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I finally watched the extended version of Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. I kind of feel like I just ran a marathon. It's been over a year since I saw the original version, so I don't really know what was added. I noticed a couple of scenes that I hadn't seen before, but they were all so seamless that it wasn't easy to pick them out. I guess I'm not a real fanboy...

The Ents are my favorite characters. I loved them in the books, and I think they were brought to "life" perfectly in the movie. There's something so cool about living, walking, talking trees - watching them step on people and throw huge boulders is just...fun.

I always wondered why the orcs were fighting. Sure, they were made specifically for that purpose and all, but what's their motivation? Do they eventually get to retire to lead peaceful orc lives? Do they get paid time-and-a-half danger pay? When you watch a James Bond movie and the bad guys have all those henchmen, you at least get the impression that the henchmen are well-paid and might even have a retirement account. But orcs? What do you give them? All the dead enemy they can eat, or what?

Anyway, it was very good, and I anxiously await the extended version of Return of the King. I doubt I'll ever sit through all three extended versions in one sitting, though. 0 comments

I had a little trouble with my website traffic counter. The trouble was that I was thinking about upgrading it to the payed-for level so I could do more with it, but once I got to the point where they said how much it was, I decided against it. So now when I try to access the info, it says "This account is locked because it hasn't been paid for."

Grrr.

So I created a new account. So I don't have any history, including those 13 hits from Georgia at, like, 2 this morning (you know who you are).

Major grrr.

So here's to starting over. Tell all of your friends so they can artificially inflate my hit count and mess me all up from the get-go.

Grrr. 0 comments

We are getting more snow here and school is on a two-hour delay again tomorrow. That makes thrice this week, and it should actually be the fourth time. Tuesday should have been a two-hour delay. As it was, the kids got released early on Tuesday.

This is kind of a new phenomenon for me. I grew up in Wisconsin and traveled about 25 miles to school every day. I don't remember ever having a two hour delay. and school being canceled was almost unheard-of.

That being said, I must be getting old. I don't really like to drive anyway, but when the roads are even slightly bad, I dislike it even more. They aren't as equipped as Wisconsin was to handle the snow, so back streets don't get plowed for a loooooong time, if ever. There are so many hills here that it makes driving difficult. I even saw a police car trying to make its way up a hill this evening and it was having trouble. You might think now would be a perfect time to commit crimes, but I refer you to an earlier post in which warn you of the dangers of being a burglar in this kind of weather. Well, I imply that it's more difficult, but I guess I don't really list the dangers. I was specifically thinking of the footprints issue, but the slipperiness issue would also be a factor.

There's a song they play on the radio these days that starts out "It's the perfect time of day." There ought to be a law that says they can only play this song once a day. If morning is the perfect time, then how can afternoon or evening be the perfect time? I can see that the time may be different in different parts of the country, but each station should only be allowed to play it once per day, whatever time they decide (by vote, if need be) is indeed the perfect time of day.

You may have noticed I haven't commented on the Oscar nominations yet. Maybe you didn't notice. If you didn't, you should try to pay more attention. I don't know that I need to comment on every nomination, but I will say that Return of the King ought to win Best Picture just because. Sure, there were better movies this year, but RotK deserves it because the series as a whole deserves it. I'm very glad that Danny Elfman is up for another Oscar for his score for Big Fish. I say "another" because he has been nominated before, though he has never won. I don't think he'll win, as I think the RotK score will, but I'd like him to get an Oscar at some point. I like his music a lot, but I may be prejudiced because most of his scores are for Tim Burton movies, and I am a HUGE Tim Burton fan.

Speaking of Big Fish, I never got around to writing my review of it, but you really should go see it. It's a fanciful tale and an enjoyable spectacle.

Another thing you should be watching if you're not is Monk. I'm not usually a detective show fan, but I really enjoy this one. Tony Shalhoub (Jeebs from the Men in Black movies, and I think he was in Wings) plays an obsessive-compulsive detective. His neurosis makes him difficult to get along with, but his eye for detail is what makes him such a great detective. It's on Friday nights, but USA replays it throughout the week. (Now, watch - since I've recommended it, the next show will be awful or something.)

