Welcome To ComeWhatMayTheMovie.com – DVD COMING MARCH 17, 2009!

My friends at Sherwood Pictures are coming out with another movie. These are the folks who produced Facing the Giants and Fireproof. The Kendrick brothers have such bold attitudes about addressing major issues of today. I have a feeling the left is really not going to like this one. See the trailer:

more about “Welcome To ComeWhatMayTheMovie.com – …“, posted with vodpod

…And it was a Brisk 56 Degrees

One by one in rapid succession the gadgets and mechanical items in my home are staging a revolt.  Is it something I did…something I said?  Honestly, I’m not abusive towards them.  I treat them with a gentle hand and hardly ever over-tax them.

Just a few weeks ago our DSL modem decided to quit functioning properly after roughly 8 months of uninterrupted service.  After my husband had several lively “discussions” with the AT&T  automated  service representative…who we’re pretty sure didn’t like the tone he took…we ended up switching back to cable internet service.  Maybe their automated service reps will be more accommodating.  Because nothing says “personal service” like automated service reps who keep telling you restart the computer to cure every ill.  That and getting an Indian service rep named “Darrell” is enough to send you into a emotional state that will result in you getting court ordered to anger management classes.

Well, that drama was resolved, and just when we thought that all was right in the mechanical realm late last week my radio alarm clock awoke me to the strains of “Welcome to the Jungle” at volume level 10.  I thought hubby had played a joke on me, but because we do share a bedroom and he gets to sleep 30 minutes later than me that would be like paying the drive through cashier for your combo meal,  driving off without getting the food and thinking the joke was on them.

Upon further inspection I quickly found out that the volume control on my alarm clock would not go below…say a level 5 out of 10.  So when I dialed it all the way down the result was still pretty ear splitting.  This is really odd, because it is a mechanical dial, and I may have changed the volume on the radio a handful of times since I bought it last year.  I keep the volume very low since just the audio pop of the radio coming on will wake me up.  That’s how lightly I sleep.

That brings up another gripe…I had to buy a new alarm clock last year because the governmental change of Daylight Savings Time made my relatively new automatic-time-change alarm clock obsolete.  Government finds a way to screw up everything!!  Grrrr…I better not get started.

So, I guess I’m going to have buy another alarm clock.  I may revolt on technology and buy an old-timey wind-up deal, but I’d probably just forget to wind it and routinely run late for work.

Well, this morning the low in Charlotte was around 15 degrees, and while I was as snug as a bug in bed when my extra-loud alarm clock went off this morning I got up and thought the temperature seemed a little too cool.  Granted, we keep the heat pretty low at night because both of us tend to be prone to night sweats (yep, I know, TMI), but it was just a little more brisk than it should have been.  When I checked the digital thermometer in our room it said 61.3 degrees.  I knew something was definitely wrong.  When I got downstairs and checked the thermostat it said 56 degrees.  Greaaaaat…..

The conclusion was that the furnace was running, but the fan was not distributing the heat through the vents.  So, I got to spend the morning at home with a service technician who diagnosed it as being a circuit board problem.  Okay, I was thinking maybe two or three hundred dollars max to fix a circuit board, but no…he quoted me a price of $641.00!   Five hundred-something for the part, and another hundred for labor.  Well, when I called my husband and told him the damage he popped his cork.   He talked to the service technician to no avail and finally called the main office who finally relented to a total repair cost of $474.38.

Still…what do they make heating and air circuit boards out of anyway….gold?

I think I’m in the wrong business.  I need to start manufacturing circuit boards.

And why does seem that everyone is gouging for everything these days, and you have to threaten hari kari to get a semi- honest price?  Thank God I have a husband who is as stubborn and belligerent as an old mule, because if  it was just me I would routinely get rooked, as I don’t know how to negotiate a.k.a. threatening to take my business elsewhere.

Anyway…what mechanical item will go on strike next at the Sprouse house?  The Lord only knows!

Rainy Days and Saturdays…

…always lead to laziness.

After a long night of clubbing and partying we walked in the door at 1:00 a.m. this morning.  Just kidding, we did walk in the door at 1:00 a.m. this morning, but it was after helping our friends with a wireless network problem which took about four hours longer than it should have.  While I dearly love our senior friends David and Mary I’m fairly certain they don’t want us to darken their doorstep for another two years.  Poor Mary…by 11:30 p.m. last night she was falling asleep while talking to me.  I do that now in my forties.  So, I imagine by the time I’m sixty-something I’ll pretty much be a full-time narcoleptic.

Anyway, after we got the cats settled in, and I did my mandatory wind-down reading of 20 to 30 minutes I went to sleep at the early hour of 2:30 a.m.  This led to a waking time of 10:44 a.m. this morning.  That wouldn’t have been so bad if we were not having dinner guests at 6:00 p.m.  I also wanted to get some blogging done today which I allowed myself the luxury of doing.

