I, state your name

Really, I'm still alive

2011-04-30T15:17:00.004-05:00

Every few days I think to myself, I should really write something on my blog. Then I think the following:

1) I've just spent 8-10 hrs on a computer at work. I hate computers.

2) I have nothing interesting to say. Worse yet, I don't think I have anything funny to say.

Then, of course, I don't write anything. I was checking out a couple of other blogs this afternoon and realized that I haven't updated since the end of flippin' February. Damn. Sorry. Chances are, there really isn't anyone still reading since I seem to have vanished from the face of the planet.

It's hard to feel inspired when all your energy has been drained at work. Ever since the 3rd assistant quit (that would be the passive agressive door blocker), I think I put in about 4-6 hours of over time a week. We have been crazy busy. Every school seems to be making HVAC releated changes this summer. This means everyone wants everything all at the same time. Disney and her engineer have actually not been hit too hard the last few months. She would have one job bidding the same week that I had 4. Or like one particularly crappy week in March, 7. She just got hit this past week, which made me feel slightly better.

I don't know that she's improved since door blocker left. She bid a job back in December that just recently got awarded to one of my engineer's contractors. This means that I have to do the submittals for the contractor (reports that specify how the equipment is made and how it performs under the scheduled conditions provided by the engineer that designed the system). While I was working on this set of submittals, I was reviewing what was selected and comparing it to what was requested. I discovered several errors.

I'm not saying I'm perfect by any stretch. I recently bid a really big job that had multiple alternate system options and I accidentally put gas heat on a system that should have been electric heat. Not my proudest moment, but at least the damn things had heat on them. When my boss pointed it out, I felt really bad that I had missed something that seemed pretty obvious. I think I apologized about 4 times.

Back to the other project. The units that Disney selected were cooling only. This was a bit of a problem, because both the schedule and the specifications of the job called out for electric heat in all the units. They also called out for a few other options that were left off. I showed the discrepancies to my boss first. Then, I went to the engineer that bid the job (and who I used to work for when I was shared by both the engineers). I asked him if there was something weird about the job. Had anything changed last minute that he would remember?

I showed him what I had found and he just shook his head. He said he didn't know why the units were picked the way they were. He said I should talk to Disney.

I tried to be as nice and non-judgemental as possible. The job bid right before Christmas, so I know almost no one was thinking about work at that time. I asked Disney if she remembered the job at all. I asked if she recalled any changes. I explained that I couldn't figure out why there was no heat on the units when they specifically asked for it.

Here is what I got back for responses.

"I don't remember."

"I'm not sure."

"I would have put any notes in the file."

That was it. Nothing like, "oops, I'm an idiot...I can't believe I missed that." Or, "how much did the price change?" Or, "That was my mistake, sorry."

She acted like I'd just told her we had run out of kleenex in the bathroom. Actually, she probably would have responded more emotionally if I had told her that. She's a bit of a germ freak.

I went back to my boss and said that I had talked to Disney. He asked what was up. I told him the truth. "I think she f##ked up. I think she didn't pay any attention to what she was doing and because everyone was in a hurry to get out of here a few days before our Christmas break that her boss didn't catch the mistake."

The really bad part is the cost of the mistake. If it were a difference of a couple hundred dollars, we could probably go back and ask the contractor for those dollars. But, it actually ended up raising the dollar amount by almost $5,000!

There is no way we can go to someone and say, gosh,we're sorry. We realize that you probably got this job because we were super cheap (having not actually provided everything for you), but we need a crap load more money.

The only way we were able to sell the corrected equipment at the original price was to get special permission to do so from the corporate gods. This special deal means that neither of the engineers will make any commission off of this job. And, considering they are 100% commission, that doesn't help them out at all.

I don't know if Disney's engineer had any sort of talk with her about this mistake or not. All I do know is she didn't seem to care either way what happened. It's all very disheartening.

On a completely unrelated note, I taped the big wedding and watched it last night. I opted to take in the BBCAmerica broadcast. I loved seeing Simon Schama talking about how in the early days, royal weddings often took place at night, in small chapels given they were more about the acquisition of power and land. You would want to make sure no one killed the bride or groom just as the big merger was happening I suppose.

I also loved how the British commentators never seemed to make a verbal blunder. They had a beautifully formed comment for virtually everything. There were no "hey guys" or the like when they were talking. And, the crowd interviews were quite different than what you would have seen here in the States. Most of the time, the crowd would quite so that you could hear the response given by the person being interviewed. There was no random shouting from in the back. No one seemed to be pushing into the camera shot, while texting their friends to let them know they were on television.

I thought the dress was beautiful. I want to know what Harry said to William after he peaked back to see Kate walking down the aisle. I can't imagine the anticipation one would feel waiting for that moment when you could turn and see what everyone else has already been witness to. I loved the acapella song the choir sang. I enjoyed seeing a couple of looks between the couple during the ceremony that seemed to say "I can't believe this is all for us." There was one fun eyebrow raise by William at one point. The carriage ride was sweet. The moment where they went through that narrow archway and for a brief few seconds they didn't have to wave...when they came out the other end, you could see they were holding hands.

All in all, a very nice moment for the British. Even if the prime minister's wife didn't wear a hat.

Big Golden Guy goes to...

2011-02-27T15:55:00.002-06:00

It's time once again for the Oscars which means it's time for me to reveal just how limited my social life is by letting you know what I think on the subject.

Best Picture: My pick: The Social Network What will win: The King's Speech.
Don't get me wrong on this one. I really enjoyed The King's Speech, as well as Inception which would be my other #2. But, when I walked out of the theater after The Social Network I felt exhilarated and exhausted at the same time. I was tingly and numb all at once. My pick is very much a gut reaction.

Best Director: My pick: David Fincher (I would tie him with Danny Boyle for 127 Hours, but he wasn't nominated) Who will win: I think Fincher has a decent chance, but Tom Hooper looks like the fave for King's Speech.

Best Actor: My pick: Colin Firth (but Jesse Eisenberg is a very close 2nd and I would have picked him if Colin wasn't an option) Who gets it: Colin Firth. The man rocked the house and he deserves it...he deserved it last year too...

Best Actress: My pick: Natalie Portman Who will win: Natalie Portman She did an amazing job as the ballerina who disintegrates before your eyes. I didn't get a chance to see Rabbit Hole (here for only one week damn it) or Blue Valentine (never got here, also damn it) so I'm not sure if my choice would be different.

Best Supporting Actor: My pick: tie between Christian Bale and Geoffrey Rush Who'll get it: Christian Bale Bale gets the nod for once again diving so completely into a different persona, while Rush gets a high five for really complimenting (and supporting) the lead character with his performance. John Hawkes gets a personal shout out for his work in Winter's Bone. He's one of those guys that you know him when you see him. If his part had been larger, I might have gone with him for my choice.

Best Supporting Actress: My pick: Helena Bonham Carter or Melissa Leo Who will win: Hailee Steinfeld I think the girl from True Grit has a serious chance at getting this, but Melissa Leo may swoop in for it (I love her). True Grit was the only picture up for Best Picture that I never got around to seeing...which is really lame since I kept saying I was going to go to it.

Original Screenplay: My pick: The King's Speech Who will win: The King's Speech It was smart, funny and touching...hard to beat that.

Adapted Screenplay: My pick: The Social Network Who will win: The Social Network Aaron Sorkin was able to draw out the human element in what could have been a really cold story. Instead, he showed us the irony of just how alone the creator of one of the largest socializing tools can be. Tragedy at its contemporary best for me.

I won't bore you by going into the other categories. Partly because I didn't get a chance to see any of the documentary nominees, let alone the foreign films. I will say I am rooting for Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross to win the Original Score award and Inception to win Cinematography (though it was almost a crime that 127 Hours wasn't selected for that one).

We'll see how I do with my guesses.

Now, back to the Ohio State game...

Lotus Flower

2011-02-21T14:33:00.005-06:00

Normally I don't post while at work, but I just got an email from NPR that had the new Radiohead video with it. So, in honor of my obsession with really skinny guys who dance like they are having a seizure...

Well, maybe not a seizure. More like a cross between sex and krunking. Love it...makes me smile.

Oscar post coming this weekend. I know you are holding your breath for that; don't lie.

Momentarily Stuck

2011-02-03T20:06:00.004-06:00

Depending on where you are in the country, you got a bunch of snow on Tues. As you can see from the pictures if you were in the front yard at my place, you got 15 inches of snow. The back was a mere 12 inches. It took me 45 min. to clear off the steps (and to find the bottom step) and dig out the car. I lucked out that one of my neighbors helped me or I would have been there much longer.

Knowing it was going to get bad by noon-ish on Tues., I planned ahead and took my work laptop home. I actually did work most of my 8 hour shift. I took an extra break to clear off the landing mid-blizzard. Tuesday evening I experienced my first Thunder Snow, which sounds a little like an episode of Thundercats that takes place in the Arctic. That or it's a sorta cool, sorta cheesy spy code name. Agent Thunder Snow at your service.

Wednesday the office was closed so I didn't have to do anything work related, which was good since I'd done everything I'd brought home the day before. Disney sent out an email last night yammering on about how she might not be in to work today because she'd heard that Rt. 8 was totally covered in drifts...blah, blah, blah. Apparently she didn't know about the 2 other ways to get to town. She eventually figured it out, but didn't get in until 11 am because she had to take her kid to a doctor's appointment...still left at 4:30 though. She's such a dedicated worker.

Speaking of, the other nutty assistant...the one who blocked her door with the table, no longer works with us. She has been gone on maternity leave since the beginning of Nov. A few weeks ago, she sent her supervisor a message via Facebook (!) to say she hadn't decided yet if she was coming back. He asked her to let me know sooner rather than later. Later seemed to be the plan because she finally got back to him last week. And, once again she used Facebook to tell him she was quitting. If you ever wondered about her level of professionalism, I think that move should clue you in pretty good. She called Disney, who promptly got a hold of some crazy chick she knows and had a resume in hand before our boss had even announced that the job was vacant.

So far, our newly freed former employee has yet to return her company laptop, her key to the building, and she hasn't picked up her personal items. I want to move the desk away from the door. Ideally, I'd like to have some sort of ceremony, not unlike what happened when the Berlin wall came down. Do you think the Hoff is available?

Enough of that, let's talk about people cutting off their own appendages...

I went to see 127 Hours last Saturday and it was fabulous! If you don't already know, the film is based on the story of Aron Rolston, the climber/canyon guy/adventurer who got stuck and had to cut off his own arm to free himself. I have long been a fan of Danny Boyle's films. He seems to always have a clear vision of what he wants to do as a story teller. The cinematography is excellent. I'm not a big fan of the southwestern vista, but everything looks beautiful here. The music is great, as usual. James Franco reminded me of why I liked him so much in Freaks and Geeks. He does a great job moving between Aron's different emotional states and never veers into melodrama. For being trapped in a tight space, the film moves thanks to Aron's flashbacks and imagination.

There is the right amount of tension flowing through out; impressive considering most people know how the story ends. A lot has been made of the scene when Aron cuts off his arm. It is graphic, but is edited in such a way that you don't feel like you've just stepped into a schlocky horror movie. In fact, it's almost a surprise when he makes the decision to do what he is going to do. I was actually leaning forward as he progressed, waiting anxiously for him to finish. The look on Franco's face is priceless and I felt relieved and (maybe not too strangely) exhilarated when he stumbles away and sees his forearm still pinned by the rock.

It took forever before it got to my neck of the woods, so if you aren't able to catch it before Oscar night, I strongly recommend renting it when it comes out in early March. It is worth seeing it on the big screen though.

Time to wrap up. Archer is on in 30 min.! Stay safe out there.

Really?

2011-01-22T18:00:00.004-06:00

You know it's a weird day when the highlight is not having to stand in line at the DMV. I went to get my plates renewed as well as my driver's license. I decided to go early and thanks to the time and the chill in the air, I went right up to the counter when I got there. A couple of checks and one crappy picture later, I have my new license. It's very mod and tricked out to make it harder to copy. I decided to be fairly honest and update my weight this time around. Only fairly honest though...I'm not crazy.

My poor Illini failed to defeat #1 Ohio State this morning. With about 7 min. left, we were up by 8 and then those damn people at CBS had to show a graphic. The graphic pointed out that Illinois had only turned it over 2 or 3 times in the half. Kiss of freakin' death...well, that and some questionable calls by the refs, some killer defense, and the strange decision to send a bounce pass to a guy who is 7 feet tall. Sad, sad, sad.

Then, I decided to go see The Fighter. As a movie, it was okay. As an avenue to see some excellent performances, it scores a bit higher. Christian Bale steals this puppy away from everyone. Melissa Leo and Amy Adams hold their own, but Mark Wahlberg seems to get sort of lost in the shuffle. I'm not sure if that is because his character is dominated not only by his brother's life and personality, but also set aside by his mother. Or, it could just be the way the script was written. Not a bad movie, but not a super one.

For some reason, I have started watching Criminal Minds. A & E and ION both show it about a million times during the week and I've been catching it here and there. I can't decide if I watch because of the strangely hot Matthew Gray Gubler or because I'm waiting for the script to slip into melodrama. Maybe I need to watch it from the beginning, but every time I hear the voice over featuring a quote that ties into the story, I start to giggle a bit. Plus, Thomas Gibson's expression never changes...ever. I like the guy, don't get me wrong. But, dang. I think there are 3 hours of it tonight. It'll be good to bounce back and forth between that and the Purdue/Michigan State game. At least watching someone catch a serial killer will get my mind of off the Illinois loss.

GO BEARS!

Hello again

2011-01-16T13:42:00.004-06:00

I realize it seems like I have disappeared since I haven't updated since right after Thanksgiving. I did not purposely take a vacation or anything. I just didn't feel really inspired to write. I haven't felt particularly inspired by much of anything lately. But, I'm going to try and get back into the groove. It will start slow; I'll probably update during the weekend. So, let's get started.

After a few weeks of begging the movie gods, The King's Speech finally came to town this weekend. I have been a fan of Colin Firth's for quite some time and was rooting for him to win the Best Actor Oscar last year for A Single Man. He definitely has a shot this year for his portrayal of King George VI (or Bertie as his family and friends called him). I'm sure a decent amount of people know that after George V died, his eldest son, Edward, became king. Edward abdicated the throne about a year later so he could marry an American who was twice divorced. As the Head of the Church of England, you couldn't really do that so Edward chucked the whole king thing to get hitched. George VI then helped lead the country through WW II. But, thanks to much larger personalities like Churchill, Hitler, etc., George sort of gets lost in the shuffle. I don't believe his story is very well known in America and probably only sort of known in England.

Bertie was a stammerer. He apparently had been since he was 4 or 5. Being the second son, it was unlikely he would ever become king, so he could be comfortable enough with his speech issues since he wouldn't really have to do much public speaking. Things began to change when he had to give a speech in his father's place and it went really, really, badly. Bertie's wife, who most of us know as the Queen Mother, kept trying to find someone to help her husband. Eventually, they came across a speech therapist named Lionel. The movie takes us through Lionel's treatments and their growing friendship.

You totally believe Colin's performance. Nothing seems forced or fake. You can see the frustration and feeling of inadequacy move over his face as he tries to express himself, to find his voice as it were. You feel for him every step of the way. Geoffrey Rush is a great foil for Firth. It is funny and heart breaking to see their relationship grow and change. Helena Bonham Carter plays Elizabeth (Bertie's wife) and, as my friend Jackie pointed out, it was good to see her "not playing crazy."

If you are a fan of these actors and a fan of period/historical pieces, this movie is right up your alley. It is funny, moving, and has just the right amount of triumph without becoming too sentimental. The script is whip smart and I like that the director seemed to let the story unfold on its own.

I would put this up there with my 2 other favorite movies of the year, The Social Network and Inception.

Hopefully, Colin will pick up a Best Actor Golden Globe this evening. He already snagged the Critic's Choice award for the same category on Friday. Fingers crossed.

Oh, on a side note...for those of you who are fans of the BBC's production of Pride & Prejudice that made Colin a major star, the actress who played Elizabeth Bennett, Jennifer Ehle, plays Lionel's wife. I don't know if this is the first time Colin and Jennifer had acted together since P & P, but it was fun to see them together again.

Almost done

2010-11-27T16:17:00.002-06:00

As I'm sure most of you are aware, the first of two movies covering the final book in the Harry Potter series came out last week. I have now seen it twice (and will probably check it out at least one more time). It always takes me at least two viewings to get a handle on my opinion of the film. The first time through has me trying to remember what the movie has left out that was in the book. The second time through, I can just watch it as a movie on its own. David Yates, who has directed the last couple of HP's, is behind the wheel for both part one and two of the finale. When book 7 came out, I discussed with several people how difficult it would be to try and present that book as one movie. I was very excited when it was decided to be done as two movies. I'm still glad they did it that way, but I wish the pacing on this movie had been a bit more intense.

Don't get me wrong. I really enjoyed the movie. All three of the leads have become, at the very least, solid actors as they have matured. The tone of the final book/films is definitely the darkest of all of them so it's good that their acting abilities are up to meeting the challenge of the story. I loved seeing Ron get all mushy around Hermione. I loved seeing Ron and Harry argue. I loved seeing Ron get to have his big hero moment. I loved that the CGI used for Kreacher and Dobby (house elves if you are not in the know) improved. The combination of having Dobby seem not so Jar Jar Binks-ish (along with some excellent voice acting for the character) and Daniel Radcliffe's spot on acting made Dobby's death scene a genuinely touching and subtle moment in the film. I loved seeing Draco conflicted. I loved seeing the very, very, subtle hints at Snape's true nature (thank you Alan Rickman!). I love the twins!

The only complaint I have about the movie is the pacing. We start off with a bang. Voldy almost gets Harry. There's the quick escape from the wedding. There is the whole thing at the Ministry. But then we get...walking. In the book, Rowling lets us know that the threesome traveled from place to place for several weeks. They didn't stay in one place for more than a night or two. They had to sneak around and "steal" food (Hermione usually left money in the till or, in the case of snagging some eggs at a farm, under a chicken). I guess I would have liked a more intensely edited montage of some sort that showed more of their struggle. We saw them walking over some really cool bits of land and it's all very expansive and gorgeous and that's great. But, it slowed the movie down for me. It took out some of the tension that should have been built by the fact that they were on the run. Maybe I'm just too picky.

I went to see this the first time with my friend and her 4 boys. When it was over, her youngest turned to me and asked when they were going to start showing the second movie. He was rather disappointed when I told him he would not be waiting just a few minutes, but actually several months. The wait should be worth it as we have only 12 chapters left in the book to go through and it should be almost non stop action, adventure, and snogging (finally the smooch between Hermione and Ron...wonder if it will be as touchy feel-y as the "evil" snog that anti-Harry and anti-Hermione had before Ron crushed the Voldy locket...I sort of wish that intensity was present between Harry and Ginny...maybe they are trying to keep that one more chaste for now...perhaps I'm thinking too much on it...hmmm...). See you in July.

Ring My Bell

2010-11-14T16:46:00.005-06:00

I've always wanted to ring the bells for the Salvation Army at this time of the year. Can't really explain why, just did. I got the chance to "live the dream" as it were this weekend. The group I volunteer with, Generation United, took shifts helping ring out in front of a Hy Vee grocery store.

Saturday didn't provide us with the best weather. It was cloudy, a little drippy, and a lot windy. Still, I smiled, rang the bell, said hello to folks as they walked by and thanked them when they donated.

I could tell when people weren't going to donate. Even more particularly, I could tell when people weren't going to donate and they felt bad about it. Usually, they would avert their gaze as they got closer to me. A couple of people told me they didn't have any change.

One little girl wanted to know why Santa wasn't ringing the bell here. I explained he was very busy making toys so he needed some help right now. I think she bought my answer, but she still had a slightly disappointed look on her face. Toward the end of my shift, an older gentlemen came over to talk to me. He asked that I talk to my supervisor and let them know that the guy working the bell at Kroger that morning BROUGHT A CHAIR AND WAS SITTING IN IT!

Apparently sitting down on the job is a big no-no...or at least that is what this guy was telling me. He was in the know because he had a friend who worked for the Salvation Army and sitting down was against the rules. I almost asked the guy if he knew if the person sitting down appeared to be elderly or perhaps injured in some way, there by explaining the evil chair. But, I couldn't get a word in edge wise.

The other highlight of the experience was sharing the space with a dude I referred to as "The Cranberry Guy." Cranberry Guy, or CG as I will call him, was someone hired by Ocean Spray to stand out in front of the store promoting their cranberry juice. He had on waders and an outfit similar to the guys in the commercial. He had a decent sized rectangular wooden box that was about half full of water. On top of the water were cranberries. He had a rake and would move them around and explain to folks how cranberries are harvested, etc.

You would have thought this guy was Elvis or something. Cars stopped so drivers could take photos of him. He posed for pictures with people. CG even had his own camera and had people take pictures on it. I asked him what the pictures were for and he said that they would show his boss that his was mingling and they get sent to Ocean Spray who might put them on their website. CG had got there around 8 and had to work till 5. He came over twice to ask me to watch his display to make sure no one messed with it while he went inside to warm up. The big concern seemed to be people putting something disgusting in the water or some kid drowning in it.

I got to watch a mini soap opera unfold as a trio of teen age girls hovered around where CG was standing. It took them a good 10 minutes (and much pushing) before they went over to talk to him. There was a lot of giggling, hair flipping, and photo taking. After they left, CG came over and told me that they were quite flirty. He said they asked if he was cold. He responded, "I was, but then you came over and my heart started beating so fast I warmed up."

Yeah, I know.

Anyway, it was a worthwhile couple of hours of my day. I'll definitely sign up again. If you have the chance to volunteer in your area, I really recommend it.

'Tis the season after all...

Boo.

2010-11-07T15:13:00.002-06:00

I had every intention of watching the two scary movies I'd gotten via Netflix BEFORE the 31st. This of course means that, as with everything else in my life right now, I fell behind and just watched them last night. First was The Human Centipede. I'd been reading about this movie in one of my British mags. It's a riff on the mad scientist who wants to create a monster. In this case, a mad Nazi-esque scientist who wants to make a centipede using 3 people. The gory draw is that the people are sewn to each other via their mouth and well...the behind of the person in front of them. I told you it was gory. The guy who plays the surgeon is darn creepy and I give props to the actors who spent the last third of the movie on hands and knees in a position that had to be interesting at the least. Otherwise, the movie was just sort of run of the mill. I was too busy trying to figure out how certain things were done and trying to work my way through the issues I had with the plot to really get scared. The director made the ending really dark so I guess it was more depressing than scary.

Next up was Trick 'r Treat. It came out in 2008 and was directed by the guy who wrote X-Men 2. Bryan Singer produced and there is even more X-Men connectedness with Bryan Cox and Anna Paquin appearing in the film. I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. It nice some really nice creepy moments. There is plenty of dark humor and some great ironic touches. The little "kid" with the sack over his head walking around in the orange footie pajamas was a nice touch. There are multiple stories that sort of loosely connect. The movie plays off of some classic Halloween motifs, but brings in some fresh blood as it were. It's a short film, only about 1:20 in length, which is perfect. Next year, plan on checking this one out...or be a rebel and watch it over Thanksgiving!

In theaters, Due Date came out this weekend. Directed by Todd Phillips (The Hangover), it stars the fab-I-want-to-have-your-child Robert Downey, Jr. and Zach Galifianakis. Zach and Robert made a great pair. Zach as a weird, man-child sort of guy and Robert as an uptight, somewhat angry man. They don't meet under the best circumstances. Zach gets Robert tossed off a plane and put on a no fly list. Because Robert has lost his ID, he can't rent a car so he ends up having to ride with Zach across country. Robert needs to get back to L.A. in time for the birth of his first child.

While there are funny moments in this buddy/road flick, there just didn't seem to be enough of them. I will say seeing Juliet Lewis as a "pharmacist" (she sells medicinal pot out of her kitchen) was very funny. Also a high light are the bizarre conversations Robert and Zach have. Hearing Zach's character claim that the Hoover Dam was built by the pilgrims was pretty flippin' funny. I enjoyed the emotional and serious moments more. I was impressed with Zach's range and the monologue where Robert describes a traumatic childhood event was really touching. Overall the script felt sort of unfinished, almost like they were rushing it out to keep us occupied while waiting for The Hangover 2 to come out. Still, it wasn't a bad way to spend the afternoon.

