Monday – 20 July 2009
I was up far later than I should have been last night. Hopefully, the caffeine will save me. On the other hand, I managed to modify a few interior wall textures for my ‘Clix city that will give me a little more variety in my buildings.
Last night, Logan came over for dinner; SaraRules fixed chicken mole – it was good with a bit of a spicy kick. After dinner, we walked over to Target to find some updated cards for Trivial Pursuit. There were none to be found, but they had the “25th Anniversary Edition” for $30. We decided to walk to the Wal-Mart to see what they had to offer; if nothing else, we had to walk back past Target to get home, so we could always pick it up on the way back. While the Wal-Mart didn’t have 25AE, they did have the “Best of Genus” edition. And it was only $20. Win. We headed back home and played – I won, SaraRules came in 2nd, and Logan brought up the rear.
So far, the morning has been pretty quiet. Let’s hope the rest of the day follows suit.
Friday – 17 July 2009
It’s kind of odd to be at work on a Friday. Well, not entirely odd, as I do it every other Friday, but this is the first Friday that I’ve worked in a month, thanks to harmonic convergence the way that my 9/80 Fridays and the Fourth of July worked out. Fortunately, it’s most coworkers’ 9/80 day off, so it should be rather quiet around here.
Reeling by on Celluloid
I chatted with MarknTyme this morning about the Cool World/Long Kiss Goodnight Scale. I was looking for an icon to represent that scale in the same way that I use the red LEGO brick for thigns that I like. Both he and had suggested using Mega Blox, since they are a LEGO knock0ff. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a picture of a single Mega Blox (Blok?), so that became a moot point. MarknTyme then suggested a Lawn Dart. That seemed to fit better – “Aiming for the target… but just missing the mark.” So, I give you the official icon for the CW/LKG Scale: The Lawn Dart.
We also hammered out a few other points about the scale:
The standard, as put by MarknTyme, is: “…the worst movie I paid full price to see.”
It’s a “mirror” of the normal scale, with Cool World as the -10 and Long Kiss Goodnight at -1
The worse a movie is, the more darts it gets.
Regardless of whether some other movie rates a -10, Cool World will retain it’s spot as the “name” at the bottom end of the scale. It’s tradition, after all.
Allowances can/will be made to add rented movies to the scale. (I’m looking at you, The Spirit…)
And, with that out of the way…
Last night, Logan came over for dinner. While eating, we watched Krull, a movie that I’d never seen before, but that SaraRules and Logan watched – fairly often, I took it – while growing up. It was a bit dated, in terms of special effects and it didn’t have the greatest acting or dialogue, but it was still amusing and entertaining. Even more of a shock to me – no, lj user=”applevenus” , not a shocker – was to discover that the lead actor, Kenneth Marshall, later went on to portray Lt. Cmdr. Michael Eddington, an antagonist of Capt. Benjamin Sisko, on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Also in the movie were a younger Liam Neeson and Robbie Coltrane. While this was a “fun” movie, it wasn’t a “great” movie. Thus, it gets the dubious honor of being the first movie to get darts from the CW/LKG Scale:
After Krull, we watched The Day the Earth Stood Still. No, not the Keanu “Whoa… I know alien invasions” Reeves version; we watched the 1951 classic version. It was definitely a movie of its era: Full of Cold War suspicion and platitudes about the power – and danger – of using atomic energy. It was also amusing to note the way the military “protected” the general public from the enigmatic visitor, as well: Klaatu’s spaceship landed in President’s Park, in Washington, D.C. The public, after the Army established a cordon around the ship, stood right behind the firing line. Let’s look at why this is funny to me:
Spaceship in the park. (Okay, this one isn’t funny by itself, but bear with me.)
Army forms a circle around the spaceship. (Now we’re getting somewhere…)
All weapons (small arms and heavy artillery) are pointed towards the center of the circle
The general public was standing – between 25 and 50 feet – around the perimeter of the circle.
Apparently, no one was worried about ricochets or “collateral damage.” *shrug*
All-in-all, I can see why this movie is considered a staple of “classic science fiction.” It was a good movie and kept me both entertained and engaged.
Stray Toasters
Yep. I’m a Legion fan. And, a freely-acknowledged overgrown kid. Need proof? I just ordered this.
DC Comics’ summer event, Blackest Night, kicked off on Wednesday. If it maintains the pace set by its first issue, this is going to be very good.
