Treason Against the Empire

All evening, I’ve been completely geeking myself right out of the building.  Why?  I got my new cable box today…….complete with DVR.  Yes, now I can record television without video tapes!  And I can pause live television!  Nevermind that this technology has been around for years.  All what matters is that I am just now getting to play around with it.  For instance, as I watched Revenge of the Sith, I was also recording The Machinist to watch tomorrow.  Capital!  Actually, I got it for two reasons:  One, it’s cheap.  Like, five extra bucks a months cheap.  Even I can handle that.  Two, the World Cup is starting Friday around noon.  I’m not even fucking around with video tapes like I did four years ago.  That was an expensive hassle.  Now I don’t have to worry with that.  Plus, I can tape the soccer while watching the Stanley Cup Finals (well, maybe…..it may not last long after last night….but I’ll get there).  So, yeah, I’m excited.  Practically giddy, even.  And I can’t decide if that’s sad, or if it’s just my general dorkiness.  I think I’ll vote for the second one….the dorky thing.

Game One of the Finals Monday night was spectacular.  Only thing wrong was that the wrong team won.  Edmonton was up 3-0 midway through the second period, and just flat out dominating, when a seemingly meaningless Carolina goal turned the tide.  The Hurricanes erased the rest of the defecit in short order, then took the lead in the third period, 4-3.  With under four minutes to go, the Oilers tied the game up.  Not long after that, though, Oilers goalie Dwayne Roloson was injured when one of his own defencemen slammed a Carolina forward into him.  Roloson had to be replaced, and, at that point, I knew it was over.  Sure enough, Carolina scored with about thirty seconds left to win it, 5-4.  The action of the game was fast and furious.  Tons of hitting (clean and legal, even), speed speed and more speed, scoring chances out the arse, and even a penalty shot that turned into a goal by a defenceman.  Great stuff.  It’s the kind of game I’d show someone who was ambivalent towards hockey if I wanted to turn them into a fan.  Getting back to Roloson, though….   Reportedly, he could be done for the series.  If that’s true, then Edmonton is done, simple as that.  It pains me to say it, too, because I want them to win.  But Roloson has been carrying them, so with him out, the future is bright and Silvery in Carolina.

Now Playing in Dave’s Mental Jukebox:  "Watershed" by Coal Chamber, "Taste My Skin" by Anna Tsuchiya (damn you, catchy J-Pop!), and "She Hates Me" by Puddle of Mudd (I’ve been hearing this song all over lately….what gives?)

As I mentioned earlier, I watched Revenge of the Sith a little while ago.  Something I’ve often wondered (especially having watched that movie a number of times) is why so many of my fellow Star Wars fanboys (and fangirls) think Hayden Christensen did a shit job playing Anakin Skywalker.  Some say he’s too wooden and stiff.  Others say he’s far too whiny.  I find this odd, as it is utterly impossible to be both emotionless and over-emotional.  I happen to think they’re just mad because the character of Anakin was not as they had all hoped.  I personally think the final two movies unfolded Anakin’s saga quite perfectly.  He’s a cocky teenager who feels held back, but then loses his mother in traumatic fashion and thus craves a greater power.  He grows angry because he’s lost the only person he knew loved him.  In the final movie, he’s much more mature.  At the start, he’s kind of stodgy and wooden, but as he starts to fear for Padme’s life, he grows increasingly more emotional and upset about it.  Eventually, he becomes so distraught about it that he becomes open to any suggestions that might save her life.  Thus he falls to the dark side to protect the one he loves so dearly since he could not protect his mother.  I think people were angry that Anakin was a normal-ish teenager, and not some ridiculous badass mother fucker.  The aura of Darth Vader was such that anything less than god-like would’ve been unacceptable to most fans.  And the actor had to tailor his performance to his much more robotic predecessor.  There were certain things he had to say certain ways.  There were certain ways he had to act in some situations.  So he was hamstrung in spots.  I think he did a fine job (not as fine as Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan, who made the character his own within those same limitations).  The more laughable part was when James Earl Jones tried to infuse too much emotion into Vader’s lines at the end, culminating with the infamous, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!"  Too funny.

