"Box Office Poison"

Everyone. Must. Read. This. Book.

I'm right now in complete and utter awe of the work, so amazing that I can barely describe. It's just that once in a while, something, a movie, song, piece of literature (in this case, graphic novel), comes along and just knocks the wind out of you. It makes you laugh, cry, and take a moment to breathe before you can continue. I don't think I've been affected by something like this in a while, a long time. There's just certain things that can do it for me, and I guess this is it. It's up there with Ben Folds Live, Almost Famous, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Magnolia, that photo, that poem, that music video, that inaudible whisper, that sentence i never wound up finishing, it's just up there with everything that knocks me down and brings me back up. I've never wanted to read something so quickly, and at the same time, take my time with it because I didn't want it to end too quickly.

On the Agendum...

Ah, reading week. The time when students are finally allowed to take it easy and kick back from their normal, hectic, insanely busy school days. And then I woke up. So, it looks like the next few days of the precious few remaining reading week hours will be spent doing several things, included (but not limited to) the following:
- Writing the damn feature
- Writing the damn history essay
- Well, researching said damn history essay first, actually
- Researching/writing damn politics quote unquote feature
- Writing english essay
- Sleeping (maybe?)
- Watching "Oz" third season, exploring "Lost in Translation" dvd, and reading "Box Office Poison"...all of which i hoped would be my sole activities during reading week...but, alas...

In other, more unrelated news, the new Batman movie's casting has me greatly excited. Christian Bale as Batman is of course the icing on the cake, but then we have the strongest supporting cast in all Batman movie history (baring Chris Walken as Max Schrek in Batman 2...a performance i tells ya will reap tons of acclaim in a decade or two): Michael Caine as Alfred (where's Michael Gough?), Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman, Katie Holmes, Cilian Murphy, possibly Dennis Quaid or Kurt Russell as Commissioner Gordon (my vote goes for Russell...though if Guy Pearce was still up for it that'd be good too), and the best of the best, Ken Watanabe as Ra's Ah Ghul, the main villain. Barry = excited.

And, back to the work. Or procrastination therof.

Walking and Talking

Well, not so much really the "talking" aspect of that title. But, mainly, today was filled with walking. And I guess there was some talking, but it was mainly to myself, and rarely aloud. Though there would be that one odd time or two when I let loose a thought out into the open public, only to have whoever was around look at me rather oddly, but I managed to seldom let it happen.

I pretty much traversed most of the city today and yesterday, in search of elusive interviews. Some were gotten, others remain, uhm, well elusive. Essentially, though, my feet kill. And I'm just generally tired. That's reading week for you. The city itself is very interesting, though, each with its different secitons and corridors. I was very bemused by it all. That, and though my cheapness was one of the larger aspects of me not taking any public transportation during my treks, I actually liked walking and thinking/talking to myself. Most of it was nonsensical, but nonsensical in the best way, i guess.

And of course, with walking around the city, there are the obvious distractions. Namely, DVD stores in Chinatown, used book stores in the Annex, used cd stores in the Dundas-y/Queen area...Distractions that inevitably end up costing moneys. Lots of moneys. But, I was proud and restrained myself. I only got "Infernal Affairs 3" because I was desperately looking for an english-subbed version in region 1, and lo and behold, a shipment finally came in. And, I had to get "Ping Pong: the movie" just because it features ping pong in matrix-style effects!! Huzzah!

And, thus, because of said dvd-limiting, I've decided to make myself a list of DVD's I absolutely-must-have, and limiting myself to these, and only these, dvds (we'll see how it works...I'm remaining optimistic...):
- Newsradio: 1st and 2nd Season
- Freaks and Geeks: Complete Series
- Oz: Season 3
- Mr. Show: Season 4
- Lost in Translation
- Futurama: Season 3
- Matrix Revolutions

That *should* hopefully hold me until the summer. Maybe. Unless some better stuff comes along as well. Damn.

"Way Away"

The title's referring to my Yellowcard song of the moment. A very nice little ditty. I wish I could do a soundtrack of the day, but I'm too paranoid right now, as the last time i tried to play an mp3 on my comp, it crashed. That was about five days ago, and I've been too paranoid to try it again ever since. I should really try...but so far I've been okay surviving on actual cds. And now that Dave convienently forgot his Yellowcard/Brand New mix cd here tonight, I have some interesting musical company.

