Someone in my SWTOR guild posted this in our discussion board last night.
Still trying to figure out if the pug is supposed to be R2-D2 or Jabba The Hutt.
Showing posts with label general geekery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label general geekery. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
In A Movie With Talking Robots That Turn Into Functional Cars, I Demand Some Reality!
I recently saw the third Transformers movie. The best one can say about it is that it was a movie that lasted about two and a half hours and had stuff happen in it.
Now, I'm willing to let some stuff slide. Things happening, just 'cause? Fine. The goofy dude has a hot girlfriend (albeit one with freakishly puffy lips)? Whatever. People get knocked around and go through glass and still get up and walk around like it ain't no thang? As you wish.
What I can't stand for is the scene when the Autobots go to the moon and the entire Apollo 11 lunar lander is there. Including the part that Armstrong and Aldrin blasted off in when they left the moon back in '69. Apparently, in this reality, the astronauts got back to the orbiting command module by just jumping up really, really hard? Um, yeah. No.
Now, I'm willing to let some stuff slide. Things happening, just 'cause? Fine. The goofy dude has a hot girlfriend (albeit one with freakishly puffy lips)? Whatever. People get knocked around and go through glass and still get up and walk around like it ain't no thang? As you wish.
What I can't stand for is the scene when the Autobots go to the moon and the entire Apollo 11 lunar lander is there. Including the part that Armstrong and Aldrin blasted off in when they left the moon back in '69. Apparently, in this reality, the astronauts got back to the orbiting command module by just jumping up really, really hard? Um, yeah. No.
Monday, November 14, 2011
Not Gonna Roll A 436,285,194,397,075 Again
A friend of mine recently Shared upon the Facebook a graphic, showing the odds that any specific person could have come into being. You can see it here. Spoiler alert: The odds are so small that they might as well be zero.
The point I'm about to make was inspired by just part of the chart, however. The part that says that the odds that your parents got together and had you, specifically, instead of a different kid, is 1 in 400 quadrillion.
Here's where it gets geeky. Here's where I talk about time travel like it's a real thing.
Maybe I'm alone in this, among my readers, but I have often thought about the possibilities if I could go back and do it over. I could double major in computer science and mass communications and be all set for getting into the web design biz as it was becoming a thing (though I was using the internet as early as 1987, the World Wide Web wasn't created until I was already about halfway through college, and I first heard of it about a week after I graduated.) I could buy Apple stock when my CompUSA co-workers were still insisting that Apple was not much longer for this world. I could bet on the last-place Twins and Braves meeting in the next year's World Series (assuming a 19-year-old would be allowed to place a bet anywhere.) Stuff like that. But even if I somehow got the ability to go back in time, with my 2011 knowledge, and do it over, I wouldn't. Because I like my daughter.
There is a lot going on in my life that's good, and most of it could be made to happen again. I met M at a specific time in a specific manner that would be easy enough to do again. But, as the aforementioned odds indicate, it would be pretty much impossible to ensure that PG, specifically, would exist in my new timeline. The... ahem... circumstances that led to her coming into being would have to occur at precisely the same nanosecond that they did before. I don't even know what day it was!
So no going back for me. I'm glad I came to this important decision, because it would totally be possible, otherwise.
While we're on the subject, this is also why Marty McFly and his siblings were doomed the moment he came into contact with his parents in 1955 in Back To The Future. There's no way Marty could have returned to 1985 and have anybody there know who he was.
The point I'm about to make was inspired by just part of the chart, however. The part that says that the odds that your parents got together and had you, specifically, instead of a different kid, is 1 in 400 quadrillion.
Here's where it gets geeky. Here's where I talk about time travel like it's a real thing.
Maybe I'm alone in this, among my readers, but I have often thought about the possibilities if I could go back and do it over. I could double major in computer science and mass communications and be all set for getting into the web design biz as it was becoming a thing (though I was using the internet as early as 1987, the World Wide Web wasn't created until I was already about halfway through college, and I first heard of it about a week after I graduated.) I could buy Apple stock when my CompUSA co-workers were still insisting that Apple was not much longer for this world. I could bet on the last-place Twins and Braves meeting in the next year's World Series (assuming a 19-year-old would be allowed to place a bet anywhere.) Stuff like that. But even if I somehow got the ability to go back in time, with my 2011 knowledge, and do it over, I wouldn't. Because I like my daughter.
There is a lot going on in my life that's good, and most of it could be made to happen again. I met M at a specific time in a specific manner that would be easy enough to do again. But, as the aforementioned odds indicate, it would be pretty much impossible to ensure that PG, specifically, would exist in my new timeline. The... ahem... circumstances that led to her coming into being would have to occur at precisely the same nanosecond that they did before. I don't even know what day it was!
So no going back for me. I'm glad I came to this important decision, because it would totally be possible, otherwise.
While we're on the subject, this is also why Marty McFly and his siblings were doomed the moment he came into contact with his parents in 1955 in Back To The Future. There's no way Marty could have returned to 1985 and have anybody there know who he was.
Friday, September 23, 2011
We'll Do Better Against Those Frappuccinos Than We Will Against That Death Star
I took this a while ago at a local coffee shop (located inside a local Target,) but only showed it to my Facebook compadres. Consider my lack of Blogger love now rectified.
Thursday, October 07, 2010
Twin Pines Mall, We Never Knew Ye
It's interesting that the 25th anniversary of Back To The Future is being celebrated not during the 25th anniversary of the movie's July 1985 release, but the 25th anniversary of when the movie takes place (the 1985 part of the movie, of course.)
Also interesting is that the DVD industry is so beholden to releasing DVDs on Tuesdays that they're releasing the Blu-rays on the 26th, even though the movie takes place on the 25th. (Edit: It has been pointed out - by me, to myself - that the movie ends on October 26. So there you go.)
