| shopping is a feeling |
[Nov. 27th, 2009|05:00 pm] |
Am I a Black Friday shopper? No, not really. I admit that I've spent half my day, and half of yesterday, at the computer, tracking good deals on my favorite shopping sites... and I do have five orders pending with Amazon, right now, and a couple with some other random places and I did get in one line this morning, but it was inside a store, and I only stayed in it for about 10 minutes, at which time I saw the item I was interested in, sell out. I laughed at the seven geeks in line outside Half-Price Books, and chuckled when I saw the limousine at the Dunkin' Donuts drive-thru... There are definitely parts of the craziness that I enjoy, but I'm not a big shopper. I did exchange my Droid for a new one, because of some weird whistling noise it was making. The set up process was surprisingly easy. I really do like Android. I also went out and cut down a christmas tree, and now it's time to clean up the tree stand and put that thing up.
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| wraptember |
[Nov. 20th, 2009|08:15 pm] |
The Droid has been pretty awesome, so far. The phone works. I just got my Google Voice invite, so we'll see how that affects things. It should, at least, open up some cool voicemail options. The web works. The apps work... though, the web apps still seem redundant, with such a good browser onboard. With the push gmail, I get notified on my phone before I even see it on the web; It's creepy. The navigation does the job. It does need some more options and features built into it... ability to customize routes or at least request shortest vs fastest or non-highway routes would be nice. The audio part is surprisingly functional. I miss the Sound Check and the ability to shuffle by album that I have on the iPod and I don't know if it has the battery life to use it the way I did on the trains all summer and since it also has to stay on all day as a phone.
This is the month where work usually wraps up... and that leads to the month when we wrap presents... and it will all blur into a month I will call Wraptember.
Those of you who plan on seeing Sarah and I when we're back east, claim your days now.
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| (An)droid. |
[Nov. 6th, 2009|07:28 pm] |
This is a test as much as it is a blog. I replaced my phone, today, with a Motorola Droid. This is one of the first android devices on Verizon as well as one of the first with android 2.0. It's a huge upgrade for me. I barely had web access, before, now I have a honest-to-goodness browser. I waited for android to come to Verizon and resisted the urge to switch to an iPhone, even when my enV's screen cracked.
The reviews are true. The keyboard isn't wonderful. The software keyboard isn't half bad, though... so I find myself flipping back and forth, for now. The app situation is weird. With such a nice browser, are the apps I'm downloading even necessary? I don't know the answer to this one, either. Another case of "time will tell." I loaded some music on it, but will it replace my iPod for the train rides to work in the summer or for car rides? Too early to tell. I've only used the camera to try out the Amazon price-matching app. I haven't even tried the GPS yet, and that's what really eliminated any doubt... the new, free, google-maps based turn-by-turn navigation.
So far, though, it's pretty awesome. I will keep you posted on my findings
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| I loved Freeway |
[Oct. 27th, 2009|09:55 pm] |
My mom found this. It was somewhere in her house, probably in the basement with a bunch of other old mail. I definitely played Freeway, a lot. Like any good addictive game, it would still be there, long after I stopped playing, when I closed my eyes. Seeing the picture and screenshot in the "Summer 1982 Activision Video Game Cartridge Catalog" made the memories come flooding back. Now I have to figure out what I should put the patch on.
The text of the letter:
Dear Fan of FREEWAY by ACTIVISION:
Congratulations! You guided your chicken through traffic at least 20 times, which qualifies you as an official member of the Activision "Save the Chicken Foundation." We are pleased to reward your traffic dodging achievemets with the enclosed patch.
Your name has been added to our mailing list and we will keep you posted on new Activision game cartridges as they become available.
Thank you for sharing your accomplishment with us. We hope you'll try other video games by Activision and write us about your experiences with them.
Yours truly,
Jan Marsella
Customer Relations
JM
Enclosure
PS. Please read the enclosed Heat Seal Instructions carefully. Children should not attempt to heat seal the patch to clothing. Improper use of an iron (or related appliance) may result in damage to clothing, or bodily harm. This patch may also be sewn to any fabric.
