Tag: movie

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Dude, You’re Getting a Dell!

I ran home this morning after clicking some more cookies with Eaddie. Uncle Giao and the family came down, so I had to get a laptop ready for him to take. It took me a while to get everything updated and ready to go, but hopefully it works well for him. I spent most of the afternoon at my parents’ house until they left. Then I ate some leftovers before heading back to Summer’s.

Nobody was really hungry for a proper dinner, but Autumn grilled some hot dogs and we all munched a bit in the evening. Then she wanted to watch The Greatest Showman, which I surprisingly didn’t really care for. I didn’t dislike it by any means, but I think I had just built it up to be something completely different in my mind.

When we finished that, I put on The History of Time Travel until Summer and Autumn went to bed. Then Eaddie and I stayed up and watched an episode of House before bed.

No, that was not a real documentary about how someone invented an actual time machine out of an Atari.

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Eat It, Fix It, File It, Find It, Wipe It, Roll It, Fail, Upgrade It

I met Josh and Aaron at Waffle House for breakfast this morning. We had a really good time catching up over coffee, and we collectively realized that we’ll have to just schedule something every month, like the old folks that congregate for breakfast at Hardee’s every Sunday.

When we left there, I stopped by Mark’s for about an hour and finished up some work for him. I was successful with everything I had to touch today, which was a relief. Hopefully the Outlook sync finished up fine after I left. There was still plenty of the day left to waste unintentionally, so I went home to try and clean up while the girls were gone.

I filed some old paperwork, but couldn’t find my old Fiero title. I assumed it never left my parents’ house. Summer came back by for a little bit to help, but I had already lost my way for the most part. While I was running around the house, I had trouble getting music to play on the speakers I wanted. I ended up pulling out an old router and wasting the rest of the afternoon trying to set it up as a range extender to see if better WiFi coverage would help.

The girls eventually came back over and we went to my parents’ house for spring rolls. Dad picked up Nova for dinner as well, and then we all sat down to watch Rustlers’ Rhapsody. I didn’t realize how old it was until I looked it up later, but I should have known.

When we got back home, I completed my wireless repeater setup and put Summer to bed. Finally, Eaddie and I ended the night with the last episode of the first season of House.

What’s so great about you is you always think you’re right. And what’s so frustrating about you is you are right so much of the time.

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Pixar 2020: What if Black People Had Feelings?

I got some really good sleep last night, then woke up to pay some bills. Then I started researching some Samsung phones to decide whether to take advantage of a deal on Google Fi. While I was in the middle of that, Dad and Uncle Giao came over and dumped a bunch of old tech junk. Then Uncle Giao asked for me to find him a laptop and set it up with a Vietnamese keyboard. Everyone surrounded me, insisting that I could just “download it or something.”

Once they all left, I got a shower and headed to Summer’s for the evening. She ordered Domino’s after having to work all day, so I picked it up on the way. After we finished eating, Autumn put on Soul, which was at least better than Incredibles 2 in my opinion. Maybe I was just tired when we saw that in the theater, but I hadn’t dozed off at the movies in a looong time.

All this house does is sleep.

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A Wonder We’ve Made It This Far

I picked up some semi-disappointing biscuits from Hardee’s for breakfast this morning before our trip to Conway. They just seemed like they weren’t quite as “loaded” as they should have been. The biscuits themselves, however, were perfect as always.

The girls loaded up in the cold, misty rain, and we made it to Conway just in time to grab snacks and take our seats before the previews started. The girls didn’t really remember the first Wonder Woman movie, and we probably should have watched it last night instead of The Dark Knight Rises for a refresher. I thought this one was entertaining, but the story seemed weak. I would have liked to see more building up of the villain and where he came from. In contrast, I didn’t find the flashback to baby Diana to be very important at all.

After the movie and with some protest, we went to Kohl’s to look around. I got a mooing chip clip that was on clearance for what should have been regular price, so that was worth the trip by itself. The girls all wanted to eat by then, and of course couldn’t agree on a place to go, so I picked Mike’s Place as a treat. I figured Autumn could get the steak she wanted, and Eaddie could get something aquatic.

Our server was fantastic, but I didn’t love my fish. Autumn’s $30 New York strip looked to be cooked to perfection, but she turned her nose up at it after about three bites. Then she tried to convince us that her palate was sophisticated enough to identify and appreciate different cuts and qualities of beef, and that she didn’t want it because it wasn’t good. Astoundingly, I managed to bury whatever beast those comments normally would have unleashed, and we boxed up her leftovers for my breakfast.