Hopefully this week I will get to Buried, starring Ryan Reynolds. I've read a lot about it and I'm curious to see how the director handles keeping the character and the audience in one very small space for the length of the film.

Then it's Harry Potter and the renewal of my moderately inappropriate crush on Daniel Radcliffe!

Reason 742 why I love Jon Stewart

2010-10-31T08:22:00.002-05:00

I know I've been bad and have not updated much lately. I will try and get to it later this morning. But for now, please enjoy the very sane, Jon Stewart.

I wish I could have been there.

Quick Work Thingie

2010-10-11T20:33:00.002-05:00

Here's a quick one. Last Friday, I was eating lunch out at our picnic table with a co-worker. She told me this story.

She was in the office of one of our accountants. Someone had brought him a watermelon from their garden. It was a little bit darker green in color, but she still knew what is was. She asked the accountant who brought him the watermelon.

He made the comment that he was glad she properly identified the watermelon. He then told her that earlier in the day Disney had been in his office. She too had seen the bounty from the garden and said, "Is that a green pumpkin?"

(Editor's note: when I was first told this story, I mocked Disney over the idea of there being a green pumpkin, then this weekend, I actually saw a green pumpkin...I guess that is what happens when the pumpkin doesn't get enough sun when it is first growing)

He looked at her, perplexed. He said, "No. What comes out of a faucet?"

Disney answered, "Water."

The accountant sort of motioned his hands to prompt her to connect the dots.

Disney thought for a second and said, "It's a water pumpkin?!"

I kid you not. This is one of the reasons why I recently noted on my facebook page that I now understand why people sometimes take a pee in their co-worker's office.

Another example of David Fincher's brilliance

2010-10-03T15:07:00.004-05:00

I'll admit that when I first heard someone was doing a movie about the beginnings of facebook I thought "who cares." While I have page on facebook, I suck at updating (no surprise I'm sure). Then I found out that David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club, Zodiac, the upcoming Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) was directing and I was there on opening night.

The movie is based on a book about the creators of facebook, but as I understand it, none of the folks involved talked to Fincher or to excellent screenwriter, Aaron Sorkin (West Wing, Sports Night, The American President). Talk about creative freedom. The opening of the movie features Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) having a lightening fast conversation with his, at that moment, girlfriend, Erica (Rooney Mara, who will be playing Lisbeth in the American version of Girl With Dragon Tattoo). Mark's intellect is obvious, as is his social awkwardness, while he spins the talk from one tangent to another, often jumping far ahead of his girlfriend. She is left trying to piece together his logic as he moves ahead oblivious. His mental jumps reveal his insecurities and Erica picks up on his emotional stumbling blocks. None the less, he says some hurtful things and doesn't seem to be aware that they are hurtful. You get the idea that this has happened before and often. Erica has had it and she breaks up with him. At first, Mark doesn't understand what is happening. But, when he realizes she is serious, all his insecurity and his inadequately expression emotion comes forward in a burst of anger, hurt, and math. He goes back to his dorm room at Harvard and alternately blogs and writes code. He wants to get back at his girlfriend. After talking to a roommate, he comes up with the idea for facemash.com. He hacks into the web pages for the different dorms on campus and sets up a website where viewers can vote who is the hottest girl based on pictures he took from the student listings on those dorm sites. He sends out a few emails with a link to the site and quickly seemingly every guy on campus is playing this game...enough so that the site ends up crashing Harvard's servers.

But here's the thing...the break up with the girlfriend that seems to start the ball rolling didn't happen. The writer and director created a situation where they set up that our main character is both brilliant and insecure. Had Zuckerbeg talked to Sorkin and Fincher, maybe they would have had a real life example to use. Though, I don't think that's the point. This isn't supposed to be "historically accurate." It is a movie about social interaction both on-line and off. The Mark Zuckerberg in the movie shifts between being someone you feel sympathy for and someone who just seems like a dick. It is ironic that the guy who created THE social networking site seemed to have few friends. And, in the movie at least, he shafted his one best friend out of the business that they created together. The final scene in the film lets you once again feel sympathy for Mark. He's been told he will probably end up settling his various court cases. Through the trials, he has lost his best friend. He is left alone in a conference room with his computer. He goes on facebook and looks up the girlfriend he broke up with at the beginning of the film. He sends her a friend request then sits quietly while hitting refresh every few seconds waiting for her answer.

The film looks great. Eisenberg is quite good at keeping Mark from turning into a total dick. He plays him with the right amount of brilliance and emotional obliviousness. Andrew Garfield (the new Spider Man) is also excellent as his facebook co-creator, Eduardo Saverin. Eduardo does his best to stay Mark's friend and protect him from those who want to abuse his mental creativity...in other words, Justin Timberlake. Timberlake is very good at doing dickweed smarmy as Napster creator, Sean Parker. I was pleasantly surprised by his performance. The whole cast actually is great. There's even a girl from the Disney Channel who plays Eduardo's girlfriend that caught me off guard.

One more bit of super coolness, the score was done by my fave Trent Reznor along with Atticus Ross from Nine Inch Nails. Reznor is able to convey both the excitement of creating something new and forward thinking, while also tapping in to Mark's emotional landscape. I liked the score enough that I picked it up.

There you have it. The movie about a website I barely visit is one of the best movies I have seen this year.

Next time, I will try to remember to review Let Me In, which I also saw this weekend.

Rock on and don't forget to update your profile page.

I'm back and I brought chocolates!

2010-09-25T10:40:00.004-05:00

Medieval house painting in Lucerne.

I loves me a good castle.

The Lion of Lucerne

A view of the Jungfrau from patio of my hotel.

Entrance to the "Cemetery of the Rich" in Milan.

Hello all! This time around I have a good excuse for having not posted. I was out of the country! I was lucky enough to have the chance to take a trip to N. Italy and Switzerland. It was one of those tours hosted by a local news person; in this case, it was a local weather man. I knew going in it could be a little bit of a rough ride. I was the youngest person on the trip. Everyone else was at least in their upper 50's or older. Needless to say, I heard a lot of "I'm cold" and "I'm tired" comments during the trip.

Milan reminded me of Rome in a way. Cool stuff to see, but the general vibe of the city made me uncomfortable, like I didn't quite belong. The Cemetery of the Rich was super cool. It is huge and no one in there has a plain head stone. Everything is massive and expensive. We were told that art students come here to study the sculpture that mark several of the grave sites. One family even had a huge representation of the Last Supper at their final resting place. The cathedral was great and the square in front of it was filled the day we were there. Just off of the square is the Galleria (I think I'm spelling that wrong...sorry). Once a marketplace for farmers and merchants, it is now a major hub of fashion. Prada, Louis Vitton, D and G, you name it and they are there...plus some guys promoting a free Africa with "free" friendship bracelets. Oh, skinny jeans. Lots and lots of skinny jeans.

We next hit a few of the lakes, including Lake Cumo where George Clooney has a place. I can see why he wants to live there. The area is filled with beautiful hills and beautiful lake front views. We lucked out and had excellent weather for all but one day. The sunny skies definitely show off the land to its best advantage. We took a ferry across Lake Lugano and stayed in one of the best hotels I've ever been in. The dining room had huge windows all the way around so as we ate would could see the city and the lake. Breakfast was out on a flower filled terrace. I wish we could have stayed there for more than one night.

Switzerland proper next. Cows, mountains, chocolate, amazingly smooth roads, quaint towns, expensive items (a soda in a restaurant or bar was about $4.50, that's last time I complain about paying $2.25 here), and my bus load of crazy older people. I think one guy in our tour group needed a new hearing aid because all he did was yell. I heard a lot of "WHERE ARE WE GOING?" during our various walking tours. Usually about 30 seconds after our guide had described where in fact we were going.

I took my opportunities where they came up to explore on my own. I checked out the Rosengart Collection in Lucerne. I enjoyed the Klee collection there the most. Lucerne also featured an excellent history museum (I got see see a guillotine up close!) and great medieval architecture. It was like opening a present when walking down the medieval streets. You would see the street open up into a square and almost every building in the square had paintings on it. From what I could gather, the owners of the building are responsible for the upkeep of the paintings. You could really see how proud the city was of its history.

Zurich seemed a little more fast paced than Lucerne. It probably didn't help that our hotel was right at the start of the major shopping street in the city. One square meter of space costs $7,500 a month. As you can guess, pretty much only the major players were there so there was pretty much nothing I could afford...except for the chocolatier (sp?) where I got some cool truffles for my mom. Besides being close to the major shopping street, which was pedestrian and tram only, we were right next door to the train station which was right next to one of the absolute best history museums I have ever been to. Everywhere you looked there was something interesting. Much like an art museum, the each room/section had it's own vibe that really expressed some aspect of the part of history being shown in the displays. The displays were innovative (I really enjoyed walking amongst the knights in battle poses showing off the armor. You could get right up and examine each piece as opposed to looking at it from behind a piece of glass). It and the history museum in Lucerne were definitely highlights of the trip.

Another highlight was seeing the Rhine Falls. Damn, that water moves fast. I was able to take a boat out into the river and go right up to where the falls come down. There is a bit of rock where the boat can dock that is nestled almost in the center of the falls. You can take some pretty steep steps up to an observation deck. It's not quite as wet as going to Niagra, but it is still cool.

Finally, we have the mountains. I saw so many mountains, I can't remember all their names. I made sure to snag the front seat on the bus when we drove through one of the mountain passes. I took a cog rail train up to one town to then take a cable car up to another town, Murren, that is perched on the side of a mountain and that gives you the best view of both the North Face of the Eiger and the highest point in Europe, the Jungfrau. Thanks to the excellent weather, we had clear skies most of the time so you could really enjoy the awesomeness of the mountains around you. Speaking of the Eiger, our hotel in Grindelwald was essentially at the base of the mountain. The view from my room included some cute houses and cows (yeah Brown Swiss!).

I think I ended up taking almost 400 pictures. I'm still working on getting them loaded so I can post more of them. I think it took me almost the whole week to recover from jet lag...and to get back into the swing of things at work. Now, I need to finish getting the photo album organized and things written down before I forget. Project time!

No really, I'm still here

2010-09-05T11:17:00.002-05:00

I have a friend, Amy, who is a bit of a renaissance woman. She's a mom, photographer, and a damn funny blogger. I have a link to her blog, Just Barely. I'm thinking I should rename my blog and call it Just Barely Blogging.

My current excuse is going to be the usual "busy at work" and the newly added "busy preparing for my trip." More on that in a second. But first, let's talk about the lovely Michael Cera.

I'll admit that I came in late in the game as far as Arrested Development is concerned. Brilliant, funny, and too damn good for television. Michael played the awkward George Michael on the show and I've been in love with him ever since. In his latest movie, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, Michael plays Scott. Scott is a young 20 something living in Toronto, playing bass in a band and sharing a tiny apartment with a young Trent Reznor. Actually, it's Kieran Culkin, but he looks a whole hell of a lot like a young T.R. Scott is not the best guy to date and after his last dumping, he is playing it safe by dating a 17 yr. old who personifies the term "newbie." Then, at a party, he meets Ramona. She is entirely different and he is instantly smitten. It takes a few tries for her to warm up to him, but she gives in and next thing you know, he has to defeat her 7 Evil Ex's in order to continue having a relationship with her.

If you haven't already guessed, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World is based on a comic book series. The movie is directed by Edgar Wright, the fiendishly, brilliant mind behind Spaced (Brit tv series), Shaun of The Dead, and Hot Fuzz. He, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are responsible for some of the best entertainment to come out of Britain in the last 10 years or so.

I absolutely loved this movie. Wright fully understands both the original medium and the pop culture that is a part of it. He embraces the use of motifs used in video games, music videos, and comic books without over doing it. The music is amazing (thanks to Nigel Godrich, producer of many a Radiohead album, and Beck, who wrote a good number of the songs). The visuals are impressive and the action sequences stand up to pretty much anything out there. The actors playing the evil ex's are obviously having a good time, as is the rest of the cast. It was fun to see several actors who often get stuck with dull small roles get real parts to play. I don't know that you have to be a fan of video games and/or comics to enjoy the movie, but I think you will get more out of the film if you are.

Here's some of the music. The actors are playing and singing. I tried to find something for "Threshold," which is my favorite song, but no luck. Instead, here's another good one, "Garbage Man." Not quite as rockin', but still a really good song.

The first girl in the video is the 17 yr. old, the girl with the pink hair is Ramona and the dark haired guy yelling "YEAH" at the end is Kieran Culkin, aka Trent Reznor.

Here's a link to the movie's website.

It's getting close to lunch time so I think I'll wrap this up by sharing yet another my co-worker's suck story. The preggers one didn't come in till 10:30 on day because she had to take some tests. A couple of days later, she had some follow up tests that made her tired so she texted the sales engineer we share and said she was not coming in that day. I ended up having to take care of two of her projects. Disney has decided to put her house on the market and buy this other house in the same town. One big problem, they don't have any money (partially because they over spent on all the renovations they decided to do this summer) so the only way they can afford the house is to sell theirs. They have not had their house appraised and are trying to sell it on craigslist. Because they aren't done changing up their house, no one can actually go inside until this weekend. Murmur about the office is the owners of the house Disney is looking to buy want some sort of financial commitment. That hasn't happened yet and I noticed that they too have put their house on craigslist. All this means Disney is roaming around outside a lot on her cell phone. This wandering puts a cramp in her work productivity which resulted in her sneaking a file and invoice to process into my office while I was posing a question to one of the engineers in his office. She didn't have the balls to come up to me and say "since this was your job originally, I thought you might want to do this." This is a phrase used often by both of them and was actually used by the preggers on earlier that morning. GRRRRRRRRR.

Twisted

2010-07-31T15:22:00.002-05:00

Once again, it has been forever since I have updated. As usual, I will begin with an apology. Sorry.

Okay, that's done. So, is it just me or has this been a pathetic excuse for a summer movie season? There just hasn't been much that has compelled me to go to the theater. Thankfully, Christopher Nolan makes up for such a dire summer.

Inception is hard to describe. You don't want to give away anything, but you want to talk about the movie once you have seen it. Nolan has essentially become the leader in non-linear storytelling in film. Most of his movies, especially those that he and or his brother have written/created, explore psychological themes and issues. Inception is no different. The basic premise revolves around Leonardo DiCaprio's character working as a sort of corporate spy. He goes into a person's dream state and collects information to be sold to a competitor. All sorts of mental tricks are played in the dream state to pull forth that info. Leo has people who go into the dream state with him. Someone is technically the dreamer, someone is the architect who creates the "reality" within the dream, etc. The idea that moves the plot is literally an idea...or the idea that you can plant an idea in someone's head and they will believe that this idea actually originated in their own mind (hence, inception).

Visually, this is a stunning movie. Usually when you see environments that are CGI you can always see something that is off; something that gives it all away that it isn't real. I don't know how they did what they did, but everything is soooo smooth and realistic. You can easily get caught up in each of the environments and loose track of what is a dream and what is reality.

Keeping track is not impossible though. You can follow this movie. You have to work a little bit and pay attention, but for as much of a mind f*** that it is, it is still a thrilling story. It may fall just a bit short on a couple of emotional moments. None the less, you get connected to the characters. Even the small roles feel fleshed out.

The acting is all top notch. I'm a big Joseph Gordon-Levitt fan and I really enjoyed his performance. And, he kicked butt in his big action sequence while working a vest and tie. Sweet. I'm appreciating DiCaprio more and more as he gets older. He seems very comfortable portraying characters around his age and doesn't seem afraid of not always being the boyish-ly attractive lead. Which isn't to say he doesn't look good in an all black suit...

Just go see the movie and enjoy the ride.

Not much else to report. Project Runway started up again and as usual, I can't remember any of the designers names when there are 16 of them. The only one I do recall was Casanova, who sent out a model dressed in what essentially looked like a belly dancer's outfit. I think he'll be around for a couple of episodes. He is like this season's Ping. A little out there and a little hard to understand.

Work is work. Disney seems to have recovered from the raccoon incident, but apparently there is some other new issue. One day last week she went outside twice to talk on her cell phone. Once for about 20 min. and once for about 40. In between those phone calls, she was in her office with the door closed for between 1 and 1 1/2 hrs. That's what I call a productive day! Of course, she still left at 4:30 and I believe took at least a half hour lunch.

Now, you may be wondering how I know about all this activity. Let's just say it helps to be friendly with people in different parts of the building who feel free to comment on when they saw Tara walking past their window with her phone to her ear. It also helps to be in the breakroom when she snuck out the back with her phone and then be up front waiting to talk to a sales rep when she wanders back inside (that was the 40 min. call). Our owners are paranoid enough that they have been tossing around the idea of installing security cameras. Part of me really wants them to do so in the hopes that she gets caught. Sort of evil, I know. I just want people to do their jobs.

Next weekend is the big Mad Dash for Generation United. It's a fund raiser set up as an Amazing Race style competition. I'll try and take my camera to get some photos.

Finally, a friend of mine brought this video to my attention. She is also a big Jane Austen fan. Enjoy!

Things that go bump

2010-07-10T09:52:00.004-05:00

It's been a weird week at work. Everyone was trying to recover from the holiday weekend. You know the drill...even though everyone knows you have a day off they send you an email anyway. On Wed., I can hear Disney's princess-ey (and not in a good way, but in a breathy, annoying way) voice down the hall from my office. I can't quite make out what she is saying, but it's DRAMATIC and VERY IMPORTANT. At one point I hear her exclaim, "That must be it! I bet that's what did it!"

Next thing I know, she and our boss are walking outside. I ask our office manager what is going on. What follows is a prime example of why some people should not be allowed to procreate.

Seems Disney was driving along, at high speed, minding her own business. At some point along the way, her car starts over heating. I'm not sure if she pulled off the road a few times or not, but she described it as over heating repeatedly. Because she's on her phone all the time at work and left her charger at the office, her cell phone was dead so she couldn't call anyone for assistance. She gets to work late and immediately starts telling her tale to our boss. Because, being a guy, he automatically knows everything about cars.

She just can't figure out why her car would be overheating. Our boss asks her if her radiator was leaking. This path of inquiry assumes Disney actually took the time to look over her own vehicle before coming in to share her tale of woe. She didn't know. Our boss asks if there had been any recent damage to the car. You know, like accidentally pulling up too close to one of those cement parking lot block thingies. You know what I'm talking about. I have scrapped my front bumper on those things on more than one occasion.

Disney thinks about it and then says something along the lines of..."I hit a big raccoon on my way to work this morning. It made a big thump. That must be it!"

And now, a brief interruption for an editor's comment.

ARRRRRGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Back to our story...

Disney was clipping along, probably way over the speed limit. She readily admits to driving fast most of the time. She was probably trying to figure out why her cell phone wasn't working too. She sees a raccoon in the road. SHE ASSUMES IT WILL MOVE OUT OF THE WAY WHEN IT SEES HER COMING.

Editor comment: WTF?! She thinks raccoons have the agility to out run a speeding car? More importantly, she thinks they have the mental ability to comprehend what is about to happen and dodge her?

She saw the raccoon people. She had enough time to recognize the animal and think "oh, it'll move." She could have slowed down and let it scamper on its way.

Nope. She just kept going, was surprised that it couldn't dodge her car (or maybe it had a death wish and it was staying in the road on purpose), and more importantly, she was still unable to put 2 and 2 together and consider the possibility that hitting a medium size creature hard enough to hear a thud UNDER your car as you kill it could maybe, just maybe, do some damage.

Our boss looked at the underside of her car as best he could and he was able to tell that 1) something, probably the radiator was leaking and 2) it looked pretty ripped up under there.

The rest of the day was spent on the phone with her husband and with the car repair place. Our office manager had to follow her to the car repair place and give her a ride back to work. Disney had to call several people through out the day and recant her story. And she still left half an hour early like usual. Then, yesterday, she forgot to bring her lunch. Instead of considering the option of walking a few blocks to a couple of possible locations, or nicely asking someone to pick up something for her if they were already going somewhere, she goes back to talk to the owner's son (who runs the parts department) and he sends his kid out to pick something up for her. The enabling must stop people...otherwise, how will folks ever change...?

And people wonder why I want to ram my head into a wall when I hear the sound of her voice...

What I've Been Doing...

2010-06-30T19:06:00.003-05:00

Yes, I've been bad again. So, what have I been doing may you ask...

1) Going to the movies. I saw a sweet documentary called Babies. It follows 4 kids from birth through their first birthday. There is almost no dialogue. The babies are from the U.S., Japan, Mongolia and Namibia. I think my fave was the little boy from Mongolia. He was quite the explorer once he figured out how to crawl. It was interesting to see the different approaches used by each culture as they raised their child. But, there were plenty of similarities in the newborns' experiences. Discovering your own hand or foot is a pretty universal moment. I also saw The A Team or as I call it The Eh Team. The guy who directed Smokin' Aces directed this, which should have been my first clue. I hated Smokin' Aces (except for Jason Bateman's bit). I went in willing to over look a lot, but when it started turning into just one action sequence after another while sometimes trying to toss in a "deep" storyline here and there, I just got annoyed. I will give props to my man Sharlto Copley. He played Murdock and he was fab. He had just the right combo of crazy and funny without overdoing it. He provided most of the best parts of the film. It would probably be an okay rental. I have to wait till my friend and her kids are available for Toy Story 3 before I get to see it. Right now I am anxious to see Inception.

2) Volunteering. Thanks to my friend Lindsay, I have been working with Generation United. Gen U, as it is called, is the "youth" organization within the United Way. I spent 4 hours helping set up for the Relay for Life in a nearby town. A few days later I helped out at the Midwest Food Bank.

3) Sitting in front of a fan trying not to move...watching free HBO. During the heatwave last weekend, my cable company happened to be offering free HBO and Cinemax. This also included free HBO on demand so I got through 6 hours of season 2 of True Blood and 2 episodes of the new season. I am fully prepared to marry Sam Trammell (assuming Sharlto Copley isn't ready to commit). On a side note, I watched a few minutes of late night "Skin-e-max." There is almost nothing funnier than soft core "porn," especially when the title of the movie is The Devil Wears Nada.

4) Went to a play and a wedding reception. My friend's four boys were all in the local kids production of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Her oldest was the lead and he did a pretty darn good job. He has a nice voice and he projects well. He really shone during his solo song and in a duet at the end with this girl who also had a solid voice. His brothers had smaller parts, and other than maybe saying their lines a little too fast, they did a fine job too. The wedding reception was for my cousin's daughter. They got married in front of the justice of the peace a few months back. Another cousin (brother to the father of the bride) was performing with his band. They are just a bar band, but they do okay around the area. The song selection wasn't quite to my taste (they were all about the country), but it was amusing to see some of the older folks get up and dance. This side of the family is very into the good time and that night was no exception.

5) Read some books. I finished The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest. It reminded me of the first book in the series. There was a lot of set up before the action kicked in. I liked it, but not as much as the other two. It really felt like it was preparing you for the 4th book. The author had originally planned on having 10 books in the series, but he died before he finished the 4th book. I read that his long time girlfriend has not only what has been written for the 4th book, but also the outline. She apparently would work with him on the books so the scuttlebutt is that she could finish the 4th book. His family sees it differently and until they come to some sort of agreement that 4th book is going to stay as it is. I'm almost done with A Girl Named Zippy. This was one of those books that every time I would see it at the book store I'd say to myself, "I should read this." I am really loving it. As someone who grew up in a small, Midwestern town, I can sympathize with a lot of her experiences. Haven Kimmel writes really well and has a good sense of humor and appreciation of the absurd.

6) Once again, considered smacking my co-workers. So far this week, one of them has been gone for two hours on Mon., 90 min. on Tues., today she left at 3:30 and she is taking Friday off. The other one just wanders outside "to get some fresh air" with her phone a couple times a day for anywhere from 10-30 min. at a time. Sigh. I'm sort of hoping my bosses install some security cameras. I'd be happy to review the footage and give them the highlights.

7) Finally, eating dinner and watching a movie with friends during a tornado outbreak. We have the best parties!

Sorry again about not posting. I beg your forgiveness. Be sure and check out the first Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows trailer. I got goosebumps on my arm the first time I watched it. Have a great 4th everybody!

