Ron's posts with tag: dvd
 I've got a set of Klipsch ProAudio 4.1 (4 satellites and one sub woofer) speakers and really like them. So I've been bidding on 2.1 systems (2 satellites and the sub woofer) on eBay for awhile, and finally won an auction at a great price. It just takes some patience. They showed up on my doorstep Friday, so now I have a smaller set for the other computer. The sub woofer fits nicely into the TV stand. Sounds terrific!
 I'm ashamed to admit it, but I clicked an advertising link somewhere (Gmail?), and ended up at the Coffee Fool. I ordered a 2.25 lb bag of French Roast (which turned out to really be three 12 oz bags). That package arrived Saturday, so I had some awesome freshly-roasted (by them) and freshly-ground (by me) coffee this morning.
 I picked some new DVDs on the way home from work Friday. Among them was 21 Grams, which was on sale for $6.99, so I figured I'd take a chance. I thought it was really good. It's done in the Quentin Tarantino "all the scenes are out of order" style, which was a good way to tell the story. It's about three families. One is a man and his wife. The man (Sean Penn) is a college professor and a long-time smoker who is close to death from heart failure. He's weak, coughs and gasps, and drags around an oxygen tank to help him breath. He's on the transplant list for a new heart. His wife wants nothing more than to get pregnant by him before he dies. In the second family, the father (Benicio Del Toro) is an ex-con that has spent more time in jail than out, but has reformed and is working in a church, spreading the gospel, and helping kids that are heading toward the same kind of trouble he's been in. He and his wife have two young children. The mother in the third family (Naomi Watts) seems to be a typical housewife. She and her husband have two young daughters, and they seem to have an ideal life until the ex-con accidentally runs over her husband and daughters while they're out walking. Both of the little girls are killed, and the father ends up brain dead. The wife consents to organ donation, and her husband's heart ends up being transplanted into the college professor. The ex-con turns himself in for the hit-and-run and goes to jail, but is later released. The college professor recovers and hires a private detective to find the donor family. The detective gives him information not only about the donor and his widow, but also about the ex-con. Most of the movie is about the relationship that develops between these three main characters.
They say we all lose 21 grams... at the exact moment of our death. Everyone. And how much fits into 21 grams? How much is lost? When do we lose 21 grams? How much goes with them? How much is gained? How much is gained? Twenty-one grams. The weight of a stack of five nickels. The weight of a hummingbird. A chocolate bar. How much did 21 grams weigh?
 Kiss the Bride is about a dysfunctional family of four sisters. One of the sisters still lives in the same hometown as her parents, and is about to be married. The other three sisters return to the hometown for the wedding, and the movie is all about the things that happen in the days leading up to the wedding. Funny and light-hearted, a little sappy, but not too bad.
 I also picked up Premonition. As far as I'm concerned, anything with Sandra Bullock can't be bad. This is a new movie, and I'd heard of it, but didn't have an idea what it was about. The story is about Linda Hanson (Bullock). The movie opens as she and her new husband buy a house and start their life together. Then it quickly cuts to later, when they've got two daughters, aged about 7 and 10. Her husband goes on an overnight business trip, and on the day he's supposed to return, a police officer appears at her door to inform her that there's been a car accident, and her husband is dead. She reacts as you'd expect. She has to tell her daughters the news after school, and her mother shows up to help her. After a long, difficult day, she finally falls asleep. When she wakes up the next day, an observant viewer notices that some things are different. She's not on the couch hugging the picture of her husband, she's in her upstairs bedroom. She knocks on the guest room door and calls out to her mom, but there's no answer, and the bed in the guest room looks unslept-in. She goes downstairs and ... finds her husband eating breakfast. After quietly freaking out, she decides that the whole previous day was a bad dream of some kind. That is, until the FOLLOWING day, when all her family and friends are gathered for the funeral. Days in these two parallel worlds begin to alternate, and she starts putting some order to them, finally determining that the days in which her husband is alive are in the fact the week before his death, and if she does things correctly, maybe she can prevent his death before everybody around her thinks she's totally insane.
