December 2006 Archive

December 29, 2006
Movie Madness
I met and exceeded my goal for movies today, and I still got some housecleaning done, and I made dinner! You should know by now that I'm prone to spoilers.
The Devil Wears Prada
The main character just seemed like such a naive dumbass. I mean, what college graduate doesn't know that you should know at least the basics of the company you're applying to? She was far too wholesome and goody goody. I hate when movies resort to extremes to try to force a point. And she gave that up? Dumbass! Watch-able but not that enjoyable.
Proposition
Meh. It was okay. There really wasn't much of a plot. Damn Australian movies. After watching The Constant Gardener last week, it was weird seeing Danny Huston in such a different role. Very skinny Guy Pierce. No ending either. /shrug
V for Vendetta
Admittedly, I've not yet read Alan Moore's graphic novel. I decided to watch the movie before I read it because I'll likely have less objection to something I know little about it. I might even enjoy it. Anyway, even having not read it, I felt like there was no where near enough violence in the movie for such a character in such a setting. And I find it strange that the main character, whom you never really see, was so oddly seductive. But like I've said before, everyone's hotter covered in someone else's blood.
Little Miss Sunshine
F---ing brilliant. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The casting was fantastic, and Steve Carell was exceptionally funny. Although, he could probably read a phone book, and I would laugh till I passed out. I <3 him. People who put their 3 year olds in beauty pageants should be shot. Kev kept saying that they look like those super-deformed Bratz dolls. lol Sad part is, he's right. But I guessed the big finale within the first few minutes of the movie. It was hilarious.
Pride and Prejudice (2005)
What kind of terrible female friends do I have that none of you ever made me watch this movie!!! And to think, there's a version out there with Colin Firth in it. You bitches! I loved this movie. *sob* Now I need to track down the 1995 Firth-y version and watch it again. While a great love story, I always feel saddened watching period pieces knowing that women were traded off by their parents like cattle. No one displays that quite as clearly as Jane Austen.
posted by Karabou at 11:25 PM EST
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December 28, 2006
Double Happiness!
I ended up having one more vacation day than I knew of, so I took tomorrow off. Yay! I went to the grocery and then rented a metric assload of movies. I started the weekend off with A Scanner Darkly tonight. Kev and I both loved it. Trippy. Total mind-f*ck. Good stuff. Vector illustration does wonders for Keanu Reeves wooden acting. Don't get me wrong; I love the guy, but let's be honest. He's not a good actor. heh
Tomorrow, I intend to firmly plant my ass in my recliner and watch:
Proposition
The Devil Wears Prada
V for Vendetta
Little Miss Sunshine
And if I have the time, the following are on my weekend agenda:
Syriana, Good Night and Good Luck, Munich, History of Violence, Miami Vice (which I've heard surprisingly good things about), The Producers, and Brokeback Mountain. When I was single, or even when I was dating He Who Cannot Be Named (which was like being single because he didn't really want me--he just didn't want anyone else to have me), my idea of a well-spent Saturday was coordinating 3 consecutive movies at the theater with no more than a 20 minute wait in between. I've always been a geek; I just didn't know it.
And I thought this was kind of cool...
$7,500 Of Loose Change Found Underneath Coasters At Cedar Point
SANDUSKY, Ohio -- Anyone who has been on Cedar Point's roller coasters knows they can produce a lot of loose change.
But what happens to that money?
Cedar Point employees collect and turn in the loose change found underneath the rides, on the midway or in the park's fountains to the loose change fund.
The amusement park said that this year employees collected about $7,500 and will donate it to a soup kitchen in Sandusky.
The park has donated more than $170,000 from the loose change fund to charity since 1988.
posted by Karabou at 9:17 PM EST
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December 27, 2006
Heh
Magic Cone
posted by Karabou at 6:16 PM EST
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December 26, 2006
Cue credits, please
Movies I watched this weekend:
The Constant Gardener
I thought it was phenomenal. High drama and highly recommended. Made me want to go buy African babies.
Cinderella Man
Meh. It's been sitting on my TiVO for months. I finally got bored enough to watch it. It's a chick flick with at least an hour of hard core boxing matches interspersed throughout. Power of the human spirit, love, etc. Blah. Mediocre at best.
16 Blocks
Oh F---. Avoid this one at all costs. Not only was the premise so f---ing unbelievable it pissed me off, Mos Def's made-up "accent" made me want to kill myself by ramming a chip clip through my eye into my brain. At one point about halfway through the movie, I didn't think I was going to make it through the whole thing. It was so bad it made me angry. Yay! I make cakes and don't do no more crimeses!"
