Today I made my monthly visit to Canal's Discount Liquors, here's what I got:

Flying Fish Exit 4 - 6 pack bottles
Magic Hat Hex - 6 pack bottles
Smithwick's - 6 pack bottles
Young's Double Chocolate Stout - 4 pack cans
Murphy's Irish Stout - 4 pack cans
Aventinus - 1 12oz. bottle
Chimay White - 1 350ml bottle

Maker's Mark 46
Rex Goliath 47lb Rooster cabernet sauvignon

I don't play 'fantasy football', I play FOR REAL football. Here's all of the Old Spice commercials featuring NFL superperson Ray Lewis.

Today Maker's Mark released their own iPhone/iPod app. You can virtually dip your own bottle of Maker's. I was at their distillery over the summer and I dipped my own bottle and I can hardly wait to do it again, this app will hold me off for a while! Head over HERE and download the app!

Today is my 35th birthday and Baby G got me this balloon:

Towards the end of last week I decided to take a little road trip out to Kentucky by myself. The main draw to Kentucky was of course the Maker's Mark distillery. I made some reservations at a Hilton branded hotel and off I was.

I left New Jersey at 3:30 AM and got to the hotel at 3:30 PM. In entirety I was on the road for just shy of 1,800 miles and almost 29 hours.

I was armed with nothing but my Garmin nüvi and my iPhone 3G. I only programmed the hotel into the Garmin and everything else I was just gonna figure out when I got there.

The drive was long, especially through the mountains of West Virginia and Western Maryland. I drank a lot of water so I had to make frequent potty breaks. I would just type in "rest area" in the Garmin and I would know how long it would be until the next one would arrive and whether I should pit then or not. Also, the Garmin showed the closest gas stations. I felt extremely confident even out in the wilderness.

I made it to Louisville, Kentucky with no problems. I used the Yelp app to find places nearby based on my GPS location and judging by the reviews and ratings I decided on where to go and found a real good tavern/cafe. When I would get to each place I would check-in using Foursquare. Foursquare would then post my check-in to Facebook for all my friends to see. From there, my Facebook friends saw where I was and ended up recommending even more things to me that I would never have thought of by myself.

Having my iPhone 3G really helped me while I was away. It helped me find different places to go eat and it helped me stay in touch with everyone. Using the Garmin as my GPS unit was much better than using the iPhone's map program. Not only did it get me where I wanted but helped me with the rest stops and gas stastions. Here's a list of some of the places that I found on Yelp and were recommended to me on Facebook:

Day 1:
Zeppelin Cafe (found on Yelp)
Kentucky Exposition Center (saw from the road)
Liquor Barn (Maker's Mark posted a list of places that carry Maker's 46 to Twitter, I searched for Liquor Barn using iPhone's Google Maps app and found the closest one on that list)

Day 2:
Speed Art Museum (found using the Garmin after searching for art museums)
Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory (found using the Garmin)
Muhammad Ali Center (just around the corner from Louisville Slugger)
Churchill Downs (found using Garmin)
Zanzabar (found on Yelp)
Blues and Barbecue Festival (folks at Maker's Mark sent me a link with things to do and this was listed, used the Garmin to find it)

Day 3:
Maker's Mark distillery (already programmed into the Garmin)
Jim Beam distillery (saw from the road)
Brown Hotel (friend on Facebook recommended it after seeing my check-ins)
The Highlands (area of Louisville, waitress from Zeppelin Cafe recommended it)
Lynn's Paradise Cafe (friends on Facebook and Twitter recommended it after seeing my check-ins)

Day 4:
Heading home today, used my Garmin to find the Woodford Reserve distillery after folks I met at Maker's Mark told me that it wasn't too far off the road. It wasn't far but the tour started too late for me to stay. Next time!

Today I got 4 tickets to see Arcade Fire at the Mann Music Center on August 2nd. I'm very excited. Arcade Fire seem like they would be incredible live. I can hardly wait!!!

This evening, on my way home from the Trenton Thunder game, my car reached another milestone, the odometer now reads 111,111 miles. Great job Honda! Here's to 222,222!

My wheat beer is ready and the labels are on. Thank you Mr. DeNito for the wonderful label artwork.

