This is the website of Abulsme Noibatno Itramne (also known as Sam Minter).
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 Well, never did finish Episode II. Would probably have been able to finish it in line… well, I know I would have, I was more than half way through it and we were in line for almost two hours… but once I had Amy I let her start it from the beginning, and we got maybe 3/4 through. Oh well. I rememebred enough.
So, got into Sith of course. I don’t have time for any long comments right now, but I’ll basically echo what most of the reviews I have seen said. As long as you are expecting Star Wars, and not something more high brow, then it is awesome. This is a real Star Wars, not like the dreck of Episode I, or the a bit better but still disappointingness of Episode II. Sure, there are some parts that can be nitpicked if you think too much, and parts are still over CGI’d at the expense of story, but hey, it is Star Wars. Let go of all that, and it is great. You see everything you would expect to see and it is done pretty well.
Of all the Star Wars on first blush I am actually tempted to say it is the best of the six. If not, it is close. The stuff I liked with Vader/Luke/Emporer in VI is here in III plus some. Could they have spent a bit more time on that? Probably. (Especially if they hadn’t wasted Episodes I & II, but oh well…) But it was still good.
Oh well, I do not have time for more. I need to run out the door to head to the airport. I’m heading to Pittsburgh for approximately 24 hours for a friend’s wedding.
 What can I say. This is the same suckfest as it was when it came out in the theaters. You’d think with all the reworking of the original movies Lucas did, he might be able to fix up this a bit. You know, take out the sucky parts that add absolutely nothing to the story and leave you groaning and hoping it is over soon? Of course, if you did that with this movie, you’d be left with half an hour or so. OK, MAYBE 45 minutes if you are generous. Basically the whole part of the movie before they get to coursocant (a little over an hour) could easily have been boiled down to 15 minutes. I mean, how long is that stupid pod race? I should know, I kept looking at my wrist to see what time it was. (But I don’t know because I was frustrated by the fact I haven’t worn a watch in almost 20 years, so there was no time to see on my wrist.) Then the parts after that could have been perhaps expanded a bit. More of the Jedi temple. More Darth Maul. Speaking of which, they really shouldn’t have ended him the way they did. He had potential to be interesting if expanded upon.
Anyway, as everybody knows, Episode I was a complete screw up and dissapointment to anybody over 10 who watched it. But Lucas stated he was aiming at kids and not the fans of the original trilogy. And still made huge wads of cash, so hey, it worked for him. But it sucked.
So anyway, I had gotten home with Amy a little earlier than usual, with the intention of immediately starting Episode I so I could watch both last night. But then by the time I got home, Brandy was just leaving work (a little later than usual) so although we could have started without her, we waited for her to get home and then get dinner ready before starting. So we didn’t get done with it until late. Amy fell asleep about 3/4 of the way through. (Right about at her bedtime.) After it ended, Brandy fell asleep right away. I started Episode II, but only got about 30 minutes into it before I was too sleepy to continue.
We have tickets for III for 8 PM tonight. So I’ll probably try to finish II at lunch and then right after work or some such. Looks like there may not be time for Clone Wars before the movie. Oh well!
I’m sorry that Amy and Brandy were not able to watch all of all five before we see the new one, but hey, they kept falling asleep! :-)
 Well, I started watching Jedi right after I made the ESB post. But half way in I was really sleepy, so I went to sleep. Didn’t finish it until last night. So I’m a day behind now. We’re planning on seeing the new one Friday night. So that means I have to watch Episodes I and II, and maybe the Clone Wars cartoons before then. That is a lot to watch in 24 hours or so! Especially on a work day!
Anyway, Jedi is Jedi. I know many disagree and hate the Ewoks and all, and I’m not a big Ewok fan, but I always liked Jedi best of the original three. Basically jsut for one thing. The whole Luke/Vader/Emporer interaction once Luke is brought to the Death Star. I just like that whole sequence.
A few of the changes I wasn’t thrilled about. Changing the hallway in which Luke and Vader first talk (in this episode) to one with windows overlooking the forest. OK, it makes sense given the setting, but I think it detracts attention from the personal dynamic occuring at that time. Better the stark hallway than the distracting forest.
Also, I hate the new music over the celebration. I like the jumping between the planets to show the celebration in places other than Endor (although I could do without the Jar Jar relative yelling “Meesa Free!!”). But I liked the original Ewok music much better. It just seemed much more honest and joyous and such, and seemed to reflect the situation the characters were in better. I dunno. Just didn’t like it. Gimme that old fashoned Ewok music any day!
