Legend of the Corsair

( Get ready for an after the movie monologue. There may be spoilers; I am not sure. )

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NOTE TO LIVEJOURNAL STAFF: PLEASE MAKE IT SO I CAN HIGHLIGHT A WORD WHILE IN INITIAL WRITING OR EDITING MODE AND ALLOW ME TO DO A QUICK DEFINITION OF THAT WORD SO I CAN KNOW I'M CHOOSING THE CORRECT WORD FOR THE CONTEXT AND WHAT I MEAN TO SAY RATHER THAN MAKING ME NEED TO GO TO ANOTHER WEBSITE TO LOOK UP SAID WORD. THANKS IN ADVANCE. MUCH APPRECIATED.
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Note to people local to me: I never realized the shit traffic you guys experienced on the night of fireworks at MCC until I tried to get home the usual way from the above movie and hit the roadblocks. Had to go SO far around to approach from the other side. In my case, at least we were going where no one else wanted to so we didn't hit any traffic once we got out of the general flow. That poor cop who couldn't just let us through... He was helpful though. It was either sit tight in a nearby parking lot for an HOUR at 10:20pm, meaning we wouldn't get home until midnight... Or working our way around somehow b/c the roadblocks were only set in one direction forcing everyone to go through M and away from the neighboring one, EH. That's right. In all the years we'd lived in the area we have never encountered this. Always either away from town or staying in for the night. Always. Cop was shocked but didn't disbelieve me on that point.

Well, this part isn't going to be a rant... I already went into the maddening details during my first post (mostly) and the second post (follow up). This final piece is just to discuss the final resolution.

Went into the theater today to see Skyfall. Great movie btw. Decided I'd do the final return of tickets before the movie started. I thought I would just stand in line with all the people waiting to buy tickets and then realized that Guest Services should be handling my type of problems and, when not otherwise engaged, could sell tickets. Anyways, I go around to wait in the short line for GS - and I got gruff from the ticket taker (during the day they have the main lobby roped off so that the entire complex can be served by one ticket taker) about waiting in the other line. Yeah. Not, guy.

Both of the people in front of me had issues they wanted to resolve with the theater management - can't remember what they were but they weren't buying tickets. I get up to the counter and I figure this is one of the top brass people. He not only knew how to return my money for the entire transaction of tickets (rather than the poor schmuck on Wed that could only figure out how to return one ticket at a time) he made sure my disgruntle about having to pay the surcharge on movietickets TWICE (for four tickets) was resolved by giving me two open passes good for any show, any time, in any type of theater.

Next time I head to the theater I'll be wearing my Team Van Helsing shirt - it has a stake dripping glittery blood on it too. Heh. Although I cannot resist seeing how they put the final Meyer bit of book on the screen, I am going to bring all the snark I felt while reading them too.

In other news: I am still getting notifications about and books are arriving from an (apparently) huge pre-order of books that I did via Subterranean Press. Weird, yet fun. Like getting timey wimey presents from the past.

Back to Skyfall. One of the best Bond films, ever. I love all the nods to historical Bond moments (no spoilers, but you'll know em when you see em).

Well me fine hearties... I bring to you a tale of rage, irritation, journeys, scandal, and redemption. It all begins with the anticipation of the viewing pleasure of our wee little furry footed friends.

Yeah. This is about my travail about finally scoring advanced tickets for the upcoming flick:

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Companies involved: MovieTickets.com and Rave Cinemas at Buckland Hills Manchester.

It really began about a few months or so ago, when I put an item in my calendar to remind me to look up information about advanced ticket sales at the end of October. Once Halloween rolled around, I had found out that tickets were supposed to go on sale (for the December 14th premier in the U.S. and Canada) on November 7, 2012. Reset calendar item.

Today, when I got to work and checked for tickets online, I found out that tickets weren't going on sale until NOON EST. Those bastards.

Okay. Reset calendar item and set a timer to go off five minutes before noon. While I'm waiting for noon to come, my husband calls to tell me he's heading home to work the rest of the day from there as the Nor'Easter snowfall had begun. I look up from my desk (where I had truly been hard at work finishing up on a project report) I see the practical whiteout conditions in the back parking lot of the building. Lovely.

