Posts tagged rambling

Fill your hand you son-of-a-…

Jan 23rd

Posted by Ryan in Reviews

1 comment

The days of the western being a staple at the box office have passed us by. Today we are lucky if we get one gunslinging movie a year. I’m very pleased that the Coen brothers have shown us that Hollywood still knows how to make a good western. Their rendition of Charles Portis’ True Grit is absolutely fantastic. Being a big fan of the 1969 version starring John Wayne I was concerned that a remake would disappoint me by being vastly different from the story I already knew and loved. Furthering my concern, reviews I had read claimed that it was darker and more like the book than the 1969 version. Never having read the book I started to wonder what kind of liberties may have been taken by the screenwriter and director of the John Wayne film. Much to my relief I discovered today that John Wayne is most likely smiling down on the Coen brothers. If the modern version is in fact more like the book, then the production crew from the late sixties must have only pared out some of the bloodier details to get a G rating, because the story in the new film flowed just how I thought it should. I’m not trying to say that the Coen brothers made a carbon copy with some deleted scenes reinserted. They definitely made this film their own, but they did so without changing the story. Of course, that last statement is somewhat speculative. I guess I’ll just have to read the book to see how both films did at telling the story. Now, I can’t end without stating that all the credit for this wonderful movie cannot go to just the directors. Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, and Hailee Steinfeld together did a wonderful job portraying the little posse that could. To sum up, True Grit 2010 is a great movie from a genre we do not see enough of anymore. I hope to see it again before it leaves the theaters. If you have not yet seen it you are missing out.

P.S.

I was so in the western mood after seeing True Grit that I had to watch 3:10 to Yuma this evening.  I haven’t seen the original, just the one from a couple years ago starring Christian Bale and Russel Crowe.  I guess I’ll have to see the original and compare those as well.

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I’m talking about facebook again

Feb 19th

Posted by Becky in Casual Thoughts

4 comments

I’m sure it is no surprise to any of you that I love facebook. It definitely has it’s issues, but for the most part it keeps me connected with the people I want to stay in touch with, and even some I didn’t know I wanted to stay in touch with. It’s been especially great to find some family members who I don’t get to see often.

I was thinking about it, and the one thing I’ve really noticed about facebook is that it is much more difficult to maintain different personas with different people when you are on there. You know what I’m talking about, right? Not like you have alternate personalities or anything, but how you are a slightly different variation of yourself when you are with your extended family versus your immediate family versus your high school friends versus your college friends? I don’t know if I could even tell you the differences for me (other than I don’t swear in front of my extended family, but I occasionally do in front of my college or high school friends). Either way, there are things about you that one sector doesn’t know that the other does, and vice versa.

Well, with facebook, you can’t really have that. Unless you set up people to have only a limited view of your profile (and even then they all get the same limited view), they all see the same pictures, see the comments other people leave on your wall and get a feeling for what you are talking about, see what groups you belong to or what events you are attending.

It makes me wonder if this is a good thing or a bad thing. I kind of lean toward it being a good thing. I mean, I don’t really have anything to hide, and with facebook set up like this I don’t need to worry as much about maintaining separate personas (although I still won’t swear in front of my grandparents – but that’s out of respect for their wishes more than anything, I think). Anyway, I think it is something that a person just needs to get used to, and be aware of.

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Does anyone else notice that when specific examples are asked for (or expected) you can never think of them? Like if you are having an argument about something someone does that bothers you, and they ask for the exact date and time of the last time they did it (or the last 4 times); or when a person you knew in high school asks you how you’ve changed in the approximately 10 years since then, and all you can think of to say is “I drink now,” instead of the millions of ways I’ve you’ve changed? (Not that that ever happened to me.) I can NEVER think of that kind of stuff. See above paragraphs and how my only example is swearing. GAH!

