The Cooler

Just Finished Reading: Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card

There's a movie, now on DVD called The Cooler. William H. Macy plays a guy hired by a casino to break gamblers' streaks of good luck. Apparently, all he has to do is sit there at the table and the luck just vanishes. I can sympathize with that guy this morning.

Last night I made the mistake of watching the Spurs-Suns game. Yeah, that was a big mistake. I should have known better. See, every time I watch the Spurs play they lose. Hell this season it was so bad that every time I even wore my Spurs hat they lost. I swore off both watching and wearing and look how fabulous they did! During the playoffs, I figured maybe I'd wear again but if I wore my hat or a Spurs shirt on game day they lost.

Needless to say the Spurs lost last night. What's worse is the WAY they lost. The game started 7:30 local time. I was out with the family enjoying Memorial Day bar-b-que. Wasn't really thinking much about the game though I had planned to watch it figuring, they're up 3-0 over the Suns so far, totally dominating them. What's the harm? Well apparrently there's quite a BIT of harm. I tuned in at the half. Spurs were up by 6 points or so. Within a few minutes, in the third quarter, the lead was gone. Then the Spurs fell behind! I quit watching. I thought about other things. I tried not to pay attention. The Spurs started to rally. I turned to watch, they fell back behind AGAIN!

So, my appologies to the Spurs and their fans. The loss had nothing to do with Tim Duncan's inability to hit free throws. It had nothing to do with the Suns playing hard because losing meant they were out of it. No, the whole game hinged entirely on the fact that I was watching. But, take comfort in this: the next game is on ESPN and I don't have ESPN. The Spurs should therefore have no problems making it to the finals :-)

So Very Tired . . .

Currently Reading: Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card

Every now and then you have a day that is so much fun you just don't it to end. Saturday was like that. Saturday CC and I went to the zoo. There's nothing particularly special about that of course. I've been to the zoo here a few times already and I've been there with CC as well. But Saturday we did something that I haven't done in ages: we spent the WHOLE DAY at the zoo!

As is typical, we went grocery shopping first. Have to have that food you know. We were both in a bith of a rush though. We'd decided to go the zoo earlier in the week and we were both looking forward to it. CC's got a whole bunch of pictures on her blog so if you want more zoo info, have a look.

Highlights? Everyone wants to know the highlights. Well, let's see. There were Amish people there. That's always interesting. No, they weren't part of any zoo exhibit, they were just there looking at the animals with the rest of us. We got to pet a goat and a donkey. Most of the animals were sleeping though. It was about noon when we got there, maybe 12:30, which I guess is nap time for most of them. One of the giant pandas was awake and eating and posing. I think it's gotten used to having an audience because the bear was sitting right by the window to the enclosure. It just sat there and ate while we watched.

I think I enjoyed watching the gibbons the most though. Cute little things with REALLY long arms. They look so funny walking around but you put them in the trees or on their mokey bars and WOW are they graceful! Playfull too. They're just fun to watch.

Sunday, shopping. We didn't PLAN on spending the whole day shopping, it just sort of worked out that way. We went out to the mall because CC wanted to check out some skirts. My mistake was going in through JC Penny. They were having a HUGE sale and she hit the racks and came away with three shirts. We had lunch, wandered around a bit, then went to Old Navy. They didn't have what we were looking for so we went to a DIFFERENT Old Navy closer to the house. More skirts, blouses, and even a pair of pants for me.

So now it's Monday and after having such a busy weekend I'm tired. CC's tired too. But hey, I don't want to hear any jokes about how she and I are getting old ok? It's not the years, it's the milage :-)

Numbers Game

Currently Reading: Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card

Found a great little time-killer the other day. I was reading the news when I came across an article about the latest craze over in the UK, a puzzle game called sudoku. It's a grid, 9 squares by 9 squares and you must fill in the numbers 1-9 vertically, horizontally, and in the 3x3 blocks.

The finished product looks like this:

When you start the game, only the red numbers are actually printed. The puzzler here is to figure out where all the OTHER numbers fit in.

I'm actually much better at these than your typical crossword puzzle. I don't do the crosswords much so I find those cryptic clues pretty tough to figure out. And my brain seems to have a problem with working the words like that. Same thing with the jumble puzzles too. Confusing clues and lots of unscrambling. Not really what I'm best at.

Give it a try. There's a web site at www.sudoku.com where you can download a free trial program.

