Thoughts from a jumbled mind: January 2008

Midlife Crisis - oy

Yesterday, I was cruising through the morning shows and TWO of them were talking about how people in the 40s are very likely to be depressed. Apparently, this is when you realize you're not going to achieve many of the goals you had set for yourself or something like that.

First of all, I was feeling fine BEFORE I turned on the idiot box. But after watching these folks, I felt kinda down. These are very depressing people.

And I just found more details in the NY Times. They're talking about it as a midlife crisis. Wait a minute -- I thought 40 was the new 30!?! I don't consider myself middle aged. It's like a plot for these folks to bum me out or something. Here's some excerpts from the Times:

The researchers, economists Andrew Oswald from the University of Warwick in England and David Blanchflower from Dartmouth College in the United States, found that happiness levels followed a U-shaped curve, with happiness higher towards the start and end of our lives. Across cultures, they found, depression and unhappiness typically strike people in midlife.

...

Despair in midlife comes on slowly, but the good news is that it doesn’t last.

Now they've moved off of calling it depression and they're calling it DESPAIR?

I need to go mope.

My Little Pony Reject

This guy shows how he got kicked off the My Little Pony Fan Website. It's hysterical, especially considering his comments are removed and you can only see the responses to them.

Guiliani to drop out

After only receiving a small (9-11% I think) of the vote in Florida yesterday.

Edwards dropped out too.

Keep the Disaster Alive

Weekend adventures

Last weekend, I went to Leavenworth, WA with some friends. Leavenworth is a former logging town that was "converted" to a Bavarian village after the logging business shut down. It's on the other side of the Cascade mountain range from Seattle and has very different weather than here. Suffice it to say that there was more than 3 feet of snow there. It was really beautiful. The picture below is Todd & Jen's house at sunrise (that's right - I said sunrise...).

It was extremely entertaining watching Gus the dog try to navigate through the snow. He was up to his chin in snow and looked like he was doing the breast stroke. This is a dog that definitely was not built for snow. He does enjoy chasing snowballs though...

We signed up to take skate skiing lessons on Saturday. It really hurt my calves a lot and I had to drop out, which bummed me out. It also did weird things to the plate in my ankle - it's still sore where the plate is. Weird.

The next day Todd & Jen taught me how to snowshoe - in their yard. (They own 47 acres, so it's a pretty significant yard.) Walking - I can handle this! It's tiring though. On Monday, we took the snowshoes and went up a mountain. I made it for about 45 minutes - brought my camera along and got some pretty pictures. It was a really nice, relaxing weekend.

Last night (Friday), I went to see the Blue Man Group concert. It was pretty similar to this show, which I think is the best concert movie I've ever seen (with Just Making Sense coming in second). (Rent the Blue Man video - it's totally worth it.) There were a couple of (not great) additional songs, some additional humor and they did the marshmallow bit from the original show, which is always entertaining.

Lots of misc. errands to do this weekend. Just finished cleaning up pictures and posted them on my site, so check them out!

Figures

I was going to the gym this morning for the first time in a long time. I needed to climb up to reach into a high cabinet in my kitchen to get my water thingy. I pulled a muscle in my leg/groin area.

So, the gym was fine, but I'm really sore from climbing in preparation for the gym...as my manager said "Damn you hydration!"

Fair and Balanced

Fox News once again illustrates how despicable they are.

FOX News host John Gibson revelled in Heath Ledger's death yesterday on his radio show, finding a new opportunity to mock Brokeback Mountain, which in 2006 he called a "gay agenda movie," Think Progress reports:
"Playing an audio clip of the iconic quote, 'I wish I knew how to quit you' from Ledger’s gay romance movie Brokeback Mountain, Gibson disdainfully quipped, 'Well, he found out how to quit you.' Laughing, Gibson then played another clip from Brokeback Mountain in which Ledger said, 'We’re dead,' followed by his own, mocking 'We’re dead' before playing the clip again."

Here's hoping actors and directors in Hollywood take note and, like Barack Obama, refuse to go on Fox News programs. You can hear the clip at Think Progress.

(from Slog)

Heath Ledger

Dead.

I'm really sad to hear this. He was a truly talented actor. I hope he's at peace.

Here we go again

Okay, let's recap:

The State of California has greenhouse gas regulations on cars, trucks and SUVs that are more strict than the ones that the Federal Government has passed. Sixteen other states (including Washington, where I live) had passed laws adopting California's greenhouse gas regulations.

The EPA (ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION!?!?! Agency)said that California and the other states must use the less stringent federal guidelines.

And when asked by the Senate why they made this decision, the EPA claimed EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE!!!!

