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May 31, 2002

The debate rages on. Okay, so it's a pretty one-sided debate, but this was a good enough point to merit a post.

Burndoggg (4:19:27 PM): I loved your update today
Burndoggg (4:19:34 PM): about Lilly
BigFlax29 (4:19:41 PM): yeah, I was just so pissed
BigFlax29 (4:19:45 PM): had to write something
Burndoggg (4:19:57 PM): she did get into to Stanford, though, but I love how she thinks it would have been different
BigFlax29 (4:20:15 PM): well, then it makes even less sense
BigFlax29 (4:20:26 PM): why not transfer if you hate NU so much?
Burndoggg (4:20:43 PM): because there aren't any professors at Stanford who make you spend more than 100 and think that they're class is the only one
BigFlax29 (4:20:52 PM): ha
Burndoggg (4:20:59 PM): their
BigFlax29 (4:21:02 PM): exactly
BigFlax29 (4:21:23 PM): yeah, there certainly aren't any spoiled white kids at Stanford
Burndoggg (4:21:42 PM): yeah, I was just typing that too
Burndoggg (4:23:26 PM): and at Stanford, they help all minorities in getting what they want and the administration doesn't block anything
Burndoggg (4:23:29 PM): and everyone is just so merry
BigFlax29 (4:23:35 PM): yeah
BigFlax29 (4:23:57 PM): and all of that still doesn't answer the question of why she didn't just fucking transfer
Burndoggg (4:24:28 PM): yeah, exactly
Burndoggg (4:24:31 PM): you got me there

May 30, 2002

   If there's a more offensive columnist than Lilly Gonzalez, I have yet to read their work. She's been writing columns for the Daily on Thursdays this quarter, and I can't think of a single person on this campus I dislike more right now.
    Frankly, not everything she's written has offended me. I've gone back and read every column this quarter, and while she seems to view everything as an affront to her Latino heritage, some of the columns have just been "whatevers" for me.
    Then came the past three weeks. First was the column on why commitment-less sex was so good. While it may have inspired people to write to the Daily saying that things were better in a relationship, that's not even what bothered me so much, even though I generally agree with that sentiment. What annoyed me was the idea that people who weren't getting these "booty calls" were somehow pathetic, lesser individuals with pitiful social lives. I doubt booty calls are anywhere near as common on this campus as Gonzalez claims. I wasn't surprised to see her end her column with the suggestion that she was about to get one. Why would you want to be in a relationship with someone with such ridiculous opinions? Might as well just call her up late night.
    Then came the column on how much she hates Northwestern. Hello? Developing a dislike of Northwestern may have been one thing, but apparently she's hated it right from the start.
    So why did you come here? I can't imagine a stupider sentiment. Oh, you should have gone to Stanford, huh? What's the matter, couldn't get in? If you never liked NU, there must have been some reason you ended up here. Just got rejected from everywhere else? And why not transfer? Just so you could spend four years bitching to people who actually like the school? Unbelievable.
    And then, the metaphorical icing. Today's column, in which she basically makes the following points in succession:
    * Everyone needs a good ass-kicking.
    * Especially you.
    * If you think I do, you really do.
Because, really, what is more admirable than the idea that you're better than everyone else? Frankly, I can't imagine a person on the NU campus who is more in need of a good ass-kicking - make that a bitch-slapping - right now than someone who thinks that anyone who doesn't agree with them is a complete moron. And who appears to hate white people. Yup, I guess we all really are just "The Man," keeping these minorities down.
    Is there a bigger waste of op/ed space than this? I can't think of one. So you hate NU? Good, get out. Very few of us are going to miss you when you're gone.

May 30, 2002

Whoa, almost June. As such, about time we hit 80 again, as I mentioned. But that's not the point of this update - it's to tell you that the IMs page has moved. This is a much better format for everyone involved.

