Not So Sure This Was a Move Up in My Career

When your new project literally involves the trash out of your friend's cube, there may be a problem. Yesterday I needed a sample of how some data was supposed to look for end user presentation so I could store it appropriately. I wandered over to see Ming, who promptly pulled eight pages out of his recycling bin and handed them to me. This will probably be the story I tell to young programmers over and over when I'm really old.

If you put the word menudo in your blog

then apparently everyone from Spain will show up, at least according to StatCounter. But the good thing is, you get to see exactly what the Pearly Gates of St. Peter should have looked like, had they been done right. Of course these go down into a valley, so maybe the road to hell is paved with better engineers than the road to St. Peter, Minnesota - but they could have been placed in Klund's front yard, the view is pretty similar, at least if you're on a bike.



Courtesy of Mundochachi
Original Post about the Pearly Gates of St. Peter on A Nod to Nothing

Where I Learn Some Jewish History

I've been reading Antichrist by Bernard McGinn and near the beginning of the book, McGinn discusses some historical figures who have been portrayed as possible Antichrists, including Antiochus IV. McGinn goes on to account the story of the Maccabees - how Antiochus persecuted the Jews, including erecting a temple to Zeus in the middle of their temple and how they subsequently revolted and overthrew his tyranny. But at the end of this account, McGinn adds the final sentence, "The persecutor himself had died a few weeks earlier." (27).

So I went and looked it up, not realizing the Revolt of the Maccabees is the event that led to Chanukah. The site I cite states:

"...the holiday of Chanukah celebrates:
the defeat of Antiochus"

This was all sounding sort of strange - there's a major Jewish holiday to celebrate defeating a king who was already dead? I though at first it was some sort of Jewish irony, but Wikipedia finally set me straight - he wasn't dead yet when the revolt started, he was simply sending armies from afar and only died later when he started to personally march on the Maccabees, and the real significance was the foundation of Israel (for one hundred years) and the establishment of a royal line (the Hasmoneans), though the first of the links above notes:

"The Maccabees' successful revolt against Antiochus' antisemitic persecution was ended about a hundred years later by their own self-destruction. Their downfall was due to greedy family members who wanted the country for themselves."

Now I know that instead of a dreidel, I can get Mean Mr. Mustard an Antiochus IV doll to burn in effigy on the 25th of Kislev (pretty much Christmas - note that some believe Christ was actually born on this anniversary of the founding of Israel) - it's good to have options.

45 minutes of poker with the elephants

So I played poker at Brad's house on Friday, and I have to say, if it weren't for accidentially showing up an hour early and sitting around watching Master and Commander, I'd have been out of there in 50 minutes. On a positive note, my father-in-law must have been playing the exact same hands, as he finished up about the same time. We played with two groups of six, half of us "younger" and half of us "older" (Brad's Dad and his friends who went to school/work with him, near as I could figure - lot of old union guys).

Some notes:
1.) I'll be interested to hear where Brad ended up because I think he should have been out fairly quickly - he seemed to actually be playing aggressive-tight, like his book recommends, which I don't think works so well with a table full of old guys who will call anything. I also think he got a fortunate break when I called his all-in with an A-6 suited and had outs for the straight, the flush (from the flop) and the high pair - that's a lot of outs. I probably should have also taken him for a bit more money when he was playing against my three kings earlier in the game, but pushing harder seemed inappropriate so early - I guess if it's about winning that shouldn't be an issue (although it would have just been more money I lost later, but then maybe I wouldn't have lost so much to him on the A-6). He was playing quite a bit better than me in aggressively playing against the junk the other side of the table was playing and picking up a lot of stray (though small) pots. He's got a pretty good sense of when someone is going to cave.
2.) Elephants suck. They really do. An elephant is someone who calls you pretty much no matter what's out there if they think they have anything that vaguely looks interesting in their hand - at one point I pulled two aces in the hole, half my stake went in and the other guy just kept tagging along on the hope of a straight (which he pulled on the river). One could (rightly) argue that I should have raised harder to force him out, but I think the result would have been him calling all my money and me being out in 30 minutes.
3.) Do not, do not, do not, play anything less than a perfect hand against the big stake in the out position. Whatever I threw in, he matched, after all, it was only a portion of his stake, so what did he really care. That was the one that got me out.
4.) $800 blinds in a $10,000 (fake) stake is pretty steep after just 40 minutes - I had a bigger stake than I thought when I pushed hard at the end (about $4000), but the $800 blind was making me think I was ponying up about a 1/4-1/3 of my money at at that point which made me feel like I had to push to get a better stake when I should have let it ride.

