Nicole
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| oh hey! |
[Nov. 8th, 2009|06:07 pm] |
I'm not on Neurontin any more. I can get to work on those bottles of cider that I bought about a week before I started taking said do-not-consume-alcohol-with-this medication. Hopefully, they haven't gone off yet.
... Nope, they haven't. But the Newcastle Brown has, alas. |
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| regularly scheduled schoolwork whining |
[Nov. 8th, 2009|03:14 pm] |
Why can't I have more time available in my life so that I can research these things in depth in a way that would satisfy my need to learn, rather than shallowly with only enough depth to turn in an assignment I can get at least a B on?
We're cramming too much into this class for me to get the richness I want out of the experience. If I wanted more depth I should have been a Cog. Psych. major. Which I would have been originally... if I hadn't talked myself out of it due to lack of job opportunities and a nagging need to know how I would pay back my student loans.
I'm grateful that my work and studies now at least overlap the areas that I'm really interested in. I really am grateful. I could stop there.
Still regret not having more time to study the intricacies of the human mind and the cognitive processes in greater detail.
Whine whine whine.
Right then, back to the effing research paper. |
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| The Colony |
[Nov. 6th, 2009|01:30 pm] |
I finally sat down and watched all 10 episodes of this reality show. It had an interesting premise, but as a reality show, it was pretty lame. The concept was to have a number of people recreate a society after an ELE, I believe it was supposed to be a virus, and see how well they do.
It... wasnt very good. This show felt like there was more LARP style acting than reality. There were some cool tech ideas for survival, but on all else, it pretty much sucked.
( Spoilers under cut ) |
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| pain in the neck |
[Nov. 6th, 2009|11:39 am] |
I've had a bad tension headache since 3pm yesterday. Hot shower, NSAIDs, massage, sleep and caffeine all failed to really help. I NEED to get over this so that I can do school work this weekend.
My Saturday went BOOM-FOOF! filled! with social things that are very nice but mean I'm not writing. Sunday is too late to start. I have to start tonight, except OW.
I have a friend coming over to cook "experimental recipe" dinner for us, which is awesome, and at least means ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) jingsaw will be entertained while I either a) work or b) hide in a hot bath for an hour.
I may leave work early. It's bad enough I may want to work from home the rest of the day and call into my meetings.
GRRRRRRRRRRRRARGH.
But not so bad I can't drive. I just can't, say, drive and carry on a conversation, or drive and simultaneously think about anything creative or spatially complex.
--
Lunch and lots of stretching and more painkillers have lessened the intensity but not removed the problem. I will at least stay for my 1:00 meeting since we need to use my laptop for it, but then I think I need to bolt. |
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| Hollywood North |
[Nov. 6th, 2009|08:45 am] |
I happened to be near Park Street last night, and there was a crowd around a Dunkin Donuts there, where Ben Affleck was inside filming The Town. There were crowds of people trying to see inside to spot the stars, but I wandered over to the side and watched the crew and started looking at all the equipment, trying to see if I could learn anything new. I had a nice chat with a wardrobe woman -- there were extras in the scene just walking past the window outside the shot, but since the movie is set in the summer, they kept having to take their coats off and try not to shiver too badly as they walked past.
I started looking at some boxes of lighting equipment, and when a gaffer came by I got to ask him about the drawer marked "magic gadgets". (Turns out it's a company that makes dimmers.) I got points with him for correctly identifying (and pronouncing) a Fresnell lamp, so after that he made a point of telling me what the other lamps he was working on were. And he showed me the "C-47"s he used to hold a gel on a lamp, very technical devices that I've always known as clothespins. Had a nice long chat with a grip who was local to here, and with a very friendly cameraman from LA, who's worked with the DP (Robert Elswit, who just won an Oscar for There Will Be Blood), on many films now. He was really great about telling me about cameras and showing me some of the functions on his.
I spent a while looking at a table full of cases that I inferred contained film; they were marked by length in feet, and I wondered why you would want different lengths, instead of always using the longest possible. But when I asked someone wandering by, he explained that if you're doing a shot in a car and space is limited, you're using a different camera and you want to use the 200' reel to keep things small. If you're using a steadycam, you might choose the 400' reel, so it's not too heavy. And the 1000' reel is only 10 minutes worth, although I don't think you see a lot of shots that long in a movie. Still, I never realized how many reels they must go through! I assumed you'd do many shots on one reel of film.
