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Another movie I reviewed a few weeks ago was an entertaining piece of silliness. The Forbidden Kingdom doesn’t take itself seriously and has some nice fight scenes, but it certainly takes closing down the mind in order not to ask too many questions.
Here’s the review.
It’s time to post some reviews. A few weeks back I saw Smart People. There are some nice performances, but the movie doesn’t hold as well together as I wished it would. Here’s the review.
Two videos made my day a little better. I had to laugh at both of them. Thanks to John Cole at Balloon Juice who posted them.
Don’t ask me why I think they’re so funny, but I easily laugh at cats:
and dogs:
They do know how to have fun.
Why does it happen during a day off? I get hit by a nasty stomach bug and so much for my scheduled fun events. I certainly didn’t plan on hours and hours of standing over the toilet bowl barfing my guts out. Trust me, I wouldn’t schedule anything like that, ’cause there is nothing fun about it. I do admit that I did plan to lie around for a chunk of the weekend, but my plans didn’t include so much moaning and groaning.
Anyway, I’m better today, just wiped out. I’ve manage to watch several DVDs, as reading was out of the question. Goal!, 27 Dresses, and Best in Show (an old favorite), have seen me through yesterday afternoon and this morning. I’ve watched them all at least twice since it’s too much work to put another dvd in. Luckily I do like the bonus features and the audio commentary. In my case yesterday it was all perfect to nap to.
Anyway, I’m alive. I am no longer standing over the toilet, and no longer moaning and groaning.
At least my cat, Lulu, was nicer than this kitty.
I’m surfing the web reading up on the Democratic primaries in North Carolina and Indiana. I expected something much less satisfying: a bigger Clinton win in Indiana than an Obama win in North Carolina. My expectation are not being met. Gee, what a shame, huh? ‘Cause I would love to see Obama still pull out a win in Indiana and Clinton drop out of the race, but I don’t expect it to happen.
But hey, I’d be happy not to have my expectations met again.
I broke down and bought the Indiana Jones trilogy. I watched the Raiders of the Lost Ark last night. Tonight it’s Temple of Doom. I’d forgotten so much of the movie. Yes, it is darker than the other two films, and yes, the character of Willie (played by Kate Capshaw) is incredibly irritating. Still, I’m finding it to be better than I remembered.
There’s nothing like coming home and finding a pile of small animal guts on the kitchen counter. Damn cat. Then she expects me to feed her tonight.
I take my dog Spencer for a walk down the road and when a fellow and his three large dogs come by, my stupid little corgi decides to take on the three big dogs. He has such a Napoleonic complex. Luckily, no one was hurt, and eventually we even had Spence sniffing acceptedly with one dog. It was only when more than one got near him that he acted all growly tough. And yes, he expected me to feed him tonight. I fed him much less grudgingly than I did the cat.
So, I’m going to calm down and try to stop growling at the animals.
I am suffering a major case of the lazies. The only thing I’ve done today, besides a visit to my chiropractor, is play around in Second Life and watched Elizabeth (great film).
Second Life at least offered some activity. I went shopping. Every time I go to MichaMi’s fashion blog she always has great shoes on. Lately, the styles that make me stop and look all come from Armidi. Well, that’s where I went and I didn’t buy only shoes. Oh no. All kinds of fun clothes.
The shoes are nice, right? But what really makes it is a little white dress. I love that in Second Life I do not have to hold in my gut when I wear something snug. Snug? Oh hell, this white dress is tight. And who can deny the charms of a well put-together 70s disco hot-pants outfit? The gold shoes do go well with the gold shirt. The vest is from one of Armidi’s male outfits.
I put together some other outfits, but added some of my new purchases from a store called Bland. If you could call goldfish pants and bold red tops bland, then the name fits. The rest is more pieces from the various Armidi shops.
The shoes? The shoes are all Armidi’s. I could begin to like wearing heels all the time. . . when I’m not being totally lazy.
No train involved, but I am taking an “A” in my last class of my degree program. Whew. I would have been happy with a “B” but managed to do enough for that special letter. I still have a few things left in the class to do, and though I’ve earned the “A” with my final paper, it wouldn’t be polite to skip the two critiques I should do of two other final papers. Luckily, I can do a half-assed job. Whoo hoo!
Yes, I am quite the overachiever, aren’t I?
I was disappointed in Nim’s Island. It wasn’t a bad film, it just didn’t make the most of its potential. Still, for a kid’s movie it is better than many. Here’s the review.
