The Hot Needle of Inquiry

Heh. The Ringworld Engineers is a nifty book.

And speaking of books, here's a list of everything I read last year. I have no life, so I record this sort of thing. It's in no particular order, and the ratings are pretty arbitrary and I tried not to think too hardly about it. Stuff with an asterisk was read for school.

Star Wars – Legacy of the Force I: Betrayal by Aaron Allston – 4/5
Star Wars – Legacy of the Force II: Bloodlines by Karen Traviss – 3.5/5
Star Wars – Legacy of the Force III: Tempest by Troy Denning – 4/5
Star Wars – The Dark Nest: The Swarm War by Troy Denning – 3.5/5
Star Wars: Shatterpoint by Matthew Stover – 3/5
Star Wars: Outbound Flight by Timothy Zahn – 4/5
Star Wars: Survivor’s Quest by Timothy Zahn – 3.5/5
Star Wars: Darth Bane – Path of Destruction by Drew Karpyshyn – 3/5
1984 by George Orwell – 4/5
Animal Farm by George Orwell* - 4/5
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller* - 3/5
The Crucible by Arthur Miller* - 2/5
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe* - 3/5
Black Sun Rising by C.S. Friedman – 3/5
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova – 2.5/5
Snow Falling on Cedars by David Gutterson* - 3.5/5
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley* - 4/5
The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare* - 4/5
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare – 3.5/5
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald – 4.5/5
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman – 4/5
American Gods by Neil Gaiman – 3.5/5
Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman – 5/5
Stardust by Neil Gaiman – 2.5/5
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman – 3.5/5
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski – 4/5
Only Revolutions by Mark Z. Danielewski – 2/5
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown – 3/5
Angels and Demons by Dan Brown – 3.5/5
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde 5/5
Ringworld by Larry Niven - 3.5/5
Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton* - 2/5

It occurs to me that I forgot to review Night at the Museum when I saw it. That should tell you my opinion of it pretty well. It was all right, but forgettable. In contrast:

Little Miss Sunshine
A charming little flick, if slightly overrated. Steve Carrel is fun to watch in his role and the rest of the cast performs admirably; Abigail Breslin as Olive is simply adorable. A great movie for those who like their comedy edging on dark, dealing with suicide, drugs and such. The moral of the story is simply to be yourself, a message I can really get behind. I wasn't bored with a single character and the story sets itself at a nice constant pace. Worth seeing.
Rating: B+

For those with a free half hour ahead of them, might I suggest viewing the first episode of Le Chevalier D'eon for free?

I don't really have anything else to say here.

Shoo.

But we're teenagers! You'd think we'd know this sort of thing!

It's a lot harder to find stuff to do when you're in Germantown and it's a zillion degrees below zero outside than you'd think.

Exams came and went. Aced World Lit, Pre-Calculus and probably German. Looking forward to next semester, which has Sociology and Advanced Composition. Rad.

Auditions for The Man Who Came to Dinner start next week, now that Trolls is over and done with. I'll be very happy to put it to rest myself. I'm very much looking forward to this, my last play with Dramatic Impact ever, so I'm looking to go out with a bang.

If I could get away with just sitting around my house watching Scrubs all day, I think I would be pretty content. For you see, I've recently become addicted to this hilarious dramatic show featuring wise-cracking doctors and zany non-sequitor jokes.

I'm getting sick of people calling me asking if I would like any more information on [random college]. I'm quite happy with the oodles of paperwork thank you very much. Jeeze, getting a decent education shouldn't be this time-consuming.

You're all liars! How dare you lie in front of Jesus!

So, you're probably wondering what I've been up to for the past month. If you're really a regular reader (har), you already know what I did. Very little of interest, that's what. Once In The Time of Trolls opened and nothing particularly noteworthy came of that. It wasn't a total disaster and we've really gotten our act together for the kids. The spring production is The Man Who Came To Dinner and I'm hoping for a fairly noteworthy role.

But you don't care about that. You want to hear about... Christmas presents.

The Nintendo Wii with copies of Red Steel and Zelda. Nothing to report that you haven't heard a million times from the average gaming site. I like it, and you should too.

Gundam SEED Destiny DVD 5
Hellsing Ultimate DVD 1
Samurai 7 Final DVD
Scrapped Princess Final DVD
Fruits Basket Vol. 15 (With that prick Akito on the cover)
SWM: Starship Battles stuff (so glad I didn't pay forty bucks for that starter)
Neverwhere (from mother)
House of Leaves
Anansi Boys and Good Omens (from the gf)
1/144 Destiny Gundam model kit
1/144 Palace Athene model kit
Cybertron Menasor (RARGH)
An electric shaver (from father)
20$ Best Buy gift card (from relatives)
20$ Borders gift card (from the awesomest English teacher in the world)
Some money (also from relatives)

Yes, I know I'm a spoiled brat. (Did I use that in last year's Christmas post? I think I did.)

Anyway, onto movies.

