“Fellowship of the Nitpickers.” Peter Jackson responds to bloopers found in the first two LoTR movies. Pretty funny!

I was inspired by Kristen‘s recent Christmas redesign to do a little decorating myself. Whaddaya think? Don’t worry; the new “winter” theme only extends to the web-goddess home page. All the other pages still have my old design. Oh, and yeah, it’s actually summer here in Australia. I like to be contrary sometimes.

Update: Yeah, I rolled it out to the whole site. Let me know if you see any problems!

Steve Waugh, my not-so-secret cricket crush, has announced his retirement. I would’ve liked to see him hang on for the India Tour, but how cool would it be to go to his final match in January? I’d love to be there.

What? Apparently it’s illegal to use an iPod in Australia. You’re not legally allowed to rip from CD to an mp3. What the hell? I didn’t know that. Guess I’m breaking the law all over the place then.

Please send all positive thoughts to my brother Anthony, who’s having surgery today… Get better soon, Bruder.

I finally saw Spellbound tonight. I loved this film. I identified so much with the kids. (I think I mentioned before that I missed out on going to Nationals by four places myself.) God, they all looked so awkward. Were we really like that? It was like watching Welcome to the Dollhouse all over again. But in spite of my own over-identification and mortification, I loved seeing them try and cheering their successes. They’re good kids.

More interestingly, the movie made me terribly homesick. Yes, it poked some gentle fun, but I think it also emphasized the very best of American values and traditions. I started out feeling uncomfortable with the Australian audience around me (who sometimes seemed to be laughing a little too hard at people that bear more than a passing resemblance to my own family) but by the end I was incredibly proud of the film’s message. (And those same Australians were audibly gasping at the difficulty of the words and cheering on the contestants.) Now I just wish I were home for Thanksgiving… *sniff*

Good grief. I am warning you ladies, only go to this site if you feel the need to work up some truly righteous feminist anger: Bitter Old Assholes. (That’s not the real title, but I couldn’t resist the opportunity to Google-bomb the jerks.) It’s all about how men shouldn’t marry “Western” women because we’re all money-grubbing selfish man-hating whores. Darn, they’re on to us, girls!

Weekend Movie Roundup: The Snook and I wanted to take advantage of the projector so we rented some movies that we thought would be appropriately dazzling on a bigger screen.

Strictly Ballroom: This is the first of Baz Luhrmann’s “Red Curtain Trilogy” (which also includes Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge). It’s also one of the most successful Australian films of all time, so I was really looking forward to seeing it. To my surprise, it doesn’t take place in a wacky alternative universe but is firmly achored in reality… albeit the reality of competitive ballroom dancing. The story is pretty simple but the actors are great and I was really cheering for them at the end. As I said to the Snook afterwards, “It’s just like when D.B. Sweeney teaches Moira Kelly to loosen up and enjoy her ice skating and then they fall in love and win the gold medal. Except not on ice. And with better costumes.” Ebert liked it too.

Star Wars: Attack of the Clones: Yeah, my initial enthusiasm for this one has really waned. It looked great up on the projector but I still found myself making excuses to get up and walk around whenever the “love” story was onscreen (lest I disturb the Snook by muttering “Fascist stalker date rapist!” everytime Anakin spoke). It also still botheres me that repeated viewings do nothing to patch together the gaping plot holes. I did like seeing the deleted scenes though, and some of the behind-the-scenes material was entertaining.

Waking Life: We’d been meaning to see this one for some time. It’s from Richard Linklater, who also directed Slacker and Dazed and Confused. The movie was filmed on video and then converted to rotoscoped animation, so visually it’s pretty intense. There’s really not much of a story. Wiley Wiggins (animated, of course) meets lots of different people, all of whom tell him about their theories of life and existence and dreams and meaning. Ebert gave it four stars. I liked it, but more as a challenging intellectual exercise than entertainment. It’s impossible to watch without *thinking* the whole time. (Don’t rent this one as a way to unwind after a tough day.) You’ll also develop a charming obsession with flicking light switches on and off. I know I have.

Being a gardener changes your perspective. Normally I’d be moaning and whining about four straight days of rain, but I happened to step out in the backyard yesterday and our corn is going nuts! It’s knee-high already! Our tomatoes are also taking off and our pepper plant has two tiny jalapenos on it. Yay for rain!

England win. Well done, Poms. That was a fantastic game of rugby. England squeaked it out on a drop goal from Wilkinson with less than a minute to go in extra time. You couldn’t have scripted it better.