Currently Reading: Ghost in the Shell 2: Man-Machine Interface By Shirow Masamune
It was NOT a dark and stormy night, that's for sure. In fact, it was pretty damn gray out there today and has been for the past few days. I hate it when it's like that. Everything just seems to slow down and fall out of focus. And have you noticed, on gray days it actually seems as though the color is draining out of everything. I swear my truck wasn't as blue today. Yes, I know, just a trick of the light right? Something to do with the physics of light wavelengths and blah blah blah . . .
I went out for a bit today and it clearly wasn't just me feeling gray. Weather like this must get to everyone eventually. People just sort of wander about like they're on auto-pilot. Not a really good day for shopping which is why I went out in the first place. When you're all gray like that it's very hard to make a decision on whether or not to buy anything so I just don't buy anything. It's very easy on the budget :-)
CC, poor thing, is down with the flu in Omaha. Actually she's not DOWN with the flu, she still has to go to the training classes and observe. That's the reason she's there of course. She's all stuffed up though and worse, she can't just take a day off and veg out watching TV. Worst of all, her birthday is tomorrow so she'll very likely be sick in Omaha for her birthday. Not exactly the sort of happiness we were hoping for :-)
On the plus side though, she DID get her social security card today which means she can finally work legally in the US. WOO HOO! Up until now she had to remain on the payroll of the Manila office and it's such a hassle. Now all we have to do is wait for the green card. No telling how long that will be but at least we're making progress :-)
Monday, January 31, 2005
Sunday, January 30, 2005
Working In
Currently Reading: Ghost in the Shell 2: Man-Machine Interface By Shirow Masamune
Yesterday we built a gym. The folks decided that it was time to convert that closet-like room in the back of the house into a room with a purpose. Up until now it was the default computer room, general gathering room for children who didn't want to watch what the grown-ups were watching, and all purpose storage of things we couldn't find a place for anywhere else in the house.
All of this was decided without me of course. I found out about the whole thing during the weekly grocery shopping trip. Apparently my mother had seen some sort of exercise machine at Costco that she wanted and also some flooring material. So, the first thing we did was head over to Costco and pick up that stuff.
Ok, now the room has a purpose, but it's still a closet. Next step, begin the transformation! Ok, really, next step was to move furniture. Had to move the computer out of there of course and find a home for it and generally make space for everything.
The flooring wasn't really all that hard. They sell this stuff in two foot by two foot slabs with edges like you'd find on a puzzle. You start in one corner and just attach it as you need it. It's about an inch to an inch and a half thick of foam with a rubber coating over it, designed to just be picked up and put down as you need it. There's no adhesive or anything. Took about an hour to lay it down but that included moving the exercise equipment from one side of the room to the other so I could lay the stuff down. No problem.
My part of the job was done pretty much at that point. I put the room in order, left plenty of space for the new machine and just let my father handle that. When it coems to those sorts of projects it's best just to get out of his way and let him handle it. He gets a bit barky if you try and help.
So, as of 8 pm or so last night, we have a gym. One treadmill (which is awaiting a part from the repair facility) one stationary bike and one multi-purpose exercise machine. Wonderful. Maybe some day I'll actually have the energy to go use it. For now though, I'm too stiff, sore and tired from moving all that stuff around yesterday :-)
Yesterday we built a gym. The folks decided that it was time to convert that closet-like room in the back of the house into a room with a purpose. Up until now it was the default computer room, general gathering room for children who didn't want to watch what the grown-ups were watching, and all purpose storage of things we couldn't find a place for anywhere else in the house.
All of this was decided without me of course. I found out about the whole thing during the weekly grocery shopping trip. Apparently my mother had seen some sort of exercise machine at Costco that she wanted and also some flooring material. So, the first thing we did was head over to Costco and pick up that stuff.
Ok, now the room has a purpose, but it's still a closet. Next step, begin the transformation! Ok, really, next step was to move furniture. Had to move the computer out of there of course and find a home for it and generally make space for everything.
