Listen Up

9

I just saw 9, and it’s always a little disconcerting when you feel empathy for sock puppets (even if they have each been granted 1/9 a human soul). I certainly didn’t expect to get misty-eyed during that film.

The voice-acting was about average, although the script during action scenes (“9!” “2!” “7!”) sometimes bordered on inane - perhaps they would have been better off cutting the dialogue, picking up the slack with the score, and just let the audience revel in the intensity of sock puppets vs. the machines.  The movie was over quicker than you wanted it to be, but you didn’t leave feeling disappointed; like an expensive meal that doesn’t truly fill you up, but you still enjoyed every brief second of it.

I’d recommend it for anyone who doesn’t mind their fantasy saddening them.

Influence

When I was in the third grade (roughly), I read “Into the Land of the Unicorns,” and absolutely loved it. (As an aside, I am actually straight. You may find those two facts difficult to combine, but I assure you they’re both true.)  I actually loved that damn Unicorn book so much I wrote the author asking if he was going to write any more, because at the time it was advertised as book 1 of a series, but no sequel had been written in the two or three years since its publication.  Much to my surprise, he (Bruce Coville) wrote me back.

He told me that he had many ideas for that fantasy world, and hoped to write more stories as soon as he could; he also told me he was obligated to write more “My teacher….” novels, and so was unsure when, if ever, these Unicorn books would be written.

To shorten a too-long story, I found myself daydreaming about that rather imaginative book today, and decided to see if he’d ever made any progress on the series. Much to my surprise, he had. It had taken seven years for the sequel to see the light of day, and several more for the third. I mean to read them soon enough, but regardless of how much I end up enjoying them, I can’t help but feel a little proud of their existence.  And I hope other kids take the time to write their favorite authors, on the off chance that they might too, 14 years later, be pleasantly surprised at the manifestation of their childhood dreams.

Internet

In the past 3 weeks, I’ve had internet for only the middle five days.

I want to skull-fuck comcast right now. But at least it’s back…

By the way, extended departure from the online world does nothing to cure internet addiction. It just made me pine for it more and more.

EDIT: I’m not sure if I used skull-fuck correctly.  Sadly there doesn’t seem to be an entry in dictionary.com, how strange!

Healthcare $.02

Look, people. Healthcare is expensive. It’s expensive because doctor’s fees are expensive, which is a result of medical school being expensive, long, and difficult. You need to accept the inherit expense of healthcare before trying to come up with a solution, or else you will be plagued with a bunch of ideas that violate the conservation of money (not strictly true all the time, but simplify, simplify with me here).  I don’t really care that your former health plan was great and you only paid $XXXX per year for it, because that cost was being subsidized by someone or something else. And I don’t want to hear about how in Europe (that mystical land of ideas that are apparently always without fail far more advanced than anything anyone has ever dreamed of in the US) they do this, that, or the other thing and somehow everyone is taken care of for no cost, because that’s bullshit.

Seriously, just shut up. People who could afford good healthcare in the past will still do that. People who got fucked in the past, I’m sorry to say, will continue to get fucked. There’s no way the US will switch to fully public healthcare because that’s completely against the foundation of this nation, and this lack of an all-or-nothing solution will hamstring anything that gets pushed through congress.  So if it’s going to suck anyways, then fuck, can’t I NOT support it with more taxes?

Note: I don’t read the news or anything but apparently something is happening with healthcare so I figured I’d spit some truth on the subject.

Weird "Heathers" facts.

Two stars of the movie died at an early age: Jeremy Applegate (Peter Dawson, whose character prays he will never commit suicide) committed suicide with a shotgun on March 23, 2000, and Kim Walker (Heather Chandler, who had the line “Did you have a brain tumor for breakfast?”) died of a brain tumor on March 6, 2001.

“Visually-striking Romantic Sci-Fi & Fantasy”

Hey fuck you Netflix genre-chooser!  What makes you think I’d like something like this?