24-Hour Short Story - Day Two

I worked on the story in the moring and did word counts periodically as I went along. The limit was 1,000 words minus the title and my contact info at the end. The last count I remember was around 670. With the deadline getting closer, I focused on just writing and when I finally was happy with the story, I was shocked to see I had 1,374 words and I would need to cut more than one-quarter of what I had.

Ultimately, I got it down to exactly 1,000 words and send it off. I was 5 minutes late and I knew it would not be accepted, but I wanted to complete it. Angela, from Writer's Weekly did send me a confirmation noting the time and letting me know it was a disqualified entry. After reading all of the tales in the rules about how people try and fool her, wrote back an honest reply: I knew it was late and I was editing like a mad-man to get down to the limit. I enjoyed it and I would definitely enter the next contest. I hope that she was surprised a bit by an email that was out of the usual.

As for my story, I've not worked on it all week - work has been too busy. I did send my submission to Darren to review and told him of my goals:

1. To get it much more polished and fitting the 1,000 word limit. Just in case the next contest has the same word limit. Not that I'd resubmit the same story. You can't do that. But I want to prove to myself I can do it.
2. To take the longer version, clean it up and send it to Darren for review.
3. Expand the longer version to perhaps 2,000 characters and see where it takes me.

But when can I work on it? And book discussion is coming up again soon. Can I get it done?

"If he has the time, doctor. If he has the time." - Mr. Spock

(written 4/27/2007; back-dated 4/22/07)

My first 24-Hour Short Story - Day One

After speaking with Darren last week, lamenting my desire to write, I entered the Writer's Weekly Spring '07 24-Hour Short Story Contest, at his suggestion. Darren entered it back in Fall of '05 and posted his entry to his blog. We talked about the winning story in the Winter '06 contest. I thought it was too much like the Warner Bros. cartoons that parody Of Mice and Men.
The morning of the contest, The daughter went over to a friend's house while I went to an optometrist visit. I may get glasses for all the time wear - possibly no-line bi-focals. I'm glad I didn't have the OD dilate my eyes as it would take 6 hours to recover and I was driving alone. Plus I was going to write later in the day. I headed home to check my email and was going to pick up the daughter by 4:30 PM.

I didn't get the story stub in email, so I went out the site and found it. Here's the stub:

She could hear the buoy bell ringing in the distance but it was too dark to see anything beyond the receding foamy water. She shivered as the wind picked up, knowing a late-season Nor'easter would hit in the next few hours, and knowing this was her last chance. She raised her arm and threw the glass bottle into the darkness...

I read it over quickly and then I began to work up the story. I ended up not getting it completed Saturday which was a big mistake.

(written 4/27/2007; back-dated 4/21/07)

Venture Bros. Season 2 on DVD

Today is the release date. And I've still not bought it. Target's got it on their website for $20, but I don't think they will match their prices in the store. I'm still watching the VCDs of it, but I want it for the better picture and the commentary. Can't wait until season 3. When the heck is "winter".

(It looks like you can set any date on the post time. Finally, I can post back before 1990.)
(written 4/27/2007; back-dated to 4/17/2007)

Yuri's Night

April 12, 1961 - Vostok I
Fourty-six years ago today, Yuri Gagarin became the first person to orbit the Earth. Six years Nearly seven years later, on March 27, 1968, Gagarin and his flight instructor, Seregin, died in a crash of their MiG-15.
(Photo from Russian Institute of Radionavigation and Time http://www.rirt.ru/ )

April 12, 1981 - STS-1
Twenty-six years ago today, John Young and Robert Crippen launched on the first shuttle flight aboard the shuttle Columbia. Nearly twenty-two years years later, on February 1, 2003, Columbia and her crew of seven would be lost during the retry of STS-107, her 28th mission and the 113th shuttle flight overall.
(Photo from NASA)

Kurt Vonnegut, gone but not forgotten

Got an email from Dennis, my friend at book discussion:

From: Dennis (snip)
To: Michael (snip)
Subject: Kurt Vonnegut
Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2007 07:42:01 -0700 (PDT)

Kurt Vonnegut died yesterday. So it goes.

And my reply to him:

From : Michael (snip)
Sent : Thursday, April 12, 2007 11:06 AM
To : Dennis (snip)
Subject : RE: Kurt Vonnegut

"Everything was Beautiful and Nothing Hurts" - the tombstone from (I believe) Slaughterhouse Five.

(I'd not heard of this until I saw your email and I knew what happened just from the subject. Damn.)

- Mike

(written 7/31/2007; back-dated to 4/12/2007)

Second Blue Heron

This morning, on the drive to work, I saw a second blue heron. I saw another one a couple of days back, on my way home from work. This one today was flying towards the north: a long, slender bird, high above the thining fog. There was a group of three other birds it was heading toward, but I don't think it was going to congregate. It was solitary and flying with a purpose someplace else.

Graceful and determined, it moved - its course set.
Just like my course.
But it didn't have to work. :)

No time now for a Heron Haiku - perhaps later.

Terebithia

The wife, daughter and I went to go see Bridge to Terebithia as part of our 7th annual Family Day. The film was good, but sad and made all the moreso by how cute AnnaSophia Robb looked as Leslie. We all want to read the book. (The daughter is a very good reader. She's in 2nd grade and reading at a 5.0 in the Accelerated Reader (AR) program. She's been reading the Harry Potter books and is more than half way through the fourth one.) As I said, it is very sad and I was surprised that the daughter didn't cry at a few places. I've told her that it is okay to cry and I'm thinking that she may talk about it a few days later.

