Wordle do, pig. Wordle do.

Hee!

Okay. So, I've decided that from here on out (or until I get bored with it) that at the end of each month, I'll visit wordle.net and create a cloud from that month's posts. Fun! Exciting! Hopefully!!

I... had something else to add to this entry, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was. I'll just post the pretty pretty picture instead.

title="Wordle: July blog '08"> src="http://wordle.net/thumb/wrdl/98134/July_blog_%2708"
style="padding:4px;border:1px solid #ddd"
>


ETA - Hrm. So, well. That didn't work quite as planned. Ah well. You can follow the link and see the results, and hopefully come the end of August I'll be able to have a computer that functions well enough to do what I want.

D

Books:
The not-even-really-long-enough-to-be-called-a-novella called Walpuski's Typewriter by Frank "Shawshank Redemption, Green Mile", "The Mist" Darabont, was only 108 pages, with the last word being "first". (Heh.)
It was not great, but not horrible either. Apparently he wrote it back when he was in his early twenties. He also states in the foreward that the story is in no way meant to be taken seriously.
It really is just a short story, since I was able to finish the entire thing on one bus trip, but since I was preoccupied with Lord Vishnu's Love Handles, I wanted somethign light and fluffy. Walpuski's Typewriter fit that bill.
Um. Except for the fluffy part. Because it was a pretty dark tale. I mean, it's about a guy who sells his soul to become a famous writer. Something I've considered many a time...


Music:
Dinosaur Jr's Beyond was ...all right. Nothing supremely memorable.
Daphne Loves Derby's Good Night, Witness Light was, again, all right. The lead singer sounded to me too much like Billy Corgan (but not in a complimentary way, if that makes sense - I mean, I enjoy Smashing Pumpkins [and smashing pumpkins!] but...yeah.) Neither disc was deemed good enough to save, but neither was bad enough to toss out the window, either.
Dr. Dog's We All Belong, though, has earned a spot in our iTunes library. Hooray! They sound somewhat Beatles-esque, and are just very...fun. So glad I got them.

Movies:
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels was enjoyable, although somewhat forgettable. Steve Martin acting like an imbecile is always a good time.
The Descent was some scary-ass shit. My claustrophobia certainly kicked in during some scenes in that movie, and the Crawlers were adequately frightening. Especially the first few times you see them.
The ending was utter shite, though. (Although I looked it up later and found that the UK version has a longer ending that, while much more bleak, I would've found a lot more satisfying. Especially since it wouldn't have left it open for the crap sequel that is coming out next year...)

YARE

(Yet Another Random Entry)

Eventually I'll have a coherent theme for an entry. That'll be ...something.

*****

I had a dream last night in which I was Batman. But then, partway through, the logic part of my brain kicked in [this happens in my dreams a lot] and remembered that my being a superhero with a secret identity wouldn't really work... because I have a beard.
Good point, logic-brain!

*****

There's a Long John Silver's restaurant that I pass on the way to work each morning. It has an electronic marquee outside, and one of the messages it flashes is: "Now Open at 9am".
Who the hell is waking up at 9am and thinking, You know what I'm craving for breakfast? Fried fish!
Another message is the ominous sounding: "Monster Fish is Here!"
Which ...dude. I'm certainly not going to go inside a place that advertises that it has freakish creatures that may or may not attack me. Even if you are open at nine in the afternoon morning.

*****

I'm done discussing Dr Horrible, but this was inspired by it:
The piece definitely had a shift in mood, and it's one that we've seen plenty of times in other places [comedy --> drama/tragedy]. It is easy to go from funny to sad.
But has anything ever done the opposite? I suppose an (odd) example would be the next Saw movie switching it's tone and having the last 30 minutes or so being a romantic comedy. Could that be done? Has it been done? Because I'd find that intriguing. I might not like it, but I'd be intrigued by it being attempted... Note also, I'm not talking about things that already mix genres - Shaun of the Dead for example, we went in knowing that it was a horror/comedy mix. And most dramas do have comedic aspects in them, but, again, I'm talking a complete shift... if there are no examples out there, consider it a challenge to anyone writing stuff.

*****

The only way to make cyborgs more frightening? Have them eat humans.

