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- Mood:
grateful
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- Mood:
peaceful
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- Mood:
sad
We went to see Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince with several friends at midnight last night. I enjoyed the movie, but I feel there were several missed opportunies and "What the hell?" moments.
Things that I felt were missing entirely (I may revise this as I think of them):
Bill Weasley and Fleur
Any of the three Ministers
The Gaunts
Kreacher and Dobby
The Dursleys (I was ok with this, and liked the replacement)
Things that were under-done:
Romilda Vane
the Advanced Potionmaking book
The private lessons
Ginny's relationship with Dean Thomas
Things that came out of left field:
The Christmas Scene
Without going into details, I'm most disturbed by the christmas scene. It has no basis in the books, replaced an interesting scene that I would have liked to seen, and didn't really advance the plot, unless it's setting up a retooling of the story in the final two movies.
That said, there were several moments that I feel they handled very well:
The love potion
The cave (mostly)
The climax of the story (While slightly off, was still well done, and easier to pull off than the book's version)
Beware, below here, ye be entering spoiler lands.
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- Mood:
contemplative
( Click here for the Rest of the Story (With apologies to the late Paul Harvey) )
- Mood:
energetic
I guess the main reason I've not posted much about it was that I was afraid I'd repeat the process. In April of 2008, I re-applied, and signed up for two classes: one on campus, and one online. At the same time, I signed up for three classes in the fall. Again, I chose one on campus (Speech) and two online. So far, I've gotten through the summer classes, and both of the online fall classes. I dropped the Speech class before it started, for the time being. My schedule in the evenings really wouldn't let me make the class regularly, so I figured it would be better to stick to what I know was working.
I'm happy with my results so far. Jamie is a great influence on me, and I've been able to stick with it, and so far, I have a 4.0 GPA. I've started three online classes this semester, two of which are with the same instructor as two of my other online classes last year. I think it will go well. It may take me 4 or 5 years to get an Associates Degree at this rate, but hey, it's better than not doing it at all.
Dear Red States...
We've decided we're leaving. We intend to form our own country, and we're taking the other Blue States with us. In case you aren't aware, that includes Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and all the Northeast. We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation, and especially to the people of the new country of New California. To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states. We get stem cell research and the best beaches. You get Ken Lay.
We get the Statue of Liberty. You get Dollywood. We get Intel, Apple and Microsoft. You get WorldCom. We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss. We get 85 percent of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get Alabama . We get two-thirds of the tax revenue, you get to make the red states finally pay their fair share. Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of single moms.
Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals. They have kids they're apparently willing to send to their deaths for no purpose, and they don't care if you don't show pictures of their children's caskets coming home. We do wish you success in Iraq , and hope that the WMDs turn up, but we're not willing to spend our resources in Bush's Quagmire.
With the Blue States in hand, we w ill have firm control of 80 percent of the country's fresh water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation's fresh fruit, 95 percent of America's quality wines (you can serve French wines at state dinners), 90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools, plus Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT.
With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100 percent of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia.
We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you.
Additionally, 38 percent of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 62 percent believe life is sacred unless we're discussing the death penalty or gun laws, 44 percent say that evolution is only a theory, 53 percent that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61 percent of you crazy bastards believe you are people with higher morals then we lefties.
By the way, we're taking the good pot, too. You can have that dirt weed they grow in Mexico ..
Peace out.
Sincerely,
Blue States
We've decided we're leaving. We intend to form our own country, and we're taking the other Blue States with us. In case you aren't aware, that includes Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and all the Northeast. We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation, and especially to the people of the new country of New California. To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states. We get stem cell research and the best beaches. You get Ken Lay.
We get the Statue of Liberty. You get Dollywood. We get Intel, Apple and Microsoft. You get WorldCom. We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss. We get 85 percent of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get Alabama . We get two-thirds of the tax revenue, you get to make the red states finally pay their fair share. Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of single moms.
Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals. They have kids they're apparently willing to send to their deaths for no purpose, and they don't care if you don't show pictures of their children's caskets coming home. We do wish you success in Iraq , and hope that the WMDs turn up, but we're not willing to spend our resources in Bush's Quagmire.
With the Blue States in hand, we w ill have firm control of 80 percent of the country's fresh water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation's fresh fruit, 95 percent of America's quality wines (you can serve French wines at state dinners), 90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools, plus Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT.
With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100 percent of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia.
We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you.
Additionally, 38 percent of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 62 percent believe life is sacred unless we're discussing the death penalty or gun laws, 44 percent say that evolution is only a theory, 53 percent that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61 percent of you crazy bastards believe you are people with higher morals then we lefties.
By the way, we're taking the good pot, too. You can have that dirt weed they grow in Mexico ..
Peace out.
