Gilmore Girls - Tag - In a past life…

Bits & Pieces 2012-11-08

J. Timothy King — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 18:45:08 +0000

Links and things that I’ve run across recently.

First Snow

Or to quote Lorelai Gilmore: “Ladies and gentlemen, we have flakes. Flakes have been sighted. Flakage, if you will, has begun.”

Yesterday afternoon and into the night, the season’s first snow in the Boston area (and if I recall correctly, in New England generally).

I settled in, and popped in Gilmore Girls season 1, disc 2, episode 8, “Love, War, and Snow.” Sigh.

A Motto Worth Remembering

Bits & Pieces 2012-10-25

J. Timothy King — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 15:00:33 +0000

Links and things that I’ve run across recently.

Or Maybe I Need to Learn to Talk Like John Moschitta

… or Paris Geller.

My mind goes back to one episode of Gilmore Girls (“It Should Have Been Lorelai”, season 2, episode 14—and no, I didn’t know that off the top of my head) when Paris was trying to coach Rory for a debate, and trying to get her to up her wpm. (And Gilmore Girls, if you remember, was all about increasing the wpm.)

I finally sat down and turned my sketchy notes into a first draft of my bat-mitzvah speech: 1014 words. At 125 words per minute (a reasonably average speaking speed), that’s over 8 minutes of talking, which is 3 minutes too long.

So I need to cut about 40% of those words. Or else maybe I just need to learn to talk faster.

(However, I’m thinking I’ll clean up and post the full version of the speech in these pages, in a couple of weeks after the bat mitzvah is done.)

Do You Remember the "Internet"

Bits & Pieces 2012-08-30

J. Timothy King — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Links and things that I’ve run across recently.

Hey, Can I Get Facebook on This Thing?

Old Commodore 128 (versus the flat-screen TV)

August 1 was the 30’th anniversary of the release of the Commodore 64 home computer. To commemorate the event, Pingdom posted a series of C-64 photos on his blog, and I guess, yeah, we all looked pretty dorky back in the 80’s. (You’re welcome to guess which one is me. And you’d probably be right, since my name is cited right there under my photo.)

Meanwhile, my brother and father and I commemorated the event by digging out my old C-64… which we couldn’t find. Apparently, we had already gotten rid of it. (Unless it’s buried somewhere in my basement, which I guess it may be.) The C-64 was named after its 64KB of RAM (not MB or GB), which was quite a feat for the day. We did, however, find the old Commodore 128, the next-generation system with 128KB RAM, which only half worked. That is, it still works in high-resolution mode (Ha! Good one.), just barely, but the low-resolution video generator seems not to be working anymore.

Regardless, unfortunately, we couldn’t find any floppy disks that still had usable data on them.

Don't Know What It's About

Living a Life of Balanced Thoughts

J. Timothy King — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 15:30:21 +0000

Rory and Lindsay, and their ~~attorneys~~ mothers, have a grown-up cat-fight in Gilmore Girls, “A Messenger, Nothing More,” s5 e2.

I think my theme for this week is: life is getting better.

If you’re a Gilmore Girls fan, you might remember the episode after Rory and Dean had their affair, the one in which Dean’s wife Lindsay discovers Rory’s “heinous letter in Dean’s jacket.” Oy f***in’ vey! See, this is what happens when children grow up only on the outside.

And Rory and Lorelai, walking through the town common, almost run into Lindsay and her mother (whose name apparently is Theresa). At which point Theresa begins tearing into Rory, ignoring Lorelai’s urges to calm down, escalating her tone to the point of “You little monster!”

What Do Your Favorite Stories Give You?

J. Timothy King — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 13:54:33 +0000

Christine Macdonald yesterday posted on her blog a reminiscent piece about what Sex and the City gave her.

Sex and the City not only gave me the gift of entertainment (wrapped in a bow of laughter and tears), it helped me see I was worth more and gave back a piece of myself I had sacrificed in my pursuit for the perfect man. Through watching the relationships on the show, it opened my mind and helped me choose curtain number three – where I eventually found a great man who is not the male model type guy I used to seek out, but he’s kind, honest and loving. He treats me better than any man I’ve ever dated. He’s Harry to my Charlotte.