Letting go and moving on

2010-05-31T14:09:00.002-05:00

No, this has nothing to do with me confronting the issues I have in my life. This has to do with the Lost finale.

I wanted to go over a few things in my head before I put forth any comments. I have to say that right after the episode ended last Sunday I was satisfied. I cried all over the place. I loved the bookend created by having the last shot be Jack's eye closing as he died mimicking the opening shot of Jack's eye opening as he regained consciousness after the plane crash. I loved the emotional satisfaction of seeing characters reunited in the alt-verse. I loved that Ben stayed good and that he knew he had some more things to work on before he could join the others. (HA! I didn't even mean to write it that way...the "others"...get it?) I also liked that Hurley ultimately ended up being the protector with Ben as his number two. Hurley was always the heart of the series, who better to protect what was often referred to as the heart of the island. And, who better to help Ben get past his insecurities, but the person who was most willing to take care of others unconditionally.

I realized as I was re-watching part of the episode the other day (and crying in the same parts) that I am really going to miss hearing Michael Giacchino's beautiful score once a week. As much as using contemporary music in a television series can be great (Alias, that also used Giacchino as a composer, was great at this, as was La Femme Nikita), in some respects, it has become the lazy go to that replaces real scoring. Thankfully, he is a busy guy so I know I will hear him again. I think he needs to do like They Might Be Giants once did and set up a phone number you could call to hear a new song everyday.

I'm sure plenty of people are horked off that we didn't get answers for everything. But, the creators had been pretty clear in interviews that they weren't going to provide answers for everything. The only answer they guaranteed was that they would show how the alt-verse and happenings on the island were connected. Part of me wonders if they got caught up in the cool cues (the numbers, the connections between characters revealed in the flash backs, name choices, the books that Sawyer read, the Dharma Initiative) that they hadn't quite figured out how it all tied in so they just decided to not provide answers that don't exist. But part of me wonders if I just need to re-watch the series with the knowledge I know have thanks to the finale. Maybe the cues were just simply tools of compelling storytelling. Maybe it was the rabid fanbase that made the cues bigger than they should have been.

Ultimately, I don't know that I care if I didn't get answers. Sure, I have questions. How did Jacob get off the island? Did Desmond ever get off the island or was he there with Ben and Hurley for the rest of his life? Is Ben going to stay in the alt-verse till he gets his baggage with Alex and Rousseau resolved? (He is aware of his island life, but we didn't see any sort of revelation for Alex and Rousseau.) How much time passed between the characters deaths?

Not having these answers doesn't take away from the experience I had watching the show. It gives me a chance to continue to think about the stories and the themes the show offered up. I'm okay with that. I can let go. What happened, happened.

On a side note, I was talking about the finale with a couple of co-workers. One is still, somehow, convinced that everyone died at the very beginning. Um, I don't think so. I'm not sure how he came to that conclusion. I tried to argue my perspective. Everything that happened on the island happened and that's what brought about the redemption that we see in the alt-verse. While talking about it with my boss on Friday, Disney was walking by us. When she heard me mention Jack's name, she squeals, "Are you talking about Lost? I haven't watched it yet...don't say anything." I have a very hard time believing she's been watching this show. This is the person who had to have someone else set up her Facebook page. Plus, I think most people who have been fans from the start have seen the finale by now. Sure she has kids, but they are little and in bed by 7 or 8pm. You got time to watch chick. (Yes, I am a TV snob sometimes.) Anyway, my boss decided to mess with her and immediately says, "Can you believe that they made Jack gay?!" Disney about screamed. I added that I thought that Jack and Locke made a cute couple. Disney kept saying we had ruined the finale. I can't honestly say whether she was playing along or if she really believed us. It's very hard to tell. I sort of hope she believed us.

Here's some of the most beautiful music television has ever had grace its airwaves.

No, no, no, no, no, no....

2010-05-19T21:10:00.006-05:00

All right Lost writers...if you make my Ben turn out to be a baddie, I'm gonna...I'm gonna...well, I'm not sure what I'm going to do. But, I will be pretty horked off. Last night's episode left me a twee bit confused on several points.

I can understand why Ben wouldn't have a problem with the suddenly reformed Charles W. dying, but why go with Fake Locke? I'm hoping it's because he has something up his sleeve and he's going to help destroy old Smokey.

Next question, if Jacob took Kate off the list of candidates because she became a mom, then why were Jinn, Sun, and Sawyer still on (at least until Jinn and Sun died) when they are also parents? I need answers people. I'm thinking I'm not going to get a lot of sleep on Sunday evening.

Here's one other little bit. It seems as though most of the group are going to run into each other at the concert in the Alt-verse. Miles is going, as is Charlotte, probably Sawyer, Jack, Jack's kid, the kid's mom (who we haven't seen yet), Desmond, Kate, and I think Hurley and Sayid. It struck me that wouldn't it be interesting if Juliet ended up being Jack's ex. They are both doctors; they could have met at a conference or something. At this concert, if Sawyer goes as Miles' "date," then he and Juliet could meet. Kate and Jack could also meet at this point in time. Don't know that any of the above is feasible, it was just something that struck me while driving home today.

On other pop culture fronts, I saw Robin Hood this past weekend. Sadly, it's a bit of a snooze fest. The story just wasn't compelling enough to carry a 2 1/2 hr. movie. I was looking forward to seeing a new twist on the Robin Hood legend. But, the film just seemed to stroll along until it hit an action sequence. It's too bad, because I liked the chemistry between Russell and Cate.

Also last week, I got the chance to see The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. If you haven't had the chance to read the book, I strongly recommend doing so. Lisbeth Salander (the girl with the aforementioned tattoo) is one of the more unique and interesting female characters in contemporary literature. The book is the first in a trilogy. The final book comes out next week.

Back to the films. Because the series of books have already been released in Sweden, the corresponding films are also already done and have been shown overseas. Dragon Tattoo centers around the mysterious disappearance of a 16 yr. old girl. She hasn't been seen in about 40 years. She comes from a wealthy and powerful family. Her favorite uncle has spent most of his life trying to find out what happened to her. He decides to make one last effort and hires a recently disgraced journalist to go through all the police reports, etc. to see if any new clues can be found. Salander, who is a researcher for a security company and a computer hacker, gets involved and the story speeds along from that point.

The movie was tense, even though I knew what was coming up. The screenwriter did an excellent job of staying true to the source material without being a slave to it. I didn't miss what was cut out. I was a little surprised that something we learn in the second book was sort of revealed in the movie, but it wasn't that big of a deal. Since I'm sure most of you won't find this in the local multiplex, try and snag it when it comes out on DVD in July...and suck it up and read the subtitles please.

That's it for now. Dig the new LCD Soundsystem cd that came out this week! And check out the latest incarnation of Doctor Who on BBC America, Matt Smith...woo, hoo! Or should it be woo, Who?

I'm such a dork.

Blog or watch Glee online...hmmmmm...

2010-05-12T20:31:00.003-05:00

That was the question last week. I was all ready to update and instead I watched the Madonna themed episode of Glee. Sorry.

It's been a long two, three, four weeks. My anxiety was created indirectly so I shouldn't complain too much. One of the sales reps had a family emergency so he was essentially gone for 3 days. The whole thing was rough for him and his wife. I was trying to do my best to help handle the work load which resulted in several hours of overtime on my end and some inappropriate questions from Disney. Sigh.

Here's the super spiffy update on the stuff that is my life.

MOVIES:
The Losers-I meant to write on this a while back. I saw it the weekend it opened and was disappointed. It was just a standard action movie really. The one highlight was Chris Evans. He needs to get more cool gigs. It was a bit disturbing to me that there was a brief media storm over Kick Ass, which opened the week prior and was rated R, having an 11 yr. old character who was a vengeance driven killer. Then, we have The Losers, rated PG-13 making it available to a younger audience, offering up a fight between the male and female lead. I swear the female lead got punched in the face and of course, they end up sleeping together. The PG-13 version of that included a slow-mo lap dance. And, a woman gets shot in the face by the bad guy for not holding an umbrella correctly. Now, we don't see her get shot directly. She is just off screen and we see the bad guy lift his gun and pull the trigger. I don't remember seeing anything about either of these two scenes. In fact, Ebert gave the movie 3 stars and only gave Kick Ass one. Something there is just not right.

Iron Man Deux-You generally can't go wrong with Robert Downey Jr. The movie is good, summer fun, but I didn't get quite the same thrill out of it as I did the first one. I'm sure a lot of that has to do with the origin story being stronger that the plot of the second movie. Still, Robert has some great lines and great moments...totally worth seeing.

Theater: I went and saw the road show of Avenue Q last night and freakin' loved it!!!! The songs were fab enough that I'm seriously thinking of getting the cast album. How can you not love a show that features a tune called "The Internet Is For Porn?" (Fave lyric from that tune, "I grabbed my dick and double clicked...") Normally, I really don't enjoy musicals, but with plenty of edgy humor and puppet sex, this show entertained me to no end. If it comes to your town, go see it and laugh your butt off.

I know there are some other things I was going to comment on, but I'm drawing a blank and I hear thunder coming closer. I should probably shut down the computer at this point.

Stay dry and safe kids.

Pain in the Ass, Kick Ass and Dumb Ass

2010-04-17T14:36:00.002-05:00

PAIN IN THE ASS

There I was, minding my own business, waiting for the light to change, listening to Nine Inch Nail's The Fragile when suddenly I and my car are moving forward even though my foot was on the brake. An obvious phrase left my mouth and before I could continue to cuss, I get tapped again. The light changes and I pull into the first parking lot I get to, as does the car behind me.

My mind is racing and I'm sure I had a lovely look on my face. I get out of my car feeling twitchy all over from the adrenaline rush. I haven't been in an accident since I was about 17. The young woman who was driving the other car gets out and we do the usual "are you okay" conversation. Once we determine no one is hurt, we check our respective cars. Her front bumper is fine, but her license plate is a bit mangled. I fully expected to have a dent in my rear bumper. I go to check it out and was surprised to see nothing more than a crack about the length of my pinkie finger and a random screw sticking out of my bumper (see above).

After a bit of discussion, we exchange our info and head out. I debated on calling my insurance agent since there wasn't much visible damage. After talking to one of the guys at work who does his own car stuff, I decided to start the claim process. Of course, this means getting a hold of someone to check out the bumper to see if anything that isn't visible needs to be replaced. I'm dying to know where the screw came from. I call down to my dealer because they are a "select" service group with my insurance company which will make the paperwork tons easier. Of course, the body guy isn't there on Saturdays and apparently they don't have any pens or pieces of paper around because I couldn't leave a message. Now, these are the same people who drove me nuts last year when I had to get work done so I'm not particularly optimistic. I just am trying to make this process as painless as possible. Now I get to start the pain in the butt planning so I can get an appointment, get someone to follow me to drop off the car and get a vehicle to drive to work (all before 8 am including a 30 min. drive to work), get the claim number from the insurance agent, have a car for work, get my car back....arrrghhhh. If only I'd turned left instead of right.

KICK ASS

I have been looking forward to this movie for several weeks now. I haven't read the comic that the flick is based on, but I am a fan of the director, Matthew Vaughn. Without Layer Cake, I'm not sure Daniel Craig would have been considered for Bond and Stardust was one of the best book adaptations I've seen in awhile.

Don't have any delusions about Kick Ass; it is an R rated movie in every sense. It is violent, there is tons of cussing (a decent amount coming from a character who is about 11 years old), adult humor...have I mentioned the violence. This not Spiderman or Superman. In tone, it comes closer to The Dark Knight.

I really enjoyed it. Aaron Johnson as Kick Ass was solid. His expressions gave off just the right amount of optimism and naivete needed for his character to even consider trying to become a super hero without super powers. Nick Cage used his nuttiness for good instead of evil and chewed the scenery as Big Daddy. Wearing a costume just a couple of utility belt accessories short of being Batman, and channeling both Adam West and William Shatner, he practically takes over most of the scenes he is in. That is, until his daughter comes into the picture.

Ah, Hit Girl. Instantly iconic and the best part of this movie. Chloe Moretz seems to dominate without even trying. She is perfect in the role and even though she and her father are essentially psychopaths, you root for her. You want her to get the revenge she needs and has trained for. Extra kudos to the movie's costume designer. Hit Girl's crime fighting costume is spot on. And major kudos to Chloe, her stunt double and the stunt coordinator. Chloe is the main focus of not one, not two, but THREE major fight sequences (one of them fabulously carried out to Joan Jett's "Bad Reputation"). For me, it was exciting to see a girl as the focus of a fight sequence without having her character in some skimpy outfit, there by making the fight more about the violence and anger than making it about sex.

I was checking Chloe's resume and she is going to be in the American remake of Let Me In. She will be playing a child vampire who befriends the boy next door who is being taunted by bullies. I wasn't sure how I felt about this remake, but now that I know she is in it, I am excited.

Kick Ass is one of those movies that you will either love for what it is or you will absolutely hate it...like Roger Ebert, who I don't think got it. Just don't take the kids.

DUMB ASS

On tax day, there was a tea party downtown in the town where I work. I know at least one co-worker took the day off to go (really? seriously?). I think one of my sales reps took an extended lunch to be there. I'm surprised our office didn't close. Sarah Palin came to a near by town and charged people to see her. I haven't read the coverage just because I get angry every time I think about her. I keep hoping she will disappear from the public scene, but no luck so far.

Well, I think I've caught up now. OH, almost forgot. Duke won the NCAA men's tourney. It was a very exciting and well played game. I read yesterday that one of Butler's best players, Gordon Heyward put his name in the NBA draft, but hasn't hired an agent yet. That just means if he changes his mind, he can go back to school with no problem. I was disappointed when I read that. He's only a sophomore (if I remember correctly) and knowing that all but one of the starting 5 could be back next year had me really excited to watch Butler play. I know that money is a powerful lure, but I prefer it when the guys stay in school and get the most out of the college experience. That's just me.

Basketball Bender

2010-03-28T12:27:00.002-05:00

My excuse for not really blogging last week revolved around the start of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. As a college b-ball fan, this is my favorite time of year. I used two of my vacation days so I could gorge myself on the sport. I bounced back and forth between my TV and the computer in order to catch as many games as possible. I think I ended up watching about 44-ish hours TH-SUN. It's been awhile since there have been that many overtimes and games won by a basket at the very end.

I'm happy to see the Duke is still in it. I nervous about their game with Baylor later today, but I think they have a good shot at going to the Final Four this year. As long as the big three all hit their season averages, and we keep up inside, I think they are there.

When I haven't been watching basketball this week (I can't even tell you how tired I was after the double OT Xavier/K-State game), I have been enjoying/subjecting myself to local high school theater. More frighteningly, musical theater. Those of you with whom I have discussed theater, know how much I don't really like musicals. They make almost no sense to me. I find it annoying that suddenly everyone in town breaks into song and dance.

There are exceptions to my hate. If the story itself has something to do with music, I'm usually cool with it. I love Hedwig and the Angry Inch. I enjoy Grease. I liked Rent, but that's probably more because of how contemporary the music was.

I also dig The Music Man. A good friend of mine teaches English, Writing and a few other things at a local high school. He is the director of the fall play and co-director of the spring musical. He has been into theater all his life and has an extremely supportive wife, so he really pushes the high school theater program as close to a college program as possible. I think he is safely into JuCo range. Anyway, I saw his production of The Music Man on Friday night and was really impressed. The sets looked way beyond what most high schools do. The staging was really good. The choreography rocked. The kids all acted well and pretty much everyone who had a singing part had a solid voice. One of the side players did such a great job with her small part, I actually felt compelled to tell her in the "meet and greet" afterward that she was my new favorite person.

The flip side of this was a production of Once Upon a Mattress that I saw last night. Can I just say can't see the point/logic of writing a musical where one of the main-ish characters is MUTE!!! Seriously! The songs the mute king participated in almost caused my soul to leave my body in hopes of finding shelter. I don't blame the kids really. They are only performing what has been written and acting the way they are being directed. It was like watching a really bad game of charades with some music tossed in. For some reason, at the end of most of the songs, the kids were doing the thing where they face the audience and as they are hitting that final note, lifting one arm out from their body. Eh? Okay for swing choir maybe, but not a good thing for musical theater...unless it's a big, everybody is in it, finale sort of song where choreography has been involved, then it is a little more understandable.

Here's a couple of random blurbs about the office:

Worst recent quote from the guy in the office next to mine (on the phone to a customer I believe):

"When someone drops a deuce, it kills the whole hallway."

Sadly, he is correct about this, but still. For some reason, the boys can't figure out that the Lysol disinfectant is not the same as air freshener.

I think I have decided to change the name of our "let's be best friends" lunches from Hands Across the Office to That Time Of The Month. Why I didn't come up with that the first time I don't know.

Okay, games are gonna start soon and I still have to make lunch.

GO DUKE!

One out of Two

2010-03-13T15:52:00.001-06:00

Well crap. Illinois just didn't have it for the second overtime. I think their chances are still good for getting into the tournament. Duke hangs on to go to the championship tomorrow! Guess I'll go see the new Matt Damon flick during the week.

Half Time

2010-03-13T13:40:00.001-06:00

WOO HOO! Illinois is up at the half. My poor remote is getting bitch slapped today. I'm constantly bouncing back and forth between IL vs. Ohio St. on CBS and Duke vs. Miami on ESPN. Miami, not surprisingly, has come back and hit a 3 pointer with seconds to spare to go up at the half. I think things should be getting going again soon so this is a short hello.

I changed the look of the page. I'm not super excited, but I haven't had a chance to look for a lot of options. Maybe after the games are done today...

I-L-L!

I-N-I!

Drowning, Not Waving

2010-03-06T14:45:00.002-06:00

I think I may have used that post title before, but after the last few weeks, it is worth a repeat. Things have freakishly picked up at work. In general, that's good. More bids means the chance at more jobs. What is not good is having one of the reps losing track of what is bidding when...it results in me getting handed decent sized bids and having about 6 hrs. to get them finished. Ugh. I've pulled about 3-4 hours of overtime the last couple weeks which has left me less than enthused about getting on the computer when I get home.

But, if anything will pull me back, it will be the Oscars. And Maru the cat videos, but I digress.

I have a feeling that this year's Oscars will be more of a popularity contest than usual. I've had a chance to see most of the nom'd performances and movies so here's what I think:

Best Actor: I think Clooney or Colin Firth should win, but Jeff Bridges probably will win. And, he probably deserves it (I never did make it to Crazy Heart). Bridges has won most of the Best Actor awards that have already been given out and thankfully, is crazy talented.

Best Actress: I think it should go to Carey Mulligan for An Education. It will probably go to Sandra Bullock. Don't get me wrong. I am a Sandra fan. I don't always like her choices, but she's a nice person and I think she works hard when she makes a film. She's quite good in The Blind Side, but I'm not sure it's a role that has the traditional "Oscar-ness" to it. Still, she's a nice person, a lot of Hollywood folks like her and who knows when she will get another part that will bring her this close to taking home the golden man.

Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds should and will win. He is the absolute best thing about that movie. Well, that and the use of the song "Cat People (Putting Out Fire)." He makes the evil that is a Nazi all the more creepy by making him articulate and eerily calm.

Best Supporting Actress: Mo'Nique should and will win. She had no fear playing an abusive mother and her final monologue will knock the air out of your lungs. It's too bad that Up in The Air hadn't come out this year because Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick were both very good too.

Best Score: Up should win. When I watch this movie, I always cry at the same three places. I am convinced that the third time I cry, it's because of Michael Giacchino's score that calls back to the first time I cried. I love Giacchino's work (he does the music for Lost) and I'm pulling for him.

Best Foreign Film: I'll admit that I haven't seen any of the nominated films. Not surprising since it's rare that a foreign flick comes anywhere near where I live. But, the film A Prophet is directed by the guy who did "The Beat That My Heart Skipped" which I really enjoyed so I'm pulling for him. Another option is The White Ribbon, which I've heard lots of good things about. The only problem is it is really long and there's a chance not all the voters took the time to watch it.

Best Adapted Screenplay: In the Loop should win. I just watched this movie on DVD and it was one of the funniest and wittiest scripts I've heard in a while. The film is about the political maneuvering and backstabbing that occurs while Britain and the U.S. decide whether they are going to invade an unnamed Middle Eastern country on the premise of their being weapons of mass destruction, but no one has been able to provide evidence that the WMD's even exist. Sound familiar? I will admit that I pretty much love any movie that features British people cussing in profuse and creative ways. Sadly, that could be the downfall for this screenplay. If In The Loop doesn't get it, I'm pulling for either Up In The Air or An Education.

Best Original Screenplay: This was tough because I haven't seen The Messenger or A Serious Man. I'm leaning towards A Serious Man because I'd heard such good things about the script.

Best Animated Feature: Up. I wish Coraline and Fantastic Mr. Fox had come out in different years because they are worthy of this award as well.

Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow should win. After he snagged a Golden Globe though, I think James Cameron will take it home, which sucks.

Best Picture: I think it should be either Up or The Hurt Locker (though I am also secretly rooting for District 9, but there's no way that's happening...). I think if James doesn't get best director, The Hurt Locker has a shot here. It's been pretty traditional to have the film done by the best director win best picture. It doesn't happen all the time, but often enough. I do like James Cameron. I frickin' love Aliens. But, Avatar is not the best picture released this year.

We'll see how I do with these guesses come Sunday night. Good thing I'm not putting down any money on this stuff.

Weekend Roundup

2010-02-21T09:55:00.003-06:00

I have a few minutes before I head off to the theater so I figured I should update. Now, did it sound posh of me to say "the theater?"

I've been trying to cram in as many Oscar nom'd flicks the past couple of weeks while also struggling to not maim my co-workers. Here's the quick flick run down.

A Single Man: First, I'll get the silly stuff out of the way. Colin Firth mostly naked...bonus! Matthew Goode mostly naked...bonus! This movie really lets Colin step into the limelight. He deserves his best actor nom as he takes us through the (possibly) final day in his character's life. He is a professor whose boyfriend of 16 years died 8 months earlier. He is struggling to just get out of bed every day, let alone live any sort of life. He has decided to kill himself and we spend the day with him as he says good bye to those around him (although they don't realize that is what he is doing). The movie is set in '60's California and the film is treated in such a way that you feel like you are watching a movie made with film stock of that era. It is all very cool and has gray overtones until we come across moments that make Firth's character start to want to live again. Then the film becomes warmer and the colors more vibrant. At first it's very subtle and you question whether or not what you saw actually happened. The film is a gentle, character study which means a lot of people probably won't seek it out. But, it is a beautiful movie both in look and in the acting with in it. Check it out...it will be worth it.

The second flick I've seen recently is not up for an Oscar, but it's a new release so I'll toss something out.

The Wolf Man. Ugh. I was really expecting it to be good because I really like all the actors involved. Sadly, it sucked. The script wasn't very strong. The issue with the story of the wolf man is he only goes wolfy once a month. So, you have to come up with something to keep the story going between wolf attacks. The first couple of bits were okay. Wolf Dude kills a guy and it takes a few weeks for the body to be discovered and for Emily Blunt to write Benicio Del Toro and tell him his brother has disappeared and for Benicio to come to the family estate. Fine. I can live with that. I can even live with the month that goes between Wolf Dude attack #2 where Benicio gets bit and then it takes him a month to recover.

But, when it presumably takes Benicio a month to walk from London to the estate while at the same time it takes Emily a month to get to the same place, but she's traveling by horse and carriage, I start to get annoyed.

Then there are the leaves in the foyer. I was obsessed with these frickin' leaves. At the start of the flick, we find out that Benny and Anthony Hopkins have been estranged since Benny was 11. Benny comes back because Emily wrote him about his brother. The first time he walks into his old house it is dark and dank. There are massive cobwebs everywhere and there are dead leaves all over the foyer. This is called I can't come up with actual tension so I'm going to create it by tossing a bunch of dead plants everywhere. I appreciate that the director wanted a very Gothic feel to the flick; I expected that. But, just tossing dead leaves around isn't going to cut it.

Now, if Anthony lived alone there, I could work with it. It would be as though he was a hermit. But, he wasn't. The brother lived there and the impression was given that Emily, the brother's fiance, was currently living there too! Now, you tell me that a woman from a respectable family would put up with cobwebs everywhere and a ton of flippin' leaves in the hall. I don't think so. And even if I was mistaken and Emily wasn't living there, when Benny gets bit, she comes to stay with them and the flippin' leaves are still there. They are there for the whole flippin' movie! And, I saw at least one servant rambling about besides Anthony's butler type dude...like they couldn't come up with a broom somewhere.

