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Found out yesterday that there is a very good chance I ll be sent to San Francisco next week. I m kinda torn as to my feelings about that. I do like to travel on the company s dime. I would like to see the Pacific Ocean for the first time and see all the sites. However, the timing kinda sucks. I d be leaving Sunday or Monday... Sunday is the BloodBowl tourney so hopefully I won t have to miss any or much of it. The house sale thing is also taking place as we speak so hopefully it wouldn t deter any of that. Plus I d be going to a client site to try to debug two problems involving two languages I have only a cursory knowledge of (C# and XSLT).
Hate to get out there and look incompetent. That would be unfortunate. But it would be cool to walk around Frisco.
Being unfamiliar with the California geography I did check to see how far I would be from Mark T in La Jolla... turns out about 500 miles. Forgot how big that stupid state is. Oh well.
We ll see what happens.
-bampf |
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Sometimes the smallest things can set me off into a deeply profound rage. Below are two headlines (listed consecutively no less) from MSNBC.com s top stories.
First, maybe the most retarded headline I have ever read:
"Study: Tired children don't get enough sleep"
Hmmm.. you don t say? Well no shit, fucking moron headline writer.
And the second just made me loath the human race in general:
Scoop: Are Lee, Anderson back together?
The fact that there are people in this world who would actually care to know the answer to that question first made me sad. That sorrow over the human condition quickly gave way to refined unadulterated rage. I wish no less than slow painful death on any human compelled to click on that link.
So, anyway. Thank you MSNBC for fueling the fires of my discontent.
Now, I realize it s far from normal to be enraged by such trivial things, probably even unhealthy as well, but is anyone with me on this? I need someone to share the angst with. Volunteers? Anyone? Buehler?
-b |
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So we spent the weekend seemingly successfully converting Dan and Karri into Philly emigre wannabes. They really seemed to enjoy the south central PA countryside. There s a lot Kristyn and I miss about being home, but after this weekend I think Dan and Karri really helped enumerate the things we miss. They were quick to point out all the things that we take for granted- the clean air, the abundance of trees, the quiet, the ability to see the stars clearly, etc etc. Many of the minute details of Cumberland Valley livin were very wondrous and foreign to them.
A quick trip into the mountains helped seal the deal. Drinking from a cold, clean mountain stream seemed like an almost transcendant experience. Thoreau woulda been proud.
They got to meet both of our sets of parents and got along swimmingly, so that was cool. Our attempts to pet a cow went for naught, as the recently castrated bovines were still justifiably wary of direct human contact.
They even seemed to like the Guild despite me getting swarmed under and completely monopolized by the regulars.
So, after a good weekend experience compounded with numerous other prophetic signs it seems the Crosses are committed to heading toward Ship shortly after us. Cool. Hopefully the midstate will live up to all of their expectations... if they grow weary of dull rural livin after a few months I ll feel really bad... although I m comfident that will not happen.
In other nominally related news, we have real estate paperwork in hand. Probably do some signing and official committing today or tommorrow. Settlement date is to be May 22. How s that for speedy? We don t fuck around. We re both really excited now, and this weekend only served to magnify our longing for home. Right now the assumption is still that I ll stay in the area past settlement till I find a job, but even that period will be very breif... job or no job.
-bampf |
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Well, sounds like our house is pretty much sold! Bob brought his real estate agent step-mother over to help broker the sale and then made an official offer today. We re gonna accept. We re roped into paying her a small commission, so we ll be out a few bucks more than expected, but she s doing it for considerably less than normal and we re still more comfortable dealing with Bob than a stranger so it s really no big deal at all.
The timetable I believe will be officially bumped up. We may be outta there in as soon as six weeks! Wow. Things move fast.
I may yet stick around while I job hunt. Dan and Karri have offered up the room Bob was renting from them so that I could keep working here until something comes through. Probably a good chance I ll take em up on that.
We re both really excited right now. It s madness I tell ya. Madness.
-bampf |
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So Bob is coming over for his third house visit tonight. We re hoping everything is still to his liking and more importantly to his step-mother-the-realtor s liking. That will be the big test. I m pretty comifidant all will go well. Tumblers are falling into place. With a bit of luck giant joe-huge (to burrow a Chad phrase) wheels will be in motion in no time.