So, I finally retired my 12 year old PowerMac G3/G4 tower. It took up so much space. It's a great machine and it still works fine. I had cables all over, the keyboard took up so much space on my desk and it was just ugly (even though I repainted it). So now I organized everything. My MacBook Pro is now at the center. I have an external monitor hooked up to it which I keep iTunes and the like opened in it. I also now keep my Wacom tablet hooked up all the time and use it as a mouse/pen pad. I put up a little cork board on the side for notes and stuff instead of having Post-Its and paper all over the place. I have a nice little syncing/charging cradle for my iPod and iPhone, so everything is nice and tidy looking. There's a shelf above my desk where the printer and negative scanner is and a small desk to my left which has my flatbed scanner. What I'm looking for now is a thin piece of white plastic that I can put on the top of my desk. Take a look at the picture and you'll see what I mean. Do you think maybe Home Depot will have something like that?

Yesterday Steffers and I went down to Baltimore for the day. Part of our itinerary was to stop by the corner of North Ave and Broadway where less than a week ago they officially unveiled a new street name in honor of Ray Lewis. Some kids on the corner saw me take the picture and started yelling "RAY LEWIS WAY!! RAY LEWIS WAY!!"

IndyCar racing is set to come to Baltimore in May of 2011. So awesome! I'm totally gonna be there for the entire race weekend. That would be so cool seeing them racing down the streets of Baltimore. Wish it was NASCAR but IndyCar will have to do. Here's the link on the IndyCar site: http://www.indycar.com/news/show/55-izod-indycar-series/37225-baltimore-race-moves-closer-to-green-flag/

I got an iPad for my mom on mother's day. It finally arrived today. It is actually pretty awesome. It's definitely not a computer replacement and seems pointless if you already have a laptop and an iPhone but for my mom it's perfect!



I installed a bunch of her favorite apps for her already. Configured her email for her and so on. I even installed some kids apps for when she babysits. I also put a book on there that she's been wanting to read. So far she loves it. As do I.

I haven't been updated my blog here too much. I've been on the PlayStation 3 a whole lot. Love that thing so much! If you're on the PS3 my PSN is 'beckinabox'. Add me as your friend, let me know who you are, I don't accept strangers.

Instead of updating my blog here I've been on Twitter a whole lot. I find micro-blogging on Twitter a lot easier sometimes. I'm also on FourSquare. So you can see what I'm up to on Twitter and where I've been on FourSquare.

Twitter: beckinabox
FourSquare link

Next week I hope to start painting again. Looking forward to it. I haven't painted in years. I'm also going to start using Rosetta Stone again. Started learning Italian last summer and never followed through with it. Also planning on going to Baltimore with Steffers. Tonight we're going to see Jønsi, although I think I'd rather stay home and watch 24.

New video for HEALTH - "We Are Water" directed by Eric Wareheim. Cool song. Incredible video. Beautifully done. Breathtaking even.

Ryan Newman won last night's NASCAR race at Phoenix International Raceway. I don't post on Newman that much because, well, he hasn't won a race since the Daytona 500 back in 2008. When he took the lead on that last restart with 2 laps to go I knew he wasn't going to give it up easily. Great job Ryan!



For the rest of the story click HERE.

Parenthood is one of the best shows on TV. It's so sad and depressing. I love it.

I just received my brand new Sony PlayStation 3 Slim 250GB. Yes!



I already have NASCAR 09 and Inglorious Basterds on Blu-Ray. By the end of the week I should have Rock Band 2 and Serenity on Blu-Ray as well as the Logitech Harmony PS3 adapter.

