If I ever got lost in the woods, I hope I have a deck of cards on me. I’d play solitaire. Eventually someone will show up and say “Black nine on red ten.”
And then, an update…
So I’m at the lab, killing time until my 96-well plate is ready to be read… Figured now was as good a time as any to update the world on happenings…
Brooke and I went up to Hannibal for last weekend to visit with family and friends… Saturday was really good in that we got to shoot off fireworks, had an excellent dinner via Brooke’s Mom, and I got a lovely sunburn whilst laying on a raft in their pool. Overall, a successful weekend! My parents came into St. Louis on Monday night for some BBQ and we made some really good ribs. Brooke put them in the crock pot for a good 6 hours along with brown sugar, paprika, and just about everything else on the spice rack. They were some of the best ribs I’ve ever had, honestly…very tender and tasty… It was also good to be my parents for once! We didn’t really do anything for the actual 4th of July holiday, however. The weather wasn’t terribly cooperative in St. Louis…but we didn’t really feel like going anywhere, either. It ended up being a relaxing day, which is all I could really ask for.
Otherwise, my Biostatistics class started on Monday (yes, July 3rd…seriously…who starts a summer class the day before the 4th?!). While I’m telling myself that extended knowledge of statistics is useful for my chosen career path, I just have to wonder if reminders of Confidence Intervals, hypothesis testing, and SPSS are really worth 3.5 hours of class twice a week… Needless to say, I’ll be ranting about this waste of time for the duration of the class (another 5 weeks remain…).
I guess it’s time for the weekend again… I think Brooke is heading up to Louisiana, MO (Ma’s garage sale…) on Friday, so I’ll need entertainment Friday night (’cause Sci-Fi Friday doesn’t start up until next weekend). Keep me posted.
Review: Superman Returns
Brooke and I saw “Superman Returns” tonight and I’d place it up there with “Batman Begins” as a great way to rejuvinate a movie series.
The film gets started pretty quickly, apparently taking place after “Superman II,” and incorporating plot devices that end up supplanting the generally worse latter two movies (which I doubt many people will mind).? Essentially, Superman has been gone for 5 years and things have changed such that Superman needs to join the world again and get back to truth, justice and the American way…and as usual, Lex Luthor (in an excellent performance by Kevin Spacey) is around to screw it up with yet another dastardly scheme that threatens the well-being of Earth.
So, the movie overall was really good. The acting was awesome, the special effects were top-notch (as to be expected from a Bryan Singer movie), and the plot in general was strong. I really liked all the little plot points that Singer tossed in that pay homage to the original. The opening credits and ending sequences were very much the same as the original movie and even some lines were ripped from the original script. With that in mind, if you have access to the original film, I’d recommend you see it before watching this movie. You may want to watch the second also, but at least watch the first.
I only had two “complaints” about the movie, but they are pretty minor. First of all, the ending was kinda drawn out. Without giving anything away, the last 15-20 minutes were somewhat unnecessary and could have been resolved differently, in my opinion…but I can live with it… Secondly, the action scenes were good, but they weren’t up with “Spider-Man 2” and the like. Honestly, there isn’t much that could be done. While Spider-Man bounces around and swings all over the place, Superman just flies in straight lines and punches people. So, while watching a movie like “Spider-man” is very dynamic and engaging, the action scenes in “Superman Returns” are somewhat lacking. On the other hand, it is very badass to see him rescue a plane as it plummets toward Earth and land it in a baseball stadium…and to see him take a bullet in the eye and not flinch… I’m just saying that the action was good, but wasn’t particularly impressive as compared with “Spider-Man” (but I can’t see any way that could have been resolved without changing decades of history and lore).
That said, I think the movie was really good and well worth watching…so worth watching that I intend on seeing it again in IMAX 3D once Josh gets back from Virginia…and I’ll tell you about that after I see it…w00t!
Resolution…somewhat…
Well, we’ve got TV back… Here’s a numbered summary:
1). I sent two e-mails to the FCC and finally got a response a week and a half after the first e-mail was sent. I contacted the Attorney General’s office and they sent a complaint form to us (as that’s the only way they’ll look into it…if there’s a complaint filed). According to the FCC Rules and Regulations website, in Title 47, Part 76, Subpart M, the lines are owned by Charter Communications. If I owned the property, I could tell them I’m switching providers and either a). I’d have to pay them per foot of the lines within the building to purchase them, or b). they’d have 7 days to remove the lines themselves. Since I don’t own the building, and apparently Park Forest Apartments has a “deal” with Charter, the lines are the cable company’s and I can’t use them. Shenanigans.
2). To avoid any more hassles by Charter, DISH came out today and ran a new line alongside the apartment complex, requiring them to drill a hole through the siding and putting a new faceplate on the inside of the apartment. The only place it could go? Right next to the sliding glass door, on the opposite wall from where the TV currently resides. While this means that Charter cannot cut the line anymore (’cause that’s hardcore illegal), Brooke and I now have to shift the furniture around in the living room to compensate…not that big a deal, I guess. If the line is cut again, the DISH guy has told us to try and catch the Charter fool before he leaves, take pictures of what was done, then call the cops. Believe you me, I will.
3). After talking with the apartment complex manager and one or two maintenence people, it appears that the Charter people have done this multiple times in the past few years, cutting lines that aren’t supposed to be connected to “their” lines. It sure sounded like, next time they have to renew whatever contract they’ve got together, there’s going to be some re-wording…’cause they weren’t pleased. It didn’t seem like they were unhappy with me or anything…just that they have to allow for a new line to be laid into one of their buildings because they aren’t allowed to use the existing one, causing more hassle for everyone involved.
