Jimbo's Journal

Tonight is one of the LoA meetings. I have been waffling all night about whether (weather) to go or not. It's snowing like a sumbitch out there, but the place is only about a mile away. I decided that I would not use the weather as an excuse and go. So I got my coat on and went outside to get my car out of the garage and..... Holy crap! it's a lot worse than it even looked from out the window. I bet we have 2-3 inches already. Back inside. Not going. They haven't plowed the lot or anything, and I just don't feel like driving in this. Excuse? Maybe. Oh well.

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Oh, and I got half of my order in the mail from Amazon. A realty book for my cousin and ....

Ok, not yet, but it is just around the corner.  That means it's time for my 4th Annual Groundhog Day party (4th?  wow!)  I'm putting this out there early both so that people know about it and to force myself to get off my lazy ass and REALLY clean my place up.  (Wish me luck!)  Anyway, this year it falls on Monday, so the Woodstock events (and thus mine) fall the Saturday before, January 31st.

As usual, we will privately screen a showing of Groundhog Day (read: watch my DVD copy) and possibly other movies while partaking in food and conversation and general merriment.  If anyone is interested, and if the weather is not is characteristically FRIGID temperature, we can take the walking tour (highlighted below) or I could even probably do it myself at a different time.  The Movie Symposium also sounds interesting, but I have no idea what it entails - I've never gone to it.  The 10am FREE showing at the town theater (as featured in the film) is quite enjoyable, but it is ALWAYS packed and usually too early for people to make it out here.  You're welcome to come out, though.  If any other event (Saturday or other) sounds interesting, just let me know.

I may request that some people volunteer to bring some sort of dish or beverage to pass, so as to take some of the stress off of myself, but I haven't decided on anything yet. 

As before, ANYONE reading this post is welcome to attend, but I would appreciate some sort of acknowlegement or confirmation beforehand, even if it's just a "maybe."

More to come later.

The Official City Events

January 31 – Saturday: “the movie, 10:00 am, free.
Compliments of Classic Cinemas Woodstock Theater, 209Main St; 815-338-8555
Groundhog Tales, Storytelling with Jim May at Home
State Bank, 124 S Johnson St; 10:00 am, 815-338-2000
Chili Cook-Off, Noon – 1:00 pm in the Woodstock Opera
House Sponsored by Jones Country Meats, Nierman
Landscape & Design and Starbucks Coffee
Wood Carving Demonstration, Noon on the Square
Walking Tour of filming sites, 1:30 pm meet at Stage Left
Café, Woodstock Opera House. Plaque recognition of
“Gobbler’s Knob” southwest corner of the Woodstock
Square Park 
  “Groundhog Day” Movie Symposium, 3:00-4:00 pm,
Stage Left Café, Woodstock Opera House
Woodstock Willie Goofy Bowling, Wayne’s City
Lanes,109 Church St. Registration at 6:30 pm, bowling at
7:00 pm, limited tickets available: on sale at Chamber of
Commerce, and Woodstock Public Library, $15 includes 3
games, shoes and prizes. Sponsored by Woodstock Moose
Lodge, 815-338-0126
District 200 Groundhog Days Event – Watch for an
upcoming announcement from the D-200 Education
Foundation 815-338-8200

I've been pretty outspoken about my HATRED of medical insurance companies in the past. I still haven't resolved my bill for the procedure that I had in October and expect that situation to eventually (then rapidly) deteriorate. I regularly worry about it. I also avoid medical attention that I probably need, like possible high blood pressure revealed in my last eye exam and hbp in general. My parents are currently unemployed. (Actually my mom just got a job for $9/hr at a bank last week.) My mom has hbp, and my dad has had a heart attack (or is it two? - I feel totally shitty for not knowing) and has (my "professional diagnosis") some sort of stress or anxiety problem and/or allergy. Needless to say, they have no health care. My uncle in Seattle just had a (minor?) heart attack, and he is apparently progressing well. I have no idea as to his insurance status, but I think he works for the post office.

I know that Michael Moore has a definite "liberal agenda" and that he may stretch the truth and/or be selective in his use of material. But I really believe that his heart is in the right place. I tried to watch Sicko from an objective viewpoint. When the film got political or Moore got a bit preachy, I tuned out a bit and didn't take things at face value. The stories of these people in the movie are just SO moving though.

• A man who accidentally cut off the tips of two fingers and had to choose between reattaching the middle finger for $60,000 or the ring finger for $12,000.
  
