Someone on a mailing list that I'm on posted this link to an article about how cats control humans. They had to spend all that money to do research to figure that out? That's about as newsbreaking as the whole discovery that if you eat at McDonald's three times a day every day for a couple of months, then you'll get fat! Anyone who has or ever had a cat could have told you that people don't own cats - people are OWNED, and yes, totally controlled by cats. If they need any more obvious answers to the universe figured out, just go ahead and give me the grant money, and I'll just tell them the answers. Easy enough.
(And not that this is relevant to anything, but this blog post was done while I've been sitting inside the living room of the Dream House inside Innoventions at Disneyland. : ) )
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Friday, July 17, 2009
birthday wishes
Today is the 54th birthday of Disneyland. Guess where I'm spending the day? ;)
And what better way to celebrate a birthday than with FIRE!
4 years ago, the husband and I were fortunate to be able to attend a multi-day event in celebration of Disneyland's 50th birthday. On the Saturday night, the night before the actual birthday, there was a party held in the former Festival of Fools arena. First, dinner was served, and then the most spectacular show you could imagine, with live highlights from past Disneyland attractions.
There was a segment on the Tahitian Terrace, and then there were real life fire dancers. They were AWESOME.
If you want to read about all the events that occurred over those several days in celebration of Disneyland's 50th birthday, here's the link, but a warning - it's REALLY LONG and very picture heavy. I am *not* kidding.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DISNEYLAND!
And what better way to celebrate a birthday than with FIRE!
4 years ago, the husband and I were fortunate to be able to attend a multi-day event in celebration of Disneyland's 50th birthday. On the Saturday night, the night before the actual birthday, there was a party held in the former Festival of Fools arena. First, dinner was served, and then the most spectacular show you could imagine, with live highlights from past Disneyland attractions.
There was a segment on the Tahitian Terrace, and then there were real life fire dancers. They were AWESOME.
If you want to read about all the events that occurred over those several days in celebration of Disneyland's 50th birthday, here's the link, but a warning - it's REALLY LONG and very picture heavy. I am *not* kidding.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DISNEYLAND!
Thursday, July 16, 2009
"I Survived a Japanese Game Show" - July 15, 2009 episode
This week's episode was weird in that they didn't do a recap of last week, and there wasn't even the intro segment where they showed all the contestants. They must have decided there was too much going on and they needed the airtime - usually, it seems like they're just filling space.
(And speaking of weirdness, the website didn't have any promo videos of this show like they normally do, so whereas I normally go and do screen grabs for pictures, there won't be any in this post.)
This show started right after the end of last week - Megan was happy that she wasn't eliminated, but she was sad, in tears, that good buddy Bobaloo left. She said something about winning that made it sound like she was going to share with him. Really?
Meanwhile, drama was playing out on the Red Robots team. Jamie and Drew have gotten very close, even to the point of sleeping in the same bed, though they claimed nothing has happened between them and that they haven't even kissed, but their antics have made virgin Dan very uncomfortable.
But enough of house life, it's game time.
The first game was called "Soccer Time With Grandpa!" Each of the contestants wore wigs that gave them white hair and made them look like they were balding. The task was to kick a ball into a goal, and whichever team had the most goals won. Easy, huh? Yeah, then that must not be the entire game.
First of all, the teams were uneven, with 5 Red Robots and 3 Green Tigers, so Rome told the Red Robots that they had to choose a member to go over to the Green Tigers. After a short discussion, it was decided to send Cathy back over to the Green Tigers, where she'd come from. The Green Tigers were amazed that the Red Robots let her go and joyously welcomed her back.
The next twist was that the contestants had to wear goggles which really distorted their vision and depth of field, so when they went to kick the ball, they couldn't even really tell where the ball was, and oftentimes, they were just kicking thin air. They each took a turn kicking a ball that was on a tee, and any touch of the ball meant their turn was over, but bumping and ricocheting of others' balls counted. The goal had a pit at the bottom, and as long as the ball went into the pit, it counted.
Each team had 2 minutes, and most of them had a very difficult time, but after a few tries, some of them started to get the hang of it. They all complained that they couldn't really tell where the ball was, which is why they were kicking at nothing, but I wondered why they didn't just pick their foot up and measure where it was compared to the ball, and if that wouldn't give them a better idea of where to kick. None of them seemed to do that though.
The Green Tigers started off slowly but then picked up the pace, and they got a total of 5 balls. The Red Robots took their turn, and they were on a roll for a while, getting a number of balls into the pit. Jamie took her turn, and she really kicked the hell out of the ball, kicking it over the goal altogether and also nailing one of the cameras filming the event. In the end, the Red Robots ended up with 3 balls, so the Green Tigers won. Rome commented that Cathy was still on a winning team, and the other Green Tigers called her their good luck charm.
