The Dire Straits of V-Town
MMMMMMmmmmm...coffee! What a long time it has been. Yes, that’s right, I am enjoying a nice cup of coffee this afternoon/morning, to be followed by about 30+min. on the bike, and 1+hr. of lifting...gotta do something productive with all the excess caffeine. BUZZ BUZZ BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ...
Anyway, I finished up the last of my co-op interviews on Monday, June 16th, and I have been trying to enjoy my much needed break. Some might say that I am fortunate to have nothing to do, and I should enjoy the fact that i can sleep till 1pm every day. However, the lack of activity around this town is really starting to wear on me, and believe it or not, i am actually anxious to return to school, JUST so i will have something to do ... how sad is THAT? Aside from the daily workout regiment, most of my time is spent watching movies, playing Vice City, reading, or punking around the internet. Most nights I end up at Palace, or Coffee Works, sometimes both, but i am otherwise just a LUMP.
I was planning to go to Vermont over this break, but interest ran low, and those that were interested were not able to go this week. Though, i am happy to report that we WILL be going to Vermont, NEXT weekend. Chaz, Tara, Joanna, Mike (Joanna's BF), and I will depart at the asscrack of dawn on Friday for 3 days of kick-ass fun and relaxation on the Green Mountain State. I will also have my iPod outfitted with its new iTrip to keep the tunes going all the way up the through way. Initial tests of the iTrip FM Tuner are encouraging, and I can't wait to use it on an extended drive. Unfortunately, my car is going BACK into the shop for additional Transmission work this coming Monday. I am uncertain whether i will have it back in time for Friday. Therefore I may have to take the Van (the egg)... to Vermont, yet again! To be honest I couldn't care less about what i drive, as long as i get there :). More on Vermont as details become more clear.
I have been wanting to get down the Ocean City over my break for a little Mack & Manco's and Jilly's action, but mother nature is a fickle and a genuinely hurtful and uncooperative bitch-whore --- kinduv like the female populous of Drexel University... with ‘some’ exceptions of course. So, as of yet, I haven't been to the shore this year. If anyone wants to go, gimme a call and we'll split for OC...
This week has pushed my nightly-activity-planning skills to their breaking point. Old flames, old enemies, and new aquantiances abound, my evening compatriots in boredom have been a motley bunch, though I can say I have had a pretty good time with ALL. It sure beats the lonesome alternative :(.
I Saw a few movies throughout the week including The Italian Job which despite being a good 'movie going experience' was not a particularly great film, in fact i wouldn't recommend it too strongly, ‘Marky Mark’ (Mark Whalberg) is genuinely irritating, and short of a few choice shots of Charlize Theron, and the inclusion of Donald Sutherland in about 10min of the film, there are few redeeming moments in this flick, which tends to be HIGHLY predictable despite its attempt to insert plot twists throughout. However, I must point out that many geeks, such as myself, will be highly amused by Seth Green's character "THE REAL NAPSTER". Aside from this there is little here but a poor remake and a half-assed attempt to capitalize on the thief-culture movie genre recently re-popularized by the Ocean's Eleven Remake, which despite being a decent flick, lacked the killer ending of the original Ocean's Eleven... if you don't know... GO RENT IT!!
I also saw The Hulk on opening night (why opening night? i donno - maybe i like standing in lines, and fighting for seats). I can't say that I had high-hopes for the film, as the previews & trailers showed an extremely computerized looking Hulk running around smashing things, and being generally weird looking. Since the film was directed by Ang Lee (Director of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), i was inclined to give it a chance, in the hope that there would be MORE to it than the previews led me to believe. I should probably mention that because i never read the Hulk comics, I cannot speak as authoritatively concerning plot and character accuracy, as I have been able to about X-Men & Spider-Man in the past. Regardless of my unfamiliarity, i felt that Lee made some artistic efforts that did much to enhance the comic-book feel of the movie, including extensive use of 'split-screen' shots, as well as freeze-frames, slow motion and other visual effects. In this way, the semi-fake looking Hulk kinduv WORKED. There was however, a definite effort made to use environmental elements to shadow the Hulk, thereby artificially enhancing the realism of otherwise poor special effects. The story itself had its redeeming qualities, but then turned into an over-the-top perversion of itself, that could be considered representative of the Hulk (Bruce Banner) himself, though I don't think they had this in mind.
The turbulent story doesn't take away from the fact that MANY heterosexual males will spend most of the movie WANTING Jennifer Connelly. Some of you may remeber her from her oscar winning performance in A Beautiful Mind, her heartbreaking portrayal of Marion Silver in Darran Aronofsky's Requiem for A Dream or her performance alongside David Bowie in Jim Henson's 1986 classic Labyrinth. Though The Hulk is probably the most stylistic, and introspective MARVEL film to be released thus far, i feel it falls short when attempting to combine these elements. Overall, I feel it was a good effort, and is worth seeing on the big screen. As i said before, i never really read many Hulk comics, so i can't attest to the accuracy of character portrayal, but would be lying if i said i wasn't entertained for at least 100 of the 138min i spent watching The Hulk. I can say that Ang Lee was successful in making me feel like i was WATCHING A COMIC BOOK. Now we just need, "HULK SMASH!!!".
I think I will finish up by letting you all know that my GPA for Spring Term 2003 was a healthy 3.8, and that I still don’t understand a THING about C++ classes. If anyone can offer some assistance I would appreciate it greatly. Co-Op job offers will be posted sometime next week, the 26th or 27th I believe. I am sure you will all be hearing plenty about that. I also purchased a new graphics card for my desktop. No, I haven’t sprung for the mack-daddy pixel pump yet. Since I am currently running the 2nd slowest chip currently available for most modern machines (GeForce 2 MX440), I figured an upgrade to a mid-grade chip (Gainward GeForce 3 Ti500), though not as lightening fast the bleeding edge top-of-the-line chips, would be practical enough (price wise) to improve my gaming experience over the summer, giving me more time to plot out my future upgrade to the ATI All-In-Wonder 9700 Pro, who’s price can only go down over the next few months, and who’s system integration may require me to install a new power supply to accommodate increased power demands. When Doom 3 is released, all bets are off.
That last paragraph is prolly more like a preview of what you will be hearing about in future posts, so feel free to comment in advance. Thanks for reading… talk to ya’ll real soon.