There were four previews:

• Nancy Drew
• Ratatouille
• The Lost Mimzy (looks very good)
• Meet the Robinsons

(written 3/21/2007; back-dated to 3/20/2007)

My daughter's Mondrian

My daughter come into work for a bit in the early evening and did a little artwork in MS Paint. In art and technology her class was studying painters and so she worked up her own version of a Piet Mondrian. Here is her painting along side Mondrian's Composition with Yellow, Blue, and Red, public domain from Wikipedia.













(written 9/11/2007; back-dated to 1/18/2007)

War of the Worlds

Came home and the wife and daughter were watching Eloise at Christmastime. I'd just made it to the lbrary in time to pick up War of the Worlds (2005) the one directed by Spielberg. The wife and daughter were tired from their swim lock-in and sleepover and went to bed early. I watched it and it's quite good and fast passed.

Browsing channels, there's quite a bit on, commercial breaks not withstanding. Bravo has Apocalypse Now (1979) but too many commercials and full screen (ugh). I think this is the redux version. I thought I watched that some months back, but I don't remeber Clean's burial or Willard talking with some women French woman. AMC has Taxi Driver (1976) but again commercials and full screen. TCM is running Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982) in letterbox.

Football: Ohio State vs Michigan

After hearing on NPR that a Bo Schembechler, who coached Michigan from 1969 to 1989, died yesterday, I predict that this will rally Michigan to a win. We'll see later today.

Went in and worked. Found that the score was Ohio State 42, Michigan 39. Close. I wish I'd seen some of it.

T.G.I. Friday's with David

(Woo hoo! This is my 100th post!)

Worked late and called David who was doing the same. Went over to Vineyard and chatted for a few while we decided where to go. We went to T.G.I. Friday's and the bacon chesseburger was so-so. I think I got the heart of a mediterranian onion. It was acrid and terrible. Normally, I love onion, but not this time. I think I'm just spoiled by Chesseburger in Paradise. They are just excellent. And the Cuban sandwich was great too.

Conversation was all over, including his cool new phone with videos from YouTube. I need to be using Firefox. We talked about being able to save videos off of YouTube and hopefully other sites using it. There's a couple of Miracle Legion videos I've seen streaming elsewhere that I'd like to keep.

Aluminum foil makes an excellent "lamp-shade". David will understand this.

I'm off to get some sleep as I will need to go back in to finish up several things that all showed up in the past couple of days at work. But, I'm wearing sweats!

(written early 11/18/2006; back-dated to late 11/17/2006)
(I need to adjust the time or this will show before my other post for 11/17)

Found - Shawn Colvin

I've been wanting to play Sunny Came Home for nearly a week and last night I found the CD. I kept looking when I was in a hurry for a yellow CD, but it's only yellow on the inside. I brought it to work and added it to my music here. I immediately played Sunny Came Home and enjoyed it, and I was thinking that I didn't need to keep any of the other tracks from it since I've tried to listen to the entire CD for years and have never been able to get into it.

Growing tired of my current "stuff3" playlist over the past new weeks, I've been looking for some new music and had the player jumping randomly after each song later in the day. It picked If I Were Brave which is so simple and yet so powerful.

I'm so glad I found this song today.

Retro Post - 12/24/2004

I was looking over some older files and found photos from the ice storm we had over the night of December 23 and 24th, 2004.

Click here to see the post and photos.

Morning Radio

Heard most of Tracy Chapman's song Fast Car this morning on the drive into work. I like that song and I love the way she sings. Hope Vitellas, from the free show in June at the Carabar, reminded me of Chapman with her power and presence. It goes back to something I read about the mid or late 1990's concert at Woodstock - the commercial one. There was something about how she and her lone guitar went out after other bigger name bands, U2 comes to mind, and that she still captivated the audience. I checked on Wikipedia and there were several Woodstock Festivals. Looking over Tracy Chapman, I don't see her listed there. The event that I read about may have been either the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute or the Amnesty International Human Rights Now! Tour. Both of these took place in 1988. Or she could have been on tour with U2.

One station is playing Christmas music already and I caught most of John Lennon's Happy Xmas (War Is Over).

Vanity Plate - R WE THER

Saw this on the way to work: "R WE THER" short for "Are we there?" I wonder if anyone has "THERE YET" or similar?

(writtten 11/15/2006; back-dated to 11/14/2006)

Ed Bradley (1941 - 2006)

Just found out that Ed Bradley [wikipedia] died yesterday. Damn.

Happy Halloween from Number 21

Below are a couple of pics of Monarch Henchman #21 which were my inspiration. It looks like I need to re-dye the shorts, top, gloves and "boots" in a shade of orange. Rit's Golden Yellow #42 is not the color I needed.

Defragging Smart Media Cards

My camera is so very old. It's way past time to get a new one. It's an Olympus D-320L from 1997 - older than my daughter. A lot older than her. It uses up to 8MB smart media cards. I've got four of these - 3 in 8 MB and one 2 MB card. I've begun to notice that the camera is erroring out on these cards more often. I'm not sure if it's the camera or the cards. But I take a picture and then I get a rapid tweeping and the display flashes. I have to close the camera and that picture is gone. This happened before, but it would also come back up in low-quality mode.

I talked to David and he suggested defragging the cards, especially since I'm still using a 3.5 floppy adapter to read them. I tried this today and got the following message:

Disk Defragmenter cannot run on this volume type.

So, it looks like it may very soon be time to shop around.

Venture Brothers - Look Away

On Sunday, I caught the opener of season two of The Venture Bros on Adult Swim. I had seent he final episode some time ago and wish I'd been following this all along. I can't stop playing the song Look Away by Nick DeMayo. Here are the lyrics:

Two angels are plucked
From the heavenly sky
In an instant they're gone
In the blink of an eye
If you listen close
You'll hear cherubs cry
Oh, look away

(The rest of the song contines on the mp3...)

