Happy 00100101 B-Day David

Happy birthday to my friend David. He's:

• 00100101 in Binary, or
• 25 in Hexadecimal, or
• 37 in Base 10.

DVD - My Neighbor Totoro

We watched My Neighbor Totoro, the wife's choice, at my suggestion for Family Movie Night. This is the DVD of the Fox VHS. It's in pan and scan and dubbed, but I like it. Funny, I've read reviews of it and people said to stay away from it, but I rather like it. I don't know if Disney is ever going to release their DVD version. I want to get it just to see it in widescreen and with the original Japanese audio track. I could probably find an import someplace on VCD if I really looked for it. I might do that eventually. After all, the Disney version was supposed to be out in November 2004.

(written on 12/17/2005; back-dated to 12/10/2005)

Dr. Demento

Listened to some of the Funny Five:

• Reinstalling Windows
• The Devil went to Jamaica - I just don't like this song.
• Thank God I'm a Jewish Boy - extra song
• Song number one was My Cat is afraid of the Vacuum Cleaner

Still waiting to hear Missing Him, Missing Limb or Dog with a Plastic Stomach.

Notebook Maps

Years back, I picked up a plastic coated map that fits into a standard three-ring notebook. It has a world map on one side and US map on the other. It's made by Universal Map. I would like one with a China map with provinces and all in English. I checked the site and should send them an email. Of course, I could find a good map and just laminate it.

Family Movie Night Plus

Watched most of Finding Nemo and later after running the old starter back to Auto Zone and some shopping, we watched most of Recess: School's Out, which has a great soundtrack. Went out to the library and reseved the DVD and the CD sountrack - it was that good. After the daughter went to bed, the wife and I watched Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl - known as Tian Yu. The scenery was beautiful.

(written 11/20/2005; back-dated to 11/19/2005)

Van Woes - No Go

The wife called went Andy and I were in line at Chipotle. The van had not started and was still at the Post Office. She had walked home and was cold. Andy and I finished lunch and I called around and found an Advance Auto Parts in Hilliard that could check the van, if we could jump-start it and get it there.

Headed home and picked up the wife and first checked on the van - it would not start. I pulled the battery hoping that was the cause. We left a note on the van and she let the folks in the post office know we'd come back to get the van by tomorrow. We ran her transcripts out to the High School - she's applying to be a substitute. Then we went over to Advance Auto Parts and after the battery was checked and found to be okay, we price checked a starter. Then we drove down to Auto Zone and found one for about $10 less.

By now it was time to head back to be in time to pick up the daughter from school. Called the father-in-law and he said he'd be over early to work on the van.

The moon is rising too late to sketch it. The daughter and I will have to get up and draw it during the day.

Watched some of Acting and Directing. It is quite unusual. The wife and daughter went to flute practice and then the wife went scrapbooking in the evening until late.

(written 11/20/2005; back-dated to 11/18/2005)

Tom Cruise Kills Oprah

Sure it's old, but it's funny. Go here for the clip.

Comedy Central Rocks

I watch way too much TV, but sometimes it's great. It also seems that things I've been looking into have a habit of coming back up another way. Last week, I'd wondered why I never looked up anything on Scientology on Wikipedia. I use it as a reference all the time. So I did some reading.

Last night as I'm watching South Park, I was amazed at the episode shown. The "John Smith" & "Jane Smith" credits were a hoot as well.

The Daily Show continues to be one of my favorites and last night's program was great.

(written 11/17/2005; back-dated to 11/16/2005)

First Snow of the Season...

Brrr! As much as I don't like cold weather, I wonder why I don't move further south.

City Library - Pt III

Stopped by briefly and realized that if I need to talk to Rob, I will have to catch him at the book discussion next month.

(Written 11/17/2005; back-dated to 11/16/2005)

City Library - Pt II

Went by the city library again to speak to Rob and he was not there. Browsed the DVD and VHS stacks and found several things I'd like to borrow:

• Xiu Xiu: the sent down girl
• Black Adder (seasons 1 through 4)
• Black Adder Christmas
• China: Dynasties of Power (documentary)
• China and the Forbidden City (documentary)
• From the Earth to the Moon
• Beijing Bicycle
• Acting and Directing an unusual title from Live Oak Productions.

(written 11/17/2005; back-dated to 11/15/2005)

City Library

Stopped by the city library and picked up my reserve on My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. This is for next book discussion on 12/5/2005. I should get through this book since I've got it in plenty of time.

Rob was talking to a large group of scouts. I wanted to ask him what he thought of My Neighbor Totoro. I suggested that he borrow it back a couple of weeks ago, and I didn't get to talk to him at the last book discussion.

(Written 11/15/2005; back-dated to 11/14/2005)

Natalie Dee handles critics

I've been reading Natalie Dee's cartoon website since the middle of May and been meaning to post about it.

Today's cartoon was particularly good and reminded me of some critical email I received years back regarding my Adventures of Pete and Pete page. I think I fired back with something along the lines of "well, compared to your own page on Pete and Pete, oh wait, you don't have a Pete and Pete page..." It's not nice to be mean, but it would carry more weight if they had something of their own making to compare it against.

