Alert the Media

From a student paper:

"Through this article, it has come to my attention that yes, killing and stealing no matter in what aspect, is morally unacceptable."

I hope he remembers that when he sees his grade.

I Hope This is a Typo

From a student paper about terrorism:

"Only a primary target could be assed...."

Don't even think about assing a secondary target. It's just wrong, dangit! If the good Lord had wanted us to ass secondary targets, he would have made them primary targets.

Now I'm going to ass his paper. Like there's no tomorrow.

Uh-Oh

Peter Travers on the new Indiana Jones flick:

"By midpoint, the movie starts to play like National Treasure meets The X-Files, with a touch of The Goonies, and I don't mean any of these comparisons as a compliment."

I'll still probably go see it, but I'm increasingly concerned about this franchise suffering from the kind of treatment George Lucas gave to the Star Wars franchise. Mitichlorians, anyone?

For Crying In-N-Out Loud*

We saw Iron Man last night. I have never even thumbed through an Iron Man comic, so I have no idea how faithful the film is to its source, but it's good, fun, escapist fare. I remember hearing last year that Robert Downey, Jr. would be taking the lead role, and I couldn't believe it. I just can't get the image of him in New Wave make-up in the laughable (as opposed to actually funny) 80s teen romp, Weird Science (scroll down here for pic). But he sold me on his performance.

The low point of the film comes at the beginning of the second act. Tony Stark (the Iron Man) has just returned to the U.S. after three months' captivity in Afghanistan. He wants two things: to head over to his press conference, and to get an "American cheeseburger." In one of the lamest ever product placement shots in film, the next scene shows one of his handlers passing him a Burger King bag. Now, the scene is set in Los Angeles, which means that zillionaire Tony Stark has not only passed up a burger made by a real chef, but he's also passed up In-N-Out. And for a crummy BK greaseburger.

Granted, that's still better than McDonald's or (I shudder at the thought) Krystal/White Castle. But that scene still stretched my suspension of disbelief past the breaking point. If I had been Tony Stark, and I had been captive overseas for three months, and I wanted my first cheeseburger, and one of my flunkies gave me a Burger King product, I would have fired that employee on the spot. Then I would have bought the companies that employ his friends and family members, just so I could fire them.

*Alternate title: "I Can Has Cheeseburger?"

Striptease

Ever since move-in day, I've yearned to strip off the wallpaper in the kitchen. It's not hideously ugly, but it does look (a) dated, (b) "countryish", and (c) dingy. There were several edges that had come up off the wall surface, and I knew I could just give a tug and the whole sheet would come right off. It was all I could do to keep from pulling it all down, but we had already spent enough time redoing the other downstairs rooms and the nursery upstairs.

Well, we decided we can't take it anymore, and that we'd paint the kitchen in the next week or two. So yesterday I pulled off several sheets. There will be a few spots that need some work, but most of it will come off easily. It was hard to rein myself in, but I had to prep for class.

We're going to try to paint this weekend, and then the house will finally be done. Although...the walls in BR 1 & 2 are starting to look bad in comparison. And then there's the bathroom.

Must...stop...redecorating!

Got to...avoid...becoming...HGTV cliche!

How Do I Put This on my Goodreads List?

Say what you like about Wikipedia, but I often find myself sucked in by it, bouncing from one link to another as the time flies by. Yes, it's probably not a suitable reference for an academic paper, but it's still great for introducing you to new things.

Today, I saw the entry for the World's Largest Book. From the entry: "It has 730 leaves and 1460 pages; each page is three and a half feet wide, five feet tall and five inches thick." It should go without saying that I won't find it at my local library.

I have no desire to read it--Buddhism has always put me to sleep--but it looks like it's worth seeing in person. Unfortunately, travel to Myanmar isn't in the cards for me anytime soon, for a host of reasons.

Netflix without Watoosa

Two days after moving in, Watoosa left for Florida to attend her sister's wedding. So until last night, I had the house to myself. It was a little odd. If I hadn't spent the previous two weeks here working I would have felt like I was house-sitting or squatting.

I used the time to watch Netflix movies that she wouldn't be interested in seeing. It was a pretty interesting mix, this time. The first was an epic samurai flick whose title sounds like a Tolkien rip-off: The Sword of Doom. The second was a famous documentary about French collaboration and resistance during World War II. The third was Metallica: Some Kind of Monster.

The Metallica movie was OK. It was interesting--almost comical--to see the uber-heavy metal group try to solve their personal issues through psychotherapeutic hokiness. Megadeth's Dave Mustaine, who was kicked out of Metallica right before they got big, makes an appearance and comes off as a total whiner. Suffice to say, these guys don't exactly come off looking hardcore. To their credit, though, they released the film, anyway.

The best part, for me, was realizing during one scene that the band has stocked their studio with the stoneware that Watoosa and I use: Denby Energy. They even have the same salt and pepper shakers. Yep, James Hetfield gripes about his feelings and how he never can trust people whilst slurping coffee out of the same cup that I use.

The similarites, I can assure you, end there.

Aaaaaaaaaaand...We're In

We are now officially moved into our new house. Actually, it's been a week and a day, now, but I've been too busy to post an update.

All the work on the house was actually enjoyable, but it's great to know that it's behind us and we can focus on settling in. The carpet is now installed, and just about everything is unpacked, but we still need to hang a few things on the walls and organize the books in the cases.

This remodeling/redecorating stuff is addictive. When I sit in our living room, which has been repainted, I can see the den and dining room, and part of the kitchen. The contrast between the first two (both of which have been repainted) with the dingy, 1980s kitchen becomes unbearable. I have to exert all my willpower to keep from ripping the wallpaper off the walls. We've decided to paint them, but later this month, and we might even do the countertops. Why not?