In a related note, a couple of months ago, asked me why I’m such a big Green Lantern fan and how I came to be one. It took me a few moments to formulate a fully-realized answer, but I came up with one:
I had read comics with Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) in them as a kid and I also remembered watching him in various incarnations of Super Friends on Saturday mornings. His power: He had a ring that could create anything that he could imagine. He had the ultimate answer in “wish fulfillment,” almost literally in the palm of his hand. Years later, I bought issues of Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps, because I liked the character and the space-faring adventures.
Fast forward to 2001… Cartoon Network brought the Justice League back to the screen in animated form. The show focused on DC’s seven “big guns”: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Martian Manhunter, The Flash, Hawkgirl and Green Lantern. This time, however, they didn’t use Hal Jordan; they went with another Earth-based Lantern, John Stewart. As Bruce Timm put it:
He’s the most controversial character so far from what we’ve been gathering on the Internet. When the show’s lineup was first announced, there were a lot of people saying, “Why aren’t they using Hal Jordan? No, it’s got to be Guy Gardner. No, it’s got to be Kyle Rayner.†Obviously, we picked the wrong one, but the reason we did choose John Stewart are various—I think they’re all valid. Right off the bat, I’ll just say it: you know we did need ethnic diversity in the Justice League. We felt that the show is going to be seen worldwide and I think having a member of the Justice League who is not just “Mr. White Bread†is a good thing.Another reason why we chose him: literally, out of all the Green Lanterns we could have chosen, we all kind of liked the John Stewart character from the comics, especially the Denny O’Neil / Neal Adams version. When they first introduced him he was like the angry young black guy…you know, in 1969 and 1970. Even though that’s not really relevant today—like the whole Black Power movement and everything—we still wanted to keep that kind of edge and attitude with him.
And so, just in banging around ideas of what to do with him, going back to the original idea of the Green Lantern Corps—where they’re basically Lensmen [the pulp characters created by E.E. “Doc†Smith]—they’re space cops, they’re space marines. We’re like, “Okay, he’s a military guy.†And then somebody said, “Louis Gossett Jr.—An Officer and a Gentlemen.†I said, “Yeah,†and I went, “Wait a minute—Samuel L. Jackson,†and everyone went, “Yeah!†So that’s kind of who he is. He’s a real rugged, no-nonsense, barking orders kind of Green Lantern—and we love him to pieces. We love him so much [that] he’s like in almost every episode. I predict that you guys are going to love him too.
And he was right. I did… and still do. It was great to not only have a Green Lantern on the team, but to have one who was Black brought something else to the table: A role model, of sorts, for kids (and at least one or two adults I know). It was good to see someone of color portrayed on-screen with a positive influence and not just “guy on the street” or “thug of the week.” That – and the way that the character was developed in both the animated series and in comics – only helps to cement John Stewart as a favorite character of mine.
Thursday – 16 July 2009
Another NBN Thursday gets under way. So far, it hasn’t been too bad; hopefully, that trend will continue.
Last night, SaraRules and I watched Bride and Prejudice, a Bollywood-esque remake of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. (Likewise, it is not to be confused with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.) I enjoyed the costumes and the locations… and even the song and dance numbers. And, although it was “the same role,” I liked the portrayal of the mother in this movie far more than the one in Pride and Prejudice. It has been a long time since I watched a Bollywood movie with ; this was a nice change of pace from the movies that we’ve seen recently. All-in-all, this movie was just… fun.
Workout
Wes and I hit the gym at lunch, for a basic recap of Tuesday’s workout:
Decline Sit-ups: 3 sets/15 reps
Bench Press: 3 sets/10 reps, 205 lbs
Bench Flys (dumbbell): 3 sets/10 reps, 30 lbs
Compound Row: 3 sets/15 reps, 145 lbs
Tricep Extensions (rope): 3 sets/15 reps, 90 lbs
Dips: 2 sets/10 reps
This morning’s weight: 184 lbs
Stray Toasters
MarknTyme sent me a link to this, which made me smile:
Tuesday – 14 July 2009
If you couldn’t guess by today’s title, it’s Bastille Day.
Yesterday, SaraRules went to have her bridal portraits taken. From the stories she related when she got home, it was an experience. A fun one, but an experience, nevertheless. While she was off playing supermodel, I hung out with her grandparents, who are in town for a few days. Sitting with them and trading stories was a nice way to spend the evening.
Stray Toasters
I got two walls of the kitchen added to my new model last night. I also rediscovered why you should always “Measure twice, cut once” when constructing (or even destroying) something: I have a wall section that looks like it’s going to be about ” shorter than I had planned. It’s a small enough difference that I could let it go, but I will most likely recut one wall.