That got me to thinking about the profound ways in which stories affect us.

My Favorite Romantic Movies

J. Timothy King — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 20:30:10 +0000

As it’s two days before Valentine’s Day, instead of coming up with a proper “Friday Fun” post, I thought I’d slack off and just list some of my all-time favorite romantic movies (and TV show episodes).

(BTW, pictured to the right are the flowers I bought for the Missus this year, which she picked out, and which I paid for with money she had earned. But apparently they’re still sweet and quite special. See what I mean when I say that I’m “the husband of a wonderful wife,” and not the other way around?)

And now, here are the movies…

The Lake House - Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves get sucked into a time-warping mailbox, where they dance to a song that hasn't been written yet. A wonderful melding of intense romance and cheesy sci-fi. Made my cry. (Won't tell you why.)
Gilmore Girls episode "Love, Daisies and Troubadours" - The town troubadour demands the town enforce his rightful monopoly to play music on the streets of Star's Hollow, and Rory explodes, because she's actually still in love with Dean and can't bring herself to tell him. Meanwhile, Max buys Lorelai 1,000 yellow daisies—not 999, not 1,001—because it's better than chopping Luke's head off. Lorelai cries but still doesn't know whether she wants to accept his proposal of marriage, even though he's a great guy and she's in her mid-thirties and not getting any younger.

Gilmores, Blocks, and Judging a Book by Its Cover

J. Timothy King — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 19:46:18 +0000

The quick-and-dirty concept cover for Dad's new book—with a possible marketing problem that no one has noticed yet. (Click to enlarge.)

Recently, a friend commented on her little one’s first day of school. Must have been preschool. The little tyke was so excited, she was up and ready by 8:15 in the morning.

For me, though, this week, the Missus is on staycation (except 2 mornings she needs to go in and catch up on work—she’s salaried), and I was looking forward to her taking the kids out of the house to do fun things with them. The house being quiet and empty, I was hoping maybe I could post a fun video today. But so far, it hasn’t worked out that way, because the Missus has phone calls to make and stuff to clean and stuff to pack for moving and stuff to load up into my in-box, which I promised to do but I haven’t gotten a round two yet. Therefore, I really haven’t gotten much done today, and now my head is beginning to hurt, a slow, dull ache.

Oh! I can so not wait for the kids to go back to school!

(I’m going to get to the book cover. Trust me. Just give me a moment, please…)

Here's Why Rushing the Ending Would Save Gilmore Girls

J. Timothy King — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 20:18:25 +0000

As one fan put it to me recently, “I thought you would like to hear of the extremes that people love this show.” She then went on to describe a tattoo she was getting in honor of Gilmore Girls. And I thought I was a fanatic. But I believe it. Fans get involved in the lives of the Gilmore Girls characters. When the characters hurt, we hurt. When they are happy, we are happy. And right now Lorelai and Luke are on the outs, but they both love each other. And deep down, they both know it.

For the Love of Gilmore-isms

J. Timothy King — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 07:48:38 +0000

Update: The Gilmore-ism Database Project is now online at Gilmore-ism.com!

"Either your signature or your brains are going to be on the contract."

Which Gilmore Girls character said that? In what episode? And what was he^* talking about?

^* I use the pronoun "he," because it's convenient. But this doesn't mean the character is a man.

Where does that line come from, anyway? Here's a hint: It's a movie, the first of a trilogy. And there are references to that trilogy in at least 5 other episodes of Gilmore Girls. Do you know what they are?

Setting the Mood With Conflict

J. Timothy King — Mon, 15 May 2006 15:29:39 +0000

In a story, starting a fight is an easy way to make the mood tense. But conflict can do more than just make a story feel tense, suspenseful. Conflict engages the audience. It makes us sympathize with the characters and root for them. And it heightens other emotions in the story.