Sunday, October 24, 2004

World Series: Game One

Red Sox 11, Cardinals 9 at Fenway.

(Sorry, Christopher)

I did watch most of the game. This is proving to be an exciting series, at least the first game was. Go Red Sox!

Posted by at 11:13 PM
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Spartan & Oklahoma

Here are a couple movie reviews from the past week. I watched one last weekend, but never posted about it. I watched the other this afternoon, finally, and it was well worth the wait.

First up is Spartan:

The investigation into a kidnapping of the daughter of a high-ranking US government official.

Written and directed by David Mamet, it’s typical of his work although not as good as The Spanish Prisoner, which was tighter and had better production values. There were points in Spartan where it felt like he was filming in his house or a badly set studio lot. I’m discovering that I like his stuff albeit somewhat reluctantly. He’s the type of filmmaker that people either really like or don’t.

OK, so I sort of liked it despite some serious plot holes, terrible acting (I’m not a fan of Val Kilmer), and purely speculative federal law enforcement tactics. If you like David Mamet, then you might like this one. If you don’t, then don’t bother. I give it 2.5 stars out of five (or as my Dad calls them, 2.5 Jen Stars).

The second DVD is the 1999 production of Oklahoma!, starring the uber-dreamy Hugh Jackman. I have a confession - I had never before seen any version of Oklahoma! prior to my viewing of the DVD today. I missed out on a great musical, although I knew a lot of the songs. So I have no comparison, but I thought this production was excellent - they did a great job of filming the stage production without losing the sense of the stage.

Of course, Hugh was fantastic - he’s really quite talented and a triple threat in that he can act, sing, and dance well. I saw the evidence of that when I saw The Boy From Oz in July. Add his good looks and he’s more like a quadruple threat. The other performers were just as good and I thought the chemistry between Curly and Laurie was believable, the tension created by Jud was felt, and the spirit of the pioneers in Oklahoma was evident.

A few specific thoughts: 1) I was struck by how morbid and odd the song Curly and Jud sang about Jud’s imaginary death and funeral was - it was a dark scene that was unexpected. Just weird. 2) I loved the ballet of Laurie’s dream at the end of Act I. I found it romantic and haunting, which I guess was the point of it. 3) The sets were awesome. I especially liked how they used the backdrop to indicate the time of day with lighting. You have to see it to know what I’m talking about, but the backdrop is permanent, they just change the lighting to give the effect of day and night. It’s brilliant and effective. 4) I found myself crying when Curly proposed to Laurie - Hugh was almost crying and he was so genuine, the perfect chick moment. I’m a fan, but the man’s a star.

I give Oklahoma! 4 Jen Stars. Go rent it*.

*One warning: there are references to nudie pics and there are a couple camera shots of the pics on Jud’s wall. They’re blurry enough, but you can still tell what you’re looking at. I was a little surprised to see that.

Posted by at 10:30 PM
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Saturday, October 23, 2004

And We’re Packin’ and Movin’…

It was another day of schlepping my stuff over to ECD’s house. I had a large pile of boxes ready to be moved already, so I spent the morning purging more things to be tossed out. I have pack rat tendancies, but I’ve moved so often that I’ve never been able to really accumulate a lot of junk. And I can be ruthless to get rid of stuff when it’s necessary. I have a feeling a large yard sale is in our future.

I spent a long time sorting through the storage bin of gift wrap, gift bags, and ribbon. I lucked into a large quantity of free ribbon from the Hallmark that I worked at and I also took advantage of my employee discount to stock up on gift supplies. But in the last couple of years the box I store it all in was trashed. I emptied it out and I was reminded that I have some lovely fabric ribbon that I could have been using but it was hidden underneath other stuff. And I have a lot of white tissue paper for some reason, not a bad thing, just odd because I don’t remember buying that much. I also pulled out the under-the-bed container that holds my roll wrapping paper to be taken over to the house. At this point, I won’t need it until Christmas anyway.

ECD came over at about lunch time - so we ate some Chinese food before we started hauling my stuff to her SUV. She also helped me pack my stoneware dishes in a great box my mother had given to me, although it’s now heavy enough that we weren’t comfortable carrying it down the stairs. That will wait for when the men come to do the heavy lifting.

We took Annie over again. This time she and Sassy didn’t start out fighting, which was encouraging. That’s not to say there weren’t some incidents, but they did much better.  I think once we’re in the house, Annie will feel more comfortable knowing what’s her turf in the house and she’ll relax. She was tuckered when we got home though. I had to carry her up the stairs because she just couldn’t do it tonight - poor thing. She’s snoring on the bed behind me right now.

Truth is I’m a little weary and achy, too. *Game Break: David Ortiz just slammed a 3-run homer. Oooh, they scored a 4th run. Happy!*

OK, I’m done rambling - on to some blog reading and Red Sox watching…

Posted by at 10:24 PM
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Friday, October 22, 2004

The Curse: It’s Just a Meme?