My head is heavy
Their bodies bruised
Our spirits shattered
When we heard the news
The chorus is singin'
Its final tune
Oh, look away

We ran to the mountains
We shouted on high
We pled to the gods
And in answer replied
What was once is now lost
Yet could never die
Oh, look away

Look away
Whoa-whoa,
look away
Look away-hey

Quite a song for a pair of cartoon brothers who die in their prime.

You can find the mp3 out at The Venture Bros page at Adult Swim.

(edited 10/9/2006)

Local Music at Carabar

Earlier in the week, Ryan Smith did a friend invite on my MySpace site. I checked his page and official site and was quite taken with his music. I listened to California all week and went to the show on Friday. The flyer said 10 PM and I was driving like a loon so as not to arrive late. As it turned out, Ryan played last (the order on the flyer was reversed.) and I was in plenty of time.

Here was the line up:

• Jonathan Hape [Offical Site, MySpace]
• Hope Vitellas [Offical Site, MySpace]
• Ryan Smith [Offical Site, MySpace]

I picked up Ryan's and Jonathan's CDs there. I wish Hope had CDs there. She was amazing! Jonathan is going to Chicago in August. I'll drop another letter to Darren to see if he wants to check it out.

(written 6/30/2006; back-dated to 6/9/2006; updated 7/18/2007)

IMDB submission - Kiki's Delivery Service

My one and only submission to the Internet Movie Database.

Reference: 060523-222343-275000
Date/Time: 2006-05-23 15:23:43
Summary: Majo no takkyûbin (1989)

Alternate Versions - 1 item added

Fun Stuff: Alternate Versions
Action: New #1
Alternate Version:

When the Disney dubbed version aired on the Disney Channel, shortly after the VHS release, there were two brief lines of dialog removed. After "rescuing" Jiji and replacing him with the stuffed cat, Kiki and Jiji are flying home and she tells about meeting the artist and adds that she (Ursula) wanted to paint of picture of her (Kiki). Jiji's question, "Naked?" and Kiki's embarrassed reply, "Jiji!" are both removed with a jump cut.

Submitted 11 months ago and this still hasn't been added to the IMDB.
Perhaps they don't believe me? :)

(written 4/27/2007; back-dated to 5/23/2006)

Edwin J Hill Social Club Bash

Margaret, a friend at work, who is leaving Wednesday has a son who acts in local theater, as does his roommate. And together, with others, they have created 7 episodes, 30 or so minutes each, of a local sitcom titled The Edwin J. Hill Social Club [MySpace Group]. There was a free showing at Studio 35 [Official Site] this evening.

We got to see:
Episode 2 - the Sliding Doors parody
Episode 3 - George's Mom
Episode 4 - Hypnoboobs
Episode 7 - Vice Versa

As for Edwin himself, he is shrouded in mystery. But you can check out his MySpace Profile.


(written 5/24/2006; back-dated to 5/23/2006)

Sunday Watercolors

The daughter and I did a some watercolors in the afternoon. She still paints much faster than me - at a rate of 4 to 1. These are not done, as I want to outline them with a fine tip black pen or marker. The scanner is on the blink again. Can you tell that these were photographed?



I'm not overly happy with the evergreen trees. I put the trunks in after the fact and it really shows. But I think I did a good job on the still-life. What started as a banana in the fruit bowl is looking more like a pear every time I look at it.

(written 5/24/2006; back-dated to 5/21/2006)

Retro Post - PLANETES theme

Look here for the post on the theme music for the Anime Planetes that I simply can't stop playing.

Old friends from Qwest

I can't recall the last time I was over at Nutt org, but it can't have been all that long ago. I'd say less than three weeks - tops. It looks like Eric, is reinventing his website again. For six years it's been like Madonna - changing, different, moving. I always like what he does. I should use this inspiration on my own neglected Tripod pages. I'll stay tuned and see what takes shape.

Thinking of Eric makes me want to check in on Jeremiah. I've not seem him online in ages. And he never has sent me any commentary on my short story.... Hmm.... DesignBox Media is still there and has some changes made this year. I will send him an email before the month is out.

I also had an instant message from Tony, another Qwest alumni. I will get back to him before the week is out.

Kochi Photos

Chatted with Matt for a bit this morning. He sent me a pair of huge (file size) photos from his 5 mega-pixel camera. He's getting a great eye for photography. I will eventually post those other photos from his Camera Phone.

He said that he would get the daughter's letter to his student who wanted to correspond and I should have a reply back for her soon.

Here are his photos:

Click for larger views. These are reduced to about 30% original size but still nice.

Time Traveling with Netscape 4.76

I'm over at the city library and browsing around a few sites. My blog and others look totally different on this older PC. Some dont' even load completely. It's running Windows 98 and Netscape 4.76 - in fact, blogger is telling me that this post might not save so I'll be brief.

Funny thing is that my friend David's site looks pretty good in it. I'll try either Publishing first and if that doesn't work, I'll at least try to save. Here goes.

Amazing! It worked. It's funny how different this all looks though. Like just now, I saw the link for editing this post while I'm signed in, but it was just the underline - the in-line image was not there. It's also funny how the images show up and all can be clicked and load up in driectly in the browser window. Backgrounds, at least in Blogger don't seem to show and tables are all funky

V for Vendetta

Met David over a the IMAX in Easton and arrived just in time for the opening credits of V for Vendetta. (Are there previews for IMAX?) It was quite good. Natalie Portman was good and I was pleased to see Stephen Fry up on the big screen. I was very surprised to find out in the credits, that "V" was played by Hugo Weaving. I did not recognize his voice. But he speaks differently in the Matrix movies and in The Adventures of Prisilla, Queen of the Dessert.