I also didn’t like them putting in Ewan McGregor in as Anikin in the last scene with Obi-Wan and Yoda. Originally it was the guy who played the Anikin head you saw when Luke took off Vader’s helmet. They didn’t replace THAT with Ewan (thank goodness!). And you didn’t see the young versions of Obi-Wan and Yoda, but them as they were when they died (approximately). Just didn’t like that. Maybe it will be explained in III. But still don’t like it.
Anyway… guess I’ll be buying the tickets for us to see III in a few minutes. Then I’d better get to watching the rest of the movies I need to see before then.
Oh. Oops. Forgot I was at work. Damn.
 With both Brandy and I working and being super busy, we had let the pool go a bit. It had been nice and blue and perfect three weeks earlier, but it had turned green andsuch by this weekend. It was definately time for a cleaning. We may eventually get a service to come in and do it periodically, but for now we are doing it ourselves. Well, OK, mainly Brandy is doing it. Anyway, Brandy was getting ready to start the cleaning process, including dumping like 10 gallons of chlorine in the pool when she yelled “Oh no! Tadpoles!”
And sure enough, there were tadpoles in the pool. Dozens and dozens and dozens of them. Which is not surprising. Before we moved in, when the pool was wrecked it had completely gone wild and was basically a pond. I ahd seen tadpoles in there, and a whole generation of frogs was born there. A week before they did the final cleaning before we bought the place I had seen a bunch of nearly frog tadpoles obviously about to leave the pool. And every time we get a heavy rain, the frogs all sit around the pool and croak at each other and occationally do um, cough, other things. Perhaps they come back to where they were born to spawn.
In any case, the tadpoles made Brandy even more urgent to clean the pool. Meanwhile, I was all about saving the tadpoles. So while Brandy started scrubbing the pool and stuff, witholding the cholorine for the time being, I got a spare aquarium and went about trying to save as many baby frogs as I could. I basically got all the ones that came close enough to the surface to grab without getting into the pool. Grab with a cup that is, not with my hands. They were tiny little things. Maybe only an eighth of an inch or so.
Anyway, over the course of about half an hour, I caught perhaps 30 of them. I got all that I could possibly get. And before Brandy finally put the baby frog killing chlorine poison into the pool, I did another sweep and got a few more that I had missed. I have no doubt that many frogs died in this tragedy, probably many more than I could save, but I have a good 30 of them in the aquarium sitting outside on the lanai.
Well, OK, once yesterday I had Princely tied up too close to it, and he decided to take a drink out of the tadpole water… he may have gotten a couple. I hope not, but I do not know.
Anyway, they are growing fast. They are now probably more like a quarter inch. Maybe slightly longer. I will probably have to move some of them into a seperate container soon, or they will get too crouded.
I thought I saw a dead onethe other day, but now I can’t find it. So maybe it was just sleeping. Or maybe the others ate it. Do tadpoles eat each other? Somehow I can’t think of Kermit doing that, so I’ll say no.
Anyway, so far so good. Those frogs that managed to get on “Minter’s List” who escaped the poison are doing well so far. I don’t imagine all of them will make it. But I’ll try my best. Well, aside from being gone for four days next week and the fact I only check on them five minutes a day and they are outside in an open container and such.
But I’ll do my best. I gave them algae tavlets to eat. They seemed to like that. And they go after the occational fly that lands in their water.
We’ll see. I may end up with 30 frogs before too long.
They are very cute.
Oh. And the pool is clear and blue and beautiful again.
In plenty of time for swimming this weekend.
 Last night, right after almost destroying my computer, we started watching Empire Strikes Back. This time us being just me and Brandy, Amy having already gone to bed. Brandy fell asleep somewhere around the time Han and company were inside the asteroid worm thing and before Luke went into the cave. I stayed up to the end of course. Although I was very sleepy in the morning.
Myt memory patterns were different on this one. Remebered the beginning and the end, less of the middle. But again, nothing I didn’t remember at all. The changes were less noticible in Empire. Being able to see outside in Bespin and all, where in the original there were walls instead of windows. (I think that was already changed in the special editions though.) Anyway, enjoyable, but while I know a lot of people think Empire was the best of the original three, it just doesn’t have the huge impact to me. Maybe it is because the big surprise at the end isn’t anymore because nobody nowhere nohow doesn’t already know.
Oh, one thing I didn’t like though. They changed the dialoge when Vadar talks to the emporor. I didn’t mind that they put in the actor who played the emporor in Jedi and now the prequel trilogy, that consistancy is fine, but they should not have changed the text… it is now a bit more explicit on the Anakin back story, and I’m not sure that was needed. Oh well.
It is late already, and we haven’t started Jedi yet for tonight. So we’d better get to it…
PowerBooks do not bounce. At least not very well. I had the PowerBook at home up on something next to the bed. I got off the bed, tripped over the powercord, and it went crashing down to the tile floor. The case is all warped. The battery stays in place kinda sorta. I had to snap the pieces back together. It has several new cracks. (And this is the new case I got just last year.)