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Today is the slowest day EVER at work. Why is this? The day will be long enough on it’s own without work dragging by. I have a appointment with my personal trainer lady (don’t I sound all fancy!? Don’t worry – the sessions were cheap, and even though I know I’m pretty young she makes me feel old, although she is very nice.). The meeting runs from 4-5, and then I have to go to the library and volunteer from 5-7 (I would skip, but it was closed on my other volunteer day this week for President’s day and they are already short on volunteers), and then we have bowling tonight from 7:30-10ish. Mostly fun stuff, but like I said – LONG day.

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ps. We are taking a poll. Was Sam calling me the mean customer service person who told him he was “belly aching” when he called the bank? (See comments on the previous entry.) Because I know that story and I don’t think I’m her (she was mean and a terrible customer service person), but his comment makes me wonder.

pps. I *heart* you Sam! Even if you were calling me the mean customer service lady! Although if that is the case I will let you and Ryan carry your desk on your own this weekend! HA!

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I am aware that there are probably only 2 sentences out of this mess of an entry that make any sense at all (even this one didn’t before I fixed it!). I’m not sure what to do about it that doesn’t require rewriting the whole thing. This is not freshman comp, people.

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Blah…

Jul 28th

Posted by Becky in Casual Thoughts

1 comment

I’m sorry for the lack of posting lately. I’ve been feeling very blah recently, and so didn’t get around to writing anything. Plus our “computer/spare room” has been pretty much taken over by my wedding dress, which I don’t really know what to do with. So I don’t go in there much.

We had an awesome weekend visiting friends in the Cities, and we apparently avoided some nasty traffic on the way home because only a few hours after we drove up 35E a portion of a bridge passing overhead collapsed onto it. You would think they would be watching the bridges around there a little closer, but who knows what happened. Anyway, it was like 4 or 5 hours after we had passed through that it happened, so it’s not like it was the car right behind us or anything. It’s hardly even worth mentioning, except that my life is rather boring lately and so I have to reach to find anything interesting to write about.

We are in Duluth from now until the 3rd week in August, when I will be driving to New York for a friend’s wedding. I’m very very excited about that trip, but we figured out how much it’s going to cost us, and holy crap! Traveling that far is expensive! Even in my little car that gets fabulous gas milage (42 mpg the weekend we went to Fargo and back). Oh well. It will be worth it, I’m quite certain.

I still haven’t figured out the photo posting, and Ryan’s response was “um, I’m not sure” and then to promptly forget that I even asked, so he’s been no help. I think it has something to do with the fact that we host the totallyserial website on our own server (who am I kidding?? Ryan hosts it on HIS server), and the photos aren’t on the server. That’s about all I’ve figured out though. So there will be some harrassing until he tells me what I need to do. A person can’t blog without photos. It’s inhumane.

Well, it’s about 5 minutes till quitting time. Thank God. Time to go home and zone out while watching Jon & Kate + 8 and reading my latest library find, The Host.

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My thoughts for this Friday:

Jul 18th

Posted by Becky in Casual Thoughts

5 comments

In bullet form!

  • Friday, you did not get here nearly fast enough, and yet if you asked me what I did this week I couldn’t tell you because it went by so quickly.
  • I feel tricked. I went to Walgreens today to get a stick of the Bodyglide stuff recommended by Molly, and they didn’t have it. I also wanted some Zycam (recommended by my mom) to defeat this cold that’s trying to sneak up on me, but they didn’t have that either. They did however have candy and pop and lunchables, and I had nothing with me for lunch….so now I’m eating salt and sugar for lunch. Thanks alot WALGREENS. Jeeze.
  • I should remember that if I’m craving a Diet Coke in the morning when I’m buying lunch I should just buy 2. I don’t carry cash, and now I’m craving Diet Coke again and I don’t have any because I drank it this morning. And the dang store across the street that lets me use my checkcard to purchase it makes me buy $5 worth of other stuff (read: more candy) that I don’t need.
  • I wore cute but very tall shoes to work today. And then I realized that I had a chamber of commerce event I wanted to go to over lunch. The chamber building is 3 blocks away, so I always walk. But now my feet hurt. Way to think ahead, Becky. GOSH!
  • Do you think I could whine and complain some more??

