Stephen Gilberg (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
deckardcanine) wrote2008-05-27 06:24 pm
deckardcanine) wrote2008-05-27 06:24 pm
How I spent my birthday and Memorial Day weekend
Sheesh, that sounds like the title of an elementary school report.
My birthday started with a bad sign: an apparently newly dead animal on the sidewalk of my block as I walked to work. It might have been a squirrel, but the head shape suggested a sugar glider to me, which would be arguably more tragic for being an escaped pet. Whatever it was, it had mercifully disappeared by the time I got home.
The day had me watching two subtitled movies from the Orient, one via YouTube. The first was Bagi the Monster of Mighty Nature, a well-done, bittersweet anime with one anthro character. The second was Infernal Affairs, the 2002 Chinese movie that was remade as The Departed. As much as I like and respect TD, I think IA is as good or better in just about every way except the fleshing-out of the crime lord’s character. (Then there’s the DVD case, which shows a minor, non-action character posing with a gun, which she never wields in the movie.)
Saturday afternoon was a first for me: By way of Greater DC Cares, I volunteered help at a nursing home’s happy hour. The event consisted of chips, ginger ale, and a live pianist and guitarist duo playing Duke Ellington and similar music. Volunteer work consisted of passing out the refreshments and napkins and assisting disabled seniors to and from the event. It was a rather quiet couple of hours. Fellow volunteers were better for conversation, as many of the seniors in need were slow and terse if even lucid enough to respond. I plan to continue volunteer work, but not in this setting.
That evening, I had dinner out with my family and a friend of ours we rarely see. After some hesitation, I agreed to open my gifts there at the table. Our waiter noticed and said my $9 dessert was on the house. A classy act like that merited a bigger tip than usual.
Once home, rather than try any of my gifts right away, I watched Young Frankenstein via Netflix. It didn’t make me any closer to a Mel Brooks fan (even Blazing Saddles is a stretch of a fun time for me), but I recommend that anyone who liked it check out most of the DVD extras, including the Mexican interview with Marty Feldman.
The presents? From Molly the cat, a fancy but freely distributed globe-clock that now sits on my work desk. From my sister, an invitation to a Hitchcock-themed orchestral concert. From my folks, Okami and Mario Kart Wii, the latter of which had escaped my radar. Okami is the most beautiful and most Japanese game I’ve ever known, and one of the coolest. It may be a while before I get a good night’s sleep again. As for MKW, the steering wheel is a nice addition, but the modern Mario-verse hasn’t gotten much less annoying. I’m not sure how much fun I’ll have without a second player.
On Sunday, I watched a series of YouTube videos of a computer game, The Longing Ribbon, created by a familiar deviantART artist with RPG Maker. It is delectably creepy, with enough story-to-combat ratio to make a good watch. Now I want to try my hand at RPG Maker.
On Memorial Day, my dad and I chose to see Iron Man, because it was the film we both were most likely to enjoy without my mom. And we did. It has better acting and dialog than we expect from the subgenre. The pacing works well throughout, so it feels neither too long nor, as one fan said, too short. The climax isn’t the best part, but neither does it “collapse under its own weight” like one negative review said.
My birthday started with a bad sign: an apparently newly dead animal on the sidewalk of my block as I walked to work. It might have been a squirrel, but the head shape suggested a sugar glider to me, which would be arguably more tragic for being an escaped pet. Whatever it was, it had mercifully disappeared by the time I got home.
The day had me watching two subtitled movies from the Orient, one via YouTube. The first was Bagi the Monster of Mighty Nature, a well-done, bittersweet anime with one anthro character. The second was Infernal Affairs, the 2002 Chinese movie that was remade as The Departed. As much as I like and respect TD, I think IA is as good or better in just about every way except the fleshing-out of the crime lord’s character. (Then there’s the DVD case, which shows a minor, non-action character posing with a gun, which she never wields in the movie.)
Saturday afternoon was a first for me: By way of Greater DC Cares, I volunteered help at a nursing home’s happy hour. The event consisted of chips, ginger ale, and a live pianist and guitarist duo playing Duke Ellington and similar music. Volunteer work consisted of passing out the refreshments and napkins and assisting disabled seniors to and from the event. It was a rather quiet couple of hours. Fellow volunteers were better for conversation, as many of the seniors in need were slow and terse if even lucid enough to respond. I plan to continue volunteer work, but not in this setting.
That evening, I had dinner out with my family and a friend of ours we rarely see. After some hesitation, I agreed to open my gifts there at the table. Our waiter noticed and said my $9 dessert was on the house. A classy act like that merited a bigger tip than usual.
Once home, rather than try any of my gifts right away, I watched Young Frankenstein via Netflix. It didn’t make me any closer to a Mel Brooks fan (even Blazing Saddles is a stretch of a fun time for me), but I recommend that anyone who liked it check out most of the DVD extras, including the Mexican interview with Marty Feldman.
The presents? From Molly the cat, a fancy but freely distributed globe-clock that now sits on my work desk. From my sister, an invitation to a Hitchcock-themed orchestral concert. From my folks, Okami and Mario Kart Wii, the latter of which had escaped my radar. Okami is the most beautiful and most Japanese game I’ve ever known, and one of the coolest. It may be a while before I get a good night’s sleep again. As for MKW, the steering wheel is a nice addition, but the modern Mario-verse hasn’t gotten much less annoying. I’m not sure how much fun I’ll have without a second player.
On Sunday, I watched a series of YouTube videos of a computer game, The Longing Ribbon, created by a familiar deviantART artist with RPG Maker. It is delectably creepy, with enough story-to-combat ratio to make a good watch. Now I want to try my hand at RPG Maker.
On Memorial Day, my dad and I chose to see Iron Man, because it was the film we both were most likely to enjoy without my mom. And we did. It has better acting and dialog than we expect from the subgenre. The pacing works well throughout, so it feels neither too long nor, as one fan said, too short. The climax isn’t the best part, but neither does it “collapse under its own weight” like one negative review said.