Tonight's two movies rocked, royally.

The first: High Fidelity. This movie was great, really funny, quite quotable, and had a fabulous soundtrack. Erin, I think you'd really like this one; N@, if you haven't seen this, I'll be shocked.

The second: The Crow. This one was incredible.. well-filmed, great story, amazing imagery, good enough soundtrack that I'd buy it, and some interesting trivia (not the least of which, of course, being that Brandon Lee died on set during filming.) My only regret is that it took me so many years to see it.

=)

Holy crap..

37 posts in the last 5 hours? I have prolific friends

How do we react to all this?

I think, for the most part, I agree with what Erin said in her 9:50pm 10/8 post:

"We're living in the middle of a war. I try to remind myself of that sometimes, because it's easy to forget if you never watch the news, and lately I've tried not to. I wonder how I'll know when the war is over, because people tend to be gung-ho about the beginning but ignore things like the end. I doubt it will end in a concrete way - does war ever? And probably something big will happen, but it won't really end until it's dwindled off for months, and it's hard to really understand what war is, what it means, what the consequences are - my life continues on as normal. I remember it when I see the TV in the UC, placed there just for us to watch during our breaks between classes. Here, sit back, relax, watch about the war. I don't think we care as much as older adults expect us to. I think it's hard to. It doesn't affect us personally, unless maybe you know someone in the military, which most of us don't, and for most people a war in the Middle East means just absolutely nothing.
We discussed the entire Bin Laden thing in my english class one day, the way that people over the age of 35 feel that this is the worst time of our lives, and people under 35 have already moved on for the most part. One guy said, well, we're the irony generation. And you look around and realize how true it is. I think we just see and feel the futility of it all. Maybe that's just a pessimistic delusion, because I too am part of the "irony generation," but I think that we see through the lies. One person can not make a difference. It doesn't matter what I think, or what you think. The government will do what it wants with little to no regard for the opinions of its constituents - believe anything you want to the contrary. There are plenty of events we can point to in recent history where people tried to change the world, and there are none we can find in which it worked.
So what is the point of mourning endlessly over the dead in New York? What is the point of walking around massively worried and concerned and upset that our country is at war, that civilians are dying, that people go hungry and homeless and die of easily preventable causes? It's not that we don't care; it's that we've seen that nothing we can do will help, so it seems better to just live our lives and keep going until we can't anymore.
I can't worry over a war in Afghanistan. There's nothing I can do to stop it.

There are things like this which I think and don't say, because I think people will think less of me for it, because it sounds ignorant and uncultured and cold, and maybe it is. But it's honest. And I wonder if it really matters what you think of a person, if the idea you of that person is something more or less than what they really are.


current mood: weird"

..my (and Katia's) exception being that while one person on their own can't make a difference, perhaps, enough of "one person on their own" and you have a force to be reckoned with. From another standpoint, an idealistic one.. so it might not make a measurable, practical difference, right now. But you're thinking for yourself, you're not conforming, and nothing's to say that it might not make a difference down the road--and chances are, there are a lot more single voices that feel what you're feeling.

Two new things learned!

1) Live is playing at Elmira College on 11/5! But I can't find any information about buying tickets for it :(

2) Hermit crabs aren't true crabs!

Hmmm... ponder think ponder.

VNV Nation has laid out a few tour stops (literally, three). 11/16 in Chicago @ the Vic Theatre, 11/22 (yup, that's Thanksgiving) in NYC @ the Limelight, and 11/25 in DC @ Nation. If I (and Katia, who'll be in the area then) can swing the DC show, we will be happy happy campers. =)

..just depends on whether or not I'm back from my uncle's wedding in Florida by then.

Gettin' rid of stuff

So Katia and I finally got around to taking the books I rescued from the dumpster back at the beginning of the semester, and a good pile of clothes that no longer fit or whatever, to the used/trade stores downtown..

At Trader K's, sold about half the clothes and donated the rest, acquiring about $37 in store credit and a working knowledge of what's Out (flannel, light-blue jeans, black jeans) or at least too available from the public.

At one used book store (Ithaca Books), they wouldn't take any books at all. This is ridiculous, because most of them are in good condition and certainly of interest to someone. The other (Autumn Leaves Used Books) took three, giving me $4 in store credit. I then got The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe¹ for Katia (she hasn't read it), and Mastering Pool² for me--might as well, since I have a table in the house. :)
For the rest of the books, I suppose I'll go to used bookbuyers on the web. :P

1: "For copyright reasons this edition is not for sale in the U.S.A." Oops.
2: This title is out of print. But hey, pool can't have changed much in the last 24 years. :)

Woohoo!

My new mouse is here! All full of optical button-y goodness.

And one of Katia's loans came through! All full of money goodness.

(And I got a postcard from Ellen! All full of finger-painty Rorschach goodness.)

A brief exchange

*Alex wanders down hall*
A: "Neal? Becca? ...Dammit, no one who owes me money is around.."
*wanders back to my room*
A: "Hey Scott, remember that $50 you owe me, from that one time you were really drunk, so you probably don't remember it?"
S: "No, you came back from the future and told me not to give you any money."
A: "Damn, I'll have to remember not to do that, in the future.. d'oh."
...
A: "That was good." :)