Monday, January 29, 2007
Stuff Happens
Had an emotional roller coaster last week. Worked things out. Went to DC on the weekend. Had a good time. Came back. Got sick. It sucks.
***
Political Tests:
My scores:
1) Liberatarian.
2) Social Liberal, Economic Liberal = Democrat. I'm right between Hilary and Robert Redford.
3) I'm close to Nelson Mandela.
Post your results.
***
I watched all three seasons of Arrested Development in around a week. It is one of the best sitcoms ever to grace the small screen, if not the best. The writing is superb. After it won six Emmys, you'd think people would have watched it. But they didn't and it got cancelled. People are stupid.
I'm 3/4 of the way through Firefly. It's a good show. Not as good as Battlestar Galactica, but it had a ton of potential. It's similar to Star Trek in that it's not very progressive (each episode contains self-contained storylines, for the most part). Joss Whedon has managed to mix genres (the western and sci-fi) very effectively, not to mention that the whole culture of the show is mixed American and Chinese. Which I like. If only my Mandarin was better so I could understand the Chinese phrases... This is yet another show that didn't deserve to be cancelled. I haven't even finished the season, but I already have a great deal more respect for the Firefly movie that came out, Serenity. It really does a good job of wrapping up all the leftover plot and character threads from the show, as well as being able to stand on its own as a film. It's like a 2-hour series finale you don't need to see the show to understand.
***
Um, how can a park promote privacy?
I stumble across the strangest articles.
***
Finished reading Hannibal. It was different from what I expected. It's much slower-paced and better-written than the previous books, but it all builds to some very good, suspenseful action scenes. I'm not quite sure what I think of the ending (which is different from that used in the film). It's either brilliant, or completely unbelievable. Either way, it creeped me out.
I also read Silent Bob Speaks by Kevin Smith. It's basically a collection of online essays and columns he wrote. They cover everything from production on Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and Jersey Girl, to his problems with "Greasy" Reese Witherspoon, to when his wife said she wanted to get a nude painting of herself. The book is just as crude as you'd expect from Smith, but I enjoyed it. He seems like a very down-to-Earth guy. He knows his movies aren't anything special, he just enjoys making little "dick-and-fart comedies." Also: he has a serious man-crush on Ben Affleck (in the platonic sense), and thinks the actor is probably the coolest guy working in Hollywood.
***
Aaagggghhh!
Come on, we all knew someone would think of it eventually.
WARNING: Not for those sensitive to sexual undertones.
***
Interesting things to consider, inspired by my religion class, in which we're discussing how the Holocaust affected Jewish theology:
***
This couldn't possibly go wrong.
***
My screenwriting class is going well. By the end of the semester, I will have written the first-draft of my first feature-length screenplay. I'm currently thinking for ideas, and I think I've found one I'd like to try. It's one that's been in the back of my mind for a few months, and one I even already wrote a sample scene for a while back. More on that later.
***
Can you spot the irony?
***
They Live is a very fun movie. Worth seeing for the writing and the sheer B-movie fun.
My list of Things To Do Before I Die has been updated. It is now:
No matter what your views of homosexuality, you have to admit that this chorus goes a little too far.
Personally, I think it's hilarious. In a sad way.
Quotes of Da Past Few Moments:
"I couldn't hear you. There was a crack in the planet. Wow... that was noisy."
--Spanglish
"I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass. And I'm all out of bubblegum."
--They Live
"One Christmas, five heavy boxes arrived at my office, with a note reading 'You can't subsist on four-letter words alone, you uneducated fuck. Merry Christmas.' He'd sent me the twenty-volume Oxford English Dictionary."
--Kevin Smith on Ben Affleck's Christmas gift
***
Political Tests:
My scores:
1) Liberatarian.
2) Social Liberal, Economic Liberal = Democrat. I'm right between Hilary and Robert Redford.
3) I'm close to Nelson Mandela.
Post your results.
***
I watched all three seasons of Arrested Development in around a week. It is one of the best sitcoms ever to grace the small screen, if not the best. The writing is superb. After it won six Emmys, you'd think people would have watched it. But they didn't and it got cancelled. People are stupid.
