Archive for June, 2006

Who is it? Gregory Peck. And that voice! Sigh! I’ll take “Things That Make You Wish You Were Born About 87 Years Ago” for 200, Alex. I just watched a few minutes of a western that he was in forever ago. ( He looks like he could’ve been anywhere between 25 and 40. Gorgeous, but with a strength that makes you feel like he’s lived in that face for a while. Mind you he was probably born gorgeous.  — I’ll bet there were about 10 nurses gathered around that bassinette.  I wonder if he cried in that wonderful voice.)

Yipes! What the heck is wrong with me tonight? Lack of sleep. I shouldn’t even be typing right now. Best thing for me would be for this thing to go on the fritz right now and erase the last two paragraphs. I always had a huge crush on Mr. Peck, though. He probably was  the best looking man ever. I just shouldn’t be writing this for the whole world to see. ( Yeah! Like the whole world would see this. Ha. I’m lucky if 200 people a week see it. Maybe a month.)

I do this every once in a while. Write about anything and everything that pops into my head. I’m not easily embarassed. There’s nothing anybody could say or think about me that hasn’t already been said to me or thought about me. ( My give-a-damn organ quit working a long time ago. ) Some enjoy it. (They know who they are. ) Some don’t. (They don’t have to read this.)

This is one of those kinds of nights. I hadn’t thought about Mr. Peck in awhile.  Saw him in that western tonight and wondered how they could get through a scene without the women fainting. ( Don’t hurt that he could read the phone book and make you want to give him a Best Actor Oscar. ) Beautiful, talented and — one imagines — probably smarter than most in his profession. ( May I say, I wish they had rethought the choice of adult leads for the remake of “The Omen”.  It just isn’t right.     —  There shall be much more about that later. I just don’t have the energy tonight. )

There isn’t an actor that could match Mr. Peck in all aspects today. Oh, there are pretty boys and good looking men, but they all really do fall short. Most pretty boys can’t act at all and most good looking men can’t act nearly as well as they think they can. George Clooney is close, but he just doesn’t have the great face or voice. He’s a little too ‘cute’ and his voice is just a little too  — ‘situation comedy’. ( He would’ve done for “The Omen” though.  Probably couldn’t meet his price, or get him to stop laughing when they said, ” Um. We’re remaking ‘The Omen’.” )

So, the gorgeous, talented, perfect man-of-the-century is : Gregory Peck. I’m going to bed, now. I may regret this whole thing tomorrow. ( Definitely will regret it, tomorrow and the next day and for the whole next week — er, month. )

Really, this is actually and for true: Good Night, All.

Posted by teddyt on June 27, 2006 at 6:16 AM under Uncategorized.
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Here’s the story. I wrote a second post for Sunday. It was more a “rant” than anything else. I was feeling that something wrong had been . . . well, that doesn’t matter now. I took a deep breath, procrastinated for about 12 hours and my hot head cooled down and I decided not to add my two cents to an argument that was not  all that well thought out by the person who initiated it. ( I will not say who I will just nod and wink in their direction .  Hahahaha. ) I might post that “rant” at a later date, especially if my head becomes too warm again. ( Which is possible. Just knowing the worst Republican in the history of the word “republic” is President Of The United States tends to make my temples reach an adequate temperature to fry bacon.  — Not that W. had anything “specific” to do with my feelings, but other Republicans certainly did. )

So, what else? I watched a fairly decent horror movie today with the worst ending since . . . oh, e-v-e-r! This movie is called “Boogeyman” and it looks like they ran out of budget before they could finish — the SCRIPT! I mean, seriously! Tell us something. Who? What? When? Where? Why? The answer to any one of those questions would’ve been more acceptable than what we were left with. I will not tell you the last line of the film, because it would give away the — for lack of a better word — ending of the movie, but let me just give you my personal response to the last line. “How do you know? How did anything you just did or saw lead you to that conclusion?” If it had been an excellent film I would’ve wound up pulling my hair out over that damn ending, but it was only a fair movie, with a little backstory and a few interesting moments. In other words it was a B- movie with a F- ending. (The mother! For Pete’s freakin’ sake explain the mother!) Enough! I will no longer think about that ending or that film. Period. Thank you.

