I'm starting anew...

www.codenamed.ca/myblog

HELL YA!!! (I'm hoping anyway)...

Harry Potter

The most fun for me is that I've never really had an interest in any book series before. I liked a lot of different authors growing up but I can't say that I waited in any great anticipation for the next book in a series. I was never deeply "into" any chronicles so this whole Harry Potter experience is new for me and albeit, I'm not the target audience.

Co-workers kind of scoff at the fact that I'll be in line late on Friday night to get my hands on the book. Part of me thought about getting it delivered on Saturday where I can stay safely hidden inside ... I can only guess there will be some jackass who will do his best to announce some particular of the book to those of us in the long, long line-up. I'm sure everyone has seen the YouTube video from the last release. However, I find there's a lot of excitement waiting in that very long line up waiting to purchase the book. The excitement of the younger crowd and the parents pretending that they aren't just as thrilled to be there. The people who go all nutsy and dress up as Wizards. Last time, a couple of kids dressed up as Crookshank. Its fun to be a part of it and this year, Little Mouse is home to do it too.

If anything Harry Potter has done, is get people reading. I witness this through Troll-Boy who is normally forced to read every school assign out loud because otherwise he fakes that he's done it. He is normally bribed or forced to read. Harry Potter was first introduced to him in the movies. Troll-Boy lives for movies. His brother Peaches, is an avid reader. So when Troll-Boy learned that there was much more to the story than was on film, it intrigued him. He liked the movies so why would they have more interesting parts in the book? Well, he's reading them to find out. He's gone through the first two on his own, with no requirement to do so. If you knew Troll-Boy, this is an amazing tale.

Although it does mean that in the newest movie - The Order of Phoenix - that he doesn't quite understand all that went on. The movie, unfortunately, has a lot of reading requirements and Troll-Boy could not keep up with the newspaper headlines. Not so fun to have him asking the theater what the hell happened to Dumbledore??!! (when he exploded into fire to escape the Ministry.) Kinda sucked to keep telling him to watch the movie and we'd explain later.

Now the movie, I thought was quite disappointing. I know it'll go on to make millions and millions and I think WB takes advantage of that. The reviews, from the one's I read, all gave the movie a good 4 stars to 4.5 stars out of 5. Quite generous, I thought.

First of all, the younger audience, such as Troll-Boy, had better be able to read their way through scenes or it won't make sense. I witnessed it. And unfortunately, he wasn't the only one being hushed in the theater because some of the younger audience couldn't follow the whole story either.

I guess my pet peeve is that the movie can't stand on its own. You need to read the book to fully appreciate the movie. I know a lot of people will not have read the book and still like the movie but I found it very incomplete. It was choppy. I didn't like the character change for the snitch either. I know there's a redemption provided but still.

Its a long book that many people will say could have been edited. The movie couldn't do it all but does a poor job of picking out the important parts and doing them well. It took significant scenes and jammed them in. Like Snape being bullied by James. Too short of a part in the movie for the significance that it has for both Snape and Harry... but then they didn't deal with that in the movie either.

The fight at the Ministry was cool. IMAX has that part in 3-D (20 minutes worth) and as I haven't seen a 3-D movie in a long time, that was a lot of fun. This part could have been longer, even if not in 3-D. If you didn't see HP on IMAX, I'd recommend it.

The death of Sirius was done well ... the silent but visual screaming and agony was well portrayed. However, following that, the movie ended in almost an upbeat fashion. Sirius is dead and Harry should be more devastated and bitter. The search to see if Sirius might be a ghost or on the other side of the two-way mirror was sadly missed.

I might be biased too as Sirius was my favorite character. I've disliked his short appearances in all the movies to date so I suppose I expected a bit more from his death. Silly me.

There's no doubt I'll own the DVD and see this movie a few more times. I might come to appreciate it more once I get over the disappointment at the editing. Honestly, I think I was more excited by some of the spoilers scenes I got from Yahoo then I did when I saw them all together. Kinda sad. With the money put into the film, surely someone could have made the story more complete than it turned out.

I'm not going to give this movie a rating. If you're a HP fan, you have to see it. It's just what a fan does.

3 more sleeps until I get my hands on the book. I'm bringing a BB gun with me to the line-up... spoilers beware!

R2-D2
Well something cool in the news. For a Star Wars promotion (Star Wars is coming to a US stamp near you!), the US Postal Service is going to dress up some of their mailboxes as R2! How many SW fans are gonna wanna steal one?! Federal offense but ya know, tres cool.

Reflections
So today wasn't a particularily good day. Got some terrible news and I'm struggling with it.

Then tonight I was going through my old email and came along a very old one. It made me laugh. Seems so long ago but I can recall the trip quite well after reading this and so for memory sake, I'm posting the old email here. A laugh is always good.

Date: Mon, 4 Sep 2000 13:56:50 -0700 (PDT)

"Well, Mcleod and I are officially in Firenze (Florence for you uneducated...just kidding!). And so you know, NORMAL KEYBOARD!!!!!!!!!!!!! Don't have a lot of time though, this stupid place closes in 20 minutes.

Anyway, train to Italy went very smoothly. Seems we always have problems coming into to France, never leaving. First class on these babies! For the record, Milan may be the capital of the world... but it is sure one boring city. So little to do, we actually caught up on a lot of sleep there. We were there for 3 days, counting day of arrival and spent one of those in Venice. Ah, Venice. Beautiful indeed. Actually arrived during the Regatta so have to also mention, Millions of people there this weekend. It was like being in a mob you just couldn't escape from. But so much to see and so not like Milan, just loved it.

Been here in Florence for about 10 hours now and have to say, gonna like it here. Haven't seen anything in particular and already love it. Walked around all day, seeing the stores (ie: buying stuff) and hanging with the locals that are super friendly. Went out tonight to shoot some night shots, and it was like walking down a huge movie set. Nothing seems real but looks so amazing. Hard to describe.

Earlier found a street market and Mcleod was in heaven finding all these t-shirts he'd been searching for. Heard some rumbles, looked at the sky: totally clear.

Heard more, looked around, nothing. Heard more and more, ignored it. Then at some point started to hear it get louder, saw clouds (dark suckers) and knew that we were screwed. Whistled at Mike (our signal that we're stopping/see something or changing direction) and told him that maybe we should go eat. He ain't hungry but I'm like it's going to rain soon. He looks around and shrugs, naw... So I'm kinda arguing, kinda trying to convince him that it's going to get wet soon and then he hears people yelling so we both look behind him and there's all these tent people (for lack of a better word) running up ladders and putting up tarps. He just looks at me and smiles. Then.... within seconds, shall we say the heavens opened up and God dumped buckets on our heads. No little drops, no sudden streams of rain. NOOOOO!!!! Gotta have a bucket. So as we're laughing and running under tarps people are trying to sell us umbrellas. By this time there is no point and we are just soaked. So we had some pizza and waited most of it out. When it calmed down, we shopped some more. Hey, we're from Vancouver and it's only water. Good thing I brought the jacket though because it's cold tonight. Looks like tomorrow will be sunny again. It was beautiful when we arrived so I expect that tomorrow will be the same. Hope so, acutally left the camera at the hotel earlier when this all happened. No soaked shots I'm afraid.

Well, should go or I'll run out of time to send this. Hate to type all this and the damn time run out (you prepay for these computers and if your time runs out
it just kicks you off). So hello to everyone for me.

Don't think I'll be emailing again as Rome is going to be busy. I'm back in less than a week. How sad is that? Wish I was here for a little bit longer... even though some of you are dying for me to get back... Or are you all just saying that? :)

Ciao!!!!"

Food
I miss food. I've been home most of the weekend and we haven't gone grocery shopping in forever.

Ever just go through the cupboards and find all those things that you've never gotten around to eating... like the low fat granola bars or no name spicy chicken strips (suck)? Or you're not sure why you bought them in the first place? Better yet - the stuff that needs other stuff to make a meal? Like taco shells. I got at least 2 boxes of these useless things - no meat, no cheese, no tomatoes. Do have taco sauce though. Yum.

We have bacon and eggs but no milk. I don't like scramble eggs without milk. I thought about it just now and I guess I could have had sunny side-up eggs. Hmmm. Stupid me.

So instead I've had a bunch of peanut butter cookies, mini eggs and an apple.

Strangely though, I'm not that hungry. The PB cookies were damn good. Would have been better with milk but watcha gonna do?

Update
Quick update on the rat bastard selling his fake 180+ shot collection on eBay.

It reached $8,600 US on Friday morning.

However, by the sheer number of emails he received from my yahoo group of collectors, he panicked and took it down.

Score a small 1 for the good collectors.

Daylights Saving Time
So DST happens early tomorrow - 3 weeks ahead of schedule. All 'cuz the Yanks want to save some $$ and energy in some dumb ass scheme that they think will prevent people from turning their lights on an hour early.

Of course, I don't think they took into consideration the time and $$ its taking to make this time change 3 weeks early. Tomorrow, my health authority will have a considerable amount of people on-call and on-site checking servers and testing time accuracy on thousands upon thousands of medical equipment. Forget the hundreds of hours its taken to patch servers and time sensitive equipment with coding to change the clocks early. It has probably cost more to make this change then there would be in any savings from not turning the lights on.

I guess what makes it most amusing to me is this energy "savings" that this is supposed to do, is coming from the one country that wastes its energy and resources faster than any other country on the planet. The sheer excess of waste and want of the USA is not going to be saved by turning the clock ahead three weeks early.

It boggles the mind that this was seen as an energy saver. And that the rest of the world, for the most part, are having to comply with this US government change. US reliant on oil? Apparently, the rest of the world is reliant on US time.

How f*%^#d would they have been if the rest of us had stayed on the regular DST schedule? Alright - some chaos for everyone but could have been fun. And temporary - 3 weeks long before all was right with the world again.

Anyway, lucky me is on-call and gets to log in at 4:30 am to check all my servers. The one time of day I can sleep ...

No Life Afterall - 88
Well I guess this just proves it. Apparently, if you’ve seen over 85 movies in this list, you have no life. I have seen 88 of them. I actually had to look some of them up and sadly once I read the description, knew I'd seen it (i.e. The Skulls). How bad is that?

Anyway, there are 239 movies on this list, so put x’s next to the movies you’ve seen, add them up and discover if you're a lowlife like me or full of life like some other people. I'm going to say I cheated slightly - there are 3 on the list I'm not counting. I started to watch them and have never gotten thru to the end (so they don't count) - Hannibal, Walk to Remember and She's All That. I counted Waterworld as I saw the whole movie but it shouldn't count as it sucked that bad. I don't ever recall seeing the 2 Ewok movies so I'm not counting them either. Hey - I can't look like a complete movie addict!

(x) Rocky Horror Picture Show
(x) Grease
(x) Pirates of the Caribbean
(x) Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest
( ) Boondock Saints
(x) Fight Club
( ) Starsky and Hutch
(x) Neverending Story
( ) Blazing Saddles
(x) Universal Soldier
(x) Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events
( ) Along Came Polly
(x) Deep Impact
( ) KingPin
(x) Never Been Kissed
(x) Meet The Parents
( ) Meet the Fockers
(x) Eight Crazy Nights
( ) Joe Dirt
(x) King Kong
Total so far: 13

( ) A Cinderella Story
(x) The Terminal
( ) The Lizzie McGuire Movie
( ) Passport to Paris
( ) Dumb & Dumber
( ) Dumber & Dumberer
( ) Final Destination
( ) Final Destination 2
( ) Final Destination 3
(x) Halloween
( ) The Ring
( ) The Ring 2
( ) Surviving X-MAS
( ) Flubber
Total so far: 15

( ) Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
(x) Practical Magic
(x) Chicago
( ) Ghost Ship
( ) From Hell
(x) Hellboy
( ) Secret Window
( ) I Am Sam
(x) The Whole Nine Yards
( ) The Whole Ten Yards
Total so far: 19

( ) The Day After Tomorrow
(x) Child’s Play
( ) Seed of Chucky
( ) Bride of Chucky
(x) Ten Things I Hate About You
( ) Just Married
(x) Gothika
(x) Nightmare on Elm Street
(x) Sixteen Candles
(x) Remember the Titans
( ) Coach Carter
( ) The Grudge
( ) The Grudge 2
(x) The Mask
( ) Son Of The Mask
Total so far: 26

