There's A Rainbow Outside...Right Now!

There it is. Look!! Quickly. I've never seen such a strong one before. t's really pretty bloody amazing.

And....now one of the cars has a dead battery.

And...now my cell phone is currently in my mom's hands, for reasons related to the car. And she's having trouble locking and unlocking the keys on the phone. And i can only see mass chaos resulting from this in a slightly late-80's sitcom fashion.

Mishaps, Blockbuster-related and otherwise..

Last night i wrote a couple paragraphs about mosquito-spray commercials and something or other to do with "Futurama", but i deleted it because, well, it was written at about 2 in the morning, and when i re-read it, it made absolutely no sense. At all. I think at one point i completely switched talking about mosquitos to the fate of western society and then to the FOX network in one sentence. I'm not really sure. I was really tired.

I'm currently having burner-mishaps. My CD burner really doesn't like to co-operate with me. It's been spitting out my CD's left and right, only burning two or three tracks, and then politely saying "error occurred while copying". Of course, by this time the CD is unusable, and my frustration grows further. I would rant about this further, but, meh....

I've been stopping into the Blockbuster near my house every so often for the past couple weeks, patiently waiting for them to release "Punch-Drunk Love" and "Gangs of New York" on thier previously-viewed DVD section. Then, i get there today and they have "Gangs" but not "Punch-Drunk"...what's worse is they have a special of buy one, get the second half off. Now i was tempted...i could get "Gangs" now, and another for half the price, but not "Punch", the only other one i really wanted. I looked up and down the shelves for about a good ten minutes, until i turned my back away in frustration, and in the process, managing to knock over a good 30 dvd's on a shelf beside me to the floor. A clerk came over and told me not to worry about it, but in thier eyes i could tell they had the "clumsy-idiot" look...so i basically just tried to put a few back on the shef before the clerk told me really not to worry about it, and i walked out of the Blockbuster in an almost shroud of shame. Of course, i tripped on the way out too...

Strange, But True...Plus some Weezer!

I borrowed a book from Eric the other night called "Strange Stories, Amazing Facts: Stories that are bizarre, unusual, odd, astonishing, incredible...but true!". It's some sort of compilation from Reader's Digest. I was just sort of prowling through his book shelf, and the thing jumped out at me. It's been a while since i've read a good conspiracy-urban-legend-hoax book, and i thought i could go for one about now.

Reading it today made me realize how much i missed reading about those damned Jersey devils, sasquatches, aliens, giant squids, lost cities, ghosts, and otherwise. Back in the X-Files heyday, i couldn't be bothered with anything but those types of stories. Crop circles, stonehenge, ESP, the similarites between Kennedy and JFK's assassinations. I used to be obsessed with the Kennedy assassination. Now i really want to watch the Oliver Stone movie...just that it's aBout 4 hours long, and it's probably not the best idea right now...

But yes, the JFK and Lincoln assassinations are very creepily similair to eachother. Lincoln was elected into congress in 1846, and JFK 100 years later in 1946...okay, not bad, but wait...Lincoln was elected president in 1860 , JFK in 1960. Still pretty okay...but here's where it gets really interesting: Both men were succeeded by southeners named Johnson: Andrew Johnson born in 1808 and Lyndon Johnson born in 1908. John Wilkes Booth was born in 1839, Lee Harvey Oswald in 1939. Both were shot before they could be brought to trial. Booth committed his crime in a theatre and ran to a warehouse, Oswald supposedly shot from a warehouse and ran to a theatre. Lincoln had a dream the night before predicting his death, Kennedy told his wife that "If anyone wants to shoot the president of the united states, it's not a very hard job. All that one has to do is get to a high building some day with a telescopic rifle, and there is absolutely nothing anyone can do". He said this about 2 and half hours before he rode into Dallas. Both were shot on a Friday. Lincoln was shot in Ford's Theatre and Kennedy was shot while riding in a Lincoln, a car made by the Ford Company. Finally, Lincoln had a secretary named Kennedy who warned him not to go to the theatre, Kennedy had a secretary named Lincoln who warned him against going to Dallas.

Then again, maybe it's stretching...but still damn weird...

