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Did I speak too soon, or not soon enough?

Bad news keeps rolling in. First, Joyce's sister and nephew were just killed in a car crash - stupid teen high on drugs decided he could drive. Puts my sorry life in a different perspective - I don't even want to THINK about the possibility of losing my sister.

Then Dave manages to cut off a few toes with his lawn mower. I really don't want to know how he managed that. I guess that means I ought to work the festival? bleah.

Oh, then there's Harvey - who gets to go in for hernia surgery later this week.

So, anyway - send your good thoughts, prayers and condolences to Joyce, Harvey and Dave.

Well, May proved to be only minimally better than April. Now the real trick will be to survive June.

Movie Review: The Bride With White Hair

This hopefully is it for the martial arts films for a bit. It just dawned on me how many I've seen and could be a partial reason for my violent dreams.

This one was rather different from some of the others. Much more dramatic filmography, not as much fighting. A lot of gore. And a bizarre cult that reminded me of the islanders in Joe vs the Volcano and the Klan in Oh Brother Where Art Thou? Lots of bright colors, and the antagonists were siamese twins. *cough* pardon, I think the term now is conjoined twins. Sad ending.

I find it interesting how many strong female roles appear in these types of movies. Even the ditzy mothers can fight well. (not as well as their sons, though!) The past two movies have both had two strong female leads, revolving around the main hero. Hmm. I keep this up and I'll be able to do another page similar to my cowboy western page.

Tiger Cub Cam at the National Zoo.

Ha HA! I found a cure for my nightmares!

Now I need a cure for insomnia.

Movie Review: Shrek 2

Go see it. While I liked the plot better in the first one, the second one is incredible for its format. Hair looks like hair, dust looks like dust, bubbles look delicate enough to pop - and even leave residue behind. Shrek as a human looked exactly like Al - enough so to be rather creepy. I'd like to see this format used for a Terry Pratchett novel - wouldn't you?

Watched Dragon Inn the other night. The opening scenes I got really interested in because I actually recognized the setting - part of the Great Wall of China, which I had recently watched a documentary on. I was a bit disappointed because although Donnie Yen was in it, but played the bad guy, and his only fight scene was nearly completely obscured by desert sand and sun. (that must have been awful to film!)
The plot got quite wild and intense, but Dragon Inn isn't one I'd like to revisit. On to the next movie . . .

urgh. somebody PLEASE turn off the cicadas! I've got a headache.

They're getting louder and louder. Last night I was at my grandmothers briefly, and it was painfully, deafeningly loud. And they don't seem to stop. At all. They're all over the place, bumbling about, running into everything. And sticking to you. Big, ugly bugs.

I'm good at estimating times, for some strange reason. I figured that it would take me roughly 40 minutes to get to the middle (possibly the far side) of Ashburn, and . . . it did. A good portion of that time was spent watching the construction at the corner of Church Road and 28.

Today's career choice - I want to be a dump truck driver! They drove in with their dirt and rocks, backed up, dumped it, and drove away. It was like watching an ant army scurrying around their anthill, neat, orderly (aside from the dirt and dust) and, well, there was nothing better to watch! Of course, it made it a bear to get through that intersection, but at least it was entertaining.

Arrrrrrr.

I've never seen all the lyrics before. It's a rather ponderous tune, but wow! What words.

Hmm . . .seem to have spent a large portion of the dream I remember digging through my wallet, trying to come up with two dollars in change with wet, muddy quarters. I was trying to pay for some model kits, but they turned into some really nice looking books on fashion history. I'd like to have those books. Where are my quarters?

Clear Channel Limits Live CDs

I'm not quite sure what Clear Channel is thinking. Now, I could understand it if CC has a contract with the performers concerning the rights to broadcast the performance over the air. At work we always have to get a signed release form for concerts. Sometimes we can't because the group is under contract with some big-wig corporation. However, CC is saying, 'Hey , we have this patent, so we're the only ones who can do this!' not, 'Hey! we have exclusive rights to broadcast this performance, not you!'

