Today would have been my father's birthday.
I'm a bit strange with dates. They hold great significance for me. I forget what I did from breakfast to bedtime most days, but dates stay with me.
And this would have been a big one too: he'd have been eighty today.
I'm not going to go on and on about it here. But I'd recommend this post to honor his memory.
It is Comment Friday here at Love All Books and at BAYB (where I grabbed the idea from initially).
The idea is to read the following post, then leave a comment while you're here.
The advantages are
So, on that note, as long as you're here . . . I've stopped re-reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowling now that I have—and now that I'm reading—book seven, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I discovered that Wikipedia had decent recaps of the books, so I'm depending on that to refresh my memory. (Did I ever mention that Riley is a huge HP fan? Plays all the computer games, some of them better than I, and has me reading Book 5 to him? Well now I have!) I am officially finished struggling in my XML Programming class at Saint Paul College. (Saint Paul College is—as I've mentioned before—where I am working toward a Web Developer Certificate.) Riley has been in an all-day camp this week, and I just turned in my last assignment. Stick a fork in me—I am done! Please post a comment while you're visiting and tell me what you're up to. Tell me what you are reading and what you think about it! I'd still really like to know which blogs you are reading frequently, and what new tools and technologies you're excited about (raving about even) these days! And have a great Friday. Oh, and head over to BAYB and leave a comment there!
I got tagged a while back while reading someone else's blog.
It’s been said that allegedly if you’ve seen over 85 movies you have no life.
Mark the ones you’ve seen. There are 239 films on this list.
Copy this list, go to your own blog, paste it in and put X’s by the ones that you have seen. Add them up........if you're reading this, consider yourself tagged!
Here's my list. (Only 70 checked—I guess I do have a life; now THAT surprises me—must be something wrong with the list!!!) Oh, and regarding remakes: if a movie is a remake, and I have checked it, I am almost certainly talking about the original . . . .
(X) Rocky Horror Picture Show
(X) Grease
(X) Pirates of the Caribbean
(X) Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest
( ) Boondock Saints
( ) Fight Club
( ) Starsky and Hutch
(X) Neverending Story
(X) Blazing Saddles
(X) Airplane
(X) The Princess Bride
( ) AnchorMan
( ) Napoleon Dynamite
(X) Labyrinth
( ) Saw
( ) Saw II
( ) White Noise
( ) White Oleander
( ) Anger Management
(X) 50 First Dates
( ) The Princess Diaries
( ) The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
( ) Scream
( ) Scream 2
( ) Scream 3
( ) Scary Movie
( ) Scary Movie 2
( ) Scary Movie 3
( ) Scary Movie 4
( ) American Pie
( ) American Pie 2
( ) American Wedding
( ) American Pie Band Camp
(X) Harry Potter 1
(X) Harry Potter 2
(X) Harry Potter 3
(X) Harry Potter 4
( ) Resident Evil 1
( ) Resident Evil 2
( ) The Wedding Singer
( ) Little Black Book
( ) The Village
( ) Lilo and Stitch
(X) Finding Nemo
( ) Finding Neverland
( ) Signs
( ) The Grinch
( ) Texas Chainsaw Massacre
( ) Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
( ) White Chicks
( ) Butterfly Effect
( ) 13 Going on 30
( ) I, Robot
( ) Robots
( ) Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
( ) Universal Soldier
( ) Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events
( ) Along Came Polly
( ) Deep Impact
( ) KingPin
( ) Never Been Kissed
(X) Meet The Parents
(X) Meet the Fockers
( ) Eight Crazy Nights
( ) Joe Dirt
(X) King Kong
( ) A Cinderella Story
( ) The Terminal
( ) The Lizzie McGuire Movie
( ) Passport to Paris
( ) Dumb and Dumber
( ) Dumber and Dumberer
( ) Final Destination
( ) Final Destination 2
( ) Final Destination 3
(X) Halloween
( ) The Ring
( ) The Ring 2
( ) Surviving Christmas
(X) Flubber
( ) Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle
( ) Practical Magic
(X) Chicago
( ) Ghost Ship
( ) From Hell
( ) Hellboy
( ) Secret Window
( ) I Am Sam
( ) The Whole Nine Yards
( ) The Whole Ten Yards
( ) The Day After Tomorrow
( ) Child’s Play
( ) Seed of Chucky
( ) Bride of Chucky
( ) Ten Things I Hate About You
( ) Just Married
( ) Gothika
(X) Nightmare on Elm Street
(X) Sixteen Candles
( ) Remember the Titans
( ) Coach Carter
( ) The Grudge
( ) The Grudge 2
( ) The Mask
( ) Son Of The Mask
( ) Bad Boys
( ) Bad Boys 2
( ) Joy Ride
( ) Lucky Number Seven
(X) Ocean’s Eleven
(X) Ocean’s Twelve
(X) Bourne Identity
(X) Bourne Supremecy
( ) Lone Star
( ) Bedazzled
(X) Predator I
( ) Predator II
( ) The Fog
(X) Ice Age
( ) Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
( ) Curious George
(X) Independence Day
( ) Cujo
( ) A Bronx Tale
( ) Darkness Falls
( ) Christine
(X) E.T.
