year end movies

Amidst all the reflecting that goes on at the end of the year, i decided to take a look at my netflix queue for the year. Since January 1, 2006, I've gotten 151 discs from netflix. That's not a number of movies, because there are several multi-set tv series in there, but still... and even better, they didn't all suck.

i even managed to end the year on high note with a trio of excellent films - little miss sunshine, fearless, and spartan.

fearless was normal chinese nationalist propaganda, but it gave jet li an excuse to kick ass while repeatedly opining on how much he loves the chinese people.

lms was as blackly funny as i expected, and steve carrell needs an oscar nomination for his suicidal gay proust scholar. but, of course, comedies don't get oscars, so fuck 'em all.

and spartan you've probably not heard of... i got it because kristen bell was in it, and she's a very pretty lady, and was suprised to find out it was actually a david mamet film. it's a kidnapping flick with val kilmer as a secret service agent, and i was trying to figure out (a) why the male half of felicity h muffman was in it and (b) why it seemed just a little strange. then the end credits rolled and i saw mamet, and understood. it wasn't david-lynch-strange, just managed to avoid a lot of the stereotypes of a kidnapping movie, and i was surprised throughout. until, as i said, i saw the end credits. and that reminds me, Oleanna is worth the watch. it'll teach you all about why Macy is one of the great actors working today, and give you a great introduction to mamet's stuff. i would recomend watching it with something stiff to drink; otherwise, the dialog will drive you crazy.

happy new year!

I'm never working again!

At least, not until next year. Ok, so that why i love this particular time of year so much. Just think of all the possibilities for lame jokes about "see you next year" etc. Notice, i didn't say 'funny' jokes, just lame ones.

Anyway, engadget has a great story on the danger TiVo poses for television. I bring it up mainly because it reinforces my very misguided notion that I live somewhere outside the main stream. I see the list of top 10 shows of 2006, and realized that I only watch one of them, House, and it's near the bottom of the list.

Then i look at the list of top 10 tivo'd shows - what the tech savvy tivo geeks are watching - and realize i have season passes for five of those shows. I'm not nearly as cutting edge as i like to pretend i am.

I guess i can take some small consolation in knowing that i'm not in the MAIN mainstream, just the slightly geeky part of it. I think i'm ok with that.

No more, i promise!

I think the last post was the third time i've gotten on my high horse about oil shale, and i promise - never again. although if i ever have more than four people looking at this on anything approaching a regular basis, i might post a link back to one of the old posts.

Solution to the world's problems.

I think i've written about this before, but it's still a huge thing that will solve everything.

Well, not everything, but a huuuge chunk. Here's the thing - for all the fighting in the middle east, and all we can talk of humanitarian aims and a desire for the betterment of man-kind, what really concerns us is the oil. The reason we can't run harder on saudi arabia and iran is a concern about mucking up the oil flow, so we gotta play nice to make sure they don't give it all to china. but here's the kicker - something like half of all the oil ever on this planet is in western Colorado. Not the middle east, not siberia, not even alaska or northern canada or antartica, but western Colorado. The catch is that it costs a little more than oil coming out of the desert on the other side of the world. it's only profitable at $30+/ barrel. this shouldn't seem like a problem, with oil running at $70 a barrel. the problem is, the oil companies that would solve this problem have no incentive to start producing something that they only make $20 each when they're making $60 a barrel under the current system.

The easy solution here? Targeted tax credits. Make it cheap enough to do. Tax the heck out of imported middle-eastern oil. Those taxes, along with the money we'd save by not having to care about the middle east, would more than pay for any incentivizing paid out to get companies to mine for oil in colorado. jobs at home, money at home, no more worries.

well, except for global warming. but still, you can't have everything.

So the pic didn't work and it screws the feed up to delete something so I'll figure it out later.

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Just testing my new mobile feature with a pic of big ben.

Self realization

I realized something about myself today. I don't know if this means anything, or if it possibly explains everything there is to explain about me, but here it is.

I don't count to five.