Fry's character's comments about the Koran were great. In the society depicted in the film, it was a banned book - carrying with it a punishment of death. The collections of forbidden objects were wonderful, especially the poster of God Save the Queen. John Hurt was powerful as the British "Chancellor". This was in contrast to his role as Winston Smith in 1984.

After reading about Alan Moore's views on what the film became, I want to read the graphic novel. However, I don't know how much of the politics of it I will understand.

This film belongs with Gattaca in that is scares the hell out of me. There are things in it that could become part of everyday life and erode personal freedom and liberty even more than the are today.

After the film, we swung by California Pizza Kitchen but a look at the prices made me suggest we go someplace else. The average price was $10.49 and a soda was $2.19. It could have been worse since many places don't list the prices for soft drinks. After spending $9.50 for the ticket, I was wanting to save a bit of green.

We walked over to the Apple Store and looked around for a bit, killing time for me since I don't have a Mac. We did have a good chat with one of the ladies working there.

On the way out of Easton, David and I discussed ordering a pizza. We decided to meet back up at the church, where I was supposed to meet him before the film, but time and distance had been against me. We first went up to Fazoli's who turned out to not have what we wanted and instead headed up to a local Cici's Pizza. That was well within price range for me - $5.75. I'm glad that David indulged my fickle pallet.

While on the road, I played him a couple of mp3s from my keychain drive. One was the theme to Boondocks. The other was the opening theme music to Planetes, which I will need to blog about. I've been playing that music for weeks nearly non-stop.

(written 5/10/2006; back-dated to 4/29/2006)

No Movies for You - Work!

David surprised me with a call to see if I was free to go and see a movie or do something tonight. I've very glad he called. He gave me a call last week too I think. Sadly, I'm so swamped with work now that I can't get away. I'd like to, but I can't. But, I will go and see V for Vendetta with him at least by the time it gets to the dollar theaters.

Tonight is also the first Columbus Cinema club (not the actual name) meeting. Per David, it's someplace in, did he say Granville? That doesn't sound right. I checked the Sonny Boo site, but can't find it. However, there is another Look At My Shorts on April 30th! Yeah! But I can't open the page. Back to work!

I am the stone that the builder refused...

After the weekend, and getting too much sun, I napped for over 4 hours Sunday night. Is it really a nap if it's that long? I was awake from about 9:30 PM until 2:30 AM or so and had cartoon network on for a some of the time.

After Family Guy and American Dad (I've missed that show more than I realize.) I watched most of Boondocks. I don't know if it was a new episode or not. It was an alternate history wherein Martin Luther King, Jr. was not killed when shot but rather lapsed into a coma for nearly 40 years. The story was intreging and would have been more engrosing had I focused on it. The only other episodes I've watched of Boondocks are the one on the restaurant called The Itis and the one about the girl's Lemonade stand.

I should have paid more attention to it. I'll see if this going to be on again.

The title of my post is the opening line from the theme song. You can find it here: http://www.myspace.com/asheru1

(Thanks Adult Swim!)

Profile Update

I finally added some to my profile, including an older cartoon-style self-portrait. Presently I have much less hair and no goatee.

For some technical reason, "U2" is not showing in my profile under favorite music.

(Written and posted in the same day - a rarity!)

Hedwig and the Angry Inch

A co-worker of mine and I had been talking about Hedwig and the Angry Inch off and on over the past couple of months. I borrowed it from the library and we watched it this evening after the daughter went to bed. It was depressing, but the music was great. Some of it reminded me of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, but this is not really a far comparision. The story is different. Hedwig, born as Hansel in East Berlin, is the victim of a botched sex change in his bid to come to the United States, who becomes a punk diva icon in Amerca.

I want the soundtrack to this.

(written 4/13/2006; back-dated to 4/1/2006)

Brokeback and Outback

The daughter had her first "official" sleepover, that is a non-family one, with a friend tonight and so the wife and I went on a date. We both wanted to see Brokeback Mountain and so off we went to the dollar theater. The film is being released to DVD on 4/4/2006.

I wish I'd not known that there was CG sequences in the film. There are CG sheep, CG vistas and some CG set pieces. And knowing this, I found myself looking for them. Still, cinematically, the film has some beautiful scenery.

NO SPOILERS HERE. The story was engaging and not a problem with me. The characters were interesting people and I thought they aged them well, especially Anne Hathaway. When she was talking on the phone to Ennis, you could see coffee or tea stains in her teeth. Randy Quaid seems to be in everything. I was remined of his role in Midnight Express.

SPOILERS HERE. High-light the lines with your mouse to read.

Jack's death immediately made me think of Matthew Shepard.

The switching of the shirt-within-shirt was poignant.

END OF SPOILERS.

The music was serene and I'm on the list at the library for it.

Afterward, we went over to the Outback Steakhouse for a late dinner.

<>
Mmmmm, steak....
< /homer >

I've not reviewed a movie or blogged in a while and I'm feeling pretty rusty. I should look at this in a couple of days and re-write this post.

(written 4/5/2006; back-dated to 3/31/2006)
(edit 9/11/2007 - hidden text didn't match the background color)

Music - TV & Anime Themes

Surfing around for the new theme to the 2005 Doctor Who series and I found this which I've listened to so much that the TV theme sounds foreign: Evan Spence's Tardis Crash. Most excellent indeed, or in the words of the Doctor - "Fantastic!"

Also, while surfing around for the music from Kiki's Delivery Service, I found this page with the both opening theme and closing theme from the original Japanese version. It also has them in French, I believe. But the coolest thing I found there was the theme to Planetes [wikipedia]which is an amine from 2003 that sounds so very good. Oddly, there is no IMDB entry for this show that I can find.

