Stuff

So I got two movies out of the way this weekend.

Yesterday saw 'Chronicles of Narnia'.  I found the beginning delightful and the little girl was cute (such a good actress).  Equally cute was Mr Tumnus.  I'm a sucker for eyes and I liked his.  The rest of the movie was sort of ho hum.  Visually appealing although I couldn't help but be reminded of Lord of the Rings and compare.  Pity really.  Not much emotion, especially from the Edmund character. Couldn't 'read' him at all.  Not bad.

Then today went to see 'King Kong' at last.  I never liked the story - thought it rather stupid - giant ape loose in New York, but Peter Jackson did a good job of it, naturally.  Good to see he included wetas in his giant insect scene.  I didn't find it too long but bits of it could have been shortened by a minute or two.  Ya, so thought I had to go and see the movies of two local lads (Andy Adamson and PJ).  Now I can wait for other movies coming up without worrying that I've missed out.  I think I'll give the new Mission Impossible one a miss, and the movie about a bank robber 'Inside Job'.  Looks all very predictable.  Clive Owen's not bad, but the hostage/bank scenario's been done so many hundred times... Can't be bothered.

Oh, I was NOT impressed with a religous advertisement before King Kong.  I don't go to movies to be lectured at about sin.  I'm not Christian so fuck off about sin and DO NOT try to convert me.  I HATE proselytising Christians.  I've written a complaint to the manager of of the theatres (who's no doubt a Christian).  Religious advertisements have no place in a movie theatre.  How would people like it if a Muslim advertised for converts to Islam???  I'm sure the Christians would protest.  Just because the majority of people in a country are white does NOT mean we are Christian.  Fuck off. Flash your damned cross somewhere else.  (Sorry I get pissed off about it.) 

May as well do today.  See how it goes.

Funniest joke:  a video for Berlitz.  See it here.

Funniest movie:  Formula 51

Movie that affected me the most:  The Experiment

Funniest company/email:  CD Baby

The categories won't be the same every week - just ones I remember, whatever they may be.

I can't function well on 5 hours of sleep (which is all I got last night).  I watched both DVDs.

"The Navigators" - one of those realistic, gritty dramas the Brits are so good at.  When I picked up the DVD I thought it may be a lighthearted film, but no.  Some typical British humour anyway.  One of the men telling the others of an ex-worker who died while in his vege patch.   "What did his wife do?"  "She had to open a tin of peas."  LMAO.  Then the cleaning guy was complaining about management - "fucking" this and "fucking" that (in Yorkshire accent), "it's enough to make you fucking swear".  The movie was a tragic portrayal of what happens after privatising companies and having competing contractors.  Safety goes down the toilet, no workers' rights, cost-cutting leads to deaths, etc.  Very sad.

The other movie was a German one "The Experiment".  Test subjects were divided randomly into two groups - prisoners and prison guards - and their behaviour watched and monitored (not well enough!).  Inevitably one of the guards in particular abused his power and even started attacking the scientists themselves.  Had my heart beating hard and that hasn't happened while watching a movie for a long, long time.   Perhaps not the best movie to watch immediately before trying to sleep!

Need some humour now to offset them.  I might watch some "Ripping Yarns".

The South Park episode was just ... stupid.  As a woman I wasn't offended by it.  In fact I laughed when the pope character said it isn't a miracle.  'Chicks bleed all the time'.  I thought that was hilarious actually.  But the whole bleeding statue thing was just plain stupid, regardless of who the statue was of.

I have two DVDs to watch tonight before they have to be returned tomorrow.  I haven't had the chance past few nights, dammit.  At least I HOPE they're due back tomorrow and not today!  Damn.  I have a feeling they should have been back today. Sheet.  I'll return 'em first thing before they open and hopefully they'll backdate them.

'k well, I'm outta here.

I recently ordered a CD from CDBaby.  I found the link on myspace.  I'd checked out a band at Amazon and their price for the CD was USD40 pretty much.  CDBaby was USD13.  Big difference.  Anyway, the reason I post this is because I just received confirmation of the shipping.  Here's part of the email - made me chuckle:

"Your CD has been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with
sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow.

A team of 50 employees inspected your CD and polished it to make sureit was in the best possible condition before mailing.

Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over
the crowd as he put your CD into the finest gold-lined box that money
can buy.

We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party
marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of
Portland waved 'Bon Voyage!' to your package, on its way to you, in
our private CD Baby jet on this day, Monday, February 20th.

I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby.  We sure did.
Your picture is on our wall as 'Customer of the Year'.  We're all
exhausted but can't wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!!"

I love a company with a sense of humour!

Lots of controversy surrounding an episode which includes the Virgin Mary bleeding.  Of course catholics are really upset and tried to get the programme taken off air.  It was due to be played on TV in May, but the clever TV bosses have brought it forward to play tonight to prevent any action to stop it showing.  The people who complain have probably never watched an episode of South Park.  They'd have no idea what it's like normally anyway.  Now, because of the all the attention more people are going to watch it tonight to see what all the fuss is about.  I'll be one of them!  The Prime Minister  of NZ even said it was 'offensive to women'.  I'd like to see how.  Interesting.

South Park controversy

I'll report back later.

Was a complete waste of time.  It was called "Last Run" and had Armand Assante and Jurgen Prochnow in it.  Boring as shite.  I couldn't understand what the hell they were going on about most of the time.  Long periods of meaningless conversation, lots of shouting from Armand's character, some crappy action shots, confusion as to which country they were in - Hungary or Austria?  They appeared to be in Hungary for one part of it but then said they were heading east and then they're in Austria?  Pretty fucking awful film.

A friend had this link on his profile:

http://www.pentagonstrike.co.uk/flash.htm

Worth watching.

Ok, I'm outta here.

There seem to be a hell of a lot of blogs which are basically advertisements for some product.  Why bother?  It's a pity blogigo don't have some policy about disallowing that.   Some people obviously have no lives to waste so much of it on such crap.

I was thinking yesterday about funny or interesting things I read or see and thought about having a list of these per week like funniest joke I saw this week or something.  I might do that.  Keep a note of what makes me laugh or think from day to day and then on one day list a few.  Whaddya reckon?  I'll give it a try.  I saw a funny advert today online but I don't have a link for it.  But, stay tuned...

TV has been such utter SHITE that I went and rented 5 DVDS.  I watched two of them tonight. 

Really loved 'Formula 51' starring Samuel L Jackson and Robert Carlyle (ex Trainspotting and The Full Monty).  Great stuff.  Categorised as Action but I laughed my head off a few times.  Good story, good actors.

The second one was categorised as Comedy/Drama but it wasn't funny at all.  A nice light sort of movie, I guess.  'Greenfingers' about prisoners who enter the Hampton Court garden show - based on a true story.  A nice enough movie although I thought Clive Owen seemed a bit wooden.

I can guarantee there'll be nothing on tomorrow night either so more movie watching.

They even delayed coverage of the Winter Olympics by over an hour just to show some stupid local Sports Awards.  YAWN!!!  Fuck, how tedious.  Stuffed if I'm going to stay up late to watch olympics thanks to that.

Honestly - there is NOTHING to watch.  I was bored stiff so turned it on and it was a couple of 'reality' shows (surprise surprise), a soap, some (c)rap music and incessant ads.  For fuck's sake! I read in the paper today that some are calling for the government to have a public TV channel on which they can play some QUALITY programmes cos there sure as hell aren't any at the moment.

I dunno what the fuck this site is doing - or is it this stupid computer?

Have a good one...

The phentermine spammer has a blog!  Everyone's turned off their guest books so he/she/it can't spam!  But check out the guestbook!!!

(rolls on the floor, laughing)

Here's our opportunity to get revenge!  Spam the spammer's guestbook!  LMAO.

God, I hate buses.  The retard with the huge afro got a hair cut!  My god what a difference.  A vast improvement.  He almost looks normal.  I'm really not looking forward to the buses in winter.  It'll be pitch black and chocka and full of sniffly, coughing people.  Great stuff.

I don't have a great deal to say.  I haven't been to the movies this year at all.  Haven't seen King Kong or Narnia and they're just about finished at the theatres.  I haven't bothered to rent any DVDs lately either.

I started belly dancing again yesterday.  Been meaning to do it for ages but never got around to it.  So I'm starting again with a 10 week beginner's course.  It'll get me practising again.  (With any luck.)