I mean, clearly, i can count to five and beyond. What i mean is, when five of something are put in front of me, I don't say "oh look, five things." I look at them and see three things and two things, in two distinct groups, and then my brain puts 3 and 2 together and voile! I have five. this isn't just with five, either - four things are 2 and 2, 6 things are 3 and 3, 7 things are (and this is where it starts getting weird) four and three. not two, two, and three, but four and three. and it's like that all the way up to about 15, when i stop being able to see the groups and have to actually count them.

strange, huh?

Need a place?

If you know anyone who's (a) living alone or wanting to live alone, and (b) looking for a place, my neighbor is moving out and they're looking for a new tenant. It's a one bed room, right here on market street in Lemoyne. Let me know if you know anyone who might be interested and I'll get them more information.

Also, merry christmas! can't wait to head south to spend it with the brother and his family, although I hope my Roboraptor is here in time. Aside from that, for the first time ever, my christmas shopping is done and it's still a week before christmas. well, ok, not done actually, but spiritually speaking it's done. I know exactly what i'm getting all around, i just haven't actually gotten all of it yet.

and the damn ps2 is kicking my ass. for some reason, i broke out final fantasy x over thanksgiving, and now i can't put it down. the ff games are worse for me than gta. i can't stop. at work today, someone told me i should start playing wow. i explained to this person that it's bad enough with finite games like ff and gta. if i started playing wow, i would lose my job. That's not hyperbole, or sarcasm, or anything else. If i started playing wow, or second life, or evercrack, or (god help me) the star wars or firefly mmorpg, i would lose my job within a month. i've gone more than three years with a total of two tardies and two times i called off work. any of those damn games, and i would be fired within a month and the worst part is - i wouldn't actually care for like a month more because i would still be playing the damned game 20 hours a day.

i'll just stick to my crack-lite. maybe after i win the lottery and don't need to worry about anything.

On repetition, and baking.

First - the repetition. I've said it before, but i'll say it again because it bears repeating. Studio 60 is the show that you must watch. Why aren't you watching this show? Are you going to watch this show? Why haven't you watched this show yet? and so on... And props to aaron sorkin for the new orleans musicians on the christmas episode.

Prior to three days ago, i had heard of but never actually known what a snickerdoodle was. Then the roommate brought some home that her mom made, and i thought "ah ha. I can make those." I found Emeril Lagasse's recipe and suddenly I've been voted the King of Snickerdoodles at work.

On undeserved guilt and another weekend roundup

I feel an unnecessary amount of guilt for not writing in over a week. It's not that i've been too busy, i've just been doing other things. I picked up Final Fantasy X about 2 years ago on special, and had never played it until thanksgiving day two weeks back. I'm hooked.

This weekend marks the first time in my life i've actually gone to york. Sure, i've driven through on the rare occasions i'm taking 83 south further than the lemoyne exit, but i've never actually stopped there. Went to see a band at a biker bar. they were definitely worth the trip down, although i had a small disagreement with josh over the opening act. Granted, i don't have a strong technical knowledge of music, and go straight to the "i know what i like" school of criticism. I liked the opening band i saw, Advent Child, but josh was insistent that the drummer sucked. i dunno... like i said, i can't really speak to that - he didn't make an ass of himself while i was there, and i liked it.

Also, i'm adding another show to my studio 60 list. you must watch boston legal. Denny Crane.

didn't make it to the theater this weekend, but I did see woody allen's latest flim this morning. Scoop stars scarlett johansen (mmm) as an aspiring journalist visited by the ghost of a dead journalist with the story of the century for her. the best part, for me, is that it was set in london, so all sorts of warm fuzzies there. i just didn't care for scarlett breaking into an impression of woody's neurotic jew character. i think i can only take one woody allen in a movie at a time, and the original still does it best.

The younger nephew is coming to visit nana and grandpapa (aka my parents) this weekend, and that's always a treat. the little guy just loves macaroni grill, so guess where i get to have dinner with them. it's all very exciting, as long as we get the cute waitress who knows what she's doing.