The flooring wasn't really all that hard. They sell this stuff in two foot by two foot slabs with edges like you'd find on a puzzle. You start in one corner and just attach it as you need it. It's about an inch to an inch and a half thick of foam with a rubber coating over it, designed to just be picked up and put down as you need it. There's no adhesive or anything. Took about an hour to lay it down but that included moving the exercise equipment from one side of the room to the other so I could lay the stuff down. No problem.
My part of the job was done pretty much at that point. I put the room in order, left plenty of space for the new machine and just let my father handle that. When it coems to those sorts of projects it's best just to get out of his way and let him handle it. He gets a bit barky if you try and help.
So, as of 8 pm or so last night, we have a gym. One treadmill (which is awaiting a part from the repair facility) one stationary bike and one multi-purpose exercise machine. Wonderful. Maybe some day I'll actually have the energy to go use it. For now though, I'm too stiff, sore and tired from moving all that stuff around yesterday :-)
Friday, January 28, 2005
World Literature
Just Finished Reading: All She Was Worth By Miyuki Miyabe
One of the major drawbacks of having a degree in English is the HUGE number of books you read while getting the degree. Unless you opt for one of those odd variations of the degree like poetry or creative writing, you're going to be fed a great big dose of the classics. On the one hand, it's fabulous to be able to read AND comprehend the classics. On the other though, you end up find modern literature REALLY easy to predict and you start to wonder if anyone these days has an original idea for a novel.
Obviously that's a bit over-blown. There are plenty of original ideas out there, it's just a lot harder to find them. For example, if you like to read fantasy fiction, knights in shining armor, Lord of the Rings type stuff, do NOT read the original source material: Le Morte D'Arthur. It's the one by Sir Thomas Malory which pulled together the primary legends of King Arthur and his knights. Once you've read that you realize just how much of the new fiction is simply a variation on the old fiction.
It's true with every genre though. If you're a big fan of detective stories, you'll want to save Ray Chandler's books for later. Today's detectives have different names but you'd be surprised how many of them sound like Phillip Marlowe.
I understand that some fiction is meant to stick with the successful formula. Romance novels are that way, so are a good number of westerns and, of course, the serial sci-fi books. But general fiction? It's not a healthy trend.
So what's the solution? Give up reading? Oh good lord no :-) First off, there are plenty of original books out there provided you're willing to read more than one type of story. If you stick with just one section of the book store, you're going to end up getting bored with it. For me though, it's not quite enough to just jump around from author to author. I tend to jump around from country to country.
You may have noticed, the previous book I read was The Man in the Iron Mask. French, historical. And after that? All She Was Worth. Japan, modern. Next? I'm not sure, possibly back to sci-fi, maybe another Japanese novel. There's one HUGE plus about reading works by foreign authors. They're much harder to predict and thus the plot twists come as more of a surprise. They don't hold to the same conventions that American authors do because they've grown up with an entirely different culture. Makes for a hell of a good read especially when it comes to mysteries.
In the past, it was VERY hard to find the more modern books in translation but it's not as bad now. The big chain book stores often stock fiction in translation, especially if the book won an award. Gao Xingjian won a Nobel Prize for Soul Mountain and as a result you can find a few of his books in stores. Haruki Murakami is very good as well but if you're looking for something more classical (samurai stories for example) you can't go wrong with Eiji Yoshikawa's Musashi and Taiko.
If you can't find them in the book stores, head online to amazon.com or borders.com and run a search. You'll find a whole new world filled with FABULOUS stories that you never would have imagined. So many great works. Give it a shot. You'll enjoy it :-)
One of the major drawbacks of having a degree in English is the HUGE number of books you read while getting the degree. Unless you opt for one of those odd variations of the degree like poetry or creative writing, you're going to be fed a great big dose of the classics. On the one hand, it's fabulous to be able to read AND comprehend the classics. On the other though, you end up find modern literature REALLY easy to predict and you start to wonder if anyone these days has an original idea for a novel.
Obviously that's a bit over-blown. There are plenty of original ideas out there, it's just a lot harder to find them. For example, if you like to read fantasy fiction, knights in shining armor, Lord of the Rings type stuff, do NOT read the original source material: Le Morte D'Arthur. It's the one by Sir Thomas Malory which pulled together the primary legends of King Arthur and his knights. Once you've read that you realize just how much of the new fiction is simply a variation on the old fiction.
