December 20th, 2008
My illness, that is. It seems to have affected our cable now…
I’d blame it on the snow except we had cable yesterday. You know, when it snowed. As opposed to today. When it didn’t.
At least we got to watch a good movie. Netflix provided us with Hancock, a film about an alcoholic, amnesiac jerk with super powers and his transformation into a real-life superhero. At least, that’s the first 30 minutes. What the trailers don’t tell you – what I liked and, apparently the rest of the world hated – was that the rest of the film takes an unexpected turn, mixing the truth about Hancock’s past, the family who helped him change, and the criminals he put behind bars into an emotional and compelling finale. In fact, the worst part of the film was the pair of “epilogue” type scenes. Totally unneccesary and, while I’m sure it was planned as a “look how every one is getting on”, well, epilogue, it skipped over what would have been the interesting part, namely, how did these people deal with the events of the climax. Yes, I see how they are now, but how and why are they that way? I know that’s convoluted, but I’m trying to keep it spoiler-free for those who, like me, enjoy their surprise reveals to be actual surprises. That’s actually one place I have to give the studio (or marketing department or whoever fought with them and won) kudos for not spoiling – or even hinting at! – the big secret in the trailers as so many have done. Maybe I just didn’t follow the hype enough, but I was very pleasantly surprised.
I give the unrated version we watched 4 stars out of 5.
If I remember to hit stop before the epilogue next time, it’s quite likely to go up.
This post back-dated to reflect the date it was authored (c.f. internet outage mentioned above).
Tags: cable, Hancock, illness, movies, netflix
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December 19th, 2008
…it snowed.
Of course, since I can’t manage to stay healthy, I had to get out in this and drive to the doctor and the pharmacy. Having achieved success in these things, I attempted to return home to settle into bed with my cat, medications, and warm honey tea. Alas, it was not to be.
Although they had plowed both lanes of the street on the south side of the intersection, they’d only plowed one and two-thirds lanes to the north. Due to poor visibility and a variety of other factors, I drove my pickup into the pile of snow in the far third of the lane, where it lost traction, and I became stranded. Thanks to a city employee who lent me a shovel, then stayed on as a few additional good Samaritans stopped to help dig and then push me out, I was not stranded long.
I’ve heard similar stories from others, so, to all you good Samaritans out there: Thanks!
This post back-dated to reflect the date it was authored
Tags: illness, weather
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December 18th, 2008
…are sending people into a panic. Which is silly.
To elaborate: on the way to work, the radio told me that 10+ inches of snow – in the fashion of a winter storm – would begin falling at 7pm. People spent their mornings discussing, alternately, the travails of digging out their vehicles from the impending blizzard followed inevitably by a rant about the inability of others to maneuver said vehicles in inclement weather, and the potential of taking a ‘snow day’ since no-one else was likely to bother making the trip anyway (see: part one of this inordinately long sentence). By mid-afternoon, this supposed suffocating blanket of fluffy flakes had diminished to a predicted overnight (beginning at 1am) sprinkling of 2-5 inches, followed by an approximately equivalent amount during the following day. This evening, even that sprinkling had been downgraded to a mere probable dusting, with a total predicted accumulation of 5 inches. For the course.
I tell people we live in a bubble. Do they believe me? No.
How else do you explain more overcast days than the Rainy City, yet the worst of the weather manages somehow to miss us – either to the north or to the south?
Yeah. I thought so.
On a personal note: reports of my recovery were premature. I’m either relapsing, or my immune system was so put out with me from the first round that I picked up one of the other innumerable winter bugs that’s floating around. And I was so excited to be back at work again…
And finally, I’ll just mention that Word Press has been updated, so hopefully all my bits and pieces will be working. I’ve reactivated my plugins, so if anyone notices a problem, please let me know. Not that anyone reads this (at least, no one’s registered but lil’ ol’ me. *ahem*).
Tags: illness, site, weather
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December 8th, 2008
Both physically and site-wise.
I am approaching wellness, albeit slowly. I am once again grateful to live in an age of technology. Almost all of my Christmas shopping is done, thanks to the intarwebs; in particular, Amazon.com and what has turned out to be a fabulous investment: Amazon Prime. Having hardly left the couch in over a week, and being thrown into spasms of coughing by the cold winter air, I am happy to be so close to finished with the crass consumerism portion of the holiday season.
As my health improves, so to does my mental concentration and thus, ability to watch complicated films and television shows* and, blessedly, read! I’ve nearly finished one book and have assembled my next pile from the backlog.
In addition, I have nearly completed the back-end portion of Part 1 of my site plans. It’s mostly personal stuff, with only tiny bits leaking through to the public portions, but still quite exciting for me and my minimal coding skills.
So there you have it. Improvements.
Also, go Sooners!
As opposed to the Futurama and Austin Powers I watched blearily. This is not to denigrate these fine films, but to acknowledge that they are not what one might term “cerebral”.
Tags: amazon, Austin Powers, books, Futurama, holidays, illness, OU, site
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November 30th, 2008
I hate being sick, especially on a holiday. And even more so on a long holiday weekend. Completely unfair.
Tags: holidays, illness
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November 18th, 2008
Current guilty television pleasure: The Mentalist
Home: Hubby’s homemade cookies.
Mmmmm.
Tags: cookies, guilty pleasures, Mentalist, tv
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November 17th, 2008
This would be funnier if I’d shared it when I found it somewhere around a month ago, but…
Adventuring Party Politics: The Campaign is Getting Ugly
See also: The Gazebo Story
Tags: D&D, geekery, humor, links
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November 7th, 2008
Content, believe it or not, is coming.
Seriously.
I have been doing some “back-end” work – really more of a content-delivery thing – and that’s taking most of my creative energy. I had grand plans to make significant progress on it this evening, but after a 5 a.m. start and a long day at work…
I’m also trying to figure out what this site is going to be. I’ve never been too good at the personal site thing, and it probably doesn’t matter since no one reads it (at least, no one’s even signed up to comment, so…) but I am trying to do the “write anything” sort of thing to get in the habit. Maybe decent content will follow.
Maybe I shouldn’t post when I’m this exhausted.
Tags: site
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