Some seasonal music

I don't care if it's snowing...

Movie Review: Watchmen

Used some of the comp time I racked up this weekend to see Watchmen with Mr. E. There were five other people in the theater, which has upsides and downsides: Yes, we didn't have to listen to other people talking, but I felt like I couldn't talk myself, since, well, they'd know who was talking. :D

This was the third time Mr. E saw the movie, which is an endorsement in itself. (He didn't even make it through Starship Troopers once -- he had to walk away and get a popcorn refill before he started yelling at the screen.)

I was looking forward to this, and I guess my anticipation was rewarded. I'm not completely enamored of Zach Snyder's directorial style -- that slow then fast thing gets old fast, at least for me. And while I like a fight scene as much as the next nerd-girl, I don't remember them being quite that gory in the original. Dr. Manhattan's little Manhattan wasn't as distracting as I feared it would be, and the attempted rape was judiciously handled.

I did appreciate the attention to detail, and the period touches. The movie starts with a pretty good impression of The McLaughlin Group, which I appreciated since I watched it back in the mid-80's. (Nerd, remember?) One of the reasons I wished I could have chatted with Mr. E during the movie was because I was playing "spot the frame from the graphic novel", and I got a lot of hits.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie, and will probably watch it at least one more time on the biggest TV I can get my hands on, remote in hand, looking for all the details scattered throughout. NOT RECOMMENDED if you're squeamish about graphic violence and sex.

Being a grown-up sucks

So, everybody else is off to see Watchmen, and here I am at home, waiting for tech support to call back because the equipment at work is having a breakdown over daylight savings time... waaah.

ETA: India-based tech support puts a lot of stress on my resolve to not be a racist a$$hole like my father. The support is awful because they're undertrained and undersupported by the corporation that decided to outsource to them, NOT BECAUSE THEY HAVE A FOREIGN ACCENT. (repeat as needed, perhaps like Bart at the chalkboard...)

Totally shallow

Got some unbudgeted money and purchased an Acer Aspire One . I named it Nybbler (yes, a portmanteau of this and this) , but it can also go by "My Precioussss." It's only three pounds! It fits in my purse! It makes the nerd boys squeal when they see it, like cute chicks looking at a tiny sandwich from Burger King! (ETA: 6 hour battery life! squee!)

So, I stimulated the economy. That makes me a good American, right? (OK, so it's more like whistling in the dark... )

(Oh, and the Xbox 360 was procured for Xmas, and Mass Effect is indeed as cool as I'd hoped it would be. Being a BioWare fangirl probably helps with that.)

Oh, this blog thing?

My apologies for the lapse in posting. Felt that I was out of interesting things to say. :D

Enough thunks on the melon were received at RadCon, tho, to incentivize to take another whack at it.

Birthday time!

more animals

But I actually got:
A lunch box
And a booster pack

Fired by another doctor

But in a good way, this time. :D Had my last appointment with the hematologist today; my blood counts are in the normal range (except for my platelets, which are a little elevated -- a possible indicator of continuing iron problems), so she told me to go forth and sin no more. She was happy to see a patient leave her practice under their own power.

My kind of election coverage

Why, from the Weekly World News, of course...

At a shocking press conference this morning, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama announced that he has a half-man half-bat half-brother.

Little things, part whatever

As I was walking through the park to get to the bus plaza, the bells in the clocktower started playing... "Michelle", by the Beatles. It was smile-ful. (Yes, it's a word 'cause I say it is.)

Small victories

... I figured out how to use chopsticks to put my hair up (thanks, Youtube!)

... we've identified good gluten-free brands, making shopping quicker.

... White Box Pies makes tasty tasty gluten-free desserts. And they're a locally owned small business. Double victory!

... I managed to NOT watch either the Democratic or Republican National conventions. :D

Hey, I'll take what I can get. :D

It's been a month?!?

more animals

Yeah, that's just an excuse.

More to follow. :D

Happiness is...

... a gluten-free chocolate eclair from White Box Pies. Hand delivered by family members, no less. :D

Some poetry

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)

THE SECOND COMING

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

posted 'cause I was thinking about it*, that's all

(*because I just called my period "the blood-dimmed tide".)

