Richmond Downtown

Took a short trip up to the City Hall Observation deck last week. It's a bummer that there isn't a better view of the river, but here's a few of my photos:

New Federal Courthouse


Capitol


The View South
That's the SunTrust building in the center


Old City Hall


The Tallest and Ugliest Building in Richmond


John Marshall House


The rest, if you are so inclined.

Valentines

A card my wife got. Not from me. I would never waste my money on something like that.

Fabulous Movie Review®

3:10 to Yuma
I love a good western. The problem is that they don't make many good westerns anymore. 3:10 to Yuma is a good western.

I wished for more of the Sergio Leone style though. Sweeping panoramas, close ups, and slow build up in tense moments, but, whatever, I get it, people can't pay attention that long anymore.

Christian Bale plays the lead character and he was great, as always (ever seen The Machinist?), but I wish his character had been more of an anti-hero.

Russell Crowe, who I never like, except in A Beautiful Mind (oh, yeah, and Gladiator (although, I don't think his performance made the movie in that one)), plays the antagonist. Not much to say since I don't like him. He did alright.

There were two other actors in this movie who I recognized but couldn't quite put my finger on where I had seen them.

This guy (My Name is Earl):









And this guy(Dodgeball):










The other good thing about this movie is that there is no damsel in distress, no love interest. Oh sure, the guy is married, but she isn't in danger. He doesn't have to rescue her. Her part in the movie is minor. He was more worried that his son would consider him a coward. He did make sure she would be financially taken care of though.

This review makes no sense, really. Here, let me sum it up all quick and dirty like: Compared to most westerns made since 1977, not including Unforgiven, this movie rocks. Compared to anything made between 1964 and 1976 starring Clint Eastwood/Henry Fonda/James Coburn or directed by Sergio Leone/Sam Peckinpah then it's a pretty good movie.

Gagknee's grade: B+

This Kinda Sucks

Yeah, I live in a Microsoft dominated world. Windows, .NET, Sql server, but the acquisition of Yahoo by Microsoft kinda sucks.

I straddle the fence between Google and Yahoo. Yahoo Mail vs. Gmail. MyYahoo vs. whatever Google has (iGoogle). Flikr vs. PicasaWeb. I like Google search better than Yahoo, but Yahoo Maps has gotten a lot better. Etcetera, etcetera...

For me, its an even split between Yahoo and Google and what services of each I use. I fear Microsoft is going to come in and muck it all up.

A Whole Bunch of Crap Rolled into One Post

I know I won't get any sympathy from my northern friends but just when I thought spring had sprung the temperature here dropped a lot over the past 5 days:





















The silver maples have started to come alive, always a good sign of spring springing:



I've been trying to figure out where to put the shed I plan on building soon. I marked it out with sticks and leaves and it's 12 x 16. Here's the view from the kitchen window:



And from the upstairs bathroom:



I might rotate it 45 degrees counter clockwise. Don't know yet. I'm sure you care. Not.

I completed #19 on my Home Improvement list and even added a new outlet to the upstairs bathroom. Call it a honey-do list and I'll kill you. My wife couldn't care less about changing outlets and building a shed. My legs are killing me from crawling around in and hoisting myself up into the attic. I should make an Andy Improvement list. Item #1: Get into shape. Item #2: Stop huffing.

I also started #7: Paint the youngest boy's room. Kid was excited. What 3 year old gets excited about having his room painted? Here's the before picture:



Part of the deal is he gets a "big bed" when he is deemed "potty-trained." He's done well at it for the past few weeks, so pretty soon one of my two greatest parental dreams, no more diapers and self-bathing, will come true.

I managed to get one coat of paint on his walls Sunday afternoon, until my wife came home from a walk. A walk in which she got attacked by a dog. A doberweiler or a rottman. Actually, a rottweiler. I'm just making fun of her because she didn't know what it was. Perhaps I shouldn't make fun of her since she had to get 9 stitches and getting attacked is pretty traumatic. Item #3: Be more sensitive.





This was almost a month ago, but I built a cool layout with my son's GeoTrax:



I guess thats it for this bunch of crap. Hmm, it doesn't feel right if I don't complain about work.

Hmm. I hate writing stored procedures. Sorry, thats all I got.

There's a guy at work with the last name Loving. I'm dying to call him McLovin but since that movie came out last summer and I started here last Christmas, I'm sure that ship has sailed. Sad. I like to be on the cutting edge of nicknames. Not some washed up has been.