Christmas 2015

It was our merriest yet.  I hope yours was too.

My Pal, Adrian Rawlins

When Harry Potter was new and stuff, people said I looked a little like Harry, but in recent years I have been told I look like James Potter*, Harry's pops from the Harry Potter movies, especially once he grew his hair out in the later films, and I had to agree.  But now, thanks to Elise (and her remarkable find regarding comparison photos), we have this handy little side-by-side situation, so what do YOU think??

!!!!!  Seriously, I love how even our hair is parted and falling the same way and the sideburns and scarf and glasses and all.  I'm even wearing my oh-so-English Oxford shirt.  It would have been perfect if my beard hadn't been so full, and had I but known the significance this picture would someday have, I might have shaved it off!  HA.  But James sort of has a little scruff going on here, so it still works.  (And sure, he's 20+ years older than I am, but still.)  Now we have to name one of our future children Harry!  (Don't worry, Elise, we aren't touching "Albus Severus"... and no one ever should.)

Some kind of dream come true?  Probably.  I love SO much that my doppelganger is an HP actor. XD


* Let the record show that I did NOT look like young James in any of cinematic incarnations...  Yikes.

WHAT apout QUESTS

Also while Elise was here I was introduced to a new favorite YouTube video...  It's funnier if you understand the context, so without giving too much away, here is the story:

So there's a newish sort of online video game called Super Press Space to Win Adventure (you can play it here, it seriously takes approximately two minutes).  It's sort of a joke, and everything its name implies, designed to be really easy and a sort of parody of the old-school pixelated graphics video games of yesterdecade.  Well, evidently someone didn't get the joke.  In his online review, the now-infamous "axman13" furiously vented his frustration at such a simple game.  This has now been recorded as a dramatic reading and paired with and epic soundtrack and genius Flash text animation.

And now, I give you...

Dot Dot Dot.



I cry every time.  It's just perfect, the rhythm, the passion, the fury.  I mean LOOK AT IT!  Many, many thanks to Elise for introducing me to this gem of the interwebs.  And, you're welcome, everyone else, for passing it along to you.

He even responded to the video!  He actually (says he) likes it!  But he's still illiterate.  There was also a brief interview included in this artic.  It's hilarious.  Oh, that kid.  He was indeed 13 at the time.

P.S. The same time this video was introduced to me, Elise also showed me this notorious little piece, which I had somehow never seen until that moment.  All I can say is wow.  And also we we we so excited.

Ye Olde Englande, Week 7: A Lot of Last-Week Sight-Seeing

We were amazed at the start of last week to realize that we were down to single-digit numbers of days before we left London for home.  Time has been going fast, but we're making the most of our time here.  Julie has done a wonderful job of summarizing all of the events of this past week, but I'm going to share one highlight here, which incidentally revolves again around the theatre.

As much as I love musical theater, there are a lot of sort of standard shows that I still just haven't seen for whatever reason.  Sometimes it's just because, while I really like the show and/or the music, it's just sort of trendy at the time, and I'm not willing to stand in line for hours or pay hundreds of dollars or travel thousands of miles just to see it.  So, when I discovered Wicked was playing here, I figured it would be the perfect time to see it in a permanent venue (as opposed to a touring production), and probably at much less cost and time commitment than if it were to come back through Salt Lake City.  I found a really good deal on tickets online for a day that was perfect, and took great comfort in knowing that, rain or shine, the show would go on.  Sure enough, it was raining as we walked into the beautifully-decorated and green-lit lobby of the Apollo Victoria Theatre.

Though I have long loved the music and the Oz origin story concept, I was fully prepared to find Wicked satisfactory at best, as most contemporary shows are a lot of hype and, ultimately, fluff.  Well, Wicked was a little fluffy in parts, but I also found it thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish!  Julie, who isn't quite as into any and all musicals as I am, endured this very poppy, perky musical like a champ, and we agreed that its spectacle and flash of effects and design make Phantom and Les Mis look even more dated than we had already determined.  I'm not going to gush ad nauseam about the show, but I will say the following:

•  The cast was excellent, and I think Rachel Tucker should have been the featured actress for Elphaba on the recording.  She had me asking myself, "Idina who now?"  (Fiyero struggled in parts and his voice even cracked in the love duet.  Wups.)



•  For some reason seeing it with an English cast made it seem a little more authentic.

•  The orchestra and chorus were spot-on (and much more in tune than on the recording).

•  The expected and oft-hyped effects delivered, and the unexpected effects were great illusions.  I liked the dragon puppetry and Glinda traveling by bubble.

