Saturday, May 31, 2003


Weird Prayer Request

Normally I don't ask people to pray for me but this one's REALLY important:

Since 1997 when all of this weird neurological dmange started happening, most of the doctors I saw either didn't believe me or refused to treat me due to the super-weird symptoms and negative test results. FINALLY I've got 2 neurologists who believe me and they're sending me to MUSC for a weeklong inpatient study. They'll sleep-deprive me for 48 hours again <whee :-P>, paste electrodes to my skull, insert hair-thin wires into my jaw, inject me with radiation for the super-big xray machine, freeze me to near death, and blind me with strobe lights amoungst other things.

Normally I would go into this kind of torture kicking and screaming, but after 6 years of doctor bullshit, I REALLY NEED ALL OF THESE RESULTS TO COME BACK POSITIVE!!! There's only one way to do that: pray I get as uncomfortable as I possibly can. Pray for insanely bad weather (trust me on that one), absolute freezing temperatures, major pain, LOTS of seizures and I do mean L-O-T-S in number and variety, MAJORLY bad hemi-plegics, and generally any other kind of symptom I have or have had to come back and bite me in the ass in a VERY BIG way.

We REALLY need me to get real good and royally sick here. I mean it.

I go into the hospital on June 16 and I'll be there for one week (I will miss DG's and ObK's birthdays). If I get sick enough, they might send me home sooner, altho I'd much rather stay for the whole week or longer due to the very wide range of symptoms I can get. I forget when the followup is, but let's hope they found lots and lots of stuff.

Please I REALLY need this one! Thank y'all VERY MUCH!!!
posted @ 10:54 AM  |   0 comments  |  


July 4...

I'll be in Myrtle Beach for Weird Al concert #6!!! Never been to a House of Blues before so this should be interesting. I'll make the pix (if I'm allowed to take them- I forgot to ask if I could take flashelss pix) available on WASS right after I finish revamping it.

Press Pit- WOOHOO!!!!
posted @ 10:46 AM  |   0 comments  |  

Friday, May 23, 2003


I FINALLY GOT POODLE HAT!!!!

And as promised (ObeeKris), here's my review! I even c/p'd it from AMWA for your enjoyment:
Okie-dokie, time for me to jump on ze bandwagon here. I know I'm late but I wasn't able to buy it until today and even then it was the last one there! I've tried not to read any reviews until I've heard it and I know there are about a billion of us posting these things but anyway, here goes:

#! THE AL-BUM:

===Couch Potato:
Eminem- LET AL MAKE THIS VIDEO!
Al managed to slip in a lot of really good hints of Eminem in here like "If you had one shot..." and "eyes are bloodshot", as well as single words like reality, boring, aching, Order, Madonna, forgot, and spot being in their original slots or really darn close. I liked hearing some of my faves getting mentions but I still don't get the "Mahna Mahna"one. The mising up of some shows like the "Touched by an Uncle" title would have made for very interesting visuals in the video had it been made.
My only grievence is that the tempo is much slower than the original but I can understand why.

===Hardware Store:
Wow- that's a lot of words Al! Next to the rap song that's a lot of fast words. Considering how often my family can be found in Lowe's for various reasons, this is pretty funny. It's also funny for another reason: I bought the Al-bum at the brand-new Super Wal-Mart (opened one day after the release of PH) and you wouldn't believe the crowd there just days later. We supposedly have a small town...but back to the hardware store: there's a larger Lowe's (another upgrade) right across the street from the Super Wal-Mart.
I love the beat and rhythm to this song! Whoever said it sounds like "Dig My Grave" is right, but there's something else it reminds me of and it has to do with that speedy tempo and the super-fast "would you look at all that stuff..." verse. What oh what is it?...
I would have added more fake merchandise but the automatic circumcisor? Ouch! :-D The 27 returns too!

