Thyroid

I have a lot of work to do, so my reading time is fairly limited. That being said, I love Oliver Twist. It's very relaxing, but simultaneously suspenseful and thrilling. It's very funny. I hope Charles Dickens's other books have that same quality. I can see why he was - and remains - so beloved. Few people can pull off that quality, but he manages it, seemingly without effort.

I replayed Golden Axe a while back with a friend. It was kind of a surreal experience: I was doing things without thinking about it, my muscle memory going through the motions to slaughter villains I hadn't killed since the 90s/the early 2000s. I simply remembered, when I got to each individual screen, how many people appeared from where and when to use the magic jar spells (?). My friend was awful at it, though. He died a million times in and had Game Over'd by the time we go to the castle. He just sat there, whining, and basically forced me to quit the game, which is fine except I know full well he'd have continued playing had I been the dead one, but whatever. We then moved onto Golden Axe 2, which had a more forgiving spell system and which he basically abused, leading us to finish the game in a half hour. Anyway, it was a nice trip down memory lane. I'm one of those people who tends to be very suspicious of nostalgia, but it was a relaxing experience.

Random topic change. Do you know who'd have made a fantastic Ned Stark for the Game of Thrones adaptation? Christopher Eccleston. Whoever cast Harry Lloyd as Viserys needs a medal, though.

Hahaha.

How is that derailing the thread? Anyways, still reading Oliver Twist. It's great, but I don't know why I can't seem to concentrate on reading these days. I read half a page and fall asleep. I miss the days when I could read an entire book in one sitting.

50 Japanese workers stay behind to fight the meltdown. This is humanity at its best. I'm in awe at how brave these 50 people are. Just amazing, amazing stuff.

I tried watching Community, but couldn't get through the first episode. My girlfriend loved it, though. It's just way too awkward for me, this coming from a huge fan of Extras and The Office (UK).

I need to find a way to burn an iso file onto a CD (not DVD) if the file's size is larger than the disc's (difference < 25 mb; the isos are 706 mb and 722 mb). I've been Googling, but no solution has presented itself. Sounds fishy? Here's why I'm asking: A couple of weeks ago I bought brand new copies of two PS1 games. I live in Jordan, though, so getting them to ship here isn't worth the $$, so I just sent them off to a friend in the States for sake-keeping and, figuring it was morally OK, downloaded iso files to burn onto discs (don't want to keep them on my laptop). Now this comes up. Bleh. Help much appreciated.

Today was pretty depressing. I found out that at least two of my friends had break-ups. I kind of knew something was wrong with one of them for a while, but it was always a thought that just passed through and out of my mind. I never thought to ask. I was always hoping that things would work out for them. He's had it hard, really, but he always had her. Just goes to show the fickle nature of relationships Too many things changed at once for me and him. His best friend and girlfriend leaving in the same week, all of his other friends leaving soon. He's Palestinian, and hence has no passport, so he's stuck here. Poor guy. I hope he's going to be OK. I've been suggesting he should do freelance programming work on the internet to make some moolah and make his life easier. We'll see. I'm meeting him for coffee tomorrow. Anyways, needed to sigh a bit before I went to bed.

I meant all people who made these lists. I remember one time, Ebert picked his top ten movies and defended Casablanca by saying he wasn't not going to pick it because it was popular - which people do. They will also say they read or highly value what others consider to be great art because they think it's the right thing to do. Like, people will say Black Flag is a great band, but no-one will know why.

Da Vinci Code is a book everyone should read? I think people just pick what's popular or what they think is the right answer, instead of what they really believe.

Yeah, this is the only Terry Pratchett book I read. It works as a standalone; there's cameo appearances by recurring characters, but you don't know it until you hit Wikipedia later. Funny stuff; some scenes in it had me laugh out loud. Other quickie books: Stephen King's Night Shift (short story collection), Sherlock Holmes short stories, Triage by Jack Ketchum et all, pretty much any thriller. Robert Ludlum's books are great for mindless action, but there's around ten pages between those breaks that let you put the book down.

I think what's killing me is the crap you're seeing about it being karma for Pearl Harbor. Search for it on Facebook. Most depressing thing ever. The number of...anyways, don't want to get worked up. There's also this: Jim Carrey movie?

Only partially relevant: got this off of Reddit. CNBC be classy.

Tried. Both Nero and Win XP insist the files are too big. I found some forum posts earlier saying that you can "overburn" on Nero, but didn't figure out how to do it (the posts were at least 5 years old).

