Friday, May 25, 2007

Happy Days!

Happy Towel Day! (Wikipedia)

Happy Universal Day of the Jedi!

The former I wish I had known about/remembered before I left home today (so I could bring a towel in celebration thereof).

This year, the latter is the celebration of the 30th anniversary of Star Wars! (SW:ANH was released on May 25, 1977.)

Whoah & Uh Oh

These could be considered pretty alarming:

Investigative reporter says he has the 500 missing Rove emails (BoingBoing)

The Future of America Has Been Stolen (10zenmonkeys)

ABC reports CIA cleared to conduct black ops against Iran (BoingBoing)

Thursday, May 24, 2007

28 Weeks Later THAN A ZOMBIE INVASION!

So the post title isn't very inventive. Bite me. Errr.. on second thought, please don't bite me.

I caught 28 Weeks Later last night with a coworker friend. My one word description: intense. 28 Weeks Later is a non-stop thrill ride and an EXCELLENT ZOMBIE MOVIE. I didn't catch many clichés though I did see plenty of blood and dismemberment. (Those zombies can never seem to get enough!) Thankfully, the storyline is a little bit different from its predecessor. Survival, as is the way with zombie movies (so not entirely cliché-free, I suppose), is the name of the game, though the protagonists are not only seeking to escape zombie attacks but also a semi-random death at the hands of the American military. (I guess that's new?)

As with 28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later is set in England (London in this case) and filmed in a British style with British actors and actresses (who have British accents).

And that was where my time for writing this review ended. Go see this movie. It's an excellent zombie movie. (Although technically they're victims of a biological weapon and not zombies per se.) Regardless, it's good. A worthy sequel to one of the best.

Days Like Today

I hate days like today. I forgot to turn my alarm on, so I woke up at 6:25 AM. (My alarm had been set for 5:25 AM and I'm almost always up and moving by 6:00 AM.) The dog had gone on the floor, necessitating me spending 30 min. cleaning up the floor. Between both of the above and added delays, I didn't leave the house until 9:08 AM, get into work until 9:35 AM and start billing until 10:04 AM. When you need to rack up 7 hours of billables per day, starting at 10:04 AM is not good. It is very not good. Add into this that my car's tape player currently refuses to play the cassette that enables me to listen to my iPod in the car and my coffee is upsetting my stomach today. Yeah, I'm not in a very good mood here.

*sigh*

[N.B. This post is backdated to reflect its time of writing rather than its time of posting.]

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

A Long Weekend With Two Friends

So I visited my old college roommate this weekend. Turned out we hadn't seen each other for while - since August 2004 when he visited me in Hartford (and wrote a review for Collateral). He's getting married in September (!!!) and I am the Best Man (!).

This weekend I also met his fiancé. She's fantastic, truly. She is very nice and warm. Just an honestly good person who matches my roommate in so many ways. I think the two of them are great for each other and that they will be very happy together. I suspect I will reiterate this in some form or other during my Best Man speech (which, incidentally, I'm already pre-drafting in my head.. repeatedly).

I think the three of us had a good time this weekend, or at least I know I did. I've said it before and I'll say it again (because I like repeating myself and/or I'm too lazy to look up my previous recitation). In my ever-so-humble opinion, one sign of a true friend is one with whom you can flawlessly reconnect. Someone you haven't spoken with or met in quite a while, but when you do finally reconnect, it's like nothing has changed. You know each other and it's like nothing has changed. You have a great time, just like you did last time and the one before that. I think Matt is such a friend of mine.

I am terribly excited for his wedding this Fall and I am honored, truly honored, to serve as his Best Man. ..and he's going to get a kick ass Bachelor's Party. (I had to include that last part lest I be seen to shirk my responsibilities.) The real question is whether I should pretend to lose the rings when the minister asks for them or simply have a trained monkey swing in on a vine. Personally, I'm thinking monkey. Maybe I should ask the groom... *sly grin*

Thursday, May 17, 2007

*Smile*

Tomorrow I get to see my college roommate for the first time in years! Woot!

