Day: April 18, 2005

We watched Terminal with Tom Hanks over the weekend. I enjoyed it! I give it 3 stars out of 5. It isn’t the best Spielberg movie I’ve seen. The characters are all in an impossible situation. Well acted–execution depended a bit too much on the absurd. The movie grows on you as you watch it. And if you didn’t know it was a Spielberg film going in–you’d be surprised by the end credits. Surprisingly, the film feels like an indy film and the William’s score is quite unique. It is a very enjoyable movie. – one * for him not getting the girl. – another * for the total improbability of the story.

Yesterday was a busy day. My mom visited us and we had lunch in the backyard. Since I knew she likes tea, I quick made a batch of Lipton Sun Tea and bought a few extra groceries. It was the first time my mom had been to our place since we moved in. It was sunny and beautiful when she arrived. Heather gave her the tour of the garden and I finished making lunch for everyone. I mad French Onion soup and a toasted cheese sandwich for my mom. For Heather I made a corn-beef sandwich on an onion roll. Not as good as Cecil’s but pretty nummy nonetheless. Rob was over too because he was helping me with the Herculean task of hanging my 183lb wall-mounted, coin-operated CD Jukebox on the wall in the basement. Here is a link to the beast. So I made up a couple of corn beef sandwiches with horse-radish sauce for us as well. We had tortilla chips and salsa with a pasta side salad as well.

Later Heather weeded out a large portion of our garden and I helped with the disposal. She also went to town on the utility room and two closets in our basement. I helped her move a large portion of the ‘junk’ to the garage which we also organized. Including a very large coffee table (which is free to anyone who wants it or we’re selling it in our garage sale). I hoisted the coffee table up onto the garage overhead storage shelving which took some doing. The thing weighs about 50 lbs and is quite awkward for one man to lift.

Needless to say, I’m a little sore today.

OK, so I’ve had my iPod for a couple of years now. One of the cool features of iTunes and the iPod is that you have the ability to make playlists. Not just a mix per se as the capabilities of the iTunes playlists are much more than a mere few songs thrown together. You can make those types of static lists if you want. Just search your database of music and create a list or create a “smart” playlist. Smart Playlists are dynamic in nature. You give the Smart Playlist parameters such as artist, genre or grouping and the playlist is automagically created. I’ve several playlists of both types. My latest static iPod playlist includes all songs from my library with the word “Pressure” in the title.

Playlist Name:
Too Much Pressure

Tracks:

1. Under Pressure – David Bowie/Queen
   
2. Pressure Drop – Toots & the Maytals
   
3. Pressure – Billy Joel
   
4. Got Me Under Pressure – ZZTop
   
5. Release the Pressure – Leftfield
   
6. Under Pressure – Boyz to Men
   
7. Chant No.1 (I Don’t Need This Pressure On) – Spandau Ballet
   
8. Under Pressure – The Used/My Chemical Romance
   

The great thing is that of the songs above I rarely listened to 2, 3, 5, 6 or 7. This has allowed me to rediscover my music a bit. Remember when you were a kid making mix tapes? Trying to fill that special tape up for your significant other with all songs containing the word “Love” or making the ultimate Disco compilation? In a way iTunes takes away some of that magic and hard work by making it so easy for you to create these compilations. I mean, when you made a mix for someone they knew that you went through some trouble to create it for them. Now you can do the same mix in 5 minutes. On the other hand, there is something to be said for having all that time to rediscover your music.