Not that it's a huge deal or anything. Just figured that if they were going to coincide with the movie date, they may as well have gone all the way with it.
At least the digital re-release in theaters happens on the 25th (and the 23rd. Just those two times, apparently.) In my town, anyway.
Also interesting is that the DVD industry is so beholden to releasing DVDs on Tuesdays that they're releasing the Blu-rays on the 26th, even though the movie takes place on the 25th. (Edit: It has been pointed out - by me, to myself - that the movie ends on October 26. So there you go.)
Not that it's a huge deal or anything. Just figured that if they were going to coincide with the movie date, they may as well have gone all the way with it.
At least the digital re-release in theaters happens on the 25th (and the 23rd. Just those two times, apparently.) In my town, anyway.
Tuesday, June 01, 2010
Midichlorians: Is There Anything They Can't Do?
I was going to respond to a comment on my previous post with another comment, but I decided to put my response here instead, since it was so long and I went off on tangents.
The question posed was: "..what is the island if people aren't dead? That explains the sideways world but doesn't explain the island and how a few of them were able to get off and come back. And why the time travel?"
My response:
I've come up with an answer for any question about why the island does what it does: midichlorians. If it worked for The Force, it'll work for The Island!
The island is just an island that happens to have serious metaphysical properties that apparently affect the soul of every human being that has ever walked the earth. The nature of that effect is, of course, open to interpretation. Maybe its existence is what makes us human, rather than unthinking animals, and its total collapse into the ocean would have undone that.
There was a specific route in which one could get on and off the island. Considering what Ben said to Hurley, I'm guessing that this was something Jacob set in place to control traffic to and from the Island, but it could just be an electromagnetism thing. The Oceanic Six had taken that specific route out, as had Michael/Walt and, I would guess, the Dharma/Other subs. I guess that one could fly over the island without problems, since the only thing that kept Oceanic 815 from passing the Island by was Desmond failing to punch in the "stop the magnetic burst before it rips apart a plane" code in time. Since all of Jacob's Candidates were on that plane, however, I'm going to assume that Jacob had something to do with Desmond being late for that particular timer reset.
The time travel? The jumping was due to the Frozen Donkey Wheel being stuck, so apparently, at some point after the Man In Black was foiled, killed, and turned into smoke, someone came along, finished his work on the wheel, tapped into The Light, and figured out how to manipulate time with it. And how did The Light manipulate time? Midichlorians. Don't know if Jacob or Smokey was behind the whole "move the island" thing that led to the time jumping, but I will point out that when the Ajira flight came along, only the Candidates got sent back to 1977 (that would give us an idea which Kwon was Candidate #42.) Whether that was Jacob trying to get the Candidates all together, the MiB trying to keep the Candidates all in a place where they could get purged with the rest of the Dharma Initiative, or neither, is anybody's guess.
I think I'll stop. For now. I might watch the entire series again soon, now that we know how it all ends. Would anybody be interested if I posted thoughts on the old episodes, with the whole-series perspective?
The question posed was: "..what is the island if people aren't dead? That explains the sideways world but doesn't explain the island and how a few of them were able to get off and come back. And why the time travel?"
My response:
I've come up with an answer for any question about why the island does what it does: midichlorians. If it worked for The Force, it'll work for The Island!
The island is just an island that happens to have serious metaphysical properties that apparently affect the soul of every human being that has ever walked the earth. The nature of that effect is, of course, open to interpretation. Maybe its existence is what makes us human, rather than unthinking animals, and its total collapse into the ocean would have undone that.
There was a specific route in which one could get on and off the island. Considering what Ben said to Hurley, I'm guessing that this was something Jacob set in place to control traffic to and from the Island, but it could just be an electromagnetism thing. The Oceanic Six had taken that specific route out, as had Michael/Walt and, I would guess, the Dharma/Other subs. I guess that one could fly over the island without problems, since the only thing that kept Oceanic 815 from passing the Island by was Desmond failing to punch in the "stop the magnetic burst before it rips apart a plane" code in time. Since all of Jacob's Candidates were on that plane, however, I'm going to assume that Jacob had something to do with Desmond being late for that particular timer reset.
The time travel? The jumping was due to the Frozen Donkey Wheel being stuck, so apparently, at some point after the Man In Black was foiled, killed, and turned into smoke, someone came along, finished his work on the wheel, tapped into The Light, and figured out how to manipulate time with it. And how did The Light manipulate time? Midichlorians. Don't know if Jacob or Smokey was behind the whole "move the island" thing that led to the time jumping, but I will point out that when the Ajira flight came along, only the Candidates got sent back to 1977 (that would give us an idea which Kwon was Candidate #42.) Whether that was Jacob trying to get the Candidates all together, the MiB trying to keep the Candidates all in a place where they could get purged with the rest of the Dharma Initiative, or neither, is anybody's guess.
I think I'll stop. For now. I might watch the entire series again soon, now that we know how it all ends. Would anybody be interested if I posted thoughts on the old episodes, with the whole-series perspective?
Monday, May 24, 2010
Thoughts on The LOST Finale
Do I really need to mention there will spoilers? Because there will be. The title out front shoulda told ya.
I'm doing this without reading anybody else's take on what happened, which is kinda a first for me. I usually read all the reviews and blogs I can (not that there are many that I read,) and eventually lose sight of what I read somewhere and what I came up with on my own. So I'm staying away from my usual reading materials until I have this post done and posted. If nothing else, it will motivate me to post something to my blog for the first time since PoMoOftMo fizzled out in mid-March.
Alrighty then, I think I've padded this out enough that the block of text that ends up on Facebook will be spoiler-free. On to the business at hand. Here are my thoughts, in the order in which I think of them.
