My Boss.

My boss heard me cough at work tonight. Now, for most folks this isn't any big deal, except that our department chair, along with his other shortcomings, is something of a hypochondriac. So, the cough was followed by a few concerned questions about my health, a lecture about getting a flu shot and, as he was leaving, an urging to go home and get some rest so I can get better.

The thing is, he has no idea that I came to work ragingly sick last week (with the same nasty cold that sidelined Mary Ann and Sarah) and put out the paper while feeling absolutely miserable. That's because he never actually spent enough time in the office (at least, outside his closed door during business hours when everyone else is there) to know I was coughing and hacking and sneezing all over that place, and this little cough tonight is just part of the final death throes of said cold.

He is so clueless sometimes...

Eating Our Dollars.

From the L.A. Times comes this fascinating look at the world of Nigerian scam email. Now I gotta hear this 419 song...

My Foggy Crystal Ball.

Well, so much for my bold predition of a Cardinals/Angels World Series. I'm not too broken up, though, since I get my wish for a White Sox/Astros series, which is infinitely cooler. I can't remember the last time I watched a World Series in which I had a reason to root for both teams. Should be exciting...

Glory Hallelujah.

Well, it took them five games but the Angels have just now (finally) beaten the Yankees in the ALDS. While I'm not an especially big fan of the Angels, it's always nice to see the local boys do good (particularly in the absense of any quality play by my Dodgers). But even better, I'm just happy to see the Yankees go home empty-handed, and for the post-season to finally be free of any fevered coverage of the Yanks and/or Sox. For the time being, at least, the baseball world no longer rotates on that damn Boston/New York axis.

While, in my heart, I'm hoping for an Astros/White Sox World Series, I know it'll probably be the Angels and Cardinals instead. But I suppose I could live with that.

The Horror. The Horror.

What Classic Movie Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Separated at Birth.

Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Jeff Weaver and Puddle of Mudd lead singer Wes Scantlin -- one and the same? You be the judge. Just remember -- you never see them at ballgames or concerts together!

Important Things You Need to Know.

How much caffeine would it take to kill you? Or how about chocolate mints?

You cannot go about the rest of your day without this vital information.

Stuck.

Foxtrot.
Uniform.
Charlie.
Kilo.

It's been stuck in my head for days now.

Foxtrot.
Uniform.
Charlie.
Kilo.

Not that I'm complaining too much, mind you, since I like the song. But I just with my mental radio would change stations once in a while.

Put the you-know-what
In the you-know-where.

My Kids.

I'm back from my vacation! I hope ya missed me.

I know I promised updates on the new baby, so here ya go:

As for the vital data.... Hunter Lee was born on Monday, July 18, 2005, at 8:21 a.m. He was 7 lbs. 9 oz. and 19 inches long.

And here's a picture of Sarah reading him a book:



So now I'm back at work after a full month off and trying to dig out from under the accumulated junk waiting for me. More updates and photos to come as my workload allows.

Vacation Time.

A great perk about working at a school is the long vacations I can take during the summer months. So, in about half an hour, I'll be out the door, enjoying four whole weeks off. Woo-hoo!

Of course, this year my long break will be cleverly disguised as paternity leave, since Hunter is scheduled to be born on Monday.

So, don't expect a lot of post from me in the coming weeks (as if you would otherwise), but I'll try to log on to post some pictures at some point.

See y'all later! Don't break shit while I'm gone!

A Day Late... But So What?

You Are 35% American

America: You don't love it or want to leave it. But you wouldn't mind giving it an extreme make over. On the 4th of July, you'll fly a freak flag instead... And give Uncle Sam a sucker punch!

How American Are You?

And remember on this Independence Day... You can't spell AMERICA without ERIC!

Linkzzzzz.

Here are some fine web comics I've been grooving on lately...

Dinosaur Comics
Alien Loves Predator
And, of course, that old reliable, Spamusement

And, in a completely unrelated note, check out this site and explain to me why Ke Huy-Quan's skin cells are all sold out.

My Mark VII Fix.

I've been remiss in not mentioning how utterly cool it is that Dragnet 1967, the first season of Jack Webb's '60s revival, is finally available on DVD.

The packaging is a little screwy (17 episodes on three discs means 14 episodes on a double-sided disc 1, three episodes on disc 2, and an episode of the radio series -- the set's lone extra feature -- on disc 3), but the shows themselves are killer. By the time Webb made these shows, his hard-bitten noir sensibilities are drifting into campiness and his worldview had become seriously out of touch with the burgeoning youth culture of the time. It's a classic combination, and there's some killer dialogue to boot. ("Don't make my partner lean on you, because when he leans on you, he comes in hot and heavy and deep and doesn't stop until he strikes oil!")

