When it rains, it pours

The shoes just keep dropping in the Middle East. First Arafat's death, then Sharon's formation of a new party in Israel, then his stroke leaving the party in question, now the Palestinian election of Hamas to form a government. Hamas asks Abbas to stay in government, while his own party, Fatah, now wants him to quit. Now there's hope politics may moderate Hamas' policies, while the West prepares to cut off all aid to the new government, hamstringing any efforts they may make to improve the Palestinian's infrastructure.

There's plenty reason to believe Hamas would use at least some of that money to build an army to fight Israel, with more terrorists or just by raising a conventional army, but it's also true that they have made successful attempts to create social programs in the absence of any help from the Palestinian Authority, one of the reasons both for the new hope and likely for their election to office.

The only way I can think of to continue that kind of aid in this situation would be to take a page from the Russians in their dealing with Iran. They've offered to help Iran's nuclear program continue to develop as long as they retain control of the fuel, so that Iran can't use it to develop nuclear weapons. Perhaps the West could use a similar intermediary to control the purse strings on all the aid we've been providing, while Hamas continues to administer it to the Palestinian citizenry. (Abbas comes to mind, but even Israel is a possibility.) It all depends on how serious Hamas is about helping people as opposed to destroying them. I guess we're about to find out.

Going to the chapel

I went up to D/FW for the wedding this weekend. The dvd I made played fine at the rehearsal dinner the night before, so I've got that going for me, which is nice. It was quite an event. 700 people. Taking over a convention center for the reception. Five open bars, one made of ice and dedicated to martinis and cosmos. The food was good, the booze was free, the band rocked, and a good time was had by all.

The night before I saw the Spazzmatics in a little dance club I used to go to once in a while when I lived up there. They dress like Revenge of the Nerds and play nothing but 80's covers. It was great.

Frustration

I've been tearing my non-existent hair out since Monday, when I tried to render my latest video project, the first since the meltdown. Well, it didn't work, and I spent death time in tech support over the last few days to make it work, only to find that it now renders, but doesn't recognize the DVD burner, so I couldn't put the renders on anything to turn in the project. This is a Sony DVD burner, that is nevertheless not recognized by a Sony software product. Isn't the point of corporate synergy to make products work well together, to encourage more sales of the same brand? I spent 25 minutes on the phone this afternoon to get help with this only to be told, "We only support the burner and the stuff that came with it. You'll have to call [another Sony department's help number] to get help for that." Luckily, with an assist from Phil, I got it done on a different computer, but all the time lost this week has meant I couldn't do another pass on the edit, meaning a final cut that is not as good as it could have been, and that really burns me up. Not least because I could have discovered this earlier if I'd worked more on it earlier, instead of putting it off and working in short bursts over the last month and a half. Arrgh.

New grill

Weekend happenings

I went running today for the first time in years for my "get in shape" strategy for 2006. After 20 minutes, I could barely catch my breath. The weather was perfect for it, though.

I just got back from playing guitar at a friend's apartment for a few hours. I now have blisters on two fingers. That's a sign it had been far too long since I played for any length of time. It was a lot of fun.

Phil's working on an independent film shoot not far from Austin for the next few weeks. I plan to accompany him tomorrow and see how it looks.

We went to the 20th anniversary party for the Austin Film Society Friday night. Richard Linklater was there and gave a little speech, and I saw at least one person I recognized from the Annoud's Journey shoot last year and said hi. The free book they gave out to members is pretty cool.

Bring on the barbie

I actually managed to be productive this afternoon. I went out and bought a new grill to replace the free one I got off Craigslist shortly after we moved in, and which died last summer. I used a gift certificate I got from some good friends of the family for Christmas (get well soon, Art!), so it only cost me $12.53. It took me two hours to assemble in my living room, and it puts the old one to shame. On the other hand, the "hub caps" (instruction manual's term) that were supposed to snap on to the plastic wheels immediately snapped into pieces. Since the only purpose of these things was to advertise the brand name, as it was printed on them, I would have thought they'd make them a little sturdier.

I'll have pictures for you after my camera batteries charge up. I haven't touched it since I left for Christmas and forgot it, meaning my vacation pics were all taken on my cell phone, and it wouldn't even turn all the way on when I tried to use it a few minutes ago.

One long post

Well, it's been a while. Lots of stuff to talk about.

First off, another unnecessarily grueling trip to rival the Las Vegas fiasco. I was sitting in the plane on the tarmac, and we backed away from the gate. Then we stopped. We sat there a few minutes, then the pilot tells us the left engine won't start, so we pull back into the gate and deboard. I rebooked through Chicago to Indianapolis, then rented a car and drove the rest of the way home. I got there at 11:00pm Christmas Eve. At least everyone was still there, and awake. I will never try to save money by flying into airports other than CVG again. It is so not worth it.

