Hot off the presses, heres a pair of movie reviews from tonights Monday night movie – ONCE. John Carney (“circus folk – small hands”) directed this flick from the Emerald Isle that we saw at the Arclight. Heres a pair of reviews from me and Casey, to give you an idea, either of the movie or of our differing movie tastes.

So Im looking into setting up a super-simple phone system, and Im wondering why I cant manage to find even the most basic list of what Im going to need. Theres no mention of hardware that seems completely obvious to me, and I dont understand what that hardware is, exactly, without someone saying “you need a BLAH to get connected to your major telco.” Also, I dont know what SIP is.

Looks like Im playing outside my field on this one. What else is new?

Just thought Id mention that because I tried to install the updated Beta for Safari for Windows and it blew chunks. The install locked up my system the first time, then the second, it went smoothly, but when the promised-browser opened, there were no menu bar items (although the places they should have been highlighted when I zoomed over them with my mouse) and the address bar wouldnt take any addresses.

Ill try one more time today (Ill restart first and have nothing open, just to give Apple a fighting chance), but Im not optimistic for the worlds most stable operating system at the moment.

I cant believe a week has gone by – I feel like nothings happened, but that cant be true. This is an update to break me out of the habit of not updating, and to make it seem less intimidating to update when I actually have something to say. Im trying to be efficient again, but I have things to fix and stuff to do.

More later. WAITRESS tonight. OCEANS THIRTEEN was pretty good, if a little disjointed.

I feel a little like my weekend started on Thursday, since I eventually left for San Diego and crawled through traffic that afternoon. Friday was a movie day for me, waiting for Cathryn to finish her business before heading back up here for the “real” weekend. I ended up getting back far too late to go to the once-vaunted Spider Club, and opted instead to go to bed.

Saturday was a do-nothing day – I caught up on work and on some e-mails, but mostly it was laundry and wishing that my computer crashed less. Then, Saturday night was BootieLA. Its at a new location, but it was a great one, and a great party to boot. Next month is the 2-year anniversary, so that should be fun, too.

Yesterday I struggled out of bed after a mere 4 hours of sleep to go with CJ to get some shoes for work, then got home and immediately went down to Venice to go surfing. My first surfing experience basically ever was marred by a terrible calf cramp (I only seem to get them in the water – why is that?) and terrible weather (60, cloudy and windy as hell), but overall, it was still a very very fun experience. I even managed to get up on my board some.

Last night, Pris finally got home so she and I went out for a drink to celebrate her return from Barcelona and her birthday (albeit a day late) and then a collapsed into bed. five hours later, here I am. It was a long day yesterday.

Sprint has generally been good to me as far as customer service goes, but because I missed the 30-day cancellation on the mobile broadband thing, Im SOL (as they say) and have to pay the $200 early termination fee. As it stands, thats cheaper than 3 months of service, so Im coming out ahead by the end of the summer (when Id be using the card very little if at all).

Technology often gets the best of me, if I do say so myself.

Anyone want to help me build a better NAS box for my house? Im currently running a full WinXP machine, but I feel like I might be better off running something else, and maybe some dedicated hardware would do the trick. Now, if only I had time to set something up, and test it. Geh.

Nerdy!

The weekend slid by fast. Katie, Andy and Amy came for Saturday, which turned into Saturday afternoon after airport snafus, and then Saturday night at the Dime. It was a good time, although the New Yorkers were tired. My car battery died on Sunday, necessitating a bunch of research into the best way to acquire a new one, a task which has yet to be completed because it seems that car batteries are $75. Weak.

PIRATES 3 was decent – I feel like it was as good as it could have been, given the insane situations set up by the second one. The various pirates were full-fledged witches now, too, which was totally lame, and when Jack Sparrow was in Davey Jones Locker, it was more like THE CELL than the watery grave that any sane person would imagine. There was some swordplay, but maybe not enough, but Jacks flying around using the ropes was pretty cool to watch. All-in-all, flawed, but LOADS less shitty than SPIDER-MAN 3, so that was good.

Casey & I also caught THE TV SET in the first of what Im going to try to make a weekly Monday night movie thing. It was decent, if meandering, and well-acted all around. I found it hard to sympathize with the main character, for whose “problems” I would gladly give a hearty sum. I also didnt care about the cliche “you work too much” homelife troubles of the British executive, especially because they added up to nothing at the end of the flick.

Come to next weeks movie night – if youre interested, Ill send you an e-mail about what well be seeing. I have no idea what itll be yet, but suggestions are always welcome.

