Archive for June, 2005
Thursday June 30th
Paul Johnson and I had made plans to go see a Reds game this summer, and I had suggested a couple of dates. This was the day he picked. So I got into work at 5:30am so I could get in a full 8. I didn’t feel great, but I had started to take some things to counter act my issues, so my throat felt better and since I didn’t bike in, I didn’t feel dizzy. Or at least I suppose that is why. At 2 I headed out to Johnson’s and we got on the road pretty much immediately. We made good time, listened to a little motown, and talked sports, exactly what I liked to do with Paul. Want to check out the rest of what happened at the game? Go to the Photo Diary section.
The rest of the holiday weekend has been nice and relaxing for a change. It seems like forever since we haven’t been busy on a weekend, I think before we went to California. I had done some reading and catching up on misc communication and maintenance things with my computer. Sarah has done the same, a good amount of reading, she took a bike ride one night and taking care of stuff around the house. On Saturday I had to work to makeup for my trip to Charlotte, so I stopped at the library on the way home for some free movies and music for the weekend. Last night we went out with some gift certificates to Carraba’s, a really nice Italian restaurant on the southside here.
Tonight I don’t think we have any plans exactly, but I think something may come up.
We also had a little celebration because we made another little personal milestone that we have been working on for about a year now.
Today, I just added the movies we have been watching over the holiday weekend and the past week, and photos from the Reds game.
Sections Updated: Photo Diary, Movies P-R, Movies E-G, Movies H-J, Movies S-T
Robots (2005)
Voice talent including Halle Berry, Drew Carey, Mel Brooks, Terry Bradshaw, Greg Kinnear, Robin Williams, Ewan MacGregor, and Jennifer Coolidge, this is a highly under rated animated flick by Dreamworks. I laughed quite a bit in this movie, and I thought that, even though robots are done quite a bit in movies today, this was still a endearing and inventive movie.
Rodney the robot sees a robot on TV named Bigweld, who invites all inventors to come to robot city and have their ideas come to life. Rodney grows up with that dream, to help out his family, and heads to the city, only to find out that it isn’t as he thought.
About helping people, and never to loose your dream, two cliche ideas, this movie is still engaging and fun.
See this one, it will make you forget Shark Tale.
Monday June 27th
Monday night we went shopping, I wanted some headphones and Sarah wanted to look at bathroom type stuff and new clothes for her and me. I got a couple of shirts, she didn’t end up getting anything. I got the headphones for the MP3 player David so graciously gave Christine and I (Christine didn’t care to have it). A 128 version, I started using it on my rides into work, it makes things go faster, but already I have outgrown the size. I can listen to most of the songs in one daily ride back and forth. Maybe I will ask for a bigger one at Christmas.
The Rocketeer (1991)
A Disney movie when they were still making good ones in the early 90’s, The Rocketeer stars Jennifer Connelly, Timothy Dalton and Paul Sorvino and is set in the 40’s at the star of WWII. Cliff (Bill Campbell), a no name loser pilot comes into the possession of a jet pack that empowers him to do good and stop evil. Nevlin SinClair (Dalton former Bond) is a Nazi in hollywood, with hopes of mass producing this successful version of the pack in Germany for a whole fleet of airborne troops in a really cool retro type video.
I liked this movie then, and has held up well with ILM doing the special effects, what do you expect. Good family movie, a fun character created by Dave Stevens, who is pretty well known in the comic book world. Plus this is Connelly’s breakout role, and she is just a classic beauty you don’t find anymore.
Road Trip (2000)
A college movie that has such a nostalgic feel for me, we watched the unrated version on the ride home from Charlotte, which is just a touch more raunchy than the version I own. Starring Tom Green, Sean William Scott, and Amy Smart this movie is all about the plight of one stupid horny college kid. Josh (Breckin Meyer) has one adulterous night with a sexy girl (Amy Smart) and videotapes it. One of his roommates inadvertently mails it to his current girlfriend in Texas. 1800 miles away, they take a road trip to get the tape back, and have all sorts of crazy fun, with Sean William right in the middle, from jumping a river in a car, to hanging at an all black fraternity, to stealing a bus from a group of blind people.
