I don’t know what it is exactly, but it sure makes for a beautiful picture.

So does this one. ;-D

So Jerry Falwell has gone to meet his creator. For his sake I hope his god is more forgiving then he was.

I’m in need of doing a bookwyrm_lair post, though not a desperate need. Honestly my reading habits for the last couple of weeks have been kind of slacking. I still read at lunch, but I haven’t been reading at night or on the weekends. The weekends have been too busy to really get any reading in.

Monday night Tigs and I watched Guys and Balls. It’s a movie about a young German football player who is gay, and when he loses a big game and his football mates catch him kissing another guy, they kick him off the team. He vows to put together a gay football team and meet them on the field. Not knowing any gay football players he takes off to visit his sister in the city, and begins to put together a team of some interesting characters. Just about every gay stereotype struts it’s way into the movie, but it’s done so earnestly and with humor that it can’t be seen as offensive. The one thing that kept throwing me off was the music. Why, in a German film, was all the music in English? Aside from that, I thought this was an entertaining flick, and one that you should check out!

Aside from that, we’ve been watching a lot of fluff lately. Charmed, Gilmore Girls, Star Trek Voyager, As Time Goes By, etc. Neither of us has been much in the mood for anything too heavy, depressing, or even thought provoking. Of course I say that and sitting on the TV is Children of Men, which I’m really looking forward to seeing.

Sometime either late this week, or early next week Tigs and I are going to try to catch Spider-Man 3. It’s convenient that I get free movie tickets for giving blood. Which reminds me, I need to sign up for an appointment to do that again.

If you were throwing an 80s themed slumber party...
1. What movies would you show? The Breakfast Club, Goonies, Karate Kid, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, TMNT, Some Assembly Required
2. What kind of food would you serve? Pizza, cheese curls, Tab soda(do they still make this?), I wasn't ever that big on specific 80's food.
3. Which childhood friends and crushes would you reminisce about? I probably wouldn't
4. Which trends and fads would you lament most? Most of them! There were some really awful ones!
5. What board or card games would you incorporate? While not from the 80s Apples to Apples would be up there.

Tex
1. Whether you’ve ever been there or not, what are your thoughts on Texas ? I wish they would secede and be their own country again. It would make everyone happier.
2. Who was the last person you sent a text message to? If you’ve never sent someone a text message, is there some reason? Tigs. Actually I don’t think I’ve ever sent a text message to anyone else.
3. Who’s usually the first person you go to when you have a tech-related problem, especially for computers? Tigs if I’m at home, the IT helpdesk if I’m at work.
4. What was the best textbook you were ever assigned? Medieval Machine - The Industrial Revolution of the Middle Ages by Jean Gimpel
5. What are your thoughts on techno music? Um, it has it’s place, but it’s not on my playlist. I don’t think I even have any techno actually….

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Thursday night, in honor of HRH’s visit to Jamestown tigergladys, Lucymonster, and I watched The Queen. Now as something of an Anglophile I thought that the movie was fair to most, if not all, of the parties shown. I’m rather curious just how accurate it is. My guess is that it’s very accurate. I also wonder what the Queen thought of it.

We’ve also been watching Charmed. I’d seen an episode here and there before, but we borrowed the boxed sets from my aunt, and have been working our way through them. Now this is a series that has serious potential for the monster of the day/power of the day syndrome, where they exponentially gain new and more powerful magic that immediately renders last weeks new power useless. However so far (middle of season 4) that has yet to happen. In fact the series (thankfully) spends more time exploring the relationships of the characters in the context of all the supernatural stuff going on around them. I even felt that they handled the loss of Shannen Doherty really well all things considered. At the beginning of season 4 it definitely felt like they were scrambling, but now in the middle of it they seemed to have regained their footing.

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Showered, shaved, now time for coffee, and then we take Lucy to the vets. Have a great day everyone!

