You're Doing It Wrong

I’ve been practicing my Photoshop skills. I did some very light fixing on this photo (left) and then did some fancy border thing which looked juvenile so I’m not posting that version.

This is my Grandfather and I don’t know the story behind the photo or even when it was taken. It’s one of the huge batch I’ve been scanning.

He worked for the forest service in northern California and SE Alaska, so I like the idea of him hanging at Joshua Tree (pure speculation) esp. in a sweater, tie and slacks. As I was working on this, I noticed the tie and decided we needed a close up of that.

Also he’s got his cigar, something I remember about him. If he was still alive he would be 102 next month.

For some reason, on my days off, the first thing I eat in the morning is almost always total garbage. Cookies. Chocolate. Cold leftovers shoveled in while I stand with the refrigerator door open.

On the weekdays my breakfast is pathologically healthy: fruit, plain yogurt, meusli.

I don’t know why I do that on the weekends. Then I’m too full to eat something good and not like my day is off to a good start.

This morning the commute was hideous. It’s bad enough that it was hideous except that it was the second time in 4 days it took me more than 30 minutes: just to get on the freeway. It’s less than 2 miles from my house.

I know I need to learn to be zen and go with the flow but honestly it makes me crazy. I hate commuting. I’ve always hated commuting and there is no easy solution. The only 4 days a week thing helps. If can’t learn to live with it I either have to move or find a different job and I don’t want to do either of those things.

Completely unrelated, but you may have seen ads or read reviews of a movie that just came out called Stay. I read the script several months ago and I’d offer a link but it’s taking too long to find. If you’re determined to read it, I’m sure you can figure out how to track it down.

I intended to write a rant about it then, not understanding that it was actually going to be made into a movie. There is some teeny, tiny spoilage ahead, but trust me, not worth worrying about. If you’ve read even one review you know it’s a twist movie and it’s not a cool twist, it’s a stupid twist. You are taken on a journey into some twisted reality where all kinds of bizarre, unexplained stuff happens, and then you find out why and you want to throw something against the wall.

I’ve seen the trailer and the movie looks like it might be good, definitely well made: Marc Forester directed and Ewan McGregor and Ryan Gosling and bunch of other good actors. Why? Why does more or less the same dopey twist keep getting made into a movie?

I bought this just to show you the amazing power of soy. It’s soy-deliciousl

I had a whole bunch of stuff to update you on but I don’t know where it all went.

I thought about doing a long update on my shows and how they are all connected somehow to Buffy & Angel, but I don’t think you care that much. I will give you a partial report and say: Invasion is excellent. Bones is also excellent but after a couple of episodes they’re on a temporary hiatus while this baseball thing is finishing up. It’s October. It’s cold and windy. Shouldn’t baseball be finished by now? I watched one Desperate Housewives and proclaimed myself finished. There is a fine line between stupid and guilty pleasure and that show has been reclassified as stupid.

Last weekend I watched a movie called Osama which I had heard was very good. I want you to understand that I do not have a problem with “hard” movies and I like movies that make me look at things in a different way or open my eyes to things I don’t know about. I didn’t completely remember what Osama was about, and if it had been a segment on an evening newsshow, yes it was excellent. But in terms of kicking back on a Sunday afternoon to watch a movie that you vaguely remember has something to do about a little girl in Afghanistan, this was an awful movie. I won’t give it all away but it’s about this little girl and her dad and uncle are dead and there is no way for the family to get food or money so they dress her up as a boy so she can get a job. Her situation goes from bad to worse to completely and utterly tragic and then the movie is over. There is not even a droplet of hope when the credits roll. That was probably the filmmakers intention and it worked. It invoked incredible outrage for the situation for women over there. It also bummed out my entire day.

I think I mentioned before that my computer display has pooped out. I finally called a Mac service place yesterday and talked to a very nice Mac-Tech-Service-Geek and he knew what I was talking about before I had the words out of my mouth. The problem is the screen doesn’t display red. I can get by when I’m going email or this, but I’m taking a Photoshop class and practicing color correction is quite interesting under these circumstances. The repair is around $350-400. My digital video board is failing. Or something like that. The computer is barely 2 years old, but for a little more than double that I can get a whole new computer so we’re looking into that at the moment. The Apple G5 is looking pretty good.