I'm 3/4 of the way through Firefly. It's a good show. Not as good as Battlestar Galactica, but it had a ton of potential. It's similar to Star Trek in that it's not very progressive (each episode contains self-contained storylines, for the most part). Joss Whedon has managed to mix genres (the western and sci-fi) very effectively, not to mention that the whole culture of the show is mixed American and Chinese. Which I like. If only my Mandarin was better so I could understand the Chinese phrases... This is yet another show that didn't deserve to be cancelled. I haven't even finished the season, but I already have a great deal more respect for the Firefly movie that came out, Serenity. It really does a good job of wrapping up all the leftover plot and character threads from the show, as well as being able to stand on its own as a film. It's like a 2-hour series finale you don't need to see the show to understand.
***
Um, how can a park promote privacy?
I stumble across the strangest articles.
***
Finished reading Hannibal. It was different from what I expected. It's much slower-paced and better-written than the previous books, but it all builds to some very good, suspenseful action scenes. I'm not quite sure what I think of the ending (which is different from that used in the film). It's either brilliant, or completely unbelievable. Either way, it creeped me out.
I also read Silent Bob Speaks by Kevin Smith. It's basically a collection of online essays and columns he wrote. They cover everything from production on Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and Jersey Girl, to his problems with "Greasy" Reese Witherspoon, to when his wife said she wanted to get a nude painting of herself. The book is just as crude as you'd expect from Smith, but I enjoyed it. He seems like a very down-to-Earth guy. He knows his movies aren't anything special, he just enjoys making little "dick-and-fart comedies." Also: he has a serious man-crush on Ben Affleck (in the platonic sense), and thinks the actor is probably the coolest guy working in Hollywood.
***
Aaagggghhh!
Come on, we all knew someone would think of it eventually.
WARNING: Not for those sensitive to sexual undertones.
***
Interesting things to consider, inspired by my religion class, in which we're discussing how the Holocaust affected Jewish theology:
- If God is the God of history, and has some sort of direct control over world events, how do we explain the Holocaust? How could God cause/allow the murder of 6 million Jews, around a third of which were children?
- Jewish author and philosopher Elie Wiesel said something to the effect of: "Although not all victims of the Holocaust were Jewish, all Jews are victims. Although not all Christians are killers, all of the Nazi killers were Christians. The victims are the problem Jews must come to terms with. The killers are the problem that Christians must come to terms with."
- Wiesel also told a story about how in the concentration camps he once viewed three rabbis put God on trial for the Holocaust. The trial lasted days, and at the end God was found guilty. After reaching a verdict, the rabbis went to pray. Wiesel later elaborated the trial into a book, The Trial of God, and made one major change: in the book, there is a fourth character that comes to God's defense, and justifies the Holocaust. It is Satan.
***
This couldn't possibly go wrong.
***
My screenwriting class is going well. By the end of the semester, I will have written the first-draft of my first feature-length screenplay. I'm currently thinking for ideas, and I think I've found one I'd like to try. It's one that's been in the back of my mind for a few months, and one I even already wrote a sample scene for a while back. More on that later.
***
Can you spot the irony?
***
They Live is a very fun movie. Worth seeing for the writing and the sheer B-movie fun.
My list of Things To Do Before I Die has been updated. It is now:
- Go skydiving (completed)
- Take part in the Running of the Bulls and survive
- Try on a thong for men
- Bungee jumping
- Go to China
- Write a script that is actually made by an actual company, with an actual budget, and actual release of some sort
- Adapt anything by Jeffrey Ford into a screenplay
No matter what your views of homosexuality, you have to admit that this chorus goes a little too far.
Personally, I think it's hilarious. In a sad way.
Quotes of Da Past Few Moments:
"I couldn't hear you. There was a crack in the planet. Wow... that was noisy."
--Spanglish
"I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass. And I'm all out of bubblegum."
--They Live
"One Christmas, five heavy boxes arrived at my office, with a note reading 'You can't subsist on four-letter words alone, you uneducated fuck. Merry Christmas.' He'd sent me the twenty-volume Oxford English Dictionary."
--Kevin Smith on Ben Affleck's Christmas gift
# posted by Andrew Johnson : 1/29/2007 08:12:00 PM 
