FMC 3.0

I actually spent most of the weekend away from my computer, and in the living room plopped down in front of the TV. I setup an assembly line for stuffing letters (Odyssey stuff) on Saturday while catching up on movies On Demand. So over the course of a few hours I saw Brazil (which was wacky and odd, even for Terry Gilliam), The Day After Tomorrow (there’s two hours I’ll never get back), Flight of the Phoenix (which should be shot into the sun), I heart Huckabees (Yeesh) and Muriels Wedding (chose that for all the wrong reasons.)

Brazil was damn nifty, but its one of those movies you’ll either love or hate, as with most Gilliam flicks. I liked this one, the style was just great, if the story a little loose and confusing.

Muriel’s Wedding I chose just cause Rachel Griffiths (from Six Feet Under) is in it, which is a bad reason to choose a movie. It’s a complete sleeper, even with the accents. If I had known about the ABBA ahead of time I would have steered clear.

I heart Huckabees was just plain odd. Talented cast, its just one of those movies that tries to out think itself. I’m sure some bit of existential ennui would appeal to some people, but an entire movie about “why am i here?” Who cares? Deal with it, and move on.

Flight of the Phoenix was okay. It was kind of an incomplete story, however, as there wasn’t any buildup to the flight, and zero denouement. Unless you count pictures. On top of that, the plane they build wouldn’t have flow the way it was, the extra windscreens on the wing would have completely killed any chance the wings had for creating lift. On the plus side, it’s nice to see Miranda Otto as something other than a Rider of Rohan. And who’s really seen Kevork Malikyan since Last Crusade?

Ah, the worst for last (for this section anyway): The Day After Tomorrow. While the base scientific stuff was pretty on target (the eventual result of global warming will be an ice age) there’s no way that change will happen in a week. Climatological changes happen on a long, long scale, not overnight. At any rate, I can’t remember the last time I watched a movie and said ‘bullshit’ so many times. And what’s with Roland Emmerich destroying cities in every movie? The last time it was aliens. Now it’s nature. Same two cities to start out with, as well. New York and LA. He must not like either place much. Plus they had to find some sort of happy ending, because there are no more depressing movies (remember how they ended that POS Pearl Harbor?) so they had the storm break up over the US, so that only the Northern Hemisphere was hosed. That’s the happiest ending possible? Yikes. Maybe they could have had the aliens come back to rewarm things a bit.

On top of all that, the effects were kind of lackluster. The locations looked fake and computerized. Hell, they couldn’t even use real wolves. Speaking of which, WTF? You have the impending annihilation of this group of survivors in NYC, and Mother Nature decides to send in a couple of hungry predators to seal the deal? It just seemed over the top.

At least the letters got done. Now just to mail out all 400 or so. To reward myself, it was a Thin Crust Hawaiian from Domino’s.

Today I was in the same spot wrapping most of the presents I have for Christmas. Since things I wanted to watch were getting scarce, I ended up watching Tora! Tora! Tora! for the first time, and it was probably the best flick I saw all weekend. It basically tells the story of Pearl Harbor from both sides. It’s basically two movies spliced into one - an American one showing the pre-attack defense strategy and the communications breakdown ahead of the attack, and a Japanese one (subtitled) that shows the planning process and the reasons they attacked. Really a neat flick, and decent battle sequences (except for the model ship explosions) for its time.

At this point all the wrappable stuff is wrapped. There’s a few bigger things that wouldn’t be wrapable that I’ll just pull out near the end for surprise effect, like the *CENSORED* for Sydney, and the *CENSORED* for my mom. I just one or two more things to pick up, and something to assemble, and I think I’ll be done. It’ll be strange to be done this far ahead of Christmas. Of course, you’d have to be me, or at least male, to think that there’s still a lot of time left.