This is more akin to McDonalds saying, 'Hey, we have the fast food chain patent, so none of you other fast food restaurants can be in business!' They're also extending that claim to cover every concert everywhere, even if CC isn't in the area. At least, that's how I read the article. Absolutely ridiculous.

Applying this to my work (since the Herndon Festival IS coming up), not only would we need permission to tape the concert, we would also need permission to sell copies of the performance. Of course, we also have no way to immediately mass-produce concert tapes. And we wouldn't dream of interfering with anybody else taping the concert. (heck, we'd probably ask them to help us!) It must be awful for bands who have no say in who can copy their performances. Slave labor, practically.

Of course, we're not in it for the money. Besides, live concerts are generally never 'perfect.' Singers forget words, equipment breaks, it starts to rain, the audience gets a little too out of hand, the guy sitting next to you talks the entire time, which the mic picks up . . . stuff happens. We've had concerts (particularly Great Big Sea) that wanted to see the performance we taped before they would allow us to re-air the concert. We duly sent them a copy. I'm sure they laughed their heads off before they said no. I still have the original. *coughs and gets back on topic*

If Clear Channel is going to try to control who copies performances, they should at least provide the right reason. Patents are not broadcast rights.

OOOWWWW! @#$^N % !@#$!@$%$%^&&#*

Ok.

In a few more minutes, I shall take a look at my knee to determine which parts AREN'T purple and how long it will take me to hit that particular tiny section.

I'm going to be using a stopwatch.

*limps away*

I'm starting to see a theme in my dreams. Another little yappy dog, which I walk around town. Another car. Someone trying to kill me. In a determined sort of way, since I'm driving, I've already thrown him OUT of the moving car, and he's chasing me on foot. What do I do? Manuever myself into a parking garage and drive around trying to get him lost until I manage to run him down. Then I run into the security booth and beg the dumb officer to call 911, and he's yelling at me to get out of the room now or he'll call the cops. Then all sorts of relatives show up, commenting on the color of the walls and hugging me. I don't recognize any of them. Next I'm on a bike and find myself picking up mail and passing a lot of people with missing limbs, out walking, biking, or doing chores. The mail turns out to be a neighborhood signup sheet, so you can jot down your email address and pass it to the next neighbor, which dad refuses to do. I sit there and try to convince him to at least write on the paper that he won't do it so they'll stop sending us the sheet. (we have 8 or 9 of them already . . . )

I think maybe I need to stop watching so many action movies.

The power kept kicking off and on at work today. But! Thanks to the new UPS systems we finally got up and running - it didn't affect the broadcast rack at all! I was very relieved to see that. Now it can thunderstorm all it wants . . .

Walked all around town today, taking pictures of buildings. It was rather interesting, as we were trying to get the pictures to match the old photos we already had. Some of them turned out great, others, well . . . we may have to redo a few. It would be a lot easier to complete this project if other people would hurry up and finish their segments so we can tear them to bits and reassemble them . . .

I feel so . . . numb. Nothing seems to be quite right. Like one of those dreams where you're not sure if you're awake or just dreaming about everyday life. You don't FEEL anything. Nearly empty. Not happy, not sad, you can't seem to exert any emotion into anything. You're aware of something deep down, lurking. Waiting? What is it? Why won't it come out? Do I want it to? It's getting to be rather tiring, like that cicada hovering outside the window. You KNOW it's going to fly smack into the glass, but you still have to wait and watch it, helpless to shoo it away or smack it yourself. Dumb bugs.

And my dreams last night consisted of a car on fire that's just driving down the road, a recumbent motorcycle I happened to own (and drive!), small lost dogs and Philly cheesesteaks from DC. Maybe not nightmarish, but definitely bizarre.

Blah. Late for work.

Whew!

Walk into work, Jan immediately starts in - we need 'this' and 'this' and can you do 'this?' Oh, and here's Mike, he's ready to start work, but we need to do this conference call . . .

