Laser Eye Surgery: Suddenly, I See

  • Post author:
  • Post category:HealthMovies

I woke up this morning with much improvement in my vision. It’s still not 20/20, but I can read text at a distance, and such. I’m back at work – one thing I’ve noticed is that I still can’t see facial expressions at a distance, so I can’t tell what my co-workers are doing/expressing when they’re walking down the hallway toward me. But that will clear up soon, I’m sure.

While I was home puttering around, I was okay to watch movies and such. So I saw a few things that I could add to my movies list.

  1. The Big Lebowski – DVR’ed from cable. I wish I’d seen it earlier; I think I should have added it to my pop-culture lexicon before now.
  2. The Aristocats – I’ve had this on DVD for several years and never popped it in. I loved it as a kid, but there are sure some slow spots as an adult.
  3. Nancy Drew, Reporter (1939) – on DVD – Stephanie got me this from the dollar bin a while back; it’s very cute, although I’d quibble with Nancy needing to be rescued so often.
  4. The Ice Storm – on DVD. Stephanie owns this one – she really liked it, and I did as well.
Continue ReadingLaser Eye Surgery: Suddenly, I See

Music Rediscovered

  • Post author:
  • Post category:Music

We finally we able to upgrade the firmware on our Terabyte server last weekend, and it’s finally behaving in a stable fashion with iTunes (fingers crossed). It was apparently having trouble with long file names (!) and iTunes loves to create long file names, so it kept hiccuping. Since I’ve been home this week, I’ve been able to sort out and reload lots of our music that was acting funny, and I’ve been able re-rip lots of our CDs that have been buried in boxes since we moved in. One of my old favorites I haven’t listened to in many years – the Doo Wop Box.

I’ve been running around the house singing along – Stephanie’s already rolling her eyes. It’s probably safe to say you might here a few songs from this boxed set at our wedding reception, like maybe this…

Buzz Buzz Buzz
The Hollywood Flames
(The Doo Wop Box: 101 Vocal Group Gems from the Golden Age of Rock ‘N’ Roll)
(wha-ooh, wha-ooh, wha-ooh, wha-ooh)
Well buzz buzz buzz goes the bumble bee
A twiddledeedledee goes a bird
But the sound of your little voice, darling,
Its the sweetest sound Ive ever heard.
Well, Ive seen the beauty of the red, red rose,
Seen the beauty when the skies are blue,
Seen the beauty of the evening sunset- but the beauty of you!
Sweet is the honey from the honeycomb,
Sweet are the grapes from the vine,
But theres nothing as sweet as you, darling,
And I hope some day you’ll be mine!

Continue ReadingMusic Rediscovered

Laser Eye Surgery: Getting my eyeballs replaced

As someone at work put it. I’m getting laser surgery (specifically PKR) done on my eyes tomorrow by Dr. Waltz of TLC of Indianapolis. I’m doing my traditional “Stress relief by just not thinking about it” form of denial, so I don’t freak out. It couldn’t possibly be worse than the surgeries I’ve already had. Anyways, I’m taking several days off work – tomorrow, Tuesday and Wednesday (with bonus MLK day on Monday) to hang out around the house. My eyesight is pretty darned bad, and in the last few years my allergies have made contacts a pain to wear on an all-day basis. I’m completely looking forward to not being near-sighted; to be able to see while swimming, shave my legs in the shower without guesswork, and see the alarm clock better in the morning.

On Monday, I went out with some friends and saw National Treasure: Book of Secrets, starring Nick Cage, with his toupee in a prominent but uncredited role. There’s a fellow that’s had some surgery – and not in a good way. You can tell he’s going for the “Indiana Jones/Harrison Ford rakish grin” in some scenes, but it ends up looking a bit like he has gas.

And I just finished up The Dangerous Book for Boys by Conn Iggulden and Hal Iggulden, finally. That took me awhile, mainly because I just wasn’t into it after I got part way through. I gotta say, I did completely pooh-pooh the people who were dissing it as a sexist tome, but after reading it, I see what they were on about. There were several sections that really should have been written a bit less – I dunno, anti-feminine? It’s great to be all “rah rah” masculinity, but not at the expense of “rah rah femininity.” The sections on Famous Battles was great for getting me to fall asleep – if I’d been sitting in a class on it, I’d be at the back intoning “boooooooooorrrrrrrrrring!” under my breath.

Continue ReadingLaser Eye Surgery: Getting my eyeballs replaced

Weekend Update – Movies

  • Post author:
  • Post category:Movies

We managed to add two movies to our viewing list this weekend, along with dinner at Ralph’s Great Divide on Friday and Mama Carolla’s on Saturday, an overly sweet bottle of Reisling, much work on Stephanie’s part, and my reading the Sunday paper, a book and lots of blogs.