Also be sure to check out the scans of the Activision catalog at flickr.
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| flights are booked... and I hate pdfs |
[Oct. 21st, 2009|05:07 pm] |
So, I've had to create and send PDFs to coworkers this week. I hate PDFs. I believe that they are the devil's file format. Why would I sink to such a level, you ask? Because my boss doesn't have/can't operate Excel (and doesn't have the web savvy to use Google Docs). There's lots of rumblings about our boss, but that's really nothing new. I hate the feeling of instability it lends to my job, though. I'd totally go back to a tech job, if I could find one that was in a laid back environment and paid well... on the other hand, I'd really go for a position at a place with high ropes that had steady work for two or three seasons, even if it paid the same as I'm getting, now.
In other news, we'll be back on the east coast, doing the family thing and trying to catch up with all the people who I've neglected to see on my last couple trips that way from the day after Christmas until about the 30th. Let me know if you have time in there and want to reserve a day or evening, now.
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| morbid coincidence |
[Sep. 26th, 2009|10:39 pm] |
I found out, today, that Andy Jones died. I don't know any details. I don't know how to feel, yet. I have good memories of Andy Jones from high school. He was a talented dude. He had the ability to do whatever it was he chose to do, very well. He knew how to be excellent. He'll be missed. I dunno if I have a favorite Andy memory. The first thoughts about him that came to my head were about the band he was in called Split... and then about high school... show choir trips, nights in the barn ... and then I remembered running into him once at UMASS ... and then the last time I saw him, at a company christmas party a couple years ago, for a company that a couple of other friends worked for, including Drew. What kept popping into my head was how he had an almost word-association type reaction to certain bands. If I mentioned the Pixies, he'd say, "Man, whenever you mention the Pixies, I immediately think, 'Cariboooooooooooooou...' and whenever the Dead Milkmen came up, he'd say, "I have nothing against the Dead Milkmen, but there was this kid back in Indiana, and he loved that song Takin Retards to the Zoo, played it on repeat a lot, kinda turned me off to them..." There were so many in-jokes, ridiculous phrases and stuff that have absolutely no meaning, now, rattling around in my head...
I'm not sure if it's sad or not, but this news totally distracted me from the fact that it's been four years since my dad died. I think I would have gone the whole day without realizing it, if Sarah had not mentioned it. I'm not sure I realized it last year, but I think Sarah's mom might've mentioned it. The Dad memory that came to mind tonight, as we were driving home from our friend Jessica's housewarming party was about Dad giving me directions. It was one of those first trips that I took from Woonsocket to my parents' house. I was going to head back the way I came and I mentioned that there's probably some other road I could take that winds through Connecticut. Dad suggested a route. It was a couple windy roads that did exactly that. The best part was that he said "and you'll be on this road, and just about the time you say, 'where the hell am I?' you'll hit Route 44." And that is exactly what happened. I think I even said it out loud... not realizing that I was fulfilling his prophecy until the moment it happened.
I dunno what is more saddening... but the coincidence is morbid.
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| adult things |
[Sep. 16th, 2009|07:32 pm] |
Today, I fixed a leaky bathtub faucet. I don't think I've done much in the way of plumbing ever in my life... maybe taken off a faucet handle and then decided the job was too much for me or finding a leak, but then calling someone about it... or pouring drano down something. This was certainly the first time I ever actually fixed a leaky faucet. It was painless enough, even made me feel sort of accomplished.
Every time I see my prescription, specifically, the bottle with my last name on it, I think about my Dad... not some random thought, but something like "is that my Dad's bottle?" or "Why is one of Dad's prescriptions out here?" ... defying any logical thoughts about Dad being gone for several years now, or the fact that I haven't lived in the same house as my Dad for eight or nine years. My brain just can't see a bottle with my name on it and think that it's mine. Will I ever get used to having a prescription?
