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February 23, 2007

About Amazing Grace

As I said I would do here, I made my way tonight to see the newly released film Amazing Grace.

I lives up to every reasonable expectation, telling a solid story about the long campaign to sway the House of Commons against the slave trade. A strong cast is led by Ioan Gruffudd as William Wilberforce, assisted by a wide array of talented actors and the very capable direction of Michael Apted.

And while I found nothing bad about the film and even quite enjoyed it, I have to admit it had little to solidly recommend it, either. Now, if you're into British History and political drama (of the 'politicians debating and scheming' variety, not the intrigue and thrilling chase sort), or just love an uplifting tale of right triumphing by never being willing to quit, this is a good movie for you. But, really, just a workmanlike, solid, comfortable film, that might have been more with a somewhat more daring script, a bit less inevitability in its plot, or... I don't know, something.

Certainly not a bad way to spend two hours, but I have to admit I'd hoped for something special that was always just beyond what this film was reaching for.

Posted by ghoul at 08:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 16, 2007

Travel Woes Day 2

It looks like my flight to Philly will leave only around 10-20 minutes late.

But my flight from Philly to New Hampshire has already been cancelled and a replacement selected.

So at best I'll be home 25 hours after my original planned return.

At best.

The fun continues!

UPDATE: Made it to Philly. No news yet if the 3:55 departure time on my replacement flight to Manchester is valid or no, and it's way too soon to even guess given the cavalcade of delays that is USAir (and, likely, everyone else) today.

UPDATE 2: Still in Philly, still no news. The flight before mine in this gate is getting some chaos due to a lack of ground power, but that's not my issue at all. And, as my other post shows, there's actually some good going on as well. Certainly the best unexpected and undesired long delay I've had in some time!

I still want to get home, of course.

UPDATE 3: Still waiting, but the new so far is good. We'll see. 30 minutes remain for something bad to happen.

UPDATE 4: Made it home. Lots of digging necessary to have a parking place, but I am home. My checked bag actually made it home 2 hours before me, which I find interesting but was not worth staying in the airport one second longer.

Home is good.

Posted by ghoul at 08:14 PM | Comments (0)

Unexpected Travel Joys

OK, I'm still waiting and all, but I just had the most unexpectedly fun coincidental meeting.

I was sitting, typing away on some work email, and a nice gentleman came over, chatted for a bit, then asked if I like movies.

Turns out, he is Ken Wales, currently on his way to do a special showing of his new film Amazing Grace and, for some reason, he decided I seemed like the kind of person who would like to see his preview DVD (a 7 minute extended trailer). And it really does look quite good. A well-cast, solid-looking film of a major event in modern civilization, William Wilberforce's campaign to end the British slave trade.

Which, I think, gives me something to do next weekend, when the film comes out.

Posted by ghoul at 01:48 PM | Comments (0)

February 15, 2007

About Not Posting and Travel Woes

So, I haven't been posting much recently. But you could see that. I mean, three posts since Thanksgiving week? That's pretty much a dictionary definition of not posting much recently, isn't it?

Mostly, I've just been busy. The merger at work is in full swing, and my team was charged with re-pricing pretty much everything we offer on a timeframe barely possible for the four of us. And then, thanks to one departure and one maternity leave, it wasn't four of us, but rather two of us and anyone from other teams we could beg, borrow, or steal.

So I haven't been doing much that didn't involve just collapsing once getting home except for keeping up with my regular RPGs, which I'd go quite crazy without, and doing a few one-shots like the Spirit of the Century game, some AmberCon plans, and maybe a few other store event sort of things (currently a couple of those being sketched out for early March, along with another SotC game for whenever I can get the free time to organize it).

Today's break comes thanks to USAir and yesterday's snowstorm in the north-east. Oh, I called in advance, made plan changes to a non-delayed, non-cancelled flight, checked back later to make sure it was still that flight, and then got to the airport and checked AGAIN as I checked in that all was on-schedule.

And, once I was through security, they told me the flight was actually delayed, maybe an hour. It is now (4:05) a little over an hour after I should have taken off, and the plane isn't even here yet, nor is it expected for 20-30 more minutes (though they say it has taken off and so is on its way). Which means I might be leaving Greensboro about the time my flight from LaGuardia to Manchester is scheduled to take off (5:10). Which is still somewhat better than what's happened with two co-workers who were down for the same training... They left to return to Hartford, CT yesterday, and I just chatted with them here at the airport to learn that they're hoping to fly out at around 4:50. Maybe. (They did just now (4:16) announce that they were about to begin boarding for that flight.)

All of which means the odds are not good that I'll be sleeping in my own bed tonight. But I decided "why not?" and sprung for the airport's WiFi just to give me something to do, now that I've finished reading my planned books for during the flight.

I'd best make it home by tomorrow evening, though, because there's a session of my monthly RPG this Saturday and, like I said, there's the whole 'without those I'd go crazy' issue.

UPDATE: 4:35 now, and the rumor (and that's the best USAir can manage to announce) is that we will have a plane at 5, but won't have a crew before 7:30. Joy. I'm 90% of the way to deciding to just stay here in Greensboro another day. But the WiFi did come back in time to post this... Joy!

UPDATE 2: 5:12 now, and the rumor is true, so they've switched us all to another flight, leaving at ~5:40 and not delayed at all. No, I don't understand why they delay one flight to PAST another to the same place, but there it is. In theory, I could now be home before midnight, assuming no delays on my (now re-assigned, of course) 2nd flight. Travel is fun, right?

UPDATE 3: 5:40 now, and it's pretty clear that wasn't true. Current rumor (no announcement, of course) is 6:30 departure, which would JUST get me to my MHT connection. Assuming it's also delayed a little, which is pretty much a certainty. This really sucks.

FINAL UPDATE: 6:10 and I've officially given up after the flight dropped back to a 7:58 time. I'll be trying again tomorrow.

AFTER THE FINAL UPDATE: 7:00 and I'm happily ensconced in an airport hotel, waiting on tomorrow AM to start it all over again. 9:22 AM is the current departure time, so 18 hours behind schedule.

Posted by ghoul at 07:03 PM | Comments (0)