I also found a old page from 1998 on astronomy that talked about using Greek letters in your HTML which is quite easy and lets me write Planetes as it is shown on the anime and magna as: PLANHTES

Spiffy!

(written 5/15/2006; back-dated to 3/28/2006)

Animated Gnome

It was a GIF that, when posted, was coverted to a JPG by the Blogger software. It was over 500 KB, and that's a but much to ask of Blogger, so I'll code up a page someplace, put it there and link to it.

Funny thing is I was going to delete the JPG but then thought, how do I delete the copy that I uploaded in the first place? Hmmm. (4/5/2006)

(posted 3/26/2006; back-dated to 3/18/2006)

Book Discussion - Time and Again

Book discussion today at the city library. We are going over Time and Again [Amazon] by Jack Finney. What amazed me was that this was written in 1970. Truly a bit of time travel.

I received this late after two other attempts. The city library doesn't keep books as long at the other library I go to does. I've only got three days to pick it up instead of a week.

I've read about 45 pages of this and have over 350 to go, but I'm enjoying it so far. However, the Amazon reviews are boths sides of a pendulum. I'll have to see myself just how wordy it is.

I just looked up Jack Finney [wikipedia] and had no idea that he had written Invasion of the Body Snatchers. It looks like most copies of the book on Amazon were published in February of 1995 - just 9 months before he died.

Look at My Shorts III

Called David to see what he was doing today. I just didn't feel like going to Chinese class. I've been working a lot of hours outside of the regular work hours and needed a break from everything.

He said there was a short film festival Look At My Shorts III, over at the theaters near his apartment. I cleaned up and headed over to his place. We stopped off at Chipotle and ate and then headed over just in time for the start of the films. It was from 4pm to 8pm. There were 19 films ranging from just over a minute to just over 20 minutes with breaks every hour.

Some of the films were absolutely amazing. The last hour only had three films, all of which were shot on celluloid and then transferred to video. The last one, A Cold Blood is one that I will look into buying.

(written 3/3/2006; back-dated to 2/26/2006)

Henderbot

Andy did a little caricature of me and emailed it to me today.

I have a habit of wearing my headphones back on my head and he said it looked like Lobot from The Empire Strikes Back.

Cool, a second Andy original after the Gnome.

(written 3/3/2006; back-dated to 2/13/2006)

A Dozen Eggs Minus 1

If the year 2006 were a dozen eggs, one would already be gone. Oh, how the time does go.

I've been keeping a journal in a notebook - well, a couple of notebooks, and I do have entries for each day of the year. Will post them as time permits.

(Written 2/3/2006; back-dated to 2/1/2006; actually posted 3/3/2006)

Fourth Week of Miyazaki

TCM ran the last two films in their nine film tribute to Hayao Miyazaki, with these:

• Pom Poko (1994) [Amazon] [IMDB]
• Only Yesterday (1991) [Amazon] [IMDB]

(written 3/10/2006; back-dated to 1/26/2006)

Third Week of Miyazaki

Tonight at 8pm Turner Classic Movies ran a set of three more Miyazaki films:

• My Neighbor Totoro (1988) [Amazon]
• Porco Rosso (1992) [Amazon]
• Whisper of the Heart (2000) [Amazon]

All were in letterbox and dubbed in English. These will be reran, again in letterbox and Japanese with English subtitles tonight. I was quite surprised to see Totoro. I knew that it was close to release (March 7, 2006) and didn't think that they would run it. There was a "TCM" watermark in the corner at 45 minutes into the show and again 63 minutes. The picture was wonderful, but I'm not crazy about the dub. I'm used to the version from 20th Century Fox [Amazon]. It's Full Screen and dubbed, but I'm so used to it. I suppose that I could get David to create a widescreen version using my preferred soundtrack.

I watched just a bit of Porco Rosso, it looks good. I knew nothing about it. This was released on DVD back on 2/22/2005.

I'd heard of Whisper of the Heart, but not thought about it much. It too is not released yet but will come out with My Neighbor Totoro.

(Written on 1/19/2006; no need to backdate.)

Watercolor Trees

The daughter and I did a few watercolors this Sunday. She paints two or three for each one I finish.

This is based on a certain tree I keep seeing on the trip to and from work. I've got several photos of it. I'll add one when I find one I like.

This was the first watercolor I've done that I tried to paint in my outlining, with mixed results.

(written 4/5/2006; back-dated to 1/15/2006)

Second Week of Miyazaki

Two more Hayao Miyazaki anime films on TCM:

• Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1985) [Amazon]
• Castle in the Sky (1986) [Amazon]

(written on 1/19/2006; back-dated to 1/12/2006)

Miyazaki on Turner Classic Movies

Two more Hayao Miyazaki anime films on TCM:

• Princess Mononoke (1999) [Amazon]
• Spirited Away (2001) [Amazon]

(written on 1/19/2006; back-dated to 1/7/2006)

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.

Bueller? Bueller?

Finally got around to watching the Ferris Bueller's Day Off DVD that I received for my birthday. It's amazing that Matthew Broderick was 24 when this came out. Just like Ralph Macchio, 23 when The Karate Kid came out and and Michael J. Fox, 24 with Back to the Future, Broderick seems eternally young.

I still have the button and mini-poster from FBDO. I thought I'd lost the poster for certain, but it was with many other posters of mine that I just don't have wall space for right now. At one point, I'd even found it on EBay and was thinking of bidding on it.

Watched the whole movie and then watched about 15 mintues with the director's commentary. Sadly, this doesn't even have a single trailer for the film on the DVD.

(written 11/4/2005; back-dated to 10/19/2005)

Finished - The Kite Runner

I read to the end of The Kite Runner this evening. Khaled Hosseini will have another book about Afganistan out in 2006 and I want to read it.

