Night at the Museum

Reese, Joi, and I went to see Night at the Museum tonight, and despite what the critics were saying, it was a fun movie and definitely entertaining. The only part that the little guy didn’t like was the first T-Rex scene, it scared him a little, but he got over it quickly.

I’m not the biggest Ben Stiller fan, but he was definitely good in this role. There were many other big name actors who had cameos and bigger parts in the film, all of whom added something to the overall fun of the movie.

The Big Texas Toy Run

The bike got fixed just in time for me to do the toy run. It’s about the only large ride I do and that’s fine by me. The organizers added a third staging area in Grapevine last year as a test and apparently it worked out because they had it again this year, but it was done better. The ride out to the Arlington Convention Center was much better organized with our lanes coned off until we got on 360 South, which was shut down entirely.

They apparently had a pretty good turnout because I left the area at about 2:00 and there were still bikes arriving from the Dallas staging area.

Eragon

I got together with some friends for a Christmas party and to go see Eragon. Well, at least the Christmas party was good. I guess reading the book first was a mistake because even though you could tell that it was written by someone a little younger, but at least he had talent enough to tell a good story. The movie really falls flat in a number of areas.

First off, it doesn’t merely diverge from the book, it changed whole sections, and not for the better. It’s one thing to shorten longer sections to keep people from having to sit through a too long movie, but even that one can be countered by the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings movies. What they did here was to completely change sections a-la Greedo shooting first.

Also, the acting was wooden and less than believable in many cases. I’m also going to lump the cinematography in here. The camera work was terrible. Too many closeups being used to portray I don’t know what. It just didn’t work.

I definitely wouldn’t go back to see this one again and won’t be buying the DVD. I’m not going to say that you should stay away from the movie, just that you should adjust your expectations accordingly.

Starter Gasket

I just got off the phone with the shop and it turns out that it wasn’t a transmission leak at all and that all of the oil I’ve been seeing on the right hand side was due to a leaking seal between the starter motor and the cases. It’s being fixed as we speak and the bike should be ready tomorrow. I’m relieved to know what’s wrong and that it’s a relatively minor fix.

The Bike’s In The Shop

Well, after dealing with a flat, a leak, and a few other little annoyances, I finally got fed up and called The Parts Brothers to pick the Sportster up and give it a checkup. I’m concerned that the leak is transmission fluid since that’s where it seems to be coming from. Plus there’s a few other little things that need to be done. So I should know more in a few days.

Weapons of Choice

Being a big fan of time travel and military sci-fi this one caught my eye and I dropped it in my cart. Well, I finally got around to completing it and really enjoyed it. Basically it’s the story of a naval task force from 2021 which, through a disastrous physics experiment, a-la 1942, is sent back to 1942 and proceeds to mess up the Battle of Midway when the automatic systems take out most of the US Task Force.

It’s a really interesting premise because over the intervening 80 years there have been a lot of social as well as technological changes which make the assimilation of the two groups that much more difficult. It’s one thing to have a vastly superior warship at your disposal, but it’s another for it to be captained by a British woman of mixed Pakistani descent. And it only goes down hill from there. The author has done a really good job of making both groups reactions to the situation believable and consistent.

There are more books in this series and I’ll be buying them once my to-read stack has gotten a lot smaller.