Can't think of a title. Too hot.
Jul. 14th, 2008 03:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grrgoylThis weekend at the kennels, I had not one but TWO dogs infested with maggots. It was pretty horrifying, so that's all I'm going to say about it, and obviously no pics. You're welcome.
~*~
Small bit of justice in the matter of Tracey FCW and her illegally parked trailer. I don't know when it happened, however I noticed Saturday morning that her car was parked in a different spot, the trailer was nowhere to be seen, and a large chunk was missing from her back panel -- I mean like the entire left half was completely ripped off, I prefer to assume from being towed. Oh, revenge is sweet, and made all the sweeter by the fact that I didn't have to lift a finger to see right prevail.
I wanted to take a picture for my journal, but I can't be sure she doesn't still have her spycam pointed at the parking lot. Tery thought I could pass it off as me dialing my phone while casually pointing it at her car -- as if I stroll around outside making phone calls all the time (she must be confusing me with Reggie). So we'll all have to be content with the mental image of her car being severely damaged as a result of her insistence in flouting the law.
We have other neighbors, behind us in the same building, who are fond of talking loud and long, naturally with their windows wide open, far into the night. Sunday morning I was awoken by the sound of them arguing, although "arguing" seems like far too mild a term for the hysterical, screeching caterwauling I could hear clearly in my bedroom. Like "I'm this close to pulling a gun on you" kind of arguing. They would go a few rounds, quiet down for 30 minutes or so, then start in again at exactly the same "red alert" level.
So it went, off and on, for the entire day. "I can't stand you, but I can't stay away from you either" seemed to be the mindset. We did hear the word "alimony" bandied about. That was reassuring, the thought that these people at each other's throats shared a child. Tery and I listened in disbelief. "This is the day the Lord has made!" Tery exclaimed repeatedly (her favorite phrase on Sunday, which always seems to be the least peaceful day of the weekend). We debated calling the police. I mean, how do you determine if this is a prelude to actual violence and when is it your duty as a bystander to act? Tones of Kitty Genovese haunted us.
We did nothing, and they both lived to argue another day. Um, whew?
~*~
Time again for some humorous anecdotes from the world of medical transcription!
I had a patient that I assumed was a gay man throughout the report, although it was never stated -- HIV positive (I know, stereotypes), mysterious vague allusions to "significant others" (I know, could mean anything), but then the doctor stated that he had had 10 partners in 30 days (huoor) and had "been a top with them."
"A-HA!" I thought. Two years of reading slash fiction had paid off. I sent the report in with smug confidence. But then I got it back the following day from QA, where they had changed the phrase to "had been ON top with them." I pictured some matronly old transcriptionist proofreading my work, completely unfamiliar with gay sex terminology. I decided to protest the change and emailed my quality supervisor -- who I'm pleased to say agreed with me completely, that it was a very specific description of an activity and very relevant to the patient's medical record. And I'll bet she's never read a single Snarry in her life.
Secondly, I had a psychiatric patient, and those are always fun. This woman, the doc said, "still believed her family engaged in religious rituals involving human sacrifice, but has come to accept the fact that she has no control over the religious freedom of others." Wow, what a breakthrough! Let's not rain on her parade by pointing out that most of us might draw the "religious freedom" line at killing people. No sense clouding the issue for her.
~*~
Lastly, a couple of movie reviews.
First, the new. WALL-E: I saw the trailer for this and thought sure it was destined to bomb. I thought it would be impossible for audiences to relate to a robot with a three-word vocabulary. My bad for underestimating the magicians at Pixar, who can infuse more life into an inanimate object than one usually sees in an average "Big Brother" episode.
WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter - Earth class) is a tiny robot left behind to clean up Earth after humans have literally covered it in garbage -- which right out of the gate is a premise that seems to have a lot stacked against it in the humor potential (pun intended). There were lots of other WALL-E's helping him, but they've all broken down and he's the last one.
But somehow, after spending his days stacking trash and his nights watching a worn-out old VHS tape of "Hello, Dolly!" WALL-E has developed sentience. Every day he rolls off to work with a cooler on his back -- not for carrying his lunch, but for collecting small bits and pieces of debris that he deems worth saving, idiosyncratic, worthless treasures that he stockpiles. He watches his movie and dreams of holding hands with someone, though his only companion (fittingly a cockroach, and again props have to go to Pixar for creating one that isn't remotely Fear Factorish) really isn't an ideal candidate.
That is, until the arrival of EVE (Extra-terrestrial Vegetation Evaluator), a sleek, iPod-like machine, and it's love at first laser blast for the little trash compactor. He approaches her shyly and carefully (mostly because she tends to shoot first and ask questions later), but eventually gets her back to his robot bachelor pad to share his collection. When he produces his newest find, a single plant shoot in an old boot, she seizes it, stores it in her chest cavity, and closes up tight, to WALL-E's dismay.
