Jennifer's 365 Project

497/365 - Pizza and Princesses

2010-07-27T23:27:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was Tuesday and the Wealthy Theatre was playing a classic - The Princess Bride.

Since the story holds a special place for both Daniel and Sherry we all decided to go out to see the movie together.

We had dinner at Brick Road Pizza, which is just down the street from Wealthy Theatre.

It was a pretty full house tonight. Nearly every seat was taken and the line to buy tickets was longer than usual.

There was even a small presentation by a representative of the Grand Rapids Public Library who had some trivia and information regarding the movie and the public library. It's the first time I've seen Wealthy Theatre do something like this and it didnt bother me at all.

Anyway, as you can see - I took much more photos today to make up for yesterday!

455/365 - TMNT Power!

2010-06-15T22:55:00.002-04:00

Tonight Wealthy Theatre was playing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which means one thing - awesomeness on the big screen.

A few of Chris's co-workers were interested in seeing the movie as well, and we had dinner with a few people before the movie. We met up at Brick Road Pizza, which has an interesting array of foods (organic, vegan, veggie, and meat all served here).

After a tasty (but slightly odd as i'm not accustomed to it) dinner we headed to Wealthy Theatre and our group was complete.

It's been awhile since I've seen the movie, so it was great to see again. And it looks like they've got some good movies lined up for the next several weeks, including Breakfast Club next Tuesday!

427/365 - Labyrinth

2010-05-18T09:03:00.002-04:00

I'd put off watching Labyrinth the movie in it's entirety for years. I'm not a fan of singing in movies and I'm indifferent to David Bowie, so the idea of him running around singing in a movie that would otherwise be awesome put me off for quite some time.

So at Wealthy Theatre they were playing it last night and Chris and I went. There wasn't nearly as much singing as I thought there would be, but the movie made up for that with crotch-shots of Bowie in tights.

Outside of that, the movie was good, given what it was and when it was made. I've always liked the puppets (Dark Crystal, Fraggle Rock, The Muppets to name a few) and I've always been a fan of fantasy critters, so it's still surprising I'd never watched the movie in one sitting before.

As a bonus, I apparently had an art book by Brian Froud and Terry Jones that was on the characters from the movie (The Goblin Companion) for the past ten years and had no idea. Oops.

Leki liked the book though!

406/365 - "Hey Man"

2010-04-27T08:41:00.002-04:00

Tuesday always has the potential for a movie night at Wealthy Theatre. This week they were showing the cult-classic The Big Lebowski, which Chris had never seen. So after work we got a quick bite to eat and headed to Eastown/East Grand Rapids to walk around and enjoy the weather before the movie started.

378/365 - KAAAAHHHHHNNNN!!!!

2010-03-30T08:25:00.001-04:00

Tonight Wealthy Theatre is playing a great movie - Star Trek II. So Chris and I headed down to the theatre, slightly earlier than the last few times to ensure decent seating and not having to wait in line too long. Still, it's great to see more people coming to the theatre, enjoying the atmosphere and great movies.

The theatre was in a very Star Trek mood, playing music from the movie prior to it playing and using a Spock stamp for hand-stamping.

Apparently, they were even serving Romulan Ale.

371/365 - Who You Gonna Call?

2010-03-23T08:49:00.001-04:00

There is a park close to my work that I've decided I am going to start trying to visit more often. They've got a walking path, some disc golf, and play structures. Really I'm interested in taking a walk on lunch and getting out of the office. With the sun shining and the weather getting warmer it is increasingly harder and harder to concentrate - even if my back is to the windows at my desk.

So I took a stroll, shot a video playing around on my phone, and listened to some podcasts. Good lunch. Looking forward to making it a regular thing. I will probably start using my SLR as well.

Anyway it's Tuesday which means there is the distinct possibility of going to East Grand Rapids and watching a movie at Wealthy Theatre! As you can see, that is precisely what we did.

