Casino Royale = holiday fun

So the family arrived Thursday night to spend my Thanksgiving break here with me. It was so good to have someone else around for a change. Kevin stayed here with me, mom and dad in a hotel. Kevin brought along Guitar Hero 2 and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance which made for video game fun. Much to my chagrin Colossus was taken out of the PS2 version, but I had a good time as Deadpool, another Wade.

A lot of the time we all spent together was spent on the board game Shadows Over Camelot, which I'd never played before and which is very complicated, but turned out to be a whole lot of fun once I finally understood what the hell was going on.

But the highlight of the weekend (besides seeing the family, which is a given) was probably Casino Royale. I finally saw it and it was just what I was hoping for. I had wanted a tougher, more hard-edged and ruthless Bond, and I that's what I got.

The WC Review of Casino Royale

It's a departure from the series much like Batman Betgins was. It goes back to the beginning, showing us Bond's ascension to his famous double-0 status. The title animation (one retained aspect) was well done. I knew I'd love this movie from the initial chase scene, one of the best I've seen (and completely on foot!).

Without going into the plot too deeply, I'll say that this movie packed a much-needed punch. There is no Q (I don't much care for John Cleese in the role anyway) and no ridiculous gadgetry, and I didn't miss it. There were also no cheesy one-liners. I'm the first to appreciate a good groan-inducing pun - I love 'em to death - but this lends to the more serious tone of this entry into the Bond series and I find myself glad they avoided them this time around. Ooh! Also, Bond is finally back in an Aston Martin instead of a BMW. And what a car it is.

True to form, there's an absolutely gorgeous girl in this film. Can't say I'm sorry. Feminists, though, will no doubt be happy to find that she's not a helpless bimbo whose chest measurements surpass her IQ. She's smokin', yes, but she's smart and self-reliant as well.

Then there's Mr. Bond himself. I liked Daniel Craig in Road to Perdition and Munich, but hadn't really seen him in anything else besides Layer Cake, which was, in a word, strange. He capably handles the role. Speculation will continue about who is the best Bond, and I have my own ideas about that, but I'll see if Craig continues in the series before making any final judgment. I put him right up there with Brosnan and Dalton (especially the latter, who also made for a more intense, less playful Bond). I completely bought his performance and he did an admirable job in every aspect (including the torture scene that almost made ME scream in pain).

Some reviews I read said it dragged on too long, but I disagree (of course, two of my favorite movies are The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, so I guess I have a high tolerance for lengthy movies). Clocking in at 2 hours and 24 minutes, it takes its time and develops the story as it should (I think moviegoers are too impatient, but that's another topic) and doesn't leave any annoying unanswered questions. My brother, much more the Bond fan of the two of us, tells me much of the movie, including dialogue, was taken right from the book of the same name. Seems to me that that's a good thing.

All in all, I think this movie gives a much-needed shot of adrenaline into a series that's been in a constant downhill trend since GoldenEye breathed new life into it. It's got the best of the old (good action, espionage, hot cars...and heck, who am I kidding, hot girls) and brings it up to speed to compete in the no-nonsense world of Jason Bournes and Ethan Hunts. I'll be buying this when it comes out on DVD, and maybe going back to see it again before then.

Song of the night is Matchbox Twenty's "The Difference." Beautiful.

Happy Thanksgiving

I'm thankful for a few things this year, but mostly that I've made a friend in a strange place. Not my strong suit but it makes this program a lot more bearable.

My family's in the car on the way here now.

Song of the day is, fittingly, "Grazie Mille" by 883. Per ogni giorno, ogni istante, ogni attimo che sto vivendo - grazie mille.

Cute but sad

This makes me want to smile and cry all in the space of 3 minutes. Song of the night is "And So It Goes" by Billy Joel. It's a heartbreaker but beautiful.

