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Fucking Unbelievable
Of all the things I have on my desk that people could just take. Mugs, pens, toys and the like. The other day I left the apple that I didn't have for lunch on my desk so that I could have it the next day.
Some jerk stole my fucking apple!!!! Is nothing sacred anymore that you have to steal someone's fruit?
// posted by stacey on 12:59:00 PM // |
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Thursday, March 30, 2006
Time to Play
Now that I have updated all of my playlists and other settings on my new video ipod, it is now time to do all the fun stuff.
I've got a lot of movie files, mostly a bunch of avi files, of some television shows that air in the UK. Tonight I'm going to start converting some of these into ipod video format.
One show that I'm really anxious to convert is season four of Spooks, MI-5 in the States. I've been downloading it through BitTorrent for about a week now and have most of the 10 episodes. The main reason I download the UK version is that by the time it ends up on A&E a good 15 minutes has been cut. Plus, we're not sure if A&E will be airing season four since they have removed it from their website.
If that goes well then I'll start converting some of DVDs over.
Man, I really want to go home now and start doing this!
// posted by stacey on 1:18:00 PM // |
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Monday, March 27, 2006
Inside Man - My Review
I don't think I'll be posting any spoilers but just in case don't read this if you haven't seen the movie. And just in case Zaida wants to see the movie and hasn't here's my customary warning for her.
ZAIDA STOP READING THIS NOW!!! I MEAN IT, STOP READING NOW!!!!!
Ok, with that safely out of the way, you need to go see this movie. I may be a bit biased because of my love for both Jodie Foster and Denzel Washington just go way beyond the norm. I will see a movie that they are in no matter what. If it gets bad reviews I'll still go see it because I think they are both incredible actors.
I've previously stated that I consider Jodie, Denzel and Clive Owen the holy trinity and they live up to this moniker that I have given them.
First, I'll start with Clive Owen. Having an actor to cover up their face for most of the movie is a big challenge. One of the great things that a really good actor can do is act with facial expressions. Yes, you can consider this a note about why plastic surgery can be bad for actors. Owen's face and that of many of the other actors are covered for most of the movie, which gets to a main plot point. The "robbers" and their hostages are all dressed them same so that the police can't figure out the difference between the two. Owen displays a cool calm that plays great against Denzel Washington's character.
Watching Denzel and Clive go back and forth is like watching a great chess match. You can see them thinking and strategizing against each other, each one trying to stay one step ahead. This is what turns this typical genre film into a thinking man's thriller. Of course, there are few leading men today who have the presence that Denzel has on the screen. Mahnola Dargis wrote in the New York Times that Denzel is as smooth as Bogart and Easy Rollins (his role from Devil in a Blue Dress). The suits and the hat are perfect for him.
No for Jodie Foster. This is the first character of hers in a while that does not show any vulnerabilities. One of my co-workers tried to disagree and mentioned her role in Flightplan. Yes, Jodie always plays strong women but that doesn't mean that they don't have vulnerabilities. That vulnerability in Flightplan was the fear of not being able to protect her daughter. Her character in Inside Man does not have these. She is strong, smooth and fierce. One of the things Jodie has discussed in her interviews is that she likes her character because she is just as powerful, if not more, powerful in a man's world by being polite and never raising her voice.
What also makes Foster's role great is the fact that Spike Lee let's her do her thing. Let's face it most women in Spike's movies are not as strong or on the same playing field as the men. Sometimes they're just caricatures. There are exceptions of course, like Annabella Sciorra in Jungle Fever. He gets over this with Foster. To a certain degree, you can almost say that she steals the movie even though she's only in about 10 scenes.
Then of course there are the power suits and heals. Wow, Jodie Foster looks super hot in those heals. Her legs are amazing.
A lot of reviewers have said that movie is about 20 minutes too long. It didn't feel that way to me. But there is that one Spike Lee element in all of his movies. There's this thing he does where he'll have his actor(s) stationary and while the background is moving behind them. Technically they are on box with wheels being pulled forward as the actor passes through the scene. The first time he uses in the movie its works, the second not so much.
But on the whole, don't worry about trying to figure out the why but watch this for three incredible performances.
// posted by stacey on 7:58:00 PM // |
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Saturday, March 25, 2006
My New iPod
My 60gb black video ipod arrived yesterday and oh man do I love it. Aside from its sexiness the video quality is amazing. My one complaint and the complaint of many other ipod users was the switch from firewire to usb 2 as the main connection to the computer. I know there are people out there who swear by usb 2. But the reality is if you have other peripherals using the usb ports at the same time the data transfer rate slows down. You never have this problem with firewire.