*****

Oh, hey! There's a new Artemis Fowl book out! I'll have to rememeber to look for that tomorrow on the trip to the library. ...and make sure that my "E" book is short enough that I can squeeze it in as well. (Or just finish Artemis in a day or two.)

*****

It's so weird watching birds here in Vegas. They fly around with their mouths open because it's so hot, and they're trying to cool themselves down. Why don't they just migrate to cooler locales? Maybe they can't sell their nests because of the real estate crash.

*****

I've got topics for the next 3 blog posts! [Monday I'll discuss the D choices, Wednesday is month end, and Friday I'll announce...an upcoming...thing. [/tease]] Hooray!

Blank!

I've got nothing. Apropos for the day that it is. (Although I must admit that I learned stuff today. Must try harder next year.)

I'm also very tired, and very glad that tomorrow is Friday. So annoyed with waking up early and going to work. It's been a lengthy week.

I found a fishdog on the way home

Let's see. What to talk about?

Finished Lord Vishnu's Love Handles: A Spy Novel (Sort of) today. Quite amusing and entertaining. Certainly not high literature, but I liked it, and that's all that truly matters, yes? I've read that it's being optioned into a movie, which sounds great, because if done properly, could make for a fun little flick. But... there is a lot of internal dialog/psychic powers that takes place which makes me wonder how exactly that would transfer to film. Eh. We'll see if it happens, I guess. I mean, it's not even listed at imdb. yet, so.

Oh. LVLH was 290 pages, with the final word being "way".

Other things...

Walking home each day (from the bus stop) has apparently given me enough sun exposure to result in me getting a bit more tan. (Booooo-urns!) Two people at work have commented that I've "gotten some sun". Weird. Maybe I should invest in an umbrella or some sort of sunshade. Or get back to work on my Master Plan to destroy the sun...

Two days from now is "Learn Nothing Day". [I love that it's taking place on 7/24. Because learning happens 24-7. Heh.] Anyway, it's open to anyone that wants to participate! Good luck, everyone!

I keep having a craving for Oreo Cookies, which is annoying because everytime I eat them, I only want like, 4 or 6 or 11, and then I get all upset because my teeth and lips are all black.

tvtropes.org is probably the greatest timesuck in the world.

I added "Watchmen" to the library list, because the movie is coming out (in a year) and I've never read the graphic novel and want to see what all the fuss is about.

And all the superhero/villain stories that have been coming into my life lately make me want to write one of my own, but it feels ...done? Like I don't have a suitable twist on it to make it mine, if that makes sense.

We own the first two Terminator movies now (have for a while, actually) but haven't yet watched them. Perhaps we'll remedy that this weekend. I'm looking forward to reporting back Harper & Saren's takes on the films.

Blogger keeps giving me error messages about the autosave. Hope that this actually publishes. See you on the other side!

C plus Dark Knight and Dr Horrible

C is for Combo! (Yeah, I suppose I could make two separate posts today - or even three - I mean, I said I'd blog at least once every other day this year, and so far each blogging day has been just one post, but I'll take the lazy way out, thank you very much.)
Apologies for the rambly nature of that paragraph. I'm a little sleepy, since it's almost my bed time...

Okay. First thing first - C choices:

Books:
Winkie by Clifford Chase
235 pages, final word - paradox
"Paradox" is a good last word for this story, because parts of it were great and right up my alley. And other parts were a complete and utter chore to get through.
The story is about a stuffed bear that comes to life and winds up being arrested after being mistaken for a terrorist and put on trial.
Sounds absurdly comical and just the type of thing I usually favor. And some of it was.
Sadly, it was completely uneven. And when it was bad, it was just mind-blankingly bad. Like I'd need to reread passages several times to have it sink in because my mind would be saying, "Go back to when it was interesting/funny/weird, please."
I finished the book, but wouldn't recommend it.

The 2nd C book is one I'm still finishing, and I wish I'd started it first. (I began reading it late Friday/early Saturday, when the week was mostly over.) It's Will Clarke's Lord Vishnu's Love Handles: A Spy Novel (Sort Of). I'm about halfway finished with it now, and it's absurdly comical and weird and humorous. Bonus points for being (so far) consistently funny and engaging.
The novel is about a computer programmer who is semi-psychic, who winds up getting recruited by a CIA-offshoot to help them locate criminals via remote viewing. Good stuff thus far. I'll report back in a day or two when I finish it.

