Too bad this photo wasn’t around when my Mom was trying to keep me from stuffing myself.
So this whole thing about the chimeras…with the human/rabbit embryos…and whether or not such creatures should have human rights is the perfect example of human arrogance. I mean, come on…don’t you think the rabbits are asking the same question? Seriously, though – specieist christian nonsense. Might has always made rights.
I’m making tons more money than I have for years. It’s weird to be able to afford to eat out for every meal, to be able to afford to buy a DVD when I want to buy a DVD, to go to the gym whenever I want, to go to the dentist, to get my passport, to pay off my library overdue fines. I can finally patronize the game stores that I tell everyone else to patronize. I actually bought a game book new off the shelf at Drexoll’s. It’s nice. And I don’t mind my job at all. That’s double nice.
Narnia was terrible. Awful. I felt closer to walking out on that film than I have for a long time. Drippy. Pointless. Infantile. Trite. Plus, the music was bad. The acting was uninspired and I felt sorry for the kids who were given the joyless task of being forced to speak the lacklustre dialogue. The only inspired thing in the film was some of the monsters.
King Kong however, was great, as I mentioned. It too was overly dramatic at times, but for a monster-fighting-monster flick it met my expectations. You could really see that they put a lot of time and attention into studying the natural movements and expressions of a gorilla (it seemed to me). There were some problems, which I will delineate below.
I still want to see Capote. Has anyone seen it yet? And Syriana? Anything else?
(if you haven’t seen King Kong, you may want to stop reading):
There was too much humans outrunning animals. Of all the animals in the world, humans are pretty slow. And many dinosaurs are built for speed, just like birds. Look at the ostrich. Same deal with velociraptor-type dinosaurs. And for the dinosaurs that aren’t built for speed, they often have incredible stride (brontosaur-types). Even quicker are insects (generally). If you have ever watched a nature documentary on predatory insects, they strike faster than the eye can see. Granted in the film they are giant bugs that in real life wouldn’t be able to walk under their own weight, but if they’re going to move exactly like small bugs in every other respect, they should be able to kill with lightning speed.
There were some other things but I guess I’ll add them when I remember them.
25% of the fish caught in the world is thrown back. My other Christmas gift to the world is going to be a donation to the World Wildlife Fund to stop bad fishing practices. And to save alien-looking species we havent even discovered yet (not to mention the giant squid)
My gift to everyone this year is to not make them wait in line at the post office. Gadzooks! I waited in line for at least a half hour. The poor sap a couple people ahead of me didn’t even get the package he went to pick up. Yes, he had his slip – but the girl couldn’t find it and sent him away. The guy behind me asked “what the hell are they doing up there?” after one couple took 10 minutes. I replied “I think they’re trying to ship a corpse stuffed with cocaine.” Nobody laughed. It was like waiting in line for Star Wars but without the Star Wars.
Iraq’s Victorious Army Group was holding a contest to see who could design the best website to promote their message of jihad. The contest winner will receive Allah’s blessings and be allowed to fire three rockets at an American military base.
The probe into the U.S. policy of paying Iraqi newspapers for positive coverage widened to include the Baghdad Press Club, a military-created P.R. organization;
Pakistan extended its ban on kites due to the deadliness of kiteflying; in February, 19 people died and over 200 were injured during a kite festival.
Condoleezza Rice made a deal with Romania that will allow the United States to use military bases there.
A religious studies professor at the University of Kansas was beaten up on a roadside after he mocked creationism in an email, Christmas activists were upset to receive White House greeting cards that wished them a happy holiday season instead of a Merry Christmas.
Police in Guangdong, China, fired into a crowd of demonstrators who were protesting the sale of government land for a wind-power plant; villagers said that at least ten people had been killed.
The supreme court of Italy ruled that it is not necessarily racist to call someone a dirty negro.
In the rainforests of Borneo, scientists were attempting to trap a newly discovered carnivorous cat-fox creature.
I had the good fortune of being contacted by a student at Vancouver Film School who is working on his final project for his term. That final project is to provide a total media package for a band. He sent out emails to a few bands he liked and after meeting with him at The Grind on Main St (the Italian soda was weak and the service wasnt the jewel in their crown either) were going to be working together. This is good news because weve been needing a bit of injection into the old output department for some time and boy, am I lazy. For a few YEARS now Stephane and I have been working on a DVD of our live stuff, videos, and whatnot and part of the project was to put together a video for one of our songs that was just live footage. Not to be our grand masterpiece but at least its something we can put out there. Anyway, this new development opens up the possibilities. As always the biggest hurdle for any band endeavor is getting all the band members together, but if we rely on Adams computer wizardry that may not be a worry. Any suggestions on what youd like to see for a video or other media? At the end of the deal we should have a bouquet of stuff to look at, with nothing out-of-pocket apart from time. Time in my pocket.
For those of you who have been wondering just where the hell I’ve been, I’ll tell you. I’ve got a new job working for a temp agency and they have me out at RBC Financial Group card services (aka VISA) doing address updates (phone & data entry). Oh the things I’m learning about the banking and VISA world would make your head spin! It’s by no means my ideal job but it sure beats the mind-numbing drudgery of the book warehouse. At least at this job I can sit down for more than an hour a day. And when I haven’t been at work I’ve been playing Baldur’s Gate 2: Shadows of Amn at Marlo’s and working out at the gym and learning Mandarin (so far I’ve learned two words – at this rate I’ll be able to find out where the bathroom is by the time I get to China.
Also, the new trailer for Stewie’s video game Sword of the Stars is finished and available for download. I did two voices on it. Can you tell which ones?
