by Matt | Apr 26, 2004 | Imported Entry
The era of zombies not running for you is officially over. 28 Days Later didn’t really feel like a proper zombie movie when I initially went to see it. Mostly because the zombies didn’t shuffle and moan after you and they didn’t really “eat” anyone, just kind of spit blood at them. Yesterday Lauren’s dad and I checked out Dawn of The Dead. Now that’s a zombie movie. Not quite as good as it’s 1978 original, but a fun ride none-the-less.
But Matt, you usually only like movie with plots and characters and all that good artsy stuff, what gives?
Well, you see, I have this soft spot deep inside the movie critic portion of my brain, specially reserved for horribly cheesy zombie movies. I love’em, I don’t know why.
Dawn of The Dead had absolutely no story whatsoever. None. The movie starts with a nurse coming home from work and turning off a report of “a disturbance” on the radio. That’s pretty much all we get. After that it’s full on zombie chasing mayhem. Our main characters eventually get trapped in a mall and spend a good portion of the movie there, fending off zombies and trying to figure out what to do next. And, once again, this movie proves that the mighty shotgun is the single most powerful weapon in all of existence. Anyway, good popcorn flick, just don’t be expecting Shakespeare.
Outside of that it’s been a pretty mundane week. Lots of work and the lack of my 6-month review have left me rather disenchanted with going to work tomorrow. I was supposed to have a review 2 weeks ago and it’s yet to happen.
I’m also working on a website design for Lauren’s company. It’s going a bit slowly because I’ve lost all my photoshop settings, styles, actions and all of my windows fonts. I’m working to get them back slowly, finding bits and pieces here and there on backup disks. I’m also at a bit of a loss in terms of motivation. I don’t really like where the design is going. But that’s just half the fun isn’t it. That should take me the better part of this coming week in the evenings.
I’m really tired. I think I might take a little power nap before getting back into designing. Later.
Now Playing : Syntax – Bliss (Original Extended Version)
by Matt | Apr 19, 2004 | Imported Entry
We had a bit of a movie weekend over here at the Perry ranch. We ended up seeing both Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Hell Boy. A little artsy and a little campy to balance each other out. Both were quite good. Sunshine was fucking brilliant and Hell Boy was entertaining in that “scifi popcorn flick” sort of way. But, Sunshine was brilliant. That’s how to make a movie folks. Hollywood take take that and run with it and save a whole lot of people from ever seeing another Jerry movie again. For the record: I hate that fool. The only thing he’s ever done right was putting up some bank for a little show called CSI. And even then, thankfully he doesn’t have any creative control. But I’ve spun off onto a tangent. Back to my story.
Saturday, post work, the girls met me over at my office and we headed into town to this upscale “art house” theater. Mostly because it was the last place in town still showing Eternal Sunshine. Downtown Houston doesn’t really compare to most other cities you’d think of. Mostly because it’s “downtown” is about 10 square blocks. The “city” proper however, goes on and on for miles. Basically, it would be like if Boston was stretched out all the way to the NH boarder. Or maybe it NYC engulfed all of New Jersey. Something like that. So, it becomes a case of “where do we go now?” instead of “now what do we do?”. There’s not an “area” to hangout in like Harvard Square or Newbury Street or the Theatre District. Oh well. Enough about the berg.
The movie was great. Fantastic. Best movie I’ve seen this year so far.
I really don’t know how else to put it. I really enjoyed it.
Sunday I skipped church in favor of some much needed sleep and some house hold chores. I had no clean sox left at all. None. Sad and pathetic isn’t it. Anyway, mid-afternoon we decided to check out HellBoy just for kicks. We went to the local cinema 6. It’s a tiny little theater that still has those wonderful things called matinees. Those are hard to come by. Especially when we got in for $3.25 each. Beat that.
Most of the movie was good. Mostly entertaining with a few slow spots. There’s a few “logic” bombs I could drop into the story but nothing as horrible as the last Harry Potter movie. And we all know how I felt about that one. Hell Boy was about average for a scifi/action/adventure/shoot’em movie. And paying on $3 for it made it all the more enjoyable.
After that it was back to our place to put together a shopping list. I was sent off into the wilds of Pearland to do some shopping. Target seems to be the place were yuppie white folks shop I’m afraid. I felt almost out of place. Like I wasn’t white or yuppie enough to be there. Young couples with their 2.5 children, shopping for high priced groceries with sweaters tied around their necks in case there should be a sudden ice storm in TEXAS. And me in my “lounge clothes” that consist of a pair of ripped jeans, and old Boston Red Sox t-shirt and my sandals. Hopefully I offended someone’s fashion sense enough to be the topic on conversation at Olive Garden that night over crappy martinis and painfully uninspired pasta.
Damn, I love being a sarcastic opinionated SOB. It gives me the most wonderful sense of accomplishment and joy down deep in the tacos of my heart.
Yeah.
