It's interesting to note that I haven't been blogging as much this past week because I haven't been editing. It's sad but true, I do more blogging as means of procrastination, and when I'm busy trying to get my shit together, I stay pretty busy and I don't really have time to reflect and blog.
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Well, at least the DVD is burning now. It's 3 in the morning and I've got 3 more to burn, but I have to get the DVDs in the mail for tomorrow. They were supposed to go out Thursday, but DVD Studio Pro has to act like a punk - I've been dealing with some pretty interesting problems, all of which are probably too boring to explain. But basically the software puts this limitation that I had to figure out how to accommodate in order to get my DVD written. At 2 hours 15 minutes, it's one of the longer DVDs I had to make, and it was getting me plenty pissed because I have been encoding since Monday. It would come out wrong, and I'd do it again. Encoding takes quite a while, about 2 days or so. I know, yours may not take as long, but I opted for a two-pass, high quality, dual layer encode. Anyway.
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So instead of editing, I've been doing other productive tasks, such as taxes, which I hate with a ferocity and usually avoid altogether. But it's just that I have this downtime and it needs to be done anyway, so I hacked at my mom's taxes first, and then went on the painstaking task of back-documenting all my business expenses - stuff that I don't keep any track of because I'm a lousy bookkeeper. Anyway, further proof that I am a terrible businessman - I made about 12 thou doing videography, which sounds pretty promising until I tell you that I spent about 7 thou trying to equip and maintain it. So that left about 5 thousand to support my family for the whole year. Yeah, I'm no good at it. I gotta get out of it.
Part of it was trying to start up my business, and with that came a lot of new equipment purchases. I mean, I actually scrimped on a lot of stuff, believe it or not. I purchased a Panasonic camcorder, for crying out loud. And FYI, it shoots like one too. I bought everything pretty reasonably, and now I'm just more equipped than the average bear. I think it was my secret ploy to equip myself with filmmaking materials in order to write it off. I dunno, it would be a tricky sneak if I didn't realize that I could've done the same thing under a different business venture, like independent filmmaking.
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I feel bad for the kids tonight. I wasn't the happiest Daddy for them, because of the whole DVD thing (but seriously, you should be able to author a DVD like that, right? Stupid DSP.) and I was a little snappy with them. But luckily children have this great capacity to love unconditionally, and to live moments as they happen and not hold grudges. Days like today I really wish I was done with videography altogether so that I could maintain a regular schedule. These few days I feel like I've been working non-stop, though mostly on taxes, not videography.
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Well, I'm a little zoned out since it's past my usual bedtime, so I'll just go watch a movie or something. Might watch United 93.
Saturday, March 3, 2007
Thursday, March 1, 2007
Um, Okay
For some reason it decided to snow tonight, which was kind of weird. It was hailing earlier, and then it just dumped some snow on us. But it'll be gone by tomorrow, so the kids won't even get to play around in it.
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So my mom went to the doctor's finally today, after a week or so of coughing. She said that it was so bad last night she contemplated having me drive her to the ER, because she had problems breathing after coughing. And of course, as I had suspected, she had caught a case of pneumonia, likely from my wife who is just recovering from it. Since I'm of a different species, I haven't gotten it yet. The kids haven't caught it either, though they've got some kind of ear infection, because they can't seem to listen real well.
Lately, we've had to fight the kids over meal times like the Dickens. Charles, that is. They would just stall or play during mealtime, and Zoe will straight out pout through the whole meal, making Daddy very very cranky. Nothing makes me more cranky than things not going as planned. I've also been having a hard time with the kids - I think a huge part of it is because they're bored, and I don't know what to do with them. I would take them out, but it's too cold to do anything and I detest going to the mall just to kill time. I would teach them games, but between the two of them, with one being bored and wandering off and the other making up their own rules, it gets to be just problematic as hell. We tried playing Candyland a while back and I couldn't do it. I tried to explain and follow the rules, but the anal side of me prevailed and I had to give up on any kind of rules.
So while Zoe's extending her lips by pouting and not eating, Alex has been overconfident and a bit of a bully. He's got his own agenda a lot of times, and most of it has to do with intimidating Zoe or pretending he's kicking someone's ass. When I've disciplined him a few times, he'll just look at me without any sign of regret. Sigh. We've really got to step up the parenting here. Got a couple teenagers in our hands.
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I've been in a bit of a limbo here. When my weddings are encoding, I can't do a whole lot. So I've been goofing off a lot today, doing a little of this, a little of that. Had my teeth cleaned yesterday. Had nitrous and I had to ask them to give me more because I was feeling the pain.
My eyes are starting to burn. It started after the 4th hour of video games. Gotta go.
