Soundtracks

I can understand going to a movie, or maybe even watching a TV show, and really loving the music - enough so to purchase the soundtrack or a song or two from iTunes. But this? I don't know what to say about this. Add to it the fact that both of these $18+shipping CD's are currently out of stock...Hmm.

Who ARE the people who buy this stuff?

At least the "Official Party Survival Kit" appears to have real songs on it. The original soundtrack has titles like "Buzzed," "Mud Bath," and "Tally the Vote." Talk about retarded.

(I only ever realized that these exist because my Pandora station played a song from this also-ridiculous CD, which IS currently in stock if you wanted a copy of it, and then I got sucked into searching out reality television show soundtracks.)

Movies

Lately I've seen a few movies. I don't really have anything that brilliant to say about any of them, but have a comment or two on them.

Saw the new Narnia movie last week. I thought it was quite nice, and I was entertained. It seems so rare that you can watch a movie coming out of Hollywood (even Disney - especially Disney?) that actually warms your heart because it is morally good. This one does just that.


This week I took in The Darjeeling Limited with Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzman. I'm all for a good, independent film, but this one fell a bit short - it's a dark comedy, but a little shy on the comedy and little too heavy on the bizarre. I really had to laugh every time I saw Bill Murray, though. His very short scenes were fantastic, and I wish he'd been in more of them.


Then over the weekend, I saw Enchanted with my parents when we were killing an hour or two. Loved Amy Adams; the rest of the movie, I could've done without. My dad started falling asleep, and my mom kept asking me for the first ten minutes, "Are you SURE this isn't a cartoon?" That pretty much sums it up.


I'm sure to see many more as I catch up on my flicks - I miss, oh, 4 or 5 months of everything Hollywood offers during session. I'm ok with that.

Jesus Walked on Water; These Guys Don't Exactly Come Close

Some days when I'm out on the Mississippi River killing fish and having a bad practice, I'll just have to remember these guys:


Men's quad at the Mayor's Cup, May 10, 2008
Narragansett
(Thanks, Amanda.)

Ethanol

I know this is ridiculous, but every time I hear about ethanol production and using corn biproducts as fuel for your car, I always picture in my head a substance that closely resembles corn syrup.

As Time Goes (Swiftly? Shockingly?) By

I realized a li'l while back that it's been ten years since I graduated from high school. To reinforce the idea that I'm getting older (though tend not to feel like it), I went to a graduation party yesterday afternoon for a girl for whom I used to babysit. And I believe there were a few piano lessons in there, as well. In a couple weeks, I will attend another such graduation party, for another young person I spent a lot of time with when he was a lot smaller. (Good thing I'm tall - at least their chances of outgrowing me are greatly lessened.)

This weekend we actually had very nice weather...in between bouts of hail and thunder and the random torrential downpour (nearly all of which seemed to take place on Saturday evening in my neck of the city's woods). Very strange. Saturday morning was nice, and I went over to the Guthrie for a backstage tour, which I enjoyed very much, and learned a lot of stuff about the history of the theater company.

We then ate here (where I had something extremely unusual and quite tasty: polenta fries), and then walked across this bridge (all those lovely stone arches), where I saw the locks and dams and Nicollet Island and this other bridge being built (you might have heard of this one a bit, oh, last August; they're ahead of schedule, and if they stay on the current track, it'll reopen in September).

Quote of the Moment

"To look backward for a while is to refresh the eye, to restore it, and to render it the more fit for its prime function of looking forward." -Margaret Fairless Barber

Blasted Weather

It's cold out. I remember last year dying of heat and humidity throughout the month of May (in between dying from being overworked). This year, though, it's been cool. Nay, downright cold.

There is a silver lining or two in all that: 1) I don't melt every time I step out of doors, and 2) I actually got to see and smell the lilacs and lily of the valley this year. Both those delicious flowers finally bloomed over the last week (about three weeks late this year), and because I was no longer living at the office, I actually got to see them in their natural habitat and then snag some for my apartment. They're quite divine.

Apparently my rants aren't so far off the mark.

You might remember I recently had some questions about this guy and the validity of his claims, all that. Turns out I wasn't so far off the mark. Thanks to Jaymie for pointing out this article:

Fraud-prevention pitchman becomes ID-theft victim

SAN JOSE, California (AP) -- Todd Davis has dared criminals for two years to try stealing his identity: Ads for his fraud-prevention company, LifeLock, even offer his Social Security number next to his smiling mug.

Now, LifeLock customers in Maryland, New Jersey and West Virginia are suing Davis, claiming his service didn't work as promised and he knew it wouldn't, because the service had failed even him.

Attorney David Paris said he found records of other people applying for or receiving driver's licenses at least 20 times using Davis' Social Security number, though some of the applications may have been rejected because data in them didn't match what the Social Security Administration had on file.

Davis acknowledged in an interview with The Associated Press that his stunt has led to at least 87 instances in which people have tried to steal his identity, and one succeeded: a guy in Texas who duped an online payday loan operation last year into giving him $500 using Davis' Social Security number...

He goes on to state,

There's nothing on my actual credit report about uncollected funds, no outstanding tickets or warrants or anything. There's nothing to indicate my identity has been successfully compromised other than the one instance. I know I'm taking a slightly higher risk. But I'll take my risk for the tremendous benefit we're bringing to society and to consumers.

I'm sorry. I think the correct translation of this is that he's taking the risk for the tremendous benefit he's bringing to his very own pocket.

The services don't guard against many types of identity theft such as use of a stolen Social Security number on a job application or for medical services, or even the instance of an arrestee giving police a stolen Social Security number to shield his own identity.

Oh, sure, there won't be someone out there taking a mortgage out in your name, but everything else about your reputation will be screwed up.

And finally, the logical (or, "Duh!") side of me appreciates this quote:

Security experts say complaints about the company reinforce the time-honored wisdom of keeping your Social Security number secret.

Work: A Hazard to One's Health

I don't believe working 20-hour days can be good for a person.

However, because of the fact that I barely leave work these days, I did get to see 26 vintage planes fly over the Capitol for the MN Sesquicentennial yesterday, and will inevitably *still* be at work this evening to see the fireworks to celebrate our 150 years of statehood.

I am thankful we are down to 9 hours until the end of the last legislative day during which we can pass bills. Tomorrow is constitutionally the last day of session.

I feel like sleeping for a week.

Do we need a book on this?

I refer to a "Suicide for Dummies" edition. After reading through two news stories today (Man Survives Head First Leap into Wood Chipper and Last Doomsday Cult Members Leave Russian Cave after Authorities Find 2 Rotting Corpses), I realized that these two methods used for suicide (diving head first into a wood chipper, and beating yourself over the head with a wooden stick), although creative, are not very effective methods of killing yourself.

Pollen Count

toothpaste for dinner

A Picture Worth a Thousand Words

Sometimes words cannot describe the strange things you see at the Minnesota Legislature.
Instead, we use pictures.
Like this one.