Ummm...Executive privilege is for the Executive Branch. You know, like the President. It doesn't apply to Federal Agencies.

Once again, this administration wants to hide information. You know, the whole, "You can't handle this information". We're not smart enough. Or it's related to terrorism and it would be dangerous for the public to know why they want us to spew more pollution into the air we breathe. It's not like it has an effect on anything important, right?

"EPA is concerned about the chilling effect that would occur if agency employees believed their frank and honest opinions and analysis expressed as part of assessing California's waiver request were to be disclosed in a broad setting," EPA's associate administrator Christopher P. Bliley wrote.

Everything except the titles was omitted from 16 pages of a 43-page Power Point presentation, according to copy of the document e-mailed to The Associated Press.

I'm steamed. Let's see what Governor "I'll be back" has to say about this.

(Thank you Wired.)

Oscar noms are in

80th ACADEMY AWARDS NOMINATIONS

(Flicks I've seen are bold.)

Best motion picture of the year
"Atonement" (Focus Features) A Working Title Production: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and Paul Webster, Producers
"Juno" (Fox Searchlight) A Dancing Elk Pictures, LLC Production: Lianne Halfon, Mason Novick and Russell Smith, Producers
"Michael Clayton" (Warner Bros.) A Clayton Productions, LLC Production: Sydney Pollack, Jennifer Fox and Kerry Orent, Producers
"No Country for Old Men" (Miramax and Paramount Vantage) A Scott Rudin/Mike Zoss Production: Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, Producers
"There Will Be Blood" (Paramount Vantage and Miramax) A JoAnne Sellar/Ghoulardi Film Company Production: JoAnne Sellar, Paul Thomas Anderson and Daniel Lupi, Producers

Amy's prediction - I haven't seen There Will be Blood yet - I hear great things about Daniel Day Lewis but not as much about the flick itself. I'm going with No Country for Old Men, although Atonement could win here - you know how the Academy loves classy English stories...

Performance by an actor in a leading role
George Clooney in "Michael Clayton" (Warner Bros.)
Daniel Day-Lewis in "There Will Be Blood" (Paramount Vantage and Miramax)
Johnny Depp in "Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" (DreamWorks and Warner Bros., Distributed by DreamWorks/Paramount)
Tommy Lee Jones in "In the Valley of Elah" (Warner Independent)
Viggo Mortensen in "Eastern Promises" (Focus Features)

Amy's prediction - Daniel Day Lewis has huge momentum here. Of course, I'm rooting for George cause he's dreamy.

Performance by an actor in a supporting role
Casey Affleck in "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" (Warner Bros.)
Javier Bardem in "No Country for Old Men" (Miramax and Paramount Vantage)
Philip Seymour Hoffman in "Charlie Wilson's War" (Universal)
Hal Holbrook in "Into the Wild" (Paramount Vantage and River Road Entertainment)
Tom Wilkinson in "Michael Clayton" (Warner Bros.)

Amy's prediction - I am a huge Philip Seymour Hoffman fan, but Javier Bardem was incredible in No Country for Old Men. I'm still scared of him.

Performance by an actress in a leading role
Cate Blanchett in "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" (Universal)
Julie Christie in "Away from Her" (Lionsgate)
Marion Cotillard in "La Vie en Rose" (Picturehouse)
Laura Linney in "The Savages" (Fox Searchlight)
Ellen Page in "Juno" (Fox Searchlight)

Amy's prediction - This one is tricky. I thought that Marion Cotillard's performance in La Vie en Rose was amazing. It's the kind of flick the Academy likes to be associated with. But Juno is making a bunch of money and it's a good story (former stripper writes script, etc.) and they like to reward stuff like that. I'm gonna go with Marion Cotillard in La Vie en Rose.

Performance by an actress in a supporting role
Cate Blanchett in "I'm Not There" (The Weinstein Company)
Ruby Dee in "American Gangster" (Universal)
Saoirse Ronan in "Atonement" (Focus Features)
Amy Ryan in "Gone Baby Gone" (Miramax)
Tilda Swinton in "Michael Clayton" (Warner Bros.)

Amy's prediction - what the heck do I know about this category? I've only seen two of the nominated flicks. I'm going with Saoirse Ronan in Atonement. A lot of people who saw it really were impressed by her, it's her first role (I think) and she's a cute kid. That works sometimes.

