Moonlit Jazz

Elijah Wood’s Extreme Stunt
by Angel Cohn

Elijah Wood returns as the diminutive hobbit Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (currently in theaters). Of course, though he’s small in stature, that doesn’t mean he’s afraid to take some big risks. During his time in New Zealand, where the epic Rings trilogy was filmed, Wood and several castmates did extreme sports in their free time.

“I did paraponting, which is awesome,” he enthuses. “It is running off a hill with a parachute and catching thermal [pockets of air]. I basically parachuted over Queenstown [New Zealand].”

In Rings, Frodo braves the terrifying depths of Mordor in an effort to rid Middle Earth of a notoriously troublesome ring. But in real life, Wood’s courage only takes him up to a point! He left some of the more reckless behavior to co-star Orlando Bloom, who plays long-haired elf Legolas. “No bungee jumping,” the 22-year-old Wood insists. “I was the p—- in the group and didn’t do it. Orlando did it. Orlando did everything, man. He did skydiving, bungee jumping, off-road motorcycle riding. He was like Super Elf.”

Their differences aside, the entire Rings cast became very close over the course of filming. (Several of the guys got matching tattoos.) Wood hopes they will remain good friends. “As it comes to a close, we look to the relationships forged in New Zealand and throughout the experience, and they will carry on,” he says. “The fellowship will carry on, and that gives us great hope. We have a massive connection. So much so that a lot of us are actually thinking about going in on a house or a piece of property [in New Zealand].

“It is strange that it is all coming to an end,” he sighs. “Part of [the cast] thought that it was going to continue going for the rest of our lives, and I think we were all quite happy with that.”

I like that, SUPER ELF. LOL! Can I call him that now? 😉

ATHLETICS YEAR IN REVIEW

Good rundown of the 2003 A’s season. Even though the end was a disappointment, the season was still a good one. 🙂

Of course, it just makes me want BASEBALL NOW!!! 😛

on the jukebox: “This Time Around” by Linda Eder

First off, a little change in the first picture you see when you come here. See him? Yes, Orlando Bloom with that ring between his lips. Come on, you know you want to be that ring. 😉

Second, I hope everyone had a fun and safe Christmas. On our way to the Bay Area we saw three accidents, the first one before we got to the freeway! (Someone hit someone and one of those someones plowed into a couple of the trees. Looks like everyone was okay.)

And third, the recap:

ON OUR WAY, FIRST STOP

When we walked out of the house the skies were gray and the ground was wet. Was rain falling? Maybe a bit. As we drove down Hammett Road, we approached an accident. The car in the intersection (at Ciccarelli) was a bit smashed on the front. A mini-van was also stopped in the middle of the road. The interesting thing was the third vehicle. It was in the orchard, having gone through until it hit a tree and knocked it down. Ye gods! The good thing, of course, was that everyone looked all right. We drove on.

Just as it was time to go down the Altamont, the traffic slowed. It turned out to be a car facing the wrong way on the shoulder with CHP already there. I think we got the end of that one.

We slowed again at the 680 junction. When we finally crawled past, it ended up being a four or five car chain reaction type of accident. One pickup had his whole windshield shattered. It looked like everyone was all right, but the traffic was starting to suck!

Our first (of two) stop was to San Leandro. We dropped off gifts for my parents, then visited for just a little bit. KQED was on tv. Some kind of Christmas special was on. It was rather nice. I never knew that Charlotte Church girl had such PIPES! Ye gods! I might have to get a CD of hers…

AND ONWARD TO LIVERMORE

Our destination. We encountered just a bit of traffic, but arrived safely. The tree was surrounded by the gifts, which were already stacked by person. (Mother-in-law had the tallest stack. LOL!) When the sister-in-law arrived with boyfriend in tow, it was time to open gifts. Woohoo!

It took us TWO hours or so. We all took our turn. Twas fun! 😀 I got some nice stuff, including a groovy green leather purse (green leather, ahhh), a sweater, a nightgown, Princess slippers (they’re pink, but they’re cute!), gift certificates, etc. Two hours of ripping wrapping paper was exhausting! 😛

Dinner: filet roast with lobster in the middle

I could never be a vegetarian. I must say it. And it’s because of delicious filet roasts like the one above. Sure, it’s kinda gross to look at (that’s why I took the picture), but it was YUMMY! Father-in-law put lobster in the middle and it was just so good. Mmmmm.

After dinner, we ended the evening with Ghettopoly. Right, Monopoly set in the ghetto. Definitely an adult game, but hilarious!

