I'll get you, my pretty! And your little dog, too!

Let's see. What's happened since I made my last entry? Well, for one thing, I went out with my dad and Barbara for dinner at Atlanta Bread Company last night. It was good, but I wish they'd still had what I got last time I went there. I don't remember exactly what it was, but I'm pretty sure it was no longer on the menu, which they change pretty frequently. Today, my dad bought me some new shoes. After that, I hoped to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, but they were charging $9.50 for a ticket. Am I alone in thinking that's ridiculous? I guess I'll go see it sometime during the week, when it's cheaper. I also kind of want to see it in IMAX, but I don't know when I'd be able to do that.

Anyway, instead of seeing Goblet of Fire, I went back home and checked out my new Wizard of Oz DVD set. I started with the third DVD, which had a documentary on L. Frank Baum (I actually watched that last night) and several silent films. I already knew most of the stuff in the documentary, but it's cool that the set even acknowledged Baum that much. It did say that Baum's last words were "Now we can cross the Shifting Sands," which I believe might actually be apocryphal.

( The sum of the square roots of any two sides of an isosceles triangle is equal to the square root of the remaining side! )

Thoughts on tonight's block of animated programming should be coming soon. I could have just added them to this post, but I didn't want it to get TOO long.

Do It Yourself, You Lazy Ass

There seemed to be a father/son bonding theme running through tonight's Simpsons, Family Guy, and American Dad episodes. I guess since Father's Day falls during rerun season, they might as well do this in November. Only the Simpsons episode actually took place partially on Father's Day, but all three of them would have worked as Father's Day episodes.

Anyway, the descriptions I'd read of the Simpsons episode focused on Homer running for Mayor of Springfield, which didn't actually happen until pretty late in the show. I don't mind that, though, as I think it was probably the least interesting part. We've also seen Homer as Mayor of New Springfield in "A Tale of Two Springfields," and he's screwed up public service positions in several other episodes, so I'm glad he didn't actually win the election. Instead, the main focus was Homer's relationship with Lisa, which has made for some good episodes in the past. I thought Lisa's outburst was a nice touch, and Homer saving people from the traffic accident was a good scene. I have to wonder if Bart Boulevard was a reference to how a lot of the characters on the show were named after streets in Portland, Oregon. I know for sure that Kearney was named after a street, so I was half expecting there to be some kind of reference to this when he and the other bullies were convincing Bart to steal the sign, but there wasn't. Anyway, while it kind of seemed like the writers were trying to cram too many different plots into the episode, it was still pretty good overall. It might actually be my favorite so far this season (although I missed "Milhouse of Sand and Fog," so that could possibly have been better).

As for Family Guy, I tend to doubt anything else this season will surpass the FCC episode, but this one was still pretty funny. I liked the idea that Disney World forces lost children into slave labor in the Small World ride.

Okay, I think that's about all I have to say for now. I'd better get to bed soon. I have to take my car in for service tomorrow.

Swords, Sorcery, and Schoolwork

This morning, I got my car serviced. While I was waiting, I went on a walk with my dad and Barbara. It was kind of chilly, but a better way to spend the time than sitting around in the waiting room there. I even forgot to bring a book (although I DID have my copy of Volume 6 of Oz-Story), so it probably would have been even more boring than usual. I seem to have developed a blister on the back of my right foot, though.

Since I've had both Oz and Harry Potter on my mind as of late, I was thinking about one of the major differences between the two series. Such differences have been mentioned before, not least of all on this page by Dave Hardenbrook, former Nonestica moderator and desirer of a torrid affair with Ozma. I don't necessarily agree with all of Dave's points, which is to say that they're all more or less accurate, but not all what I'd consider important or representative. I could certainly expand on that, but I doubt anyone is interested, so I'll move on to what I see as a significant difference, and that's the treatment of children.

( This gets pretty long, and I doubt anyone will be interested anyway, so I might as well cut it. )

Sometimes I think I should create a new tag for a post. But then I think that, if I do that, I'd have to go back and add that tag to every post where I discussed that topic in the past. I know I wouldn't really have to do that, but it would seem wrong not to. That's just how my mind works, I guess.

Has LiveJournal been slow for anyone else as of late, or is it just me who's being singled out?