Cloudy Today

I like my status for yesterday's post this morning - Clouds providing lots of shade today - trying to put a cloudy day in a positive (not so scintillating) light. Yippee!

Watched Philomena last night. I enjoyed it. I kinda thought it was based on a true story before I watched it. Turns out it was. Judi Densch was great. Mom, unfortunately, slept through the whole movie.

Also started watching Daredevil on Netflix. Too absorbing. I think I watched five episodes at least before I forced myself to go to sleep. My eyeballs just about fell out of my head.

My goal for the day is to do nothing Smith related. We shall see if I can manage. I probably ought to pay some bills. And think about what I need to do next week for the Smith and for life in general. I think laundry time is creeping up on me again. Yippee. 

Yay paid a few bills. I feel so virtuous when I pay bills. I do remember a while in my life where paying them was painful beyond compare. Sigh.

Ok, so I am making a list of all the things I need to do for the Smith tomorrow - eeeeeek!

Spotify - One list (Cave)

Movie Playlists - two - Cave and Whiplash

Mail chimp - Tasting Note Send

Mail Chimp - start Mail Blast Movie May! (Even Toeprints is getting into the action)

New website - enter movies for May

Start list of movies for June

Double Check June with Kelly

Double Check May with Kelly

Update Instructions Sheet for Ticket selling

Send Email about training session for Projectionists (re box office and refresher on things)

Send email about cleaning session at the Smith

Send email about RPO on Friday

Check with Mexican Film and contact the guy

Look at Snake movie and contact them

Download Call Security’s music video

Contact Stephen Giamotti and see what is up with Young Adulterated

Contact HBO woman again

Meet with Jocelyn and do conference call

Meet with Jessica and talk about ticket selling - and scanning

Order the internet boosters (2 at least)

See if I can figure out what is wrong with the little computer and its battery

Call Damien and see if he can scrub our two laptops of viruses and such

Call Carl Blewshewke at Finger Lakes Health and see if he is doing the graduation or if somebody else is

Look through email for anything pending

There are probably more things, but I can't think of them off the top of my head - oh, wait, I did think of one - check the weather and set up heating/cooling. 

Now mom's toilet innards need replacing again. Yet mine remain fine. What is up with that? I will try to buy innards tomorrow or Tuesday.

So, I finally finished the campaign of Advanced Warfare. I really hate quicktime cut scenes and events. Which is why I like the Bethesda games so much - those only happen when in dialogue and nothing of extreme consequence happens during dialogue. Anyway, I played my first game online and went 17-18 and was second on our team, which makes me pretty happy. Playing on a map with a load out that was less than optimal and totally not understood by me, I am very pleased with that result. Yippee! Tomorrow is another day.

Look, more snow!

Now, "look" would make one think that I am putting in a picture of the new snowfall that we got last night. And, if I get my act together, I might just do that. Probably won't, but anything is possible.

Feeling a little tired this morning. Oh well - gotta push through a little work at the Smith - getting the projector back to baseline for the movies this afternoon and evening. The group that came in yesterday needed a lot of video tweaking to get it how they wanted it - and to accommodate using the cyc(lorama) as the projection screen. It would be really clever of me to write down these settings, wouldn't it. Sigh.

Went in and the settings were what they ought to have been. I don't know what that is about. Honestly, I am not making an effort to understand this projector that well. We will, hopefully, soon get a new projector. And server. And become, presto, DCI compliant. That would be nifty. Though movies that we get on DCP are probably going to be fairly costly. Rental and shipping. Anyway, it only took me half an hour to do all the movie stuff I had thought of. Then I took another half hour working on getting the second ticket printing printer set up - to no avail. I will try again on Monday. It really oughtn't to be as difficult as it is. Why they don't just factory install it with a large (high) IP address, I don't know. What ever. Maybe the Artsman support people will be a great help. Anything is possible.

Home became lunch land for a bit. I made mom a small lunch of crackers (she didn't eat them) a third of a banana, some ensure type drink and some orange glop. Oh, and hot coffee. She took a long time to take her pills, but did a decent job on the food. Still holding out hope that her diminished appetite is due to the pain from the shingles. Which, apparently, is getting worse. Fingers crossed that the shingles and the pain go away soon.

I am playing a sniper world war two game on my xBox. Not the best game, but entertaining in its way. I am also cruising through the first Harry Potter book on audio. Put a hold on the second. I wish that mom would like or understand Audio books. Sigh.

The second things that came out of the new oven - six chicken pockets and two pizza pockets! Yum!

These turned out much better than my last ones

More pictures! I am working on a de-cluttering track on Daily Challenge. Yay! I am only going to do it for 9 days for now, but will go back to it as it seems like it will be what I need a lot of in my life just now. I don't think Daily Challenge has a dating track. Hmm. I will have to see. But I am doing the challenges. One of them was to declutter my kitchen counters - something I did a few years ago when I first moved back. Here are the newly cleaned counters:

Left Counter all spiffy

Right Counter even spiffier

I hope to keep it about this clean, give or take, more or less...

