Category: Personal

Romantic comedy isn’t easy. There are far too many ways to fall into cliches, to make plot movements through a simple wave of the hands or lose it by poor casting of the loving couple. How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days is not the perfect example of a romantic comedy but it doesn’t fall off the pier due to any of those three common pitfalls and ends up delivering an enjoyable couple of hours.

Matthew McConaughey has the kind of relaxed, soft pace that lends itself well, as he’s shown in EdTV and The Wedding Planner (though he was badly matched in the latter with Jennifer Lopez); he doesn’t show nearly as well in the big action films he apparently prefers. Kate Hudson gets a bit beyond the generic in this film, especially in the scenes where she’s going bonkers on the guy, though I’d suggest she get some better advice in role selection.

Director Donald Petrie has pretty bland oevre but seems to hit the occasional double, give him credit for a light touch here where he could have gone overboard–the bits with Mrs. DeLauer and Hudson’s girlfriend pretending to be a therapist, for instance. The soundtrack was reasonably memorable too, and made nice use of the classic Carly Simon tune You’re So Vain. An enjoyable diversion.

recommended

Let’s just say the Earthquakes, especially the defenders, played like crap tonight and leave it at that.

The Sharks’ third goal today was so smoooov! Jonathon Cheechoo took a pass from Brad Stuart as he was crossing in front of the crease and pushed it back through his legs, with his stick going through too, straight in under Aebischer’s legs (“a highlight-reel staple for the foreseeable future” according to the AP report). Got to give props to excellent goaltending from Nabakov and the goals by Patrick Marleau following up his Game One hat trick, Vinny Damphousse and Wayne Primeau (an empty netter!).

Oh yeah! Danny Murphy’s penalty gives Liverpool a crucial victory at Manchester United.

“We’re not idiots, though we may act from time to time as not the smartest,” Diebold President Robert J. Urosevich told California regulators investigating the company’s performance. So, Mr. Urosevich, given your company’s recent track record, do you think we should still use your machines this November in what is potentially the most important presidential election since World War II?

The master bath toilet has been making gurgling noises for several minutes the last few days now after showers are taken–air in the line?–but no other signs of distress. Until this morning when the shower in that bath did not completely drain after TS1’s morning fresher. Drano cleared it but when I ran hot water to flush, the water once again did not drain. Indeed, some water backed up into the tub in the other bathroom and that room’s toilet didn’t properly clear when flushed. A second application of Drano let the water go down again and this time no water left standing. Still, I think I want to snake the line after the stores open so I can get one.

The NY Times takes a look at the New Jersey town where I grew up: On Stagecoach Route, a Commuter Haven. Interesting, hasn’t changed as much as I would have guessed–still has six Jewish temples, for instance–but the home prices continue to rise. I guess kids look at the world differently but as a teen I never really thought I’d live anywhere else after college yet of the four homes I’ve owned, none was in Livingston.

Chico Bangs is Tony Hightower and also a person who makes interesting comments to SportsFilter. If you like Marshall Crenshaw-ish lyrics over acoustic Dylan-ish nearly folk music, check out his Area 52 MP3s. Sorry if my references are out of date for what you’re doing Tony, they’re the the best I got.

Cringely’s latest is definitely of interest to the Sun and ex-Sun community. One point he doesn’t make, though I suppose implies, takes the form of a question: Can you name the last innovation at Sun that has made the company money? I mean even pure revenue, not just gross margin or EBITDA. If you say N1 I will say that it’s (a) a marketecture and (b) not actually shipping (here is the Sun products page, tell me which of the listed items is N1).

Watched both of the Champions League quarterfinals first leg matches–Monaco over Chelsea yesterday via TiVo and today’s scoreless draw between Porto and Deportivo–and while enjoyable, especially Monaco’s effort, both felt a bit off. What was very surprising to me was that yesterday the commentators were, accurately IMO, pointing out that Chelsea were not playing the kind of overly rough football for which English sides are often criticized but in today’s match both teams played exactly that kind of ruffian style, bad tackling and bad sportsmanship, and yet neither of the presenters made any point of it. Monaco came off as superb when they scored the last two goals while a man down and totally frustrated Chelsea (playing with an added attacker after Zikos’ red card) but the two Iberian sides today were barely able to make one scoring attempt each the whole 90 minutes.

Is this part of Microsoft’s attempt to get out from under with the EU?

I Googled this, I searched the MS Support pages and newsgroups, I asked the other people here at work who use FrontPage and yet still have no answer. So here is the question: how do I create a page which lists the files in a directory on the server? The name of each file should be a hyperlink to open it. In PHP this would be a trivial exercise for me but of course we don’t have PHP installed on this Windows server. Crap.

I watched 2 Fast 2 Furious the other day but it just wasn’t worth writing about, although the actress who played Suki…

Another of my family members, my second cousin Kim, is getting married this Summer. Right here in Los Altos but we really aren’t that close so I’m not surprised, or disappointed, that we aren’t invited. I’m real glad for her mom and dad (Hi Martin and Wendy!) and many happy years together to Kim and Todd.

Just want to put this in for down the line. I saw Freddy Adu’s goal this afternoon, the first of his career in the 75th minute of the United/MetroStars matchup at the Meadowlands, and while the shot was fairly routine I remain impressed by his maturity, creativity and energy. Sure his team lost, 3-2, but he played well and made no obvious mistakes–I put he loss down to DC’s backup keeper, Doug Warren, and poor central defense. Plus props to the MetroStars!

SportsFilter

How to be a man: shoot five women who are supposed to be your colleagues on a peacekeeping mission.

Garret, hope you’re enjoying the wedding trip but in case you’re interested, it’s fucking pouring here this morning and TS1 is out wandering around the Mountain View shopping district.

If you take nothing else away from this movie, you will know without a doubt that Julia Stiles at 21 was gorgeous and will only get more so over the next two decades. She just has one of those faces that starts out from beautiful and winds up over the border into some uncharted territory. But enough drooling.

A Guy Thing, released in 2003, is filled with cliches, sexual innuendo and shopworn gags, telling the story of the last few days before the wedding of Paul and Karen (Jason Lee and Selma Blair) in a very modern romantic comedy. At his bachelor party, Paul gets drunk and hooks up with Becky (played by Stiles)–but not really, of course, since they’re both too drunk for anything to happen though they do spend the night together. Leading to all those tired, trite Hollywood components just mentioned.

Yet Guy Thing isn’t just another waste of celluloid. It’s funny, occasionally even witty, has characters who rise beyond stock and cast chemistry that engages. Props to director Chris Koch, who clearly is better than the material he had in Snow Day, his first feature directing assignment. And Lee is more than just a vessel for Kevin Smith.

recommended

Important factoid: Cheeze-It crackers are made in the largest ovens in the United States, perhaps the world.

Getting very late but can Sun make a comeback in the application server market? One good sign is that they finally got rid of Mark Tolliver, who was head of iPlanet during my tenure but less visible than spare change at the GOP Convention.