I m also going to a Flyers game tonight with Mr and Mrs Dover. Looking forward to that. Gonna miss that easy access to sports events... although in the year I ve been here I ve gone to two baseball games and two hockey games... not exactly bleacher bum status.
Speaking of sports, I m already beset with football fever. Free agency and preparations for the draft have got me geared up for next season. Pretty bad when free agency rouses you... I m such a football freak. So far I m still a bit pessimistic about the Steeler s improving their losing ways. They had a very average free agency... Duece is a great pick-up but our three biggest weaknesses have gone unaddressed... CB, QB and Tackle. Having an early draft pick is nice, but getting a solid starter out of the 11th pick is still a daunting proposition. The way things are going they may draft a RB to add to the already crowded backfield... that would be the dumb.
Well anyway, enough sports babbling. Looking forward to the weekend as we try to give Dan and Karri the best representative slice of central PA that we can muster in two days. Should be lotsa fun. I will get to show Dan the Guild at long last so that will be cool.
Hopefully the midstate will live up to Kristyn and I s homesick ramblings.
-bampf |
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Forgot to mention in that last post that the Klog is active once again! Yay! I even changed KN s colors back to the old dark red and yellow rather then the lime green and yellow it had been as punishment for his inactivity. On a sad note Colin s livejournal got the axe for his inactivity. That boy s just too much of a slacker (except when compared to his brother).
-b |
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The traditional Spring cleaning time has taken on a new sense of urgency for us we try to get the house in good selling condition. We ve been organizing, painting, cleaning, and even packing stuff that isn t oft-used.
Seems like Bob is still very interested in the place so we re hopefull that everything will go through OK. That would make our lives so much easier. We ll see.
Da Big Addendum to Da Big News is that all of our talk about good ole south central PA livin has convinced Dan and Karri to consider buying a house in the midstate as well. That would be super-cool. Our tales of drastically reduced cost of living (especially super cheap real estate/taxes and insurance) and pastoral country life seems to have really piqued their interest. Not surprising considering Karri wants a brood within a couple years... it s great child-rearing country that s for sure. It s exciting news. We ll see what happens. Looks like chances are good we ll be giving them the whirlwind tour this weekend.
I was thinking about it and realized I am the ultimate transient. Here are the moves I ve made since college:
1996 Gettysburg to Carlisle (parent s)
1996 Parents to downtown Carlisle Apt
1997 Carlisle to Mechanicsburg Apt
1998 Mechanicsburg to New Cumberland house (rented)
1998 New Cumberland to Carlisle (grandparent s)
1999 Grandparent s to Enola Apt
2001 Enola Apt to Camp Hill house (rented)
2002 Camp Hill to Ridley Park house (bought)
2004 (proposed) Ridley Park to Shippensburg (in-law s)
Re-gawd-damned-diculous. I really thought buying a house would slow down my migratory patterns... guess not. Our next house had better be a long term thing!
-bampf |
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We made a huge step towards completion of Da Plan last night. While having dinner with Dan and Karri we mentioned our plan to sell the house privately and asked if they new anyone looking to buy. Conveniently, Dan s good friend (and current roommate/tennant), Bob, is currently looking (just that day he had withdrawn a bid on a house in Jersey). So we brought Bob over and he really liked the place. There are a lot of conveniences for him... the place is only blocks from Dan s (so easy move), it s close to his work, it s well within his price range, and since he s a first time home buyer he doesn t have a lot of house essentials so our plan to leave a lot of furniture and stuff behind would help him out considerably.
So it seems like Bob is very interested. That would make our lives simpler for sure. Doing a private sale rather than through a realtor also means we d actually make a few bucks in the deal and plus it s always nice dealing with someone you know for these kinda things. The timetable for selling the house was a major concern so a big question mark may be gone. So huge thanks to Dan and Karri for the recommendation... now do they get a finder s fee? Hmmm. If nothing else we ll buy em Da Chen if the deal goes through (sound fair, you two?).
