The Screaming Viking

We’re heading back to the farm this weekend to do the holiday thing with my side of the family. I’ve been dreading going back for a couple weeks now. If we stay down here it doesn’t seem much different, when I go back there it’s going to be right in my face and there’s no escaping the fact he’s gone. Maybe Sammy will offer some form of distraction…hell maybe it will storm here tonight so we can’t go, but then we’d just go in the morning. Frankly I’d rather drive tonight in a little blowing snow than in the morning. We’re taking my truck anyhow…so no worries!

I interviewed for a job at NDSU here last week. It sounds like a very nice position, and something my mish mash of different techy experience is tailored for. The waiting is driving me nuts though. In addition I’m not all that wild about what I’m doing right now. I sit at a desk all day and adjust permissions for users and groups in a specific internally developed application. Don’t get me wrong, the people I work with are very friendly and fun to bullshit with, the company itself seems really good. I’d only been here for a week and they gave me (and my training group) a holiday bonus. Granted it wasn’t much, but the gesture was sure appreciated and showed the character of this place. The benefits are really good…pay isn’t what I want but there’s room to move up. The work is just so unchallenging. It reminds me of farming. If you sit down and explain to someone everything your doing while your sitting in the cab it doesn’t sound like you have time to breathe…but when you actually do it, it’s very very very boring. There is so much time to just think. Maybe that’s what I don’t like, I have so much time (even when I’m immersed in work) to let my mind wander…and it always wanders to the same subject. I can force myself to ponder something else and stay focused on that, but once I relent BLAMO I’m back to the same topic.

You hear it a lot in movies and songs…people either happy they made it back to be with a loved one at the end, or so upset that they werenâ??t. Well, I was there at the bitter end and let me tell you…it’s sure not something I recommend. I wasn’t there when my grandmother died and I’ve never regretted it for a day. I spent so much time with her growing up (I lived with her during sports seasons in high school) that she knew I loved her, I knew she loved me…neither of us had to say it. Without actually seeing her pass or in the coffin I have never been troubled by that memory. The images I have are her strong, albeit wrinkled, hands slapping down against the arm of her Lazy-Boy “KODY ALAN!” The memory of a strong sassy woman is what I’ll take to my grave. The only image of Kc I can recall 90% of the time though is him expiring in his chair and how he looked in the coffin. It drives me nuts; he was hardly the same person in the last month that he was the previous 22 years. I’m not saying I shouldn’t have been there…but there needs to be a delete button somewhere so I can erase the pictures of those 2 days.

I’m sure he was gone by the time I was giving the ambulance directions…but it took them about an hour to get out to the house from town. It’s a 30min drive if you take your time. I realize there is a lot more then just driving out to the house involved…they had to come from wherever they were in to the hospital, get in the ambulance then try to decipher the directions (although with the 911 addresses and GPS that should totally be a non issue). It wouldn’t have made any difference unless they had been there before we made the phone call…but it’s still disappointing. He probably should have been in the hospital anyhow, but it all happened within 24hrs. He went from being weak to not being able to move on his own. Just minuets before, we were discussing having the ambulance come out and put him in the hospital…. but honestly that would only have gained us a few hours possibly a day at the most. It would have pissed him off to no end, and possibly prolonged whatever he was going through. Maybe that’s why he went the way he did. We were all right there, and he was just done.

Gonna be a ruff weekend I’m afraid. See ya next year

Sara got me Superman Returns for xmas so I popped that in last nite and watched it again. Really good movie and worth putting in any DVD collection.

That got me to thinkin though, they have re-released the Christopher Reeves Superman movies with Sup 2 being “the Richard Donner Cut”. I decided it was worth watching to see if there really was any difference. I was breifly familier with the history, 1 and 2 were shot at the same time, hugely over budget, brando removed from 2 (I didn’t know why) and directors replaced. The 2nd one had always been kinda “blah” imo. Not as good as the first but way better then the subsequent movies (until Returns). Last nite I’d read quite a bit about Superman, the delays and controversy related to Returns…that lead me to all the stuff surrounding Superman 2. I’m not going into detail, but if you want to check it out…have a look here.

We’ve all see the directors cuts, they seem to be all the rage lately to sell more DVD’s. Usually there really isn’t much difference…maybe more voilence, some additional nudity and stuff of that nature. I popped this one in…WHOA what a difference. The movie went from mildly watchable to finding a place in my DVD library. It is such a shame this guy was never allowed to finish his movie. Lois went from being the idiot everyone made fun of to the “smart” investigative reporter finding answers on her own. Brando’s scenes were added back in, making a huge difference imo. The scene where Sups get’s his powers back made alot of difference. The scene outside of the fortress at the end, most impressive. The only thing that wasn’t very good was the ending. I’m going to spoil it so stop reading here if you don’t want to know….but they apparently originally shot the time bending ending for sups 2 and decided to use it for 1. Without a chance to reshoot, he had to use his original ending.

