Blogacharya

Home Dipu Massively Updated

noreply@blogger.com (Dipu) — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 17:06:00 +0000

If you've been paying attention, you've noticed I've been quietly adding new stuff in the left column of the home page of Home Dipu for the past few months. If not, welcome to the most massively massive update to Home Dipu in years, with 15 — count 'em, FIFTEEN — new albums! Also, welcome to Home Dipu version 2.2, now with 16% larger photos and 33% bigger thumbnails on new albums, plus a brand-new thumbnail grid! But wait, there's more! The biggest album ever, the long-overdue Alaska Cruise photos from 2005!

NEW STUFF: Alaska Cruise/Liu Wedding, Caroline Visits Austin, Omid's Birthday, St. Patrick's Day, Anita & John's Engagement Party, Super Bowl at Home Dipu, Andrew's Birthday , Anita's Birthday, Michelle B's Birthday, Trish's Birthday, New Year's Eve/Bob's 5-0, Bob's Birthday, Supper Club at Home Dipu, Cameron Visits Austin, Tom's Bachelor Party. WHEW!!

NAME INDEX NEWS: Brian becomes the first to scale 800 and maintains a comfortable lead for the #1 spot. Dipu (that's me) breaks 700, while Trish becomes the first gal to reach 600; the former #1 also moves up in rank for the first time in years as she passes Tim for 4th place. Anita tops 500, Kyle hits 300, and the Alaska Cruise helps both Matt K. (now in triple digits) and Barbara, who smashes 300 to sneak into the top 10 for the first time (knocking Amy K. to 11th).

This doesn't quite catch me up, but it's damn close now. So enjoy these literally hundreds of new photos, keep watching that left column for quiet updates, and as always ... enjoy!

http://homedipu.com

Home Dipu Reviews is back in business

noreply@blogger.com (Dipu) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 05:53:00 +0000

Yes, my third-ever blog, Home Dipu Reviews, is back! Okay, it never went away, it just got really, really, really, really, REALLY quiet. So quiet that I'm not sure if anyone besides me noticed that Tom posted a new review back in January. And I kept meaning to post reviews of the few movies I'd seen earlier this year. But for one reason or another, I never got around to it.

So I guess it's fitting that I restart my commitment to reviewing with a mega-review of The Dark Knight, the latest Batman movie. So take some time to visit an old friend you haven't seen in a long time and jog on over to Home Dipu Reviews, why doncha?

Life Without A/C

noreply@blogger.com (Dipu) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 04:42:00 +0000

Friday afternoon, my air conditioning stopped cooling. Right before the weekend. Great timing. And with a heat wave of 100+ degree temps forecast. The service company didn't think they could squeeze me in before late Saturday evening, if not Sunday. This wasn't very encouraging.

Overnight, the temperature inside got up to 87 degrees, but with the ceiling fans and a floor fan running, it wasn't as bad as it sounds. I left mid-morning to go to Alan's monthly writers' group meeting, although I felt bad about leaving the cats in the house with no a/c. I kept telling myself that outdoor cats would be in that heat all the time, so it should be okay.

But then ... a miracle! While I was at the writers' meeting, the service company called and said a repairman could be at my house in 30 minutes. I raced home from south Austin, and within about 20 minutes, it was fixed. Turned out, the outside condenser fan had stopped running because the motor was going bad. He showed me how to reset a switch that gets tripped when the fan stops, and how to use a stick or a saw blade (yes, a saw blade) to push the fan and get it going again.

I've known for months that it was time to replace the entire HVAC system, so I figured this was the push I needed. I made an appointment to get an estimate on Monday; the repair guy charged me a nominal service fee and went on his way.

Except ... before the house got below 83 degrees, the fan stopped again. All the sticks I tried broke before they got the fan moving. And even the saw blade didn't help; the fan would move a little and then stop. Needless to say, I was pissed. And it was already mid-afternoon, so the service company couldn't fit me in again until ... well, they didn't even say when.

Earlier, Michelle had offered the use of her apartment pool if I needed to escape my house and cool off. As I was only getting more and more pissed at home, I clearly needed to get away for awhile. And I knew she was already at the pool. So I took off and joined her poolside. It may not make a ton of sense to go lay out in 100-degree rays to cool off (we never actually got in the pool), but it was way better than sitting at home. Barbara eventually joined us, and then we escaped to the air conditioning of Michelle's apartment, where I stayed soaking up the cool air (and eating the stir fry for three that Michelle made) until I had to leave to go to my play. Yes, I'm in a play ... which explains the lack of posts over the past month. More on that next post.

When I got home late that night after the play, it was 88 in the house. Outside, it was starting to cool into the upper 70s, so I opened up a few windows to try to draw in some cooler air. However, I don't like sleeping with open windows. And I didn't want to turn on lights or the TV or the desktop computer and add heat into the house, so I stayed up till 2 am, doing nothing but laying on the sofa, until the house cooled down to 84 degrees. Then I woke up early Sunday morning to open up the windows for a couple hours.

Sunday was the worst. The high was 103. The service company never called, and all I could do was leave voice mail at an automated system. The day dragged on as the temperature climbed. I tried putting a big bowl of ice in front of the floor fan, but it didn't seem to make much difference. Finally, late in the afternoon, I met Michelle and Barbara for a movie. I thought the theater a/c would do me good, but I felt a bit sick instead. I think I was overheated from spending all day in my house. I didn't feel better until halfway through the play that night, but then I got overheated again when I went for a late dinner afterwards with Tom, Virginia, Craig, and Suzanne and we sat outside.

Then, by the time I got home, it was 90 in my house. At 11 pm. And outside, it wasn't cooling off enough either, so opening the windows did nothing. All the fans running brought it down to ... 89. Somehow I fell asleep on the sofa for about an hour, waking up with sweat pouring down my face. Nice.

It was now 12:30 am. It was still hot even outside. No breeze. I walked around my front yard for a few minutes, then sat on my back patio in a lounge chair and tried to sleep. No dice. A tree roach raced across the porch. A tiny toad jumped onto the chair next to me. All sorts of things were rustling around in the dark, but with the porch light on, nothing ventured near. Still, it was doing me no good. So I went back in.