Well, I'm outta here.  Ciao all.

Mood: philosophical
Listening to: silence

It's weird, but I was thinking how hard it is to understand something that's not a normal part of your life and something you've never experienced.  I'm talking about 'small' things, like christianity and buying gifts for Valentine's day.  These two things are alien to me.  Valentine's day has never been a biggy in NZ and I've received exactly one Valentine's day wish in my life - from an American.

And this got me to thinking, well if I can't understand something which is a common cultural thing to others, how on earth can anyone in the world expect there to be understanding and peace in the world in general?  Christians will never understand Muslims and with the history of conflict in the region (in no small part thanks to early Christians) there's never likely to be any peace between the two cultures.  There will always be a divide between people, because we are so very different, although essentially the same.  We're human, and with humanity comes feelings and emotions shared by all.

Apologies to Christians  for calling christianity a 'small' thing.  It's never been a part of my life, so to me it is small.  I can't relate to it.  It's completely foreign to me.  Christians (particularly fundamentalist Christians) always use the word 'truth'.  But truth is very subjective.  'Truth' is mere perception.  The bible is not a book of truths.  It's impossible for there to be one.  They are stories written by men and nothing written by anyone is without opinion, distorted perspectives and only part of the whole story.  One person can only ever have part of a story.  There is no ultimate truth.  The Bible itself has been rewritten, added to, had things omitted and changed by various people throughout history - primarily for political reasons.  You cannot, therefore, call anything within it the 'truth'.  Another thing I cannot understand in christianity is the concept of 'sin' and 'being saved'.  Saved from what?  I've never had a satisfactory answer to this question.  I just cannot relate to the christian's view of the world.  None of it makes sense to me.

Enough rambling....

I actually watched TV last night.  A new series of 'House' started so I watched that.  Sometimes it pisses me off though.  I mean it's not reality is it.  Last night for example - a guy having an MRI - they couldn't scan his brain while he's moving around.  They strap you in to stay still.  But I watch it because I like the character of House himself. 

That was followed by 'Boston Legal'.  I've never watched it before because I hate courtroom dramas but a couple of people advised me to watch it, saying it was funny.  So I sat and watched it.  Some of it was quite amusing but I got bored during the courtroom scene towards the end - couldn't be bothered watching to the end so turned off the TV and went to bed.

I still have a DVD I haven't watched yet.  It has Liam Neeson in it.  Maybe I'll get around to watching it tonight.

Mood: disappointed and hurt

I'm still rather angry at my friend.  Saw him online with a status that indicated he was really depressed about something.  I tried asking what was wrong and although he responded he didn't say what was upsetting him.  Ok, he doesn't need to explain anything perhaps, but he kept saying he was upset but wouldn't say why.  This really pissed me off on top of everything else.  He basically ignored me - didn't respond, so I was talking to myself.  He didn't once contact me after that to explain anything.  This is not how you treat friends!  Perhaps I was brought up differently, but shit if you're going to say something's wrong without elaborating and then ignoring the friend's queries (who just wants to help for fucks sake) that's fucking rude.  So he may have been too upset to say anything at the time, but the least he could do was say so - "don't want to talk right now"... and perhaps give me a brief explanation later?  Wouldn't you?  Am I from a different planet or something?  It annoys me and hurts me.  I'm feel like I'm nothing.

Now this isn't sour grapes or anything but the way some couples behave really makes me want to puke.  Especially when they're just newly in love and lay claim to each other at every opportunity, shouting out to the world that the other person is THEIRS.  Possession, possession, possession...  It's sickening.  People who change their IDs to reflect that, which sort of says - "fuck off he's mine", as if anyone else were interested anyway.  Love is not possession.  And constant proclamations of love to each other, private messages to each other made public - these things are, in my opinion, rude.  They exclude everyone, especially friends who feel abandoned and unwanted like an old piece of furniture left on the side of the road.  Ignored.  Gee thanks, buddy.  I helped you through the worst times and now you've found some new love I'm just invisible?  It really pisses me off.  I would never do that.  Never have done that.  Friends are valuable.  You don't just throw them away because of one person who enters your life.  What happens when that person leaves?  You expect your friends to suddenly be there for you?

I don't resent the new-found love, but hell, don't ignore everyone else.