Could be worse

I don't have much to say about 2009. Not really my best year, but far from my worst. Sure, I turned 21. Sure, I moved out. Sure, I made bunches of new friends. Of course, my academic status was nothing to write home about. Of course, I'm in the same job that I was in last year and it's starting to get to be not fun. Of course, not much happened as far as the love life goes. Of course, I'm here on the Internet writing when I could be doing something exciting for New Year's Eve.

I'm not going to publish my resolutions or anything, but the basic goal is to start off the decade with a hell of a year.

I'm going to make a post about books later and a post about films later. Expect to disagree.

It's like going to a birthday party for someone you don't even know or acknowledge the existence of.

Christmas has been lovely so far. Forced my family to watch Up on DVD for Christmas Eve, which of course was an excellent time investment. Tomorrow I return again to the homeland for a rare gathering of mother's side of the family, given that they are mostly not incarcerated or haggling over divorce papers this year.

Oh, what's that? You want to know what Santa brought me?



Not pictured:
-The Collected Achewood Volume 1: Worst Song, Played on Ugliest Guitar
-hardcover copy of The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
-Some paints and paintbrushes
-A book on ancient Japanese gaming
-some cash
-a package filled with snacks and candy and various junk food

The three model kits are substantial time investments. I've gotten a small start on the Gundam F91 (Harrison Martin custom) in the center, but the Unicorn and Sinanju are probably not getting done until the new year. The cavernous box of the Sinanju and its contents reflect this:



That's 22 part trees there - the gray ones are for the inner mechanical frame, the red and black ones form the exterior armor, and the remaining pieces form equipment like the shield, fuel tanks, and Beam Tomahawks - easily 400+ pieces that each have to be delicately cut out with cutters and trimmed with the hobby knife or sandpaper.

In other news, grades have slowly but surely made their way online. British Literature is an A-, which means she approved of my making fun of the 1930s-era English elite and general cynicism. You and me, Dr. Nygaard.

I have to work both New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. Grumble grumble. Not that I think I'd be doing much any way.

As I rained blows upon him, I realized there had to be another way.

I'd like to take this moment to wish you and yours a Happy Festivus. The one day out of the year where the family can come together around the aluminum pole (very high strength-to-weight ratio), lash out to each other, do physical harm, and celebrate the most minor of coincidences.

The spirit of the season was exemplified recently as Cody and I went to do the grocery shopping. The fellow outside from the Salvation Army was doing his thing with the bowl and the bell as we were walking into the store (we had nothing for him, because we are Scrooges). Another gentlemen on his way out stops and mentions to the guy that he remembers him once asking for a cigarette a long while ago. The gentlemen brandishes a newly-bought box of cigs and hands one over to the Salvation Army guy's delight. Cody and I agreed that it was pretty cool as far as random acts of kindness go.

It's a shame one or both of them will probably die of lung cancer.

I have a second story which is not quite so tingly-feel-good, but I feel it's worthy of note. A customer and his family were in search of this fancy Audio Bible that brings together a bunch of big performers and so I lead them to it. I offer him the Standard Edition and then bring down the Ritsy Special Edition which they seem curious enough about. But I indicate the $130 price tag, causing the man to exclaim "Jesus" under his breath. In my head I chuckled.

This next one goes out to all the pretty girls

Five semesters down, three to go. I think the three exams went reasonably well and my papers even more so. I know Intercultural Communications is a lock, because the instructor gave us like 15 extra credit points so a triple-digit score is within the realm of possibility.

There's no reason to keep the store open until midnight during the holidays. Definite money-loser if last night was any indication. Retail workers, don't let your bosses con you into doing midnight shifts. The only thing worse than working on a busy day with hordes of customers is working a dead night with naught but your footsteps echoing off the shelves for company.

Saw The Road. Viggo Mortenson plays an exceptional Man and the kid who plays the Boy is surprisingly not annoying. It's about time for a big "2009 in film" post so I'll probably save my full thoughts on the movie for then. Very good film though.

Christmas is coming and I need wrapping paper for gifts. I'm not about to pay for it like a sucker, though. Taking it into work and doing it at the store's wrapping station is also probably frowned upon. All I have are old copies of the Onion, so they might have to do.

Now that schoolwork's done, I can get to what really matters - movies and model kits. My NT-1 Gundam "Alex" finally showed up, so I can get to work on that. It's a shame the scale is too small for the pop-out machine guns to actually work, but I'll deal with the parts-swapping. In the time since we last spoke, I acquired a HG GOUF Ignited and a HG GINN, but I don't think I care enough to talk about them. The GOUF is cool because I can now re-enact Athrun Zala's escape from ZAFT headquarters and his climactic duel with their star pilot Shinn Asuka and his shiny new Destiny Gundam. I don't know about the GINN, though. I have enough spare parts around that I could create a custom GINN Heavy Weapons or GINN Experimental Firearms type, but I don't know if I feel like investing that sort of time into a kit I got for free and will probably just throw in the box.

Um.

I've touched a girl before, I swear. True story.

You should probably go

As I started writing this entry, I went and checked PAWS to remind me what my class titles were. And one of the closed classes totally opened up! Real lucky timing here. Shakespeare teacher basically said that he was so awesome and had too many students looking to get into his totally kick-ass class, so too bad, you snooze you loose. Which is fine I guess, but you guys should really offer more sections of a class that is required for EVERY ENGLISH MAJOR. Schedule for Spring 2010, semester the sixth, looks like this.

MONDAY:
12:00 - 1:50 ENGLISH 316: World Cinema - "Hong Kong Cinema"
2:00 - 3:15 ENGLISH 366: Non-Fiction Prose - "The (Not So) New Journalism"

TUESDAY:
9:30 - 10:45 ENGLISH 378: Survey of Current Literary and Cultural Theory
11:00 - 12:15 JMC 214: Advertising in American Society
2:00 - 3:15 COMPSCI 150: Survey of Computer Science

WEDNESDAY:
12:00 - 1:50 ENGLISH 316: World Cinema - "Hong Kong Cinema"
2:00 - 3:15 ENGLISH 366: Non-Fiction Prose - "The (Not So) New Journalism"

THURSDAY:
9:30 - 10:45 ENGLISH 378: Survey of Current Literary and Cultural Theory
11:00 - 12:15 JMC 214: Advertising in American Society
2:00 - 3:15 COMPSCI 150: Survey of Computer Science

And I'm totally in the same class as my roommate! I have a guaranteed friend in Computer Science! This sort of thing never happens, as all my friends are in lame majors like History or Art. I am way excited.

All my papers are done. One was on dead babies, another was on House and how everyone lies, the third was on the inevitability of death and the final one was on LGBT people. One of these things is not quite like the others. All that remains are two traditional exams on Monday and then we're done.

I beat Assassin's Creed 2 (the rest of the sentence is spoiler country), and I've gotta say that it is possibly the best game I've ever played that let's you both hang out with Niccolo Macchiavelli and assassinate Pope Alexander VI.


So I ring up three copies of the latest issue of Shonen Jump for this guy, and I know full well that the only reason you buy the magazine in bulk is to sell the free Yugioh card at ridiculous prices. So I casually call him on it. He confirms this and proceeds to tell me that they're "finally making the God cards".

HOLY DAMMIT CHRISTMAS WHAT THE FRICK.

It's been a while since I was on the Yugioh "scene" (this would be about High School), but I remember the God cards. They were introduced in the show as the most powerful cards in all existence and while they were printed for the actual game, they didn't have the actual effects and abilities written on the card and were thus not tournament legal. But the cards they are giving away now are totally legal and the effects are totally listed in tiny 5-point font. What the hell, Konami? You used to be cool.

