Abulsme.com

This is the website of Abulsme Noibatno Itramne, also known as Sam Minter. In addition to the blog below, be sure to check out the other sections of the site above and to the left! IM me on AIM as Abulsme or email me at abulsme@abulsme.com. Comments are always appreciated! Thanks!

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Sun 17 Jul 2005

Cinema: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Oh. My. God. I absolutely loved this. I didn't think I would. And it started out a little slow, but just kept building. How can you not like a move with trained squirrels?? The colors were all bright. Johnny Depp was increadibly creepy as his Michael Jackson wannabe Willy Wonka. And the Oompa Loompas were just funny.

OK, now some of this probably wont' age well or survive multiple viewings. And you probably have to be in the correct state of mind. Now, Brandy said the correct state of mind for this movie is essentially "altered", preferably "highly altered". Or something like that. But since I pretty much always am a bit off, I was in the perfect state of mind. Especially after several days of not enough sleep as I went on my little adventures last week. I was probably on about half the amount of sleep I should have had when I saw the movie.

I am sure that helped.

But I was laughing pretty much straight through, and so was Brandy. Amy was too, but I suspect she was laughing at different things.

There is not one moment of this film that can be taken seriously. There is no super thrilling plot. No suspense. No real character development. No sense that you really CARE what happens to any of the characters. No mystery. None of the things that normally make one really get into a movie. But it is just FUN. If you try to think about it too much, it won't be fun. But if you just let yourself, it is an enjoyable journey. As Brandy told me, a somewhat disturbing enjoyable journey, but hey, aren't the most enjoyable ones always that way?

	Abulsme - Sun, 17 Jul 2005, 22:56:20 UTC - Cinema
	Permalink and Comments [4 comments]

Treos DO Swim!

I am posting this right now from my dried out Treo 650! I let it dry for just about a week. Then Amy put the battery in while I was still away. It worked!!

Well, mostly. There are a couple of drying spots visible on the inside of the screen. But not bad. Worse, if you are on the phone you can barely hear the other person unless you use speakerphone or a headset. But I usually use a headset now anyway.

So all is good! The Treo yet lives!!

	Abulsme - Sun, 17 Jul 2005, 22:10:42 UTC - Tech
	Permalink and Comments [2 comments]

Sam Meets Gideon

As I mentioned in the last post, I unexpectedly was stuck at Dulles airport. It was getting kind of late, but I figured I'd call Rebecca and Chris anyway. I was in the general DC area, and of course my dad is also there, and my friend Al, but both are further away from Dulles, and as I mentioned, it was late. Rebecca and Chris have been known to stay up late and live relatively close to Dulles. Besides, I hadn't met Gideon yet. So, a call was made.

Last time I was stuck at Dulles and I called them, they weren't available. Out of town or something. This time, thery were home, and Chris came to get me. They offered a place to stay for the night, but between having to get up at like 5 AM to be back at the airport in time, and my allergies to their cat, I figured a hotel was the best bet.

But I did get to spend a couple hours with them. As Rebecca already posted yesterday, I did indeed meet Gideon during her impromptu WRCT Day. Gideon was great. Big head and all. He sat with me very nicely, played with my tie, and was generally a happy little fellow. Apperantly he threw up on Al when they first met. I did not get that honor. But I think I can live with that.

Also got to catch up a bit with both Rebecca and Chris. The last time I'd seen them in person was way back at my House Cooling Party well over a year ago, and certainly well before Gideon. So it was very good to visit, even if it was just a short chance visit.

Sorry I didn't get to see all the other DC folks. I'll need to actually SCHEDULE a DC trip sometime, not just get stuck at Dulles for a few extra hours.

And of course, you all COULD just come to Florida. :-)

	Abulsme - Sun, 17 Jul 2005, 21:20:46 UTC - Personal
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Traveling Man

This last week had a variety of fuin travel adventures. I will briefly catalog them.