For example, in December something happened to my ipod that caused me to have to reset the ipod and install all of my songs onto the pod again. That something was my fault and not the ipod's fault, just in case you were wondering. At the time I probably had just about 4,000 songs and 200 some odd photos. It only took about 20 minutes for my ipod to load up without the firewire. Yesterday with 4,500 songs, 200 some odd photos and 30 plus videos it took over an hour on the usb 2. Granted the videos will always take longer but damn. Thankfully, I won't be doing this that often. I do expect future updates to be transferred more quickly.
I'm going to see Inside Man this afternoon which I have been looking forward to since the summer when I first heard about it. So far it has received pretty good reviews and when you have the holy trinity of Jodie Foster, Denzel Washington and Clive Owen I wouldn't expect anything less than a good review.
// posted by stacey on 11:08:00 AM // |
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Friday, March 24, 2006
Shit Sandwiches
This has been one of those weeks that you really wish never happened. In fact, I keep hoping that I'll wake up and find out it was just a bad dream.
Monday started with the horrible toolbox users who complained, whined and showed just how dumb they are.
On Tuesday we found out that one of co-workers, Natasha, gave her notice. What she did for our company was incredible because she saved us from having to deal with a lot of volunteers and their constant need for handholding.
Later that day our boss, Cynthia, dropped her bomb. After 26 years she's quitting and moving on. This of course couldn't have happened at the worst time of the year. We're happy for her but at the same we're angry because she quit, she sucks for doing it and we really can't look at her right now.
On Wednesday, we found out that another co-worker in our larger publishing group died. He was only 45. You can somehow expect your co-workers to quit but dying just rocks you to your core.
Then that afternoon he found out that another person in our publishing group gave his notice but instead of the usual three-week notice we are supposed to give he gave five minutes.
In the evening I learned that my friend Peter has checked himself into the psych ER at Phelps Memorial Hospital. Technically this is a good thing because that means he's getting help and not trying to kill himself. I truly hope that one day Peter can feel "normal" again. It just really sucks.
Thursday was about dealing with all of this and experiencing the numerous panic attacks through the day. Mostly realizing that we're on our own. It was also the day of realizing that I don't have enough of the programming skills to get a new job as a web developer and I have this crappy job title that won't get me project management jobs that I want.
It really feels as though I have been fed one shit sandwich after another.
I took today off because I don't feel like looking at my boss or hearing her voice. I am also anxiously awaiting the delivery of my new 60gb black video ipod. After this week I just want to have new gadget to immerse myself in and forget about the entire week.
// posted by stacey on 1:56:00 PM // |
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Tuesday, March 21, 2006
My Women
Many of those who know me also know about my love/devotion/infatuation for Jodie Foster and Mariska Hargitay. For those of you who don't I'll put it simply. I want to marry them and have their children.
So you can only imagine how I lost my breath this morning when I saw this picture of my two women having dinner together.
I don't think I will ever be the same again.
// posted by stacey on 8:40:00 AM // |
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Monday, March 20, 2006
Can I Help You with That?
One of the my daily tasks at work is to handle the tech support for the users of my conferences. Most of the time the questions and answers are pretty routine and are usually authors requesting the status of their abstract or paper. They can always get this information by logging into their author account. These authors happen to thing we might have more information. We don't.
The organizers of these conferences have more detailed questions that involve viewing abstracts and assigning reviewers to papers.
Every once in a while there will be a day when both Chrissy and I get all the dumb questions for all the dumb authors. Here's a sampling from today.
"When I click the link to view my paper it is my draft paper." - This is one of my favorites. The link he is clicking on is "View Draft Paper." Why on earth would you be surprised to see your draft paper if you clicked on a link that says, "View Draft Paper."
"Thank you for this confirmation. And my name is not Michael Anderson." - This email came from another Michael. This Michael happens to be the organizer. The organizers are copied on all email messages. This Michael, has a habit of not reading his email carefully. In this case he did a few things wrong that would have hinted that he was copied on the email. First was that his email address is in the CC field and not the To field. Second the paper number is listed in the subject line. If he looked he would have seen that this was not his paper but that of an author in the session he is organizing.
"My draft paper was accepted as is, I didn't think I needed to submit a final paper?" - Yes, which is why when your draft paper was accepted you received an email saying, "Even if your draft paper is accepted as is you MUST still submit a final paper." Also, the reason we keep sending you email reminders is because we need you to submit your final.
The thing that always gets me about this is that these guys are mechanical engineers, people who build our elevators, cars, trains and planes. Things we rely on every day. They can't follow simple instructions which makes me completely amazed that more people aren't killed in these things.
// posted by stacey on 7:09:00 PM // |
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Friday, March 17, 2006
I Love/Hate St. Patrick's Day
A little before noon Chrissy and I went outside for one of our usual breaks. While standing outside we saw four teenage boys, some on green, come up to our building to get something from Starbucks. Two of the guys stayed outside and one sat down on the base of the flag pole. He had that look. I turned to Chrissy and said, "That guy is gonna puke in a moment."
