Day 65: Hueys, post Watchmen

From 365

I picked up the Watchmen trade paperback fairly recently. I was never really a comic nerd. Surprisingly, some of my friends are comic nerds, and yet I'm the only one to have read it.

We went and saw the movie Friday night. We all enjoyed it. Its impossible not to compare the book and the movie. The movie was very faithful in most respects to the book. There were parts that were dropped or shortened, either for simplicity or for the sake of time. And while I'm sure that Alan Moore and purists would argue that it does in fact completely destroy it, I say that the movie is still a great story. It does mostly capture the spirit of the comic. There are some minor differences, and some slightly-more-than-minor differences. But it's good. But you should totally grab the comic and read it. Catching all of the stuff in the comic that was not in the movie is very very very worth it.

We all went to Hueys afterward to chit chat. I have to mention my friend Jeremy, who is a lucky S.O.B., he's had two wrecks in a week, one on a motorcycle. He's fine, but quite sore. I really feel bad for him. He's a car nerd, and the first wreck was in his beloved SRX, which took some serious damage, but is not totaled, and will be able to be repaired. AND THEN, he laid his motorcycle down. Like I said he's fine, and we're all glad for it. Hopefully, this was his run of bad karma and he's good for a long long while.

Things that I am up to:

As I've mentioned a few times now, I feel like my blogging here is really falling off. My D&D game is still going, but I have been a huge slacker about typing up session recaps or anything. On the running front, I need to change my blog name to "not running with dice", because I'm not running. Its, well, just too damn cold. Like I do every year, I stop running when it gets cold, even though every year, I swear I'll do better.

But here's what I'm really up to: Obsessing about a computer game. Surprised? You shouldn't be.

Its called "Chaos Gate", its a turn based tactical combat game set in the Warhammer 40k universe. It was released in 1998 (!!!!), and I played the hell out of it and loved it. It was a little crashy even back then, and once I moved from Windows 98 to Windows XP, I never was able to get it really running. All crash and no play. Every year or two I would pull it out and install it, and try for an hour or three to get it to run, and then put it back in its place amongst the other computer games. Well, I decided to pull it out again, and even found some info on some people who had gotten it to work under XP. Woo! Only now I can't find it. Apparently its gone to the same place as my copy of Fallout Tactics- Brotherhood of Steel went. Which is to say that I have no idea where the hell it is. I'm naturally a little bit obsessive, and something like this kicks my obsessive gene right in the balls. I went home for lunch today and tore apart the "computer closet" looking for it. I checked all of the cd cases and everything. Nothing. We purged some of the crap games that I had, and a bunch of empty jewel cases, and I hope that it did not accidentally get thrown out with those. It also could simply be stuck in a drawer somewhere. I mean, my house is not *that* big, but there's tons of out-of-the-way places that it could be. So, meanwhile, I'm downloading the torrent of it. But still, I'm mighty melancholy about not being able to find it. Remember that I'm a huge game nerd. I still have the blue 3.5 inch floppy disk for Civilization on the Amiga (!!!).

Speaking of collecting things, let's talk about my relationship with DVDs for just a moment. Krissi and I have a large-ish collection of DVDs. I have no doubt that there are collections that dwarf ours, but we have a goodly many of them. See, we (I, really, I think that Krissi is probably just my accomplice) like to buy DVDs. Because we like to collect them really. Its not that we don't watch them, because we do, we just don't watch them alot. Like - to be brutally honest, we probably only pop a DVD into the player and watch it like... maybe twice a month, and that's being kindof generous. And yet, I can sit here and think of half a dozen DVDs right off the top of my head that I'd buy if I could. And if you let me think about it longer, I'm sure I could come up with a few dozen. Because they're movies I like, and they're movies that I think that I'd like to own. Because I want to put them on my DVD rack and go, "See? Look at this movie I've got here!" And I'll do the same thing I do at least once every other weekend, and I'll say, "Hey you guys, let's watch one of these great movies that we've got!", and I'll always return to the same set, I'll say, "Let's watch Fight Club, or Seven, or Usual Suspects, or Memento, or Fargo!", or I'll get desperate, and suggest that we pop in Anchorman or SuperTroopers. And in the end, we'll watch The Soup, and flip through some channels, and the weekend will pass, and 99.99% of the DVDs on my shelf will continue to sit, untouched and unloved. Because the more movies I end up buying, the less likely I am to watch any one of them again. I'm not certain of my math, but it feels right. I think we may have a movie or two on the shelves that still are in plastic, because we bought them, eagerly brought them to their new home, pulled them out of the bag, held them aloft in glee, and stuck them in the DVD rack to gather dust with their peers.

