Random Thursday Thoughts: Kids Movies Edition

And yes, this list is proof that I'm a bad parent.

• When you watch 'Little Mermaid' and 'Finding Nemo' in close order, it's really amazing how far animation came in so short of a time. 'Mermaid's' music still holds up well though.
• Does any movie in the history of cinema have a higher percentage of sidekicks than 'Aladdin'? Each of the top four characters have their own cute companion (monkey, tiger, parrot and flying carpet). If the Sultan had a talking cat they could have maxed themselves out.
  
• 'Monsters Inc' is known in our house as the 'salad movie'. We think that Sully = salad or something like that. 'Fish movie' makes so much more sense.
• Overall, the Pixar movies are more popular with Relia than the Disney ones. She watches the Miyazaki movies, just stares at them entranced, but I don't know if she really enjoys them as much.
• Disney had a well known policy of pulling their movies from sale and only releasing them for limited periods. This never bugged me before but now that I'm a parent it irks me. They have the right of course, I just wish I could buy the Toy Story movies more easily.
• That's it!

Every Day is a Bonus

To Veterans, thanks.

HIMYM Shame Index

For fans of 'How I Met Your Mother', Slate does a review of each episode on Tuesdays. The entire index can be found here.

Go Ahead, Reflect

Monsters Inc Question

How did Mike get back from Nepal?

This didn't bother me until the movie entered heavy rotation at our place. Now I don't know. And I don't think that the movie ever explains it.

Anyone?

Random Sunday Night Thoughts

To pass the time by while the FP Gal valiantly tries to put our little angel to bed:

• I spend a fair amount of time criticizing bad commercials. Not that surprising given how bad some of it is. Bud Light (for instance) should fire their entire ad division. Possibly they should fire them out of an airlock while in low earth orbit. The FP Gal reminds me every Sunday that I'm not their target market.
• Well, I'm not a Dos Equis guy either, but the set of ads with 'the most interesting man in the world' is nothing short of brilliant. The whole set with video can be found here. And yes, it tempts me to try some Mexican beer.
• Switching gears to rum, it seems that the next Pirates of the Caribbean movie is going to be based on the Tim Powers book, 'On Stranger Tides'. It's a fun book and I'm very pleased.
  
• Of course, I'm still waiting for the movie versions of 'War for the Oaks' and the long rumored mini series of 'The Diamond Age'. C'mon movie people! Steal some of my favorite stories and put them on the screen!
• This seems to be a media heavy random post. Guess I'll roll with it. Did everyone hear that Steve Martin is co-hosting the Oscars next year? Yay! They're also changing the format for Best Picture to include ten nominees. Should be interesting.
• That's it!
  

So Tired

We're a week into November and my novel is really not going well this year. I loved the concept. Really, really loved it. Right up until I started writing it.
Part of my problem is that I read this article about how various great authors do their thing. It made me feel very bad about my prep and technique. And especially my characterization.
And then I realized that this novel is suffering from all of the things that I didn't like about the others. I'm not at all happy with how I write people. Even worse, I seem to keep falling into stories where there is next to no interaction between said people.
So what was my concept this time? Well, I still don't want to say in case I somehow salvage the darn thing, but let's just say that it precludes even the possibility of interaction. Which isn't an easy feat, believe me.
To top it all off, this first week has been an absolute wreck for writing. The first started off wonderfully. On the second I got sick and spent most of two days falling behind. Somehow, I caught up by day five but then failed utterly on six and now seven.
The first few years were pretty easy with this. I'll be shocked if I somehow finish this one.

Ugh.

Have a Great Friday

Airport Code Game

As you doubtlessly know, airports are known by a unique three letter code. Traditional initials also have three letters. I propose a game. Go here, to an airport code website and enter your initials. Then come back and leave a comment regarding which city you are connected to. The person with the largest city wins!
I'll start (and create examples).

PGD (me) - Punta Gorda, FL (per Wikipedia the population is 16,762)
ARD (Relia) - Alor Island, Indonesia (Wikipedia puts the population at 168,000)
FPG (FP Gal) - no known airport (Wikipedia thinks that lots of people don't live at airports but for the purpose of this game she gets a score of 0)

So go ahead and give it a try. Leave your answers in the comments. Wikipedia look up available upon request. I honestly have no idea who will win this but I'm curious.

I Would Totally Do This

Man shows up at own funeral.

I'm very serious. When my time comes you might want to double check the corpse. Because if I can make it...