|
Sara got an awesome Christmas present from her grandparents- a new computer. Not that our old machine isn't still working, but it's been around for eight years, and through substantial upgrades I've extended its life, it's been done for a long time. The last game we were able to play on it was Spore, with all the textures turned off. If you can imagine how much fun it is to raise your amorphic blobs to civilization level, you know what I mean. ;D
Anyway, so Sara is getting this new computer for Christmas. Only, when we went out to dinner with them last night, they GAVE us the computer. Said they didn't want to carry it up to the house and have to wrap it, or something like that.
Just so we're clear, I'm used to not having nice things- I grew up in a big family of hand-me-downs, I've been poor my whole life, and I've worked hard, so what little money I have, I feel bad spending on myself.
But it is a really nice machine- it's fast, and quiet, and does everything faster- the installation that took hours on my Dad's machine (which is, in and of itself, a Beast of a Machine) took less than twenty minutes on the new computer. So we're backing up all our files off the old computer, and getting that ready to give to Dave as a present (make sure you act surprised!), so he can scavenge parts and upgrade his machine; plus every game we have that will run on it (which is quite a few, including Spore!), and hopefully that'll make a good Christmas present.
It's a very nice machine, and we're very thankful to Sara's grandparents for it. Thank you, Don and Joan! |
|
|
Nov. 30th, 2009 @ 08:31 pm
|
|---|
|
I'm sort of afraid to stand up because I haven't eaten anything since 10am and I think if I stand up I might faint. Hm. I'll try anyway, lolz. I've just been too busy. I've completed the bulk of the work on another essay and also held a presentation which was sort of rubbish because i've had five hours of sleep and the breakfast wasn't plentiful either, but it was also kind of awesome because had/stole awesome ideas.
Anyway, jesus christ i read this lulzy summary of the twilight story and how it's all mormon propaganda but HOLY FUCKIG SHIT I HAD NO IDEA IT WAS THAT BAD
I don't just mean the bad writing, I take that as a given but this shit that goes down in the 4th book
which is the last one, EVER, right????
THIS IS AWFUL THIS BOOK HAPPENS TO YOUNG INNOCENT GIRLS AND THEY LIKE IT
UJFGJFGJFJSJFJSJSF GAH HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW????
I should write another essay tomorrow and the day after, at least get most of it ready. or something. and then from wednesday evening on = weekend of ultimate bliss
now see if i can get to that Tesco Express before I collapse. oh, I actually have an orange in my bag. wheeeeeeeee |
|
Homage
|
Nov. 28th, 2009 @ 07:42 pm
|
|---|
|
Today was my Father’s 86th birthday. My wife and I drove out to my
sister’s place in Brooklyn in one vehicle, while our two sons drove out
in other—since they wanted some independence of movement
following the festivities. It was nice to have the whole family together
in one room for the first time since Passover. ( Read more... ) Satiated with food, familial love, and good humor, I was a less than entertaining
conversationalist for my wife on the ride home. This was fortuitous, however, as
the fact that she was not occupied with yours truly led her to take some photos from
the car. Here are a few: 
The funny thing is that I have had the "river of life" on my mind a bit lately, but had
not thought precisely in terms of that river being lights on the road across Staten
Island and into Jersey. So, while we crossed several plainly riverish rivers during our
drive through twilight and then into the deeper blue-blackness, one couldn’t help
but think about the river above the river.
This entry is a bit of a homage to an LJer whose journal and whose person I greatly
admire. Some of you may be able to guess who that LJer is. |
|
Lord, be my Source
Give me of You
My life is Yours
Fill me anew
Everything is from You
Everything is to You
Everything is of You
Living water, living water
Living water, flow
|
|
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/25/perino-no-terrorist-attac_n_370393.html
"On Fox News, the former press secretary suggested President Obama was playing politics by refusing to describe the massacre at Fort Hood as a terrorist attack. "We should call it what it is," she said.
"We did not have a terrorist attack on our country during President Bush's term," she told Sean Hannity. "I hope they're not looking at this politically. I do think that we owe it to the American people to call it what it is.""
fucking what?