Sincerely,
Blue States
Jamie and I moved the shop to Main street in May. It's been a great move. We've had a good crowd of regulars build up, we've got events on most nights of the week. We're doing HeroClix on tuesdays. There are roleplaying groups that get together on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. A huge group of our Magic playing regulars get together on Thursday nights for group magic games. M:tG Tournaments on Fridays and most Saturdays. It's the best shop location we've ever had, in any incarnation of "the shop". Russ and Ginny have even agreed about that.
I started back at college this spring. I only took two classes this summer, and three this fall, but so far, things are going well. I hope to get my degree finally. I'm pretty happy with my summer grades. Granted, they were easy classes, but I've been daunted by college for so many years, a 4.0 average was a great relief. I feel a lot more confident going into the fall semester.
Money's still tight, as usual. But I feel it's going to be getting a little better. We had originally planned to attend GenCon this year, but we were unable to do so. I took the couple of days off, anyway, and we had a small vacation, even if we didn't get to go anywhere extravagant. It was nice to take a short break.
I've been reestablishing contact with friends I hadn't heard from in quite a while. Even if it's just an email here or there, it's still great to be reconnecting with good friends.
Ok, that's enough rambling for now.
- Mood:
tired
- Location:Work
- Mood:
amused
I first discovered George Carlin's brand of comedy in 1986. I was twelve. We had gotten HBO for the first time, and on New Year's Eve, HBO showed 5 comedy specials in a row. The Rodney Dangerfield's 9th Annual Young Comedian All-Stars, Paul Rodriguez (I forget the name of the special), Howie Mandel (The North American Watusi Tour), Robin Williams (An Evening at the Met), and George Carlin (Playin' With Your Head). I was already a fan of Howie's over-the top comedy, and Robin Williams's energetic performances. There were several introductions to comedy for me, that night, though. The Dangerfield special featured Bob Nelson, Rita Rudner, Maurice LaMarche (who went on to voice The Brain in Pinky and the Brain, among other things), and Sam Kinison. But the one that stuck with me the most was George Carlin. I didn't realize how long he'd been around at the time, but I soon found out. I was enthralled by his analysis of words that we use, and his use of logic that made the completely insane seem perfectly reasonable, or vice versa.
I soon began to collect his albums, Take Offs & Put Ons and FM & AM were the two first that I found. To this day, I can still speak along with the routines on those albums. Then I found some of his earlier HBO specials, and rented them more than once (I was still only 15 or 16 by this point).
I'm almost thirty-four, now. I have every HBO special, nearly every album or CD. I've seen him live twice, once in Terre Haute, IN, and once in Evansville, IN. I've read his three books multiple times. To say that he has had a tremendous impact on my outlook on comedy would be an understatement. While most of what George had to say was part of a routine, there was a lot of it that spoke volumes about how one can be funny without necessarily being outrageous; how the words we use so infrequently say what they mean.
I regret not having the opportunity to shake Mr. Carlin's hand. Beyond that, I regret nothing about the impact George Carlin has had on me, on my outlook on humor, and on my outlook on life. George, thank you for your vision, your humor, and your style. I will miss it all.
- Location:Legends
- Mood: sad
As you may have noticed from the minor name change, we've added a bit to our arsenal. We now carry a smattering of current comics and will expand that as we determine the collecting habits of our customers. We've also formalized and expanded our hours.
Ok, enough of the sales pitch. I'm so excited about this. It feels great to be back in a big open space. We had our first two tournaments this past weekend, and it was a blast. I want to be in a position, in a year or two, to turn it back into a full time job. Dunno if that's possible or not, but I'm gonna try. :)
Anyway, I know most of the people that read my journal already know about all this or live too far away to care, but if you happen to be close enough, come check it out. I really love it.
And I can't thank the people who helped it happen enough.
- Mood:
giddy
Space has become a premium, however. We've got events going on most nights, with Steve running Palladium on Mondays, and Minis painting night on Tuesday, Ken's group meeting on Wednesday, plus the regular magic crowd on Wednesday nights, tournaments on Friday Night, Saturday Afternoon, and Roleplaying on Sunday. Business is picking up, and there's a part of me that's thinking we need both more display space, and more playing space.
Overall, a frightening prospect, because I really LIKE our location. We've looked at a few places, though, and there is potential. I guess time will tell
- Mood:
pensive
About an hour ago, we were notified that he had been taken to the hospital, from the local Rural King. His wife, Lori (our director), left immediately. A short time ago, we were informed that he didn't make it.
I've known John for several years, but only got to know him after I started full time here. The nicest guy you'd ever know, never had a bad thing to say about anyone. Very helpful, and an all-around good person.
I just wanted to say something here, since I'm not good at saying things anywhere else. Thank you for listening, reading, or whatever.
I will miss him.
- Mood: sad
In the late twentieth century, I fear I was abducted by subterranian mole-people, and slight alterations were made to my neural pathways, leaving me prone to long periods of social exile. This reprogramming leaves me unable to communicate at times, though I occasionally have minor lucid periods, like now, where I can attempt to explain away my apparant deficiency. So, on behalf of the mole people and myself, I apologize.