What does any of this mean? I don't know either. But I think that I'm going to make an effort to not buy DVDs just because I liked them, anymore. Finances and economy aside, I just don't need to own them as much as I think that I do. Weird, huh?

The Shining

I caught Kubric's The Shining on TV over the weekend.

Man I love that movie.

Two Movies

We saw Hellboy II last weekend, and Batman the Dark Knight this weekend.

I give the following rating to both:

Hell yeah!!

Wanted

We went and saw Wanted this evening.

Oh. Shit.


If there was a rating scale for how fucking awesome a movie was, and that scale was from 1 to 10, with 10 being the most awesome movie ever made, Wanted gets a 12 and a half.

If you saw Day Watch and Night Watch and liked them, go see Wanted (and if you've never heard of them, you should fix that). Hell - if you enjoyed The Matrix, you should probably go see Wanted.

I might go see it again this weekend.

Product Placement.

Yes, I'm bitching again. Maybe I need to add "Cynical" or "Bitchfest" to my blog title.

Moving right along.

I hate product placement in visual media.

It would be more fair to say that I fucking hate being advertised to, but visual media- TV and movies - take the cake.

Yes, yes, I accept that advertising is a somewhat necessary evil, and that being exposed to it is a part of living in modern society and being connected to the internet and watching tv and movies. However. I fucking hate it. I do not "accept it". I accept that it is there, and I reserve the right to be completely fucking retarded about it. I. Do. Not. Want. Your. New. Phone. Or your car. Or your hamburger (okay, I do like hamburgers alot), or your what-fucking-ever.

I'm very annoyed at going to a movie, and sitting through 15 minutes of fucking cell phone commercials. Okay - fine - I'm not 15. But fuck you, I still do not want to sit through your cell phone commercials. I already paid you for a seat in your theater, please show me the movie.


Thank you.



Why are there 2000 coke cans and a bunch of pringles cans and... oh, look, a cell phone company. What movie is this again? For fuck's sake.


I'm highly annoyed by product placement. Yes, I know - they have to make money. Yes, I know - I fast forward through commercials, or even change the fucking channel, just so that I don't have to watch the fucking moronic adverts in them. None of this changes the fact that I don't want you to halt the action in your movie, and turn to your co-star, and say "Boy wow! This sure a fantastic Coca Cola! I love these things and am sure to have one every day! Hey, what time is it? Let me check on my casio brand watch! I'll give you a call later on my new blackberry curve cell phone!" *wink!" Fuck you greedy hollywood assholes, and my fellow consumers, who drive this fucking thing.



So yes, I'm unreasonably angry.










But I swear, I did like the Hulk movie.

Bonnaroo and back

So the Williams clan packed up our stuff and headed to Bonnaroo last week.

The four of us left Wednesday evening and drove to Nashville. We stayed in a pretty swank hotel there, and got up relatively early on Thursday to finish the drive.

