bring your wino to work day ...and movie picks
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Posted:Mar 2, 2013 8:22 am
Last Updated:Aug 27, 2016 12:30 pm
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I finally finished that "Immortality Virus" book (well ...early last week sometime) and thought it had a lot to be desired. There's another sci-fi author that has written some really good books, but it always seemed like the endings were just kind of thrown together ...that was sort of how I felt with that one.
I started two others and couldn't get into them, and seem to have settled into the first in a trilogy called "Semper Mars" ...hard to believe with a title like that that it could be a military sci-fi, but it's already sucked me in. It didn't hurt that I've had an abiding interest in Mars for decades. I'm not so sure if I actually liked the recent "John Carter" movie or if the fact that everyone said it sucked so badly that my expectations were just so low that it did well on the "compared to" scale.
I've done some interesting movies recently; for the "probably never heard of it" category: "The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra" was pretty amusing if you like (mock) 50's sci-fi/horror movies. It's a spoof (and a low budget one at that, so don't set the expectation bar TOO high), and I'm not quite sure if the falling short was the bludgeoning they did with the humor ("Airplane" is still one of my favorites, and it certainly bludgeoned too ...I guess the Zucker brothers were just better at it though); mostly I think it was just because if you aren't a fan of the older flicks, you won't "get" some of the humor. I laughed myself silly in parts, but they beat the dead beyond all recognition in some areas. Definitely worth a watch though!
In the action category ...I'm still a little blown away that I had never even heard of it until last week, but "The Raid: Redemption" was pretty high up there in my favorite action movies. If you like action movies ...if you liked "Dredd" ...then you'll probably get a charge out of seeing the template where the newest one came from (only without the "futuristic" stuff thrown in). I actually like the new "Dredd" and I'm not sure if I'd have liked it more or less had I seen "The Raid" first. Awesome action flick in any case though & will probably make my "top 10" list.
The big disclaimer to "The Raid" is that it's an Indonesian movie and subtitled (I think there's an English-dubbed available though); I'm not a HUGE foreign movie fan, but I do prefer subs over dubs. "Night Watch" and "Day Watch" are probably my favorite foreign flicks ("The Host" and "Let the Right One In" trailing behind); I'm a geek, what can I say? The Russians have put out a few decent sci-fi flicks of late, but Korea and Japan have been known to crank out a few decent ones too (I mean, who doesn't like "Battle Royale"?).
I also finally got around to "Life of Pi" ...which was really good. Probably not one of those that I'd watch over and over, but still an amazing movie (that I kind of wish I'd have seen in 3D). I find it amazing that so many people can see the same movie and yet walk away with something totally different. I've been a fan of Ang Lee for some time; it took me a while to forgive him for "Mission Impossible 2" though.
I went to lunch with an old friend on Thursday and we had quite a laugh on the way. I don't know if it's a "Texas thing" or if other states get into this kind of thing, but cell phone stores and "gold exchange" outfits are big on paying people to stand out by the road with signs ...cell phone outfits are big on putting them into funny suits (or at least a goofy hat). I dunno what they pay these folks, but I'm pretty sure the guy we saw was a homeless meth-head judging from the duds he had on (not counting the huge foam rubber statue of liberty tiara, which is seldom standard homeless dude apparel to the best of my knowledge). The really funny part was the sign though ...I have no earthy idea what it was advertising, but he shaking it so hard I figured he was either out on some serious meth, or there was a big spider on it. It might be insensitive, but there really is something inherently amusing about seeing a ratty-dressed guy on the side of the road wearing a Statue of Liberty head shaking a sign so hard that it leaves vapor trails.
...or perhaps it's one of Texas' new "back to work" initiatives.
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Breaking apathy
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Posted:Feb 28, 2013 8:34 am
Last Updated:Aug 27, 2016 12:33 pm
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"Wow, you actually look respectable!"
Said my former FWB when she saw me for the first time since last year on Monday of this week when we had lunch. I've been feeling tired out and more than a little apathetic of late ...former FWB thought I looked a little haggard, but said I looked good; the "respectable" part had more to do with being dressed nicely (didn't recognize me with my clothes on), and my somewhat rare usage of hair care product.
I'm not huge on hair care "stuff" like hairspray or "Bullwinkle" as I like to call it (yeah, mousse); I never have cared much for anything beyond running a comb through it and being done. When I was in the picture-scanning thing I was pretty amused at the pictures of myself when I had hair down to my shoulder-blades (I kept it long for nearly six years). I've been letting it get a little longer again ...mostly out of laziness, but partially because of the persisting colder weather down here. In any case, it's at that point where it needs that "little something extra" to keep it down and I'm not willing to just go get it chopped off like I've made common practice of for the last ten years.
...even if that means "looking respectable" now and again.
Mom had the day off yesterday. She was diagnosed with cancer nearly three and a half years ago (we got that news at almost the same time as being told my father wasn't going to last much longer and needed hospice). We didn't think she'd make it through that next year; the radical chemo attempt they initially made not only didn't work, but nearly killed her.
Mom had nine siblings ...two died in the early 70's (from non-natural causes no less); three of them were in their 90's when she was first diagnosed and all in pretty decent health. My grandmother was in the workforce well before women had the right to vote and lived just a few weeks short of her 100th birthday. Point being ...large family with a lot of longevity, then the middle sister (my Mom) gets cancer. It hit them all hard.
