...and the Oscar goes to...

The flowergirl in our wedding! Her father, Richard Linklater, was up for an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay (for the outstanding movie Before Sunset) and she went along to root for him. My wife, a friend and I saw glimpses of her in a pink dress as she moved through the crowd that milled around the red carpet and then when the presenter (Adam Sandler?) announced the nominees.

Mr. Linklater and his co-writers did not receive the award but Miss L. is a winner in our book. Way to go! You looked great!

It's A Jungle Out There

My father recently updated the Return of the Jungle web site (link at right), to include a lot more information about the services he provides and about Costa Rica in general. It is a good site to visit if you are at all interested in the country.

Random Thoughts

Update: I added the "Return of the Jungle" web site to my links section. This site describes my parents' land and jungle reforestation business down in Costa Rica. Give it a gander!


I have some time and I thought I'd share some totally random things with you, gentle reader. Aren't you lucky?

Last night's episode of House was pretty good. Polite Dissent (see the links section) covers the medicine far better than I. I will say that I like the "Law & Order" approach to the personal, non-medical stuff. In the first few seasons of Law & Order, the personal stuff was kept to a bare minimum. In House, the doctors' personal lives are touched on but the medical drama is firmly front and center. In particular, I really like the way the show handles Dr. House's past in a very quiet way. For example, last night we learned that he had a past relationship that ended badly. This revelation was not overtly stated; there was no breast beating. Dr. House and his friend looked pensive when they discussed House's ex, Hugh Lauries did some remarkable, understated acting, and that was it. There was a little subplot regarding Omar Epps' character that was also very well done.

Speaking of comic books, Grant Morrison is doing some great stuff right now. His tale of cybernetic animals, We3, was extraordinary and heartbreaking (like all good stories involving lost pets should be). He is writing a Bollywood-style comic entitled Vinarama. And a super-hero project launches today, in which he presents a huge, 30-month-long tale in a series of self-contained stories. In the first seven issues (entitled Seven Soldiers), each story involves rather obscure characters in the DC comic cannon. Although each issue stands on its own, elements of a larger meta-plot will weave together over the course of the entire run (sort of like a season of one of your better television series, but where the main charactes change every episode). I am looking forward to reading it.

My wife and I are watching a Showtime series on DVD right now. Dead Like Me is the story of a young woman who is killed by flaming debris from an old Soviet space station and becomes a Grim Reaper in the afterlife. We highly recommend it.

TTFN

I am going to be "offline" for the forseeable future, as I try to get some work done.

You kids have fun while I am gone!

I'm not sick but I'm not well

I am battling a massive cold right now. It made the rounds at my office and it finally turned its baleful attentions to me. I shall fight it with every fiber of my being! If I don't work, I don't get paid.

Valentine's Day went over well at Hacienda de Patrick. My wife got a lovely bunch of flowers at her office that day and we had a heart shaped pizza delivered from a local pizza place. We sat and watched the last few episodes of Wonderfalls while slurping down a bottle of red wine. Good times, good times...

I haven't said enough about my friend Eric's online zine Lone Star Stories. You can read it for yourself by following the links, beginning with "Eric's Musings" there on the right. He publishes poetry and short fantasy/science fiction pieces written by Texas authors. I need to get off my butt and submit something soon. I am thinking about serializing my nascent young adult novel; I just need to figure out a way to break it up into coherent chunks.

My fellow blogger over at "Grinding Metal" got his butt married this past weekend. It's a good thing he got married around Valentine's Day...it will help him remember his anniversaries. I will say no more.

House continues to be one of my favorite shows. This week he battles his dependency on pain killers while trying to figure out why a teen-ager is bleeding internally. A patient's family member finally punches him too. Check out "Polite Dissent" on the right for a more in-depth medical review of the episode. I am still waiting for Stephen Fry to show up. Rowan Atkinson would be great too.

Uncle Patrick's Almanac

Today is the anniversary of Jules Verne's birthday. Happy Birthday!

Today is also the anniversary of the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots. Happy, er, Execution Day!

