Happy birthday, Harry!

[annathepiper]

-0: The word in from ravyngyngvar is that it'll take weeks to get his passport renewed, so at this point his only option is to see if our embassy will fork over a U.S. tourist visa for him to come on over here and visit us. For extra added bonus annoyance points, they only take telephone calls between 2-4. Except on Wednesday. So he won't be able to find out anything before tomorrow at best anyway. Gah!

-1: The foot I fell on last night is still a trifle tender, and just enough swollen on my toe and just beneath it that it throws my walking off a bit. It doesn't look too bad right now, but there's a bit of discoloration that I strongly suspect is going to be a bruise pretty soon. Sigh. Perhaps tonight's workout will have to be with the weights.

+/-2: With no Yngvar showing up this week, looks like I get to work on Friday and Monday after all. I told my lead about this just now in email, to which he replied, "Look on the bright side: you get to be around the lot of us on Friday and Monday. Yeah, yeah, I know – it's hard to curb the kind of excitement this brings to a person. =)" I told him indeed, I may swoon from the rapture. I mean, it's no Great Big Sea concert anticipation swoonage, but oh joy, oh glee, the fun and excitement of testing on Longhorn!

(Well okay, mostly I'll just be relieved that I'll have a full paycheck this week. Same diff.)

+3: In lighter news, today is the birthday of Mr. Harrison Ford. He is 63. I raise a glass (well, my can of diet Mountain Dew, at least) in his honor. Though I do gently remind him that he is in fact 63--so maybe he's just a tad too old to still be thinking about a new Indiana Jones flick--Dr. Jones and Han Solo are still two of my prototypical original swoonable heroes. And after having just seen Revenge of the Sith, I appreciate Han all the more. Perhaps I shall watch The Empire Strikes Back in Mr. Ford's honor some time this week.

Monday miles: 1.5
Tuesday miles: 1.0
Miles out of Hobbiton: 240.5
Miles to Rivendell: 217.5

Comments

[casirafics.livejournal.com]

oh joy, oh glee, the fun and excitement of testing on Longhorn!

When IS that thing coming out, anyway? ;)

[annathepiper]

Not a clue! It'll be a while, to be sure. Certainly not before my current contract is up in October.

[starfallz.livejournal.com]

At first I thought you meant Harry Potter. But then checked when his birthday is. :D

[sarekofvulcan.livejournal.com]

*starts singing Harrison Ford (http://www.christinelavin.com/00090114harrisonford.html)*

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Hey, you're only as young as you think you are. Maybe they can do something along the lines of "The Shootist" where the old fogie gets called back for One More Time...

[ravyngyngvar.livejournal.com]

Sucks, sucks, sucks. Right now, I should be landing in Seattle. :-(

Sent more in private email to Dara, but there seems to be little or no chance for anything now. US customs insists on a passport of another type than the one I've got, and they won't accept the emergency passport I can get in day. It worked last year, and my passport is *supposed* to last until 2007.

I do want to go. I just wonder if I can get *anything* back on my ticket. Man, this was an expensive mistake.

[annathepiper]

Dara just mentioned that you'd emailed her, yeah. :( Agh! I'm so sorry! *hugs* So very, VERY annoying!

[annathepiper]

I realize that this makes me something of a heathen, but yeah, when I say the word "Harry", I do generally mean some other Harry besides young Mr. Potter. ;)

[annathepiper]

I have been reminded that if the tail end of Last Crusade is to be believed, Indy should damn well be immortal or at least very long-lived now that he's had a swig out of the Holy Grail. So at least in story continuity, one might be able to buy an older and still lively old bastard of an Indiana Jones. ;)

That said, Mr. Ford has not to the best of my knowledge gone drinking out of any holy artifacts, so whether he can believably convey "I'm in my late forties" remains to be seen. Certainly his venerable age hasn't stopped Sean Connery from making action films, but then, I haven't heard tell of ol' Sean being in anything GOOD in the last many years.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Last good one he was in was The Rock.. which I thought was quite good. "I'm stuck between a rock... and a haaahd case." (Love that Scottish accent.) But that was 10 years ago.

Although he's doing voice-over in "From Russia with Love" the video game...

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

If you don't mind (and if you haven't already), would you mind writing this up for general consumption? Us Yanks have a dim understanding of just how far our fair country has fallen, and I think this story would help us understand that.

Thanks...

[annathepiper]

I never did see that flick. Though yeah, I do admit he has a great accent. :)

[annathepiper]

I don't know if Yngvar intends to actually post to his own journal--he's been reading mine for some time and only just recently finally got an LJ account so he could answer my posts.

But perhaps he'll post about this. It's not like he's going to be like, y'know, HERE VISITING ME or something.

Sniff.

[annathepiper]

*snicker!* Harry's a telepath? Who knew? ;)

[starfallz.livejournal.com]

Bah! :D

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

This is one of my pet peeve topics I like to try and make people aware of... the Canadians have the right of it:

6. (1) Every citizen of Canada has the right to enter, remain in and leave Canada.

(2) Every citizen of Canada and every person who has the status of a permanent resident of Canada has the right

a) to move to and take up residence in any province; and
b) to pursue the gaining of a livelihood in any province.

(From the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms)

Jefferson and company *assumed* that. The Canadians saw our mistakes and thought better of it. And now you and I and everyone else here has to suffer for it....

until We the People Do Something.

