Bucky hits a new high of insensitivity today.
I love Rob’s last line, too.
(source)

Later:
I love bashing Microsoft! The Zune apparently sucks.

Categories: comics, technologia
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As you may have seen, the first teaser for HP5 (Order of the Phoenix) is online at HPANA.

Looks like we’re in for another wild ride! But there’s one split second early in the teaser that serves only to reminds me of how disappointed I am by Michael Gambon’s Dumbledore. I blogged about this when the last HP movie came out and I stand by my previous comments. I know Gambon is a big name and I have no doubt that he’s earned it. As a character, Dumbledore is too close to my heart — I can’t sob over his death and then see the character portrayed any old which way. Too much flailing, too little force of character.

As far as this movie, though, it looks like there’s plenty of Umbridge-hating and Snape-ambiguousness and showdown in the ministry to look forward to. The movie comes out July 13, 2007.

Categories: Harry Potter
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Just a bit of late night linkage. The Softwire looks to be a B-grade cross between Ender’s Game, Star Trek, and possibly Dickens. But .mp3 files of the first three chapters are free online as read by Nathan Fillion. Entirely worthwhile if you feel like listening to Mal’s voice for an hour or so…and I freely admit that I’m curious about the rest of the story.

Categories: Firefly, books
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Kimberly called me this evening! When I sent her my new cell number, I hinted that she should give me a call sometime, and she did! (I was somewhat mortified to not recognize her voice when I picked up.) We hadn’t talked in months, so that pretty much made my evening.

I spent the afternoon tripping around the city to do some preliminary Christmas non-shopping, which was fun. Spent a little while in the MIT Press Bookstore — I didn’t see any gift ideas there, but a few interesting-looking volumes caught my eye:

Allergy: The History of a Modern Malady. Even though my grandmother was a hospital dietician, she hadn’t heard of anyone who was really allergic to milk (as opposed to lactose intolerant) until when my parents learned that their baby girl had such an allergy. This could be a pretty cool book.

Hamlet on the Holodeck. I don’t know if this would actually be any good, but when I picked it up in the store, it looked like a very Jane sort of book — exploring communication and narrative and new technology. Looking closer, it’s been out since 1998, so that alters the definition of “new technology” in the last sentence. I wouldn’t buy it (without further investigation or recommendation), but it intrigues me.

And here’s one I don’t even really have any interest in reading, but the cover made me laugh and I think it will amuse you too: Textual Poachers.

Categories: Star Trek, books, life in the big city
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A few thoughts on life in Boston.

Thumbs up:
WBGH is my local PBS station. I am such a huge nerd, but it really does make me smile.

Drizzly days remind me of London.

Public transportation. I don’t have to pay for gas because the T takes me everywhere I want to go. (We will ignore the fact that of course I pay for my T pass…but since that happens once a month, I can ignore it on the other 29 or 30 days.)

Cambridge is really pretty. I need to take more pictures of some of the pretty buildings around here.

I can walk to a natural foods store that carries things like soy whipped cream. I was sure that such a thing did not exist, until my roommate wandered off to the dairy section and came back with a can. “Will this kill you?” she asked as I read the label. “No,” I said, “but I can’t promise it will taste good.” She and her folks, who were here at the time, later said it was pretty decent.
Dialogue edited for pith (poke, Poke).

Thumbs down:
The pigeons in Boston Common are constantly underfoot. One of these days, I’m just going to kick one. Or I’ll start taking lessons from Tom Lehrer.

Movie theaters are outrageously overpriced — even more so than other places I’ve lived.

Bums. I hate them…and I hate that I hate them. The bleeding heart in me wants to help; the pragmatist knows that my spare change would barely be a finger in the dam. The penny-pincher is pinching pennies, and the cynic wants to hiss, “Get a job!” Especially to the one guy who’s always standing outside CVS and occaisionally calls you “honey.”

Categories: life in the big city, mmm, London!
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Categories: life in the big city
1 Comment »