Needless to say, it was an incredibly busy day. Fortunately, my intern takes instructions, completes projects, and starts them without help. Best of all, he does stuff I don't want to do! Like this history segment they want to run at the Festival. 6 minutes of . . . random Herndon stuff. It's going to be quite a project, and there's too many people working on it. (more specifically, there's too many people not finishing their portion.) We'll be lucky if it gets finished in time for the Festival.

Stupid nightmares. Like I don't have better things to dream about than hobbits falling to bloody bits, the first day of school, and wandering around dark city streets waiting for a killer. Fortunately my dreams get interrupted by garbage trucks, helicopters circling overhead, and people driving by with car engines that sound like weedwackers.

Bah. Welcome to Monday.

I need to go up to Erin's house more often. This time, I saw a guy walking down the street with an iguana on his back. It's no wonder people in the country sit on their front porches - all the entertainment they get from the weird people going by!

Happy Birthday to Erin! I know I wished it to you Friday and Saturday, but you're getting it again here anyway!

Stood outside for quite some time talking with a neighbor, and counting the number of times we saw an airplane in the sky named Ted. At least five of them went by! Or perhaps it was the same one, flying in circles? Who knows? Curiosity sent me looking to see what company it was. Flyted.com was the answer. Apparently associated with United Airlines? I've heard of people naming their cars, and even their dishwashers, but this was amusing to see 'TED' so clearly on the side of the plane. I'm going to be plane watching for a few days now . . .

Movie Review: X2: X-Men United

Liked it. I don't follow the comic series, but it's obviously an intense, detailed story. The characters are consistent and very well developed. There's a lot going on, between humans and mutants, among mutants, and among humans. I smell plenty of room for a third movie! The fight scene between Kelly and Wolverine made me chuckle. I couldn't help but think of the scene in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen between Dorian Gray and Mina Harker. "We're going to be at this ALLL day."

I do have to comment on the extensive use of specialty contacts. I wonder how many they went through?

If you had a mutant power, whose would you want? I haven't decided yet. I'll have to think on it . . .

Dust: Mud with the juice squeezed out.
Skeleton: A bunch of bones with the person scraped off.
Secret: Something you tell one person at a time.
Chickens: The only animals you eat before they are born and after they are dead.
Adult: A person who has stopped growing at both ends and is now growing in the middle.
Beauty Parlor: A place where women curl up and dye.
Cannibal: Someone who is fed up with people
Committee: A body that keeps minutes and wastes hours.
Egotist: Someone who is usually me-deep in conversation.
Handkerchief: Cold storage.
Inflation: Cutting money in half without damaging the paper.
Raisin: Grape with a sunburn.
Toothache: The pain that drives you to extraction.
Tomorrow: One of the greatest labor saving devices of today.
Yawn: An honest opinion openly expressed.
Wrinkles: Something other peoplke have. You have character lines.

Definitions sent to a mini list.

There's going to be an Addams Family Marathon on TVLand June 5 & 6. One of my favorite shows! I hope this means it's being put back on the air.

Gomez and Morticia always seemed to be the 'ideal' couple to me. They were passionate about each other, supportive of their family, and interested in the workings of the community and the outside world. They had their separate interests but shared many things, too. Charles Addams' comic book characters were a bit more morbid, which adds quite a bit to their personalities. (The TV series naturally had to clean them up a bit in order to be on the air.)

I don't think I'd like to see them as a tv series today. Maybe if it was done with careful attention to the original cartoon it would work for modern audiences, but otherwise it'd just be an insult-infested show with a goth theme. hmmm . . .

I feel like such an idiot. If people would simply tell me what's going on, my life would be a lot simpler. Sure, maybe I'll be hurt. It isn't the first time that's happened, it won't be the last. Life is pain, y'know? But there's a difference between a quick, simple, painful truth and 'let's drag this on for weeks and only give out small snippets of information and give you vague answers if you question me directly.' That's more torture than pain, and I feel like I'm being lied to. That's not going to help ANYTHING.

