Calgary trip, Sunday

Here it is Saturday afternoon and I am on a United Airlines plane bound for Calgary, Alberta. I lucked out and got an empty seat next to me, so I can stretch out and have a wee bit of privacy.

The weekend was spent packing mostly, or involved with otherwise mundane activities, but on Saturday my brother came out for our informal movie night, and we watched the latest Alien vs. Predator (not bad for its genre) and one called He Was A Quiet Man with Christian Slater, which was surprisingly good. The main character reminded me of the guy from Office Space whose desk was constantly moved, eventually down to the basement, and who had his red Swingline stapler stolen. Only instead of burning the office building down, he brought a gun with him everyday to work and imagined blowing the building up. Anyway, it was an interesting exploration into the ability of people to change and I would recommend it.  Also, the special features include alternate endings!

And now here I am, with two hours to go on this flight, a charge of 66% on the laptop, a Layers magazine, two sci-fi books, and some ice water.

——-

Wrote that first bit on the plane.  Now I’m tucked into the hotel, and deciding what to do with the rest of the night.  I took a few pictures with my berry, which have been posted over at Flickr.  Here’s a few highlights…

The smoking ban in Calgary is apparently more stringent than Chicago’s. One of the few smoking areas outside the airport was covered with signs, and accompanying “graffiti”, like this one:

Interesting, since I work for said industry.   There are a bunch more in the Flickr set.

Also, here’s my room at the Westin:

Again, more pics in the Flickr set.

Alrighty, now I am off to figure out what to do with my free evening.  Love to all.

P.S.  Radiantreader - got your message, meant to call back, got busy, etc.   Let’s hang out when I get back ok?

I AM NOT Iron Man

Last night, we went to see Iron Man, and it was excellent. A few plot holes here, a few logical inconsistencies there, but the acting, effects, and story were top-notch. And of course, it was filled with neat technology, including Tony Stark(Iron Man)’s high-tech house. This movie made me want to be a genius, a millionaire, and a super-hero, all wrapped into one.

Perhaps I’ll remark later… I actually have to do some work right now!

Wednesday afternoon

Yesterday we had anticipated spending the afternoon/evening babysitting my cousin’s kids, but as it turned out, we didn’t have to (as much as we loving having 4 children running amok at our house).  This is one of those little joys, like finding a bag of Doritos that still has chips in it, or finding some money in the pocket of your jeans that you didn’t know was there.  Joy!

I should have been more sympathetic about it (we weren’t watching them because one of them was vomiting) but I’m still moving beyond my sociopathic tendencies and just didn’t have it in me.

Anyway, the husband and I spent the afternoon sitting on the deck, chatting about wedding plans, while the boys played with their foam swords in the front yard with the only nice neighborhood kid.  We had a nutritious dinner of White Castles (note:  skip the french onion, bacon, cheese… only the plain sliders will do) and then settled in for a movie.

We watched Casino Royale, rated PG-13, with the boys.  Both they and we enjoyed it immensely.  There was one kissing scene where the Bond girl was starting to kiss a little too far down, but it was momentary and ended without the boys being traumatized by it too badly.  Besides that, it was filled with action, but nothing too gory.  I loved watching the young Bond become the Bond we know and love.

Whenever I watch movies like this, it makes me want to train to be a super-spy (or superhero in the case of Batman Begins).  If Bond can do it, why can’t I? 

So, tonight, another small joy… I went to pick up the boys and was told they were spending the night.  My dear hubby is at work, so I am confronted with an evening of freedom.  I’m never entirely sure what to do with this time once it is surprisingly presented, so we’ll see what happens.

Link of the day: Foreign Language Podcasts

saturday morning

The last day of my trip was spent slightly sleeping in, leisurely enjoying a breakfast buffet, taking a limo to the airport, and wandering around the Orlando airport forever.  On a whim, I decided to get a haircut (warning:  airport haircuts are prohibitively expensive!), which could only be scheduled for noon (flight was at 1:20).  I barely got it done and made it through security and onto the plane, being the last one to board.

On my flight down, I had the back three seats all to myself.  On this one, I was squished between two big guys.  Dozed most of the way home.

Got my bags and went out to my company pre-paid limo, which turned out to be some rusty, matte black 1980’s model, driven by a white haired, bearded guy in a sweatshirt and jeans.  Not terribly classy, but I guess I can’t complain.

Got home, said hello to my love for a few minutes before he had to work.  Took the boys out to Golden Corral (they love buffets).  Once back at home, we worked on a set of Snap Electronics that we had gotten last week at American Science and Surplus.

Yesterday was a cleaning day - got the whole yard cleaned up (who knew how much stuff had been under that snow) and the deck as well.  In the evening, my brother came over for Movie Night and we watched No Country For Old Men and Hitman.  

No Country For Old Men had good imagery, interesting characters, and enough plot to keep us going, but left us wanting with the ending.  Hitman, also, was just not doing it for us, as much as we enjoyed the video game.   We also got Dan in Real Life but didn’t get to see it yet.

Today:  cleaning and cooking for an impromptu St. Patrick’s Day shin-dig.  More to come.

Top Dystopian Movies & Novels

Top Ten Dystopian Movies You Haven’t Seen

I’ve only seen A Boy and His Dog and it was a long long time ago. Added the rest to the queue (of those available!)

addition 3/12/2008

Top 12 Dystopian Novels

Some overlap between the novels and the movies, but here’s this list (those I have read are bolded and those I’ve seen the movie version of are italicized):

1. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
2. Handmaid’s Tale (Atwood)
3. Neuromancer (Gibson)
4. Iron Heel (London)
5. Running Man (King)
6. Armageddon’s Children (Brooks)
7. The Chrysalids (Wyndham)
8. The Children of Men (James)
9. The Time Machine (Wells)
10. 1984 (Orwell)
11. Fahrenheit 451 (Bradbury)
12. Brave New World (Huxley)
    

See also:
20 Science Fiction Novels that Will Change Your Life