On a completely different topic, i've been listening to Weezer's "Mykel and Carli" on a loop for about the last half hour, and i can't get over it...such a beautiful, sad, amazing song...i was going to do a soundtrack for the day, but i think i'll just leave this song on for a while..

Fallen Posters and Self-Loathing Spam

There's a "Fargo" movie poster laying across a good part of my room. It's been there for a couple days now...actually i think it's almost been a week. There's also a big, poster-size empty space on my wall behind my bed where it used to hang. I know i should really put it back up there...but....I'm just too lazy. That sounds really bad, it really is, but i just can't bring myself to do it. Not right now. Maybe tomorrow. Yeah, tomorrow will probably be a good day to put it back up.

It fell down sometime last week around 8 in the morning or so. It was hanging just behind the front of my bed, and for some reason the phone rang, and, in my half-asleep/half-dreaming state, i swung my left arm wildly to reach the phone, but in the process managed to grab the top of the poster and pull it off of the wall, tacks and tape and all. The call was of course a wrong number, but i was now pesudo-awake and trying to support the poster from falling to the floor. I decided it was too much effort to try and put it back up while i was still trying to open my eyes, and just tossed it in the centre of the room, thinking that i'd maybe put it back up when i woke up.

Uhm...yes. It's still laying in the centre of my room. I should really get around to putting it back up. Tomorrow.

A little while ago i found myself laughing almost hysterically at something on the "Conan O'Brien" show...i'm not quite sure why i laughed at this so hard...i think i'm just really tired...but the scene went sort of like this: Conan was doing a skit introducing new summer characters for the show, and one of them included "The Spam who hates Spam". They then cut to a shot of a can of Spam typing on a computer, and saying "I hate spam!". Another can of talking Spam shows up and says "Oh...you mean you hate computer spam!!". Then, the original can of Spam pulls out a little toy gun and says coldly "I...hate...all...spam" and then shoots the other can of spam. They then cut to a shot of Conan looking terrified and bewildered.

Yes...i think i'm really tired...And i just realized that i've used the word "spam" far too much...

Sunsets are Brilliant

I really, really want to post more about that title, but i'm literally falling asleep as i'm typing this sentence out. But, yes... They really are. I want to write more about them, but i'm afraid i won't be able to come up with the words right now to do justice to just how brilliant sunsets are. But i just wanted to say before i fall asleep that they are absolutely brilliant. They really are.

Insomnia and Quentin Tarantino

Yes, so it's kinda later than i'd like it to be for me to be typing at my computer... but i tried to go to sleep about an hour ago or so, i really did, and i thought i was tired too, but then when i finally lay down in bed...it didn't quite take. After listening to half a cd or so, i still couldn't just get sleepy enough...so, i figured i'd go on here, maybe type something and hopefully that'll tire me out...

I was reading this really interesting, and another candidate for best-news-ever (in addition to the Luis Guzman sitcom and the Christopher Walken as Willy Wonka bit), article earlier about how Quentin Tarantino's new movie "Kill Bill" is so epic-like in length (i think the current cut they have of it is more than 3 hours or so), that the studio is going to release it into two movies, not-so-cleverly-titled "Volume 1" and "Volume 2". Soooo....not only one possibly-amazing Tarantino movie in a year, but two! Between this and two "Matrix"'s in a year, it's almost bordering on overload...And i just spent a good couple minutes trying to figure out how to pluralize the "Matrix" movies. I think it's really too late to be typing...

But......even more so exciting, the movie, or at least Volume 1, may-hopefully-please-let-it-be screen at the Toronto Film Fest in September. Ohhh, my....

I think my plan worked, though. Or at least slightly...My eyes are kind of getting a little more heavy...Perhaps i should try that sleep thing again...

Plot Twist Quotas

I watched the dvd "Basic" yesterday afternoon, since my parents had rented it the night before and i figured it would be good for a little mid-day entertainment. I hadn't really paid that much attention to it when it hit theatres, though there was some promise behind it. It did have one of my favourite actors of all time, Samuel L. Jackson, and Travolta, another great actor (when he wants to be). Though the early trailers pretty much just made it look like "The General's Daughter 2", only this time minus the only good part of that movie, James Woods. I should've stuck to my original instincts and just lay down in bed and read a book or something. Maybe staring at a wall would have been more entertaining..