So, the producers have been shooting down the theory that the Island is Purgatory since the first season, and they were right - the Sideways World was Purgatory. But instead of everyone dying when the plane crashed, as some have suggested and I started thinking last night, everyone died either when we saw them die on the show or at some point in the future (in Hurley and Ben's case, maybe a long, long time in the future.) It took a single line of dialogue that I had to go back and listen to again, because I didn't make it out the first time ("They all died, some before you, some long after you,") for me to realize that.
The people on the Sideways Oceanic 815 were different from the people on the Season 1 Oceanic 815 because they had changed over the years. Hurley was more confident here because he had spent years (centuries? millennia?) as Protector of The Island. Sawyer had become more lawman than crook, by virtue of his LaFleur days, and so manifested as a cop in the afterlife. There are some holes in the theory, Charlie being a prime example, but I think it holds up pretty well.
And so, the only thing that detonating the nuke did was send everyone who didn't belong in 1977 back to 2007. The Sideways world was, in fact, completely separate from The Incident (or, at least, no more related than anything else that happened during the series.)
The Island side of things was pretty straightforward, I think. I did miss why, exactly, Jack thought sending Desmond down the hole to pull the plug was such a great idea. Maybe he didn't know that Desmond was going to do that and just figured Des would only do something down there that would destroy SmokeLocke. Of course, he did that too, and Smokie became very killable.
I was hoping to see Walt again, since they had played him up so much in the first season as being Special. And he re-appeared in Season 2 as Creepy Wet Walt (though I'm starting to think that maybe the Smoke Monster might have been posing as him at that point and, since he was posing as a living person, was unable to actually speak, thus the garbled messages.) But I guess it came down to this: as Special as Walt may have been, circumstances led to him leaving the Island instead and becoming irrelevant. Also, only three years passed over the course of six seasons, so having a 16 year old playing a 13 year old would have been a bit weird.
The same can be said for Aaron, the baby that got a psychic all excited. I guess his relevance was more indirect that we previously believed. Perhaps the goal the psychic had in mind was the chain of events that led to Kate being there on the cliff, with a bullet saved for the now-human SmokeLocke. After all, without Aaron and Claire, Kate would have had no motivation to return to the Island.
It was good to see Vincent again. I thought that maybe he would end up being more significant than he was, but he did get to share the final scene, as he shared the first, so I guess his significance was more presentational than plot-related.
Good to see that after, what, five, six attempts, Sawyer was finally able to get off the damn island.
The ending was awesome. As soon as Jack wandered into the bamboo field, I knew he was going to lie down and the final scene would be a zoom on his right eye closing, just as it opened in the first scene of the series. And then, instead of popping up with a "BOOM," the LOST logo just kinda eases in with a musical swell, as if to say "it's all good now."
I think that will do for now. I'm itchin' to see what Nikki Stafford and Doc Jensen thought.
I'm doing this without reading anybody else's take on what happened, which is kinda a first for me. I usually read all the reviews and blogs I can (not that there are many that I read,) and eventually lose sight of what I read somewhere and what I came up with on my own. So I'm staying away from my usual reading materials until I have this post done and posted. If nothing else, it will motivate me to post something to my blog for the first time since PoMoOftMo fizzled out in mid-March.
Alrighty then, I think I've padded this out enough that the block of text that ends up on Facebook will be spoiler-free. On to the business at hand. Here are my thoughts, in the order in which I think of them.
So, the producers have been shooting down the theory that the Island is Purgatory since the first season, and they were right - the Sideways World was Purgatory. But instead of everyone dying when the plane crashed, as some have suggested and I started thinking last night, everyone died either when we saw them die on the show or at some point in the future (in Hurley and Ben's case, maybe a long, long time in the future.) It took a single line of dialogue that I had to go back and listen to again, because I didn't make it out the first time ("They all died, some before you, some long after you,") for me to realize that.
The people on the Sideways Oceanic 815 were different from the people on the Season 1 Oceanic 815 because they had changed over the years. Hurley was more confident here because he had spent years (centuries? millennia?) as Protector of The Island. Sawyer had become more lawman than crook, by virtue of his LaFleur days, and so manifested as a cop in the afterlife. There are some holes in the theory, Charlie being a prime example, but I think it holds up pretty well.
And so, the only thing that detonating the nuke did was send everyone who didn't belong in 1977 back to 2007. The Sideways world was, in fact, completely separate from The Incident (or, at least, no more related than anything else that happened during the series.)
The Island side of things was pretty straightforward, I think. I did miss why, exactly, Jack thought sending Desmond down the hole to pull the plug was such a great idea. Maybe he didn't know that Desmond was going to do that and just figured Des would only do something down there that would destroy SmokeLocke. Of course, he did that too, and Smokie became very killable.
I was hoping to see Walt again, since they had played him up so much in the first season as being Special. And he re-appeared in Season 2 as Creepy Wet Walt (though I'm starting to think that maybe the Smoke Monster might have been posing as him at that point and, since he was posing as a living person, was unable to actually speak, thus the garbled messages.) But I guess it came down to this: as Special as Walt may have been, circumstances led to him leaving the Island instead and becoming irrelevant. Also, only three years passed over the course of six seasons, so having a 16 year old playing a 13 year old would have been a bit weird.
The same can be said for Aaron, the baby that got a psychic all excited. I guess his relevance was more indirect that we previously believed. Perhaps the goal the psychic had in mind was the chain of events that led to Kate being there on the cliff, with a bullet saved for the now-human SmokeLocke. After all, without Aaron and Claire, Kate would have had no motivation to return to the Island.
It was good to see Vincent again. I thought that maybe he would end up being more significant than he was, but he did get to share the final scene, as he shared the first, so I guess his significance was more presentational than plot-related.
Good to see that after, what, five, six attempts, Sawyer was finally able to get off the damn island.
The ending was awesome. As soon as Jack wandered into the bamboo field, I knew he was going to lie down and the final scene would be a zoom on his right eye closing, just as it opened in the first scene of the series. And then, instead of popping up with a "BOOM," the LOST logo just kinda eases in with a musical swell, as if to say "it's all good now."