===Trash Day:
Either this or Ebay should be the 'second' single! I was kinda wondering if Al was gonna drop in some themes related to marriage or parenthood and here's the first one. Honey, take out the trash! :-D
I absolutely hate the original so this is a welcome relief to that "other" song. ;-)
This song reminds me of "Livin' In the Fridge" but at least this is something that's more accessible when it rots, as opposed to a fridge where you can just close the door. Oh no, this presents much more funny situations to it.
The first mention of a dog is in the song. Bela is a famous pooch. Btw, is that "ick ick " supposed to be someone vomiting? Sounds like it...

===Party At The Leper Colony:
This was the first "new song" we had from Al thanks to the OC Fair. I remember reading the lyrics back then and thinking it was really good, but for some reason, I thought there were more body part puns in there than there were. Don't get me wrong, I'm a MAJOR pun freak, it's just that I thought there were more for some reason. Must be my memory again...anyway.
This song sounds a lot like "Darkside" as in "gonna save me from a love that's blind"/"Saturday night it's the place to be". The saxophone reminds me of something else too altho I don't remember what. Maybe the theme to Whose Line Is It Anyway? Something else it sounds like too but I can't remember...
Run your butt off to that party!

===Angry White Boy Polka:
I can't really say. I only know 4 of the songs here (I haven't been that clueless about the songs on a polka aside from the Hot Rocks Polka before) and is it just me or is the tempo slower on this one? The "come here come here" is close to "here I come I come I come" from the Alternative Polka. Love the way the last 5 songs were done- probably because 4 of those 5 were the 4 I knew. :-)
Gotta love Slim Shady as a Polka! I'd love to hear the whole song done that way a la Bohemian Rapshody!

===Wanna B Ur Lovr:
Don't think this is a chat room thing at all, but then again I don't do chat rooms anymore.
This song is a concept that I was waiting for for awhile that again wasn't likely to happen unless/until he finally got himself a steady gal: the anti-anti-love song!!!! He doesn't have the girl yet (similar to Airline Amy) but she hasn't rejected him yet. It's the closest thing to a real love song (alright alright- lust) that I've heard from him, but is it a *serious* love song? PLEASE! ;-D
Just don't care for innuendo, but if you didn't get the "self-service pumps" from way back, then you'll probably get it now.
The line "I hope I'm not being forward but do you mind if I chew on your butt?" is the funniest line from this one!
Yugoslavian hands eh? ;-)

===A Complicated Song:
Al's right, Complicated is complicated. But the 3 starts he had going were good. I had a feeling "constipated" would be a way to go, but I'm glad I didn't hear a whole song about being in the bathroom on the toilet for hours on end. Talk about potty humor. ;-) The incestuous (girlfriend/marriage mention) verse as an entire song? Nope. Good call in keeping it just a verse and chorus, Al.
Decapitated- now THERE'S the winner! This would've been my choice as the full parody! Can he squawk like a chicken like that? :-D Loving the visual on this one! Maybe he could join that leper party...
This was the easiest for me to hum/sing to probably because I've got Avril's album.

===Why Does This Always Happen To Me?:
This concept all by itself has the potential to go about a billion and one different ways, but sadly I was disappointed on this one. If WDTAHTM and One Of Those Days had a battle, OOTD would win.
Very nice piano work tho!
I saw that Simpsons mention. :-) Al got stuck in another traffic jam and I see he can drive his car without the rabid wolverine in his underwear now. Why did the stabbing of his boss remind me of the evil twin verse of EYKIW? Must be the disembodied head...must've come from the complicated song via the leper colony.
Still good to hum too...and where oh where does the "bah bah bahs"come from? I'm thinking Beach Boys cuz the first song that popped into my head was "Brian Wilson Said" by Tears For Fears. Yeah, don't ask.