Both of the girls’ behavior really started to slide from that point on, as we went to walk Target, and then Best Buy. They cried about staying one more night at my house, and I got to try my hand at Good Cop again. Their attitudes really seem to be habits learned from always getting their way, and again I can feel my strict hand at parenting tightening its grip.

Such is the cost of making a better people.

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Standard Fair

Summer had to work today but didn’t go in until late morning. I had some cereal for breakfast that I only regretted a little. The girls were to do chores all day to get the house back into shape, and Autumn did pretty well on her own. Eaddie wasn’t having any of it, and required more persuasion.

In the afternoon, Julie had us over for traditional New Year’s fixings. On the way out, I said something to try and correct some misinformation, but ended up just striking a nerve again. More on that later. A little while after we got back to the house, Autumn left with her father to go shopping and get some food. Eaddie didn’t feel like going, so I helped her clean under her bed. Eventually Summer got home from work and took Autumn to the gym with her. I went home to clean up before they followed me over.

Julie offered me the leftover ham bone, so I went to pick it up and she yelled at me some more about how life isn’t fair. It really got me aggravated with the whole family feud to the point that I’m going to have to settle it once and for all with some quick number crunching. It’s easy to cry foul when you’re using imagined statistics.

Back home, the girls arrived with some Tropical Smoothie, and I made some popcorn for the Dark Knight finale. Autumn spent a lot of the movie confused. Summer spent most of it behind her hands. Eaddie and I really loved it. I hated not getting to follow the Robin story line, but at least it was wrapped up in a nice little trilogy.

It’s not your year yet.

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On Queue

I woke up half an hour early today just to go to Starbucks for a plastic red cup. When I got there, the drive-through was coned off and traffic was wrapped around the parking lot, so I waited for just a minute before leaving after I saw absolutely no movement.

That threw me a little off of my morning routine, and I ended up late by a few minutes, but nobody was talking about anything at work. In fact, there were only five of us there, with Melinda and Josh out with COVID, and Allen taking a vacation day to avoid a cable pull. Ben said he’d buy us all lunch since we all made it to Friday.

I didn’t have any group work in the morning, so I went to the high school until lunch. Then I beat everyone else back to the shop. We decided to check out the Ridgewood Brothers’ first Friday lunch first, and would move on to Peg Leg if the line was too long. Our third option was Fat Daddy’s in London if Peg Leg wasn’t open for dine-in. Fortunately there was hardly a line, but unfortunately they were out of everything but loin back ribs and pulled pork. It still made for an incredible lunch though, and it was a beautiful day to eat outside.

After lunch, I had to help Kyle take some carts to Sequoyah. It was predictably awkward, and then he wanted me to put the truck away afterward since he had some other work to finish up there. I went back to the shop for a little while, then ended the day at the high school.

When I got home, I traded for the Murano to get some gas, then came home and waited for Summer and Autumn to get there. Autumn and I set up a dome tent I found in a repossessed vehicle back when I worked at AAF, and surprisingly it looked brand new aside from a couple missing pieces. As long as it doesn’t rain this weekend, she should be fine to camp in it.

Meanwhile, Summer got a fire going in the pit out back, and then we cooked some brats over it for dinner. We ran out of fire just as we finished as many marshmallows as we wanted, and then we came inside to watch Ralph Breaks the Internet. It didn’t have quite the amount of easter eggs as Ready Player One, but it was really good. I wish we had watched it in 3D though.

Queue? Cue? Que? Q?

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Batman in the Middle

Today was another really quiet day at work. I got down to around 15 work orders, so I really need to be putting some time into some of my older, harder, more complicated ones. I took a break for lunch and came home to make a burrito. I rode the bike back to work, and the afternoon was mostly more of the same. I got a lot of steps in, running around to collect and redistribute microphones.

After work, I came home and waited for the girls to get here. Then we ate a mix of leftovers before Eaddie and I ran to Sonic for half price Blasts. When we got back, I put on The Dark Knight for the evening. I think this was my third watch, and I finally put all of it together in my head. I don’t know why I found it so confusing before, but it just felt so disjointed for some reason. It was a long movie with a lot of plot points, so I guess I shouldn’t feel too bad.

See, I’m not a monster. I’m just ahead of the curve.

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Beginning Batman

I got up this morning and picked up some Hardee’s for breakfast. Eaddie had some more school work to do, so she got on that while Summer and I poked around at her car’s tail light. I got to use my electronic probe after a quick reading of the manual, and it’s looking like there really is something breaking continuity inside the housing.