Current music: Ozomatli's "Street Signs". Groove, baby, groove!

I Wouldn't Normally Do This Sort of Thing.

...but some celebrity gossip is just too bizarre (and totally believable) not to share.

I've developed some newfound respect, not just for Scarlett Johansson, but for all those other young actresses who said "no" before Katie Holmes stumbled along.

Updates Ahoy.

Oh, what's going on in the World of Eric?

• Well, Hunter finally has a birthday now -- July 18. We're counting down the days in anticipation, although Mary Ann's pregnancy has taken a bit of a rough turn the past couple weeks. We'll get her through it, though.

• Is Hee-Seop Choi turning into a monster or what? Now, if you can just stay consistent and not lapse into long cold stretches every couple weeks, people outside of Los Angeles might actually start to pay attention to him. And I have to say, it's so wonderful to see how the Dodger fans have embraced the big goofy Korean kid so quickly.

• Sarah is becoming insanely fanatic about the Dodgers. Not only has she picked up the "Hee-Seop Choi" chant (which comes out sounding like "chay-chay-cho"), but she also loves shouting out the names of several of the other players whenever the spirit moves her. Her other favorites are Eric Gagne and the euphonious J.D. Drew (or, as she says, "day dee doo").

• Lastly, and most importantly, if you've got any extra love to give, send it out to fishbowlsoul. She got the worst news of all yesterday. We're thinking of her over here at Eric's House...

Time to Get... "Personal."

I know it's been forever since I've posted, and I promise to catch y'all up real soon, but first I had to share this little "pick-me-up." (Be sure to click on the 56k preview link.)

Oh, Billy Dee.... You know how to get me all weak in the knees!

Goodbye, Nori.

I know I'm awfully late in talking about this, but life's been busy -- so, hey, cut me some slack, a'ight?

Anyway, the other day the Dodgers dropped Norihiro Nakamura from the 40-man roster and outrighted him to Triple-A. I'm really sad to see him go because I was rooting so hard from him to make a go of it in America. After an impressive career in Japan, he turned his back a mega-money offer over there and took the MLB minimum salary in order to chase his dream of playing in the American major leagues. Unfortunately, that feel-good story was derailed by his .128 average and his absolute inability to hit anything. It's such a shame because he seems like such a great, humble guy and he did pretty good in Spring Training, so this sort of free-fall was unexpected. But I really like him and I hope he can get his swing straightened out in Las Vegas and find success somewhere, even if it's not with the Dodgers.

What makes this whole a thing doubly a shame is that, for the first time in quite a few years, it leaves the Dodgers without a Japanese player on their roster. You have to remember, this is the team that started the whole flood of Japanese major leaguers coming to America by signing Hideo Nomo in 1995. Since then, Los Angeles' Japanese-American community has rabidly supported the team and the Japanese media could always be seen closely following Nomo, Kaz Ishii, and even Dave Roberts. But no longer. At least Hee-Sop Choi is around to give the Korean community someone to idolize. (Did Choi steal Nori's mojo? How the hell would you explain that he would ever be hitting over .300?)

Other Dodger News: If you're like me, I know you've missed Tommy Lasorda's hyperbolic ramblings since he stopped managing. Well, you can stop being so wistful because now, thanks to MLB.com's promotional juggernaut, the man himself has his own blog. Now his True Blue rants have taken on a cranky-old-man quality, but in true Tommy fashion, his sidebar is dedicated to links to his favorite Italian restaurants from across the country. Check it out. Just don't ask him what he thinks of Dave Kingman's performance. (How perfect is it that that clip is hosted by Kingman's official site? Does anyone know if an un-bleeped version exists anywhere online?)

Another Fun-tastic Music Meme.

This one comes courtesy of... well, I don't know where it started, really, but I swiped it from the industrious elves over at The Generik Brand. Basically, it's a list of 30 bands/artists you've seen live. I think I'm supposed to take bands from someone else's list and then add my own, but that's too complicated, so I just made a new list. Mine is in no particular order, except that I've tried to put the bigger names toward the top so you all don't have to slog through the legions of unsigned local bands you've never heard of. So, here it is in all its glory. Try not to laugh at some of them...

1. Sonic Youth
2. Beck
3. Mudhoney
4. Pavement
5. The Breeders
6. Bruce Springsteen
7. Sting
8. Joan Baez
9. Tracy Chapman
10. Peter Gabriel
11. Yousou N'Dour
12. Village People
13. Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
14. The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
15. Sebadoh
16. Everclear
17. Mecca Normal
18. Rocket From the Crypt
19. Kurt Cobain (solo)
20. Th' Faith Healers
21. Ethyl Meatplow
22. Geraldine Fibbers
23. The Spinanes
24. The Jesus Lizard
25. Oingo Boingo
26. Nothing Painted Blue
27. Pavement
28. Beat Happening
29. Nation of Ulysses
30. Slant 6

And so on, and so on, and so on...