( ) Bad Boys
( ) Bad Boys 2
( ) Joy Ride
(x) Lucky Number Slevin
(x) Ocean’s Eleven
(x) Ocean’s Twelve
(x) Bourne Identity
(x) Bourne Supremecy
( ) Lone Star
(x) Bedazzled
(x) Predator I
(x) Predator II
( ) The Fog
(x) Ice Age
( ) Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
( ) Curious George
Total so far: 35

(x) Independence Day
( ) Cujo
( ) A Bronx Tale
( ) Darkness Falls
(x) Christine
(x) ET
( ) Children of the Corn
( ) My Bosses Daughter
( ) Maid in Manhattan
(x) War of the Worlds
( ) Rush Hour
( ) Rush Hour 2
Total so far: 39

( ) Best Bet
( ) How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
( ) She’s All That
( ) Calendar Girls
( ) Sideways
(x) Mars Attacks
( ) Event Horizon
(x) Ever After
(x) Wizard of Oz
(x) Forrest Gump
(x) Big Trouble in Little China
(x) The Terminator
(x) The Terminator 2
(x) The Terminator 3
Total so far: 47

(x) X-Men
(x) X2
(x) X-3
(x) Spider-Man
(x) Spider-Man 2
(x) Sky High
( ) Jeepers Creepers
( ) Jeepers Creepers 2
(x) Catch Me If You Can
(x) The Little Mermaid
(x) Freaky Friday
( ) Reign of Fire
(x) The Skulls
(x) Cruel Intentions
( ) Cruel Intentions 2
( ) The Hot Chick
(x) Shrek
( ) Shrek 2
Total so far: 59

( ) Swimfan
(x) Miracle on 34th street
( ) Old School
( ) The Notebook
( ) K-Pax
( ) Kippendorf’s Tribe
( ) A Walk to Remember
( ) Ice Castles
( ) Boogeyman
(x) The 40-year-old-virgin
Total so far: 61

(x) Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring
(x) Lord of the Rings The Two Towers
(x) Lord of the Rings Return Of the King
(x) Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
(x) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
(x) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Total so far: 67

( ) Baseketball
( ) Hostel
( ) Waiting for Guffman
( ) House of 1000 Corpses
( ) Devils Rejects
(x) Elf
( ) Highlander
( ) Mothman Prophecies
( ) American History X
( ) Three
Total so Far: 68

( ) The Jacket
( ) Kung Fu Hustle
( ) Shaolin Soccer
( ) Night Watch
(x) Monsters Inc.
(x) Titanic
( ) Monty Python and the Holy Grail
(x) Shaun Of the Dead
( ) Willard
Total so far: 71

( ) High Tension
( ) Club Dread
( ) Hulk
(x) Dawn Of the Dead
(x) Hook
(x) Chronicle Of Narnia The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
( ) 28 days later
( ) Orgazmo
( ) Phantasm
(x) Waterworld
Total so far: 75

(x) Kill Bill vol 1
(x) Kill Bill vol 2
( ) Mortal Kombat
( ) Wolf Creek
( ) Kingdom of Heaven
( ) The Hills Have Eyes
( ) I Spit on Your Grave aka the Day of the Woman
( ) The Last House on the Left
( ) Re-Animator
( ) Army of Darkness
Total so far: 78

(x) Star Wars Ep. I The Phantom Menace
(x) Star Wars Ep. II Attack of the Clones
(x) Star Wars Ep. III Revenge of the Sith
(x) Star Wars Ep. IV A New Hope
(x) Star Wars Ep. V The Empire Strikes Back
(x) Star Wars Ep. VI Return of the Jedi
( ) Ewoks Caravan Of Courage
( ) Ewoks The Battle For Endor
Total so far: 83

(x) The Matrix
(x) The Matrix Reloaded
(x) The Matrix Revolutions
( ) Animatrix
( ) Evil Dead
( ) Evil Dead 2
(x) Team America: World Police
( ) Red Dragon
(x) Silence of the Lambs
( ) Hannibal
Total so far: 88