And where does Jesus come from? Man and God, right. He's kinda like Spider-man.

The new semester is upon us! Reports:

We begin our week with World Cinema, specifically the films of Hong Kong. Any class that shows you Kung Fu Hustle on the first day can't be that bad. Also, I know the professor and she is way cool. She saw fit to mention that I was brilliant and awesome in front of the whole class which is really greatly appreciated. I don't remember her exact phrasing because it was hard to hear it over my blushing. Also, there are bunches of senior auditors for some reason.

Immediately afterwords is Non-Fiction Prose, specifically the New Journalism pioneered by your Hunter S. Thompsons and your Tom Wolfes. Too early to judge but I like what we've done so far.

Next day begins with Current Literary and Culture Theory and oh my God. It's taught by a real-life Irish person! He talks almost just like Colin Farrel and says things like "bloody hell" and "your mates". He's also the source of the title for this post and is rather self-deprecating towards the English department. Which I like. What I don't like is that I had to shell out eighty dollars for a course packet the size of a phone book. I will be very cross if its all reprints of stuff that I have already.

Advertising in American Society follows. I'm kinda thinking about doing a JMC minor, so we'll see where this goes.

Finally Elementary Statistic Analysis. Oh Maths, how I've missed you! Time to blow the dust off of the trusty TI-83+ and compute some confidence intervals, standard deviations and t-curve values! And I'm suddenly glad for all that time spent on German, because now I can get past the instructor's accent!


In other news, Heroes continues to run. Peter's back in usual form by saying to himself, "HEY I JUST GOT THIS NEW, UNCONTROLLED POWER FIVE MINUTES AGO, LET'S TAKE IT FOR A SPIN BY TRYING THE HARDEST THING I CAN THINK OF ERRRGGGHHHHMFFFFFFFFFF". And while Matt had the right idea when he trapped Sylar, burying him behind a wall in your basement seems like poor planning on his part.

Yesterday, the Grand Glorious Leader and CEO-For-Life of the Bookstore Which Shall Not Be Named jumped ship. After just a year "turning around this company" he finally threw up his hands, flipped us the bird one last time, took his money and hopped on a plane to Tahiti for his well-earned vacation. I salute you, good sir and eagerly await to hear about your replacement.

Obama is doing his state of the union address right now. I could go watch it... or I could wait for Jon Stewart to tell me the important parts tomorrow and maybe sneak a dick joke in there somewhere. The answer, I should think, is obvious.

Sometimes there's a man, well, he's the man for his time and place.

I don't know what to do without Coco. I started watching Leno back when I was a young'un and thought he was alright, but then I became old enough to stay up until midnight if I wanted to. And then there was Conan O'Brien. A host who fits well with my generation and is not content with adhering to the basic rules of hosting a talk show. Conan bucked the rules and consistently provided an entertaining experience that you couldn't get on any other show.



And now Jeff Zucker has managed to alienate an entire generation by canning him. You gotta admire Conan for going out with class. He could have railed against NBC for this injustice, but he instead focused on the good times he had at the network and how even having the Tonight Show for such a short time was one of the best things that ever happened to him. Don't be cynical, indeed.

I will admit to drinking following his last show. I will also admit to checking out a restaurant that'll serve you a slice of Macaroni and Cheese Pizza to you at one in the morning with my far more inebriated chums.

I rewatched The Big Lebowski last night and words still fail to express my love and appreciation for this movie. Words and phrases like "Duder" and "That's just, like, your opinion, man" have entered my everyday lexicon. One of the few actual movies that I own personally, along with In Bruges (another movie I could watch over and over again).

Having combed almost every store I can think of in the Milwaukee area, I am prepared to announce that Revenge of the Fallen Bludgeon does not exist. I saw his casemate, Recon Ironhide, but that must be some shipping error. I'll have to assume that Wisconsin is like a black hole to Hasbro's shipping center. I can still count on my hands the Jetfires and Long Hauls that I've ever seen on store shelves and they came out in August.

Lots of work these past few weeks, followed up by a completely blank work schedule for this week. What the hell, guys? Sure I just got offered a shift, but still. I know payroll's bad, but not even one night? Hrm.

