vordark

So, in my pathetic attempts to find something good coming out of Hollywood, I was on one of my usual haunts today: a movie trailer site. There's a trailer for a movie, the lead-in text of which reads:

"Cliff and Cydney (Steve Zahn and Milla Jovovich) are an adventurous young couple celebrating their honeymoon by backpacking to one of the most beautiful, and remote, beaches in Hawaii. Hiking the wild, secluded trails, they believe they’ve found paradise. But when the pair comes across a group of frightened hikers discussing the horrifying murder of another newlywed couple on the islands, they begin to question whether they should turn back."

So at least I know I don't have to watch the trailer. Why? Because, given the information they have, turning back isn't even a fucking question. "Oh, what's that? Someone around here is killing newlyweds? Hey, we're newlyweds! Fuck it, we're going to Niagra Falls!"

Just once I want to see a movie where there's a group of people, bad shit starts to happen, and rather than trying to face the shit, they do the smart thing and get the fuck away. Like, when five minutes into the movie, the group finds the words "I will rape your souls!" written in blood on a wall? BAM! They're fucking out of there! Sure, it'd be a short movie, but at least it would make goddamned sense.

Plus, who the fuck spells Sydney with a "C"!?!

Now that the rain has decided to take a vacation, the weather has been beautiful. Alex and I have spent far more time outside than inside. We've been playing in the yard, going fishing, riding her tricycle, taking walks and generally just being really glad that we can finally be outside and not get wet.

Tomorrow my folks and I are taking her on a picnic to Otter Brook. My parents have been wanting to take her there for a while and let her splash around in the water. I'll bring her fishing poll and pick her up some bait too, but I have a sneaking suspicion she'll do a whole lot more playing than fishing.

Wednesday is story time at the library again, so we'll have oodles of fun there. I'm also going to inquire as to how volunteering at the library works. The library has all of these really great programs, like story time, that are totally awesome and free, and it only happens because people volunteer to run them. If there's some way I can help out on the weeks Alex is with her mother, than that would be great. It would also give me a way to commit to doing something and try to follow through on it. In other words, great therapy.

In related news, one thing I've been doing quite a lot is making sure Alex and I have a few activities we can do each day. That way we can spend time together and be all kinds of happy. Since the weather was such shit recently, I came up with a series of "rainy day" activities for us to do when it turns south again. I must have picked the right kinds of stuff, because Alex keeps asking me when it will rain so we can do those things. :)

Now, however, it's time to put the wee one down for her nap.

Something I'm starting to get really sick of is seeing people with bicycle helmets. I've been doing a lot of walking lately, and I'd say 95% of the people riding around on bikes are wearing helmets now. In fact, the other day I saw a little kid on a tricycle with a helmet, knee and elbow pads. What the fuck!?!

I have never worn a helmet or pads while riding a bike, not even while I was learning and I think that's a good thing. When there's a real threat you could fall off the bike and crack your head on the curb then guess what! You learn to not fall off the fucking bike! Road rash and broken bones are a part of growing up. Kid takes a header off the bike, breaks his arm and now he has to wear a cast. Sure, it hurts, but we have great painkillers and now he has a story to tell his friends while they're all signing the cast, which also means that he gets a trophy!

This kind of over-protective shit is turning kids into pussies. You might save one kid out of a hundred, or a thousand, but it's at the expense of creating a generation of whiny, frightened little bitches. And let's be honest, in this day and age of overpopulation, unrestricted breeding and the popularity of the "Twilight" series, the odds of that kid being worth saving are pretty slim.

It's been a pretty decent week so far. I've managed to get outside a lot more than I expected, doing a lot of walking. I'm also doing between twenty minutes and an hour on the exercise machine every day, as well as making great progress on curbing my diet. So far I've dropped six pounds, so that's some good news. I also have managed to get out fishing a few times and really improving my casting.

I think it's safe to say that really the only thing that's fucked for me right now is money, but there's not a lot to be done on that score. The bills are getting caught up, slowly, and by next month I should be out of debt...mostly. There's something wacky going on with a couple of my benefits, but that ought to be sorted out today or early next week.

Lizz called me yesterday and asked if I could take Alex early, so she'll be coming over tomorrow morning. More baby time! The only downside is that this weekend was dedicated to cleaning the hell out of my apartment, so I have to get to work today to do it. A small price to pay.

That's pretty much it.

