That’s funny, both my 1+-year relationships have begun online. Not to say that either was a fantastic idea, I ‘spose.
All my fantastic ideas have begun online.
Happy first morning of work in ’07, dudes.
Same here.
Feels really weird, though. Half the office is still out, and I have nothing to do. I was amped for work this morning, then... blah.
I’m bald?
Hi jon.
Not yet.
Half the office is still out, and I have nothing to do. I was amped for work this morning, then... blah.
Exactly
Dan, I saw a van with yooper bumper stickers and Texas plates, please explain?
The constitutional right to unhindered interstate travel, I’d wager.
Could have been my friend’s older brother, he lives in TX. Dunno if he drives a van though.
But really, we get around, so it could have been anything. That and people seem to like to go up there to vacation a lot. Silly tourista fudgies!
Also, I have a yooper bumpersticker and IL plates, which causes more consternation among certan UP folx than most people would expect.
On my flight out of GR I was seated next to a nice young woman from Manistique who now lives in upper Mass = you people DO get around!
ok fuck this. I’m taking a loooong lunch, starting... now.
Man, the managers here are ASSHATS. They’ve managed to piss off the professional society whose journals we publish to the point that they’re (the society) issuing an RFP to see if they can get a better deal from other publishing houses. This is what we get for treating an ostensible non-profit like a profit-maximizing monetization machine. THANX DUDES
I am swamped. The upside is that it’s almost lunchtime.
What I meant to start out with was... HELLO! HAPPY NEW YEAR! WOO HOO! * streamers *
happy new year, Chicago! just got back into town last night!
I don’t really like 2-person movies as much as others. I’ll have to think about this further, but it may be b/c in order to make up for the variety of voices they tend to have overly-clever dialogue and restless cinematography. They make me wish I was watching a play instead of a movie.
While it’s on my mind I would like to express my utter disgust with The Goodbye Girl and Sportsnight. Their snappy, lively, witty dialogue arouses in me the urge to kill.
oh, Jesse. you’re, like, the anti-me. I love overly-clever dialogue. and Sports Night. I suspect I would dislike The Goodbye Girl, though, because isn’t Richard Dreyfuss in it?
yes, that Sports Night. though, to be fair, overly-clever dialogue can be godawful, viz. everything else Aaron Sorkin has ever done.
Yes, that show.
See I kind of liked The West Wing for the first few seasons but I have never met anyone (ok, check that: one person who was just a giant sports nut, and now you) who honestly liked Sports Night. Just thought it a little odd, but to each their own when it comes to bad TV. (for example, I watched several episodes of Heroes last night)
Sports Night is not bad tv! I mean business! I was under the impression that no one liked it because no one actually watched it.
I like bad TV, too, but Sports Night is not it.
Fans of two-person movies should rent Conversations with Other Women when it comes to DVD. I thought it was fantastic, one of my favorite films of this year, with strong performances from Helena Bonham Carter and Aaron Eckhart, engaging in clever, flirtatious back-and-forths for 80 minutes.
I never saw Sports Night, but I was under the impression that it was a lamented classic that never got the ratings it deserved, a la Arrested Development.
Sports Night is not about sports.
I would guess that people could defend SN by saying it was “intelligent” etc, so I would think it doesn’t fit into the generally-accepted canon of Bad TV. But it defines bad entertainment for me.
how I defend SN (I guess this is of interest to nobody except maybe Jesse, so sorry everyone!):
it did a really good job of drawing out complex and indidvidual relationships between each of its characters and everybody else. it drew a social picture really well and remained more or less faithful to it. I admit, though, that I dig super-mannered dialogue and I get why many people don’t.
uh, I meant “individual”
I am not arguing about what constitutes bad TV on the internet :)
xpost: west wing did that too, at least at first
My ex would not shut up about Sports Night, Goodbye Girl, and All in the Family, all of which I dearly hate and which are now evidence of how it could never work between us.
xpost—I haven’t seen SN since ’01 so my critique (beyond “hated it”) will be pretty flimsy, but I suppose I didn’t like the way it dealt with relationships because it used really broad strokes and the writers cared more about hearing their own voices than giving the characters’ their own. Yeh, I think that covers it— Goodbye Girl and SN are like watching a puppet show.
Dinner with Andre
I liked Sports Night, but every subsequent Sorkin show I’ve seen has annoyed me. Go figure.
The reason I even brought this up is that Hard Candy was in the same vein—the characters were not believable because they were way too exaggerated, especially the girl. The problem was that it was hard enough to buy that this girl could be so cunning and smart, but impossible when her dialogue and acting did nothing to betray the fact that she was 14 y.o. I would have probably really liked it if that had been corrected and she had been made to seem like a child putting on being an adult. As it stands, the only reason I have to believe that she is 14 is that it’s stated. It reminded me of The Good Son in that way.
it used really broad strokes
agree to disagree.
the writers cared more about hearing their own voices than giving the characters’ their own
anyone on a Sorkin show speaks Sorkin, so that’s fair. I do think there were character-appropriate variations in Sports Night, but, like I said, I do get why people dislike his stuff. I get it a lot better after latter-day West Wing and fucking Studio 60.
xpost: omg, Jordan, you and I are totally alone on this SN superiority!
I love My Dinner with Andre.
Sayjal is pimping the FF through email.
