Sunday, August 28, 2005

For you folks in the path of now category 4 hurricane Katrina - you are in our prayers. FoxNews Channel is reporting that the hurricane is expected to reach category 5 before reaching the coast. If you are reading this, get off your computers! Evacuate now, please. Be safe and God speed.

UPDATE 7:20am: Katrina has just been upgraded to a category 5 hurricane with winds at 160mph.

Please, please, please get out of the path if you can. This is going to be catastrophic for New Orleans.

Saturday, August 27, 2005

My sister has some awesome video posted at Cootiehog of the two kids playing and screaming at each other.

Be aware that at times the screaming is at a level only dogs can hear.

It’s fantastic!

Tagline: The Most Daring Rescue Mission Of Our Time Is A Story That Has Never Been Told.

Set in the Philippines in 1945, The Great Raid tells the true story of the 6th Ranger Battalion, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Henry Mucci (Benjamin Bratt) who undertake a daring rescue mission against all odds. Traveling thirty miles behind enemy lines, the 6th Ranger Battalion aims to liberate over 500 American prisoners-of-war from the notorious Cabanatuan Japanese POW camp in the most audacious rescue ever.

Great movie - well directed, well told story, well acted.

If you want to know more about what really happened, check the Wikipedia entry.

The coolest thing about the movie is the opening and closing credits - stock footage on both ends of the movie gave the sense of the real men, the real horrors, the reminder that this really happened. No one moved at all during those closing credits.

And it confirmed for me that President Truman was right when he made the difficult decision to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki - the Japanese were not going to surrender peaceably unless they were forced to. I believe that they would have ignored anything other than the nuclear bombs and would have continued to fight and fight and fight.

It has some harsh scenes of brutality and some minor profanity. I highly recommend this movie with 4 out of 4 stars.

1. Vacuumed basement.

2. Cleaned up bedroom. Still need to remake the bed.

3. Cleaned up my junk in the storage/utility room. Got rid of some empty boxes and moved the stuff to the back corner so that it’s out of the way.

4. Set up a makeshift table for the wedding gifts. Arranged gifts on table. We’ve already gotten a lot of things - thanks, folks!

5. Started laundry.

6. Discussed with Dad a new way to work on the stems - he’s going to create a way for me to have the bracing board hooked on the table so that I don’t have to stoop to the floor. The finger tips that fold the wire over the cuphook and hold the bead in place when I’m twisting the wire are getting tender - I think I’ll build up callouses like guitar players get eventually.

Related: I started typing up a how to guide for the bead stems. I hope to post it with pictures sometime soon. It will be added to as I get further along in the process until by the time I’m done the instructions will be fully complete.

7. Mr. Kitty is trying to figure out how to open the unlatched French doors that block the main part of the basement from the stairs and utility room. He headbutts and pawbats at it. We think he’ll eventually figure out the right pressure in the headbutt to get the door to open enough for him to get a paw around to pull it more fully open.

8. Mom and I are going to see The Great Raid this afternoon. Dad isn’t interested, apparently. I will post of a review, of course.

9. I know who was nominated for eviction on BB6. Veto competition is today at 11am PT. The houseguests seem to be getting along rather well at this point - still strategizing for winning position, but none of the acrimony of a couple of weeks ago.

And now I’m going to make some lunch before hitting the shower.

Apparently, there’s a cookbook for Ramen noodle lovers - 101 Things to Do with Ramen Noodles. And it includes desserts. I’m intrigued.

LATER: Oooh, companion cookbooks:

101 Things to Do with a Tortilla
101 Things to Do with a Cake Mix
And then there’s 101 More Things to Do with a Cake Mix.

STILL LATER: Dear heavens, one of the reviews of the tortilla cookbook is hilarious and poetic:

Though this delicacy has long been recognized as a favorite by mid-century minimalists such as Yves Klein and Josef Albers, Ashcraft proves the tortilla is a relevant medium for contemporary art as well. Her stirring arrangements of lettuce and shredded cheese display a keen sensitivity to color and emotion, and establish her as the unrivalled queen of postmodern cookery.