Tonight is the last night of Akira Kurosawa day on TCM! Part 4 of the 100th anniversary of his birth. 3 great Kurosawa films TONIGHT:

8:00 PM Dersu Uzala (1975)
A Russian explorer brings the Asiatic hunter who saved his life back to civilization.
Cast: Maksim Munzuk, Yuriy Solomin, M Bichkov, V Khrulev Dir: Akira Kurosawa C-141 mins, TV-PG

10:30 PM Kagemusha (1980)
Japanese clansmen force a poor thief to impersonate their dead warlord.
Cast: Tatsuya Nakadai, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Kenichi Hagiwara, Kota Yui Dir: Akira Kurosawa C-181 mins, TV-PG

1:45 AM Ran (1985)
An aging lord's decision to retire brings out the worst in his sons.
Cast: Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Terao, Jinpachi Nezu, Daisuke Ryu Dir: Akira Kurosawa C-163 mins

1) 24 - “Day 8: 4:00 AM to 5:00 AM” No Change
2) Parenthood - “Wassup” No Change
3) South Park - “The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerballs" +4
4) Modern Family - “Starry Night" Not Aired
5) Lost - “Ab Aeterno" +8
6) The Cleveland Show - “Once Upon A Tyne In New York" Not Aired
7) Breaking Bad - “No Mas" New
8) Family Guy - “Peter-assment" +2
9) 30 Rock - “Floyd" -2
10) The Office - “Happy Hour" -4
11) Community - “The Science of Illusion" -2
12) Parks and Recreation - “Summer Catalog" -4
13) Chuck - “Chuck Versus the Final Exam" -6
14) Caprica - “End of Line" -5
15) The Life and Times of Tim - “The Salty Jazz/Jews Love To Laugh" -1
16) Sons of Tucson - “The Break In" No Change
17) The Simpsons - “Stealing First Base" No Change

Today is Akira Kurosawa day on TCM! Part 3 of the 100th anniversary of his birth. Kurosawa films all day and night; TONIGHT:

8:00 PM Rashomon (1950)
In medieval Japan, four people offer conflicting accounts of a rape and murder. Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyo, Masayuki Mori. Dir: Akira Kurosawa. BW-88 mins, TV-PG

9:30 PM Seven Samurai (1954)
Japanese villagers hire a team of traveling samurai to defend them against a bandit attack. Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Kuninori Kodo. Dir: Akira Kurosawa. BW-207 mins, TV-14

1:00 AM Yojimbo (1961)
A samurai-for-hire sets the warring factions of a Japanese town against each other. Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Eijiro Tono, Seizaburo Kawazu. Dir: Akira Kurosawa. BW-111 mins, TV-14, Letterbox Format

3:00 AM Sanjuro (1962)
 A wandering samurai recruits younger fighters to help him battle corruption. Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Hakadai, Yuzo Kayama. Dir: Akira Kurosawa. BW-96 mins, TV-14, Letterbox Format

1) 24 - “Day 8: 3:00 AM to 4:00 AM” No Change
2) Parenthood - “The Deep End of the Pool” +1
3) House - “Black Hole" +1
4) The Office - “New Leads" -2
5) Chuck - “Chuck Versus the Tic Tac" No Change
6) 30 Rock - “Don Geiss, America and Hope" +1
7) South Park - “Sexual Healing" Not Aired
8) Parks and Recreation - “Park Safety" +2
9) Community - “Beginner Pottery" -1
10) Family Guy - “Go Stewie, Go!" Not Aired
11) Caprica - “Ghosts in the Machine" -1
12) The Life and Times of Tim - “Pharmaceutical Sales Rep Gone Wild/Amy's Got A Gun" No Change
13) Lost - “Recon" No Change
14) Scrubs - “Our Thanks" No Change
15) Sons of Tucson - “Pilot" New
16) The Simpsons - “Postcards from the Wedge" Not Aired

I just posted this to my Facebook and just had to put it here on the blog as well:

This started last Tuesday on TCM! 100th Anniversary of Akira Kurosawa's Birthday. Showing about 5 films a night. Last week they showed Throne of Blood and The Hidden Fortress. Tonight (1:15) they're showing Red Beard. Next week is 4 INCREDIBLE films, Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Yojimbo and Sanjuro. The last Tuesday of the month they're showing Kagemusha and Ran. Be sure to DVR all the films I listed if you haven't seen them yet. They are not only classic Japanese films but they're some of the most important films in the history of cinema. I've included the link for the complete schedule (only on Tuesday nights). WOW!!!!!

http://www.tcm.com/thismonth/article/?cid=290029

I just mentioned my favorite of the films that they're showing, there's actually a few lesser known ones that I hadn't seen but I've seen the majority of them. I've included links to the Wikipedia entries of each film. Rashomon and Seven Samurai are arguably his 2 greatest films so they can't be missed. I'm really curious how good they look in HD. As far as I know, Yojimbo, Sanjuro, Kagemusha and Ran are the only ones available on Blu-Ray. This is the next best thing. Do not miss this!

