The ongoing prattlings of a lifelong geek and his random luck with love, work, children and rediscovering himself.

2005-11-27

What I Would Enjoy Receiving At Christmas 2005

Here's what I can think of:
    REALISTIC

    1. A geeky beverage chiller

    2. Age Of Empires III Deluxe Boxed Edition (fun and educational too!)

    3. Someone with fashion sense to take me clothes shopping (that means not any relative my age or older)

    4. Star Trek Movies - I thru IX - On DVD (widescreen, of course) - already have X (Nemesis)

    NOT SO REALISTIC, BUT I CAN DREAM

    1. The company of a certain woman (ongoing would be preferable)

    2. Liposuction   (taking off weight gained during my two foot surgeries has been a bear)

    3. To erase the various wrong things I've said to my kids this year (full-time single parent life is overwhelming at times, times four)

    4. For a good Watchmen movie to be produced, which uses the Watchmen mini-series as the script, untouched

That's not too much to ask for, is it?

MOVIE: Various

In no particular order:

Rent:   Not knowing what the basic premise of this stage production was, I ended up a bit shocked to find it was the story of several friends, most of which have AIDS, most of which were homosexually involved with each other (those who were not were drug junkies) and all of which were trying to make a place in the world like any other person.   I really enjoyed the movie, which surprised me I guess.   I have no time for "blatant" homosexuals (and this movie did feature one named "Angel") as I have always felt that such people are more into the ATTENTION than the sexuality.   But again, I did enjoy this movie adaptation of the stage play. Good music, interesting lyrics (to say the least) and a very sad, touching ending.   Definitely not for kids.

In The Mix:   Cute movie about an italian mobster's daughter (yum) being protected by an black music mixer.   It was very predictable, but was fun to watch, at least.

Zathura:   A definite kids-movie.   I would have no problem taking any kid I know to see this movie.   It was quite enjoyable.

Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire:   This was a decent enough movie, but I did not find it as good as the other movies in the series, personally.   The story had odd holes in it (where there needed to be more information to those who have NOT read the books, such as I).   I would have rather seen this during a matinee to pay less money... oh well.

Yours, Mine And Ours:   A good remake of the original which starred Lucille Ball.   Not exactly Oscar material.   The movie hits home with me mainly because I've always wanted a big family, so I'm a bit partial to it before I even sat in the theater.

It's been a busy two weeks!

2005-11-26

Buying XBoxes On EBay

So now I find myself in the unique position to help "an acquaintance" get an XBox360 today, on EBay.   Holy sheep dip, Batman!   People are getting $900-1200 for them!

Wow.   Well, in any case, mission accomplished.

2005-11-24

Thanksgiving 2005

The Mighty Four are spending the afternoon with their mom, so I'm home doing this'n'that until it's time to go feast at my parent's house.

The music mix at my house today turns out to be, in no particular order, as follows:

  • Inspirational:   Jaci Velasquez - Imagine Me Without You.mp3

  • Inspirational:   dc Talk - Red Letters.mp3

  • Movies:   Blade 1 - Confusion (New Order).mp3

  • Movies:   Fantastic 4 - Everything Burns (Ben Moody featuring Anastacia).mp3

  • Movies:   Xanadu - (05 of 10) Whenever You're Away From Me (Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelly).MP3

  • Popular (live):   Dave Brubeck - Take 5 (live).mp3

  • Popular A-G:   Aerosmith - Jaded.mp3

  • Popular A-G:   American Hi-Fi - The Geeks Get The Girls.mp3

  • Popular A-G:   Art Garfunkel - Bright Eyes.mp3

  • Popular A-G:   Depeche Mode - Precious.mp3

  • Popular A-G:   Duran Duran - Ordinary World.MP3

  • Popular A-G:   Evanescence - Hello.mp3

  • Popular H-N:   Jennifer Lopez - Ain't It Funny.mp3

  • Popular O-Z:   Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody.MP3

  • Popular O-Z:   Seether with Amy Lee - Broken.mp3

  • Popular O-Z:   Simple Plan - Untitled.mp3

  • Popular O-Z:   The Killers - All These Things That I've Done.mp3

  • Popular O-Z:   U2 - Stuck In A Moment.mp3

  • Television:   Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon - C'est La Vie - Watashi No Naka No Koi Suru Bubun.mp3


No remixes.   No people taking other people's hard work and remixing it for their own 15 minutes of fame.   Real music by real artists.   Nift.

Hope your turkey day is a good one!

The Amazing Race (2005)

Watching this season (#8) of The Amazing Race makes me HAPPY that I am a California native, visiting Florida "long term", because Florida is being horribly represented.

The Weaver family (from Ormond Beach, Florida, just a few miles from me) is truly undeserving.. OR, the producers at CBS are MAKING THEM look really bad.   Either way, I wish they'd just get eliminated and disappear from an otherwise great show.