School begins tomorrow. Finalized schedule after working my way through the Byzantine scheduling and degree requirements:

Monday
12:00 - 1:50: World Cinema
2:00 - 3:15: Non-Fiction Prose: The (Not so) New Journalism

Tuesday
9:30 - 10:45: Survey of Current Literary and Cultural Theory
11:00 - 12:15: Advertising in American Society
2:00 - 3:15: Elementary Statistical Analysis

Wednesday
12:00 - 1:50: World Cinema
2:00 - 3:15: Non-Fiction Prose: The (Not so) New Journalism

Thursday
9:30 - 10:45: Survey of Current Literary and Cultural Theory
11:00 - 12:15: Advertising in American Society
2:00 - 3:15: Elementary Statistical Analysis

Oh my God, my copy of Underworld from the school library is all marked up in highlighter. It looks like they got bored a few pages in and stopped, but marked-up books drive me nuts. NUTS.

Blog output low. I have trouble making something out of nothing is all.

They're pants that hang like a skirt

So I haven't gushed about the best medical drama on television past or present for awhile. House returned this week and was absolutely fantastic, if only for the fact that they finally addressed the rabid House x Wilson fanfiction writers. Their bromance is one of the best parts of the show and the two of them pretending to be gay for the episode is one of the best things the show has done recently. When two middle-aged men move into an apartment together, what else can the neighbors think? I could watch this episode over and over.







Why on Earth do these Livejournal people put these stupid borders around their .gifs when those pixels could be better used on a larger image?

Conan O'Brien has been on fire this week. It should surprise nobody that I'm completely with Coco on this. I've got your back, dude. I thought that one gag that fell flat with your audience was hilarious.

I'll be tuning into the Golden Globes this weekend even if they don't matter. It still has celebrities doing funny things and giving out meaningless awards. We can try predicting winners! And host Ricky Gervais might show up drunk!

My instructors for Spring 2010 are already setting up their D2L online course pages and we know what that means! I can see the entire classlist and see if I know anybody! So far no luck, which leaves the names that I don't recognize. Let the e-stalking begin!

This post sure does suck.

The guys in Intel really dropped the ball on this one

At my job, I sometimes have breaks. Much like you fine law-abiding Americans, I'm sure. There are a multitude of restaurants in the same strip mall as Borders and you usually pick one to go get lunch at.

I had just been told, after two and a half years of working at the store that the Noodles & Company down the way will totally give you a free soda if you mention that you work in the same mall as them. A. Whole. Free. Soda.

WHY HAD I NOT BEEN INFORMED OF THIS UNTIL NOW?

So, as my break started, I declared that I was indeed going down to prove this for myself. Co-workers gave me the look that Bruce Willis gets when he tells people that they're actually going to land the astronauts on the asteroid itself.

It would be risky for sure. What if this policy was no longer in effect? What if I tell them about it and they think I'm an idiot or some free-loader who just wants free soda? We simply could not have this. So it was with understandable apprehension that I strolled into the restaurant. It was busy, what with the dinner rush. Too many witnesses. Any one of these rubes would be there to witness my failure, or worse, call the authorities.

I idly fingered the Borders badge sitting in my coat pocket the same way that a novice criminal caresses his automatic on the way to his first armed robbery. And my badge was a lot like a gun. I could pull the trigger and BOOM free soda. The pistol was loaded with taste bullets, fully chambered with the hammer cocked ALL THE WAY BACK.

The counter. The clerk is slightly fatigued, but in good spirits. A good sign, but we mustn't allow ourselves to get overconfident. Too many X-factors at work here. The guy next to her is clearly a supervisor - I could see the "no" fully queued up behind his veneer of affability, his triumphant sneer waiting in the wings. And what of the people in line behind me? I can't hold up the line with my need for free beverages or things could get violent.

I laid out the deal and displayed the Borders badge - my symbol of authority and my only bargaining chip. Her poker face doesn't falter as she pulls out a cup and slides it across the counter asking if I would like anything else.

I felt like a cop holding up his badge to make his way into the crime scene. I smile inwardly and make my order.


This is what passes for excitement in my life.

And still not ginger!

Winter Break is slipping through my fingers. Only two weeks remain and there is so much left to do!

Mother Nature decided that I was having too decent of a week and decided to snow everybody in on the night we were totally supposed to go down to the brewery, get mildly drunk and play trivia for the night. And by "we" I mean the good people at Borders Books Fox Point. My friends, we don't do nearly enough as a family. Work doesn't count.