At the hour of 2:15 p.m. I walked into the bedroom to find this scene:

As you can tell at that time our house was a flurry of guest-preparing activity…

Now, I must say he had been up and about this morning, and the events leading up to this scene were partially my fault.  He had made an early afternoon breakfast run to Bojangles much to my delight; however, it’s raining and it’s Saturday, and the specter of impending guests is no match for the powerfully drowsy spell of a rainy Saturday.

Well, it’s now 2:46 p.m.  We still have dinner guests coming at 6:00 p.m., there’s a snowstorm predicted for Sunday, and I still haven’t done the grocery shopping.  So, off I go to fight the thousands of other people preparing for a natural disaster that will probably end up being a few snow flurries to a half an inch of snow on the ground.

Memory Full

Do you just have those days…weeks…months when you can absorb no more information?  I find myself in that place at the moment.  I was sick for a solid week which may account for the way I’m feeling, but I feel I’ve hit a wall.  We all have thresholds, and because I tend to be a perfectionist I constantly find myself operating at near or top of my threshold.  Sometime in the last week I went over the edge.

Like most of us my plate is too full, and it’s mostly my fault.  I try to please everyone all the time…a big personality flaw I’m coming to realize.  When you have a history of doing this it’s really hard to stop. When you start telling people “no” they tend to think something is wrong with you, because you’re were always there for them and suddenly you’re not.  They get offended and hurt.  At this point whether or not this turns into a unhealthy thing is totally up to you because you can respond in a couple of different ways.  You can stand behind your decisions and deal with the uncomfortable-ness of it all (which is usually only short-term) or you can back down and continue down your previous path of appeasement and ultimately self-destruction.

I type this as sort of a declaration to the folks around me that for my mental and physical well-being things have got to change for me.  Some of these changes may be drastic, but I feel safe in saying that 98 to 99% of them will be minor adjustments; however, they won’t go unnoticed by those who demand the most from me.

I think most of us become overwhelmed not by accepting large challenges which are beyond our coping skills but accepting too many small challenges which eventually become one big undefeatable monster challenge.  That’s where I find myself right now.

I feel this all around me…personally and professionally.  I see it happening to folks around me too. I work in ministry, and sometimes that’s harder than working for the secular world in that there is some kind of unwritten, over-reaching expectation that you must give more to your job because “you’re working for God.”  Then they wonder why people burn out early, leave the ministry, or they simply fall ill…or dead.  Yes, physically dead.

There’s also the pervasive fear about the economy which I believe has reached mass hysteria levels and has been over-fueled by politicians and the media.  We are being fed information everyday which, I believe, is to make us falsely believe that there are situations out there that cannot be fixed by anyone but government.   This is dangerous…very dangerous, and it really enrages me.  Yes, there are truly problems in our country.  There has been gross mismanagement in corporations, but I believe more mismanagement has gone in our government than in the private sector….another post for another day.

Anyway, to get back to the point it’s time I tune all that out, quit trying to please everyone all the time, and focus on the Truth.  Everyday realities have zapped my relationship with God, and that’s got to change.  All that will matter in the end is not did I please so and so here on Earth, but did I please God.  When I stand before him all that will matter is hearing Him say, “Well done good and faithful servant.”

Right now, I don’t know if He could say that, and that rocks my world much more than any impending financial collapse.

That has to change…

Akeelah and the Bee

I’ve been laid up with the creeping crud for the last couple of days.  There is only so much television I can watch with the dearth of good programming out there.  So, I’ve watched a few movies.  Last night I watched Akeelah and the Bee.  It’s been out a couple of years, and I’ve meant to watch it for a long time.  Even though I have a deep love for words I thought a movie about spelling bees might be kind of, well, boring.

I was wrong.

It’s the story of a girl in South L.A. who loves words.  Playing Scrabble and learning to spell words is a passion of hers passed down from her late father.  Spelling is her comfort because it makes her feel as if her father is still near.   Her mother, played by Angela Bassett, has her hands full trying to raise several children by herself and seldom has time for Akeelah.  While Akeelah is a good speller she struggles in school.  You find out later that her academic struggles are not because she’s not intelligent, but because her mind is not being stimulated enough in her struggling inner city school.

One day while watching T.V. she see’s the Scripp’s National Spelling Bee on ESPN, and she’s mesmerized.  Not long after that her school holds it’s first ever spelling bee and her adventure begins.  Akeelah’s struggles in the succession of spelling bees are not due to a lack of spelling ability  but because of her struggles with self-confidence and doing something that was out of the norm for her culture and family.

