Archive for August, 2007
Sunshine
August 27th, 2007. Published under General. 6 Comments.
If you haven’t seen the movie “Sunshine” yet, you really, really should.
“Sunshine” is the latest film from Danny Boyle (”28 Days Later”, “Trainspotting”) and the story is, according to producer Andrew Macdonald:
The premise of SUNSHINE is that in 50 years from now the Sun is dying. It is no longer providing the energy and the light that mankind needs to survive on Earth. The entire global community pools its resources to send a mission into space to deliver a bomb to reignite the part of the Sun that is failing. Our story concerns the eight astronauts and scientists who lead this mission. On their journey towards the Sun the crew stumble upon the ship that was sent on the same mission seven years previously, the Icarus I, drifting in space. From this point on things start to go very wrong and it’s about how the crew react under the enormous pressure of their endeavor to save mankind.
It also stars Cillian Murphy, who is enough for me to watch any movie, doing a perfect American accent. What is it with these UK actors and their ability to mimic our dialects so perfectly?
*rraarroowwlll*
Ahem…putting that aside…”Sunshine” is an amazing movie. It’s got such a great story, one that isn’t clichéd and predictable. Thoroughly enjoyable and highly recommended.
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On Saturday, Tim and I discovered this little old-fashioned drive-in burger joint less than 5 miles from our house. They not only had the best hamburgers I’ve ever had - their onion rings are phenomenal. The only downfall is that they’re less than 5 minutes from our house and I’ll have to double my workout schedule in order to not gain 1,000 pounds.
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Having my entire family up for a barbeque on Sunday - and I’ll have 3-5 people staying overnight in my tiny townhouse. But, it’ll be a blast having everyone over. Good thing I’m taking Friday off to clean.
Have a great week!
Obvious Idiocy?
August 24th, 2007. Published under General. 1 Comment.
I saw this article in the Star Tribune just now:
35W bridge builder will get big bucks for speedy work
Now correct me if I seem way off base … but do you think it’s a good idea to RUSH the replacement of a bridge that had massive structural failure (because nobody in the current state Republican administration felt the need to, oh, FIX THE GODDAMN THING) just so we have a bridge back in operation? Twenty-seven MILLION dollars in incentives to “finish the job early”. In what crazy fantasy-land is this a good idea? Am I the only one who thinks that corners will be cut and work hastily done to grab that big pile of cash available?
Here’s the scoop on the “incentive”:
If the team needs to do extra work and asks for no additional time beyond the date set in the contract, it can earn a bonus of $7 million, and can collect another $200,000 for every day it finishes early, up to 100 days.
For a project - a 10 lane bridge over the Mississippi River - that is slated to take 14 months, why would they give incentives like that to have them finish over 3 months early? Do they pad the time estimate of the project so a perfect job of construction would take only 11 months? I DON’T GET IT.
But wait … there’s more!
The accelerated construction schedule also is unusual, and [Jon Chiglo, MnDOT's manager] said there are several reasons that such a timetable is possible. Because they’re starting from scratch, they won’t have to work around traffic, and they’ll have multiple shifts and crews working on both sides of the river.
Um … did someone forget that we’re in MINNESOTA? I’d like to see them working multiple shifts around the clock in the middle of January when the wind chill is -40 degrees for a high temperature.
Maybe I’m just paranoid, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to offer bonuses to speed up the process of a construction project. My only hope is that due to the intense scrutiny of the whole situation, that there’ll be extensive and thorough inspections. Hopefully.
Wow.
August 21st, 2007. Published under General. No Comments.
This so incredibly romantic and nerdy at the same time.
I got misty-eyed at the end there. :-)
My Weekend
August 20th, 2007. Published under General. 1 Comment.
It was rainy, cold and icky for the entire weekend. All my big plans - bike ride, run, etc - were squashed.
So what did I do instead?
I baked.
I know - I’m not a baker. Ever. But for some reason, I was in the mood. So I baked some homemade banana bread and some oatmeal chocolate chunk cookies. I was going to make some homemade blueberry muffins too, but I got sidetracked. Good thing I have Tim to eat the goodies with me.
I also colored my hair yesterday - it’s back to a dark brown. Exciting, I know.