We’ve run out of movies to watch on the Starz ( at least for the next few days ) so I watched The Closer tonight. Decent show. Good characters. One big problem. After I watch that show I tend to sound like I came from the back woods of Alabama ( which I did ). I’ll be saying “y’all” and “yes’m” and “ovah hyeah” or ” ovah yondah ” for the next 24 hours unless I get to watch a British movie ( or Craig Ferguson ) in the next little while. After watching a proper English film I tend to mind my “Ps and Qs” language wise ( and after Craig I almost wind up with a Scottish accent ).

Well, let’s see, what have we learned this evening. That I’m a big, fat, southern fried, Democratic chicken from the back woods of Alabama. That’s pleasant. I will attempt, in the future to be less of a chicken, more of a Democrat, and I may or may not end every post with the words “See y’all tomarrah. Yah hyear.” Hahahah! Goodnight, y’all.

Posted by teddyt on June 27, 2006 at 4:51 AM under Uncategorized.
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Something bizarre happened. The post that I put up early yesterday disappeared and everything else with it. So . . . I deleted that last post and it fixed everything else. Except now there’s no post for the 24th. Ah, well, that’s life.

Well, what’s going on? Was expecting a call that never came. I’m not waiting any longer. I’ll get in touch with the person sometime next month, but then I’m not going to make the effort anymore. I’m worth more than that. ( It’s personal and depressing. Let’s just leave it at that.)

Watched “Sin City” earlier tonight. That was one hell of a cool movie. A tiny bit of sexual content, a whole lot of odd violence (white “blood” and “gore”  when the only other color was often red). If you are over 16 (and not on drugs and/or medication) you must see this movie. It is a bit confusing at times — the timeline is often hard to keep track of — (someone explain the last scene to me?) and I was suprised at who some of the good and bad guys were. You root for the good guys and wish you could do bad things to the bad guys.  It reminds me of why we have freedom of speech in this country. So that if things ever get as bad as they can possibly get we’ll be able to say so and affect people on a visceral level. That’s what this movie does. Plus, it’s totally cool. Period.

So, all in all, some disappointment, some satisfaction and some resignation.  Not a bad day, not a perfect day, just an ordinary day with some extremely interesting entertainment thrown in.

Haven’t knitted in about a week. Think I’ll work on that for awhile tomorrow. Get my mind off things and feel like I’m accomplishing something different.

My head is tired and empty, now. Might Flickr for awhile. Might go to sleep. Might not. Until tomorrow (hopefully) good night, all.

Posted by teddyt on June 25, 2006 at 6:33 AM under Uncategorized.
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Hey! How are you? Nice to see you. Didn’t expect to see me here today, did you? Well, I didn’t have anything better to do, so .  .  . Sorry. Was that rude? I have a few spare hours and I thought I’d come spend them on this blog. Do I have anything to say? No. Not really.

Just some random stuff: 1) I hate movies where, in the end, the incredibly crazy, horribly evil, bad person gets away with murder.  2) Keira Knightly is very cute. 3) I can’t wait to see ”Pirates of the Caribbean : Dead Man’s Chest”  — Do these three statements have anything to do with one another? Why, yes. Yes, they do.

Doing some searches on Flickr and discovering that noone you know personally — besides yourself — has ever used the service. ( It’s really depressing. )  I love all the old photos, though.  Usually just put in a year into the search form and out come cool photos of everyone elses family and friends. (Sigh.)

Could anyone possibly love Hershey’s Special Dark  — Mildly Sweet Chocolate more than myself? Impossible.

Well, I can’t think of anything else. Will try to write more this evening. It’s goodbye until then.

Posted by teddyt on June 23, 2006 at 7:00 PM under Uncategorized.
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/This post was started around 11:30 Wednesday night and finished around 2:40 Thursday morning. Why? Because I fell asleep./ –Ehem. It’s being uploaded at 11:00 Thursday morning because I fell asleep again. –
It’s Wednesday. I’m another day late. Well, that’s bound to happen. I was off-line most of the day today and yesterday waiting for a phone call (that didn’t come). It wasn’t a sure thing, I just assumed . . . and, well, you know what they say about assuming.