After the almost devastating chemo treatment, her sisters took turns coming down to take care of her (we noted with amusement that not many families could boast 90+ year-old's coming to "take care of" younger siblings); Mom pulled through the treatment for the cancer and is still going. We also note the irony that although the cancer is terminal ...the closest she's been to death has been from a failed treatment attempt.
But in the meantime ...she lost the only surviving brother; mostly just to old age (96 years old wasn't bad), an older sister to somewhat persisting poor health (two up from her; I believe she was 87); the oldest sister has been recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and the sister just above Mom with lung cancer. Mom went to California to visit the sister with lung cancer back in November after she was diagnosed and had a nice visit; she'd been remarking about how she wanted to go back and visit again in early summer. Earlier this month, we got news that her pain level was reaching a point that she needed pain meds every two hours to keep it under control. Mom still kept talking about plans to visit in maybe May or June.
I told Mom that once the pain reaches that level ...the end of the month might be optimistic; I didn't beat her to death with it, but I've mentioned it twice while she's talked about (overly optimistic) plans. I've lost a few friends to lung cancer over the years and the level of pain is pretty proportional to longevity (for more than one reason).
Mom came in yesterday with a printed e-mail and quickly handed it to me, then I heard her crying as she quickly moved into the other room. I looked at the e-mail and they don't expect her sister to survive the week. I'd been trying to prepare Mom for it at least somewhat, but I guess that doesn't make it any easier.
One day last week may have contributed a little to my overall gloomy feelings of the last week or so. I got up and dressed to take the out and heard Mom's alarm going off. A while back I printed her off a thingy about "My exercise regimen consists of four sit-up's a day: it may not sound like much, but there's only so many times you can hit the snooze button." She absolutely loved it and hung it up on the bulletin board in her room. I took the out and when I got back the alarm was (still?) going off, and I started to get a little nervous. I drank a cup of coffee and checked the headlines ...after five minutes or so, I figured I needed to go check.
This made the second time in the nearly six months here that I've had that lump of dread when I've gone in to check on Mom. I opened the door to her room and knocked loudly ...to a "huh, oh ...yeah, I'm awake!" ...then a gasp when she saw the alarm had been going off for nearly 40 minutes. Huge relief for me although she was a bit perturbed about sleeping in that long.
Mom's cancer has no cure ...only treatment, and she's already well into the median for survival time-frames. I note with trepidation that although I went for a nice lunch with a friend on Monday, that I've just been apathetic and maybe a bit lethargic. When Mom got the news yesterday, she went off in her room and closed the door and worked on anything she could find to occupy herself.
I guess I know where I get that trait that friends so often find annoying in me. Sometimes I just want to be left alone while I process. I lack the capacity for denial that Mom sometimes has (sometimes it's good, sometimes not), but I sure see myself in her at times.
Such is life ...and death. I always hear that there's no "right and wrong" to dealing with it, but sometimes I question how healthy some coping mechanisms are.
Ah well ...writing helps, so perhaps I can stand some improvement on this front. Hope all is well in blogland, and I'll have to tackle the sea of yellow a bit later!
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I don't get not getting it...
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Posted:Feb 18, 2013 9:29 am
Last Updated:Aug 27, 2016 12:36 pm
7683 Views
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Well, the rest period has begun and the wind has indeed been taken out of my sails ...my photo project for my big bro's BIG FIVE-0 was a huge success! I scanned something like 500 pictures and used around 300 from scans and then another 100 from digital photos from the last 10 years or so. A grand total of 419 pictures ...coolio!
In 2002, I undertook a similar project for my parents 50th wedding anniversary and it was pretty daunting as well, only I had a lot more time and notice. It still amazes me how much technology has changed in the last 11 years (it also amazes me that I still have that same scanner boxed up in the attic; I bought it specifically for the job and probably paid as much for it as the laptop I'm writing on now). I used very few of the scans that I took 11 years ago ...mostly because I learned that what I considered to be HUGE scans back then ...well, they kind of suck now. I don't recall my hardware situation back then, but I don't know that 200 megs for a single image file was even possible (it sure wasn't practical on what I had at the time); the median size was probably 40-50 megs this go-round.
On the drive down, my sister was looking though the pictures and was really wowed by most all of them and asked for a copy as well as all the raw scans (pre-editing). I'm creative, but I really don't know my way around photo-editing software quite like she does (it's been quite some time since I could afford to spend what they do on photo equipment or software either); since the party was supposed to be a roast of sorts ...I injected at least a little bit of humor in the slide show (despite the fact that I eventually just ran out of time ...I literally worked on them right up until it was time to go).
The previous two days, I had come up with a fair bit of funny stuff to say ...but frankly, my brain was mush by the time I got there. One particular picture though ...and I did a before and an after ...when my sister got around to it, she said she didn't understand (she asked if it was a mistake). It was a picture of my brother about 10 years ago at the grill shirtless in his swimming trunks during a pool barbecue. When I found the pic I snickered quite a bit ...he's "filled out" and not exactly "tan" by any stretch of the imagination. When I first saw the pic ...I was like "YOW Bro!"
