Future Poltergeist

We crossed 100 degrees today in Minneapolis. Was surprised to hear that it's the first time it's done so in eleven years. That's right, July 13th 1995. And I actually remember that stretch of weather. I'd just moved up here in late May. With Hans as a reference I got a job cooking at Pizza Hut. (That's where I met Jodi for those keeping score.) I didn't have a car, so I walked to and from Dinkytown every day. The air conditioner in our apartment was pitiful at best. There's an excellent chance that on that previous 100 degree day I walked back down to the Hut to do a crossword and have some 'za where it was cool. BTW, I still had my beautiful ponytail (sob).

From the incomparable Lileks . Just read and enjoy.

Had some time this weekend and didn't want to go outside so I rented some movies. Picked up a couple from last year that I didn't get a chance to see in the theater. Howl's Moving Castle I've been a huge fan of Miyazaki's ever since I first saw 'Princess Mononoke'. He creates gorgeous animated landscapes and weaves interesting complex stories. His stories usually feature people with conflicting interests rather than the more conventional good vs evil of most Disney films. This film centers around a young girl who has been put under a spell that's turned her into an old woman. She heads out into the wilderness and finds an scarecrow that hops around pogo style. They find shelter in Howl's mobile machine (castle). It's powered by a fire demon (Billy Crystal!). It turns out that most everyone is under some spell or other. And they must help each other to have them lifted. Loved this one. Broken Flowers This is a Bill Murray movie in the sam...

The FP Gal and I sometimes compare our childhoods. My memories of growing up in Austin are pretty good. I remember biking all over the place. We played football in the streets. We made up elaborate make-believe stories. We played 'gun' games (not cowboys and indians but spies and other spies). When weather was bad we played board games, a love that I still have. I was thinking about all of that while reading this . It's an article about how the parental urge to protect children is going too far. And how that's screwing up children by delaying their adulthood. Adulthood no longer begins when adolescence ends, according to a recent report by University of Pennsylvania sociologist Frank F. Furstenberg and colleagues. There is, instead, a growing no-man's-land of postadolescence from 20 to 30, which they dub "early adulthood." Those in it look like adults but "haven't become fully adult yet—traditionally defined as finishing school, landing a ...

Every year I let this go too late, but not this year. I've already set up the Yahoo Pro Pick'em league for the upcoming season. Go to this page here to sign up. You'll be joining an existing group. The Group ID # is 5098. The password is: ozzieboy. Same rules as last year. Spread the word, the more the merrier.

Inspired by Jodi's heartfelt post , I thought I'd put up a couple of interesting psych games. For this you'll need a pencil and paper. Or a pen. Well, some kind of writing utensil. Ok? Think of your favorite animal. Choose a type of animal, like a chipmunk, rather than a specific animal, like Ozzie. Write down three adjectives that describe that animal. Next think of your favorite color. Write down three adjectives that describe that color. Got it? I'll explain what these mean in the comments. I'd leave my own examples, but knowing what the test measures kind of screws that up. For the record my favorite animal is a tiger and my favorite color is royal blue.

Well, the last three weeks have really sucked. For the sake of marital bliss, I'm toying with a baseball blackout for the next week or so. But...I'm not giving up hope yet. After all, I've got this to keep me sane. (If you ever watched 80's videos, click the link.)

The FP Gal and I are starting to plan us a little road trip. Well, not sure how little it'll end up being. We're both hoping to add a state or two to our personal travel history. Anyway, it made me think of a curious discussion item I ran across a few years back. What's the ugliest state you've been to? Mine is a two way tie between Kansas and North Dakota. Therefore I'm taking them out of contention. Pick a different one Jodi. UPDATE: I must have gotten it from here . Note the times, mine was posted first today!

As I mentioned, the FP Gal and I met online. We both feel it's a good method when it works well. Seems it didn't work out well for this guy (h/t Corner ). Wow, I can only feel pity for any girl that he finally does end up with.

The FP Gal left a nice newsy post on her blog today. Most of it's about our finances and whatnot. But buried within is this little nugget, I made an appointment to get my first ever professional massage (gift from Rachel W.) I'm told it will become an addiction. The FP Gal and I met online back in 2004. My tag was 'Sweetest Guy You'll Ever Meet'. Don't laugh, it worked. Anyway, inside of my bio I added that I was a 'champion backrubber'. This was a bit of fib. I give good backrubs, but they've never been recognized by any kind of judging body. (Er, by 'judging body' I mean a group of people who make judgments.) Well, the backrubs were used more often in the early part of the relationship, I'm sad to say. They don't happen often enough anymore. In fact, she's now looking for outside help with them. I take this as a direct challenge to my skills. Next, she'll find someone else to hog the TV watching baseball and ol...