Music:
Delivery Man by Elvis Costello & The Imposters
I'd heard one of the tracks before (it's in our collection of mp3s, actually) - "Monkey to Man", and I enjoyed it, so I thought that this album would be a given [up].
Sadly, not the case. It's more of a [waves hand back and forth in a so-so manner]. I like "Monkey to Man", and the title track was good. I enjoyed "Bedlam" and "There's a Story in Your Voice" grew on me after a few listens (although I originally found it cringey) but the rest of the songs were just...okay. Not catchy enough or grabbing enough for me to bother downloading them. Sorry, Elvis!

Movies:
Capote was viewed by us today, right before we returned it to the library. My original feelings on the movie were that it was impossibly slow and boring. It did get somewhat better near the end, though. Steph and I talked about it for a while, and she did get me to see some of the better/more interesting aspects of the film (and of Capote's character). But I still didn't love the movie, and would probably not either rewatch it or recommend it.

So the C week turned out to be not so great overall, sadly. (Maybe I'm just tough to please?) The Ds, I think, are going to be better. I picked up:
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (which, surprisingly I've never seen), The Descent (which I've heard good things about. I think.), Beyond by Dinosaur Jr (I remembered liking them in the early 90s. Hope I still do!), We All Belong by Dr Dog (never heard of 'em, but the cover looks cool...and we've listened to it already, and it's a keeper), Good Night, Witness Light by Daphne Loves Derby (never heard of them, either, but with song titles such as: "Are Two Chords Enough, Dear?", "No One is Convinced", "Cue the Sun!", and "How's it Going to End?", I'm hoping they turn out okay.) and an incredibly short novel by Frank Darabont entitled, Walpuski's Typewriter. Hooray!

*****

This weekend we also saw the final act of Dr Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog (from here on out, Horrible) and The Dark Knight (from here on out, AWESOME BATMAN MOVIE).

I'm going to be talking spoilers for both - I'll whiten the AWESOME BATMAN spoilers, since that's going to be out for a while, but Horrible is no longer free online, and so it's fair game.

So. As previously stated, the first two acts of Dr Horrible were great. The Spish were all excited about seeing how it ended. In fact, Friday night/Saturday morning, I had a few Dr Horrible dreams, which just goes to show that it was truly on my mind, and had made an impact on me. [The dream involved a showdown between Dr Horrible & Captain Hammer in Hammer's cavern/fortress. Dr. Horrible had a real freeze-ray (like Johnny Snow) and so there was ice/snow everywhere. ...and then there was some part where Dr HOrrible had the ability to summon birds. Which would be pretty cool power for a villain to have.]
Anyway.
Act 3 was different from 1 & 2. Firstly, there were more people. Secondly, Captain Hammer's "Everyone's a Hero" song went on too long. Thirdly, it became a tragedy when Penny dies, Captain Hammer doesn't get his comeuppance, and Dr Horrible gets into the Evil League of Evil but doesn't really want to be there.
Here's the thing - the program was billed from the get-go as light-hearted and fun. Sure, Dr Horrible was a villain - but he was a good guy. He didn't want to harm children in his fight against Johnny Snow, even when Bad Horse told him to commit a murder, he had reservations. In fact, the only reason he wanted to kill Captain Hammer was because he was treating Penny so poorly.
When it came to the showdown between them, Dr Horrible couldn't kill his nemesis. He hesitated, because really, he was a good guy.
And as Steph and I discussed (angrily) after the series was done - if you're going to have a character commit an irrevocable crime, then, yes, they will be punished for it. That's just how things are done in stories.
But Dr Horrible didn't do anything wrong. He does not deserve to have an unhappy ending.

That sentence right there is what ruined the whole series for me. There were so many ways that the musical could've gone that would've been more satisfactory, but Joss Whedon is apparently too cynical and just couldn't have that happen. Which is a true pity. Because like I said, the first parts were great. I was all set to purchase the DVD when it came out. We won't be now.

