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January 31, 2003

   Apparently it's already the last day of January. I'm not sure how this happens. Shannon's going to beat me up if I don't update, so here's some random thoughts.
    * NUTV, you suck. It just crashed on me twice because - gasp! - I tried to open another program while it was running. It's the only way I can watch PTI (well, without fighting off doofuses in the Kemper main lounge), but it rarely fails to fuck up my computer. Huzzah.
    * Word on the street (by which I mean the National Weather Service) is that the high on Sunday is going to be close to 50. Fifty! Above zero! I'll believe it when I see it, but I went out yesterday night in my lighter jacket with the temperature around 30 and it felt positively balmy even with the wind. I don't expect this to last - it's supposed to be back in the 20s and lower by Tuesday or so - but one day of 50, or even 40-45, would be majorly sweet.
    * I signed up for Netflix, an online DVD rental service that mails DVDs to your house so you can watch them. No late fees, one flat rate for unlimited rentals, and not located farther away than the mailroom. Why would I not do this? It's especially good for this time of year when there's not much at the theater in the first place.

Incidentally, has anyone noticed what a light month January has been for bigflax.com updates? In terms of file size alone, this was the biggest of the three, and it's only 16 K! I guess the school months are lighter than the summer months in general, but all the same.

January 27, 2003

Initially based on a conversation about "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love," Drew and I took a survey on what the most famous poem in the English language is. For those of you who responded, and those who didn't, feel free to vote in this week's poll. If you don't agree with any of the choices, vote other and e-mail me with a suggestion. Remember - we're not talking nursery rhymes here, and also not things that weren't initially in English (no Odyssey or Iliad or anything).

January 24, 2003

Yes, Crunchie is the best candy bar known to man. But wouldn't it be even better if it were just the faux honeycomb? I don't have a problem with the chocolate, but I love the taste of the honeycomb, and the chocolate sometimes obscures it a little. Mmm, honeycomb.

Anyway, new movie review, for Max.

January 23, 2003

As absolutely the coldest weather I've experienced in three winters here descends on Evanston, Marc and I daydream about warmer climes in the latest addition to the IMs page.

January 22, 2003

It's nice to see that Owen Wilson used the money he made coaching the Buccaneers this season to get his nose fixed.

Moving away from random thoughts, those of you not in Evanston may not appreciate just how weird it is to suddenly be living on the Arctic Ocean. It hasn't been above freezing in at least a couple weeks and rarely gets above 20 - and the worst, according to tonight's weather forecast on ABC news, is still to come. This picture ought to give you some idea of how cold it is; that's Lake Michigan as seen from my window. The beach is covered in ice and snow that has been deposited there by the lake; the lake beyond it is still covered in chunks of ice. Ridiculous.

January 20, 2003

CBI campus results are up. I know you care.

Today really sucked because I could have slept in as I had no classes, but I had to get up to return the fucking motor pool van. Damn you, motor pool. Now I'm trying to think of things to do before I go to sleep at what will be an hour so reasonable as to be practically unreasonable.

Oh, and I finally changed the poll.

January 20, 2003

MLK and ABD results are up. CBI campus results might be up tonight, but maybe not until tomorrow. Incidentally, funny story of the weekend. On Saturday morning, Shannon and I were in the lobby having the continental breakfast and I was saying something about quiz bowl. This guy from Indiana was sitting behind her and goes, "Excuse me, did you say you're here for quiz bowl? So are we." Wow, like I didn't know that when Wesley's sitting next to you. All I could think of the rest of the day, though, was "Excuse me! Did you say Sergio? From Rio?"

January 19, 2003

We (by which I mean the teams which I was on, which were both A teams but not the same) finished 5th at MLK and 7th at Ann B. Davis. The former was pleasantly surprising, the latter was massively disappointing as we should have gone 7-2 - or at least 6-3 - and not 5-4. Still, I was in the top five in scoring at ABD. More on these tournaments tomorrow when I have time, and hopefully when at least some results will be up online for me to draw from. Until then, sate yourself with a new quiz bowl quote, amazingly enough Andy's first.