The ongoing health issues have prompted lots of discussion about health insurance and Sarah or I needing jobs that have real benefits. Drama being what it is around here, the discussions have often turned into fights or bouts of silent treatment. The whole thing has got me looking back into tech jobs. I cruise craigslist on a daily basis and send an occasional response to interesting looking positions; Haven't heard anything back from anyone, yet. It's not something I want to do. I swore to myself that I wouldn't take another desk job unless I was being paid substantially more than I was in Marlboro... but I was probably overpaid, given my technical qualifications, at the time. Either way, I was not healthy and not happy and I don't know what the consequences would be if I were to take such a job again. I don't want to sacrifice my mental well-being for the chance at better physical well-being. It makes me actually take some interest in this health care reform political stuff. I guess there isn't a chance that we'd have a universal, free-to-everyone system like the rest of the civilized world has, but it would certainly ease my mind of this issue, if we did.
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| still don't know |
[Sep. 12th, 2009|07:50 am] |
The Palm Pre is out of the running; I got to feel one at work and the keyboard is just too small. I'm a texter with big thumbs. So, it's back to a waiting game... wait for that first android phone's price and date to hit Verizon, the phone should be a Motorola with that spiffy new Motoblur UI slapped on top of Android ... or wait for the Nuvifone, which isn't Android and doesn't have a release date or price yet (or carrier, officially), but will almost certainly have the best GPS and probably handle gmail without any problems, at least. Or give in and get an iPhone; It's so tempting.
In other news:
Work starts back up soon, one meeting next week and then officially back to a regular schedule the following week. I think we have Fridays off this season.
Got the annoying clicking noise the rear wheel(s) of my car were making fixed... it took three tries, but we got it done. Now I hear every click and creak the car makes when I hit bumps and stuff... still need to do whatever needs to be done about the little ding in the windshield.
And we've been using our game consoles a lot over the break... picked up the X-Men Origins: Wolverine for xBox 360 and Fat Princess for PS3 ... and I might dig into our most recent purchase, Mini Ninjas during this last week off. Fall TV season be damned, we're playing our video games!
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| checking off old tasks |
[Sep. 7th, 2009|12:32 pm] |
Getting some stuff done in my seasonal break... including some stuff that's been on the list for a while. I upgraded wordpress to the latest version last night. Seems that all the other social media sites have made the blog one of the last things I focus on, but it's nice to be up to date. Still got some car stuff left to check off... and of course the stuff to buy section of the list, which includes a new wallet, watch and phone. Anyway, still enjoying my time off, even if I have gotten on a productive kick here and there.
In case you missed it. I made a silly, random tumblr called backsofpeople.tumblr.com and inserted it into the bottom of the right column of fashiondisaster.org. I made it open to submissions, too. I figure that I'm not the only one who goes through my photos and finds a bunch that I'd put up if they weren't so monopolized by a view of someone's back.
I was also approached by a band on Bandmix that needs a bass player, but the audition songs make me thing that I would not like playing in this group... it's basically country. I thought I specifically said that I'd prefer not to do country in my profile somewhere, but I guess they can't read. I should've known when they mentioned a Wynonna Judd song but said it was by Winona Ryder.
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| Which phone should I get? |
[Sep. 5th, 2009|02:34 pm] |
I have time, still nursing along my beaten and broken phone, but it's on my mind. Do I replace it now, before the work season starts? Do I wait? It seems like the sensible thing to do but not if I really don't want to carry both a phone and an iPod. How important is good GPS? I really only use it on vacations. Apparently, my phone saw me writing this and ran away... this makes all phones which had "wait" as an option, pretty much not an option, since I need a phone for work... unless it shows up at work tomorrow, that's the only place I went before it ran away. Phone turned up. Sarah knew where to look, she rocks.
iPhone
Pros:
available now
Apple hardware exclusivity means cooler peripherals possible
definite iPod replacement (only carry one device)
Sirius app
Cons:
switching to AT&T
higher plan cost
GPS apps aren't as good as a Garmin
no background apps without jailbreaking
no keyboard
Android (undecided on which exact phone, maybe the rumored Sholes)
Pros:
Open source
coming to Verizon in October, probably (no switching)
instant Google-ness
keyboard
Cons:
might not be an iPod replacement - dunno how music players on android are
Waiting for a verizon release or Switching carriers
GPS apps aren't as good as a Garmin
Nuvifone
Pros:
GPS is as good as a Garmin, it's a Garmin!
