./janella.com

Rating: **** of 5

Quick Shot: World War I love story.  Audrey Tautou is the Mathilde to Gaspard Ulliel Manech in this magical journey to find each other.  Or do they?

What I liked about the movie: The cinematography and direction was very impressive.  Audrey Tautou is adorable as ever.

What I didn’t like: A little long (2 hours 14 minutes give or take), most of it setting up the story in the first third of hte film.  I thought the last third was a little rushed as things fell into place.  I wasn’t expecting some graphic elements of war, but they were needed to drive the story.

This morning Farrah and I took a whack at trying to buy U2 tickets on [Ticketmaster.com]. I’m usually the only one trying to get tickets, but since there was a hard limit on the number of tickets one could buy, both Farrah and I tried.

Well, 10 AM came around. We started trying to get tickets on both the laptop and desktop, entering in the amount carefully and just waiting for the results. We couldn’t get tickets for the first show, which sold out in less than ten minutes. I knew there was a second show, so we waited for it to be posted.

We only had to wait about ten minutes. We tried over and over again to get (at the least) two general admission tickets - which were going for $49. Seats, which are an ok view, were topped out at $160! Well, Farrah managed to get two tickets. Me - shutout! I did get one screen opportunity to buy, but the tickets were seated and high above the show. I must be losing my touch! Well, at least we’ll be able to see U2. I only wish we got two more tickets for friends.

What’d you think, I was going to sell them?

The Girl Scouts are back to spread their good cheer by selling you those evil cookies. Yeah, my niece is one of them ! I put down some money to buy at least one box of each type available this year. Now, you want to know the price you’re going to pay when you eat one of those cookies? Take a look at [this website] for the nutritional facts.

Now enjoy those cookies.

Not much happening this weekend. I think we’re still recovering from the holiday season. I’ve still got a little cough/congestion going. What is that now, a month? I think it’s going away, but very slowly.

We’ve been spending a lot of time catching up on the Tivo’d shows as well as movies we haven’t watched. Farrah’s been a little ahead of mean watching movies so her more recent movie knowledge is better than mine! We have almost even picked books we have to read (e.g. The Da Vinci Code, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, The Life of Pi, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, etc.) from our bookshelf. May be today we’ll do it.

One of the things I’ve been doing the last two days is rating artists at [launch.yahoo.com]. If you use Launch to listen to music - which you can either through the website or through Yahoo! Messenger - rating artists helps in serving up those songs and similar songs into your radio station. Right now - at this moment - I think that’s pretty cool. I think what will make it better is when Launch’s catalog becomes bigger, allowing for a wider range of music. But for now it will do.

Oh well this is it for now. Farrah has made breakfast (wow, I know) so it’s time to eat.

Rating:**** out of 5

Quick Shot: Vince Vaughn plays the underdog/hero gym owner trying to save his gym from the evil (and hilarious) Ben Stiller.  So how can Vince save the gym?  By entering a dodgeball tournament!

What I liked about the movie: Ben Stiller, who’s in about every other movie made right now, is just funny as hell!  Way better than his turn in Starsky and Hutch.

What I didn’t like: Nothing. It was the perfect DVD to pop in and just laugh away.  Ok, maybe the bit with the pizza was too much but…nah, it was a very funny movie.

Ugh, this cold is still hanging on. It’s coming up on the worst part: the running nose and coughing. It supposed to be a good sign - a clearing of the system. It just feels annoying and uncomfortable to go through.

The only plan on the board is to watch the big football game on Sunday - the Colts at the Patriots - and to watch the Golden Globes later that night. Like I said, no big plans this weekend. Rest and recovery.

Ok, maybe I’ll put some time to getting some more older pictures up on the site.

I got a little stuffy nose action happening these last couple of days. I think I’m sick again! I was sick Christmas week. I managed to take three days off during that week - getting better the Sunday after Christmas. But that didn’t last long.

The next week, the last week of December going into New Year’s Eve, one of my lymph nodes decided to work overtime. It got a little large on the side of my neck and felt uncomfortable for two days. And now these sniffles.

I think the first two were related instances are related but this new round may be something else. Either way I’m grumpy and tired but can’t fall asleep at the moment. It’s just not fun feeling sick.

And so I surf. I see the new pictures of the [iPod Shuffle] on Apple’s site. It’s a sweet little music player smaller than a stick of gum. The difference between the Shuffle and full blown iPod is (1) size/amount of songs it can hold, and (2) it has no display to see what song is playing. It’s a cool little gadget. But I’m a little more interested in the [Mini Mac].

The Mini Mac is basically a Mac box without monitor, keyboard and mouse. You need to buy those items yourself. But the Mini Mac looks cool and comes with a lot of essential software for editing video, photos and music. I’m sure Apple will do well in grabbing some desktop users with that Mini Mac because of its looks and pricing.

Happy New Year!!!!! Have a happy 2005!