An honest to God beaver shot on every page!
| 2002/12/27 | |
| 12:39 | Link |
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The Strange Case of Dr. Safedrive and M. Piedlourde (Mr. Heavyfoot) Monday and Thursday this week, I engaged in the longest road trips I had ever made. The drive was from Hoboken, NJ, USA, to Ottawa, ON, Canada. On the way up, my route took me up through Montreal and then west to Ottawa. On the way back, I was aiming to avoid the large snowstorms up and down the Northeast, so I went west to the Thousand Islands and came down through Scranton, then east to Hoboken. Both legs were roughly seven to eight hours long and gave me plenty of time to make a few observations:
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| 12:37 | Link |
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Flossing Butts This is why being a girl is fun. Well, maybe a geek girl. Cafe Press has thongs now. Can I really let that pass without doing something with it? | |
| 2002/12/25 | |
| 13:11 | Link |
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Merry Christmas and all other alternate holidays and stuff and...  Courtesy of Dani. | |
| 2002/12/19 | |
| 19:46 | Link |
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Sunday School in LEGOland Some people go to the gym. Some people read books. Some people... Re-enact scenes from the Bible using LEGO. Courtesy of #!/usr/bin/girl. | |
| 19:21 | Link |
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Incentive to Stay I've been considering off and on the possibility of moving out of New York, but... I have to stay until October, at least, so that I can be around when the Colossal Colon comes to town. Courtesy of Xkot. | |
| 19:17 | Link |
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Switcher I really love the Apple Switch ads. They're fun to watch. Haven't bothered to look at any numbers to see how well Apple is doing in awhile, but the ads are amusing nonetheless. They're starting to take on the kind of momentum that the Got Milk? ads had, where parodies are popping up. For instance, take this Han Solo ad from http://www.theforce.net">theforce.net. Courtesy of *** Dave. | |
| 15:00 | Link |
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Side Effects of Women's Lib This isn't going to be particularly profound. It's really just an observation I made while doing Christmas cards this year. There's been a recent trend -- not a very strong one, mind you -- for a married woman not to take her husband's surname. I've got nothing against this. In fact, I wouldn't mind at all if my future wife -- whoever that might be -- didn't want to change hers. It'd certainly be easier on logistics all around. Except... What do I put on the Christmas cards? Some people I know, mostly the ones that I speak to often, but sometimes, I wonder.
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| 2002/12/18 | |
| 15:21 | Link |
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Raptus regaliter For anyone that's ever wanted to know how to say "I can't hear you. I have a banana in my ear," in Latin, here is a handy set of Latin phrases. According to the page, the title means "royally screwed" and the above phrase is "Te audire no possum. Musa sapientum fixa est in aure." | |
| 01:10 | Link |
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Woo! That felt good Haven't written that much in awhile. Felt good. Should do it more often. For now, I must sleep. Intervivew with a recruiter tomorrow afternoon. Wish me luck. Oh, and I'll be moving 27 December. I'll send out the new address then. Email me if you think you should have it. | |
| 01:08 | Link |
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The Line Party This was the first time I had been to an event like this. Except when I was working in a movie theatre back in high school, I had never gone to see an advanced screening. My general impression was that most of them were just people showing up at a theatre and watching the film. Maybe there would be some talking and some contests before the show or what-not. This was different. The evening started at 5:30 with dinner. I didn't arrive until 6:30, but that's my own choice/fault. By the time I got there, the people that I was meeting -- Dani, Rebecca and Liz, later joined by Carrie -- were already pretty much done with dinner and had moved into the after dinner conversation phase. The group had somehow managed to secure the entire lower level seating area of the Mama Sbarro's at 49th and Broadway, which made for lots of Italian food and a warm and festive atmosphere. There was excitement in the air and lots of anticipation. Dinner was followed by a costume contest with groupings of Elves, Hobbits, and Miscellaneous. An Arwen won the Elf category, a Frodo won the Hobbit category, and... wish I knew the name, the dead Dwarf in Moria won the Miscellaneous category. Yeah, some guy dressed up as the dead Dwarf. It was the most novel costume there and I wish he'd had better execution on the costume because I think he should have won instead of the Arwen. Allowing myself to be a little uncharitable for a moment, I think she won because she was... attractive. There was a raffle which, sadly, netted my friends and I nothing. We did get to see the guy that won the One Ring replica later in line and ogle it some, though. There was a written trivia contest, which I didn't participate in, though even with my limited knowledge, I was able to answer many of the questions. The trivia contest was continued at the theatre where they had six finalists in a rapid fire quiz and answer contest. The end of the activities at the restaurant was a parody skit taken from some fiction that had been written on a messageboard