onewheeled999

Saw a few more movies in the last week or so. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: What a beautiful movie. Confusing as all hell, but all-around great. I'm definitely gonna give it another watch soon to get the full picture. The Perks of Being a Wallflower: As a fan of the book, this movie is worthy. Great casting for the three leads, and good pacing for a story that has no real "story". Maybe a bit too hipster-y and pretentious in some places, but I liked it. LOTR: The Two Towers Extended Edition: I didn't like it quite as much as the first one, but it was still an impressive film. The pacing seemed really off, though, with the three separate storylines going on at the same time, and some getting way more screen time than others. At least the supporting characters that didn't get much time in the spotlight in the first movie, like Gimli and the other two hobbits, got a chance to shine. Bring on the four hours of The Return of the King! The Thing (1982): Brilliant movie! It's amazing how well the effects have held up in the thirty years since the film was made, they were absolutely disgusting in the best possible way. I can't help but feel like there were too many characters with not enough characterization, though.. Still, HIGHLY recommended!

Equilibrium - "In Heiligen Hallen" German heavy folk metal. I can't understand a word of it, and the singing is a bit abrasive for my tastes, but I'll be darned if it's not awesome nonetheless.

I'm mildly claustrophobic, and just found out that Buried was put on Netflix. I'll report back after the film. Wish me luck that I don't hyperventilate! Update: NO. NEVER EVER AGAIN. EVER. PLEASE, NEVER AGAIN. OH GOD WHY. Update 2: Ok, now that I've had a day to recover, I can give my rational opinion. It was really quite good, but it was frustrating. I understand that nobody could think clearly when in a situation like Paul's, being buried alive by terrorists, but he was just nonsensically stupid to some of the people he talked to. It wasn't enough to ruin the movie, though. Ryan Reynolds was fantastic in my opinion. He seemed genuinely mortified through the whole thing, and his moments of sheer panic were some of the most intense and disturbing I've seen. The cinematography is the real star here, though: for a movie taking place entirely within a coffin, it was shot absolutely beautifully. And save for the scene with the snake, which was painfully stupid, the whole film was tense, especially those last thirty minutes. I don't think I've ever shaken as much as I did after this movie ended. I love how much I hated it. It's worth seeing, but it's definitely not a movie to enjoy.

Eminem - "Guilty Conscience" As someone that doesn't like 90% of the rap I've heard, I decided to give The Slim Shady LP a try. I'm liking it quite a lot, but this definitely isn't the sort of thing that I can listen to all the time.

After nine months of being single, six to seven of which were spent moving on from my last relationship, I finally have a date tonight!

^ I agree, it's one of the best games I've ever played. So I picked up Spacechem while it was on a pay-what-you-want sale a few days ago... I'm hopelessly addicted. There's no way to explain the game without sounding like an idiot for liking it, but here goes... you have to design complex circuits and systems that take given atoms/molecules and form specified molecules from them, and.. you know what, just Gameplay and a MUCH better explanation. The game is HARD, though. Like, the last four levels I've completed took me about an hour of trial and error each to solve. You really have to think outside the box in a new way for every single puzzle. But all the trouble is worth it for that final moment when your cycle is perfectly functional and efficient, and you can kick back and watch it chug along to the goal. I love it.

Ever since upgrading to iOS 6, I've run into nothing but disappointment. The music app is the biggest offender in my eyes, since it's my most-used app. Not only is the new toolbar (where you tap the Artists, Songs, etc. icons) hideous now, but there are times when I'll click a song, and it simply refuses to play it and skips to the next one. Or it may even do it for the next one, and skip who knows how many songs forward. These are songs that I have bought legally from the iTunes store, so it's not an attempt to fight piracy... I have no idea what's going on. An example of a song that it's doing it for, if any of you have it and want to test it, is "Epic" by Faith No More. Then there's the App Store redesign. It's slower, more cumbersome, and just more annoying to use than ever before. Dunno how else to say it, it just sucks. I like the absence of the old YouTube app, though. The official one from Google is much, much more pleasant. So there's a plus, I guess?

Decided to give Season 1 (from 2005) of Doctor Who a try at the persistence of my friends. You know what? I like it. It's well acted, well written, and just a lot of fun. Hipsterism be damned, I think I might enjoy this show.

Seeing Looper tonight with some friends. I'll be back with my opinion either late tonight, or tomorrow. UPDATE: It's good. Reeeally good. For most of the movie, I'd be willing to put it up there with Moon in my favorite science fiction movies. The story and world are very well realized (minus one briefly-explained element that is absent for much of the movie, and really only serves to explain the deus ex machina at the end), and the visual effects are pretty phenomenal. Notice that I said "most of the movie", though. A decent chunk of it is spent away from almost all science fiction elements, turning it more into a slow family drama, and it just didn't work for me. The kid in particular took away a lot from that part of the film, with his annoyingly adult-like writing and.. I don't know how to say this without being incredibly shallow, but the way he looked just really bothered me. That doesn't detract terribly much from the film as a whole, though. It's still definitely worth seeing, I'd give it a 4/5.

Voodoo Mon Amour - Diablo Swing Orchestra Finally bought the new album. It's incredible, so much better of a first impression than Sing Along Songs for the Damned and Delirious had on me. Heck, I still don't particularly like that one.