One of the big reasons I took the job I’m in currently is the education allowance. I have always wanted and expected to further my education beyond a bachelors degree. I wasn’t ever sure where I would go, or what I would do. I supposed I would figure out what program I’d go into when I got there. For a while I thought I would go to law school. As much as I think I would enjoy law school, I don’t think I would enjoy law, and in the end the goal is to be able to be employed in something I’ll enjoy doing. In looking for alternatives Tigergladys wisely pointed out that I’m good at math, and have a certain enjoyment in dealing with sums of money. Then again, who doesn’t enjoy sums of money? So I began investigating the possibility of becoming an accountant. Ok, yeah, a bean counter. But there are a lot of perks to being an accountant, and if you take it further and become a CPA, the perks just get better. The sister of my Uncle (by marriage) is a CPA who owns her own firm, and pulls in something like 1.5 million every year. Not bad... Hell, I'd be more then thrilled at a tenth of that!

In order to become a CPA there are a number of hoops to jump through. These include 2,000 hours of accounting experience (about a year as an accountant) and 60 credits in accounting and related subjects. If I can take 1 course every semester, plus 2 over the summer, and 1 during the winter I can breeze through 60 credits in 4 years. That’s presuming none of the courses I’ve already had will count towards that total, and that only one night course is offered per term. However in about a year I can accomplish a goal of about 18 credits, which is enough to get an accounting certificate, which would open a variety of accounting positions to me.

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Five on Friday... last Friday... written Tuesday...

1. If you accidentally bump into someone, do you say anything?

I usually say “excuse me.”

2. When you get into a disagreement or fight, how often are you the first to apologize?

I’m not sure. I think it depends on who I’m fighting with.

3. What everyday actions do feel should warrant an apology?

In general only if you screw something up. Most everyday actions don’t need an apology.

4. Do you apologize for things that aren't your fault?

No.

5. When was the last time you apologized to someone?

This morning. I’ve been restless at night, and it’s been disturbing Tigs’ sleep and has caused Lucymonster to stop sleeping on the bed with us. I’ve kicked her off the bed (literally) a couple of times, and now she’s afraid to come on to the bed at night if I’m in it… L

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This weekend was incredibly relaxing. Saturday started (or didn’t) by sleeping in late. We eventually got up, hit Duncan Donuts with some free coffee coupons and a gift certificate and took Lucy to go visit a dog park down in Ann Arundal county, and then found another down in Howard county that requires a membership. We’d go ahead and get one, except that their membership year runs from June to June. Or was it July to July? Either way we would have to pay for a full year for a couple of months worth of membership.

Aside from that, we relaxed, watched some Boston Legal, and I went grocery shopping. It was busy because there was a “winter storm warning” starting that night and going through Sunday. I can’t tell you how excited I was about this storm! It was the perfect excuse to have a totally lazy day. Obviously we couldn’t go anywhere (not that we had any invites), and just enjoy ourselves.

The most exciting thing for me was playing D&D with Tigs. It’s been something that’s been lurking in my head for a while now, and I’d been doing some refreshing on the rules to get ready for it. Getting into the mind set to role-play has been harder then remembering all the rules. We didn’t play a long game, as some kobolds hurt her only slightly less then she hurt them.

Reviews
Real Women Have Curves 6/6
This was even better then I thought it would be. It’s about a Mexican-American teen in LA who wants to continue her education past high school while her mother wants her to go to work in her sisters sewing factory/sweat shop. Guess where she ends up?

Greenfingers 5/6
Who’d have thought that a British prison would grow some unlikely gardeners? This true (or at least based on a true) story about a group of inmates who develop a work program based on gardening that leads them to the most prestigious gardening competition in the UK.

Kinky Boots 5/6
What’s a cross-dresser to do? Womens shoes were never meant to support the weight of a man. What’s a young man to do when he inherits a failing shoe factory? It is an odd coupling, a little predictable in plot, but definitely worth putting on your netflix list!

except perhaps "Review"!

