January 2008 Archive

January 30, 2008
I think we're gonna need a bigger boot...
Another week in the boot. /sigh

He gave me a cortisone shot in the ankle, even wriggling the needle down into the joint. We'll re-evaluate again in a week.

And he didn't want to give me crutches. He said he didn't feel they'd really help, since the ankle is already immobilized. But I'm tempted to just go out and buy some. I'm doing trailer checks this Friday night come hell or high water. I guess I'll just have to drink some caffeine to have the energy to do it.

And it's funny seeing Molly Walker as the receptionist. We were good friends Freshman/Sophomore year of high school, and then we drifted apart. I have no idea why. I assume maybe we just didn't have any classes together anymore. I was somewhat of a butterfly in high school. I'd be friends with someone for a while and then just drift away. Or in one case, be shut out because her friends didn't think I was popular enough, and I was "dragging her down." But whatever. It's just odd that looking back, I have no clue as to why we stopped hanging out.

Huh.

Posted by Karabou at 10:15 PM EST
Top

January 29, 2008
If you're tired of Weird Al, you're tired of life.
We watched No Country for Old Men again this weekend. That movie is probably the best I saw in 2007. I still want to see There Will be Blood. I have a feeling that one might be pretty good, too. And Juno is still on my list.

It was awesome to see James Marsters back on the small screen and full of attitude on the season premier of Torchwood this weekend. Good stuff. I hope he becomes a recurring character.

I'm trying not to walk much, as the more I walk, the more pain I have, even in Das Boot. I go back Wednesday, and I'm ready to just get this over with. I'm already tired of it. If I have to continue wearing it, I think I'm going to ask for crutches. I swear I could get around easier on crutches than walking in this thing, at least if I go out somewhere. Around work, not so much. But I really want to do trailer checks, and I couldn't this weekend because it was too daunting to think of having to walk all over the theater in this Frankenstein shoe. I was so exhausted from running into Circuit City that I nearly fell over and went to sleep when I got home Friday.

If I need surgery, I just want to get it over with, so I can be recovered, at least mostly, by April for my trip to FL.

Posted by Karabou at 10:26 PM EST
Top

January 22, 2008
I got the boot.
Well now.

I went to the podiatrist this morning, which has further fueled my distrust of a family doc's recommendations for a cure to what ails you. At least when dealing with something beyond an antibiotic prescription.

The podiatrist said my perennial tendons are grinding themselves to pieces on my ankle bone. In the 1 week between making the appointment with him and actually seeing him, I went from having lost a little mobility in my ankle to not being able to move my ankle AT ALL. I can wiggle my toes, and that's it. I'm glad I came to the realization that I couldn't move it at all while I was in the podiatrist's office because I nearly cried with panic, until I realized I'm about to see one of the top foot specialists in the area.

He knew instantly what was wrong, took a bazillion x-rays that we'll go over in my follow-up appointment next Wednesday, and stuck me in a fracture boot. I'm allowed to take it off to shower and to sleep (up to me as to how uncomfortable it is to sleep in), but I could be in this thing for 2-3 weeks. If it doesn't work, I have to have surgery. Yay. But I guess I'd rather have surgery now than in summer when it would disrupt my swimming and running.

No exercise from the waist down indefinitely, so I can at least still lift weights. It's better than nothing.

What pisses me off is that had I listened to my FP, I'd be going straight to surgery, since she recommended I do 2-4 weeks of ankle-strengthening exercises. The podiatrist still isn't sure we caught it early enough, and had I waited another month, I'd be 100% screwed.

I'm telling you from painful personal experience, if something is wrong, go see a specialist immediately. If you're having knee pain, and your FP tells you to try some exercises, go find a specialist. Had I went out on my own and NOT listened to the MD that told me I just had to live with my ribs being popped out, I could have had them put back in by a DO or a chiro, and I wouldn't have gone through 2 years of hell and STILL live in constant moderate pain.
I will never forgive him for that.