Regardless, we’ve got television back…and next time any of you visit, you’ll see that our living room has been rearranged to a large degree. Oh well…we’ve lived there a year now…’bout time for something new…
So, as I sit here waiting…
My DISH service is being “restored” right now, but as I wait, I find that the new teaser trailer for “Spider-man 3” is online.
w00t!!!? May 4th with rock beyond all belief…
Good week(end)…
So, we went on a float trip last Thursday with my lab…went pretty well and we generally avoided the tremendous downpour that descended upon St. Louis later in the afternoon.? The temperature was nearly perfect for floating (on the Huzzah River) and the sun stayed mostly behind the clouds.
Anyway, Brooke and I spent our First Anniversary going to Hermann for the weekend, again.? We drove in on Friday and went to dinner at the Stone Hill restaurant…good eats there, yo…? The next day, we went to Stone Hill and Hermannhoff for tasting, and then to the Robller Winery for more tasting and some blues music, which was pretty nice.? Then, we went to see the town production of “Damn Yankees,” which we’d never seen before…and honestly, it could have been a bit better…but hey, it was good entertainment.
Regardless, we had a good weekend, even without TV (not that we would have had it here…) and came back with four bottles of wine…and, the best part being, that we only spent some of our tax refund on the weekend…w00t!
Now, we’ll see if this past weekend lives up to next weekend… 😉
Oldiness…
“Wisdom doesn’t automatically come with old age. Nothing does – except wrinkles. It’s true, some wines improve with age. But only if the grapes were good in the first place.”
— Abigail Van Buren
Happy #24 to me…
I’ll be enjoying today at the lab, then going by the Schlafly Tap Room for dinner with my lovely wife this evening. Overall, should be a good day!
Now, if only I had television to watch, then today would be perfect…grrrrr…
I had to find something to do…
So, since we don’t have any good tv and I read too fast, I recovered some chairs I’ve been meaning to take care of since we moved in last summer today. Here’s what they look like, with the “before” on the left and the “after” on the right. Other than that, I have a job interview tomorrow for a job that I really want, so think good thoughts around nine tomorrow morning!
Review: An Inconvenient Truth
So, since Brooke and I are without cable, we decided to go see a movie…well, we wanted to see this one, anyway. We saw “An Inconvenient Truth,” Al Gore’s latest attempt to explain to the American public about the dangers of global warming, a battle that he’s been fighting since the 1970s.
You may wonder why all the reviewers love this documentary, and why it’s creating a stir in the news media, reigniting a decades-old argument about the validity of global warming and whether humanity causes it. I was rather curious how interesting this documentary could be, but I was pleasantly surprised. The movie generally recounted a “slide show” (i.e. beefed-up PowerPoint) that Gore has presented many times over the years, talking about the evidence supporting the idea that mankind has caused, if not accelerated, global warming on Earth. The show is interspersed with testamonials by Gore talking about how he became interested in the subject, and how events in his life (including the 2000 “election”) shaped his mission to educate the world about this problem.
It was certainly scary to see the statistics. He showed graphs and pictures depicting history and modern times…showing CO2 levels taken from ice core samples over 600,000 years…and how the current levels are unbelievably higher (as in, they never crossed 300 ppm [parts-per-million] over that time, but are now well above that and will cross 600 ppm by 2050 at current rates). He showed how the polar ice caps have noticeably decreased in size, and that ice melting in Greenland could stop the flow of the gulf stream, effectively shutting down the “engine” that prevents Europe from entering another ice age.
He informs the masses, he addresses the critics, and he calls for action, whether by switching to more energy-efficient light bulbs and hybrid cars, or by running for political office yourself to make a difference. He makes you see the evidence for yourself and understand it. And, on a side-note, it’s interesting to note how confident he seems in presenting this story, as opposed to some interviews and debates during the 2000 election. This is the voice of someone who believes in this cause and will do what it takes to get the job done.
You should go see it, if you can. And, believe you me, if you drive a large SUV, you’re getting a copy of it for Christmas…
And since I couldn’t say it better, in the words of another great reviewer:
“In 39 years, I have never written these words in a movie review, but here they are: You owe it to yourself to see this film. If you do not, and you have grandchildren, you should explain to them why you decided not to.”
— Roger Ebert; Chicago Sun-Times
The Battle Has Begun…
So, the story goes like this: A few months ago, we decide to switch from Charter Television to DISHnetwork, ’cause they’re cheaper and we get the DVR service…which rocks tremendously… Well, shortly after switching, our service goes out, and the hub where cable lines head from outside the building to inside the building was locked and protected (so you can’t steal cable from Charter, of course). Well, DISH sent a technician out, who subsequently broke through the barrier to reconnect our line from the dish to the coax cable that heads into the building. The DISH technician also makes note of the fact that Charter, in disconnecting the line, didn’t just unscrew the coax cable connection, but also cut the line off so I couldn’t reconnect it without having DISH fix it.
Fast forward to this past Friday, 6/16/06. Well, I call Brooke up to tell her I’m heading home from the lab around 4:15 and she says, “oh, the TV just went out.” So, I told her to look outside and see if anyone was standing around that hub again. No one was there. I get home and start investigating… The green barrier where the hub is was re-set back on its base like it hadn’t been before, so someone had been there… But, I couldn’t find the cable that came from our dish anywhere, that was supposed to be plugged in to the line heading into our building.
I notice some ground disturbed. I grab our trowel. I move the ground.
I find the line cut and re-buried. The line from the dish. Deliberately cut. DISH is charging $100 for them to come out and repair it.
So, I’ve put in an e-mail to the FCC to check on the laws, specifically, to see if the lines within the building are owned by Charter…or by my apartment complex… If the lines are owned by Charter (somehow…), then I’ll have DISHnetwork run a separate line. If it’s owned by our apartment complex, then what Charter is doing is illegal.
Believe you me, this isn’t over.