Some days I'm ashamed to be a gamer

The world's a crazy place. The PS3 came out recently, as many people are aware, and caused a little more than dampened spirits. There were several robberies of stores, people on their way out of them, and even people waiting in lines. Get this - someone was SHOT over this thing. WTF is up with the world? Just wait a month or two! Heck, Tekken 6 isn't even out yet, and who needs a PS3 without Tekken 6? ;) But it's not all bad, some if it's downright hilarious. That's right... John Edwards tries to abuse his famous name to cut in line. What a loser. Politicians are scum.

In other funny news, the guy who does Borat tries his brand of comedy on someone who just doesn't want to play along.

Song of the day is "Long Time Gone" by the Gin Blossoms (in case you hadn't heard, yes, they're back together and have a new album out - this is my pick for best song on it).

My new favorite show

My new favorite show is Arrested Development. Leighton has been telling me I need to watch it for quite some time now, and I know she has impeccable taste (can't be pecked, that taste of hers). Thanks to Ryan, I have now seen season one and a large chunk of season two, with season three just waiting for me. Television shows on DVD are genius. I love them. AD is fantastic. It's the best comedy I've seen in a good while. Great characters, great acting and great writing.

It's narrated by Ron Howard, whom I, like so many others, first loved as Opie (which makes me sound a lot older than I am, but who cares). The narration is a nice touch, I like it. Gob (pronounced like Job from the Bible) is the man and probably my favorite character... I mean he does magic shows with The Final Countdown as his theme song - how killer is that?!

Shame it's been cancelled (as so many good shows are... yet reality TV shows continue unabated. It's a cruel, unfair world), and after only 3 seasons. I recommend it; it gets the Wade Seal of Approval.

Casino Royale is out. I'm excited, hoping it will take Bond back to a grittier, tougher hero, as when GoldenEye breathed new life into the series. Gadgetry is fine, but not as the whole point of the movie. Pierce was great, I'll be interested to see how the new guy does (I saw him in Road to Perdition and Layer Cake). Kevin and I will probably try to go see it if the family comes up for Thanksgiving (still not absolutely certain).

This is fun. I watched it like seven times. This is a blog run by Ryan and his friends. Speaking of Ryan's blogging, I also laughed a lot at this (which is probably common knowledge now, but I saw it first there) and especially this. I want so badly to like Tom Cruise but he makes it so damn hard. Maverick, LeStat, and Ethan Hunt vs goofy antics. The latter end keeps getting heavier and heavier. :(

Another cool link discovery is my BF2142 stats. If anyone reading this plays 2142, that's what I try to do when I have some spare time... message me!

Last but not least, check out Topher Grace turning into Venom. Yay Spider-Man. I love Topher from That 70s Show, about which I'll undoubtedly say more later if I keep this thing going. Add that to the obvious fact that Venom is the coolest Spider-Man villain ever to hit the pages (and now the big screen!) and you've got yourself a winning combination.

Song of the night is "Get Out of My Mind" by Hootie and the Blowfish. This song came to me right when I needed it. Make sure you check out the radio edit, the drum track is much better and the song overall is nicer. This is the song that made me run out and buy the new album after I heard it a mere 2 times.

I still believe you when you say it's another perfect day

Well this weekend's been pretty good so far. Some ups, some downs... but mostly ups.

Friday

I already mentioned the Bulger awards and the recent source of interest related to them, so I'll just skip that by saying that I shook hands with the brother of one of the FBI's 10 Most Wanted. Probably as close as I'll ever get and I'm happy with that.

Earlier in the day I met with Keitel to discuss next semester. It's going to be hard. Harder than this semester. Sigh. Latin Prose Comp (though it sounds like I'm one up on most of the rest since I've had a comp class before), Vergil (which I hear will be very ambitiously paced), Medieval Latin (that's right... 3 Latin classes), Ed. Psych (blah). Plus the Latin class I teach, plus IPA, plus TA for one lecture class. Eek. Technically Pre-Practicum too, but that needs to get knocked out in January over winter break (yay, work on break).