I think that will do for now. I'm itchin' to see what Nikki Stafford and Doc Jensen thought.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough
I am writing this post from my new laptop! When I say "new," I mean it's new to me. It's actually about four or five years old. Seems to run just fine, though!
The short version of how I got a laptop: We're going on vacation this weekend. We wanted to take along a portable DVD player so PrettyGirl could watch her Elmo and whatnot. M's co-worker had one she was going to lend. Co-worker's husband decided that he'd rather not lend his DVD player to a two-year-old. Margaret called another friend (PG's BFF's mom) to see if she had a portable DVD player. Friend said no, but she could lend us her laptop, which they use to play DVDs for BFF on roadtrips. M demurred, saying she couldn't take their laptop across the country, and at the mercy of PG. Then BFF's mom remembered that her husband's company is replacing the current laptops at work, and he's been giving away the old ones to neighbors and friends and family. And there was one left available.
I was driving at the time of this conversation, so M decided it would be best to not tell me what she was discussing on the phone, lest I go ickee-balookie and crash the car in my excitement. I maintain that I have more self-control than that, but I suppose it was a wise decision, nonetheless.
We got the laptop yesterday (and PG got to chillax with BFF some too,) and now I finally have one! The one I got from my boss a few years ago doesn't count, because that laptop sucked hard.
And so, between that, my new LCD TV, my new Blu-Ray player, and the GPS we got the night after the fateful phone conversation, my technological desires are almost fulfilled! As the song in the post title suggests, I won't stop hoping for an iPod Touch.
(Title reference: "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" by Michael Jackson)
The short version of how I got a laptop: We're going on vacation this weekend. We wanted to take along a portable DVD player so PrettyGirl could watch her Elmo and whatnot. M's co-worker had one she was going to lend. Co-worker's husband decided that he'd rather not lend his DVD player to a two-year-old. Margaret called another friend (PG's BFF's mom) to see if she had a portable DVD player. Friend said no, but she could lend us her laptop, which they use to play DVDs for BFF on roadtrips. M demurred, saying she couldn't take their laptop across the country, and at the mercy of PG. Then BFF's mom remembered that her husband's company is replacing the current laptops at work, and he's been giving away the old ones to neighbors and friends and family. And there was one left available.
I was driving at the time of this conversation, so M decided it would be best to not tell me what she was discussing on the phone, lest I go ickee-balookie and crash the car in my excitement. I maintain that I have more self-control than that, but I suppose it was a wise decision, nonetheless.
We got the laptop yesterday (and PG got to chillax with BFF some too,) and now I finally have one! The one I got from my boss a few years ago doesn't count, because that laptop sucked hard.
And so, between that, my new LCD TV, my new Blu-Ray player, and the GPS we got the night after the fateful phone conversation, my technological desires are almost fulfilled! As the song in the post title suggests, I won't stop hoping for an iPod Touch.
(Title reference: "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" by Michael Jackson)
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
Does Whatever A Pretty Can...irl
My daughter has many loves. Tigger and Pooh, Elmo, Pooh as a solo act, Mickey Mouse (whom she refers to only as "Mouse,") and Spiderman.
I kinda wish I can take credit for that last one (though kinda glad it's not entirely my fault,) but I'm pretty sure the boys at daycare turned her on to Spidey before I ever got to her. I base this assumption on the fact that I had no idea she was even aware of the fellow before she brought my Spiderman 2 DVD over to me and said "Spi-ee watch?" It was one of those moments that really makes this daddy's heart swell with joy.
Being as my momma raised zero dummies, I knew better than to actually play the movie for her. But I knew that the DVD menu screen for the first Spiderman movie played an endless loop of the final scene where he's swinging around the streets of New York, so I figured that would be a good compromise. And it was, though after about 10 minutes of that, PG got bored and requested more Tigger and Pooh, which she didn't get because the kid is only allowed so much TV.
So now she gets excited whenever she sees Spiderman stuff at Target or whereever. Sometimes I'll play her the Spiderman theme song on the piano (or just sing it,) and at least once she's pulled out her Spiderman Christmas ornament (long since retired from ornament duty, due to a broken loop) and whooshed it around like in the movie while I'm playing/singing the song. She often demands that I draw Spidey's head over and over again with her tub crayons during her bath.
My master plan is moving along nicely! Next up: Yoda!
I kinda wish I can take credit for that last one (though kinda glad it's not entirely my fault,) but I'm pretty sure the boys at daycare turned her on to Spidey before I ever got to her. I base this assumption on the fact that I had no idea she was even aware of the fellow before she brought my Spiderman 2 DVD over to me and said "Spi-ee watch?" It was one of those moments that really makes this daddy's heart swell with joy.
Being as my momma raised zero dummies, I knew better than to actually play the movie for her. But I knew that the DVD menu screen for the first Spiderman movie played an endless loop of the final scene where he's swinging around the streets of New York, so I figured that would be a good compromise. And it was, though after about 10 minutes of that, PG got bored and requested more Tigger and Pooh, which she didn't get because the kid is only allowed so much TV.
So now she gets excited whenever she sees Spiderman stuff at Target or whereever. Sometimes I'll play her the Spiderman theme song on the piano (or just sing it,) and at least once she's pulled out her Spiderman Christmas ornament (long since retired from ornament duty, due to a broken loop) and whooshed it around like in the movie while I'm playing/singing the song. She often demands that I draw Spidey's head over and over again with her tub crayons during her bath.
My master plan is moving along nicely! Next up: Yoda!
Friday, August 01, 2008
Oh Yeah... I Have A Blog
Yup. Kinda lost track of time. Here's what's been going down.