We still have lots of cleaning planned for this weekend, and we ll probably pick up a For Sale By Owner sign just in case Bob doesn t work out (we ll give him first dibs regardless). So cleaning... fun fun fun.
It s cool though that things are happening so fast. An off-handed conversation on Sunday has set some giant wheels in motion. Response has been great from friends and family back home who all seem excited about the prospect of our return. I haven t even told my family yet, and they re the ones who probably hate that we re in Philly the most... so they ll be extremely pleased.
So homeward bound we are...
-bampf |
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So I promised big news yesterday. And it is quite big.
We re coming home.
Yeah. When we thought about it, Drexel was the whole reason we came to Philly. As most know, Kristyn recently withdrew from Drexel. So it just doesn t make sense to stay here when the vast majority of our lives remains in the midstate.
So it means Kristyn will transfer to Shipp instead of West Chester... since she s going for Education that s actually an upgrade. This causes a lot of logistical problems, but nothing we felt that trumped our desire to return home to our friends and families.
On the down side, we ll miss the friends we ve made here. But we ll actually get to see our dozens of friends back home that we never have time to see. We ll actually be able to spend time with family as well. So that s huge.
We talked about it, and we really won t miss the city. Sure, it s nice to have tons of culture and events at your fingertips... but in practical terms we rarely took advantage of them. It would be just as easy to day trip to shows and concerts etc for all the more events we attend. We re lame home-bodies by nature, after-all.
We certainly won t miss: the fucking traffic; The taxes; The ridiculous car insurance; The inability to find a decent potato chip; etc etc.
The big issues will be selling the house (or renting it although that would be a last resort) and finding a job. We really haven t had time to build up much equity and after a realtor takes their chunk we may loose money in the transaction. Property values have increased, the crack-heads have moved out, and we did make some decent improvements so maybe we ll make a few bucks... I dunno. Finding a job in a rapidly shrinking field in an area that is definitely not tech savy is daunting. But, hopefully something will turn up eventually.
In the intirim, the plan is to move in with Kristyn s parents. We have such a great relationship with them, livin with the in-laws is not nearly as bad as it sounds. The plan is to be there by the end of the summer (before fall semester). Although the timetable is flexible.
We d like to think that we re not running away from the city with our tail between our legs... not like we feared city-life or anything... it just isn t home. After all the trips we made on the turnpike it became inextricably clear that despite the spatial gap, 'home' was in the midstate.
So that s our news. A major decision for us. A big step, with the possibility of some really dire consequences, but we re committed to it.
So that s the news. Whattaya think?
-bampf |
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Excellent weekend all in all. We were delayed getting home Friday as I was held up at work thanks to a product release. Once in Shippensburg we hung out at that bastion of intellectualism that we call The Moose Lodge. It wasn t that bad though really. Had some food, had some drinks. Chatted with Kristyn s family.
Saturday was Green Wolves. Rocking good time. As always. There was much Mel Brooks goodness. Much good food. And much drink. I unveiled my costume (insert drumroll)... the Eunuch. Everyone seemed to love it. I wore a small women s vest replete with gaudy black and gold designs and a peice of curtain fabric that Kristyn wrapped on me sumo style. I also carried a fan constructed from a feather boa and a vaccuum attachment. To compliment my outfit Kristyn was in all white as a vestal virgin.
Kristyn s feta and cream cheese crostini tied with Fester s crab and pork dish for the Green Wolves cook-off so those two will have to battle it out at a later date to be crowned the new Iron Wolf. So that was cool.
I had a bit too much to drink and somehow the night ended with my underwear swinging from the ceiling fan. Hm. I blame Kenn. His corrupting influence is not to be underestimated... EVER!
Sunday was D&D at the Guild. First things first, we found out that Rich and Christine had gotten married on Friday, so major congrats to them. They were forced to have an impromtu wedding with just their parents since Christine recently found out she is getting deployed to Afghanistan... talk about shitty timing (she got the notification I think less than a month after their engagement). They re gonna have the public wedding (with reception) once she gets back in a year plus (nothing like spending the first year of married life half a planet away from your spouse... that s rough).