===Ode To A Superhero:
Please just call it "Spider-Man"!
This was well put-together I thought and yes it is an awful lot like The Saga Begins in more ways than one so I have a bad feeling about that. That said, this one isn't single material but is definately concert material! I can see the lighters already...
I like the verse about Norman the best.
Sling us a web you're teh Spider-Man! Say Al, you gonna wear that costume? ;-D You could modify that Hooded Avenger costume for it. I have a feeling he's more likely to give it a concert video treatment like Gump for it. It'd be cool if he did both the costume and video. Hey Al, throw one of those small pumpkin squashes!

===Bob:
I LOVE the concept! Now we just need at least 2 or 3 more verse like this! I wish it didn't stop. There are a couple palindromes I know that weren't in there that might've been nice.
"Nurse, I see gypsies-run!" is my fav of this bunch. :-D
The instrumental version of this is so good I can see people getting up and dancing to this! Reminds me a bit of TDS because there's a hint of country in it. I know this is supposed to be Dylan but I don't know Dylan and there's too much country where I live.

===Ebay:
The biggest laughs I got off of the album was from this one. This would make a great single, especially since that "Do it Ebay" commercial still gets played. In fact, I half expected part of that jingle to end up here.
Twice in the past 3 years I can remember going cross-country with Dad (I was there for the heck of it) to go pick something up which he got off Ebay. This is a good partner for IAATP.
I wonder what some folks with ocd would think if you put this next to Germs (the ones *I* know are cool with this). Bring that bubble paper to the concert!!!
If you turn up the volume, you can hear Al dragging out that last "Ebay" a long time tho choppily and then after a pause, he finishes it. It's like the opposite of Spy Hard in that he can't hold the note this time.
Another good one to hum to even if you hate BSB. Fav line is the kleenex used by Dr. Dre. :-)

===Genius In France:
No folks it's not about Jerry Lewis. And yes it's an epic like Alberquerque.
But for the life of me, I do not get this joke. This is a first for me. Why is a guy who's stupid supposed to be a genius in France? I know this can't be war-related (shut up right now) so there's some culture thing going on here I obviously don't know about. I wonder if Gump would be considered a genius in France?
Don't get me wrong, I like hearing Al speaking/singing in French and it's like Taco Grande in that aspect, but I wish there were more of it. Wouldn't it be super-cool if he translated the whole thing?!?! The first half of it reminded me of TBCD and the ending of it reminded me of Waffle King with the ego trip.
"Hoom chaka laka..." and "hemenene humenene..."came right out of the Yoda Chant. I hope that doesn't mean they'll take that part out. :-( "Bow diddy..."reminds me of something else too but I can't think of what it is just now.
Bela gets both another mention as a dog and a poodle but upon first listening, I couldn't hear her bark!!! Where's Bela?!?! Oh wait, she's with the croissants. How'd she get way over there?
The sounds effects, vocals, and instrumentation of this are very good! Isn't that Clair De Lune starting up on "chic-est of the chic"? Lots of Steve in here and the rest of the album. The group harmonies on this (and that banjo) are very nice indeed! Where'd that banjo come from anyway? Alabama with that girlfriend with the same coat of arms tattoo?
The calling of Frenchies "Frogs" at one point makes me rethink "Nobody Here But Us Frogs" just a little bit but I think it's just a coincidence. But if the French like disgusting food, then maybe they'll eat that purple snow. Who knows?
Even tho I don't get the overall joke here, some of the lines are really good like "too much chlorine in my gene pool" and "as French as apple pie". And I can't imagine a 'biggest dork' not being allowed into a Star Trek convention! :-D
I loved the song, but I'd love it even more if someone would explain the part as to why Al's considered a genius in France. But then again, maybe the line "how did this happen? I don't have a clue" is all we really need to know. I just know I don't know Zappa. Also don't know Dylan or Prince so I'm afraid I'm lost on more humor on this Al-bum. :-( I need an education here folks! Please help me out!

