Monday, August 14, 2006
This summer is flying by. My project deadline is in two month, but that is for everything, including testing, so the software deadline is only a month away. They asked us last week to work six days per week (or five longer days) so I'm going to be busy at work for the rest of this month.
One good thing is that my brother and his family are back in Pittsburgh after spending six weeks down in Virginia because of his job. Pretty much everytime I talked to my mom since they left has been a guilt trip. First it was "when are you coming home?" which evolved into "I thought you would come home atleast once while your brother was gone." Now I never told her I would come home. In fact, I had planned since last fall to spend the whole summer in New Jersey and doing some of the things around Jersey. Anyway, hopefully, now when I talk to her, I will stop getting the guilt trip about not coming home and go back to just feeling guilty about lying about liking the Christmas presents she got me last year. (Note: if someone tells you that they didn't wear the gift you got them the previous Xmas because it had long sleeves, don't get them long-sleeved clothes the next year.) One good thing, my mom finally agreed this summer to not give me a birthday present. She seemed actually relieved when I suggested it despite my asking them not to get me anything for the last few birthdays and christmases. Hopefully I can get them to not give me anything for Christmas.
I always preferred event-type stuff to birthday presents anyway. The best part about this birthday was that Bill and Terri were in town and the whole NYC trip.
Anyway, at this point, I have done most of the things I wanted to do this summer. What I have left is: go to a concert at the Tweeter centre (already have tickets for a show), go to the shore (maybe make a day trip to Atlantic City which would count as the shore), go to a state I've never been to before (Delaware is less than an hour away so it's not too much of a problem), and go into Philly during the day and just walk around (I can take care of that with a extra-long lunch). The important thing, though, is this summer I haven't simply been spending whole weekends in my apartment. I've been trying to get out more.
I got my Steeler tickets this year and I got screwed over. I get two tickets to two games each year and I trade my extra one to a friend who also gets two tickets to two games. This year we not only got tickets to the same game, but it's a preseason game. So I have two tickets right now to the August 31st preseason game which, if I would go, would require me to take atleast a day and a half off of work. And I wasn't sure yet if I was even going to come home that weekend or not. My friend's second pair of tickets is for early December which is fine. My second pair is for Christmas eve when he's going to be out of town and I was hoping to avoid going home for the holidays. (My not wanting to go home for xmas is due in only small part to the present issue I mentioned above.) Atleast Christmas is on a monday this year which means I work the next day and I'll have an excuse to leave right after dinner.
Also, I think I found out why I've had more problem sleeping over the past year than the year before. I had a problem with my eyes last year and had to stop sleeping in my contacts, which means I have to wear glasses to bed, which I take off when I try to get to sleep. When I take my glasses off, I turn the tv off because I can't make out the images without my glasses. Before, I used to fall asleep alot of the time watching tv. So I'm going to start leaving the tv on and watching the really blurring images and hopefully that will help me fall asleep. All I know is I seem to have no problem falling asleep watching tv in the evening before I take my contacts out.
One good thing is that my brother and his family are back in Pittsburgh after spending six weeks down in Virginia because of his job. Pretty much everytime I talked to my mom since they left has been a guilt trip. First it was "when are you coming home?" which evolved into "I thought you would come home atleast once while your brother was gone." Now I never told her I would come home. In fact, I had planned since last fall to spend the whole summer in New Jersey and doing some of the things around Jersey. Anyway, hopefully, now when I talk to her, I will stop getting the guilt trip about not coming home and go back to just feeling guilty about lying about liking the Christmas presents she got me last year. (Note: if someone tells you that they didn't wear the gift you got them the previous Xmas because it had long sleeves, don't get them long-sleeved clothes the next year.) One good thing, my mom finally agreed this summer to not give me a birthday present. She seemed actually relieved when I suggested it despite my asking them not to get me anything for the last few birthdays and christmases. Hopefully I can get them to not give me anything for Christmas.
I always preferred event-type stuff to birthday presents anyway. The best part about this birthday was that Bill and Terri were in town and the whole NYC trip.
Anyway, at this point, I have done most of the things I wanted to do this summer. What I have left is: go to a concert at the Tweeter centre (already have tickets for a show), go to the shore (maybe make a day trip to Atlantic City which would count as the shore), go to a state I've never been to before (Delaware is less than an hour away so it's not too much of a problem), and go into Philly during the day and just walk around (I can take care of that with a extra-long lunch). The important thing, though, is this summer I haven't simply been spending whole weekends in my apartment. I've been trying to get out more.