I know what I see. I have a good idea of where it's going. My staying involved at this level will only end up with me coming off as an intruder, which no one wants. Especially me.

Why is it so difficult to get people to tell me the truth? I've had this problem my entire life. I don't scold, I don't pitch fits, I don't react violently. I don't NEED to be protected from harsh realities. The sooner you learn that life sucks, the better off you are. You either learn how to deal with what's going on and make it better, or at the very least you learn how to duck.

and it takes me two weeks to realize this laptop doesn't have a floppy disk drive!

Anyone need some floppies?

Well, blog griping seems to work. I've now got a summer intern who's already familiar with Premiere, knows how to edit, run camera, direct, has nothing else to do over the summer, needs an internship for his filmmaking degree, and wants to stay busy.

He knows how to edit. <--- key words. Good words.

Boy, is he going to stay busy here!

hmm, now what should I gripe about? *makes a wish on the magic blog*

This is temporary. I'm *cough* playing again. (if you don't know me, that should be a warning to run and hide, or at the very least, hover about til I beg for assistance!)

I find it rather interesting that the tops of UPS trucks are painted white with UPS block printed at one end. I wonder if other large vehicles have the same thing?

One way to control your allergies is to NOT to go running around a large park on a windy/rainy day playing frisbee. I'm surprised I can still see. At least I had fun and got some exercise. (Then traded it in for no sleep and fuzzy eyes and brain. *blink blink*)

Movie Review: Desperado

I am SO confused.

In El Mariachi, the bad guy's name is Moco, right? The one that shoots the mariachi in the hand and kills his girlfriend. Smarmy looking white guy, hair slicked back, dressed in white, in need of a shave half the time. So, in Desperado, the Mariachi comes looking for the guy who shot him and killed his girlfriend, naming him Bucho, who is also dressed in white, hair slicked back, looks to me like the same actor. Why the different name? IMDB.com lists a Moco way down in the credits of Desperado, among the bit players. And also, if Bucho IS Moco, why didn't he recognize him in the first movie?

Bah. Now I need to watch El Mariachi again.

Got into a bit of a cleaning fit at work today, and went through my desk. Some of the things I found:

mini tape recorder
dead calculator
hard drive
two RAM cards (about 66 mb)
a lot of books and CDs for Windows 95
College book on "Becoming a Master Student"
The 52 "most wanted" card pack from the Iraq War
a pair of sailboat earrings.
five telephone cords.

Evidently my desk drawers are a repository for a lot of stuff. Most of it went into the trash.

I think I came up with a solution to my pocket door problem. Or rather, a simpler idea.

Before I had taken copper rods and some hooks and hung the doors on them. However, the hooks wouldn't stay in the doors and it had to hang just right or it wouldn't glide smoothly. I replaced the rods and hooks with a simple |_| U shaped track along the top. With a bit of wooden buffer between the door and the wall, it should be ok once I get the wall glued to the other wall. I mean, how often will these doors be used, anyway? I'll probably coat them with something to make them glide more smoothly, but otherwise it should be just fine. I just need to finish it!

Wow. A miniatures post. First in ages. Let's see if I can fix my attention span on it long enough to get something done . . .

Saw Troy last night. Pretty long, rather violent - what else do you expect from a Greek epic tale? Brad Pitt was well cast. I'd still prefer to see Orlando Bloom about 10 years older. He's just . . . too young. There's a bit of blandness to him. It was rather fun to make LoTR references, though. I much preferred him in Pirates of the Carribean.

Long and dragged a bit when it wasn't splashing blood everywhere. Lots of storyline elements. I kept hoping Achilles would switch sides. He was the unpredictable character, didn't like who he was fighting for, but he was a deciding factor in which way the battle swung.

The theater (and the whole area) at Fairfax Corner is really nice. I may have to go there more often!