And do I need to mention Smallville again?

Survivor fans will want to remember that Survivor All-Stars premieres after the Super Bowl this Sunday. I'm even thinking about watching this one, and I haven't really watched Survivor since the second season. After seeing who is in it, I'm hoping that, by some freak circumstance, they are able to vote Jerri, Susan, and Richard off all at the same time in the first episode.

Okay, that's enough for now. 0 comments

I particularly enjoyed #16. 0 comments

I don't want to beat a dead horse here, but here's a little hint for you: when you play on iSketch, do so with friends and create a room that has an innocuous title, so as not to attract freaks.

Consider yourself warned. 0 comments

Here are the states I've been to:



create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.
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A quote:

"She's not a cyclist," Armstrong says, "but she'll pick it up. She's very fit, and she surfs, hikes and does yoga."

--Five-time Tour de France champion LANCE ARMSTRONG after giving girlfriend SHERYL CROW a bicycle for her upcoming birthday, quoted in USA Today.

I don't find it odd that Lance Armstrong thinks Sheryl Crow will pick up bicycling very quickly. I do, however, find it very odd that Lance Armstrong and Sheryl Crow are dating. How does a bicyclist hook up with a rock star? What kind of function are you having where you invite movie stars, rock stars, and, oh, yeah, don't forget the bicyclists.

It just seems very strange to me. 0 comments

Whenever I get freaked out at work because I don't know what I'm doing and I don't know how to do something I need to do and I get on IM with Ryan to try and weasel info out of him and I'm a little stressed, he always says one thing:

"Look at the bird."

And so I do, and it always calms me down a little.

So if you're stressed out, here's a little tip: look at the bird:

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I know that many of you are busy and don't have time for things like watching movies. That's where this site comes in handy: Movie-A-Minute. Movies you've been wanting to see but haven't had time for are boiled down to their very essence. You can now catch up on all the classics, from Gone With The Wind to The Empire Strikes Back.

I'm telling you, round up some friends and play yourself some iSketch. It's Internet-enabled Pictionary, basically. Funny thing is, I never liked Pictionary. Trying to draw things like "spirit" and "iceman" and "nicotine" in a time limit is like the artist's version of improv, and I think that's why it appeals to me. I'm no artist, but I like the challenge of trying to draw recognizable (and guessable!) shapes using my mouse. Oh, and I like the winning part of it, too. I only one 1 of the 2 games I played last night, but that's still fun.

We've finally got snow that's sticking around, and we're set to get even more of it today. I'm not a big fan of driving in snow, but I do like to look at it. I love being outside during a heavy snowfall - have you ever noticed how a heavy snowfall acts like a muffler? It's gets so quiet during a snowstorm. I think there are two reasons why. 1) People aren't out as much. 2) (Scientists, back me up here) I think that having all the snow in the air actually does absorb a lot of sound. I have no proof texts for that, it's just something I've come to believe all on my own. Disagree with me if you will, but go stand outside during the next snowfall and give a listen for yourself.

Have yourself a great day, won't you?
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Brian was up until all hours Saturday night helping me design a new madmup.com logo. If I can design a new site around it, expect to see it all here soon. And then I'll start selling T-shirts with the logo on it and you can buy them. How's that sound? I know I'll buy one.

Had tons o' fun playing on iSketch last night with Brandy, Danna, and a whole bunch of their friends. As a result, I now count them all as my friends, even though I couldn't tell you what their real names are. It should be noted that I won the majority of the games, and if Brandy tells you differently, she's lying and I can get backup from some of the others.

I set up my own Raven Shield server and have enjoyed seeing if people like to play on it. So far I've played several games with a bunch of different people, and have gotten no complaints on it. That makes me happy. I enjoy it when people come back - it validates my existence. Just like when you come back. So, please, come back soon.

My second box of Smorz is good, but not as good as the first box. The Law of Diminishing Returns has reared its ugly head.

