Tuesday, May 20, 2008

A relapse into US History

If you were not the first ten presidents of the United States or the last ten, I don't see a point in remembering who you are. I'm currently at work and with no patients to scamper after, I decided to take a quiz. So the following people can suck it:

James Madison, Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Rutherford B. Hayes, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, Warren Harding, Herbert Hoover, Lyndon Johnson.

But I was able to name 27 out of 42 presidents. That's pretty good, right? RIGHT? (Also, screw you Joanne.)

Monday, May 19, 2008

Stuck in the rabbit's hole

Loneliness comes in such a revolting form. The Boy has moved two hours away and the best buddy might move many hours north. And I sit here in constant wait for what I plan to do next but time has me on standstill, saying that there is more ticking of the hour before I can stop forward. Tick tock indeed. I know that I can easily throw myself into work for financial preparation, but for what? What meaning am I trying to derive from this back break? What satisfaction am I trying to achieve? I say "Public Health" and I'm really hoping that I'm spewing honesty and not some sacrificial lamb crap to appease strangers and their judgmental glares.

And oh my, nothing else could have been done
She made her life a lie so
She might never have to know anyone
Made her life the lie, you know

You know, you know, oh, how you know. Oh, Elliott, how you still ring true in my ears after so many years. And you're still waiting for happiness for me and you, aren't you? I'm striving for that change in me that will bring about the change in all because Gandhi wasn't just a dreamer, he was living inspiration. So let's circle back to my original thought: Loneliness comes in such a revolting form because I'm kept company by words of the great late dead.

What I used to be will pass away and then you'll see
That all I want now is happiness
For you and me

Saturday, May 17, 2008

...of Old Men and Movies

My list of the week is as followed (and I know it can't really be considered a list "of the week" considering that I don't post weekly enough but let's just roll with the euphemism here):

Bands that I've rediscovered how much I miss and love within the last 24 hours
1. Iron & Wine
2. Rilo Kiley
3. Elliott Smith (just the song Georgia, Georgia)

I spent some time at my mom's shop today and had to entertain George, the old dude who stops by the shop when waiting for his wife next door at the hair salon. I can't gauge how old he really is but he has grandchildren my age, so I'm just going to assume that "old" is a good number. After talking to him for 15 minutes or rather, me just nodding and affirming his ideas for 15 minutes, he has reinforced my opinion in how cool old people are. George speaks 7 languages, which he was happy to rattle off in, was drafted to Japan for a war, married his high school sweetheart, and is your typical geezer who would hit on any dame that crossed his path. And yet, I find all of that interesting. I really hope that when I'm his age, I can hit on young boys, talk about my experiences overseas and god knows what. Seriously, a lifetime of tales is what I aim for.

I just finished watching the first Narnia film and all I can really say about that film is: Jesus reference! That and how much would it suck to rule a country for 10 odd years and then return to your teenage body? I would be a little piss because who wants to go through puberty twice. And the reason why I rented Narnia was to be able to understand what happens in Prince Caspian, which I plan to see because there was a girl wielding a bow and arrow. Woman with weapons? SOLD! This is the summer of movies for me. It began with Forgetting Sarah Marshall, continued with Iron Man and Speed Racer. I was going to write up mini-reviews for those movies but never got around to it so here are hopefully non-spoilers ones.
A) The flashbacks and mini-sequences were funnier than the plot.
B) Drunken superheroes seem to be the rage this summer so let's start off the season with a billionaire, genius, womanizer drunkard. In his spare time, he builds weapons in caves.
C) Eye-candy galore! Complete with cars, fight sequences, and hot chicks. Oddly enough, it walked away with a PG rating.

I'll write more blurbs with the movies to come, which will be Prince Caspian, Indy 4, Dark Knight, The Incredible Hulk, Get Smart, Pineapple Express among other titles that most people will cringe at but I will wholeheartedly throw a ten dollar bill at. Ugh, when did movies become so expensive?

Friday, May 09, 2008

Outrage in technicolor

Why, Myanmar? Why? I don't understand why you won't distribute the 38 ton of emergency food and aid flown over by the UN that could help 95,000 people. It's sitting on the freaking airport tar mat! Xenophobia I can understand but the fact that your embassy in Thailand is taking today off due to a national holiday (amidst the growing death toll of your people) so that the very people who could help your sick can't get visas, I'm befuddled by. Also, you're also more concerned about the national election than directing those funds towards-I don't know-getting body bags for the corpses floating in your rivers. Screw malaria, screw the hunger, the broken bones, the newly orphaned children, the damaged homes, and screw the Burmese people because your junta are megalomaniacs.

Seriously, prove me wrong, Myanmar. Please, prove me wrong.

Also, I've watched the first seven minutes of Speed Racer and am looking forward to the sober acid trip that this film will take me on. Acting-wise, I've got low expectations for, but hey, I'm going to be watching what will be a live-action version of Mario Kart's Rainbow Road in an IMAX theater this Saturday so screw expectations. There's going be some wire-fu, cars, and a color scheme similar to Skittles! I'm set!

Thursday, May 01, 2008

Rob Gordon Lives on in Me

Top 4 Dead Artists I Would Screw Up the Time-Space Continuum for:
1. Elliott Smith
2. Kurt Cobain
3. Ian Curtis
4. John Lennon

Top 5 European Cities I Would like to be Drunk in:
1. Prague
2. London (but not the dodgy end)
3. Berlin
4. Dublin
5. Stockholm

Top 5 Pop 80s Songs that I wish I were the keytar player for:
1. Tainted Love by Soft Cell
2. I Ran (So Far Away) by A Flock of Seagulls
3. Turning Japanese by the Vapors
4. Rock me Amadeus by Falco
5. Wake Me Up Before You Go Go by Wham!

Top 3 Wars that I would become a historian just to be interviewed on NOVA/PBS for:
1. World War II (seriously, what a worldwide, all encompassing war)
2. Mexican Revolution (Actually, I just thoroughly enjoy saying Emiliano Zapata's name.)
3. World War I (for it lead to WWII)

Top 3 Porn Star Names I'd be Proud to go By:
1. Shaft
2. Missy Shocks
3. Bella Trix

Top 3 Presidents I'd Take a Bullet for:
1. Andrew Jackson (he attacked his assassin with his cane and had to be held back by his presidential aide, if that doesn't scream kickass, I don't know what does)
2. Jed Bartlett (He was president for 2 terms according to Aaron Sorkin, works for me.)
3. Teddy Roosevelt (I'll be honest, it's the mustache)

Top 3 Things I'd Say if I were a 100-foot robot:
1. Grrr! Arrrrgh! Destroy!
2. IGNORE ME! (explanation found here)
3. Wow. They really do look like ants from this height.

Top 5 Reasons Supervillian are Awesome time infinity PLUS one:
1. Henchmen. It's practically having 24 hour room service no matter where you are.
2. That smirk they get when they believe they're going to win/just had an ingenious and diabolical thought or plan.
3. The sheer amount of money that gets wasted on schemes.
4. Scheming is your day job.
5. It's okay to be mean. (A life long goal that I wish to sate.)