He attempts to be the perfect boyfriend, protecting her from the elements and trying (adorably) to hold her hand, but she remains locked up and bullet-shaped, until the Mother Ship returns for her. WALL-E stows away to follow her, which is how he ends up on the luxury cruise spaceship where the human race has been living en route to a new planet (for 700 years).
If you think the whole planet Earth overrun by garbage was a biting social commentary, wait'll you get a load of the humans of the future -- morbidly obese, pampered, whizzing about in oversized floating baby car seats, lacking enough musculature to even stand upright, with holographic computer screens permanently floating in front of their faces. Human laziness taken to its logical extreme.
Anyway, I've gone into far too much detail already. The second act of the film is largely concerned with EVE trying to deliver her evidence of regrowth on Earth to the proper authorities, while the machines on the ship seem intent on thwarting this mission based on a 700-year-old directive to never return to Earth -- which leads one to wonder why EVE was deployed on Earth in the first place if it was never a viable option. The reasoning is a little shaky, but the ensuing high-action chase sequences are so exciting that it's easy to lose sight of this fact.
In the chase, WALL-E is badly damaged, and EVE knows his only chance is to return to Earth where he has replacement parts in his stockpile. She gets him there, replaces his motherboard, which of course wipes his programming clean of any trace of personality -- her desperate, heartbroken reaction has been shared by anyone who's experienced a computer crash and lost all the data that made their system unique. Then it's a one-two punch to the heart when the new, emotionless WALL-E starts crushing the collected treasures into trash cubes. The tears were flowing freely down my cheeks.
There's a happy ending for them when she restores his memory (I won't give away EVERYTHING), and a sort of happy ending for humanity who decide to make a go of it back on Earth, based solely on one tiny, fragile little plant shoot.
In short, much, much better than I expected. Will probably end up in my collection, if for no other reason than the animation is so good I forgot I was watching an animated film.
Detractors at IMDb.com whine that they weren't expecting a "message movie." Really? The title character's entire reason for being is to clean up the planet, and you didn't expect a message of any kind? These people must just see "Pixar. Disney. Kid movie." and don't bother looking for any further information.
Yes, it's a very clear message movie. And it's a very important message, one that needs even more repetition for some people with thicker skulls than others -- like the woman in the comments who still believes global warming is just liberal dogma, and doesn't appreciate her children being "indoctrinated" without her permission into thinking otherwise. Oh, shut up. Indoctrinated. Like Pixar is some kind of al Queda organization. Thanks to Pixar, now her children won't have quite so much of a rude awakening when they have to clean up the mess we're leaving.
Okay, enough about that. I was going to also review another Horrorfest, Lake Dead, but it's already stolen enough of my life. Trust me when I say it's trite and predictable, and not even worth a rental. Simply awful.
~*~
Small bit of justice in the matter of Tracey FCW and her illegally parked trailer. I don't know when it happened, however I noticed Saturday morning that her car was parked in a different spot, the trailer was nowhere to be seen, and a large chunk was missing from her back panel -- I mean like the entire left half was completely ripped off, I prefer to assume from being towed. Oh, revenge is sweet, and made all the sweeter by the fact that I didn't have to lift a finger to see right prevail.
I wanted to take a picture for my journal, but I can't be sure she doesn't still have her spycam pointed at the parking lot. Tery thought I could pass it off as me dialing my phone while casually pointing it at her car -- as if I stroll around outside making phone calls all the time (she must be confusing me with Reggie). So we'll all have to be content with the mental image of her car being severely damaged as a result of her insistence in flouting the law.
We have other neighbors, behind us in the same building, who are fond of talking loud and long, naturally with their windows wide open, far into the night. Sunday morning I was awoken by the sound of them arguing, although "arguing" seems like far too mild a term for the hysterical, screeching caterwauling I could hear clearly in my bedroom. Like "I'm this close to pulling a gun on you" kind of arguing. They would go a few rounds, quiet down for 30 minutes or so, then start in again at exactly the same "red alert" level.
So it went, off and on, for the entire day. "I can't stand you, but I can't stay away from you either" seemed to be the mindset. We did hear the word "alimony" bandied about. That was reassuring, the thought that these people at each other's throats shared a child. Tery and I listened in disbelief. "This is the day the Lord has made!" Tery exclaimed repeatedly (her favorite phrase on Sunday, which always seems to be the least peaceful day of the weekend). We debated calling the police. I mean, how do you determine if this is a prelude to actual violence and when is it your duty as a bystander to act? Tones of Kitty Genovese haunted us.
We did nothing, and they both lived to argue another day. Um, whew?
~*~
Time again for some humorous anecdotes from the world of medical transcription!
I had a patient that I assumed was a gay man throughout the report, although it was never stated -- HIV positive (I know, stereotypes), mysterious vague allusions to "significant others" (I know, could mean anything), but then the doctor stated that he had had 10 partners in 30 days (huoor) and had "been a top with them."
