Death to carlie butterbaugh.
I'm actually considering entering this WFC. All I need is an idea and some talent. Do they sell those at Walmart?
Attention miker2 infidel: Recommended by a runner friend.
Took a ride yesterday, 6/6/06. I rode 66.06 miles. True story.
During the ride yesterday I noticed the headset was a little loose, so when I got back I took it into the LBS or an adjustment. I’d have done it myself, but I don’t have the tools and I’ve never done a threadless headset. It’s a good thing, too. The threads on the thing were nearly stripped. I’d have never been able to get it back together. This is the second very badly built part from the shop where I bought it. So far, it’s been a hub screwed so tight cone was destroyed and now this (in addition to the whole chain fiasco). Luckily the LBS guy was talented enough to get it back together.
Rainy weekend catch up:
Det Sjunde inseglet / The Seventh Seal
A medieval knight, Antonius Block, (a very young Max von Sydow) returns home from the Crusades to find his homeland ravaged by the plague. Death (Bengt Ekerot) comes calling but the knight distracts him with a game of chess while the game of life (and death) goes on. Religious zealots travel the land, ostensibly trying to make converts, but really just spreading the disease. The knight becomes more and more disillusioned with every new encounter and has his crisis of faith. Yet life does go on as travelling mistrals, Jof and Mia have a son, Michael, so all is not lost. Or at least not yet.
Many write that this is Ingmar Bergman’s best film, and maybe they’re right, I don’t know. I thought it was good. Melodramatic in some way, but the dynamic between the knight and Death was very good, as was the character of the squire, Jöns (Gunnar Björnstrand). The whole look of Death was outstanding. Although he did have a sythe, it wasn’t the cliche skelton; there was no mistaking who it was.
Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit
The first Wallace & Gromit in ten years finds the pair running a humane pest control business (called "Anti-Pesto"). Lady Campanula Tottington (Helena Bonham Carter) has a rabbit problem that’s out of control and calls Anti-pesto for help but Lady Tottington’s (or "Totty") suitor, Victor Quartermaine (Ralph Fiennes), just wants to shoot them all. Will our heros be able to save the annual giant vegetable growing contest?
The animation is grade-A, tip top, and there are loads of sight gags (like a naked Wallace in a cardboard box labeled "contains nuts"). My favorite sequence is the launch sequence at the beginning which is a fantastic homage to Thunderbirds. The vicar’s voice sounded very familiar and checking the credits, it turned out to be Nicolas Smith who plays Mr. Rumbold on that Are You Being Served dreck, but he was pretty good anyway. The movie suffered only in that W&G is pretty hard to stretch to a full length movie from the more accustomed shorts.
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
[amazon]
Six year old Ender was bred, born and raised to save the world from the buggers, an alien race apparently bent on the destruction of earth. He’s taken from his family at six and put in a training regimen where he turns out to be the best ever at the training games, just as he was expected to be. They treat him badly, he perseveres. He wins, but ends up not caring.
There’s supposed to be some big hubub about thsi book, but frankly I don’t see it. It’s a good story, fairly well told although it has a lot of missing pieces. There’s nothing really earth shattering here (so to speak). Still, it’s a quick and entertaining read. The only thing that really bugged me about this edition, is the new introduction by the author. Let’s just say that neither modesty nor humility is Card’s long suit and leave it at that. So off-putting was this introduction, that I almost didn’t read the book. Introductions are often important. My advice on this one is skip it. Read the book though, at least it’s pretty good.
Synthetic Men of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
[amazon]
Another John Carter of Mars story except that John Carter isn’t really in it. He bows out pretty early. And rather than Dejah Thoris, the incomparable Princess of Mars needing rescue, she’s had an accident and is near death. So this rescue comes in the form of seaching for the only doctor in all of Barsoom that can save her. John Carter begins his search with his pal Vor Daj and after a few small adventures, find the guy they are after.
But in the man time, Vor Daj has fallen in love (at first sight, of course) with Janai, a prisoner captured at the same time as he. Skip, skip, skip. John Carter takes off with the doctor back to Helium and leaves "Vor Daj" there on his own. Why is "Vor Daj" in quotes, you ask? Ah! Well, Vor Daj has a cunning plan to find out whether his love is okay. The plan involved tranplanting his brain into one of the blancmange creatures that the good Doctor Ras Thavas has created out of his creature making soup. But when Ras Thavas leaves for Helium with John Carter, leaving Vor Daj (in his cunning disguise) to fend for himself, there’s also no one to mind the creature soup and it grows out of control and starts to take over the island in an unstoppable ooze.
Yes, there’s a thrill a minute. Two thrills a minute, actually.
But now I must fly. Bath & Body Works semi annual sale ends today.
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