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Today was Opening Day of the baseball season (not counting the out-of-country opener in Japan). There was much rejoicing. There was especially rejoicing, because the Cardinals are currently alone in first place in the NL Central, a position that they might not spend a lot of time in this year. But they are in first place for now and that is worth a small celebration.

In other news, K wanted to watch "Back to the Future". I would have sworn that I bought a boxed set of the DVDs some time back, but they were nowhere to be found, so I ordered a new boxed set of the three movies yesterday and it arrived today. K is now heading downstairs to watch one or more movies, which is the advantage of being on Spring Break.

And now it is time to go look at box scores, because the annual baseball draft is on Saturday and I should see who is actually playing... :)
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I did not get nearly as many things done in the four-day weekend as I might have hoped, being highly distracted by having a new computer to set up. Also, seeing the family was a good thing.

In the pursuit of seeing the family, I took Julie to the movies today to see "Moana 2". I liked it a lot. When the movie ended, I was trying to ask Julie what she thought of the film, but she just kept waving me off. This lasted until we got to the car.

At which point she *exploded* in delight. She was very, very happy with the film. She just hadn't wanted to talk about it in the theater (or while walking to the car) for fear of being very, very loud. But she liked the movie even more than I did, so the expedition was a success.

I got not a lot of other things done this weekend. I was able to send Mary two songs for the GAFilk songbook, having gotten the recording setup working in the office. I did some minor work on "Liftoff to Landing" and am going to have to do a *lot* of work this week if it is going to make it out the door in time for GAFilk. I'd like to manage that, because my next sales convention is planned to be OVFF, which is a *very* long time in the future.

And while a lot of the setup of the new computer is done, not all of it is done, so I can't plug it in to replace the older computer. This meant that I had to grab the monitor, USB, and network cables and move them back to the work laptop, because if I don't show up for work tomorrow, it will be bad. That's done now and the work laptop is rebooted and verified to be working.

In the meantime, I got a bright idea before rewiring things. I set up both of my desk computers, old and new, to work with Remote Desktop Connection. Then I found a network cable, wired the new machine into the switch on my desk, and now I'm able to connect to it from the old machine via RDC. This will make finishing the machine setup at a leisurely pace a lot easier while still letting me do everything that I need to do on the old box.

There is, however, a whole lot of computer sitting in that corner of the desk...
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Today's schedule was beaten up considerably by needing a new dryer. My current appliance store of choice is in Downers Grove, so I headed that way to catch them around opening time. I had found a likely looking dryer on line, established with the rep that there was no strong reason to be looking at a different model, and was out in good time with the dryer scheduled to be delivered and installed on Wednesday.

(This evening, I decided to investigate the heat pump alternative dryers that a friend mentioned that don't require venting. It turns out that I could have gotten one of those for about $200 more, but that would have required a 240v outlet that I don't have. Yes, I could get one installed. Eventually. But I would like to be drying clothes *soon*...)

Anyway, Mission Dryer accomplished, I grabbed a quick lunch at Mission BBQ and then headed home, as I had bought tickets for Julie and I to go see "Deadpool and Wolverine" which she badly wants to see so she can talk about it with her friends who have already seen the film. Now, I have not seen any of the Deadpool films, nor have I read the comics, but I *did* know what to expect.

Maybe not that *much* of it, but I knew what to expect.

And it was a fun film. I can only hope that Julie does not already exactly understand large chunks of Deadpool's ranting.

But I enjoyed all the little Easter eggs that were buried within. At least the ones that I caught, and I am good enough on the MU and the MCU in general to have caught most of them.

On the way home, I got to explain to Julie about 20th Century Fox and the X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Wolverine...
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I had expected to do a lot of different things this weekend. Instead, I spent the almost the entire weekend at work. As a result, I am monstrously tired.

I *did* get to go see "Inside Out 2" with Julie this afternoon. We both enjoyed the film, which was good.

