July 31, 2006

Movies: Duma

Been so distracted with looking at and thinking about houses to buy and now to rent that haven't been posting much but this movie was so good I must make an exception for it.

Tale of a boy in South Africa whose family adopts a baby cheetah and later turns into a coming of age adventure tale. The cheetah footage is all real, no CGI, which is pretty incredible. Not only is the story beautifully told and the characters interesting and likable, the cinematography is breathtakingly gorgeous with wonderful African rhythms to accompany it. Just an incredibly appealing movie and I really wish I had seen it on the big screen. ****1/2

Posted by aarondf at 05:24 PM | Movies | Comments (0)

July 21, 2006

New TV Game Shows: Treasure Hunters and the World Series of Pop Culture

Watched the new Treasure Hunters reality show which is kind of supposed to be an Amazing Race with puzzles but I thought the first episode was just terrible. The host is absolutely awful, none of the teams were likable and some were ridiculously out of their league, the puzzles weren't interesting and the show was just plain bad.

On the other hand, The World Series of Pop Culture easily gets a Season Pass. The host is likable and funny, the questions are good and fair and it keeps up a good pace. No need to jump ahead at all during the regular show, whereas many trivia shows have tons of downtime. Highly recommended to any trivia buffs. I of course do pretty well on the Movies, ok on TV, and horribly on the Music questions. The format of 3 team members and at least at the start of the round being able to choose the right person for the category is a nice twist too. My only objection is that there seem to be times where one side wins more because of the rules than answering the questions better. For example, there are 6 questions per round and if there is one question that neither side can answer but the other 5 are answered correctly, the team with the person who had first shot at the hard question loses. Yes, the other person did get 3 right to 2 but this still seems a bit unfair to me. Not sure quite how I would change things, though.

Posted by aarondf at 12:48 PM | Television | Comments (0)

July 17, 2006

Delaying House Search so now Apt searching

Well, after looking at 22 houses and finding 3 I liked, I've still decided to put off the house search for a while, as the market seems to be going down and the current time pressure from needing to move isn't helpful. Having to do an apartment search and then move twice is a real pain but if it saves me 25-50K as it might, it will be worth it.

So, anyway, looking for an apartment starting like 8/15 or 9/1 so if you have any leads, let me know. I wish apartments had as useful information on them in one place as MLS listings give. Craigslist is about the only place I've looked so far and info on most places is pretty minimal, often without any pictures at all. I have a strong feeling, unfortunately, that I am going to have to pay more for a place I don't like nearly as much and is in a much worse location but hopefully I'm wrong on some of that.

Posted by aarondf at 02:55 PM | Miscellaneous | Comments (0)

July 05, 2006

Happy Fourth!

Went down in the evening as usual in my kayak to watch the fireworks from just across from the barge on the Charles and was amazing as usual. Was tired and getting my boat to and from the water is such a pain but again really glad I did it anyway. The view from out on the river in a small boat is just unbelievable! There are like 1 million people on the shore and I would guess it is only like 1 thousand (.1%) on the river which just makes for such open space and lets the fireworks fill your entire field of view. Just incredible.

Earlier went to David & Melissa's for two small poker tournaments. In the first, I couldn't hit a flop to save my life, whether I had folded or not. Got lucky once to make a flush draw to get back in it but then went out not too long after. In the second game, I got better cards and hit flops WAY better, hitting nut straight and 2nd nut straight on the flop with junk like 68o. Came down to Melissa and I and she had a huge lead of like 1125-75. Amazingly, I came back from this (and not needing any outdraws to do so) to take the lead and then the flop came K92 (2 spades) and I had K9s (diamonds I think). We went all in with Melissa having KJs (spades) so 12 outs twice and she hit the flush on the river making it 1050-150. I came back AGAIN (and again no outdraws) to even but then was knocked out when I had T4 and the flop came 467. Bet and called with bottom pair and a 10 hits. We go all in but I am nearly dead as Melissa has 89. Don't hit the full house and a 5 lengthens Melissa's winning straight to 7 cards. Actually I think in the first game the same thing had happened to knock me out. The turn card was like my 2nd best card but even better for my opponent.

Posted by aarondf at 03:37 PM | | Comments (0)