"No, actually I'm pretty sure it was funny."
As Haloscan has so graciously, automatically informed you, I've enabled a new comments system using, you guessed it, Haloscan! It's a slightly better comments system that is also a little more powerful in terms of controls on my side.
Unfortunately, at the same time it automatically installed Haloscan tech into my blog template, it also automatically erased all the comments previously placed on my blog! Thus, being the sporting lad that I am, I found a cached version of my blog on Google and then typed up and restored every comment left on my blog pre-Haloscan.
Hopefully no one else encounters any problems with the new comments system.
Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.
Possibly of interest.
I edited and made some creative contributions to a home movie filmed
entirely with a webcam that you may see here if you are sufficiently devoid of anything else to do and haven't already seen it (and you probably have). It is a farewell video to the friends we were visiting outside Ottawa for most of last week, in response to a video that was briefer but of similar purpose that we found sent from them to my sister's email inbox as soon as we got back home on Saturday.
It has We Used to be Friends as part of its soundtrack, though, so it isn't all bad.
Midday Rendezvous
"If you see van
Do not get into
The man inside will try to abduct you
You will be far from your mom and dad
And you will be dead or at least very sad
Do yourself a favor
Do not talk to strangers
Do yourself a favor
Never talk to stranger"Kompressor - Never Talk to Strangers
I don't believe in luck. But it was certainly a marvelous stroke of fortune that led to me actually meeting up with Kevin, as opposed to barely missing each other as we did during the previous itinerary intersection that found us both in Ottawa. I didn't really notice him on the table in front of the New York Fries, at first. It was the New York Fries at the Rideau Center, where we had previously attempted to meet up during March Break, since I had recommended it as being possibly the greatest food court spot known to mankind.
I can't really remember exactly the first thing he said, something or other involving the use of my name that attracted my attention. Having been found out, I walked over to his bench and sat down. We sort of introduced ourselves, I guess, and he asked me how I was, as he had many times before on MSN; I said I was fine. I asked him how he was in return at some time or another, I think, or perhaps after I offered him the once-in-a-lifetime chance to discover whether he truly disliked New York Fries (essentially the only thing I'll spend my money on in mall food courts) he revealed that he was recovering from having had a flu (apparently two times) over the course of the week. Sitting there with someone I had talked to so many times on the Internet was a little awkward. I sort of knew him and didn't know him at the same time. I commented that it was surreal, despite the fact that it still wasn't that much.
Still, I wasn't really sure what to say, a habit that continued throughout our meeting. My fumbling, mumbled mention of a mass Christian event occuring on Parliament Hill which I had walked over from and my wondering how it worked for the government to allow religious events to occur on their property led into a discussion of separation of church and state in which I mostly revealed my lack of insight on the subject.
He looked a bit different than I had expected; wearing glasses, possibly with a different haircut, and with stubble across his face. He has a necklace with a silver wolf's-head on it, and his voice was slightly nasal, I think. I fiddled with my visor and took it off. I felt somewhat boring.
At some point in time I mentioned that I had a friend who's opinion of the quality of serial TV had regrettably been forged by watching the first disc of Smallville, Season One. This led to a discussion of Smallville's general quality, the pain of certain scenes in the pilot episode, and also (by train of thought) Star Trek: Voyager (because, like Smallville, it is also not especially great all the time), Veronica Mars (because Kevin said I would like it probably), and then Firefly and Joss Whedon (though I'm not actually sure how that entered the discussion).
After a little while, we got up and strolled through the mall. We located musicians playing muisc that I would not especially associate with the BluesFest they apparently were playing for. Kevin said he thought they probably let musicians of different styles in, and remarked that it would be awesome if they had a BluesFest where they only played emo music. Kevin is a hero.
Eventually, we made our way to HMV, which is, of course, the mecca of mall audiovisual entertainment purchases. Kevin pointed at the television screens on the wall outside HMV and said something that I can't make out. It is eventually related that he desires the so and so Final Fantasy movie which is being displayed. I probably mumble something dumb and mostly irrelevant which requires at least two repetitions to be heard.
At HMV we browse their wares and engage in commentary on their products. First we go to the sales rack and Kevin makes fun of Koyaaniqatsi and tells me that Edward Scissorhands is good. He also takes the Director's Cut of Daredevil, which is cheap and he has previously mentioned he wants. Eventually, we make our way to boxed sets of TV shows. I make a comment about the generally decreasing size of the boxes. Kevin explains this phenomenon (fold-out cases and larger individual boxes for the DVD's being replaced with smaller boxes for individual DVD's). The boxed sets of Andromeda are gigantic. I point this out and question what all they put in there. Kevin says, "Well, considering it's Andromeda, it's probably full of crap." Around this time we discuss Star Trek movies and I reveal my lack of knowledge as to how long Scrubs has been running. We also attempt to locate Veronica Mars in vain, and are told by a worker that it is OUT OF STOCK. We also find a boxed set of thumb parodies of movies. No, really, parodies of movies filmed entirely with thumbs. This boxed set is around eighty dollars, and its total running time is around two and a half hours. Keven notes that this comes to paying roughly thirty dollars for each hour of film in the box. We are properly scandalized.
Eventually, it is realized that Kevin must depart, and he purchases his movie. As we leave, the Final Fantasy movie is playing on the TV. Kevin says, "This movie makes physics cry."