Moving on. We will most definitely purchase the DVD of the AWESOME BATMAN MOVIE once it comes out, because, dude. One hell of a ride.

The Joker stole the show. (ha!)

Spoilers!
I want to live in Gotham. Holy crap, man. Sure, that city is full of psychopathic murderers and a police force that is apparently 85% corrupt, but it's got a vigilante superhero out there who looks really freaking cool flying through the night skies.

The Joker was a freaking force of nature, man. Everywhere he went, chaos followed. And even though he was truly crazy, he sure could make you laugh.

And poor Harvey Dent (aka Two-Face). He only wanted to do good, and wound up pushed over the edge by The Joker (who was, of course, a reaction to the presence of Batman to begin with)... I was surpsised to see him die at the end, though. (Unless he didn't? If Batman could survive the fall, maybe Dent could too, and they simply told the press that Dent perished?)

...This has taken a lot longer than expected. So I'll wrap it up by saying that The Dark Knight truly lived up to the hype, and Joss could learn a thing or two from him on what heroes (and villains) deserve.

Just another blog entry

Today is the 200th day of 2008. Can you believe that crap? Whazup with the time going all superfast, dude?

Anyway. That makes this the 101st entry of the year. (What with the extra post due to getting all zombiefied)
I had thoughts of writing a short story (basically the Famous & Dead story, just...bare bones version) but I feel as though I don't have time to do it justice. And that if I started it, I wouldn't be able to wrap it up. And then it would just be another story that I've begun, and not finished. So, the thinking goes, better to not start it at all. Right? And ohmyblog, this is so freaking boring.

The Dark Knight opens today, but I don't think I'll get a chance to see it until... well, hopefully sometime early next week. Which means spending the next...however long avoiding spoilers.

Everyone reading this already knows about Dr Horrible, but I'll preach to the choir regardless. It's very very enjoyable. Very quotable and funny ("Wow. Sarcasm. That's original!" "I thought I was going to end up with Bait, but..." and of course, "These are not the Hammer."). Very catchy songs, too. Yesterday I had the "Freeze Ray Song" stuck in my head for most of the day, and today I've found myself periodically humming, "A Man's Gotta Do". I can not wait to see if Part 3 maintains the quality...but I guess I have to. But only a few more hours.

I'm hungry.

Took Saren to the eye doctorb yesterday. So, that's out of the way. Her new glasses should be in on either Monday or Tuesday. Hooray! Vision rules.

It's totally not Terrible Twos. It's Terrible Threes.

...

Need to watch Capote, XXX, and disc 5 of Season 4 of Buffy. That's a lot of watching.

I was rereading the Phoenix/Jen story, and I'm alternately enthralled and disgusted. Parts of it show a lot of promise. But the flaws that I already knew about are uglier than ever, and I'm seeing new ones upon each reread. [sigh] I know, that's why it's called a draft and there is no way it can be perfect on go 1, but... actually I don't have a way to finish that sentence. Hopefully this weekend I'll get a chance to start working on it again. Honestly, I really just want to have a complete draft in hand, even if it is completely unpolished and raw, I just want to have it there, ya know?

(re)convince me

I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart. ~ Anne Frank

Generally I feel that that statement is accurate. But I'm having trouble with it now.
Yesterday on the bus there was a man who was talking (nonstop) to his companion (or perhaps the guy was a complete stranger, who knows) about how horrible women that don't listen (and obey) men are. How if you want to find a "good" woman, you have to "get an Asian woman" who has "been raised right".

I bristled, but, of course, did nothing - said nothing - other than attempt to tune him out.

Also yesterday, I witnessed a father yelling and berating his young son while in line at a fast food restaurant. To the point where the clerk behind the counter was trying to diffuse the situation. Unsuccessfully, it turned out, because the man obviously didn't care about anything other than belittling the child in his care.

I know that these are just two extremely minor occurrences of negativity in a city of a million plus people. And the five - thirty minutes of those people's lives that interlapped with mine are not necessarily a fair judgment of who they are completely.
But still. People are good, overall, right?
Or, put another way - tell me something life-affirming and/or good and/or funny to help balance things out. Please.

