Wow. today I turned down a day shift at work. stupid? perhaps. but consider this: to me, waking up early in the morning (ie: with an alarm clock) is physically painful. pain avoidance is something I practice. And I like the nightlife, baby. Well, I function better later in the day/evening. So, in a job where getting a day shift is extremely difficult (seniority rules, and most people in my shop have been there for many years), I turned down the opportunity. But that's ok. 5:00am hurts.

So I actually caught the last bit of Leno last night on TV (which I rarely ever turn on) and this band called "t.A.T.u." is playing this kinda catchy poppy disco-y club song about forlorn lesbian love and the two cute barely-young-adult girl singers are being quite friendly with other during the song. Yup, I'm paying very close attention. They get to a non-vocal part of the song and they are close to each other, touching each other's faces, backs, hands, etc and I'm pretty darn sure they're gonna make-out on camera but NO! the camera suddenly switches over to the guitar player (boring!) for a non-standard (ie: looooong) amount of time and they don't cut back to the girls until they start singing again. Oh man, I missed something! I just know it! Leno closes up the show quickly, or tries to, and Arsenio Hall is there and he comes over, giggling, and tries to kiss Jay. Confirmed in my mind - they were kissing and they wouldn't show us. Ok, guess I need to get out more and maybe date or something... but what was really cool is that they were wearing white T-shirts scrawled in Russian that said "ХУИ ВОЙНЕ" which basically means "Fuck War" -- sweet.
UPDATE: they were on Jimmy Kimmel tonight and they had ATTITUDE, uh huh, about last night's show on Leno. ABC/Disney was braver (or more likely just making a play for the most viewers of something "controversial") and let them do what they wanted. Nice crotch grab.

Dang it. Last Wednesday William Gibson was in town on his book tour thingy. In Edina, too (close to my home area). How the heck did I miss this? Crud. I devoured Pattern Recognition last week and enjoyed it. A very of-the-moment science fiction type of book, which is a change for him, but he done did good.

Bill, Michelle, Jack and I went down to Iowa for the weekend. Aaah, nothing to do, nowhere to be, no schedule of any kind... it was a much-needed thing for me. Weather was decent all weekend, just a bit of foggy flurries and chilly.
Akira came along (he belongs to Bill and Michelle) and he's always fun (he's got a sense of humor) but he's got this powerful weapon that he only uses in small enclosed spaces, like a car, and it can clear out your sinuses (in a bad way) in about 1 picosecond. Beware the anal leakage! Yechh. Poor Michelle always seems to be the receiver of these "gifts"... Too bad the sheer power of an iPod jacked into the car stereo couldn't counteract the olfactory anguish.
The giant Happy Chef greeted us on the outskirts of Mankato and we stopped to relieve the dog (and our noses). We concluded that the Happy Chef is a baker, 'cuz he sure looks baked.
The place we stayed at has a "giggle shower" which we all found very luxurious. We dubbed it so as it is one of those fancy-pants units with a spray head, a water fall and two spray jets on the wall (chest and groin heights) which can spray, pulse or both while moving. The lower one tickled my bum. Hee hee! Turning them all on at once just makes a person giggle. Having all those water nozzles is so decadent and the heated flooring... oh man. I'm a sucker for a long hot shower anyway...
We toured a few antique stores on Saturday, just for fun, and saw many amazing things. I picked up a tie and lusted after some swanky dishes. Should I call them back and have them shipped? Maybe... Maybe. I could use a set of dishes.
Bill cooked all weekend and I felt guilty. But dang, it was tasty. Fresh home-made pasta (yes, the noodles, too) and sauce, bread, fruit. Yummy. Some ice cream and a mini belated-birthday cake, which Bill claims was only 'cuz I was having a major sugar craving. Not so! Big fire in the fireplace lulled Bill and I to sleep after we watched a lame-sort of movie ("Tart" - skip it).
The lake was just ice (no snow cover), so no snowmobiling for us. Actually, the lake had a few big open spots on it so we would've been far too wigged out to go on it anyway. Yikes.
Oh, and we saw at least five El Caminos for sale. So tempting....

some parody / funny / crazy stuff. I cried laughing.

Hallelujah! Sign me up for this one. Theaters d for Commercials. Commercials before movies are E V I L.