So not being one to let it stand on its own, I lassoed his body (skin only) and increased the brightness by about 25 points (which put his skin color right around "supernova" intensity). It took some doing, but I thought it was hysterical and was entirely too proud of myself (cackling and chortling evilly when I was done). Then I was rewarded for all that effort by my own sister saying she didn't get it. I felt a little bit deflated, but then also kept in mind that after the movie "SouthPark" came out; this was the chick who couldn't understand why the song "Kyle's Mom is a Bitch" was funny without knowing the context of why Cartman thought she was a bitch. I guess she's kinda the type who would "Blame Canada" so maybe it kinda made sense she would be disapproving. She's outspoken against gay marriage and honestly can't figure out why our other (gay) brother wants nothing to do with her. I'm sad to say that being clueless runs in our family with all of us at times, but we see it most clearly in others for some reason... *forlorn sigh*
Well, that picture brought the house down at the party! Big bro said "Dude, that's just wrong!" but had tears from the laughter when he said it. My sis-in-law said that the pichur show really MADE the party and I had so many remarks about the pictures from his friends and such that it was a hell of an ego boost.
Sometimes the best part is it just being over with though!
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Fuck Cupid!
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Posted:Feb 14, 2013 1:18 pm
Last Updated:Feb 15, 2013 7:06 am
7785 Views
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Oh wait ...or was that supposed to be something to the effect of "Happy Valentines" or sumthin' (I always forget).
A whole bunch of drudgery going on here; the scanning project is moving right along (good thing too ...I need to be done by tomorrow), and it's a really pretty day out. Sunny and 70's, and the has been wanting to go out constantly (yeah, I could probably use the exercise walking him a few extra times, but we won't go there).
Not much up in the entertainment department ...Mom and I watched "Despicable Me" last night; yep, I'm a sucker for the animated -stuff too! I guess next week we'll see what I'm up to, but I see a lot of resting in the future after this project (and the big party) is over with.
So yes, a lovely day ...complete with demanding dogs, drudgery, dullishness, devoid of dah-links AND/or debauchery, so yeah "fuck Cupid" sounds about like it for the day.
I'm thinking dinner tonight might just have to be take-out.
Happy V-day to everyone else in any case! 
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Cackling Cockamamie Curmudgeons
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Posted:Feb 12, 2013 8:19 am
Last Updated:Feb 12, 2013 6:30 pm
7804 Views
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hhmmmm
The dude in charge of starting the coffee last night needs to be -whipped. I drug out of bed a little bit late and Mom beat me up ...I heard the sound of the coffee machine gurgling, so I zombie-shuffled in to get the leash for the "entirely too enthusiastic for this early in the morning" dog. We did our circuit of the block, and when we got back ...I grabbed a coffee cup and turned to the coffee maker and the carafe was still full ...of hot water. The top was opened and there was a filter but no actual coffee. Mom thought it was entirely too funny and had to leave it for me to see.
A few months ago my brother and I took a flying weekend trip up to Missouri to visit an aunt that's ill. The weekend we were there, one of our cousins (that we actually know pretty well) came up as well. One morning while we were all sitting in the motel dining room having breakfast ...the cousin remarked about how he always made coffee the night before and couldn't say exactly why or how he started that habit.
As far as I know, nearly everyone in our family does that. The reason was because the water in our grandparent's house was usually frozen in the winters, so they learned quickly that having (unfrozen) water ready was wise. My cousin LOVED the story and had no idea (come to think of it, I don't think my brother remembered that either).
I wish I could say that sort of thing has never happened to me before, but it has. I've also forgotten the water and remembered the coffee; at least I've never forgotten the filter but remembered the coffee (oh great ...something new to aspire to).
I took a break from scanning yesterday morning and watched one of my "while Mom is out" horror flicks and discovered an awesome new(ish) zombie flick that was freaking awesome! It's called "Cockneys vs Zombies" and as you can probably gather from the title ...it's yet another British Zom-Com. Eventually I'll need to watch it again and see if it was a benefit of low expectations, or if it was just that funny ...but I loved it! The silly theme diddy still keeps running through my head this morning:
We're going HEAD to HEAD
with thelivingdead
you can fill them fulla lead
but they won't STAY DEAD!!
The slow shuffling zombie "chasing" an old man in a walker at a rest home was one of the funnier chase scenes I've ever seen. The whole movie was pretty funny ...the Brit's have been kicking our American asses with funny movies lately. Their recent "Grabbers" was one of the best monster movies I've seen in quite a few years; the very idea of a monster allergic to alcohol attacking Ireland was pretty damned good even if the actual movie had sucked (and it didn't).
After the movie, I got back to work and finally finished the actual scanning portion of my project; now I just have to get after the editing end of things. I guess I need to start looking around for some tutorials on how to sharpen 40 year-old pictures taken with one of the old 110 camera's.
...anyone else remember the days when you could only take 13-20 pictures at a time?!
I really need to buy a new digital camera since my older one trashed, but my phone takes better pictures than the old camera (although the flash was better on the old camera).
Time to hit it again though.
*waves*
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Magic fingers massage
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Posted:Feb 11, 2013 8:42 am
Last Updated:Feb 12, 2013 6:30 pm
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Anyone remember those motel room beds that you dropped a quarter in to simulate the beloved feeling of a jackhammer going off two feet away from you (only with hopefully less noise)? Saturday night was one of those nights for reminiscing about those things when around 4 am, one of them started up in my bed along with a bit of a thunderstorm.
