Just to note: There was not a sequel to The Usual Suspects released this year. If there ever was, I suspect (ha-HA!) that it would NOT receive an Oscar nom.
In terms of the vast majority of nominees for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Actress, though, I am Jack’s total lack of surprise. Seems like I’ll need to get to work, though, as I have seen zero of the nominees so far. Major work. In a profound way.
Off to check the movie listings…
It’s been an OUTRAGEOUSLY busy day at work, but I did turn on the inaugural programming on hulu and CSPAN, just kept it on in the background.
I talked to someone the other day who made a comment something like this is a big day for all those Obama supporters out there, and while that’s true, I don’t think the sentiment goes far enough. It is a big day for those folks, but it is just as big a day for everyone who didn’t vote for our new president.
It’s an historic occasion, a time to celebrate the peaceful and seamless transition that we can so easily take for granted, and a moment to reach out to our fellow citizens that often disagree with us. As we turn this page in American history, it’s important to focus on our strengths, put the past behind us, and make a conscious, concerted effort to work together in these troubling times.
It’s sad that it is so easy for us to distrust our elected officials. But just maybe if we can put doubt aside and try to empathize with those on the other side of the aisle, it will be easier to follow the example that President Obama says he present: a transparent, honest and straightforward method of governance that you may not always agree with, but should always understand.
As excited as I am to see the person I voted for take office today, I am more hopeful than anything; that he will continue to demostrate the qualities that brought me over in the first place, and that he will earn the respect of those he hasn’t yet convinced. I am hopeful that when Barack Obama leaves office, we as a nation can say that we have bit more faith in our government than we did yesterday. It will definitely not be easy, but it feels good to think there’s a chance.
Had an extra day off today; uni was closed for MLK Day. I had a nice list of things I wanted to do, and I got a few done, but didn’t manage to get to enough of them. I ended up getting caught up in things and distracted instead of focusing on the list that I’d made.
I would tell you a little more about the weekend in Minneapolis, but at this point I’m just going to head to bed. Here’s a short list from the weekend, though:
Sleep well!
Made it back to my house at about 9:30 or so. Had a good weekend overall; more to come about it tomorrow, for now I am tired and going to get ready for bed. For those that are curious, I would’ve picked Philly and Pittsburgh to make it the Super Bowl. Can’t believe the frakkin Cardinals! And speaking of frakking, shut the frak up about BSG until I have a chance to watch it (tomorrow morning).
Last day of GW’s administration tomorrow!!!!!!!
It’s about 10:30 and I’m still working on my first cup of coffee. It’s a vacation-y weekend, that’s for sure.
Michelle and I made it in to St. Paul yesterday at about 5:45. We met up with Joe and April at a sushi place called Saji-Ya for dinner. It was good, and as usual, deceptively filling; sushi never looks that big on your plate, but it goes a long way.
We missed the first period of the hockey game, but had (relatively) good parking, and it was fun to watch the rest. The second was slow, but in the third, the Wild dumped in 3 more goals after Edmonton kind of fell apart. Hockey is cool. I had to ask a few rules-related questions, but it’s basically a simple game– put the puck in the net more than the other guys. So, fun for the whole family!
We got back to Dave and Andrea’s place at about quarter to 11. They’ve got a nice house on the south side of the city of Minneapolis. Their dog, Boo, is fun, too. It’s pretty cool to have peeps to stay with around here…
When I got out of the house this morning, my car BARELY started. I let it run for 20 minutes and the defroster was still blowing cold. I drove around a little and found the nearby Caribou Coffee joint, and that pretty much brings us up to speed (except for the part where, as I was turning in here, I discovered the hard way that they don’t seem to salt the roads in Minneapolis, and I almost crashed my car into a light pole).
Later on today, we’re meeting up with Joe and April for a little Mall of America fun, and we have yet to locate a good karaoke place (but it’s a big city, we’ll find one). Stay warm if you are living in the upper half of the US… it is FROSTY out there!
Kept rolling dubbing some tapes over to DVD this evening. After I got back to WI from my time in Montana, I didn’t use the video camera nearly as much, and you could tell by the drastic gaps in datestamps on the tape. Still some interesting viewing.
Now that I’ve moved on to dubbing me and Lorchie’s 2000 spring break trip, I don’t have a to keep such a keen eye on the tape (it doesn’t need someone to carefully mark those title and/or chapter breaks).
