LJ Question

Is there a way to export all your LJ entries?

Ozymandias

As I rode the train up to Cityplace to head towards the Magnolia to catch a movie I couldn’t stop thinking about what had just happened. As she was talking to me on the train the strangest message flashed across the red LED they use to show ads: “Be Happy! Whatever is happening to you now is supposed to happen, enjoy it.” Why didn’t I engage her in discussion?

On the DART I’ve encountered three types of people. The most prevalent is the perfunctory passenger going from point A to point B and they say nothing. The second type is the person who can’t stand quiet. They’ll talk at you just to have some noise. The third type is the rarest, the crazy ones. They are just fucking with you to get a reaction, or some are genuinely disconnected from the world around them. She was something new, a person talking to me. I was so terse with my answers. She probed and attacked on so many different topics and I just ignored the chance to carry it forward. It really felt like she needed me to respond.

Value meal

I was the only one at the train station till she walked past me and sat down a couple of seats up. It was another hundred degree day and my mind was on the air conditioned train. She asked me what time it was and I told her, and then she asked when the next train was coming. After I answered she pulled a calculator out of her purse. The kind that companies put their logos on and give away for free. She pushed a few buttons on it as she said something I couldn’t hear.

Hometown pride

Color me surprised, another Huntsvillian made the trek out West. Only this one helped build out Blogger till he was laid off and then left San Fran for Portland.

I am He-Man. ROAR!!!

I moved three people, including myself, yesterday. This went on from 10am to about 2am the next morning. No big deal right?

That is till you consider the fact that temperatures crossed 100 degrees yesterday and the first part of the day was spent inside a storage unit with a tin roof and no climate control. No cloud cover at all till about 6pm.

Lessons learned: I sweat, a lot.

Finally coming to DVD

Criterion is finally releasing a DVD of Man Bites Dog. It looks like it has the same extras as their Laserdisc version of it. It comes out September 24th. They are also giving the treatment to Hitchcock’s Spellbound coming out that same day. Hopefully the much better Strangers on a Train will receive the gentle touch of Criterion someday.

Perhaps most importantly though, on October 1st Strange Brew is coming to DVD! Hopefully they’ll preserve the “Hoserama” framing on DVD. Is this the only SCTV/SNL skit to the hit big screen that didn’t suck?

Happiness is...

I’ve had this hospital bill about a month or two. I’ve always sort of stared at it, wondered why it’s printed on red paper and thought “Hmmm, I should start paying that.”

Today I finally went to the URL on the bill to see what I owed. Much to my shock it said Current Balance: $0.00, Amount Paid: $18 thousand or 18 million you couldn’t afford it.

“And how will you be paying sir.” “Uhm…laziness and fear.

Why doesn't Val go back to comedy?

Tivo grabbed Real Genius at some point. I hadn’t seen it in awhile. What a fun movie, it would have been even better if HBO didn’t butcher it with the pan and scan. But that’s not important now…

As the credits rolled I noticed that Dean Devlin’s name showed up. A quick jaunt to IMDB and YES it is the same Dean Devlin that co-produced ID4, The Patriot, Godzilla and Eight Legged Freaks! The exploding popcorn house at the end of Real Genius must have affected him deeply.

The Believer

Just saw The Believer and that was something. It’s about a Jewish boy who rejects his upbringing and embraces Naziism and hate. It’s a shame to describe the movie in such simple terms, because it is a nuanced and thought provoking look at hypocrisy, hate and the truth. As I watched it I felt myself trying to classify the characters in nice boxes and that just doesn’t work for this movie. Ryan Gosling’s performance as Danny is intense and rich with layers of meaning. You can’t help but get wrapped up in his heated polemic about how part of the Jewish faith rests upon Abraham submitting to God to sacrifice his son Isaac and how this one act has created a race of weaklings.

Invoice for stats on [email protected]

I just bid farewell to the last of my Netflix DVDs, Perfect Blue and Derzu Uzalu. I got both of them back in May and hadn’t gotten around to watching them till now. Tivo has basically killed my need for Netflix, as well as Netflix’s own lack of selection. I cancelled my account with Netflix this month. I had been with them since October of 1999. I only stayed with them as long as I did out of nostalgia. That’s not what I’ve been thinking about though.