chuck

Lazyweb: DVD-RAM -> DVD Conversion

Posted on by grahams

I have a single, double-sided cartridge DVD-RAM which I would like to have copied onto DVD+Rs.   I created it using a Mac at RIT, but I’m not sure what filesystem is on it.  Is there anyone reading this who has access to a DVD-RAM drive and would be willing to do the copy for me?  I know I’ve asked a few of you this question over the years, but the disk was in stasis in my parents basement until I moved into the new house. 

OMG beautiful weekend FTW

Posted on by grahams

What an awesome weekend in every respect! Friday night had some friends over to watch the season premiere of Battlestar Galactica as well as the Webisodes (worst. name. ever.) , , and Audra all came over for snacks, pizza, and drinks. The webisodes were OK, but definitely not up to par. The premiere was good, although it could have been tightened up, as some of the plot points were a little weak. But it definitely set up for an AWESOME season, imho.

Saturday morning, Chuck arrived from NJ for a weekend visit. We parked his car over at Alewife and headed out to Kelly’s Roast Beef for lunch. We did all kinds of things this weekend, including heading out to the MFA, Summer Shack, flew (and not crashing) my helicopter, saw “The Departed” (was amazingly awesome), and a bunch of other stuff. He left yesterday afternoon and got home safely without any trouble. Totally awesome.

Corinna and I watched Four Brothers last night, which was a steaming pile of crap. I expected an enjoyably trashy flick, but it was just terrible. There were about 3 minutes where I actually enjoyed watching it.

Fun in Northern New Jersey

Posted on by grahams

and I headed down to the family estate on Friday after work and dinner. By leaving at 7pm, we were able to miss all the traffic, but by the time we rolled in around 11:30pm I was really tired… We pretty much crashed Friday night, Saturday morning we woke up rather early.. Chuck came over and we both flew our helicopters. We also both crashed our helicopters, and my crash was the most spectacular of my limited pilot career.. I tapped the blades into the ground a little, which usually isn’t a big deal, but this time the spindle sheared off and the blades went flying off in a very exciting fashion. The first few times you crash the helicopter you get disappointed, but you reach a point where you realize it is par for the course. :P

After the heliflopter activity, Dad and I went down to get fitted for our tuxedos for ‘s wedding. Wasn’t too painful, but I can think of better ways to spend that hour or so… :P For dinner we went to the County Seat in Newton to celebrate me (which is this week) and my dad’s birthdays (which was last week). We were trying to pick a place none of us had been before, and while I had gotten confused and the restaurant in my head wasn’t the restaurant we ended up at, it was a good place, and they made a mean burger. That night Chuck, Corinna, and I went to see Inside Man, which was only OK.

We got back into Boston around 4:30pm yesterday and basically turned right back around and headed out to meet with the film club, which was a great time. We caught Thank You For Smoking, which was great.. The group was rather big last night, with 3 new faces, which are always welcome.. The only disadvantage to a big group is that I don’t endup getting to talk to everyone afterwards because the table is so large, but what can you do… :P

Jesus *IS* Magic

Posted on by grahams

I finally was able to catch Jesus is Magic last night with the Sunday Night Film Club. As expected, I really enjoyed it.. People have been slagging the musical bits, but I thought they were rather funny. Was a slow night for the club last night, but with the holiday that was expected.

Went home late on Wednesday for Turkey Day and we didn’t really hit any traffic. We were staying in a hotel Wednesday and Thursday night because so many people were home for the holiday that the house was full. My kid sister, , and her boyfriend were leaving town on Friday, so we moved back into the house then. Actually, though, when they left on Friday they were no longer boyfriend/girlfriend, which is crazy. They are now fiancée/fiancée, as Ben proposed to Aimee Thursday morning. I wish I had gotten to see it, but apparently he put on his dress uniform and put on the full-on dog and pony show. Now that I think of it, I didn’t actually see any pictures of the event, I guess I will have to pester my family for them.

I also got to hang out with my other sister, , who is getting all fancy going out to night clubs and stuff. Now I feel even more like the “lame big brother”. =) Mom and Dad are well, and we all gorged on turkey and pie all weekend. and my father had a deathmatch showdown in Battle Pumpkin Pie. Chuck has made some stellar pies for years now, but this was my dad’s first entry into the pie-o-sphere. I could not pick a winner, both pies were fantastic, my dad’s trending a bit more pumpkin-y and Chuck’s a bit more spice-y. Mom waThe turkey was as awesome as always, and this year my parents prepped an extra turkey breast so we had even more leftovers than ever, which ruled.

Friday night I dragged with me and Chuck to a townie bar in Hopatcong where a bunch of people from High School were meeting in lieu of a 10-Year Reunion. They had tried to organize one but interest was low.. But it was good to see a bunch of people who I hadn’t see in a decade, and it was good to see that, at least out of the people that showed, pretty much everyone seemed to be doing well. NJ hasn’t banned smoking in bars yet, so as soon as Corinna and I got back to the house we took showers and changed our clothes. I did a load of laundry that night as I only had the one pair of jeans and they reeked.

Weekend Update

Posted on by grahams

So was up this weekend for some fun… He showed up at my work Friday evening, and we left his car here (free parking monitored 24h by a security guard is pretty nice) and drove back to Boston. We got home just after and all three of us headed out to the Sunset Cantina for dinner and drinks.. A good time was had by all, and we returned home to chill before beddy-bye time.

