:: Ray's Periodic Rantings ::

:: Thursday, December 15, 2005 ::

Home to be

Today we closed on a new house.



We won't be moving right away, as we plan to do some work on it first. In the meantime, take the two-bit tour! (Quicktime 5.8 MB file) Update: I have replaced the originally posted file, which some people were unable to view. Just about any 21st century PC or Mac should be able to display this one.
:: Ray 11:53 PM [+] ::
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The Obligatory Post About the Weather

It's snowing. I'm not complaining. It's actually really beautiful out there right now. Snow falling means it is a bit warmer than it has been for the past week or so, and there isn't a blizzard or anything going on, it's just a gentle, heavy snow. As I look out my window at work, visability is a few hundred feet, there is a lot of white, and the cars are crawling on Michigan Ave.

I may not be complaining, but I'm glad I'm not driving. According the Chicago area traffic map, it is 101 minutes to O'Hare and 173 minutes inbound. Ouch! Sadly, Mary had to drive today, so she is parked on the Kennedy at the moment, heading home. The one upside is that she took the Tahoe today for other reasons, so at least she has 4WD.

About as ugly as it gets:



UPDATE 7:54PM: It's still snowing. The meteorologists are saying 5-8". I'll have some shoveling to do tonight or tomorrow.
:: Ray 5:47 PM [+] ::
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Aeon Flux

Sunday night, Mary and I went to see Aeon Flux. I was reluctant, based on all the bad reviews, but Mary really wanted to see Charlize Theron kick butt in all those fantastic outfits. Did the critics who panned it see the same movie I saw? I liked it a lot -- far more than I expected.

The premise of the film is that in 2011 a killer virus wiped out 99% of the earth's population. A scientist named Trevor Goodchild found a cure, and saved 5 million people, who retreated into a walled city. Goodchild descendents have since ruled for several generations, but now there is unrest, with a resistance movement growing. The title character, played by Theron, is a member of this resistance, assigned to assassinate Trevor Goodchild. Things get complicated.

The plot, while complex, is not impossible to follow, and ultimately is based on an age-old theme of sibling envy. The art direction is original, the sets are beautiful, the costumes are sort of Barbarella crossed with extreme couture. The understated (read: quiet) script is capably (read: not over-)acted.

Here is my caveat. A couple of weeks ago I saw two episodes of the Aeon Flux animated series late at night on MTV2. It made all the difference. I had some idea of who these characters were, including the chick with hands for feet, and I experienced for myself the twisted, atmospheric, noir feeling that is created there. The film is an admirable recreation of the series. In succeeding at this, the director has made something that a lot of people may not understand, but Aeon Flux fans should love. Having said all that, Mary did NOT see any of the series, and she still enjoyed the film.

Of the many minor differences between Aeon Flux on TV and in the movie theater, there is one important one. In the two episodes I saw, Trevor Goodchild was a tormented character, self centered, slightly detached from reality, and capable of cruelty. The film Trevor Goodchild is a misunderstood good guy, tormented because of his inability to accomplish an admirable, humanitarian goal. I think the change is a good one. Series fans, please feel free to correct me if my assessment is wrong.

One small quibble I have with the film concerns Charlize Theron's costumes. As revealing and avant garde as they are, they are prudish compared to what her animated counterpart wears. Apparently it was Theron herself who balked at running around in a tight black bikini and boots. This seems to me a pity, but the costumers rose to the resulting challenge, with the satisfying enough result that Mary is now talking about being Aeon Flux for Halloween next year. Sounds like fun to me!
:: Ray 2:57 PM [+] ::
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Family Reunion

Mary and I spent the weekend at a Koltys family reunion in Middleburg, VA. I hadn't seen my cousins, who currently hail from Atlanta, Northern California, and Qatar, or their offspring for a while, and they hadn't yet met Mary. It was good to spend time with them, make introductions, and catch up.

We all stayed at a B&B that turned out to have some Seinfeldian qualities. You see, being Polish in origin, the Koltys side of my family really likes Polish sausage. You can't easily get good sausage in Atlanta or Northern California like we can here in the Midwest, and you can't get pork at all in Qatar, so everybody was looking forward to my bringing some of my favorite, Wiejska brand sausage from Andy's Deli. I bought a bunch and wrapped it well for the trip, then put it in the fridge at the B&B, thinking that we would heat some with sauerkraut for lunch on Saturday, then split up the rest for everyone to take with them. Saturday, when we started asking about pans and such, having been told that we were free to cook, however, we were informed that the B&B was owned by a Jewish couple who wanted the kitchen kept kosher. All we could do was laugh and muse, "No wonder there was no bacon or sausage at breakfast!" Or deadpan, "It didn't say anything about that on the web page." Or the ultimate, "Not that there is anything wrong with that..."

It turned out that there was a charcoal grill outside which had seen pork before, and they had no problem with us using it. So I grilled some sausage, nuked the kraut, and we had lunch. Then we kept the remaining sausage outside in the car for the rest of the weekend.

Middleburg's big holiday draw is two parades on the first Saturday of December. The first is a hunt parade, English style, with hounds and mounted riders in wool coats proceeding up the road past the town's only traffic light, at 11:00am. Afterward, the few restaurants in town are overwhelmed as everyone goes for lunch and tries to stay warm until the Christmas parade, that afternoon at 3:00pm. We attended the hunt parade, which was short but entertaining, as I have never seen one before. Then we went to a bar for some hot cider and rum, then back to the B&B for our sausage adventure. By 3, everyone was pretty much tired or already napping, and we skipped the xmas parade.

Sunday morning, on the way back to Dulles Airport, we visited the new annex of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. It is a huge hangar-style building with civilian and military aircraft from the eras of both world wars, Korea, Vietnam, and the Cold War, plus some space artifacts including the Space Shuttle Enterprise. The prizes of the collection are an SR71 Blackbird spy plane (still the fastest plane ever built), a Concorde, and especially the specially modified Airstream that served as a decontamination chamber when the Apollo astronauts returned from the moon. Best of all, it's the Smithsonian, so it's free! Well, aside from $12 to park, anyway.
:: Ray 11:09 PM [+] ::
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Sacrilege of the Day

Stephen Colbert, of Comedy Central's Colbert Report tonight, in a segment about the death penalty:
"Most disappointingly, my own Catholic church is against the death penalty. Well that's pretty hypocritical, considering they wouldn't even have a religion if it weren't for capital punishment."
:: Ray 12:49 AM [+] ::
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