Sitzmedia: Introduction

"A while back... we agreed that what really matters is what you like, not what you are like. Books, records, films -- these things matter! Call me shallow; it's the fucking truth."
-Rob Gordon, High Fidelity

If you are with my family for Christmas, you'll notice one thing about the presents that we give each other: about 85% of them are books, CDs, or movies. And that may even be a low estimate. I was thinking about this phenomenon recently, and it also struck me that many of my friendships and conversations in the past used discussions about books, movies, and music as a centerpiece, or as a kind of springboard to a deeper conversation. When I talk to my friend Chris, for example, we can talk about almost anything, but a lot of the time we talk about the last movie we saw. Or the new music we're listening to. Or what book we definitely have to read when we get a chance. And this is fine, in my opinion, because it's just a part of a friendship, and not the whole friendship summed up in something material and shallow.

Still, being in Costa Rica isn't too conducive to such conversations. Movies and music are popular here, but they don't seem to carry nearly as much importance as they do in the U.S. (which probably goes a long way towards explaining Reggaeton music). And books? Well, people just don't seem to read here.

Also, my wife Angela is slowly getting into these types of things, but growing up on a coffee farm around here seems to equate to infrequent visits to the movie theaters, to say the least. When I first asked her what music she liked, her list was two groups long: Bon Jovi and Savage Garden. In the meantime, we've gotten to the point where we can discuss movies we've seen together recently, but she still doesn't have an entire quarter-century of pop culture references under her belt.

So, in an attempt to have at least a one-way "conversation," I came up with the idea of "Sitzmedia." I'm still developing it, but I'm thinking it can be a place where I can talk with you--or even with myself, if need be--about what I've been reading, listening to, and watching. I was originally just going to put up some quotes from books and samples from songs, but I'm thinking this could be a lot more interesting, depending on how I/we do it.

If you read something under a Sitzmedia heading, I would certainly encourage you to leave a comment, and maybe this can develop into something cool. If it does, I may be able to make a different blog out of this. Or, if it sucks and it bombs, I'll just scrap it.

Those are my thoughts for now...

By the way, I think I'll include some sort of links to the movies, books, and music, either like in the quotation above, or the link below. That's the idea, so hopefully something interesting comes of it!

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A Pantsload of Pictures From Colorado

I thought that it would be a good idea to finally put up some pictures from Colorado, because if I don't do it now, I'll procrastinate until the next time we go there for Christmas. I'm hoping to put up a whole collection of my favorite pictures from 2008 on ryansitzman.com, but we'll see if/when that actually happens. Anyhow, on our trip Angela and I both took a ton of pictures, but here are some of my favorites that I took:

Julien "The Catch" Katchinoff looks on as Angela prepares to down some Georgian firewater during the famous Pierogi Sunday, back in December. Yeah, that's the Georgia from Asia, folks.

A table loaded up with delicious pierogies at the Wawro household. My friend--and Julien's wife--Martha Wawro's family celebrates Pierogi Sunday every year, and I've had the priveledge to attend and gorge myself on delicious Polish food on three separate occasions.

Our friend Dustin, with his cat Elvis. He and his wife Sam are pretty big into humiliating their cats to bring their egos down a bit. Just another reason why we're all such good friends, I guess.

"Whooodamn!" says Angela as she exhales the firey fumes from a delicious basket of Jim's Wings.

Angela and I by the tree.

My dad Clarence, my sister Di, and my brother Paul, all waiting for a train at Union Station in Denver. We all went up to Glenwood Springs for a few nights after New Year's.

Glenwood Springs: A gondola took us up the mountain to go on a tour of some caves.

My dad and Angela, on her first gondola ride. She's scared of heights, so of course my dad shook the gondola. I comforted Angela by telling her that if the gondola got stuck and we were forced to resort to cannibalism, we would be sure to eat my dad first.

On the gondola.

At the top of the mountain.

My dad riding a sort of rollercoaster down the mountain. It looked pretty fun, but I'd forgotten my hat at the hotel.

Angela with her dream booty.

Our faces become permanently disfigured due to a quick transition from hot springs water into the cold mountain air!

I suppose that if you don't understand the backstory to this picture, it could seem confusing and even offensive. See, earlier in the week, my family was...well, we were basically mocking Costa Rican superstitions about going from hot to cold, or vice versa. According to every Costa Rican I've ever talked to about this matter (and I've talked to a lot, believe me), such a cold/hot transition can cause strokes, permanent internal bleeding, miscarriages, hemhorroids and, of course, a permanent warping of one's face.
For example, Angela once yelled at me for taking off my shoes and socks, and then putting my bare feet on the tile. Also, it's been claimed that a woman cannot open a refrigerator for the last three months of her pregnancy, especially not if she was just near a stove. Or was it the three months after the pregnancy?
Oh well, bottom line is, Angela was a good sport, and she even suggested we take this picture to show to her family back home.