But the funniest part about the whole affair was the process of getting the tickets.  So I bought them online, like I said, but due to a few negative reviews about the ticket company, I was a little anxious we would have legit tickets, so I was already a little on edge as we approached the booth in Piccadilly Circus to retrieve them.  It should also be stated that I forgot to take note of my booking reference number beforehand, but I had ID aplenty.  We walked up to the desk and the ever-not-so-cheerful girl behind the desk (who we had encountered before in looking for tickets to other shows) was her usual irritated self.  She asked for my reference number, I explained I didn't have it, and then she asked for my ID.  What followed was a series of her snottily asking me for further forms of ID (just showing it would never do, I had to take it out of my wallet and hand it to her), and signing a receipt confirming that I had picked up the tickets.  She compared my signature to my two or three forms of ID in hand, then asked me to sign again (and compared again).  She asked if I had another form of ID with that signature on it, and I showed her that I have my old BYU student ID, even my bloomin' Social Security Card (which has an even older signature).  I mean, I could even have shown her my temple recommend if that would have satisfied her!  I told her I don't know what else I could show her, I have four or five or six forms of ID here and I'm obviously me, and my signature is what it is, and really, who signs their name the same way every single time??  Also, I think my signature is actually pretty consistent.  When I showed the slightest bit of resistance she finally relented and gave us the tickets, citing as her reasoning for such intense scrutiny the fact that I might have a twin who is trying to pick up the tickets.



...



Yes, really.

So, (as Julie said) just in case my Wicked-loving evil twin happened to be trying to swipe my tickets before I had a chance to collect them, she was being especially picky about verifying my identity.  I guess I should thank her.  Like she said, if evil-Drew were to beat me to picking up the tickets, I might have been quite upset and she would have been "the first to hear about it."  Though really, if I did have a twin, I think it would be rather convenient to be able to send him ahead with my wallet to pick things up for me.  If only.

So the tickets were fine, and the view was awesome, and the show was great.

The wicked.  Evidently no one mourns them.

A Set of WTH?

Sometimes the internet produces the most amusing things.  Sometimes it produces bewildering things.  Here are a few things that have lately crossed my path:

• WTH #1

In an email from netflix:

Drew, based on your interest in The Passion of the Christ…
We think you'll enjoy Spartacus: Blood and Sand

Yeah, since they're totally related and stuff...

• WTH #2

Two random anonymous comments on my blog:

Hi !.
might , probably very interested to know how one can reach 2000 per day of income .
There is no initial capital needed You may begin to receive yields with as small sum of money as 20-100 dollars.

AimTrust is what you need
The firm represents an offshore structure with advanced asset management technologies in production and delivery of pipes for oil and gas.

Its head office is in Panama with offices everywhere: In USA, Canada, Cyprus.
Do you want to become a happy investor?
That`s your choice That`s what you really need!

I`m happy and lucky, I started to get real money with the help of this company,
and I invite you to do the same. If it gets down to choose a correct partner utilizes your funds in a right way - that`s the AimTrust!.
I make 2G daily, and my first deposit was 1 grand only!
It`s easy to get involved , just click this link [link]
and lucky you`re! Let`s take our chance together to get rid of nastiness of the life

 and...

Could not find a suitable section so I written here, how to become a moderator for your forum, that need for this?

... Because of course I need moderators for my insanely busy and high-traffic blog, and of course who doesn't want to be happy and lucky, and take a joint chance to get rid of the nastiness of life??  Lucky you're!

• WTH #3

This graphic of book covers labeled "The Best Books Ever Written," presumably randomly generated by ratings of goodreads.com users...

One of these things is CERTAINLY not like the others.  There is something so wrong here.  In what universe is Twilight considered in even the same sphere as The Book of Mormon (let alone To Kill a Mockingbird,  Pride & Prejudice and The Lord of the Rings)?  I would like to see who these 28,993 voters were...

Alot!

This is something to which The Wife drew my attention, and it had to be shared immediately.

READ ME!

I care about this Alot!

The Incredible iTunes

As much as I loathe almost all things Mac, anyone who knows me well knows how much I love and use iTunes, and how I treasure my iPod above almost all other material possessions. I'm a little bit OCD about how I use iTunes, and I really like to have everything labeled and organized correctly, with the corresponding album artwork appearing while a track is playing. The other day I noticed that for some reason about half of my album artwork had disappeared, much to my vexation. I started going through replacing the ones that were missing. iTunes does have a feature to look up artwork for your albums, and a lot of times, this is quite useful and accurate. Other times, it either can't find any artwork, or it will find artwork for something with a similar title or artist name, random or repetitive as the result might be. Sometimes it's impossible to understand how the program could ever mistake an image that appears as the artwork for the album I was searching, but sometimes it's so amusing, I just have to save a copy of the artwork the program retrieves.

