Work's been super crazy busy lately, which is fine for overtime pay, and I slapped together a silly little flicker for weeklydv.com last night. Spent today with Mom's side of the family and it was great. My sister almost made me pee my pants laughing...

... we ate plenty of good food, played "Cranium" all afternoon and later, yes, ate more food. I was also playing with my niece and the dogs, taking pictures, talking about travel. Stress free, thankfully. My sister caused much amusement during the game when she tried to hum "In-a-godda-da-vida" and she was really humming "Hava Nagila!" I almost wet myself laughing. The sunset was one of the most spectacular displays of evening color I've seen and thankfully my camera was at the ready. Gorgeous. Driving down was a bit slow due to high levels of traffic but coming back up was easy. And I wasn't drowsy from turkey as I gorged at lunch and nibbled in the evening.
The flicker took longer than I expected even though production-wise it is soundly in the B-movie camp, but that is what I intended. I play five roles in this three minute turkey. For whatever that is worth... actually, I learned quite a bit about blue-screen technique!

Ok, if you live in the Twin Cities area and you like Thai food, you owe it to your tastebuds to drive over to New Hope and eat at Thai Express Cafe on the corner of 36th N. and Winnetka. A fairly new place, this little family-owned spot always is delicious and spicy (to your liking, of course). Great service and great prices, too. I've been eating there at least once a week. They serve lunch and are open until 9:00pm.
Tonight I tried my hand at my own cooking (I am capable) and whipped up some Red Curry Chicken with Tomatoes and Pea Pods. Yummy! Spicy and thick, like a stew, over jasmine rice. Coconut milk, halved cherry tomatoes and red curry paste make up the most of the 'sauce' and the green pea pods contrast nicely. I'll be making this again!

I got another flicker* under my belt yesterday with a 2:00 minute short about things I can do in two minutes. I was a bit hesitant to submit it and then felt horrified after I did but a few good comments from friends put me at ease. Why? Well, it is shot so it appears that the main character is ... um... you know... and anyway it was a bit uncomfortable to watch other people watch it. Most get it and laugh. But a few were pretty silent. Too silent. (Ha! get over it!) It was a fun little shoot and if you don't like it, just remember: this is a rated "G" movie.
*From now on I am calling short online video creations "flickers" because it sounds cool. Yeah. Cool.

Finally available for order through Amazon.com: the Segway. Heck, it's only $4950 -- let's get two of them!

Toshiba's got a new box called the RD-X2 that can do PVR (ala Tivo) on its 80-gig drive, connect a camcorder/camera or laptop and import video and edit it via the remote control and then, the kicker, you can take anything on the box and burn it to DVD with the built-in burner. Wow.

Last night we decided to go check out the new Harry Potter: Chamber of Secrets movie and thought we'd check out a new theater north of town. I had never been there before and don't normally drive around those areas (20 miles north) and was thus a bit skeptical about directions and distances. I got to a point where it looked too far out (no, not like hippy trippy far out, more like... oh nevermind) and turned off the main road and stopped behind this very large non-descript building. I called my friends on the cell and said, look, I'm not sure I should be driving all around McMaynerbury, I don't see it, it feels like I've gone too far, etc. Jack says, no, keep going, you cannot miss it, it will be on your left. Ok, I turn around and head back out to the main road. I turn left and head north. As soon as I clear the lights from the QuickieMart right on the corner, I see it on my left. Yes, the large non-descript building I was parked behind, making my phone call from, was indeed... the movie theater.

Tonight I was told, with some certainty, that I resemble Billy Bob Thornton, the actor. Hmmm... the people claiming such were shocked I hadn't been told that before, but it is true. I was intrigued so I looked up some pix of BBT and ... well, I guess there are some similarities. Odd. I never suspected and have been quite comfortable not looking like anyone... except myself. Hopefully they just mean the actor and not any of his specific roles.

Today was rather funny: I got two phone calls within 20 minutes of each other, both offering extra tickets to a concert this evening. Very cool. First my pal Bill calls with an extra ticket to Lords of Acid. I accept. Why not? Might be cool. Then my pal Anita calls will an extra to Ani DiFranco. Argh. Tough spot. I gently break up with Bill to go with Anita to see Ani. I felt bad, but Ani was too attractive, even though I've seen her numerous times. She put on a great (as usual) but brief (unusual) show -- she just recently busted her foot in some sort of freak rain-frolicking accident. It was hard for her to play as she's so animated normally. Still, a great show, all acoustic solo. Nice. She's great because she's sincere and she's very generous with her music and emotion and presence and energy -- she connects and the crowd connects back.

I gave the FedEx guy a free thrill (well, maybe not) today. I was expecting a delivery of my new 512 MB RAM stick today so I was listening for the door. Of course, the moment I get in the shower and get completely soaked, I hear pounding on the door. I make a quick decision: yes or no. Yes. I jump out of the shower, grab a towel and fling it around my private bits and run to the door. He's still there. I am relieved and greet him enthusiasticly. This is probably not the kind of greeting he wants, but he's smirking at me, probably thinking to himself "Hooo boy, they got some odd ones living around here. Stupid nerd" or something like that. Hey, I can't help it that I'm a geek and want my new RAM! It would just be agonizing to have him have stopped by and then left and I'd know that my RAM was in the vicinity but that I couldn't get to it... yeah, ok... I need a life...

Apple released the updater for OS X 10.2.2 today and reviews around the net are quite favorable. I think I will jump in and update tomorrow. Just in case. 'Cuz I like to be an early adopter, but I have a bit of self-control (and just a little fear).

I wasn't planning on being up this late, what with a long past two days, but the new is of MovieMaker arrived and it contains a short piece about a group of moviemakers making a new movie every month - Group 101. What a great group. Check out some of their videos online. "Lucky Mouse" had me guffawing (he said as wheels in his head keep turning....)

A new federal rule went into effect in October requiring cable companies to allow you to pick and choose which premium channels you want -- no more bloated packages just to get IFC or Sundance or SciFi! Call your cable company today and stick it back to them (sorta).

Well, at least there is some good news this morning in the aftermath of the election yesterday -- new Powerbooks and iBooks from Apple! Whoohoo! Totally awesome machines - with a built-in SuperDrive for burning DVDs, no less. Wow. Must work overtime, must work overtime...

Went over and voted just now - quick and easy - how come so many judges on the ballot and I know nothing about them? - I felt very ignorant - my lame approach: vote for the challenger - special ballot for Senate race - very friendly folks running the place - snow on the ground - go and vote

Customizing iDVD, Part 2 is a handy little guide for making custom buttons, themes, etc. Keep this one bookmarked for making your next DVD stand out.