I had a post that I was working on answering the last few questions, and I was going to put a picture from last weekend in it (we had a fabulous time, by the way), but I can’t figure out how to post a picture while I’m at work, so I need to talk to Ryan about it, and working on a computer is the last thing I want to encourage him to do in the evenings (he does it enough already!). So yah…excuses, excuses. Next week maybe I’ll put up TWO pictures just to make up for it. But no promises.

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  • To Do In 2011

    1. Make dinner 2 nights per week
    2. Finish James’s baby book     finished as much as possible
    3. Own a pair of comfortable dress boots
    4. Read 25 books
    5. Take a week of vacation in the summer and visit my family
    6. Try a new ingredient once a month (Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec)
    7. Organize my recipe collection
    8. Develop a more efficient workspace at my office     My new desk is WAY more organized/organizable.
    9. Own investment jeans     Not Happening
    10. Go to 3 local museums
    11. Organize a group camping trip     We had 2 of them!
    12. Learn how to run     In progress!
    13. See a concert
    14. Try out four new restaurants     (Jan 21) (March 18)
    15. Acknowledge the birthdays of every person on my list     Epic fail
    16. Make something for James using some of his old clothes
    17. Watch James take his first steps/say his first real words
    18. Put pictures in all the frames in our apartment
    19. Buy a cake from a local bakery
    20. Go to a band concert at UMD
    21. Exercise more     Y Membership
    22. See my sister graduate college     I'm counting this as accomplished; I didn't watch her walk, but we had dinner with her that night.
    23. Cut back on sweets     My new job has actually helped with this; less boredom/stress = less snacking!
    24. Get rid of cable 1/3/2011
    25. Finish our wedding scrapbook project
    26. Start purchasing Christmas gifts in March at the latest     HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
    27. Create a weekly menu, and stick to it!     See above: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
    28. Meet someone in real life that I’ve only known on the internet
    29. Get my hair cut and style it more often     this last part is ongoing
    30. Host a party
    31. Go to church at least once per month, and make a donation each time
    32. Send thank-you notes for all gifts
    33. Make ice cream
    34. Encourage Ryan to get his first Cisco certification
    35. Try a new food     I'm counting brussel sprouts.
    36. Hang out with Alyson for an entire weekend
    37. Make more of an effort to dress up for work     No longer necessary; this is more of a nice jeans and sweater kind of place.
    38. Make a lunch (not frozen) 2 days per week.     I've been packing a peanut butter sandwich and carrots. I consider this an achievement.
    39. Take a community ed class     Swimming w/the boys
    40. Make something in our dutch oven that requires using it in the oven
    41. Go to bed before eleven more often
    42. Go to a Farmer’s Market and buy something 3 times this summer     Another failure. Although we did buy some local honey from a friend!
    43. Call my parents and sisters every other week just to check in     I think I'm doing WORSE at this than last year
    44. Make: caramel rolls from scratch (get the recipe from my grandma)
    45. Bring James on his first trip to Canada
    46. Learn to drive a stick
    47. Print out photos from our wedding and put them in an album
    48. Make breakfast more often on the weekends
    49. Keep the apartment cleaner than past years
    50. Buy a good area rug for the living room
    51. Make a general doctor’s appointment to get my cholesterol, blood pressure, etc., checked out 1/11/11
    52. Take more pictures and put some in albums
    53. Clean the basement and organize all our stuff down there     All bins labeled as of 3/13/11. This is as much organizing as is going to happen before we move
    54. Organize my jewelry
    55. Buy more bins for storage and put seasonal clothes away
    56. Donate all unused clothing/toys to Goodwill/Salvation Army

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