I walk him to his bus stop. We shake hands, and I bid him farewell. He hopes we meet up again, and I probably return the sentiment. I walk off towards Parliament Hill, glancing back once or twice as he crosses the street to the correct bus stop. I feel much the same as I did during our meeting: a bit disappointed in my inarticulate quietness, but happy to have met a friendly, intelligent, and charming young man who I could, with any luck, call a friend.
Jessica hates the British, guys. Let's start a boycott.
Jessica Alba hates the British'Sin City' actress Jessica Alba has revealed she hates working with British stars, because they are unfriendly.
I have revealed I don't care what Jessica Alba thinks!
Oh, snap.
Charlene is having an affair. WITH A TRANSFORMER.
Click on the pictures for larger versions. (Found
here.)
You're wrong! Spider-man with a laser could definitely beat Hellboy!
So, MSNBC has taken the liberty of gracing us with their
very own list of the ten best superhero movies. Obviously, since I've seen a few of these movies, I am thus obliged to comment on this list. Since you may not have read the list, you might find it worthwhile to read the list before reading my comments.
Several of the choices come as a bit of a surprise, but not bad ones, necessarily: I'm willing to accept Spy Kids as a superhero-ish movie that is far more fun than, say, Fantastic Four (and the less I have to say about that movie, the better). There's also some sort of Japanese movie that looks corny and probably awesome, The Rocketeer (which has faded into obscurity a bit, and I haven't seen anyways), and Darkman, which is also kind of obscure. These are all fine and different choices, I guess. They're a bit unorthodox, and that's good for this sort of list, the sort that is typically mired in stolid predictability. The problem, for the most part, is when they reach the big corporate franchises (all four picks from which take up spots in the top five, interestingly enough). Well, maybe not so much a big problem. Just that two of them are a problem.
Superman II, I won't gripe with that. I haven't seen any of the Superman movies, but the first two are apparently quite good. The Incredibles I won't complain about either, that was a pretty good movie, but the problem sort of comes when they tell us the three movies that are
for sure better than all the other movies they already listed.
Spider-man? Is number three? Is better than The Incredibles? Come on, I don't think it's even better than Spy Kids. It has its merits, but sadly, these merits do not include a villain that doesn't work for me, a mostly nice quiet story that turns into a big loud messy plot at the end, and more than a few corny exchanges that are quite honestly painful to listen to. Maybe the good parts outweigh the bad, but is it still better than Spider-man 2? And they don't even mention Spider-man 2 in the paragraph they devote to why they picked the original over it? Wow, snubbed.
The second best superhero film of all time is Batman Returns, apparently. Most of the reviews I've read of this have been bad, but since it has an
82% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and I haven't seen it, I'll leave it alone.
But the problem comes mostly when they try to tell me that X-men is the best superhero movie of all time that they fail. X-men has metaphorical resonance? What? Yeah, the theme has metaphorical resonance in the exact same way the comic book did, because that's part of the context. That doesn't make it a good movie. It's not even that I have a problem with the movie. But it's not an amazing movie. It's good dumb fun. It's not very deep, and, though it is perhaps a bit more human, it doesn't even reach the level of action spectacle that its more solemn sequel achieved. I haven't seen it in too long; I can't analyze it here. Maybe I should pick it apart on here sometime, since MSNBC has given me a definitive reason to. The point is: Spider-man 2 is better than all of these movies and doesn't even get mentioned on the list. Once. Even in passing reference.
In other news:
In a vaguely predictable manner, my livejournal haiku has been pulled from the countless entries in which I agonized over my english course:
I also generated these afterwards:
I know, I'm a glutton for these things.
The only problem with the engine is that it needs to find a better way to compose haiku that actually is complete and doesn't end abruptly.
Also:
I escaped from the Dungeon of Zephyr Pie!
I killed Leamas the floating eye, Wongchungbang the leprechaun, Homz the zombie, Ern56 the zombie and Licyeus the leprechaun.
I looted a Figurine of Myliverhurtz, the Armour of Percussion, the Sword of Warm Laundry, the Dagger of Vegetables, the Sceptre of Canadian Ammerz, the Axe of In the Groove, the Armour of Science Fiction, the Wand of Milk, the Dagger of Milk, the Sceptre of Reading and 97 gold pieces.
Score: 197
Explore the Dungeon of Zephyr Pie and try to beat this score,
or enter your username to generate and explore your own dungeon...
I didn't think I managed to kill myself but I actually did. And when I say myself I mean Homz the zombie. It is also amusing to note that the scroll marked "HIKING" had a map on it.
Beside the entrance is a potion marked 'RELIENT K'.
So apparently this is from the man who brought us the goodness of (Jo/No)hari. Neat.
I escaped from the Dungeon of Dave2!
I killed Clysm the gelatinous cube.
I looted the Armour of Dr Erection, the Armour of Burstroc, a Figurine of Flaming O, the Sceptre of Zzt, the Amulet of Vgamet, the Sword of Madtom, the Crown of Mrlachatte, the Shield of Benco and 70 gold pieces.
Score: 245
Explore the Dungeon of Dave2 and try to beat this score,
or enter your username to generate and explore your own dungeon...
My dungeon is hard, though. It's not fair.
I escaped from the Dungeon of Homz!
I killed Odditycollector the floating eye and Myliverhurtz the leprechaun.
I looted the Sceptre of Guitar, the Amulet of Mystery and 51 gold pieces.
Score: 101
Explore the Dungeon of Homz and try to beat this score,
or enter your username to generate and explore your own dungeon...
