Tuesday, August 05, 2003

Here’s the thing - the bishop is living in open sin by living with his lover. If he were heterosexual and living with a lover then I would have the same problem with him in a leadership position in the Church. I believe that the Bible is very clear about this - both the Old and New Testaments.

There’s a fantastic Episcopal church here that we have ties to. We have several friends who’ve been members over the years, my uncle is a member, my sister and brother-in-law were married at the church (which is a historical landmark in Fairfax, I think, and quite beautiful), the pastor is wonderful, I have attended many of my friends’ weddings at that church (including one where Joe Gibbs was also a guest - I love to name-drop that one). I have no doubt that Truro will leave the Episcopal Church of America if this guy is voted in as Bishop of NH. They are solidly Anglican and I can’t imagine that they would keep an affiliation with them after this.

UPDATE (Wed 10:30pm): Tony has a pretty good post about it.

I’m in misery from eating way too much food. We still have more than half of it all left. We’ll be eating it all week.

*groan*

UPDATE (5:15pm): The conference room is no longer party central. All food has been neatly stored in the frig until tomorrow’s redux. I’m heading home where I am telling myself now that I’ll crash on the sofa and finish reading my book. But I know that the reality is that the siren call of my computer will draw me inexorably to it and I’ll end up blogging tonight. So I’ll see all of you later.

List updated 8/5 to reflect one I can’t believe I forgot and to add Honorable Mentions. Updates are in italics.

In light of my posting of my Top Ten All Time Movies, I thought I’d list my favorite (and what I consider to be the best) TV mini-series.

Honorable Mention:  Tenko - a PBS series that ran when I was in my early teens, this one was about female POWs held by the Japanese in Malaysia during WW2. (For a good movie on the same subject see Paradise Road.) The women were the wives of diplomats or business men who were stationed in Asia.

10.  Danger UXB - another PBS series that ran when I was in my early teens, this was also set during WW2 about a British team of soldiers whose main task was to take care of unexploded bombs.

9.  The Stand - based on the Stephen King novel, while it had cheesy effects, the basic story of good versus evil was excellent.

8.  Holocaust - from the 1970s, the first thing I saw as a kid that showed the horrors of the holocaust. Today it’s a little dated, but still good.

7.  Roots - a classic, no other explanation is necessary.

6.  The Forsyte Saga (2002) - a remake of the PBS series from the 1960s, a family saga spanning three generations.

5. Horatio Hornblower - the A&E saga of a young sailor in the Royal Navy, his adventures on the high seas and in foreign lands. Very well done.

4.  Lonesome Dove - easily the best adaptation of a novel that I’ve ever seen, it looked exactly as I had imagined it and the casting was superb.

3.  A&E’s Pride and Prejudice - beloved Jane Austen brilliantly done with near perfect casting, beautiful settings, and faithful to the novel.

2.  From the Earth to the Moon - if you’re interested in the race to the moon, then this is an excellent retelling of the challenges, tragedies, and triumphs of the NASA efforts in the 1960s.

1.  Band of Brothers - a faithful adaptation of Stephen E. Ambrose’s book following the exploits of the 101st Airborne’s Easy Company from their training days to D-Day to the Battle of the Bulge to the taking of Berlin.

Monday, August 04, 2003

Bryan at Clarity Amidst Chaos has a very witty post about fast, junk, yummy food that includes a rant (actually two, sort of) that made me laugh out loud.

tangential thought alert: why do fast food restaurants make up the stupidest names for their products? I feel like an idiot asking for the BK Big Fish, or the McChicken McByproduct McNuggets in a McBox. Isn’t it enough that I’m willing to pay money for food rated by the FDA as Grade D: Edible? Why is that they have to take my dignity and treat it like the stale fries in the bin left from the night before? And can’t we agree on an industry standard for ordering the next larger size in a combo meal? At one place you’re “king-sizing” it. then you’re “super-sizing,” or “up-sizing,” or “cholesterol-DSL-ing” or “going into angioplasty hyperdrive.” And they (they, of course, meaning the highly trained professional behind the cash register who earned his/her earphones by reaching the lofty goal of showing up for work on time for an entire month) always act so insulted when you use the wrong “upgrade” term at their culinary driver-through bistro. “I’m sorry, sir, you can’t ‘King-Size’ it here. That’s across the street. Here, we ‘Super-Larger-Jumbo-Biggie-it-Up Size.’” Yeah. I’m definitely checking for a loogie hidden in any burger handled by that kid. No Double Phlegm Burger for me today, thanks. And it’s never the same thing. At McCoronary’s, they have four levels of upsizing available. At Bypass King, it’s one choice, regular or Belt Buster. At one place, an upsize means a medium drink and fries, instead of a small. You go to the place next door and order an upsize, and they’re tossing a ten-pound bag of idaho spuds and a plastic keg of Mr. Pibb through your window.