Went to a miniatures show today. Spent most of my money on some pottery pieces. Found out the man that made most of them was no longer able to do it, so I bought them hoping their value would go up in a few years. Expensive stuff, but hand thrown, initialled and nicely done. I'm glad I have the Falls Church and Bird-in-Hand jugs. I just wish I had one for Herndon!

Oops. I missed my Post O'the Day! Oh, no!

bah. my wretched typings are boring, anyway.

I've learned I'm a very good follow. Friday night was very crowded, with a live band and lots of different levels of dancers. Some I could keep right up with, some I held on for dear life, and a few I had to slow down. I had to depend on how well the lead signalled when he was about to change whatever he was doing. And there's so many different ways they danced! You could tell which ones had taken local classes and which ones had learned elsewhere. Some were very relaxed and loose limbed, some insisted on the 3 step pattern even during slow songs, one guy steered me by my elbows, and then there was that old guy that was groping everybody. My favorite is the indian guy . . . I need to learn his name. He's fantastic to follow, signals well, keeps his arms taut, and he SMILES the whole time. I could change and adjust to most of the dancers. I felt sorry for one guy, though. Apparently brand new, he was still trying to figure out the steps. The girl he was with (he danced with her all night) was very boppy. Excessively boppy. It reminded me of the Muppet Show dance segments. I would have been annoyed dancing with her, and I - for the most part - know what I'm doing! She paid no attention to what he was doing, just hopped up and down to some wierd beat in her head. I nearly cut in - I got pretty good at teaching steps when I was in those classes. I figured they were just there to have fun, though. Not everyone needs to be a purist!

Hmm. What do I have to blog about? I'm tired of ranting about work. I'm just . . . tired.
I probably shouldn't write. It'll just be depressing.

So . . . *scatters chocolates all over the place* enjoy.

The classical radio station keeps playing these little info snippets about cicadas. It wouldn't be so bad, except for the fact that in the background they play cicada noises. A highpitched, whiny sound that's very irritating. We'll have enough of that in a few weeks!

Still trying to clean up the residue from that malware. Argh!

I'm tired. I want to go on a vacation. Maybe the beach, where I can sit and just stare at the water and listen to the waves for hours. Or maybe the mountains, so I can sit and stare at the trees and listen to them move in the wind for hours. Then I'd like to visit some historic city, where I can run around and look at buildings and museums and cemeteries and eat different food and listen to music . . . and not be by myself in an old building with cantankerous electronics and people calling and randomly showing up to ask questions I have no answer to . . .

*sigh*

Did some more thinking on Van Helsing. I can't help but wonder why writers use the same characters over and over again. Why did it 'have' to be Frankenstein and Dracula? It could have been any mad scientist and any vampire. Certainly, they are the originals, the standards for the genre. But if you don't branch out, they become the only ones IN the genre. I suppose that when you hear those names, you immediately know who they are. The movie won't have to waste time giving them a background because they expect the average joe movie-goer to know them. And if you get right down to it, Dracula is a cool name. But still! 'Vampire' on its own should give you a general idea of the character. Any name would do. The movie gave Dracula a different history and a different ending. It isn't THE Count Dracula, so don't call him that!

Then there was the friar. I expected him to be the very archtypical sidekick - a bit funny looking and mostly there to provide comic relief. Fortunately the writers embellished a bit and made him a very GOOD sidekick. He came well equipped, was pretty competent and could be trusted not to break everything, had plenty of knowledge that could be applied in the right places, could be humorous and serious, and even got the girl. (well, A girl, anyway!) Everyone should have someone like this in their lives. David Wenham played him perfectly. (Faramir from LoTR, it's so nice to see all those characters moving on! If they didn't they'd be trapped in LoTR roles forever.)

And while I liked the vampiresses, there were a few scenes were they were just completely overacting in the background. I understood what they were trying to do, but it just didn't look right. Dramatic, shifting poses, expressive choreography - good in operas, but not in a movie. They just looked - overdramatic. Or totally stoned. Which is also a possibility . . .

