Writing offline, posting when back in town, post 1
One of our family traditions just started. TBS has shown A Christmas Story for 24 hours on Christmas/Chrismas Eve for the last couple of years. I’ve seen it so many times that I know most of the movie by heart, but I can still watch it every year.
My favorite quotes, in no particular order:
Mommy, Daddy’s gonna kill Ralphie.
Dad: Thanks a lot. (in a very high pitched voice after he takes a bowling ball to his)
Dad: It’s a major award!
Dad: Fra-GEE-lay. It must be Italian.
Mom: I think it says fragile.
Dad: Oh yeah.
Ralphie: Fffffuuudddge.
Narrator: Only I didn’t say fudge.
1. Everything closes early on Christmas Eve.
2. Take shaving cream with you. Everything closes early on Christmas Eve.
3. Take extra ‘Puffs with lotion’ if your wife is sick. They’re harder to get than a Playstation 3. Everything closes early on Christmas Eve.
4. Expect the unexpected.
5. There is no internet access. There is no WiFi. There is little cellular coverage.
I went to the local grocery store that happened to be the only thing open in my home town after 6:00 on Christmas Eve. As always, everyone in town knows who I am, but I never remember them. I worked out though. I got their shopper’s club discount WITHOUT the card. Don’t worry, I won’t tell aaaaaaaanyone.
My immediate family did Christmas tonight since Mom, Jen and I are going to Kentucky this weekend. I got some awesome gifts this year. I’m sure I’ll be blogging about them later, but there is one that I must share.
I got a titanium spork from ThinkGeek.com. I thought my geek license might get revoked after the last year or two, but I’m back on track.
I’ll be gone to internet hell for the next couple of days, but I’ll be thinking of posting. I promise.
I was looking for an app to put my notes into on my Mac. I had downloaded trials of Yojimbo and a couple of other products, but none of them really got my attention enough to pay $25+ for them. After some more searching, I found Journaler.
Journaler does most everything that I was looking for, plus iPod exporting, blog posting, iLife integration, and print to PDF. I really like the app so far, though I’ve only spent an hour or so with it.
I’ve really excited about this crop of Virtual Console games for the Wii. I played a LOT of Street Fighter 2 when I was in high school. I was pretty good then. I’m sure would suck at it now. I never played Super Castlevania IV, but I really liked the first two, so I’ll probably pick it up.
Christmas wouldn’t be complete without Super Mario Bros.
Nintendo: Mario, Others Hit VC on Christmas – Kotaku:
* Street Fighter(R) II: The World Warrior (Super NES(R), 1-2 players,
800 Wii Points): This game revolutionized the fighting-game genre with
characters that had unique fighting skills, speed, special moves and
unique endings.
* Super Castlevania(R) IV (Super NES, 1 player, 800 Wii Points): Simon
Belmont uses his trusty whip to fight the powers of evil on his way to
Dracula’s Castle.
We’ve had two interested experiences this year. Jennifer’s iPod died, so I ordered a new one from the Apple Store online. It was projected to ship after Christmas, so I wasn’t too worried about it. I was a little surprised when I saw that it shipped yesterday. I was more surprised to see that it had gotten bumped up to priority overnight. I had selected the free shipping option, so thanks Apple!
The other was not so good. We had ordered a University of Washington shirt from RivalsFanShop.com for someone on our list. It was guaranteed to arrive before Christmas if we ordered before the 13th. We ordered on the 9th, but so much for that. It hasn’t arrived yet. It hasn’t shipped yet either. Jennifer was on hold for about twenty minutes and got hung up on when she got to a CSR. Back to the end of the line. Yippee! Just don’t order from them. It isn’t worth it.
ukathletics.com:
The UK men’s basketball team took time Wednesday afternoon to spread some holiday cheer to kids at the UK Children’s Hospital. Below are some photos from the visit.
Two interesting things happened over the weekend. Jennifer’s iPod died on Thursday so we needed to replace it. In doing so, the question of what iPod she should get came up. I think that a Nano might be better for her because of the physical size and durability of the flash-based player. The main reason we will be buying her a 5.5G is because she has a lot of music and wants to keep it all with her. The secondary reason is that it can play videos and she would like to use it in the classroom for a few things.
The other interesting thing is that I realized that I can fit all of the music that I listen to onto a 8GB Nano easily. As of now, I have about 5.33GB of music that I listen to. I actually have well over 13GB, but I don’t actually listen to that much of it. I have a pretty in-depth sorting mechanism that lets me listen to the songs I want easily. I have about 1GB of podcasts stored up, so that leaves me with 1.6GB to grow on and listen to audiobooks. Hmm…
If you see a black 5G 60gb iPod on ebay, think of me.
We went to see Eragon tonight. I want to preface what I’m about to say with a couple of things. One, I read the book over a year ago, so my details are a bit rusty. My wife read it last month, so it has been an interesting half hour on the way home. Second, Mom hasn’t read the book but liked the movie.
This movie was a complete destruction of the source material. I know the details can’t all be conveyed. However, I’ve seen LOTR, so I know that it can be done well. There is no connection between the characters. The one major death was only touching to me because I had read the book, not because of the story presented to me on the screen. I expected the introduction to be changed substantially due to time constraints, but I didn’t really care about the characters.
There are a few moments where it seems that Eragon does things just because he can, like the rescue mission. Don’t get me wrong, he was an idiot in the book, but he seems like a blathering idiot on the screen. Murtag’s role feels more than a little tacked on.
There was very little sense of real peril in the movie. Eragon is pursued through the entire book. He faces tremendous scrutiny even after he reaches the Varden. In the movie, it seems like pretty smooth sailing from waypoint to waypoint, though there weren’t enough of them. The pursuit and army at the end just appear from nowhere.
There is no sense of time in the movie either. Mom thought it took a couple of weeks for the entire thing to take place. In reality, it took several months. Anyway.
To sum up: it sucked. The 15% on RottenTomatoes.comis well deserved. That said, Saphira is the most amazing dragon animation I’ve ever seen. She looks beautiful. It’s just a shame that she was in this pitiful movie that should have been forty-five minutes longer. Here’s to the three hour extended edition that fixes the problems.
A stupid quiz, but fun anyway. I always liked Gauntlet and its many incarnations.
I am a Gauntlet Adventurer.
I strive to improve my living conditions by hoarding gold, food, and sometimes keys and potions. I love adventure, fighting, and particularly winning – especially when there’s a prize at stake. I occasionally get lost inside buildings and can’t find the exit. I need food badly. What Video Game Character Are You?
One of the most interesting things that happens at Christmastime is the sudden proliferation of shopping time. If you look at my blog activity over the last couple of weeks, you’ll notice that it has declined significantly. That is because we’ve spent a large portion of our time shopping.
Posted by Joseph 
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