#2 THE EXTRAS:

===Home Movies:
Those were so CUTE!!!
I guess there are two things Al hates getting in this world: saurkraut and NOTEBOOK PAPER!!! :-D I wonder if he'll be signing any this tour... This home movie thing was part of TWAS (don't know if it was ever a part of Al-tv or not) and it was one of the things I missed the most about it so I was glad to see it back.
So he still likes to dance until he nearly throws up and run in circles...and he's still got a thing for chickens too I see...

===Photo Gallery:
Those are nice!!! Wait, that's all there is? :-( Nah, I'm not being ungrateful, I love them!!! I guess the question now is: which one will make it onto the tour shirts?!
And yes I did have to read another post to figure out how to get to the pic of Al, Suzanne, and unborn Nena. I was hoping there's be a pic like that around even if we didn't get to see it. Also happy to see Suzanne mentioned in the 'thank yous'!!!
I do think that looks like unborn Nena underneath the helmet-and-arm of the construction guy. You can see it better on the computer than on the cover. Well, there's your hidden Nena y'all! :-D

===Bonus Mixes:
I LOVE hearing instrumentals!!! Just wish I could put it on a compilation tape like for Callin' In Sick so I could have it in the car (no I wouldn't put it online). Heck with the compilation tape- just gimme the WHOLE ALBUM done in instrumental as a second disk!!! Heck, do that with ALL of them!!!!
I LOVE IT!!!! (moremoremoremoremoremoremoremoremore...)

The vocals-only for HS is WONDERFUL as well! I think I like hearing the instrumentals and vocals as the 2 seperate tracks rather than together actually. There's a nice soft AP-ish chorus just before "look at all that stuff" that I couldn't hear otherwise.

The Al & Ben mix is VERY -dare I say it?- beautiful! It's increased my opinion of the song dramatically! Why can't I hear these bonus mixes in my cd player? :.-( Pleeeeeeeeeease put them on a seperate cd to sell at the concerts! Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease?!?! And what does this version of the boss-stabbing verse remind me of?

===Lyrics:
It's a cool karaoke!!!
I love that font too! What is it and where can I get it?!
(I'm a font freak okay)

#3 OVERALL:

Al-bumwise: I think most of it will need to grow on me but most albums of any kind do that nowadays for me anyway. The tempos on most of these are much slower than normal for Al so I guess I'll just have to play the cd faster and listen to the voices go higher. :-) The accordian is always great and it's nice to hear it be used a little more here. GIF makes good use of that.
Al's scissors are still sharpened so I don't think he's likely to put those away anytime soon so if you aren't used to it or don't like it, you have a problem. A dominant theme for the album is marriage but seeing as how he just *got* married, I reckon that's been on his mind these days. :-D One thing absent in that theme is something I was hoping Al would do if he had to do another food song: the strange things his wife eats while she's pregnant. And now that I've opened my mouth, he probably won't ever do it, which is fine cuz it might sound better coming from a girl but anyway...
Overall, it's a very good listen. Note to self: next time play it louder and without the surround sound so I can get into it more

Extraswise:
We need more of everything! :-D
The home movies were a welcome return routine. The bonus mixes were EXCELLENT and need to be put on their own disc so you can listen to them in the car. The photo gallery was very nice too. I love alternate shots! And finally, I think Al should do the karaoke thing for ALL his albums! If he could also put in extra visuals while the text is scolling that'd be good too but let's not push it just yet. It's a great way to listen to the Al-bum on your computer!

Okayokayokay I know that was really long, but I think I got most of it.

...*think*. ;-D


Now, as to *how* I got PH...well, first I wanted to goto the new Super Wal-mart that opened the day after PH was released but even tho we're "a small town" we all knew it'd be PACKED! We just weren't sure it'd be PACKED days later, but then again, we *are* a major artery for Myrtle Beach... Anyway, we drove past it, gave up, and went to Fye in the mall, only they didn't have it!!!!! I combed the store and they didn't have it!!!! So we drove back to the SWM, Mom dropped me off and I went inside to not only get the Al-bum but to scope out the place. Most importantly, I need to know where to find my most-used sections of the store. So when I found the music/electronics dept, I couldn't find Al again! After combing the place, I went back towards the way I'd come in, and wedged in between the latin and Christian sections was this iiiiiiiitty bitty section for Comedy. Guess what was the first album on the bottom row that there was only 1 left of? Well, it was MINE!!!! ALL MINE BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! <*ahem*>