All in all, however, I think I learned some important poker lessons. Primarily, I learned that by reading a book, I can now get a pretty good idea of the playing types of the rest of the players and determine exactly how they're going to beat me, not just if they will.

Overheard on X-Play

Nerdgasm - it has a suprising amount of use. I wonder when they'll add it to Merriam Webster - I mean, menudo only made it recently.

Ming and Jenna Bush

I know PlanetDan says to never tell anyone you had a dream that includes them, so I'm going to break that rule.

I had a dream. In this dream, the U.S. government was sending invitations for free tickets to the Vikings/Packers game to minorities living in Minnesota. Ming received one and unable to resist a free football game, went down to the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome where they promptly interned him along with a dome full of others and then posted armed guards. The strange part was that while he was there, Ming befriended Jenna Bush, who wasn't there because she was offering support for those locked in, but because she'd accidentially been sent an invitation as well and shown up expecting a free game and beer.

The rest of the dream can be pretty much summed up as me going to the Metrodome, sneaking in, and sneaking out both Ming and Jenna Bush (who wasn't all that hard to sneak out).

If we're a blue state

If we're a blue state, then you have to wonder what the hell it must be like for people in red states. Exorcism in St. Paul Cathedral to because of gay communion.

It's so touching the Pope is working to foster a spirit of Christianity in the world.
Spain's dramatic left turn infuriates Catholic Church (Pioneer Press - requires sign on)

• Europe's secular trend has deeply disturbed the Vatican, which was angered recently when Rocco Buttiglione, an Italian friend of Pope John Paul II's, had to withdraw his candidacy for European Union justice commissioner last month after making what were perceived to be derogatory remarks about homosexuals and single mothers.


• Juan Antonio Martinez Camino, spokesman for the Spanish Bishops Conference, said on television last month that allowing homosexual marriage was akin to "imposing a virus on society."


• The Spanish public — like most of its European counterparts — does not seem to agree. An August survey by the Center for Sociological Research found 66.2 percent of Spaniards in favor of same-sex marriages. In a separate poll, 61.5 percent said they had "little or no trust in the Catholic Church."

Pope Says Anglican Gays Are Obstacle to Unity

Thanksgiving

Ah, Eschaton has some helpful advice for those faced with fundie relatives for the holidays, along with a helpful link to Kos' How to Use the Bible in Your Political Arguments. Hectate from Eschaton has some interesting links to Native American blogs, a fun and interesting way to celebrate the holiday, particularly for me and my daughter (1/16+ and 1/32+, respectively - Eryn's middle name is actually the name of my grandmother who was 1/4 and worked as a teacher on "the rez" while she was alive).

My favorite passage from Equal Rites (by Terry Pratchett)

"What is the name of this place, sir?" said the wizard.
The blacksmith shrugged.
"Bad Ass," he said.
"Bad--?"
"Ass," repeated the blacksmith, his tone defying anyone to make something of it.
The wizard considered this.
"A name with a story behind it," he said at last... (p. 3-4)

Don't Start New Thanksgiving Traditions

If football hasn't been a family Thanksgiving tradition, and you've normally gone for cards, don't feel the need to involve yourself in it just because a grade schooler shows up at the meal with fancy new ideas. Certainly, don't feel the need to leap for a pass when you're thirty-six and there's a steep slope nearby and you're in dress shoes. I didn't damage anything, but my lower back and left thigh muscle both attest to the fact that I probably should have. On a positive note, I caught the pass and I'm pretty sure my team won overall - not that it was too much effort to win considering my father-in-law threw a pass that was blocked by a basketball pole (jokingly referred to by my brother-in-law before the game started as the "third defender").