Just talked to my Grandma. After months (five?) of being in hospitals and rest homes she's finally back home. She's in excellent spirits.

So Sana was spending a long time in the litter box. (No, let me back up. About six months ago we found a really good deal on a automatic litter box. It's a little larger than a regular box. There is a sensor inside of it so ten minutes after a cat leaves it activates a scoop for the cleaning. And the important part for our story is that a privacy tent covers the entire thing.) So, Sana was spending a long time in the litter box. Ozzie was taking notice, hanging out by the entrance. As Sana was finishing up, she started patting the flap on the tent. Ozzie became very alert. Started acting like he was stalking. Finally, Sana popped out. The little bitey one immediately jumped on her. The moral? Don't take too long in the bathroom or the paw of judgment will descend.

So a young Amish mother (Kelly McGillis) and her son (Lukas Haas) are traveling through Philidelphia when the son witnesses a murder. The killing is sudden and brutal. The Amish are pulled into the police system in hopes of indentifying the killer. They are placed under the protection of detective John Book (Harrison Ford). The boy identifies a fellow policeman and everything falls into place. Book must get them out of there. As tries to get the mother and son away he gets into a shootout and becomes wounded. Where to take them? Back to their home and hope that they can get lost within their community. Once he arrives, his wound overcomes him and he's taken in to heal. What follows is a race. Can he heal quickly enough to get away before they find him? Can the crooked police find him in such an alien community? Will love blossom in the meantime? This is a great movie. One of my favorite moments is a barn raising scene with very very good music by Maurice Jarre. Also of...

This movie is set around the turn of the century in the South. It opens with two sisters playing in a field, obviously very much loving each other. As the leave the field we see that one (Celie) of them is pregnant. Soon we learn that her daddy knocked her up. This is her second child by him, both of them were then given to a seperate family. The story shifts and we find that one of the other men in the community has taken a liking to her younger sister. He approaches to ask for her in marriage but her father says no, take the older one. And so the sisters are seperated. But only briefly, as the younger girl quickly joins her to get away from their father's plans. Well, out of the pot, into the fire as they say, Celie's new husband wants his hands on her too. And on and on. The life of black women in the south at that time was far from easy. This movie jumps from injustice to injustice; beatings, adultery, incest and of course, racism. This is a Speilberg film and it...

Don't go to San Antonio .

Slow week from me huh? Just haven't felt like blogging. Three reasons. First it's been hot, humid and still for most of the last two weeks. That combo takes it out of me. Give me some clouds and drizzle. (Actually we had a nice thunderstorm Wednesday morning but I need more.) Second, I've had to fight traffic while coming home from work. 55 minutes to go 11 miles is just wrong. Must be the smalltown boy in me. And thirdly, my White Sox have not been playing well the last couple of weeks. Ugh. But I'm still around and finding stuff I find interesting: I'm jealous of this guy. What an amazing adventure that must have been. (Make certain to watch the video.) When planning a wedding, please be careful of the sports fans. Here's an article that will make that planning go a little easier. (I don't agree with all of it. I'll miss any college football game you want me to. But at the same time, keep your eyes off of the first few Saturdays in Oc...

Last week I mentioned the FP Gal's habit of cooling pop in the freezer. After several mishaps we've put a bit of tuperware in there to protect the rest of the food. Well...we had our first casualty this weekend. The tuperware came through fine but the pop can is ruined. Good news, she got to have a few spoonfuls of Dr Pepper slushie. She'd like to add that it didn't explode after just an hour. It took about eight hours. My question is simple, if you're checking on the pop to time when it explodes why not just take it out? Maybe some kind of science project. Speaking of kitchen happenings, my onion bagels didn't make it through the day. The crime scene was analayzed by the resident wife and it was determined that a team of feline roughians got them. We think Ozzie knocked them down from the counter and then Sana finished them off on the floor. Poor things. Now I have to use the Garlic & Herb cream cheese on something else. I mentioned that I'm ...

Very good post here from Varifrank (h/t Instapundit). It's concerning flight delays and the safety crews that sometime cause them. One of his flights was delayed for eight hours causing him to be four hours late for a meeting. His reaction? Calm. But here's the real reason I am taking a position of peaceful zen like quietness . I want a flight crew who takes the time and effort to look at information and make clear headed decisions about whether we should fly or not. I do not want to help create conditions where the flight crew or the company feel pressure to fly when they probably shouldnt be. I'd love to forward this to every corporate traveler we book for. It's too easy to lose perspective when faced with a flight delay. The safety of the flight must take priority over anyone's meeting. Some things to keep in mind: Delays happen. They happen unexpectedly. They happen because of leaking fluids. They happen because of weather. They happen because the a...