Thoughts on the Sith...Part 1

Currently Reading: Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card

While was watching the latest Star Wars film this weekend, I kept thinking to myself how much fun it would have been to let Samuel L. Jackson go all Pulp Fiction as a jedi.

Just think about it. Imagine the possibilities. Picture Mace and the other jedi confronting the chancellor in his chambers and suddenly Mace launches into the Biblical quote, "and you will know my name is the LORD when I lay my vengeance upon thee!"

Or maybe when they're wrestling on the floor. The chancellor is shooting the lightning at Mace but Mace is curling it back on the chancellor he could flash a little grin and say, "Oh I'm sorry, did I break your concentration?"

Sure it would ruin the dramatic moment but it would be damn funny.

Maybe they can put something like that on the bonus DVD when it comes out :-)

And Odd Assortment of Useful Things

Currently Reading: Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card

You know, over the 15 years or so that I worked with the theater group back in San Antonio, I learned a number of REALLY useful things. For example, I learned how to untangle even the most complicated wad of leather fringe. I also learned you can fix almost anything with a hot glue gun properly applied. And then there's my as yet unused skill of untieing and removing a Victorian-style woman's boot in the dark while said woman changes clothes.

None of that is really relavant to today's story though. No, today was about dyeing. Specifically, dyeing sweaters. CC has two sweaters that were looking less than fresh. They were fading pretty bad and she didn't like to wear them much anymore. They still fit well and were comfy so it'd be a shame to throw them out. Instead, I dyed them.

So far the results look good. The light green one has only one spot on it that might be trouble. It's a little darker than the rest but it's directly at the underarm seam so I'm not sure if anyone can see it when the sweater is on. The brown one came out just great :-)

It's always nice to put these theater skills to work. I'll have to cut this entry short though. I see a pair of boots that need unlaced.

I got a bad feeling about this.

Currently Reading: Saturn by Ben Bova

Hello. My name is bear and I'm married to a woman who doesn't know Star Wars. I know, it's shocking. It shocked me too but it's true. And when I say she doesn't know Star Wars, I don't mean that she's not in touch with the uber geek knowledge about the names of all those jedi in the background or what you call every critter on every planet. I mean there are some serious gaps in even the most BASIC knowledge.

It started out something like this. This morning, we were just watching TV and I had said something like, Gee I wonder if there's anyone out there who still doesn't know that Chancellor Palpatine is the guy in the black robes sneaking around and manipulating the whole thing. She looks at me and in all seriousness says, "he is?"

Apparently, and this is ANOTHER big shocker, she never saw the other two prequal movies. Oh sure she's seen the original three, a LONG time ago, in a country far, far away so she does have some vague knowledge of that, but of the new movies, all she really could remember was Jar Jar Binks.

So I spent the morning giving her a general run-down of the plot. She was awake for most of it I think. It's hard to say if she actually got ALL of it though because she was starting to doze. Hmm, maybe I should give her a pop quiz later :-)

One thing I did tell her though was that she should be careful NOT to tell certain people that she doesn't know Star Wars. Not that it's a bad thing in and of itself but because she COULD end up being subjected to a lecture or two or three, especially if she ends up telling a closet uber geek.

Now I know there are some of you out there who are asking how on EARTH I could have let something like this slip by me. How could I marry someone with so little Star Wars knowledge? What do I plan to do about it? How do I remedy this situation? Well, to be honest, Star Wars never really came up before the wedding :-) And as for what I plan to do about it, if I can, I'll get her to sit through the other movies :-) Maybe I'll be lucky and the third one will be SO good that she wants to see the others? Ok probably not. Most likely we'll just see the movie and have a good time and enjoy it and she'll ask me LOTS of questions about it when we go home :-)

So, should you run across my wife and the topic of Star Wars comes up, have a heart. Don't pick on her for not knowing that Luke fights a rancor at Jaba's palace or that Count Dooku is, well, Count Dooku. She's just not that into Star Wars. And if any of you have a PROBLEM with that, you can come right over here and kiss my light saber :-)

A Long Time Ago . . .

Currently Reading: Saturn by Ben Bova

Well come on folks, you didn't think I'd let a little thing like Revenge of the Sith slip by me without comment did ya? It's only the single most important moment in the life of a Star Wars geek you know :-) Not that I'm a geek mind you, just that I notice these things. I mean, Ok, I like the movies, I have them all, I have video games of some of them, graphic novels and even the Clone Trooper gun. But I don't have any COSTUMES (though that storm trooper armor is pretty cool) and I haven't read many of the books. Never been to the conventions and I don't often go to the web site.