Happy Tuesday!

First of all, I never wished Andrew a happy birthday here on Clapboard. The guy turns 27 only one time and his doltish brother cant even get to a computer to write a happy birthday message from somewhere in Ohio. Pretty weak brother. Sorry Drew. Ill have to write you two next year. If my memory hasnt failed me entirely by then because Im so old.

Also, yesterday was the 30th birthday of Star Wars. Did I do anything for it? Nope. Today, Ill put the original trilogy on in the background while I work to make up for it. I like those movies, especially the first one. I did see a guy walking down Sunset Blvd yesterday dressed as Tatooine Luke.

Today is John Waynes 100th birthday, also. 100? If he wasnt dead, hed be pretty old. As it stands, though, it seems like maybe today is just a good day for Iowa to get some free publicity.

Happy Saturday, everyone. Katie, Amy and Andy are coming in a few hours, so I need to be getting some work done before that. Off I go. But first Ill go grab Star Wars.

At Worlds End… or just at 12:30am, which was the first un-sold out time that we could make, what with the busy schedule of PA work of Casey and all. Its going to require a nap beforehand to make it through (considering how tired I was last night at 10pm, Im probably going to suffer a bit for this one), but Im psyched for 2 hours and 45 minutes of nonsensical battling.

Im also resigned to swimming home in a river of drool, but thats a different story.

So tell me what you think of it, gentle readers, and Ill do the same. It cant be worse than Spider-Man 3, which was as appealing as technicolor vomit, both in style and in substance. Maybe theyll even make this one good enough to make up for PIRATES 2s near-disaster. Only maybe, but still.

Shiver me timbers, mateys! Shiver em right quick! Aarrrrrrr!

Spring 2007 – DC & Baltimore

Ill probably put some more stuff up this week and maybe Ill put the Yellowstone pics both here and there in the next couple of days. You know, if theres a module for putting a random photo up like I already have, I could move everything to there and use Googles bandwidth rather than my own…. Hmm.

One of these days, Ill update for real.

In the meantime, Ill mention that were completely unpacked, all laundry is washed (some is drying and very little is put away), and Ive moved my pics from my camera to my computer. Now I have to organize them and post some online.

In the meanwhile, Ill be catching up on some work (I have a lot of that to do), opening all the bills that I got sent (yay!) and maybe watching some Animaniacs. I hear its a funny show. I need more 2-disc holders for my DVD cases. Maybe I can buy them seperately. Speaking of that, my remote got broken while I was gone, so I have to buy a new one, despite the fact that it works mostly. Ghetto.

BTW, anyone have any experience with Picassa? Ive been asked to download and use it for the Becca and Dave wedding pics, but Im ignorant. Ill post a link when I can.

Despite the fact that we drove, I wanted to post and mention that Im home. Awesome trip. Fantastic. 449 pictures to go through and decide which 100 or so to print and post.

Ill post more later – Im helping Casey unpack. Or hindering. Depending on your point of view.

Ive been away for a long time already!

Wedding, DC/Baltimore, Glen Mills and momentarily, Im off to Ohio!

I got to see Meg & Ket, Kurt, Scott & Sharon, Becca & Dave (obviously), Mike & Heather, Paul & Alyssa, Matt, Steve and Jim & Kat and maybe people Im forgetting because Im exhausted.

Ive been doing yardwork and such for my mom while Ive been in Glen Mills and otherwise hiding in the house reading and organizing old stuff that I didnt know I had. I wish I was faster at scanning things, because Id totally do an embarass-matt website where I put the worst of my high school poetry online, complete with doodles and nonsense.

Anyway, Ive gotta go to bed now because Im getting up at 4:45 am to shower and catch a plane. Lovely, right? Anyway, pictures will be coming forthwith, this much I promise, even if it IS a few days down the road.

The last couple days, Ive been hanging out with Meg & Ket and wandering around the greater Silver Spring area. I got Dunkin Donuts this morning, and Im now sitting in a soft chair that is located geographically almost exactly where I used to play club volleyball during my time here at UMBC. I found a good deal on a sweatshirt, but Im still rocking the old one, because hell, its probably 10 years old.

Today its work and then hanging out with Krol, which is very exciting, and then Im hoping that we can meet up with Scott and Sharon for an evening of fun and excitement old-school style. Maybe Sharon will initiate Naked Hour like she always used to. Well see.

Ill post pictures next time. Next time, gadget… next time.