I've always thought that facial piercings and visible tattoos on women were interesting, but lately I've been finding them downright hot. Not to be vulgar and over-simplify the many traits that attract me, but if I was to rate a woman as, say, a "five", if you add a tattoo on the neck or a nose/lip ring, she's bouncing straight up to an "eight". At least.

Sorry. Over-analysis of my thought processes is what kept me out of the good schools.

Edit: Is it too late to add oddly-colored hair to the list?

Alex and I had mad fun this week. As I said, I got her a Disney Princesses fishing pole and I took her out for her first fishing trip. It was great and she had a lot of fun! We also went to the candy store downtown this week, took a lot of walks (whenever the rain let up), went to story time over at the library so that she could socialize with other kids and everything turned out to be great fun for us both. This was one of the best weeks I've had in a long time, which serves as an odd counterpoint to the previous weekend which was...interesting.

The downside of this week is that I'm already missing her. Lizz wanted to take her to the fireworks tonight and I figured things would probably work out better if she simply had Alex through the weekend. Ah well, it just gives me more time to plan out next week's activities.

I did a bit of practice casting today and I have to say that I'm starting to get better than I'd hoped I'd get. I'm seriously looking forward to getting out onto the water soon. I've always loved fishing, but there's just something about fly fishing that really grabbed me.

In related news, I finally replaced the ragged, blown-out set of sneakers I've been wearing with a nice pair of sports sandals that I can also take out wading. And while going around to the different stores to find a fanny pack (which cannot be purchased in this city for less than $35 I've found!) I found the most awesome hat in the world.

Years ago I took a trip to San Diego and bought this really great "cowboy" hat. Wool, waterproof and awesome. It was the best hat I had ever owned. Unfortunately it got some weird-ass stain on it and I had to let the hat go. Well, the hat I bought yesterday totally kicks that hat's ass!

In other news, I'm just hanging out tonight, looking for amusement.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/lions_gate/daybreakers/

So it's the future, again and a plague has swept across the world turning nearly everyone into vampires.

Can we please stop making this movie? It comes out like every fucking year!

I took Alex out for her first fishing trip this morning. She loved it! She even got a few bites, although she didn't manage to get a fish on. She also didn't get nearly as distracted and fidgety as I thought she might.

We went over to the Asheulot River boat landing, where my father taught me how to fish when I was Alex's age. And Alex is already asking when we can go out again. :)

I got Alex a Disney Princesses fishing rod! It's a working rod and reel, but kid-sized. My father taught me how to fish and his father taught him. This is one of those family traditions I've really been looking forward to sharing with her and from what I've read and seen, she's ready. We're going to go out in the yard later and I'll show her how to cast with a practice plug. :)

Been walking a shit-ton lately. Walked about two miles today and my legs are starting to feel it. I've also been doing a lot of practice casts, continuing to work out the basics. What's good is that when I do something wrong, I know what I did and what I need to do. The bad news is that this means I'm starting to be critical of other aspects of the casts.

I'm beginning to get good distance, and I'm starting to get enough control to be able to begin getting flies a little closer to where I want them to be.

In other news, I'm sore.

The last few days have been pretty cool. Went out with some friends to do karaoke on Thursday. I had a blast! I've also been able to go out fishing a couple of times this week with my dad which seriously rocked.

I'm learning how to fly fish now. This morning was the first time I've tried it and I managed to land two fish! Still learning, so I still really suck, but that's probably the most fun I've ever had fishing.

Today I think is going to be a relaxing day, if I can swing it.

Day Two of no sleep. I'm really not sure what's going on there. I'm not tired at all, really. I don't feel great, but I also don't feel like I've actually been awake for basically two solid days and nights. Well, if tonight is no better I'll call my doctor tomorrow. It's probably something she should know about.

Last night I went to bed, slept for two hours, woke up, laid there for four hours, slept another hour, laid their for an hour and a half and got up. I don't know what the fuck that was about, but I'm not really impressed. I'm also not terribly tired right now.

Going to do some work on Genesys today and hang back.

I'm done. Yeah, I'm done. I'm done with everyone that associates themselves with the term "Liberal". I'm also done with everyone that associates themselves with the term "Conservative", but that's another story. I'm here to talk to you about the Boy Scouts of America.

I just watched a documentary on how evil this organization is. Why are they evil? Well, I'm sure you know. First, they won't allow anyone in their group that isn't straight. Are you gay, bi, trans, whatever? Well, ha ha! Fuck you! You can't be in the Scouts. Also, if you don't believe in God, fuck you even more! No atheists allowed!

