Wednesday, March 18, 2009

My last spring break.

I have to say I'm a little disappointed in where my last spring break ever seems to be going. I've never actually had a good one, and I was kind of determined to make this one stand out in a significant way. So far I've just gone home, waited for my car to get fixed, done some errands for my mom and played a few video games on the Wii they bought.


Tomorrow I'll be doing chores for money, which I'll probably spend wisely and sparingly. I might go crazy and spring for God of War II, but I really shouldn't. I tend to loose track of time when I play games and my dick of a Spakespeare professor assigned a paper due on Tuesday right after we get back from break. I of course won't have the time to do it on Monday, save for maybe a few small edits so I'll have to do it between now and Sunday.

I think this can still be salvaged though. It's Wednesday, so if I get up early and just plow through the work, and maybe get a jump on that paper I can go back to Austin on Thursday with the intent of camping somewhere on Friday. The only real problem is finding someone to go with me. I could just go alone, but there wouldn't be any fun in that. None of my friends would want to go camping, or at least getting them to commit to it would be impossible. I think I can substitute camping though, for getting at least two other people to do something that we've all never really done before. I don't care what it is, so long as it's a new experience.

I've still got high hopes for the rest of the week, and honestly I shouldn't be too bummed that this is my last spring break. I'll have other chances to do crazy things in the future. Hell, hopefully I'll land a decent enough job to give vacation time and can have spring break whenever I want it.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Heaven on their minds.

It's 6:50 am and I'm working on one of the last hurdles I have to overcome before spring break. All I have to do is revise this paper, a task that should not take me that long, and after that I can just turn my brain off and go through the motions until it's Friday night and I'm at home. I should be ashamed that I just want to coast through these last couple of days before starting my break, but I honestly can't bring myself to give even the smallest of fucks about anything going on right now.

Friday, March 6, 2009

Watchmen review

Editor's note: Replace the name Jenny with the name Laurie. I think I was thinking of Jenny Sparks at the time.

Ok, man, lemme think. That was....weird. kinda.

word?


ok I think I got something.

Watchmen was...alright. It's kind of tough to explain.

The main problem with a Watchmen movie, is simply that Watchmen is too complex a comic book to accurately translate into film. With just about everything in the movie, you can see pretty easily where it comes from in the book. The problem is some of the context around it is not quite there, and a few things have been added that kind of throw you for a loop. For example, the characters of the news stand owner and the kid who reads the pirate comic are left out completely, right until the end. The heroic, though futile gesture of the news stand guy is lost and looks like he is just afraid and looking for someone to hug instead of using himself as a shield for his favorite customer. At one point in the book Jenny picks up a gun, which she later fires at Ozymandias. In the movie though, they don't show her getting the gun, and because of how skimpy her costume is you're really left to wonder just where the hell it came from.

Without having read the book before hand, I think it would have been easy for me to get lost in what exactly is happening most of the time. There are times, primarily when reviewing the Comedian's life and other back story sequences, where it would be easy to not know where exactly they are if you don't already know it. Structurally the movie is confusing, largely due to trying to be faithful to the book, but not including enough of it to give us a good sense of what exactly is going on. It feels less like Dr. Manhattan goes to Mars to get away from everything and think, and more like "oh hey, it's time for Dr. Manhattan to do this now."

Changes from the book to the movie were pretty minimal, which helped it in some parts and hurt it in others. The image of the clock, continuously approaching midnight makes an appearance, but in a really dumb way. Apparently there is "the doomsday clock" which symbolizes how close we are to nuclear war (this is a paraphrase of their own words). At some points through the movie, scientists take the time to move it one minute closer. The whole country is watching these scientists move the large minute hands in this world for some reason. I guess it's supposed to be similar to our color coded terror alert, which means nothing but is just something for us all to panic about. The clock image was something that really did not need to be included anyway, but if they're going to keep it, they should at least keep what it originally was.

On the other hand, the ending is changed slightly from the book but it still maintains much of the deep emotional impact that you originally feel from reading it. I don't want to give anything away, but I will tell you that the ending does work, even though it's not quite the same. Many of the same lines are there, but said to different people or changed slightly to maintain the meaning of it all without it being exactly what someone who read the book would expect.

There were several aspects of this movie that really took me by surprise. For starters, it's much more violent than I would have expected it to be. When Dan and Jenny are fighting the top knot gang members, there's one point where Jenny breaks a guys arm so horribly that the skin breaks and blood squirts everywhere. When Dr. Manhattan blows someone up, he really blows them up. Even in the book, he doesn't completely incinerate as many people as he does here. I'm a little conflicted as to how I feel about this. I don't know if they went in this direction to keep it true to life, as in violence really is a messy way to solve conflict, or if it was just simple shock value. I suggest it might be shock value, because it seems some elements actually were just there because, hey fuck it, why not? When Dan and Jenny have sex in his airship, it's quite graphically depicted. Dr. Manhattan does in fact remain naked for most of the film, much to my roommate's surprise and protest. I don't feel that either of these elements added to the film, mainly because context is again missing. We are not told how Dr. Manhattan does not see the point of clothes anymore, and thus prefers to go naked. Instead we just get a large naked blue guy with a weird symbol on his head that is never explained despite us seeing him burn it into himself.