I'm not sure exactly when this development started; I've had my muttifer for 11 years (and he was around 2 yrs old when I found him at the pound), and it's only been in the last two years that storms have started to bother him. I've heard that sort of thing is common among older dogs ...but my little guy used to trot beside me when I was moving the lawn with a power mower, and being woke up around that time by gunfire wasn't exactly out of the ordinary at an apartment we lived at a couple of years ago!
It was just crazy though ...I woke up to a quivering mass that was shaking the entire bed, and he was almost hyperventilating; he was breathing so hard the thought of finding some ex-girlfriends to call up for some heavy breathing occurred to me briefly (it seemed a shame to waste such an perfect opportunity). Poor guy ...I only recall him having this level of anxiety for a little over a year, but he sure had a hard time of it.
And when HE has a hard time of it, *I* have a hard time of it as well; a 20 lb panting, vibrating mass pressed up against your leg is a little difficult to ignore. He doesn't like to be covered, but he seemed to make an exception this time ...after 45 minutes or so I gave it a try and covered him with a blanket; I'm not sure if it helped him or just muffled the panting, but he DID seem slightly better and I was eventually able to go back to sleep for maybe an hour before it was time to get up again.
I spent all day yesterday working on "the great scanning project" and need a short break this morning at least. I ended up not sleeping well last night either, but it was no fault of the this time. I woke up at around 3 am from a dream (that I don't even remember) and couldn't get back to sleep. I elected to read for a while and eventually was able to get back to sleep (once again though ...only for about an hour).
I'm now about two thirds of the way into a book called "The Immortality Virus" which is interesting enough to keep me going, but not quite good enough for me to blaze though. Apparently the premise is that a virus was used as a delivery system for an Alzheimer's cure, but it had an unintended consequence in that it stopped people from aging beyond 25 years and the resulting overpopulation creates a dystopia that's pretty ugly. Interesting premise, but with it's own share of problems in the execution.
Ah well ...tired as I am, I think it's time to start getting busy again; I have until Friday on my project and it doesn't seem to be wanting to do itself (go figure?!).
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bizzy bizzy bizzy
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Posted:Feb 8, 2013 10:04 am
Last Updated:May 28, 2024 12:47 pm
7881 Views
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I'm tarred out.
Mom actually remarked last night that I hadn't been feeling well for "some time now" had I? Bleh ...I'm not sick or anything (at least, I don't think I am), just kind of bone-weary maybe.
My brother & his wife picked up their much later on Monday than they had originally stated ...unless they just ate lunch after 5 (which is entirely possible I guess). Just when it seemed Boo-boo was starting to reach some kind of equilibrium being here, he went fucking berserk when they arrived and it took a couple of hours for him to finally settle down. I really couldn't tell if he was mad at them, or if his excitement was just a little on the odder side of most dogs I've been around. He's an "only " now, and this was far different than any of the times I've kept him in the past with the other dogs.
Next weekend is the same brothers birthday and I've been put in charge of making a slide-show for a "surprise" birthday party (that he knows about but doesn't really know about). This year is his BIG FIVE OH (EM GEE!!!), so we want to kind of do it up nicely for him; I haven't decided about black balloons and such and have to be careful since I'm next and all (I'm the youngest of four ...and any gag gifts will most certainly be returned to me in three years time, so prudence is in my own best interest  ). I've been pretty busy going through the old family albums, scanning pictures and cleaning them up with photoshop.
I'm starting to think that delegating this project to such an OCD person as myself may not have been such a swell idea with only a week left to go. I'm pretty good with cleaning up old pictures (lol ...in one of my bro's high school pictures, I took out all of his acne just to see if he'll notice; we share a somewhat weird sense of humor, so it'll probably drive him nuts trying to figure out what's wrong with the picture) ...after spending a few hours using the older tools that I'm familiar with, I figured out (a few hours later than I had wished) that the included filters in the newer software automatically does a lot of what I'd been doing manually (I remember paying through the nose for equivalent plug-ins that didn't work half as well 13 years ago). It has become obvious that I need to start learning how to be a bit less of a perfectionist in the face of time limits. Doing before and after save's using the filters compared to spending too much time doing it manually has been interesting, you really can tell a difference though (but only if you are looking really close ...which nobody will be doing in this instance).
We had some scanner issues that I didn't get resolved until Tuesday, so I've been pretty busy. I took a break yesterday and ran to visit an old friend for the day, but I'm going to have to get busy again here in a few. I'm on the third album, and I really have no idea how many I'm going to have to go through (there are over 40 albums, but we will only be in about half of them).
It complicates things a little since my bro is on his third wife, and pictures of JUST him were pretty few during the first two marriages. I've already done two really sweet edit's on pictures during his number two, editing her out. I really do have fun with this sort of thing, but it's just exhausting for me after a few too many hours (and I never recognize "too many" until it's "too late" as a rule).