( ) Children of the Corn
( ) My Bosses Daughter
(X) Maid in Manhattan
( ) War of the Worlds
( ) Rush Hour
( ) Rush Hour 2
( ) Best Bet
(X) How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
( ) She’s All That
( ) Calendar Girls
( ) Sideways
( ) Mars Attacks
( ) Event Horizon
( ) Ever After
(X) Wizard of Oz
(X) Forrest Gump
(X) Big Trouble in Little China
(X) The Terminator
(X) The Terminator 2
(X) The Terminator 3
(X) X-Men
( ) X-2
( ) X3
(X) Spider-Man
( ) Spider-Man 2
( ) Sky High
( ) Jeepers Creepers
( ) Jeepers Creepers 2
(X) Catch Me If You Can
(X) The Little Mermaid
(X) Freaky Friday
( ) Reign of Fire
( ) The Skulls
( ) Cruel Intentions
( ) Cruel Intentions 2
( ) The Hot Chick
(X) Shrek
(X) Shrek 2
( ) Swimfan
(X) Miracle on 34th street
( ) Old School
( ) The Notebook
( ) K-Pax
( ) Krippendorf’s Tribe
( ) A Walk to Remember
( ) Ice Castles
( ) Boogeyman
( ) The 40-year-old Virgin
(X) Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
(X) Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
(X) Lord of the Rings: Return Of the King
(X) Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
(X) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
(X) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
( ) Base-ketball
( ) Hostel
( ) Waiting for Guffman
( ) House of 1000 Corpses
( ) Devils Rejects
( ) Elf
(X) Highlander
( ) Mothman Prophecies
( ) American History X
( ) Three
( ) The Jacket
( ) Kung Fu Hustle
( ) Shaolin Soccer
(X) Night Watch
(X) Monsters Inc
(X) Titanic
(X) Monty Python and the Holy Grail
( ) Shaun Of the Dead
(X) Willard
( ) High Tension
( ) Club Dread
( ) Hulk
( ) Dawn Of the Dead
(X) Hook
( ) Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
( ) 28 days later
( ) Orgazmo
(X) Phantasm
( ) Waterworld
( ) Kill Bill Vol. 1
( ) Kill Bill Vol. 2
( ) Mortal Kombat
( ) Wolf Creek
( ) Kingdom of Heaven
( ) The Hills Have Eyes
( ) I Spit on Your Grave
( ) The Last House on the Left
( ) Re-Animator
( ) Army of Darkness
(X) Star Wars Ep. I The Phantom Menace
(X) Star Wars Ep. II Attack of the Clones
(X) Star Wars Ep. III Revenge of the Sith
(X) Star Wars Ep. IV A New Hope
(X) Star Wars Ep. V The Empire Strikes Back
(X) Star Wars Ep. VI Return of the Jedi
( ) Ewoks: Caravan Of Courage
( ) Ewoks: The Battle For Endor
(X) The Matrix
( ) The Matrix: Reloaded
( ) The Matrix: Revolutions
( ) Animatrix
( ) Evil Dead
( ) Evil Dead 2
( ) Team America: World Police
(X) Red Dragon
(X) Silence of the Lambs
( ) Hannibal
It is Comment Friday here at Love All Books and at BAYB (where I grabbed the idea from initially).