May 29, 2002

   The room has gotten increasingly hot over the past few days to the point where I was almost considering opening the door again. Fortunately, today they finally turned the A/C back on (maybe they only do it when the temperature hits 80, as it has today). Although, is this such a good thing? You decide:
    Pros: Room not 90 degrees. Not forced to keep fan running. Able to close window, a benefit since my screen is broken and bugs can enter too easily when the window is open.
    Cons: Room smells like the kitchen at SAGA.
Yeah. So having the air on is not always such a great thing, although as hot as the room has been, I welcome it right now.

May 26, 2002

Since I haven't updated the dream log in almost a week, you may not be checking it regularly. But there's a new entry up from this morning, if you're curious.

May 24, 2002

Wondering exactly how you play The Game? Check out the new Game page.

May 24, 2002

   My new favorite pastime, particularly when I go up north to Drew and Rich's, is The Game. The Game, for you non-Gamers, involves attempting to name a song being played from the start before the name of the song appears in the lyrics. (In songs where this doesn't happen, you could theoretically listen to the whole thing, but you wouldn't be very good at this game were that the case.)
    The catch, of course, is that you're playing off someone else's playlist, and they can throw virtually anything at you. You can play at home, of course - just put WinAmp on shuffle, turn the monitor off, and hit B every time you get one right (this only works on PCs, as far as I know, where B is the "Next Track" hotkey in WinAmp). But it's a little different when you're dealing with your own playlist, where assumedly you took responsibility for acquiring most of the songs and therefore should know them when you hear them.
    There is no actual "scoring," though I suppose you could keep track of how many times in a row someone got the song. The problem with this approach is that it doesn't really work either way. If you're playing at home, you'll probably rack up huge scores, and quickly accustom yourself to those songs you somehow don't know. If you're playing "on the road," the person running the playlist can easily throw you a song there's pretty much no chance you'll know - certainly Drew and Rich could both do that to me with ease - thus ending your streak. This would lead to too much infighting and assure that once someone set a high score, it would stay like that for a looooong time.
    Thus why The Game is fun without keeping score of any kind. The one time you allow it to get competitive is The Game - Doubles, where two people go against each other. This also has its drawbacks, particularly if the two people have different areas of expertise (Chong and myself, for example), but can be cool.
    Another fun thing to do is see how quickly you can get a song you know. This is a slight variant on The Game, as its purpose is not to test your knowledge so much as your speed. Have the person running the controls hit play and then pause after maybe one second, or after what he, if he also knows the song fairly well, considers to be a pretty short time. A good example would be when I played just the opening "Ha-ha!" of the Bloodhound Gang's "Bad Touch" for Chong and Drew to see if they could get it. (Not only could they not, they couldn't even get it until substantial parts of the song had been played - to be fair, they knew the song, they just couldn't come up with the title, but that's not good enough.) Another good example is seeing if you can get a song with a fade opening before it totally fades in (like "Most of the Time," for example).
    At any rate, The Game is pretty addictive. I'm not sure when the last time was that I was at Drew and Rich's and we didn't play it at all. (One weekend night we actually played for about four hours, using two playlists and, at different times, a total of five people.) I think I'll go play it a little now.

May 23, 2002

   Bitched on a Wendy's run tonight (night of the 22nd-23rd, since you can't really tell by the dating system). It was kind of amusing when they got back because everyone was so keen to pass the buck. Watching the blame deflect around was funny.
    I got to Ric first, who said that he mentioned while the car was still on Lincoln that they should ask me, but that the others said I didn't want to go. Then I talked to Rich, who said he mentioned that I wanted to go before they even left. Finally I talked to Chong, who said he hadn't heard a damn thing. (Drew also went, but was pretty incidental in the blame process.) I also left a bitchy message on Chong's machine before he got back at Ric's request.
    Chong's message, for those who haven't heard it, is the stereotypically boring message, something like "Hi, this is Matt. I'm not here right now. If you leave your name and number, I'll get back to you." Not as bad as Chris, whose machine just blurts "PLEASE LEAVE MESSAGE!" in the robotic voice that is basically a fuck-you to anyone who isn't totally sure of who they're calling, but pretty weak.
    Anyway, I dialed him up and left the following message: "Hi, this is Flax. I am here right now. For the record, you stink." Ric, naturally, found this hilarious.
    The funniest part, of course, was watching everyone kowtow like they'd actually committed some terrible crime against me. "I'm sorry... I promise it won't happen again..." Shit, I didn't want a Frosty that much. But now I have automatic exemption into every run until the end of time. It's like I just won the Masters.

