If you can, see this movie. It is certainly one of the better if not the best movies I’ve seen this year. It tells a great story, with catchy and extremely well written songs. Overall, it is genuinely entertaining, and well worth your money, which is rare.
I want to see it again before I write too much more, but since that isn’t likely, I’ll just trudge on blindly. Can’t hurt. I didn’t know this was a play before it was a movie. In fact, I had never heard of the story. I was happy that I went into this movie with a blank slate, because that is something I am rarely able to do. Hmm, that isn’t entirely true. I knew Tim Burton was directing this movie starring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter (all of whom are fantastic).
The movie isn’t especially thought provoking, just plain old entertaining. Leaving the movie, all I could think of was how I wanted to see it again. And its true, I do want to see it again: it is a grand way to spend two hours. Jack says he’ll buy it when it comes out on DVD, which is good, because if he buys it, I’ll be able to see it plenty more times.
Three years ago, a massive earthquake in the Indian Ocean created a tsunami we’re all now familiar with. When I see news reports about the anniversary, I can’t help but remember it.
I had been cruising around online, and noticed a breaking story about a disaster somewhere in the Pacific which had killed 10,000 people. That caught my attention. The report didn’t have much info, so I went downstairs to see what CNN had to tell me. They did cover it, but gave me no new information, and after spending a couple minutes on it, went to a commercial break promising to return with a story about post-holiday shopping. It was at this point in my life that I gave up on mainstream media. They have a time and a place, but 99% of the time they’re filled with worthless garbage. I turned off the TV and went back to my computer, and followed the story online. The death toll slowly increased throughout the day as the impact of the tsunami was realized. I didn’t hear about it from anyone else until the next day.
10,000 non-americans isn’t enough for CNN to care (although it should be noted that their five minute blurb was more than any other news station). Maybe they’re learned their lesson since then, but that was really appalling. I told a friend about this some weeks later, and he replied “Yes, but they’re worthless people.” He was joking, but it still reflected some truth.
When the final death toll came in around 100,000, people seemed to care. I don’t know. In America, anything involving 30 or so people dying is automatically news for a few days, no matter how little information they may have. I’m not trying to call for a change, although I would like to see one, I’m just pointing out how sad it all is.
What an American holiday. Christmas is undeniably secular, and is pretty widely accepted as a time to get together with family and (often) exchange gifts. A holiday devoted to consumerism, which needs two months of preparation. Yes, this is another Christmas rant, and while nearly everyone on the internet has written one, I haven’t, and I feel left out.
Let me pose a hypothetical situation: you are one of six friends (family, whoever) that decide to exchange gifts. Everyone spends about $50 on each gift, totaling $250 (50×5). You receive five gifts, totaling about $250 worth of stuff. In case you missed that, you just traded money for an equal amount of things you didn’t want or need.
Thankfully, my friends and I don’t exchange gifts. I hope we never do. However, my family is another story, as they still exchange presents. I doubt I’ll ever be able to unplug myself from that.
I think part of the magic of Christmas is how you perceived it as a child. Once Santa was outed and I got older and had to start buying gifts, that aura was pretty much gone. Maybe its just because I don’t have money to throw around.
Man, that was a pretty half-baked rant…
edit 1: A little embarrassing really…maybe I can spruce it up later…
edit 2: Nope, not gonna happen. Just gonna ignore it.
I’m selling the ~$400 of stock I have tomorrow, so I can get that money by the time I’ll need it. That money should put me at almost exactly $2000 to spend on a bus, which should be plenty. I’m planning on picking up a early 90s bus with around 120k miles on it, somewhere between 36 and 40 feet long. In a perfect world, I would have bought this bus. But the timing wasn’t right, the price ended up higher than I wanted it to, and it was in Montana. A bus that fits my needs will come around, I just hope I don’t need to wait too long.
My dad was trying to persuade me to buy something smaller, so I could use it as a day-to-day vehicle. He encouraged me to look at box trucks, step vans (UPS-like vans), or even just fullsize vans. I get where he is coming from, but I really am looking for a dedicated roadtrip machine. I’ll still use it as a day-to-day vehicle, in spite of the impracticality of it, because it is so incredibly novel. Even though I have no intention of buying notabus, I took a look at what else eBay had to offer me.
I wasn’t too impressed by any of the vehicles my dad suggested to me, but I’m glad I looked around, because I found eBay Motor’s Emergency and Fire Trucks section. Yes, you can buy fire trucks. They’re actually quite reasonably priced. I am a happier person now that I know that I can buy a fire truck on a whim. But what is really interesting about this section is that I discovered ambulances. They’re perfect for live-in vehicles. I’m not talking about ambulances that are just significantly modified vans, but the ambulances that have a massive box for a back-section.
They are tall enough for me to stand in, they already have a bed, electrical setup, air conditioning, and they have access to the cab. They’re also decently cheap (<$5k for a decent one). I would love to buy one, but I figure at most six people could stay in one, and that would be tight as hell. I figure I’ll buy one after I’m done touring with lots of people. An ambulance is perfect for a solo trip, or a trip with four or fewer people. You don’t need a special license to drive them, and overall they seem to be pretty comfortable living. I’m watching this one. Again, not intention of buying, but I’m going to keep it in mind, for future plans.
So I’ve been playing around on the server here the last day or so. If
any pages have been down or not working, that’s probably why. I was
playing around with MovableType, and then with WordPress MU. Neither
really did what I had wanted, so I’m back to plain old multiple
installs of WP.