And, yes, there *are* post-credits scenes. Hang around... :)
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Yesterday, we got a lot of housecleaning done. And the Halloween decorations are being packed away. This is good.

Today, I took the kids to see "Five Nights at Freddy's". This is a franchise that I'm entirely unfamiliar with, but I found it to be an engaging enough film without too much gore. The kids, unsurprisingly, enjoyed it more than I did, as they are *way* more familiar with the franchise.

There were a *lot* of scheduled showings for the film. We caught the next to the last matinee, which had about six people besides us there. I understand from K (who also saw it opening weekend) that it was *much* more crowded then.

No conclusions from me. It's a reasonable way to spend a couple of hours, especially with family bonding included. :)
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I am *way* too tired tonight.

The kids wanted to watch the Super Mario Bros. movie tonight. It was fun. Lightweight, but fun. :)
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Julie really wanted to see the new film, "Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse", so we headed out to the theater tonight to see it. This was a bit of an experience.

We liked the film quite a bit. It was a bit distressing to discover that it was Part 1 of 2, but we'll get to see the rest of the story (presumably) in about nine months. So that's the good part -- it was an entertaining film.

Here's the bad part: for an industry that is suffering greatly, the movie theaters are finding lots of new ways of being annoying. For the price of one ticket, we could buy a month of everything on almost every streaming service. That's before buying popcorn. And I downloaded a $5 reward onto my card before going to the theater, *presented* the card when buying the popcorn, and somehow managed not to get the reward deducted from my bill. Ok, it was busy.

Also, they have now decided to nickle and dime the people who are actually willing to get up and come to the theater instead of watching something on streaming at home, because they are charging an additional $1 per ticket for "premium" seats, which roughly translates to "anything with the sight lines I usually like". Now, because Julie really likes the seats on the side with the tables which they aren't surcharging for (yet), I didn't end up paying this. And to be honest, I'll sit a bit off center just to save the buck, because I'm rather tired of this sort of nonsense.

So, AMC, are you making so much money off that extra $1 that it's worth annoying your customers? Or are you just giving us one more reason to stay home?

Well, you'll figure it out eventually. But you're making a month of Netflix -- or maybe Paramount Plus or whatever they're calling it now -- look better and better.

Buzzed

Jun. 1st, 2023 10:19 pm
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With a vanishingly small amount of broadcast TV left on the DVR, it suddenly struck me that "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" had made its way to Disney+. Like a lot of people (I suspect), we hadn't gone to see it in the theaters, because we figured it would be along before too long, and now was the time to finally watch the film.

I liked it a lot. Gretchen would have liked it more if it hadn't been quite so dark and low contrast, a trend in film that she's *very* tired of. It reminded me a lot of "Star Wars", which I suppose shouldn't be a surprise.

But I have always been fond of Hank Pym and Paul Rudd's take on the younger Scott Lang Ant-Man continues to be delightful. I also really enjoyed the family dynamic.

And I'm told that this is setting up the next series of Marvel films, although that's become a bit more complex due to Jonathan Majors' legal problems. We'll see how that all sorts out.

In any case, it's definitely worth watching. Especially if you've already paid for it. :)
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I got less done today than I had hoped, aided by yet another Comcast screw up caused by their support people giving me information that was absolutely, positively wrong after I asked them to confirm that the information they were giving me is correct. Sadly, since there are no consequences to Comcast for having incompetent people working for them, there's not much to be done about it.

But I managed to get out and see DC League of Super-Pets with Julie, who had been wanting to see the film for a while. So did I, so this worked out well, and it was a *lot* of fun, which is something I've been unable to say about a lot of super-hero films out there. And it was obviously written by someone who had a lot of affection for the old comics. I approve. :)

Unfortunately, when I got home, I ate lunch and shortly thereafter ran into the Revenge of the Colon, which effectively knocked me out for the rest of the day. It seems to be getting better now, so I am guessing that I ate something that severely disagreed with me.