It's late and I have to work tomorrow, even though my schools are on a two-hour delay because of the snow, I still have to be there at my normal time. Have a good week, and take the time this week to do that thing you've been meaning to do, okay?

Peace. 0 comments

We're getting snow, and it looks like we might be getting it for a while. I have no immediate plans to go skiing or anything, but it sure is pretty.

You gotta feel bad for burglars, though. Snow on the ground makes their job so much more difficult.

UPDATE: The beef jerky is completely consumed, and I am - so far - not feeling any ill effects. 0 comments

Not only did I buy a bag of Wal-Mart brand Teriyaki Beef Jerky, I'm eating it at 1:43 in the morning.

Nothing good can come of this. 0 comments

I've recently started playing Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield online. For those of you unfamiliar with this game, let me explain. You and your teammates are special military operatives sent in to do various things involving terrorists. Mainly kill them. You might also be called upon to rescue hostages, prevent detonation of a nerve gas bomb, or rescue sensitive data from a computer. The single player game lets you do all of these things with up to 9 other computer-controlled characters. You can set up missions, giving the computer specific instructions on when to stop, when to reload, when to shoot, and, presumably, when to take 5 and call their mothers. Or you can do what I do, which is follow the standard mission that comes with the game.

Playing online lets you replace all those computer-controlled characters with (again, presumably) human controlled characters. Since you never actually meet these people, it's hard to say. Regardless, it's tons o' fun. You all need to work as a team to accomplish these missions. Unfortunately, since I'm the new guy, I don't have the foggiest idea what to do, usually. I generally follow someone who knows what they are doing and try not to shoot him. I usually die fairly quickly, but then I can do a "third person camera" and follow other people around and see what they are doing that might make things go more smoothly for me, should I adopt some of their methods.

You really get the sense that some of these people have been playing this game way too much. They use the military lingo in the game and they get mad at you if you don't do the obvious thing, like crack open the door, throw a tear gas grenade, and then burst in and shoot people. I mean, come on, people! Think!

You connect to online servers to play, and you're never really sure who you're going to meet and how good they are. The one thing you can assume, however, is that I'm not going to be all that good regardless of which server I connect to. There are private servers, made private by the application of a password. They sit there with their good connection speeds, half-empty, mocking me. "If you had us as friends, you could play here."

The best thing to do is convince your friends to buy the same game and then have a private server were you can all play. The problem with that is everyone has their favorite game and it's hard to all agree on one. I currently think Raven Shield is the bee's knees, but Ryan likes America's Army and Brian and Garrett like Forsaken, and Dave wants me to go back to playing Rogue Spear, which is a precursor to Raven Shield. Unless I buy everyone a copy (which ain't gonna happen), I'll just have to muddle through playing random people on the Internet.

Give me a holler when you get the game and I'll set us up a server, okay? I don't care if you're no good. In fact, that makes it better, in my opinion. The password will be "pants." 0 comments

I couldn't let this day go by without comment...

I found a new cereal today - Smorz. Most of you won't recall my previous entry about cereal, but I go to great lengths to tell you how Cinnamon Life is a superior cereal to plain old Life. Well, not great lengths, but I do mention it. I then clumsily make an effort to make that an allegory for your life and how you should add some "cinnamon" to it because cinnamon makes everything better. I still think cinnamon is great, and I haven't had any in a while, and I'm about due. Maybe there's a trip to Cinnabon in my near future...that Makara cinnamon is good stuff.

Anyway, cereal. One of my favorite cereals of all time was S'mores Crunch, made by General Mills, I believe. They were a modified version of Golden Grahams, having the same type of main cereal bit, rendered in chocolate, and with marshmallows added. Good stuff. I haven't had any in years, and I suspect it's no longer made. So when I saw this Smorez business, I decided to give it a try.

My verdict? It's okay. I don't like it as much as S'mores Crunch, but I will most likely buy this cereal again.