B

Books:

Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow.
308 pages; last word - twilight
Don't let the fact that the final word of this book shares it's name with a particularly horrid children's book series deter you. Sharp Teeth is, in a word, amazingly good. (Yes, that's two words.)

The story is about werewolves in LA who form packs (or gangs) with each other, and then, just like dogs/wolves/gangs are wont to do...they fight over territory.
But there's a love story (or three) thrown in for good mix. And some mystery, as a local cop tries to solve some murders and track down people that have gone missing. And there's violence. Oh, how there is violence. (Werewolves, it turns out, are not generally a pleasant bunch. Who knew?)

On top of all this, there's the way that the story is written - it's an epic poem. Like the Iliad, or Canterbury Tales. (Except that the book is free verse, so it doesn't rhyme, so it's actually more Bukowski than Chaucer.) But still. The gimmick works, because by having the narrative told in this manner, it sets a pace and tone for the whole book that truly fits the setting that it takes place in. And it also helps that there are a large number of truly poetic lines. Especially between Anthony and the girl with no name. Their relationship is on par with Romeo and Juliet or Antony and Cleopatra or Brad and Angelina (heh).

The point is - I highly recommend this book. It's the type of werewolf book that I imagine Will would write. Or do a kick-ass reading of, if it were to be performed. (That's about the biggest compliment I can give it, to be honest.)
Seriously, if you like werewolf stories or love stories or poetry or violent gang wars? Check out Sharp Teeth.

Moving on...

Music:
23 by Blonde Redhead.
Meh.
I don't know. It was just kinda ...hauntingly there? The fact that I found the album cover to be the most memorable thing about this band speaks volumes.

Movies:

I picked up Book of Days for two reasons. 1) Wil Wheaton is in it.
2) The premise looked kinda interesting.
The movie is about a man (Wil Wheaton) who loses his wife (on their wedding day) to a car accident, and then receives, from a mysterious stranger, a book listing people's death-dates.
But then we tried to watch it.
We lasted 20 minutes. I dare anyone out there to go further than 30. I don't think it's possible. The acting, the writing, the directing, the music - EVERYTHING was really bad.
Fortunately (?), I also picked up Blackboard Jungle. I managed to watch the entire movie, but, wow, was that an eye-opener.
I knew that the 50's were conformist and oppressive time in American history, but just seeing it so blatant.... man. But it was amusing to see the "juvies" that were dancing before school started. I guess maybe they were members of the Sharks and/or the Jets...

As for the Cs - picked up Capote, and Elvis Costello disc, and two books that I forget the titles of right now.

Emphasis on "Evil" and on "Genius"

When I become an Evil Genius, my bombs will detonate when the countdown timer hits, like, 7.

Because the heroes always stop the bomb when it's at 1. Or sometimes even 2. But to have it explode while they're still debating what wire to cut? That's just brilliant.

what, again?

Seriously? Has it been two days since I last blogged? That's (one of) the problems with doing this "blog every other day" thing. Time ends up zipping by, and I find myself going, "I have to blog again? I thought I had the day off! How'd I lose a day?"
Maybe I should have gone with blog every other week. Hmm.

I think part of the psroblem, though, might be the bus taking. Since I'm waking up earlier on a consistent basis now, and still not going to bed any earlier to compensate, my body (and brain!) is ..um. ..um.

Um!

Anyway.

Other things. Tomorrow, July 11th, is "Slurpee Day" at participating 7-Eleven stores in the good ol' US of A. (Not sure about the rest of the planet. Except I do know that the 7-Eleven's in Awwww-stralia don't celebrate until November 7th.) So, yeah. If your neighborhood "sev" is cool (like mine are), then you can go in and snag yourself a free slurpee! (Granted, it's only 7.1 ounces, which is sorta tiny. But, dude. Free!)
They've done this since Aught Two, and every year I've taken the girls to go get our free slurpees once I get home from work. Fun.

The poll to the left is turning out to be rather ironic. I put it up to have help deciding which story to work on. Thus far there's a 3-way tie. Funny!

Dude. Tomorrow is Friday already? This week zipped by.