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So my mom went to the doctor's finally today, after a week or so of coughing. She said that it was so bad last night she contemplated having me drive her to the ER, because she had problems breathing after coughing. And of course, as I had suspected, she had caught a case of pneumonia, likely from my wife who is just recovering from it. Since I'm of a different species, I haven't gotten it yet. The kids haven't caught it either, though they've got some kind of ear infection, because they can't seem to listen real well.
Lately, we've had to fight the kids over meal times like the Dickens. Charles, that is. They would just stall or play during mealtime, and Zoe will straight out pout through the whole meal, making Daddy very very cranky. Nothing makes me more cranky than things not going as planned. I've also been having a hard time with the kids - I think a huge part of it is because they're bored, and I don't know what to do with them. I would take them out, but it's too cold to do anything and I detest going to the mall just to kill time. I would teach them games, but between the two of them, with one being bored and wandering off and the other making up their own rules, it gets to be just problematic as hell. We tried playing Candyland a while back and I couldn't do it. I tried to explain and follow the rules, but the anal side of me prevailed and I had to give up on any kind of rules.
So while Zoe's extending her lips by pouting and not eating, Alex has been overconfident and a bit of a bully. He's got his own agenda a lot of times, and most of it has to do with intimidating Zoe or pretending he's kicking someone's ass. When I've disciplined him a few times, he'll just look at me without any sign of regret. Sigh. We've really got to step up the parenting here. Got a couple teenagers in our hands.
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I've been in a bit of a limbo here. When my weddings are encoding, I can't do a whole lot. So I've been goofing off a lot today, doing a little of this, a little of that. Had my teeth cleaned yesterday. Had nitrous and I had to ask them to give me more because I was feeling the pain.
My eyes are starting to burn. It started after the 4th hour of video games. Gotta go.
Monday, February 26, 2007
Oscars 2007
First of all, Zoe's fine. She woke me up this morning and she was pretty much tip-top, so we were happy. Normal Zoe can be very draining, but it's also one of her great attributes.
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Well, there's exactly one person who cares about how I feel about the Oscars, but I don't like to refer to myself in the third person, but here's my score anyway. I got half of the noms correct, 12 out of 24, and I guess I've seen only about three of the films. The Departed, Little Miss Sunshine, and An Inconvenient Truth. I was surprised that Eddie Murphy and Cars didn't win, more surprised that Alan Arkin and Happy Feet did. I mean, c'mon... Happy Feet? I liked the singing portions great, but half the movie required a great deal of the suspension of my disbelief. When the film changes tones, it's not so much like, "Oh Great!" but more of a "Oooookay, I guess..." Weird.
And I'm glad to see Marty win, and he was such a shoo-in that they even got the Masters of the 70s auteurs to kinda receive him into the club, so to speak. Except Lucas who didn't really win one, but probably win get some honorary one bestow upon him when they figure he ain't got much time left. Anyway, I'm glad Marty won, even though I do have my misgivings about "The Departed."
The rest of it all, I guess was okay. Since I watched it on DVR, I skipped all the commercials and sorry to say, all the technical awards and their speeches. I mean, after all, we are watching what is equivalent to the Employees of the Year awards of the film industry.
I had two moments of yelling at the TV, when Happy Feet won and when the announcer said that the Departed was a remake of the Japanese film, "Infernal Affairs." I yelled that I was going to pee on his head, that it was a Hong Kong movie.
But you know, I do need to get a life.
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Well, there's exactly one person who cares about how I feel about the Oscars, but I don't like to refer to myself in the third person, but here's my score anyway. I got half of the noms correct, 12 out of 24, and I guess I've seen only about three of the films. The Departed, Little Miss Sunshine, and An Inconvenient Truth. I was surprised that Eddie Murphy and Cars didn't win, more surprised that Alan Arkin and Happy Feet did. I mean, c'mon... Happy Feet? I liked the singing portions great, but half the movie required a great deal of the suspension of my disbelief. When the film changes tones, it's not so much like, "Oh Great!" but more of a "Oooookay, I guess..." Weird.
And I'm glad to see Marty win, and he was such a shoo-in that they even got the Masters of the 70s auteurs to kinda receive him into the club, so to speak. Except Lucas who didn't really win one, but probably win get some honorary one bestow upon him when they figure he ain't got much time left. Anyway, I'm glad Marty won, even though I do have my misgivings about "The Departed."
The rest of it all, I guess was okay. Since I watched it on DVR, I skipped all the commercials and sorry to say, all the technical awards and their speeches. I mean, after all, we are watching what is equivalent to the Employees of the Year awards of the film industry.