The actual vacation was cool, but hectic. I was always running somewhere, and it wore me down. I got to see almost everyone, so that was good, but I was more tired when I got back to Austin than I was when I left. I'm going to have to scale back the travel for future visits home.

Speaking of getting back to Austin, I missed the last connecting bus by half an hour, so I had to call a cab from the corner of Trinity and MLK. There was a truck across the intersection that kept squealing its tires and jerking forward, raring to go. This went on for a full five minutes, before he finally ran the red light. That light didn't change to green in the half hour I was standing there. I don't know what was going on, but the pedestrian light would go to red, then back to white, over and over, without the traffic light ever changing.

The next day, I got an email from C saying she was going to give her last ex another shot. Getting dumped by email was a new experience for me. I didn't care for it all that much.

Then a busy week at work went by in a hurry, ending with my evaluation, which came out even better than I hoped. I was very happy with the resulting bonus and raise. You might say it turned a frown upside-down.

I've been working on a video project for a guy at work, and he came over to check it out. It sounds like he's happy with it, which is always rewarding. The next night, he and I and another guy we work with met at the Ginger Man for the monthly beer tasting. It started raining about halfway through, so we all moved indoors, where it was cramped but warm. Outside, the temperature had dropped precipitously since the sun went down, and wind gusts were turning over the wine glasses we were using for the beer tasting.

Ramzi wasn't able to recover anything from the hard drives. Not a big surprise, but still disappointing. I guess I'll need to rerecord some tunes. I don't know when I'll get around to the pictures.

I'm going to start looking for a house in the next month or two, probably in south Austin. Phil says he's sticking around for at least a few years, so we'll probably split it, at least in the short term.

I'll be heading up to Fort Worth the weekend after next for a wedding, so I guess I need to start watching Jim's Lost Season 1 dvds so I can give them back to him while I'm there.

Today I worked out at the building weight room after work for about half an hour. It was the first time I'd touched weights since I completed physical therapy for my shoulder three years ago or so. I decided I'd better ease into it to make sure I don't strain anything. Working out and writing more are my two New Year's resolutions.

Christmastime is here again

Another year, another trip home for the holidays. Unfortunately, this year I'm flying in on Christmas Eve, but hopefully we'll still make the evening service at our church. I might be meeting up with Phil at some point while I'm home, but that's kind of up in the air until Tuesday or Wednesday next week. I'm looking forward to seeing all the friends and family in the area, but there's going to be a lot of running around to do. I hope I can keep my energy up. Merry Christmas everyone, and happy New Year.

Of apes and men

Man, I love Vern's writing style. He's always good for a laugh. I doubt I'll go see Brokeback Mountain, though. It might be worth a rental.

I saw King Kong Sunday. That was a very strange movie. I thought it would be a great adventure flick, and I really admire Peter Jackson, but at one point a character even says "This isn't an adventure, is it?", and gets a reply of "No." Or maybe a head shake, I'm not sure. But they're right, this movie aspires to be something more than an adventure, and ends up a little bit creepy.

I picked up the new Frighteners dvd, which came with a free ticket to King Kong, and I still really enjoy that movie. I saw it in theaters when it came out, and as I recall it was actually pushed back because there was a mass murder in Tasmania just before it was supposed to be released, where some guy killed around twenty people in an afternoon. Jackson's a New Zealander, but they're close enough to Australia (kind of like Canada is to America) that it would be a pretty sensitive time. I was over there in Melbourne about a year later, and I don't remember ever hearing a peep about the incident, unlike, say, Columbine.

Anyway, Jackson has always liked scaring his audience, and King Kong is no exception, but in addition to an adventure movie and a horror flick, he also wants it to be a love story. And I just didn't buy it. I don't care how good of an actress Naomi Watts is, I don't care to see her fall in love with a giant ape. These long takes of them staring into each other's eyes just made me want to laugh. If you're going to see this one, make sure you don't expect a non-stop thrill ride, and it might help to have someone with you to share the joke.

Work and plans

I haven't felt like writing much lately. I finally got all my video editing programs installed, which I'd been putting off in order to hear back from the companies that I'd be able to re-register them first, and I'm still waiting to hear from one of them. Now that they're on the PC, I have to deal with the fact that I have a project to finish by mid-January.

I recovered all my writing, and some of my pictures, but none of my business records. I'll have to recreate them for tax season, which is just around the corner, unless Ramzi can give me the gift of file recovery. I'm mailing him my hard drives. On the other hand, the day job is going well, and I have a week off to travel to Indiana for the holidays.