Reading week is now happening, and the last thing that comes to mind is rest. I decided to make a very brief list of stuff to do, since I think/hope that it will encourage me to actually get stuff done, let's see:
- Interview people for feature and find a focus (ugh)
- Write said feature (hmm...this will definitely be last on the list, i think, unfortunately)
- Research/write city politics feature (damn you, Duncan...can't we get a relatively easy assignment like last semester?)
- Research/write history essay (very very very bottom of things to do importancy)
- Write/even look at the bloody instructions for the big paper of my liberal studies course
- English presentation essay
- Media law readings (maybe? meh, I'll leave this one alone)
- Watch several dvds (including the two, i, uhm, sorta bought today at bay st. video...i caved so easily it wasn't funny)
- And, uhm, there's that whole streaming business to sort out...

And it's now far too late/early in the evening/morning hours to really be contemplating any of this seriously...I should go to bed.

Misc

I'm dead tired...really really really tired. I feel right now as if I've just completely missed about a week's worth of sleep, and I'm struggling to keep up. That said, by typing this and not sleeping, it doesn't seem like i'm fixing the situation. Meh.

Just finished watching "24"...aww, best villain in recent TV history is now down the tubes. What whisper was shared between Jack and Nina that fateful day? We may never know. Damn ambiguity, it'll be the death of me.

I'm trying to decide what to watch to fall asleep to now...maybe some Simpsons, Futurama, perhaps? I'm trying to find a good movie, and I'm half contemplating that "JFK" dvd that I still haven't watched, but it's a little heavy for now. I really want to watch "The Eye" or "In the Mood for Love", but I don't think I can take subtitles right now, especially on my tiny computer screen...decisions, decisions, I tells ya.

Oh, and before I forget: KEVIN SMITH TIX have been gotten!!!! Kudos to Ellie for delivering the info on that one. I'm most excited.

O'Brien Conanquers Toronto, and Why Does My Computer Hate Me?

I must say that it's been an interesting week, that's for sure. For the most, overwhelming majority of the last couple days, it was incredibly superatlively awe-inducing awesome. Despite the city's tendency for cold weather and the five hours or so standing (sometimes shaking, sometimes dancing, sometimes peering over to see a most-likely colder and naked reporter) in it, the wait was more than worth it. And the Mexico trip was this....close....(it can't really be seen over the internet, but my fingers are making a tiny, itsy bitsy space to show just how close the warm beaches of Mexico were...damn that old leg-behind-the-head trick! Ah well, a story for the grandkids.)

Conan was, though, awesomeness squared and to the nth degree. "Haha, ah, Winnipeg". Comedy gold, I say. The rest of the week was just, uhm, slightly, interrupted by one little problem with ye ol' computer (it's amazing how much i can't concentrate on anything else but the comp when it goes on the fritz, even though it wasn't thankfully a huge surge of said fritz, but i really can't tell the difference...i thought the end for my little gray buddy was nigh). Technology, it shall be the end of me.

I Love Bubble Wrap

It's true, and really who doesn't? Insane people, that's who. Well, those and people who probably work in bubble wrap factories. I guess eventually they'd get sick of the stuff. All that popping and such all day long. It's bound to get on the nerves. But here's a nice little site for those, such as myself, who can't get enough of the stuff. The internet is thus the greatest tool ever invented.

Go here for bubble-wrap fun:

http://fun.from.hell.pl/2003-11-24/bubblewrap.swf

I Just Ruined The Next Four Episodes of "24" For Myself...

Blast you, spoiler sites! That is all I have to really say. Well, that and blast my own unstoppable curiosity. Argh. Though it does look like the series is going to take a verrrrrryyyyyy interesting turn in the next four hours. I'm half-hoping some of the spoilers were false, or slightly off. But, what they've come up with is also too good to not happen. It's an odd situation, really. Me and my curiosity. Ah, well.

This afternoon I watched "Infernal Affairs 2", and while Ellie was right and it wasn't as good as the first, it was still mighty cool. It tried to be the like "Godfather 2" in a way, and Yan and Ming were hardly in it, really, which was odd. But i loved how they concentrated on Wong's relationship with Sam, and all the little hints they dropped that lead up to the first one (oh, oops, i should've mentioned it's a prequel..). I desperately want to see #3 now...if only i could find a region-1, english-subtitled version...hmmm...

In other good-related-news, i managed to push back my shift at work on tuesday so i can attend the meeting on the streaming for journalism. I've looked at the different requirements and criteria and stuff that they handed out to everyone in thier folders, and so far it's all very overwhelming. Well, not so much overwhelming, but definitely very interesting, in every sense of the word. I think. I'm not sure that made any sense. I guess the meeting should help.