As has been the case this year, they immediately went into the next game, which was called "Stuck On Golf". Two members of the same team hit balls off of human tees - their other teammates, who had helmets with tees on top. They were to hit the balls onto a sticky surface. The other team's job was to clear as many of the balls off the sticky surface as possible. First, two team members would do it for 30 seconds, and then the other two team members would do it for 30 seconds, and then in the last 30 seconds, all four team members could clear balls.
Because the Green Tigers had won the first game, they had an advantage - one of the Red Robots had to wear shackles, making it harder to move.
The Red Robots went first, with Dan wearing the shackles. They were falling down a lot and so getting more and more of the sticky stuff on them, making it harder to clear the balls. Jamie was so stuck that she couldn't even manage to get off the mat when she was supposed to have swapped out. They also had trouble pulling the balls off the surface, and even when they could do that, the balls stuck to them, and they couldn't fling the balls off the playing field.
The Green Tigers were next, and Brent was in the first group of defenders, and his strategy was to stand at the very front of the mat and deflect the hit balls before they could even land on the mat. That turned out to work quite well, and even after he tagged out and the next group came in, and when they were all working together at the end, they seemed to have a much easier time pulling off and discarding balls than the Red Robots. I think they stayed much cleaner and so didn't have as much of the sticky goo on them, and they managed to pick up the balls that were just sitting on the goo, making them easier to get rid of. I think the Red Robots were leaning on the balls too much before picking them up, making them stick to the surface even more, and then getting more of the goo on themselves.
When the contest was over, the Red Robots had left 24 balls on the mat. The Green Tigers had left only 15 balls on the mat, which continued Cathy's unbroken winning streak.
The Green Tigers' reward for the next day was to visit a sake brewery and beef plant. They traveled three hours north, and Mama-San went along to translate. They tried different kinds of sake and liked what they had. They were also able to try yamagata beef, which is very tender, and it was cooked shabu shabu style. Cathy was concerned that it was only cooked for a short time, but she was amazed at how delicious the beef was. Yep, that's what happens when it's great quality beef and you slice them that thin too.
Meanwhile, the Red Robots were enduring their punishment - they were going to be harvesting seaweed. They woke up at 3am to get to a boat at Chiba Harbor to head out into the waters around 5am. As they were boarding the boat, Drew said that he wasn't feeling well and decided to sit that part out, which did *not* sit well with Dan, who said Drew didn't seem sick 5 minutes prior. I was surprised that Drew was allowed to beg off that major portion of the punishment.
They were shown the nets where the seaweed was trapped and how they had to pull the seaweed out and into a bucket - slimy and smelly. After hours of that, they came back to shore, and they were shown how to make nori sheets. For this part, Drew did participate. After some time doing that, they were given a lunch break - which consisted of a couple small fish on seaweed. Bon appetit!
I was actually laughing quite a bit during this entire segment because the husband *hates* seaweed, something he blames on his years of decorating Rose Parade floats with seaweed. (Now, I happen to love seaweed, but I think even I would have had a difficult time with this punishment.) When we have sushi and have cut rolls on the rare occasion, he'll ask for soy paper instead of seaweed, or he'll only be able to deal with the seaweed if it's an inverted roll, with the rice on the outside, so he can't really taste the seaweed. On the occasions when the sushi chef has given us free seaweed salad, I'm quite happy because I don't have to share! And the funniest thing was one time when the sushi chef gave each of us a toro hand roll. I couldn't help laughing as I watched the husband sitting there, holding the roll, wanting the toro so much but not being able to get over the seaweed. I suggested to him that he could just use the seaweed cone as a container and use chopsticks to eat the toro from inside it. He liked that idea and picked out as much of the toro as he could that wasn't touching the seaweed. And then I got to eat the rest of his hand roll! During this punishment, I wondered if he would just refuse to do it, because it was basically his idea of hell. And then lunch? Well, he'd just starve!
OK, derail over.
The next morning, the Red Robots still had to decide which two people to send to the elimination game. Both Dan and Justin wanted Drew and Jamie because they didn't like the alliance they had created. Drew and Jamie were mad because the rule had APPARENTLY been that whomever did poorly in the challenges would go to elimination. Jamie knew she'd go because of how badly she'd done on both challenges, but since Dan didn't do well either, she figured he'd be in the elimination round too. Jamie was really upset at how things were going and went into her room to cry. And she had cried when her team had lost the first game on this round. Please, make the girls stop crying! They were then at a stalemate since Drew and Jamie decided to vote for Dan and Justin. I know that Jamie said it should be decided by who did poorly in challenges, but I thought that Drew bailing on most of the punishment the day before would have earned him an automatic trip to the elimination round.
When the Red Robots were summoned out by Rome, they told him they couldn't decide on two people, so he said that then the Green Tigers would decide for them and brought them out. In the end, the Green Tigers chose Drew and Jamie to compete in the elimination round.