350/365 - Wealthy Theatre & Spaceballs

2010-03-02T08:33:00.002-05:00

The Wealthy Theatre in East Grand Rapids is pretty awesome. They play some pretty cool movies on Tuesday evenings and today was no different.

Tonight Spaceballs was playing, and if you've never seen it I'd recommend watching it. It's a great parody film of late 70's/early 80's sci-fi films such as Alien and Star Wars. I've always enjoyed the movie, though admittedly the ending part at the diner scared me to death as a kid, as I watched Spaceballs before ever seing Alien (of course that meant Alien wasn't all that scary anymore when I did :D).

The theatre was more packed (kind of hard to tell on the video) that I'd ever seen it before, and the audience more engaged with laughter.

I look forward to the next awesome Tuesday night movie!

322/365 - Groundhog Day

2010-02-02T08:17:00.002-05:00

Tuesday started off ok. I had a frustrating project that needed tackling at work in the AM and by the PM I was in desperate need of chocolate.

But the evening rolled around and it was fantastic. Chris and I headed over to Wealthy Theatre and watched the awesomeness that is Groundhog Day. Which, of course, is appropriate since today is Groundhog Day. There was a fair amount of buzz about today being "Bill Murray" day, no doubt in honor of the movie, on my twitter. Links to blogposts and well wishing for a "happy Bill Murray day" all throughout the day. Very amusing.

As a bonus - the lineup at the Wealthy Theatre for the next several weeks looks awesome! We are totally continuing the awesome theatre going with Batman next week. Likely Chris and I will see most of these movies over the next several weeks. Its a fun thing to do and an easy, cheap "date" night.

If you're in the area and free, you should totally check out the theatre. Only $5/person and its a pretty neat, old looking theatre.

266/365 - The Storm

2009-12-08T10:18:00.001-05:00

Tuesday was a busier day for me. I had lunch with an old coworker and caught up on old times. And then, after working to get a hackintosh running (no success yet), I met a friend for drinks and dinner, as we do every month.

Then in the evening Chris and I ran out to see Big Trouble In Little China at the Wealthy Theatre. It had been YEARS since I'd seen the movie and really only remembered that green eyes were important.

When we got out the snow had started to fall and the anticipated bad weather looked to be finally setting in...

231/365 - Date Night With Monkeys

2009-11-03T19:56:00.004-05:00

This evening, after Chris got out of work we headed out to Wealthy
Theatre in East Grand Rapids to watch 12 Monkeys.
if you haven't seen the film yet (and like sci-fi), you should. Its made of win.

217/365 - Day One

2009-10-20T09:36:00.001-04:00

Day one of unemployment started out with job searches, working on my research paper, and a few other things. I ran the roomba for a bit to clean (not that it really needs to clean but its good to get the cat used to it). I also finally made the focaccia recipe Varvara (friend of Chris' from Russia) gave to me. She was even kind enough to translate it from Russian to English and metric to US customary units.

The day ended with Chris, as most days do. I cooked dinner and we headed out to Wealthy Theatre to watch the cheesy 80's movie, The Howling. The theatre is older and pretty awesome to chill in. I was impressed and the pics don't do it justice.

462/365 - Parks & Rainbows

2010-06-22T17:26:00.001-04:00

Day two of working downtown went well. I had some service/signal issue with my Sprint service so I used the map kiosks to direct myself to Monroe Center. I was looking for my bank but I didn't see it, gave up, and just ate lunch down there.

After work I spent some time in Heartside Park, enjoying rainbows and children's laughter in the sunshine.

We headed out to Wealthy Theatre to enjoy Breakfast Club with my cousin's Dan and Sherry. It was a good time and I look forward to the next movie with them - and dinner too!

442/365 - Rainy Day

2010-06-02T19:35:00.003-04:00

This morning I woke to the sounds of rain and thunder once more.

On days I have to leave the house, unlike Monday which was a holiday, rain can have more of an impact.

As shown here, I spent part of my morning stopped on the freeway, watching lanes of traffic attempt to merge in the barely moving array of vehicles.

