May 2003
2003.05.15
The Perils of Addiction
12:16 PM PST :: comments: 1My boyfriend held an intervention in my honor yesterday. Actually, it was just me and him, but the intentions were the same. He said I'm unhealthily addicted to The Sims Online, and it's got to stop now.
I actually only started playing the game 12 days ago, but since then it's been around the clock play-time. It's all I think about. I eat, sleep, and breath my Sim. Who knew addictions could stem from such silly games?
It's going to be a slow recovery process. I tried to de-subscribe today but the sales person says I still have 18 more days of free service!! Maybe I should just go cold-turkey and uninstall the program, wrap it all up and throw it away.
Yep. I'll do that first thing tomorrow.
-cece
I want to see it again. Right Now!
02:22 AM PST :: comments: 2Just got back from The Matrix.
Whoa.
Syndromes hopes that it doesn't suck. Well...it doesn't. For his sake, here is my spoiler free review. Keep in mind that I haven't fully proceesed the movie yet. Here goes:
Epic. Where the original was extremely well executed, this one is vast. Matrix I was essentially one ship, one man, and one agent inside of the Matrix. Matrix II has many ships, a superman, and 100 agents in the Matrix, Zion and world inhabited by machines and programs that is seperate from the Matrix.
Matrix I changed the world of special effects. Matrix II will likely do the same. I am amazed.
Quibbles: Some of the fight scenes weren't actually essential to the plot. The love scene went on a tad long. The exposition in Matrix II did not flow so naturally from the scenes as they did in Matrix I. These are all minor quibbles.
Good stuff: The philosophy. All that exposition serves a purpose and that is to make your brain hurt for the last half of the movie. And the setup is beautiful for Matrix III. At first, given the vast scope, I thought that Matrix II would not be able to keep the tight elegance of Matrix I. It looked like it was unspooling everywhere. By the final 15 minutes, I could see all of the "loose" threads pulling parallel again so that they can converge in Matrix III. Whew, those Wachowski brothers really know how to put a story together.
This is the same world that the Wachowski brothers introduced us to in Matrix I. So if you are expecting to be blown away by the newness of it, then you are going to be disappointed. But we do see much more of the world, and it is very cool. Some of the same philosophical questions are raised, but they are expanded upon. They built on the original, and they did it right.
How do I know they did it right? Because tonight I left the theater lost in though in the same way that I left the theater when I saw Matrix I. It's not the "Wow" factor that makes these movies for me, its the "ponder" factor. And Matrix II (especially the last half hour) has "ponder" in spades.
Hope you all enjoy it as much as I did. ;)
-wink
2003.05.14
I'm deeply disappointed...
06:41 PM PST :: comments: 0I figured in a month they would at least have cranked out a Grisham novel. Well, this is what I have to say to that: "ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss".
[via Slashdot]
-wink
Am I Chuang Tzu dreaming that I'm a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming that I'm Chuang Tzu?
12:23 AM PST :: comments: 1A week and a half ago, a friend asked me to go see the midnight opening of The Matrix: Reloaded with him. Because I'm flying out early on Thursday morning, I told him I'd get back to him. I decided that I didn't need much sleep that night as I could just sleep on the plane so the next day I called him back and said that I'm up for it.
Yesterday, when I really thought about it, I realized that I hadn't called my friend back at all. It had just been a very vivid dream. So I called him back and we're good to go. For real.
I think.
As long as this isn't a dream too.
It seems appropriate that my difficulty in distinguishing the dream world from reality is connected to The Matrix.
-wink
2003.05.11
Why am I still up?
01:36 AM PST :: comments: 0Good question. Even though I no longer have school to keep me up, I still have plenty of reason to be up at ungodly hours of the night. First and foremost, I'm trying to call Mom for Mother's day. Why am I calling her at 1:30 in the morning? Because it ain't the middle of the night where she's at. It's the middle of the afternoon. And if I go to sleep, her Mother's day will be over before I wake up again. I've been trying to get a hold of her for hours, but with no luck. Sigh. (Added bonus, my phone calls might actually connect at this hour because the U.S. phone grid is not overloaded...yet. By the time I wake up, the phone network will be overloaded.)
In addition to the all important task of Calling Mom, I also have not adjusted my sleep schedule. As far as my body is concerned, I'm just approaching bedtime now. On top of that, the new meds I just picked up today are doing a fine job of keeping me awake. So I sit here blogging (the 21st century equvalent of twiddling my thumbs) while I wait for Mom to get home and answer the phone.
-wink
The real start of summer.
12:32 AM PST :: comments: 0Summer vacation may have just started, and officially, the start of summer isn't until sometime next month, but for me the real first day of summer was just under two weeks go: April 29. Yup, Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry's.
In college, Free Cone Day was invariably the first truly good weather of the year. Everyone would then strip down to whatever their modesty would allow, and stand in line for ice cream. All day. It only took half-an-hour to get a cone, but everyone would simply hop back into line and get another...and another...and another...until the store closed. We didn't go to class. We didn't eat real meals. We blew off all other responsibilities. We just basked in the sun and ate ice cream.
So even though finals were approaching and summer hadn't officially started in any way, in my mind, summer always started on Free Cone Day.
This year was no different. OK, so it was a little different. I'm no longer in college (grad school is a completely different beast), and I now live in the rainy NorthWest, so I was hardly able to bask in the sun all day (a mile away, a fairly fierce storm was lashing out--but we remained mostly precipitation free while we were queued up). But standing in line, I felt a familiar care-free feeling sweep over me as my anticipation of eating ice cream that I hadn't paid for rose. For half an hour, I felt like I was in college and summer was just beginning.
-wink
Summer Vacation begins...now.
12:12 AM PST :: comments: 1Finished out the semester. I didn't finish as strongly as I would have liked (due to recurrent debilitating neurological issues), but I did indeed finish. Huzzah! Tree and I went to a movie (X2) and dinner (Fusion) and had a generally wonderful time. I was relaxed. We talked about non-school-related things. We laughed and were silly. Yum.
(By the way...the movie was great. This sequel is better than the original. They got so many little touches right. And Fusion is great too. If you happen to be in SE Portland, go grab a bite there. Get the Yukka Fries and the Arugula-Pear Salad as appetizers. You won't regret it.)
(And speaking of movie reviews, here is a great review of Spirited Away, one of the all time great animated films. Most reviews just focus on the greatness of the movie itself and the genius of Miyazaki. This one goes way beyond that launching into bitter invective regarding the state of american animation and imagination and putting this movie into its proper context so that we can understand just how important this piece of art is. I know it doesn't take much to launch Mark Morford into bitter invective mode, but Spirited Away is worth every ounce of passion that is directed its way.)
It sure is nice to have summer vacation.
-wink