I had two moments of yelling at the TV, when Happy Feet won and when the announcer said that the Departed was a remake of the Japanese film, "Infernal Affairs." I yelled that I was going to pee on his head, that it was a Hong Kong movie.
But you know, I do need to get a life.
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Random Weekend News
One can always tell when it's deadline time - I'm running around being more productive than humanly possible. I actually do my work when I'm supposed to and goofing off is kept to a minimum. Now if only I could do that all the time I should be successful and rich.
Next Wednesday is the deadline, and I've got two computers running to perform the necessary steps to get it done on time. Of course, the deadline is sorta flexible, kinda, but I'd just like to get that done and out of the way. I always get this sense of accomplish and happiness when I watch the final product, like, well, that was pretty good. And that's the truth. I am getting better, my techniques are more polished, and the end result looks pretty darn snazzy. Too bad I'd rather be doing something else.
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Tonight my little girl is not feeling well. It was right after dinnertime, after she's complained about her tummy, and then right before bed, she just wanted to cuddle. Usually she's running around during night being noisy and wacky and it tough to get her to stay in bed, but tonight she just laid in bed and wanted to go to sleep. We're worried about her - she's got a slight temperature, so we'll be keeping an eye on her to make sure that she's okay. Poor Zoe.
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So in between the editing, I decided to get a move on with the script, and started writing a treatment for the story in my head. Then I read another because my first treatment was too detailed, and I'd end up having a bit of a read if I kept that up. It's nice though, to have to think ahead and figure out the details of the story. Down to the third half, and still a bunch of plot holes I have to fill. But it's serious drama, none of my usual dick-in-eye jokes or attempts to be humorous. I don't know how it'll turn out, and I still don't know if I should write within a budget. Maybe having a fleet of spaceships in my script might be a terrible idea. But no, really. This script is pretty low concept. Deals with how a murder impacts some individuals and causes a chain reaction of sorts. The plot isn't necessarily fresh, but hopefully the execution will be passable.
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Well, got more work to do, starting with picking up me mum. Yes, I like to drop mad bombs once in a while, but that's just the alcohol speakin'.
God, I sound like Dansen.
Next Wednesday is the deadline, and I've got two computers running to perform the necessary steps to get it done on time. Of course, the deadline is sorta flexible, kinda, but I'd just like to get that done and out of the way. I always get this sense of accomplish and happiness when I watch the final product, like, well, that was pretty good. And that's the truth. I am getting better, my techniques are more polished, and the end result looks pretty darn snazzy. Too bad I'd rather be doing something else.
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Tonight my little girl is not feeling well. It was right after dinnertime, after she's complained about her tummy, and then right before bed, she just wanted to cuddle. Usually she's running around during night being noisy and wacky and it tough to get her to stay in bed, but tonight she just laid in bed and wanted to go to sleep. We're worried about her - she's got a slight temperature, so we'll be keeping an eye on her to make sure that she's okay. Poor Zoe.
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So in between the editing, I decided to get a move on with the script, and started writing a treatment for the story in my head. Then I read another because my first treatment was too detailed, and I'd end up having a bit of a read if I kept that up. It's nice though, to have to think ahead and figure out the details of the story. Down to the third half, and still a bunch of plot holes I have to fill. But it's serious drama, none of my usual dick-in-eye jokes or attempts to be humorous. I don't know how it'll turn out, and I still don't know if I should write within a budget. Maybe having a fleet of spaceships in my script might be a terrible idea. But no, really. This script is pretty low concept. Deals with how a murder impacts some individuals and causes a chain reaction of sorts. The plot isn't necessarily fresh, but hopefully the execution will be passable.
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Well, got more work to do, starting with picking up me mum. Yes, I like to drop mad bombs once in a while, but that's just the alcohol speakin'.
God, I sound like Dansen.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
For the one of you who's been following this blog in hopes that one day I might disclose the full report on WMDs in Iraq, you know that I'm quite taken with Studio 60. I've followed it all season and watched it every Monday, but now the industry papers and everyone's second aunt is saying that last Monday's show was very likely its swan song, despite that there are actually about three more episodes that have been ordered by NBC, and have probably filmed or are in the process of final production. Right now the show is not officially pronounced cancelled by NBC, even though the timeslot next week will be occupied by a different sow.
As I do with most movies and TV shows, I like to try to figure out why some shows succeed, and why some fail. So, here's my two cents.
Casting
Interestingly, the casting is part genius, but also part faulty. The casting of Matthew Perry works for me, because I'm willing to accept him as an actor who does other things, and he does Matt Albie quite well. His character however, is flawed - he's quite an ass when it comes to relationships, even though he's pretty likeable otherwise. He torments his love interest to the point whereby it can be considered abusive. Now in that respect, there are a lot of people who know him as Chandler, and they've known him as that character for ten years. To see him not act like Chandler can throw some folks off - I wouldn't know any of those folks who can't separate actors from their roles, but they are out there for sure.