I'm *so* shallow

I'm watching Earth: The Biography on the National Geographic Channel, mainly because the host (Iain Stewart) has a dead sexy Scottish accent, and I'm all full of *squee* because he's talking about the Lake Missoula floods which formed the Channeled Scablands. Sexy guy talking over shots of home sweet home... yep, shallow. :D

"Lost tapes of the Doctor Who composer"

Whoa.

A hidden hoard of recordings made by the electronic music pioneer behind the Doctor Who theme has been revealed - including a dance track 20 years ahead of its time.

Delia Derbyshire was working in the BBC's Radiophonic Workshop in 1963 when she was given the score for a theme tune to a new science fiction series.

She turned those dots on a page into the swirling, shimmering Doctor Who title music - although it is the score's author, Ron Grainer, who is credited as the composer.

from BBC News Includes samples of her work.

Edited to add: Whoa squared; there was a link to this article about the founder of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in the sidebar:

Almost un-noticed by the wider world, one of the pioneers of electronic music has died. Without Daphne Oram, we may never have known what the Tardis sounded like.

Electronic music - as much a part of today's life as whistling a tune to yourself - grew up amid milk bottles, gravel, keys, and yards of magnetic tape and wires.

These were the sort of "tools" typically scattered around the BBC's Radiophonic Workshop in the 1950s and 60s, when they were used to generate wonderful and ethereal sounds for the airwaves.

The mother of this great legacy was Daphne Oram. Aged 18, and armed with a passionate interest in sound, music and electronics, she started work at the BBC in 1943 as a sound engineer.

linkness

Celiac followup

The appointment with the gastroenterologist went well (except for driving to the wrong office -- see, I knew being early would pay off some day, as I still made it to my appointment on time). I got to see my biopsy and blood test results, which both can be summarized as, "Broken!" The doc was surprised that my bone scan came out normal; when I passed that on to my mom, she said thick bones came from my dad's side of the family. He referred me on to a dietician so we can make sure I'm getting proper nutrition, and then we'll have a follow up biopsy and blood test in six months to ensure I'm recovering.

I like good news. :D

Living the single life (or, I hate wasps)

Mr. E and Kid A are off on the West Side this week, so it's just me and the cranky old cat. Sunday before they left we went out to make sure the Emergency Back-up Car would work for me this week. Gee, when you don't drive a car for a few months, the wasps do like to move in. Mr. E found the nest (under the frame) and he and Kid A dispatched about 8-10 wasps in the next half hour.

So, Tuesday I went out to drive to work (had an appointment with the gastro doc), and, being a bit paranoid, I kicked the driver's side door -- and out come two wasps, logy in the morning chill. I opened the door and out popped two more. While I was doing the "eek, wasps!" dance, I noticed they had started a new nest on the door sill. So I kicked that off the car and squished it.

Victory! or so I thought. The little goobers relocated to the mailbox. Oy.

Almost normal....

... my hemoglobin count, that is. It's almost to the bottom of the normal range! And my bone density scan came back normal as well. It's nice to receive some good news. :D Also, the doc was very happy -- she's an oncologist, and she appreciates having a patient who is getting better with minimal intervention.

Flawless Victory!

Well, that's a bit of an exaggeration... it only took four hours and two chat sessions with Qwest tech support, but we've now got DSL and wi-fi set up. (Yes, the wi-fi is secured.) I'm posting from my PC in the basement, which desperately needs a new keyboard... ah, that's why I only used it for gaming.

Holiday weekend omnibus post

Mr E and I went to see Wanted on Friday (Kid A was off at Silverwood with friends). Big, loud, hyperkinetic, and bloody, AKA my kind of movie.

Then we checked out the gluten free selections at Huckleberry's. Bottom line: they have a slightly better variety than Yokes, and for some products the prices are lower.

Maximum force family togetherness on Sunday; went shopping with mom and sisters, while Mr E and Kid A hung out with Cousin D (who needs to eat something! he grew six inches and looks like stretch armstrong). Amazingly enough, I'm a size 8. Whodathunkit? Then dinner at Mom's -- big T-bone steaks and all the fixin's (except for the French bread).