Quick Filler

I was working really hard the last couple weeks. Then I took Friday off and spent the weekend at Otakon in Baltimore, which I do almost every year. I had a lot of fun, but I’m too tired to update on that right now.

So, I’ll have just a small movie update this time. In a couple of days, I’ll give my Otakon-related post.

Dark Knight
Overall: Yes, yes, a thousand times yes (see it, and see it again, and again)

So rarely do I have ridiculously high expectations for a movie and then have the pleasure of the movie not only meeting, but exceeding all those expectations. I really can’t praise Dark Knight enough. Everything was superbly done about it… I have to struggle to really find any flaw with it. Basically, just as when I stepped out of the theater after seeing Batman Begins, thinking “Damn, how will they ever top that?” I was thinking the same thing walking out of Dark Knight. To begin, we saw this on IMAX at the Udvar-Hazy Center in Dulles, which is a part of the National Air & Space Museum (I’ll talk about that part next week sometime). The IMAX price is well worth it–there are several cityscape shots that were done specifically for IMAX that look brilliant. Plus the movie really takes advantage of the sound system.

Enough about that. First, the characters… The Joker was certainly amazing–as we all expected. I’m ordinarily not a fan of the psychotic villain–it normally seems like such a letdown when you figure out “oh, he’s just crazy”. But The Joker was more than that… they really brought out his character to where you really saw the point of his actions… It was all about bringing about chaos, watching people in disarray, scared, panicking, turning against one another. More than that, I’ve always loved the “cerebral” villains, the ones that thought several steps ahead of the hero–The Joker was just that.

Oh, and Harvey Dent… I actively avoided hearing anything about how much of a role he’d play, since Harvey Dent is one of my favorite figures in all superhero mythos. They did a brilliant job of playing him up and leading him to his pivotal change into the character he became by the end of the film. I’m actually glad that he wasn’t quite a major “villain” in this movie, also–it would’ve saturated it with too many bad guys (like what Spiderman 3 did) and distracted from the Joker.

Overall, the impressive thing was that each character was given his or her due, without them running into one another. Harvey Dent had his role to play, as did The Joker, Lieutenant Gordon, Bruce Wayne, Batman (another nice thing is how the dichotomy between Batman and Bruce Wayne was more greatly emphasized here), and Alfred, Lucius Fox, hell even Rachel…

On a similar note, Heath Ledger of course did a greatly disturbing performance as The Joker. But, Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent stood out just as much. I really can’t think of anything acting-wise that I didn’t like. I mean, maybe Batman’s voice was a couple octaves lower than I thought it should be, but that’s not major enough for me to care.

I don’t want to go into details plot-wise, in case folks still haven’t seen it. All I’ll say, though, is that the entire Joker vs Batman rivalry was so well done. And while this is a movie where there is a definite bad-guys (Joker, the mob) versus good-guys (Batman, Harvey Dent, Lt. Gordon) motif, it turns out being so much more than that. Much of my enjoyment of this stems back to what I said earlier, regarding how I enjoy seeing villains who are able to think many steps ahead of the heroes. Add to that how The Joker taps into human psychology, how he knows he can cause more panic with just a few drums of oil and some well-placed threats, than he could with all the money the mob has to offer. But, I digress before I get too specific.

So, in conclusion… I’d name Dark Knight as my favorite superhero film to-date. Yes, others can approach it (particularly Batman Begins, so I can see why some might like that one even more), but I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed any hero story quite so much as this.

This Thursday, I’ll try to make that big Otakon-related update. ‘Til then. KF

PA Trip

Last Saturday, I drove the furthest north I’d ever driven (I’ve been further north, only not driving myself all the way). It wasn’t as awful as I thought; even the tolls (growing up in the South kind of makes the concept of a “toll road” hard to grasp) weren’t too bad, just about $17 round-trip. ‘Cept for that one time I couldn’t tell what lanes were merging into what and a bunch of SUVs behind me started honking. I think I yelled out some ridiculous comment about yankees before figuring out which way to go.

