Wednesday, November 8, 2023

A Genre With All The Words

Question:

Name any movie in the genre of "made-for-TV, science fiction, action, comedy, horror, disaster." Hint: There was a series of films made in this style between 2013 and 2018.  Per Wikipedia: "The first two films received mixed to positive reviews from critics, while the others received negative reviews." Rotten Tomatoes gives the first film 75%, the second one 61%, and the remaining movies anywhere from 14% to 36%.

Answer:

Sharknado. 

So bad, it's good. 

We stumbled upon it quite by accident because we would have never seen it otherwise. Indeed, we've been actively avoiding the Sharknado movies. The name alone should tell you that it's not worth seeing.

Then, one day, I heard an interview about "Surely You Can't Be Serious: The True Story of Airplane!" by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker. I thought, that (Airplane!) would be a fun movie to see again.

While I was looking for ways to stream the Airplane!, we came across Sharknado and the only reason we picked it was because we could stream it for free. 

It was entirely worth every penny! 

But then we were hooked. The first one was bad but the second one was elevated to cult level bad. It's like everyone got the joke with the first one and wanted in. The cast of the second movie includes Vivica A. Fox, Richard Kind, Billy Ray Cyrus, Kelly Osbourne, Judd Hirsch, Robert Klein, Matt Lauer and Al Roker, Michael Strahan, Downtown Julie Brown, Kelly Ripa, and so many others.

My recommendation for this Friday's pizza and movie night is Sharknado and Sharknado 2: The Second One. Even more people signed on to be in the third movie, aptly named Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No! If you've got the stomach for it, just keep going. We only made it to the third one. Luckily, there are three more! 

Woo hoo!

Saturday, October 14, 2023

Can I Buy A Vowel?

City News - October 14, 2023

Old Town La Quinta will finally be changing its name to OTLQ in keeping with the NVWL Ordinance of 2020 after the city of La Quinta threatened the village with fines and a potential lawsuit.

"They are a full year past the due date for dropping their vowels," said a City Council member who asked not to be identified as she was not authorized to comment. "The vowel shortage is real."

Concerns over vowel shortage began in 1999 concurrent with the supposed Y2K catastrophe that was expected at the end of the millennium. Vowels started disappearing with little notice in the early 2000s but as new restaurants and businesses began to move into Old Town La Quinta at a higher rate than in recent years, the loss of vowels became more widespread prompting the City of La Quinta to take action with the No Vowel Ordinance (officially, NVWLO).

"First there was RD RNNR," recounted our source. "Everyone thought it was weird but for the most part, no one took any particular notice. They - tourists, that is - they would ask 'How do you even say that?'"

Shortly after RD RNNER opened their doors, TQLAS followed with a name change from Taquillas Agave Bar and Grille. "Residents were okay with it but visitors started to complain which is when the Council took action with NVWLO."

DSRT CLUB, which opened earlier this year, was subject to the Ordinance when applying for its business license which was granted without issue. (Vowels are allowed but must be purchased from the City.)

Demonstrators outside La Quinta City Hall is calling for the city itself to change its name. While the Council will be considering the issue after the next election cycle, they have in the meantime put pressure on Old Town to make the change now. Some demonstrators have said this is not enough and have promised to campaign against candidates who refuse uphold the NVWLO.

While a date has not been officially announced, the name change from Old Town La Quinta to OTLQ is expected to happen before the end of the year.

Sunday, October 8, 2023

El día próximo ...

We met a man from Venezuela. Another visitor from yet another country to rock out to some heavy metal music in the desert. His English was a lot better than my Spanish so I didn't even try. 

Nevertheless, I'm pretty impressed that "Power Trip" turned out to be such an international draw.

Fantástico!

Friday, October 6, 2023

Ayer

Algo muy interesante ocurrió ayer. 

Something very interesting happened yesterday.

Estuve aprendiendo español durante 150 días con Duolingo. Ya había estudiado español durante muchos años en la escuela cuando tenía aproximadamente quince años. ¡Han pasado cuarenta y cinco años desde entonces! Pero decidí que quería practicar mi español y aprender más. 

I was learning Spanish for 150 days with Duolingo. I had already studied Spanish for many years in school when I was about fifteen years old. Forty-five years have passed since then! But I decided that I wanted to practice my Spanish and learn more. 

Y ayer, tuve la oportunidad de practicar lo que había aprendido. 

And yesterday, I had the opportunity to practice what I had learned.

Hay un "dive bar" en mi pueblo. Es pequeño, oscuro y no es elegante. Las bebidas eran baratas y los baños eran muy pequeños. Se llama "Club 5." Pero este fin de semana, el nombre cambió a "High Voltage AC/DC".

There is a "dive bar" in my town. It is small, dark and not elegant. The drinks were cheap and the bathrooms were very small. It's called "Club 5." But this weekend, the name changed to "High Voltage AC/DC."