Anyway, yesterday wasn’t a total loss. I got to see the most amazing movie. The title of the movie is “Stay” and it is freakin’ gorgeous. It’s artistic and suspensful and confusing and entertaining and you get to stare at Ewan McGregor for 99 minutes.(I soooo forgive him for the fiasco that was Sith). Anybody who doesn’t like this movie just doesn’t get it. It isn’t five stars ( I hate one scene ) but it is definitely four stars and maybe a sliver of the fifth.

Wait! No! Maybe yesterday was almost a total waste. I also wound up having to watch “Bewitched” — on Stars On Demand — so I didn’t really have to but I did. (I’m thinking it’s like the car wreck thing. You can’t help but glance and once you do you can’t look away from the carnage.) It’s too long. It’s too stupid. It’s too not funny. The least funny guy from SNL and the least funny actress in the history of the world. Is it the least funny movie in the history of the world? Maybe not. I haven’t seen all the movies ever made yet, but it’s right up there at the top.

I have a suggestion. If you’re going to make one of the best ever television shows into a movie, you might want to try the direct approach. They did it (more or less) with the Brady Bunch and I thought those two movies were decent parodies and reasonably funny movies. They should’ve made the “real” Bewitched. Maybe even set it in the ’60s / ’70s. Michael Caine was decent as the father and Shirley McClain (I can never spell that woman’s name) would’ve been a hoot as Endora and not just some witch of an actress playing her. Jim Carrey would’ve been the perfect Darrin (or is it Darr-en? I can never remember). I have no idea who should’ve played Samantha, it just shouldn’t have been Kidman.

Hey, guys, you made a mistake. It happens. Forget it and start over from scratch. Carrey could use a good vehicle and surely you could find one cute, smart, funny, blondish female in . . .( hmmm . . . no . . . maybe not, we’d settle for three out of four — as long as one of the three is “funny”.) Then we could start thinking about other things like The Burglar Who . . . series ( ruined so aptly by Ms. Goldberg ) and the movie version of the best suspense novel in the last twenty years — “Vertical Run”.

Well, I certainly did not mean to get into a tirade there. ( Do you get into or onto a tirade? I don’t know.) Then again, maybe I did. Ah, well, tomorrow is another day. (Ooops! It’s tomorrow already, which makes it today. Well, this should be up some time today — Thursday — so I’m not too far behind. Good morning and good luck, until I write again.)

Posted by teddyt on June 22, 2006 at 3:58 PM under Uncategorized.
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I have no excuse. I’ve been very bad. I promise “everyday” and this post is two days late. (I am having some problems with comments, also. Accidentally erased the entire bunch. Why? Because I’m easily distracted and can’t actually type worth a flip.)

There hasn’t been much to say, anyhow. I’ve done nothing for the last two days except watch movies — cannot actually remember anything about any of them at the present moment. I will try to review them at a later time, when my brain is actually functioning.

Oh, yes. One thing did happen. Rushed my child to the ER because I thought she might’ve been bitten by a spider. (She was saying “OWWIE!” and pointing to a bite-like place on her widdle arm.) We take her down to the ER — exactly three minutes away by car — and stay there about an hour and a half to be told by them that they “don’t think” it’s a spider bite, probably just a reaction to a mosquito bite. Prescription for antibiotics but don’t give them to her unless she gets worse. (Gee! Thanks Doc. You’ve been a font of knowledge. I’m so reassured.) Well, her arm hasn’t fallen off, yet. That must be a good sign.

Things are going too slow around here. I might just have to speed things up a little.  A certain piece of content that I want to put up on the regular site is not really ready yet but I just might put it up this evening or early tomorrow. (Sorry I can’t be more definite.)

My life is hopefully about to take a turn for the better, at least personally. Will keep all informed, if feasible.

I like jelly beans. Except for the black ones. ( Licorice makes me want to be severely ill. ) I hate root beer flavor, too.

I have no idea why I am doing this. But I like it.

I’m going to try and put up some retro ( see 1979 and earlier ) content. I have two pictures of myself taken sometime in the ’70s. I intend to scan them and put them up here and on my flickr page. (Whether that will get done or not, within the foreseeable future, remains to be seen. Fingers-crossed.)

Well, enough chit-chat. This is plenty long enough to make up for two missing ones. I’ll return later or tomorrow or something. ‘Bye.