Cons:
probably not an iPod replacement - seems GPS/social-centric
have to wait AND probably have to switch carriers
next version is going to be Android
no keyboard
Palm Pre
Pros:
available now
a couple personal recommendations
Cons:
tiny-ass keyboard
switching to Sprint
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| downtime is good |
[Aug. 19th, 2009|12:32 pm] |
Weekend getaway to Wisconsin was great! We saw a good play, stayed at a nice hotel, ate some good food and played bingo... and I won $300! I'm glad we've made it a summer tradition to go to APT. We took the backstage tour on this visit and it was quite interesting. The costume storage is HUGE and the new indoor theater is awesome. Pictures: here.
And now I'm officially between seasons... doing a lot of sleeping in.
The outside screen on my phone broke during the last week of camp, so I really do need a new phone... do I wait for a good Android phone or give in to the immediate pressure and get an iPhone?
Also, early heads up: We will be heading back to the East coast sometime around Christmas and will be spending a little extra time so that I can catch up with all the people who've been missed the last couple times I was out there. So, let me know if you'll be around, so we can work something out.
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| bloodwork |
[Aug. 2nd, 2009|01:18 pm] |
Yesterday, I went to the lab and gave them a bunch of my blood so they can tell me all about my cholesterol levels and liver and kidneys and something called an A1C, which will tell me how my glucose levels have been for the last 3 months or so. I should have the results of all these tests at my doctor's appointment on Thursday. Being diabetic has stressful moments; The first couple weeks, especially. I went through a bunch of feelings of unfairness. I thought a lot about whether I could have prevented this if I'd had health insurance and been going to regular check-ups. I felt kinda guilty for eating like shit and not doing any exercise when I'm between seasons. The fact that I don't smoke or drink seems like such a useless health benefit, now. Just getting used to taking my blood sugar measurements and remembering to take my pill twice a day was a huge hassle. I've never really had a prescription, before, dealing with pharmacies kinda sucks.
I'm getting into the swing of things, now, though. I've made some simple changes to my diet, so far... no more regular sodas, experimenting with alternative sweeteners, making breakfast and lunch a more balanced and much more regular occurrence. Been thinking about ways to try and stay active between seasons. It's been going well, but I guess I'll find out on Thursday, if I have to do any more. We bought a couple diabetic cookbooks and I rediscovered hummus. I'll really, really miss my favorite sodas, but I'm sure I'll find a new favorite drink, sooner or later.
Anyway. The rest of the weekend included a delicious anniversary dinner on Friday night and an even more delicious birthday brunch and a party at our friends' new house with lots of presents and even more yummy food (it's hard to be 'good' when so much good food is around).
AND ... instead of our usual September journey back east, we're going to try to do a longer visit in the November~December time frame. I dunno exactly when, but around one holiday or another and a long enough visit to try and see everyone who we've missed on previous visits. Consider yourselves warned... more details will come as we get closer.
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| busy summer, as usual |
[Jul. 12th, 2009|11:30 am] |
Camp is going well. I'm taking lots of pictures, again, but we haven't made any decisions about where to put them, yet. If any go online publicly, I'll be sure to post a link. I bought a timbuk2 backpack to help alleviate some near-constant back pain. It's a great bag and quite comfortable. I still love my big messenger bag, but I'll save it for team-building programs.
I'm also back to trains and other public transportation for the summer and have been listening to a lot of music (and Half-Blood Prince, lately, in preparation for the movie). I like how the commute in the summertime gives me a chance to reconnect with my music collection. I'd still love to replace my phone (which still turns itself off quite a bit) and my iPod and the GPS with one device... but I don't know if I should wait for the Garmin phones to come out or just cave in and get an iPhone. So I'm still nursing my phone along and carrying both.
