The sum is greater than the parts

This being the last post in January that I will make, I need to basically say everything I didn't earlier in the month. So, this will be a long post.

Speaking of, here's a rundown of how the posts this year have gone. Not that it's interesting to anyone but me, but here's how it broke down:
1/2 - 304
1/4 - 224
1/6 - 404
1/8 - 147
1/10 - 198
1/12 - 430
1/14 - 104
1/16 - 198
1/18 - 93
1/20 - 36
1/22 - 163
1/24 - 282
1/26 - 74
1/28 - 218

A whopping 2875 words in the first 28 days of this year. That's ...not... good. Also of note - the post on the 12th ("Dear Skynet") was the longest entry (not including this one, obviously) and it ended up being the post that got the most traffic directed to my blog. (Thanks to Annika linking to it.) But, still. Most words. Most viewers. Coincidence?

I think the lesson to be learned is that I need to make longer entries.
Or more letters to homicidal machines. Maybe both!

Let's see, what else? Regarding the NBC-Universal party from the other night? No Deal. I stayed home and worked on removing tar-based adhesive from the floor in the living room. I'm pretty sure that that was more fun anyway.

On the bus ride in to work today, someone had a seizure, and an ambulance had to be called. I'm relatively certain that the person who had it (I never got a look at the individual) was okay, but, man. Stuff like that always freaks me out. And (selfishly?) makes me thankful for my (and the girls') relative health.

I met a Creationist! In fact, he's someone that I work with. Weird. I mean, you hear about these people, but it's sorta strange when you actually encounter one face to face. I've also found that (at least) two of the people at the station are Jehovah's Witnesses. Our station is a mixing bowl of religious beliefs!!

Speaking of, here's the latest Church Sign Wisdom:

GOD GUIDES AND
GUARDS ONLY WHAT
GOD GOVERNS

and

GOD ALONE CAN
MASTER THOSE THINGS
WHICH MASTER YOU

Okay, then.

And...movies.
As I've previously stated, I'm keeping track of all the films I watch this year (not sure why, other than for sake of my strained memory). And I was thinking that each month, I would recap those movies. So.

Harry Potter & the 5th movie - Likable, but it's weird how the fervor over Potter-related stuff has died down since the series is complete. I wonder if when the whole thing is done-done (all 7 movies are out) if we'll really want to revisit any of them. [shrug] Time will tell, I guess.

Happy, Texas - watched for work, and was pleasantly surprised.

Avenging Angelo - watched for work, and wish I hadn't. Oh, man. That was a horrible horrible movie. I think it was supposed to be a comedy, but it was sorely lacking. Rambo (aka Sylvester Stallone) plays a mafia guy's bodyguard. The mafia guy has a daughter who he gave up when she was a baby, but Rambo keeps an eye on her. After Mafia Guy gets whacked, he goes to her and tells her the truth about her heritage.
Eventually a "romance" buds between them, along with some seriously painful dialogue and "jokes". This is one movie to absolutely miss.

Stardust - I didn't think I'd like this movie, but I did. It's very similar to The Princess Bride, in spirit, if nothing else. If you like magical type of movies and anything fairytalish, I recommend it.

What a Way to Go: Life at the End of Empire - This is the only movie (so far) on the side bar that doesn't link to imdb. Because there isn't an imdb link for that movie! I can't believe it! Anyway. The movie is a
documentary that is sort of Daniel Quinn's Ishmael put on film (in fact, Daniel Quinn is interviewed in it). It was very well done, but I think I need to review it to really clarify in my mind what I thought about it. Parts of it bugged (some of the interviewees/comments, especially in the beginning, were ...shock-value inducing? Not sure if that's the phrase I want, but for lack of a better term, it's what I'm going with), most of it was stuff that has been covered previously (not that that's a bad thing, necessarily), and overall I felt that while it was definitely on the right track, that it most likely won't end up having any impact.
But like I said, I need to reevaluate. Both the movie and my feelings on civilization and whatnot.