After the Bulger awards some of us went with Lisa to "Bub's BBQ", which was pretty good (no Big Jim's, but good), for her birthday dinner. I then came home and hopped into Battlefield, but none of my friends were on and it's not much fun by myself, so I just watched TV and went to sleep.

Saturday

The early Thanksgiving party hosted by Rebecca. I made brownies which actually came out OK. Although I had to stop midway to go get baking soda. I KNOW i bought some earlier but I can't find it. Which is quite a feat considering how tiny my apartment and especially my kitchen are. The food at the party was good. The conversation strayed into classics more often than I would have liked, but I expect that at such a thing. Ryan and I left briefly to buy Catchphrase, which got us off classics for a while. It was fun.

During the party came the worst thing about the weekend: my great-uncle Wade Carlton Carruth died today. We all knew it was coming. We weren't close or anything, but it's still sad; he was a good guy. Today was my cousin Tom's wedding day, which unfortunately was probably overshadowed largely by the death. But in a way it's one of those "one thing ends, another begins" sort of things. Being with other people at the party tonight took my mind off that though, and I ended up having a good time.

Got home and got a call from Annie, who's camped out for a Wii after her preorder got messed up by the dumb store she originally went with. Always nice, because she rocks. Talked to Kevin for a while too.

And here I sit, writing my life down as if anyone would ever care to read it. But who cares. Last little tidbit for today: I awoke this morning to an email from Tony Woodman, which made me very happy. I'd been thinking about emailing him to see how he was doing, but he beat me to it. It's nice that someone who made such a difference to me still wonders what I'm up to. What a guy.

Song of the night: "Spit in the Rain" by Del Amitri. With a little luck and with a little time, you'll pull through. Words to live and hope by.

Oh, grad school

You know how they tell you grad school's more work and less sleep than ever before? What do you know, they were right! It's not even that the work is harder, there's just so much of it sometimes I just hang my head and sigh. I'm not even TA-ing a lecture this semester, nor am I studying for the Latin MTEL like I should. Sigh. But I'm almost done for the week, Cicero's done, another week's almost gone, and the test is written to give my eager young Latinists.

Speaking of my eager young Latinists, I had an outside-of-class (optional of course) review tonight for the kids who are not feeling good about the test tomorrow. As they walked out of the room, as bewildered as they were before, apparently, I got my quote of the night: "Wade, you've ruined my life." They say the joy of teaching is in the difference you make in people's lives. (It's ok, she was just kidding - she's one of my best and favorite students)

Most Fridays I get to come home right after teaching my class. And I like it. But tomorrow I have to attend the William Bulger Awards in the Classics department. This was boring until I found out that William Bulger is pretty well connected to Boston organized crime (seriously, his brother's literally on the FBI's 10 most wanted list; google Whitey Bulger). That raised my interest level a little - a lover of classics who's got connections in 'waste management'. How often do you see that?

A quick aside - a big thanks goes out to each of my friends who makes me feel better anytime I get to feeling sad, lonely, or just plain ready to go home. The early part of the week was pretty rough, but as it turns out it was nothing a good talk with a good friend or a good round of Battefield 2142 (warfare in a new century) with Kevin and his friends couldn't fix. Sometimes despite all the crushing work looming over me, I have to say 'screw it' and just forget about it for a few hours. Sanity tops getting all my work finished any day.

Song of the night: "I've Changed" by the Josh Joplin Group.

PS - it's officially Friday, so 1) yay, and 2) happy birthday to Lisa (who I'm sure will never read this, but who cares?)!

Apple is not a cure-all

High on my list of stuff that shouldn't matter but makes my head want to explode anyway is the idea that a Macintosh computer will cure all your technological ills.

I'll admit I'm a Windows user, but that's not why it bothers me; I think Apple makes fine products and I'm comfortable using them (had to be at ITC), but they have yet to offer anything that makes me want to switch. Heck, Macs with Intel processors are now out, moving yet further toward the status of PC with a different look. Of course, most people will never realize this.