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

A Mild Form of Hell

I have 14 pages written of what will likely end up being an at-least-30-page document. And I should/need to have a draft of it done by tomorrow morning. Which means tonight will be an all-nighter. At this point, I plan on breaking for dinner in 20-40 min. and from 9-11:30pm (to hit the mall for CD's and home for Boston Legal).

This is going to be so much fun. ...

ADDENDUM: I split at 9pm to hit the mall for CD's before Boston Legal. Snagged the new Linkin Park (Minutes to Midnight) and Dolores O'Riordan (Are You Listening?) CD's, as well as the second Lacuna Coil album (Karmacode). Went home, popped them on my iPod and watched Boston Legal. I was nearly unconscious so I slept for 4 hours. Woke up at 3:15am, showered, ate, got coffee, got to work and started working on the document again at 5:00am.

I'm frantically trying to finish a draft. Frantically. Which means this post is done. [6:06 AM 5/16/07]

Monday, May 14, 2007

Double Whoah

I mentioned that I'm visiting my old college roommate next weekend and that I'm a groomsman in his wedding this Fall.

Well, I'm also the Best Man.

Whoah.

At some point when the shock wears off, I'll have to figure out what this entails.

Double whoah.

Saturday, May 12, 2007

A Tale Of Two Cities

Last Tuesday night I hung out with movie.girl again. (Again meaning like I did about a month ago.) We caught Spider-man 3 on iMax. Good stuff. Hung out afterwards - beer and conversation. She was also kind enough to snap a few photos of me so I now have new photos for my online dating sites. I may be slightly balding and I don't like my smile in the photos. Needless to say, neither of those constitutes a disqualifying condition for the photos. I think I've said it before but I'll say it again. It's always a good time when I hang out with movie.girl.

Last night, I hung out with a law school couple, Captain Kate & Sr. Pete. It was the first time I've seen them since the birth of their daughter, Anna. Pretty cool. I think the world changes a bit when you have a kid. I think that's also an understatement if there ever was one. Their daughter is doing well - about 10 lbs now. Considering she was premature, this is doing very well. Yay Anna! Yay Capt. & Sr.!

Tomorrow I'll be at work, trying to finish things up in time to be away next weekend. I have a truckload of things to do. I should have gone into work today but I reeeeeally didn't feel like it. I spent a small portion of the day cleaning the kitchen floor (damn dogs) and the rest being lazy and a little tired (late night last night). Tomorrow will have to do.

Next weekend I'm visiting my college roommate. His will be the second wedding of the three I attend this fall. His will also be the second of the three in which I am a groomsman. I haven't seen him in a long time (at least a few years). One of my "principles" (so to speak) is that if I'm invited to a friend's wedding, I should visit with the couple in advance thereof. It's kind of silly to show up at the wedding and only be able to say: "Yeah, I was his roommate in college. No clue what he's up to now." If I go to a friend's wedding, I damn well want to be there as a friend and not a familiar stranger.

I'm going to include something a bit more substantive here, even though it's unrelated to the previous parts, largely because I don't want to emphasize it or make mountains out of molehills.

I've been single far more often than not. In the past 11 years, I have spent all but 6 months and 1-2 months of it single. I'm pretty bad at meeting women. I don't go on dates very often. I'm very much a loner, though I would probably rather not be.

That's the setup. The punchline is that I don't think many couples "get" what it's like to be single. A while back, a couple I know made a crack about being single to someone. I didn't laugh. It's generally not something you joke about or even talk very seriously about.

Society has programmed us to believe that we need to find someone else. We need to be one half of a couple. While not everyone has bought into this, many, many have. I certainly have. It's one of those things that I "know" without any solid basis or underpinning. It's one of those things I constantly hope for. It just is. It's the reason some people feel funny about going to see a movie on their own. It's why getting a table for one for lunch or dinner can be an unpleasant experience. It's why I'm annoyed every time my grandparents make an off-handed comment that I need to find a "nice Jewish girl". Society says we must pair off and so, like the lemmings we are, we march.