Either Bush's former press secretary is genuinely the stupidest person alive, or she just stood on her tongue so hard she ripped a hole in it, or this is some serious reinvention of reality shit going on here. |
|
|
Nov. 25th, 2009 @ 04:08 pm
|
|---|
|
( you guys i hate shoes )
I went to see Lisa Hannigan on Monday because I scored a fantastic ticket about half an hour before the gig started. That rocks. The gig was lovely.
I also saw 65daysofstatic at Heaven last week, which was just immense.
I have a proper place to live now.
Last week I stayed with Kuba and his flatmates Nika, Ausra, Michael, Paulina and Nicholas. They are some of the sweetest people in existence and they have been so good to me.
On Sunday Carolina and I went to Greenwich and saw a beautiful and adorable planetarium show about what astronomers do, narrated very sexily by David Tennant. This was also wonderful.
I spent a shitload of money on travel, though. An absolute fucking shitload. I have no way of telling how much money I have left on my Visa Electron card, because balance enquiries are somehow not permitted here, I guess the euro/pound thing fucks it up. Neither of my Maestro cards is recognised by any supermarket card reader or Oyster machine or anything useful, so I can't access the money on my other account unless I withdraw it, but for that, my bank charges me $$$$hit£oad$.
I chatted to two Ethiopian guys over lunch. I think I'm gonna have a lot of free Krishna lunches these days.
Yesterday I chatted to a very dignified-looking elderly gentleman in Oxford Street.
This place is full of nice people.
My phone is still fucked
my camera is fucked
I have a million billion essays to write
jesus fucking christ |
|
This week, we looked at John 6:
Then Jesus lifted up His eyes, and seeing a great multitude coming toward Him, He said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” But this He said to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do. Philip answered Him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little.” One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to Him, “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?” Then Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted. So when they were filled, He said to His disciples, “Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost.” Therefore they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten. Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.”
( Read more... ) |
|
yay!
|
Nov. 24th, 2009 @ 07:57 am
|
|---|
|
Owen and I went to buy ice cream on Saturday night, after I hinted that he might want some (read: I wanted some). We stood in front of the freezer section and both locked eyes on completely different ice creams. He wanted the Weis bar and I wanted the Pine-Lime Splice.
So I started saying 'I want Pine-lime! I want Pine-lime!'
He opened the freezer, pulled out the Weis bar and said 'No, I want Weis bar!'
To which I continued with my mantra, in an increasingly whiny fashion, complete with pouting of lips, wriggling of body and grabbing his arm.
He looked at me, sighed, opened the freezer and replaced the Weis bar with the Splice. And grumbled 'Ok, we'll have pine-lime...'
(Then I suggested we buy both, but since the Splice was an 8 pack, he thought it was more than enough to sustain us for a while.)
Clearly he loves me, or else how could he put up with my childishness? :P Obviously, I'm fully aware that it's a cute act and that gets you (me, at least) far. But it HAS been over 4 years, I could understand the cute act working out well in the first few and then becoming increasingly annoying. Happily, he doesn't think so. I'm blessed! Hehe.Current Mood:  loved |
|
Warlock (1989)
I have only seen half of this, and was planning on watching the rest tonight, but my kids are sleeping in the loungeroom tonight, so an 80s horror film is not the best idea.
I haven't seen this for years, when I grabbed it as part of a "5 movies for $10" deal at Civic Video all those years ago. (Civic Video in Orange was cool, it had a cardboard cave for its horror section and a cardboard pink house for the Adult section). Anyway, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) horror_exchange has uploaded this a while back and I snagged it from there.
The plot is pretty simple. A warlock (Julian Sands) is captured in 1691 but escapes with the aid of a time travel portal presumably sent by the Devil. He arrives in 1989 but is pursued by a witch-hunter (Richard E Grant) who in a remarkable stroke of luck is in the same building when the time portal appears. In the present day, The Warlock is charged with obtaining three pieces of a mystical grimoire that can bring about the end of the world. That's the McGuffin for the film.