Some of the musical choices were, not quite poor choices, but odd none the less. Instead of going through a detailed history of the original 1940s costumed heroes, they instead opt for a montage of photo ops while The times they are a changing plays. During the funeral of the Comedian, The Sound of Silence is played. All of the musical choices fit, in one way or another, but are largely unnecessary. It has the effect of pulling you back out of the experience, because these songs just seem out of place.

Rorschach really sells this movie for me. He's easily, and by a large margin, the best part. He's a great character, and his portrayal is a good interpretation. I was against it, at first, simply because I always had him sound different in my head, but once I was past the initial adjustment of how I think his voice should be I was really into it. I'm guessing at one point, they just told the guy to act like Clint Eastwood, and oh boy does it work. Heck, while he was in jail I thought to myself at one point "holy shit, did they get Eastwood to play him? No, no way. Man, who is this guy?" It was just such a strong performance if you ask me. Dr. Manhattan portrayed well also, but again with some shock as to how different he was in my head to how he is on screen. I always gave him a deep, echo-ey voice while the film keeps it just the same from when he was human. It's not something I would have ever considered, but ends up working in the end.


All in all, Watchmen is worth seeing, though possibly not in theaters. If you're going to see it, and expect to see an accurate portrayal of your favorite comic book, with little changes and a complete sense of a story you're going to be disapointed. If you just want to see some badass fight scenes, and see some of your favorite parts of the book acted out, this is the movie for you.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Misery as a motivator

So today I felt like crap for most of my time at the internship, henceforth known as work.

Today an author was supposed to be in the office, so we're expected to dress extra nice for these occasions. I went in wearing my gray work shirt and navy blue pants all tucked in a looking nice, in that "you look horrible, but somewhere down the line this was the style that personified professionalism" kind of way. The only down side is my horrendously sized gut, and it's ability to get in the way of everything I do.

A maybe an hour after getting to work, I was asked to deliver some packages to the post office. Melissa was able to come along and help, which was cool because we both were looking to not have to stare at spreadsheets all day. This should not have been that bad but alas, after neglecting to bring my own lunch for the first few weeks of work, my car was littered with fast food bags that in turn attributed to a recent weight gain of mine. So I already feel like a total slob for just being that guy with way too many Wendye's bags in his car.

Of course after the lifting and physical movement, to which my outfit is not intended for, my shirt is un-tucked and wrinkled in annoying ways. Ways that, to fix, would require me sticking my hand down my pants at several spots all over my waist. I of course think it's a great idea to attempt this at my desk thinking this is just a one or two push job. Oh how wrong I am and I later feel that the back is completely undone and who knows whats showing up down there.

I make my way to the rest room, mostly to fix this but also to pee. Aparently though, with these pants I cannot find any reason to zip the fly back up. I go back to my desk, shirt fixed but zipper undone and don't notice it for a while. Once I do, I don't know what to do because I'm around people and don't want to suddenly start playing with my crotch in public. I save that shit for movie theaters and churches (chicken).

So I finally find an opening when I'm alone to fix that and think that everything is going to be great forever, right? Well sometime in my normal movments the front of my shirt becomes un-tucked again. I don't really know how, but it does, so much to the point my stomach is showing a little. I of course do not see this at all and procede to go on my lunch break, giving a nod to the hot receptionsist at the front desk. Smooth criminal, this one.

So I eat my lunch and take my nap and go back into the restroom to fix my shirt to the best of my ability. Everything is looking nice again, until maybe an hour an a half later, after sitting perfectly upright to the point of causing pain in my back, I notice that my fly is open once again! I look around, and am pretty sure no one can see me when I decide to go for it, only to have someone walk by at that exact moment. It must have looked like I was just putting my junk away as she walked by.

I should take this time to mention that like 90% of the office i work at is cute girls. Seriously, it's the dirty old men who hired them, a parade of young attractive girls, and me.

So basically I was so awkward and felt like so much of a slob today, infront of just the right audience that I'm even more motivated to work out and eat right, espeically at work.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

That's me in the corner



Let me tell you about the last couple of hours. I was cleaning some pots and pans that I had used previously and decided that I should go get gas before tomorrow so that I won't have to on the way to or from the internship tomorrow. After that I thought it might be a good idea to stop at the grocery store for a few things while I was out anyway.

I went to the cereal isle and stood there for a few minutes thinking about what to get. I noticed though, that I was on the far right side of the isle.... at all the cereals intended for grown ups. There was not a cartoon character or offer of a prize or anything fun in sight. All I could see were eye catching fonts advertising the fiber content and how much more wheat and vitamins this brand has over the other. I was surprised to find myself here and scooted down to the kids cereals, the cereals of my youth. As I gazed upon the familiar faces of Captain Crunch and that Cheerios Honey Bee I realized that I really just did not want any of these cereals. I remembered how the last time I ate most of these the sugar made bits dissolve in my mouth and I had to have maybe two bowls to really fill up.



I'm all over this shit.


So after I bought a box of Rasin Bran I went home and thought to myself that I should make my lunch tonight in preparation to tomorrow. This part is not what really got to me, but more what I decided to make for lunch which made me kind of cringe. I made a tuna sandwhich and a salad. It's healthy, and actually quite tasty.

WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME?!?

I think I'm maturing, growing older, putting away childish things. I haven't watched a cartoon in years. I hardly play video games any more. I'm looking forward to the idea of getting a good job and saving up for my future.


God I hope the G.I. Joe movie is good. I need to be able to say "let's watch some G.I. Joe" again.