Such a coincidence: Slashdot had an article about malware (which is what hit me.) Fortunately mine didn't seem to be porn. I have to go check my adkiller program, though - It shut it down twice!

Eh. Why bother? I only need it with IE. Mozilla does just fine. Only thing I don't like is that it doesn't show alt text when you position your mouse over a link or graphic. I'm sure that can be fixed - I just need to play with the settings a bit more.

Well, that was a first.

I was browsing for books on Google, harmless enough. I clicked on a site, and then the virus warnings started. Lots of them. 14 all together. I'm glad to know my virus scanner works. Viscious little link, wasn't it? Just a warning - be careful what you click on!

I'm getting the new computers settled in at work. I think I have the laptop done. I left it there, though. It's rather heavy! I still need a few more programs for the other computers before I can use them. Then I can go back to editing.

Movie Review: Master and Commander

Either I've been watching a lot of movies lately, or I've just been doing a lot of reviews. Either way, I still have too much time on my hands!

The movie doesn't seem to be a story about napoleonic battle at sea as much as it is about the life of sailors during the time. It was an incredibly rough life. Not only did you have to deal with the enemy, but the weather, illness, your own crew, your friends, and your own beliefs.

I'd like to read the book. I bet it's fantastic. I'll have to look for it.

It was also a pleasant surprise to see Billy Boyd. Wasn't expecting him, suddenly - "that's Pippin!"

Movie Review: Van Helsing

Whoa. A movie being reviewed that was actually in the theater at the time. Go me!

All right. Take Lord of the Rings, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and possibly Underworld. Throw them in a bowl and mix well. Add some really cool special effects. Serve and follow with a thunderstorm.

I had a good time. The special effects were incredible. I want to be able to fly. I hope I dream about flying tonight. The storyline? Umm . . . oh! Yeah. Um. Geez. Yes, there was one. Van Helsing must stop Dracula from using Dr. Frankenstein's science to give life to his own children. More specifically, Van Helsing must stop Dracula, who seems to be pretty resistant to all typical forms of vampire execution. Van Helsing gets help from an inventive friar (not a monk!) named Carl, a gypsy princess and Frankenstein's monster. Dracula gets help from flammable evil minions, three vampiresses who do an incredible transformation into flying harpies, and Igor. *inserts lots of Terry Pratchett jokes here.* The music was appropriately dramatic, the settings dark and sinister and just the right amount of monotone. The special effects . . .oh, my. *drool* I even sat and watched the end credits in fascination. They had a great 3-D quality to them, and blended and morphed so smoothly.

If this is the way they're doing fantasy films now, I'll take it. I can't wait to see what they'll be able to do next!

Movie Review: The Haunted Mansion

Cute. Typical Eddie Murphy movie. The special effects were fantastic, and I loved the opening credits. It wasn't as good as Pirates of the Carribbean, though. That might be because there were no pirates, but I'm not sure. What I really don't understand is the envelope it came in. Netflix sends their DVDs in envelopes with a description of the movie on it. I'm pretty certain that Don Knotts was NOT in this film. If they meant Wallace Shawn (inconceivable!) they were WAY off base. And the plot seemed to lack some explanations. Wasn't it enough for Ramsley to kill Elizabeth? Was he the one that cursed the entire mansion? Why and how? And why was he called back so suddenly? If all the other ghosts could appear so fully in body, why couldn't Elizabeth? Ramsley again? Why the big graveyard? So many unanswered questions.
The set was beautiful, though. A house I'd like to explore. Of course, now I'd like to go on the ride . . . . which probably is the whole purpose for the movie.

Ok. Now I have TWO cell phones. Went to Best Buy and bought it, in spite of the lack of rebate. Then I jumped ahead of myself. "Oh, great! I can program it online!" Just not if I want to transfer the number. I started thinking about it a little too late, so I called the number they gave to transfer and found out thatI should have called to have it done before attempting to activate the phone. (hey, it's not like I buy cell phones very often!) So now I have to wait til tomorrow afternoon, call them back, and have them transfer the number.