The wedding and trip out to Maine was fun. I haven't really had a chance to go through those pictures and pick out the best ones yet, but again, I'll post a link, when I do. I don't think I have another day off until camp is over... though, I may take a Saturday, next week or the week after. I'm LOVING my Macbook pro. I haven't completely set myself up on it and decided what programs I'm going to use for photo work and web work to replace my windows favorites (Paint Shop Pro and Homesite 5.5). It's an awesome piece of hardware, and I've already used it to do some stats work for adventure ed. and it was almost a pleasant experience. I've definitely gotten used to the trackpad and the multi-touch-ness.
I'm also eating a little healthier. When I'm picking out meals, I constantly think of the Dead Milkmen song "nutrition," which is fun to hum, but it's kind of a silly song. I'll get more into the reasons for this sudden health-consciousness when I've completely wrapped my head around it.
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| 'tween vacations |
[Jun. 15th, 2009|07:50 pm] |
'Tween season is ending. Camp orientation/training started today. Got a a good relaxing week in Wisconsin complete with Bingo, lots of Uno, a round of Mini adventure golf, a few boat rides, lots of good eating and a fair amount of laying around doing nothing. There are pictures. There will be yelp reviews, soon.
Macbooks down in price! Great timing! Cheap upgrade to Snow Leopard, too! Now, convince me not to switch to AT&T and get an iPhone ... or convince me to switch, turn-by-turn GPS was one of the things holding me back from the iPhone and I guess that's not an issue for much longer. I need a reliable phone ASAP. I'd love to wait for an Android phone on Verizon, but the chances that Verizon will cripple its coolness (app store and free access to all of googleness) is almost guaranteed... or convince me to wait and risk a few weeks of camp with a phone that turns itself off a few times a day. If I go all apple on hardware, will I be tempted by the apple counterparts to the Google stuff I use and love?
Looking forward to a trip out east next week... hope Sarah and I can shake our weird ailments before then.
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| Memorial day and trademarks |
[May. 30th, 2009|10:48 am] |
We were invited down to the southern end of Illinois for Memorial Day weekend by our friend Deborah. Her grandparents live down there on a lake that's heated by a coal power plant (though supposedly, the lake is there to cool the plant). It was a fun trip, full of large meals and the expected lake activities: boat rides, swimming, watercrafts. They own a couple jet skis that the whole family referred to as "Polarises." I kind of chuckled each time I heard it, but I guess it's the same as calling a photocopy a Xerox, or calling a tissue a Kleenex, or Band-aids or Q-Tips, though those are pretty common, now. I was just amused because when I hear Polaris, I think snowmobile... not as a generic term, but because I thought that was their main product. I wonder if some thing could've been a Yamaha or Kawasaki or LG if those companies had just focused on one product, instead of making everything. Actually, wasn't "jet ski" a brand name owned by Kawasaki for a while? I looked it up; It was! There are tons of "genericized trademarks," the examples they listed on wikipedia included Aspirin, Cellophane, Dry ice, Escalator, Kerosene, Laundromat, Linoleum, Thermos, Trampoline, Videotape, Yo-Yo and Zipper! I think some of the ones in their "still protected" list are pretty common, too: Bubble Wrap? Dumpster? Anyway, there are pictures at flickr ... some from the boat rides and some random shots from the City Museum detour that we took on the way home. It was raining, and they wouldn't let us go outside, so I didn't turn out my usual batch of just-under-a-million shots.
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| 'tween-season coming soon |
[May. 10th, 2009|08:23 pm] |
I am looking forward to sleeping in more than one day a week... and being able to take some mini-vacations. There's still all the season wrap stuff to get through, first, though. It seems an impossible task, right now, as I'm feeling completely exhausted. I guess that's to be expected after an overnight for work, followed immediately by the wedding of our friends Jessica and Jason. This week shouldn't be too bad. At some point, though, I need to start helping mom with her quilting shop web site.