I stayed until the wrapped the shot, and watched as they went into what is usually a real Dunkin' Donuts and started tearing it apart -- changing out the posters on the wall, but mostly taking down ceiling panels and taking out the huge cables and electrical equipment they had hidden up there to keep it out of the shots. When I had first arrived at the location, I noticed how many cables there were in the streets, and followed them around the block to a portable generator -- I can't even imagine how much electricity everything used, especially the ginormous lights they had set up on lifts out across the street shining in to the Dunkin Donuts.
Anyway. Very nifty night, and if you come across them filming anywhere, as long as you stay out of the way and are respectful, are are clearly not star-hunting, most of the crew seems happy to answer questions. I highly recommend poking around a bit, there's a lot to learn!
Oh, and Ben Affleck was there inside the Dunkie's, but I did not see him. I could have -- plenty of people walked past and peeked in between shots, or stood in just the right spot across the street to get a peek -- and I briefly thought about it, but decided I just didn't care that much. I already know what he looks like, what's the point? And keeping the respect of the crew was much more important to me. Not that there aren't celebs I would go out of my way to catch a glimpse of, but Ben just didn't seem to be one last night. |
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| Now that's just peculiar. |
[Nov. 5th, 2009|07:10 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | checking... no, not converted | ] |
Somebody has mailed at the very least everybody on my street - conceivably everybody in town - a copy of the noted 1858 work of Seventh-Day Adventist proselyte propaganda The Great Controversy. You know the sort of thing, I'm sure - a strangely-reasoned and curiously-worded document which purports to illustration, through quotations from some edition or another of the Bible, that the U.S. Department of the Interior are minions of Satan and that Jesus is watching you think about how much you'd like to punch your neighbor in the middle of his face. I may have the specific details wrong there, but you get the idea.
( Here's a bit more flavor if you need it. )
It has to be condeded that this is not a very well-produced little volume - the cover illustration seems to have been done by an unattended copy of Photoshop and the interior pages are printed on what appears to be newsprint, giving the whole production a singular air of flimsiness - but even so, it can't have been cheap to mail a copy to each street address in however large an area they chose. (And it was street addresses, not persons - they're addressed to Resident and Mom got two, because her house technically takes up two numbers on our street, 43 and 45.) This is especially odd when you consider that, as far as I am aware, there isn't a Seventh-Day Adventist church in Millinocket. I think the nearest one is over in Lincoln. So if they're on some kind of recruiting drive they're a bit barking up the wrong tree anyway.
Now, if you happen to be reading this and you are a Seventh-Day Adventist, you may have gotten the impression that I'm mocking one of the core volumes of your faith's theology. And... uh, well, I am rather. Sorry. If it makes you feel any less downtrodden, I'm hardly singling your denomination out - if the Mormons, say, or Temple Beth Abraham in Bangor, or the Catholic Diocese of Portland had mailed me something as preposterous as this I'd be riffing on them today instead. I find myself gripped with a mixture of incredulity and dismay whenever I'm presented with evidence that people still believe with apparent sincerity in such almost willfully quaint notions as a wholly non-metaphorical invisible war between the supernatural archetypes of good and evil taking place in the Material World's Corridors of Power. That's a live roleplaying game plot, not something to take seriously at the very heart of one's being in the year 2009. |
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| Just FYI, rest-of-world? |
[Nov. 5th, 2009|03:07 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | enough already, jeez | ] |
Maine, as an aggregate entity, does not care that you're Very Disappointed In It. |
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| Deluxe Town Diner - $ |
[Nov. 4th, 2009|08:04 pm] |
The Deluxe Town Diner, it's a favorite. Tonight, it was where eclecticavitar and I went for dinner (they're open until 10pm). Yes, the sweet potato fries are great. And I still love their Apple-Curry Turkey Burger. But tonight I was in the mood for a tuna melt - with Cheddar, for the record. I had it with the Sweet Potato fries and a pot of Roibois tea. It was perfect, in my opinon. It wasn't too fishy tasting and had just the right amount of mayo. In fact, even the way it spilled out from between the bread and the crispiness of the whole wheat bread, itself, was exactly the way I like it.
eclectiavitar had the chocolate chip pancakes (breakfast served all day) and a coke and we each walked away overly full and full of smiles and our bill was under $26.
It's a great diner for vegitarians and omnivores alike and has some lovely and unusual foods (for a diner) that means just about ANYONE can find SOMETHING to eat.
Just say yes. |
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