This is the second novel in the great American novel list that I've tackled. I'd write a review of it but I gave up after about 100 pages. The book is written in stream of conciousness which I find maddening. It's not that it's too dense to be read. The problem is the opposite. There's nothing there to hang onto. Page after page after page is just too much for me. And to make it worse, the first section is also written in southern dialect. Ick. Hope the next one is better.

Here you go, Sis. Happy Birthday! Here's your favorite player . Got to love him. This has got to bring back memories of Saturday mornings. And I bet you're glad you moved from here to here . So you could see this . This may bring back memories of a young Brian. Hope your day at work isn't quite like this. Concert clip ? I miss Michael Hutchins.

Or from ? God, I hope this is true. (h/t Instapundit )

Interesting question from the sister-in-law about Oscar worthy actors and whether or not they stick around. My guess is that they do. Where to find out? I went to the Oscar Award database . (What, you don't have it bookmarked? I probably use this more than any straight man in America what with the movie project and all.) I used the database to look at Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor since 1980. Go ahead and look if you'd like. The list is filled with recognizable names. My sense is that Oscar level actors can always find work. Now try the same thing with the ladies. Search the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress lists. Lots of 'who 'dat' names. Or at least lots of ladies who you haven't seen for awhile. My theory is that in looks driven Hollywood, men age much better than women. Many women still find Harrison Ford sexy. Can you think of a woman in her 60's who is a sex symbol? My other thought is that an Oscar performance relies on...

Just ran across this and produced the above slogan. Wouldn't that look good on a t-shirt? From time to time (well, twice) people ask me what the name of this blog means. The story behind the name begins with me at work. And some of my workplace habits. (Don't laugh, my company is putting more and more trust into my judgment, abilities and talent to mold people. Ok, now you can laugh.) You see, when I'm at work I like to move stuff around on people's desks. Not maliciously. Small objects, small distance. It stems from a desire to counter the order that most people desire in their surroundings. When someone asked me why I do it, I once replied "someday in the future I'll be a poltergeist". Et voila! Rejected slogans (or the next ten reloads): Poppin' Fresh Future Poltergeist We're Serious About Future Poltergeist We're Always Low Future Poltergeist A Taste For Future Poltergeist Wouldn't You Like to be a Future Poltergeist Too? G...

A Passage to India Places in the Heart A Soldier's Story The Killing Fields Amadeus I called the 2006 crop of Best Picture nominees dreary . One interesting observation was that they had the worst combined box office of any set of movies since...1984. The comparison is interesting. At least three (maybe four) of these movies were probably seen as message movies with the fifth one being dismissed as being about classical music. Don't mean to suggest that high box office = great movie as that's obviously not true. But people really didn't want to run right out and see these movies. Should they have? 'Places' didn't do much for me. 'India' and 'Story' were both much better than I expected. 'Killing Fields' is powerful in much the same way that 'Shindler's List' is. And 'Amadeus' is a great movie. Easily deserved the Best Picture it won. The best music from this set came from 'A Soldier's Story'....

This movie begins with the attempted suicide of Antonio Salieri. He's overcome with guilt about the death of Mozart. The movie is told from the viewpoint of his flashbacks as he recounts the awfulness of being second best. The effect is quite brilliant. Consider a scene from the first half of the movie. Salieri is the court composer of Emperor Joseph II, one of the most powerful men in Europe. He wants to honor Mozart's entrance to the court with a march that he's written. The Emperor insists on playing it himself on the spot, playing badly. Mozart enters and is given the piece. He declines saying that he knows it from one hearing. He sits down and plays it. Then he picks out a piece and improves it. Salieri's efforts have been made to seem small and pitiful. His anguish is primal and only grows with time. F. Murray Abraham's protrayal is very very good. He won an Oscar for it and it's entirely deserved. This is a great movie.

So the FP Gal and I were watching a movie last night. Crazy Ozzie was running around (crazily of course) throughout the night. Eventually, he climbed up on the couch. He'd allow a little bit of petting but wouldn't let us hold him. After a bit he poked around at the blanket on top of the couch. The movie ended (not to ruin it for you, but the younger sister returned from Africa) and we started getting ready for bed. One part of our nightime activities is tracking down Calypso and giving her a pill. Cats really don't like this. After we got it down (and felt certain she'd swallowed it) we let her go. She jumped up on the top of the couch and looked unhappy. Three seconds later, the blanket jumped at her. Ozzie had burrowed under the blanket so he was completly covered. Sensing his prey was near he attacked. Did she react? Nope. Completly unfazed. He kept jumping against her and she kept not caring. We laughed and laughed and laughed. You see, I've long...