Glass Trap - watched for work, and it's horrifically bad. But it knows it. C. Thomas Howell (that's probably enough to say right there) plays a janitor of a high rise building that becomes infested with giant
radioactive ants. Oh, but these ants are *extremely* fake looking. This is a movie that is ripe for an MST3K type of treatment. You know, if that show were still on the air.

Antibody - watched for work. Another bad sci-fi flick. Lance Henriksen is in this, though! He's a bomb-defuser who gets shrunk down to microscopic size, along with Robin Givens (!!) and two other "scientists" and injected into the body of a terrorist who has the detonator of a nuclear bomb implanted somewhere inside him. (Oh, and if he dies, the bomb goes boom.)
It's like Fantastic Voyage meets.... um. Speed, maybe? Only not nearly anywhere as good as it could be if given a decent script. But still, Lance!

The Simpsons Movie - Two words for you: Spider. Pig.

Spider-Man 3 - more like Spider Meh 3, amirite? (Yes. I am.)

Pirates 3 - It probably would've helped if I had (re)watched 1 & 2 beforehand, since I really didn't remember it all. But, then, in the week or so since I've watched 3, I've forgotten most of that, too, so,
no big. Pirates was a big, overlong popcorn flick. And that's exactly what I was expecting of it. Yo ho. Yo ho.

Cloverfield - Yay! Monster-filled destruction!
I have to say that I enjoyed Cloverfield, despite the problems that it had. I'm also quite happy that I got to see it in the theater (for free!) so that I didn't have to wait for Netflix. (By the time that happened, they'd probably already have the sequel going)
And now comes the time when I start spoiling the movie for anyone who hasn't seen it yet.
The monster was Squidward!! This was shown when the people in the store looting had the televisions on, 8 out of 9 of them showing CNN or Fox News or some other sort of reportage, but the 9th one was broadcasting an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants. Hee.

I kept waiting for there to be some sort of 'twist' wherein Rob had some sort of connection to the monster. The fact that he was going to Japan, which is forever linked with Godzilla, plus, being (over)exposed to such things from countless tv shows and movies (Drew Goddard and JJ Abrams are both notorious for twists) meant that I spent a lot of the movie waiting for some reveal to be shown that Rob's company, or Rob himself, had some sort of monster-connection. Maybe they were waiting for the sequel. [shrug] (Or maybe, as I read on one imdb post, the whole movie
was actually a delusion in Rob's mind... heh.)

I also found that the movie had a surprising amount of humor in it. Although, perhaps it was just that because it was so intense, things that were 'funny' seemed magnified and were more amusing than they should've been. Ya know? But, yeah, Hud had some good lines. (And I was honestly upset to see him go. And, geez, what a way to go, huh? Chomp!!)

What was interesting, though, was how the ending of this movie was nearly identical to the ending of ...another movie. I don't want to say the name of it because if you've seen the ending to one of these films, it will (slightly) ruin the ending of the other, and I enjoyed both.
I'll say that I have mentioned the other movie on my blog before, and that it had a young Anthony Edwards in it, and that it came out in 1988.
If you've seen both of these movies, you know what I'm talking about.
But, anyway. Cloverfield was pretty fun, despite not giving any answers, and having the problem of many many plot conveinces. (Military folks helping out when they most likely wouldn't have, monster(s) showing up in a city that is very very big, surviving helicopter crashes, etc)
So, if they *do* make a sequel, I'll more than likely check that out too.

Hairspray - Another movie that I didn't think I'd enjoy, but did. It was nothing groundbreaking or that hadn't been done before, and it had maybe one or two songs too many, but overall a lot of fun.

Whew! That was lengthy!

Dude!! Lost returns tomorrow!

I think that's about the end of this post. Oh! But one last thing must be said: I'm glad that this month is almost over. It feels like it's been January all year long. [/said every year]