[annathepiper]

Well, to be fair, the issue here is not that Yngvar is not being allowed to leave his own country. The issue is that he's not being allowed to enter the United States. While that is a small distinction, it is nevertheless a distinction.

Don't get me wrong--I'm not happy that our own country's new stringent regulations are preventing my friend from visiting me, and I think it's really stupid that they turned him away even though his passport is supposed to be perfectly valid until 2007 and lets him go anywhere else in Europe. If the shoe were on the other foot, though, and if I were coming to visit Yngvar and were told by Norwegian customs officials that I didn't have the right paperwork to enter their country, I couldn't exactly argue with that. Norway has the right to set the terms by which visitors from abroad visit them. So do we.

Now, that said, I also think that the terms we're setting are out of whack with reality. I don't want terrorists entering the U.S. any more than the next person does, but I see no evidence that the new conditions we're setting these days are doing anything but inconveniencing the hell out of folks from abroad who'd like to do nothing more than come and visit us here. :| Certainly on the GBS message board where I hang out, neither the Americans nor the Canadians are happy about the forthcoming requirement for a passport to cross the Canadian border, either.

Get angry, sure. But in this case, the thing to get angry about is the total lack of connection between our current administration's handling of the war on terror and the side effects of how it's completely wrecking our relations with the rest of the world. :(

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Get angry, sure. But in this case, the thing to get angry about is the total lack of connection between our current administration's handling of the war on terror and the side effects of how it's completely wrecking our relations with the rest of the world.

Exactly. And, yes, it's a very important distinction... and one you and I as Americans can do something about. (If it were just Norway being snotty, it would be one thing...)

No, we're totally on the same page here, I just didn't say it as well as I might've.

[ii2none59.livejournal.com]

The Empire Strikes Back's still my favorite SW movie, and you know how I feel about Raiders.

Han and Indy rule!

I'm curious. Is there even any mention of Han Solo or his parents or family or Corellia, etc. in RotS? Seems a shame they went through three new movies and nary a thing was said. (Someone told me they did see the Millennium Falcon however. Cool).

[annathepiper]

Hey, what can I say. I like me some Harry Ford, and Harry Crewe, and Harry Dresden!

Especially Harry Dresden. What can I say, I like my wizards named Harry grownup and kicking ass in Chicago. ;)

[annathepiper]

If they saw the Falcon in RotS, it wasn't very obvious at all, because I certainly missed it. Chewbacca's in it, but only briefly. There isn't a peep about Han or his background.

Which is fine--there's actually no room for it anywhere in the plot of RotS, and I'm actually glad there was no sign of Han just because I was already annoyed at George for doing too much to tie the characters of the trilogies together by having Anakin build Threepio.

[ii2none59.livejournal.com]

You're right. Han deserves his own movie -- if I'm lucky, we'll never get it. I've been real disappointed over the last couple of movies anyway (haven't seen RotS yet). LOL

I'm still having enough trouble wrapping my brain around another Indy movie! *g*

[annathepiper]

No worries--happens to the best of us. :) Thanks for the further clarification!

[annathepiper]

Half of me would really love to see a film or television treatment of Han's backstory, and the other half of me actually shudders to think of how ol' George may screw it up, considering the new trilogy of movies.

Sigh. Oh well. We still have the wonderful trilogy of novels by A.C. Crispin, chock fulla Han backstory goodness!

Hrmm. Perhaps I should go re-read those. :)

[ii2none59.livejournal.com]

I KNOW George would screw it up LOL

There's no doubt in my mind that he would.

I only saw TPM and AotC and it was enough to make me hide under my bed forever! This is NOT what I thought the trilogy would be. Had it not been for Ewan's Obi-Wan, the whole thing would have been a loss....I haven't even seen RotS -- will when it hits DVD...maybe.

[annathepiper]

I do halfway wonder about this news we've heard about George planning to do a couple of TV shows in the Star Wars universe. I wonder when he's going to set them--between the trilogies strikes me as a possibility. In which case we might see some Han.

And yeah--I'm with you about the new movies. And about Ewan MacGregor.

[ii2none59.livejournal.com]

I had heard about the TV shows too, but wasn't sure what exactly they would follow. I've also thought about renting the 'Clone Wars' animated series since it might help fill in some of the missing holes.

I'm always so happy to find someone else that agrees with me about the new trilogy -- and Ewan. Sometimes I wonder if I'm the only one that does LOL

[wildshadowstar.livejournal.com]

I must have subconsciously wished Mr. Ford happy birthday, for in the past two weeks I watched the orginal Star Wars trilogy. I hadn't realized how much I enjoyed them, although I'm a Trekkie at heart since that's what caught my heart in the first place.

[annathepiper]

Whee! Glad to know we were on a similar wavelength this past week. :) And there's just so much goodness to enjoy in the original flicks, isn't there?

[annathepiper]

I've been told that the Clone Wars series is supposed to be not-half-bad.

And hey, I can and do groove on the lovely and talented Mr. MacGregor. He sings well, too, as Moulin Rouge taught us! As mamishka and I observed when it came out, "he opens his mouth and yum pours out!" :)

[wildshadowstar.livejournal.com]

Haven't seen the final installment nor all of Attack of the Clones, but I dare say, I like what's in the original trilogy better than what I saw of the new.

[annathepiper]

The original trilogy is light years ahead of the new one. Easy. No contest.

I am reminded all over again of my affection for the original movies, as I've just recommended the trilogy of novels featuring Han's backstory to irysangel over on her journal. Sigh! George, George, why'd you have to go and screw it up...