Argephontes
2/22/2003
I'm so tired of the rain. My backyard is a swampland. I have given up on trying to clean off the dog everytime he comes back in. I have given up, too, on following him around with a towel and wiping up the muddy paw prints he's tracking all over the house. Keeping him off the furniture is about as far as I'm going at this point. When/if the rain ever stops I'll just steam clean the damn carpets.
Should I mop today? I probably will. Clean kitchen floor might last at least a couple of hours.
Yesterday afternoon I had a moment of joy, standing outside in my driveway in between rains. The air was warm but not hot, humid but clean, and hinted of Spring to Come. A gentle breeze carried the scent of the upcoming thunderstorm with it. I stood there, basking in it, the light wind tickling my senses. It was glorious.
Today is not like that, nor have the majority of the past few weeks been. It's not raining at the moment, but there is an oppressive funk hanging in the air, letting me know that it isn't over.
As I'm sitting here typing this, just the tiniest sliver of sun found it's way through the grey. It's at least attempting to glare of the screen, but it's a little weak. Is that an omen that it will all be over soon? Or is the sunlight crying out, trying helplessly to break free from the army of bleakness that has been marching overhead for so long?
In as long as it took me to type that, it's gone.
Sunshine, come back. I miss you. ¶ 2/22/2003 10:11:00 AM
Should I mop today? I probably will. Clean kitchen floor might last at least a couple of hours.
Yesterday afternoon I had a moment of joy, standing outside in my driveway in between rains. The air was warm but not hot, humid but clean, and hinted of Spring to Come. A gentle breeze carried the scent of the upcoming thunderstorm with it. I stood there, basking in it, the light wind tickling my senses. It was glorious.
Today is not like that, nor have the majority of the past few weeks been. It's not raining at the moment, but there is an oppressive funk hanging in the air, letting me know that it isn't over.
As I'm sitting here typing this, just the tiniest sliver of sun found it's way through the grey. It's at least attempting to glare of the screen, but it's a little weak. Is that an omen that it will all be over soon? Or is the sunlight crying out, trying helplessly to break free from the army of bleakness that has been marching overhead for so long?
In as long as it took me to type that, it's gone.
Sunshine, come back. I miss you. ¶ 2/22/2003 10:11:00 AM
2/21/2003
I just heard this on the radio so it MUST be true:
"Today's music IS Avril Lavigne, No Doubt, and Bon Jovi."
Hope you weren't banking on actually having a selection or anything.
That's all you get for now, because it's Friday afternoon. That means I'm busting my bum. ¶ 2/21/2003 02:32:00 PM
"Today's music IS Avril Lavigne, No Doubt, and Bon Jovi."
Hope you weren't banking on actually having a selection or anything.
That's all you get for now, because it's Friday afternoon. That means I'm busting my bum. ¶ 2/21/2003 02:32:00 PM
2/20/2003
If I were to die and people had to clean out my office, I think it would be the general consensus that I have some sort of freakish name badge fetish. Name badge holder fetish, to be more exact.
I had to make last minute nametags for an Event... I always make last minute nametags. I have no clue what it would be like to make nametags in advance. Either someone knocks on my door, shame-faced, and begs me to do them "a favor, pretty please," which always means "I need X number of nametags... by tomorrow!". Or, they tell me in advance, but the Bookstore screws up the order so I'm STILL not making them until the last minute.
I rarely have problems with the Bookstore in dealing with anything EXCEPT name badge orders. Never ever do they get them right.
Anyhoo... because of my luck with name badges, I keep anything and everything that is related to or could be masqueraded as nametags. Just in case. Like I've totally used the little cheap, perforated Make Your Own Business Card kits from Wal-mart and stuffed them into 2 1/4 - 3 1/2 sized holders. No one knows the difference but me! Cheaper, too, by a long shot. Unfortunately, I tend to hide them in weird places. I tend to forget the last place I put them.When I come up with new extras, I find a brand new place to stash them. Usually these places are weird and unobvious, because if I leave them in a normal place, people will totally steal them. That defeats the purpose. So instead, they are in places like the broken drawer that I have to keep taped shut (which houses things like a broken telephone).
Today has been long. On top of the miracle name badge performance (*takes a bow* Thank you, thank you), I had SAP training all freaking morning. Who needs to have a three hour training session? They should have two seperate sets of classes - an accelerated set for people who know how computers go, and another for people who try to open everything through Microsoft Word... no matter the file type. Part of our little exercise to make sure we learned something at the end of the session included Minimizing and Maximizing our screen. PLEASE.
I do have to give kudos to my boss, though. Out of pity, or shame, or something for making us all go to the training, she took us out to lunch afterwards. Very, very nice of her. ¶ 2/20/2003 05:27:00 PM
I had to make last minute nametags for an Event... I always make last minute nametags. I have no clue what it would be like to make nametags in advance. Either someone knocks on my door, shame-faced, and begs me to do them "a favor, pretty please," which always means "I need X number of nametags... by tomorrow!". Or, they tell me in advance, but the Bookstore screws up the order so I'm STILL not making them until the last minute.