Another big wrench in the gears is the casting of both Sarah Paulson and Amanda Peet. I can certainly see her as Harriet the character, both I'm not entirely sure why everyone would be so crazy for her. She seems like an interesting secondary character, but as a love interest - not so much. And her as the lead actor in a SNL type show? Can't buy that. As for Amanda Peet, who is supposed to be the president of a network, worked for about the first two episodes - but after that she seemed like she was pretending to run the network, and during her off time she seemed like a needy, trolling loser who just wants a friend. Wait, the president of a network who wants to hang out and make friends? Hmmm.
The Writing
I like the writing. It's stylized for sure, like a David Mamet movie whereby the characters talk kinda funny. A lot of the characters are hyper intelligent, which isn't a bad thing, and the sketches they present on the show are funny in its own way, but not in a broad way. More in a scholarly, snobby professor's lounge humor sort of way. A show like that running on an actual network would fail. SNL's biggest hit as of late as called, "Dick in a Box." Not if Jesus Christ was the head of Standards and Practices. That was funny in its own way, but I think nobody would watch that on TV.
I think there is a lot of great humor in the show - I like the banter between the characters and the chemistry between Matt and Danny is awesome. The Jordan/Danny and Matt/Harriet relationship was rushed and forced, as if Sorkin was trying to make us care about the characters, as if someone said to him, um... They need a romantic interest.
Sorkin's writing is quite self-referential, to the point that it pokes fun of itself. In this last week's episode, Studio 60's ratings have been slipping since they've taken on from a high debut - much like the the actual show itself. The relationship with Matt and Harriet and Matt and Danny are derived in part from Aaron Sorkin's relationship with Kristin Chenoweth and Thomas Schlamme, so basically Matthew Perry is Aaron's alter ego. Which is a problem because Matt sometimes acts in ways that are terrible and abusive but his actions are too often justified. I've written myself as a character before and trust me, it's tough to write a role for yourself. You get the best lines, and your character always comes across too dignified and self-righteous.
Sorkin also has a bit of a mean streak in him, and it shows a lot in Matt and Simon's characters. The way D.L. Hughley's character insulted a Black writer after he refused to write a script about a Black militant Fruit of the Loom was downright nasty and uncomfortable. Or the way Matt constantly sabotages Harriet with his behavior gets to be a bit creepy. Head writers can be stalkers too. I have no problems with Steven Weber's character being mean, or the relationship between Matt/Danny and the cast - that's understandable, but the two mentioned above does leave a bit of a bitter aftertaste.
Perhaps one of the most telling of all is the way the show likes to refer to how Matt can write scripts for his show week after week, with minimal input from the writer's room, which consists of two writers and a supervisor. Which is what Sorkin does. For example, sitcoms like Friends and Cheers have usually multiple writers, SNL has quite a number of writers. What other writers contribute is more than ideas, but criticism when the material needs more work. I think Sorkin is a good writer, I actually enjoy it a lot with the subtitles on, but when the faults come through, they push the audiences away in a big way.
Well, I hope the show comes back. I really do like the show, I'm just trying my hand at analyzing why audiences are drifting away.
Oh, and there are no WMDs in Iraq. Even I could've told you that.
As I do with most movies and TV shows, I like to try to figure out why some shows succeed, and why some fail. So, here's my two cents.
Casting
Interestingly, the casting is part genius, but also part faulty. The casting of Matthew Perry works for me, because I'm willing to accept him as an actor who does other things, and he does Matt Albie quite well. His character however, is flawed - he's quite an ass when it comes to relationships, even though he's pretty likeable otherwise. He torments his love interest to the point whereby it can be considered abusive. Now in that respect, there are a lot of people who know him as Chandler, and they've known him as that character for ten years. To see him not act like Chandler can throw some folks off - I wouldn't know any of those folks who can't separate actors from their roles, but they are out there for sure.
Another big wrench in the gears is the casting of both Sarah Paulson and Amanda Peet. I can certainly see her as Harriet the character, both I'm not entirely sure why everyone would be so crazy for her. She seems like an interesting secondary character, but as a love interest - not so much. And her as the lead actor in a SNL type show? Can't buy that. As for Amanda Peet, who is supposed to be the president of a network, worked for about the first two episodes - but after that she seemed like she was pretending to run the network, and during her off time she seemed like a needy, trolling loser who just wants a friend. Wait, the president of a network who wants to hang out and make friends? Hmmm.