As for the D&D... well things didn t go quite as expected. A minor plot devices ended up spelling doom for the entire party. After refusing to flee in the face of overwhelming odds (and I made it pretty damn clear they weren t gonna win this one) each player was felled in turn. So, the elaborate adventure that I had planned that really for the first time was to introduce the true nature of the entire campaign setting was derailed before it could get started. Chalk it up to a combination of party arrogance and stupidity (I think the party still had delusions of granduer from my last campaign where after years of playing they had ascended to near god-like status... that party regularly took on entire armies and won!).
So, I had never experienced this conundrum as a DM. From that point I could have done the cliched "You wake up bound and gagged" prisoner thing, but, that would spin things off in a whole other direction, and I wasn t prepared for that (maybe when Dan s book is released he ll have some tips for getting out of that predicament), so instead we scrapped the campaign and decided to make new characters using the new Conan RPG rules. I m not too dissapointed, as I can easily recycle that campaign setting later with another group (or even the same group for that matter). And the Conan rules will be a nice change up but in a setting I m intimately familiar with (will be the third time I ve started a campaign in the Hyborean setting). I m such a Conan freak.
Anyway, the starting fresh character generation thing meant we were at the Guild longer than expected and I wasn t able to make it to Chad s Wrestlemania party, so that was unfortunate... really it would have been better if he had held the thing last Sunday.
So that was our weekend. After much discussion with Kristyn on our trip home, looks like there will be big news on the horizon for us (no, we re not having a kid) but I ll save that for another post.
Til then,
-bampf |
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Just read that the bassist from The Dead Milkmen killed himself. That s too bad. I know I ve quoted them before here on the BampfBlog(tm) so I figured it was worth mentioning.
I never realized they were Philly boys. Apparently some of them live in Delaware County very near to us. Freaky.
Anyway, as a fitting tribute, I encourage everyone to go out and rent a bus. Fill it full of retards. Visit the zoo. In that order.
-bampf |
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Over my lunch break I ventured out to a nearby town which is apparently the mecca of Thrift stores. There were three within a block and according to yellowpages.com three or four more nearby. Anyway, I perused the closely clustered three for Green Wolves costuming. Found some decent stuff... I won t reveal what so as to not ruin the effect for readers who will be in attendence (Avalon and Kenn namely).
I will mention that I really hate gag shopping at those places. I ve done it several times before, and invariably there are always a bunch of destitude people shopping there who rely on those places to satisfy their basic needs... I always feel overcome with guilt as my middle class ass sifts through the refuse they re forced to clothes themselves with. Feels like I m stealing hand-outs from the needy. Ah well.
Anyway, so tonight we ll have to hurriedly put together our costumes (we always wait till the last minute) and I ll also need to write up Sunday s adventure... my procrastination knows no bounds... it s been months since our last session and still I ll be finishing this one probably moments before we start. Sad.
-bampf |
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I m late again on the update. Sheesh. I m just an unmotivated cur sometimes.
So the weekend was pretty good. Friday night we arrived in Shippensburg to engage in something of a bar crawl with Chris. Strange, the only time I ever go to bars is with my father-in-law. But he was anxious to buy some drinks for his recently-of-legal-age daughter. So... OK. The university was on spring break, so there were at least no crowds to contend with. We ran into Basehore at Wibs so that was cool. Otherwise I was just reminded once more of why I hate bars.
Saturday was a lazy day culminating in a trip to Hagerstown for a Japanese dinner. From past visits and with Kristyn s expert advice I ve quickly learned what foods to order and which to avoid so I had an excellent meal. I even had a couple peices of sushi-- although I still think the concept is nasty I do like the wasabi.
Sunday was a somewhat disappointing fighter practice. I got some good bashing in and have some nice bruises to prove it, but our turn-out was terrible. The only two fighters from our household were Gregor and I (after Angus bowed out, whose health is still on the rebound). Weak, especially considering neither of us are local. We had a ton of people from other areas so there were still people to whack on, but one of the larger groups were pretty much assholes (on the field at least) so that sorta dampened the mood. Oh well, next time will be better I m sure.