Superman Returns
This movie has pretty much the exact same plot as the original Superman movie. Lex Luthor plots a lucrative land deal and getting rich doing it. I thought the special effects were great; I especially liked the sort of muted sound he made when he flew. But overall, I feel like nothing happened in the movie. Nothing at all. I didn't feel emotionally invested in any of the characters, and I guessed pretty much every plot hook within the first 15 minutes of the movie. Hopefully, the next one will be more exciting. Superman II was more exciting than the first one, so if it's a re-make of that one, it has a chance to not suck.
Hotel Rwanda
Tear-jerking, guilt-tripping, roller coaster. I love when I watch a movie and I'm not sure if the main characters are going to die. Fantastic movie. Made me stare at my overweight cat sprawled lazily across me and realize that despite us not having much money, we have it damn good. Also made me want to buy more African babies.
And today, I did a little shopping with my mom and sister. I picked up two calendars, one for home (a history of Chinese brush art that I can frame later) and one called Nuns Having Fun for my cubicle. I laughed so hard I almost passed out and fell into the Calendar kiosk. My favorite picture is of a bunch of nuns on a flatbed trailer being pulled by a tractor titled: Mass Transit. lmao
It spurred me to buy Growing Up Catholic, a humorous collection of anecdotes of the two authors. I'd heard bits of it on NPR one Saturday, so I'm hoping it's pretty good. And I picked up Ancestors of Avalon. I've read the rest of the series, and despite only being devised from the notes of Marion Zimmer Bradley, I hope it's as good as the rest of the series. I plan to pick up the new Loreena Mckennit CD, some old Billy Idol, Cindy Lauper, and DEVO, as well as L7 and The Nymphs. I love Xmas money; I get to buy stuff I'd never normally buy. I'll probably also pick up some movies that were on my list but didn't make it into my phat lewts. And somewhere, there's a few hundred starving AIDS-stricken babies in Africa. God I feel like such an ungrateful cow.
posted by Karabou at 9:52 PM EST
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December 21, 2006
Argh.
I went to the tall store last night in search of some jeans, since GAP is apparently too incompetent to keep any in stock whatsoever, even on their website. And I refuse to pay $110 for tall jeans through JCrew online. I usually avoid this store because the owner is amazingly obnoxious and won't shut the hell up. But out of desperation, I decided to go there anyway. Luckily, in the past 2 years, she's evidently hired someone to run the store for her some days, so I didn't have to deal with her after all.
As I was looking through the jeans, I picked out a few pair to try on, and the salesclerk told me a particular brand runs small, so I should grab a pair in a size bigger. I ended up having to get a pair THREE sizes bigger than my normal size. "Running small" doesn't cover that.And then, this morning, I discovered I'm wearing the official jeans of country music. No wonder they're long. They're made to be worn with cowboy boots.
NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But they look fabulous. /sigh
And as I was perusing the website of the jeans I purchased, I noticed that all their jeans have stripper names. What the hell is with that?I'm off for 5 glorious days this holiday weekend, starting tomorrow. I'll be out having a reunion of sorts with some old friends tonight (similar to my birthday shenanigans), so I thought it wise to take tomorrow off for recovery. Hurrah.
posted by Karabou at 6:45 PM EST
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December 20, 2006
Salute
My co-worker drove me out for lunch at Chik-fil-A, since even though I have the car today it's in the shop. As we walked in, I noticed a camera crew filming us as we walked in. I quickly scratched my face with my middle finger in a very obvious-but-innocent manner to make sure they couldn't use the footage. Being owned by a highly religious individual, any footage of his restaurant containing such a gesture would be nixed for sure in editing.
I'm assuming it's a promotional video, such as the ones we filmed over this last year because they weren't getting releases signed by anyone they filmed. If that's the case, they'll utilize footage that renders the subjects unrecognizable (shots from behind or below the neck). They were likely just gathering B-roll footage for a commercial or some such. The cashiers and kitchen workers would occasionally yell, "EAT MORE CHICKEN!!!" when cued by the camera crew. It was bizarre.
I told my co-worker that if they come near us, I'll sit with my middle finger extended across my face and not to think I was subtley flipping HER off. I explained that it would make the footage unusable, and she laughed and said she might join me in the salute. Neither of us were interested in starring in a Chik-fil-A video. Thankfully, they stayed off on the side and then hid behind the sign out front to get footage of cars in the drive through.