Now, I'm sure, given the types of people who read my LJ, we can all agree that there's nothing wrong with being gay or being an atheist. Great! I'm a bisexual atheist myself! Not a problem, we all agree and isn't it nice that we're friends?

But...

If someone creates a private group and says there's no queers or heathen atheists allowed, I have zero problem with it. There's not an issue as far as I'm concerned. It's a private group, sponsored by private organizations and churches, so why the fuck would I care? I won't join it (not that they'd have me) and I wouldn't let my kids join it unless I felt they were mature enough to fully understand what the group stood for and then, god bless their bigoted asses, I'd let them do their thing!

And that's, essentially, what the Boy Scouts of America are. They're a club that has gone on record saying they hate fags and atheists. There's nothing wrong with that! This is America!

The only issue I have with the BSA is that in many areas of the country they still receive public funding or assistance in terms of money from the United Way and free meeting space/endorsements from public schools. Given they are a private organization, they shouldn't receive a dime of public funds. I don't really have a problem with them getting money from the United Way, since no one forces you to donate to that group either! You can write your local United Way chapter and say "As long as your support the BSA, I'm not giving you any money." And if enough people do that, guess what? The United Way stops giving them money! Brilliant!

Be gay, be bi! Be an atheist! But if you are, I'll march up and down the street defending the BSA's right to kick you out and keep you out! And I'll suck cocks and jerk off on the Bible as part of the fundraiser!

Well, that last part might have been a little over the top.

Thank you Konami for releasing what actually might be a good Silent Hill game only on the fucking Wii and Sony's shit. I was almost interested in diving into the series again (because 1 & 2 were the best survival horror games ever released) but thanks to your visionary direction I won't have to care!

Hanging out with the baby. She's currently taking a bath and talking to herself in the tub.

Food was good, hanging out with the folks was good. I ate too much, but ah well. Now I'm playing around with PHP because I can. It's much easier to play with my site now that I know I can SSH into the box and fire up emacs right there and not have to worry about using FTP and shit.

I've used various web-oriented languages/schemes in the course of my life, and have to say I think I still prefer using VBScript/ASP to PHP. I'm not big on some of the language constructs. Some things that I'm pretty sure I don't like:

1. It looks like PHP wants you to reference members/methods by doing $object->method() as opposed to the more natural $object.method().

2. If you have a class $foo with a member $bar and a method getBar() that does the obvious, you can't just do return $bar. You have to do return $this->bar, even though, you know, it ought to be able to work this out for itself.

3. The way it handles arrays seems fairly obnoxious. I have several members I'd like to define that are sets of x/y coordinates. I'd like to initialize these to zero values, and use the array type's handy key/value feature to assert I'm talking about "X" and "Y". The natural thing is to make each member a two-element array with the obvious keys. But oh no no no! You can't have any sort of dynamic type as the default value of a class member, and that would include the way PHP implements arrays! Yeah, I'm sure I can get around this via constructor magic and what-have-you, but I really like to set initial states when I declare the fucking member.

I'm sure I'll find more things to piss me off.

In celebration of the holiday, Alex and I are going over to my folks' place for dinner. It was supposed to be a cook out, but the rain looks like it won't be cooperating. This week is going to seriously suck on that front. My dad and I got our fishing licenses a few weeks ago and haven't been able to use them. This really sucks because it was money we really couldn't afford to spend, but still really wanted to be able to hang out and fish together. Maybe by the weekend we'll get a chance.

Apart from that, not a whole lot is going on. I have work to do on my projects, but we'll have to see what the motivation amounts to.

Yee-Fucking-Haa!!!

http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/deadsnow/

You are welcome.

I hope you're sitting down, but I think I might have seen a movie I actually want to see!

http://www.apple.com/trailers/newline/thetimetravelerswife/

You'd probably be safe calling it a chick flick, but it has time travel in it so I don't think it counts.

Yay! It's in the mid seventies and the humidity is over sixty percent!

Managed to get out for a walk today with the wee one, but I'm just tired and sweaty right now. Tried to nap, but that just didn't happen.

Alex seems to have recovered nicely from her bump on the head. The only complaint today is that for some reason she's being extra special whiny.

I've noticed something else odd this week. Mizmar seems to be hanging out with Alex a lot more than usual. He lays down next to her, sits next to her, goes over so she can pet him. It's cute as hell and Alex really seems to enjoy it. Right now they're sitting on the floor together watching Barney.

In other news, did I mention it's hot?