I hated those damn leaves.

Finally, we have Shutter Island. I'll state right from the start that I love Marty Scorsese. I've also recently become a fan of Leonardo DiCaprio (he was amazing in Revolutionary Road). So, I was ready to enjoy this from the get go. I was not disappointed, but I think some people might be.

To start off with, the trailer makes it look like the movie is a scare-fest that moves at a break neck pace. Not so much. It is actually a slow burn psychological mystery. It is about 2 1/2 hrs. long and while you do see all the moments shown in the trailer, there is a whole lot of set up in between. I thought the movie was just fabulous visually. When Leo's character is either dreaming or having an odd flashback, I instantly thought of Alfred Hitchcock. In fact, when the second dream was being shown on screen, I thought of Hitchcock's great movie, Marnie. (As a side note, if you are a Sean Connery fan, you should check this flick out. And if you always thought Sean was hot, you definitely want to see the moment when he's all wet in a white shirt...I'm just saying.)

For some people, the big reveal at the end might be disappointing, but I was comfortable with it. It didn't let me down because the performances by Michelle Williams and Leo are so strong. They sold me so I was fine. I think the movie was interesting, visually engaging, the performances are solid, the sound track is good and moody; it is worth going to see. Just don't go in expecting a roller coaster ride.

If I can fit it in this week, Crazy Heart is still in town. We'll see. If I have another day when my co-workers leave at 2pm and 3pm, I may be too tired to swing it.

Oskee Ow Ow.

2010-02-14T17:29:00.004-06:00

Yes, you are reading that score correctly. We could not hit the broadside of a barn today. I lost track of how many shots rolled around the rim and then popped out. I think our FG% ended up being 35. Ugh. This was not the same team that beat Michigan State and Wisconsin (at flippin' Wisconsin for goodness sake) last week. Maybe there was too long a break between the WI game and this one. I don't know what it looked like on national television, but it wasn't pretty in person.

I took this shot during the pre-game shoot around with about half an hour before the game started. This gives you an idea of where our seats were. During the game the place was packed with people in orange and one little section of folks in red. Damn them.

Oscar!

2010-02-09T17:37:00.002-06:00

Damn, it's been awhile since I've updated. I suck. Anyway, the Oscar nom's have come out. I, of course, printed them out at work moments after the announcement. I am that big of a dork.

I guess I can appreciate expanding the Best Picture category to get more flicks noticed, but it still feels weird. I believe the theory is that with a larger group you can get more variety (ie. comedies, sci-fi, animation). Not to mention, those films will get people into the theaters or renting the DVD's just to see something that was nominated (more moola for the man). My worry is that it's going to end up being a dumping ground. As far as I'm concerned, if a film is amazing enough to be nominated, it shouldn't matter if it is animated, science fiction, or a silent movie. Whatever.

I'm sorry, but The Blind Side? Avatar? Inglorious Basterds? Really? The Blind Side was a good movie, but not really a Best Pic. I think you know my opinion of Avatar and Inglorious could have been better. It will be interesting to see how things go over the next few years. I think that will be the real test of whether or not this was a good idea.

Along those lines, over the last couple of weeks I got the chance to see two of the Best Pic nom's. Both pictures were about teenage girls struggling to work their way to adulthood.

First up, An Education. For me, the big draw was the screenplay written by Nick Hornby (High Fidelity, About A Boy) and (lead actress nom) Carey Mulligan, who is one of my favorite new-ish actresses. The movie follows Carey's character as she grows up in the London of 1961. She is working towards going to Oxford. She is smart, funny, and is tired of her parents' (and England's) quiet and boring life. By chance, she meets a man who is all that her parents are not. He loves art, music, most things French...he travels, he's funny and respectful to her...oh and he's about 30. She's 16.

We get to watch as he woos her parents into trusting him to first take her to a concert, and then eventually taking her to Paris for the weekend. Even though her parents only want her to be happy, her father still holds on to the idea that all she needs is a husband. He does support her desire to go to Oxford, but he doesn't know what sort of job she's going to get when she finishes school so she might have better luck getting married. I won't spoil the rest of the story, but I will say Carey's character learns the lesson that most of us learn in our late teens and early 20's. The world is a much larger place than your own head and while your feelings are important, they are not the be all end all.

The second movie was Precious. I missed it the first time it came through so I was very happy to see it come back. Precious is one of those movies that I recommend seeing, but I don't think I'll probably watch it again. I've had that happen with other movies: Requiem For A Dream, Affliction, Heavy...I could probably add several more.

Set in 1987 NYC, we join Precious as she is pregnant with her second child at the age of 16. She gets tossed out of school, but is enrolled in an alternative high school. There she meets a teacher that genuinely wants to help her get out of the misery that is her life. Precious is abused in several ways by her mother and father. It's amazing she has not been completely defeated by her situation in life. But, somewhere inside, she still has this little ember of hope. Bit by bit, she opens up to her teacher and fellow classmates. She creates a new family for herself.

Even though I haven't seen all the best supporting actress nominees, I really think Mo'Nique deserves heaps of praise for her role as the abusive mother. She does not back down in her performance. The abuse is harsh, realistic, and jarring (especially when she explodes without warning). The scene where she is explaining to the social worker (nicely played by Mariah Carey) why she did not keep her boyfriend from abusing Precious is heart stopping. Gabourey Sidibe, who plays Precious, also gives a strong performance. She almost seems like two different people as she goes from Precious in reality and the Precious seen in the dream sequences.

Precious is one of those movies where you feel emotionally and mentally drained afterward, but it is definitely worth your time. I believe Lee Daniels is a first time director, but don't quote me on that. There were a couple of montages that I thought were a little cheesy, but overall, he had a solid grasp on what he wanted. It's not all gloom and doom. Precious' classmates provide needed humor. Plus, Lenny Kravitz is in it. Something I didn't realize until I was watching the credits.

Next up, A Single Man and hopefully Crazy Heart next week. February is going to be an expensive month.

Spielberg doesn't answer my calls...and neither does Emily Blunt

2010-01-22T21:40:00.003-06:00

I've been meaning to donate to help the Haitian earthquake victims, but I had kept forgetting to do it when I got home. While paying bills this evening, I was watching the Hope for Haiti benefit show thingie (often referred to as a telethon) and decided to call. I got a busy signal for several minutes. Finally, after I don't know how many redial button pushes, I get actual ringing.

Sweet! I'd just seen Steven Spielberg talk to some lady, maybe he'd answer the phone. Or maybe Leo would, or John Cusack, or that old dude sitting next to Julia Roberts (later found out that was Mel Gibson).

No such luck. I got a guy named L.J. Nothing against L.J., he was nice and all, but he's no Daniel Craig. When I finished up the call, I thought maybe only the folks tossing out the big bucks get moved up the phone line to talk to the famous people.

Wrong again! Some woman donated $5 more than me and she got to talk to Taylor Swift. Maybe I should have said I was donating the money in honor of someone. The phone calls I heard on the show mostly involved people donating in honor of their kids, a parent or grandparent who had passed away, or someone they knew who had some awful disease.

Now that the telethon is over I have two questions:
1) Did Justin Timberlake choose the Jeff Buckley cover himself?
2) What the bleep is up with Brad Pitt's beard?

If you'd like to donate, please do so here.

Weekend Update

2010-01-17T15:37:00.002-06:00

I probably should have posted this photo last week when we got hit with the snow. Oh well. I was trying to show how deep the snow was. I'm not sure I was quite successful. Now that we've had 30 degree days I am actually seeing some green on the path I had dug to my car from the homestead.

I worked from home on the snow day and successfully resisted the urge to play Lego Indiana Jones 2 which was calling to me from the living room. I have to say I enjoyed being able to stay in my jammies all day (except for the hour of snow shoveling that is).

One of my completely meaningless wishes is coming true tonight...Ricky Gervais is hosting an awards show. In this case, it is the Golden Globes. Be prepared to hear plenty of comments on how award shows don't mean anything when compared to what is happening in Haiti. Hopefully Gervais will be able to lighten the mood (although I feel the freely flowing alcohol will probably help the audience out as well).

If we're lucky we'll get Steve Carrell accepting something.

Speaking of movies, I was able to see The Young Victoria last week-ish. If you are a fan of Emily Blunt, who is one of the best young actresses out there, English period pieces, and/or the history of the monarchy, you will enjoy the movie. Emily is practically shining in the role and convincingly takes us from a 17 yr. old girl to a proper queen. The art direction, production design, costumes, etc. are amazing. The opulence of a recently finished Buckingham Palace is a sight to behold. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the political intrigue that surrounded her ascension to and initial phase as The Queen. Rupert Friend, who some of you may know as the guy who sort of looks like Orlando Bloom and was dating Keira Knightly, plays Prince Albert. I've read some reviews that claim there wasn't enough spark between the two actors, but I disagree. In a time when you had to essentially date with about 10 hangers on and you only saw each other a couple times of year max, I think it's too contemporary to have a huge amount of heat going on. It was more fun to watch the awkwardness and to see him pining while she was busy running a nation.

Time to return to football before not only the Golden Globes, but also 24 starts tonight (!!!!! get me the schematic Chloe!!!!)and it's part 2 of Return to Cranford on PBS. I don't know what I would do if I actually had a social life.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

2010-01-11T15:04:00.003-06:00

I just read that Satan's mistress has signed a deal with Fox News. It's good to see that someone who ditched her last job without a second thought can bounce back quickly. ARRRGHHHHH!!!!!

Walter is spinning in his grave.

Eventually I will leave the house for milk

2010-01-03T13:21:00.002-06:00

This is Buster, my sister's puppy. I tried to take a good picture of him at Christmas, but he kept moving on me. He is my new favorite little ball of love and fur.

I know I had said I would do a Best of list, but I realized that I was somewhat disappointed with a lot of the pop culture that was out there this year.

So, instead, here is a Fave Things '09 list that will be a big mishmash.

A Few Of My Favorite Things...in no particular order:

Movies--Up was my fave film of the year. Words can't properly describe how brilliant it was. Here's some other great ones: The Hurt Locker, District 9, 500 Days of Summer, Fabulous Mr. Fox, Away We Go (that did come out this year right? I finally saw it on DVD a couple of weeks ago), Thirst (a Korean vampire flick) and Up In The Air.

Music--I feel like I was totally left behind as far as music goes this year. I looked over some year end lists via NPR, Pitchfork, Spin, etc. and realized this was the first year I felt uncool. Sigh. Just so long as I don't start listening to jazz.. However, I can strongly recommend Muse's The Resistance and Lily Allen's It's Not Me It's You. I really loved Lily's song The Fear so I eventually broke down and bought the CD. I was pleasantly surprised by how strong a songwriter she is. The live R.E.M. set that came out this year which featured their rehearsals for their last album was fabulous. It was refreshing to hear the band revisiting material from the first few years of their existence.

TV--Community and The Soup have helped me continue to adore Joel McHale. Mad Men was very brave as it shook everything up in its season ending episode. Battlestar Galactica proved why it was one of the best shows ever on television. Lost gives us some of the best ensemble acting out there. And, the final David Tennant Doctor Who episodes had me crying on my couch.

What will the new year bring? Hopefully a great season of 24 and Lost; less division and anger in D.C.; Glenn Beck losing the ability to speak; excellent music; happiness and peace...you know, the usual...Happy 2010.

Look! A deer head!

2009-12-22T19:33:00.002-06:00

A few weeks ago my little town had its Santa parade. Now, the week prior it had been almost balmy for this time of year. That of course meant it would be freakin' cold for the parade. Luckily, I live on the main drag so I can sit on my front porch bundled up in a blanket and watch the parade without much trouble.

I went on the Santa stroll and tossed my name into various drawings the local businesses were having. I actually won an exercise ball from my chiropractor's office. I haven't yet inflated it. That's the new year's goal...well, inflating it and actually using it.

The picture is of my sister and big deer head on a shopping cart. My sis is the manager of the bakery at the local grocery store. The store always has their departments decorate a cart and it gets pushed in the parade. For some reason, the bakery went with the idea of making the cart look like Rudolph. It seems someone in the store had offered to give them one of their deer heads off their wall. Tah dah! I yelled at my sis to come closer to me and quickly took the photo; hence the blur. Thankfully, my sister was able to scoot away before the next float caught up to her.

As you all know, I've been very bad with updates. All I can do is offer up that it has been a busy December. I co-hosted a sweet party the first weekend. The following weekend was my office party. For the second year in a row, the person sitting next to me won the flat screen tv. I think I'm going to sell tickets to get the seats next to me. After a few years, I could buy my own tv.

I've gone to a couple of flicks. I think I already talked about how great Fabulous Mr. Fox was. Or did I? It is super cool; a perfect vehicle for Wes Anderson's quirky talents. I saw Avatar and was disappointed. The effects are cool, but it's way too long. You could have easily taken out an hour of stuff. You see every plot point long before it happens and some bits seem like ideas that were later used in Aliens. And, the final big battle made me laugh. Not a good thing. The big highlight was seeing a 3D trailer for Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland. Oooohhhh, I can't wait for that one. Hopefully next week will be Precious, Up in the Air, and Sherlock Holmes.

I am also going to serve up the usual Best Of Lists. Don't know yet if I will try and tackle a Best o' the Decade or not.

MERRY CHRISTMAS LOVELY FOLK!!

Disco Tree

2009-11-27T15:29:00.003-06:00

Here's the new, retro Christmas tree my aunt got for me at an estate sale this past summer. It's not very big, but I don't have a lot of room so that's okay. I believe you aren't supposed to put lights on it, so I have them coiled under the tree and hanging nearby. It's a bit dis-organized, but I don't care. I like it. I had to squish up the living room portion of my DVD collection that has spilled from the two large sets of shelves that are in the hallway in order to make space for the presents. Now all I need to do is buy a couple more gifts and take care of the Christmas cards and I am done!

The small, colored ball ornaments are some I got on clearance a couple of years ago. The larger ones are some that hung on trees from when my Mom was a kid. Pretty cool.

No, I'm not dead.

2009-11-14T08:26:00.002-06:00

It's been a long couple or so weeks at work. I have finally caught up with the projects that belonged to the assistant who was gone for almost a week and a half because of her babysitter issues. She hasn't said word one to me about them by the way. I am in the middle of selecting VAV boxes for a hospital we got. I'm on 110 of 203. It takes me about 2 hours to do 50 of them.

In the midst of all that, Disney was upset that myself, the front office lady and a woman from the service department went to lunch one day without asking her. Now, she leaves half an hour early everyday so asking her to go to lunch would mean she would have to make up the time somewhere. I just always assume that she can't go because she has to work through half her lunch to leave at 4:30. Anyway, apparently we hurt her feelings. She wouldn't talk to the front office lady for almost two days. Finally Front Office had had enough so she called Disney on it. Disney told her she just wanted us to all get along and be friends...blah, blah, blah.

Thus, Hands Across The Office was born. Okay, only I called it that, but none the less all the office chicks went out to lunch that Friday. Most of the conversation was dominated by the four of them talking about their children. Whee. Disney thinks we should do this once a month. Ack. Can't wait.

Here's some super fast movie reviews:

Paranormal Activity: B+ It would have been a bit higher had there not been a problem during the screening of the film. Right at the first really big shock moment the "slide show" that normally comes up in between films started flashing on the screen. It broke all the tension that had been built up so the big finale wasn't quite as big as I think it would have been.

Where The Wild Things Are: A Everything about this is great. It's visually amazing, the acting is spot on (especially the young actor who plays Max) and I even enjoyed Karen O's music.

Men Who Stare At Goats: B+ I enjoyed this a bunch. Clooney is fabulous and it's always good when Ewan McGregor is around. Jeff Bridges and Kevin Spacey are great in showing two sides of loony. It's hard to make the transition from a non-fiction book to a fictional movie, but for the most part things work.

Today, it's Pirate Radio...or as it was called when it came out months ago in Britain, The Boat That Rocked. Looking forward to seeing Nick Frost (Shaun Of The Dead, Hot Fuzz) and Chris O'Dowd (The IT Crowd).

Now, off to the bank, the post office, Christmas shopping and a movie. Whew.

OH, almost forgot. I need more single friends. I got tickets for Illinois vs. Ohio State basketball and was very excited. I completely ignored the fact that the game is on Valentine's Day. My thinking was since Valentine's Day is on a Sunday then most people would go out Sat. night and their Sunday would be open. Apparently, this is not the case. Shows you how often I "celebrate" Valentine's Day. So, as of right now, I have one ticket looking for a ticket holder. Any takers?

Winner, winner, runner up chicken dinner

2009-10-27T22:29:00.003-05:00

This evening I was at a trivia night/fundraiser that also had a costume contest as a part of the festivities. I ended up runner up in the women's division and got movie passes (sweet) as a prize.

I went as Annie from Misery, mostly because I would be coming straight from work and I needed something that would be easy to change into.

I believe it was my homemade sledge hammer (pictured) and fake Paul Sheldon romance novel that put me in the running.

Originally I was going to go as Mia from Pulp Fiction, but since I don't have Uma's long neck, the wig I'd bought made me look like Moe from the Three Stooges. Kathy Bates was much easier to pull off.

Kids are the new smoke break

2009-10-24T08:49:00.003-05:00

I was telling my friend Laura the other day that I think I need to adopt a child so I can get out of work early...or show up late...or take the week off (not vacation though). It seems like my fellow sales assistants use their kids like smokers take advantage of smoke breaks. When I worked at the bookstore, the smokers would be taking 5-10 min. breaks every couple of hours and this wasn't an issue. Granted, it helped that several of the managers smoked and would be running outside every couple of hours as well. Now, instead of people constantly disappearing for a nicotine fix, we have baby related crap to deal with, pardon the pun.

Both sales assistants are breast feeding so they pump during the day. Now, I know that one of the assistants is using the same style of pump that my friend used. It is very discreet. She would shut her office door to get hooked up and then she'd open her door and continue working like nothing was happening. Disney doesn't see it this way. Both she and the other assistant shut their door while pumping. They pump at least two times a day and usually their doors are closed for at least 20 min. if not longer. No one has any idea what they are doing in there. My friend who works the front desk says it seems like they are on their phones the whole time.

They come in late after taking their kid to a doctor's appointment. Fine, I get it. You schedule the thing as early as you can and you are stuck till the doctor actually comes in to see you. BUT, you don't come in at 11 am and then take your hour lunch at noon. Seriously.

The best had to be this week. One assistant called and left a voice mail to our bosses that she wouldn't be in on Monday. Her babysitter's kids were all sick and feverish so the sitter didn't want the other kids coming in and getting infected. Fine. Understandable. Not so kosher was the fact that she didn't call back to let us know when she would be coming in. She didn't come in to pick up her computer to work from home (which is an option...we have laptops). No one knew what was going on until one of the sales guys called her with questions on a job (that was one of three that got handed off to me in her absence) and said "oh, when are you going to be back?"

Our main boss was out of town at business meetings Tues. and Wed. According to the front desk gal, he was upset to hear the assistant hadn't been back in and hadn't checked in. She finally shows up on Friday. Doesn't say anything to me about the files that were missing off of her desk that got passed off to me...actually forwards a voice mail to me to take care of on a job that she was responsible for (and that I had actually gotten called about and took care of on Wed. thank you very much) and, best we can tell, doesn't get in trouble at all for not calling in, etc.

I think they both must possess some sort of voodoo that keeps the guys in our office wrapped around their fingers. They both leave early every day, don't always work through their lunches to make up for leaving early, and then pull crap like this with no consequences.

Oh, did I mention she had a job bidding this week that she didn't check in on. The rep just grabbed the proposal off her desk without looking at it and sent it out to the contractors. The next day he gets a call. Our bid is $11,000 lower than everyone else's, which usually means there is a mistake. Apparently there were several things missed. The rep had to quickly revise the bid and fax it back out.

Sigh.

Anyone want a tractor?

2009-10-17T15:31:00.003-05:00

Here are just a few members of the local teenage community. If you click on the pic, you can better appreciate just how far down on the ass the pants are on the kid on the right. I'm not sure why he bothered putting on his pants. He almost pulled them off while he was digging in a back pocket for his cigs.

My landlord put one of his tractors in the front yard with a for sale sign. So far no takers. If you'd like to make an offer, let me know.

As you can tell, I continue to suck with my updating. If only I felt less guilt at the idea of updating at work, maybe things would be different. I seem to have no issue watching video clips from Pulp Fiction however. I am going as Uma Thurman's character for Halloween.

Now, I know, I look NOTHING like Uma. But, I need an easy costume for a party that is taking place after work. The current debate revolves around whether or not I am going to bloody my face and shirt. I am going as post over dose Mia. I have a fake needle that will be sticking out of my chest. To really be accurate, I need to have a bloody nose, blood on my shirt, and an orange dot on the skin just above a black bra. Now, I am going to a party where we are playing a trivia game and my friend's parents have already snagged me for their team. The girls don't come out much, let alone in front of parental units. The orange dot and black bra thing won't be happening, but somehow I think I need the blood. Any thoughts?

Returning to work after a week off was a little weird. The night before I had a dream about selecting air conditioning. The big drama moment of the week revolved around the purchasing of some new office chairs. When I first got hired, I was told I could order a chair. The one I had been using was the spare chair that sort of made it's way around the office till people picked out their own. Disney was also told she could order a chair. She opted not to because she really liked the chair that came with her office. She claimed it was comfy and the person who it used to belong to had gotten it not that long ago.

Our office manager's chair has enough rips in it that the stuffing is starting to fall out. She and one of the new hires ordered new chairs and they came in on Tues. They were pretty decent chairs...leather with high backs. As soon as she realized someone had something nicer than what she had, Disney went to our direct boss and claimed that she just kept forgetting to order a chair. She knew it had been over a year, but her chair wasn't comfortable and she needed more back support. Blah, blah, blah...can I get a new chair.

Of course he said yes, so she had a new chair as of Thurs. or Friday. I am convinced she got the most expensive one. She went around testing everyone's chairs; except mine, I'm sure it was too low brow for her. Our accountant has a super nice chair. She asked our supply purchaser if she could have one like his and the purchaser told her that if she wanted to fork over $1,000 she'd be happy to get it for her. The purchaser was probably joking, but you get the idea of the cost of the chair. At any rate, she found something she liked. It is leather with a high back. I think it would be call an "executive" chair. It is much more stylized than the other office chairs and I'm sure it cost a pretty penny. I sat in it when she'd left for the day and it was uncomfortable. It didn't seem to have very good lumbar support, in my opinion.

I guess I shouldn't expect anything to be different just because I was gone for 5 days.

Vacation Time

2009-10-05T15:13:00.003-05:00

I'm on vacation this week so I am going to try and make up for my less than frequent blogging. I seem to always plan on writing something and then it all goes poo side up. While straightening the living room, I found several pieces of paper on which I'd written possible blog topics. I think I will space them out rather than putting in one big long mother. So, here we go...

I believe someone has discovered that I don't have a life because I got yet another phone survey call. The last one proved to be highly amusing (questions about whether or not I liked France remember) so I figured I'd give this one a shot.

This time around I wasn't speaking to an actual person. I wasn't speaking at all. It was an automated call and I had to hit a number to convey my response. The bulk of the call was about the economy. You know the deal; did I think we were in a recession; did I think our economic woes would last another 6 months, a year, longer; did I think investing at this time was a good idea...blah, blah, blah.

Then the call moved on to the topic of the Olympics and our attempt to get them to come to Chicago. Did I think this was a good idea? Did I think it would help the economy? Blah, blah, blah. (Side note: we should have did something like what Jack Black did when he wanted Led Zep's permission to use a song for School of Rock. A stadium full of people singing "Sweet Home Chicago" might have worked.)

The final topic came out of freakin' nowhere and really gave me an idea of who was sponsoring this phone survey.

They wanted to know if I thought American Muslims should be responsible for speaking out against terrorism. Ex-squeeze me? There were about 4 more "American Muslim" questions that seemed very right wing just this side of racist in orientation. Very, very bizarre. I was given a website to check out to see who would be getting the results of the survey, but I'm almost afraid to do it out of fear of accidentally signing up for a Glenn Beck newsletter.

