Karen
3/31/03
Amanda, I'm bummed too not to be in Lincoln this week. I am trying to figure out a day to go, but not looking very likely at this time.... No fun to live far away......

As I'm probably the only one in Lincoln who will be looking at this page for the next week, I'll answer that one. Yeah, it was a last-minute surprise! Just the day before their California flight, John wasn't feeling well, so they decided to postpone the CA trip to later this summer. Which meant Anna was now free to visit Lincoln. I'll leave any other details for Marsha to fill in, if she wants. Today is a shopping day, I understand -- I'm at work, but the others are off buying stuff at the mall. Tonight everyone's coming over to Mom's for dinner, later maybe some Facts in Five. --Gary

---To end the suspense, I will report that Buster HAS been found, and is in good shape; I will leave the dramatic story of his capture to Lindsey.
---Marsha, Sam, and Anna arrived yesterday around 3 pm. We took a short field trip to inspect Sean's home improvements, then had a spectacular salmon dinner courtesy of Grandma, and then gathered in the living room to plan out all the places we want to eat this week.
---I heard this morning that Geraldo Rivera (aka Gerry Rivers) has gotten himself kicked out of Iraq. He has been reporting for Fox "News" (aka the Bush Propaganda Service) and in a recent broadcast gave away the exact location of one of the combat units -- instead of saying, "somewhere in Iraq" or "a number of miles south of Baghdad" or whatever. I have to admit I was amused that Fox News is now guilty of having given aid and comfort to the enemy. :-) To me, Rivera's crime was not that he gave out classified information, but that he works for Fox News.... In a related story, Peter Arnett is voluntarily leaving Iraq, after having gotten fired from both NBC and National Geographic over the weekend. Seems Arnett gave an interview to Iraqi TV in which he said the war was not proceeding the way originally planned. Which is no doubt true, but unwise to say -- on tape -- to the Iraqis who are now broadcasting that clip to their fighting forces. I saw Arnett on NBC this morning, giving a kind of farewell performance, and he looked devastated and very apologetic.
---A story just beginning to break is that there is dissension between the administration and the Pentagon. Apparently the Pentagon war planners had been urging for a long time for a larger ground force, a longer air campaign, and over-all better planning; but the administration, principally Donald Rumsfeld, continually over-ruled them, saying that the war was going to be a lot easier than the Pentagon predicted. A reporter for the New Yorker magazine, where this story broke, says the Pentagon planners complained of the administration attitude of "If you agree with us, you're a genius; if you disagree, you're a traitor." Pentagon, meet the Bush administration.

Yup. I heard a reporter quote a Pentagon source today that we should prepare for "months" of fighting, and that the fighting is only going to get more intense. The Pentagon announced they are going to DOUBLE the number of troops over there now. I have to admit that I was one of the "swift" predictors as well; the Iraqi army is only a fraction of the size it was in '91, and that operation took, what, a week and a half? After the early successes in the first few days, I figured we'd soon be seeing the massive surrenders (to CNN reporters!) that we saw in '91 and the Marines would be doing their laundry in Baghdad by now. But not so. --Gary

OK, Lindsey's email address is now correct on the contact page. Good luck finding the hamster, Linz! I suggest you rent Mouse Hunt this weekend to get some ideas! --Gary

Well, something like that... Here I was thinking country music was all about spousal abuse, white supremacy, and the challenge of eating pork rinds with no front teeth. So imagine my surprise when these so-called "Dixie Chicks" of yours made a statement about Bush that was mildly critical (though quickly apologized for). Who knew??? :-) Seriously, The Dixie Chicks are pretty good. While I probably won't go so far as to buy one of their CDs, I deplore all the cement-headed "patriotic Americans" who are burning theirs.... --Gary

Donna had a good idea which she shared with me yesterday. She suggested that other people (which is to say, anyone reading this!) could contribute their own "theme week" pictures. All you need to do is gather around seven (7) pictures and send them to me -- preferably in electronic form, but if not you can send the photos to me and I can scan them. These can be photos you have taken yourself, or other photos you already have, or pictures you have downloaded from the internet. Vacation pictures? Photos of your pet? Baby pictures of yourself? Photos of your favorite shoes? It's all good! Now you can be "Webmaster For a Week"!

Amanda, I can't believe you've never won when you have the second highest average. That's weird. Ryan was indeed heckling me. I get no inside information, I'm just good. I wonder if there's something in the rules about hecklers. But Ryan my offer still stands for next year.

Actually, Lindsey, your email address on the contact page is your old one at msn.com (LinzRae89). Do you want me to change it to your new Yahoo one? --Gary

Well, YOU won the kids category this year! :-) What we've been doing the last couple of years is splitting the year between the winner with the highest score and the winner under 17 with the highest score. This year you were both of those winners. But if you want to unselfishly share the award, the next highest score under 17 belongs to Emily. Is that your plan? --Gary

Not likely. I did do a search for one, not really expecting to find any... and didn't. All you really have to do, though, is turn on MSNBC or CNN -- they've got a little picture-in-picture view of Baghdad almost round the clock. --Gary

Ooops, I was using last year's date. Now fixed. Thanks! --Gary

Actually, Ryan did get his Oscar votes in, just under the wire yesterday. --Gary

Here is a bunch of new screenshots for the upcoming computer game Restaurant Empire (it will be in the stores on March 18). This one looks like a lot of fun. (Amanda, did you ever get the demo to work for you?) Also, I just bought Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis yesterday, and it is very cool. A lot like Restaurant Empire in that you can zoom right down into the action, but here instead of building an eatery you start with an island and build Jurassic Park -- dinosaurs, electric fences, souvenir shops, food stalls, restrooms, Land Rovers, helicopters, tranquilizer darts -- and then open the doors and let the tourists in. The dinosaur behavior is very realistically modelled; you could spend a lot of time just watching them roam around the island interacting with the environment and each other. Fun game! Here is the official site where you can see screenshots and get a demo.

