Closer
I went to Tree's to see a movie tonight and she gave me three choices. I'd never heard of
Closer but when I saw that Clive Owen, Jude Law and Natalie Portman were in it, there was no contest. (To be fair, Julia Roberts also played well in it but her name just doesn't sell movies to me.) It also helped that Tree said her roomate didn't like it, that's the one who thinks I'm weird for
not liking Napolean Dynamite. For me, Closer was absolutely amazing and I'm probably going to go out and buy it, probably tomorrow.
It has a scene that Clive Owen absolutely nailed as a husband destroyed by his wife's infidelity. I felt it so completely it was like he'd channeled into my soul. Not because of infidelity on Tam's part (I've suspicions about way back when, but all I can know is that I'll never really know) but because of the way I've lost her to Huntingtons. Completely different situations, but man did I know what that guy was feeling. Anger, hurt, confusion, loss, desperation; that might just begin to describe it. Go see the movie, I think you'll get it.
I was at a club in TO again on Friday night and at one point while I was sitting on a couch this girl just came over and sat in my lap. She stayed there for a minute or two, with an arm around me and my arm around her, then got up and left. No words were said, no names exchanged. It felt so wonderfully good, and so horribly lonely all at the same time. I don't know what to do about that, but thank you girl, whoever you were. Gotta get me one of those again. Maybe soon, I don't know.
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Great error message!
I downloaded another upgrade to Winamp and this time (see
previous rant) it comes up with an error every time I launch it. That doesn't stop it from running but since I paid for the Pro version I figure I've got a right to go to their web site and complain. I must not be the only one who thinks that way because their site is totally overloaded with traffic, but instead of the usual boring browser error they've got this:
Complaint withdrawn.
Top Gear Rocks
I've been a fan of
this show for a while but have been unable to share it's brilliance with most folks due to their flagrant disregard for the expense known as digital cable. Now, thanks to the wonders of the internet and an e-mail full of links I got this weekend, I present BBC's Top Gear:
CarsKoenigseggMG SVBowler WildcatLamborghini GallardoRenault F1RS4A8McLaren SLREnzo FerrariPorsche 977 Carrera SMurcielago RoadsterFord Mustang GTFord F-150 LighteningBMW M3 CSLAston Martin DB9RNoble M12 GTFerrari F430Fab 1 (Thunderbirds)BMW M5Spyker C8Morgan Aero8Maserati QuadroporteLotus ExigePaganni ZondaFord GTMercedes G55 AMGPorsche Cayenne TurboChevrolet C6 CorvetteDodge SRT10 ViperMG Rover SVRange Rover SportAriel AtomPorsche Carrera GTMercedes CLSPorsche GT3Land Rover (homage)Land Rover Discovery - Climbs a mountainNSX - RComparisonsEVO Vs STIEVO VS. LamboBoxster, Z4, S2000Super Car ComparisonBoxster S VS. Mercedes SLK AMGHot HatchbacksMuscle Cars - Monaro, Jag, 300CWeissman VS. TVR Tuscan2Jaguar XJR15 & McLaren F1TT, 350Z, CrossfireOld Racers Vs. Showroom CarsRacesRace 1 - Aston Martin DB9 Vs. TGV: London to Monte CarloRace 2 - Ferrari 612 Scaletti Vs. Airplane: London to VerbiaRace 3 - McLaren SLR Vs. Boat: London to OsloRace 4 - Bugatti Veyron vs. Private PlaneRandomPacific RimsToyota Aygo FootballDrifting a VXRPlaying darts with carsHow to beat a speed cameraHypnotizing Richard HammondEVO Vs. Bobsled800 miles in an Audi A8 on 1 tank of dieselRunning a van on the RingWorld Record AttemptEVO Vs.ATV Skater downhill2004 Top Gear AwardsDestroying a Toyota TruckRadio Controlled CarEpisodesSeason 6, Episode 11Season 7, Episode 1Bugatti Veyron Full EpisodeClassics1985 Mazda RX-7 & Porsche 924 Comparison1990 Honda NSX ReviewPorsche 996 911 Twin Turbo ReviewMcLarenF1Mitsubishi Evo-VIIPorsche GT1Maserati MC12If you watch nothing else, spare yourself five minutes to watch
playing darts with cars. Damn!
Wednesday, March 9, 2006: Most of the ones on Google Video are down now, I guess that e-mail made too many rounds and attracted the copyright police. Damn shame.
