The Fellowship of the Ring

For as wonderful as yesterday was, it seems only appropriate that today should be a little downer. I’m feeling a bit less than dapper (a few too many days with a few too few hours of sleep coupled with a confused immune system will have this effect, I suppose), and can think of nothing I’d like more than to go back to my quad and take a nap. As a matter of fact, that’s exactly what I’m going to do when I’m off form work here in 45 minutes.

I managed to squander upwards of two hours this morning fixing a few miscellaneous things on the blog– mostly appearance issues related to the rounded corners. There’s still the problem in Firefox that, when you extend a hidden portion of the page, the sides don’t extend down to compensate. I need to find some way to force Firefox to redraw the page, but I would rather avoid using JavaScript to mess with window sizes and the like. We’ll see what gives.

And that’s about it. I’m starting in to The Fellowship of the Ring, and I hope to read it in some semblance of a timely manner. The hope is that, after reading the trilogy, I’ll be able to participate in conversations about the trilogy without the disparaging “you haven’t read the books? Oh, you must be stupid and have no idea what you’re talking about” bit to accompany.

Well. Ta ta.

The Günther Obsession Continues

http://www.eateggs.com/gunther/

Here’s quite a discovery: Günther actually hit the top of the Sweedish pop-charts in February of last year.

In other news, while talking to Sagar, I just realized something: I use my coffee pot more often than I use my laptop.

Go figure.

One last random tidbit, Eateggs.com is, well… complete. Not that work on it is going to stop, but for the first time EVER there are no dead links. Squeak, pay attention. Everything works. Really. Click on it. Version three-point-oh! Whoo!

I’m not going to lie.

I hate to be immodest. Or maybe I just think I should be modest, and so I pretend that I want to be modest, and somehow manage to occasionally fool myself into modesty. Whatever the case may be, I’m going to take a momentary break from my traditional modesty and talk about how great I am.

Heh. Just kidding. Well, mostly.

Today has been just wonderful. I got up on time this morning, did some homework, met with my T&C fellow (who’s just about the coolest guy ever– he’s a hard-core hippie stats prof who used to sell grass on Okinawa (the same island that my parents were stationed on, a year or two after he left) while in the military in the early 70’s. The long and short of it is that he spoke very well of my last project (I wrote a screenplay where Faustus (from Goethe’s Faust), Odysseus and Billy Pilgrim (from Vonnegut’s Slaugherhouse-Five) meet and, well, talk about war) and proposed that we have the class perform it on our next free day. The idea scares me– I’m not sure why. Probably because I think it sucks and I know that there’re several other individuals in my class that have far more screenwriting ability than I do, and I’d rather forgo their judgment. Regardless, that made me happy.

From there I went to my Hist 319 class and received my test back from last week. Despite only getting a 30% on the map portion of the test (I lost my map to study from), I (the only freshman in the class) managed to pull off an A on the test. Rock on.

After history, I went to lunch, where they were serving New York style hotdogs, complete with sauerkraut, onions, etc. My hotdog was amazing. I don’t exaggerate to say that it’s the best thing I’ve ever eaten at FoodService (which really isn’t saying much, but…).

Now I’m at work, where I get to hang out for the next few hours and read Kafka’s Metamorphosis that I’ll be facilitating tonight in my T&C class.

Outside, the sun is shining and it’s warm. The mountains, from my view in the third floor of Reid hall, loom off in the distance: precipitous and blue. I even happened to hear a bird singing as I walked to work.

Ah, what happy days these are!

Oscar Picks

Here’s the predictions, rated 1-5 for certainty (1– this COULD happen 5– this WILL happen):

Best Leading Actor: Jamie Foxx – Ray (3)
Best Leading Actress: Hilary Swank – Million Dollar Baby (4)
Best Supporting Actor: Clive Owen – Closer (2)
Best Supporting Actress: Natalie Portman – Closer (3)
Animated Feature: The Incredibles (5)
Art Direction: Phantom of the Opera (2)
Cinematography: The Aviator (1)
Costume Design: Finding Neverland (.5)
Directing: Clint Eastwood – Million Dollar Baby (5)
Documentary Feature: Super Size Me (4)
Editing: The Aviator / Million Dollar Baby
Makeup: The Passion of the Christ (whoo– who would have thought they could make it so disgustingly real)
Best Picture: Million Dollar Baby (3)
Sound Editing: Spider-Man 2
Visual Effects: Spider-Man 2
Adapted Screenplay: Million Dollar Baby (although Motorcycle Diaries was my personal favorite)
Original Screenplay: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (3)