Hung Truong: The Blog!

John Hodgman Book Signing at Ann Arbor Borders: #1165

John Hodgman is a pretty funny dude. I’ve previously listened to his book on audio and also borrowed it from the library to read the charts (much funnier in chart form). So when I heard he’d be making an appearance in Ann Arbor at Borders #1, I was really stoked.

I got there on time at around 7:00pm, but apparently John wanted to teach us a lesson in punctuality? Actually, someone should teach John a lesson in “Michigan Time,” being 10 minutes late for everything. As I got there, he was saying some random funny stuff about the guy who directed Hancock having two (!) copies of Frank Herbert’s Dune in his bag in an airplane. Wow. Then some Q&A about voting machines and mole men. And he read some words. Out of the very book I was to purchase!

A line formed for signing, and I kinda got there at the end because I thought I needed to grab a book for him to actually sign. I must’ve waited maybe an hour or two? Probably closer to two. When my moment came, I made sure to point out to John that I had corrected his spelling of Albuquerque, only to have him burn me by spelling it even more incorrectly. Then he wrote “Sorry about New Mexicoe” in my book. What a bastard! Just kidding. Apparently John counts the number of books he’s signed. He yelled the number of the next person in line to prompt them to approach. I’m #1165.

I should also add that Hodgman was really nice. Very polite and receptive, even to crazed fans. I guess minor celebrity hasn’t gotten to his head yet. Except for the random ALL CAPS words he throws into his writing. THAT IS ALL.

Oh, and about the picture, I dunno what happened. Maybe Hodgman is shrinking or I am entirely tall, or maybe he was just leaning over a bunch? It’s totally going to be my Christmas card!

The Amazon.com Garden Gnome Saga, Part 2

Amazon.com is apparently in possession of a number of Garden Gnomes that it seriously needs to offload quickly. Because they mentioned them again on their homepage:

I can see how you might buy a female Mighican Gnome cheerleader when you buy the male Michigan Gnome, but WTF? 6% buy an Ohio State Gnome with the Michigan one!? Are they trying to cover their bases or something? Honestly, what business does an Ohio State Gnome have being on the same lawn as a Michigan Gnome? Amazon.com, you disappoint me.

Did You Know Amazon.com Sells NCAA Garden Gnomes?a

Neither did I, until Amazon thought it’d be a good idea to notify me of this.

Mega Man 9 Observations

I got Mega Man 9 for the Wii about a week ago. When I first got it I played it for a while and beat no one. Then I tried again today and so far I’ve beat three bosses.

Mega Man 9 was made in the tradition of the old-school Mega Man games. So there’s instant death spikes. Question: Why didn’t Dr. Wily make “Spike Man?” That’d pretty much make it impossible for Mega Man to beat him.

Ingrid Michaelson: Be OK

Ingrid Michaelson just released a new cd: Be OK. This one’s sort of a single-ish one since a lot of the material is either from previous stuff or live recordings. There’s 11 tracks but three are live, and there’s some duplication (live vs. studio, and acoustic). So I’d say there’s more than a single’s worth of stuff but not quite an album’s worth.

Ingrid continues to do cool stuff with her awesome voice and funky phrasing. It’s pretty unique. Her actual songwriting seems a bit amateurish or at least good but not super great. I guess her style is lots of repetition, which doesn’t work when applied to every song. It’s like the “Green Eggs and Ham” of music. But that’s her style so that’s cool I guess.

I also noticed that her style seems to be using more vibrato and running around with her voice. I’m not too impressed by it. It’s especially noticeable on “Over The Rainbow.” She can do cooler stuff with her voice than that, I think.

Finally, I’m kind of disappointed that she’s not wearing glasses on the cover!!! As a glasses-girl lover I am appalled. Well, not really. But I went ahead and threw the album cover into that “virtual try on glasses” thing I used to pick my own glasses:

Much better!

Anyway, there’s some cool songs on here. Plus the proceeds of the CD go to standup2cancer.org which is nice. My favorite song is probably “Giving Up” (which doesn’t sound like it should be on a cancer fighting CD, but whatever).

Also, I am pretty bummed that the tickets for the Ingrid Michaelson concert in Ann Arbor are already sold out! I guess she has a pretty solid fanbase here. Maybe she should book in Detroit or something. *Hint hint*. I already saw her last year but it’d be cool to see her again, especially before she gets uber famous (which should happen pretty soon).