I rarely have problems with the Bookstore in dealing with anything EXCEPT name badge orders. Never ever do they get them right.
Anyhoo... because of my luck with name badges, I keep anything and everything that is related to or could be masqueraded as nametags. Just in case. Like I've totally used the little cheap, perforated Make Your Own Business Card kits from Wal-mart and stuffed them into 2 1/4 - 3 1/2 sized holders. No one knows the difference but me! Cheaper, too, by a long shot. Unfortunately, I tend to hide them in weird places. I tend to forget the last place I put them.When I come up with new extras, I find a brand new place to stash them. Usually these places are weird and unobvious, because if I leave them in a normal place, people will totally steal them. That defeats the purpose. So instead, they are in places like the broken drawer that I have to keep taped shut (which houses things like a broken telephone).
Today has been long. On top of the miracle name badge performance (*takes a bow* Thank you, thank you), I had SAP training all freaking morning. Who needs to have a three hour training session? They should have two seperate sets of classes - an accelerated set for people who know how computers go, and another for people who try to open everything through Microsoft Word... no matter the file type. Part of our little exercise to make sure we learned something at the end of the session included Minimizing and Maximizing our screen. PLEASE.
I do have to give kudos to my boss, though. Out of pity, or shame, or something for making us all go to the training, she took us out to lunch afterwards. Very, very nice of her. ¶ 2/20/2003 05:27:00 PM
2/17/2003
I love the internet!
During my routine Monday afternoon work-avoidance, I decided, for no reason in particular, to do a search on sites linked to Steven Brust's weblog. On the very first one I clicked on, I saw two novels listed, one of which I read when I was about nine years old.
I have been trying to remember the author and title of this book for years. I've been wanting to re-read it, and another title from the same author (which I have since found on Amazon), for a while now to see if they were really as good as I remember. It's strange. I had no memory of title or author, and not enough of the storylines to really do a thorough search. However, I have been known to browse the young adult sections of libraries and bookstores in the hopes that I would stumble across them. I sort of assumed that if I saw one, I'd recognize it. Apparently this is true, because I saw just the title itself and the strobe-light went off in my head.
The further irony is that I realized that I have another book by the same author listed on my Amazon wishlist. How random is that?
FYI, the books are The Outlaws of Sherwood and The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley.
¶ 2/17/2003 06:18:00 PM
During my routine Monday afternoon work-avoidance, I decided, for no reason in particular, to do a search on sites linked to Steven Brust's weblog. On the very first one I clicked on, I saw two novels listed, one of which I read when I was about nine years old.
I have been trying to remember the author and title of this book for years. I've been wanting to re-read it, and another title from the same author (which I have since found on Amazon), for a while now to see if they were really as good as I remember. It's strange. I had no memory of title or author, and not enough of the storylines to really do a thorough search. However, I have been known to browse the young adult sections of libraries and bookstores in the hopes that I would stumble across them. I sort of assumed that if I saw one, I'd recognize it. Apparently this is true, because I saw just the title itself and the strobe-light went off in my head.
The further irony is that I realized that I have another book by the same author listed on my Amazon wishlist. How random is that?
FYI, the books are The Outlaws of Sherwood and The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley.
¶ 2/17/2003 06:18:00 PM
Yesterday Alicia and I had breakfast (well, she had lunch) at Huddle House.
People who go there scare me. Unfortunately, it's the only place in town that serves twenty-four hour breakfast. I got up to use the restroom at one point. While I was in there, I had to listen to a woman in the other stall literally moaning while she... did her business. If that wasn't bad enough, she then proceeded to try and converse with me while I washed my hands about how the tap water was too hot. Kinda horrifying, that.
Meanwhile, Alicia got to watch the guy who was wearing a heavy wool coat with his khaki shorts and hawaiian shirt methodically pick out selected lumps of his gravy with a butterknife, which he then very delicately placed on his biscuit.
¶ 2/17/2003 01:31:00 PM
People who go there scare me. Unfortunately, it's the only place in town that serves twenty-four hour breakfast. I got up to use the restroom at one point. While I was in there, I had to listen to a woman in the other stall literally moaning while she... did her business. If that wasn't bad enough, she then proceeded to try and converse with me while I washed my hands about how the tap water was too hot. Kinda horrifying, that.
Meanwhile, Alicia got to watch the guy who was wearing a heavy wool coat with his khaki shorts and hawaiian shirt methodically pick out selected lumps of his gravy with a butterknife, which he then very delicately placed on his biscuit.
¶ 2/17/2003 01:31:00 PM
2/16/2003
I don’t get it.
Daredevil was just fine, thank you very much. Better than fine. And I don’t understand what people are talking about.
I didn’t go into the movie with a massive hate-on for the Affleck, I don’t think he’s the greatest actor in the known world or anything, but I didn’t think it was beyond his means to do a fine job of Matt Murdock. What I did not expect, however, was for him to blow me away. Which he did.
Again… the hell is everyone talking about?