Postmodern cookery?

Friday, August 26, 2005

Somehow I’m not surprised that my math regarding the wire for the stems was way off. Way. Off.

I should have known that the initial amount that I ordered wasn’t going to be nearly enough. Actually, it is only enough for 1/3 of the total stems I need to make. I came to the realization when I reeled off the last portion of wire from the first spool, looked at the stems (about 40), and started reevaluating my math. Have I mentioned before that I have always sucked at math? Apparently, my most basic math skillz have been overtaken by my mad...mad...some other skillz.

You know what’s really scary about this? I work in finance. Heh.

Also, we’ve decided to return the spools of 26 gauge wire and use all 24 gauge - the heavier wire holds it’s shape better and will work for the florists as well. I’ll keep the one partially used spool of 26 gauge wire for the sample beads that we’ll use to supplement in the decorations somewhere.

Turns out that real flowers may be more economical after all. Dang.

Thought Renewal, which is a newish blog by a guy who knew Beau in junior high school. He also knows Tim of Broken Masterpieces and frequent commenter and personal friend of Beau, Gwynne. Small world, huh?

Scary!

Go visit Thought Renewal and consider adding him to your blogroll - he writes thoughtful posts about

Jared,

I’m slowly getting through your manuscript of Black Dog Man. Slowly, but not because it’s not good. On the contrary, so far I’m liking it quite a lot. Slowly, because I have way too many other things going on. I fear that I may not meet your deadline for completing the read, although I’m planning to read for a while tomorrow when I’m needing a break from stem making.

What I like:

1. Your thoroughly unlikeable lead. Really, if I knew David in real life I’d have a hard time not administering the dope-slap repeatedly. For a number of reasons.

2. It’s interesting to read of Venezuela in light of recent discussions.

3. Good descriptive writing.

I’m only on chapter five. Lots to go yet. 

After some email discussion with Beau last night and this morning, I believe that our flights are booked (or are in the process of being booked). I believe that we have our place of residence selected if not reserved already. I’m starting to get excited about the week away - I’m in need of a vacation and I’m not getting one until the honeymoon.

We are headed to the southwest US - Arizona with a day trip to Las Vegas.

And that’s all I’m saying about this.

***SPOILERS***

I was going to say that it was incredibly crass that Ivette gave the farewell speech that she did to Rachel, but that’s not the problem. Ivette has been consistently irrational and rude about and to Rachel and so her sanctimonious little diatribe should have been expected. Rather it was BB who was crass to actually air it on live national television to the houseguest who was already beaten down because she was just evicted. Color me disgusted.

Bad news on the HOH front. Backdooring is being discussed.

No show on Saturday, so we have to wait until Tuesday for the nominations and veto competition.

Once I got going last night, I managed to get 25 stems done. The first few weren’t that great - managing the bead and wire with the gadget that my Dad developed to use with the drill to twist the wire into the “stem” took a few tries before I figured out the best method. (See here for a closer look at the “stem” in the gadget.)

Here are the beads and a close-up (sorry that this one isn’t clearer - I’m a terrible photographer).

Here is the wire.

More stems here and here.

My goal for tonight is about 50 stems if I can stay focused.

Thursday, August 25, 2005

I arrived home to find a nice box of beads on the kitchen table. All but the backordered large clear beads are here. Shortly after Dad came down to deliver the box of wire that had just been delivered by Brown™. Woo!

And so, my daily task of assembling the crystal stems shall begin tonight. My goal is at least 100 per week until all of the stems are made. I will keep you apprised of my status, if you care. And I will post pictures of the process and tidbits of what I learn along the way.

My mother asked me that question as I was leaving this morning.

“No,” I replied.

And then I got to the office and sneezed a few times and can feel the pressure building and hear it in my voice.

