February 13th, 2009

Flying

I’m sitting in the new Indianapolis airport on my way to Maryland for the weekend. The airport was kind enough to provide me with free wireless Internet access, which I thought was very nice.

While I love the “get you there faster than driving” aspect of flying, pretty much every other aspect of it makes me a nervous wreck. I’m as nervous about getting checked in, getting a boarding pass, and finding my gate as I am about possible crashes. In fact, I might be a little more nervous about all that. I don’t know what that says about me. Probably nothing good.

February 2nd, 2009

Groundhog Day

Question: If you had to relive the same day over and over again until you really, truly fell in love with someone, who would you choose?

You’re familiar with the movie, I’m going to assume.

A quote from this article (emphasis mine):

The turning point comes when he explains his predicament to Rita while they’re in the diner, where he can tell her the names and backgrounds of everyone who lives there. They get on much better than before, and Phil decides to become the man she’ll fall in love with, irrespective of how many Groundhog Days it takes. This is the true payback part of the movie, where we see Murray doing lots of good things for people, knowing when they’ll hurt themselves or mishaps will happen. He also decides to better himself, learning foreign languages, reading extensively and even learning to play the piano. This will eventually lead to Rita falling in love with him, which breaks the spell and ends the loop.

Followup Question: Why aren’t you doing that with the days you have?

January 31st, 2009

A Day In The Life

Song Info (from Beatlesongs):”A Day in the Life” is on the BSgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album and authorship was 60% Lennon and 40% McCartney. The song was inspired by two newspaper articles. The Mellotron, a keyboard that electronically produces programmed taped sounds, was used for the first time. The final piano chord lasts either 42, 43.5, or 45 seconds, depending upon your source or your sense of hearing.

Today, at long last, sees the end of Beatles Week. Since I’ve procrastinated so long, it happened to fall on the day I’m hosting a Lord of the Rings marathon. As a result, you get to bear witness to a conflux of pop culture heretofore not seen – a Beatle-titled liveblog of The Lord of the Rings.

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9:02p – Everyone left a while ago, but the credits just now stopped rolling.  Full-day attendees were Kim, Marshall, Jen, Lance, Eric, Jeremiah, Pete, Wendy, and me, with a few others coming and going in-between.  It was a fun day.  I’m not sure what next year’s marathon will be…

8:41p – Movie done!  Credits are apparently 20 minutes long?

8:37p – Frodo saying goodbye always makes me tear up.  Not gonna lie.

8:26p – Aragorn: “Second official act: smooch this-a-here elf lady.”

8:24p – Aragorn: “As my first official act as king, I would like to sing y’all a little song.”

8:14p – The One Ring: “I’m melting, I’m melting!”
Sauron: “Aww, dang it :( “

8:13p – Aaaaaaand Gollum saves the day.   Inadvertently.

8:04p – Nutmeg has taken turns throughout the day glaring at different people.  It’s Eric’s turn currently.

8:00p – Aragorn ends negotiations.

7:41p – Sting is a way cooler sword than a musician.  I mean, the sword glows blue when orcs are around!  Does Sting the musician do that?  I doubt it.

7:36p – Lots of Princess Bride references now.

7:30p – Legolas just took down an Oliphant by himself, once again proving that Elves are Middle Earth’s ninjas.

7:28p – Nazgul King pwned by Eowyn, film at 11.

7:22p – Oliphants are the AT-ATs of the Lord of the Rings universe.

7:19p -Gandalf 2, Denethor 0

7:12p – Most of the battles now are being discussed in terms of RPG bonusus – +100 this and -30 that.

7:04p – Sam to the rescue!

6:55p – None of us like Shelob much.

6:36p – Gandalf 1, Denethor 0

6:33p – There was just a skull avalanche, but none of us are really sure why.

6:28p – Ordering pizza for a large group is complex.

6:03p – Poor Sam :(  All he wants to do is help.

5:58p – Denethor is slimy and a jerk.

5:38p – Gothmog just showed up.

5:30p – This part is too talky.