 This morning at church, I got the honor of assisting with the baptism of Lucky Lisa, who is now a member of the church I attend. Congratulations on both counts, Lisa!
 It's been hitting the 100 degree mark here in north Texas. Electric bills soar while we stay indoors and enjoy the air conditioning. That's my weekend report. Back to work tomorrow. [whip crack]
 From what movie does this picture come?
Did the Persian girl know she bought blanks?
 Ice Age the Meltdown just came out yesterday on DVD, so I had to pick up a copy of that. Robots has been out for quite awhile, but for some reason, I haven't been able to find a copy in WideScreen for the past month - until today. The other two are fairly recent releases, so I figured what the heck. For my big Thanksgiving dinner, I got a Marie Callendar's "Harvest Turkey and Vegetables" crock pot meal. Made with real Butterball Turkey. LOL I've had their crock pot meals before and they're pretty good. Oh, and picked up a can of jellied cranberry sauce (you know, the good kind). I'll pick up a pumpkin pie and Cool Whip too. And to drink? Sam Adams and .. hmmm, what goes with turkey? Ah, here's a nice California merlot. I'll stick that in the fridge. Pretty fancy, huh? Well, my family's all in Utah, and I usually only see them once a year, and that's for Christmas. This year I'm flying up on the 21st and coming back on the 27th. My dirt poor daughter and her dirt poor fiance' are probably going to be there then too, but will leave a day earlier and get back a day later. Greyhound. Arg. For a minute, I considered riding the bus with them. For a minute. It's about 31 hours altogether, which doesn't really sound too bad, until I started thinking about stopping in every podunk town along the way, not showering for a day and a half, and having to take two extra days off work. I've already bought my airline tickets. I hope y'all have a great Thanksgiving!
 | Stuff | Nov 10, '06 12:32 AM
for everyone |
Well, I haven't written a "real" blog entry in a long time, so here goes a long, rambling one about a whole bunch of things... Two weeks ago, Paul's van got hit in his apartment's parking lot. The guy took off, no note or anything. The damage is bad enough that the van can't be driven. By piecing together the broken taillight parts left behind, Paul figured out that it was a Chevy Lumina that hit him, so he was on the lookout. A couple days later in the laundry room, he encountered a Spanish-speaking resident that asked him if he'd gotten his van fixed yet. There was apparently a communications problem, but the guy ended up pulling a piece of paper out of his wallet with a license plate number written on it! Paul took a look at PublicData and found that the plate belonged to a Chevy Lumina. (What do you know?) It also gave a name and address. On Halloween night, Paul and I took a drive to that area of town, camera and flashlight at the ready. It wasn't nearby, and wasn't one of the nicer areas of town, but there were trick-or-treaters still roaming, so we walked up and down the street for awhile without raising any suspicion. Didn't see the car. The next day, another resident told Paul his pickup had also been hit, and he had the license plate number and even knew where the guy lived. This was a closer address, and they went there - it was a lot closer. The car wasn't there, and nobody was home. Paul walked back later in the evening, found the car, took a picture that showed the license plate and missing taillight pieces, and was pretty excited to have found the obvious culprit. The guy has no insurance, and the police are investigating. Paul still hasn't been able to get his van fixed since the police case hasn't been resolved or something. I don't know how he gets by without wheels. Paul's an avid bicycler, and his solution to the problem was to buy a bus pass. I'm meeting him for dinner tonight, and he'll take a bus, the light rail, and another bus to get there, even though I said I'd pick him up. Before Halloween, Wal*Mart had all their old lame scary movies on DVD on sale for $4.88. I bought a few, and then later returned and found the complete collection of Friday the 13th (volumes 1 through 8!) and bought them all. In the time since Halloween, I've watched 7 of the 8, and the last one is in the bedroom DVD player now, ready to be fired up this weekend. Jason takes Manhattan. They're starting to all be about the same though... I saw Saw III in the theater last weekend. I liked the first