2005-11-21

MAME v.102

Update to MAME v.102 complete.   :-)

Trying Out TextAmerica.Com

Photo blogging, basically.   I thought I'd try it out for a bit (though I'll not be sending many, if any, photos from any cell phone any time soon -- a silly expense, in my book).

I'm at ammalena.textamerica.com

Domain Registry Of America

I truly cannot comprehend what it must be like to be one of the 98% of Americans who have no clue how to Register A Domain Name, build their Own Computer, or even just Install An OS on their computer...

Saturday I received snailmail from "Domain Registry Of America".   They wished to send me a "courtesy letter" that my domain (one of them, they claim) would be expiring in a few months, and that switching to their Registry would allow me to enjoy their "best savings" (which was, of course, a joke compared to using many registrars which charge less than $10 a year these days, such as GKG who I use regularly).

They were cordial enough to offer me to pay 2.5 times the price I currently pay for the right to have a line of text in their database!   Instead of less than $10 a year, they were willing to let me pay $25 a year!

Such a noble effort.   I certainly hope that I can get that domain registered again before May 2006 when it's due to be renewed by!

Music

A quote from Hans Christian Andersen came my way this morning.   It would make an awesmoe tattoo (because that's where I saw it):

"Where words fail, music speaks."

Happy Birthday...

...to you.

2005-11-13

Performing With US Army Band!

My older daughter Daniella (along with a few of her band mates) has been selected to play with the US Army Band today in Port Orange.   Message below from the SCHS Band Director:

The following Spruce Creek High School Music students have been invited to perform with the US Army Band and Chorus from Washington D.C. today at the City of Port Orange Amphitheater.   Concert time is 3:00pm   -   It is free and open to the public.   They will be performing one or two American marches during the second part of the concert (after the intermission).

The students below should report to the Director of the Army Bands backstage at 2:15pm TODAY.   Concert Uniforms should be worn.

James MacKenzie – Bassoon
Anthony Garner - Tuba
Marcel Chehin – Trombone
Virginia Prestwood – Trumpet
Wally Young – Baritone Saxophone
Daniel Rizzo – Tuba
Daniella Malena – Trombone
Carl Shafer – Trombone
Charles Roberts – Trumpet
Amanda El Shemi – Flute
Jerica O’Neal – Clarinet

2005-11-12

TV, Movies, XBox 360, Oh My

[Rumor] Robocop:   Apparently Sony is redesigning Robocop for the 21st century.   Paul Verhoeven won't be working on it as of now.   A remake of Robocop? Hmmm.

Terminator:   "The Sarah Conner Chronicles" (current working title) is a series that Fox is trying to put together which would show what happened to the female character after T2.   This sounded dumb to me initially, but I guess it's possible that T2 tech recovered and being used (and her efforts to stop it) could be the storyline.

XBox 360:   A ton of games are officially playable on XBox 360 (from the original XBox library), and more are on the way.   A list is kept here.   Also, Halo and Halo 2 fans (i.e., XBox owners) will be very pleased when they run these games on their 360... as with added anti-aliasing and higher resolutions, they are going to look EVEN BETTER than before.

Blade:   Actual production started on the Blade TV series, which will star Kirk Jones.   It will be on Spike TV, and is being filmed in Vancouver (Canada).

On a side note, I haven't purchased my comics in six weeks, so I have a rude awakening in store for me today when I go to Orlando to retrieve them... my wallet will be in for some shell-shock, since the House Of M is winding down, and Infinite Crisis is kicking off.

2005-11-08

Football Season Over (aka Marching Band Season)

Unlike most band parents (and even most staff it seems), I hate the fact that marching season is basically over at Spruce Creek.   I enjoy it.   :-(

2005-11-07

More Storage

Tony = Happy.   400GB more storage is on it's way for the primary family server.

Between television episodes, movies and marching band videos, I'm eating up the storage I had (which at 250+40+40GB was nothing to sneeze at, but still ends up being inadequate for what I know will be happening in the next 12 months - I currently have close to 60GB available, which is quickly dwindling).

"But Tony, why didn't you opt for a 500GB drive," you may ask?

Well, because they average 40-50% more for 25% more storage.   It's called simple math.   :-P   Since I use server Ceiling for all document storage anyway, I may just scavenge the 250GB drive from my personal computer and stick a 40GB in it from the server. Makes more sense.   I currently show that I'm using 19GB of it.

I look forward to the replacement to DVDs...

2005-11-02

Love And Hate

Interesting quote (sort of) from an episode of Crossing Jordan I watched tonight off DVR:

  "How can love turn into hate?"

There's the question... though I think many times, it's not hate.   The quote is an over-simplification of the many facets of love, combined with disappointment (in yourself and in the other person) and probably expectations that had no business being held.

(I'm trying to exercise my wisdom muscles tonight I guess)