Anyway, I got it, it's got computerized extras, BUY IT!! DON'T DOWNLOAD IT YOU HOOLIGAN!!!!!! :-D
posted @ 10:44 PM  |   0 comments  |  

Wednesday, May 21, 2003


Happy Birthday Dad!

He's now playing with a "full deck"! :-D

♠♥♦♣

age pun y'all the diamond ain't displaying for some reason...
posted @ 10:37 PM  |   0 comments  |  

Tuesday, May 20, 2003


Wear Your Poodle Hat!

Can you believe it?! It's Poodle Hat's first official day on sale and I can't buy it until at least tomorrow!!! Errands didn't take us in that direction today. ARGH! :-S
posted @ 8:57 PM  |   0 comments  |  


Happy 25th Anniversary

To Mom & Dad!!!!!!
posted @ 8:56 PM  |   0 comments  |  

Friday, May 16, 2003


Eclipsed

We were to have a total eclipse last night. I said total right? I only saw about 99.9999999999999% The moon never completely disappeared except for when the clouds came in. It was still VERY cool, but it would also have been cool to see it smoothly disappear and then reappear again. But like I said in the last post, I was too tired to stay up. I almost went to bed without looking at the moon. I'm still too tired. But the eclipse was still cool!
posted @ 8:45 PM  |   0 comments  |  


Matrix Reloaded

First of all, I've been getting roughly 5 hours of sleep per night for the past 2 weeks which means I am close to dead right about now...if I hadn't taken all of those naps today that is. But back to yesterday: The Matrix Reloaded opened yesterday as I'm sure all y'all are aware. I almost never make it to a movie on it's opening day. I can only think of maybe 4 movies that were exceptions: ESB: SE, ROTJ:SE, Harry Potter 2 (first screening ever), and now Matrix 2 (second screening excluding yesterday's previews).

So what did I think of Matrix 2? Let me watch it again and I'll get back to you. Why? I'm too darn sleepy to remember each and every single point I found to be absolute coolness or absolute bullshit like I was able to with HP 2 and AOTC. I'll tell you this tho:

SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!

First off, the bad stuff:

#1- TOO MUCH SEX! We SO do not need to see all of Zion engaging in a slo-mo sexy mosh pit where towards the end everyone is sweating so much that you can SO tell the women aren't wearing any bras. At the same time, we do NOT need to see Trinity and Neo engaging in...well...engaging. The fact that these 2 scenes cut into each other all the time (maybe that was a poor choice of wording?) is both a blessing and a curse. It's too much sex for a 3-5 minute spree (lasted WAY too long) but by putting them together, that was 3-5 minutes LESS than it would have been had they seperated them. That's 6-10 minutes spared all together had they completely cut it, which I'm certain the tv will do come next year or so when the small-screen gets permission to host it.

#2- The F*cking Frenchie. Believe it or not, this has NOTHING to do with Iraq altho the Time article made the small quip anyway (yes I bought it before I saw the movie but I read it only today). My problem with Mr. Frenchie is that he's horny and he's...well...I don't like him. He sends a supersexy patron of his resturant a cake which causes...it begins with an "O" and the spfx guy must have had a digital fettish or something cuz the camera turns her into Matrix code and then pans between...*ahem* and in Matrix code terms, "shows it". I don't know about you but as a woman sitting in a theatre with guys around me, I felt rather upset about it. Later on, Frencie's wife refers to the lipstick (aka he's cheating on her) and then says that she (the other woman) wasn't kissing his lips. I think Dad was the only one in the theater who didn't appear to get that and I sure as heck wasn't gonna explain it to him.