Along comes a retired English professor played by Lawrence Fishburne who reluctantly becomes her spelling coach.  You soon find that he struggles with grief and lack of confidence much like Akeelah.

So, if you want a sweet, feel-good movie check out Akeelah and the Bee.  It’s playing on Lifetime Movie Network this month.

Just the Facts Google Reader…Just the Facts!

My tenuous love affair with FoxNews.com has ended.  No, I haven’t suddenly turned left…God forbid, no!  It’s just the fact that Fox News innundates my Google reader constantly and has started to resemble the National Enquirer more than a reputable internet news source.   I’m not kidding you…I can clear my reader of 40 unread items and five minutes later they’ve filled my reader again with 30 more stories most of which are fluff such as what Britney Spears is up to today or that there was a UFO seen at Obama’s inauguration.   Real urgent…breaking news sort of stuff…not!

I’ve been subscribed to three difference news sources, and it’s just too much information, so I’ve had to narrow down the news herd.  I found a wonderful conservative leaning news source www.cnsnews.com , and it’s wonderful.  They do a good job of covering important news, and their commentary fits best with my worldview.  The best thing is they keep the news dumps into reader to a dull roar.   I’m keeping CNN.com on my reader because I do want access to a mainstream news source, and it’s also nice to know what the more left-leaning media is saying even if it drives me crazy sometimes.

So, I’ve said goodbye to Fox News on the internet.  I like the Fox News Network on television as I believe they provide a more balanced view; however, since internet is now my major news source I have to be discerning about how much stuff I let into my reader.  Clearing your reader can become a chore if you sign up for too many feeds.  I just don’t have time…nor am I interested in all the fluff out there.

I love Google reader, and I also love sharing articles with others.  If you use Google reader and would like to share with me (and I with you) you can visit my Google Reader profile page and we’ll become Google Reader buddies!

Subtitling Fun!

I’ve been having some fun this week!  I’ve stepped out of the transcription world for a spell and have entered the subtitling world. The television program we’re currently working on has a lot of footage from Brazil where, of course,  Portuguese is the predominant language.  Since we have moved to more of a documentary style of storytelling this year the producers decided that instead of employing English voice over we would use English subtitling as the Portuguese language is so beautiful.  This is a new thing for us.  Fortunately, we found someone in-house who speaks Portuguese, and we saved tons of money in translation of the original footage.  However, my boss saw a rough cut of the program last week and said, “We’ve got to have you edit the subtitling, because the style, punctuation, and spelling on the subtitles is horrible.”  Editors had done the initial subtitling.  Our editors are some of the best in the business, but subtitling is not their forte nor should it be.

So, I spent Tuesday afternoon with an editor editing subtitling, and it was fun! (Yes, I’m easily amused) Granted, I only had to edit about 15 minutes worth of footage, but it made for an interesting afternoon.  It also stirred my creative side, because one thing you want to do while subtitling emotional stories is to subtitle in way to add dramatic effect to the story being told and, of course, make sure things are being stated in an understandable way.  I did not edit for content, because I don’t speak Portuguese, but doing this yet again fanned the flames of my love for language.

It was also God’s way of helping me make a decision that would impact my career.  If I had gone one way with the decision it would’ve pretty much taken me in a direction away from using my skills with language.  This project solidified the fact that I need to stay right where I am as my language skills are truly needed by my department, and I have a passion for the message my department/organization is trying to convey.

I pray I get a chance to subtitle again soon!

Educational E-mails…Making the World a More Paranoid Place

I got this in an e-mail tonight, and I just had to share….It’s kind of long but loaded with laughs.  I have to admit I’ve forwarded a few of these gems myself over the years…

I just want to thank all of you for your educational e-mails over the past year. I am totally screwed up now and have little chance of recovery.

I no longer open a public bathroom door

without using a paper towel.

I no longer have lemon slices in my ice water at a restaurant

without worrying about the bacteria on the lemon peel.

I can’t use the remote in a hotel room

because I don’t know what the last person was doing while flipping through the adult movie channels.

I can’t sit down on the hotel bedspread

because I can only imagine what has happened on it since it was last washed.

I have trouble shaking hands

with someone who has been driving because the number one pastime while driving alone is picking one’s nose (although cell phone usage may be overtaking the number one spot).

Eating a little snack sends me on a guilt trip

because I can only imagine how many gallons of trans fats I have consumed over the years.

I can’t touch any woman’s purse

for fear she has placed it on the floor of a public bathroom.

I MUST SEND MY SPECIAL THANKS

to whoever sent me the one about poop in the glue on envelopes because I now have to use a wet sponge with every envelope that needs sealing.

ALSO,

now I have to scrub the top of every can I open for the same reason.

I no longer have any savings

because I gave it to a sick girl (Penny Brown) who is about to die in the hospital for the 1,387,258th time.