Barely made it to Orlando in time for my flight becuase of all the traffic leaving the cancelled space shuttle luanch. Traffic on the Bee Line... er... Beach Line... was going like 10 or 20 miles per hour most of the way. Then there was a long security line. Very long. Finally ran up to the gate when they were supposed to be almost done bording.

Sometime while I was going through the security, the status of the flight was changed from on time, to delayed. Unspecified delays. (Turns out to have been weather.) I had a connection with only a one hour gap. The plane wasn't even at the gate yet.

I had Brandy and someone at work looking to see if I had other options to get to the northeast. Pickings were slim. There was one flight Brandy found on another airline heading in the right direction, but by the time it was clear my connection would probably not be made, it was gone. So, based on a decision from work, I went ahead and got on the flight. To Chicago. I was going to Connecticut.

Of course, I got to Chicago after my flight to White Plains, Connecticut had already left. And all other flights heading back to the northeast were already gone, or already had dozens of people on standby from other flights to the northeast which had been canceled due to weather earlier in the day. So, I'd be staying in Chicago over night.

I figure I'll head to the airport Hilton. It is late. They have me scheduled for a 7 AM flight back out. I know it will be a little more, but it is right there. So I go there. They are booked for the night. I go back to the little hotel board. I start calling places. They are ALL booked. I was not the only one stuck in Chicago because of weather delays in the northeast. Eventually, after calling most of the places on the board, I found one with vacancy. An EconoLodge half an hour from the airport.

An EconoLodge. It took half an hour of waiting for a shuttle, then half an hour of riding, then half an hour of getting checked in, then I finally got to lie down in my EconoLodge room. It had a bed, but no broadband. It was kind of icky. But it would do. And I would only be there for about four hours.

In the morning, after dragging myself out of bed and catching the 4:30 AM shuttle I got to the airport, went through security, and then, a few minutes after I got to the gate... Delayed. The meeting I was supposed to be in Connecticut for started at 9:30. I would not have made it even if the flight left on time. I was on the phone with folks from the office. In the end it was decided after we got on the phone with the clients to do a conference call and do a bit of the stuff that could be done without me in person, then reschedule the rest for 24 hours later. As it turned out, I was actually able to do the whole conference call from the airport. We didn't end up leaving until almost 4 hours after the flight was originally scheduled.

Got to White Plains mid afternoon. Got to the hotel I was supposed to be at the night before. Basically crashed for a couple hours. Then got up and went to buy a shirt since I was at this point already supposed to be on the way home and hadn't been planning on more days. Food followed, followed by a normal nights sleep, then the meeting in the morning. We finished a little early, partially because we'd already done some of it the day before.

So, it was off to the airport, four hours before my rescheduled flight. (Returning a day later than originally planned.) Hopefully they would be able to get me on an earlier flight. Uh, nope. So, four hours sitting in the cramped terminal at White Plains. I read some magazines and some of my book. But that was it. Then, of course, an hour or so before the plane was to leave, it was of course delayed.

And once again, there was only a one hour layover scheduled. This time in DC. The flight was delayed, then delayed again, and again. They said there was a chance I could still make my connection, because flights out of DC were also heavily delayed. Uh huh. Well anyway, somthing like 7 hours after I arrived at the airport, I was on the way to DC.

And of course, when we touched down in DC, the flight back home to Orlando had left 20 minutes earlier. So, I was stuck in DC.

Being in DC, I called Rebecca and Chris, and was able to see them for a few hours. (I'll post about that in a bit.)

Rebecca and Chris offered a place to stay, but I am allergic to their cat, and had an early flight in the morning, so I grabbed a hotel again.

In the morning, finally, a flight went as scheduled, and I was home a little while later. About 36 hours later than planned, but OK...

And that was my adventure this week. Woo!

	Abulsme - Sun, 17 Jul 2005, 17:11:47 UTC - Personal
	Permalink and Comments [9 comments]

Sun 17 Jul 2005

Cinema: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Treos DO Swim!

Sam Meets Gideon

Traveling Man

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