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Weekend in review

Don — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 17:03:51 +0000

Built 2 small Lego sets, and one medium large kit.

Watched Captain America, The Green Lantern, Cowboys & Aliens, and the final Harry Potter.
Re-watched Down Periscope, hi there Patton Oswalt, being all quiet and background-y.

Cowboys and Aliens was an OK movie, probably a good flick for the big screen, just an OK flick for a home theater of less than heroic proportions. Plot holes the size of a bus, character’s whose primary motivations change on whims, and lots of stuff blown up real good. And grit, lots of grit. Sometimes I thought Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford were having a squinting contest.

Captain America was similarly engaging entertainment, fun in the moment, but nothing that will stick with me, beyond a vague sense of contented satiety.

The final Harry Potter, I will need to rewatch more than once, while not primarily occupied with Lego construction. It seemed to tie everything together, killing off characters left and right, while leaving some unscathed for the final epilogue scene, I’m sure satisfying in it’s mundane suburban fantasy to most fans, but for someone without the path of kids and family before them, it seems childish and hollow. Which is probably a good thing.

The Green Lantern was the least engaging of the weekend’s entertainments, with the oddly reminiscent of the second new Hulk film’s disfigured scientist sub-plot. Like many super-hero films, without a proper grounding in the mythos, too much of the film comes across as contrived and artificial. And the you-know-they-won’t-make-a-sequel-now, kiss of death, setup for the next crisis ending. I’m still waiting for the second Flash Gordon film; by the time they get to covering who picked up Ming’s ring, we might have the technology to bring back Freddie Mercury for the soundtrack album.

Interesting Coincidence

Don — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 17:58:10 +0000

Yesterday, looking through my budget, I’m seeing a very tight future without some sort of income boost, or cost cutting measures.
Today, my team lead announces she is moving out of state and will be a remote employee, giving up some of her current responsibilities. I of course am filled with the likely naive hope that whomever ends up with said responsibilities will end up with a commensurate bump in income, and said someone will be me. I guess I should figure out what kind of baked goods the managers in charge of deciding what happens next, likes. =)

Starting the Taj Mahal

Don — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 01:22:46 +0000

I’ve started work on the LEGO Taj Mahal that’s been sitting on a shelf waiting for me, for a while now. And on step 7 of sub-section 1, of book 1, I’m stuck with 4 missing pieces. Given that there are 5922 parts total, it seems odd to have been blocked so soon. Surely there is just a parts baggie I haven’t gone through correctly. I sure hope so, or this is gonna be really annoying.

UPDATE: As suspected, it’s more a matter of finding pieces, than actually missing. At least, I hope so, I’m down to only one missing pieces, but it’s unique, so I figure I may not be able to find it until the unused pile gets much smaller. I completed six elements (minus the one piece, but it’s in a facade area I should be able to fix once I find Mr. AWOL Tan 8×2, without major reconstruction), and assembled them into the base courtyard area.
This morning I got 85% of 4 minarets done, before I came into work. So far, twist has been good about leaving the parts alone; will have to monitor him today remotely, see if he stays good =p

Pics coming soon.

Sick for Christmas

Don — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 18:12:03 +0000

As if this weren’t already one of the more miserable times of the year for me, it looks like I’m coming down with a cold or flu, just in time to get on a plane for 5 hours. I wonder if Virgin America has a full-refund-for-illness policy on last minute changes due to sickness; in the interest of saving other people from having to share my misery, it seems like I should be isolating myself. I guess I’ll check and see if I actually have a fever, over my lunch break, make a decision then?

D’oh a deer oh dear oh dear

Don — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 04:02:04 +0000

I’m at the post office, waiting in line to pick up a package (another Kickstarter has come through, hooray!), thinking to myself, I should start working on my Christmas cards this weekend’ohcrap!

So, if you are expecting a holiday card from me this year, um err, I’m doing New Years cards. Totally on purpose, yeah.

ooooK

Don — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 15:27:24 +0000

Just got an automated phone call wishing me happy birthday and playing a scratchy recording of some cheesetastic birthday song. My guess is something my mother signed up for. Thoughts counting etc.

Step Buddy would be proud

Don — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 19:09:29 +0000

I once met a guy, named ‘Step’ Buddy Anderson. A retired jazz man, he’d made a book that explained what he called “The Digital Clock Game”, a book filled with a beat poetic vision of life as a game, where anytime you looked at a digital clock, you ‘got’ something. I can’t remember any of the phrases he assigned for different times, so this example is just my own made up one, “10:10 it’s that time again, 20:20 you know it’s dark honey, 12:34 see who’s at the door”. They were cute, and he talked about how you should always just be ready to make up your own phrase for any time that you caught, nor limit yourself to his suggestions for times he had covered. But key in the book was the point that you weren’t supposed to cheat at the game; you had to catch a time purely by accident, not by sitting at a clock waiting for it to occur.

And so it is with pride that I can say I managed to ‘catch’ 11:11 on 11/11/2011, in my kitchen, on the microwave.

this one’s for you Step Buddy.

Pogo Tours USA take 2 cancelled =(

Don — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 21:13:35 +0000

Due to some shenanigans oh so typical in the music biz, it looks like Pogo is stuck in some sort of immigration mess, and the rest of the tour has been canceled. Sucks, but could be worse. I really wish he’d finish the remix project already though.

Differing Perspectives

Don — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 15:15:18 +0000

I was talking to a guy yesterday, a bit down on his luck and scraping by, who had hitchhiked to Seattle from Alabama with no real plan for what he’d do once he got here. When I asked where he was living, he said he’s renting a room at the gay bathhouse. I had never even considered people might do something like that. I suppose the staff doesn’t care, as long as you pay every 12 hours. It does make me itchy just thinking about the ratio of room-turnover to deep-cleaning opportunities, but I suppose if you’ve been sleeping outside for weeks at a time, it’s still an improvement.

“Perfect for Night Blogging”

Don — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 14:36:48 +0000

Get your own Party Rats Finger Lights, “perfect for night blogging”. Yeah, that’s what the kids are doing at those all night parties you hear about, in horrified tones, on your local news. Not dancing around. Nope, dancing is so 20th century. =p