* When up to the lake the week that PG's daycare was closed for vacation. A fine time was had. It would have been nice to have seen everyone else who usually goes up, but the scheduling just didn't work out this year. It got pretty hot towards the end of the week. I could have done without that. I see that the temperatures up there are supposed to be pretty nice this upcoming week (the week that we normally would have been up there.) Oh well. Enjoy, everybody who's up there!
* Our quest to get a Wii Fit has finally come to an end. After haunting the Wii Fit page of wiitracker.com for a few days, I finally managed to order a bundle from Toys R Us.com that included We Ski and a cover for the balance board. Two days earlier, I had ordered the same thing from the same place, but didn't finish the ordering process before the supply ran out. So good news that Toys R Us was able to restock that quickly.
* After a great many months of talking about it, M and I finally got new cell phones. We both got LG Chocolates (not the new version that's just now coming out) for free, by virtue of having had our old phones for as long as we did, qualifying us for the discount.
As it happens, we received the Wii Fit and our new phones (which we had ordered online and where shipped to us) on the same day. So that was a pretty big day, UPS and FedEx-wise.
* PG's walking like a maniac (both metaphorically and, I suppose, literally) now. She still has a few balance issues, but they should work themselves out soon.
The talking, however, still hasn't really come. It's still all PG language all the time, with a few suspect words, such as "up," that may or may not have come at appropriate times on purpose.
She is getting pretty good at pointing at what she wants, though. The other night, after her bath, M told her that Daddy was coming upstairs to read some stories. PG pointed at the crib and grunted. That kid has been pretty sleepy in the evening lately. I blame the extra walking and her refusal to nap much at daycare.
* I saw The Dark Knight last week. I do believe it's my new favorite movie, edging out Return of The King because it's about an hour shorter.
* Two movie trailers, based on two of my favorite books of all time, have come out, and they have knocked my socks off, so to speak. Please to enjoy...
(HD version can be found here)
(An HD version can be found at Moviefone.)
That's about it for now. We're planning on seeing Wall-E and The Dark Knight at our local drive-in tonight, hopefully with a sleeping baby in our back seat. I'll be sure to let you know how that goes. It will be my first drive-in movie ever.
* When up to the lake the week that PG's daycare was closed for vacation. A fine time was had. It would have been nice to have seen everyone else who usually goes up, but the scheduling just didn't work out this year. It got pretty hot towards the end of the week. I could have done without that. I see that the temperatures up there are supposed to be pretty nice this upcoming week (the week that we normally would have been up there.) Oh well. Enjoy, everybody who's up there!
* Our quest to get a Wii Fit has finally come to an end. After haunting the Wii Fit page of wiitracker.com for a few days, I finally managed to order a bundle from Toys R Us.com that included We Ski and a cover for the balance board. Two days earlier, I had ordered the same thing from the same place, but didn't finish the ordering process before the supply ran out. So good news that Toys R Us was able to restock that quickly.
* After a great many months of talking about it, M and I finally got new cell phones. We both got LG Chocolates (not the new version that's just now coming out) for free, by virtue of having had our old phones for as long as we did, qualifying us for the discount.
As it happens, we received the Wii Fit and our new phones (which we had ordered online and where shipped to us) on the same day. So that was a pretty big day, UPS and FedEx-wise.
* PG's walking like a maniac (both metaphorically and, I suppose, literally) now. She still has a few balance issues, but they should work themselves out soon.
The talking, however, still hasn't really come. It's still all PG language all the time, with a few suspect words, such as "up," that may or may not have come at appropriate times on purpose.
She is getting pretty good at pointing at what she wants, though. The other night, after her bath, M told her that Daddy was coming upstairs to read some stories. PG pointed at the crib and grunted. That kid has been pretty sleepy in the evening lately. I blame the extra walking and her refusal to nap much at daycare.
* I saw The Dark Knight last week. I do believe it's my new favorite movie, edging out Return of The King because it's about an hour shorter.
* Two movie trailers, based on two of my favorite books of all time, have come out, and they have knocked my socks off, so to speak. Please to enjoy...
(HD version can be found here)
(An HD version can be found at Moviefone.)
That's about it for now. We're planning on seeing Wall-E and The Dark Knight at our local drive-in tonight, hopefully with a sleeping baby in our back seat. I'll be sure to let you know how that goes. It will be my first drive-in movie ever.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Awesome!!!
My previous post got a tad maudlin, so I offer you all this to balance things out.
And yes, I do realize I'm giving Verizon free advertising by posting this.
And yes, I do realize I'm giving Verizon free advertising by posting this.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
It's All In The Motivation
When M and I were moving into our first house together, back in November 2005, I made an effort to cut down on my possessions - mostly old magazines and video tapes - but I ran out of time. So I packed up the remaining stuff in boxes and promised I'd get back to sorting through it all and throwing out stuff at the new house.
So it's now February 2008, and most of the stuff is still in boxes in our laundry room, taking up space. I find its presence annoying and inconvenient (probably not as much as M does,) but I have so many other things I like to do, and the boxes always just get put off for later, y'know?
But then M and I went to my cousin's house this past weekend and played a lot on his Nintendo Wii. We really liked it, and M, possibly impulsively, told me that if I get the boxes taken care of, we can get a Wii of our own. With Guitar Hero.
So my plans for the next couple of weeks are to work on the boxes every night. If I hurry, I could have Guitar Hero in time for my birthday!!!
So it's now February 2008, and most of the stuff is still in boxes in our laundry room, taking up space. I find its presence annoying and inconvenient (probably not as much as M does,) but I have so many other things I like to do, and the boxes always just get put off for later, y'know?
But then M and I went to my cousin's house this past weekend and played a lot on his Nintendo Wii. We really liked it, and M, possibly impulsively, told me that if I get the boxes taken care of, we can get a Wii of our own. With Guitar Hero.
So my plans for the next couple of weeks are to work on the boxes every night. If I hurry, I could have Guitar Hero in time for my birthday!!!
