Gonzai Gallery

At least, off from the internet, for the most part. I had today off of work (Happy Rosh Hashanah, as applicable) so I took Mom to a Senior Day Center to see what she thought. We were greeted by a dog named Buttercup. I consider that a good sign. Mom thinks it's too expensive, but my brother doesn't, so I'll let him convince her she can afford it. Then lunch at a new sandwich shop, Potbelly's. I think it's a chain. Decent sandwich though, and Mom was happy with hers.

Rest of the day was TV and computer games, as I caught up with nearly everything on the DVR and finally watched last year's 'Whitechapel'. I put that off because series 2 did nothing for me; turns out series 3 was much, much better. I'm taking '2001: A Space Odyssey' a chunk at a time, because I've tried and failed to watch it a few times already. I liked the 'trio' episode of Leverage much more than the rest of this season, and Mom actually liked it, first time in years she's liked the show. Maybe we have our new direction - just let Elliott, Hardison and Parker be the show. Fine with me. I enjoyed Doctor Who, esp. the conversations with the horse. Big surprise, right? We also watched Bill Maher, who I think properly summed up recent events thusly: "Some crazy Christians pretending to be crazy Jews riled up a bunch of crazy Muslims, so Mitt Romney could prove Mormons are even crazier."

Sunday, I was a party host. Can't remember the last time I tried that. But 4 of my gaming friends came over for the 'game', that being Ravens/Eagles, of course. We had an Eagles fan. I seated him near the door and we took turns reminding him we could easily toss him out of it. But he had the last laugh, dammit. But we had a grand time other than the final score, and a couple people stayed after and we played board games until late. I had to let CJ out eventually, but she was nice to the strangers! Total relief, that. The whole thing must have gone well, because the last folks out said we should do this again. My back isn't so sure about that, I'm a hurting pup today (presumably from moving around the furniture) but otherwise, yeah, gamers at the game, why not?

Almost, I decided to pass on making it three straight days of gaming. But I went Friday and Saturday, played a bunch of games, learned two new ones and ate a ton. That being the case, and also today being absolutely beautiful, I took Mom to look at a couple of houses (the one I was interested in was meh, the ones I picked for logistical reasons were fab), we ate frozen yogurt on a patio, and then home to watch football. Except I just couldn't get into the football, so I watched 'Full Metal Jacket' instead. Not entirely the same thing.

Not spoilery, really, esp if you saw any of the trailers...

Ticket to IMAX: $12.50
Small soda and a pretzel: $10.50 (WTF?)


Seeing Heinz Field blown to bits with Ben Roethlisberger & Hines Ward in it: Priceless.

Trying to watch it. Liked the music and cinematography on the 'origin of life' segment, not sure what to make of the rest so far. Of course the other half is I should go to be early, not staying up...

ETA yeah, I watched the whole thing. The music was wonderful. The childhood segment was more accessible than the beginning and end segments, but reminded me entirely too much of my own father, in particular because of the music and the insistence on listening, NOW, and appreciating it whether you wanted to or not. (Sometimes I think it's amazing I like music at all.) I have no idea what Sean Penn was doing in this film. The ending was just weird. I need to go to bed now.

I am totally, completely relieved that the health care law was upheld. I'd pretty well convinced myself it was dead. That's the good thing about pessimism - you get pleasant surprises :)

Meanwhile, the WaPo had a marketing article turn into a discussion about gay Oreos. I mention this because, while the usual arseholes showed up, the other side had a humor field day. I laughed out loud a few times. My favorite line was the guy who said he wouldn't eat a rainbow Oreo, partly because of the sugar coma possibility but mostly because if he dipped it in milk it would "look like Rainbow Brite took a whiz in my drink."

My second favorite line from that conversation also applies to the health care decision. When someone bemoaned the arseholes, another responded "but aren't they just adorable when they get infuriated like that?"

Closer to home, I just watched the original "Wicker Man". Good thing I knew it was Sir Christopher Lee, I don't think I would have recognized him! Except for the seeming inbalance of nubile women and old men, I think I wouldn't mind living on SummerIsle. Then again, this was spring. Winter probably sucks.

Just watched the movie for the first time. Seemed to be comparatively little about Hal and rather all about the league.

But far more importantly: Ryan Reynolds in his undies. Yummy. Very, very yummy.

Being as it's the 50th anniversary of the movie and all, USA network is having a special showing of it, Saturday, April 7th (that would be tomorrow) at 8pm EST. The movie will be introduced by a certain person for whom I voted this week. You know the one. Except if we speak his name in connection with TKAM, certain people will promptly hate on the book and movie. But if you're a TKAM fan, you're likely a fan of his anyway.

The football game is just not holding my interest. And the commercials have been either mundane or stupid. So pooh on that, switching to 31 Days of Oscar. 'The Lavender Hill Mob', specifically. We've already watched the Puppy Bowl 1.5 times and cleared the tv shows off the DVR, plus took care of a lot of paperwork and computer stuff, experimented with food (tried to cook artichokes for the first time, they turned out decently), did some cleaning, and looked at one house that had a stunning kitchen but way too many stairs, steep ones at that. Yesterday I finally was able to go to gaming again, didn't get to play too much between being tired and a couple games taking way too long to play. But I played a bit and got a few things done so I can't fault the weekend entirely.

I worked most of the day yesterday, then went to the gym, picked up a couple things for Christmas, did some housecleaning, wrapped the rest of my gifts and finished putting together my annual 'music you might like' CD for my brother. Each year I pick out 16-20 songs by artists I don't think Mike is familiar with, but I think he'd like. Generally he likes at least half of them. I hope. Somehow I still had time to watch BBC America's 'Wait Wait Don't Tell Me!' special, (apparently the British aspect was a new panelist from the UK; I don't think Neil Gaiman counts as British, since he's lived in the US for 20 years), and a movie from a few years back, 'Something The Lord Made'. Very interesting film, about Vivien Thomas, a young black man whose college dreams are dashed by the Great Depression, but he happens to get a job working for Dr Albert Blaylock, and becomes Blaylock's right hand man as they pioneered open heart surgery and found a way to cure 'blue baby syndrome'. It also happened to be filmed in Baltimore; there was a lot of 'I know that street' and 'I've seen that house' going on. Good flick.

I rented it on demand Friday night, and watched it both Friday and Saturday. Figured I should get my money's worth. Anyway, perfectly enjoyable film, good entertainment, but to me, not worthy of the apparent obsession it has wrought amongst certain segments of fandom. Sorry.