Doug's Sounding Board

I weigh 214lbs, and 26% of me is body fat. Next summer I would like to do a half-ironman level triathlon. It’s a long way to go but I think I can do it.

The 4th and final movie of the weekend for me is The Skeleton Key. I saw this with Nicole and Jeanne & Terry. I haven’t seen this many movies in a long time. I remember when this kind of thing used to be the normal state of affairs and it felt good to see a lot of movies this weekend.

Anyway, Skeleton Key is a sorta thriller movie. It won’t scare you unless you are prone to reacting to jump-scares easily. There are a number of good ones in there, but aside from that it’s just an interesting story, not one that will scare you. I found myself wanting to know more and more as it went on which I take as a good sign. Check it out, but don’t be expecting to get scared.

Neither romantic nor a comedy, but my third movie of the weekend. I’m not really sure why the critics are trashing this movie, it’s actuaqlly pretty good. Maybe they, are action movied out this summer like the rest of the audience that isn’t paying to see it, or maybe it’s because it went more for the action route rather than spending more time discussing what it brings up. I personally thought it did both fairly well.

Anyway, spoilers and stuff ahead so stop reading if you’re the kind of person who gets spoiled.

There was a pretty good version of the future presented, not good as in idyllic, but good as in believable. That goes for both the sanctuary and the outer world. The outer world had some fantastic looking future transportation and some of the best car destruction I’ve seen on the screen in a long time and this movie also has the most obvious product placement that I’ve seen in a long time. Why would clones care about all these brands? They’ll never have to buy anything and would probably end up asking for Aquafine instead of water. The sanctuary was more like the older 70s version of the future, right down to the costumes and set design.

I found the religious aspect of the movie pretty interesting as well. You have a doctor playing god who creates (grows) all these people. Then some start getting wise and escape or are made to leave the garden of eden (their sanctuary). Finally man returns and kills their god.

Check this out, but be warned it’s about two and a quarter hours.

Yesterday we went to the video store and didn’t rent anything, but then we noticed they had a lot outside that was for sale. Clearing out things that weren’t renting so much. All the DVD discs were flawless or nearlyflawless and for $25 we got:

The Cider House Rules (VHS)
Collateral (DVD) – Haven’t seen it yet
The Bourne Supremacy (DVD) – Not as good as the first one but still good
Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle (DVD) – Brilliant movie
Eight Crazy Night (DVD) – There are a lot of things that make you think “That’s just wrong,” but there’s a lot right with it too!
Die Mommie Die (DVD) – Haven’t seen this but it looks funny so we’ll give it a shot.!

Continuing with the romantic comedy track we saw “Must Love Dogs” yesterday. I mostly wanted to see it because I like watching John Cusack and Elizabeth Perkins. A lot of movies based on books have an empty feel to them that you can sense even without knowing that it’s an adaptation. This movie manages to avoid that for the most part so I was surprised at the end to find that it is based on a Novel.

The odd family characters are fun and not over the top as in something like Eulogy, just kind of your normal large family crazy. There are references to age throughout which makes me think that age plays a more important role in the book. Definitely not as funny as Hitch but a more even level of good witty dialog throughout. It’s light and fun, check it out.

Yay! I finally saw Hitch and I liked it as much as I thought I would. The funny bits were funny and the non-funny bits were done well. The only odd thing was the high-speed transitions between the two. Not quite the standard romantic comedy. Check it out.

After a number of weeks of long hours trying to get this project done enough for a demo to the company big-shots it’s done. Not that we fixed everything we wanted to fix, it’s just that we’re out of time and it’s going to have to do well enough on its own now. All I have to do with the rest of the day is stick around to see if the developers we are working with come up with an answer to the problem.

Continuing with my not being able to help reading new Star Wars books, I’ve just finished “The Joiner King” by Troy Denning. Writing for the New Jedi Order story arc Troy Denning produced one of the two best books of that series. I looked forward to his return to the Star Wars universe and with this book I am not disappointed.

Joiner King takes place about 35 years after “A New Hope” and we get to learn all about an insect race outside of republic territory that has been joined by some Jedi thought to be lost. Just what you want, a Force-weilding hive member who can draw on the force potential of everything in the hive. Anyway, this had some good alien race writing that actually made them seem pretty alien and it’s making me look forward to the other two books in the trilogy out later this year.

It’s not because I dislike coffee, sometimes I am with coffee drinkers who need their fix, and the chantico is pretty tasty.

It’s not because it’s a big corporation and the local coffee house should be supported instead though I do prefer the variety of the local places.

It’s this: When I go to Starbucks with someone I tend to not wait in line so as not to crowd things. So I pick a place to stand that doesn’t block or crowd the pickup area or invade the space of those seated at tables. Without fail people will start lining up behind me even if it’s clear the line is elsewhere. So I’ll move to a different out of the way location, and I must look like the designated line-leader the new people will start lining up behind me again!

Is there something in the coffee that inspires queueing? Is it just the design of the shops that makes peoplw want to line up behind anyone convenient?

Peter called my cell phone around 4:15PM and asked if we wanted to get pizza for dinner. I said yes and told him to call back in about 45 minutes so I could get more work done. About an hour later Liana called and asked what the deal was. we suggested Engfer’s Pizza Works since we’ve heard good things about it but have not yet been there. I told them how to get there and that we’d meet between 6 and 6:15. On my way home they left me voicemail explaining that Engfer’s is closed on Monday. After a lot of talk about how to get to Village Host pizza in Aptos we decided to go to Kianti’s in Santa Cruz because it was easier.

I don’t remember when we met in front but we had a fun dinner and Vinna was given a piece of pizza dough to play with. What a good idea! There was catching up and questions asked since it was Nicole’s first time meeting them and the food was good. From there we got some Original Cinn at the Pacific Cookie Company and then headed over to Marianne’s for some ice cream. mmmm ice cream.

We talked some more and Vinna attacked ice cream (hers and others) and wanted to see people’s tongue colors. Then it was time for us to come home and feed the dogs and for Liana and Peter and Vinna to go back to their local haven and get some rest.

I look forward to their next visit.