But it won't replace Cinnamon Life. I don't think anything ever will. 0 comments

I watched Smallville for the first time in a while last night. Have you seen this show? It's like a soap opera with superheroes. Well, one superhero and a bunch of odd supervillian-types. It's very intriguing to watch the writers' take on Superman's boyhood, I'll admit. I don't want to burst your bubble if you're a fan or anything, but Lana doesn't show up too much in Superman's life. There's a different LL - Lois Lane. You do always get the impression Lana was the love of his life, though, so that's something.

Here's a link to an interesting blog entry. This bloggist (blogger? blogman?) draws interesting parallels between how he treats his cats and how Capitalist/Socialist/Communist governments treat their citizens. There's occasional salty language on the site (though none in this article), so be forewarned.

I went to the BMV today and I'd like to tell you about it, but I feel it deserves its own entry. Well, maybe not. I just found it interesting to try and pick which person was going to be "my" person. They've got a counter on the wall to tell you who they're currently serving, and there were 6-7 people serving. So, judging by the number I have and the number on the wall, you'd think it would be easy to tell where I'd end up. Nope. I was 99. When they got to 98, I watched three separate stations open up...and the servers disappear. The took paperwork somewhere and never came back. I became worried about them. Other stations opened up and those servers started calling out names of people. What kind of system is this where I'm holding a perfectly good number and they start calling out names? Finally, my number was called by the one person I had not chosen and I took care of business. I really wasn't there that long - I didn't even get to finish one game of Bowling on my cell phone - and I have no complaints. Good job, BMV. Work on that number vs. name thing and you're all set. 0 comments

How To Wash Your Hands - it's about time we had it spelled out for us. Plus it was affirming because this is how I wash my hands.

musicplasma - touts itself as a "visual music search engine" Type in an artist you like and it makes suggestions about who else you might like, and it does so in a cool-looking Venn diagram sort of way. On top of all that, it says that Norah Jones has a new album coming out February 10! It's about time!

Mixmaster - mix the content of one site with they layout style of another site. Kind of interesting and weird and completely useless all at the same time.

Let Them Sing It For You - type in what you want to hear and famous singers will sing it for you, one word at a time.

The ESP Game - interesting little web game that has you and someone else who you have no contact with trying to describe pictures you both see. It's kind of like $25,000 Pyramid meets Mastermind.

Those ought to keep you out of trouble for a while. 0 comments

A good friend of mine recommended the movie Alive to me and I just finished watching it. Are you familiar with this movie? It's a true story about a rugby team flying to Chile to compete in a match in 1972. The plane crashes. In the Andes Mountains. And no one rescues them until 71 days after they crashed. Sixteen people out of 45 or so survived.

Did I mention that the survivors ate people to help them survive?

I remember this movie causing quite a bit of controversy when it was released - "They eat people!!!" was the common argument as to why the movie was bad. Granted, it'll be a long time before I eat shredded ham again, but if the people ate people and this is a true story, I'm guessing that's kind of important to the story.

But it is nasty.

I have a hard time keeping track of people in movies. I don't recognize faces well without repeated viewings and interaction, so a two-hour movie hardly gets the job done for me. If a person is famous and I've seen them in things before, I have a better time of it. The only person I recognized in this movie was Ethan Hawke. Well, and Illeana Douglas, but that's because she guested on Seinfeld once. Everyone else all kind of looked the same to me. When someone else would die and it was supposed to be emotional because we had just seen them do that one thing, you know? I wouldn't be too upset by it because I couldn't keep them straight. Most of them had pretty good beards going after that long, and that didn't help me any. Everyone, that is, except Ethan. For some reason he never got a full beard. He just had that little scruffy sorta-mustache and sorta-goatee that you always see him with. Either he was shaving out there or his character couldn't grow a full beard, I don't know which.

Anyway, everything turns out okay - for 16 people anyway. Of course, we don't get to see them back in society, going to restaurants, and playing rugby, so we don't know how they handled all that. Not very well, I would imagine.

There were two documentaries on the DVD. One was 52 minutes long, and I didn't feel like investing another hour in the story tonight, so I didn't watch that one. I did watch the 12 minute one chronicling the main character's return trip to the site 30 years later. That was kind of interesting. I think Ethan should have gone with him, but I'm sure he was very busy.

Anyway, it was a good movie. Thought-provoking. See it once if you haven't, but don't plan on serving snacks during the movie.

Labels: Seinfeld

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This little tidbit from rightwingnews.com:

Here's an important hint; just because you hear a voice in your head doesn't mean you have to do what they say. In fact, if you're hearing voices in your head, I'd say it's pretty safe NOT to do what they're telling you. I mean how many times have you heard someone say, "I gave $100 to charity because the voice in my head told me to do it" or "The voice in my head demanded that I get off of welfare and get a job, so I had to obey"? The only person I can ever think of who actually did something postive because of the voices in her head was Joan of Arc and in the end she was burned at the stake and ended up saving France of all places, so it wasn't like it was all wine & roses for her either.

So take it from someone who has a degree in psychology; don't listen to the voices!

Labels: it's been said

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I've gone off and left my cell phone at home. Irritated I am. Not that it matters - not only does my phone not work in the buildings I'm in all day, I rarely get phone calls.

It's no secret that I mention Seinfeld on this blog a whole lot more than I mention The Muppet Show. I either need to remedy that or rename the blog, I suppose.

Here's a quote about video games from the website Penny Arcade that I thought was interesting. I can't necessarily recommend PA to everyone because they tend to use salty language on a frequent basis, but I really liked this paragraph. It refers specifically to the fact that you can play games on an XBox against other people on the Internet:

The next time someone starts talking about how bad Vice City is, as though it were the only game in existence, as though game consoles were only capable of that single experience and nothing peripheral to it, I really do want the opportunity to ask them - please, name another game. Name one other game that you know about. No, it's not a trick question. Well, it is, if by "trick question" you mean "question designed to make you look like an idiot." I wonder if they even know that far, far from Vice City, past even the Vice suburbs, that the same machine can allow a father and son - separated by three hundred miles and thirty years - the chance to play a round of golf together, for no good reason other than its being Tuesday.

The Colts lost yesterday, and I felt very bad about it. Their last two games were amazing, and it was easy to think they'd continue that streak right on through the Super Bowl. Alas. I blame Brandy. She was calling me for computer help yesterday while the game was on, and every time she called the Colts would get an interception or a penalty or something. Her husband's a Patriots fan, so that may have had something to do with it. Regular readers (ha!) will recall that I am a Dallas Cowboys fan for life and may wonder why I care about the Colts. I have no good answer except to say that I've never had an AFC team I liked and it was about time and the Colts have had a few good seasons now and I live in the area. Good enough for you? I'm just glad the Panthers beat the hated Eagles. And, really, the only reason I hate the Eagles is because they're in the same division as Dallas. I should hate the Panthers, as they knocked Dallas out of the playoffs, but I do like saying, "Well, yeah, Dallas lost, but look who they lost to! The Super Bowl Champions!" So, goooooooooooooooooo Panthers!

I went to the doctor on Friday about my foot. He has recommended I wear some leather-ish insoles from Dr. Scholl's to alleviate the pain I've been having for a few months in my left foot. He doesn't think it's a stress fracture, rather, he believes it to be the joint in between the blah-blah and the hoo-doo. I have no idea what the actual names of the bones are, so those'll have to do for you. I have yet to purchase the insoles, as that requires walking around, something I'm not fond of.

So the big question is: at lunch, do I go buy the insoles or go home and get my phone? Right now "insoles" is winning out over "phone" by a handy 3-1 margin.

Labels: apropos of nothing, Seinfeld

A lot of people hated the last episode of Seinfeld. There was a two-hour block of time set aside for it: the first 45 minutes was a clip show, and the last hour and fifteen was the last episode. People griped because they felt the episode was like another clip show, it didn't live up to their expectations, yadda yadda yadda.

