HTML For Dummies?
Okay, that does it! I really need to start getting more knowledgeable and comfortable with using HTML. I just did something that, in retrospect, was probably definitely dumb, but, when I did it I didn't *think* so. All I wanted to do was to see how my blog would look using a different template. This one is okay, but I would like to have a section for a "links list" as well. Since I have no HTML knowledge, I don't know how to add one to the template I'm using. I assumed that, since the changes I had made to my original template had been saved, they would carry over to the new template. Well, you know what they say about assuming. Now that I think back on it, that was an unreasonable assumption. The changes I've made to the original template are not part of the new template, so I would have needed to add them again. If I had taken the time to think this through before just doing it, I would have copied down the code for the items I've added. But, as I said, I did something dumb, so I lost the code. I've just spent the last hour searching for all the information I used the first time around in creating my changes. This time, when I finally found it, I bookmarked the pages...because I'm sure that, in the future, I'll make (lots) more dumb mistakes. As I've mentioned before, if anyone has any advice that will steer me in the right direction to get started learning the basics, please e-mail me using the link at the bottom of the page (which, by the way, is one of the things I lost!).

I'll try to post more later on, including my thoughts on the two movies I just rented and watched: The Usual Suspects and Something's Gotta Give. In the meantime, here's another one of my "Cool Links". Hope it brings some humor to your day!
- posted by April @ 4:18 PM  

 
Do you ever have days where you feel like you've been so busy all day, and you look back and see that you haven't accomplished a single thing you set out to do? That's the way I've felt for the last couple days. I have two movies that I've been trying to get to for the last two days, a ton of e-mail to get caught up on (as usual), and posts I want to write for this blog. Part of it is my own fault. I've met some really great people through a support group I've just gotten involved with. I enjoy chatting with them so much that I lose track of time and don't do the things I'm supposed to be doing. I never would have guessed that having avascular necrosis (a.k.a. osteonecrosis), which is a miserable, painful disease that usually requires many surgeries, could have such a positive benefit associated with it!

I've got two movies that I need to go watch, because they're rentals from Blockbuster, and they're already a day late. One of them is a newer movie, Something's Gotta Give, and the other is one that came out back in 1995, but I"ve managed to miss it somehow until now. It's called The Usual Suspects, and almost everything I've heard about it has been very positive. In fact, here we are nine years later, and there are still a number of fan sites (also here) for this movie, so it must be a good one!

I'll try to post more a little later this evening. In the meantime, here's another really fun website to check out. It's one of those sites that I get to reading and forget to do what I set out to. Hope your day is great! Catch you later.
- posted by April @ 2:01 PM  

 
I've been thinking a lot since I started this blog about ways that I can make it a place that people who run across it by accident will want to bookmark and check back in on, at least occasionally. Until I started it, I had really never given a whole lot of thought to what makes a site *interesting* as opposed to mediocre. One thing I do know is that I would really like to be able to make any changes to the formatting by myself. For now, though, that's just not possible. I really don't have the knowledge to do it alone, and that bothers me.

I've worked with computers since the age of eleven. Anybody remember the old TRS-80 (aka the Trash-80) by Radio Shack? I had one when I was a kid and virtually taught myself the basics of BASIC. Compared to today's computers, those things were dinosaurs. There were no floppy disks or CD-ROMs. If you had something you wanted to save, you recorded it on a cassette! Then, as I got older, finished with high school and then college, I sort of drifted away from the hands-on, programming end of things. As the years passed, things happened in my life that made it financially impossible for me to invest in any equipment, and I really lost touch completely with what was going on in the computer world. It's a story for another time, but within the last seven years or so, I've become disabled, and almost what could be termed homebound.