I should watch the WW, this might work better in drama.
xp first four seasons are fucking solid imo
There’s a character on there who I’m told I resemble. Press secretary?
she’s the greatest, Jesse! CJ, played by Allison Janney. best Sorkin character ever, probably.
I’m guessing it’s probably this dude:
No, no. It’s a man who wears glasses.
Yes, him. And now that I see that picutre, I’m reeealy not happy.
Dude’s character was a total shithead too.
During his tenure on The West Wing, Malina was known to the rest of the cast as a tireless prankster. It is said he coated telephones with Vaseline and reset producer Alex Grave’s iPod menus to Mandarin Chinese. It is also said he stole some of Bradley Whitford’s letterhead stationary and used it in an elaborate prank.
How come actors are always pulling pranks? Makes for good talk-show fodder?
oh, right. that actor was great on Sports Night, but I wasn’t watching West Wing anymore when he arrived.
just chiming in to agree on sorkin mostly sucking except for sports night. i loved that show.
xxp i’ve only seen pics of you, jesse, but you don’t look anything like that actor to me. (he was jeremy on SN too)
Wikipedia says he has been in every project Sorkin has ever done, including A Few Good Men on stage.
xpost People pull pranks at work all the time.
Something that people do when they’re forced to be in close proximity for long periods of time? I pulled all kinds of jokes (and had them pulled on me) when I worked at the restaurant.
xpost and what jesse said
xpost People pull pranks at work in restaurants all the time.
fixed
Not only there, but the environment does breed that sort of thing on a larger scale.
Yeh, the restaurant world is full of pranks. My favorites have involved our VIP Tickets that the waiters get for special requests, VIPs, etc. I got one that said, “Table 107—Free Dessert—He’s asking for a divorce tonight.”
One other guy got one that said “Free Dessert—He’s coming out to his parents.”
Is it okay to bring a cat in a cab if you put the cat in a carrier? Will anybody pick you up?
Yeah, I’ve never worked in a restaurant.
I guess there were maybe a couple pranks pulled during my theatre days, but I don’t really remember much apart from the “I Love Jesus” bandit.
Also, ILX, which is cuter:
Adorable Francie all curled up and sweet in a little wee basket:
Or ding dong Brenda in a dumb wine box:
Whoops, here is Brenda:
P@xson says that if she is trying to get a cab when she has a dog she hides the dog a little and then bustles in with her. Try that.
I’m kind of partial to ding dong Brenda.
Sorry Brenda pwns.
Which is awsomer: a neurotic cat in a basket or ..... whatever is going on here?
That’s what I was thinking. Maybe throw a towel over the carrier so by the time the driver figures it out, we’re already on the way. Since Sample gets doped up for vet apts. she should be fairly quiet.
XPOST WRONG.
Favorite prank on servers ever: duct taping all salt and pepper shakers together in one long strand and strategically placing them back on the shelf inconspicuously
xpost: I like Francie because shorthair > longhair
You oversold the Francie. You should have gone with the sympathy vote.
OH yeah haterz? Check this out:
Waaaaaay better than Brenda.
What was going on with the lobster again? Did you bring one home for dinner?
The presence of unattractive technology and lightswitch in the back is kind of detracting from the CUET in Francie pic, whereas everything in Brenda photo is quaint and unobtrusive. Francie looks like a better cat, though. LOBSTER PIC IS GENIUS.
We’re judging cats, not photo quality. The light switch is part of the real life fun because when I reach in to turn the light on, sometimes I accidentally jab Francie and she says, “Mrrprprprrrrmmwwwwmwmw???”
The lobster is from the Viet-seafood place on ARgyle. I ate him.
But it’s true that you wouldn’t know about Francie’s amazing light switch alarm capabilities from the pic. Anyway, here is this:
Is that Orpheus?
my cousin’s children are cuter
no, orpheus has great disdain for cameras. just a silly pic of a black cat.
Brenda staring down the barrel of a .22.
Damn, I was going to say: Julia’s cat has a strawberry house, therefore she wins.
XP: Brenda’s not very bright, is she.
Granted, it’s only a .22, but Brenda is cuet AND bad-ass.
A shaved Brenda staring down the barrel of a .22. If anyone is deserving of a sympathy vote here, it’s poor CPO Brenda Waterbed.
Jesse, you have a gun? Wild.
No, that’s my father’s gun.
there’s fluffybutt, who is usually not very photogenic either.
That’s a cute pic, though!
Here’s one more of Sample looking very Sample-like:
...
Okay one more:
Sample looks very much like Jonesy
Wait. One more because it’s a good shot of Ed’s sad face:
Sample’s my main homey.
Hey, that’s a great photo.
Okay, I like EdChair!
That just looks really cozy. The colors are really cool but the content is warm and homey, plus the soft-focus effect of the window in back all make for a great pic.
hubcap is getting surgery today. a tumor removal. all these photos are making me wish the vet would call & say everything is okay.
oh, sorry to hear it. i hope hubcap is okay.
thanks, julia.
sorry to whine in the midst of so much cuteness!
Awwww... Sample...
Ed doesn’t look that sad in the tv pic.
Kels, I hope hubcap is ok! Does he have regular vet checkups or did you feel a lump?
I think Kenny rooting around in my sock drawer is a contender for cutest pic.
Kelsey, I’m so sorry about Hubcap! I will send out positive thoughts to the little guy.
Kenny is too sharp to be cute.