Cinderella in Combat Boots

I wimped out on the Yule party at tylik and craigp's place last night, due mostly to tiredness and (perhaps caused by) impending sinus woe. Last night was also my final opportunity to get anything together for the company food drive for Northwest Harvest, so I spent my evening cleaning out the pantry instead of curling up with a fluffy dog and a good book.

It was a good thing, too - I came across a heretofore undiscovered cache of mouse-chewed dry goods, hidden by a stack of soup cans. Much swearing occurred as I wiped up the detritus of rice grains, powdered soup mix, and spilled pasta. Alas, the WaMu pasta datavore received from vixyish was a casualty in the nerdvana War On Rodents - both bags were completely empty. A moment of silence, please...

So, yeah. Food drive. Our office does a Development-vs-Operations competition for the food drive every year, and in recent years it's really escalated. Last year's haul was over a ton - 2241 pounds, to be exact. This year, we lined both sides of the hallway with 3ft stacks of bags, boxes, and canned goods. I wouldn't be surprised if we edged closer to 2 tons (and accelerated metal fatigue in the support structure of the floor in the process).

I have somewhat mixed feelings on the subject of charitable donations. Cash is certainly more efficient - charities get special deals, can buy in bulk, and generally get $.40 more out of every dollar than Joe Consumer could for the same products. But if you donate a can of beans, chances are someone can't embezzle it to buy Elvis memorabilia. You also have something concrete, an object to hand over, and to some people that "feels" more like giving.

In other news, I'm wearing my chanukwanzayulemas gift from walbourn, the Best. T-shirt. Evar. And either I've gotten more efficient or the holiday slowdown finally appears to be hitting the office; I've spent more time webslacking today than in the last two weeks combined.

What're you doing? ENTERTAIN ME.

Happy first anniversary to vixyish and gfish!

So. I went to see the midnight showing of Attack of the Clones with gfish and vixyish tonight. And it pretty much sucked. Stupid title, weak script, wooden acting, bad dialogue, gratuitous clothing rippage, too many gimmicky phrases, too much Jedi teen angst, *still* too much Jar-Jar, and a whole host of new vehicles that honestly look like they were only created to boost action figure sales. And the theater was too damned hot.

The visual effects were stunning, however, if somewhat overdone (but c'mon, it's Lucas), and Samuel L. Jackson is a badass. They also did a far better job of rendering Yoda -- my biggest peeve about Phantom Menace was that they made CG Yoda look even more like a muppet than, well, the muppet. It's not so bad this time.

Final verdict: It's worth seeing on the big screen, but do yourself a favor and wait for a matinee. Unless you get some thrill out of standing in ridiculously long lines.

P.S. - Somebody get Natalie Portman a voice coach, quick, because she sounds like she's fresh off the farm. Unless Indiana is actually on Naboo....?