Tonight I was flipping around channels on the television when I found this Nova program about building a trebuchet (its episode #101, Medieval Siege). As part of the introduction it was noted they were building the full-scale trebuchet at Castle Urquhart in Scotland.

Wait a minute, I said to myself. I’ve been to that castle. And I recall seeing a trebuchet in Scotland. I went back through our travel photos from our trip to Scotland in the summer of 2004 and sure enough, its the same one! After they built the trebuchet for the Nova program it remained on display at the castle. It’s believed the castle was under siege by one or more trebuchets at least once in its long history.

I wish I had a better photo. It was “typical Scottish weather” – some rain, some cloud, some sun, some wind, etc. The photo is too dark and too flat. Really have to pay more attention when shooting photos outdoors, as this happens to me more often than I’d care to admit.

And I must figure out how to get text wrapping around my pictures. It looks terrible with all that whitespace around it.

Also worth noting that Urquhart sits on the shore of Loch Ness. We didn’t spot any prehistoric creatures in the lake when we visited, and a careful analysis of our photos didn’t reveal anything suspicious. :^)

You can see some of the better photos from that trip here. Enjoy!

Why do I do this to myself? Today I was working at home and decided to tune into the Canucks vs. Blue Jackets game. I wasn’t watching the clock carefully (hey, I was working! really!) so I turned on the television late. That probably saved me from developing ulcers.

Keeping with tradition, the Canucks gave up two goals quickly; the first occurred at 1:14 and the second went past Auld at 4:13. I joined the game late in the first period. Not long after I tuned in the Canucks scored so I felt there was real hope.

There was no hope. Those guys lost again (6 – 5). Oh the pain.

Last Saturday the Vancouver Canucks played the Montreal Canadians at home. Montreal has been struggling a bit but even so it should have been well-matched game. Nope. It was a blow out: the Canucks scored six goals in the first period, forcing Montreal into the period break with a pitiful eight shots and no goals. Final score was 6 – 2; the Canucks played and won with confidence.

That was then, this is now. Tonight the Canucks were in St. Louise to play the Blues. The Blues are terrible this year, with just 10 wins in 46 games played. Compare that to the Canucks (28 wins in 48 games), Detroit (32 wins in 47 games) or Ottawa (32 wins in 46 games). They are the worst team in the league. They’ve lost their last nine games. Last time they won? They played the Vancouver Canucks on January 2nd. The Blues won that game 4 – 1.

The game tonight was hard for a Canuck fan, as they lost 4 – 0. The Canucks looked sloppy, took way too many penalties in the first two periods and played like someone tied bricks to their skates. Sigh.

My theory is that they purposely adjust their game to play just below the skill level of their low-ranking opponents. Maybe they feel sorry for the other team. I dunno know why they do it, it just looks like they do it. Let’s hope they can rebound, the next game is tomorrow night against the Columbus Blue Jackets who have 17 wins in 49 games, making them the third worst team in the league. I’m not sure I can bear to watch.

Eileen and I have seen three movies in the last week or so, and being a movie buff I quickly developed a few opinions about where these movies fit in my very own personal categorization scheme.

Last weekend we saw King Kong directed by Peter Jackson. He also did the Lord of the Rings trilogy; I had to point that out even though its completely obvious to everyone over the age of six. :^)

Much like Tolkien with regard to LOTR, Peter Jackson needs to learn when to cut material that may be interesting but isn’t moving the story forward. Tolkien’s book drags on and on at points, many times spending pages and pages with nothing but singing Elves, and yet this extraneous material was omitted from the movies in order to keep up the pacing. In a very similar way King Kong is three hours yet could easily been cut to two hours or so. The original King Kong story is basically a story of:

1) move from NYC to the island
2) meet the natives and the big ape
3) capture the ape
4) get the ape back to NYC
5) put the ape on stage so he can escape
6) chase the ape up the Empire State building
7) watch the ape fall from the Empire State building

Peter Jackson spent way too much time on 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6. He spent the right amount of time on 7. He also spent a lot of time with the “gross out the audience” scenes with giant bugs eating the extra cast members, and way too much time watching Kong vs. Dinosaurs fight scenes showing off the wonderful effects he could buy. Lots of extraneous backstory was inserted into 1 & 2. The first half the movie is wrapped up in getting the characters to the island, the second half primarily deals with meeting natives and chasing the ape, the last fifteen minutes deals with NYC and the falling ape, and frankly its boring, predictable and downright lazy. 6 out of 10 at best.

Today we saw two movies back-to-back. The first was Casanova. My expectations were low based on the advertising, but we got a positive recommendation from friends so we went anyways. It was very funny and the comparisons to Shakespeare in Love are quite appropriate at multiple levels. Heath Ledger does a reasonably good job of acting but Oliver Platt and Jeremey Irons give way better performances. Its a clever, witty story that moves along at the right pace. 8 out of 10 minimum, recommended by both Eileen and myself.

Next up was Capote. This is the story of Truman Capote and the writing of his prize winning novel In Cold Blood. It was a really fantastic movie with excellent acting by the entire cast. Eileen knew way more about the story than I did but we both found it very enjoyable. It’s a powerful story and its quite an interesting and entertaining story. If you don’t know anything about Capote then please see this movie as you’ll be introduced to one of the most significant American writers of all time. Easy to see why this movie is getting a lot of buzz. 10 out of 10.

Eileen got good news today: her agent has sold her first novel! Yippe!