Achievement in directing
"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" (Miramax/Pathé Renn), Julian Schnabel
"Juno" (Fox Searchlight), Jason Reitman
"Michael Clayton" (Warner Bros.), Tony Gilroy
"No Country for Old Men" (Miramax and Paramount Vantage), Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
"There Will Be Blood" (Paramount Vantage and Miramax), Paul Thomas Anderson

Amy's prediction - another tricky one. Haven't seen Diving Bell & the Butterfly, but just the fact that Julian Schnabel was able to make it into a compelling flick is impressive. Plus, he's an artist turned director, which is very interesting. But, the Academy loves them Coen brothers, so I'm going to go with No Country for Old Men.

I'm a bit bummed out that Into the Wild was shut out (okay, they got a couple of noms in other, smaller, areas). I thought that Sean Penn deserved a directors nod and Emile Hirsh deserved a best actor nod. Sad.

For the full list, go here. The show is SUPPOSED to be on Feb. 24, but if the writer's strike isn't resolved, it's going to be a big ole dud (if they go through with it - which the Academy insists it's going to do). We'll see...

Suzanne Pleshette

Dead.

Sad Amy. I'm a big Bob Newhart Show fan. She had that great deep voice and she was such a good foil for Bob.

Want to chuckle?

Teehee

Ron Paul beat Rudy Giuliani in Michigan. He got more than 2x as many votes.

This is part of Rudy's strategy, right?

I'm chorteling.

Rent is closing

It's true. Rent (on Broadway) is ending its run on June 1. As you may know, I had a period where I was a tad Rent-obsessed. I've seen productions in NYC, London, LA and San Francisco (multiple times in each location). I've been over it for a while now, but it still has a special place in my heart.

The first time I saw it, I was with a friend who had AIDs who was very sick at the time. It was really emotional. He subsequently passed away, alone, from that disease.

This song still makes me choke up a little.

Office Shui

Seriously. There is a sign in the kitchen where I work (and fill my teapot) advertising "office shui". They will come to your office and rearrange it so that it's balanced or something. The best part is that there is a "before" picture and an "after" picture. Um. They're obviously of different offices, only one of which has a window. I guess if you are so altered that you are willing to PAY someone to rearrange your office, you might not notice this.

My karma is happy in my office as long as I keep kcrw playing music...I wonder what you have to have hanging over your soul to require your office to be properly balanced? Kitty torture? Waterboarding small children? (that only happened once. And it was when I was President, so it's fine cause if the President does it, it's not illegal. Ask Nixon.)

Ahhhh. If you search for "office shui", there's a lot of info on the web. How did we ever manage before the interwebs?

Miss Coco Peru has a new flick...

okay, it's not a flick, but it's a short. It's twisted and definitely not safe for work...but hysterical. If Coco is ever performing in your area, you should go. She's touching and funny. And my friend. If you like this clip, you should rent Girls Will Be Girls.

I just learned

that we need to change the Constitution to "align with God's standards".

Well, that's what Mike Huckabee said yesterday in Michigan. Dang. I thought he wasn't that much of a religious kook. So much for that theory. (Not that there was a snowball's chance in HELL that I would ever vote for him or anything. Heh. I said Hell.)

Copying Jenna

Cause my friend Jenna went through the AFI's top 100 films list and indicated all the one's she's already seen, I'm copying her. I've seen the movies that are in bold. That means I still have 35 to go. 1/3 of the list. Sigh.

Citizen Kane (1941)
The Godfather (1972)
Casablanca (1942)
Raging Bull (1980)
Singin' In The Rain (1952)
Gone With The Wind (1939)
Lawrence Of Arabia (1962)
Schindler's list (1993)
Vertigo (1958)
The Wizard Of Oz (1939)
City Lights (1931)
The Searchers (1956)
Star Wars (1977)
Psycho (1960)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Sunset Blvd. (1950)
The Graduate (1967)
The General (1927)
On The Waterfront (1954)
It's A Wonderful life (1946)
Chinatown (1974)
Some like It Hot (1959)
The Grapes Of Wrath (1940)
E.T. The Extra-terrestrial (1982)
To Kill A Mockingbird (1962)
Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939)
High Noon (1952)
All About Eve (1950)
Double Indemnity (1944)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
The Godfather Part II (1974)
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs (1937)
Annie Hall (1977)
The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957)
The Best Years Of Our lives (1946)
The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre (1948)
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
The Sound Of Music (1965)
King Kong (1933)
Bonnie And Clyde (1967)
Midnight Cowboy (1969)
The Philadelphia Story (1940)
Shane (1953)
It Happened One Night (1934)
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
Rear Window (1954)
Intolerance (1916)
The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring (2001)
West Side Story (1961)
Taxi Driver (1976)
The Deer Hunter (1978)
M*a*s*h (1970)
North By Northwest (1959)
Jaws (1975)
Rocky (1976)
The Gold Rush (1925)
Nashville (1975)
Duck Soup (1933)
Sullivan's Travels (1941)
American Graffiti (1973)
Cabaret (1972)
Network (1976)
The African Queen (1951)
Raiders Of The Lost Ark (1981)
Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
Unforgiven (1992)
Tootsie (1982)
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid (1969)
The Silence Of The Lambs (1991)
In The Heat Of The Night (1967)
Forrest Gump (1994)
All The President's Men (1976)
Modern Times (1936)
The Wild Bunch (1969)
The Apartment (1960)
Spartacus (1960)
Sunrise (1927)
Titanic (1997)
Easy Rider (1969)
A Night At The Opera (1935)
Platoon (1986)
12 Angry Men (1957)
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
The Sixth Sense (1999)
Swing Time (1936)
Sophie's Choice (1982)
Goodfellas (1990)
The French Connection (1971)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
The Last Picture Show (1971)
Do The Right Thing (1989)
Blade Runner (1982)
Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
Toy Story (1995)
Ben-hur (1959)

