Baden's Vacation Archive

Check out Baden's Vacation Archive.

Chicago Pics

I put a few pictures from my trip up on this page. We went to Millennium Park, The Art Institute, the Hancock Tower, Rush & Division, The Museum of Science and Industry and Wrigleyville. We didn't get a chance to go to Shedd Aquarium or the Field Museum. The Field has an exhibit on Machu Picchu right now, and I would have insisted on going there had I known that before we left. We ate at Amarit on Friday night and El Jardin on Saturday, both of which I recommend.

The Friday Feast

Appetizer:
Name 3 things that you are wearing today.
insoles, a badge holder, a chip on my shoulder

Soup:
Who was the last person you hugged?
My niece

Salad:
What do you like to order from your favorite fast food place?
Meat and Potato Burrito from Taco Johns

Main Course:
What time of day do you usually feel most energized?
2-5 pm

Dessert:
Using the letters in your first name, write a sentence.
She always runs around Houston.

Feel free to shoplift

Yeah, use this on your own blog or send it to your friends in an email. Take out some lines if you don't like them (I sure did) and add at least one of your own.

If I were a stone, I would be "Sly and the Family" - just kidding - actually, I'd be a stone island, because although no man is an island, I do well as part of an archipelago.
If I were a tree, I would be a ginko because they have cool leaves.
If I were a bird, I would be a wood duck. I don't know why, but I have always liked them, plus I like pretty boys.
If I were a tool, I would be a rotary cutter, you know like a pizza cutter for fabric or paper.
If I were a flower, I would be a dandelion.
If I were weather, I would be a heat wave.
If I were a mythical creature, I would be a sphinx.
If I were a musical instrument, I would be tympani.
If I were an animal, I would be a cat, a run-of-the-mill orange tabby.
If I were a colour, I would be navy blue.
If I were an emotion, I would be malaise, a general feeling of.
If I were a vegetable, I would be a soybean.
If I were a sound, I would be your favorite song.
If I were an element, I would be bromine, a dark brown pungent liquid which is toxic and highly reactive. Maybe it is more accurate to say that bromine is my favorite element.
If I were a historical figure, I would be Sojourner Truth.
If I were a celebrity, I would be in the looney bin. The lack of privacy would not sit well with me.
If I were a book, I would be Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner.
If I were a movie, I would be Someone Like You.
If I were a food, I would be Curry Chicken from Chiang Mai Thai.
If I were a place, I would be a storage area.
If I were a piece of clothing, I would be cargo pants.
If I were a fabric, I would be army green broadcloth.
If I were an object, I would be a safety pin.
If I were a word, I would be flummoxed.
If I were a body part, I would be an ear lobe.
If I were a facial expression, I would be a grimace.
If I were a subject in school, I would be math.
If I were a shape, I would be a pyramid.
If I were a number, I would be seven.
If I were a month, I would be March.
If I were a day of the week, I would be Thursday.
If I were a time of day, I would be 7:00 PM.
If I were a piece of furniture, I would be an armoire.
If I were a sin, I would be sloth.
If I were a liquid, I would be chai tea.
If I were a planet, I would be Venus.
If I were a scent, I would be vanilla.
If I were a sea animal, I would be terrified.
If I were a dessert, I would be cannolli.
If I were a sky, I would be a sunset.

My additions:

If I were a foreign country, I would be Portugal.
If I were a weapon, I would be a spetum, which is cool looking spear.
If I were a fruit, I would be a pear.

PS Thank you to Yahoo and Google's Image Search capabilities. Have you tried them?

Okay, you talked me into it.

This is my 2004 year-to-date top 10:

Before Sunset
Garden State
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Hidalgo
King Arthur
Passion of the Christ, The
Saved!
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
Spider-Man 2
Troy

Movies, more than you ever wanted to know

You know about the Internet Movie Database, but did you know I have my own personal movie database? If you know me, that may not surprise you. Anyway, I am working in it today, so here are some fun facts:

• I have seen 315 movies made between 1980 and 1995.
• I've seen 329 movies between 1996 and 2000. (I moved out of the house in '96, and I started seeing at least one movie a week at that point. This rate is about 1.2 per week.)
• I saw 110 made between 2001 and 2003.
• The first movie I remember seeing in a theater was The Care Bears in 1985.
  

I got these numbers by searching for various date ranges and including minimum numbers of votes on IMDB's power search page. Then I went through each list, marking everything 'Saw', 'Want to see' or 'Do not want to see'. I try to keep my Wants updated when I see a movie. So, below is one of the results of my database. It's my Top Ten by Year. Please note: some years don't have ten, some have more, some have less, most have ten.

2003
Beyond Borders
Finding Nemo
Holes
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Love Actually
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Thirteen
Under the Tuscan Sun
X-Men 2

2002
About a Boy
Bourne Identity, The
Brown Sugar
Four Feathers
Good Girl, The
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The
Scorpion King, The
Spider-Man
Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones

2001
Bridget Jones's Diary
Crazy/Beautiful
Enemy at the Gates
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
A Knight's Tale
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Pearl Harbor
Riding in Cars with Boys
Shrek
Someone Like You...