We were coming from the west, and when we got to the exit for the town where Bonnaroo is held, we noticed that the exit was closed from our direction, but that traffic coming from the east was *really stacked up*. Like.. there was a line about 7 or 8 miles long. I was fearful. We turned on the local Bonnaroo radio station, and they were giving directions to get off on exit 127 or something, which we'd not reached yet. So we drove on, looking across at the seemingly endless line of vehicles, afraid that the plan was to have us join this long line of cars (cue the cake song). We got to the exit, which was backed up just a hundred yards or so, and were able to see that they were not just having us turn around to join the long line - YAY! We were in a line of our own, but it was not on the shoulder of the freeway, and it moved along pretty reasonably. Still, we were in line for two or three hours. It was fine though. Despite being hot, we rolled the windows down, and there was a nice enough breeze to cool things down a bit. So the weather was nice, and we were on little semi-rural streets, so we enjoyed the scenery as well. Finally we got to the checkpoints, where they were searching vehicles for contraband - mostly glass, drugs and weapons, I guess. We made it through fine, having none of these things, but were slightly amused by watching them pull out and throw away stuff from other vehicles. I was a little surprised that the checks were not more thorough. They were a little bit random. One or two guys would eyeball the inside of your car, open up one or two pieces of luggage, and that was about it. While it was more than "cursory", it certainly could have been more thorough. But I think that there are two things at play here: they want to get people in, like, sometime today. And they're not super serious about the drug thing. I mean, its a hippie drug and music party. Anyway, we got past that and made it to the tents area. They were packing people in pretty tight. We'd wanted to score some tent-only camping, which meant parking somewhere and walking elsewhere to do camping, but we weren't sure how quickly it filled up. We got our hands on a map and saw that the tent-only area was super tiny, and figured that it'd be full, and we'd have wasted our time. So we didn't try. Where we parked, as I said, they were packing us in tight. They'd park cars in rows, two cars long. So in front of our bumper was a clear space for about 25 or so feet, then the back bumper of another car. Another car was immediately behind us, and behind them, more open space. And on each side, cars and more cars. So we pitched our two tents, one for sleeping and one for hanging out, right in front of our car. We had neighbors on three sides of us, and our car one one side. We got our tents up, and soon headed off to Centeroo, which is where all of the events and most of the food and stuff is.
We saw Grand Ole Party, which was fun, and totally channeled the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. We ate, and hung out and saw Grupo Fantasma. We were pretty spent by midnight, from the driving and waiting and walking and sun and heat and so forth, so were were back at our tent before 1, and crashed. Some of us slept well, for others, the music from Centeroo kept them from getting a really good night sleep.
We were up on Friday around 8. I went off in search of sustenance, and found it easily. By 9 or so, we were all up and starting to move. We hung out, waited on bathrooms, drank water and goofed off until very early afternoon, and headed for Centeroo again. We got to see M.I.A., which was totally freaking awesome. I love MIA, and it was fantastic to see her in concert. There was a ridiculous crowd. We'd picked some floor space about halfway back from the stage, under the huge tent. I figured this would be a descent spot, keeping us out of the super tight part of the crowd, but still close enough. I was kinda wrong, and this is why I'm not a big fan of concerts I think. Or maybe I'm just old, either way - it was constantly annoying, being jostled, and pushed by, and stood right in front of, and so on. I guess I'm just not 22 anymore. I know its a concert, and with tons of people, but really, folks, when the crowd in front of you is a tightly packed sea of humanity, and have to shove past me to get in front, where are you really going? And "to stand right fucking in front of you" is not a sufficient answer. Anyway, despite that annoyance, the show was great. I love MIA's music, and she rocked. She interacted with the crowd, at one point getting "all the girls" on the stage - enough so anyway that she filled the stage, and then soon after, sending them off and getting "all the boys" on the stage, to play Boyz. It was a fantastic show. We split up a little, catching some of The Raconteurs, !!! (pronounced chk-chk-chk), The Swell Season, and then getting back together. We went and saw Metallica, and it was great. I love Metallica, and enjoyed seeing them. They played a ton of old stuff. It was a little weird having them, and some of the heavy bands at Bonnaroo, since they're metal, and bonnaroo is kinda folksy and hippy. It started drizzling a little before dark that evening, and so we sat in the semi-rain for Metallica. Again, we bundled in and were trying to get to sleep before 1. Shortly after 1, the sky opened up and the rain setting was on "FULL!". Sadly, we'd taken a shortcut when setting up our tent, so instead of shedding water completely, we were getting some pretty serious drips and water in the tent. It wasn't flooding in the tent, but it sure wasn't sleeping conditions either. Maddie and John gave it up and broke for the car. Krissi and I stayed in the tent and made do. It slacked off after awhile, but it was a really good storm. Saturday, Krissi and I got up and moving a little before 8, I think. We got our breakfast on, and soon the other Williams' were up as well. Again, we goofed around a bit before heading to Centeroo around noon. On Saturday we saw Gogol Bordello which was fucking awesome. I love me some Gypsy Punk Rock. It was a seriously awesome show. They have an amazing stage presence and show. The crowd was super into it, and it was all kinds of awesome. We also saw Pearl Jam, which I have mixed feelings about. I love Pearl Jam.... I love Pearl Jam's music. And I certainly identify with Vedder's political stance, and environmentalism and all of that. Pearl Jam played a great set, doing lots of stuff from the old albums that everyone could sing along with. But Eddie kept taking time between songs to mumble about Bush and gas prices and Iraq War veterans. Eddie is just not a good speaker. He writes and sings amazing songs, but his little mumbly political rants were annoying at best. He also encouraged the crowd to take action and change the world. I wonder if he was aware that he was talking to 60,000+ hippies, who's biggest concern right then was whether or not there would be enough pot to last them until the end of the festival.
Again, we crashed "early", shortly after 1. It got pretty cold overnight, and eventually M&J headed to the car, while Krissi and I stuck it out with our sleeping bag.
Sunday we got up, and started packing. There weren't any bands that we were super keen on seeing on sunday, and we all wanted to get back. You take showers and amenities for granted, until you don't get them for a few days at a time. So we headed back to M-town, and made it here before 3pm. Caught the new Hulk movie, started working on the 700+ items on my feed reader, and called it a night.