I finished the first season of The Wire yesterday. Good shit, though not without some niggles. It is exceptionally well-written, cast, and acted, very well produced and well directed piece of work. Too many goddamn stand-out moments for me to list, but I'll tell you what: the scene where is the single most heart-wrenching thing I have ever had to witness filmed for TV. The season always paces things out in this deliberate manner to make the scenes that matter more tense, emotional and/or interesting; it also makes you want to think one way, and then the other, before it pulls a rug out from underneath your feet, which - again, given the pacing - makes those scenes much more effective. What fascinates me so much is that they do this without making it feel like a plotted story. It feels realistic, though it's probably plausible at best; there's plot twists, but I didn't think of them that way until after the fact. I'm looking forward to little elements they've introduced this season paying-off in the next four. There's more, but it's a lot to keep up with. The characters - with one exception, and it's a perfectly justifiable one - are all rich, interesting human beings. I mean that: not once did I think that these were characters. I did, however, often wonder about the morals and the tribulations of these individual people. It was always kind of weird when an episode ended, because I'd snap back to reality and remember that these people weren't real. Little pleasures: Although David Simon is obviously the man behind the season, and its best writer, he didn't write my favourite two episodes: the George Pelecanos one ("Cleaning Up") and "Game Day" . Personal pleasure: I could tell whether or not it was a David Simon episode from the first 10 seconds. I like that. I was confused on the last one, thinking that parts were clearly written by Simon, but that the last two lines were not - that they felt like something Ed Burns had written - and was very happy to read that they both wrote it together. As sad as this may sound, I high-fived myself. Personal pleasure, II: A lot of the ideas I thought-up when watching the first two episodes were things they ran with, down to specific execution. I know it doesn't mean anything, but I like to imagine it means I have a good writer's instincts encoded in me somewhere. Basically, if you haven't seen The Wire, do so now. It is excellence itself. :tup: Onwards to season two. Soon. When I have the free time again.

I'm going to echo something I said yesterday: give Shakespeare his due. There is a reason he is considered to be the single greatest writer in western history. Read up on any analysis. Harold Bloom's are usually interesting.

I have a feeling it won't be as good as the first three (well, I hear that 2 and 3 are as good as 1, but that 4 was kind of forgettable; I'll find out for myself soon enough), simply because all the yelling and screaming - all the "FINISH IT" he gets - will have made it a chore for him to work through it. The desire and energy isn't there. There will be no joy, no fun, no real sense of delight or surprise, in working on it. All the technical crap - prose, dialogue, your characters - will be there; but the fuel will have been burnt out by a thousand shouts of "FINISH IT". I don't envy him.

I don't remember anything about anyone besides Shylock (I read Shakespeare's work when I was eight; it was the only fiction we had in the house), but I disagree that he becomes one-dimensional. His monologue is easily read as sympathetic ( 's Orson Welles doing it). If anything, he becomes less of a bad guy; it's easy to see him as a Jew trying to survive in an anti-Semitic world.

Isn't his life spared legally, in a court of law? Sorry; haven't read Venice in over ten years. Shylock wants a pound of flesh; they tell him he can have that, but no blood, which is an impossibility. That's a clever plot twist. Anyways, one very plausible reading of the play is that it is actually a tragedy. Give Shakespeare his due: there's more to Shylock than first meets the eye. Hollywood has gotten kind of shit.

Something Awful.

Moby Dick 2: this one's bigger, harder to kill, stronger, more firm, etc.

I was going through a local cinema's listings and found something that was potentially interesting - Unknown, with Liam Neeson - and quickly took a glance at the trailer (something I never do). line [from trailer]: "I don't know who this man is but you have to arrest him or many people will die!" I shut off the trailer. Reviews indicated it wasn't worth seeing anyways. Guys, is it just me or are truly great movies few and far in-between nowadays? I mean, even the indie circuit - once a reliable friend - is being swarmed with ultra hipster artsy movies that make me want to throw a knife at a screen. I don't mind depth. I don't mind art. I don't mind anything good or even attempting to be good, so long as it's genuine. I just hate it when the movie screams HOKEY, HOKEY at me and I'm sitting there thinking I'm supposed to swallow this bullshit after I'm done swilling it. Fuck that. Anyways, that's my rant for now. Blah blah blah. I haven't seen any movies this year, but it also seems like there's nothing interesting. Maybe I'm getting old. 21 is a ripe old age after all. I remembered that I have a copy of Blade Runner lying around, so I'm going to watch that on Friday. I also have Glengarry Glen Ross somewhere, so I'm going to watch that too.

I wish these movies got released here The only one that came out was True Grit, and my friends saw that without me (I had to bail). Anyways, I won't watch the Oscars (if I wanted to see a circlejerk I'd just use the internet), but I figure The King's Speech is going to win. It has the hype.

:~ What are the chances of you saying this the same day she starts "Ben There, Dan That"?