Is this really "The Last Stand"

I went to see the third installment of the X-Men movie series last night. I was entertained by it but was disappointed at some plot twists and when they occurred in the movie (in particular, the emergence of Dark Phoenix). Once again we're introduced to new varieties of mutants and I thought the Kelsey Grammar character was a hoot. Unfortunately, Brett Ratner again excels at movie action at the sacrifice of dialog and more thorough plot development. Three out of five stars.

And don't let the title fool you: more X-Men movies to come. Specifically, it says in IMDB that Ian McKellen will be doing a movie based on his Magneto character.

Delicatessen

Every once in a while the art movie house will offer movie fare that you simply can't get at the Mutiplex location. During the 1990s, I would go to the animation festivals on Johnson Drive. Some of the animation shorts would be pedestrian, mostly Art School student animation projects. But other animation shorts would be the start of something bigger: Wallace and Gromit's The Wrong Trousers and South Park's Jesus versus Santa shorts serves as examples.
In the full-length art-house movie category, I have seen about 15-20 movies. And out of those movies, I have felt compelled to purchase only two for my Video/DVD collection. The first is Like Water for Chocolate which I added in the mid 1990s. And I added the second movie this past week: Delicatessen.
The setting for Delicatessen takes place in a post-apocalyptic apartment building where the acquisition of food seems hard to come by. The butcher, though, is always capable of producing meat through the mere cannibalistic butchering of handy men and an occasional family member of apartment occupants who can't make the monthly rent. The butcher hires Louison, an out-of-work clown, as the latest handyman. And even though the occupants expect the butchering, the butcher's daughter falls in love with Louison.
The movie is replete with wonderful site and sound gags: The wonderful pacing scene where everyone in the entire building adjusts their respective work pace to the pacings of the butcher having sex with a young woman (who I assumes is having sex with him so that she doesn't end up as meat), a wonderful short scene where Louison and the young woman try to locate a squeaky bed spring, and the creative suicide attempts by Aurore, a young, rich woman unaware that someone in the building is deliberately torturing her.
I can watch this movie over and over again.
Now, regretfully, I've never seen the movie Cinema Paradiso. But, friends say that I need to add this movie to my collection as well.
Before I forget, Delicatessen stars Dominique Pinon who later costars with Audrey Tatou in the movie Amelie.

Family Reunion 2008 Site Location

Apparently, Uncle P is keeping busy trying to determine the site location for the 2008 L family reunion. When we had our family meeting at our last reunion in Vermont, a preliminary choice for the next site was Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. But now, it looks like Uncle is trying to secure a place closer to Seattle, namely Port Townsend, WA on the Olympic Peninsula.
I've been on the OP three times and the scenery is wonderful. But I wonder what the view is like in Idaho.

Announcement

Congratulations to SLIM colleague CG. I discovered after a couple of mouse clicks on her blog that she is engaged to be married. Way to go C. I hope you two have a long spiritual, romantic life together.

The search for a New Daschund

My friends informed me last night that they are searching for a new daschund as a companion to their nine-year old daschund Schnitzel who lost his older brother February 2005.

I guess Schnitzel is going through doggy depression and loneliness.

New Glasses

I got my new glasses Thursday night and I'm slowly getting used to them. I looked into the mirror with the new specs and I see a family resemblance to my Grandfather R.

I don't know if that's creepy or par for the course.

The eye tissue I have been given for this life

"Your cornea grafts are doing remarkably well considering that they are 24 years old and 10 years old, respectively," said Dr. S.

I went to see the cornea specialist today to determine if there were any major problems with my corneas and, in particular, any further signs of rejection of the corneas. I guess the good news is the grafts are doing fine.

Here's the reality: Because of astigmatism, my cornea tissue, whether it's my own tissue or the grafts, has always been thin. And as I have been getting older, I have noticed more irritability in the eyes and loss of visual acuity especially in distance vision. This may be due to the fact that my body has finally developed allergies and my eyes, in particular, have reacted to air-born allergens. The thinness of the cornea tissue and my eye's allergic awakenings are factors to why my visual acuity is diminishing.

In astigmatism, the shaping of the cornea constantly changes. At least, that's my problem. In discussing astigmatism in cornea transplant patients, Dr. S. has suggest several approaches to help me. They are:

• Eye Drops to keep the eyes moist and combat the air-born allergens.
• The wearing of contact lenses to try to coerce the corneas to maintain a proper shape.
• and, perhaps more eye surgery (either transplant and laser surgery) ten to fifteen years down the pike.

Right now, I'm on eye drops. We'll start there and see what happens after the next six months when I'm scheduled to see Dr. S. again. I'm a little hesitant with the contact lens idea because I know hard contacts can promote scarring on the corneas and I'm not sure whether soft, gas-permeable lenses will work in my case.

So, there you have it. The next six months will be interesting and full of suspense for me. We'll see what happens.

Wednesday night dinner

My Aunt was in town Wednesday evening attending a Presbyterian convention. She's been involved with the Presbytery for more than 50 years. Admirable!!!

She treated me to dinner at a local steak house. We talked about family issues and I also gave her an update from my recent visit to the optometrist. An evening well spent.

NPR validates my technology interests, again

I was very glad this morning to hear a five minutes story on NPR about Rocketboom, a vlog site I discovered six months ago.
This is the second time NPR has done a technology story on something I've already discovered. The other time it was Library 2.0.

Fun with Flickr, Flagrant Disregard, and Ultraspark

After posting a couple of pictures to the BookFix blog, I decided to have fun with an additional image and the Flickr web site:

DrB.

My thoughts and prayers go out to MS and PS. DrB passed away this afternoon.

Eye doctor appointment

As I sit here looking at my monitor, the image is flickering something fierce. This is because I had my eyes dilated this morning at my doctor's appointment. I dare anyone to get their eyes pupils dilated and then try to drive a car in the bright sunshine. It's an interesting experience.

My vision has slipped a couple of notches. I will be getting new glasses at the end of May. In two weeks, I will see a cornea specialist to see if my transplanted corneas are going through another rejection episode. In looking at my dilated eyes this morning, the doctor noticed a couple of blood vessels floating about, an indication that a rejection might be happening.

To be honest, I'm concerned....and perhaps a little bit scared. Stay tuned, dear readers.