ok, here's a reduced calorie version of the post i attempted to make the other day.

( or, the story of the year 2000 )

other things that happened pre-bipolar:

started the year in the arms of a beautiful woman, who i ended up falling in love with, and who ended up leaving me a couple months later.
lost my job of two years at the local bookstore, because of my own negligence.
spent two months off work, before breaking down and taking the Kinko's job (around the time of bipolar's first month).

so, now it's a new year, i've got the perfect job, and i'm making good money. hopefully this year will be a little better than the last.

james hetfield — ( i get this one quite a bit, so there must be something to it )

brian johnson — ? ( lead singer of AC/DC — i've gotten this one once, and i really don't see it. )

christopher walken — ?? ( again, once. again, HUH? )

i don't know how i feel about all this…

well. first post from my new computer haven at home. i've finally managed to get everything set up, all my old files transferred from the crappy old laptop i've been borrowing from my dad for the past year & a half, and am beginning the process of installing all those applications that i don't (but should) use on a daily basis.

it's been a rather uneventful day here at casa de bipolar. didn't get a glimpse of the puffin until late in the evening due to the alcoholic stupor he found himself in after last night's festivities.

thanks go out to tim for the link to the nocturnes he sent me. there are quite a few really good pics in the different exhibits there, check 'em out. oh, and as tim pointed out, it really isn't a goth site.

also, from the nocturnes, i found this little gem. what can i say, i'm a sucker for anything science related.

kerry blessed us with an update today, and while i've been enjoying her cryptic little two to four line posts, it's nice to see something more substantial.

and finally, here's a nice little rant on rockout.org about the enraging practice of video & DVD publishers who try (often, successfully) to sell us the same thing over & over again.

yeah.

technically, i suppose this post is being made on the 4th, which means i missed yesterday, which means i've failed brian's challenge to me to post every day while he's away. of course, for me it's still sunday (in a way) so perhaps this could count as sunday's post.

i've got DSL in full effect now, little home network in operation, internet connection shared between mine and brian's computers, now i get to see (soon) if i can work my magic on Jess' lil iMac. the unfortunate side effect of all this swanky new computer equipment is a completely empty wallet and bank account. i've–once again–overextended myself and now have to face probably a week with very little food.

i've gotten a couple of brief, cryptic emails from brian, which probably means that he's having a good ol' time up there in chi-town since he's not wasting his time writing posts or emails to his friends.

hung out with paul and brax last night, watching an entertaining movie about a guy trying to make a movie. kind of a cool laid back night.

it doesn't really feel like sunday should be over yet, perhaps it has something to do with the fact that i didn't wake up until 6:00PM on saturday and 3:00PM today. i've really gotta fix my sleep schedule.

not much to report the past couple days, been workin', my sixth and final week at Kinko's. on monday I start my new real job at Corvus. I'm going to be struggling the next few days to readjust my schedule from third shift to first shift… why can't life ever just be easy? why can't we just sleep when the hell we feel like it, wake up when we can't sleep another minute, do the things we need or want to do, and just be happy? if someone could tell me the secret to this, I'd be indebted to them for the rest of my peaceful, happy life.

to retouch on something from my last post, I have finally read a couple reviews of the x-men movie, and so far it's fifty-fifty (I've only read two–one good, one bad.) The reviewer for Entertainment Weakly–that snot rag of an entertainment magazine, which, ironically enough, put X-Men on their cover–spewed a mouthful of bullshit all over one of their pages. I often wonder if these movie reviewers even go watch the movies they're reviewing, but since he actually pointed out a few scenes that weren't in the trailers, he must have, or at least he talked to someone who had. It amazes me that this dumbfuck actually saw the same movie I did, but then I think about how reality is all perception based anyway, so in truth, he didn't see the same movie I did, he saw the movie his brain made him think he saw, and damn where the hell am I going with this?
      anyway, the guy has no clue.

now, the guy who reviewed the movie for the LEO (Louisville's Eccentric Observer, for you out of towners) obviously didn't have his head up his ass when he walked into the theater. at least he got it. he understood the message, the theme, the really great thing the movie was, as well as the little, but ultimately forgivable, problems. all in all, he gave it a fair, honest, thoughtful review.

EW guy, on the other hand, apparently walked in expecting some totally fanciful kids movie that he was going to hate, and was pissed off when the real-world issues made him think too hard.
      not to throw myself into too-heavily geek infested waters, but this is the same bullshit Star Trek gets on occasion, when people dis it because it actually tries to deal with important social issues. Admittedly, some of the acting on Star Trek isn't the greatest, and there have been some horrible episodes (of all the series), but Star Trek isn't about the actors, the characters, or the ships, it's about theme, emotion, hope, and all that other good shit that makes good literature good.
      which conversely, is what the X-Men movie is all about too. It isn't about the characters, the costumes, the funky powers; it's about the struggle of the outcast members of our human society trying to fit in and live normal lives, and not being able to do so because of prejudice, fear, and an unwillingness or inability to learn, understand, accept, and welcome differences.

and all this is very real, very now. perhaps EW guy looked into Magneto or the Senator's face and saw himself, prejudiced, afraid, ignorant, and got pissed because the movie called him out. or maybe he just didn't get it.

ok.