After the other two returned from Starbucks they pulled him to his feet and three steps later all the alcohol he consumed in the morning came up. While everyone was grossed out Chrissy and I were high-fiving for calling the puking episode.
This is one reason why I hate St. Patrick's Day but love it when I get to make fun of people, or kids, who can't hold the liquor.
I also hate it when they end up on my train as I'm going home smelling of alcohol and sweat, again mostly kids.
What I really love about St. Patrick's Day is the beer I consume, no puking involved here, and plenty of corn beef and cabbage. Yummy.
Then of course there was Jodie Foster on Leno last night. She did a little jig for the audience. MMMMMMM. Double Yummy!
// posted by stacey on 8:15:00 PM // |
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Monday, March 13, 2006
I Love George Clooney
About five years ago I would have never uttered those words. But during this time I have come to appreciate Clooney as an actor and now as a fellow liberal.
Read his post on Huffingtonpost.com.
// posted by stacey on 3:15:00 PM // |
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Saturday, March 11, 2006
Movie Database
I spent a good deal of time yesterday updating my movie database by adding most of the movies that I have recorded on VHS and DVD. I know its such a nerdy geeky thing to do. Just wait until I post that I have finished converting all of my VHS movies to DVD.
Here's a rough look at the database. Of course as I was going through and formatting the font I realized that I left out some movies. But you'll get an idea of the work that is involved. Ok, well not a whole lot of work because it imports directly from imdb.
// posted by stacey on 8:46:00 PM // |
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scoops the podcast
There's a new podcast. Go to scoopsthepodcast.com/podcast to get it.
// posted by stacey on 3:25:00 PM // |
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Friday, March 10, 2006
Playing Hookie
I got tired of being the one standing around at work saying, "Its such a nice day, I should have taken the day off." So I took today off. Its called making the PTOs pay off.
// posted by stacey on 10:00:00 AM // |
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Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Commuting Pet Peeve
I really hate when people push in front of you to get on the train then can't make up their mind about where to sit then push you out of their way again and they give you a look like you're the problem.
// posted by stacey on 7:15:00 AM // |
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Monday, March 06, 2006
Oscars Recap
I thought the Oscars went very well last night. Hey anytime they end before midnight on the east coast is a fucking triumph! I still wish they would move to a format more similar to the Golden Globes -- start at 8:00pm and end at 11:00pm. No strange video montages and no performances. If the Oscars did this they would be done by 9:30pm or 10:00pm. (Remember the Globes award TV too.) They were averaging about six awards an hour, but picked up some speed in the last hour to present all 24 awards plus the honorary award for Robert Altman and another technical award for some other dude.
As for the awards themselves they pretty much went according to plan, well at least my plan. I was four for five of the major categories my one loss coming in the Best Picture category. I thought Brokeback would win simply because Hollywood doesn't always like to admit that we have a problem with race in this country. Since I wanted Crash to win, I was more than satisfied.
I was a little disappointed in the Best Short Film, Animated category because the one film that I wanted to win didn't. Don't laugh, the only reason I am disappointed is because I saw one of the nominees Badgered and thought it was great. It lost to The Moon and the Son. Yes, that is supposed to be Son and not Sun.
Now to the really important stuff.
I thought John Stewart did a very good job. His type of humor can be tough with this group. The opening was funny and even though a few jokes bombed he held up his own. I particularly enjoyed the Dick Cheney/Bjork joke as well as the Russell Crowe joke.
Ben Stiller in his green unitard for special effects was pretty funny. He can annoy me at times but this was pretty funny.
Will Ferrell and Steve Carell were also pretty funny for the Best Achievement in Makeup category.
The idea of playing music during the acceptance speeches was really dumb and annoying. It really did distract from the speeches.
It was pretty sad to see Lauren Bacall, one of our greatest actresses of all time, on the stage. I don't know if it was the teleprompter that messed up or if she couldn't read it from that far away, but she had problems introducing the montage for film noir. It would have been nice if they made sure she didn't have problems or help her out a bit.
Watching Jennifer Garner almost slip and fall on the stage was entertaining. It have been horrible if it did, but would have become a classic moment that would have stolen the show.
For the most part everyone looked good with the exceptions of.
Philip Seymour Hoffman - That tux wasn't happening.
Carlize Theron - What the fuck was up with bow!?! I think Matt Dillon who was sitting behind her couldn't see the stage because of that thing.
Jane Russell - Now that is some scary lipstick. Tone it down honey!
Michelle Williams - That really is a horrible color on her and just didn't do her justice. Although it looks a little better from far away.
