SF34 Live - Coming to the end

My oldest us getting tired and a headache, so he us lying down for a bit. He made it through 'Transformers', and my dad is still watching, although I expect he has dozed some.

Every year I think I'm going to make a list of notes for helping plan next year's, and haven't made them until just before, so I'll do it now. These might be handy for other folks as well. While we got here by 11am, there weren't enough seats together on the 1st floor for our party of 4, so we ended up in the balcony. I may not be remembering rightly, but I seem to recall more leg room when we were downstairs last year. For a party of 4 or more wanting to sit together, I would suggest getting there closer to oeming time, which was 10:30am this year.

Another thing I should do better is to plan when to go out for dinner as soon as I get the line up with times, particularly when going with friends. I really like the social aspects, and having a meal with friends is a nice way to break things up, even with the increased social nature of watching movies at this event. Food has gone well this year, for both my son and myself. Neither of us has overly eaten, and I think our selections worked well. I've found fruit a good choice again this year, with this year's selections including some easy peeling, tasty oranges, plums, Fuji apples, and grapes for Alexei. I brought 3 swiss cheese sandwiches, and have only eaten 2 so far. Plenty of fluid, some peanuts and a shared can of pringles. Not too bad.

We've entered the final stretch with 'Star Trek II : The Wrath of Kahn', and the die hards are excited. The best, or at least one of the best Star Trek movies, this is the first time Alexei has seen it. I hope he enjoys the big screen experience. With another marathon wrapping up, it's time to discuss movies for next year's, at the Boston Science Fiction Marsthon 35 website. ^_^

Posted at 04:37PM Feb 16, 2009 by dragonfly in General  |  Comments[0]

SF34 Live - Past halfway

We are past the halfway point, which ocurred during 'The Thing from Another Planet', a truly classic, well made 50s movie. Next we enjoyed another classic, this one from 1984, 'Repo Man' with Harry Dean Stanton and Emelio Estevez. The current movie is the remake of 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' with an all star cast including Donald Sutherland, Jeff Goldbloom, and Leonard Nemoy. "rat turd. Caper." ^_^

Posted at 10:43AM Feb 16, 2009 by dragonfly in General  |  Comments[0]

SF34 Live - Update 2

The movies continue, as well as the MST3K style comments. Sadly, 'Chrysalis', based on a Ray Bradbury story, was slow and awkward. Storyline was good as usual for Ray, too bad the movie didn't pan out. A short break and we were on to 'Logan's Run' staring Michael York and Farrah Fawcett, a classic that had a short run as a series.

Oh yeah, in case you are wondering what the picture is, after seeing that large a turn out for the tinfoil hat contest, most of which were pretty darn impressive, my 'stealth' hat and I decided to sit this one out. The team of space Vikings won, and a well deserved win too. The children's winner used a Dr. Who theme, with a fantastic K9 model as a hat. We're well into 'Runaway' with Tom Selleck, Kristie Alley and Gene Simmons (of KISS fame). What a step into electronics antiquity, yikes. ^_^

Posted at 03:46AM Feb 16, 2009 by dragonfly in General  |  Comments[0]

SF34 Live - we're off

SF34 is now officially under way, as this pic showing Duck Dodgers attests to. Our first film was a premiere of 'Alien Trespass', a great film with gorgeous scenery, and modeled after 1950s film like 'It Came from Outer Soace'. Really brings a nostalgic feel with modern color and beauty.

And speaking of 'It Came from Outer Space', it has just started, and in 3D to boot. I guess it's been a while since I've seen a blue/red 3D, cause this looks pretty cool. I am finding the darkness of the red side a bit annoying, but still cool.

I've started off slow on eating, and ended up with no breakfast, which seems to be working well for stomach comfort. A lot better than starting off with a film like 'Cloverfield', with it's stomach turning videography. A friend from Mosaic Commons, Tim Pierce has joined us for the fun. They ran out of programs, so I emailed the line up to Tim, using a copy/paste jailbreak app, to copy it from Evernote to gmail. ^_^

Posted at 09:55PM Feb 15, 2009 by dragonfly in General  |  Comments[0]

SF34 - Settling in

We are at the Somerville Theatre for the Boston Science Fiction Marathon 34 (SF34), and settling in. This year they handed out a large Manila envelope along with the traditional Atomic Fireball. Looks like someone had a warehouse to empty, but I'm not complaining. They contained comic books, a random sci-fi book, and assorted chotchkes. We are watching a bunch of trailers as blast off time approaches. More updates to come. ^_^

Posted at 07:23PM Feb 15, 2009 by dragonfly in General  |  Comments[0]

Local Flavor

This past summer, we sold our house in anticipation of buying our new home in our new community at Mosaic Commons. Until our unit is complete, we have been living in an apartment complex, which happens to be down the street from the Weetabix factory. We have seen the factory in passing, but never gave it much thought until we moved here. Now, when the wind is right, and it's not so cold that we have the windows closed, which needs to be pretty cold with the always on heat in this apartment (but that is another story), we catch a wheaty, toasty whiff from the Weetabix factory by the Nashua River.

The scent isn't terrible, but it can be strong. Out of curiosity, my wife bought a package of Weetabix, as can be seen in the picture. The package calls it a biscuit, and it claims to be organic. It has a delicate, almost nutty taste, and tends to crumble easily. I haven't spent much time investigating what the common ways of eating it are, but my youngest has enjoyed it crumbled with milk, by itself or added to other cereal. I have tried it, and while it is tasty, I think it would be better with something else. I hope to have more time to play with cooking once we are move in and get settled, and I can see potential for Weetabix. Till then, it's a tasty snack for home, as it doesn't seem like it would travel well short of being dust. ^_^

Posted at 04:16AM Feb 15, 2009 by dragonfly in General  |  Comments[0]

Finally - Blogging from my iPhone

After several false starts with other blogging clients for the iPhone, I am having success. Sure, I still need to work out the nuances of this client versus what I use on my Palm T3, and the tools I use to make using the web interface easier, but I'm headed down that road. A couple of upcoming events have been nagging me to get something working, as my previous mobile blogging involved using Bluetooth tethering from T3 to my RAZR, and that won't work with my iPhone.


The first event is the Boston Science Fiction Marathon this Sunday. I enjoyed blogging about it last year, and my oldest son will be joining me this year, so I am looking foreward to it even more. 3 generations of my family will be in attendence, as well as some friends I hope.


The other event is my annual anniversary trip to Block Island in June with my wife. It's still too early to make lodging reservations, but I look forward to it every year, and want to be ready to blog when the mood strikes. I still don't think the Surf Hotel has been sold, which isn't surprising in these economic times. Who knows, I may actually be moved into my new home in >Mosaic Commons by then.


I'm also going to use this post as a test of iBlogger's photo capability, by including a pic of one of my cats watching President Obama's inauguration speech, as you saw at the beginning.

Posted at 12:34AM Feb 14, 2009 by dragonfly in General  |  Comments[1]