It was going strong for a little bit, despite some really bad dialogue, but it kinda hooked me in after the first 30 minutes or so. But then, the twists started to come. And come. They didn't stop until the second before the end credits rolled. Ugh. It was if the filmmakers had a certain "plot twist quota" they had to adhere to, or else the studio wouldn't fund the movie. I was willing to go along with the first four twists or so...but after it all just fell apart in the last ten minutes, i just kept on yelling at the tv "what the hell?!" until i got too tired. When all was said and done, i think there were about 5 plot holes that were left uncovered. I tried to justify some of them in my head, but then figured it just wasn't worth it... Damn plot twist quotas...

The Lost Void of Pens

I keep losing pens at work. The place is pretty much just one giant void for pens, where they can get sucked in and completely vanish within a split second. I think since i've started working there, i've probably gone through at least 150 some-odd pens. If i could bring myself to take out a calculator and actually do some math i might be able to figure out how much i've lost on pens, but...that would require me actually getting up, searching for a calculator (since the last time i used one was back in OAC calc, aka the course that came from the jaws of hell itself), and then doing actual math...Oh, wait, i just realized i could just use the calculator on the computer. But, naw...

Any who...So, yes, the void of pens at work. A fellow employee will always forget to bring a pen, and inevitably will ask me for mine for "Just a second...I'll give it right back to you" or etc. Of course, those pens are lost forever. I'm pretty sure someone's just hording them in the back, that there's some sort of mountain of pens of all shapes, colour and size somewhere in the building. I'm too lazy to really investigate it, though. All i know is that now i keep at least 3-5 pens in my locker at all times, just in case. Maybe it's a big conspiracy by those "Bic" people. I'm pretty sure the pen companies know something's up...those sneaky bastards...

All this talk about pens reminds me of how i lost possibly the greatest pen i've ever had. It was one of those "astronaut pens" where you can write upside down and under water (though this part of the pen's abilities sorta mystifies me, as i never really understood how you could write on something underwater, since, well, paper tends to get wet down there). Basically it was a really great pen, and my parents got it for me last summer when they went to Washington and visited the Smithsonian. My very own Smithsonian pen. Sadly, it was pretty much the highlight of my day when they gave it to me. Oh well... But, yes, back to how i lost it..

It was frosh week at school, and being that i didn't know anyone and i desperately wanted to make some sort of favourable impression, some random person asked to borrow a pen. Now, for some reason i'm not really quite sure of, i only had my dear ol' Smithsonian pen, and not wanting to give a bad impression (though i'm not quite sure how saying "i'm sorry i don't have a pen" would make a stranger hate me and brand me as an outcast for all of university), i lent it to him. He said he'd be right back. Of course, i never saw him or the pen ever again.

So, i suppose i just don't have any luck with pens at all...and now i'm actually kinda sick of the word "pens", and it has pretty much lost all meaning to me...

Walken = Wonka?

Random bit of weird, but oddly exciting, news: Apparently according to a couple articles, Tim Burton is going to be remaking "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" and wants either Christopher Walken or Crispin Glover to play Willy Wonka. This could possibly be the best....news...ever. I'm actually kinda afraid of what Burton might do to the Oompa Loompas...

...137 Years Later (Give or Take)

The strangest, most vivid dream i've had in a while happened last night. Even more vivid than all the zombie, bee-infested projection booth, and superhero dreams combined. Well, uhm, maybe not that vivid, but pretty memorable. In the dream, i'm not quite sure how it happened, whether i just fell asleep for too long like Rip Van Winkle or if i was tossed into one of those "Futurama"-like chambers, but i awoke about 125 years in the future. Actually, i think at one point someone told me it was 137 years in the future, and i'm still not quite sure why i remember that.