It made me think of this past year and some of the tactics we had to use to get the footage we wanted. We would pretend to be setting up the camera when in fact we were rolling. People would ask if it was on, and we say, "Oh no, we're still setting up the shot. Go ahead and walk down the hallway." As long as we weren't filming faces, we were in the clear. So remember that next time you ask if that camera is on because I can guarantee it is, regardless of what they're telling you. heh
posted by Karabou at 5:41 PM EST
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December 19, 2006
What it's really about...
A C-17 hung in the air above me, looking like a UFO with its blinding lights and seeming weightlessness. The night was still running through my mind. I teared up a bit, and I forced my thoughts back to the unlikely floating fortress hovering above the road. It wasn’t working. The night was just too fresh. I thought I’d feel good after it, but this was different. It altered me.I arrived at my sister’s around 5:30, since my mom told me to get there as fast as I could after work. My sister and I bantered; she was talking about some drama at work. She called mom on her cell and asked what she was doing. Mom had told me she was stopping at a viewing briefly at the funeral home, and she’d be right home after that. She told my sister she was buying some gift certificates, and before that, my sister said mom told her she was doing some shopping. I sighed loudly, and my sister laughed, “That’s mamasita! You should know better.” And she was right. I did.We tried to figure out what gifts were getting delivered that night. We figured out most of it, and when mom arrived, she pointed out another 5 gifts or so that still needed wrapped. We headed out once both of our cars were full of gifts and food. And when we arrived, as usual, I took it upon myself to lift everything. I tucked a turkey under one arm and picked up 3 garbage bags full of gifts, heading to the door to drop them off and make another trip. “Always the mule,” I mused to myself.I’d never helped mom deliver before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. As she knocked on the door, I noticed through the transom that the top of this family’s kitchen cupboard was decorated with a variety of liquor bottles, like a proud display of versatile liquor-tude. The mother answered the door. As I stepped through, I was smacked in the face with the smell of dirty cat litter. “Why do poor people’s houses always smell like animal shit?” I thought to myself. I’m no stranger to the working poor. I had friends growing up that sometimes shocked me when I saw how they lived. I remember one kid when I was probably 8 that had a dirty mattress on the floor, no sheets, and a grungy oil-laden pillow for his head. And fleas. In the kitchen. But never, did I ever think I was better than they were. I was quietly thankful for what I had, and I saw first-hand that it could be much worse.So I reserved my judgment on the liquor bottles. Who was I to criticize them for trying to drown their sorrows once in a while? They had 3 kids and no money. Life couldn’t be easy. As we hauled the bags of gifts in and placed them in the living room, the kids stared, wide eyed. “I’ve never seen so many gifts in one room!” exclaimed the 9-year-old girl. She bounded between the kitchen and living room, craning her neck to see what else was coming. Her brother, a year younger, grinned as he rummaged through the stocking mom gave him. And the three year old latched onto my leg with a hug, catching me off guard. I gently patted her head, and she ran off to join her siblings with their stocking prizes.Their parents thanked us and hugged us and said it was more than they ever dreamed of. And as I was pulling the door shut behind me, I glanced over at them staring at the food on the table and the coats, gloves, hats, underwear, and socks. One hand of each went towards the other. And they stood there with lowered eyes, tears brimming, holding hands in quiet thanks. I shut the door and left. They may be poor, but they can still have their pride.
And THAT, folks, is what Christmas is about.
posted by Karabou at 10:38 PM EST
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December 18, 2006
Pre-marital sex? *gasp*
Guttmacher Institute--a private New York-based think tank that studies sexual and reproductive issues and which disagrees with government-funded programs that rely primarily on abstinence-only teachings--has found that 95% of Americans polled have had pre-marital sex, including women born in the 1940s. Read it here.
posted by Karabou at 7:23 PM EST
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December 16, 2006
Bakker the junior: "What the hell?"
I found this very interesting.
posted by Karabou at 6:19 PM EST
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December 14, 2006
Yum-ish
Anyway, a group of us went to Spaghetti Warehouse last night for our annual Xmas dinner. The food has really fallen in quality, in my opinion. And they changed their tiramisu to some sort of cake-like thing. Very disappointing. I think we'll be looking for a new place to eat next year.