Last night I was looking for the cover art for Linda Eder's 1991 self-titled debut album, and this is what downloaded:

I don't know who this Linda Dian is (and evidently, very few resources online seem to have any information on her), but she really made my night during this tedious, semi-pointless process.

(In case you're curious, the actual artwork I was looking for can be seen here. I know it's not her best look, but it's not her best album either. Don't make fun, I told you it was released in 1991.)

Two New Things that I Love

I promise that wedding/honeymoon posts are on their way, but for now I wanted to blog really quickly about two new acquisitions that I'm already really in love with.

The first one is this:

It's a Borg Pedestal Tower Fan with Remote Control from Bed Bath and Beyond. It has saved our hides these last few days in our little apartment, which doesn't allow for much circulation and has no air conditioning. It has an oscillating feature and three speeds, as well as a setting where it will alternate between the three speeds for a Natural Breeze effect. With it blowing next to the bed, it's like sleeping on a tropical island. I love it.

The second is this:

The Wife! I've always wanted one, especially these most recent years. (I know this kind of makes it sound like I feel like I own her, but it's totally not so, it's in fact just the other way around.) This photo was taken on the evening of the 15th after we had made it to Salt Lake and had just finished pulling 80-something bobby pins out of her hair. Isn't she adorable?

So yes, those are two new things in my life that I really love. For the record, in case you hadn't guessed, I love the second one a lot more than the first.

Scene: Campus Quad

So there I was today, leaving from a group meeting in the campus library, when this conversation with a random passer-by:

Girl: Hey, are you Drew Graham??

Me: Yes, I am! ...

G: I am such a big fan of your drawings! I love your website!

M: Oh, really? Wow...

G: Yes, I even wrote you a couple of emails, you probably don't remember me, but (shares name)...

M: Oh, yeah! I totally recognize that name! I mean, it's not like I get a lot of mail about that stuff or anything.

G: Yes! So anyway, I just had to stop you, thank you so much!

M: No problem! I can't believe you even recognized me, but I'm glad you stopped me and said hello, I of course would never have known...

And there you go. I just laughed as I walked away. It's not like my little art gallery is any kind of special, but it somehow seems to garner a little bit of fan attention. I guess it just depends on who you ask. After all, I suppose it was the impetus to bring me and The Girl together, so...

Only in Sheboygan...

... Does this make news.

If you ask me, the owner of this poor creature shouldn't have been arrested for animal neglect for leaving his dog out, he should be arrested for allowing the dog to get that big.

An Amusing Diversion

Though some might mistakenly consider this a negative waste of a post, I thought this video was hilarious! Definitely worth sharing. There are actually two of these (one of outtakes, I guess), but this one is more family-friendly, as it were. Much thanks Elise and Jeff for showing it to Lacie, and to Lacie for introducing me to it last night. Observe:



Apparently I wasn't the only one who thought his Batman voice was silly!

Dr. Horrible

It's about time I said something about this.


Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is a short film made by Joss Whedon (of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Serenity fame) and starring Neil Patrick Harris as Dr. Horrible, a wannabe supervillain (alter-ego non-descriptly known as 'Billy') with his heart set on taking over the world and proving himself a super villain, while at the same time getting Penny (Felicia Day), the cute girl at the laundromat, to notice him. Things turn messy when Dr. Horrible's plans are foiled by the egotistical "superhero", Captain Hammer and all attempts at villainish nobility by Dr. Horrible are thrown out the window! Traditional superhero roles are reversed and drama (nay, even angst) ensues! I won't give everything away, but if you haven't seen this, check it out. I'm not too terribly fond of the Buffy writing/story style, but something about Dr. Horrible connects with me, and I'm always glad to see people putting out musicals, even in this relatively small a scale, and especially through the medium of the ubiquitous internet. Note: There are a couple of PG moments, just so you know. Special thanks to Megan for introducing me to this gem.

My favorite line: "Four sweater vests!" You'll know what I mean when you see it in Act II.

The music is just so catchy.

HA HA HA!!!!