Who may have an overdeveloped sense of protection. Not naming names. The 'out of office' message on my work email address is because I'm doing some temporary work at a different office. No actual emergency is occuring. UPDATE: I should add that my work hours have changed a bit. I'm now getting up at some obscene cow-milking hour. Posting will be light until my body adjusts. Or I get bored at night.

This is kind of a brutal movie. It takes place in Cambodia just before the U.S. pulls out. It's based on the memoirs of a journalist, Dith Pran. He'd been working with a New York Times reporter, Sydney Shanberg. Pran turned down the oppurtunity to leave Cambodia in order to cover the fall of Phonm Penh. He ended up forced into the French embassy. Despite the best efforts of the other reporters, he was put into a reeducation camp. The movie details the destruction of Cambodia after the Khmer Rouge took over. Details vary but somewhere between 1.5 and 2 million people were killed. They took the most educated and killed them. They took everyone with contacts with foreigners and killed them. The movie's good but brutal. Sam Waterston plays Shanberg. It's strange to see him looking young and not prosecuting people. It also features John Malkovich as a photographer. Not exactly a happy movie but well deserving of the nomination.

This movie takes place in the south during WWII. The opening scene is in a roadhouse blues club. A black Sergeant (Adolph Caesar) walks drunkenly walks back to the base but never makes it there. His body is found beaten and shot twice. The movie takes the form of a whodunit. Was it the klan? Or some of the white soldiers? Or was it one of his own unit, another black soldier? A black Captain (Howard E Rollins Jr) is sent down from Washington to investigate. Almost everyone assumes (or is afraid) that he'll accuse some of the white folks in town. Obstacles are thrown in his way. The powers-that-be want the whole thing to go away. The story is told through a series of interviews and flashbacks. It's adapted from a stage play and it shows in the setup. It's extremely well done. I didn't have high hopes for this movie going in and I came out very impressed. The acting is superb. The story is much better than I'd expected. There are a few scenes with music f...

Went to see this yesterday with the FP Gal. We greatly enjoyed the first one back in 2003. Found it be a tremendous mixture of action, effects and just plain fun. Johnny Depp in particular was tremendous as Jack Sparrow, er Captain Jack Sparrow. So with great anticipation we went to the sequel. And greatly enjoyed it too. The plot is incredibly complex. (I won't go into it for fear of spoiling it.) The new villian is compelling. The effects aren't quite as good as the original but that's mainly because of how high that bar has been set. And once again, the characters are just lots of fun. The third of the series comes out next summer and we're excited for that too.

It's been a long time since I've had a kitten in my life and I've forgotten some of the joys of a smaller cat. The simplest is that you can pick them up with one hand. Ozzie has a habit of walking on to the computer desk and rubbing the top of his head on my chin. Could not be more endearing. Hon, you know that old sewing machine on the porch? Some Jehovah's Witnesses expressed interest in it this morning. I couldn't figure out a good way of putting you in touch with them that didn't involve listening to their speil. Sorry. The FP Gal fell asleep fairly early last night. On the couch while watching 'The Office'. (Which gave me the chance to turn it to baseball!) Later I woke her and urged her to go up to the bedroom. She yelled to me as she went upstairs, 'Take the cod out of the freezer'. Cod? Seriously? I yelled back, 'Put it in the fridge to thaw?' but she didn't hear me. Where did we get Cod from? Who would give us ...

You know that Simpson episode where they have the bit with the guy who's been hiccuping for years on end? In between each hiccough he says 'kill me, kill me'. Replace with sneezes and you've got my morning. I'm starting to wonder how far over the drug limits I can reasonably go. And keeping in mind that I still have to drive to work. Today's metric: 15. Number of sneezes while drafting this post. (Make it sixteen.)

Yes they're all of him sleeping. He's much harder to photograph while awake.

We broke one of the FP Gal's traditions last night. For years she's been watching fireworks down at Powderhorn park. This string has only been broken three times. Once for eating all of the bing cherries and being punished. Once because family was out of town. And the third for some sinister reason that I can't print. But...I've got my own favorite place to see them too! I love to watch them down at the Stone Arch Bridge. If you get a spot near the middle of the bridge you get a clear view of the launching. We tried it my way this year. So downtown we went. Got to see the Guthrie close up (not any better). Got a good spot on the bridge. And waited about twenty minutes for the action to start. And it was very good. From where we were we could see the guys setting off the fireworks. To our surprise, it was these guys! Near the end they created a steady stream of fire that only went 100 feet up or so and exploded in gold glitters. Very impressive. The whole...