Five minutes before noon arrives. I get myself logged into my usual ticket purchasing website, making sure I have my credit card ready. I get onto the day in question and, every so often, hit refresh in the address bar. Noon arrives. No tickets. Refresh, refresh, refresh... Five minutes pass - no tickets.

I call the theater and press zero to be connected to a live person. They very nicely tell me that due to a new computer system that they'd installed a few weeks back they were having technical difficulties. Perhaps sometime between while I am talking to them and 6pm, or as late as 6pm the next day the glitch would be worked out. *beginnings of irritation/annoyance*

More snow falls. More work gets done. I doggedly keep hitting the refresh button, hoping.

I had come in that day at 7am so that I could leave by 3pm, since I had thought that the snow was going to hold off until mid-afternoon. I realize I forgot my snow brush and scraper at home; I hadn't yet pulled it out of its storage space in the garage and put it into the trunk. I come up with the brilliant idea of using a gallon ziplock baggie to seal around my gloved hand to keep myself both warm and dry when I finally get out to clean off my car before leaving for home.

More snow falls.

At 2:50pm, after hitting refresh yet again, I am rewarded with three theaters of showtimes. IMAX, and two others. I notice that (unlike what I'd gotten my posse to agree to) there were NO MIDNIGHT SHOWINGS. *sigh* I go for the 7pm showing instead as I must have my assigned seats when I go through the trouble of getting advanced tickets and purchase them online (where you get a $1 surcharge on each ticket).

Wait! What's this?! No offer to choose my seats? ARGH! I buy the tickets anyway, thinking that if I didn't there was a possibility of them being sold out before I could later get the chance to purchase them. Besides, the snowfall had turned into more of a snow-drizzle and I figured I could stop at the theater on the way home and make sure my seats were assigned where I wanted them to be.

So. 3pm arrives and I am (surprisingly) all ready to go with laptop bag in tow just in case. Snow cleared off the car handily. Although there was some slowdown as (most) people drove more cautiously, the drive to the theater was done on relatively snow free roads - though there were plenty of slick spots.

Walking in the theater, I find myself glad that it seems to be a slow time. I'd been able to park very close to the front doors and the snow was starting to pick up a little. Shouldn't take too long, right?

Over a half hour later... They had to refund my purchased tickets one at a time. They hadn't realized they hadn't set it up to allow/assign seating (IMAX is ALWAYS assigned seating). They had to call the back room techie and have them set up the system to get the seating problem cleared up. One good thing - they weren't allowing any other sales until my refund was processed and I had purchased my tickets with the seats of my choice.

Did I mention they'd recently gotten a new computer system set up? They all hate it (the people working with it at the front desk area - including management). It is clunky, counter intuitive, and one big hassle. There really didn't seem to have been any intensive training to instruct the employees in its use either. One of the many annoying things to result in the new system (besides those annoying things I've already discussed) is that if you have purchased tickets for multiple movies (say one on Saturday, another on Sunday, and advanced tickets for something in a couple of weeks) the kiosk will no longer just print all of your purchased tickets out for you - it gives you an error message and you have to go to the counter just like all the shlubs that didn't think to buy their tickets ahead of time. Utterly stupid. Especially because once you get up to the front of the line it takes forever for the person to look up those tickets and has to access each show/set separately for printing.

When I finally got outside again? Snow was falling more heavily than when I'd gone in, and it was finally starting to stick and build up on the roads. It was pretty hairy driving home from there. And it didn't help that I needed to bypass home to pass to the other side of town and pick up something for dinner too.

Now I am home, driveway heater on, warm and toasty on the couch because I am cuddled under a blanket with my living hot water bottle (half Chihuahua half Daschund). My Unexpected Journey is over. Wish I had a ring and a bunch of gold... guess I'm not as lucky as some hobbits I know.

They are like pressed rose leaves.

I truly cannot believe that I've never yet seen Arsenic and Old Lace. The DH has decided that this is the movie we shall watch tonight. The opening credits were surprising, with the visual references to witchcraft and the Halloween season.

It's only a few minutes in, and I am already in love with it. There are a lot of other B&W classic movies of this type that I adore as well. Of course, this (not including musicals) is just the "short" list.