We also caught a good number of comedy shows, which were great. We saw, in order I cannot recall: Janeane Garofalo, Brian Posehn, Jim Norton, Mike Birbiglia, Louis C.K., and one or two others that I cannot recall. They were all very very funny. Janeane was a little disappointing, simply because.. well, she really didn't do a standup show. She rambled a little about racism and politics, and then kindof ran around the audience area a few times, and then was done. I mean, she was still sorta funny, but it wasn't really a comedy show. With that said, I still love Janeane and would gladly have her babies.

The food was plentiful, kinda pricey, and very delicious. On Thursday when we walked into Centeroo, we immediately grabbed Gyros, which was THE BOMB. (Kwik Check on Madison's are better, but these were super good). We also had pizza, burgers, brauts, hot dogs, corn dogs, and a number of other delicious goodies. The crowd and the staff were mostly easy going, friendly, and good natured. There was SO MUCH POT.

Funny stuff: On Saturday, we rolled up to the main stage area as Jack Johnston was wrapping up, and before Pearl Jam was gonna play. For both Pearl Jam and Metallica, we made do with "way in the back". We could see the stage, and hear everything well, but we didn't want to have to fight for breathing room. So we sat down on our little tarp-blanket, and Krissi pulled out the little glowsticks and stuff that she'd brought, since it was getting dark. She and Maddie made headbands and wristbands and such out of them, and were having a grand time, when the solicitations started. Some girl came over and knelt down beside them, and smiled real wide at them and asked "So what are you guys doing this evening? Are you partying?" It was immediately apparent to me what was happening, but - bless their innocent hearts, Krissi and Maddie were totally clueless. And then terribly embarrassed, after the girl made a few seconds of awkward conversation, and then wandered away. By the third solicitation, Krissi was thoroughly disheartened that people were coming up to her and asking her how much ectasy she was trying to sell. But it was still mighty hilarious.

We all had a great time. I am doubtful that we'll even consider going next year, but that it not because we did not enjoy ourselves.

Also, since I mentioned that we saw the Hulk, I'm compelled to give my two cents. And they are:
I liked it. I have some gripes, but I thought it was fun.

Indiana Jones

Went and saw the Crystal Skull over the weekend with some friends.

Somewhat spoilery thoughts below:

and scroll down, to keep it friendly to feed-reader people



in 3..








2..







1..





I liked it, with all of its flaws. I find myself willing to overlook its many flaws, and accept it as a fun Indiana Jones flick. I can't swing a dead alien right now without hitting five or six insightful blogs with their feelings about the movie, but we've already established that I'm in love with my own opinion...

I think my friends were put off by the alien stuff. I am too, just a little bit, but not enough to be upset, or to have not enjoyed the movie. Aliens were big stuff in 1950's fiction, I'm okay with seeing that mirrored here. Also, we've already had magic (religious) rocks, the Ark of the Covenant, and the Holy Grail. I'm willing to swallow aliens. And I loved the flying saucer. I mean c'mon - a flying saucer!

Like I said - its flawed, and I won't sit here and try to list its flaws. If you haven't seen it yet, and have read this anyway, I recommend going to see it. Just be prepared for aliens and some of the Indiana Jones pulp camp that we've come to love.

Duh duh duuuh duuUUUUUH, duh duh DUUUUuuuh....

Totally Freaking Random

I watched this movie over and over and over again on VHS cassette, complete with commercials, cause we'd recorded it at some point. Eventually it developed sections of the movie that were unwatchable, due to wear and age of the VHS tape. But I loved that movie.

Roundup

I've managed to catch a couple of movies recently - this weekend I saw In Bruges, which I though was very good. Previously, I caught Idiocracy, which I highly recommend.

This past weekend saw Dixie and the Ninjas, our Rock Band band, pick up our instruments again, after a few weeks of hiatus, and do some jamming.

Also this weekend, I saw Carol Plunk, and it was a FANTASTIC show! I went with pretty minimal expectations and was kinda blown away. Yay local talent! Here she is covering Sweet Child of Mine:





She also did a cover of Black Sabbath's Paranoid that totally rocked my socks, and she did a bunch of her own material that rocked as well.

in-laws, running, and haunted corn mazes

Howdy folks,

I'm loving the shift in weather from summer to fall.

This past Saturday I slept in good and late, till 8:15 or so, then got up, got my running clothes on and set out. My handy weather-telling plugin for Firefox told me that it was 48 degrees (F) outside, and it did feel chilly, but not cold. I had mapped out a 10 mile route around the area near me with Google Earth. The run was great, great, great. I wasnt %100 certain that I would be able to do the whole 10, having mapped it in such a way that I could cut off the last bit of the run and only end up doing 8, but I made the entire 10. The weather couldnt really have been more perfect.