I did manage to see The Princess and the Frog though. And I managed to con Keelin into coming with! Because I don't need to add "sitting in an empty theater alone" to my list of reasons to feel lonely.

It's a really great movie and I think deserving of a high place in the Disney canon. The animation is really very pretty and there are some amazingly animated pieces such as the "Almost There" song number and the scenes where Facilier does his voodoo stuff. And speaking of, Facilier is definitely one of the more frightening Disney villains and I would hardly be surprised if the kids sitting in the theater with us had nightmares that night. The music is good stuff and the characters are well-written and well-developed. It's also way funny.

The first fifteen minutes or so were a little overflowing with Disney-isms though. "Remember Tiana, when you wish upon a star, anything is possible. But as long as you got heart. And family. Remember to work hard, but stop and smell the roses on the way! Anything is possible if you try and what's really important is what's inside. And outside." But they narrow their focus towards the end.

If you're at all interested in animation or just want to feel like a kid for a bit, it's for you.


In other news, David Tennant regenerated! Into some bloke named Matt Smith! Who's barely older than I am! "End of Time" had John Simm back as The Master, so I was immediately sold. I keep up with Doctor Who sporadically because I only catch it on Sci-Fi or PBS and am too lazy to download it, but I made the exception this time. And God, was it cheesy. Like, you could squeeze it onto crackers, but that's par for the course for Who. I'll be watching the Eleventh Doctor with great interest.

Ooh! And Timothy Dalton played a Time Lord! This is possibly the most convincing bit of evidence for James Bond actually being a Time Lord. He keeps on changing appearance and seems to be able to come up with an ingenious way out of any situation. Think about it.




The Master Grade F91 Gundam looks good on paper, but not so much in practice. So it was a bit of a disappointment. Too many stickers for the yellow areas and the joints are either too weak or too tight. The construction is a pain in the rear and I came close to busting several pieces along the way.

The Variable Speed Beam Rifles (VSBRs) are a fun gimmick though. They slide into position easily and look pretty cool. The Beam Shield is pretty neat as well - a lot better than the one they gave to the Destiny Gundam. I might review it up later, but the basic verdict is that you should get it if you really like the F91 part of the Gundam universe, otherwise pass on it.



The Master Grade Unicorn Gundam on the other hand is immensely well-done. The design is great and the transformation to Destroy mode is quick and simple.



As is usual for Universal Century models, it still manages to look regal and impressive while just standing there, and the dynamic design makes up for the somewhat sub-par articulation.

Tune in next week when I might actually have something interesting to say.


(Pictures are, as usual, not mine. They belong to Dalong and TASTE)

My 2009 in books

Seems as good a time as any. I'm currently in the middle of Anna Karenina but let's face it, that's not getting finished before 2010. I read quickly but my attention span and initiative are poor. I'm not able to sit around for a whole afternoon and knock out 400 pages like others are, but here we go. Here are the highlights of what I read this year.

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Ignore the Oprah Book Club sticker on the front. Transgender/intersexed literature is fairly rare, so it's a good thing that the work is pretty good. Our narrator gets a little overblown at times, but that may work in your favor if you like, for example, references to Greek mythology. The family saga portion is entertaining enough and our main character's struggle may be hard to relate to but is still compellingly written.

City of Thieves by David Benioff
A very good piece of WWII-related fiction involving two Russians who will be released from prison (one is in for stealing food, the other is a soldier who tried desertion) if they undertake a very peculiar mission. A fun read with hints of that morbid "war sucks" theme. Reads like it would make a thrilling film.

Dune by Frank Herbert
So I finally went and read what many see as required reading for sci-fi/fantasy fans. I'm not sure I see it. Maybe it's because I know full well what Frank's son does to the series with Kevin J. Anderson later on, but I didn't think it was terribly amazing. Good and worth a read, but not amazing. The setting is cool enough though.

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
This is excellent stuff if you have the patience to memorize family trees. It's written in such a way that makes you feel as if you're in the middle of a dream and is basically a very tolerable postmodern work. Fascinating characters and a great sort of magic permeate the novel. Called a classic of world literature for a reason.

