May In Review

The big news in May is that I got a job offer, 14 months after being laid off, so now it's back to work.

This month was also the Ludophilia gaming convention.  Four days of board games at the beautiful Crystal Lake Holiday Inn.

And would I be remiss in not mentioning the official completion of "Blackened Blue Roses"? Now available at cdbaby.com and (downloads only) from multiple places, such as iTunes and Amazon's mp3 store.

And in this month's list of movies, a couple of the old ones I'd never seen before were "Rocky Horror Picture Show" -- didn't much care for it and I almost can't tell why so many theater people seem to love it so -- and "Corvette Summer" -- loved it; great combination of Mark Hamill and a Corvette.

+----------------------------------------------------------+
| 2011-05-01 - Honey, I Shrunk The Kids (1989)             |
| 2011-05-03 - National Lampoon's European Vacation (1985) |
| 2011-05-04 - Freeway (1996)                              |
| 2011-05-05 - Jonah Hex (2010)                            |
| 2011-05-06 - Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972)   |
| 2011-05-07 - Into The Woods (1991)                       |
| 2011-05-08 - Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973)    |
| 2011-05-09 - Man On Fire (1987)                          |
| 2011-05-10 - WarGames (1983)                             |
| 2011-05-14 - Born To Be Bad (1934)                       |
| 2011-05-16 - Rules Of Attraction, The (2002)             |
| 2011-05-17 - Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse, The (1938)        |
| 2011-05-18 - Man On Fire (2004)                          |
| 2011-05-19 - Freakonomics (2010)                         |
| 2011-05-20 - Seven Samurai (1954)                        |
| 2011-05-21 - Roaring Twenties, The (1939)                |
| 2011-05-26 - Gamer (2009)                                |
| 2011-05-26 - He's Just Not That Into You (2009)          |
| 2011-05-27 - Twelfth Night (1996)                        |
| 2011-05-29 - Rocky Horror Picture Show, The (1975)       |
| 2011-05-30 - Corvette Summer (1978)                      |
| 2011-05-30 - For Your Eyes Only (1981)                   |
| 2011-05-31 - Ffolkes (1980)                              |
+----------------------------------------------------------+
23 rows in set (0.01 sec)

April In Review

Another month, another month with no job. And this month, no game days, either -- as anticipation builds for Ludophilia 2011 the second week of May.

But I did manage to finish recording the last few songs -- and mixing and mastering all of them -- for the next Ancient Order of the Killer Owl album.  And check this out. While visiting family in Dayton around Easter, some random guy saw my dad wearing a Troubled Loners sweatshirt (ah, remember them?) and wanted to know where he could get one.  Now if I can only get my dad booked as a guest on Conan or something -- wearing the sweatshirt, of course -- I'd be sitting pretty.  Maybe I shouldn't have created a new, better band!  One dude in 20 years is quite a blip on the fan activity meter.


I finally opened the Rock Band "precision" bass that came as a bonus with the Mustang pro guitar I got about four months ago.  The strum bar on my Rock Band 2 guitar is pretty shot, which I guess can happen after a couple years of solidly regular use, even though I'm not very rough with my things. And, surprisingly, the strum bar on my Guitar Hero World Tour guitar isn't that great, either.  Which is odd, since I rarely play that, and when I did, I usually used the Rock Band guitar.  So, rather than torturing myself with those two any longer, I opened this new one which I only got since it was included with another purchase.  It's pretty nice, but the stiff strum bar takes some getting used to, and its wireless signal seems kind of weak, if you're the type to wander far from your console; hopefully the strum bar is what puts the "premium" in this model and it'll last longer.  Join me.  KillerOwl1.  On PSN.  (When it comes back to life.)

Finally, I did manage to see some movies.  A couple popular oldies -- which I had never seen before but which turned out to be pretty good -- were "Deliverance" and "Biloxi Blues".  I think "Deliverance" was playing at a drive-in when I was a kid -- or I've always believed that to be true -- but I only stayed awake for whatever movie came first. I always kind of thought of it as my first R movie, even though I slept through the whole thing back then. I would have been less than ten.

