The nominations are in.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King did very well. 
I think the biggest shocker is that Cold Mountain did not get a Best Picture nomination. I haven’t seen this film, but it was getting rave reviews so I figured it was a lock for a nomination. The Civil War scenes from this movie really intrigue me, but that’s about it.
Actually, I’ve only seen one of the nominations for Best Picture; I’ve usually seen at least two of them. Monica saw Sea Biscuit, and we have been wanting to see Lost in Translation. I have no desire to see Mystic River, and I’ll probably catch Master and Commander on HBO at some point.
I was also shocked to see that ROTK wasn’t nominated for Cinematography. I mean, you’re telling me Sea Biscuit is more cinematic than ROTK? Give me a break. :whocares:
ROTK should run away with every category in which it’s nominated, especially score and song. If you haven’t listened to the wonderful music from this movie, I highly recommend it. I was just listening to it again last night, and I can’t get enough of it.
Oh, and Samwise Gamgee (Sean Astin) did NOT get nominated. Oh well.
Published on
January 26, 2004 in
Uncategorized.
Tags: weather.
So we got about five inches of snow last night through this morning, and the roads are a mess. Some of the side roads I took this morning were actually clearer than the main roads. To top of it, there’s an ice storm on the way.
And what does the federal government do about it?
Liberal leave. :angry:
What the heck is the purpose of liberal leave? Gee, thanks for letting me be off by taking my own hard-earned vacation. Idiots. I can call in sick if I really need to be off that badly, and I don’t need your stupid permission to do it.
There are a ton of accidents this morning and hardly anyone has shown up to work. I bet the guy who makes the decisions on liberal leave is sitting at home right now curled up in bed. I just knew last night, as I watched the snow start to pile up, that it would be just bad enough to shovel a ton and cause all sorts of havoc on the roads but not to close the government.
I would wager that it costs more to run all of the cleanup crews and accident patrols, then to give everyone the day off. One of these days, someone is going to die trying to get to work because they are out of “liberal leave”, and the family will sue the government.
I’m probably going to have to go home early at some point, unless I like digging through an inch of ice just to get into my car, not to mention the utter delight it is to hydroplane your way home. I’ll be damned if I’ll take any leave though.
Captain Kangaroo is dead. 
I remember watching this show as a child and loving it. My favorite part was always Mr. Moose telling knock-knock jokes and the hundreds of falling ping pong balls that would ensue. To a child, this was comedic genius.
Heck, that’s even comedic genius to an adult.
So long, Captain.
Published on
January 19, 2004 in
Uncategorized.
Tags: history.
Happy Lee-Jackson-King Day!
It’s just a Virginia thing so no one else really knows what that means, but when I was a kid, we celebrated Lee-Jackson-King Day. Not that there was any actual “celebrating” in school, but that’s what I remember the day being called.
Today used to be the day to celebrate the birthdays of Robert E. Lee, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, and Martin Luther King, Jr. In 2000, Virginia decided to split the holidays so today is officially just King Day while this past Friday was Lee-Jackson Day.
I guess it is kind of silly to lump all three guy’s birthdays on the same day as the first two had nothing to do with the third guy. Maybe they just didn’t want to create any more holidays.
There are alot of people that are “offended” by there being any day to honor Civil War heroes. In Virginia though, Lee and Jackson were icons, and there are alot of people descendant from soldiers that fought for the South, and that heritage is very important to them. To honor them is not to say that you wish there was still slavery, it is to remember that they were Americans who fought and died for their country and a cause in which they believed wholeheartedly.
And today, as you watch and listen to countless newscasts and shows about Martin Luther King, Jr., remember that his dream of a color-blind society is being twisted and warped by many leaders of all colors. Take some time and listen to his words, and see if they actually apply to what’s happening in the world today.
Published on
January 16, 2004 in
Uncategorized.
Tags: weather.
13.
That was the number on the thermometer this morning. I know people up in New England would love to have those kinds of temperatures right now, but to me, that’s the type of cold that’s “bone-chilling”, as the kids like to say. With the windchill, it feels like -5.
-5!
Who actually knows what -5 feels like? Is it noticeably colder than +5?
When you get close to 0, people start putting plus signs in front of numbers so you know exactly what they mean. In New York last weekend, the TV told us it was +1.
It was so cold this morning, I even had trouble starting my car. Tomorrow it’s supposed to get up to a balmy 34. Woohoo!
*Note: temperature values are in Fahrenheit, the only real temperature scale. Celsius is for pansies.
Published on
January 7, 2004 in
Uncategorized.
Tags: technology.
So I finally decided to hack my xbox.
For those not aware, to hack your xbox, you have to disassemble it, solder in a modchip, and then reassemble it. It’s that easy.
Actually, I had never soldered before and the thought of it seemed quite daunting, but after much research and some practice on an old soundcard, I decided to give it a shot. And what do you know, it worked on the first try. That never happens.
So what does hacking your xbox get you? Well, for starters, I can upgrade the harddrive and then copy games to it. This makes for lightning quick load times. But the best part of the whole process is the ability to run other software on your xbox, my favorite of which is the xbox media center. It lets me stream mp3s, photos, and video from any PC and display it on my TV screen, all with an intuitive GUI. It’s the bomb, as the kids say, or as they used to say I guess…I’m so behind on the hip lingo.
I can’t really direct you to where to get this software of which I speak, but suffice it to say that IRC is your friend. So get out there there and start hacking!
Published on
January 6, 2004 in
Uncategorized.
Tags: space.
How cool are the photos from Mars (especially the color ones)?
It’s difficult to wrap your head around the fact that those are actually pictures from another planet. It’s straight out of science fiction. Maybe we’ll colonize it and start mining it and then people will take virtual vacations and discover that they aren’t really who they say they are and that they were really some sort of secret evil agent and then they have to go to Mars and….eh, never mind.
Published on
January 3, 2004 in
Uncategorized.
Tags: holidays.
Well, the Christmas decorations are down so that means the holiday season is officially over.
By now, I’m always ready to take them down and get the place back to normal, but it’s a bit depressing as it’s a signal that it’s time to go back to work and join the real world again. I’ve been off since Dec. 23rd and I must say I’ve really enjoyed it. I’ve got to spend time with family and friends and even got a chance to kick back and relax.
The good news is that we still have to go to New York to celebrate with Monica’s family as they’ve been in Puerto Rico. So I guess we can stretch that holiday feeling a bit longer.
Published on
January 1, 2004 in
Uncategorized.
Tags: holidays, photos.
I’ve posted our photos from the New Year’s Eve Party.
I can’t believe it’s already 2004. When I was a kid, any year that didn’t start with a 19 just sounded so weird. Either it was a time long ago that I read about in history books, or it was some time in the future where we had flying cars and were living on the moon. Maybe we’ll finally accomplish one of those things this year.
We’re just relaxing today, watching college football in between naps. We hope everyone had a safe and happy New Year’s Eve.
Happy New Year!