Now past 1 am, I was feverishly trying to figure out what to do. Find a hotel at this hour? What about the cats? Did I dare call any of my friends to ask if I could crash on their couch? Who should I call? I ran through the list of all those who live closest to me, but I couldn't bring myself to bother anyone.

Finally, around 2 am, I decided to try the outside condenser fan one last time. So I went out, saw and flashlight in hand to try to push that damn fan back to life. And ... it ran. And kept running. So I went inside and sat in a cool spot as the house cooled down to a balmy 87.

And then the cooling stopped. So I sat on the sofa and waited 15 minutes. Then I went outside again and successfully restarted the fan. Each time I did this, the fan would run for up to 20 minutes before I had to go outside again. I imagine the sight of a guy carrying a saw and flashlight at 3 am would be cause for alarm.

"Fixing" the condenser fan (saw teeth pointed away from the fan blade)
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I repeated this pattern for the next 2 hours until the house was down to 82. Then, at 4 am, I turned off the a/c and went to bed.

I woke up at 7 am and got ready for work. I decided to work from home after lunch. The house had only warmed to 84, and I was able to use the restarting method successfully each time the cooling stopped. Outside, it warmed up to 103 again, but then some clouds and, I assume, a front rolled in and it dropped into the low 80s outside. So that helped a ton. I was able to stay comfortable all afternoon long until the sales rep came over to give me an estimate on a new system.

So now tomorrow (Tuesday), I'm getting the entire system replaced. Brand-spanking new everything. It'll take all day, and I'll work from home even though it's likely to get hot inside, but I would like to be around for it.

But it's interesting to learn what you take for granted. Central air, for one thing. I know millions of people live in 90-degree conditions all over the world with no artificial cooling. Yet I could barely stand one night. Also, I started thinking about what gives off heat in the house. I haven't run the dishwasher in days because the drying cycle will likely heat things up in the house. The amplifier connected to my TV gets very warm. The desktop spits out some warm air from time to time. My 100-watt floor lamp? Forget it! Only the dim light gets used for now. So I've watched less TV these past few days, though I couldn't stay off the computer for more than one night.

So, by tomorrow evening, I should have a space-age, energy-efficient, quieter, finally-equipped-with-a-standard-filter-size (who the hell makes a 10" x 36" air intake grill???), brand-spanking-new HVAC system.

Whew.

Teed up

noreply@blogger.com (Dipu) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 20:25:00 +0000

I can't believe that right now I am riveted, on the edge of my seat ... first glued to the TV in the waiting room of the VW service center, then searching for live updates on the web ... anxiously anticipating the next report ... completely captivated by ... of all things ... a game of ............................. GOLF.

I am somebody!!

noreply@blogger.com (Dipu) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 05:53:00 +0000

It's great news that Tom's efforts to get Six Man, Texas entered into IMDb.com have finally paid off. But forgive me for being a bit more excited about another piece of news related to this. Sure, it's great to have Six Man up there at last. But what else does this mean?

I. Am. On. IMDb.com!!

Back in 2000, Tom cast me in a couple of small roles in the sketch comedy film One Eye Peeled. I ended up playing about six different small parts in four different scenes, including a token Hindu in a beef commercial, a drive-thru funeral parlor assistant who played parts as a Hare Krishna and a Catholic altar boy, a customer of the same funeral parlor, a cast member of The Penis Monologues, a clueless bad date that drove a woman to beastiality, and a corporate lackey who gets fired, but not before reluctantly and badly simulating sex in a boardroom meeting with another corporate lackey in front of the company CEO to illustrate a third corporate lackey's idea to sell advertising via hookers.

It made sense, trust me.

I thought for sure this would be my ticket onto IMDb. And with several roles to my credit too, literally. Unfortunately, this film got stuck in post-production hell and was never released by the producer. So, no credit for me or anyone else.

Meanwhile, friends like Anita and Carolyn had gotten IMDb credits for being extras in another independent film, one that was still in production. They were lucky enough to get into the database before IMDb started implementing stricter rules about who qualified to be on the site.

Still, I figured I'm find my way onto the site eventually. There were other film projects; something would stick. But after One Eye Peeled, things didn't get much farther along. Cameron's animated superhero feature Point One ground to a halt during the animation stage; I would've had an assistant director credit there. Tom's documentary The Real Santa, on which I was part of the production crew, didn't get accepted to any film festivals (for reasons I still don't get ... I think it's a good documentary). My own short film projects didn't qualify. So by 2005, when I started helping out on Six Man, the whole IMDb thing seemed so far away.

But now, nearly three years later, Six Man qualified because it screened at a festival. And so, while my credits aren't very exciting, I am now one of the thousands or millions of non-famous people that nevertheless have a page on IMDb! Check it out! Also, if you've seen the film, please leave user comments and help expand the film's IMDb presence. Thanks!

6 Months

noreply@blogger.com (Dipu) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 03:30:00 +0000

I was a little surprised to realize that yesterday marked 6 months at my job. That's already 3 days longer than my first post-IBM contract job, and the time has flown here compared with that job. Even compared with my job last year, which was considerably better than the first.

For me, 2006 marked the first time 1992, the year I graduated from college and started at NI, that I was employed for less than half the year. My vision of the future became increasingly short-term; the lack of permanence I felt about my employment spilled into the rest of my life. My biggest accomplishments during that time were getting out of the house after 11 months of unemployment and reversing the drain on my bank account. That job, where the atmosphere was somewhat stifling and restrictive, was about getting back on my feet ... and little else.

Last year's job, another contract position, ensured I would be employed for the majority of 2007. It was supposed to be a contract-to-hire position, but after 7 1/2 months, my entire department got the axe. Contract and permanent people alike were looking for jobs. Still, this job was notable for the slow return of some of my pre-layoff attitudes about relaxing and enjoying life. After nearly two years of going nowhere outside of Central Texas and Houston, I went on a vacation. Out of state, no less. I had to take unpaid time off to do so, but I learned that my world didn't end when I voluntarily cut my pay for a few days. And I started to feel secure enough to allow myself a mini-burst of spending, finally buying a digital SLR camera and a new laptop for the aforementioned vacation.

So as this job progressed, I slowly felt more secure about life again. My short-term vision expanded out somewhat. But I still found it difficult to plan for anything more than a few weeks out.

