April 30, 2005
A Few Dance Pictures
The concert was fantastic. The pictures I took were somewhat less so. But here are a few of the good ones. Ok, almost all of the good ones. But maybe some of the remaining ones are blurred in an artisitic manner.
April 29, 2005
And Now, The Weather
Watching Fox News in the breakroom this morning as my bagel toasted, I was witness to a fine example of journalistic doggedness in the face of obstacles.
Anchor: …and that’s how the Patriot act saved the lives of three children and a puppy. We go now to weather.
(camera switches to Weather Girl)
Weather Girl: (Weather Girl is moving her mouth and making sweeping gestures in the direction of a national weather map) …
(camera switches back to Anchor)
Anchor: And… it looks like her mic’s not working. We’ll get someone to fix that. Can we get someone? Hello?
(camera still on Anchor)
Weather Girl: (shouting across the studio) THERE’S A COLD FRONT MOVING IN THROUGH IDAHO, WITH CONTINUED WARM TEMPERATURES IN SOUTHERN AREAS….
April 22, 2005
A Double-Edged Film Delivery Service
I must apologize for not posting for nearly a week there. You see, I was not at all well; I was fully in the throes of my Netflix subscription. They just kept coming. No sooner had I watched one than another was in the mail, it’s bright red wrapper mocking my lack of free time.
“Just try and get through me this evening,” it taunted. “I have special features.”
But I persisted. I diligently watched the movies and sent them back. Sometimes, on weekends, I even caught up for a time. But then Monday would bring even more crimson envelopes to my door. Despite my nigh-herculean efforts, my queue continued to grow. The inexorable march of the mailman could do nothing to stem its relentless climb.
“You have rated 3462 movies.”
With a heavy heart, I watched as the cursor moved over to the “Rate More” link. And I began to despair.
“You may watch one, but you’ll never watch us all.”
I resisted caching movies on my hard drive so I could cut my turnaround down to less than a day.
“That,” I said to myself, “is the last step into the chasm of digital packrattery.”
It was getting bad. I had begun talking to myself.
April 21, 2005
Swing Jam Pics
Didn’t mention it before, but the pictures I took at the Swing Jam are up in the gallery. Also, one of you CSS wizards out there should tell me how I can have my images next to my text without them going outside of the bounds of the post.
April 20, 2005
Ticketmaster Sucks
I went down to get a ticket to see David Sedaris next Monday when he’s at the Arlington. All the posters and promotional material claimed a price of $30, yet when I actually asked for a ticket, they said $35. I pointed out the discrepancy, and the woman said that there was a $5 “service charge,” as though I should be expected to pay extra to have someone take my money in exchange for a ticket.
I asked how I could avoid the service charge in the future.
“You can’t,” she said.
“That’s some nice false advertising you’ve got there,” I said with a smile.
It turns out it’s quite easy to file a complaint with the California Attorney General
April 12, 2005
Manage My Ass, Sallie Mae!
I’m looking into consolidating my student loans. Rates are pretty low right now, and it looks like they’re on the way up. But I’m not sure exactly how the whole process works, so I called what I assumed to be Sallie Mae’s helpful support line. By doing so, I was informed, I could speak to a personal account consultant who could answer all of my questions.
This did not occur.
I did speak to a charming young lady with an undying faith that by asking for my Social Security Number a lot and rummaging through the papers in front of her she would magically produce an answer that would satisfy me. And she did produce quite a lot of answers. (verbatim quote: “Uhm. Yes, I understand what a weighted average means, but that has nothing to do with what I asked about.”) She also revealed partway through the conversation that she didn’t understand what “Subsidized” meant. When I asked to speak to a manager, she informed me that this was an after-hours call, and there were none available. Personally, I’d like to see information like that detailed on their website:
Phone Support Hours: 8am-5pm
Random Idiot Answering the Phone Hours: 5pm-9pm
April 8, 2005
My Review of Before Sun{rise|set}
So, I realize that the in thing these days is to put up one’s review of Sin City, but my own review would be predictably short. To wit: “I’m seeing it tomorrow”. And then I thought, I can review other movies that I’ve just seen recently. This review shall be in bullet-point form, pitting the movies against each other. There may or may not be spoilers.
- Julie Delpy is much hotter at 26 than she is at 35. Ethan Hawke, surprisingly, goes the other way. Victor: Sunrise
- The idea of spending a magically romantic last night with a stranger is fundamentally better than the idea of spending a quick last afternoon with one. Winner: Sunrise.
- It is strongly implied that they have sex in the first movie. However, it’s strongly implied that they’re about to have sex in the second. I’d say this is a wash.
- Paris > Vienna. Gold: Sunset.
- Sunset ends openly, but with great hope. Sunrise ends openly, but with less hope (significantly less if you already know about the sequel) Champion: Sunset
- What?! He’s married? That sucks. Loser: Sunset
- I identify much better with the characters in the first movie. Ask me again in 10 years. Relevance: Sunrise
And there we have it. If we total those up, we either see that Sunrise won, or I should go back and add some more positives to Sunrise, because it really was the better movie. I’m sure the comments will reveal the truth.
April 6, 2005
BBQ Pictures
Pictures from last weekend’s barbecue are now up. There are a lot of Nick playing with fire. But honest. We did other things.
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This text inserted
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I go now to bed.
April 4, 2005
Who’s Next?
Ok, this may sound alarmist, but I don’t know how else to say it: Someone is going to die very soon. I know this because the Pope is being buried this Friday and the media have to find some kind of way to constantly fill the airtime without resorting to journalism (which, with all the scandal about the blantant fabrication thereof, has become an increasingly unprofitable venture), and, frankly, continuing live graveside vigils are both dull and oxymoronic, even if they are what the public wants.
So, it’s coming. And soon. It could be you.
We can only hope that it’s heartfelt and drawn-out.
Update: Peter Jennings has lung cancer. At this rate, there will hardly be any celebrities left in a few years.
Ian Ferrel 