Me? I loved it. Not only did I feel the series finale was a perfect ending to the series (they got put on trial for the very behavior that made the show so funny!), but I don't have any problems at all with clip shows. Think about it: you're getting the best parts of the show without having to wade through the not-as-good parts. And, on seeing the best parts, you're instantly reminded of the episode that the part was taken from. If you're a fan, you say, "Yeah, that was great!" If you're just starting to watch the show, you say, "Hey, I want to see that episode!" If you hate the show, well, you're probably not watching the clip show, are you?

People gripe about clip shows a lot, and I'd have to say, I don't care for mid-season clip shows. If I see in TV Guide that this week's episode of something is new, I expect it to be new, for crying out loud. "Clip show" is network-exec speak for "repackaged rerun," and they have no business being advertised as "new." Clip shows have their place: at the end of the show's run, or at a milestone in the show's run. Have you made it to 100 shows? Good for you! Have a clip show! 250? Even better! Have a clip show! 20? Um, no.

Essentially, isn't a clip show how we present ourselves to others, anyway? Think about your current resume - it's basically "My Greatest Hits." First date = rerun of the clip show. Take the best parts, leave out the garbage. Maybe that'll get someone interested in the whole show.

Whenever you meet someone, it's like a pilot (the new TV show kind, not the airline kind - stick with me here). You're floating yourself out there to see if anyone will keep tuning in. Most TV pilots don't make it. Think of that - the junk on TV is considered the best of the bunch! And even if a show does make it to more episodes, how long does it have? A year? Two? 14? The Simpsons just started their 15th year, and what do you hear about it? "It's not as funny as it was." It'll be done in a year or two. The last episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation was aptly named "All Good Things...", as in "must come to an end." I'll admit, I feel bad when a show gets cancelled, especially if it's been popular at some point. I'll tune in to "last episodes" of shows I've never seen, just to see how they'll wrap it up. Whether a show's been on for 6 months or 10 years, it's still sad to see it go. But, that's the nature of the biz.

Is that the nature of our biz, too? How do you keep your ratings up for 30, 40, 50 years? How do you "keep it fresh"? Will the addition of new characters help or hurt? What about a new setting? New location? If the audience stops tuning in, what do you do then?

There's a phrase out there these days: "jumped the shark." It means "that point in a TV show's history where it lost whatever magic it had and has turned to ridiculous stunts to try to keep the show going." It refers to that moment in Happy Days when Fonzie - you guessed it - jumped a shark while waterskiing. So, if it's easy to tell when a TV show has jumped the shark, is it easy to tell when you have? I'm guessing other people can see it - just ask them, if you can take it.

Unlike TV shows, we don't get reruns. Sorry, Apu - no such thing as reincarnation.

Labels: Seinfeld

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I went out to get my laundry at 11:30 and I heard an odd but familiar noise. Once my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I saw one of my neighbors raking his lawn. At 11:30 at night. I actually did a double-take. He wasn't doing it furtively or trying to be quiet about it - he was just raking his lawn like it was the most natural thing to be doing at that time of night. I mean, this January has been unseasonably warm, but that's just weird.

It got me to thinking about what makes things weird. Take an everyday activity but change one aspect of it and it suddenly gets weird or creepy. Like wearing a raincoat and galoshes...on a bright sunny day. Dressing like a vampire...on July 4th. Eating cereal...for supper. (Okay, that last one's not weird. Jerry Seinfeld has proved what we all knew to be true: cereal is good for any and every meal.) Some of the creepiest movies I've ever seen are movies where the characters are in a perfectly normal scene...but something is just a little off. The trees are regular trees, but the branches all point one way. The TV is tuned to a familiar program, but the screen is slightly trapezoidal. A long closeup on a person unnerves you and you can't place why, until you notice they haven't blinked for two minutes.

Certain things were meant to be done a certain times. It's part of our heritage as Americans. Mess around with conventionality and you'll get a few raised eyebrows and maybe more.

I don't mind you being different, really. Just don't be creepy, okay? Rake your lawn during the regularly-scheduled lawn-raking hours.

Labels: Seinfeld

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Coupla links for ya today:

1) Nerd Test - How much of a nerd are you? I am embarrassed to admit I only scored a 7.
2) King Arthur movie - finally, a cool-looking Arthur movie!

