2006
Movie Review - Brick
Look, I did what she said with the brick. I didn't know it was bad, but The Pin's on it now for poor Frisco, and they're playing it all on me. -- Emily from the movie Brick.
farrah and I watched this movie last weekend. I’ve wanted to see it ever since I saw it’s preview during another DVD we watched several months ago. It looked like classic film noir set in high school.
It took a while to get into the nuances in the the dialog, but once you got into the rythym it was easy to follow. In a way it was sort of like watching Trainspotting for the first time, not knowing what is being said.
I enjoyed the movie overall, giving it four stars. I like the characters and the look of the film. The pace of the story was spot on, moving from scene to scene at a good clip. I figure if Sam Spade went to high school, he Brendan, the lead character in the film.
Go add this movie to your Netflix queue (or rent it at Blockbuster if you must).
QotD: The Best Part of Waking Up...
What's your morning beverage of choice? Coffee, tea, juice? Homemade or store-bought?
Social Networking Explained
If you haven’t seen this, it explains all there is to social networking. So many online friends, so little time.
Coming Clean
- Flickr - I just love photography, and the social aspect Flickr brings to photography has help me grow. The users also constantly inspire me to take more photos.
- Vox - Flickr is to photography as Vox is to blogging, at least to me. I have been able to read a tremendous amount of talented writing this past month I've been on Vox. I only wish more of my friends and family would accept invitations I send them.
- Last.fm - This site and service has opened me up to other music artists that I had not discovered or that I would not enjoy.
- Yelp - Whenever I'm unsure of where to eat, Yelp has always pointed the way. I need to contribute more to this site that has given me so many new places to eat.
- Janella.com - I still will post, though less frequently, to the web site that started it all for me. I think I'll be trying more HTML / CSS / whatever-language-you-choose on the site, but I don't think I will every abandon the site.
- Linkedin - You never know when you or someone you know is looking for another job.
What falls by the wayside?
- Mog - They tried to be a competing service to Last.fm. But slight slowness and the lack of anything different has left indifferent to their offerings.
- Yahoo! 360 - The promising power of Yahoo! But for some reason, follow-up features are lacking. Adding a RSS feed from Janella.com is the only thing keeping this blog updated.
- 43 Things - A list of things to do that I never completed. I'm not too good with lists.
- LiveJournal - Besides keeping up with my friends on LiveJournal, my blog there has only served as a mirroring service to Janella.com. I think posting the same content to one blog is enough, right?
I'm sure I have signed up for some other services, but I can't remember any of them right now. I know there is a MySpace, a Friendster, and Multiply account out there some where. I'm glad they are all free. Imagine paying for all of those services I don't use.
QotD: My Intro to the Big Screen
What was the first movie you remember seeing in a movie theater?
Question submitted by mainmor.
Star Wars. At least it was only known as Star Wars back then. I would go with my older sister to work on the weekends. She worked at Liberty House in San Antonio Shopping Center, which was located across the street from the Old Mill Six theaters. I would wander the shopping center - yes, all by myself - as she put in her 6 to 8 hour work day. If I went to work with her, I had to be willing to occupy myself the whole day.
There is only so many times you can go to the San Antonio Hobby Shop or to the bookstore, and so, I would cross the street and go to the Old Mill Six theaters I still remember the first scene: the music, the scrolling words, the laser fire, the smoke, and Darth Vader.
QotD: Baby Love
How cute were you as a baby/child? Let's see those baby pics!
<img src="http://www.janella.com.php54-2.dfw1-1.websitetestlink.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/img1.jpg" alt="" />
Yeah, I had to have these photos for our wedding slideshow. I should really post farrah’s photos as well. I mean, it would only be fair, right?
Any Web Hosting Suggestions?
My website is down for the second time in about six months. The reason my hosting company gives is hard drive failure - again! Two times, on two different servers, in six months. I think it may be time to make change.
So does anyone have a suggesting for a web hosting company? I’m looking for about 5GB of storage (for a small photo program I maintain), PHP and mySQL, and not much else. I’m not looking to break the bank on monthly fees, but anything under $25 is worth considering. I’m currently with Midphase and have been with Hostgator (who wasn’t bad at all).
If anyone has a suggestion I would appreciate it.
Mugged @ McDonalds
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HWWnQXiXRs?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque&enablejsapi=1&w=640&h=480]
The guy go into McDonalds to grab a quick bite and gets more than he bargined for. Violence is everywhere, even at your local McDonalds.