I got my Steeler tickets this year and I got screwed over. I get two tickets to two games each year and I trade my extra one to a friend who also gets two tickets to two games. This year we not only got tickets to the same game, but it's a preseason game. So I have two tickets right now to the August 31st preseason game which, if I would go, would require me to take atleast a day and a half off of work. And I wasn't sure yet if I was even going to come home that weekend or not. My friend's second pair of tickets is for early December which is fine. My second pair is for Christmas eve when he's going to be out of town and I was hoping to avoid going home for the holidays. (My not wanting to go home for xmas is due in only small part to the present issue I mentioned above.) Atleast Christmas is on a monday this year which means I work the next day and I'll have an excuse to leave right after dinner.
Also, I think I found out why I've had more problem sleeping over the past year than the year before. I had a problem with my eyes last year and had to stop sleeping in my contacts, which means I have to wear glasses to bed, which I take off when I try to get to sleep. When I take my glasses off, I turn the tv off because I can't make out the images without my glasses. Before, I used to fall asleep alot of the time watching tv. So I'm going to start leaving the tv on and watching the really blurring images and hopefully that will help me fall asleep. All I know is I seem to have no problem falling asleep watching tv in the evening before I take my contacts out.
Thursday, August 10, 2006
I have a couple reviews I've been meaning to write.
First, I got the movie Side Effects from netflix. I got it mainly because of Katherine Heigl starring in it. It's about the pharmaceutical industry. I'm going to include spoilers here, but don't worry, if you see this movie, you'll see every event in the movie coming in the first ten minutes. At one point, really early on, it looked like it had the potential to be a truly original film. No such luck. Let's just say near the end credits it says the movie was made for something like $120,000 (I forget the exact number). Then, watching the director's introduction which was included in the special features, I find out that the director is a first time writer/director who wrote the script after a career in pharmaceutical sales. Let's just say I was not shocked. The editing was abrupt and the plotlines were ones that were so overused that you can't accuse it of stealing from any one movie. Any movie fan knows the scenarios. A person is in a group/position/clique she hates. She has alterior motives for not leaving. Gradually she loses her identity and becomes one of the things she hates. There is atleast one character who is on her side and outside the group and everybody in the group, the villains, are broadly drawn. At one point, they mention an industry awards dinner and you instantly know where the climatic scene of the movie will take place. Never Been Kissed and Mean Girls are just two examples of movies that have used these plots, although they aren't the first.
I can forgive the unoriginality of the movie because it never tries to be original. The purpose of the movie was to inform about the industry. The movie have scenes sliced in where facts about drug companies are stated or doctors are asked about they drug company representatives. There is apparently a documentary about the industry and part of it is included in the special features, but I didn't watch it. But it would seem the whole purpose of the movie was to inform people who wouldn't watch a documentary about drug companies. And let's just say it isn't a commercial for them. Anyway, the unoriginality and obvious bias of the movie was easy for me to block out which allowed me to enjoyed the positive of the movie: it was ninety minutes of Katherine Heigl. So I enjoyed the movie. If it's on tv or if you can get a hold of the dvd for free, it might make for a enjoyable diversion, but I wouldn't recommend paying to rent it or go out of the way to see it.
The second movie is Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. It's a film-noir type film but it is also a comedy. It stars Val Kilmer and Robert Downey Jr. I saw a quote from Kilmer during the promoting of the movie where he was asked if this was the first comedy he had done since Real Genius and he replied by asking if Alexander counts. I also heard that he was asked if this was his first gay character and he replied unless you count Top Gun.
Anyway, Downey plays a thief who inadvertently becomes an actor. He goes to Hollywood and becomes involved with a woman and a murder. Downey does voice-overs the whole time and the voice-overs are aware that this is a movie. There is a legitimate murder mystery and there are guns and chases and violence, but this is a comedy and a good one. I would have paid full price to see this in the theatre. It is even funny during the credit which have the best talking-directly-during-the-audience-as-they-are-leaving-the-theatre scene since Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
The next review is for the tv show Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Netflix is renting out the premiere episode of it and Kidnapped on the same dvd.
