Batman

One last thing.  I tried to see the latest Batman movie at 8 this evening.  I was blown away that the movie was sold out.  For crying out loud it's Wednesday!  People should be doing something else besides watching the movie I want to see. Apparently from talking to the ticket seller the movie has been selling out for all the evening shows so far.  Wow,  just wow.

Last Gasp for learning Japanese

I loaned out all my Japanese books to a friend who was interested in learning.  As usual this got ME thinking about learning Japanese again.  I even looked at the latest edition of the how-to book I like on Amazon.  But as I thought about it, I realized I should once again pass on learning Japanese.  First of all it fails my litmus test for learning a cool new writing system: Can I use it to write my passwords?  Unfortunately Japanese is phonetic, so there's no equivalent for the letter V or writing capitols.  I admit this is a pretty flimsy reason, but it's either a tip of the iceberg kind of thing or a red herring.   I'm not sure which.  Perhaps, someday I'll pick Japanese up, but for today I'd rather spend my time doing useful things like writing inane blog posts and learning elvish. 8)   

The main reason I'm going to pass is I want to be devoting my time to telling stories.  Because more than anything else that's really what I want to be about.  I'm just easily distracted by shiny new concepts.  I guess I'd better get back to it.

Hancock and Wall-e

I liked Hancock. I'm not sure where I would place it in terms of the summer superhero movies, but I thought it was good.  As in the picture above, he goes from being the drunk homeless superhero, to being a respectable hero with a 'family'.  I dunno.  I thought the last half of the story lacked some of the punch it could have, but it definitely had it's moments.  He was definitely a flawed character who was digging deep and trying to change.  I think they could have upped the conflict level in the second half, or spent more time on his drunken rampages.  The move was short at only 1hr and 25 minutes.   I felt like I'd seen almost all the good moments in the trailers, that they hadn't really saved any gems.  Which is too bad.  I think I'll probably rent it when it comes out again, hoping to see some of the footage that ended up on the cutting room floor, but I don't think it's a movie I'll own.  Iron Man or the new Hulk on the other hand...

Wall-e was fun too.  Angelina didn't think it was up to the level of 'Cars,' but I think we all enjoyed it.   I liked the Sci-fi aspect of the story which she didn't appreciate quite as much.  I of course liked the romance in the story between Wall-e and Eve.  I also enjoyed how they told you what happened after the end of the regular story in the form of a hieroglyphic motif that played while the first part of the credits were rolling.  I would consider owning this one.  I guess it depends on how much the kids like it in the long run.

In coming back to Hancock I feel like the movie needed in the second half, better or more development of the conflicted romance and definitely more angst.  It felt like it got all rosy after he really started trying to be a better person, even though at one point you can see him going back to the bottle.

I kind of see Durin in the superhero mold, even though he's in a fantasy setting.  So I empathize with superhero themed stories a lot.  So I'd have to say that I liked Hancock, even though I felt it was flawed.

First post from iPhone

Ok this will take some getting used to.

The iPhone Jackpot

They must have got the servers back online or something because all of a sudden Angelina's and my iPhone just connected and activated.

Woohoo!

Slot machine iBrick

Ok, I lied.  I still don't have a functional iPhone and I'm posting anyway.  This feels like playing some kind of frustrating slot machine.  It already has my X-whopping-dollars of investment already, and now I'm playing a game where I sit with iTunes clicking back and forth between the iTunes Store and the little icon of my iPhone to make it try to connect and re-activate again.  I sit here still playing in the vain hope that somehow before the babysitter arrives and we go off to see Hancock we'll have functional cell phones.

Last time I checked the cell phone would receive calls, but sometime in about 3 hours my Verizon phone will stop working.  I'm hoping there will be a big iPhone payoff before then.

The iPhone Ordeal

Ok, so I have an iPhone now.  The Chico ATT store was a zoo.  I arrived around 6:30 and was somewhere around 40th in line. Three hours later I was finally able to walk out of the store with two iPhones with the help of my brand-new good buddy Gavin.  He was in line ahead of me with another guy, but he wasn't buying.  So I borrowed him to fill the one person one iPhone rule.  They had huge problems with the computer system, since I was doing the family plan it was more complex.  Finally they muddled through and I had my phones.

Now I'm sitting at home with the other bajillions of people trying to activate their phones.  No luck so far.  You'd think they would have prepared for this.  You'd think the headache they had last time they rolled out the original iPhone they'd have learned their lesson.  But no.  

On the plus side the guy that sold me the phone was a buddy from college named Jeff.  I'll have to get back in touch with him when the store isn't full of screaming fans.

I'll post again when my iPhone is anything but an iBrick.

I want my iPhone

I really want an iPhone.  I've taken the day off work. I'm getting up at the crack of dawn to be at the ATT store in Chico at 6:30ish.  The wait in line should be about an hour and a half until their 8am opening.  At which time I'll be purchasing two 8gb iPhones for Angelina and I.  I've been waiting for a year, since when the iPhone first came out I was still locked into Verizon for a while longer.  Hopefully everything goes smoothly as I transition between carriers.

Angelina tells me I should bring my laptop and see if I have wifi access so I can blog in line.  ...it's been done.  They already have theirs in New Zeland.  'Cause it's tomorrow there today.  

I'm not spending the whole day on the iPhone though.  I'm also going to finally see Hancock with Angelina too.  We've hired a sitter to watch the kids and everything.  We can even surf in the theater while we're waiting for the movie to start.  Aaaah.  I can feel my internet addiction growing stronger already.

I expect with the new iPhone I'll be trying to blog remotely and include more of my own pictures too!

217 calories or about a candy bar

So I'm about a week into this new exercise thing.  It's good and all, and I'm glad I'm doing it, but it's frustrating that just about any piece of junk food is about the equivalent of my whole half hour of hard exercise.  

The Treadmill I've got has this cool read out of how many calories and carbs and all that isht you've just been by.  So my average half hour exercise session is currently good for about 217 calories.  That's the equivalent of a Milky Way Bar (full of carmelly goodness) or a big Henry Weinhard's root beer (which I'm enjoying the creamy smoothness of at this very moment).

I hate to gripe like this, but now that I've really started counting calories I'm using it feels pretty sucky.  I feel like I'm hacking most of the things I like to eat out of my diet.  On the brighter side I'm down closer to 180 rather than 190, which is cool.