Well it really is good for you: green tea and health

Time for the annual viewing of two of my favorite movies: Lady Jane and A Man for all Seasons. The former stars Helena Bonham Carter (as the girl who ruled as queen for 9 days after Edward died; she was a smart girl and a protestant, unfortunately a political victim) and Cary Elwes; the latter an oscar-winner about the man who would not bless Henry VIII's divorce because it was against all he believed (he comes of as heroic and thoughtful, even if he was a Catholic).

It's a slow day at work so I thought I'd play with tables and upload some favorite cartoons.

This one is a bit geeky...

Non Sequitor is ALWAYS good.

And this one is often on the mark

Today at the gym I caught part of The Ellen DeGeneres Show. First let me say that I never really liked her sitcom, even though I wanted to. She was just kind of annoying. I liked her standup better, and in Finding Nemo she was wonderful as Dory.

But anyway, this is the first time I have seen her show since way back when she had Justin Timberlake on "So, Justin, what did you think of that (Britney and Madonna) Kiss? Were you as appalled as me?"

So now she has this segment called Have Houston Do It, where this cute, kinda clueless guy goes to people's houses to do some minor fixit chore, that always (apparently) turns into a major project. It was quite amusing.

An amusing little article: Liberals Fight Back; Pundits Are Shocked

Another Friday Five:

1. List five things you'd like to accomplish by the end of the year.

a. Get my debt situation under control.
b. Buy a new tv (done!)
c. Lose another 5 lbs.
d. Finish painting my condo.
e. Finish my latest game book.

2. List five people you've lost contact with that you'd like to hear from again.

a. Dave D. (best friend from around college time)
b. Paul W. (good friend and former roomate)
c. Janet L. (friend from UVa Library)
d. Eric (my younger half-brother)
e. John R.

3. List five things you'd like to learn how to do.

a. Play the piano
b. Improve my web skills
c. Fly a plane
d. Paint/draw
e. Do video editing.

4. List five things you'd do if you won the lottery (no limit).

No limit!? That's pretty crazy.
a. Spend enough to have Gen. Clark (or even Howard Dean) defeat Bush in the next election.
b. Buy up huge amounts of land to be wildlife preseves.
c. Buy/build my dream house(s) in Virgina (Charlottesville) and northern California (A penthouse in SanFran and a vineyard like Falcon Crest!) and England (castle) and Italy (villa).
d. Donate huge amounts of money to my favorite environmental and gay charities, and UVa (maybe endow a chair at the Architecture School).
e. Start my own publishing company.

5. List five things you do that help you relax.

a. Work out at the gym
b. Meditate
c. Sleep
d. Write
e. Have a glass of wine.

Wow, so Jonathan Brandis killed himself. That's depressing.

Sort of a sad ending for a beautifulMac Cube housing, and yet kinda cool. I hope my cube lasts a little longer! Makes me want to get another aquarium...

I don't think I have a southern drawl (even though I have lived in the great state of Vuh-gin-ee-ah for over 20 years) I have the same problem as these people with those horrible voice recognition phone systems. I tried calling TiVo customer service a couple of months ago and they had switched to one of those systems. It almost NEVER understood me! I was furious by the time I finally got hold of a human.

Another weekend of four hours of hard cycling has sent me to bed, armed with a TiVo full of stuff to watch. Today's schedule:

Kiss Me, Guido: cute, and Nick Scotti was hot, though it still eludes me how this got to be a concept for a network sitcom.

An Ideal Husband: Only part way through this Oscar Wilde work starring Rupert Everett (Lord Goring gets all the best lines) and Cate ("Galadriel") Blanchett, and already I want the DVD. Sigh.

Whew, weird dream last night. It was a strange fusion of Stargate and Zoids.

My sister beat me to blog rejoicing about the ouster of That Alabama crackpot

Whee! A "Big Mac!" I guess Tech is good for something: School knits slew of Macs into supercomputer

Here's a handy little Elvish phrasebook courtesy of my friend Ruth.