It's true with every genre though. If you're a big fan of detective stories, you'll want to save Ray Chandler's books for later. Today's detectives have different names but you'd be surprised how many of them sound like Phillip Marlowe.
I understand that some fiction is meant to stick with the successful formula. Romance novels are that way, so are a good number of westerns and, of course, the serial sci-fi books. But general fiction? It's not a healthy trend.
So what's the solution? Give up reading? Oh good lord no :-) First off, there are plenty of original books out there provided you're willing to read more than one type of story. If you stick with just one section of the book store, you're going to end up getting bored with it. For me though, it's not quite enough to just jump around from author to author. I tend to jump around from country to country.
You may have noticed, the previous book I read was The Man in the Iron Mask. French, historical. And after that? All She Was Worth. Japan, modern. Next? I'm not sure, possibly back to sci-fi, maybe another Japanese novel. There's one HUGE plus about reading works by foreign authors. They're much harder to predict and thus the plot twists come as more of a surprise. They don't hold to the same conventions that American authors do because they've grown up with an entirely different culture. Makes for a hell of a good read especially when it comes to mysteries.
In the past, it was VERY hard to find the more modern books in translation but it's not as bad now. The big chain book stores often stock fiction in translation, especially if the book won an award. Gao Xingjian won a Nobel Prize for Soul Mountain and as a result you can find a few of his books in stores. Haruki Murakami is very good as well but if you're looking for something more classical (samurai stories for example) you can't go wrong with Eiji Yoshikawa's Musashi and Taiko.
If you can't find them in the book stores, head online to amazon.com or borders.com and run a search. You'll find a whole new world filled with FABULOUS stories that you never would have imagined. So many great works. Give it a shot. You'll enjoy it :-)
Thursday, January 27, 2005
Out of Focus
Currently Reading: All She Was Worth By Miyuki Miyabe
You know, ever since CC went on her business trip to Nebraska I've been slipping out of focus. It's more than the normal amount of distraction that people go through from time to time. Not quite enough to qualify for a depression or even the blues. I've just been sort of . . . blurry.
Perfect example of what I mean: this morning I was reading the news online. I'd called up an article about that train wreck in Glendale. The headline said something about charging a guy with 11 counts of murder and that caught my eye. I pull up the article and started reading through it. Next thing I know, my eyes are down at the bottom of the page and I have NO idea what I'd just read. My mind just started wandering onto other topics.
This sort of thing doesn't bother my driving, thank goodness, or any active pursuit I happen to be engaged in. It only happens during the passive things like reading or listening to the radio or watching TV. Ok maybe letting your mind wander while watching TV is actually pretty normal and even a GOOD thing.
Which reminds me of something else in fact (mind wandering here, see how it works?). TV has gotten better since I started losing my hearing and the more hearing I lose, the better it gets. No, don't laugh, it's true. I'm at the point now where if I don't turn up the volume or wear hearing aids, I can't hear the TV except when the action is at its loudest (explosions, crashes, etc.). That means I have to sort of supply my own voices and level of acting skills to go along with the captioning. Naturally I try and put in the best I can think of. Who wants to sit around watching bad TV? But it's a double-edged sword. When the jokes are REALLY bad or the script is poorly written, no amount of good acting can save it in my head. All I have to go by is what the words say and what the actors DO. How they say something, no longer a factor.
I've really become a big fan of foreign films (see how the mind just jumps around?). Captions are built right in. I never was much into them before but now, I go out of my way to look for good foreign movies at the video store.
Memoirs of a Geisha. Japanese setting. Most of the main roles went to Chinese people. Odd isn't it?
Japanese movies, so many are being re-made in America. The Ring and its sequels, The Grudge and its sequels now too. So far it seems to mainly be the horror movies that are getting made here but then again, there was last year's Shall We Dance, which is based on a MUCH better Japanese movie.