The Writing
I like the writing. It's stylized for sure, like a David Mamet movie whereby the characters talk kinda funny. A lot of the characters are hyper intelligent, which isn't a bad thing, and the sketches they present on the show are funny in its own way, but not in a broad way. More in a scholarly, snobby professor's lounge humor sort of way. A show like that running on an actual network would fail. SNL's biggest hit as of late as called, "Dick in a Box." Not if Jesus Christ was the head of Standards and Practices. That was funny in its own way, but I think nobody would watch that on TV.
I think there is a lot of great humor in the show - I like the banter between the characters and the chemistry between Matt and Danny is awesome. The Jordan/Danny and Matt/Harriet relationship was rushed and forced, as if Sorkin was trying to make us care about the characters, as if someone said to him, um... They need a romantic interest.
Sorkin's writing is quite self-referential, to the point that it pokes fun of itself. In this last week's episode, Studio 60's ratings have been slipping since they've taken on from a high debut - much like the the actual show itself. The relationship with Matt and Harriet and Matt and Danny are derived in part from Aaron Sorkin's relationship with Kristin Chenoweth and Thomas Schlamme, so basically Matthew Perry is Aaron's alter ego. Which is a problem because Matt sometimes acts in ways that are terrible and abusive but his actions are too often justified. I've written myself as a character before and trust me, it's tough to write a role for yourself. You get the best lines, and your character always comes across too dignified and self-righteous.
Sorkin also has a bit of a mean streak in him, and it shows a lot in Matt and Simon's characters. The way D.L. Hughley's character insulted a Black writer after he refused to write a script about a Black militant Fruit of the Loom was downright nasty and uncomfortable. Or the way Matt constantly sabotages Harriet with his behavior gets to be a bit creepy. Head writers can be stalkers too. I have no problems with Steven Weber's character being mean, or the relationship between Matt/Danny and the cast - that's understandable, but the two mentioned above does leave a bit of a bitter aftertaste.
Perhaps one of the most telling of all is the way the show likes to refer to how Matt can write scripts for his show week after week, with minimal input from the writer's room, which consists of two writers and a supervisor. Which is what Sorkin does. For example, sitcoms like Friends and Cheers have usually multiple writers, SNL has quite a number of writers. What other writers contribute is more than ideas, but criticism when the material needs more work. I think Sorkin is a good writer, I actually enjoy it a lot with the subtitles on, but when the faults come through, they push the audiences away in a big way.
Well, I hope the show comes back. I really do like the show, I'm just trying my hand at analyzing why audiences are drifting away.
Oh, and there are no WMDs in Iraq. Even I could've told you that.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Today was going relatively well, but after putting Alex to bed tonight, I got so grouchy. This thing used to happen once in a while, but when it happens, it really gets to me.
Zoe can be stubborn but for the most part, if you tell her to knock it off, she will. Alex however, takes it very personally and seriously, and he doesn't really calm down when he gets worked up. In fact, he can be pretty inconsolable at times. But this is the deal. I put Alex down in bed and he says, "like this." And kicks his blanket. I don't know what he's talking about, so I ask him. He'll just repeat, "like this." I try different things with his blanket, and none of it works. He just keeps repeating it. I ask him to show me. He doesn't. I ask him to use different words. He repeats the same words. I tell him I don't know what he wants, and kiss him goodnight, and he'll start crying as if I told him I was leaving him to wolves. So I try to figure it out again, and ask him, guess, and explain to him that I don't understand. But he giggles, repeats, and refuses to back down or compromise to that singular task that he has committed to in his mind, unless I do it for him. Now, I'm probably being a bit impatient, and he's probably being stubborn, but my god it drives me crazy. I know if I just leave the room, he'll get worked up and cry so hard that he seems like he's hyperventilating.
Anyway, it turned out that he just wanted the blanket tucked under his legs, which I tried to do twice before. Somehow the third time was special or something.
I'm bummed because we did have such a good day all day - after their naps we were going to go for a walk, but being outside for more than a minute proved to us that it was too damn cold to be walking anywhere, so we decided to go to the toy store instead. My aunt had given them both 5 bucks for Chinese New Year in the mail, so we were going to go spend it. We got this velcro ball/target thing and toy plastic soldiers, which really brought out the boy in Alex. I took one of the plastic dinosaurs so that the soldiers had someone to fight, and Alex had his aggressive boy voice, that was deeper and throaty, and they battled the dinosaur, played by Zoe. Zoe, being disinterested in anything destructive, decided to spin the dinosaur on his belly, after she found out that it spins pretty fast. Anyway, got some of it on tape, might share it later.