Now, after half a year back in the world of full-time "permanent" work, I find that I still have a ways to go in recapturing all my pre-layoff attitudes. I still have trouble planning more than a couple months into the future. I still feel like it's impossible to know how much things can change in that time. I've now been here long enough to sign up for the employee stock purchase program, which goes for a 6-month period. And it occurred to me how strange it still felt to look 6 months ahead and assume I'd still be employed at the same place. I used to take such things for granted. Now, even when I feel "secure," I'm assuming a layoff can happen any month now. There's talk of group vacation plans for next year. NEXT year?!? I can't even be sure about anything I'm doing THIS summer!

For better or for worse, one area I've relaxed on is expenses. Not that I've gone hog wild; all I've really done in this first 6 months is buy a new Mac to replace my 8-year-old system and a new desk to go with it, plus a bunch of shelves from Ikea (more on those in a later entry). But I'm not tracking my bank account daily, and if I have to spend a little extra on something I hadn't planned for, I don't freak out about it. And that's a nice feeling. Plus, I no longer think of extra expenses in terms of how many hours I have to work to earn that amount after taxes. During my 2 years of contracting, if my car needed $300 in work, I'd calculate how many hours of work that meant. I never used to think like that before. And now I feel freed from the hourly rate mentality again.

So I guess that's reasonable progress. Okay, big deal, I still don't feel comfortable planning several months in advance. I guess that gives me something to work on over the next 6 months...

My new wheels: The truth

noreply@blogger.com (Dipu) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 18:15:00 +0000

Okay, that last post was tongue-in-cheek. That's not really my new ride. It's the rental they gave me while my car is in the body shop. I finally took my Passat in to fix the damage from the parking garage incident.

My Passat apparently entitled me to an "intermediate" sized vehicle. The one they were going to rent me had already been rented to someone else, so the only intermediate vehicle they had available was this PT Cruiser. Which, contrary to what I was saying last post, is not the manliest of cars. I mean, look at the tiny wheels on that thing. Not that I drive a sports car, but still, I am a little embarrassed to be driving this thing. And within just a couple hours of getting the rental, I'd already been teased by Michelle sight unseen. And given her generous nature, she happily repeated her comments in the last entry. And it wasn't just Michelle; a 12-year-old (Trish's niece Kayla) thought it was funny too.

So, that's my ride, but only for the next few days. Whew...

My new wheels

noreply@blogger.com (Dipu) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 23:55:00 +0000

Ohhhhhhh yeeeeahhhh. Check out my new wheels. PT Cruiser, baby. I am gonna get so much action in this p----mobile. You know what the PT stands for, right? Poontang. That's riiiight. PT Cruiser. This fine piece of machinery drops panties faster than spiked punch at the prom. Yo, the line starts at the back seat, ladies. You know you want me. I. Am. So. Cool. PT Cruiser cool.

Chickmagnetmobile!
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Nyquil Revelations: The Nature of Time Itself

noreply@blogger.com (Dipu) — Thu, 15 May 2008 15:57:00 +0000

I just got up after 14 hours in bed. Yes, 14. Actually, in bed and on the sofa.

I've been rearranging my spare bedrooms to store some of Trish and Brian's stuff while their house is being remodeled (see their the updates on their remodeling here). And apparently in between moving my stuff around and moving theirs in, I stirred up a lot of dust plus mixed in dust from their house. So, I've been hit with allergies bad enough that it basically took me out of commission yesterday.

With chest congestion, coughing, a stuffy nose, and a complete lack of energy, it was like a bad cold. Tuesday night I slept fitfully at best. So yesterday, it finally occurred to me to take Dayquil, but once evening rolled around, I thought it was time to bring out the big guns: Nyquil. I was ready to be knocked out. So, around 8:30 pm, I took Nyquil and went to bed.

Over the next two hours, bad storms rolled through. There were reports of a tornado less than 10 miles away. And I slept blissfully through it all.

I slept soundly through this
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I awoke after a VERY solid sleep feeling refreshed and thinking, "Cool, it must be the middle of the night now."

It was 10:30 pm. Only two hours later. Long before I'd normally even go to bed.

The rest of the night was filled with short bursts of sleep on the bed and the sofa. Yes, I moved back and forth depending on my half-asleep mood. I missed another round of storms at 12:30 am.

I slept through this too
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And ... I made a startling realization about the nature of time.

You see, each moment in time has a tiny square near the edge that when positioned just right, helps you sleep perfectly through that moment. Each moment is different, of course, so you often have to adjust your sleeping position to find that right alignment. But that's how you sleep well; you constantly adjust to find the perfect position. And so that's why I kept waking up partway, to adjust to find the perfect sleeping position for each moment. And I felt comforted about waking up a lot, because it just meant I was finding the perfect sleep moment for every second, which would help me recover faster.

Hey, it made perfect sense to me for the next 12 hours. Seriously. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Nyquil, the nighttime sniffling sneezing coughing aching stuffy head fever so you're open to revelations about the nature of time itself medicine.

Best. Headline. EVER.

noreply@blogger.com (Dipu) — Fri, 09 May 2008 23:41:00 +0000

From the BBC's website:

Ain't that the truth?
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Six Man Premiere: The Pampering

noreply@blogger.com (Dipu) — Thu, 08 May 2008 04:49:00 +0000

Jumping back to the Six Man, Texas premiere at the AFI Dallas film festival in late March, last noted in this entry...

Our premiere was that Saturday afternoon, with the red carpet event that evening. On Sunday, Tom and I met Alan and Mike at the filmmakers' lounge in the Victory Park building, near where the Dallas Mavericks play. We were to spend the day doing all the press interviews that AFI Dallas had set up. Actually, Alan and Mike were to do that (and you can see one interview here), but Alan had hoped to get me and Tom involved as well. However, they only wanted to interview two people, so Tom and I hung around the lounge for a few hours and got to learn what it was like to be a semi-pampered star.

Well, okay, not really. But we took advantage of the free stuff. One room had nice flat panels with Guitar Hero set up; unfortunately, they closed off that room before we could partake. But there were plenty of munchies, courtesy the festival's biggest sponsor, Target. Can you see their logo here?

Yes, even the Target logos are filled with candy
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Each of those drawers held a different treat, whether red hots, mint chocolate, chips of exotic flavors like Jamaican jerk, power bars, even gummi targets:

Yes, Target made gummi targets
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Of course, all the food was Target's brand Archer Farms. They also had Cokes, bottled water, and bottled iced teas. Okay, not terribly exciting, but it was fun to eat and drink the free stuff while we waited for Alan and Mike.