I've only had this boot on for about an hour, and I'm already exhausted. My foot barely fits on the accelerator in my car, so I might have to drive Kev's car while I'm wearing it, since his is a bit bigger. But no one told me I couldn't drive, so either that or I'll just drive left-footed. Which I've done before when I broke my toes on my right foot years ago. Wasn't hard in the least.
Posted by Karabou at 10:18 PM EST
Top

January 21, 2008
Cloverfield: Major Spoilers Ahead
I saw it. I've seen worse. I've seen better. But I have to agree with 99% of Wil's discussion of the movie, which contains spoilers.
I didn't participate in any of the viral marketing for this movie. In fact, based on the teaser trailer, I wasn't interested in seeing it at all. But when I read that it was a monster movie that would do for Americans and 9/11 what Gojira did for Japanese and the bombings of Hiroshmia and Nagasaki, my interest was piqued. I thought that this movie had the potential to be more than just another monster movie, and I took the extraordinary (for me) step of seeing it in the afternoon on opening day.
I was more powerfully affected by this film than I expected going in. There were moments that truly terrified me, moments that made me very uncomfortable, and it stayed with me long after the theater emptied out. That's the hallmark of a good film, in my humble opinion.
The criticism I've read seems to come from people who were pissed that it wasn't nicely tied up at the end, expected something very different based on the ARG, or were so put off by the photography, it prevented them from fully immersing themselves in the film.
I was very satisfied by the plot -- including the ending, which would have pissed me off if it had been any different -- and I found the characters to be entirely believable people I could encounter in my own life. The monster and its screeching parasite crawling things scared the absolute living mother fucking shit out of me, and the only thing creature-related that disappointed me was the close-up look at the end. Nothing those filmmakers can model is going to be as scary as what my imagination pieces together from the quick glimpses we got, and I wish they'd just left it with what we'd seen up to that point.
I loved the non-traditional filmmaking, absence of soundtrack, and verite feel of the whole thing, and though the camera work made me dizzy and seasick, I don't think it would have worked any other way. By not ever getting a chance to step away from these people (other than the quick flashes to The Best Day, Ever, which were heartbreaking for me) we're just as terrified and confused and uncertain as they are. I felt like the filmmakers ruthlessly combined limited third person narrative with second person narrative. If they'd added the Dr. Ian Malcom scene to the film, it would have pissed me off, because it would have felt like a cheat. I understand that a lot of people who didn't like the film point to that lack of exposition as a cause of their dissatisfaction, but I couldn't disagree more.
When Rob's brother died on the bridge, it was fast and brutal and unexpected. They didn't have time to stop and grieve, because they had to run for their lives. That felt authentic to me. When Marlena started bleeding from her eyes and apparently blew up from being bitten, and none of them -- and none of us -- found out exactly what was going on, it felt authentic to me. If thee filmmakers had handled either of those events differently, it would have felt like a cheat, and it would have pissed me off.
In fact, the only real cheat I felt they pulled off was when they eventually rescued Beth. I don't know much about engineering, but I'm pretty sure that building wouldn't have been able to lean to one side like that without collapsing. It was also pretty convenient that those guys were able to walk all the way from Spring to 59th and then up 60 flights of stairs after a night of drinking at a party, but by that point in the movie, I was willing to suspend my disbelief because it hadn't asked me to do it until then.
Having said all that, here's the bottom line for me: this movie isn't about a monster. It's not about Slusho. It's not about clever explaination and government conspiracies and happy endings where everything is eventually going to be okay. It's about these people who are living through the worst nightmare imaginable. It's about a guy who wants to be with the girl he loves, and what he goes through to make that happen. It's about not knowing what the fuck is happening, and being completely powerless to do anything about it, except try (and hope) to survive. Those elements worked for me, and made it a very scary, unsettling, but ultimately enjoyable experience that's stayed with me 24 hours after I left the theater.
About the elephant in the room: It was impossible for me to watch this movie without thinking about 9/11, and that made it more powerful for me than it would have been otherwise. When the heroes ducked into that store while the dust plume from the collapsing building blew up the street, I got as close to a 9/11 flashback as I think I'm capable of having, and it created an emotional reference point for the rest of the movie. I'm one of those people who has been screeched at by the Bushies since 9/12, so I'm [i]very[/i] sensitive about anything involving or referencing 9/11, and I don't take it as lightly as the authoritarians who exploit it in an effort to keep us afraid and consolidate power. Though I live in Los Angeles, that day was an exhausting, terrifying, and traumatic event for me. I'm one degree of several people who died that day, so it's a pretty personal thing for me, too. Cloverfield put me back in touch with some emotional memories that I haven't accessed in six and a half years, and while I know there are a lot of cynics who will scoff at that, there it is.
I hope they don't do any sequels. I hope they'll continue with the ARG and maybe show a few glimpses of what was happening for other people in NYC on that night, but I don't want to see this become a franchise.
I am, however, excited to see how other filmmakers respond to this movie, because I think it's flipped the monster genre on its head, and redefined what a scary movie can be.
-Wil

And after doing some reading this morning, I have to agree with this guy:

I am so sick of people trying to 'figure out' something for a sequel. Why can't we just have a movie for its own sake. Let Transformers and Saw have all the sequels. I don't care where the monster came from. Do we seriously need to be treated like 5 year olds? The ending was perfect, people died, it's what they went through, etc, etc. Not everything needs to end with a fucking 'The End?'. I'm sure during clean up, the video was found.

