Nostalgia Fails Me Again

Like most, i happen to see the classic A Christmas Story several times over the holidays. What many do not know is that there is a sequel to the much loved christmas movie. To be fair, My Summer Story is barely a sequel. The family and neighbors share the same name as the original, and there are references in the beginning to the first movie, but not much beyond that. The only characters that remained the same are the teacher, played by Tedde Moore and the narrator is still done by Jean Shepherd. The plot is focused around the mothers obsession with dinnerware, a boy's quest to find the best top, and a father's war with the hillbilly neighbors.

I had not see My Summer Story since i was in middle school, but i remembered enjoying it immensely. Upon re-watching it, i did not enjoy it as much as i hoped to. This is another instance where i should have ignored my nostalgia curiosity.

The Great Debaters

Rarely do I walk away from a movie in awe. Tonight, The Great Debaters did just that to me. I went into the theater not knowing anything about the film, I hadn't even seen a trailer beforehand. Sometimes this works against me and I find myself trying to figure out what the premise of the movie is half the time and do not get to enjoy watching it. Luckily, The Great Debaters is a very easy movie to follow, but at the same time never dumbs itself down for the audience.

The movie was filled with so many great characters. Denzel Washington plays a very intelligent college professor and labor organizer in the 1930's. There was also great portrayals of a very strong young African-American woman and a bright 14 year old boy attending college.

The Great Debaters was one of the most powerful movies i have ever seen. It brought me to tears several times, of joy and sadness. I walked away from the movie wanting to educate myself as much as i can, especially on subjects i know very little about like African- American history. As Forest Whitaker says in the movie, "We do what we have to so we can do what we want to."

There Will Be Blood

I finally watched a trailer for Paul Thomas Anderson's next movie, There Will Be Blood. It looks a lot different than all of his other films, and the omission of Philip Seymour Hoffman is very sad (he has been in every one of his movies until now). I am however excited that Paul Dano (the teenager from Little Miss Sunshine) has a supporting roll in the movie.

No More Oink

British and Dutch police today shut down the world’s biggest source of illegal pre-release chart albums and arrested a 24-year old man in an operation coordinated between Middlesbrough and Amsterdam.

The raids, which were coordinated by Interpol, follow a two-year investigation by the international and UK music industry bodies IFPI and BPI into the members-only online pirate pre-release club known as OiNK. Source

I am legitimately upset about this. This was such a horrible thing to wake up to. I feel as if a good friend of mine is gone. I used Oink almost religiously. If i heard about a band or CD i would check it out on Oink before i went out and bought it or saw the band live.

Now it's gone. I wish i could write a more eloquent piece on how Oink changed my life, but i am far too upset right now to do that. Perhaps i will at a later date.

My Internet History: Screenames (Part 1)

Like most people, i have had a plethora of screen names, internet alias', or whatever you want to call them. Here is a run down of most of them that i can remember:

Backstabber- Came from the song of the same name by the hardcore band Dystopia. I also published 4 issues of a zine called Backstabber. This is probably the most used alias and the most versatile. XBackstabberX or Backstabberzine have both been used for email and message board names.

DeleteYourself- Named after the song by Atari Teenage Riot. Also used as both email and message board names. Have also been shortened to Deleteyou a few times when there was a character limit.

Flood- This was first used when i joined staff at the Xbox fan site Xbox Addict. Many thought it was in reference to the character in the game Halo, but it was actually a nod to the Tool song and the producer of the same name (who has produced records for Nine Inch Nails, Smashing Pumpkins, Depeche Mode, and many more). Has also been used with X's around the name.

Voorhees28- An old AOL screename/email address. Voorhees is the name of an old UK hardcore/punk band and 28 is just a random number i picked. I used to get people iming me asking if i was from Voorhees,NJ all the time.

DrodNoSklz- My good friend from high school Doug Luke once said that if i was ever to become a rapper, my name would be D-Rod No Skillz. "D-Rod" coming from my name Derek, and "No Skillz" because he claimed i was not good at anything. He really was a great friend. I took the name in jest and used it as another AOL screenname/email address.

AllThingsOrdinary- Yet another name taken from a song title, this one being a song by the late indie rock band The Anniversary. I named my record label after the song and have also used it on several music oriented message boards. When the character limit was exceeded, i commonly use ATOBuffalo.

That's all for now. Check back soon for the next part in my look back of my history on the internet.

Unconscious Shaving

One of the weirdest things that happened as a result of my appendix being removed is my stomach is now shaved. They did not warn me ahead of time that they were going to do this, nor did it occur to me that it might happen. I just woke up after surgery and noticed that most (not all) of the hair on my stomach was shaved. It was just shaved shorter than it was, no part was shaved all the way down to the skin.

I completely understand why they did it, but it would have been nice to know beforehand so i wouldn't have been so shocked when i awoke from the anesthesia.

Note to people with hairy bellies: Don't ever shave it unless you absolutely have to, it itches a LOT when it's growing in.

Addiction isn't fun

I don't like taking medication. I think i am becoming dependent on it because when i don't take it for a while, i get very anxious and in a bad mood. Ten minutes after i take a pill i start to feel better, but i want to feel better all the time

This is not fun. I have been taking under the daily recommended doses, but this still happened. I just want the pain to go away so i don't have to take these things anymore. I'm having a check up with the doctor tomorrow morning, hopefully he will tell me it won't be much longer.