Why, oh why did I do this to myself? Am I sick? Am I psycho? I volunteered to present a session on setting up Ubuntu Server. I get 45 minutes. 45 minutes on a subject I know very little about. In 35 days.
It all began a few weeks ago. I was feeling really good back then, remember? I didn't have this stupid bug that I am STILL dealing with. Anyway, management asked for ideas and volunteers. I agreed to my usual subject (the filter) - two sessions. Walk in the park. Then I had the brainiac idea to suggest that I would do a Linux server setup. I have had a Linux web page running for over four years.
Sigh. That is on a Mandriva. I agreed to go Ubuntu because that seems to be the People's Choice. I'll do the best I can and hope for some forgiving audience members. I may have a gentleman help me from a school district but he is super busy and super Linux savvy. That would take a lot of the burden off, but he may have to back out and I completely understand. In the mean time, I have no less than four Linux books and I have my nose and I have heard about the proverbial grindstone. So, flu.... back off! I got me a learning curve to climb.
Movie - spoiler alert. If you have not seen the movie RED and plan to, please stop reading here. I plan to spoil some of the storyline. Sorry. RED is an acronym for Retired, Extremely Dangerous. I wondered what the title would mean in the movie. There you have it.
I am by no means a movie critic. The following are my own opinions and can vary from week to week, day to day depending on my mood when I watch the movie. For example, I watched Date Night a few weeks ago and hated it, but when I watched it again with my daughter we laughed our heads off. Most of the complaints that I have are aimed more at the director of the movie than the actor themselves. A lot of times I just feel that the actor was miscast and does a perfectly wonderful job in other movies. I don't like inconsistencies and I really hate writers/directors who have not done their research. Like when they put a 60's style hair style in a late 1880 western!
Things I liked: I KNEW that was R Dreyfuss playing a very bad guy. I had no idea he was in the movie. I only knew that B Willis and H Mirren were in the movie when I rented it. I would probably watch any movie Mirren was in ever since White Nights. (If you never caught this one, it is a good one). Going through her list of movies I realize how little I have seen of her. Shame on me!
The parts I did NOT like, and this list is much longer. Sigh.
I am sick, sick, sick of B Willis. Sorry. He plays the same tight-smiling goof in every movie, I swear. Does he have teeth? Bring back movies like The Sixth Sense! I am sick of the violence. The blood, the beatings, the breaking glass. I get the picture. Shove his head into the wall and move on. Can you add some comedy to the violence? Anything to lighten it up a little? Good grief!
And wait a minute. Does anybody even LIKE M Parker? I watched Weeds once or twice. No, thanks. If somebody drugged me and put me in a car in New Orleans and I woke up looking at the New York City skyline, my first words would NOT be "Why are we in New York?" My first words would be "Pull this damn car over, I gotta pee!" WTF?
And sorry, sister. There was no obvious chemistry between yourself and Willis. It was like two wooden mannequins kissing. Not convincing and in fact made me uncomfortable to watch the two of you together. What the heck is up with your red nose? Are you snorting constantly? Or, did you have a serious cold during the filming? Couldn't the make-up department do something with that? Good grief!
I thought that Mirren getting shot and limping around was a bit sissy for her hard-core character she had been playing. Doubled over in pain like that, I figure she would have been used to pain in her line of work. Willis walked around for a while with his bullet wound. Why do they make the woman look like a pansy?
And why in the heck would Malkovich's character leave her? They don't do that. Nobody leaves a comrade behind! Nobody! I know, I know - it was so Ivan could save her. It did not make Malkovich's character likable anymore to me.
The part that really ticked me off?! They brought him back once, why couldn't they bring him back again!? I have the blu-ray version of the movie, I will search for another ending and maybe that storyline will be different. M Freeman's character. I know he didn't want to stay in a retirement home anymore, but he looked to me like he could pretty much fend for himself. I think they could have written a new line into his life at the end. They seemed to slough his death off as "oh, well. Somebody had to die." Bring him back at the end! We were all expecting it! Or, maybe that is why they didn't.
3 comments:
Helen Mirren=HOT
Why do this to yourself unless you enjoy. I came here because you understand technology. My problem appears simple. But a simpleton can not work it out . Good luck.
Bill - I enjoy it, but I fret over doing a good job in front of my peers. I also like the fact that it challenges me, without the deadline, I would probably dabble for a while, get bored, dabble some more.
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