All day today I've been trying to get this old wedding done, a wedding that I had the date and location screwed up on. So basically, a mistake on what equates to 10 seconds at the beginning meant that she was unhappy and I had to redo the whole DVD for her. But since I've thrown out the project and it didn't sync right when I tried to relink it, I had to spend a lot of freaking time working on something I've already done once before. So most of today was working on that.
The other highlight of the day was when my wife called her ex to talk about JL. Since she moved back to Bellingham last Nov. under the stipulation that she was moving back to see her father, and that she was going to excel in school in her hometown, she's gotten slightly worse. She aced two classes: Walking and Choir. C in one, D in the other, and two fat F's to round it off. On top of that, something that she never attempted when she was under our wing, was a handful of tardy and hooky days.
Anyway, that's not that uncommon, unfortunately. Her bad grades aren't because she's stupid - she's smart but she chooses to be lazy, and chooses to spend time with her boyfriend. Anyway, she skipped the day after Valentine's Day and tried to tell my wife that "she didn't feel like going to school that day" and that "it was complicated." It was the day after Valentines. We're not stupid. Doesn't take a freaking genius to figure that one out. My wife summed it up by saying, "I'm not your Dad."
Brett is a guy who would walk in on you with a knife in someone, and you could say, "Oh, he walked into me while I was cleaning my knife," and depending on whether he chooses to care or not, he'll either accept that as truth and have a sandwich, or he'll turn your motivation for murder into why his ex-wife's divorce had turned his life and the lives of his children into total disasters. He's really figure out how to survive in Earth's atmosphere without a space suit.
Which is actually something he did this afternoon. My wife was talking to him about JL and how she doesn't listen, thinks she's wiser than everyone, and my wife, being kind and not blurting out things like, "Really? You mean we weren't the ones that were messing up?" or "Maybe you should take time to listen to her or take her to a movie," which was the sage advice he offered us when we were having problems with her. My wife was being polite and basically sharing as to how she's manipulating a lot of truth (i.e. lying her ass off) and trying to relate to him, when he pulled a fresh one out of his stretched-out butthole and vomitted out this nugget, "Well, you know the divorce really affected her."
Yeah, the divorce made her skip school to sleep with her boyfriend. That has so much to do with it. My wife excused herself and then we spend the next hour raving about why stupidity should actually hurt the offender, and why freak accidents always seem to miss the freaks.
----
Oh, and to the wanker who's trying to access my account, get a freaking life loser. At least try to access the account of someone who's more interesting than I am.
Zoe can be stubborn but for the most part, if you tell her to knock it off, she will. Alex however, takes it very personally and seriously, and he doesn't really calm down when he gets worked up. In fact, he can be pretty inconsolable at times. But this is the deal. I put Alex down in bed and he says, "like this." And kicks his blanket. I don't know what he's talking about, so I ask him. He'll just repeat, "like this." I try different things with his blanket, and none of it works. He just keeps repeating it. I ask him to show me. He doesn't. I ask him to use different words. He repeats the same words. I tell him I don't know what he wants, and kiss him goodnight, and he'll start crying as if I told him I was leaving him to wolves. So I try to figure it out again, and ask him, guess, and explain to him that I don't understand. But he giggles, repeats, and refuses to back down or compromise to that singular task that he has committed to in his mind, unless I do it for him. Now, I'm probably being a bit impatient, and he's probably being stubborn, but my god it drives me crazy. I know if I just leave the room, he'll get worked up and cry so hard that he seems like he's hyperventilating.
Anyway, it turned out that he just wanted the blanket tucked under his legs, which I tried to do twice before. Somehow the third time was special or something.
I'm bummed because we did have such a good day all day - after their naps we were going to go for a walk, but being outside for more than a minute proved to us that it was too damn cold to be walking anywhere, so we decided to go to the toy store instead. My aunt had given them both 5 bucks for Chinese New Year in the mail, so we were going to go spend it. We got this velcro ball/target thing and toy plastic soldiers, which really brought out the boy in Alex. I took one of the plastic dinosaurs so that the soldiers had someone to fight, and Alex had his aggressive boy voice, that was deeper and throaty, and they battled the dinosaur, played by Zoe. Zoe, being disinterested in anything destructive, decided to spin the dinosaur on his belly, after she found out that it spins pretty fast. Anyway, got some of it on tape, might share it later.
All day today I've been trying to get this old wedding done, a wedding that I had the date and location screwed up on. So basically, a mistake on what equates to 10 seconds at the beginning meant that she was unhappy and I had to redo the whole DVD for her. But since I've thrown out the project and it didn't sync right when I tried to relink it, I had to spend a lot of freaking time working on something I've already done once before. So most of today was working on that.