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The new Pink Ninja Studios homepage launched yesterday, along with the latest episode of Tech Snark. I’m not sure if I mentioned it here, but we’re releasing shows weekly now, instead of every two weeks. The ancient Chinese secret is that we still record every two weeks. We just discovered that we have enough material for two shows - so we made a slight adjustment and made two shows out of it. It shouldn’t make much difference on the end of our listeners, other than getting more Snark!
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We go from “extreme drought conditions” to “above normal rainfall”. This dreary, rainy weather is really starting to get to me. Good thing we’re going to the gym tonight.
Just another day
August 16th, 2007. Published under General. 1 Comment.
I’m back to work (finally). Getting caught up on things - thankfully I hadn’t gotten swamped while I was gone. It’s great to work at a company where the supervisors of the administrative staff actually give a crap whether or not the work is getting done in one’s absence. I can tell you that in my previous job, it was an attitude of “not my problem”.
And they wonder why people don’t like working there.
Anyhoo…
I need to call my sister tonight to see if we can reschedule the Ren Fest trip…I’m still not 100% and if I can’t eat all the food out there, there’s no point in going.
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I just realized that in two weeks, my whole family is going to be at my house for a get-together. My parents will be coming up the Friday night before Labor Day and we’re going to go to the German bar/restaurant that they like so much (so they can go dancing) and stay through Sunday (the day of the get-together).
Tim and I have a LOT of work to do in the house before they get here. Cleaning, placing the new Dish cable where it should be and straightening up the house in general. It’ll be fun, though.
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Tim might be out of town for 3 days next week for work. I hate it when he has to go out of town.
Turbo Death Scurvy!!!
August 14th, 2007. Published under General. 1 Comment.
Well I’ve had a fun time this past week:
- Monday (6th): went home around noon with body aches and fever.
- Tuesday: home sick with body aches and fever
- Wednesday: home sick with body aches and fever
- Thursday: went back to work and I felt fine. Was a bit tired, but I figured that was normal. Recorded Tech Snark that night and by the end of the night, I had excruciating body aches - so bad I had to soak in a hot tub and take 4 extra strength Tylenol just so I could sleep.
- Friday: woke up feeling like crap but went into work anyway because of an event on Monday that still had some work left to do. Spent most of the morning in the bathroom (I’ll spare you the details on that). When I nearly passed out at my desk from the pain, I called Tim to take me home. Had a super-high fever and slept for the next 20 hours.
- Saturday: In the bathroom nearly every hour and all I could sustain myself on was Gatorade. Fever had gone down, but still in a lot of pain.
- Sunday: Went to urgent care when things got a bit worse than they had been (again, sparing you the gory details). After some fun exams and blood work, they told me I had a virus and all they could do was “prescribe” me fluids, rest and bland food. Gee thanks for that, guys.
- Monday: Home from work - starting to eat a bit more and not in the bathroom as much. Then I stupidly ate some instant mashed potatoes (because the doc said I could have a baked potato - so my sick-addled brain figured the instant was just as good, right?) and I was punished for it.
- Today: Home from work. Still slowly recovering. Have to go back to urgent care to drop off the final test samples they needed (really won’t go into detail on that one…*shudder*) and go to the store for more bananas and Gatorade. My life is exciting.
I really want to go back to work tomorrow - but we’ll see how I am tonight. I really hate being sick.
A dilemma.
August 9th, 2007. Published under General. 1 Comment.
I really want to run in the Heart of Summer 5k next Saturday.
However, I’ve made plans to meet my sister and her two boys at the Renaissance Festival that same day.
The 5k race starts at 8:30am, which means that at best, I’d finish at or around 9:05-9:10am. By the time I would get all my crap and get back to where I parked, it would be 9:30, at best. Then driving home, another 30-40 minutes, and showering and then driving the 45-60 minutes to the festival grounds. If everything goes well, we’d get there between 11-noon.
Or I could just not destroy myself and find a 5k for Sunday. But I really like the Heart of Summer one!! Should I do both? I won’t be able to get to the Ren Fest any sooner (with ideal conditions), unless there’s a way for me to shower somewhere other than home. But, I have a feeling my sister wants to be there right when it opens at 9am. We’ll have to figure that out.
