Watchmen Review

So I'm prefacing this with saying I haven't read the graphic novel, nor had I heard of it, and I'm not a fan of this genre of movie in general. But I went with someone who wanted to see it, so here is my opinion anyway...

It was WAY long to start. It's like they had to give each character their own 30 minute bio or something. The intro, although a bit long, was pretty cool in the way they did the snapshots of history. I liked that a lot. Having no prior knowledge of the story, to me the story was all over the place. While the back and forth of present to past wasn't necessarily hard to follow in the time sense, it was more of the jump from character to character. It wasn't until the end of the movie that all the characters seemed to come together in a single storyline. The gore however was over the top. I mean you can only see so many arms broken, bodies exploding and blood oozing in one movie. My personal opinion. I know that this was in no way a realistic storyline, in the sense that it could never happen in real life. But that kind of gore is why I shy away from Freddy and Jason movies... it just makes me roll my eyes at the unbelievability of it all. Again, I know it's a comic book movie and completely fictional. But I like gore when it comes with the suspense of a real life situational movie. That get's me going.

On the bright side... the costumes were amazing, the action in general kept you interested, the acting was pretty good, and all the computer technology that went into this was outstanding.

So this is an opinion of someone who would never choose on their own to go see this movie. I can however see how anyone who was a fan of the graphic novel would like it.

The Real World... and War. Who knew?

So as I'm watching The Real World tonight, yes I still watch it, I get more teary and teary as the episode goes on. One of the "Real Worlders" is an Iraqi war veteran at the age of 23, and even though this is known, the whole episode focuses on that. He visits veteran centers, walks in a Veteran's Day parade, goes to a gala for soldiers... and at the end gets the dreaded phone call that he has been called back for active duty. Boy did I bawl. The episode that aired was filmed back in November after the elections, and he had just shy of 2 years left where he could be called back. And he did. I think I only know one person (to my knowledge) that has served in the Middle East, and we have never really talked about the experience. He had a friend who wrote a book that I purchased (Link) about some of his experiences, but have yet to read. But now I think I want to start it. Getting to know this person on the show was a pretty close connection to understanding personalities and emotions revolving around this topic. To someone without close friends or family in the military, the topic can be so abstract at times and you don't really let the emotions in. I did tonight. It's just awful. I 100% support those that serve... I just can't wait for the day that they don't need to anymore.

This is a current interview with Ryan about what happened.

Weekend in S.J.

Last Thursday, Sarah and I picked up Desiree up at the airport, just in from Canada. Then we spent the day in the East Bay going up to the Lawrence Hall of Science to see the view, stopped in at my Mom’s house briefly, had dinner at Barney’s (YUM!), went to see the USS Hornet in Alameda and then back to San Jose.

Then I drove down to S.J. yesterday afternoon to pick up Jeremy, who was in town to see his Kings play the Sharks. So got him at the hotel, then headed to The Brit to meet up with Desiree and Rick (who had just come from the S.J. Stealth game), and Heidi and her friend Anne. We had a nice dinner out on the patio, even if it was a little chilly. And if I say it's chilly, it really is. The outdoor heaters weren't cooperating. Then we walked down to the Tank and met up with Sarah. The Sharks squeaked out a win at the last minute in the shootout. WooHoo!!

Afterwords we (Desiree, Sarah, Rick, Jeremy and I) checked out O'Flaherty's, but the people were packed in like sardines, so back to The Brit we went. Got a spot at one of the nice new outdoor tables they have, which are awesome. And had a few drinks and laughs until about 1:30am. Then back to the hotel to hop on the lobby PCs for a few minutes. I stayed up up until about 3:30am in the room watching some Rick Steves' Europe video podcasts I have never gotten around to watching. This morning I just slept in until Check Out, since Desiree and Jeremy flew out to San Diego this morning.

Next weekend will be even crazier as we're meeting up with a ton of people on Friday, Saturday and Sunday for a Sharks practice, dinner, lunch, 2 games and drinks. Can't wait.

Just a couple of pics...

AHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

OMG!!! I couldn't breathe I was laughing so hard.

Nala, Nala, Nala

So Nala had a vet appointment today. All went well, she just needed some shots. The vet said there is a slight irregularity in her heartbeat, but said it wasn't a murmur. He didn't seem too concerned right now, so neither am I. She is starting to show her age a bit. Her hearing isn't what it was, and I can tell her hips bother her when she jumps on things. But she is a very active 13 year old. Her favorite thing (besides playing ball and getting treats) is to sit in the windowsill of my front window. To do this, she had to first jump up on the couch. After that, she has to scale the back of the couch. Then she lays down in the windowsill behind the couch and watches the world go by. Silly dog. So I figure she isn't all that old yet since she can do that. However, she is 13, and I have never altered her diet since she she switched from Puppy Chow to Dog Chow. So figured that I would consider her a senior now and bought some new food today. I was already giving her a vitamin every day as well as a joint supplement, but just replenished the supply as well. So all is good with my 13 year old puppy :-)

And here she is, partially in the window. She wouldn't lay down in her spot on command however.