The other highlight of the day was when my wife called her ex to talk about JL. Since she moved back to Bellingham last Nov. under the stipulation that she was moving back to see her father, and that she was going to excel in school in her hometown, she's gotten slightly worse. She aced two classes: Walking and Choir. C in one, D in the other, and two fat F's to round it off. On top of that, something that she never attempted when she was under our wing, was a handful of tardy and hooky days.
Anyway, that's not that uncommon, unfortunately. Her bad grades aren't because she's stupid - she's smart but she chooses to be lazy, and chooses to spend time with her boyfriend. Anyway, she skipped the day after Valentine's Day and tried to tell my wife that "she didn't feel like going to school that day" and that "it was complicated." It was the day after Valentines. We're not stupid. Doesn't take a freaking genius to figure that one out. My wife summed it up by saying, "I'm not your Dad."
Brett is a guy who would walk in on you with a knife in someone, and you could say, "Oh, he walked into me while I was cleaning my knife," and depending on whether he chooses to care or not, he'll either accept that as truth and have a sandwich, or he'll turn your motivation for murder into why his ex-wife's divorce had turned his life and the lives of his children into total disasters. He's really figure out how to survive in Earth's atmosphere without a space suit.
Which is actually something he did this afternoon. My wife was talking to him about JL and how she doesn't listen, thinks she's wiser than everyone, and my wife, being kind and not blurting out things like, "Really? You mean we weren't the ones that were messing up?" or "Maybe you should take time to listen to her or take her to a movie," which was the sage advice he offered us when we were having problems with her. My wife was being polite and basically sharing as to how she's manipulating a lot of truth (i.e. lying her ass off) and trying to relate to him, when he pulled a fresh one out of his stretched-out butthole and vomitted out this nugget, "Well, you know the divorce really affected her."
Yeah, the divorce made her skip school to sleep with her boyfriend. That has so much to do with it. My wife excused herself and then we spend the next hour raving about why stupidity should actually hurt the offender, and why freak accidents always seem to miss the freaks.
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Oh, and to the wanker who's trying to access my account, get a freaking life loser. At least try to access the account of someone who's more interesting than I am.
Monday
Well, nothing really went on today, so technically I don't have anything worthy to write about - other than the fact that I feel like writing a bit. So I'll just go off for a little bit and get some words out of my head for this captive blog.
Stayed home the whole day doing some editing, and then some TV and youtube watching. Got a little envious of Xbox360 owners for being able to play "Dead Rising", this videogame whereby you're a photographer who gets trapped in a mall full of zombies, and you have all the weapons as your arsenal. You think it sounds like fun, and then you watch the gameplay footage and man, it's a bloody ball. Oh well, the Wii will have to suffice.
Which it is, really. I've been playing a bit of Zelda every day, and even though there's been times whereby I'm stuck and struggling, it never gets absurdly hard that a little exploration wouldn't solve. It's a pretty good game and it's insane that I didn't buy it for myself. Who would've thunk. Another thing I've been doing on the Wii is exploring the Virtual Console. I've only bought two games on it so far - Some ridiculously tough shooter called "Star Soldier" and "Kirby". Kirby's fun, though a bit on the easy side. The kids like it though. Pondering on Excitebike. I used to sneak over to a friend's house to play Excitebike, and it wasn't so much the races, but I remember building tracks on the edit mode and having fun with that. It is actually a pretty specific memory that it triggers, because I never owned a NES.
In other non-news, I guess some idiots, not including the salon owner, have decided to sell Britney Spear's hair on ebay for obscene amounts of moolah. It got me so cranky that I started insulting at the computer out loud - just seems like we haven't really gone very far as a civilization.
Tonight we also watched our Monday night goodness, which was Heroes and Studio 60. I like them both, though I'm cautious about Studio 60 because it's very possible that NBC will drop it and it won't see a second season. Despite how some people hate Aaron Sorkin's improbable situations, I still like the writing and the acting. And Heroes is really something too, with Stan Lee even dropping in for a cameo. I think though, the show works tremendously well because it doesn't mind dipping their characters in flaws. They're not even like, tormented because of the situations around them - most of the characters are pretty screwed up. It's a great ensemble showcase, though I don't think any of the characters are very interesting or good by themselves. I still think the acting in it is mostly just passable not to be distracting. Lost has better actors than Heroes, but Heroes have slightly better characters and story reconciliations.
Well, that's my nothing day.
Stayed home the whole day doing some editing, and then some TV and youtube watching. Got a little envious of Xbox360 owners for being able to play "Dead Rising", this videogame whereby you're a photographer who gets trapped in a mall full of zombies, and you have all the weapons as your arsenal. You think it sounds like fun, and then you watch the gameplay footage and man, it's a bloody ball. Oh well, the Wii will have to suffice.