Sunday night I attempted to go to Chad and Daria s for a Wrestlemania party, only to realize (after arriving) that I had horribly mixed up my dates and had shown up a week early. D'oh. Imagine my surprise (and theirs). But they were gracious hosts and I got to hang out for a while and chat so that was cool despite my stupidity.
This weekend is now brimming with activity potential. Green Wolves Saturday. D&D Sunday afternoon. Then try to get back home in time for Wrasslin Sunday night. Ouch.
Speaking of Green Wolves... I am torn. The theme for Green Wolves is Mel Brooks movies, so everyone is to come as a Mel Brooks character. The obvious choice would be to go as Mongo (one of my most prolific appellations), as a matter of fact Angus mentioned that Cory was talking about going to the party as Mongo by wearing shorts and a Punisher T-shirt (I found that supremely funny). So I m thinking maybe I should throw out the change-up and go as some one completely different. Tough call. So far my potential Non-Mongo possibilities: Igor from Young Frankenstein, a Eunuch from History of the World or Pres. Skroob from SpaceBalls. Suggestions? Input? Something simple would be best.
-bampf |
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Yeah, reap it you wretched, vile, beast! Reap it!
Anyone who s ever seen more than a couple minutes of Martha Stewart s FoodTV show should be able to see that she is a vicious megalomaniacal monster. It was always especially evident when she had guests on. When anyone made any vague attempt (even accidentally) to upstage her, you could almost see her shudder with fury. One could sense her grinding her teeth as she attempted to maintain her demure facade hiding the snarling soulless creature lurking just below the surface.
Of course even if she does get jail time (and from what I ve read it s pretty likely) it ll be in some cushy white collar resort, but it s still nice to see her evil empire crumble, if just a bit.
Now if only we could get rid of Rosie O Donnel and Oprah the world may actually become a tolerable place. That would be a very good thing.
Hope everyone has a good weekend. I ll sleep sounder knowing one less criminal will be walking the streets.
-bampf |
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A giant flurry of activity on the BampfBlog, followed by nothin. I m so inconsistent. What s my problem?
Sheesh.
Looks like life is gonna start gettin hectic in the coming weeks... After making only two trips to the mistate since New Years looks like we ll be on the road at least four times in the next 6 weeks.
Looking ahead... going home this weekend to hang with family plus Sunday fighter practice. Next weekend is Green Wolves (rockin Luper St Patty s party) Saturday and then I ll be running my uber-sporadic Trandorian campaign Sunday.
Weekend after that is a fighter practice I may or may not go to. Skip ahead a week and its April. First weekend of which is our Shire s event so we ll be helping out there a ton. Followed by my mega-BloodBowl tournament Sunday (BloodBowl is life!). Following weekend is Easter. Egad. That s potentially 5 out of 6. Damnable turnpike.
-bampf |
| 3/1/2004 3:23:46 PM Ding Dong the witch may be dead... soon | Comments (18) |
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Just found out that this week debate has started in D.C. over the expiration of one of the most assinine peices of legislature to ever befall the citizens of this country: Ammendment S. 1805... aka the Clinton Gun Ban. The flagship of complete idiocy politicking.
For those not familiar, the Clinton Gun Ban outlawed the importing and manufacture of what was termed to be dangerous "assault weapons." What made a weapon fall into this category... well it was any magazine loaded semi-auto rifle with two or more of the following:
folding or telescoping stock
pistol grip
bayonet mount
flash suppressor
grenade launcher (which are themselves illegal to own)
Thank GOD that Bill Clinton had the foresight and compassion to end the violent bayonettings that had beset our country!
So what the bill did was allow the sale of assault rifles (AR-15s, AK-47s) as long as they didn t have scary or cool looking attachments! What the fuck kind of nonesense is that?
Now mind you if a weapon was produced before 1994 it was considered pre-ban and exempt (a weapon made with parts from both before and after fell into some kind of strange weapons ban limbo that was never defined). Which made pre-ban rifles sky-rocket in value (cause gun collectors love having cool attachments for their guns).