on the web. Having not been privy to the original exchange it was just amusing cheese, though I suspect the long time readers and posters probably got more out of it. Still, it was hard not to be amused by Boromir's insistence that he wasn't dead and the Kazoo of Gondor that sounded a lot like a giraffe dying. About 8 pm, the group loosely moved over to the Loews 42nd St. E-Walk near 8th Avenue. The line was pretty orderly and stretched down the street and around the corner at one point. My friends and I were able to snag a spot about 3/4 of the way down the line, which wasn't bad considering none of us had been hawkishly sitting on Paypal to reserve a spot in line at the 5 pm starting gun last Friday. Considering I had been on the waiting list, I was just happy to be in the line at all. The screening was held in one of the "smaller" theatres, which sat slightly over two hundred. It was all stadium seating and there really wasn't a bad seat in the house, except maybe some of the seats at the very front. We were able to get seats against the back wall, slightly off-center to the left. The view was great from the nosebleed seats. One of the nearby viewers actually got a nosebleed, though was able to get it under control before the movie began. I'm sure the previews helped. Though it was practically a private screening, the theatre decided to show previews anyway. So how many would you expect? Three? Four? Well, to whatever embarrassment my companions may have had, I pulled the Count Dracula stunt and counted each one. Eight! Eight previews! Ah! Ah ah ah ah ah! It was just... extreme. Eight. Nice auspicious number and all, but really, it's a little extreme. At this point, I can't even remember what they were anymore. I recall previews for Terminator 3, X-Men 2, Bad Boys 2, Final Destination 2, Bruce Almighty (a new Jim Carrey film where he gains the powers of God) and When Harry Met Lloyd: Dumb and Dumberer. Okay, maybe I recalled better than I thought I would. The previews were preceded by a short film for Coca-Cola. Basically an amusing commercial. I can deal with previews, but I really hate ads at movie theatres. After that, it was all movie. Booyah! My one regret evening was not meeting Cassie Claire. Should have had a "t00b" t-shirt made. | |
| 00:37 | Link |
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The Two Towers By the time I finish writing this, I imagine the people watching the midnight showings of The Two Towers will be just emerging from the theatres. For those who have been hiding under rocks for the past fifty years, The Two Towers is the second book in the Lord of the Rings trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkein, which was recently adapted for full-length (and then some) motion picture release, starting last December with The Fellowship of the Ring and ending next year (possibly) with The Return of the King. For starters, I'm glad that the loonies didn't get their way. The film was called The Two Towers and rightfully so. First, an admission: I've never read the books. They weren't part of the reading curriculum in grade school and I never bothered to read them. I considered it in college, but back then I had more pressing things to worry about (like graduating) than my breadth in literature. When I heard that they were being translated to film, I decided that I would stand fast and stay away from them until I saw the films, so that I could take a look at each with fresh eyes exposed to the story for the first time. Some other time, I'll describe my movie-going philosophy. So far, it's been a great ride. Overall, it was a great film. It wasn't the greatest, mind you, for there were areas that seemed lacking if only because of the format of the story, rather than the cinematography and editing. Let's see if we can boil things down a bit without spoilers... The action was fantastic and the battle scenes wonderfully choreographed and rendered. Keep your eyes opened. There are some absolutely incredible stunts pulled off. If you ever see Gimli on a horse and Legolas on the ground in the same shot, keep your eyes on Legolas in the center and sweep right. You will not be disappointed. Elf booty got soul. Elf girls like to rock and roll. With such a male-focused cast, all you ladies and slashy folks are going to love all the crunchy bits with Aragorn and Legolas. They really get to stand out in this film -- Gimli, too, but I've yet to hear of anyone swooning over him -- and there are plenty of chances to see them being ubercool and badass. I love the way they handled the internal debate for a pivotal character that was of two minds about a course of action. Absolutely incredibly well done and innocently humourous at the same time. It's great. I think the biggest disappointement for me was the pacing, particularly in the earlier part of the film. Whereas The Fellowship of the Ring was largely a linear plot with but a couple of character separations and flashbacks, The Two Towers features a lot more jumping from one subplot to another. Though that can hardly be avoided in the telling of the story, I still found the hopping from the Hobbit Group A plot to the Hobbit Group B plot to the Aragorn/Legolas/Gimli plot a little jarring at times. It didn't help that the plots tended to have different pacing until about the last third of the film, when the switches seemed a lot smoother. The Ents. My were they ever nicely done, though some of the blue-screening with the hobbits didn't look particularly good. Since we were in a smaller theatre, it's possible that we watched a non-digital screening. I expect that I'll be seeing it again before the week is out on a digital screen so this opinion may change. As my friend Jack had said about Star Wars: Episode II, watching it on a digital screen eliminated a lot of the "fakeness" of the digitally rendered bits, which I hope will be the case. I liked this film a lot, but I think I still like the first one more for sheer impact. This one had some great action and comedy, but at times it was very scattered and unfocused. Long story short, it's worth the $10.50 admission. Twice. | |