#3- Philosophical BS. As if the first movie didn't already make allusions to about a million different religions (take it how you will), but then they twisted it further here. That was a bit much for me, especially when folks in Zion start bringing Neo baskets of food and pleas to help free their loved ones. The latter I can certainly see cuz Morpheus and others free others too, but Neo's Mr. Celebrity here cuz he can manipulate the Matrix (tell ya later) and sure enough, there's a large load of "offerings" outside the door waiting for him after he and Trinity are..."finished" with their afrorementioned encounter. I thought people in Zion were starving.

With the exception of the philosophy stuff (which is central to a lot of themes and characters), they could DEFINATELY get rid of those 3 sex instances. No wonder it's rated R, even tho it got that based on the fight scenes and not the sex or language.

NOW FOR THE GOOD STUFF!!!!


#1- Agent Smith is back! "MR. ANDERSON!" he screams when he and Neo meet again. It's funny at times to think that this guy also plays Elrond but it also shows how great an actor this guy is cuz they're so different and Agent Smith is just TOTALLY Agent Smith! The fight with the 100 Smiths? I knew it'd be cool and DANG IT'S SO FREAKIN' COOL!!!! They could have a whole hour of that as far as I'm concerned!!! And Neo would make a great Jedi Knight with that pole there. I'm no fan of wrestling, but I was sure acting like it while watching this- this fight kicks some VERY SERIOUS BUTT!!!! This alone is worth the price of admission!

#2- The freeway chase. High octane, lots of fighting, majorly cool...but not as cool as Neo v Smith. But that's just *my* opinion. :-)

#3- The rogue prgrams. This appeared to deviate from the first movie a bit but I'm sure if I watch it again, it won't feel so out of place. I still "got" 99% of the movie the first time, but the bit about Bane took the Time article to get it. Now I've got to watch the movie again (hey, I wouldn't mind!).

#4- NO STROBE LIGHTS!!! WOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

#5- SPFX: they are SO gonna get the Oscar for that!!!! I dare say it's giving ILM a VERY SERIOUS run for the money! Watch yourself George...

#6- More Matrix shots. That scrolling code stuff- you can actually see more of it and the inner gears of a clock and other stuff with it! I was SO hoping for that, altho while there was a lot of it, there wasn't nearly enough for me. But again, that's just me. :-)

#7- Trinity and Neo are even. That makes sense.

#8- Tank is gone. :-( If only the guy weren't a hothead and got arrested. Altho that new guy is a trip.

#9- The Senate Chamber...uh, Zion counsel that is. *ahem*

#10- The million-tv room with the architect contains scenes from the first movie when he's first discussing Neo himself. Look for it- REALLY cool!

#11- No Alice? There HAS to be a human behind the Matrix. This is a personal theory, but with all those Alice in Wonderland/Looking-Glass land allusions they made in the first film, it's a real wonder (npi) that they didn't do more of it in this film. I was SO hoping they would. They did have "rooms" with lots of doors at times tho (but more than one key).

#12- Da bomb. I thought it was supposed to destroy the entire Matrix when it went off and Neo would have to get that number of people (how many was it again? It was more women than men I remember that one...) out before it all crashed? I knew Neo was gonna have to crash it at some point, if he doesn't I'll be disappointed. But maybe I need to watch that scene again? I'm a bit confused on that one.

#13- Oracle. She's still a trip, but I'm still not entirely sure as to how the Oracle is the "mother of the Matrix". Must be the concept (npi) thingy there. I also can't help thinking if Oracle is a pun on that OS of the same name. She's still got those colors, candy, and cigarette.

#14- The Birds. I KNOW those birds are a specific kind and they have some symbolic significance. I just can't ID the bird. Smith walking thru them as they flew off made me think of a music video the way it was styled.

#15- The Spoon. The "orphan" who sent it to Neo must've been that same kid. We don't see him, but we sure do see that spoon! :-D

#16- The Groupie. This guy hangs off of Neo in Zion all the time apparently and thank goodness they didn't always show him cuz he'd get SO annoying SO quickly.