476/365 - Sunny, Hot Summer Day

2010-07-06T22:56:00.002-04:00

The work week has started and I'm back to enjoying the outdoors in downtown Grand Rapids.

Today was much warmer than lunches last week and thankfully I was able to find shade to enjoy lunch and reading.

464/365 - Game Night

2010-06-24T23:29:00.001-04:00

This Thursday I headed over to Chris's friend Dan's house to play a board game with Jef, Dan, and Chris.

We played Jeff's game TOMB. It's like Magic The Gathering meets Hero Quest with awesomeness tied in. There are various tombs you explore with your party where you use weapons, spells, and various buffs against traps and monsters.

Usually I don't have enoug stamina to play a board game for hours on end but TOMB bad a pretty decent variety (ex. allowing you to flip from explorer to dungeon master) that it wasn't boring and didn't feel like it was dragging on and on.

It was a very good night and helped to turn around an otherwise annoying and frustrating day. Glad I was able to make it!

535/365 - The Naga & The Windy Day

2010-09-03T19:12:00.001-04:00

<-- This is a very beefy mouse. It's not your average mouse. It's a Razer Naga mouse. It has 17 customizable buttons. Why? It's designed for computer gaming, but you can also program the buttons for anything. So if you do a lot of work in photoshop or something else you can map those items to the individual buttons. Yeah, I know. It's excessive. But it's cool (and it glows blue, so extra brownie points).

Today has been a relatively windy and overcast kind of day. I'd hoped to get out to the PJ Hoffmaster park and take some photos for the Lord of the Rings Online photo comparison blog, but the rain made me think better of it.

Of course in the afternoon there was a long dry period. So Chris and I took a long walk (just under 6 miles) and enjoyed the cooler weather. We hit the overpriced used computer store on 28th while we were out and about.

I also decided to make a mithra-reskin on Gyshal. I tried to maker her as orange as possible and named her after Leki. She's way cooler and more graceful though. Well..and female...

538/365 - The Monday That Feels Like Sunday

2010-09-06T19:51:00.001-04:00

Today is a much less action-packed day than yesterday. But that's ok. That's how Sundays (or in this case Monday) are supposed to be.

So I made some strawberry pancakes for breakfast and then set about to homework and blog post work. Chris spent a few hours helping me create a flash file for a screenshot tips post that I'm working on. I guess I should say he all but did the entire thing. He was very patient - which is great because I'm a horribly impatient student.

I made some chocolate chip cookies and hung out a bit enjoying the weather. It has been cooler this weekend - which means no air conditioning running and Leki is able to enjoy his cat tower. He's also been able to enjoy lurking in all of the various open windows. I have to make a periodic circuit through the apartment to make sure he's not damaging any of the screens after his escape last year (which apparently I never blogged about).

Now I'm just looking forward to finishing up the night playing some of the open beta of Final Fantasy XIV. It's still a little nuts in terms of lag, but stumbled across an "enable hardware mouse" patch someone wrote that fixes the mouse lag and makes it more playable.

452/365 - The Long Walk, The Small Flurry, & Weatherstock

2010-06-12T09:32:00.007-04:00

In the latter part of the afternoon we decided to take a walk to a place that serves Soft Serve on 28th street. We took Kent Trails for a large part of it and it was about 5 miles round trip. I ordered a small flurry and this is apparently what their small is. I couldn't finish it, it was so large.

Later in the evening I attended Weatherstock in Lord of the Rings Online. Chris had some things he needed to take care of so I took that opportunity to check out this yearly music event.

Since Lord of the Rings Online has an in-game music system which allows different races and classes to play different instruments (lute, harp, flute, etc) there are a lot of people who incorporate this into their role-playing. Personally I'm not a big RPer, but it was interesting to listen to the different bands play music from the Beetles to Police and beyond. There were just under 300 players who attended, including myself who created a character on the server specifically to check this event out.

If you are a gamer who enjoys online games and have a special place in your heart for Tolkien, I'd encourage you to check out Lord of the Rings Online - which goes free to play in the fall.