And that's what bothers me about it. Apple's advertising seems to target people who don't really know how things work and try to exploit that. We've all seen the ads with the guy who keeps sneezing and coughing cause he's the virus-ridden "Windows" guy, next to the strapping, healthy "Apple" guy. Implication: buy a Macintosh, you'll never have virus problems again! Add that to the fact that for some reason the iPod became the thing that every American had to have (I don't. *gasp*) and you've got a whole lot of people out there who think Apple is god. They blather on about how Macintosh computers never get viruses. They bitch about how "Macs never do this" when anything goes wrong on their PC. I've got news for you: Macs are just as prone to trouble as PCs. What should be the deciding factor is really just OS preference. The funny part is if any of these people do make that switch, they'll be lost in the Mac OS and whine about how things don't look the same anymore.

I'm going to be laughing my head off if Macs ever start to really catch up to Windows machines (a distinct possibility), because then the pock-marked, socially inept losers who create viruses in their parents' basement while listening to the latest emo screamo will start targeting the Macintosh OS, and all the people who got suckered in by the "be virus-free!" bullshit will cry in frustration because they bought into the hype and got burned by the fires of justice.

Then maybe everyone will realize that exploits will always be found in any system, there will always be jerks who think it's funny to fuck with people, and common sense and knowledge are, in this as in all things, your the defense. But probably not.

Song of the night: "I'm a Fool" by American Hi-Fi. Which, for better or worse, will always be tied to how I felt the night Jessica and I officially made the jump to being a couple. That was a good feeling, and this is a good song.

Just when I start to forget

...someone reminds me of how absolutely stupid people can be.

I am so tired of hollow bitchfests about how someone's "going to move out" of the state or country because of the result of a vote. Yeah, OK buddy. Be sure to give me your new phone number so I can not call and see how you're doing. We all know you're not going to move. You're just an older reflection of a spoiled child who didn't get his/her way and is now crying and screaming hoping someone will re-center the world around his/her happiness.

Welcome to real life, where you won't always win.

In other news, MTEL part one is tomorrow. At 7:45 a.m. Until 12:30. Yay.

So with that I'm taking the rest of the evening off, watching TV and playing Battlefield 2142. Song of the day: "Behind the Mask" by Anarchy Club (on a related note - Guitar Hero 2 is out!)

Out of the ashes

Well my online journal has been resurrected. I don't have much important to say, so I'll provide an update on what's happened over the past several months.

I'm in Amherst, Massachusetts, over 500 miles from home. I got into both the grad programs I applied to, but UMASS has a better one so here I am. Since I'm in grad school you can probably guess that I graduated. I miss UVA and especially UVA Classics, but change is inevitable I suppose.

I hate change, but I was happy to get out of Charlottesville for a while. I needed some distance from Jessica. As I suspected would happen, we've already pretty much completely lost touch. Maybe it's better that way. If I'm honest I still miss her, as much as I hate that I do, but that could be the subject of its own post altogether.

But now that I'm out I can't help wanting to go back. I sometimes think life would be fine if I went back to ITC full-time, where I know everyone and am comfortable. But my comfort zone hasn't exactly worked in my favor over the past year, so I'm giving change my best shot. Sigh.

Anyway, I'll close for now and wax thoughtful more later. Not that it much matters, since I will now likely have a grand total of 1 reader. Meh, no worries.

Song of the night is "Cindy" by Tammany Hall NYC. I first heard it on Scrubs a few years ago and finally tracked it down. It's wonderful.

More to come?

I might start this thing up again now that I'm in a new state. I was recommended last.fm a good while ago by Jeff but I just got into it today as a way of avoiding work. It's cool stuff. While playing around with it I saw you could add your 10 most recent listened-to songs to your web page/blog/whatever. So I figured I'd test it out. Maybe I'll never post again, or maybe I'll be back with increased frequency. We'll see.