The real bitch of it was, the law was clearly enacted as a big "fuck-you" to legitimate gun owners. The simple truth of the matter is there are pretty much no crimes committed with assault weapons (pistols are the culprit here by a huge margin followed by shotguns, they re just not practical too big, too conspicuous) and of course the ban didn t make it any harder to get assault weapons (for criminals or legitamate gun-owners) just disallowed them from looking cool. What the hell kinda legislation is that... basically Clinton said, "Hey all you gun nuts who didn t vote for me, I m taking away your toys... Na na."
And ya wonder why he s one of the most hatest president s ever. So anyway, the law is set to expire (in September actually)... and there is an attempt to extend and even expand the bill... I m hoping that with a Republican controlled Congress the thing is dead in the water! We ll be free from the stupidity once and for all. It does mean my pre-ban 75 round drum for my AK (which was also banned in the act) will sharply depreciate in value but that s a sacrifice I m willing to make.
-bampf |
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Excellent weekend. Excellent indeed.
By time I got home Friday Kristyn had made a near complete recovery from her torticolis (her speedy recovery right at the start of the weekend inclines me to beleive she was faking all along... dirty faker! ...jus kiddin.). Anyway, so how does a young bohemian couple with an entire city full of culture at their disposal spend their Friday night? Well, cleaning the basement, of course! OK, so it wasn t that horrible. We had been putting it off for months... it needed to get done... we had plans for the rest of the weekend. So we were up past 2 AM cleaning the horrible filth-whole that had become our basement. It looks infinitely better now. We are pleased.
Saturday was the much anticipated one-shot of Eldritch at Dan and Karri s. Got to meet and hang out with a bunch of Dan s old gaming crew so that was cool. After numerous delays and unfortunate circumstances we even got a pretty good session in.
Afterward Dan and Karri went went with us to Denny s and then to see a midnight showing of The Passion of the Christ. Excellent movie. Incredibly well done. Major kudos to Mel Gibson. Powerful powerful movie. Regardless of your faith (and it would be hard to imagine a group of people with more deverse religous beliefs than the four of us) the movie makes a very lasting impression. Just wow.
As expected, the cries of anti-semitism were grossly grossly over-stated. The movie does indeed exonerate Pontius Pilot (in accordance with the gospels) and it certainly villifies Caiphus and his cronies but overall the Jewish people are shown as being very compassionate. The Romans are largely portrayed as heartless sadistic monsters... so I m expecting any minute now for vengeful Christians to beset the city of Rome, aiming to exact bloody retribution. On a secular level I think the film really succeeds in illuminating the unbelievable depths of both cruelty and compassion that the human spirit is capable of. I ll also note that the movie s depiction of Satan and demons has a more unsettling effect than any horror movie could ever hope to attain (and in many respects Passion is a legitamate horror genre film). Anyway, I strongly recommend everyone go see the film... unless you have a weak stomach when it comes to blood and violence... cuase the movie has both in abundance.
Funny that over 10 million people have seen the film (based on ticket sales and assuming ten bucks per) and yet I haven t read of a single incidence of violence against jews that the desperate-for-something-to-protest morons were predicting. Surprise surprise.
Anyway, for a radical change of pace, Sunday was Bubba-Hotep. There s a transition... crucifixation and the most profound act in history to geriatric Elvis and JFK battling a soul-sucking mummy! Anyway. The movie rocked! Friggin hysterical. Bruce Campbell was on y100 a couple weeks back to plug the Philly showings and described the pic as your "typical redemptive Elvis mummy movie"... that summed it up perfectly. Still ticks me off that this movie couldn t find a distributor... especially considering the pablum that s released every week by the major studios. Oh well. At least we finally got to see it! Hopefully it will return to Philly for another run sometime (there were only a total of six screenings over two weekends).
Speaking of movies... Lord of the Rings rules!! 11 for 11 on Oscars!? Damn right. Friggin amazing. I refuse to watch the Academy Awards (there s enough celebrity deification in the media already) but I m glad to see Peter Jackson (and the fantasy genre!) get its just desserts. Maybe this will open the door for more fantasy epics... how about a Song of Fire and Ice brought to the big screen??
Well, enough ramblings for now.
-bampf |