Saturday, November 24, 2007
One Week Left!
December 1 is a week from today, so we're in the home stretch now!
Got my flu shot today. I've never gotten one before, but you're supposed to get one if you live with a baby, which I do now, so I went to the Minute Clinic up the street and got one. Apparently, Minute Clinic doesn't take my insurance, but I wasn't expecting insurance to get involved, so I wasn't particularly upset. It would have been nice to save the $30, but oh well.
Otherwise, today was a lazy day. I worked on captioning a few pictures for the next web album (coming soon,) but that was pretty much the extent of my tasks. We were going to bring down the Christmas decorations from the attic and get that all set up, but that got pushed back to tomorrow.
M had a major craving for Doritos and Ruffles, so I agreed to go to CVS for the second time that day (the Minute Clinic is in there) and get those for her, in exchange for being able to play Civ IV and City of Heroes without any grief. I tried to broker a deal that involved us buying Guitar Hero (and a Playstation or Xbox with which to play it,) but I wasn't being serious. That's too much money to spend on a game!
Got my flu shot today. I've never gotten one before, but you're supposed to get one if you live with a baby, which I do now, so I went to the Minute Clinic up the street and got one. Apparently, Minute Clinic doesn't take my insurance, but I wasn't expecting insurance to get involved, so I wasn't particularly upset. It would have been nice to save the $30, but oh well.
Otherwise, today was a lazy day. I worked on captioning a few pictures for the next web album (coming soon,) but that was pretty much the extent of my tasks. We were going to bring down the Christmas decorations from the attic and get that all set up, but that got pushed back to tomorrow.
M had a major craving for Doritos and Ruffles, so I agreed to go to CVS for the second time that day (the Minute Clinic is in there) and get those for her, in exchange for being able to play Civ IV and City of Heroes without any grief. I tried to broker a deal that involved us buying Guitar Hero (and a Playstation or Xbox with which to play it,) but I wasn't being serious. That's too much money to spend on a game!
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
World Leader and Comedian
I saw this quote from Winston Churchill today...
That's about all I've got for y'all today. I've been tired and out of it all day, and I'm not coming up with anything. Maybe that means tomorrow's post will be full of stuff I forgot about today! Dare to dream.
"From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put."It's a grammar joke!
That's about all I've got for y'all today. I've been tired and out of it all day, and I'm not coming up with anything. Maybe that means tomorrow's post will be full of stuff I forgot about today! Dare to dream.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
History You Can Sleep On
I almost didn't make it. I was already in bed and had fallen asleep when I woke up for unrelated reasons and realized that I hadn't posted for November 13 yet. So I took care of it, and here we are!
********************
PrettyGirl got a present from my friend stationed in Iraq today. It was a pillow embroidered with a picture of Spiderman (he's a fellow comic book aficionado, only even more so than me) and "Operation Iraqi Freedom" on the top and PG's name at the bottom. He had given me the heads-up that something was coming, and he also recommended that I get it drycleaned when I got it, since apparently things aren't entirely sanitary over there right now. I'm not sure if 50/50 cotton/poly pillows can be dry cleaned, or if it's even that necessary, but I'll look into it.
This reminds me that I never told the story about something else he sent me a month or two ago. Back in the late 80's, he and I played the Marvel Comics roleplaying game - like Dungeons and Dragons, only with superheroes. He had the basic manuals, and I had the Ultimate Powers manual, which expanded the hero creation options. I lent him that manual at some point, and then he lent it to someone else, who lent it to yet another person. It may have even gone further along the borrowin' chain. At any rate, he lost tabs on who had the book, and I never got it back.
It was disappointing, and when I kidded him about losing it, I was probably only 70 or 80 percent kidding. I eventually got over it and stopped kidding him about it because I could tell he felt really bad about it.
And so, almost two decades later, I got a package from some unknown person in New Jersey. It turns out that my buddy found not just the Ultimate Powers book, but also the original players manual and gamemaster manual on eBay, and he bought all three of them for me! From a computer in Iraq!
So I've promised him that I'll get a Marvel Superheroes game ready for us to play when he gets back from his tour of duty.
********************
PG had her follow-up appointment for the bronchiolitis today. The doctor (or perhaps nurse practitioner - we're not sure) has deemed her A-OK!
We also asked about PG's recent tendency to wake up in the middle of the night and insist on being nursed. When she was sick, waking up a few times was to be expected since she was coughing so violently, but now that she's better, she should be back to her usual 10 hours of sleep, right? The doc/nurse told us that she was used to waking up in the middle of the night, since her illness put her in that habit. She told us if we wanted to get a full night's sleep anytime soon, we should not give in to PG's demands. After a few nights, she should figure out that she's on her own when it comes to getting herself back to sleep, and she'll leave us alone. We shall see how that goes!
********************
PrettyGirl got a present from my friend stationed in Iraq today. It was a pillow embroidered with a picture of Spiderman (he's a fellow comic book aficionado, only even more so than me) and "Operation Iraqi Freedom" on the top and PG's name at the bottom. He had given me the heads-up that something was coming, and he also recommended that I get it drycleaned when I got it, since apparently things aren't entirely sanitary over there right now. I'm not sure if 50/50 cotton/poly pillows can be dry cleaned, or if it's even that necessary, but I'll look into it.
This reminds me that I never told the story about something else he sent me a month or two ago. Back in the late 80's, he and I played the Marvel Comics roleplaying game - like Dungeons and Dragons, only with superheroes. He had the basic manuals, and I had the Ultimate Powers manual, which expanded the hero creation options. I lent him that manual at some point, and then he lent it to someone else, who lent it to yet another person. It may have even gone further along the borrowin' chain. At any rate, he lost tabs on who had the book, and I never got it back.