Ok, anyway, I drove up to where Valley Forge is (it’s a really nice area; if I had had more time, I would’ve liked to check out the park some time). One of my friends from college had gotten married, and she’s moving with her husband to Kyoto later this year. Here’s a shot of me and her:

It wasn’t a wedding or the reception, really. It was just an informal cookout where a bunch of us who hadn’t seen one another in ages got the chance to reunite for a bit. Oh, and there was a Mario Cake!:

Other than that… I did not see Dark Knight this weekend. I’m going to see it next Sunday at the IMAX in Dulles (the Udvar-Hazy Center). I’m actively avoiding any and all spoilers until then. I don’t want to know anything about it beyond what’s in the trailers; all I know is that everyone who’s seen it so far has had their high expectations not only fulfilled but exceeded. Fun times, then. KF

Weekend Shows

It occurs to me that I never have good titles for my entries anymore… Oh well.

Anyway, this weekend had a few things to it. There were a couple of Smithsonian exhibits that caught my attention. There was also a company bowling thing that I just got back from. Thought I might as well continue my summer movie review thing here with Hancock, too.

Smithsonian Views

There are two exhibits at the Freer & Sackler Gallery currently that are really interesting. The first is Muraqqa’: Imperial Mughal Albums, a display of Mughal-era portraits centering around the main lineage of Akbar – Jahangir – Shah Jahan – Alamgir (link here). I think particularly fascinating is how much the art commissioned by court tells about how the monarchs reigned, and how they viewed themselves in relation to the kingdom. Of course there are some pieces that are easy to interpret, such as Shah Jahan standing atop a globe holding the world in his hands. But, there are others such as the commissioned artwork for Jahangir reflecting Hinduism, Jainism, and Christianity (through Jesuit missionaries in India), in addition to Islam. Yes, the Mughal Empire was a bit untenable considering its reliance on an absolute monarch, but it’s a fascinating period of history brought out through the artwork on display.

The second is a more recently-opened exhibit, Yellow Mountain: China’s Ever-Changing Landscape (link here). This one centers around how the Yellow Mountain has figured so prominently in Chinese art.

Moving on to the Hirshhorn Museum… The funny thing is, I don’t really like modern art. I think far too much of it is haphazard, with more attention paid to justifying why it should be considered art than to the actual creative process. But, there was a two-parter at the Hirshhorn that caught even my attention. Part I was entitled Dreams, and had a lot of very surreal and… “odd” pieces on display. There was much use of light, mist, contours, and projections, and an overall ambience that was meant to confuse and misdirect the senses. I really enjoyed that, so I thought I’d go back for Part II, entitled Realisms (link here).

Now, I wouldn’t do it much justice trying to describe it. But the basic focus is on how “reality” is portrayed, from different angles. There are a few rather surreal bits that stand out, such as Lonely Planet by Julian Rosefeldt, in which an intentionally-stereotypical backpacker goes through India:

It turns from amusing to absurd when he takes camera techniques designed to make India seem “exotic”, such as slow-motion and slightly blurred images with dramatic music overlayed, and applies it to a more mundane scene in India, like the office of a call center.

There are a few others that stand out, but it’s better to try seeing the exhibit for yourself. Try also viewing each work first, before reading the title and description; I found that to be more enjoyable.

Move Movies…

Before I forget…

Hancock
Overall: good and unique superhero story, but not much more (worth it, but low priority)

It seems like there are way too many superhero movies this year again: Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk (with Edward Norton), Hellboy II, and of course Dark Knight. The even weirder thing is, all the superhero movies this year seem to be really good. Hancock I think deserves to be up there. Even though the theaters are kind of full with superhero films at the moment, it’s a much more unique story that’s markedly different from the others. There’s only a little focus on the background (which works, since the “origin story” is beside the point in this one), and more focus on a superhero who hates all the expectations placed upon him.

The main problem with it, though, was that the story wasn’t expanded as much as it could have been, leaving you feeling like there should have been “more” to the movie: more events, more action, more chances to see the main character’s irritable nature come out, that sort of thing (I’ve heard, though, that the director and creators did want to do this, but for some reason–budget or time constraints–they weren’t able). I am glad that they only gave you bits and pieces of Hancock’s origin, enough to advance the plot, rather than spelling it all out to you. That way, the focus is maintained on the characters and not the artifices that led them up to this point.

Basically, it is a good movie. If this were another year, it might be higher on my list. But as it stands, there are many other superhero movies that are probably worth seeing ahead of this one. So, I’d say it’s worth it, but it’s a pretty low priority considering what it’s up against.

