Category: Stuff

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

My media setup in my bedroom/office/living room is relatively complete. I have a nice sound system, a television with cable, and when I want to watch DVDs, I can watch them on my TiBook.

However, I have an extensive library of old VHS tapes and the only VHS player was downstairs in the living room. I chatted with my roommate and asked if he ever used it. He said the only time it’s been used is to watch the tapes I check out from the library, and he isn’t all that interested in most of them (we have different tastes). I asked would he mind if I grabbed it, and he not only didn’t mind, he set it up for me. (I have a great roommate.)

The last couple of nights I’ve been watching some of my old, old friends. I do prefer DVD movies, but I bought these old movies a long time ago and can’t afford to replace them, or they haven’t come out on DVD (and most likely won’t). Among them are some classic old black & white sci-fi films that would be put to shame by today’s modern special effects, but I love them anyway.

Today’s movies just aren’t the same as the oldies. Somehow, they don’t allow for the watcher’s imagination to fill in the the blanks, or to stretch far enough to ignore that the bug is mechanical. Though many are excellent, they don’t have something that the old sci-fi movies had. I’m not sure what it is, but I do know that every time I watch one of these old movies, I feel as if I were a kid again in the movie theater in town, with my big rootbeer and popcorn; or at home Saturday night when Mom would let us stay up, or on a rainy afternoon–about to be scared, but that good kind of scared. It was a nice break from duck and cover.

I watched the original Thing (or, more properly, “The Thing from Another World”), and I still think this was an extremely well done movie. It had one of the most natural dialogues I’ve ever seen in a movie, with characters talking over each other at times, something that does happen in real life when people are stressed. (Forget the guy having hysterics before getting a glass of water splashed in his face.)

I also liked the female lead, and the humor, and James Arness as a big, malevolent brocolli.

Another favorite is Behemoth, the Sea Monster, which I’ll watch tonight. It’s not as highly rated, or as well acted, but I’ve always liked the Big Creature from the Deep flicks.

Of course, the best and baddest of the old creature flicks was Them!. This was my favorite old sci-fi flick, and one of the first I bought. Unfortunately, it was also in the storage unit whose contents I sold, in bulk, so I no longer have the film. However, I’ve watched it so many times, I don’t know if I do need it. I remember every scene.

For instance, one of my favorite scenes is of the young girl in the hospital in a state of shock, and the old scientist passing a beaker of formic acid under her nose. She blinks her eyes, as if coming out of a deep sleep, and then she scrunches all inwards, screaming at the top of her lungs:

Arggghhhh! Them! Them!

This scene does an excellent job of setting the suspense for the movie (that and the deputy watching the old cafe at night); and the kid did a great job with the phrase. It’s such a useful phrase, too–one that never goes out of style.

Yesterday was tax day in the States and I spent the day surrounded by tax papers.

Arggghhhh! Them! Them!

Yesterday was also bill day.

Arggghhhh! Them! Them!

More social software tools have been released this week.

Arggghhhh! Them! Them!

I developed seven rolls of film, including a few rolls that had been banging around my camera bag. You know, of course, that you’ll be inundated with images as a result over the next day or two. Or three.

Except for one roll. I’m not sure how I did it, but the roll was double-exposed. Somehow, when the film rewound, it didn’t rewind all the way, and next time I used the camera body, I must have thought it was a new roll. Neither roll of film had any photos that seem particularly great, but some of the double images are rather interesting.

I went to Powder Valley early afternoon for a walk, and it was lovely. However, at the farthest end of the park, the closest to the freeway, I heard banging sounds. They didn’t sound like hammer or nail gun shots – not enough of a thunk at the end. They did, however, sound like 22 rifle shots, or loud firecrackers. I thought about walking through the park to see if I could spot what caused the sound, but I didn’t want to run the risk of walking through poison ivy for what was probably something innocuous. I have enough problems with rash not to actively seek out additional skin irritants.

I finished my walk and decided to drive over to Emmenegger Park to take some photos when I noticed a great deal of smoke. Crossing the bridge over I270, I could see the hillside was on fire. I turned around to go back when a fire engine and police cars rushed up.

They got the fire under control quickly, but the sound and the fire were too close together not to be related; I talked to the police, told them what happened, and they took down my info. I wish there was a way of finding out if they discovered what caused the fire.

An older woman with a cricky knee and tired faced, but with a twinkle in her eye and a sashay in her hips, was walking along a path one day when she was faced with a fork in the road.

She looked down the first path from the fork but all she could see was a pack of snarling dogs, and she grew sore afraid.

“If I go down that path,” she thought. “I’ll be torn to pieces, that’s for sure.”

She started to go down the other path when, all of a sudden she beheld a huge dragon sitting in the middle of it! It looked at her in a hungry manner, while smoke come from its nose, and fire from its mouth. She was so afraid, her knees shook. Yes, even her cricky one.

“If I go down that path,” she thought. “I’ll be burnt to a crisp, or sat on and squished.”

At that moment, a shadow fell on her and looking up, she beheld a beautiful, huge eagle circling above her. The sun reflected on its golden wings and she found comfort in its wise, dark eyes.

“If you stand over there in the clearing, my lady,” she heard the eagle say. “I’ll grab you by the shoulders and carry you to where you want to go.”

“Then you won’t be torn apart by terrible dogs.”

“Then you won’t be burnt or sat on and squished.”

The lady was thankful and hastened to the clearing. The shadow grew larger and she felt the wind from the mighty wings beating all about her. Quicker than a cat snaps the neck of a finch, she felt two clawed feet clasp her gently by the shoulders and carry her, oh so softly, aloft.

Away from the dogs.

…Away from the nasty dragon.

…….Away…away…away….

……………to the eagle’s nest, where she was dinner that night.

The moral of this story? At the fork of an ugly road, turn around and go home.

The. End.

here was a meme floating around recently about taking photos of where you weblog. Where I weblog is where I write and where I live, other than when running around on errands, traveling, or hiking.

My office is in my bedroom, and on the second floor of a townhouse in a nice multi-dwelling complex in St. Louis. My desk is really a long table, and it contains my printer, answering machine, phone, Windows laptop, several computer disks, slide light box, slide scanner, Ben Franklin table lamp, binoculars (for looking at the birds), and various mugs holding pens and other things. Behind the desk is a double window, the left side’s blinds always closed, the right always open so that I can look out at the people walking about or playing, or watch the birds in the tree across the way. Our street is a good street for window watching–with kids playing, young men tossing a football to each other, and neighbors saying, “Hi”, as they walk their dogs.

I can see all the seasons from my window, and all aspects of the day: sunrise, sunset, bright midday light, and dark night. Just in case I forget.

The surface of my desk is covered with odds and ends, though I have the best intentions of keeping it uncluttered. Everything is usually dusty, too, because I like to live the window open a crack, unless it’s too hot or cold. The table is too low so I’ve raised my laptop by using two Photoshop manuals placed side by side with a small checkbox size gap between. On top of them are the double volume set of Tale of the Genji, which I’m using primarily because they’re the perfect height, and they match. On top of those is a B & H catalog, and then my laptop. The arrangement works well, and even preserves a gap for my checkbook and passport.

The left side of my desk is a large bookshelf, that’s filled with all the books I have, cartons of the books I’ve written on top waiting to be given out. There’s a brass floor lamp between–I have a lot of lamps in my room. Behind me there are two tables pushed into the corner holding my TV and stereo system, wireless router, cable box, more lamps, film waiting to be developed, and all the books from the library. I’ll watch a movie at night sometimes while I work at my computer.

Along the walls are some photos and three framed posters: one of Albert Einstein, and two of Pre-Raphaelite paintings–The Lady of Shalott by Waterhouse and Ophelia by Millais–I hand carried in a tube when I returned from my only trip to London.

On the other side of the desk is a large Rubbermaid cooler, which I use for my papers; on top are two beautiful hand-made baskets my sister-in-law made me, back when I still had a brother, and my brother still had a sister. I use these baskets to hold bills to be paid, slides I’m working on, travel maps, and anything else that’s too loose for my tabletop.

Next to my chair is the end of my bed, and there I set up my TiBook, and any photos or books I’m working on. I try to make the bed in the morning, before I start setting things up for the day, but sometimes when I wake, I want to write now, and the most I’ll do is pull the cover back. It sounds unworkable, but it’s not. Not really.

My cat has a corner of my desk by the window for sleeping, but it’s filled now with blank CDs I’m burning, as I offload photos from both computers. The CDs are multi-colored, bright blue and green, red, orange, and purple, adding a bit of color to the rather muted surroudings. The floor underneath my feet is filled with so many cords, I have to move carefully, or I’ll get tangled up in them and fall.

I try to keep things straight, but the place where I live is a mess.