Before I left for the run I took my Claratin, a One-A-Day Active vitamin, and ate a half of a peanut butter sandwich (for energy- long runs on an empty stomach is bleh). This was the longest run I've done in.. a couple months. Which sucks, because if I'm going to do the Marathon the end of this year, I need to be doing way more than 10 miles. We'll see. Anyway, the run felt great. Its been my experience that somewhere around 8 miles the adductor muscles start to feel sore and tight. For the sake of clarity, its a tired sore, not really a painful sore, nor is it a soreness that prevents me from completing the run. It does slow me down a bit, and I'm sure have an effect on my stride, but I dont consider it abnormal or anything. Its just what happens when you've run 8ish miles. I managed it in just a little under two hours, which I consider to be pretty good time for me. After I got home I hopped in a hot bath for a bit, got some food, and promptly took a nap.

My running gear consists of: a pair of imitation oakley sunglasses, sunblock, a 2.1L Camelback Rogue, underarmor boxer-briefs, a pair of nike lightweight shorts, a lightweight poly shirt, my running shoes, my iPod Nano and my ID.

Going to try to put in some miles this week. There are so many good reasons that I cant do long runs during the week.. it gets dark early, its late in the day and after work when my energy level is low, there are only so many available hours in the workday to split up among work, eating, sleeping, goofing off, and running, and um, I'm not enough of a morning person to get up and run before work. Still despite my whining, I'm going to try to do at least 3 miles every night, allowing for one skip night during the week. Yay running =)


Krissi's brother, Travis, has moved down from Virginia. He's staying with us for a bit while he works on getting a job and getting acclimated to North MS. Travis is a good guy, and its nice to have him around.

The Williams-Younger-White gang gathered this weekend. We saw The Departed which was very good, I liked it alot. Beforehand we saw a preview for 300, apparently based on a Frank Miller graphic novel about the Battle of Thermopylae. It looks really, really awesome, like Sin City meets.. um, the Battle of Thermopylae. The gang also made it out to the Haunted Corn Maze at the AgCenter in Memphis. It was fun and spooky, and well worth the trip.

Apparently I'm linktastic today. Thanks for bearing with me.

That's about it! Happy Columbus Day!

[edit:]
I forgot - we caught a ripped showing of Crank. Let me just say: hehehehehehe! I dont mean to be ugly, but this was easily one of the silliest, most ridiculous movies I've seen. It was all over the top, way far out action stuff. For an action movie, it was damn funny.

Time keeps on slipping..

Man, time slides on by.

I've been in a blogging lull.. feels like there's just nothing exciting or pressing enough to talk about. I'd been in rant/gaming/running mode for a few months there, and its kinda dropped back and I feel like I've nothing to come chatter about.

But.. Here's what been going on.

Running: Bleh. I have to face that I don't know if I'm going to make the marathon at the end of the year. Grrr. I'm really bummed. I'd seriously intended to train and make it, and my training hasn't been anywhere near what it needs to be. Why? Mostly because I'm a little lazy. I'm going to to try to push myself and see if I can build up to do it, but I fear it may not happen. Bleh.

Movies: Saw 'Fearless' the other day. Enjoyed it quite a bit. It felt like a more traditional Chinese martial arts flick than Hero and some others did. It prompted us to rush out and purchase Once Upon A Time in China I, II & III. Watched I and enjoyed it, we'll catch the other two soon. Also saw 'Inside Man' a Spike Lee flick with Denzel Washington and Some Other Guy who's name I think I should know, but I dont care enough. It was pretty terrible. Not super terrible, just terrible. No other movies that I can think of in the past few weeks. On the TV front though we've finished catching up on The Office season two on DVD, and have been watching the episodes of season 3. Good stuff.

Gaming: Not flipping happening. Its frustrating. The gang has been on a tabletop kick, which is pretty cool. Runebound is a fun game, but its so long. And makes me want/not want to look for my D&D player handbook. Played Betrayal at House on the Hill, which was pretty cool too. Sometime, thanks to advice from Legomancer, I'll have to get my hands on games like Puerto Rico, Acquire (out of print), For Sale, Power Grid, Citadels, Tikal, etc.

Other stuff... hm.. ok - I've fought blogging this for a month now, I'll try to just make it a couple of sentences. I made a myspace account. I've got my brother and his wife on there, lots of friends from high school, Weird Al, TMBG.. etc... but damn! myspace is such a terribly implemented, good idea. Its just a social networking site, unlike livejournal which is a blog site that provides a mechanism for some networking. Anyway, I promised to keep this quick. Myspace sucks. I wish there was a less crappy way to catch up with old friends.

Not much else worth sharing, but thanks for stopping by!

Pirates 2

We saw Pirates of the Caribbean 2 this weekend.