+--------------------------------------------------------+
| 2011-04-02 - Deliverance (1972)                        |
| 2011-04-03 - Quintet (1979)                            |
| 2011-04-04 - Zombieland (2009)                         |
| 2011-04-06 - Time Bandits (1981)                       |
| 2011-04-07 - Zapped! (1982)                            |
| 2011-04-08 - Quiet Earth, The (1985)                   |
| 2011-04-09 - Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)               |
| 2011-04-10 - Biloxi Blues (1988)                       |
| 2011-04-10 - Futureworld (1976)                        |
| 2011-04-13 - Fountain, The (2006)                      |
| 2011-04-14 - Amazing Adventure, The (1936)             |
| 2011-04-16 - Last Samurai, The (2003)                  |
| 2011-04-17 - Lovely Bones, The (2009)                  |
| 2011-04-18 - Catch Me If You Can (2003)                |
| 2011-04-20 - MacGruber (2010)                          |
| 2011-04-21 - Lottery Ticket (2010)                     |
| 2011-04-23 - Time Of The Wolf (2003)                   |
| 2011-04-27 - Greatest Story Ever Told, The (1965)      |
| 2011-04-29 - Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971) |
| 2011-04-30 - Edge Of Darkness (2010)                   |
+--------------------------------------------------------+
20 rows in set (0.01 sec)

March In Review

Whoa. There goes another month. Still no job. Just as in Feb., I did have one on-site interview, this time in Madison.  I could become Madison Dan!  But, just as in Feb., nothing has come of it.

There was a bonus "heavy game day" this month. Usually it's only the even months.  This time it was "Angola", where each player represents a faction in the Angolan civil war in the mid-1970s and one pair of players plays against the other.  Believe it or not, it's actually interesting to play, even if you're one of the few who has no dog in this fight. Or someone who couldn't really say who won this war. It is long, though.  We called it quits after 8 hours or so, when it was pretty clear which side was going to win.

At "regular game day", I found myself in a couple of time killing games ("To Court The King" -- again -- and "Easy Come, Easy Go"), a simple game that the whole family could play ("Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers"), and a couple of games that are fun and interesting ("Power Grid" and "Amun-Re").

And there was still time for some movies, as shown below.  I finally plopped in the second movie in the "Planet Of The Apes" box set -- the only Blu-Ray movies I own.  There were several post-apocalyptic-nightmare movies I'd never even heard of before, but also one you hear about every once in a while that I'd never seen: "A Boy And His Dog", notable for being one of Don Johnson's earliest movies.  He was 25 when it came out. He communicates telepathically with his dog, which is the brains of their partnership, as they wander the wasteland looking for food and, well, women. Kind of a freaky, far-out, low-budget 1970s flick.  Finally, I was really fascinated by "District 9".  It was so easy to identify with the "hero", who definitely did not come from central casting's hero catalog. Having the aliens be a bunch of dim-witted thugs -- with a single genius scientist among them -- seemed kind of Sleestakian to me.  If I may say so.

+------------------------------------------------------+
| 2011-03-02 - King Solomon's Mines (1950)             |
| 2011-03-03 - Jennifer's Body (2009)                  |
| 2011-03-04 - Adventures Of Robin Hood, The (1938)    |
| 2011-03-04 - Da Vinci Code, The (2006)               |
| 2011-03-06 - Teen Wolf (1985)                        |
| 2011-03-06 - Star Is Born, A (1954)                  |
| 2011-03-10 - Secret Of My Success, The (1987)        |
| 2011-03-11 - Stranger Than Fiction (2006)            |
| 2011-03-13 - I'm No Angel (1933)                     |
| 2011-03-14 - Ghost Rider (2007)                      |
| 2011-03-15 - Five (1951)                             |
| 2011-03-18 - Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970)   |
| 2011-03-19 - Losers, The (2010)                      |
| 2011-03-20 - Phase IV (1974)                         |
| 2011-03-20 - Grass Is Greener, The (1960)            |
| 2011-03-21 - Last Night (1998)                       |
| 2011-03-22 - 9 (2009)                                |
| 2011-03-23 - Boy And His Dog, A (1975)               |
| 2011-03-24 - Superman/Batman: Apocalypse (2010)      |
| 2011-03-25 - Noah, The (1975)                        |
| 2011-03-25 - District 9 (2009)                       |
| 2011-03-26 - Domino (2005)                           |
| 2011-03-27 - Penny Serenade (1941)                   |
| 2011-03-27 - Charlie's Angels:  Full Throttle (2003) |
+------------------------------------------------------+
24 rows in set (0.01 sec)

Oh, and did I have a gallbladder attack near the end of the month? I'm not sure if there's any way to prove it, although at least one GI seemed adamant.  Great Caesar's Ghost! The jury's still out. I'd like to see what doctors who have known me for more than a day have to say about it.

Feb In Review

Another month has slipped away.  Still no job, although I did have one on-site interview.  Even with all the time I should have, it always feels like there's never enough time to do the things I want to do.  So in a way, I can understand old people who really have nothing to do and still feel like there's not enough time.  Anyway, at "heavy game day" this month, I played Through The Ages and Wealth Of Nations.  And the games at "regular game day" were London, To Court The King, and The Castle Of The Devil.  To Court The King is just a boring, dice rolling time filler and The Castle Of The Devil seems kind of random to me, even though some people seem to be able to figure out which team each player is on even without using cards that reveal that info to them.  But London is the kind of detailed strategy game built on an historical framework that I seem to really like.

