Erik suckered me into reading another of his slightly-off books: Gil’s All-Fright Diner Pretty neat, little book, read over 2 hours in 2 days. The premise is essentially a folksy, redneck buddy tale, but these two buddys Duke and Earl (yeah, ask Erik says, “You gotta know something’s up when the two main characters are named Duke and Earl”), they happen to be a Werewolf and a Vampire. Redneck Werewolf and Vamipire… ...
This book bothers me, but it’s not book’s fault. Yes, like most self-help books, it’s overwritten and it restates the obvious – you have to learn to say ‘No’, even if you’re a Christian. This is similar to other self-help genres: You must live within your means to stay solvent, and eat less while exercising to lose weight. It’s not like these things are rocket science. Thing is, I have boundary issues, but for a weird reason: I’m very, very selfish. For most of my life until I became a Christian, if something benefitted me or made my life easier, even if it was WRONG, I could rationalize it. This lead to me being a friendless, fat, whiny, sociopathic, self-righteous sot. Envision Comic book guy, and you’d have me, circa 14 years old: ...
The Bag of Holding: “Got your top 5? Good. Now find out who made each of them. Send the creator a letter of thanks, and make it sincere. If appropriate, send a small cash donation, anything you can afford.” My list: BMW Timex Sage Firefox Ruby Yup…nothing like the proper tool.
The powers that be bought the whole regular employee cadre tix to the matinee of Superman Returns. I hated it, but then I didn’t care for the first 4. The movie comes (in the dc comics reality) after the events in Superman II, but prior to those of Superman III. Superman left 5 years ago to investigate the last-known position of Krypton, his homeworld, only to find the world has all but forgotten him and that his former love has a new live-in man and a 5-year old kid. ...
Dropped the beamer at Paul’s foreign auto (2nd street & MLK ) and then walked the 2.5 miles back to Lexmark in about 30 minutes. Good exercise for my pulled hamstring and just good “me” time. Read John Eldridge’s Wild At Heart over the weekend I must say, REALLY challenging book, written like a bad Freshman Composition paper. How shall we convince our audience to get off the couch and be real men? Let’s quote a bazillion “Real men” and make constant appeals to emotion. Let’s move from that to some Dave Ramsey-esque personal anecdotes that (obviously) apply to everyone out there. Let’s speak of broad vistas, of mountain climbing, kayaking, and other rather extreme sports. Did some of John’s buddies die doing those sports? Yep…but hey, that’s the point right? Life’s an adventure, not a burden. ...
Now that I’m a whole month removed from having one of the coolest cars of the last decade, I have some downsides for all those of you considering a MINI purchase. The 02-04’s are garbage. BMW came to Oxford, England and converted a plant with…ahem…“sufficient” build quality to build a 21st century automobile. They simplified the mechanicals and did constant improvements, even amid model years. Get an 05 or 06, especially if you’re getting an ‘S’. ...
I’m typing this on my new, ultra-portable 3.8lb Dell D410. The company isn’t shy about providing us with computers, particularly those from our closest parter. I like it so far; it has no drive bays, but a full compliment of ports and the biggest battery I’ve ever seen…9-cell lithium-ION. Basically, this is the machine that’s to replace all my paper, etc. Probably the best thing is it has integrated 802.11g wireless, freeing me from popping a PCMCIA card in and out of the chassis to put it in the bag. ...
As I sit at my desk on a sunny day, I’m contemplating Murphy’s law, which states that whatever can go wrong will, at the worst possible time. :-) today, would seem like that day. I came in this morning to merge and commit some changes to the library, and then do about 3 hours of administrative/clerical stuff that needed to be done, helping out my programmers as needed. Yeah, about that… ...
link Whitney and I ran out to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire matinee at Georgetown Theatres yesterday, and I’m of two minds about it: On one hand the acting, individual scenes, effects, and “wizard world” are all stunning, but on the other, the movie is unsatisfying. I attribute that dissatisfied feeling to the underlying book itself. “Goblet of Fire” transitioned the series from the Harry story-arc to the rise of Voldemort, and the movie makes a briefer trail through the same ground. ...