If you ever want to get into a completely pointless argument, go over to the Star Wars official website, go into the posting boards, then choose a topic to argue. Seriously, it's that easy. I was over there the other day and saw a 14 page "discussion" on the colors of the light sabres and what that all means.

Another way is to be me :-) Oh that's probably the easiest way in fact. There's this guy at CC's office, thinks he's THE most intelligent person on the planet. No matter WHAT I say, no matter my opinion, I'm wrong, even if I'm right. I'm sure you know a guy like this. He's the one who can't sit through a movie without commenting somewhere along the way about how HE'D have done it different and his way is MUCH superior to every other way. I happened to mention to CC at one time that the whole Star Wars thing was based on this old Japanese movie. That's where he got the idea. Now, over time, the whole thing was fleshed out, characters added, plot twists and all that, but the original idea came from that movie. CC told the guy what I'd said and the guy replies that I am "flat out wrong." He thinks the entire thing is Arthurian.

Don't worry, I'll spare you the multitudinous reasons why it's not Arthurian and just say that Lucas was big on mythology and incorporated a whole BUNCH of it into the 6 films. The point of the matter isn't what the guy thought. The point is that I was "flat out wrong." See? Something as pointless as that and I'm "flat out wrong."

But I digress . . .

Have I seen the movie? No, not yet. I was sitting here with CC earlier explaining the problem. I want to go, but I don't. I want to see it with her, but I don't want to wait until she has a day off. I want to see it in a crowded theater so you can get that audience energy, but I want to see it in an empty theater so I can concentrate on the film. What's funny though is that I already know the story. I've read the comic version, I know what happens. There aren't any big surprises along the way. Still, I want to see it NOW but I don't :-)

You have to remember, I grew up on Star Wars. It came out when I was 7. I grew up with all the toys and the movies and you name it. So this is a big deal. Sort of :-) I mean, yes, I grew up on it but that was almost 30 years ago. I like the new series but I find the supporting characters more interesting. Well, except Obi-Wan. He's pretty major, but Anakin and Padme, that whole thing, doesn't interest me nearly as much as the rest of it. The problem is, well that's the major plot right? How he became Darth Vadar. Watching his fall doesn't interest me nearly as much as all the stuff that goes on elsewhere. Like how the Republic became the Empire. How the Jedi got wiped out. How Yoda and Obi-Wan fooled everyone and hid the twins. See, that stuff I find interesting. I mean, hell if you told me that Anakin went to the dark side because he thought it was cool to dress in black and shoot lightning out of his fingers, that'd been a good enough reason for me :-)

Well, I'm rambling now. Go see the movie when you can. I'll see it when I can and maybe I'll post something about it again later. Right now, this Jedi has to go use the force to finish the laundry. Man, where's the Death Star when you need it eh? :-)

Another Great Weekend!

Just Finished Reading: In The Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami

Yet again, Monday. You know, for the longest time I never really was much into the weekends. During high school, the weekends were when I went to debate tournaments or marched in the band. During the summer months and in college, weekends meant working at the theater (including one really hellish stretch working both at Kmart AND the theater). It was also the only time I was able to catch up on my reading or write papers for class.

CC and I had another great weekend. Saturday was very slow, very relaxing. We had absolutely nothing planned except food shopping but before we did that, we went out for cofee and cheesecake. Actually she gets Caramel Macchiato and I get a Chai Tea Latte. Anyway, we went over to the book store, got our drinks and sat talking there in the cafe. We really love doing that.

Finally, we went food shopping. We were a bit later than usual but since we really didn't have anything else to do, there wasn't much of a rush. Of course, that didn't stop me from rushing :-) I tend to get that way when I shop. If I'm getting tired, or if I notice CC getting tired, I try and rush through it so we can get home faster. In this case, CC was already tired and I was getting there so I pushed a little bit :-)

We got home, had a nap, had a little dinner, then the kids came over. CC and I were out lounging around the pool of course. Really, it was more like we were sitting on the edge soaking our feet. We also played catch for a little bit and watched the girls swim. Just one long relaxing day :-)

Sunday was for baseball. Both CC and my niece Margaret skipped breakfast so as to take full advantage of the all-you-can-eat buffet at the game. We drove out to the ballpark, loaded up on food and ate :-) And ate. And then we ate a little more and went to our seats.

I took advantage of that break before the game to call my friend Judy. Sunday she was honored as a living legend in Texas theater and I wanted to make sure she got the flower I sent. Chatted with her for a little bit then the game got started.

