Friday Variety Plate 10|1|10

It’s another getaway edition of the variety plate. I’ll be heading west this weekend toward the Eifel region of Germany. In other news of travel, I’ll be heading to Berlin and Belfast, Ireland, in the near future. That won’t stop the variety plate from being served. Let’s get this thing rolling:

Of Note

• I like the idea of shirtmockup.com, but not sure I could afford buying $45 one-off t-shirts, though. Still, fun to noodle with plastering photos all over the front of a good distressed black t-shirt.
• For some reason, I started singing Michael Bolton’s song “Everybody’s Crazy” Wednesday. Bolton, if you didn’t know, started out as a, umm, heavy metal guy … sorta. The video is apparently available to American viewers, the song is NOT available on iTunes, but Bevis and Butthead do fine job blowing him and others up in this parody, here.
• If you can find it, “The History of Rap” video from the Jimmy Fallon Show with Fallon and Justin Timberland performing a medley of rap tunes spanning the ages is pure genius. It also reminded me of a throwback variety show. When the duo hit “Paul Revere” by Beastie Boys. I suspect the content has moved from its hijacked location (YouTube) to its more revenue friendly home (Hulu).
• It was a great week for viral video. I haven’t checked the schedule, but Navy vs. Air Force must be coming up soon. That prompted this video, which is really well done, especially when he pushes the pseudo Navy guy aside.
• yWriter is great and is working itself into being my de facto writing software over MS Word. It’s a well organized database piece of software that allows you to think of your work as a project and break stories out by task, sections, keep character notes and bios and much more. It’s free, too.
• I did a new Army of Ermas column about my family’s new guinea pigs. My writing column this week talks about the discipline and organization needed to be a published, marketable writer.
• My sister is shooting football stars of the future. Here’s her new web site.
• Finally, Joe Satriani’s new record, Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards, is out. Great podcasts about each track are here.

My Prediction for the Raiders Game

Cynics would say “Same old Raiders.” I’ll keep optimism around for a couple of more weeks. Last week’s loss came at the hands of a field goal kicker, one of the best, at that. Still, a loss is a loss. Next up is the Houston Texas, who looked tired against the Dallas Cowboys last week. The Raiders have the 3rd best defense in the NFL, according to NFL.com. That will help against league-leading rusher Arian Foster, who got 400+ yards. Meanwhile, the Texas have the next-to-worst defense in the league and Bruce Gradkowski and company are hitting their stride. It’s a home game and, for some reason, this game has an upset feel to it. That is, the Raiders could upset the Houston Texans, unless the Raiders get gashed by Foster, which is a real possibility. The spread is 3, which means the pundits are saying this is dead even. I don’t buy it. Raiders are stinging from the loss last week. Texans want to avenge the loss against the hapless Dallas Cowboys. Tough call, but Darren McFadden is only 60 yards behind Foster in rushing yards. All things being equal, I’ll pick my team to win. Raiders 27 Texans 16.

I’m killing my fantasy football team lineup since its a narrow audience and introducing …

The Last Bits I Wrote in My Manuscript

From Galactic Milk:

“Grab your things and get aboard the airship, quickly,” Jetta told Chain. Larry watched the old man go back to the ship, remove two small rollaway suitcases and walk toward the dirigible.

“You race thousands of light years and you pack like you’re staying the weekend at La Quinta,’ Larry said as he walked by.

They all boarded the airship and started off again.

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