Snowing until noon? Riiiight. It was sunny when I left the office this morning. Dover is greener now than before the snow fell. Still no 4 wheel drive love for the Element. But Winter is just starting to roll. Oh well, the slight delay from leaving Newark allowed me to be up there when Borders opened. So now I’m 95% done with the Christmas shopping. I’m hoping there will be a few surprises for people.

Since I’m not much on the content, and can’t decide on eye candy, I’m going with anti-eye candy:

How drunk do you have to be to think that a) you won’t go to jail and b) you think those outfits are becoming. I’m not fashion savvy by any sense, but damn. If I know its bad, you are in deep deep fashion shit.

Oh joy:

A HEAVY SNOW WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 12 PM EST FRIDAY.

A DOUBLE-BARRELLED LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM WILL AFFECT THE REGION
OVERNIGHT INTO EARLY FRIDAY AFTERNOON. ONE AREA OF LOW PRESSURE
WILL WEAKEN AS IT MOVES TOWARD SOUTHERN CANADA FROM THE GREAT
LAKES REGION. A SECOND LOW IS FORECAST TO FORM OFF THE NORTH
CAROLINA COAST AND MOVE NORTHEAST. THIS LOW WILL RAPIDLY
INTENSIFY AS IT HEADS OUT TO SEA.

WITH COLD AIR ALREADY IN PLACE OVER THE REGION…THE
PRECIPITATION WILL FALL AS SNOW ACROSS THE AREA. THE SNOW SHOULD
BEGIN AFTER MIDNIGHT AND CONTINUE THROUGH THE MORNING…BEFORE
ENDING AROUND NOON. SNOW ACCUMULATIONS OF 5 TO 8 INCHES ARE
EXPECTED WITH THIS EVENT.

IF YOU MUST TRAVEL LATE TONIGHT INTO FRIDAY MORNING…USE EXTREME
CAUTION. SLOW DOWN AND ALLOW EXTRA TIME TO REACH YOUR
DESTINATION. FOUR WHEEL DRIVE VEHICLES DO NOT NECESSARILY HAVE
GREATER BRAKING ABILITY THAN OTHER VEHICLES. MAKE SURE TO CLEAN
OFF SNOW AND ICE FROM THE ROOF AND HOOD OF YOUR VEHICLE FOR THE
SAFETY OF OTHER DRIVERS. THE MORNING COMMUTE WILL BE MUCH MORE
DIFFICULT THAN USUAL. PLEASE GIVE YOURSELF MUCH EXTRA TIME TO
REACH YOUR DESTINATION. IF YOU CAN… POSTPONE ANY UNNECESSARY
DRIVING.

CONTINUE TO STAY TUNED TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO ALL HAZARDS OR YOUR
FAVORITE MEDIA SOURCE FOR FURTHER INFORMATION.

A HEAVY SNOW WARNING MEANS SEVERE WINTER WEATHER CONDITIONS ARE
EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF SNOW ARE FORECAST
THAT WILL MAKE TRAVEL DANGEROUS. ONLY TRAVEL IN AN EMERGENCY. IF
YOU MUST…KEEP AN EXTRA FLASHLIGHT…FOOD…AND WATER IN YOUR
VEHICLE IN CASE OF AN EMERGENCY.

I like how weather warnings are sent out like a 13 year old using AOL. All capital letters, and broken sentences. It just needs a few 133t modifications, and possibly the shorting of “YOU” to “U” and “YOUR” to “UR” and a few misspellings. Of course, the term “Double-Barrelled Low Pressure System” just ads to the credibility of the report. Comparing the weather to weapons. Beautiful. Next we’ll have carpet bombing hail, tazer gun lightning, and blizzard nukes. (Heh, whole new meaning to nuclear winter.)

Hopefully the impending weather won’t impede my weekend plans: Letters, finishing up Christmas shopping, and assembling a few presents. Oh, and Dogsitting, if the weather doesn’t impede my parent’s travel plans.

Oh, and when I said letters - I’m sending letters to all the DE Odyssey Judges, so some of you should watch your mailboxes. Anyone wanna come help me stuff envelopes?