Now though, thanks to the kindness of my brother, Bill, I have a shiny, new Dell Dimension 2400 to keep me company. This computer has become my lifeline to the outside world. So, I feel like since it's such an important part of my life now, I should really learn all there is to know about how to use it. From what I can tell, one of my priorities as far as things I need to learn should be how to use HTML and CSS, especially where this blog is concerned. And I guess I'll have to be self-taught once again, just like I was when I was a kid experimenting with her first computer almost thirty years ago. I was always a quick study and a good student, but it's been a long time since I purposely set out to learn something new. If my brain has deteriorated at the same rate as my body has, I'm gonna be "$#!+ outta luck"! I'm just feeling a bit overwhelmed right now because I am so far behind the times. I've found some resources on the web, but I just don't know where to start. Seems like half the time I don't understand what I'm reading in these tutorials because I don't even have the basic knowledge I need to build upon.

If anyone has any constructive advice for an "Absolute Beginner", I'd surely welcome it. There's a link to my e-mail at the bottom of the page. Thanks for reading!
- posted by April @ 11:57 PM  

 
So much e-mail, so little time...
Today has been another of those days that have just flown by. Sometimes I get the feeling that e-mail is like bunny rabbits - it breeds when you're not looking. It's time for me to take my meds, so I must go for now, but I'll try to post a little more later this evening. Anyone who knows me knows I never sleep anyways. In the meantime, here are links to a couple of the sites I've been reading lately. The first is to the wickedly funny site of Mrs. Betty Bowers. You'll love it, especially if your politics lean a little to the left. From there, you might like to check out this blog, which is also of the political bent (very, very bent ). Catch y'all later!
- posted by April @ 7:42 PM  

 
Kill Bill: Volume 1
As I mentioned yesterday, I wanted to watch Kill Bill: Volume 1 again before I made any further comments on it. Before I decided to rent it, it had occurred to me that this movie might not be exactly easy for me to watch. I had heard that it was pretty gory, and I'm not a big fan of gushing blood (i.e. Nightmare on Elm Street or Friday the Thirteenth movies). While the movie definitely lived up to its reputation in that regard, it wasn't as hard to watch as I thought it would be. I found it pretty funny that they referred to Uma Thurman's character as the "Blood Spattered Bride". As far as I could see, just about everybody in this movie is blood spattered! The gushing and spraying blood was so overdone as to make it into a caricature. I started to get the feeling that everyone who was killed or maimed must have had incredibly high blood pressure (along the lines of that of a firehose). I don't mean this as a criticism either. Personally, I find realistic violence much more disturbing. Since it was unrealistic, I didn't mind it as much. I'm grateful for this fact, because I loved the movie. It's a fabulous story of sweet revenge and justice. If you haven't seen the movie yet, and intend to do so, you may want to skip the next paragraph, because there will be spoilers -many of them. I always appreciate when others give fair warning about this because I'm usually far behind the times in seeing movies. Okay, consider yourself warned.