Fun with TV. As I explore my various DVDs with my grand spankin new Sony KF-50WE610 50" Grand Wega� HDTV-ready rear-projection LCD TV, I have discovered some interesting things.

Movies look, frankly, freakin' awesome. Even older movies like the first Star Trek look beautiful, even if they were shot in an even wider perspective that my new widescreen (creating black bars at the top and bottom). [Of course the new Sony dream system� with the surround speakers and mega-bass are fabulous too, but perhaps more on that kind of scary auto-load sucking-in of my DVD's persnicketyness later.] Even old 60's movies like Fantastic Voyage and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea look great.

TV DVDs are another matter. I put in a DS9 DVD and it is total TV aspect (I guess no surprise) and it looks really soft and gauzy; way disappointing when compared to the Star Trek First Contact DVD. Was it filmed on videotape, perhaps? On the other hand, I just popped in a season 2 DVD of Stargate SG-1 (originally done for Showtime, and the box says optimized for DVD) and it fits my TV screen perfectly! Some darker scenes look a bit grainy and some super-action gets some weird localized horizontal bars-artifacts like you get when watching a DVD on your computer, but otherwise it is GREAT. Interestingly an old DVD of UFO, while TV (3-4?) aspect, was sharp and had no artifacts. Were the old TV shows all made on film? UFO was a Brit show made in the 60's I think; maybe there was no videotape).

I tink they should release the old Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Lost in Space shows on DVD! Cheese-o-rama!

Speaking of Rama... oh another post.

Excuse me for a moment while I gloat. Apple: iTunes outsells Napster five to one

A rather vexing Friday Five:

1. What food do you like that most people hate?

Hm. I like salads... cottage cheese...

2. What food do you hate that most people love?

Nothing comes to mind, though I'm not the fan of chocolate that many people are.

3. What famous person, whom many people may find attractive, is most unappealing to you?

Off the top of my head, Russell Crowe... Jennifer Lopez...

4. What famous person, whom many people may find unappealing, do you find attractive?

I can't think of anyone. I guess my tastes are pretty pedestrian.

5. What popular trend baffles you?

People yakking about nothing on their cell phones!

Oooh. These are good. CARTOONS! The "Paid In Blood" Edition

Ahh, An Ideal Husband. And Rupert Everett as Lord Goring!

LORD CAVERSHAM: Can't make out how you stand London Society. The thing has gone to the dogs, a lot of damned nobodies talking about nothing.

LORD GORING: I love talking about nothing, father. It is the only thing I know anything about.

So after more than ten years, I have broken down and bought a new TV for my living room. I feel a bit decadent since I had one in the living room already and one in the bedroom. The one in the bedroom is a 20" (tied into the TiVo) that I actually watch most of the time. That's my usual 'TV' TV. The one in the living room (A 27" Sony Trinitron, hooked into my surround system) was mostly for watching movies... increasingly DVDs.
For awhile I was looking at plasmas, but my friend Vince discovered the latest generation of Sony LCD flat-screen TVs are just about as nice, for less cost. So. My 50" Sony is coming Wednesday. My friend Ken was just over to help me move the old Sony Trinitron out of the way so I can set up for the new one.

Have you seen that IKEA ad from a while back? The one where the woman gets a new lamp and puts the old one out on the street, and then it rains and the old lamp looks forlorn, and this odd guy walks up in the rain and says with this exaggerated Swedish accent "You feel sorry for the old lamp. That iss because yoo are krayzee! It has no feelings, and the new one is much nicer."

Well, I feel sorry for my reliable old Sony Trinitron which has survived two moves, and still has a nice picture. Though for some reason I have no attachment to the Panasonic currently in the bedroom.

But the new LCD one is awesome. We are going to christen it with Wrath of Khan: Director's Cut Wednesday. Then I'll watch the extended edition of The Two Towers when I get it in a couple weeks.

Poor old Trinitron. Maybe I can set it up in the bedroom.