My toilet broke last night. At 1:30 in the morning. It just wouldn't stop running no matter what I did to it. Run run run run run. Tired and exasperated, I decided to just shut off the toilet and go to bed and fix it in the morning. Lo and behold, however, I discover that none of my water-devices (tub, sink, toilet, etc) have shut-off valves on them! Doh. Head to the basement. No shut-off valves down there either, save for the whole house valve. Well, can't let it run. Got up early this morning and threw on a hat and a jacket and went to Home Depot to buy a new tank valve thingy. I was a bit disconcerted that the only replacement valve thingy was exactly the same as my broken one. Back home, grab some wrenches, a glove (for twisting/gripping) and a small bathroom garbage can to catch water. Good thing, too. The water shut-off doesn't seem to quite shut off the water. So I had about one gallon's worth of slow water trickle to dismantle and replace the toilet valve. Go! I made it with about an inch of capacity to spare. Whew. And look! No butt crack.

You have to go spend some time over at vagabonding.com and watch some videos, check out pictures and travelogues and imagine what it must be like to enjoy such a journey. Amazing.

A cute little hybrid Indian-American themed film, I thought The Guru was quite entertaining but could have used a bit more tightness to the story/editing. Funny, sweet, but only a few big dance numbers (could've used one more, methinks). I'm guessing somebody at the studios thought this would be a good "Bollywood-Lite" and if American audiences found it to their liking then they could explore real Bollywood movies. Or maybe just a vehicle to break-out some Indian actors in Hollywood... ? Best line (to get a girl to stop talking and into bed): "In my country we have sex very fast, like monkeys in the jungle. If you do not, then the gods get angry and they grab you by the tail and throw you into a different jungle." I'll have to remember that one.

Google just bought Blogger.

Hey! Funny enough, Irish-Girl got in first props to Jack on his birthday! Happy birthday, Jack! I was secretly plotting to spread the word around but looks like somebody else beat me to it. I'm innocent. Spead the love and wish him a good one.

Ok, pay attention movie-goers. Kevin Smith does a cameo role as a mortician in the Daredevil movie. He is seen surfing a morgue website/forum and on his screen he is typing in a chat-type of box. What did it say? I could've sworn it said something like: "I can get you pictures of three year old dead testicles..."

Last night was the Erotic Poetry Slam down at Kieran's Irish Pub. Jack and I went down to see Irish-Girl perform (is 'perform' the proper term for participation in a slam?) as we were genuinely interested and have known Irish-Girl through her blog but had never met her in person. I must say, I was impressed with the poetry. Some was just brilliant, some just funny, and one was just, well, painfully bad (not Irish-Girl's, just to clarify). I've read some of IG's stuff online but hearing her deliver it makes it all that much better. Seriously. The author's performance of the piece really makes it and I recommend you attend a slam. I'm hooked. By the way, she got in the top five. I would have put her in the top three. And I'm not just pandering 'cuz I know she'll eventually read this...

My friend Amy insisted that I see "Bottle Rocket" as she thinks the Wilson brothers (mostly Owen) are great. I enjoyed it very much. Quirky, funny, low-budget, decent performances, good all-around effort. I won't say much further, except if you haven't seen it, and you somewhat like Owen or Luke Wilson, give this movie a view. Written by Owen and Wes Anderson. Directed by Wes (Rushmore, Tennenbaums).

Hasn't anybody else noticed that the Twin Cities now has their own Craig's List? Or are we just not that interesting 'round here?

MovableType (the software this weblog runs) was updated to version 2.6 yesterday and I installed it in about 5 minutes this morning. So far, so good. Some nice new features that I'll have to explore. Also a nice new treat is the new version of KungLog, a Mac OS X weblog editor with many many nice features and full support(!) for MovableType -- including uploading images! zowie. (although I'm having difficulty with that feature right now). Even some other nifty features, such as a nifty iTunes current track listing. It can also do email notifications of new postings.
Currently listening to: Cinematic Soul from the album "The King Of Nothing Hill" by Barry Adamson

A few days ago there was an article in the NYTimes about "the man who makes pictures perfect." Too perfect, sometimes. Yep. It's true. Every single image you see printed has been manipulated in one way or another. Perhaps just color correction, but sometimes extreme body alterations. And people wonder why women (mostly) have a low self-image. Mmm-hmm. Looking at fake people in fashion magazines is not good for the brain. Real people don't look like that. Ever. But this story is just one. There are many many digital artists who in their daily work sit in a low-light environment behind a few large Cinema Displays with 2 gigabytes of RAM, a Wacom tablet and dual G4 processors and finesse images in Photoshop to create "perfect" images according to art directors' whims. It happens in towns all over the world. Even this one. Rarely do the models show up at the office... and the vending machine food is never any good.