But… it still works. For the moment. I may have to hold the case together with tape or something though. Well, it stays together, just has annoying gaps in the case where it is warped that don’t feel good when holding it. Maybe tape would help.
It is way overdue for replacement. I bought it when the G4 Powerbooks first came out in early 2001. So it is over four years old. Which is really old for a laptop. Especially a laptop that I carried with me everywhere for years and beat the hell out of. This is by no means the first time I have dropped it. (Although I think it is the worst damage to the case in one shot.) Poor old thing. I abuse it so. A new one definately needs to be in the cards soon. I had been sticking to an approximately 3 year replacement cycle, getting new Macs in 1994, 1998 and 2001. But 2004 was just not the year to be thinking of such things. But very soon it will need to be, I won’t have a choice…
And there are several possible options along those lines. From getting a new Mini, to an iMac, to another PowerBook on the high end. (Not interested in a PowerMac… or iBook or eMac for that matter.) But as much as I want to, the samart thing is to let finances stabilize awhile longer before doing any large purchases. I’m hoping by the end of the year, but not summer… we’re not as tight any more as we were in March att he low point in the cash flow cycle after getting the new house, but still haven’t gotten a good sense on just where we are and how much “discressionary” spending we can be doing with the standard house expenses (with most but not all of the one time things out of the way) and both our jobs. Unless we go nuts and start way ov erspending, we should be coming out ahead each month by enough to sack away some useful savings. But Brandy JUST got her first paycheck. And while I paid the bulk of the tax bill on April 15th, there is still more to pay. So it will take a while to really get fully situated.
PowerBooks are midcycle right now and should get updated again sometime this fall. Maybe then if I continue to go the laptop route. (Which I really like.) The iMac has been tempting me though. But then, it is much harder to carry around…
Anyway, I am very glad the PowerBook (named Zeus) is still working, had no data loss, etc. I am backing up fairly frequently these days, but not quite daily. I need to do daily. But if Zeus had died last night, I probably would have ordered a bare bones $499 mini today. But waiting is much better as long as Zeus holds out.
Go Zeus, keep hanging in there!
Uh… even when I throw you on the floor violently.
Thanks!
A couple weeks yet until the season officially starts, but I noticed that the National Hurricane Center has started to update their danger map again after several months with no updates. And some people are predicting a season just as interesting as last year…
NOAA predicts above-average hurricane season
(Maya Bell, Orlando Sentinel via Tallahassee Democrat)
ou can’t take this to the bank, but here’s a safe, albeit unsettling, bet: The 2005 hurricane season should spawn at least seven hurricanes, with at least three of them ballooning into major hurricanes.
That was the outlook released Monday by forecasters with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who predicted that the coming six-month season that begins June 1 likely will be more active than normal.
If so, the 2005 season will mark the ninth above-average season in 11 years, adding credence to the notion that the Atlantic basin entered another and perhaps decades-long cycle of more – and more vicious – hurricanes in 1995.
Yeah, yeah, but what are the odds of four that can be felt in Brevard county again? (OK, that counts Ivan, when it wasn’t even tropical as it was doing it’s big loop, but still… we had some rain from Ivan, a pretty bad storm from Charlie, and pretty much direct hits from Jeanne and Francis…)
OK, odds are pretty good to not get hit two years in a row. But still, probably time to hit the Home Depot and get wood the right size for the new house.
I’ll be checking the danger map (above) daily again. It is fun to watch! There is already danger for tropical formation on there, although it is in the pacific nowhere near here.
This years names will be: Arlene, Bret, Cindy, Dennis, Emily, Franklin, Gert, Harvey, Irene, Jose, Katrina, Lee, Maria, Nate, Ophelia, Philippe, Rita, Stan, Tammy, Vince and Wilma. We have a Brett and a Dennis at work (although Brett spells his name with two t’s) and Brandy knows an Emily. I also once named a bug that I kept in a piece of wood Harvey. Rebecca later inhaled Harvey’s remains.
I’m thinking because of the personal connections to me those four are the most likely to hit us this year. If I had to place bets though, I’d say Harvey will hit Florida, then make a bee line for Virginia to get Rebecca. Those wood boring insects really hold grudges when you accidentially suffocate them in a Ritz can and then let your friend inhale them.