Family Movie Night - Snow White

We watched Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs [IMDB] this evening again. Grumpy always reminds me of Mark from back at Randolph AFB. I should get back in touch with him.

(written 11/4/2005; back-dated to 10/29/2005)

Survivor, Apprentice, ER

Survivor Logo (screen capture)

Survivor: Guatemala [official site] is just not captivating me like the previous seasons have done. I'm mostly rooting for Stephenie, Rafe or Lydia.

The Apprentice [official site] was a bit of a shock. The guys over-did it with the batting cage when they had dome so well the last two tasks by remembering branding. And the firing of 4 contestants was unbelievable.

ER [official site] was a rerun from last season. It was one featuring Ray Lolitta [IMDB] who is quite a good actor after all. I was still picturing him from Turbulence [IMDB] back in 1997. I think I saw that on HBO back in my Detroit days with Oracle around 1998. Looking over his IMDB entry, I was amazed to see that he was Shoeless Joe Jackson from Field of Dreams [IMDB].

(Written 11/1/2005; back-dated to 10/27/2005)

Grave of the Fireflies - AZN-TV

Grave of the Fireflies (Hotaru No Haka) [IMDB] was on AZN-TV, formerly the International Channel tonight. (Checking the website after the fact, it was on at 8 PM, 11 PM and 2 AM on the 26th. I turned over to it just after it started at 11 PM and as I thought, it was full screen and dubbed. I didn't want to put myself through trying to watch the film that way.

GOTF needs to be watched in widescreen and in Japanese with subtitles. Plus, when I have time to think about it. I have had it on DVD for a couple of years now and I think I've only watched it twice. It's just so sad.

(written 11/6/2005; back-dated to 10/25/2005)

Chinese Class and Dinner

We headed out early to breakfast at Bob Evans and then to the book store to look for a gift for the host family for Director Zhu and for the director himself. We also wanted to get to Chinese class early to meet him and his translator as he was going to have a walk through tour of school. Yesterday he had a brief tour of the COFCC KCAP classes.

We picked up a book on Chinese art for Trevor and Amy, the host family. Then Gail picked out the perfect book for the director. It was A Day in the Life of the United States Armed Forces [Amazon]. These were gifts for after class at dinner.

We drove over to Amy and Trevor's house and helped her finish getting things ready. It was a different menu with spiral-sliced, honey-baked ham, salad, strawberries and two types of pizza.

The director was very pleased with the book and we also gave him print outs of the Chinese Wikipedia pages on Shenzhou-5 and Shenzhou-6.

At one point Director Zhu expressed his regreat at not being able to speak any English. And I wish I'd remembered to say, was that I too regreated that I did not speak more Chinese.

(Drafted 11/1/2005; back-dated to 10/23/2005; posted on 11/17/2005)

East Meets West Conference

The wife went out very early for the conference and so the daughter and I had a nice relaxing morning. We painted a few watercolors and she practiced her flute.

We went downtown for the conference and finally found a good place to park. The street where the wife suggested parking was having the surface stripped off when we arrived! Lucky, we parked only a short block away.

The conference was good even though the daughter had to use the bathroom four times while we were there. My wife was working, so I took her each time. I got to speak with Director Zhu a few times briefly. I was told he had first gone to New York and then to Hershey, Pennsylvania. He was formerly in the Chinese Army and enjoyed a tour in a Navy museum in New York. I told him through a translator that I wished there was time in his schedule to go to the US Air Force Museum. But there is not time as he has a full schedule tomorrow.

(Drafted 10/29/2005; back-dated to 10/22/2005; posted 11/17/2005)

Dinner with Director Zhu

The wife's East Meets West Conference was this weekend. The guest of honor, as it was, was the director of the Yi Yang orphange in Hunan. The first meeting was at the Chinese restaurant where we had dinner with the wife's Chinese class last year, over near campus. There was a group of more than 40 people as we filled 4 tables that each seated 10 and a couple of booths. I was hoping to sit with the director, but there were a few familes who had adopted children from his orphange and so they were seated at his table. He recognized many of the children.

The dinner was fantastic - 5 or 6 different courses.

(Drafted 10/29/2005; back-dated to 10/21/2005; posted 11/17/2005)

Hurricane Wilma Watch

Wilma & Hurricane Wilma
Animation Art Gallery & NOAA

There are some incredible and ominous photos of Cancun with the approach of Hurricane Wilma out at Yahoo's Most Emailed Photos and Slideshows. These wire photos normally only stay out there about a week, so check soon. Wikipedia has articles on Wilma individually and as part of the larger article on the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season.

The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) also has an individual page on Hurricane Wilma along with other good information. The above image is from 10/21 at 1245 UTC (0745 Eastern time).

Animation cell from the Animation Art Gallery.

I have yet to understand how blogger or hello or picasa is resizing the images. The above image was sized at 691 x 240 but the linked image is 640 x 222. It must be cutting down to either 320 for small or 640 for bigger.