Thursday, April 27, 2006

Doing my part

shamelessly stolen from Karen's blog:
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karaoke party, round 1. fight!


Wanna see last night's 5-hour karaoke binge?


Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/horcubee/sets/72057594118626271/


Video clip mania:



Round 2 will be next Thursday at our place [note: this is Karen's place, not mine]. Karaoke mike-o-matic. 2000 songs. 30-person cinema. Projection screen and surround sound.


How can you miss this?

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

I'm getting restless...

... this can lead to no good.

Friday, April 21, 2006

Reliability and Good Standing

Like a house of cards that takes care and time to build up, one slip up can ruin it all.

Crud, I didn't even start on the second story of my house...

Have to make sure my next effort is positioned on firmer ground.

Monday, April 17, 2006

Apparent contradictions

Yes, I said I didn't like Napolean Dynamite that much because I didn't appreciate the fact that "a lot of the humour seemed forced and as like it's making fun of the pathetic and socially inept," which apparently contradicts my prior actions.

First off, where do you get off comparing the hard of hearing to the pathetic and socially inept? (Hooray for changes of subject and boomerang attacks!)

Secondly, note the use of "forced" in my wording. Napolean Dynamite seemed to go out of its way to say, "hey, look how funny I am" whereas the sign language interpreter was hilariously funny unintentionally.

This might lead one to say that I have a sadistic streak that enjoys laughing at the misfortunes of real people.

I say it's just that I have a knack of finding the humour in real life situations.

I'm special like that.

(Yes, now I'm going out of my way... but let's not turn this post into an analysis of self-deprecation)

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Movie Reviews (Not from a plane!)

I actually don't go too far off-topic this time around.

Two sentence and partial phrase review of About a Boy and Crash:

Part-way through one made me disappointed in myself.
Part-way through one made me disappointed in others.
Fuck nuts.

About a Boy (thumbs up)
Yes, I can see the parallels. It's scary. But it's not always that way. I don't have the English accent or the barrels full of money to fall back on.

I think Rachel Weisz played her part well. It was just a bit part, but very complementary to the plot, characterization, and film overall. Although I think it would have been better had she been left out of the resolution. But I guess they wanted to end on a happy-fun-joy-joy note.

I dunno though... the kid seemed like a total dweeb to me. Sweet kid. But a total dweeb.

Crash (thumbs up)
Racism is a central theme, but the message seems to be condemn the act, not the people.

The main characters are complex: the ones introduced with racial beliefs and acts end up showing redeeming qualities or moments, and even the ones who appear to have the strongest moral compasses will end up make compromises or poor judgement calls.

It's one of those movies that tries to make you think, but doesn't go to lengths to cram its own moral lesson down your throat.

The dialog was well written as well, I thought.

Brokeback Mountain (meh)
Pacing I thought could have used some help. Run time is 2h 14m. Most every scene could have been shortened by 2 to 4 seconds... the movie seemed to drag on.

Also, I really didn't like Jack. I could appreciate the character, just didn't like him. (Yes, I can see the parallels there as well. Shut up.)

I liked the movie a lot more after they left Brokeback mountain the first time. Up to that point it was a nice-ish

The love story itself I don't think was that well developed. Hard to understand how such deep emotional attachments could survived after 4 years of separation and no contact whatsoever.

Or wait... maybe I can. No... no... I really can't. It's the continual contact that makes it hard. If I could just go cold turkey for 4 years...

Napoleon Dynamite (meh)
I was told by multiple people that this would be a movie I would love. That this just screamed "Bruce's sense of humour".

I don't really like this movie.

It's not that I dislike it, I just don't think it's that good. A lot of the humour seemed forced and as like it's making fun of the pathetic and socially inept. I can see why people would think I would love this movie.

Napoleon's dance scene, however, was 4 different kinds of awesome!

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Darn it, I need to watch a testosterone filled flick (no, I don't mean Brokeback Mountain again).

Sunday, April 09, 2006

(C) Marvin Gaye has the answers to all your problems

"Hey dude, been hearing some rumblings. When you gonna pop the question?"

"I dunno..."

"But you ARE going to, eventually, aren't you?"

"Do you think it's right to promise to spend the rest of your life together with someone not because they're 'the one' but because they're 'the only'?"

"Bullshit. Unless you're the last two people alive, she's not 'the only'."

"You know what I mean."

"No, I don't actually. Do you mean she's the only one who laughs at your horrible jokes? The only one who knows you intimately and appreciates you? The only one you're comfortable with sharing thoughts, feelings, and passions with?"

"No, I mean the only one who will do the McNasty with me."

"Oh... this conversation just took a turn for the worse didn't it?"

"The worst part is that it's more like pity lovin' rather than that Marvin Gaye sexual healing lovin'."

"Oh that's a wicked cool song."

"Well, more self-pity. It's like mutual masterbation... not pitying the other person, but trying to feel better about ourselves."

"Baaaby, I can't hold it much longer // It's getting stronger and stronger // And when I get that feeling // I want, sexual healing..."

"I don't think it's very healthy, but... maybe part of me doesn't want to end it."

"Makes me feel so fine // Helps to relieve my mind..."

"It's like I'm caught up in this loop I can't get out of."

"Get up, get up, get up, get up // Let's make love tonight..."

I should end it... I know I should."

"Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up // 'Cause you do it right..."

"Thanks for the talk, man"

"Sexual Healing is something that's good for me // And it's good for me and it's good to me // My baby ohhh // Come take control, just grab a hold..."

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

More about me

Spent hours fiddling around with the design and layout of this blog... then lost it all.

Screw it.

I'm just going to add a couple items to the "Links" list in the sidebar and call it a day.
(Hooray motivated underachievement! Wait... what's the name of this blog nowadays?)

For the RSS inclined who can't be bothered to actually visit this blog, here are the links I added:

(Yes, I really do plan on wrestling an alligator one of these days)