Only had one foul ball head in our direction. The rest were too short. Not many heavy hitters on either team.

Oh yes, naturally we lost. Happens every time for me. I cheer for a team, they lose. This was our second Redbirds game and the second time I saw them lose. It was a good game right up until the 8th inning when the relief pitchers came in. Theirs was MUCH better than ours.

Came home. CC wanted to stop and get ANOTHER mandarin chicken salad from Wendy's so we stopped. Ate. The end :-)

Oh yes, one last thing. Burned. Yup, I burned. Didn't really notice it much until we came home. I have the WEIRDEST tan lines too. On my left arm I've got the usual watchband tan line but I've ALSO got one on that arm from the wristband they issued us for the buffet. Fortunately I didn't burn MUCH which means while I'm QUITE red, it doesn't hurt. I'll just have to avoid the sun for a few days :-)

Weekend Adjustments Ahead

Currently Reading: Jupiter by Ben Bova

It's certainly going to be an interesting few days this weekend. We've got some adjusting to do in the family.

My father got a job earlier this week. He went in for his orientation today and he start's work on Friday. His schedule has him working Friday through Monday which means 4 longer days but a 3 day weekend. That's going to take some getting used to for everyone around here.

Naturally this is going to alter the plans for the baseball game CC and I are going to this weekend. We were planning on taking him with us but since he'll be working, my niece is going instead. That actually works out pretty well. When I asked her about it yesterday I thought her eyes were going to bug out of her head. She's pretty excited :-)

And let's not forget that CC's still trying to adjust to her new schedule. Poor thing. Some days she's just completely worn out when she comes home but still too keyed up to sleep. And since she's used to getting up early, she tends to STILL get up early. The only time she gets a proper, LONG sleep is when she's out of energy completely.

Meanwhile, down in San Antonio, Judy, one of my friends since WAY WAY back, is going to be recognized by the San Antonio theater community as a "Living Legend." Now me, I look at it this way, better to be a living legend than a dead one right? But then again, I'm not the one getting the award. Usually when you get something like that it means everyone figures you're no longer going to be working in your field; people think you're retiring and moving on. So she's got to adjust to that.

Speaking of SA, my mother will be down there on vacation starting tomorrow. You guessed it, more adjusting, though only for a few days.

I guess the only one NOT adjusting much this weekend is me. That must mean I'm going to be the stable rock that everyone clings to :-)

That'll Show 'Em

Just Finished Reading: Vengeance is Mine by Mickey Spillane

News of the Weird has reported several times on the celebratory but bloody Easter week crucifixions practiced in the Philippines, especially in San Pedro Cutud, which has become an international tourist destination for the exhibitions. This year, Pampanga province police officials decided to fold department discipline into the ceremonies by offering 20 wayward officers who had earlier been absent without leave to do penance by carrying wooden crosses in the festival and that officers with more than 120 absent days volunteer to be crucified, after which they would be reinstated. [Manila Times, 3-23-05]

Breakfast on the Bubble and Other Weekend Adventures

Just Finished Reading: Vengeance is Mine by Mickey Spillane

Well, another weekend has come and gone and yet again, more adventures. Granted, we have very few weekends like last week's but we do still manage to do an interesting thing or two now and then.

First up for us was the Greek Festival that CC mentioned in her blog. Great little deal there. When you get right down to it, it's just a little church fair. It's held at the Greek Orthodox Church, lots of Greek food and music. Better still, lots of little tents and tables where you can just sit and enjoy it all. Being able to just kick back and keep cool REALLY helps.

We followed that up with a trip to a candy store to pick up some chocolate covered strawberries that CC'd gotten a craving for. She found them a little rich at first but rest assured, over time she got quite used to them and, I think, enjoyed them.

The evening wasn't very eventful but quite relaxing. We watched TV, chatted, relaxed and just enjoyed each other's company. That's one of my very favorite ways to spend time :-)

This morning, well now, there was one quite humorous moment right at the start of the day, or at least MY day. CC woke me up at 9. She gets a little restless some mornings and likes to actually be DOING something when she wakes up. She doesn't like to waste weekend time. So, she wakes me up at 9. She curls up nice and snug and we start to chat a little and watch TV. 15 minutes later she is asleep. That's right, she is OUT. Let me tell you, if I hadn't had to get out of bed to let the dog out, she probably would have slept an hour or more.

