June 2004 Archives

First, I hate the idiots they have working there, why do they hire people with the WORST taste in movies? It doesn't help that they know who I am because I come in almost twice every day.

Second, I hate that they will have 100+ copies of some (overrated) movies, like LOTR, and one or two copies of good films, like City of God.

Third, I don't like how they organize their movies, there are so many movies that are in the wrong category. Like Six Degrees of Separation, they have it under comedy for some reason. It has Will Smith (*cough*hack*cough*) in it, so the shelf-stockers assume that it is a comedy. I'm not saying it is a good movie at all, I actually hated it, but why do they put it with the comedies when it is a dramatic play?

Finally, I hate that a large number of DVDs that I rent from them are scratched, or dirty, so they skip on my player. This is more of a shot at DVD makers, but why can't we have a disc caddy system to prevent this from happening? We did it with CD-ROMs for computers years ago, why not with DVDs? DVDs can't forgive damage as much as VCR tapes once could, so why not do something about it? Too expensive? Probably not.

I'm kinda glad that Blockbuster has sorta lightened up on the whole censorship thing. They do actually rent unrated versions of movies instead of an R-rated version of the movie. I think it was Y Tu Mama Tambien that they first released in an R-rated version, and the people who saw it didn't know how it really ended! Now they carry both versions, which is still pointless, but at least progress.

I just saw Spartan, and I must say, I was really impressed. I normally hate Val Kilmer, but he really did a great job in it outside of a few horrible lines. David Mamet did a great job writing and directing, it was along the lines of Along Came a Spider and Kiss The Girls, but better. It mixed that kidnapping genre with a James Bond commando action film kind of thing.

Really good, check it out if you can. There are good hints and clues along the way, I have a feeling this is going to do much better in rentals than it did in the theater.

The thing I didn't get, for those who saw it, is why do they say if she doesn't show up for classes on Monday that it will be on Meet The Press? Meet The Press is Sunday mornings...

Possibly the worst movie I've ever seen: The Book of Mormon Movie. I didn't pay to rent it, don't worry. We got it as a joke, maybe to watch the first five minutes, but it really pulled us in, it was so bad. Why did Nephi's brothers keep trying to kill him even after God stopped them like 3 or 4 times? Isn't it dangerous to have a group of people that are supposed to reproduce in the promise land consist of just two different families? It makes for a shallow gene pool. I also like that this bronze book has never been seen by anyone outside of Joseph Smith. If it is such a great book, and it was written by the first humans to set foot in America, why don't they proudly display it? And this gold compass sent from God, where is that?

How naive are Mormons? I can't wait to see the second part, so I can see white Jesus walking through Utah.

There were so many funny moments in this film, like when God commands Nephi to smite Laban. Yeah, a real loving God those Mormons have. I also liked the forced conversions, and covenants made under the threat of death, real classy. Check out this gem:

Zoram: Do I have a choice?
Nephi: Yes, my friend, there is always a choice. You can covenant with me and become a free man or die here and now.

I loved how bad of an actor Zoram was, I guess he was a producer or something. His idea of acting is standing still for a while, and then saying, "wait here."

I was always waiting for Lehi to say to his wife, "the Lord spoke to me and commands that you make me a sandwich."

Rent this one if you can, or see if you get some Morms to buy you a copy.

I never thought that I'd ever play a tennis game on my XBox, but I just got Top Spin, and it is really cool. It isn't too hard, I know tennis more than I know football or basketball, plus there isn't much for button mashing. My thumbs are really sore, but I love playing it.

I watched Unforgiven this, and I must say that it wasn't that great, I don't know, I think Eastwood has been in better.