Thumb photo:


Yeah. I've got a Band-Aid on it right now, so I don't know how it looks, but yesterday it was still pretty gnarly looking. I think the skin-growing cells in my thumb have gone on vacation. Heh. I'm like the Anti-Claire. (Um. That's Claire from Heroes, not Claire from Lost)

Um.

One final thing. The London Times today had an article listing the "20 Best Movie Endings". The article is here - although it's got spoilers for all the films, so clicker beware.
Here are the films, with the bolded ones being movies I've seen:
20) Se7en
19) The Blair Witch Project
18) Memento
17) Planet of the Apes (original)
16) Shawshank Redemption
15) Gone with the Wind
14) Doctor Strangelove
13) Les Diaboliques (1955 version)
12) Wizard of Oz
11) Thelma & Louise
10) The Sixth Sense
9) The Usual Suspects
8) The Italian Job
7) Some Like It Hot
6) Breakfast at Tiffany's
5) Chinatown
4) E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
3) Casablanca
2) Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid
1) Carrie

I'm too tired to even debate the list, dude.

Some dance to remember, some dance to forget

"Hotel California" by Eagles

Rando entry.

And, I should warn, that I am somewhat tired.

So. Yesterday morning a man driving a truck lost control and collided with a bus stop. He killed one woman instantly, another is currently in critical condition in the hospital.
The bus stop was right up the street from the stop I normally use when I pick up the bus in the morning on the days when I use public transportation. The accident also took place at the time of day when I would normally be out there. So, that was all a little eerie.

In marginally related news, starting tomorrow I'll be bussing it in to work on a full-time basis.



Yesterday I was doing some work in the yard - pulling weeds and whatnot - and I tore a blister on my thumb, pulling off a chunk of skin about half the size of a penny. Oddly, the skin has not grown back there yet. It's still, twenty-four hours later, all sore and sleek and bloody. Weird. (perhaps I'll get photos loaded later)



During last weekend I read Infected by Scott Sigler. 339 pages, last word - anyone.
It was one of those page-turners where once you get started, it's damn-near impossible to stop. It's also supposed to be the first in a trilogy (which I didn't know to begin with.) All I can hope now is that book 2 will be out by the time I get to the S's.


I am really tired. I don't know why.


Oh. Hey. Earlier today, the desire to write again came back (I'd be writing [fiction] right now if I had the energy, honestly), and at the time I didn't care *what* I wrote, just as long as I was writing. And that made me think...there are so many stories that I've started, that maybe I should go back and finish one of those. If nothing else, it would do wonders for my self-esteem in regard to stories. You know? If I would just complete one of the many that I've left hanging, it would prove to myself that I *can* finish a tale.
But which one?
And so, since I do love the whole interactiveness of the internet, and also enjoy linking to past writings, I now present it to the P@riots:
Should I finish [first]:

Wolf (and in which of it's forms?)
That Perth Story involving Jen and Phoenix
Andilus' story
Paul Washington's story
The Malfunctioners (no online link for that one, since I've never really written any of it on a computer. But it's a story that has been in my head since I was about 14 or so)
A whole new story that just started brewing. It involves the military. And someone really famous. And dead.

Yeah, I know. All of them. But which one first? They all have their draws.
Which is why I'm asking for input. I promise to actually do work on the story once I decide, but picking which to go with is the difficult part. (How weird is that?)

Anyway. Once I do, I'll be sure to let you all know.

A

Thoughts on the "A" works I chose for the Library A to Z gimmick:

Books:

I'm a Believer by Jessica Adams
303 pages... but I only read 72.
Last word - blur. (For whatever reason, after I finish a book, Harper always asks, "What was the last word?" So, I'm going to include the final word from all the books I mention from here on out.)

This book was about a science teacher in England whose live-in girlfriend dies in a car accident, and how he copes with life after that. Things get complicated when he begins to see her spirit showing up in his flat, and at work, etc. You know, what with him being all skeptical of the afterlife and all.
It wasn't that this book was bad - quite the opposite, in fact. It's just that I am extremely picky, and keeping my interest can sometimes be a chore.