May 22, 2002

   So I made that comment about a bleak summer schedule, but I didn't go into much more detail. I'm not going to bother putting together an entire "Movies to See" page because I just don't have the motivation right now. But here, broken into rough categories, is the outlook for June and July.
    Bad Company (June 7): Consider.
    Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (June 7): Avoid unless you are a chick.
    The Bourne Identity (June 14): Consider.
    Scooby-Doo (June 14): Avoid completely. Go find the trailer (not the teaser) and see how painful it is if you don't believe me.
    Windtalkers (June 14): Consider, but lean towards avoid.
    Juwanna Mann (June 21): Avoid.
    Lilo and Stitch (June 21): Consider, but consider it more if you are under 13.
    Minority Report (June 21): See.
    Hey Arnold! The Movie (June 28): Avoid unless you are under 13.
    Mr. Deeds (June 28): Consider, but probably only if you like those Adam Sandler movies.
    Like Mike (July 3): Avoid. Dear God, avoid.
    Men in Black 2 (July 3): Consider - see if you liked the first one.
    The Powerpuff Girls Movie (July 3): Consider, but consider it more if you are under 13.
    The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course (July 12): Avoid. Yikes.
    Reign of Fire (July 12): Consider, maybe, but lean towards avoid.
    Road to Perdition (July 12): See, but wonder if Hanks can actually pull off that role.
    Eight Legged Freaks (July 19): Avoid.
    Halloween: Resurrection (July 19): Avoid.
    K-19: The Widowmaker (July 19): Consider.
    Stuart Little 2 (July 19): Consider only if you are a kid.
    Austin Powers in Goldmember (July 26): Consider... but watch the previews carefully to see if you can get information on its potential to suck.
    The Country Bears (July 26): Avoid, unless you are high, in which case it might be a good time.

May 21, 2002

Random newness. Funny IMs may or may not be catalogued in the new IMs of the Week section. Also, a late dream update.

    Amusing phone conversation:
    The Ric: Hey dude, wanna go to Wendy's?
    Me: Ooh... actually, Halling and I got pizza.
    The Ric: Oh... well, can you tell us how to get there?

May 19, 2002

Let's see...

Saw Star Wars again on Friday. I stick by the B- as my first impression, but I definitely liked it better the second time around. Bump it up to A-/B+, though the romance scenes are still pretty ludicrous.
Then it was off to the LAB retreat, for which I had to get up at 7 on Saturday (on five-plus hours sleep). (Actually, I got up at 7 this morning too, though on more like seven hours.) Basically, the presidents and treasurers of a large number of NU student groups are sequestered away at Lake Forest College, where we do personality typing (ISTP, thank you) and group activities and stuff, basically designed to have us get to know our fellow group leaders. We also do some stuff where we learn how to interact with ASG and the administration and stuff like that. Personally, I spent most of my time checking out the hot girls, of whom there were a handful.

May 16, 2002

The review for Star Wars Episode II is up. It's not really all that positive. Having seen what I wrote about it, I'd sort of like to go back and drag the Spider-Man grade down a bit - but the difference is that I wasn't expecting anything out of Spider-Man, so I wasn't hugely disappointed. Whoops, I'm giving myself away. Read the review.

Also, Guestbook Depot appears to have gone belly-up on me, so I've switched the guestbook to BigFlax. This means no more annoying banner ads, though it also means every previous entry has now been erased. Oh well.