Yesterday I did a bit of yardwork. I totally wasn’t in the mood, but the sun was out and it was nice and it seemed foolish to waste the day sitting in the house practicing Photoshop when I could be cleaning up the yard and enjoying the sun in my shirtsleeves. I managed to harvest another basket of tomatoes. I left the plants in but figured they’d be wrecked b/c of the rain, but no. They look good. I don’t know what kind of tomato plant this is but it’s been a champ — produced zillions of pretty, yummy tomatoes, and keeps on going. I also dug around in the front a little bit and pulled out and cut back dead stuff. It didn’t take long for me to grow bored of it.

In the afternoon I made a Buttermilk Pie using a recipe from the NY Times. I’ve never had it before, although I’ve seen the recipe and was always curious to try it. It’s yummy — a light, cheesecake flavored pie. Bob love it.

Today we plan to see Elizabethtown, new Cameron Crowe movie and then this afternoon is my first try at making tamales. Full report tomorrow.

Is it my imagination or is FM radio sucking less lately?

For awhile it seemed like you’d go for days without hearing anything unexpected. It was the same old teeny-bopper hits or smarmy ballads. And the dinosaur rock stations play the same classics AC/DC and Zepplin songs over and over. And the 80’s stations play the same Duran Duran and Thompson Twins hits.

Now there are two stations on my dial that almost always play something interesting. Like a mix of lots of good songs 70’s to present. Station #1 is more alternative — they played The Toy Dolls the other morning. Station #2 plays more of a mix but it’s songs you actually want to hear. I think that’s their motto: “Songs you actually want to hear.”

Since I quit writing there is one thing that I’ve been enjoying a lot more lately, and that is reading in bed first thing in the morning. (Not on work days. On work days I need to be on my feet, quick as I can.)

I remember this is something I always did when I was a kid. Read before bed. Read late into the night. First thing upon waking: sit up, turn on light and read.

I used to do this sometimes on vacation but now I’ve been doing it almost every weekend and it is truly one of the great joys of life.

We went to see Patti Smith at Powell’s this afternoon.

I have to admit I was a wee bit concerned what it was going to be like going downtown on a Saturday afternoon, especially Powell’s. We got an early start and parked in an out of the way lot arrived in the designated spot before they had even set up chairs.

We went about the business of looking at books and when the chairs were set up, snagged a couple right up front. The event wasn’t a crazy as I imagined but then, I have an over-active imagination particularly when it comes to potentially crowded events. But the room was full and Patti’s crowd is quite a range. A lot of hipsters dressed in all black with fancy eyewear and spiky hair. But lots of middle aged dorky people like us, a few brought their kids. There was a nice camaraderie while waiting.

Patti was there to read from a new book of poems that’s just out. She was wonderful as always. I’m having trouble articulating a quick summary that captures her. She’s one of those incredibly talented, sharp and arty people who manages to also come across as someone that you’d feel perfectly at ease with having coffee or hiking through the hills.

My pumpkin patch has a total of 4 pumpkins. Well, had 4, now there are 3.

One is gigantic and beautiful. Two are probably not going to have enough time to ripen properly. The fourth one was majorly damaged when it was small.

Critters made some big marks in it, but I left it alone and it continued grow and the marked up part healed over and the pumpkin became a lovely reddish-orange color. (Perhaps I should clarify that these are Cinderella pumpkins just in case you didn’t know.)

I thought I’d harvest the thing and bake a pie today. I brought it in and washed it off and used a mallet and cleaver to split and and, … ew.

There were parts of orange pumpkin-y goodness that smelled sweet and wonderful and there were parts that were brown and mushy and smelled like low tide.

Sadly, Mr. pumpkin went back into the patch where he can compost for next year.

Meanwhile, I decided to use a Grange cookbook recipe that caught my eye. Long story but I had this box of yellow cake mix that I didn’t know what to do with and this recipe uses 1 box of yellow cake mix.

For the recipe you bake the cake mix according to package instructions (9×13 pan); take the baked cake out of the oven and while still hot, poke holes in it with a fork and then dump a can of crushed pineapple, juice and all, over the cake. Let the cake cool and then make two packages of instant vanilla pudding and when it sets a bit, spread that over the cake. Then spread a tup of Cool Whip on that. I’ve never even bought Cool Whip before.

It came out fantastic.