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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
Pete's LiveJournal:
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| Wednesday, July 10th, 2024 | | 4:22 pm |
| | Friday, May 18th, 2012 | | 10:46 pm |
Finally saw that flick everyone seems to be talking about... --grin--
Magnificent work. Thank you Joss, thank you Scarlett and Gwyneth, thank you Mark and Chris E. and Chris H. and Robert Jr. and Clark and Jeremy and Stellan and Samuel L., and of course Mr. Hiddleston. Thank you Mr. Silvestri (and also Mssrs. Doyle, Djawadi, Armstrong, and Harnell, who were definitely also present). Thank you to each and every one of my LJ friends and my Facebook friends for not spoiling a single thing these past two weeks. And most of all, thank you Mssrs. Simon, Kirby, Lee, Arad, Heck, Leiber, Rico, Bendis, and Allred, for coming up with all of this. Current Mood:  pleased | | Tuesday, May 1st, 2012 | | 10:12 am |
| | Thursday, April 26th, 2012 | | 1:17 pm |
One more bit of hyping
Yes, after a lapse of some 25+ years, I'm going to be in a play. So here's where I shamelessly throw out a bit of self-promotion and invite you up to the mostly-uninhabited wilderness that is Bradford, VT, at the Old Church Theater in Don't Tell Mother!, its 2012 season opener. Originally written by Monk Ferris and directed by Paul Hunt, this comedy/farce revolves around the mishaps surrounding quiet, bookish Cinnamon Schmidt, who is an inadvertent witness to a (poorly-executed) bank robbery. Not only has the perpetrator twigged to her identity, but so have the feds --and in the middle of all this Cinnamon needs to make a good first impression on her fiancee's ill-humoured mother, and at the same time not letting her OWN mother find out what's going on! It's a roller-coaster of swapped identities, mistaken impressions, wayward oysters... and an overly-aggressive vaccuum cleaner with a singular (some might even say perverted) appetite.
Showtimes/dates are:
May 4 and May 5 at 7:30pm, May 6 at 4:00pm;
May 11 and May 12 at 7:30pm, May 13 at 4:00pm.
Tickets can be purchased in advance at: http://oldchurchtheater.org Deep and introspective drama? Not at all. Fast-paced belly laughs? Hell yes. I'll leave off telling you about my role but I promise you it's deliciously ironic. ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.2) mama_hogswatch also appears in this production, as well as nomoretoast --I'll leave off telling you what roles they play as well. It goes without saying that it would mean the world to me if you can come on out and join in the nonsense. Current Mood:  busy | | Thursday, April 19th, 2012 | | 8:40 am |
| | Wednesday, April 18th, 2012 | | 12:40 pm |
Boston Comic Con this weekend! Go indulge yourself!
Alas, due to conflicting commitments, I won't be joining in the revelry at Boston Comic Con this coming weekend. (I know, I know. First time in 6 years.) But you still MUST swing by and gawk at the stunning work of Jason Casey, Juli Mayers, Amy Fletcher (who will also be emceeing this year's costume contest), Eric Carter, Scott Ethan Ambruson, Scott Hamilton, and the collective body of awesomeness that is Sci-Fi Saturday Night. Tickets are $20 for a single day, or $35 dollars for both days. Go get yer geek on! | | Friday, April 13th, 2012 | | 3:08 pm |
Appropriate to the day
Turn up your speakers. Best-ever version of one of the best-ever songs:
Current Mood:  content | | Sunday, April 1st, 2012 | | 5:22 pm |
I'm an uncle
Everyone say hello to Kyle Anderson Vinton, born yesterday to my brother Matthew and his wife Melanie in the great state of Hawaii.
I look forward to someday being able to lay the "with great power comes great responsibility" line on the kid. Current Mood: good | | Friday, March 30th, 2012 | | 10:39 am |
| | Wednesday, March 28th, 2012 | | 12:06 pm |
| | Sunday, March 25th, 2012 | | 7:49 pm |
Believe the hype; go see it.
Yes, The Hunger Games is eminently worth it. The message gets through in spite of the disturbing "meta" nature of the hype. Astounding storytelling, compelling acting, superb composition. I expect it'll be in theaters for more than a few weeks; you've got time. (The preceding blog entry was not cajoled, intimidated, or bribed into being by Lion's Gate Entertainment or any of its subsidiaries.) | | Friday, March 16th, 2012 | | 6:35 pm |
My day:
Cleared some rough hurdles at work, managed to impress my boss with a minor triumph of intranet-tweakage, blocked out three more pages of The Monitor's Guild. Acquired a Doctor Who episode that now completes my collection of the totality of Season 14 (in my humble view the absolute best-ever season of the classic series). Formally broke up with the Republican Party this afternoon. Curling up with a mindless Michael Bay movie, a God's Blessing, and delicious homemade pizza this evening.
Yep. Current Mood: content | | Wednesday, March 14th, 2012 | | 9:28 am |
I must be ill or deranged or something...
I really love updating training materials. Workbooks, user guides, how-tos, handouts, and class exercises. A day spent doing nothing but inserting screen-grabs of applications into a workbook or tweaking the "here's what this does" text was a good day. I know this is a sentiment not shared by most of my fellow software trainers. Weird. Current Mood: cheerful | | Tuesday, March 13th, 2012 | | 9:33 pm |
Allrighty, it's official
I'm in a freakin' play. Along with nomoretoast and mama_hogswatch. Y'all ready for this? Come on out to Bradford, Vermont this May (4-6, and 11-13) to guffaw at the hilarity that is Don't Tell Mother!, a whirlwind of mistaken identity, coverups, extremely sudden undressings, tax evasion, and oysters. I'll be playing Joe, a totally-straight-arrow Federal agent who sincerely believes that honest innocent citizens have nothing to fear from their government (yes, savor that little irony). Buy your tickets ahead of time and come on out to help us kick off the Old Church Theater's 2012 season with a few belly laughs! | | Wednesday, March 7th, 2012 | | 8:55 am |
Here's a radical idea...
