Oh yes, the Salivation Army. I'm sure a thousand people had this idea before, but so did I.
So, at any rate, first and foremost, I've been accepted to UBC Arts - I'll be transferring straight into third year. Kick-ass. I am at once elated and saddened to leave Langara; these past two years weren't bad at all. I don't like change, but change is what makes me and what drives me. All that's left is to last out this summer semester at Langara; speaking of which –
Holy shit, I'm learning Mandarin Chinese! And I ain't too bad at it, either; (well, at least writing-wise) I've yet to perfect my five tones (heh, I can't resist saying "five-point palm exploding heart technique," but more on that later ;) I know about thirty-six characters and forty words and can already make naughty little sentences like:
你弟弟忙吗？^_^ At any rate, you're probably wondering what the fuck happened around here between my last few erratic posts and now, so I'll switch to random firing mode.
As you've probably noticed, I'm back online, on the bigger and better penis...I mean Internet connection. 5 Mb down, 1 Mb up, 50 Gb every month, baybeeee!
The Young World, a forum I recently started hosting for the mysterious, hyperactive Carinthe, had seen amazing membership and activity increases (something I can't say about the BioSphere 2 forums). Also my Igenpogia sways somewhere between corrupt dictatorship and iron fist socialism, just the way I want it. ;)
Also, I finally got a bike! It's a beautiful 21-speed SuperCycle XTI with 26" wheels and a 20" frame. And it cost me only $124.99, too! So now I ride the bike to college every day, on my old walking route think my best time so far is 18.5 minutes (as opposed to 35 minutes when walking). I'm learning little tricks like standing on the pedals and swaying forward and backward to accelerate without tiring myself out; but one thing I've definitely got to learn is how to climb curbs (I'm always afraid to flip over); plus, I've gotta tune the gears and the brakes. Hopefully, I'll get in good shape for cycling and will be riding my bike to UBC after a few years. S'all good. ;)
At any rate. Books: Max Barry's Jennifer Government - fuckin' A! Well, more like a B+, really. ;) (It sort of rips off the much better-developed Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson).
Timothy Findley's The Wars: A- because it is very well-written, but "the Canadian experience" signifies nothing of personal relevance or significance to me, just like words like "the military," "nationalism," "pride" and "valour," among many, many other ones. In other words, The Wars is just like Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five...minus one world war, black humour and Vonnegut. Findley is exquisite, but...grey, for a lack of a better word.
Movies: Chinatown: B+ nice performances; unfortunately the ideas in it failed to touch me; Jack Nicholson keeps it all together.
Five Deadly Venoms: B- for nice martial arts, F- for stupid-ass white-people dub and C- for the story.
Kill Bill: Vol. 2: A- for everything except the soundtrack, which is not nearly as great as that of the first film.
Awed by KBv2 I went out and rented Jackie Brown, which just turned out to be a horrendous piece of drawn-out (two and a half hours!) schlock. This just shows how much Quentin Tarantino had matured as a filmmaker - not at the expense of his imagination and flair.
I was so psyched after seeing KBv2 it that I got those little excitement shivers and was inspired to write "Mental Work". Speaking of maturity and change - I was sort of surprised when I saw the recent "The Simpsons" episode "Catch 'Em If You Can". It was unusually realistic and edgy. On the one hand, that's great, I've been waiting for the show to advance to that magic spot between the overt offensiveness of "Family Guy" and the non-stop humour of the sadly departed "Futurama". But then again, maybe these are signs of overdue death throes.
Small Time Crooks sucked donkey cock, Gah, here's the list of unflattering descriptors I was going to use for this review:
gaudy, self-consciously arrogant mono soundtrack, physical comedy, tired old jokes, predictable storyline, flat characters, couple of laughs, only thing going for it is the DVD menu'Nuff said.
The Godfather: Part III, finally finished watching it, man, what a finale for the awesome trilogy, A-; it's only second-best to Part II.
Multiplicity was a nice comedy; I give it a B+ only because such a great concept was left completely undeveloped, there is no significant climax or confrontation, and the ending is barely satisfactory at best. As a result, the shtick gets really old really fast. But it's a nice flick. I wasn't really familiar with Keaton's work, and I was impressed how well he crafted those different "personas." I suspect the reason I was somewhat disappointed by the film was perhaps because "Send in the Clones", a take-off on the movie in Treehouse of Horrors XIII in "The Simpsons" was so much more creative and humorous - in half the time.
Event Horizon: C- for a good idea that gets old and bad at the speed of light. Bleh.
And now, for a little virtual insanity: Blog Hot-or-Not; the Japanese are fucking crazy (in a good way); "Hey Crackhead"; "We Love the Irqui Information Minister"; the funniest ratings from RateMyProfessors (they sort of look mae up, but they are hilarious none the less); Michael Jackson is a monster (with regard to all possible meanings); bum wines! (and one of them is called "Cisco"); Conversatron hilarity; the saddest man on the Internet; the Brits are even crazier than the Japanese, and in more ways than one, too; apparently, writing poetry shortens one's life; uh oh ;) better not get famous; then there's the three-eyed, double-mouthed calf; and the Americans are bloody bastards (but that's neither news nor a surprise).
That's all, folks!
Nice bike.
Yeah, I love it too. It's like a car, but it isn't a car. I am the motor!