The use of the song Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) in the opening sequence is just one example of genius. The lyrics of this song make it sound as though it was written specifically for this movie, although I doubt that was the meaning intended by the composer. In fact, the music throughout the movie is perfect. It's in the style of old scores from 1970s films and TV shows, and brings back a lot of fond memories, at least for those of us who were there the first time around. I wish I knew the name of the music that was playing in that slow motion scene of O-ren Ishii and her posse arriving at the House of Blue Leaves. It was an awesome sequence. The same music was used in the trailer. Another point re: the genius of the use of music in the film was the Japanese all-girl surf band, The 5.6.7.8.'s. How perfect can you get? If Quentin Tarantino had created a band specifically for this movie, they are what he would have cast. I was disappointed to find that the RealRhapsody music service doesn't have the soundtrack in their database. They do have a version of Bang Bang by Cher. While there's technically nothing wrong with her version, I preferred the one sung by Nancy Sinatra, which is the one used for the movie. It just seems a little slower and more evocative of the mood. You really need to see this film at least twice to catch all the little details. The first time through, I was too focused on the storyline and action to catch the small touches. I'm referring to things such as the brand of cereal in the scene at Vernita Green's house. Such wonderful irony that the box containing a gun should be Kaboom cereal, which, to my surprise, is still being made. By the way, I guess Vernita's expertise with edged weapons does not extend to handguns. I still can't believe she missed at such close range. Although if she hadn't, it would have been an awfully short movie. The number of humorous scenes throughout the movie came as a welcome surprise to me. I didn't expect that there would be anything funny in a movie about a woman "done wrong" who sets out to seek retribution. So, again, I was glad to see I was wrong in my preconceptions of this film. So many scenes come to mind: When Vernita's daughter walks in on Mommy and her "friend", she is shocked by the destruction. Her mom tries to explain it all away by saying that the dog was responsible, and the little girl says, "Ernie did this???". The first meeting between The Bride and Hattori Hanzo when she says she needs Japanese steel to kill vermin and he says, "You must have big rats," with that wonderful accent. The scene at the House of Blue Leaves, after The Bride has vanquished the first round of O-ren's bodyguards. O-ren says, "You didn't think it was gonna be that easy, did you?", and The Bride replies, "You know, for a minute there, yeah, I kinda did". Then they share the line, "Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids", and what looks like the entire Crazy 88 gang comes rushing in. The Go Go Yubari character, with the contrast between her sweet and innocent schoolgirl look and her crazy and deadly personality. The fight scene you see only in silhouette, after The Bride has killed all but one of her attackers. You see her opponent's sword shaking, the lights come back on, and she sees he's no more than a child. You wonder what she's going to do to him once she gets done chopping his sword into little pieces, then she grabs him, and rather than killing him, she gives him a sound spanking with her sword and sends him home to his mother with the admonition not to "fuck around with the Yakuza. Priceless scenes. Another thing that stands out in my mind is the use of really intense colors. To give you an example of what I mean, think of the scene in which The Bride pulls up to Vernita's house in Pasadena. The colors are so strong and sharp that it almost looks surreal. I also found that particular scene reminiscent of a similar scene in the movie Edward Scissorhands. I'm curious if there's a special name for this type of hyper-real style. Speaking of being curious, another thing I was wondering about was what happened to the footage of her practising during the month that Sonny Chiba's Hattori Hanzo is crafting her samurai sword? I definitely remember seeing scenes in the movie trailer of her training, so this leads me to believe that this was either edited out because of time constraints, or they intend to include it in Volume 2. I'm hoping for the second option. Guess I won't know for sure until it comes out on DVD. I can hardly wait!

- posted by April @ 8:57 AM  

 
Kill Bill: Volume 1
I just watched Kill Bill: Volume 1 this morning, and all I can say right now is, "WOW!". Before I make too many further comments on the movie, I think I'm going to have to watch it again. There are just so many different elements from other films (especially those of the 1970s) that I'll need to see it again, just to take it all in. That means I'm going to be late in returning it to Blockbuster, but it'll be worth the extra two bucks to hold onto it for another day. I do already know that I can't wait to see Kill Bill: Volume 2. By the way, if you'd like to check out the Internet Movie Database's extensive info on the films, here's the link for Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003), and here's the one for Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004).
- posted by April @ 7:09 AM  

 
This blogging trend has made me curious. So, I figured I'd give it a try since I usually have something to say. Whether that something is interesting, intelligent, or worth the time it takes to read is another matter entirely. That judgement is up to you, the reader. As I stated in the description, I spend a lot of time surfing the web, and I like to share the sites that get my attention. Also, since this is my blog, the opinions stated herein are exclusively mine too. You may not agree with them. In fact, if your politics run to the ultra-conservative I can guarantee you won't. Even so, I hope you'll always find them provocative or entertaining, at least. If nothing else, the words will be spelled rite. If the content just isn't your cup o' Starbucks, then you may want to check out this site, where the author is a professional (i.e. he gets paid to write). In fact, check it out anyways. It's a really neat site with loads of fun reading material. Thanks go to my friend, Caryn, for pointing me in the right direction.
- posted by April @ 1:26 PM