I'm old

I'm pretty sure the fact that I turned 36 last week and this little anecdote are related.

Yesterday I was taking Eryn to buy her first video game (Best Buy in Apple Valley - she chose a Blue's Clues game because she really likes Blue - so she was wandering around Best Buy mumbling "Blue, Blue, Blue, Bow, Bow..." Occasionally punctuated by "Bob!" [lots of SpongeBob SquarePants games at Best Buy {both PC and Playstation 2 which we currently don't have because we left it with my brother in law %who's supposed to bring it back for Thanksgiving, so maybe that would have been soon enough *but we told him he could keep it until Christmasdamn, I have to do my shopping $which reminds me, all the McVays lost their Secret Santas, I better resend them #I hope my Secret Santa program dumped a copy in a folder somewhere#$*&}]) and a car passed us and I thought, "Hey, that looks like Nidhi", immediately followed by the thought, "Maybe not, looked a little old to be Nidhi."

A little old to be Nidhi. So I checked. The icon from the first project I was on with her here is dated 9/27/1999 (the actual project, as far as my involvement, preceded that by about 5 months) - so I've known Nidhi for over 5 years - almost as long as the people with whom I went to High School and 20% of her life so far. Next thing I know I'll be referring to Erik as that young whippersnapper.

120 movies, 330 days

That's about the long and the short of it looking at our Netflix list. One movie every three days (the list doesn't even include the last two we watched, So Close and Angels in America). So, if the average movie is two hours long (and some things like The Sopranos DVDs and Angels in America are much longer, although some things, like Ella Enchanted and Mean Girls we didn't watch at all - they were for our house sitter for the week), then Jen and I watch about 40 minutes of Netflix-purchased entertainment every night, or about 240 hours a year - 10 solid days - 3% of our year. I'm surprised I still find time to read.

If I had to recommend a few favorites out of the following list, they would be:

• The Station Agent
• The Bicycle Thief
• The Fog of War
• In America
• The Cooler
• Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed (really)
• Dirty Pretty Things
• Rabbit Proof Fence
• The Gleaners and I (not for everyone, but a really interesting documentary)
• Beijing Bicycle

The Antifavorites, the really stand out ones, there were a lot that were bad, just not horrendously bad:

• The Human Stain (if boredom had a title, this would be it)
• Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter (we took a chance it might make the best, and it failed fabulously)
• S.W.A.T.
• Teknolust
• Pistol Opera
• Swimming Pool
• House of the Dead (wow, just so so so bad)
• Something's Gotta Give (Jen rented it, but it was so bad I have to add it because it overshadowed much of what is on this list)
  

The Complete List:

Shipped Returned Title
11/11/04 11/16/04 Hidalgo (2004)
11/10/04 11/16/04 Returner (2002)
11/08/04 11/11/04 The Human Stain (2003)
11/05/04 11/10/04 Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation (2004)
11/04/04 11/08/04 Timeline (2003)
10/26/04 11/05/04 The Sopranos: Season 4: Disc 1 (2002)
11/01/04 11/04/04 North by Northwest (1959)
10/18/04 11/01/04 Mean Girls (2004)
10/18/04 11/01/04 Ella Enchanted (2004)
10/19/04 10/25/04 Saved! (2004)
10/14/04 10/19/04 The Good Girl (2002)
10/13/04 10/18/04 The Gold Rush (1925)
10/13/04 10/18/04 Chopper (2000)
10/04/04 10/14/04 Super Size Me (2004)
10/05/04 10/13/04 The Hunting of the President (2004)
10/06/04 10/13/04 Dark Heaven (2002)
10/01/04 10/06/04 Night and Fog (1955)
09/28/04 10/05/04 The Lathe of Heaven (1980)
09/28/04 10/04/04 Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter (2001)
09/21/04 10/01/04 The Company (2003)
09/23/04 09/28/04 The Station Agent (2003)
09/21/04 09/27/04 Shaolin Soccer (2001)
09/20/04 09/23/04 Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning (2004)
09/17/04 09/21/04 Roger & Me (1989)
09/02/04 09/21/04 Uncovered: The Whole Truth About the Iraq War (2003)
09/15/04 09/20/04 Taking Lives (2004)
08/31/04 09/17/04 The Magdalene Sisters (2002)
08/31/04 09/15/04 The Bicycle Thief (1948)
08/30/04 09/02/04 Clerks: Uncensored: Disc 1 (2000)
08/16/04 08/31/04 Miracle (2004)
08/24/04 08/30/04 The Dreamers (2004)
08/16/04 08/30/04 Party Monster: The Shockumentary (1998)
08/17/04 08/24/04 Heaven (2002)
08/09/04 08/17/04 The Sopranos: Season 3: Disc 4 (2001)
08/09/04 08/16/04 Bully (2001)
08/11/04 08/16/04 Session 9 (2001)
08/05/04 08/11/04 Equilibrium (2002)
07/28/04 08/09/04 S.W.A.T. (2003)
08/04/04 08/09/04 A Boy and His Dog (1975)
07/30/04 08/05/04 Cold Mountain (2003)
07/26/04 08/04/04 Mating Habits of the Earthbound Human (1999)
07/26/04 07/30/04 Teknolust (2002)
07/20/04 07/28/04 Chicken Run (2000)
07/08/04 07/26/04 Bad Boys II (2003)
07/20/04 07/26/04 Gothika (2003)
07/13/04 07/20/04 The Butterfly Effect: Director's Cut (2004)
07/16/04 07/20/04 Dark Days (2000)
07/06/04 07/16/04 Masked & Anonymous (2003)
07/06/04 07/13/04 The Sopranos: Season 3: Disc 3 (2001)
06/29/04 07/08/04 Where the Buffalo Roam (1980)
06/30/04 07/06/04 Monster (2003)
06/30/04 07/06/04 Wonderland (2003)
06/23/04 06/30/04 The Sopranos: Season 3: Disc 2 (2001)
06/17/04 06/30/04 Bubba Ho-Tep (2003)
06/15/04 06/29/04 The Sopranos: Season 3: Disc 1 (2001)
06/15/04 06/23/04 Runaway Jury (2003)
06/14/04 06/17/04 Paycheck (2003)
06/02/04 06/15/04 Melvin Goes to Dinner (2003)
06/10/04 06/15/04 Big Fish (2003)
05/28/04 06/14/04 Mona Lisa Smile (2003)
05/18/04 06/10/04 The Fog of War (2003)
05/26/04 06/01/04 The Last Samurai (2003)
05/21/04 05/27/04 In America (2002)
05/19/04 05/26/04 Japanese Story (2003)
05/17/04 05/21/04 American Gun (2002)
05/11/04 05/19/04 Vampyr (1932)
05/11/04 05/18/04 Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)
05/11/04 05/17/04 The Cooler (2003)
05/05/04 05/11/04 21 Grams (2003)
05/05/04 05/11/04 The Rundown (2003)
04/26/04 05/10/04 The Sopranos: Season 2: Disc 4 (2001)
04/29/04 05/05/04 Matchstick Men (2003)
04/26/04 05/05/04 Wisconsin Death Trip (2001)
04/22/04 04/29/04 No Good Deed (2002)
04/16/04 04/26/04 The Sopranos: Season 2: Disc 3 (2001)
04/20/04 04/26/04 Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed (2004)
04/16/04 04/22/04 The Matrix: Revolutions (2003)
04/14/04 04/20/04 Brother Bear (Home Viewing Version) (2003)
04/12/04 04/16/04 Ginger Snaps (2000)
04/05/04 04/16/04 House of Sand and Fog (2003)
04/08/04 04/14/04 The School of Rock (2003)
04/05/04 04/12/04 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)
03/29/04 04/08/04 The Missing (2003)
03/30/04 04/05/04 Dirty Pretty Things (2002)
03/23/04 04/05/04 The Sopranos: Season 2: Disc 2 (2001)
03/23/04 03/29/04 Stevie (2003)
03/24/04 03/29/04 Lost in Translation (2003)
03/18/04 03/24/04 Killing Zoe (1994)
03/16/04 03/22/04 The Sopranos: Season 2: Disc 1 (2000)
03/10/04 03/22/04 Pistol Opera (2001)
03/12/04 03/18/04 Swimming Pool (2003)
03/09/04 03/15/04 Thirteen (2003)
03/02/04 03/11/04 Once Upon a Time in the Midlands (2002)
03/01/04 03/10/04 Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003)
03/01/04 03/09/04 The Bone Snatcher (2003)
02/16/04 03/02/04 The Secret Lives of Dentists (2003)
02/02/04 03/01/04 Murder on a Sunday Morning (2001)
02/20/04 03/01/04 Spellbound (2002)
02/16/04 02/20/04 House of the Dead (2003)
02/04/04 02/16/04 Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002)
02/09/04 02/16/04 Bruce Almighty (2003)
01/30/04 02/09/04 Frida (2002)
01/28/04 02/04/04 The Deep End (2001)
01/26/04 02/02/04 Capturing the Friedmans (2003)
01/20/04 01/30/04 Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970)
01/21/04 01/28/04 Scarface: 20th Anniversary Edition (1983)
01/16/04 01/26/04 Freddy vs. Jason (2003)
01/14/04 01/21/04 Tart (2001)
01/12/04 01/20/04 The Gleaners and I (2000)
01/09/04 01/16/04 Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002)
01/06/04 01/14/04 Underworld (2003)
01/05/04 01/12/04 Tadpole (2002)
01/02/04 01/09/04 Beijing Bicycle (2002)
12/31/03 01/06/04 Jeepers Creepers 2 (2003)
12/19/03 01/05/04 Pulp Fiction (1994)
12/18/03 01/02/04 Love Liza (2002)
12/22/03 12/31/03 Happiness (1998)
12/09/03 12/22/03 Owning Mahowny (2003)
12/09/03 12/19/03 Max (2002)
12/09/03 12/18/03 About Schmidt (2002)