Well, that’s it for now. Dark Knight is in theaters this Friday, and one of my friends is having a wedding reception on Saturday. So, I should have a bit more to talk about next week. KF

Escape the 4th

I was really happy to get away from DC for the 4th of July this year. Part of it was because I really miss my family and wanted to see my parents and sister. Part of it was because DC gets real flooded with tourists this time of year. That last bit is a rant that I’ll save for another day; I want to make this update positive.

So… I didn’t bring my camera, so I don’t have any pictures to show for it. But anyway, I came in on the 3rd and had dinner at home with my parents. On the 4th, my sister came up from Atlanta, so we got to spend some time together as well. We went with my cousin (the one who recently got married–and flew in from Houston that weekend) to go see Hancock as well. We did see some fireworks on the way back to Smyrna to drop her off. It wasn’t as grand as the fireworks over the National Mall, but after seeing those for a few years, I don’t really feel as if I’m missing much.

On the 5th, me and my mother went to my father’s place in Murfreesboro for a cook-out. Chicken, hickory-smoked salmon, grilled shrimp, grilled corn… Between all of that, I definitely had my fill of meat for some time. It was also great to spend more time with my father.

I know I’ve been all up on posting regular movie reviews. But I think I’ll save the review of Hancock for later, maybe after seeing Dark Knight or something else in the meantime.

Oh! One more thing. I completely forgot about getting a new computer when making my update last week. I got it over two months ago, but never really made a proper update on it, so it didn’t quite occur to me at the time. Anyway, I edited last week’s post with that. KF

Flush with New

Over the past month I’ve been gradually getting… “new stuff”. I have a tendency to hold onto things as long as they still work, out of a sort of cheapness in getting anything new to replace it, even when I really should. But, I hit a point where there were just a few things I’d wanted to replace for so long that it was high time I did it already.

So, for starters…

I got a new car!

It’s a 2009 Toyota Corolla LE. Small, economical, and reliable, it seemed really well suited for me. I won’t bore you with details (you can check the usual specs online anyhow). But here are a few photos:

Interior:

Exterior:

I think I got a pretty comfortable price for it. I really dislike the idea of having to negotiate out a price, since that brings back memories of me sitting in a crappy waiting room with hard plastic benches, a broken television that only got 3 channels–2 of which were half static–and a vending machine with nothing but crappy candy, all for 6 to 8 hours while my dad would go through the entire process of getting the salesman down to a ridiculously low price.

…I digress. Anyhow, I did get advice from my dad on when to buy. But, to skip the hours of negotiating, I just went straight to Edmunds and got price quotes from three dealerships in town to see who could offer me the best price. From there, I figured out what my budget was, what price I could afford, and went in to take care of the rest. The entire process took me only 2 hours and very little stress.

And now I got my first new car.

…I still need a name for it, though…

And a new phone

My old phone I’d had since 2004. It was time for an upgrade. After a huge headache with finally finding a place that would get me a new phone with the same long-distance number (it’s easy if you have a 703/202/301 area code, not if you have another state, though), I finally got one for juts a $40 upgrade price:

This one also has Bluetooth. So I got a new earpiece while I was at it. However, since my hands still work fine, I just wear it around the apartment when I’m on the phone while cooking or whatever. I’d rather not look like a moron wearing it while walking down the street, looking like I’m either way too self-important, or just talking to myself.

Or looking like a cyberman…

And behind door number 3

The folks at my apartment also replaced my ugly-looking balcony door with a new and shiny one. Yes this isn’t something I did myself, I know… but that old door was so ugly that I had to cover it up with someone. This new one is shiny. Literally:

Plus a notebook

This was over two months ago, but I never updated on it, so I nearly forgot. I got a new computer, too:

It’s great: 4GB of RAM, HD screen (and HDMI input), Blu-Ray… It’s another HP, like the last one I had.

The reason I got a new one was because my old computer completely died on me. Fortunately, I had everything backed up, and more recent files saved on my MP3 player, and ended up losing nothing.

Making regular backups is something I learned from an incident that happened a few years ago. Definitely comes in handy.

That’s that. This weekend I’m heading back to Nashville to see family. More on that when I return. ‘Til then, feel free to offer any name ideas for my new car. I’m particular to anything based on classic (1980s or early 1990s) video games. KF

Weekend Shows

This past week has been busy; a major thing did happen, but
I’m going to update about that later this week (before the 4th of
July). I’d like to make a little entertainment-related update this time
around.