Then we discovered the pool hall. Well, one table. But it was early enough in the day that Tom and I had it all to ourselves:

Yes, even the pool table was branded by Target
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Yes, I'm going to start each caption with "Yes" even if it's me shooting pool
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Yes, that's the view of the Plaza outside the filmmakers' lounge
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So that was fun for awhile.

But now for some T&A. Because in the Plaza below, there was an Amazon army of shapely plant women:

Yes, plant women!!
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What a view on the other side of that window, eh?
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Are those real?
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So imagine our disappointment when, upon closer examination, we realized these plant women weren't real plants. They weren't made of ivy growing into a carefully controlled shape. The plant women are all plastic plants. The illusion was shattered; the plant women were as plastic as a Hollywood actress. Heh, holly. Anyway...

8 years to upgrade

noreply@blogger.com (Dipu) — Mon, 05 May 2008 05:36:00 +0000

Eight years is an eternity in the high-tech product cycle. And yet, for the last eight years, I did the bulk of my projects at home on a Mac desktop that I bought in the year 2000. That's right, when I bought my computer, Bill Clinton was still president. The dot-com bubble looked unstoppable.

There was no such thing as an iPod.

Eight years. I've never had a job at one company for that long. Sure, I eventually upgraded the processor and graphics card, but it had been long in the tooth for years even with the upgrades. Yet I'd managed to use this computer for close to a decade. And along with the computer, I had my $30 Ikea computer cart, which was perfect for my needs as someone who keeps the computer by the futon in the living room:

The ol' workhorse, my Power Macintosh
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But times change. I'd had no qualms about replacing my iBook laptop last year with a new MacBook. But when Apple finally released the second generation of their Mac Pro desktops this year, the trigger I'd set for myself to replace my aging Power Macintosh, I found I actually had a few pangs of nostalgia. Even after the new Mac Pro arrived in mid-March, I was slow to jump all in with the new system.

There was always an excuse: I need a new monitor first. But then I need a new desk, because the slanted monitor tray on my Ikea cart won't work with a flat panel. I need to install a Wi-Fi card first. Only an Apple tech can do that, so I have to wait until I haul it to an Apple Store (for the result of that night, see the previous entry). It's too much trouble to switch back and forth between computers. I haven't copied my files to the new system yet. On and on. A week after getting the new system, I was still using the old one more.

The absurdity of that finally motivated me. Michelle and I hit Ikea for a new computer desk. I got the damn Wi-Fi card installed. I used the Mac migration software to combine the files from my laptop and old desktop into the new machine. I bought a 24" flat panel monitor. I set it all up, and it was beautiful:

Only the speakers and mouse are old now
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I still can't bring myself to fully retire my faithful Power Mac to collect dust in a closet somewhere. It's still sitting in the living room, waiting for me to decide where to move it. But I do love the new system. The new monitor is like night and day compared with the old CRT. The system is smooth and fast. It's nice to have a modern system again. I hope this system ages as gracefully...

A new form of ID

noreply@blogger.com (Dipu) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 03:30:00 +0000

A few weeks ago, I took my new computer (another blog in and of itself) to the Apple Store to get a Wi-Fi card installed. The store that's barely 2 miles from my house had no stock, so I had to go to the store in the mall ... and lug the 42-pound machine in from the parking lot to boot. Coincidentally, Trish was going to the same mall with her nieces and her sister Kristi. And she just happened to have a dolly in her car as well. So I met them at the mall, borrowed the dolly, and rolled my system in to the store, no sweat. I left the computer there and joined the girls to kill some time until it was ready.

I didn't rejoin Trish's gang until just after they'd finished eating at the food court. However, they had ... drum roll ... leftovers! For me! And Kayla and Kensie (the nieces, 12 and 9) had packaged them up and personalized the to-go box with my name and theirs. Plus, Kensie drew a turtle that she named Dipu. And you can tell that they didn't know how to spell my name at first. But I guess they know now!

Who says there's no such thing as a free meal?
Click photo to enlarge

So, at the end of the evening, I went back to the Apple Store, leftovers in hand, to pick up my computer. And here we ran into a slight problem. The guy who I'd been dealing with had already left, so no one knew who I was. So they asked for my ID. No big deal, I showed them my driver's license. Whoops.

You may or may not be aware that Dipu is my nickname, not my full name. So while I use Dipu with friends or at work and places like that, for anything official, like paychecks, credit cards, or, in this case, my driver's license, it ain't Dipu. Problem was, when I made the appointment to drop off my computer, I used Dipu, thinking it was all very informal. And normally it is. But since the guy who knew me was gone, I had no proof I was Dipu. (Which he misspelled anyway, incidentally). No proof that was my computer.

Then I realized I was holding a box of food that said Dipu. So I showed it to the guy. Because really, what are the odds I'd just happen to be carrying leftovers with the same unusual name written on it as the misspelled name that sounded the same on the paperwork the guy had filled out?

That was good enough for them. I got my now wireless-enabled computer and polished off the identifying leftovers at home!

(One aside: The food they got was from the Japanese restaurant in the food court that is sometimes staffed by Indonesians. I blogged about that a few years ago in The Layoff Times here. In that same entry, I also blogged about running into local anchor Ron Oliveira in a store. And the previous time I'd gone shopping with Trish, Kristi, Kayla, and Kensie, we ran into Oliveira in a store. Yes, it's a stretch to compare the one day I ate at that restaurant and also saw Oliveira with eating at that restaurant and seeing Oliveira on two separate but consecutive occasions with the exact same group of girls. But hey, at least this is a totally new entry...)

Six Man Premiere: On the Red Carpet

noreply@blogger.com (Dipu) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 04:14:00 +0000

Okay, this week I'll be blogging a bit belatedly about the Six Man, Texas premiere at the AFI Dallas film festival on March 29.

We didn't know until just a couple of days before the film's premiere that we'd get to take part in a red carpet event. The festival held a number of these red carpet events at numerous theaters throughout the opening weekend. It was a short red carpet, and it didn't lead into the theater, but hey, I'll take it! Our red carpet event was in the evening, and Six Man had already premiered a few hours earlier. So it was a tiny bit odd in that we weren't heading into the premiere from there because our thing was already done. But hey, we still got to walk it!

