Apr 29
In pro wrestler Chris Jericho’s book A Lion’s Tale, he passes on some advice he learned from Jesse Ventura. It’s excellent advice–and not just for those of you looking for a career in sports entertainment:
Apr 20
I really can’t say enough good things about this movie. I love the story, direction, music, animation, and acting. I went into this movie with no preconceived notions (I barely knew a thing about it, not even that it was based on a Roald Dahl book), and it was awesome. George Clooney is hilarious as Mr. Fox, and it also features Meryl Streep, Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe, and some other cool guys.
I really hate to even mention the plot for fear of spoiling it. However, if you insist on knowing a little something about it, here goes:
Mr. Fox is unhappy with his current middle-aged situation and decides to do something about it. There. Just go see it.
Apr 15
“I told my mom that I wanted to learn kite-fighting, but she was in the shower, and through the door she thought I said cockfighting, and she said, ‘Cockfighting is illegal in Missouri!'”
Apr 05
A few years ago I’m sitting in my office on a July Monday morning catching up on email. Behind me I hear someone enter the stockroom and stop.
“Dude.”
It was Kaleb. I turned around, and Kaleb showed me how his weekend was, out on the Smithville Lake in an aluminum boat.
Apr 02
In 1997 I went with my friends The Celt, his wife (Mrs. Celt), Tony, and Stickler to my first rasslin’ event: WWF Monday Night Raw is War on October 6 in Kansas City, Missouri. The previous day had been pretty eventful, with the Kane and the Hell in a Cell match making their first appearances in St. Louis, and wrestler Brian Pillman passing away in his hotel room.
The Undertaker was by far my favorite wrestler. I mean, he’s scary, he wears all black: it was pretty clear he looked up to me, so I had to go to support my biggest fan.
I had brought my Pentax K-1000, several rolls of 400 and 800 speed film, and a telephoto lens I borrowed from Mrs. Auggie. Before they started the show, all of the wrestlers came out on the entrance ramp while they tolled the bell for Pillman. All except the Undertaker.
Anyway, the show that night was great, and we had awesome seats. I took a lot of pix, pushing the film as far as I thought I could get away with. I also found out what they do in the stadium at a live event while they are airing the commercial breaks on TV: absolutely nothing.
We saw some great matches, but I was still kind of bummed that the Undertaker hadn’t been there. Finally, the show was over, the lights dimmed, and people started going home. We waited around a little bit just in case there was something else, and they started taking the aprons off the ring that said ‘RAW is WAR.’ Underneath was another set of ring aprons that said ‘Shotgun Saturday Night.’ It turns out they tape it after the live Monday night broadcast (sorry to spoil it for ya).
The final match was scheduled for a one hour time limit: Bret ‘the Hitman’ Hart vs. the Undertaker.
I had about eight frames of my last roll of film left, and I got this shot:
Undertaker 1997 is available in 1600 x 1200 (standard) and 1440 x 900 (wide). Just right click and Save As (Windows) or Option-Click (Mac).
Mar 30
Working in I.T., I hear a lot of figurative terms for USB flash memory drives: thumb drive, jump drive, zip drive*, flash stick, and memory stick**.
My favorite term that I have heard, though, is ‘nerd stick.’ As I have mentioned before, my favorite nerd stick is the Victorinox USB Swiss Army Knife.
Both asterisked terms are erroneous:
* A Zip drive is a completely different (and antiquated) type of storage media manufactured by Iomega.
** A Memory Stick is Sony’s proprietary portable flash memory storage device.
Mar 29
Here’s a tip: if you ever have to set up a login for webex.com, you had better be prepared to receive a lot of junk email from them. Jerks.
Mar 27
The world is a better place thanks to George Washington Carver, and not just for his brilliant invention of peanut butter. The following is excerpted from a thank-you he wrote to the members of his senior class at the Tuskegee Institute:
“…it is needless for me to keep saying, I hope, except for emphasis, that each one of my children will rise to the full height of your possibilities, which means the possession of these eight cardinal virtues which constitutes a lady or gentleman.
1st. Be clean both inside and out.
2nd. Neither look up to the rich or down on the poor.
3rd. Lose, if need be, without squealing.
4th. Win without bragging.
5th. Always be considerate of women, children, and older people.
6th. Be too brave to lie.
7th. Be too generous to cheat.
8th. Take your share of the world and let others take theirs.
May God help you carry out these eight cardinal virtues and peace and prosperity by yours through life.”
The letter is reprinted in an excellent book called The Art of Thank You by Connie Leas.
Mar 26
Heather and I both remember loving this movie, and we rented so we could watch it with the girls.
It was not the best around. The movie was directed by Richard Donner (Superman, The Goonies), so I was expecting better. Matthew Broderick is the only great part about the movie: he is totally natural and believable as a medieval smart-aleck. Michelle Pfeiffer is fine. However, the Rutger Hauer puppet is rather wooden and unconvincing as a real person. Wait, that actually was Rutger Hauer.
The swords, fighting, and special effects are all kind of lame; not the worst ever, but certainly not great.
But the one thing that absolutely ruined the movie was the soundtrack: while some parts of it were orchestral, all of the action sequences and the main title were done by Alan Parsons. His cheezy 80’s synthesizer bits 1) totally date the movie, 2) are incongruous with the tone of the movie, and 3) completely un-immerse you from the movie.
Overall, worth watching again, but I’m glad I didn’t buy it.
