2006-07-28

Crazy Jack-Face 1

From now on, I'll be posting a screenshot from the hit TV-show "Lost" in a series of entries I'd like to call "Crazy Jack-Face". Enjoy.


"Tell them!"

2006-07-27

"Pop quiz, hotshot."


Every Thursday evening, one of our local pubs hosts a pop-quiz for their guests. There's no enourmous prize or anything, it's just there to bring out the competetive locals and have some fun, and hopefully sell a beer or two to the contestants.

My friend Sofie called me today and asked if I wanted to come with and be on their team. Since I hadn't anything else to do, I gladly accepted.

I arrived at 9 PM. The pub was hot as hell, and while I didn't drink any beer, I must've drunk at least five big glasses of ice water, and it didn't take long before my shirt was soaked. The quiz started, and we managed to answer every question that was asked. Granted, we weren't sure at all that we got them right at the end, but I must say I felt somewhat confident when we were finished.

After the announcer pronounced the third and second place, my friend Katta turned to me and said that we probably got the fourth place. The announcer pronounced the winners... and it was us! We won! After recieving congrats from the announcer, we were given a gift certificate for the amount of about 30 dollars to split among our team members. Not much, but still - we fucking beat everyone else, and won!

After buying a Budweiser with my winnings, I bade farewell to my team and headed home. All in all, it was a fun evening.

2006-07-24

there's a small chance...


Today, I applied for a new job. As a hotel receptionist. A night job. Which works for me perfectly, since I'm a night person. Plus, it'll give me a lot of money. Night jobs usually do. Hope I'll get it. I should get it, because I fit their profile like a glove. Only problem is that chances are slim I will get it, since like a thousand other people will apply for the job. I figured it was worth a shot anyway. No harm in trying. Right?

I saw a really good movie two days ago. "Hard Candy", with Patrick Wilson and Ellen Page. It's about a fourteen year-old girl who meets up with a 30+ guy she met online, who she suspects is a pedophile. She is gonna try to expose him, after he invites her into his home. Really scary stuff, I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. Definitely a memorable movie.

Nothing else to report today. Sorry. I'll come up with something fun for the next entry.

2006-07-22

these are five of the many DVD's...

...I have on my desk right now (in no particular order):

1. Kingdom of Heaven - Director's Cut

If you didn't like the theatrical version of this movie because of the many plot holes and one-dimensional characters, chances are you'll like this version better. It's 49 minutes longer than the theatrical version, and we get a far better glimpse into Balian's motivations and his past.

2. Running on Empty

River Phoenix makes his first and only Academy Award nominated role in this movie, as the oldest son in a family on the run from the government. Well worth the $15 I paid for this DVD.

3. Jacob's Ladder

Tim Robbins returns as a changed man from the Vietnam war, or is it the world that has changed around him? An interesting movie about the human psyche, and the inability to let go.

4. Traffic

A movie that examines the effec
ts of drugs as politics, business and lifestyle, through the eyes of a West Coasts kingpin's wife, a newly appointed drug czar and his family, and police officers on both sides of the US/Mexican border. Soderbergh shows the world his caliber in this instantly recognized classic.

5. Dawn of the Dead

In this 2004 remake, Zack Snyder renews the zombie concept and still manages to make a well-acted, horrifying, post-apocalyptic action-thriller. If you scare easily, this'll make you crap your pants. I didn't, but you might.

2006-07-18

this is restless...

I'm so restless. Now that my girlfriend's vacation is over, there's not a lot to do around here. Plus, I'm gonna be on penicillin for another 5 days, so I can't do my daily exercise until then. Sucks.

Good thing I have a bunch of movies I can watch. And books to read. I just ordered a novel by Stephen King - "The Stand". I've read it before, but it's so massive, (both in pages and in story) you always notice more things the second time around. Stephen King ain't exactly a Dostoevsky when it comes to writing, but there's almost always a scene in every one of his books that stands out, and makes it memorable. At least he's better than Dan Brown. Now there's a bad writer. I'm not really gonna elaborare further on why I think he's bad, but I can point out a few things in his writing that comes off as cheap in my point of view.