“Warning: Any of the above text could be absolutely nonsense, completely made up by the editor of this blog. It could be true though. You never really know.” — The End.

 

Posted by teddyt on June 18, 2006 at 3:12 PM under Uncategorized.
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OOOPS. Missed the deadline. Well, it’s my deadline, it’s mine to miss isn’t it. But here I am and to everybody more than 10 hours west of me it’s still Thursday (or just nearly).

Not much to say about today. Boring really. Read to my kid for a while. Worked on the potty thing. (She’s just about got it down. — Boy, she is gonna hate me in about 10 years — you know, for just typing this sentence.)

Diet is going well. Had red beans and turkey sandwich for lunch. (Red beans on the side – not with the turkey, although that would probably have been yummy, like a turkey and bean burrito.) I had a lovely salad for dinner. Tomato and lettuce and unsalted sunflower seeds and just a tiny sprinkle of bacon bits. Nearly had popcorn with the movie, but forgot all about it when I started the lovely salad. (Too much salt anyway.)

Movie got here. Finally. “Fantastic Four”. It was alright. Not horrible. I give it three and a half stars for trying so hard and for having that lovely Dr. Doom. Man! Julian McMahon! Is he awesome or what? The rest of the cast was between “eh” and “meh”. Not awful and not really very good. The effects were pretty cool, though. Not as bad as I’d heard.

As far as the acting goes, Miss Alba does a fair job for the depth of her character.    (Sue Storm is basically as deep as a petrie dish. ) Mr. Fantastic — I will not even try to remember how to spell the actor’s name ( perhaps he should change it ) — looks perpetually bemused and acts like he’s frightened of his own shadow. (Maybe there is some back story there, but it was not mentioned in this movie.) Give Chiklis respect for carrying around that suit for however long it took. (If it took five minutes he should get an Oscar.) Chris Evans is dead-on as the pretty boy brat Johnny Storm. (If that guy was my brother I’d shoot our mother.)

So . . . Three and one half stars for cool effects, one great actor (McMahon) and Chiklis not dying of heat stroke. Adding half a star for it not being nearly as bad as the reviews would have you think. It’s a cool summer movie. (It ain’t worth $12 bucks a ticket, but it is worth a $3.00 rental at the nearest Blockwood Busterpants — or whatever your local video rental place happens to be named.)

Post Script: O. K.. I felt horrid about the name thing. Mr. Fantastic’s real name is Iaon Gruffudd. He really should change it. (Who knew the Welsh had such — er — umm — difficult names. )[And why the heck didn't anybody tell me that I had Welsh spelled with a ch, instead of an sh, for all this time?]

Well, that’s it for the day. I’ve still got that story to tell you about yes — oops — day before yesterday, now. It’s cute, sort of. I’ll have to tell it tomorrow as I’m about to fall off my chair and go to sleep. Goodnight.

Posted by teddyt on June 16, 2006 at 7:19 AM under Uncategorized.
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Geesh! I almost missed my first regular daily entry. I’ve been busy all day. Mostly trying to figure out the new cable set up. Yes, oh yes, we have upgraded to digital — tv, not internet, that’s still a while away — and yes it is REDICULOUS. Our particular brand of cable (look it up — it’s the only one in B.G., Kentucky) has the most horrendous on-screen guide. It is difficult, it is clumsy, it is . . . very, very, badly done. (Thank you, Deregulation, for all the lovely poop.) You have to search and search and search to find what you want and then you have to make sure you’re holding down the correct button or . . . oops, sorry, start again. Arrrggh!

Read some mail. Speaking of mail, guess what didn’t come in the mail today? Three guesses and the first two don’t count. Right! I heard several of you shout ‘Your Netflix movie!’ Very right. Tomorrow is day three — or at least day two and a half. Here’s a thought, Netflix: Lower your prices and tell people the truth about when their movies will arrive. None of this “about one business day” crap. I know when I sent it. I know when you should’ve gotten it. (I’m assuming you . . . being a business and all get morning and evening mail deliveries. Oh, by the way, the closest distribution place to us here in old B.G. is Nashville, not Louisville. Check into it.) I’m seriously considering dropping my subscription. It doesn’t really seem worth it.