I went to Stepford Wives this evening, it was OK but the ending just sucked. Just because you can make an ending have a twist does not mean that the movie will be better because of it. I haven't seen The Life of David Gale, but from what I hear, that movie made the same mistake. Also, Glenn Close is not attractive at all, and she never was. Why do they keep putting her in movies? It's not like she's a good actress. I kept wondering why Christopher Walken was married to another man, and then it hit me, that's not a man, that's Glenn Close. And then I wished it was a man. Bette Midler and Jon Lovitz were pretty funny I guess. Usually Frank Oz puts out movies that are a little better than OK, but it wasn't like I was expecting something like Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Little Shop of Horrors, What About Bob?, Bowfinger or In & Out. It would have been nice if it was up there with those movies, but it wasn't. And it wasn't a good horror movie either.

1. Haven't posted in my blog lately because there has been very little to post, outside of the four following things.

2. The Riddick game for XBox is totally awesome. I don't really care for the film character, but this game was really well put together, and I hope they make more of them (no reason why they wouldn't. unless they give up on the film franchise as well).

3. Saved† and Napoleon Dynamite are the best movies I've seen so far this year. I have my 'Vote For Pedro' shirt on right now and it is flippin' sweet. Both are very funny but in very different ways. I would like to note that my skills that babes like include: nunchuck skills, computer hacking skills, and long-bow skills.

4. I have no job yet, but one will start soon and it will be nice to have at least a little bit of a cash-flow.

5. Finally I'd like to say that this is either the best or worst summer ever. It really depends from day to day. Oh, and 'Up On Cripple Creek' is an excellent tune.

One more thing, I just got Mozilla Firefox, it is really awesome, and I am this close to just giving up IE 6. The only problem is that it doesn't like my site's CSS in the way that IE does, and I don't know why, but I'll be looking into it in the next few weeks, months or years.

I am one of the people who thought the whole gmail craze was way overrated, but I must say, this is the best email service I've ever used. I got on a totalfark music-swapping list and it is really neat. People send songs and requests and google sends them to other gmailers quickly. You delete what you don't want and download what you do. My new gmail address is micahclemens**at**gmail.com. I'll hopefully get invites soon that I can send to others. So far in the past three hours I've been sent 120 megs of songs, so I just have to make sure my inbox doesn't get too bloated.

Huzzah! I have a new car. If you want to see what it looks like, there is a picture in yesterday's post and I put one up that I take myself. It is a 1993 Honda Accord, 5 speed and I love it. It is teal, not the best color, but I still think it looks pretty good. I still have to name her, and since she is green, this could be tough. I got my insurance again through Geico, as much as I hate their ads, they really do save you a lot of money.

Oh, I forgot to write yesterday that I won the 24 Season 2 DVD Boxed set from AM 1500. Yeah, I didn't even watch the show this semester, and I'm betting that I was the only one who entered the contest, but I won it. After I picked it up I went over to Best Buy to return it and got a $60 credit! Talk about overpirced. So I got a wireless adapter for my computer up here in the attic.

OK, I've wasted enough time this summer. I don't have a job yet and I need one, and it doesn't help that I haven't been looking at all. Well, I suppose I've thought to myself about how I'd respond if someone just came up to me on the street and offered me a well-paying job.

I think when I grow up I want to work with really smart people. I don't care if it pays well, as long as it is enough for me to live alone in a nice apartment and buy all the cool junk I want, I'll be happy.

I'm also trying to go to bed at a decent hour. Every night since I've come back I've slept from 3 AM to noon or so, and I need to cut that out. I don't do anything productive at night except watch the West Wing and aimlessly browse the internet. My bedtime is at 12:30 tonight. Good thing my watch seems to be a good 15 minutes slow. I'll have to look into that.

I also looked at a nice car today, too bad that I may not get it. We have to take it in to have our mechanic check it out, but he is busy Wed, so we'd have to see if he doesn't sell it by Thursday to pay $75 to see if it is worth buying.

These are the things that need to be done this summer:

1. Get A Job
2. Paint My Room
3. Get A Car
4. Meet and Marry Catherine Keener (after her divorce, of course)
5. Buy A Watch That Can Keep Time
6. Clean Out The Attic