Monday – 13 July 2009 Waking up and getting up
Has never been easy
…especially when you start to fall asleep on the sofa…
…and then have a hard time falling asleep when you get into bed…
…and the first alarm doesn’t trigger your “I should get out of bed” senses.
But, other than that, it’s been a decent morning.
Last night’s Tower of Power concert was fun. SaraRules and I took her father as his belated Father’s Day present; he had a ball. We also ran into Paul (my boss) there; he grew up in Sacramento and has been a ToP fan for many, many moons. He enjoyed the concert, too.
Stray Toasters
I think that my mother just signed up for Twitter…
Saturday – 11 July 2009
It’s 7-Eleven Day. Go to your local Sev and get your free Slurpee®!
Last night was another night of broken sleep, which is particularly interesting/disturbing as I went to bed much later than I had originally planned. It took me a long while to drift off and once I finally did, I had at least one rather unsettling dream, which made the rest of my sleep rather… dodgy. Fortunately, there’s coffee.
Yesterday was mostly an errand-running day. We also headed back to Hobby Lobby, where I picked up another toy – Foamwerks’ Rabbet Cutter – and a few sheets of foamcore (it was 50% off). And, for the record it’s “rabbet,” not to be confused with “rabbit.” I am going to try using foamcore as a structural component in my next building, cutting the board to make the walls and applying the appropriate WWG sheets to the interior and exterior walls. I’ve seen a few people do it and it looks nice and solid.
Thursday – 09 July 2009
It’s supposed to be an NBN Thursday and my technical Friday… but this morning, it was pushing the envelope. That’s not entirely true: GoogleTalk was a righteous pain in the keister this morning. For some reason, it decided to tell iChat and Adium to “Sod off!” It’s working now. So, all things considered, it’s still a good day.
Last night, while SaraRules went off to a Zumba class, I fired up City of Heroes and patrolled Paragon City with a pick-up team. The mission level was “a little high” on the first mission we ran, but the others went well. By the time it was all said and done, I had tacked a couple more levels onto Khnurn.
This morning, someone came over and commented about how large my monitor (the 42″ TV) is. I retorted that it is, in fact, large. He asked if it was for a project; I told him that it “kind of” was. He asked if it was for work or personal. At this point, I had a very quick internal monologue… that somehow managed to stay internal:
“Is this for a personal project?”
Come on. Rub two – JUST TWO – brain cells together and get a synapse or two to fire. If this was for a personal project, don’t you think that someone (ANYONE!) – from my manager all the way up to one of the execs – would have said something and/or repossessed it long before now? Idiotstick.
It didn’t help that this was one of my “not-as-favored-as-others” coworkers. *sigh* Monkeys.
Then I had a presentation to give in today’s staff meeting. That went well. At least, I think it went well. And really, that’s all I am concerned with right now.
Item One: I just found out, by way of , that Keanu Reeves will be portraying Spike Spiegel in the upcoming live-action Cowboy Bebop movie. (Details here.) While his rough/stilted acting(?) style didn’t really hurt his portrayal of John Constantine in the movie that thankfully was not called Hellblazer (because maybe they’ll try again someday… and get it closer to “right”), I just don’t see him pulling off the cool and casual swagger of Spike.
The conversation went like this:
[12:54] :Â http://io9.com/5132554/neo-goes-bebop
[12:54] : No.
[12:54] : No.
[12:54] : Just…. No.
[12:54] : DO NOT WANT
[12:56] : why stop there, really?
[13:00] : vin diesel could play jet black. lindsay lohan as faye. tom cruise as vicious. bjork as edward.
[13:00] : the taco bell chihuahua as ein.
[13:01] : (marketing tie-in)
[13:01] : You’re not making it any better.
[13:03] : i’m only doing it to cover up the sobbing inside.
[13:05] Tears of a Clown to Bebop fans everywhere…
Item Two: Is it just me or does Google Chrome’s icon look like it was separated at birth from HALO‘s 343 Guilty Spark?
Tuesday – 07 July 2009
Waking up this morning wasn’t exactly “the easiest” thing to do. I delayed it a bit, but still managed to be at work by 8:00. George Clinton and the Parliament Funkadelic provided the soundtrack to the morning commute.
I talked with Rana for a bit last night; she’s about seven weeks from giving us Niece or Nephew #2; Adam and Chelsea provided Nephew #1 last year. A little later, SaraRules and I went for a walk around the neighborhood. By the time it was all said and done, we had put in a little under 1.75 miles. It was a nice change of pace.