Steve the Llama Butcher deconstructs the Curse of the Bambino for the meme that it is. He’s put together an excellent history of how the Curse was born. My favorite part:

The point here is that “The Curse” was something that is not 86 years old (since the Sawx last won the Series with Ruth on the mound in 1918) but only 14, since Dan Shaughnessy, a notorious Boston Globe sportswriter, coined a term and decided to drive an entire region of the country into the loving arms of Mother Paxil.

Here’s Shaughnessy in today’s Globe:

Let’s get one thing straight: the Curse of the Bambino has not been lifted. The job is not yet done.

Let’s get one thing straight: Dan Shaughnessy needs to shuthispiehole. He created “The Curse” and it would kill him if it were “lifted.” It would be as if The Donald could no longer fire anybody.

Heh. Run along to read the whole thing now. Posted by at 06:59 PM
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Lots To Do

I’m starting to feel a little mentally overwhelmed between my job, which is busy and getting busier and my life, which is in transition between my pending move and a new best friend who is also a new Christian and a little needy as a result. Fortunately, God provides in all circumstances, so while the stress is building, my anxiety is still pretty low.

WORK: There are days when I feel like I’m barely holding my head above water on certain tasks. There are other days when I’m swimming along just fine. The “hiring” freeze has been lifted so that means that at some point I’ll be able to put in for the job that I’m currently doing, but that means putting together my resume packet. And there’s no guarantee that I’d get the promotion even though I’ve been doing the job for the better part of a year, which sucks.

THE MOVE: I’ve been packing stuff every night after work. I went through three boxes that never got unpacked when I moved back here four years ago - threw out a lot of junk - which gave me empty boxes to put new, keeper junk in. I have a growing stack of stuff that’s ready to be hauled to ECD’s tomorrow.

I’m actually feeling pretty good about my progress. We’ve moved the furniture moving date to November 13. That will give me two weeks to clear out the last junk that doesn’t get moved by that date and to clean the apartment before turning over the keys. (Note to self: call the utility companies to schedule disconnection and arrange reconnection at ECD’s.)

BEST FRIEND: ECD is in a tough part of life with the break up of her marriage and trying to raise her daugher alone while working full time and feeling responsible for her daughter’s emotional well-being now that her Daddy is no longer around. She’s also in a great part of life with her new found faith in Jesus. She’s all over the map emotionally and spiritually and obviously needs to talk about it. I’m happy to be there for her, but it’s a challenge for my “no mercy” personality. I’m not empathetic to other people’s needs usually and I tend to be an analytical “fixer.” So I’m praying for grace and patience and trying to be quiet and listen when my instinct is telling me to give her a rational solution. I laughed inside yesterday when she told me that I’m a good listener, because I’m not really - so I’m thankful that God is leading me in this.

What keeps coming back to me is how good God is and my gratitude for His presence, felt and unfelt, in my life. It’s been fun to see how He’s revealing Himself to ECD and for the challenge He’s given to me in this initial period of discipleship.

Posted by at 02:21 PM
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Thursday, October 21, 2004

LOST on TWoP

LOST was great last night, by the way. I won’t be talking about it because I don’t have the time. But I did want to point out that the Television Without Pity recaps are pretty good. I’ve only read the pilot episode so far, but it was snarky and funny. The initial impression you get of the cast of characters is hilarious and the recapper’s assessment of certain plot points is right on.

For the more sensitive, be warned that there is adult language in the recaps (mostly the F-bomb) - it’s definitely PG-13 to R rated.

Posted by at 02:11 PM
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Bleary-Eyed East Coast Baseball Fans

We have a few days to catch up on our sleep before the madness begins again. I’m kind of pulling for Houston to win game 7 of the NLCS tonight for a couple of reasons: 1) I have friends in and from Houston and 2) it would be fun to see Clemens pitch in Boston against the team he abandoned for The Evil Empire before heading “home” to Houston. Boston fans are not forgiving of that sort of betrayal in light of the Curse.

Meantime, Robert the Llama Butcher has the best Star Wars picture up to commemorate the Fenway Rebel Alliance’s defeat of the Evil Empire (for some reason their page won’t load right now. I’ll try to get the permalink in a bit). I enjoyed his postgame Star Wars analogous analysis this week.

UPDATE (8:10pm): Munuvia is reborn. The permalink for Robbo’s post is here. Please go visit, since he missed out on the daytime traffic because of technical difficulties.

UPDATE (Fri 10:28am): Congrats to Christopher whose St. Louis Cardinals defeated Clemens and crew last night. As I said in the comments - we should have a good World Series ahead. May the Curse be ended.

Posted by at 11:33 AM
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Red Sox Win The Pennant!!

The Curse ain’t over yet - there’s still that elusive World Series win to gain. However, the are well on their way and certainly have some major league momentum going into Game 1 on Saturday.

Great, great game. I love that it was clear from the first inning that they were out to win.

I wonder if Nomar is bummin’ over his mid-season trade to the Cubbies.

Posted by at 02:16 AM
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Wednesday, October 20, 2004

TAR6, November 16

Thanks to fellow The Amazing Race-obessed fan kdeweb, who clued me into the announcement of the premiere date of TAR Season 6.