Helena Bonham Carter - Yikes!
I'm trying to find an image of Larry McMurtry who wore jeans but Getty Images is down right now. But I mean come on have respect for the event.
// posted by stacey on 10:55:00 AM // |
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Sunday, March 05, 2006
Oscars
So far so good. My first pick won.
Best Actor in a Supporting Role - George Clooney
Two for two.
Best Actress in a Supporting Role - Rachel Weis
Three for fucking three
Best Actor - Philip Seymore Hoffman
Technically I didn't choose between Felicity or Reese so I'm gonna say five for five!
Best Actress - Reese Witherspoon
HOLY SHIT!
While I had picked Brokeback my heart wanted Crash.
// posted by stacey on 10:49:00 PM // |
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Piggybacking
For over a year my neighbors have had an unsecured wireless network. The name of this network is lynksys, the sure sign that after connecting your new wireless router and the Internet bit worked you put down the manual and never bothered to read the bit about naming your network or more importantly protecting it.
Even though I have my own, protected, network there will be times just for the hell of it that I hop on or piggyback onto theirs. The first reason is because they aren't the nicest neighbors in the world. The other is if you don't protect it you should suffer some of the consequences like a slow connection. For example, if I were to download some illegal software, although I never would do such a thing, I would do it on one of my desktop computer and hop onto their network. Why should I slow down my connection?
There was an article in today's NY Times about this very thing.
Is it a bad thing to do? Technically, yes. But if don't bother to read the entire manual to protect yourself your asking for trouble.
// posted by stacey on 1:16:00 PM // |
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Saturday, March 04, 2006
Mid-Winter Cleaning
Today I decided to clean out an area by my desk that held two things: 1) all of the conference give-a-way bags that designed and 2) all of my software manuals.
The bags were easy to deal with, but them in a giant hefty bag to be donated to Big Brothers and Big Sisters. So if you see any briefcases with ICONE, Fluids or DETC you know they came from my house.
Disposing of the software manuals was little trickier. Only because they had to be bundled with twine to go out for recycling on Monday. The collection includes Photoshop 5 & 5.5, Illustrator 8 & 9, Dreamweaver 3 & 4, GoLive 5, Mac OS 8.6, 9 and 10, Flash 4 & 5 and an old MS office set that was way to dusty to even look at but I want to say its Office 98. All of them are for Mac by the way.
I remember complaining when software companies began saving the dough and stopped putting these giant manuals in the software package. I figured that if I'm paying all this money for the software that I shouldn't have to waste my time to go to their website with the ISP that I pay for and print out the PDF of the manual on paper I paid for.
Needless to say my feelings about this have changed. Now, if I need to refer to a manual I appreciate the fact that I can just look at the section online and if I need to print it I will. If I feel that I need a more indepth manual I can buy one. This takes up way less space on my bookshelf.
It took longer for the packaging to decrease as well. I was still buying software last year that still came in the same box as if it actually contained a manual. Thankfully, many of these companies have switched to either smaller boxes the size of a CD or DVD or going towards the DVD style packaging.
What would be really better is if these companies really started allowing us to download the software directly from their websites. Some do, like Symantec and many third-party companies. Because what I really want to do is gain some more space on my desk and get rid of the new slimed down software packaging.
// posted by stacey on 1:43:00 PM // |
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Saturday Rituals
There are many rituals I have on Saturday -- mainly sleeping late, having a nice big breakfast (since I only have a bagel during the week), read my NY Times and stay in my pajamas as long as possible.
I have another ritual that has become just as important. Shredding all those credit card offers I receive in the mail. Just this week alone I shredded 15 offers. I mainly shred for the whole identity theft think but also for the space saving measures. If I didn't shred these offers they would take up more room in my recycling bin than my newspapers.
Just take a look at the offers that this guy received and its not even the everyone that he has! While he admits that some of these offers have allowed him to decrease his debt by transfering balances etc., he's avering about 160 offers a month.
There are so many offers that it amazes me that more of us aren't in debt. This is taking into account that millions of people in our country are in debt.
It would be nice to get off everyone's mailing list because I don't need another credit card and if I felt that I needed one I would do my own shopping around.
I just really want this useless clutter out of my life and to get rid of the annoying Saturday ritual.
// posted by stacey on 11:08:00 AM // |
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Thursday, March 02, 2006
Snowing Again
The snow had started but it hasn't fully decided to really snow yet but it will soon enough.
So now the debate going on around the office is when they will let us out. As of this moment we're thinking it will be around 3:00pm. The reason, that is the time that Marisol leaves every single day so why should she get to leave early. For the record Marisol comes in to work at 7:00am.
Of course, there is the chance that we won't let us go early at all which means that I'll just leave early any way.
// posted by stacey on 9:15:00 AM // |
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