Download MP3s from Amazon

Sony has agreed to sell its songs DRM-free on the Amazon MP3 store, completing the set—now all four big record companies are on board. It's amazing how a little iTunes competitiveness will bring a bunch of executives together. [New York Times]

Why does this matter? Cause if you buy music from iTunes, it can ONLY be played on an iPod. Why should you care? Cause some day, you might want to use some other device to listen to music - in your house via media extenders (geek stuff now, but some version is bound to be embraced by the general public in the future), other portable music devices, etc. If you buy something other than an iPod, you cannot listen to music you purchased from Apple (unless you go through the hassle to convert it - which I think is illegal, but I"m not sure.)

Buy and download music without DRM (digital rights management) from places like Amazon. Then you can use it anywhere (including on your iPod) now and in the future.

Idiot du jour, Friday edition

From today's NY Times (the paper of record):

Even for the once-notorious Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood, it may have been a first: Two men were arrested on Tuesday after pushing a corpse, seated in an office chair, along the sidewalk to a check-cashing store to cash the dead man’s Social Security check, the police said.

...

And my favorite part of the story is:

The two men were taken into custody and questioned. The police said they were considering charging them with check-cashing fraud.

Ummmm....CONSIDERING?

Anyone from Michigan?

The Daily Kos has a very interesting proposal for Democrats in Michigan. Since the DNC stripped the state of its delegates because they moved the date of their primary, the only Dem on the ballot is Hilary - and your vote in the Primary won't matter....unless...

You vote in the Republican Primary for Mitt Romney. If he wins, it drags out the Republican race - making them spend more money and attack each other for longer.

Turns out the Republicans have done this to the Democrats several times:

In 1972, Republican voters in Michigan decided to make a little mischief, crossing over to vote in the open Democratic primary and voting for segregationist Democrat George Wallace, seriously embarrassing the state's Democrats. In fact, a third of the voters (PDF) in the Democratic primary were Republican crossover votes. In 1988, Republican voters again crossed over, helping Jesse Jackson win the Democratic primary, helping rack up big margins for Jackson in Republican precincts. (Michigan Republicans can clearly be counted on to practice the worst of racial politics.) In 1998, Republicans helped Jack Kevorkian's lawyer -- quack Geoffrey Feiger -- win his Democratic primary, thus guaranteeing their hold on the governor's mansion that year.

...

So why are we doing this? Because we can. Because it'll be fun. And because we've suffered Republican meddling, stealing, and disenfranchisement in our elections for far too long.

Can you imagine?

Headline from today's NY Times "Bush Confident on Mideast Peace". The first sentence reads:

"President Bush, making his first visit to the Palestinian territories, expressed confidence here on Thursday that an Israeli-Palestinian peace treaty would be signed during his last year in office..."

Can you imagine? His imagination is very active. Again.

(As an aside, I'd love an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians and an end to the violence there. I'm just thinking about how ironic it would be if somehow Bush was able to claim some sort of credit for said agreement.)

Awwwww.... (more)

A pet dog missed the family’s dead cat so much that he dug up his grave and brought the body back into the house.

When Oscar’s owners woke up the next morning they discovered the dog curled up beside Arthur, the late cat, in his basket.

His owners, Robert Bell, 73, and his wife, Mavis, of Wigan, Greater Manchester, believe that the dog had licked the cat clean before falling asleep.

Mr Bell said that the two pets were constant companions. Arthur, who was a large cat, used to help Oscar to climb on to the sofa.

Oscar, an 18-month-old Lancashire Heeler, had watched Mr Bell dig a grave in the garden and then lower the cat into the hole.Mr Bell said: “He had managed to climb out through the cat flap in the night, obviously with the intent to get Arthur back. Bearing in mind that Arthur was a huge cat, Oscar must have used all the strength he could muster.