Unfortunately, we didn't get to see any celebrities. Someone said Mischa Barton was on the red carpet we had been on, but an hour later, so that's as close as we came to anyone marginally famous. I guess our time on the red carpet was for the documentary group, so ... lots of unknowns. Including, of course, us.

And I was clearly not a professional. When you see a Hollywood star going down a red carpet, they don't usually have 2-3 cameras themselves, busily snapping shots and shooting videos of their fellow carpetgoers and even the phalanx of photographers and reporters. But, shockingly, I had multiple cameras and was happily taking shots of our group and getting shots of me taken on the red carpet. Geek alert, I even snapped one shot on my iPhone so that I could send a "live" shot from the red carpet via email. And I was filming from time to time. And I was even carrying my laptop, because director/producer Alan had hoped to use it for a slideshow presentation right after the red carpet. Turned out I coulda left it at home. Oh well.

And, for the record, I wasn't the only carpetgoer snapping shots from the red carpet. A number of people behind us were brazenly doing so as well.

Our group on the red carpet consisted of Alan, Mike (the editor) and his wife, Tom, some of the guys from the main football team featured in film, and me. Most of the time, we all milled around behind Alan while he was interviewed by various reporters from outlets like AT&T U-verse. Mike finally got to be interviewed halfway through, and Tom got a couple of minutes at the very end of the phalanx. I got to walk the carpet with the group and have my photo taken ... and to return the favor.

Tom and I were the only ones in our group in suits. Tom thought it'd be best to be dressed up, so after the film premiere was over, we rushed to his in-laws' house to change. But we weren't fast enough, and so we missed the first few minutes on the red carpet, as well as one group shot. But we still made the video highlights! (see below).

It seemed at least a few of us felt a kind of childish glee while we were on the red carpet. Certainly, I did. For nearly half an hour, we could pretend we were important and famous. Being in a suit helped that illusion too, so I didn't regret missing the first few minutes.

So, that was my brief experience on the my first-ever red carpet event. But what's that? You want proof I was really there? Okay, here are a couple of stills from the official AFI Dallas Day 3 video highlights. In this first still, Tom, Mike, and I, as well as others from our group, are standing at the back next to the logoed wall on the red carpet as Alan is being interviewed at the railing. Tom and I are in the very back; we're the ones wearing suits. Tom's head is shaved, by the way. I'm the guy in the suit juggling, what else, multiple cameras.

We're on the red carpet!
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Below, that's me in the top right corner heading out of frame with my laptop bag.

Me on the red carpet!
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To see the actual video, click here and scroll down to the Day 3 highlights, or click here for the direct link.

What's that? This pixelly footage doesn't prove to you that I was really there? Okay, how about these shots:

Our team on the red carpet
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A celebrity's point of view: The view from on the red carpet
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Alan being interviewed by the waiting phalanx of reporters
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Absolute proof of me on the red carpet!
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Uncle Fester? (Yes, that's Tom)
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More stories and photos from Dallas to come later this week!

Back to the body shop

noreply@blogger.com (Dipu) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 16:01:00 +0000

For almost 6 years, my car led a collision-free life. That is, until the day after Christmas last year when an uninsured woman behind me decided that stopping for a red light is merely a suggestion, even if the car in front of you has decided to stop.

As a result, by late January, I had a shiny new bumper. It cost me $250, though (half my deductible). Sure, it isn't thousands of dollars, but I'd just come off my third unemployment period in 2 years, when every dollar you have counts triple. And it's not like when I have a job, I take $250 in cash and flush it down the toilet every month. But that's practically what this was, since I'd found myself out a couple hundred for no reason. But at least I had a brand-new bumper, free of the dings of the past 6 years. That was something.

Last week, someone backed into my car in the parking garage at work.

My beautiful new bumper is scratched. The repaired trunk is bent inwards again. And I'm gonna have to go through all this all. over. again. For the second time this year. And it's barely April.

The driver left his card and an apology, at least. Still waiting to hear from his insurance company, but hopefully this one will actually work the way it's supposed to. This guy appears to be taking full responsibility so far, which would be a nice change of pace. The woman in December lied about her lack of insurance (though interestingly, not about her address) and tried to claim I stopped too close to the intersection. Didn't seem to matter that 1) the light was ALREADY RED ... what, was she gonna run the red if I did too??, and 2) I WAS ALREADY STOPPED; you generally don't try to go through a stopped car no matter how close to an intersection they are. And years ago with the blurple car, the girl who ran a red and hit me took full responsibility ... for about 5 minutes, until a friend of hers talked her out of it, and then she cried to the police and got away scott free.

In any case, here I am waiting for this guy's insurance company to call me so I can set up the re-repairs to my car, all while my insurance company is still trying to collect from the uninsured driver that hit me barely 3 months ago.

Sigh.

The Annoying Thing

noreply@blogger.com (Dipu) — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 04:51:00 +0000

Another lazy post.

Remember Harold Faltermeyer? Or his song "Axel F" from Beverly Hills Cop? Want to sully your memory of that? Then enjoy the European sensation that spread around the world, spawning toys and PS2 games and hit albums. Yes, albums. Topped the charts overseas. But like soccer, it was popular everywhere but here. Ladies and gentlemen, thanks to a link sent by a coworker, I present to you that ringtone-born celebrity known as Crazy Frog, or The Annoying Thing (and yes, his, uh, dangling tadpole has been pixellated out):

Flashback: 2004

noreply@blogger.com (Dipu) — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 00:54:00 +0000

I generally avoid politics on here, so here's a wimpy way around it ... reposting something from almost 4 years ago. Back in the days before I blogged, I found myself so fed up with the Democratic Party after the November 2004 elections that I wrote this email and sent it off to a bunch of friends.

Soon after that, I started the Home Dipu Forum and used this as the first post. The forum allowed anyone who signed up (which turned out to be a handful of us) to post on a range of topics, from politics to movie and restaurant reviews. The forum enjoyed its quiet little life for a few years until, after it was hacked repeatedly due to a flaw in the forum software, I took it offline for good. And I moved my movie/TV/restaurant reviewing focus to the Home Dipu Reviews blog (which, I swear, I'll start posting to more again).

