Andrew

In My Car

2004-04-13T06:03:44Z

Magazine one:

Godspeed You Black Emperor

Yanqui U.X.O.

Lft Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven

Radiohead

Hail to the Thief

Sonic Youth

Daydream Nation

Brad

Interiors

Hum

You'd Prefer An Astronaut

Donward is Heavenward

Neil Young

Mirrorball

Magazine two:

The Fire Theft

The Fire Theft

How It Feels To Be Something On

The Rising Tide

The Afghan Whigs

The Black Love

The Cure

Disintegration

Manic Street Preachers

Know Your Enemy

Mike Watt

Ball-hog or Tugboat?

They Might Be Giants

Factory Showroom

RAWR

2004-03-22T07:21:26Z

I saw a couple good/great/masterful films this weekend; let me expand upon them here (since I haven't written a real review in months it seems):

Might as well go alphabetical!

21 Grams

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Grave of the Fireflies

In This World

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

2004-03-20T04:33:05Z

wow.

Just... wow.

Judas O'Reiliey

2004-03-19T06:07:18Z

hey kids rock and roll
rock on
ooh, my soul
hey kids it's no use
sleep in
lost out
summertime blues
jump up and die in your blue suede shoes
hey kids rock and roll
we're gonna rock on

where do we go from here?
which is the way that's clear?

still looking for that blue jean baby queen
prettiest girl i've ever seen
see her die on my movie screens
every day

rock on

hey kids rock and roll
rock on
ooh my soul
hey kids it's no use
dreaming
lost out
fucked out
shut out
cracked out
hey kids rock and roll
we're gonna rock on

where do we go from here?
which is the way that's clear?

still looking for that blue jean baby queen
prettiest girl i've never seen
see her die on my movie screen

rock on

and the cradle will rock
yes the cradle
the cradle will rock
i said rock on
rock on
everybody wants some
i want some too
everybody wants some
hey how 'bout you?
i said rock on

rock on

hey kids
rock and roll gonna rock on
rock on
cool your soul
hey kids rock and roll
gonna rock on

rock on

Nothing is sometimes a great thing.

2004-03-15T05:50:20Z

I have spent the entire weekend doing nothing. Some would say I have done even LESS than nothing, that I have not only been non-productive, that I have been anti-productive. Oh well...

One thing that I try to impress on the people around me, my bosses in particular, that if you schedual me to work (and the schedual is fair, and pre-arranged) I will work for you happily and without complaint during that time period. I will work overtime if needed (and able), but once I get into that weekend/day-off mindset, it is virtually impossible for me to concieve of participating in any sort of work situation.

This policy has it's downside. My dad is trying to get some business cards for his business out of me, and while they are nearly complete, they aren't, and getting me up and able to actually build them is next to impossible. I have been known to get irrationally upset at people who try to get that extra work out of me.

During my anti-productive weekend, I have not even been productive enough to watch any great movies. All I've seen this weekend has been crap, or things I've already seen 10000 times.

All this said, i'm actually looking forward to work tomorrow, hopefully I'll have a good night of sleep.

Ramble, ramble, ramble.

He is our hero.

2004-03-13T22:09:49Z

This week started out decent but ended in sickness and death. Well not death. On Thursday I got the death-stomache-flu-cramps that forced me to miss a day of work and spend the rest of the day medicating myself into a sleep-induced oblivion.

It was glorious.

Well, it really wasn't. Trying to pump myself full of liquid H20 as quickly as I could so my legs would stop Charlie-horsing (something that I can still feel now) and trying to inject some vitamins into my poor malnourished self was rather difficult, and until last night... well...

It didn't help that yesterday I partook in McDonalds twice. The first time that I had eaten "fast food" in a couple weeks. As unhealthy as I am, I actually don't eat really, really bad stuff, I just don't eat a lot of really, really good stuff to counterbalance it, and I have REALLY curved my fast food eating, but the 1- 2 punch of McDonalds (one trip mutually decided by me and my work-buddy Nicole as a good compromise for lunch and the one chosen by my mother without my knowledge) just floored me last night. It had me up until 5 am Saturday morning.

But now, it is Saturday afternoon, and I already feel like I have wasted the day away. I wanted to go to the theater today but the remnants of my sickness just won't allow me to get motivated enough to leave the house for more than 5-10 minutes at a time.

I did go to Blockbuster to rent The Missing, and ended up purchasing a used copy of David Cronenburg's Spider, a film which I had rented twice and never had the opportunity to sit down and watch. I figured, "why waste another $4.99 on a rental, just buy it for $9.99 and watch it at my leisure".