O. K.. Enough bad stuff. I’ll get to see Batman Begins sometime this weekend. I’ll get to see a few other things that I haven’t seen in a while. (I truly love me some of that TV Land.) It’ll be fun. I haven’t gained any of my weight back. (I haven’t lost anymore, but I’m not working out as hard as I should be.) I’m waiting for that next five pounds. I need it. I really really do. (I snacked on a handful of gourmet jelly beans and a sour gummy worm today. Hope it didn’t screw me up.)

Yeech! Seems I can’t stop with the bad stuff. Mostly the day was fine. Have a little story to tell about something that happened today, but I’ll leave that for tomorrow. (My fingers are tired from typing so fast, trying to get this entry done before it’s Midnight — anywhere besides the East Coast.) So. . . farewell for now and pleasant dreams.

Posted by teddyt on June 15, 2006 at 4:36 AM under Uncategorized.
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Many things to report in this er-um-episode. Let’s see. . . Where to begin?

1.) Went to five thrift places yesterday. Spent a total of five dollars and twenty-five cents. Should’ve spent at least ten dollars more. It’s only once you get home that you start kicking yourself for all those wonderful things you didn’t get.

2.) Started a diet last week. I’ve lost ten pounds without feeling horribly ill like I  usually do while I’m on a diet. I’m taking these generic green tea diet vitamin things, too.  (Multivitamins with green tea — not weird diet pills.) I also do about forty sit ups, push ups and leg exercises a day. (I’m trying to take it slow. My muscles punish me terribly. One day about two weeks ago I did 85 push ups in one day. I couldn’t lift my arms for two days.)

The diet is basically, this: Get up. Do stretching exercises and 10 of the rest of the exercises. Drink juice or eat a Breyer’s All Natural Pure Fruit, Fruit Swirl Bar with one 20 oz. tumbler of water. Blueberry-Strawberry are my favorite. (I usually take my vitamin at that point.) The rest of the day, until 3:00 p.m., eating nothing but raw, fresh fruit or vegetables — usually carrots (I have terrific night vision) — I also like bell peppers — the red and yellow versions. Yum! At 3:00 I eat a large meal with almost equal amounts of protein and complex carbohydrates with a tall glass of low fat or fat free milk as a chaser. (I love Whole Multigrain breads  of any brand to make sandwiches with. The 8 or 9 grain kinds are the best. My daughter even loves them and she’s only two. Brown rice is also a good carb for the meal.) I usually eat tuna, regular fat extra sharp cheddar cheese (in a sandwich), red beans or chicken — turkey if I have it — or the old standby a big ol’ peanut butter and dark chocolate sandwich. (Recipe is simple: whole grain bread, twice as much good peanut butter — I like Skippy — as semi-sweet chocolate chips — usually two tablespoons of peanut butter to one tablespoon of chips. Peanut butter on both pieces of bread, chips in the middle. Chow down!)

After the meal, at about 4:00, I do the rest of the exercises (maybe a few extra if I feel like it) and that is basically it. You can have a couple of small snacks after 3:00 (or one light meal). I usually have another fruit swirl bar and a salad-type thing with tomato and peppers topped with unsalted (salt is a diet killer) roasted sunflower seeds or any unsalted nut. Sometimes I throw in a handful of Whole Grain Wheaties — for a better crunch — and a shot of hot sauce for flavor. Two more big glasses of water between 3:00 and about two hours before bedtime and I’m not hungry again until late the next morning. (Need to have something to do with your hands or you’ll go bonkers. I’ve taken up knitting — and blogging.)

My suggestion is that you see your doctor before starting any kind of diet, especially a low fat, low cal. one like mine. I also believe dieting is a very individual thing. What works for me might not work for you. We all have different metabolic clocks. Someone else might need to eat earlier or later than me to get their clock wound up. Basically: Don’t follow my diet plan. Make a healthy one of your own. You’re the only one who really knows what you need to feel and be healthy.

Whatever you do, have fun and be careful — in a carefree way.

3.) Found out yesterday that I’m getting to keep the website. Decided to celebrate by posting — EVERY SINGLE DAY. (Sure. We’ll see how long that idea works. Hey! I’ve already posted twice today. Yeah!)