The blog is free, nobody's forcing you to read this.

If you say you never wanted to go to school at Hogwarts, you're a liar.

I think it would be really cool to live in jolly ol' Britain. A proud nation, they invented the cat and have had running water for nearly ten years now. You can get "crisps" and smoke "fags" and hang out with Ian McKellan and have tea time. They'll let you say "fuck" on TV and won't even think it's weird that you like football (you Yanks know it as soccer).

My British Lit professor, who is from some region of Europe, threw us all a very British Christmas celebration for our last class. (I can't place her nationality, but I know she says "right" the same way that Simon Pegg does, kinda like "roight") We had Christmas Cake, Christmas crackers, Stilton cheese, and even Eddie Izzard on DVD. She hung up a Union Jack and everything. It was actually way fun as far as English courses go.


I got hired at Borders about 2 1/3 years ago now and since then, I have been the only person added to the Inventory Processing Team - nobody has been hired since me. Clearly this is because they knew I couldn't ever be topped, but they had to resort to drastic measures and hire a new guy to help deal with holiday shipments this season.

You cannot imagine how long I have awaited this moment. The chance to take somebody under my wing, to show someone the ropes, to work with someone who doesn't go to bed at seven in the evening. The new hire turns out to be about as old as my dad. I do not feel comfortable educating anyone who is more than twice my age, so my dreams were somewhat dashed.

Which is not to say I don't like the new hire. He's attentive, eager to pick up the job, and has a last name for a first name, which is considerably badass. Do you ever see anyone named, for example, Remington or Dobson? No, because they're all outside getting into car chases, stealing jewels, and making out with gorgeous women.


I really want to see The Princess and the Frog, because I am a little girl consider myself an amateur animation aficionado. But I need someone to come with me because there are too many uncomfortable connotations to a grown man with long dark hair sitting by himself in a theater filled with little children.

Of course, this is why we have DVDs.

For watching movies in the comfort of your own home, I mean.

Not the other thing.

Gun = Jumped

Woo half snow day!

Even though here on the East Side, it was very unnecessary! I can look out my window right now and it's perfectly fine out.

I would have used the time to write my TV Studies final paper, but the professor extended the deadline. By a week. So yeah, won't be working on that for a while. I was supposed to do a presentation on my Film Paper today regarding Christian Metz, semiotics, and the Seventh Seal, but that's not happening either! So I could have actually gone to my morning class instead of cutting it to work on said presentation. Frustration.

So I spent my snow day lounging on the computer, taking roommate to his school that didn't close down, and buying groceries. Will probably play Assassin's Creed 2 tonight and maybe read what is sure to be the worst Star Wars novel ever.

I did work on my schedule today! As predicted, most of my classes are filled, but hopefully I can whine enough and they'll let me in. It's starting to look like Spring 2010 will be going a little something like this.

Monday
12:00 - 1:50 ENGLISH 316 World Cinema - "Hong Kong Cinema"
2:00 - 3:15 ENGLISH 366 Non-Fiction Prose - "The (Not-So) New Journalism"
3:30 - 4:45 COMPSCI 150 Survey of Computer Science

Tuesday
9:30 - 10:45 ENGLISH 378 Survey of Current Literary Theory
12:30 - 1:45 ENGLSIH 452 Shakespeare

Wednesday
12:00 - 1:50 ENGLISH 316 World Cinema - "Hong Kong Cinema"
2:00 - 3:15 ENGLISH 366 Non-Fiction Prose - "The (Not-So) New Journalism"
3:30 - 4:45 COMPSCI 150 Survey of Computer Science

Thursday
9:30 - 10:45 ENGLISH 378 Survey of Current Literary Theory
12:30 - 1:45 ENGLSIH 452 Shakespeare

Five hours straight of class on Monday and Wednesday, but easy Tuesday and Thursday.

Does anybody know if it affects or part-time/full-time status if you enroll with only 6 credits of open classes and 9 of closed ones?

Japan has too much of my money

The majority of my model kit building comes during the school vacations. There's not as much time during the school year to actually put effort into stuff, other than for the odd 1/144 kits like the Gundam 00 stuff.

Kits that'll be coming once exams and papers are done:



I won a HGUC NT-1 Gundam "Alex" in an eBay auction. Someone with "neither the time nor interest" was getting rid of some stuff he never built. Despite being in this business for awhile, I never quite got to the one Mobile Suit that actually bears my name. I don't know what the lore is behind nicknaming the Gundam "Alex", but it'll help set the stage for the HGUC Kaempfer I plan on getting next year.



I primarily consider myself a 1/100 Master Grade collector, but those kits usually only come after holidays or major windfalls given the amount of effort you have to put into it in order to come up with something that looks decent. The Unicorn Gundam is one I'm way excited about, due to being able to transform it between Under and Destroy modes. It's a Katoki-style kit which means it comes with sheets and sheets of tiny little "Warning: If you can read this, a giant robot is about to step on you" decals, but I'll be eschewing them to go with a more true-to-the-animation look.



And of course, getting the Unicorn, I have to get its nemesis, the Sinanju. I'm really looking forward to this one. It's huge, has oversized weapons, and its a fantastic design. Not sure what I'm going to do with all the gold trim though. I feel silly using all of the little stickers for them, but I don't know if I trust my painting skills enough to bust out the Leaf Gold Paint.

And finally, there's a mystery project, the identity of which is unknown even to me! Fun stuff.

It's that time again, folks!

Happy Friday everybody! It's that time again! That time when any old expression of anger just won't do! You need something with muscle!

That's right! It's a Fuck You Friday!

So fuck you, UWM website! When you decided to enter the digital age, did you set out to create the most ridiculously user-unfriendly website you could design? Or did it just sort of happen? Because I know I use Google when I want to get somewhere on your site rather than have to navigate your silly page organization! You're like the goddamn Winchester House given digital form with your hyperlinks that go to nowhere, your inability to "remember me" and your constantly shifting page content.

Fuck you, Borders bigwigs! Nice going with the slashing holiday payroll at the last minute! I appreciate that you're trying everything and anything to get us out of the red, but cutting hours during the fourth quarter of the retail year is not how to do it!

Fuck you, Straight No Chaser! I don't like the way you sound, I don't like your stupid remixes of holiday classics like "Jingle Bells", and I don't like hearing the entirety of your album over and over again at work because our "random track" button is busted.

Fuck you, guy who cut me off on the way home tonight! Apparently, you were in too much of a hurry to check your rear-view and were just willing to risk hitting another car so you could get out from behind the kinda-slow minivan in front of you. I guess I should be thankful that I have the reflexes to slam on the breaks, even if I lack the ones to slam on my horn to alert other drivers that I am not amused.

Blow off the dust and take ol' Fuck You! for a spin. You'll be surprised by how much emotion you can load into those two words!

So take care everyone, and remember - fuck you.

High Grade Universal Century: FA-93HWS Nu Gundam HWS

Char's Counterattack features the final climactic battle between Amuro Ray and his nemesis Char Aznable. For the movie, they both get souped-up mobile suits featuring the new Psychoframes which assist in piloting the machines, using the pilot's brainwaves alone. Char gets the Sazabi, while Amuro pilots the v Gundam. The heavy armor only made it to the blueprint stage and was never actually built, though it is represented here in the High Grade Universal Century 1/144 scale line.



These pictures are from before I moved out, when I had access to a decent camera, so the model pictured here is all me. The box is a sizable one, given that it has to house 12 runners, putting it on par with many Master Grade scale kits. Build time was somewhere in the neighborhood of four hours and a little bit more time for painting. Only stickers I used were the eyes and the insignias, painted all the other details myself.



