Isn’t It Ironic?

I showed up at work tonight and wouldn’t you know it – nobody else was there. I talked to Michael, the 400 lbs supervisor, and he said that he thought Pattie had given me a call to tell me that there is no work until next week. Now I should have been happy about this right? I mean especially after I was just complaining that I had to go to work. Anyway he looked at the schedule for next week and I was off all week. I thought well isn’t that great first of all they tell me not to come in for a week because there’s no work and then when there is work I’m still off. Just then Les came in and I asked him about the schedule. “What you want to work?” I thought he meant right now so I said, “Yes”. Ok, come in Tuesday at 5:00.

It would have been nice to have another week off. The grass is always greener . . .

Back to Work

When I think about going back to work in 45 minutes, I just don’t feel good about it. I’ve had a week long vacation from my telephone survey job and now they want me back. It’s a good thing I had that other job though, because if I were relying on just my pay cheque from Environics to pay the bills, I’d be pretty mad at not having any work this last week. As it stands I’ve enjoyed only working at the pool and don’t feel like making any phone calls tonight. I’m planning on getting tomorrow night off and I already told them I couldn’t work on Saturday. I also got the day off on Saturday from my life guarding shift.

Wedding Reception

I unfixed / re-fixed the tape with Jackie’s wedding on it. Though I haven’t tested it yet, I did get it back into the broken – but working state, that it was in before. I don’t have a camera to test it though. Anna-Maria has been stressing about her singing at the reception but I think she’ll do just fine. She never did ask anyone to play the piano for her, so I am not sure what her plan is. Is there someone that will be able to play for her? Well I’ve been coming to the blog for the last few days and have been disappointed with the lack of posting lately. So for those about to post I salute you.

Marilyn Monroe – A True Story

Anna put her hands in the cement mold of Marilyn Monroe’s outside Mann’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. I kid you not when I tell you that Anna said, “Oh they’re really hot”. Even after all these years, who wouldn’t expect them to be?

Jeff Milner Movie Review – The Italian Job

The Italian Job is one of those movies that I see the preview and I think no way Jose. But it was at the Movie Mill and hence not the regular gouge you get at the other theatre so Anna-Maria and I went.

The movie, while not by any means plausible, at least didn’t ooze fake-ness, which in my opinion is a common downfall for action movies. I really liked the settings that they chose for this film and with the all-star cast, I couldn’t help but like this film. The computer hacker that can take over the world from his laptop and explosive that seem to cut through buildings with laser like accuracy aside, I enjoyed the action in this film and it’s “Ocean’s 11” style theme of bad guys outwitting badder guys. The settings were great with a boat chase in Venice, some beautiful Italian mountain shots and of course my favourite, the Hollywood and Highland finale.

If you were just on location two weeks before then of course that is going to make any movie more interesting. So I recommend if you can find The Italian Job playing in the cheap theatres, go see it, and if not – then it’s worth the rental price.

Water Restrictions

Currently there is a water restriction on watering your lawn if you live on the South Side of Lethbridge. I of course haven’t watered my lawn all year except for once last week and once yesterday. The ban started yesterday… oops.

I figure I have been quite the conservationist up until now anyway so they should cut me some slack. It was weird because when I started watering yesterday, I looked down the street and nobody was watering. “That’s odd” I thought, but then thought here I go watering my sickly, ant infested, dying lawn. (Most of the ants are gone – but there are still a few stragglers and I’m out of diamaceous earth).

Wedding Reception Slideshow

Anna got me a camera from the school but it hasn’t been working with my computer so we are going to have to find another one. This is the only one available at the University and this is clearly the reason it was still available. Anyway I have the pictures of Jackie so now I just need to get this video and the images of Glen and I’ll be cooking with gas.