473/365 - Millennium Park

2010-07-03T16:59:00.005-04:00

Normally around the 4th of July I head over to my friend Nicole's for their annual pig roast. This year though I just couldn't do it. Every weekend and weeknight for awhile has been packed full of activities and I really needed a low key day. It's hard to let 4 hours of your day slip away in driving and I just need a break from it for awhile.

So Chris and I headed out to Millennium Park for a picnic and walk around the area. They have a man-made beach there which requires payment to access, so we didn't bother with that. But the walks around the little lakes and nature paths were nice, complete with a family of Swans.

Honestly, I should have brought my SLR but I was too lazy to even pack that. Heck, I didn't even make the lunch I was so lazy, Chris did.

468/365 - Settling In

2010-06-28T16:05:00.002-04:00

So the whole first week at the new job has passed and it's Monday again. I've had a few things sitting on my desk at home cluttering it up as I normally have them on my desk at work. So today I decided to bring them in to their new home.

479/365 - Testing the Kindle

2010-07-09T09:14:00.003-04:00

The real test with the Kindle is using it outside in the sunlight. The tablet, thought I love it dearly, cannot be out and about on a sunny day unless you're in a very shady area with the brightness up to 100%. Otherwise the image is washed out and you strain to read any comics or other items you may have on it.

So it was a joy and a delight to see there was no issue with the Kindle in the sun. Yes, I'd read that it was supposed to be fine in the sun, but after hearing complaints about the iPad, which claimed similar things, I wanted to be sure.

Its a neat little device that is lightweight, thin, and easy to use with one hand - which is usually how I'd read a paperback.

So far, I'm enjoying it. And, with a plethora of free classics to download from google books and Amazon.com's own website, I can finally start attacking books I'd been putting off for years.

484/365 - Traversing the Shire, LOTRO Style

2010-07-14T20:38:00.001-04:00

It's been awhile since I've been able to log into Lord of the Rings Online and actually play the game. More often than not I'm logged in but AFK.

So today I was finally able to log in and enjoy the Summer Festival, which ends later this month. Not terribly exciting for some - I know - but I love video games and the LOTRO community is absolutely AMAZING. So if ever you're interested in playing - drop me a line! Remember, it goes free to play this fall!

478/365 - Kindle

2010-07-08T21:56:00.003-04:00

Last week Woot! had a pretty good deal on the Kindle 2. While I was waiting for eInk devices to drop to really low, $40 bucks off the regular price was something I couldn't pass up.

So I've spent the evening with the Kindle and I like it. Amazon has a nice selection of free books, as do google books and other sites.

The screen is crisp, the eInk refresh is fast and barely noticeable. It is much better looking than the touch Sony device I had looked at earlier this year. Though admittedly the touch screen film is supposed to dull the text sharpness slightly.

I look forward to enjoying lots of books on the Kindle, which, by the way, will sync current page locations with the Kindle app I have on my tablet, should I ever need to read in the dark!

489/365 - More Kindle Love

2010-07-19T09:22:00.002-04:00

I'm really enjoying the Kindle. Much more than I had originally thought. I hardly even notice that it's not paper - and manga looks much better than I thought it would on it!

So since class got out a little early I decided to enjoy a little bit more of my book and wait outside for Chris.

I haven't charged the device since July 11th and it's still has 3/4 of the battery life left. I try to read at least a few hours a day and the device spends several hours in standby as well. Of course, the wireless is turned off, which helps to save the battery.

It's still a nifty device and I'm still enamored with it.

496/365 - Under the Sea

2010-07-26T11:41:00.002-04:00

No...this is not about a singing crab and a mermaid.It's about me having forgotten to take a photo for the day. So here's a cover of an older edition of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Verne I've been reading on the Kindle.

It's been slow going but finally about 8 chapters in (they're very short chapters) it's getting interesting.

I'm looking forward to reading more of it. Especially since I'm really not all that familiar with this story, having never read it and never watched any of the movies.

So that was on my mind Monday (outside of work, and class).