"A-HA!" I thought. Two years of reading slash fiction had paid off. I sent the report in with smug confidence. But then I got it back the following day from QA, where they had changed the phrase to "had been ON top with them." I pictured some matronly old transcriptionist proofreading my work, completely unfamiliar with gay sex terminology. I decided to protest the change and emailed my quality supervisor -- who I'm pleased to say agreed with me completely, that it was a very specific description of an activity and very relevant to the patient's medical record. And I'll bet she's never read a single Snarry in her life.
Secondly, I had a psychiatric patient, and those are always fun. This woman, the doc said, "still believed her family engaged in religious rituals involving human sacrifice, but has come to accept the fact that she has no control over the religious freedom of others." Wow, what a breakthrough! Let's not rain on her parade by pointing out that most of us might draw the "religious freedom" line at killing people. No sense clouding the issue for her.
~*~
Lastly, a couple of movie reviews.
First, the new. WALL-E: I saw the trailer for this and thought sure it was destined to bomb. I thought it would be impossible for audiences to relate to a robot with a three-word vocabulary. My bad for underestimating the magicians at Pixar, who can infuse more life into an inanimate object than one usually sees in an average "Big Brother" episode.
WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter - Earth class) is a tiny robot left behind to clean up Earth after humans have literally covered it in garbage -- which right out of the gate is a premise that seems to have a lot stacked against it in the humor potential (pun intended). There were lots of other WALL-E's helping him, but they've all broken down and he's the last one.
But somehow, after spending his days stacking trash and his nights watching a worn-out old VHS tape of "Hello, Dolly!" WALL-E has developed sentience. Every day he rolls off to work with a cooler on his back -- not for carrying his lunch, but for collecting small bits and pieces of debris that he deems worth saving, idiosyncratic, worthless treasures that he stockpiles. He watches his movie and dreams of holding hands with someone, though his only companion (fittingly a cockroach, and again props have to go to Pixar for creating one that isn't remotely Fear Factorish) really isn't an ideal candidate.
That is, until the arrival of EVE (Extra-terrestrial Vegetation Evaluator), a sleek, iPod-like machine, and it's love at first laser blast for the little trash compactor. He approaches her shyly and carefully (mostly because she tends to shoot first and ask questions later), but eventually gets her back to his robot bachelor pad to share his collection. When he produces his newest find, a single plant shoot in an old boot, she seizes it, stores it in her chest cavity, and closes up tight, to WALL-E's dismay.
He attempts to be the perfect boyfriend, protecting her from the elements and trying (adorably) to hold her hand, but she remains locked up and bullet-shaped, until the Mother Ship returns for her. WALL-E stows away to follow her, which is how he ends up on the luxury cruise spaceship where the human race has been living en route to a new planet (for 700 years).
If you think the whole planet Earth overrun by garbage was a biting social commentary, wait'll you get a load of the humans of the future -- morbidly obese, pampered, whizzing about in oversized floating baby car seats, lacking enough musculature to even stand upright, with holographic computer screens permanently floating in front of their faces. Human laziness taken to its logical extreme.
Anyway, I've gone into far too much detail already. The second act of the film is largely concerned with EVE trying to deliver her evidence of regrowth on Earth to the proper authorities, while the machines on the ship seem intent on thwarting this mission based on a 700-year-old directive to never return to Earth -- which leads one to wonder why EVE was deployed on Earth in the first place if it was never a viable option. The reasoning is a little shaky, but the ensuing high-action chase sequences are so exciting that it's easy to lose sight of this fact.
In the chase, WALL-E is badly damaged, and EVE knows his only chance is to return to Earth where he has replacement parts in his stockpile. She gets him there, replaces his motherboard, which of course wipes his programming clean of any trace of personality -- her desperate, heartbroken reaction has been shared by anyone who's experienced a computer crash and lost all the data that made their system unique. Then it's a one-two punch to the heart when the new, emotionless WALL-E starts crushing the collected treasures into trash cubes. The tears were flowing freely down my cheeks.
There's a happy ending for them when she restores his memory (I won't give away EVERYTHING), and a sort of happy ending for humanity who decide to make a go of it back on Earth, based solely on one tiny, fragile little plant shoot.
In short, much, much better than I expected. Will probably end up in my collection, if for no other reason than the animation is so good I forgot I was watching an animated film.
Detractors at IMDb.com whine that they weren't expecting a "message movie." Really? The title character's entire reason for being is to clean up the planet, and you didn't expect a message of any kind? These people must just see "Pixar. Disney. Kid movie." and don't bother looking for any further information.
Yes, it's a very clear message movie. And it's a very important message, one that needs even more repetition for some people with thicker skulls than others -- like the woman in the comments who still believes global warming is just liberal dogma, and doesn't appreciate her children being "indoctrinated" without her permission into thinking otherwise. Oh, shut up. Indoctrinated. Like Pixar is some kind of al Queda organization. Thanks to Pixar, now her children won't have quite so much of a rude awakening when they have to clean up the mess we're leaving.
Okay, enough about that. I was going to also review another Horrorfest, Lake Dead, but it's already stolen enough of my life. Trust me when I say it's trite and predictable, and not even worth a rental. Simply awful.