Still, I'm tinged with guilt for spending like $15 at Blockbuster. I don't know why. I have a job, it doesn't pay insane amounts of money but it's enough to get by, and all I spent money on in the last two weeks that wasn't food was the Schindler's List * DVD. $40 for non-food/bills in the last two weeks and I'm freaking out? Egads! What's wrong with me! God knows how much trouble I would be in if I had a girlfriend to entertain or friends who invited me out once in awhile (or, if I would actually go out in my anti-social state).

I might have to spend $15 on dinner (yikes!) or maybe $10 on a movie, or $20 bucks on a concert.

The world would come crashing down.

* speaking of Schindler's List. If you have not bought it yet, you really need to. Not the most "special" Special Edition ever to be released to tell you the truth but it's amazing to see this film (which I hadn't seen in oh... 8 years?) restored to this beauty. It looks like a dated 50s film and it looks absolutely perfect. The scene where Ralph Finnes' character takes the Jewish hinge maker outside and tries to shoot him is still absolutely amazing.

Oh and by the way, you know you want it bitches:

(thanks to Council of Elrond for the image)

Sick.

2004-03-11T14:43:27Z

I feel sick today, not the sickness in the head that my readership has grown accustomed to, but sick in the way that if I open my mouth I will dry heave the contents of my stomache all over the table. This is not a good kind of sickness when you are a receptionist!

I'm going to go take my temperature downstairs, if it's anything above normal, I'm calling in.

Paths remaining in the subject's life.

2004-03-10T05:42:38Z

1. Working up the ranks. The subjects a receptionist until the next thing comes along, either at his current company or not. The "next thing" hopefully develops into something larger. Subject pays off his bills in 5 to 6 years, Subject move out in maybe 3 years and gets a roommate whom subject doesnt know, and remain unhappy the rest of his short life. Subject doesn't take his medication and speed up the process of getting heart attack/diabeties/blood pressure, whatever. Subject dies in my mid 30s or 40s.

2. Suicide. Romantic, like a Cure song. Subject continues to slip into oblivion until subject finally succumbs. How subject would accomplish this do it, he don't know. Lingering issues would be issues with personal religious policies (as he is not atheist) and lingering issues with existing friendships and family relations which apparently are frayed now to begin with. Will be missed by some, but won't destroy anybody. Subject dies in my late 20s or early 30s.

3. The "Pull Together". Subject suffers with one (or two jobs) with the goal of going further into debt to find college money, and attend college, even though subject has a passion for absolutely nothing. Subject suffer through and spend the rest of my waking natural life trying to pay off college bills. Chances are, subject still ends up doing menial labor. In this senario, subject might take his medication, and he might go to the doctor, and he might "get fit". May live into his 50s or 60s.

In all of these senarios, the subject finds no significant other. Self-absorbsion mixed with self-hatred remains high until the subject's demise. Subject, in the end, achieves nothing.

Subject is gonna have to make a choice soon, and subject is equally afraid of all three choices.

Subject wishes that someone would take the decision away from him.

T3H INTARWEB I5 AEWESEOME!!1!!

2004-03-10T05:06:18Z

"Goatse.cx IS the internet...everything else is just porn..."
"Everytime you hear a bell, someone is goatse'd. Those bells are now silenced. LET FREEDOM RING!"
"Excellent website! Super fast payment! Would look again! A++++++++++++++"
"they should put goatse on dvd! OR EVEN A GOATSE MOVIE! Goatse - The Movie, 10x the goatse, 10x the goodness"
"Goatse is like the stranger who picks up little boys in his car: exciting and dangerous"
"(_o_)"
"Goatse is an embodiment of the best and worst of the internet. Nothing is worse than being tricked into going there, and nothing is better than tricking someone into going there. It served a valuable purpose: to drive home the message that, on the internet, one must be very careful who one trusts, and where one does and doesn't got, but without the potential dangers of viruses or popups. To take the site down is to deny humanity not only of a valuable resource, but of a part of our collective history. People the world over have been fooled by Goatse, and to tear it down is to tear away the sense of community it gives."
"do you know how to keep an idiot in suspence? well i´l tell you later"
"! ! freedom "
"the internet has died a little since the passing of www.goatse.cx"
"Goatse is my hero! I have spent years modelling myself on him, only to find out that..."
"NO longer will we be able to trick unsuspecting noobs into viewing some old mans anus."
"This aggression will not stand. Anyone who messes with goatse is entering a world of pain... a WORLD OF PAIN."
"I have a feevah, and the only prescription, is more Goatse!"
"HOW DARE YOU TAKE AWAY MY LASER STRIKE TEAMS MASCOT! GOATSE UNITED WILL LIVE ON FOREVER."
"Goatse is important to all humankind."

