clever.r

In 2000 I worked at a movie theater. They never gave me my last check when I quit. But, the fates are on my side. This month I finally received my final check. On the one hand I'm glad I've got it safely tucked away in my bank. On the other I'm supremely annoyed that it took 7 years. And rightfully so.

Today was a crazy day at work, culminating in my getting to go home halfway through the day due to a bomb threat. Wow. If only I had something super cool to do with my afternoon.

According to Yahoo! News, "Rock stars are at least twice as likely to die as the rest of us". Damn, there goes my shot at immortality.

I got my laptop back. They replaced the keyboard and the track pad and some other shit inside and so far there are no problems. I also got some protection stuff for the new things. The track pad protector is cool, the keyboard protector is shit. It would have been so much better if it was sticky or somehow, you know, stayed on the keyboard. Oh well. At least I have my computer back.

I read a funny headline on Yahoo News today. It read, "Teen brother charged with stabbing twins" with a picture of a black teen-aged boy next to it. Really, that's the wording you want to go with Yahoo? You're sure?

This may well be the last thing I ever post from this little laptop of mine. Its screen is messed up you see and must be sent off to where ever they fix MacBooks. I doubt that anything bad will happen, but on the off chance something does happen I'm giving fair warning. I hope to see it again.

After going on a mad hunt and fearing I would have to wait till I got back I finally managed to get a copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. After having to go to an admittedly boring festival all Saturday, I was finally able to delve in completely yesterday afternoon. I sat up all night, it's now just 9am on Monday morning, my reward, of course, finishing the book. All I have to say is that I am saddened, yet vindicated.

Even if I didn't have the book to read I wouldn't have been able to sleep anyway. It's typhoon season once again so that means violent storms a plenty and earsplitting thunder. And I'm not talking about gunshot-by-my-ear kind of impact here, that's far too limited and small. It's much more like the very sky has been cracked open with so unimaginably huge sledge hammer and the whole world is just broken. The rain is annoyingly loud as well, and me with hyper sensitive ears.

I got fitted for a "yukata" today. It wasn't all that elaborate though as in it was more a matter of finding one that fit rather than having anything tailored. The clerk did a hell of a lot of pulling, wrapping and tugging, I later found out this was the normal process for putting one on. In the end the sleeves are a little short, but I plan on displaying it only so it doesn't matter. I also didn't get an obi, though I wouldn't have minded one. Maybe I'll get one myself, the yukata was expensive enough (it's a gift) after all.

It was really obvious that I'm not Japanese when I had it on as my butt was clearly visible. That's not suppose to happen.

So, I now have 3 days left to go into work, but I'm done teaching and it's officially summer break now. My last day is the 26th... but I don't leave for home till the 7th. Wouldn't it have been nice if they had, you know, told me this earlier? Like when I got my ticket. I have to waste over a week of my life sitting around doing nothing. How freaking exciting!

Harry Potter 7 comes out today and I don't get to read it till August. If anyone ruins it for me, I will hunt you down and rip out your spine with my bare hands. Happy reading.

Wow, putting "wii" in front of stuff is almost as fun, and lame, as all the i + verb jokes. Anyway, I'm going to get angry letters from this, but I'm now going to take the time to mention why I hate the Wii console from Nintendo.

So, I was watching some top 10 picks for the Wii from E3 and every damn game on there was some candy coated (and colored) bunch of kiddie crap. Seriously, I wanted to puke. That's number one for you, it's Candyland, the video game console. Looking a little more at these games we seem to have not only the same damn visual style, but the same damn content as well, and it's all shallow. Want some more mini games with that?

As with all Nintendo devices they have to slap their annoying mascot Mario onto everything and anything. Mario fighting? Sure. Mario racing? of course. Mario sports? Duh. Mario RPG? Naturally. Mario in fake 2D so we can sell more of the same game? Keep 'em comin', cause Mario never gets old! Unless you want to have Mario's babies prepare to have 80% of the available games piss you off with the same freaking characters. Personally, the only time I care about Mario is when he decides to Party, and even then it's a love hate relationship. Frankly I have no intention of paying $250 just to find out how that POS is going to cheat me out of my hard earned stars this time. I can just play what is essentially the same game on the GameCube since the last version is only a year old.

Speaking of GameCube, the graphics are the same quality. I'm not the only one to call the Wii a GameCube with a make over and a gimmicky controller and I'm sure I won't be the last. Since we're now on the topic of controllers let me just say that this thing makes my wrist hurt. There, I've said it. When do I get my Wiibrace?

You know, I was pretty excited to play this thing, but that novelty sure wears out fast. I wish companies would revolutionize what you do in the game, not just game controllers. It isn't really all that amazing when I'm still playing the same game I was playing 2 years ago. And 5 years ago. And 10 years ago. Wow! It's a tennis based video game! Simply amazing, cause there have never been any games based on tennis before! Yeah, at this point, why don't I just go outside and play some real tennis and get some real exercise?

