Voices In My Head

Let me remind you what my driveway looked like on Wednesday after the ice storm and my pathetic attempt to clear the ice away.



This is what it looks like after 4 cans of table salt and a whole lot of brute strength.



I fall down, go boom now, K?

Yes, I have been woefully remiss in keeping this blog updated lately. After the fiasco of The Project That Would Not Die I have found myself, well, not quite giving a shit. Sorry but that's just the way it is. I've had little to say and haven't been able to muster up the motivation to care about that fact.

Truthfully today isn't much better but I was taking a break from the work of a cube dweller, was out here surfing around and thought "Hey, maybe I should drop in and say something!". So here I am.

I finally watched WALL-E (yes, I know, I am hopelessly behind on my NetFlix). Such a sweet little film and lovingly animated. Huge fan of Pixar right here. I loved the way the WALL-E and EVE were done - the voices, the body language, just everything. And the story was cute, making me cheer out loud. A very nice way to spend a cold Saturday evening.

I also watched Hellboy II: The Golden Army and was not quite as impressed. It is a decent movie and the creatures are amazing (although the special effects makeup on the young Hellboy was atrocious). The story was only so-so. It was kind of boring really. And a little too pat. Let's just say I'm glad I got it on NetFlix and didn't pay to go see it in the theater.

Not much reading lately. I spent most of the weekend cooking instead, making soups and stews and freezing a bunch. Its getting cold here so I have this nesting thing going on, stocking up for winter. Still, I did read The Great Stink by Clare Clark and The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. I enjoyed both immensely. The Great Stink is a somewhat slower and quieter book, which tends to hide that it is a far meatier story. Lots on Victorian London, the sewers and the huge project to modernize them, mental illness, a character that pretty much suffers from post-traumatic stress long before such a thing was known, cutting, societal mores. Lots more going on here than just a murder mystery. Not for everyone. The Lost Symbol is, well, a Dan Brown book. Enough history and fact woven in to make a seemingly impossible plot almost believable. I loved the history of Washington, D.C. as well as all the stuff on the Masons, true or not. As usual Brown came close to snapping the suspension on my disbelief (real close in this one) but managed not to. And in usual Brown fashion the story doesn't end with the end of the bad guy. It just keeps going and going and going. The denouement really could have been tighter. Still I found the book a pleasurable read - and a fast one!

And now I should return to my regularly scheduled work and get something accomplished. I was late this morning due to snow, ice, and everyone in Indiana forgetting how to drive in the shit. Of course everyone else was late as well so no harm, no foul.

Is it time to go to the gym yet?