And that was our Christmas. Most groovy. 🙂

Marci, thanks for tagging my board! I’ve added you to my blog links. 😉

Vikkicar, I’m a decent gift wrapper, but the picture showed my stack of gift. I think my mother-in-law probably wrapped those. 🙂

Nicole, I had a groovy Christmas! I hope you had a lovely one. And even though you took down Karl, I like your new layout. Smashing!

1. What was your biggest accomplishment this year?
Nurturing my friendships, staying optimistic, and any general thing that kept me smiling rather than frowning. 😉

2. What was your biggest disappointment?
Not writing my book. 😛

3. What do you hope the new year brings?
A World Series win for my A’s, more time with my family, less stress on the job

4. Will you be making any New Year’s resolutions? If yes, what will they be?
No specific resolutions. I’d just like to live, laugh, and love! 😀

5. What are your plans for New Year’s Eve?
I’m working. Blah! But I get off before midnight, so I hope to be safe at home when the clock turns to the new year. 🙂

ZITO JUST A KID ON CHRISTMAS

Cute cute cute article on Mr. Barry Zito. I always LOVE reading his interviews. He says the funniest and cutest things. And I don’t even like him *that way*. 😉

Look, doggie paw stockings!

CHRISTMAS PRESENTS

Twas another good haul for us. 😉 No matter what I might say, I do enjoy the whole opening presents thing. It’s fun watching everyone! And of course, it’s fun ripping the lovely wrapping paper. 🙂

Yeah, that’s my pile.

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas…

on the jukebox: “All I Want for Christmas is a Real Good Tan” by Kenny Chesney

Season’s Greetings from Valerie! Like the picture of Orlando Bloom? Wanna be the ring? LOL!

All the gifts are wrapped and the laundry is in the dryer. I’m ready for the day! Oh wait, I need to SLEEP. LOL!

EIGHT EIGHT SEVEN SEVEN

One day someone might be curious enough to ask me what that means. 😉

Today bail boy was bothering me while I was trying to work. Not really. He had to do his work and I just happened to be in the way. 😛 Still, it made for good conversation whenever he came around. I asked his plans for Christmas, he had to go to his aunt’s. He didn’t want to. He wanted to go home and sleep on the floor. I still need to ask him about that. To him, it’s just another day, I guess. Hmm.

ON THE WORK FRONT

We were severely understaffed, but lucky for us the evening was light. Or maybe I was lucky. Everything was in by 1815 hours or so and I had my work completely finished by 2000 hrs. I took my time, of course, making sure everything was okay. Then I did the unthinkable and filed the stuff I had just gone through. And I still had half an hour to waste away. 😛

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

I hope that everyone has a safe and joyous Christmas. Be well, my friends. Eat, drink, be merry! 😀

Thank you to Vikkicar, Sharon, Meesh, and Amy for the comments and holiday greetings. You are all very sweet and lovely. I’m so glad to have such interesting people to read. You all know what I mean. 🙂

on the jukebox: “After the Candles Burn” by Ruben Studdard

As you can see, I still wrote while my domain experienced its woes. I wonder if anyone will read my previous posts. LOL!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

on the jukebox: “Heartburn” by Alicia Keys

My domain is now up, but all you get are the admin pages so far. I’m really getting frustrated with all this down time. And isn’t it already the 24th in Australia? Are they really still working on this? GRRRR!

EIGHT EIGHT SEVEN SEVEN…

I told bail boy about the dream. He was like, “What?” I explained the dream as simply as possible. He said it’s not good to dream about work. I agreed. But it’s better than dreaming about popcorn, I said. I told him about how I used to dream about the movie theatre.

I stopped by his desk later and we chit chatted. He’s growin his hair out on the top (he’s got the very close buzz). He wants a mohawk. YE GODS! Can we say wild child? We exchanged first names, even though he doesn’t like using first names at work. “The uniform,” he said. Understood.

I don’t know why I talk to him. From my desk, I can hear him and he says the funniest things. I think I just like having someone new in the office. It won’t last long, I’m sure…

‘TIS THE SEASON…

Sometimes I just don’t understand how bad things can happen to good people. Everytime I see my friend, I’m glad that she’s okay, but I hurt for the pain that I know she’s going through. I hope she stays strong, even though I don’t have the words to comfort her. I know she’s going to be in a total funk for a long time, but I want to see her smile again. It’s just so hard. And I wish I could do more.

Is it enough to pray for her and her family? I hope she knows that she can talk to me if she needs to.

AND WHAT DOES CHRISTMAS MEAN TO ME?

When I was growing up, Christmas Eve was family time. My grandfather was born on the 24th of December, so it inevitably turned into celebrating his birthday as well as the holiday. And that was fine. My father is the youngest of six and I have 14 cousins older than me, so the family get togethers were big! They got bigger as the families grew, but we all managed to stay together until my grandfather died in 1990. After that, the parties became few and far between. Now I’m lucky to see my extended family once a year. And it makes me a little sad.