Free comedy via the Intarweb.

http://www.petitiononline.com/Goatse/petition.html

There is a strange conflict afoot.

2004-03-05T15:08:07Z

There's a conflict here because a journal is supposed to be open, but the problem is, I can't be completely open. I can drop vauge hints about what is happening with my jobs and what my future entails, but I can't at the risk of maybe jeopardizing that job. Not that I'm going to out the company or intentially try to hurt it or anything, but when I have a bad day, I really can't say anything.

It's rather upsetting. I can express my frustration to the few I know who will listen, but posting here? What if a perspective employer reads this somehow? What if my current employers read this?

There should be a separation, but I can't find that balance yet.

Red in the face

2004-03-05T05:38:52Z

Not embarrassment, anger.

After three days of trying desperately to get my desktop computer online, I have put it in the closet for the weekend, you see, I'm so frustrated now that looking at the machine pissed me off. I need a weekend without it. Maybe I can find some more clarity next weekend or something.

Just a little vacation. Until then, at least the Laptop works (for now).

Back to Zero.

2004-03-04T02:47:49Z

This wireless networking stuff really sucks. Not that I want to spend 2+ hours on technical support trying to figure out why shit-that's-supposed-to-work doesn't. Troubleshooting included taking everything back to mere factory settings and rebuilding from there. My desktop machine still will not cooperate, while my mother's laptop seems to be made of steel, acting just how it should. I'm completely lost. My settings on my home computer are virtually the same as my laptop at the moment, yet it doesn't register as such.

WHY me?

Net[doesn't]work

2004-02-29T01:31:20Z

I've been having a tissy over the last few hours (days really) because my dear old Wireless LAN is not working. It seems that the mighty Quest DSL modem is not purging IPs like it should when we log off, so I'm getting cyclicle messages telling me that my IP Address is not authorized.

Fun in the sun, I tell ya. I have an army of networking gurus coming over tomorrow, maybe I can fix it completely then.

At the moment, I'm afraid to turn off my computers. They are both working, after hours of slaving over the system.

Maybe it's perma-fixed now?

Prone to Injury.

2004-02-27T04:37:00Z

It has been awhile since I have written to any journal, in the meantime I have been prone to injury.

The largest had been when I broke my finger the week after moving. The finger (the ringfinger on my right hand) still hurts when I touch it, and is bent outward at the tip. A perminent injury perhaps, one that will forever be part of the landscape of my hand. It is sitll a little difficult to make a fist, but I suppose the muscles will learn eventually. At least it is easier tonight.

But I have more cuts and scrapes on me from moving and just moving about that I can remember, scratches and cuts up and down my leg from where I ran into corners or the sharpish corner of my metal bedframe, the later causing me to spend half an evening trying to figure out how the movers put my bed together, and then basically rebuilding it. My knees still hurt from banging them against the cabinets at work, something that I am now making into a sort of Olympic sport.

I begin to wonder if I have had a truly clumsy last few weeks or if this is just something that comes with age... that those little nicks and scabs seem to hurt a little more take take a few more hit points away each time.

Maybe I'm just being sensitive.

Maybe I should just watch where I'm going.

Back

2004-02-02T02:19:45Z

www.andaroo.com/narcissism/

My livejournal account ran out, won't renew it. So c'est la vie, back to my old site.

The Friends and Enemies of Modern Music

2004-02-01T07:07:51Z

the last chance to make believe /
in always and all it seems /
train wrecks hide underneath your umbrella /
set the frame destiny /
on this first name soliloquy /
tired symphonies play downward

let me give the world to you my love /
let me show you what i'm thinking of /
let me give the world to you my love /
so far

lovers form dead excuse /
and blur the line with soul abuse /
my lonesome lines just have no use around here /
new skin may hold you in /
but the new skin still turns us on /
flicker fades /
the nitrate dawn to wear

let me give the world to you my love /
let me show you what i'm thinking of /
times are hard and we're the last in line /
'cause in my grief i'd forgotten what was mine /

no i wouldn't change a thing /
no i wouldn't change a thing about the way you are /
the distance here /
the speed so far

let me give the world to you my love /
let me give the world to you /
let me give the world to you my love

so far.

If I picked the winners...

