Society for Aesthetic Deletions

That was Grant's message to me, since I haven't updated my blog since before we went to his house for Thanksgiving.

So, the trip went well, fun was had by all, and the only illnesses were strep, and that was by the Gainey's, and mostly after we'd left.

Lou and I kept ourselves awake during the last bit of the drive back (stuck in Connecticut just past New York City in rush hour traffic) with our silly car license plate game. No, not one where you find all the different states/provinces you can. We started this one day as a lark, I forget why or who. But we pick the license plates with three letters in them, pretend it's an acronym, and come up with what those three letters stand for. Such as GOO - Generic Ocelot Offering.

Jack participated too, and we came up with the definitive acronym, which must become a game. KYA - Kill Your Ancestors. Some sort of card game where you're a nihilist or a disgruntled youth who thinks things would be better if you were never born, nor your parents nor theirs! So you go back in time (using Cheapass Games' time machine from Patent #1, no doubt), and kill your ancestors! Probably some sort of card game where you try to get rid of all your cards. Jack and Lou are thinking of how this would work.

Oh, and I should probably point out that it's my birthday today. Happy Birthday to me!

I wonder how many people get the Sewer Urchin joke in the header? Wish they could have kept him on the live action Tick.

I'm The James Bond Villain Personality Test!

I live in a fictional world of spies and blonde women with ridiculous names, and I like to give people plenty of options. Although whether they're villainous is not optional.

Click here to find out which test you are!

The day after my birthday, this past Thursday, it was 70 degrees in Providence. I was able to go to lunch with a friend and drive to and from with my windows down (blasting WBRU's Retro Lunch). And last night, it was snowing.

There's an old saying...if you don't like New England weather, wait a minute, it'll change.

Lou and I went to see Ocean's Eleven at an early show today. It was our lucky day...their computers were down for credit card processing, and so they comped us on the tickets, and then on the concession (Lou had gone to buy popcorn while I was getting tickets). So we got the movie, a large drink, a large popcorn, and Raisinettes for free. Lou joked that if he had known that, he would have gotten more!

We only had a dollar each, and the theater didn't have an ATM. Something they might want to think about adding in the future!

But the movie was definitely worth the price (how I usually rate movies)! It would have even been worth the $5.75 they would have charged. Fun, good movie, nothing spectacular, won't win any awards, but something that is worth watching at least once. Vaguely interested in seeing the first movie now, but not enough to make that big of an attempt. I just have a feeling I will like the remake a lot better than the first.

Updated the size of the font on this blog. I was using "small" but it was just too big on Windows machines. So I am pixelizing it, and we're at 10 pixels now. I'll check when I get home to see how it looks at this point.

I'm also working on creating a new blog, this one specifically for writing. More on that as I work to make it look nice.

Why do they always come in pairs?

Good news first. I got back my latest test results on my C1 Esterase Inhibitor Deficiency. My levels have been normal for two years, so I can start weaning off the Zyrtec I've been taking. The Zyrtec should have had no impact upon my condition, but it did. My allergist had one other patient when I first went to him with this, and when I went for my check up last year, he had a few more. All of us are treatable with antihistimines (I think the other patients were using Claritin, but my GP had given me Zyrtec first, so we kept me on that), and our conditions have stabilized.

My allergist said that he's been going to seminars and lectures on my condition, and has learned that it can wax and wane, and also can clear itself up. Since I've been fine for two years now, we're trying to take me off the Zyrtec and see how it goes. If it returns, then I'll go back on the antihistimine and get more bloodwork done, no doubt. But here's hoping it never returns!

Bad news next. Brian is leaving. Brian has been my co-worker for over a year now, almost a year and a half. He's been across the hall from me since he started. We have the same interests in TV, movies, action figures, comics, everything. And now he's leaving. To go work for another part of Brown, but since we're off-campus and he's on-campus, I doubt we'll see each other much. They offered him a LOT of money to take the job, and he couldn't pass it up. Even though I think it'll drive him crazy...it's a management position, not a hands-on position. But hey, if they offered me that kind of money, I'd probably have taken it too.

So now we're our our database developer (or will be, in three weeks), at the time we're rolling out our new contact database system. His position is going to be TOUGH to fill. In more ways than one.

Well, at least I get to bug the hell out of him until he goes. And I'll poke him to use Trillian on the new location (the office he's in uses all Windows machines) so we can chat at work.

Waaaaah! Who am I going to talk Alias, Buffy, Angel, Roswell, Justice League, The Tick, and all those shows with daily???

So I saw Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring on Wednesday. I wasn't foolish enough to see the midnight show -- I'm too old to stay up that late, even with a vacation day the next day. 3:00 a.m. is when it would have been over. I'd arranged for a bunch of friends and two co-workers (including my boss!) to go to the 11:00 a.m. show.

It was worth every minute of the wait. And I believe the next two will also be worth the year of wait to see them.

A beautiful feast for the eyes, and for the ears. Tolkien purists will despise it, those who can't get past the rewriting of their beloved god, JRRT. (I heard on Talk of the Nation on NPR yesterday a caller who walked out before they reached the Ford of Bruinen) I can accept the rewrites. I would have liked some things to remain the same, but others I don't mind. Merging Arwen and Glorfindel for one. No, it wasn't Arwen, Warrior Princess. But it was Arwen, Elf Lord.

I want to see it again. I'll even pay full price. It should be seen on the big screen. While I want to own it on DVD (my precioussssss), it will do a great injustice to put it on the small screen. Letterboxing will help, of course.

Little things I loved:

Legolas walking on top of the snow on Caradhras while everyone else was plowing through it;

Bilbo's face when he sees the Ring around Frodo's neck, and asks to hold it;

The Mines of Moria;

Sam running after Frodo as he was leaving alone, and Frodo pulling him from the water;

Gimli's and Legolas' faces as Aragorn invites them to hunt some orc;

I hadn't finished the reread of The Fellowship by the time I saw the movie (too many other things to do and read), but I am hoping to finish before I see it again.

Do yourself a favor. Go see it. Take a walk in Middle Earth. Relax and enjoy it. We can all use a bit of fantasy in our lives right now, and Peter Jackson gives it to us.

Christmas went well. We did get the trip to Las Vegas from Lou's parents that I was expecting. Instead of the annual trip to the Cape in February/March, all of us are heading to Las Vegas for a week. Should be fun!

I got other stuff as well, most of which I'd asked for. And the stuff I didn't specifically ask for was very much appreciated. I did get a folding keyboard for my Palm, which also made me realize that the Memo pad has a size limit on it. I was typing the background for my Miss Amaryllis character in Pat's new game on Monday nights. I don't know whether I should bother to try and create web page for this character/game or not, though. I may throw one together, just so I can post her background up.

Finished The Curse of Chalion last night. Excellent book - LMB has outdone herself. I anxiously await the sequel, which will come after the next Miles book.