I remember one Christmas, sometime in the early 80s, when we were all gathered at my uncle’s house. My cousins, sister, and I all hung out because we are close in age and Christmas was no different. That Christmas was eating, hanging out, singing carols, laughing and all the good stuff. I remember sitting at the top of the stairs with my sister and cousins, the rest of the family spread out below us. And I knew that in that moment, we had something special. Something perfect.

Christmas is the time to savor the moment with family and friends. Hopefully it’s about good times. At the very least, it’s a break from life’s grind.

on the jukebox: “See You When You’re 40” by Dido

I don’t know why I’m blogging. My website is down again. This time it’s some kind of disk failure. It’s supposed to be up in a few hours. We shall see.

But I continue nonetheless. 😛

THE DREAM

I was at work. I know, how horrible to dream of work! I was in the bail boy’s cubicle. He asked me what I was doing there and I told him that I was just hanging out. And he was cool with it.

I think that’s it. WEIRD!

WORK FRUSTRATIONS

During this holiday season, I find that I am at times in a mood most ungenerous. I know that stress is higher right now and people are getting sick and work just basically sucks, but why is it the people I work with can’t do the simplest of tasks? Why do they make such a big deal out the two seconds they have to interact with me? Why does everyone think their job is just so much more important than mine?

Here’s the simple version of my job:

1. Transportation brings me paperwork aka dispos.
2. I count the dispos.
3. Transfer comes in to bring me the body count
4. If body count and dispo count are the same, it’s clear.

A broader version of the process:

1. Transportation rolls into the sally port.
2. Transfer counts the bodies off the bus/van.
3. Transportation brings me the dispos.
4. I count the dispos.
5. Transfer comes in to bring me the body count.
6. If body count and dispo count are the same, it’s clear.

Sounds pretty easy, right? It’s amazing how the simple process can get screwed up by the people who make more money than me. And then when I remind them, sometimes nicely, sometimes obviously annoyed, they make a big deal out of it.

Last night, the door opens and someone yells, “THIRTY ONE!” Thirty one? I didn’t get any paperwork yet. The transportation dep comes in and hands me the paperwork. I count it. Do you think transfer comes in to make sure it’s clear? No. I have to get a security movement dep to yell out there and the transfer dep comes in all annoyed because he has to clear the count with me. “Is there something wrong with the count?” “I don’t know,” I reply. “You never came in to clear it.”

“I said 31,” he said.

“And I didn’t have any paperwork,” I said.

“Well is it 31?” He asks, totally annoyed at this point. “Because I have to strip search bodies.”

“Yes,” I said.

As he walks away, he mumbles, “You people in here make things difficult.”

Of course, off hand comments like that just PISS ME OFF. Hullo, is it so hard to do things in order? I’m being difficult because I want to do my job right and not get a call at 4am about a count that really didn’t clear? And sorry, but if I don’t get the right count, then nothing from that transport moves because I can’t generate the movement lists for security movement.

It’s just amazing how some people understand the process of my job and how it affects everything else. And then there are the ones who just think that whatever they’re doing is of utmost importance and whatever I or my fellow technicians are doing is just crap. They seem to never get it in their heads that we all need to work together.

Now, perhaps I’m not being the team player. Perhaps I should coddle them. Maybe I should have gone out there to tell them that I got the same count. But see, he didn’t even care. And what would have happened if the count hadn’t been the same? It means that someone made a mistake. Me for not counting right? The courts for sending the wrong paperwork with bodies? Whatever it is, it needs to be figured out. But how could transfer know that if they don’t even check to make sure the paper and body counts are the same?

Most of the time, I enjoy my job. It’s probably twisted of me, but I can’t help it. 😛 And then other times, like yesterday, I just want to strangle people for being such jackasses! And therein lies my frustration…

A HEARTWARMING STORY…

My most favorite guy in the whole world (at work!) stopped by my cubicle last night and we talked about our fellow co-worker and friend whose house burned down. He told me that he brought some clothes and toys for her son. My favorite guy has a son and when his son asked what the stuff was for, he told him. Well, favorite guy’s son told his daddy to give our friend’s son this, then that. He gave up some of his Christmas stuff for him.

I almost cried!

My favorite guy said that he was proud of his son. I thought it was just the sweetest thing. Little boys helping little boys. Awww…

OBLOOM PHOTO

There’s this Sarah Dunn photo of Orlando Bloom that just makes me crazy. And if I could, I would post it here. But since my website is down, this is merely babbling. LOL!