Oscar Sunday
Tonight was the 83rd Academy Awards.
There weren’t any big surprises. The hosts were ok, but not great. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to see all the nominated movies over the past few months. My final count was 44 out the 56 movies nominated. Not bad. But it didn’t help much when it came to guessing the winners in each category. I only correctly guessed 9 out of 24. My coworker, Ruth, having seen only 10 or so of the nominees, got 11 correct. Part of my problem is that, yes, I could have selected the movie I expected to win, but I went more with the choice that I felt should win. Clearly the Academy and I do not see eye to eye. That’s ok. Everyone is entitled to be wrong; even the Academy.
You can’t take the sky from me
Firefly was one of my favorite television shows. I am forever upset with Fox for cancelling this show. To this day, I refuse to begin watching new shows on Fox because I have no faith that this idiot network will give the show time to find an audience. If a new show makes it past the first year, I’ll consider watching it on dvd or Netflix.
Here’s some recent news about Firefly.
Browncoats rejoice: Firefly is returning to basic cable — and Nathan Fillion has something to say about it.
The Science Channel has acquired the rights to the cult-hit and will air the series in its short-lived entirety, plus some new extras. Science Channel will wrap each episode with interstitial segments starring renowned physicist Dr. Michio Kaku, who will discuss the theoretical science behind the show’s sci-fi concepts
Read the full story:
‘Firefly’ returning to cable; Fillion says he’d play Mal again — EXCLUSIVE | Inside TV | EW.com.
Weekend’s end
Well let’s see. I watched the Animated Shorts that are in contention for an Oscar this year. Mostly, I didn’t much care for them. The two I liked best are Let’s Polute and The Gruffalo. I also finished Gasland, one of the films up for Best Documentary. This movie had one basic point, Hydraulic Fracturing is damaging the environment and contaminating ground water. The thing is, what I just told you in 3 seconds, this movie drew out into about 145 minutes. Ok, sure, you need to support the claim. Fine, make it a 15 minute movie and call it done.
I did a bit of catching up on all the TV I’ve been recording. I watched a couple episodes of Blue Bloods, as well as an episode each of: V, The Good Wife, Merlin, CSI:NY, CSI, Big Bang Theory, White Collar, Castle, The Cape, Modern Family, Being Human, and Smallville. My TiVO is down below 50% on it’s storage level again. I need to work harder to keep it low.
Played a little LOTRO, but my computer is showing it’s age. Tried to participate in the Dar Narbugud raid again on Saturday evening. I was quite laggy and not far into the raid, my computer locked up and I had to restart. I guess a new computer needs to be at the top of the list of what to buy once I have some money to spend. Plenty of people to pay back first, starting with my dad.
I used my George Foreman Grill and my rice cooker a couple times. I grilled a chicken breast and some steak. I need to get creative with rice though. Any suggestions on what I can add to regular white rice to make it more interesting??
Salsa Fest begins tomorrow. Who’s excited??
36/56
What a lovely outfit, Your Imperial Majesty
Saw Another Year tonight. It didn’t suck. There were a couple of chuckles.
Here’s my problem. I just do not understand why some of these movies, actors, etc. are getting nominated. I am coming to believe that the Academy is hopelessly out of touch with normal people. By what standard exactly are these selections being made? In category after category there are nominees that are missing and/or I don’t understand why they are there. What is it that the nominators see, and why can’t I see it?
Visual Aid
Here is a rather small and difficult to read chart of all the movies that are nominated in one or more categories for the Academy Awards this year. The original version is an Excel spreadsheet created by Betty. You can click on this smallish chart to open a full sized .pdf that will be easier to read.
Go ahead. I’ll wait.
Ok. Great. So the ones in orange are the movies I’ve already seen. The ones in yellow are the movies that I expect to see over the next 7 – 10 days. The ones in pink are the movies that I think I will not get the chance to see prior to the awards. And the one in white… well, I’m not sure. I think I may get to see it but I am not certain. I will let you know.
Anyway, I’m quite proud of how many I will have seen by the 27th.