For the record XBox 360 should be renamed FPS 360 and I'm not interested in taking out a loan for that PS3 either. Though I do think people are jumping the gun by saying it's dead. Give it at least a year, Jesus. It's not like the controller has 100 buttons on it and it 's not just some PS2 attachment. It's not that bad.

Despite all this I don't really hate the Wii, I mostly just hate obsessive Nintendo nerds. They are worse than obsessive Mac nerds.

I just got back from a late night advanced screening of Harry Potter (it opens here on the 20th) and I wish I could say good things. Every scene seemed to have been given the same amount of importance so that nothing seemed important. As such there was no tension rising and no threat of danger or anything going on although it was a dark film. I liked the darkness though, it matched the book, but there was no soul to the movie at all. It didn't feel like it was an actual movie, there didn't seem to be a story that was being told, rather it was more like a collection of clips.

The most bizarre thing was the lack of music, the final big fight scene in particular, there was no music during it at all. I almost want to say as if it wasn't finished yet, that's how it felt. The editing was strange also, what they chose to leave in and cut out was odd I felt and some scenes were way to long. The fireworks scene with the twins, first of all didn't feel joyful and triumphant, but also was longer than the whole fight scene. How could that be right? I'm curious if that oddness would make it confusing for someone who hasn't read the book cause so much isn't explained at all.

On the plus side I liked the acting quite a bit, it think it was some of the best acting the young ones have done thus far. Unfortunately the scenes are all too short (or long) and the lack of music and everything building up to seemingly nothing makes the emotion they show on their faces pointless. I felt nothing, it was all bland and strangely put together.

Some really important stuff wasn't mentioned or only briefly glossed over (where the hell did all of Snape's scenes go?! As I recall he was pretty damn important in this book!!.. I also missed Alan Rickman's brilliance, I won't lie). I felt the previous movie did a better job of pulling all the pieces together (the 3rd one was still the best though). It left me feeling it was short and empty and I was left thinking "that's it?!". Too bad, it could have been so good. Hell, the trailer was 100 times more interesting than the actual film.

If anyone is wondering what it's been like for me here though, particularly at work, I just point you to the scene where Umbridge is giving her first lesson. That sums it all up (I couldn't stop laughing).

Why is it that the shows I want most to see happen when I can't go? I missed a Manet show in Chicago a couple years back, a Sargent show little after it in L.A., and now I've missed another one combining 2 painters I greatly admire, Sargent and Sorolla, in Spain. Most people probably know Manet and Sagent, but don't know Sorolla. He was a contemporary of Sargent (even gave stuff to him at one point I believe) from Spain, his full name is Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida. I want to go to Spain just to see his museum, which was once his house. Soon.

Appalled by the condition of my hair I have finally snapped. That's right, to manage the straw-like nastiness and spit-end wonderland that is the last 2.5 inches of my hair I decided to take scissors to locks. The last time I cut my own hair I was in elementary school and I did it to extract a nasty knot that would not come out. Now, I didn't do a whole lot of damage, it was only about 3/4 of an inch. since I will be having much more than that cut off when I get my hair done in August (I'm counting down the days!), this little adventure really doesn't make any great impact anywhere other than on my psyche. I've missed a few little chunks here and there so I'll do it again tomorrow, I just hope that this helps in my fight against split-ends. I used to have incredibly healthy hair, I swear it!

I realize that it's a bit early, but I'm already planning what I want to do for my birthday (it's not that early). Since everyone seems to forget it or otherwise doesn't seem to really care I've decided that I'm going to have a party, a party in another country (preferably, failing that, state), and no one's invited but me. Originally I had thought to get a facial or something, but why do that when I can be somewhere else! I haven't even come close to soothing my wanderlust and this seems like a fun idea. It will all depend on what kind of job I have though. My big plan is of course to have an awesome 30th birthday. I envision me, having my picture taken, in front of the Taj Mahal on the day of the big three zero. Of course that's not enough, however, it's a start!

So I just got home after seeing Shrek the 3rd. Wow. That was awful! And I read that the makers aren't in the least bit deterred and are making more Shrek stuff. Perhaps it's like jumping horses, you never want to end on a bad jump. I hope. Good lord, way to break a winning streak. I don't really feel the need to go into details, but if you were unfortunate enough to have seen Happily N'Ever After the story runs a bit on the same line, only with some pubescent loser of an Arthur thrown in to be "hip" or to at least make some jokes at trying to be hip. Either way it fails. Some jokes were funny, but not worth the price of admission. This is not even worth watching on DVD, or if it's on TV. Watching reruns of Sex in the City on TBS (shudder) would be less painful than watching this horrible pile of garbage. And I really hope they changed the octave of Justin Timberlake's voice or something cause, wow. I always said he sounded like a pre-pubescent girl with a sinus infection when he sang, but I didn't know he sounded like one when he spoke too. Zing!

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix better not suck.

Journal is now active, I decided to not wait till I got back from Japan.