After a while we finally dragged ourselves out of bed. It was looking like a lazy Sunday. We decided to go out for breakfast. That wasn't exactly the best idea. Along the way I'd forgotten that it was Mother's Day because the books we'd gotten for my mother had already been wrapped, given and unwrapped before I even got up. Well, as you can imagine, there were quite a few families out this morning and not nearly enough places to eat breakfast. We drove by IHOP first, packed, then Perkins, also packed. Turned around, stopped at Burger King but they'd stopped serving breakfast and were serving lunch. Decided to try IHOP again and hit the bubble :-)

When we arrived, we were put on the waiting list. The host starts going down the list, calling names, no one answers. They'd given up waiting and left. I don't think we waited more than 5 minutes before we had a table.

Naturally once we finished and left, there was a crowd again. Luck was in our favor today :-)

I was right about it being a lazy Sunday. We made a quick stop at Best Buy then came home and played a bit of Sim City 3000. I loaded it up on the machine a few days ago and CC was playing it. Neither of us is very good at it I'm afraid. I was able to make some progress though, but not with MY city.

CC asked me, after she'd gone into work this evening, if I could try and save her city. When I loaded it up, she was slipping into debt fast. She was already paying off one loan and the money was pouring out. I took what little was left and managed to turn things around quite nicely. When I saved the game and closed it down, her city was running in the black with a nice little surplus waiting for her to spend. Now if I can only remember how I did it and use the same techniques on MY city :-)

ABC goes Fox Hunting

Currently Reading: Vengeance is Mine! by Mickey Spillane

Am I the only one who recalls the purpose of the "judges" on American Idol? I'm starting to wonder. Every time I look at a news site or browse TV or the papers I come across some article about ABC and their hit piece tonight on American Idol. The shocker seems to be that Paula Abdul 41 had an affair with some reject 22.

Now, my first reaction to hearing all this is, so?

My second reaction is, Paula's 41? Damn I feel old!

My third reaction is, wait, she's 41 and got him? Nice job Paula, you go girl!

So, for those of you who have forgotten or didn't know in the first place, the "judges" on American Idol don't actually JUDGE anything. They sit through a performance then give their opinion. It usually goes something like...

Randy: DAWG! Welcome back to the competition! The beginning was a little pitchy but I think you pulled it out in the end!
Paula: Yeah, he did. Let me just say (stands up and claps) That was FABULOUS! I've been pulling for you the whole time (gush gush gush).
Simon (boos from the crowd): Am I the only one who stayed awake during that performance? It sounded like the sort of thing you see in the lounge on a cruise ship. No, no I'm serious. You'll have to take it to the next level if you want to be the top Idol.
Ryan: Don't listen to Simon. His shirt is too tight.
Simon: Well at least I'm wearing a shirt Ryan and not a bloody garbage bag!

So, after everyone performs there's a phone number to call or a number to send a text message to. Audience jams the phone lines, lots of busy signals and gnashing of teeth. The next day Ryan tells us about the record setting number of votes or how CLOSE it was between the loser and the next to last place finisher and after many commercials, he reveals how America voted.

Ok, so where's the scandal? The judges don't vote. Hell they barely judge anymore. I think ABC is just pissed off that their ratings aren't as high as they'd like and all they can really do now is try and attack the shows on other networks. That way they can 1. cash in on that show's popularity and 2. try and knock them down a peg.

Look for future stories on ABC about how, in fact, everybody does NOT love Raymond, that the Sopranos are actually tenors, and a special 2 hour spectacular uncovering the mystery of Donald Trump's hair.

The Slow and the Living

Currently Reading: Vengeance is Mine! by Mickey Spillane

Yesterday I was NOT at my best. I had one of those days where nothing really major goes on, which is fortunate, because the one thread that links everything together is the fact that you're slow and/or stupid.

Take this for example: yesterday, CC forgot her cell phone, eye drops and nasal spay. She left them sitting here on the desk. I realized this when I turned the chair to watch TV. I put my feet up on the desk and I said to myself, "That's CC's cell phone and stuff." Ok, no problem there right? Wait til you see what came next though.

Self: Wow, she'll probably need this. I'd better text her and let her know about the phone.
Self (after a long pause): No, stupid! You can't text her, she doesn't have her phone! You'll have to call her instead!

At that point I hid all the credit cards and put away anything sharp or pointy, just in case. Fortunately CC had the truck so I wouldn't be able to drive. Who knows what might have happened right?