I've not updated in a couple days, and have seen the new X-Men movie three times since then. and I say I'm not a fanboy…

I'm pretty sure that those of you who care have already read at least 25 or 30 different reports/reviews/commentaries on the movie, so I'll spare the long-winded shit. overall, I thought the movie was great (obviously, since I've seen it three times), probably the best comic adaptation ever done. The opening scene sets the mood and theme in a very powerful, recognizable way, and the movie doesn't stray from that feeling too far at any point. From a philosophical standpoint, this movie definitely has something to say. I really hope people are taking it seriously. (I've not read any reviews of it at this point, mainly because every time I've read reviews in the past, the reviewers inevitably are either out-of-touch morons who don't get the point, or potentially intelligent people who went in with strong preconceptions that colored their experience).
      from a comic geek standpoint, I'd have to say they pretty much hit the nail on the head. I'm not that up on the X-Men and their history, but Paul and brian could probably tell you the name of Iceman's first girlfriend, what issue she appeared in, and who the creative team was that worked on that particular issue–and they said that pretty much everything was pretty close, with a few acceptable (considering the circumstances) shortcuts or omissions here or there.
      I thought the various "powers" were done well, with the exception of some of the flying/floating/jumping stuff (which I understand is difficult to fake with wires & harnesses). and I loved Magneto's "I don't think I can stop them all, Charles." (though why the guy didn't just get out of the way of the bullet when it was stopped, I don't know.)
      my two biggest gripes about the movie are 1) the bodies flying straight back when hit (Wolvie didn't do this when smacked with the tree, which was good), and 2) screws in Wolvie's claws (on the train…)
      the weakest characters were Storm and Sabretooth, the weakest acting by those two actors and the guy that played Cyclops. Jackman was perfect as Wolverine, probably the best performance of the whole cast, including the always brilliant Patrick Stewart.

to make a long story short, if you haven't seen the movie yet, what the fuck are you waiting for? quit reading and get your ass to the theater!

well, today's x-men day. I must say, though I myself never read any of the x-men books, I'm pretty excited about the new movie. perhaps it's an illness I've caught from brian (jerk boy, over there yesterday with Paul who'd weaseled his way into a preview pass somehow, and invited brian rather than me because he actually reads x-men or something. man, the nerve of some people).

anyway, it's gotten some decent reviews, and it'll hopefully bring comic movies back up to the level of the first Keaton Batman movie. also, there's hope that if this movie is a success, someone will actually get around to finishing that damned Spider-Man movie they've been promising for almost more than 5 years now.

oh yeah, and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos is… pretty much… naked. why the hell would I not watch this movie?

I swear to god the majority of this post was written two days ago. brian made a mention about my review of Fight Club 'cause he thought I'd be able to post it after he'd read it… not so. my phone has been disconnected for two days now, and this time it's actually not my fault. so, I'm writing this little preface to this post FROM WORK (yeah.) at Kinko's. It's like 3:00 in the morning…

Here's the rest of what I'd written before.

I promised a review of the Fight Club DVD for you today, so here it goes.

buy it. now.

there's so much on those two discs, including four commentary tracks, one of which is with David, Ed, Brad, and Helena. Listening to this track, I realized that Edward Norton is a really smart guy. He pointed out some things that I hadn't caught in the movie or the novel, and made some fantastic connections between the movie and different philosophers. what really struck me the most, though, was the relationship between Ed, Brad, and David. they carried on like they were the best of friends, making comments and cracks to and about each other the entire time. "It's a little dark, Finch." "Shutup guys."
      I'd really loved the marketing campaign for the movie, and the stuff they've included on disc two is great. The highlights for me were the promotional catalog with "products" from Fight Club, the PSA's, and the poster art.
      the deleted scenes were interesting, but most of them were deleted with good reason. some of the production stuff (videos and commentary tracks) were interesting, especially the one about the sex scene… they put a great deal of work into a scene that ended up being only about 10 seconds or so.

so the DVD is definitely worth the purchase price, and even more so if you buy it while it's still on sale. not only do you get the movie itself (which would almost be worth the price on its own) you also get all the other stuff, and through the extra stuff, you can gain an insight on the movie that you might not have gotten on your own. The commentary by Ed Norton (with David & Brad) will help you understand the movie, and will also impress upon you the intelligence and character of Edward himself.

oh, and this little note's to brian: great job on the transmission3000 redesign! ('course I had a little hand in it myself, so perhaps I'm just conceitedly patting myself on the back here too)