I mentioned before that Russell Crowe will be starring in a movie called Master and Commander, based on the great Patrick O'Brian book series about the captain of a sailing ship during the Napoleonic wars. (Read those books -- you'll thank me!) Anyway, the movie was to have been released in May -- just two months from now -- but the producers have decided to delay it until November, so it will still be fresh in the minds of the Oscar voters next year. This movie should be fantastic. It also stars Billy Boyd, one of the hobbits in the Lord of the Rings movies.

Speaking of Oscars, the show organizers have announced that the show will go on, whether or not there's a war going on. Should make for a few interesting acceptance speeches -- when you have a live audience of a hundred million or so, it's tempting not to make a political speech! :-) And if Brent, Donna, John, Lori, Olivia, Ryan, Sean, Tristen, and Zachary want to make your voices heard, please get your Oscar ballots in this weekend!

We now return you to your regularly-scheduled programming.

The Oscars are two weeks away, but I would like to have all the ballots in by next Monday. So far I've received ballots from Amanda, Emily, Erika, Karen, Lindsey, and Paul -- so if your name wasn't mentioned there you have a week to get your ballot in. The Screen Actors Guild Awards were on last night, and they're usually a pretty good predictor of the Oscars (even though the categories don't match up exactly with the Oscars); if you didn't watch, here's a complete list of the results. If you're ready to make your choices, go to the oscar ballot.

Hmmmm. In my expert opinion (speaking as an expert), it sounds like you either need to update your video drivers and/or install the latest version of DirectX. For the video drivers, Ryan probably has done this before -- if not I can help out. For DirectX, just get the CD from the latest game you have and look for the DirectX folder; it will have the most recent version. Just run "DXsetup" and it will do the rest. (I think DirectX is up to 8.1 at the moment.) --Gary

What's the game doing? (Or not doing?) The install went ok, but the game won't start, you mean? Or it starts up, but freezes or goes black soon after? Check the system requirements to see if your computer is up to snuff. (Should be, if Ryan is playing games on it....) Let me know if I can help! --Gary

1) In production right now is a movie about the racehorse Seabiscuit. It stars Tobey McGuire (Cider House Rules, Spiderman) as the jockey, Jeff Bridges as the owner, and Chris Cooper (Oscar-nominee for Adaptation) as the trainer. Good cast! The movie will be released this summer, on July 25. If you haven't read the book yet, do yourself a favor and get it. (At least read my review of it...!) Here's a very cool website about the book and movie. (And I just learned on that site that there is also a PBS documentary on Seabiscuit in the works.)

2) There are two new computer games due to be released soon which are looking very good. One is called Restaurant Empire and it's kind of a cross between "The Sims" and the Food Channel. In this game you choose one of three cities -- Paris, Rome, or L.A. -- to build your restaurant. Then you hire a chef, wait-staff, and kitchen crew; decorate your restaurant; put together a menu; and wait for the customers. Each customer will have on opinion about your place that will help you make it better. When I played the demo version, a couple of customers asked me "Why is it so dark in here?" and "Why is the Veal Roulade so expensive?" They also complained that the receptionist was rude, so I fired her, installed a few wall sconces, and knocked a couple of bucks off the veal. :-) You can tinker with the recipes to improve them. You can also enter your chef in cooking competitions ala "The Iron Chef." The animations are very realistic and detailed. You watch from a top-down view (like The Sims), and it really does look and feel like a real restaurant. If one person orders cream of asparagus soup and another orders tomato, you can zoom in and discover that the first soup is green and the second red! Looks like this could be a winner. Here's the game's website where you'll learn a lot about it, and you can also download the demo. (Warning: it's 143 megabytes, so if you're connecting with a modem the download will take all night -- if you're lucky!) It will be on the store shelves by the end of this month.

The other game is called The Movies, and it puts you in the role of a studio head. You get to choose the scripts, hire the actors and directors, choose the sets and special effects, etc -- and then the computer will actually make a little movie from these elements. You can post your movies on the internet, and each month other movie-makers will vote on the Best Picture. It will be like having the Oscars every month. :-) I don't have a release date for this one, but here's the website!

Really? :-) I just heard it for the first time today. It's a good one! --Gary

Hey Tristen, thanks for the card! You are goofy-- and a good artist. :-)

I just heard a joke that made me think of Tristen: A guy from up north is travelling through Texas at Christmas and stops off in a little town called Iowa Park. He's admiring all the lights and decorations, but he finally stops a local and asks, "These nativity displays are really nice, but how come all the Wise Men are wearing fireman hats??" The Texan replies, "Well, it says rat in the Bible, 'The Wise Men came from afar.'"

P.S.: Happy Mardi Gras, everybody! Again judging from the webcam, it looks rainy and chilly in New Orleans -- I'm seeing jackets and wet streets....

Lindsey, send a picture of Buster.

Olivia, I want to hear all about your hamster. I bet you named him Taps. What does he look like?