1) 24 - “Day 8: 2:00 AM to 3:00 AM” No Change
2) The Office - “St. Patrick's Day" No Change
3) Parenthood - “Man Versus Possum” No Change
4) House - “Private Lives" Not Aired
5) Chuck - “Chuck Versus the Beard" +3
6) Modern Family - “Truth Be Told" -1
7) 30 Rock - “Future Husband" Not Aired
8) Community - “Basic Genealogy" -2
9) Caprica - “The Imperfections of Memory" +3
10) Parks and Recreation - “The Possum" -1
11) The Life and Times of Tim - “The Girl Scout Incident/Rodney Has A Wife?" +1
12) Lost - “Dr. Linus" -1
13) Scrubs - “Our Driving Issues" Not Aired

Not too long ago I blogged about a postcard that I received. Yesterday I received the following postcard from the super talented Rachel and Rhodes!



Now, as you know I am a huge fan of Rachel's work. A couple months ago she made me these awesome cuff links! This new postcard is great but the difference compared to the other one is that she had them professionally printed rather than an individually printed lino cut. This new postcard is great but there's just something special about receiving that lino cut. With that said, It's still an incredible and unique postcard that hope to get a bunch for myself to send out. You too can get them and other items at their shop; rrcraft.etsy.com

1) 24 - “Day 8: 1:00 AM to 2:00 AM” No Change
2) The Office - “The Delivery" Not Aired
3) Parenthood - “Pilot” New
4) Modern Family - “Fears" Not Aired
5) Community - “Physical Education" Not Aired
6) Parks and Recreation - “Woman of the Year" Not Aired
7) Lost - “Sundown" +2
8) The Life and Times of Tim - “Legend of the Month/Marie's Dead Husband" -1
9) Chuck - “Chuck Versus the Fake Name" Not Aired
10) Caprica - “Know Thy Enemy" -1

My good brother Doura got me a sweet new #52 Ray Lewis jersey, pretty badass, right?

Just got in from my regular visit to Canal's. Purchased a nice assortment of "spring" beers, or at least beers that I associate with spring:

Chimay Blue - 2 350ml bottles
Troegs Nugget Nectar ale - 6 pack
Duvel ale - 4 pack
Stone IPA - 22oz bottle
Stone Arrogant Bastard ale - 22oz bottle

I know, didn't pick up much this time around, hopefully it will last me a month.

1) 24 - “Day 8: 12:00 AM to 1:00 AM” No Change
2) The Life and Times of Tim - “The Comeback Sermon/Atlantic City" +2
3) Caprica - “There Is Another Sky" +1
4) Lost - “Lighthouse" -1
5) The Cleveland Show - “The Curious Case of Jr. Working at the Stool" +2
6) American Dad - “The Return of the Bling” -1
7) The Simpsons - “The Color Yellow" -1

1) 24 - “Day 8: 11:00 PM to 12:00 AM” No Change
2) Family Guy - “Extra Large Medium" Not Aired
3) Lost - “The Substitute" +1
4) The Life and Times of Tim - “Tim's Beard/Unjustly Neglected Drama" New
5) Caprica - “Gravedancing" -1
6) American Dad - “May the Best Stan Win” Not Aired
7) The Simpsons - “Boy Meets Curl" Not Aired
8) The Cleveland Show - “Buried Pleasure" Not Aired

A couple years ago I posted a top 5 of my favorite current hottie actresses. Here's my all time favorite hottie actresses. It's so tough to narrow it down to just 5 but here they are:

Anna Karina

Brigitte Bardot

Jean Seberg

Claudia Cardinale

Audrey Hepburn

and there's a few honorable mentions that didn't quite make the top 5; Mia Farrow, Kim Novak, Natalie Wood, Grace Kelly, Anita Ekberg, Sophia Loren and Diana Rigg.

Last week during my snow day I put up a little library of my book collection online. Currently the library only has 70 books in it. I have maybe 70 more books that are mostly biographies and artist/art related books. I only put the more important books into my online library, check it out: http://www.beckinabox.com/deliciouslibrary/

1) 30 Rock - “Anna Howard Shaw Day" +2
2) 24 - “Day 8: 10:00 PM to 11:00 PM” No Change
3) The Office - “Manager and Salesman" No Change
4) Community - “Communication Studies" +6
5) Modern Family - “My Funky Valentine" No Change
6) Parks and Recreation - “Galentine's Day" +2
7) Lost - “What Kate Does" -1
8) House - “5 to 9” -1
9) Chuck - “Chuck Versus the Mask" -1
10) Heroes - “Brave New World" No Change

1) Fringe - “Jacksonville” No Change
2) 24 - “Day 8: 9:00 PM to 10:00 PM” No Change
3) The Office - “Sabre" Not Aired
4) 30 Rock - “Verne" Not Aired
5) Caprica - “The Reigns of a Waterfall" +1
6) Modern Family - “Moon Landing" Not Aired
7) Lost - “LA X" New
8) House - “Moving the Chains” -1
9) Family Guy - “Dial Meg For Murder" Not Aired
10) Parks and Recreation - “Sweetums" Not Aired
11) Chuck - “Chuck Versus the Nacho Sampler" No Change
12) Community - “Beginner Pottery" Not Aired
13) American Dad - “A Jones For A Smith" Not Aired
14) The Cleveland Show - “Our Gang" Not Aired
15) The Simpsons - “Million Dollar Maybe" Not Aired
16) Heroes - “The Wall" No Change

Several years ago I began the process of archiving my CD collection I have over 4,000 CD's and have been importing them into iTunes. I began the archival process by purchasing vinyl sleeves and cardboard boxes from Univenture, they're high quality vinyl sleeves and the boxes are sharp looking. Before I had an entire wall and a half covered in those ugly plastic CD cases and now I have all of the CD's fitted into 21 small boxes. I threw out the jewel cases and packed the artwork and the CD's into the vinyl sleeves from Univenture. Here's a picture of the outcome; I numbered the boxes in order from A to Z and the last few boxes compilations in alphabetical order. It was a long process but It looks much nicer than walls of CD's.

1) Fringe - “The Bishop Revival” +1
2) 24 - “Day 8: 8:00 PM to 9:00 PM” -1
3) House - “Remorse” No Change
4) Caprica - “Rebirth" No Change
5) Dollhouse - “Epitaph 2: Return" No Change
6) Better Off Ted - “Mess of a Salesman" No Change
7) Chuck - “Chuck Versus the First Class" No Change
8) Scrubs - “Our True Lies" No Change
9) Heroes - “The Art of Deception" No Change

Fever Ray won the best dance artist in Sweden. As you know I've been following and blogging about Fever Ray all year and seeing them live back in September was one of the most amazing concerts that I've ever been to. Here's a video of Fever Ray accepting the award for best dance artist in Sweden. I'm not sure who that is accepting the award, I don't even think it's anyone in the band:

1) 24 - “Day 8: 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM” New
2) 24 - “Day 8: 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM” New
3) Fringe - “What Lies Below” -1
4) Caprica - “Pilot" New
5) 30 Rock - “Winter Madness” +1
6) Better Off Ted - “Lust in Translation" -1
7) Modern Family - “Fifteen Percent” +2
8) Parks and Recreation - “Leslie's House” -1
9) Community - “Interpretive Dance” -5
10) The Office - “The Banker" New
11) Chuck - “Chuck Versus Operation Awesome" -1
12) Scrubs - “Our True Lies" No Change
13) Heroes - “Pass/Fail" No Change

Last weekend I got an unlocked/jailbroken 16GB iPhone 3G off of eBay to work on my T-Mobile plan. I had to install some tweaks to get things working properly. I had to install a tweak to get YouTube working, so that's done. I'm still having trouble with MMS so if anyone has any info on that send it my way. I can send pictures, i'm just getting an error when receiving them. I also had to install a tweak to get push notifications working. And because it's jailbroken I installed a few customizations as well, so far everything is working real nice!