Little Miss Sunshine – I heard a NPR interview with Greg Kinnear when this movie first came out, and it sounded great. The premise is really simple, but the characters aren’t.
Olive is a little girl with a dream: winning the Little Miss Sunshine contest. Her family wants her dream to come true, but they are so burdened with their own quirks, neuroses, and problems that they can barely make it through a day without some disaster befalling them. Olive's father Richard is a flop as a motivational speaker, and is barely on speaking terms with her mother. Her uncle Frank, a renowned Proust scholar, has attempted suicide following an unsuccessful romance with a male graduate student. Her brother Dwayne, a fanatical follower of Nietzsche, has taken a vow of silence, which allows him to escape somewhat from the family whose very presence torments him. And Olive's grandfather is a ne'er-do-well with a drug habit, but at least he enthusiastically coaches Olive in her contest talent routine. Circumstances conspire to put the entire family on the road together with the goal of getting Olive to the Little Miss Sunshine contest in far off California. (stolen from IMDB)

This is a disaster movie of the best type, a personal one! There is nothing here that’s earth shaking, there are no special effects, and each character is so true, and that really makes this kinda dark comedy one that is absolutely worth watching!

My Name is Earl – Ok, so I’ve actually only watched the first disk, but has this show got it! Funny stories, witty writers, and a cast that can make it all work! I hope the series continues as strongly as it has started. And to completely dork out, this is how in role-playing games (the other RPG) alignment change should be!

Pirates of the Caribbean II – Not as bad as I had expected it to be. Ok, yeah, it’s movie 2 out of 3, and it shows. Yes it recycled some gags, and no, I don’t know why Davey Jones is an Illithid with a lobster claw. I wish I had seen it in the theater, if only because it is a very dark movie, and even with the brightness and contrast turned up it was hard to see anything in some scenes. Aside from that, it was enjoyable, and it was good enough that at the end of the film, if I had PotC III I’d have popped it right in!

Superman Returns – Ouch. Recently there have been a number of solid comic book movies: Spiderman, Batman, Sin City, Daredevil, even the Fantastic 4. There have also been a number of poor comic book movies: Catwoman, Electra, The Hulk, Punisher, and sadly Superman. Unlike the other movies on the Bad list, Superman doesn’t suffer from poor acting, special effects, or even a poor story line. What it suffers from is it’s inability to introduce the Man of Steel in a clear manner so that those who only have a passing cultural knowledge of the character can sit down and feel fully informed about who he is and what he stands for. For some really unknown reason the setting for this movie is after Superman II or III from back in the 80’s. Why? Why not start fresh like all of the other good movies did? Why skip all the good story telling that can be done with a 10 minute breeze through of “Superman lands on earth, raised by Ma and Pa Kent, discovers his powers, goes to the city to be a reporter and do good, falls in love with Lois Lane… Would it have hurt the movie any to have included that in a more understandable format?

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In other news tigergladys, Lucy and I all went up to visit my aunt and cousins on Saturday. Lucy had a fun adventure, and I direct you all over to rodenthoarde to read all about it. Tigs and I both got a chance to try out the Wii. I played some of the sports games, and Tigs played the Oh So Angsty surgery game. For the record, I suck at Wii golf, but the tennis game was pretty cool.

I also played a few games of Lord of the Rings with the boys. We were playing the 3 scenarios from the Fellowship of the Ring book that encompass the Ambush at Amon Hen. In the first Aragorn must protect Frodo from the uruk hai. The first time we played this one we set up the board wrong and Frodo and Aragorn were too close to the Uruks, and were caught by turn 2. Frodo died a turn later. We reset the game, giving Frodo and Aragorn more of a head start. It was much closer this time. A real running battle as Frodo tried to escape. Cory and Alex were relentless as the uruks, and my dice were not kind to me in either priority rolls or when attempting to get Gimli and Legolas to arrive. In fact they didn’t arrive until almost the end of the game! In the end it was only the benefit of the Ring of Power that allowed Frodo to slip away as he was surrounded by the uruks.

In the second scenario Alex had Boromir protecting Merry and Pippin until help could arrive. In this case help was 12 turns away. Alex did really well right up until the end, but 12 turns ended up being just one too many and the hobbits were taken away, though Boromir did survive!