| 2002/12/17 | |
| 13:15 | Link |
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TORN The Two Towers opens tomorrow. Can't wait. I can't wait so much that I got myself a ticket for one of theonering.net's Line Parties in New York. There are several, but I latched onto the one at the Loews 42nd St. E-Walk theatre. Party starts at 5:30, so I'm just about on my way out. Woohoo! No, no costumes for me. I'm not that crazed. I just want to see the film RIGHT NOW. 4h36m and counting... | |
| 2002/12/11 | |
| 02:34 | Link |
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Pervy Cass Fancier One of my favourite offshoots of Fellowship of the Ring when it came out last year was a series of Very Secret Diaries by Cassandra Claire. It's great stuff about an "alternative lifestyle" Middle Earth. From what I know, she lives somewhere near me, so I've always wondered if I would run into her or talk to her. Never really was compelled enough to say anything though. I loved her VSD, but that's just the tip of the iceberg of her fictional work. Much of the others are based off of the Harry Potter series which I have never read. Right, so that was a pretty long winded intro to what really amounts to a posting to say that I talked to her on IM on Monday, stemming from a bit of goofing around with my friend Julia. Fun stuff, but I think she pegged me for a "t00b," though, whatever that means. I'm figuring it's derogatory flattery, but who knows? I'm not particularly familiar with fanfic culture. That said... only a week away from The Two Towers. Oh, and to Hell with these people. Though I might have sympathy that they might want to have the film renamed for issues of sensitivity, I think this little passage shows just how ignorant they are: The creators of the movie have free speech, so what makes you think they should have to change the name of the movie?Forgive me if I'm wrong, but my copy of "The Two Towers" lists the first publishing of the book by George Allen & Unwin in 1954. Clearly Tolkein was trying to capitalize on a tragedy 47 years in the future to increase motion picture ticket revenues. | |
| 02:13 | Link |
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I'm So Hot... ... I can shove bread up my ass and blow out toast. Sorry, heard that on TV and wanted to write it down somewhere. | |
| 2002/12/10 | |
| 17:15 | Link |
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What time is recess? Yesterday, I learned that a synonym is something you put on sticky buns. I shadowed my friend Jeanne yesterday morning in her Fourth Grade class in Brooklyn. It was a nostalgic and enlightening at the same time. It's been nearly twenty years since I've been in a classroom like it. Everything seems smaller, much the same way McDonald's hamburgers used to seem so much larger. It's certainly different than it was. Maybe some of it is comparing suburban Ottawa with inner city Brooklyn, but a classroom's a classroom, isn't it? Maybe not. Back in my day -- can you hear the elderly voice in your head? -- the kids seemed to behave better and we had one teacher. All through grade school, it was always one teacher and a roomful of kids. I was really surprised to see two other adults in the classroom in the morning. They were "paras." Parawhat I don't know, but I was shocked to see that they were needed so much. The other thing I learned is that I wouldn't last ten minutes in a place like that. | |
| 16:33 | Link |
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Duct Tape Fixes Everything When I first read the teaser text over at #/usr/bin/girl, "improper wing repairs with tape," I thought to myself, "Uh oh. What airline am I not going to fly?" Originally, I figured the chance was pretty low. I probably wouldn't be going to the country any time soon or have a reason to fly their airline. Funny, I didn't think I'd have to avoid United. Guess they're really cutting down on expenses under Chapter 11. | |
| 2002/12/08 | |
| 10:27 | Link |
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Jihad The article starts off innocently enough about a man, Alan Ralsky, that is one of the top spammers in the world building a new house in Oakland County near Detroit. They talk about the banks of servers he has to power his operation, yadda yadda yadda, but it's the last few paragraphs that really make my blood run cold: Ralsky, meanwhile, is looking at new technology. Recently he's been talking to two computer programmers in Romania who have developed what could be called stealth spam.Someone please kill this man now. Looks like the guy's getting a taste of his own medicine, though. Two weeks after the last article, it looks like he's now being inundated with a flood of mail after his address was posted on Slashdot and a campaign was arranged to sign him up for as many ad campaigns as possible. Poetic. Courtesy of James. | |
| 2002/12/06 | |
| 15:06 | Link |
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I'm Bombadil with a mic in my hand Straight out of Hobbiton, it's "Lord of the Rhymes"! Worth the wait but, then again, I have broadband access. Courtesy of Dani. | |
| 2002/12/04 | |
| 22:36 | Link |
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Are you Tough Enough? Not really. I'm a wuss, but here's a video clip from 18 November's WWE RAW with me and my friends, Karen and Raffi. | |
