1. He was illiterate until the age of 30, when he taught himself to read by studying film scripts.
2. Bishop.
3. Lance only acts on the side: he's also an accomplished painter and ceramicist!
4. Other than Bill Paxton, he's the only actor to fight a Terminator, an Alien, and a Predator.
5. Bishop.
6. "Tilting at windmills is not a bad thing because, as Cervantes said, you can either get thrown into the mud or up into the stars. It's the risk we really all should be taking."
7. His father was a part-time boxer and merchant marine named "Icewater".
8. Appeared in both The Pit and the Pendulum and Super Mario Brothers, The Movie.
9. Bishop.
10. Frank Black + Temperance Brennan. Good crime fighting team, or the best crime fighting team?

There is a very real possibility that I need to stop watching quite so much Millennium.

With my 30th birthday coming up, and the schedule getting a little hectic, Catherine suggested that we have a night out to celebrate on the weekend. We got together with Jason and Steph, had a yummy dinner, and caught a showing of Stardust.

I was pleasantly startled. The book was one of my favorites, a Gaiman story that nailed the sing-song rhythm of oldschool fairy tale, and the plot tied things together perfectly in a "happy ever after" twist. The film was faithful to the book and came together like a hip, 20th century Princess Bride with better pacing and better jokes. Big recommendation to anyone who's thinking about seeing it.

After the movie we hung out for a while, ate birthday cake, laughed, and talked. It came out in conversation that I have a box of random gummi things (moustaches, band-aids, pizzas, etc.) sent to me by the fine folks at Predicate -- Jason immediately asked why I hadn't yet conducted the road tests of these products that were so clearly needed, and... well, before anyone really knew what was going on, we'd all bundled up off to the office and were documenting the discovery process with... Gummi Moustaches.

I don't think anything else really needs to be said. Catherine and Steph played Guitar Hero II while Jason and I did Wrong Things with Gummi, and a good time was had by all. Verdict? Huzzah! A great and relaxing weekend. But... yeah, gummi moustaches are vile.

PatientFox from #predicate pointed us to the script for Clockers, a proposed steampunk remake of the cringe-inducingly dated Hackers. Is it wrong that I really, really want to see it now?

JUDGE

Daedelus Murphy, I hereby fine you one thousand pounds sterling.

Gasps from the crowd.

Should you be unable to summon sufficient funds, you or your
surrogate will be sentenced to debtors' prison until such time
as he has repaid it in full. In addition, you are prohibited from
owning or operating a wrench, geartrain, pocketwatch or clock of
any kind so long as you reside within this county.

GAVEL.

Whew. This Friday, with the (massive) help of friends and loved ones, Catherine and I moved out of my old bachelor apartment into a faaabulous new place in scenic Batavia. It's a house that's been converted into two apartments -- one on either side, each with an upstairs and a downstairs -- and I love it dearly.

We're still buried in boxes, we have a daring bring-the-bed-through-a-window project slated for 1PM today, and I'm only online because someone left a wifi network unsecured a few houses away... but oh, what a wonderful place. Old, well-established trees, well-maintained historic houses... I'll have to post pictures soon.

In other news, we took a break from unpacking to see Flight Plan last night. I think the lesson to be learned is this: If you are a criminal, and your plan involves Jodie Foster and her daughter in any way, just go home. Give up. Start work on a new and better plan, because the game is over. Sorry! Panic Room? Flight Plan? Two times makes a pattern. That said, while I was able to find holes in the plot after the fact, the movie really was emotionally gut-wrenching. Good flick.

Also... I really need to figure out what box I packed all my pants in.

Woody Allen Your film will be 75% romantic, 37% comedy, 25% complex plot, and a $ 38 million budget.
Be prepared to have your life story shot entirely in New York City --
though lately Woody's been loving shooting in London. Also, your music
soundtrack is all jazz from before 1949. Filmography: Annie Hall,
Manhattan, Stardust Memories, Everyone Says I Love You, etc. Woody has
released one film per year consistently for the past 35 years. For the
past 15 years he's been trying to make films like his older, funnier
ones, just like characters in his Stardust Memories film suggest
throughout. Regardless of his personal life, his films are American
classics. My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 99% on action-romanceYou scored higher than 56% on humorYou scored higher than 6% on complexityYou scored higher than 71% on budget

Link: The Director Who Films Your Life Test written by bingomosquito on Ok Cupid

In geek news, the blog is moved over to A new hosting provider. I've had really good luck with them so far and their service is good. I've cut my monthly hosting in half and I'm in the process of hammering on my Movable Type templates and styles and plugins and... and... well, you know how it goes. I'm geeking out heavily. I'm just trying to get things up and running such that I have equivalent functionality to the TypeLists feature from TypePad. I liked that a lot, but I'm digging the greater control I have over things with my own installation.

Work goes well; I'm pulling together a white paper on some of the more obscure sections of the database framework we use for our projects and presenting it to the rest of the team. I'm enjoying it a lot, and it reminds me of the days when I did more technical writing. After tweaking it yesterday, I toddled off from work to see Catherine.

Going to her house involves a nice manageable 30 minute drive. Unfortunately, the off-ramp for her city is the last one for twenty miles on the highway. If I miss it, I'm taking a loooooooong leisurely drive. As one might guess, I checked my voice mail and cruised right past it. Conveniently, the gas light immediately went on. When I managed to make it twenty miles on fumes to the next gas station for gas, I discovered that it had just suffered a power failure and its pumps were out of order. Things finally got sorted out after a lot of hoping and praying and calling Catherine to double-check directions, thankfully. And when I finally found a gas station, they had "Krispy Kremes":http://www.krispykreme.com . Rarrrr.

When things settled down and donuts had been consumed, we ended up watching a rented copy of "Garden State":imdb:Garden+State. I've heard a lot about it (who hasn't?) but we never managed ot catch it in theaters. It's really, really good. That good. Catherine loved it to, but I don't think she shares the deep affection for early "John Hughes":imdb:John+Hughes movies and later "Cameron Crowe":imdb:Cameron+Crowe films that I do... Garden State didn't share their style so much as it, like those earlier movies, perfectly captured the heart of my generation's existential dilemma at a given moment. The Breakfast Club? All about authority figures being not-what-we-thought-them and the confusion that results. Say Anything? Post-school ennui and the need for meaning beyond the Baby Boomer career path. Garden State pauses and dwells on the hearts and souls of its genx post-boom middle class twentysomethings. Everyone's treading water -- hurting, a little confused, surviving, broken but functioning. The main character is off his meds for the first time since childhood, navigating strange and confusing waters as emotions seep back in. It's a gentle movie in so many ways, hopeful without cutting anyone slack. No one is beyond redemption, and the first steps are honesty and desire.

You know, this necklace makes me think of this totally random memory of my mother. I was a little kid, and I was crying for whatever reason. And she was cradling me, rocking me back and forth, and I can just remember the silver balls rolling around. And there was snot dripping all over my face. She offered me her sleeve and told me to blow my nose. I can can remember, even as a little kid, thinking to myself, "This is love... this is love."

Good. Very.