The instructions don't tell you so, but all the pieces are included, allowing you to switch between the normal Gundam and the Heavy Weapons System version fairly easily. The kit has pretty good balance in spite of the Fin Funnels hanging off of its back.



Articulation is par for the course when it comes to HGUC. Any additional articulation would compromise stability and its ability to hold up the larger weapons.



And speaking of weapons, it comes with a lot of them. It's just loaded with accessories (a definite plus), including the armor parts, six Fin Funnels, one Beam Rifle, one Heavy Beam Rifle, one shield, one heavy shield, two different Beam Sabers, and the Bazooka.





Comparison shots with its Master Grade incarnation and with its rival, Sazabi, in the same scale, respectively. The smaller one is the High Grade Universal Century kit, which has, on the whole, much more pleasing proportions than the taller Master Grade, especially in the chest and legs. The High Grade version is much more dynamic-looking. The Sazabi was constructed to be much taller than competing mobile suits, and this is reflected with the two figures here.



Snap on a few pieces, swap a few others and you have the v Gundam HWS, a much bulkier suit. The armor hinders articulation a little bit, but not horribly so. Despite Bandai's best efforts, the Heavy Shield/Rocket Launcher is way heavy and the arm holding it will start sagging pretty quickly with the weight. The Heavy Beam Rifle is still heavy, but not to the same degree.



Looks like a bit more of an formidable opponent for Sazabi with the armor on. Shame Amuro never actually used this configuration in the animation.



Overall, definitely the best kit of the v Gundam that's out there right now. It can be had for a fairly reasonable price, though I paid probably more than is justified only because I wanted to get it right after it was released in Japan and was willing to put up with extra import fees.

The more pictures I have available, the more I can write about. :D

"We'd have a funny story to tell people, at least." "Yeah, unless we DIE."

Thanksgiving was boring. Like usual. Moving on.

In my three holiday seasons of working retail, this was definitely the lamest post-Thanksgiving weekend I've worked. Black Friday was pretty tame, namely because we at the bookstore didn't have anything really interesting to sell and something something economy.

Not even a single customer trampled to death. Not much in the way of craziness, though I did get to utter the sentence, "Yes, sometimes books do have pictures in them, and yes, the price is clearly printed on the back" to some lady over the phone. And yes, I did get the guy who angrily snapped at me for answering his question with the phrase "pretty much". He had only asked if the price on the sticker was the same as the price printed on the jacket. Ask a stupid question.

But that's actually a disappointing turnout, because I know for a fact that the good people of Fox Point, Wisconsin can crank the crazy up to 11 when they want to.



OH HEY GUESS WHAT. I figured out how to make the Description line up at the top of the blog display random phrases! Go ahead, hit Refresh and try it! SHUT UP THIS IS AWESOME.

I think I'm-a gonna go make dinner.

People who are not us are generally terrible people

There is no better way to spend an evening than to be furiously and relentlessly judging every single awful person that walks into Five Guys Burgers. Especially when you and your roommate have already ordered and eaten half an hour ago and have naught to do but eat the free peanuts and watch people until House comes on.

(House was excellent, by the way.)

(Like it's ever not)

(Has anyone ever bought a Hot Dog from Five Guys anyway? Why would you?)

(Parentheses)

Things I hate: People who hold the door open for you when you're still like a mile away from the door. You're suddenly obligated to pick up the pace and get through the door so you can stop wasting their time. They thought they'd be nice to you, but they didn't realize that you were so far behind so pick up your fat butt and get over here already.

The Road is supposed to be out today, which is the 25th, despite what this entry's timestamp will tell you. But it's not. Neither of the theaters within walking distance are showing it, even though they totally had posters up for it for the last month. And if movietickets.com is to be believed, not a single theater within 40 goddamn miles is showing it. How long do I need to wait before seeing Cormac McCarthy's masterpiece on the big screen by way of Viggo Mortensen acting like a crazed hobo?

On the subject of books, Zadie Smith has a book of essays out and I kinda want it. Even though I'm not much of an essay reader. The author is way awesome, though, so maybe I'll borrow it from work.

Aaaand Josh just left with his parents for Thanksgiving festivities. Cody has already left for work and will be heading straight for home as well. This leaves me alone in my apartment with very little to do until tomorrow morning when I head home for my own family's Thanksgiving, something that is a fairly minor affair in the Butschli household.

I don't even like turkey.

I shall use it to recharge my powers in preparation for the impending Blackest of Fridays and the following Saturday of the Damned, which I'm sure will provide endless material for later postings.

I am just the worst

In class today, I was the only one in my small group, a small group otherwise made up entirely of young college girls mind you, who knew that the werewolf in Twilight is named Jacob and is supposed to be Native American. They're supposed to be the Twilight experts here, not me! Clearly Borders, pimp of all things vampire-related has poisoned me and all of my friends must stay away. The disease is already inside me.

So, Facebook. The wonders of technology. It's at the point where all you could conceivably need are a face and a place where they frequent (like, say, UWM) and bam. If you're willing to do a little digging, you can learn their name, birthday, dating status, and whether or not they think The Dark Knight is a pretty good movie. We are this close from having an iPhone app that allows you to take a picture and it will then automatically search the internet for data on any object or person that appears in the frame, turning your phone into what is basically Boba Fett's helmet. Or the Eden of the East system.

It strikes me as a good thing that apparently Facebook and iPhones do not exist in the Death Note world, because Kira could just as easily have Googled all of his opponents and not gone through with all the Xanatos Gambits to learn their names. I was able to do it with just a login onto Facebook. Fortunately, I do not have a Death Note, just a mildly creepy tendency towards e-stalking.

House was pretty great, and I can't say I'm terribly sad over Cameron leaving. I'm annoyed that they got her married only to write her out eight episodes later, but I'll get over that. Taub and Thirteen are back, who sort of cancel each other out, so we'll see where the new and improved team goes.

Heroes? Matt trying to get himself killed in order to kill Sylar is probably one of the more badass and heroic things he's done, given his past moral ambiguity. And the trend of characters having IQs inversely proportional to the strength of the power they currently have or are pursuing is maintained.

It's rude, it's unprofessional, and worst of all, he's neglected to introduce me!

Borders? Not a decent substitute for a singles club. In case you were wondering.

Apparently hiring out family/friends/hobos off the street to assist with the dishes for you has become a matter of course in the Butschli-Zentner-Dhein household. Perhaps next I'll go out and get help when it comes time to do the laundry.

This time could be used to study for the impending Intercultural Communications exam, but there is slightly more appeal in complaining to the Internet (mostly Facebook, which is a territory of the Internet).

I really like my British Literature class, and I really like the instructor, but she changes her mind far too much. I was doing decently well with Jean Rhys's Good Morning, Midnight, but then she up and decides that we're going to read Evelyn Waugh's A Handful of Dust instead. I do not actually possess that novel, and my adventures between yesterday and today have failed to yield it.

Between the UWM Library, Boswell Books down the street, the Shorewood Public Library which I don't have a library card for, Downtown Books (which is otherwise an amazing place), and the East Milwaukee Public Library which I don't have a card for either, there is not a single copy of A Handful of Dust available. And there's no way I'm going down to work to buy it.

Please.

So I'm going into class armed with nothing but Wikipedia (and maybe Sparknotes, if I'm feeling dedicated enough). Wonderful.

On the Season DVD Box Set that is my life, you could probably safely skip this episode. Three stars, at best. Really just filler.

High Grade 00: GNZ-003 Gadessa

The Gadessa is an experimental mobile suit created for use of elite pilots in A-LAWS, the "peacekeeping" force that serves as the main antagonists for the second season of Gundam 00. Ribbons Almark intended for the Gadessa, along with the Garazzo, to serve as the personal mobile suits for his Innovator cronies, and the Gadessa is piloted by Revive Revival and later by Hilling Care. Its only armaments are a set of low-output beam sabers, two machine guns, and the oversized GN Mega Launcher.