• A man who had three heart attacks and his wife got cancer and they had to move in with their daughter whose husband had to take a job as a plumber in Iraq.
  
• A woman who was in a headon collision whose ambulance ride wasn't covered because she didn't get it preapproved.
  
• A boy not covered because he's too thin (6' / 135lb); a girl not covered because she's too fat(5'1" / 175lb)
  
• An insurance customer service woman driven to grief and stress from falsely assuring people while knowing that claims or applications will be rejected.
• An HMO doctor states that they get bonuses for denying care and saving the company from a "medical loss."
  
• A former insurance medical reviewer who confessed before congress to causing a man's death by denying care in order to save the company $500,000 and incidentally to secure her position and status.

The examples go on and on. And that doesn't even scratch the surface.  I was in tears listening to some of these stories, tears of anger and of sadness ... and disgust. Along with many other things, but probably MORE than any other thing, this makes me feel like I want to move out of this country. 

After work I stopped at Barnes & Noble.  I bought a new copy of Dracula, a leatherbound edition of Poe*, and a mini hardcover copy of The US Constitution/Declaration of Independence/Articles of Confederation.  

Then I hopped over to Best Buy to pick up Family Guy's Blue Harvest DVD. 

*I can't find the exact Poe book or a pic on the B&N site, which is a shame because it is a really nicely designed cover.  It looks beautiful.

I finally purchased the DVD of Fred Saberhagen's .... Francis Ford Coppola's .... err, I mean Bram Stoker's Dracula.  Many of you have probably heard me drone on about how much I both love and hate this movie.  I had told myself that I'd buy it if they came out with a DVD with some decent special features instead of the bare bones version which had only been available up until now.  Well, they finally did, so I bought it.  I don't know when I'll get around to watching it, though.  

I also picked up The Bourne Ultimatum.  I may go pick up Family Guy's Blue Harvest this evening.

Friday, after work I went to a few stores looking for a couple things for my condo.  I didn't find them, but I wound up buying four DVDs at Target: U-571, Cast Away, Desperado, and The Ninth Gate for $5.50ea.

Saturday I went to see Harry Potter.  I enjoyed it quite a bit.  It is pretty dark, which is a good thing in my book.  I plan on reading the book again (maybe next, after I finish Slaughterhouse Five), since I don't remember much about it.  I seem to be hearing a good number of people complaining that the movie strays too far from the book.  This is a complaint that I am rapidly getting tired of.  It ISN'T the book.  If you want the EXACT book, then read the book.  I also watched a finished Angel Season 2. One word: FRED!

Sunday, I watched Monser House.  I liked it a lot.  It is very well made, and actually a good solid story and somewhat creepy.  I also watched the original Battlestar Galactica movie.  I found some parts much better than I expected and other parts worse.  It was fun to see characters with the same names as the new show, but COMPLETELY different: Athena, for example.  There were also maybe a couple "subplots" which were brought back and used in the new show, such as the religious zealots voicing objections to the prostitute (amusingly called a "Socialator" in the original series; new episode=2.14 Black Market?).  

Then I tried to update my wireless router and wound up losing my internet connection capability.  I haven't figured out what went wrong or how to fix it yet, if I need to buy new hardware, etc.

I finished A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire Book 3) last night.  Incredible book.  So much shocking stuff happened which I won't get into because drmagoo hasn't read it yet.  It slows down a bit at the end, but ... still.... WOW!  On to Book 4: A Feast for Crows.  This one is much shorter at only 700+ pages as opposed to Book 3's 900+ pages.  I haven't even started Book 4 and I'm already craving Book 5 which isn't out yet (I don't think).

I bought and watched Pirates 2: Dead Man's Chest last night so that I could be ready for Pirates 3: At World's End.  I think I actually liked it much better this second time than when I saw it in the theater.  I think my expectations were so high that I felt a bit let down, so I'm trying to avoid that this time ..... which is hard because the trailer for P3 looks SO FRICKIN' AWESOME!!!!!!  *sigh*  So, yes, I still think P1 was better than P2, but that's OK.  (Topic of ranking episodes of trilogies to be discussed later ... or at TUS).

