batting 4 for 5

Sensing the need to continue enriching the pockets of them wild-haired Hollywood Libberuls, I waddled over to the local AMC megaplex today to see Juno (2007), which is about as close as I'll come to seeing a Chick Flick in 2007. I was mildly surprised to find that the lead actress (Ellen Page) has 20+ films under her belt. Verdict: good, not great. Mostly predictable.

Hmm .. what to see tomorrow - New Year's Day? Hmmm ...

3 for 3

Daniel-Bob recommended that I see No Country for Old Men (2007) so I did that yesterday, making it 3 movies in 3 days.

Old Men was certainly a warm, caring movie; I wasn't expecting a chick flick.

a movie a day keeps the doctor away?

Second movie in two days .. I waddled down to The Angelika to screen The Rape of Europa (2007) .. a documentary about the treatment (theft and destruction) of art during World War II.

Daniel-Bob wants me to see another movie tomorrow. Hmmm.

Payback's a bitch

In today's (New York Times) ON THIS DAY:

"On Dec. 27, 1979, Soviet forces seized control of Afghanistan. President Hafizullah Amin, who was overthrown and executed, was replaced by Babrak Karmal."

and then there's an Associated Press story yesterday:

(ARTICLE DELETED)

With those items in mind, I suspect Vlad Putin (the one who Dubya looked into his soul) is hoping to shoot down a few hundred US missiles/helicopters/aircraft that will be launched against Iran's nucular [sic] bomb factories. Payback's a bitch, ya see.

This afternoon, I waddled down to The Angelika to watch Charlie Wilson's War (2007) which explores the events of 1982-1983 when the US (covertly) armed the Afghans with enough firepower to drive the Soviet Union out of their country. Mild surprise: there was no mention of Osama bin Laden's role in that conflict. Oscar prediction: they should just give Best Supporting Actor to Philip Seymour Hoffman now, and avoid any pretense that anyone did any better in 2007.

Christmas musings

Why is the Christian religion the only one that gets a US Postal holiday all year? Can't they staff enough Heathens on the 25th of December to make deliveries, or is this like the periodic addition of "In God We Trust" to our currency, that would've left Our Founding Fathers spinning in their graves? And .. if today's holiday is that important, why is there a newspaper delivery?

Alas, it's now past noon and time to investigate which retailers have reopened after yesterday's partial holiday, when most closed early. Hmmm. To be fair, I must take the same route as last night, right?

4:30pm update

Okay, here's what was different: some (not all) of the groceries reopened; El Rancho and Tom Thumb were doing a brisk business. The church parking lots that were overflowing for Christmas Eve (during the daylight I can see the signs advertising their multiple services) are empty, as are the Finer Steak Houses (Rick Stein's; III Forks; Ruth's Chris; Del Frisco's). A few restaurants that were open last night (Blackfinn; Burger Street) are closed, while others (Humperdink's; Sonic Drive-In; Furr's) have opened - mostly the Asian ones - Thai, Chinese. Some Starbucks locations are open while others remain closed. The movie theatres are open. Blockbuster and Hollywood Video are open - presumably to put something inside all the Shiny New DVD players that were under "the tree" this morning. It was warmer (14-15C). Gas prices $2.75 unleaded, $3.28 diesel.

weekend redefined

The local newspaper - supposedly the fount of all knowledge - doesn't know what a "weekend" is. A few years ago, after I observed that I no longer had time to read a daily (paper edition) newspaper, I switched to "weekends only", which arrived on Saturday and Sunday. At some point, that evolved into Friday also and then Monday was added to the mix, so that weekends became 4 days long. Since the Monday paper is always the lightest of the week, it didn't bother me as much as the Friday edition which weighs about thrice as much due to the ads and the double sports section.

Now (a few days ago) I got a robo-dial from the paper saying that (effective immediately) my weekend edition would change to Thursday-Friday-Saturday-Sunday. I suspect it has a lot to do with declining ad revenues but there's apparently nothing I can do to stop the Thursday-Friday editions from going straight from my sidewalk to the recycle bin (I still don't have time to read those days). Today - a Tuesday - there's a newspaper on my sidewalk. So I guess "weekend" == "Thursday through Sunday + US Postal Holidays"?

KVAM on the fritz .. wait, no .. it's okay now

Every once in awhile, the mouse attached to my KVM switch locks up. The cure is to unplug the mouse from the switch, count to 4 and reinsert it. This doesn't happen with the keyboard, audio* or video - only the mouse. Today is one of those days.

* (Deep Thoughts:) should mine be properly called a KVAM because it switches audio, too, in addition to Keyboard Video Mouse? Why is there a radio station (Weatherford, Oklahoma) with the callsign KAVM, yet none with the callsign KVAM?