A little embarrassed that I like this, but it was such a great movie for where I was at, and I would give it five of five, but I am not quite that bold. I just wouldn’t recommend this to anyone, especially my family.
I liked this movie then, and has held up well with ILM doing the special effects, what do you expect. Good family movie, a fun character created by Dave Stevens, who is pretty well known in the comic book world. Plus this is Connelly’s breakout role, and she is just a classic beauty you don’t find anymore.
Eurotrip (2004)
One of the last recent stupid “college” type movies, I saw the unrated version of Eurotrip again on my trip to Charlotte. The first time I saw it by myself, and didn’t really enjoy it that much. It helps to see it with other people with a good sense of humor.
The movie is about a kid who gets dumped in a terrible way, and then finds out his penpal in Germany is a girl, not a boy. So he heads out with a friend to Europe to try to find this girl and get with her. The movie has small roles for Matt Damon and Kristen Kreuk as the evil girlfriend, and Michelle Tractenburg, and that is it. The movie has a silly guy, but he isn’t really that funny, and that is really what is missing in this movie, a crazy funny college guy that does anything. Most of the humor relies on painful and awkward scenes relating back to sex, like a drunk brother and sister making out, and a crazy sado scene in Amsterdam.
If you liked Road Trip, this is a lesser shell, with less depth, but has it’s own good qualities if you like these type of movies.
Sunday June 26th
We started the trip home at 9 am, and it was very long. We watched a couple of movies with David’s portable DVD player, which is a real godsend in the car for making time fly. Christine and I also read some of my books with much zeal. So although it was long, the 8 hour trip went by in a decent amount of time. It did seem longer though than when I went to Pittsburgh from AA. We got back at about 6:00 here in Indy. That gave Sarah and I some time to catch up. She didn’t go with me cause she was working with Wheeler Mission that weekend. We went out to Denny’s for some dinner and the rest of the night I relaxed. Eating out and fast food all weekend made me feel like crap.
The first part of the week went by pretty quick, and painfully. Every morning from Monday through Wednesday I biked into work. When I got there I felt cold, achy, tired, dizzy and had a really sore throat. At first I thought I was just tired from being busy over the weekend, but it didn’t go away after Monday, and the symptoms reminded me of the flu, the one time I remember having it, minus the vomiting. Sarah took my temp, and it was a simdgeon high, but nothing serious.
Saturday June 25th
We got over to the con at about 10. I did more power shopping. I had Sarah look up some of what I needed at home and finally got in there and bought some stuff. I also met with George, a dealer from NY, who doesn’t price his books because he is the ultimate salesman. He is always looking to deal, and make you a deal. Usually that deal benefits him, but he is great to trade my stuff with. I get rid of some old stuff for some new, without giving it away. I got to practice my bartering skills too, asking for prices lower than marked, which I enjoy. So many of the books today were marked down to a dollar, and I was looking for one issue for a buck, but couldn’t find it anywhere for that price. I knew I could get the issues after that one for a dollar up to 20 in succession, so I didn’t have much bartering power to tell a dealer I would buy more from them, when I was just going to get the remaining issues somewhere else. Trading with George solved all that, I got the issue I was missing, and the rest of them in order.
Late afternoon I then took 2.5 hours walking around the city of Charlotte with Brent McClarnon’s Minolta SLR X-700 taking photos and trying to get a grasp on aperature’s, shutter settings, and all of the other controls on this dense piece of machinery. I was exhausted when I got back, Christine and David were at the auction. The artists at the show did some pieces that were sold here to benefit the con, to keep it going for years to come. Adam Hughes gorgeous water color Sue Richards (Invisible Woman) piece went for $4200 from what I understand. I chilled at the room and read comics until they were done and wanted some dinner, we went out to Uno’s. We had pizza three times over the short weekend. We watched a movie back at the hotel, barely, again David and I falling asleep before it was over.
Loading ...