4.) Doing something different with the fonts on this blog. Changing the size causes two many problems in the coding. Decided to just use bold and leave the rest alone. (If anyone has any problem reading the text, e-mail me at teddyt at my site — which is oddstilllife.com and I’ll work on changing the size back.)

5.) Watched “Pirates of the Caribbean — The Curse of the Black Pearl” over the weekend. It was great. Five stars all the way. Can’t wait for the sequel. Next month. Yahoo! (Have the feeling it might be a bit over the top. They’re making Davey Jones — as in Davey Jones’ locker — a character. Makes me think of that SpongeBob episode with the Flying Dutchman.)

Small addendum to note number 5. Netflix works fine. (Most of the time.) My next movie should be here by Wednesday. It’s The Fantastic Four. Will review it in regular “Things I Know Now That I Didn’t Know On Wednesday” post on Thursday. (If it actually gets here on Wednesday.)

O. K.. Well. . . . I don’t much like this lay out. I probably won’t do numbered lists anymore. Yeccch! Might post one more time before the end of the day.  So, until next time. Be good and if you can’t do that be happy. (But please try to be good. I’m sick of bad news.)

Posted by teddyt on June 13, 2006 at 8:47 PM under Uncategorized.
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Things are looking up boys and girls. I’m keeping the site, the blog, the whole nine yards. Hope you enjoy it. Below is an entry that I wrote in Notepad this morning (starting) at 7:30. Read. Enjoy. Be well.

I have returned. How long has it been this time? A week? Two? Well, I have wonderful news for you 200 or so persons who keep coming to my blog for whatever reason. As of this very moment, this blog will be updated — get this — every single day (!!!).

‘How is this possible?’ you may ask. I shall explain succinctly. I have given up on the idea of “sleep”. Sure, I do close my eyes and lie down across my big empty bed but after that, I mostly toss and turn for an hour or so, have some bizarre dream or other and finally wake up just about five hours after I first attempted to shut my eyes.

I don’t mind the empty bed. That’s really alright. I’m not the lonesome kind. (I think that’s a C&W song isn’t it.) Plus it means I can get up at 7:00 and blog for up to three hours a day. ( Others often desire to sleep in when the temperature has risen to 90 degrees by 9:00 a.m.. Fortunately or un-, the temperature is much cooler today, won’t reach 85 until noon. The child will probably wake up in a few minutes clamoring for milk and juice and Apple Jacks. I know, too much sugar but the nutrition isn’t really all that bad and I can usually mix in about a half a handfull of Wheaties without her complaining too much. Really, Mom’s, mix the good in with the bad and at least you’ll know they’re getting something besides their daily allowance of cardboard and green food coloring.)

I really have got to find a better aside device than the bracket. Either that or stop doing asides. Anyway. . . I have some great stuff to blog about. I won’t do it in this entry because, well . . . for one thing I used the word “succinctly” a couple paragraphs ago and have not been succinct yet.          So. . . let me finally be succinct and say : Goodbye until later.

Posted by teddyt on June 13, 2006 at 6:14 PM under Uncategorized.
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Things that I know on Wednesday that I didn’t know on Tuesday.

1) The movie “Dark Water” is a decent, dark and suspenseful movie — right up until the end when it just turns . . . well, bizarre.  I still recommend it, (four stars and all that) but . . . I wasn’t prepared. (You won’t be, either. Whew! Those last five minutes!)  

2) What is going on with my family. Personal stuff. Cool, maybe. Will post about it more if it’s O. K..

3) Knitting is just really, well . . . hard. (But you all knew that didn’t you?)

Posted by teddyt on June 7, 2006 at 9:24 PM under Uncategorized.
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I keep planning to write everyday and something always comes up. I don’t know how much longer I can even trust myself to keep this up. Things are up in the air as to if I can even afford this space anymore. I haven’t been able to do what I really wanted with it anyway.

I appreciate everybody who keeps coming and looking for updates. I really have been trying. I’ll keep the site at least one more month and if I can keep it going I will. It’s sort of an outlet for me. I get something from it that I just haven’t found anywhere else.

If I do shut this down I have something over at Flickr that I’ll keep up no matter what. I have so much to say. I’m just not sure I’m saying it in the right way. Thanks for your patience.

Posted by teddyt on June 7, 2006 at 3:04 PM under Uncategorized.
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