The theatre is losing it's luster

I am getting close to a year without darkening a movie theater. Shocking for a guy that is a movie geek like I am. Part of it is that I have a baby, and well, babies don't work well in theaters. Second, movies are just not what they used to be.

4 years ago, if you said that in ONE summer, an Ocean's Twelve sequel, a Fantastic Four sequel, Spidey 3, Shrek 3, a Transformers movie, and a Pixar movie were coming out, I would have been at opening night for 4 of those at least. I would have seen them and been pretty satisfied. But I don't know if I will see any of them in the theater. I didn't even mention Pirates 3.

Why? Several reasons:

1. Sequels are getting worse. Bottom line: it's nearly impossible to catch lightning in a bottle twice and thrice, but studios keep trying. Spidey 3 is so awful that even die hard fans I know told me to avoid it. The others I just don't care enough to drop $15 for me ans the wifey to see.

2. Visual effects don't matter as much as they used to. I'll take story over visuals any day now.

3. Netfix: watch 30 movies in a month for the price of 2 tickets. This is where quantity wins out. Plus, no one gets mad at home if the baby starts crying. I have almost 100 DVD's in my queue right now-- in other words, more to watch than I could in a year. Don't forget TV shows and online viewing.

4. Television is getting better. Battlestar Galactica. Heroes. Lost. Not to mention CSI, Scrubs, Monk, 24. I haven't even mentioned Rome. Heck, I left out alot of good TV.

The bottom line? I may be moving into a phase of life where movies just don't matter much to me anymore...and it's kind of comforting. Am I still a geek?

Where have I been?

Civil War Chaplain
Originally uploaded by leestudent.

I have been switching to a new job in a new town and went almost 10 days without internet access. Mix in a sick baby, visiting in-laws, and regular life, and you get no blog. We'll be back soon. Here's a pic of what I'm doing now.....sort of.

One Z-pac, no pickles

So this month of February is going GREAT.

Not really.

Little AM has decided that sleeping at night is just so last month, and even if she does sleep, she won't do it unless held, which is really cute until about 3:00am. This is further complicated by my recent AOTC (Attack of the Crud)*, which got so bad I missed work one day and had to get a Z-pac, which is a wonderful antibiotic.

Then my new camera (which I will show later), was not delivered because I missed the Fedex guy by about 20 minutes. Since FedEx is so huge and diverse (read: needlessly overorganized), my package did not go back to the local FedEx facility where I could get it, but 40 minutes away to Chattanooga, where I could gladly pick it up, although no one at FedEx could tell me what time that facility could be open. Let me repeat that: FedEx could not tell me when their own building opens.

Oh, and did I mention my venerable Toyota is leaking antifreeze?

Well now that I have that all out, that's better.

*Not to be confused with Star Wars Episode II: AOTC (Attack of the Clones), although it was crud also.

One month away from being 2 months old

Tomorrow marks 1 month since the birth of our daughter. I am still amazed at her and still amazed at the strength my wife possesses within her to not only carry and deliver the baby, but to love her immensely every day.

From Baby Ladd- th...

We are back at Lee, and while the apartment is familiar, it doesn't feel like home. That feeling, that sense that home is somewhere else, is something I have not felt in many years, and I found myself glad to feel it.

What I am NOT glad to feel is the gunk in my nose and throat. Please pray God heals me or that God uses the Mucinex in my cabinet to heal me, I'm not picky.

Settling in

Boy, do I miss the internet. Not having it makes you appreciate it, and I think sadly towards those that never have it or have it without high-speed. We don't have it at the house, so we are coming over to Jennifer's work to check email and stuff.

I digress....

From Baby Ladd- th...

In other news, check my del.icio.us bookmarks to see some of the latest finds as I roam the internet. Thanks to the VO's for the album covers that make me laugh and cry.

Finally, the Ladd household is now cable-free as we go to Netflix. We already queued up over 25 discs, and are very happy with the decision. Since Netflix does TV shows as well as movies, its a much better deal at only a fraction of the cost. Let's face it, the library is bigger then any rental store, cheaper, and more convenient. Add an antenna for local stations, and viola! All the tube time we need. Plus that frees up internet funding. Ahhh, the internet.

Have a great weekend!

Our baby is here!

Baby Ladd- the first month

Baby Watch Part Deux

Still nothing. Our daughter is teh funny. She even had the doctors fooled. So now we are settling in for the long haul, the original due date. We'll see what happens at that point. I am not getting my hopes up at all until the doctor says she can see the head. Okay, maybe I'll get my hopes up a wee bit before that. The good news is that so far the baby is in great shape and things look good.

Baby Watch update

Well, no baby yet.
Jennifer is starting to have bouts of close contractions, but nothing sustained for an hour, which is the threshold for heading to the hospital. She had about 5-6 contractions about 5 minutes apart around 8, then they stopped for about an hour. The baby then started to hiccup for about 10 minutes. We just had 3-4 contractions in a row about 5-6 minutes apart, so we're crossing our fingers......

Conformity

Since all my friends are doing it, so will I. PEER PRESSURE!

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio. What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

Rain

Some things are very consistent. I usually like consistency; I grew up in the same house from age 2 to 21. I drove nothing but Fords from age 15 to 26. I have lived in the same 50 mile radius since birth. But I am beginning to hate certain consistencies, things that inexorably march on, not show signs of slowing (the rowers keep on rowing). The consistency of my questions, the confines of money, the fact that you can't spend less than $600 a month on a house unless it's either falling apart OR it's on wheels. Not that we're buying a house, but we window shop from time to time and it's depressing, kind of like never-ending rain. The nagging question of career.

I tried to think these things through last night, but I decided to iron instead. I am trying to improve my slightly wrinkly appearance at work, so I ironed all my pants and 4-5 shirts in an hour and a half of ironing frenzy. I got lost in the mindlessless of it, and it was surprisingly relaxing. I wished I had a better view though.....