More to come when I finish watching it. At the moment, it stands at three Darios.
 |
|
Great meeting today. We patted ourselves on the backs for The Prodigal God and shared our plans for feeding people on Christmas. We also agreed to a shared prayer program for Lent 2010. I am excited about possibly getting as many as two dozen congregations to particpate.
Our discussion topice was "The Word." Father Tony knocked my first question -- which was about how we reconcile our understandinf of "Word" as scripture, Christ, and the presently active voice of God -- out of the park. Then we talked about our various approaches to helping people in our congregations come to more of a Psalm 119, "Your Word in my heart" way of being. Finally, I asked the assembled pastors what steps they took to ensure that they properly interpret scripture -- rather than just using it to say what they want it to say. It was interesting to me how much talk there was about relying on divine inspiration.
First Baptist hosted spectacularly, as usual, with a beautifully set table and delicious turkey tetrazzini
In attendance were: Rev. Tony Carotenuto, St. Anthony's
Rev. Ty Choate, First Baptist
Rev. Henry Davis, St. Paul's Baptist
Rev. Scott Hinkle, Jersey Light
Rev. Scott Hoffman, Ocean Grove CMA
Rev. Thomas Johnson, FIsk AME
Rev. Lenny Liebmann, RBCC
Rev. Ronald McDougal, Shrewsbury Ave. AME Zion
Eugene Montagna, Gideons
Rev. Bernard Oates, Union Baptist
Rev. Frank Pina, In His Hands
Rev. Vincent Rife, Grace Christian
Rev. Charles Rix, Monmouth Church of Christ
Rev. Kevin Weston, Fort Monmouth Afterwards, I stopped by the Red Bank Senior Center and spoke to the director about being of service. It was a very good conversation, and I hope it bears fruit. |
|
I was reading a book yesterday that mentioned a car company that was doing what seemed like a great deal but which was actually a great deal for everyone but them. Here's the deal.
Zero money due at signing.
Zero payments for the first year.
Zero per cent financing for the first year.
Sounds great, right? So great that an awful lot of people signed up for it, made no payments, defaulted at the end of the year, and just gave back the car. A full year's lease of a car for no money at all.
that's only the first half of the failure though. The second half is in the name. The car company doing this in the US called it the "Zero, Zero, Zero" deal. That company was Mitsubishi. |
|
Now, for my buddies on twitter...
|
|
The Untouchables
This is, in my mind, the best gangster film ever. It is also one of the relatively few film starring Kevin Costner that I like. Costner portrays Eliot Ness, the legendary Treasury agent who took on the task of "cleaning up" Chicago during the prohibition era. Of course cleaning up means taking on Al Capone, played by a Robert DeNiro-like Robert DeNiro. Ness assembles a core group of unbribeable, or untouchable police. With a group containing Sean Connery, Andy Garcia, Charles Martin Smith and Costner, can Capone even make a stand? Well yes, of course he can. And the ensuing blood makes this a violent film, with some unbelievable blooshed. But it was written by David Mamet so it is to be expected.
The other great thing about this movie is the music by Enrico Morricone. The opening title gives the feel of oppression, as the bad guys are in control, where the finale is a more positive upbeat composition, when evil has been defeated, and the scales have been balanced.
The Untouchables is a film that can be enjoyed again and again. And despite what Sick Boy says in Trainspotting, it is an Oscar-worthy performance from Sean Connery.
Four and a half Darios
 |
|
I've been looking at this comic
(and enjoying other wonderfully drawn comics here: http://dresdencodak.com/ at desden codak)
It makes me smile, because this is what a lot of science fiction boils down to. I'm also a big fan of the theory that science fiction is the problems of today, viewed through the lens of tomorrow. And ID4? A big xenophobic plot. ;D |
|
Sons
|
Nov. 18th, 2009 @ 05:39 am
|
|---|
|
Both of my boys are jumping on planes today. Asa is heading to Florida because he just feels like it. Lief is flying to Paris for a gig. Their independence and proclivity towards action, rather than mere idle speech, does this father's heart good.
I am going to try and emulate their example by heading into the city today to likewise pursue whatever opportunities may be there for the taking. |
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
jerichospin's Friends Page