The name of the elimination round game was "Stretchy Squid Face". Each of them had to wear a pantyhose mask on their head, with a hole cut out for their mouth, and they had to rip off the heads of squids with their mouths. The pantyhose was attached to the base, so they'd have to pull harder to make it down the line of squid. At first, the husband thought the squid was fake plastic, but as they showed a shot of them, it was clear that they were indeed real - and gigantic - and raw. Ewwwww. Now, I like squid, but I like it cooked, and on the rare occasions when I've had it raw, I wasn't that crazy about it, but the task set out for them would definitely have been something that would have turned my stomach. Speaking of which, if Drew was getting queasy about going on a boat and eating fish and seaweed, I didn't think having giant raw squid in his mouth was going to go over very well.
When the game started, Jamie did quite well off the bat whereas Drew struggled. She was making her way down the line very quickly while Drew was still trying to figure out how to complete the task. OK, how do I say this? Well, if you saw it, you know what I mean. If not, you can just use your imagination based on what I'm about to say. I would say that Jamie, as the woman, had an advantage over Drew, the straight man, as far as knowing what method to use to best get all of the tentacles in her mouth enough to yank the head off. The image was pretty graphic - I'm not sure they intended it to happen that way.
In any case, Drew finally got the hang of it, ripping into the squid on the side (as opposed to the method used by Jamie - see?), and he started gaining on her, especially since she was farther away now and had to struggle with the pantyhose pulling her back, whereas he was stronger and didn't have as hard a time. As time was running out, Jamie's pantyhose actually snapped off her head.
When it came down to the count of squidheads removed, Jamie had 12, and Drew had 11. The Green Tigers and the rest of the Red Robots were elated that Drew was eliminated. He did start to get entirely too cocky, so I wasn't sorry to see him go.
Next week, adults in giant diapers, and then it looks like they're bobbing for fish in freezing water. And more drama and fallout from Drew's departure and Drew and Jamie's "relationship".
Hai, Majide!
(And speaking of weirdness, the website didn't have any promo videos of this show like they normally do, so whereas I normally go and do screen grabs for pictures, there won't be any in this post.)
This show started right after the end of last week - Megan was happy that she wasn't eliminated, but she was sad, in tears, that good buddy Bobaloo left. She said something about winning that made it sound like she was going to share with him. Really?
Meanwhile, drama was playing out on the Red Robots team. Jamie and Drew have gotten very close, even to the point of sleeping in the same bed, though they claimed nothing has happened between them and that they haven't even kissed, but their antics have made virgin Dan very uncomfortable.
But enough of house life, it's game time.
The first game was called "Soccer Time With Grandpa!" Each of the contestants wore wigs that gave them white hair and made them look like they were balding. The task was to kick a ball into a goal, and whichever team had the most goals won. Easy, huh? Yeah, then that must not be the entire game.
First of all, the teams were uneven, with 5 Red Robots and 3 Green Tigers, so Rome told the Red Robots that they had to choose a member to go over to the Green Tigers. After a short discussion, it was decided to send Cathy back over to the Green Tigers, where she'd come from. The Green Tigers were amazed that the Red Robots let her go and joyously welcomed her back.
The next twist was that the contestants had to wear goggles which really distorted their vision and depth of field, so when they went to kick the ball, they couldn't even really tell where the ball was, and oftentimes, they were just kicking thin air. They each took a turn kicking a ball that was on a tee, and any touch of the ball meant their turn was over, but bumping and ricocheting of others' balls counted. The goal had a pit at the bottom, and as long as the ball went into the pit, it counted.
Each team had 2 minutes, and most of them had a very difficult time, but after a few tries, some of them started to get the hang of it. They all complained that they couldn't really tell where the ball was, which is why they were kicking at nothing, but I wondered why they didn't just pick their foot up and measure where it was compared to the ball, and if that wouldn't give them a better idea of where to kick. None of them seemed to do that though.
The Green Tigers started off slowly but then picked up the pace, and they got a total of 5 balls. The Red Robots took their turn, and they were on a roll for a while, getting a number of balls into the pit. Jamie took her turn, and she really kicked the hell out of the ball, kicking it over the goal altogether and also nailing one of the cameras filming the event. In the end, the Red Robots ended up with 3 balls, so the Green Tigers won. Rome commented that Cathy was still on a winning team, and the other Green Tigers called her their good luck charm.
As has been the case this year, they immediately went into the next game, which was called "Stuck On Golf". Two members of the same team hit balls off of human tees - their other teammates, who had helmets with tees on top. They were to hit the balls onto a sticky surface. The other team's job was to clear as many of the balls off the sticky surface as possible. First, two team members would do it for 30 seconds, and then the other two team members would do it for 30 seconds, and then in the last 30 seconds, all four team members could clear balls.
Because the Green Tigers had won the first game, they had an advantage - one of the Red Robots had to wear shackles, making it harder to move.
The Red Robots went first, with Dan wearing the shackles. They were falling down a lot and so getting more and more of the sticky stuff on them, making it harder to clear the balls. Jamie was so stuck that she couldn't even manage to get off the mat when she was supposed to have swapped out. They also had trouble pulling the balls off the surface, and even when they could do that, the balls stuck to them, and they couldn't fling the balls off the playing field.
The Green Tigers were next, and Brent was in the first group of defenders, and his strategy was to stand at the very front of the mat and deflect the hit balls before they could even land on the mat. That turned out to work quite well, and even after he tagged out and the next group came in, and when they were all working together at the end, they seemed to have a much easier time pulling off and discarding balls than the Red Robots. I think they stayed much cleaner and so didn't have as much of the sticky goo on them, and they managed to pick up the balls that were just sitting on the goo, making them easier to get rid of. I think the Red Robots were leaning on the balls too much before picking them up, making them stick to the surface even more, and then getting more of the goo on themselves.
When the contest was over, the Red Robots had left 24 balls on the mat. The Green Tigers had left only 15 balls on the mat, which continued Cathy's unbroken winning streak.
The Green Tigers' reward for the next day was to visit a sake brewery and beef plant. They traveled three hours north, and Mama-San went along to translate. They tried different kinds of sake and liked what they had. They were also able to try yamagata beef, which is very tender, and it was cooked shabu shabu style. Cathy was concerned that it was only cooked for a short time, but she was amazed at how delicious the beef was. Yep, that's what happens when it's great quality beef and you slice them that thin too.
Meanwhile, the Red Robots were enduring their punishment - they were going to be harvesting seaweed. They woke up at 3am to get to a boat at Chiba Harbor to head out into the waters around 5am. As they were boarding the boat, Drew said that he wasn't feeling well and decided to sit that part out, which did *not* sit well with Dan, who said Drew didn't seem sick 5 minutes prior. I was surprised that Drew was allowed to beg off that major portion of the punishment.
They were shown the nets where the seaweed was trapped and how they had to pull the seaweed out and into a bucket - slimy and smelly. After hours of that, they came back to shore, and they were shown how to make nori sheets. For this part, Drew did participate. After some time doing that, they were given a lunch break - which consisted of a couple small fish on seaweed. Bon appetit!
I was actually laughing quite a bit during this entire segment because the husband *hates* seaweed, something he blames on his years of decorating Rose Parade floats with seaweed. (Now, I happen to love seaweed, but I think even I would have had a difficult time with this punishment.) When we have sushi and have cut rolls on the rare occasion, he'll ask for soy paper instead of seaweed, or he'll only be able to deal with the seaweed if it's an inverted roll, with the rice on the outside, so he can't really taste the seaweed. On the occasions when the sushi chef has given us free seaweed salad, I'm quite happy because I don't have to share! And the funniest thing was one time when the sushi chef gave each of us a toro hand roll. I couldn't help laughing as I watched the husband sitting there, holding the roll, wanting the toro so much but not being able to get over the seaweed. I suggested to him that he could just use the seaweed cone as a container and use chopsticks to eat the toro from inside it. He liked that idea and picked out as much of the toro as he could that wasn't touching the seaweed. And then I got to eat the rest of his hand roll! During this punishment, I wondered if he would just refuse to do it, because it was basically his idea of hell. And then lunch? Well, he'd just starve!
OK, derail over.
The next morning, the Red Robots still had to decide which two people to send to the elimination game. Both Dan and Justin wanted Drew and Jamie because they didn't like the alliance they had created. Drew and Jamie were mad because the rule had APPARENTLY been that whomever did poorly in the challenges would go to elimination. Jamie knew she'd go because of how badly she'd done on both challenges, but since Dan didn't do well either, she figured he'd be in the elimination round too. Jamie was really upset at how things were going and went into her room to cry. And she had cried when her team had lost the first game on this round. Please, make the girls stop crying! They were then at a stalemate since Drew and Jamie decided to vote for Dan and Justin. I know that Jamie said it should be decided by who did poorly in challenges, but I thought that Drew bailing on most of the punishment the day before would have earned him an automatic trip to the elimination round.
When the Red Robots were summoned out by Rome, they told him they couldn't decide on two people, so he said that then the Green Tigers would decide for them and brought them out. In the end, the Green Tigers chose Drew and Jamie to compete in the elimination round.
The name of the elimination round game was "Stretchy Squid Face". Each of them had to wear a pantyhose mask on their head, with a hole cut out for their mouth, and they had to rip off the heads of squids with their mouths. The pantyhose was attached to the base, so they'd have to pull harder to make it down the line of squid. At first, the husband thought the squid was fake plastic, but as they showed a shot of them, it was clear that they were indeed real - and gigantic - and raw. Ewwwww. Now, I like squid, but I like it cooked, and on the rare occasions when I've had it raw, I wasn't that crazy about it, but the task set out for them would definitely have been something that would have turned my stomach. Speaking of which, if Drew was getting queasy about going on a boat and eating fish and seaweed, I didn't think having giant raw squid in his mouth was going to go over very well.
When the game started, Jamie did quite well off the bat whereas Drew struggled. She was making her way down the line very quickly while Drew was still trying to figure out how to complete the task. OK, how do I say this? Well, if you saw it, you know what I mean. If not, you can just use your imagination based on what I'm about to say. I would say that Jamie, as the woman, had an advantage over Drew, the straight man, as far as knowing what method to use to best get all of the tentacles in her mouth enough to yank the head off. The image was pretty graphic - I'm not sure they intended it to happen that way.
In any case, Drew finally got the hang of it, ripping into the squid on the side (as opposed to the method used by Jamie - see?), and he started gaining on her, especially since she was farther away now and had to struggle with the pantyhose pulling her back, whereas he was stronger and didn't have as hard a time. As time was running out, Jamie's pantyhose actually snapped off her head.
When it came down to the count of squidheads removed, Jamie had 12, and Drew had 11. The Green Tigers and the rest of the Red Robots were elated that Drew was eliminated. He did start to get entirely too cocky, so I wasn't sorry to see him go.
Drew Sealey
Good looking, smart and admittedly shallow, Drew is as blunt as they come. This successful attorney has a high opinion of himself and has a low tolerance for those who don't meet his standards. Working hard for his money, he's happy being frivolous with it and loves showing it off with toys and in his lifestyle. Drew works hard but plays harder; he frequently flies to South Beach and Vegas to party on the weekends. Into his looks, skin care and clothes, this pretty boy is as straight as they come. He thinks the world revolves around him and will only help others out if it would benefit him in one way or another.
Age: 29
Hometown: St. Louis, MO
Occupation: Attorney
Next week, adults in giant diapers, and then it looks like they're bobbing for fish in freezing water. And more drama and fallout from Drew's departure and Drew and Jamie's "relationship".
Hai, Majide!
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
focussing on the positive
There are a lot of things going on right now that are making me a little crazy, a little nutty, a little worried, a little stressed, a little overwhelmed. Some of them are happening to me directly, and some of them are happening to other people but have some kind of effect on me. I know the saying goes that God doesn't give you more than you can handle, but I think He thinks my cup is bigger than I think it is, because I feel like it's just about to overflow.
None of them are MAJOR things, at least in the grand scheme of things, but many of them are a big deal to me. Some will work themselves out shortly, but others are longer-lasting things that at the moment, I don't have a glimmer of hope of figuring out or handling.
So, that's the long way of saying that I could make this a vent post or even a whiskey tango foxtrot post. But I won't, for a number of reasons: quite a number of the issues are things that I can't publish in a public forum, some of them aren't going to be solved even if I did write about them, and some of them are so complicated that I'm not even sure I could properly sort out the details enough to explain them. And then there's the overwhelming reason - no one wants to hear me rant for hours on end.
So instead, I'm going to focus on something much more positive. I've mentioned previously that I have a friend who's fighting leukemia. Well, I'm happy to report that he's gotten his bone marrow transplant, and he's out of "quarantine" (it wasn't total isolation but more like very restricted contact with people and things), and he's actually been home for about a week now. I haven't had a chance to talk to him, but I've exchanged a couple of messages with him, and he seems to be good. He even went to see the new "Harry Potter" film this morning - I teased him about not having gone to a midnight screening last night.
When he's settled a bit more, I'll see if he has some time to chat, but if nothing else, I'll see him in about 6 weeks when he comes down here for a visit, and a bunch of us are getting together for dinner to celebrate his birthday. He's been through a lot, and it's not quite over yet, but he's done so well through it all.
And, being the Cal bear that I am, I've had it ingrained in me to root against Stanford, but since it's Stanford that provided the care for him that's made him better, my stance has softened a little. I'll still be rooting against Stanford's sports teams, but I'll always be grateful to their medical facility for taking such good care of my friend.
None of them are MAJOR things, at least in the grand scheme of things, but many of them are a big deal to me. Some will work themselves out shortly, but others are longer-lasting things that at the moment, I don't have a glimmer of hope of figuring out or handling.
So, that's the long way of saying that I could make this a vent post or even a whiskey tango foxtrot post. But I won't, for a number of reasons: quite a number of the issues are things that I can't publish in a public forum, some of them aren't going to be solved even if I did write about them, and some of them are so complicated that I'm not even sure I could properly sort out the details enough to explain them. And then there's the overwhelming reason - no one wants to hear me rant for hours on end.
So instead, I'm going to focus on something much more positive. I've mentioned previously that I have a friend who's fighting leukemia. Well, I'm happy to report that he's gotten his bone marrow transplant, and he's out of "quarantine" (it wasn't total isolation but more like very restricted contact with people and things), and he's actually been home for about a week now. I haven't had a chance to talk to him, but I've exchanged a couple of messages with him, and he seems to be good. He even went to see the new "Harry Potter" film this morning - I teased him about not having gone to a midnight screening last night.