La razón es que la banda AC/DC está aquí en nuestro pueblo para el concierto "Power Trip". Es una fiesta de bandas de rock durante todo el fin de semana, y AC/DC es una de ellas. Es la banda favorita de mi esposo. 

The reason is that the band AC/DC is here in our town for the "Power Trip" concert. It's a party of rock bands all weekend long, and AC/DC is one of them. It's my husband's favorite band.

Vi en Instagram que era posible conocer a los miembros de la banda en este bar. No sé si era verdad, pero fui al bar de todos modos. 

I saw on Instagram that it was possible to meet the band members in this bar. I don't know if it was true, but I went to the bar anyway.

Hacía mucho calor, pero había mucha gente allí. ¡Eran personas de todo el mundo en este pequeño bar de nuestro pequeño pueblo! Venían de Ecuador, Reino Unido, Australia y hay un hombre de Chile. Seguramente también había muchas otras personas de muchos otros lugares. 

It was very hot, but there were many people there. They were people from all over the world in this little bar in our little town! They came from Ecuador, the United Kingdom, Australia and there was one man from Chile. Surely there were also many other people from many other places.

El hombre se sentó con nosotros y nos dijo que no hablaba inglés. ¡Pero yo hablo un poco de español! ¡Era una oportunidad perfecta para practicar para ambos! Él podía practicar su inglés y yo podía practicar mi español. No fue perfecto, pero nos entendíamos. 

The man sat with us and he told us that he didn't speak English. But I speak a little Spanish! It was a perfect opportunity to practice for both of us! He could practice his English and I could practice my Spanish. It wasn't perfect, but we understood each other.

Fue muy divertido pero no conocimos a la banda. ¡Tal vez hoy!

It was fun but we didn't meet the band. Maybe today!


Tuesday, August 22, 2023

Hilary

 


This video shows some of the damage in the Coachella Valley area. While dramatic, especially to those affected, it could have been much, much worse.

We are fine.

Saturday, August 19, 2023

Hurricane Preparedness

With the advent of Hurricane Hilary, the townspeople are on the verge of panic. News outlets warn of flooding, evacuations, and rescues. Flights have been canceled and stations have been set up for obtaining sandbags.

The campus restaurant has closed!

Hubby went to the hardware store at eight o'clock this morning to buy an inverter where there was already a line out the door with people buying generators. He plans to use the inverter to connect the golf cart batteries to the refrigerator for a backup power source.

Wait, I said. What will be the backup power source for the coffee maker?

He shrugged his shoulders not sensing my rising panic. 

Afterwards, he went about making sure the garage floor was clear of anything that could be damaged by water while I made enough cold brew coffee to last a week. While he verified our first aid supplies, I ground some extra coffee to make coffee in my French press should the cold brew run out. While he taped up our plate glass windows, I confirmed all the coffee cups were clean. While he filled the bathtub with water so we could flush toilets, I filled empty containers with water for - well, water. Also, for coffee.

In case of evacuation, tire pressures have been checked, fuel topped off, and blankets and warm clothes are stowed. The coffee travel mugs are secured in their cupholders.

When the neighborhood restaurant closed, I hightailed it to Total Wine!

We have COVID-level amounts of toilet paper, plenty of canned food, lanterns, and Scrabble. All of the devices have been charged. And, if worse comes to worse, I have about five pounds of coffee beans in the freezer that I can just gnaw on.

We should be fine.

Wednesday, August 16, 2023

Will work for stars

The stars aligned this week. I'm not talking about the picket line in Hollywood or the Perseid meteor shower. I'm talking Starbucks.

They have my number, Starbucks does, with their stars. I support craft beer but I don't have the same loyalty toward craft coffee. Why? Because of those damned stars. 

(If my boss had figured out that I was motivated by stars, he would have retained my services a lot longer. Too late for that now.)

This week, three Starbucks promos overlapped. The first one promised 35 bonus stars if I bought something - anything - from them two days in a row inside of a week. Honestly, I don't usually go to Starbucks all that often and I never go two days in a row except when I'm traveling. 

When I went to the grocery store on Sunday, there was a Starbucks inside so it was easy. I went again Monday because, well, there was the matter of 35 stars to be had.

Before the end of the week another promo was offered that overlapped with the first one. It promised 60 more stars if I went three times in the following seven days. It's crazy to go to Starbucks three times in a week. But, because of the overlap, I earned 35 stars on Monday on the first promo while simultaneously logging the first of three coffees on the second promo.

Tuesday, was triple stars day. That meant for any purchase, I earned triple the amount of stars that I would normally get on any other day. Heck, yeah, I went! I bought a latte and two breakfast sandwiches!! I earned triple stars for Tuesday's purchase and and was one day closer to earning another 60 stars on the second promo. Are you getting all this?

Wednesday, I went yet again! I don't know why except maybe I was drunk on stars at the time. This time, I not only got all the stars from all the promos, Starbucks tossed me the keys to my own freaking' franchise!

I'm just rolling in stars now, baby! Woo hoo!!