No doubt everybody and their brother has their own "correct" list of Academy Award nominations and will vehemently defend their picks... well, this is my weblog so here are my opinions:

Best Picture: can't say for sure. I'd love to see LOTR win. Chicago was decent, but not 13 nominations decent.
Best Actor: not Jack Nicholson.
Best Actress: Julianne Moore. Julianne Moore. Julianne Moore. In fact, if she doesn't win, there will much stomping of feet and crying and holding my breath until they take it back and give it to her. But that won't happen. She'll win. She deserves to win. Her performance in "Far From Heaven" was astounding.
Supporting Actor: I'd be pleased with Chris Cooper or Chris Walken.
Supporting Actress: Meryl Streep. But if Julianne Moore wins two, great!
Director: Let's give it Almodovar this year, eh? Just because. I haven't seen his movie yet, but I've loved all his other movies.
Foreign Film: haven't seen any of them, sadly. boo hoo. I want to.
Adapted Screenplay: Adaptation. duh. title says it, even.
Original Screenplay: Todd Haynes. Far From Heaven was so damn good! But I haven't seen Talk To Her...
Animation: Spirited Away. Another movie that had better win. It will win. This movie was stupendous. Great. Classic. Awe-some.
Cinematography: Far From Heaven. Again. Yes, again. Stunning visuals. Perfection. Beauty. Color. Wow.
Visual Effects: Lord of the Rings. No contest.

Yesterday I took my pal Adrienne to the computer store (Micro Center, in case you were wondering) and we both picked up the $99 Canon LiDE 30 flatbed USB scanner for our Macs. I had what I thought was a nicer scanner, purchased just prior to the release of OS X, but then hit a snag and ended up selling it (for quite a good bargain) to a co-worker intent on staying with OS 9. So now I'm back into full media capture mode: digicam, scanner, camcorder, iMic (which I picked up last week). Yay! Upon installing the scanner this morning, while moving cables around so I could plug it in, I managed to drop a full spindle of blank CD-Rs onto the top of the scanner. BAM! Two nice dents in the scanner lid. Dreadful thoughts racing through my mind: did it break the glass underneath? can the scan head still move? damn, that spindle was heavier than I thought. blank CDs all over, great. hmm, pretty tough little scanner. I eventually got up the courage to open the lid and peer into the scanner: nothing visibly broken. Whew. Plug it in, try to scan. WARNING: LOW USB POWER. TRY AGAIN. Shoot, it did get damaged. Argh. Ok, try it again. Plug it into a different port instead of the USB hub. Same thing. Uh oh. Replug everything, including hub. Success! The hub power supply wasn't seated. Ahhh. What a relief. 'Cuz I know you wanna see how cute I was as a wee babe.

Last night I went out with my pal Amy and we saw the new Jackie Chan (my favorite) and Owen Wilson (her favorite) movie, Shanghai Knights, down at the new Block E development. In a word: enjoyable! Very funny, silly, goofy, action-packed and you can tell they had a ton of fun making this movie -- the facial expressions in some scenes! It does veer towards camp a bit, but when has that ever been a bad thing, huh? Everybody will find something to like in this movie. A worthy sequel in my book.
Block E is decent. Not as bad I had feared. GameWorks is a huge video game, game, bar type of place. Lots of high school winter-ball kids in tuxedos and gowns. The giant Hard Rock guitar blots out the views of First Ave, though.
Afterwards we ate at Champp's and got to sit next to "the glamour girls" who were drinking, doing each other's hair and talking about male anatomy while the in-house music system serenaded us with the dulcet tones of Nine Inch Nails and Eminem and other screaming-head music (for a restaurant/bar? not a good fit, really. I mean, it was the harshest of music. And I love NIN, Just not necessarily while I'm dining). Then we went over to The Entry and checked out The Autumn Leaves. The lead singer David is a co-worker of Amy's. The singers were finding it difficult to harmonize... perhaps from the wall of smoke thicker than the snow outside. Still, a well-needed fun time.

Hey, if you find my online photolog (the photos on the right side over there) even mildly amusing or decent, I'd greatly appreciate it if you could take a minute and hop on over to photoblogs.org and vote for my site. It would make me feel good... like a nice drink of Becherovka, perhaps. Thanks. (Unless of course you don't like my photos... to each their own.) Yeah, just click on that little "+" button...

Michelle (Bill's wife) found this while surfing for leather repair products -- it appears to be almost pornographic but it's not. Do you think they realize how nasty this looks at first glance? Hilarious! (submitted to boingboing - we'll see if they like it - or is it only funny to us?)

While it is doubtful we'll get through the rest of winter without any more snow, who would've thought we'd reach February before ever really getting any in the first place? Some snow related photos have been added to the sidebar for your viewing pleasure.

...perhaps I just need a visit to the Somatic Fulfillment Center...