First, a quick word on Kidnapped. Quality show. Great cast. The plot is about a kidnapped kid and runs the entire first season. I plan on watching it, if it's on at a convenient time for me. I can only keep up with so many tv shows and I might be waiting for it to hit dvds and Netflix.
But back to Studio 60, watch this show. It's great. It's from Aaron Sorkin, who created Sports Night and The West Wing. The premiere episode has the best aspects of both of the shows. Sports Night was a comedy about behind the scenes of a live tv show and West Wing was a drama about politics. Studio 66 is a drama about the politics behind the scenes of a live comedy tv show. It has the high energy dialogue that has become somewhat of a trademark of Sorkin. It introduces a large cast effortlessly. Like the first episode of West Wing, it teases about events in the past but waits for the right time to reveal the details. It even has the patience to wait til about 40 minutes in to introduce two of the main stars. And the cast is good enough that two great actors are only in the first ten minutes and it doesn't seem like a waste. This is not only a show I'm planning on watching, but I'm planning on taping it as well so in case something happens and I miss something. I was actually annoyed after the show was over that I would have to wait til the show to start to see the second episode.
And to bring up another point, Matthew Perry's guess appearance on the West Wing blew me away as it was the first time I had seen him where he wasn't doing a variation on Chandler Bing. His character on Studio 60 has it's Chandler-esque quality, but should be the role that seperates him from his work on his old tv show.
Anyway, if you have a Netflix account, rent the dvd with the studio 60 premiere on it. If you don't, watch it when it debuts on tv.
First, I got the movie Side Effects from netflix. I got it mainly because of Katherine Heigl starring in it. It's about the pharmaceutical industry. I'm going to include spoilers here, but don't worry, if you see this movie, you'll see every event in the movie coming in the first ten minutes. At one point, really early on, it looked like it had the potential to be a truly original film. No such luck. Let's just say near the end credits it says the movie was made for something like $120,000 (I forget the exact number). Then, watching the director's introduction which was included in the special features, I find out that the director is a first time writer/director who wrote the script after a career in pharmaceutical sales. Let's just say I was not shocked. The editing was abrupt and the plotlines were ones that were so overused that you can't accuse it of stealing from any one movie. Any movie fan knows the scenarios. A person is in a group/position/clique she hates. She has alterior motives for not leaving. Gradually she loses her identity and becomes one of the things she hates. There is atleast one character who is on her side and outside the group and everybody in the group, the villains, are broadly drawn. At one point, they mention an industry awards dinner and you instantly know where the climatic scene of the movie will take place. Never Been Kissed and Mean Girls are just two examples of movies that have used these plots, although they aren't the first.
I can forgive the unoriginality of the movie because it never tries to be original. The purpose of the movie was to inform about the industry. The movie have scenes sliced in where facts about drug companies are stated or doctors are asked about they drug company representatives. There is apparently a documentary about the industry and part of it is included in the special features, but I didn't watch it. But it would seem the whole purpose of the movie was to inform people who wouldn't watch a documentary about drug companies. And let's just say it isn't a commercial for them. Anyway, the unoriginality and obvious bias of the movie was easy for me to block out which allowed me to enjoyed the positive of the movie: it was ninety minutes of Katherine Heigl. So I enjoyed the movie. If it's on tv or if you can get a hold of the dvd for free, it might make for a enjoyable diversion, but I wouldn't recommend paying to rent it or go out of the way to see it.
The second movie is Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. It's a film-noir type film but it is also a comedy. It stars Val Kilmer and Robert Downey Jr. I saw a quote from Kilmer during the promoting of the movie where he was asked if this was the first comedy he had done since Real Genius and he replied by asking if Alexander counts. I also heard that he was asked if this was his first gay character and he replied unless you count Top Gun.
Anyway, Downey plays a thief who inadvertently becomes an actor. He goes to Hollywood and becomes involved with a woman and a murder. Downey does voice-overs the whole time and the voice-overs are aware that this is a movie. There is a legitimate murder mystery and there are guns and chases and violence, but this is a comedy and a good one. I would have paid full price to see this in the theatre. It is even funny during the credit which have the best talking-directly-during-the-audience-as-they-are-leaving-the-theatre scene since Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
The next review is for the tv show Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Netflix is renting out the premiere episode of it and Kidnapped on the same dvd.