(Written 10/21/2005; back-dated to 10/18/2005)

Two chapters left - The Kite Runner

Read last night for a couple of hours. Just two chapters left of Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner [Amazon]. The story is moving swiftly and has become somewhat predicable, but I am still enjoying it. This is a good story to learn to write from, I think.

Reading - The Kite Runner

I read about 16 or so chapters of The Kite Runner [Amazon] by Khaled Hosseini. This was for the book discussion I missed back on October 12th. It's quite a good read. It flows well and has kept me interested. I only hope to write something this good.

Shenzhou-6 launches successfully

Shenzhou-6 launch
AP photo from BBC

Fei Junlong, 40 and Nie Haisheng, 41, have become the second and third Chinese nationals in space with today's successful launch of the Shenzhou-6 Chinese spacecraft. The craft, atop a Long March 2F rocket was launched at 0900 Beijing time, 0400 US Eastern time from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest Gansu Province in the Northwest of China. This is the same launch facility and pad as the October 2003 flight of Yang Liwei aboard Shenzhou-5.

Welcome back, and best of luck.

• Wikipedia article on Shenzhou-6


• Xinhua News Agency - in English (Chinaview) main Page


• Xinhua News Agency Shenzhou-6 page


• Xinhua News Agency Shenzhou-6 photos


• China Daily main page


• China Daily Shenzhou-6 page


• PLA Daily of the Chinese People's Liberation Army


• PLA Shenzhou-6 page


• People's Daily Home


• People's Daily - Shenzhou VI


• Rabbit and Crow blog with a post on the launch


• Shenzhou-6 FAQ at Mark Wade's magnificent Encylopedia Astronautica


• SPACE.com article


• Space Facts


• Shenzhou-6 page at Spaceflight Now


• BBC Coverage


• CollectSpace message board on SZ-6 patches
• MSNBC stories with streaming video of launch

Gail Force: Eternal Story

I stayed up past midnight watching some anime on AZN Television (formerly the International Channel). Turned out the show was Gail Force: Eternal Story (AZN list, IMDB entry). The story borrowed many ideas from Alien. The design of the corridors was very similar. I was a bit surprised how the female captain of the all female crew was showering so frequently. There was more animated nudity than I was expecting.

(Written 10/12/2005, back-dated to 10/11/2005)

Amazing Race 8 - Huntsville AL

We watched CBS' The Amazing Race tonight. The teams raced to Huntsville, Alabama to the Space and Rocket Center. Phil, the host was at the pitstop with an astonaut. You can see both of them in this photo.

I noticed the Mach 25 patch and he's been on two space shuttle missions, but I can't ID the flights right now. I'll post both patches when I find them and ID the astronaut.

(Written on 10/12/2005; back-dated to 10/11/2005)

Amazing Race 8 - Shuttle Patches

STS-29 & STS-38 emblems
from Wikipedia

The two patches were for STS-29 [wikipedia] and STS-38 [wikipedia]. The astronaut was Robert C. Springer [wikipedia]. He flew on two largely DOD missions in 1989 and 1990.

(Found it on 10/13 and just now posting)
(Written 10/30/2005; back-dated to 10/11/2005)

Yahoo self-corrects

Yahoo's better photo (screen capture)

I dont' think it was because of my post, but the Yahoo story [Yahoo] on news searching that includes blogs has a photo of Yahoo's headquarters now. Perhaps I should search for my blog entry?

More importantly, why did the first image with the google sign below get sized smaller? Maybe there's a setting in in Picasa/Hello that I didn't set correctly.

Welcome Home Soyuz TMA-6

Last night, Soyuz TMA-6 [Wikipedia] departed from the Interational Space Station bringing the Expedition 11 crew of Sergei Krikalev, John Phillips and Gregory Olsen. It was launched April 15, 2005 with Krikalev, Phillips and Robert Vittori. (Vittori returned to earth in Soyuz TMA-5 with the Expedition 10 crew Leroy Chiao and Salizhan Sharipov back on April 24, 2005.)

Yahoo adds blogs to news search - and wrong photo

Yahoo: blogs and news side by side
screen capture from Yahoo

There is an interesting story [Yahoo] on Yahoo's Most Popular News. It was number 4 of the Most Recommended News items this morning. It talks about how Yahoo starting today will offer an expanded news search that will yield not only wire news stories and photos, but also list people's blogs, user-contributed photos and links. Cool! Hopefully it will all be related content.

But strangely, the photo accompanying the item shows the sign out front of Google headquarters, not Yahoo and Google is only mentioned once in the article.

I don't think that my blog entry here will show up in this expanded news search. Not until Yahoo changes the photo. Hehehe.

Craving Chocolate Milk

Hmmm.... I want chocolate milk....

Urg! I want chocolate milk....

I had some soy milk this morning and it was wonderful! Why aren't soy products dirt cheap? I can still get milk for $1.79 per gallon and that makes me not want to get soy milk when it's about the same per quart.

(Here's hoping that within minutes, this post is not attacked by "Comment 'Bots" or "C.R.A.P." = "Comment Robotic Automatic Posters". Someone must have a name for those types of posts.)

Andy's Gnome - already "defaced"

Andy's Gnome
Unbelieveable - I posted this at 10:37 and three minutes later, two comments that look like they are from some sort of robotic crawler. There was nothing here except the photo and the caption. I wonder if I can selectively hide or remove comments?

The Lovely Bones (Again)

The library in town is going to have a book discussion on Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones tonight. Funny that my old library had a book discussion in May on the same book. Here's one book that I remember enough of to not have to re-read.