Another dream

So this may be short since it’s all I remember. But I was at my Mom’s house and in my Step-Dad’s office. Although I wasn’t sitting at a desk, I was sitting at a short table while sitting in a bean bag chair. Strange, I know. I don’t even own a bean bag chair. But anyway… I was on the phone with one of the old Regional or District Managers from when I worked at Discovery Channel. I was helping her out with her PC/laptop. It was as if it was summer and we were getting it ready for the beginning of school or something. Because I remember telling her we’ll have it all ready in time and not to worry. Even if in reality, we were a year round business. But the discussion turned a little to chit chat and for some reason she mentioned that it had been forever since she had sat in a bean bag chair. And we both had a good laugh when I told her I was sitting in one.

At that time I heard a car door close outside so I peeked out the window and saw my friend Heather. She was wearing the bridesmaid dress I wore to her wedding, and had her dog Lea with her, on a leash. So I was still on the phone when she rang the doorbell. So I ran downstairs to answer it and let her in, and mentioned who I was on the phone with since she worked with her too. So I hurriedly got off the phone as the dogs were sniffing each other, since they have never met. Then Heather pointed out to me that my dog had had an accident in the dining room, which she never does. And then I woke up. So I never did find out what she was doing over there, with her dog, and especially in a bridesmaid dress from her own wedding.

SJ Gnome

So my friend Sarah finished the painting of her gnome and just got it back today, after it had been fired. How cute is he? I just might have to steal him when I see him in person ;-)



But that made me want to go do a project too. It's called Petroglyph and is one of those places where you buy an item, then you just pay for the sitting fee to paint it. Then they fire it for you. Back in high school I took several ceramics classes and won several awards for some of my stuff. I know it was only high school, but it was nice anyway. I've often contemplated getting back into it for fun. Whether I go to a studio to work on it, or set up a place around my house to do it. So I was thinking this may be a good first step to get me back into the hobby. So she and I might go in a couple of weeks. I can't wait!!

Tea

So I had a very nice day today. A few of us got together to go have Tea in Concord at Englund's Bistro and Tea Room. We couldn't get into our usual haunt for tea in the city, called Lovejoy's. But it was nice to try a new place out just to make a comparison. It was very nice. Although it was just restaurant atmosphere, and not like the Tea Room that Lovejoy's is. But the food was great and we had a nice time. We're planning on hitting up Lovejoy's 1 month from today though. Afterwords, my Mom and I went to my friend's to hang out for a little while. We had some munchies while her daughter played with some belated Xmas gifts my Mom and I never got around giving her or her brother. One being the Lite Brite I got her. I used to love playing with those. We ended the evening watching a Barbie DVD, which my Mom got all sucked into. It was pretty funny, actually. Well after chatting about the next trip to Alaska this summer with my Mom, I'm getting more excited for it.

"First Post"

I just saw this again tonight and was reminded... what is it with these people who comment "first post" to blog posts, news articles, etc? Ummm... dumb.

At first I saw this on silly and unsubstantial websites and thought that it was just the quality of the readers. But, I have seen it more and more recently. And yes, not on highly intellectual sites or anything, but still. Then tonight I was reading the Facebook Blog about their changes of Terms of Use. And sure, Facebook is a frivolous website, but the blog was about something significant in the way they may continue to run things, and I saw this there. And even if you aren't a fan of Facebook, it has a multi-million count fan base. Hard to ignore.

But back on topic... do you get some prize for replying to an online post by saying "First post"? Even if 3-4 of you all think you are posting first and say the same thing? You all just look like idiots for wasting everyone's time by saying you posted first, when half the time you posted 3rd and didn't know it. WOW... I think you are so special. You must deserve a trophy or something.

Sorry for the sarcasm and cynicism... but when 20 year olds act like 5 year olds, sometimes it gets on my nerves after time.

A dream I had last night...

In my dream, I received a voicemail from one of my oldest friends while out and about. It was kind of vague, but she said something about her Dad had a project he was working on, and needed some help. He knew I was available, and wanted to see if I could come help him for 2 weeks. He lives in Maryland, and I in California. Well… jump in time, I am in D.C. at his business which is a massive corporate building. He was telling me stuff about needing to package up soil samples that were going to be shipped off and other things I needed to do. They had a very large staff there and each person was classified by a number. Then went by name, but this was sort of a mark of level of intelligence and experience. And they wore these numbers on their shirts, which were brown and black. The guy he introduced me to, Michael, was a number 396. I didn’t get it fully explained to me, but one thing I remember was that he was in a group that could complete a Rubik’s Cube in a certain amount of time. There were two 396 people and the other was a woman. These were the two I would be working closest with. And I remember Michael having dark hair and was really good looking. And he had a girlfriend, who happened to be around, and she was bitching and complaining about the work he had to do. I would have been fine if he wanted to break up with her ;-)

Then sort of unrelated to the work I was there to do, the dream sort of turned into a fight scene. I was standing near the door to leave the building, and a ton of people were running to flee. They were employees with numbers on their shirts as well, but their shirts were more of a rust color. I’m not sure who they were, except the “bad guys”. Me and a few other people seemed to get crazy strength, and were able to hit and knock down a ton of them before they hit the door. I was even able to flip one person over and throw them at the feet of another, and knocked him down in kind of a bowling ball effect.

Well, that’s pretty much what I remember, and have no clue what it means. I do tend to have vivid dreams every once in a while. Random.

And the 396 shirt looked like this: