Category: Media

Very few media items would ever get an entire post devoted to them, but The Princess Bride is truly worthy. It's a movie of the finest caliber. And I'm not talking Oscar Contender. It's a classic … loved by all. You can check out its page in the media section to see what its about … I won't go into it.

The reason I'm posting about this is that I needed something new for my MOTD … it was blank and I wanted movie quotes. So I ran into a bunch from The Princess Bride, which got me thinking …

When I first saw this movie, I was probably about 8 or 9. I watched it with my family in our living room and I remember laughing like crazy. I hadn't really wanted to see it because I was a tomboy and it was called The Princess Bride, for goodness sakes. But watch it I did and of course, I loved it. It's one of the family faves. A movie my sister and I quote to each other. And it's got a lot of good quotes (if you're a daily reader, you'll find some as my MOTDs for a while). But that first time isn't my favorite time that I've seen it. When we were in our sophomore year of college, they decided to actually let the students pick what movies they'd show at the campus theatre (usually it's a bunch of artsy stuff) and Princess Bride was picked. I had to go see it. And I had to take Matt with me. He too was skeptical of a movie called The Princess Bride. But I convinced him he had to go. It was a Saturday night at midnight (so I guess, technically, it was Sunday morning). All of the frat parties were winding down and a ton of drunk college kids filled the small theatre. I don't think there was a seat to spare.

The movie began … and it was one of those great theatre-going experiences. Everyone laughed at all the right parts. People were all saying the famous lines together … “Anybody want a peanut?” I've rarely heard Matt laugh so hard. A really really fun evening.

So … If you haven't seen this movie. Correct that situation immediately.

I've been reading a lot of books recently and I've been noticing some pretty poor editing. There's the usual misspellings and incorrect words and bad punctuation and comma splices and that sort of stuff that we sort of just take for granted as part of our vernacular.

But then I noticed a couple of continuity errors. One was an email address that had previously been at one domain name and was then listed as a differnt domain. Then there was a diary entry dated November 31st. There was a kids name chaned from Brittany to Ashley (once, never again). If these errors are so glaring to me, I can only wonder if anyone actually read the dern thing before it went to print.

Maybe I should have been an editor. But then again, I hate reading stuff that sucks. And I did enough of that in college.

Did you know:
+ Bananas were discovered by Alexander the Great more than 2000 years ago in 327 BC
+ They weren't officially introduced into the US, however, until the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition in 1876
+ The average American consumes over 28 pounds of bananas each year
+ The banana plant is actually not a tree … it's the world's largest herb.
+ Bananas are America's #1 fruit.
– From the back of the Strawberry Banana Cheerios Box

I sometimes watch Oprah After the Show since it's on right after Roseanne. I think the most annoying part of the show is all of these women who are so in love with Oprah and their dream is to meet her and they do and they just gush and gush. And I hate to rag on anyone's dream, but that's kind of a crummy one. You didn't DO anything. You flew to Chicago and took a cab to the show and sat in a freakin' seat. Get a life. I would hope you could come up with a better life-long-dream than that.

There are also the annoying guests that want Oprah to do something for them. This one today wanted Oprah to “be her mentor.” Yea right. Someone with a magazine and a daily TV show and a zillion other commitments has time to mentor some random person from her audience. Why don't they edit those annoying people out.

We watched the IAMS Eukanuba Tournament of Champions this evening on Animal Planet. I'm a bit of a closet dog-show nerd. I really love to watch all of the pretty dogs prancing around. The dogs on there are absolutely gorgeous (not that I don't have a special place in my heart for mutts). The working group are my favorites… the Samoyed, Akita, Malamute, Huskie, Newfie, and Kuvasz are all in that group. They're excellent doggies. Miss May belongs to the Sporting group. I like loads of them as well. A very cute little dog called Coco who is a Norfolk Terrier won Best in Show. I will admit that he was a fine dog, but I really feel like dogs should be a good deal bigger than cats …