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In other news, I’m back at work after a 3 day bout with some sort of stomach bug. I felt like I got run over by a truck. Nothing worse than being sick in the summertime.
Why Tim is awesome
August 4th, 2007. Published under General. 1 Comment.
[scene: In bed and I'm almost asleep, Tim's watching old G.I. Joe cartoons on DVD]
Cobra Commander laughs about some evil plan.
Tim: (wistfully) I wish I had a reason to laugh maniacally.
[end scene]
I laughed so hard that I couldn’t fall asleep for 15 minutes. I sat up in bed and wrote that down so I wouldn’t forget it. It’s still hilarious today. :-D
New Photos of the I-35W Bridge Collapse
August 3rd, 2007. Published under General. No Comments.
I got the link to this gallery from a friend - and they’re photos I’ve not seen before.
The photo that really gets me is “IMG_0662″… the debris of the lunch cooler, the bottle of water, the tool case and the random gutter fittings…that person was headed home from a hard day’s work and was caught in the middle of this horrible accident. I hope they made it out OK.
Bridge Over Troubled Waters
August 2nd, 2007. Published under General. 8 Comments.
Unless you’re living under a rock, you’ve heard about the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis that crosses the Mississippi River. It’s hard to not know about it due to the near inexhaustible coverage being given to this story.
I spent most of the evening on the couch with Tim, a glass of wine, the television on and my laptop open instant messaging people and making quick posts on the pertinent online sites to let people know I was ok and finding out if everyone else was ok. I even sent a text message on my phone to a friend - and you all know how much my very being repels text messaging.
It was great seeing ordinary people stepping up when the shit hit the fan to help others in need. I also got a taste of the nature of the news media, who are nothing but a bunch of sharks who smell blood in the water.
With this being in my backyard, and mere blocks from where I work (I can see the south end of the collapse from the windows on my floor) I’m getting a bit incensed with all of the reporters whose sole purpose in this situation is to find the most salacious, the most juicy and the most sensational details of the story. I keep hearing reporters asking officials over and over if this collapse was “OMG TERRORISTS!!!1!!one!” and having to hear these officials, with exasperation in their voices, to keep saying “no…we believe this was a structural failure”.
These same reporters, when not given the nugget of tabloid glory that they so hoped for, then start asking about the gory details of the (as of now) 4 people that have died in this accident. Wanting to know just how they died and “please tell us in detail” what happened to them. Thankfully the spokespeople at the hospitals in the area are keeping things respectful and only are giving out the bare minimum of information about those poor people.
THEN … when that avenue of questioning doesn’t work, they start in on the officials and spokespeople themselves, asking them to “tell us how YOU feel” about the whole thing. Again, hoping to get some great soundbite and some awesome video of a teary-eyed official breaking down over this whole tragedy, the national news media fails to realize that us Minnesotans, while we do love to slow down to “rubberneck” at an accident, are also from the land of Lutherans* where they don’t show emotion to strangers, or most people. Granted, that’s a generalization, but if the spokespeople and officials are any indication, they’re not going to lose it on national television.
There’s a discussion in the Twin Cities community on Live Journal about the “coverage” of the story. My favorite quote: “Welcome to the wonderful world of disaster porn.”
And if I hear ONE MORE PERSON comparing this to “9/11″, I’m going to fucking lose it. It’s a bridge collapse - one that happened to an old bridge (that had some suspect structural integrity) that was under construction and it had just collapsed. There are NO similarities to 9/11 anywhere in this situation, unless you count that both incidents had dead people. Nothing else. We’re not under attack. We’re not all going to die. The bridge collapsed, you weren’t on it and we’ll all be fine.
I just got this email on my work account from a co-worker:
If anyone has an interesting personal story about the 35W bridge collapse, or has a friend or family member who was involved and has something interesting to say about it, I’ve been contacted by both CNN and Fox News with a request to pass on to them with contact information for anyone I become aware of whom they might want to put on TV. If you know of someone, especially someone who hasn’t already been interviewed, let me know.
Good lord - when will it stop?
Mourn the dead, heal the wounded - but get your goddamn cameras out of our faces.
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*-Go listen to a Prairie Home Companion if you don’t believe me.
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