But today for lunch, I got to enjoy a filet mignon with garlic au gratin potatoes, French onion soup, and sauteed mushrooms...for free...at Carver's. Whee!
And tonight, Amanda and I wrapped Xmas gifts for the po' kids. I'm all wrapped out, and I haven't even wrapped anything for family. It always starts out fun for me, and by the end, it's a drudgery. heh
posted by Karabou at 8:53 PM EST
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December 5, 2006
Profligate feet
So I received this email from a friend of mine today:

I think if you have a dream about somebody it is only polite to tell them. So here is how it went down:
You were in labor at a hospital. I believe you just had arrived. The hospital was having you walk to your room (!) and Kevin was helping you to your bed. I was already in the room (Brian may have been there too). I was there to be some kind of birthing coach. As I could hear you approaching I though it'd be funny to give you the Benny Hill salute as you came around the corner. It was very dimly lit in the hospital and I heard a splash sound and realized as you appeared around the corner that your baby had dropped out of you!! (You looked miserable). At some point the baby was given to me and it was HUGE. Not fat, but like a compact 2 year old. He had a full head of curly hair and was smiley and adorable, but I kept thinking WOW THIS IS A HUGE BABY!
Congrats!

----------------------------------------------------------------

This afternoon in the office has mainly been spent dog-sitting a doc's 4-month-old Burmese Mountain dogs. These puppies have feet the size of my palm. Scary. They'll get up to about 140 lbs full grown.
posted by Karabou at 8:17 PM EST
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December 4, 2006
Would love eat a winter juice goddess?
Religion Fatigue. Bingo.
posted by Karabou at 9:37 PM EST
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December 2, 2006
Truth is one; sages call it by different names.
Went out dancing last night. It was nice to get out and shake a leg. I danced during Mike's whole set, wearing my 10-pound mankillers, so after an hour I was pretty much done. I haven't worn those boots since I f-ed up my ribs in April, and my legs were screaming "WUT HAVE YEW DUN!!!" at me until I caved and went home to crash. But I was quite pleased with my outfit. I actually felt good in it.

Speaking of my ribs, they've been doing pretty well. I started taking Zyflamend at Lorie's suggestion, and I have to admit it's helped a lot. I can tell the inflammation in the cartilage has gone down significantly. My pain has decreased, and cardio doesn't seem to bother me as much. The downfall is that it contains caffeine, which means I'm having my usual unpleasant physical reaction to it. But it's worth it, even if I have to take it for a few months, if it's working. I can tell I've still got one rib slightly out of place. My muscles still feel weird in one spot, but I think it'll go back in when the inflammation is finally stamped out.

The more I go to the club, the more I thank god on my drive home that I'm happily married. Most of the people there have nailed each other, like some big incestuous family. It's weird. I don’t know about you, but the idea of having sex with a guy who’s been passed around like a butter dish makes me queasy. The thought of ever having to play that meat lottery makes me sick. I think I'd rather be alone than ever have to go back out there again.

Tonight, I went to Kirtan after grabbing Indian for dinner with Lorie. Ajanta changed ownership recently, and the food is pretty crappy now. I'll be sticking with Jeet or Amar, I suppose. But it was nice to catch up to her after her move to Cincy. I miss her, but such is life. I feel a bit better tonight. When I can finally get back to yoga, it'll be a relief. Hopefully, it won't be much longer.
posted by Karabou at 11:51 PM EST
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