sound like something I’d be interested in. I’ll add it to my list. in reply to aelst #
• President Bush just said, “Clearly, placing a Mission Accomplished banner on an aircraft carrier was a mistake.” Ya think? #
• @jason_austin It’d be awesome if he showed up with a 20 foot wide satellite dish to install next to your trampoline in your front year. in reply to jason_austin #
• @jason_austin Awesome, where’s the picture? in reply to jason_austin #
• @jason_austin OH NOES! in reply to jason_austin #
• @faasie I do in reply to faasie #
• @jason_austin Does it have to face South or something? in reply to jason_austin #
• @jason_austin I bet I know how you could fix that problem… How much do you hate TWC? Heh. in reply to jason_austin #
• Good article: Retweeting @BradleyHolt: Frequently Forgotten Fundamental Facts about Software Engineering: http://short.ie/mtcq5c #
• @jthurtea I’m not, but that’s only because I get a ridiculously awesome price…otherwise I’d be going somewhere else too. Their DVR blows. in reply to jthurtea #
• @jason_austin @AlexTWC I’d be much happier with their shitty DVR operating system if they offered a cafeteria plan for selecting channels. in reply to jason_austin #
• Glad I’m not at the #ncsu_oit today…apparently it’s as hot as the surface of the sun there. #
• Holy crap, this guy on TV is geting his eyeballs tattooed!!!!!! #
• Creepy! This lady has the world’s smallest waist. She lives in Manteo. http://tinyurl.com/yevqnh #
• Holy…crap… Vengaboys – Boom, Boom, Boom is on 90’s on 9 #
• Jazz band practice #
• Goin to the gym #
• @eyaustin Pages FTW! in reply to eyaustin #
• @MrTweet @rohitbhargava Stage 4, working towards stage 5 in reply to MrTweet #

Is it just me or does the governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich have an uncanny resemblance to Steve Carell?

My wife and I wanted to have a Futurama wedding cake for our wedding, so we contacted a local bakery, Edible Art, and had them take a crack at it.  I highly recommend Edible Art if you’re in within a few hours of Raleigh, NC.  We never got to see any sketches or anything before the reception, so we were a bit nervous about what it would look like.  But it turned out that they did a completely amazing job!  They even delivered it the three hours to the reception.  Here are a few pictures of the cake.

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Here are the pictures from our honeymoon on the island of Moorea in French Polynesia.  Moorea is said by many to be the most beautiful island in the world.  From what I’ve seen of the world so far, I think I’d tend to agree.  You can enjoy the pictures and see for yourself though.

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