Time to catch up on posting my reviews. Here’s a DVD that I enjoyed. Actually, it was Alan Tudyk’s performance that I enjoyed. Here’s my review for Death at a Funeral.
The spring winds died down today. This weekend they were going crazy. Yesterday I had to find a place to take Spencer out for a walk that wouldn’t knock us down. I gave it some thought and decided to up my carbon footprint and drove the dog out where the trail would be somewhat sheltered from the wind and there might be some water. I hit the Pumphouse Wash in Kachina Village.
I used to walk this all the time when I lived in Kachina. The last 10 years of drought had taken away the lovely spring creek-like environment, but this winter’s snows have brought back that gorgeous flow of water. Spencer loved it. So did I.
Spencer, a dog of very little brain, may not remember that the Pumphouse Wash was his first off-the-leash walk that I gave him. He’d been brought up by my Mom in Mesa and she had to give him up. I was the lucky beneficiary and ended up with a silly Corgi. Unlike my big dogs, Chewie and Han, Spencer was not used to the Flagstaff area. So, I took him out on a beautiful morning before work. I got the three dogs on the trail, took the leashes off of Chewie and Han, keeping the leash on Spencer for a bit. I worried about letting Spencer have the freedom to run off, but then it dawned on me — Spencer has a squat little body and would have a hard time outrunning me. The leash came off.
Spencer had an interesting time walking the trail. He enjoyed the heck out of it and loved smelling the northern Arizona smells. It was when we headed back and got close to my truck that my well-oiled walking routine hit a snag. Chewie and Han let me leash them again before getting near the truck. I was able to get them in the back of the truck (with a camper shell). Spencer? Nope, he didn’t want the leash at all, much less get back in my truck. It took 15 minutes of cajoling and cussing under my breath before he decided to give in.
Now we walk all the time and it is all old hat. Still, it was nice seeing all that water yesterday, plus walking among the pines. Today’s walk along the dirt road wasn’t half as nice. At least the wind died down today. It was a nice day.
Whew. It’s hard work.
Okay, it’s not hard work — it’s fun. I keep playing with QAvimator and have come up with tons of poses.
Without poses we would have only the default pose. It’s rather…eh.:
Designing my own, I can upload the poses, called “Animations” per Second Life, and then either put them in my Animation Override tool or just play them as needed. For newbies, to play an animation you just have to find them in your inventory, under the Animations folder. Right click the item and select either “Play Locally” (only you can see your avatar posing) or the “Play in World” (everyone sees it!).
Poses are great for taking modeling shots, or to try to create a mood. I do like trying to come up with some. Here’s a good chunk of my pose styling:
I’ve posted before about my manipulations of the Second Life avatar here, here, and here. There is something so satisfying to come up with a casual stand or a glamorous modeling pose. It’s like playing with a Barbie that can really bend!
My nomadic existence in Second Life continues. It’s no longer cottage living for me. Now I’m in the suburbs and I even have a garage. It’s a nice place:
The living room (and yes, I do like the sherbety colors don’t I?):
The upstairs that still needs furnishing:
And, of course, the garage:
My latest car will fit in the garage with lots of room to spare:
This is the Oui Coupe from Curio Obscura and offers lots of fun. So it’s only the size of a breadbox? Who cares? Just check this out:
Other than my skirt hanging out I can squeeze into it nicely (and it makes me giggle every time). It comes in handy when there’s not a lot of space.
I just got off the phone with a lovely woman asking me questions for a survey about the law about high definition TV (HDTV). Next year we’ll all need either a TV that is high definition or at least a converter box to make our old-fashioned TVs compatible. It was interesting answering these questions, because even though I told the woman that I don’t care about the upcoming change I still had to hear all the options. I mean, I don’t watch “TV” — I only watch DVDs. I get no cable, no satellite service, no local signals. I live commercial-free.
Questions about what I’m going to do next February when the law goes into effect, didn’t apply to me. I told her that I’d just do what I’m doing now: put the DVD in and watch it. The real fun questions dealt with how I heard about the law… did I hear about it from a TV commercial or show? Um, excuse me? No TV watching, remember?
If the time comes when my TV breaks down or I decide to succumb to the temptations of cable or satellite I will buy the right kind of TV to play what I need to play. Until then? Sorry, I can’t answer these questions with any urgency.