Meanwhile, as a lazy way to get a "new" post up here, I bring you this rant from the past. Despite my strong urge to edit and modify it slightly, I'm pasting this in as-is ... except for replacing a couple of letters in one word in an attempt at a defense against search engines. Take it for what it's worth, which is the paper it's written on:

November 2004: Choosing hope (lessness)

I quit. The Democratic Party is dead to me. They don't play to win; they play to not lose. The Democratic Party is the Mack Brown of politics. How can you run against a president and party with the results of the past 2 years and lose ground? I thought the Dems were supposed to have learned their lessons from 2000. Yet Kerry and company actually did worse than Gore.

So, that's that. An even stronger Republican monopoly. I give up. I will start shopping for a gun rack for the Excursion I'll be trading in my Passat for. I will scorn people without health insurance and wonder why they don't just work harder and get higher paying jobs. I will praise God every day for blessing us with such a moral leader sprung directly from His brow. I will leave milk and cookies out for the police whenever they conduct a secret search of my home in the name of combating terrorism. I will view all swarthy people with suspicion, including myself, for we are at war. I will remind all of you that thousands of people have died for your right to free speech, now shut up cuz you have no right to talk you liberal commie fascist. I will sing "God Bless America" instead of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during every 7th inning stretch from now until the Rapture. I will drill for oil in the Alaskan wilderness using the sharpened bones of California condors and liberals. I will do my part to help piss off the remaining 8% of the world that doesn't already hate us.

Why even vote for president in 2008? There's no point. The way things stand now, the Dems wouldn't be able to beat a drunken syphilitic chimp who defecates in everyone's drinking water. Who's retarded. And eats babies. Raw. Just as long as he's not getting a bl*wj0b.

If the last four years couldn't get this administration thrown out, I'd hate to see how far things must crumble for that to happen.

Welcome, our holy Republican theocratic rulers. Welcome. Take my civil rights. Please.

Sincerely,
The Swarthy American

Who says you can't vote twice?

noreply@blogger.com (Dipu) — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 04:49:00 +0000

Okay, this is a post I meant to write 2 weeks ago on. On March 4, Texas held its Republican and Democratic primaries. I never cared about these before because in my voting lifetime, it's never really mattered. Not in Texas, anyway. The nominees for both parties seemed to be pretty much set by the time it got to us, so our delegate selection never seemed to have any effect on the outcome.

Not so this year, at least as far as the Democrats were concerned. With a race this close, where every single delegate is crucial, suddenly Texas was showered with media attention. I'd never seen the national media cover the Texas primaries before. Not like this. Hell, even during presidential races, we don't get much coverage because we're not a swing state. So it was amazing to see so much time devoted to dissecting the potential Texas vote. And I wasn't just getting messages on my answering machine from local candidates ... I got a messages from Bill Clinton himself! AND Hillary! And both Barack AND Michelle Obama ... separately! They personally called me themselves!! ........ through proxies who recorded them and then set up some sort of robocalling machine.

I myself had paid so little attention to our primaries in the past that I didn't even know Texas has a caucus too. In fact, I only learned about it about 2 weeks before the primary -- er, primary/caucus.

But caucus or not, I knew I was going to vote in a primary for the first time ever. Turned out tons of people had the same idea. I tried early voting, but the lines were out into the parking lot. So I waited till the actual election day.

Though I voted in the Democratic primary, I looked at the sample ballot for the Republicans too. What surprised me was how many people were listed on the GOP presidential ballot. Not just some of the candidates from the very beginning of this race who lasted as long as a fruit fly, like Duncan Hunter, but people I'd never heard of. Hoa Tran? Hugh Cort? Rudy Giuliani? (okay, just kidding there; I ain't THAT dumb).

So I cast my electronic vote and went off to work, but that evening, I went back for the caucus. (I was even a good Austinite and walked to the elementary school in my neighborhood that serves as my polling place). It was supposed to start at 7:15 pm, but with the caveat that the caucus couldn't start until the last person in line at 7 pm finished voting in the primary. I arrived just after 7 and found a school cafeteria packed with people:

Just some of the precinct crowd
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And yet in that crowd, I ran into a friend of mine from my Daily Texan days back in college. Not only does he live in my neighborhood, but he also became a tech writer. We've worked in some of the same places or with the same professional organizations (namely, STC), but never at the same time, although we were aware of these near misses. But it took the Democratic primary for our paths to cross again for the first time in years.

By 7:45 pm, the level of disorganization was starting to wear on some people. Primary voting had run late, they had trouble getting the tables set up, and people were growing impatient. And like a stereotypical Democrat, our precinct captain was going a bit overboard in trying to accommodate people. Rather than just making a decision like, "Okay, we'll do this in order of last name," he had to gauge the mood of the crowd to make sure the will of the people was done. As many people as possible needed to be accommodated. No, this was not meeting protocol; the meeting hadn't even started yet. No minutes were being taken. This was simply while we were waiting to begin.

When we finally got three tables set up to start the caucus voting (one for Obama, one for Clinton, and one for uncommitted), of course, he was still very aware of being as sensitive as possible to the needs of everyone. So, the first in line were people with kids, the elderly, the disabled. Which is perfectly fine with me. But everything he said came out like a suggestion rather than a decision. So, lots of people weren't sure what we were supposed to do. Confusion reigned. Any Republicans in the room probably pointed at this and said, "See? Democrats can't govern!"

To be fair, they've probably never dealt with this many people voting in a caucus before, and it seems that no matter how high the turnout predictions were, the actual turnout was higher than anyone could've prepared for.

Some people started leaving. But I stuck it out to see the process unfold. Basically, you lined up at the table for Obama, Clinton, or uncommitted. Once you signed in, you could leave, and your signature would count toward your choice's caucus delegate count. Which is separate from the vote you cast in the primary, which would count toward your choice's delegate count from the primary. Geez.

The Obama line was twice as long as the Clinton line at first. Clinton's line then grew to almost match Obama's, but by the end, it was all Obama again. Still, everyone was very cordial. Our precinct captain, who expressed his preference for Hillary when someone asked him, said that regardless of his preference, he would support whichever candidate was the nominee in the fall, which got a big round of applause from both sides. I think most precincts were nice and peaceful like this, though Tom says his precinct had uncooperative Clintonites who were being stubborn in the hopes that Obama supporters would get tired and leave. But in mine, we were one big happy family.