When he's settled a bit more, I'll see if he has some time to chat, but if nothing else, I'll see him in about 6 weeks when he comes down here for a visit, and a bunch of us are getting together for dinner to celebrate his birthday. He's been through a lot, and it's not quite over yet, but he's done so well through it all.
And, being the Cal bear that I am, I've had it ingrained in me to root against Stanford, but since it's Stanford that provided the care for him that's made him better, my stance has softened a little. I'll still be rooting against Stanford's sports teams, but I'll always be grateful to their medical facility for taking such good care of my friend.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
But do they offer room service?
Lots of places offer sleeping accommodations with a range of services and unique experiences. But would you pay for the privilege of spending the night in jail? That's what a sheriff's office in eastern Missouri is offering, calling it a "bed and breakfast".
Now, I've not actually stayed at a bed and breakfast before, but I'm going to guess that the normal accommodations are much nicer than at a county jail.
I can't imagine why someone would want to stay there overnight. But if they decide to and then change their mind and want to leave early, they've gotta pay extra.
Weird.
Now, I've not actually stayed at a bed and breakfast before, but I'm going to guess that the normal accommodations are much nicer than at a county jail.
I can't imagine why someone would want to stay there overnight. But if they decide to and then change their mind and want to leave early, they've gotta pay extra.
Weird.
Monday, July 13, 2009
"Thor" casting news
"Thor", the Marvel Comics film to be directed by Kenneth Branagh and starring Chris Hemsworth in the title role, has cast the love interest in the film with Natalie Portman. I like Natalie, so I hope it's an interesting part and not *just* the love interest.
This film is getting interestinger and interestinger, first with the story itself, and then the director, and with each bit of casting news. I'm not really sure what to expect, but I can't wait to see how it turns out.
This film is getting interestinger and interestinger, first with the story itself, and then the director, and with each bit of casting news. I'm not really sure what to expect, but I can't wait to see how it turns out.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
things that spin in a circle
So, there has APPARENTLY been some confusion amongst some people about how particular amusement park rides work. So, to clear up that confusion, I thought I'd present the following examples.
Here is an example of how ferris wheels work. One will note that it is bolted to the ground and spins in a sort of vertical fashion. This video is particularly interesting because the ferris wheel runs on man power - some guys climb up to the top and then shift their weight around, and that's what sets the wheel in motion.
And here is an example of a carousel. One will note that unlike the ferris wheel, the carousel spins in a sort of horizontal fashion. Having the carousel spin in a vertical fashion like the ferris wheel would be a BAD THING.
I hope that clears everything up.
(Yeah, I know, Kevin is never going to read this. Nor will Ron Jeremy, for that matter.)
Here is an example of how ferris wheels work. One will note that it is bolted to the ground and spins in a sort of vertical fashion. This video is particularly interesting because the ferris wheel runs on man power - some guys climb up to the top and then shift their weight around, and that's what sets the wheel in motion.
And here is an example of a carousel. One will note that unlike the ferris wheel, the carousel spins in a sort of horizontal fashion. Having the carousel spin in a vertical fashion like the ferris wheel would be a BAD THING.
I hope that clears everything up.
(Yeah, I know, Kevin is never going to read this. Nor will Ron Jeremy, for that matter.)
Saturday, July 11, 2009
musical interlude - "Oughta Know By Now"
So, did you know that I really love Phil Collins' music? Yeah, I think I might have mentioned that one or twenty or a billion times. Well, I've been rediscovering my iPod lately, realizing that it will play me music I really like as I'm driving. Yeah, I know, not exactly breaking news, but I've been really weird about music the last couple of years, so using the iPod in the car is actually a good thing.
Anyway, Phil Collins' second-to-last studio album was "Dance Into The Light", which has a nice mixture of different kinds of music, and there are actually quite a number of songs on the album that I really love. I was listening to the album the other day, and I remembered how much I absolutely adore a particular song called "Oughta Know By Now". There were a couple of songs on the album that immediately hit me, upon first listen, and that was definitely one of them.
It's a little hard to describe exactly why it affects me so much - it's really just the perfect mixture of everything. The rhythms and tempo in the song are so sensual and sexy - that kind of gets you into it. And then the mix of drums and keyboards and guitar - that draws you further in. And then you get to the lyrics themselves - alluring and powerful. And then to top it all off, you get the driving passion with which Phil sings the songs, especially when he punctuates certain words. Oh my.
I think it's the "torch song" quality of the song that really gets to me. I can totally see Phil singing this in some little dive of a nightclub on a tiny stage, smoky atmosphere, not very many patrons, with just a couple musicians behind him, and him just singing his heart out, right at the person he's directing this song to. Wow. (And yes, in case you were wondering, the husband does read this blog, but it's not like it's any secret to him how much I like Phil.)