Speaking of Sir Dickweed...in case you ever questioned just how big a jerk this guy is check out this little nugget. Be sure to read all the way down to the end of the article.

Speaking of phones, has anyone else seen Tyler Hansbrough help find the puppy dog in an AT & T commercial?

And speaking of commercials, I saw one for the Smart Mop where the voice over actually suggests that in these trying economic times, one could mop up their spilled drink, wring the mop over the glass, and consume the beverage. WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!

Finally, a big woo-hoo to my friend Paul and the web radio site that he is involved with, Future Perfect Radio (see points of interest links on my blog's home page). They were listed in Wired magazine's Playlist (spot #2). The Playlist covers all sorts of cool things. They are in excellent company; Maru the cat was on the playlist a few months ago. Yay Paul!

Didn't get the memo

2009-09-14T19:09:00.003-05:00

It seems someone handed out notification that everyone was supposed to act like a complete dickweed this weekend. First we had Michael Jordan's acceptance speech when he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. Now, I've seen several of these when players I love have gone in (Larry Bird rocks!) and often they make me teary eyed. Jordan's left me disappointed.

How wank-ish is it to fly in your former high school teammate just to essentially say "I'm better than you are at basketball..." No shit, really? Now, if he wanted to make the point that disappointment can make a great motivator, he could have said something along the lines of "thanks to the coach picking you over me I learned that I had to improve my skills, improve myself and show that I deserved to be a starter...thanks for giving me the chance to pick myself up after being knocked back a few." How hard would it have been to take the high road and not the douche road?

Next, we had Kayne West at the MTV VMA's. Now, I don't watch this show live because it usually gets too annoying. I taped it so I could see Muse live (they were fabulous by the way...see below). While zipping through, I saw Kayne take the mike from Taylor Swift and rant about how Beyonce had the better video. Seriously? You can think of nothing better to do than hop up on stage, snag the mike from a sweet 17 yr. old kid and act like a jerk? Poor Taylor looked like a deer in headlights. If Beyonce really wanted to help, she should have hopped up on stage right then, slapped Kayne upside the head and gave the mike back to Taylor.

Lady Gaga, Pink and Muse gave the best performances of the evening. I'm not a fan of Lady G, but she did the one song I do like from her, Paparazzi. And, her performance was enjoyably strange and she sang really well. Pink also pulled a weird one out of her hat. I give her major points for being able to sing while paying tribute to Circus of the Stars. (Note that Beyonce only really sang for part of her song...most of the time she just danced. Pink was flipping all over the place and held her own vocally.)

Here's Muse's performance.

Muse - New Music - More Music Videos

Jane, you ignorant slut

2009-09-12T16:06:00.002-05:00

I think that is the correct line. It's been a long time since I've seen the Dan and Jane era of Weekend Update. But, since I seem to only have time on Saturdays to write anything, a nod to SNL seemed appropriate.

So how is everyone doing? Nice to see our politicians can still excel at rational discourse. (I really hope you are catching the sarcasm.) I think I've seen similar tactics by high school students at sporting events (yeah, blatantly ignoring someone by texting while they speak, that'll show 'em). The following day at work I was waiting for one of the reps to get off the phone so I could ask a question. I was standing outside my big boss's door and heard him angrily re-hashing the whole insane theory that our President isn't an American citizen. Sigh. Now, I'm all for a good conspiracy theory, but that would be one seriously far reaching plot. Psychics would have to be involved and I doubt they would be as cute as James Roday.

Italian Fest last weekend was a good time. Nice weather, no bees; though, we did have some crazy gnat action. My friends and I took the kiddies out to a park after supper and came upon a scene that I think only happens in small towns. When we got there, someone had their radio cranked in their vehicle. The windows were open for the music to spill out. One guy was sort of using the swings (and smoking) while another guy and a girl were on the ground laying on top of each other.

Now doesn't that sound like fun. Hey, Dave! Me and Jane are going to go dry hump in the park...want to join us?

We eventually went over there way so we could use the merry go round. Our bold move with pre-teens in tow sent them away eventually. It seems there was another person in the vehicle so maybe swing guy had a fight with his girlfriend and that's why there weren't two sets of scraggly looking hormonal folk rolling about in the grass.

I think I may need to start taking something to improve my concentration. While heading home from Jinn's house (a drive I've done a thousand times), I went right past my exit and didn't even notice till I was almost a good 5 miles away. How early does dementia start to set in?

Finally, now that summer is over, here is my fave movie wrap up for the season:

1. Up
2. Hurt Locker and District 9
3. 500 days of Summer and Moon
4. Brothers Bloom
5. HP 6
6. Star Trek

Okay, I have a birthday party to get to. Don't forget, the new Muse cd, The Resistance, comes out on Tues. You can see them on the MTV video music awards on Sunday. I've been listening to their album via their website and so far I am digging it. They are over the top in the best way possible.

Later gators!

Tired

2009-09-05T09:43:00.003-05:00

Here is my "drafting" table, or the tilt-y table as I sometimes call it. In the time since I took this picture, the second row of paperwork has extended to the full length of the table.

As you can see, we seem to favor ordering the crazy, neon colored post it notes.

Once again, it was a very busy week. I worked for two solid days on a bid for a hospital (the file for which is big enough to take up two large expandable file thingies). After putting in some overtime this week, I decided to use some of those earned hours and leave work early on Friday. When I was discussing this with one of the reps, he told me that the door blocking assistant owed him hours. I was glad to hear that he was aware of this situation. He's such a nice guy that I worry he does not always see people taking liberties with his niceness.

This weekend brings the Italian Fest here in town. It has blossomed into a nice sort of gathering. There are big, bouncy, blow up things for the kids to jump in. There is food (natch), a baseball game, a basketball tourney, a race, tomato chucking (sort of like pumpkin chucking) and more of the usual fest type activities. Last year, part of the entertainment featured a group doing songs from Mamma Mia. Nothing like some Swedish flair at an Italian festival. We are a melting pot.

Is anyone else as tired as I am of all the crazy anger that seems to be coming out of every media pore? I am fully aware that there are insane people on both sides of the political spectrum (and that they all seem to have television shows). But, really...people are pissed that the President wants to talk to their kids about the importance of staying in school? What the f*ck?

Having the President talk to our country's youth is nothing new. Somehow I doubt that the President giving a short speech to the kids is going to "indoctrinate" them in any way. I don't have kids, but I have friends with kids, and seeing how much their own children do and don't listen to them ( and this is after years of being in the same household), I question that the message of staying in school will get through to them, let alone any secret agenda the right seems to think Obama has up his sleeve.

So, instead of teaching their child to at least be respectful to the office of the President, and perhaps using the opportunity to discuss the many sides to what the President says, they are going to be pissy and keep their kids at home. Again I say, really? The broadcast of the President's speech for some of the kids will probably have the same lure as a personal hygine film from health class. I'd wager several of the kids will be doodling on their notebooks, texting each other, staring out the window, etc. Pretty much behaving like they normally do when an adult is talking to them. Having said that, I'm sure for some kids this is going to be a cool moment; the President is talking to them. They don't have to share his views, but to actually be spoken to in a rational manner would be exciting.

I won't even start on all the mis-information being tossed about in regards to the health care debate...if you can even call it a debate. It all makes me tired.

I think this song is sort of fitting, though maybe not the video...try and ignore the half naked chick, unless that works for you of course.

I should have taken a picture

2009-08-28T22:42:00.002-05:00

I considered taking my camera to work to capture the state of my desk. Well, the state of my desk and my drafting table. Seeing those photos would have explained why I haven't blogged in a week.

I've been flippin' busy! How busy you may ask? Let's just say I know what time the AC in the office switches to "unoccupied" mode (aka doesn't keep the air as cooled since, in theory, there are no people in the building). That magical time would be 7:30pm.

You heard me. I worked till 7:30 the other night. Why, oh why, you say. Well, it would be because my rep was out of the office all day so I was flooded with phone calls and couldn't get to much of my real work...which included a bid for work at a hospital and a bid for work at an Armory. Both jobs bid on the same day. Oh, and I had stuff for the other rep because he was out of the office too and his main sales assistant wasn't coming in till almost 11am so I was getting some of his calls too.

It was a long, long, long freakin' week.

Speaking of work, I have a "None shall pass" update. Our receiving guy was dropping off something by the front offices and he passes by the open door of this particular assistant. He notices the table blocking the door and says, "I think that is a fire hazard. What if Sue couldn't get out the front door, she'd have to go through that door to get to the closest exit?"

Sales Ass. answers something along the lines of, "Are you sure? I don't think that's quite right."

"Why is the table blocking the door anyway?"

"I needed to move it so I could reach my dry erase board." (LIAR!)

(Editor's note: the board does hang on the wall the table used to be in front of, but if you slid the table down a little, you can reach the board...or you could use the spare chair to reach better)

"Besides," she adds, "someone put a little table in front of the other side of the door."

HER PANTS ARE ON FIRE! (too bad we can't get to the emergency exit) She was the one who put the little table in front of the door and added the sign.

In other news, I went and saw Inglorious Basterds and I was disappointed. I think Tarantino has fallen too in love with his dialogue because people would not stop talking in this movie! The ideas are cool, the European actors are great (esp. the main Nazi guy), and if it would have been trimmed down to about 2 hours, I think I would have really enjoyed it. Instead, I was checking my watch. The opening sequence had the tension sucked out of it because the two characters just kept talking and talking and talking. I wanted to yell out "the Jewish farming family is hiding under the floor boards...look down already!"

Most of the moments involving the American actors sucked. I thought Brad Pitt was doing a really bad George Bush impersonation. I have no idea why anyone thinks Eli Roth can act (not saying I can act either, but I know Tarantino has acting friends...he coule have used one of them instead of one of his directing buddies). Most of the rest of the "basterds" didn't even have lines. I kept looking at B.J. Novak thinking, why is Ryan from The Office in this movie? Shouldn't he be off making copies or something?

Finally, in two weeks, the new Muse cd is coming out. Since I decided to pre-order it through their website, I get some groovy, free downloads. In fact, watching those downloads held back my blogging by about 30 min. One of the videos was of a live performance of one of my favorite songs, "Stockholm Syndrome." The clip below isn't the live performance I got, but it's a damn good clip of the same song anyway. It's loud and a bit "guitar masterbation-y" at the end, but I love it. Enjoy.

Quick bit

2009-08-19T22:26:00.002-05:00

Last week, I sent an email to a contractor to let him know when he could expect his equipment to arrive. I told him the ESD was 8/28 with a delivery window of 8/31-9/3.

He called me a few hours later after he read the email. As soon as he started talking, I could tell he was one of the older contractor guys. This was how the conversation went.

"How can I help you?"

"I just read your email. I don't know anything about this twitter stuff...what does E-S-D mean?"

(Pause as I try not to chuckle) "It stands for estimated ship date."

"Oh. All right."

I would have sworn ESD was used long before "this twitter stuff." Maybe I was wrong.

Best. Movie. Of. The. Summer.

2009-08-16T17:12:00.004-05:00

I have just seen the best frakkin' movie of the summer! (Now, I do realize that Inglorious Bastards hasn't come out yet, but sometimes you just don't know with Tarantino)

District 9 was amazing. Not only sporting a first time director in Neill Blomkamp, but a first time actor in the lead role, Sharlto Copley, District 9 is a rare creature, a science fiction movie that has an original vision, a deep and emotional story line, subtext to get you talking and a sweet, bad ass action sequence.

I don't want to give too much away because that is part of the ride that is the movie. You can get the gist of the film from the trailer--aliens come to Earth, get stranded, are marginalized and kept in what becomes a slum, District 9. We come in 28 years after their arrival when they are about to be relocated.

The film comes from a short that the director did. He co-wrote the script and the lead character was developed with the help of a fellow director and buddy, Sharlto Copley, who ended up being offered the lead at the suggestion of the director (and the approval of producer Peter Jackson). After watching his performance, you would never guess that he had never acted professionally before. You also wouldn't guess this is the first feature done by the director. He has a very clear vision and thanks to great acting and some seriously fabulous SFX by WETA, he has been able to bring this vision to us to enjoy.

I'm already checking my schedule to figure out when I can go see this again.

None shall pass!

2009-08-13T18:55:00.005-05:00

You too can be passive aggressive through interior design.

The view from the other side.

At least the note says "please."

Where I work the building is separated into two parts. One side is the sales side and the other is the accounting side. There are two ways to get from one side to the other. You can use the hall way near my office or you can use the door that connects the two sides. The problem is the door is in a sales assistant's office.

I can appreciate that it could get a little annoying to have people walking through your office, but it doesn't happen that often. Now, I suppose it would cause concern if you were afraid people would see you on your cell phone, or the internet, or paying your bills, or doing anything but your job...'course this is just speculation on my part.

My friend, who left and recommended me for the job I have, is back working two days a week while Disney is out on maternity leave. She was used to the office's prior occupant not having a problem with her using that door. So, she went ahead and used it several times in one day.

The next morning (I should note here that this is a morning my friend would not be in to work) the offended assistant took the time to move a long, folding table away from the side wall to now block the door. She also went to the other side, used a smaller table to block that door, and put up her note.

I will freely admit that I have written plenty of notes in my day, but it was usually after repeatedly speaking to people, whether they were booksellers or management. I will also admit that I am not above passive aggressive behavior, but I'm working on getting better.

Still, it seemed the perfect, high school-ish reaction by this person. And the bonus bit is, the person cutting through her office is her cousin! She couldn't even just ask her cousin to stop going through the door. Instead she has to use the table, etc. Sigh. It would be so much cooler if she would just ask us about our quest, our favorite color, and the velocity of a swallow.

Yes, I'm still here...

2009-08-11T19:08:00.003-05:00

It has been pointed out that I currently suck as a blogger. I'll admit it; I've been very lax as of late. My excuse for this weekend was it was too flippin' hot in the computer room for me to attempt to type something funny or interesting or even correctly spelled for that matter.

I'm over at a friend's house right now feeding her cats and using her computer because of the guilt that Jackie has inflicted upon me.

So what's up, you may ask? Not a whole lot, I answer.

I can strongly recommend seeing The Hurt Locker. Kathyrn Bigelow (probably mis-spelled that) is one of the few female action directors out there who, thankfully, kicks ass. The Hurt Locker lets us spend about a fictional month with three members of a squad of soldiers in 2004 Iraq who are responsible for locating and taking care of any number of explosive devices.

The movie is very well done. While the idea of a bomb going off at any moment has an inherent level of suspense to it, Bigelow amps it up through camera angles, editing and often, just sitting with the characters as time keeps ticking away. Jeremy Renner plays Sgt. James, who is THE bomb guy. Renner walks a fine line as he is both full of swagger and compassion. I appreciated that the movie was pro in any direction. It's not over the top pro-military, but it isn't really pro-war either. It's a very specific story about a very interesting group of people. There is plenty to talk about afterwards, but for the most part, politics stays out of the story.

Renner and Bigelow's direction really made the movie for me, plus it's fun to see all the cameos in the film. I won't give any away because there are a couple of enjoyable "holy crap that's..." moments. Just go see the damn movie already.

Not much else going on. Boots and Buttons are gadding about and sometimes stop by as I'm typing to nudge me for some lovin'. Guess I should start petting them.

Movie review, baby name and possibly something else

2009-07-25T15:28:00.003-05:00

I actually have seen HP6 twice as of this writing, but I knew I would spend most of my time during the first one figuring what got left out of the books. It always takes until the second viewing before I get a real sense of how I feel about the movie. I can safely say it's pretty damn cool. It is a weird sort of film though. We spend a lot of time with the gang as they make their way through the hell that is teen age romance. There are several funny moments that come about through all this hormonal turbulence. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, we get reminded that things are getting darker and more dire.

I gotta say that I loved Alan Rickman's performance, along with Tom Felton, who plays Draco Malfoy. Both actors have dealt with their characters being used more for comic relief in the films and now they get the big pay off for their patience. Felton has almost no dialogue in the movie so his performance completely relies on his ability to let us see his character's turmoil via visual cues. It's pretty impressive.

I only have two minor complaints. The first would be that I would have liked to have seen a bigger moment between Harry and Ginny. I will say that my opinion is highly biased by the book. I saw the movie with people who hadn't read the books and they really enjoyed the quiet-ness, if you will, of the moment in the movie. I'm probably just being picky.

The second would be I'm not entirely sold in the director's choice for how Harry reacts at the end of the movie when he confronts Snape. Again, I am biased by the book. And on my second viewing, it struck me that perhaps the director didn't want the reaction to be too similar to how Harry acts after he brings back Cedric's body at the end of Goblet of Fire. It also struck me that Snape smacked down Harry repeatedly, so Harry may not be able to react the way I want him to. Still, just being picky I'm sure. It's the wanna be director in me having a mini bitch fest.

On the work front, I have now entered the era I like to call The Second Maternity Leave Countdown. This translates into working exclusively for the other sales rep for about the next 2-3 months. I don't know how long Disney is going to take off, which means I also don't know when my next vacation is going to be. When I found out what Disney named her kid, I almost used a naughty word or two. In general, I can handle non-traditional names for kids. I have a couple of friends who have gone down the unique name road. But, I have what is probably an unreasonable dislike for the "cute-sy" use of the letter Y. Disney's name choice...Jayla Skye. WTF? Really? I'm baffled. I think I'm gonna Google Jayla and see what I get. Maybe she was hopped up on pain killers after the birth and she meant to say Kayla? Oops.

On a final note, there is almost nothing better than driving on a freshly re-vamped road in the midst of a sunny, 75 degree, blue sky day!

just wondering...

2009-07-18T17:06:00.002-05:00

So, who thinks it's broken? I rammed the last third plus of my right foot into some furniture this morning and now my next to last toe is purple and a bit swollen and sore, my nail scraped and squished. I'm not feeling crazy pain so I'm thinking it's okay. Sure looks purty though don't it?

Ow.

just because

2009-07-16T21:42:00.001-05:00

While doing some reading on the last NIN tour, I just now find out that my beloved Trent got engaged. And it wasn't to me. Poop.

A (Sadly) Not Fully Functional Death Star

2009-07-16T20:26:00.004-05:00

A few weeks back I built a Death Star Pinata with my friend Cherrill. It was for her youngest son's birthday party. I believe this is the 4th one we've done. And while we get better each time, we still haven't quite hit D.S. nirvana.

We made a light saber for the kids to use to smash the pinata. I tried to get her son to pose with it, but (shocker) we were watching Empire Strikes Back and he was too engrossed with the t.v. to look at the camera.

In case you can't make it out, the buttons on the light saber read "on"/ "off"/"ouch." It's good to have options.

This is our book that shows what it is supposed to look like.

But, we don't play by the rules, so here is what ours looks like. If you click on the picture, I think you can enlarge it and see the word "fire" written in the center of the black circle along with a stick man storm trooper.

ROCK!

Death by Co-Worker, almost

2009-07-09T20:37:00.003-05:00

Once again it's been a very busy week...weekend...more of the week. I have stories to tell about fireworks, a Death Star pinata, and expired driver's licenses. But, right now I have time for one story.

On Monday, I drove over to the Subway that is housed in hell, also known as Super Wal-Mart, to get lunch. The road I take back to work has a moderately tight turn and it's in an industrial area so any moron knows to take it at no more than about 35 because you never know when a semi might be turning onto the road just a bit in front of you.

I went around the curve and saw a semi, with it's right signal flashing, on the street next to our parking lot. I peaked in my rear view mirror and saw no one behind me and was saying a quick prayer that the semi driver would wait till I was past before he started to turn. He did wait for me and as soon as I got by that street, I hit my signal and slowed down. While waiting for traffic to go by so I could make my left hand turn, I looked in my mirror again and saw the semi making it's turn.

Next thing I know, out of flippin' no where, this pick up truck comes flying past me on the right hand side. They were in the grass shoulder and I swear they were doing at least 45 to 50, if not more. While uttering a few choice words, I notice the driver is a female with their brunette hair in a pony tail and wearing a blue t-shirt. Once the shock of the moment passes, it hits me. It was freakin' DISNEY driving the truck!!!!!!

Now, we in the office are somewhat familiar with her lead foot and crappy driving skills, but none of us had experienced it yet. Thankfully, she didn't hit my car or crash into anyone in front of me. I go inside and utter that I was 90% sure that she had virtually side swiped me.

She came back a few minutes later, McDonald's in hand, and I asked her if she had been the one almost clipping me earlier. She goes all drama queen and declares that it was the semi drivers fault. She claimed the semi "came out of no where" and because it was having to make a wide right hand turn, she had to swerve to avoid hitting it and when she got around the truck, she suddenly saw me and had to go on the grass to avoid hitting me.

I really wanted to correct her and her version of events, but it seemed pointless at the time. I wanted to shout, "NO NO NO!! Liar, liar! You suck!" Instead, I will bitch here and just keep my eyes peeled for the crazy, shitty driver. Argh.

Break in the in-action

2009-06-28T15:00:00.003-05:00

Finally, a beautiful day! Why then am I inside writing on the computer? Because I haven't updated since we entered the second ring of hell and it was too flippin' hot in the computer room!

Thanks to the heat, I haven't been doing much beside sweating while not moving. Not much then to write about. But, I can recount going to the theater.

Well, children's theater, but theater just the same. My friend's oldest son was Gaston in a production of Beauty and The Beast (junior). He is a big ham so it was a perfect part for him. I'm happy to report that Noah is a good singer and he did an excellent job projecting both his singing and speaking parts.

There were a few other kids that you could tell were comfortable on stage. They were actually "acting," I just wish they had spoken louder. We were in the second row about 7 feet from the front of the stage and I still missed some lines. The kid who played the Beast seemed to come from the school of acting that says angry = yell your lines really quickly. But, I shouldn't be so judgmental. The kids looked like they were having fun. Even the youngest kids who played the flatware during "Be Our Guest" seemed to be having a good time. I'll save my smart mouth for the Broadway Series production that I'll be seeing in Feb.

Hopefully soon I'll be getting out to see some of the big summer flicks. Public Enemies is out this week and the countdown has begun for HP6!!!! Can't decide if I want to mess with Transformers 2 or not. Maybe I'll save it for a really hot day.

On a final note, my new favorite thing, Wired magazine, called out the Maru the cat videos as one of their favorite things! Thanks to galaxy carol for hooking me up to the best kitty in Japan. Seems he is now a national treasure, which is how it should be. There is also a great article about Facebook in this months issue, as well as an interview with the guy behind Prez O's plan to open up tons of government data and make it available to the public on-line.

End of the world, coming to theaters this Nov.

2009-06-18T20:37:00.002-05:00

I found this link to the new international trailer for the upcoming disaster flick, 2012. I'm surprised that it is coming out in the winter, a time usually reserved for Oscar fare, but Nov. has also been the month for HP and Twilight, etc. so perhaps I shouldn't be so surprised.

Brought to you by the fine Independence Day folks, we get to see John Cusack (yeah!), his wife, Amanda Peet (yeah!) and their kids trying to survive the end o' the world. It looks like we will get plenty of the now standard destruction of major world landmarks (bye Vatican, see you later big Brazilian Jesus, au revoir some L.A. freeway). I'm always up for Cusack in hero mode.

Oooo...and extra groovy bonus, Danny Glover appears to be the President and Woody Harrleson is crazy. Sweet!

Someone I Know Has Talked to Martha Stewart on National TV!

2009-06-17T20:25:00.002-05:00

I got word that my friend Jill, who is a goddess at Purina, was on the Martha Stewart show. Purina is partnering with Martha to sponsor a pet video section on the website. Or something like that. Anyway, Martha went to HQ in St. Louis and got a tour of the facility, etc. Jill talks to her about a new dog food that they have developed.

You can watch it here. Jill shows up about the 2 min. mark (looking quite lovely in blue I might add). Hang around till the 4 min. mark-ish and you can see her super cute beagle, Fiver (hope I'm spelling that right). One of my fave bits occurs around the 5 min. mark when the guy next to Jill starts to tell Martha about a surprise they have for her. Jill's eyes go a bit wide for a second; it's almost a WTF sort of moment. I wonder if Jill knew about the surprise.

Groovy stuff none the less.

When "one" sounds like "three."

