LadyCrimson

Interesting. I guess I don't embarrass easily or care about being embarrassed, very often, so I don't see the humor.

Jason and the Argonauts & The Wizard of Oz. Sometimes I love the Turner Classic Movie channel.

The weekend was full of patching small holes in drywall and painting. And a cooler full of soda and beer. We know how to have a good time.

Yes, Okona has a similar characterization as Atton. And Han Solo. I wish my Star Trek Companion book wasn't packed away. I thought it was confirmed in there that the writers/producers/whatever definitely had Solo in mind when they created him. But I'm not 100% sure - my memory isn't always, uh, reliable.

Hehe The point being - it's boring to listen to to unless you're somehow "in" on the joke.

Another old film: To Die For, w/Nicole Kidman. I'd forgotten how enjoyable the movie is to watch. It's not a belly-laugh film, but a good piece of satirizing America's unending fascination with crime in media. Also rented I Am Legend. Great special effects and atmosphere - loved seeing the overgrown/untended NY - but mostly a big snore. Maybe I was expecting more action than the movie actually gives you and should watch it again with less expectations in that area. Oh...that one 'zombie' male they kept showing ... every time he opened his mouth to do a CGI zombie scream, all I could think about was the mummy's water/sand/dust cloud open-mouthed faces in The Mummy Returns. Heh.

Cable on-demand has some of the British version, and I tried to watch it. I still didn't like it. It's just not funny ... I guess the humor is far too subtle for me and is too much like watching people in a real office occasionally mutter to each other - it puts me to sleep. Hubby doesn't like it either. I guess we're not with it.

I don't have Vista, since I still haven't upgraded my 'puters enough to warrant bothering with it. Always something else more important to spend the cash on lately, instead. I think by the time SP2 is released, I'd be ready to try it out then. But I'd still keep an XP PC around. heh I suspect I probably would find some things very irritating about Vista and grumble a lot at first, but overall I'd eventually get used to it - pretty much par for the course for all Windows O/S, imo. Still, I'm in no hurry.

I've never seen the British version of "The Office." Maybe I'd like it better. I don't find the American one funny at all, even tho I do like Steve Carell. I often like cynical/sarcastic satire/attitude & humor (the dad in that 70's show, George Carlin, Dr. House, Monty Python etc.) but something about The Office ... I've tried to watch it repeatedly but it never makes me even crack a smile. :/

The thing that set St. Patrick's Day apart in my personal mind is it's also my father's birthday. It made for some strange celebrations at our house.

All three of those things apply to me. At least on some days. There's definitely a difference between "mannerly" and "rude" to me - when I think of the former, I think of stuff like "Miss Manners", which I couldn't give a hoot about. Purposeful/sullen rudeness, particularly if it's carried out even after people ask for it to be stopped, is what bugs me.

Hey, now ... I've met plenty of blokes who are rude as heck ... ladies too, but it all tends to balance out, for me. I think basic manners - where people acknowledge other folks actions or even just their presence - has been on the decline for years. But doesn't every generation think that? Grandpa's griping about rude young whippersnappers. If people hold open doors or give up seats, I say thanks. I'll wave drivers or walkers to pass first if it seems safe and polite to do so. If I see someone in obvious distress I'd ask what's the matter. And if someone's right behind me I'll hold the door open till they get through to make sure the door doesn't whack them in the face. But I'm not generally over-solicitous about the small things often lumped into the "manners" category as a rule. Neither are most people I encounter, and honestly, 95% of the time it doesn't bother me if they aren't, since I'm not thinking about it either. That gal having her feet up on a seat on crowded bus, that would bother me, tho, because that's not about going an extra mile to dash over and hold open doors for people or whatever - that gal was plain selfish/thoughtless re: a certain social environment need. People who put their feet on the back of a movie-theater chair when someone is sitting in that chair- especially ones that "jiggle" their legs - really bug me, as well.

This afternoon I discovered that after 12 years, the plastic "shade" film you can use to cover your windows (to block sun - just use water to stick it on) will be so dried out and stuck on the glass that you'll have to spend a couple hours scraping it off with a razor blade. Dust mask and eye-protectors necessary. Ugh. Remind me never to use that stuff again ... if only because I'll forget it's there and thus leave it on too long.

It's all relative to area, or even street by street sometimes. In "expensive" cities, $1100 is fairly cheap if you're only talking about price and nothing else. Course, size of the rented space + features + area/street is more important in terms of defining what "cheap" is. A 1-3 bedroom, 600sq. ft. to 1500sq. ft. place might be between $1200-$3500 a month where I live. Tiny 400-500sq. ft. studio apartments (those w/out any separated rooms except for the bathroom) might run between $900-$1300. Most apts/condos would have at least 1 covered parking space and complex laundry facilities - even if that only means a single washer/dryer shared by 8 units - but not all the very cheapest rentals do. Rents were higher a few years ago - they've been going down/stabilized some now. That's based on my observations of the area, others might think differently. But in some areas of the US, it's a lot cheaper to rent than where I am - ie, you'd get two or three times the rental for the money, so to speak.

I finally saw The Postman, a film my hubby rented ages ago but I never bothered to watch. The first half wasn't too bad, and I loved Will Patton obviously having so much fun hamming it up as the bad guy, but the last third became progressively more silly in the typical over-blown & over-earnest Costner way. Still, I'm not sure it deserved the outright general critical panning it received when it came out 10(?) years ago. It's not great and it's about 30 minutes too long, but it's not completely awful either.

Nice waterfowl photo. Did you take it, Walsh? Soon I'll be much closer to my favorite marshland park again, which makes me happy. Today ... uh ... the packing continues. Not much else in my life at the moment.

I think that's a decent separation/difference. And it's true that a lot of wealth for people like Gates/Trump is tied up in business affairs etc. Still, they'd have to give away/do a lot more before I'd consider them to not be hoarding their wealth. Not that I find hoarding some wealth to be against my personal principles...that is, if I had any wealth to speak of.

I feel bad for the kids who helped him - they'll have nightmares for years. :/

I'd agree polluting the environment isn't a good thing, but some clarification on what degree of "polluting the environment" = mortal sin might be useful for believers. A lot of people have to drive to work ...

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...RM&refer=uk While I understand the sentiments behind the modernizing of the "list", it really strikes my funny-bone with it's non-specific nature for things like pollution and excessive wealth etc.

I'd heard so many good things about that one, but I guess I didn't "get" it, because I didn't like it very much. I saw Mystic River. I'd seen most of it, over the years, but not all, so it was nice to view it complete in one sitting for the first time.

I'm not sure if that was a response to what I wrote or to someone else - if me, I don't think that changes my view's point on human motivations re: cruelty.

I generally subscribe to the notion that we live in a society that sees cruelty to cute, cuddly, humanistic-seeming (chimps) and/or useful work animals in an extremely bad light. Basically, anything we believe can "suffer" where we are able to somehow humanize their expressions and behavior. I don't know many people who are bothered by killing insects, for example, even when it isn't necessary to immediately kill them for personal health. I have known a few, however.

Considering how expensive I've heard it is to live there, $1100 sounds like a pretty good deal? In the middle of packing myself. What a pain! Must be exciting moving to a whole new location like that; we've never moved more than 30 miles "away". Me too.