I honestly think it’s the loss of the eyes that allowed Affleck to really excel. Wooden? My ass. There’s a subtlety to the acting, achieved through body language, tone, and delivery. As a DD fan, I don’t want to say that he gave depth to the character of Matt Murdock. Matt already has plenty of depth, thank you very much. Rather, what I want to say about Ben Affleck is that he found and realized that depth on the screen. And I thank him for that.
The story was perfect. Strangely enough, the tweaking of the origin bothered The Boy, but not me. I can understand that as a valid point amongst the fan-boys (and girls), but personally I feel that they stayed true to the heart and soul of the story. Honestly, I think that thebastardization of the Gwen Stacey storyline in Spiderman was a far worse treason, and I still loved that movie, too.
The movie has just the right combination of pain, religious (Catholic) overtones (Guilt), love, justice, purpose, and joy, invoking the likes of Frank Miller. Which, if you’re going to do DD, you’d better damned well do.
Furthermore. Even if you don’t like the Affleck. If you just can’t get past the likes of Phantoms or Reindeer Games. If the storyline just seems lame to you. How in the hell is this movie not getting any critical recognition for it’s cinematography and incredible sound directing? If you asked me how you show, in a visual medium such as film, what its like to be blind Matt Murdock, I don’t know if I could have even grasped the concept before this movie. But that’s exactly what it does. The sound in particular is amazing. Even when you aren’t supposed to be paying attention to it, every object – even every movement- contributes a unique noise to create a symphony of sound throughout the entire film. I will be royally peeved if Steve Boeddeker doesn’t get an Oscar nod.
A few more things that bear mentioning:
Michael Clarke Duncan IS, and forevermore will be, the Kingpin. Daaammmn.
Colin Farrell, little luscious man-whore that he is, not only is Bulls-Eye, but I think he actually improved the character. If that’s even possible.
No one could have made a better Foggy Nelson than Jon Favreau.
And, I feel bad, because I have the least to say about her, but Jennifer Garner was a perfectly nice Elektra.
If you haven’t got the subtext throughout this entire post, Read: GO SEE THIS GODDAMN MOVIE. If you have the opportunity to see a digital screening, I would highly recommend it. I can understand if the DD mythos isn't your bag, but... if it is. And you don't like this movie. You can still be my friend (hi, Nate!), but I have to wonder if you have a soul. ¶ 2/16/2003 11:38:00 AM
Daredevil was just fine, thank you very much. Better than fine. And I don’t understand what people are talking about.
I didn’t go into the movie with a massive hate-on for the Affleck, I don’t think he’s the greatest actor in the known world or anything, but I didn’t think it was beyond his means to do a fine job of Matt Murdock. What I did not expect, however, was for him to blow me away. Which he did.
Again… the hell is everyone talking about?
I honestly think it’s the loss of the eyes that allowed Affleck to really excel. Wooden? My ass. There’s a subtlety to the acting, achieved through body language, tone, and delivery. As a DD fan, I don’t want to say that he gave depth to the character of Matt Murdock. Matt already has plenty of depth, thank you very much. Rather, what I want to say about Ben Affleck is that he found and realized that depth on the screen. And I thank him for that.
The story was perfect. Strangely enough, the tweaking of the origin bothered The Boy, but not me. I can understand that as a valid point amongst the fan-boys (and girls), but personally I feel that they stayed true to the heart and soul of the story. Honestly, I think that thebastardization of the Gwen Stacey storyline in Spiderman was a far worse treason, and I still loved that movie, too.
The movie has just the right combination of pain, religious (Catholic) overtones (Guilt), love, justice, purpose, and joy, invoking the likes of Frank Miller. Which, if you’re going to do DD, you’d better damned well do.
Furthermore. Even if you don’t like the Affleck. If you just can’t get past the likes of Phantoms or Reindeer Games. If the storyline just seems lame to you. How in the hell is this movie not getting any critical recognition for it’s cinematography and incredible sound directing? If you asked me how you show, in a visual medium such as film, what its like to be blind Matt Murdock, I don’t know if I could have even grasped the concept before this movie. But that’s exactly what it does. The sound in particular is amazing. Even when you aren’t supposed to be paying attention to it, every object – even every movement- contributes a unique noise to create a symphony of sound throughout the entire film. I will be royally peeved if Steve Boeddeker doesn’t get an Oscar nod.
A few more things that bear mentioning:
Michael Clarke Duncan IS, and forevermore will be, the Kingpin. Daaammmn.
Colin Farrell, little luscious man-whore that he is, not only is Bulls-Eye, but I think he actually improved the character. If that’s even possible.
No one could have made a better Foggy Nelson than Jon Favreau.
And, I feel bad, because I have the least to say about her, but Jennifer Garner was a perfectly nice Elektra.
If you haven’t got the subtext throughout this entire post, Read: GO SEE THIS GODDAMN MOVIE. If you have the opportunity to see a digital screening, I would highly recommend it. I can understand if the DD mythos isn't your bag, but... if it is. And you don't like this movie. You can still be my friend (hi, Nate!), but I have to wonder if you have a soul. ¶ 2/16/2003 11:38:00 AM