2009-06-14T15:25:00.003-05:00

Today I went into the big city to see a movie and have some lunch. When I can, I try to avoid chain places only because I can make my own damn hamburger and it won't cost me $10. But, I have a gift certificate I got from work for Applebee's so I figured I'd save my own cash and go there.

It was a little after one and the place wasn't very busy. The kid in charge of seating people walks over to where I am waiting. He looked like he was a twelve year old stoner. Or, at the least, had taken too much Ritalin this morning. He asks me how many, which you'd think would be obvious because I was the only one standing there at the moment. Still, I could be meeting people there I suppose. Anywho, I answer, "One."

He proceeds to grab 3 menus and three sets of silverware. I was almost going to say something, but I can just see a couple people have walked in the door behind me. Okay, he's multi-tasking and going ahead and grabbing stuff for the next table. Fine.

Nope. We go to the table he's selected and he starts setting down more than one menu. I get his attention and say, "umm...it's only one."

He looks at me, completely surprised and says "I thought you said three." Now, I can fake my way through some French, but I am in no way bilingual. That being said, off the top of my head, I am unaware of any language where "one" sounds like "three." Except maybe the language of "I don't want to be here today and I'm not really paying any attention to you because you aren't a hot 20 year old." Perhaps in that language the words are almost exactly alike.

Lunch was okay. I wouldn't have directly paid what I did for that salad. The service was okay and at least nothing got spilled on me.

Now, the movie. I went and saw The Hangover. The vote is still not quite in on it. There were some very funny parts and I really liked Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis. I also thought the idea of us finding out what happened the same time that the guys do worked to the movie's advantage. I just didn't laugh through the whole movie the same way I did with 40 Year Old Virgin and Superbad. It's a funny, raunchy film--good for adults, but I don't know that I put it up there with my favorites. Speaking of adult films, it was almost refreshing to see trailers for R rated movies since the last few trailers I've seen have been for G Force and other kid's flicks. I'd almost forgotten what an adult trailer looked like. But, I have to admit I'm frightened to see Kyra Sedgewick and Michael C. Hall in a trailer for Gamer, which looks just awful.

I might try to get to Drag Me To Hell this week. It will be fitting since this week both sales engineers are on vacation and it's just us chicks and our boss at work. Sounds a bit like hell to me.

Ups and downs

2009-06-08T20:03:00.004-05:00

Last week, during my vacation, I saw Up a total of three times. It was worth it all three times.

Normally, I don't do Disney. But, now that Pixar is part of the Disney con-glom, I patiently sit through the "when you wish upon a star" crap to get to the hopping lamp.

Up tells the story of Carl Fredrickson and his quest to fulfill the childhood dream of going to South America. Along for the ride is Russell, a Wilderness Explorer (friends to all of nature) who is trying to get his Assisting the Elderly badge.

Pixar amazes me in their ability to broach bold, emotional topics in a way that is entertaining and a bit subversive. I remember when I first saw The Incredibles. I was blow away by seeing the very real struggle of someone trying to get what they have paid for from the insurance company. Who the hell else puts that in a "kids" movie? It is no different with Up. I don't want to tell anyone too much about it, but I will say I was crying in the first 15 min. of the film. I actually cried during the same 3 parts all 3 times I've seen the movie.

The film itself looks beautiful. One of my favorite scenes is the deceptively simple shot of the house and all its colorful balloons set against a perfectly blue sky. The score is very good; I actually blame it for the two other times I cried. I would hear the refrain from an earlier piece and instantly went back to the same place emotionally. Micheal G. (I won't try and spell his name) who does the music for Lost created the score. The vocal talent is perfect, esp. Ed Asner as Carl. There is plenty of comedy in the shape of Dug the dog and Kevin the bird, particularly when they are interacting with the human characters.

Up is easily one of the best movies I've seen so far this year, not to mention the last couple of years. The short, Partly Cloudy, that runs before it is quite sweet and entertaining as well. GO NOW TO A THEATER NEAR YOU!

Okay, on to the down. My flippin' car is still at the dealership. It was supposed to be done Friday. Nope. I got a rental car. I called there at 3pm to make sure the car would be ready tonight. Yep, I was told. If there's a problem, we'll call you.

I didn't get a call so I drove the extra 10 min. to the dealership. I get there and look around the lot near the service entrance and I don't see my car. The doors to the service garage are still open so I go inside to try and find someone to help me. As I'm looking around I notice my car...up on the lift things...missing two tires. WTF!? The lone service guys comes up to me and I explain that I was here to pick up my finished car, but since I thought it was that one over there the whole "finished" thing seemed a bit premature.

Oh, he says. Didn't Ryan get a hold of you? Erm. No. There was no call to me at work before I left at 5pm. The only other number I gave him was my home phone and I told him not to call me there.

Which, of course, is exactly where he called me. After letting the service guy know I'd already told the rental car guy that I would be returning the car and being told that it was fine if I kept the rental, I got home and had four messages. Three where Ryan spoke to me and one that I could hear things in the back ground, but then whomever hangs up.

Now, if you had spoken to someone at 3pm, told them you would call them if the car wasn't ready and you had been given their work number, where they would be until 5pm, wouldn't you call the work number first? And, if, in your stupidity, you called the home number, left a message, claim to have sent a text to a land line, and no one responded, wouldn't you try the work number?

Dork boy left his cell phone number so I called him. His first words were, "I've been trying to get a hold of you." No, really? Who would have guessed? I asked, did you have my work number? Yes, he says I tried that around 5pm. I pointed out it was after 5pm because I left at 5pm and I didn't talk to him. He tells me he should have the car done by 9 or 9:30. Convenient since I will be 40 miles away at that point at work. I also have an appointment tomorrow night so I am hoping to get my car by 7:30 or so. I'm also hoping no one will steal it because the dealership closes at 7 pm, of course, and my keys will be hidden on the car so I can actually drive it home.

Have I mentioned I have to pay for gas on the rental? I filled it up tonight right before pulling into the dealership. Now I've already added about 10 more miles. It'll be 30 to work tomorrow, about 25 to go to my appointment and about 45 to go from the appointment to the car dealership so I'll be filling it up again tomorrow night.

What is the dealership doing for me after all this hassle? They are paying for the rental car, but they should since if they would have had the car done on Friday like they said they would, I wouldn't be needing a rental. The extra special thing they are doing for me is.....they are going to wash my car. Yep. That'll go bad pretty quickly since I park out in the open and I'm near a tree. You do the math. Don't think I'll be going back to these folks anytime soon. ARRGHHH!!!!

Travelling back in time and getting lost

2009-06-05T16:53:00.003-05:00

I took off a few days this week to get some vacation time in between the breeders popping out their kids. As a part of that break, a friend and I drove over to my beloved Univ. of Illinois to bum around.

It was raining when we first got there, but since we were hitting a used bookstore before heading to the campus, I figured we'd end up okay. It was a little misty, but the Quad looked as lovely as I remember it.

In fact, the Quad was about the only thing that had not changed that much. While pointing out the various apartment buildings I had lived in, I realized that there was a hell of a lot less parking available. My usual hot spots were all now designated for people with stickers. All my tricks and special knowledge seemed to have vanished.

Also gone, a great bar where I saw a ton of bands play. The bulk of the campus town area looks completely different. As we walked, I kept saying "that used to be..." I was happy to see Zorba's, a Greek restaurant, was still there along with a bar that has the best grilled chicken sandwich ever. But, the two cool records stores are gone (replaced by a Panera break company and I think a sushi place). The Steak n Shake where the hookers hung out and where a couple members of The Smithereens snagged some fries from me is long gone.

I understand that change happens and a decent amount of the time, happens for a reason. Still, I felt a bit disappointed that the version of campus that was closest to my heart was no longer there. It made me feel old. Thankfully, bringing home a couple of Papa Del's deep dish frozen pizzas made much of the pain go away. Right now, the past is a close as my oven and that's pretty cool.

Coming your way in 2010...

2009-06-04T12:08:00.001-05:00

Lego games are about the only ones in which I have a chance of kicking any ass so I am very excited to see HP 1-4 is coming out. Woo hoo, I'm a dork.

France and Splenda. Conspiracy or just good friends?

2009-05-23T16:01:00.002-05:00

It's a little blurry, but I was zoom lensing like a mad person to get this picture of a bunny hanging out at my house. I spotted him as I was going to work. I had my camera in my bag so I was moving very slooooowwwwly to get it out, put the batteries in and take a picture without scaring my little friend away. Yay bunnies!

This afternoon I got a phone call. It was a phone survey that started like this:

What do you think of France? Do you approve, disapprove or have no opinion?

I actually laughed and told the lady on the other end of the phone that I wasn't expecting that sort of question. I said approved because France seems to constantly get bitch slapped and two of my favorite film directors are French.

I think we went through 5 or 6 questions on France. What did I think of their president? What words would I use to describe the France? She listed off about 10 words (and one sentence) that I was supposed to choose from. By the time she got done listing my options, I'd forgotten half of them. Once I'd given her my word choices, the next question sent us off in another direction completely.

"Which of the following non-alcoholic beverages do you drink?"

Now, I was very confused. I was asked about seemingly every kind of soda, diet soda, juice, diet juice, tea, diet tea, bottled water, really pricey bottled water and energy drinks you could imagine. I was asked about Splenda, Equal, etc. I answered "no" to many questions. The whole time I was trying to figure out what France had to do with these drinks. Are they trying to gain a strong hold on the beverage market? Are they hoping Coke or Pepsi will sponsor a theme park to rival Euro Disney? Are the French creating Splenda and are they adding ingredients that will cause Americans to crave escargot?

When everything had been answered and the lady thanked me for my time, I asked her what France had to do with my drink preferences. All she said was they do surveys on many topics. Apparently they like to go with completely unrelated topics. I still wonder if there isn't some sort of greater truth to be found, maybe a greater conspiracy. I think I'll check for phone taps just in case, 'cuz once you give France a thumbs up, you are a marked girl.

You will remain awake for this one!

2009-05-18T20:57:00.003-05:00

The latest adapt of a Dan Brown novel, Angels & Demons, is thankfully much better than the first flick we slept through a couple of years ago. Tom Hanks sports much better hair in his return as Robert Langdon, all around signs and symbols guy. The pace of the movie is set by the plot of the book. Because the action takes place over the span of a few hours, the movie has no choice but to keep up.

The movie really is a decent little thriller. I can't help but like Hanks in pretty much anything he does and he doesn't disappoint. Getting to zip through the streets of Rome is a highlight. Apparently, they shot the scenes guerrilla style and the kinetic pace of the filming helps maintain the pace of the story. There are plenty of great actors to enjoy. I'll admit that I would happily confess my sins to Ewan McGregor. There are some pleasant twists and turns and the gore factor is not over the top, but it's not shy either. If you've read the book, you'll be pleased that virtually all of the key plot points have been kept...though some bits were shortened for time. Definitely worth checking out.

Also worth checking out is the new trailer for Sherlock Holmes, starring Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law. We have to wait until Christmas for the movie, but I'm happy for this taste of Robert. It looks like it will be quite funny and full of action. Hopefully Guy Ritchie will be back on form. Check out the trailer here.

"It's always something with you people."

2009-05-14T18:48:00.004-05:00

WARNING: IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED THE SEASON FINALE OF LOST YET, DON'T READ THIS!!

Time for the Lost finale recap, which has almost become a tradition with me (for better or worse).

Here's some random things in rough chronological order as they appeared on the show.

-It was cool to see the Black Rock while Jacob and ? were talking on the beach.

-I'm starting to wonder if we are going to get a flashback with Kate as Patsy Cline. As soon as you hear Patsy, you know Kate is involved.

-First "Jacob meets the gang" moment involves the purchase of a New Kids On The Block lunch box...obviously a bad omen.

-So, Richard doesn't age because of Jacob? How does that work exactly? Jacob doesn't age either.

-Jacob does his Ione Skye impersonation and gives young Sawyer a pen. (Okay, that's not exactly it, but any time I can work in a Say Anything reference, I will.)

-I gleefully enjoy "bitchy" Ben. He is wonderful when he is snarky.

-Hmmm...just how nice is Jacob when he sets up Sayid's wife to get hit by a car.

-Because, sometimes, we must have obvious justice, Ben's Dad shoots Sayid.

-YEAH VINCENT! SUPER YEAH FOR BERNARD AND ROSE!!! I love B & R more than I can express. How freakin' cool is it that they have been just hanging out for the last three years enjoying their time together?

-What's in the freakin' box?

-Jacob knows Ilana (sp?) too. I wonder how long he's known her. Apparently she feels their relationship is strong enough to withstand burning his crappy shack.

-BEST JACOB MEETS THE GANG MOMENT: While sitting in front of a large building, Jacob is reading is Flannery O'Connor's "Everything That Rises Must Converge." Moments into the flashback, we see a body falling to the ground behind him. It's Locke when he fell out the window and lost the use of his legs! I probably shouldn't have, but I laughed at the funny weirdness of it.

-Gleeful Locke works his mojo on bitchy Ben, pushing all the right buttons to try and convince Mr. Linus to kill Jacob.

-Thanks to various storm warnings, I wasn't able to read the captions for Jin and Sun's wedding when Jacob was there.

-Jacob is almost the old woman who lives in a shoe; instead, he's the ageless man who lives in a foot.

-So Jacob buys Kate a lunch box, gives Sawyer a pen, does something at J & S's wedding, buys Jack a snack--but essentially kills Sayid's wife...not very fair I say.

-Jack and Sawyer chat and surprise to no one, all of Jack's bomb motivation has to do with Kate. Man up dude! I believe Sawyer feels the same because he goes on to kick Jack's ass.

-Poor Juliet realizes this is the beginning of the end for her and lovely James so she decides to help Jack to keep her and James from ever meeting so she will never be hurt.

-Jack convinces Kate to join him by hitting the Claire Guilt Button found on Kate's soul

-Hey look, Jacob got Hurley out of jail...these things are starting to get just a little annoying.

-Jack snags the bomb and heads off, but not before kissing Kate...no wait, that would only happen if he'd stop being quite so unrequite-y...instead he LOOKS at Kate. Erm...okay.

-Locke and Ben go into the foot to see Jacob. Here Ben, have a big ass knife.

-Miles has slowly become one of my favorites. How brilliant that he points out that perhaps setting off the bomb is "the incident" they are trying to avoid? "Glad you all thought this out..."

-Guns, explosions, yelling, the drill won't stop, sorry Phil, drop your weapons, Jack tosses the bomb into the hole, Jack and Kate share a look, Sawyer and Juilet share a better look and....and....and....NOTHING HAPPENS! Oops. Hold on, something does happen...remember when the energy was building up before?...metallic things start flying towards the hole. Miles helps his Dad, Jack is knocked out, Juliet gets snagged by some chains and is drug into the hole. (NO, NO, NO, NO...she's such a great actress and character!!!) Plenty of amazing acting between Elizabeth Mitchell and Josh Hallowy ensues as Sawyer tries to save her (Kate can't do much). F*CK ME, THEY'RE GOING TO KILL JULIET!!

-What lies in the shadow? "He who will protect us."

-Seriously, what's in the box...a body from the cargo hold? Slow reveal to...LOCKE'S DEAD BODY! What the hell? Who's in the foot with Ben?

-"Locke" aka ? from the opening is gleefully egging Ben on while Jacob tells Ben he has a choice. Sadly, Ben feels like Jacob has completely ignored him the entire time he has been on the island. Plus, when Ben asks Jacob what is wrong with him, Jacob answers with a "What about you?" Not entirely snarky, but probably not what Ben needs emotionally right now. So, Ben stabs him...twice. Just before getting kicked into the fire by "Locke," Jacob says, "They're coming." Who's coming? The crew from the 70's? The group lead by Ilana? Crazy ninjas? Sane ninjas?

-Back to the hole, Jack, Kate and Sawyer start trying to leave (where are Miles, Sayid and Hurley during this?). ACK! Juliet is still alive...just. Well look, there's the bomb. She starts hitting it with a rock and KA-BOOM!

-Then the "poof-ish" sound effect and the title appears on screen. YOU BASTARDS! At least 8 months before we know what happened! How did ? know about Locke? How long has he been off the island? How do he and Jacob get off the island? Did he visit everyone too? Where the hell is Claire? ARRRGGHHHH!!!!! Did the smoke monster know that "Locke" was ? guy? If so, does that make the smoke monster work exclusively for the bad guys or does Smokey have a separate agenda? By appearing as Alex, it pushed a very guilty feeling Ben to vow he would do whatever Locke told him to do. Is it working with ? to get rid of Jacob or was it fooled too?

No wonder I love this show!

Thoughts?

Sci Fi Weekend

2009-05-09T22:02:00.002-05:00

Knowing that I will fall behind on my summer blockbusters if I don't get to them within the first couple weeks of their opening, I hit two flicks today. I'll start with the crap.

Wolverine. Ugh. Hugh, I love you, but did you read the script? While I can see the bonus of you popping up out of water naked and glistening, such a scene is not quite enough to redeem this pile of poo. It's not for lack of trying on your part. You just had crappy lines, a weak story, and too many characters (a problem with X Men 3 in my opinion) to work around. I was looking forward to seeing Ryan Reynolds, but he's barely in it. Instead, we get more of Will.i.am, which no one needs really...especially since he isn't a very good actor. There was potential for this to be great; Wolverine was definitely the most interesting character to come from the first 3 movies. But, instead we get stiff acting, marginal SFX (the claws looked really lame most of the time for some reason), and a cliched story.

Star Trek was much better. Visually, it is a beautiful movie to watch. I guess ILM did the SFX work and it is stunning. I even dig the new look to the process of "beaming up." I thought all the actors were solid in their roles, though Karl Urban as Bones never quite worked for me. But,he and Kirk do have one of the funniest scenes together so I'll give him props for that. I would have liked to have seen more Simon Pegg, but I know it's not a film about Scotty.

The first half of the film is the strongest. The action set pieces are impressive and the opening sequence actually had me a little choked up. But, the story seemed to drag in spots and there were too many coincidences for my taste as the movie progressed. I thought Zachary Quinto was perfect as Spock and Chris Pine had just the right mix of bravado for a young Kirk (no channeling of Shatner here).

The set design was sweet and bonus points to the music dept. for their use of a Beastie Boys tune. I would've liked a bit more bad to our bad guy. He's there, then he's gone, then he's back, but if felt a bit haphazard.

Still, for a fresh look at an origin story, it was a pleasure to watch and had more than enough moments to make it a pretty cool summer movie. You don't even need to be a Trekkie to have fun with it.

I'm a little nervous about the upcoming Angels & Demons since Da Vinci Code was such a snooze fest. Everytime I see the Terminator Salvation trailer I get excited, but I can't decide if that's because of Christian Bale or the supremely excellent use of Nine Inch Nails' "The Day The World Went Away." I saw a longer trailer for Up and I absolutely can not wait. Pixar productions are the only Disney product I can stomach for the most part. Sam Raimi (sp) is back with Drag Me To Hell and don't even get me started about HP6.

Well, I better close. I still have my Mother's Day presents to wrap for my Mom and my sister. I realized that I will forever live a life of irony. The anniversary of the surgery that effectively ended my ability to naturally become a mom will always be around Mother's Day. That's right. It was one year ago today. It all just zipped by.

Run away! Run away!

2009-05-07T22:49:00.002-05:00

Okay, I should be in bed, but just before logging off, I got the urge to look for something. I now present to you one of Cheaters finest moments.

I give you Woman Hitting Her Cheating Husband With Her Shoe in the Guy's Bathroom...in D minor.

I find the fact that the "other woman" took the time to get her leftovers boxed up before she headed out especially funny.

Just 'Cuz

2009-05-07T22:27:00.003-05:00

This is what I found when I googled "ninjas." How could I not put this up?

I've been very bad about updating lately. This current trend works out really well considering I just found out a former bookstore employee/friend/all around cool chick has put a link to my blog on her website.

You should check out her always entertaining entries here. She's also in my points of interest section. Amy and Galaxy Carol always provide a good read.

Okay, this is fairly lame, but I'm tired. I should be updating with a recap of Wolverine and Star Trek over the weekend. Later.

Harry Potter and more of the box cat!

2009-04-28T22:26:00.005-05:00

The line is under the tent.

The Wesley's Flying Car at the HP Exhibit

Yesterday I got to check out the Harry Potter Exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. This is the only Midwest stop for the exhibit. Thanks to having friends who are members, I got to see the goods before the general public. Sadly, they didn't allow anyone to take photos. All I have is the picture of the car that was near the ticket counter and a shot of the outside of the museum. The white tent covers the area where people will be standing in line as they make their way to the exhibit itself. Because the response has been so positive, the exhibit's stay was extended 3 extra weeks.

If you are able to make it, I recommend paying the $5 for the audio tour. You get to hear the costume and set designers, etc. talking about what goes into their creative process. The exhibit is set up very well and is full of cool props and costumes. I enjoyed getting to sit in Hagrid's chair and seeing the dementors' and Death Eaters' outfits up close. As an added bonus, currently the folks manning the exhibit are from Great Britain so you get to hear plenty of kick ass accents as you mill about. I'm not sure if they will be there for the entire stay, but they are there now and I was in aural heaven.

When you first go in, there is a quick sorting ceremony. Then you are lead into a room with several screens each about the size of a painting. The door shuts behind you and it's you, the screens and four walls. There is a montage of clips from the movies then a visual effect making it seem like you are on a train. Like magic, one of the walls moves back and with a bright light and some smoke you see the Hogwarts Express and the tour begins. Pretty slick. You can check out some of Hagrid's Hut and the Great Hall. You can also toss a Quaffle if you so desire.

In other "news," we have more video of the box cat! I don't want to give anything away, but I can promise you will laugh your butt off. I want this cat as a pet.

Check out the cat

2009-04-26T11:56:00.007-05:00

dreamday cafe: The Box Cat

Found this on galaxy carol's site. Very funny, esp. when the cat leaps out of the box. Not surprised that this video is from Asia. I half expected the cat to be wearing a pink dress and bow.

Setting The Bar

2009-04-26T11:56:00.005-05:00

Sometimes an experience seems to be so perfect it can not be topped. Last night on Cheaters, I was proven wrong.

I thought the "case" involving the woman who followed her cheating man into the bathroom at a bowling alley, all the while slapping him over the head with her shoe, was the best thing I'd seen on that show. I now have a new favorite.

I missed the beginning of the episode so I didn't get to enjoy the run down on the relationship and it's current woes. I didn't get to see the "report" of the suspect's behavior. I didn't even get to see the moment when the client sees the video showing what their (in this case) wife was doing.

None the less, I got to see the "confrontation," which really was the best bit. The husband is having a yelling fest with his wife, who has been sleeping with his brother because hubby wasn't "taking care of her," if you know what I mean...nudge,nudge, wink, wink. The brother seemed to be having some sort of party because there were about 4 or 5 other guys out in the yard who were not members of Cheaters' security trying to keep the brothers apart. The camera guy is going in circles around everyone as they are yelling and cussing, etc. At one point, a man in a bathrobe comes into frame and starts going after people with his weed whacker!!! He's trying to lop off their feet or something. I have no idea who this man is! Is he a friend? Is he a roommate? Is he a neighbor?

At first, no one notices because he's sort of in the background of the action. Finally, security figures out he's trying to take people out at the ankle and they take him down. During this altercation, you can hear host Joey Greco saying "This is not going well." (INSERT WICKED LAUGH AND ROLLING ON THE COUCH HERE)

But, the absolute best part is yet to come. Later, Joey is talking to the brother to get his side of the story. The bathrobe guy and a couple of other dudes who had been there this whole time come up behind the brother. The bathrobe guy's robe is no longer tied so when he puts his hands on his hips in a defensive stance, his arm motion opens up the robe and TAH DAH!!! Leopard. Print. Thong.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! Holy crap it was funny.

Tomorrow I'm taking a vacation day to go up to Chicago to see the Harry Potter exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry. Yes, I am a dork. Hopefully, I'll get some good pictures to post.

Also, to answer Laura's question about the peeing incident. I won't name the place, but it's initials are JCP. No pun intended.

Twice in one day...holy schnikies!

2009-04-23T21:36:00.003-05:00

I forgot to mention a couple of things.

I'm not sure, but I think A Million Little Pieces author and Oprah bitch slap victim, James Frey is in a phone service ad. It's the one where the Dad finds out his three daughters are discussing his lovelife with their friends. I believe the youngest daughter says someone's grandmother finds him "super delicious."