How are YOU doing on seeing the Oscar noms?
Roberto Benigni was wrong
I am now convinced that I shouldn’t watch any more foreign films.
Yep, I’m embracing my American-ness. Foreign films are just too…. foreign.
Watched Biutiful tonight.
Cancer. Sucks.
Mental illness. Sucks.
The human condition. Sucks.
Life. Sucks.
Javier Bardem did a good job. But it’s just so hard to relate to such a foreign story. By the end of the movie, I was actually feeling sick to my stomach, this movie was so depressing.
If there’s one thing I can take from the movie, it is this: Suck it up, Sean. Your life could be SO. MUCH. WORSE!
So, sorry to be the sterotypical Ugly American. Sorry I’m not one of the cultural elite who probably LOVE this movie. Sorry that, after seeing this movie and a few others lately, I’m desperate for a ‘feel good’ movie.
28/56. The Challenge begins to take it’s toll.
Just another manic Monday
My salsa wasn’t really any better after chilling for a day. Ah well. I’ll use more tomatoes next time. And leave out the onion and garlic. I’ll use less cilantro too. I hate wasting food. 🙁 So I’m going to knuckle down and finish off this batch. It’s not terrible, just not good.
I only work the equivalent of 11 months per year. My office is kind enough to let me spread out my month off over the entire year. So I take off 14.5 hours each month. This month that means that I’ll take this Friday off and the 25th as well. Add to that the fact that President’s Weekend is 4 days, and I’m looking forward to some extra LOTRO and TV time. And it’s a good thing cause I’m falling way behind on both those things.
Biutiful tomorrow night and Harry Potter 7.1 on Wednesday.
Finished that steaming pile of crap called Dogtooth tonight. Blech!
26/56
Weekend recap
Kind of a quick weekend, but too busy as usual. Friday evening I went to a local photography meetup. It was alright. It’ll be better once the group figures out what it wants to be. Watched a movie to finish out the night.
Saturday, I went to my friend, Sarah’s, book launch. Her book is called The Latte Rebellion. I bought a copy and had her sign it. I did take some photos.
Afterwards, I stopped by the supermarket and bought some of the ingredients for the cabbage salsa I’ll be making for work. Then home to watch the second movie in the Harry Potter series.
In the evening, I went to my aunt & uncle’s place for a birthday / anniversary party. I was there for a couple of hours then I went over to Dorinda & Holly’s to watch another of the Harry Potter movies. That was just about all I could fit into the day and there was nothing left to do but go to bed.
Today, I watched 2 more HP movies on DVD, saw Country Strong at the theater, and finished up the evening with Winter’s Bone (from Netflix). Somewhere in there, I made a test batch of the salsa. I’m not real happy with it. I’m glad I tested before I inflicted it upon my coworkers.
Oscar count – 25/56
I imagine that right now, youre feeling a bit like Alice.
From IMDB: Rabbit Hole – Life for a happy couple is turned upside down after their young son dies in an accident.
Rabbit Hole was a good movie; very bitter sweet. It may be the most ‘real’ of any of the movies I’ve seen this season. I thought that Nicole Kidman did a great job… But so did Aaron Eckhart. In fact, I think I liked his performance better! I really don’t understand the Academy sometimes. But that’s ok.
My total count is now 23/56.
My crack dispenser
What’s one piece of technology you can’t live without?
I guess the obvious answer is the internet. It’s so useful for so many things. Certainly email and web browsing, but I use it all the time for playing MMOs, Lord of the Rings Online in particular. I spend hours and hours playing this game.
Another obvious guess would be my iPhone. Obvious in the sense that I can’t stop using it to check statuses and updates on facebook and twitter.
But I’ll make my official answer… my TiVO. I used to be running two or three VHS recorders multiple nights of the week. Keeping track of the tapes and making sure to watch them in the correct order to clear up space to do it all again was logistically challenging. TiVO was made for me! I recently upgraded to the Premiere box. 5 times as much storage, HD if I want it, download directly from Netflix and YouTube, and I can use it as my cable tuner box. Lovely! So TiVO gets my vote.