So an interesting thing happened on Sunday night. My father was in town and came by to meet Ozzie. After meeting him (and falling for his reticulated cuteness) we decided to go out to dinner. We'd each drive our own cars with me leading and him following. His last words to me before I got into my car, 'Don't drive too fast!'. Mine in return, 'Don't drive too slow!'. So a few blocks later we got to the intersection that forms the purpose of this story. I was looking to make a right turn on a red light and was trying to make sure there was time for both of us to get through by looking left. Clear enough and I moved forward. And immeadiatly stopped just as a I hit a kid on his bike (10, 12 years old). Didn't hit him hard, didn't knock him over. Quickly rolled down the window, 'I'm so sorry! Are you ok?!?'. He was. 'Is your bike ok'? He looked down and back and something was fouling his back spokes. He pulled it out. M...

Every year when the All Star game rolls around, we end up with the same problem. The balance of having a representative of each team and the limitation of 32 players per team means that otherwise deserving players have to stay home. What to do? Changing the 'at least one player' rule would leave many if not most fans out in the cold. Especially small market fan. Having cheered for that one player too many years, I'd hate to see it dropped. The big problem is that the number of teams has increased too much for this format. The NL has as many teams now as the entire majors did for the majority of their existence. Even the increase in the All Star roster only helps a little. Trying to get 32 players into a single game (as most managers try to do) is often difficult, especially for pitchers. Another problem is the selection of the All Star site. Teams and cities understandably want to showcase their stadiums. The current rotation means they'd have to wait about 30...

Tonight we saw a bit of Bravo's Funniest 100 Movies. The full list can be found here . This list has some of the usual problems with movie lists. Many of these movies are too recent to have any kind of feel for how they'll stand up. There are some obvious misses. And my sense is that most people find movies of their teen through college years to be the funniest of their lives. Having said that, I thought I'd take a crack at a top twenty funniest film list (in no particular order): Better Off Dead Airplane Vacation Fish Called Wanda Roxanne Naked Gun Shrek (and Shrek 2) Pee Wee's Big Adventure Blues Brothers Caddyshack Parenthood Ferris Bueller's Day Off Young Frankenstein When Harry Met Sally Three Amigos Mrs Doubtfire Time Bandits Princess Bride Elf The Man with Two Brains Bravo missed four of these. What else did I miss?

Sorry to butt in. For those who care, my blog is now here . -Sarah

though the rest of you can look if you want to. What does MNF '98 in Green Bay mean to you? (Chad, you may not want to watch this.) How about Shatner's tribute to George Lucas? Or some Terry Tate , Office Linebacker? Here's the Simpson's take on soccer. I love the spanish speaking announcer. U2 in Santiago playing 'City of Blinding Lights' (my favorite from their latest album) And one of your favorite car chase scenes Hope you're doing well. Take care.

Well, I was trying to post everyday. Guess that got away from me this week. So let's do a random notes post! The weather here is very very hot. And muggy. My grandma would call it 'sultry'. As a bonus, it's been extra hazy because of soot from Canadian grass fires. It's made for nice sunsets. I understand that the sunrises have been very nice too, but I haven't really seen those. Maybe Ozzie has seen some sunrises. He tries to get us up at 5a most days. Don't know if it's hunger or boredom. I remember this with both Roxane and Calypso. It'll fade. Speaking of Calypso, she's doing fine. Just wish I could get her to fight back when Ozzie jumps on her. Just finished reading (well, rereading) 'Tunnel in the Sky' by Robert Heinlein. It's a book he wrote for a young teen audience back in the 50's. The premise is that a future society trains explorers by sending them on a survival course to an unknown planet. Once there, ...

This movie takes place in Texas during the depression. The movie opens with Edna Spalding (Sally Field) as the young wife of a town sheriff. He's called out to calm a drunken black boy who's shooting bottles. The boy thinks his gun is empty and fires at the sheriff, killing him. The boy is then dragged to his death behind a truck. Edna finds herself a lone widow with little prospects. The bank informs her that the house is in danger of being repossesed. Times are bad. About this time, a black man named Moze (Danny Glover) comes around asking for work. He's rebuffed and steals some silverware. When the police bring him back to the house, Edna covers for him. She then puts him to work around the house. As a means of helping out, the bank manager gets Edna to take in his blind brother-in-law (John Malkovich). So we've got a cast of misfits with a money problem. What to do? How about setting them an impossible task that will get them the money. In this case it...