two, and a friend called asking if I wanted to see III so I jumped at the chance. Plus I had $6 ticket coupons in my Passbook. It was great. I always used to kind of tolerate the scary movies, but Lisa taught me an appreciation for a good horror flick so I guess that's one good thing that came out of that relationship. (Just kidding, Lisa!) Every couple of years, I call up a tree company (arborist) to trim my trees. I have three vey large Fruitless Mulberries, which left to their own devices would take over everything in their path, including the overhead power, phone and cable lines. I've been told that the best time to trim is right before the leaves begin to fall. Four years ago, it cost $275. Two years ago, it was $495. This time, they quoted me $695. Yikes! Those trees aren't growing exponentially faster. I guess I need to get another quote or two before I do that. I've lived in my house now for 12 1/2 years now, and have been paying extra on the mortgage toward the principal. It will be paid off with my December payment. Since I paid so little in interest this year, I think I'm going to pay my property taxes in January instead of December. Then I'll take the standard deduction for this year instead of itemizing, and double up the property taxes for 2007. Mortgage burning party! I've never owned a property free and clear before, it's a pretty neat feeling.
| Crash | Jan 5, '06 12:53 AM
for everyone |
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Crash is a movie that I had the opportunity to see as a sneak preview when it first came out, but I passed it up. But my friend Melody said she'd seen it and she thought it was really good, so thanks to her, I went and bought a copy, and she was right, it's terrific.
It has an all-star cast, and the acting is excellent. So is the story. Here's what IMDb has to say about it:
Several stories interweave during two days in Los Angeles involving a collection of inter-related characters, a black police detective with a drugged out mother and a thieving younger brother, two car thieves who are constantly theorizing on society and race, the distracted district attorney and his irritated and pampered wife, a racist veteran cop (caring for a sick father at home) who disgusts his more idealistic younger partner, a successful black Hollywood director and his wife who must deal with racist cop, a Persian-immigrant father who buys a gun to protect his shop, a Hispanic locksmith and his young daughter who is afraid of bullets, and more.
For two days in Los Angeles, a racially and economically diverse group of people pursue lives that collide with one another in unexpected ways. These interactions are always interesting, and sometimes quite unsettling. The film explores and challenges your ability to judge books by their covers.
Well worth the price of a rental.
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 I watched this for a second time this weekend. This time, on DVD with English audio *and* English subtitles. (First time I saw it was on VHS and there was only Italian audio). It's a great movie. Who'd think a comedy about the holocaust could win Academy Awards? Real Title: La Vita è bella A handful of awards:
- 1999 Academy Awards
- Best Foreign Language Film
- Best Actor (Benigni)
- Best Original Dramatic Score
- Online Film Critics Society Awards
- Best Foreign Language Film
- 1999 Screen Actors Guild Awards
- Best Actor (Benigni)
- 1998 Cannes Film Festival
- Grand Jury Prize
- 1998 Chicago Film Critics Association Awards
- Best Foreign Language Film
- 1998 Los Angeles International Film Festival
- Best Feature Audience Award
- 1998 Montreal World Film Festival
- People's Choice Award
- 1998 National Board of Review
- Special Achievement in Filmmaking (Benigni)
- 1998 Toronto International Film Festival
- People's Choice Award
- 1998 Cannes Film Festival
- Jury Award
Geek says check it out.
| Thursday | Dec 6, '05 12:29 AM
for everyone |
Gulp |
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| Movies | Dec 1, '05 12:25 AM
for everyone |
Nothing really important here, just wanted to talk about some movies, and play around with using external Flickr pictures and creating a table in a blog entry.
That's all folks.
 I've had the first one for awhile, and how I've received my copies of the second one. They gave me a coupon... If you want to buy something from them, type in coupon code ELN and they'll give you $2 off.
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