But the weirdest thing was that everyone i knew was still alive and looked pretty much the same, maybe just a couple years older. Apparently, as one of the people in the future told me, there was some sort of pill invented that delayed aging and allowed people to look pretty much 20-something for a hundred years or so. And there were other interesting bits about how apparently the time i spent alseep there were something like 10 "X-Men" movies made, along with a couple "Matrix" sequels (apparently they didn't stop with "Revolutions"), and one of my first actions when i woke up was to go to the video store and see them. Yes, so it was a bit weird. And it was one of those "continuing" dreams too...I was woken up around 8:30 or so this morning (damn telemarketers), at which point i remembered what i was dreaming about, but was sure i was going to lose since i woke up. But, after about five minutes or so i fell alseep again, and the dream just kept on continuing from where i left off. Very strange...and now i really want to have a "Futurama" marathon..

Soundtrack for the Day: All-Ozma Special Edition (As Promised)

- Battlescars
- Apple Trees
- Coffee Shop Girl
- Flight of Yuri Gagarin
- You Know the Story
- Landing of Yuri Gagarin
- Flight of the Booty Master (which doubles as one of the best song titles ever)
- A Song About You
- In Search of 1988
- Shooting Stars
- Ups and Downs

Getting Out of Half an Hour's Work, Ozma, and Lost Paragraphs

I just wrote a sentence or two about my last post and how "Risk" was probably the greatest game ever invented (with honorable mentions towards Monopoly ,Star Wars Edition, of course, the game of Life, trivial pursuit, and a couple others), but then it got deleted because i apparently don't know how to use a keyboard. Damn fingers. Of course, if i didn't have fingers, i couldn't play board games, so i digress.

Nothing much happening in the past couple days. Work, mainly. There seems to be some sort of virus going around at work. Not a pneumonia-type virus, but a i-really-don't-give-a-crap-i'm-quitting-wait-no-i'm-not kinda virus. It's infected all the senior staff, including me. I want to quit, very badly. Especially with that asshole-manager-who-shall-remain-nameless-but-is-definitely-some-sort-of-spawn-of-satan and that other projectionist who is everything the manager is, but i'm too lazy to use all those hyphens again. Ugh. I want to quit, everyone does, but it's the middle of the summer, and i do need some money for school, and a billion other reasons. I think i'm going to make myself a promise that i'll quit there by the time school starts again. I have to. 4 1/2 years for one company is too much. Especially when that company is basically crumbling beneath its feet and isn't really familair with the concept of employee respect. I still love getting movie posters, though...

One good/semi-interesting thing did happen that's been work-related in the last two days. On Sunday afternoon, when i was supposed to go into work for 3 until 10, i got a call that woke me up at around 12:45 from one of my managers, fortunately a manager i like (though she was a little surprised i was still sleeping...). The theatre needed some coke syrup from one of the other theatres in Markham, so she asked if i could pick some up on my way to work. Well, i said i'd be delighted to (well, i didn't use the word "delighted"...), but i said i had some, uhm, "things to do" before i had to leave for work, so since the Markham theatre was a bit out of my way, i'd be a little late coming into work. No problem, she said, take your time. Of course, i had absolutely nothing to do before work, so i just sat around my house a little extra longer and got to work about half an hour later than i was supposed to. The less time spent at work, the better, plus, a nice trip to Markham to boot. So, that wasn't so bad. And now that i re-read it, not terribly interesting either.

I'm also on a bit of an Ozma-fix. Ozma's this Weezer-ish band i was introduced to a while ago, and now i'm addicted. I want to do an all-Ozma soundtrack for the day...maybe tomorrow...I dunno...

And fuck, i just wrote a whole paragraph about this Japanese movie called "Battle Royale" i'm currently trying to download, Quentin Tarantino movies, and the Toronto Film Festival, but it all got deleted.

And now Mark is bugging me to mention his name in my post. So, i guess there's the mention.

Global Domination, and My Lack Thereof

Just once, one time, i'd like to win at "Risk". I always try to hold on to Asia, even though everyone repeatedly warns me it's impossible to defend...and so far every time i've lost. I really thought tonight i might, maybe, possibly have it. But, uhm, not so much. It was a valiant fight, but alas, it collapsed. Maybe i should just try holding on to something smaller like Austraiia next time. Maybe.