The Gadessa is slightly larger than average but still is shorter than the towering Arche Gundam from the same series. Bandai has the kit designed so that they could easily recycle runners between it, the Garazzo and the Gadess, resulting in slightly more color stickers than I would have liked. Construction is a breeze, however.

Articulation is average but not anything to write home about. It won't be utilizing most of its joints because it never stands, only hovers, and has to hold the hulking GN Mega Launcher.

The design is one of my favorites however, because it feels like something out of Zone of the Enders, a severely underrated video game series. It's also a departure from traditional Gundam design with its spindly points for feet and rear-mounted escape pod.

Accessories include only the GN Mega Launcher and a stand. Fortunately, the gun is detailed and articulated, able to switch between firing modes as well as mount on the backside.

Bandai does a fairly good job with the Innovator mobile suits, despite some corner cutting. The Gadessa is well worth it if you like the design, like really big guns, or want a machine to antagonize one of your Gundams with.



As always, the top picture is a cell phone shot of my model, and the lower one is Bandai official photography.

Oh crap, I think I just ran him over.

The Men Who Stare at Goats is the (mostly) real-life story of the New Earth Army, the U.S. military's brief flirtation with new age techniques in order to create enhanced supersoldiers, psychic spies, and Jedi warriors.

The copious Star Wars references was worth the price of admission, but you could probably get away with just renting the DVD. Given the premise and cast, the film turned out somewhat underwhelming. It seems vaguely without direction and ends up with a sort of meandering pace. It also falls off towards the end, leaving me in surprise when it started leading up to the credits.

That said, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges, George Clooney and Kevin Spacey more than make up for most of the flaws, adding hilarity to nearly every line and scene. Even the smallest things, like eating a Twizzler or holding a goat, has added levels of hilarity. The film derives most of the humor from its absurd-yet-true premise and a dark satire of the military, notably in a hilarious shoot-out outside an Iraqi gas station.

Basically, if you're a fan of any of those actors and/or Star Wars, you won't regret the time and money spent. Everyone else, wait for the DVD.

--------

Am I the only one who spends the semester composing his Instructor Evaluations in his head? Because I have choice words for basically all my professors so far. And of course, everyone knows that negative reviews are way more interesting and fun to write than glowing reviews. I don't have much of an idea of how well I'm doing in my classes, because none of them are terribly prompt graders and none of them really use the online gradebook, so I'm in the dark until they get on the ball.

I would rather not go to work tomorrow. It's Saturday, which means customers, who happen to be a serious impediment to my work. It doesn't help that the back room barely has enough room to walk around in. There are too many books to shelve and the "Truck to Floor in 24" maxim is a joke. The almighty Zone Vice President will visit on Tuesday, expecting everything to be spic and span, and heads will roll if they are not to his specifications. No matter what the reports say, if I happen to be fired during his visit, know that it was because I said something to an authority figure that was less than respectful.

Joe the Biden is going to be on The Daily Show next week! I hope Jon asks him how often he sees Obama's "Man, shut the fuck up" face.

Review of the HG Gadessa to come over the weekend I think.

Is this coffin empty, or did you just pull off an awesome magic trick?

Wonderful. Thanks a lot, PAWS. I can start choosing classes on December 8th. That's nearly a frigging month away. Spring 2010 sure is going to be a fun semester when all I can take are ENG 421: Intro to the Soap Opera, HIST 344: Southeastern Colorado History 1890 - 1895, or CHEM 283: Bismuth and You.

Have you ever been to Whole Foods? It's a nice place. But that place is way expensive, so I mostly just wander around looking at stuff and taking samples. Honestly, I'd love to help out the environment, support farmers, wear scarves during the summer time, and be a part of the green movement, but I just don't have the scratch.

I'm seeing The Men Who Stare at Goats tomorrow night and it should be quite the treat.

That is all.

This post brought to you by the magic of the INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY

Continuing in the grand tradition of entries written after 10 in the evening.

Both roommates are out of the house at this late hour. Josh to God-knows-where and Cody to some concert for a band I've never heard of (which speaks more to my music knowledge than to his taste) and here I am alone on my stupid computer in my stupid apartment, and I could probably be doing way cooler things right now.

It's almost time to register for Spring 2010 courses and, as it always happens with class registration, it's going to stress me out. I'm almost always given a late appointment so I don't get my first choices of classes and I freak out because what if this class isn't going to help me at all in becoming a real, functioning adult?! It doesn't help that my Letters and Arts adviser's catchphrase is "I don't know anything about that" or that the English chair thinks I might be slow and/or annoying. I haven't met my specialized English adviser yet because I am lazy and intimidated haven't had the time but he's into TV, Film, and Queer Theory which is all very exciting. Also he kinda looks like Zachary Quinto.

While browsing the English major page, it occurs to me that I've had far more classes with the preeminent English faculty members than I realized. Of course, one thinks I'm a good-for-nothing because I may have fallen asleep in his class once or twice (honestly, I do think John Donne was kind of cool, but boy do you like to hear yourself talk), one was pretty cool but probably doesn't remember me (even if her TA remembers me BY NAME), and one thinks I'm just quiet despite my good essays on early film criticism, so we'll see where this all goes.

Jon Stewart's impression of Glenn Beck made my entire week. Linked for your convenience. He's got the whole thing - right down to the cognitive dissonance and random taking on and off of glasses. Al Gore visiting both Stewart and Colbert was pretty hilarious too. I like how our nation basically has two choices as far as vice presidents go - you have either the freewheeling guy with a wacky sense of humor like Gore or Biden - or the evil, shapeshifting master of darkness like Cheney or Agnew.

High Grade 00: GN-006GNHW/R Cherudim Gundam GNHW/R

Neil Dylandy, the first Meister to hold the codename "Lockon Stratos" piloted the Dynames Gundam, a long-range support mobile suit noted for its sniping abilities. Neil was killed towards the end of the first season by the mercenary Ali Al-Saachez, resulting in Celestial Being's search for a replacement. Naturally, they went to his twin brother, Lyle Dylandy, and gave him the Cherudim Gundam, an upgrade to the Dynames. After sustaining damage in a battle with the Innovators, the engineers at Celestial Being repair the suit and equip it with new weapons and equipment, mostly in the form of six remote-controlled GN Rifle Bits.



The kit itself is a fairly simple build, however the green plastic is particularly susceptible to nub marks after clipping them off the tree. I did my best to clean most of the parts, but you can still plainly see them in person. The whole thing was another 3 1/2 hour build between snap-together and painting.

In any case, the Cherudim Gundam is a compact mobile suit with loads of accessories. There's the GN Sniper Rifle, four GN Pistols, seven GN Shield Bits and six GN Rifle Bits. A transparent stand is included so that the bits can "hover" to the side of the kit.

Articulation is impressive, given the size of the kit, but it's coming to be something that the High Grade 00 line is known for. The only paint required is for the GN Pistols, though I painted the sensor on the V-crest because the sticker was rubbish.

There are some complaints however. The kit is incredibly back heavy thanks to the GN Rifle bits hanging off the backside, and the pieces don't even fit together very well, so they routinely fall off. The GN Rifle cannot switch between sniper mode or submachine gun mode on its own and requires part-swapping.

Overall, you could probably survive getting just the basic Cherudim Gundam, unless you really want the Rifle Bits or the second pair of pistols. The core kit is excellent.



Again, the top picture is a blurry cell phone picture of the one I built, the bottom picture is from some Japanese site.

