Friday, July 13, 2007

Glad to hear things went well, Art.

This is some weird, funny shit. The Vader Sessions.

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Well, the surgery went well, the doc said they got all the junk out. It is/was a Hurthle Cell Lesion but they're not sure if it is a rapidly growing mass (cancer) or a slowly growing mass (benign). So, we have to wait for the full pathology / lab results to get back before we know if we have to go back in to get the other lobe removed and have to do the radioactive iodine treatment crap. Yay for more uncertainty and waiting! (meh) Bonus: when pulling out her breathing tube, apparently they whipped her upper lip and split it open.

The doc came in this morning and removed the drain tube and signed off on her coming home, so I raced down to the hospital so we could wait around for like 3 hours for them to drudge through the bureaucratic what-evers. Anyhow. Got her home, fed her some home cooked food product (despite expecting 'hospital food', I couldn't believe just how horrid the crap was that they delivered... especially given that we specified in the pre-admit meeting, upon admittance and every time they tried to deliver one of these trays of slop that she can't have dairy or beef.. especially not beef cooked in dairy, slathered with some more dairy and deepfried in more butter and dairy...)

But I digress.

She's home, recouping and resting. We go in next Monday to get the stitches out and to get an update on the whole lab pathology.
Eric: First of all, I am in shock that you actually went to the movies. WTF? What did it take? Wow! Second, I am further in shock that you went to see Transformers. Whew... that film is not for me.

Art: All best for Michelle.

| Carzy Mnid Tirkcs !!!

cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg
The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at
Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer inwaht oredr the ltteers in a
wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer
be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll
raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not
raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh?
yaeh and I awlyas thought slpeling was ipmorantt!

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Huh..

Interesting disparity in opinions. I have yet to see it so, I guess I will have to hold mine for later skaters.

On the other hand I saw Ratatouille and 1408...

1408: You failed your highness. Not scary, Not creepy, Not anything for me. It just seems progressively more like a failed interpretation of a King book as the movie went forward. The beginning starts off promising with a an interesting premise, convincing build-up, and a likable/believable character. The illusion of the evil room starts really good and creepy, but slowly reveals itself as turd polishing by the last third of the movie as the pranks become more and more of a stretch. I am sure it was engaging in the book through and through, as is the nature of King's writings, but the movie just could not hold my interest. Queue frequent glances at my watch to judge how much more I had to endure. The scares too cliche, the confinement to the room tactics too predictable, and the ending was the final trickling dribbles and coughs of what started out as a solid river of interest. Kind of a let down since it got descent reviews. BTW waking from dreams of successful extrication to reveal your still in the shit or vice versa is a little tired.

Ratatouille: Was pretty darn good I thought. Cute even. Perhaps a little too fairy tale like and predictable, but the visuals were quite splendid and the characters were fun. At the very least it seemed devoid of the over the top potty humor, unlike some contemporary animated turned CGI movies of late. Definitely geared to the little'uns with plenty of adult entertainment but not too adult themed.

O Rugs. How did the procedure go? Is she doing okay? Hope all is well.

In other news, my grandfather on my mother's side had a massive stroke today. Seems pretty grim. Booo.. My mother is flying out to see him this evening, but they don't know if he will make it through the night.

D>M>
it was goooooooooooood :)

| Transformers = Meh x16

Okay. I know I sound like an elitist, and a snob, and the enemy o fun, and all that, but I feel dumber having sat through 2/3 of Transformers. Leslie and I left when all the robots and awesome S7 men and 'high school' kids were leaving the dam, so I have no idea if it all worked out for humanity in the end or not. I just couldn't handle it.

I know, I'm lame.

I totally went into it with no hope that it would be anything great, and it still killed me.

IMHO, there was no story, no character development, all fast cuts, no substance, product placement up the ying yang, chrome, glitz, overly tanned and ridiculous 'high school' girls and boys, bad dialogue, and silly machine gun army man vs. robot combat scenes.

OMG! I forgot about the hot hacker girl from Australia and the fat, poor black guy hacker! You would never think either of them were stereotypically hackers, but lo and behold! The Transformers movie has made me question my preconceived notions as to what is possible by hot Australians and poor black kids! Oh yeah, the black hacker also yelled at his grandmother and called her a 'bitch'.

OMGOMG! How about when that Autobot uncorked his 'lubricant' holder and emptied his lubrican all over John Turturo! BWAHAHAHAHAH! It was like the robot was peeing, man!

Bernie Mac was kinda funny. His laugh was anyway, not when he called his deaf grandma a 'bitch'. I guess it was kind of a theme for black characters to call their grandmothers bitches.

So, there you have it. It would have been a fun half hour movie, maybe 45 minutes, but beyond that I was actually uncomfortable sitting and watching it. I just kept thinking what an impact the money spent on this movie could have on medical research, world hunger, education, etc.

I know. I'm Eric. What kind of an opinion would you expect me to have about a summer blockbuster that was targeted at 13 year old boys.

Monday, July 09, 2007

Good luck to you and your family Art! I'm sure everything will turn out well!
Hey Art, vibes for Michelle. Hospitals and operations are always a little scary. I'm sure that everything will be cool, though.
Michelle goes in for pre-surgery prep at 6:45am tomorrow morning and will be having the mass removed between 8-10am. We'll be staying overnight and I'll likely be mostly out of touch until sometime Wednesday or Thursday depending on how things go. When I'm able, I'll let everyone know how things are. Any positive vibes are appreciated.

Late,

~A.

Sunday, July 08, 2007

Yeah, the last fight was pretty booty. You know, one thing I've always kinda hated about action movies is "the last big fight." It's usually always at NIGHT and more than not its RAINING. Least they did this during the day hahaha. A few movies do it right, but for the most part, I'm always let down in the last big fights (im thinking all the van damme and seagal movies, etc.)

But yeah, you never really got a straight-up shot of the bots fighting. I guess that's a michael bay thing. Everythings all hectic and all over the place. You know what's kinda weaksauce? I guess Hugo Weaving did the voice for Megatron, but the original voice actor tried out for it. Guess Michael Bay made all the OG voice actors audition and he felt the original megatrons voice was too high/pitchy for the way he envisioned megatron. Bummer. Least they got the original Optimus Prime voice actor. That was cool. (And I guess the og megatron dude got to do the voice in the video game, LOL, stay broke bee-atch.)
I hear you, I do. I thought the effects were totally kick ass. I guess I was just hoping to be able to see more detail in the battles between individual Transformers. Like the bumblebee fight..? And most importantly the MOST IMPORTANT FIGHT OF TEH MOVIE!!! Weren't you at least minimally disappointed that you didn't get any big payoff between Megatron and Optimus Prime? I dunno, I guess I was expecting something epic, like a huge knock down drag out 10 minute fight. Instead, we got what, two gun shots and a trip through a building and the rest was done off camera. Hell the fight between Optimus Prime and the freeway guy (forget who that was) was *WAY* friggin' better than the Megatron thing at the end.

Anyway. It was still a good flick, and I totally recommend anyone and everyone to go see it. But, do so understanding what you're going to see. Huge beautiful CG fest, product-placement & corny/hokey acting movie. Oh, and one SMOKIN' HOT chick. Meeow!

LOL