This is why I go through the drive thru.
QotD: Reality TV Star
If you could be on any reality TV show, which one would you pick and why?
farrah and I always wonder how we would do on The Amazing Race. I'm sure we would bicker and fight as we tried to find our way through various countries. But I sure would love to go to all the places that have been on the show. It would be nice to travel more.
Mac Heart Stopping Moment - A Reason to Backup
[caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“500.0”]
I dropped by 12" PowerBook[/caption]
I’m a recent Mac adopter. I bought my Powerbook last October and I just love it. I probably will never buy another Windows machine, unless something drastically changes. Last April, I did drop my PowerBook. It didn’t go boom but it did bend a bit.
I know accidents happen, so I was able to calm myself after the mishap. Given the mobile nature of notebooks accidents are more likely to happen. I’ve heard the life expectancy of a notebook is three years, give or take a year. I understand this. Imagine my suprise when I came home yesterday and couldn’t power-up the PowerBook.
My thoughts started racing. Did I drop this the PowerBook again? Did the previous accident just have a delayed effect? Did the cat sabatoge the PowerBook? Can I convince farrah we should just buy a new one? Oh crap, when was the last time I backed up this baby?
I started to freak. farrah and I tried several steps before I started Internet searches on 12" PowerBook No Power. There was several forum postings, and one off blog entries about this problem. None of the solutions were working. Stress on the old ticker was building.
I then decided to go straight to the Apple support site for PowerBooks. Can you guess what the first problem listed on the front page was? It was “My computer won’t turn on" All I needed to do was a simply hold down the Shift-Control-Option-Power for five seconds, then power back up. Whew!
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500.0"]
My damaged 12" PowerBook[/caption]
Disaster avoided, but a lessen learned. Boy, do I need to do a backup and soon.
Eh, maybe next week.
QotD: Can you hear me now?
What's your cell phone's ringtone? What made you pick it?
U2’s Vertigo is my default ringtone You know the part?
Hello hello
I’m at a place called Vertigo
It’s everything I wish I didn’t know
Except you give me something I can feel, feel
I just never get sick of U2. I’ve seen U2 several time in concert, both with BossaNova and farrah. They always put on a great show.
Our Cat Has Friends
Tigger has, as of this writing, twenty-four friends. Twenty-four friends? Yes. He has about nineteen more friends than I have on //LJ; eighteen more friends than I have on //Vox; and three more friends then on //360.
If you deciphered the above comments, then you know that Tigger has a social network page. Check it out at //Tigger’s page. And there is also //Dogster if you happen to have a dog.
Now I won’t blog on behalf of Tigger to often. These sites seem well suited to find out more about issues facing pet lovers, as well as sharing memories of those who love us unconditionally. I think that type of niche community site is better suited to finding answers, then say a MySpace page.
Anyway, Tigger is on the Internet. Next thing you know my Mom will have her own blog!?!?!?
QotD: Sugar, Sugar
What was your favorite candy when you were a kid? How does that compare to now?
The candy that has carried over from childhood to my adult years is Hersey’s Chocolate Bar without Almonds. Every time my dad would come home from work, he would bring home one of these. I’d sit there at the kitchen table and imagine the whole chocolate bar represented a building, with each square a floor of the building. I then imagined myself as Godzilla, devouring said building until there was no more.
I still devour the chocolate building. I just don't make the Godzilla noises any longer. My wife finds it irritating.
Steely Dan's the Man (Actually they're a duo)
Can't Sleep with this Heat
It’s about 12:40 am right now and it is still warm in the house. All I can think about is how hot it is supposed to be tomorrow. I can’t think how I’m going to keep cool tomorrow. Should I go to the mall? Should I see a movie? Should I walk around Fry’s Electronics until I can’t stand being there any longer?
Speaking of Fry’s Electronics, I stopped by there after work. There seemed to be a mad rush of people buying the $400-$600 portable air conditioning units displayed in the center aisle. It was almost an end-of-the-world-I’m-going-to-get-mine-and-I’ll-kill-you-if-you-look-at-me-funny sort of rush. The heat makes you do crazy things, I suppose.
I wish I could be like Tiana is in the photo. I wish I could break out the inflatable pool, fill it up with water from the hose, and just lay there in the water.
Come to think of it, who says I can’t do it?