The New Musings of a Quiet Geek

I, along with everybody else who attended except for 4 people, saw Akeelah and the Bee last night. That was a great movie. Very inspirational. As I expected the number in attendance was almost exactly the same as last time but I did have a better time. We could have used more food I think for some reason... The new series Heroes is rebroadcast on Fridays which is good because Mondays at 9 isn't good for me. The review in the paper was correct the Japanese guy's story was the only thing interesting in the premiere episode. I'm not really sure where they're going with this series. I thought it would be like My Secret Identity , especially considering Jerry O'Connell is part of Tim Kring's other show Crossing Jordan , on a more global scale but since they all except one end up in New York so I'm not so sure. The second series, or 37th if you will, of Doctor Who premiered last night as well. David Tennent makes a very good Doctor I think but so far they...

Yesterday morning, I watched the third library movie: The Last Samurai . First and foremost, I want to comment on the movie's cinematography. Beautiful and breathtaking scenery. I also like how in one scene, the camera panshot allowed them to hide a decapitation behind a tree and not make it obvious that's what they were doing. Great job. Tom Cruise played the drunken 19th century American asshole very well and I honestly thought he portrayed the level of soften during the course of the film quite well. In an article I wrote for my high school newspaper, that was republished in The Lewiston Sun-Journal actually, I said Cruise "actually acted" in Jerry Maguire . This movie makes his performance in that look like amateur theater. Best of all, like The Red Corner and the Chinese language before it, the Japanese actors here speak Japanese in scenes that don't have English speakers, and, when they either probably don't know English or don't want the Ame...

I forgot to mention that on Sunday afternoon the Alfred E. White Chorale, a local gospel choir, performed at my church. They were very good. The choir director became overwhelmed with emotion after their own rendition of "The Lord's Prayer" and then again after the concert was over. During the concert, one of the other women had a hot flash. Still, it rocked! This morning, I now believe why the Aniston-Pitt marriage fell apart. I watched Mr. and Mrs. Smith and Pitt and Jolie had almost Hepburn-Tracy chemistry in this film. It added quite a lot to what would have just been a straightforward action film. Overall, I loved it but I really must comment on not the plot itself which was actually fine. (I mean I could watch Angelina kick ass all day...) No, the real problem was the background or basis of the plot. I'm giving away something here but unless you think wrestling is real, it's fairly easy to deduce anyway. If you have a problem with your agent consortin...

I have forty minutes before the next set of pop culture challenges unlock on Gold Rush so I decided to update the old blog. Over the weekend, I finished reading Vanish by Tess Gerritsen. I've liked her writing and the fact she's a Maine author is pretty cool. Another cool aspect of her writing is the recent books especially have been set in Boston. In this book, a scene took place on the same street I had my internship which is kind of funny IMHO. Vanish isn't as good as earlier books as she seems to be getting away from the medical field more and more. The real problem I had with it was more suspense than mystery. I'm not saying it was Columbo where you know who the murder is right off but Gerritsen has written novels that exercised the brain more... After I returned this to the library, I borrowed three movies. The first, which I watched this morning, was Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic which is more or less a concert film. It was hilarious in that quirky-S...

Last night, we went to the Big E up in West Springfield. It was apparently Connecticut Day so the parade was all CT all the time. It was the longest parade I have ever watched. It went on like forever. We got a baked potato at the Maine Building and a Spiced Apple Cider Donut at the Vermont building as well as sharp cheese called "The Preacher." I wanted to get "The Green Mountain Boys" which was supposedly XX-sharp but my father wouldn't go for it. We then went to the Sam Adams Beer Garden where I ordered an Octoberfest. Mine was 20 ounces so it looked huge compared to the little cups of chardonnay my parents ordered. We then went over to get the special Big E cream puff. Has anyone heard Clay Aiken's new song? He's covering Badfinger's "Without You" of all things and, I really hate say this, it's pretty good... We're having another Movie Night a week from tomorrow. We've decided today that we're going to watch Akeela...