This month's movie list is excessively, abnormally long, no doubt enhanced by the fact that I do have the time.  But what's a couple hours a day. That should still leave time for more stuff.  A lot of these movies are serious and often depressing -- but those are also the best of the bunch.   "The Little Foxes" is one.  Some of the characters are so mean, but the family seems realistic to me, even transposed to the present day, 70 years later.  "On The Beach" is a good post-apocalyptic-nightmare movie done in a serious way which I had not heard of before.  And "Marty" is always good, even though a little quiet and a little too close to home.  So to speak.  There are exceptions to the general themes of "seriousness" and "quality", of course.  Mega Python, anyone?

(Ordered by date viewed this month. Let the good times roll.)
+-----------------------------------------------------+
| 2011-02-01 - Book Of Eli, The (2010)                |
| 2011-02-02 - Great Dictator, The (1940)             |
| 2011-02-03 - Anne Of The Thousand Days (1969)       |
| 2011-02-04 - Mega Python vs. Gatoroid (2011)        |
| 2011-02-05 - Little Foxes, The (1941)               |
| 2011-02-06 - Five Easy Pieces (1970)                |
| 2011-02-06 - Frighteners, The (1996)                |
| 2011-02-07 - Witness For The Prosecution (1957)     |
| 2011-02-08 - Separate Tables (1958)                 |
| 2011-02-09 - Mr. Deeds Goes To Town (1936)          |
| 2011-02-10 - House Of Rothschild, The (1934)        |
| 2011-02-10 - On The Beach (1959)                    |
| 2011-02-11 - Ball Of Fire (1941)                    |
| 2011-02-11 - Seven Brides For Seven Brothers (1954) |
| 2011-02-13 - Annie Get Your Gun (1950)              |
| 2011-02-13 - Robin And The Seven Hoods (1964)       |
| 2011-02-14 - Machete (2010)                         |
| 2011-02-16 - Picture Of Dorian Gray, The (1945)     |
| 2011-02-17 - Cat Ballou (1965)                      |
| 2011-02-18 - Stagecoach (1939)                      |
| 2011-02-20 - Alice Adams (1935)                     |
| 2011-02-20 - Swing Time (1936)                      |
| 2011-02-21 - Blow-Up (1966)                         |
| 2011-02-21 - Room At The Top (1959)                 |
| 2011-02-22 - Bad Day At Black Rock (1955)           |
| 2011-02-23 - Marty (1955)                           |
| 2011-02-23 - Summertime (1955)                      |
| 2011-02-25 - Bad Seed, The (1956)                   |
| 2011-02-25 - Devil And Daniel Webster, The (1941)   |
| 2011-02-26 - Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)           |
| 2011-02-27 - You Can't Take It With You (1938)      |
| 2011-02-28 - Lavender Hill Mob, The (1951)          |
+-----------------------------------------------------+
32 rows in set (0.17 sec)

Monthly Movies

These are the movies I watched in January.  I'm not sure if I can do this regularly or if I should bother -- mostly because I don't really have much to say about them.  Commentary, she eludes me.  I'm amazed at columnists who come up with stuff on a daily or weekly basis to write about.  I can say I 'm a sucker for any body/age switching movie like "17 Again" (or, for example, "Freaky Friday" or "13 Going On 30" or "Big", etc.).  "Room For One More" stands out in this (mostly and unusually) fairly recent list, but that's just part of my effort to see all Cary Grant movies.  In February it wouldn't have stood out, since I'm watching lots of old movies due to TCM's 31 Days of Oscar.  I can't say that I hated any of these -- although, how often does that happen? -- but I also can't say that I'm super excited about any of them.  Don't shoot me, but if I had to pick my favorite, it might be "17 Again", which is only listed first because of alphabetical order. I think you'd have to be an environmentalist to be ga-ga over "Avatar", or at least have seen it in a 3-D theater. "Sherlock Holmes" would also be pretty near the top.

+-----------------------------------------------------------+------+
| title                                                     | year |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+------+
| 17 Again                                                  | 2009 |
| Avatar                                                    | 2009 |
| Box, The                                                  | 2009 |
| For Love Or Money                                         | 1993 |
| Perfect Getaway, A                                        | 2009 |
| Promise, The:  The Making Of Darkness On The Edge Of Town | 2010 |
| Room For One More                                         | 1952 |
| Shallow Hal                                               | 2001 |
| Sherlock Holmes                                           | 2009 |
| Spider-Man 2                                              | 2004 |
| Time Traveler's Wife, The                                 | 2009 |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+------+