Welcome, Ragweed Season.

Usually, I don’t suffer allergies too much. However, I think this year may be different. Claritin, here I come!

You know that new show coming to Fox this fall called Bones? Just based on the promos I’ve seen, I’m a little miffed.

1. The website tagline says, “Inspired by the life of forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs.” Normally, I’d say Woo!, but that’s wrong. The show is based on the character Reichs created in her novels (Dr. Temperance Brennan) who is based on her own life. Nit-picky? Yes.

I love Reichs’ novels. I think Dr. Brennan is a strong and interesing character. Where I quibble with the producers of the show is that they’re taking the character that Reichs created and putting her into an alternate world from where she lives in the novels. In the novels, Tempe divides her time between Charlotte and Montreal. I’m assuming that Tempe in TV-land will be in the US only given the prominence of the FBI with the casting of David Boreanaz as the male lead. In the novels the male lead is a Canadian detective.

2. My other point of contention is the TV-land Tempe’s age. Played by Emily Deschanel, who was born in 1978, TV Tempe is going to be much younger than Novel Tempe. Actually, TV Tempe is more like Novel Tempe’s daughter’s age. Wait, she has a daughter in Novel-land? And an ex-husband!

Why couldn’t the producers have stuck to the formula with which Reichs found success? I like the 40-ish Tempe with the college age daughter, ex-husband, Canadian cop boyfriend, and two locales she calls home. Don’t tell me that women over 40 aren’t available to take on the role in Hollowood - there are quite a few I can think of that would have made great casting as Tempe.

So are my nits going to keep me from watching? Nope - I’m willing to give the show a whirl. But I’ll drop it like a hot potato if it turns out to be anything like Karen Sisco.

LATER: Updated to include the link from Reichs’ official website where I noted that she has Posted by at 09:25 AM
Bookish Things • TV - It's a Good Thing • Hollowood • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink

1. Dad was in the room while I watched Battle of the Network Reality Stars last night. He insists he wasn’t really watching, but he did stick around to see what Team Miz decided for Team Coral. I think what sucked him in was Simon Sez.

2. New to the blogroll - The View From Her. Jan is a Christian single woman in her over 30s - so far most of her posts are about that topic; she’s witty and writes well. I predict that it won’t be long before her traffic exceeds mine. [via Joe Carter]

3. I have hit the point where the disarray of my crap is starting to bother me. So I predict that my lazy weekend will be spent reorganizing stuff into a more orderly manner - consolidating half filled boxes, chucking things to the trash that should have been chucked before the move, reorganizing and repacking my clothes, etc. This will make my mother extremely happy.

4. Kitty litter - I’m on the hunt for a good litter for small spaces (Mr. Kitty’s litter box is in the bathroom under the shelves in an open closet with no door), that absorbs odor well, that is tougher for the cat to disburse everywhere and track out of the bathroom. I originally had non-clumping litter then tried clumping. I think I prefer the former. I went from a large pellet to a tiny pellet. I prefer the former. Any suggestions?

5. Speaking of Mr. Kitty - he decided he wanted to play at about 2am last night. I was sound asleep, with one leg out of the covers when he pounced on the exposed foot and started batting it with his paws. I tolerated that as cute until he bit me. He likes to bite - it’s his way to show he likes you or what he’s doing. Anyway, this continued on and off until I got up at 5:30am. Fortunately, Annie completely ignored him and keep on snoozing.

Added Later: 6. Twice this week I have been called by my predecessor and friend’s name, which starts with L and sort of rhymes with Jen. Yes, I am blonde like she is, but I am not nearly as tall or slender (Janelle on BB6 really reminds me of LW, btw - both tall, thin, bleach-blondes who many think of as dumb but who are in reality pretty clever). What’s funny is that we were often called by each other’s names when we would roam the halls here together - it cracked us up. Even funnier is that she’s been gone now for over 18 months.