Ditto with this counter - sans the laptop and the Harry Potter Book

Some of the stuff that came off the counters (not the puzzle stuff...)

Those Four little words we all long to hear.

It has been a while since I tried to make a quiche. So I attempted one today. I think it turned out pretty well, all things considered. Mom used to eat them at least. Anyway, tonight I head those four little words everyone who cooks a meal for someone else longs to hear, "It tastes like cardboard." Music to my ears for sure.

My mom thinks that I am super valuable to the Smith. She asks me if they appreciate me. I think they do, most of the time. I am making a list of things that have happened during my tenure at the Smith, big and small. It is actually a pretty impressive list. Ok, I think it is impressive. I might ask Kelly to weigh in at some point. And maybe Jessica. I guess this is partly because I want to be known partially for what I have done and not just for what I have done lately.

It is weird. I haven't really done much today, yet I feel like I have accomplished a good bit. I am slowly getting closer to being ready to video tape a puzzle put together. A friend asked me why I wanted to create the video - and I realized the answer: I love time lapse photography. In college, a couple friends and I put together a little stop action film. I wish I could find it. I found a lot of my other film work - ok, not a lot - I have found a few pieces. All crap - except for the Alice in Wonderland bit I did in High School - it had Abigail Saltonstall and Karen Bowlby in it - go me! And Doug Orr, Hunt Stehli and James Marquand. I wonder if I ought to digitize it and put it up on the internet. Yes, I think that will be another project sometime soon. I have it on videotape somewhere so I can get that digitally transferred somehow - actually I think Karl (my brother)(who doesn't read this blog - or much of anything since he is so busy!) might actually have that technology. Hmm. Anyway, I remember seeing time lapse photography of all sorts of things - flowers growing, buildings being built, I just thought a puzzle being put together would be cool. And it might help me to see my process. And document my obsession if I time stamp. Can I time stamp a time lapse film? Hmm. I don't know. We shall see, I guess.

One game down, many still to go. I finished Assassin's Creed Liberation today. I do enjoy the Assassin's Creed games - great historic places they recreate - and all the climbing around and exploring is fun. And there are some elements of Role Playing involved - not a lot, but a little.

And that is about all, really. And working on that Smith accomplishment list. And trying to get through a teeny headache - I don't often get headaches, so I am confused whence this one came. Maybe not enough water?

Despite starring Emma Stone, Amazing Spider-Man 2 was pretty bad. Fun, but bad. Glad I rented it from Netflix instead of watching it in the theatre!

The Secret to Quick Yummy Cooking is...

I had this epiphany the other day, while making my version of Tuna Casserole. I love epiphanies. They feel so good. But they can't be forced. I have yet to have an epiphany on demand. Anyone else find that to be the case? Lots of things in life can't be forced. Locks, though, they can often be forced. At various times in my life I have wanted to learn how to be a locksmith. I am sure that is a skill that would be cool to have. But where was I?

Oh, right, my cooking epiphany: Cream of Mushroom soup in a can! That's right, when in doubt, dump a can of cream of mushroom soup into your meal and voila! Instant yumminess. When I bought the cans for the tuna casserole, a recipe I ought to have halved, actually, I bought an extra "just in case." Another yumminess adder - for me at least, not being too lactose intolerant or anything, is our cream. Nectar of the gods! And the beef stroganoff recipe I use has both cream of mushroom soup and sour cream in it! Huzzuh!!

I didn't do a lot yesterday - or so it seems. One thing I did do, though, was clean off a counter in the kitchen that had gotten super cluttered. That particular counter was neat and wide open a few years ago, but over the past couple of years, stuff built up on it again. Then last night, for some reason, I proceeded to clean it off. Which is the way I seem to roll. Doing one bit of neatening every few years! Go me! (Rah, rah) At that rate, the house will be clean in, er, well, never. Sigh.

Ah, right, I did some Smith work yesterday. And I am doing a bit of that today. I need to go in and test all of the film stuff to make sure that it is happy - so the projectionist who comes in doesn't experience anything too weird to handle when they come in tonight.

Watched American Hustle last night and enjoyed it. I love Amy Adams and mostly watched it because of her. Mom didn't understand it at all.

Run Augustus Run

I liked that movie - Run Lola Run - didn't love it, but thought it was interesting at least. I think. From what I recall.