I'm sad to say that I was sorely disappointed. Its no secret that I have particular taste in movies. In fact it provides a sometimes extreme annoyance to my friends, who insist that I am uninterested in "fun" movies, and only like movies that are boring or otherwise somehow unwatchable. In fact, I've been accused of liking movies for the sake of liking them specifically because no one else did, or the reverse, disliking a movie because everyone else enjoyed it.

This seemed to be the case with Pirates, though Krissi was disappointed with it as well. But the folks we went to see it with apparently all thoroughly enjoyed it.

My gripes are this (no spoilers):

It was long. As hell. It clocked in at two and a half hours. I dont mind a long movie if its telling an enjoyable tale, but I sure didnt feel like this one was doing so.

It was over-the-top action scene after over-the-top action scene after... I'm not opposed to movies in which Cool Stuff happens. However I'm not interested a movie that simple features all of the cool scenes they could cram into a movie, regardless of whether it all really works or not.

I didnt feel an ounce of empathy with any of the characters. Not the good guys, not the bad guys, not anybody. I liked the first one well enough. It was silly and campy, but fun. This one seemed silly and campy and not fun and really really long. The bad guy in the first one was a cool, wicked bad guy that right away I was interested in. I was never once interested in the bad guy, or any of the characters in this movie.

Memorial Day Wrapup

We had a good Memorial Day holiday weekend.

Saturday we drove down to Jackson to see Matthew and Deirdra for an Annibirthsiary celebration. We had good food and good company and even got to talk gaming for a bit.

Sunday we watched Howl's Moving Castle, and Grosse Pointe Blank. Also we played a bit of Jason's Xbox 360. Howl's was good, in the exact same way that Spirited Away was good. And that was a little disappointing. Sure, it was an entirely different movie, but somehow it felt like it was the same movie under the hood. Still, I enjoyed watching it and I'd see it again. GPB was of course very good and very witty, I hadnt seen it in years and years. Which reminds me: All I ask for in movies is some wit and intelligence. But that's a whole other discussion entirely.

Almost forgot that we went and saw X3 on Friday. It was good, but certainly not as good as 1 or 2. There were some interesting and unexpected twists, and I have some gripes about some character stuff (and I never even read the comics). But it was good and I did enjoy it.

Monday we had lunch with my mom, and went to John and Maddie's place for a Mem-Day party/Gazebo Building Party. But good food and good times were had.

Headed this evening to run session 2 of the Feng Shui Monster Hunters game. We'll see how it goes. Ed, who gamed with us ages ago, but moved to Missouri, is in town and will be playing this evening. We're still working on some changes to Jason's character.

not forgotten

Hello Reader,

I have not forgotten my blog, I have simply been too distracted to get on here and do any real posting.

I'm sure there was some stuff I meant to post about in the last week or two, in fact I started a post last week, but never finished it.

We *did* go see Thank You For Smoking. It was very entertaining. I recommend it.

This past week I went to Montezuma, Indiana for business. My boss and I drove up there Wednesday afternoon and I got a tour of the mill up there, and we came back Thursday afternoon. Six hours each way. It was a long trip, but I got to meet the folks up there and see the operation.

The big thing that is coming up is our backpacking expedition. Krissi and I, as well as Maddie and Jason are going to go backpacking along the Buffalo River out in Arkansas this coming weekend. The kind of backpacking where you carry food, sleeping bag, tent, water, filter, and all the other stuff you need to live in the woods for 3 days straight. It'll be alot of fun to unplug for a bit. I'll be keeping a journal and reposting here for my (and your) entertainment.

This past Saturday, Maddie and I hit the pavement at 6AM for a seven mile run. It was a little exhausting. But it was super good. That same afternoon we packed up our full camping packs and set off on a test run. We did a two mile walk with them, and actually setup camp in a little park, just to test everything out. It went pretty well, and I'm glad we did it. It gives me a solid idea of what to expect. I'll be able to trim down what I'm carrying a little.

If there is more exciting stuff to share, then I've forgotten about it for the moment.

First! A List!

1. Matthew and Deirdra and Capes!
2. Silent Hill and Thank You For Smoking
3. Yard Work
4. Running
5. Guitar
6. Martial Arts (or the lack thereof)
7. Hearts of Iron II: Doomsday

Ok and we're off!

This past weekend Matthew and Deirdra were in Memphis to visit family and friends, and we were on the list! So Sunday evening we had the two of them, as well as Davery, Jeff and Jamie over to our casa in Horn Lake for some Capes fun (which was SUPER fun! Thanks again for running it Matthew) and for Sopranos. I definitely want to get my hands on some Capes action again in the near future.