Saturday we headed out to Mr. Bartley’s in Harvard Square for delicious, delicious burgers (although Corinna had something non-burgerish). We then tooled around Harvard Square for awhile before returning to the apartment to watch Team America (Chuck hadn’t seen it before) and get some laundry while watching the movie. After the movie (and laundry) were done, we headed out to see Wedding Crashers, which was pretty funny, even if it did have some bullshit moments. After the film we grabbed some food at Legal Sea Foods (after aborting an attempt to drive out to the Wharf)… I had the Grilled Everything Tuna, which is just awesome…

After dinner we went to a party at Gaurav’s (former roomate on Western Ave) apartment downtown.. And when I say downtown, I mean on Beacon Hill next door to the State Capitol. It was a roof party, so we spent the evening looking out over the Boston Common and the city skyline and enjoying the weather. After we left the party, we stopped by Tim’s place for like 45 minutes just to say hello and have a Carbomb… :)

Sunday morning was brunch at ‘s place, and a bunch of people where there including Steve Bower, who I haven’t seen in years (mostly because I thought he left town even though he lives like 2 miles away from our apartment). Well, it turns out he is moving to Australia post-haste, so I guess my prophecy will come true. :) After the fantastic brunch (wtg, gib!), Chuck, Corinna, and I did some shopping at the mall before the Sunday Night Film Club screening of The Aristocrats… Strangely enough, we ran into many of the people from the brunch at the mall… It was very weird. Anyway, Corinna bought some clothes and I finally replaced the rat-ass sandals I’ve been wearing since college..

A first in SNFC history (at least for me), was that due to a projector failure the screening we were supposed to attend was cancelled. Fortunately, someone had the brilliant idea to just eat dinner before the film and attend a later screening (as opposed to our usual discussion and drinks afterwards), so we exchanged our tickets and headed over to Tommy Doyle’s then back to the theatre). I really enjoyed the film, but others didn’t seem to enjoy it as much as me (which is kinda what I expected, as I’m a raunchy fellow). We retreated back to the apartment and crashed. I brought Chuck with me to work this morning to get his car and he was on his way… And that’s the end of a swell weekend.

Random Bits

Posted on by grahams

Did an interview today with Drake Lucas of the Patriot Ledger regarding the Sunday Night Film Club. Mostly questions about the history of the club, where we go to see films, what kind of people show up, etc… Not sure what the focus of the article will be, hopefully she won’t paint me out to be a baby eater.

Chuck is coming up for a visit this weekend, which will be nice. I had the idea that he drive directly to Goodrich on Friday so we can safely park his car for free here at work over the weekend, and he can hitch a ride back with me to Boston. Always a fun time when he comes out..

I asked to be moved to a different program here at work… I’ve been bored for awhile, and I think I will have lots of interesting things to work on where I am going, so that should be a good thing. I just feel like I’ve been assigned to doomed project after doomed project, so it will be nice to work on something that isn’t so doomed.

Out to lunch

Posted on by grahams

Going out for lunch with Chuck…

In case anyone wondered what the “Not sending the BMessage” problem I was having with my skinned button control… When I overrided BControl::AttachedToWindow() I forgot to invoke the original AttachedToWindow (which meant that the Target wasn’t being set as it is supposed to).

i like music

Posted on by grahams

I made another pilgrimage to Cafe Soundz with James last night, and I picked up one of the 3 missing Skinny Puppy CDs (Remission), and also a good-ol’ random CD based on the recommendation of the store owner, Bobby. It is a pretty good cd, by Alder & Elius, and it is out on Skam Records. Skam is usually fairly reliable, and this disc hasn’t disappointed me yet. It is experimental electronic music, and the first few tracks seem like they were experimenting with microtuning and such, while the later tracks seem a bit more straightforward… I will have to see if it grows closer to me or farther away…

Later, we ended up hanging out at the Budd Lake diner with Chuck and Amy. We were out for a long time, but I met a few new people, which never hurts. Later tonight those three are coming over to watch Sgt. Kabukiman, N.Y.P.D. with me and my father (who bought the movie). Should be fun!

I failed to return a movie to the video store last night, so I guess I have to do it some time today.

Snipers do it quickly and quietly

Posted on by grahams

Enemy at the Gates was very enjoyable, even though I was sitting next to a marine who wouldn’t shut up every time there was a historical inaccuracy (and there weren’t that many, but he still made a big deal out of them). It was , John (the marine), A friend of John’s, and Amy, and after the movie we dropped off John’s friend and went to the Budd Lake diner for a while to chill. It was a fun time, even if I did end up smelling like smoke as usual. I also had an opportunity to talk to Amy for awhile, which was cool….

Time to go wake up and get the day rolling. Going out to dinner to celebrate my father’s birthday (which is Monday) tonight (because my sister Aimee has to go back to school tomorrow).

Some people really need to discover clue.

Posted on by grahams

This is hysterical

Howdy folks! I need to set something straight about the fourth installment of the Hellraiser series. This movie blows away Hellraiser II by far. Hellraiser III was better than the second one. Its plot as well as Doug Bradley’s spectacular acting ability tend to keep the viewer awake. The problem with Hellraiser three is that several portions of the film watch almost like a cheesy eighties metal video. Many of the cenobites were also dissapointing. Hellraiser: Bloodline was supposed to close this book for good.

Hellraiser 3 and 4 both suck… Badly. That is not to say that 1 and 2 were masterpieces, but they were entertaining and were based on decent screenplays, etc.

Finally, Director Alan Smithee takes the reins of this mighty series and steers Barker’s conception back onto the path. Unlike directors previously assigned to project: Hellraiser, Smithee ignores the storyline involving the Kirsty Cotton character.”

HAHAHAHA! “Director Alan Smithee”, is this guy a complete clue-bag? “Smithee ignores the storyline”… Wow. Yeah, I really respect the director of this film, who chose to leave his name off of it it was so poor… :)

Well, enough of that. I am heading out with , Amy, and a few other people to see Enemy at the Gates. It looks like it will be a pretty good movie; I mean, with snipers, you really can’t go wrong.