After all the sign-ins were done, we elected a permanent precinct chair and secretary, whose terms were to last all the way to ... the end of that week. We elected the precinct captain to the precinct chair office, since although the process had been slow and disorganized, at least he was active in the party, was experienced, and knew the rules. Two Obamans and one Clintonite ran for secretary; one of the Obamans won. Meanwhile, the caucus sign-ins were tallied, and we ended up with a total of 333 valid caucus votes. Of those, Obama won 62% of the vote. That meant Obama got something like 25 delegates to the county convention from our precinct, and Clinton got 17. These aren't the delegates that go into the count for the nomination, though. In fact, I'm so confused now, I can't remember how that figures into the caucus delegate count.

And no, I didn't vote for the "cool kid," though I do expect that he'll be the one leading the ticket in November and I'll happily vote for him then. Like my precinct captain, I'm not gonna throw my party to the wolves like some have threatened to do just because my candidate probably won't be the nominee.

Then we broke into two groups to choose our county convention delegates. But you had to choose twice as many county delegates, because you need one alternate for each delegate. I knew I had to play tennis on the day of the county convention, so I ended up volunteering to be an alternate instead. (By this time, so many people had left that nearly everyone in the room had to volunteer to be either a delegate or an alternate).

After that came the reading/debating/passing/rejecting of about 42 resolutions, on topics ranging from the drug war to Iraq to health care. As that continued dragging on past 10:30 pm, I finally walked home.

So, I voted twice that day. Who knew that was legal? I won't be going to the county convention, though, because it's a week from Saturday ... the same day that Six Man, Texas will have its world premiere at the AFI Dallas film festival!! So, sorry democracy ... movie premieres come first...

Home Dipu updated!

noreply@blogger.com (Dipu) — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 02:27:00 +0000

Okay, pasting in text from the front page of my website is a cop-out as far as posts go, but I'll try to be a lot better with new entries this week. Meanwhile...

Home Dipu is updated!

Okay, to be fair, I did upload a bunch of new stuff last year, I just didn't make it official on this page ... and suddenly it's March. So here are those "old" new photo albums along with a new new photo album. I'll continue quietly updating here and there, so check the left column on this page periodically for the newest stuff.

NEW STUFF: The Johns at Jovita's, the Chamberlain-Hemstreet Wedding Reception, Carolyn & Ward's Baby Shower, Amy & Omid's Housewarming, Austin City Limits Music Festival, My Birthday, Wurstfest in New Braunfels, Andrew & Liz's Baby Boy!, Tom Chamberlain's 40th Birthday Roast DVD Trailer.

NAME INDEX NEWS: Brian maintains his lead for #1 over Tom. Also, Bob breaks the 400 barrier and Virginia tops 200. Anita and Omid continue their back-and-forth battle; this time, Anita retakes 6th place. Plus, two newcomers — welcome John and Michelle B. (the 2nd Michelle in a row to be added) to the index!

7 years in the making

noreply@blogger.com (Dipu) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 04:46:00 +0000

No, this isn't a sequel to the previous post. Completely unrelated.

Late last week, we learned that Six Man, Texas had been accepted to the AFI Dallas International Film Festival!! Admittedly, this is a new festival; this will be its 2nd year. But it's affiliated with the American Film Institute, and they're no slouches. The festival runs from late March into early April.

This documentary has been more than 7 years in the making, although my involvement only goes back 2 1/2 years. Still, it's been a long road for all involved.

Why is getting into a festival significant? This increases not only the potential audience for the film, but the odds of getting distribution as well. And if that happens, it's like Pinocchio becoming a real boy -- this would become a "real" film! Qualifying for imdb credit and everything!

So if all goes well, in a few weeks we'll have a real-live debut up in Big D!!! Road trip!! More details to come as I get them...

5 years in the making

noreply@blogger.com (Dipu) — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 04:29:00 +0000

So now, my first excuse for my lack of blogging and Home Dipu updating and everything else lately. Before the week-and-a-half cold took me down, I'd spent a few weeks finishing a project I'd started nearly 5 years ago. Though to be fair, I put the project on hold after a few months, so no, technically I wasn't working on this for 5 years straight. There was a gap of 4 1/2 years where I did nothing with it. At first, I was waiting for technology to catch up and become affordable; I needed to be able to burn a dual-layer DVD easily and cheaply. After that came to pass, I was fighting inertia. So I finally set a deadline for myself to finish this project on the 5th anniversary of the event.

I missed that deadline.

I finished a couple weeks ago, about 2 weeks after my self-set deadline. Not that missing the deadline mattered to anyone but me. No one else even knew about it. And at least it forced me to finish it.

The project, if you haven't guessed, is the complete DVD compilation of Tom's 40th Birthday Roast in 2003. This new 3-hour DVD contains the entire roast, edited with titles and song captions, new or additional graphics for some of the skits, and all the short films shown at the roast. Actually, director's cuts of those films (the director being me, of course). So now, the opening scene of Being Tom Chamberlain has sound. The kidnapping reenactment cut is better. And the Walk of Life filmed segments are now edited how I'd originally intended, instead of having some of the slapped-together segments I ended up with when I ran out of time before the roast. And yes, the DVD has extras like deleted scenes that I dropped from the original roast for time considerations, as well as lost footage that I shot the morning of the roast. (Erol and Leslie will be particularly interested in this segment).

I can of course burn a copy for anyone upon request, though it might be nice to have a beer or two in exchange for the supply costs. Yes, this DVD even has an actual label. To see the brand-spanking new trailer for the DVD, click the thumbnail of the DVD cover below. Enjoy!

Click to play trailer

Sick Daze

noreply@blogger.com (Dipu) — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 22:16:00 +0000

I've been a bad, bad blogger. Sorry. I have two excuses for my lack of posts this past month. The first excuse, I'll post in my next entry. This week's excuse is something I hadn't done in nearly 3 years.

I called in sick to work.

It's not that I haven't been sick in those 3 years. However, since my layoff from IBM, I've been sick far less frequently than in the years before. At one stretch, I went 18 months without a cold, which is unheard of for me. And even when I have gotten sick, the colds have been much milder overall. Nothing ever completely knocked me on my ass for a few days, where I'd huddle under a comforter on my sofa, sleeping fitfully 18 hours a day.