The movie wasn't all shoes and asphault. When you shoot a home movie, is it perfectly edited? This is a bit of a different approach to making a film to entertain. Like Blair Witch but better. There was a stomach turning scene, though, when they are running from the bridge as it collapses. Alot of shaking. Other than that I was good.

I liked the film A LOT. You get caught up in the event and you don't have time to ask why. The end. Period.

Go see it with an open mind, be entertained, and let it be.

Other interesting tidbits
Posted by Karabou at 9:46 PM EST
Top

January 17, 2008
Dreamin' of looser joints
I've been having serious ankle issues lately. For about the last year, I've had weird, intense burning and occasional stabbing pain in the outside of one ankle, just below the knobby bone. But only after busting my ass on the elliptical, so since I've switched cardio routines, it hasn't bothered me much. You work out, things hurt; that's just the way it is. But it was never this much.
But Saturday, it woke me up from a dead sleep; I thought it was part of one of my bizarro dreams, but no, it was real. Then it started to burn and get stabby intermittently more and more often, until I decided to just see a doctor. My DO wasn't in the office, so I went to the one of the MDs, and she recommended I do ankle exercises.
*cough*
Yeah, not seeing how moving it MORE is going to stop this unbearable, flashing, searing pain. So instead of messing around and listening to a mere MD, like I did with my ribs, I called a highly recommended podiatrist, and we're going to get to the root of this right here, right now. I'm not going to end up crippled for 2 years again. Not if I can help it.
So I'm taking it easy, and as time drags on, I'm losing more and more flexibility in that ankle, and the pain sucks the breath right out of me when it hits. It choked me mid-sentence this morning, and I just sat there, mouth open, eyes wide until it passed. I think the person I was with thought I was having a seizure or something. heh
Anyway, I see the podiatrist Tuesday. I know there's a ligament that runs right through the area that's bothered, so hopefully it's something fixable.
I watched Dreamgirls tonight while I labeled and stamped a bunch of crap for work. It was mediocre at best. That was one of the most over-hyped movies I think I've ever seen. Beyonce was a stick, and sure that American Idol chick could sing, but the it couldn't make its mind up whether it wanted to be a musical or be a movie with music in it. Very strange. Not very attention-holding. Totally worth skipping.
Posted by Karabou at 9:57 PM EST
Top

January 16, 2008
Stuff
It's been quiet on the western front.

I'm super busy at work, I've got a family birthday dinner tonight, and my spare time is spent nerdtastically playing WoW as I await my next editing piece, which should be soon…very soon.

I haven't been able to sleep for the last 2 weeks, except on weekends, and I'm sick of it. Why can't there be a cut and dry reason for my insomnia? Why can't I take a magic supplement and be cured of it?

The bookshelves are built, and I need to motivate myself to do something about filling them.

I haven't bothered to ask about whether or not our tub/shower is in because I'm not ready to spend the $$$ for all the other items we'll need for the job. So whatever. I've lived this long with that gross tub, I'll live a little longer. But I do fantasize about taking a long, hot, steaming bath when the time comes. Mmmmmm.Posted by Karabou at 11:02 PM EST
Top

January 11, 2008
Atonement
It was really good. Heart-wrenchingly depressing, but good. I really liked it.
Posted by Karabou at 11:26 PM EST
Top

January 10, 2008
You are not a special, unique snowflake.
My boss and I attended a Greater Dayton Ad Assoc. seminar today that was centered on working with creatives. It was mostly spot on, and the two guys giving it were pretty funny. All around enjoyable.

My issue is a "that guy" that attends all these types of events in Dayton. He's veeeeeerrrrry self important. He has a remark for eeeeeeeeverything, and I don't mean a quiet one. He yells them, like a heckler. He asks inane questions about totally irrevelant topics and "what ifs" that waste the speakers' time. He wears quirky glasses and gives other people who wear quirky glasses a bad name.

In short, he's awful. Every time I see him, I want to slap him in the face immediately and thank him ahead of time for ruining yet another educational opportunity. As soon as my boss and I see him, we slump and groan, and share sideways glances at his obnoxiousness throughout.

At one event, the speaker finally told him to shut up and quit asking off-topic questions. "That guy" was livid. I wanted to applaud.