This thing is TINY. It fits in the palm of my hand, and I have very small hands. it's also noisy. I need to figure out how to turn off some of the sounds, and I also apparently have to download ring tones. I want my phone to RING, dammit! I don't need it to play some silly song that will either get stuck in my head, annoy everyone around me, or I won't notice because I'll assume it's music. Not that my phone ever rings, so it's not THAT big a deal.

But for saving me 30 dollars a month . . . I shan't complain.

Topic o' the morning - Cell Phones.

I have a cell phone. (who doesn't?) I bought it right after I got my car, about 4 years ago. (wow! that long ago?) At the time I went with Sprint because it was the best deal, but now . . . I'm not so sure. I don't USE the silly thing. It's costing me $37 dollars a month, and some months I never even turned it on. That's wasted money to me. I've been considering switching services to a company that offers a pay-as-you-go plan. Did you know amazon.com offers cell phones now? It was quite nice to see that tab. I can compare phones and services without hopping around trying to find their web sites.

The best system seems to be from Virgin Mobile. and I like this phone. They have a really fancy schmancy one, but I doubt I'd use half the features. I also like the speaker phone option. I'd prefer not to have to buy a new phone, but I suppose I better. 4 year old technology . . . it's practically a dinosaur! Admittedly, this is my second cell phone. I um, lost the first one. No idea how or where. However, I bought the same model again - at a much lower price. *sigh* technology.

My main concern is where I'd get reception. I know where I don't get reception with Sprint, but according to Virgin Mobile's web site, they use Sprint's network. Sounds good. Their main requirement is that you spend 20 dollars every 90 days. That's what, not quite 7 dollars a month? With 5 dollars in taxes that's still a lot better than what I'm paying now. I know my current bill is pretty good compared to what a lot of other people pay. I just don't like paying for something I don't use.
What I need to find out now is if I can keep my current number, and if Sprint has some sort of hidden plan they can pull out and offer when I try to cancel my subscription.

Dude. I'm gettin' a Dell.

After all my ranting, someone actually listened. (nice to have board members that actually do things!) They're replacing Jan's computer and mine, and sending the old NLE computer to replace the Amiga. I think that'll work out pretty well. I get a laptop! I'm dazed.

Movie Review: Highlander

Ugh. I'm sooo disillusioned. Everyone was telling me how wonderful the film was, the best in the movie series. I should watch it! I'm not sure I see it.

First off, Connor's kinda creepy. in a "dude, man, he's crazy. don't mess with him!" kind of way. Smacking cops around, just being a bit of a hardass. Kind of hard to blend in with THAT kind of attitude. Kurgan was well beyond obnoxious. How do you live for that many years with that kind of attitude? People are bound to remember. You'd think somebody'd notice. Brenda was ok. She just wanted the sword, I think . . . Sean Connery was good. He seems to play the same role in a lot of films, but it's a good role. Fun yet wise.

Perhaps part of my problem is that I saw the tv series first. By that point they had fine tuned some of the issues that made it more possible for the immortals to go about their business without interruption. Although even in the first episode with Connor in it I thought he was a little unstable. The movie seemed short and brutal. The so-called "Prize" . . . well . . . . not to give anything away, but I made a joke about what it was, and then it turned out to be right. Ugh! Such bitter irony.

I'll keep Adrian Paul, thank you very much.

More office pranks.

Now THIS took a lot of work.

*Inserts annual rant about the Farmer's Market here*

I forgot. May brings the Farmer's Market to the parking lot. Time to start parking in the parking garage on Thursdays!

Passed a truck today with the license plate of GRY-WZARD. (or something to that effect.) First thing today that made me smile. Now if only it had been a white mustang . . .

