Zathras' Great Machine

OK, so it's been a while

OK, OK, Shaw, you got my attention, jeez.

So it's been about a month or so since I made an entry. Life has been topsy turvy... I got laid off in mid-November, which was very upsetting, even though the boss gave me several months' warning that it might be coming. The rest of November was very hard on me, but I've made it thru OK with support from family, friends, and of course my Sweet Babboo (who put in a lot of time supporting me -- a public "thank you" to all, but to her in particular).

Denise got here last Wednesday, and we're mostly relaxing together while I'm on my "vacation". Her notebook computer gave up the ghost -- again -- and we took an impromptu trip to CompUSA today to have them look at it -- again. They really need to replace the damn thing. They've tried everything else, so a new unit is really called for at this point. Which most likely means, of course, that they'll never do it.

Fortunately, I do have a spare computer -- the company's old file server, which got retired some months ago. It's a Compaq and thus a bit tempermental, but I did get it up and running with some help from Denise.

Denise and I watched the first part of the new "Battlestar Galactica" this evening. It's a very interesting variation on the original "Galactica", which I watched when I was a kid (Denise would have been too young at the time; she has never seen the original series and therefore has no basis for comparison). It will also be interesting to see what kind of ratings and reviews it gets... the Skiffy Channel has apparently said that if it does well, it might come back as a new series.

Cinema report: Do not, under any circumstances short of a death threat, see "The Cat in the Hat". It is bad, so bad that I actually fell asleep in the theater. I don't recommend "Timeline", either... it's not dreadful, but it's pretty weak and even features such glaring errors as a woman who speaks only French, then is suddenly bilingual. "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World", is quite good, although it does move kind of slowly.

Denise and I were thinking of seeing "The Return of the King" together, but that fantasy went out the window pretty fast after I looked at early ticket sales. This is going to be a big event, obviously, but even so, I have to admit that I wasn't expecting a response that big.

I'm also slowly going thru the new DVDs that I bought last month... I watched "The Ring" and was very impressed with it. I also watched "Die Another Day" and was not disappointed -- it's standard Bond formula for the most part, although there have been some changes to the formula since the early Bond, of course. No more Soviets to fight against, so now Bond is fighting North Koreans. Some of the humor is a little more racy, too. The theme songs, by Madonna, are excellent -- especially the end theme, which is a great dance number.

I installed VirtualPC and Windows XP Professional on the Hieronymous Bosch. It's not a speed demon, of course -- you can't expect much in that department on an emulated computer. But other than its lack of speed, it performs quite well, and moving documents, files, and so forth between the "Mac" and the "PC" is all but seamless. Now I'm anxious to try Linux.

I finished RealMYST not long ago. Without giving anything away, I will say that the new "Rime Age" is quite a disappointment.

Read in today's paper that the Supreme Court is taking a couple of Miranda cases, including one in which an officer was Mirandizing a suspect, the suspect interrupted the officer by saying that he already knew his rights, then agreed to answer the officer's questions. What, exactly, is the point of disagreement, here...? The suspect said he knew his rights and waived them, so I don't see how anyone can argue that the suspect's rights were violated.

And that, I believe is the news for now... no more Zamboni, at least for a while.

Posted by Zathras at December 9, 2003 12:45 AM