Movie Reviews

How many movies have I gone to that I've relied on that 'professional' movie reviewer to give me insight as to weather I should spend my $10 to see a new release? Now, I never used to rely on these things but maybe, that was when we used to go to the Jerry Lewis Cinema, that was Fifty Cents. But, oops - I just dated myself.

Now that it requires one quarter a tank of gas (in itself an investment) to get into the movies - if the result is I'm going to be bored for two hours or worse, offended or disgusted - I'll at least sort through the various opinions to get an 'indication' of whether it's worth the money or not.

I have no plans to see the new "Why Did I Get Married". But I heard this review on NPR and the reviewer, a producer on the program - was hysterical! I don't need to see the movie now. She painted a good enough picture in how she didn't like it - that I won't have to. Teshima Walker was so animated during this review - I think I got my $10 without spending the $10! Have a listen - I linked it above.

Finally! - I Figured Out What it Was

I Finally figured out what it was!

I wasn't sure. It ran out in front of the truck a few weeks ago when I was driving from San Antonio to Austin. I had to pull over to the side of the road, because it scared me so bad I had to clutch myself.

Now - things have run in front of my vehicle before - Jack Rabbits, possums, skunks, racoons, snakes (althought not technically "running") squirrels, rats, dogs, cats, small children, even an armadillo. (oh and a stray gator in Louisiana).

But because I didn't know what this thing was - I was a little shaken.

Then, I was having lunch with another California transplant who was telling a horrendous story about how his dog killed one of these things. He didn't know what it was either. It kinda looked like a wild boar. Turns out it's not even a swine relative at all. A neighbor told him.. "yep. that's a hav-ah-leen-ah" (you know. in that slowish texas drawl).

Well, he didn't know what to do with it either. In Sacramento - I don't know I've ever had a dead Javalina in the front yard - stinkin up the place. (Apparently - they smell way before they're dead).

So my California-transplant friend called around to find out what one does when one has a dead Peccary fertilizing the lawn. It appears from our fine folks at animal control - or the Texas equivalent of - that what ya need isn't an animal control professional. What ya need - is a buzzard.

Now, I've seen these. When driving down a back road through hill country with the top down, you occassionally see them circling. You can even see them take flight from the road - which is a warning that there's one of them there Peccarys or armadillo's that didn't dodge a pickup truck fast enough. They are big birds! And ugly.

Sure enough my California-transplant friend waited and after a few days, like a prophecy spelled out ona ouja board, the buzzards came! In just a days time, no carcass left! So - there ya go. For all of my friends in California who wouldn't know what to do if a Javalina was in your yard or what was even is - consider yourself educated.

Moving - Again (But Locally This Time)

Well we are looking at buying this home. It's in North Austin which is a little further than we hoped but like Sacramento - you have to go out a little bit further to get the price you can afford. This isn't so bad though. It's in a nicer neighborhood than many of the closer ones are that we looked at. And, there's an express bus nearby that goes right to UT without stops.

It seems like a nice neighborhood - so I think we'll be ok. It will be nice to have a garage to park our vehicles and just in time for winter!

Hope you're doing well. Let me know!

Nearing the End of A Texas Summer

Well, since we are arriving at the end of August. I can't imagine that September could be hotter than this. But, it's all relative. We've had hot summers in Sacramento - so I could be just as hot there.

The students are back this weekend for school starting next week, and I have not witnessed such an influx of population before. It's amazing. Just, people people people!

This weekend was the "Flugtag". It's an event sponsored by the Redbull Drink folks and they built a huge ramp on the edge of the river and spectators go out and watch people drive, run or jump contraptions meant to simulate short flight into the water. It was kind of funny. Here's a video recap:

Texas Graffiti

Well... It could happen anywhere I suppose. So, it's not necessarily indicative of Texas, Austin, or even our neighborhood. I think, it's more likely however - when you live next to a high school. Everyday the little buggers, bless their fricken hearts, tramp through our apartment complex to the delight of.. of.. well no one actually.

And they spread their teen cheer amongst the masses, sometimes in indelible marking black felt pen.

I came out to find lovely poetic phrases all over the complex.. the dumpsters, the speed limit signs, my truck!

Originally this said "F... Studio". Don't know what that is. Perhaps it's a hip-hop group, perhaps it's someone's boyfriend or girlfriend, who totally dissed them in geometry class. Or, maybe it's someone who hates art class. (Small wonder based on this artistic piece).

I tested this product called "graffiti gone" on the IO in studio and stood back to see and this is what was left, so I took a pic. Anyway, it's all buffed and waxed out now. But - I did gather some stares on the way to the detailer. Some of them admiringly.

ILife 08 - The "I" Stands for Inconvenient

Oh no they di'unt.The new iLife 08 from Apple is abysmal. Save your money until they do some serious fixing. We rushed out and plunked down short of $100 for this "new" version with cool new features.

Now, I'm speaking primarily of iMovie. Because although Rob loves iPhoto (I've never been a huge fan) I use iMovie for all my editing and fun film making hobby adventures. But what the box DOESN'T SAY is that for nearly every cool new feature, they've removed immensely important old ones.

There are no more special effects options. None.

You can no longer slow motion down, or speed it up. You can not put little star burts in, fog, lightening, anything. Anything.

There is no precise audio editing. None.

You used to be able splice clips - audio seperate from video, move them around adjust volumes. There's no more fade in or out. None.

There's no more volume or clip length windows. You formerly were able to see the layers overlapped in a separate window and adjust the various positions of them in relation to each other to create sound precisely where you wanted. But you can't do anything like that. Anything.

You can no longer adjust the transition length. Before, being able adjust the transition length you could provide impact or exclamation with the video right where it needed to be. Now you must set all of the transition lengths simultaneously rather than individually.