Eragon
I went into this not reading the book, and the movie has done a very poor job of convincing me to do so. A plot that flows like bricks, characters that could have come off an assembly line and directing that could have been some other negative simile. The special effects are pretty though, and its reasonably entertaining if you go in with low expectations. Still not something I'd pay to see again.
Rating: C+

The Boondock Saints
I can't believe I never watched this before. I finally saw it in its entirety, barring a few edits for cable television, and I was rather impressed by it. Witty dialogue and entertaining action make this an exciting romp through blood, explosions and mutilated bodies. Willem Dafoe steals every scene he's in and the other actors are fun to watch. Too short, though and the rules of physics as well as plot are sometimes thrown out the window, however.
Rating: B+

Inuyasha the Movie 4: Fire on Mystic Island
If you have to watch an Inuyasha movie, go watch the third one. The second is passable and first and fourth are terrible. This one basically amounts to a 90-minute TV episode, with the usual stunted character development and lack of plot movement. Avoid.
Rating: C-

Hm, no A grades. For shame, Hollywood.

Christopher Walken is the best Bond villain ever.

So, House of Leaves was a pretty nifty book. Go read it. It will ruin your life, but in a good way.

Anyway, TheatreFest. I'll sum it up because I'm lazy.

Highlights:
-Urinetown, the Musical. Vulgar, offensive and hilarious. Lots of real catchy tunes that I still find myself humming.
-The Three Sisters. Well-acted and very character-driven.
-Hamlet. Awesome set design and choreography. I talked to the guys who did it at KFC with Erikka. That was pretty rad.
-The Importance of Being Earnest. Oscar Wilde is ridiculously awesome and so were the actors who performed it. Great play.
-Stage Kiss. Cute and funny. Consisting only of two excellent actors.
-Crazy people in line for a PS3 at Wal-Mart.
-Using a cell phone and actually understanding how to for the first time.
-Hot Chocolate
-Introduction to Improvisation. Fun workshop. I had thought about doing it again. Pretty much played a bunch of silly acting games.
-Oi! Workshop on English dialect and accents, mates.
-Getting some sleep on Friday night.
-Visiting every fast-food resturaunt between UW-Whitewater and the hotel.
-Stupid bus driver crashing the bus into the roof of the hotel entryway.
-Hanging out with friends basically the whole time.

Downlights:
-The Trojan Women. Boring and overracted. Of course, I had just woken up.
-The Laramie Project. Yes, I get it. Hate crimes = bad.
-Friends talking about other friends behind their backs. Seems like everybody just hates everybody all the time sometimes.
-The Three Sisters. Really depressing ending. Wanted to go home and kill myself.
-Boring Shakespeare workshop. Why would anybody feel the need to spend fifteen minutes explaining Imabic Pentameter to a bunch of drama students? Ugh.
-Sunday Tea with Desiree being the last play to go on Saturday, meaning no other schools stuck around to watch it. Even though we were awesome.
-No awards for said play. Plenty of nominations, but no awards. Damn.
-Having two big tests the Monday afterward.

In other news:

Casino Royale
Best Bond movie since Goldeneye. Daniel Craig is James Bond, no question about it. He makes Pierce Brosnan look like a pussy, taking a huge beating over the film. It doesn't rely on any fancy CGI or nifty gadgets, just well-choreographed fights, a character-driven story and a great plot, built around many twists and turns. The poker game is surprisingly intense with lots of behind-the-scenes action going on. Great work from actors all around, not a single dissappoitning performance. Easily one of my favorite movies of 2006.
Rating: A
Bond is back.

Fullmetal Alchemist - The Movie: Conqueror of Shambala
I was finally able to see this on an official DVD instead of a poorly-done fansub. Kind of a departure from the series, but wraps up most of the plot points nicely, especially where Dante and the remaining Homunculi are concerned. Eckhart is a rather uninteresting villain and doesn't do much other than scream maniacally and shoot her subordinates. Ed and Al are in typical form and it was nifty seeing the latter finally out of his armor. Mustang didn't have nearly a large enough role. In the end, it's all right, but it could have been so much more, especially with a great 51-episode anime preceding it.
Rating: B+

So I guess opening night for Trolls is this Friday.

Shit.

What happens in TheaterFest stays in TheaterFest.

I cannot wait. TheaterFest is this weekend and it is going to be so awesome. You know why? Because we are seeing a play called Urinetown - The Musical. I can only imagine.

Casion Royale is out this weekend. Will Daniel Craig be able to fill the shoes of the 007 name? Find out Sunday.

So hey, I started House of Leaves today. The typography is really zany and fun to follow. I'm not completely sure where its going, but hey. Meanwhile, Brave New World is alright, though I think I prefered 1984 as far as dystopian novels go.

Strategists Club has finally started up, much to my happiness. Good crop this year with a boatload of clueless Freshman taking dodgy advice from Erikka who has taken up a position of leadership for no reason.

I've played through the entire Megaman X Collection, beating all six of the traditional 2-D games. Good times.

What else? Um, I started dating Therese five months ago today. She is a beautiful girl.



I'm out of ideas. This post will explode the second you finish reading it.








...Now.