Scenario 3 will have to wait till next visit, as by the time we finished the 2nd it was time for dinner.

Peace, Love, & Hope

Written over the past week at work, in between writing about Raoul.
( Trick or Treat )

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Some reviews!

Casanova – Fluffy but fun. I was a little surprised at the R rating considering there wasn’t any nudity, the language wasn’t anything beyond what you see on TV and the violence was mild save for an inquisitorial torture session that was well below what you might see on 24. The costumes, sets, mat paintings, and cgi were all very pretty, if mostly inaccurate. And the pigs were very cute! If you are looking for a 2 hour fluffy love story with some decent actors check it out. Definitely a renter though. I doubt you’ll want to add it to your collection.

House season 2 – Wow! Seriously wow! There were some really good episodes, and I can not wait for season 3 to come out on DVD. Yes, I know it’s still on TV right now, and I’ll have to wait nearly a year to see what happens, but I want it NOW! So good!

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Monday night Tigs and I did some preparing for the change of season. Well, I cleaned the hamster tanks and helped her sort her wardrobe. The dresser is a little full (and by a little I mean some of the drawers didn’t close all the way), so we looked through everything, and bagged stuff she didn’t like or that didn’t fit for goodwill. Her summer clothing is now all packed away, and her warmer winter clothing is all in the dresser. We also found some of my clothing that had been mixed in towards the end of packing in Worcester . This included a stash of socks, which is very exciting for me as I’ve had to toss a number of them lately due to holes in the toes.

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There is a Jimmy Buffett song that starts with the line “A broken promise I’ve kept too long” This line resonated for me most recently as I’ve been trying to deal with my feelings towards old friends and ex’s, the ones who hurt me. I’ve always felt strongly that people are in general good at heart, and that while they may screw up, it usually isn’t a malicious act. But am I right? More and more I’m beginning to think I’m wrong about that, at least in some cases. You see, even after they hurt me, I still cared about them, even forgave them without their asking for it, and kept it all to myself. Now ask just about anybody and they’ll tell you that isn’t healthy behavior. If one of my friends did that, I’d tell them to stop sucking it up and let it out! It’s ok to be angry about getting hurt. Getting angry is good, it’s a release. You don’t have to act on that anger and go out and shoot people (in fact if you let it out rather then pent it up for 20 years you are less likely to shoot a bunch of Amish school girls).

So the hurt is still there, and somewhere down deep where I buried it, the anger is too. I’ve been writing letters, and I have more to go, trying to confront that anger. And the more I think about it, the more letters I add to the list. I think the letters help. They are concrete physical manifestations of my feelings in black and white. Actually blue and white, but it works the same way.

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On Soap
For years now I’ve experienced a burning sensation when I am exposed to too much soap. Doing a sink full of dishes would make my hands burn for an hour at least. Showers weren’t much better. Little amounts I could handle, say washing my hands, or a couple of dishes. I was always frustrated by that, and when I told someone about it the reaction was always a look, half a step back, quick sniff, and then saying something like “Allergic to soap hua? That sucks.”

Last night though, without even noticing, I did 3 loads of dishes. And no burning! Was it a miraculous cure? No. It was merely a cleaner soap, one that is without additives. What is this magic soap? The Method! http://www.methodhome.com/ Even better is that it’s not just dish soap. It’s a whole line of products that don’t aggravate my skin! It’s amazing what natural products can do, and not do!

Another thing that natural, healthy products have managed to do is to help me lose weight. I’ve found that not only do healthy foods taste good (often better then the alternatives) but I eat less of them because my body knows that it’s taken all the nutrients that it needs. I’ll have to post some of my favorites for you soon. This is actually a well known phenomena when it comes to pet food (advice we were given often when we were talking about getting a puppy, and something we did already for the hamsters, and have for years!), however people seem to forget that it works the same way for us. We are still meat machines that need fuel and like any machine, we need high quality fuel to run well. It also helps to cook your own food, rather then rely on pre-packaged crap or fast food. Something we've learned by being poor. I'm down from almost 200 lbs to 170 without really trying! That whole lifestyle and exercise thing really works. Try running with your puppy every day and eating healthy food, and it's amazing the things that happen.