I'm starting to think Hollywood has run out of good, original ideas and now they just mine other sources. Do we REALLY need a Dukes of Hazzard movie? The one exception is animation. Well, let's be more specific, Pixar. If you haven't had a chance to see The Incredbiles, go out and see it while it's still in theaters. That movie was FANTASTIC.
And so now you see how it works. What was I originally talking about? My mind wandering. Ended up talking about movies. Weird.
But do you know what's even more weird? I woke up this morning thinking in verse. I'm not making this up, I was actually thinking in couplets (poetry term, lines that rhyme). This would have been a good thing if I was back in college working on my English degree. I could have jotted down a few lines and saved them for the next time I had to write poetry for a class. Now? Best I could hope for is to turn it into a bad country music song.
Oh hey, did you catch American Idol on Tuesday? Gene Simmons from Kiss was the guest judge. Hard rock, flash rock, 70's metal band. At one point he tells one of the guys auditioning that he, former Kiss member, is a big country/western fan. That's just wrong on SO many levels :-)
And speaking of music . . . :-)
You know, ever since CC went on her business trip to Nebraska I've been slipping out of focus. It's more than the normal amount of distraction that people go through from time to time. Not quite enough to qualify for a depression or even the blues. I've just been sort of . . . blurry.
Perfect example of what I mean: this morning I was reading the news online. I'd called up an article about that train wreck in Glendale. The headline said something about charging a guy with 11 counts of murder and that caught my eye. I pull up the article and started reading through it. Next thing I know, my eyes are down at the bottom of the page and I have NO idea what I'd just read. My mind just started wandering onto other topics.
This sort of thing doesn't bother my driving, thank goodness, or any active pursuit I happen to be engaged in. It only happens during the passive things like reading or listening to the radio or watching TV. Ok maybe letting your mind wander while watching TV is actually pretty normal and even a GOOD thing.
Which reminds me of something else in fact (mind wandering here, see how it works?). TV has gotten better since I started losing my hearing and the more hearing I lose, the better it gets. No, don't laugh, it's true. I'm at the point now where if I don't turn up the volume or wear hearing aids, I can't hear the TV except when the action is at its loudest (explosions, crashes, etc.). That means I have to sort of supply my own voices and level of acting skills to go along with the captioning. Naturally I try and put in the best I can think of. Who wants to sit around watching bad TV? But it's a double-edged sword. When the jokes are REALLY bad or the script is poorly written, no amount of good acting can save it in my head. All I have to go by is what the words say and what the actors DO. How they say something, no longer a factor.
I've really become a big fan of foreign films (see how the mind just jumps around?). Captions are built right in. I never was much into them before but now, I go out of my way to look for good foreign movies at the video store.
Memoirs of a Geisha. Japanese setting. Most of the main roles went to Chinese people. Odd isn't it?
Japanese movies, so many are being re-made in America. The Ring and its sequels, The Grudge and its sequels now too. So far it seems to mainly be the horror movies that are getting made here but then again, there was last year's Shall We Dance, which is based on a MUCH better Japanese movie.
I'm starting to think Hollywood has run out of good, original ideas and now they just mine other sources. Do we REALLY need a Dukes of Hazzard movie? The one exception is animation. Well, let's be more specific, Pixar. If you haven't had a chance to see The Incredbiles, go out and see it while it's still in theaters. That movie was FANTASTIC.
And so now you see how it works. What was I originally talking about? My mind wandering. Ended up talking about movies. Weird.
But do you know what's even more weird? I woke up this morning thinking in verse. I'm not making this up, I was actually thinking in couplets (poetry term, lines that rhyme). This would have been a good thing if I was back in college working on my English degree. I could have jotted down a few lines and saved them for the next time I had to write poetry for a class. Now? Best I could hope for is to turn it into a bad country music song.
Oh hey, did you catch American Idol on Tuesday? Gene Simmons from Kiss was the guest judge. Hard rock, flash rock, 70's metal band. At one point he tells one of the guys auditioning that he, former Kiss member, is a big country/western fan. That's just wrong on SO many levels :-)
And speaking of music . . . :-)
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
Oscar Who?