It is official: Wizards of the Coast selected a new author to write a book in their Dungeons and Dragons/Eberron line. Unfortunately, it is not me. When I told my wife, she said that the people at WotC were clearly replaced by editors with no taste (possibly on loan from the Fox network). We haven't seen the rejection letter yet, but this is what my wife predicts it will say:

"...we suck and that we are fools not to have chosen your entry. We had guest judges from the FOX network judging our entries and they are notoriously averse to quality. Thank you for your time. Look for the winning entry: "Topless She-demons from Hell Try to Choose Who is Their Real Father in Order to be the CEO of the Mega-Corporation and then Have A Makeover" at a bookstore near you."

Of course, it's not that bad. I am sure that the winner will tell a great story. But it sure was funny!

Speaking of Fox, my wife and I discovered that our Wonderfalls DVD set had two copies of the first disc and no copy of the second disc. D'Oh! I went to Best Buy (where I got it) and was told that I couldn't exchange it. Double D'Oh! So I went to Borders and bought another set. I checked and it has all of the right discs. Lesson: don't buy DVDs at Best Buy.

Fate's Bitch

As an antidote to the Superbowl, my wife and I watched the first three episodes of the Wonderfalls DVD set. For those of you who do not know about Wonderfalls: it was a television series about a young woman who hears inanimate objects speak. When she obeys their instructions, she ends up doing a good deed for someone else (although the process can be very painful and the person she ends up helping may not be who she - or the viewer - expects). This idea doesn't sound like it could sustain the series but the show had several things going for it: 1) the actors were great; 2) the writing was smart and funny; and 3) many of the people involved in the show were also involved in Buffy, the Vampire Slayer (and thus knew how to make the most out of quirky material).

The show's producers filmed thirteen episodes. Fox aired four, then pulled it off the air.

The DVD set has all thirteen episodes, plus the obligatory extras (commentaries, a documentary, a music video for the theme song - written and performed by Andy Partridge of XTC). I highly recommend the set to anyone who likes smart and funny television. I bet that when you are through, you'll wish that they made more.

Rocky Mountain High

My wife and I flew to Denver this past weekend for some medical stuff and for a little R&R. We planned on arriving on Friday night but, due to some blizzard someplace, we ended up flying on a different airline and stumbling into our hotel at five in the morning on Saturday. As you can imagine, we slept through a good portion of the day. When we were conscious, we made our way to The Tattered Cover, an independent bookstore that simply kicked a**. We spent a few sleep-addled hours wandering over three floors of books. We came back to our hotel with armloads of the stuff, including: The Knight by Gene Wolfe; Krakatoa by Simon Winchester; and Hold the Enlightenment by Tim Cahill.

My eyes were a little bit too big for my brain, for I was already hip-deep in A Cold Dish by Craig Johnson. Mr. Johnson hails from Sheridan, Wyoming, and is a good friend of my cousin Dorothy (who has a cameo of sorts in the book!). It was an entertaining mystery set in Wyoming's Bighorn Mountains and I am just impressed by the fact that he finished the book and got it published. My hat off to you, sir.

A little helpful hint to travelers in Denver: don't eat the venison fajitas. Trust me on this.

On Sunday, we killed time at the local art museum. It wasn't as bad as we thought! Several of the obligatory Monets were on hand and the Asian art collection was pretty cool. But the highlight of the day was the french restaraunt Le Central, on 8th Ave. Outstanding lamb shank and bread pudding, for a very reasonable price. we liked it so much we ate there again on Monday.

But aren't there supposed to be mountains? It was so grey and foggy, they were nowhere to be seen. How can one lose a mountain range?

Monday was spent at the hospital on a whirlwind schedule of pokes and prods. The less said about it the better. It did snow heavily overnight, which was neat, and the sun came out that afternoon, treating me to a glimpse of those crazy mountains.

And speaking of medical stuff: I am happy to report that my friend is now home from the hospital. She got through the first round of chemo and the results look good. She has several more rounds of this, of course, but we are keeping our fingers crossed.

Now I am back at home and work. I am up to my eyeballs in production documents and legal briefs. Grrr.

I've been listening to a lot of Soundgarden lately. I've also craved cheese. Is there a connection? What's up with that?

Hey, check out Grinding Metal in my Links section. The slacker finally got around to updating it. He claims he's been busy with his wedding. Some excuse.