Movie Time
link

I did something this weekend I haven't done in 20 years; I sat through 2 movies at the theater in one day. I used to catch a couple of matinees on the cheap when I was a (mostly) full time student (before I got married). My knees are so bad now I have trouble sitting through one, so this was quite an event. Given that I really, really don't like crowds now, the only thing that could get me out for a day in the theater was the combination of Matrix: Reloaded and X-Men 2. First, I really liked the fight scenes in Matrix: Reloaded. As many others have said, as a movie, it was kind of weak. I hope it redeems itself in combination with the next one later this year. In spite of what ended up being a significant amount of pain in my knees, I really enjoyed X2. I thought it was a much better movie. Actually, I have been kind of surprised that my take on these movies has been in line with most of the comments I've read. I don't usually agree with the consensus opinion on these things. Probably the best example is the original Star Wars Trilogy. Most people I've talked to think the second movie (episode 5) was the best of the three. I didn't really like it as well as the other two, especially the first one. Along those lines, I think the last time I sat through two movies in the same afternoon was the time I watched "Dragonslayer" twice in one day. At the time I really liked it. I remember the plot now, but don't remember anything about the actors other than that the wizard was played by Sir Ralph Richardson. I seem to remember the Dragon being a lot like the ones I saw in "Reign of Fire" on cable this weekend. Well, none of this is of any earth-shaking importance. It was just a pleasant break from the 15 hours of downloading, installing, uninstalling, installing, uninstalling, tinkering, installing, uninstalling, tinkering, installing, uninstalling, re-downloading, installing, uninstalling, upgrading other software, installing, uninstalling, tinkering, installing and more tinkering with some Anti-Virus software this weekend. Probably a good thing I stuck with it, as I detected a Trojan when I was done. by Cziltang 
Posted: Monday, May 19 2003 08:01:18 PM

Cultural Wasteland...
link

Given that I usually think the commercials are the best part of whatever I'm watching on TV, it should be no surprise that I really appreciate a good, clever (or sometimes just downright stupid) commercial. I still remember Alka-Seltzer commercials from the mid-60's (I think they may have been in black-and-white, but I'm not sure, as my parents didn't get a color television until after I left home in the late 70's) and the Benson and Hedges cigarette commercials (101 mm long instead of 100's for all you old smokers out there). My current favorites: The Volkwagen commercial that shows a whole bunch of square things and the Beetle at the end. There is a bottled drink commercial (maybe Snapple? I've only seen it once) where the bottles play the part of tourists in a re-enactment of the running of the bulls at Pamplona and the bulls are played by guinea pigs with fake horns.by Cziltang 
Posted: Wednesday, May 14 2003 05:28:48 PM

Personal Folly section
link

Just added a personal folly section. It includes a picture of my football buddy. (not what you're thinking...)by Cziltang 
Posted: Monday, May 05 2003 11:41:00 PM

Substance Abuse Treatment Essay
link

I had a little unexpected time this evening so I cleaned up the essay on Substance Abuse Treatment and posted it. Not the best work I've ever done, but it has been nagging me for quite a while and now it is done, although it is a topic I am likely to come back to in the future.by Cziltang 
Posted: Monday, May 05 2003 08:20:34 PM

Site Updates
link

A quick check of the news sources shows not too much change on the state budget situation. And, of course, I still don't know how all of this is going to play out on the local corrections scene. I have uploaded all of my Stupid Criminal Tricks stories written to date. All the links appear to work, and I've asked a friend to check it out to make sure I haven't missed something. I've also posted the essay I wrote on Why I support the War in Iraq. I originally wrote it sometime around March 6, 2003. I don't remember the exact date, and I've moved it a couple of times and saved it in different formats, so that is the best estimate I could come up with. One other note: in the original article there was a link to an article in The National Interest online. The link to the specific article doesn't work now, so I removed it. by Cziltang 
Posted: Monday, May 05 2003 04:10:01 PM

Archive Problem
link

Noticed that last week's archives disappeared. I'll be watching the forum at Rooksoft, as I see that someone else has had that problem recently.by Cziltang 
Posted: Sunday, May 04 2003 02:22:54 AM

Additions to "Stupid Criminal Tricks" and other notes
link

Finished adding "The Twisted Tale of Frozen Frank" to the SCT section. It is one of my favorites. The Crazy Dave stories still aren't on the site, but I will get to them. I think I fixed the color compatibility problems. I fixed the archive tag problems by removing them from all pages except the weblog page. I figure no one will need to jump to the archives directly from an essay anyway. (Actually I figure no one will jump anywhere, as I expect 2 or 3 of my more polite acquaintances to take a look at the site in a "polite obligation" sort of way and that should pretty much sum up all my traffic.)by Cziltang 
Posted: Sunday, May 04 2003 01:47:42 AM

Ratlands is back...
link

Well boys and girls, Ratlands is back up. I've been tinkering with a variety of toys. I finally settled on Blog for two reasons. First, its free (always a major consideration) and second, it works with my ISP. I don't have access to a lot of the goodies that I could use if I had a different ISP, but ATT Worldnet has been pretty good to me and the hosting price is right. The next major problem will be when I switch to broadband... In the interim, I missed the war in Iraq. Not that I had anything to say about it that wasn't said by others faster and better, but it would have been interesting. I was out in Portland Oregon visiting family when it all started and was downtown on the day of the first protest. But that is a story for another time, perhaps. Now that I've apparently gotten the kinks worked out of the system (read: I finally figured out what mistake I made when I first set up my templates in Blog...) I'm ready to give this another go. Because some of my friends like them, I will be migrating my Stupid Criminal Tricks material onto this site over the next few days. I think I can also migrate some of my better entries from past incarnations of this site, so I may give that a try. As for my usual topics for rambling discourse, we are upgrading our cognitive skills programs at work, and I've had to give that material quite a bit of thought, so I may talk about that. On the Corrections front, the legislature is playing around with the budget, as usual, so we don't really know where we stand on funding. I'm also still working on essays about victim culture in this country and some material on substance abuse treatment. One word on credit where credit is due. I am indebted to Fahim Farook for the Blog application. I use it for the weblog and archive sections. The templates and essay pages are done with 1st Page 2000 by Evrsoft. If you are interested in either program, check out the buttons on the appropriate pages.by Cziltang 
Posted: Saturday, May 03 2003 07:40:16 PM