Dell very graciously donated two printers to our office. They turn out to be color printer/scanner/copier/fax printers. Too good to be true? Naturally. I tried to set one up today, and it seems they're incompatible with anything under 2000. Argh. So now I've sent emails begging for someone to upgrade our system. Which will also probably mean upgrading even MORE computers. Fun stuff, this technology.

Lynne sent me pictures of the kitten she named after my Realm character. She's getting really big!

Well! That was fun! May is looking good so far.

I haven't gone swing dancing in over two years. Two of them and a half. No dance floor, no dragging out my leather bottomed shoes, no fun music . *sigh* I kept seeing swing dancers in the past few shows I've edited, and kept looking at gottaswing.com's web site, and tonight I finally decided, why not? So I went to the Hilton. Found the ballrom by going up the stairs, following a group who was aimlessly wandering and wondering just what swing dancing was. At the top of the stairs, a woman says, "wow, just look at that beautiful smile!" It was Melanie, my dental hygenist! I didn't recognize her out of her office scrubs. I knew she danced, I just didn't know she was associated with them. Everybody was very friendly, there was quite a few people, and pretty evenly balanced. The nice thing about swing dancing is that while it is partner dancing, you're expected to switch partners. It's considered rude to dance with the same person all night. So I got to dance with practically every skill level and try to remember what I knew and how to follow. I'd like to think I got better towards the end . . . some guys were a lot easier to follow than others! Everyone tried to talk me into taking classes, and of course I just HAD to come out on Friday night, when there's a live band! I'll have to see. I highly object to 9 dollar movies, I'm not sure I can afford 12 dollar dances. Maybe one a month . . .
Now I have to get to bed and visit the orthodontist in the morning. urgh.

Movie Review: The Kung Fu Master

I rented this one based on Netflix recommendations and reviews. That and Donnie Yen was in it. Great actor, very graceful, very quick, and nice to look at. (Iron Monkey is one of my all time favorite films.)
This film spanned two DVDs, and looked like it had been set up as some sort of mini-series, or else the theater allowed intermissions. The music was Asian-dramatic and there were quite a few choices for languages. (I prefer the original language with english subtitles.) The audio was great. The editing . . . . well. I shouldn't comment. I've got an editorial eye now, and it was probably pretty good for the time. I just wondered if they rushed the whole post production process . . .
As for the story, nice and dramatic. And complex. Characters were introduced, forgotten, brought back later, and then disappeared again. The ending was a perfect setup for a sequel. Lots of action sequences, with quite a bit of pole fighting. It's a good one to see.
I could probably write up a sequence about what you need to have for a good martial arts film, but I haven't seen enough of them yet to find all the patterns.
I like Donnie Yen. He isn't slapstick like Jackie Chan, and isn't as violent as Jet Li, but he can be both serious and humorous in his films. I've always been impressed by his work.

I think I spent longer today at work than I did all week.

At least we got a lot done. A lot of dismantling, a lot of reassembling, a lot of lifting and maneuvering, a lot of cables tied and a lot of organization. It looks . . . well, professional. Gone are the three ancient power strips and a few cables that weren't connected to anything. Now there's two long power strips that run the length of each rack. All the cords and cables are neatly tied up - no tangled mess! We moved the TV, the cable boxes and the bulletin board computer into another rack and placed the new power supplies at the bottom of each one. Hopefully by Monday we'll have power to them. We got the relay switcher off the floor, the scan converter and modem have their own shelves. It just looks good.

Of course, all of this involved moving metal racks, hefting the power supplies (why are these things so HEAVY, anyway?) and grappling with a third rack while stripping it of some needed parts. I'm going to feel it later, I just know it. That's ok, it was worth it. I left them running out to Radio Shack to buy some parts to try and fix the audio problem, and they were already trying to plan out how to run ethernet down there next weekend.

Dave is my hero. :-D Hooray for volunteers who know what they're doing!

Monday, May 31, 2004

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Thursday, May 27, 2004

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