I really had no intention of blogging anything in any way pertinent to the release of Sister Meyer's new book, but when I saw the following I was quite amused. Thanks to Mandy for pointing this out to me:

Cliffs Notes of Twilight (borrowed from this blog)

Edward: I hate Bella.

Bella: I love Edward. Oh his eyes! What should I do? Whine, whine, whine.

Edward: OK, I don't hate you, I just have no self-control (typical guy), oh, and I want to kill you.

Bella: I love Edward. Oh his eyes! What should I do? Whine, whine, whine.

Jacob: I love Bella too, but I want to kill her. And Edward.

Edward: I want to kill Jacob.

Bella: I love Edward and Jacob. Oh their eyes! What should I do? I know, I'll lead both of them on and just whine the entire time.

Edward: Look, I'm shiny!

Jacob: Look, I'm strong!

Bella: Whine, Whine Whine.

Brilliant! "Oh, their eyes!" Ha. For the record, I AM planning on reading Breaking Dawn, at least eventually. Elise and I talked about it earlier today and even she didn't have an interest in going to a bookstore release party. I'll get around to it, and when I do, you can probably count on a review of it here.

An interesting conversation

After reading Matt's series of bizarre and interesting messages left on his phone obviously for someone else, I was quite surprised when I had my own series of misdirected text messages! Here is the dialogue, between me and Mystery Texter:

MT: Hey bro guess who?

Me: Erm... Walt Disney?!?

MT: Umm...starts with an h.

Me: Harry Potter! Of course, that was my next guess.

MT: I was thinking down the lines of hot stuff...

Me: Oh, of course... Also know as?...

MT: Hata

Me: I'm not a hata!

MT: Are too. What u doing?

Me: Working, getting ready to mow the lawn. You?

MT: Who dis?

Me: You tell me, you texted me first.

MT: I think i got the wrong number.

And there you have it. This is somewhat amusing, but mostly annoying because it cost me some of my precious reservoir of allowed texts! I never know when people call or text me, because they could be mission friends or something, whose number I don't have yet.

But snaps to them for use of the words "hata" and "dis", and of course for referring to themself as "hot stuff."

Rescued by a parked car...

So today I went to dinner with Meg, a friend from the old Glenwood days, back in town for BYU's commencement and a few days of seeing old friends. I was so proud of myself, finding her sister's house perfectly, without writing down address or directions, and without even taking a wrong turn. I turned off the car and walked to her door, and imagine my surprise when we walked back to the curb and my car had vanished! My eyes immediately followed the road or twenty-five or thirty feet ahead when I saw my car parked dangerously close to another car that had been parked on the side of the road. That's right, my friends, I left my car in neutral and it rolled several yards until the other car stopped its progress (yay for Laws of Motion!). Meg laughed and I was absolutely crimson with embarrassment, but at the same time incredibly grateful that the neighbors had parked this car in exactly this spot. It was just far enough from where I had parked that my car hadn't had enough time to get a LOT of momentum (thereby diminishing the amount of damage done, if any at all), and at the same time stopping my car from rolling down the increasingly steep slope, into absolute oblivion, and who knows what damaging end. I examined the collision spot on both bumpers, and I could see a little bit of plastic trimming had cracked off of the top of mine, and could notice hardly anything on theirs... maybe a little scratch on the left side of the already-scratched and -dented bumper. Still, I wouldn't feel right without leaving a note.

The funniest (and most awkward) part of the story is this: After backing the car up to examine the damage, I commented I was definitely going to blog about this tonight, and Meg noted that I should probably have taken a picture with the cars touching (I had serendipitously left my camera in the car a few days earlier). We decided to reenact the moment, so I pulled forward ever so slowly while she gestured the distance between cars until we had made slight contact. I noticed a woman across the street looking at us through her window with an absolutely perplexed expression. I waved at her awkwardly while Meg took the photo, and then, the woman and her daughter emerged and crossed the street. I explained the situation thoroughly, and they seemed mostly amused, a little confused, but hardly bothered at all. She said her son would probably not even notice the damage, if any at all (she didn't notice any), but I let them know I left a note with my number regardless. Another good thing was that Meg had actually met the woman and her family, so had a somewhat friendly previous connection. I felt like such an idiot.

This is just what needs to happen on my first official date since coming home. I PROMISE I know that you're supposed to put the car in 'park' when you pull over and get out, and now Meg will probably never let me live it down! You live and learn, I guess, and nevertheless, we both agreed that it was a fun and interesting story, and made for an eventful Saturday evening.

The best part: You can see the woman coming out of her door in this picture!
She must have thought we were insane!