Month: July 2005

I’m watching Celebrity Poker Showdown. It stars Dave Foley (still funny after all these years), but guess who today’s guests are? GOB, Tobias, Micheal, and George Sr.’s Secretary from Arrested Development (oh, and some guy from 6 Feet Under).

How great is that? That and storyboarding and screenwriting for Grit is going well, and I’m making some updates to my site. As always. My meal yesterday was fantastic. And I was worried. psh. I have a little bit of a headache. Nothing a swig can’t fix. Eh? Eh??

My guitar is so out of tune. I’m watching The Shining (imdb) today, and I’m taking notes. TV sucks on the weekends. I even started watching Laguna Beach before I snapped out of it and put in Sideways (imdb).

Caller: Hi, this is BMG Music Service. Is Miles there?
Pause
Me: Yes…
Caller: Hi, Miles. I see that you cancelled your account with us some time ago, and, because you were such a good customer, we would like to extend a special rejoining deal. With this deal you get 6 CDs for the price of one. Now your address is still 212 1/2 North Harth Avenue?
Pause
Me: Uh, did you ask if that was my address?
Caller: What?
Me: Did you ask me if I still live at that address?
Caller: Yes.
Me: Well, actually, I cancelled my BMG account because I’m moving out of the country.
Caller: [slightly more personable] Oh, where are you moving to?
Me: South Africa.
Caller: Wow [obviously taken with how “neat” this is] that is so cool.
Me: Yeah. So, I had to cancel a DVD club, too.
Caller: Wow. That’s a pretty big move. Is it for school or work…?
Me: It’s for work. I got a programming job down there.
Caller: Wow.
Me: I’m actually cleaning my old apartment right now. [Which was actually true.]
Caller: Well, then, I hope you have a good day and have a safe trip.
Me: Thank you. Goodbye.

I think that’ll be that last time they call me.

I think that cooking show hosts have the be the greatest actors on television. People have lots of different food tastes. So, as a food show, you have to show off a lot of those tastes. What if the dish you make sucks? Or if you mess up? Or what if you’re a guest on someone else’s show? You have to act like that food is delicious, even if you want to vomit. On that note, morning show hosts (who tend to have chefs on their shows in lieu of real guests – I mean, who in the world is going to make bacon-wrapped faux crap and goat cheese rolls at 8 in the bloody morning??) also have to be good actors.

“Mmmmmm, that’s delicious.” The biggest lie in television.

Rope is a great movie. I learned something new about it last night, though. Apparently, the movie has a large smattering of homosexual overtones. I guess I never thought about it, but they are two seemingly eligible bachelors living together and have a housekeeper. Though, due to Hollywood “decency” standards, most of the blatant homosexuality was lost. Also, Rupert was supposed to have been involved with one of the boys that he taught, either Kevin, Kenneth, or the two killers (probably one of the two killers).

I’m starving. I pulled out a packet of Kikkoman flavoring for brocolli beef, thinking that I had some beef left in the freezer. Well, I didn’t. I have chicken and pork, so I’m doing brocolli pork with baby corn instead. We’ll see how it goes. It could be great (which I’m hoping) or it could be really awful, and I’ll have to make it up with a frozen pizza. *eek*

One of my favorite blogs is Cinematical. They talk about movies, and most of the authors have a pretty good sense of humour. Of course, I like to make up my own mind about movies, but the news hasn’t been good on Fantastic Four, The Island, or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Hollywood makes me cry. This, however, is a quote from one of their recent posts.

Boy, am I relieved. Now Scarlett Johannson and Ewan McGregor will be able to do the voice-overs for that hotly anticipated video game version of The Island. In the game, Johansson will scream and run around, while McGregor attempts to save Dreamworks exec Steven Spielberg and director Michael Bay from sinking a giant pit of quicksand with a rope made of dollar bills tied together – but the rope…. won’t… be…. long…. enough…. so Johansson will jump into the quicksand, saving everyone with her digitally enhanced bosoms. Hey, maybe it will make everyone more money than the movie.

I’m learning how to take photos. Megan wants me to help redo her portfolio. Luckily I have a huge book on just such a thing, but I have no manual on my camera, so I looked online. And, by “online” I mean “ebay”. If I win the the bid, then I gots a manual for my camera.

AND I might be getting two Microsoft Wireless Optical mice. Thank you, Microsoft and bad cellphone service.

I was in a bookstore. Actually I think it was a department store that had a large section devoted to books. I looking at some of the books when I saw a young woman and her daughter at the end of the short aisle. She smiled earnestly at me, and I smiled back, when I saw a man push her forward, like he was directing her.

“Keep moving,” he said. Then I noticed in his left hand was a gun. When he saw me notice it, he stopped and fired a shot off at me. I quickly ducked behind some bookcases. Those two people were in trouble and I had to help them, but I had no weapons or support against a gun.

I started tipping over bookcases. It was the only thing I could think to do. I would tip them over, hoping not to crush the lady and her daughter, and then duck behind another bookcase before getting shot at. Then, as one bookcase tumbled over, I heard a cry. It had worked.

I managed to force the gun out of his hand, and I pinned him, holding him tight to me, and not daring to loosen up. Then when I tried to yell for security, nothing would come out. My voice came out whispery, and sometimes not at all. Finally, security heard me. They came towards me, to start questioning me, and they took the lady and her daughter away, but they never arrested the man. I had to cling tight to him, keeping him from getting away, but they wouldn’t take it over.