1. Chapter ending with a slight cliffhanger, just enough to keep the reader going. Every fucking time.
2. Characters really struggling solving a puzzle any 12-year-old with half a decent brain can solve within a minute.
3. Every other page, all the characters either gasp, become breathless, go out of breath, see something jawdropping, can't believe their ears, their eyes, their touch... you get the point. It instills a false sense of awe in the reader. For me it's cheap, cheap, cheap. Describe what they are seeing instead, and make it awesome for us, you rich, lazy bastard.

My favorite Stephen King book of all time is "The Long Walk". It's a short novel, written under the pseudonym of Richard Bachman. It's about a marathon across the US, and if the contestants can't keep up, they are shot and killed. There's only one survivor in this marathon of death, and that's the winner. Unfortunately I have lost my copy of the book, and it's out of print (at least in Sweden), but you can find it at almost any auction site. I highly recommend it.


"Each step can be your last..."

See ya.

2006-07-14

this is unemployment...


To be unemployed, fired or turned down a job is a mixture of feelings very much like the ones you feel when you're in the dating scene. Being unemployed is like being single, looking for someone. Being fired feels like when you're breaking up with someone, and you are on the recieving end. And being turned down job, well, it's feels like when someone turns down, let's say, a date.

I have been out of a job for about a month now. I have been unemployed before, but I was only seventeen, and hadn't had that much experience, which was usually the reason why most companies would turn me down. But I did find a job eventually. Now that I have experience, they could just as easily say "sorry, but I just don't find you attractive." Same thing.

The unemployment office is like that "friend" who fixes you up on dates, but only with the ones who are as desperate as yourself. And they are all boring. And stupid. And greasy. And they smell like shit. I tell my "friend" that I want someone with intelligence, humour and someone who smells good, just once. But they are all already taken. "This is all I have for you. The nice ones want... other people. Better people."

I need to find better friends.

2006-07-12

this is dead man's chest...


I just came back from the premiere of "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest." It was alright, but the theater I saw it in was filled to the brim, making the temperature inside quite a bit uncomfortable.

What I liked the most about the movie was how they had transformed Bill Nighy's face with CGI, making him into a octopus/man hybrid, and it looked really cool, and very life-like.


I also liked how they had transformed Jack Davenport's character Norrington from the first movie, from this...


...into this. Almost unrecognizable.


Two things I didn't like...

1. The length. This had probably something to do with the temperature conditions in the theater as well, but the movie was and felt too long. 2 hours and 30 minutes.

2. The so-called "ending". I'm not gonna spoil what happens, but it ends with a big- no, huge cliffhanger. I felt cheated, because there's no closure. They did the exact same thing with "The Matrix" trilogy. They made the first movie so it could stand on it's own legs, and the following movies as a two-parter. Had I known it would've been like that, I probably would have waited to see this one until the sequel was released. Damn cockteasers.

So there you have it. Wait a year if you can, that's my advice.

2006-07-11

this is a hero...

I bet most of you movie buffs have seen a movie called "Saving Private Ryan". In that movie, there's a character named Pvt. Caparzo...



"I pay attention to detail."

Do you recognize the actor? No? He's the same guy who lent his voice
to this awesome character, in one of the greatest animated movies ever made... ("Iron Giant")



"...superman."

But most of you have probably heard of him as his character
Richard B. Riddick in "Pitch Black", and/or "The Chronicles of Riddick"...



"I'll kill you with my teacup."

Yup, I'm talking about Vin Diesel.
I must confess, at first I didn't like him that much. I judged him based on the little stuff I'd seen from "xXx" and "The Fast and The Furious", and thought he was just an ordinary action-grunt.
How wrong I was.

His debut was a short film called
"Multi-Facial", a movie he directed, financed and wrote himself, and has been the main reason why he's getting jobs today. He basically made his own career from the ground up. The more you read about him you realize he's basically a ordinary, humble guy with a passion for his work, behind the mask of an action star.