We went and saw Silent Hill on Saturday. It was pretty terrible. I'm sure that die-hard fans of the Silent Hill games might disagree. It seemed a very faithful adaptation of the game into a movie. Wait, scratch that. It seemed like the game on a movie screen. There was terrible dialog, a jump scene- you know, where you have to jump the character from one precarious beam to another without falling to your death below- and a neatly cliche means of keeping the characters in the game the movie. In short, save your money, rent Silent Hill the game. As an afterthought, Thank You For Not Smoking. I havent gone and seen this yet, though I wanted to this past weekend. I do however intend to go see it this week or this coming weekend! Statement of intent! [Edit: Penny-arcade hits it right on.]

Not this past weekend but the weekend before.. the 15th I guess.. we did a ton of yard work! Yay! Actually it was pretty good. Krissi and Maddie did a goodly bit of prep work on their own. And so on Saturday we dug up a ton of the front yard and laid down top soil and manure and mulch, planted a tree, dug up three holly bushes and planted two rose bushes. And we still have some work on the side of the house, some bushes to plant, and the whole back yard to do! We did like 12 hours of work, but it was well worth it. Rewarding, and really alot of fun.

I've managed to get my lazy ass back out and do some running, which makes me very happy. I did 4 miles the other day, and 3 just today. I'm managing about every other day, which I figure is a fine pace for me right now. We're going to try to get 5 in this weekend. Trot for Spot is coming up soon, and we'll take the animals out for a brisk jog!

Guitar! Work continues. Krissi and Maddie have guitars on the way to North Mississippi as we speak! I've pretty much just been practicing stuff that I know, working on changes and timing and so forth. F and B still make me sweat, and I have not even gotten them down a little bit. I need to devote some practice to them.

So the other day, Matthew and I were chatting about Martial Arts. He's going to be working on his Black Belt in Kung Fu soon, and I was pining about how I wished I could get into a martial art. As I've probably posted previously, I'd *love love love* to do Krav Maga. Sadly, the places that I could take Krav Maga are all minimum 30 minutes one way. I'd love to do Aikido, but I think the only place around for that is on Summer, again, 30-45 minutes one way. I'd even go for some Kung Fu, but.. yeah.. 30+ minutes one way. There are a ton of Taekwondo places right around here, but sadly I'm just not interested in it, and not willing to pay good money, just to be doing it. Get me some cheese and a violin, I'm whining.

And now, in closing, Hearts of Iron II: Doomsday is terrific.

V for Vatic!

So this weekend I've been fighting a minor headcold. Taking a bit of medicine to fend off the symptoms and trying to get some sleep.

So on Friday I accepted a job with a small company in Horn Lake, right around the corner from my house! Huzzah! I also put in my two-weeks notice at my current job, which went quite well. I'd been worried about how my resignation would go.

A small crowd of us went out and saw V for Vendetta on Saturday, and MAN! it was awesome. I've seen some of the debate about terrorism and so on and so forth. Let me address this in a brief and rambling fashion.

Its a movie inspired by a comic book done in the early 80's. I think that if your stance is that it glorifies terrorism, then you're way too uptight about your entertainment (yeah, that coming from me). 12 Monkeys didn't glorify terrorism, did it? Now, I also enjoyed how neatly I could fit it into current times and politics. Again, the comic is it pretty closely based on was done in the 80's, but it still seems a pretty neat fit.

Enough about the bits and pieces of the movie. I liked it alot, and will absolutely purchase it on DVD, and watch it frequently.

We saw the Sopranos last night. No spoilers, but boy was it a dull episode.

Hrm.. what else.. Letseeee I've been playing Silent Hunter III and Democracy, and even attempted to crank up some old gems like Tropico, Fallout 2, and Hearts of Iron 2... Speaking of which I'm looking forward to the Doomsday expansion for HoI2!

That's about it. Rainy weekend. Need to get out and run.... Oh! Maddie got a laptop that makes mine envious!

movies!

So this weekend we did quite a bit of movie watching. Maddie and John were in Atlanta for a wedding party, and Jason, Krissi and I held the fort down.

We saw Red Dragon, which was quite good. Ralph Fiennes is an amazing actor. We saw Hustle and Flow which was.. okay. I was a tad bit disappointed, not because it wasnt an enjoyable movie, but I guess it just wasn't what I thought it was. We saw Run Lola Run, which was very excellent. And we saw Ice Harvest, which was excellent Film Noir, and a damn fine movie.

We also caught the season premier of the Sopranos which was quite good.

Did I mention that Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is a masterful game?

cars and movies

So lately the theme has been "Sick Cars".

Recently the Berreta broke down, and soon after the Saturn broke down, leaving us for a moment without a single working vehicle. Doesn't make one feel very suburban middle class.