Mr. Cootiehog challenged me to name my all time favorite movie (or rather what I consider to be the best of all time) in a comment. His is Star Wars, which I think is excellent and a classic, but is not what I consider the best of all time.

Now given that I haven’t seen some of the movies that are considered classic bests (Casablanca or Citizen Kane for example), this is my list of the Top Ten based on what I’ve actually seen:

10.  Alien - this is always in my top ten, it’s the best of it’s genre, the one that set the trend that is copied in all suspense/horror movies today.

9.  Star Wars - it’s a classic fairy tale with excellent special effects for it’s time.

8.  To Kill a Mockingbird - who doesn’t love Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch?

7.  The Manchurian Candidate - suspenseful, heartbreaking, brilliant.

6.  Forrest Gump - I got a little tired of the famous people being put into Forrest’s life after a bit, but you can’t ignore the message and heart of this movie.

5.  Yankee Doodle Dandy - this is my favorite musical of all time (followed closely by Holiday Inn). Cagney as the singing, dancing, composing George M. Cohan.

4.  Psycho - the shower, Mother, Norman, black & white, scary goodness.

3.  The Bridge on the River Kwai - I know that the real POWs who experienced the events depicted in this movie hate the movie because it’s not based too much on reality. But it’s a classic tale of pride, patriotism, determination.

2.  Braveheart - it’s all about Freedom.

1.  Schindler’s List - doing what you can to make a difference, prevailing against evil, documenting history.

This is my list. You don’t have to agree, I don’t expect you to. And it was tough to cull the list to these 10 - I could have done a top twenty...thirty...100.

UPDATE (Tues 9:45am): I realized this morning (while I was cooking food and getting ready for work) that I completely forgot the Lord of the Rings Trilogy! D’oh! So I’m going to drop Star Wars to Honorable Mention and move LOTR to #4, with the rest moving down accordingly.

LW and I left the office at 3pm to head to Costco to buy the food for tomorrow. We parted ways at about 4:30pm, where we headed to our respective living locations where we were goign to stop at a grocery store to pick up the little things we still needed. I got home at about 6pm, which was pretty good.

I promptly began prepping the stuff I signed up to make - mac & cheese, hash-brown potato casserole(s), cutting huge blocks of cheese into cubes. I also have wings and shrimp that I’ll cook tomorrow morning. And I have the veggies that need to be prepped too. I’ll do that in the morning too. And I’m taking my black bean dip. My trunk will be full of wonderfully smelling, tasty treats for the dreaded commute.

LW has the other half of what we bought. She’ll have a longer night - as the mother of two, her food prep is probably starting about now. Poor thing...but she’s younger too, has more energy.

I know no one cares about this but me and maybe my parents. Because they love me.

PromoGuy’s Monday Mission 3.31:

1. When you take a vacation, do you ever suffer from Internet withdrawal? Or maybe the nagging urge to blog or read blogs? Or are you glad to be away?

Yes. Yes. Yes/No.

2. Have you ever been “furloughed” (told to take time off work without pay) or laid off? How did that impact your family dynamics? Your finances? If not to you, have you seen it happen to anyone you know? How did they handle it?

I worked for a government contractor back when Daddy Bush was President. Remember his “no new taxes” reneging? There was a two week period when the government was shut down because Congress wouldn’t pass the budget. So I was at home, without pay, for two weeks.

Fortunately, I was young and single so it didn’t impact me too much financially. I think I was still living at my parents too. I can’t remember exactly.

3. If you fell on hard times, what is are some non-essential reoccurring luxury expenses (cable TV, TiVo subscription, cigarettes, high-speed net connection, newspaper, daily Starbucks coffee, etc.) you would give up to save money?

When I was unemployed last year, I cut back on a lot. But I managed to keep my cable and internet connected. I had some financial help during those months.

The biggest thing I cut back on was book buying. I’m a bibliophile, but I started to go to the library instead. I love to own the books I read, but I’m a lot choosier about what I buy after having been too poor to buy any books at all.