The idea is to read the following post, then leave a comment while you're here.
The advantages are
So, on that note, as long as you're here . . . I'm still re-reading (to refresh my memory) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix I think I'm finished struggling in my XML Programming class at Saint Paul College. (Saint Paul College is—as I've mentioned before—where I am working toward a Web Developer Certificate.) All next week—the final week of my class!—Riley will be in an all-day camp, so that will help immensely. I've gotten to the point that I can get my projects working most of the way, and what I cannot get to work the other students cannot get to work either, so I just turn in what I've got and hope the instructor can figure out where we all went wrong. It's amazing to me how something that seems so easy could be so temperamental and difficult at times. Please post a comment while you're visiting and tell me what you're up to. Tell me what you are reading and what you think about it! Tell me what blogs you're reading frequently, and what new tools and technologies you're excited about (raving about even) these days! And have a great Friday. Oh, and head over to BAYB and leave a comment there!
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Every now and again I get sucked into doing one of these meme-y (if there is such a word—which I doubt) quizzes.
Today's is "What European City Do You Belong In?".
| You Belong in Amsterdam |
 A little old fashioned, a little modern - you're the best of both worlds. And so is Amsterdam. Whether you want to be a squatter graffiti artist or a great novelist, Amsterdam has all that you want in Europe (in one small city). |
It is Comment Friday here at Love All Books and at BAYB (where I grabbed the idea from initially).
So, on that note, as long as you're here . . . Please post a comment while you're visiting and tell me what you're up to. Tell me what you're reading and what you think about it! And have a great Friday. Oh, and head over to BAYB and leave a comment there! As for me, I'm still re-reading (to refresh my memory) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix I really enjoyed Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (the movie, I mean). Imelda Staunton (who played Delores Umbridge) was absolutely perfect, which is to say she was detestable from the word go! And Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood) was also quite enjoyable to watch . . . she was perfect for the role, playing luna as the space cadet she should have been: soft-spoken, walking around in a dream world, skipping everywhere, a real ditz! My favorite line in the movie was when Harry and his friends were discussing the need to find a place to practice magic in secret and Ron's younger sister, Ginny, asks Harry what happens if they get found out (they're not supposed to be learning to actually cast spells this year) and Hermione (of all people) says: "Who cares . . . I mean it's sort of exciting isn't it . . . breaking the rules." to which Ron replies "Who are you and what have you done with Hermione Granger?" I am still struggling—and still hanging in there—in my XML Programming at Saint Paul College. (Saint Paul College is—as I've mentioned before—where I am working toward a Web Developer Certificate.) Things will get better next week when Riley starts a half-day camp all week (and a full-day camp the the week after that—which just happens to be the final week of class!)
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| Welcome to my 9th T13 (that's Thursday Thirteen)! Please use my "Mr. Linky" to leave a link back to your site (more traffic!) This week I've decided to follow up on last week's theme—if you recall, last week I found 13 books with the word Thursday in the title. This week I found 13 books with the word Thirteen in the title: |
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I've been meaning to give Windows Live Writer "a go" for quite some time, and have finally decided to bite the bullet and try it.
I admit I'm a bit skeptical about it, and I'm not sure how much I'll like it, but I'm willing to be open minded. I think it will come down to how much control I really have over the final posts and how infrequently WLW mucks things up for me.
I've also been getting into some other blogging services "out there" recently and when I have some time I'll tell you about some of my favorites and what I like about them.
For now I'll just name a few that I think will make a significant difference in my blogging habits: BlogCatalog, autopinger.com, coComment, and StumbleUpon.
Well, that is that for this post. I must say that so far I'm finding this much more painless than drafting a post online at Blogger.
Now to see how painless it is to publish the thing!
Matière du jour:
Napoleon Bonaparte
(Category: History)
Today is July 8th, 2007.
That means it's been thirty-one years today.