It’s definitely important, when you’re engaged in a project like this, to have a clear idea of your goals and how to most efficiently reach them– the whole point here is to preserve video that exists in VHS format only for the future. I don’t need to dub over anything that can be had on DVD already. So, the Packers’ Super Bowl XXXI retrospective? Do NOT need to dub it. The Ice Bowl? No dub required. You don’t want to or need to copy over any movies that you might have on tape, because it’s going to serve you a lot better to (at the least) rent a copy of the movie and copy the DVD.
That makes me think of this: a handful of the VHS tapes I’ve still be hoarding are:
Do I need to keep those? I have all the movies on DVD now. Why am I keeping these tapes?
I also had two white russians.
I was pretty excited today because I got the DVD recorder that Mom and Dad bought me for my birthday in the mail. After work and dinner, I spent some time hooking it up and comparing the video and audio quality to my trusty old Pioneer. I came to the conclusion that I would have to leave both of them hooked up; the Pioneer has optical out for the audio, and there is a notable difference between that and the coaxial audio out on the new Magnavox.
Once I had settled that issue and moved my server to a different shelf (freeing up some space in the sad, sad, little “entertainment center” that my sad, sad, little living room has), I ran the boxes for both players down to the basement and retrieved my VCR, ready to begin the process of dubbing over the VHS tapes that I have so longed to get rid of.
Plugged in the VCR, and I almost immediately noticed the subtle aroma of an electrical fire. I sniffed each component close up. Naturally, it was the VCR. Even though it smelled like that, I thought, “what the hell, I’ll try putting a tape in here.” That didn’t work, either. Seems like the deck itself is jammed and (without a LOT of experience or know-how to go on) the burning smell is probably the motor that operates it literally burning itself out. Eh, what the heck? The VCR was purchased in haste in the year 2001, when I needed it for something random that involved a computer. Frankly, I don’t recall what.
Wait! Ohh! It was to record video ONTO the computer via the TV card! That sorta worked a little bit at the time. Point is, the VCR didn’t even cost 40 bucks as I recall, so it’s to be expected that it doinked itself after so (relatively) few hours of playback.
I guess I’ll have to borrow someone else’s VCR to finish up this project, but I can go ahead and begin with the tapes I made on vacations and in Montana a few years back…
Had a good afternoon/evening up in Sheboygan with Petters yesterday. We re-watched the 10 episodes of BSG, season 4.0. There were a couple moments where we both said, “oh yeah, I forgot that that happened,” and I think we both enjoyed the opportunity to freshen the whole series in our minds again. Counting down the days to the “season” premiere on 1/16, then, here are a few questions that I would like to have answered before the series wraps in 10 more ep’s.
Caution to those of you who haven’t see the show yet but might be interested in doing so at some point– there may be some spoliers herein. Caution to those who don’t give a crap: this is an exceedingly geeky post.
Looking forward to the premiere next Friday– I’ll be out of town on that day and won’t able to watch it, but you can bet I’ll be catching it on the web as soon as I’m able…
I considered whether I even deserved to continue prediciting these games after such a horrendous Wild Card round. But, the elimination of Minnesota cheered me up considerably, so on with the DIVISIONAL ROUND!
POST-SEASON RECORD: 1-3
On my way to Sheboygan for the evening…
Nothing like counting those chickens before the eggs are even laid (to say nothing about hatching). When I got home yesterday, I was thinking I would whip some photos from the holiday season up on the site, to augment the one I borrowed from Christy. But I really didn’t have any shots worth posting (out of the 12 that I actually took).
I mentioned to Michelle that part of the problem is I’m really bored with my camera. I don’t even particularly feel like taking it places or turning it on when I do remember to bring it along. Bocko needs a new camera to reinvigorate that photographic energy.
To that end, one of things I’ve decided to spend a portion of the forthcoming tax refund on is the digital SLR I’ve been on the verge of purchasing for about 3 years now. I’m sure Wordy will be pleased to no longer have my annual “which-camera-should-I-intend-to-but-not-actually-buy” emails. This is the outfit I’m figuring on purchasing (whether through the linked vendor, or another). I’m going to spend a little bit more and get a telephoto lens included, because having that versatility was one of the prime motivations I felt to get a DSLR in the first place. Next year when I go to the ballpark, I want to take some nice shots of guys in the field…
Speaking of which, 20 Brewers tickets is one of the other things I’ve already spent that tax money on.
…
I guess now that I’m 30 I should try to get a better handle on this whole “saving money for more important stuff” thing. I SWEAR I will do that right after I buy a new TV…