 In preparation for the new one coming out later this week, thought it would be good to watch all the old ones again. I had intended to start earlier, but only just got to the first (well, fourth) one last night. Unfortunately the bulb on the projector died a bit ago and we haven’t gotten around to replacing it yet. I had really wanted to watch these projected up to wall size, but that is OK I guess. Instead, we finally hooked up a five disk DVD player / receiver / home theater kit thingy that I had won in a raffle over a year ago. My other DVD player is in the family room for the projector (and temporarily for a regular TV there). We set this one up in the master bedroom. I got really frustrated by the lack of a backlight on the remote, but we watched the movie. The first half Brandy and Amy and I were all on the bed, then Amy fell asleep between us. All very nice. At one point though we needed to stop cause the dog needed to go out and Amy was crushing Brandy’s arm. Which inturrupted the flow a little, but would have been OK. But then when we were ready to start I hit the wrong button ont he stupid remote, then accidentially started the movie over from the beginning. Then I had to find the right chapter we were on and start it from there, which backed it up to repeat about 5 minutes. This confusticated me greatly, and I started to have a little fit, and almost stopped for the night with the intention of starting over from the beginning again the next day, because I was now completely out of the movie groove, and was too upset to really enjoy it all. But, after about 10 minutes I calmed down, and we watched the rest of the movie. Well, I did. Brandy fell asleep. (And of course Amy was already asleep.)
I’m not going to spend too much time actually talking about this movie, because well, everybody in the universe pretty much has seen it multiple times. Now, this was the first time I’d watched the DVD release, which had even more changed on top of what had been changed for the Special Edition releases a few years back. So it was cool looking for some of the differences. Also, I relized that I actually had NOT seen this THAT many times. I’d seen the end like a billion times, cause I would flip channels and see it on TV and watcht he end. And the closer to the end we got, the more was clearly remembered. The stuff at the beginning, much fuzzier. Not that there was anything I didn’t remember at all mind you (other than some of the new things) but it was just interesting to see how my memories of the end were much stronger than of the beginning.
I’m intending to post little snippets on each new DVD I watch (I won’t redo ones I’ve done before if I watch them again). I didn’t actually intend to start this with five star wars movies in a row, but it just happened to be the first ones after I decided I would do this. The last movie before these was Rebel Without a Cause if that helps. And there will probably be more variety later. We shall see.
Also, this will be like five in five days if I actually do all of them in time to watch the new one Saturday (not even thinking of trying for opening night), whereas I normally only get around to watching a DVD (either one of my own choice or one Brandy or Amy picked) once every few weeks.
Anyway, so that is Star Wars.
Oh yeah, and obligitory stuff…
I agree with the folks that say the change to when Han shot Greedo sucked. Still does.
I actually like most of the added affects, but there are a few that didn’t seem to fit quite right.
Even with redone CGI yet again, the Han / Jabba scene doesn’t work well. Should have just left it out still.
Uh, that’s enough I guess.
 Author: Jerry G. Walls
Started: 9 Apr 2005
Finished: 15 May 2005
63p/7d
9 p/d
A book about Skinks that had been on the to read pile ever since we got Mike. Even though it got accellerated higher in the pile because it was a “need to read soon” thing, I still didn’t get to it now. Basically this was a guide to all kinds of skinks, not just the blue-tounged kind like Mike. Where they come from, how to take care of them, etc. Lots and lots of pictures of different kinds of skinks. Nice glossy pictures. Lots of them are very pretty. Some are just interesting. None as cool looking as Mike though. Of course.
It had a bunch of interesting stuff, but in terms of Mike, only a very small portion of the book really pertained directly. Some of the general info did, but turns out there are big differences in how to care for different kinds of skinks. So a book more specific to blue-tounge skinks would probably be better. Luckily enough, there is one of those by the same author, and it is only a couple books down on the book pile…
 A little while ago while I was on the way home from work, Brandy was cleaning the pool and suddenly saw a little lizard swimming as hard as it good and struggling but failing to get out of the water. She scooped it up with the pool net, and then was trying to release it, but it wouldn’t get out of the scooper. So she grabbed it… but then it would not let go! It was all about hanging on to Brandy after she saved it.
It held on for Brandy for about an hour and a half, until I got home, got a small terrarium set up, and we finally coaxed it (OK, pushed it) off Brandy’s hand into the case. It was pretty much in shock over almost drowning and using so much energy to try to escape, not to mention the cooling effect of the water. It so much wanted to just hang on. It was very small (just a baby) and vary cute. It was scared of me, but couldn’t get enough of Brandy. It just sat there on her hand. Let us pet it and everything. And would not get off no matter what.
Once we did finally have it in the terrarium with some food, water and some plants, it slowly got back to normal. A few hours later it was a bit more active and at first ran from Brandy, but once Brandy had it, it once again was reluctant to let go. She did manage to eventually get it to hop off onto a plant right outside our house though, and then it was on its way, returned to the wild after being saved and nursed back to health. Woo!
(I’d of course wanted to keep it, but Brandy said we should release it, and of course she was right…)
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