It was disappointing, and when I kidded him about losing it, I was probably only 70 or 80 percent kidding. I eventually got over it and stopped kidding him about it because I could tell he felt really bad about it.
And so, almost two decades later, I got a package from some unknown person in New Jersey. It turns out that my buddy found not just the Ultimate Powers book, but also the original players manual and gamemaster manual on eBay, and he bought all three of them for me! From a computer in Iraq!
So I've promised him that I'll get a Marvel Superheroes game ready for us to play when he gets back from his tour of duty.
********************
PG had her follow-up appointment for the bronchiolitis today. The doctor (or perhaps nurse practitioner - we're not sure) has deemed her A-OK!
We also asked about PG's recent tendency to wake up in the middle of the night and insist on being nursed. When she was sick, waking up a few times was to be expected since she was coughing so violently, but now that she's better, she should be back to her usual 10 hours of sleep, right? The doc/nurse told us that she was used to waking up in the middle of the night, since her illness put her in that habit. She told us if we wanted to get a full night's sleep anytime soon, we should not give in to PG's demands. After a few nights, she should figure out that she's on her own when it comes to getting herself back to sleep, and she'll leave us alone. We shall see how that goes!
Monday, November 12, 2007
The Less Musical Phish
I received the following e-mail at work today. The subject line was "You got $242,70 tax refund.Please follow the steps to get your refund."
This is certainly nothing new; we've been getting "alerts" from banks for years now, urging us to verify our account info. But this is the most brazen I've seen the phishers get. I mean, seriously, asking for not just the social security number but also for all of the credit card info, including the CVV, and the ATM PIN? Is anyone really gonna fall for that?
Incidentally, I looked it up - Section 6108 has something to do with doing statistical studies using tax return information. Disclosing personal info, even indirectly, is quite forbidden.
Get Tax Refund on your VISA or MasterCard
You got $242,70 tax refund.Please follow the steps to get your refund.
Please enter your Social Security Number ( SSN ) and a valid VISA or MasterCard Number where you want the refund to be made.
We are asking for your personal information to ensure we access the correct account,enabling us to provide the tax refund.
We use and retain your personal information only for this purpose and only long enough to complete the transaction, ensure the security of our systems, and as authorized by law. We do not share it other than as provided by law.If you choose not to provide it, we will not be able to fully comply the tax return.
Internal Revenue Code Section 6108 allows us to request your Social Security Number, Debit CardNumber, Expiration Date, Cvv Code (located on the back of your debit card) and Atm Pin Code for use in maintaining and accessing tax return information. If you do not enter complete and valid information we cannot provide tax return.
To collect the Tax Return please click the link bellow and fill in all prompted information:
http://www.irs.gov/individuals/refund/id=96596,00.html
*Note: For security reasons, we will record your ip-address, the date and time. Deliberate wrong inputs are criminally pursued and indicated.
© Copyright 2007, Internal Revenue Service U.S.A.
JBBVSOVMQZPNOVFFCZSDYVVEGJYOXHCMICPLGR
This is certainly nothing new; we've been getting "alerts" from banks for years now, urging us to verify our account info. But this is the most brazen I've seen the phishers get. I mean, seriously, asking for not just the social security number but also for all of the credit card info, including the CVV, and the ATM PIN? Is anyone really gonna fall for that?
Incidentally, I looked it up - Section 6108 has something to do with doing statistical studies using tax return information. Disclosing personal info, even indirectly, is quite forbidden.
Friday, November 09, 2007
Nine to Six Points Smarter? Don't See Why Not!
Took an online IQ test today. Scored a 142, which is higher than usual. I'm usually in the 133-136 range. Maybe I'm getting smarter?
Of course, I had to plow through a bunch of offers after taking the test before I could get my results (I clicked "Skip This Offer" so quickly on each one that I couldn't tell ya what they were selling.) I'm not sure if I should deduct points for getting suckered into such a website.
********************
I glanced out my office window this afternoon (with the vertical blinds mostly closed, mind you,) and was all excited to see that the clouds were breaking and the skies above the strip mall down the street were bathed in sunset light. And then I realized I was looking at the reflection of the hallway light coming in through my office door. The actual weather outside remained rainy and quite cloudy.
********************
The 7-11 gas station near work offers free coffee or soda with the purchase of at least 8 gallons of gas. I take advantage of that pretty often, but tonight I was a bit short of 8 gallons on my fill up. Specifically, I pumped 7.991 gallons.
Some people will try to top off their tanks, so for such a person, this wouldn't have been a big deal. Just another squeeze of the pump and it's free coffee time! But I'm not one of those people. These pumps automatically cut off when the tank is full for a reason, y'know.
It was just as well. The guy behind the counter knew that I'm always filling up there so he let me have the coffee for free, despite my being 9/1000 gallons short on the gas.
********************
PrettyGirl was in a rather bad mood tonight. She was OK most of the time, smiling and laughing and nursing just fine, but whenever we laid her on her back, she screamed and cried. We have no idea why. We put her on her tummy when she went to bed. Hopefully whatever was wrong will have passed by tomorrow.
********************
That thing about the reflection on the window probably should have been grounds to deduct a few more points from my IQ score, huh.
Of course, I had to plow through a bunch of offers after taking the test before I could get my results (I clicked "Skip This Offer" so quickly on each one that I couldn't tell ya what they were selling.) I'm not sure if I should deduct points for getting suckered into such a website.
********************
I glanced out my office window this afternoon (with the vertical blinds mostly closed, mind you,) and was all excited to see that the clouds were breaking and the skies above the strip mall down the street were bathed in sunset light. And then I realized I was looking at the reflection of the hallway light coming in through my office door. The actual weather outside remained rainy and quite cloudy.
********************
The 7-11 gas station near work offers free coffee or soda with the purchase of at least 8 gallons of gas. I take advantage of that pretty often, but tonight I was a bit short of 8 gallons on my fill up. Specifically, I pumped 7.991 gallons.
