Since I have all the time in the world to do such things, I have created a page to display films I’ve rated on Netflix, and seen in theatres. There are a few hundred already, just star-rated 1-5 for now. I’ll add some one-line comments shortly just to clarify my instinctive thoughts on each film. This is by no means an exhaustive list of every movie I’ve seen, but it includes many of the best (and more recently released) ones.

I can’t speak for Matt either, because I know he’s likely to disagree on such reviews as the entire Kevin Smith filmography. Also, I bet he would give all three Lord of the Rings movies 5 stars each. No matter, when he’s got the time, he can put together his own ratings page. I don’t think it will happen though, considering he’s actually busy. For the most part anyway, we agree on what we like to watch. It’s one of the ways we get along. :O) It should also be noted that in some rare instances Matt actually did rate the film, like in the case of Apocalypse Now. Everytime I’ve attempted to see it I’ve fallen asleep.

Hopefully the page will be of some use to you.

The link is HERE and you can access it later from under the Goodies header on the right of the homepage.

Last night we had dinner at Bistro Q, a casual place at the south tip of Cayuga Lake with tasty southern BBQ dishes. Our server sounded French Canadian so I asked, and he’s Serbian with a New York accent! Wow.

When we left there was a full moon overhead.

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Six years ago today we got married at one of the most beautiful spots in the world, overlooking English Bay:

And we’ve stuck together about five years longer than anyone thought we would ;) HAHA

This morning we woke up to find the water is running brown from our taps. There hasn’t been significant rain lately compared to storms we had in August & September. We’ve been drinking the tap water and it’s been tasty, though the shower tile shows evidence of high mineral content. I wonder what’s going on?

I tried to find info at the Cayuga Lake Watershed site, but there’s no news posted on it. So I suppose it’s just extra sediment that couldn’t be filtered out.

For now I’m contemplating boiling the water or buying some filtered jugs at Wegman’s.

Last night we watched Supersize Me. I partly dreaded watching it, figuring there would be some graphic images of how cattle are treated and processed before those tidy meat packages arrive in grocery store fridges. Not so. It follows the healthy writer/director who aims to show what 30 days of consuming only McDonald’s food will do to his body. At the beginning his health is perfect, while at the end of 30 days his liver is mush and for all purposes he’s found himself another bite away from death.

What a sucker.
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It’s a busy couple of days here at Cornell, two famous speakers in as many days! As Tiff mentioned before, tonight we’re going to see John Cleese, speaking about religon, with scenes from the Life of Brian. Yesterday I got to see Freeman Dyson give his predictions for the future of biotech. For those who don’t know, Freeman Dyson is a physicist/mathmatician, now retired from the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. Dyson is a titan of physics, he did pioneering work in many fields, including quantum field theory (what I do) and the stability of matter (which he proved). He’s also written several popular books, his autobiographical “Disturbing the Universe” is perhaps the best known.

Dyson talked about biotech, and he’s clearly very optimistic about our biotech future. He told seven stories, basically predictions he’s (or others are) making (and in one case has made) about biology, and biotech. I won’t run them all down, just give you a summary of the ones that stuck out.
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This morning I ventured seven miles northwest of Ithaca to see the falls. Weather was lightly drizzling and cold, but I figured the leaves would be happily bright with the moisture.

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On Barbers: So I went to get a haircut yesterday (ok, not by a barber but it started with a ‘B’ so…) at Pyramid Mall, the Regis Salon. I am attempting to grow out my hair a little, so I requested the hairdresser simply help out the shape a bit, you know, so it’s good to grow. I suggested she do a razor cut, since I thought it would help things look choppy which I like. As for her, she had quite a flipped-out hairdo and she asked if that was what I wanted because, she said, that’s what a razor cut will produce. I said no, not so flippy, but she went ahead with the razor cut anyway? The cut took about 15 minutes to do. All she did was follow the lines of my previous cut, not adjust the style in any way. This might have been fine, but I did ask for some change, and the last haircut I had was done by ME. Let’s just say it had it’s flaws. Of course I left the salon with the back of my hair flipped out.
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That’s apparently all you need to do here in the good state of New York. Call now! 1-800-GET-ACAR! And you will get your car, NOW. So call 1-800-GET-ACAR.

Yikes.

We didn’t make the call but did get a car, borrowed for the winter from Matt’s mom. I crossed the border Sunday to pick it up, and there is now a lovely dark red Toyota Corolla parked out back :O) It’s SO much easier to get stuff done around here with a vehicle, and grocery shopping once it snows will be much more pleasant.

And there are some trips planned: Syracuse in November (Matt’s giving a talk at the university), NYC in early December, then Cincinnati for Christmas. And perhaps Montreal in the spring…anyone want to go?

Cruisin…

Last week I updated to Windows Service Pack 2, and waddayaknow, it dropped an ad/spyware bomb into Internet Explorer that most PC users won’t figure out how to remove.

Thing is, ALL my file folder windows were taken over too, by a taskbar with color-coded drop-down links to search for gambling & adult content & more. It took a couple of days use before I was frustrated enough to find out how to get rid of it. Here’s a link to the tech support forum thread with instructions for removal.

I use adaware regularly, and usually do custom installs of software to avoid accepting junk I don’t want or need. I also use Mozilla or Firefox browsers to restrict pop-ups, and only do testing in IE. It’s still not good enough! Though I can say I’ve had no serious issues with this PC for the past year. So, for helpful tips on avoiding spyware and hijackers, look here

Anybody else get this? Pretty sure it’s only an SP2 update issue. Thanks Microsoft!