Sunday : 17 September 2006
Another weekend draws to an end. It’s been a good one. I saw a couple of movies, The Black Dahlia and Everyone’s Hero, over the past couple of days. While I mostly enjoyed Dahlia, it was a little… confusing at points. There were times when it was a little difficult to tell who was talking about whom (or what). There were things that seemed to be thrown in for no other reason than to have something to say or do. I am curious about how much of the novel they used and how much “creative license” they took with the material. On an aesthetic level, I must admit that the movie looked really good. Everyone’s Hero was a fairly light-hearted kids’ movie. It played a little fast-and-loose with baseball history, but I really wonder how many kids – or even their parents – will actually look up the facts about the 1932 World Series. The film featured the voices of many well-known actors and actresses. The moral was the time-old “give it all you’ve got” story. The animation was not quite what I expected. It wasn’t bad, but it was… different. One thing that I did like was the way that Chicago looked. I’m not sure whether or not the animators were trying to portray it both in the style of the movie and in the way that the ten-year-old protagonist saw it, but whatever it was… it worked for me. Something else to note about the movie: It was directed by the late Christopher Reeve and featured the voice of his late wife, Dana, as Yankee Irving’s mother, Emily.

Ravens Update

Oakland at Baltimore
6 – 28
The Raiders came to Charm City looking to avenge their loss to San Diego and claim a 1-1 record.Oops.

Apparently, no one told them that Baltimore has an offense now. An effective offense. One that doesn’t rely on the defense or special teams to score all of the points. An offense who came ready to play. And win.

This isn’t to say that they were perfect. The Ravens were assessed a lot of unnecessary – and stupid – penalties. But they didn’t let it stop their momentum. Both the offense and the defense worked as cohesive units and worked the field on both sides of the ball. Steve McNair was poised in the pocket. He took his time and didn’t rush plays; on one down, he saw that none of his passing lanes were open and ran for good yardage. Last week, Haloti Ngata had his famous 60-yard interception return. This week, Kelly Gregg and Ray Lewis got in on the action.

On the Raiders side, I have to commend QB Andrew Walter. After starting QB Aaron Brooks was pulled from the game (two fumbled snaps and a shoulder injury), Walter came in the Raiders’ offense. He’s only in his second year in the NFL, but he had the poise and control that Ravens fans had hoped that Kyle Boller would have shown. He’s definitely going to be someone to watch.

The Adventures of Indigo Bolt
I managed to work my way from 230K points of XP debt down to 15K. And I only have 800K to go before Security Level 44. (I don’t think that I would have ever imagined myself saying “only 800K” with respect to earning experience.) No idea what power I’ll pick up next. And, given how long it took me to figure out what to do about my fourth costume, I might want to start giving some thought to what the fifth costume will be.

Stray Toasters

  • I got an email from this morning; he and Sib1 made it safely to Nepal.
  • I also talked with Sib3 for a bit this evening; all seems to be well in Mid-America.
  • Cryptodox – The Online Encyclopedia for Cryptograhpy and Information Security
  • Congrats to for Cincy’s win in today’s Ohio match-up.
  • Commiserations to for the same.
  • One Fan’s Opinion: Erik Larsen talks about how to introduce a non-comic book reader to comics.
  • Don’t forget: Tuesday, 19 September 2006 is Talk Like a Pirate Day
  • Is Anne McCaffrey running out of dragon-related things to write about? I saw a copy of what I took to be a relatively new book of hers: Dolphins of Pern. Dolphins?!

Goodnight, Mr. and Mrs. America and all the ships at sea.

Namaste.