The hot springs in front of the Hotel Colorado.

A nice view on the train ride home.

Another view. Sure, the train is slower, but it's really comfortable, it serves wine, and you get views like this from your coach seat!

Another train shot: Colorado is nice.

Angela nearly derails the train with her patented Sonic Scream!

Some more crap.

Nature, etc. Train fun.

Union Station in Denver.

Angela came back to Costa Rica with a little surprise! A nice, soft pillow for traveling!

Angela in the Miami airport, with the pillow once again (Thank God; That's enough booty to gag a donkey!)

We had about nine hours--from midnight to 9 am--to kill in Miami's airport. Nine hours of loud, shitty, Dentist's-Office Jazz and TSA announcements blared over the PA system. Miami International Airport: Your Cuban food is tasty and your carpets are plush and available for sleeping, but your music and repetitive safety announcements suck balls.

Something weird: A can of sweet yerba maté, the weird grass/tea drink that I like from South America. ¡Che! ¡Boludo!

Angela zonked out at Miami International Airport.

So, that's it for now. Hope you liked the pictures. And a big thanks a hello to all our friends and family who we got to see during this trip home. If we missed you, I hope we'll get to see you next time!

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The Fungus Among Us

I guess that one of the downsides of living in a really humid, damp, musty climate (besides a closet full of stinky, supposedly clean clothes that are almost moist to the touch) is apparently some sort of common fungus. And it would appear that I have this fungus on my chest, which causes me to get these pale little white circles, especially when I spend time in the sun. I'll spare you a picture of my chest, mainly because it's not so cool-looking, but also because it seems to be off-season for fungus, now that the daily downpours have stopped.

In any case, when I was in Colorado I went to my friend McGrew, who is a Physician's Assistant, and he prescribed me these two little pills. Which cost $8.00. But he claims they work, and I hope he's right. I even carefully followed his comprehensive prescription instructions, which are:

"Take 2 tablets by mouth in the morning with orange juice then sweat at noon and shower in the evening."

The people at the pharmacy said it was the strangest instructions they'd seen. Anyhow, let's hope they work, and if you come visit Coast Tasty, be sure to apply a thick, protective coat of Lamisil underneath your sunblock!

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New House Construction Pictures

In case you keep track of these kind of things--and who doesn't?--I just updated the Construction Sblog with some new pictures of the house, including the beauty above.

"More! More!! More!!!" you say?

Well then, look no further than the Construction Sblog. Enjoy.

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Book-in It!

Just a reminder, if you're a student looking for textbooks, be sure to check out the link to my amazon.com aStore on the left! You can get all the books you're looking for at a great price, and it helps support me and the site. They even have weird, obscure books you might never expect to find--like the textbooks my dad used when studying veterinary dentistry--so they're bound to have what you need.

Take Paul Sitzman. He just bought 8 books on the aStore, thereby helping his older brother! He's subsequently become healthy, wealthy, wise, and handsome beyond his wildest dreams!

Now compare Paul Sitzman--the spitting image of a cheerful, all-American boy--and compare him to the people who didn't buy books using my amazon.com aStore. Ewww. We're talking Losers. Creeps. Dictators. Perverts. Veneral Disease Sufferers. Al Qaeda. Reggaeton Singers. Prostitutes. Greedy Wall Street Villains.

Do you really want to be part of that latter group?

Didn't think so.

So, if you need some textbooks for the upcoming semester, please check out the aStore first, and I'll be forever grateful if you do so.

Can you really afford not to?

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Was Tun, Wenn's Bebt?

As you may have heard on the news, there was an earthquake here in Costa Rica yesterday that measured 6.2 on the Richter scale. As I found out, that's pretty strong.

The only other earthquake I'd ever felt was the second time I ever went to Angela's house. When I felt the walls shake a bit on that occasion--since I'm a Colorado boy--I assumed the most logical conclusion: the washing machine must be off balance on the spin cycle.

Well, evidently someone was spinning a huge-ass load of clothes yesterday, cause everything shook quite a lot. I was at the bank during my lunch hour, since my debit card had been mysteriously deactivated. When the room started bouncing around, I looked up and saw a huge, dripping Air-Conditioning unit above my head and thought, "This doesn't look good." I didn't know what to do, however. Was I supposed to stay put? To run? To stand in a door frame? To stand in the middle of the room? Do you die if you're inside or outside during an earthquake? For a moment, I even had a mental message flash in my head that said, "Find a doorframe or, barring that, a basement, a bathtub, or a ditch." But wait, wasn't that what to do when there's a tornado? Man, natural disasters are confusing.