More later. Not necessarily more links, mind you, just more.
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I went to a local improv show on Saturday night. The only live improv I've ever seen has been ComedySportz, so I wasn't sure what to expect. Turns out, it was like ComedySportz lite. I recognized every game except one. I talked to the lead feller afterwards and he said he had done CSz in Kansas City for a few years, so that explained a lot.

I'll have to be honest - I didn't think it was that good. Maybe I've been spoiled by CSz and Whose Line, but I was expecting more. There were a couple of actors who were really "getting it," but I felt like the other ones were doing it because they thought it'd be fun to be in front of people. Again, I'm probably being critical.

I was funny once, a while back. I used to be able to hold my own at improv. So I asked the feller afterwards if they held auditions. They do -- kinda. They have workshops, and then they pull people from there. I'm familiar with that system. I took workshops from CSz in Madison, WI. So I signed up for their e-newsletter so I could know when the next round of workshops were. So I guess we'll see where it goes from here.

I'll keep you posted.

Labels: improv

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I had the weirdest thing happen this morning.

As usual, I couldn't sleep, so I was watching a movie. Around 2:30 in the morning, there's a knock on my door. You read that correctly - 2:30 A.M. My first thought was that I had the movie up too loud and my neighbors were complaining. My second thought ... well, never mind.

You can bet I checked the peephole. It was a lady I had never seen before. She looked un-dangerous, so I opened the door. Hey, why not, right? She looked a little concerned as she asked me if I knew where so-and-so lived. I said, "No, I'm sorry. I've never heard of him." She then went on to say her daughter was gone and she thought maybe her daughter was with him.

Wow. What a heartbreaking story, all in the space of about 2 minutes.

I apologized again and wished her good luck.

I wonder what happened? 1 comments

You are a tabby cat. The total home-body. You'd be
content just to stay at home all day and not
get up from the couch. You lazy sloth! Try and
make a movement every now and then, or someone
might decide to bury you in the back yard!


What color of cat are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
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Just got back from the late show of Paycheck. Thoughts from me:

I don't hate Ben Affleck, I just don't think he's a very good actor. He does alright. I'm one of the few people I know that liked Daredevil.

I have seen some John Woo movies, but not enough to recognize his visual signatures, so I didn't go into it with a whole lot of preconceived notions on how it should be.

I expected it to be Minority Report Lite. To a certain extent, it was.

I liked it. A fun action movie with enough turns to keep it interesting. Any time there's a movie set in the future, I can work up a pretty good dispension of disbelief, so I wasn't bothered with the impossibility of the technology. Ben plays a reverse engineer - someone who takes technology that other people have come up with and takes it apart to find out how they made it, then makes new (and hopefully better) stuff out of it. Because his jobs are so sensitive, he gets his memory wiped after each one, so he loses two months of his life, but he gains a pretty big paycheck out of the deal.

He gets offered the biggest paycheck of his life from a friend of his, but there's a catch - the memory wipe will erase three years of his life. For $92 million, Ben figures he'll do it.

Jump to the memory wipe. Ben goes to pick up his paycheck and finds out he's not only turned down the money, he's also sent himself 19 personal items (a paperclip, some hairspray, some ball bearings, etc.). At this point, intrigue ensues.

Uma Thurman plays the object of his affection for the three years he's working on the project. After the memory wipe, of course, he doesn't remember her, but she helps him all the same, and they seem to get along just fine.

This is definitely a sci-fi flick, but not enough that an action movie fan would be put off by it. There's one big motorcycle/car chase scene, but it won't make you stand up and yell "Woo!" Hey...it just hit me: John Woo is a famous action movie director....when you see an exciting action movie, you feel the urge to yell "Woo!"...it all makes sense to me now...

I really enjoyed this movie. I will most likely watch the DVD when it comes out, and that's more than I can say for some other movies...

Labels: movies

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An e-mail exchange I had with Dave today:

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To: David
Subject: Please

Please tell me I've sent this link to you before today:

http://www.badgerbadgerbadger.com/

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From: David
Subject: RE: Please

I dont think so.

