fine whine

Well, so far being twenty five hasn't been too much different from twenty four, as I had suspected. My co-workers were so nice to me, bringing me donuts and cake and dropping by my cubicle to wish me a happy day (yesterday) that I took today off.

I didn't really do anything of note, though. I hooked up a pair of fine Chrysler 6"x9" speakers as the rear surrounds under our couch so that I could shove the couch back up against the wall and recoup that seven or eight square feet that had been wasted due to the size of that speaker I'd tried to hide. Wide, pied, shied, eyed. Lots of things rhyme with "I'd tried to hide".

Well, I've been twenty-five now for over an hour, and you know, it doesn''t feel any different from when I was twenty-four. I guess when I turn twenty-six it'll matter slightly in the form of lowered auto insurance, but otherwise I can't think of much significance in the next few birthdays, let alone this one.

I have once again ascended to the very top of the list of search results for "whine" on Google. Tomorrow I turn 25. I assign equal significance to both.

Make of that what you will.

Right now I am watching Bad Santa and I must admit that it is hilarious. I'm laughing even harder than earlier today when I was laughing at the (intentionall funny, I think) parts of Cold mountain. This movie is downright funny. I can but hope that I didn't wake Jessica up with my laughter.

Whatever you do, do not watch it around any children. Do not watch it near any children. Do not let any children see the DVD case 'lest you have some questions to answer.

Cold mountain, at least the first two hours of it (we're going to finish watching it tomorrow), is far safer for children, even with its brutal violence, occasional sex, and offensive language.

But only by a little bit. They'd probably fall asleep long before Renee Zellwellwhateverthehell pops up, let alone the amusing Phil Seymour Hoffman or a very amusing Giovanni Ribisi.

Why doesn't that guy get any respect? He's the fourth-biggest actor in Sky captain and the city of tomorrow but try, just try, to find his name in the big letters.

He's good, but he's not "uncredited cameo" material yet, folks. Just give him a little credit, that's all I'm saying.

So, you find yourself not asking, what have I been watching, DVD-wise, lately? Let me tell you.

• Conspiracy code: For a film that bandies about words such as "keyless encryption" and "cryptography" in the way a Mamet film uses the f-word, there is surprisingly no computer usage shown on screen. At all. The occasional back of a monitor or laptop is shown, and a character mentions clicking and files, but that's about it, interface-wise. I'm assuming it's due to a small budget and a canny sense that the computer screens, more than anything else, date a movie (cf. Aliens). It's a fair movie, but nothing spectacular. It's intelligent but not particularly smart or engaging. David Warner, though, looks awesome in a scraggly beard.
• Chappelle's show (first season): Dave Chappelle is a funny guy, and much of this show is funny, but I don't think all of it is. Though this is uncensored (which is odd to say since some musical guests have been expurgated from the shows) there still seems to be a modicum of restraint. Some jokes are drawn out far too long, as in the Tyrese/Dave-as-a-crack-addict segments, and others a merely sloppy (the opening faux Mitsubishi Eclipse commercials feature Dave and a passenger in a Nissan 350Z, not a Mitsu). Complaints aside, I enjoyed it and will seek out the second season at the library if for nothing else but to see, firsthand, the much-touted Wayne Brady/Training day spoof.
• Red Dwarf II (second series, as it were): I remember catching bits of this show on PBS over the years, but I'm not sure how funny I thought it was. My understanding of the whole BBC series system was sorely lacking then, as it seemed odd that things changed after only a handful of episodes (consistently) and a several-year marathon fit nicely into a weekend. Much of the humo(u)r was wasted on me then, as well. So I wasn't bowled over completely then, to say the least, but I was intrigued. Well, now that I've been watching them in rapid succession (III and IV are due to show up any day now in my reserves at the library) I can see that I'm not going to be bowled over this time around. The show's interesting, but they're trying to cram too many things into each set of six episodes. I'm not convinced that they'd do better to have done it American style with thirteen to twenty-six episodes (cf. Homeboys in outer space) but somehow it comes across as equally laid-back and overworked. It too has BBC stamped all over it, though I cannot for the life of me say what I mean by that except for a slight against their film stock and production values. Maybe it's the lighting.
• Ladykillers (Coen brothers remake with Tom Hanks, not the Alec Guinness/Ealing studios original mentioned before): It made me laugh but not the way a good Coen brothers film should. Too much of it felt somehow constricting, as though they'd traded in their usual grand scale, wide shots, and vast vistas for a cheap soundstage. Tom Hanks acts well, but distractingly so and such that it's nearly impossible to discern if he is acting or his character is supposed to be doing it. The supporting players manage to separate themselves much better than those of the Guinness original, but with the extra characterization comes extra padding as well. The inclusion of a tedious in-helmet-cam football game scene is equally drawn out and technically impressive, but a bit more of the former. Like the rest of the movie, really.

I was going to watch A man, a woman and a bank but the disc I received was cracked halfway through, so no dice. Two days ago I'd never heard of the movie, and now I'm crushed that I need to wait another several days to watch the thing.

Arr, ye landlubbers, today I broke out the table saw again and went to work on the ol' planks I've been hoarding in my garage. The plan is to make enough shelving to hold all of my CDs (all bought with booty, not pirated, har har) and to span the starboard side of our couch.

Well, methinks it's the starboard side. I don't know for sure and the last bilge rat who told me which was which ended up looking for the aft end of Davy Jones's locker, if ye know what I mean.

So what I've got to do now is cut sixteen shelves all the same, and then fit everything together. First, though, I needed to build onto my table saw since it's not big enough. Arr.

I'll probably be making a router table too, on my sawhorses, but not for a while. Arr. This was supposed to be talk like a pirate day, not talk like a cabinetmaker.