I no longer have any money at all,

but that will change once I receive the $15,000 that Bill Gates/Microsoft and AOL are sending me for participating in their special e-mail program.

I no longer worry about my soul

because I have 363,214 angels looking out for me.

I no longer eat KFC

because their chickens are actually horrible mutant freaks with no eyes or feathers.

I no longer use cancer-causing deodorants

even though I smell like a water buffalo on a hot day.

THANKS TO ALL OF YOU

I have learned that my prayers only get answered if I forward an e-mail to seven of my friends and make a wish within five minutes.

BECAUSE OF YOUR CONCERN,

I no longer drink Coca Cola because it can remove toilet stains.

I no longer can buy gasoline

without taking someone along to watch the car so a serial killer won’t crawl in my back seat when I’m pumping gas.

I no longer drink Pepsi or Dr. Pepper

since the people who make these products are atheists who refuse to put ‘Under God’ on their cans.

I no longer use Saran Wrap

in the microwave because it causes cancer.

AND THANKS FOR LETTING ME KNOW

I can’t boil a cup of water in the microwave anymore because it will blow up in my face… disfiguring me for life.

I no longer check the coin return on pay phones

because I could be pricked with a needle infected with AIDS.

I no longer go to shopping malls

because someone will drug me with a perfume sample and rob me.

I no longer receive packages from UPS or Fed Ex

since they are actually Al Qaeda in disguise.

I no longer shop at Target

since they are French and don’t support our American troops or the Salvation Army.

I no longer answer the phone

because someone will ask me to dial a number for which I will get a phone bill with calls to Jamaica , Uganda , Singapore , and Uzbekistan .

I no longer buy expensive cookies from Neiman Marcus

since I now have their recipe.

THANKS TO YOU

I can’t use anyone’s toilet but mine because a big brown African spider is lurking under the seat to cause me instant death when it bites my butt.

AND THANKS TO YOUR GREAT ADVICE

I can’t ever pick up $5.00 dropped in the parking lot because it probably was placed there by a sex molester waiting underneath my car to grab my leg.

I can no longer drive my car

because I can’t buy gas from certain gas companies!

I can’t do any gardening

because I’m afraid I’ll get bitten by the brown recluse and my hand will fall off.

If you don’t send this e-mail to at least 144,000 people in the next 70 minutes, a large dove with diarrhea will land on your head at 5:00 p.m. tomorrow afternoon and the fleas from 12 camels will infest your back, causing you to grow a hairy hump. I know this will occur because it actually happened to a friend of my next door neighbor’s ex-mother-in-law’s second husband’s cousin’s beautician . .

End Bitterness

I’m rarely ever moved by a company’s marketing campaign, but I heard a commercial today on the radio by the fine folks at Luzianne (my iced tea brand of choice).  They have a campaign and a website called End Bitterness which is marketing their new coffee brand, but the campaign is offering practical advice on how to eliminate bitterness in your own little world by doing things like dropping a quarter in an expired parking meter for someone besides yourself or giving a “thank-you” wave to someone who lets you merge in during a dense traffic time on the road.  Wow, what a concept…random acts of kindness, appreciation, and common courtesy!  I know I need to practice that more.

Luzianne also features the charities they donate to…all very worthwhile causes.

If you go over to Luzianne’s site you can also get a $1.00 off coupon for their new coffee, so they’re doing their part to end bitterness!

…and I promise they didn’t pay me to say that.

The King of California

Hubby and I watched a film on New Year’s Eve from the comfort of our bonus room that I have to say ranks in my top five of 2008.  Well, technically the film came out in 2007, but we didn’t discover it until 2008.  We have recently signed up for the wonderful Netflix streaming option where we stream movies from Netflix straight to hubby’s X-Box 360 (It’s about time that contraption did something for me since it’s taken my husband away from me for nights on end).  Anyway, we have a veritable potpourri of movies from which to choose.

I love independent films…adore them.  I’m so tired of big box office Hollywood rehashing old T.V. shows and trying to re-invent old superheroes.  I like something that is fresh and new…especially quirky films.  We decided to take a chance on the King of California, and we were delighted.  It stars Michael Douglas and Rachel Evan Wood who both give superb performances.  In my opinion it’s Michael Douglas’ best performance ever.   It’s refreshing to see him playing an off-center character instead of an intense and serious character.   There are a few “words” in it (at least one F-bomb) but the language is not gratuitous which I also found refreshing.  There is no real political agenda to the film unless you consider seeing a formally rural area being turned into a massive suburb (with lots of product placement) political.  The characters draw you in and have you rooting for them in the end.  You come away thinking maybe the people we think are crazy are really the sanest among us.  It’s just a sweet and quirky story.

Here’s the trailer if you would like a little sample: