Quo Vado?

Kyle over at The Fluid Imagination Blog linked to a cool picture of a canal bridge over a river in Germany. I liked the image. It was cool to see that the canal bridge being used by people given that power engines have replaced horses. The site has a small amount of debate of the practicality of such a bridge. But, really, if I remember my fluid mechanics correctly separating the two waterways allows for smooth traffic on both and prevents the creation of eddies and other ground destroying movements of water.

Other than that, I don’t have too much to say. I haven’t felt much like writing in weeks and the lethargy continues to hold on tight. Maybe, tomorrow will be better.

Needing to establish a definite break between the heinous work week and the three day weekend I actually get to enjoy, I decided to take in some popcorn this weekend.

With the first two movies bring humor and characterization to those on both sides of the dividing line in addition to fun action, I wanted X-Men: The Last Stand to bring more of the same. Sadly, it didn’t. The action scenes were fun to watch, but something was off about the whole movie. I laughed only once - it just wasn’t funny. It’s as if the writers took a vacation on the day the humor was to be added. Worse than not laughing, however, is the complete lack of character movement. OK, so maybe one could say that Storm changed a bit, but the newly introduced characters added little. Seeing Kelsey Grammer with blue fur and blue paint was amusing, but I so didn’t understand what Dr. McCoy/Beast added to the story. In addition to character stagnation, people and beloved mutants die in the movie, but it felt more like a ‘give my movie weight’ gimmick than something real. From a purely image centered place, the movie had some great moments where I feared for the structural integrity of windows, or cringed at the damage to the Golden Gate Bridge, or sat in awe at a demonstration of power. (The bridge thing did hurt my soul.) Things looked cool, but without well-rounded humane center, the movie defined popcorn. I was entertainingly disappointed.

X-Men: The Last Stand

• Matinee or Evening Movie: Matinee
• Add to Collection: No
• Grade: B-

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The first two Mission: Impossible movies left me leery about seeing Mission: Impossible III. This film brings touches that would have made the first two movies great. Tom Cruise/Ethan Hunt comes across as an actual person in this impossible tale. While I don’t know how someone can sprint for the better part of two miles, there’s something about the idea that he actually touches lives that makes the whole movie work. The opening to the movie is heart breaking and jarring at the same time. By sitting you on edge and avoiding most of the title cards, J.J. Abrams, gives himself room to move through the story rapidly. The relational short-hand used to connect the team together actually works in this film, and I think it’s because I bought the connection between Hunt and Luther (Ving Rhames) and thereby bought that the other three cared as well. Add to that the implied inherent institutional mistrust, and things just seemed real in my mind somehow. I do have to admit to my stomach having a moment as Hunt stands way too close to the edge of the top of a tall building. All in all, this was a great installment of the Mission: Impossible series.

Mission: Impossible III

• Matinee or Evening Movie: Matinee
• Add to Collection: Yes
• Grade: B+

Don’t ask so much what the world needs. Go out and do what makes you come alive, because what the world needs most are people who have come alive. -Howard Thurman

The silence around here for the last couple of days has been largely do to the project from hades that just needed to be done right now even though the architect wasn’t finished working through all of the details. If your wood-framed building is going to stack oddly, please have your elevations and unit configurations solidified before trying to get the structural engineer to design it. I can make many things work, but it probably won’t be pretty, it probably will require steel, and if you don’t give me enough time it won’t get done.

Today, nepotism is good - if only for a little while. Bossman’s youngest is fighting out the law school wait-list blues by doing time in the office for the summer. A good way to make money, and actually a great help to me. He’s succefully managed to reduce the shop drawing from hell pile to a reasonable level.

Parking Space Chick’s last day is next Wednesday. Is it bad that I want to try and find a way to have to be out of the office for her farwell lunch?

Bossman keeps trying to draw me into his fight to try and get blood from an artichoke. It’s all I can do to avoid telling him how much I don’t care.

You Are Beef

You’re big, burly, and maybe even a little stinky. And no one’s going to come between you and a good steak. And you’ve probably never met a vegetable you like, unless fries and ketchup count.

Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore, we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true, or beautiful, or good, makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore, we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, could be accomplished alone; therefore, we must be saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our own standpoint; therefore, we must be saved by the final form of love, which is forgiveness. -Reinhold Niebuhr

I keep annoying Jess today. She apparently likes to hid under the ‘red’ chair that I typically sit in when I’m not home. Today, she’s rested there twice only to have me disturb her when I sat down. I don’t think it does her harm, but enjoys whining about it. Now she’s trying to make a home in the entertainment center. Goofy cat.

I don’t really have much to say today. I spent way too many hours working yesterday, and have the pleasure of going back in this afternoon. I just love it when everything piles up so nicely.

You Are a Rainbow

Breathtaking and rare You are totally enchanting and intriguing But you usually don’t stick around long! You are best known for: your beauty Your dominant state: seducing

According to Bossman there are three levels of Kelli.

1. Happy Kelli
2. Polite Kelli
3. Annoyed Kelli

After his recitation of the list earlier this week, I reminded him that he forgot a level.

Heinous Bitch

The following is in honor of the Senate’s vote on the idea of a national language (never minding the fact that we speak American and not English).

JOSH: Joey and I have been working on a counter argument to Alexis de Tocqueville.

BARTLET: We’re having a fight with Alexis de Tocqueville?

JOEY [KENNY]: Mr. President, please don’t get him started.

JOSH: Joey, what say you to the position that with ethnic warfare spreading around the globe, and in particularly in Eastern Europe, it’s only a matter of time before it reaches our shores and making English the official language of the United States will safeguard against the destruction of our national identity and help us avoid ethnic strife? What say you to that?

Joey blows a big raspberry.

JOSH: You see that? That’s what I’ve been dealing with all week.

JOEY [KENNY]:Mr. President, 72% of Hispanics are strongly opposed to such a law. The Republicans will never put it on the table because they’ll risk losing the second largest ethnic block of voters in the country. But if you need a counter argument, then I’d mention to Monsieur de Tocqueville, over here, that aside from it being bigoted and unconstitutional, it’s ludicrous to think that laws need to be created to help protect the language of Shakespeare.

JOSH: Okay, that’s all I was looking for, that one line. Took you four days.

The West Wing “Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics” 1.21 written by Aaron Sorkin

… is what a man’s supposed to do as he ages. I just can’t believe that that’s what I told Bossman’s youngest this morning when I didn’t recognize him right away.

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Somebody just called me ‘baby’. Dude, what is the world coming to?

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I can’t help but feel insincere every time I write/type the typical closing around here. “Please call/write if you have any questions.” I don’t want you to call. If I’d wanted to speak to you, I’d have picked up the bloody phone and called you. If you have questions, take a second look at what you’re trying to interpret and apply yourself. Maybe I should think of a new closing.

Somehow, I don’t think, “This subject is closed, stop bothering me.” would fall into Bossman’s ‘happy Kelli’ category.

We live in an age when to be young and to be indifferent can be no longer synonymous. We must prepare for the coming hour. The claims of the Future are represented by suffering millions; and the Youth of a Nation are the trustees of Posterity. - Benjamin Disraeli

In order to avoid thinking about other - more important things - I’ve been bouncing around television thoughts. Over the last season, more and more shows have gone to the six/seven commercial breaks. I hate this format. While I can bounce around with the best of them, having content delivered in seven minute bursts doesn’t work for me. I need two or three minutes to fall back into the action, and by the time I’m really moving with the flow of the show the commercial yanks me out once again. In the last seven years, the hour-long drama has gone from being forty-eight minutes long to being forty-two minutes. We’ve lost nearly a minute a year of content, just how much further do the networks will try and push? I have faith that Sorkin can pull me into Studio 60 in the fall, but I’ll be supremely disappointed if I have to work through six commercial breaks to join him in the fun.

I can’t decide if my ‘oh’ moment of the day is a good thing or a bad thing. Out of the blue I remembered that I have General Tso’s Chicken left-overs in the fridge at home. Now my stomach is alive and telling me it’s time to eat even though I’m stuck in the cell for at least another three or four hours.

Hopefully, I remember that I have food at the house when I release myself tonight.