Outsourced

Besides J, another one of my friends, G, was in town as well.
G’s someone else I first met online and, since he’s moving back to this
end of the country (details omitted, sorry), and J was in town, we
decided to meet up in Georgetown. …not much to say on that. I mean,
we had lunch and went over to my favorite teahouse ( href="http://www.chingchingcha.com/" target="_new">Ching Ching Cha)
afterwards–where, coincidentally, my former Chinese teacher was
working that day.

More Movies…

And, earlier today, I got to see another movie I was really
excited about. So, I thought I’d add on an extra to the Summer Movie
Reviews update from last week:

Mongol

Overall: incredibly engaging movie, and it’s not all
violence (see it if you can)

Check the trailer first:

Folks who know me know that I have a huge interest in anything tied to the history of older civilizations. So, Mongol seemed like my kind of movie. It’s on the early life of Temujin (who we now know as Genghis Khan), focusing on the struggles between rival clans and going up until his uniting all Mongol tribes. It is meant to be theatrical, but they tried to keep it as close to history as they could. My favorite aspect of Mongol was that it’s not all violence and not all fighting. There’s definitely blood in there, but there’s far more focus on Temujin’s life, his wife Borte, and others close to him. The few fights there are pretty intense and well-done. Speaking of which, most of the cast was Mongolian, although a few of the main characters were Chinese, and Temujin was played by Tadanobu Asano. Most of the dialogue was also in Mongolian, with some parts in Chinese. (The director is Sergei Bordov, so the film is probably classified as Russian, though it was filmed in Mongolia and Kazakhstan.)

Anyway, my final recommendation is to watch it where you can.
Since it’s a foreign film, it probably won’t be in regular theaters–in
DC, it’s showing over at href="http://www.landmarktheatres.com/market/WashingtonDC/EStreetCinema.htm" target="_new">E
Street Cinema. But it’s worth watching.

So, that’s all for now. I’m going to make a huge “new stuff”
update this Wednesday or Thursday. I hope. ‘Til then. KF

Summer Movie Reviews (thus far)

It’s over a month since my last update. No excuse this time. Some things have happened, and things are going well. But, I just didn’t feel like updating. I’ll try to do two this week, starting with this.

To begin, I don’t see a lot of movies. But, over the last few weeks I’ve managed to catch a few that have come out, since we’re at the start of the summer movie season. Some are good, some aren’t, some I’m still looking forward to, and some were rather disappointing. Let’s go…

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Overall: if only they hadn’t tried so hard (wait for Netflix)

I grew up watching Indy. It’s one of those things me and my father were able to enjoy together. I even liked Temple of Doom, even though it gave me nightmares for a decade. Though, part of that might be because when I acted up, my dad, instead of hitting me, just held his hand over my chest and started going “mukti deghi kali ma, kali ma shapti he, kali ma, kali maaaaa!” And then I ran up to my room crying. Ok, no, really, back to the subject, off the bad stereotypes, and onto some funny ones.

So, Crystal Skull. Let’s start with some of the things I did like… Harrison Ford’s age, for one, was handled well. There were still stunts, but his ‘age’ showed when he couldn’t pull them off (like falling back on the whip in the warehouse). Also, the bad guys were sufficiently ridiculous. I mean, it’s Indiana Jones; if the Soviets were not some silly Boris & Natasha stereotype, I would’ve been disappointed. Next, some action sequences were pretty fun: swordfighting, the escapes, running away from ancient Mayan warriors… Finally, Central America was a good change-of-pace from the previous ones in the Middle East or India.

Now, the things I didn’t like… The two minor things were the vine-swinging scene, and Indy surviving a nuclear blast and 500-foot fall in a fridge. But those I could overlook. The worst aspect dwarfed everything good about the movie and, unfortunately, made the entire movie rather… lousy: the aliens.

