Updated the blog once again.  Now we’re up to WordPress 2.0.4.

I haven’t posted in quite a while and a lot has happened. I don’t know where to start and I’m sure I’ll forget something, so here goes:

We’ve continued our restaurant tasting. Since the last update we’ve been to Erling Jensen’s, Ruby Tuesday’s, Lulu Grille, and Bhan Thai (twice). We went to Eriling Jensen’s in celebration of my birthday and getting a job. The full-fledged review is where to find the detail (not written yet), but it’s quite probably one of the best restaurants in Memphis. Bhan Thai has the best Thai food we’ve had in Memphis (Chao Praya being a close second). Ruby Tuesday’s has buffalo burgers. I’ve been missing my buffalo fix and I’m finally finding some here. Incidentally, I found out about Erling Jensen’s while looking for buffalo meat here. We went to Lulu Grille today for lunch (more buffalo burgers). And since we’re on the topic of food, I should mention that the little cafeteria at work has an excellent tasting Italian sub sandwich for CHEAP.

Speaking of work, I’ve completed my first three weeks. My luck seems to be holding up not only in finding a job so quickly, but also finding a good one. I really enjoy it there. The people are friendly, and there doesn’t seem to be the pervasive flow of people jumping ship you find in some companies. To me, that’s a good sign, and I’m excited to see how this goes. That reminds me to complain about taxes. My god I hate taxes. I was looking at my paystub and realizing that I’ve now paid more in taxes from this new job than I use to even get paid over the same period of time. And we don’t have state income taxes, that’s all federal.
Also, I don’t think this has happened since my last post, but I seem to have neglected it. I finally got to go shooting again. We went to RangeUSA for their Carbine night with the Krinkov. Those frangible rounds they require weren’t 100% in feeding, but they were also so light that accuracy is probably pretty bad out my 1/7″ barrel. At the cost ($0.35/rd) I’m sure I’ll probably go again out of necessity, but it won’t be too often. I’ve got some more Makarov ammo coming in, though. The drought on 9×18mm seems to have been helped a bit. I’m gonna need it for the HCP (aka CCW in most places) class coming up.

No new movies yet. Kind of surprising, considering how many I usually see. I rented Clerks and Pirates of the Carribean so that we’ll see them before their sequels. Miami Vice is out this weekend, so maybe that one. Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis have started up again (and I completely forgot). We spent last night catching up. Gonna be good new seasons.

Memphis has had it’s 100th murder of the year. Actually, by now it’s probably beyond that, but last week I saw it on the news. Washington DC is complaining about their 18 or so murders, but they don’t have a clue. Did I mention the HCP class? Also, pretty freaky, some dude went on a stabbing spree at a grocery store. He was stopped by a dude with a pistol (not a shot fired). The news mostly skipped that little fact. That HCP is sounding even better. Also, in unrelated news, Todd Bailey (Special Weapons) posted pics of his upcoming MWS that he’s been working on for a couple years. I like it. I want it. We’ll see how long it takes for it to really be available. The SP-10 .40 caliber he said would be ready “in two weeks” (4 months ago) aren’t ready yet. Maybe I’ll be able to afford them when they come around, I just need to find an FFL I like.

Suzie, our pet Hamster, has died of old age.  We knew it was coming, but it finally happened.  I’m sad to see her go, but maybe she’s happier now and not hobbling along with Arthritis.

I swear, this blog is all about movie reviews, but it seems I’ve gone to see quite a few movies, especially lately.  Anyway, we went to see The Devil Wears Prada today.  I didn’t know what to expect from seeing the trailer, but the box office stats from it’s opening weekend made it seem promising.  Overall, I quite enjoyed it.  It’s quite the typical Hollywood classical narrative.  There’s no real twist to it, but it isn’t totally predictable.  Meryl Streep seems to overact her role to me.  It wasn’t nearly as believable as Anne Hathaway’s character (or everyone else for that matter).  I don’t consider that a “chick flick” as has been put forth by the media, but there certainly was a larger number of females in the audience than your typical film.  You don’t have to have a single fashion fiber to get into the film.  In fact, it may even help you to connect with the main character.  It is certainly an interesting story and nearly impossible.  I have a hard time believing many of the sub plots are even possible outside of film, but it is Hollywood magic.  Thumbs up on this one!

We went to watch Superman Returns today.  It certainly has a long run time at over two and a half hours, but the fact that at the end you haven’t noticed so much time going by tells you how involved you’ve become in the story.  I must say the beginning half hour or so of the film goes by rather slowly.  I kept expecting there to be more going on, but it was straight forward.  No, this isn’t a remake.  It kind of picks up after Superman 2 and continues on it’s own.  The entire film makes lots of references to the first set of Superman movies.  Stylistically, they are all over the place, so this is very much a continuance.  From the beginning, they use ‘ancient’ special effects on the beginning credits.  From there, the new Superman actor is uncannily like Christopher Reeves.  His voice and mannerisms are outstanding.  I actually think he surpasses Reeves in the role (except for the hair curl not quite being right).  The suit is nearly the same, albeit with a texturization that is now visible.  The ‘S’ looks almost carbon fiberish.  I really appreciate the throwback to older styling.  Also, they go out of their way to redo all the various flying poses that Reeves made famous.  Due to advances in special effects they are more seemless, but I could detect the use of CGI a few too many times for my liking.  Kevin Spacey is an outstanding Lex Luthor.  He fills the role so well.  Kate Bosworth was a let down for me.  I like Margot Kidder much better as Lois Lane.  Throughout the film I kept thinking how much they had made Kate look like Natalie Portman.  Also, she didn’t have that reporter persona projected.  I got a more ‘damsel in distress’ feeling and that’s only part of the Lois character.  Also, I really didn’t like the storyline change to include a fiance for Lois.  I understand why they did it in helping to introduce ****SPOILER FOLLOWING**** Lois’ son without declaring it as Superman’s son as well, but as I think about it closer, it just doesn’t fit the story line either.  In order for things to work, Lois would have to be a bit more loose than the traditional Lois character was.  I hope this marks a renewed interest in continuing the Superman film series.  If you are an old Superman fan like me, get out there and see it!