And tonight, Albert Pujols hit his 696th career homer, moving him into a tie with Alex Rodriguez. Pujols had two game-tying hits tonight in a game that the Cards eventually won, keeping pace with the Brewers.

So I had fun, except when I didn't. :)
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Gretchen and I finally got around to watching "Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness" today. It was an ok film, but left me feeling a little flat. I think that's part of the hazard of crosstime stories in general -- the stakes feel lower, because when you're dealing with a lot of disposable universes, it's no great tragedy to see them disposed of. In fact, you sort of expect it.
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The other day, Gretchen misunderstood which movie that Julie wanted to see, so instead of seeing "The Corpse Bride", they ended up watching "The Princess Bride". Happily, Julie liked it quite a bit, but now she would like to see more films like "The Princess Bride", which is currently classified as light, medieval fare.

This turns out to be more difficult to find than you might expect. We started to show her "Robin Hood: Men In Tights" tonight, only to discover that she is entirely unfamiliar with Robin Hood. We corrected this by showing her the Disney animated version tonight.

But we need more ideas. So what suitable films might we be able to find on streaming from Peacock, Prime, Disney+, or Hulu?
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Gretchen and I finally got around to watching Spider-Man: No Way Home tonight (with a lot of pauses for kid-related activities). It's a good film, but it makes me very sad.

We'll see what the next film does.

In any case, I'm now properly prepared to go see the new Dr. Strange film. :)

Marry Me

Feb. 12th, 2022 10:02 pm
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Because we finished the eighth (and final) season of "Psych" this week, Gretchen and I are currently short on things to watch on television due to the Olympic hiatus. She said to me, "Aren't there some movies we wanted to watch?" So I went browsing.

It turns out the new movie, "Marry Me" (Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson), is streaming on Peacock right now. It's not deep, but it's two hours of perfectly reasonable fluff.

That'll do.
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Gretchen and I headed out to a matinee of "Ghostbusters: Afterlife" to catch the show before it vanishes in an avalanche of incoming movie releases for Christmas. We liked it quite a bit. It's a good sequel to the original film and very satisfying in that way.

If you get a chance to see it (and you liked the original film), it's worthwhile.

Encanto

Dec. 7th, 2021 09:37 pm
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Julie saw "Encanto" with Gretchen a while back and wanted to go see it again with me, so we did so tonight, taking advantage of Discount Tuesdays at our local AMC. It was a good film and I enjoyed it quite a bit.

I would even say that you could pay full price for it. :)
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Gretchen and I got around to watching this tonight. As I said to Gretchen at one point during the film, it's the best bad movie I've seen in a while.

It's also not actually bad. Although there was also a point when I asked Gretchen "Is there anything that they do that isn't a clusterf***?"

But seriously, it's not bad. It holds together pretty well.

Just don't overthink it.
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Last night, Gretchen and I watched "The Map of Tiny Perfect Things" on Amazon Prime. We liked it a lot. It owes (and acknowledges) a substantial debt to "Groundhog Day", but is a very different film.

If you like SF and teen romantic comedies at all, you'll likely enjoy this one.
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The Dorsai Irregulars Business Meeting was today, followed by an informative presentation by Dr. Bob on COVID-19. It was good seeing so many different faces.

This evening, Gretchen and I watched "Bumblebee", which for the marginal cost of "free" was not a bad film at all. :)

Knives Out

Jun. 26th, 2020 10:56 pm
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I watched Knives Out on Amazon Prime tonight with Gretchen. We concluded that we were happy that we hadn't paid extra for it. :)

I've also concluded (based on a sample of two) that I don't care that much for his work.

(If you do, that's fine. To each their own...)

Shazam!

Mar. 21st, 2020 11:57 pm
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Gretchen had suggested some time ago (based on my comments and online reviews) that it would be fun to rent "Shazam" and watch it. We've pretty much run out of recorded TV and it's not like we were going anywhere tonight, so we've now seen it.

It was fun. As DCU movies go, this is a good thing. We're looking forward to the next film.

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