Hanoko 001 ~ Cantankerous Mello

I went back and fixed the first video with my cartoon. I'm busy running around today, so I'll just post it here. I am not lazy!

Ice Skating

I don't think I've been ice skating since I was 5 years old. It's just something that's never interested me and I don't remember ever really having much fun. I never liked falling down on my butt when I was a kid and I would have rather have been somewhere warm. Plus there's no snow in ice skating. Mainly I just remember being stuck in uncomfortable shoes, hanging onto the wall, and scratching up ice crystals to make snowballs with... oh I remember that being hilarious.

Anyway, after listening to the new Owl City CD nonstop for about two weeks (half of the songs of which seem to do with icy things or explicitly ice skating) I decided that I wanted to go again. And so I got a whole new perspective on the sport. A mature adult perspective if I might so bold.

Ice skating has a lot of going in circles. I never processed that as a child. If almost anything but ice was out there, it'd look like the most boring, dumb activity ever. If it was just regular ground, and everyone went there to walk around in circles on it while music played, occasionally changing direction (oh how exciting) or watching as some extremely skilled walker went break dance spinning in the middle.. if that was the case, it'd be dumb as hell. Even something like a swimming pool does seem to fit. Ice skating rinks and how people act in them is unique because if it didn't involve ice, the Texan's worst enemy, no-one would see the point in it. But since it is Ice filling the rink, people find it acceptable to mill around in circles while a radio scratches in the background. Why? Because trying to move on ice is like juggle huge water balloons and trying to learn spanish.

I learned a valuable lesson trying to ice skate again: sometimes doing mundane and boring things is interesting when you put a handicap on it. I'm hoping my legs get stronger for next week, apparently its 2 for 1 on Thursdays and the price is already pretty cheap. Go figure.

Here's to falling! John

Lil John Wears Worlds Biggest Name Tag

I heard a rumor today that Lil John had been selected to be awarded the newly coined Jackson Prize for his vast and immeasurable contributions to the art of music. And even though I may have just made that up, I think we'd all have to agree that it would be the right thing to do! Lil John is an irreplaceable national treasure. An influence on my life, showing that turrets syndrome and a smoking problem can single handily save an absurd number of songs that tragically mixed a catchy beat with lyrics that induce my dry heave response. Just when I almost comprehend what the song is talking about I find myself wondering 'what who the hell was that?' If you don't remember 'from the windows to the walls', fret not, we now have this little gem:

Patron Tequila by Paradiso Girls
(if the video stops working use this: Click Here )


As a note on the music video, I have to say that I'm disappointed. For a song sexing up alcohol poisoning and smoking weed I thought it'd have more of... you know... alcohol and weed. Instead I'm left confused and the sense I just watched a Best Buy commercial. For a song so perfectly, vividly explicit I have to wonder why they abstracted it to a wallflower sitting in a lively, bright eyed club scene. I guess this means there really is no way to make vomit smexy. Hear the bulimics? This is calling you out.

Drinking Game: take a drink whenever the guy looks like he's having a Lorelle moment OR when Lil John says anything that's not "Lets Go!", "Hey!", "What's Happening?", "Come On!", "Say What?", "Uhuh", "Hey Gurl!", or something that isn't already being sung by someone else.

Lake

Went to Canyon Lake today with my dad. We haven't always had a lot in common or even gotten along, but some of my fondest memories with the man are on that lake. I had almost forgotten it until I got out there, the time we went night fishing in 'Canyon Cove' with LED bobbers, Rudy's BBQ, and a small propane stove I made hot chocolate on. I have no idea how old I was at the time somewhere between 5 and 13?

Fleas!!

The battle has begun! Fleas have found my beloved ferrets and so WAR IS DECLARED. Unfortunately, ferrets are small creatures with sensitive systems, making even a mild infestation harmful. Also they have thick hardy coats which are dense and hard to comb through. They also simply can't be made to sit still once they're awake. Finally to top it all off, their coat needs to be kept comfortably oily, so bathing them is a big no-no.

So if there aren't medications made for them that get rid of fleas, and I can't use conventional flea baths, how the hell am I supposed to de-flea them?! Apparently lemons. You can infer from how this entry is phrased that I'm almost expecting this not to work, but the internet says to boil 1 lemon for about a day in a gallon of water and then to soak the lemon-water into my ferret's fur. I complied as best I could and employed the all powerful Borax to de-flea other unlaundrable surfaces in the apartment. I'm going to try this for a week and see if it reduces flea encounters, reporting back to you, loyal readers (I think there's maybe 2 and a half people who skim over this occasionally).

District 9

District 9 is a movie that SciFi enthusiasts will nerd-gasm over for years to come. Anyone with a background of liking the genere will find this movie extremely entertaining. It has a loose plot premise that isn't thoroughly explained in the movie, but then again, the movie doesn't focus on trying to explain things. Basically in the beginning of the movie, it's established that an alien space craft mysteriously stopped over an African city, seemingly broke down, and the aliens residing in it are stranded on earth. Insect like creatures are given a small sanctuary of their own which develops into a full-on African slum.