I like feeling like I am running every day. That isn't fun. And that is how I have felt all week. Ick. I mean, I am not exhausting myself or anything. It isn't like I am up at dawn (ok, sometimes I wake before the sun is up, but I generally go back to sleep after puttering for an hour or so on the internet) and then go, go, go all day. This is what was happening: wake up, putter for a little on the computer, get up, check on mom, go to the Smith - work for two hours getting some stuff done, not accomplishing all I wanted to accomplish, head home - make lunch, clean the kitchen, eat lunch, check on mom a few times, sit and check email and suddenly it is 2 and I head back to The Smith - work for a couple of hours, which sometimes turned into three hours - come back, check on mom, head to the grocery store (I love fresh groceries) - return home - sit for a few minutes - checking email (usually fruitlessly in terms of who I would like to hear from but usually some last minute stuff for the Smith) - cook dinner - snarf dinner and head to the Smith to show a film. Get home, check on mom, and eventually unwind enough to sleep comfortably.

Today (Saturday) I was planning on relaxing until I had to head into the Smith. Though I must admit, I am thinking of heading in and working on the Slide show a bit - I have a couple of things to add and want to add a couple of new Smith/Graphic slides that are going to take some work. But we had snow today, from what I can see from my bed through the bedroom window, we had a decent amount of what looks like pretty heavy snow, which means a modicum of shoveling is in order - and car cleaning off...oh, and bills to pay and mom to check on...Sigh. Run, Augustus, Run! (Or am I Forrest...)

Blue and Gray

Or do I mean grey. Hmm. Anywho, weren't those the colors for the Confederacy during the American Civil War? Wow, great! At some point on my political blog, I am sure I will end up writing about the Civil War. Yes, I haven't posted the first entry there yet. I have three written but haven't figured out if I like them or want to re-write them. We shall see. That is one of the many little things that is helping me to feel a tad blue just now. Maybe I will cure that little bit today.

Luckily, this here is a Sunday blog, and as such will probably have even lower readership than normal! Yippee! (I did, though, post another Writing Blog entry - not scintillating, but something...)

Oh and the gray comes from the day - it is overcast (as is frequently the case here in lovely Geneva) and my sweatpants and t-shirt are both grey. TED - does everyone know about the TED series of talks? - A friend posted a cool one about magic thinking - the gist of it was, well, what I took away was - the best way to be productive and creative was to work until you got tired of working. Then play. Then play until you get tired of playing and then work. Which is just the way that I like to do things - and have liked to do things for as long as I can remember. Which is one reason that I can't stay in any one job for too long. Too much work and not enough play...

More reasons for blueness - money. Why the heck do money and I have such an antipathetical relationship? I could really use a decent monthly influx of cash. Donations gratefully accepted. Though I do have products out there - that no one is buying! I really need to do something about that but just feel paralyzed. My thought is to buy Google ad or Facebook ad time for my books. But the process is a smidge intimidating - and there is, big surprise, a cost involved. Which of course gets paid up front. And why have so few of my "friends" bought copies? What is that about? Grrr. Part of me wishes that the Saucers weren't so far away, so that I could a) drown my sorrows at a place that makes me, generally, happy b) work on my 20th plate and c) sell copies of Diary of a Plate Addict. My current thought is to head down to Charlotte and Columbia for my birthday - have a couple of days at each Saucer. But have I written to either of the managers? Nope. I am just feeling a bit defeated by the whole thing. A friend's friend wrote a book and has already sold more than 1000 copies - a novel! I guess he has more friends than I do. Or friends who are more supportive than some of my friends are. By the way, for those of you who have purchased copies (especially those who didn't feel they needed to, or that the book was expensive yet bought copies anyway) you all are awesome!

Lack of a relationship is another little blue note. And I don't have any idea what the heck to do about that."Do nothing," is the common piece of very helpful advice. "It will happen when it happens." Great. Woo hoo!

And there is mom. Sometimes the whole situation just makes me feel sad. Ok, it often does. I feel like I am not really all that much value add for her here. I know, for instance, I am not cleaning up the house very quickly or effectively. And that is sad-ifying.

Well, enough of the pity party. Mom and I went out last night! Woo hoo! Rocking Saturday night when your hot date is your 81 year-old mom! Yippee! Gosh, I am such the babe-magnet! Anyway, we went to see The Artist. I mean, why not, since it got the Best Movie Oscar and the leading man got the Leading Man Oscar. I thought that it was good, not great. Any number of movies actually from that era were as good or better. The lead was pretty good - not having seen all of the other nominated performances, I can't really compare and contrast. I am glad I went, but I don't think that a copy of it will adorn my DVD collection shelf any time soon. After that we went to Friendly's for dinner. Mom does like going to Friendly's. It was quite busy - I keep forgetting not to go on Weekend Nights - but that is when the movies are, so...Jeanette, one of the servers, was nice and even gave mom a hug. Mom ended up having sweet and sour shrimp, which she enjoyed, and I had a so-so reuben. At home, our exciting evening was topped off with watching the first two episodes of Season 2 of Rome. All in all, a pleasant day. I hope Lucius Verenus pulls himself out of the black place in which he has found himself...please, no spoilers!

Yay movies!

Mom's friendly dinner