Of the 2 or 3 colds I've had since IBM, I can remember only one falling during a period of employment. Had I still been IBM, I would've called in sick to help me recuperate. But as a contractor, I wouldn't get paid if I didn't go in. So, into the office I went, hopped up on Dayquil, muddling through the sickness. Not the ideal, but hey, I wanted my paycheck.

Now that I'm a permanent employee, I have sick time again. But I made it through mid-February without a cold and only mild allergies during cedar fever season, so I was hoping that meant my recent health was more a product of what I've been drinking rather than a product of my unemployment.

See, I've had two theories for my lower frequency and severity of colds; one is that until this season, I hadn't been employed during winter since the 2004-05 season. Not being around a bunch of sick people at the office probably helped a lot. The other theory is that I've been drinking a ton more green tea the past few years, in the form of Sweet Leaf Mint & Honey Green Tea. I hoped that the antioxidants and vitamin C in the drink was a factor in my health as well.

So when I first felt a cold coming on this past weekend, I was mildly annoyed, but I figured I could head things off at the pass. And by Monday, while the cold was still around, it wasn't incapacitating. Which was good, because we had President's Day off for some reason, so I woulda been annoyed if it had made me waste my holiday.

But on Tuesday, I actually felt worse. And one of my eyes was gunky, which never happens when I'm sick. So I did what I hadn't done since IBM and called in sick. And I even went to the doctor. He said it was just a virus and I had to let it run its course, prescribed some drops for my eyes, and sent me on my way.

Naturally, Wednesday was worse. And for the first time in a long time, a cold knocked me on my ass. I was barely awake most of the day. I didn't even have the energy to watch Law & Order in the afternoon on TNT.

Today's been better than yesterday, though I'm losing my patience with this cold. I'm not used to this anymore. I'm not sure why I got this sick. It's not even the flu, because I've had no fever this entire time; I nailed 98.6 at the doctor's office. I've already overdosed on chicken noodle soup. I'm tired of breathing through my mouth.

Monday, when I was still mobile and sharp, seems so long ago now. But I'm not quite as groggy as I was yesterday. I'm just hoping I can be vaguely productive tomorrow and have a mostly normal weekend.

Damn you green tea; you've let me down this week...

My baby's back

noreply@blogger.com (Dipu) — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 19:03:00 +0000

Ahhh, that new car smell. Actually, not the new car smell, but rather the one most of us never get because it's faded by the time we get even a brand-new car. It's that newly painted car smell. Yes, my baby's back. I picked up my repaired Passat from the body shop (where Trish's brother-in-law works) last night. Took about 10 days, during which I drove a red Chevy Malibu. A serviceable vehicle for a rental, although it burned through more gas than I expected.

Now I get to find out how hard my insurance will try to collect from the uninsured driver who hit me. I'd like to get my $250 deductible back, after all. I mean, if it were my fault, okay, that's the price I pay (actually, it'd be double that). But I should pay half my deductible because she was too lazy to insure her SUV as required by law? Sorry, I'm not gonna feel much sympathy for someone who lives in what appears to be a 4000-square-foot house one street away from a country club, decides not to renew her insurance, knows she's not currently insured, and yet doesn't pay attention when approaching a stoplight. Although I will give her credit for giving me her real name, address, and phone number. Since I didn't think to insist on seeing her driver's license, she coulda made it up completely. (Well, except that I did think to jot down her license plate number, so she woulda been found eventually).

But regardless, I'm glad to be back in MY car. The body shop (that's Able Fix-a-Wreck, by the way) gave it back to me all squeaky clean; not only did they wash it, they also vacuumed the interior and dusted the dash! The repair work looks good. Haven't had any sunshine to get a real good look yet, but under the overcast skies, the paint seems to be a spot-on match. They also set up the rental for me and let me drop it off with them. They even reminded me to fill it up before I left it; I'd forgotten to. So that was nice.

Most of all, while having to get it repaired was an inconvenience, at least it didn't take 2 months...

Bob's Hawaii 5-0

noreply@blogger.com (Dipu) — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 03:53:00 +0000

As you may have heard, Bob turned the big 5-0 on New Year's Eve. To celebrate Bob's 50th, we threw a, what else, Hawaii Five-O themed party. As part of the festivities, Tom shot new footage to edit into the Hawaii Five-O opening credits.

If you're lucky (or maybe unlucky), in a later entry I'll post my rendition of "Tiny Bubbles" as Don Ho from that party. But for now, please enjoy these behind-the-scenes photos I took on our video shoot, followed by the original Hawaii Five-O opening credits and Tom's revised version for Bob's birthday celebration:

Tom directs Kyle
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Tim runs
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Dipu mad!!!
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Notice Kyle's footwear
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Original opening credits
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Tom's version
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In hot water ... and cold

noreply@blogger.com (Dipu) — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 04:23:00 +0000

Okay, so I'm probably one of the last to post something in the new year. Today's won't be terribly profound or anything, but I figure I should get something posted. So, while some like Lisa, Trish and Brian, and Anita are all dealing with the excitement and perils of building new houses or renovating, during my 3 weeks of unemployment in November, I did some remodeling of my own. Well, fixing. On a slightly smaller scale.

Okay, I only replaced a bathroom faucet. In my spare bathroom. Which I hardly ever use.

Whoooo.

I couldn't do it completely by myself either. While trying to remove the old faucet, one of the water pipes refused to budge. And I couldn't pull on the faucet while also being underneath the sink to see what I was doing. Fortunately, I knew Barbara was out running errands, so she was able to help pry it loose.

I did manage to install the new faucet by myself. This was one of the main accomplishments of my short unemployment, and it only took about an hour, most of which was trying to get the stuck pipe to release its 25-year grip on the old faucet. Still, considering that this faucet has been leaking for the past, oh, I dunno, 4-5 years, and that because of the leak, I had the water to that faucet shut off except when I had people over, rendering that sink unusable most of the time ... well, it's just nice to have a working faucet in that bathroom all the time again. Especially a nice brushed-metal faucet. Now I just have to replace all the rest of the ugly-ass '70s-era shit around the faucet.

So, the before and after shots:

Old faucet...
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New faucet!!
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