#17- The Force. I had a feeling that if Neo can see the Matrix, then surely he can sense it too. Apparently when Smith destroyed Neo and then Neo destroyed Smith, a little bit of each got into the other. Can anyone say Harry inherited some of Voldemort's powers here? But yes, Neo was able to stop some sentiels (squiddy) IRL at the end. It's about dang time! Put him in a coma tho (part of the cliffhanger).

#18- Version 6.0 Like AOL, the Matrix has versions. We know the other Agents got upgrades (gotta love that quip!) but apparently so did the Matrix. They're in Version 6 and not only that, but so is Neo!!! I need to see that scene again with the architect, but like the Time article, I had to wonder if he wasn't lying thru his teeth the whole time. I like how they had Neo's internal emotional reactions plastered all over those million tvs.

#19- Neo's outfit is COOL!!!! I want one of those... ;-D

#20- We could do without the Morpheus/Niobe thing. It didn't really go anywhere anyway and we could have done without it since it was so not important in anything really. The ONLY time it seemed to make any matter was in 2 places and 2 only: the bad blood between Morpheus and the Commander, and Niobe's volunteering to go after Morpheus's ship.

#21- Shipwrecked. Morpheus's ship gets destroyed. :.-( I was wondering when we'd be seeing a crew having to return to Zion on foot.

#22- The control tower. Rather, it's a bunch of freed folks hooked up to something that looks like the loading program (that all-white thingy that's not the Matrix but is in the computer) and they're using it for traffic control. Cool! I was wondering if they'd ever do something like that.

#23- Fashion show. Where did they get all those clothes? They mentioned in the Time article that they grow their own stuff but where to they get the dye and the fact that everyone seems to have more than 1 outfit? In the first movie, the colors you wore have significance, how there are more colors to be had. There was an interesting shot where Morpheus, the commander, and the counsellor were in the same room, someone came in, and then there was a shot of those 3 together and they were wearing red, yellow, and blue. Primary colors. Very nice.

#24- And then there were 4. Morpheus is still looking to fill positions of the crew killed by Cypher and he's not done yet.

#25- Power and control. This is a common theme for this movie and I got sick of it after a while. It's the big issue/debate that starts with the counselor and Neo in the engineering section (cool to see, and since Neo can see how the Matrix works, this was a heavy conversation if in meaning only). It occurred to me later, that "control" could also mean Control as in the computer command and it wasn't until while typing this out that "power" could also be alluding to the fact that humans are batteries. The whole war is about controlling the humans so that the ai get the power. Literally in both senses. While watching the movie I got annoyed with this a bit, but now I get it. Sadly, the characters didn't. Then there was that whole bit about choice too...

#26- Terminated. I'm sorta but sorta not hoping for at least a pun on this word as it is a part of computer terminology. Maybe it's because T3 comes out this summer or that the destruction of the power plant reminded me of T2. Hmmm, power again...

#27- Outside the city. Those tricky keys can lead you to strange places if you put it in the door, turn the key, open it, and then close it on someone. Neo ended up in the mountains at one point. First time we've been out of the city (with the name City).

#28- Room 101. Or Floor 101. Either way, that's how you get to Frenchie. Remember that room number was Neo's in the first movie?

#29- Heavy Metal. I don't care for it but I see why they use it.

#30- Bullet time. Neo stops a hailstorm of bullets at one time. And then bullet time gets used and used and used several times at slower motion. I dare say I got a wee bit tired of it.

#31- The twins. Ghosts in the machine. Cool! I wonder if Neo could do that.

#32- "He's doing his Superman thing". Even flew in the clouds with the moon in the shot. There's a shot in the original Superman movie like this. Consider it an Easter Egg even tho the shot's not identical.

#33- More computer names. No one has last names in Zion and most everyone's names are computer terms or hacker names. There are a few small exceptions tho.