Family pictures ...well, mostly I just have to go with the "love you bro, but fuck you if you don't like it" with exes. He's been with his current wife for nearly fifteen years and he (and she) got their feelings a little bruised when my Dad died. The project of putting all the pictures of Dad together was delegated to me when he died three years ago (yes, there is definitely a pattern there), and I got an earful about how there weren't many pictures of his current wife in the pictures of my father ...but I had a lot of pictures with the previous two wives.
...when he confronted me (he and I are VERY good friends, and I was less than thrilled with him over the incident even now), I found myself in the position of explaining a few facts to him. I politely left the part out about his current wife being certifiable (literally ...I strongly suspect she's schizophrenic; at bare minimum she's extreme bi-polar), but had to explain that since his current wife HATED our Dad and used every excuse to dodge as many family gatherings as possible ...there weren't any fucking pictures because she wasn't fucking there to have them fucking taken. I don't begrudge her not being there (my dad could be a real prick) ...but I fucking well did begrudge them complaining about me not using pictures that didn't fucking exist. fuckity-fuck-fuck (and one of two more fucks thrown in just for good measure)!
Okay ...and to admit to one other little detail. As much as I heard about it with that event ...she's only been around for three or four events in the three years since, so odds are pretty good I'll be getting more shit about the lack of pictures of her THIS time as well.
Oh ...but at least she decided to help a little bit this time (there's sarcasm just dripping from that sentence). When they dropped off the dog, she left me a flash drive with some of their pictures; when she first brought up using their pictures, I was honestly relieved. She said that "some of them" were pictures that HE took and really liked, so she thought it would be good for me to go through them and have a greater selection. I went through the flash drive on the weekend and there were probably a bit more than two hundred pictures. Almost all pictures of her. There may be five pictures of him out of the two hundred or so that are usable for a slideshow about HIM for HIS birthday.
Now am I being slightly off-base over my aggravation about this, or does it seem even remotely normal that when asked by his wife to put together a slide-show for my brother's birthday that she gives me over a hundred pictures of her and only four or five of my brother?!
*le sigh*
Enough ranting ...guess writing is a good form of procrastination, but it sure isn't going to get much work on the pictures done.
wish me luck!
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I never thought I'd be so tired of Boobs
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Posted:Feb 3, 2013 8:15 am
Last Updated:Aug 27, 2016 11:53 am
8250 Views
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I've been semi-busy for the last few days ...even before I moved in with Mom, I was the designated dog/animal sitter for everyone in my family. December was a sad month ...my sister lost her doggy of 18 years and my older brother lost the second of two litter-mates (I believe he was 13 years); we kept my sisters remaining after her father-in-law died but her (remaining) is pretty low-maintenance. This weekend is my brother and his wife's anniversary weekend, so as of Friday I've had their remaining dog ...a teacup poodle named Boo-boo, or "Boobs" for short.
Boobs leaves me with an "apples to oranges" comparison to his two evil predecessors. The previous dogs were yappers ...any little noise would set them off and their batteries seemed to never lose a charge. Boobs is almost as bad although for such a tiny little thing, he actually has a "hound" bark (Bar-OOOoooo) even though it does shift to very high pitch when he's yapping instead of "baying" (I have a lot of trouble with high-highs and low-lows in sound pitch). The cat tends to stay scarce ...she's about the same size and could probably kick his ass, but prefers to just hide away unmolested.
Before this weekend, the thought of being molested by Boobs might have held a little appeal, but Boobs don't like being played with ...Boobs just want to be held. Boobs get a little bit aggravated when not being held ...Boobs apparently need a lot of support.
I'd really like to milk the euphemism for all its worth, but until breasticles start standing on my feet howling because I have a laptop in my lap instead of them, I'm running out of clever comparisons.
...and patience. At least he goes back home tomorrow afternoon.
The first night was interesting ...my own muttifer is pretty good natured, so any little turf-wars that have managed to start up with other dogs are seldom instigated by him. The bed is never exactly a good testing ground for this ...especially if you want to do thing like oh ...sleep! First night was a mess though ...Boobs kept jumping off the bed and then would start baying when he "couldn't" get back up (I've seen the little fucker jump up to places a lot higher than the bed too). He sits up on his hind legs so you can pick him up too ...he wants to be held. It almost sounds like a Cyndi Lauper song: "Boobs just wanna be Held" or something.
So ...in the meantime, I'll just eye the garbage disposal and think evil thoughts.
one more day.
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This could be serious
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Posted:Jan 29, 2013 2:06 pm
Last Updated:Jan 31, 2013 7:05 am
8295 Views
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SO ...yesterday I write about the previous evening's insomnia, and last night I decided to take no prisoners and get all gung-ho on the whole "not being able to sleep" thing. This includes a cocktail of over-the-counter and a couple of prescription drugs at bedtime ...way too much dinner (yet another story there), and then when those didn't work out ...some more drastic measures.
I didn't even screw around with trying to read. By something slightly besides random chance, I recently came across a copy of the two late-70's TV movies of "Captain America" (I'm pretty sure I've still got the 90's one on VHS somewhere). I actually remember when they came out; I went over to spend the night with another geek-friend of mine so we could watch it together. I don't remember if it was impressive to my 13 year-old brain or not, but let's just say it made an impression on my 46 year-old brain. Apparently my brain decided that if I was going to subject it to that sort of quality 70's television programming, then it was going to make sure I didn't get a good fucking nights sleep for (hmmm ...wonder what the standard punishment is for being subjected to Reb Brown's acting skills?! I may need to check with the Geneva convention on that one) ...I may not sleep for anywhere between a month to a year.
