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High school
Apparently my cousin Matthew (Two of Seven) had his senior picture taken in 1974.
Dig.
archive for December of 2005
Guess what they JUST said.
They just found out I have some html/css knowledge and basically said if that’s the case and I could be useful in those projects too that they could definitely offer me a full-time job.
They just up and said it. Yay.
But I really need to take a Dreamweaver class to get up to speed. I wonder if there’s any way I could hook that up.
I hated HATED hated working on html projects at CDI because it was so assumed, so black-hole, so one-directional. Here, there are other people who are web people full-time, and it’d be different.
I know when I left Bowne I said CDI would be different, too, but it’s different now. They’ve been hinting about wanting me full-time for months, but for her to come right out and say it is just great.
Since I’ve already been here so long, their fee to the temp agency would be reduced. And they could pay me HALF what they’re paying the temp agency to have me here and I’d STILL be making more money than I ever have. I’m just saying.
movies
I’ve seen much more than my average movie quotient this year. In one recent calendar year, for example, I think I saw one movie in the theater (Return of the King). This year, I can think of nine!
I’ve read through IMDb’s list of top vote-getters and top grossers for 2005 and 2004, and I’m pretty sure I’m not leaving anything out. These are in very rough chronological order; I didn’t bother to look up the release dates, and it amuses me more to just rely on my memory.
- Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (with Carrie when she visited DC; I don’t remember the date, but it was the same week as the National Geography Bee, as that’s why she was here)
- Kingdom of Heaven (by myself, and I’m at a loss to remember when)
- Sin City (with my friends)
- Batman Begins (with Matt)
- The 40-Year-Old Virgin (with my friends; also, please note I am using the DVD version of this movie’s titular hyphenation)
- The Brothers Grimm (in Florida, with the Faughts and the Baxters, in August, when I went down for Timber’s baby shower)
- Serenity (with my friends, opening weekend)
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (in Florida, with my parents, on Thanksgiving Day)
- The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe (with Matt, this past Sunday)
Edited to add: I just realized I’ve saved every movie ticket stub I’ve had since Wayne’s World in 1992. I do have all the dates. I even have the showtimes and the prices. I’ll get back to you.
Best. Benefit. Ever.
I just applied for a production job at Fannie Mae (as always, a job I could actually do well; I don’t tend to apply for the others).
Check out this, from one of their employee benefits lists:
Employer-Assisted Housing: To help make home ownership affordable, eligible employees can obtain a loan to use toward down payment and closing costs, or to reduce the interest rate on a first mortgage. As employment continues, a progressively larger share of the loan principal is forgiven.
For. Giv. En. That is to say, free money. And you’re eligible for it after only six months.
They also have that Compressed Work Schedule thing that makes the Metro parking lots empty on Fridays. I covet that.
What’s missing?
I just saw a NyQuil ad on television, the first one I’ve paid attention to for a few months. This is what it looked like at the end.
Do you see what’s missing here?
Stuffy head. It’s supposed to be the nighttime* sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, stuffy head, fever, so you can rest medicine.
They took the pseudoephedrine decongestant out of NyQuil.
I should have stocked up! I had no idea they were going to do this to my favorite drug. NyQuil was the gold standard; if you got sick enough to need it, you took it, and it worked. Now I’m afraid. What if it’s ruined forever?
…fucking crystal meth manufacturers ruining it for all of us…
*no comma belongs here, but that’s a separate rant
Narnia again
In August, I wrote this in the book list (see link above):
When I hear a book I love is being made into a movie, and everything I hear about the movie is good, it changes the book. The book changes. The illustrations seem wrong, the scale and timing seem impossible to replicate, the details become so important–because it’s like they’re going to be lost. Will Mrs. Beaver still fret about taking her sewing machine along? Will the children follow a robin to where they meet Mr. Beaver, or will they meet him straight off? Will Lucy lend the giant her tiny handkerchief? I suppose there’s not much I can do about any of it, but it still matters.
The answers? No, but it’s okay, because she was a nice little fussbudget anyway (though I did miss having Santa give her a new one). Yes, sort of, but not for as long. No, that whole scene is different.
So it’s alright. It’s not perfect, but it’s alright.
Narnia
Just got back from seeing The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. It was just lovely, faster and harder than I was expecting, and scarier, and it was just about right. I read the book so recently that I was kind of afraid I’d remember it too well and resent the movie for anything it changed. The only thing I remember thinking was odd was that they moved Santa’s appearance to a slightly different part of the story, but I may even be remembering that wrong. They definitely stretched out the battle longer than it is in the book, but that works too, because it shows a couple of things about Peter that we didn’t really think to realize.
As far as the battle goes, I was thrilled with the centaur cavalry—just imagine not having to control your horse, as you are your horse!—and I liked that the cheetahs outran the front line before the first clash. I kept thinking, as I always do during movies with fantasy or period battles (Lord of the Rings, Kingdom of Heaven, and so on), “use more fire, you morons.”
So I was especially pleased with the phoenix.
Here’s what a genius I can be sometimes
It was supposed to snow, like, five inches last night. It only snowed three, but obviously I didn’t know that. So before I went inside when I got home last night, I took the crappy old blanket out of my trunk and laid it over my windshield. It’s longer than the car is wide, so it not only covered the whole windshield but also the side mirrors.
This morning, I pulled it off in one fell swoop, and lo and behold my windshield was totally clear. My side mirrors were free of ice. It saved me probably ten minutes of scraping and shoveling. It looked ridiculous all night, I’m sure, the car with the red and white “ACAPULCO” blanket spread over it (I’ve never been there; the blanket came with my first car) and the windshield wipers pulled up like antennae, but this morning I just wanted everyone to see how well it worked. Unfortunately I don’t think one person saw.
Granted there’s now a big heavy messy wet blanket in the trunk of my car, but I can deal with that.
You know it’s winter when…
…you wear a skirt just so you have an excuse to wear warm leggings underneath it.
…the high is thirty-four degrees.
…you get a Coke out of the fridge when you leave the house, and when you open it at work two and a half hours later it’s colder.
Edited to add:
Wayne text messaged me the following, and I felt obliged to share it.
Stfu about it being cold there it was 2 when i left this morning with a foot of snow on the ground
Forget this.
The neighbor just yelled at his kid, “You’re failing, and you don’t even know it! No one’s going to give you anything because you’re a nice kid. Nice kids finish last.” Then: “You’re out of control! Your mind is out of control!” You know what he’s yelling at her about? Her spelling words. Now, I’m the last person to say spelling doesn’t matter, but hello? She’s, like, eleven. BACK OFF.
What with having to listen to that, and the fact that the thermostat says it’s seventy-three degrees in here and I’m still so cold that I’m blowing on my hands, even though I’m sitting literally ten inches from a space heater that’s going full blast (and my feet are still frozen), I think I’ll just go to bed now.
Oh, also? My rent check bounced. Glory.
Pfffft.