The Royce Files

Saw the Passion of the Christ the other day. I was a fortunate one to get a seat. So the movie was excellent in terms of re-telling the story of the last hours of Christ. Very graphic protrayal. It got to a point where there was so much blood it was outlandish. Kind of like on You Can't Do That on Television and Allister makes Alanis say "I don't know" and slime falls from the ceiling. The movie was very "Mel Gibson"- it focused on the pivotal moments and utilized flashbacks. It had some cinematic effects similar to Braveheart. The ending stinger was an excellent conclusion. Just the right length although there was this enormous dead air/fade to black before it. Oddily no one wanted to stay for the credits- it was like the end of a Catholic Mass- a mass (no pun intended) exit. I stayed for credits. Looked like plenty of foreigners, Italians I think. Maybe some Jews. One more thing- this movie didn't make me want to hate Jews. It made me want to hate Ro...

A friend of mine and I went to NDSU's production of Fiddler on the Roof tonight. We sat in the balcony. Possibly a thousand people were there. I believe the show was sold out, although there were at least four empty seats around me. I have a little history with Fiddler. Back in the 4-H days I was in an abbreviated version and then in high school sang the medley of Fiddler tunes at least twice. I saw it performed at a community theater, watched the film twice, and have a roommate that was actually in it (she's half Jewish too but that's besides the point). So here's my reaction. Steve Stark is no Zero Mostel or Topol but he does an excellent job at being Teyve- finding the character and fully becoming that person. I noticed a lot of actors were not into their roles. I could tell by a certain level of zest they brought to their lines and non-verbals. Pacing/timing were off- the show was not tight. Although enjoyable it showed only reticent support of Stark's str...

Today I perused a dollar store and saw a brand name of soap entitled "First Date." Apparently the marketing department thinks Americans wash up extra nice on a first date. But doesn't first date sound kind of outlandish. Look at the other names of soap - Zest, Right Guard, Irish Spring, Ivory. Does First Date stand a change against those stalwart names. However, mulling it a bit, it could be a tie in with the Barrymore/Sandler movie 50 First Dates .

This week I began a rather unusual yet simple job - holding a stop sign in the middle of the street. Yes, it is peculiar. I only hold the stop sign maybe a dozen times and then wait around until I have to do it again. Lots of free time. I did plenty of reading. I am planning on writing about this position since I took a few pictures. I do quite a bit of reading. So far this has got to be the easiest assignment Spherion has ever given me. In other news Manchester City falls to Manchester United even though the Reds had only 10 men in the 2nd half. Looks as if Man City join the avoid the drop competition now. Who is hot now? Bolton and Aston Villa. I would also add that Michael Owen has returned to form for Liverpool but I'm not dedicated to the Red side of that city- and well neither am I anymore dedicated to the blue side (Everton). Finally snatched up some Man City player worn training duds. I was surprised that there wasn't more of a dog fight on e-bay for them.

Well its that day to celebrate eros. To quash any kind of fun (or activity of highly questionably choices) I submit to you How to Have a Lousy Sex Life . Don't blame me for it. I found it worth reading and well thought I'd surprise the readers. Oh yah, agape!

The Forum had an article concerning the clearing of snowy sidewalks a few days ago. Of course it failed to note the sidewalks the city is responsible for that do not get plowed and walkers do not have any recourse against that. The 25th St bridge over 94 had been packed with 3 feet of snow for more that week and I almost went out and shoveled it in anger. See some of my December posts about winter biking that laments sidewalk snow removal. I also hampers running in winter. We've got a ton of snow in Go. I'm think I should did out a tunnel and live under the snow for a while.

Today I got a most strange assignment - serve wine in a liquor store. I was thrilled. I had not been working for almost two weeks now. The short shift was worth it and gave me new respect for Bernie's on south University drive. I do it again on Valentine's Day. Of course I am missing a Valentine but I bought some great Bob the Builder Valentines.

This evening I walked down memory lane by myself but surrounded by hundreds of teens and their parents. Tonight I went to a high school musical. The high school musical can be a real hit and miss affair. Sometimes it's a winner but other times it reeks of old sweat socks. Tonight's offering at West Fargo High was The Boyfriend . It was a bargain for five bucks. Terrific space too! I had never seen it before but knew Julie Andrews had been in it before Mary Poppins and My Fair Lady sometime in the 50s. It was a pretty basic musical format reversed slightly- girl meets boy, they fall in love, they somehow fall out of love, then finally the boy and girl come to their senses and return to fall in love. All this in three acts and in the space of 24 hours (realy Greeky). There are some non-principal sub-plots which are exploited well. As for the West Fargo production- it was delightful but a bit clumsy at times. I could tell they have a very strong collection of women to work wi...

Manchester City's improbable 4-3 victory over Spurs in the FA Cup is the result I've been looking for. It was simply improbable that down 3-0 and without one player that City mount a comeback. They haven't played like that most of the season. Keegan is smiling now although the he was looking for a new job after the first half. Keegan said the match was a "truimph over adversity" and the "cup tie of his lifetime." No doubt this match will talked about for years. In the next round of FA Cup action, City face rivals Manchester United. Now this would be a game to be at. This victory almost makes me buy a new Manchester City jersey .

So Brian McBride joins up and coming Premiership team Fulham and Clint Mathis gets onboard at Hanover in Germany . Two big MLS names land in Europe and both produced in their first games. I believe McBride scored a goal as did Mathis this week. Mathis had taken his time finding a club in Europe who would take him. He did a trial at Glasgow Rangers after MLS season and trained a bit in England. He seems to perfer clubs with Red and Black and has now grown some lengthy chops. I also appears he had a mohawk earlier.

So far I have not earned a cent in the month of February. My assignment to Kaye's Printing on the 2nd was canceled. I woke up early and drove downtown only to find out there was no work to be done. I had done a shift at Kaye's on the 31st. It was not so bad. I sort of prefer it to working at the other partnered business Automated Mailing Services. The last few days I faced some major computer problems. It appears a worm and/or a trojan horse had infected my computer. My Norton was way out of date so I went for AVG . It really is a decent virus scanner. However, I am not sure how well it cleans up the invaders. Since my problem was a trojan and a worm- AVG seemed only to inform me of the problem files. I deleted the file but the thing replicated itself via some other files it stashed in the system folder. Using some logic I found these and deleted them. Then came the clean up. There must have been some screwed up DLLs because Explorer kept crashing when I rebooted. I ended up...