Monthly Archives: January 2004

Updates

I had a wonderful birthday. My very cute husband made me breakfast in bed and bought me Pirates of the Carribean. ARRRRR!!!! And I didn’t have to do anything all morning and it was nice. For lunch we went to this place called Chunky’s. Chunky’s is a movie theater and resturaunt. You sit on comfy leather seats from Lincoln Contenentials at tables and then you can order pub food from the waitress. YUM and COMFY! We saw Cheaper by the Dozen. If my memory serves me correctly, it wasn’t much like the book, but still cute and entertaining. A nice day.

I’ve been doing some reading lately. It has been nice because I have been on a bit of a hiatus… I borrowed “The Hours” from my aunt. It was a little hard to get into, but fairly good. I got the feeling that the author was writing simply for the sake of writing an intellectual book. Kind of like he was just doing it to prove that he could. Having done some extensive research on and reading of Virginia Woolf’s novels a few years back I found it interesting how he wove her personal life and her character’s into the lives of other women’s. Very deep.

I also read, on Peter’s recommendation, American Gods. I really got into this one. The author weaves together the lives of all the gods that have been brought to America or created here over the years, Odin, Horus, Easter, Johnny Appleseed… It was deep and philosophical without being too heady.

I am now engrossed in a book called, “Ahab’s Wife”. You guessed it, about Ahab’s wife. But I’m just a little ways in and I haven’t even met Ahab yet, so I’ll let you know how it goes later on 🙂

Dream Job

A group of 50 men are being paid $5000 to ***spend 28 days in bed|http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2004/01/13/bed_rest_study_can_help_on_earth_and_in_space/***.

I’m feeling sleepy…

curious?

For any of you who might be interested I received my final mark from Tufts. I got an ‘A’ for my gigantic final paper and an ‘A’ over all for my Internship. w00t!

New Archaeological Find!

In an amazing archaeological feat, an even older version of my homepage has been discovered on the web.

Check the ***Wayback Archive|http://prwdot.org/?p=wayback*** for the details – you should see it near the top of the list in January, 1998. The page that has been archived is remarkably intact, even including photos!

Have fun!

Holiday Coming Up!

As an aside, this was the first Christmas I can remember where I was not given any calendars as gifts. I actually had to purchase a calendar myself! Thankfully, the choice was not a hard one: I purchased the ***2004 Demotivators Calendar|http://www.thinkgeek.com/cubegoodies/toys/65de/*** made by ***Despair, Inc.|http://www.despair.com/***. 12 months of depressing, demotivating, and demoralizing artwork and memorable quotes. Yep, and it’s hanging on the wall of my cubicle at work even as I write this.

Anyway, according to my lovely new calendar, Monday, January 12 is Procrastinator’s New Year’s Day. Just thought you’d like to know.

Farewell, Maestro

Maestro James Jorgenson, founder of the Gordon Symphony Orchestra, ***passed away on December 28 at the age of 77|http://www.gordon.edu/media/jorgenson.htm***.

I spent three years at Gordon under the direction of the Maestro. I will remember him as a kind, creative, slightly kooky individual who was always loved by his students. There was something about that Wisconsin accent, and the way he always pronounced “sorry” as “soar-ree”.

May you continue making music in heaven!

Please let there be free stuff…

Tomorrow at 9 a.m. Pacific Standard Time, Steve Jobs will deliver the ***Keynote Address|http://stream.apple.akadns.net/*** for the 2004 Macworld Expo / San Francisco.

Chances are, there will be some new stuff introduced that, yet again, we can’t afford… but I’m also hoping there will be some cool new software available for free.

Whatever it is, Keynote anticipation is always exciting. 🙂

Big Fish and Small (but Great) Hobbits

Have you seen “Edward Scissorhands” or “Nightmare Before Christmas” ? Both of those films were directed by Tim Burton. He has a reputation for being quirky and odd and creepy, and all of those features are recognizable in many of his movies.

Being fortunate to live in tbe Boston area, we were able to see his newest movie, ***Big Fish|http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/bigfish*** during its select city early release. (it opens on Friday, January 9th for everyone else) This was an unusually eerie, creative, quirky and moving film.

The film follows a grown son’s gradual acceptance of his father, and the stories he tells of his life. The present scenes are frequently, and wonderfully interrupted by flashbacks to the father’s life as he tells it in stories. Through his stories we are introduced to giants, circus-folk, beautiful girls and witches. Every character seems strange and beautiful all at the same time.

I found the “weep level” to be an 8 on a scale of 1-10. The ending had me crying more than most movies do, although I did not find the conclusion of the film to be especially sad. In fact, I tried, with no avail, to discover exactly what drew the tears. Burton must have touched something so deep within me that even I don’t know what it was.

Another evening this week was spent with good friends Naomi and Chris. In keeping with annual tradition the four of us grabbed dinner then headed off to see the final installment of The Lord of the Rings; The Return of the King.

This third movie was long, but not excruciatingly so. The 3 hours and 20 minutes felt like nothing compared to the 13 month journey travelled by our heros in the story. I was captivated by the massive battle scenes at Minas Tirith and humored by the skeleton/pirate/Orlando Bloom similarities to Pirates of the Carribean.

Although the film ventured away from J.R.R. Tolkien’s original story I was easily drawn into the plot and longed for a conclusion. The scenes themselves were beautiful, even in their goriness/despair and the actors managed to pull our hearts right up into our throats. (yes, even the men!)

Two great movies, two late nights. Happy New Year!