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Good night all. I'm being licked, which means it's time for bed.

My heart goes out to those who have been impacted by the horrible attacks in India. I can't imagine the terror of having been on one of those trains when the bombs went off.

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I'm so glad that there is a water cooler that isn't far from my office. By the time I walked from my parked car to the office where I work I was already feeling so dehydrated. Summer is always tough on my system. One of the reasons I have to have air conditioning. As it is in my little cubical/cubby I sit next to one of the A/C vents, and thank god for that! I'm a little jealous of Tigs for how cold they keep her office. It makes me want to move to Alaska.

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Reviews
Desperate Housewives - Season 1

I didn't expect to like this show as much as I do. The writing is remarkably well done, the acting is fantastic, and in some ways it is very campy. It's narrated by the neighbor who killed herself in the first episode, and the choice of camera angles, dialogue, and acting makes it a fun and funny show. The best part though is that things change! Characters grow, develop, and suffer the consequences of their actions. A major character was murdered at the end of the first season, and another wasn't, and I am actually curious to see how that will play out.

The other surprise was how the characters I didn't like at the beginning of the show, the antagonists really, grew on me. The show brought us into their lives, showed us the choices they made, and made them at least understandable and even made them likeable!

The 1900 House

This was the first in a line of BBC & PBS reality TV shows. Taking a family (or a group of families) and having them live in the era in question, remaining as accurate as possible to the historical record of how people lived. This first show took an English family, and put them in a house remodeled to have gas lights, a coal stove, no electricity, no tv, no radio, and all of the foods and clothing that a middle class family of the time would wear. This was a very short show, considering that they were in the house for months. It was interesting watching them learn to cook and clean, to deal with boredom, deal with having a maid (once they hired one) shaving with a straight razor... and all the while learning about the time they were living in.

Frontier House

This time PBS and the BBC brings us to Montana and the homesteading that was taking place. 3 families were picked for this series; a black man (Nate) and his father (who would leave when Nate's fiancée arrived), a rich California family, and a family from Tennessee.

Nate's story was that he was a poor free black who was moving west for a better life. He would have to build his home when he arrived.

The family from Tennessee was not as rich but managed to buy an existing home and moved right in.

The California family was rich, and had hired some workers to help build their house. When they arrived it was half built.

The most interesting aspect was the dynamic between the 3 families, as they struggled with hard work, lack of food, and harsh weather. In addition you had one family's internal breakdown between husband and wife, and another's "illegal" actions, and the play between those two families.

If I say anymore on this I might spoil it for you, but the final goal for the families was to see if they had done enough, gathered enough, and worked hard and smart enough to survive the winter.

Boston Legal – Season 1 Disk 1

I caught a bit of this show at my Aunt Kim's house a couple of visits back, and last time I borrowed the boxed set. There is really only one character who I much care about, but several others who I am amused by. I will admit that the biggest reason for wanting to watch the show is because of several of the actors in it, including: William Shatner, Rene Auberjonois, Candice Bergen, and at the end of season 2 Jeri Ryan. I'm going to give it a few more episodes before making up my mind on it.

Failure to Launch

Fluff, but fun and funny fluff. The basic idea, for those who don't know, is that there are guys, who into their 30's are still living with their parents, and have no problem with that fact. The parents of one of the families hire a woman who specializes in such cases, and works to get the guys to move out. It was kind of like Hitch, so if you enjoyed that movie you will probably enjoy Failure to Launch.

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During my lunch break I called Games Workshop back, and the interview is scheduled for Friday afternoon, so I'll be taking a 3/4 day.

It is now 3:10 , and I have done all the work I had to do. I expect more to arrive within the next couple of minutes, but for now, this is all I have to work on. I spoke too soon! Here's work!

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3:40 - Well, that didn't take too long to do...