So I don't know if I'm simply imagining that scenario or if I'm channelling. I believe he did do a music video for that song, but I can't remember, and that might exactly have been the setting. But no matter where the imagery comes from, it's still just as potent.
So, for your listening pleasure, here's the song itself, "Oughta Know By Now".
Is it getting a little warm in here?
Anyway, Phil Collins' second-to-last studio album was "Dance Into The Light", which has a nice mixture of different kinds of music, and there are actually quite a number of songs on the album that I really love. I was listening to the album the other day, and I remembered how much I absolutely adore a particular song called "Oughta Know By Now". There were a couple of songs on the album that immediately hit me, upon first listen, and that was definitely one of them.
It's a little hard to describe exactly why it affects me so much - it's really just the perfect mixture of everything. The rhythms and tempo in the song are so sensual and sexy - that kind of gets you into it. And then the mix of drums and keyboards and guitar - that draws you further in. And then you get to the lyrics themselves - alluring and powerful. And then to top it all off, you get the driving passion with which Phil sings the songs, especially when he punctuates certain words. Oh my.
I think it's the "torch song" quality of the song that really gets to me. I can totally see Phil singing this in some little dive of a nightclub on a tiny stage, smoky atmosphere, not very many patrons, with just a couple musicians behind him, and him just singing his heart out, right at the person he's directing this song to. Wow. (And yes, in case you were wondering, the husband does read this blog, but it's not like it's any secret to him how much I like Phil.)
So I don't know if I'm simply imagining that scenario or if I'm channelling. I believe he did do a music video for that song, but I can't remember, and that might exactly have been the setting. But no matter where the imagery comes from, it's still just as potent.
So, for your listening pleasure, here's the song itself, "Oughta Know By Now".
Is it getting a little warm in here?
Friday, July 10, 2009
things I don't understand - Do I need your phone number or not?
If I'm calling a friend who I know has my phone number and I have to leave a message, I won't leave my phone number in the message. If I'm not sure if they have my number, or if I'm giving them a different number to call me back at, I'll leave the number. And if I'm calling a business and leaving my phone number on an answering machine or voicemail, I'll leave my phone number. In each case, I'll include the area code, and I will pronounce each number, saying it slowly and clearly.
APPARENTLY, not everyone thinks this way. I can't tell you the number of times I've listened to voicemail messages where people have left a phone number, and they just ramble the phone number like it's some kind of contest to see how fast and jumbled they could possibly say it. They're not even saying the phone number with the same pacing as they've left the message. The message will be left in regular conversational tones, but when it comes to their phone number, they speed through it like they have someone chasing after them who's about to pounce so they really need to get off the phone. In almost all of these cases, I don't already have their phone number so I actually needed them to tell me. So, they either knew I didn't have the number, or they were just leaving the number in case I didn't have it. But in either case, they're still giving me the number for a reason, right, because they think I might need it? So why not say it at least clearly and slowly enough that if I actually *did* need it, I could actually understand them and being able to write the number down? How does mumbling it at a mile a minute help me to get that number?
There was this one time at work, and I am *not* exaggerating, where I had to play the message over and over again, because I could only make out one number at a time. Our phone system at work now has the ability to slow down messages, so there have been other occasions when I've replayed a message but slowed down so I could understand the phone number they were leaving me.
If you want me to call you back, why wouldn't you want me to be able to discern the phone number you're leaving me?
APPARENTLY, not everyone thinks this way. I can't tell you the number of times I've listened to voicemail messages where people have left a phone number, and they just ramble the phone number like it's some kind of contest to see how fast and jumbled they could possibly say it. They're not even saying the phone number with the same pacing as they've left the message. The message will be left in regular conversational tones, but when it comes to their phone number, they speed through it like they have someone chasing after them who's about to pounce so they really need to get off the phone. In almost all of these cases, I don't already have their phone number so I actually needed them to tell me. So, they either knew I didn't have the number, or they were just leaving the number in case I didn't have it. But in either case, they're still giving me the number for a reason, right, because they think I might need it? So why not say it at least clearly and slowly enough that if I actually *did* need it, I could actually understand them and being able to write the number down? How does mumbling it at a mile a minute help me to get that number?
There was this one time at work, and I am *not* exaggerating, where I had to play the message over and over again, because I could only make out one number at a time. Our phone system at work now has the ability to slow down messages, so there have been other occasions when I've replayed a message but slowed down so I could understand the phone number they were leaving me.
If you want me to call you back, why wouldn't you want me to be able to discern the phone number you're leaving me?
Thursday, July 9, 2009
"Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" - spoiler movie review
I loved "Ice Age", and I even liked "Ice Age: The Meltdown", so when I saw the trailer and one-sheet for "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs", and there was a T-rex in it, I was definitely in.