(Written on 9/8/2005; forward-dated to 9/12/2005)
("Future-posted" maybe?)

Operation Lunch: No Go

Looks like Max snuck out on our plans to show up wherever he was going to go to lunch today. He's here for an exit interview tomorrow and that's it. Bummer. I'm sure lunch would have been good wherever it would have been, but it was more about just hanging out that it was getting a full belly.

Have to make plans for the future since he's staying in the area.

Gas - $2.99

Bought $10 in gas this morning before work.

Katrina on my Mind

I woke up this morning at about 5:30 am and could not get back to sleep. The Oprah show was getting to me. I also heard the neighbors alarm clock-radio go off at 6 am.

Oprah Winfrey - Hurricane Katrina

My wife taped Oprah and we watched it in the evening. This is the first of two shows dealing with Hurricane Katrina: "Oprah on Location: Inside the Katrina Catastrophe".

I'd heard some of what she'd reported on last week on NPR. It was difficult watching the Chief of Police talk about not having the police presence to stop what all was going on in the Super Dome.

(Written on 9/7/2005; back-dated to 9/6/2005)
(minor edit 9/11/2007)

Vanity Plate - BLOGGER

On the way back from the dentist, I saw a car with a vanity plate reading "BLOGGER". That inspired me to get back to posting. I have a small feeling of sour grapes when it comes to vanity plates. On one hand, they seem a waste of money. Yet my friend David has them. If the state would let me get the ones I wanted when we first went to 7 characters, I'd probably have them and think differently.

I wanted to get "THX 1138", but because they actually issue the plates as three characters followed by four numbers, this will come up automatically and will not be honored as a vanity plate. The BMV site tells me: "The sequences of characters you are trying to request do not meet the reserve standards."

Funny that when I tried "NCC 1701" I get this different message ("Your request is not available, please try again.") This still makes me think that someone was able to get this plate. But I checked "NCC 1702" and it gives the message about not meeting the reserve standards.

(Written on 9/7/2005; back-dated to 9/6/2005)

Karen's Birthday

Called my sister and talked to her about for a while as it was her birthday.

(Written on 9/8/2005; back-dated to 8/31/2005)

Lunch at Las Margaritas

Most of the group from work went out to lunch at Las Margaritas to meet Darren, who had left some time back. Mexican food is good food.

(Written on 9/8/2005; back-dated to 8/16/2005)

Blog Updates

Make something simple and I'll still find an excuse not to use it. I've gone nearly 6 weeks and not made a post here. Lots of interesting and even more mundane things have happened. So, it's a trip back in time via receipts and photos to see what all has happened that I should share here.

30 Days on FX

Watched most of 30 Days tonight. This was the fifth show this season. Two people from New Jersey went out to the Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage in Missouri. I was juiced by the use of Solar power. It reminded me of the Green Means (html site, text site) program on using solar in Africa to allow children to study at night with electric lights.

Why do I feel that it would be so much easier to have a house in the country with a garden, a composting toilet, solar power and a clothes line if I were a lotto winner?

(Written on 7/14/2005; back-dated to 7/13/2005)

Summer Reading Program 2005

Tuesday was the last day for the Summer Reading program this year. The wife and daughter attended this mostly without me, due to work. I was along for a couple of these. Actually, my injury back on 6/28 caused them to miss half of one of the nights. It was good to meet the folks who came along from the Society for Creative Anachronism. I chatted with one fellow who talked about Marcon and his Forbidden Planet costume. Cool!

I'll have to either crash or attend Marcon next year. It's been far too long.

(Written on 7/14/2005; back-dated to 7/12/2005)

VHS - A Little Princess

We watched A Little Princess this evening for "Family Movie Night", which is normally on Saturdays. I want, no, I need to get this on DVD.

I wish that I could keep in more regular contact with Errol Sitahal. Perhaps I will have to go back to writing him actual letters. Or, if I get a calling plan that includes Canada, that would be cool as well.

(Written on 7/14/2005; back-dated to 7/10/2005)
(Label added 9/10/2007)

Car Maintenance and Injury

While replacing the starter on my car, a bolt came loose (finally) and I gashed my right thumb on metal on the bottom of the engine. One look was enough to tell me that I would have to have stitches. The father-in-law called the bride and she and the daughter came back to find me still working on the car. I wanted to finish putting on the new starter. All was going well, until I bumped my thumb again and it really began to hurt.

We left the daughter with the in-laws and headed out to find an urgent care or an Emergency Room. Keep in mind, I had watched the premiere episode of 30 Days on FX back on 6/15/2005 and I'm thinking that even with insurance, that I'm going to get a bill for $500 for just walking in the ER. As it was, we paid our co-pay and that took care of everything. Yeah insurance! But I still think there should be some form of socialized medicine.

I ended up with 4 and stitches and the nickname "FrankenThumb" from a friend at work. The Novacain hurt more than anything else.

Looking back, I should have put some ice on it to help with the brusing and swelling. Of course, mechanics gloves or just heavy work gloves would have prevented it.

(Written on 7/14/2005; back-dated to 6/28/2005)
(Minor edit on 9/8/2005)

Star Wars - 28 years old today

I'm a true fan, but I've never did keep track of how many times I saw Star Wars. It would be nice to know, but I'd rather just know the date that I first saw it.

Maybe a trip to the microfilm copies of the hometown newspaper is in order? That is, if the library still has them. Of course there are many things to look up.

Book Group - The Lovely Bones

This morning while driving to work, I finished the last tape, the author interview, of Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones. I had finished the story itself last night while driving home from work. What a marvelous first novel for a person to write.

Interesting that during the author interview she spoke of the movie deal. Here's the IMDB entry on it. Yippee Peter Jackson directing! Whoa, there was a Philippine version of The Lovely Bones in 2003? Amazing - Anghel sa lupa

Book Discussion for this is on Tuesday 5/31 and I'll be there for this one.