2004-01-28T03:52:35Z

http://www.oscars.com/nominees/nomineelist.html

Actor in a Leading Role: Bill Murray, Lost in Translation
Actor in a Supporting Role: Tim Robbins, Mystic River
Actress in a Leading Role: Keisha Castle-Hughes, Whale Rider
Actress in a Supporting Role: [haven't seen enough of the nominees]
Animated Feature Film: Finding Nemo
Art Direction: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Cinematography: Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Costume Design: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Directing: Peter Jackson, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Documentary Feature: [haven't seen enough of the nominees]
Documentary Short Subject: [haven't seen enough of the nominees]
Film Editing: City of God
Foreign Language Film: [haven't seen enough of the nominees]
Makeup: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Music (Score): Howard Shore, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Music (Song): "A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow", A Mighty Wind
Best Picture: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Short Film (Animated): [haven't seen enough of the nominees]
Sound: Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Sound Editing: Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Visual Effects: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King</b>
Writing (Adapted Screenplay): American Splendor
Writing (Origional Screenplay): In America

V-6

2004-01-25T18:07:47Z

I've watched a few movies this weekend, which I will likely write about a little later. You have to see Open Range if you haven't. Katherine is coming over tonight and we're going to watch the Golden Globe Awards to see if they can finally recognize Peter Jackson and Lord of the Rings for what they are.

This weekend, however, has been consumed by the obsession with cars. I drove a few on Saturday, including the Jeep Liberty and the new 2004 VW Bug. Suffice it to say, I liked both, but both are different cars and offer different options.

I don’t know if I’m quite ready to jump into another SUV with really middle-average gas tank. I don’t know if I want to have a car as big as a sedan anymore (although, honestly, the Jeep Liberty is like a car, just taller). It’s not a huge car, but I shied away from SUVs before.

I did drive a 2004 VW Bug and I absolutely love it. I’m a pretty big guy, and I was amazed how well I fit into one of those things. It was gunmetal grey and just beautiful. Unfortunately the guy at VW, the guy who my family has bought like 3 cars through, was a complete ass for reasons we can’t figure out. It is like I wasn’t being taken seriously as a customer. Insulting.

Anyway, I am quickly approaching the 60,000 miliage on my lease, so at this point, it’s just deciding how good the lease payments can be put together, if they can get me out of my Honda, and if I can keep from spending a lot of money, which I don’t have.

We’ll see.

Spartacus.

2004-01-22T03:05:26Z

The OTHER gladiator.

( Read more... )

These dreams go on when I close my eyes.

2004-01-21T15:19:24Z

I have been having extremely obtuse dreams lately. I am not one who follows the idea that dreams are your subconscious trying to reveal itself, another popular yet unproven bit of psychological mysticism.

Monday night, I dreamed I was stuck in a Chinese city and hired by the Chinese government for some purpose which never revealed itself. I had to meet two beautiful Japanese girls (yes, Japanese girls) in a Chinese restaurant in Hong Kong. The food was good. All they told me was that I needed to make it, alone, to Shanghai. For what purpose I do not know, I figured I was some sort of super-secret-assassin-spy. While going near a train station, I noticed one of the employees from my place of work was there with my family; he was also on the train to Shanghai, making me wonder if he was the one I was to meet with or eliminate. Instead I retreated to a bazaar, where I shopped until I woke up.

Last night, my primary dream was one were my dad was on a job interview, and had brought my entire family along for the ride. The interviewer seemed to be some sort of mega-CEO. I think the company was CNN but I’m not sure. Anyway, he took us around the world and visited some really weird monuments, and we had a car race in a bunch of different types of vehicles. All I remember was that as the "interview" went on, the talk became more cultish and more frightening. When finally we were walking away (my dad was NOT going to take the job at that point) the man threatened my little brother (we were obviously younger than we would be now). Dream ends.

The last dream I had last night involved a party that I was at that had a mixture of work and personal friends. It must have been the Fourth of July, as we were trying to set off fireworks. When the building management stopped us (we were in some sort of apartment complex) and evicted us, it made us angry. Then this person personally insulted Jeremy and he started to cry, so all I know is I ran after this guy, and chased him across a few streets. When I finally reached him, I let him hit me first (even in my dreams I was worried about it looking like an assault!) and then I proceeded to beat him into the ground. Dream ends.

As I said, "obtuse".

Every second of the night / I live another life.

Sleepytime.

2004-01-20T14:53:03Z

You know you are sleepy when...