“Then he pulled him into the basket and went to sleep next to him. Arthur’s coat was gleaming white. Oscar had obviously licked him clean. It must have taken him nearly all night.”

Arthur is now reburied in a secure grave. And Oscar has a new playmate, a kitten called Limpet.

[Times of London via Jezebel]

Fox News - We don't care if it's true - it's news!

Paul Begala has a piece on the HuffingtonPost today about how Fox News reported that he was taking a job with Hillary Clinton's campaign without contacting him to see if it's true. When he got in touch with them and told them it wasn't true, they replied that they'd take that "under advisement" and continued to report the (non) story.

Read the entire article to see the string of emails that went back and forth. Apparently, Fox felt that they had a better source than Paul, so they stuck with him/her instead.

Fair and Balanced!

Dopey Person du jour

Jeremy Clarkson, a British TV star, wrote an editorial describing privacy activism as "palaver," and just to prove how safe we all are, included his bank account number.

However, in a rare moment of humility Clarkson has now revealed the stunt backfired and his details were used to set up a £500 direct debit payable from his account to the British Diabetic Association.

"The bank cannot find out who did this because of the Data Protection Act and they cannot stop it from happening again," he said. "I was wrong and I have been punished for my mistake."

I LOVE that whoever hacked his account set it up to make a donation. That just rocks.

Clarkson stung by fraud stunt [Guardian Unlimited via BoingBoing]

Bad Blogger, Bad!

I know that I have not been a very conscientious (tough word to spell, btw) blogger lately. It's been a combination of things:

I'm trying to stay off the computer when I'm not at work. I have a tendency to read email, start working and get sucked in for several hours. I did a 4 day stretch over New Years weekend where I turned my computer off. That was nice. I am easing in a bit (for personal stuff) by just disconnecting Outlook so that I don't see any incoming mail, which works quite well and should allow me to to post here without getting all "worky".
I have changed jobs at work and am now a manager. It's cool and stuff, but last week was very very very busy. Three new employees started that are all reporting to me. I was trying to help them settle in plus preparing for the kick off of this very large and visible project I'm working on. Plus, I have some personal issues with someone else on the project and it was seriously getting to me.

I have jumped to a new leaf that I can't actually explain but he's not bugged me for two whole work days now, so that's a huge improvement, considering I was up at 3am one night plotting his demise. Which I'm not particularly good at. Which may make me a poor manager. (kidding, of course).

Anyways, things have calmed down considerably and I'm back into more of a standard groove. One of the good things about being a manager is that I get my own office again. We are incredibly overcrowded right now - they're in the process of building a whole bunch of new buildings on campus because everyone is just mushed up together. Of course, they're not ready yet, so tons of people are paired up. I really like my officemate, but I am very easily distracted, so I'm not as efficient and focused when I'm sharing an office. However, we are both into music and politics, so that works out very nicely.

Saw The Savages this weekend. I'm a huge fan of both Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman. I think they are two of the most interesting and talented actors working right now. It's not a "pick me up" kinda flick - they play siblings whose dad has to be put into a nursing home. It's about the three of them dealing with this situation. However, it's definitely got its lighthearted moments. The script was very good and the performances (as expected) were excellent.

Movies currently on my to see list:

Persepolis - I "read" the book (it's a graphic novel) about a girl growing up in Iran when the revolution happens. According to Rotten Tomatoes, 96% of the national reviews of it are positive. That definitely puts it on my must see list.
Diving Bell and the Butterfly - I haven't read this book, but it sounds fascinating. A true story about a guy who can't move any body part other than blinking his eye. He learns to communicate via blinks and then writes his memoirs. True! And 93% positive reviews says Rotten Tomatoes.
Gone Baby Gone - yes, I know it was directed by Ben Affleck, but it's supposed to be really good (93% positive). Missed it in the theatres, so it's on my Netflix list.
There Will Be Blood - I know I was snarky about this earlier on this blog, but now I've read up on this and it's supposed to be excellent - especially Daniel Day Lewis in the lead role. Don't think it's playing here yet, but I'll definitely wait on line to see this when it eventually opens in this second tier city I call home (and love).
I am Legend cause a friend really liked it. 67% positive on Rotten Tomatoes.
The Golden Compass cause I really enjoyed the books and the same friend really liked it. Hmmm...this one is only 41% positive reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, that means it's not fresh - it's rotten.

That's all I have for you folks. Enjoy the picture of Gus the dog and Santa.

Thoughts From a Jumbled Mind

A palate cleanser of a blog.