“The Amazing Race 6,” initially slated for the Saturday 8 p.m. slot, will now run Tuesdays at 9 p.m., beginning with a two-hour premiere Nov. 16.

I’m grateful that the powers-that-be at CBS were wise enough to keep their best show (yes, above Survivor) on Tuesday nights (and an hour earlier!) instead of moving it to the show-killer Saturday.

Don’t forget that I’m the Quiz Master for the TAR League. If you’re interested in joining the crew from last season, let me know in the comments.

Posted by at 09:52 PM
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Could This Be The End?

As Steve Robert the Llama Butcher says,

I’m not sure how much more of this I can stand.....

Yankee Death Star 3, Fenway Rebel Alliance 3

Go Sox!

I did stay up for the entire game last night, although there was some mild dozing around the 6th-7th innings, I think. I woke up when Bellhorn’s double-turned-homerun got the crowd going. At that point I was wide awake and riveted for the rest of the game.

The umps get mega-kudos for making two call corrections. If only they had been that honest when the Jeffrey Maier incident cost the Orioles a World Series berth in the mid-90s. (Yes, I’m still bitter. See the entry for October 9 at the link for the story.)

Tonight, I shall be viewing LOST “live” but will switch to the game immediately upon that show’s conclusion and will be parked on my sofa and freaking out my dog with my exuberant cheering, clapping, and yelling at the TV for the duration of Game 7.

Posted by at 01:11 PM
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Tuesday, October 19, 2004

Procrastinating…

Which File Extension are You?

[via jay solo]

Posted by at 12:47 PM
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Social Security Truth

Neil Cavuto’s Common Sense from yesterday is what I’ve said for years about Social Security.

Social Security (search) is broken and it needs fixing. Either we hike the retirement age, cut some of the benefits, or do both. But we have to do something now. And while I’m ticking off interest groups, let me tick off some treasured ones:

Like the elderly: You are entitled to our respect, but not our every last dollar. It is not the government’s job to look after you, so much so that it bankrupts generations behind you.

To my fellow baby boomer (search) generation: Quit acting like you’re still the entitled generation. You spent, but never saved and now you’re looking to the government to save you. Save me your whining.

To the sons and daughters of boomers: Get over your cynicism with the system and start finding solutions “in” the system.

And for victims everywhere: Quit looking for sympathy anywhere. It’s one thing to feel slighted, it’s quite another to feel entitled.

We have a great country, but too many of us want to suck off this country, by demanding still more from this country. It’s why government grows bigger and entitlements messier. No one has the guts to simply say, “no.”

Remember the old line that a government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you have? Well, it includes your own initiative.

Protecting the weak doesn’t mean also coddling the strong. Looking after the least of us doesn’t mean programs to support all of us.

Right on! Posted by at 12:30 PM
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Monday Night TeeVee

The videotape of LOST arrived in yesterday’s mail (thanks, Jaynee!) so I was all excited to watch that. But I decided to watch it after the Red Sox game, which I had begun listening to in the car on my way home. At about 8:30pm, I realized the the game could go into extra innings, so I started the tape.

What a fantastic episode! But I have to say that I wasn’t as blown away by the “surprise” about Mr. Locke as others seemed to be - I could see the signs throughout the episode. But it does raise some interesting questions about the plane crash and the island, doesn’t it? I love this new show.

So back to the ballgame...I was pumped up by the better play of the Sox, but I was also getting sleepy, so when the 13th inning ended, I decided to just go to bed, hoping for a Red Sox win. I’m sure you can imagine my delight when I saw the final score this morning. Woo Hoo! And then my disgust to learn that they won in the 14th inning! Dang - I could have managed to stay up for another 20 minutes or so. But I’m happy and a little more optimistic about their game later today.

UPDATE: Oh, yeah, I forgot one thing about LOST - anyone else get the homage to Office Space? It was the scene with Locke in his office cubicle, the manager asked about the TPS report. Cracked me up.

Posted by at 12:15 PM
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Priceless Voiceover: The Answer

My dad called me this morning to inquire about the answer to the trivia question about the “priceless” MasterCard voiceover guy.

To find the answer, I googled on mastercard priceless voiceover, which gave me this link to Google Answers where I read the following.

Yep, Billy Crudup has been MasterCard’s “priceless” voice since ‘97.
link

After listening to the commercial several times since learning who’s voice it is, I can hear it.

I think he may do the voiceover for the AFLAC commercials too (not the duck, but the guy at the end of the ads that gives general info), but I’m researching that to verify it. So far I’m not finding verification.

UPDATE: Looks like I’m wrong about the AFLAC ads. This guy claims to have those voiceovers.

Posted by at 11:42 AM
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Lame Church Signs #10 and #11

I forgot to post last week’s sign:

If you feel dog tired at night, maybe you growled all day

This week’s sign is equally insipid.

If at first you don’t succeed, try reading the instructions

*collective groans heard all over* Posted by at 11:39 AM
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