January 16, 2003

New IMs? You've gotta be kidding me. Okay, so it's really "new IM," but whatever. Also, there are new quotes, though if you are not Drew you may not care.
Also, I will state here my intention to put out a "Top Ten of 2002" movies list just as soon as I've seen Narc, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Max, and one or two others. Not that I saw every movie of 2002, or even most of them. Shut up. I will see way more in 2003, as semi-noted yesterday.

January 15, 2003

In 2002, I saw my sixth film of the calendar year on March 27. Today I saw my sixth film of the 2003 calendar year, and it may just have been the best film of 2002.

January 13, 2003

A bit belatedly, here's my long-winded review of The Hours.

January 11, 2003

The Hours was sold out (according to Tyler it's only playing at two theaters in the whole Chicagoland area, so that might explain it), so Drew and I ended up caving and seeing Chicago. We'll make another go at The Hours tomorrow (today).

January 10, 2003

Movies, movies, and more movies. Here's your review of The Pianist; I plan on seeing The Hours tomorrow (today) and Chicago on Saturday, and then 25th Hour and Narc before next Friday when more stuff will come out and/or open wider. This is one time when I actually plan to stick with my plan to see more movies like I should, at least until schoolwork becomes heavier.

January 8, 2003

It's a bit belated, but here's the final Top 20 College Football Poll for this year. Just so we're clear, you have Andy to blame for the lack of unanimity.

January 7, 2003

As you may have guessed, I'm back at Northwestern. I practically sleepwalked through today's classes because of being up too late with quiz bowl business last night, but they were just introductory classes anyway, so no big whoop. No class till one tomorrow, so that'll be good.

New Poll of the Week.

January 4, 2003

The movie gods, who have been quite busy the past two days, thwarted my attempt to see Far From Heaven; instead, you'll have to settle for this review of Rabbit-Proof Fence.

January 3, 2003

About Schmidt review ici; you can guess at the content by now.

Ohio State won the Fiesta Bowl, and no amount of Marc-whining (which I have now probably guaranteed myself more of on the forum) is going to make me feel bad about it. Go Big Ten! Ric still wins the Bowl Challenge, but whatever, he earned it.

January 3, 2003

Review of About Schmidt coming after the Fiesta Bowl. But first, a story:

    So I go to Millburn for the 4:30 show. The trailers run and all that... and then the movie starts. Running upside-down, and backwards from the end of the first reel.
    So they stop that, and proceed to spend the next hour apparently trying to fix it and delivering only sporadic and minor bits of information to an increasingly annoyed audience. I'm usually pretty laid-back about these things, but by 5:30 I had about had it, so I got up, went into the lobby, and joined the refund line. A minute later it was announced that the movie was running. I went back in to see the start of the movie (actually a couple minutes in, I would later find out), which ran for about a minute before the film broke and burned. At this point everyone went to collect refunds. Some got free passes instead, but free passes would mean you'd have to go back to Millburn, which had now suffered three such occurrences in my movie-going tenure (1999: For Love of the Game preview screening sees the film break twice, though it is completed despite some delays; 1993: Life with Mikey just stops running with, it would turn out, about three minutes left. Getting free passes for watching nearly all of a mediocre movie isn't such a bad deal, but I was too young to fully appreciate that aspect of it).
    Instead, I went to the 7:10 show at the Clairidge. As it turned out, and I may spoil the general theme of my review by saying this, I think the movie gods had been trying to warn me.

January 1, 2003

I can't imagine you're here anytime near when I'm writing this (12:19 am EST), so let me be approximately the last person to wish you a happy New Year. Woo.

Bowl Challenge update: Only eight of us can still win, going into the 2003 bowls. To find out if you're among them, click here.

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

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This page last updated: Friday, January 31, 2003 11:03:42 PM