Murder By Death (1976)
Eileen Brennan, Truman Capote, James Coco, and Peter Falk, Alec Guinness, David Niven, Maggie Smith
A Neil Simon murder-mystery spoof from 1976 that tacked every funny genre conceit of murder mysteries with an ensemble cast of stars. It was very funny, and I’m not sure how I missed this one before, given my teenage love of Agatha Christie novels. It was clearly the inspiration for another favorite comedy of mine – Clue. Strangely, I don’t own clue, although I remember it being in the $5 bin at Target. Wonder why I never picked that up.

Failure to Launch (2007)
Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew McConaughey
This was a lot funnier than I expected, although I say that with reservations, lest someone think I’m approving of the recent misogynist cinematic trend of “Guys who refuse to grow up and still get the girl.”
Wait a minute here… Matthew McConaughey was born in November 4 1969? He’s younger than me? He looks like he’s in his late forties. I had so much trouble with the idea of him still living at home, because he looked so old.

Continue ReadingWeekend Update – Movies

links for 2008-01-14

Continue Readinglinks for 2008-01-14

EW’s Best Love Songs Ever: The Top 25!

  • Post author:
  • Post category:Music

Entertainment Weekly’s List:

  1. Just Like Heaven” – The Cure (1987)
  2. As” – Stevie Wonder (1976)
  3. Purple Rain” – Prince (1984)
  4. Your Song” – Elton John (1970)
  5. “Time After Time” – Cyndi Lauper (1984)
  6. “If Not for You” – Bob Dylan (1970)
  7. Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” – Marvin Gaye/Tammi Terrell (1967)
  8. “Crazy in Love” – Beyoncé (2003)
  9. “Unchained Melody” – The Righteous Brothers (1965)
  10. These Arms of Mine” – Otis Redding (1962)
  11. You Send Me” – Sam Cooke (1957)
  12. At Last” – Etta James (1961)
  13. When a Man Loves a Woman” – Percy Sledge (1966)
  14. Ring of Fire” – Johnny Cash (1963)
  15. Maybe I’m Amazed” – Paul McCartney (1970)
  16. In Your Eyes” – Peter Gabriel (1986)
  17. “All I Want Is You” – U2 (1988)
  18. Sweet Child O’ Mine” – Guns N’ Roses (1988)
  19. Wild Horses” – The Rolling Stones (1971)
  20. I Will Always Love You” – Whitney Houston (1992)
  21. Let’s Stay Together” – Al Green (1971)
  22. (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” – Aretha Franklin (1967)
  23. Something” – The Beatles (1969)
  24. “Can’t Help Falling in Love” – Elvis Presley (1961)
  25. God Only Knows” – The Beach Boys (1966)
Continue ReadingEW’s Best Love Songs Ever: The Top 25!

links for 2008-01-11

Continue Readinglinks for 2008-01-11

links for 2008-01-10

Continue Readinglinks for 2008-01-10

Usability in Clocks and Watches

I’ve been subscribed to the Watchismo Times blog for quite some time now after noticing links to it from Boing Boing, one of my staple blog reads. Watchismo describes their content as being “a reliquary of obscure timepieces from bygone eras as well as the cutting edge designs of today.” I’d say that’s definitely the case; there are some truly amazing watches that show up on their site, like the Kilfitt spy watch/camera prototype from 1969. If you notice damages on your watch, you may bring it to a watch service shop to have it fixed. Something about that watch is really aesthetically pleasing.

killfit camerawatch

The thing that bugs me, though, is that so many of their highlighted “cutting edge designs” may be visually interesting, but they aren’t very usable. For me, large face watches needs some key things – if it’s analog, it should have all 12 numerals in Arabic (NOT roman). If it’s digital, the numbers should be large and high-contrast. Also required are the date and a light so the time can be checked in the dark. These are the qualities to look out for in a hublot replica. Anything else is just a pretty bracelet, IMHO. You may also consider taking a look at this fake rolex. And if you are looking for the perfect everyday wear, waterproof jewellery that won’t tarnish, then you may check out some waterproof jewellery collections here.

The 12 Arabic numerals (or at the very least, 4 Arabic numerals) is a criteria for analog clocks for me, also. I have a weird fetish for clocks (which is part of the reason the change to daylight savings time makes me really grumpy; we have lots of them to change twice a year) but you’ll never see me buy one with Roman numerals. Why they even make them is beyond me.

cool clock
Good.

The time is 9:47
Good.

clock
Not as Good.

Continue ReadingUsability in Clocks and Watches