Freedom of speech
"Free speech is a condition of legitimate government. Laws and policies are not legitimate unless they have been adopted through a democratic process, and a process is not democratic if government has prevented anyone from expressing his convictions about what those laws and policies should be. Ridicule is a distinct kind of expression; its substance cannot be repackaged in a less offensive rhetorical form without expressing something very different from what was intended. That is why cartoons and other forms of ridicule have for centuries, even when illegal, been among the most important weapons of both noble and wicked political movements."
- Ronald Dworkin, in The Guardian
It's a presence!
So
back in December, I had this issue where my front hall needed cleaning because the kitties had whizzed on the carpet when some workmen left the door to the utility room closed, and the poor cats had nowhere else to go. I'd reported it to the superintendents who promised that the work was bonded and that the carpet would be cleaned, but it never happened. It got worse and worse until I cleaned it myself as best I could.
Well that wasn't good enough because it has continued to stink, attracting at least one of my cats to re-offend, which of course just makes it stink more! I've used a steam cleaner, special enzyme formulas made just for pet stains; put baking soda on it, used odour reducing sprays; still the problem continues. It's a presence!
Well now the damned issue has escalated... In my mailbox yesterday was a formal letter of complaint from the property management company. The same people whose bonded workmen caused the issue when they replaced my front windows that didn't need replacing. (In the 'Do your windows leak and need replacing?' survey they sent around, I had responded no.) The same people who said they'd get my carpet professionally cleaned and then never did. Just think, if people are complaining about it out in the hallway, what the hell is it like for me in here?
Today I embarked upon the final solution, and ordered ceramic tile and all the fixings from Home Depot to replace the front hall carpet. After that I wrote a rather pointed letter to my fine management company, explaining the situation and attaching a copy of my Home Depot order for good measure. The tile will take about two weeks to arrive (can you believe that plain white is a special order?) during which time my funky unit will continue to offend, so I wanted them to know that, yes seriously, I am fixing it.
Am I wrong to be really pissed off about this? I've complained to them several times since my initial report and they've done nothing, now they have the gall to formally complain to me about the exact same fucking problem! Hello? Of course, blessed be to the condo gods, there's nothing I can really do about this. I could move but all it would do is cost me a lot of money in legal fees and closing costs, while someone else would move right back in and supply them with the same monthly dues that I did, not affecting them one iota. This just sucking fucks...
Hmm... what to do this weekend?
God I miss these strips
http://www.berkeleybreathed.com/Update: Having payed more attention to my own link, apparently there's now an 'Opus' comic running again... who knew? Not me, apparently.
More Micro$oft related grief
Have you noticed that your PC doesn't show you image thumbnails or preview your pictures anymore? Apparently that's because Microsoft are idiots. So what else is new?
In late december they found a flaw in gdi32.dll that allowed specially constructed images to hijack your PC. Their first reaction was to release one of those fun security updates you get with 'Automatic Updates' turned on, that masks the problem by disabling the image and fax viewer that's built into XP. A few days later they fixed the bug in gdi32.dll and released another update, but it doesn't always turn the image viewer back on!
If you've been hit by this and have no other image viewing software on your PC, you'll find that double clicking an image or trying to view one from an e-mail just doesn't work. If that's the case, click your Start button and select Run..., then type in the command
regsvr32 shimgvw.dll. That will restore the image viewer functionality on your machine.
I actually figured this out a few weeks ago (after losing a workday trying various system restore points and finally re-installing windows, all of which frustratingly failed to fix the problem!) but enough people at work who heard me ranting that day have come up to me in the past week to ask about it that I guess the problem is pretty widespread. So here for the benefit of my loyal fans is the posted solution. You're welcome. Leeches. ;-)
Movie night
So last night I met my old friend Chris to go and see
Glory Road. This was a great movie that slipped under most folk's radar, and we were lucky to see it yet since it's down to just one theatre in the far away land of Cambridge. GO AND SEE IT! IT'S REALLY REALLY GOOD.
(Okay. In googling for that link I found Google's review page where it only rated 3.2 out of 5. Well fuck their sources because it was really good. Entertainment Weekly's reviewer even talked about it as if the plot was contrived and borrowed from other sports movies, while acknowledging at the top of her review that it's a true story that can be found in any sports history book. So it's a true story; that's contrived. Right. Where did they hire this moron?)
We did the early show so when it was over we went right back in for
Fun With Dick and Jane. Also good, so if you're in the mood to see two movies then see Glory Road followed by Fun With Dick and Jane. Like I did. Because you're not qualified to plan your own life.
* Never start sentences with the word 'because'. Because it's just bad grammer.