Star Wars Kid Update

An interesting Star Wars Kid update from Waxy.org, the place where the Star Wars Kid gained a lot of his fame, has an update about the money they donated to get him an ipod. There is also news of a petition on the net to try and get him into Star Wars Episode III. For those of you that haven’t been following the Star Wars Kid saga, check out this nifty link and then view any of the Star Wars Kid clips. In other Star Wars Kid related news, apparently his family is pursuing legal action against those responsible for the video being leaked onto the net in the first place. They’re going for a cool $225,000 CAN.

Also of interest on the Waxy is a story about a car accident that killed 10. It happened just a few blocks from where we were vacationing last weekend. (Hollywood and Highland is probably something like 14 miles away with an approximate travel time of 24 minutes). Anyway it’s a big story in the news right now about how this 86-year-old man drove through the Santa Monica Farmers’ Market and hit a bunch of people when he mistook his gas pedal for the break and then (I assume) panicked. I found their writeup to be ++informative.

On the Road Again…

I got up early this morning and headed for Medicine Hat. Mom really wanted me to fix up her computer which, as you can probably guess since I’m posting this from Medicine Hat, is working fine.

I did talk her into buying a new 10/100mbps network card that is noticeably faster than the 10 mbps card they were using previously. I recommend upgrading if you are still using a slow one. The new cards cost about $20 but I they are totally worth it.

So in case you are curious all I really had to do was uninstall the newest version Kazaa, some virus software called bullguard (which by the way was the main problem) and I think something called mynet or mysearch, I’m not exactly sure what it was but I guess you collected points by using it or something and I was like, “No, this is not right”.

So now that’s they are gone the computer is running as smoothly as ever. Perhaps I’ll give Anna-Maria a call or maybe I’ll just chill here for a while watching TV. Either way, I’m planning on staying over night in the Hat and driving back to Lethbridge tomorrow before 3. The survey place has me scheduled to work all night Sunday, and frankly I’m beginning to think about quitting that job. I guess I should just think about how I’m in a tight spot for money what with my impulse trip to Disneyland and all. (So worth it by the way — still no regrets whatsoever!) Speaking of Disneyland, still no word on whether Anna has decided to take the job or not. She is moving however, she’s already packed up her house and the landlord has been showing it to potential tenants.

Jeff Milner Movie Review – The Pirates of the Caribbean

While in Disneyland Anna and I took in the pirates twice, once in the theatre and once, of course, in the Disneyland park.

We missed seeing the premiere held right in Disneyland by a couple of days. However there was still such a great atmosphere to see that movie! For one thing most everyone in that theatre is on vacation. They are there to have a good time, and a good time we had! When the movie started the audience responded with applause and cheering, and as each actor made their debut appearance in the show, again the sound of an appreciative audience filled the theatre.

The thing about clapping in a show is – while it may seem really out of place in a place like Lethbridge or Medicine Hat, seeing a movie like Pirates right in Downtown Disney felt like we should applaud, like it would have been rude of us not to show our appreciation. I remember the first time I ever went to a show where the audience clapped was in Manhattan at the biggest theatre in the city. It was the opening night of “Lost in Space” and the crowd there was electric. There’s a pretty good chance that the actors in the movie were there that night because we had just been to the taping of Dave Letterman where Mimi Rogers was on the show promoting this movie, and since it was opening night it would make sense that she would have been with us in that theatre. Anyway despite Lost in Space being a truly horribly crappy movie I’ll always hold a certain fondness for it in my heart because of the memories associated with seeing it in that atmosphere.

Back to Pirates of the Caribbean. The thing to remember about this movie is that its main motivation is a ride that opened in 1967. The storyline does require you to suspend your belief in reality and may result in a disappointment for some but the Disney-ness factor of the movie will win out overall, if you let it. I can’t give my highest recommendation for this movie, because honestly it could have been better, but I by no means give it two thumbs down. I think it’s a pretty good show that deserves at least a Matinée viewing if not a full fledged night time $9.00 US viewing (but I only recommend paying $9 if you are in Downtown Disney). My thumbs are definitely higher than Dads.