4. On the same thought, what is the one non-essential expense you would NOT give up?

Cable for sure. I can get internet access from other sources if I need it.

5. Would you ever ask your family (parents, in-laws, relatives) for financial assistance? What would be some of your concerns about asking for help? Have you ever asked for it before? Did it go well?

Yes. I have asked for and received help from family a lot, actually. My only barrier to asking at this point is pride and my feeling of being a burden. But I have a generous family for which I am thankful. And they know that if the circumstances were reversed I would be more than happy to help them.

6. Has a friend or relative ever borrowed money from you? Who were they and how much did they want? Did you ever get paid back, or did it matter? Did you feel compelled to keep an eye on them to see if they spent it wisely?

Yes. I won’t divulge who and what it was, there’s no need. I was happy to help - there was no need to pay me back. No, they wouldn’t have come to me if they didn’t need the money - I trusted them to use it how they needed it. Really, I looked at it as my gift to them - sure, they asked for it, but I was happy to help.

7. Imagine you won a tax-free gift of $7,000. The only stipulation on the gift is that it must not be invested or saved, and must be spent before 2004. How would you use the money?

I would tithe first, then pay off debt.

BONUS: Whatever happened to unity?

Who says it ever really existed?

We’ve got a good list of food for tomorrow.

Queso, potstickers, taquitos, wings, barbeque, grilled chicken, veggies, pasta salad, mac & cheese, baked beans, pigs-in-a-blanket…

YUM!

UPDATE: We’re heading out to Price Club (aka Costco) in a few minutes. Don’t you wish you had a job that allowed you to take an afternoon to shop at discount supermarkets on company time? And just let me remind you that this is your tax dollars at work! It’s all about morale, right?

I’ll be sort of busy all week - working on the payroll codes thing. But as I’m inspired, I’ll blog. Or when I need a break from timesheets and numbers. Or when I’m procrastinating - like now.

I don’t have much else to say this morning. I just want to ping Weblogs.com so you’ll all come running over. So to make it worth your while, in the comments, please tell what was the best thing you did this weekend (and keep it clean!)…

Sunday, August 03, 2003

James at Outside the Beltway links to this WaPo article about the 11 “paintball terrorists” (as we call them in the office).

The U.S. government is considering upgrading the charges against the 11 Muslim men indicted as part of a “Virginia jihad network,” a prosecutor said in court yesterday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon D. Kromberg told a judge in U.S. District Court in Alexandria that one of the defendants had told investigators that the men’s ultimate goal was “to fight American soldiers” and not just support a Pakistan-based militant group fighting India.

Flipping through the channels I discovered that ABC is running Paulie - this is a great, great movie that makes me smile just thinking about it.

It only took an hour to get a good connection today. *sigh* I really need to sign up for DSL.

My brother-in-law (and my sister too) was horrified that I liked Punch-Drunk Love. He commented that I should watch Panic with William H. Macy. Since I had a coupon, I rented it today.

That’s a good movie. I liked it a lot. (Jared should give this one a try as well.) I recognized the woman who played Macy’s mother right away, but I couldn’t think of her name or where I knew her from. The closing credits brought that “ah ha!” moment when I saw her name - Barbara Bain. She was in Space 1999 back in the 70s, a show I loved.

My favorite scenes were of Macy with his son - such a cute kid. The best one:

SON: Dad, when can I get a guitar?

DAD: When you’ve mastered the harmonica.

SON: When can I get an electric guitar?

DAD: When you have your own house.

There’s some adult language and subject matter, but this is one I can recommend.

Saturday, August 02, 2003

Somehow at lunch today, my Dad’s dad came up in conversation. He died when I was 10, so I never really got a chance to know him since I had spent most of my childhood up to that point either on the west coast or in England. I have a few specific memories of him - he was a diehard Redskins fan, he loved ice cream, he was gruff but kind, he was quiet.

Over the years my Dad would occasionally talk about him. I learned that he was in the Navy during World War 2, he played baseball, he put himself through college. Today I learned some stuff I had never heard before and it was mind-boggling. So the following is a little history lesson on my family. Dad can correct any of my errors in retelling it in the comments.

1. His first job was at a papermill. I can’t explain his exact job quickly here, but the guy who worked across from him in the assembly line had lost the tips of his fingers in that job. My grandfather decided he wanted to keep his fingers and applied to the Richmond Police Academy.

WHAT? My grandfather was a cop?