Monday – 06 July 2009
A new work week begins. Not too oddly, when the alarm went off this morning, I didn’t want to get out of bed. However, “Time and tide…”
Yesterday, SaraRules and I went out so that I could do a little shopping. While out, we stopped at a 7-11 and tried the “Liquid Artillery” Slurpee®, their fourth movie tie-in flavor in the past two months. After that, we had coffee with Perry, followed by dinner with SaraRules’ family. After dinner, we watched Futurama: Bender’s Big Score. It was fun, but more like an extended episode of the show.
Once we got back home, I logged into City of Heroes while SaraRules did some quilting. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a team to join, so I mostly wandered through Paragon City. After game/quilting time, we watched a movie left over from Bad Movie Night: Undead or Alive – a zombie western. It was fun… and funny. In fact, one of my favorite parts of the movie came in the first minute (maybe minute-and-a-half) of the film – during the intro text. It wasn’t a “great” movie, I’d still put it on the Cool World/Long Kiss Goodnight Scale, but it’s probably an 8 or 9 on that scale. (Man, I really need to figure out an image to use for the CW/LKG Scale…)
Stray Toasters
sent a link to “Blasted Behavior,” which features the Star Wars characters… in therapy.
This weekend’s Riverwalk Jazz featured an adaptation/interpretation of The Wizard of Oz. While listening to it, I realized that I have never read that book.
I just received confirmation that my new jersey has shipped. I had been thinking of getting a new one for a while, but hadn’t committed to it. Steve McNair’s passing cemented the decision.
04 July 2009
Today is Independence Day in the U.S. Let’s all take a moment to thank The Fresh Prince and The Fly for repelling the alien invasion that threatened to destroy all human life on Earth.
Yesterday was a very lax day for SaraRules and me. That lasted until mid-afternoon, when we did another round of “Closet Cleanout.” We have five or six bags of significant size full of clothes that are ready to go to The Salvation Army.
Before coffee, we visited Kate, Perry and the kids. They were having a cookout with some of their neighbors, which may have also included a few pyrotechnics. From there, it was on to Clitorati. There were nine or ten of us there.
Part of last night’s coffee conversation centered around the question: “Are the crunchy bits inside a fig seeds or wasps?” pointed out that they are, in fact, wasp larva. This prompted a little more investigation. How Stuff Works (not too surprisingly) has an article called Are Figs Really Full of Baby Wasps?, which serves up a more complete truth on the matter.
Friday – 03 July 2009
Last night, we went out to dinner with SaraRules’ family, to celebrate her mother’s birthday. Post-dinner, we headed to her parents’ house for a birthday cake pie – a rich, multi-layered chocolate affair that SaraRules made from scratch, including a crust made from crushed nuts. It was very good and VERY rich.
Back at home, we vegged. After watching a bit of TV… and having the TV watch me, as I nodded off on the couch… I finished up my new ‘Clix building.
Sleep was intermittent; it felt like I woke up eleventy billion times during the night.
Stray Toasters
One of the designers from WorldWorks Games is a Transformers fan. He still is, even after seeing the new movie; but he wrote a review that made me smile.
Wednesday – 01 July 2009
A new month begins… with a brief rain shower.
Yesterday, SaraRules, Marci, Wes and I hit the gym at lunchtime for a short workout:
Sit-ups: 3 sets – 20/10/10
Bench Press: 3 sets/10 reps, 205 lbs
Incline Chest Press: 3 sets/10 reps, 80 lbs
Reverse Flys: 3 sets/110 lbs
Curls (dumbbell): 3 sets/10 reps, 30 lbs
Post-workout weight: 185.4 lbs
Last night, SaraRules and I watched Vantage Point, by way of Netflix’ “Instant Queue” on the 360. Streaming movies on a game console… over the Interwebs. Who knew?! The movie depicts the attempted assassination of an American President from eight points of view. It was an interesting concept and it was pulled off fairly well. We realized, after the movie was done, that this was the second consecutive movie that we’ve seen with Forest Whitaker in it wherein his character’s life intertwines with other characters’ lives in an unusual synchronicity, the first being The Air I Breathe.
After the movie, I did a little more work on my ‘Clix building. All of the walls are up, now I just need to put the main roof and the lobby roof on and add a few tiles of water and it will be complete.
This morning, I really didn’t want to get out of bed when the alarm went off. But, I did. And took care of the morning hygiene rituals. And, as I was finishing with the work-prep, I turned on the TV… and Breakin’ was on. And, yes, I did stop and watch a bit of it.
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