Wednesday, May 11, 2005

The Leia Factor

I've said before that Vader cannot learn in Episode III that he has twins. What's embarrasing to admit is that I didn't think of Obi-Wan! Obi-Wan can't know either (or he assumes Leia is dead), else he wouldn't say in Empire, "that boy is our last hope."

C'mon, George ol' buddy. You can do it...or could have hired someone who can...which you didn't...

Oh man, I'm nervous.

Sunday, May 08, 2005

The original original trilogy

http://www.originaltrilogy.com/

Why I'm switching from Yahoo

I think I'm pretty familiar with Star Wars. I know as well as anyone what Episode III will cover. I do not, however, want to spoil the experience of the movie by learning more than is common knowledge before its release.

I intentionally steer clear of potential spoiler material, and most people are savvy enough to let you know if their review or article contains spoilers. The major media releaes usually don't have spoilers at all. Usually.

Over the past week I've read in two different places a piece of Episode III storyline that I was unaware of. And like I said, if it's common knowledge or able to be inferred from the other movies, I know it'll be in there. I didn't know this. One of the places I saw this bit of info was in the TV Guide Mom sent me. (Thanks, Mom! I love you.) It also appeared on Yahoo.com in an entertainment article.

That is why I will no longer be using Yahoo.com for Web-based email or any other services. The Star Wars thing is bad enough, but I'm also getting sick and tired of blinking ads distracting me as I try to read my email.

I'm now using Gmail. If you're emailing me, use the same email address, just swap "gmail" for "yahoo".

Don't use FTD

Now, I understand that Mother's Day is the busiest time of year for these folks, but FTD has let me down in the biggest way.
I was ordering flowers three days before Mother's Day--not planning
way in advance, but I wouldn't say it was the last minute by any means. I ordered flowers from two "internet florists": FTD.com and ProFlowers.com. One of them got the job done--and done right. The other, and I bet you can guess which, did not get the job done--period.
Both florists didn't deliver on Sundays or Mondays, but you could have the shipments made on Saturday. You can pay extra for it, but they'll deliver on Saturday.
Or so they said.

It turns out that FedEx didn't allow FTD to ship any more packages on Saturday, so the rest would have to wait 'till Tuesday. Did they alert me to this? No. They alerted me to the fact that some of the arrangements weren't available in the zip code I wanted to ship to, but they didn't think it was important to let me know that the flowers I'm ordering for my future mother-in-law wouldn't be there until two days after Mother's Day.
And how do we learn about this? From Megan's mom when she calls to wish her a happy Mother's Day.
When I go to check the confirmation FTD had emailed me, it actually say
s "Delivery On: Tuesday 05/10/2005". Not even a "We're sorry, but is it OK if..." email. They just slipped the change into the confirmation in hopes I wouldn't notice.

So after waiting on hold with FTD customer service--which is OK, I know it's Mother's Day--I talked to a very nice and very professional customer service rep who unfortunately couldn't do any more than apologize and tell me that the shipping charges would be waived. I said thanks but no thanks. Just cancel the order.

I then looked up florists in Kennewick, WA on yellowpages.com, found one that could deliver today, and five minutes later had Mother's Day taken care of.

The moral of the story? I won't be using FTD ever again. There are plenty of great options out there that do the job even better. I recommend the following:
ProFlowers.com
Shelby's Floral & Gifts - Kennewick, WA - 509.735.9558

Thursday, May 05, 2005

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, May 05, 2005 9:17 AM

Did you see hitchhikers? My nerdy students said it was awesome.

-dp

I sure did! I thought it was quite good, too. Of course there were changes (as there always are when things are adapted for the screen), and those changes made ripples which lead to huge plot holes.... but only if you think about it. Fortunately, the movie lets you not think about it and just enjoy the ride, so it's a non-issue in my book.
You'll never get all of the fantastic humor of Adams on the screen because it lives in the finely-crafted language, but the movie uses voiceovers to give you a flavor of his language and it works well.

For a scathing review (and a long one at that), look at
http://www.planetmagrathea.com/longreview1.html. It's a 4-page review of a premier by a true fan and someone who's been very very close to Hitchhiker's for a long, long time. He's reviewing a preview, so some elements are different in the actual theatrical release. It's also loaded with spoilers (if you care).
The thing about it is.... I agree with everything he says. All of the complaints he has are absolutely valid. But...

If you want to see Hitchhiker's put on the big screen, designed for an American audience--that's what we've got. So don't think too much, just go and enjoy the experience.

I do recommend it.

H