Episode III - 4 out of 5

My better half had a workshop for the first part of the day.

We then dropped the daughter off at the in-laws who were taking her to see a soccer game with her cousin. This left the two of us free to go and see Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. It was enjoyable, but I don't think that I expected it to be better than the original Star Wars. The ending was sad enough that I shead single tear. There were so many places where Anakin could have simply stopped and changed things, but his destiny was set.

I saw George's cameo. His daughter's appearence was distracting - her eyes were all over the place. His son's cameo was excellent. The Tantive IV did not look correct - it was too short in the at mid-ships. Bai Ling's appearence was cut, I found out later. The shot of the early "Imperial Shuttle" with three fighter escort, from the second trailer, was not in the film. And the wrist restrains were in an "arms at your sides" instead of "hands up" position like in the teaser trailer - the "Lord Vader, rise." one.

After the show, we went to On the Boarder for dinner. We'd not been there since Matt was back in town years ago. It was one of his brithdays or something and it might have been before he was married. A long time ago indeed.

(Entered 5/25/2005)

Rustlings at Nutt.Org

There's a bit more at NuttDotOrg than just the logo that reminds me of the logo from The Incredibles. Hmm, the 10 minute website. Wish I'd checked in yesterday when it showed up.

(Written on 5/25/2005; back-dated to 5/18/2005)

George Lucas' Episode III cameo

George Lucas as Baron Papanoida, and Papa Smurf.

In Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, writer - director George Lucas will make a cameo appearence as Baron Papanoida. I think it's great to be in your own movies, but my first impression was that his character bore some resemblence to Papa Smurf, both in color and in name. Am I the first person to make this comparison?

Here's hoping that it goes off well and that Episode III is as enjoyable as I still find the original Star Wars.

Missed Book Discussion

Due to the incredible amount of work with the new ERP at my place of employment, I was not able to make the Book Discussion Group on Thursday. I very much wanted to go to this. I had listened to the book (Girl with a Pearl Earring) completely and had watched just over half of the film. (The film is not a good adaptation of the book.)

I was able to chat with the librarian who runs the group and talk to her about it though, so I don't feel too bad about missing it.

(Written on Saturday 5/14/2005 and back dated to 5/5/2005.)

Welcome Back Soyuz TMA-5

Dr. Leroy Chiao and me - Asian Festival, May 29, 2004, a Saturday.
Photo by Mrs. Chiao.

This is something I was going to post back on April 24, 2005 when Soyuz TMA-5 returned to Earth. I was fortunate to meet and talk with Dr. Chiao nearly a year ago at the Columbus Asian Festival. Dr Chiao arrived much earlier than expected and stay far later than he was supposed to, much to everyone's happiness.

He was the Expedition 10 (official site, photos) commander and NASA ISS science officer. After 6 months on the International Space Station, Chiao, along with cosmonaut Salizhan S. Sharipov, Expedition 10 flight engineer returned to Earth in the company of Roberto Vittori of Italy. It was Vittori's second trip to the station. He went up with the crew of Expedition 11 (official site, photos) in Soyuz TMA-6, returning after a visit of 9 days.

Happy "Star Wars Day"

Yes, It's May the 4th ... May the 4th be with you ... Happy Star Wars Day. (A joke good only once a year.)
---

Darren didn't call me last night. I called him on Monday and hoped that he'd call back. I should just email him. I'm glad to hear he's working for McGraw-Hill. But I kidded him that he works for the same company as Lowell. I need to email him, and several others.
---

Woo Hoo! Book Discussion group tomorrow! I'm all up to speed on the book. I picked up the DVD of Girl with the Pearl Earring and would like to watch it tonight. Hopefully, there will be several people there.
---

I missed the end of The Amazing Race last night. Too bad about Meredith and Gretchen. They lasted much longer than most people thought. I think I'm rooting for Uchenna & Joyce to win. I still haven't seen Joyce's hair since it was shaved in India. I didn't realize this show was in its seven race. I do wish that Teri, of Teri and Ian, from Amazing Race 3 would write a book of some type. She was fascinating and should have some great stories and advise.

It's Tuesday - Remember to Vote

Hopefully, the school levy will pass. But we're moving before the next school year begins.

Here's the results:

2-CITY OF PATASKALA (REPLACEMENT)
5 MILLS FOR 5 YRS. FOR POLICE PROTECTION
...FOR THE TAX LEVY . . . . . . . . 1,792 53.46
...AGAINST THE TAX LEVY . . . . . . 1,560 46.54

9-SOUTHWEST LICKING L.S.D. (ADDITIONAL)
7 MILLS-5 YRS-EMERGENCY REQUIREMENTS
...FOR THE TAX LEVY . . . . . . . . 4,747 63.21
...AGAINST THE TAX LEVY . . . . . . 2,763 36.79

10-WEST LICKING JOINT FIRE DIST. (ADDITIONAL)
1 MILL FOR 5 YRS. FOR FIRE PROTECTION
...FOR THE TAX LEVY . . . . . . . . 5,234 56.18
...AGAINST THE TAX LEVY . . . . . . 4,082 43.82

Everything passed.

Monday's Thoughts

Monday was the cutover for the new ERP system at work. Replacing a multiude of home-grown and older, unsupported commercial systems. As I went out to the car, I saw a blue heron flying in the west. It was heading to the north and I took it as a good sign.

In the evening, I finished Girl with the Pearl Earring. I'm looking forward to book discussion on Thursday. I need to research a few more of Vermeer's paintings. The concert one and the milk maid one are mentioned in the book, and include a couple of the characters.