Some people will try to top off their tanks, so for such a person, this wouldn't have been a big deal. Just another squeeze of the pump and it's free coffee time! But I'm not one of those people. These pumps automatically cut off when the tank is full for a reason, y'know.
It was just as well. The guy behind the counter knew that I'm always filling up there so he let me have the coffee for free, despite my being 9/1000 gallons short on the gas.
********************
PrettyGirl was in a rather bad mood tonight. She was OK most of the time, smiling and laughing and nursing just fine, but whenever we laid her on her back, she screamed and cried. We have no idea why. We put her on her tummy when she went to bed. Hopefully whatever was wrong will have passed by tomorrow.
********************
That thing about the reflection on the window probably should have been grounds to deduct a few more points from my IQ score, huh.
Friday, June 15, 2007
Shot In The Leg, and Edward Jenner's To Blame... You Give Rotavirus A Bad Name
PrettyGirl had her 2-month doctor appointment on her actual 2-month birthday Wednesday. Aside from not being able to push herself up as well as a 2-month-old ought to (attributable to our not putting her on her tummy often enough to practice,) she checked out A-OK!
She also got her first series of shots. They were the first salvo against Hepetitis B, Rubella, Diptheria, Rotavirus, and possibly something else that is slipping my mind, since one of the shots had multiple vaccinations contained within.
PG response to the shots was not what I was expecting. I was expecting instant objections to a needle going into her, but instead, she just gave a look that said, "well... that's odd." It wasn't until the needle was pulled out that she got all upset about it. The other two needles (the rotavirus vac was oral) were progressively objectionable, as she started to pick up on what was going on. She was pretty mad at us after the last one.
The shots were supposed to make her sleepy, and for a few hours she was indeed the very picture of angelic slumber. But when she finally woke up... boy howdy was she in a bad mood! Poor baby was screamin' like a banshee with a stubbed toe.
Happily, she calmed down in time for her cousin Todd's birthday party. She spent most of the time there looking around at all the unusual faces and not really thinking about the little holes in her leg.
The doctor also recommended that we start getting PG into a nighttime routine. Up until now, we've been just letting her fall asleep in our arms and then putting her into bed. We're told that it would be better to put her in bed while she's still awake and let her fall asleep on her own. And to do it at the same time each night following more or less the same routine (the wildcard being whether or not she gets a bath on a given night.) That way, she won't depend on anyone but herself to get her to sleep.
So we tried that last night, and it was pretty much a disaster. She cried more or less continually in her crib from 7:45 to 9:15 before we gave up the ghost and put her to sleep in the usual way. We think she's still hurting from the shots, so I guess we'll cut her a break for another night or two and then work our way back up.
********************
I was shopping for a birthday present for Todd, and of course, I went straight for the Transformers section at Toys R Us. A lot has changed since my day in the Transformers department. For one thing, they look more like the movie version, by and large. But the thing that got me was that they had diversified from just toy robots that can turn into cars or planes or insects or whatever. Now, there are voice-changing helmets, Optimus Prime vs. Megatron boxing games, and a "Cyber-Stoming" Optimus Prime that doesn't transform. I ask you, what is the point of having a Transformer that doesn't transform?
I ended up getting an Autobot that transforms into a Pontiac Somethingorother. It was a hit with both Todd and Jason, though it's tricky enough that they have to get my brother to do the transforming for them. Even I had some problems at first. And this was one of the easier ones to do. I guess some things haven't changed in the world of Transformers.
She also got her first series of shots. They were the first salvo against Hepetitis B, Rubella, Diptheria, Rotavirus, and possibly something else that is slipping my mind, since one of the shots had multiple vaccinations contained within.
PG response to the shots was not what I was expecting. I was expecting instant objections to a needle going into her, but instead, she just gave a look that said, "well... that's odd." It wasn't until the needle was pulled out that she got all upset about it. The other two needles (the rotavirus vac was oral) were progressively objectionable, as she started to pick up on what was going on. She was pretty mad at us after the last one.
The shots were supposed to make her sleepy, and for a few hours she was indeed the very picture of angelic slumber. But when she finally woke up... boy howdy was she in a bad mood! Poor baby was screamin' like a banshee with a stubbed toe.
Happily, she calmed down in time for her cousin Todd's birthday party. She spent most of the time there looking around at all the unusual faces and not really thinking about the little holes in her leg.
The doctor also recommended that we start getting PG into a nighttime routine. Up until now, we've been just letting her fall asleep in our arms and then putting her into bed. We're told that it would be better to put her in bed while she's still awake and let her fall asleep on her own. And to do it at the same time each night following more or less the same routine (the wildcard being whether or not she gets a bath on a given night.) That way, she won't depend on anyone but herself to get her to sleep.
So we tried that last night, and it was pretty much a disaster. She cried more or less continually in her crib from 7:45 to 9:15 before we gave up the ghost and put her to sleep in the usual way. We think she's still hurting from the shots, so I guess we'll cut her a break for another night or two and then work our way back up.
********************
I was shopping for a birthday present for Todd, and of course, I went straight for the Transformers section at Toys R Us. A lot has changed since my day in the Transformers department. For one thing, they look more like the movie version, by and large. But the thing that got me was that they had diversified from just toy robots that can turn into cars or planes or insects or whatever. Now, there are voice-changing helmets, Optimus Prime vs. Megatron boxing games, and a "Cyber-Stoming" Optimus Prime that doesn't transform. I ask you, what is the point of having a Transformer that doesn't transform?
I ended up getting an Autobot that transforms into a Pontiac Somethingorother. It was a hit with both Todd and Jason, though it's tricky enough that they have to get my brother to do the transforming for them. Even I had some problems at first. And this was one of the easier ones to do. I guess some things haven't changed in the world of Transformers.
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