First, a quick word on Kidnapped. Quality show. Great cast. The plot is about a kidnapped kid and runs the entire first season. I plan on watching it, if it's on at a convenient time for me. I can only keep up with so many tv shows and I might be waiting for it to hit dvds and Netflix.
But back to Studio 60, watch this show. It's great. It's from Aaron Sorkin, who created Sports Night and The West Wing. The premiere episode has the best aspects of both of the shows. Sports Night was a comedy about behind the scenes of a live tv show and West Wing was a drama about politics. Studio 66 is a drama about the politics behind the scenes of a live comedy tv show. It has the high energy dialogue that has become somewhat of a trademark of Sorkin. It introduces a large cast effortlessly. Like the first episode of West Wing, it teases about events in the past but waits for the right time to reveal the details. It even has the patience to wait til about 40 minutes in to introduce two of the main stars. And the cast is good enough that two great actors are only in the first ten minutes and it doesn't seem like a waste. This is not only a show I'm planning on watching, but I'm planning on taping it as well so in case something happens and I miss something. I was actually annoyed after the show was over that I would have to wait til the show to start to see the second episode.
And to bring up another point, Matthew Perry's guess appearance on the West Wing blew me away as it was the first time I had seen him where he wasn't doing a variation on Chandler Bing. His character on Studio 60 has it's Chandler-esque quality, but should be the role that seperates him from his work on his old tv show.
Anyway, if you have a Netflix account, rent the dvd with the studio 60 premiere on it. If you don't, watch it when it debuts on tv.
Sunday, August 06, 2006
This past week was a busy one. Bill and Terri came in on Monday. After I got off work, we picked up Adam and went to see Clerks 2. It was the second time I had seen it, but it was nice to see it with other friends. Afterwards, the phrase of the moment was "I'm taking it back".
Afterwards, we went to the Cheesecake Factory. I had always heard of how good the place is, but had never ate at one. Once, in Atlanta, I went to one, but the place was so busy there was a 45 minute line to get on the waiting list. Tuesday we took the train up to NYC. The timing of the trains was good such that we got to Trenton in time so there wasn't much of a wait for the train to the city to leave.
We got to the city and walked to our hotel. I'm sure Bill will talk about the checking in process at the hotel. We then walked around the city, keeping mainly around time square. We ate lunch at the ESPNZone, but because of the heat, I didn't have much of a appetite. Coincidentally, ESPNZone was another restaurant I went to in Atlanta but didn't eat at because of the long wait.
The one plus to the hotel was its closeness to Radio City Music Hall, where the event we were going to see was being held. The event was Stephen King, John Irving, and JK Rowling reading excerpts from their works. It was great. I expected just the authors standing at a podium reading from their works. Well, it started out with Whoopi Goldberg giving a welcoming speech. Then Kathy Bates gave introduced Stephen King, which included a video montage about King. Then King came out and read from a little stage setup that looked like the outside porch of an old country home. John Irving went next, introduced by Andre Baugher and another video montage. JK Rowling went last, introduced by Jon Stewart and video clip. Both had chairs and stage setups designed to fit their writings. Afterwards, JK answered questions from the audience. We were kinda annoyed that the first two hadn't answered questions. For the most part, questions tended to stick to either asking what's going to happen in her next work or hypothetical questions similar to what trekkies would ask William Shatner at a Star Trek convention. Afterwards all three authors came out an answered questions. The first question to King was, painfully, "What scares you?" which was an original question back in the eighties. I've heard King answer this a few times over the years.
Harry Potter fans made up a majority of the audience, but I saw surprising few costumes. And I did see a "Long live the Crimson King" t-shirt which is a reference to a King work. Overall, I like the fact that Rowling went last since it meant the Potter fans would hear the other authors' works and not leave after she read.
I've seen Stephen King in interviews on tv and read his columns and hearing him in person did not disappoint.
John Irving was great. I'm definitely going to read his work. Right now, I have more than a few books in my reading queue. I'm midway through King's sixth Dark Tower book and the seventh and final one will be next. I might fit an Irving novel in after that.
I was hoping Rowling would read something from her first novel, but she read from her latest, but it was a flashback scene and didn't give spoil anything for me. Some of the discussions gave minor spoilers. There seemed to be an assumption that everybody there had already read all the Potter books, despite the presence of King and Irving fans. At one point, while answering a question, she did explicitly avoid giving a name of someone who did something just in case someone hadn't read the books. I give her credit for this. Overall I came off with a favorable impression of Rowling. The whole thing reminded me of a concert or festival where a current musician with a top-selling album nowadays, gets the headline spot over top an artist that has sold alot more albums and have a career decades longer.