I'm not contravening this. It's probably in society's best interests to suggest as much. It doesn't usually bother me. But I really suspect that most couples don't realize the pressures a single person feels. Whether or not these pressures are real (e.g., comments from parents or grandparents) or illusory (e.g., a table for one), they are felt. While the individuals in these couples were once single, I think they've "forgotten" what it's like and how rough the single world can be.

This isn't a complaint. It's.. an observation. I don't care. I try not to let most things get to me - that's my goal/nature. (Though, at times, I suspect I am incredibly judgmental and unfair, but who isn't?) I just wish couples, or even the world at large, appreciated that single people sometimes feel this pressure. That sometimes, comments directed in that nature are not well-received. The topic isn't verboten, not at all, it's just also not one that some people take so lightly.

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

I had a dream last night.

Dream:

Home/America – post-apocalyptic (feel if not in actuality). Economy had maybe not collapsed but certainly went downhill. I was out of a job or not working or market was so bad that I was unable to. Anyways, something with garbage – no collection or some such. Mom sent me overseas to Europe in the meantime.

Overseas now. Speaking English, didn't feel very foreign.

I went to a comic shop I knew over there – looked around. Expensive comic artist art (big though, like poster-sized or bigger) for sale, as well as comic books etc.

Then I snuck into somewhere where others were being held by a military group. Others were friends or from my same group or something. Recognized two of them who greeted me. Something about me being allowed to leave because I'm Jewish.

Went back to comic shop only it had closed (for good, not temporary). Odd shopping area/shopping structure(s) with a hotel nearby/above (up some stairs). Don't remember physical layout and connections very well – not clear. Same expensive art was for sale by someone else. Didn't lower prices though should have. I thought it was overpriced.

Also, somewhere in this mix (first? middle?), I went into a shopping building looking for a/the comic shop. Entered a small room (bigger than a broom closet but not much) that had some shelves with Legos. Looking at them. Gentleman and his son arrived after – "Wait for him to finish. Then we can go look." or close to that. Could buy them. Somewhat expensive/overpriced, especially in light of the post-apocalyptic nature/economic collapse (extreme recession?). Somewhat intricate designs, though. One with loud noises. Scary fun house theme to that one.

~//~//~//~

Generally a good feeling about the dream. Not negative, not overly positive. Felt like I was living a story. Elements of it probably could be a good story. Did not feel afraid at any point. Nor concerned. Didn't feel much of anything, really, not even when found my group who was being held. I think I felt happy to find my two friends, but didn't hate military group or have an otherwise strong reaction to the scene. In some ways, felt like a movie – but one with bright colors and sensations. Maybe that's just a description for life? *shrug*

Friday, May 04, 2007

More Art

Oh boy. As you may or may not recall, I bought two prints earlier this year and had them framed. I am extremely happy with how they came out, though with me (still) living at home, I don't really have anywhere to hang them.

Regardless, I have made an inquiry regarding *gasp* another piece. This time, however, I'm moving up from limited edition prints to original sketches. The one in question is from the cover of Ascension #12, pencilled by Brian Ching and inked by Victor Llamas - it's the inked art (not colored) for sale. Looks pretty cool, in my opinion. Plus it's original art from one of my absolute favorite comics. Hopefully I can buy it (it's looking that way).

My plan is to amass a collection of art and.. ummm... the end?

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Indecisiveness

I've been staring at my computer for at least 15 min. I think I'm trying to resist the urge to play a computer or video game. Part of me wants to start up WoW or MTGO. But I know where those roads lead - the first to semi-addiction and the latter to semi-poverty. I want to do something but I know not what. I suspect I may end up killing time until I go to bed, for lack of anything else I can think of right now.