Bringing Up Baby
His Girl Friday
Bell Book and Candle
The Absentminded Professor
Charade
North by Northwest
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Vertigo
Rear Window
Harvey
It's a Wonderful Life
Shop Around the Corner
Casablanca
Seven Samurai
Metropolis
The Incredible Mr. Limpet
Who's Minding the Store
The Court Jester
Sergeant York
The African Queen
Woman of the Year
Christmas in Connecticut


Most of these have Carey Grant or Jimmy Stewart in them, huh? Yeah.

Calorie Count website… I've decided to keep track of what I'm inputing into my body like I had to do for a nutrition class I took over the summer back in 96. Now, normally, I would just go with this site and keep track of what I've eaten in a journal of some type, maybe even a spread sheet. But who needs that when you can use Calorie Tracking at the Daily Plate via LIVESTRONG. The site offers a LOT more than just calorie tracking. I can't believe how much stuff there is for someone to keep track of fitness, weight, nutrition, goals, etc. I really like how you can create "meals" made up of all the stuff, including how many "portions" of each you are consuming during that meal.

I am so looking forward to seeing all of the upcoming 3-D movies that are going to be released in the next year or so, click the picture showing my most anticipated to see Wired's very well laid out, detail driven list:



Squee! Sleestacks! And Will Ferrell is starring. Sweet.

Quite a few of the other movies may turn out to be better than Land of the Lost but I have a special place in my heart for the Sleestacks.

Paid Holidays for 2009:

January 1, 2009 New Year’s Day
January 19, 2009 Martin Luther King Day
February 16, 2009 President’s Day
May 25, 2009 Memorial Day
July 3, 2009 Independence Day (day before, Friday)
September 7, 2009 Labor Day
October 12, 2009 Columbus Day
November 26-27, 2009 Thanksgiving (day of and day after)
December 25, 2009 Christmas Day

This must mean we are back to having two floating holidays. Yay!

Did you know that before the invention of the light bulb, the average person slept 10 hours a night? And no wonder I don't like waking up in the morning. Now I know why I always crave those ten hours every night and why I would prefer to be a night owl too.

Anybody else out there interested in switching to an algal-based diet? C'mon, with this guy in charge of the menu, how could we go wrong? Our taste buds are sure to be happy, eh? Oh yeah, we can run cars on alga-sourced fuel too.

OH NOZ! 'Anonymous' Member Unmasked!

An 18-year-old New Jersey man agreed to plead guilty to federal computer hacking charges Friday for participating in a denial-of-service attack against Church of Scientology websites, as part of collective of online troublemakers known as "Anonymous."
( Read more... )

As a continuation of yesterday, most of which occurred via email, here's an icon for my werewolves are better than vampire friends:



Since NPR was doing their fundraising thing this morning, I did some station surfing and heard Miss Independent, lyrics here, music video here. Not that I've seen the video, mind you, I cannot access youtube at work. *sigh* Probably better that way. Oh. Listen to it here. It's nice when you hear semi-pro-feminist R&B. There is still some expectation of beauty upkeep, but it seems like "she" has the money to pay other people to do all her upkeep for her (manicure, pedicure, hair cut and style, etc) which may be construed as a measure of privilege. However, I like it. Opinions?

Click here for a series of 13 images showing "Under the Surface at Monterey Bay Aquarium."

Article to the above slide show "Monterey Bay: An Aquarium for the Ages Opens" found here. The aquarium occupies the site of an old sardine cannery at the edge of Monterey Bay, one of the most fertile and diverse marine environments on earth.



Six Apart CEO speaks out on how the downturn in the economy is affecting blogging over a smooth, cool Belgian beer.

What the heck is "Location-Based Dating" people? Anyone? Apparently, the current article is a follow up to this one about Love: Japanese Style.

RIAA Decries Texas Woman as 'Vexatious' for Demanding File Sharing Trial. Along with the article is one of crabbyolbastard's favorite images:



I love the second comment in the comment string at the bottom of the article:

Vexatious?

"In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved"

OHHHH! FIRST QUANTUM OF SOLACE REVIEWS ARRIVE, UNVEIL DARK ADVENTURE!



If the collection of early reviews is any reliable sign (and the consistent tone in each would indicate it is), the next James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace, is an aggressive, tight, grim and moody thriller that leads directly into the next film in the decades-old series.