Top-shelf failure by any measure

Why did nobody inform me that both Inara and Wash were going to be on ABC's V? I realize that I have to take some of the blame myself for not recognizing Morena Baccarin in short hair, but the rest of you have no excuse as far as Alan Tudyk's involvement goes!

In British Literature, we will be reading T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland, which you may know is one of the most important poems of the twentieth century (or so Wikipedia tells me). It's filled with all sorts of literary and cultural references and allusions. So the instructor thought it would be cool to have us pick a few of the references and report back to the class so that we can form a better view of just what the hell the poem is about. She listed as many as she could think of and allowed us to pick two to research.

I ended up with "Tristan and Isolde" and Oliver Goldsmith's "She Stoops to Conquer" because I wasn't quick enough on the draw. She called on people and eliminated choices as she went, resulting in all-out war to get desired topics. I could have gotten Shakespeare's The Tempest, which I really wanted, but she gave it to some jackhole who couldn't make up his mind. Because, let me tell you, I can write some effing essays on The Tempest. But I guess I'll have to do some actual research like a sucker.

I would like to go see A Serious Man. It's what the Coen Brothers (responsible for No Country for Old Men and the under-appreciated Burn After Reading) can make now that they have oodles of cash and cred, what with the Academy Awards and everything. I don't know how much it'll connect with me though, being that I (A.) am not Jewish, and (B.) did not grow up during the sixties. Also, I'm poor and shouldn't be blowing money on movies.

I will however, make an exception for the upcoming Men Who Stare at Goats. With a cast like Obi-Wan Kenobi, Lex Luthor, The Dude and George Clooney, it's kind of an instant sell.

I can't be cool

The following really happened.

Alex: (has just accidentally set off the smoke alarm)

Josh: (goes to open window to air out the house) I don't know why you guys keep closing the window anyway.

Cody: (mock anger) We close the window because IT'S FUCKING FALL AND IT'S FUCKING COLD OUTSIDE! ARE YOU CRAZY?

Guy walking by outside: YEAH!

Josh: (recovering from his surprise first) DON'T AGREE WITH HIM!

Cody: FUCK YEAH!

Guy walking by outside: YOU FUCKING TELL HIM!

Josh: I don't need my arguments undermined by someone who's not even in the house!

Alex: (is oblivious and missed the whole thing because he was getting the pizza out of the oven)

---

I am partly to blame for this whole consumerism thing and I accept that. For instance, I am now considering purchasing a kit of the Qubeley Mk. II Elpeo Puru colors solely because it has awesome-looking box art, even though I already have the kit in Haman Karn colors. This is not entirely without precedent. After all, I bought the entire First Law trilogy because one of the book covers looked pretty.

Welp, Castle is starting. Be right back. And here I am at the commercial break to relay to you my roommate's opinion that everyone involved with the episode's victim are, quote, "fags". Commercial break again. ABC really wants V to succeed. Back again, just to let you know that I'm fully aware that I'm typing this on a laptop and if I really wanted to, I could just take it into the living room with me and not have to get up at the breaks shut up.

Sometimes I write things

Memo to parents who have a child who is considering striking out onto the world: If you want to seriously dissuade them, tell them they have to do dishes. And probably without a dishwasher. They have to wash the dishes with nothing but their hands, some soap, a sponge, and their wits. For reals. And it almost takes longer than the time you have allocated for it. There will be sweat, tears, and yes, blood. It may be enough to make the kid recant.

Christmas is here. You, in the comfort of your own home, may not have realized it. But you, my brothers and sisters in retail, know that the time is upon us. The attack will come, and it may be subtle. Like vaguely Christmas-y music making it into the rotation. But it may be obvious, like an extra 49 boxes of Christmas product. Or a new table on the sales floor dedicated to products with the subject code "HOLIDAY". It is coming and, you who are about to go forth, enjoy these last moments of relative serenity and sanity among your customers, for these innocent consumers are about to transform.

On a happier note, TEKKEN 6 IS OUT! It's about goddamned time, seeing as 5 came out in 2005, with naught but Dark Resurrection to tide us over. I'm taking a serious approach to this game, learning juggles and combos and such while honing my skills with Asuka and Dragunov. Seeing as they're pretty close to their previous incarnations, I'll look at picking up some other characters like the spider chick or the Jackie Chan imposter. And seriously, screw Azazel. He almost makes me miss Jinpachi, the guy who could cause earthquakes and shoot fireballs from his gut.

FOX gives us House than takes it away for some other thing - I don't even know - and now I'm without Hugh Laurie for two weeks. And just when things were starting to get really interesting.

Heroes is not so much stupid this season as it is boring. Not much has happened lately, though maybe I'm just used to more epic, fast-paced storytelling. In any case, I'm betting ten bucks that with Hiro going to back to try saving Charlie again, he's somehow going to reset the entire show. I honestly don't know if that would help matters or make them worse.

Castle was awesome, even if the Firefly gag only lasted the first few minutes.

The television studies professor inflicted Flavor of Love on us today, and it may be several hours before I can trust television again. I already fear that I have forgotten how to love.

Borders Books is a comedy bistro

So, Halloween party at Borders. For kids. We host a lot of parties and nobody ever comes, but this was different. Kids in costume all over the store going to employees who are supposed to give out candy and gifts. The trouble is, kids these days are scared to say "Trick or Treat". And they're not proud of their costumes, either.

Rather than becoming Superman or a ninja or a race car driver, the costumes are merely a means to an end. You try to compliment a kid on their neat samurai costume or whatever and they're all "yeah whatever give me candy". When I was a kid, "trick or treat" was like a code word, something you said with pride and a certain knowledge that this was not something the grown-ups could do. Now it's just something the parents tell them to say so they can get candy.

I blame the schools. And, of course, Obama.

I watch the music layer of the store all by myself, so I have to watch the register for people wanting to buy stuff. Customers occasionally track me down, but mostly they just stare at the register waiting for me to spontaneously appear. It irks me.

I came home to find that my roommates had just up and purchased a Playstation 3 while I was out. One woke up this morning, told the other that they should go buy it and so they did. I wish I had their brazen disregard for financial planning.

Also, friends are over, which was a surprise.

But most importantly, I have Bailey's in the house, which is clearly the only acceptable way to end a ten-hour shift working retail.

Der Ranten und Raven

Things I didn't like today:

1. People driving ten miles under the speed limit on both Lake Drive and Port Washington Road. I'm apparently a way more aggressive driver than one might expect, but I'm also afraid to pass because the moment I do, an oncoming car will come out of nowhere and kill me. Pick up the pace, people. Everyone knows that the speed limit signs are merely suggestions.

2. I don't know what my Intercultural Communications instructor was doing since last we met, but it was clearly not grading exams or papers even though she said that she would totally have them done.

3. I have no idea what I'm going to write about for my paper on Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse and it's due on Thursday. I'm not sure there's anything in that novel I found interesting enough to talk about for four to seven pages.

Things I did like:

1. I saw a driver do an illegal U-turn at the Port Washington - Brown Deer intersection. Illegal U-turns really drive me nuts for some reason and I was already hurling invective from my car when I see a police car pull out from the adjacent parking lot, flip on the sirens and pull him over into the next parking lot. Justice is swift and all drivers but me are stupid.

2. The evangelists were back in the UWM plaza doing their thing again. Depending on my mood, this could make it onto either side of this post, but I was able to watch them argue with passerby while I had lunch inside. Why on Earth are they so concerned about lust as opposed to any other of the sins anyway?

3. I just realized that talking about the 1954 film Johnny Guitar and relating it to theories of genre put forward by the critics Robin Wood and Rick Altman will be a piece of cake and I can bang out a page on it for tomorrow easy.