Fortunately, I had a second A book chosen.
Which brings me to...
Flight by Sherman Alexie
181 pages
Last word - (It's kinda a spoiler, so highlight to view it)Michael
This book was written with folks with ADD in mind. The writing style is minimalist, easy to follow, and extremely brisk. The plot is basically this: A 15 year-old half-Indian, half-Irish orphan named "Zits" winds up having his own version of Quantum Leap, wherein after making a really bad choice involving some guns, he finds himself moving around in time and in different people.
Despite being a 'simple' story, it was actually quite moving, and there were several ideas that were eloquent in their simplicity, if that makes sense.
The entire book can be consumed in a day - several hours, really - and I think it'll stick with you if you read it. So, I recommend it.

Music:

We Can Breathe Under Alcohol by An Angle
Holy. Crap. This was bad.
Well, the first part was decent. Except that each song mentioned drinking, which, okay, sorta to be expected given the title of the album and all. And I've got nothing wrong with theme discs or even if all your bands songs are about the same thing - heck, look at Bad Religion. All their songs are the exact same. But by about song 4, it started to wear a little thin.
Then came track 6.
Track 6 went on. And on. And on. And on.
And I think that they were drunk when they were composing it.
The next couple of songs were almost as bad.
Track 9 was okay, and probably the only one on the whole disc I'd consider downloading. (I didn't, though.)
Overall, An Angle = Epic Fail.

However!

In Stitches by The Actual
This was good!
I'm really quite surprised that The Actual is not on the radio. They're better than, say, oh, I don't know. Pick some random-interchangeable manufactured alt-rock band on the air now. Plain White Ts or Seether. Or at least just as good. [shrug] I mean, they somehow manage to make lyrics like:

So keep me safe in your pocket like a kangaroo,
And I will keep you in the back of my thoughts like a bill that's six months overdue,

work! I mean, that sounds cheesy as hell, but when you hear it in the song, you're like, "Yeah! Six months overdue!"
Anyway, I'm glad that I picked out two discs because one of them worked out, the other not so much.

Movies:

American Dreamz
That's Dreamz with a z. (Heh.) No, this movie wasn't about that Survivor contestant from a few seasons back.
It was, however, actually a very funny movie. It's a great little flick to escape an hour and a half with. The songs are amusing, the characters are all quirky enough to keep your interest (and sympathies, for the most part - even the unsympathic ones), and a lot of the dialog is very LOL-worthy. So, good pick there.

As for the "B"s - we went to the Clark County Library today, and I picked out:
Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow [book]
23 by Blonde Redhead [CD]
and two movies:
Blackboard Jungle and Book of Days. We'll have to see how those pan out.

Writers write

Which leads me to believe that I am not truly a writer.
I keep NOT writing. Even when the desire to tell a story, or to express an opinion, or even to leave a comment on a blog hits me... the laziness factor wins out. What's up with that, dude?

Maybe taking the pressure off myself of thinking of myself as a writer will be a release, and I'll wind up writing as a result. Wouldn't that be amusing?

Eh. Enough whining. (Writers write, whiners whine) I'll either write, or I won't. Right? I mean Write? (ha!)

Let's see. What else to blog about?

I've been on a movie-viewing streak lately. Hooray! Still not really on track with seeing 200 by the end of the year, but it's an achievable goal. With 180-ish days left in the year, and 145ish movies to watch, I roughly need to watch a movie a day. We'll see how it goes.
The Library A to Z thing will certainly help matters somewhat. And stepping up our Netflix viewing will as well.
Plus, this month I think (hope) that Steph and I will go see the new Batman movie once it comes out. I've been wanting to see this for a while now, I really hope that it lives up to the hype.

Huh. Next time I blog I won't have to worry about topics to think of. It will be Annika's birthday (30!) and I'll have moved onto the B's in the A-Z gimmick, plus I'll need to give my thoughts on the A's. Plenty of fodder for blog material. If only it were always that easy.

8 Harperisms

And/or songs:

1) "What's the matter-matter-matter? No, I do not know today."

2) "Oh, you horrible woman!"

3) "Pig-unz!!!"

4) "Don't be a grumpy lump! Just be a happy lump!"

5) "Jokes go on forever."

6) "Oh yeeeeeah!

7) "I mean, dude."

8) "Was it something I said?"

Happy 8th Birthday, Harper!!