Also, I can recommend the new Silversun Pickups cd, Swoon. I have "Panic Switch" on repeat in the car. I usually listen to it for my 30 min. drive home. Because radio around here is generally crap, I didn't even realize that the song seems to be the first single. Here's the video.

Strange bits and bobs

2009-04-23T21:19:00.002-05:00

Comment overheard from freakishly Republican boss on Earth Day while he was on the phone with a friend, "If we shot all the Democrats, that would probably cut down on a lot of CO2..." This is why I don't talk politics at work.

Today while I was in the mall shopping for a birthday gift I was standing at some clothes racks near the dressing room and I heard someone peeing in the dressing room! It sounded like a 2 liter bottle of soda was being poured on the floor.

The IT Crowd is my new favorite British show. I picked up the season 1 DVD. Sadly, it seems I missed it's run on IFC. Damn.

Run Matt Run

2009-04-22T12:22:00.003-05:00

Okay, gotta post fast since I'm at work.

Yeah Matt! (Not seen in photo) He did the marathon in 2 hrs. 49 minutes. I would have taken 2 years, 49 days.

Wind beneath my wings man...wind beneath my wings.

Eggs, Kites and Marathons

2009-04-13T20:03:00.002-05:00

Hey all, hope everyone had a great Easter. I enjoyed looking for eggs with my nephew, followed by flying his new Winnie The Pooh kite. On Saturday, I went to a birthday party for the one year old daughter of some friends. They had hidden eggs all over their yard for the chillins to go looking for. Disney was there with her kid, who threw at least 2 fits that I know of, one of them within seconds of walking into the house. Screaming brats always make for a good time. I found an egg and tried to give it to one of the little girls, but they were oblivious to my voice so I kept it myself!

A friend of mine, Matt, will be running the Boston Marathon this Friday. I've signed up to get progress reports during the race. I feel confident he will do well. GOOD LUCK MATT!!! Run like a crazed customer is chasing you down to ask you if you have the latest issue of Paula Deen's magazine in stock.

Last week, while riding back from lunch with some co-workers, one of them actually tried to argue AGAINST recycling! Seriously? How is recycling bad? He was talking about a conversation he had with his son. His kid asked why they didn't recycle their newspapers, etc. Dad explained that they had a burn barrel that they used to get rid of the paper so it didn't go to the dump. He told us that he thought the school was "brainwashing" his kids into trying to make their parents feel guilty about not recycling...because this whole "global warming thing is a joke, just like the energy crisis in the '70's." I guess I shouldn't have been surprised at the conversation since about 90% of the office is Republican. I considered saying something, but if I know anything about this guy, I know his mind does not change. Ack. Wonder if he's doing anything for Earth Day?

winner winner chicken dinner

2009-04-07T12:19:00.002-05:00

I never thought I would say it, but...I'm really glad Carolina won last night. Why? Because it meant that I won the office pool!!! I thought I was out of the running thanks to the guy in the lead having picked all Final Four teams, whereas I had only 3 of them. But, thankfully, he picked UCONN to win it all and that meant thanks to the Tar Heels, I squeaked by winning by two points.

YAY! I would have had it locked had I not stuck with Duke for as long as I did, but in the end, all was well. 53 bucks well actually. I ended being 29,674th in the CBS Sports.com pool, which was much better than the 400,000+ I was after the first weekend. I'm also pleased to say that all 3 of the women that participated in the work pool ended up in the Top 5! Sweet.

The game itself was not quite what I thought it would be. The Tar Heels had their way with the Spartans, which is what I thought would happen, but I didn't think it would be quite so lopsided. During the second half, I was bouncing back and forth between the game and Paranormal State on A&E. I did enjoying seeing Larry Bird and Magic Johnson during the ball presentation earlier. How many months till next season starts?

Down to one

2009-04-05T16:53:00.002-05:00

It's looking like I will not be winning the pool at work. Now that I'm down to just Carolina as my only viable pick, I think I'm out of luck. Maybe I'll come in second and get $20. The Michigan St./UCONN game was great. MSt. could do no wrong and UCONN just seemed befuddled at times. The Nova/NC game was much more of a drag to watch. The first half went along pretty quickly but once no one could hit a damn basket in the second half it was much less fun. This wasn't the Nova we saw the last couple of games. Oh well, since I have Carolina picked to win, I'm not complaining.

Did my first fairly big bone headed thing at work on Thursday. I was faxing out a proposal/price quote to a customer when I accidentally faxed over our pricing sheet. The pricing sheet shows the unadjusted list price of the equipment, the corporate approved discount pricing, and what we actually priced the unit at. Obviously, this is not something you want just roaming about out of the office. I was very lucky that we sold the item at the approved discount price; we hadn't marked it up any on our end. I'm hoping the customer saw the sheet, thought "what the hell is this?" and just tossed it out. It had been a frustrating morning to begin with after I found out the 4 hours of work I'd done at home that night was for not. It seems like I almost broke the fax machine; I was hitting the "stop" button so hard and fast. Made me want to cry. Oh well, lesson learned I suppose. It didn't help that Disney had to pop her head out of her office and let me know that she'd never done that. Great pep talk! I felt better at lunch though when, while she was trying to tell us that she wasn't very good at math or anything mechanical, she used the word "medical" instead. In fact, she used it all three times she repeatedly made her point. Got a nice chuckle out of that one. Made me feel like I was back at the bookstore listening to the uber talk and use incorrect verb tenses. Ah, memories...

Random Favorite Things of the Moment

2009-03-30T19:51:00.002-05:00

FAVE THINGS:

The Amazing Race. I haven't talked much about it here, but I'm pulling for mom/son team Margie and Luke. Margie had heat stroke, or something similar, this week and it was just awful to see Luke's face as he watched his mom passing out and then getting treatment. I'm hoping that the redhead cheerleaders exit soon. If you saw Sunday's episode, you couldn't help but be embarrassed by their behavior with not only their taxi driver, but also the man who was in the spice shop. They personified the image of the horrid American traveler who presumes that everyone in every country should be fluent in English. They need to go and go away quickly.

Next, my new favorite game is to be found on adult swim's website. I discovered it while trying to find out when the new season of The Venture Brothers was going to start. The game is called Zombie Hooker Nightmare. So far, I get stuck in level 3.

I've got 3 of the Final Four locked. I'm winning the brackets I did with friends, but I think I'm in second at work. Sweet.

Finally, my new favorite moment on 24 occurred during last week's episode when Jack lured the bad guy into a trailer at a construction site. Then, while the guy was inside, flipped the trailer over with a bulldozer. Very fun. Tonight, it's another installment of Naked Jack...always a fave with me. Gotta go, it's almost time to start the nudity!

Well crap....

2009-03-28T11:04:00.002-05:00

Son of a...

At this point, I am sort of glad that CBS was showing more of the Missouri/Memphis game than my beloved Blue Devils. It would of broke my heart to actually watch Villanova's defense smacking them around. Watching the score up at the top of the screen was bad enough. Once my emotional wounds have healed, I may try and find the game on line to go back over. But, for right now, I just sigh a lot.

My brackets are still not too bad. My wishful thinking took Duke to the Final Four, so I'm screwed there. But, my other three are still in the running and I did have Michigan State picked to beat KS so I went 5-3 over the last two days.

Not much else to report. I can't believe it got cold again. Snow tonight? Really? Urgh. Work was busy again as I spent the week catching up on everything I didn't get done while my rep was away on vacation. If we get the job for the work at the local airport and the heating sucks in the terminal, you can blame me. I don't even want to think about how many hours I spent working on getting that job together to bid this past Tues. Now I'm working on a church and a courthouse. I have actually dreamt about making equipment selections. I think I need to do something fun in my free time.

Well, gotta clean the house. I have a last minute visitor coming at 1pm. I think I'm going to need to shut some doors in the apartment and put up bio hazard signs.

Ginger Snap, friend of Strawberry Shortcake, and structural engineer

2009-03-21T13:21:00.004-05:00

Hey look, I'm still alive...barely. My normally busy week was even busier thanks to my sales rep being on vacation. I believe I spent most of my Mon. and Tues. on the phone confirming that yes, Steve was on vacation. I also spent an absurd amount of time looking for replacement units for equipment from 1988.

My NCAA picks have been so so thus far. On Thurs. I was a horrid 9-7, but 4 of those 7 were games decided by 4 pts. or less. Plus, I had to go with Illinois as an alum. Friday was much better as I pulled a 13-3. Excellent evening games by the by especially the two overtime contests. YEAH SIENNA! Hopefully my Blue Devils can get past Texas today.

This morning while waiting for my work laptop to boot up I flipped the channel over to CBS in preparation of today's basketball games. Morning cartoons were still on and I saw a few moments of the new Strawberry Shortcake. Apparently, Straw and the gang were going to Ice Cream Island. En route, they needed to cross a bridge over a raging river. For a moment I was expecting Kevin Bacon to come along in a raft with Meryl Streep and it would be The River Wild all over again (pretty good movie by the way). While pondering if the rickety bridge would allow them safe passage, Straw turns to her gal pal Ginger Snap and asks what she thinks. I didn't realize that Ginger had once worked for the Army Corp of Engineers. She took a look, tilted her head in that "I'm looking under the hood of my car, but I don't know anything about cars, but I want to make it look like I can take an educated guess" sort of way and declared "I think it will be fine...as long as the middle holds." I'm not sure what sort of school she went to, but she needs to go back since the horse, Honeypot, got stuck in the middle of the bridge as it began to collapse. What sort of lesson is this teaching our sugar numbed youth? Take a guess and you might get lucky? Lie about your qualifications in order to control others? Don't take children's television so literally? Probably the last one.

GO DUKE!

Beware the Madness of March

2009-03-09T19:55:00.003-05:00

I tried to think of something I really liked to put up as a picture since I seem to be very text based as of late. So, I give you one of my fave John Singer Sargent paintings. I had the chance to see the actual work at the National Gallery of Scotland (one of the best museums I've ever been to by the by) years ago.

Here are some quick bits:

I'm disappointed that Duke lost to Carolina...again...but they played better than at their first meeting. It's been rough watching Greg Paulus' playing time diminish, but Williams has been pulling his weight and looks to be someone who will be very strong for Duke's future. Bring on the tourney!! Sadly this year I won't be able to take time off to watch the opening weekend of play at home. My sales rep is taking next week off for vacation (EEK!) so I can't go anywhere. I'm trying to figure out if I can sneak in a tv...and a converter box...and an antennae?

I was a bit frightened to hear one of the many conservative Republicans I work with utter the "ironically stating the obvious" phrase of the day..."I'm not a racist, but..." Nothing good comes after that phrase. He was seriously upset the Oprah is putting Michelle Obama on the cover of "O" magazine and hadn't done the same for a white first lady. ACK!

I had my 6th month review 8th months into my time at work. I attempted to ask for a raise, but was told they come with the 1 yr. review. The review itself was fine so I'm fairly confident that I'll get my raise in a few months, presuming I don't screw something up.

Life on Mars (the Brit original) is finally coming out on DVD this summer. YEAH! And, one last bit on a TV show. I was watching 24 last night (yes I do know it's started already this evening) and realized that I hope this is the last season. This year is an improvement, but we were told that the show was going to look at things from a different perspective given the real world outlook on torture. Great! I'd always just watched 24 from an entertainment perspective, but knew that there were plenty of people who looked to Mr. Bauer as a real person. Or someone who should be real, someone who should get to do whatever he wants to get answers. And while one of my favorite 24 moments ever was in season 2 or 3 (I think) when Jack tells someone that "we're gonna need a hacksaw," I was getting concerned that following Gitmo, etc. the show really needed to address Bauer's behaviour. Preferably in an intellectual way. Nope. Not so much. Instead we get high and mighty grandstanding. I was just hoping for something more. I think it's time to wrap it up.

Okay, gotta see who they're gonna kill to get the President to bend.

Once a Week seems to be the plan

2009-03-01T12:12:00.002-06:00

As I mentioned last time I checked in, after sitting in front of a computer for 8-9 hours a day, I really don't want to be anywhere near one when I get home. Still, I feel the guilt for not updating. So, I am going to do my best to update at least once a week and it will probably be on the weekend.

Since leaving retail, I must admit that my comedy trough has run a bit dry. You just don't run into crazy as much where I am now. I must look for my crazy elsewhere. In my case, it is my mailbox.

I live in a house divided into apartments. We each have a mail box attached to the front of the house, but our delivery person seems to think we live in some sort of commune because he/she seems to randomly stick our mail in whatever box is nearest, regardless of the name on the box. I got a Christmas card from my friend Jill in mid-Jan. because it ended up in the mailbox for the guy upstairs. He opened the damn thing and then put it in my mailbox with a note that basically said "oops."

The most recent mis-delivery occured this past Friday when I found a postcard serving notice of a settlement in the Girls Gone Wild Litigation. It was addressed to someone who doesn't live here anymore. I got excited over the idea of once having a naughty neighbor living in the building, but when I actually read the card, my enthusiasm faded. Seems those crazy kids at GGW were charging people for DVD's that they didn't order or did not want.

I'm guessing GGW has their version of the cheese of the month club. If you don't tell them no, they will keep sending you stuff. Which I suppose means that my neighbor ordered at least one DVD and then possibly got charged for or sent others that he didn't want. Though, given what I am sure is a fine cataloge of viewing options, how you could receive a DVD you didn't want is beyond me.

On a final note, I saw a commercial for some new Fresh Aire scents. One of them is called Brazillian Carnivale. Does this mean your room will smell like sex, sweat, and coke when you spritz it? Just wondering.

Super Fast Pics...no commentary

2009-02-22T11:45:00.003-06:00

I have to leave in about 10 min. and I still need to dry my hair, yet look what I'm doing. My Pics:

Best Pic: Slumdog Millionaire
Actor: Frank Langella
Actress: Kate Winslet (though I love Melissa Leo, but I haven't seen Frozen River yet)
Sup Actor: Heath Ledger
Sup Actress: Taraji Henson
Animated: WALL*E
Director: Danny Boyle
Screenplay Adapted: Slumdog or Frost/Nixon
Screenplay Original: In Bruges

Okay. Gotta go. Sorry that was fast, but I'm not sure I'll be back online before the show starts.

I think the honeymoon is over.

2009-02-19T19:03:00.003-06:00

You may be wondering why I haven't posted in awhile. I wish I could report it was because I've been hired to write for Lost and I've been busy trying to work it out so Ben (Michael Emerson to your left) is a good guy. Not so much. No, this past week and few days have been a big cup of suck.

Work has been completely insane. I'm not sure if it's an issue with my menopausal hormone levels or I was just losing my mind, but I was on the verge of tears almost everyday. After staring at a computer for about 9 hours a day straight, I had no desire to write here. Hope you can forgive me. Things are slowly calming down as I am finally starting to make headway on finishing up the jobs I got stuck on my plate when one of the reps took her maternity leave early. It didn't help that I got a MAJOR school job handed to me mid-afternoon Tues. that was due this morning...oh, and that we didn't get the final instructions on until 4pm yesterday!!! Flippin' hell.

Here's a quick run down of some stuff on my brain:

What the hell is up with Duke? I'm getting that same scared feeling I had last year at this time. If they don't start to turn things around and get back to hitting 3's to cover up their lack of power in the post, we will be going out in the first round of the tournament. Up side is Illinois moved up in the rankings; of course, we lost to Penn St. last night by the freakishly low score of 38-33 I believe.

Who here has been watching Lost? Every single episode so far this season has had at least two "what the?!" moments. The puzzle pieces are starting to fall into place and it seems as though knowing that their days are numbered has really brought focus to the writing of the episodes. It's tough waiting 7 days between shows. I can't wait for next week's episode...all I know is the preview showed Ben kneeling in front of John while he stood on a table with a cord noose wrapped around his neck. DAMN!!!

President Obama was in the area last week and a friend of mine at work could have had passes to be at the CAT facility he visited. But, she had to work. Air Force One flew overhead and all felt well for that moment.

The Oscars are this Sunday and I didn't get to see quite as many of the nom'd films as I would have liked. The bad part about there being so many "heavy" movies in the running is when you aren't in the mood for heavy. Or, you aren't in the mood for heavy every single week. If I have time, I'll toss out my predictions.

Finally, I got goaded into joining Facebook and I'm sheepishly admitting I'm glad I did. I've found college radio friends that I'd lost touch with and that makes me happy. I'm there about as often as here, but still.

Let's all root for Slumdog Millionaire! More later.

Winners and losers

2009-02-09T18:48:00.004-06:00

Well, they didn't get Album of the Year, but Radiohead did pick up the Best Alternative Album Grammy! Yeah! I'll have to go back through what I taped to see them actually pick it up. I fast forwarded to their performance before going to bed last night. I was a little disappointed that it was just Thom (looking super cutie shaggy by the by) and Johnny performing. Still, it was fun to watch Thom do some of his crazy dancing and the band was having fun. You can watch it here. OH-and how annoying that Gwenyth Paltrow (sp?) was the presenter since Coldplay were supposed to be the new Radiohead until they decided they wanted to be the new U2. I'm guessing she was winking at her hubby at the end of her introduction. ACK.

On the losing side, my flipping phone is out. I have no dial tone. I have had no dial tone since sometime after 1pm on Sat. Strangely, my internet that goes through the same damn phone line is just fine. I used a friend's cell phone to call to report my issue. After many minutes of pressing one number then another, I got frustrated and hung up. Seriously, what sort of question is this..."are you calling from the phone line you are having trouble with?" REALLY? How the hell to you call from the line that you've just told the automated entity has no dial tone and you can't make calls from it? ARRRGHHHHH!!!!

At home, I printed out the directions on how to check to see if the issue is my problem (bad phone cord, bad phone) or if it is the phone company's (no dial tone at the connection on the outside of the house). I took one of my phones and one of my Mom's outside, opened the box, unplugged the line from my jack, plugged the phones I had in one at a time and guess what--no flippin' dial tone! Now, I've sent in my request for repair on line and supposedly I will have it fixed by 7pm tomorrow. Of course, I will be at work (or en route) from 7:30-5:30 tomorrow so I hope they can take care of things on the outside of the house. Probably not with my luck.

Quick Bits

2009-02-07T09:49:00.003-06:00

Generally, I think the Grammy Awards don't really matter much. These are the people who gave both Starland Vocal Band AND Milli Vanilli best new artist awards after all. None the less, I will mention the show happening on Sunday because my favorite band, Radiohead, will be performing. According to one website, they will be opening the show with 15 Step. The USC Marching Band will be accompaning them. That should be, as the kids say, pretty sick. For a warm up, go here.

A friend of mine has a newish blog I want to point out. Todd has become very green minded over the last year. Recounting his struggles and successes, the blog is very much an everyman's journey to better living that is good for making you want to be more proactive in your own life without making you feel like an idiot. Check it out here.

Time to wander outside and enjoy the Spring like temperatures!! Have a good weekend all!

Use The Leg!!

2009-02-02T17:53:00.003-06:00

The original plan had been to go see a couple of movies yesterday, but I ended up staying at home putting together my 6th bookcase and sorting through my titles to see what was going to stay and what was going to be donated.

I did, however, get to see The Wrestler. I've always been a fan of Darren Aronofsky's movies (even The Fountain which seems to have been one of those love it/hate it movies). One of his strong suits is showing us characters that are fractured rather than bad. Case in point, Randy "The Ram," the wrestler played by Mickey Rourke.

I have to give a lot of credit to Rourke. Much of the acting in the film is subtle...a look, a wry grin, a slouch of the shoulders. Randy is not a bad person by any stretch; he just doesn't make the best decisions and he has plenty of bad luck outside the ring.

Rourke appears to do most, if not all, of his own stunts. The bouts in the ring are that much better for his effort. You get right in there with the sweat and the grime and the pain. I also came away with a strange appreciation for the 80's style shown in the film. They flat out show you everything is planned out, but that doesn't mean there isn't tons of athleticism involved. One of my favorite bits is crammed into a really gory fight. Randy and his opponent are outside the ring and he has plopped a trash can on top of the guy. Someone hands him a chair to hit the opponent with, but before he can do so, an audience member in a wheelchair offers up his prosthetic leg. The crowd starts to chant "USE THE LEG" over and over. So Randy does. HA!

The catalyst for Randy's story involves the heart attack he has after one bout. The desire to re-examine his life isn't done like a big lightning bolt moment. Instead, it is does almost with a sense of dread and fear. Really beautiful actually. I won't go into much more in case you want to check out the movie. I'll just say I was impressed with the movie, with Rourke's performance and with the ending. I know Marisa Tomei was nominated for her role, and while she is perfectly fine, it is not quite what I expect in a Supporting Actress part. Hopefully it has nothing to do with her going topless.

Speaking of Oscars, I rented Tropic Thunder since Robert Downey, Jr. is up for his role. I think it was supposed to be a funny movie. Not so much for me. I was fully prepared to enjoy it. The teaser trailers at the beginning were great. I almost fell off the couch when the one for "Satan's Alley" popped up with Robert and Tobey Maguire. Perfect! Great, I thought, this is going to be funny. Nope. Sorta dull. Wasn't that impressed by the Cruise cameo. I did like the actor playing Kevin (Knocked Up right?) and I laughed at the "Lance" bit at the end. Otherwise, eh.

I had more to chat about, but this is already pretty long. I will however give a shout out to something my friend Paul is involved in. Check out www.futureperfectradio.com. I'm listening to it right now and I think it is going to give my Q radio station a run for its money. As a bonus, I get to hear Paul's voice very once in awhile say "Future Perfect Radio."

Catchin' Up

2009-01-28T21:31:00.002-06:00

Well, so much for trying to get in more blogging.

Caught a couple of flicks to mention to you. First off, Frost/Nixon. What a fabulous movie! Frank Langella (sp) and Michael Sheen are both amazing as they reprise the roles they did on stage. For being a movie that's primarily made up of conversations and conversations about conversations, the movie has a really good pace to it. I was left wondering how much of what I saw was speculation by the playwright/screenwriter and what was factual. Mostly I'm curious about the phone call between Frost and Nixon towards the very end. Everything about this movie is solid and entertaining.

Secondly, I went and saw Defiance. Kids, I just gotta say that sometimes it is not a good idea to go see a movie because there is a cute guy in it. The movie just seemed to drag on and on. The story is interesting, but there wasn't enough energy in the film. I thought the script was weak as well. Daniel Craig is still awfully good to look at though.

Lost is back! Yeah! After 3 episodes, I've already experienced several "What the..." type of moments. How sweet is it that Desmond named his son Charlie?! Awww. More Ben please.

Here's another guideline for you. Don't watch a program just because something in the program takes place where you attended college and/or near where you live. Late night Sat., after watching a thrilling episode of Cheaters, I happened upon Rock Of Love on a bus...or something like that. You know, Brett Michaels skankin' around with well, skanks, on a couple of buses. Anyway, I saw in the teaser to start the episode that they were going to be heading to Champaign. I just had to know why. Seems they were participating in a challenge involving the Illinois Women's Hockey team. As depressing as it was to see my beloved school involved with such a show, it was mildly entertaining to watch bimbos getting knocked over by a few members of the women's hockey team. One chick apparently popped her implant or something. That would be one of Brett's chicks, not a team member. Oh, and one of the really creepy porn chicks "took" everyone's socks that they were given by the school to wear when they put on their skates ('cuz I doubt they arrived with appropriate foot coverage). She took them after they were done and everyone else had left the locker room. Ugh.

The winners then got to go on a group date with Brett (I hope there is plenty of penicillin available). Where did they go? The theater? A private dinner? Roller derby? Nope, they went to world famous Big Al's in near by Peoria. They took Brett's bus and went to the strip joint. I remember this summer/early fall hearing that they would be stopping there. Ah, the pride I feel in my community.

Hopefully I'll get to a few more movies this weekend. The Wrestler, Milk, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (seriously, Michael Sheen is in this one too!). Be good.

Hope is a good thing.

2009-01-21T12:43:00.002-06:00

I'm sure I wasn't the only one who made the connection...