Everyone else in the bank was running toward the door, so I followed them. I at least seemed to remember that you're supposed to be calm in a disaster, so I was walking, but not too slowly, lest I be the only dumbass caught inside. I can't imagine the shame of knowing that my cause of death was getting crushed by an A/C unit at a mall.

So, I went outside with everyone else until the rumbling and shaking stopped about a minute later. I didn't know what to do, but since a few people were headed back into the mall, I did, too. After all, I had taken a number, and I wasn't about to lose my place in line.

After about another 40 minutes of waiting, I finally talked to a teller and got my debit card reactivated. I was headed back to work on foot, and I figured I'd take a shortcut through a department store. But the department store was closed with a big, fat chain on the glass door handles. In fact, all the other stores were closed, too. As I went outside, I noticed a ton of people milling about. Could the four of us that went back into the bank have been the only idiots around?
Answer: Probably.

As I walked back to the commercial park where I work, the DHL building's employees were outside, enjoying a nice smoke in the sun. And so were all the employees of all the other businesses in the park, including the call center where I work. Crap! I had wasted my whole lunch hour at the bank, only to find out that I was missing the opportunity to Hang Around Outside! For an office employee, that's like getting strep throat on a snow day!

So, for the next couple of hours--until I left work at 4, actually--people were kept outside while engineers inspected the buildings. There were minor damages, mostly involving ceiling tiles and other random crap falling, so we were pretty lucky. In many other parts of the country there were injuries, destroyed roads and houses, and even 15 or so deaths, mostly by landslides.

This is a weird post anyhow, so I'm not quite sure how to end it. I guess, let's just hope the next one is small, and that everyone stays safe.

Until then, hold on.

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Paul Sitzman, A Sitzman Extraordinaire

Just yesterday my brother Paul (the guy on the right in the picture above) put up a list of his favorite albums of 2008 on his blog. It's good stuff, and you should check it out. For one thing, the formatting of his post is breathtakingly beautiful. He even name-dropped my amazon site, which has actually been doing pretty well (thanks to the people who have been using it!). On that site, I also created a few pages where you can either buy Paul's albums of the year, or just download the MP3 versions. I've had very good luck with Amazon's MP3 downloads; they're cheaper than the itunes store's, and they're also more compatible with other players. Plus, you can get them from Costa Rica, unlike itunes songs. And for an example of prices, the whole albums by Beck and Death Cab For Cutie are only $5.00 each as MP3 downloads. So, check it out.

Also, I would post my own top 10 of 2008 list, but I'm almost sure the only music I listened to in 2008 that was actually from 2008 was Guns N' Roses' new album. It was a slow year for me, music-wise. So, I'll let Paul take it away.

Good work, brother-man.

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Tired of Predator Rap

I'm mainly just putting this post up because I'm tired of glancing at my blog as I drift through the cybersphere, only to notice that stupid Predator face and the phrase "Predator Rap Video" from the previous post.

Things have been very busy lately, but our whirlwind trip of my patria--or whatever--is nearly over, and soon enough I'll have some more pictures ready to put up.

But for now, "Tired of Predator Rap" will have to suffice.

(The picture is an older one I took before we left Costa Rica--see, I still haven't even had time to look at my US pictures yet--showing our niece Mariela holding our cat, Coochie Flies; his name alone is worth a post/explanation. Anyhow, it's kinda hilarious. Plus, Mariela is watching our cat right now, so I hope they're both doing well!)

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Predator Rap Video

Lately I've been trying to catch up on about a year's worth of scribbles made in a little notebook to remind me to check out stuff on the internet. In Costa Rica I can go to an internet cafe and do some casual internet surfing, but there's nothing like good, old-fashioned (and free, for me) internet back here at my folks' house in the U.S.

Since I have had some quality time with high-speed access, I've been going through some odd recommended sites. A link to the video above came up when I was looking at www.submarinechannel.com, a cool site that my brother recommended to me months and months ago, and which I finally got a chance to check out. The video is pretty cool and weird, so have a look. It's the first video I've embedded in a post, so I hope it works. It basically tells the plot of the 80's movie "Predator" in rap form, using a narrator as well as actual quotes from the movie.

Just have a look.

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Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

I figured that since the blog looks a bit different now, I should quickly explain a few things:

1. The New Design: I tweaked with a template from Blogger to come up with the new design for this blog. I hope you like it. It should be easier to read, and it'll also fill more of the screen if you enlarge the size of window displaying the blog. Please feel free to tell me if you like it or not, and be sure to mention any problems you may have with the look or functionality of the new design.


2. The aStore: As I mentioned before, this site is linked to Amazon.com (one of the boxes on the left). I think they provide good products at a good cost, so I've set up a page within Amazon's architecture to allow you to shop for items from their store. If you buy products from Amazon after going through my store's link, then I get a small referral bonus from Amazon. So if you normally buy from Amazon, then it's just a way to help support me and this blog.