Overall, I really enjoyed the movie. I think I actually liked it better than the second film. I wasn't crazy about Ellie or Crash and Eddie in the second film, but I liked them much better in this film. Yeah, the story of the entire world of dinosaurs living underneath the frozen layer on top was a little hokey, but that was ok. I liked seeing all the other dinosaurs, and really, who doesn't like seeing a T-Rex? I liked that the T-Rex was a mommy, and Sid was pretty cute playing mom to her babies - he even drew faces on the eggs! Those little T-Rex babies were *SO* cute! I loved when they terrorized the little playground that Manny had set up for his child. And when one of the babies had to throw up the two animal younglings it had eaten. Gross, but funny. When the T-Rex brought the "dead" bird back to feed the babies, that was more grossness, but then it didn't turn out to be dead. And Sid was funny trying to teach the T-Rex babies to be vegetarians. FAIL! But it was pretty sweet when the mother T-Rex picked up Sid and put him in the enclave as well as they went to sleep, hiding from Rudy. And yeah, even *I* knew that T-Rex was going to come in and save the day against Rudy.
And oh my gosh - little Peaches was just *adorable*! Cutest.little.thing.
During the chase scene when Diego is going after that antelopey thing, it was pretty funny that at one point, there was dirt splashed on the "camera". Pretty cool.
The whole bit with Scrat and Scratte (or however you spell her name) was ok, but it took up more time than I thought it would. (Oh, and btw, contrary to what the person who submitted the summary to themoviespoiler.com wrote, "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine" is by Lou Rawls not Al Green. If you don't know who sings the song, that's fine, but don't get the artist wrong. That's pretty much Lou Rawls' signature song. And it's a damn good song, too.) They would periodically have them interact for a second with the main story, but otherwise, it was a completely separate B story. I have to say, though, that the new version of "Alone Again, Naturally" that's "sung" from the acorn to Scrat had me in hysterics at the new lyrics. I might have to pick up the soundtrack just for that.
That new mega-dinosaur thing, Rudy, was pretty scary.
Simon Pegg was pretty funny as "Buck". I'll admit that I didn't recognize his voice, and he was a bit over the top, but he was still good.
I saw the film in regular projection (though it was digital - digital rules), and I'm interested in seeing it again in 3D. The T-Rex and Rudy segments might be pretty awesome.
Two thumbs up from me. It was funny and action packed, and the segments with the T-Rex babies and Sid and then Peaches and everyone were really sweet, something I didn't expect from the movie going in.
Overall, I really enjoyed the movie. I think I actually liked it better than the second film. I wasn't crazy about Ellie or Crash and Eddie in the second film, but I liked them much better in this film. Yeah, the story of the entire world of dinosaurs living underneath the frozen layer on top was a little hokey, but that was ok. I liked seeing all the other dinosaurs, and really, who doesn't like seeing a T-Rex? I liked that the T-Rex was a mommy, and Sid was pretty cute playing mom to her babies - he even drew faces on the eggs! Those little T-Rex babies were *SO* cute! I loved when they terrorized the little playground that Manny had set up for his child. And when one of the babies had to throw up the two animal younglings it had eaten. Gross, but funny. When the T-Rex brought the "dead" bird back to feed the babies, that was more grossness, but then it didn't turn out to be dead. And Sid was funny trying to teach the T-Rex babies to be vegetarians. FAIL! But it was pretty sweet when the mother T-Rex picked up Sid and put him in the enclave as well as they went to sleep, hiding from Rudy. And yeah, even *I* knew that T-Rex was going to come in and save the day against Rudy.
And oh my gosh - little Peaches was just *adorable*! Cutest.little.thing.
During the chase scene when Diego is going after that antelopey thing, it was pretty funny that at one point, there was dirt splashed on the "camera". Pretty cool.
The whole bit with Scrat and Scratte (or however you spell her name) was ok, but it took up more time than I thought it would. (Oh, and btw, contrary to what the person who submitted the summary to themoviespoiler.com wrote, "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine" is by Lou Rawls not Al Green. If you don't know who sings the song, that's fine, but don't get the artist wrong. That's pretty much Lou Rawls' signature song. And it's a damn good song, too.) They would periodically have them interact for a second with the main story, but otherwise, it was a completely separate B story. I have to say, though, that the new version of "Alone Again, Naturally" that's "sung" from the acorn to Scrat had me in hysterics at the new lyrics. I might have to pick up the soundtrack just for that.
That new mega-dinosaur thing, Rudy, was pretty scary.
Simon Pegg was pretty funny as "Buck". I'll admit that I didn't recognize his voice, and he was a bit over the top, but he was still good.
I saw the film in regular projection (though it was digital - digital rules), and I'm interested in seeing it again in 3D. The T-Rex and Rudy segments might be pretty awesome.
Two thumbs up from me. It was funny and action packed, and the segments with the T-Rex babies and Sid and then Peaches and everyone were really sweet, something I didn't expect from the movie going in.
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