And perhaps most importantly,

4. I realized that the one British dad on Flashforward? Mr. Simcoe or whatever? He's totally Comodore Norrington from Pirates of the Caribbean! But without a sword! Or naval skills! Or character development! And he's apparently evil and is working with Merry from Lord of the Rings!

!

High Grade 00: GNW-20000 Arche Gundam

At the end of Season One of Gundam 00, the mercenary Ali al-Saachez hijacks the Gundam Throne Zwei. Promptly afterward, he is hired by Ribbons Almark, who has initiated his plans to control the fate of humanity. Ali accepts, and Ribbons phones up his buddies at the newly created Earthsphere Federation peacekeeping force "A-LAWS" and they begin reverse-engineering the Gundam technology. The result is Ali's new machine in Season 2, the Arche Gundam.



The kit turns out to be a little larger than the others in the line, but assembly is still pretty simple. Despite the Arche Gundam's lanky proportions, poseability is strong. The kit is molded in all the correct colors, and transparent pieces are provided for the GN Particle Condensers. All that needed painting were the tan parts of the GN Buster Sword and the white tips on all of the wings and fins.

Features include the transformable escape pod on its back and the transformable GN Buster Sword which can switch to rifle mode. In addition, the pods for the GN Fangs can open and the Particle Condensers on the legs can open up revealing way more details than I feel like painting.

If you have a base, the model can do some decent kicking poses with the foot beam sabers, but I have a feeling those will stay in the box. The sword is, of course, pretty heavy, and you have to be very careful about how you pose it, because otherwise it'll just flop over from the weight.

Overall, an excellent representation of one of the more unconventional designs from the series.



Mine is in the crappy cell phone picture. The one right above is some Japanese guy's.

Out of my way, I got OPINIONS!

Occasionally I will review things.



The Brothers Bloom is possibly one of my favorite films of the year. Wikipedia describes it as postmodern, which I guess is a little bit accurate. It's a comic, fantastical heist thriller that seems almost play-like in its mise-en-scene. It stars Adrien Brody and Mark Ruffalo as gentlemen con-artists, with the former playing whichever parts the latter writes up for him. Rinko Kikuchi rounds out the team as the hot Asian chick mute demolitions expert. Rachel Weisz has a comic role as a secluded heiress who happens to be their next mark. Hijinks and romance ensue.

The film is delightful, switching from comic to tragic in turns, with the script and actors never missing a beat. It's just the sort of whimsical story I can really get behind, and I'm sure I'll try and make everyone I know see it.



I also finished Alan Weisman's The World Without Us, which was fascinating. I don't usually read much non-fiction, but it may be that I have a predilection for thought-exercises involving the end of mankind. It's at once easy to read and understand while being perfectly scholarly. There are chapters on what will survive, what won't, and even one on how we will go (who knew there were people pushing for voluntary extinction?) However, I think I'm tickled most by the fact that Mount Rushmore will be around long into the future, so that whichever civilization replaces ours may still have the mug of Teddy Roosevelt looking sternly down upon them.

"I don't know what this even is!" "Drink it, you'll be fine!"

So there may have been drinking last night. But only because our dear friend turned 21 and I found it unacceptable that I be sober when I went out of my way to not have to drive to the venue. I will neither confirm nor deny the possibility that Karoake was involved. There was, however, an expedition to meet this guy. Also I can tell you that the threat of public urination was a very real threat for a little bit. I may have been overenthusiastic as I did not really get the traditional 21st birthday blowout due to circumstances beyond my or anyone's control and I'm really susceptible to peer pressure.

At work, I found that some customer, in their own little "Fuck you" to the Democrats, turned around the faced-out copies of The Audacity of Hope and then further obscured them by putting this book in front of them. I know creative book shelving is how I deal with all MY problems. And, increasingly, alcohol.

My roommates are having fun and talking, but here I am on the computer by myself. I've only been at work for ten goddamn hours and important news may have happened on THE INTERNET! Like the fact that the Unicorn Gundam apparently only comes with its bazooka, so you have to buy the Unicorn Gundam Destroy Mode too, if you want the Beam Magnum - I ask you, IS THAT JUSTICE?

In other news, I interrupted my reading of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake so that I could read this. I'm the worst English major ever.

That's Futuristic Imagination Industries, offering you more links-per-paragraph than the leading brand.

Dear Publishing Industry

Hey, it's me again. Alex, the guy who helps keep your books on the shelves? I need a favor, home-slices. Now I know my last letter didn't go over terribly well with you ("Knock it off with the Twilight bullshit"), but this one's actually important. It's a list of things that you do not need to release anymore.

1. Stupid reference books filled with useless facts. One or two publishers may have gotten lucky with the stupid trivia books, but there are only so many useless "lol random, teehee" facts out there. I don't want to pay fifteen bucks to find out if and how fish fart. And they shouldn't be hardcovers.

2. Reference books filled with exciting things for kids to do. Often there are separate books for boys and for girls. Sure, there was one that hit it BIG, but that was two Christmases ago. I can assure you as a bookstore inventory worker, they are nowhere near that popular regularly.

3. Books that involve Fitzwilliam Darcy but are not written by Jane Austen. Sure, Austen books may have been the original fanfiction fodder, but how hard can it be to come up with your own dark, aloof, handsome, romantic anti-hero with a heart of gold? Hell, Stephanie Meyer did it and she's a moron.

4. Books that are not A Dance with Dragons, the eagerly-awaited fifth novel in the award-winning fantasy series, "A Song of Ice and Fire", written by George R.R. Martin and published by Bantam Books.

5. "Books" written by Glenn Beck.

No need to thank me, guys. It means a lot to me.

Yours,
Alex

News you can use

I had the honor of attending an academic discussion with renowned author and zombie expert Max Brooks tonight. He appeared completely in character and schooled the assembled crowd on the ways of zombie survival in an honest and frank way, but with a certain degree of self-awareness about it. Things I learned, presented in bullet-point form for your convenience:

*A sledgehammer or blade is preferable to a firearm for the simple fact that you do not need to reload one.

*Were zombies to invade a college campus, like say UWM, jocks not only make excellent workhorses but also serve as cannon fodder.

*The phrase "Hey babe, wanna be in my zombie group?", in addition to being a poor preparedness-builder, is not particularly effective as a pick-up line either.

*The line between zombie and stoned-out hippie is much thinner than you might expect, though you should put a cap in either of them just to be sure.

All in all, perfectly worth missing House for.

I returned to the Ancestral Motherland over the weekend and slipped back into the role of Dungeonmaster to preside over a game of Dungeons and Dragons for my younger blood relations and some other guy. Among my devious machinations were the Corruption Corpse and the Gelatinous Cube, a D&D standby. The players escaped with little but their lives and a tale to spin at the local inn.

Roommate the Second is having a very lively discussion with a Bot right now. And goodness-do-I-really-have-a-class-in-eight-hours?

In which our hero is accused of being a racist.

At Borders, if you are a member of our club, you get coupons. Lots of them. They offer a discount on any one item. I had to clarify this to a customer who proceeded to act like I was trying to pull one over on her. I respond with slight curtness. She yanks her bag from my hands and walks off in a huff.

This is where I stick my tongue out at her departing back. Supervisor sees this, but shrugs it off. Twenty minutes later, he tells me about a call he received. Customer had called back and claimed she was treated very rudely (and here's the best part) because of the fact that she was African-American. This same supervisor was there while I rang her up, which she must have realized, because she asked for a different supervisor and hung up after being told there was no one else on duty. Supervisor tells me he knows it's BS and then says "I don't think she saw you stick your tongue out, though."

So that was fun.