Self: Wow, an intersection. Maybe I should slow down.
Self: No, don't slow down, it'll take longer to get anywhere.
Self: But the light's red.
Self: It's red NOW but by the time you get there it'll be green.
Self: Only if I slow down. If I slow down it'll turn green before I get there.
Self: Yes but if you speed up you'll get there faster so it'll turn green faster.
Self (speeding up): Yeeeaahhh...that makes sense.

Today's a bit better. I'm not as stupid as yesterday, or at least I don't think so. It's only 1:30 so there's still plenty of time left in the day to prove without a shadow of a doubt that I suffered brain damage as a child as a result of repeated head trauma. :-)

Don't Panic

Currently Reading: Sin City, Vol 3: The Big Fat Kill by Frank Miller

One of the reasons the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy sells so well is that it has the words "Don't Panic" written on its cover in large, pink, friendly letters. That's also a good tip for dealing with just about everything. I had to keep that in mind at one point during the weekend.

Most of the weekend, in fact all of it except maybe 5 or 10 minutes, was pretty damn great. It was one of those nice, relaxing weekends where everything you do seems to be 100% enjoyable.

We started it off right. Slept in. Best way to start a weekend is to sleep in. There was a sort of Renaissance fair, small one, going on north of town. One of CC's fellow employees was going to that. He wanted us to go as well. No, wait, that's not quite accurate. He wanted HER to go. I get the general impression he'd rather I fell into a large, bottomless pit. But you know, that's ok because I'd rather he was torn apart by a pack of rabid dogs so really, we're even.

Anyway, we couldn't go to that. You see, Saturday night we had tickets to the symphony which means we'd have to go out to the ren fair thing, do all of that, drive back across town, shower, clean up, eat, then drive BACK across town again for the symphony. Too much driving back and forth. Plus, since we slept in, we'd only have an hour or so to spare for the ren fair after all the driving. Waste of time and gas.

Instead, CC wanted to go out for Thai food. She'd gotten a craving for it and so we set about looking up various Thai restaurants. Somewhere along the way she decided Thai wasn't really necessary. What she wanted was spicey instead. So we went to an Indian restaurant instead. Good food actually. We felt good.

On the way home we stopped off at Best Buy to browse a bit then we went home and got ready for the concert.

Oh MAN what a great concert that was. They performed Carmina Burana. I know, most people are looking at me with that blank expression on their face they get when I talk about medieval literature. Carmina Burana, how do I describe it. Well, if you've heard it, you'd know it and go, "Oh THAT one!" It was used a lot in the movie Excalibur and it's also played as part of the opening montage theme song for the Sean Hannity show on talk radio.

Well, as with most classical music, there's just no comparison between listening to something on a CD and seeing it live. That show was simply fantastic!

Slept great that night. Nice day, very peaceful. Woke up a little late again but not too bad. Sunday was movie day. My turn to pick the flick and I wanted to see The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. But before that, CC and I both needed a haircut so we did that first, then to kill time before the movie, we went over to Barnes & Noble to browse and have coffee. CC had coffee, I don't drink the stuff so I had my usual chai tea latte.

The movie was really damn funny. I don't know why the "purists" keep putting it down. One thing you have to remember about watching The Guide is that this is the 5th version of it. It was a radio play, a TV mini-series, a book and a video game and they're ALL slightly different. No reason to assume that version #5 was going to be word for word like the others right? It wasn't. There were changes but I still thought it was great.

One of the neat things to do while watching it was looking for little references to either the creator of the whole thing or the previous versions. One that stands out is when the gang arrives to rescue Trillian. They're standing in line at immigration and who is that seen in the background? The OLD version of Marvin, the one from the mini-series. I think I was the only one in the theater who noticed :-)

So, what went wrong? What generated the "don't panic" moment? Have a look at my previous entry, the one from Friday. You'll notice a comment attached to it. That's from my father. Seems when I sent out a note to him I left the signature line in the e-mail that has the link to the blog. My secret ranting spot has been discovered by the family. But I'm not going to panic :-)

At first, and actually at second and third and most of today, I was thinking I'd just close this one down, set up shop on a less-doomed blog spot and continue my rants. The only other real option was to make sure I say only NICE things about the family. Yeah right, like THAT'S gonna happen :-) But instead I've decided an entirely different course. Family reads the blog at their own risk :-) Maybe they say or do something that sends me on a rant. Well, if they read the blog, they'll know it :-)

Honestly though I don't think it'll be much of a problem. They don't do much online reading so it's not likely that they'll become regular visitors to my secret hideout :-)

--Oh yes, almost forgot, mom's books arrived today. See? Told ya I didn't hide them :-)