#34- Blue screen/Green screen. Still doing the color filter. I guess life is too glum for rainbows. :-(

#35- No cats this time? No animals? Except for the birds, I can't see any more animals. Is everyone in Zion a vegan (makes sense)? But where are the animals in the Matrix? Not enough heat or electricity? Not worth it? Not animal lovers? Where are the critters?!?!

#36- I could SO watch a bunch of cool stuff on that million tv screens in the architect's room. I'm certain the architect must be either the original ai or a human. Makes no sense for him to be only a computer program. They can't build large OS.

#37- More deaths. This time a semi-gory death of another ship blasted to heck by a sential while everyone was in the Matrix. The scrolling code and the dripping blood on the computer screen is a very powerful image and I'm sure the symbolism groupies will love that one.

#38- Viral Agent. I found it fun that in the last movie, Smith classified humans as a virus. Now, Smith infects both machine and man very similarly to -you guessed it- a virus!!! :-D Why exactly is he no longer an Agent? And how did he aquire that skill? I don't see how that was Neo.

#39- Staying behind. Morpheus's ship went against orders and stayed behind longer than the others...when? I can't tell any difference other than the dialog. When did they stay behind?

#40- Zion! Of course the whole thing is cool! Loved the shot of all the lights in the quarters area going out. Morpheus (whose name refers to the master of dreams -yeah symbolism) even told Zion "sweet dreams"! Aw!

Hopefully that's it for now and I remembered more than I thought I did. Trust me, there's a WHOLE lot more than this! Overall: GREAT FILM! GO SEE IT!!!
posted @ 8:41 PM  |   0 comments  |  

Monday, May 12, 2003


Show Your Support!

I've finally got my 2 ribbons up as well as a Blogsticker I just made in conjuction with Bloggerhead's Out of Order campaign. I've been tossing the idea around but due to the computer changes, I haven't put on up until now. I don't care if the campaign is "over" or not, things are still out of order. So click away! (except for the yellow one- still not sure where that one's gonna go yet...)
posted @ 10:21 PM  |   0 comments  |  


Coruscant-ites get all the cool stuff

I either have a non-feathered cousin in outer space or I just really need this outfit.

I'm jealous. I wonder if I can photoshop that appropriately...
posted @ 8:56 PM  |   0 comments  |  

Wednesday, May 07, 2003


Les frites Doonesbury

Laissez-vous le "freedom fries" et regardez la bande dessinée ici: Doonesbury May 04, 2003 Pigez y'all?!
posted @ 3:25 PM  |   0 comments  |  

Thursday, May 01, 2003


Spring Cleaning!

First I get a new layout, then DG gets a new layout. First I switch my 2 bedspread-and-skirt combos due to the weather, then I switch my 2 radios due to the roof. First my computers get gutted (heck I've *got* a new computer), then my room gets gutted, and now that I'm finally able to wear underwires now *I'm* getting gutted. Bermuda's declared Poodle Hat to be alive on the website (YEEEEEES!!!!!!!!!!!!) and Chris Hawkins declared RASSM to be dead on the website (NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!). My sneakers are wearing out and need replacing while my medicines are wearing out and are being replaced. My beloved HMTL 4th ed book has been upgraded to 5th ed and my beloved Win NT has been upgraded to XP...

...and now that the ac at the "office" is fixed, I'll be spending most of my time away from this comp which demands so much attention from me so chances are, I'll probably have to up-upgrade to XP Pro so I can access the home computer when I'm not here. Now I get to ward off hackers too. So in other words, I've upgraded to close off the viruses (not that I really needed to do that anyway) and may have to upgrade again which will open up to hackers (which I kinda will do have to do anyway). Oh goody. <:-p~

But Gumby's got a really spiffy new layout! Go look!!!!!!

Interesting how the comparison pairs in that first paragraph happened last to first.
posted @ 11:37 PM  |   0 comments  |