In May of 1994 I spent a month in the Hotel Rus, drinking vodka and Georgian wine, taking dozens of photographs, and generally having the time of my life. It was here that I got into the habit of keeping a daily journal, something which I have kept doing, more or less, ever since. I still pull out the photos once in a while to remind myself of what it was like to be 25 in St Petersburg.
Category: Life
Flatland: The Movie
Something Beautiful for the Holidays
I recently visited Orisinal for the first time in a long while. He has posted a new, winter-themed game called Winterbells which is just challenging enough to keep the attention-span deficient quiet for a little while.
All People Are Critics. Some Are More Critical Than Others
Today I wrote my first movie review.
One of the big, ongoing projects at work is development on Spout.com, a movie discovery and discussion website. Several of my friends are regulars, so I finally bowed to peer pressure and created an account for myself. My user name is “Grasshopper”.
The first thing I did was to rate all of the movies I had seen. Simple enough to do — find the movie, and assign it a number between one and five. Before I knew it, I had rated over five hundred movies, and I am now up over a thousand. And that isn’t even counting all of the TV series and individual television episodes which can be rated; those would probably push me into the 2,000 range.
Normally I try not to shill for the projects I work on, but this time something unexpected happened: I had fun. I went through and found movies I hadn’t thought about in twenty years or more. Some of them were good, many more were mediocre or bad. Some of them made me feel quite nostalgic, accompanied by an odd sense of deja-vu wherein I could remember where I was and what I was doing when I watched the movie. Poltergeist with my brother and step-brother in Louisiana. Robocop with my brother, at home laying on the living room floor. The Crow with friends immediately after I returned from Russia. Star Wars with my Mom and brother in a movie theater in Jackson. The Razor’s Edge, sitting home surrounded by stacks of books.
Martial Arts is the only film genre I watch with a seriously critical eye, and I watch a lot of martial arts films. If I post a review of which I am particularly proud I will announce it here. In the meantime, browse around and see if you rediscover any old favorites.
On Being Sick
Today I am sick. My skin aches. Reality snaps out of focus when I move, and back into focus when I stop. I am not dizzy, precisely, but there is a sense of vertigo whenever I move my head — vapor trails of instances previous to the movement. My body feels like it doesn’t…quite…fit.
Clench your jaws. A little tighter…
tighter…
Right there! That is what my back muscles feel like.
I hear an odd tinnitus-like ringing that I usually associate with pressure in my head. If I remain still it gets a little louder as I drift into the aether, and a little louder, but never really loud, and then when I blink, reality snaps back into focus with an electric buzzing sound.
My throat feels swollen, so swallowing is difficult, especially when I lay down. Thus, sleep is not as refreshing as it might be. The kinds of meds that help this are the kind which keep me awake all night, so I can either be awake and feel crappy, or awake and feel REALLY crappy.
Oddly enough the bruises that I know I have, don’t hurt.
And so to bed.
Mmmm…Little Tiny Birds
Thanksgiving: Cornish game hen, cornbread stuffing, sweet potatoes, salad with home-made dressing, French bread, cranberries, and mincemeat and red raspberry pies.
And Sleep. Lots of sleep. And quiet. And skies so clear the Milky Way was bright enough to navigate by.
And family.
And more food.
And more sleep.
Happy Anniversary to Me … and my house
Yup. One year ago I signed the papers, forked over the cash, and added several keys to my ring.
My only opinion on the subject at the moment?
“Maybe I should vacuum something.”
Back Again
Chaos, contrary to what you might think, is easily predictable. If many different areas of my life have a tendency towards instability, they will all become complicated at once.
Take my computer. The old one died a month ago. This is the first thing I am doing on my new machine. The build process went something like this:
-buy computer parts
-build computer
-install Windows XP, 64-bit edition
-install wrong drivers
-format hard drive
-install Windows XP, 64-bit edition
-install is corrupt
-format hard drive
-install Windows XP, 64-bit edition
-find 64-bit drivers
-discover that USB wireless adapter has no 64-bit drivers
-discover that antivirus and personal firewall software for 64-bit machine are rare and expensive
-format hard drive
-install Windows XP, 32-bit edition
-stare in confusion at notice that windows can’t find CD drive in the middle of Windows installing from CD drive
-format hard drive
-install Windows XP, 32-bit edition
-stare in confusion at notice that windows can’t find CD drive in the middle of Windows installing from CD drive
-copy files form CD to USB Flash drive, which now somehow is the D: drive
-stare in confusion at notice that windows can’t find USB drive that is says is now my D: drive
-format hard drive
-copy Windows install CD to new 4-gig USB Flash drive
-change boot order to USB FIRST
-install windows XP, 32-bit edition from USB drive
-stare in confusion at notice that Windows can’t find USB drive etc. etc.
-cross fingers and hit Enter
-stare in confusion as Windows finishes installing
-install drivers
-install Oblivion
-bask in the awesomeness that is Oblivion on a 64-bit, dual-core, 2GHz Athlon running 2Gb of RAM and a 512Mb NVidia video card
whew
Also, I started a new job at the beginning of the month. After a year and a half away, I am back at BBK Studio in its new, more developer-friendly iteration.
Funny old world, innit?
Crash
Find a light switch in your house. A good stiff one, which is just a little hard to move. Now click it about twice a second for several seconds.
That is the sound which came out of my hard drive last night.
Yup. My 5-year-old personal computer is dead. It’s bleedin’ deceased. It’s shuffled off this mortal coil. Etcetera.
Fortunately I backed up everything a couple of weeks ago, just after a virus scare. So all I lost was a few photos and my email archives. Nothing earth-shaking.
I have already, with the help of co-worker Jeremy, put together a shopping cart over at New Egg which I will soon submit, and then, for the first time in about eight years, build my own computer.
But this weekend I will enjoy 48 hours without a computer. Maybe I will read a book, or something.
O God It Burns, part II
This is the most recent harvest from my pepper plants. 29 cayennes, 6 jalapeños and 8 habaneros. The cayenne and jalapeño plants are done, and there are maybe 40 more habaneros still turning orange, awaiting harvesting.
This will bring the total for the whole season to, I think, nearly 100 peppers from three plants. I am already planning a pepper garden for next year; at least a dozen plants and maybe half a dozen different kinds of peppers.
Point of interest: If you need to harvest peppers before they turn red, put them in a paper bag with a tomato. For some reason this will cause the peppers to change color.