For example, he's a huge "Dungeons & Dragons" player, and has his player-character tatooed on his leg. If that's not nerd-core, I don't know what is. He also created his own computer game publishing company, and was a huge creative source behind one of the coolest games ever made; "Escape from Butcher Bay". This guy really cares about his franchise, and is not an ordinary money-grabbing fake asshole, unlike many other Hollywood people.

On a forum I frequent, there was a guy who attended a Q&A after a special screening of "Find Me Guilty", his latest movie, and he was on the row closest to Vin. He noticed that he was so nervous, that one of his hands were shaking as he answered questions.

Oh, before I forget, there was that time when he SAVED A WHOLE FAMILY FROM A BURNING CAR WRECK! Click *here*.

Read it? No? Alright, here's what it says:

"Vin Diesel has been hailed a real-life hero by a lucky dad after the xXx star stopped to save a family from a car inferno.

The action man pulled his motorcycle to the side of Hollywood's 101 freeway after a vehicle in front of him toppled over and burst into flames. Quick-thinking Diesel yanked the kids out of the backseat and then urged their dad to crawl out of the passenger door, while trying to keep the panicking driver calm.

The whole family managed to escape the flaming vehicle before it was engulfed by flames."


Not that I'd ever want to be trapped inside a burning car, but can you imagine how mindbogglingly fucking awesome this must've been?

EXT. FREEWAY - (DAY)

CAR tumbles off the road, GLASS EVERYWHERE, and the car catches FIRE!

VICTIM
Oh god, this is it... I'm
going to die! Nothing can
save me now. Goodbye,
cruel world!

CRASH! WINDOW SHATTERS, and out of fucking nowhere, VIN DIESEL, sporting the coolest sunglasses known to man, appears with his muscular arm extended through the broken window.

VIN DIESEL
GIVE ME YOUR HAND!

VICTIM
Holy shit! Save me, Riddick!

FADE OUT:

And that's why I think Vin Diesel's a hero. Not just because of this incident, but because he made his own fortune, and showed what you can do with a little willpower and a lot of intelligence. Vin, you rule.

Also, *click here for random Vin Diesel Facts*. Refresh the page to generate a new "fact".

Thanks for reading.

2006-07-10

this is a gloomy town...

Thought I should post some pictures I took today during my morning exercise. Enjoy.


is that sky?

i feel the same way.

don't ask. i have no idea.

now leaving this cheerful place.

a river runs through it.


chandler: could this view be any more depressing?

this is Candy Mount'n...

This is old, but hilarious, so I'm gonna write about it anyway.

This is about one of the most hilarious movies I had the pleasure to see on the internet. It has everything! A singing 'y', a talking liopleurodon, a cave, spotlights, an epic adventure, a dangerous magical bridge of hope and wonder, and of course.... CANDY MOUNT'N! Oh, and unicorns. All in just 3 minutes and 45 seconds. Click the picture or the link to experience this sweet sugary goodness. Yay!


Charlie the Unicorn
You'll need QuickTime for this version.
You can also see it on YouTube.

2006-07-09

this is my first entry...

...or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Booze.

Hello, my fellow Internet-monkeys.

Had absolutely nothing planned for yesterday. I was thinking about having a day with no requirements, no demands, no nothing. Just having a day off and waltzing around in the apartment half-naked and not think about anything other than what I was gonna have for dinner or what movie I was gonna see.

That went to hell of course, when my girlfriend's sister decided to show up with her three (messy and noisy) kids. Fuck. They occupied my computer and my PS2, so I couldn't have any fun while they were here. I should've gone out for my daily exercise, but I didn't think of that at the time.

They stayed until about 6 PM, and then, about fifteen minutes after they've gone, my friend Katarina called on my cell, demanding that I go out with her and a couple of other friends and get blasted. Being the pussy I am, I couldn't say no, so now I have a headache, out of money for the week, and I fucking reek of alcohol. Great.

Well, I shouldn't complain too much. At least I got to meet a lot of old friends, classmates, and my brother Robert. That's always something.

Toodles.