I had a dream last night that I got a second cat.  My neighbor had brought me a cat claiming that it was my Kahlua's mother (which would essentially be impossible to know).  It was a stray, but not the stray that had been in the building last week.  This one was mostly white with some grey on the extremities (ears, face, paws, tail, etc) and most of her ears were missing (from fighting?) - I don't know if that signifies something.  She seemed to get along very well with Kahlua.  As I've said before, I would like another cat, but I don't think now is a great time for one for various reasons ..... but, of course, this makes me start thinking about it again

OMG!!!  This episode (two parts) had it all:  Back story on Angel, Buffy's enlistment as a Slayer (with Richard Riehle taking on the role Donald Sutherland played in the movie*), Buffy's mom learning the truth, Spike bcoming "good" (or at least helping by becoming the enemy of Buffy's enemy), Oz, Willow's first (?) brush with witchcraft, Drusilla being awesome (I'm really starting to like her character after a bumpy start), some very touching scenes between combinations of Willow, Xander, Cordelia, and Oz, Principal Snider expelling Buffy (on orders from the mayor, whom I hear is one kick ass villain in season three - but don't spoil anything for me), a "good" demon named Whistler (is this a theme in vampire lore that I didn't know about?), an appearance from gorgeous former Sunnydale High teacher Jenny Calendar (of sorts) ........   Some good one-liners, also, including referring to the petrified demon named Acathla as Alfalfa and Al Franken.

All that and I'm sure that I am forgetting something.  Damn, I can't wait for Season 3!!!!

Now I'm off to play the new PS2 game I just bought: Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds




*Do any of these scenes coincide with the Kristy Swanson movie?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Episode 2.11 - TED

John Ritter plays Buffy's mom's boyfriend.  Everyone seems to take an instant liking to him  (and his cooking, why is that?) except Buffy.  As it turns out, he isn't wired quite right.

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I've been thinking about reviewing some Buffy episodes (much like terani has been doing for ST:TNG). I doubt I'll be consistent about it, but I quite liked this episode and the fact that John Ritter played such a great character - asshole that he was. Anyhoo, I found myself yelling "Fuck you, John Ritter!"* at the TV frequently .... which was its own sort of entertainment. 


And I'm quite fond of the Mutant Enemy signoff (also at the end of each Firefly episode).

*Yeah, I know he's dead.  Not meant to be insulting, but more of an homage to him and his acting.


GRR!  ARRGH!!

OK, I remembered that this show kicked ass - that's why I bought it.  But I had forgotten HOW MUCH it kicked ass!  I've watched 11 of the 16 episodes now.  It's great how each episode can stand alone, but little things carry over from earlier episodes - themes, subplots, characters.  Simon and River just returned to the Alliance's hospital diagnostic center and River is beginning to ..... "show her true self" - as Shan Yu would say.

"No power in the verse can stop me!"

Check that!
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

So, I got a Best Buy Reward Zone coupon in my email last night for $5.  I decided to stop off after work.  It was immediately after I walked in the door that I noticed the kiosk marked $5 - $22 OFF.  Nothing jumped out at me on the front side of the shelf, but when I walked around to the other side .... I saw it ...... calling out to me....... FIREFLY.  Now I've put off this purchase for many months and many reasons:  I'm not likely to watch too many entire TV shows multiple times; it was more expensive than ... well, than I would like; it went on sale during Christmas, but, still heeding my mom's rules, I didn't buy it because it was on my Christmas/Birthday list and someone may have bought it for me (they didn't!)  So I pick it up and the only price sticker on it is $40.99.  With my luck this one will only be $5 OFF (at Christmas it had gone down to about $25, IIRC), which is still more than I want to pay.  

So I take it up to the register to have them scan the price and ........$19.99!!!! 


That's right $19.99!  Can't nobody pass that up!  So now I can watch the entire show over again and follow it up with Serenity.  I'm psyched.

Oh, and I also picked up The Skeleton Key for $7.50.  

Total = $23.95

Nice!

I just watched Bill Maher's New Rules.  It is a compilation of (all?) the New Rules segments from his shows for three seasons.  I don't get HBO, so I haven't seen the show, but I used to enjoy Bill Maher quite a bit.  Anyway, I was guffawing loudly quite a bit.  He rips on everything from cell phones in movies to pop-up ads to fast food restaurants to ..... politics, of course.

I think my favorite one was:

"Stop saying anybody or anything is like the Nazis!  Republicans aren't like the Nazis.  Even neo-Nazis aren't like the Nazis!  NOTHING is like the Nazis .............. except for Wal-Mart!"

If you like Maher's dry wit, you'll enjoy this a lot.

.......





His "compromise" for the issue of same-sex marriage: "It's ok to be gay if you are already gay ..... but no new gays!"

or

"Let gays marry, but come out against gay mortgages!"

"In America, when a man puts something in another man, it had better be a bullet!"