Thirty-one years ago today . . . about two in the morning . . . I was laying in my bed . . . in my room . . . in my barracks . . . in Turkey . . . after working four to midnight . . . trying to get some sleep.
Then came that knock on the door. And I wasn't trying to sleep any more.
As soon as I opened the door and saw the First Sergeant and my commander at the door, I knew what was going on.
My mom, who had been in and out of the hospital for her emphysema—and more in the hospital than out lately—was gone.
I know with certainty that I never heard them say it, but I knew what they saying. It was two in the morning, after all. Why else would they be there?
It saddens me, it shames me, how little I remember of her now; I was only a month shy of twenty at the time and I'm fifty now. A lot of time has passed, and my memory isn't what it used to be. And she's been gone half again the time that I knew her.
Yet I'm still ashamed I don't recall her better.
And yet.
I do remember needing to reach out and grab ahold of the dresser near the door.
I remember stepping back toward the bed, sitting down on it as they explained that I could go home on emergency leave, fly off first thing in the morning. Military hops all the way to the States and back on Uncle Sam's nickel. All this I remember. All this I heard.
But I never heard them say she was dead.
My mother wanted to be cremated, and so she was. Her body was ashes before I made it home, so I never saw her body.
That is something I regret, something that I wish had been in my power to change at the time.
She'd only be 85 now if she had lived, so a part of me—that part that never got the closure of seeing the body—has always waited for that time when I'd see her again, jumping out of a closet, and yelling "Surprise" like it was some big joke.
I know that ain't gonna happen. But there's still that part of me that never really put her to rest.
And perhaps that is not such a bad thing. For, in the words of Bob Dylan: she still lives inside of me, we've never been apart.
Now, as I've said here before, one of the ways my mom lives inside of me is through my feelings toward the written word, and the role she played in bringing about those feelings.
I could retell the story now, but I invite all book lovers who have braved on to this point to honor my mom's memory with a click through to read the tale. As I've said elsewhere, consider it an essential bit of Techsplorer history (Techsplorer is a word here meaning me, your host).
Matière du jour:
Constantine I
(Category: Religion)
It is Comment Friday here at Love All Books and at BAYB (where I grabbed the idea from initially).
So, on that note, as long as you're here . . . Please post a comment while you're visiting and tell me what you're up to. Tell me what you're reading and what you think about it! Have a great Friday. Oh, and head over to BAYB and leave a comment there! As for moi, I'm ticked off at Blogger at the moment. For some reason, they no longer allow Blogger Template Tags in anchor tags (y'know: <a>) in a post! That had hosed up posting new messages for a while (and who knows what it's done to the messages I've already posted with Blogger Template Tags in them—which is how I used to do the "Post to del.icio.us" thingie!) So what am I up to? I'm still refreshing my memory by re-reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix I am still struggling—but hanging in there—in my online class, XML Programming at Saint Paul College. (Saint Paul College is—as I've mentioned before—where I am working toward a Web Developer Certificate.)
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Welcome to my 8th T13 (that's Thursday Thirteen)! Please use my "Mr. Linky" to leave a link back to your site (more traffic!) This week I've decided to go a bit strange on you—I found 13 books with the word Thursday in the title: |
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Stumble it!
by Richard K. Morgan 
by 
by Charles Frazier 
by Robert F. Kennedy and Arthur Schlesinger Jr. 
by Adin Steinsaltz 
by Joseph Bruchac 
by Patrick O'Brian 
by Victor Villaseñor 
by Ruth Rendell 
by Ken Wiley 
by Jane Smiley 
by Janie Carol Worley 
by Agatha Christie
by G. K. Chesterton
(The Keys To The Kingdom, Book 4) by Garth Nix
by John Steinbeck
(A Thursday Next Novel) by Jasper Fforde
by Debbie Macomber
by Ellen Daniell
(Magic Tree House #27) by Mary Pope Osborne
by Melrose Cooper
by Stephen Manes
by Noel Streatfeild
(Lois Meade Mysteries) by Ann Purser
by Audrey Wood and Don Wood
by Lee Martin