Um...yikes...just yikes

Norweigianity (always worth reading) has this little gem on his site today, courtesy of our own Star Tribune (may require logging in). Wow....just...um...yikes.

Posh Spice - Blue State Supporter

Well, who knows for sure - I mean, she and Beck probably have so much money they'd be forced to be their own red state if they lived here. But I can't imagine this would be allowed in a red state. What's the point of a diamond vibrator by the way (yeah yeah, punny)? Seems dangerous if you ask me.

Movie Review - Hidalgo

A Disney movie with deadly violence and wounded horses in need of cauterizing. Mostly, it explained to me the roots of our pre-9/11 contentions with Arabs - they have breeding, we have the spunky determination borne of a new contintent and breeding with the natives (something I can appreciate). Yet, we can learn to get along if we both agree some Arabs are worse than others.

I give it 97 out of 100 dead horses.

Happy Birthday To Me, Happy Birthday To Me....

It's my birthday. I'm 90% of the way to 40 - which I guess is much better than 110% of 40. I think it means I have eight years to live up to Mean Mr. Mustard. I got some good gifts - I have attached a picture. No one buy me cars or anything, but with a fancy beer mug (Mom and Dad), a bottle of scotch (sister LissyJo and brother in law, Ceri), a copy of Aqua Teen Hunger Force (season 1 - wife), some jelly beans (Eryn), free breakfast at The Louisiana Grill (Dan, Katie, Conner and sister and brother in law) and a book on how to play poker (Eryn), plus the copy of Jon Stewart's America I picked up at the library - I've been pretty set all day. The only downside is a total lack of interest in finishing my final two eMAPs, one of which is my own.

(Not pictured: nerf pistol with night acquisition technology from Christy, a toy everyone and everypet in my family has grown to hate, accept for Eryn who takes the darts and yells "stuck, stuck!" before pinning them to the t.v., and my Twix bar from Lisa, who loves me always, although my wife just doesn't care.)

(Also pictured: sexy-yet-sarcastic card from wife).