That said, it's been an interesting year. Most everyone I know has heard about my divorce, which has left me looking at a new doorway on my life. I'm trying to get through that door, with some success. I'll keep you posted in the coming year. Some of you are probably aware of my fears regarding my job, that sprung up this time last year. I'm pleased to report that I'm still somewhat necessary, and I think things will continue to be ok.
The shop is going well, sales aren't tremendous, though as I've stated before, that's not the primary concern. That will hopefully change a bit though, in the coming year, as our operating hours may be changing somewhat.
I'm still playing Kingdom of Loathing and Fallen Sword a bit, but not as much as I used to. My primary online hobby is now Second Life. I've taken up a number of design projects that really appeal to the "world builder" in me, from the old MUSH days. I used to spend days at a time working on code projects, making entire combat and transformation systems for MUSHes, back in the day. I've missed that, so now I've taken to creating buildings, and gadgets and such for Second Life. The nice thing is, it's very possible to make real money selling virtual gadgets. So, my hobby may turn into more.
I've also reconnected with some old, close friends in the last year, that I had missed terribly. Two of them have livejournal accounts, and I just want them both to know how glad I am to be back in touch with them.
Ok, enough babbling now. I'll get my resolutions done, here in a day or two
- Mood:
mellow
It's cold today because something is wrong with my furnace. Leave it to me to discover this on Thanksgiving day, which may mean it'll be Monday before it can be fixed.
I've recently discovered a program that lets you create custom Magic: The Gathering cards, but even moreso, will let you design other types of cards. My Thanksgiving Day project was to create a template for a user on the forums for the software, that will let him create cards for a Marvel based card game, I'm assuming of his own design. Here's a link to what he requested:
Original Request
I came up with a template that would handle the 10 different card types that he presented, in Photoshop, and then taught myself the basics of template design in the MSE software, and was able to create the following using the template I'd created:
My Project (Work in Progress)
All in all, I'm happy with it, for a first attempt. I may put a little effort into my original plan, to create a game. We'll see...
- Location:Home
- Music:Listening to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
( Meet Bucky... )
( The Coins (pt. 2) )
I've only lost one really close family member to cancer, when I was 8 years old. But this story still struck a chord with me. I've been watching with sadness for months now, and in one way, I'm glad to see her pain end. I'm reminded of my friend Bill's mother, who passed away on the morning of the 2nd.
I don't have a lot more to say, I'm afraid. Except Goodbye Lisa. Fictitious or not, your journey was shared by millions, and your story will continue to touch the lives of others.
Paula Wethington wrote an obituary here: http://www.blogsmonroe.com/reporters/?p=2
Edit: http://stuck-funky.blogspot.com/ carries an archive of the storyline since Lisa's mis-diagnosis was discovered.
- Location:Work
- Mood: sad
I carried Quartz from version 1.6 to 2.0, and have been very happy with the reaction it has received. 2.0 was posted on March 6, 2006. I've not done an update since then. I quit playing Everquest, and have just lost the drive to do much on it.
I did some investigating last night, and found that a few users have been making updates, to keep the UI working. So I've decided to try to turn the project over entirely to the most active one. Hopefully Quartz will remain as popular as it was back when it was in its prime, at 1.6 and beyond. :)
I've been trying to figure out how to get organized again, and stepping away from some of my unfinished projects completely seems to be one of the things I need to do. So I'm going to narrow down to a few projects, and either bury of find new homes for the others. I believe the Campaign Manager OGL will be another casualty of this culling. I've not had the urge to work on it in nearly two years, but I did learn quite a bit about using XML as a datasource...
- Location:Work
- Mood: contemplative
WWE.com: Benoit Tragedy Unfolds
FOXNews.com
I'm at a loss for words... mostly. I heard about this shortly since the news broke yesterday, and I had the unenviable job of telling some friends of mine, who are big fans of "The Crippler". I watched the three hour episode of Raw. They cancelled their live show, and only kept a skeleton crew around to put together a tribute show, and it was well done, considering the short notice.... And they knew. I'm almost sure they knew. Respect. He always demanded respect. They said goodbye to their friend.
But, what happens now? What if it does turn out that it WAS a double-murder/suicide, and this man, this HERO for people, for over 10 years... killed his 7 year old son and wife, before taking his own life? How will people, who have idolized him (and there are many), deal with the idea of their long-time hero being a murderer?
I wasn't a huge Benoit fan. I respected him, but I always felt more closely in tune with the villains, as they are the guiding force for the storyline. Benoit was never a successful villain. He didn't have the microphone skills to pull it off. But his intensity, dedication, and skill were surely worth admiration. He came to the WWF(WWE) on January 31, 2000, along with his friends, Dean Malenko, Perry Saturn, and Eddie Guerrero. Benoit and Guerrero had a very successful run in the company, and Malenko took a position as a trainer and scout.
I guess time will tell. But I worry. About his other two children. About the fans who looked up to him. And I wonder... what could have happened? And what happens now?
- Mood:
confused
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