Not to be mistaken with other alien involved movies that fall outside of traditional Science Fiction (Transformers), District 9 focuses it's themes on abstracting human nature and transposing it over the extraordinary in an attempt to represent it with a cognitive twist. District 9 gives us two races interacting and the tensions that come from their differences. The actual plot isn't too bad, although the premise itself is the main goal of this movie.

I give District 9 4 out of 5 movie ferrets for being different than most movies cranked out every year... and for being successful at it.

Tracy Gone T_T

It's weird how empty my apartment feels these days. Tracy almost completely moved out last night and now there's no one around to bug me when I get up. Now I have to travel outside and find people to bug me. It's really inconvenient, not to mention impractical. There's still a couple of piles of 'Tracy Things' so at least I assure myself that she has to come back at some point. Come back Tracy and move the rest of your crap!

Movie Review: Funny People

I saw this movie twice, once with my family and then again when I tagged along with some friends. I enjoyed the second viewing much more just because I prepared myself not to watch something laugh out loud funny.

Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen star with other stand-up comedians in a pitch-black dark comedy. Despite the title of the movie and the fact that it follows five separate stand-up comedians, I had trouble recognizing this movie as a comedy. A main theme of the movie: comedians, employed to be funny, lead unhappy lives, is reflected differently, though consistently, through each character. As can be expected, there's a heaping helping of actual stand-up routines in this movie. It helps break up the action, which in all honesty gets to be a little depressing around the middle of the movie. Adam Sandler plays an angry comedic legend, which meshes well against Seth Rogan (who is marketed as not funny) showing his classic 'confused puppy' expressions.

Once I reconciled myself that this was not a movie about comedians that would make me ROFLMAO movie, I throughly enjoyed the dark situational humor, the various stand-up routines, and the well developed plot of the movie. That's why I give this 3.75 out of 5 Movie Ferrets!

Movie Review: Julie & Julia

Julie & Julia is movie that follows a woman, Julie, who finds herself unsatisfied with her life and seeks a journey of self discovery by cooking her way through the cook book of her cooking idol, Julia. Julia decides to document it in a blog, cooking every one of Julia's 500+ recipes in the span of one year. The movie parallels the two characters, showing Julia's early cooking career alongside Julie's year long endeavor. While enjoyable, I would say that this movie is largely a mediocre with the saving grace of Meryl Streep playing Julia Childs. It has funny moments, some memorable lines, but the overall product (though by no fault of Amy Adams or Chris Messina) is pretty forgettable.

The plot line the movie seems to try to focus on Julie cook/blogging her way through Julia's recipies, never seems to escalate it's conflict beyond the same baseline of angst. Challenges arise, but are quickly answered and forgotten; it gets a little redundant and the end of the movie more or less happens without any real palpable climax. As mentioned before, Meryl Streep (and for that matter, also her opposite Stanley Tucci) does an amazing job in her role. Playing the always upbeat, although socially quirky, Julia Childs she became the sole factor that propelled my interest in this movie. The chemistry between her character and Stanley Tucci's character is endearing and becomes the only reason to watch this movie. I wish the movie had focused more on her and used Julie as more of a framing device than a paralell plot line.

Even if half of the movie is basically forgettable and dragging, the Julia Childs plot line saves it and gets this movie 3 out of 5 movie ferrets!

The World Under Boredom

Out of school and working part time has given me free time. Dare I say too much free time? I will say that I have been making weekly trips home to see family. Very recently I also managed to see most of the old high school friends I still talk to. I’ve met a few completely new people over the past few weeks and even managed begin to reacquaint with other people I briefly knew in passing (with the social grace of a caveman clubbing a mate to drag back to his cave, but what can you do?). The point is that I haven’t had a real ‘job’ occupying my time and that has lead to the dangerous pass time of thinking.

I don’t know where I’ll be in 10 or 20 years from now. I can’t even fathom what I’ll be doing when I’m 50… 60… 200 years old (I’ll never die, thank you modern medicine!) In a weird sort of mental MTV reality show, I get this weird comforting fantasy that once everything settles, I’ll move into a big house and I’ll share it with everyone I’ve ever met in my life. We’ll talk about old times and on the occasional down time from our jobs we’ll go out and do and see things. No one will get eliminated or voted off, although we’ll probably fight over who’s not doing the dishes (it’ll be me). More or less though we’ll get along and understand each other. Maybe that’s the weird sense of security I get from thinking about it. Maybe that’s what heaven’s like. Maybe if the house is big enough you could say that’s what the world is like. Maybe you could say that today’s world is a kind of heaven. Okay, now I'm scarring myself. I’m going to go for a run and go back to cleaning out my car.