Happy Veteran's Day

To George W. Bush:
Calendar of Dead in Iraq
Recent Pictures from Fallujah

To my friend Dan, to Jay, my Dad, to B.J. and to everyone else who's ever served, a heartfelt Veteran's Day. Thank you.

Addendum: To ABC, the FCC and anyone involved in yanking Private Ryan on Veteran's Day because of indecency worries...an unhappy Veteran's Day to you too.

Morals

By urging me to read (more) Terry Pratchett, Klund has inadvertantly revealed to me that Discworld is very in tune with modern American political imperatives...

"That's very important," said Twoflower seriously. "If there were more morals about we wouldn't be crashing into stars." - The Light Fantastic

Get Real

So this weekend Pooteewheet and I achieved a first - four movies in one day. It's probably even more accurate to phrase that as five movies in 24 hours. Saturday morning after a breakfast of Cajun Andouille Omelet at The Louisiana Cafe, we dropped Eryn off at my in-laws for the evening so we could go to the 2004 Get Real Festival, a collection of documentaries that we really enjoyed going to last year. I know I must be a left leaner if I'm attending events where the door gifts include a poster about the ABC's of Terrorism and a loaf of Hemp Bread and someone strikes up a conversation with me by asking me whether I'm in the movie business and when I reply that I'm a programmer, asks if I've tried the new Mac movie software. This year we saw three movies, capped them off with a burrito on the corner, and then switched over to commercial options. So, in order:

This Ain't No Heartland - the only political documentary, and probably the one I liked least. It was interviews with Midwesterners about the war in Iraq and their opinions on politics. It should have been titled - find some serious hicks from the Midwest who don't watch anything other than the SciFi channel, interview them while they're drunk or off their meds, and see what happens. Contrary to the link, it's not chilling. It might be chilling that they vote - it might be chilling that their vote might cancel yours - but overall, simply not chilling. It's more like heading down to the corner bar in St. Michael or Hawk's in Monticello (or worse, The Zoo), sitting down with the "regulars" and trying to get a coherent political opinion. Not that the discussion about whether America or China would win in a war (be worried about those "2 billion screamin' Chinamen") wasn't enjoyable, and likewise for the drunken yokel mooning and racist jokes, but it could have used some balance. By balance I don't mean drunken yokels with opposite leanings - I mean some of those conservatives from larger Midwest cities, and a wider variety rather than the few they focused on. I understand that most documentaries focus on just a few people and let them talk, but this one could have benefited by a wider base and speeding it up and adding at least one other (younger) woman to those interviewed. Finally - I now know why people like Erroll Morris more than other documentarians - he's willing to let the camera sit - no panning up and down, no focusing on buttons and clothes, no trying to frame the scene correctly with slow pans - all very distracting.

I Like Killing Flies - my favorite from the festival this year! This is why I go to the Get Real Festival. All about Kenny Shopsin, a restaurateur focusing on breakfast who has a menu of over 1000 items, and his eccentric nature and move to a new restaurant. Absolutely fascinating as a character study. He told a story about his first date with his wife when they were stoned and visited the first McDonald's in the area as it was being robbed (his wife walked past the robbers to get some ketchup). You got to see all the little inventions he created for making breakfast easier/faster and hear his take on killing the flies that eventually enter the restaurant. You get to hear his take on life and about how the guy he's serving breakfast to is an investor and probably stealing money from little old ladies, but he still needs his chocolate chip pancakes. You meet his kid and wife and his customers and actually get a pretty good idea of the personalities of all of these people and how upsetting or exciting it is for all of them that the restaurant is moving. And you learn his rule that no parties of five are allowed. If you come in as a party of five, you can't split up, you're still five. If you leave and come back, you're still five. Next week, you're still a party of five. He's very adamant about the issue.