OMG, Flashforward last night? Totally Godwined itself. And it took them only three episodes to introduce a Nazi! This is right after episode two, with Mysterious-Evil-Guy-Holed-Up-In-An-Abandoned-Doll-Factory-Because-That's-Creepy-Right? trying to kill our heroes.

And speaking of Heroes, shit went down. Sylar's back which is good, Hiro discovers the futility of his power (also good), Tracy is lame (par for the course), and Claire ambles around with no discernible plot function again.

Tekken 6 is out in about two weeks, and it'll fulfill my annual quota of three (3) video games a year to be super excited about, along with February's excellent Killzone 2 and the upcoming probably-excellent Assassin's Creed II. I've been playing the Tekken series since I could express my age on my fingers and I'm eagerly anticipating this installment. It's likely to be the best Tekken game since Tekken 5. If only because you can play as a fat guy and a cyborg teenage girl with chainsaws for hands

'Cuz you can't get anywhere without practice.

I have an exam tomorrow. This one is for English 291 - Introduction to Television Studies. I'm studying for it now, and by "studying", I of course mean Internetting while having the UWM D2L site and a study guide open in the other tabs. I don't think I'm going to bother.

Eins, I watch loads of TV. Have been for years now. I like to think I know what's going on.

Zwei, I took loads of film classes and not much changes between film and TV. And this is all from memory now, same basic lighting scheme (key, fill, and back lights), same seven types of shots (extreme long, long, medium long, medium, medium close-up, close-up, extreme close-up), and TV directors still follow the 180 degree rule as well as the 30 degree rule. (Though Castle did break it the other night.)

Drei, the study guide was just a plain ol' list of terms (95% of which I knew) and the whole thing was written without a single capital letter. It's like she didn't even try.

In other news, I really liked this.

The moral of the story is that, um, love... conquers... all... ?

So I was at work right? And I have a cold, so my head's all stuffed up and that makes me interact with customers weird (like referring to a lady and her young daughter as "dudes", or being kind of an asshole* to that customer in the Children's section)? And I had to rearrange graphic novels again because corporate keeps changing their minds?

And then I saw these things.

Oh yes. Those are taglines alright. "Edward and Bella's favorite book!" "The original forbidden love!"

As much as I love the Bard, I'm almost certain the concept of forbidden love had been around for quite a while before, gosh, 1590-ish. And if there's one thing the kids are really into, it's Bronte. And that's just the beginning of my problems with this entire... thing.

brb, mourning the next generation's appreciation of literature





*Not entirely reliant on me having a cold, admittedly.

He didn't really get much accomplished there, other than growing some fierce muttonchops.

This post contains House spoilers. But not until the final paragraph.

Rgh, do you really think you can get away with pre-empting Castle tonight, ABC? I don't care who the Packers are playing, I needs me some Captain Reynolds being smarmy and solving crimes. Argh. Another TV show sacrificed at the altar in the name of the horrific and writhing deity that is Monday Night Foot Ball.

I put together the Arche Gundam. Mine doesn't look quite as pink as that, though. A fairly quick build, took about three hours over the course of two days between the snap-fit and the detailing. There may be a post devoted to it later.

Hey! I got accepted into an online Play-by-Post game of Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition! That is to say, my character Dagarth Crossroad did. The game will be the Scales of War adventure, something I'm not really familiar with, so it should be rad.

Also! Look what Roommate the Second bought! I'll let you know how they taste.

So listen, dude who sat near me in Meteorology today. Don't read over both versions of the test that you were given, because one of them is supposed to be passed to me. The professor did not decide to give you the opportunity to compare the two and decide which test you would rather take, he decided you would be competent enough to merely TAKE ONE AND PASS THE OTHER TO YOUR NEIGHBOR, who is waiting very patiently, even though he studied and could probably deal with either version perfectly well. I'll be way interested to know how you did, though.

What else? House tonight. Epic.

If, back when the show started, you had told me that Chase would ultimately be responsible for the fate of a nation, and that the episode that this occurs in would involve James Earl Jones guest-starring? I'd have said there's no way that this show could get that cool. However, if you had told me that Thirteen would be angry at Foreman and their relationship would be boring and lame, I would've believed that completely 100%.

In which our hero makes a bad financial decision.

And here's what it looks like.



(Not pictured: a bottle of Pepsi Wild Cherry and a bottle of orange Juice.)

Two model kits for about $50. I didn't really need to eat this week, after all.

And it has transparent effect parts!!! Pretty!!! And the Cherudim's GN Rifle barrel snapped off the tree in transit!!! No biggie!!!

I hadn't counted on Lost World of Wonders in Milwaukee actually restocking anything (because they never do), but welp, here they are. On the plus side, I drove through downtown Milwaukee with more or less complete confidence and didn't get lost once.

So OMG, Brothers Bloom is finally out on DVD this week! I have not been so completely sure of a film's quality in quite some time. I'll let you know how it is. (It'll be awesome.)

Meteorology test tomorrow, but not terribly worried about it. Taking it for the accursed Natural Science requirements. I wonder if they make all the Engineering Majors take classes about poetry and the ramifications of "being". Fortunately, I can satisfy that requirement by taking stuff that 7-Year Old Alex was way interested in, like dinosaurs, space and weather. Also, you can't really take practical Lab courses for any of those things so the Lab sections are way easy and way short.

I'm eating a Nestle Drumstick for supper right now. But there's a pizza in the oven, too, so I guess that's... dessert?

That's okay because that's all right.

(This evening at work.)

Borders Second-in-Command: Hey Alex, are you able to work at all tomorrow? We'd need someone 2-7 or 2-8.

Alex's Id: Nah, I'd rather sit around the house.

Alex's Ego: The responsible thing to do would be to come into work, you know.

Id: What? You have Friday off. Greater men than you have tried and failed to get Fridays off!

Ego: That's well and good, but I do have plenty of work to do here.

Id: You were going to have a lazy day! The Internet's not going to surf itself, after all!

Ego: And how do you propose we pay for that Internet, and indeed, that house we use it in?

Id: Fine, there's errands and schoolwork you could do...

Ego: Now that's pathetic. You and I both know we're not going to be doing any of that. We're going into work tomorrow.

Id: Well fine. She said you could work the 2-7 shift, that's five hours! You'd be back home before you know it!

Ego: I'll take 2-8. That way I get a break and I get a little more pay. End of discussion.

Id: *pouts*

Alex: Yeah, I can do 2-8 tomorrow.

Borders Second-in-Command: Oooooookay. Thanks a lot.

--------------

I'm so glad that Hulu puts up The Daily Show and The Colbert Report immediately the next day. This way, I can sit at home and watch them at 10 and 10:30 in the evening, just like at my parents' house! Except on a laptop! And in a less-than-comfy chair!

And they say Jon Stewart has a democratic bias. He just spent half the show cracking jokes about how the Democrats haven't gotten shit accomplished this year.

In other news, my life has recently become clear again. Existence has meaning once more. They are opening a Five Guys burger restaurant within WALKING DISTANCE from my house. I now consider my choice to move out fully and completely justified.

Speak like a child

Out of all the things that have happened in the past year or three, there has been a single thing that made me feel like a real adult, made me realize I'm on the brink of being a "grown-up". Not getting my first paycheck, not starting college, not signing the lease for my first place, but driving around downtown Milwaukee. In the driver's seat, looking at the gigantic buildings and navigating the sprawling intersections, something I had only experienced from the backseat of a mini-van in the past. I'm not sure what that says about me.

Roommate the Second is working through a bout with what, if I had to make a guess, is probably typhoid. I fear that I may be the next to feel Disease's withered claw grasp my throat.

Put your pants on, and you're ready!