Holy Crap! Kinda sad that I don't really think it makes my list of "10 worst" by even a narrow margin, but it was still pretty bad. Keanu Reeves may have a bit more acting talent than Reb Brown ...maybe. (Now I wonder if they're related)
As far as the comic book goes ...it had quite a bit in common. Like oh, uhm ...the name. Oh yeah, and he had a shield too even though he never actually used it (despite being told what an awesome weapon it could be when used as boomerang). It's sort of like they wanted to make Brown "the " of the WW2 hero of the comic books ...who apparently got the name as one of ridicule for his patriotism. I really had a hard time following just what they were thinking (or smoking) when they wrote the script on the back of the bar napkin, but they never really gave anything coherent on exactly who his dad was supposed to be although when he died, the young Rogers got a condolence letter from the president ("A man I don't even know" ...no shit, he actually said that) and that despite allegedly having super-powers (without his own knowing about it) and dressing up in spandex ...people made fun of him. Boggles the mind, I know.
I mean ...super powers are cool and all, but what this new guy really needs is a really rad dirt-bike with a bunch of brightly colored red white and blue fiberglass to make it look "futuristic" and a few James Bond reject gadgets like a rocker switch that can apparently make a dirt-bike muffler actually muffle when the switch is on (like anything could offset how loud that fiberglass covering was). Oh yeah ...and in order to protect your identity when you're trying to be stealthy, why don't you wear this brightly covered motorcycle outfit because nothing says camouflage quite like "Evil Knievel."
Wow ...and the witty dialog:
"...did you see anything out of the ordinary?"
"No, nothing really comes to mind"
"This is really important ...think really hard about it and imagine yourself there"
"well ...now that I think about it, there WAS this highly sophisticated miniaturized camera sitting there."
Yeah ...and it mostly went downhill from there. I made it all the way through that turkey, turned out the lights and after about a half hour I gave up and turned on the TV again. Time to pull out the big guns ...hard to believe I've never watched this until last night, but I brought out...
-cue suspenseful music now-
"Plan 9 from Outer Space"
This movie has been hailed as "worst movie of all time" but honestly ..."Cap" beat it all to pieces. In fact, I can think of a few 50's sci-fi movies that were adequately worse. ...Wasn't there a tagline to the movie "Ed Wood"
"Some people are born to mediocrity while other aspire to it"
...or something to that effect? (I actually got a kick out of the movie "Ed Wood" ...I suspect it may have been too close for comfort)
I think I got about an hour into it before finally having enough; I'll probably see if I can get through the last 10 or 15 minutes tonight. Wow though ...talk about an all out assault; the good thing about these movies is that at least they make you feel somewhat superior. I'm pretty sure that my muttifer could have written a better script, although I think Wood should have stuck with "Graverobbers from Outer Space" as the title.
I guess we'll see what tonight brings.
Ouch ...nasty clouds moving in, so I think I'd better get a walk in while the gettin's good!
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Insomnia
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Posted:Jan 28, 2013 11:59 am
Last Updated:Jan 29, 2013 2:33 pm
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I'm feeling a little foggy this morning ...I finally managed to get through my book last night ("The President's Vampire") and although it was good (enough for me), the oddest thing happened. I was nodding off ...which is almost the point; I usually read until I'm ready to fall asleep. But I was SO close to the end, I bit the bullet and pushed on through until I finished.
Problem though. Once I made it to the end, I suddenly felt wide awake! I tried to go to sleep and tossed and turned for about an hour (the muttifer was put out over all the jostling enough to finally hop off the bed). I finally turned the light back on and read a few pages into a couple of books, but haven't settled on any of them yet. I'm leaning towards "To say nothing of the Dog (How We Found the Bishop's Bird Stump at Last)" by Connie Willis though; I've never read her more humorous books, but "The Doomsday Book" is one of the very few books that have ever actually made me cry at the end (and I am NOT the "crying type" ...whatever that is).
So yeah ...not much sleep going on last night, and if I'm going to be not sleeping, there are certainly more preferable reasons.
I've managed to do a couple of the campy movies in the last week or so ...yesterday afternoon I did one that I had never heard of up until last week, and it was everything that I love (and a few of the things I hate, but I'd still give it a 4 out of 5 stars on my "sliding" b-movie scale). It was titled "Six String Samurai" and it was fucking awesome ...it alleged a budget of 2 million dollars, and I can only figure that 1.75 million of that went towards ...uhm ...the director's salary maybe? ...perhaps the candy that the evil cannibals' launched from their catapults?
If I had to come up with a movie to compare it to, it would probably have to be "Buckaroo Banzai" only with a LOT less money for effects (oh yeah, and I LOVED "Buckaroo Banzai"). "Six String Samurai" was nothing if not unique though, and I laughed and chortled through most of it; if you're familiar IMDb, look it up ...the movie poster is awesome(you will have to type in the full title and do a search though ...it's apparently THAT obscure). I dig the obscure little gems though and my collection is awesome if you're into that kind of thing (I do love my "schlock!")!
I managed to sit through one last week that will go down in my "10 worst movies ever" list: "All Superheroes Must Die!"