So far, reviews out of U.K. sources such as the BBC and The Daily Mirror praise the film and the performance of Daniel Craig as 007 for exploring the lead character's depth and motivation in a manner not seen in a previous Bond flick.

While celebrating Solace's tight pacing and effective action sequences, critics also question the film's heavy, moody tone as the grieving, vengeful 007 seeks out the deadly international criminal organization that killed his lover and threatens the world. It seems the fun, flippant Bond of Sir Roger Moore (and even Pierce Brosnan) is long gone.

Quantum of Solace premieres on Halloween in the United Kingdom and Nov. 14 in the United States.

Finally: Future vehicles may be made of 'buckypaper'

Buckypaper is 10 times lighter but potentially 500 times stronger than steel when sheets of it are stacked and pressed together to form a composite. Unlike conventional composite materials, though, it conducts electricity like copper or silicon and disperses heat like steel or brass.

Let's keep them wild. Let's keep them free.









This is the PBS website on the documentary. This was a beautiful film. If you have a chance to watch it, take that chance. It has a boom-de-yadda feel to it. The most hard-hitting moment for me was when Mark talks about his need to find a right livelihood.

From Amazon's website: "Quiet patience and an observant eye turn a seemingly unpromising subject into a rich and fascinating movie. The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill captures the life of Mark Bittner, a gentle (formerly) homeless musician who's befriended a flock of wild parrots in a neighborhood of San Francisco. Following Bittner, the camera zooms in on individual parrots, revealing their individual personalities and the traits of their species. This leads to Bittner's own life, the network of friendships that support him, and the ways in which the parrots--a non-native species--interact with both the natural ecosystem and the city government; just about every topic opens up another until a flock of colorful birds represents a microcosm of nature and society.

Filmmaker Judy Irving has created an exemplary documentary simply by paying attention to the details of the world around her subject. Everything you expect from a Hollywood blockbuster--romance, violence, humor, sorrow, strong personalities in conflict--is here in spades, except that the heroes and heroines have bright red and green feathers. Utterly rewarding. --Bret Fetzer

PBS links to Mark's book The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill - A Love Story With Wings as well.

The following essay, written by Mark in 2007, describes what brought on the need to talk about and bring these parrots to the attention of the public mind. It also describes the battle to allow them to continue to be free and wild.


Introduction

In the spring of 2007, I found myself in the awkward position of working for the passage of an ordinance that prohibits the feeding of San Francisco's wild parrots in city-owned parks. While the great majority of people I've spoken with have understood the reasons for my stand, a few others have had difficulty with it, regarding me as a hypocrite. Yet it was entirely consistent with everything I've said and done throughout my association with the parrot flock. During the struggle to get the ordinance passed I was unable to talk about the issue in a very public way. I felt constrained by the very situation I was working to stop. This is my explanation of what happened.
( Read more... )

From a review on Rotten Tomatoes that compares Kung Fu Panda with You Don't Mess With The Zohan:


Given caption: "Can't I hang out with the Ninja Turtles instead?"

I am hoping to go see this film later today, it really does look amusing. Please give me a theater where the screaming/noisy kid ratio is LOW TO NIL... please. I am going to soak up some good air-conditioned air and to enjoy a film that got an 86% fresh rating.

(Edit 2: Oh. And of course Adam Sandler's new movie is going to be juvenile... C'mon people, it is what he's known for. A rebuttal comment to the reviewer's bit about You Don't Mess with the Zohan being juvenile.)



And I thought it would amuse ginmar, while she awaits her magazine, to see that the L.A. Film School is advertising with Zombies!





In other news: Yesterday was so frikkin HOT! Ended up passing on the CT Trails Day events in anticipation of the heat, and went down to Mystic instead. Hoping to get some sea breezes, which did occur for most of the afternoon, but there was this REALLY FRIKKIN HOT hour or so where I thought I would DIE. Well. Maybe not die, maybe just burst into flames, screaming, while running down the street to get to the water. The little air conditioned shops were like little cool puddles of sparkly goodness. Ate some really good food (thank you CoB, for letting me steal your scallops) at S&P Oyster Club and, after walking around some more to digest in the nice - now cooled - air, got some rockin' ice cream and watched the draw bridge go up. CoB may have already posted some cool images from this. Oh! Look - he did! And. Even though I could've sworn that I'd slathered on enough sun screen, we both got a little burnt around the edges. I got the shoulders, next to my cap sleeves, and the v-neck area pretty good even though now only the shoulders are showing the burn.