May 15, 2002

So, something of a treat tonight - I'm going to the midnight screening of Star Wars, along with Rich, Drew, and Chong (and some of Rich's friends). I'll be getting back from that between 2:30 and 3, so forget a review tonight, as I do actually have class tomorrow (even though it's not until one). You will get one sometime tomorrow, though.

May 14, 2002

So, having little else better to do, I decided to write some abridged scripts. These are, since most of you may never have seen them before, basically poking fun at movies by taking their plots and boiling them down, as well as making fun of things that were wrong with them. Stuff like that. To see where I got the inspiration, visit The Editing Room. The funniest one on that page, in my opinion, is this one in which the author (Rod Hilton) makes fun of Episode One. (Also, before you think this is just a blatant rip-off, realize that he didn't have the idea originally either.)

May 13, 2002

   If you're in the laundry room doing laundry, surely you must have brought your clothes down some way other than just carrying them in a big heap. That said, why would somebody take my laundry bag out of the laundry room? Did they think it had just been left there and no one was coming back to get it? Did they think it was theirs? It's kind of sad to think that such objects are not safe in the basements of dorms.
    Seriously. You're in the laundry room. You are either a) a student doing laundry or b) some guy from maintenance. I don't see why maintenance would take my bag, nor do I see why they would be in there in the less than an hour that I was away while my clothes were in the dryer.
    So if you're in the laundry room and you're a student doing laundry, don't you have your own way of bringing clothes down there? There's also no way this could have been a case of mistaken identity, because the other person's bag would have to still be there. It just wouldn't work like that.
    So did someone actually steal my freaking laundry bag? I hope there's some other explanation, but either way I'm going to have to put a poster up or something if I have any shot at seeing it again. Pathetic.

May 13, 2002

Some Top 50 Movies shifting. Spurred by recent viewings, the Star Wars movies have shifted up (well, the original trilogy), and The Usual Suspects has jumped to #5. Other, less momentous changes too. Let's see if anyone notices.

May 13, 2002

Because the DMCA sucks and I work for WNUR, which would be hit by this.

May 12, 2002

Okay, seriously, has a movie ever been more poorly marketed than Stolen Summer? I have yet to see a promotion for it where the words "Project Greenlight" were not infinitely more prominent than the title itself. I mean, yes, it was the Project Greenlight movie, and no, it probably would never have been made otherwise. But if they picked it up and made it, and actually got some recognizable if B-list actors to star in it (Aidan Quinn, Bonnie Hunt, etc.), don't they think it's worth a look on its own merits? I'm certainly not seeing it just because it was "the Project Greenlight movie." (I'm not seeing it at all, but that's a different story.)

May 8, 2002

Oh! Oh! A new movie review! Amazing.

    Speaking of which, has anyone else noticed what appears to be the dearth of compelling movies this summer? Here's what I'm planning on seeing - or am most likely to want to see - right now, based on release dates:
    Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (May 16)
    About a Boy (May 17)
    Insomnia (May 24)
    The Bourne Identity (June 14)
    Minority Report (June 21)
    Men in Black 2 (July 3)
    The Road to Perdition (July 12)
    Austin Powers in Goldmember (July 26)
Is it me, or is that lineup fairly bleak (note that there isn't a damn thing in August)? You can pencil in The Sum of All Fears (May 31) if you want, but it's pretty tenuous, and so is Insomnia, for that matter. The Bourne Identity isn't a certainty either, though I do want to try and see more movies this summer as for someone who likes movies, I don't seem to see that many. Still, most of what's being offered is enough to keep me out of the theater. I'd say there are really only three guarantees on that list - Star Wars, Minority Report, and MIB 2. Sad. Just thought I'd mention this as I just watched the latest Minority Report trailer and it looks more and more bad-ass.

