NINE DAYS TO GO

FIVE MINUTES OF AMUSEMENT

Josh just told me about this. Sadly, it is a better conversationalist than some humans.



MOVIE REVIEW - ZULU

Felbrig (from Facebook and the HC boards) told me to watch this movie. In fact, it's apparently even available for free these days. It was made back in 1964 and is Michael Caine's first leading role. He played an 'upper class twit'.

They do a lot of stuff in this film you wouldn't see in today's movies - frequent useless closeups of an actresses eyes to see her reaction to things. I gotta confess that the acting of the person who played the priest and priest's daughter is good. I wanted to slap them both repeatedly. Like many 'witnessing' religious fanatics. So much slapping...

It's a slow start but it builds to a shit-ton of combat that goes on for pretty much the rest of the movie. One interesting thing about these sorts of movies (made in the 1960's) is they didn't have computer graphics - if someone got hit with a board on fire, by god they really did. Good stuff.

I'd rate it a 5/10. Watchable, but not a high re-watch movie.



MOVIE REVIEW - MR & MRS SMITH

This movie was OK, but somehow just not as cool as it could have been. I realize that this is where Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie met in 2005 to get married and begin churning out kids. Good for them.

I gotta say, I liked the movie better when they started working together at the end. If that was a spoiler for you, there is something bad about not watching a movie for 6 years then whining about a small spoiler.

It is the movie that makes 'spousal abuse' a wonderful way to spend your evening with your spouse. They even played fun music while it was going on. And it brings sex back into the relationship. What could possibly be missing? What a happy time.

But honestly, the movie is only mediocre - I'd give it a 6/10 for some of the good scenes of extreme violence.



MOVIE REVIEW - IDIOCRACY

Drink Brawndo!

I view this movie as a shocking glimpse of the future. I believe it will happen for the same reason stated in the movie.

With great lines such as: Officer Collins: [addressing military brass] "You see, a pimp's love is very different from that of a square."

This movie (as well as all of the nifty pictures I made off of it that I used in the HC game) rates a 10/10.

As a side note, I don't think they make Brawndo any more. For those wondering, the movie made the product, not the other way around. I have personally drank some and TJ has some still left - thanks to Pete. I personally liked it but I believe TJ said it tastes like 'burning death'.



MOVIE REVIEW - A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM

An excellent comedy from 1966. I gave it a 7/10. Excellent characters. It's true that there is some singing that goes on as it is a musical. They do a lot of talking though.

My favorite character is Miles Gloriosus. I've actually used his song in RPG's before.




Code Switching

This is an interesting phenomena I've personally experienced. This is the term for switching back and forth in what languages you're speaking in when talking to other people. I didn't know what their term for it was.



ELECTRONIC CIGARETTE

Trying out my first electronic cigarette - the Njoy. It's not bad. Might be a good pacifier to wean me off of smokes. Who knows. The huge downside I see to this is if I want refill filters they must come from the USA. Difficult. I think I'm going to see if I can get some additional filters and take them with me. Whether I go to this permanently or not, it will probably help more than hurt. I'm not sure if it would be able to be smoked in an airplane though I'm guessing that I could get away with it in the airport.

For a single 'cigarette' that comes with two filters and an electronic charger (goes into the computer - weird, huh?) it costs $20 plus tax. Five replacement cartridges cost $20. Now, the question is 'how long do the filters actually last for?' They have the number of puffs that they are suppose to last for but that doesn't really help me. At all. So, I had a regular cigarette to count how many puffs it last for. The answer? 14.

According to the direction manual (yeah, I fucking read it) each cartridge is good for about 200 puffs. Hence, each cartridge is about 13 cigarettes. The replacement cartridges claim to be good for three times as many charges so about 39 smokes. Hence, each is two packs. Hence, it's about $4 for about two packs of smokes. Financially, sounds good. I'll see how it works later. I'm going to try to get the 'lights' (as opposed to regular). We'll see how it works out.

There is slight smell with this - the box covers that saying 'virtually odorless' - but it's certainly less foul than normal cigarettes. Certainly less annoying than some of the perfumes women enjoy dumping on themselves.

The taste will take a bit to get use to.



BACKGAMMON

I've been using this web based program to try to learn a bit of backgammon with. It's not bad, but not great. It's free - which is important.



VENICE

Interesting fact on Venice I picked up from a NOVA show about the sinking of Venice. There are about 70,000 residents. And about 15 million tourists per year. Wow. [Sorry, couldn't find the show on IMDB. Fail, IMDB - "Nova Sinking City of Venice 2002" So, aside from architecture, what you get to see there is pretty much all tourists. Kind of sad, actually... Note to self, take rubber boots with if I go there.

It's funny - they have a solution to the flooding of Venice that they like but it relies on Italian politicians to get moving on this. Hence, after years of inaction, there is still no solution in effect. Personally, I'm surprised they don't just take the taxes and profits the government gets from Venetian tourists and use it to make the solution. But, the solution has apparently been around for fourteen years and still no 'sea gate' solution. So, it is thought that in not too long, the former city (now museum) of Venice will go the hell away. Hence, no more worry...

It seems that man and God have joined forces to kill Venice. If you are wanting to see it, I'd suggest taking some hip waders with you and seeing it as soon as possible.