I have never before seen a case where you could see the difference in vision between two directors. It is a pretty dramatic turn around, and I recommend it to anyone whom is a passing Superman fan and has seen the “original but not really, the one that was released in theaters”.

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The certificate issue with IE should be fixed. I had to set apache to not care if there was a client certificate. I’m not sure why the same problem doesn’t exist in firefox…but never the less it should be gone. LMK if it still pops up. Clear your cache and all that first plx…standard IE clean up crap.

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The bears/packers game has been moved to Sunday nite. It’s a meaningless game for the bears but it will be nice to get a chance to see them before the playoffs. Lovie replaced Grossman with Griese for the go a head field goal drive Sunday against the Lions…I don’t think it was meant as anything more than a message for Grossman, “you can be replaced”. I’d like to see lovie rest his starters for at least 1/2 the game, but we’ll have to see. Tuff to not care about a division game…and the packers are playing for their playoff lives. We can’t really afford any more injuries though…have to see how this one plays out.

Hussein is slated for execution next month. Have to see if this actually happens or not. Semi interesting to say the least.

Tuff to get back into the grind after the holiday weekend. It seemed like the girls had a pretty good time, both of them getting several satisfying gifts. The woman managed to land herself an astro start, and as for me…

It was a pretty good holiday…we head off to the farm for new years to do it all over again.

To start off…I’m rather pissed off at the local Fox station. The Vikings and pack played each other on a Thursday nite game. My beloved bears are playing Detroit at noon today in “regional action”. So, when I flip on the TV at noon today, expecting to see my bears….I get the giants/saints contest. I could probably find two teams I cared less about, but it would take a bit of work. How ridiculous is this, two of the north division teams are playing…and we get a game out of the east.

I hope the bears play these last two games smartly. They have three weeks between the last game that meant anything and the next game that will. They need to both stay sharp and nurse injuries; it’s a tuff balancing act. I’m hoping they play starters for the first half, and then play reserves for the back end. Guys are more likely to get hurt when they get tired and sloppy…so taking them out makes some sense. As we saw demonstrated by the colts last year, resting for those two games is dangerous to the sync of your offense. I’m not sure how the playoffs are going to go for the good guys this year. A key injury to Harris, then tank’s uncertain future…it’s a crap shoot. They will live and die by the prowess of Urlacher. As he goes, so will the bears D and their playoff fate.

Here’s hoping Atlas’s shoulders don’t give out….

Saw a few movies this weekend….

Eragon -> It seemed to be an excellent story and, I thought, a lot of promise. The acting was pretty bad and the story was strung together haphazardly. They didn’t spend near enough time developing the tale and going into the hows and whys. It’s a shame really, because one of the most important parts of fantasy movies was done well by this movie…the special effects. The dragon was done fairly well, but the magic was done extremely well imo. I’m going to give a little spoiler here, but at the end when you saw the bad guyâ??s dragon…I was extremely impressed. It looked so much older, stronger and more sinister then this kid’s dragon. It was clear from the beginning this movie was going to be setup as the first in a series, it is such a shame they didn’t put more effort into it. I will watch the next one or two in the series…but I won’t be spending money at the theater to see them.

Rocky -> bar none the best acting of any of them in the series…which makes me wonder how it came off as the most un-enjoyable… The dialogue was decent and the story was “ok” but lets face it…we all watch a rocky movie for the fighting. I like watching good boxing matches and Rocky movies always give us what we like to see in real boxing matches, guys getting the snot kicked out of each other, excellent camera angles and the “underdog” making a comeback. The stallion looked really sloppy in the ring, which is to be expected with his age…the fighting was bad and the ending predictable. I wasn’t impressed and wouldn’t recommend more then a rental.

Casino Royal -> The best bond movie I’ve seen. Daniel Craig made an excellent bond, and to watch the character development from pre “00″ and learning the tough lessons of “spy” life was very enjoyable. There was plenty of action mixed with good story and plot line. The only downside I saw to this movie was the ending…or “endings” as it were. There were about 3 points at the end of the film that “felt” like the end but didn’t turn out to be. I don’t like that at all. I like to know when it’s going to end. The multiple climaxes in the movie didn’t feel like they feed off each other, with the next getting higher and higher until the end. It was a good movie IMO and I look forward to the next installment in this series. This DVD will find itself in my collection.

Fearless -> typical action movie. The acting and story was “blah”. The action was ok…if youâ??re into that newer totally unbelievable action fighting style. Take a pass IMO.