The Steel Remains by Richard K. Morgan
Unremarkable as far as fantasy goes. Worth a read, but I don't think I'll be returning to the series. Also, the author sees fit to continue reminding you of how gay his protagonist is. Is he ever gay, I mean just look at him go, making out with men and everything, he is soooooo gaaaayyyy.

The Sandman by Neil Gaiman
OMG I <3 Neil Gaiman. I finally got around to reading what many consider to be his magnum opus and it did not disappoint. This is the ultimate in graphic novels, even for (I might say especially for) those who don't read graphic novels. Brilliant characters and fascinating use of mythology and theology ensure that all ten volumes will be on my bookshelf for a very long time to come.

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Loved it while I was reading it, but opinion has kind of soured slightly. Still an excellent read but it gets kind of melodramatic and could probably have used an editor.

Hard-boiled Wonderland and the Edge of the World by Haruki Murakami
Probably the weakest of Murakami's novels that I've read so far, not that that's saying much. A little on the obtuse side, it gets to be a real slog towards the middle. But it has its moments.

The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Copy and paste thoughts on Shadow of the Wind. I would probably preferred it if there won't so many blatant references to Shadow - it should have been more distanced from its predecessor.

Snow by Orhan Pamuk
A very thick book, but worth the read. It's one of those novels that almost makes the setting itself a character, in this case it's Istanbul. Excellent if that's a region that interests you.

Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
Probably the girliest thing I read all year, but her stuff is pretty good and this one is no exception. Definitely read if you have an interest in the time period.

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
It's a very good piece of fantasy but I can't get over the fact that our main character is just so awesome. Kvothe borders on Mary Sue-dom and the school setting feels like a rehash of Harry Potter. Still, it's written pretty well and there are hints at both a much more interesting narrative below the surface and the idea that maybe our main character isn't being entirely truthful with us.

The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano
This is a good one but it's a bit dense. There are a lot of wacky Spanish names to remember, but the way it portrays the two main characters (two vaguely-Quixotic guys founding a literary movement) through accounts made by various side characters is fun to read and piece together in your head. It's a look at the seedy underbelly of poetry that you never knew existed. Also, the title would make a great name for a rock band.

Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie
Kill Bill meets Lord of the Rings with a touch of The Count of Monte Cristo. A very entertaining read, but not terribly deep. Eat popcorn while you read it.

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
Easily the best book to involve a giant squid corpse as a minor plot point released all year. (Runner-up: The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood)

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Oh Virginia Woolf. You're a wacky one and To the Lighthouse is probably one of your best. It's also the only one I've read. But I liked it.

The World Without Us by Alan Weisman
A great non-fiction read. I wrote about it earlier but I'm too lazy to link it.

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
I'm a sucker for these clashing immigrant stories and The Namesake is one of the best. It managed to make me in turns depressed and happy so it's a fairly emotional read. Would probably be my favorite of the year were it not for...

White Teeth by Zadie Smith
I don't know if I mentioned it before, but I love Zadie Smith. Her writing and characters have a way of pulling you in to the story and she can force you to snorting laughter and then to tears within ten pages. She nails this whole "hysterical realism" thing and her story of the clash between generations of an immigrant family and their neighbors, friends, and co-workers is brilliant stuff.

A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh
Making fun of English high society? Definitely something I can get behind. Pervaded by a dark humor and satire, it can be a depressing read but there still continues to be the impression that Evelyn Waugh was smirking to himself as he wrote out the main character's final tragedy.

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
Hm. It was pretty good, but I think overrated. Some unrealistic characters and situations, but the approach to Heaven is an interesting one. I'm not quite willing to heap praise on Sebold just yet.

Star Wars novels in general
While the Fate of the Jedi series shows some potential, it's been pretty unremarkable so far. I cannot fathom making Admiral Daala, best known for multiple attempted genocides, into the Chief of State of the Galactic Republic. However, Luke and Ben's journey is probably the strongest part of the series so far and I'm very interested to see where the "Lost Sith" plotline goes.

Deathtroopers was a lot better than a book where Han Solo fights zombies has any right to be.

Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor is easily the best Star Wars novel released this year. A brilliant character study, the book is the closest to the pulpy Star Wars adventures of old. It's surprisingly deep for a Star Wars novel, analyzing things like morality and narrative structure.


That is all.