5:19p – Just discussed: Aragorn’s sword Narsil is way legendary, so it probably has a pretty low drop rate.  Like, less than a half percent, probably.  We’re also not sure if Aragorn is leveled-up enough to use it.

5:14p – Random elf: “Lady Arwen, we cannot delay!”
Arwen: “Nertz to that!”

5:04p – I’ve been neglecting to blog people exits.  There are 11 of us here currently: Ruth, Lance, Jeremiah, Eric, Dana, Jen, Marshall, Pete, Wendy, Kim, and me.

4:55p – Gotta give Eowyn props for persistence.

4:40p – Andy Serkis looks kinda creepy just regularly, not just when he’s Gollum.

4:35 – Beginning of The Return of the King.

4:10p – End of second movie.

4:04p – The arrival of Dana!

3:57p – Orcs: “Hey, trees!  We’re safe!”
Trees: “NOM NOM NOM”

3:49p – The Ents attack on Isengard is one of the most awesome things ever put to film.

3:44p – And now a Poltergeist reference – Frodo announces the arrival of the Nazgul, “They’re here.”

3:40p – Ruth showed up.

3:24p – Totally just heard the Wilhelm Scream!

3:22p – Battle of Helm’s Deep has officially begun.

3:04p – Seriously. elves are awesome.  

2:27p – Aragorn: “…so she (Arwen) went with her kind.”
Eowyn: “So… you’re available?”

(Interpretation courtesy of Eric)

2:34p -Eowyn: Great fighter. Lousy cook.

2:14p – “Potatoes! Boil ’em, mash ’em, stick ’em in a stew!”

2:08p – Poor Eowyn.  She can’t possibly know she has no chance with Aragorn because he loves an elf. Pointy ears FTW!

1:48p – You’d be surprised by how many ties to Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Star Wars, and Spaceballs have been mentioned.

1:37 – Somewhere along the way Lee has fallen asleep.  Marshall looks like he might soon follow.

1:24p – Gandalf’s back!  Wooo!

1:14p – It has been decided that Gollum is like an overdramatic middle schooler.  “It hurtssssss ussss!” and “I’m famished!  I mussst starve!”

1:09p -Arrival of Treebeard, my favorite thing about this movie.

12:50 – “They’re taking the hobbits to Isengard!”

12:45p – Gollum is always freakier than I remember.

12:30p – Start of The Two Towers.

12:03p – Longest scheduled break of the day. Time for some Seinfeld Scene It.

11:53a – End of first movie.

11:41a – See ya, Boromir.  Thanks for playing!

11:22a – Samwise kinda gets the lousiest gift from Galadriel. I mean, Elven rope is cool and all, but everybody else got cool knives and stuff.

11:09a – Galadriel is awesome and scary at the same time.

10:58a – “You shall not pass!” Gandalf rocks.

10:53a – Enter the Balrog.  Run, dudes!

10:32a – The Fellowship is at the door to the Mines of Moria.

10:25a – The demon bird swarm spawns discussion about how demon birds probably poop fire.

10:12a – “One does not simply walk into Mordor.”

9:50a – Arwen is riding her horse for all get-out, and Pete makes a Monty Python-coconuts reference. FTW!

9:47 – Gandalf (still Grey!) talks to a moth. Saruman is mining for orcs.

9:30a – The Hobbits have arrived in Bree.

9:15a – “This is it.  If I take one more step, it’ll be the farthest from the Shire I’ve ever been.” – Samwise Gamgee

9:11a – Poor Frodo.  He just found out the ring is eeeeeeeevil.

9:09a – We have two people here who haven’t seen these movies, and at least one who hasn’t seen them more than once.

8:53a – Wendy and Pete show up.

8:37a – Abby shows up.

8:33a – Jeremiah, Kim, and Marshall show up.

8:30a – Start of The Fellowship of the Rings.

8:29a – Greg shows up

8:26a – Jen shows up.

8:15a – First guests show up: Lee, Eric, & Lance.

7:00a – Up and at ’em.