A League of Ordinary Gentlemen - Also wonderful - all about how a few Microsoft execs purchased the American Bowling League and tried to rework it to make it more exciting and profitable by hiring a Nike exec to come in and shake it up. It focuses heavily on the characters of the bowlers and how bowling has changed for them between the old ABA and the new MSABA, as well as the CTO, wives and fans. It even plays off the tension of bowling styles (if there can be such a thing) that arises between the old-school, dignified bowler, the bowler with an eye to making money by watching professional wrestling and integrating showmanship (PBW and his "crotch chop" - I told Pooteewheet it looked like something The Ox would do), the new bowler trying to break into the sport and support his family, and the bowler who feels he's been left behind in favor of a business model instead of a family model. The theater was pretty much packed and people were laughing and really enjoying it. At the end, as the credits roll past, they did the Monsters Inc. three second snippet montage, and it was funny to see PBW watching professional wrestling and lamenting that his crotch chop was perhaps growing stale for the fans and he needed something new.

The Incredibles - worth the hype. Really worth the hype. Take a 50's comic book and turn it into Toy Story meets James Bond. Ten o'clock at night and I was wide awake there was so much going on. There's a scene that looks a lot like the scene in the forest in Star Wars II (original series) with the air bikes - but in The Incredibles, the bikes are spinning while they move up and down and forward and backward, and because it's animated, they can really speed it up and change all the background speeds/etc. independently of the motion of the vehicles - I was getting a little motion sick watching it. The plot flew along and the characterizations were, well, incredible.

The Grudge - yeah, um...no. On rotten tomatoes it scored about 1/3 what The Incredibles scored - but I don't think seeing it three times would have in any way helped and I'm pretty sure 1/3 of The Incredibles would have been much better. Sarah Michelle Geller naked wouldn't have helped either. Well, a bit - but she looks so tired throughout the whole thing that you'd probably worry she wouldn't have the energy to get her clothes on again. It even got the benefit of me going right after early morning window work at the duplex - at which point pretty much anything seems like an improvement in situation. It feels pretty disjointed, as though they through in some of the scares without a thought as to how it was all interrelated, and although there are some scary parts (mostly they seem like rip offs of The Ring), that's never enough to carry a movie.

It might be considered ironic

if it weren't so sad, that the first soldier to die in Iraq since the election is from Ohio.

November 4, 2004:
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Sgt. Charles J. Webb, 22, of Hamilton, Ohio died Nov. 3 in the 31st Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad, Iraq, from wounds sustained earlier that day when an improvised explosive device detonated in Baghdad, Iraq. Webb was assigned to the 82nd Engineer Battalion, 1st Infantry Division (Mechanized), Bamberg, Germany.

In case you were worried - Amendment XXII

I couldn't remember the exact phrasing, so I had to look it up - it covers the argument that the first term didn't count because he might not have been officially elected. Heck, it even covers that he might have been in the office but not acting like a President. Good call by the framers of that amendment.

Amendment XXII
Section 1. No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.

What was the Letter of the Day on 11/3

According to the 5:00 p.m. showing of Sesame Street on local Channel 17, the letter of the day was "W". I'm pretty sure they pushed Bert and Ernie back into the closet during the meeting on that one.

Alan Keyes, Victim of the Media and Democrats and Fellow Republicans

I have to agree with Alan Keyes, if the media had never communicated any of his positions or values and no one had actually talked to him or told anyone else what he said, and if his daughter had never expressed pride in seeing him at parades, he probably would have done significantly better. I think he's learned his lesson - next time he'll run his campaign from inside a sealed underground bunker with no electricity or batteries and enough food and water to last him until after the election results are in.

Poor Joe

Joe the Povert has bought into Minnesota Nice. Joe, Minnesotans are only nice to other Minnesotans and, in particular, those Minnesotans almost exactly like them. Minnesota Republicans seem to be increasingly of the opinion that liberals, minorities, (insert a pretty large list here) are not like them - so it becomes a mathematical formula at that point. Stay here long enough and you'll hear Minnesotans wield "Minnesota Nice" just like they wield patriotism and the flag nationally.

Note:
The Yahoo Search
1997: Samuel L. Myers Jr., Special section editor and editorial commentary. 1997. In the Case of Race Relations, Minnesota Nice Translates into Silence. Color/s 6(3):14-15.
2000: http://www.mnnow.org/times/w00-07.htm
2004: (Search the page on "nice")