It was odd at first. I mean, God shoots ghosts out of an ark? Fine. Evil cults with power drawn from the god of death? Fine. The cup of Jesus that grants eternal life? Fine. But aliens? Hell no…

Then I realized why aliens (or “transdimensional psychic beings”, whatever) are so out-of-place in Indy. It’s supposed to be about the fantastic and inexplicable. Aliens are out of the realm of the fantastic and into science fiction. And, in sci-fi, things are explained–perhaps by unrealistic pseudoscience, but they’re explained nonetheless. But Indy is about the adventure, not the random artifacts or explanations behind them. Crystal Skull tried to put way too much importance on the crystal skull, trying to make it “believable”, rather than just leaving it unbelievable. If they’d just said the crystal skull was magic, it would’ve been better. Leave it at that.

Anyway, overall… It was ok. But, they tried too hard, and ended up making it a really weak movie that didn’t feel like Indy by the end.

Iron Man
Overall: great action, even better costume (see it)

Now Iron Man… This was last on my list of movies to see so far. Then, everyone started saying good things about it. Constantly. So, I decided to see it… and was really impressed. There isn’t a whole lot to say here. I mean, the action sequences are great. The hero is great. Robert Downey Jr. makes a perfect Tony Stark. And the costume… is the best superhero costume in any hero movie ever made. Oh, and a nice bonus is how some of the baddies were part of an Afghan warlord’s outfit, yet they didn’t start getting all stereotypical.

It should still be in theaters. Check it out if you can.

Prince Caspian
Overall: too much fighting, too little story (don’t bother)

I really liked the first Chronicles of Narnia movie (I even drew up a plan for conquering Narnia in response). So I was hoping that this would be somewhere near as good. But the weird thing is… this had too much fighting and not enough story. And I usually say the exact opposite about movies. Basically, it was trying to be too much like Lord of the Rings, I felt, instead of being its own thing. So, they tossed in as many (3 or 4) epic battles as they could, even at the expense of having background and story in it. The characters didn’t interact much, and what little story there was felt just like filler in between battles.

It was still ok, and I enjoyed it enough. But… feel free to pass on it. It’s not worth that much.

Kung Fu Panda
Overall: holding my sides from laughing (see it)

Not sure where to begin… I mean, Kung Fu Panda is really funny, and really entertaining. I even had high expectations going in (especially with the list of voice actors), and it didn’t let me down. The action scenes were enjoyable, the background story was classic–without trying to take itself too seriously–and it was really funny.

So, go see it. It might be a family movie, but it’s still really good.

Dark Knight
Overall: will see it, perhaps multiple times

It’s not out yet, but I’m almost certain it’ll be my favorite movie this summer. It’s certainly the one I’m looking forward to the most.

That’s all for now. I’m not sure what else I’ll try to talk about at the end of this week. I might make another cricket-related update. KF

Family Visit

My father came into town last weekend for 4-5 nights. There
was an annual APA conference in the city, so he got a hotel near here
and we spent some time together. We had dinner most nights, and were
able to talk a bit otherwise.

Not really much else to say at present. I’ll update later this week. Unless something significant happens, it’ll probably be about my new computer. KF

Aww, It’s Ok…

So, I’m hooked on the Indian Premier League. It’s to cricket what the EPL or Primera Liga is to soccer–in other words, world-class players from around the world, plus a lot of local Indian players (I think 60-70% must be local), all playing through 50-some 20/20 matches. It’s the inaugural tournament and its first year, and it’s already turning into a huge success.

Anyway, I’m not gonna talk much about it here. I just wanted to relate a hilarious incident that happened at last week’s game. Here’s a completely non-serious recap:

Kings XI Punjab win against the Mumbai Indians.
Sreesanth (Punjab): Hey, tough luck.
Harbhajan (Mumbai): …-slaps Sreesanth-
Sreesanth (Punjab): …………….-cries-

I can’t make this stuff up! Seriously:

Aww, somebody needs a hug…

Honestly speaking, though… I see where Sreesanth is coming from. I mean, he looks up to Harbhajan, apparently, and so it was really the emotional shock of getting slapped by someone like an older brother to you. But, there are a few reasons why I still don’t feel bad about it all, and still find the entire thing hilarious:

(1) Harbhajan Singh is a jerk. Everyone knows this. In fact, he ended up getting banned from the remainder of IPL matches on account of this incident! So, Sreesanth didn’t need to respond for Harbhajan to get reprimanded.

(2) Sreesanth acts tough. I mean really tough, and rather egotistical. If he were, say, big on the humility and etiquette then I’d feel differently (you know, like almost every other South Asian cricketer). But, I can’t feel bad for him crying when he invests so much time trying to act like a big-shot.