As a whole, I like the new trilogy better than the old, by the way.  Episode IV is the worst of all six (yeah, I said it….you wanna fight about it?!).  Empire is the best of all six.  Jedi is crappy (damn you Ewoks!).  Phantom Menace is the second worst of all six (saved only by the fight between Darth Maul, Obi-Wan, and Qui-Gonn….it was awesome thanks almost entirely to Ray Park as Darth Maul).  Episode II is middling, with it’s good moments and it’s bad.  Sith is the "1A" to Empire’s "1."  They’re pretty much even in my book.  But I like the new trilogy because of the way it expands on the universe.  The pre-Empire days are much more interesting because there seems to be more going on.  There are more races involved, there’s more action, but most importantly, there’s more Jedi.  Even though most of them are background characters (more or less), just getting to know a few more Jedi is the best part.  Which is why I think the Knights of the Republic games are better than any of the movies, storywise.  There’s just much more going on.

/end of complete dork rant

I started reading A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby yesterday.  It’s pretty interesting so far.  The method of storytelling he chose (a narrative told from constantly rotating perspectives) had to be hard to do.  Jumping in and out of the heads of four utterly different characters is not easy to do (I’ve had trouble doing it with four very similar characters).  I can also see this being turned into a movie someday.  There’s just something about Nick Hornby’s writing that lends itself so well to the big screen.  Actually, it isn’t just something, it’s everything.  His novels are like ready-made scripts.  The man is a certifiable genius.

This from the Department of Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One Before:  When July rolls around, it’s going to be time for me to find a new job.  I have zero faith left that any kind of raise or full-time consideration is going to be thrown my way, so it’s going to be time for me to move on.  I still may not know what it is I wish to do with my life, but I know it ain’t Sears.  So no matter how much I like the job, the people, and the environment….I won’t be able to stick around.  There’s just not enough money or hours.  I’d like to say my life isn’t just about the money, but I at least want to be able to buy things every now and again without feeling guilty ("$13.99 for this movie?  Hmm…." should not be a problem when it’s something I really want….but that’s just me).  Nevermind that I definitely want (and will likely soon need) a new car.  I’d like to be able to afford a better place to live (this shitbox and the other people that live in it are starting to give me a serious case of the redass………there are 5 apartments taken in my particular building, but at anytime, there are as many as twelve cars parked outside, thus making it quite hard to park anywhere nearby if I don’t come straight home after work…pisses me off).  But, yeah….there’s that.  I’d start now, but with Jason’s wedding coming up in a couple weeks…….well……there’s no point in not waiting.

Jesus Christ, I almost forgot.  Saturday night, Augie had a party at his new house, which pretty much included the entire Receiving Team ("Receiving Team, ASSEMBLE!") and whomever they brought with them.  It was a pretty hilarious night because, let’s face it, seeing drunken coworkers is always fun.  But the highlight of the evening was seeing Augie damn near burn his house down.  He was going to cook hamburgers, but his grill ran out of gas almost immediately.  So he went inside to pan fry ’em.  Fifteen minutes later, as I’m just kind of standing around, I see this huge tower of flames go up as I’m looking in the kitchen window.  Next thing I know, someone opens the back door, and I see fire again.  At this point, I’m convinced the house has gone up.  But it was just Augie holding the pan so he could throw it outside.  Hilarious.  Everyone laughed about it all the rest of the night.  Turns out, a grease fire had started.  It was small and under control until the drunkest guy there, the one who’d drunk an entire bottle of Jager in about 90 minutes, yells to throw water on it.  Need I say more?

And I reckon that’ll do it.  If I can’t go out on a funny story about grease fires, then….well…………I can’t think of a better way to finish that.  I swear it, my brain just breaks down at the end of these things.  It’s too lazy to help me finish anymore.  Whatever.  Just type the Japanese and get out of here……..

Sayonara.