Wednesday, October 20, 2004

GENIUS!!!

You MUST, I repeat MUST, go to ifilm.com and watch the Jon Stewart Crossfire interview as well as his Monday night spin of it.


Tuesday, October 19, 2004

I know I need to let it go, but...

I cannot have any respect for someone who has made it past the age of 30 and has never supported herself. The fact that everyone gushes over how freakin' brilliant she is drives me crazy.

I doubt there are any of us who couldn't be academically brilliant if they never had to work for a living.


Friday, October 15, 2004

Depression...

I've just read two news stories that have completely killed my budding good mood. Bush is ahead in the polls by 4 points. US software programmers should start looking for different jobs now.

I just don't understand how people would vote for a party that:
1) Gives tax breaks to companies who send jobs overseas for doing just that
2) Votes to give MORE power to HMOs
3) Won't agree to any international treaties on anything...including limiting pollution.
4) Votes to take away the rights of more than half its' citizens. It's starting to look like it's going to be illegal to be gay OR a woman pretty soon.
5) Wants to mess with the Constitution! (Mr. Pollex, where are you when we need you?!) Ammendments to the Constitution have been to establish the rights of citizens and define government, not take those rights away! The one instance that this was not the case was Prohibition, which then, embarrassingly enough, had to be repealed 14 years later.

By the way, what the hell ever happened to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" referenced in the Declaration of Independence? Of course, the Declaration isn't the Bill of Rights, so I guess it doesn't count for anything... (Along those lines, the right to bear arms is in the context of a need for a "well regulated Militia".)

I pulled up the Declaration by the way, you'd be amazed at the reasons for schism that were given, and how very similar you'd find them to current foreign affairs.

PS Mephisto, this is a rant, not a well-thought out argument, so cut me a little slack.

PPS Gee, now I'm angry instead of depressed, so I guess that's somethin'.



Thursday, October 14, 2004

La La La La

I'm quite bored. Nothing of great interest to report. Nothing of great interest to do. Not that I don't have tons to do... My boss' daughter is leaving for a 3-month intensive language course in Germany in a couple of weeks, so for the first time in a couple of years, I've been given work that will require thought. I'm really not used to it. At first I resented it quite a lot. Now I've become resigned to it being a good thing. But really, the transition from data drone to project management is really quite difficult.

Went to see "Shark Tale" last night. Wow. It sucked. We walked out after 30 minutes. There was NOTHING at all redemptive about that movie--it was much like watching "Kill Bill Vol. 2", an unending loop of movie references with nothining of substance to fill in the gaps. Our general concensus was that we'd wasted 3 hours of our lives at a friend's play on Saturday night being, because of said friend, unable to leave. There was no need to waste another hour so soon when we could take off without hurting anyone's feelings.

Other than that, attempting to put together a Halloween party and you're all invited. No really, I'm sending out invitations regardless of the logistical logic. We're being rather crafty about it too: it's on Halloween itself, which is a Sunday, so we really don't want it to go too late. Thus, we're making it a "Pre-Parade" event and encouraging guests to drop by between 4:30 and 8 for mephistophelian munchies before going to the Parade/moving on to the Gramercy Park Hotel bar. Less fuss, less muss, and the neighbors won't hate us for having a party on Sunday night. However, given the number of parties Saturday night and the fact that it's Sunday...we're thinking if we invite 100 people, about 15 will show up.

Wow, for nothing to report I've prattled on at length... La la la la...

Thursday, October 07, 2004

New Drinking Game

Greg and I sat down and watched CSI NY last night. I must say, it may well be the most poorly written show on television. After the first 10 minutes of outrage over the blatant NY bashing, it became absolutely comical. Next week, we intend to take full notes on the errors and compare at the end. Whoever has the most, wins. Here are just a few from last night's episode that I can remember off the top of my head:

1) It was assumed that because a book was published in 1984, it was purchased in 1984.
2) Said book, about "how the City destroyed" a guy with big dreams is about a broker with a coke habit that almost destroyed him.
3) A body has been in a storage room in Port Authority for 15 years, and no one's noticed it. Especially AFTER 9/11 when every building of import was searched with dogs. (Okay, they were bomb-sniffing dogs and not cadaver dogs, but I given the stench, I still think someone would have noticed. Plus, opening the door and seeing it.)
4) Melina Kara...whatever picks up the pipe, says it could be their murder weapon, puts it down and THEN photographs it.
5) The discovery of an old body would never make anything but the police blotter of any City paper, unless it was a small child or something infamous like "Headless Body Found in Topless Bar".
6) The reconstruction chick drew a complete, detailed picture of what the face would look like after only looking at the skull and knowing it was a caucasion male.
7) Assumptions on hair type? Ummm, last I noticed, there's lots of different hair on white people. Don't even get me started on the ears...
8) The sketch of the desolate landscape looking out to see "couldn't be in the City, there are no buildings" could be at any one of about 50 waterfront parks or neighborhoods.
9) The sketch of Grand Central had a giant flag hanging from the ceiling, that was not there until September 12, 2001. (Also, it was the renovated lobby.)
10) How did the guy smuggle a skeleton unto the bus?
11) How could he think it was fake with the decaying flesh attached to the rest of it?
12) The incredible bending of the laws of physics that a straight-on camera's film could be adjusted to see not only a panaramic view of the entire pawn shop, but THROUGH another counter.
13) I'm pretty sure you'd have to be bleeding or have a really serious skin condition to leave enough DNA behind for testing when just plucking the strings of a guitar.
14) How did the parents from Minnesota hear about/get to the City to look at the body the same day it was found?
15) Oh, and the moral of the story of the kid from Minnesota, who came to the City and was broke and a junkie in one week, murdered his supplier, got clean, changed his name, disappeared from his family and worked the last six years in a shelter as penance or even the supplier who lived in a supply closet in Port Authority, wandering the City and sketching, is NOT "Live life to it's fullest".

I know a lot of the errors are local knowledge things, but you'd think they'd have some sort of consultant to deal with such issues. I wonder if Vegas or Miami residents have the same problems with shows shot there. But you'd really think they'd have a consultant to deal with police procedure.

Okay, maybe a drinking game based on this would be a bad idea--you'd die from alcohol poisoning by the end of the first half hour.

Wednesday, October 06, 2004

Things that make you go "Eeeew" in the Night...

Last night we saw Shaun of the Dead, quite amusing if occasionally absolutely disgusting. All in all though, not half so frightening as Monday night in our apartment.

It was a little after midnight. I was sitting in bed reading when I heard an oddly pained yowling sound. It was repeated several times at intervals and I assumed that Eunice, a woman down the deck, had accidently locked her aging feline outside and he was mewling to get in. The noise continued, so I stuck my head outside to look for the cat. Hmmm. You couldn't hear the sound out on the deck. That can only mean it's coming through the wall from one of the adjoining apartments, well maybe there's a new kitten on the block...

Then the noise became more frequent. Oh. My. God. At this point, music started pounding through the wall from the apartment behind us. Hipster guy across the hall has just had the same realization that I have: It's a human making the ungodly racket. Not only that, it's the very nice woman who lives next door to us in the throes of passion.

By the time Greg came up, the sound was almost constant, with an odd rhythmic lull to it, not at all unlike a European police siren. As he entered the bedroom, at first he could only hear the bass of Hipster Guy's stereo and exclaimed, "Oh No!" I rolled my eyes and informed him he'd yet to hear the worst. His eyes got wide as he realized exactly what and who he was hearing.

His final comment: "Well, at least [our neighbor] doesn't have to worry anymore about any guy on the floor coveting his girlfriend..."