avablog

Forget the overpriced tickets, the expensive snacks, the lines, and the whole “going outside” thing. Here’s the best reason to avoid the movie theater. (Don’t pretend you don’t have a second of empathy for the shooter.) Well, 29-year-old James Joseph Cialella Jr went to see David Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button at the […]

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Rest in peace, Paul. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Hustler, Cool Hand Luke…Slap Shot. Sheesh. What a body of work. Sometimes nothin’ is a real cool hand.

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I was originally thinking that there would be maybe two readers here who would have any interest in reading about the trials and tribulations of my home theater/Apple TV setup, but then — as I thought more — I figured, what could it hurt? Don’t click through unless you know what a TOSlink cable is. […]

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The reviews are pouring in, and they’re love songs. Looks like I’m going to have to wait for this one to come out on DVD, which is fine with me. The more I go to movies, the more I’m reminded why I don’t go to movies. Seems the odds are anymore that my experience will […]

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Sometimes I see something on the Wonderful Wide Web (frequently on BoingBoing) that pushes a magical button way, way deep down inside my being. Here’s the most recent cause for delight: A “one-of-a-kind” Lego replica of Syd Mead’s Spinner flying car from the movie Blade Runner. Oh. Man. How Lego doesn’t go into mass production […]

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Well, the week’s ending as it started. Thank goodness it was a short one. RIP, Harvey. If you never saw him in anything but Blazing Saddles, you still saw more comedic talent than you can find in any film made in the last 10 years. Gosh, this guy was good. Hedley Lamarr: My mind is […]

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Maybe not weird. But a mishmash, at least. We drove to Burlington yesterday to visit our friends Bob and Judy and to take in the Snake Alley Criterium. What a great race. I have all sorts of pictures here. The vast majority of the pictures are of people riding bikes, but there are a couple […]

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Leah and I finally got around to watching There Will Be Blood last night. It got me thinking.

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What better way to brighten the mood than to bring Hitler into the mix? If you haven’t seen Downfall, do yourself a favor. Bruno Ganz is mesmerizing, and I don’t mean that in the usual People-Magazine-movie-review sense, either. More like the Elizabeth-Berkley-in-Showgirls* sense. You know what I’m talkin’ ’bout. *Or, if you prefer, the episode […]

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David Price has a book out on the (relatively short) history of Pixar, one of my favorite companies in the world.

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Leah and I went to see Iron Man last night, and since we get to movies so infrequently, it seems worth posting about.

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Or at least you’d think so by the way pregnancy is spreading at my office. I just had a visit from one of my female colleagues from the department to inform me — officially — that she’s pregnant. Just into her second trimester. The other woman of breeding age amongst the researchers here is also […]

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That’s life. We thought we had Ava’s cold beat, but she had a pretty good fever again last night, so no daycare for 24 hours. Rules are rules. The real kicker is that we were about 15 minutes from the end of The Painted Veil, which we got using Leah’s new Netflix subscription. We have […]

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Sorta like the chicken pox, Ava got her first exposure to the movie “Cars” at daycare. We were trapped inside today during the latest snow storm to hit the area, and after baking cookies and exhausting our other indoor entertainment options, we finally fell back on a little good ol’ video. I was scrolling down […]

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The ATV gurus are swarming over Apple’s recent AppleTV Take 2 update like flies on a rib roast. Leah’s excited about the update because it’ll let us watch online rentals (but only if you’re using HDMI!); I just want to make sure I can update and still have my beloved network drive mounts remain intact. […]

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My mom was set to come over and sit for us last night while we went to dinner with friends. But as we were getting Ava ready, she insisted she wanted to stay overnight at Gramary’s. Leah and I weren’t sure, but Ava was super excited and insisted she would be OK. So we agreed. […]

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So we were watching “Sunshine” last night. Perhaps you’ve seen it. Anyway, it was recommended by a friend. It was OK. But I knew we weren’t in for anything too fantastic when pretty much the opening shot was a ripoff of “Alien.”

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I was grabbing a cup of what passes for coffee around here this morning, and there was a box of Swiss Valley cocoa mix sitting near the coffee machine. As I poured my (real) sugar packet into my mug, I noticed the Swiss Valley box said the contents were made with “fresh milk.” What in […]

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It stands for hysterosalpingogram. A radioactive dye is inserted into the uterus while under an X-ray machine. An image is created that lets you know if there are any blockages or other problems with your uterus or fallopian tubes. It’s pretty amazing to watch. The hospital sent us home with a CD of images from […]

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My MacBook was busy this weekend ripping and encoding a number of DVDs. Handbrake‘s latest version really does a nice job encoding DVD rips with 5.1 channel surround via default settings. I was able to get through Monsters Inc., Cars, The Incredibles, and two Caillou DVDs before the weekend ran out. I wish I hadn’t […]

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