Currently Reading: All She Was Worth By Miyuki Miyabe
Did you get to see the list of Oscar nominees today? If not, go have a look.
I can say for sure that it's going to be a slow night for Oscar on TV this year. Looking at the best picture nominees I think only two movies have actually been out there long enough for anyone to see them. That will make Ray and The Aviator the favorites among the general population but who can say how the Oscar voters will go.
Looking back over the past year in film, I must say, it was an awful lot like the past year in the NFL. You have maybe three or four REALLY good movies. You've got several movies that LOOKED good at first sight but fell apart rather quickly. There's a group down at the bottom that you just have to shake your head and wonder how those films even got MADE much less distributed. And then you have everything else. This was a HUGE year for "everything else."
Where there any real surprises? For me, only one. It didn't shock me that neither The Passion nor the Michael Moron film got nominated. I figured the Moron film, outside the documentary category (which it wasn't entered) wasn't even CLOSE to the level of the other films in the running. As for The Passion, well we've come a long way from the Hollywood that made The Ten Commandments and Ben Hur. They're not likely to be very big on religious pictures no matter how well made. Besides, Latin? Aramaic? You're lucky if actors these days can speak in complete sentances in ENGLISH much less old or ancient dead languages.
No, the only real surprise for me was in the Original Score category. I'm looking at that nominees, I see Harry Potter, ok. Not overly thrilling but ok. You have creepy music from The Village and A Series of Unfortunate Events. Pretty much all sounds about like the same stuff every year. So where were The Incredbiles? The score for The Incredibles is FABULOUS. Really gets your toes tapping. Great stuff and yet, not nominated.
I don't really have a dog in most of these fights. I'd like to see Don Cheadle take home an Oscar if for no other reason than that he's so consistantly good every time he's on the screen. And wouldn't it be great if Martin Scorsese finally, FINALLY got his Oscar? And Cate Blanchett too. She should have gotten one for Elizabeth YEARS ago but don't get me started on that one.
I guess the real question is whether not I'll actually WATCH the Oscars. Maybe I'll just flip back and forth, catch the major awards and let that be that.
Did you get to see the list of Oscar nominees today? If not, go have a look.
I can say for sure that it's going to be a slow night for Oscar on TV this year. Looking at the best picture nominees I think only two movies have actually been out there long enough for anyone to see them. That will make Ray and The Aviator the favorites among the general population but who can say how the Oscar voters will go.
Looking back over the past year in film, I must say, it was an awful lot like the past year in the NFL. You have maybe three or four REALLY good movies. You've got several movies that LOOKED good at first sight but fell apart rather quickly. There's a group down at the bottom that you just have to shake your head and wonder how those films even got MADE much less distributed. And then you have everything else. This was a HUGE year for "everything else."
Where there any real surprises? For me, only one. It didn't shock me that neither The Passion nor the Michael Moron film got nominated. I figured the Moron film, outside the documentary category (which it wasn't entered) wasn't even CLOSE to the level of the other films in the running. As for The Passion, well we've come a long way from the Hollywood that made The Ten Commandments and Ben Hur. They're not likely to be very big on religious pictures no matter how well made. Besides, Latin? Aramaic? You're lucky if actors these days can speak in complete sentances in ENGLISH much less old or ancient dead languages.
No, the only real surprise for me was in the Original Score category. I'm looking at that nominees, I see Harry Potter, ok. Not overly thrilling but ok. You have creepy music from The Village and A Series of Unfortunate Events. Pretty much all sounds about like the same stuff every year. So where were The Incredbiles? The score for The Incredibles is FABULOUS. Really gets your toes tapping. Great stuff and yet, not nominated.
I don't really have a dog in most of these fights. I'd like to see Don Cheadle take home an Oscar if for no other reason than that he's so consistantly good every time he's on the screen. And wouldn't it be great if Martin Scorsese finally, FINALLY got his Oscar? And Cate Blanchett too. She should have gotten one for Elizabeth YEARS ago but don't get me started on that one.
I guess the real question is whether not I'll actually WATCH the Oscars. Maybe I'll just flip back and forth, catch the major awards and let that be that.
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