Three hours of sleep later, here I sit, in LAX, playing on my new Sprint Mobile Broadband card.

W00t. Nerdy!

Im going to check flights fo rmy Grandmothers 90th birthday, respond to CI-related e-mails and start searching for the latest version of Remote Desktop without having to run the WGA nagware on my computer. Im very against WGA nagware, despite the fact that my version of XP is legal on this computer (I think).

In a few hours Ill be in Baltimore/DC and the fun will begin! Happy Wednesday, everybody!

This post could have been called “miles to go before I sleep” or “pointless rambling #3,257”.

Anyway…

The weekend was uneventful, although I did edit and get a little work done. I also watched a little bit of Planet Earth on Saturday, which was beautiful but edited so amazingly poorly that Im soured on watching it again, actually. I also went over to Universal for a couple of freezing hours with LS yesterday and spent last night editing the project until it was time to go to bed. Ive done a lot of editing in the last few days.

Ive gotta go grab a quick shower right now and then go register my car (something that Im only six months overdue on), then Ive gotta come back here, get some real work done and start packing/organizing my stuff for my three-pronged trip. Not to say that Im going to be gone forever, but it certainly seems like it. Baltimore, Philly and then a little cross-country jaunt? Thats me to a T. Ill have to post pictures from the road.

The rough cut of Choice Investigations should be complete tonight, but of course, the “rough cut” is actually going to consist of five or six unattached segments of video. Someday Id love to be able to stitch them all together…. Oh what a dreamer, me.

I wish I could share with you, but now aint the time.

In the meanwhile, Choice Investigations grows bit by bit and Im re-uploading the old video to the site. I dont know why it didnt make it on here, but Im fixing that now.

Happy Friday night.

I know that Tuesday is a little MORE post-weekend than is usually proper, but with my spotty internet, I do what I can and what I must. Ive got a ton of work to do that I havent been able to accomplish because of the annoying spottiness of my connection. Because I have so much crap to be doing, Im going to wait on the picture uploads for a little while longer, too. Theyll get up eventually.

It was great seeing Becca! The weekend was fun in a low-key, chillin-with-friends sort of way, and that was just what I was looking for. Somehow, I managed to end up tired anyway. go figure.

I got to the San Diego Zoo for the first time, which was cool, and to an Air and Space museum thats sort of in the same vicinity. Seeing the old airplanes made me think a lot about building my own plane or helicopter (as if I needed another hobby), but at the end of the day, I think its too much for me to undertake. Besides, the engine from the enduro sitting in my moms lean-to is only a 12.5hp pigmy, if internet rumors are to be believed.

Okay, Im off to do some more work before my internet connection fails again. Think Time Warner is going to offer me anything for the headache and lost revenue that the internet outages have been causing me? Not at all.

This week, you get a weekend update 2 days early! Youre seeing into the future! The future is seeing into you! Gross!

Tonight is KS birthday party (Happy Belated to you, also!), and then tomorrow morning is a drive down to San Diego where I shall spend 2 days in bliss. Or 2 days in San Diego. This is two times in a month for this town – theyve gotta be getting sick of me by now. Its absurd. The scoreboard for my visits to San Diego since I moved to LA:

[align=center]First 2.8 years: 0 – Last .2 years: 2

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Ridiculous. But not bad, as every time I go I get to see Steve in the wild. And this weekend, this special pair of days, this period of pure insanity will also be boasting a pre-nuptial Becca! You dont see those every day.

Expect some pictures and maybe some on-the-road updates, as Ive got both a digital camera and the ability to post from anywhere you can find a cell signal. Woot.

Real quick, from the back porch of Rods place in Vegas, Happy Easter!

I hope everyone is spending it doing exactly what you want to be doing and that you all have bunny cake. If you dont have bunny cake, come spend Easter with me next year and well have bunny cake together. Is anyone hiding eggs? Or finding them?

Thanks to the joys of the internet and the savvy of Emily and a 13 year old, Im currently listening to a song called “Honky-Tonk Badonkadonk.”

No. Really. I am.

Shes got it goin on like Donkey Kong, even. Honestly. I promise that this, along with TWO different (yes, thats the number 2) versions of Paddy Murphy from my childhood will be online by tomorrow morning, available for you to hear on the music server.

There aughta be a law, folks. Get the sheriff on the phone. Its why we do what we do. Yup. It is.

Wow. Oh, and MC Hammer is on his way, too. Might you have seen her? Maybe? as long as the Hammer doesnt hurt em….