Include in the 4th year of med school, a class called "Civility 101." Some basic instruction on how to say complicated things like "Good morning," a socially acceptable way to shake hands, how to engage in light small talk, how to effectively interact with a gas station attendant or a waiter or a store clerk, how to politely talk on the phone, how to compose an email that non-scientists and non-doctors can read --and in all other ways just a course that makes sure you're headed out into the world with an actual ability to civilly interact with actual people, not just patients and colleagues. And you don't get your M.D. until you score at least an 80%. I swear, some doctors communicate at level: Rainman. Or, if they're particularly socially adept, perhaps Milton from "Office Space." Current Mood:  a bit grumpy-like | | Saturday, March 3rd, 2012 | | 10:06 am |
On "The Hunger Games" upcoming release
Just watched a sneak-preview of a scene, the one where Katniss gets the gamemakers' attention with a well-placed arrow at the buffet table. It's wonderfully done and I am sincerely looking forward to the movie, BUT...  ...as I watch it there really is something inherently wrong with having scrolling ads for upcoming "reality-TV" and game shows elsewhere in the same browser window. It's as if we're all willfully missing the point Suzanne Collins has been trying to make --or worse, that the message is being deliberately blunted and we're all letting ourselves be distracted by the love story at its core --exactly as The Capitol would need it to play out. (Illustration at right? NOT a movie prop --this is a real book currently on shelves. PRECISELY the sort of book, title and all, that you'd see in District 1 as the Games got nearer and nearer.) I'm dreadfully afraid that the marketing of this movie is going dreadfully awry and that it's inherent dire warning will quaintly become Just Another Hollywood Summer Blockbuster. This has happened a few times before --movies like The Siege or V For Vendetta. Only a very few folks took the movies as the warnings they were meant to be --the rest of us clapped politely at the nice adventure story and then walked out of the theater, supremely confident that it was merely fiction and already in search of the next distraction. I just don't want to see this movie as one of the choir surrounded on all sides by the Sundays-only congregation, if you take my meaning. Current Mood:  morose | | Thursday, March 1st, 2012 | | 12:59 pm |
The more I learn about this guy, the more I like him
"The problem, often not discovered until late in life, is that when you look for things like love, meaning, motivation, it implies they are sitting behind a tree or under a rock. The most successful people recognize, that in life they create their own love, they manufacture their own meaning, they generate their own motivation.
"For me, I am driven by two main philosophies, know more today about the world than I knew yesterday. And along the way, lessen the suffering of others. You'd be surprised how far that gets you."
--Neil deGrasse Tyson, posting on Reddit.com, 2/29/2012 Current Mood:  inspired | | Saturday, February 18th, 2012 | | 10:37 am |
It finally happened
As I mentioned a ways back in my usual maudlin tone of voice, I had some rough hurdles to clear at work. This week I learned that I FINALLY cleared the last one --passed a certification test with a score of 87% (85 was needed). I'll take it. HUGH sighs of relief hereabouts. Thank you, Rory Williams Pond. --grin-- Good note upon which to embark on a little mid-winter vacation. Current Mood: triumphant | | Friday, February 3rd, 2012 | | 9:55 am |
Perhaps the larger lesson here is: keep it local
Salvation Army? So big they actually get Federal funds and have influence-peddlers in Washington. More money goes to keeping them administratively afloat than actually feeding and clothing them 'wot needs it. Susan G. Komen foundation? Same story. Only about 19% of the money they take in goes to actual, you know, cancer research. Too big of an organization --more concerned with maintaining its own entrenched power structure than its stated purpose for being; hence its suddent devotion to political issues and a tendency to sue anyone who's not wearing a certain colour correctly. I understand a whole lotta similar allegations against the American Red Cross surfaced post-Katrina. And I could name a number of churches --shit, probably entire religions-- that behave the same way. Too big, too entrenched, and waaaaay too invested in self-justification at any price. Time to forget 'em. (Too big to fail? More like too big to succeed.) You want to do something for cancer patients or help with cancer research? Go local. Pick the nearest hospital with an oncology department, and toss 'em a few bucks. Or donate your time to 'em. Here's who I help out. (Also sold some art for these folks.) THAT money will go where it's supposed to. | | Tuesday, January 31st, 2012 | | 4:41 pm |
STOP SAYING THAT
The President does not "run the country." The President does not "run the country." The President does not "run the country." Nothing personal, I just seethe every time I see/hear that phrase kicked around, because its use belies a fundamental misunderstanding of the Presidency and the duties of the office. When folks use that phrase it's almost as if they want to have their lives run by some sort of supreme authority. We don't have an Emperor. The United States is not some ship of state that will run aground without a King or a Queen or a Viceroy at the wheel. We have a Chief Executive whose power is equal to that of Congress AND to the Supreme Court. The President is not our Leader... and he/she sure as hell isn't our Ruler. I don't care who the President is or which party he/she belongs to, he/she does NOT "run the country." That phrase just plain needs to die. The sooner we bury it, the sooner we can have meaningful discussions on Constitutionality and limitation of powers. Current Mood:  angry |
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