So, what does everyone have installed on their iPhone? I've had my iPhone for just over a week and here's what I have installed:

Facebook
Echofon (Twitter app with location based tweets)
NetNewsWire (RSS app that syncs to Google Reader)
iHandy Level (iPhone leveler)
The Weather Channel
Yellow Pages (with location based searching)
Amazon.com (complete access to Amazon.com in a little app)
Pandora (Internet radio, works wonderfully, even in the car!)
ESPN ScoreCenter (up to the second sports scores with push notifications)
Wikipanion (complete access to Wikipedia in a little app)
IMDb (complete access to IMDb in a little app)
AP Mobile (latest news headlines with push notifications)
Urbanspoon (restaurant finder and reviews)
Yelp (restaurant finder and reviews)

So, can anyone recommend any apps for me to check out? Or possibly better apps than I have listed.

What do you have installed?

1) Fringe - “Johari Window” New
2) Community - “Investigative Journalism” New
3) Better Off Ted - “The Long and Winding High Road" New
4) 30 Rock - “Klaus and Greta” New
5) 30 Rock - “Black Light Attack!” New
6) Parks and Recreation - “The Set Up” New
7) Better Off Ted - “The Impertance of Communicationizing" New
8) House - “The Down Low" New
9) Fringe - “Unearthed” New
10) Chuck - “Chuck Versus the Angel of Death” New
11) Modern Family - “Not in My House” New
12) Chuck - “Chuck Versus the Pink Slip" New
13) Dollhouse - “The Hollow Men” New
14) Scrubs - “Our Stuff Gets Real" New
15) The Cleveland Show - “Love Rollercoaster" New
16) The Simpsons - “Once Upon a Time in Springfield" New
17) Heroes - “Close To You" New

I got a small package. What? No really, I got a small package in the mail today. The package is from the beautiful and talented Rachel Case. The package contains a gorgeous set of cuff links that she made specially for me. Don't believe me? Have a look:



Thanks a ton Rachel, you've provided me with a unique accessory that I can hardly wait to show off!

A lovely surprise was waiting in the mailbox for me today. My friend Rachel sent me a postcard. It's no ordinary postcard. It's a limited edition, #1 of 6, linocut that she and her companion made together. I feel so fortunate to not only receive one but receive the first one! It is truly an honor, thank you Rachel and Rhodes! Here's a picture of me with the postcard followed by what is written on the card:



And the card reads "make more art, learn italian, go for hikes, keep in touch with friends, spontaneous road trips, drink more water, volunteer"

On the opposite side is what you'd expect from a postcard, a personal greeting to me! Thank you Rachel and Rhodes, you are both extremely talented and it's privilege to have you both as friends.

It looks like all of the TV shows that I watch are starting back up again this month so I will be begin putting up a weekly list of my favorite shows that week, here's this past weeks:

1) Better Off Ted - “Change We Can't Believe In" New
2) Better Off Ted - “Beating a Dead Workforce" New
3) Family Guy - “Big Man on Hippocampus” New
4) Modern Family - “Up All Night” New
5) Dollhouse - “Getting Closer” New
6) Scrubs - “Our White Coats" New
7) Scrubs - “Our Couples" New
8) The Cleveland Show - “Field of Dreams" New
9) American Dad - “Don't Look A Smith Horse in the Mouth” New
10) The Simpsons - “Thursdays With Abie" New
11) Heroes - “Upon This Rock" New

I described last year's Ryan Newman fan club package in my blog with great excitement. I just got the new one today and although I am excited about this year's package it's not nearly as awesome. Here's the contents of this year's package:

The official 2010 Ryan Newman fan club membership card, a Rangers Boats visor, a Ryan Newman fan club poncho, a Ryan Newman #39 round decal, a Ryan Newman fan club key chain, a Ryan Newman fan club pen, a Ryan Newman fan club t-shirt (which is nicer than last year's) and a small stick of Old Spice deodorant all packaged in a Ryan Newman fan club tote bag.

Over all pretty cool for a fan club package, a fan club that is relatively inexpensive to join so just expecting all of that is awesome but last year's package was even more awesome. Still pretty cool. GO Ryan Newman!