The new Golf and Jetta weren’t just late to the U.S. they were several model years late. And to make matters even worse, VW dealers were fending-off irate customers who were saddled with quality problems from the get-go. And those customers rewarded VW for their callousness by abandoning the brand in droves - never to come back. taken from: Peter’s latest Rant I am Volkswagen’s ideal customer. Or, at least, I used to be. I really wanted a BMW, but I couldn’t afford one. (I argue no one can really afford a new one, but that’s another topic for another day!) The VW Jetta Mk.IV was like a baby 3-series, solid, serene, teutonic, and just snobby enough to be above the rice-burners from Honda and Nissan. ...
“Jumping the Shark” v. To achieve a moment where people realize “it’s all downhill from here”. On ER two weeks ago, they treated a chimp. A CHIMP. ugh. John Leguizamo’s character is awful, and Kristen Johnson is trying hard, but her character makes the show suck. Luca and Abbey are the only decent characters remaining. For more details Jump The Shark
went on a book-reading bender from 3-8 today and read all of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince 600+ pages at a sitting can cause brain warpage, so forgive me if this rambles. Also, this probably has SPOILERS, so don’t read on if you want to read the book for yourself. Now in his 6th year at Hogwart’s, Harry’s moved past pissy adolescence into likeable pre-adulthood. Ron, Hermione, and the other Gryffindors are learning about life and love, all while the wizarding world explodes with death and intrigue as Lord Voldemort reigns again. ...
A book on loan from my friend the Mac fiend, this is the first in a series by Roger Zelazny, and it’s a quick involving read at only 176 pages. The guy’s terse and vivid and the action never stops, but I found the basic premise to be so much Fantasy that the characters were hard to get into. Basically, the idea is that there’s one “true” city (Amber) and that all the other universes and dimensions are “shadows” of that one. Amber’s ruled by a central monarchy, and that monarch has died (or…something…). Anyway, the remaining 9 boys and 6 girls of his brood all fight it out to see who can recapture the throne. ...
Ah, the unloved Toyota Echo: Basically, this is the car that spawned Scion. Styled by Toyota’s California design center as the replacement for the utilitarian Tercel, this bug-eyed, misproportioned design is the camel of the automotive world: Better in most respects than competitors, but it’s UGLY! And so it is…these same underpinnings form the chassis of the Scion Xa and Xb. It has tiny wheels, but since it only weighs 2000lbs, the 108hp engine feels powerful. ...
Had an epiphany about why I like Fox’s “Hell’s Kitchen” and NBC’s “Apprentice”: People get fired. In today’s professional world, mediocre performers remain year after year, bringing down the average productivity of the group. Because there’s no turn-over, there’s no real incentive to replace those people who’ve lost their edge with fresh faces with new ideas. There’s a very real thrill associated with seeing white-collared folks dealing with the same crap (job insecurity, performance requirements) that blue-collar folks deal with every day.
Mr & Mrs Smith, starring Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt was one of the most entertaining and genuinely funny movies I’ve seen in a long time. A preposterous mismash of “Spy versus Spy” and The War of the Roses, the film hinges upon the genuine chemistry between Jolie’s type-A techno spy against Pitt’s type-B, shoot-from-the-hip spook. Okay, these are two of the sexiest people on earth, and they’re given this kind of premise. This movie’s going to sell popcorn :-) ...
Lost tonight was an immense waste of time…we learned nothing about what’s really going on, and I’m really ceasing to care about most of these characters.
Why I love my GTO
Nausicaa is one of Miyazaki’s best animes, and it was my pleasure to watch the re-released US version yesterday. The film combines many of miyazaki’s important themes, like environmentalism, the evils of technology, and the general stupidity of humanity about all things environmental. Unlike some other Miyazaki films like “Spirited Away”, this is an action movie, following the princess of the valley of the wind, Nausicaa, as she flies in her glider, dodging bullets and two warring factions from what remains of humanity 1000 years after a nuclear war. ...
Spanglish is a revelation: Touching, genuine, intimate, and involving, it’s the “small” picture at its best. The story is one of integration and separation, as a single latino mother (the stunning Paz Vega) makes a way for herself and her daughter in the swankiest parts of Los Angeles, amid a family tearing itself apart. The mother is a control-freak basket-case (Tea Leoni, taking a page from Annette Benning’s character in American Beauty), the father (Adam Sandler) an irresolute chef afraid of his own restaurant’s success. Their two children are amazingly well adjusted, considering. ...