I've been working on painting again, which you all know. The last couple of days I have spent a lot of time sorting, bagging, and tagging my unpainted miniatures. I had several small diamond boxes of miniatures I haven't done anything with yet. Being tight on space as we are, I decided to open all those minis, take them out of their packages, and put them in ziplock sandwich bags. I reduced 3 boxes of minis to a single box. It also helps to take things off the sprews. There is lots of wasted space on sprews. I still have some more to do at the house, and some more boxes with minis at Kim's. It's truly a scary amount of minis. One problem I've run into is that I am just about out of places to keep my finished minis. I don't want to just toss them into bags, so I need more figure cases. Or at least shelf space to display them until I have to move again. However, seeing how expensive mini cases are, I am going to look into making my own. I'll probably buy the foam for them, but for the case itself I'm going to try to sew cases like the Army Transport Cases, but in thick canvas rather then plastic.

I am currently working on Shaffer's Last Chancers, which are basically the Dirty Dozen in 40K. The team is made up of convicts who were given the choice to either serve and fight in suicidal missions or be put to death. They are some of the more colorful miniatures that GW has made for the Imperial Guard.

I've also decided that when I start working on my Brettonian army, the theme is going to be the crew of the Next Generation on a holodeck adventure! And yes, that will include both Worf and Data! If I do a display base, it will include a little of the black and yellow grid, as well as the Arch. :-) Geeky hua? But I think I'll enjoy working on that more then I would just doing a straight Brettonian force.

I owe you a post about the interview. Well, it went well, as far as I can tell. It started at 8:30 and went until about 11:30. It was a group interview, there were... 6 of us. We had to role play our way through a game of Lord of the Rings sans dice, measuring sticks, and even rules. We had a 100 question test on 40K, Fantasy, the Hobby, and GW's history. There was then a panel interview, and it wrapped up with having us paint a mini. We were all given a single eldar ranger, and about 40 minutes to work on it.

This is what I came up with.

Oh, and it turns out the collections job was filled already. They said that we will hear something about today by Friday. We'll see.

An Inconvenient Truth. I don't think there was much there I didn't already know, but it was nice to have it packaged so well. Definitely worth seeing, definitely worth doing something about.

Peace, Love, and Hope

It’s the end of the day, and I’ve wrapped up everything I was working on, so now again time to type.

Tonight Tigs and I are going to go see “An Inconvenient Truth” with ellisdsme and silentrequiem. I‘ve been wanting to see this since I first heard about it. I’ll give you a review tonight or tomorrow.

Tigs and I have also been catching up on some pop culture in the form of Desperate Housewives. I didn’t think I was going to enjoy it as much as I have been, but it is really smarty written, and also funny! I think the best part is that when the characters do something, there are consequences. It really isn’t a show you can jump into the middle of, at least, not and get the whole effect. I’m going to have to wait till August for the release of season 2 on DVD so we can netflix it, but I think it’s actually worth the wait!

Just about time to wrap up the work day. See you all after the movie!

( But first, a Meme! )

As I pulled into the parking spot on the hill next to the WPI library, I noticed that tigergladys was just walking up the hill. Talk about timing. We immediately went to the physics building, where the room the movie was to play in was dark and empty. I turned on the lights, and sat down. Eventually a total of about a dozen people arrived, and Ghosts of Rwanda began. It was very moving and sad. I looked away a couple of times. Afterword, as Tigs and I were walking back to the car, she brought up a good point about the film. It was very USA centric. Yes, the UN and the Red Cross were the main actors, much time was spent talking about what Clinton didn't do, what the Congress didn't do, and yet there was a line that was spoken by Kofi Annan that he went to 80 nations, and asked for help, and all refused. 80 Nations! And all because no one had any interest in what was going on. Not because they didn't know, but because they didn't care.

Yet that isn't why I was crying my eyes out tonight. After we got back from the movie, I decided that I would make the French Onion Soup that I've been talking about. It is very hard to chop up 6 onions and not cry. They are currently cooking in the crock pot, before I add all the other stuff.

Peace, Love, & Hope