I just watched an episode of Trading Spaces: Boys Vs. Girls. It's like it's grown-up counterpart, except that kids participate and there's an extra carpenter to lend a hand. There also seems to be a much larger budget. And if you thought some of the rooms on Trading Spaces were cracktastic, you ain't seen nothin' yet. They do these incredibly elaborate theme rooms for these kids. That in and of itself wouldn't be so bad if they didn't remove almost all functionality from them. The one last night for example had a little boys room turned into a stadium. Fine. But to do this, they made him a “Sky Box” bed (read: loft) in the corner of his 8' ceilinged room. It looed like even if I sat up, I'd smack my head, let alone a kid who will probably grow to be at least 6″ taller than me. They also turned the girl's room into a candy factory, with how-the-hell-can-I-sleep-in-here-it's-so-bright color scheme, conveyor belt, and a whole wall full of shelves with candy jars (bubye books!). Here's a pic:

They do seem to have a very cute pink chair at her desk though, which looks an awful lot like my green chairs … where did they get pink? Spray paint?? Maybe that paint that “bonds to plastic at the molecular level.” Did I just miss them at IKEA? Hmmm…

We've been blissfully passing our time playing loads of video games, watching loads of TV (thank you Spike TV for the James Bond Marathon) and doing a little bit of Christmas shopping. It's amazing how stress free Christmas shopping can be when you do it little by little.

It's been damn cold here. It tried to snow on Friday but it didn't stick. I'm not real sad about that. I love how snow looks on the first day but it stays around way too long here and gets icky and grey. It's not real fun to walk or drive in. So no snow, but very cold. We went to eat at a middle eastern restaurant on State Street today and nearly froze or butts off getting there. Brrrrr!

We went to see Love Actually on Wednesday night. I knew it would be funny, but I was not prepared!!! I laughed so hard a few times I couldn't breathe. I hardly think anyone could dislike this movie (well I know a few people, but they're the type w/o a sense of humor). Anyhow, I want to see it again because it had tons of good one-liners. I remembered a few, but not nearly enough. We also went to see Thirteen. That was last night, I think. It was the type of movie that you're not sorry you saw, but you just don't want to see it again. Very scary … not in a horror type of way … but just in a something you'd rather not think about sort of way.

We rented Hit and Run and Price of Persia as well. Hit and Run was sort of boring. You kind of repeat the same thing over and over and over and it gets tedious. But it is a fun game, esp. if you're a Simpsons fan. POP:Sands of Time is great. We've had tons of fun playing that. I'd highly recommend it.

OK, that's my weekend rundown. Bye!

Ok, normally I would never plan a video game named after the movie Pirates of the Caribbean, but this is different. The marketing deal appears to be an after thought. The game was supposed to be released as the sequel to Sea Dogs, which itself borrowed a lot from an old Atari/PC game Pirates! What I’ve heard is that when the movie came out, they dropped the Sea Dogs name in favor of a marketing deal. The only other similarity between the Game and the Movie is the look and I’m grateful for that. The plot, game play and graphics are superb. All in all, I’d rate it a great game.

I am watching the episode of Star Trek known as “Schisms.” I don't remember what it is about, although I've seen it before. But it does contain one of my favorite Star Trek funnies. Data, the android (read: robotic human) invites everyone to his poetry reading. His ninth poem is one of his own creation: “Ode to Spot.” It's great.

“Ode to Spot”
Felis Catus is your taxonomic nomenclature,
An endothermic quadruped carnivorous by nature.
Your visual, olfactory and auditory senses
Contribute to your hunting skills and natural defenses.
I find myself intrigued by your sub-vocal oscillations,
A singular development of cat communications
That obviates your basic hedonistic predilection
For a rhythmic stroking of your fur to demonstrate affection.
A tail is quite essential for your acrobatic talents:
You would not be so agile if you lacked its counter-balance.
And when not being utilized to aid in locomotion
It often serves to illustrate the state of your emotion.
Oh Spot, the complex levels of behavior you display
Connote a fairly well-developed cognitive array,
And though you are not sentient, Spot, and do not comprehend
I none-the-less consider you a true and valued friend.

HAHA!

This evening's episode of South Park features CASA BONITA!! It's this Chuck E. Cheese sort of place with (crappy, but that's not the point) Mexican food. They have a game room and cliff divers and a “scary” pirates' cave. It's campy and cheesy to the max and a way huge lotta fun.

I love it when South Park features something Coloradoey. It's excellent. More shows should take place in Denver or Colorado. By my count it's up to 3 now. There's Everwood, Mork and Mindy and South Park . Hmmm…