Today there was a quick stop at the nearest Jiffy Lube for some new oil for the Mazda. Most of the day was actually spent thinking about web-ish things. I’ve now been commissioned by Dena Brody Interiors to redo their website. I also have to redo Ladd Photography’s website AND I’m still working on my design for this page. There was actually a break through in that and I’m happy to say that I’m getting nearer to finishing my own site. I spent a good long while today pouring over CSS help sites and tutorials. I now have all my DIVs in a row, so to speak. I actually also thought about a variation I could do on my theme with (and don’t gasp) Flash. I know, I know, I’m supposed to hate Flash. I do hate it. But my idea is cool enough to give it a try. I’ll have to think about it.
This evening I think we’re watching Mister Smith Goes to Washington, because Jimmy Stewart is fantastic, followed by some image retouching on my part and eventually some CSI:Miami. The single TV I watch.
Lastly, I’ve gone a little “Pinstripe” crazy. Originally designed as themes for Mac only versions of FireFox and Thunderbird, crazy windows theme enthusiasts were quick to port them. Now my collection is complete and it looks damn nice. Which is why you should click here to see them. Sorry I can’t share any of the details about the themes. I had to beg people for them and I promised I wouldn’t share until they’re released.
And that’s all for tonight. Later.
by Matt | Apr 15, 2004 | Imported Entry
Apparently everything is bigger in Texas. That includes food. Some of you already knew this. You lucky bastards that got to visit Casa Ole’ or Whataburger can certainly agree that Texans know food. Italian is no longer an exception. I had thought I’d be stuck with the crap-shoot that is Olive Garden forever, but no! Tonight we stopped at a little place called simply “The Italian Kitchen”. There was also a subtitle along the lines of “Mama Mia’s” so I’m not really sure what it goes by. In my book it shall simply be know as the single Italian place that doesn’t suck. I got, and I’m not exaggerating, three huge (full steak size) pieces of veal parmigiana. I ate one and the rest will be lunch and dinner for days to come. Best part is that it’s cheaper than the OG.
As for that dribble about audio things…
I’ve given up with Creative and Sound Blaster products all together. Period. The next card that goes in the next machine to come will probably be a Turtle Beach. And that’s only if I don’t get a mobo with some nice 5.1 Dolby built in. You might remember me mentioning having this rig hang or restart from time to time, usually when playing games. A few of you might even have witnessed the “clicking” issue where games will produce a horrible high pitched clicking until it eventually crashes. For years I couldn’t trace the problem to anything in particular. Now, out of a last desperate attempt to play more than 20 minutes at a stretch, I’ve finally yanked the Audigy card out of the computer and set up the nforce’s onboard audio. That was a few days ago. I haven’t crashed yet. Things are looking promising.
It took a little bit of work to get the onboard up and running though. A few driver packs and some hardware IRQ moving (to basically get rid of the prior existence of the Audigy) later, it’s all good. I’m not sure why windows won’t understand the name of the product, but if that’s it’s only hang up we’re probably doing good.
Lastly, before I go relax with Lauren and our latest Netflix delivery, have you guys seen the new Nvidia card. Holy cow. The GeForce 6800, according to both Tom’s and HardOCP which I trust explicitly, is going to absolutely smoke anything out there right now. Plain and simple. I don’t know what to think at this point. I’m pretty happy NVidia got their act together after the NV30 and NV35 crap. Apparently they’ve done good this time around. The $500 street price is kind of unpleasant but who knows. Maybe in a year or two when I’m ready to get one it’ll be cheaper.
g’night kids.
by Matt | Apr 15, 2004 | Work
Work is pretty much done for today. My boss is gone, my other boss is gone. It’s 5 and I’m supposed to stay until 6. Like that’s going to happen.
I had left over chinese food for lunch today. Mu Shu actually. It was rather tasty. In order to have chinese food one must maintain certain standards. The concept of a fortune cookie afterward for example. Mine said the following:
“You will have everything you want in life”
I thought those were bold words coming from a fucking cookie.
Everything I want? Apparently I wanted debt. I would digress here and tell you about the check I just wrote to one of them and the discomfort I feel everytime I look at the mounting pile of paperwork associated with them. But I won’t.
Instead I’d rather reflect on the good things I have. My wife, my friends, my job, my car. All good, happiness bringing things. I guess the cookie isn’t such an idiot after all.
I actually just had a great idea. I should print out stuff from MY wedding while no one is here. Brilliant.
Gotta run.
But I’ll leave you with this, which I found funny:
“Abstract art: a product of the untalented sold by the unprincipled to the utterly bewildered.” – Al Capp
That has absolutely nothing to do with anything in particular btw.
by Matt | Apr 15, 2004 | Imported Entry
A big, big, big Uber thanks goes out to Jason for figuring out what was up with the website.
“I fixed it. Finally found out what was causing this.. some munga had configured the address I use for www.docholoday.com for a filtered dialup customer. So each time this customer dialed in, it would snatch your IP address away. I’ve moved him up and out of the hindenburg range so it should never happen again.”
YAY! Like I said, a big thanks. This pretty much made my day.
Alrighty. Back to printing pictures and whatnot.
Recent Comments