Last weekend was the big 85th Anniversary celebration at my church. Saturday night was a lobster/steak/hot dog dinner. The steak and baked potato was awesome and the corn on the cob was better than the piece I got at the Chicken BBQ. The cole slaw was not nearly as good but you can't have everything. Sunday, after church we had a silver tea. That was good too. That night we went to mother's church for a meditative drumming workshop. I originally just went for the potluck dinner but it turned out to be really fun. It was attended by men and women of all ages. Now, a quick word on the new TV season. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip is the best real drama I've seen in ages. ( Boston Legal is supposedly a drama but if Desperate Housewives and Ally McBeal were comedies, so is that. And how dare they not keep Parker Posey!) The cast is great and the storyline is cool too. My parents, especially my mother, hate it so it'll be yet another show I'll have to watch in...

1. We took Susie for her annual check-up yesterday. She did very well but may need dental work in February. 2. I damaged the toenail on my right big toe during that April mailroom job. (You know. The one that I wasn't paid for the second week of for another month.) The nail finally fell off yesterday. 3. My mother gave me two library job ads yesterday. Thinking I had time to apply I put it off until today. I call human resources today to see if they still had my information on file as I had recently applied for another job there. The good news is they did but the bad news is the deadline for the suckier of the two jobs but the one I had a better shot of getting was yesterday. Did it ever occur to me my mother would tell me of a job that was about to expire? No. In reality, by the time she came home with the ad, the office would have been closed anyway but I'm still kind of irritated. 4. I was kind of irritated to discover the new online game Gold Rush was forcing me ...

I don't know how many Star Trek fans actually read this but I think the rest of you will find this amusing as well. Check out the name of the album...

I meant to mention this yesterday but I was watching the news yesterday morning and I saw this interview with a Austrian woman who had been held captive for 18 days before escaping. After the interview the news anchor added that the woman's lawyers allowed the appearance but insisted her hair be covered in order to "hide her identity." Her face was clearly visible and, frankly, you could still tell she was blonde. Are there people out there who say "Her face looks familiar but I can't tell how long her hair is so I don't know..." I'm not even sure what the point of hiding her identity really is. Do they think her former captives will try and stake out the TV studio and grab her again? Then again, I may be that paranoid too if I was held captive. I do admit I'm still a little wary crossing the street...

I was waiting to post until I had something worth talking about but I realized I have no idea what you'd find interesting so here's what I can share with you now. On Sunday, I saw Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby with my father. I expected it to be incredibly silly but I did not expect to laugh so hard. The whole cast was hilarious but especially Gary Cole in his best role yet I think and Molly Shannon who I admit was not my favorite SNL castmember. (Her "Best of" special was only funny because of the other people in the sketches with her.) Here, she was so funny. John C. Reilly wasn't as funny as he was in The Good Girl but I think we all know the writing was much better in that movie... This afternoon I finally got around to watching the movie I borrowed from the library almost a week ago. I had wanted to see Flightplan with Jodie Foster for awhile but it was always checked out so after talking with my grandmother who asked me if I'd seen it ...

Scout Finch! Congratulations, you're... You're the plucky heroine of Harper Lee's only novel, "To Kill A Mockingbird." You're stubborn, rude, your hands are dirty and your elbows are scraped, and you have a knack for going where you don't belong. And we all adore you! Congrats! Link: The Beloved Literary Character Test written by lachrymosis on OkCupid Free Online Dating , home of the 32-Type Dating Test

So Thursday I started a new temp assignment at a waste management company. The day went well I thought. I did some job shadowing of an account manager and helped her do a Fed-EX mailing. I come home and check in with my agency as I was asked to do by them and I'm informed they received an e-mail saying the company didn't want me back as I wasn't a good fit. No other explanation was given to them. I think it was really that my skills were best suited for keeping the clients they already had happy which I assume they already had enough people to do that and really wanted people to bring more clients in which is not me. Once again, it seems the corporate world is not for me. So mainly because I'm trying to be responsible and build up my bank account and not really because my mother keeps hounding me about it, I've decided to begin my birthday moratorium even though the actual day isn't for about two months. This means I didn't buy the new Bob Dylan CD yester...