2. Yep. He was accepted to the Richmond PD where he walked a beat and later drove a car. Apparently my grandfather (we called him Pop) was shot when he and his partner responded to a bank robbery. The bank was on the second floor. He went in the door and was on his way up the stairs when the robber started down. There was plate glass between them. When the robber saw Pop, he fired his double barrel shotgun. The shot shattered the glass and then hit Pop’s leather jacket. He didn’t have a scratch. Pop shot the robber, who died.

Dad also told of the baseball games the Richmond PD would play with the bootleggers (this was during the Depression). Whoever won the game, won a case of whiskey. Somehow the PD always won. Imagine that…

3. When Pop went into the Navy during WWII, he was a shore patrolman. I knew that. What I didn’t know was that he played craps and won enough money to buy my grandmother’s engagement ring.

4. After the war, Pop became a gate guard at CIA. WHAT? This was news to me...it gets even better. After a while, he was moved “inside” where he worked in a secure room with a phone, notepad, and pen. He was to answer the phone, write down whatever was said, and at the end of the day turn in whatever he had. Some days the phone would ring all day. Others it didn’t ring at all. I asked if he could read a book or something and Dad said no. I would have gone nuts! But it turns out Pop was most likely receiving coded messages from field operatives from around the world, so as boring as the actual work was, he was helping fight the Cold War. That’s pretty cool.

He was offered a top secret position somewhere else with CIA. All they could tell him was that he would be within 1500 miles of Washington, DC. So Pop got a globe and mapped out that 1500 mile radius around DC and decided there were enough places in that area that he didn’t want to go to and turned it down.

4.  Pop left the CIA to become a milkman. I knew this about him. He delivered milk while he was at CIA too and decided to get into the dairy industry full time.

5. Eventually, he got into Automated Data Processing (ADP) and worked at Health, Education & Welfare (HEW - what is now two agencies: Education and Health & Human Services). He retired from HEW, bought a farm in Drakes Branch, VA, where he died one summer day while building a bench around a tree.

He sounds like the kind of guy I would have loved to hang around with. I’m sad he didn’t live long enough for me to get to know him better. Thanks for sharing the history today, Dad.

Up next in the family history of Jen: my grandmother’s bootlegger father and uncles, the 50-foot yacht, and 9 daughters. Now this side of the family is something else!

I can’t believe it’s already 5pm! Sheesh. I had a very productive day:

1. Ran errands - managed to get everything I needed at two stores - Wal-Mart and Target. Yay!

2. Went to my parents to scope out my mother’s discarded stuff. I came home with three lamps and the Amish quilt that we drove up to Pennsylvania for about 20 years ago when we were getting ready to redecorate my room. It’s faded from the sun in places, but I love it and I’m very happy to have it. Thanks, Mom.

She showed me some stuff that she had bagged. Knick-knack stuff. So I opened one bag and in amidst the country stuff was something that didn’t go - a Rubik’s cube. It’s in very good condition. Dad snagged it with plans to Google the trick to solving it.

While I was there they had a Culligan water guy stop by to discuss a water softening system for their house. At one point, Spanky the cat made that weird noise that I had heard once before when she was visiting at my place for a week. I looked at Mom and we managed to communicate nonverbally:

ME: You want me to get her?

MOM: Yes, please!

So I ran to steer the cat to the basement where she yakked at the base of the stairs then flew up the stairs to cough up the hairball right there in the hallway. Nice. Some of you may remember my experience with Sympathetic Puker Reflex™. SPR™ immediately kicked in, with me praying fervently that I wouldn’t make horrible gagging sounds while the Culligan man was discussing chlorine and whatnot with my parents. God is good indeed, as I was able to clean up the mess with only one half-gag. *shudder*

Dad made it up to me by offering to buy lunch, so while Mom and I discussed some of her redecorating ideas, he went out to get lunch. After we ate I helped Dad take down the vertical blinds in their sunroom because their new blinds are being installed this week, I think.

Then Mom hooked me up with cookies from her freezer and I came home. Yay! Thanks again, Mom!

Friday, August 01, 2003

I was visiting Mrs. Cootiehog’s place and found a link to The Editing Room. What will you find? Parody scripts to current movies.

The Recruit is hilarious and completely nails it. ***spoiler and adult language warning***

AL PACINO
Everything is a test, Colin.
Nothing is what it seems in the CIA.  Especially the muffins - they’re all fat free.