(3) This entire thing is just an embarrassment for every brown person…

Anyway, the two teams I’m going for are:

Chennai Super Kings

and

Rajasthan Royals

Anyway, enough of that. I’ll post with a regular life-related update later this week. This was just a little interlude. KF

More Wedding Days

In case you’re wondering why I took nearly two weeks to update… Shortly after I got back from Nashville, I got pretty sick and didn’t feel like doing much of anything. Then, just when I’m getting better, my computer dies on me.

I’m feeling fine now, and I have a new computer. But, I said I’d update about the wedding, so I’ll get to the rest of that stuff later this week.

Background

It was my first cousin, S, who got married. About a month before the wedding, she asks me if I’d be willing to emcee the main recepetion. Of course I’m happy to oblige, so I help her with scheduling out and organizing the main reception.

It actually went by really well. I mean, as a culture we have big problems with being on-time. But, that day, stuff was scheduled to start at 12:30 and it started only at 12:45. We intended on serving lunch at 1:15, and served it at 1:20. We planned to have some of the bride and groom’s friends speak at 2:30, and they spoke at 2:30. We had the room until 5:00, and we cleared out at 5:00.

So, basically, everything went off perfectly. I’m mostly happy that the bride and groom seemed to enjoy it all.

First Day

The first day (Friday) we had a Bengali ceremony called a gayeholud. This is always a fun part of the celebrations, usually very close with a smaller audience (like the immediate family, maybe some very close friends as well). Check the wikipedia link for more, but basically the idea is to bring the family of both sides together. Each side feeds the bride and groom some sweets, applies a little turmeric paste to their foreheads/cheeks, that kind of thing. Here’s a shot:

They also did a second nikah during this. The nikah is the affirmation of the actual marriage contract (like your “I do”s). Normally, the gayeholud is an entirely cultural thing, not necessarily religious, and the nikah is done on a separate day. To sort of consolidate things, part of the day was devoted to doing this. I also say “second” nikah, since they already had another one a few months ago in Kenya; this was more so that all the family here would be able to see it.

Also, my mother sort of emceed the gayeholud ceremony. I think these organizational things may run in the family.

Second Day

The second day, I spent a bit of time taking my cousin and my sister to their hair/makeup appointments, and spent some time getting the layout of the place the reception would be held and talking with some of the catering and hotel staff about how we wanted to do things. To get to the point, even though a lot of people arrived late (er, on-time by Desi standards, but late by normal standards, you know), everything started off well and went off without a problem.

One part of the reception is the rusmah, another Bengali / Indian thing, also called the ‘mirror-looking ceremony’. I mentioned this in another wedding I attended a couple years ago (link here). One of my older cousins directed it and explained everything for the audience, while the parents of the bride and groom watched on either side:

I think my cousin was a tad nervous during this, though understandably so:
“What do you see in your husband?”
S: Um.. a wonderful man… A potential spou–wait, no, not ‘potential’ anymore…

Usually what’s said is something a bit sweet but intentionally a bit cheesy.

Anyway, after that and after lunch, some of the bride and groom’s friends got up to speak. I tried to encourage a few of them who were still a little unsure of what to say to just speak with sincerity. In general, at something like this, it’s much better to be sincere than to be eloquent.

We also had a few of our other friends and relatives perform. Another of my older cousins (I have like 50-some cousins, mind you) sang two traditional Bengali songs. Our neice (another cousin’s daughter in this cause) performed a dance. And, lastly, my mother’s piano teacher performed three pieces; two contemporary new age ones, and one classical piece by Chopin.

We finally had the cake-cutting right at 4:00. After that was pictures. Probably the highlight of that was when we had all the cousins, cousins’ spouses, and cousins’ children up on stage. Like, all 51 or so of us. I’m sure we broke some fire safety code in there.

Afterwards

That evening, my mother also invited a lot of people over to our place. I was up for muc of that, but around 10PM or so I just clocked out and had to rest. I don’t remember a whole lot of that night besides feeling really tired.

Oh yeah, it was my birthday the day after, too. Not much of a big deal, though.

But, that’s all. A lot’s happened in the last week, what with my computer dying and all. I’ll talk more about that later this week. I hope… KF