Watched 2 movies today: King Arthur and Chronicles of Riddick.

King Arthur is yet another retelling of the Arthurian tale. However, this one has a twist: believability. Ok, maybe that word is a bit much… but still. The story has had the fantasy of Camelot stripped from it and has been returned to what is likely the roots of the Arthurian legend… the Dark Ages. Some might say they take liberties with the tale, and they’d be right. But so what? No less than every other hollywood movie has… in fact, I’d say less so. It’s far more interesting than the Athur flicks that have come before and is certainly less, shall we say… offensive, than the tripe that was First Knight. (ew.) 2004’s King Arthur is the best cinematic take on the Arthurian legend since the Holy Grail. Hats off to Mister Fuqua and Mister Franzoni for a great interpretation.

Chronicles of Riddick was a much lesser movie, but really no less fun. Riddick (Vin Diesel) was a bad-ass in Pitch Black and continues to be one in this flick, set 5 years later. It had some interesting elements, but all in all, it’s best not to look too closely at the storyline or you might feel the urge to put your finger through one of the plot holes to see how big it is. (And trust me, in some cases you can get your whole arse in there.) But if you can ignore that (*click* Go, Go Gadget Suspension of Disbelief!) and you enjoy sci-fi action, then you should like this movie.

Excellent spoof of Apple’s 1984 Macintosh commercial.

Ok. So, my shower is jacked. It’s been doing this fucked up thing for a while where I get only cold water out of the showerhead yet I can get hot and cold out of the faucet. It’s very messed up. I don’t like cold showers. I’m grumpy enough in the morning as it is.

Three times the apartment complex’s maintenance dude has come ’round and fixed it. Well, it’s hard to call it “fixing it” when he’s had to do it so often. The last time, he said if it happened again, they’d have to bring out a plumber and may need to tear out the shower. (Oh, great.)

So, of course, it happens again and today, the plumber is here and he and the maintenance man had this exchange:

ThePlumber: Here’s your problem, this part has too much play. You’re losing all your hot water right here.
MaintenanceMan: Ok. But why is there hot water coming out of the faucet but not the shower head?
TP: I don’t believe that. I haven’t seen it happen.
MM: It’s happening. I’ve fixed this for the resident 2 or 3 times.
TP: I haven’t seen it happen. Have you seen it happen?
MM: I’ve witnessed it. It’s happening.
TP: I won’t believe it till I see it happen.
MM: I’ve witnessed it. I’ve fixed this for the resident before.
Me: Uh, yeah. I’ve witnessed it too…

It’s at this point that I considered going and getting my gun, but decided against it… although I think any judge would agree that I’d have been justified.

At any rate, I don’t know whether or not the plumber was convinced that it
was really happening, but I don’t really care either. They moved on to
discussing how to fix the possibly mlythical problem:

MM: If we need to replace the valve, hopefully we can just cut a chunk out of the wall around there and work through that, then put a bigger plate back on. It would be better than cutting out all the drywall. We’ve done it 3 or 4 times over the past couple years.
TP: It can’t be done.
MM: I’ve seen it done.
TP: There’s no way. It can’t be done.
MM: A guy from your company came out and did it before. I saw it.
TP: It can’t be done.
MM: Maybe we can get someone else out from your company who might be able to try…
TP: Look, if I can’t do it, nobody can.
MM: …but I’ve SEEN it done.

At that point, I left them to their conversation. I really couldn’t give a flying fuck how they decided to fix it… I just wanted it fixed. So I sat down on my couch to go back to work and they spend the next hour or so engaged in thrilling plumber discourse and clanking around. They also both leave and come back randomly.

Then, just now, the plumber comes out.

TP: Ok, it should be fixed.
Me: Uh, what did you do?
TP: Well, I replaced the cartridge. The one he had on it had these ports that were probably getting blocked by the handle..blahblahblah

Gee. Now it doesn’t seem like the problem was really all that scary and complex that he should have needed 2 or more witnesses to believe it was really fucking happening. That said, my confidence that the problem has been fixed is about nil.

So, last night I go to download RealPlayer. They want an email address and password. I don’t want to give them a real one. A fairly common confrontation in the great frontier known as the world wide web.

My girlfriend suggests I use “la la la” and I do or rather… I try.

I started with lala@lala.com and was told that that account already existed. I try lalala@lalala.com and no… that too exists. I go for lalalala@lalalala.com and low and behold… no. Determined now to find the end of the la la train, I continue on until it lets me create an account.

So, if you happen to run into anyone on the street looking for who goes by lalalalalalalalalala@lalalalalalalalalala.com … it’s me.

Coolest Kitchen Knife Holder EVER! Brilliant! See, also, their baby bottle…ande a bunch of other cool/wacky stuff.

Then Get Ye The Booty Ye Deserve with the help of Captain Hook Silver.

Was that link so funny that you did a spit-take on your monitor? (yeah, ok, me neither.) But if you did, there’s a free screen cleaning service you can use.

As you may or may not already know, Hunter S. Thompson committed suicide on Sunday. He was an influential writer and very interesting figure. I suppose I should actually get around to reading some of his stuff soon.

Despite having to work off and on, this Saturday has been great so far.
Great Trefethen 2000 Caberent Sauvignon, with a great Butera Royale
cigar, after a great breakfast, after <TMI>a great
morning</TMI>… Großer Samstag

Today, I got my new Powerbook. Coincidentally, I also got the new bag I ordered for it from Crumpler today as well. (Crumpler bags are the coolest. And the site is a veritable hoot.) I’ll miss the small size of my 12″, but as I am living on my powerbook more and more, I feel like I need the screen real estate.

Plus, a geek needs his new toys now and then.

Tuesday night, we went to La Fondue for our very own Day After Valentine’s Day Dinner. I think I’m still full. It’s got to be one of my favorite restaurants ever. If you’re ever in the area, take an evening and go. But plan for a marathon…