May 7, 2002

As you may have noticed, there's a new button on the front page, and it's for the dream log. "Rêves," for you non-Frenchies, is French for "Dreams." (The fact that I wrote this means that either I'm a huge dork or I must really want Deirdre.) For those of you who have been complaining that this site isn't updated enough, expect this portion to be updated pretty much every day. It's true what they say about remembering dreams better with a log - when I first woke up I could barely remember any today, but as I started thinking about what to write if I couldn't remember any, they all came back, or at any rate large portions of them. Of course, even if this is updated every day, it's undoubtedly the stupidest, most narcissistic portion of the site (although I guess it has some bearing if you want to see if you managed to show up in a dream), but then again if I did daily updates every day they'd be pretty damn stupid too.

May 5, 2002

   There's nothing like watching Mission: Impossible to remind you what a fucking terrible movie Mission: Impossible 2 was. Seriously, has there ever been another sequel that retained at least some of the principal cast that had less in common with its predecessor? I've got money on "hell no."
    For one thing, there's the DePalma vs. Woo factor. There's action in M:I, but it isn't the high-kicking, motorcycle chase ridiculousness of M:I-2. And whereas DePalma gives us a mole hunt, Woo shows us Sean Ambrose as the baddie in the first 30 seconds. You're not going to M:I-2 to think, and this robs it of any coolness it might have. (Okay, to be fair, DePalma totally blows his load with the mystery in M:I. He shows Jim doing everything, but then on the train he hides Job's face, as though there were any chance it was still going to be someone else. A little insulting to the audience, but the end is still blatantly cool, so I give it back all the points it lost.)
    Thirdly, Tom Cruise is totally emasculated in M:I-2. In M:I, he's cocky but surehanded, delivering everything he promises with a "told ya" smirk on his face the entire time. In M:I-2, he's whining about Thandie Newton, "I don't think she can do this, I don't think she can do that," because he likes her. What an unforgivable pussy. And don't get me started on his freakin' hair. Don't think I'm not looking forward to Minority Report so that Magnolia-M:I-2-Vanilla Sky haircut can bite the dust.
    Basically, M:I is cool, and M:I-2 is trying to be cool. There's the difference. Like with those stupid masks. In the first movie they're awesome, in the second they're a gimmick. I'm not sure whether it's worse than the "here's me doing anyone's voice, like that's possible" thing in Scream 3, but it's about as bad. Give me a freakin' break.

And while we're on the subject of movies, what's with the electric guitar in "Zam the Assassin and The Chase Through Coruscant?" Did somebody hire the Trans-Siberian Orchestra to do the Episode II soundtrack while no one was looking? There'd better be some visual cue that makes that make sense or I'm going to be very upset.

May 5, 2002

Yeah, yeah, no updates for a while, I know.

I bought the Star Wars Episode II soundtrack yesterday, and it's been rocking me out. I'm not sure how it compares to the best of Williams' stuff, but I think it's more listenable than the Ep I score, which I also have. Some of it is a little "interesting," to say the least, like Track 3, "Zam the Assassin and The Chase Through Coruscant." Possibly the biggest key to the disc is that it's led me to believe - along with the positive reviews - that the movie will be way better than the trailers make it seem. The Ep I trailers looked cool, and the movie was iffy. But the Ep II trailers looked kind of dumb, and yet the movie seems like it'll be bad-ass. Apparently Yoda kicks some ass, which explains why they used computers to generate him instead of the usual puppet.
They also want you to "collect all four covers" to the CD. I don't know what would induce me to buy four copies of the soundtrack just for the cover. Anyway, my cover is great - Anakin with the light saber, looking like a total bad-ass, and Natalie Portman holding a gun and looking unbelievably freakin' hot. Sah-weet.

Also, in an effort to drive as many people away from this site as possible, I've decided to start maintaining a dream log. I should put a counter on this page just to see how ridiculously few hits it gets.

May 1, 2002

So, the Memento DVD contest is over. Am I going to declare a winner? Well, I didn't want to, but to quote Grampa Simpson, "Okay, ya twisted my arm..." To find out more, click here.

There's more! View last month's updates.

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This page last updated: Friday, May 31, 2002 07:53:30 AM