Headed to Vegas again....

Our little town is fun but I do miss some of the excitement of a city.  So I'm off to the big city again.  The last time I was there I actually drove a bit on the strip; now that's downright painful!  The traffic is stopped for long periods and there is always one or two tourists who think they can cross between the cars.  Vegas has LOTS of pedistrians killed every year because they are too damn dumb to use crosswalks and pay attention to the 'Walk' lights.  Yeah they have been drinking, usually the driver is just a victim too.

We've been having some great weather lately.  We are actually in the 70's!  (21C for the rest of the world.)  It helps us to get out and exercise when it's so great.  We are about 15 degrees (F) (8C) above average.  Tough life, huh.  All this mean that our tomato plants are really confused.  They are still producing tomatoes!  Weird stuff. 

I'm working on a minor photographic project:  I'm taking a photo or two of the Nopah Mountains every morning.  I'm hoping to create a photographic montage of the way the sun hits the mountain differently in different seasons.  Here is my subject.

We'll see how it works out.  Gotta go.  Have a good one!

Movie night!

I've been on a kick lately about finding 'different' movies at our local library.  Apparently the person in charge of buying movies has, let's call it, electic taste.  Happily, that fits in with my taste quite well. 

Recently I watched a new version of Much Ado About Nothing - done by Joss Whedon in 2012. 

Whedon got some publicity from the fact that it was filmed in his own home in, I think, 12 days.  Clearly then it was in present day California.  It was flimed in black and white which might put some people off but I'm more interested in the actual movie.  I really liked it.  Of course I like the Kenneth Branagh version but they are really very different.  This one felt more approachable but wasn't as pretty.  I mean a house in LA vs the Tuscan countryside?  The actors also were from a different strata:  Amy Acker, Alexis Denisof, Clark Gregg  vs Emma Thompson, Branagh and Richard Briers and the smaller rolls portrayed by the likes of Keanu Reeves, Denzel Washington and Kate Beckinsale.  Very different indeed but each very good.

Then yesterday I found 'A Day Without A Mexican'.  It's a fantasy piece about a mysterious fog that surrounds California and makes all Hispanics disappear and all communication with the rest of the world ceases. 

It had promise but got really bogged down in the story about people who were downright dull.  There was a white woman whose Mexican husband and son disappeared, she never shed a tear.  (She did however reveal to the neighbor the reason her daughter was still around was because she was actually his child.)  The Senator whose maid disppeared (cover shot), his big problem was that he had no orange juice but he got to be acting-Govenor because the real guy had disappeared.  They were just people I didn't care about.  One Hispanic woman newscaster was supposed to have been spared; of course you know she can't be Hispanic regardless of her 'parents'.  One slightly funny part was where the handsome Hispanic weather forecaster is replaced with an older fat white guy who has no outside data or training in forecasting.  Interspersed there would be supposed facts about the importants of Hispanics in California.  I say 'supposed facts' because I hope they were true but really don't know and certainly don't remember them.  Things like 57% of firefighters were Hispanic or 35% of teachers - those aren't the numbers, I just made them up but you get the idea.  The actors were doing their best but it was all about the importance of Hispanics in today's California.  Gee, really?  I never would have guessed.  (You ought to check out my little town!)  Eventually, of course, the fog lifted and the Hispanics all magically reappeared not knowing that they had even been gone.

Anyway, I thank my local librarian for the fun films.  Hope you have a great day!

Dull, dull, dull!

I seem to be in a very quiet place in my life.  The only exciting thing right now is that I keep driving to Vegas and I've noted how exciting that usually is.

Of course once you get there things are a bit more exciting:  like all the idiots doing 80mph in a 65mph zone zig-zagging through all the rest of us normal folks.  It's not like California where everyone is doing 80, here 95% of the folks are around the speed limit. We made the trip on January 2; we made the trip yesterday and we'll be going back next week.  Maybe I need to get a life?

I was reading the Las Vegas Sun the other day; there was a great article by a guy named Glenn Garvin about 2013 and what a sterling year it was.  He reminded us of the 7 year old suspended from school for chewing his Pop Tart into the shape of a gun and saying 'bang bang'.  Then there was the teacher who was fired for telling her Spanish class that 'negro' is the Spanish word for 'black'.  (My dictionary agrees, BTW.)  There was some deaf 3 year old named Hunter who actually knows how use sign language to sign his name.  The school district ordered him to change the way he signs his name because the sign for H looks like a gun!  Really?  I mean political correctness does have some value; I really believe that.  But that's where we are talking about that other 'n' word that caused Paula Deen all her trouble.  Have I ever used it?  Hell, yes!  30, 40 years ago it was a lot more commonly used and anyone who says they didn't use it, usually in anger, is full of xxxx.  Some black guy cuts me off in traffic, it will still be a word that comes to mind.  But I'll probably just call him a stupid asshole.  Times change and so does our language.  Who would have thought 'twerking' would be a word?

So, let's all have a great 2014!  2013 can't have all the fun.  Take care!

Haven't blogged lately

Well, the short reason is that I don't have much to say!  Well, when did that ever stop me?  Yeah, I know.  Anyway, this time I'm just duller than usual. I have even resorted to taking photos of clouds!

Doesn't it look like a bunny?  I know it's lame but giive me a break, it's just after Christmas!

Anyway, we haven't been doing much; went into Vegas on a shopping expidition but how exciting is that?  Wanna see my new socks?  No, I'm just not going there! 

I got hooked lately on "Castle"; it's a show with Nathen Fillion and Stata Katic (a couple of Canadians, don't we have any actors in this country??)?  On the other hand, neither has been in drug rehab that I've heard  of lately! This is about a writer (named Castle, male) following around a detective (named Beckett, female) and the expected cop story plus romance evolves.  But the actors are good and the writing good so; I'm hooked.  I'm watching the older episodes on TNT which seems to be unable to put them in order so I watch a guy get killed in one episode then in the next episode he's giving Castle some grief for shadowing the cop.  Grrrr! 

Lately I went through a bunch of old backups copying stuff to my hard drive.  This is from when I was backing up to a CD holding 650 MB.  Well, we were a lot thinner back then but we also were having some fun!  No, I'm not going to be explicit; you'll just have to imagine it.  Here, from our town of Ijsselstein.

It's just a little Dutch commuter town but it was home to us for two years and will remain one of our hame towns forever.  I'm looking forward to returning as a tourist; hopefully next year.

Gotta go.  Hope you and yours have a great 2014.  Take care.