Well we shelled out the $350 to get the Saturn fixed last week, so we were back to our semi-normal one working car really. I decided that we needed to get the Berreta out of the street this weekend so we pushed it to a garage. They checked it out and called me back. $500. Yup, five hundred clams to get it running again. Bear in mind that this is a '89 Berreta. So its got a goodly number of years on it.. Still, its a car that works.. well.. anyway.

With my income from work being so.. unpredictable, cash has been a scarce commodity around here lately. And so getting hit with TWO car repair bills, plus my glasses which need replacing has left us in more than a tight spot.

I usually refrain from griping about these kind of matters, which are, to me, kinda personal. But this seems like as good a place as any to kinda vent. And hey- its what's going on.

I got a really nice nibble on a job Friday, after having freshly polished up my resume (thanks John).

We went today and saw Ultraviolet. Now, before I contiune, let me lapse into my thing about movies. I'm kinda funny about movies. I am certainly not the most particular person that I know when it comes to movies, and I watch a fair share of movies, though most I catch on DVD. I tend though to like movies that are dark or twisted. Seven, Usual Suspects, 12 Monkeys, American Beauty, Falling Down, Full Metal Jacket, Way of the Gun, Kill Bill, Fight Club, the Big Hit... These are just some of my favorite movies. There is some variety there, but I like to think that I want a movie that evokes at least a little thought, or that is at least witty and clever. I cant get near movies like White Chicks, Doom, Suspect Zero, MindHunters, the Fast and the Furious, Mission Impossible 2, Blade, etc. So I've gotten involved in mildly cutting discussions with friends regarding recent movies like Underworld 2 and Doom and such.

So.. we went and saw Ultraviolet. I like Milla Jovovich, and this movie looked cool, so I suppose I went into it wanting to like it. I was not disappointed. I loved it. It was fun and pretty and spectacular and awesome. Tremendous.

Apparently I was in the minority though. The group of friends that I went with, the same people who enjoyed Doom and Underworld 2, apparently ranged from entertained but unfulfilled to downright disappointed. I was suprised by this. Certainly liking a movie is subjective, but I figured this one would be a pleaser for them as well. Furthermore, after I professed my enjoyment of this one, I was told how insane I am for enjoying this, but not liking Underworld 2, Doom, Blade, etc. And I dunno, maybe its simply a matter of predispositions and personal taste. *shrug*

same old... and werewolf

Not much new or exciting going on as of late. Andy (a friend through work and later through paintball and later just through hanging out) brought his out of state girlfriend down and we hung out this past saturday and watched The Aristocrats, Chasing Freedom, and The Chumscrubber. Loved the Aristocrats, very funny. Chasing Freedom was poignant and had a good story to tell, and Chumscrubber was good... I'll have to watch it again sometime.. very American Beauty meets Donnie Darko.

Work is busy as of late, which is cool I guess. I do like installing phone systems.

Maddie and I gathered this evening for a Werewolf game. I'm trying to keep a journal of our exploits which I'll post sometime. For this evening.. as follows...

Jake met with Sun and asked if she could get with some cahilith, or if there was any good werewolf lore on paper or otherwise available. Jake met up with sloan at club Umbra, where there had been a shooting recently. they went out wandering and heard a gunshot. they went looking and found a robbery or holdup in progress which they disrupted, driving off one, downing another and rendering the third incapable of escape. Jake and Sloan left the scene quickly. A few minutes later, still putting some distance between them and the crime scene, they ran into the scent of another werewolf. Someone up ahead apparently also caught their scent, because she stood up, and asked if they were forsaken. They replied yes, then asked if she was as well. She responded that she was, but said that the territory ahead in their path was not, that it belonged to a Pure tribe. Her name is June Fitzgerald. She is Elodoth Iron Master. The three of them hunted that evening.
* How does Jake feel about being shot at, and about putting her teeth in someone?
* What are Jake's thoughts on the Pure?
* Jake is working on carving out some territory around and including NYU in Greenwich Village.
* Jake is looking for some Loci in this area.
* Jake is working on gaining some reknown.
* Obviously, Jake is working on putting a pack together.

Otherwise.... my very wise friend Shasticon has pointed me toward FUDGE. [better link here for description of what FUDGE is]
He directed me to FUDGE after I'd expressed interest in a game system that was fast, easy and low maintenance. I'm a big fan of the new World of Darkness system, but I'd enjoy trying a system that both required less *looking up rules and powers and tables* and more *encouraging player creativity*. FUDGE seems cool.

In other news, quickly falling by the way-side, I need to get around to hashing out my failed Dogs in the Vineyard session.