SuperSatellite

On uncomfortableness (is that a word?)

// June 10th, 2006 // No Comments » // Life and Times

Why does MySpace have a “Friends” category, but not one for family?  Doesn’t it just seem intuitive that if you have one, you’d have the other?  Oh well, just an observation.  You are listening, right, Tom?  Add it or I’ll type something really mean about your mother.

So, a while back I discussed when I feel most uncomfortable.  I think I have found place number two.  Family reunions.  I just can’t seem to find a redeeming quality about them, really.  I think I get it from my Mom’s side of the family, who’s idea of a family reunion is to get in touch with each other to set a date when everyone can be as far away from each other as possible.  Much like high school, the people I care to keep in touch with, I do.  It isn’t that I’m an ass, I just don’t see any reason to pretend to be interested in people I wouldn’t even recognize if I passed them on the street.  Besides, it’s not like you can hit on the cute girls either.  It’s just a waste all the way around.  Heh.  But really, I love my immediate family (even the Republicans) and like seeing them, but outside that the interest drops quite rapidly.  The only thing worse than being in a room full of people you don’t know, is being in a room full of people that you’re made to feel you should know, and should care about.

Needless to say, I made an appearance to satisfy those that would care if I wasn’t there, and snuck away later (after food, naturally).  I had made plans to have a barbeque here with some friends before I knew about the reunion, and I didn’t want to break plans.  I think I managed to balance it all quite well.  Now I’m just sleepy.  It’s been a long few days with lots of driving…

Why is that lawn ornament moving?

// June 9th, 2006 // No Comments » // Life and Times

Well, I made it to KC and back without incident.  I’m starting to remember the way to the airport finally.  I did forget to plan for rush hour, but we got there at 9:00, well in time for their 9:15 arrival.  I find I’ve lost some of my big city driving edge that I used to have in Atlanta.  All told, in one day yesterday, I managed to double the number of miles I have put on my new car since I bought it.  Crazy huh?  At this rate I’ll only put maybe 2000-3000 miles on it a year.  I like the way that sounds.

My parents are doing well.  My dad sounds like he’s taking the red eye to emphysema, and my mom is awfully forgetful lately.  Both prospects are somewhat worrisome.  But they have a nice new house I got to see some pictures of.  I’ll have to go down some time next year to help wire up their home theater.  Like big screen projector and all.  Not as big as my aunt and uncle’s, but still.  They’re also taking care of a guinnea pig from one of their classes for the summer.  The damn thing doesn’t even look real.  It looks like one of those concrete lawn ornaments.  I got to hear all the latest stories from their classes down there.  We mostly sat around watching movies yesterday afternoon and then grilled and went to 311 last night.  We should be going to lunch later.

A couple days ago I was cleaning up house for their arrival.   I was paying Rachel to do my dishes, and I was picking stuff up.  I found the following glass left over from a party a while back that I had used to hold some Boston Baked Beans.  When I went to dump them out, they sort of…stayed.  I took a picture for perspective.  It was awesome.  I almost felt bad breaking them loose.

And today I get to catch up on work, and then head to Independence for the family reunion.  Woo…hoo….

The need to exposit.

// June 7th, 2006 // No Comments » // Brain dumps, Movies

I have had yet another lapse in the frequency of my writing, I know.  Sometimes one just feels like the daily activity of their life isn’t really worth explaining.  Then again, if you’re me, you like rendering out the details like a Carl Sagan novel because one, you’ll read it anyway, and two, I like using words.  If you’ve read Sagan, you know that the [lack of] quality in his writing isn’t so much embedded in thorough character development, or a moving plot, or thrilling exposition.  No, basically he just doesn’t know how to shut up.  He can write a book because he can use words ceasingly, whether or not they or appropriate, or whether or not we even care.  In this regard, I write here because I can.

My parents are visiting this week.  I have to drive to KC Thursday to retrieve them from the hellish transportation nightmare that is MCI.  While it will be good to see them, I loathe driving to Kansas City.  Oh well.  The second verse is that they are here to go to a family reunion which I, by obvious association via the bloodlines, am also bound to make an appearance at.  Let me be clear in stating that I like my immediate family.  The rest…well…I see no reason to pretend to be interested in their lives and happenings any more than I would a stranger.  I keep in touch with who I want to.  You know what?  I could have been on day three of the BAK right now.  That’s how I avoided it last time, it was very convenient.

I have been racking my brain at work over a pretty slick CMS (Content Management System) called Joomla.  Lemme tell ya, it’s something else, that’s for sure.  Very powerful and full featured.   Naturally, however, some of the stuff I need it won’t do natively, at least in this version.  If you have ever done portal development, don’t start with this.  It’s powerful but a pain in the butt.  I’m still trying to convince myself of whether or not this is the one to work with.  Given the options though, I think it is probably the best route.

OOH!  Looks like I might have my old car sold finally.  If so, it’s new TV time baby.  I am really tired of my old POS set.  It’s only like fifteen years old, and the colors only bleed about halfway across the screen.  That’s not so bad, right?  All I watch are movies, but I would still like to be able to really watch and enjoy them.  That’s hard to do when watching the TV is like an LSD trip through a blind man’s eyes.

I made it through a number of movies recently.  The Island wasn’t actually half bad.  Not totally what I expected, but I had heard that ahead of time.  Plus I think I could watch about anything with Scarlett Johansson in it.  Yeah, I’m shameless, wanna make something of it?  Ultraviolet was…crap.  Like bad, drunk, taco-shit crap.  At first I thought:  Hmm…okay, stylized like a comic book, corny dialogue, but I guess it could work….No.  Okay just fuck no.  The dialogue wasn’t corny, campy, comic fun.  It was just bad writing.  And the special effects weren’t stylized, they were low budget.  I tried to convince myself otherwise.  Frankly, I wanted to like it.  But alas, I cannot.  The Producers was also some classic theatrical inspired cinema.  Worth seeing.  Underworld: Evolution was a gamble of my precious time that I felt paid off, and A History of Violence though strange, was worth sitting through.  Trainspotting is good because it’s Scottish.  It’s good for other reasons too, but that’s the main one.  Babies with spinning heads score high points too.  God Ultraviolet was bad.