February 25 Update
Life has been fairly uneventful since the last update. The teaching is still going well and I'm still enjoying it. I have arranged a date for my prelim defense (April 15); assuming that goes well, I will be "ABD" (All But Dissertation) and in good shape for the next couple of years. I only have 41 books left to read, which is good, but I only have 48 or so days in which to read them, so I need to pick up the pace a bit. I have spring break coming up, so hopefully that will help. I am revising two documents (my prospectus and a historiographic essay), which I hope to complete over spring break. I have also undergone a two-part root canal that didn't hurt a bit, except in the pocketbook. That's going to be the biggest expense of the year. I'll be taking another couple trips to the dentist over the course of the next few weeks for the crown. Oh and this past weekend I spent the entire weekend seeing a crapload of indy horror films at the 10th annual Nevermore film festival which was a blast. I'll offer some comments on those films in a future blog update. This weekend is prospective students weekend so I get free booze and food on the department a couple times. Good deal.
Other than the Nevermore films, I've seen a couple others. Some thoughts below:
Saw V: Good stuff, though it suffers from not having much of John, the main Saw villain in it. I miss that crazy ol' psychopath. As usual, Saw VI is needed to further explain things, but that won't be available on DVD until this time next year, alas.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: Not bad; bittersweet. I'm not sure that it's as incredible as the critics said it was, but I don't regret watching it.
Heroes, Season Two: It started off pretty good, if low-key, but I actively didn't like what they did with the last couple episodes. Having a full season cut down to eleven eps really hurt it, I think. The problem is that all of the characters are a lot stronger when interacting with certain other characters, and they separated all of those dyads. So interaction-wise, it was weak, and they introduced several glaring plot holes. By the end of the seaon, characters are doing bizzaro things for little apparent reason. I can see why it got hammered in the ratings. I just hope Season Three picks up.
Battlestar Galactica, Season Three, Episode 1: We've got the first disk from Netflix but haven't seen the rest yet. The first ep was good, and that's saying something, since I was highly skeptical of how they left us at the end of Season Two. I'm really looking forward to this one, though a friend assures me that they take the show to a bad place later in the season.
Other than the Nevermore films, I've seen a couple others. Some thoughts below:
Saw V: Good stuff, though it suffers from not having much of John, the main Saw villain in it. I miss that crazy ol' psychopath. As usual, Saw VI is needed to further explain things, but that won't be available on DVD until this time next year, alas.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: Not bad; bittersweet. I'm not sure that it's as incredible as the critics said it was, but I don't regret watching it.
Heroes, Season Two: It started off pretty good, if low-key, but I actively didn't like what they did with the last couple episodes. Having a full season cut down to eleven eps really hurt it, I think. The problem is that all of the characters are a lot stronger when interacting with certain other characters, and they separated all of those dyads. So interaction-wise, it was weak, and they introduced several glaring plot holes. By the end of the seaon, characters are doing bizzaro things for little apparent reason. I can see why it got hammered in the ratings. I just hope Season Three picks up.
Battlestar Galactica, Season Three, Episode 1: We've got the first disk from Netflix but haven't seen the rest yet. The first ep was good, and that's saying something, since I was highly skeptical of how they left us at the end of Season Two. I'm really looking forward to this one, though a friend assures me that they take the show to a bad place later in the season.