I just don't understand why people think this type of behavior is acceptable. Hell, I'm bothered by people who think I want to hear their "witty" comments during movies. Which, by the way, I don't. I don't want to hear the people next to me at a seminar making quippy comments quietly.

News flash:

You're not smart. You're not funny. Shut. The. F--k. Up.

Nobody cares what you have to say. Nobody cares what you think. And most definitely, nobody wants to hear your fat mouth flapping while they're trying to pay attention to something that they've paid good money for.

Let the people around you observe in peace.This has been a public service announcement of the STFU Police.
Posted by Karabou at 11:23 PM EST
Top

January 7, 2008
You can't buy love on Ebay.
Hah. My mom has a date, and she is totally freaking. LOL

Kev and I were giving her hell because her reply to the guy when he asked her out was, "Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained." lmao Kev told her she may as well have replied with, "Well, I've got nothing better to do." LOL I told her that wasn't exactly an ego-stroking reply.

I keep telling her to just try to have fun and that if she isn't looking for something serious, then she needs to be up front with him about it. But I told her that she never knows--he could be super nice, and she may end up really liking him. She needs to keep an open mind. I wish there was a matchmaker around here like Patti Novak on Confessions of a Matchmaker. That chick is good.

She's panicking because she's never really dated. She met her first husband in high school, got married when she turned 18, and that was that. When he died of cancer, she was single a few years, went on a short string of awful one-time blind dates, and then she met my dad and got married a month later. And no, it wasn't because of me. I wasn't born for a full year after they got married. :P

I kind of understand how she feels. I've never really dated much. Snogging a guy in a parking lot isn't "dating," though I'm certain my mom has never snogged anyone, ever, much less in a parking lot. Heh I think I've only seriously dated 2 people in my life, a third was multiple dates but wasn't really something I was interested in pursuing. It was just a fun distraction. I've been on a few one-time stinkers, myself, and while they were "dates," I wouldn't consider them "dating." My definition of "dating" is exclusivity with some level of emotional interest in them. That could be after 3 dates or after 10, whatever.

But getting back on the horse after HWCBN was daunting. He had instilled in me that no one would ever want me if he weren't in the picture. I wasn't sexy. I wasn't all that attractive. I had no worth as a person. He told me every day that he could, and I quote, "find another one just like you tomorrow." Finding out that all of that was manipulative bullshit and that men did actually think I was attractive was a revelation. I'm no Cindy Crawford, but I'm certainly no Hatchet-face, either.

Anyway, I hope she has fun. The funny part is, I've been behind her all the way about getting back into the dating pool. But now that she has a date, I'm all narrow-eyed and HMMMMMMMMM. I dunno how it makes me feel. Kind of weird that she might be bringing some man to holiday functions someday. But, as long as he's nice, and not a freaky perv, I suppose I'll be fine with him. Life is always changing, and on we go.
Posted by Karabou at 10:09 PM EST
Top

January 6, 2008
A kiss may not be the truth, but it is what we wish were true.
Crazy weekend.

Friday night, we had dinner with my brother and the family. It's always good to see them. :) I'm going to a conference in April in Orlando, and I'm planning to stay a few days and see them.
Saturday I had to make an appearance at work, and after that, I ran to Target before I had to do trailer checks. At Target, I gleefully found a cupboard for the bathroom wall, and I stumbled upon a perfect bookcase for my bedroom. Tall, dark wood, and on sale $20 off. Woot! Getting a 75" inch bookcase into my car was amusing. The bagboy didn't think it could be done, but I've had things that size jammed into my Corolla before; you just have to know how to angle it. When it slid right in, he was astounded. When Kev saw it he asked how the hell I managed to make it fit. lol

We got the cupboard hung Saturday, and it's nice to have some storage space in there now that we have a pedestal sink. I'm not keen on having a curtain around my sink. I think I'm just going to put a toilet paper holder under there and call it a day.

Our tub/shower should be in tomorrow. I'll have to call our friend to see. And Kev and his dad built one set of bookshelves Saturday. Apparently, Poplar, while beautiful, is a bitch to work with. It's an extremely hard wood, and Kev actually broke off screws in it in his early attempt. His dad had to use 3 sizes of drill bits to make starter holes because the wood was so damn hard. Crazy. But the finished product is gorgeous, and I can't wait to stain it this spring. They'll be building the 2nd one this Saturday. But the shelf in my room will be for my breakables and such. I'm thrilled I found exactly what I wanted so cheap.

Today, I got up early and went to the Roman exhibit at the Dayton Art Institute. I've been meaning to see it since November, and it popped in my mind at work yesterday. Thankfully, I saw that today was the last day of the exhibition. So I decided to get there when it opened, and apparently, so did half of the Dayton area. It was packed. Yeesh. But it was totally worth it. Some of the intaglio and filagree work was breathtaking. The mosaics were downright mesmerizing and made me want to try to make a mosaic this spring for a wall decoration in my room. It would have been awesome to be able to touch one of the pieces. I have a thing for wanting to touch ancient things, to run my hands over them and inhale the history.

After that, I hit the grocery and then went to Amanda's for a bit. She seems to have recovered from her nasty concussion she got last Wednesday from falling on the icy steps in front of her house. Ugh. I hate falling.

All this activity must have sucked the life out of me because I started falling asleep at my PC and had to crawl downstairs where I passed out on the couch for over an hour. I could have slept the rest of the night, I think, but I made myself get up and move. I'm already going to have trouble getting sleep with that long of a nap. I think it was a sugar crash. Tomorrow, I get back on the exercise wagon. And I've got to start cooking again. All these holiday leftovers and candies have not been kind. I took a huge portion of the junk food to work last Thursday, and the office devoured it all by Friday afternoon. Thank god.
Posted by Karabou at 10:44 PM EST
Top

January 3, 2008
Trial by Fire
After calling in sick to work one more day yesterday, I finally made it in today. But not until my car imploded, straddling the alley behind our house, effectively blocking all traffic that would normally use the alley--and blocking Kevin in.

So we had to wait for AAA to come tow it, which is never fast. After waiting around for about an hour, some really old man shows up in a giant flat bed tow truck. Did I mention that I had to request that type of tow truck because my car now rolls backwards when put into Park?

/sigh

Anyway, this guy irks me right off the bat because he refuses to believe the car won't drive. If it would drive, I wouldn't have called a god damn tow truck, now would I? I know I'm JUST a woman, but I do believe I can tell when a car won't fucking drive. Seriously. Even Kev wouldn't believe that the car ROLLED backwards and didn't SLIDE backwards. The only reason it stopped is because of the hill behind it. I swear I'm not a total retard. I do, indeed, know the difference between rolling and sliding. When I applied the brakes, the car would stop. That wouldn't happen if it was sliding.

And today has been jumping back into work head first. I have a million things to do. I keep telling myself that I don't have to have them all done RIGHT NOW, but just having them looming out there makes me feel a fret.

I watched Flags of Our Fathers while laying about in my dwindling sick haze. I enjoyed it. WWII tears me up like nothing else. I also watched Pale Rider. I used to hate Clint Eastwood, but in recent years I've come to really like him. I do think he needs to stick to movies that are fitted to his age, unlike Blood Work, which I believe Amanda has titled as one of the of worst movies ever made. Heh

But I've come to love his spaghetti westerns, though I'm not much interested in Dirty Harry. They have their place in cinema history, and that's good enough. And I believe he is a decent director. Kudos to the old man.

Update: My left axle of my car broke. /sigh It's $250 to fix it, and I told them to go ahead and throw some new tires on the front. My tires are so sad and bald that I need to at least get something decent on the front end. Yar.

In happier news, I read The Other Boleyn Girl and loved it. I don't read much outside of Fantasy and Eastern Religions, so my foray into smutty historical fiction has been a good one. I just started The Boleyn Inheritance, and so far, I'm enjoying it. TOBG is slated to be released in theaters in February, which both makes me happy and a little worried. I'm happy with who's starring in it and happy a movie was made, but I'm concerned about the February release date. As Kev explains: Big blockbuster films that will make tons of money are released at peak seasons, summer and xmas. Theses are traditionally the times of the year when people want to go out and see movies, so studios plan on releasing movies at these times. Movies that are judged to not be good competition against these blockbusters are "held back" until Feb when the competition isn't as fierce. So if even the studio doesn't have the faith to release it against rival films...
Posted by Karabou at 10:58 PM EST
Top

January 1, 2008
Happy New Year, or something like that
I feel like I'm supposed to be retrospective and nostalgic, possibly even review the last year of my life.
I just don't feel like it. Everything is in a perpetual state of change, and trying to keep it from changing is folly. Another day, another year, on we go.
I've been sick for days; today is the first day I've not felt completely miserable...well...once I crawled out of bed around 11am.
Tomorrow it's back to the grind, and I don't feel any more rested for the time off I had. It was fully scheduled and then fully derailed, and life just keeps going.
My brother is in town for his grandmother's funeral. I'm sorry for his loss, but I'm also happy to see him. Double-edged sword, double-edged coin. And on we go.
Posted by Karabou at 10:58 PM EST
Top