First thing you need to understand about me is that I'm a total nerd; I love all things superhero (and even have an honest to goodness comic book collection even if it hasn't seen the light of day in years), I've built my own computers for nearly 20 years and now I'm admitting to a love of 80's schlock. ...but this movie took "bad" to whole new levels (it was actually worse than the last "Ghost Rider" movie ...by a LONG way). It had a whopping budget of 20K, and broke one of the most glaring rules of geekdom: it obviously wasn't written by somebody who was actually into comic books (unless they were severely stoned when they wrote it). The second and most fatal flaw ...it took itself seriously; they could have probably gotten a cult following if they had taken some of the parts that were supposed to have been "suspenseful" and had some fun with them (Rowan Atkinson not being able to escape his captors because they tied his shoelaces together in "Part Deux" immediately springs to mind, and was much more convincing).
*sigh*
...reminds me that I should probably text my nephew with the title just to fuck with him. If he actually watches it the revenge will be a bitch, but fucking with family can be too much fun sometimes.
Not much else going on in my neck of the woods (that I'm willing to blog about just yet anyway), but I won't complain (just yet).
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Keeping on track
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Posted:Jan 21, 2013 12:19 pm
Last Updated:Mar 1, 2013 7:41 am
6851 Views
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Well, my horror flick yesterday ended up being "Rise: Blood Hunter" ...I've actually seen it before (probably when it first came out on DVD), and although it really wasn't quite as bad as I remember, it sure wasn't anything approaching "good" either.
Interesting that they went with the old "no reflection in the mirror" trick, but didn't give her fangs and let her walk in the sun with sunglasses (also amusing that they never once said the word "Vampire" in the whole movie). I would have kind of thought if you were going to keep it kinda "real world" you'd have left out the "no reflection" thing (loved the movie "Daybreakers", and thought they could have done without that part in it too).
Hey, it had Lucy Liu though, and anything with Lucy in it can't be too bad (I think "Lucky Number Slevin" might rank in my top 10 all-time favorite movies). I absolutely loved both "Charlie's Angels" movies (I think I'm one of maybe four in North America who admit it) and I guess she's a pretty fun "Watson" too.
I plodded another 60 pages into "President's Vampire" last night and it looks as though it'll probably be a good page-turner. A vampire in the secret service since Andrew Jackson is a pretty fun idea to run with, but it's pretty close to "Hellboy" except with a vampire.
Not too much happening today though. I'm thinking something 80's and campy might be in order...
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well this sucks
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Posted:Jan 20, 2013 8:47 am
Last Updated:Aug 27, 2016 12:00 pm
6382 Views
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well ...depending on how you look at it.
I finally finished Guillermo Del Toro's "The Strain" (book one) last night. Holy cow, but I didn't think I'd ever make it through that fucking book ...it had it's points, but the next two in the trilogy may be waiting a little while.
I've been on a "Vampire" kick for the last few months, and my departure from the long hiatus from reading revealed a lot of change in a genre I used to really love.
First of all ...what the FUCK happened to vampires?! Granted, I always preferred when the vamp was the protagonist, but when in the hell did they all turn into fucking Harlequin romance novels?!
Oh yeah ...Twilight. *grumble grumble* (I watched the first three ...it wasn't the blood in my body getting sucked while I was watching it; it was every fucking trace of testosterone).
My other vice is time-travel books; if I ever invent my time machine, I'll have a real toss-up between Hitler or Stephanie Meyer as my first stop.
So anyway, I've been on a quest to find decent vamp books that aren't either romance or "Young Adult" (-angst) in nature. "The Strain" fits the bill, but something about it just doesn't quite work for me ...the "rat-guy" was about the only character that I really liked and he wasn't anywhere near well developed enough to be the sole bringer of comic relief (when asked why he worked killing rats, he replies "I'm addicted to all the glamour" ...gotta love him for that one line alone). It's a decent enough book, but it's obvious that it's written by a movie guy since it reads more like a screenplay. I'll sure be the first in line when the (rumored) TV series comes out, but the book just isn't cutting it.
So I started the second "Blood Oath" novel by Christopher Farnsworth ("The Presidents Vampire"); I enjoyed the first one a great deal although it strains at the edges of what I usually prefer (read: over-the-top melodrama). I tore through the first one in a few days, and it's taken nearly three weeks to get through "Strain;" the length of time it takes me to get through a book is directly proportional to how much I enjoy a book for sure. I've had a few that took me ages to get through that were worth it, but they're few and far between ("Olympos" and "Illium" by Dan Simmons come to mind).
So far, my favorites aren't actually "Vampire books" although they DID have vampires in them and those are "Immortal" and "Hellenic Immortal" by Gene Doucette. Truth be told, I think the entire concept of immortality is what drives my love of the genre (the whole "drinking blood" part is silly, but what the hell), and Doucette could have just about written his books with me as the target audience. They're about a guy who is about 60K (or so ...even he doesn't really know) years old ...has a kind of wicked sense of humor, is more than a little shallow and drinks copious amounts of alcohol. He's one of the more "realistic" depictions of what it would take to live that long (in my opinion at least) although to keep you interested he has to bend quite a few of his own tenets. All good fun, and laugh out loud funny at times.