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To: David
Subject: RE: Please


Then I am an horrible friend.

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From: David
Subject: RE: Please

If Mark has never sent me that link before, then he is an horrible friend.
Mark has never sent me that link before. (affirmed antecedent)
Mark is an horrible friend. (affirmed consequent)

This is our syllogism for the day.
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"Silhouette" is one of my all-time favorite words. Not only is it a fun little song (my favorite version was done by The Nylons), it's just a cool word. It's fun to say, and the word itself conjures up thoughts of the mysterious and the possible.

My first dealings with a silhouette was in kindergarten. Mrs. Reid had us sit sideways in front of a piece of paper on the wall. She'd shine a light at us and trace our silhouette profile on the paper. Then we had to cut it out and do some stuff with it and then take it home or something.

You notice how silhouettes are often used in horror movies? It's because you can tell someone or something is there, but you're not sure where. An outline on a window tells you only that someone is between the light and the window, but not how far. And because it's just a shape, a lot of the time you can't tell who the silhouette is of, unless you really know the person well.

I drive an Oldsmobile Silhouette minivan. A silhouette of my Silhouette would be easy to recognize, though. It's got a nose like a space shuttle. 0 comments

That was weird.

I came back to check on my previous entry and found it to be garbled and full of odd text.

I certainly didn't do it, and I'm wondering who did.

I guess I need to start saving backup copies of my blog, eh? 0 comments

I lost some of my Dreamcast games. My best ones. I lost NFL 2K2, NHL 2K2, World Series Baseball 2K2, Tennis 2K2, Rippin' Riders, and Soul Caliber. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!! I put them in a CD wallet and took them with me over Thanksgiving, played them, and then brought them back - I'm sure of it. Except, I can't find them. The CD wallet is MIA. All of my memory cards and cords are here, but not those games. I went back to WI over Christmas, so I did some more looking around up there, thinking I had left them. Nope. Can't find 'em. They're history.

*sigh*

While I am planning to buy an XBox at some point, I'm not prepared to do that for a while. Besides, I'm attached to these games. The Dreamcast was the best system I've ever owned. I remember the first night I got it and a bunch of friends came over to see it. Our jaws collectively dropped when we saw the realistic football players beating the realistic snot out of each other.

So I bought replacement copies of "NFL 2K2" and "Rippin' Riders," two of the three "must haves" off my list. "Soul Calibur" will have to wait for a while - since it was the best game ever released for the Dreamcast, used copies are still rather pricey.

While it's great to have these two games back, it's not the same. These aren't the copies I've been playing for years. You might be able to replace the media, but some things are irreplaceable.
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One of my favorite things about the end of a year is all of the lists people make. There's a "Top 10 Words Searched For On The Internet" list, several "Top 10 Movies of the Year" lists, and just about any other list you can think of. People like to encapsulate the year in a tidy, no-nonsense list.

I'm all for it. I like to look back, but I only like to see the highlights. A "Top 10 Worst Things" list would be lost on me, but I'd probably still read it.

I will admit, though, that my favorite part of The Academy Awards is the tribute to everyone who died during the last year. Most of them I don't recognize, but there are always a few who I see and I think, "Oh, man, I really liked them in _______" or "Wow, I hadn't heard that they died."

I know I'm not the only one who likes to be reminded of things - if I was, cameras wouldn't sell enough to make a profit. I'd only buy the one, after all. I suspect other people are squirrelling away memories, piling them up around themselves like a barrier against irrelevance.

So join me and remember some stuff. Remember the good and the bad. I dare you.

Addendum to previous post: I've decided to learn to type this year. It's not really a New Year's Resolution (tm), though, because I've been meaning to do it for a long time. Mavis Beacon is going to help me out, and though she is generally nice to me, I can sense a sadistic torturer behind the veneer of nicety. It's going to be a long year... 1 comments

It's 52 degrees out. In January.

I can recall times in Wisconsin during January when we had a wind chill of negative 83.

This is just weird. 0 comments