2000 (*I saw all 5 Best Pictures Nominees this year)
Almost Famous
Amores perros
Bring It On
Chocolat
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Gossip
Love & Sex
Quills
Where the Heart Is
X-Men

1999
Anna and the King
The Best Man
Dogma
Drop Dead Gorgeous
Galaxy Quest
Girl, Interrupted
Man on the Moon
Office Space
Sleepy Hollow
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace

1998
20 Dates
Can't Hardly Wait
Ever After
Hope Floats
Lola rennt (Run, Lola, Run)
Playing by Heart
Return to Paradise
Shakespeare in Love
Sliding Doors
The Wedding Singer

1997
As Good As It Gets
Chasing Amy
The Fifth Element
The Full Monty
Gattaca
Good Will Hunting
Mononoke Hime (Princess Mononoke)
My Best Friend's Wedding
Picture Perfect
Soul Food


1996
The Birdcage
Black Sheep
Children of the Revolution
Evita
Jerry Maguire
Romeo + Juliet
Scream
Stealing Beauty
Swingers
A Time to Kill

1995
The American President
The Basketball Diaries
Dead Man Walking
Desperado

1994
Clerks
Forrest Gump
Interview with the Vampire
The Lion King
Muriel's Wedding
Pulp Fiction
Reality Bites
The Shawshank Redemption
Stargate
Trapped in Paradise

1993
Coneheads
Dazed and Confused
Groundhog Day
Joy Luck Club, The
Jurassic Park
Mrs. Doubtfire
Pelican Brief, The
Philadelphia
Schindler's List
Untamed Heart

1992
Como agua para chocolate (Like Water for Chocolate)
Cutting Edge, The
Death Becomes Her
Encino Man
Far and Away
Few Good Men, A
Last of the Mohicans, The
Malcolm X
Singles
Wayne's World

1991
Addams Family, The
Boyz N the Hood
City Slickers
Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead
Only the Lonely
Regarding Henry
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
Silence of the Lambs, The
Thelma & Louise
Toy Soldiers

1990
Bird on a Wire
Dances with Wolves
Edward Scissorhands
Ghost
Hunt for Red October, The
Joe Versus the Volcano
Men at Work
Mermaids
Pretty Woman
Pump Up the Volume

1989
Batman
burbs, The
Christmas Vacation
Dead Poets Society
Heathers
Look Who's Talking
Parenthood
Say Anything...
Steel Magnolias
When Harry Met Sally...

1988
Big
Coming to America
Great Outdoors, The
Married to the Mob
Mystic Pizza
Rain Man
She's Having a Baby
Willow
Young Guns

1987
Dirty Dancing
Moonstruck
Outrageous Fortune
Overboard
Planes, Trains & Automobiles
Princess Bride, The
Secret of My Succe$s, The
Some Kind of Wonderful
Three Men and a Baby
Wall Street

1986
About Last Night...
American Tail, An
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Karate Kid, Part II
Labyrinth
Money Pit, The
Pretty in Pink
Stand by Me
Top Gun
Three Amigos!

1985
Back to the Future
Breakfast Club, The
Brewster's Millions
Color Purple, The
European Vacation
Jewel of the Nile, The
Ladyhawke
Legend
Pee Wee's Big Adventure
St. Elmo's Fire

1984
Gremlins
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Karate Kid, The
Moscow on the Hudson
NeverEnding Story, The
Romancing the Stone
Sixteen Candles
Splash

1983
Big Chill, The
Christmas Story, A
Mr. Mom
Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi
Superman III
Vacation

1982
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Officer and a Gentleman, An

1980
Nine to Five
Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back
Superman II

I haven't done the 70's or any earlier decades yet and I am still working on 2004 year-to-date. 1981 just wasn't my year for movies. This post is too long already.

I used to be a klutz

A thread in the KOL forums made me take stock of the many injuries I suffered in my childhood. It's a wonder I made it through the first 12 years of my life:

-I rode my rocking horse down the porch stairs
-I went through a plate glass window in my highchair with my sister (she had climbed up the back of it)
-I burnt my leg on my 3rd birthday with pizza topping
-I got my middle finger caught in a folding chair and lost the nail (eeew, but it grew back)
-I stepped on a piece of glass large enough to sever a toe, but it didn't!
-I was pushing a girl in a wheelchair when I was like six. The two of them weighed at least twice what I did at the time. I got too close to a flight of stairs and we went down. She broke her collar-bone, but I think I was fine.
-I asked my sister to push me off a recliner and caught my chin on a coffee table on the way down (first stiches, and I still have the scar)
-I sideswiped a car with my bike, not badly hurt, but embarassed!
-I crashed into a telephone pole while walking sideways (trying to show off)
-I got poison sumac(or something) on my hand by laying in my neighbor's yard
-I fell under a merry-go-round while trying to push it and hit a screw on the way back up (second stiches)
-I picked up the end of an extension cord in the wet grass and my hand started pulsing
-Lastly, I remember shutting my hands in car doors many times, but it never really hurt, since it was always at the top, by the window.

AQ

So, when I found KOL, I liked it so much I went looking for other mmorpgs and found this one: Adventure Quest. It's almost as fun as KOL, but the battles get kind of long sometimes. This one is free, also, but if you donate $14, you get to be a Guardian. It helps a bunch when you get the special armor and weapon.

News Flashes:

Today is my mother's birthday as well as my sister's. Happy Birthday, ladies! And before you try to be cute, no, they were not born in the same year.
I am going to Chicago in two weeks with some friends. I can't wait.
I should be working right now, but I'm not.
All 6 of my KOL characters have gone as far as they can, questwise. I even restarted one of them. I am thinking about restarting another one. I can't wait for the reset now, even though I will lose millions of meat. I want to play the game through without buying anything. I am still working on trophies and meat making, but it gets old sometimes. I am even playing some of my niece's characters just to pass the time.
I got an A on my Calculus test. Some of the other students in the class just don't get things and need them explained 3 or 4 times. It gets annoying when they don't even recall simple Algebra.
As for my Acting Class, I think I am running at a B+ right now. We finished both of our Two Minute exercises, and we get scenes assigned next week. I need to critique a play and learn my monologue soon.
I can't believe how fast August and September went by.