Which it is, really. I've been playing a bit of Zelda every day, and even though there's been times whereby I'm stuck and struggling, it never gets absurdly hard that a little exploration wouldn't solve. It's a pretty good game and it's insane that I didn't buy it for myself. Who would've thunk. Another thing I've been doing on the Wii is exploring the Virtual Console. I've only bought two games on it so far - Some ridiculously tough shooter called "Star Soldier" and "Kirby". Kirby's fun, though a bit on the easy side. The kids like it though. Pondering on Excitebike. I used to sneak over to a friend's house to play Excitebike, and it wasn't so much the races, but I remember building tracks on the edit mode and having fun with that. It is actually a pretty specific memory that it triggers, because I never owned a NES.
In other non-news, I guess some idiots, not including the salon owner, have decided to sell Britney Spear's hair on ebay for obscene amounts of moolah. It got me so cranky that I started insulting at the computer out loud - just seems like we haven't really gone very far as a civilization.
Tonight we also watched our Monday night goodness, which was Heroes and Studio 60. I like them both, though I'm cautious about Studio 60 because it's very possible that NBC will drop it and it won't see a second season. Despite how some people hate Aaron Sorkin's improbable situations, I still like the writing and the acting. And Heroes is really something too, with Stan Lee even dropping in for a cameo. I think though, the show works tremendously well because it doesn't mind dipping their characters in flaws. They're not even like, tormented because of the situations around them - most of the characters are pretty screwed up. It's a great ensemble showcase, though I don't think any of the characters are very interesting or good by themselves. I still think the acting in it is mostly just passable not to be distracting. Lost has better actors than Heroes, but Heroes have slightly better characters and story reconciliations.
Well, that's my nothing day.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Yesterday was a Clown Day
Too lazy to post individual photos, so I'm sticking the whole flash slideshow on the page.
Anyway, we weren't going to go out yesterday, but since the weather was so nice and the sun was beckoning us to go out and get its warm goodness, we went to Chinatown to catch their celebration. Last year we went to the same thing, and it was overcrowded, with no place to sit, and we didn't have fun at all. So we decided to head out earlier this year, went down there about 40 minutes before it started, only to be turned away because they said they're not letting anyone in till noon.
We trolled around until then, and then got some nice photos outside of the lion dance. But even though we stood in line to get in, after the crowds gathered for the lion dance, the line was just absolute garbage. By the time we went it, all the seats, which weren't many, were already taken. So we did the same annoying thing we did last year, which was to set the kids on top of our shoulders, to watch the performances. And like last year, because Alex is like 40 pounds, I got tired really quickly, so down he went. And we didn't last past ten minutes. I got irritated because the venue did not ensure that there were enough seats to accomodate the crowds, and it's not like it's a surprise. Seriously if they moved the vendors out of there they could have more seating. It's a stupid, stupid setup.
So we wandered around Chinatown, but everything was just crowded and too boisterous. At one point I was crossing the road, and some idiot decided to go in reverse, always hitting Alex and me. You couldn't get a seat anywhere to eat. We killed some time, and then tried the train station again, but again, no seating, and left again. We headed toward home, but went to Marymoor park so that the kids can get some playground time.
After that, we headed home while the kids were watching a movie, I laid in bed with my iBook waiting for photos to download, and I fell asleep for like 3 hours. Needless to say, I woke up very confused, and hungry for human flesh. After devouring one of the neighbors, I decided that hey, I'm just screwed for the day. So I proceeded to not do any work for the rest of the day, perhaps the best decision I made all day.
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Not very often do I find the need to talk about celebrities' hair, but Britney Spears just made everyone's jaw drop yesterday morning by shaving her head. And then watching the video footage of some eyewitness made me sad, because the people in the crowd were acting like high school hecklers. They were saying the usual, "oh my god" and other expressions of disbelief, but when she came out to go to her car, people were saying things like, "How do you like your haircut" and just mean things. I feel a little sorry for her, and I don't know why she decided to shave it all off. But I did that once too, in college. Just was tired of it all. I was sick of trying to look a certain way, and I didn't want to deal with my hair, so I just shaved it all off. It was kind of a spiritual cleansing in a way, a screw you to what I thought people were thinking of me. It's a rebellious middle finger to trying to maintain an image, and I'm sure she wasn't just doing it because she was being wacky.
Would I shave my head again? No. Did I regret doing it? Not really. After that I pretty much didn't obsess as much as to how I looked like. I still do, but not as much.
It's Me!
I looked into Flickr and since I saw so many cameras out, I thought I'd find myself... and there I am in the red shirt!
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