Autumn is the only season worth having. Summer's hot and gross, winter's cold and hard to drive in, and spring's wet and might as well not be a season. In the middle, you have the calm, reasonable fall. Temperature is no longer a check on fashion, and all the best TV shows start up. Leaves are pretty and I don't have to rake them. We don't need fans going through the house because we're too cheap to switch on the air conditioner.

Sergei Eisenstein, best known for his film Battleship Potemkin (1925) also made this other movie called Strike (1925) which is also way effed-up. It promotes collectivism and utilizes the "Soviet montage" method, but it also has a shot of workers being massacred intercut with a cow being butchered. Like, it's struggling and its brains are oozing out and everything. Subtlety is not Eisenstein's forte, but for the time it was all revolutionary. Classical Film Criticism is looking to be the standout class of the semester.

House tonight was amazing (but then, it always is (sorry, is my fanaticism showing?)) Taub's leaving, which sucks, because he is THE MAN. And oh my god, House cooking with Wilson is one of the standout scenes so far, if only for the ball jokes.

Castle appears to be bringing its A-game for the second season, because both episodes so far have been great. And did that one suspect with the ankle thing look like a coked-up Alan Rickman? And Nathan Fillion put on this dreamy awesome smug grin towards the end that cracked me up.

Thoughts on the Heroes premiere - IN REAL TIME.

Hey kids! Watching the premiere of Heroes Volume 5: Redemption? Be sure to print this note out so you can have my thoughts while watching it! It's like Mystery Science Theater 3000, but with more cursing!


1:20 - So the new villains are the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Except one is an old guy and their leader is the guy who sells weed in the back alley.

3:30 - We just buried our friend and vowed vengeance. Now, let's go to the carnival.

4:50 -
Amy: What do your parents do?
Claire: My mom breeds championship dogs and my dad hunts down and kills mutants. I mean, shit, uh, he does government work. Yeah, that's guaranteed to raise no eyebrows.

7:05 - What? Yes you have! You've never ever expressed attraction to Hiro's sister ever.

10:00 - So Peter is Beast now. Huh.

10:52 - Does the author of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies work on Heroes or something? That's surprisingly well-planned product placement.

11:26 - Claire's under attack! Bet it's a dream sequence!

11:27 - Called it.

13:10 - Would you just look at all the rapport these two have! I feel like I already know guy-who's-friends-with-Peter.

13:35 - OMG Kitty

15:40 - "Plan?! What plan?!" Finally, Bennet says what the viewers have been thinking for the last two seasons.

17:00 - That far shot of Bennet drowning in his car cracked me up for some reason.

17:30 - Jeez, Danko, you could have hit Bennet when you shot the window out! Trained professional my ass.

27:30 - What? Your plan's not working Angela? The plan where Sylar kills your son, Nathan, then you make Matt use his erratic (at best) powers to make Sylar, a psychopath who can steal other people's powers, believe that he's Nathan? That plan? That brilliant plan? Because let me tell you, I am filled with shock and disbelief to find that this isn't playing out the way you thought it would!

28:40 -
Mr. Bennet: Hi, I was just talking to your roommate.
Claire: Cool. So what kept you?
Mr. Bennet: Tracy tried to kill me again. I mean, shit, uh, car trouble. Yeah, that's guaranteed to raise no eyebrows.

31:05 - She can show the future through the tattoos on her body? Cool, but I think it's just an excuse to have a topless lady on screen.

31:40 - Oh it's Samuel's power. Yeah, it's an excuse to have a topless lady on screen.

35:50 - OMG OMG The Haitian's back! Holy shit! He's doing the thing! OMG OMG

36:20 - OMG OMG Peter has the exact same ring tone I have!

38:20 - Called it. Danko's dead.

40:40 - Taking bets. Gretchen's power is the ability to play Guitar Hero REALLY WELL.

48:10 - Sylar set up shop in Matt's head? That's actually kinda cool.

49:50 - Oh this is just pathetic, Mr. Bennet. It's the saddest I've ever seen you.

53:00 - I'm being shown an ad for condoms. I'm watching Heroes for God's sake, I don't think I'm in your target audience.

58:40 - OH SNAP, Ando's macking on Hiro's sister!

1:01:15 - lol, Matt's being an asshole.

1:04:15 - He's way fast. No joke. And awesome with knives for reals.

1:08:23 - (Regarding Peter and Knife-Guy's fight) Bahaha this is retarded.

1:08:40 - Ray Park should fire his agent - he's been getting his ass kicked all night in this show.

1:11:10 - OMG this girl used "defenestrated" in a sentence. That's my kind of gal.

1:13:37 - I'm looking at my notes for this section and all it really says is "I <3 Sylar" over and over again.

1:14:40 - OMG Sylar just gave the best :o face. I need a screencap, stat!

1:16:30 -
Sylar: OMG He's lying, totally lying. Look at his lying face, he's such a liar liar pants on fire, nose as long as a telephone wire.
Matt: Shut up!

1:16:55 - Come on, bro! All the cool kids are using their horrific mind control powers! Don't be a square!

1:17:05 - Come on, you're really worried about the goddamn water guy screwing your wife? Really? For serious?

1:19:10 - Someone fire Ali Larter already.



And that's that.

And in case the guy who tried to sell me his home-recorded rap CDs on my way home from the sandwich place is reading this, you seriously need to get a better publicist. You've been reduced to begging on the streets. Judging by the CD cover, you've got a decent graphic design artist working for you, so the rest of your marketing team needs to step up.

When I was like, 14, someone told me I was good at writing and I believed them, so here we are.

I've kinda been wanting to get back into the blogging thing for awhile, and now that a fair amount has changed since where I last left off (for instance, my taste in design), it seemed appropriate timing. We'll see if I get bored of it or not.

Hypnotiq is the least offensive of the alcohol I've sampled since gaining my powers. That is to say, it tastes merely like cough syrup as opposed to poison. But I imagine poison is an acquired taste. I was hardly inebriated by it, but that's because Roommate the First and The Grecian were hoarding it. And I guess someone had to keep the two of them out of trouble as we wandered the streets of East Side Milwaukee at midnight.

This of course, led to Hot Dogs. Perfectly natural. I had this chili cheese hot dog, because I make poor decisions about my health, and DAMNIT I'm enjoying this fast metabolism thing while it lasts. The Grecian ordered something called the "Dogfather" which really tickled me at the time. Again, drinking.

Worked in music again. Pretty dull stuff. Person over the phone wanted to know if we had a CD. The only details he could provide was that it was a collection of German dancing music circa 1600. Dude, the sets of People Who Are German, Dances, and Things That Happened in the Seventeenth Century are all pretty effing huge, and I assure you, the intersection of these sets is no less vast. So maybe google it and get back to me.

But you really came here for my thoughts on television.

OMG House came back! With probably the best remake of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest I've seen! House was being House and I didn't have to deal with Thirteen! Bring on next week! Also, I guess Cameron is leaving. I'm not exactly grieving this loss here, since she was way more hot as a brunette hasn't done anything of import for a while.

Castle was fun, and more people should probably be watching it. Heroes was Heroes as has been established.

I just realized that this blogger template kinda looks like the current FOX packaging.

I caught the premiere for Flashforward, which turned out to be fun, but I'm still worried that it'll turn into a Lost clone. And I'm not all that big a fan of Lost. I'm picturing the screening of the first episode to the ABC execs and they're all, "Damnit Goyer, Lost had a polar bear, and Desperate Housewives had the thing with the ostrich, find yourself a kangaroo or something or else its your ass!"

Roommate the First has a strange girl in his room and I'm resisting all urges to pry. And oh my god, he just closed the door to his room literally as I AM TYPING THIS.