More Meme Madness.

A new music meme has been making the round. And, lordy, I'm not one to pass up a good music meme. Here we go...

The Music Meme

1. Total volume of music files on my computer:

Since I'm doing this from my work computer, I'm proud to report it's 7.42 GB, made up of 1,488 songs lasting 3 days, 19 hour, 52 minutes and 24 seconds.

2. The Last CD I bought was:

Um.... Uh.... I guess it was "The Eminem Show." There must've been something more recent... Hmmm...

3. The Last Song I Listened To Before Writing This:

"That Old Sweet Roll" by Dusty Springfield. "Dusty in Memphis" is a classic album.

3b. Song I'm Listening to Now/First Song That Came Up On Shuffle:

"True" by Concrete Blonde. Their self-titled debut album is one of my all-time essential discs. It made a deep impact on me when it came out.

(Note: While typing the above answer, the next song came up on shuffle. It's "The Fish Cheer & I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag" by Country Joe and the Fish. While I love the song, my iTunes insists on bringing it up on shuffle at every opportunity. Is my computer secretly a hippie?)

4. Five Songs I Listen To A Lot:

Thanks to iTunes accurate stats-keeping, here are my top five most-played songs, plus one that just barely missed the cut, but warrants a mention anyway:

1. "Sister Christian" by Night Ranger. Laugh if you must, I love how full of cheesy goodness it is. Which is why I got such a laugh out of the scene with it in "Boogie Nights." That coked-up air-keyboarding dude is me, man. Only with Coca-Cola, not the other kind of coke. Really.

2. "The Fish Cheer & I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag" by Country Joe and the Fish See? What did I tell you about my computer's secret love for this song? Maybe it just wants to thwart me by blasting out the "F-U-C-K" cheer whenever my coworkers are around.

3. "Gamen (Vulture)" by Garmarna A blistering rock version of an old Scandanavian folk song, courtesy of these Norwegian musical archivists/revisionists. It's the opening cut of their "Vengeance" album -- seek it out.

4. "Just Dropped In" by Kenny Rogers and the First Edition Another great old song made even better by its inclusion in a classic movie scene, this time from "The Big Lebowski." I still have a hard time believing this comes from the same guy who gave us "The Gambler" and "Through the Years," but that just adds to its appeal for me.

5. "Crazy Train" by Ozzy Osbourne Hands down, the greatest metal song ever. Ever! If I were a Major League closer, this would be my entrance music, although I think someone's already using it. (Billy Wagner? Jason Isringhausen? I forget.) But as much as I love "Crazy Train," I have to swear by the Dodger-blue blood that runs through Tommy Lasorda's veins that the best closer/entrance music combination has to be Eric Gagné's "Welcome to the Jungle." Magical and intense to witness in person. To quote the bobblehead from last year's Dodgers commercials, "GAGNE RAWKS!!!"

6. "Giant Robot-Birdhead" by the Aquabats Currently, this is just one play away from cracking my top five, but I had to include it just because I love it so much. For a while now, I've been trying to think of a good mixed CD theme to use this with, and I think I've finally found it. Maybe I'll use it for the next mix exchange. We'll see.

5) Five people I am passing this baton to:
Well, I've already seen Mary Ann's and KassRachel's answers to this, so I'd be interested in seeing what Generik, Jeff or Fred have to add.

Now, just for the sake of anal completeness and a random look into my musical psyche, here are all the songs that came up in my iTunes shuffle while I was working on this meme:

1. "That Old Sweet Roll" by Dusty Springfield
2. "True" by Concrete Blonde
3. "The Fish Cheer & I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag" by Country Joe and the Fish
4. "If This is It" by Huey Lewis and the News
5. "Frozen Sunshine" by Headboard
6. "Good Vibrations" by the Beach Boys
7. "25 or 6 to 4" by Chicago
8. "See a Little Light" by Bob Mould
9. "El Tieso Y La Negra Soledad" by Maldita Vecindad & Los Hijos Del Quinto Patio
10. "Nowhere to Run" by Crystal Method With Ozzy Osbourne, DMX, Ol' Dirty Bastard & Fuzzbubble
11. "House of Leaves" by Poe
12. "Just Lose It" by Eminem
13. "Drain You (live)" by Nirvana
14. "Tell Me You Love Me" by Frank Zappa

JYNX!

Here's some random non sequitur fun-ness for your day. Enjoy!

Random Comic Generator v2.0 by Delya
Nickname
Paper or plastic?	PaperPlasticneithernonebubble wrap
panel 1
panel 2
panel 3
Quiz created with MemeGen!