We saw Revenge of the Sith tonight and I found myself at some point saying I just needed to move past the tidiness and just go with the story. Without giving anything away, the movie was much better than I anticipated and kicked the ass of episodes I and II. Of course, nothing will ever top the original movie.
I am so excited about The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
I got an email from a friend who said “by the time you read this you’ve probably already heard my rambling voicemail about friend A.” I called home to listen to the message and then a RANT flew from my fingers. The friend A lives in a western state but has family in VA. They make a trek yearly to see A’s extended family. Quite often it works out that A, my email friend and I get together when A is in the state.
Generally, we’re able to plan this a little so that all VA-based people can get schedules straight and plan who will host the get-together. We’re never given much warning but usually we can make it happen on a weekend. My RANT started because A and family will be cruising through VA next Thursday mid-afternoon. Like leave work a half-day and rearrange all kinds of schedules to boot. Ain’t going to happen. Bottom line: Value me a little more and I won’t get all ranty.
I was in a training room all day today and will be there for two more days. We were so tucked away that we didn’t even realize that a raging thunderstorm was going on until we were released for the day.
The other bad thing about the cell, er, I mean room, we’re using for training is that there is only one computer in the whole room and the trainer is using it. Can you imagine 3 days without connectivity?
On the way home I stopped at the Home Depot across from the training space and let me tell you how much I appreciate the Home Depot near my house. There were only 2 lines open at this second-rate store and both of the cashiers were experiencing issues with nary a manager in sight. Of course, neither of the cashiers called a manager or suggested that another line should be opened to accept money from the 20 or so people in line. I was a few seconds away from leaving my cart right in line and walking out the door. The two things that stopped me was that it would be rude to the other people in line and I’d just have to stop at another store and round up all the goods again.
Isn’t it great when you are listening to your MP3 player and instead of feeling rather jaded that you’ve heard the same songs 14 gazillion times, you crank it up and put it on repeat? For one song? And, then you get home and crank it up on the big speakers because you just can’t get it out of your system?
I’m having that thrill this afternoon with Peacekeeper by Fleetwood Mac. I remember when the song came out I really liked it but I’d kind of forgotten about it. Now, my friends, it is in danger of being worn out. I think I’ve listened to the song 20 times in a row with no signs of stopping. Friday afternoon madness.
Yesterday I got the oil changed in the car and when the oil tech guy asked me how my wipers were, I told him they were crappy. Only I kind of answered him in a really excited and hyper kind of way because, by golly, those wipers were CRAP. He laughed with me, I’m sure, and said he could replace them. It was really nice today during the drive in, with the rain whipping down, that I was able to actually see the road and cars around me.
On the way into work today, I heard on the radio that a glass truck had spilled its contents on Interstate 95 right at the ramp where I get onto 95.
Sure enough traffic was at a standstill on the bridge. Even though I drive over that bridge every day, I don’t like the feeling of sitting there especially when a truck goes by and I can feel the bridge bouncing. I always get a picture of the Tacoma Narrows bridge in my head.
When I finally got to 95, there was, indeed, broken glass everywhere.
This video is very well done and starts my little buddy Darth Tater.
Today at lunch we were talking about what books high school students aren’t reading and someone said it’s because everyone is reading those damn blogs. I remained mum.
Speaking of the rich Internet experience that everyone is digging these days, I thought I’d mention the Firefox extensions I use.
Sage–a feed reader. It is brilliantly simple and, most importantly, it works.
Spellbound-a spell checking product that I use all the time. And, when I’m at work and have to use IE, I get a little cranky about not being able to spell check.
Adblock-ads, what ads?
Tabbrowser-did you hear that IE will soon get a beta of tabs? So what. You’ll have to pry Firefox out of my cold dead hands.
We have a premium membership to Salon.com and one of the perks, aside from good writing, is the access to some great free mp3s. I’m pretty impressed with how many of the songs I really like and that go into immediate rotation. Every week when I head over to the download area, I’m reminded about how narrow commercial radio has become.
I found out today that Cnet offers free mp3s as well. I just listened to Decibully’s Tables Turn and will definitely look for a full-length CD by them in the future.
So, music company executives, did you hear that? I got one free song legally off the internet and I’m willing to pay for a full-length CD. I’m not just willing to buy one, I’m pretty sure that cash will leave my hand for one of their CDs. Put that in your litigious pipe and smoke it.
**Update 7/29/05–I just opened a box from Amazon and immediately put Decibully’s City of Festivals CD in the player. Excellent music.
My FL sister contacted me via email on Thursday and said they were going to be in town Friday night and wanted to know if they could spend the night. So, we had guests last night. The very first guests at the new place. They took it in stride that we had to use old bath towels to keep the morning sun out of the bedroom–we just haven’t done a thing to that room since we moved in.
My sister and her husband are the easiest people to have spend the night because after breakfast they went and did their thing and we went and did our thing. We met back at our house later in the afternoon and then sat around watching Starsky and Hutch, the movie. They just left headed to Charlottesville for a party. Yes, they came from Florida to go to a party. You have to respect that.
And, I think the whole what to do for the sister trip has been solved. We’re packing up the car and headed to Florida. Free lodging with sun bathing and a tiki bar within walking distance.