No matter how hard I tried, no one seemed to realize that handcuffs and a police ride to jail were what this creep needed. I could feel my grip start to loosen. I had to recount what happened two or three times, each time being very clear and precise about what happened. But, in my concentration, I would forget that I was solely responsible for holding onto this man.

They never took him away. I was starting to panic. I knew that the longer I had him, the greater the chance that he would manage to get free of me. Then I woke up. My arms were crossed across my chest, and I was lying on my stomach. So, as a result, both of my arms were asleep.

And he still got away…

I guess what does make me smile is when Rachel Ray gets angry at the hotdog and hotdog bun industries.

Guess what. CRESH, Inc. is live and has both Valid XHTML and Valid CSS. Unlike some sites that our competitors run and maintain and (probably) hired out. Though, one site does look considerably better than the other one.

Mom just came and brought my table. It looks nice. This apartment is pretty swank. I only have a small smattering of things left to move. Tiny, pointless things that I can’t be bothered to lift into my car and back out.

I recently came into some coupons for free movies at Mr. Movies, so I’ve been kinda movie-crazy lately. The first was Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. I really enjoyed that. I think what I liked most was the look of the film. That’s one special edition disc that I plan on buying. The next one, last night’s movie, was The Phantom of the Opera. Dis-ap-point-ing. I think I really got spoiled on the official Studio Recording. Anything that I see or hear that’s even a little different is wrong. I actually felt annoyed most of the time. *sigh*…

I won a dollar off of Bryce for eating part of an onion. And my Aunt Karen just mailed off my graduation present. High School graduation present.

And, guess what? Konfabulator is now free thanks to Yahoo! The site was down earlier, but now I have my free copy of 2.1 and I’m making my computer konfabulous.

Power went out last night. No, just mine. It made for a really crappy night, and it didn’t get turned back on until 9:30 or so. And I had really wanted to see Family Guy and eat at 8.

You’re bored. You need something to watch, most of which is work friendly (assuming watching any sort of internet video is “work friendly”), and you’ve always been a fan of the indomitable spirit and creativity of student filmakers. And, just maybe, you feel like watching a boyfriend, family member, co-worker, or aquaintance at the same time.

Boy. Do I have your number. I mean website.

You can watch Driven To Distraction. This site, Studenfilms.com, recently asked for films containing the theme of “the road”. Now, our film never ever centered around the road, but we managed to put it in. Some call it after-thought; others call it a genesis. In any case, you can watch all 16 films and see for yourself.

Anyone is allowed to comment / review the films on the site, so feel free to watch the other videos and to review as many as your heart desires. Go and give us stars. We need them to power our scooters or victory.

The film submitters will then submit our top 3 and suggest awards for Best Director, Best Screenwriter, etc…

So. Go waste time.

I hope you all got to see my less than spectacular 4th of July stylesheet. If you didn’t, and want to, and have Firefox, just go to “View > Page Style > 4th” to see it.

Also, I’ve been messing with the Google Maps API. What has it weilded? Well, just Awayken > Maps. It doesn’t really do anything. It’s all informational, but I hope to integrate Google Maps into other aspects of my site. We’ll see. I’m still playing around with it.

So, I had this weird dream last night.

Lorelai Gilmore was in a home for the mentally insane. She wasn’t insane, she was pretending in order to escape prosecution. But she keeps breaking character. At one point, she was in the car garage twirling a basketball on her finger, when it flew off and shattered a windshield.

The key to keeping people sure that she was insane (or at least to keeping her in the insane asylum) was a TV commercial. The point of the commercial was for Lorelai to convince people that Rob Corddry is an alien.

The biggest problem is that Lorelai doesn’t take it very seriously, and Rob is really grumpy, though the flesh-colored antennae that we put on his bald head does look pretty boss. I’m not sure if I was in the dream or not. I think I just looked on, but I might have been involved in the commercial production.

Weird. At least Rachel Ray wasn’t there. That would have made it a nightmare.

Ohhh, I’m sooo mad…

Today in Madison (SD) there was a group of 20-something year olds and they were going door to door selling magazine subscriptions from Atlantic Circulation, Inc. I decided to buy one for my dear mother. I was lerie at first because he was so persuasive and talked really fast. He claimed to be going on a trip to Europe and needed so many points to go by this weekend. He got so many points because I was a college student and that I was buying a gift (none of these points were typed, but handwritten on a card). He also mentioned he was going through 5 states in so many days. He was extremely friendly and asked to come into our house to write the order out. He seemed really hurried. I wrote out a check for $50 and he said something (which we couldn’t understand cuz he talked too fast) and hopped into a red minivan and left in a hurry.

After he left I had a sinking feeling in my gut that I had just been had.

I looked the company up online later and found a long list of complaints against them. Some of the complaints were not getting the full subscription, receiving them late, not being able to get the check returned after cancelling, etc.

I am in the process of cancelling my transaction as we speak.

Please DO NOT BUY ANYTHING from these people!!! They may be legit, but I’m going with my gut feeling. If you do buy and wish to cancel the order, make a copy of the slip before you send it off. I’m not taking chances (again).

Thanks for reading this. Send this to everyone you know.

Love,

Holly