...you are in a crowded Hong Kong marketplace and you hear your alarm go off. You try for 2 minutes to push the correct button to turn off the alarm, only to look up at your surroundings and remind yourself that you are in truth, dreaming. Then the disappointment of realizing this and subsequently waking up. Traveling half-way around the world, to my bed, in under 10 seconds.

Mies vailla menneisyyttä.

2004-01-18T18:19:48Z

Imagine being struck from behind in a park, waking up, in a hospital with no idea where, who or what you are. Your identification is gone, a symptom of being beaten and robbed to near death in the park. What would you do? Where would you start again?

( Read more... )

Clean Sweep, Part I: SCORE!

2004-01-17T22:19:42Z

We are moving in a little less than 3 weeks so we are continuing to go through and purge all of our stuff that we would have to move anyway. We will not have endless storage like we did before, and a lot of stuff has to be moved out and moved to a better place. Like sales or trash. So today, I took my 150+ DVDs and pulled out 25 that didn't need to be there.

There were 3 criteria for me purging a DVD from my "collection" **

Is it still a movie I like or have watched in the last year? Thirteen Days... good movie. Out of here.
Is it a duplicate? Armageddon I got a Criterion upgrade, so don't need that one anymore.
Is it anamorphic? Will it work with my new 16x9 television. Bye bye old Star Trek movies, I'll buy the special editions, eventually

Pretty much all my non-anamorphic DVDs are gone, my only exception was Seven Samurai and Brazil, as some of the early Criterion films are not anamorphic. This means I, unfortunately lost The Hunt for Red October (which I will rebuy and get the newer Special Edition one, which IS anamorphic) and Grosse Pointe Blank, which is not anamporphic, and something I hadn't watched in awhile, even though it is a pretty great movie.

Unforuntately they had so many copies of Spider-Man, Ronin and The Blair Witch Project that they didn't buy mine back. The biggest thing I sold back? X-Files Season One DVD. I don't think I ever even watched it all the way through.

So what did I get back for all of this? $230 of store credit.

SCORE!

What did I buy with it?

Fellini's 8 1/2 - Criterion Collection!

Kubricks' Sparticus - Criterion Collection!

West Side Story - DVD Collector's Set!

Scorsese's Taxi Driver!

Skjoldbjaerg's Insomnia - Criteron Collection!

Boyle's 28 Days Later

So I am very happy today.

** Collection is such a bad word. I don't "collect" DVDs, I just happen to have a lot because I could never, ever rent at the time. It hasn't been an issue lately, because I have moved to rental now that the stores are so much better. I am not a collector!

"Winnowing".

2004-01-16T06:33:01Z

win-now ( P ) Pronunciation Key (wn)
v. win-nowed, win-now-ing, win-nows
v. tr.

To separate the chaff from (grain) by means of a current of air.
To rid of undesirable parts.
To blow (chaff) off or away.
To blow away; scatter.
To blow on; fan: a breeze winnowing the tall grass.
To examine closely in order to separate the good from the bad; sift.

To separate or get rid of (an undesirable part); eliminate: winnowing out the errors in logic.
To sort or select (a desirable part); extract.

v. intr.
To separate grain from chaff.
To separate the good from the bad.

n.
A device for winnowing grain.
An act of winnowing.

Right now, people in Iowa are deciding who and who does not run for President. Yes, the people of Iowa are deciding which canidates stay in and out of the race, who gets the TV appearances, who gets the money. Limiting canidates down to 1 or 2. Winnowing.

Being that we, as citizens, don't ever really elect the president directly, I just wanted to remind the politically active, those motivated to pull out the "If you didn't vote you can't complain!" argument each time they come across someone who is disinterested in the system; I wanted to remind all those people why some people (like myself) don't really spend time with politics. Because it doesn't matter.

The election isn't over, but the idea that the average person has really any impact on this election is foolish. The only way to really have impact is to have an impact on the caucuses, and then on the Electoral College. Or revolt.

http://www.iowacaucus.org/

cau-cus ( P ) Pronunciation Key (kôks)
n. pl. cau-cus-es or cau-cus-ses

A meeting of the local members of a political party especially to select delegates to a convention or register preferences for candidates running for office.
A closed meeting of party members within a legislative body to decide on questions of policy or leadership.
A group within a legislative or decision-making body seeking to represent a specific interest or influence a particular area of policy: a minority caucus.
Chiefly British. A committee within a political party charged with determining policy.

Swimming Pool.

2004-01-16T06:24:01Z

If you want to see sweaty, ugly, French men, standing over semi-attractive blonde girls, masturbating, while she masturbates in front of him, while an English lady either imagines it or watches it, then THIS is the movie for you.

( Read more... )