(Edit: On the drive home, we saw the most spectacular display of heat lightning. Which, when we were almost home, turned into a terrific rain storm that turned visibility down to almost nil just as I was getting off a tricky exit.

On the drive down, things were just as lively.

Just out of Hartford on Route 2 (known as the two lane highway of death, locally) I smartly avoided some metal pieces and a WHOLE, BLUE WHEELBARROW fall off the back of a truck, setting sparks up on the road like fireworks as it slowly dragged off its momentum. Internal monologue was first: What's that dragging metal noise? Then: Oh shit! *avoiding hitting debris and other cars as we all react to situation*

A little further down the road: Why did the person in front of me just swerve? Oh shit! *swerves around recently killed deer's carcass in the middle of the lane*

Oh. Note the tags. The entertainment part of the post is obviously separate from the discussion of the movie above. Heh.

Off to get ready to meet dear friend S. for brunch. Starting to feel the, somewhat pleasant, buildup of anticipation for work tomorrow.)

Okay. I don't know if any of the people on my f-list have a Showcase Cinema nearby... Maybe this isn't restricted to just Showcase. Let's find out.

Here's the scam. Build a "Director's Hall" where the seats are more comfy and covered in leather, where the armrest between you and your sweety can be put up for added comfort/snuggles. Make it assigned seating so, when you order/buy your tickets for a hot new release you don't have to stand in line to get in and try to get a good seat... (Of course, you don't have to wait in line for anything but opening night normally so this benefit loses its value rather quickly - heh, marginal benefit talk!) Also, you can bypass the concession stand and order food right from your seats for a certain amount of time (basically until the first green screen of the previews appear).

Cost to movie-goers for all this? A $3 surcharge on every ticket.

The catch? You also pay a surcharge on any food you purchase from your seats. CoB's brother noticed this a few weeks ago when he had looked at how much it costs to buy a hot dog & soda at concessions and then what it cost for the same thing inside the theater. Yep, it is across the board, the prices are higher inside the theater.

Now. Truth be told... I actually do patronize this theater when I go to see a movie. I don't like waiting in lines and I don't like worrying about whether I'll get a good seat either. I will always arrive early for a movie otherwise, just in case, and end up sitting there for a good half-hour or so (sometimes in an empty theater because I didn't judge the time/movie/rush/popularity correctly). I am caught in the Movie Trap.

This still doesn't cull the people who bring noisy kids or the rude people who talk and/or use their cell phones during the movie... You'd think the staff would have people in there, assuring everyone that if this type of behavior occurs, the offenders will be booted. After all, we paid EXTRA to get in. (Yeah. I went to see Iron Man again the other day by myself and there were these two people chatting through almost the WHOLE MOVIE sitting directly behind me. I was PISSED.) Maybe there should be "movie etiquette" signs.

What say you? Worth it? Not worth it?

What once was free will now cost you.

Are they paying the driver more, to compensate for charging a delivery fee? No.
Are they still expecting you to tip the driver as much as you normally do? Yes.

Economic disincentive to take care of the driver, start charging for delivery. Anybody know if pizza delivery companies are passing this charge along to the drivers? I used to work for Pizza Hut and then for Dominoes, long ago, I recall decent tips (1996 maybe) and maybe a pittance for mileage. I used to take the percentage used for deliveries of car expenses as a tax deduction too.

But for those companies who formally advertised free delivery to change to a delivery charge setting... I can't see this as anything else but something that hurts the driver.

If any of you out there either are or know a current delivery driver that fits the above situation, please give me your opinion on this (as I see it) debacle.

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In other news: I finally got to see the movie associated with my icon (Water) and it was enough to cry at least twice if not more because it was that wonderful. I can't believe what the director had to do in order to get this thing made either - they got riots and death threats in India where they were first going to shoot it so they had to go to Sri Lanka instead. Amazing story.