Right now, sitting at the desk at the Y, all I can really think about is seeing Star Trek. I've heard so many good things about it... sure, some classic trek fans have their issues, but it's trying to reboot the Star Trek world, not continue it. With a bunch of the Fringe team behind the writing and production, it has to be good.
update: Star Trek didn't happen tonight, but we did a lot of research into how to set up a clothesline for Patti for Mother's Day. Hopefully we'll fit Star Trek in, tomorrow.
Good things coming up: more days off, mini-vacations, new Fable II downloadable content, macbook
In the bummer zone: Garmin announced more delays for the Nuvifone. The android phones are looking more and more attractive, even though they don't have turn-by-turn directions, yet. Unfortunately, the only android phone even rumored for Verizon has a crappy-looking keyboard. If I didn't think I'd miss the real keyboard, I'd already have broken down and gone with the iPhone. In the meantime, my phone is surviving... only shutting itself off once or twice a day.
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| I like vans. |
[Apr. 5th, 2009|08:15 am] |
I helped Doug pick up a new van, yesterday. It was a lot of work, since it had a wheelchair lift in it, that we didn't need and therefore, had to remove. I haven't driven it yet, but I'm sure it'll make the memories come flooding back. The most recent van memories are of the big passenger vans that I drove for the Y. Some of them were just big 15 passenger vans with a school bus sign slapped on top, and others were a little more bus-like, with rubber floors and an aisle. Whether it was bring kids to after-school day care from school or to a field trip for camp, they were always fun to drive.
( more van memories )
Yesterday was a long day, but so much of it stirred up fond memories. I guess it's the nature of vans, being so versatile, that you always have some custom attachments that you may or may not need... and you do a bit of converting and customizing, yourself.
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| retail-nesia |
[Mar. 29th, 2009|07:53 am] |
Almost everyone has experienced the phenomenon of forgetting everything you wanted to pick up when you actually walk into the store. The easy solution is a shopping list, of course, but shopping is not always a planned event. This happened to me Friday when we went to Half-priced Books. We had a few coupons... I couldn't think of anything I wanted. Maybe I download too much of my music and books, but I was completely blank. I looked around online today and found some stuff I'd probably enjoy picking up... mostly recommendations by Cory Doctorow and other BoingBoing writers. I'll have to make a list if I plan to remember them all, I know I'll blank out again if I don't... we're planning a return trip on our way to the movie theater to see Monsters vs Aliens in 3D.
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| upgrade anticipation |
[Mar. 22nd, 2009|10:12 pm] |
I have a time frame for the macbook upgrade. If I haven't done it by June 25th, it will happen that day. The fact that it is going to happen makes me hate the loud fans and uncomfortable weight of the Dell even more. I don't actually hate the Dell, it's had a bunch of good years, but it is time for the upgrade.
I don't have a timeframe for the phone upgrade. I was waiting for the nuvifone, but there isn't a release date for that yet, and the main reason I was leaning towards it was the GPS-centric nature of it. The word on the street is that the new iPhone OS will enable using the Google maps in other applications and allow turn-by-turn directions. I don't know if I can go Apple in such a big way... but the iPhone does have great customer satisfaction ratings and such. My phone turned itself off three times, completely at random, on Thursday... it is definitely time for that upgrade, but it also might not happen until the summer.
I don't know if it's actually going to be an upgrade, but we're supposed to switch from Dish to U-Verse next month. Our DSL is currently with AT&T, and it can't even handle streaming Netflix movies... I don't think we ordered any more speed, so it probably won't change, but the girl who set up the install sure did try to convince us that it was a newer, better, more exclusive dsl line. As far as I've heard, U-Verse is just TV over DSL. It's pretty likely that we're actually trying to squeeze TV and the internet over the same pipe and actually downgrading. We shall see.
This site's wordpress code is due for an upgrade, but I don't have any desire to do that. All of my little plugins are working fine. Maybe, if I get a little more into tumblr/twitter/etc. after the phone/macbook upgrade, I'll feel the need to tweak the code here to keep up with more mobile updates.