So the snow totally petered out. I knew weathermen were just sensationalists. I don’t know how much snow we actually had fall, but it can’t be more than an inch or two. Basically enough to blanket the yard for a day or two, but not enough to make life interesting. Other than a little vertigo on the highway, there weren’t any problems getting to work. This morning was bright and clear, and the roads were just wet, and not real slippery. Kinda boring, really. The 4WD still waits a real challenge.

In other news, I was given a fleece last night (thanks to the company I work for. It’s nice that they give back to those that work their tails of for them.) Now, I’m not up on my fashion and types of clothes, so the concept is a little new to me. I’ve got a pretty simple wardrobe. Jeans, T-shirts, and a few button up casual shirts. When winter comes, it’s a pretty basic system - if its a little chilly, I’ll put on a long sleeve button up. Just cold, and I’ll throw my LL Bean Jacket on over a T-shirt. Freezing, and I put the Bean jacket on over a long sleeve shirt over a t-shirt. Having been a scout for years and years, I’m all about the layering of clothes for the cold. I’m just not sure how the fleece fits into the picture, since I tend to like to peel off layers once I get somewhere warm. Heck, my jacket normally comes off halfway back to Dover (Nighthawk’s heater is powered by the sun, I’d swear.) Oh well, I think I’ll have to test drive the thing.

Now then, onto eye candy (and other news):

The X-3 Teaser Trailer - go get Quick Time 7 first, if you don’t have it installed. I think they could make an X-men movie with nobodies, and a crappy script, and I’d still get all tingly about it. All I gotta say is that Kelsey Grammar is gonna rule as Beast. (That’s right, that’s Frasier in the blue.) Heather posted a few stills if you don’t want the trailer, but you’re missing out.

Now that you’re all high on Halle Berry and Anna Paquin (Or Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart, if that’s your preference), the chaser to keep you from going crazy.

Lastly, England’s made an inch upward on the list of where to go when I leave the States. Not only are they giving equal rights to everyone, Elton John is getting married in Windsor Palace. Can you imagine if Rosie O’Donnell had tried to book the White House?

From the NWS:

LOW PRESSURE IS DEVELOPING OVER GEORGIA AND WILL MOVE NORTHEAST
ALONG A STATIONARY FRONT, AND EXIT OFF THE MID-ATLANTIC COAST ON
MONDAY NIGHT. SNOW IS EXPECTED TO MOVE INTO THE REGION ON MONDAY
AFTERNOON AND PERSIST THROUGH MONDAY NIGHT. THE EXCEPTION WOULD BE
ALONG THE SOUTHERN NEW JERSEY AND DELAWARE COASTS WHERE THE SNOW
COULD MIX WITH SLEET AT TIMES.

THERE IS STILL QUITE A BIT OF UNCERTAINTY WITH THE EVOLUTION AND
TRACK OF THIS DEVELOPING STORM. SMALL CHANGES IN MOTION OR STRENGTH
COULD GREATLY AFFECT SNOWFALL AMOUNTS ACROSS THE REGION. AN EXIT
FURTHER TO THE SOUTH OFF THE MID-ATLANTIC COAST COULD PROVIDE US
WITH LESS SNOW WHILE A JOG TO THE NORTH COULD MEAN MORE.

EVEN WITH ALL THE UNCERTAINTY, THERE IS THE POTENTIAL FOR 5 TO 8
INCHES OF SNOW IN THE WATCH AREA BY THE TIME THE STORM EXITS THE
REGION TUESDAY MORNING.

Sweet. I finally get to test 4WD in the Element. Of course, it just goes to prove that Meteorologists are liars. First off, how can a stationary front move? Also, how does it jog? And with all of the computers they have to calculate this stuff, they can’t tell? I think they just give it a range to keep people coming back for more, for the advertising dollars. I bet they know that Dover is going to get 6.745 inches of snow, but don’t want to let people know. Uncertainty my ass, they just want the advertising bucks.