I also seem to have missed an entirely new genre that I will probably be trying out sometime in the future: Steampunk. I dig the concept ...I've seen stuff about it on TV, but I honestly thought it was more of a "fashion" movement than a book genre (and I love the look even if you'd probably never find me wearing any of it).
As for now, I'm just enjoying the quiet Sunday morning while Mom is out to church ...I may have to dig out a sufficiently bad horror flick that I can't (okay ...won't) watch while she's around.
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oratory nothingness
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Posted:Jan 16, 2013 10:08 am
Last Updated:May 28, 2024 12:47 pm
4697 Views
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Interesting ...I was just reading my last blog post and holding off for a few on the yellow in my watch list. It occurs to me that I probably should say something:
For those of you I drop in on, watch, blog stalk or whatever, please don't take my lack of commenting personally; I'm generally one to make those random snarky remarks whenever possible, but that just hasn't been "me" for the last 6 months or so. Hopefully that may change sometime soon but it probably won't be this week; I'm still trying to locate my sense of humor and suspect it may not be quite the same condition as I left it.
My brother-in-law's Dad did pass away a couple of days after my last post; a little bit of time will tell just how much that will be affecting me on a personal level. That whole "Always something there to remind me" with the ex has been playing overtime; the last e-mail she & I exchanged was full of warnings about "things to make sure of" regarding my mother's "arrangements" when she passes away (her Dad had died the month before) ...and the things that she was warning against are the exact things my sister and her husband are up against now.
Everyone deals with grief differently ...I feel really bad for my brother-in-law; his relationship with his father was extremely conflicted and I think that's made things harder for him.
I used to know a girl many years ago who refused to date "only " at all; she said they were self-absorbed, tended to be narcissistic ...she had a veritable shopping list of stereotypes for only . Not being an only and never really having had any "more than superficial" relationships with only , I mostly just dismissed her with an eye-roll at the time...
...and then I started spending more time with my brother-in-law, and damned if he doesn't fill in nearly every stereotype just as neatly as can be. Holy crap ...he used to come up with these litanies of grievances against his dad, and I'd just sit in open jawed disbelief most of the time. I had wished my own father would have even done half of his grievances at all, much less bitch about how he didn't do it to his satisfaction ("...he spent all this time teaching me to do this, but what I really wanted to do was this" kind of thing, while I was still thinking "...wow, your Dad actually spent time with you!?"). Holy cow though ...his Dad was moderate-left Democrat (possibly even "blue dog" to an extent), but BIL sits to the right of Sarah Palin and is extreme-right evangelical Christian (and sadly, his ability to draw distinction between religion and politics has blurred to the point of not being able to tell where one starts and the other ends). The fights over politics were legendary and the two of them could almost never find common ground ...if volume of voice determine who "wins" then my BIL "won" most of the fights.
I think the only time I ever became vocal was (in private) after he sat and told his father to his FACE that his life experience was "irrelevant" since the world had changed (yet any contemporary who agreed with my BIL's worldview would have been good as gospel). I told him that you just didn't tell somebody that their 90+ years on this earth was "irrelevant" without having those words come back to bite you on the ass at some point in time (and this from an atheist who doesn't even believe in karma; at least on a "macro" scale anyway). He just said at least his agreed with his political views (he has two by a previous marriage and I really only know one of them, and can tentatively say that they aren't quite as close as he'd probably like to believe).
He was the one who got his dad to move from Florida to Texas after a minor heart attack, and then did nothing but argue with him and complain about every little thing for the next six or so years. Standing on the sidelines like I am, I found it a bit amusing that the guy who never had a good thing to say about his father ...would end up with his chief complaint about him being that "H" was too "negative" about everything.
He's a wreck. 500+ "friends" on basefook and yet *I* was the one helping him clean out H's apartment (I know that probably comes across as a complaint, but I'm really kind of honored by it). I liked "H" quite a bit and he and I spent a fair amount of time together; there's no "sadder" business than having to go through someone's things after they're gone and box up the remains of a person's life. BIL would go through a fit of complaining about this or that, and then suddenly burst into tears. I make no fun of a person's grief and his heart is truly breaking ...I wouldn't wish that sort of hurt on anyone.
His younger got there as we were getting pretty close to finishing up, and I think "in shock" probably summed it up for him at that point still. He'd never really had to deal with death before and he's never actually been there when somebody died. My mother remarked that he didn't seem to be taking it well, but I thought that was more the case with my BIL than the nephew.
Mom and I babysat their until Sunday; Mom was out when they stopped by to pick her up. My sister said she and BIL had been talking on the way over; now that "H" is gone, they felt that maybe they should now start helping me out a little bit with Mom. Sis kind of surprised me a while back when she admitted that she felt like I had been left "holding the stick" with my Dad when he was in his decline. I stayed with him two days a week until he had to go into a nursing home; I lived near the home, so I was the one that had to go when he had "episodes" from the Alzheimers. About the time they said he wasn't going to last much longer was within a month of the time my mother was diagnosed with cancer.
I've had the time, and I'm happy to give it. I'm still not sure what to make of the "offer" but since I don't put a lot of stock in them following through on it, I guess I'm just going to let it stand as given. So far, I haven't really needed any help, nor am I entirely certain I'd know if I did.
I guess it's time to get moving in any case.
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