My car doesn't need any upgrades... I guess Doug's van is dead, though. We peeked at some craigslist ads for similar vehicles in our price range, but haven't started actively looking at anything yet. I've been using the Sirius in my car much more often, lately. I got an eMail from Sirius and I was tempted to buy the latest portable radio while I can still "lock in" the current rates. Who knows if Sirius will survive? I've done my part to support them. I resisted the urge by telling myself that the radio I had put in my car works fine and I don't need another portable music player... I like the idea of combining a couple devices, not adding one to carry around.
My camera also doesn't need to be upgraded, but I haven't used it much, lately. When I had time to be taking pictures, I was mostly playing video games. I'll bring it along on the field trips for work and maybe that'll respark my desire to shoot. Maybe a new toy would help... Or maybe I should get a Diana+ for myself, since it seems to be getting all the cool attachments and add-ons lately.
Upgrade fever is similar to Spring fever. All of our vacation planning is definitely keeping the typical spring fever symptoms at bay... unless vacation planning isa symptom of spring fever. Mom's coming up during my spring break, we've got a family vacation planned for early June and a wedding back east in late June... and we've yet to pick out a show, but we plan to hit APT/Theater in the woods again this summer. I guess there are a few weeks between the team-building season and the camp season that I haven't thought about, yet. There's always video games...
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| Movies and Music |
[Mar. 15th, 2009|08:40 pm] |
Reviews:
Watchmen. I read the comic book graphic novel on the Monday before it was released and saw the Movie on the following Sunday. I will say, first and foremost, that the movie captured most of the visual style and the mood and tone extremely well. I liked the realist take on what superheroes might actually be. ----- SPOILERS ----> The premise of an alien attack, even a really good-looking faked one, bringing the entire world together is a pretty strong concept. I wasn't entirely happy with the vilifying of Dr Manhattan and the additional irony/nuclear allegory thrown into the storyline with the whole "trying to recreate his power and then having it used as a weapon" concept. I think the faked alien attack would have been stronger, it was far more psychological weapon, even with it's lower death-toll. ----- END SPOILERS ----- I also think the mid 80s setting has much more meaning with people of my age and older. Without some research into the political climate of the times, a lot of references would go over younger peoples' heads. Still a strong movie, though, just a little watered down.
I Love You, Man. Got a couple free passes to a "sneak preview" last week. This one comes out in a couple weeks and I recommend you see it... especially if you like a slightly raunchy comedy. We may have to see it again, we were laughing so hard at some of the dialogue that we missed two or three more lines, which were probably just as funny.
The Decemberists - Hazards of Love. I got a chance to hear this one early and was impressed. I'm not a huge Decemberists fanboi or anything, but I have a couple of their older albums on my ipod. Their musicianship and arrangements are always interesting; I've never given the lyrics a thorough listen... but that's just the way I've listened to music, since about the time I started playing music myself. The single for this album caught my attention, since it was such a different style for them. It had much more bite, and lyrics that even drew me in. This album really is, as the buzz insinuates, a Rock Opera. After a very slow build-up (the first couple of tracks) it's got a healthy dose of "Arena Rock" style... which was really unexpected, but fits with the classic rock operas. There's still plenty of that classic Decemberists vocal interval, but instead of seeming redundant, it just strengthens the rock opera feel. There are plenty of other recurring musical themes. The almost cliche-sounding guitar solos, organ solos and sometimes simply the choice of effects are almost a recurring theme to themselves. Whatever you call it, it sounds like it was fun to play, and from what I've heard of the lyrics, it sounds like a strange little story, too.
We had a Transporter movie marathon at the house yesterday (I did end up taking the day off)... and I can review all three of those in about one word: redonkulous. ...which is not to say that they aren't fun to watch... but you can only cram so many over-the-top car stunts, gun stunts and striptease-fights into one sitting before your brain turns into twinkie filling.
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efdisaster's journal