Eventually they left for the gym and to clean up at their house. I went next door to help reteach Bác Vân and Doug how to switch inputs to their VCR and Blu-ray player, and then again to hook up another VCR in the den. When I got back in, I did the dishes and cleaned up the kitchen. Then I took a shower before the girls got back for the evening.

Summer brought some chicken, broccoli, and cauliflower to grill, so I threw that together while she and Eaddie went out to ride bikes. Nick dropped Autumn off shortly after the others got back, and just as dinner was finishing up on the grill. The chicken was a bit frozen when I started cooking it, so I think that made it a bit rubbery. Otherwise it was pretty good.

We started the Dark Knight trilogy while we ate, and everyone seemed to really like it. I still think they’re the best DC movies ever made. The trick is going to be finishing the rest of the trilogy in a timely manner.

You see, girls, it’s a time-honored tradition to kiss a boy for no reason and then leave him hanging.

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The Time Honored Tradition of Hating the New Guy

It rained a bit last night, but today was cool, clear, and beautiful out. My morning went by pretty quickly, though I didn’t accomplish a whole lot. I did decide to take a lunch though, and went home to make myself a couple burritos. I should have stopped at one, but I was afraid I’d still be hungry with the work I would be doing in the afternoon.

I took the Grom back to work after lunch. I spent just a little while at the high school, then had to meet some guys at the shop to help with a couple touch panel installs at Dwight. Zach, Greg, and Kyle were loading up Greg’s truck, and then I rode with Kyle to the school. We got there with plenty of time to spare before school let out, but the teachers let us in anyway.

The first install went relatively quickly, but Zach kept making eyes about how Kyle was doing a lot of standing and watching. In his defense, he’s shy anyway, so being new and timid seems completely normal to me. He’s fully capable of doing what you ask him to do, but it was like the other two just expected him to figure it all out. I’m sure he’ll get to where he can lead a project eventually.

We ended up having to re-run some cables in both rooms, so we didn’t finish up until right at quitting time. We unloaded at the shop, and then I went by Summer’s shop to see her for a bit. She was just about ready to leave though, so I headed home for a little while before going up to her house for dinner.

I thought we were just cleaning up leftovers, but she actually made some fresh chicken for the girls. I wasn’t really very hungry, but I just shoveled a bunch of really old food down my gullet to get rid of it. It was pretty dissatisfying.

After dinner, we came back to my house and moved the couch so we could watch a movie. Autumn really wanted to watch a Disney princess movie, which seemed to mostly annoy everyone else as usual. I had a trick up my sleeves though, because I knew we had the new Mulan on Disney Plus.

I thought the movie was alright, but lacked the punch you would expect from someone as large as the Walt Disney Company. In fact, I guess from that frame of reference it was pretty disappointing. There were a few groany parts, but overall it was entertaining and different enough from the original cartoon that it didn’t feel like a super lazy reproduction.

No, there is not at least some singing.

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Saturdate

I went to sleep super late last night after staying up with the cat to let him eat as much as he was willing. My alarm was set for just about six hours later, and I climbed out of bed to get ready for our day date in Little Rock.

Before I could get through my morning cleanup routine, Mark wanted to have a remote session to answer a few questions. What I thought was going to be a 15 minute call turned into just over an hour. I was worried we weren’t going to have time to get lunch before the matinee, but it actually worked out perfectly.

I picked Summer up and we went to Yesterday’s in Morrilton for lunch. I figured it was pretty good food from somewhere we never go, and it would put us outside of Little Rock far enough that we’d be hungry for some popcorn in the theater. My catfish and Summer’s salmon were both pretty great, and she recognized our server as a student from the junior high, which was novel enough.

We got to the Pramenade with just enough time to drive the strip, park, and enjoy just a couple minutes of blue skies before going into the nearly empty IMAX. I need to remember the seating layout better, because the online seating chart didn’t make it clear to me where my favorite seats were. Since the place was basically a ghost town, we hopped on down to our usual seats, which were really too close for comfort, but gave us a handrail to put up our feet.

Tenet was great, though a little over-loud. Some of the dialog was difficult to understand just due to the volume alone. Summer was on edge for most of it, but we enjoyed its usual Nolan-level of mind bendiness. Re-reading the plot later helped put some pieces together for me, of course.

After the movie, we went by Sam’s just to do a little shopping before we headed home. We stopped in Conway for some Rita’s Italian ice and had a nice little chat at one of the outdoor tables. When we got back home, we stopped at her house for a change of clothes, then came to my house for the evening.

What’s happened happened, which is an expression of faith in the mechanics of the world. It’s not an excuse to do nothing.