Went on a bit of a movie watching spree over the past few days. Super Troopers: Watched this at the request of my technical theatre teachers, who claimed it's one of the funniest movies ever made. Nope, I hated it. It had its moments, but it just didn't do anything for me at all. If I want a silly movie about drugs, I'll watch The Big Lebowski again. Four Lions: This, on the other hand, I loved. If you've never heard of it, it can be best described as The Three Stooges if they were suicide bombers. It's just as dark as it sounds, and despite the subject matter, was incredibly funny. Highly recommended. Fun with Dick and Jane (2005): I watched this in my Economics class with absolutely zero expectations, and you know what? I liked it. Jim Carrey is so much fun to watch, he had good chemistry with the lead actress, and the story was delightfully silly. While I wouldn't call it "good" per se, I had fun with it. LotR: The Fellowship of the Ring: You know what, I'll just say it... I've never seen these movies. So I'm borrowing the Extended Editions from my friend, and got through the first film last night. Wow. Three hours and twenty minutes of excellence. Although it got a bit too slow for my taste toward the end, and I had trouble differentiating Aragorn and Boromir throughout the movie, and I had some minor nitpicks with the camerawork (do we really need to ZOOOOOOOOOOOOM IN! on a character's face again?), it was still one of the most impressive films I've ever seen, and I can't wait to catch the rest of the series. EDIT: Ha ha, very funny, mods. I'll shorten the full title of that last movie.

Oh man. It's here. The album isn't out yet, but the tracks have already been leaked to YouTube, in their entirety with no commentary over them... IT IS GLORIOUS. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMh_J4_mWT0

Welp, about three months into having my license, I had my first accident today. And it was my fault. I was approaching the usual U-turn light to get into my school parking lot, and glanced into my rear-view mirror. When I looked back, traffic was backed up in the turn lane WAAAAAY more than it usually is, and the car in the back of the pack was coming closer alarmingly fast. Going about 40 mph, I slammed on my brakes, slowed down most of the wa-- CHNK. Impact. She was going into the same parking lot as I was, so I just followed her and parked next to her. I didn't know her, but she was really relaxed and not angry at all. Her rear bumper had a few big scratches and a small but very deep dent in the middle, my pickup truck suffered no damage other than a very bent license plate (EDIT: I looked a little closer, half of my front bumper is actually bent to hell. We just bent it back into place, haha). We agreed not to report the accident since it was so minor, and that I would pay for the damage if necessary. So it all wasn't too bad in the end, but still, that feeling immediately after impact was one of worst I've ever experienced. Not fun at all.

Okay, after seeing it for a second time, I take back everything I said. The Big Lebowski is an awesome movie. I don't know how to explain it, but everything about it just seemed infinitely better this time. Also, I just got back from ParaNorman. If you have a passing interest in animation or horror, SEE THIS MOVIE. It's that good. It may be a little too edgy for kids, and really pushes the boundaries of PG, but that shouldn't hinder your enjoyment of it.

At the moment, it's this one. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFLmbBBkGeg

^ Sure it does. It may not be looked too highly upon by most gamers, but hey, you've gotta start somewhere. And if you enjoy it, awesome! You're gonna be blown away by the whole world of better and better games out there. I sort of wish I was you, actually... I would love to be able to experience Kingdom Hearts, Shadow of the Colossus, Mass Effect, The World Ends With You, and Portal for the first time again. But anyway. I started Starcraft II's campaign the other day, I think I like it. It does a good job with introducing new concepts one at a time, but I still find it incredibly difficult to manage each of those elements once they start to stack up. Things like what unit is good against what, remembering to purchase upgrades, practicing a bit of scouting, etc. I'm definitely going to stay far away from multiplayer until I've completed the campaign.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hv0RIwdVrRg Dat intro

Screw you, Taylor Swift, for giving "Our Song" such an unnecessarily complex bassline. I figured I could learn it in 10-15 minutes for the band I'm in, at the singer's request.. but noooo, I have to take another day to pick it apart and figure out every note on my own, since there are ZERO bass tabs or fan covers online to help me. And that means I... ugh... have to listen to the song over and over again.

I honestly don't understand the big deal about Timeline.. It makes navigating people's pages a little more tedious, but I think it looks really nice overall. I got it voluntarily back around December and have never regretted the decision.

So I remembered my dream for the first time in weeks. I don't remember the circumstance that caused it, but I had to get my left leg amputated below the knee, as well as some of the fingers on my left hand (the number and positions of which kept changing, I distinctly recall). I decided that I would get a prosthetic leg, and for some reason settled on what was basically a fire poker. Don't ask. A good amount of time passed, and I started to get used to walking with my new leg. I looked at my left hand, and began to wonder if I'll still be able to play bass with my remaining fingers... But before I could determine my remaining musical abilities, I woke up. I frantically looked at my hand and leg to make sure they were back to normal, thanking God that it was just a dream. I don't know how to explain why, but something about the dream made it so realistic, so vivid. It's like I had a greater mental capacity than I usually do in dreams, since I distinctly remember doing things like checking to see if I felt a "phantom limb" where it had been amputated, or noticing that the prosthetic leg had the same "BAdunk" rhythm when I step that my feet usually do, since I land heavy on my heels. I dunno. It's hard to describe without sounding like a lunatic.

...yeah. My friend showed it to me yesterday, and it's been stuck in my head ever since.

XD Apparently not anymore.

I'm getting my schedule for my senior year on Tuesday, with the first day of class being Thursday.. I pretty much already know exactly what classes I'll have, just not the order they'll be in. This is what I know for sure, in the most likely order: 1st Semester Spanish 3 Theatre 1 (intern) Advanced Theatre (tech) AP English 12/Economics (9 weeks apiece) 2nd Semester AP Calculus AP Physics Advanced Theatre (tech) AP English 12/US Government (9 weeks apiece) ...yeah, my final semester of high school is going to be f***ing ridiculous, especially with the musical going on at that time. But if I want to go into engineering, those advanced classes are most definitely going to be useful.

Damn, Breaking Bad, you scary.

Early-morning run and Pathfinder (basically D&D 3.75) session tomorrow, then off to Hume Lake Christian Camps for the week!