If you looked at the store before, you should know that I have changed it and added quite a few things. It still has the products that I'm into lately, as well as the music mentioned and reviewed in the A-Z Music Review Revue. What's new, though, is that it also has many of Amazon's own categories, which means that you can search directly within the aStore for most any product that Amazon offers, without having to go to a new window. It's sort of hard to describe it all, but I'd love it if you check it all out whenever you have a moment. And a big thanks to the people who have already used the aStore as a link to buy stuff!


3. The Advertisements: First of all, I must apologize that I even put up ads. I know that a lot of people react negatively to them, but the truth is that they pay (a little bit of) the bills, so I decided to add them. In any case, the ads are set up by Google AdSense, so I have no control over their content. I therefore apologize if they are annoying or repetitive. Still, if any of the ads are interesting to you, please feel more than welcome to check them out...that's what they're there for, after all.


4. The "Internet Search" Window: This is the other thing to the left. Basically, it is also related to AdSense, and uses Google to do an internet search. When you get to the results page, some of the links at the top or bottom of the page may be set off from the others. Those are the sites that pay Google for ad space, and that is how they are connected to the whole program. If you do a search and the featured links don't help you, then that's fine; you can just ignore them and go to any of the regular links lower down on the page. If they are what you're looking for, then once again, please feel free to visit them.


So, that's about it for the changes. Tell me if any of that didn't make sense, and I'll try to clarify anything that needs clarifying.

I hope that everyone is doing well, and I hope that everyone enjoys a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!

365: Picture a Day Project    365 Leftovers    All My Pictures    Sitzbook

And Now, Here's One For All You German-Wannabes Out There

As I was recently looking at some articles from Focus.de, an online German news source, I came across a series of tests to determine one's "German-ness." Apparently, these 6 tests will be given to people who want to become German citizens. We give a similar test in the US, and I may have to take a test like this when I try to apply for Costa Rican citizenship sometime next year.

So, feeling a bit nostalgic for my German-studying and Germany-loving days, I took a few of the tests. There are 33 questions in each test, and to pass you need to answer at least 17 questions correctly. And, to be honest, they're pretty easy. For the first one I took, I choked a bit and only got 28 correct, but on the second one I tried, I got a 100%! Still got it!

Anyhow, if you're down with the Deutsch, check them out by following this link, and tell me how you do. (Obviously, you have to understand German to do them, or else just guess really well).

Good luck!

(Picture taken by me in my trip of 2006).

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Call Now!

If you're reading this and you're in Fort Collins, give us a call. We're kinda bored.

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Some Mexico Pictures

Hi Everyone!
Well, Angela and I are now back in Colorado visiting my family, and we're safe, sound, and flash-frozen. We took a lot of pictures in Mexico, and I'll be putting more up soon on www.ryansitzman.com (yes, it's still around). In the meantime, though, Angela just called her mom and told her that I was going to put some Mexico pictures up this afternoon, so I had better get cracking. I suppose that since these are for the benefit of Angela's family, I should write this entry in Spanish, but, uhm, oh crap. Here we go:

El Palacio de Bellas Artes, en México, D.F.

Aquí está la pareja que se casó en Veracruz: Juan Pablo y Aurora. Después se ve Laura y Mark, una pareja Mexicana-Holandesa que vive en Alemania. Después Angela y yo. Estamos en el castillo de Veracruz.

Angela, Yo, Aurora, y Juan Pablo.

I'm writing this one in English since I'm not sure the Spanish speakers would be that interested: The wedding in Veracruz took place at an outdoor facility, and it was decorated nicely, including these beautiful, hand-painted pots...well, beautiful except for the swastikas.

Angela con su nuevo estilo.

Tirando el novio en el aire para celebrar.

En la catedral de la Vírgen de Guadalupe.

Afuera de la misma.

Angela probando pulque...o ésto era mezcal? ¿Sabe a gusano o no?

En las instalaciones de Teotihuacan.

Angela en la pirámide del sol, mirando a la pirámide de la luna.

Nuestra pequeña luchadora Angela, con su inspiración, El Hijo del Santo.

Angela en el Mueso de Antropología.

Ahorrita pondré aún más fotos en este blog o en mi sitio de web! Gracias por verlas, y les mandamos un saludo y un gran abrazo a todo el mundo en Costa Rica!
Thanks for checking these out. I'll put up more ASAP!

365: Picture a Day Project    365 Leftovers    All My Pictures    Sitzbook

Update

Hi Everyone!
I'll write more soon (possibly), but I just wanted to say hello, and sorry for the delays in posting. Things have been pretty busy, and now Angela and I are headed to my friend Aurora's wedding in Mexico. We'll be in Colorado on Dec. 17, so look us up!
Until then, take care!
Ryan

365: Picture a Day Project    365 Leftovers    All My Pictures    Sitzbook