So yesterday I spent most of my morning cursing my slow connection at work. I'd planned to watch the feeds on C-SPAN's website, but most of the time all I got was still images and sporadic action. I listened to NPR all morning allowing me to at least hear what was happening. Thanks to my poor setting of the VCR I missed the parade. I really wanted to see the Lawn Rangers and a local high school band from Morton. The local news showed about 30 sec. of the Morton band and WGN out of Chicago had a wee bit of the lawn mower guys, but not enough to satisfy me. Perhaps in a few days I'll find something on YouTube.

The feeling at work was pretty dull. I think I am about the only liberal Democrat in the building. None the less, I enjoyed the moment as best I could in my office with my radio and crappy computer. Once home I watched C-SPAN and bounced around between their coverage of the balls and the one ABC had rights to show. I'll admit to shedding a few tears during the first dance. The fact that I'm a huge fan of "At Last" may have had something to do with it, but watching our new Prez and First Lady really touched me.

Quick side note, was it me or did Jay-Z look like a pumped up Erkel?

The beauty of the song sort of lost its umph when it was the only song they danced to at every other ball. They could have switched it up a bit I think. Still, they looked like they were enjoying themselves each and every time.

One of the things I really like about Obama is his emphasis on it being not only government's responsibility, but also each American's responsibility to make this country a better place. I only hope the energy people felt during the election and last night translates into making government work and making things change for the better. It will take time, but for the first time I feel like there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Things that go "brrrr" in the night

2009-01-18T22:13:00.003-06:00

Bartonville Asylum (aka Peoria State Hospital), the location. Around 10 or so degrees, the temperature. Ghost hunting, the mission. Wandering around in the dark, the truth.

After going to the incorrect meeting place, though we were not given the meeting place location to be honest, and getting pulled over by "the man" for basically not knowing where we could park the flipping car, we eventually made our way to the Bowen building. Once inside we went to the "warm room" where one could currently see one's breath. There we were given some direction as to how the night would progress. We would hit a couple of floors then come back to warm up. Hit the basement, warm up. Hit the attic, warm up. Wander around on our own and tah-dah.

The information we got before we even arrived was not to particular. Vague enough actually, that we didn't bring any flashlights. I expected them to be provided so we wouldn't trip or fall into an open elevator shaft. But, they were up for sale when we got there. I decided I'd like to avoid death so I shelled out the $3 for a flashlight with batteries. That's my mittened hand in the left hand side of the picture holding my ghosty flashlight so Randi and Jinn can try and figure out what button to push to turn on their cameras and the voice recorder. (On a side note, Randi is wearing the scarf that is my scarf's twin.)

During the discussion over the rules, we were told about "protection." Now, I've seen enough of these shows to know that usually someone says a prayer and asks that everyone in the group be protected from negative spirits, etc. Groovy. A relatively big deal was made of this. Did we do this before going inside. Erm...no. I covered my own ass but muttering a quick run though of the Lord's Prayer as we entered.

Jinn made it through the first couple of floors. Randi got about half way through the basement before she'd had enough pain in her freezing toes. I got through the whole building, but left when we could go out on our own because my investigative partners where in a running car staying warm. We can return in the spring for free. Since we (all 15 or so of us) were kind enough to not ask for refunds and tried to enjoy ourselves, the people running the thing are giving everyone the option of coming back when it will be nicer. I'll be there.

Here are some highlights from the evening:

I think several members of the group were going to see something if it was there or not. There were several times when people were exclaiming that they were seeing Shadow People and orbs and all I saw was either 90% darkness or just flat out pitch black.

There was a tall, bald dude that I was ready to whack with something. He was the Shecky Green (sp?) of the group. He was also the "I need to comment on almost everything" person of the group. Apparently he's a local DJ. Should have known.

A woman who runs a locally centered paranormal website got into a heated discussion about orbs that were in some pictures she took. She thought they were legitimate orbs, but the lead investigator didn't think so; he thought they were dust. She was so horked off she stayed in the warm room while the rest of us went up to the attic.

On the whole, I didn't feel any sort of heaviness or discomfort as we made our way through the building. I wasn't nervous or scared. I kept my eyes open and did my best with my ears (I had them partially covered because of the cold), but I never did hear any of the moaning, voices or footsteps that other people claimed to have heard.

Only a couple of things stood out that I can't quite explain. We were told before we went down there that the basement was a place of major activity and apparently there is a negative spirit who likes to hang out there. At one point, we were told to go dark, which basically meant no flashlights were to be on. It was so dark down there I couldn't see anything but black around me. Someone could have had their hand right in front of me and I wouldn't have known it.

We were all along the walls of a hallway during this time. One of the guides said someone was pulling on his jacket and trying to un-velcro his pockets of the jacket. You could hear that little sort of ripping sound, but who knows what was actually happening. While standing there, a teenager near me said it felt like someone was standing behind her. She was in a doorway that lead to one of the rooms that went off the hall. Randi was next to her and in front of me. Not too long after the girl said she felt someone near by my face and front portion of my upper body went really, really, really cold. Now, it was cold down there. Enough so that I had my ears covered, my hood from my sweatshirt was pulled up over my head, my mittens were on and I was wearing long johns under my jeans. Still, I could feel a definite change in temperature. It struck me as odd, but I didn't think too much about it. I don't remember there being any sort of breeze. Later, when we were driving home and recounting different bits I was talking about only the front of me getting crazy cold for about 30 sec. to a minute. Randi then says her backside went really crazy cold around the same time for about the same amount of time. In the ghost hunting shows, the claim is that one way you know a ghost is around is you come across a cold spot you can't explain. Could the thing that was behind the girl have moved between me and Randi? Or was it just winter and a bit of a breeze brought some more of the outside air in to where we were? Beats me.

The second thing that happened involved staring down a pitch black hallway. I was so unsure if anyone was standing in front of me I was actually leaning to one side to peer around a possible person. At what was presumably the end of the hall, you could see a bluish white light that seemed to fade in and out. Now, baldy behind me got very excited at one point. He made it sound like he was seeing light shooting off of the other light. Me, not so much. I saw the light. It did seem to fade in and out and it also seemed to move from one side of the hall to the other. When we clicked on the flashlights, three of us chicks went to the end of the hall to see if there was a light source down there. One of the rooms did have some windows to let in the light, but I'm not sure we would have been able to see that small square of light being generated by the window down the hall where we were. Still, I can't say that the light wasn't created by the window either. Just a little weird. Weird enough that I'd like to go back. I took some pictures but didn't catch anything other than us trying to figure out our electronics. Maybe next time.

Spamalot review coming soon. Nighty night.

Time Keeps on Tickin'

2009-01-14T20:18:00.002-06:00

I've realized that spending about 8 hours in front of a computer at work makes me want to avoid it like the plague at home.

But, there is Stargate Atlantis slash fan fiction to be read, so while I'm on-line I will try and be a better updater.

To that end here's some random stuff.

24 is back!! Yeah. The first two hours were pretty good, but I was waiting for the big "tah-dah" and I finally got it when Jack helped Tony get away from the FBI. Anytime Jack can utter the phrase "this is going to hurt" I think it's safe to assume something kick ass is about to happen.

My favorite non-action moment of the two night/ four hour fest was Chole's comment on seeing Jack for the first time in quite some time. I'm paraphrasing, but she pretty much said:

"I was watching the hearing on CSPAN and I thought what they were saying about you was horrible. You looked really good though."

Love Chloe!

While 24 has come back, Stargate Atlantis has gone bye bye, at least until they start the tv movies anyway. I always had a soft spot for this show; primarily because of the chemistry between David Hewlett (Dr. McKay) and Joe Flanigan (John Sheppard). Sometimes the writing was really spot on and when it was this show could stand up with just about anything out there.

Lost, Burn Notice and Battlestar Galactica all back next week. Looks like my Netflix rentals will be dropping off. Speaking of--WATCH MAD MEN!!! I've been slow to get to this, but I devoured the first season and it is as great as everyone says.

Very busy weekend coming up, which will hopefully translate into busy blogging. On the calendar--Spamalot on Sat. evening and ghost hunting till 4 am on Friday nite/Sat. am.

That's right. I'm going to look for shadows, mists, forms and maybe catch some EVP's. I'm going on a tour of the Bartonville Asylum with a couple of friends. I have a feeling the bulk of the evening will be spent trying to not bust out laughing while avoiding tripping over our own feet, but I couldn't resist the opportunity.

I'll let you know if I spot any ghosts.

Slumdog Millionaire

2009-01-09T09:55:00.003-06:00

One of the things I like and appreciate about Danny Boyle is his willingness to try new things. Maybe he is very open minded, maybe he doesn't even see movies as being held down by a genre definition, maybe he wants to do a little bit of everything. Whatever the truth may be, Boyle has been successful with each of his forays into new territory. Dark Comedy (sort of) in Shallow Grave and Trainspotting. Family fare with Millions. Sci-fi with Sunshine and horror with 28 Days Later.

This time around Boyle is off to India to tell a love story. There is an energy to Slumdog Millionaire that effectively reflects the part of the world it is set in. The film cuts back and forth between Jamal as an 18 yr old on the Indian version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and Jamal as a child growing up in the slums of Bombay (back when it was still called Bombay).

I don't want to explain to much about the bouncing back and forth because I don't want to reveal one of the charms of the movie. As a child Jamal meets Latkia, a young girl who is struggling to survive as he and his brother are.

Boyle doesn't show us a romantic view of India, but it isn't all muck and crowd. There are glimpses of beauty all around if you keep your eyes open. The music is fantastic, which is a virtual requirement with a Boyle movie. Dav Patel plays the older Jamal and if you have BBC America, you may have seen him on Skins. He, along with the two young actors that play Jamal at the early stages of his life, create a very complete character. Credit not only the actors, but Boyle as well considering he had to keep the thread going thru three different performances.

Normally, I'm not one for the "feel good film." I think, though, that this is less a standard feel good film than a film that celebrates being able to hold on to hope when all around you is dark and dire. Even as a cynic, I can appreciate that and see the beauty in it. Hopefully you can too.

Doing my best to not suck

2009-01-06T19:57:00.003-06:00

Agh! I meant to do this list about 4 days ago, but having a cold really sucks one's energy away from a chilly room and a computer screen. Much better to be on a sofa in front of a television screen and a couple of discs of Mad Men season 1.

Anyway, Dirty Jobs is on in about 2 min. so I'm going to rush through this...

**Mish's Music Faves of '08**

1. tie between The Duke Spirit-Neptune and R.E.M.-Accelerate. I pretty much base my faves off of two qualifiers. First, how much did I listen to the cd and second, did I skip over tracks. These two cd's were the most listened to and I pretty much hardly ever jumped about. I think The Duke Spirit really solidified their sound on their second album. Every song is worth checking out and I love the lead singer's Debbie Harry meets PJ Harvey-esque sound. R.E.M. released their best album in years. They sounded fresh and full of rock happiness while making me fondly recall albums like Document and Life's Rich Pageant. WOOT to my "classic rock."

2. Portishead-Third. Back, finally, with an album that gave me everything I love about the band while taking them in new and interesting directions. It was soothing to me to hear film noir again.

3. Nine Inch Nails-The Slip. Trent released two (or really 3) cd's this year. The Slip and Ghosts I-IV. Ghosts is very good (all instrumentals), but The Slip got more listens as I am always desirous of hearing Trent's voice.

4. Kaiser Chiefs-Off With Their Heads From across the pond and full of cheek and swagger. Plenty of short and nearly perfect pop rock tunes.

5. Supreme Beings of Leisure-11i The third band on the list who released an album after a multi-year absence. Dreamy dance music with an exotic feel and a great singer.

6. Sigur Ros- With a Buzz In Our Ears We Play Endlessly. That's the English version of the actual title. These Icelanders continue to amaze me with the beauty they create.

7. Elbow-The Seldom Seen Kid Follows through with the opening up of their sound that was found on the last album. Really strong songwriting and one of my fave male vocalists.

8. Keane-Perfect Symmetry This one feels like it would have been perfect as an actual record --80's influenced pop on side one and "traditional" Keane on side two.

9. The Gutter Twins--Saturnalia A combo of Greg Dulli from Afghan Whigs and Mark Lanegan from Screaming Trees...sounds like Afghan Whigs meets Screaming Trees in their 40's. Works for me.

Next time, hopefully, I'll recap Slumdog Millionaire!

If you stand close to it, you will go up on the evolutionary scale.

2008-12-29T18:59:00.003-06:00

Here's the new phone I got for Christmas. After receiving it, I considered tossing a bone into the air to see if it would turn into a space ship. I love it. Along with the phone, I got a cold for Christmas. Cold Ease lozenges are my new favorite snacks because I really don't want to be sick for the rest of the holidays.

While visiting with friends, I had the opportunity to play Guitar Hero. I did pretty well on the "Easy" setting. I conquered "Kool Thing," "La Grange," and "Barracuda." But, as soon as I had to toss in that pinkie finger on the "Medium" setting, I tanked big time. I made up for it playing bass on "Sabotage."

I had to work on Friday so thankfully missed the early riser sales. I did swing over to Wal-Mart this weekend. I try to avoid Wally World at all costs, but my boss got me a gift certificate there as a present so I was a bit stuck. Somehow, and I still don't know how this got there in the first place, I found the 2 disc director's cut of Zodiac on DVD for $5! Seriously. I am as confused as you are, but I snatched it up right away. I watched about half of it last night listening to the audio commentary featuring James Ellroy. He is insane, but very funny.

And, speaking of movies. Here is my annual Faves list. The best of list will wait till Oscar season since several movies haven't made it to the sticks yet.

**MISH'S FAVE MOVIES OF 2008**
1. The Fall--The most visually interesting movie of the year as far as I'm concerned. Read about it here.

1. The Dark Knight--Brilliant, twisted, troubled and funny in a macabre sort of way. Fave part: the pencil trick that lets you know just how unforgivably and unsympathetically insane the Joker is.

2. WALL*E and Kung Fu Panda. Each of these movies showed just how beautiful and emotionally resonant animation can be. The folks behind WALL*E deserve some sort of award. They gave real character and depth to inanimate objects. Relying on sound design and truly smart storytelling, you followed the story and cared about the little robots (and the buddy cockroach). Made me cry. As did, Kung Fu Panda. Again, beautiful animation plus smart writing that elevated a pretty recognizable storyline. Great voice work by Jack Black and Dustin Hoffman.

3. In Bruges--Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson star in a deeper than you think it's going to be "comedy" about two hitmen hiding out in Bruges. Farrell really shines and I'm sure it doesn't hurt that he has Gleeson, who is always great, to play off of. It got lost in the shuffle (bad release time frame, bad promotion--it's not a rollicking comedy), but it really stood out.

4. Iron Man and Wanted. Go here and here. Highlight moment of Wanted: Wesley hits his "best friend" with his keyboard at work and as the keys, and a tooth, fly by the screen we get the words "Fuck you" spelled out. HA!

5. Doomsday--This movie is completely insane. It's part Mad Max, part medieval action movie, part sci-fi; it's all over the place, but this is a very good thing. Directed by the same guy who gave us the super creepy cool movie, The Descent, Doomsday runs over and through almost every genre, but still comes out with its own voice. It has its own rulebook, but it follows those rules which keeps it from becoming a hodge podge of "I'm not sure what I want" sort of moments. Very entertaining.

6. Quantum of Solace. Short recap here.

7. Zack and Miri Make a Porno. Go here.

8. Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day. Light, frothy, and brimming with great actors and smart writing. Francis McDormand, Lee Pace, Cirand Hinds, and Amy Adams make this a true pleasure to watch.

9. Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull. Get your Ford on here.

10. Mamma Mia, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist and Penelope. Mamma Mia is just fun. Nick and Norah made me love Michael Cera even more and Penelope had James McAvoy with shaggy hair. Nuff said.

Side note moment: Best use of gratuitous partial nudity combined with soap and water in a movie--Hugh Jackman cleaning up towards the beginning of Australia. It's overdone on purpose, but as a straight gal I want to thank Baz for going over the top.

To check out in '09:
Slumdog Millionaire, Waltz With Bashir, Happy Go Lucky, Benjamin Button, Rachael Getting Married, The Wrestler, Tell No One, and Frost/Nixon.

Whoosh. That was long. Next time, music. Run away now.

Follow That Fat Man!

2008-12-24T20:20:00.000-06:00

http://www.noradsanta.org/en/home.html

Go Santa go!

Merry Christmas.

Icing, but no cake

2008-12-19T17:31:00.004-06:00

Here is what I woke up to this morning. Whee, ice. Half an inch of ice actually. This tree is right outside my bedroom window. I planned ahead yesterday and brought my work laptop home. I grabbed a few files so I'd have something to do today if I couldn't get in to the office.

It took 20 min. to get the ice off of my front and rear windshields. I decided to see if I could get the laptop to play nice with my internet connection. I checked emails and as soon as I saw one of the other sales assistants who lives out this way was working from home I made up my mind to do the same.

It worked out I only had about 3 1/2 hrs. worth of work to do. Oops. Not sure how this is going to be adjusted down the road. Will I need to work through lunches for 4 or so days to make up my time? Will anyone care? I don't know that we were exceptionally busy today. A lot of places didn't even have electricity around here so the chances we got bombarded with jobs, etc. today are sort of slim. Still feel a little guilty though.

Here are a couple of other photos.

I just missed getting a photo of a raccoon walking along the edge of the sidewalk in front of the abandoned gas station across the street.

Office Party: The Wrap Up

2008-12-15T12:17:00.002-06:00

Well, I didn't win the TV. I was at the table with the guy who did win the TV so I got spritzed with his happiness as it were. He and his wife were quite lucky the whole night. They each had won a prize before he got the flat screen.

I did win a gift certificate to a local Italian restaurant! I think I will either save it for my birthday in a couple of months, or I'll use it one day when I'm craving pasta and low on cash.

There were all sorts of ways to win the prizes. Most were random drawings, like my g.c. "game." We did have a couple of trivia contests. The theme this year was advertising. Our table did okay, but we didn't win. The table full of people who cheated by looking up things on-line with their phones won! Bastards.

There was one game of physical skill. A putting game was being given away and everyone got to take 5 putts. I kept hitting the ball too hard, practically banking it in. I attempted by best Bill Murray ( "a Cinderella story..."). Apparently, my best Bill Murray isn't that great because no one got the Caddyshack reference. Or, horrors of horrors, perhaps the people nearby hadn't seen Caddyshack! I will have to fix that and soon.

I also tried being clever with my name tag. I wrote my actual name on it, but followed with the phrase "or MR. TIBBS!" Nothing. Zip. Only a few people asked why I wrote that and when I said "They call me MR. TIBBS!" I still got nothing. Sigh. I'm not sure that option #2 of "Ishmael" would have gone over much better.

I was hoping to sit next to my friend who recommended me for this job, but her table filled up almost immediately. I wandered around for a bit and thankfully the wife of one of my sales reps took pity on me and invited me to join them. I ended up eating with my two reps, their wives and the guy who hired me and his wife. Dinner was great; my prime rib virtually melted in my mouth.

Overall, it was a nice night. The food was great. I probably should have mingled more, but I'm not very good at that. I won a prize. One sort of downer happened after dinner. After the service awards were handed out, our boss introduced all the new people. Before he started going down the list, he said "I always forget someone when I do this..."

I think you can guess what happened.

My name was near the staple on the second of two sheets and was hidden. Or that's what his story was. The sort of ironic bit was I was sitting at his table eating with him. He'd been in the general vicinity of my person for the last hour. He was going through the names alphabetically so I knew right away that I was the one he was skipping. When he finished up, the rest of the table got his attention and pointed out he'd forgotten me. There was a quick OH CRAP sort of moment. The one benefit of the moment was it didn't get pointed out that I was there alone.

When he was reading names off, he'd follow up by saying what department the person was in and add that they were there with their husband/wife/boyfriend/girlfriend. So, while the people I don't see everyday may not know where I work exactly ('cuz he skipped that part), they also don't know I was a loser and came by myself.

Keep your fingers crossed that we have decent enough weather that I can finish my shopping. I've never been this far behind before. Hope the rest of you are having better luck. Later kids.

Holiday Cheer

2008-12-12T16:27:00.003-06:00

Heard some guys talking about this on ESPN radio. Holiday music with some Toto tossed in for fun.

Lost and found

2008-12-12T16:10:00.002-06:00

I FOUND MY SCARF!!!

Little bastard was hiding in a drawer that I hadn't checked because I normally don't stick cold weather items in there. Guess I shouldn't be surprised. Still, I was quite happy and we have been reunited.

We've already started getting gifts at work. The party is tomorrow night, but this afternoon our corporate office gift arrived. It is...drum roll please...

A box of assorted cheeses.

Tah-dah! Our corporate office is in LaCrosse, WI...natch.

It was amusing when our office leader poked his head into my room and told me I needed to "go grab something from the box of cheese" before it was all gone. As a U of I grad, I couldn't in good conscience snag the cheese in the shape of Wisconsin's "W" so I went with the dill cheddar chunk instead.

On another "lost" note, I picked up season 4 of Lost on dvd and continue to be impressed by how much they put into these things. The menu screens always look amazing. The transitions between those screens and what you've selected to watch are smooth. And, the extras are usually quite good. I re-watched The Shape of Things To Come the other night so I could enjoy me some Michael Emerson. Fabbo.

Hopefully I'll have a post party wrap up on either Sun. or Mon. Have a good weekend!

This, That, bit of The Other

2008-12-10T20:22:00.002-06:00

Everyone has probably already heard about the BCS "declaring" Germany the winner of WW2, but just in case you haven't check out the link. I was laughing out loud in my car when Bob & Tom were talking about it.

It's not everyday that something happens in your corner of the world which results in the lead story on The Daily Show.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Rod Blagojevich Is a Jagoff

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

My workplace Christmas party is this Sat. night and I have nothing to wear. I attempted to go shopping for something new on Mon. evening. It was, of course, crowded at the mall which didn't help my state of mind. I hit 4 stores to no avail. In this tiny spot in my head I hold this thought that I'm going to find that one shirt, sweater, whatever that will transform my person. It never happens though. Everything is either too small, too frumpy, too disturbing (really, who the hell believes that woman in the 16+ size category crave horrid animal prints), or just the wrong color. Apparently clothes can only be in one of three shades that change every few months. Arrgh.

Also on the bummer note--it looks like one of my favorite shows, Pushing Daisies, is getting the axe after the 13th episode. I shouldn't be surprised that one of the best shows out there is being dumped. I saw a promo after tonight's episode for a new ABC show about Homeland Security cops, or whatever they would be called. Just what we need, another low cost reality show. Wee. This world is messed up.

Missing

2008-12-04T19:40:00.003-06:00

Take a minute and look to your left. Now, to your right. Have you seen my scarf? My favorite scarf has gone AWOL. I am very sad about this state of affairs. My scarf is sort of a cross between Walgreen's cheap chic (which was where I got it and it was cheap) and a shorter Doctor Who style scarf. I fondly remember buying it with Jinn; she got one just like it, though I don't think she wore it as much as I wore mine. I know I had it last winter so it should be here somewhere. I checked with my other winter items, but considering my other items were in three different locations I guess I should not be surprised that I can't find the damn thing.

The first blasts of snow have landed in my neck of the woods. It took me 90 min. to get to work on Mon. Normally the drive lasts about 30 or so. There was an accident near the exit I take and traffic was backed up about 3 or 4 miles. It took me almost 40 min. to do those miles! On the way home I spotted the remnants of another accident...lots of tracks in the snow and in the ditch...wait for it...a refrigerator. You heard me. A fridge with one squished up end was laying in the ditch. Hopefully it just fell off the back of a truck and rolled to its final resting place.

Coming soon the always expected and possibly dreaded Best of '08 lists. Run away, run away!

Editing with a less than speedy connection

2008-12-01T20:41:00.004-06:00

Found a link to a site where you can try your hand at editing a Radiohead "video." My connection is not super fast so I couldn't see the video real well. Check out my work.
EDITOR'S NOTE: I JUST CLICKED ON THE LITTLE BOX BELOW AND YOU GO TO THE SITE, WHICH IS IN JAPANESE. HAVEN'T YET FIGURED OUT HOW TO ACTUALLY WATCH THE VIDEO I MADE. WHEN I DO, I WILL LET YOU KNOW.

If you would like to do your own go here.

changed again

2008-11-29T15:32:00.001-06:00

Alright, just a few minutes in and the loss of the nav bar bothered me enough that I changed the template again. It's going to take a few tries to get it right. Stay with me.