There's no shorter way than to use the word 'sucks' to describe what Apple has done to our program. They are apparently offering to let you download the old version from there site.. so now I get to run both, move back and forth between two applications to try and obtain the movie I want. THIS is an improvement??

I've decided the "I" in iLife stands for Inconvenient. Damn inconvenient. Maybe they should call it DiLife.

They Are Everywhere

Alright. It's like something biblical. These locusts have arrived in the form of crickets.

Now, as far as critters go - at least they are not like - flying cockroaches. That would just be just plain gross!

So, aside from the crickety chirp chirp it's kinda eeby-jeeby that you see them everywhere. In the livingroom (Uno the cat likes those) on your shoulder, on the ceiling at Denny's. The worst ones are the ones under the car tires. They are so crowded under lights in the parking lots it sounds like, chirp chirp, crunch crunch, chirp, crunch. They are Everywhere.

One was on the floorboard of the car (another reason to not leave the top down - even when there's no immenent threat of rain). Now - while I'm not freaky-squeamish about these things (like "I" would be of a spider, for example) I have no desire to pick them up and rub noses with them (like "I" would with a kitten, for example).

So as it crawled across the floor of the car, I told my friend Ethan (aka Iva Passion) to grab it and throw it out.

Now, Iva is apparently freaky-squeamish about such things (like "I" would be of a snake, for example). So, after doing a dance, nearly across the hood of my truck, and waiving her hands like she were trying to dry a fresh coat of nail polish, she refused. Flatly.

Of course, the only thing to do was brush-scrape it out of the car. But the little bugger was insistent on riding along with us and so he scrambled up under the dash before I could sweep him away.

Well. Except for the constant fear that he might come out at the most inopportune time - like when I'm making a lane change in front of a semi truck - and crawl up my leg resulting in a scream they'd hear all the way back in California from Texas - I thought problem taken care of.

Then the next day, as I was driving and it was hot (like it is QUITE often here), I turned on the air conditioning (like we do ALOT here). Apparently Jimmeny (Yes. I named him), didn't quite much care for the temperature adjustment and let go full song. It would appear that Jimmeny has quite the set of legs on him (I think this noise comes from rubbing them together, versus actual 'singing' but I do refer to it as 'song').

And, for the next week, whether I was listening to disco, rock, or NPR it had to be cranked with the bass up. With each increment of volume, Jimmeny cranked up his leg dance/song. It would appear he was in competition with me (and I was losing).

Now. Short of water-torture, or finger-nail-removal-via-plyers, I now have experienced hell. Whether day or night (I thought they only sang at night? Or at least I hope the Texas Crickets don't tell the California Crickets that you can sing at noon just as easily (and loudly) as you can at midnight) Jimmeny gave us music. And, loud.

One thing is the birds are going to get so fat that they won't be able to take off in flight. I watched one eat at least ten of these crickety appetizers as I was sitting next to the lawn. I think the one bird I observed ate Jimmeny's parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts and all his siblings. Wow. Birds can eat - but I digress.

Alas. Jimmeny's story has a sad ending. The other day, when I decided I could no longer tolerate the heat - cricket be damned - I was turning on the AC. And.. silence (well - at least only the sound of Donna Summer at high decible - if that could be called silence).

What happened to Jimmeny?

As I stepped out of the car, upon my seat, was the flattest (and deadest) cricket you have EVER seen. Wow. Poor Jimmeny.

I have now discovered the anti-cricket solution. My ass. Apparently I should patent it as an extermination alternative. I could get rich! But, for now - I'm just happy to have my serene car environment back.

If there's going to any annoying music in the car - it'll be because I'm singing Barbara Streisand at full hilt - not some annoying and loud insect. I think thats why I'm at the top of the food and singing chain.

Sorry Jimmeny.

Uh Oh. Poopsie-Daisy.

Truck. Clean.
Originally uploaded by ChristopherSolis.

So my beautiful truck, won't pass the Texas State inspection. It seems impossible, since it only passed California's inspection a couple of months ago - which is stricter.

Yet twice now they've said 'no way jose' to the CO2 readings. I'm not sure what the cause could be. One would have to have a job in order to take it to the shop to lookee see - mechanics are funny that way about being paid.

So in the meantime I wait. (I have two interviews tomorrow. Yippee). And, today at at the stoplight it died. So when I restarted it - huge plume of black smoke. Oops. I think if you can 'SEE' the emissions, that's a bad thing.

So, for now, I'm not driving it. It's parked until I can afford to have it looked at. But, I'm still convinced it's Robs maniacal cross country near 100 mile an hour driving style that contributed to this. So, that's my story - and I'm believin it. Hope you all are well.

Vistor From California

The Biggest Iced Latte Ever
Originally uploaded by ChristopherSolis.

Kelly's here from California. We've been doing all sorts of fun things. Including - watching the bats. More about that next time.

But we've just come back from San Antonio and are broiling. Yes, it's hot here in Texas - but Rob's AC in his car as crapped out (again) so. We be HOT.

We had an iced latte the other day at Cafe Caffine and here is a pic. You can't really tell how BIG it was. Wow. Everything is bigger in Texas.

It's A Matter of Formal Record

There can be no doubt. The Republican Party is PRO WAR. They had the opportunity last night to cast a vote to help end the war.

It is clear that doing what is best for your party now supercedes what is best for America.

It's shameful that we have such a large number of the legislature who, still, remain loyal to a President whose main legacy will be being known as the worst President in modern American history. Why do these folks continue to hold on to a policy that is long past failed? Partisanship. Pure. Simple. No other explanation.

Throw them out. For every Congressional representative - every Senator. Throw them out. This is the time for each and everyone to re-energize democracy and remind these career politicians for whom they work.

I hope Americans wake up and remove from office each person who voted to continue this war.