Bydaway, there was an announcement that said that the whole event would be available on webcast monday (tomorrow) on msn.com. I may have heard it wrong, though.
After the event, we met up with Adam and a friend of his and went to eat at the Bubba Gump shrimp factory. I had been to the one in New Orleans, but had not eaten there. The food was good, but the air conditioner was broken, so it was hot.
The next morning we came back to my place via train. It was getting close to rush hour by the time we got in, so Bill and Terri left pretty fast.
There are other details of the trip, as well as stuff that happened later in the week, that I might write about, but for now, I'm going to try and get some sleep tonight.
Afterwards, we went to the Cheesecake Factory. I had always heard of how good the place is, but had never ate at one. Once, in Atlanta, I went to one, but the place was so busy there was a 45 minute line to get on the waiting list. Tuesday we took the train up to NYC. The timing of the trains was good such that we got to Trenton in time so there wasn't much of a wait for the train to the city to leave.
We got to the city and walked to our hotel. I'm sure Bill will talk about the checking in process at the hotel. We then walked around the city, keeping mainly around time square. We ate lunch at the ESPNZone, but because of the heat, I didn't have much of a appetite. Coincidentally, ESPNZone was another restaurant I went to in Atlanta but didn't eat at because of the long wait.
The one plus to the hotel was its closeness to Radio City Music Hall, where the event we were going to see was being held. The event was Stephen King, John Irving, and JK Rowling reading excerpts from their works. It was great. I expected just the authors standing at a podium reading from their works. Well, it started out with Whoopi Goldberg giving a welcoming speech. Then Kathy Bates gave introduced Stephen King, which included a video montage about King. Then King came out and read from a little stage setup that looked like the outside porch of an old country home. John Irving went next, introduced by Andre Baugher and another video montage. JK Rowling went last, introduced by Jon Stewart and video clip. Both had chairs and stage setups designed to fit their writings. Afterwards, JK answered questions from the audience. We were kinda annoyed that the first two hadn't answered questions. For the most part, questions tended to stick to either asking what's going to happen in her next work or hypothetical questions similar to what trekkies would ask William Shatner at a Star Trek convention. Afterwards all three authors came out an answered questions. The first question to King was, painfully, "What scares you?" which was an original question back in the eighties. I've heard King answer this a few times over the years.
Harry Potter fans made up a majority of the audience, but I saw surprising few costumes. And I did see a "Long live the Crimson King" t-shirt which is a reference to a King work. Overall, I like the fact that Rowling went last since it meant the Potter fans would hear the other authors' works and not leave after she read.
I've seen Stephen King in interviews on tv and read his columns and hearing him in person did not disappoint.
John Irving was great. I'm definitely going to read his work. Right now, I have more than a few books in my reading queue. I'm midway through King's sixth Dark Tower book and the seventh and final one will be next. I might fit an Irving novel in after that.
I was hoping Rowling would read something from her first novel, but she read from her latest, but it was a flashback scene and didn't give spoil anything for me. Some of the discussions gave minor spoilers. There seemed to be an assumption that everybody there had already read all the Potter books, despite the presence of King and Irving fans. At one point, while answering a question, she did explicitly avoid giving a name of someone who did something just in case someone hadn't read the books. I give her credit for this. Overall I came off with a favorable impression of Rowling. The whole thing reminded me of a concert or festival where a current musician with a top-selling album nowadays, gets the headline spot over top an artist that has sold alot more albums and have a career decades longer.
Bydaway, there was an announcement that said that the whole event would be available on webcast monday (tomorrow) on msn.com. I may have heard it wrong, though.
After the event, we met up with Adam and a friend of his and went to eat at the Bubba Gump shrimp factory. I had been to the one in New Orleans, but had not eaten there. The food was good, but the air conditioner was broken, so it was hot.
The next morning we came back to my place via train. It was getting close to rush hour by the time we got in, so Bill and Terri left pretty fast.
There are other details of the trip, as well as stuff that happened later in the week, that I might write about, but for now, I'm going to try and get some sleep tonight.
